WHITMAN (Mass.): In the degree in which you increase the proportion of the free beyond that of the slave population, in the same ratio you increase the chance for emancipation, final and total. The best mode, to promote the cause of a final emancipation would be to suffer the slaves to be scattered thinly over the western States. The permission of slavery in the Territory of Arkansas will afford no additional facilities to the introduction of this unfortunate race from abroad. The natural increase will be the same whether in one part of the Union or the other; or if it would be greater in the Western country, it would be the consequence of an ameliorated condition and therefore not to be regretted.—Annals, vol. XXXIV, pp. 1274-5. Why may we not continue in this way, admitting states off against the non-slaveholding states westerly, with the restriction, and off against the slaveholding States without it? True, sectional lines are to be abhorred: But we have them in relation to this subject already. The line [of the Ohio] is distinctly marked. Having so begun we must continue on.—Ib., p. 1278. JEFFERSON writes: [1820.] The coincidence of a marked principle, moral and political, with geographical lines, once conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from the mind; that it would be recurring on every occasion and renewing irritations, until it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred as to render separation preferable to eternal discord. I have been among the most sanguine in believing that our Union would be of long duration. I now doubt it much.-Jefferson, Works, vol. VII (Washington ed.), p. 158. QUESTIONS. 1. Were negroes subject to military service? 2. What does this imply in regard to their position? 3. Were there many negroes in the north? 4. Why the law against the negroes being abroad at night? 5. How long had they been away from Africa at this time? 6. Why did they question whether the negro should be Christianized? 7. How did they settle the matter? 8. How about their right to testify? 9. Why do you suppose such a law was passed? 10. Why the acts against assembling of negroes? 11. Make a list of the states that had harsh laws against the negro. 12. Why such laws? 13. Who first began to oppose slavery? 14. What reasons given? 15. Write an essay on the subject of slavery in the colonies. 16. What change of tone at the beginning of the Revolution? 17. From what section does the greatest opposition come? 18. How do you explain the change? 19. Who did they blame for the slave trade? 20. Did they stop it? 21. How were they going to try to stop it? 22. How did Jefferson feel on the subject? 23. Collect all the thoughts you can from Jefferson on the subject. 24. In 1785 how, according to Jefferson, was slavery regarded north of the Potomac? 25. How did the leaders in Virginia feel about emancipation? 26. Did Jefferson predict truthfully in regard to future? 27. Make an outline to show the views, plans, and predictions of Jefferson. 28. What other men opposed? 29. What were their arguments? 30. What do you believe to be the cause of such a radical revolution in thought? 31. Name the compromises in the constitution. 32. Give their terms. 33. Any change in tone in discussion from that of writings just quoted? 34. What does the change mean? 35. What section is strongest against slavery and the slave trade? 36. Write an essay on slavery in the constitution, including therein the debates. 37. Trace the character of the arguments in congress. 38. Gather all the moral arguments you can. 39. Do both sides use them? 40. Note all the industrial points in the arguments. 41. Which side uses such arguments most effectively? 42. What is the political argument? 43. Compare the feeling of 1775 and that of 1820. 44. Mark all the changes. 45. Which section has changed most? 46. What predictions do Adams and Jefferson make about 1820? 47. What is their argument? 48. Did they prove to be correct? 49. Jefferson's thought on compromise of 1820? 50. Write essay on whole subject. SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES II. Abolitionists arise about 1830. William Lloyd CHAPTER VII SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES II. FOUND it utterly impossible to handle the subject of slavery in a satisfactory manner in one article; and it must be confessed that two numbers even do hardly more than touch the abundance of interesting and valuable matter that lies at hand. In the last number we had just reached the moment when this question began to absorb a large part of the thought of the American people. This article begins with the struggle over the "Incendiary Publications" and the "Right of Petition," of which J. Q. Adams was the hero, and ends with the inauguration of Lincoln. The next number will deal with the Civil War and Reconstruction. J. Q. ADAMS Writes, 1820: Slavery is the great and foul stain upon the North American Union, and it is a contemplation worthy of the most exalted soul whether its total abolition is or is not practicable: if practicable by what means it may be effected, and if a choice of means be within the scope of the object, what means would accomplish it at the smallest cost of human suffering. A dissolution, at least temporary, of the Union, as now constituted, would be certainly necessary, and the dissolution must be upon a point involving the question of slavery, and no other. The Union might then be organized on the fundamental principle of emancipation. The object is vast in its compass, awful in its prospects, sublime and beautiful in its issue, a life devoted to it would be nobly spent or sacrificed.-J. Q. Adams, Memoirs, vol. IV, p. 531. If slavery be the destined sword in the hand of the |