slavery?  May not they pronounce all slaves free, and will they not be warranted by that power?  There is no ambiguous implication or logical deduction.  The paper speaks to the point.  They have the power in clear, unequivocal terms; and will clearly and certainly exercise it.  As much as I deplore slavery, I see that prudence forbids its abolition.  I deny that the general government ought to set them free, because a decided majority of the States have not the ties of sympathy and fellow-feeling for those whose interest would be affected by their emancipation.  The majority of Congress is to the North, and the slaves are to the South.  In this situation, I see a great deal of the property of the people of Virginia in jeopardy, and their peace and tranquillity gone away.  I repeat it again, that it would rejoice my very soul, that every one of my fellow-beings was emancipated.  As we ought with gratitude to admire to admire that decree of Heaven, which has numbered us among the free, we ought to lament and deplore the necessity of holding our fellow-men in bondage.  But is it practicable by any human means, to liberate them, without producing the most dreadful and ruinous consequences?  We ought to possess them in the manner we have inherited them from our ancestors, as their manumission is incompatible with the felicity of the country.  But we ought to soften, as much as possible, the rigor of their unhappy fate.  I know that in a variety of particular instances, the legislature, listening to complaints, have admitted their emancipation.  Let me not dwell on this subject.  I will only add, that this, as well as every other property of the people of Virginia, is in jeopardy, and put in the hands of those who have no similarity of situation with us.  This is a local matter, and I can see no propriety in subjecting it to Congress.

Have we not a right to say, hear our propositions?  Why, sir, your slaves have a right to make their humble requests.—­Those who are in the meanest occupations of human life, have a right to complain.

Gov.  RANDOLPH.  That honorable gentleman, and some others, have insisted that the abolition of slavery will result from it, and at the same time have complained, that it encourages its continuation.  The inconsistency proves in some degree, the futility of their arguments.  But if it be not conclusive, to satisfy the committee that there is no danger of enfranchisement taking place, I beg leave to refer them to the paper itself.  I hope that there is none here, who, considering the subject in the calm light of philosophy, will advance an objection dishonorable to Virginia; that at the moment they are securing the rights of their citizens, an objection is started that there is a spark of hope, that those unfortunate men now held in bondage, may, by the operation of the general government be made free.  But if any gentleman be terrified by this apprehension, let him read the system.  I ask, and I will ask again