at
execration should the statesman be loaded, who, permitting one-half
the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms
those into despots and these into enemies--destroys the morals of the
one part, and the _amor patriae_ of the other?... Can the liberties of
a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm
basis--a conviction in the minds of men that these liberties are the
gift of God; that they are not to be violated but with His wrath?
Indeed, I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is
just--that His justice can not sleep forever." Pp. 270-272, ed. Lond.,
1787.

On the practical question, "What shall be done about it?" Mr.
Jefferson's mind wavered; he was in doubt. How can slavery be
abolished? He proposed, in Virginia, a law, which was rejected, making
all free who were born after the passage of the act. And here again he
hesitated. What will become of these people after they are free? What
are their capacities? He had never seen an educated negro. He had
heard of Phillis Wheatley and Ignatius Sancho. He did not highly
estimate the poetry of the one, or the sentimental letters of the
other. He was willing to admit, however, that a negro could write
poetry and sentimental letters. Beyond this all was in doubt. He
regarded it as highly probable that they could do nothing more. He
says: "Comparing them by their faculties of memory, reason, and
imagination, it appears to me that in memory they are equal to the
whites; in reason much inferior, as I think one could scarcely be
found capable of tracing and comprehending the investigations of
Euclid"--p. 232. He doubtingly adds: "The opinion that they are
inferior in the faculties of reason and imagination must be hazarded
with great diffidence. To justify a general conclusion requires many
observations"--p. 238. The opportunity for making these observations
he had never had.

It so happened that soon after writing this, Banneker, the Maryland
negro astronomer, who had distinguished himself in the very faculty of
mathematical reasoning which Mr. Jefferson had supposed no negro
possessed, sent him his Almanac, with a letter. To the letter Mr.
Jefferson replied as follows:

"I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 19th instant, and
for the Almanac it contained. Nobody wishes more than I do to see
such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black
brethren talents equal to those of other colors