was called out of town, the affair was suffered to die away; nor to this very day has he ever enquired again after Victima, or her fate. Thus terminated an adventure, which at first promised to do fo much honour to human nature, and which, had it been completed as it might have been, either philosophy or fenfibility might have been proud to own; and furely he muft have but, little power of difcriminating between pleafures, who does not perceive that all the destructive indulgences of fense and voluptuoufnefs must be poor and tranfient, compared with the delightful reflection of having fnatched a poor creature from mifery, fhame, and guilt, and reftored her to peace; perhaps to happiness and respectability. But it is vain to expect any thing great or excellent from any character, how capacious and energetic foever might be the original powers of nature, which has not been in the constant habit either of regulating and fubduing the paffions by the calm and enlightened fpirit of philofophy; or of obeying, with difcriminating alacrity, the feelings of benevolent fenfibility. Both are the children of virtuous cultivation; of different description, it is true, and advancing by different paths; but equally ami able in their natures, as equally purfuing the fame object, the general felicity of mankind. But how fhall the flave of Appetite hope for the affiftance of either, when the exercise of the one confifts in the contemplation of principles, not the gratification of paffions; and of the other in fympathifing with the feelings of our fellow creatures, not in indulging our own capricious defires. Senfibility must not therefore be confidered as the fool of instinct; fince much culture and practical benevolence are neceffary to produce the difpofition, which the ferious moralist dignifies with that amiable title; and though nature may have bestowed the energetic capacity upon which it is founded, if virtuous education and active generofity fecure not its dominion over the heart, fufceptibility is conferred in vain, and fordid voluptuoufnefs ufurps its polluted throne. A difpofition alfo, the moft capable of philofophical dignity and useful fortitude, may from the fame negligence and inattention, fink into the most degrading habits of felfifh indifference; and ftupid apathy may fmother up those fires, whofe fteady light might have cheered furrounding realms and benefited a long feries of admiring generations. C. W. Farther Particulars of the prefent State of the NEGROES in the UNITED STATES of America : MY Continued from page 267. Y wishes have not been difappointed. The progrefs of these focieties is rapid in the United States: there is one already formed even in Virginia*; even there, men have dared to publish that truth which has fo often made avarice to tremblethat truth which formerly would have been stifled in a Baftille: God has created men of all nations, of all languages, of all colours, equally free: flavery, in all its forms, in all its degrees, is a violation of the divine laws, and a degradation of human nature.' Believe it, my dear friend, these truths, conveyed in all the public pa pers, will complete the extirpation of TRANSLATOR. A fimilar fociety is lately formed in the ftate of Connecticut, probably not known to M. de Warville. that Tt The folemn examples given by great men, will contribute much to this revolution of principle. What proprietor of human beings does not bluth for himself, on feeing the celebrated general Gates aflemble his numerous flaves, and, in the midst of their careffes and tears of gratitude, restore them all to liberty; and in fuch a manner as to prevent any fatal confequences that might refult to them from the fudden enjoyment of fo great a benefit ? The fociety of Philadelphia, which may be regarded as the father of these holy inftitutions, has lately taken more effectual measures, both to inftruct the blacks, and to form them to different employments. The wretch,' fay they, in their addrefs to the public, who has long been treated as a beaft of burthen, is often degraded fo far as to appear of a fpecies inferior to that of other men; the chains which bind his body, curb likewife his intellectual faculties, and enfeeble the focial affections of his heart.' To inftruct and counsel those who are free, and render them capable of enjoying civil liberty; to excite them to industry; to furnish them with occupations fuitable to their age, fex, talents, and other circumstances; and to procure to their children an education fuitable to their station, are the principal objects of this fociety. For this end they have appointed four committees: firit, a committee of infpection, to watch over the morals and general conduct of the free blacks; fecond, a committee of guardians, whofe bufinefs it is to place the children with honeft tradefmen and others, to acquire trades; third, a committee of education, to overfee the schools; fourth, a committee of employ, who find employment for those who are in a fituation to work. What friend of humanity does not leap with joy at the view of an object fo pious and fublime? Who does not perceive it is dictated by that spirit of perfeverance, which animates men of dignity, habituated to good actions, not from oftentation, but from a consciousness of duty? Such are the men who compose these American societies. They will never abandon this good work, until they have carried it to its laft degree of perfection; that is to fay, until, by gentle and equitable means, they fhall have placed thè blacks in every respect on a footing with the whites. Yet these are the celeftial focieties which infamous avarice blufhes not to calumniate. The perfeverance with which these focieties have extended their principles in their writings, brought forward, laft year, a debate in congress, on the fubject of procuring a revocation of that article in the conftitution, which fufpends the power of congress