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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thoughts on African Colonization, by 
+William Lloyd Garrison
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Thoughts on African Colonization
+
+Author: William Lloyd Garrison
+
+Release Date: February 4, 2010 [EBook #31178]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOUGHTS ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Pattison, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+This eBook is based on a 1968 reprint by Arno Press, New York, of the
+original edition, published in 1832 by Garrison and Knapp, Boston. The
+Table of Contents has been added by the transcriber.
+
+Inconsistent use of "Mr." and "Mr"; use of variable numbers of asterisks
+as ellipses; irregular and archaic spelling other than noted below;
+inconsistent capitalization (especially Christian vs. christian) and
+hyphenation, are as per the original.
+
+2 blank lines between sequential block quotes indicate a new quote; 1
+blank line indicates a new paragraph in the same quote; this is similar
+to the typesetting of the original.
+
+Footnotes have been re-indexed sequentially, using letters where symbols
+were used and numbers where numbers were used in the original, and
+moved to the end of each section to preserve the flow of the text.
+
+Minor punctuation errors, in particular inconsistent use of quotation
+marks, have been corrected without note. The following typographical
+errors have been corrected:
+
+  Part I.
+    P. 25 "... was held, at which King George, ..." (had "Kings").
+    P. 36 "... Lander, travellers in Africa, represent ..." (had "Afria").
+    P. 48 "... operations have been confined to ..." (had "confied").
+    P. 88 "... superintendence of any government ..." (had "goverment").
+    P. 89 "... such a measure, to point ..." (had "a a").
+    P. 97 "... rid ourselves of a large party ..." (had "lage").
+    Footnote [P] "... the authority which compels ..." (had "which which").
+    P. 126 "... country, of an anomalous race ..." (had "amomalous").
+    P. 127 "... transportation of the manumitted ..." (had "transportion").
+    P. 148 "... that a greater benefit may be ..." (had "may may").
+
+  Part II.
+    P. 72 "... a state far to the West ..." (had "far to far").
+    P. 72 "... calculated to impress upon ..." (had "calulated").
+
+
+
+
+Table of Contents
+
+     PREFACE                                                       xix
+
+  PART I.
+
+     INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.                                           1
+
+     SECTION I.                                                     39
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS PLEDGED NOT TO OPPOSE THE
+     SYSTEM OF SLAVERY.
+
+     SECTION II.                                                    61
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY APOLOGISES FOR SLAVERY AND
+     SLAVEHOLDERS.
+
+     SECTION III.                                                   68
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY RECOGNISES SLAVES AS PROPERTY.
+
+     SECTION IV.                                                    74
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY INCREASES THE VALUE OF SLAVES.
+
+     SECTION V.                                                     78
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE ENEMY OF IMMEDIATE
+     ABOLITION.
+
+     SECTION VI.                                                    95
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS NOURISHED BY FEAR AND
+     SELFISHNESS.
+
+     SECTION VII.                                                  111
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY AIMS AT THE UTTER EXPULSION OF
+     THE BLACKS.
+
+     SECTION VIII.                                                 124
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE DISPARAGER OF THE FREE
+     BLACKS.
+
+     SECTION IX.                                                   134
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY DENIES THE POSSIBILITY OF
+     ELEVATING THE BLACKS IN THIS COUNTRY.
+
+     SECTION X.                                                    151
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY DECEIVES AND MISLEADS THE
+     NATION.
+
+  PART II.
+
+     SENTIMENTS OF THE PEOPLE OF COLOR.                              1
+
+
+
+
+                      THOUGHTS
+                         ON
+                AFRICAN COLONIZATION
+
+
+[Illustration: SECTION OF A SLAVE SHIP. _From Walsh's Notes of Brazil._]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+I dedicate this work to my countrymen, in whose intelligence,
+magnanimity and humanity I place the utmost reliance. Although they have
+long suffered themselves to be swayed by a prejudice as unmanly as it is
+wicked, and have departed widely from the golden rule of the gospel, in
+their treatment of the people of color, to suppose that they will always
+be the despisers and persecutors of this unfortunate class is, in my
+opinion, to libel their character. A change in their feelings and
+sentiments is already visible--a change which promises, ere long, to
+redeem their character from the bloody stains which slavery has cast
+upon it, and to release the prisoner from his chains. May they be
+ashamed to persist in a mean and thievish course of conduct, and afraid
+to quarrel with the workmanship of God! May a righteous indignation be
+kindled in their breasts against a combination which is holding them up,
+for the scorn and contempt of other nations, as incorrigible oppressors,
+whom neither self-respect, nor the opinions of mankind, nor the fear of
+God, can bring to repentance! Their duty is plain, and it may easily be
+done. Slavery must be overthrown either by their own moral strength, or
+by the physical strength of the slaves. Let them imitate the example of
+the people of _Great Britain_, by seeking the immediate overthrow of the
+horrid system. Let a National Anti-Slavery Society be immediately
+organized, the object of which shall be, to quicken and consolidate the
+moral influence of the nation, so that Congress and the State
+Legislatures may be burdened with petitions for the removal of the
+evil--to scatter tracts, like rain-drops, over the land, on the subject
+of slavery--to employ active and eloquent agents to plead the cause
+incessantly, and to form auxiliary societies--to encourage planters to
+cultivate their lands by freemen, by offering large premiums; to promote
+education and the mechanical arts among the free people of color, and to
+recover their lost rights. Religious professors, of all denominations,
+must bear unqualified testimony against slavery. They must not support,
+they must not palliate it. No slaveholder ought to be embraced within
+the pale of a christian church; consequently, the churches must be
+purified 'as by fire.' Slavery in the District of Columbia is sustained
+in our national capacity: it ought, therefore, to be prostrated at a
+blow. The clause in the Constitution should be erased, which tolerates,
+greatly to the detriment and injustice of the non-slaveholding States, a
+slave representation in Congress. Why should property be represented at
+the impoverished south, and not at the opulent north?
+
+To impair the force of this exposition, the ardent advocates of the
+Colonization Society will undoubtedly attempt to evade the ground of
+controversy, and lead uncautious minds astray in a labyrinth of
+sophistry. But the question is not, whether the climate of Africa is
+salubrious, nor whether the mortality among the emigrants has been
+excessive, nor whether the colony is in a prosperous condition, nor
+whether the transportation of our whole colored population can be
+effected in thirty years or three centuries, nor whether any slaves have
+been emancipated on condition of banishment; but whether the doctrines
+and principles of the Society accord with the doctrines and principles
+of the gospel, whether slaveholders are the just proprietors of their
+slaves, whether it is not the sacred duty of the nation to abolish the
+system of slavery now, and to recognise the people of color as brethren
+and countrymen who have been unjustly treated and covered with unmerited
+shame. _This is the question--and the only question._
+
+With such a mass of evidence before them, of the pernicious, cruel and
+delusive character of the American Colonization Society, I leave the
+patriot, the philanthropist and the christian to judge of the fitness of
+the following inflated and presumptuous assertions of its
+advocates:--'The plan is of heavenly origin, against which the gates of
+hell shall never prevail'--'a circle of philanthropy, every segment of
+which tells and testifies to the beneficence of the whole'--'addressing
+its claims alike to the patriot, and the christian, it being
+emphatically the cause of liberty, of humanity, of religion'[A]--'so
+full of benevolence and the hallowed impulses of Heaven's own mercy,
+that one might, with the propriety of truth, compare its radiant
+influences to a rainbow, insufferably bright, spanning the sombre clouds
+of human wrong, that have accumulated on the horizon of our country's
+prosperity, and beating back, with calm and heavenly power, the
+blackening storm that always threatens, in growling thunders, a heavy
+retribution'[B]--'that citizen of the United States who lifts a finger
+to retard this institution, nay, that man who does not use his
+persevering efforts to promote its benevolent object, fails, in our
+opinion, to discharge his duty to his God and his
+country'[C][1]--'nothing but a distinct knowledge and a calm
+consideration of the facts in the case, is wanting to make every man of
+common intelligence, common patriotism, and common humanity, the earnest
+friend of the Colonization Society'!![D]
+
+There is one important consideration, which, owing to the contractedness
+of my limits, I have omitted to enforce in this work. It is this: the
+serious injury which our interests must inevitably suffer by the removal
+of our colored population. Their labor is indispensably necessary and
+extremely valuable. By whom shall the plantations at the south be
+cultivated but by them? It is universally conceded that they can resist
+the intensity of a southern sun, and endure the fatigues attendant on
+the cultivation of rice, cotton, tobacco and sugar-cane, better than
+white laborers: at least, their bodies are now inured to this
+employment. I do not believe that any equivalent would induce the
+planters to part with their services, or white laborers to occupy their
+places. In the great cities, and in various parts of the southern
+States, free persons of color constitute a laborious and useful class.
+In a pecuniary point of view, the banishment of one-sixth of our
+population,--of those whom we specially need,--would be an act of
+suicide. The veriest smatterer in political economy cannot but perceive
+the ruinous tendency of such a measure.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] African Repository.
+
+[B] Rev. Mr Maffit's 'Plea for Africa.'
+
+[C] Western Luminary.
+
+[D] Christian Spectator.
+
+[1] The clerical gentleman who presumes to utter this opinion is the
+same who has also the hardihood to assert that 'many of the best
+citizens of our land are holders of slaves, and hold them _in strict
+accordance with the principles of humanity and justice_'!!
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION.
+
+
+PART I.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
+
+
+In attacking the system of slavery, I clearly foresaw all that has
+happened to me. I knew, at the commencement, that my motives would be
+impeached, my warnings ridiculed, my person persecuted, my sanity
+doubted, my life jeoparded: but the clank of the prisoner's chains broke
+upon my ear--it entered deeply into my soul--I looked up to Heaven for
+strength to sustain me in the perilous work of emancipation--and my
+resolution was taken.
+
+In opposing the American Colonization Society, I have also counted the
+cost, and as clearly foreseen the formidable opposition which will be
+arrayed against me. Many of the clergy are enlisted in its support:
+their influence is powerful. Men of wealth and elevated station are
+among its contributors: wealth and station are almost omnipotent. The
+press has been seduced into its support: the press is a potent engine.
+Moreover, the Society is artfully based upon and defended by _popular
+prejudice_: it takes advantage of wicked and preposterous opinions, and
+hence its success. These things grieve, they cannot deter me. 'Truth is
+mighty, and will prevail.' It is able to make falsehood blush, and tear
+from hypocrisy its mask, and annihilate prejudice, and overthrow
+persecution, and break every fetter.
+
+I am constrained to declare, with the utmost sincerity, that I look upon
+the colonization scheme as inadequate in its design, injurious in its
+operation, and contrary to sound principle; and the more scrupulously I
+examine its pretensions, the stronger is my conviction of its
+sinfulness. Nay, were Jehovah to speak in an audible voice from his holy
+habitation, I am persuaded that his language would be, 'Who hath
+required this at your hands?'
+
+It consoles me to believe that no man, who knows me personally or by
+reputation, will suspect the honesty of my skepticism. If I were
+politic, and intent only on my own preferment or pecuniary interest, I
+should swim with the strong tide of public sentiment instead of
+breasting its powerful influence. The hazard is too great, the labor too
+burdensome, the remuneration too uncertain, the contest too unequal, to
+induce a selfish adventurer to assail a combination so formidable.
+Disinterested opposition and sincere conviction, however, are not
+conclusive proofs of individual rectitude; for a man may very honestly
+do mischief, and not be aware of his error. Indeed, it is in this light
+I view many of the friends of African colonization. I concede to them
+benevolence of purpose and expansiveness of heart; but in my opinion,
+they are laboring under the same delusion as that which swayed Saul of
+Tarsus--persecuting the blacks even unto a strange country, and verily
+believing that they are doing God service. I blame them, nevertheless,
+for taking this mighty scheme upon trust; for not perceiving and
+rejecting the monstrous doctrines avowed by the master spirits in the
+crusade; and for feeling so indifferent to the moral, political and
+social advancement of the free people of color in this their only
+legitimate home.
+
+In the progress of this discussion I shall have occasion to use very
+plain, and sometimes very severe language. This would be an unpleasant
+task, did not duty imperiously demand its application. To give offence I
+am loath, but more to hide or modify the truth. I shall deal with the
+Society in its collective form--as one body--and not with individuals.
+While I shall be necessitated to marshal individual opinions in review,
+I protest, _ab origine_, against the supposition that indiscriminate
+censure is intended, or that every friend of the Society cherishes
+similar views. He to whom my reprehension does not apply, will not
+receive it. It is obviously impossible, in attacking a numerous and
+multiform combination, to exhibit private dissimilarities, or in every
+instance to discriminate between the various shades of opinion. It is
+sufficient that exceptions are made. My warfare is against the AMERICAN
+COLONIZATION SOCIETY. If I shall identify its general, preponderating
+and clearly developed traits, it must stand or fall as they shall prove
+benevolent or selfish.
+
+I bring to this momentous investigation an unbiassed mind, a lively
+sense of accountability to God, and devout aspirations for the guidance
+of the Holy Spirit. Unless He 'in whom there is no darkness at all,'
+pours light upon my path, I shall go astray. I have taken Him at His
+word: 'If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given
+him.' Confessing my own foolishness, I have sought that knowledge which
+cannot err.
+
+I would premise, that, like many others, I formerly supposed the
+Colonization Society was a praiseworthy association, although I always
+doubted its efficiency. This opinion was formed for me by others, upon
+whom I placed implicit confidence: it certainly was not based upon any
+research or knowledge of my own, as I had not at that time perused a
+single Report of the Society, nor a page in its organ, the African
+Repository. My approval was the offspring of credulity and ignorance. I
+am explicit on this point, because my opponents have accused me of
+inconsistency--though it ought not surely to disgrace a man, that,
+discovering himself to be in error, he promptly turns to the embrace of
+truth. As if opinions, once formed, must be as irrevocable as the laws
+of the Medes and Persians! If this were so, accountability would lose
+its hold on the conscience, and the light of knowledge be blown out, and
+reason degenerate into brutish instinct. Much stress has been laid upon
+the fact, that, in 1828, I delivered an address in Park-street
+meeting-house on the Fourth of July, on which occasion a collection was
+made in behalf of the American Colonization Society. It is true--but
+whereas I was then blind, now I see. My address, however, was far from
+being acceptable to the friends of colonization who were present, not
+only on account of my denunciation of slaveholders, but because I
+inserted only a single sentence in favor of the Society. In all my
+writings, I have never commended this combination in as many sentences
+as I have used in making this explanation. So much for my marvellous
+apostacy!
+
+It is only about two years since I was induced to examine the claims of
+the Colonization Society upon the patronage and confidence of the
+nation. I went to this examination with a mind biassed by preconceived
+opinions favorable to the Society, and rather for the purpose of
+defending it against opposition than of bringing it into disrepute.
+Every thing, apart from its principles, was calculated to secure my
+friendship. Nothing but its revolting features could have induced me to
+turn loathingly away from its embrace. I had some little reputation to
+sustain; many of my friends were colonizationists; I saw that eminent
+statesmen and honorable men were enlisted in the enterprise; the great
+body of the clergy gave their unqualified support to it; every fourth of
+July the charities of the nation were secured in its behalf; wherever I
+turned my eye in the free States, I saw nothing but unanimity; wherever
+my ear caught a sound, I heard nothing but excessive panegyric. No
+individual had ventured to blow the trumpet of alarm, or exert his
+energies to counteract the influence of the scheme. If an assailant had
+occasionally appeared, he had either fired a random shot and retreated,
+or found in the inefficiency of the Society the only cause for
+hostility. It was at this crisis, and with such an array of motives
+before me to bias my judgment, that I resolved to make a close and
+candid examination of the subject.
+
+I went, first of all, to the fountain head--to the African Repository
+and the Reports of the Society. I was not long in discovering sentiments
+which seemed to me as abhorrent to humanity as contrary to reason. I
+perused page after page, first with perplexity, then with astonishment,
+and finally with indignation. I found little else than sinful
+palliations, fatal concessions, vain expectations, exaggerated
+statements, unfriendly representations, glaring contradictions, naked
+terrors, deceptive assurances, unrelenting prejudices, and unchristian
+denunciations. I collected together the publications of auxiliary
+societies, in order to discern some redeeming traits; but I found them
+marred and disfigured with the same disgusting details. I courted the
+acquaintance of eminent colonizationists, that I might learn how far
+their private sentiments agreed with those which were so offensive in
+print; and I found no dissimilarity between them. I listened to
+discourses from the pulpit in favor of the Society; and the same moral
+obliquities were seen in minister and people.
+
+These discoveries affected my mind so deeply that I could not rest. I
+endeavored to explain away the meaning of plain and obvious language; I
+made liberal concessions for good motives and unsuspicious confidence; I
+resorted to many expedients to vindicate the disinterested benevolence
+of the Society; but I could not rest. The sun in its mid-day splendor
+was not more clear and palpable to my vision, than the anti-christian
+and anti-republican character of this association. It was evident to me
+that the great mass of its supporters at the north did not realise its
+dangerous tendency. They were told that it was designed to effect the
+ultimate emancipation of the slaves--to improve the condition of the
+free people of color--to abolish the foreign slave trade--to reclaim and
+evangelize benighted Africa--and various other marvels. Anxious to do
+something for the colored population--they knew not what--and having no
+other plan presented to their view, they eagerly embraced a scheme which
+was so big with promise, and which required of them nothing but a small
+contribution annually. Perceiving the fatality of this delusion, I was
+urged by an irresistible impulse to attempt its removal. I could not
+turn a deaf ear to the cries of the slaves, nor throw off the
+obligations which my Creator had fastened upon me. Yet in view of the
+inequalities of the contest, of the obstacles which towered like
+mountains in my path, and of my own littleness, I trembled, and
+exclaimed in the language of Jeremiah,--'Ah, Lord God! behold I cannot
+speak: for I am a child.' But I was immediately strengthened by these
+interrogations: 'Is any thing too hard for the Lord?' Is Error, though
+unwittingly supported by a host of good men, stronger than Truth? Are
+Right and Wrong convertible terms, dependant upon popular opinion? Oh
+no! Then I will go forward in the strength of the Lord of Hosts--in the
+name of Truth--and under the banner of Right. As it is not by might nor
+by power, but by the Spirit of God, that great moral changes are
+effected, I am encouraged to fight valiantly in this good cause,
+believing that I shall 'come off conqueror, and more than
+conqueror'--yet not I, but Truth and Justice. It is in such a contest
+that one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.
+'The Lord disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands
+cannot perform their enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own
+craftiness; and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.'
+'Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of
+God is stronger than men.'
+
+Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions and practices of
+notoriously wicked men; but to rebuke great and good men for their
+conduct, and to impeach their discernment, is the highest effort of
+moral courage. The great mass of mankind shun the labor and
+responsibility of forming opinions for themselves. The question is
+not--what is true? but--what is popular? Not--what does God say?
+but--what says the public? Not--what is my opinion? but--what do others
+believe? If people would pin their faith upon the bible, and not upon
+the sleeves of their neighbors, half of the heresies in the world would
+instantly disappear. If they would use their own eyes, their own ears,
+their own understandings, instead of the eyes, and ears, and
+understandings of others, imbecility, credulity and folly would be as
+rare as they are now common in community. But, unhappily, to borrow the
+words of Ganganelli, a large majority of mankind are 'mere abortions:'
+calling themselves rational and intelligent beings, they act as if they
+had neither brains nor conscience, and as if there were no God, no
+accountability, no heaven, no hell, no eternity.
+
+'My minister,' says one, 'is a most worthy man. He supports this
+Society: therefore it is a good institution.' 'Christians of all
+denominations are enlisted in this enterprise,' says another: 'therefore
+it cannot be wrong.' 'Do you think,' says a third, 'that honest, godly
+men would countenance a scheme which is not really benevolent?' But it
+is unwise for beings, who are accountable only to God, to reason in this
+manner. All the good men upon earth cannot make persecution benevolence,
+nor injustice equity; and until they become infallible, implicit
+reliance upon their judgment is criminal. Ministers and christians, a
+few years since, were engaged in the use and sale of ardent spirits;
+_but they were all wrong_, and they now acknowledge their error. At the
+present day, a large proportion of the professed disciples of the Prince
+of Peace maintain the lawfulness of defensive war, and the right of the
+oppressed to fight and kill for liberty; but they hold this sentiment in
+direct opposition to the precepts of their Leader--'I say unto you which
+hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that
+curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.' Surely 'the
+time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.'
+
+I must pause, for a moment, and count the number of those with whom I am
+about to conflict. If I had to encounter only men-stealers and
+slaveholders, victory would be easy; but it is not the south alone that
+is to be subdued. The whole nation is against me. Church after church is
+to be converted, and the powerful influence of the clergy broken. The
+friendship of good men is to be turned into enmity, and their support
+into opposition. It is my task to change their admiration into
+abhorrence; to convince them that their well-meant exertions have been
+misdirected, and productive of greater evil than good; and to induce
+them to abandon an institution to which they now fondly cling.
+
+To those who neither fear God nor regard man--who have sworn eternal
+animosity to their colored countrymen, and whose cry is, 'Away with
+them, we do not want them here!'--I make no appeal. Disregarding as they
+do that divine command, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,' it
+would be idle for me to direct my arguments to them. I address myself
+to high-minded and honorable men, whose heads and hearts are susceptible
+to the force of sound logic. I appeal to those, who have been redeemed
+from the bondage of sin by the precious blood of Christ, and with whom I
+hope to unite in a better world in ascribing glory, and honor, and
+praise to the Great Deliverer for ever. If I can succeed in gaining
+their attention, I feel sure of convincing their understandings and
+securing their support.
+
+Besides the overwhelming odds which are opposed to me, I labor under
+other very serious disadvantages. My efforts in the cause of
+emancipation have been received as if they were intended to bring chaos
+back again, and to give the land up to pillage and its inhabitants to
+slaughter. My calls for an alteration in the feelings and practices of
+the people toward the blacks have been regarded as requiring a sacrifice
+of all the rules of propriety, and as seeking an overthrow of the
+established laws of nature! I have been thrust into prison, and amerced
+in a heavy fine. Epithets, huge and unseemly, have been showered upon me
+without mercy. I have been branded as a fanatic, a madman, a disturber
+of the peace, an incendiary, a cutthroat, a monster, &c. &c. &c.
+Assassination has been threatened me in a multitude of anonymous
+letters. Private and public rewards to a very large amount, by
+combinations of individuals and by legislative bodies at the south, have
+been offered to any persons who shall abduct or destroy me. 'Yea, mine
+own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath
+lifted up his heel against me.' This malignity of opposition and
+proximity of danger, however, are like oil to the fire of my zeal. I am
+not deliriously enthusiastic--I do not covet to be a martyr; but I had
+rather die a thousand deaths, than witness the horrible oppression under
+which more than two millions of my countrymen groan, _and be silent_. No
+reproaches, no dangers shall deter me. At the north or the south, at the
+east or the west,--wherever Providence may call me,--my voice shall be
+heard in behalf of the perishing slave, and against the claims of his
+oppressor. Mine is the frank avowal of the excellent WILBERFORCE:--I can
+admit of no compromise when the commands of equity and philanthropy are
+so imperious. I wash my hands of the blood that may be spilled. I
+protest against the system, as the most flagrant violation of every
+principle of justice and humanity. I NEVER WILL DESERT THE CAUSE. In my
+task it is impossible to tire: it fills my mind with complacency and
+peace. At night I lie down with composure, and rise to it in the morning
+with alacrity. I NEVER WILL DESIST FROM THIS BLESSED WORK.
+
+Now that the concentrated execration of the civilized world is poured
+upon those who engage in the foreign slave trade, how mild and
+inefficient, comparatively speaking, seem to have been the rebukes of
+Pitt, and Fox, and Wilberforce, and Clarkson! Yet these rebukes were
+once deemed fanatical and outrageous by good men--yea, like flames of
+fire, threatening a universal conflagration! So the denunciations which
+I am now hurling against slavery and its abettors,--which seem to many
+so violent and unmerited,--will be considered moderate, pertinent and
+just, when this murderous, soul-destroying system shall have been
+overthrown.
+
+Fanaticism has been the crime alleged against reformers in all ages.
+'These,' it was said of the apostles, 'that have turned the world upside
+down, come hither also.' Luther was a madman in his day: what is he now
+in the estimation of the friends of civil and religious liberty? One of
+
+    'Those starry lights of virtue, that diffuse
+    Through the dark depths of time their vivid flame.'
+
+That base and desperate men should thus stigmatize those who endure the
+cross as good soldiers, and walk as pilgrims and strangers here, is not
+wonderful; but that the professed followers of Jesus Christ should join
+in this hue-and-cry is lamentable. Singular enough, I have been almost
+as cruelly aspersed by ministers of the gospel and church members, as by
+any other class of men. Unacquainted with me, and ignorant of my
+sentiments, they have readily believed the accusations of my enemies.
+The introduction of my name into conversation has elicited from them
+contemptuous sneers or strong denunciations. I have a right to complain
+of this treatment, and I do strongly protest against it as unchristian,
+hurtful and ungenerous. To prejudge and condemn an individual, on vague
+and apocryphal rumors, without listening to his defence or examining
+evidence, is tyranny. Perhaps I am in error--perhaps I deserve
+unqualified condemnation; but I am at least entitled to a privilege
+which is granted to the vilest criminals, namely, the privilege of a
+fair trial. I ask nothing more. To accuse me of heresy, madness and
+sedition, is one thing; to substantiate the accusation, another.
+
+Should this work chance to fall into the hands of those who have thus
+ignorantly reprobated my course, I appeal to their sense of rectitude
+whether they are not bound to give it a candid and deliberate perusal;
+and if they shall find in my writings nothing contrary to the immutable
+principles of justice, whether they ought not to be as strenuous in my
+defence as they have been hitherto in seeking my overthrow.
+
+To show that I do not vacate any pledge which I have given to the
+public, I shall here insert all the specifications, which, from time to
+time, I have brought against the American Colonization Society. In 'The
+Liberator' of April 23, 1831, is the following serious compend:
+
+    'I am prepared to show, that those who have entered into this
+    CONSPIRACY AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS are unanimous in abusing their
+    victims; unanimous in their mode of attack; unanimous in
+    proclaiming the absurdity, that our free blacks are natives of
+    Africa; unanimous in propagating the libel, that they cannot be
+    elevated and improved in this country; unanimous in opposing
+    their instruction; unanimous in exciting the prejudices of the
+    people against them; unanimous in apologising for the crime of
+    slavery; unanimous in conceding the right of the planters to
+    hold their slaves in a limited bondage; unanimous in their
+    hollow pretence for colonizing, namely, to evangelize Africa;
+    unanimous in their _true motive_ for the measure--a terror lest
+    the blacks should rise to avenge their accumulated wrongs. It is
+    a conspiracy to send the free people of color to Africa under a
+    benevolent pretence, but really that the slaves may be held more
+    securely in bondage. It is a conspiracy based upon fear,
+    oppression and falsehood, which draws its aliment from the
+    prejudices of the people, which is sustained by duplicity, which
+    really upholds the slave system, which fascinates while it
+    destroys, which endangers the safety and happiness of the
+    country, which no precept of the bible can justify, which is
+    implacable in its spirit, which should be annihilated at a blow.
+
+    'These are my accusations; and if I do not substantiate them, I
+    am willing to be covered with reproach.'
+
+The following is copied from an editorial article of July 9, 1831:
+
+    'The superstructure of the Colonization Society rests upon the
+    following pillars:
+
+    '1st. _Persecution._ It declares that the whole colored
+    population must be removed to Africa; but as the free portion
+    are almost _unanimously_ opposed to a removal, it seems to be
+    the determination of the Society to make their situations so
+    uncomfortable and degraded here, as to compel them to migrate:
+    consequently it discourages their education and improvement in
+    this their native home. This is persecution.
+
+    '2d. _Falsehood._ It stigmatises our colored citizens as being
+    natives of Africa, and talks of sending them to their native
+    land; when they are no more related to Africa than we are to
+    Great Britain.
+
+    '3d. _Cowardice._ It avows as a prominent reason why colored
+    citizens ought to be removed, that their continuance among us
+    will be dangerous to us as a people! This is a libel upon their
+    character. Instead of demanding justice for this oppressed
+    class, the Society calls for their removal!
+
+    '4th. _Infidelity._ It boldly denies that there is power enough
+    in the gospel to melt down the prejudices of men, and insists,
+    that, so long as the people of color remain among us, _we must
+    be their enemies!_--Every honest man should abhor the doctrine.'
+
+In 'The Liberator' of July 30, 1831, alluding to the present work, I
+used the following language:
+
+    'I shall be willing to stake my reputation upon it for honesty,
+    prudence, benevolence, truth and sagacity. If I do not prove the
+    Colonization Society to be a creature without heart, without
+    brains, eyeless, unnatural, hypocritical, relentless, unjust,
+    then nothing is capable of demonstration--then let me be covered
+    with confusion of face.'
+
+The following paragraph is extracted from 'The Liberator' of November
+19, 1831:
+
+    'It is the enemy of immediate restitution to the slaves; it
+    courts and receives the approbation of notorious slave owners;
+    it deprecates any interference with slave property; it
+    discourages the improvement of the colored population, except
+    they are removed to the shores of Africa; it is lulling the
+    country into a fatal sleep, pretending to be something when it
+    is nothing; it is utterly chimerical, as well as intolerant, in
+    its design; it serves to increase the value of the slaves, and
+    to make brisk the foreign and domestic slave trade; it nourishes
+    and justifies the most cruel prejudices against color; it sneers
+    at those who advocate the bestowal of equal rights upon our
+    colored countrymen; it contends for an indefinite, dilatory,
+    far-off emancipation; it expressly declares that it is more
+    humane to keep the slaves in chains, than to give them freedom
+    in this country! In short, it is the most compendious and best
+    adapted scheme to uphold the slave system that human ingenuity
+    can invent. Moreover, it is utterly and irreconcileably opposed
+    to the wishes and sentiments of the great body of the free
+    people of color, repeatedly expressed in the most public manner,
+    but cruelly disregarded by it.'
+
+The following passages are taken from my Address to the People of Color,
+delivered in various places in June, 1831:
+
+    'Let me briefly examine the doctrines of colonizationists. They
+    generally agree in publishing the misstatement, that you are
+    strangers and foreigners. Surely they know better. They know,
+    that, as a body, you are no more natives of Africa, than they
+    themselves are natives of Great Britain. Yet they repeat the
+    absurd charge; and they do so, in order to cover their
+    anti-republican crusade. But suppose you were foreigners: would
+    such an accident justify this persecution and removal? And, if
+    so, then all foreigners must come under the same ban, and must
+    prepare to depart. There would be, in that case, a most alarming
+    deduction from our population. Suppose a philanthropic and
+    religious crusade were got up against the Dutch, the French, the
+    Swiss, the Irish, among us, to remove them to New Holland, to
+    enlighten and civilize her cannibals? Who would not laugh at the
+    scheme--who would not actively oppose it? Would any one blame
+    the above classes for steadfastly resisting it? Just so, then,
+    in regard to African colonization. But our colored population
+    are not aliens; they were born on our soil; they are bone of our
+    bone, and flesh of our flesh; their fathers fought bravely to
+    achieve our independence during the revolutionary war, without
+    immediate or subsequent compensation; they spilt their blood
+    freely during the last war; they are entitled, in fact, to every
+    inch of our southern, and much of our western territory, having
+    worn themselves out in its cultivation, and received nothing but
+    wounds and bruises in return. Are these the men to stigmatize as
+    foreigners?
+
+    'Colonizationists generally agree in asserting that the people
+    of color cannot be elevated in this country, nor be admitted to
+    equal privileges with the whites. Is not this a libel upon
+    humanity and justice--a libel upon republicanism--a libel upon
+    the Declaration of Independence--a libel upon christianity? "All
+    men are born equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain
+    inalienable rights--among which are life, liberty, and the
+    pursuit of happiness." What is the meaning of that declaration?
+    That _all_ men possess these rights--whether they are six feet
+    five inches high, or three feet two and a half--whether they
+    weigh three hundred or one hundred pounds--whether they parade
+    in broadcloth or flutter in rags--whether their skins are jet
+    black or lily white--whether their hair is straight or woolly,
+    auburn or red, black or gray--does it not? We, who are present,
+    differ from each other in our looks, in our color, in height,
+    and in bulk; we have all shades, and aspects, and sizes. Now,
+    would it not be anti-republican and anti-christian for us to
+    quarrel about sitting on this seat or that, because this man's
+    complexion is too dark, or that man's looks are too ugly? and to
+    put others out of the house, because they happen to be ignorant,
+    or poor, or helpless? To commit this violence would be evidently
+    wrong: then to do it in a large assemblage--in a community, in a
+    state, or in a nation, it is equally unjust. But is not this
+    the colonization principle? Who are the individuals that
+    applaud, that justify, that advocate this exclusion? Who are
+    they that venture to tell the American people, that they have
+    neither honesty enough, nor patriotism enough, nor morality
+    enough, nor religion enough, to treat their colored brethren as
+    countrymen and citizens? Some of them--I am sorry to say--are
+    professedly ministers of the gospel; others are christian
+    professors; others are judges and lawyers; others are our
+    Senators and Representatives; others are editors of newspapers.
+    These ministers and christians dishonor the gospel which they
+    profess; these judges and lawyers are the men spoken of by the
+    Saviour, who bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and
+    lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move
+    them with one of their fingers. These Senators and
+    Representatives ought not to receive the suffrages of the
+    people. These editors are unworthy of public patronage.
+
+    'Colonizationists too generally agree in discouraging your
+    instruction and elevation at home. They pretend that ignorance
+    is bliss; and therefore 'tis folly to be wise. They pretend that
+    knowledge is a dangerous thing in the head of a colored man;
+    they pretend that you have no ambition; they pretend that you
+    have no brains; in fine, they pretend a thousand other absurd
+    things--they are a combination of pretences. What tyranny is
+    this! Shutting up the human intellect--binding with chains the
+    inward man--and perpetuating ignorance. May we not address them
+    in the language of Christ? "Wo unto you, scribes and pharisees,
+    hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men:
+    for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are
+    entering to go in! Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin,
+    and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment,
+    mercy and faith."
+
+    'Colonizationists generally agree in apologising for the crime
+    of slavery. They get behind the contemptible subterfuge, that it
+    was entailed upon the planters. As if the continuance of the
+    horrid system were not criminal! as if the robberies of another
+    generation justify the robberies of the present! as if the
+    slaves had not an inalienable right to freedom! as if slavery
+    were not an individual as well as a national crime! as if the
+    tearing asunder families, limb from limb,--branding the flesh
+    with red hot irons,--mangling the body with whips and
+    knives,--feeding it on husks and clothing it with
+    rags,--crushing the intellect and destroying the soul,--as if
+    such inconceivable cruelty were not chargeable to those who
+    inflict it!
+
+    'As to the effect of colonization upon slavery, it is rather
+    favorable than injurious to the system. Now and then, indeed,
+    there is a great flourish of trumpets, and glowing accounts of
+    the willingness of planters to emancipate their slaves on
+    condition of transportation to Africa. Now and then a slave is
+    actually manumitted and removed, and the incident is dwelt upon
+    for months. Why, my friends, hundreds of worn-out slaves are
+    annually turned off to die, like old horses. No doubt their
+    masters will thank the Colonization Society, or any one else, to
+    send them out of the country; especially as they will gain much
+    glorification in the newspapers, for their _disinterested_
+    sacrifices. Let no man be deceived by these manoeuvres.
+
+    'My time is consumed--and yet I have scarcely entered upon the
+    threshold of my argument. Now, what a spectacle is presented to
+    the world!--the American people, boasting of their free and
+    equal rights--of their abhorrence of aristocratical
+    distinctions--of their republican equality; proclaiming on every
+    wind, "that all men are born _equal_, and endowed with certain
+    inalienable _rights_," and that this land is an asylum for the
+    persecuted of all nations; and yet as loudly proclaiming that
+    they are determined to deprive millions of their own countrymen
+    of every political and social right, and to send them to a
+    barbarous continent, because the Creator has given them a sable
+    complexion. Where exists a more rigorous despotism? What
+    conspiracy was ever more cruel? What hypocrisy and
+    tergiversation so enormous? The story is proclaimed in our
+    pulpits, in our state and national assemblies, in courts of law,
+    in religious and secular periodicals,--among all parties, and in
+    all quarters of the country,--that there is a _moral incapacity_
+    in the people to do justly, love mercy, and to walk
+    uprightly--that they must always be the enemies and oppressors
+    of the colored people--that no love of liberty, no dictate of
+    duty, no precept of republicanism, no dread of retribution, no
+    claim of right, no injunction of the gospel, can possibly
+    persuade them to do unto their colored countrymen, as they would
+    that they should do unto them in a reversal of circumstances.
+    Now, to these promulgators of unrighteousness, with the
+    Declaration of Independence in one hand, and the Bible in the
+    other, I fearlessly give battle. Rich and mighty and numerous as
+    they are, by the help of the Lord I will put them to open shame.
+    They shall not libel me, they shall not libel my country, with
+    impunity. They shall not make our boasted republicanism a
+    by-word and a hissing among all nations, nor sink the christian
+    religion below heathen idolatry; and if they persist in
+    publishing their scandalous proclamations, they shall be
+    labelled as the enemies of their species and of the republic,
+    and treated accordingly.
+
+    'The Colonization Society, therefore, instead of being a
+    philanthropic and religious institution, is anti-republican and
+    anti-christian in its tendency. Its pretences are false, its
+    doctrines odious, its means contemptible. If we are to send away
+    the colored population because they are profligate and vicious,
+    what sort of missionaries will they make? Why not send away the
+    vicious among the whites, for the same reason and the same
+    purpose? If ignorance be a crime, where shall we begin to
+    select? How much must a man know to save him from
+    transportation? How white must he be? If we send away a mixed
+    breed, how many will be left? If foreigners only, then the
+    people of color must remain--for they are our countrymen. Would
+    foreigners submit? No--not for an instant. Why should the
+    American people make this enormous expenditure of life and
+    money? Why not use the funds of the Society to instruct and
+    elevate our colored population at home? This would be rational
+    and serviceable. Instead of removing men from a land of
+    civilization and knowledge--of schools, and seminaries, and
+    colleges--to give them instruction in a land of darkness and
+    desolation--would it not be wiser and better to reverse the
+    case, and bring the ignorant here for cultivation?'
+
+The foregoing accusations are grave, weighty, positive--involving a
+perilous responsibility, and requiring ample and irrefragable proof.
+They are expressed in vehement terms: but to measure the propriety of
+language, we must first examine the character of the system, or the
+nature of the object, against which it is directed. If we see a person
+wilfully abusing the goods of an individual, we may reprehend him, but
+with comparative mildness. If we see him maiming, or in any way
+maltreating another man's cattle, we may increase the severity of our
+rebuke. But if we see him violating all the social and sacred relations
+of life,--daily defrauding a number of his fellow creatures of the
+fruits of their toil, calling them his property, selling them for money,
+lacerating their bodies, and ruining their souls,--we may use the
+strongest terms of moral indignation. Nor is plain and vehement
+denunciation of crime inconsistent with the most benevolent feelings
+towards the perpetrators of it. We are sustained in these positions by
+the example of Christ, and the apostles, and the prophets, and the
+reformers.
+
+So, also, if there be an institution, the direct tendency of which is to
+perpetuate slavery, to encourage persecution, and to invigorate
+prejudice,--although many of its supporters may be actuated by pure
+motives,--it ought to receive unqualified condemnation.
+
+It is proper to call things by their right names. What does the law term
+him who steals your pocket-book, or breaks into your dwelling, or strips
+you on the highway? A robber! Is the charge inflammatory or unjust? or
+will it please the villain? The abuse of language is seen only in its
+misapplication. Those who object to the strength of my denunciation must
+prove its perversion before they accuse me of injustice.
+
+Probably I may be interrogated by individuals,--'Why do you object to a
+colony in Africa? Are you not willing people should choose their own
+places of residence? And if the blacks are willing to remove, why throw
+obstacles in their path or deprecate their withdrawal? All go
+_voluntarily_: of what, then, do you complain? Is not the colony at
+Liberia in a flourishing condition, and expanding beyond the most
+sanguine expectations of its founders?'
+
+Pertinent questions deserve pertinent answers. I say, then, in reply,
+that I do not object to a colony, _in the abstract_--to use the popular
+phraseology of the day. In other words, I am entirely willing men
+should be as free as the birds in choosing the time when, the mode how,
+and the place where they shall migrate. The power of locomotion was
+given to be used at will; as beings of intelligence and enterprise,
+
+    'The world is all before them, where to choose
+    Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.'
+
+The emigration from New-England to the far West is constant and large.
+Almost every city, town or village suffers annually by the departure of
+some of its adventurous inhabitants. Companies have been formed to go
+and possess the Oregon territory--an enterprise hazardous and
+unpromising in the extreme. The old States are distributing their
+population over the whole continent, with unexampled fruitfulness and
+liberality. But why this restless, roving, unsatisfied disposition? Is
+it because those who cherish it are treated as the offscouring of all
+flesh, in the place of their birth? or because they do not possess equal
+rights and privileges with other citizens? or because they are the
+victims of incorrigible hate and prejudice? or because they are told
+that they must choose between exilement and perpetual degradation? or
+because the density of population renders it impossible for them to
+obtain preferment and competence here? or because they are estranged by
+oppression and scorn? or because they cherish no attachment to their
+native soil, to the scenes of their childhood and youth, or to the
+institutions of government? or because they consider themselves as
+dwellers in a strange land, and feel a burning desire, a feverish
+longing to return home? No. They lie under no odious disabilities,
+whether imposed by public opinion or by legislative power; to them the
+path of preferment is wide open; they sustain a solid and honorable
+reputation; they not only can rise, but have risen, and may soar still
+higher, to responsible stations and affluent circumstances; no calamity
+afflicts, no burden depresses, no reproach excludes, no despondency
+enfeebles them; and they love the spot of their nativity almost to
+idolatry. The air of heaven is not freer or more buoyant than they.
+Theirs is a spirit of curiosity and adventurous enterprise, impelled by
+no malignant influences, but by the spontaneous promptings of the mind.
+Far different is the case of our colored population. Their _voluntary_
+banishment is _compulsory_--they are _forced_ to turn _volunteers_, as
+will be shown in other parts of this work.
+
+The following proposition is self-evident: The success of an enterprise
+furnishes no proof that it is in accordance with justice, or that it
+meets the approbation of God, or that it ought to be prosecuted to its
+consummation, or that it is the fruit of disinterested benevolence.
+
+I do not doubt that the Colony at Liberia, by a prodigal expenditure of
+life and money, will ultimately flourish; but a good result would no
+more hallow that persecution which is seeking to drag the blacks away,
+than it would if we should burn every distillery, and shut up in prison
+every vender of ardent spirits, in order to do good and to prevent
+people from becoming drunkards. Because Jehovah overrules evil for good,
+shall we therefore continue to do evil?
+
+If ten thousand white mechanics, farmers, merchants, &c. &c. were to
+emigrate to Africa, does any man doubt whether permanent good would
+result from the enterprise--good to that benighted continent, which
+would counterbalance all the sacrifices and sufferings attending it? And
+yet is there a single mechanic, farmer or merchant, who feels it to be
+his duty, or would be willing to go? Suppose the people of color should
+get the power into their hands to-morrow, and should argue that the
+whites must not be admitted to equal privileges with themselves; but
+that, having so long plundered Africa, and oppressed her children,
+justice demanded that they should be sent to that desolate land to build
+up colonies, and carry the light of civilization and knowledge, as a
+sort of reparation--and that, having superior instruction in literature
+and science, they were peculiarly qualified for such a mission--how
+would this doctrine relish? 'It is a poor rule that will not work both
+ways,' says the proverb. Yet this logic would be more sound than is our
+own with regard to the colonization of the blacks.
+
+On this point, deception is practised to a great extent. The advocates
+of the Colonization Society are constantly aiming to divert public
+attention from the only proper subject of inquiry, namely, 'Is it based
+upon benevolence and justice?'--to the success of the colony. Granting
+all that they assert, it proves nothing; but of this success I shall
+have occasion, doubtless, to speak hereafter. Fine stories are trumpeted
+all over the country, of the happiness, intelligence, industry, virtue,
+enterprise and dignity of the colonists; and changes, absolutely
+miraculous, are gravely recorded for the admiration and credulity of
+community. 'The simple,' says Solomon, 'believeth every word: but the
+prudent man looketh well to his going.'
+
+The doctrine, that the 'end sanctifies the means,' belongs, I trust,
+exclusively to the creed of the Jesuits. If I were sure that the Society
+would accomplish the entire regeneration of Africa by its present
+measures, my detestation of its principles would not abate one jot, nor
+would I bestow upon it the smallest modicum of praise. Never shall the
+fruits of the mercy and overruling providence of God,--ever bringing
+good out of evil and light out of darkness,--be ascribed to the
+prejudice and sin of man.
+
+It is certain that many a poor native African has been led to embrace
+the gospel, in consequence of his transportation to our shores, who else
+had lived and died a heathen. Is the slave trade therefore a blessing?
+Suppose one of those wretches who are engaged in this nefarious commerce
+were brought before the Supreme Court, and being convicted, should be
+asked by the Judge, whether he had aught to say why sentence of death
+should not be pronounced upon him? And suppose the culprit should espy
+some of his sable victims in court, whom he knew had made a profession
+of faith, and he should boldly reply--'May it please your Honor, I
+abducted these people away from their homes, it is true; but they were
+poor, miserable, benighted idolators, and must have inevitably remained
+as such unto the hour of their death, if I had not brought them to this
+land of christianity and bibles, where they have been taught a knowledge
+of the true God, and are now rejoicing in hope of a glorious
+immortality. I therefore offer as a conclusive reason why sentence
+should not be pronounced, _that I have rescued souls from perdition_,
+and thus enlarged the company of the saints in light.' Would the villain
+be acquitted, and, instead of a halter, receive the panegyric of the
+Court for his conduct?
+
+Our pilgrim fathers, not being able to worship God according to the
+dictates of their own consciences in the mother country, were compelled
+by ecclesiastical despotism to seek a refuge in this rude and barbarous
+continent. Wonderful have been the fruits of their expulsion! A mighty
+republic established--the freest, the wisest, the most religious on
+earth!--influencing the world by its example, and exciting the emulation
+of all nations! Now suppose we should occasionally find in the pages of
+the Edinburgh or Quarterly Review, or in the columns of the English
+newspapers, not only a full justification of this oppressive treatment
+in view of its astonishing consequences, but a claim to approbation on
+account of its exercise. Would not such effrontery amaze us? Would not
+an honest indignation burn within us? Should we look with a more
+complacent aspect upon the bigots who kindled those fires of persecution
+around the Puritans, which, but for the interposition of Heaven, had
+consumed them to ashes?
+
+The death of our Lord Jesus Christ was essential to the salvation of the
+world. Suppose Judas, at the judgment day, should build upon this fact
+in extenuation of his dreadful crime. What would be the decision of the
+assembled universe? Yea, what was the condemnation passed upon him by
+the Illustrious Sufferer? 'Wo to that man by whom the Son of man is
+betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born!'
+
+Let not, then, any imaginary or real prosperity of the settlement at
+Liberia lead any individual to applaud the Colonization Society,
+reckless whether it be actuated by mistaken philanthropy, or perverted
+generosity, or selfish policy, or unchristian prejudice.
+
+I should oppose this Society, even were its doctrines harmless. It
+imperatively and effectually seals up the lips of a vast number of
+influential and pious men, who, for fear of giving offence to those
+slaveholders with whom they associate, and thereby leading to a
+dissolution of the compact, dare not expose the flagrant enormities of
+the system of slavery, nor denounce the crime of holding human beings in
+bondage. They dare not lead to the onset against the forces of tyranny;
+and if _they_ shrink from the conflict, how shall the victory be won? I
+do not mean to aver, that, in their sermons, or addresses, or private
+conversations, they never allude to the subject of slavery; for they do
+so frequently, or at least every Fourth of July. But my complaint is,
+that they content themselves with representing slavery as an evil,--a
+misfortune,--a calamity which has been entailed upon us by former
+generations,--_and not as an individual_ CRIME, embracing in its folds
+robbery, cruelty, oppression and piracy. _They do not identify the
+criminals_; they make no direct, pungent, earnest appeal to the
+consciences of men-stealers; by consenting to walk arm-in-arm with them,
+they virtually agree to abstain from all offensive remarks, and to aim
+entirely at the expulsion of the free people of color; their lugubrious
+exclamations, and solemn animadversions, and reproachful reflections,
+are altogether indefinite; they 'go about, and about, and all the way
+round to nothing;' they generalize, they shoot into the air, they do not
+disturb the repose nor wound the complacency of the sinner; 'they have
+put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed
+difference between the unclean and the clean.' Thus has free inquiry
+been suppressed, and a universal fear created, and the tongue of the
+boldest silenced, and the sleep of death fastened upon the nation.
