milies in our
favor. This exchange will leave fewer blacks to remove, while
it will increase our ability to remove them. Self-interest and
self-preservation furnish motives enough to excite our
exertions.' * * 'By thus repressing the rapid increase of
blacks, the white population would be enabled to reach and soon
overtop them. The consequence would be security.'--[African
Repository, vol. iv. pp. 53, 141, 271, 276, 344.]
'The existence of a class of men in the bosom of the community,
who occupy a middle rank between the citizen and the slave--who
encountering every positive evil incident to each condition,
share none of the benefits peculiar to either, has been long
clearly seen and deeply deplored by every man of observation.
The master feels it in the unhappy influence which the free
blacks have upon the slave population. The slave feels it in the
restless, discontented spirit which his association with the
free black engenders.' * * * * 'But, there is yet a more
important and alarming view, in which this subject necessarily
presents itself to the mind of every Virginian. A community of
the character that has been described, with this additional
peculiarity, that it differs from the class from which it has
sprung, only in its exemption from _the wholesome restraints of
domestic authority_, is found in the midst of a numerous and
rapidly increasing slave population; and while its partial
freedom, trammelled, as it is, by the necessary rigors of the
law, is nevertheless sufficiently attractive, to be a source of
uneasiness and dissatisfaction to those who have not attained to
its questionable privileges, its exemption from the prompt and
efficient inquisition appertaining to slavery, makes it an
important instrument in the corruption and seduction of those,
who yet remain the property of their masters.' * * * 'Who would
not rejoice to see our country liberated from her black
population? Who would not participate in any efforts to restore
those children of misfortune to their native shores, and kindle
the lights of science and civilization through Africa? Who that
has reflection, does not tremble for the political and moral
well-being of a country, that has within its bosom, a growing
population, bound to its institutions by no common sympathies,
and ready to fall i
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