Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Mr. Jefferson's grandson; Thomas Marshall,
son of the Chief Justice; James McDowell, afterward Congressman and
Governor; Charles J. Faulkner, afterward Congressman and Minister to
France, and William Ballard Preston, afterward Congressman and
Secretary of the Navy in President Taylor's Cabinet, were among the
leaders of the anti-slavery men, and some idea may be formed of the
character of their speeches from the extracts hereinafter cited.
The principal discussion revolved around the report of a committee
which declared "that it is inexpedient for the present Legislature to
make any legislative enactment for the abolition of slavery," to which
Mr. Preston moved the substitution of the word "expedient" for
"inexpedient," and Mr. Bryce moved, as a substitute for both, that the
commonwealth should provide for the immediate removal of the negroes
now free and those who may hereafter become free "believing that this
will absorb all of our present means." By a vote of 58 to 73 Mr.
Preston's amendment was defeated,[59] and Mr. Bryce's substitute
adopted by a vote of 65 to 58.[60] In line with this declaration, the
House thereupon passed a bill which provided by a comprehensive and
continuous system for the deportation and colonization of the free
negroes of the commonwealth, and such as thereafter might become free.
The measure carried an appropriation of Thirty-five Thousand Dollars
for the first year (1832) and Ninety Thousand Dollars for the year
1833 and was adopted by a vote of 79 to 41.[61] In urging its passage,
William H. Broadnax insisted that many owners "would manumit their
slaves if means for their removal were furnished by the state, but who
could not if the additional burden of removal were placed upon
them."[62] This bill, so fraught with far-reaching consequences, was
subsequently defeated in the Senate by one vote.