+'Truth has fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter.' The plague
+is raging with unwonted fatality; but no _cordon sanitaire_ is
+established--no adequate remedy sought. The tide of moral death is
+constantly rising and widening; but no efforts are made to stay its
+desolating career. The fire of God's indignation is kindling against us,
+and thick darkness covers the heavens, and the hour of retribution is at
+hand; but we are obstinate in our transgression, we refuse to repent, we
+impiously throw the burden of our guilt upon our predecessors, we affect
+resignation to our _unfortunate_ lot, we descant upon the mysterious
+dispensations of Providence, we deem ourselves objects of God's
+compassion rather than of his displeasure. 'Shall I not visit for these
+things? saith the Lord. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as
+this?'
+
+Were the American Colonization Society bending its energies directly to
+the immediate abolition of slavery; seeking to enlighten and consolidate
+public opinion, on this momentous subject; faithfully exposing the
+awful guilt of the owners of slaves; manfully contending for the
+bestowal of equal rights upon our free colored population in this their
+native land; assiduously endeavoring to uproot the prejudices of
+society; and holding no fellowship with oppressors; my opposition to it
+would cease. It might continue to bestow its charities upon those who
+should desire to seek another country, and at the same time launch its
+thunders against the system of oppression. But, alas! it looks to the
+banishment of the free people of color as the only means to abolish
+slavery, and conciliate the feelings of the planters.
+
+The popularity of the Society is not attributable to its merits, but
+exclusively to its congeniality with those unchristian prejudices which
+have so long been cherished against a sable complexion. It is agreeable
+to slaveholders, because it is striving to remove a class of persons who
+they fear may stir up their slaves to rebellion; all who avow undying
+hostility to the people of color are in favor of it; all who shrink from
+acknowledging them as brethren and friends, or who make them a distinct
+and inferior caste, or who deny the possibility of elevating them in the
+scale of improvement here, most heartily embrace it. Having ample funds,
+it has been able to circulate its specious appeals in every part of the
+country; and to employ active and eloquent agents, who have glowingly
+described to the people the immense advantages to be reaped from the
+accomplishment of its designs. With this entire preoccupancy of the
+ground, and these common though unworthy dispositions in its favor, the
+wonder is, that it is not more popular.
+
+Much cleverness is not requisite to tell a fine story; and a fine story
+is always agreeable to a credulous listener. An agent of the Society
+goes into a place, and finds no difficulty in procuring a pulpit from
+which to address a congregation. The benevolent pastor, who, perhaps,
+has had neither time nor opportunity to examine the principles of the
+Society, readily officiates on the occasion, and, in the fulness of his
+heart, believing that he is not asking amiss, supplicates the
+benediction of Heaven upon the object of the meeting. This co-operation
+of the pastor with the agent makes an impression decidedly favorable to
+the latter upon the minds of the audience, and prepares them to receive
+his statements with confidence. He first dwells upon the miserable
+condition of Africa--desolated with civil wars--the prey of
+kidnappers--given up to idolatry--full of intellectual darkness and
+spiritual death--and bleeding at every pore. He next depicts the horrors
+of the slave trade, and shows how inefficient have been the laws enacted
+for its suppression. He finally expatiates upon the evils and dangers of
+slavery; and is particularly minute in describing the degradation of the
+free people of color, which he declares to be irreclaimable in this land
+of gospel light. 'Now, my christian brethren and friends,' he continues,
+'the object of the American Colonization Society is to stay the effusion
+of blood, to give light to them who sit in darkness, and to make
+reparation for the wrongs which have been inflicted upon the sable sons
+of Africa. As the people of color must evidently be a distinct and
+degraded class while they reside in this country, and as they are
+threatened with universal proscription, the Society benevolently
+proposes to send them back _to their native country_, by their own
+_voluntary_ consent, together with those slaves who may be emancipated
+for this purpose, where they may enjoy equal rights and privileges, nor
+longer retain any sense of inferiority to the whites. Every emigrant
+will go as a missionary to reclaim the poor natives from their
+barbarism, and to spread the tidings of salvation throughout the African
+continent. By forming a chain of colonies along the coast, a speedy
+check will be given to the accursed slave trade,--a trade which cannot
+be destroyed in any other manner. Who does not desire to see Africa
+civilized and evangelized? Whose heart does not leap in view of the
+suppression of the slave trade? Who does not pray for deliverance from
+the evils of slavery? Who does not wish to behold the free people of
+color,--cursed with ineffectual freedom here,--_recalled from their
+banishment_, and placed where no obstacles will impede their march to
+affluence, preferment and honor? The Colonization Society, then,
+powerfully commends itself to the christian, the philanthropist and the
+patriot--to every section of our country and to all denominations of
+men.'
+
+Exquisite! The picture is crowded with attractions, delightful to the
+eye. The story is skilfully told, and implicitly believed; but, like
+every other story, it has two sides to it. So complete is the delusion,
+however, that many good people are ready to class those who denounce the
+Colonization Society, among the opposers of foreign missions, bible and
+tract societies, and the other benevolent operations of the age!
+
+Far be it from me to accuse the agents of the Society of intentionally
+perverting the truth or deliberately imposing upon the credulity of the
+public. Some--perhaps all of them, are men of sincerity and probity;
+but, deluded themselves, they help to delude others. Their vision is
+imperfect; and 'if the blind lead the blind,' we may expect to find them
+in the same ditch together.
+
+Great complacency has been manifested on various occasions, by the
+advocates of the Society, on the ground that it was at first suspected
+of sinister designs, both at the north and the south, but is now
+receiving the countenance of both. This exultation is premature. The
+opposition formerly manifested to the Society by the holders of slaves,
+grew out of their ignorance of its purpose; but a very large majority of
+them now perceive that it is their devoted servant, crouching down at
+their feet, shielding them from reproach, dragging those away whom they
+dread, allowing them to sin with impunity, and generously granting them
+and their children whole centuries in which to repent, and to surrender
+what they have stolen! It dissuades them from emancipating their slaves
+faster than they can be transported to Africa; and thus regards their
+persistance in robbery and oppression as evidence of wisdom, benevolence
+and sanity! It is natural, that, discovering their mistake, they should
+now rally in a body around the Society; and, consequently, we find that
+the legislatures of the several slaveholding States are passing
+encomiums upon it, and in some instances appropriating sums of money to
+be paid over to it by instalments.
+
+The people of the north have been shamefully duped by this scheme; but,
+like the slaveholders, they begin to discover their error. Unlike them,
+however, they are withdrawing their support, in obedience to the
+injunction of the Apostle: 'Be ye not unequally yoked together with
+unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with
+unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what
+concord hath Christ with Belial? Wherefore come out from among them, and
+be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I
+will receive you.'
+
+To Africa this country owes a debt larger than she is able to liquidate.
+Most intensely do I desire to see that ill-fated continent transformed
+into the abode of civilization, of the arts and sciences, of evangelical
+piety, of liberty, and of all that adds to the dignity, the renown, and
+the temporal and eternal happiness of man. Shame and confusion of face
+belong to the Church, that she has so long disregarded the claims of
+Africa upon her sympathies, and prayers, and liberality--claims as much
+superior as its wrongs to those of any other portion of the globe. It is
+indeed most strange that, like the Priest and the Levite, she should
+have 'passed by on the other side,' and left the victim of thieves to
+bleed and sicken and die. As the Africans were the only people doomed to
+perpetual servitude, and to be the prey of kidnappers, she should have
+long since directed almost her undivided efforts to civilize and convert
+them,--not by establishing colonies of ignorant and selfish foreigners
+among them, who will seize every opportunity to overreach or oppress, as
+interest or ambition shall instigate,--but by sending intelligent, pious
+missionaries; men fearing God and eschewing evil--living evidences of
+the excellence of christianity--having but one object, not the
+possession of wealth or the obtainment of power or the gratification of
+selfishness, but _the salvation of the soul_. Had she made this attempt,
+as she was bound to have made it by every principle of justice and every
+feeling of humanity, a century ago, Africa would have been, at the
+present day, 'redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled,' and the slavery
+of her children brought to an end. No pirates would now haunt her coast
+to desolate her villages with fire and sword, in order to supply a
+christian people with hewers of wood and drawers of water. How much has
+been needlessly lost to the world by this criminal neglect!
+
+The conception of evangelizing a heathenish country by sending to it an
+illiterate, degraded and irreligious population, belongs exclusively to
+the advocates of African colonization. For absurdity and inaptitude, it
+stands, and must forever stand, without a parallel. Of all the offspring
+of prejudice and oppression, it is the most shapeless and unnatural. But
+more of this hereafter.
+
+History is full of instruction on the subject of colonization. The
+establishment of colonies, in all ages, with scarcely an exception, has
+resulted either in their subversion by the vices or physical strength of
+the natives, or by a fatal amalgamation with them; or else in the rapid
+destruction of the natives by the superior knowledge and greedy avarice
+of the new settlers. It is presumption to suppose that the colony at
+Liberia, composed of the worst materials imaginable, will present an
+example of forbearance, stability and good faith, hitherto unwitnessed
+in the world.
+
+Soon after its establishment, the colony narrowly escaped a bloody
+extirpation, and was the cause of a murderous warfare in which several
+of the colonists and a large number of the natives were slain. The
+steady growth of the colony excited the jealousy and alarm of some of
+the neighboring tribes; and, accordingly, a consultation was held, at
+which King George, Governor, and all the other head men, contended that
+'The Americans were strangers _who had forgot their attachment to the
+land of their fathers_; for if not, why had they not renounced their
+connexion with white men altogether, and placed themselves under the
+protection of the kings of the country? King George had already been
+under the necessity of removing from his town, and leaving the Cape in
+their hands. This was but the first step of their encroachments. If left
+alone, they must, in a very few years, master the whole country. And as
+all other places were full, their own tribe must be without a home, and
+cease any longer to remain a nation.'[E] This appeal (which evinces an
+intimate acquaintance with human nature and much foresight) induced the
+attack to which allusion has been made. A single paragraph from the
+Rev. Mr Ashmun's account of the battle with the natives may suffice to
+give the reader an idea of its destructiveness:
+
+    'A few musketeers with E. Johnson at their head, by passing
+    round upon the enemy's flank, served to increase the
+    consternation which was beginning to pervade their unwieldy
+    body. In about twenty minutes after the settlers had taken their
+    stand, the front of the enemy began to recoil. But from the
+    numerous obstructions in their rear, the entire absence of
+    discipline, and the extreme difficulty of giving a reversed
+    motion to so large a body, a small part only of which was
+    directly exposed to danger, and the delay occasioned by the
+    practice of carrying off all their dead and wounded, rendered a
+    retreat for some minutes longer, impossible. The very violence
+    employed by those in the front, in their impatience to hasten
+    it, by increasing the confusion, produced an effect opposite to
+    that intended. The Americans perceiving their advantage, now
+    regained possession of the western post, and instantly brought
+    the long nine to rake the whole line of the enemy. Imagination
+    can scarcely figure to itself a throng of human beings in a more
+    capital state of exposure to the destructive power of the
+    machinery of modern warfare! Eight hundred men were here pressed
+    shoulder to shoulder, in so compact a form, that a child might
+    easily walk upon their heads from one end of the mass to the
+    other, presenting in their rear a breadth of rank equal to
+    twenty or thirty men, and all exposed to a gun of great power,
+    raised on a platform, at only thirty to sixty yards distance!
+    _Every shot literally spent its force in a solid mass of living
+    human flesh!_ Their fire suddenly terminated. A savage yell was
+    raised, which filled the dismal forest with a momentary horror.
+    It gradually died away; and the whole host disappeared. At 8
+    o'clock, the well known signal of their dispersion and return to
+    their homes was sounded, and many small parties seen at a
+    distance, directly afterwards, moving off in different
+    directions. One large canoe, employed in reconveying a party
+    across the mouth of the Montserado, venturing within the range
+    of the long gun, was struck by a shot, and several men
+    killed.'[F]
+
+The above (which cannot be perused without a thrill of horror) is one of
+the legitimate fruits of foreign colonization. Subsequent to this bloody
+affair, another battle took place, which resulted in the defeat of the
+natives and the loss of many lives. It is true, the colony since that
+period has received little molestation, and has succeeded, moreover, in
+making some amicable treaties with the natives; but in proportion to its
+means of defence and numerical force will be its liability to encroach
+upon the rights of the Africans, and thus to provoke hostilities. If
+this prophecy should not be fulfilled, history will have spoken in
+vain, and human nature experienced a total regeneration.
+
+No man of refined sensibility can contemplate the fate of the aborigines
+of this country, without shuddering at the consequences of colonization;
+and if _they_ melted away at the presence of the pilgrims and their
+descendants, like frost before the meridian blaze of the sun,--if _they_
+fell to the earth, like the leaves of the forest before the autumnal
+blast, by the settlement of men reputedly humane, wise and pious, in
+their vicinage,--what can be our hope for the preservation of the
+Africans, associated with a population degraded by slavery, and, to a
+lamentable extent, destitute of religious and secular knowledge? The
+argument, that the difference of complexion between our forefathers and
+the aborigines (which is not a distinctive feature between the settlers
+at Liberia and the natives) was the real cause of this deadly enmity, is
+more specious than solid. _Conduct_, not _color_, secures friendship or
+excites antipathy, as it happens to be just or unjust. The venerated
+William Penn and his pacific followers furnish a case in point.
+
+I avow it--the natural tendency of the colony at Liberia excites the
+most melancholy apprehensions in my mind. Its birth was conceived in
+blood, and its footsteps will be marked with blood down to old age--the
+blood of the poor natives--unless a special interposition of Divine
+Providence prevent such a calamity. The emigrants will be eager in the
+acquisition of wealth, ease and power; and, having superior skill and
+discernment in trade, they will outwit and defraud the natives as often
+as occasion permits. This knavish treatment once detected,--as it surely
+will be, for even an uncivilized people may soon learn that they have
+been cheated,--will provoke retaliation, and stir up the worst passions
+of the human breast. Bloody conflicts will ensue, in which the colonists
+will be victorious. This success will serve to increase the enmity of
+the natives, and to perpetuate the murderous struggle. The extirpation
+of one generation may put the colonists in undisputed possession of the
+land.
+
+This is not a fancy sketch--it is not improbable: on the contrary, it is
+the obvious and hitherto certain consequence of bringing hastily
+together large bodies of civilized men with unlettered barbarians.
+
+Jealousy will be another fruitful source of contention. The population
+of Africa is divided into a vast number of tribes, governed by petty
+kings,--sometimes indeed united by an amicable league, but commonly
+distinct and independent. Some of these tribes will form alliances with
+the colonists, either to obtain protection from their more formidable
+rivals or from motives of fear, curiosity or selfishness. In this
+manner, tribe will be arrayed against tribe throughout that vast
+continent; the tide of commotion, gathering fresh impetuosity in its
+headlong career, will rush from the mountains down to the ocean,
+devastating all that is beautiful, and swiftly defacing that which will
+require the labors of centuries to restore to its pristine excellence;
+there will be wars and rumors of wars, succeeded by deceitful and
+unstable treaties ratified only to be broken at a favorable moment; and
+these collisions will not cease until the colonists obtain an undisputed
+mastery over the natives.
+
+Would to Heaven these fears might prove to be but the offspring of a
+distracted mind! May the colonists be so just in their intercourse with
+the Africans, as never to impeach their own integrity; so pacific, as to
+disarm retaliation and perpetuate good will; so benevolent, as to excite
+gratitude and diffuse joy wherever their names shall be known; and so
+holy, as to exalt the christian religion in the eyes of an idolatrous
+nation! But he must be grossly ignorant of human nature, or strangely
+infatuated, who believes that they will always, or commonly, exhibit
+this unexceptionable conduct.
+
+It is my sober conviction, that no contrivance or enterprise could
+possibly be planned more fatally calculated to obstruct the progress of
+christianity in a heathenish country, than the establishment of a
+colony, or colonies, of selfish, ignorant, or even intelligent and
+high-minded men, on its shores. In every settlement of this kind,--no
+matter how choice the original materials,--vice will soon preponderate
+over virtue, intemperance over sobriety, knavery over honesty,
+oppression over liberty, and impiety over godliness. The natives will
+see just enough of christianity to hate and shun it; finding that its
+fruits are generally bad--that it has no restraining influence upon the
+mass of its nominal professors,--they will not easily comprehend the
+utility of abandoning their own idolatrous worship; looking only to the
+pernicious examples of the intruders, they will spurn with contempt the
+precepts of the gospel. Their confidence will be abused--their lands
+craftily trafficked for nought--their ignorance cheated--their
+inferiority treated oppressively; and then what must naturally follow?
+Why--WAR--_a war of retaliation_. All the vices, and few of the virtues,
+of the instructers, will be faithfully copied; and thus barriers will be
+erected against the progress of the Christian religion, not absolutely
+insurmountable, it is true, but sufficiently tall and strong to retard
+its noble career--barriers not only of superstition and ignorance, but
+of hatred and revenge. These reflections might be extended to the size
+of a volume; but they are probably sufficient to convince every
+unprejudiced, discerning mind, that the establishment of foreign
+colonies in a barbarous land is the surest way to prevent its speedy
+evangelism and civilization.
+
+In reply to this reasoning, some of the advocates of African
+colonization may argue, that schools and houses of worship, multiplying
+with the growth of the settlement at Liberia, will check the evil
+propensities and passions of the emigrants, and qualify them to act as
+missionaries or instructers among the natives; and thus great good will
+be bestowed upon Africa. This is at least a summary, if not a sure mode
+of obviating these difficulties.
+
+In the first place, it is by no means certain--nay, it is not probable,
+especially if the number of emigrants annually exported to Liberia swell
+from hundreds to thousands, (and this increase of transportation is
+positively promised by the Parent Society, and absolutely necessary to
+cause a perceptible diminution in the annual enlargement of our colored
+population)--I say, it is neither certain nor probable that the
+multiplication of literary and religious privileges will keep pace with
+the unnatural and enormous growth of the colony. Nine years after the
+first settlement of Liberia, it appears by the following extract of a
+letter from a highly respectable colored emigrant, (the Rev. George M.
+Erskine,) there was but the 'remnant of a school' left! This letter is
+dated '_Caldwell, Liberia, April 3, 1830_.'
+
+    'Sir, the state of things, with regard to schools, is truly
+    lamentable. _The only school in the Colony at this time, is a
+    remnant of one at the Cape._ Among the present emigrants, there
+    are seventeen out of forty-eight that can read the Holy
+    Scriptures, _leaving thirty-one that cannot_. Now, Sir, suppose
+    each company of emigrants to this place bring a like proportion
+    of illiterate persons into the Colony, then what state, think
+    you, it must be in? But again, Sir: I am greatly mistaken if
+    this Colony is not, for several years yet to come, mostly to be
+    peopled with slaves sent out by their present owners, without
+    any education themselves, and without means and very little
+    desire to have their children instructed; and add to the above,
+    that this people is planted in the midst, and are daily
+    conversant with, a people that are not only heathen, but a
+    people extremely partial in favor of their grovelling
+    superstition. My dear Sir, this being the case, _whether is it
+    probable that they will come over to us, or we go down to them_?
+    To me the latter is the most likely, _as it is the very essence
+    of human nature to seek the lowest depth of degradation_. Permit
+    me to say, Sir, there must be a great revolution in this Colony
+    before it can have a salutary influence on the surrounding
+    natives; that is, before it can have a moral influence over
+    them.'[G]
+
+Subsequent accounts, I am happy to state, present a better aspect in
+relation to the education of this outcast and persecuted people: their
+wants, however, are only partially supplied.
+
+The annual increase of the free colored and slave population in the
+United States is variously estimated from sixty to seventy-five
+thousand. The American Colonization Society proposes the annual removal
+of this vast body,--and more, if it be possible,--provided the energies
+and patronage of the General Government be enlisted in this expulsive
+crusade. Now, suppose the entire transportation effected, let any candid
+man decide how extremely difficult, not to say impracticable, it would
+be to discipline and instruct such an overwhelming mass of ignorance, or
+any considerable portion of it--and how pernicious must be the
+consequences to the colony and the natives, if it should not receive
+immediate culture!
+
+Secondly. It is neither certain nor probable that, allowing all that is
+assumed by colonizationists, the influence of secular and religious
+instruction would be sufficient to restrain the selfish desires and
+knavish propensities of those whose main object is, not to evangelize
+the natives, but to secure, by a summary process, competence and power
+for themselves. Indeed, their juxtaposition with the natives would be
+eminently calculated to induce the fever of avarice, and to generate the
+lust of dominion. It is well known that so eager are the colonists to
+acquire a rapid accumulation of wealth, by trafficking their paltry
+beads and poisonous rum and tobacco for ivory, camwood and gold dust, it
+is with the utmost difficulty any considerable portion of them are
+persuaded to cultivate the soil and engage in agricultural pursuits.
+Thus we are presented with the disgraceful, if not singular spectacle of
+a rivalry in cunning and trickishness between a colony of _soi-disant_
+missionaries (really avaricious and unscrupulous foreigners) and the
+tribes who are to come under their pious pupilage. If equal dexterity in
+trade is not apparent, each party is equally pleased with its successful
+attempts at deception, and both renew the fraudulent commerce with fresh
+alacrity--the one to gain a new triumph, and the other to retrieve an
+old defeat. And this is the mode of colonizationists to evangelize
+Africa! and this their mode to suppress the slave trade! and this their
+mode to elevate the free people of color! and this their mode to
+emancipate the slaves! It combines the folly and absurdity of a farce
+with the solemnity and murderment of a tragedy.
+
+Far be it from me to leave the impression upon the mind of the reader,
+from these representations, that all the colonists are actuated by the
+same selfish motives, or that they have exhibited any new and
+extraordinary traits of character in their commerce with the Africans.
+Many of them, I believe, are men who fear God and desire the welfare of
+his creatures: all of them have behaved as honorably, perhaps, and
+trafficked as equitably, as any other body of men, white or yellow,
+would have done in the same situation and under the same circumstances.
+Dishonesty in trade is no prodigy, even in this country. To bring
+accusations of fraud, cupidity and cunning against human nature, is not
+libellous. I am persuaded that robbery,--well contrived, deliberately
+executed robbery,--is perpetrated in every community among ourselves,
+without any due estimate of its moral turpitude, by reputable merchants
+and traders upon their customers, to a larger extent than all the
+avowed and heinous thefts collectively, which are committed against
+society. It is lamentable to see how studiously conscience and fair
+dealing are excluded from the secular business of the world. If we see,
+every day, illustrations of this dishonest conduct, given by men of
+refinement, intelligence and good character, what should we expect from
+those whose fetters have hardly fallen from their limbs; who have been
+systematically degraded by slavery; who have not consequently that
+lively sense of moral obligation which accompanies intelligence; who are
+beyond the influence of public sentiment, and surrounded by a barbarous
+people?
+
+The establishment of a colony of speculators, then, to evangelize
+Africa, does not discover much wisdom or promise much success; but, on
+the contrary, exhibits a total blindness of vision and a most
+unfavorable aspect.
+
+Let it be remembered, however, that _rum_ and _tobacco_ (two poisons
+which are exactly adapted to destroy both soul and body) are the
+principal articles given to the natives--because pertinaciously demanded
+by them--in exchange for their own. Their appetite for spirituous
+liquor, first created by the slave traders and subsequently excited by
+the colonists, is insatiate. Even the justly lamented ASHMUN, if I do
+not mistake, for I have not his letter now before me, was so imprudent
+in one of his epistles to the Board of Managers as to concede the fatal
+necessity of selling rum freely to the natives, in order to maintain a
+commercial intercourse with them. Rum they would have, or nothing; and
+rum they obtained then, and do now obtain. Any one who will take the
+trouble to read the advertisements in the Liberia Herald will discover
+that ardent spirits form a prominent item in the list of articles
+offered for sale. Of the sobriety of the colonists, however, common
+report speaks in the most gratifying manner; but as their number is to
+be increased by a redundant importation, we have reason to fear a
+declension of morals.
+
+Thirdly. Colonizationists strenuously contend that our colored
+population are destined always to remain a degraded class in this
+country. If educated any where, they must be educated in Africa. We must
+take them in their ignorance, and just released from bondage, and
+translate them to another continent on the wings of the wind. Delay
+would be injurious to ourselves, and calamitous to them. They must go in
+large bodies--by thousands and tens of thousands annually--till the
+whole be expelled from our shores. For it seems, according to the logic
+of colonizationists, every individual tainted with black blood must be
+transported, to insure the regeneration of Africa! Neither fifty
+thousand, nor one hundred thousand, nor half a million of these
+_missionaries_ will be able to accomplish the task; but two millions of
+slaves and four hundred thousand free people of color, and all their
+descendants in time to come, here--even little babes (pretty prattling
+reformers!) and children--the maimed, the halt, and the blind--all must
+be sent off--else alas! alas! for poor benighted Africa! This is no
+caricature. An ugly face is sure to quarrel with its own likeness. But
+what is the portrait worth, if it bear no resemblance to the living
+original? They who place themselves in a ridiculous attitude must not
+claim exemption from ridicule.
+
+Let us turn to the picture once more. It is worth our while to
+contemplate it a few moments longer.
+
+What do we see? More than one-sixth portion of the American
+people--confessedly the most vicious, degraded and dangerous
+portion--crowded on the shores of Africa, by means which are hereafter
+to be considered, and at an expense which we shall not stop now to
+calculate, for the purpose of civilizing and evangelizing Africa, and of
+improving their own condition! Here, then, are _two_ ignorant and
+depraved nations to be regenerated instead of _one_!--if we may call all
+the natives that occupy that vast continent a nation--two huge and
+heterogeneous masses of contagion mingled together for the preservation
+of each! One of these nations is so incorrigibly stupid, or unfathomably
+deep in pollution, (for such is the argument,) that, although surrounded
+by ten millions of people living under the full blaze of gospel light,
+and having every desirable facility to elevate and save it, it never can
+rise until it be removed at least three thousand miles from their
+vicinage!--and yet it is first to be evangelized in a barbarous land, by
+a feeble, inadequate process, before it can be qualified to evangelize
+the other nation! In other words, men who are intellectually and
+morally blind are violently removed from light effulgent into thick
+darkness, in order that they may obtain light themselves and diffuse
+light among others! Ignorance is sent to instruct ignorance, ungodliness
+to exhort ungodliness, vice to stop the progress of vice, and depravity
+to reform depravity! All that is abhorrent to our moral sense, or
+dangerous to our quietude, or villanous in human nature, we benevolently
+disgorge upon Africa for her temporal and eternal welfare! We propose to
+build upon her shores, for her glory and defence, colonies framed of
+materials which we discard as worthless for our own use, and which
+possess no fitness or durability! Admirable consistency! surprising
+wisdom! unexampled benevolence! As rationally might we think of
+exhausting the ocean by multiplying the number of its tributaries, or
+extinguishing a fire by piling fuel upon it.
+
+Lastly. Any scheme to proselytize which requires for its protection the
+erection of forts and the use of murderous weapons, is opposed to the
+genius of christianity and radically wrong. If the gospel cannot be
+propagated but by the aid of the sword,--if its success depend upon the
+muscular power and military science of its apostles,--it were better to
+leave the pagan world in darkness. The first specimen of _benevolence_
+and _piety_, which the colonists gave to the natives, was the building
+of a fort, and supplying it with arms and ammunition! This was an
+earnest manifestation of that 'peace on earth, good will to man,' which
+these expatriated _missionaries_ were sent to inculcate! How eminently
+calculated to inspire the confidence, excite the gratitude, and
+accelerate the conversion of the Africans! Their 'dread of the great
+guns of the Islanders,' (to adopt the language of Mr Ashmun,) must from
+the beginning have made a deep and salutary impression upon their minds;
+and when, not long afterward, 'every shot' from these guns '_spent its
+force in a solid mass of living human flesh_'--their own flesh--they
+must have experienced a total regeneration. Bullets and cannon balls
+argue with resistless effect, and as easily convert a barbarous as
+civilized people. One sanguinary conflict was sufficient to spread the
+glad tidings of salvation among a thousand tribes, almost with the
+rapidity of light!--But even irony, though appropriate, is painful. I
+forbear.
+
+But--says an objector--these reflections come too late. The colony is
+planted, whatever may be its influence. What do you recommend? Its
+immediate abandonment to want and ruin? Shall we not bestow upon it our
+charities, and commend it to the protection of Heaven?
+
+I answer--Let the colony continue to receive the aid, and elicit the
+prayers of the good and benevolent. Still let it remain within the pale
+of christian sympathy. Blot it not out of existence. But let it
+henceforth develope itself naturally. Crowd not its population. Let
+transportation cease. Seek no longer to exile millions of our colored
+countrymen. For, assuredly, if the Colonization Society succeed in its
+efforts to remove thousands of their number annually, it could not
+inflict a heavier curse upon Africa, or more speedily assist in the
+entire subversion of the colony.
+
+But--the objector asks--how shall we evangelize Africa?
+
+In the same manner as we have evangelized the Sandwich and Society
+Islands, and portions of Burmah, Hindostan, and other lands. By sending
+missionaries of the Cross _indeed_, who shall neither build forts nor
+trust in weapons of war; who shall be actuated by a holy zeal and
+genuine love; who shall be qualified to instruct, admonish, enlighten,
+and proselyte; who shall not by their examples impugn the precepts, or
+subject to suspicion the inspiration of the Word of Life; who shall not
+be covered with pollution and shame as with a garment, or add to the
+ignorance, sin and corruption of paganism; and who shall abhor
+dishonesty, violence and treachery. Such men have been found to
+volunteer their services for the redemption of a lost world; and such
+men may be found now to embark in the same glorious enterprise. A
+hundred evangelists like these, dispersed along the shores and in the
+interior of Africa, would destroy more idols, make more progress in
+civilizing the natives, suppress more wars, unite in amity more hostile
+tribes, and convert more souls to Christ, in ten years, than a colony of
+twenty-thousand ignorant, uncultivated, selfish emigrants in a century.
+Such a mission would be consonant with reason and common sense; nor
+could it fail to receive the approbation of God. How simple was the
+command of our blessed Saviour to his disciples!--'Go ye forth into all
+the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' Not--'Send out from
+among yourselves those whom you despise or against whom you cherish a
+strong antipathy; those who need to be instructed and converted
+themselves; those who are the dregs of society, made vicious and
+helpless by oppression and public opinion; those who are beyond the
+reach of the gospel in a Christian land; those whose complexions are not
+precisely like yours, or who have any personal blemishes whatever that
+excite your dislike;--send out _all_ these to evangelize the nations
+which sit in darkness and in the regions of the shadow of death!'
+
+Denham, Clapperton, and Lander, travellers in Africa, represent the
+natives in a light most favorable for the introduction of christianity;
+as eager to learn and become a civilized and great people like the
+Europeans. Excepting the followers of Mohammed, they are not tenacious
+of their forms of religious worship; and a considerable portion of them
+are totally indifferent to devotional exercises. It seems apparent, that
+the fruits of a mission in Africa would be thrice as numerous as those
+of one in India, because the obstacles to be surmounted are far less
+formidable.
+
+But--says the objector--the climate of Africa is fatal to white men.
+
+So is the climate of India. But our missionaries have not counted their
+lives dear unto themselves; and, as fast as one is cut down, another
+stands ready to supply his place.
+
+I do not believe that the Creator has immoveably fixed the habitations
+of any people within a boundary narrower than the circumference of the
+globe. I believe that rapid transitions from intensity of heat and cold,
+and cold and heat, are destructive to animal life; but I also believe
+that the human body is easily acclimated, in any region of the world. I
+believe the time is swiftly approaching when empires and continents
+shall as freely commingle their population as do states and
+neighborhoods. To limit or obstruct this intercourse, is to impoverish
+and circumscribe human happiness. Civilization will remove those causes
+which now engender pestilence and death, and neutralize the effects of
+atmospherical contagion.
+
+Hence it will be seen that I do not assail the Colonization Society, as
+many others have done, simply because the settlement at Liberia is
+unhealthy. It is true, the mortality among the emigrants has been
+excessive; and so it was among the first settlers of New-England. But
+the climate of New-England is no longer pestiferous; and the climate of
+Africa will grow sweet and salubrious as her forests disappear, and the
+purifying influences of Christianity penetrate into the interior. I
+expressly contend, however, that it is murderous, indiscriminately to
+colonize large bodies of men, women and children, in a foreign land,
+before the natives are to some extent elevated by missionary effort: and
+therefore I consider the Colonization Society as responsible for the
+lives of those who have perished prematurely at Liberia.
+
+But the objection is fallacious. If white missionaries cannot, black
+ones can survive in Africa. What, then, is our duty? Obviously to
+educate colored young men of genius, enterprise and piety, expressly to
+carry the 'glad tidings of great joy' to her shores. Enough, I venture
+to affirm, stand ready to be sent, if they can first be qualified for
+their mission. If our free colored population were brought into our
+schools, and raised from their present low estate, I am confident that
+an army of christian volunteers would go out from their ranks, by a
+divine impulse and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to redeem
+their African brethren from the bondage of idolatry and the dominion of
+spiritual death.
+
+Whatever may be the result of this great controversy, I shall have the
+consolation of believing that no efforts were lacking, on my part, to
+uproot the prejudices of my countrymen, to persuade them to walk in the
+path of duty and shun the precipice of expediency, to unloose the heavy
+burdens and let the prisoners go free at once, to warn them of the
+danger of expelling the people of color from their native land, and to
+convince them of the necessity of abandoning a dangerous and chimerical,
+as well as unchristian and anti-republican association. For these
+efforts I have hitherto suffered reproach and persecution, and must
+expect to suffer till I perish. This book will doubtless increase the
+rage of my enemies; but no torrent of invective shall successfully whelm
+it, no sophistry impair its force, no activity destroy its influence, no
+misrepresentation defeat its usefulness.
+
+I commend it, particularly, to the candid attention of the two most
+powerful classes in this country--editors of newspapers and the clergy.
+It is not a light matter for either of them to propagate false doctrines
+and excite delusive hopes, on the subject of politics or religion.
+Although the press is committed to a wide extent, I place too much
+reliance upon the good sense and liberal patriotism of its conductors to
+believe that the evidence which is presented in these pages of the
+inefficiency and injustice of the colonization scheme, will fail to
+convince their understanding. I cherish still higher expectations of its
+salutary influence upon ministers of the gospel. It may grieve them to
+discover that they have been misled themselves, and that they have
+unwittingly misled others. To say to their flocks--'We have erred in
+this matter; we have solicited your charities for an institution which
+is built upon prejudice and persecution; we have hastily adopted the
+mistaken opinions of others'--such a confession may indeed require much
+grace in the heart, but this grace, I am persuaded, they will obtain. As
+apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, sustaining high and awful
+responsibilities, and exerting an influence which measurably decides the
+eternal destiny of the souls of men, they will not shut their eyes, or
+stop their ears, or refuse to examine, or disregard the truth, in a case
+involving the temporal and eternal happiness of millions of their fellow
+creatures.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[E] Memoir of American Colonists--vide 'The African Repository,' vol. 2,
+p. 174.
+
+[F] African Repository, vol. 2, p. 179.
+
+[G] African Repository, vol. 6, p. 121.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS PLEDGED NOT TO OPPOSE THE SYSTEM OF
+SLAVERY.
+
+
+Having concluded my introductory remarks, I now proceed to substantiate
+my accusations against the American Colonization Society, by marshalling
+in review the sentiments of those who first originated it, and who are
+its efficient managers and advocates. It is obvious that, with my
+limited means, and in a book designed for a cheap circulation, I shall
+not be able to enter into so minute a detail as the present exigency
+demands, or make those comments which might serve more fully to
+illustrate the character of this association. It should be stated,
+moreover, that I have not made any particular effort to procure
+materials for this work, being satisfied that those which have almost
+accidentally fallen into my hands, contain ample and conclusive evidence
+of the unworthiness of the Society. A vast number of the Reports of
+auxiliary bodies in various parts of the country, of orations and
+sermons and essays in favor of African colonization, are beyond my
+reach, and must remain unconsulted. If more proof be demanded, it shall
+be given to the public. There is not a sound timber in this great Babel:
+from the foundation to the roof, it is rotten and defective.
+
+I shall not stop to interrogate the motives of those who planned the
+Society. Some of them, undoubtedly, were actuated by a benevolent desire
+to promote the welfare of our colored population, and could never have
+intended to countenance oppression. But the question is not, whether
+their motives were good or bad. Suppose they were all good--would this
+fact prove infallibly that they could not err in judgment? Do we not
+almost daily see men running headlong into wild and injurious
+enterprises with the very best intentions? There is a wide difference
+between meaning well and doing well. The slave trade originated in a
+compassionate regard for the benighted Africans; and yet we hang those
+who are detected in this traffic. I am willing to concede that Robert
+Finley and Elias B. Caldwell were philanthropic individuals; and that a
+large number of their followers are men of piety, benevolence and moral
+worth. What then? Is the American Colonization Society a beneficial
+institution? We shall see hereafter.
+
+The history of this Society is familiar to the public. It was organized
+about the commencement of the year 1817. The first public meeting to
+consider the expediency of such an organization was held on the 21st of
+December, 1816, at which the Hon. Henry Clay presided; but I have never
+seen its official proceedings. It was addressed by Mr Clay, _Mr
+Randolph_, Mr Caldwell, and other gentlemen, from whose speeches
+extracts will shortly be given.
+
+It is my purpose in this section to show, first, the original design of
+the Society; secondly, that it is still strictly adhered to; and,
+lastly, that the Society is solemnly pledged not to interfere with the
+system of slavery, or in any manner to disturb the repose of the
+planters. Upon the rigid observance of this sinful pledge depends its
+existence; a single violation of it would be fatal. I want no better
+reason than this, to wage an uncompromising warfare against it. No man
+has a right to form an alliance with others, which prevents him from
+rebuking sin or exposing the guilt of sinners. Every individual is bound
+to oppose the system of slavery in the most direct, strenuous,
+unfaltering manner--bound by the ties of brotherhood, by the spirit of
+Christianity, by the genius of republicanism, by the dictates of
+humanity, by the requirements of justice, by the love of country, by
+duty to his God. He cannot suppress his voice, nor stop his ears to the
+groans of the prisoners, and be innocent. If he hide the truth because
+it may give offence--if he strike hands in amity with a thief--if he
+leave the needy and oppressed to perish--God will visit him with
+plagues. Now the language of the non-slaveholding members of the
+Colonization Society to the owners of slaves is virtually as
+follows:--'The free people of color are a nuisance to us, and plotters
+of sedition among your slaves. If they be not speedily removed, your
+_property_ will be lost, and your lives destroyed. We therefore do
+solemnly agree, that, if you will unite with us in expelling this
+dangerous class from our shores, we will never accuse you of robbery or
+oppression, or irritate your feelings by asserting the right of the
+slaves to immediate freedom, or identify any one of you as a criminal;
+but, on the contrary, we will boldly assert your innocence, and applaud
+you as wise and benevolent men for holding your slaves in subjection
+until you can cast them out of the country.' I say, this is _virtually_
+their language, as I shall soon indisputably show. Thus we are presented
+with the strange spectacle of a procession composed of the most
+heterogeneous materials. There go, arm-in-arm, a New-England divine and
+a southern kidnapper; and there an ungodly slaveholder and a pious
+deacon; each eyeing the other with distrust, and fearful of exciting a
+quarrel, both denouncing the poor, neglected, despised free black man as
+a miserable, good-for-nothing creature, and both gravely complimenting
+their foresight and generosity in sending this worthless wretch on a
+religious mission to Africa!
+
+I cannot exhibit the folly and wickedness of this alliance in a clearer
+light than by inserting the following extract of a letter from Capt.
+Charles Stuart, of the English Royal Navy, one of the most indefatigable
+philanthropists in England:
+
+    'The American Colonization Society looks abroad over its own
+    country, and it finds a mass of its brethren, whom God has been
+    pleased to clothe with a darker skin. It finds one portion of
+    these free! another enslaved! It finds a cruel prejudice, as
+    dark and false as sin can make it, reigning with a most
+    tyrannous sway against both. It finds this prejudice respecting
+    the _free_, declaring without a blush, "We are too wicked ever
+    to love them as God commands us to do--we are so resolute in our
+    wickedness as not even to desire to do so--and we are so proud
+    in our iniquity that we will hate and revile whoever disturbs us
+    in it--We want, like the devils of old, to be let alone in our
+    sin--We are unalterably determined, and neither God nor man
+    shall move us from this resolution, that our free colored fellow
+    subjects never shall be happy in their native land." The
+    American Colonization Society, I say, finds this most base and
+    cruel prejudice, _and lets it alone_; nay more, it directly and
+    powerfully supports it.
+
+    'The American Colonization Society finds 2,000,000 of its fellow
+    subjects most iniquitously enslaved--and it finds a resolution
+    as proud and wicked as the very spirit of the pit can make it
+    against _obeying_ God and _letting them_ go free in their native
+    land. _It lets this perfectly infernal resolution alone_, nay
+    more, it powerfully supports it; for it in fact says, as a fond
+    and feeble father might say to some overgrown baby before whose
+    obstinate wickedness he quailed, "Never mind, my dear, I don't
+    want to prevent your beating and abusing your brothers and
+    sisters--let that be--but here is a box of sugar plums--do pray
+    give them one or two now and then." The American Colonization
+    Society says practically to the slaveholders and the slave party
+    in the United States, "We don't want to prevent your plundering
+    2,000,000 of our fellow subjects of their liberty and of the
+    fruits of their toil; although we know that by every principle
+    of law which does not utterly disgrace us by assimilating us to
+    pirates, that they have as good and as true a right to the equal
+    protection of the law as we have; and although we ourselves
+    stand prepared to die, rather than submit even to a fragment of
+    the intolerable load of oppression to which we are subjecting
+    them--yet never mind--let that be--they have grown old in
+    suffering, and we in iniquity--and we have nothing to do now but
+    to speak _peace_, _peace_ to one another in our sins. But if any
+    of their masters, whether from benevolence, an awakened
+    conscience, or political or personal fear, should emancipate
+    any, let us send them to Liberia--that is, in fact, let us give
+    a sugar plum here and there to a few, while the many are living
+    and dying unredressed--and while we are thus countenancing the
+    atrocious iniquity beneath which they are perishing." In this
+    aspect I find the American Colonization Society declaring itself
+    a substitute for emancipation, and it is in this aspect that I
+    contend with it, and that I proclaim it, _as far as it has this
+    character_, no farther, a bane to the colored people, whether
+    enslaved or free, and a snare and a disgrace to its country.'
+
+The second article of the Constitution of this Society is in the
+following language:
+
+    'The object to which its attention is to be _exclusively_
+    directed, is to promote and execute a plan for colonizing (with
+    their consent) the free people of color residing in our country,
+    in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem most
+    expedient. And the Society shall act, to effect this object, in
+    co-operation with the General Government, and such of the States
+    as may adopt regulations upon the subject.'
+
+The following citations abundantly sustain the charge, that the Society
+has not swerved from its original design, and does not oppose the system
+of slavery:
+
+    'Whilst he was up, he would detain the Society for a few
+    moments. It was proper again and again to repeat, that it was
+    far from the intention of the Society to affect, _in any
+    manner_, the tenure by which a certain species of property is
+    held. He was himself a slaveholder; _and he considered that kind
+    of property as inviolable as any other in the country_. He would
+    resist as soon, and with as much firmness, encroachments upon it
+    as he would encroachments upon any other property which he held.
+    Nor was he disposed even to go as far as the gentleman who had
+    just spoken, (Mr Mercer) in saying that he would emancipate his
+    slaves, if the means were provided of sending them from the
+    country.'--[Speech of Henry Clay.--First Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'It was proper and necessary distinctly to state, that he
+    understood it constituted no part of the object of this meeting,
+    to touch or agitate in the slightest degree, a delicate
+    question, connected with another portion of the colored
+    population of our country. It was not proposed to deliberate
+    upon or consider at all, any question of emancipation, or that
+    which was connected with the abolition of slavery. It was upon
+    that condition alone, he was sure, that many gentlemen from the
+    South and West, whom he saw present, had attended, or could be
+    expected to co-operate. It was upon that condition only, that he
+    himself had attended.'--[Speech of Mr Clay before the Society,
+    Jan. 1, 1818.--Second Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'It had been properly observed by the chairman, as well as by
+    the gentleman from this District (Messrs Clay and Caldwell) that
+    there was nothing in the proposition submitted to consideration
+    which in the smallest degree touched another very important and
+    delicate question, which ought to be left as much out of view as
+    possible, (Negro slavery.) * * * Mr R. concluded by saying, that
+    he had thought it necessary to make these remarks, being a
+    slaveholder himself, to shew, that, so far from being connected
+    with the abolition of slavery, _the measure proposed would prove
+    one of the greatest securities to enable the master to keep in
+    possession his own property_.'--[Speech of John Randolph at the
+    same meeting.]
+
+
+    'Your committee would not thus favorably regard the prayer of
+    the memorialists, if it sought to impair, _in the slightest
+    degree_, the rights of private property, or the yet more sacred
+    rights of personal liberty, secured to every description of
+    freemen in the United States.
+
+    'The resolution of the legislature of Virginia, the subsequent
+    acts and declarations, as well as the high character of the
+    memorialists themselves, added to the most obvious interest of
+    the states who have recently sanctioned the purpose, or
+    recognized the existence of the American Colonization Society,
+    exclude _the remotest apprehension of such injustice and
+    inhumanity_.'
+
+    --[Report of the committee of the House of Representatives of
+    the United States, on the memorial of the President and Board of
+    Managers of the Colonization Society.--Second Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'An effort for the benefit of the blacks, in which all parts of
+    the country can unite, of course _must not have the abolition of
+    slavery for its immediate object_. NOR MAY IT AIM DIRECTLY AT
+    THE INSTRUCTION OF THE BLACKS. In either case, the _prejudices_
+    and _terrors_ of the slaveholding States would be excited in a
+    moment; and with reason too, for it is a well-established point,
+    that _the public safety forbids either the emancipation or the
+    general instruction of the slaves_.' * * * 'It [African
+    Colonization] is an enterprise in which _all parts of the
+    country can unite_. The grand objection to every other effort
+    is, that it excites the _jealousies_ and _fears_ of the south.
+    But here is an effort in which the southern people are the first
+    to engage, and which numbers many of their most distinguished
+    men among its advocates and efficient supporters.'--[Review of
+    the Reports of the Society, from the Christian
+    Spectator.--Seventh Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'It will be seen at home and abroad, that the American
+    Colonization Society, while it _properly enough_ stands aloof
+    from the question of slavery, and the abolition of slavery,'
+    &c.--[Report of William McKenney.--Eighth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The objects of this institution are well known to the world;
+    for no concealment whatever has ever been intended. The Society
+    aims at the removal of free persons of color; _it interferes, in
+    no way whatever, with the rights of property_.'--[Speech of G.
+    W. Custis, Esq.--Ninth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'We are reproached with doing mischief by the agitation of this
+    question. The Society goes into no household to disturb its
+    domestic tranquillity; it addresses itself to no slaves to
+    weaken their obligations of obedience. _It seeks to affect no
+    man's property._'--[Speech of Mr Clay.--Tenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The Committee to whom was referred the memorial of the American
+    Colonization Society, have had the subject under consideration,
+    and now report:
+
+    'That upon due consideration of the said memorial, and from all
+    other information which your committee has obtained, touching
+    that subject, they are fully satisfied that no jealousies ought
+    to exist, on the part of this or any other slaveholding State,
+    respecting the objects of this Society, or the effects of its
+    labors.'--[Report of a committee of the Legislature of Delaware,
+    Feb. 8th, 1827.]
+
+
+    'The Society has reiterated the declaration that it has no
+    ulterior views diverse from the object avowed in the
+    constitution; and having declared that it is in nowise allied to
+    any Abolition Society in America or elsewhere, is ready whenever
+    there is need TO PASS A CENSURE UPON SUCH SOCIETIES IN
+    AMERICA.'--[Speech of Mr Harrison of Virginia.--Eleventh Annual
+    Report.]
+
+
+    'We have the same interests in this subject with our southern
+    brethren--the same opportunity of understanding it, and of
+    knowing with what _care_ and _prudence_ it should be approached.
