abolition
movement most of the Kentucky masters who were in favor of gradual
emancipation receded from their position and held on firmly to the
existing institution.[428]

The series of events from 1831 to 1835, centering around the
activities of Birney, brought the attention of the public to the
slavery question more than ever. As was common in all other movements
of popular interest it became the custom for local gatherings to be
held to discuss the problem. It was always customary at the conclusion
of these meetings to draw up a series of resolutions and it is
noticeable that they all voiced a similarity of sentiment on the
slavery question. A typical set of resolves were those drawn up at a
gathering held in Shelbyville in June, 1835:

"_Resolved_, that the system of domestic slavery as it now exists
in this commonwealth, is both a moral and a political evil, and
in violation of the rights of man.

"_Resolved_, as the opinion of this meeting, that the additional
value which would be given to our property, and its products by
the introduction of free white labor, would in itself be
sufficient, under a system of gradual emancipation, to transport
the whole of our colored population.

"_Resolved_, that no system of emancipation will meet with our
approbation, unless colonization be inseparably connected with
it, and that any scheme of emancipation which will leave the
blacks within our borders, is more to be deprecated than slavery
itself."[429]

These resolutions were just another indication that the sentiment of
the people of Kentucky during the decade from 1830 to 1840 was in
favor of gradual emancipation of the slaves and their colonization in
Africa. We have seen that this was the plan of the various church
bodies, and also of Kentucky's greatest statesman, Henry Clay. Added
to this we find that the majority of the liberal-minded people of the
State held to the same conviction. But why, one asks, did all this
feeling come to naught. The answer can be better expressed in the
words of a contemporary Kentuckian, Nathaniel Shaler: "From the local
histories the deliberate student will easily become convinced that if
there had been no external pressure against slavery at this time there
would still have been a progressive elimination of the slave element
from the population by emancipation on the soil, by the sale of slaves
to the planters of the S