s, were alarming the country by
their incursions: they, the slaves, had been trained up to the same
political animosities. They had been made to take the side of their
respective masters, and to pass through scenes of violence and
bloodshed. Now, whenever emancipation is to be proposed in our own
colonies, I anticipate neither _political parties_, nor _civil wars_,
nor _foreign invasion_, but a time of _tranquillity and peace_. Who then
will be bold enough to say, after these remarks, that there could be any
thing like the danger and difficulties in emancipating the slaves there,
which existed when the slaves of St. Domingo were made free? But some
objector may say, after all, "There is one point in which your analogy
is deficient. While Toussaint was in power, the Government of St.
Domingo was a _black_ one, and the Blacks would be more willing to
submit to the authority of a _black_ (their own) Government, than of a
_white one_. Hence there Were less disorders after emancipation in St.
Domingo, than would have probably occurred, had it been tried in our own
islands." But to such an objector I should reply, that he knows nothing
of the history of St. Domingo. The Government of that island was French,
or _white_, from the very infancy of emancipation to the arrival of the
expedition of Leclerc. The slaves were made free under the government
of Santhonax and Polverel. When these retired, other _white_
commissioners succeeded them. When Toussaint came into power, he was not
supreme; Generals Hedouille, Vincent, and others, had a share in the
government. Toussaint himself _received his commission from the French
Directory_, and acted under it. He caused it every where to be made
known, but particularly among his officers and troops, that he retained
the island for the _French Government_, and that _France_ was the
_mother-country_.

A sixth class of slaves emancipated in bodies may comprehend those, who
began to be liberated about eighteen months ago in the newly-erected
State of Columbia. General Bolivar began the great work himself by
enfranchising his own slaves, to the number of between seven and eight
hundred. But he was not satisfied with this; for believing, as he did,
that to hold persons in slavery at all, was not only morally wrong, but
utterly inconsistent with the character of men fighting for their own
liberty, he brought the subject before the Congress of Venezuela. The
Congress there, after having duly consi