+    What greater pledge can we give for the moderation and safety of
+    our measures than our own interests as slaveholders, and the
+    ties that bind us to the slaveholding communities to which we
+    belong?'--[Speech of Mr Key.--Same Report.]
+
+
+    'The second objection may be resolved into this; that the
+    Society, under the specious pretext of removing a vicious and
+    noxious population, is secretly undermining the rights of
+    private property. This is the objection expressed in its full
+    force, and if your memorialists could for a moment believe it to
+    be true in point of fact, they would never, _slaveholders as
+    they are_, have associated themselves together for the purpose
+    of co-operating with the Parent Society; and far less would they
+    have appeared in the character in which they now do, before the
+    legislative bodies of a slaveholding State. And, if any instance
+    could be now adduced, in which the Society has ever manifested
+    even an intention to depart from the avowed object, for the
+    promotion of which it was originally instituted, none would with
+    more willingness and readiness withdraw from it their
+    countenance and support. But, from the time of its formation,
+    down to the present period, all its operations have been
+    directed exclusively to the promotion of its one grand object,
+    namely, the colonization in Africa of the free people of color
+    of the United States. It has always protested, and through your
+    memorialists it again protests, that _it has no wish to
+    interfere_ with the delicate but important subject of slavery.
+    It has never, in a solitary instance, addressed itself to the
+    slave. It has never sought to invade the tranquillity of the
+    domestic circle, nor the peace and safety of
+    society.'--[Memorial of the Auxiliary Colonization Society of
+    Powhatan, to the Legislature of Virginia.--Twelfth Annual
+    Report.]
+
+
+    'Therefore she looked, and well might she look, to colonization
+    and to colonization alone. To abolition _she could not look_,
+    and need not look. Whatever that scheme may have done,
+    heretofore, in the States now free, it had done nothing and
+    could do nothing in the slave States for the cause of humanity.
+    This subject he rejoiced to know was now better understood, and
+    all began to see that it was _wiser_ and _safer_ to remove, by
+    colonization, a great and otherwise insuperable impediment to
+    emancipation, _than to act upon the subject of emancipation
+    itself_.'--[Speech of Mr Key.--Thirteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Our Society has nothing to do directly with the question of
+    slavery.' * * * 'Whilst the Society protests that it has no
+    designs on the rights of the master in the slave--or the
+    property in his slave, which the laws guarantee to him,'
+    &c.--[Speech of Gerrit Smith, Esq.--Fourteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Its primary object now is, and ever has been, to colonize, with
+    their own consent, free people of color on the coast of Africa,
+    or elsewhere, as Congress may deem expedient. And, Sir, I am
+    unwilling to admit, under any circumstances, and particularly in
+    this Hall, that it ever has swerved from this cardinal
+    object.'--[Speech of Mr Benham.--Fourteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Something he must yet be allowed to say, as regarded the object
+    the Society was set up to accomplish. This object, if he
+    understood it aright, _involved no intrusion on property_, NOR
+    EVEN UPON PREJUDICE.'--[Speech of Mr Archer of
+    Virginia.--Fifteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'That the effort made by the Society should be such as to unite
+    all parts of the country--such as to be in any degree ultimately
+    successful, it was necessary to _disclaim all attempts for the
+    immediate abolition of slavery, or the instruction of the great
+    body of the blacks_. Such attempts would have excited alarm and
+    jealousy, would have been inconsistent with the public safety,
+    and defeated the great purposes of the Society.' * * * 'It is
+    pleasing to learn that the Friends, who at first were not
+    favorable to the Society, _having been inclined to the immediate
+    abolition of slavery_, are coming into what we deem the _more
+    wise policy_ of encouraging emancipation by
+    colonization.'--[Speech of Harmanus Bleecker, Esq. at the Second
+    Anniversary Meeting of the New-York Colonization Society, April
+    14, 1831.]
+
+
+    'The plan of colonization seems _the only one entitled to the
+    least consideration_.'--[Speech of M. C. Paterson, Esq. on the
+    same occasion.]
+
+
+    'Nor will their brethren of the North desire to interfere with
+    their constitutional rights, or rashly to disturb a system
+    interwoven with their feelings, habits, and prejudices. A golden
+    mean will be pursued, which, at the same time that it _consults
+    the wishes_, and _respects the prejudices_ of the South, will
+    provide for the claims of justice and Christianity, and avert
+    the storm of future desolation.'--[Speech of Lucius Q. C. Elmer,
+    Esq.--First Annual Report of the New-Jersey Colonization
+    Society.]
+
+
+    'Views are attributed to us, that were never entertained, and
+    our plan is tortured _into a design to emancipate the Slaves of
+    the South_. We are made to disregard this description of
+    property, and to touch without reserve the rights of our
+    neighbors. We are said to tread this almost forbidden ground
+    with firm step, and a hardihood of effort is imputed to us,
+    which, if true, might well excite the indignation of our
+    southern citizens.--But, Sir, our Society and the friends of
+    colonization wish to be distinctly understood upon this point.
+    From the beginning they have _disavowed_, and they do yet
+    _disavow_, that their object is _the emancipation of the
+    slaves_. They have no wish, _if they could_, to interfere in the
+    smallest degree with what they deem the most interesting and
+    fearful subject which can be pressed upon the American public.'
+    * * * 'There is no people that treat their slaves with so much
+    kindness and with so little cruelty. Nor can I believe that we
+    shall meet with any serious opposition from that quarter, when
+    our object is distinctly understood--when it is known that our
+    operations are confined exclusively to the free black
+    population. That this is our _sole_ object, I appeal with entire
+    confidence to the constitution of our Society and to the
+    constitution and Annual Reports of the Parent Institution.' * * *
+    'We again repeat--that our operations are confined to the free
+    black population, and that there is no ground for fear on the
+    part of our southern friends. We hold their slaves as we hold
+    their other property, SACRED. Let not then this slander be
+    repeated.'--[Speech of James S. Green, Esq. on the same
+    occasion.]
+
+
+    'Nothing has contributed more to retard the operations of the
+    Colonization Society than the mistaken notion that it interferes
+    directly with slavery. This objection is rapidly vanishing away,
+    and many of the slaveholding States are becoming efficient
+    supporters of the national society. In the Senate of Louisiana
+    during its last session, resolutions were adopted expressive of
+    the opinion that the object of this Society was deserving the
+    patronage of the general government. An enlightened community
+    now see, that this Society infringes upon no man's rights, that
+    its object is noble and benevolent--to remedy an evil which is
+    felt and acknowledged at the north and south--to give the free
+    people of color the privileges of freemen.'--[From a Tract
+    issued by the Massachusetts Colonization Society in 1831, for
+    gratuitous distribution.]
+
+
+    'This institution proposes to do good by a single specific
+    course of measures. Its direct and specific purpose _is not the
+    abolition of slavery_, or the relief of pauperism, or the
+    extension of commerce and civilization, or the enlargement of
+    science, or the conversion of the heathen. The single object
+    which its constitution prescribes, and to which all its efforts
+    are necessarily directed, is, African colonization from America.
+    It proposes only to afford facilities for the voluntary
+    emigration of free people of color from this country to the
+    country of their fathers.'--[Review on African
+    Colonization.--Christian Spectator for September, 1830.]
+
+
+    'It interferes in nowise with the right of property, and hopes
+    and labors for the gradual abolition of slavery, by the
+    voluntary and gradual manumission of slaves, when the free
+    persons of color shall have first been transferred to their
+    aboriginal climate and soil.'--[G. W. P. Custis, Esq.--African
+    Repository, vol. i. p. 39.]
+
+
+    'Does this Society wish to meddle with our slaves as our
+    rightful property? I answer _no_, I think not.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. ii. p. 13.]
+
+
+    'They have been denounced by some as fanatical and visionary
+    innovators, pursuing without regard to means or consequences, an
+    object destructive of the rights of property, and dangerous to
+    the public peace.' * * * 'The sole object of the Society, as
+    declared at its institution, and from which it can never be
+    allowed to depart, is 'to remove with their own consent, to the
+    coast of Africa, the free colored population, now existing in
+    the United States, and such as hereafter may become free.'' * * *
+    'In pursuing their object, therefore, (although such
+    consequences may result from a successful prosecution of it,)
+    the Society cannot be justly charged with aiming to disturb the
+    rights of property or the peace of society. Your memorialists
+    refer with confidence to the course they have pursued, in the
+    prosecution of their object for nine years past, to shew that it
+    is possible, without danger or alarm, to carry on such an
+    operation, notwithstanding its supposed relation to the subject
+    of slavery, and that they have not been regardless, in any of
+    their measures, of what was due to the state of society in which
+    they live. They are, themselves, chiefly slaveholders, and live,
+    with all the ties of life binding them to a slaveholding
+    community. They know when to speak and when to forbear upon
+    topics connected with this painful and difficult subject. They
+    put forth no passionate appeals before the public, seek to
+    excite no feeling, and avoid, with the most sedulous care, every
+    measure that would endanger the public tranquillity.' * * * 'The
+    managers could, with no propriety, depart from their original
+    and avowed purpose, _and make emancipation their object_. And
+    they would further say, that if they were not thus restrained by
+    the terms of their association, they would still consider any
+    attempts to promote the increase of the free colored population
+    by manumission, _unnecessary_, _premature_, and _dangerous_.'
+    * * * 'It seems now to be admitted that, whatever has any bearing
+    upon that question, must be managed with the utmost
+    consideration; that the peace and order of society must not be
+    endangered by indiscreet and ill-timed efforts to promote
+    emancipation; and that a true regard should be manifested to the
+    feelings and the fears, and even the _prejudices_ of those,
+    whose co-operation is essential.'--[Memorial of the Society to
+    the several States.--A. R. vol. ii. pp. 57, 58, 60.]
+
+
+    'To found in Africa an empire of _christians and republicans_;
+    to reconduct the blacks to their native land, without disturbing
+    the order of society, the laws of property, or the rights of
+    individuals; rapidly, but legally, _silently_, _gradually_, to
+    drain them off; these are the noble ends of the colonization
+    scheme.'--[African Repository, vol. ii. p. 375.]
+
+
+    'Nor have I ever been able to see, for my part, why the
+    patronage of Congress to a benevolent and patriotic Society,
+    which, without interfering, in the smallest degree, with that
+    _delicate interest_, only aims to remove what we all consider as
+    a great evil--our free people of color--(and which evil _does_
+    interfere with that interest,) should excite the jealousy or
+    spleen of our most watchful and determined advocates of state
+    rights.'--[Idem, p. 383.]
+
+
+    'Recognising the constitutional and legitimate existence of
+    slavery, it seeks not to interfere, either directly or
+    indirectly, with the rights which it creates. _Acknowledging the
+    necessity by which its present continuance and the rigorous
+    provisions for its maintenance are justified_, it aims only at
+    furnishing the States, in which it exists, the means of
+    immediately lessening its severities, and of ultimately
+    relieving themselves from its acknowledged evils.'--[Opimius in
+    reply to Caius Gracchus.--African Repository, vol. iii. p. 16.]
+
+
+    '_It is no abolition Society_; it addresses as yet _arguments to
+    no master_, and disavows with horror the idea of offering
+    temptations to any slave. IT DENIES THE DESIGN OF ATTEMPTING
+    EMANCIPATION, EITHER PARTIAL OR GENERAL; it denies, with us,
+    that the General Government have any power to emancipate; and
+    declares that the States have exclusively the right to regulate
+    the whole subject of slavery. The scope of the Society is large
+    enough, but it is in nowise mingled or confounded with the broad
+    sweeping views of _a few fanatics_ in America, who would urge us
+    on to the sudden and total abolition of slavery.' * * * 'The
+    first great material objection is that the Society does, in
+    fact, in spite of its denial, meditate and conspire the
+    emancipation of the slaves. To the candid, let me say that there
+    are names on the rolls of the Society too high to be rationally
+    accused of the duplicity and insidious falsehood which this
+    implies; farther, the Society and its branches are composed, in
+    by far the larger part, of _citizens of slaveholding States_,
+    who cannot gravely be charged with a design so perilous to
+    themselves. To the uncandid disputant, I say, let him put his
+    finger on one single sentiment, declaration or act of the
+    Society, or of any person, with its sanction, which shows such
+    to be their object: there is in fact no pretext for the charge.'
+    * * * 'Let me repeat, the _friends_ of the Colonization Society,
+    three-fourths of them are SLAVEHOLDERS; the legislatures of
+    Maryland, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee, all slaveholding
+    States, have approved it; _every member_ of this auxiliary
+    Society is, _either in himself, or his nearest relatives,
+    interested in holding slaves_.' * * * 'Once more; this Society
+    is no way connected with certain Abolition Societies in the
+    country. To these the Colonization Society would say, "Your
+    object is unattainable, your zeal dangerous, and nothing can
+    give it the right direction or the right temperature, but your
+    surrendering your plan to ours: be convinced, that if the blacks
+    are ever to be removed from us, it will be by the free will of
+    the owners, and by means of the opportunity which our _innocent_
+    plan of an asylum for such as may be sent will afford."'--['The
+    Col. Society Vindicated.'--Idem, pp. 197, 200, 202, 203.]
+
+
+    'They can impress upon the southern slaveholder, by the strength
+    of facts, and by the recorded declarations of honest men, that
+    the objects of the Colonization Society are altogether pure and
+    praiseworthy, and _that it has no intention to open the door to
+    universal liberty_, but only to cut out a channel, where the
+    merciful providence of God may cause those dark waters to flow
+    off.'--[Idem, vol. iv. p. 145.]
+
+
+    'About twelve years ago, some of the wisest men of the nation,
+    (_mostly slaveholders_,) formed, in the city of Washington, the
+    present American Colonization Society. Among them were men high
+    in office, who had spent many years in studying the interests of
+    their country, and who could not, therefore, be suspected of
+    short-sighted enthusiasm, or any secret design of disturbing the
+    rights or the safety of our southern citizens.' * * * 'You will
+    observe, first, that _there is to be no intermeddling with
+    property in slaves_. THE RIGHTS OF MASTERS ARE TO REMAIN SACRED
+    IN THE EYES OF THE SOCIETY. The tendency of the scheme, and one
+    of its objects, is to _secure slaveholders, and the whole
+    southern country_, against certain evil consequences, growing
+    out of the three-fold mixture of our population.'--[Address of
+    the Rockbridge Col. Society.--Idem, p. 274.]
+
+
+    'It is true, their operations have been confined to the single
+    object, colonization.--They do nothing directly to effect the
+    manumission of slaves.--They think nothing can be advantageously
+    done in favor of emancipation, but by means of colonization, of
+    which emancipation will be a certain consequence that may be
+    safely and quietly awaited.'--[Mr Key's Address.--Idem, p. 303.]
+
+
+    'The Colonization Society, as such, have renounced wholly the
+    name and the characteristics of abolitionists. On this point
+    they have been unjustly and injuriously slandered. They need no
+    such barrier to restrict them, as the sentiment of Mr Harrison,
+    for their operations are entirely in a different department.
+    INTO THEIR ACCOUNTS THE SUBJECT OF EMANCIPATION DOES NOT ENTER
+    AT ALL.'--['N. E.'--Idem, p. 306.]
+
+
+    'Being, chiefly, slaveholders ourselves, we well know how it
+    becomes us to approach such a subject as this in a slaveholding
+    state, and in every other. If there were room for a reasonable
+    jealousy, we among the first should feel it; being as much
+    interested in the welfare of the community, and having as much
+    at heart, as any men can have, the security of ourselves, our
+    property and our families.' * * * 'Our object is, not to prevail
+    upon the master to part with his slave, for that we leave to his
+    own reflection and CONVENIENCE; but to afford to those masters
+    who have determined, or may determine, to manumit their slaves;
+    provided they can be removed from this country, the means of
+    removing them to a place where they may be really free,
+    virtuous, respectable and happy.--Nothing can be more innocent
+    and less alarming.'--[Review of Mr Tazewell's Report.--Idem, p.
+    341.]
+
+
+    'The American Colonization Society has, at all times, solemnly
+    disavowed any purpose of interference with the institutions or
+    rights of our Southern communities.'--[Idem, vol. v. p. 307.]
+
+
+    'From its origin, and throughout the whole period of its
+    existence, it has constantly disclaimed all intention whatever
+    of interfering, in the smallest degree, with the rights of
+    property, or the object of emancipation, gradual or immediate.
+    _It is not only without inclination_, but it is without power,
+    to make any such interference. It is not even a chartered or
+    incorporated company; and it has no other foundation than that
+    of Bible Societies, or any other christian or charitable
+    unincorporated companies in our country. It knows that the
+    subject of emancipation belongs exclusively to the several
+    States in which slavery is tolerated, and to individual
+    proprietors of slaves in those States, under and according to
+    their laws.' * * * 'The Society presents to the American public
+    _no project of emancipation_.' * * * 'Its exertions have been
+    confined exclusively to the free colored people of the United
+    States, and to those of them who are willing to go. It has
+    neither _purpose_ nor power to extend them to the larger portion
+    of that race held in bondage. Throughout the whole period of its
+    existence, this disclaimer has been made, and incontestible
+    facts establish its truth and sincerity. It is now repeated, in
+    its behalf, that the spirit of misrepresentation may have no
+    pretext for abusing the public ear.'--[Mr Clay's Speech.--African
+    Repository, vol. vi. pp. 13, 17, 19.]
+
+
+    'The Society, from considerations like these, whilst it
+    disclaims the remotest idea of ever disturbing the right of
+    property in slaves, conceives it to be possible that the time
+    may arrive, when, with the approbation of their owners, they
+    shall all be at liberty; and, with those already free, be
+    removed, with their own consent, to the land of their
+    ancestors.'--[African Repository, vol. vi. p. 69.]
+
+
+    '_It is not the object of this Society to liberate slaves, or
+    touch the rights of property_. TO SET THEM LOOSE AMONG US WOULD
+    BE AN EVIL MORE INTOLERABLE THAN SLAVERY ITSELF. It would make
+    our situation insecure and dangerous.'--[Report of the Kentucky
+    Col. Soc.--Idem, p. 81.]
+
+
+    'It contemplates no purpose of abolition: it touches no slave
+    until his fetters have been voluntarily stricken off by the hand
+    of his own master.'--[Speech of John A. Dix, Esq.--Idem, p.
+    165.]
+
+
+    'What has awakened that spirit of suspicion and enmity which is
+    now manifested by these men in every form of open and active
+    hostility? Can it be attributed to any departure of the Society
+    from its avowed original design and principles? We maintain that
+    it cannot; we maintain that the character of the Society has
+    from the commencement been uniformly the same, and that its
+    proceedings have been consistent with its character. Were or are
+    the design and principles of the Society hostile to the rights
+    and interest of the Southern States? We maintain that they were
+    and are not; but on the contrary, are worthy to be cherished by
+    the citizens of these States, and to be sustained with all their
+    energies as means of their political and moral strength.' * * *
+    'The _free_ people of color alone are to be colonized by the
+    Society, and whether the benefits of its scheme are ever to be
+    extended to _others_, is a question referred to those to whom it
+    pertains as a matter of right and duty to decide.' * * * 'The
+    Colonization Society would be the last Institution in the world
+    to disturb the domestic tranquillity of the South.'--[Defence of
+    the Society.--Idem, pp. 197, 207, 209.]
+
+
+    'This Society, here in the outset, most explicitly disclaims all
+    intention to interfere in the smallest degree with the slave
+    population. It is with the free colored population alone, and
+    that too, with their own consent, that this Society proposes to
+    act.'--[Address of the Maryland State Colonization Society to
+    the People of Maryland.]
+
+
+    'To the slaveholder, who had charged upon them the wicked design
+    of interfering with the rights of property under the specious
+    pretexts of removing a vicious and dangerous free population,
+    they address themselves in a tone of conciliation and sympathy.
+    We know your rights, say they, and we respect them--we know your
+    difficulties, and we appreciate them. _Being mostly slaveholders
+    ourselves_, having a common interest with you in this subject,
+    an equal opportunity of understanding it, and the same motives
+    to prudent action, what better guarantee can be afforded for the
+    just discrimination, and the safe operation of our measures? And
+    what ground for apprehension that we, who are bound to you by
+    the strongest ties of interest and of sympathy, should intrude
+    upon the repose of the domestic circle, or invade the peace and
+    security of society? Have not the thirteen years' peaceful, yet
+    efficient, operations of our Society attested the _moderation of
+    our views_ and the safety of our plans? We have protested from
+    the commencement, and during our whole progress, and we do now
+    protest, that we have never entertained the purpose of
+    intermeddling with the private property of individuals. We know
+    that we have not the power, even if we had the inclination, to
+    do so. Your rights, as guarantied by the Constitution, are held
+    sacred in our eyes; and we should be among the foremost to
+    resist, as a flagrant usurpation, any encroachment upon those
+    rights. Our only object, as at all times avowed, is to provide
+    for the removal to the coast of Africa, with their own consent,
+    of such persons of color as are already free, and of such others
+    as the humanity of individuals, or the laws of the different
+    states, may hereafter liberate. Is there any thing, say they, in
+    this proposition at war with your interest, your safety, your
+    honor, or your happiness? Do we not all regard this mixed and
+    intermediate population of free blacks, made up of slaves or
+    their immediate descendants, as a mighty and a growing evil,
+    exerting a dangerous and baneful influence on all around
+    them?'--[Address of Cyrus Edwards, Esq. of Illinois.--African
+    Repository, vol. vii. p. 100.]
+
+
+    'It was never the intention of the Society to interfere with the
+    rights of the proprietors of slaves; nor has it at any time done
+    so.'--[Address of R. J. Breckenridge of Kentucky.--Idem p. 176.]
+
+
+    'The specific object to which the entire funds of the
+    Institution are devoted, is simple and plainly unexceptionable
+    in this respect, that it interferes with no rights of
+    individuals, and with no law of the land.' * * * 'It embraces in
+    its provisions only the free. It does not interfere--it desires
+    not to interfere, in any way, with the rights or the interests
+    of the proprietors of slaves. _It condemns no man because he is
+    a slaveholder_; it seeks to quiet all unkind feelings between
+    the sober and virtuous men of the North and of the South on the
+    subject of slavery; it sends abroad no influence to disturb the
+    peace, and endanger the security and prosperity of any portion
+    of the country.'--[Character and Influence of the Colonization
+    Society.--African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 194, 200.]
+
+
+    'Can it be a ruthless scheme of political speculation, which
+    would trample, with rude and unhallowed step, upon the rights of
+    property, to gratify the visionary and fanatical projects of its
+    authors? No: this is impossible. Yet such is the language of
+    intemperate opposition, with which this Society has been
+    assailed by its enemies.' * * * 'Equally absurd and false is the
+    objection, that this Society seeks indirectly to disturb the
+    rights of property, and to interfere with the well-established
+    relation subsisting between master and slave. The man who avows
+    such monstrous purposes as these, and seeks to shelter himself
+    under the sanction and authority of the American Colonization
+    Society, is a base traitor to the cause which it seeks to
+    advance--AN ENEMY OF THE WORST AND MOST DANGEROUS STAMP, because
+    he assumes the specious garb of a friend and coadjutor. Let him
+    stand, or let him fall, by the verdict of an insulted and
+    outraged community--but do not make liable for his acts a great
+    Institution, whose real friends will be the first to reject and
+    discountenance him, and to mark upon his forehead in indelible
+    characters, "This is a traitor to the cause of his country and
+    the cause of humanity."--It is true that the friends of the
+    American Colonization Society have permitted themselves to
+    entertain the high and exalted hope, that, by its influences,
+    ultimate and remote, the burdens which are incident to slavery
+    may be greatly mitigated, and possibly the evil itself at some
+    future day be entirely removed. But mark, Mr President, and mark
+    well, ye hearers, the grounds upon which this hope is founded.
+    It could not be sustained by any effort, direct or indirect, to
+    invade the rights of the slaveholding community, for the plain
+    and palpable reason, that the effort itself would furnish the
+    most certain means of defeating the object in view, even
+    supposing the friends of the Society reckless enough to
+    entertain it. It would denote on the part of those who made it,
+    an extremity of madness and folly, wholly unprecedented in the
+    history of the world, and if persevered in, would dissolve the
+    government into its original elements, even though the principle
+    of union which holds it together were a thousand-fold stronger
+    than it is.' * * * 'Surely the friends of the Colonization
+    Society have done nought either to alarm the honest fears of the
+    patriot, or excite the morbid sensibilities of the
+    slaveholder.'--[Address delivered before the Lynchburg Auxiliary
+    Colonization Society, August 18, 1831.]
+
+
+    'While, therefore, _they determined to avoid the question of
+    slavery_, they proposed the formation of a colony on the coast
+    of Africa, as an asylum for free people of color.' * * * 'The
+    emancipation of slaves or the amelioration of their condition,
+    with the moral, intellectual, and political improvement of
+    people of color within the United States, _are subjects foreign
+    to the powers of this Society_.'--[Address of the Board of
+    Managers of the American Colonization Society to its Auxiliary
+    Societies.--African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 290, 291.]
+
+
+    'The American Colonization Society was formed with special
+    reference to the _free_ blacks of our country. With the
+    _delicate subject_ of slavery it presumes not to interfere. And
+    yet doubtless from the first it has cherished the hope of being
+    in some way or other a medium of relief to the entire colored
+    population of the land. Such a hope is certainly both innocent
+    and benevolent. And so long as the Society adheres to the object
+    announced in its constitution, as it hitherto has done, the
+    master can surely find no reasonable cause of anxiety. And it is
+    a gratifying circumstance that the Society has from the first
+    _obtained its most decided and efficient support from the
+    slaveholding States_.'--[Sermon, delivered at Springfield,
+    Mass., July 4th, 1829, before the Auxiliary Colonization Society
+    of Hampden County, by Rev. B. Dickinson.]
+
+
+    'The American Colonization Society in no way directly meddles
+    with slavery. It disclaims all such
+    interference.'--[Correspondent of the Southern Religious
+    Telegraph.]
+
+
+    'This system is sanctioned by the laws of independent and
+    sovereign states. Congress cannot constitutionally pass laws
+    which shall tend directly to abolish it. If it ever be abolished
+    by legislative enactments, it must be done by the respective
+    legislatures of the States in which it exists. It never designed
+    to interfere with what the laws consider as the rights of
+    masters--it has made no appeals to them to release their slaves
+    for colonization, nor to their slaves to abandon their masters.
+    With this delicate subject, the Society has avowedly nothing to
+    do. Its ostensible object is necessarily the removal of our free
+    colored population.'--[Middletown (Connecticut) Gazette.]
+
+
+    'With slaves, however, the American Colonization Society has _no
+    concern_ whatever, except to transport to Africa such as their
+    owners may liberate for that purpose.'--[Oration delivered at
+    Newark, N. J., July 4th, 1831, by Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]
+
+
+    'It disclaims, and always has disclaimed, all intention
+    whatever, of interfering in the smallest degree, direct or
+    indirect, with the rights of slaveholders, the right of
+    property, _or the object of emancipation, gradual or immediate.
+    It knows that the owners of slaves are the owners, and no one
+    else--it does not, in the most remote degree, touch that
+    delicate subject_. Every slaveholder may, therefore, remain at
+    ease concerning it or its progress or objects.'--[An advocate of
+    the Society in the New-Orleans Argus.]
+
+It were needless to multiply these extracts. So precisely do they
+resemble each other, that they seem rather as the offspring of a single
+mind, than of many minds. A large majority of them come in the most
+official and authoritative shape, and their language is explicit beyond
+cavil.
+
+Here, then, is a combination, embracing able and influential men in all
+parts of the country, pledging itself not only to respect the system of
+slavery, but to frown indignantly upon those who shall dare to assail
+it. And what is this system which is to be held in so much reverence,
+and avoided with so much care? It is a system which has in itself no
+redeeming feature, but is full of blood--the blood of innocent men,
+women and children; full of adultery and concupiscence; full of
+darkness, blasphemy and wo; full of rebellion against God and treason
+against the universe; full of wrath--impurity--ignorance--brutality--and
+awful impiety; full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; full of
+temporal suffering and eternal damnation. It is, says Pitt, a mass, a
+system of enormities, which incontrovertibly bid defiance to every
+regulation which ingenuity can devise, or power effect, but a total
+extinction; a system of incurable injustice, the complication of every
+species of iniquity, the greatest practical evil that ever has afflicted
+the human race, and the severest and most extensive calamity recorded in
+the history of the world. Fox calls it a most unjust and horrible
+persecution of our fellow creatures. The Rev. Dr. Thomson declares it is
+a system hostile to the original and essential rights of
+humanity--contrary to the inflexible and paramount demands of moral
+justice--at eternal variance with the spirit and maxims of revealed
+religion--inimical to all that is merciful in the heart, and holy in the
+conduct--and on these accounts, necessarily exposed and subject to the
+curse of Almighty God. It is, says Rowland Hill, made up of every crime
+that treachery, cruelty and murder can invent. Wilberforce says, it is
+the full measure of pure, unmixed, unsophisticated wickedness; and
+scorning all competition or comparison, it stands without a rival in the
+secure, undisputed possession of its detestable pre-eminence. In this
+country, slavery is a system which leaves the chastity of one million
+females without any protection! which condemns more than two millions of
+human beings to remediless bondage! which authorises their sale at
+public vendue in company with horses, sheep and hogs, or in a private
+manner, at the pleasure of their owners! which, under penalty of
+imprisonment, and even death, forbids their being taught the lowest
+rudiments of knowledge! which, by the exclusion of their testimony in
+courts, subjects them to worse than brutal treatment! which recognizes
+no connubial obligations, ruthlessly severs the holiest relations of
+life, tears the scarcely weaned babe from the arms of its mother, wives
+from their husbands, and parents from their children! But who is
+adequate to the task of delineating its horrors, or recording its
+atrocities, in full? Who can number the stripes which it inflicts, the
+groans and tears and imprecations which it extorts, the cruel murders
+which it perpetrates? or who measure the innocent blood which it
+spills, or the degradation which it imposes, or the guilt which it
+accumulates? or who reveal the waste of property, the perversion of
+intellect, the loss of happiness, the burial of mind, to which it is
+accessary? or who trace its poisonous influence and soul-destroying
+tendency back for two hundred years down to the end of time? None--none
+but God himself! It is corrupt as death--black as perdition--cruel and
+insatiate as the grave. To adopt the nervous language of another:--The
+thing I say is true. I speak the truth, though it is most lamentable. I
+dare not hide it, I dare not palliate it; else the horror with which it
+covereth me would make me do so. Wo unto such a system! wo unto the men
+of this land who have been brought under its operation! It is not felt
+to be evil, it is not acknowledged to be evil, it is not preached
+against as evil; and, therefore, it is only the more inveterate and
+fearful an evil.[H] _It hath become constitutional._ IT IS FED FROM THE
+STREAM OF OUR LIFE, and it will grow more and more excessive, until it
+can no longer be endured by God, nor borne with by man.
+
+And this is the system, with which, as the reader has seen, the American
+Colonization Society is resolved not to interfere; and with the
+upholders of which, ministers of the gospel and professors of religion
+of all denominations have made a treaty of peace! Tell it not
+abroad--publish it not in the capitals of Europe--lest the despots of
+the old world take courage, and infidelity strengthen its stakes!
+
+If men who are reputedly wise and good--if religious teachers and
+political leaders, those whose opinions are almost implicitly adopted,
+and whose examples are readily followed by the mass of the people--if
+such men suppress their voices on this momentous subject, and turn their
+eyes from its contemplation, and give the right hand of fellowship to
+the buyers and sellers of human flesh, is there not cause for
+lamentation and alarm? The pulpit is false to its trust, and a moral
+paralysis has seized the vitals of the church. The sanctity of religion
+is thrown, like a mantle, over the horrid system. Under its auspices,
+robbery and oppression have become popular and flourishing. The press,
+too, by its profound silence, or selfish neutrality, or equivocal
+course, or active partizanship, is enlisted in the cause of tyranny--the
+mighty press, which has power, if exerted aright, to break every fetter,
+and emancipate the land. If this state of things be not speedily
+reversed, 'we be all dead men.' Unless the pulpit lift up the voice of
+warning, supplication and wo, with a fidelity which no emolument can
+bribe, and no threat intimidate; unless the church organise and plan for
+the redemption of the benighted slaves, and directly assault the strong
+holds of despotism; unless the press awake to its duty, or desist from
+its bloody co-operation; as sure as Jehovah lives and is unchangeable,
+he will pour out his indignation upon us, and consume us with the fire
+of his wrath, and our own way recompense upon our heads. 'Ah, sinful
+nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children
+that are corrupters! When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine
+eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: _your
+hands are full of blood_. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of
+your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well;
+_seek judgment, relieve the oppressed_, judge the fatherless, plead for
+the widow. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the
+land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword:
+_for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it_.'
+
+I know the covert behind which colonizationists take refuge. They
+profess to be--and, doubtless, in many instances are--aiming at the
+ultimate emancipation of the slaves; but they are all for _gradual_
+abolition--all too courteous to give offence--too sober to be
+madmen--too discreet to adopt _rash_ measures. But I shall show, in the
+progress of this work, that they not only shield the holders of slaves
+from reproach, (and thus, by assuring them of their innocence, destroy
+all motives for repentance,) but earnestly dissuade them from
+emancipating their slaves without an immediate expulsion. Fine
+conceptions of justice! Enemies of slavery, with a vengeance!
+
+Suppose a similar course had been pursued by the friends of
+Temperance--when would have commenced that mighty reformation which has
+taken place before our eyes--unparalleled in extent, completeness and
+rapidity? Suppose, instead of exposing the guilt of trafficking in
+ardent spirits, and demanding instant and entire abstinence, they had
+associated themselves together for the exclusive purpose of colonizing
+all the drunkards in the land, as a class dangerous to our safety and
+irremediably degraded, on a spot where they could not obtain the
+poisonous alcohol, but could rise to respect and affluence--how would
+such an enterprise have been received? Suppose they had pledged
+themselves not to 'meddle' with the business of the traders in
+spirituous liquors, or to injure the 'property' of distillers, and had
+dwelt upon the folly and danger of 'immediate' abstinence, and had
+denounced the advocates of this doctrine as madmen and fanatics, and had
+endeavored, moreover, to suppress inquiry into the lawfulness of
+rum-selling--how many importers, makers and venders of the liquid poison
+would have abandoned their occupation, or how many of the four hundred
+thousand individuals, who are now enrolled under the banner of entire
+abstinence, would have been united in this great enterprise? Suppose,
+further, that, in a lapse of fifteen years, this association had
+transported two thousand drunkards, and the tide of intemperance had
+continued to rise higher and higher, and some faithful watchmen had
+given the alarm and showed the fatal delusion which rested upon the
+land, and the Society should have defended itself by pointing to the two
+thousand sots who had been saved by its instrumentality--would the
+public attention have been successfully diverted from the _immense evil_
+to the _partial good_? Suppose, once more, that this Society, composed
+indiscriminately of rum-sellers and sober, pious men, on being charged
+with perpetuating the evils of intemperance, with removing only some of
+the fruits thereof instead of the tree itself, should have indignantly
+repelled the charge, and said--'We are as much opposed to drunkenness,
+and as heartily deprecate its existence, as any of our violent,
+fanatical opposers; but the holders of ardent spirit have invested their
+capital in it, and to destroy its sale would invade the right of
+_property_; policy at least, bids us not to assail their conduct, as
+otherwise we might exasperate them, and so lose their aid in colonizing
+the tipplers.' What would have been accomplished? But no such logic was
+used: the duty of immediate reform was constantly pressed upon the
+people, and a mighty reform took place.
+
+Colonizationists boast inordinately of having emancipated three or four
+hundred slaves by their scheme, and contemptuously inquire of
+abolitionists, 'What have _you_ effected?' Many persons have been
+deceived by this _show_ of success, and deem it conclusive evidence of
+the usefulness of the Colonization Society. But, in the first place, it
+is very certain that none of these slaves were liberated in consequence
+of the faithful appeals of the Society to the consciences of the
+masters; for it has never troubled their consciences by any such
+appeals. Secondly, it is obvious that these manumissions are the fruits
+of the uncompromising doctrines of abolitionists; for they are
+calculated to bring slaveholders to repentance, and they will yet
+liberate other slaves to be caught up and claimed by the Society as
+trophies of its success. Thirdly, it has been shown that while this
+Society (allowing it the utmost that it claims) is effecting very little
+and very doubtful good, it is inflicting upon the nation great and
+positive evil, by refusing to arraign the oppressors at the bar of
+eternal justice, and by obstructing the formation of abolition
+societies. It rivets a thousand fetters where it breaks one. It annually
+removes, on an average, two hundred of our colored population, whereas
+the annual increase is about seventy thousand. It releases some scores
+of slaves, and says to the owners of more than two millions--'Hold on!
+don't emancipate too fast!'
+
+What have the abolitionists _done_? They have done more, during the past
+year, to overthrow the system of slavery, than has been accomplished by
+the gradualists in half a century. They have succeeded in fastening the
+attention of the nation upon its enormities, and in piercing the callous
+consciences of the planters. They are reforming and consolidating public
+opinion, dispelling the mists of error, inspiring the hearts of the
+timid, enlightening the eyes of the blind, and disturbing the slumbers
+of the guilty. Colonizationists gather a few leaves which the tree has
+cast off, and vaunt of the deed: abolitionists 'lay the axe at once to
+its roots, and put their united nerve into the steel'--nor shall their
+strokes be in vain--for soon shall 'this great poison-tree of lust and
+blood, and of all abominable and heartless iniquity, fall before them;
+and law and love, and God and man, shout victory over its ruin.'
+
+Has the reader duly considered the fatal admissions of the advocates of
+the colonization scheme, presented in the preceding pages? Some of them
+it may be serviceable to the cause of truth and justice to recapitulate.
+
+1. _The Society does not aim directly at the instruction of the blacks:
+their moral, intellectual and political improvement within the United
+States, is foreign to its powers._
+
+2. _The public safety forbids either the emancipation or the general
+instruction of the slaves._
+
+3. _The Society properly enough stands aloof from the question of
+slavery._
+
+4. _It is ready to pass censure upon abolition societies._
+
+5. _It involves no intrusion on property, nor even upon prejudice._
+
+6. _It has no wish, if it could, to interfere in the smallest degree
+with the system of slavery._
+
+7. _It acknowledges the necessity by which the present continuance of
+the system and the rigorous provisions for its maintenance are
+justified._
+
+8. _It denies the design of attempting emancipation either partial or
+general: into its accounts the subject of emancipation does not enter at
+all: it has no intention to open the door to universal liberty._
+
+9. _The rights of masters are to remain sacred in the eyes of the
+Society._
+
+10. _It condemns no man because he is a slaveholder._
+
+Each of these particulars deserves a volume of comments, but I am
+compelled to dismiss them in rotation with a single remark.
+
+1. One reason assigned by the Society for refusing to promote the
+education of our colored population, is, a dread of exciting 'the
+_prejudices_ and _terrors_ of the slaveholding States'! Is it credible?
+As far, then, as this Society extends its influence, more than two
+millions of ignorant, degraded beings in this boasted land of liberty
+and light have nothing to hope: their moral, intellectual and political
+improvement is foreign to its powers! Cruel neglect! barbarous
+coalition! A sinful fear of rousing the prejudices of oppressors
+outweighs the claims of the contemned blacks, the requirements of the
+gospel, the dictates of humanity, and the convictions of duty. Will this
+plea avail aught at the bar of God? Millions of our countrymen purposely
+kept in darkness, although we are able to pour daylight upon their
+vision, merely to gratify and protect their buyers and sellers!
+
+2. There never was a more abominable or more absurd heresy propagated,
+than the assumption that the public safety would be jeoparded by an
+immediate compliance with the demands of justice: yet it has obtained
+among all orders of society. Even ministers of the gospel, who are bound
+to cry aloud, and spare not,--to lift up their voices like a trumpet,
+and show this guilty nation its sins,--to say to the holders of slaves,
+'Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the
+oppressed go free, _and break every yoke_,'--even they fly to this
+subterfuge, and deprecate a general emancipation. On this subject, 'they
+know not what they do;' they reason like madmen or atheists; they
+advance sentiments which unhinge the moral government of the universe,
+and directly encourage the commission of the most heinous crimes. How
+long would any one of their number retain his situation, if he were to
+preach in explicit terms to his congregation as follows?--'My dear
+hearers, if any among you are daily oppressing the weak, or defrauding
+the poor, do not cease from your robbery and cruelty at once, as you
+value your own happiness and the welfare of society! Relax your
+tyrannous grasp gradually from the throat of your neighbor, and steal
+not quite so much from him this year as you did the last!'--But they
+emphatically hold this language whenever they advise slaveholders not to
+repent _en masse_, or too hastily. The public safety, they say, forbids
+emancipation! or, in other words, the public safety depends upon your
+persistance in cheating, whipping, starving, debasing your slaves! Nay,
+more--many of them, horrible to tell, are traffickers in human flesh!
+'For this thing which it cannot bear, the earth is disquieted. The
+gospel of peace and mercy preached by him who steals, buys and sells the
+purchase of Messiah's blood!--rulers of the church making merchandize of
+their brethren's souls!--and Christians trading the persons of men!'[I]
+
+3. The system of slavery is full of danger, outrage, desolation and
+death--'a volcano in full operation'--a monster that is annually
+supplied with sixty thousand new victims, devoured as soon as born--and
+yet the Colonization Society 'properly enough stands aloof' from it!! It
+utters no lamentations--makes no supplications--gives no
+rebukes--presents no motives for repentance!
+
+4. The Society is not only ready to pass, but it is constantly bestowing
+its censure upon abolition societies. It represents their members as
+guided by a visionary, wild and fanatical spirit, as invaders of rights
+which are sacred, incendiaries, disturbers of the peace of society, and
+enemies to the safety and happiness of the planters. Determining itself
+to avoid the question of emancipation--to leave millions of human beings
+to pine in bondage without exposing the guilt of the oppressors--it
+endeavors to prevent any other association agitating the subject. Hence
+between colonization and abolition societies there is no affinity of
+feeling or action; and hence arises the cause, inexplicable to many,
+why they cannot pursue their objects amicably together.
+
+5. The attempt of the Society to conciliate the holders of slaves must
+result either in disappointment, or in an abandonment of the path of
+duty. If they are guilty of robbery and oppression, they must be
+arraigned as criminals, or they never will reform: for why should
+honest, benevolent men change their conduct? If, through a false
+delicacy of feeling or cringing policy, their wickedness be covered up,
+alas for the slaves, and alas for the regeneration of the south! all
+hope is lost.
+
+6. The Society has no wish, _if it could_, to interfere with the system
+of slavery! Monstrous indifference, or barbarous cruelty! And yet it
+presumes to occupy the whole ground of the controversy, and to direct
+the actions of the friends of the blacks throughout the land! By the
+phrase '_interfere_,' is meant no desire to contest the claims of the
+planters to their bondmen, or to kindle the indignation of the people
+against their atrocious practices.
+
+7. It appears that all those terrible enactments which have been made
+for the government of the slaves--such, for example, as forbid their
+learning to read under the penalty of stripes, and even death--are
+acknowledged by the Society to be necessary for the maintenance of
+order! What a concession!
+
+8. Sometimes we are told that the Society is aiming at the liberation of
+all the slaves, and then that it has no design of attempting either
+partial or general emancipation: so contradictory are its assurances! It
+is manifest that it does not mean to touch the question of slavery; and
+hence the imperious necessity of forming abolition societies.
+
+9. The rights of masters are to remain sacred in the eyes of the
+Society! What rights? Those by which the intelligent creatures of God
+are bought and sold and used like cattle? those which are founded upon
+piracy, cruelty and outrage?[J] Yes! This, then, is an abandonment of
+the ground of right and justice, and ends the controversy between truth
+and error.
+
+10. It condemns no man because he is a slaveholder! Certainly, then, it
+allows that slaveholders are upright men--not guilty of fraud--not
+oppressors--not extortioners! and that the slaves are truly and justly
+their property--not entitled to freedom--not better than cattle--not
+conscious of evil treatment--not worthy of remuneration for their
+toil--not rational and accountable beings!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[H] The term evil is used here in a criminal sense. I know that
+colonizationists regard slavery as an evil; but an evil which has been
+_entailed_ upon this land, for the existence of which we are no more to
+blame than for the prevalence of plague or famine.
+
+[I] 'If the most guilty and daring transgressor be sought, he is a
+Gospel Minister, who solemnly avows his belief of the Presbyterian
+Confession of Faith, or the Methodist Discipline, and notwithstanding
+himself is a Negro Pedler, who steals, buys, sells, and keeps his
+brethren in slavery, or supports by his taciturnity, or his smooth
+prophesying, or his direct defence, the Christian professor who unites
+in the kidnapping trade. Truth forces the declaration, that every church
+officer, or member, who is a slaveholder, records himself, by his own
+creed, a hypocrite!' * * 'To pray and kidnap! to commune and rob men's
+all! to preach justice, and steal the laborer with his recompense! to
+recommend mercy to others, and exhibit cruelty in our own conduct! to
+explain religious duties, and ever impede the performance of them! to
+propound the example of Christ and his Apostles, and declare that a
+slaveholder imitates them! to enjoin an observance of the Lord's day,
+and drive the slaves from the temple of God! to inculcate every social
+affection, and instantly exterminate them! to expatiate upon bliss
+eternal, and preclude sinners from obtaining it! to unfold the woes of
+Tophet, and not drag men from its fire! are the most preposterous
+delusion, and the most consummate mockery.' * * * 'The Church of God
+groans. It is the utmost Satanic delusion to talk of religion and
+slavery. Be not deceived: to affirm that a slaveholder is a genuine
+disciple of Jesus Christ, is most intelligible contradiction. A brother
+of Him who went about doing good, and steal, enslave, torment, starve
+and scourge a man because his skin is of a different tinge! Such
+Christianity is the Devil's manufacture to delude souls to the regions
+of wo.'--REV. GEORGE BOURNE.
+
+[J] 'We are told not to meddle with vested rights: I have a sacred
+feeling about vested rights; but when vested rights become vested
+wrongs, I am less scrupulous about them.'--_Speech of Rev. Mr. Burnett,
+of England._
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY APOLOGISES FOR SLAVERY AND
+SLAVEHOLDERS.
+
+
+My charges against the American Colonization Society acquire breadth and
+solemnity as I progress in my task. I have fairly and abundantly
+sustained my first,--_that the Society is not the enemy of the
+slave-system_; and I now proceed to prove my second,--_that it
+apologises for slavery and slaveholders_.
+
+    'There is a golden mean, which all who would pursue the solid
+    interest and reputation of their country may discern at the very
+    heart of their confederation, and will both advocate and
+    enforce--a principle, of justice, conciliation and humanity--a
+    principle, sir, which is not inconsistent with itself, and yet
+    can sigh over the degradation of the slave, _defend the wisdom
+    and prudence of the South against the charge of studied and
+    pertinacious cruelty_,' &c.--[Address of Robert F. Stockton,
+    Esq. at the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Parent Society.]
+
+
+    'It is a fact, given us on the most unquestionable authority,
+    that there are now in the southern States of our union,
+    hundreds, and even thousands of proprietors, who would gladly
+    give liberty to their slaves, but are deterred by the
+    apprehension of doing injury to their country, and perhaps to
+    the slaves themselves.'--[Discourse by the Rev. Dr.
+    Dana.--African Repository, vol. i. p. 145.]
+
+
+    'Guarding that system, the existence of which, though
+    _unfortunate_, THEY DEEM NECESSARY.'--[African Repository, vol.
+    i. p. 227.]
+
+
+    'We all know from a variety of considerations which it is
+    unnecessary to name, and in consequence of the policy which is
+    obliged to be pursued in the southern States, that it is
+    extremely difficult to free a slave, and hence the enactment of
+    those laws _which a fatal necessity seems to demand_.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. ii. p. 12.]
+
+
+    'They are convinced, that there are now hundreds of masters who
+    are so only from _necessity_.'--[Memorial of the Society to the
+    several States.--A. R. vol. ii. p. 60.]
+
+
+    '_I do not condemn_, let me be understood, _their detention in
+    bondage_ under the circumstances which are yet existing.'--['The
+    Colonization Society Vindicated.'--Idem, vol. iii. p. 201.]
+
+
+    'A third point in which the first promoters of this object were
+    united, is, that few individual slaveholders can, in the present
+    state of things, emancipate their slaves if they would. There is
+    a certain relation between the proprietor of slaves and the
+    beings thus thrown upon him, which is far more complicated, and
+    far less easily dissolved, than a mind unacquainted with the
+    subject is ready to imagine. The relation is one which, where it
+    exists, grows out of the very structure of society, and for the
+    existence of which, the master is ordinarily as little
+    accountable as the slave.'
