[73] He quoted from “the celebrated Texas letter of Robt. J. Walker published in 1844,” which estimated “that according to the rate of increase from 1790 to 1840, there would be in the six states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois alone, no less than 400,000 free blacks in 1853; 800,000 in 1865; and 1,600,000 in 1890. The number of free blacks in the slave states is even greater than in the free states.” This great number of free blacks will have a powerful moral influence for good or evil upon every interest in the country. “I refrain from pursuing the subject further. I will not look to that dark but not distant future, when in some of the largest of the free states, this population shall have grown powerful in numbers, demanding the elective franchise, and when perhaps political parties, in the frenzy of their excitement shall bid for their influence and make them a power in the State. They may hold the balance of power in these larger States, and through them in the Union. With all their capacity for mischief, through the mistaken sympathy they are calculated to inspire for the slave of the South, it is impossible to estimate the amount of discord and of injury they must inevitably produce among the states.” [74] Annual Report of American Colonization Society for 1852, 62-65. [75] American Historical Magazine, IX, 275. [76] “For, sir,” said he, “the day is not far distant, when, instead of scores of tons, there will be hundreds and thousands of tons, floating from the shores of Africa to every country upon the face of the habitable globe. Your report tells us that the agriculture of Liberia is already in a flourishing condition, and that manufactures, to some extent, are springing up in the country.” Annual Report of American Colonization Society for 1860, 28-9. [77] Annual Report of the American Colonization Society for 1867, p. 56. CHAPTER V RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL ASPECTS OF SLAVERY The Protestant churches in America approached the question of Christianizing the negro very cautiously. There were several reasons for this attitude.[1] It was generally believed that paganism was the basis of slavery, that a Christian slave was a paradox, that Christianizing the slave would destroy his humble qualities and lessen his economic value, that it would add an element in the cost of maintaining the institution, that an idea of equality prevailed in the slave’s attending church and participating in communion with the master, and that this idea would add to the difficulty of governing him. Of course, there was the social relation that came into the problem that was very obnoxious. It was unpleasant to commune with a freshly imported brother from Africa; even a Stowe, or a Garrison would likely have hesitated.