enter into conference with the English officials with reference to disposing of any Negroes who might be sent?  “It is material to observe,” remarked Jefferson, “that they are not felons, or common malefactors, but persons guilty of what the safety of society, under actual circumstances, obliges us to treat as a crime, but which their feelings may represent in a far different shape.  They are such as will be a valuable acquisition to the settlement already existing there, and well calculated to cooeperate in the plan of civilization."[4] King accordingly opened correspondence with Thornton and Wedderbourne, the secretaries of the company having charge of Sierra Leone, but was informed that the colony was in a languishing condition and that funds were likely to fail, and that in no event would they be willing to receive more people from the United States, as these were the very ones who had already made most trouble in the settlement.[5] On January 22, 1805, the General Assembly of Virginia passed a resolution that embodied a request to the United States Government to set aside a portion of territory in the new Louisiana Purchase “to be appropriated to the residence of such people of color as have been, or shall be, emancipated, or may hereafter become dangerous to the public safety.”  Nothing came of this.  By the close then of Jefferson’s second administration the Northwest, the Southwest, the West Indies, and Sierra Leone had all been thought of as possible fields for colonization, but from the consideration nothing visible had resulted.

[Footnote 1:  Monroe.]

[Footnote 2:  Jefferson.]

[Footnote 3:  Writings, X, 297.]

[Footnote 4:  Writings, X, 327-328.]

[Footnote 5:  Ibid., XIII, 11.]

Now followed the period of Southern expansion and of increasing materialism, and before long came the War of 1812.  By 1811 a note of doubt had crept into Jefferson’s dealing with the subject.  Said he:  “Nothing is more to be wished than that the United States would themselves undertake to make such an establishment on the coast of Africa ...  But for this the national mind is not yet prepared.  It may perhaps be doubted whether many of these people would voluntarily consent to such an exchange of situation, and very certain that few of those advanced to a certain age in habits of slavery, would be capable of self-government.  This should not, however, discourage the experiment, nor the early trial of it; and the proposition should be made with all the prudent cautions and attentions requisite to reconcile it to the interests, the safety, and the prejudices of all parties."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Writings, XIII, 11.]