¿To change the rules of dcfcent, fo as that
the lands of any perfcn dying inteftate fHall
be clivifible equally among ah his children
or other reptefentatives in equal degree.
To make Haves diiiributabie among the
next of kin, as other moveables?
To emancipate all Haves born after paffing
the a£h The bill reported by the revi
vors does not itftlf contain this proportion;
but an amendment containing it was prepared,
to be offered to the Iegifiature whenever
the bill iiiould be taken up,
It will probably be asked, ‘Why not retain
and incorporate the blacky into the ibtteT
and thus fave the expence of fupplying, by
importation of white fettlers, the vacancies
they will leave? cep rooted prejudices en
tertained by the whites ; ten thoufand recolle&ions,
by the blacks, of the injuries they have
fuftained ; new provocations ; the real diilinctions
which nature has made; and many other
circumifcmces, will divide us into parties,
and produce convulfions which will probably
never end but in the extermination of the
one or the other race.—
The firit
difference which ftrikes us is that of colour.
Whether the black of the negro refides in
the reticular membrane between the skin
and fcaif skin, or in the fcarf skin itfelf;
whether it proceeds from the colour of the
blood, the colour of the hile, or from that
of fomc other fecretion, the difference is fixed
in nature, and is as real as if its feat and
caufe were better known to us, And is this
difference of no importance Í Is it not the
foundation of a greater or lefs fhare ofljeauty
in the two races ?
their own judgment in favour
of the whites, declared by their preference
of them as uniformly as is the preference of
the Oran-ootan for the black women over
thofc of bis own fpecies. Thecircumffance of
fuperior beauty, is thought” worthy attention
in the propagation of onr horfes, dogs and
other demedie animals; why not in that of
man?
Perhaps too a difference offfrutture in the pul
monary apparatus, which a late ingenious experiment a lift has difcovered tobe the principal regulator of animal heat, may have difabled
them from extricating, in the a£l of insipiration
They fecm to require
leCs ileep.
They are at leaft as brave
Their griefs are tranficnt.
In general, their cxiftcnce appears to
participate more of fenfation than reflection.
To this muft be afcribed their difpofition to
fleep when abftra&ed from their diverfions,
and unemployed in labour. An animal whofe
body is at reff, and vho does not reflett,
nuil be difpofed to ileep of conrfe.
it appears to me
that in memory they are equal to the whites;
in reafon much inferior
It would be unfair to fol
low them to Africa for this inveftigation.
We will coniider them here, on the fame
ilage with the whites
Many millions of them
have been brought to, and born in America»
many have been fo fimated that
they might have availed themfelves of the
convention of their mailers
Some have been
liberally educated
But never
yet could I find that a black had uttered a
thought above the level of plain narration;
never fee even an elementary trait of paint
ing or fculpture. In mufic they arc more
generally gifted than the whites with accu
rate ears for time and time
Mifery is often the parent of
the moil affefHng touches in poetry»—Among
the blacks is mifery enough, God
knows, but no poetry»
They will crayon out an animal,
a plant, or a country, fo as to prove the ex
igence of a germ in their minds which only
wants cultivation.
it could not produce
a poet»