+
+    'He [the planter] looks around him and sees that the condition
+    of the great mass of emancipated Africans is one _in comparison
+    with which the condition of his slaves is enviable_;--and he is
+    convinced that if he withdraws from his slaves his authority,
+    his support, his protection, and leaves them to shift for
+    themselves, he turns them out to be vagabonds, and paupers, and
+    felons, and to find in the work-house and the penitentiary, the
+    home which they ought to have retained on his paternal
+    acres.--Hundreds of humane and Christian slaveholders retain
+    their fellow-men in bondage, because _they are convinced that
+    they can do no better_.'--[Address of the Managers of the
+    Colonization Society of Connecticut.--Af. Rep. vol. iv. pp. 119,
+    120.]
+
+
+    'I AM NOT COMPLAINING OF THE OWNERS OF SLAVES; they cannot get
+    rid of them.--_I do not doubt that masters treat their slaves
+    with kindness_, nor that the slaves are happier than they could
+    be if set free in this country.'--[Address delivered before the
+    Hampden Col. Soc., July 4th, 1828, by Wm. B. O. Peabody, Esq.]
+
+
+    '_Policy_, and even _the voice of humanity_ forbade the progress
+    of manumission; and the _salutary hand of law_ came forward to
+    co-operate with our convictions, and to arrest the flow of our
+    feelings, and the ardor of our desires.'--[Review of the Report
+    of the Committee of Foreign Relations.--Af. Rep. vol. iv. p.
+    268.]
+
+
+    'When an owner of slaves tells me that he will freely relinquish
+    his slaves, or even that he will relinquish one-half of their
+    value, _on condition that he be compensated for the other half_,
+    and provision be made for their transportation, I feel that he
+    has made a generous proposal, and _I cannot charge him with all
+    the guilt of slavery_, though he may continue to be a
+    slaveholder.'--[Af. Rep. vol. v. p. 63.]
+
+
+    'Even slavery must be viewed as a great national calamity; a
+    public evil entailed upon us by untoward circumstances, _and
+    perpetuated for the want of appropriate remedies_.'--[Idem, vol.
+    v. p. 89.]
+
+
+    'Slavery is an evil which is entailed upon the present
+    generation of slaveholders, which they must suffer, _whether
+    they will or not_.'--[Idem, p. 179.]
+
+
+    'Our brethren of the South, have the same sympathies, the same
+    moral sentiments, the same love of liberty as ourselves. By them
+    as by us, slavery is felt to be an evil, a hindrance to our
+    prosperity, and a blot upon our character. But it was in being
+    when they were born, and has been forced upon them by a previous
+    generation.'--[Address of Rev. Dr. Nott.--Idem, p. 277.]
+
+
+    'With a writer in the Southern Review we say, "the situation of
+    the people of these States was not of their choosing. When they
+    came to the inheritance, it was subject to this mighty
+    incumbrance, and it would be criminal in them to rain or waste
+    the estate, to get rid of the burden at once." With this writer
+    we add also, in the language of Captain Hall, that the
+    "slaveholders ought not (immediately) to disentangle themselves
+    from the obligations which have devolved upon them, as the
+    masters of slaves." We believe that a master _may_ sustain his
+    relation to the slave, with as little criminality as the slave
+    sustains his relation to the master.' * * * 'Slavery, in its
+    mildest form, is an evil of the darkest character. Cruel and
+    unnatural in its origin, no plea can be urged in justification
+    of its continuance but the plea of _necessity_.'--[Af. Rep. vol.
+    v. pp. 329, 334.]
+
+
+    'How much more consistent and powerful would be our example, but
+    for that population within our limits, whose condition
+    (_necessary_ condition, I will not deny) is so much at war with
+    our institutions, and with that memorable national
+    Declaration--"that all men are created equal."'--[Fourteenth
+    Ann. Report.]
+
+
+    '_It_ [the Society] _condemns no man because he is a
+    slaveholder._' * * * 'They [abolitionists] confound the
+    _misfortunes_ of one generation with the crimes of another, and
+    would sacrifice both individual and public good to an
+    _unsubstantial theory of the rights of man_.'--[A. R. vol. vii.
+    pp. 200, 202.]
+
+
+    'Many thousand individuals in our native State, you well know,
+    Mr President, are restrained, said Mr Mercer, from manumitting
+    their slaves, as you and I are, by the melancholy conviction,
+    that they cannot yield to the suggestions of humanity, without
+    manifest injury to their country.' * * * 'The laws of Virginia
+    now discourage, and very wisely, perhaps, the emancipation of
+    slaves.'--[Speech of Mr Mercer.--First Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'We are ready even to grant, for our present purpose, that, so
+    far as mere animal existence is concerned, the slaves have no
+    reason to complain, and the friends of humanity have no reason
+    to complain for them.' * * * 'There are men in the southern
+    states, who long to do something effectual for the benefit of
+    their slaves, and would gladly emancipate them, did not
+    _prudence_ and _compassion_ alike forbid such a
+    measure.'--[Review of the Reports of the Society, from the
+    Christian Spectator.--Seventh Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Such unhappily is the case; but there is a _necessity_ for it,
+    [for oppressive laws,] and so long as they remain amongst us
+    will that necessity continue.'--[Ninth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'I MAY BE PERMITTED TO DECLARE THAT I WOULD BE A SLAVEHOLDER
+    TO-DAY WITHOUT SCRUPLE.'--[Fourteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'For the existence of slavery in the United States, those, and
+    those only, are accountable who bore a part in originating such
+    a constitution of society. The bible contains no explicit
+    prohibition of slavery. There is neither chapter nor verse of
+    holy writ, which lends any countenance to the fulminating spirit
+    of universal emancipation, of which some exhibitions may be seen
+    in some of the newspapers.' * * * 'The embarrassment which many
+    a philanthropic proprietor has felt in relation to his slaves,
+    has been but little known at the north, and has had but little
+    sympathy. He finds himself the lord of perhaps a hundred human
+    beings; and is anxious to do them all the good in his power. He
+    would emancipate them; but if he does, their prospect of
+    happiness can hardly be said to be improved by the change. Some
+    half a dozen, perhaps, in the hundred, become industrious and
+    useful members of society; and the rest are mere vagabonds,
+    idle, wicked, and miserable.'
+
+    --[Review on African Colonization.--Vide the Christian Spectator
+    for September, 1830, in which the reader will find an elaborate
+    apology for the system of slavery, and this, too, by a
+    clergyman!]
+
+
+    'The existence of slavery among us, though not at all to be
+    objected to our southern brethren as a _fault_, is yet a blot on
+    our national character, and a mighty drawback from our national
+    strength.'--[Second Annual Report of the N. Y. State Col. Soc.]
+
+
+    'Entertaining these views of this fearful subject, why should
+    our opponents endeavor to prejudice our cause with our southern
+    friends? And we are the more anxious on this point, for we
+    sincerely entertain exalted notions of their sense of right, of
+    their manliness and independence of feeling--of their dignity of
+    deportment--of their honorable and chivalric turn of thought,
+    which spurns a mean act as death. And if I was allowed to
+    indulge a personal feeling, I would say that there is something
+    to my mind in the candor, hospitality and intelligence of the
+    South, which charms and captives, which wins its way to the
+    heart and gives assurance of all that is upright, honorable, and
+    humane. There is no people that treat their slaves with so
+    little cruelty and with so much kindness. There is nothing in
+    the condition of slavery more congenial with the feelings of the
+    South than with the feelings of the North. Philanthropy and
+    benevolence flourish with as much vigor with them as with
+    us--their hearts are as warm as ours--they feel for the
+    distresses of others with as much acuteness as we do--their ears
+    are as open to the calls of charity as ours--they as deeply
+    regret as we do the existence of slavery--and oh! how their
+    hearts would thrill with delight, if the mighty incubus could be
+    removed without injury or destruction to every thing around
+    them.'--[Speech of James S. Green, Esq. on the same occasion.]
+
+
+    'Many of the best citizens of our land are holders of slaves,
+    and hold them IN STRICT ACCORDANCE WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF
+    HUMANITY AND JUSTICE.'--[Rev. Thomas T. Skillman, editor of the
+    Western Luminary, an ardent supporter of the Col. Soc.]
+
+
+    'It is a very common impression that a principal evil of the
+    condition of the southern blacks, is the severity of their
+    treatment. THIS IS AN ERROR. It is almost every where
+    disreputable to treat slaves with severity; and though there are
+    indeed exceptions, yet in most cases in the South, even tyranny
+    itself could not long withstand the reproaches of public
+    opinion. A STILL GREATER AND MORE DANGEROUS EVIL, IS THE VERY
+    REVERSE. It is _indulgence_; not only in such things as are
+    proper and innocent, but in indolent habits and vicious
+    propensities.'
+
+    --[From an address prepared for the use of those who advocate
+    the cause of the African Education Society at Washington--a
+    Society which educates none but those who consent to remove to
+    Liberia.]
+
+
+    'How should a benevolent Virginian, in view of the fact, that
+    out of thirty-seven thousand free people of color in his State,
+    only two hundred were proprietors of land, how should he be in
+    favor of general emancipation? But, show him, that if he will
+    emancipate his slaves, there is a way in which he can without
+    doubt improve their condition, while he rids himself of a
+    grievous burden, and he will promptly obey the demands of
+    justice--he will then feel that his generous wishes can with
+    certainty be fulfilled. While he knows that scarcely any thing
+    is done to meliorate the condition of those now free, and
+    reflects on the many obstacles in the way of doing it in this
+    land, he feels bound by a regard to what he owes himself--his
+    children--his country, and even his slaves themselves, not to
+    emancipate them. For he is sure, that, by emancipation, he will
+    only add to the wretchedness of the one, and at the same time
+    put at imminent hazard the dearest interests of the other. Thus
+    he is forced to refrain from manumission, and not only so, but
+    against all his benevolent inclinations, he is forced to
+    co-operate with his fellow-citizens in sustaining the present
+    system of slavery. He would most cheerfully follow the impulse
+    of his noblest feelings--he would remove the curse which the
+    short-sighted policy of his fathers entailed upon him; but he
+    cannot disregard the first law of nature; especially not, when,
+    were he to do it, he would render the _curse_ still more
+    calamitous in its consequences.'--[An advocate of the
+    Colonization Society in the Middletown (Connecticut) Gazette.]
+
+
+    'Slavery is indeed a curse; and bitter is the lot of him who is
+    born with slaves on his hands. And now, instead of denouncing as
+    inhuman and unmerciful monsters and tyrants, those who are thus
+    _unfortunate_, I say, let the commiseration and pity of every
+    good citizen and christian in the land be excited, and let
+    fervent prayers be offered in their behalf, and that God would
+    direct the whole American mind to the adoption of the most
+    effectual measures for the accomplishment of the total abolition
+    of slavery.'--[New-Haven Religious Intelligencer for July 16,
+    1831.]
+
+
+    'Special reference will also be had to the condition and wishes
+    of the slave States. In most of them it is a prevailing
+    sentiment, that it is not safe to furnish slaves with the means
+    of instruction. Much as we lament the reasons for this
+    sentiment, and the _apparent necessity_ of keeping a single
+    fellow creature in ignorance, we willingly leave to others the
+    consideration and the remedy of this evil, in view of the
+    overwhelming magnitude of the remaining objects before
+    us.'--[Address of the Board of Managers of the African Education
+    Society of the United States.]
+
+
+    'And when we [of New-England] did emancipate our slaves, we were
+    driven to the measure by the force of example; and we did not do
+    it until it was found quite convenient; and then what provision
+    was made for the poor blacks? Let our State Prison records
+    answer the question. Our Southern brethren have been _more
+    kind_: they will not emancipate them until they send them where
+    they can enjoy _liberty_, more than in name. As a Northern man I
+    feel it my duty, and I take pleasure in giving the _meed of
+    praise_ to my Southern brethren.'--[Speech of Rev. Mr Gallaudet,
+    at a colonization meeting in New-York city.]
+
+
+    'The slave works for his master, who feeds and clothes him,
+    defends him from harm, and takes care of him when he is sick.
+    The free colored man works for himself, and has nobody to take
+    care of him but himself.'
+
+    --[From a little colonization work, published in Baltimore in
+    1828, 'for the use of the African Schools in the United
+    States'!! entitled 'A Voice from Africa.']
+
+
+    'The slaveholder will tell you, that he did not take liberty
+    from the African--he was a slave when he found him, and he is no
+    more than a slave yet. The man who owns one hundred acres of
+    land more than he can cultivate himself, is as much a
+    slaveholder as he who owns a slave.'--[An advocate of
+    colonization in the Richmond (Indiana) Palladium for Oct. 1,
+    1831.]
+
+
+    'I DO NOT MEAN TO SPEAK OF SLAVERY AS A SYSTEM OF CRUELTY AND OF
+    SUFFERING. On this point I am free to say, from personal
+    observation and occasional residences for some years at the
+    South, there has been much misapprehension among our
+    fellow-citizens of the North. And I rejoice to add, that _the
+    condition of the slaves generally is such as the friends of
+    humanity have no reason to complain of_.'--[Oration delivered at
+    Newark, N. J. July 4th, 1831, by Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]
+
+
+    'Slavery, it is true, is an evil--a national evil. Every
+    laudable effort to exterminate it should be encouraged. And we
+    presume that nine-tenths of the slaveholders themselves, would
+    rejoice at the event, could it be accomplished, of the entire
+    freedom from the country of every person of color, and would
+    willingly relinquish every slave in their possession. But the
+    slaves _are_ in their possession--they are entailed upon them by
+    their ancestors. And can they set them free, and still suffer
+    them to remain in the country? Would this be policy? Would it be
+    safe? No. When they can be transported to the soil from whence
+    they were derived--by the aid of the Colonization Society, by
+    Government, by individuals, or by any other means--then let them
+    be emancipated, and not before.'--[Lowell (Mass.) Telegraph.]
+
+It is a self-evident proposition, that just so far as you alleviate the
+pressure of guilt upon the consciences of evil doers, you weaken the
+power of motive to repent, and encourage them to sin with impunity. To
+descant upon the wrongs of the slave-system, and yet exonerate the
+supporters of it from reprehension, is to deal in absurdities: we might
+preach in this manner until the crack of doom, and never gain a convert.
+Paradoxes may amuse, but they never convince the mind.
+
+Now, I defy the most ingenious advocates of perpetual slavery to produce
+stronger arguments in its favor than are given in the foregoing
+extracts. What better plea could they make? what higher justification
+could they need? Nay, these apologies of colonizationists represent
+oppression not merely as innocent, but even commendable--as a system of
+benevolence, upheld by philanthropists and sages!
+
+'I do not condemn the detention of the slaves in bondage under the
+circumstances which are yet existing,' says an advocate; by which
+consolatory avowal we are taught that the criminality of man-stealing
+depends upon _circumstances_, and not upon the fact that it is a daring
+violation of the rights of man and the laws of God.
+
+'The planter sees that the condition of the great mass of emancipated
+Africans is one, in comparison with which the condition of his slaves is
+_enviable_,' assert the Board of Managers!--a concession which
+transforms robbery into generosity, cruelty into mercy, and leads the
+slaveholder to believe that, instead of deserving censure, his conduct
+is really meritorious!--a concession which is at war with common sense,
+and contrary to truth.
+
+'I am not complaining of the owners of slaves--I do not doubt that the
+slaves are happier than they could be if set free in this country,'
+declares an apologist, even in Massachusetts! Stripes and servitude
+would doubtless soon alter his opinion. With him, to sell human beings
+at public auction, and to separate husbands and wives, and children and
+parents, is not a subject of complaint! and to be a slave, to be fed
+upon a peck of corn per week, unable to possess property, liable to be
+torn from the partner of his bosom and children at a moment's warning
+mal-treated worse than a brute, &c. &c. &c. is more desirable than to be
+a free man, able to acquire wealth, unrestricted in his movements, from
+whom none may wrest his wife or children, and who can find redress for
+any outrage upon his person or property!
+
+'Policy, and even _humanity_,' cries another, 'forbid the progress of
+manumission'! Indeed! But is it right to hold our fellow creatures as
+chattels, and to perpetuate their ignorance and servitude? O no! this is
+_wrong_, but it would be a greater wrong to emancipate them! Is this
+folly or villany? To oppress our brother is wrong, but to cease from
+oppressing him would not be right!
+
+'I would be a slaveholder to-day without scruple,' says another
+advocate.
+
+'Many owners of slaves,' another declares, 'hold them in strict
+accordance with the principles of humanity and justice'!!! Yes, to
+deprive men of their inalienable rights is to do unto them as we would
+have them do unto us!
+
+Finally, another boldly declares that the slaves are treated _too
+indulgently_!--The laws which regard them as beasts, but punish them for
+the commission of crime as severely as if they possessed the knowledge
+of angels, he must suppose are too lenient. Their allowance of corn is
+too liberal; they ought not to wear any raiment; to sleep in their
+wretched huts is calculated to make them effeminate--the open field is a
+more suitable place for cattle; no religious instruction should be
+granted even orally to them! The slaves, as a body, too kindly treated!
+The Lord have compassion upon any of their number who shall come under
+the control of him who holds this opinion!
+
+Sentiments, like these, act upon the consciences of slave owners like
+opiates upon the body, lulling them into a slumber as profound and fatal
+as death. It were almost as hopeless a task to attempt to arouse, alarm
+and animate them, so long as they repose under the stupefying effects of
+this poison, as to raise the dead. This must not be. Slaveholders are
+the enemies of God and man; their garments are red with the blood of
+souls; their guilt is aggravated beyond the power of language to
+describe; and they must be made to see and realise their awful
+condition. Truth must send its arrows into their consciences, and Terror
+rouse them to exertion, and Conviction bring them upon their knees, and
+Repentance propitiate the anger of Heaven, or they perish by the sword.
+The slaves must be free; and He who is no respecter of person is now
+holding out to us this alternative--either to wait until they burst
+their chains and wade through a river of blood to freedom, or to
+liberate them willingly ourselves. Can we hesitate in our choice? Be
+this our only reply to those who apologise for the oppressors, and fix
+the standard of policy higher than that of duty: 'Wo unto them that call
+evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for
+darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Wo unto them
+that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! which
+justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the
+righteous from him!'
+
+
+
+
+SECTION III.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY RECOGNISES SLAVES AS PROPERTY.
+
+
+The heresies of this combination are flagrant and numerous. A larger
+volume than this is needed to define and illustrate them all. Much
+important evidence, and many pertinent reflections, I am compelled to
+suppress.
+
+My next allegation against it is, _that it recognises slaves as
+property_. This recognition is not merely technical, or strictly
+confined to a statutable interpretation. I presume the advocates of the
+Society will attempt to evade this point, by saying that it never meant
+to concede the moral right of the masters to possess human beings; but
+the evidence against them is full and explicit. The Society, if language
+mean any thing, does unequivocally acknowledge property in slaves to be
+as legitimate and sacred as any other property, of which to deprive the
+owners either by force or by legislation, without making restitution,
+would be unjust and tyrannical. Here is the proof:
+
+    'It interferes in no wise with the _rights of property_.' * *
+    'It is utterly opposed to any measures which might infringe upon
+    the _rights of property_.' * * 'We hold their slaves _as we hold
+    their other property_, SACRED.'--[African Repository, vol. i.
+    pp. 39, 225, 283.]
+
+
+    'Does this Society wish to meddle with our slaves as our
+    _rightful property_? I answer _no_, I think not.' * * 'The
+    Society cannot be justly charged with aiming to disturb the
+    _rights of property_ or the peace of society.' * * 'It seeks to
+    affect no man's _property_.' * * 'To found in Africa, an empire
+    of _christians and republicans_; to reconduct the blacks to
+    their native land, without disturbing the order of society, the
+    _laws of property_, or the rights of individuals,' &c.--[African
+    Repository, vol. ii. pp. 13, 58, 334, 375.]
+
+
+    'They are also convinced, that the Society have conducted their
+    operations with so much prudence, as to give no cause of alarm
+    to the holders of slaves, for the security of _this
+    property_.'--[African Repository, volume iii. p. 341.]
+
+
+    'The rights of masters are to remain sacred in the eyes of the
+    Society.'--[African Repository, vol. iv. p. 274.]
+
+    'The Society has never interfered, and has no disposition to
+    interfere with the rights of private property.' * * 'The alarm
+    for the rights of property appears to have subsided, and the
+    Society is no longer charged with any sinister or insidious
+    design. It has constantly disclaimed any intention of disturbing
+    the rights of others; and its conduct entitles its declaration
+    to credit.' * * 'The American Colonization Society has, at all
+    times, solemnly disavowed any purpose of interference with the
+    institutions or rights of our Southern communities.' * * 'Our
+    friends, who are cursed with this greatest of human evils
+    (slavery) deserve our kindest attention and consideration. Their
+    _property_ and safety are both involved.'--[African Repository,
+    vol. v. pp. 215, 241, 307, 334.]
+
+
+    'It has constantly disclaimed all intention whatever of
+    interfering, in the smallest degree, with the rights of
+    property.' * * 'The Society, from considerations like these,
+    whilst it disclaims the remotest idea of ever disturbing the
+    _right of property_ in slaves,' &c. * * 'It is not the object of
+    this Society to liberate slaves, or touch the rights of
+    _property_.' * * 'Honorable instances might be adduced of
+    _disinterested benevolence_ on the part of the owners of slaves,
+    and of their _sacrificing property_ to a large amount, in their
+    enfranchisement and restoration to the land of their ancestors.'
+    * * 'The American Society has disclaimed from the first moment
+    of its institution, all intention of interfering with _rights of
+    property_.' * * 'The federal government has no control over this
+    subject: it concerns rights of property secured by the federal
+    compact, upon which our civil liberties mainly depend; it is a
+    part of the same collection of political rights; and _any
+    invasion of it would impair the tenure by which every other is
+    held_.' * * 'It is equally plain and undeniable, that the
+    Society in the prosecution of this work, has never interfered or
+    evinced even a disposition to interfere in any way with the
+    _rights of proprietors of slaves_.' * * 'The slaveholder, so far
+    from having just cause to complain of the Colonization Society,
+    has reason to congratulate himself, that in this Institution a
+    channel is opened up, in which the public feeling and public
+    action can flow on, without doing violence to his
+    _rights_.'--[African Repository, vol. vi. pp. 13, 69, 81, 153,
+    165, 169, 205, 363.]
+
+
+    'It was proper again and again to repeat, that it was far from
+    the intention of the Society to affect, in any manner, the
+    tenure by which a _certain species of property_ is held. He was
+    himself a slaveholder; _and he considered that kind of property
+    as inviolable as any other in the country_.'--[Speech of Henry
+    Clay.--First Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Your committee would not thus favorably regard the prayer of
+    the memorialists, if it sought to impair, _in the slightest
+    degree, the rights of private property_.'--[Report of the
+    committee of the House of Representatives of the United States,
+    on the memorial of the President and Board of Managers of the
+    Colonization Society.--Second Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The Society has at all times recognised the constitutional and
+    LEGITIMATE existence of slavery.'--[Tenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The Society protests that it has no designs on the rights of
+    the master in the slave--or the property in his slave, which the
+    laws guarantee to him.'--[Fourteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Something he must yet be allowed to say, as regarded the object
+    the Society was set up to accomplish. This object, if he
+    understood it aright, _involved no intrusion on property_, NOR
+    EVEN UPON PREJUDICE.'--[Fifteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'To the slaveholder, who had charged upon them the wicked design
+    of interfering with the RIGHTS OF PROPERTY under the specious
+    pretext of removing a vicious and dangerous free population,
+    they address themselves in a tone of conciliation and sympathy.
+    We know your rights, say they, and _we respect them_.' * *
+    'Equally absurd and false is the objection, that this Society
+    seeks indirectly to disturb the rights of property, and to
+    interfere with the well established relation subsisting between
+    master and slave.'--[African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 100,
+    228.]
+
+
+    'I repeat, that though not a slaveholder, yet I think that every
+    man ought to be protected in his property, and as the laws of
+    our country have decreed that negroes are property, every person
+    that holds a slave, according to these laws, ought to be
+    protected.'--['A new and interesting View of Slavery.' By
+    Humanitas, a colonization advocate. Baltimore, 1820.]
+
+
+    'We are made to disregard this description of _property_, and to
+    touch without reserve the _rights_ of our
+    neighbors.'--[Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the
+    New-Jersey Colonization Society.]
+
+Thus the American Colonization Society shamelessly surrenders the claims
+of justice, and leaves the enemies of oppression weaponless! Hence it
+rejects the proposition, that _man cannot hold property in man_; and we
+are called upon to prove that which is self-evident. No accidental
+differences of condition or complexion--no vicissitudes of fortune--no
+reprisal or purchase or inheritance, can justly make one individual the
+slave of another. When God created man, he gave him dominion over the
+fowls of the air and the beasts of the field; but not over his fellow
+man. 'All men are born free and equal,' and are 'made of one blood.'
+Shall we look to wealth as giving one a title to the labor and freedom
+of another? Wealth is the creature of circumstances, and not an
+arbitrary law of nature. It takes to itself wings, and flies away; and
+he who is an opulent tyrant to-day, may on this principle be an
+impoverished slave to-morrow. Does physical strength make valid this
+claim? This, too, is evanescent: sickness and age would ultimately
+degrade the most muscular tyrants to servitude; and mankind would be
+composed of but two parties--the strong and the weak. Can high birth
+annul the rights of the lower classes? There is no difference at their
+birth, between the children of the beggar and those of the king. 'We
+brought nothing into this world,' says an inspired apostle, 'and it is
+certain we can carry nothing out.'
+
+Man is created a rational being; and therefore he is a subject of moral
+government, and accountable. Being rational and accountable, he is bound
+to improve his mind and intellect. With this design, his Creator has
+outstretched the heavens, and set the sun in his course, and hung out
+the burning jewels of the sky, and spread abroad the green earth, and
+poured out the seas, that he might steadily progress in knowledge.
+
+The slaves are men; they were born, then, as free as their masters; they
+cannot be property; and he who denies them an opportunity to improve
+their faculties, comes into collision with Jehovah, and incurs a fearful
+responsibility. But we know that they are not treated like rational
+beings, and that oppression almost entirely obliterates their sense of
+moral obligation to God or man.
+
+I fully coincide in opinion with the authoress of a work entitled,
+'IMMEDIATE, NOT GRADUAL ABOLITION,' that the holder of a slave, whether
+he obtained him by purchase or by inheritance, is as guilty as the
+original thief.[K] The wretch who stole him could by no possible means
+acquire or transmit the right to make a slave of him, or to keep him in
+slavery. _He has a right to his liberty:_--through whatever number of
+transfers the usurpation of it may have passed, the right is
+undiminished.
+
+No man, says Algernon Sidney, can have a right over others, unless it be
+by them granted to him: That which is not just, is not law; and that
+which is not law, ought not to be in force: Whosoever grounds his
+pretensions of right upon usurpation and tyranny, declares himself to be
+an usurper and a tyrant--that is, an enemy to God and man--and to have
+no right at all: _That which was unjust in its beginning, can of itself
+never change its nature:_ HE WHO PERSISTS IN DOING INJUSTICE, AGGRAVATES
+IT, AND TAKES UPON HIMSELF ALL THE GUILT OF HIS PREDECESSORS: The right
+to be free is a truth planted in the hearts of men, and acknowledged so
+to be by all who have hearkened to the voice of nature, and disproved by
+none but such as through wickedness, stupidity, or baseness of spirit,
+seem to have degenerated into the worst of beasts, and to have retained
+nothing of men but the outward shape, or the ability of doing those
+mischiefs which they have learnt from their master the devil.
+
+The following is the indignant, emphatic, eloquent language of HENRY
+BROUGHAM, on the subject of slave property:
+
+    '_Tell me not of rights--talk not of the property of the planter
+    in his slaves._ I DENY THE RIGHT--I ACKNOWLEDGE NOT THE
+    PROPERTY. The principles, the feelings of our common nature,
+    rise in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the
+    understanding or to the heart, the sentence is the same that
+    rejects it. In vain you tell me of the laws that sanction such a
+    claim! There is a law above all the enactments of human
+    codes--the same throughout the world, the same in all
+    times--such as it was before the daring genius of Columbus
+    pierced the night of ages, and opened to one world the sources
+    of power, wealth and knowledge; to another, all unutterable
+    woes;--such it is at this day: it is the law written by the
+    finger of God on the heart of man; and by that law, unchangeable
+    and eternal, while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and
+    abhor blood, they shall reject with indignation the wild and
+    guilty fantasy, that man can hold property in man! In vain you
+    appeal to treaties, to covenants between nations. The covenants
+    of the Almighty, whether the old or the new, denounce such
+    unholy pretensions. To those laws did they of old refer, who
+    maintained the African trade. Such treaties did they cite, and
+    not untruly; for by one shameful compact, you bartered the
+    glories of Blenheim for the traffic in blood. Yet, in despite of
+    law and of treaties, that infernal traffic is now destroyed, and
+    its votaries put to death like other pirates. How came this
+    change to pass? Not assuredly by parliament leading the way; but
+    the country at length awoke; the indignation of the people was
+    kindled; it descended in thunder, and smote the traffic, and
+    scattered its guilty profits to the winds. Now, then, let the
+    planters beware--let their assemblies beware--let the government
+    at home beware--let the parliament beware! the same country is
+    once more awake,--awake to the condition of negro slavery; the
+    same indignation kindles in the bosom of the same people; the
+    same cloud is gathering that annihilated the slave trade; and,
+    if it shall descend again, they, on whom its crash shall fall,
+    will not be destroyed before I have warned them; but I pray that
+    their destruction may turn away from us the more terrible
+    judgments of God!'
+
+Is this the language of fanaticism? Is Henry Brougham a madman?
+
+The following extracts must close the evidence in support of my third
+allegation, that the Colonization Society disregards the fundamental
+principle of human liberty and equality, that man cannot hold _property_
+in man:
+
+    'Let me ask, who can wish under existing circumstances that the
+    constitution should be altered, when it must bring with it a
+    _violation of property_--and when that violation of private
+    property must engender such hostility of feelings, and elicit
+    such bitter vituperation? The whole Union would feel a
+    concussion, and no one can count the costs of the contest.'
+    * * * 'By means of our colony, they may remove their slaves and
+    restore them to freedom--and at the same time no way jeopardize
+    the safety of themselves or their _property_.'--[Proceedings of
+    the First Annual Meeting of the New-Jersey Colonization
+    Society.]
+
+
+    'The establishment of our colony will afford facilities to
+    proprietors for completing in Africa the exercise of the _right
+    which can only be partially exercised in this country, of
+    disposing of our property, in our own way, without injury to the
+    community_.'--[Fourteenth Annual Report.]
+
+What audacity do those advocates of the Society exhibit, who use, in
+reference to beings made a little lower than the angels, language like
+this--'disposing of _our property_ in _our own way_'--'we hold their
+_slaves_, as we hold their other _property_, SACRED'!![L] If they really
+mean and believe what they say, it is something more heinous than
+impertinence to urge the planters to dispossess themselves of their
+property by colonization; and if the slaves belong _of right_ to
+them,--are on a par with goods and chattels,--how idle, how supremely
+ridiculous it is to mourn over their _wretched condition_, to sigh for
+their emancipation, to declaim against the evil and wickedness of
+slavery, or even to denounce the slave trade! But the unfortunate blacks
+are not now, and never can be, the property of the planters;
+consequently the claims of their pretended owners are no better than
+those of the pirate or highway robber.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[K] The owners of slaves are licensed robbers, and not the just
+proprietors of what they claim: freeing them is not depriving them of
+property, but restoring it to the right owner; it is suffering the
+unlawful captive to escape. It is not wronging the master, but doing
+justice to the slave, restoring him to himself. Emancipation would only
+take away property that is its own property, and not ours; property that
+has the same right to possess us, as we have to possess it; property
+that has the same right to convert our children into dogs and calves and
+colts, as we have to convert theirs into these beasts; property that may
+transfer our children to strangers, by the same right that we transfer
+theirs.--_Rice._
+
+[L] 'Is there no difference between a vested interest in a house or a
+tenement, and a vested interest in a human being? No difference between
+a right to bricks and mortar, and a right to the flesh of man--a right
+to torture his body and to degrade his mind at your good will and
+pleasure? There is this difference,--the right to the house originates
+in law, and is reconcilable to justice; the claim (for I will not call
+it a right) to the man, originated in robbery, and is an outrage upon
+every principle of justice, and every tenet of religion.'--_Speech of
+Fowell Buxton in the British Parliament._
+
+
+
+
+SECTION IV.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY INCREASES THE VALUE OF SLAVES.
+
+
+I come now to my fourth charge,--which, although not more serious or
+consequential than any of the foregoing, may possibly create more
+surprise,--namely, that the Society _increases the value of slaves, and
+adds strength and security to the system of slavery_. It is the
+discovery of this fact that is so wonderfully, and to many superficial
+observers so inexplicably, increasing the popularity of the Society at
+the south. It would require more pages of this work than its necessarily
+contracted limits permit, to sum up minutely the evidence on this point,
+and to give those illustrations which might serve more clearly to
+establish its validity. The most common, as it is the most potent,
+argument used by colonization agents among slave owners, to secure their
+patronage, is,--'The successful prosecution of our scheme will remove
+the chief source of danger to yourselves, and enable you to hold your
+property in greater security: the presence of free persons of color
+among your slaves is eminently calculated to make them insubordinate,
+and to procure their violent emancipation.' This argument, I say, is
+introduced into every conversation, and every public address, and every
+essay; and whoever carefully consults the numbers of the African
+Repository, through seven volumes, will find it repeated in almost every
+appeal to the south.
+
+I choose to consider the testimony of southern men, in regard to the
+invigorating effects of the colonization enterprise upon the system of
+slavery, conclusive. Here is a very small portion of it: more may be
+found under the sixth section of this work.
+
+    'The object of the Colonization Society commends itself to every
+    class of society. The landed proprietor may ENHANCE THE VALUE OF
+    HIS PROPERTY by assisting the enterprise.'--[African Repository,
+    vol. i. p. 67.]
+
+
+    'But is it not certain, that should the people of the Southern
+    States refuse to adopt the opinions of the Colonization Society,
+    [relative to the gradual abolition of slavery,] and continue to
+    consider it both just and politic to leave, untouched, a system,
+    for the termination of which, we think the whole wisdom and
+    energy of the States should be put in requisition, that they
+    will CONTRIBUTE MORE EFFECTUALLY TO THE CONTINUANCE AND STRENGTH
+    OF THIS SYSTEM, by removing those now free, than by any or all
+    other methods which can possibly be devised? Such has been the
+    opinion expressed by Southern gentlemen of the first talents and
+    distinction. Eminent individuals have, we doubt not, lent their
+    aid to this cause, in expectation of at once accomplishing a
+    generous and noble work for the objects of their patronage and
+    for Africa, and GUARDING THAT SYSTEM, the existence of which,
+    though _unfortunate_, they deem _necessary_, by separating from
+    it those, whose disturbing force augments its inherent vices,
+    and darkens all the repulsive attributes of its character. In
+    the decision of these individuals, as to the effects of the
+    Colonization Society, _we perceive no error of judgment_: OUR
+    BELIEF IS THE SAME AS THEIRS.'--[Idem, p. 227.]
+
+
+    'THE EXECUTION OF ITS SCHEME WOULD AUGMENT INSTEAD OF
+    DIMINISHING THE VALUE OF THE PROPERTY LEFT BEHIND.'--[Idem, vol.
+    ii. p. 344.]
+
+
+    'The removal of every single free black in America, would be
+    productive of nothing but safety to the slaveholder, nor would
+    the emancipation of as many as the benevolence of individual
+    masters would send off, as far as I can see, be productive of
+    disaffection among the remainder, more than the example of such
+    as are every day set free, and sent to the Ohio or elsewhere;
+    and if so large a part should ever be set free as to create
+    discontent among the remainder, (and nothing but the
+    emancipation of a great majority can do this,) yet that
+    remainder must then, from the terms of the proposition, be so
+    much diminished, as to be easily kept down by superior
+    numbers.'--[Idem, vol. iii. p. 202.]
+
+
+    'The tendency of the scheme, and one of its objects, is to
+    _secure slaveholders and the whole Southern country_, against
+    certain evil consequences, growing out of the present threefold
+    mixture of our population.'--[Idem, vol. iv. p. 274.]
+
+
+    'We all know the effects produced on our slaves by the
+    fascinating, but delusive appearance of happiness, exhibited in
+    persons of their own complexion, roaming in idleness and vice
+    among them. By removing the most fruitful source of discontent
+    from among our slaves, we should render them more industrious
+    and attentive to our commands; and by rendering them more
+    industrious and obedient, we should naturally secure their
+    better treatment--we should ameliorate their condition. Our
+    enemies have admitted that good would result from the removal of
+    this class. Caius Gracchus declares, that if the Society could
+    attain "this single object in good faith, (the removal of the
+    free people of color) he should, perhaps, be among the last
+    citizens in the commonwealth--who would raise his voice against
+    it," and the author of the Crisis (who is doubtless regarded as
+    authority in South Carolina) acknowledges, "that there is no
+    doubt but that if we in the South, were relieved of this
+    population, it would be better for our southern cities, where
+    they principally reside." Nothing can be more plain then, than
+    that the Colonization Society, in its efforts to remove the free
+    people of color, is accomplishing a work to which the citizens
+    of the South, whether friends or foes to the Society, have given
+    their decided approbation.'--[Idem, vol. vi. p. 205.]
+
+
+    'If, as is most confidently believed, the colonization of the
+    free people of color will render the slave who remains in
+    America more obedient, more faithful, more honest, and,
+    consequently, _more useful to his master_,' &c.--[Second Annual
+    Report.]
+
+
+    'There was but one way, [to avert danger,] but that might be
+    made effectual, fortunately! It was to PROVIDE AND KEEP OPEN A
+    DRAIN FOR THE EXCESS BEYOND THE OCCASIONS OF PROFITABLE
+    EMPLOYMENT. Mr Archer had been stating the case in the
+    supposition, that after the present class of free blacks had
+    been exhausted, by the operation of the plan he was
+    recommending, others would be supplied for its action, in the
+    proportion of the excess of colored population it would be
+    necessary to throw off, by the process of voluntary manumission
+    or sale. This effect must result inevitably from the
+    depreciating value of the slaves ensuing their disproportionate
+    multiplication. _The depreciation would be relieved and retarded
+    at the same time, by the process._ The two operations would aid
+    reciprocally, and sustain each other, and both be in the highest
+    degree beneficial. It was on the ground of interest, therefore,
+    the most indisputable _pecuniary interest_, that he addressed
+    himself to the people and Legislatures of the slaveholding
+    States.'--[Speech of Mr Archer.--Fifteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Every motive which operates on the minds of slaveholders,
+    tending to make the colonization of the free blacks an object of
+    _interest_ to them, should operate in an equal degree to secure
+    the hearty co-operation of the government of every slaveholding
+    State.'--[African Repository, vol. vii. p. 176.]
+
+
+    'None are obliged to follow our example; AND THOSE WHO DO NOT,
+    WILL FIND THE VALUE OF THEIR NEGROES INCREASED BY THE DEPARTURE
+    OF OURS.'--[An advocate of colonization in the Western (Ky.)
+    Luminary.]
+
+
+    'So far from its having a dangerous tendency, when properly
+    considered, it will be viewed as AN ADDITIONAL GUARD TO OUR
+    PECULIAR SPECIES OF PROPERTY.'--[An advocate of the Society in
+    the New-Orleans Argus.]
+
+
+    'The slaveholder, who is in danger of having his slaves
+    contaminated by their free friends of color, will not only be
+    relieved from this danger, but THE VALUE OF HIS SLAVE WILL BE
+    ENHANCED.'--[A new and interesting View of Slavery. By
+    Humanitas, a colonization advocate. Baltimore, 1820.]
+
+It is perfectly obvious, that whatever tends to weaken and depress the
+present system, must render the holding of slaves less desirable, and
+the prospect of emancipation more auspicious. Cherishing this
+conviction, thousands of individuals in this country, and tens of
+thousands in Great Britain, are led by conscientious motives to abstain
+from the use of productions raised by slave labor, and to prefer those
+only which are the fruits of the toil of freemen. They believe in the
+soundness of the axiom, that 'the receiver is as bad as the thief;' and
+knowing that the slaves are held in bondage not on the ground of
+benevolence, or because their liberation would endanger the public
+safety, but _because they are profitable to their owners_, they also
+believe that the consumers of slave goods contribute to a fund for
+supporting slavery with all its abominations; that they are the Alpha
+and the Omega of the business; that the slave-trader, the slave-owner,
+and the slave-driver, are virtually the agents of the consumer, for by
+holding out the temptation, he is the original cause, the first mover in
+the horrid process; that we are imperiously called upon to refuse those
+articles of luxury, which are obtained at an absolute and lavish waste
+of the blood of our fellow men; that a merchant, who loads his vessel
+with the proceeds of slavery, does nearly as much in helping forward the
+slave trade, as he who loads his vessel in Africa with slaves--they are
+both twisting the same rope at different ends; that our patronage is
+putting an immense bribe into the hands of the slaveholders to kidnap,
+rob and oppress; that, were it not for this, they would be compelled by
+sheer necessity to liberate their slaves--for as soon as slave labor
+becomes unprofitable, the horrid system cannot be upheld.
+
+None of these scruples, to my knowledge, are entertained by
+colonizationists: their only aim and anxiety seem to be, 'to prune and
+nourish the system,'--not to overthrow it; to increase the avarice of the
+planters by rendering the labor of their bondmen more productive,--not
+to abridge and starve it; to remove the cause of those apprehensions
+which might lead them to break the fetters of their victims,--not to
+perpetuate it; 'to provide (I quote the confession of the last
+distinguished proselyte to the Society, Mr Archer of Virginia) and to
+keep open a drain for the _excess of increase beyond the occasions of_
+PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT,'--not to make slave labor ruinous to the
+planters.
+
+By removing whatever number of slaves it be, from this country, the
+number which remains must be diminished--and the more the number which
+remains is diminished, the more helpless will they become, the less will
+be the hope of their ever recovering their own liberty, and the more and
+the longer they will be trampled upon.
+
+The greater the number of slaves transported, _the greater will be the
+value of the labor of those who remain_; the more valuable their labor
+is, _the greater will be the temptation to over-labor them, and the
+more, of course, they will be oppressed_.[M]
+
+The increase of the free colored population disturbs the security of the
+planters, and forces many to manumit their slaves through sheer terror.
+The expatriation of this class, therefore, manifestly tends to quiet the
+apprehensions of the oppressors, to rivet more firmly the chains of the
+slaves, to make their services in higher demand, and to render even
+their gradual emancipation impracticable.
+
+Thus the American Colonization Society is the _apologist_, the _friend_,
+and the _patron_ of SLAVEHOLDERS and SLAVERY!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[M] Stuart's Circular.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION V.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE ENEMY OF IMMEDIATE ABOLITION.
+
+
+It follows, as a necessary consequence, that a Society which is not
+hostile to slavery, which apologises for the system and for
+slaveholders, which recognises slaves as rightful property,[N] and which
+confessedly increases their value, is _the enemy of immediate
+abolition_. This, I am aware, in the present corrupt state of public
+sentiment, will not generally be deemed an objectionable feature; but I
+regard it with inexpressible abhorrence and dismay.
+
+Since the deception practised upon our first parents by the old serpent,
+there has not been a more fatal delusion in the minds of men than that
+of the gradual abolition of slavery. _Gradual_ abolition! do its
+supporters really know what they talk about? Gradually abstaining from
+what? From sins the most flagrant, from conduct the most cruel, from
+acts the most oppressive! Do colonizationists mean, that slave-dealers
+shall purchase or sell a few victims less this year than they did the
+last? that slave-owners shall liberate one, two or three out of every
+hundred slaves during the same period? that slave-drivers shall apply
+the lash to the scarred and bleeding backs of their victims somewhat
+less frequently? Surely not--I respect their intelligence too much to
+believe that they mean any such thing. But if any of the slaves should
+be exempted from sale or purchase, why not all? if justice require the
+liberation of the few, why not of the many? if it be right for a driver
+to inflict a number of lashes, how many shall be given? Do
+colonizationists mean that the practice of separating the husband from
+the wife, the wife from the husband, or children from their parents,
+shall come to an end by an almost imperceptible process? or that the
+slaves shall be defrauded of their just remuneration, less and less
+every month or every year? or that they shall be under the absolute,
+irresponsible control of their masters? Oh no! I place a higher value
+upon their good sense, humanity and morality than this! Well, then, they
+would immediately break up the slave traffic--they would put aside the
+whip--they would have the marriage relations preserved inviolate--they
+would not separate families--they would not steal the wages of the
+slaves, nor deprive them of personal liberty! This is
+abolition--_immediate abolition_. It is simply declaring that slave
+owners are bound to fulfil--now, without any reluctance or delays--the
+golden rule, namely, to do as they would be done by; and that, as the
+right to be free is inherent and inalienable in the slaves, there ought
+now to be a disposition on the part of the people to break their
+fetters. All the horrid spectres which are conjured up, on this subject,
+arise from a confusion of the brain, as much as from a corruption of the
+heart.
+
+I utterly reject, as delusive and dangerous in the extreme, every plea
+which justifies a procrastinated and an indefinite emancipation, or
+which concedes to a slave owner the right to hold his slaves as
+_property_ for any limited period, or which contends for the gradual
+preparation of the slaves for freedom; believing all such pretexts to be
+a fatal departure from the high road of justice into the bogs of
+expediency, a surrender of the great principles of equity, an
+indefensible prolongation of the curse of slavery, a concession which
+places the guilt upon any but those who incur it, and directly
+calculated to perpetuate the thraldom of our species.
+
+Immediate abolition does not mean that the slaves shall immediately
+exercise the right of suffrage, or be eligible to any office, or be
+emancipated from law, or be free from the benevolent restraints of
+guardianship. We contend for the immediate personal freedom of the
+slaves, for their exemption from punishment except where law has been
+violated, for their employment and reward as free laborers, for their
+exclusive right to their own bodies and those of their own children, for
+their instruction and subsequent admission to all the trusts, offices,
+honors and emoluments of intelligent freemen. Emancipation will increase
+and not destroy the value of their labor; it will also increase the
+demand for it. Holding out the stimulus of good treatment and an
+adequate reward, it will induce the slaves to toil with a hundred fold
+more assiduity and faithfulness. Who is so blind as not to perceive the
+peaceful and beneficial results of such a change? The slaves, if freed,
+will come under the watchful cognizance of law; they will not be idle,
+but _avariciously_ industrious; they will not rush through the country,
+firing dwellings and murdering the inhabitants; for freedom is all they
+ask--all they desire--the obtainment of which will transform them from
+enemies into friends, from nuisances into blessings, from a corrupt,
+suffering and degraded, into a comparatively virtuous, happy and
+elevated population.
+
+Nor does immediate abolition mean that any compulsory power, other than
+moral, should be used in breaking the fetters of slavery. It calls for
+no bloodshed, or physical interference; it jealously regards the welfare
+of the planters; it simply demands an entire revolution in public
+sentiment, which will lead to better conduct, to contrition for past
+crimes, to a love instead of a fear of justice, to a reparation of
+wrongs, to a healing of breaches, to a suppression of revengeful
+feelings, to a quiet, improving, prosperous state of society!
+
+Now see with what earnestness and inveteracy the friends of the
+Colonization Society oppose immediate abolition!
+
+    'It appears, indeed, to be the only feasible mode by which we
+    can remove that stigma as well as _danger_ from among us. Their
+    sudden and entire freedom would be a fearful, and perhaps
+    dreadful experiment, destructive of all the ends of liberty, for
+    which their condition would unfit them, and which they would
+    doubtless greatly abuse. Even their release, at apparently
+    proper intervals, but uncontrolled as to their future habits and
+    location, would be a very hazardous charity. Their gradual
+    emancipation, therefore, under the advantages of a free
+    government, formed, in their native land, by their own hands,
+    offering all the rewards usual to industry and economy, and
+    affording the means of enjoying, in comfort, a reputable and
+    free existence, is the only rational scheme of relieving them
+    from the bondage of their present condition.' * * * 'To
+    eradicate or remove the evil _immediately_, is impossible; nor
+    can any law of conscience govern necessity.'--[Af. Rep. vol. i.
+    pp. 89, 258.]
