"The benevolence of your heart, my dear Marquis, is so conspicuous upon all occasions, that I never wonder at any fresh proofs of it; but your late purchase of an estate in the Colony of Cayenne, _with a view of emancipating the slaves on it_, is a generous and noble proof of your humanity. _Would to God a like spirit might diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country!_ But I despair of seeing it. Some petitions were presented to the Assembly, at its last session, for the abolition of Slavery; but they could scarcely obtain a reading. To set the slaves afloat at once would, I really believe, be productive of much inconvenience and mischief; _but by degrees it certainly might and assuredly ought to be effected, and that, too, by legislative authority_."--_Letter of Washington to Lafayette, May 10, 1786._ "I never mean, unless some particular circumstances should compel me to it, to possess another slave by purchase, _it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which Slavery in this country may be abolished by law_."--_Letter of Washington to John F. Mercer, September 9, 1786._ * * * * * "From what I have said, you will perceive that the present prices of lands in Pennsylvania are higher than they are in Maryland and Virginia, although they are not of superior quality, ... [among other reasons] because there are _laws here for the gradual abolition of Slavery_, which neither of the two States above mentioned have at present, _but which nothing is more certain than that they must have, and at a period not remote_."--_Letter of Washington to Sir John Sinclair, December 11, 1796._ * * * * *