Criminals are
sometimes condemned for very long periods, or for life; and in these
cases, I was informed, occasionally manifested great recklessness and
carelessness of their existence. I am also not quite convinced that the
reformation of prisoners is effected to the extent sometimes inferred
from the small number of recommittals. A statistical conclusion cannot
be drawn from this datum, unsupported by other proofs.
On the 2d of the 6th Month, (June,) I proceeded to Wilmington, Delaware,
with my friend John G. Whittier. Here we met a company of warm-hearted
and intelligent abolitionists, with whom we discussed the prospects of
the cause. It was calculated that if compensation were conceded, to
which many would on principle object, a tax of less than one dollar per
acre would buy up all the slaves in the State for emancipation. It was
admitted by all, that the abolition of slavery would advance the price
of land in a far greater ratio; probably ten or twenty dollars per acre.
We went forward the same evening to Baltimore, accompanied by one of our
Wilmington acquaintance, and in the railway carriage was a member of the
Society of Friends from North Carolina, who, though a colonizationist,
appeared to be a man of candor.
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