But, after all, the grand difficulty in the case, is not so much that of emancipating the negroes, as of disposing
it was written. I was glad that the emancipation of my servant Charles meets your approbation. A degree of publicity has been given to the fact, which I neither expected nor desired. I am not in the habit of making any parade of my domestic transactions; but since you have adverted to one of them, I will say that I had previously emancipated Charles's mother and sister, and acquiesced in his father's voluntary abandonment of my service, who lives with his wife near me. Charles continues to reside with me, and the effect of his freedom is no other than that of substituting fixed wages, which I now pay him, for the occasional allowances and gratuities which I gave him.
"You express a wish that I would emancipate the rest of my slaves. Of these, more than half are utterly incapable of supporting themselves, from infancy, old age, or helplessness. They are in families. What could they do, if I were to send them forth into the world? Such a measure would be extremely crud, instead of humane. Our law, moreover, does not admit of emancipation, without security that the timed slave shall not be a public charge.
"In truth, gentlemen. the question of my emancipating the slaves yet remaining with me, involves many considerations of duty, relation, and locality, of which, without meaning any disrespect to you, I think you are hardly competent to judge. At all events, I, who alone am responsible to the world, to God, and to my own conscience, must reserve to myself the exclusive judgment.
"I firmly believe that the cause of the extinction of negro slavery, far from being advanced, has been retarded by the agitation of the subject at the North. This remark is not intended for those who, like you, are moved by benevolent impulses, and do not seek to gratify personal or political ambition.
"I am, with great respect, your friend and obedient servant,
This letter is confirmatory of some just observations on the subject by the Rev. Mr. Freeman. He says: "There is a relation, the Southerner will tell you, between the owner of slaves, and the unhappy beings who are thrown around him, which is far more complicated and far less easily dissolved, than a mind, unacquainted with the whole subject in all its bearings, is apt to suppose — a relation growing out of the very structure of society. Go, for instance, to the slave-holder, and propose to
