Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1859 — THOMAS JEFFERSON. [ARTICLE]

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Mr. Jefferson addressed a letter to a convention held at Williamsburg, Virginia, August .1, 1774, in which lie wrote as follows: “The abolition of domestic slavery is the greatest object of desire in those Colonies, where it was unhappily introduced in their infant state. But previous to the enlranchisement of the slaves,oit is necessary to exclude all fu ther importations fr m Africa. Yet our repeated attempts to effect thl? l>v prohibition, snd by imposing duties

w : dch might amount to prohibition, have been hitherto deleated by his M ij 'sty’s negative. Tiius preferring the advantages of a few African corsairs to the lasting interests of the American States, and to the rights of ; human nature deeply wounded by this in- | famous matter.” In the Virginia Legislature, October 24, 1777, a resolution (previously introduced by Mr. Jefferson) to revise the laws of Virginia. passed the Assembly of that State, and on the slh o November billowing Mr. Pendleton. Mr. Wythe, George Mason, Thomas L. Lee and Thomas Jefferson were appointed a committee to report a bill for that purpose. In looking over the works of Mr. Jefferson, as prepared by the legatee of his private papers, Thumase Jpfferson Randolph, volume 1. page 39, we find the following: “Mr. Jefferson—The bill on the subject of slaves was a mere digest of the existing law's respecting them, without any intimation of a plan for a’future and general emancipation. It was thougiit better that this should be kept back, and attempted only by way of amendments, whenever the bill should be b ought on. The principles of amendment, however, were agreed on; that is to say, the freedom of all born a ter a certain day, and deportation at a proper age; but it was found that, the public mind would nut bear the proposition, nor will it hear it even at this day; yet the day is not distant when it must bear it and adopt it, or worse will follow.” Said Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia , in 1782: “The whole commerce between master and slave is a continual exert ise ol the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submission on the other. * * * With whut execration should the statesman be loaded, who, permitting one halt of the citizens thus to rampie on the rights of the other, trans'urms those into despots, and these into enemies; destroys the morals of the one part, and he ampr patriae ol the other! Can the of the nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis—a conviction in the minds of the«people that these liberties are the gift of God! That they are not violated hut by his wrath! Indeed, 1 tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep lorevcr!” On the Ist of March. 1784, a committee, consisting o.t Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Chase of Maryland, an Mr. Howell u Rhode Island, submitted to Congress the following plan | for the temporary government o! all the Western Territory: ‘■Reso vtd. That the Territory ceded, or to : be ceded, by the individual States to the 1 United Stales, whensoever the same shall have been pu chased of the Indian inliubi- ! tauts and offered for sale by tli ■ United Statics, snail be tunned into additional! States, bounded in the billowing manner, as 1 nearly as said cesessions shall admit. * * Provided, Thai both the temporary and permanent governments shall he established on these principles as their basis: * * * * “5. That alter the year 1800 ol the Christian era, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said Stales, otherwise than iu the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have been personally guilty A 2 — Tli • following is copied from Mr. Jefferson’s autobiography, written in 1821, when he was seventy-seven years old: “In 1769 I became u member of the Legislature by the choice of the county in which I lived, and so continued until-it was closed by the Revolution. I made one effort in that body lor the permission of the enninci- | pation of slaves, which was rejec ed; and, ■ indeed, during the regal g •vermnent nothing liberal could expect success.” In a letter written to Mr. Warville, dated February 12, 1788, Mr. Jefferson said, in speaking of himself: “You know that nobody more ardently wishes lo see an abolition, not only of the trade, but of the condition of slavery; and certainYiiobody w'ill be more willing to encounter every sacrifice for that object.” In his annual message in 1806, (within two years of the time at which Congress hud constitutional power to suppress the African slave-trade,) Mr. Jefferson said. “I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the upprouch of the period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally, lo withdraw the citizens of the United States Iruim all further participation in those violatio' friof human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Alrica, and w hich the morality, the reputation, and the bests interests of our country, have long been eager to proscribe.” In a letter to Edward Coles, dated August 25, 1814, Mr. Jefferson said:

“Tbe love of justice and the love o*’country plead equally the cause of these people, and it is a mortal reproach ro us that they should have pleaded it so long in vain, and should have produced not a single effort—nav, I fear, not much serious willingness—to relieve them and ourselves from our present condition of moral and political reprobation. * * * Yet the hour of emancipation is advancing in the march of time. It will come, and whether brought on by the generous energy of our own minds, or by the bloody process of St. Domingo—is a leal of our ow n country, and not yet turned over.” Tbe following correspondence, which t >ok place but a lew weeks before Mr. Jefferson’s death, show's that his opinions in favor ol emancipation remained unchanged to the last: “Middleton, 0., April 20, 1826. “Aged and ~cnored Sir: Permit a man, a native ol Virginia, and an admirer ot your eliaracter, who leels an interest in your lame, and who’always has eagerly laid hold I of everything that escaped from your pen as j political and moral perfection—l say, perj ui it such a man to occupy a few minutes of • your precious and remaining time. It has j for many years been conjectured that you j would luvor the world, at some period, w itb ! a political treatise, having for one object the emancipation ot slaves. Il houven, in mercy to the blacks, suiety to the wakes, and unlading honor to your great name and fame, should so move you to leave one single page to that effect, many of your iriends and devoted political disciples believe it would have a more certain, permanent, ca 1m I and irresistible effect than any and all tilings written ndsutl th reon during the existence o. the American government. “James Heaton.” “Monticf.llo, May 20, 1826. J s. Ilealon, t.sq —Dear Sir: Persu ision, perseverance and patience are the best advocates oi questions depending upon the will ol others. The revolution in public opinion w hich this case requires is not to be expected in a day, or perhaps in an age; but time, which uut.iives all things, will outlive this evil also My entiments have been forty years b, lore the public. Had I repeated them forty times, they would only have become the inure stale and threadbare. Although I shall not live to see them consummated, they w ill not die with me; hut living or dying, they wiil ever lie my most fervent prayers. “This is written for yourself, and not for the nubhc, in compliance with your request, for two lines of sentiment on the subject. “Accept the assurance ol my good will and respect. Th is. Jeffeßson.” JAMES MADISON. Mr. Midison, in the Convention which ’rained the Const it ut ion of the United States,! objected to the word “slave” being used in the clause which was inserted fertile rendition of fugitives. He said: “I object to the word ‘slave’ appearing in a Constitution which, I trust, is to be the i charter of freedom to unborn millions; nor would I willingly perpetuate the memory of the fact that slavery ever existed in our country. It is a great evil, and, under the Providence of God, I 1 ok forward to some scheme ot emancipation which shall free us from it. Do not, therefore, let us appear as il we regarded it as perpetual, by using in our free Constitution an odious word, opposed to every sentiment of-liberty.”