orals of the 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 labor for another; in which he must lock up the
faculties of his nature, contribute as far as depends on his
inhuman race, or entail his own miserable condition on the
endless generations proceeding from him.[66]

Can the liberties of a nation be 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 forever; 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.[67]

With the morals of the people, their industry also is destroyed.
For in a warm climate, no man will labor for himself who can make
another labor for him. This is so true that of the proprietors of
slaves a very small proportion indeed are ever seen to labor.[68]

It is impossible to be temperate and to pursue this subject
through the various considerations of policy, or morals, of
history, natural and civil. We must be contented to hope they
will force their way into every one's mind.... The way, I hope,
is 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 the masters, rather than by their
extirpation.[69]

IV

During the early part of Jefferson's public career he did not have a
good opinion of the Negro and his possibilities. This is his attitude
as expressed in his _Notes on Virginia_ in 1782, whenever he referred
to the Negro. Ignorant of the fact that science shows that no race is
superior to another, Jefferson considered the blacks inferior to the
Indians, believed that they lacked literary ability, the finer senses
of other races and although exhibiting a little aptitude in music were
both physically and mentally inferior to the whites.

It will probably be asked, why not