ACT FROM A LETTER FROM GOVERNOR COLES TO JOHN
RUTHERFORD

I give you many thanks, my dear Sir, for your long and truly
affectionate letter of February, and assure you, I feel great
contrition for having so long delayed the expression of them, and
of saying how much gratified I was at perusing your kind letter,
and the glad tidings it gave me of the health and happiness of
our dear Emily and her little ones; and also the pleasure I have
since derived at finding from the newspapers in what a flattering
manner your fellow citizens have elected you to represent them in
the Legislature.

I am greatly gratified at your election, not only from the regard
I have for you as a man, etc., and the consequent interest I take
in, and the pleasure I derive from your success; but I am
particularly so in seeing men of your principles in relation to
negro Slavery in the Councils of Virginia, as it cheers me with
the hope that something will soon be done to repudiate the
unnatural connection which has there so long existed between the
freest of the free and the most slavish of slaves.

Even if it were feasible, from the extraordinary apathy in the
great mass of the people, and the zeal displayed by many to
perpetuate the evil, I could not hope for speedy emancipation,
but I do trust for the honor as well as interest of the State
that ameliorating laws will be speedily passed, which will
gradually have the effect of reconciling and habituating the
masters, and preparing the slaves for a change which, as Mr.
Jefferson says, must sooner or later take place with or without
the consent of the masters. It behooves Virginia to move in this
great question; and it is a solemn duty which her politicians owe
to their country, to themselves, and to their posterity, to look
ahead and make provision for the future, and secure the peace,
prosperity and glory of their country.

The policy of Virginia for some years past has been most
unfortunate. So far from acting as if Slavery were an evil which
ought to be gotten rid of, every measure which could be taken has
been taken to perpetuate it, as if it were a blessing. Her
political pilots have acted like the inexperienced navigator,
who, to get rid of the slight inconvenience of the safety-valves
have hermetically