Register_, July 4, 1835.

[430] Shaler, N. S., _Kentucky_, p. 197.

[431] _Louisville Weekly Journal_, September 26, 1849.

[432] _Niles' Register_, May 9, 1849. Clay, Cassius, _Memoirs_, pp.
175-178. Collins, _History of Kentucky_, Vol. 1, p. 59.

[433] Clay endeavored in his plan to be fair to all parties concerned,
not only the Negro but the slave owner as well, as is well evident in
the following paragraph, in which he sought to show the justice of his
scheme to the holders of Negroes in the State:

"That the system, will be attended with some sacrifices on the part of
the slaveholders, which are to be regretted, need not be denied. What
great and beneficent enterprise was ever accomplished without risk and
sacrifice! But these sacrifices are distant, contingent, and
inconsiderable. Assuming the year 1860 for the commencement of the
system, all slaves born prior to that time would remain such during
their lives, and the present loss of the slaveholder would be only the
difference in value of the female slave whose offspring, if she had
any, born after the first day of January, 1860, should be free at the
age of twenty-five or should be slaves for life. In the meantime, if
the right to remove or sell the slave out of the State should be
exercised, that trifling loss would not be incurred. The slaveholder,
after the commencement of the system, would lose the difference
between the value of the slaves for life and slaves until the age of
twenty-five years. He might also incur some inconsiderable expense in
rearing from their birth the issue of those who were to be free at
twenty-five, until they were old enough to be apprenticed out; but as
it is probable that they would be most generally bound to him, he
would receive some indemnity from their services until they attained
their majority."

[434] Collins, _History of Kentucky_, Vol. 1, p. 58.

[435] _Niles' Register_, February 21, 1849.

[436] We know how Clay felt about this matter, for he referred to it
at length in his speech in the Senate on February 20, 3850, in the
debate on the Compromise resolutions. Speaking particularly of his
letter of emancipation he declared: "I knew at the moment that I wrote
that letter in New Orleans, as well as I know at this moment, that a
majority of the people of Kentucky would not adopt my scheme, or
probably any project whatever of gradual emancipation. Perfectly well
did I know it; but I was anxious that, if any of my p