I perceive that I have permitted my reflections to run into generalities beyond the scope of the particular intimation in your letter I will let them go, however, as a general confession of faith, not belonging merely to the present case.

Name me affectionately to our brethren with you, and be assured yourself of my constant friendship and respect.

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CLXXIX.—­TO JARED SPARKS, February 4, 1824

TO JARED SPARKS.

Monticello, February 4, 1824.

Dear Sir,

I duly received your favor of the 3th, and with it the last number of the North American Review.  This has anticipated the one I should receive in course, but have not yet received, under my subscription to the new series.  The article on the African colonization of the people of color, to which you invite my attention, I have read with great consideration.  It is, indeed, a fine one, and will do much good.  I learn from it more, too, than I had before known, of the degree of success and promise of that colony.

In the disposition of these unfortunate people, there are two rational objects to be distinctly kept in view. 1.  The establishment of a colony on the coast of Africa, which may introduce among the aborigines the arts of cultivated life, and the blessings of civilization and science.  By doing this, we may make to them some retribution for the long course of injuries we have been committing on their population.  And considering that these blessings will descend to the ’nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis,’ we shall in the long run have rendered them perhaps more good than evil.  To fulfil this object, the colony of Sierra Leone promises well, and that of Mesurado adds to our prospect of success.  Under this view, the Colonization Society is to be considered as a missionary society, having in view, however, objects more humane, more justifiable, and less aggressive on the peace of other nations, than the others of that appellation.

The second object, and the most interesting to us, as coming home to our physical and moral characters, to our happiness and safety, is to provide an asylum to which we can, by degrees, send the whole of that population from among us, and establish them under our patronage and protection, as a separate, free, and independent people, in some country and climate friendly to human life and happiness.  That any place on the coast of Africa should answer the latter purpose, I have ever deemed entirely impossible.  And without repeating the other arguments which have been urged by others, I will appeal to figures only, which admit no controversy.  I shall speak in round numbers, not absolutely accurate, yet not so wide from truth as to vary the result materially.  There are in the United States a million and a half of people of color in slavery.  To send off the whole of these at once, nobody conceives to be practicable