+
+
+    'Vaunt not over us, dear brethren of the north, we inherited the
+    evil from our forefathers, and we really do not think you do
+    your brethren any good, or that you serve the interests of the
+    people of color, when you recommend and enforce premature
+    schemes of emancipation.' * * * 'The operation, we were aware,
+    must be--and, for the interests of our country, ought to be
+    gradual.' * * * 'According to one, (that rash class which,
+    without a due estimate of the fatal consequence, would forthwith
+    issue a decree of general, immediate, and indiscriminate
+    emancipation,) it was a scheme of the slaveholder to perpetuate
+    slavery.'--[Idem, vol. ii. pp. 12, 254, 336.]
+
+
+    'Slavery, in its mildest form, is an evil of the darkest
+    character. Cruel and unnatural in its origin, no plea can be
+    urged in justification of its continuance, but the plea of
+    necessity--not that necessity which arises from our habits, our
+    prejudices, or our wants; but the necessity which requires us to
+    submit to existing evils, rather than substitute, by their
+    removal, others of a more serious and destructive character. It
+    was this which produced the recognition of slavery in the
+    constitution of our country; it is this which has justified its
+    continuance to the present day; and it is in this only that we
+    can find a palliation for the rigors of our laws, which might
+    otherwise be considered as the cruel enactments of a dark and
+    dismal despotism. There have not, I am aware, been found wanting
+    individuals to deny both the existence and the obligations of
+    such a necessity. There are men, actuated in some instances, by
+    a blind and mistaken enthusiasm, and in others, by a spirit of
+    mischievous intent, loudly calling on us, in the names of
+    justice and humanity, for the immediate and unqualified
+    emancipation of our slaves. To men of this description, it is in
+    vain to point out the inevitable effects of such a course, as
+    well on the objects of their real or pretended solicitude, as on
+    the community in which they exist. It is in vain to assure them,
+    that while the preservation of the latter would require a policy
+    even more rigorous than pertains to slavery itself, the
+    short-lived and nominal freedom of the former must end in their
+    ultimate and utter extinction. All this is of no consequence.
+    Provided slavery be abolished in name, it matters not what
+    horrors may be substituted in its room.' * * * 'The scope of the
+    Society is large enough, but it is in no wise mingled or
+    confounded with the broad sweeping views of _a few fanatics_ in
+    America, who would urge us on to the sudden and total abolition
+    of slavery.'--[Af. Rep. vol. iii. pp. 15, 197.]
+
+
+    'What is to be done? Immediate and universal emancipation will
+    find few, if any advocates, among judicious and reflecting men.'
+    * * * 'There is a portion of our brethren, who have been
+    laboring for many years, with the most benevolent intentions,
+    but, as I conceive, with erroneous views, in the cause of
+    abolition.' * * * 'The Colonization Society, as such, have
+    renounced wholly the name and the characteristics of
+    abolitionists.' * * * 'INTO THEIR ACCOUNTS THE SUBJECT OF
+    EMANCIPATION DOES NOT ENTER AT ALL.' * * * 'Here, that race is
+    in every form a curse, and if the system, so long contended for
+    by the uncompromising abolitionist, could prevail, its effect
+    would be to spread discord and devastation from one end of the
+    Union to the other.'--[Idem, vol. iv. pp. 202, 303, 306, 363.]
+
+
+    'With a writer in the Southern Review we say, "the situation of
+    the people of these States was not of their own choosing. When
+    they came to the inheritance, it was subject to this mighty
+    incumbrance, and it would be criminal in them to ruin or waste
+    the estate, to get rid of the burden at once." With this writer
+    we add also, in the language of Capt. Hall, that the
+    "slaveholders ought not (immediately) to disentangle themselves
+    from the obligations which have devolved upon them, as the
+    masters of slaves." We believe that a master _may_ sustain his
+    relation to the slave, with as little criminality as the slave
+    sustains his relation to the master. But we feel little sympathy
+    for those who, in the language of Mr Harrison of Virginia,
+    "still look upon their slaves in the light in which most men
+    regarded them when the slave trade was legitimate. Of those,
+    wherever they are, who hold their slaves with that same
+    sentiment which impelled the kidnapper when he forcibly bore
+    them off, I know not how morality can distinguish them from the
+    original wrong-doers, pirates by nature, and pirates by
+    civilized law." That the system of slavery must exist
+    temporarily in this country, we as firmly believe, as that for
+    its existence a single moment, there can be offered justly no
+    plea but necessity. Were the very spirit of angelic charity to
+    pervade and fill the hearts of all the slaveholders in our land,
+    it would by no means require that all the slaves should be
+    instantaneously liberated.'--[Af. Rep. vol. v. p. 329.]
+
+
+    'The long established habits of the South, the attachments which
+    are frequently found subsisting between the proprietor and his
+    servants, together with the difficulty of substituting at once
+    white for slave labor, and the derangement which would ensue in
+    the domestic concerns of life, would not merely make general
+    emancipation at once inexpedient, but the attempt would denote
+    the extremity of madness and folly, and convulse this government
+    to its centre.'--[Idem, vol. vi. p. 291.]
+
+
+    'The Society, meeting the objections of the _abolition
+    enthusiast_, in a like spirit of mildness and forbearance,
+    assures him of their equal devotion to the pure principles of
+    liberty and the powerful claims of humanity. We know, say they,
+    and we deplore the evil of slavery as the deadliest curse to our
+    common country. We see, and we lament its demoralizing effects
+    upon the children of our affections, from the budding innocence
+    of infancy, to the full maturity of manhood. But, we have not,
+    we do not, and _we will not_ interfere with this delicate, this
+    important subject. There are rights to be respected, prejudices
+    to be conciliated, fears to be quelled, and safety to be
+    observed in all our operations. And we protest, _most solemnly
+    protest_, against the adoption of your views, as alike
+    destructive of the ends of justice, of policy, and of humanity.
+    No wild dream of the wildest enthusiast was ever more
+    extravagant than that of turning loose upon society two millions
+    of blacks, idle and therefore worthless, vicious and therefore
+    dangerous, ignorant and therefore incapable of appreciating and
+    enjoying the blessings of freedom. Could _your_ wishes be
+    realized, your gratulation would be quickly changed into
+    mourning, your joy into grief, and your labor of love into
+    visits of mercy to our jails and our penitentiaries, to the
+    abodes of vice and the haunts of poverty. Come, ye
+    abolitionists, away with your _wild enthusiasm_, your _misguided
+    philanthropy_.'--[African Repository, vol. vii. p. 101.]
+
+
+    'The Colonization Society is removing the greatest obstacles in
+    the way of emancipation; but none, we think, who is acquainted
+    with the circumstances and condition of our southern States,
+    _and who has any conscience or humanity_, would deem it
+    expedient or christian to dissolve instantaneously all the ties
+    which unite masters and slaves.'--[Idem, vol. vii. p. 186.]
+
+
+    'It is not right that men should be free, when their freedom
+    will prove injurious to themselves and others.' * * 'He has
+    encountered determined opposition from several individuals, who
+    are so reckless and fanatical as to require the instantaneous
+    remedying of an acknowledged evil, which may be remedied
+    gradually, with safety, but which cannot be remedied immediately
+    without jeopardizing all the interests of all parties
+    concerned.'--[Idem, p. 202, 280.]
+
+
+    'He was quite sure that in the Northern States, there was no
+    opinion generally prevailing, that immediate, absolute, and
+    universal emancipation was desirable. There might be, said Mr
+    Storrs, some who are actuated by pure motives and benevolent
+    views, who considered it practicable; but he might say with
+    confidence, that very few, if any, believed that it would be
+    truly humane or expedient to turn loose upon the community more
+    than a million of persons, totally destitute of the means of
+    subsistence, and altogether unprepared in every moral point of
+    view, to enjoy or estimate their new privileges. Such a
+    cotemporaneous emancipation of the colored population of the
+    Southern States could only bring a common calamity on all the
+    States, and the most severe misery on those who were to be thus
+    thrown upon society, under the most abject, helpless and
+    deplorable circumstances.'--[Speech of Hon. Mr Storrs.--Twelfth
+    Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The condition of a slave suddenly emancipated, and thrown upon
+    his own resources, is very far from being improved; and, however
+    laudable the feeling which leads to such emancipation, its
+    policy and propriety are at least questionable.'--[Report of the
+    Pennsylvania Colonization Society.]
+
+
+    'We may, therefore, fairly conclude the object of immediate
+    universal emancipation wholly unattainable, or, if attainable,
+    at too high a price.'--[Mathew Carey's Essays.]
+
+
+    'Observation has fully convinced them that emancipation has
+    often proved injurious to both: consequently laws have been
+    enacted in several of the States to discourage, if not to
+    prevent it. The public safety and interest, as well as
+    individual happiness, seemed to require of legislatures the
+    adoption of such a measure. For, it appeared highly probable
+    that the manumitted would not only be poor and wretched, but
+    likewise a public nuisance; and perhaps at some future day, form
+    the nucleus of rebellion among those unhappy persons still in
+    slavery.'--[A colonization advocate in the Middletown
+    (Connecticut) Gazette.]
+
+
+    'To our mind, it is clearly the doctrine of the Bible, that
+    there may be circumstances, in which the immediate and universal
+    emancipation of slaves is not a duty. Demanding instantaneous
+    and universal emancipation, and denouncing every instance of
+    _holding_ slaves as a crime, is not the way to bring it to pass.
+    If such a course proceeds from a right spirit, it is from a
+    right spirit misinformed.'--[Vermont Chronicle.]
+
+
+    'When the writer visited England from the colonies, he was
+    constantly astonished to find the Wilberforceans, or saints, as
+    they were called, influenced by the _wildest enthusiasm_ upon
+    the sublime theory of liberty; urging _immediate emancipation_
+    of the slave, and yet totally uninformed as to its destructive
+    consequences to their future welfare, in their present
+    uneducated condition, without some provision being made to so
+    enlighten them that they may be enabled to estimate religions
+    obligations and distinguish between right and wrong; otherwise
+    it would be indispensable to have strong military posts and
+    constant martial law to preserve order, and prevent a murderous
+    anarchy and lawless confusion. It is not anticipated that this
+    state of things could ever be consummated in the United States;
+    but it may afford a very salutary lesson in guiding our
+    consideration of similar occurrences that may take place.'
+
+    --[From a colonization pamphlet, entitled 'Remarks upon a plan
+    for the total abolition of slavery in the United States. By a
+    Citizen of New-York.']
+
+
+    'We do not wish to be understood, as sanctioning the measures
+    now pursued with respect to the subject of slavery, by some
+    misguided enthusiasts in the northern and eastern sections of
+    the United States. Were the measures they advocate with so much
+    heat, to be adopted, a heavier curse could hardly fall upon our
+    country. Their operation, we feel fully satisfied, would work
+    the ruin of those, whom these imprudent advocates of instant and
+    total emancipation, wish primarily to benefit. We have always
+    regarded these advocates for the instantaneous abolition of
+    slavery, in all cases, as doing more injury to our colored
+    population than any other class of men in the community. The
+    slaves of this country cannot be at once emancipated. It is
+    folly, it is madness to talk of it. From the very nature of the
+    case, in justice to that deeply injured class, in justice to
+    ourselves, the work must be gradual.' * * * 'We cannot doubt the
+    ultimate success of the American Colonization Society. And
+    however much some of the clamorous advocates of instant,
+    immediate abolition may vent their rage against this noble
+    institution, it will prosper, it will flourish. Our intelligent
+    community are beginning to see that the American Colonization
+    Society presents _the only door of hope_ to the
+    republic.'--[Western Luminary.]
+
+
+    'But _what_ shall be done? Some--and their motives and
+    philanthropic zeal are worthy of all honor--plead for immediate
+    emancipation. But Mr Ladd had seen enough to know that _that_
+    would be a curse to all parties. He acknowledged a difficulty
+    here; _but it is a difficulty that often occurs in morals_. When
+    we have gone far in a wrong road, it often happens that we
+    cannot in a moment put ourselves in the right one. One penalty
+    of such a sin is, that it clings to us, and cannot be shaken off
+    at once with all its bitter consequences by a mere
+    volition.'--[Speech of William Ladd, Esq.]
+
+
+    'The warmest friend to the abolition of slavery, while he
+    deplores the existence of the evil, must admit the necessity of
+    cautious and gradual measures to remove it. The inhabitants of
+    the South cannot, and ought not, suddenly to emancipate their
+    slaves, to remain among them free. Such a measure would be no
+    blessing to the slaves, but the very madness of self-destruction
+    to the whites. In the South, the horrid scenes that would too
+    certainly follow the liberation of their slaves, are present to
+    every imagination, to stifle the calls of justice and humanity.
+    A fell spirit of avarice is thus invigorated and almost
+    justified, by the plea of necessity.'--[First Annual Report of
+    the New Jersey Col. Soc.]
+
+
+    'The impropriety and impolicy of manumitting slaves, _in any
+    case_, in our country, one would suppose, must be apparent to
+    all. It is not a little astonishing that individuals acquainted
+    with the facts, and the evils brought upon society by the free
+    black population, should persist in declaring that duty and
+    humanity call upon us to give the slaves their freedom. It
+    really appears to me that there is entirely too much "namby
+    pamby sentimentality" and affected feeling exhibited respecting
+    the condition of slaves. Do these individuals believe that
+    benevolence and humanity command us to turn loose upon society a
+    set of persons who confessedly only serve to swell the amount of
+    crime, while they add nothing to the industry, to the wealth, or
+    the strength of the country? Because abstractedly considered,
+    man has no right to hold his fellow man in bondage, shall we
+    give up our liberty, and the peace of society, in order that
+    this principle may not be violated? The fact is, _the negroes
+    are happier when kept in bondage_. In their master they find a
+    willing and efficient protector, to guard them from injury and
+    insult, to attend to them when sick and in distress, and to
+    provide for their comfort and support, when old age overtakes
+    them. When in health, they are well fed and clothed, and by no
+    means, in common cases, are they hardly worked.'--[A warm
+    advocate of African Colonization in the Alexandria Gazette.]
+
+
+    'But there are other difficulties in the way of immediate
+    emancipation. We believe that no one, who has taken charge of an
+    infant, and made a cripple of him, either in his feet, his
+    hands, or his mind, so that when he is of mature age, he is
+    unable to take care of himself, has a right to turn him out of
+    doors, to perish or destroy himself, and call it, giving him his
+    liberty. After having reduced him to this condition, he is bound
+    to afford him the support and protection, which he has rendered
+    necessary.
+
+    'This appears to us to be the true relation of the southern
+    planters to their slaves. Not that the southern planters have
+    generally been guilty of personal cruelty; but such has been the
+    general result of the system acted upon, and such the relation
+    growing out of it. The slaves have grown up, under the eye of
+    their masters, unable to take care of themselves; and their
+    masters, for whose comfort and convenience this has been done,
+    are bound to provide for them.
+
+    'Nor do we think that the exhortation, to "do right and trust
+    Providence," applies at all to this case; for the very question
+    is, "what is right?" Would it be right for the slave merchant,
+    in the midst of the Atlantic, to knock the manacles from his
+    prisoners and throw them overboard, and call this, giving them
+    their liberty and trusting Providence with the result? But how
+    else could he reduce the doctrine of immediate and complete
+    emancipation to practice?'--[Vermont Chronicle.]
+
+The miserable sophistry contained in the foregoing extracts scarcely
+needs a serious refutation. 'To say that immediate emancipation will
+only increase the wretchedness of the slaves, and that we must pursue a
+system of _gradual_ abolition, is to present to us the double paradox,
+that we must continue to do evil, in order to cure the evil which we are
+doing; and that we must continue to be unjust, and to do evil, that good
+may come.' The fatal error of _gradualists_ lies here: They talk as if
+the friends of abolition contended only for the emancipation of the
+slaves, without specifying or caring what should be done with or for
+them! as if the planters were invoked to cease from one kind of villany,
+only to practise another! as if the manumitted slaves must necessarily
+be driven out from society into the wilderness, like wild beasts! This
+is talking nonsense: it is a gross perversion of reason and common
+sense. Abolitionists have never said, that mere manumission would be
+doing justice to the slaves: they insist upon a remuneration for years
+of unrequited toil, upon their employment as free laborers, upon their
+immediate and coefficient instruction, and upon the exercise of a
+benevolent supervision over them on the part of their employers. They
+declare, in the first place, that to break the fetters of the slaves,
+and turn them loose upon the country, without the preservative
+restraints of law, and destitute of occupation, would leave the work of
+justice only half done; and, secondly, that it is absurd to suppose that
+the planters would be wholly independent of the labor of the blacks--for
+they could no more dispense with it next week, were emancipation to take
+place, than they can to-day. The very ground which they assume for their
+opposition to slavery,--that it necessarily prevents the improvement of
+its victims,--shows that they contemplate the establishment of schools
+for the education of the slaves, and the furnishing of productive
+employment, immediately upon their liberation. If this were done, none
+of the horrors which are now so feelingly depicted, as the attendants of
+a sudden abolition, would ensue.
+
+But we are gravely told that education must _precede_ emancipation. The
+logic of this plea is, that intellectual superiority justly gives one
+man an oppressive control over another! Where would such a detestable
+principle lead but to practices the most atrocious, and results the most
+disastrous, if carried out among ourselves? Tell us, ye hair-splitting
+sophists, the exact quantum of knowledge which is necessary to
+constitute a freeman. If every dunce should be a slave, your servitude
+is inevitable; and richly do you deserve the lash for your obtuseness.
+Our white population, too, would furnish blockheads enough to satisfy
+all the classical kidnappers in the land.
+
+The reason why the slaves are so ignorant, is because they are held in
+bondage; and the reason why they are held in bondage, is because they
+are so ignorant! They ought not to be freed until they are educated; and
+they ought not be educated, because on the acquisition of knowledge they
+would burst their fetters! Fine logic, indeed! How men, who make any
+pretensions to honesty or common sense, can advance a paradox like this,
+is truly inexplicable. 'I never met with a man yet,' says an able writer
+in Kentucky, 'who impliedly admits the enslaving of human beings as
+consistent with the exercise of christian duties, who could talk or
+write ten minutes on the subject, without expressing nonsense, or
+contradicting himself, or advancing heresy which would expose him to
+censure on any other subject.' In this connexion, I make the following
+extract from the Report of the _Dublin Negro's Friend Society_, of which
+WILBERFORCE is President, and CLARKSON Vice President:
+
+    'They do not recognize the false principle, that education, as a
+    preparation for freedom, must precede emancipation; or that an
+    amelioration of the slaves' condition should be a substitute for
+    it: on the contrary, THEY INSIST UPON UNPROCRASTINATED
+    EMANCIPATION, as a right which is unrighteously withheld, and
+    the restoration of which is, in their opinion, the first and
+    most indispensable step to all improvement, and absolutely
+    essential to the application of the only remedy for that moral
+    debasement, in which slavery has sunk its victims.'
+
+I cannot portray the absurdity of the doctrine of gradual abolition, and
+the danger and folly of attempting to mitigate the system of slavery,
+more strikingly, than by presenting the following eloquent extracts from
+a speech of the Rev. Dr. Thomson of Edinburgh, one of the most learned
+and able divines in Great Britain, whose sudden death was recorded in
+the newspapers a few months since:
+
+    'The word _immediate_ may no doubt be considered as a strong
+    word; but you will observe that it is used as contrasted with
+    the word _gradual_. And were I to criticise the term _gradual_
+    as certain opponents have treated the term _immediate_, I could
+    easily, by the help of a little quibbling, bring you to the
+    conclusion, that as hitherto employed it means that the
+    abolition is never to take place, and that, by putting it into
+    their petition, they are to be understood as deprecating rather
+    than asking the emancipation of the slaves. "_Immediate_," they
+    argue, "evanishes as soon as you utter it; it is gone before
+    your petition reaches parliament." How absurd! If I should say
+    to my servant while engaged in work, "You must go to the south
+    side of the town with a message for me _immediately_," is it
+    indeed implied in the order I have given him, that he could not
+    fulfil it, unless he set off without his hat, without his coat,
+    without his shoes, without those habiliments which are requisite
+    for his appearing decently in the streets of Edinburgh, and
+    executing the task that I had assigned him? The meaning of the
+    word as used by us is perfectly clear, and cannot be
+    misapprehended by any one: it is not to be made a subject of
+    metaphysical animadversion: it is to be considered and
+    understood under the direction of common sense, and especially
+    as modified and expounded by those statements with which it is
+    associated both in our resolutions and in the petition; and
+    viewed in that light, _immediate abolition_ is not merely an
+    intelligible phrase, but one that does not warrant a particle of
+    the alarm which some have affected to take at it, and is not
+    liable to any one of those objections which some have been
+    pleased to make to it.
+
+    'To say that we will come out of the sin by degrees--that we
+    will only forsake it slowly, and step by step--that we will
+    pause and hesitate and look well about us before we consent to
+    abandon its gains and its pleasures--that we will allow another
+    age to pass by ere we throw off the load of iniquity that is
+    lying so heavy upon us, lest certain secularities should be
+    injuriously affected--and that we will postpone the duty of
+    "doing justly and loving mercy," till we have removed every
+    petty difficulty out of the way, and got all the conflicting
+    interests that are involved in the measure reconciled and
+    satisfied;--to say this, is to trample on the demands of moral
+    obligation, and to disregard the voice which speaks to as from
+    heaven. The path of duty is plain before us; and we have nothing
+    to do but to enter it at once, and to walk in it without turning
+    to the right hand or to the left. Our concern is not with the
+    result that may follow our obedience to the divine will. Our
+    great and primary concern is to obey that will. God reigns over
+    his universe in the exercise of infinite perfection: he commands
+    us to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke; and
+    submitting, without procrastination, and without any attempts at
+    compromise, to that command, we may be assured that he will take
+    care of all the effects that can be produced by compliance with
+    his authority, and give demonstration to the truth that
+    obedience to his behests is our grand and only security for a
+    prosperous lot.
+
+    'We are by no means indifferent to the expediency of the case.
+    On the contrary, we think ourselves prepared to prove, by fair
+    reasoning and by ascertained fact, that the expediency of the
+    thing is all on our side; that immediate abolition is the only
+    secure and proper way of attaining the object which we all
+    profess to have in view; that to defer the measure to a distant
+    period, and to admit the propriety of getting at it by a course
+    of mitigation, is the surest mode of frustrating every hope we
+    might otherwise entertain, and giving over the slaves to
+    interminable bondage.' * * *
+
+    'I do not deny, Sir, that the evils of practical slavery may be
+    lessened. By parliamentary enactments, by colonial arrangements,
+    by appeals to the judgment and feelings of planters, and by
+    various other means, a certain degree of melioration _may_ be
+    secured. But I say, in the first place, that, with all that you
+    can accomplish, or reasonably expect, of mitigation, you cannot
+    alter the nature of slavery itself. With every improvement you
+    have superinduced upon it, you have not made it less debasing,
+    less cruel, less destructive, in its essential character. The
+    black man is still the _property_ of the white man. And that one
+    circumstance not only implies in it the transgression of
+    inalienable right and everlasting justice, but is the fruitful
+    and necessary source of numberless mischiefs, the very thought
+    of which harrows up the soul, and the infliction of which no
+    superintendence of any government can either prevent or control.
+    Mitigate and keep down the evil as much as you can, still it is
+    there in all its native virulence, and still it will do its
+    malignant work in spite of you. The improvements you have made
+    are merely superficial. You have not reached the seat and vital
+    spring of the mischief. You have only concealed in some measure,
+    and for a time, its inherent enormity. Its essence remains
+    unchanged and untouched, and is ready to unfold itself whenever
+    a convenient season arrives, notwithstanding all your
+    precaution, and all you vigilance, in those manifold acts of
+    injustice and inhumanity, which are its genuine and its
+    invariable fruits. You may white-wash the sepulchre,--you may
+    put upon it every adornment that fancy can suggest,--you may
+    cover it over with all the flowers and evergreens that the
+    garden or the fields can furnish, so that it will appear
+    beautiful outwardly unto men. But it is a sepulchre still,--full
+    of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Disguise slavery as
+    you will,--put into the cup all the pleasing and palatable
+    ingredients which you can discover in the wide range of nature
+    and of art,--still it is a bitter, bitter draught, from which
+    the understanding and the heart of every man, in whom nature
+    works unsophisticated and unbiassed, recoils with unutterable
+    aversion and abhorrence. Why, Sir, slavery is the very Upas tree
+    of the moral world, beneath whose pestiferous shade all
+    intellect languishes, and all virtue dies. And if you would get
+    quit of the evil, you must go more thoroughly and effectually to
+    work than you can ever do by any or by all of those palliatives,
+    which are included under the term "mitigation." The foul
+    sepulchre must be taken away. The cup of oppression must be
+    dashed to pieces on the ground. The pestiferous tree must be cut
+    down and eradicated; it must be, root and branch of it, cast
+    into the consuming fire, and its ashes scattered to the four
+    winds of heaven. It is thus you must deal with slavery. You must
+    annihilate it,--annihilate it now,--and annihilate it for ever.
+
+    'Get your mitigation. I say in the second place, that you are
+    thereby, in all probability farther away than ever from your
+    object. It is not to the Government or the Parliament at home
+    that you are to look--neither is it to the legislatures and
+    planters abroad that you are to look--for accomplishing the
+    abolition of negro slavery. Sad experience shows that, if left
+    to themselves, they will do nothing efficient in this great
+    cause. It is to the sentiments of the people at large that you
+    are to look, to the spread of intellectual light, to the
+    prevalence of moral feeling, to the progress, in short, of
+    public opinion, which, when resting on right principles and
+    moving in a right direction, must in this free and Christian
+    country prove irresistible. But observe, Sir, the public mind
+    will not be sufficiently affected by the statement of abstract
+    truths, however just, or by reasonings on the tendencies of a
+    system, however accurate. It must be more or less influenced by
+    what is visible, or by what is easily known and understood of
+    the actual atrocities which accompany slavery, wherever it is
+    left to its own proper operation. Let it be seen in its native
+    vileness and cruelty, as exhibited when not interfered with by
+    the hand of authority, and it excites universal and unqualified
+    detestation. But let its harsher asperities be rubbed off; take
+    away the more prominent parts of its iniquity; see that it look
+    somewhat smoother and milder than it did before; make such
+    regulations as ought, if faithfully executed, to check its
+    grosser acts of injustice and oppression; give it the appearance
+    of its being put under the humanizing sway of religious
+    education and instruction; do all this, and you produce one
+    effect at least,--you modify the indignation of a great number
+    of the community; you render slavery much less obnoxious; you
+    enable its advocates and supporters to say in reply to your
+    denunciations of its wickedness, "O, the slaves are now
+    comfortable and happy; they do not suffer what they did; they
+    are protected and well treated," and in proof of all this, they
+    point to what are called "mitigations." But mark me, Sir; under
+    these mitigations, slavery still exists, ready at every
+    convenient season to break forth in all its countless forms of
+    inhumanity; meanwhile the public feeling in a great measure
+    subsides; and when the public feeling--such an important and
+    indispensable element in our attempts to procure abolition--is
+    allowed to subside, tell me, Sir, when, and where, and by what
+    means it is again to be roused into activity. I must say, for
+    one, that though I sympathize with my sable brethren, when I
+    hear of them being spared even one lash of the cart-whip; yet
+    when I take a more enlarged view of their condition--when I
+    consider the nature of that system under which they are placed,
+    and when I look forward to their deliverance, and the means by
+    which alone it is to be effected, I am tempted, and almost if
+    not altogether persuaded, to deprecate that insidious thing
+    termed "mitigation," because it directly tends to perpetuate the
+    mighty evil, which will by and by throw off the improvements by
+    which it is glossed over as quite unnatural to it, will
+    ultimately grow up again into all its former dreadfulness, and
+    continue to wither and crush beneath it, all that is excellent
+    and glorious in man.
+
+    'But if our rulers and legislators will undertake to emancipate
+    the slaves, and do it as it ought to be done, immediately, I beg
+    those who set themselves against such a measure, to point out
+    the danger, and to prove it. The _onus_ lies upon _them_. And
+    what evidence do they give us? Where is it to be found? In what
+    circumstance shall we discover it? From what principles and
+    probabilities shall we infer it? We must not have mere
+    hypothesis--mere allegations--mere fancied horrors, dressed up
+    in frightful language. We must have proof to substantiate, in
+    some good measure, their theory of rebellion, warfare, and
+    blood. If any such thing exists, let them produce it' * * * 'But
+    if you push me, and still urge the argument of insurrection and
+    bloodshed, for which you are far more indebted to fancy than to
+    fact, as I have shown you, then I say, be it so. I repeat that
+    maxim, taken from a heathen book, but pervading the whole Book
+    of God, _Fiat justitia_--_ruat cælum_. Righteousness, Sir, is
+    the pillar of the universe. Break down that pillar, and the
+    universe falls into ruin and desolation. But preserve it, and
+    though the fair fabric may sustain partial dilapidations, it may
+    be rebuilt and repaired--it _will_ be rebuilt, and repaired, and
+    restored to all its pristine strength, and magnificence, and
+    beauty. If there must be violence, let it even come, for it will
+    soon pass away--let it come and rage its little hour, since it
+    is to be succeeded by lasting freedom, and prosperity and
+    happiness. Give me the hurricane rather than the pestilence.
+    Give me the hurricane, with its thunder, and its lightning, and
+    its tempest;--give me the hurricane, with its partial and
+    temporary devastations, awful though they be;--give me the
+    hurricane, with its purifying, healthful, salutary
+    effects;--give me that hurricane, infinitely rather than the
+    noisome pestilence, whose path is never crossed, whose silence
+    is never disturbed, whose progress is never arrested, by one
+    sweeping blast from the heavens; which walks peacefully and
+    sullenly through the length and breadth of the land, breathing
+    poison into every heart, and carrying havoc into every home,
+    enervating all that is strong, defacing all that is beautiful,
+    and casting its blight over the fairest and happiest scenes of
+    human life--and which, from day to day, and from year to year,
+    with intolerant and interminable malignity, sends its thousands
+    and its tens of thousands of hapless victims into the
+    ever-yawning and never-satisfied grave!'
+
+It is said, by way of extenuation, that the present owners of slaves are
+not responsible for the origin of this system. I do not arraign them for
+the crimes _of their ancestors_, but for the constant perpetration and
+extension of similar crimes. The plea that the evil of slavery was
+entailed upon them, shall avail them nothing: in its length and breadth
+it means that the robberies of one generation justify the robberies of
+another! that the inheritance of stolen property converts it into an
+honest acquisition! that the atrocious conduct of their fathers
+exonerates them from all accountability, thus presenting the strange
+anomaly of a race of men incapable of incurring guilt, though daily
+practising the vilest deeds! Scarcely any one denies that blame attaches
+somewhere: the present generation throws it upon the past--the past,
+upon its predecessor--and thus it is cast, like a ball, from one to
+another, down to the first importers of the Africans! 'Can that be
+_innocence_ in the temperate zone, which is the _acme of all guilt_ near
+the equator? Can that be _honesty_ in one meridian of longitude, which,
+at one hundred degrees east, is the _climax of injustice_?' Sixty
+thousand infants, the offspring of slave-parents, are annually born in
+this country, and doomed to remediless bondage. Is it not as atrocious a
+crime to kidnap these, as to kidnap a similar number on the coast of
+Africa?
+
+It is said, moreover, that we ought to legislate prospectively, on this
+subject; that the fetters of the present generation of slaves cannot be
+broken; and that our single aim should be, to obtain the freedom of
+their offspring, by fixing a definite period after which none shall be
+born slaves. But this is inconsistent, inhuman and unjust. The following
+extracts from the speech of the Rev. Dr. Thomson are conclusive on this
+point:
+
+
+    'In the first place, it amounts to an indirect sanction of the
+    continued slavery of all who are now alive, and of all who may
+    be born before the period fixed upon. This is a renunciation of
+    the great moral principles upon which the demand for abolition
+    proceeds. It consigns more than 800,000 human beings to bondage
+    and oppression, while their title to freedom is both
+    indisputable and acknowledged. And it is not merely an
+    inconsistency on the part of the petitioners, and a violation of
+    the duty which they owe to such a multitude of their fellow-men,
+    but it weakens or surrenders the great argument by which they
+    enforce their application for the extinction of colonial
+    slavery.
+
+    'Besides, it is vain to expect that the planters will acquiesce
+    in such a prospective measure, any more than in the liberation
+    of the existing slaves, for the progeny of the existing slaves
+    must be considered by them as much a part of their property as
+    these slaves themselves. And they would regard it equally unjust
+    to deprive them of what is hereafter to be produced from their
+    own slave stock, as it would be to deprive a farmer, by an
+    anticipating law of all the foals and of all the calves that
+    might be produced in his stable and in his cow-house, after a
+    given specified date.
+
+    'We must be true to our own maxims, which are taken from the
+    word of God; and ask for all that we are entitled to have on the
+    ground of justice and humanity, and be contented with nothing
+    less.
+
+    'In the second place, the plan objected to is not merely an
+    acquiescence in the continuance of crime, it is a violation of
+    the best feelings of our nature. For, let any man but reflect on
+    the circumstance of children being born to slavery, merely
+    because they came into the world the last hour of December 1830,
+    instead of the first hour of January 1, 1831--and of children in
+    the same family, brothers and sisters--some of them destined to
+    bondage for life, and others gifted with freedom, for no other
+    reason than that the former were born before, and the latter
+    after, a particular day of a particular year--and of parents
+    being unjustly and inhumanly flogged in the very sight of their
+    offspring arbitrarily made free, while they are as arbitrarily
+    kept slaves--let any man but reflect on those things, and unless
+    the sensibilities of his heart be paralysed even to deadness, he
+    must surely revolt at such a cruel and cold blooded allotment in
+    the fortune of those little ones, and be satisfied with nothing
+    short of the emancipation of the whole community, without a
+    single exception.
+
+    'In the third place, supposing all children born after January
+    1, 1831, were declared free, how are they to be educated? That
+    they may be prepared for the enjoyment of that liberty with
+    which you have invested them, they must undergo a particular and
+    appropriate training. So say the _gradualists_. Very well; under
+    whom are they to get this training? Are they to be separated
+    from their parents? Is that dearest of natural ties to be broken
+    asunder? Is this necessary for your plan? And are not you thus
+    endeavoring to cure one species of wickedness by the
+    instrumentality of another? But if they are to be left with
+    their parents and brought up under their care, then either they
+    will be imbued with the faults and degeneracies that are
+    characteristic of slavery, and consequently be as unfit for
+    freedom as those who have not been disenthralled: or they will
+    be well nurtured and well instructed by their parents, and this
+    implies a confession that their parents themselves are
+    sufficiently prepared for liberty, and that there is no good
+    reason for withholding from them, the boon that is bestowed upon
+    their children.
+
+    'Whatever view, in short, we take of the question, the
+    prospective plan is full of difficulty or contradictions, and we
+    are made more sensible than ever that there is nothing left for
+    us, but to take the consistent, honest, uncompromising course of
+    demanding the abolition of slavery with respect to the present,
+    as well as to every future generation of the negroes in our
+    colonies.'
+
+We are told that 'it is not right that men should be free, when their
+freedom will prove injurious to themselves and others.' This has been
+the plea of tyrants in all ages. If the immediate emancipation of the
+slaves would prove a curse, it follows that slavery is a blessing; and
+that it cannot be unjust, but benevolent, to defraud the laborer of his
+hire, to rank him as a beast, and to deprive him of his liberty. But
+this, every one must see, is at war with common sense, and avowedly
+doing evil that good may come. This plea must mean, either that a state
+of slavery is more favorable to the growth of virtue and the
+dispensation of knowledge than a state of freedom--(a glaring
+absurdity)--or that an immediate compliance with the demands of justice
+would be most unjust--(a gross contradiction.)
+
+It is boldly asserted by some colonizationists, that '_the negroes are
+happier when kept in bondage_,' and that 'the condition of the great
+mass of emancipated Africans is one in comparison with which the
+condition of the slaves is _enviable_.' What is the inference? Why,
+either that slavery is not oppression--(another paradox)--or that real
+benevolence demands the return of the free people of color to their
+former state of servitude. Every kidnapper, therefore, is a true
+philanthropist! Our legislature should immediately offer a bounty for
+the body of every free colored person! The colored population of
+Massachusetts, at $200 for each man, woman and child, would bring at
+least _one million three hundred thousand dollars_. This sum would
+seasonably replenish our exhausted treasury. The whole free colored
+population of the United States, at the same price, (which is a low
+estimate,) would be worth _sixty-five millions of dollars_!! Think how
+many churches this would build, schools and colleges establish,
+beneficiaries educate, missionaries support, bibles and tracts
+circulate, railroads and canals complete, &c. &c. &c.!!!
+
+The Secretary of the Colonization Society assures us, (vide the African
+Repository, vol. v. p. 330,) that '_were the very spirit of angelic
+charity to pervade and fill the hearts of all the slaveholders in our
+land, it would by no means require that all the slaves should be
+instantaneously liberated_'!!--i. e. should the slaveholders become
+instantaneously metamorphosed into angels, they would still hold the
+rational creatures of God as their _property_, and yet commit no sin!
+Think, for one moment, of an angel in the capacity of a
+man-stealer--feeding his victims upon a peck of corn per week, or three
+bushels of corn and a few herrings every 'quarter-day,' as a
+compensation for their severe labor--flourishing a cowskin over their
+heads, and applying it frequently to their naked bodies! Think of him
+selling parents from children, and children from parents, at private
+sale or public auction!
+
+Many slaveholders are giving up their slaves from conscientious motives;
+they cannot, they dare not longer keep them in servitude; they believe
+that the law of God has a higher claim upon their obedience than the
+laws of their native State. Now suppose all the owners of slaves in our
+land should be suddenly and simultaneously convicted of sin, and moved
+to repentance in a similar manner, and should say to their slaves, 'God
+forbid that we should longer call you our property, or place you on a
+level with our cattle, or defraud you of your just dues, or sell you or
+your wives or children to others, or deny you the means of instruction,
+or lacerate your bodies! henceforth you are free--but you want
+employment, and we need laborers--go and work as freemen, and be paid as
+freemen!'--suppose, I say, a case like this should happen, and a troop
+of _gradualists_ should surround these penitent oppressors, and cry,
+'Were the very spirit of angelic charity to pervade and fill your
+hearts, it would by no means require that all your slaves should be
+instantaneously liberated--your throats will be cut, your houses
+pillaged, and desolation will stalk through the land, if you carry your
+mad purpose into effect--emancipate by a slow, imperceptible
+process!'--how would this advice sound? What should be their reply?
+Clearly this: 'Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto
+men more than unto God, judge ye.' Here would be presented a strange
+spectacle indeed--one party confessing and resolving to forsake their
+sins, and another urging them to disregard the admonitions of
+conscience, and to leave off sinning by degrees! To be sure, a few, a
+very few, would be _generously_ allowed to reform _instanter_!
+
+Those who prophesy evil, and only evil, concerning immediate abolition,
+absolutely disregard the nature and constitution of man, as also his
+inalienable rights, and annihilate or reverse the causes and effects of
+human action. They are continually fearful lest the slaves, in
+consequence of their grievous wrongs and intolerable sufferings, should
+attempt to gain their freedom by revolution; and yet they affect to be
+equally fearful lest a general emancipation should produce the same
+disastrous consequences. How absurd! They _know_ that oppression must
+cause rebellion; and yet they pretend that a removal of the cause will
+produce a bloody effect! This is to suppose an effect without a cause,
+and, of course, is a contradiction in terms. Bestow upon the slaves
+personal freedom, and all motives for insurrection are destroyed. Treat
+them like rational beings, and you may surely expect rational treatment
+in return: treat them like beasts, and they will behave in a beastly
+manner.
+
+Besides, precedent and experience make the ground of abolitionists
+invulnerable. In no single instance where their principles have been
+adopted, has the result been disastrous or violent, but beneficial and
+peaceful even beyond their most sanguine expectations. The immediate
+abolition of slavery in Mexico, in Colombia, and in St. Domingo,[O] was
+eminently preservative and useful in its effects. The manumitted slaves
+(numbering more than two thousand,) who were settled in Nova Scotia, at
+the close of our revolutionary war, by the British government, 'led a
+harmless life,' says Clarkson, 'and gained the character of an
+industrious and honest people from their white neighbors.' A large
+number who were located at Trinidad, as free laborers, at the close of
+our last war, 'are now,' according to the same authority, 'earning their
+own livelihood, and with so much industry and good conduct, that the
+calumnies originally spread against them have entirely died away.'
+According to the Anti-Slavery Reporter for January, 1832, three thousand
+prize negroes at the Cape of Good Hope had received their freedom--four
+hundred in one day; 'but not the least difficulty or disorder occurred:
+servants found masters, masters hired servants--all gained homes, and at
+night scarcely an idler was to be seen.'
+
+These and many other similar facts show conclusively the safety of
+immediate abolition. Gradualists can present, in abatement of them,
+nothing but groundless apprehensions and criminal distrust. The argument
+is irresistible.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[N] The slaves, they say, are their _property_. Once admit this, and all
+your arguments for interference are vain, and all your plans for
+amelioration are fruitless. The whole question may be said to hang upon
+this point. If the slaves are not property, then slavery is at an end.
+The slaveholders see this most clearly; they see that while you allow
+these slaves to be their _property_, you act inconsistently and
+oppressively in intermeddling, as you propose to do, with what is theirs
+as much as any other of their goods and chattels: you must proceed,
+therefore, in your measures for amelioration, as you call it, with
+'hesitating steps and slow;' and there is nothing you can do for
+restraining punishment, for regulating labor, for enforcing manumission,
+for introducing education and Christianity, which will not be met with
+the remonstrance, undeniably just by your own concessions, that you are
+encroaching on the sacred rights of property,--the slaveholders see all
+this, and they can employ it to paralyse and defeat all your efforts to
+get at emancipation, and to prepare for it. It is on this account, that
+I wish it settled in your minds, as a fixed and immutable principle,
+that there is and can be no property of man in man. Adopt this
+principle, and give it that ascendency over your minds to which it is
+entitled;--and slavery is swept away.--_Speech of Rev. Dr Thomson of
+Edinburgh._
+
+[O] The history of the Revolution in St Domingo is not generally
+understood in this country. The result of the instantaneous emancipation
+of the slaves, in that island, by an act of the Conventional Assembly of
+France in the month of February, 1794, settles the controversy between
+the _immediatists_ and _gradualists_. 'After this public act of
+emancipation,' says Colonel Malenfant, who was resident in the island at
+the time, 'the negroes _remained quiet_ both in the South and in the
+West, and _they continued to work upon all the plantations_.' 'Upon
+those estates which were abandoned, _they continued their labors_, where
+there were any, even inferior agents, to guide them; and on those
+estates, where no white men were left to direct them, they betook
+themselves to the planting of provisions; but upon _all the plantations_
+where the whites resided, the blacks _continued to labor as quietly as
+before_.' 'On the Plantation Gourad, consisting of more than four
+hundred and fifty laborers, _not a single negro refused to work_; and
+yet this plantation was thought to be under the worst discipline and the
+slaves the most idle of any in the plain.' General Lacroix, who
+published his 'Memoirs for a History of St Domingo,' at Paris, in 1819,
+uses these remarkable words: 'The colony marched, _as by enchantment_,
+towards its ancient splendor; _cultivation prospered_; every day
+produced perceptible proofs of its progress. The city of the Cape and
+the plantations of the North rose up again visibly to the eye.' General
+Vincent, who was a general of a brigade of artillery in St Domingo, and
+a proprietor of estates in that island, at the same period, declared to
+the Directory of France, that 'every thing was _going on well in St
+Domingo_. The proprietors were in peaceable possession of their estates;
+cultivation was making rapid progress; _the blacks were industrious, and
+beyond example happy_.' So much for the horrible concomitants of a
+general emancipation! So much for the predicted indolence of the
+liberated slaves! Let confusion of face cover all abolition alarmists in
+view of these historical facts! This peaceful and prosperous state of
+affairs continued from 1794, to the invasion of the island by Leclerc in
+1802. The attempt of Bonaparte to reduce the island to its original
+servitude was the sole cause of that sanguinary conflict which ended in
+the total extirpation of the French from its soil.--[Vide Clarkson's
+'Thoughts on the Necessity of Improving the Condition of the Slaves in
+the British Colonies,' &c.]
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VI.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS NOURISHED BY FEAR AND SELFISHNESS.
+
+
+The reader will find on the fifth page of my introductory remarks, the
+phrase 'naked terrors;' by which I mean, that, throughout all the
+speeches, addresses and reports in behalf of the Society, it is
+confessed, in language strong and explicit, that an irrepressible and
+agonizing fear of the influence of the free people of color over the
+slave population is the primary, essential and prevalent motive for
+colonizing them on the coast of Africa--and not, as we are frequently
+urged to believe, a desire simply to meliorate their condition and
+civilize that continent. On this point, the evidence is abundant.
+
+    'In reflecting on the utility of a plan for colonizing the free
+    people of color, with whom our country abounds, it is natural
+    that we should be first struck by its tendency to confer a
+    benefit on ourselves, by ridding us of a population for the most
+    part idle and useless, and too often vicious and mischievous.'
+    * * * 'Such a class must evidently be a burden and a nuisance to
+    the community; and every scheme which affords a prospect of
+    removing so great an evil must deserve to be most favorably
+    considered.
+
+    'But it is not in themselves merely that the free people of
+    color are a nuisance and burthen. They contribute greatly to the
+    corruption of the slaves, and to aggravate the evils of their
+    condition, by rendering them idle, discontented and disobedient.
+    This also arises from the necessity under which the free blacks
+    are, of remaining incorporated with the slaves, of associating
+    habitually with them, and forming part of the same class in
+    society. The slave seeing his free companion live in idleness,
+    or subsist however scantily or precariously by occasional and
+    desultory employment, is apt to grow discontented with his own
+    condition, and to regard as tyranny and injustice the authority
+    which compels him to labor.[P]
+
+    'Great, however, as the benefits are, which we may thus promise
+    ourselves, from the colonization of the free people of color, by
+    its tendency to prevent the discontent and corruption of our
+    slaves,' &c. * * 'The considerations stated in the first part of
+    this letter, have long since produced a thorough conviction in
+    my mind, that the existence of a class of free people of color
+    in this country is highly injurious to the whites, the slaves
+    and the free people of color themselves: consequently that all
+    emancipation, to however small an extent, which permits the
+    persons emancipated to remain in this country, is an evil, which
+    must increase with the increase of the operation, and would
+    become altogether intolerable, if extended to the whole, or even
+    to a very large part of the black population. I am therefore
+    strongly opposed to emancipation, in every shape and degree,
+    unless accompanied by colonization.'--[General Harper's
+    Letter--First Annual Report, pp. 29, 31, 32, 33, 36.]
+
+
+    'The slaves would be greatly benefitted by the removal of the
+    free blacks, who now corrupt them and render them
+    discontented.'--[Second An. Rep.]
+
+
+    'What are these objects? They are in the first place to aid
+    ourselves, by relieving us from a species of population pregnant
+    with future danger and present inconvenience.'--[Seventh
+    Report.]
+
+
+    'They are dangerous to the community, and this danger ought to
+    be removed. Their wretchedness arises not only from their
+    bondage, but from their political and moral degradation. The
+    danger is not so much that we have a million and a half of
+    slaves, as that we have in our borders nearly two millions of
+    men who are necessarily any thing rather than loyal
+    citizens--nearly two millions of ignorant and miserable beings
+    who are banded together by the very same circumstances, by which
+    they are so widely separated in character and in interest from
+    all the citizens of our great republic.'--[Seventh Annual
+    Report.]
+
+
+    'It may be safely assumed, that there is not an individual in
+    the community, who has given to the subject a moment's
+    consideration, who does not regard the existence of the free
+    people of color in the bosom of the country, as an evil of
+    immense magnitude, and of a dangerous and alarming tendency.
