nsporting such persons from the United States to
the coast of Africa, has been variously estimated. By those who compute
it at the lowest rate, the mere expense of this transportation has been
estimated at $20 per head. In this estimate, however, is not
comprehended the expense of transporting the persons destined for
Africa, to the port of their departure from the United States, or the
necessary expense of sustaining them, either there or in Africa, for a
reasonable time after their first arrival. All these expenses combined,
the Committee think they estimate very low, when they compute the amount
at $100 per head. It has been estimated by some at double this amount;
and if past experience may be relied upon as proving any thing, the
official documents formerly furnished to the Senate by the Department of
the Navy, show that the expenses attending the transportation of the few
captured slaves who have been returned to Africa by the United States,
at the expense of this government, _far exceeds even the largest
estimate_. But taking the expense to be only what the Committee have
estimated it: Then the sum requisite to transport the whole number of
the free colored population of the United States, would exceed
twenty-eight millions of dollars; and the expense of transporting a
number, equal only to the mere annual increase of this population, would
exceed seven hundred thousand dollars per annum. Sums which would impose
upon the people of this country, an additional burthen of taxation,
greater than this Committee believe they could easily bear; and much
greater than ought to be imposed upon them for any such purpose.' * *
'The annual increase of the slave population, at present, is at least
57,000. Now allow the same sum per head for the transportation of these
persons, that has been estimated for the transportation in the other
similar case; and the sum requisite to defray the expense of the
transportation of all the slaves in the United States, would be one
hundred and ninety millions of dollars; and that requisite to defray the
expense of the transportation of a number only equal to their mere
annual increase, would be five millions seven hundred thousand dollars
per annum. But to either of these sums must be added the reasonable
equivalent, or necessary aid, to be paid by the United States to humane
individuals, in order to induce them voluntarily to part with their
property. The Committee have no 'data' by which they