for twenty years on the subject of the flave trade. I ought to have mentioned to you, in my letter, an eloquent addrefs to the general convention of 1787, from the fociety of Penafylvania. I will cite to you the close of it: We conjure you,' fay they, by the attributes of the divinity, infulted by this inhuman traffic; by the union of all the human race in our common father, and by all the obligations refulting from this union; by the fear of the juft vengeance of God in national judgments; by the certainty of the great and terrible day of the distribution of rewards and punish. ments; by the efficacy of the prayers of good men, who would infult the majefty of heaven, if they were to offer them in favour of our country, as long as the iniquity we now practife continues its ravages among us; * In all the conftitutions of the New States forming in the western territory, it is colareft, that there fhall be neither flavery nor involuntary fervitude. by by the facred name of Christians; by doubt that these adversaries were the the pleasures of domestic connections, deputies from the fouth. I except, and the anguish of their diffolution; however, the virtuous Madison, and by the fufferings of our American especially Mr. Vining. He defended, brethren, groaning in captivity at with real eloquence, the cause of the Algiers, which Providence feems to blacks. have ordained to awaken us to a fentiment of the injustice and cruelty of which we are guilty toward the wretched Africans; by the refpect due to confiftency in the principles and conduct of true republicans; by our great and intense defire of extending happinefs to the millions of intelligent beings who are doubtless one day to people this immenfe continent; finally, by all other confiderations, which religion, reafon, policy, and humanity can fuggeft; we conjure the convention of the United States to make the fuppreflion of the flave trade a fubject of ferious deliberation.' Addreffes from all parts of the United States, figned by the moft refpectable men, have been prefented to the new congrefs. Never was a fubject more warmly debated; and, what never happened before in America, it gave occafion to the most atrocious invectives from the adverfaries of humanity. You will not I must not forget to name among the advocates of humanity, meffrs. Scott, Gerry, and Boudinot. You will be astonished to find among their adverfaries the firft denunciator of the Cincinnati, Mr. Burke; he who unfolded, with fo much energy, the fatal confequences of the in quality which this order would introduce among the citizens; and the fame man could fupport the much more horrible inequality established between the whites and blacks. You will be fill more aftonished to learn, that he uniformly employed the language of invective. This is the weapon that the partizans of flavery always ufe in America, in England, and in France. One of the most ardent petitioners to congrefs in this caufe, was the refpectable Warner Mifin. His zeal was rewarded with atrocious calumnies, which he always anfvered with mildness, forgiveneis, and argument. On replacing the SUGAR of the CANE by the SUGAR of Maple, [From the SAM E.] ON this continent, my friend, fo polluted and tormented with flavery, Providence has placed two powerful and infallible means of deftroying this evil. The means are, the focieties of which we have been fpeaking, and the fugar-maple. Of all vegetables containing fugar, this maple, after the fugar-cane, contains the greatest quantity. It grows naturally in the United States, and may be propagated with great facility. All America feems covered with it, from Canada to Virginia; it becomes more rare at the fouthward, on the east of the mountains; but it is found in abundance in the back country. Such is the beneficent tree which has, for a long time, recompenfed the happy coloniits, whofe pofition deprived them of the delicate fugar of our islands. They have till lately contented themselves with beflowing very litt e labour on the manufacture, only bringing it to a state of common coarse sugar; but fince the quakers have dif cerned in this production, the means of deftroying flavery, they have felt the neceffity of carrying it to perfection; and fuccefs has crowned their endeavours. You know, my friend, all the difficulties attending the cultivation of the cane. It is a tender plant; it has Tt2 many The cultivators in the ftate of NewYork perceive, in an equal degree, the advantages of this production; they have made, this year, a great quantity of fugar, and brought it to great perfection. many enemies, and requires conftant to that of the islands, in grain, co, care and labour to defend it from nu- lour, and taste. merous accidents: add to these, the painful efforts that the preparation and manufacture costs to the wretched Africans; and, on comparing these to the advantages of the maple, you will be convinced, by a new argument, that much pains are often taken to commit unprofitable crimes. The maple is produced by nature; the fap to be extracted, requires no preparatory labour; it runs in February and March, a season unfuitable for other rural operations. Each tree, without injury to itself, gives twelve or fifteen gallons, which will produce at least five pounds of fugar. A man aided by four children, may eafily, during four weeks running of the fap, make fifteen hundred pounds of fugar *. Advantages, like thefe, have not failed to excite the attention of the friends of humanity; fo that, befides the focieties formed for the abolition of flavery, another is formed, whofe express object is to perfect this valuable production. Mr. Drinker + of Philadelphia, made, last year, fixty barrels of maple fugar on his eftate on the Delaware; and he has published a pamphlet on the best method of proceeding in this manufacture. Edward Pennington, of Philadelphia, formerly a refiner in the Weft Indies, has declared this fugar