ith the colonization scheme
long before the Colonization Society was founded. He did not feel sure
on this point. With his practical mind, he could not see how a half
million of slaves could be sent out of the country, even if they were
voluntarily liberated;[8] where they should be sent to, or how
unwilling masters could be compelled to liberate their slaves. While,
therefore, he did not favor immediate emancipation, he was zealous for
no other scheme.

Bishop Gregoire, of Paris, felt deeply hurt at Mr. Jefferson's low
estimate of the negro's mental capacity, and wrote to him a sharp
letter on the subject. Later, the Bishop sent a copy of his own book
on the Literature of Negroes.[9] Acknowledging the receipt of the
Bishop's book, Mr. Jefferson says:

"Be assured that no person living wishes more sincerely than I do,
to see a complete refutation of the doubts I have myself
entertained and expressed on the grade and understanding allotted
to them by nature, and to find that, in this respect, they are on
a par with ourselves. My doubts were the result of personal
observation on the limited sphere of my own State, where the
opportunities for the development of their genius were not
favorable, and those of exercising it still less so. I expressed
them, therefore, with great hesitation; but whatever be their
degree of talent, it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir
Isaac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not
therefore lord of the person and property of others. On this
subject they are gaining daily in the opinions of nations, and
hopeful advances are making toward their re-establishment on an
equal footing with other colors of the human family. I pray you,
therefore, to accept my thanks for the many instances you have
enabled me to observe of respectable intelligence in that race of
men, which can not fail to have effect in hastening the day of
their relief." Works, v, p. 429.

Writing to another person a few months later, he alludes to this
letter and says: "As to Bishop Gregoire, I wrote him a very soft
answer. It was impossible for a doubt to be more tenderly or
hesitatingly expressed than it was in the Notes on Virginia; and
nothing was, or is, further from my intentions than to enlist myself
as a champion of a fixed opinion, where I have only expressed a
doubt." Works, v, p. 476.

Mr. Jefferson never got beyond