Emancipation is not forbidden by our laws; but a negro, who is set free, is required forthwith, to leave the State; for it is against public j>olicy to have the number of free negroes increased, or to allow negroes to remain among ns in a qualified state of slavery.
The latter is, if any thing, the worse evil of the two. Eree negroes constitute a distinct class; and the poor creatures seldom prosper so well as to become objects of envy. Whereas, slaves, who have the care and protection of a master, have houses provided for them, and a fund set apart for their support and maintenance, so that they can have the control of their own time, and may work or not, as they see proper, necessarily become objects of envy to those who continue to look upon them as fellow slaves. So that nothing can be more calculated to make our slaves discontented; accordingly such a state of things is expressly forbidden by statute. It follows that the provision in the- will by which Lucy and her children were to remain in this State under the care and protection of one, who was to act nominally as master, but was to provide a house for them to live in, and apply the interest of a certain fund for their support and maintenance, so as to let them have the control of their own time, is void. Fortunately for th e complainants, the testator became aware of this in time to make provision by a codicil for their emancipation and removal to another country, and “ for their comfortable settlement there.”
The. complainants insist, that the codicil has the further effect of making valid the provision that is made for them in the will, and that they are now entitled as well to the provision which the testator intended to make for them by the will, as that which he did make for them by the codicil. In other words, that besides having the expenses of their removal and comfortable settlement in another country paid out of the estate of the testator, they are entitled to the fund produced by the sale of the two tracts of land. We do not think so.
*253The provision made by the codicil is intended as a substitute for that made by the will — “ vn the event” that the latter cannot be carried into effect. The intention is clearly this: If the negroes can be kept in this State, they are,to be provided for as directed by the will. If they cannot remain here and be so provided for; then, they are to be provided for as directed by the codicil. There is not the slighest intimation that the two modes of providing for them are in any degree, or to any extent, to be cumulative.
Decree accordingly.