aged among them; if the infants who should be born
were brought up with care; if the sick were properly attended to; if the
young and the adult were well fed and properly clothed, and not
over-worked, and not worn down by the weight of severe punishments, they
would necessarily increase, and this on an extensive scale. But if the
planters were thus to get their labourers from the births on their own
estates, then the Slave Trade would in time be no longer necessary to
them, and it would die away as an useless and a noxious plant. Thus it
was of no consequence, which of the two evils the committee were to
select as the object for their labours; for, as far as the end in view
only was concerned, that the same end would be produced in either case.

But in looking further into this question, it seemed to make a material
difference which of the two they selected, as far as they had in view
the due execution of any laws, which might be made respecting them, and
their own prospect of success in the undertaking. For, by aiming at the
abolition of the Slave Trade, they were laying the axe at the very root.
By doing this, and this only, they would not incur the objection, that
they were meddling with the property of the planters, and letting loose
an irritated race of beings, who, in consequence of all the vices and
infirmities which a state of slavery entails upon those who undergo it,
were unfit for their freedom. By asking the government of the country to
do this, and this only, they were asking for that which it had an
indisputable right to do; namely, to regulate or abolish any of its
branches of commerce: whereas it was doubtful, whether it could
interfere with the management of the internal affairs of the colonies,
or whether this was not wholly the province of the legislatures
established there. By asking the government, again, to do this, and this
only, they were asking what it could really enforce. It could station
its ships of war, and command its custom-houses, so as to carry any act
of this kind into effect. But it could not insure that an act to be
observed in the heart of the islands should be enforced[A]. To this it
was added, that if the committee were to fix upon the annihilation of
slavery as the object for their labours, the Slave Trade would not fall
so speedily as it would by a positive law for the abolition; because,
though the increase from the births might soon supply all the estates
now in cultivation wit