interwoven
with my opinions and feelings as to become, as it were, the
rudder that shapes my course, even against a strong tide of
interest and of local partialities, could not but be in the
highest degree gratifying to me. And your interesting and highly
prized letter conveying them to me in such flattering terms,
would have called forth my acknowledgments before this but for
its having been forwarded to me to the Springs, and from thence
it was again returned here before I received it, which was only a
few days since.

Your indulgent treatment encourages me to add that I feel very
sensibly the force of your remarks on the impropriety of yielding
to my repugnancies in abandoning my property in slaves and my
native State. I certainly should never have been inclined to
yield to them if I had supposed myself capable of being
instrumental in bringing about a liberation, or that I could by
my example ameliorate the condition of these oppressed people. If
I could be convinced of being in the slightest degree useful in
doing either, it would afford me very great happiness, and the
more so as it would enable me to gratify many partialities by
remaining in Virginia. But never having flattered myself with the
hope of being able to contribute to either, I have long since
determined, and should but for my bad health ere this, have
removed, carrying along with me those who had been my slaves, to
the country north-west of the river Ohio.

Your prayers I trust will not only be heard with indulgence in
Heaven, but with influence on Earth. But I cannot agree with you
that they are the only weapons of one at your age; nor that the
difficult work of cleansing the escutcheon of Virginia of the
foul stain of slavery can best be done by the young. To expect so
great and difficult an object, great and extensive powers, both
of mind and influence, are required, which can never be possessed
in so great a degree by the young as by the old. And among the
few of the former who might unite the disposition with the
requisite capacity, they are too often led by ambitious views to
go with the current of popular feeling rather than to mark out a
course for themselves, where they might be buffeted by the waves
of opposition; and indeed it is feared that these waves wou