e him
gather up every story he could find of men of color (without
distinguishing whether black, or of what degree of mixture),
however slight the mention, or light the authority on which they
are quoted. The whole do not amount, in point of evidence, to
what we know ourselves of Banneker. We know he had spherical
trigonometry enough to make almanacs, but not without the
suspicion of aid from Ellicot, who was his neighbor and friend,
and never missed an opportunity of puffing him. I have a long
letter from Banneker, which shows him to have had a mind of very
common stature indeed. As to Bishop Gregoire, I wrote him a very
soft answer. It was impossible for doubt to have been more
tenderly or hesitantingly expressed than that was in the _Notes
on Virginia_, and nothing was or is further from my intentions,
than to enlist myself as the champion of a fixed opinion, where I
have only expressed a doubt. St. Domingo will, in time, throw
light on the question.[87]

He did believe, however, in the industry of the Negroes and thought
that this virtue of theirs would make their colonization possible.
Concerning such a project he wrote Miss Fanny Wright in 1825:

An opinion is hazarded by some, but proved by none, that moral
urgencies are not sufficient to induce the negro to labor; that
nothing can do this but physical coercion. But this a problem
which the present age alone is prepared to solve by experiment.
It would be a solecism to suppose a race or animals created,
without sufficient foresight and energy to preserve their own
existence. It is disproved, too, by the fact that they exist, and
have existed through all the ages of history. We are not
sufficiently acquainted with all the nations of Africa, to say
that there may not be some in which habits of industry are
established, and the arts practiced which are necessary to render
life comfortable. The experiment now in progress in St. Domingo,
those of Sierra Leone and Cape Mesurado, are but beginning. Your
proposition has its aspects of promise also; and should it not
fully answer to calculations in figures, it may yet, in its
developments, lead to happy results.[88]

VI

Jefferson believed that the emancipation of the slaves could be
effected by legislation. To this end he made several noteworthy
efforts. I