equal Whenever there fhall form from north to fouth a firm coalition, an ardent emulation to multiply the produce of this divine tree, and efpecially when it fhall be deemed an impiety to deftroy it, not only America may fupply herself, but the may fill the markets of Europe with a fugar, the low price of which will ruin the fale of that of the iflands-a produce washed with the tears and the blood of flaves. What an aftonishing effect it would produce, to naturalize this tree through all Europe! In France, we might plant them at twenty feet diftance, in a kind of orchard, which would at the fame time produce pafture, fruits, and other vegetables. In this manner an acre would contain 140 trees, which, even when young, would produce three pounds of fugar a-year. This would give 420 pounds the acre, which, at three-pence fterling the pound, and deducting one half for the labour, would yield annually 521. 6s. fterling, clear profit; befide other productions, which these trees would not impede. This calculation might be M. Lanthenas, one of the most enlightened defenders of the blacks in France, has made fome calculations on this fubject, which cannot be too often repeated. Suppofing, fays he, that a family will produce in a feafon 1500lb. of fugar, 80,000 families will produce, and that with very little trouble, a quantity equal to what is exported from St. Domingo in the most plentiful year, which is reckoned at one hundred and twenty millions. This fuppofes twenty millions of trees, rendering five pounds. each, eftimating the acre of the United States at 38,476 fquare feet of France; and fuppofing the trees planted at feven feet diftance, about 30,000 acres appropriated to this ufe, would fuffice for the above quantity of fugar. Some of the following facts took place in 1789 and 1790, as my friends have written me from Philadelphia. I thought proper to infert them in this letter, to which they belong. A farmer has published, that no less than three millions of the maple trees are deftroyed annually in clearing the lands in the fingle ftate of New-York. It is certainly worthy the care of every legiflature in the union, to prevent the destruction of fo uleful a tree, which feems to have been planted by the hand of heaven, for the confolation of man. rea reafonably carried much higher; but cannot fail to present itself to the I chofe to keep it as low as poffible *. imagination of every humane and enlightened man. Our devotees, our Thus we fhould obtain a profitable ignorant and inhuman priests, who production in Europe, and diminish never fail to be great lovers of coffee fo many ftrokes of the whip, which and fugar, would, by these means, be our luxury draws upon the blacks. faved from the horrible part which Why is it, that, in our capital, where they take in the moft enormous crime the delicacy of fentiment is fometimes on which the fun ever fhone. In conequal to that of fenfation, no focieties fuming these articles, do they not enare formed, whofe object should be to courage those whofe guilt is more difweeten their coffee with a fugar not rect in the operation of producing embittered by the idea of the exceffive them? and yet, with what coldness, tears, cruelties, and crimes, without with what culpable indifference, do which these productions have not been thefe pious men look upon our society hitherto procured ?-an idea which of the friends of the blacks! On a PLAN for the RE-EMIGRATION of the BLACKS of the UNITED STATES, to America. [From the SAME. ] Have already, my friend, given Even on admitting them to all the you a fketch of the ideas of Dr. rights of citizens, I know not if it Thornton on this fubject. This ar- would be poffible to effect a lafting dent friend of the blacks is perfuaded, and fincere union; we are fo strongly that we cannot hope to fee a fincere inclined to love our likeness, that union between them and the whites, there would be unceasing fufpicions, as long as they differ fo much in co- jealoufies, and partialities, between lour, and in their rights as citizens. the whites and blacks. We must then He attributes to no other cause, the recur to the project of Mr. Thornton apathy perceivable in many blacks, a project first imagined by that even Maffachusetts, where they are free. Deprived of the hope of electing or being elected reprefentatives, or of rifing to any places of honour and truft, the negroes feem condemned to drag out their days in a ftate of fervility, or to languifh in fhops of retail. The whites reproach them with a want of cleanliness, indolence, and inattention. But how can they be industrious and active, while an infurmountable barrier feparates them from other citizens? great apoftle of philanthropy, Dr. Fothergill !-a project executed by the fociety at London, or rather by the beneficent Grenville Sharp!-a project for restoring the negroes to their country, to establish them there, and encourage them in the cultivation of coffee, fugar, cotton, &c. to carry on manufacture, and to open a commerce with Europe. Mr, Thornton has occupied himself with this confoling idea. He propofed himself to be the conductor of the American ne * The author ought to have carried the idea further. The fugar maple for fuel is equal to the belt oak; for cabinet work, and many fimilar ufes, it is fuperior to moft of the fpecies of wood ufed in Europe; as a tree of ornament and pleasure, it is at leaft equal to the elm or poplar. How many millions of young trees, for the above ufes, are planted every year in all parts of Europe, to renew and perpetuate the forefts, the public and private gardens and parks, to border the great roads, &c. for all these purposes the fugar maple might be planted, and the juice to be drawn from it might be reckoned a cl. ar profit to the world. The experiment of M. Noailles, in his gar den at St. Germains, proves that this American tree would fucceed well in Europe. TRANSLATOR. groes |