one
part, and the amor patriae of the other. For if a slave can have a
country in this world, it must be any other in preference to that in
which he is born to live and labour for another; in which he must lock
up the faculties of his nature, contribute as far as depends on his
individual endeavours to the evanishment of the human race, or entail
his own miserable condition on the endless generations proceeding from
him. With the morals of the people, their industry also, is destroyed.
For in a warm climate, no man will labour for himself who can make
another labour for him. This is so true, that of the proprietors of
slaves a very small proportion indeed are ever seen to labour. And can
the liberties of a nation be ever thought secure when we have removed
their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that
these liberties are of 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 cannot sleep for ever: that considering
numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of
fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events: that it may
become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no
attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.--But it is
impossible to be temperate and to pursue this subject through the
various considerations of policy, of morals, of history, natural and
civil. We must be contented to hope they will force their way into every
one's mind. I think a change already perceptible, since the origin of
the present revolution. The spirit of the master is abating, that of the
slave rising from the dust; his condition mollifying; the way I hope
preparing, under the auspices of Heaven, for a total emancipation, and
that this is disposed in the order of events, to be with the consent of
their masters, rather than by their extirpation. Notes on Virginia,
298.]

[Footnote 22: What is here advanced is not to be understood as implying
an opinion that the labour of slaves is more productive than that of
freemen.--The author of the Treatise on the Wealth of Nations, informs
us, "That it appears from the experience of all ages and nations, that
the work done by freemen comes cheaper in the end than that done by
slaves. That it is found to do so, even in Boston, New-York and
Philadelphia, where the wages of common labour are very high." Vol. 1.
pa. 123. Lo