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the occasions of profitable employment.
Mr. Archer had been stating the case in the supposition, that after the present class of free blacks had been exhausted, by the operation of the plan he was recommending, others would be supplied for its action, in the proportion of the excess of colored population it would be necessary to throw off, by the process of voluntary manumission or sale.
This effect must result inevitably from the depreciating value of the slaves, ensuing their disproportionate multiplication.
The depreciation would be relieved and retarded at the same time by the process.
The two operations would aid reciprocally, and sustain each other, and both be in the highest degree beneficial.
It was on the ground of interest, therefore, the most indisputable pecuniary interest, that he addressed himself to the people and legislatures of the slave-holding states.’1
‘The slave-holder, who is in danger of having his slaves contaminated by their free friends of color, will not only be relieved from this danger, but the value of his slave will be enhanced.’2
5. It denies the power of Christian love to overcome an unholy prejudice against a portion of our fellow-creatures.
Proof. ‘The managers consider it clear that causes exist and are operating to prevent their (the blacks) improvement and elevation to any considerable extent as a class, in this country, which are fixed, not only beyond the control of the ’
1 Speech of Mr. Archer, Fifteenth Annual Report.
2 A New and Interesting View of Slavery. By Humanitas, a colonization advocate. Baltimore, 1820.
Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1888-89.
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