The mode of inquisition and dragooning is
going out of fashion in the Old World, and I should not confide much to their
efficacy in the New. The education of the Americans is also on the same
unalterable bottom with their religion. You cannot persuade them to burn their
books of curious science; to banish their lawyers from their courts of laws; or
to quench the lights of their assemblies by refusing to choose those persons who
are best read in their privileges. It would be no less impracticable to think of
wholly annihilating the popular assemblies in which these lawyers sit. The army,
by which we must govern in their place, would be far more chargeable to us, not
quite so effectual, and perhaps in the end full as difficult to be kept in
obedience. With regard to the high aristocratic spirit of Virginia and the
Southern Colonies, it has been proposed, I know, to reduce it by declaring a
general enfranchisement of their slaves. This object has had its advocates and
panegyrists; yet I never could argue myself into any opinion of it. Slaves are
often much attached to their masters.
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