h he urges them to commit against the lives of another.[50]

II

Influenced by the struggle for the rights of man, Jefferson seriously
advocated freeing the Negroes, that they too might work out their own
destiny on foreign soil. He did not think that it would be wise to
leave the freedmen in this country controlled by white men by whom he
believed they should not be assimilated.[51] The first time he had an
opportunity, therefore, he made an effort in this direction. This was
the case of his work in connection with the committee appointed to
revise the laws of Virginia, the report of which he prepared.

Jefferson said:

The bill reported by the revisers of the whole (Virginia) code
does not itself contain the proposition to emancipate all slaves
born after the passing the act; but an amendment containing it
was prepared, to be offered to the Legislature whenever the bill
should be taken up, and further directing, that they should
continue with their parents to a certain age, then to be brought
up, at the public expense, to tillage, arts or sciences,
according to their geniuses, till the females should be eighteen,
and the males twenty-one years of age, when they should be
colonized to such place as the circumstances of the time should
render most proper, sending them out with arms, implements of
household and of the handicraft arts; seeds, pairs of the useful
domestic animals, &c., to declare them a free and independent
people, and extend to them our alliance and protection, till they
shall have acquired strength; and to send vessels at the same
time to other parts of the world for an equal number of white
inhabitants; to induce them to migrate hither, proper
encouragements were to be proposed.[52]

Discussing the serious difficulties of the problem, he compared that
of the Romans with the situation in the colonies:

This unfortunate difference of color, and perhaps of faculty, is
a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of these people. Many of
their advocates, while they wish to vindicate the liberty of
human nature, are anxious also to preserve its dignity and
beauty. Some of these, embarrassed by the question; "What further
is to be done with them?" join themselves in opposition with
those who are actuated by sordid avarice only. Among the Romans
emancipation required but one eff