of Columbia, and might purchase the freedom of
all the slaves throughout the whole of the states with the public
money. But it was not the price of the slaves that was the chief
difficulty in making an end of slavery. The inhabitants of the
Southern states reckoned this the least part of the case. To take away
our slaves, say they, is to take away not our property alone, but our
country also; for without them the country would not be cultivated. He
did not say that the Southern planters were right in thinking so, but
he knew that they did think so; and therefore, it was necessary to
take their opinion into account. This was only an instance of the many
difficulties by which the question was beset, and would let them see
that it was not a mere matter of pounds, shillings, and pence. In
reference to the efforts made by the American people to abolish
slavery, Mr. Breckinridge said they had done much in this cause before
Mr. Thompson was born, and possibly before his father was born. They
had labored for ages, he might almost say for half centuries. During
that time they had effected much, and they would have done more but
for the interference of the party with which Mr. Thompson was
identified. A party whose principles were based on false
metaphysics--on false morality, who came often with the fury of
demons, and yet said they were sent by God. He would say the cause of
emancipation had been much injured by the ill-designed efforts of that
party, they had thrown the cause a hundred years farther back, than it
was five years ago. In reference to the Maryland colonization scheme,
of which they had heard so much from Mr. Thompson, he would only be
able, as his time was nearly expired, to make a remark or two. That
Society had existed for about four years. In its fourth annual report
there is a statement from the managers of the Maryland State fund,
that within the preceding year, two hundred and ninety-nine
manumissions had been reported to them, which, with those previously
reported, make eleven hundred and one slaves manumitted, purely and
freely manumitted, within four years in that State: while the total
number of colored persons transported to Liberia since the Society
commenced its operations was then only one hundred and forty, as
exhibited by the same report. Nothing could show more clearly the
falsity of those statements which represent the scheme of Maryland
colonization, as being cruel, oppressive, and peculiarly op