It is
certainly true. There is, however, a circumstance attending these Colonies
which, in my opinion, fully counterbalances this difference, and makes the
spirit of liberty still more high and haughty than in those to the
northward. It is that in Virginia and the Carolinas they have a vast
multitude of slaves. Where this is the case in any part of the world,
those who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom.
Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank and
privilege. Not seeing there, that freedom, as in countries where it is a
common blessing and as broad and general as the air, may be united with
much abject toil, with great misery, with all the exterior of servitude;
liberty looks, amongst them, like something that is more noble and
liberal. I do not mean, Sir, to commend the superior morality of this
sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue in it; but I cannot
alter the nature of man. The fact is so; and these people of the Southern
Colonies are much more strongly, and with an higher and more stubborn
spirit, attached to liberty than those to the northward. Such were all the
ancient commonwealths; such were our Gothic ancestors; such in our days
were the Poles; and such will be all masters of slaves, who are not slaves
themselves.
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