great debt that even noble experiments like the one that Lafayette had proposed, had to took a back seat to getting Washingtons financial situation in order.Lafayette went on with his plan alone, buying land in the French colony of Cayenne (Sparks v.4, p.110). Washington was still very supportive of this plan despite his inability to participate, and on May 10, 1786, he wrote to Lafayette, "[Y]our 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" (Fitzpatrick v.28, p.424). Washington hoped that the American people would have similar ideas and feelings on slavery, but he realized that this hope was very unlikely to be realized. He writes to Lafayette in the same letter, "Would to God a like spirit would diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country; but I despair of seeing it" (Fitzpatrick v.28, p.424).While Washington believed that the slaves needed to be freed, he also thought that the process should be a slow and gradual one. He felt that to release the slaves all at once would, "[B]e productive of much inconvenience and mischief..." (Fitzpatrick v.28, p.242). There would be a mass of former slaves in America who did not have the skills needed to survive. Many of them may have had to resort to stealing in order to feed themselves. It would also be very inconvenient for the slave holders who depended so greatly upon their slave work force. To eliminate such a work force would devastate many Americans, mostly Southerners, who relied heavily on slave-labor. In numerous letters, Washington stresses his desire to see Legislative authority enact a plan that would slowly and gradually free the slaves. In a letter to Robert Morris on April 12, 1786, Washington writes, "I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of [slavery]...by Legislative auth...
