Correspondence With Jefferson Concerning Slavery
In 1814 Coles wrote a letter to his Albemarle County neighbor Thomas Jefferson, asking the former President to publicly work for an end to slavery in Virginia. Jefferson’s response has become a signal document in the study of Jefferson’s troubling and complex relationship with the institution of slavery. Jefferson unequivocally declined Cole’s request, advising his young associate to stay in Virginia to help in the long-term demise of slavery. Coles’ disappointment is clear in his return letter of September 26, 1814.
Coles was delayed again in fulfilling his covenant with freedom by a diplomatic trip to Russia (1816–1817) at the request of President Madison. Returning to America, Coles embarked on a second reconnaissance mission to the Northwest Territories (1818) and participated in the Illinois Constitutional Convention at Kaskaskia.
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Famous quotes containing the words jefferson and/or slavery:
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it; the historian record it; and, with the Landing of the Pilgrims and the Declaration of Independence, it will be the ornament of some future national gallery, when at least the present form of slavery shall be no more here. We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown. Then, and not till then, we will take our revenge.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)