+    Their abject and miserable condition is too obvious to be
+    pointed out. All must perceive it, and perceiving it, cannot but
+    lament it. But their deplorable condition is not more obvious to
+    the most superficial observer, than is (what is far worse, and
+    still more to be dreaded,) the powerful and resistless influence
+    which they exert over the slave population. While their
+    character remains what it now is, (and the laws and structure of
+    the country in which they reside, prevent its permanent
+    improvement,) this influence must of necessity be baneful and
+    contaminating. Corrupt themselves, like the deadly Upas, they
+    impart corruption to all around them. Their numbers too, are
+    constantly and rapidly augmenting. Their annual increase is
+    truly astonishing, certainly unexampled. The dangerous
+    ascendency which they have already acquired over the slaves, is
+    consequently increasing with every addition to their numbers;
+    and every addition to their numbers is a subtraction from the
+    wealth and strength, and character, and happiness, and safety of
+    the country. And if this be true, as it unquestionably is, the
+    converse is also true; the danger of their undue influence will
+    lessen with every diminution of their numbers; and every
+    diminution of their numbers must add, and add greatly, to the
+    prosperity of the country.'--[Twelfth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Another reason is, the pressing and vital importance of
+    relieving ourselves, as soon as practicable, from this most
+    dangerous element in our population.' * * 'We all know the
+    effects produced on our slaves by the fascinating, but delusive
+    appearance of happiness, exhibited in some persons of their own
+    complexion, roaming in idleness and vice among them. By removing
+    the most fruitful source of discontent from among our slaves, we
+    should render them more industrious and attentive to our
+    commands.'--[Fourteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'What is the free black to the slave? A standing perpetual
+    incitement to discontent. Though the condition of the slave be a
+    thousand times the best--supplied, protected, instead of
+    destitute and desolate--yet, the folly of the condition, held to
+    involuntary labor, finds, always, allurement, in the spectacle
+    of exemption from it, without consideration of the adjuncts of
+    destitution and misery. The slave would have then, little
+    excitement to discontent but for the free black.'--[Fifteenth
+    Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The evils which arise from the communication of the free people
+    of color with our slaves, must be obvious to every reflecting
+    mind; and the consequences which may result from this
+    communication at some future day, when circumstances are more
+    favorable to their views, are of a more alarming character. Sir,
+    circumstances must have brought us to the conclusion, if our
+    observation had not enabled us to make the remark, that it is
+    natural for our slaves, so closely allied to the free black
+    population by national peculiarities, and by relationship, to
+    make a comparison between their respective conditions, and to
+    repine at the difference which exists between them. This is a
+    serious evil, and can only be removed _by preventing the
+    possibility of a comparison_.
+
+    'By removing these people, we rid ourselves of a large party who
+    will always be ready to assist our slaves in any mischievous
+    design which they may conceive; and who are better able, by
+    their intelligence, and the facilities of their communication,
+    to bring those designs to a successful termination.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. i. p. 176.]
+
+
+    'The labors of the Colonization Society appear to us highly
+    deserving of praise. The blacks, whom they carry from the
+    country, belong to a class far more noxious than the slaves
+    themselves. They are free without any sense of character to
+    restrain them, or regular means of obtaining an honest
+    livelihood. Most of the criminal offences committed in the
+    southern States are chargeable to them, and their influence over
+    the slaves is pernicious and alarming.' * * * 'What is the true
+    nature of the evil of the existence of a portion of the African
+    race in our population? It is not that there are some, but that
+    there are so many among us of a different caste, of a different
+    physical, if not moral, constitution, who never can amalgamate
+    with the great body of our population. In every country, persons
+    are to be found varying in their color, origin and character,
+    from the native mass. But this anomaly creates no inquietude or
+    apprehension, because the exotics, from the smallness of their
+    number, are known to be utterly incapable of disturbing the
+    general tranquillity. Here, on the contrary, the African part of
+    our population bears so large a proportion to the residue of
+    European origin, as to create the most lively apprehension,
+    especially in some quarters of the Union. Any project,
+    therefore, by which, in a material degree, the dangerous element
+    in the general mass, can be diminished or rendered stationary,
+    deserves deliberate consideration.'--[African Repository, vol.
+    ii. pp. 27, 338.]
+
+
+    'Made up, for the most part, either of slaves or of their
+    immediate descendants; elevated above the class from which it
+    has sprung, only by its exemption from domestic restraint; and
+    effectually debarred by the law, from every prospect of equality
+    with the actual freemen of the country; it is a source of
+    perpetual uneasiness to the master, and of envy and corruption
+    to the slave.' * * 'To remove these persons from among us, will
+    increase the _usefulness_, and improve the moral character of
+    those who remain in servitude, and _with whose labors the
+    country is unable to dispense_. That instances are to be found
+    of colored free persons, upright and industrious, is not to be
+    denied. But the greater portion, as is well known, are a source
+    of malignant depravity to the slaves on the one hand, and of
+    corrupt habits to many of our white population on the other. The
+    arts of subsistence with many of them, are incompatible with the
+    security of property.' * * * 'I am a Virginian--I dread for her
+    the corroding evil of this numerous caste, and I tremble for the
+    danger of a disaffection spreading through their seductions,
+    among our servants.' * * * 'Are they vipers, who are sucking our
+    blood? we will hurl them from us. It is not sympathy alone,--not
+    sickly sympathy, no, nor manly sympathy either,--which is to act
+    on us; but vital policy, self-interest, are also enlisting
+    themselves on the humane side in our breasts.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. iii. pp. 10, 67, 197, 201.]
+
+
+    'All must concur in regarding the present condition of the free
+    colored race in America as inconsistent with its future social
+    and political advancement, and, where slavery exists at all, as
+    calculated to aggravate its evils without any atoning good.
+    Among those evils, the most obvious is the restraint imposed
+    upon emancipation by the laws of so many of the slaveholding
+    States: laws, deriving their recent origin from the obvious
+    manifestation which the increase of the free colored population
+    has furnished, of the inconvenience and danger of multiplying
+    their number where slavery exists at all.' * * * 'By the success
+    of this scheme, our country will be enriched. The free blacks
+    constitute a material spoke in that wheel which is crushing down
+    the wealth of our land. The moment we carry this plan into
+    vigorous prosecution, we shall call many of our countrymen to a
+    state of comparative wealth. The removal of the annual increase
+    of our colored population, would give to our mariners a
+    considerable scope of employment, whilst the trade of the Colony
+    would be a source of profit.' * * 'It places the attainment of
+    the grand object in view, that is, to withdraw from the United
+    States annually, so many of the colored population, and provide
+    them a comfortable home and all the advantages of civilization
+    in Africa, _as will make the number here remain stationary_.'
+    * * * 'Let us recur to the principle abovementioned--that every
+    black family occupies the room of a white family. On this
+    principle we are lost, if we suffer the colored population to
+    multiply, unchecked, upon our hands; because they will increase
+    faster than the whites, and will crowd them out of all the
+    Southern country. But on the same principle we are saved, if by
+    any means of colonization, we can retard the increase of the
+    blacks, and gain ground on them in the South. That we can do
+    with ease, if our people will unite in prosecuting the scheme.
+    Every family taken from the blacks, will add also a family to
+    the whites, and make an actual difference of two families in our
+    favor. This exchange will leave fewer blacks to remove, while
+    it will increase our ability to remove them. Self-interest and
+    self-preservation furnish motives enough to excite our
+    exertions.' * * 'By thus repressing the rapid increase of
+    blacks, the white population would be enabled to reach and soon
+    overtop them. The consequence would be security.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. iv. pp. 53, 141, 271, 276, 344.]
+
+
+    'The existence of a class of men in the bosom of the community,
+    who occupy a middle rank between the citizen and the slave--who
+    encountering every positive evil incident to each condition,
+    share none of the benefits peculiar to either, has been long
+    clearly seen and deeply deplored by every man of observation.
+    The master feels it in the unhappy influence which the free
+    blacks have upon the slave population. The slave feels it in the
+    restless, discontented spirit which his association with the
+    free black engenders.' * * * * 'But, there is yet a more
+    important and alarming view, in which this subject necessarily
+    presents itself to the mind of every Virginian. A community of
+    the character that has been described, with this additional
+    peculiarity, that it differs from the class from which it has
+    sprung, only in its exemption from _the wholesome restraints of
+    domestic authority_, is found in the midst of a numerous and
+    rapidly increasing slave population; and while its partial
+    freedom, trammelled, as it is, by the necessary rigors of the
+    law, is nevertheless sufficiently attractive, to be a source of
+    uneasiness and dissatisfaction to those who have not attained to
+    its questionable privileges, its exemption from the prompt and
+    efficient inquisition appertaining to slavery, makes it an
+    important instrument in the corruption and seduction of those,
+    who yet remain the property of their masters.' * * * 'Who would
+    not rejoice to see our country liberated from her black
+    population? Who would not participate in any efforts to restore
+    those children of misfortune to their native shores, and kindle
+    the lights of science and civilization through Africa? Who that
+    has reflection, does not tremble for the political and moral
+    well-being of a country, that has within its bosom, a growing
+    population, bound to its institutions by no common sympathies,
+    and ready to fall in with any faction that may threaten its
+    liberties?' * * * 'The existence of this race among us; a race
+    that can neither share our blessings nor incorporate in our
+    society, is already felt to be a curse; and though the only
+    curse entailed on us, if left to take its course, it will become
+    the greatest that could befal the nation.
+
+    'Shall we then cling to it, and by refusing the timely expedient
+    now offered for deliverance, retain and foster the _alien
+    enemies_, till they have multiplied into such greater numbers,
+    and risen into such mightier consequence as will for ever bar
+    the possibility of their departure, and by barring it, bar also
+    the possibility of fulfilling our own high destiny?' * * 'The
+    object of this Society is two-fold; for while it immediately and
+    ostensibly directs its energies to the amelioration of the
+    condition of the free people of color, it relieves our country
+    from an unprofitable burden, and which, if much longer submitted
+    to, may record upon our history the dreadful cries of vengeance
+    that but a few years since were registered in characters of
+    blood at St. Domingo.' * * 'It is the removal of the _free_
+    blacks from among us, that is to save us, sooner or later, from
+    those dreadful events foreboded by Mr Jefferson, or from the
+    horrors of St. Domingo. The present number of this unfortunate,
+    degraded, and anomalous class of inhabitants cannot be much
+    short of half a million; and the number is fast increasing. They
+    are emphatically a mildew upon our fields, a scourge to our
+    backs, and a stain upon our escutcheon. To remove them is mercy
+    to ourselves, and justice to them.'--[African Repository, vol.
+    v. pp. 28, 51, 88, 278, 304, 348.]
+
+
+    'All admit the utility of the separation of the free people of
+    color from the residue of the population of the United States,
+    if it be practicable. It is desirable for them, _for the slaves
+    of the United States_, and for the white race. The vices of this
+    class do not spring from any inherent depravity in their natural
+    constitution, but from their unfortunate situation. Social
+    intercourse is a want which we are prompted to gratify by all
+    the properties of our nature. And as they cannot obtain it in
+    the better circles of society, nor always among themselves,
+    they resort to slaves and to the most debased and worthless of
+    the whites. Corruption, and all the train of petty offences, are
+    the consequences. Proprietors of slaves in whose neighborhood
+    any free colored family is situated, know how infectious and
+    pernicious this intercourse is.' * * * 'Who, if this promiscuous
+    residence of whites and blacks, of freemen and slaves, is for
+    ever to continue, can imagine the servile wars, the carnage and
+    the crimes which will be its probable consequences, without
+    shuddering with horror?' * * 'It were madness to shut our eyes
+    to these facts and conclusions. This rapid increase of the
+    blacks is as certain as the progress of time. The fatal
+    consequences of that increase, if it be not checked, are equally
+    so. Something must be done. The American Colonization Society
+    proposes a remedy--the removal to Africa of the blacks who are
+    free, or shall hereafter become so, with their consent.' * *
+    'The colored population is considered by the people of Tennessee
+    and Alabama in general, as an immense evil to the country--but
+    the free part of it, by all, as the greatest of all evils....
+    They feel severely the effects of the deleterious influence
+    which the free negroes exert upon the slaves--and they look,
+    moreover, into futurity, and there they behold an appalling
+    scene--in less than one hundred years, (a short time, we should
+    hope, in the life of this republic,) 16,000,000 of blacks.'
+    * * * * 'Since the recent revolution in the island of St. Domingo,
+    which has placed it in the hands of the African race, it was
+    thought by some that there an asylum might be found for this
+    part of our population. But to that place there were also
+    serious objections, which would prevent its adoption to any
+    considerable extent. The nearness of that Island to our southern
+    borders, and the evil consequences that might result from
+    embodying the free persons of color in the vicinity of those
+    parts of the United States, where slaves are so numerous,
+    forbade the friends of humanity to provide a home for them in
+    that Island.'--[African Repository, vol. vi. pp. 17, 23, 68, 77,
+    226.]
+
+
+    'The existence, within the very bosom of our country, of an
+    anomalous race of beings, the most debased upon earth, who
+    neither enjoy the blessings of freedom, nor are yet in the bonds
+    of slavery, is a great national evil, which every friend of his
+    country most deeply deplores. They constitute a large mass of
+    human beings, who hang as a vile excrescence upon society--the
+    objects of a low debasing envy to our slaves, and to ourselves
+    of universal suspicion and distrust.' * * 'If this process were
+    continued a second term of duplication, it would produce the
+    extraordinary result of forty white men to one black in the
+    country--a state of things in which we should not only cease to
+    feel the burdens which now hang so heavily upon us, but actually
+    regard the poor African as an object of curiosity, and not
+    uneasiness.' * * 'Enough, under favorable circumstances, might
+    be removed for a few successive years--if young _females_ were
+    encouraged to go--to keep the whole colored population in
+    check.'--[African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 230, 232, 246.]
+
+
+    'The existence of such a population among us is a most manifest
+    evil. And every year adds to its threatening aspect. They are
+    more than a sixth of our population! Their ratio of increase
+    exceeds that of the whites. They have all the lofty and immortal
+    powers of man. And the time must arrive, when they will
+    fearlessly claim the prerogatives of man. They may do it in the
+    spirit of revenge. They may do it in the spirit of desperation.
+    And the result of such a mustering of their energies--who can
+    look at it even in distant prospect without horror? Almost as
+    numerous are they now, as our whole population when this nation
+    stood forth for freedom in a contest with the mightiest power of
+    the civilized world. And if nothing is done to _arrest their
+    increase_, we shall have in twenty years four millions of
+    slaves; in forty years eight millions; in sixty years sixteen
+    millions, and a million of free blacks;--seventeen millions of
+    people; seven millions more than our present white
+    population;--enough for a powerful empire! And how can they be
+    governed? Who can foretel those scenes of carnage and terror
+    which our own children may witness, unless a seasonable remedy
+    be applied? The remedy is now within our reach. _We can stop
+    their increase_; we can diminish their number.'--[Rev. Baxter
+    Dickinson's Sermon delivered at Springfield, Mass. in 1829.]
+
+
+    'We have a numerous people, who, though they are among us, are
+    not of us; who are aliens and outcasts in the land of their
+    birth. A people whose condition is degraded and miserable; who,
+    so far from adding to our national strength, are an element of
+    weakness, and detract from the amount of human effort. A people,
+    whose condition, while it excites our commiseration, must awaken
+    our fears.' * * 'Those persons of color who have been
+    emancipated, are only nominally free; and the whole race, so
+    long as they remain among us, and whether they be slaves or
+    free, must _necessarily_ be kept in a condition full of
+    wretchedness to them and full of danger to the whites. This view
+    of the subject is rendered the more alarming by the rapid
+    increase of this portion of our population.'--[Second Annual
+    Report of the New-York State Colonization Society, pp. 4, 34.]
+
+
+    'We would ask, whence have the troubles, which have taken place
+    among the slaves of Louisiana, originated? Trace the causes, and
+    we will invariably find them to have proceeded from the
+    suggestions and officious interferences of the free blacks.
+    Their very existence in our limits, enjoying supposed
+    independence, excites the envy and dissatisfaction of the
+    slaves. The latter naturally inquire, why is it, that persons of
+    the same color, are permitted to possess more privileges than
+    they do?... We know the danger to which we are exposed from such
+    a class of beings living in the very heart of our population,
+    and increasing greatly every year.'--[An advocate of the Society
+    in the New-Orleans Argus.]
+
+
+    'Among us the free negroes are multiplying rapidly; both
+    conscience and religion, as well as propagation, increase them,
+    and, unless instant and decisive steps are taken to prevent
+    their increase, you will soon have 50,000 _determined and
+    vengeful enemies_ in the heart of your country, protected there
+    by the constitution, forsooth, by which it seems we are
+    forbidden to expel the free negroes, or to prevent farther
+    importations of this deadly pest in the persons of
+    slaves.'--[Louisville Focus.]
+
+
+    'Will not the people of the United States be induced to do
+    something to remove their colored population? I refer to their
+    condition, whether bond or free. They are wretched and
+    dangerous, and should be removed. And the danger arises, not
+    because we have thousands of slaves within our borders, but
+    because there are nearly two millions of colored men, who are by
+    necessity any thing rather than loyal citizens.'--[Address by
+    Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]
+
+
+    'It is not now a novel or a debateable proposition, that slavery
+    is a great moral and political curse. It is equally clear that
+    its multitudinous evils are greatly increased by the existence
+    among us of a mongrel population, who, freed from the shackles
+    of bondage, yet bear about them the badge of inferiority,
+    stamped upon them indelibly by the hand of nature, and are
+    therefore deprived of those rights of citizenship, without which
+    they must necessarily be a degraded caste--depraved in morals
+    and vicious in conduct, and _exercising a mischievous and
+    dangerous influence over those to whom they are nominally
+    superior_. Their mere existence among the slaves is sufficient,
+    of itself, to excite in the bosoms of the latter a feeling of
+    dissatisfaction with their own condition, apparently worse,
+    because of the coercion to labor which it imposes; but
+    essentially better, because of the comforts which that labor
+    procures, and of which the idle and dissolute habits of the free
+    negro almost invariably deprive him. The slave, however, is not
+    capable of reasoning correctly, if he reasons at all, on these
+    truths. He envies the free negro his idleness, and his freedom
+    from restraint, with all its attendant disadvantages of poverty
+    and disease, crime and punishment--and hence, he will sometimes
+    indulge the delusive dream of effecting his own emancipation by
+    the murder of those who hold him in bondage. Take away from him
+    this cause of dissatisfaction, and this incentive to
+    insurrection, and then these "impracticable hopes," which now
+    sometimes flit before his imagination, will no longer embitter
+    his hours of labor, and urge him to the commission of those
+    horrid deeds of massacre, which, though they may glut a
+    momentary revenge, must result disastrously, not only to the
+    slaves engaged immediately in their perpetration, but to all
+    that unfortunate race. Our true interests require that they
+    shall remove from among us--and no longer be a source of
+    disquietude to the whites, _of envy to the slaves_, and of
+    degradation to themselves.'--[Lynchburg (Va.) Virginian.]
+
+
+    'For the most conclusive reasons this removal should be to
+    Africa. If it be to the West Indies, to Texas, to Canada, then,
+    how strong and various the objections to building up, in the
+    vicinity of our own nation, a mighty empire, from a race of men,
+    _so unlike ourselves_? But, if the removal be to Africa, then it
+    is to a _happy distance_ from us and to their father land....
+    Then let it aid in removing that population, which, under its
+    peculiar relation to the whites, and under its degrading social
+    and civil disabilities, is a most fruitful source of national
+    dishonor, demoralization, weakness and _horrid
+    danger_.'--[Memorial of the New-York State Colonization
+    Society.]
+
+
+    'The males removed should be persons between 16 and 17 years of
+    age; the females between 13 and 14. Now as a number would be
+    annually removed equal to the whole increase, and as that number
+    would be composed of individuals, of such ages that their
+    removal would affect the future increase of the race in the
+    greatest possible degree, I believe that their numbers would not
+    only not increase, but would diminish. And the number removed
+    might be increased as the proportion of white persons in the
+    State became greater, until the removal reached a point at which
+    all the males who attained the age of sixteen, and all the
+    females who attained the age of fourteen, in any given year,
+    would during that year be removed.'--[Petersburg (Va.) Times.]
+
+
+    'They are well calculated to render the slaves sullen,
+    discontented, unhappy and refractory--and the masters
+    suspicious, fearful of consequences, and disposed to enhance the
+    rigor of the condition of their slaves, in order to avert the
+    dangers that appear to impend over them from the promulgation of
+    the anti-slavery doctrines; thus, in this case, as in so many
+    others, the imprudent zeal of friends is likely to produce as
+    much substantial injury as the animosity of decided enemies
+    could accomplish.'--[Mathew Carey's Essays.]
+
+
+    'Hatred to the whites is, with the exception in some cases of an
+    attachment to the person and family of the master, nearly
+    universal among the black population. We have then a foe,
+    cherished in our very bosoms--a foe willing to draw our
+    life-blood whenever the opportunity is offered, and, in the mean
+    time, intent upon doing us all the mischief in his
+    power.'--[Southern Religious Telegraph.]
+
+Does the reader wish for any additional proof that the governing motive
+of the American Colonization Society is fear--undisguised, _excessive_
+FEAR? Language is altogether inadequate to express my indignation and
+contempt, in view of such a heartless and cowardly exhibition of
+sentiment. There is a deep sense of guilt, an awful dread of
+retribution, manifested in the foregoing extracts; but we perceive no
+evidence of contrition for past or present injustice, on the part of
+those terror-stricken plotters. Instead of returning to those, whom
+they have so deeply injured, 'with repenting and undissembling love;'
+instead of seeking to conciliate and remunerate the victims of their
+prejudice and oppression; instead of resolving to break the yoke of
+servitude and let the oppressed go free; it seems to be their only
+anxiety and aim to outwit the vengeance of Heaven, and strengthen the
+bulwarks of tyranny, by expelling the free people of color from our
+shores, and effecting such a diminution of the number of slaves as shall
+give the white population a triumphant and irresistible superiority!
+'_Check the increase!_' is their cry--'let us retain in everlasting
+bondage as many as we can, _safely_; but the proportion must be at least
+ten millions of ourselves to two millions of our vassals, else we shall
+live in jeopardy! To do justly is not our intention; we only mean to
+remove the surplus of our present stock; we think we shall be able, by
+this prudent device, to oppress and rob with impunity. Our present
+wailing is not for our heinous crimes, but only because our avarice and
+cruelty have carried us beyond our ability to protect ourselves: we
+lament, not because we hold so large a number in fetters of iron, but
+because we cannot safely hold more!'
+
+Ye crafty calculators! ye hard-hearted, incorrigible sinners! ye greedy
+and relentless robbers! ye contemners of justice and mercy! ye
+trembling, pitiful, pale-faced usurpers! my soul spurns you with
+unspeakable disgust. Know ye not that the reward of your hands shall be
+given you? 'Wo unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write
+grievousness which they have prescribed; to turn aside the needy from
+judgment, and to take away the right from the poor, that widows may be
+their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! And what will ye do in
+the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far?
+to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your
+glory?'--'What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the
+face of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts.'--'Behold, the hire of
+the laborers which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept
+back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are
+entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.' Repent! repent! _now_,
+in sackcloth and ashes. Think not to succeed in your expulsive crusade;
+you cannot hide your motives from the Great Searcher of hearts; and if a
+sinful worm of the dust, like myself, is fired with indignation at your
+dastardly behaviour and mean conspiracy to evade repentance and
+punishment, how must the anger of Him, whose holiness and justice are
+infinite, burn against you? Is it not a fearful thing to fall into the
+hands of the living God? You may plot by day and by night; you may heap
+together the treasures of the land, and multiply and enlarge your
+combinations, to extricate yourselves from peril; but _you cannot
+succeed_. Your only alternative is, either to redress the wrongs of the
+oppressed _now_, and humble yourselves before God, or prepare for the
+chastisements of Heaven. I repeat it--REPENTANCE or PUNISHMENT must be
+yours.
+
+There are several points upon which I wish to fasten the attention of
+the reader:
+
+1. The inhumanity and craftiness of these propositions for the removal
+of the free people of color.
+
+It will be seen that the conspirators have taxed their ingenuity to the
+utmost, to ascertain the exact number of emigrants which must be
+transported annually, the amount of money that must be raised, the
+persons that must be selected, the number of vessels that must be
+employed, &c. &c. It is their determination, if the necessary means can
+be obtained, to transport the annual increase of our colored population;
+but in this calculation we find no allowance made for unwillingness or
+resistance on the part of those who are the objects of their
+supervision. It is taken for granted that all will be induced to go into
+exile, or must be made willing compulsorily. Nothing else is
+contemplated but their entire expulsion. In order to insure a reduction
+of this 'alarming increase,' and effectually to check the fruitfulness
+of generation, even the unmanly and scandalous proposition is made to
+remove principally those of both sexes who are just come to the age of
+puberty! The system of _espionage_, established by Napoleon to prevent
+the possibility of a successful conspiracy, was not more detestable and
+observant than is this violent and unnatural project. 'If young
+_females_ were encouraged to go'!--why, then they could not propagate
+here! Infamous calculation!
+
+2. The principal object avowed for the removal of the free people of
+color, is, their corruptive and dangerous influence over the slave
+population.
+
+It is demonstrated, then, beyond disputation, that this removal will
+infuse new strength into the tottering system of slavery, tighten the
+grasp of the masters upon the throats of the slaves, lull them into a
+profound and quiet sleep, postpone the hour of emancipation, and enhance
+the security and value of slave property. The terror of mind which calls
+for this separation cannot be benevolence, and the combination which
+seeks to effect it cannot merit support. It were folly to hope that the
+owners of slaves will ultimately emancipate them, from conscientious
+motives. In the first place, they affect to be innocent in holding their
+victims in servitude; secondly, they are assured by their colonization
+brethren that they are not guilty of oppression, but, on the contrary,
+are watchful guardians; and lastly, they are obstinate in shutting their
+eyes upon the light, and kindle into a rage on being arraigned for their
+tyrannous conduct. Our only ground of hope, then, is in increasing the
+difficulty of holding their slaves, in multiplying the causes of their
+apprehensions, in destroying the value of slave labor, and in making
+their situation full of disquietude and distress. Such a course is not
+inconsistent with benevolence--such a course we are obligated to pursue,
+as we value the present and everlasting welfare of the oppressor and the
+oppressed, and desire to have a conscience void of offence toward God
+and toward man. It may--it _must_ be effected by a scrupulous abstinence
+from the productions of slavery; by encouraging planters to cultivate
+their lands by the hands of free laborers; by educating our free colored
+population, and placing them on an equality with ourselves; and by
+constantly exhibiting the criminality of holding rational and immortal
+beings in servile bondage. Thus, and thus only, shall we be able to
+liberate our enslaved countrymen.
+
+3. Consider the inevitable consequence of these reiterated and malignant
+statements, with regard to the habits and designs of the free people of
+color.
+
+First, it deters a large number of masters from liberating their slaves,
+and hence directly perpetuates the evils of slavery: it deters them for
+two reasons--an unwillingness to augment the wretchedness of those who
+are in servitude by turning them loose upon the country, and a dread of
+increasing the number of their enemies. It creates and nourishes the
+bitterest animosity against the free blacks. It has spread an alarm
+among all classes of society, in all parts of the country; and, acting
+under this fearful impulse, they begin to persecute, believing
+self-preservation imperiously calls for this severe treatment. The
+legislative enactment of Ohio, which not long since drove many of the
+colored inhabitants of that State into Upper Canada, was the legitimate
+fruit of the anathemas of the Colonization Society. A bill has been
+reported in the same legislature for preventing free people of color
+from participating in the benefit of the common school fund, in order to
+hasten their expulsion from the State! Other States are multiplying
+similar disabilities, and hanging heavier weights upon their free
+colored population. The Legislature of Louisiana has enacted that
+whosoever shall make use of language, in any public discourse, from the
+bar, the bench, the pulpit, the stage, or in any other place whatsoever
+shall make use of language, in any private discourses, or shall make use
+of signs or actions having a tendency to produce discontent among the
+colored population, shall suffer imprisonment at hard labor, not less
+than three years, nor more than twenty-one years, or DEATH, at the
+discretion of the court!! It has also prohibited the instruction of the
+blacks in Sabbath Schools--$500 penalty for the first offence--DEATH for
+the second!! The Legislature of Virginia has passed a bill which
+subjects all free negroes who shall be convicted of remaining in the
+commonwealth contrary to law, to the liability of _being sold by the
+sheriff_. All meetings of free negroes, at any school-house or
+meeting-house, for teaching them reading or writing, are declared an
+unlawful assembly; and it is made the duty of any justice of the peace
+to issue his warrant to enter the house where such unlawful assemblage
+is held, for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such free
+negroes. A fine is to be imposed on every white person who instructs at
+such meetings. All emancipated slaves, who shall remain more than twelve
+months, contrary to law, shall revert to the executors as assets. Laws
+have been passed in Georgia and North Carolina, imposing a heavy tax or
+imprisonment on every free person of color who shall come into their
+ports in the capacity of stewards, cooks, or seamen of any vessels
+belonging to the non-slaveholding States. The Legislature of Tennessee
+has passed an act forbidding free blacks from coming into the State to
+remain more than twenty days. The penalty is a fine of from ten to fifty
+dollars, and confinement in the penitentiary from one to two years.
+Double the highest penalty is to be inflicted after the first offence.
+The act also prohibits manumission, without an immediate removal from
+the State. The last Legislature of Maryland passed a bill, by which no
+free negro or mulatto is allowed to emigrate to, or settle in the State,
+under the penalty of fifty dollars for every week's residence therein;
+and if he refuse or neglect to pay such fine, he shall be committed to
+jail and sold by the sheriff at public sale; and no person shall employ
+or harbor him, under the penalty of twenty dollars for every day he
+shall be so employed, hired or harbored! It is not lawful for any free
+blacks to attend any meetings for religious purposes, unless conducted
+by a _white_ licensed or ordained preacher, or some respectable white
+person duly authorised! All free colored persons residing in the State,
+are compelled to register their names, ages, &c. &c.; and if any negro
+or mulatto shall remove from the State, and remain without the limits
+thereof for a space longer than thirty consecutive days, unless before
+leaving the State he deposits with the clerk of the county in which he
+resides, _a written statement of his object in doing so_, and his
+intention of returning again, or unless he shall have been detained by
+sickness or coercion, _of which he shall bring a certificate_, he shall
+be regarded as a resident of another State, and be subject, if he
+return, to the penalties imposed by the foregoing provisions upon free
+negroes and mulattoes of another State, migrating to Maryland! It is not
+lawful for any person or persons to purchase of any free negro or
+mulatto any articles, unless he produce a certificate from a justice of
+the peace, or three respectable persons residing in his neighborhood,
+that he or they have reason to believe, and do believe, that such free
+negro or mulatto came honestly and bona fide into possession of any
+such articles so offered for sale! A bill has been reported to the
+Legislature of Pennsylvania, which enacts, that from and after a
+specified time, no negro or mulatto shall be permitted to emigrate into
+and settle in that State, without entering into bond in the penal sum of
+_five hundred dollars_, conditioned for his good behavior. If he neglect
+or refuse to comply with this requisition, such punishment shall be
+inflicted upon him as is now directed in the case of vagrants. Free
+colored residents are not to be allowed to migrate from one township or
+county to another, without producing a certificate from the Clerk of the
+Court of Quarter Sessions, or a Justice of the Peace, or an Alderman!
+The passage of a similar law has been urged even upon the Legislature of
+Massachusetts by a writer in the Salem Gazette!
+
+All these proscriptive measures, and others less conspicuous but equally
+oppressive,--which are not only flagrant violations of the Constitution
+of the United States, but in the highest degree disgraceful and
+inhuman,--are resorted to, (to borrow the language of the Secretary in
+his Fifteenth Annual Report,) 'for the more complete accomplishment of
+the great objects of the American Colonization Society'!!
+
+I appeal to the candor and common sense of the reader, if this grievous
+persecution be not justly chargeable to the Society? It is constantly
+thundering in the ears of the slave States--'Your free blacks
+contaminate your slaves, excite their deadliest hate, and are a source
+of _horrid danger_ to yourselves! They must be removed, or your
+destruction is inevitable!' What is their response? Precisely such as
+might be expected--'We know it; we dread the presence of this class;
+their influence over our slaves weakens our power, and endangers our
+safety; they must, _they shall_ be expatriated, or be crushed to the
+earth if they remain!' It says to the free States--'Your colored
+population can never be rendered serviceable, intelligent or loyal; they
+will only, and always, serve to increase your taxes, crowd your
+poor-houses and penitentiaries, and corrupt and impoverish society!'
+Again, what is the natural response?--'It is even so; they are offensive
+to the eye, and a pest in community; theirs is now, and must inevitably
+be, without a reversal of the laws of nature, the lot of vagabonds; it
+were useless to attempt their intellectual and moral improvement among
+ourselves; and therefore be this their alternative--either to emigrate
+to Liberia, or remain for ever a despicable caste in this country!'
+
+Hence the enactment of those sanguinary laws, to which reference has
+been made: hence, too, the increasing disposition which is every where
+seen to render the situation of the free blacks intolerable. Never was
+it so pitiable and distressing--so full of peril and anxiety--so
+burdened with misery, despondency and scorn; never were the prejudices
+of society so virulent and implacable against them; never were their
+prospects so dark, and dreary, and hopeless; never was the hand of power
+so heavily laid upon their limbs; never were they so restricted in
+regard to locomotion and the advantages of education, as at the present
+time. Athwart their sky scarcely darts a single ray of light--above and
+around them darkness reigns, and an angry tempest is mustering its
+fearful strength, and 'thunders are uttering their voices.' Treachery is
+seeking to decoy, and violence to expel them. For all this, and more
+than this, and more that is to come, the American Colonization Society
+is responsible. And no better evidence is needed than this: THEIR
+PERSECUTION, TRADUCEMENT AND WRETCHEDNESS INCREASE IN EXACT RATIO WITH
+THE INFLUENCE, POPULARITY AND EXTENSION OF THIS SOCIETY! The fact is
+undeniable, and it is conclusive. For it is absurd to suppose, that as
+the disposition and ability of an association to alleviate misery
+increase, so will the degradation and suffering of the objects of its
+charities.
+
+The assertion that the free blacks corrupt the morals of the slaves, is
+too ludicrous to need a serious refutation. Corrupt the morals of those
+who are recognized and treated as brutes, and who know as little of the
+laws of God as of the laws of the land! Immaculate creatures! The system
+of slavery is constantly developing new excellencies: it is, we now
+perceive, the protector of virtue, the enemy of vice, and a purifier of
+the soul!
+
+But something more indiscreet and preposterous than this, is advanced
+for our admiration. We are gravely assured, first, by a New-England
+clergyman, that, generally, the condition of the free man of color 'is
+one in comparison with which the condition of the slave is _enviable_;'
+and, secondly, by the last distinguished convert to the Colonization
+Society--the Hon. Mr. Archer of Virginia--'the condition of the slave is
+_a thousand times_ the best, [the disparity is wonderful!]--_supplied_,
+_protected_, instead of _destitute_ and _desolate_'![Q] Let us draw a
+brief comparison. The limbs of the free black are fetterless; he is
+controlled by no brutal driver; he bleeds not under the lash; he is his
+own master; his wife and children cannot be torn from his arms; he
+enjoys the fruits of his own labor; he can improve his own mind, make
+his own bargains, manage his own business, go from place to place, and
+assert his own rights. The situation and privileges of the slave are
+exactly the reverse. Reader, are they 'enviable'--'a thousand times the
+best'--in comparison with those of the former? I do not mean to say that
+there are no instances in which the slave fares as well as the free man
+of color; but the argument of these apologists implies that a state of
+slavery is superior to a state of freedom, or it is worthless.
+
+4. It appears, from the quotations that have been given, that the only
+reason why the free blacks are not colonized in the 'far West,' or in
+Canada, or Hayti, or Mexico, is, because their proximity to the slave
+States might prove detrimental. If they could be sent to any or to all
+these places, without any danger to ourselves, why then all objections
+would cease. This confession places the hypocrisy of this Society in
+bold relief. It pretends to be anxious to evangelize benighted Africa,
+and stop the slave trade; but only assure it that the blacks may be
+safely colonized nearer home, and Africa might still continue to grope
+in darkness, and the slave trade to increase in enormity, and its bowels
+of compassion would speedily cease to yearn!--Hence it is that the rapid
+enlargement of the Wilberforce Settlement in Upper Canada so disturbs
+the repose of the advocates of African colonization; and many of them
+would rejoice at its overthrow.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[P] How very strange that the slave should 'regard as tyranny and
+injustice the authority which compels him to labor' without
+recompense!!!
+
+[Q] Paupers and criminals are supplied and _protected_. How invidious to
+treat them so generously, and leave honest, hard-working men exposed to
+destitution and abandonment! They ought to be sent to the poor-house or
+penitentiary forthwith.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VII.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY AIMS AT THE UTTER EXPULSION OF THE
+BLACKS.
+
+
+The implacable spirit of this Society is most apparent in its
+determination not to cease from its labors, until our whole colored
+population be expelled from the country. The following is the evidence
+in confirmation of this charge:
+
+    'How came we by this population? By the prevalence for a century
+    of a guilty commerce. And will not the prevalence for a century
+    of a restoring commerce, place them on their own shores? Yes,
+    surely!'--[African Repository, vol. i. p. 347.]
+
+
+    'For several years the subject of abolition of slavery has been
+    brought before you. I am decidedly opposed to the project
+    recommended. NO SCHEME OF ABOLITION WILL MEET MY SUPPORT, THAT
+    LEAVES THE EMANCIPATED BLACKS AMONG US. Experience has proved,
+    that they become a corrupt and degraded class, as burthensome to
+    themselves as they are hurtful to the rest of society. To permit
+    the blacks to remain amongst us, after their emancipation, would
+    be to aggravate and not to cure the evil.'--[Idem, vol. ii. pp.
+    188, 189.]
+
+
+    'We would say, LIBERATE THEM ONLY ON CONDITION OF THEIR GOING TO
+    AFRICA OR TO HAYTI.'--[Idem, vol. iii. p. 26.]
+
+
+    '_I am not complaining of the owners of slaves_; IT WOULD BE AS
+    HUMANE TO THROW THEM FROM THE DECKS IN THE MIDDLE PASSAGE, AS TO
+    SET THEM FREE IN OUR COUNTRY.' * * * 'The Colonization Society,
+    I undertake to show, presents such a scheme. Slaveholders have
+    given it their approbation; they will approve it, and they can
+    approve of no other. _Any scheme of emancipation without
+    colonization_, they know and see and feel to be productive of
+    nothing but evil; evil to all whom it affects: to the white
+    population, to the slaves, to the _manumitted themselves_.' * *
+    'Throughout the slaveholding States there is a strong objection,
+    even among the warmest friends of the African race, to slaves
+    being liberated and allowed to remain among us; and some States
+    have enacted laws against it. _The objection is, in our
+    individual opinion, well founded._'--[Idem, vol. iv. pp. 226,
+    300, 340.]
+
+
+    'In connexion with this subject, your memorialists beg leave to
+    mention, that by an act of the Virginia Legislature, passed in
+    1805, emancipated slaves forfeit their freedom by remaining for
+    a longer period than twelve months, within the limits of the
+    Commonwealth. This law, odious and unjust as it may at first
+    view appear, and hard as it may seem to bear upon the liberated
+    negro, was doubtless dictated by sound policy, and _its repeal
+    would be regarded by none with more unfeigned regret, than by
+    the friends of African Colonization_. It has restrained many
+    masters from giving freedom to their slaves, and has thereby
+    contributed to check the growth of an evil _already too great
+    and formidable_.' * * 'Under the influence of a policy, already
+    referred to, _and justified by the necessity from which it
+    sprung_, the laws of Virginia have prohibited emancipation
+    within the limits of the State, but on condition of the early
+    removal of the individual emancipated.' * * 'While hundreds,
+    perhaps we might say thousands, of the free colored people, are
+    seeking a passage to Liberia; hundreds who hold slaves, would
+    willingly set them at liberty, were the means of their removal
+    provided. And till those means are provided, the liberation of
+    the slave would neither be a blessing to himself, nor the
+    public. His liberty under any circumstances may be a debt due,
+    in the abstract, to the claims of human nature; but when applied
+    to him individually, it would be a calamity. We cannot conceive
+    of a more deplorable state of society, than what our
+    slaveholding states would present, with their black population
+    afloat, without a home, without the means of subsistence, and
+    without those self-relying habits, which might lead them to
+    obtain an independent livelihood. _It is not therefore incumbent
+    upon those who hold slaves, to set them at liberty, till some
+    means are provided for their removal, or at least for their
+    subsistence._ They owe it neither to themselves, to their
+    country, nor the unfortunate beings around them.' * * * 'Those
+    slaves still in my possession, I cannot conscientiously
+    emancipate, unless they shall be removed by the Society to
+    Liberia.'--[Idem, vol. v. pp. 20, 53, 89, 177.]
+
+
+    'If the question were submitted, whether there should be either
+    immediate or gradual emancipation of all the slaves in the
+    United States, _without their removal or colonization_, painful
+    as it is to express the opinion, I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT IT WOULD
+    BE UNWISE TO EMANCIPATE THEM.' * * 'Is our posterity doomed to
+    endure forever not only all the ills flowing from the state of
+    slavery, but all which arise from incongruous elements of
+    population, separated from each other by invincible prejudices,
+    and by natural causes? Whatever may be the character of the
+    remedy proposed, we may confidently pronounce it inadequate,
+    unless it provides efficaciously for the _total_ and _absolute_
+    separation, by an extensive space of water or of land, at least,
+    of the white portion of our population from that, which is free,
+    of the colored.' * * 'Who, if this promiscuous residence of
+    whites and blacks, of freemen and slaves, is forever to
+    continue, can imagine the servile wars, the carnage and the
+    crimes which will be its probable consequences, without
+    shuddering with horror?' * * 'Gentlemen of the highest
+    respectability from the South, assure us, that there is among
+    the owners of slaves a very extensive and increasing desire to
+    emancipate them. Their patriotism, their humanity, nay their
+    self-interest, prompt to this; but it is not expedient, it is
+    not safe to do it, _without being able to remove them_.' * *
+    'How important it is, as it respects our character abroad, that
+    we hasten to _clear our land of our black population_!'
+
+    'Some benevolent minds in the overflowings of their
+    philanthropy, advocate amalgamation of the two classes, saying,
+    let the colored class be freed, and remain among us as denizens
+    of the Empire; surely all classes of mankind are alike descended
+    from the primitive parentage of Eden, then why not intermingle
+    in one common society as friends and brothers. _No, Sir, no._ I
+    hope to prove at no very distant day, that a Southron can make
+    sacrifices for the cause of Colonization beyond seas; but for a
+    Home Department in those matters, I repeat, _no, Sir, no_. What
+    right, I demand, have the children of Africa to an homestead in
+    the white man's country?'[R]
+
+    'Let the regenerated African rise to Empire; nay, let Genius
+    flourish, and Philosophy shed its mild beams to enlighten and
+    instruct the posterity of Ham, returning "redeemed and
+    disenthralled," from their long captivity in the New World. But,
+    Sir, be all these benefits enjoyed by the African race under the
+    shade of their native palms. _Let the Atlantic billow heave its
+    high and everlasting barrier between their country and ours._
+    Let this fair land, which the white man won by his chivalry,
+    which he has adorned by the arts and elegancies of polished
+    life, be kept sacred for his descendants, untarnished by the
+    footprint of him who hath ever been a slave.'--[Idem, vol. vi.
+    pp. 5, 12, 23, 110, 364, 371, 372.]
+
+
+    'The idea of emancipating our slaves, and _permitting them to
+    remain within the limits of the U. S._ whether as a measure of
+    humanity or of policy, is most decisively reprobated by
+    universal public sentiment.... Does any man in his senses desire
+    this population to remain among us? If the whole community could
+    reply, IT WOULD RESPOND IN ONE UNIVERSAL NEGATIVE.'--[Idem, vol.
+    vii. pp. 230, 231.]
+
+
+    'In reflecting on the utility of a plan for colonizing the free
+    people of color, with whom our country abounds, it is natural
+    that we should be first struck by its tendency to confer a
+    benefit on ourselves, _by ridding us of a population_ for the
+    most part idle and useless, and too often vicious and
+    mischievous.... All emancipation, to however small an extent,
+    _which permits the persons emancipated to remain in this
+    country_, is an evil, which must increase with the increase of
+    the operation, and would become altogether intolerable, if
+    extended to the whole, or even to a very large part, of the
+    black population. I am therefore strongly opposed to
+    emancipation, in every shape and degree, _unless accompanied by
+    colonization_.'--[First Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'They will annex the condition that the emancipated SHALL LEAVE
+    THE COUNTRY.'--[Second Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'They require that the _whole mass_ of free persons of color,
+    and those who may become such with the consent of their owners,
+    _should be progressively removed_ from among us, as fast as
+    their own consent can be obtained, and as the means can be found
+    for their removal and for their proper establishment in Africa.
+    Nothing short of this progressive but complete removal can
+    accomplish the great objects of this measure, in relation to the
+    security, prosperity, and happiness of the United
+    States.'--[Seventh Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Is it either safe or prudent to retain amongst us a large
+    population, on whom we can place no reliance, but from the
+    control which the laws exercise over it? Can this class be
+    animated by any feelings of patriotism towards a country by
+    which they feel themselves oppressed?'--[Ninth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Colonization, to be correct, must be beyond seas.--Emancipation,
+    _with the liberty to remain on this side of the Atlantic_, IS
+    BUT AN ACT OF DREAMY MADNESS!'--[Thirteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Has our country the resources demanded for the accomplishment
+    of an object of such magnitude? The transportation of more than
+    two millions of souls to a remote country is indeed an object of
+    formidable aspect. It obviously cannot be accomplished at once.
+    But that the number can be gradually diminished, _till utterly
+    extinguished_, may be made to appear, it is believed, from a
+    little arithmetical calculation....' 'It has been said that the
+    entire shipping of the country, both public and private, would
+    hardly be competent for an object of this magnitude. But careful
+    calculation has proved, that one eighteenth of the mercantile
+    shipping alone, entirely devoted to the enterprise, is competent
+    to carry it into complete consummation. And why might not our
+    brilliant and growing _navy_ aid to some extent the humane and
+    patriotic cause? If necessary, why might not _the marine of
+    other lands_ be chartered? Strange indeed it is if shipping
+    enough could be found half a century ago to reduce hundreds of
+    thousands of this race in a single year to a wretched vassalage,
+    and in this age of augmented light, and wealth, and improvement
+    in every art, enough cannot be found for the single benevolent
+    object before us!'--[Rev. Baxter Dickinson's Sermon delivered in
+    Springfield in 1829.]
+
+
+    'How much soever we may regret that so little is done for the
+    intellectual and moral improvement of the free colored
+    population, as the surest preventive against crime, still we
+    must acknowledge it is in vain to attempt raising their
+    character to a level with that of the other inhabitants. They
+    must find an asylum beyond the influence of the white
+    population, or the majority of them will _ever be found unworthy
+    of the boon of freedom_. There must be that asylum for them, or
+    we despair of ever being able to improve materially their
+    condition, or to eradicate slavery from our soil, and thus
+    prevent the awful catastrophe which threatens our republic. They
+    must be furnished with facilities to leave this country and
+    establish themselves in a community of their own.'--'I have
+    alluded to the difficulties which are presented to the minds of
+    benevolent and conscientious slaveholders, wishing to manumit
+    their slaves. From what has been said, it is evident that unless
+    some drain is opened to convey out of the country the
+    emancipated, the laws which relate to emancipation, must
+    continue in force with all their rigor. Without this drain, we
+    can hope for no repeal, or relaxation of those laws where the
+    slaves are very numerous. The mass of slaveholders can never let
+    go their hold on their slaves, and suffer them, ignorant,
+    vicious and treacherous, to roam at large. If no drain is
+    opened, necessity will compel them, as their slaves increase,
+    and consequently the danger, to add statute to statute in regard
+    to their slaves, until it be found necessary to arm one part of
+    the population to control the other. I may add, that as bitter
+    an enemy as I am to slavery, I cannot greatly desire that these
+    laws should be relaxed--that slavery should be abolished,
+    _unless its unfortunate and degraded subjects can be removed
+    from the country_. If this is not effected, whatever may be our
+    views and wishes on this subject, I am confident that
+    slaveholders will justify themselves in resorting to almost any
+    measures to keep their slaves in entire subjection.'--[An
+    advocate of the Society in the Middletown (Ct.) Gazette.]
+
+
+    'To talk of emancipating the slave population of these States
+    without providing them with an asylum, is truly idle. The free
+    blacks already scattered through the country, are a dangerously
+    burthensome order of people. They cannot amalgamate with the
+    population--the ordinances of nature are against it. They must,
+    in the main, be a degraded order, hanging loosely upon
+    society.'--[Idem.]
+
+
+    'The slaves _are_ in their possession--they are entailed upon
+    them by their ancestors. And can they set them free, _and still
+    suffer them to remain in the country_? Would this be
+    policy?--Would it be safe? NO. When they can be transported to
+    the soil from whence they were derived--by the aid of the
+    Colonization Society, by government, by individuals, or by any
+    other means--then let them be emancipated, and not
+    before.'--[Lowell (Mass.) Telegraph.]
