n no proposition
so expedient on the whole, as that of emancipation of those born
after a given day, and of their education and expatriation after
a given age.[123]

I hope you will reconcile yourself to your country and its
unfortunate condition; that you will not lessen its stock of
sound disposition by withdrawing your portion from the mass;
that, on the contrary, you will come forward in the public
councils, become the missionary of this doctrine truly Christian,
insinuate and inculcate it softly but steadily, through the
medium of writing and conversation; associate others in your
labors, and when the phalanx is formed, bring on the press the
proposition perseveringly until its accomplishment.[124]

Writing to David Barrow in 1815 about the preparation of slaves for
emancipation, Jefferson said:

Unhappily it is a case for which both parties require long and
difficult preparation. The mind of the master is to be apprized
by reflection, and strengthened by the energies of conscience,
against the obstacles of self interest to an acquiescence in the
rights of others; that of the slave is to be prepared by
instruction and habit for self-government, and for the honest
pursuits of industry and social duty. Both of these courses of
preparation require time, and the former must precede the latter.
Some progress is sensibly made in it; yet not so much as I had
hoped and expected. But it will yield in time to temperate and
steady pursuit, to the enlargement of the human mind, and its
advancement in science. We are not in a world ungoverned by the
laws and the power of a Superior Agent. Our efforts are in His
hand, and directed by it; and He will give them their effect in
his own time. Where the disease is most deeply seated, there it
will be slowest in eradication. In the Northern States it was
merely superficial, and easily corrected. In the Southern it is
incorporated with the whole system, and requires time, patience
and perseverance in the curative process. That it may finally be
effected, and its process hastened, will be my last and fondest
prayer.[125]

In a letter to Dr. Thomas Humphreys in 1817, Jefferson expressed fear
about the purchase of slaves by the United States.

The bare proposition of purchase (of the slaves) by the United
Stat