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BRIEFLY CONSIDERED.
By JOHN L. CAREY.
BALTIMORE:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN MURPHY,
178 Market street.
1845.
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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year onethousand eight hundred and forty-five, in the clerk’s office of theDistrict Court of Maryland.
Dodon, March 12th, 1845.
Dear Sir,—A short time before the October election, I heardsome one say that it was your intention to devote much of your time,should you be elected to the House of Delegates, to the subject of theblack population of our State, and to promote, if possible, measuresfor their gradual emancipation. It gave me, a slaveholder and citizenof Maryland, infinite pleasure to hear it; and it was with the deepestregret I learned soon after that you were not returned to the house.If I have been correctly informed, I beg leave to say I honor you foryour sentiment, and I hope you will not allow so good a resolution todie, but will kindle it anew, and seek some other equally practicalmeans of bringing this subject fully and fairly before the public. Itis one that has long occupied much of my thoughts, and I have watchedanxiously for some one to show his hand in this cause. At this momentmy attention has been more distinctly called to it, by the manly,high-minded letter of Mr. C. M. Clay, addressed to the people ofKentucky. There is not a sentiment or a political principle expressedby him to his fellow citizens that does not with equal force apply toour noble little State, and every prediction applies to us asforcibly as it does to them. The time has come, there can be no doubtof it, to take the needful steps; slaveholders themselves are anxiousfor it, and will not be displeased to see the subject fairlytaken into consideration. I have been a planter for five years, andhave had an opportunity of discussing these points with slaveholdersof all parties, and I do not remember a single instance in whichobjection[Pg 4] was made to the principle of emancipation; some difference,it is true, exists as to the manner and time, but none as to thenecessity. Heretofore this whole subject has been wrapt in a mystery,as imposing as the secrets of Free Masonry, and no one, not a memberof the order of slaveholders, has been allowed to open his mouth andsay any thing about it; it is a dangerous question—it is an excitingsubject—it is a matter that belongs to slaveholders themselves—havebeen the usual and repeated injunctions laid upon all who honestly andhumanely have desired to inquire into the merits and demerits of thiscause. Is this as it should be? Is it the course that should be pursuedby an educated people, who have at command the means to defend thetruth and expose error? Certainly not. If our State is laboring underan evil, let the cause and nature of the malady be investigated, andthen let us apply the remedy. If, on the contrary, none can be shownto exist, at least agitation will receive a check that willbe grateful to all lovers of peace and order. Firmly convinced thatsuch a course will be displeasing to b