+
+
+    'Avarice and iniquity have torn from that injured continent,
+    within thirty years, no less than 1,500,000 slaves; and cannot
+    humanity, religion, and justice, restore an equal number in the
+    same time? If we desire to accomplish this work, it is plain
+    that we can do it, and that too with a sum contemptible when
+    compared with the magnitude of the evil.'--[Address of Gabriel
+    P. Disosway.]
+
+
+    'We thank God that the ultimate accomplishment of the great
+    scheme of colonization is now placed beyond a doubt, in
+    Maryland; and that the day is not even distant when _the whole
+    of our colored population_ will have transferred themselves, by
+    our assistance, from slavery or degradation here, to peace, and
+    plenty, and power, and prosperity, and liberty, and
+    independence, in a land which Providence originally gave
+    them.'--[Baltimore Gazette.]
+
+
+    'It tends, and may powerfully tend, to rid us gradually and
+    entirely, in the United States, of slaves and slavery: a great
+    moral and political evil, of increasing virulence and extent,
+    from which much mischief is now felt, and very great calamity in
+    future is justly apprehended.'--[First Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'What can be done to mitigate or prevent the existing and
+    apprehended evils, resulting from our black population?
+    EMANCIPATION, WITHOUT REMOVAL FROM THE COUNTRY, IS OUT OF THE
+    QUESTION.' * * 'As long as our present feelings and prejudices
+    exist, the abolition of slavery cannot be accomplished without
+    the removal of the blacks--THEY CANNOT BE EMANCIPATED AS A
+    PEOPLE, AND REMAIN AMONG US.'--[Second Annual Report of the
+    New-York State Col. Soc.]
+
+
+    'It would gladly, however, grasp at a still grander object--that
+    of restoring to the land of their fathers the whole colored race
+    within our borders. Nor probably will it be satisfied to rest
+    from its labors, till this object, in all its magnitude, is
+    accomplished.'--[Rev. Baxter Dickinson's Sermon.]
+
+
+    'It must appear evident to all, that every endeavor to divert
+    the attention of the community, or even a portion of the means,
+    which the present crisis to imperatively calls for, from the
+    Colonization Society, to measures calculated to bind the colored
+    population to this country and seeking to raise them (_an
+    impossibility_) to a level with the whites, whether by founding
+    colleges or in any other way, tends directly in the proportion
+    that it succeeds, to counteract and thwart the whole plan of
+    colonization. Although none would rejoice more than myself to
+    see this unhappy race elevated to the highest scale of human
+    being, it has always seemed to me that this country was not the
+    theatre for such a change. Far happier they, far happier we, had
+    they never touched our soil, or breathed our air. As it is, to
+    attain solid happiness and permanent respectability, they should
+    now remove to a more congenial clime.'--[New Haven Religious
+    Intelligencer for July, 1831.]
+
+
+    'The recent murderous movements of the people of color in some
+    of the southern States, evinces the dreadful consequences of
+    slavery, and the absolute necessity of colonizing all free
+    blacks immediately, and of manumitting and colonizing slaves as
+    fast as circumstances will justify the measure. We believe, and
+    have for many years, that this is the only course, which will
+    ensure prosperity and safety to our southern
+    brethren.'--[New-Hampshire Observer.]
+
+
+    'The removal annually of one hundred thousand, it may be safely
+    calculated, would sink the parent stock forty thousand in each
+    year, and this in thirty years would reduce the blacks of the
+    Union to a very small number--perhaps not one would
+    remain.'--[National (Ohio) Historian.]
+
+
+    'We will demonstrate, that the conveyance of the present annual
+    increase would, in less than thirty years, remove the whole to
+    Africa. Let all, for instance, born in any single year, say of
+    the age of twenty, be removed to Africa; and in each succeeding
+    year, let all of that age be removed in the same manner.--Then,
+    admitting, what is far too much to admit, that a generation
+    lasts fifty years, on an average, the generation on the stage
+    when the process commenced, would have become extinct at the end
+    of thirty years, and all their increase or offspring would have
+    been removed to Africa. Thirty years would, even in this way,
+    clear them entirely from this country.--But there are two
+    circumstances which would, in fact, make the time much shorter.
+
+    '1. It is known that a generation lasts but a little more than
+    thirty years. The generation, then, on the stage at the
+    commencement of the process, would virtually be extinct in a
+    little more than ten years. 2. By the removal of the most
+    prolific part, the annual increase would itself be diminished
+    more than a thirtieth part, in each successive year; that is, it
+    would be diminished in an arithmetical ratio, so that it would
+    be reduced to nothing before the arrival of the thirtieth
+    year.'--[American Spectator.]
+
+
+    'It is "a consummation devoutly to be wished," that we should
+    get clear of the free people of color now, and as they are
+    successively liberated, as well on their own account as ours;
+    and I trust and hope, we shall both have the pleasure to see a
+    moral certainty of the removal of all these poor people back to
+    the same country from which their ancestors were
+    taken.'--[African Repository, vol. iii. p. 311.]
+
+
+    'Neither do we consider liberty worth their acceptance, _unless
+    they can be sent out of the country_. There is no doubt that a
+    large proportion of the slaves enjoy life quite as well as those
+    who are free.'--[Oxford (Me.) Observer.]
+
+
+    'It is estimated that there are 2,350,680 blacks in the United
+    States, 339,360 of whom are free denizens of this republic. The
+    object of this Society is THE REMOVAL OF THESE TO
+    AFRICA.'--[New-York Standard.]
+
+
+    'We hope to make it for the interest of the owners, in some way,
+    to part with their slaves;--not to be let loose among our white
+    population, but to be carried back to the land of their
+    fathers.'--[N. Y. Journal of Commerce.]
+
+
+    'If they are to be placed above their present degraded
+    condition, they must be removed to a country where they can rise
+    as high as any man--be eligible to any office--then you will see
+    them rise with the rapidity of the tide.'--[Southern Religious
+    Telegraph.]
+
+
+    'God has put a mark upon the black man.' ... 'The God of Nature
+    intended they should be a _distinct_, free and independent
+    community.'--[New-Haven Palladium.]
+
+
+    'We do not ask that the provisions of our Constitution and
+    statute book should be so modified as to relieve and exalt the
+    condition of the colored people, _whilst they remain with us_.
+    LET THESE PROVISIONS STAND IN ALL THEIR RIGOR, to work out the
+    ultimate and unbounded good of this people. Persuaded that their
+    condition here is not susceptible of a radical and permanent
+    improvement, WE WOULD DEPRECATE ANY LEGISLATION THAT SHOULD
+    ENCOURAGE THE VAIN AND INJURIOUS HOPE OF IT.'--[Memorial of the
+    New-York State Colonization Society.]
+
+
+    'Let the wise and good among us unite in removing the blacks
+    from the country. Would it not be expedient for the properly
+    constituted authorities to prevent the manumission of slaves in
+    every case, unless provision is made, at the same time, to
+    secure their removal from the country?'--[Alexandria Gazette.]
+
+
+    'We should be in favor of the abolition of slavery, if its
+    abolishment could be effected with safety, and the colored
+    population sent back to Africa; but merely to have them obtain
+    freedom and let loose upon society, would be the greatest curse
+    that could befal _them_ or _community_.'--[Essex Chronicle and
+    County Republican.]
+
+
+    'THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY WAS NO OBJECT OF DESIRE TO HIM, UNLESS
+    ACCOMPANIED BY COLONIZATION. So far was he from desiring it,
+    unaccompanied by this condition, that HE WOULD NOT LIVE IN A
+    COUNTRY WHERE THE ONE TOOK PLACE WITHOUT THE OTHER'!!!--[Mr
+    Mercer's Speech in Congress.]
+
+In order to wipe off the reproach due to this violent expulsion, it was
+necessary, on the part of the Society, to find some pretext that would
+not only seem to justify but confer credit on the measure. Accordingly,
+it agreed to represent the colored inhabitants of the United States as
+aliens and foreigners, who, cast upon our shores by a cruel fatality,
+were sighing to return to their native land. 'Poor unfortunate
+exiles!'--how touching the appeal, how powerful the motive to assist,
+how likely to excite the compassion of the nation! Ah! what an air of
+disinterested benevolence, of generous compassion, of national
+attachment, must such an enterprise wear in the eyes of the world! Who
+that loved his own country, and deprecated an eternal absence from it,
+could refuse to help in restoring the unfortunate Africans to their
+long-estranged home? Such was, and is, and is likely to be, the artifice
+resorted to, in order to cover a base conspiracy, and give popularity to
+one of the wildest and most disgraceful crusades the world has ever
+witnessed. Let the following evidence suffice:
+
+    'At no very distant period, we should see all the free colored
+    people in our land transferred to _their own country_.' * * 'Let
+    us send them back to _their native land_.' * * 'By returning
+    them to _their own ancient land_ of Africa, improved in
+    knowledge and in civilization, we repay the debt which has so
+    long been due them.'--[African Repository, vol. i. pp. 65, 146,
+    176.]
+
+
+    'And though we may not live to see the day when the sons of
+    Africa shall have returned to _their native soil_,' &c. * * 'To
+    found in Africa an empire of christians and republicans; to
+    reconduct the blacks to _their native land_,' &c.--[Idem, pp.
+    13, 375.]
+
+
+    'Who would not rejoice to see our country liberated from her
+    black population? Who would not participate in any efforts to
+    restore those children of misfortune to _their native shores_?'
+    * * 'The colored population of this country can never rise to
+    respectability here; in _their native soil_ they can.' * * 'The
+    only remedy afforded is, to colonize them in _their mother
+    country_.' * * 'They would go to that _home_ from which they
+    have been long absent.' * * 'Shall we ... retain and foster the
+    _alien enemies_?'--[Idem, 88, 179, 185, 237.]
+
+
+    'Be all these benefits enjoyed by the African race under the
+    shade of their native palms.'--[Idem, vol. vi. p. 372.]
+
+
+    'We have a numerous people, who, though they are among us, _are
+    not of us_.'--[Second Annual Report of the N. Y. State Col.
+    Soc.]
+
+
+    'Among us is a growing population of _strangers_.' * * 'It will
+    furnish the means of granting to _every African exile_ among us
+    a happy home in the land of his fathers.'--[Rev. Baxter
+    Dickinson's Sermon.]
+
+
+    'Africa is indeed inviting her long exiled children to return to
+    her bosom.'--[Circular of Rev. Mr Gurley.]
+
+Nothing could be more invidious or absurd than the foregoing
+representation. The great mass of our colored population were born in
+this country. This is their native soil; here they first saw the light
+of heaven, and inhaled the breath of life; here they have grown from
+infancy to manhood and old age; from these shores they have never
+wandered; they are the descendants of those who were forcibly torn from
+Africa two centuries ago; their fathers assisted in breaking the yoke of
+British oppression, and achieving that liberty which we prize above all
+price; and they cherish the strongest attachment to the land of their
+birth. Now, as they could not have been born in two countries, and as
+they were certainly born here, it follows that Africa is not their
+native home, and, consequently, that the Society has dealt in romance,
+or something more culpable, in representing them as strangers and
+aliens. It might as rationally charge them with being natives of Asia or
+Europe, or with having descended from the regions of the moon. To see
+ourselves gravely represented in a British periodical as natives of
+Great Britain, I doubt not would create great merriment; and a scheme
+for our transportation would add vastly to our sport.
+
+'But,' we are told, 'God has put a mark upon the black man.' True; and
+he has also put a mark upon every man, woman and child, in the world; so
+that every one differs in appearance from another--is easily
+identified--and, to make the objection valid, should occupy a _distinct_
+portion of territory, be himself a nation, enact his own laws, and live
+in perpetual solitude! The difference between a black and a white skin
+is not greater than that between a white and a black one. In either
+case, the mark is distinctive; and the blacks may as reasonably expel
+the whites, as the whites the blacks. To make such a separation we have
+no authority; to attempt it, would end only in disappointment; and, if
+it were carried into effect, those who are clamorous for the measure
+would be among the first to be cast out. The all-wise Creator, having
+'made of _one blood_ all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the
+earth,' it is proper for them to associate freely together; and he is a
+proud worm of the dust who is ashamed to acknowledge this common
+relationship.
+
+Again we are told: 'The God of Nature intended the blacks should be a
+_distinct_ community.' But has he been frustrated in his intentions?
+Where is the proof of such purpose? Let us have something more than the
+_ipse dixit_ of the Society. Yes, we are seriously assured that Nature
+has played falsely! Colored persons were born by mistake in this
+country: they should have been born in Africa! We must therefore rectify
+the error, with all despatch, by transporting them to their _native
+soil_! Truly, a most formidable enterprise! There occur at least sixty
+thousand of such _mistakes_, annually; while the Society has corrected
+only about two thousand in fourteen years! But--courage! men engaged in
+a laudable enterprise should never despair!
+
+There are some difficulties, however, in the accomplishment of this
+mighty task, which cannot be easily overcome. Granting the position
+assumed by colonizationists, that the _blacks_ and the _whites_ should
+occupy different countries, how do they intend to dispose of that
+numerous and rapidly increasing class who are neither white nor black,
+called mulattoes? We have not been informed to what country they belong;
+but the point ought to be settled before any classification be made.
+Colonizationists must define, moreover, the exact shade of color which
+is to retain or banish individuals; for every candid mind will admit,
+that it would be as unnatural to send _white_ blood to Africa, as to
+keep _black_ blood in America. 'If the color of the skin is to give
+construction to our constitution and laws, let us, at once, begin the
+work of excision. Let us raise an army of pure whites, if such an army
+can be found; and let us drive out and transport to foreign climes, men,
+women and children, who cannot bring the most satisfactory vouchers,
+that their veins are flowing with the purest English blood. Indeed, let
+us shut up our ports against our own mariners, who are returning from an
+India voyage, and whose cheeks and muscles could not wholly withstand
+the influence of the breezes and tropics to which they were exposed. Let
+us make every shade of complexion, every difference of stature, and
+every contraction of a muscle, a Shibboleth, to detect and cut off a
+brother Ephraimite, at the fords of Jordan. Though such a crusade would
+turn every man's sword against his fellow; yet, it might establish the
+right of precedence to different features, statures and colors, and
+oblige some friends of colonization to test the feasibility and equity
+of their own scheme.'
+
+If I must become a colonizationist, I insist upon being consistent:
+there must be no disagreement between my creed and practice. I must be
+able to give a reason why all our tall citizens should not conspire to
+remove their more diminutive brethren, and all the corpulent to remove
+the lean and lank, and all the strong to remove the weak, and all the
+educated to remove the ignorant, and all the rich to remove the poor, as
+readily as for the removal of those whose skin is 'not colored like my
+own;' for Nature has sinned as culpably in diversifying the size as the
+complexion of her progeny, and Fortune in the distribution of her gifts
+has been equally fickle. I cannot perceive that I am more excusable in
+desiring the banishment of my neighbor because his skin is darker than
+mine, than I should be in desiring his banishment because he is a
+smaller or feebler man than myself. Surely it would be sinful for a
+black man to repine and murmur, and impeach the wisdom and goodness of
+God, because he was made with a sable complexion; and dare I be guilty
+of such an impeachment, by persecuting him on account of his color? I
+dare not: I would as soon deny the existence of my Creator, as quarrel
+with the workmanship of his hands. I rejoice that he has made one star
+to differ from another star in glory; that he has not given to the sun
+the softness and gentleness of the moon, nor to the moon the intensity
+and magnificence of the sun; that he presents to the eye every
+conceivable shape, and aspect, and color, in the gorgeous and
+multifarious productions of Nature; and I do not rejoice less, but
+admire and exalt him more, that, notwithstanding he has made of one
+blood the whole family of man, he has made the whole family of man to
+differ in personal appearance, habits and pursuits.
+
+I protest against sending any to Africa, in whose blood there is any
+mixture of our own; for, I repeat it, white blood in Africa would be as
+repugnant to Nature, as black blood is in this country. Now; most
+unfortunately for colonizationists, the spirit of amalgamation has been
+so active for a long series of years,--especially in the slave
+States,--that there are comparatively few, besides those who are
+annually smuggled into the south from Africa, whose blood is not tainted
+with a foreign ingredient. Here, then, is a difficulty! What shall be
+done? All black blood _must_ be sent to Africa; but how to collect it is
+the question. What shall be done! Why, we must resort to _phlebotomy_!
+
+    'Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
+    ---------------- nor cut thou less nor more,
+    But just a pound of flesh: if thou tak'st more,
+    Or less, than just a pound,--be it but so much
+    As makes it light, or heavy, in the substance,
+    Or the division of the twentieth part
+    Of one poor scruple; nay, if the scale do turn
+    But in the estimation of a hair,
+    Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate!'
+
+The colonization crusade cannot now fail of being popular. Phlebotomy
+being agreed to as a _dernier resort_, I shall briefly enumerate some of
+the various professions and classes which may expect to derive no
+inconsiderable gain from its execution; for as our government, in
+conjunction with benevolent associations, is to appropriate millions of
+dollars to accomplish this object, the pay will be sure and liberal.
+
+In the first place, there will be more than a million patients, for
+whose accommodation hospitals must be erected. These hospitals will
+employ brick-makers, masons, carpenters, painters, glaziers, &c. &c.
+&c.; of course, the approval of a large body of mechanics is readily
+secured.
+
+Physicians will next obtain an extensive practice. Their patients, in
+consequence of a free application of the lancet, must necessarily be
+debilitated, and can be kept 'quite low' until a long score of charges
+be run up against the government.
+
+Among so many patients and so much unavoidable sickness, druggists and
+apothecaries will obtain a profitable sale for their medicines. Nurses
+will be next in demand, who may expect high wages. Even the lowly
+washers of soiled clothes will find the life-blood of the victims
+'coined into drachms' for their reward. It is highly probable that many
+of the patients may die under the expurgatory process, and hence sextons
+and coffin-makers may calculate upon good times. With death come
+mourning and lamentation, and 'weeds of wo.' Dealers in crape will
+doubtless secure a handsome patronage. Lawyers may hope to profit by the
+demise of those who possess property. Indeed, almost every class in
+community must, to a greater or less extent, feel the beneficial effects
+of this philanthropic but novel experiment. The blood, taken from the
+veins of the blacks, may be transfused into our own, and the general
+pulse acquire new vigor.
+
+Supposing a majority of the patients should recover, three other classes
+will thrive by their expulsion--namely, ship-builders, merchants and
+seamen. As our vessels are all occupied in profitable pursuits, new ones
+must be built--freights will rise--and the wages of seamen be
+proportionably enhanced.--But a truce to irony.
+
+The American Colonization Society, in making the banishment of the
+slaves the condition of their emancipation, inflicts upon them an
+aggravated wrong, perpetuates their thraldom, and disregards the claims
+of everlasting and immutable justice. The language of its most
+distinguished supporters is, 'Emancipation, with the liberty to remain
+on this side of the Atlantic, is but an act of dreamy
+madness'--'Emancipation, without removal from the country, is out of the
+question'--'All emancipation, to however small an extent, which permits
+the person emancipated to remain in this country, is an evil'--'They
+cannot be emancipated as a people, and remain among us.' Thus the
+restoration of an inalienable right, and an abandonment of robbery and
+oppression, are made to depend upon the practicability of transporting
+more than one sixth portion of our whole population to a far distant and
+barbarous land! It is impossible to imagine a more cruel, heaven-daring
+and God-dishonoring scheme. It exhibits a deliberate and perverse
+disregard of every moral obligation, and bids defiance to the
+requisitions of the gospel.
+
+Listen to the avowal of Mr Mercer of Virginia, one of the main pillars
+and most highly extolled supporters of the Society: 'The abolition of
+slavery was no object of desire to him, unless accompanied by
+colonization. So far was he from desiring it, unaccompanied by this
+condition, that _he would not live in a country where the one took place
+without the other_'! This language may be correctly rendered thus: 'I
+desire to see two millions of human beings plundered of their rights,
+and subjected to every species of wrong and outrage, _ad infinitum_, if
+they cannot be driven out of the country. I am perfectly willing to live
+with them while they are treated worse than cattle,--ignorant, vicious,
+and wretched,--and while they are held under laws which forbid their
+instruction; and not only am I willing thus to live, but I am determined
+to practise the same oppression. But, if they should be emancipated with
+liberty to remain here, and placed in a situation favorable to their
+moral and intellectual improvement--a situation in which they could be
+no longer bought and sold, lacerated and manacled, defrauded and
+oppressed--I would abandon my native land, and never return to her
+shores.' And this is the language of a _philanthropist_! and this the
+moral principle of the boasted champion of the American Colonization
+Society! Whose indignation does not kindle, whose astonishment is not
+profound, whose disgust is not excited, in view of these sentiments?
+
+But this is not the acme of colonization insanity. The assertion is made
+by a highly respectable partisan, and endorsed by the organ of the
+Society, that '_it would be as humane to throw the slaves from the decks
+in the middle passage_, [i. e. into the ocean,] _as to set them free in
+our country_'!!! And even Henry Clay, who is an oracle in the cause, has
+had the boldness to declare, that the slaves should be held in
+everlasting servitude if they cannot be colonized in Africa!! And this
+sentiment is echoed by another, who says, 'Liberate them only on
+condition of their going to Africa or Hayti'!
+
+I will not even seem to undervalue the good sense and quick perception
+of the candid and intelligent reader, by any farther endeavors to
+illustrate the sacrifice of principle and inhumanity of purpose which
+are contained in the extracts under the present section. With so strong
+an array of evidence before him, no one, who is not mentally blind or
+governed by prejudice, can fail to rise from its perusal with amazement
+and abhorrence, and a determination to assist in overthrowing a
+combination which is based upon the rotten foundation of expediency and
+violence.
+
+The Colonization Society expressly denies the right of the slaves to
+enjoy freedom and happiness in this country; and this denial
+incontestibly tends to rivet their fetters more firmly, or make them the
+victims of a relentless persecution.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[R] What right have we to an homestead in the red man's country? Let us
+return to the land of our fathers, and leave this soil untarnished by
+the footprint of him who hath a white skin! What right have the hosts of
+foreign emigrants, who are flocking to our shores, to an homestead among
+ourselves?
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VIII.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE DISPARAGER OF THE FREE BLACKS.
+
+
+The leaders in the African colonization crusade seem to dwell with a
+malignant satisfaction upon the poverty and degradation of the free
+people of color, and are careful never to let an opportunity pass
+without heaping their abuse and contempt upon them. It is a common
+device of theirs to contrast the condition of the slaves with that of
+this class, and invariably to strike the balance heavily in favor of the
+former! In this manner, thousands are led to look upon slavery as a
+benevolent system, and to deprecate the manumission of its victims.
+Nothing but a love of falsehood, or an utter disregard of facts, could
+embolden these calumniators to deal so extensively in fiction. What! the
+slaves more happy, more moral, more industrious, more orderly, more
+comfortable, more exalted, than the free blacks! A more enormous
+exaggeration, a more heinous libel, a wider departure from truth, was
+never fabricated, or uttered, or known. The slaves, as a body, are in
+the lowest state of degradation; they possess no property; they cannot
+read; they are as ignorant, as their masters are reckless, of moral
+obligation; they have no motive for exertion; they are thieves from
+necessity and usage; their bodies are cruelly lacerated by the
+cart-whip; and they are disposable property. And yet these poor
+miserable, perishing, mutilated creatures are placed above our free
+colored population in dignity, in enjoyment, in privilege, in
+usefulness, in respectability!!
+
+    'There is a class, however, more numerous than all these,
+    introduced amongst us by violence, notoriously ignorant,
+    degraded and miserable, mentally diseased, broken-spirited,
+    _acted upon by no motives to honorable exertions_, SCARCELY
+    REACHED IN THEIR DEBASEMENT BY THE HEAVENLY LIGHT; yet where is
+    the sympathy and effort which a view of their condition ought to
+    excite? They wander unsettled and unbefriended through our land,
+    or sit indolent, abject and sorrowful, by the "streams which
+    witness their captivity." Their freedom is _licentiousness_, and
+    to many RESTRAINT WOULD PROVE A BLESSING. To this remark there
+    are exceptions; exceptions proving that to change their state
+    would be to elevate their character; that virtue and enterprise
+    are absent, only, because absent are the causes which create the
+    one, and the motives which produce the other.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. i. p. 68.]
+
+
+    'Free blacks are a greater nuisance than even slaves
+    themselves.' * * * 'They knew that where slavery had been
+    abolished it had operated to the advantage of the masters, not
+    of the slaves: they saw this fact most strikingly illustrated in
+    the case of the free negroes of Boston. If, on the anniversary
+    celebrated by the free people of color, of the day on which
+    slavery was abolished, they looked abroad, what did they see?
+    Not freemen, in the enjoyment of every attribute of freedom,
+    with the stamp of liberty upon their brows! No, Sir; they saw a
+    ragged set, crying out liberty! for whom liberty had nothing to
+    bestow, and whose enjoyment of it was but in name. He spoke of
+    the great body of the blacks; there were some few honorable
+    exceptions, he knew, which only proved what might be done for
+    all.'--[African Repository, vol. ii. p. 328.]
+
+
+    'Although there are individual exceptions distinguished by high
+    moral and intellectual worth, yet the free blacks in our country
+    are, as a body, more vicious and degraded than any other which
+    our population embraces.' * * * 'If, then, they are a useless
+    and dangerous species of population, we would ask, is it
+    generous in our southern friends to burthen us with them?
+    Knowing themselves the evils of slavery, can they wish to impose
+    upon us an evil scarcely less tolerable? We think it a mistaken
+    philanthropy, which would liberate the slave, unfitted by
+    education and habit for freedom, and cast him upon a merciless
+    and despising world, where his only fortune must be poverty, his
+    only distinction degradation, and his only comfort
+    insensibility.' * * * 'I will look no farther when I seek for
+    the _most degraded, the most abandoned race on the earth_, but
+    rest my eyes on this people. What but sorrow can we feel at the
+    _misguided piety_ which has set free so many of them by
+    death-bed devise or sudden conviction of injustice? Better, far
+    better, for us, had they been kept in bondage, where the
+    opportunity, the inducements, the necessity of vice would not
+    have been so great. Deplorable necessity, indeed, to one borne
+    down with the consciousness of the violence we have done. Yet I
+    am clear that, whether we consider it with reference to the
+    welfare of the State, or the happiness of the blacks, it were
+    better to have left them in chains, than to have liberated them
+    to receive such freedom as they enjoy, and greater freedom _we
+    cannot, must not_ allow them.' * * 'There is not a State in the
+    Union not at this moment groaning under the evil of this class
+    of persons, a curse and a contagion whereever they reside.' * *
+    'The increase of a free black population among us has been
+    regarded as a greater evil than the increase of
+    slaves.'--[African Repository, vol. iii. pp. 24, 25, 197, 203,
+    374.]
+
+
+    'Mr. Mercer adverted to the situation of his native State, and
+    the condition of the free black population existing there, whom
+    he described as a horde of miserable people--the objects of
+    universal suspicion; _subsisting by plunder_.'--[Idem, vol. iv.
+    p. 363.]
+
+
+    'They leave a country in which though born and reared, they are
+    strangers and aliens; where _severe necessity_ places them in a
+    class of degraded beings; where they are free without the
+    blessings and privileges of liberty; where in ceasing to be
+    slaves of one, they have become subservient to many; where,
+    neither freemen nor slaves, but placed in an anomalous grade
+    which they do not understand and others disregard; where no kind
+    instructer, no hope of preferment, no honorable emulation
+    prompts them to virtue or deters from vice; their industry
+    waste, not accumulation; their regular vocation, any thing or
+    nothing as it may happen; their greater security, sufferance;
+    their highest reward, forgiveness; vicious themselves and the
+    cause of vice in others; discontented and exciting discontent;
+    scorned by one class and _foolishly envied by another_; thus,
+    and WORSE CIRCUMSTANCED, they, cannot but choose to
+    move.'--[Idem, vol. v. p. 238.]
+
+
+    'Of all the descriptions of our population, _and of either
+    portion of the African race_, the free people of color are, by
+    far, as a class, the MOST CORRUPT, DEPRAVED, AND ABANDONED. The
+    laws, it is true, proclaim them free; but prejudices, more
+    powerful than any laws, deny them the privileges of freemen.
+    They occupy a middle station between the free white population
+    and the slaves of the United States, and the tendency of their
+    habits is to corrupt both.' * * * 'That the free colored
+    population of our country is a great and constantly increasing
+    evil must be readily acknowledged. Averse to labor, with no
+    incentives to industry or motives to self-respect, they maintain
+    a precarious existence by petty thefts and plunder, themselves,
+    or by inciting our domestics, not free, to rob their owners to
+    supply their wants.' * * * 'If there is in the whole world, a
+    more wretched class of human beings than the free people of
+    color in this country, I do not know where they are to be found.
+    They have no home, no country, no kindred, no friends. They are
+    lazy and indolent, because they have no motives to prompt them
+    to be industrious. They are in general destitute of principle,
+    because they have nothing to stimulate them to honorable and
+    praise-worthy conduct. Let them be maltreated ever so much, the
+    law gives them no redress unless some white person happens to be
+    present, to be a witness in the case. If they acquire property,
+    they hold it by the courtesy of every vagabond in the country;
+    and sooner or later, are sure to have it filched from
+    them.'--[Idem, vol. vi. pp. 12, 135, 228.]
+
+
+    'The existence, within the very bosom of our country, of an
+    anomalous race of beings, THE MOST DEBASED UPON EARTH, who
+    neither enjoy the blessings of freedom, nor are yet in the bonds
+    of slavery, is a great national evil, which every friend of his
+    country most deeply deplores.... Tax your utmost powers of
+    imagination, and you cannot conceive one motive to honorable
+    effort, which can animate the bosom, or give impulse to the
+    conduct of a free black in this country. Let him toil from youth
+    to age in the honorable pursuit of wisdom--let him store his
+    mind with the most valuable researches of science and
+    literature--and let him add to a highly gifted and cultivated
+    intellect, a piety pure, undefiled, and "unspotted from the
+    world"--it is all nothing: he would not be received into the
+    very lowest walks of society. If we were constrained to admire
+    so uncommon a being, our very admiration would mingle with
+    disgust, because, in the physical organization of his frame, we
+    meet an insurmountable barrier, even to an approach to social
+    intercourse, and in the Egyptian color, which nature has stamped
+    upon his features, a principle of repulsion so strong as to
+    forbid the idea of a communion either of interest or of feeling,
+    as utterly abhorrent. Whether these feelings are founded in
+    reason or not, we will not now inquire--perhaps they are not.
+    But education and habit, and prejudice have so firmly riveted
+    them upon us, that they have become as strong as nature
+    itself--and to expect their removal, or even their slightest
+    modification, would be as idle and preposterous as to expect
+    that we could reach forth our hands, and remove the mountains
+    from their foundations into the vallies, which are beneath
+    them.'--[African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 230, 331.]
+
+
+    'We have been charged with wishing only to remove our free
+    blacks, that we may the more effectually rivet the chains of the
+    slave. But the class we first seek to remove, are neither
+    freemen nor slaves; _but between both_, AND MORE MISERABLE THAN
+    EITHER.' * * * 'Who is there, that does not know something of
+    the condition of the blacks in the northern and middle States?
+    They may be seen in our cities and larger towns, wandering like
+    foreigners and outcasts, in the land which gave them birth. They
+    may be seen in our penitentiaries, and jails, and poor-houses.
+    They may be found inhabiting the abodes of poverty, and the
+    haunts of vice. But if we look for them in the society of the
+    honest and respectable--if we visit the schools in which it is
+    our boast that the meanest citizen can enjoy the benefits of
+    instruction--we might also add, if we visit the sanctuaries
+    which are open for all to worship,[S] and to hear the word of
+    God; we shall not find them there.' * * 'Leaving slavery and its
+    subjects for the moment entirely out of view, there are in the
+    United States 238,000 blacks denominated free, but whose freedom
+    confers on them, we might say, no privilege but the _privilege
+    of being more vicious and miserable than slaves can
+    be_.'--[Seventh Annual Report, pp. 12, 87, 99.]
+
+
+    'Placed midway between freedom and slavery, they know neither
+    the incentives of the one, nor the restraints of the other; but
+    are alike injurious by their conduct and example, to all other
+    classes of society.'--[Eight Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Of all classes of our population, the most vicious is that of
+    the free colored. It is the inevitable result of their moral,
+    political, and civil degradation. Contaminated themselves, they
+    extend their vices to all around them, to the slaves and to the
+    whites.'--[Tenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The question arises, where shall these outcasts go? Ohio, and
+    the free States of the West, which formerly invited them into
+    their bosom, no longer offer them a welcome home. Disgusted with
+    their laziness and vice, the inevitable concomitants of the
+    anomalous relation in which they stand to society, the
+    authorities of those States are seeking to get rid of what they
+    find, too late, to be a curse to any settlement of whites--a
+    thriftless race of vagabonds, whose footsteps are the sure
+    precursors of indigence and crime. One of the most intelligent
+    gentlemen of Ohio, (Mr Charles Hammond,) in a recent notice of
+    this subject, says, "This dangerous class of population has
+    increased considerably within a few years past, and the slaves
+    States cannot too soon adopt efficient measures to get rid of
+    it. Emigrations to Liberia ought to be provided for, and
+    insisted upon, and the legislatures should pass laws to prevent
+    emancipation, without adequate provision for the transportation
+    of the manumitted."'--[Lynchburg Virginian.]
+
+
+    'As it is now, they are for the most part in a debased and
+    wretched condition. They have the vices of our community without
+    its virtues. And what is worse, I speak of the majority, they
+    have no desire to rise from their state of abject depression--no
+    wish to gain a respectable elevation of character. Consequently
+    it is difficult, if not impossible, to present them motives
+    Which shall incite them to enter on a course of industry and
+    virtue.' * * * 'Bound by no political ties to the community in
+    which they dwell, and excluded for the most part from exercising
+    the rights and privileges of freemen, on the ground of their
+    alleged inferiority and worthlessness, they have no inducements
+    to abandon lives of indolence, sensuality and recklessness, or
+    to support the laws and institutions of the government placed
+    over them. Nothing but the fear of suffering the penalty of
+    violated law, can prevent them from preying on those among whom
+    they live.'--[Middletown (Ct.) Gazette.]
+
+
+    'They have taken the free black that, as a class, dwells among
+    us a living nuisance, nominally free, but bowed to the ground by
+    public opinion--IN ONE PART OF THE COUNTRY DULL AS A BRUTISH
+    BEAST, IN ANOTHER THE WILD STIRRER UP OF SEDITION AND
+    INSURRECTION--they have shewn him to be capable of quiet and
+    judicious self-government.-- ... We cannot shut our eyes any
+    longer upon the disadvantages of our black population, whether
+    in slavery or freedom. It is a sword perpetually suspended over
+    our heads by a single hair; it is the fountain of bitter waters
+    that poisons all our enjoyments.'--[Speeches of J. R. Townsend,
+    Esq. and W. W. Campbell, Esq. New-York city.]
+
+
+    'The fact was most glaring, without an inquiry, that the same
+    shackles which bound them, fastened them also to the resources
+    of the soil, and the interests of the community; and when these
+    were broken, and the incentives of authority removed, the weight
+    of ignorance, the want of better incentives, and the fatal and
+    untried power of grateful but ruinous idleness, sunk them to a
+    state, which, however elevated in theory, was in fact more
+    degraded and more miserable than that of bondage. In addition to
+    all this, pauperism, with the numerous evils of corrupt and
+    corrupting indolence, threatened to impose its sluggish weight
+    upon a groaning community. Hence, the progress of emancipation
+    was, for the time, most righteously arrested.'--[Address of the
+    Board of Managers of the African Education Society.]
+
+
+    'Who are the free people of color in the United States? In what
+    circumstances does philanthropy find them! There are indeed
+    individuals and families, who are sober, industrious, pious. But
+    what are the remainder, the mass? Every one knows that their
+    condition is deep and wretched degradation; but, only a few have
+    ever formed any accurate conception of the reality. The fact is,
+    that as a class they are branded. They have no home, no country,
+    no such personal interest in the welfare of the community, as
+    gives a certain degree of manliness to almost every white
+    man.... Three hundred thousand freemen in this country, are
+    freemen only in name, forming only little else than a mass of
+    pauperism and crime.... Here the black man is paralysed and
+    crushed by the constant sense of inferiority. He has no
+    effectual incentives to manly enterprise. He stands in a
+    degraded class of society; and out of that class he never dreams
+    of rising.'--[Christian Spectator.]
+
+
+    'This is the true condition of the free colored population of
+    our land. They are placed mid way between freedom and slavery;
+    they feel neither the moral stimulants of the one, nor the
+    restraints of the other, and are alike injurious to every other
+    class of the community.'--[Southern Religious Telegraph.]
+
+I repel these charges against the free people of color, as unmerited,
+wanton and untrue. It would be absurd to pretend, that, as a class,
+they maintain a high character: it would be equally foolish to deny,
+that intemperance, indolence and crime prevail among them to a mournful
+extent. But I do not hesitate to assert, from an intimate acquaintance
+with their condition, that they are more temperate and more industrious
+than that class of whites who are in as indigent circumstances, but who
+have certainly far greater incentives to labor and excel; that they are
+superior in their habits to the hosts of foreign emigrants who are
+crowding to our shores, and poisoning our moral atmosphere; and that
+their advancement in intelligence, in wealth, and in morality,
+considering the numberless and almost insurmountable difficulties under
+which they have labored, has been remarkable. I am informed that
+twenty-five or thirty years ago, the colored inhabitants of Philadelphia
+scarcely owned a dollar's worth of real estate, whereas they now own
+enough to amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. This fact speaks
+volumes in praise of their industry and economy; for, be it remembered,
+they have had to accumulate this property in small sums, by shaving the
+beards, cleaning the boots and clothes, and being the servants of their
+white contemners, and in other menial employments. In Baltimore,
+Philadelphia, New-York, and other places, there are several colored
+persons whose individual property is worth from ten thousand to one
+hundred thousand dollars;[T] and in all those cities, there are primary
+and high schools for the education of the colored
+population--flourishing churches of various denominations--and numerous
+societies for mutual assistance and improvement, &c. In Philadelphia
+alone, I believe, there are nearly fifty colored associations for
+benevolent, literary, scientific and moral purposes.[U] Yet these are
+the people of whom it is said, 'they are acted upon by no motives to
+honorable exertions;' that they are 'scarcely reached in their
+debasement by the heavenly light' (almost a denial of the power of the
+Holy Ghost); that 'their freedom is licentiousness;' that 'they are a
+greater nuisance than even the slaves themselves;' that they are 'the
+most degraded, the most abandoned race on the earth;' that they are
+'worse circumstanced than the slave population;' that they have 'no
+privilege but the privilege of being more vicious and miserable than
+slaves can be;' and that they are 'a thriftless race of vagabonds, whose
+footsteps are the sure precursors of indigence and crime.' And these
+false and infamous charges are brought against them by a Society which
+professes to cherish for them the highest regard, and to be anxious to
+give them respectability in the eyes of the world!
+
+The truth is, the traducers of the free blacks have no adequate
+conception of the amount of good sense, sterling piety, moral honesty,
+virtuous pride of character, and domestic enjoyment, which exists among
+this class. The spirited remarks of the colored citizens of New-York, in
+their address to the public, (_vide_ PART II. p. 16,) in reference to
+their calumniators, are exceedingly apposite: 'Their patrician
+principles prevent an intercourse with men in the middle walks of life,
+among whom a large portion of our people may be classed. We ask them to
+visit the dwellings of the respectable part of our people, and we are
+satisfied that they will discover more civilization and refinement, than
+will be found among the same number of white families of an equal
+standing.' A personal examination enables me to say that this challenge
+is neither presumptuous nor boastful. I confess, I have been most
+agreeably, nay, wonderfully disappointed, in my intercourse with them,
+which is daily elevating them in my estimation. Many of their number I
+proudly rank among my most familiar friends and correspondents.
+
+With regard to the 'ragged set in Boston, crying out liberty!' every
+candid resident will testify that this is a libellous representation;
+that our free blacks are a quiet, orderly, well-dressed, and (as far as
+they can obtain employment) industrious class of citizens; and that
+their improvement is rapid and constant. Every curious observer who
+visits their houses of worship, will be surprised at the general
+neatness of attire and propriety of manners of the worshippers. 'A
+ragged set,' forsooth! The slander may be uttered in the city of
+Washington, at an anniversary of the American Colonization Society; but
+no man, who regards his character for veracity and intelligence, _dare_
+publish it in Boston.
+
+The effects of this reiterated abuse are eminently mischievous. It
+serves to kindle the fires of persecution, to strengthen prejudice, to
+drive its victims to despair, and to increase the desire for their
+banishment. 'Tax your utmost powers of imagination,' says one of the
+colonization advocates, 'and you cannot conceive _one motive_ to
+honorable effort, which can animate the bosom, or give impulse to the
+conduct of the free black in this country'! Is this language calculated
+to allay animosity, or beget confidence, or suppress contempt, or heal
+division, or excite sympathy? Far otherwise. Are there not thousands of
+living witnesses to prove the falsity of this assertion; thousands who
+adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour, and whose 'motives to honorable
+effort' are higher than heaven and vast as eternity; thousands, who,
+though their enemies spare no efforts to crush them in the dust, and in
+despite of mountains of difficulties, rise up with a giant's strength to
+respectability and usefulness? 'No motive to honorable effort'! Perish
+the calumny!
+
+Again, they are stigmatized as the 'wild stirrers up of sedition and
+insurrection.' This charge is even more malignant than the other, and
+utterly groundless. Its propagation, however, tends directly to excite a
+persecution which may drive the accused to sedition, in self-defence.
+There is no evidence that any free man of color was enlisted in the late
+bloody struggle in Virginia, or in any manner accessary thereto. On the
+contrary, it was deprecated by our colored citizens generally, not only
+on account of its sanguinary acts, but because they knew it would
+operate to their own disadvantage by being placed to their account. The
+following honorable expression of feeling was made at a public meeting
+of the people of color in Wilmington, Delaware, about that period:
+
+    'The subscribers, having a knowledge of the alarm which prevails
+    in the minds of some of the citizens of this place, on account
+    of various reports which some mischievous person or persons have
+    circulated, in regard to the colored population, beg leave to
+    represent, on behalf of themselves and brethren, that having
+    made inquiry into the subject, they have found said reports to
+    be without the least foundation; and they owe it to themselves
+    further to declare, that, so far from any disposition on the
+    part of the colored people to disturb the peace and good order
+    of the community, they are, on the contrary, fully aware that it
+    consists not less with their interests than their duty to
+    refrain from every art that would excite commotion or disorder,
+    in which the colored people would have every thing to lose and
+    nothing to gain. We have been treated by the citizens of
+    Wilmington and its vicinity with kindness, for which we ought to
+    be grateful, and it is our solemn purpose to pursue such a
+    course of conduct as may merit a continuance of their favor and
+    confidence. Should any among us be found so wicked and blinded
+    as to enter into plots and contrivances, inimical to the present
+    harmony, we thus solemnly pledge ourselves to our white friends
+    and neighbors, that we will be among the first to sound the
+    alarm, and unite in effecting their apprehension and
+    suppression.'
+
+The free colored citizens of Baltimore, Maryland, also came out unitedly
+in the following pacific and truly exemplary spirit:
+
+    'Whereas, there has prevailed in this city, during the past
+    week, a very unpleasant excitement, originating from suspicions
+    and reports totally without foundation, and highly derogatory to
+    our good sense; and whereas this excitement, though
+    unnecessarily created, may, in its ultimate tendency, prove
+    prejudicial to the interests of the free colored population of
+    this State. Therefore,
+
+    'Resolved, That we challenge the most rigid investigation as to
+    the truth of those evil reports, which have recently been so
+    industriously propagated in this city by the credulous, and
+    those who are totally unacquainted with the character of colored
+    Baltimoreans.
+
+    'Resolved, That we are not so reckless of our true interest, so
+    blind to utter helplessness--not to say so devoid of humanity,
+    as to entertain the hostile designs, or to cherish the fiendish
+    passions, which it seems have been, by the unthinking, so
+    unjustly attributed to us.
+
+    'Resolved, That we have been too long in the land of bibles, and
+    temples, and ministers, to look upon blood and carnage with
+    complacency--that we have been too long in this enlightened
+    metropolis, to think of the amelioration of our condition, in
+    any other way than that sanctioned by the Gospel of Peace.
+
+    'Resolved, That we rely upon a peaceable and upright conduct, for
+    a continuance of that favor and protection which we have
+    hitherto enjoyed, and which, the liberal, the wise, and the
+    good, are ever ready to accord.'
+
+How impolitic, then, as well as unjust, to brand this meek and
+magnanimous class as 'the wild stirrers up of sedition and
+insurrection'!
+
+This treatment, I repeat, is impolitic--nay, suicidal. To abuse,
+proscribe and exasperate them, to trample them under our feet, to goad
+them on the right hand and on the left, is not the way to secure their
+loyalty, but rather to make them revengeful, desperate and seditious.
+Our true policy is, to meliorate their condition, invigorate their
+hopes, instruct their ignorant minds, admit them to an equality of
+privileges with ourselves, nourish and patronise their genius, and, by
+giving them mechanical trades and mercantile advantages, open to them
+the avenue to competence and wealth. We shall thus make them contented
+and happy, and place them in a situation which will lead them still more
+heartily to deprecate any insurrectionary movements among our slave
+population. The following is the conciliatory and generous language of
+a man, who has been denounced as a blood-hound and a monster. It will be
+well for us if we profit by it.
+
+    'Americans! notwithstanding you have and do continue to treat us
+    more cruel than any heathen nation ever did a people it had
+    subjected to the same condition that you have us, let us reason.
+    Had you not better take our body, while you have it in your
+    power, and while we are yet ignorant and wretched, not knowing
+    but little, give us education, and teach us the pure religion of
+    our Lord and Master, which is calculated to make the lion lie
+    down in peace with the lamb, and which millions of you have
+    beaten us nearly to death for trying to obtain since we have
+    been among you, and thus at once gain our affection while we are
+    ignorant? Throw away your fears and prejudices then, and
+    enlighten us and treat us like men, and we will like you more
+    than we do now hate you. And tell us now no more about
+    colonization; for America is as much our country as it is yours.
+    Treat us like men, and there is no danger but we will all live
+    in peace and happiness together; for we are not, like you,
+    hard-hearted, unmerciful, and unforgiving. What a happy country
+    this will be, if the whites will listen! What nation under
+    heaven, will be able to do any thing with us, unless God gives
+    us up into its hand? But, Americans, I declare to you, while you
+    keep us and our children in bondage, and treat us like brutes,
+    to make us support you and your families, we cannot be your
+    friends. You do not look for it, do you? Treat us then like men,
+    and we will be your friends. And there is not a doubt in my
+    mind, but that the whole of the past will be sunk into oblivion,
+    and we yet, under God, will become a united and happy
+    people.'[V]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[S] A cruel taunt. The wonder is not that colored persons do not more
+generally visit our sanctuaries, but that they _ever_ should attend. If
+they go, they are thrust into obscure, remote and unseemly pens or
+boxes, as if they were not embraced in the offers of redeeming love, and
+were indeed a part of the brute creation. It is an awful commentary upon
+the pride of human nature. I never can look up to these scandalous
+retreats for my colored brethren, without having my soul overwhelmed
+with emotions of shame, indignation and sorrow. No black man, however
+virtuous, respectable or pious he may be, can own or occupy a pew in a
+central part of any of our houses of worship. And yet it is
+reproachfully alleged--by a clergyman, too!--that 'if we visit the
+sanctuaries which are _open to all_ (!) to worship, and to hear the word
+of God, we shall not find them there'! No--I hope they will respect
+themselves and the religion of Jesus more, than to occupy the places
+alluded to.
+
+[T] Francis Devany, the colored sheriff of Liberia, is reputed by
+colonizationists to be worth property to the value of twenty-five
+thousand dollars; and they have trumpeted the fact all over the country,
+and so repeatedly as almost to lead one to imagine that he is the
+greatest and wealthiest man in all the world! James Forten, the
+reputable colored sail-maker of Philadelphia,--a gentleman of highly
+polished manners and superior intelligence,--with whom Devany worked as
+a journeyman, can _buy him out_ three or four times over. Joseph Cassey,
+another estimable and intelligent man of color, or the widow of Bishop
+Allen, both of Philadelphia, can purchase him. I mention their names,
+not to extol them, but simply to show, that what begets fame in Liberia
+is unproductive here.
