Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/238

224 him. With the morals of the people, their induſtry alſo is deſtroyed. For in a warm climate, no man will labor for himſelf who can make another labor for him. This is ſo true, that of the proprietors of ſlaves a very ſmall proportion indeed are ever ſeen to labor. And can the liberties of a nation be thought ſecure when we have removed their only firm baſis, a conviction in the minds of the people that theſe liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is juſt; that his juſtice cannot ſleep for ever: that conſidering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of ſituation is among poſſible events: that it may become probable by ſupernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take ſide with us in ſuch a conteſt.—But it is impoſſible to be temperate and to purſue this ſubject through the various conſiderations of policy, of morals, of hiſtory natural and civil. We muſt be contented to hope they will force their way into every one's mind. I think a change already preceptible, ſince the origin of the preſent revolution. The ſpirit of the maſter is abating, that of the ſlave is riſing from the duſt, his condition mollifying, the way I hope preparing, under the auſpices of heaven, for a total emancipation, and that this is diſpoſed, in the order of events, to be with the conſent of the maſters, rather than by their extirpation.