he improvement of the blacks in
body and mind, in the first instance of their mixture with the whites,
has been observed by every one, and proves that their inferiority is not
the effect merely of their condition of life. We know that among the
Romans, about the Augustan age, especially, the condition of their
slaves was much more deplorable, than that of the blacks on the
continent of America. Yet among the Romans their slaves were often their
rarest artists. They excelled too in science, insomuch as to be usually
employed as tutors to their masters' children. Epictetus, Terence, and
Phoedrus were slaves. But they were of the race of whites. It is not
their condition then, but nature, which has produced the distinction.
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. &c.--I advance it
therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a
distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior
to the whites both in the endowments of body and mind. &c. This
unfortunate difference of colour, and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful
obstacle to the emancipation of these people. Among the Romans
emancipation required but one effort. The slave, when made free, might
mix with, without staining, the blood of his master. But with us a
second is necessary, unknown to history.--See the passage at length,
Notes on Virginia, page 252 to 265.

"In the present case, it is not only the slave who is beneath his
master, it is the Negroe who is beneath the white man. No act of
enfranchisement can efface this unfortunate distinction." Chatelleux's
Travels in America.]

[Footnote 27: The celebrated David Hume, in his Essay on National
Character, advances the same opinion; Doctor Beattie, in his Essay on
Truth, controverts it with many powerful arguments. Early prejudices,
had we more satisfactory information than we can possibly possess on the
subject at present, would render an inhabitant of a country where Negroe
slavery prevails, an improper umpire between them.]

The plan therefore which I would presume to propose for the
consideration of my countrymen is such, as the number of slaves, the
difference of their nature, and habits, and the state of agriculture,
among us, might render it _expedient_, rather than _desirable_ to adopt:
and would partake partly of that proposed by Mr