Selective Equality

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from slaves for all the suffering they had endured. Freeing the slaves could lead to the destruction of either race. Jefferson goes on to say, "I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind" This is a contradiction to his original statement that all men are created equal.

Jefferson shared his opinions on the rights of blacks in numerous letters. In one such letter written to John Holmes in 1820, Jefferson said,

The cession of that kind of property, for so it is misnamed, is a bagatelle which would not cost me a second thought, if, in any way, a general emancipation and expatriation could be effected; and, gradually, and with due sacrifices, I think it might be. But as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we could neither hold him, nor safely let him go (www.teachingamericanhistory.org [HYPERLINK: ...

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the country for years to come. One such man, Roger Taney spoke out against slavery early in his political career. Taney had freed his own slaves and even given a pension to some of the older ones who could no longer work. When Jacob Gruber, a Methodist minister who had been indicted for inciting slave insurrections went on trial Taney came to his defense and said,

A hard necessity, indeed, compels us to endure the evil of slavery for a time. It was imposed upon us by another nation, while we were yet in a state of colonial vassalage. It cannot be easily, or suddenly removed. Yet while it continues, it is a blot on our national character, and every real lover of freedom, confidently ...

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