+
+[U] The following statement, recently published in the Philadelphia
+'Friend and Advocate of Truth,' is very creditable to the colored
+inhabitants of that city:
+
+    'Many erroneous opinions have prevailed, with regard to the true
+    character and condition of the free colored people of
+    Pennsylvania. They have been represented as an idle and
+    worthless class, furnishing inmates for our poor-houses and
+    penitentiaries. A few plain facts are sufficient to refute these
+    gratuitous allegations. In the city and suburbs of Philadelphia,
+    by the census of 1830, they constituted about eleven per cent.,
+    or one ninth of the whole population. From the account of the
+    guardians of the poor, printed by order of the board, it appears
+    that of the out-door poor receiving regular weekly supplies, in
+    the first month, 1830, the time of the greatest need, the people
+    of color were about one to twenty-three whites; or not quite
+    four per cent., a disproportion of whites to colored, of more
+    than two to one in favor of the latter. When it is considered
+    that they perform the lowest offices in the community--that the
+    avenues to what are esteemed the most honorable and profitable
+    professions in society, are in a great measure, if not wholly
+    closed against them, these facts are the more creditable to
+    them. One cause of this disproportion, which we presume is but
+    little known, but which is worthy of special notice, will be
+    found in the numerous societies among themselves for mutual aid.
+    These societies expended, in one year, about six thousand
+    dollars for the relief of the sick and the indigent of their own
+    color, from funds raised among themselves. Besides, the taxes
+    paid by the colored people of Philadelphia, exceed in amount the
+    sums expended out of the funds of the city for the relief of
+    their poor.'
+
+It is also a fact that the proportion of whites in the alms-house in
+New-York is greater than that of the blacks. I am aware that other
+evidence, of a different kind, may be adduced in other places; but it is
+in the highest degree unfair to measure the whole body of blacks by the
+whole body of whites--for the privileges and advantages of the whites
+are as ten thousand to one: they monopolise almost every branch of
+business and every pursuit of life--they have all the means necessary to
+make men virtuous, intelligent, active, and opulent. Far different is
+the situation of the free blacks. How slender are their means! how mean
+and limited their occupations! how inferior their advantages! Almost
+every avenue to wealth, preferment and usefulness, is closed against
+them. How are they persecuted! how avoided in the streets! how excluded
+from the benefits of society! To point at them the finger of scorn, to
+taunt them for their inferiority or helplessness, is like putting out
+the eyes and clipping the wings of the eagle, and then reproaching him
+because he can neither see nor fly. To boast of our superior refinement,
+intelligence and virtue, is the extreme of vainglory, and adding insult
+to injury. Shame! shame!
+
+
+
+
+SECTION IX.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY DENIES THE POSSIBILITY OF ELEVATING
+THE BLACKS IN THIS COUNTRY.
+
+
+The detestation of feeling, the fire of moral indignation, and the agony
+of soul which I have felt kindling and swelling within me, in the
+progress of this review, under this section reach the acme of intensity.
+It is impossible for the mind to conceive, or the tongue to utter, or
+the pen to record, sentiments more derogatory to the character of a
+republican and Christian people than the following:
+
+    'Introduced as this class has been, in a way which cannot be
+    justified, injurious in its influence to the community, degraded
+    in character and miserable in condition, _forever excluded_, by
+    public sentiment, by law and by a physical distinction, from the
+    most powerful motives to exertion,' &c. * * 'In addition to all
+    the causes which tend to pollute, to degrade and render them
+    miserable, there are principles of _repulsion_ between them and
+    us, which can _never_ be overcome.' * * 'Their bodies are free,
+    their minds enslaved. They can neither bless their brethren in
+    servitude, nor rise from their own obscurity, nor add to the
+    purity of our morals, nor to our wealth, nor to our political
+    strength.' * * 'Let us recollect that our fathers have placed
+    them here; and that our prejudices, prejudices _too deep to be
+    eradicated_ while they remain among us, have produced the
+    standard of their morals.' * * 'Nor will it be questioned that
+    their establishment on the African coast ... will confer on them
+    invaluable blessings which _in this country_ they can _never_
+    enjoy.' * * 'They _must be_ hewers of wood and drawers of water.
+    Do what they will, there is but this one prospect before
+    them.'--[African Repository, vol. 1, pp. 34, 144, 162, 176, 226,
+    317.]
+
+
+    'Shut out from the privileges of citizens, separated from us by
+    the _insurmountable_ barrier of color, they can _never_
+    amalgamate with us, but must remain _for ever_ a distinct and
+    inferior race, repugnant to our republican feelings, and
+    dangerous to our republican institutions.' * * * 'It is not that
+    there are some, but that there are so many among us of a
+    different physical, if not moral, constitution, who _never_ can
+    amalgamate with the great body of our population.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. ii. pp. 188, 189, 338.]
+
+
+    'In consequence of his own inveterate habits, and the no less
+    inveterate prejudices of the whites, it is a sadly demonstrated
+    truth, that the negro _cannot, in this country_, become an
+    enlightened and useful citizen. Driven to the lowest stratum of
+    society, and enthralled there for melancholy ages, his mind
+    becomes proportionably grovelling, and to gratify his animal
+    desires is his most exalted aspiration.' * * 'The negro, _while
+    in this country_, will be treated as an inferior being.' * *
+    'Our slavery is such, as that no device of our philanthropy for
+    elevating the wretched subjects of its debasement to the
+    ordinary privileges of men, can descry one cheering glimpse of
+    hope that our object can _ever_ be accomplished. The very
+    commencing act of freedom to the slave, is to place him in a
+    condition still worse, if possible, both for his moral habits,
+    his outward provision, and for the community that embosoms him,
+    than even that, deplorable as it was, from which he has been
+    removed. He is now a freeman; but his complexion, his features,
+    every peculiarity of his person, pronounce to him another
+    doom,--that every wish he may conceive, every effort he can
+    make, shall be _little better than vain_. Even to every talent
+    and virtuous impulse which he may feel working in his bosom,
+    obstacles stand in impracticable array; not from a defect of
+    essential title to success, but from _a positive external law,
+    unreasoning and irreversible_.' * * 'The elevation of a degraded
+    class of beings to the privileges of freemen, which, though
+    free, they can _never_ enjoy, and to the prospects of a happy
+    immortality.' * * 'They again most solemnly repeat to the free
+    colored people of Virginia their belief, that _in Africa alone_
+    can they enjoy that complete emancipation from a degrading
+    inequality, which in a greater or less degree pervades the
+    United States, if not in the laws, in the whole frame and
+    structure of society, and which in its effects on their moral
+    and social state is scarcely less degrading than slavery
+    itself.'--[African Repository, vol. iii. pp. 25, 26, 66, 68,
+    345.]
+
+
+    'But there is one large class among the inhabitants of this
+    country--degraded and miserable--whom none of the efforts in
+    which you are accustomed to engage, can materially benefit.
+    Among the twelve millions who make up our census, two millions
+    are Africans--separated from the possessors of the soil by
+    birth, _by the brand of indelible ignominy_, by prejudices,
+    mutual, deep, _incurable_, by an _irreconcileable diversity of
+    interests_. They are aliens and outcasts;--they are, as a body,
+    degraded beneath the influence of nearly all the motives which
+    prompt other men to enterprise, and almost below the sphere of
+    virtuous affections. Whatever may be attempted for the general
+    improvement of society, their wants are untouched.--Whatever may
+    be effected for elevating the mass of the nation in the scale of
+    happiness or of intellectual and moral character, their
+    degradation is the same--dark, and deep, and _hopeless_.
+    Benevolence seems to overlook them, or struggles for their
+    benefit in vain. Patriotism forgets them, or remembers them only
+    with shame for what has been, and with dire forebodings, of what
+    is yet to come.' * * 'It is taken _for granted_ that in present
+    circumstances, any effort to produce a general and thorough
+    amelioration in the character and condition of the free people
+    of color must be to a great extent fruitless. In every part of
+    the United States there is a broad and _impassible_ line of
+    demarcation between every man who has _one drop_ of African
+    blood in his veins and every other class in the community. The
+    habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of society--prejudices
+    which neither _refinement_, nor _argument_, nor _education_, nor
+    _religion_ itself can subdue--mark the people of color, whether
+    bond or free, as the subjects of a degradation _inevitable_ and
+    _incurable_. The African in this country belongs by birth to the
+    very lowest station in society; and from that station _he can
+    never rise_, BE HIS TALENTS, HIS ENTERPRISE, HIS VIRTUES WHAT
+    THEY MAY.... They constitute a class by themselves--a class out
+    of which _no individual can be elevated_, and below which, none
+    can be depressed. And this is the difficulty, the invariable and
+    insuperable difficulty in the way of every scheme for their
+    benefit. Much can be done for them--much has been done; but
+    still they are, and, _in this country_, ALWAYS MUST BE a
+    depressed and abject race.'--[African Repository, vol. iv. pp.
+    117, 118, 119.]
+
+
+    'The distinctive complexion by which it is marked, _necessarily_
+    debars it from all familiar intercourse with the more favored
+    society that surrounds it, and of course denies to it _all hope_
+    of either social or political elevation, by means of individual
+    merit, however great, or individual exertions, however
+    unremitted.' * * 'It is deemed unnecessary to repeat what has
+    already been said, of the character of the population in
+    question, of its _hopeless degradation_, and its baneful
+    influence, in the situation in which it is now placed.' * * *
+    'The colored population of this country can _never_ rise to
+    respectability and happiness here.' * * 'It was at an early
+    period seen and acknowledged, that neither the objects of
+    benevolence nor the interests of the nation could be materially
+    benefitted by any plan or measures that permitted them to remain
+    within the United States.' * * 'They leave a country in which
+    though born and reared, they are strangers and aliens; where
+    severe necessity places them in a class of degraded beings.' * *
+    'With us they have been degraded by slavery, and STILL FURTHER
+    DEGRADED _by the mockery of nominal freedom_. We have
+    endeavored, but endeavored in vain, to restore them either to
+    self-respect, or to the respect of others. _It is not our fault
+    that we have failed_; it is not theirs. It has resulted from a
+    cause over which neither they, nor we, can ever have control.
+    _Here_, therefore, they must be _for ever debased_: more than
+    this, they must be _for ever useless_; more even than this, they
+    must be FOR EVER A NUISANCE, from which it were a blessing for
+    society to be rid. And yet they, and they only, are qualified
+    for colonizing Africa.' * * * 'Whether bond or free, their
+    presence will be _for ever a calamity_. Why then, in the name of
+    God, should we hesitate to encourage their departure? The
+    existence of this race among us; a race that can neither share
+    our blessings nor incorporate in our Society, is already felt to
+    be a curse.'--[African Repository, vol. v. pp. 51, 53, 179, 234,
+    238, 276, 278.]
+
+
+    'Is our posterity doomed to endure for ever not only all the
+    ills flowing from the state of slavery, but all which arise from
+    incongruous elements of population, separated from each other by
+    _invincible prejudices_, and by natural causes?' * * 'Here
+    _invincible prejudices_ exclude them from the enjoyment of the
+    society of the whites, and deny them all the advantages of
+    freemen. The bar, the pulpit, and our legislative halls are shut
+    to them by the irresistible force of public sentiment. No
+    talents however great, no piety however pure and devoted, no
+    patriotism however ardent, can secure their admission. They
+    constantly hear the accents, and behold the triumphs, of a
+    liberty _which here they can never enjoy_.' * * 'It is against
+    this increase of colored persons, who take but a nominal freedom
+    here, and _cannot rise_ from their degraded condition, that this
+    Society attempts to provide.' * * 'They may be emancipated; but
+    emancipation _cannot elevate their condition_ or augment their
+    capacity for self-preservation.--Want and suffering will
+    gradually diminish their numbers, and they will disappear, as
+    the inferior has always disappeared, before the superior race.'
+    * * 'Our great and good men purposed it primarily as a system of
+    relief for two millions of fellow men in our own county--a
+    population dangerous to ourselves and _necessarily degraded
+    here_.' * * 'The free blacks, by the moral necessity of their
+    civil disabilities, are and _must for ever be a
+    nuisance_--equally, and more to the owner of slaves, than to
+    other members of the community.'--[African Repository, vol. vi.
+    pp. 12, 17, 82, 168, 295, 368.]
+
+
+    'Incorporated into our country as freemen, yet separated from it
+    by odious and degrading distinctions, they feel themselves
+    condemned to a hopeless and debasing inferiority. They know that
+    their very complexion will _for ever_ exclude them from the
+    rank, the privileges, the honors, of freemen. No matter how
+    great their industry, or how abundant their wealth--no matter
+    what their attainments in literature, science or the arts--no
+    matter how correct their deportment or what respect their
+    characters may inspire, they can never, NO, NEVER be raised to a
+    footing of equality, not even to a familiar intercourse with the
+    surrounding society.' * * 'To us it seems evident that the man
+    of color may as soon _change his complexion_, as rise above all
+    sense of past inferiority and debasement in a community, from
+    the social intercourse of which, he must expect to be in a great
+    measure excluded, not only until prejudice shall have no
+    existence therein, but until the freedom of man in regulating
+    his social relations is proved to be abridged by some law of
+    morality or the gospel.... Is it not _wise_, then, for the free
+    people of color and their friends to _admit_, what cannot
+    reasonably be doubted, that the people of color must, in this
+    country, remain for ages, _probably for ever_, a separate and
+    inferior caste, weighed down by causes, powerful, universal,
+    inevitable; _which neither legislation nor christianity can
+    remove?_'
+
+    'Let the free black in this country toil from youth to age in
+    the honorable pursuit of wisdom--let him store his mind with the
+    most valuable researches of science and literature--and let him
+    add to a highly gifted and cultivated intellect, a piety pure,
+    undefiled, and "unspotted from the world"--it is all nothing: he
+    would not be received into the very lowest walks of society. If
+    we were constrained to admire so uncommon a being, our very
+    admiration would mingle with disgust, because, in the physical
+    organization of his frame, we meet an insurmountable barrier,
+    even to an approach to social intercourse, and in the Egyptian
+    color, which nature has stamped upon his features, a principle
+    of repulsion so strong as to forbid the idea of a communion
+    either of interest or of feeling, as utterly abhorrent. Whether
+    these feelings are founded in reason or not, we will not now
+    inquire--perhaps they are not. But education and habit and
+    prejudice have so firmly riveted them upon us, that they have
+    become as strong as nature itself--and to expect their removal,
+    or even their slightest modification, would be as idle and
+    preposterous as to expect that we could reach forth our hands,
+    and remove the mountains from their foundations into the
+    vallies, which are beneath them.'--[African Repository, vol.
+    vii. pp. 100, 195, 196, 231.]
+
+
+    'And can we not find some spot on this large globe which will
+    receive them kindly, and where they may escape those prejudices
+    which, in this country, must _ever_ keep them _inferior_ and
+    _degraded_ members of society?'--[Third Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'A population which, even if it were not literally enslaved,
+    _must for ever remain_ in a state of degradation no better than
+    bondage.' * * 'Here the thing is impossible; a slave cannot be
+    really emancipated. You may call him free, you may enact a
+    statute book of laws to make him free, but you cannot bleach him
+    into the enjoyment of freedom.' * * 'The Soodra is not farther
+    separated from the Brahmin in regard to all his privileges,
+    civil, intellectual, and moral, than the negro is from the white
+    man by the prejudices which result from the difference made
+    between them by the God of nature. A barrier more difficult to
+    be surmounted than the institution of the caste, cuts off, and
+    while the present state of society continues _must always_ cut
+    off, the negro from all that is valuable in
+    citizenship.'--[Seventh Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Let the arm of our government be stretched out for the defence
+    of our African colony, and this objection will no longer exist.
+    There, _and there alone_, the colored man can enjoy the motives
+    for honorable exertion.'--[Ninth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'In the distinctive and indelible marks of their color, and the
+    prejudices of the people, an _insuperable_ obstacle has been
+    placed to the execution of any plan for elevating their
+    character, and placing them on a footing with their brethren of
+    the same common family.'--[Tenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Far from shuddering at the thought of leaving the comfortable
+    fireside among us, for a distant and unknown shore yet covered
+    by the wilderness, they have preferred real liberty there, to a
+    mockery of freedom here, and have turned their eyes to Africa,
+    as the only resting place and refuge of the colored man, in the
+    deluge of oppression that surrounds him.'--[Eleventh Annual
+    Report.]
+
+
+    'The race in question were known, as a class, to be destitute,
+    depraved--the victims of all forms of social misery. The
+    peculiarity of their fate was, that this was not their condition
+    by accident or transiently, but _inevitably_ and _immutably_,
+    whilst they remained in their present place, by a law as
+    infallible in its operation, as any of physical nature.' * *
+    'Their residence amongst us is attended by evil consequences to
+    society--causes _beyond the control of the human will_ must
+    prevent their _ever_ rising to equality with the whites.' * *
+    'The Managers consider it clear that causes exist, and are
+    operating to prevent their improvement and elevation to any
+    considerable extent as a class, in this country, which are
+    fixed, not only beyond the control of the friends of humanity,
+    BUT OF ANY HUMAN POWER. _Christianity cannot do for them here,
+    what it will do for them in Africa._ This is not the fault of
+    the colored man, _nor of the white man, nor of Christianity; but
+    an ordination of Providence, and no more to be changed than the
+    laws of nature_. Yet, were it otherwise, did no cause exist but
+    prejudice, to prevent the elevation, in this country, of our
+    free colored population, still, were this prejudice so strong
+    (which is indeed the fact) as to forbid the hope of any great
+    favorable change in their condition, what folly for them to
+    reject blessings in another land, because it is prejudice which
+    debars them from such blessings in this! But in truth no
+    legislation, no humanity, no benevolence can make them
+    insensible to their past condition, can unfetter their minds,
+    can relieve them from the disadvantages resulting from inferior
+    means and attainments, can abridge the right of freemen to
+    regulate their social intercourse and relations, which will
+    leave them _for ever a separate and depressed class_ in the
+    community; in fine, nothing can in any way do much here to raise
+    them from their miseries to respectability, honor and
+    usefulness.'--[Fifteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'That no adequate means of attaining this great end existed,
+    short of the segregation of the black population from the
+    white--that an IMPASSIBLE BARRIER existed in the state of
+    society in this country, between these classes--that whatever
+    might be the liberal sentiments of some good men among us, the
+    blacks were marked with an _indelible note of inferiority_--they
+    saw placed high before them a station which here they _could
+    never reach_, and by a natural reaction they fell back into a
+    position where self-respect lent them no stimulus, and virtuous
+    principles and actions lost more than half their motive--that in
+    fact they were a branded and degraded caste--the Pariahs of the
+    United States, and destined _as long as they remained with us_
+    to be hewers of wood and drawers of water--that the increase of
+    this population in a greater ratio than the whites, was
+    calculated to excite just apprehension--that no one could say
+    that when a few more millions should be added to their numbers,
+    the example of Hayti might not rouse them to an effort to break
+    their chains; and he would ask what man could contemplate,
+    without shuddering, all the complicated atrocity and bloody
+    revenge of such a revolt?' * * 'Those persons of color who have
+    been emancipated, are only nominally free, and the whole race,
+    so long as they remain among us, and whether they be slaves or
+    free, must _necessarily_ be kept in a condition full of
+    wretchedness to them and full of danger to the whites.'--[Second
+    Annual Report of New-York State Colonization Society.]
+
+
+    'Many of those citizens who ardently wish for the removal of
+    such of the free colored population, as are willing to go, to
+    any place where they could enjoy, _what they can never enjoy
+    here_, that is, all the advantages of society,' &c. * * 'That
+    the free colored population in this country labor under the most
+    oppressive disadvantages, which their freedom can by no means
+    counterbalance, is too obvious to admit of doubt. I waive all
+    inquiry whether this is right or wrong. I speak of things as
+    they are--not as they might, or as they ought to be. They are
+    cut off from the most remote chance of amalgamation with the
+    white population, by feelings or prejudices, call them what you
+    will, that are ineradicable. Their situation is more unfavorable
+    than that of many slaves. "With all the burdens, cares and
+    responsibilities of freedom, they have few or none of its
+    substantial benefits. Their associations are, and must be,
+    chiefly with slaves. Their right of suffrage gives them little,
+    if any, political influence, and they are practically, if not
+    theoretically excluded from representation and weight in our
+    public councils." _No merit, no services, no talents can elevate
+    them to a level with the whites._ Occasionally, an exception may
+    arise. A colored individual, of great talents, merits, and
+    wealth, may emerge from the crowd. Cases of this kind are to the
+    last degree rare. The colored people are subject to legal
+    disabilities, more or less galling and severe, in almost every
+    state of the Union. Who has not deeply regretted their late
+    harsh expulsion from the State of Ohio, and their being forced
+    to abandon the country of their birth, which had profited by
+    their labors, and to take refuge in a foreign land? Severe
+    regulations have been recently passed in Louisiana, to prevent
+    the introduction of free people of color into the State.
+    Whenever they appear, they are to be banished in sixty days. The
+    strong opposition to a negro college in New-Haven, speaks in a
+    language not to be mistaken, the jealousy with which they are
+    regarded. And there is no reason to expect, that the lapse of
+    centuries will make any change in this respect. THEY WILL ALWAYS
+    UNHAPPILY BE REGARDED AS AN INFERIOR RACE.'--[Mathew Carey's
+    'Reflections.']
+
+
+    'Instances of emancipation have not essentially benefitted the
+    African, and _probably never will_, while he remains among us.
+    In this country, public opinion does, _and will_, consign him to
+    an inferiority, _above which he can never rise_. Emancipation
+    can NEVER make the African, while he remains in this country, a
+    real free man. Degradation MUST and WILL press him to the earth;
+    no cheering, stimulating influence will he here feel, _in any of
+    the walks of life_.'--[Circular of the Massachusetts
+    Colonization Society for 1832.]
+
+
+    'With us color is the bar. Nature has raised up barriers between
+    the races, _which no man with a proper sense of the dignity of
+    his species desires to see surmounted_.' * * 'What effects does
+    emancipation produce without removal? A discontented and useless
+    population; having no sympathies with the rest of the community,
+    _doomed by immoveable barriers to eternal degradation_. I know
+    that there are among us, those of warm and generous hearts, who
+    believe that we may retain the black man here, and raise him up
+    to the full and perfect stature of human nature. That degree of
+    improvement can never take place except the races be
+    amalgamated; and amalgamation is a day-dream. It may seem
+    strong, but it is true that "a skin not colored like our own"
+    will separate them from us, _as long as our feelings continue a
+    part of our nature_.'--[Speeches delivered at the formation of
+    the Young Men's Auxiliary Colonization Society in New-York
+    city.]
+
+
+    'These [subsistence, political and social considerations] they
+    can _never_ enjoy here.' * * 'You may manumit the slave, but you
+    cannot make him a white man. He still remains a negro or a
+    mulatto. The mark and the recollection of his origin and former
+    state still adhere to him; the feelings produced by that
+    condition, in his own mind and in the minds of the whites, still
+    exist; he is associated by his color, and by these recollections
+    and feelings, with the class of slaves; and a barrier is thus
+    raised between him and the whites, that is between him and the
+    free class, which he can never hope to transcend.' * * 'A vast
+    majority of the free blacks, as we have seen, are and _must be_,
+    an idle, worthless and thievish race.'--[First Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Here they are condemned to a state of _hopeless_ inferiority,
+    and consequent degradation. As they _cannot_ emerge from this
+    state, they lose, by degrees, the hope, at last the desire of
+    emerging.'--[Second Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The existence in any community of a people forming a distinct
+    and degraded caste, _who are forever excluded by the fiat of
+    society and the laws of the land_, from all hopes of equality in
+    social intercourse and political privileges, must, from the
+    nature of things, be fraught with unmixed evil. Did this
+    committee believe it possible, by any acts of legislation, to
+    remove this blotch upon the body politic, by so elevating the
+    social and moral condition of the blacks in Ohio, that they
+    would be received into society on terms of equality, and would
+    by common consent be admitted to a participation of political
+    privileges--WERE SUCH A THING POSSIBLE, even after a lapse of
+    time and by pecuniary sacrifice, most gladly would they
+    recommend such measures as would subserve the cause of humanity,
+    by producing such a result. For the purposes of legislation, it
+    is sufficient to know, that the blacks in Ohio _must always
+    exist as a separate and degraded race_, that when the leopard
+    shall change his spots and the Ethiopian his skin, then, BUT NOT
+    TILL THEN, may we expect that the descendants of Africans will
+    be admitted into society, on terms of social and political
+    equality.'--[Report of a Select Committee of the Legislature of
+    Ohio.]
+
+
+    'No possible contingency can ever break down or weaken the
+    impassable barrier which at present separates the whites from
+    social communion with the blacks. Neither education, nor wealth,
+    nor any other means of distinction known to our communities, can
+    elevate blacks to a level with whites, in the United
+    States.'--[American Spectator.]
+
+
+    'However unjust may be the prejudices which exist in the whites
+    against the blacks, and which operate so injuriously to the
+    latter--_they are probably too deep to be obliterated_; and true
+    philanthropy would dictate the separation of two races of men,
+    so different, WHOM NATURE HERSELF HAS FORBIDDEN TO MINGLE INTO
+    ONE; but of whom, while they remain associated, _one or the
+    other must of necessity have the superiority_. For the future
+    welfare of both, we trust that the project of colonizing the
+    Africans, as they shall gradually be emancipated, although a
+    work of time, may not be altogether hopeless.'--[Brandon (Vt.)
+    Telegraph.]
+
+
+    'The character and circumstances of this portion of the
+    community fall under every man's notice, and the least
+    observation shows that they _cannot_ be useful or happy among
+    us.'--[Oration by Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]
+
+
+    'It is of vast importance to these people, as a class, that
+    their hopes and expectations of temporal prosperity _should be
+    turned to Africa_, and that they should not regard our country
+    as their permanent residence, or as that country in which they
+    will _ever_, as a people, enjoy equal privileges and blessings
+    with the whites.'--[Rev. Mr Gurley's Letter to the Rev. S. S.
+    Jocelyn.]
+
+
+    'To attain solid happiness and permanent respectability, they
+    should now remove to a more congenial clime.... To raise them to
+    a level with the whites is AN IMPOSSIBILITY.'--[New-Haven
+    Religious Intelligencer.]
+
+
+    'In Liberia--the land of their forefathers, they will be
+    restored to real freedom, which they have never yet enjoyed, and
+    which it is folly for them to expect they can ever enjoy among
+    the whites.'--[Norfolk Herald.]
+
+'My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a
+noise in me.' Are we pagans, are we savages, are we devils? Can pagans,
+or savages, or devils, exhibit a more implacable spirit, than is seen in
+the foregoing extracts? It is enough to cause the very stones to cry
+out, and the beasts of the field to rebuke us.
+
+Of this I am sure: no man, who is truly willing to admit the people of
+color to an equality with himself, can see any insuperable difficulty in
+effecting their elevation. When, therefore, I hear an
+individual--especially a professor of Christianity--strenuously
+contending that there can be no fellowship with them, I cannot help
+suspecting the sincerity of his own republicanism or piety, or thinking
+that the beam is in his own eye. My bible assures me that the day is
+coming when even the 'wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
+shall lie down with the kid, and the wolf and the young lion and the
+fatling together;' and, if this be possible, I see no cause why those of
+the same species--God's rational creatures--fellow countrymen, in truth,
+cannot dwell in harmony together.
+
+How abominably hypocritical, how consummately despicable, how
+incorrigibly tyrannical must this whole nation appear in the eyes of the
+people of Europe!--professing to be the _friends_ of the free blacks,
+actuated by the purest motives of benevolence toward them, desirous to
+make atonement for past wrongs, challenging the admiration of the world
+for their patriotism, philanthropy and piety--and yet (hear, O heaven!
+and be astonished, O earth!) shamelessly proclaiming, with a voice
+louder than thunder, and an aspect malignant as sin, that while their
+colored countrymen remain among them, they must be trampled beneath
+their feet, treated as inferior beings, deprived of all the invaluable
+privileges of freemen, separated by the brand of indelible ignominy, and
+debased to a level with the beasts that perish! Yea, that they may as
+soon change their complexion as rise from their degradation! that no
+device of philanthropy can benefit them here! that they constitute a
+class out of which _no individual can be elevated_, and below which,
+_none can be depressed_! that no talents however great, no piety however
+pure and devoted, no patriotism however ardent, no industry however
+great, no wealth however abundant, can raise them to a footing of
+equality with the whites! that 'let them toil from youth to old age in
+the honorable pursuit of wisdom--let them store their minds with the
+most valuable researches of science and literature--and let them add to
+a highly gifted and cultivated intellect, a piety pure, undefiled, and
+unspotted from the world, _it is all nothing_--they would not be
+received into the _very lowest walks of society_--admiration of such
+uncommon beings would mingle with _disgust_!' Yea, that 'there is a
+broad and impassible line of demarcation between every man who has _one
+drop_ of African blood in his veins and every other class in the
+community'! Yea, that 'the habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of
+society--prejudices which neither _refinement_, nor _argument_, nor
+_education_, nor RELIGION itself can subdue--mark the people of color,
+whether bond or free, as the subjects of a degradation _inevitable_ and
+_incurable_'! Yea, that '_Christianity_ cannot do for them here, what it
+will do for them in Africa'! Yea, that 'this is not the fault of the
+colored man, NOR OF THE WHITE MAN, nor of Christianity; but AN
+ORDINATION OF PROVIDENCE, _and no more to be changed than the_ LAWS OF
+NATURE'!!!
+
+Again I ask, are we pagans, are we savages, are we devils? Search the
+records of heathenism, and sentiments more hostile to the spirit of the
+gospel, or of a more black and blasphemous complexion than these, cannot
+be found. I believe that they are libels upon the character of my
+countrymen, which time will wipe off. I call upon the spirits of the
+just made perfect in heaven, upon all who have experienced the love of
+God in their souls here below, upon the christian converts in India and
+the islands of the sea, to sustain me in the assertion that there _is_
+power enough in the religion of Jesus Christ to melt down the most
+stubborn prejudices, to overthrow the highest walls of partition, to
+break the strongest caste, to improve and elevate the most degraded, to
+unite in fellowship the most hostile, and to equalize and bless all its
+recipients. Make me _sure_ that there is not, and I will give it up, now
+and for ever. 'In Christ Jesus, all are one: there is neither Jew nor
+Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor
+female.'
+
+These sentiments were not uttered by infidels, nor by worthless
+wretches, but in many instances by professors of religion and _ministers
+of the gospel_! and in almost every instance by reputedly the most
+enlightened, patriotic and benevolent men in the land! Tell it not
+abroad! publish it not in the streets of Calcutta! Even the eminent
+President of Union College, (Rev. Dr. Nott,) could so far depart,
+unguardedly I hope, from christian love and integrity, as to utter this
+language in an address in behalf of the Colonization Society:--'With us
+they [the free people of color] have been degraded by slavery, and
+_still further degraded by the mockery of nominal freedom_.' Were this
+true, it would imply that we of the free States are more barbarous and
+neglectful than even the traffickers in souls and men-stealers at the
+south. We have not, it is certain, treated our colored brethren as the
+law of kindness and the ties of brotherhood demand; but have we outdone
+slaveholders in cruelty? Were it true, to forge new fetters for the
+limbs of these degraded beings would be an act of benevolence. But their
+condition is as much superior to that of the slaves, as happiness is to
+misery. The second portion of this work, containing their proceedings in
+a collective capacity, shows whether they have made any progress in
+intelligence, in virtue, in piety, and in happiness, since their
+liberation. Again he says: '_We have endeavored_, but endeavored in
+vain, _to restore them either to self-respect, or to the respect of
+others_.' It is painful to contradict so worthy an individual; but
+nothing is more certain than that this statement is altogether
+erroneous. We have derided, we have shunned, we have neglected them, in
+every possible manner. They have had to rise not only under the
+mountainous weight of their own ignorance and vice, but with the
+additional and constant pressure of our contempt and injustice. In
+despite of us, they have done well. Again: '_It is not our fault that we
+have failed_; it is not theirs.' We _are_ wholly and exclusively in
+fault. What have we done to raise them up from the earth? What have we
+_not_ done to keep them down? Once more: 'It has resulted from a cause
+over which neither they, nor we, can ever have control.' In other words,
+they have been made with skins not colored like our own,' and
+_therefore_ we cannot recognise them as fellow-countrymen, or treat them
+like rational beings! One sixth of our whole population _must_, FOR
+EVER, in this land, remain a wretched, ignorant and degraded race,--and
+yet nobody be culpable--_none but the Creator_ who has made us
+_incapable_ of doing unto others as we would have them do unto us!
+Horrible--horrible! If this be not an impeachment of Infinite
+Goodness,--I do not say intentionally but _really_,--I cannot define it.
+The same sentiment is reiterated by a writer in the Southern Religious
+Telegraph, who says--'The exclusion of the free black from the civil and
+literary privileges of our country, depends on another circumstance than
+that of character--a circumstance, which, as it was entirely beyond his
+control, so it is unchangeable, and will for ever operate. This
+circumstance is--_he is a black man_'!! And the Board of Managers of the
+Parent Society, in their Fifteenth Annual Report, declare that '_an
+ordination of Providence_' prevents the general improvement of the
+people of color in this land! How are God and our country dishonored,
+and the requirements of the gospel contemned, by this ungodly plea!
+Having satisfied himself that the Creator is alone blameable for the
+past and present degradation of the free blacks, Dr. Nott draws the
+natural and unavoidable inference that 'here, therefore, they must be
+_for ever debased, for ever useless, for ever a nuisance, for ever a
+calamity_,' and then gravely declares (mark the climax!) 'and yet THEY,
+[these ignorant, helpless, miserable creatures!] AND THEY ONLY, are
+qualified for colonizing Africa'!! 'Why then,' he asks, '_in the name of
+God_,'--(the abrupt appeal, in this connexion, seems almost
+profane,)--'should we hesitate to encourage their departure?'
+
+Nature, we are positively assured, has raised up impassable barriers
+between the races. I understand by this expression, that the blacks are
+of a different species from ourselves, so that all attempts to generate
+offspring between us and them must prove as abortive, as between a man
+and a beast. It is a law of Nature that the lion shall not beget the
+lamb, or the leopard the bear. Now the planters at the south have
+clearly demonstrated, that an amalgamation with their slaves is not only
+possible, but a matter of course, and eminently productive. It neither
+ends in abortion nor produces monsters. In truth, it is often so
+difficult in the slave States to distinguish between the fruits of this
+intercourse and the children of white parents, that witnesses are
+summoned at court to solve the problem! Talk of the barriers of Nature,
+when the land swarms with living refutations of the statement! Happy
+indeed would it be for many a female slave, if such a barrier could
+exist during the period of her servitude to protect her from the lust of
+her master!
+
+In France,[W] England,[X] Spain, and other countries, persons of color
+maintain as high a rank and are treated as honorably as any other class
+of the inhabitants, in despite of the 'impassable barriers of Nature.'
+Yet it is proclaimed to the world by the Colonization Society, that the
+American people can never be as republican in their feelings and
+practices as Frenchmen, Spaniards or Englishmen! Nay, that _religion_
+itself cannot subdue their malignant prejudices, or induce them to treat
+their dark-skinned brethren in accordance with their professions of
+republicanism! My countrymen! is it so? Are you willing thus to be held
+up as tyrants and hypocrites for ever? as less magnanimous and just than
+the populace of Europe? No--no! I cannot give you up as incorrigibly
+wicked, nor my country as sealed over to destruction. My confidence
+remains, like the oak--like the Alps--unshaken, storm-proof. I am not
+discouraged--I am not distrustful. I still place an unwavering reliance
+upon the omnipotence of truth. I still believe that the demands of
+justice will be satisfied; that the voice of bleeding humanity will melt
+the most obdurate hearts; and that the land will be redeemed and
+regenerated by an enlightened and energetic public opinion. As long as
+there remains among us a single copy of the Declaration of Independence,
+or of the New Testament, I will not despair of the social and political
+elevation of my sable countrymen. Already a rallying-cry is heard from
+the East and the West, from the North and the South; towns and cities
+and states are in commotion; volunteers are trooping to the field; the
+spirit of freedom and the fiend of oppression are in mortal conflict,
+and all neutrality is at an end. Already the line of division is drawn:
+on one side are the friends of truth and liberty, with their banner
+floating high in the air, on which are inscribed in letters of light,
+'IMMEDIATE ABOLITION'--'NO COMPROMISE WITH OPPRESSORS'--'EQUAL
+RIGHTS'--'NO EXPATRIATION'--'DUTY, AND NOT CONSEQUENCES'--'LET JUSTICE
+BE DONE, THOUGH THE HEAVENS SHOULD FALL!'--On the opposite side stand
+the supporters and apologists of slavery in mighty array, with a black
+flag on which are seen in bloody characters, 'AFRICAN
+COLONIZATION'--'GRADUAL ABOLITION'--'RIGHTS OF PROPERTY'--'POLITICAL
+EXPEDIENCY'--'NO EQUALITY'--'NO REPENTANCE'--'EXPULSION OF THE
+BLACKS'--'PROTECTION TO TYRANTS!'--Who can doubt the issue of this
+controversy, or which side has the approbation of the Lord of Hosts?
+
+In the African Repository for September, 1831, there is an elaborate
+defence of the Colonization Society, in which occurs the following
+passage:--'It has been said that the Society is unfriendly to the
+improvement of the free people of color while they remain in the United
+States. _The charge is not true._' I reiterate the charge; and the
+evidence of its correctness is before the reader. The Society prevents
+the education of this class in the most insidious and effectual manner,
+by constantly asserting that they must always be a degraded people in
+this country, and that the cultivation of their minds will avail them
+nothing. Who does not readily perceive that the prevalence of this
+opinion must at once paralyze every effort for their improvement? For it
+would be a waste of time and means, and unpardonable folly, for us to
+attempt the accomplishment of an impossible work--of that which we know
+will result in disappointment. Every discriminating and candid mind must
+see and acknowledge, that, to perpetuate their ignorance, it is only
+necessary to make the belief prevalent that they 'must be for ever
+debased, for ever useless, for ever an inferior race,' and their
+thraldom is sure.
+
+I am aware that a school has been established for the education of
+colored youth, under the auspices of the Society; but it is sufficient
+to state that none but those who consent to emigrate to Liberia are
+embraced in its provisions.
+
+In the Appendix to the Seventh Annual Report, p. 94, the position is
+assumed that 'it is a well established point, that the public safety
+forbids either the emancipation or _general instruction_ of the slaves.'
+The recent enactment of laws in some of the slave States, prohibiting
+the instruction of free colored persons as well as slaves, has received
+something more than a tacit approval from the organ of the Society. A
+prominent advocate of the Society, (G. P. Disosway, Esq.,) in an oration
+on the fourth of July, 1831, alluding to these laws, says,--'The public
+safety of our brethren at the South requires them [the slaves] to be
+kept ignorant and uninstructed.' The Editor of the Southern Religious
+Telegraph, who is a clergyman and a warm friend of the colonization
+scheme, remarking upon the instruction of the colored population of
+Virginia, says:
+
+    'Teaching a servant to read, is not teaching him the religion of
+    Christ. The great majority of the white people of our country
+    are taught to read; but probably not one in five, of those who
+    have the Bible, is _a christian_, in the legitimate sense of the
+    term. If black people are as depraved and as averse to true
+    religion as the white people are--and we know of no difference
+    between them in this respect--teaching them to read the Bible
+    will make christians of _very_ few of them. [What a plea!] ...
+    If christian masters were to teach their servants to read, we
+    apprehend that they would not feel the obligation as they ought
+    to feel it, of giving them oral instruction, and often
+    impressing divine truth on their minds. [!!] ... If the free
+    colored people were generally taught to read, _it might be an
+    inducement to them to remain in this country_. WE WOULD OFFER
+    THEM NO SUCH INDUCEMENT. [!!] ... A knowledge of letters and of
+    all the arts and sciences, cannot counteract the influences
+    under which the character of the negro _must_ be formed in this
+    country.... It appears to us that a greater benefit may be
+    conferred on the free colored people, by planting good schools
+    for them in Africa, and encouraging them to remove there, than
+    by giving them the knowledge of letters to make them contented
+    in their present condition.'--[Telegraph of Feb. 19, 1831.]
+
+Jesuitism was never more subtle--Papal domination never more exclusive.
+The gospel of peace and mercy preached by him who holds that ignorance
+is the mother of devotion! who would sequestrate the bible from the eyes
+of his fellow men! who contends that knowledge is the enemy of religion!
+who denies the efficacy of education in elevating a degraded population!
+who would make men brutes in order to make them better christians! who
+desires to make the clergy infallible guides to heaven! Now what folly
+and impiety is all this! Besides, is it not mockery to preach
+repentance, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to the benighted blacks,
+and at the same time deny them the right and ability to 'search the
+scriptures' for themselves?
+
+The proposition which was made last year to erect a College for the
+education of colored youth in New-Haven, it is well known, created an
+extraordinary and most disgraceful tumult in that place, (the hot-bed of
+African colonization,) and was generally scouted by the friends of the
+Society in other places. The American Spectator at Washington, (next to
+the African Repository, the mouth-piece of the Society,) used the
+following language, in relation to the violent proceedings of the
+citizens of New-Haven: 'We not only _approve the course_, which they
+have pursued, but we _admire the moral courage_, which induced them,
+_for the love of right_, (!) to incur the censure of both sections of
+the country.'
+
+As a farther illustration of the complacency with which colonizationists
+regard the laws prohibiting the instruction of the blacks, I extract the
+following paragraph from the 'Proceedings of the New-York State
+Colonization Society, on its second anniversary:'
+
+    'It is the business of the free--_their safety requires it_--to
+    keep the slaves in ignorance. Their education is utterly
+    prohibited. Educate them, and they break their fetters. Suppose
+    the slaves of the south to have the knowledge of freemen, they
+    would be free, or be exterminated by the whites. This renders it
+    necessary to prevent their instruction--to keep them from Sunday
+    Schools, and other means of gaining knowledge. But a few days
+    ago, a proposition was made in the legislature of Georgia, to
+    allow them so much instruction as to enable them to read the
+    bible; which was promptly rejected by a large majority. I do not
+    mention this for the purpose of _condemning the policy_ of the
+    slaveholding States, but to lament its _necessity_.'
+
+Elias B. Caldwell, one of the founders, and the first Secretary of the
+Parent Society, in a speech delivered at its formation, advanced the
+following monstrous sentiments:
+
+    'The more you improve the condition of these people, the more
+    you cultivate their minds, the more _miserable_ you make them in
+    their present state. You give them a higher relish for those
+    privileges _which they can never attain_, and turn what you
+    intend for a blessing into a curse. No, if they must remain in
+    their present situation, _keep them in the lowest state of
+    ignorance and degradation_. The nearer you bring them to the
+    condition of _brutes_, the better chance do you give them of
+    possessing their apathy.'
+
+So, then, the American Colonization Society advocates, and to a great
+extent perpetuates the ignorance and degradation of the colored
+population of the United States!
+
+In a critical examination of the pages of the African Repository, and of
+the reports and addresses of the Parent Society and its auxiliaries, I
+cannot find in a single instance any impeachment of the conduct and
+feelings of society toward the people of color, or any hint that the
+prejudice which is so prevalent against them is unmanly and sinful, or
+any evidence of contrition for past injustice, or any remonstrance or
+entreaty with a view to a change of public sentiment, or any symptoms of
+moral indignation at such unchristian and anti-republican treatment. On
+the contrary, I find the doctrine every where inculcated that this
+hatred and contempt, this abuse and proscription, are not only
+excusable, but the natural, inevitable and incurable effects of
+constitutional dissimilitude, growing out of an ordination of
+Providence, for which there is no remedy but a separation between the
+two races. If the free blacks, then, have been 'still further degraded
+by the mockery of nominal freedom,' if they 'must always be a separate
+and degraded race,' if 'degradation must and will press them to the
+earth,' if from their present station 'they can never rise, be their
+talents, their enterprise, their virtues what they may,' if 'in Africa
+alone, they can enjoy the motives for honorable ambition,' the American
+Colonization Society is responsible for their debasement and misery; for
+as it numbers among its supporters the most influential men in our
+country, and boasts of having the approbation of an overwhelming
+majority of the wise and good whose examples are laws, it is able, were
+it willing, to effect a radical change in public sentiment--nay, it is
+at the present time public sentiment itself. But though it has done
+much, and may do more, (all that it can it will do,) to depress,
+impoverish and dispirit the free people of color, and to strengthen and
+influence mutual antipathies, it is the purpose of God, I am fully
+persuaded, to humble the pride of the American people by rendering the
+expulsion of our colored countrymen utterly impracticable, and the
+necessity for their admission to equal rights imperative. As neither
+mountains of prejudice, nor the massy shackles of law and of public
+opinion, have been able to keep them down to a level with slaves, I
+confidently anticipate their exaltation among ourselves. Through the
+vista of time,--a short distance only,--I see them here, not in Africa,
+not bowed to the earth, or derided and persecuted as at present, not
+with a downcast air or an irresolute step, but standing erect as men
+destined heavenward, unembarrassed, untrammelled, with none to molest or
+make them afraid.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[V] Walker's Appeal.
+
+[W] Why is it that the free people of color are now, in almost every
+part of our country, threatened with banishment from State to State, and
+with hunting from city to city, until there shall be no place for the
+soles of their feet in this their native land? Is it because they are in
+reality, as slaveholders tell us, an inferior race of beings? No, my
+friends: their consistent conduct, their polished manners, and their
+great respectability, wherever they have enjoyed the advantages of
+equality of education and equality of motives, proclaim the contrary.
+The true cause of this almost universal prescription is to be found in
+the melancholy fact that we have been guilty of the most atrocious
+injustice to their forefathers and to themselves. We would therefore now
+banish the evidence of our guilt from before our eyes: for whom a man
+has injured, he is almost sure to hate. Some of the finest men I met
+with, during a residence of three years in London and Paris, were the
+offspring of African mothers. There no distinction is made in any grade
+of society, on account of color. I have repeatedly seen black gentlemen
+sitting on the sofas, conversing with the ladies, at the hospitable
+mansion of that universal philanthropist, LAFAYETTE; and there were no
+persons present who appeared more respectable, or who were more
+respected.--[Address of Arnold Buffum, President of the New-England
+Anti-Slavery Society, delivered in Boston, Feb. 16, 1832.]
+
+[X] In England, it is common to see respectable and genteel people open
+their pews when a black stranger enters the church; and at hotels,
+nobody thinks it a degradation to have a colored traveller sit at the
+same table. We have heard a well authenticated anecdote, which
+illustrates the different state of feeling in the two countries on this
+subject. A wealthy American citizen was residing at London for a season,
+which time the famous Mr Prince Saunders was there. The London breakfast
+hour is very late; and Prince Saunders happened to call upon the
+American while his family were taking their morning repast. Politeness
+and native good feelings prompted the lady to ask her guest to take a
+cup of coffee--but then the _prejudices of society_--how could she
+overcome _them_? True, he was a gentleman in character, manners and
+dress; but he had a black skin; and how could white skins sit at the
+same table with him? If his _character_ had been as black as perdition,
+the difficulty might have been overcome, however reluctantly; but his
+_skin_ being black, it was altogether out of the question. So the lady
+sipped her coffee, and Prince Saunders sat at the window, occasionally
+speaking in reply to conversation addressed to him. At last all retired
+from the breakfast table--and then the lady, with an air of sudden
+recollection, said, 'I forgot to ask if you had breakfasted, Mr
+Saunders! Won't you let me give you a cup of coffee?' 'I thank you,
+madam,' he replied, with a dignified bow, 'I am engaged to breakfast
+with the PRINCE REGENT this morning!'
+
+We laugh at the narrow bigotry of the Mahometan, who feels contaminated
+if a Christian shares his dinner, and who will not give his vile carcass
+burial, for fear of pollution. Is our prejudice against persons of color
+more rational or more just? The plain fact is, our prejudice has the
+same foundation as that of the Mahometan--both are grounded in pride and
+selfishness. A law has lately passed in Turkey, imposing a fine upon
+whoever shall call a Christian a dog. _Let us try to keep pace with the
+Turks in candor and benevolence._--[Massachusetts Journal and Tribune.]
+
+
+
+
+SECTION X.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY DECEIVES AND MISLEADS THE NATION.
+
+
+It is now about fifteen years since the American Colonization Society
+sprang into existence--a space of time amply sufficient to test its
+ability. In its behalf the pulpit and the press (two formidable engines)
+have been exerted to an extraordinary degree; statesmen, and orators,
+and judges, and lawyers, and philanthropists, have eloquently advocated
+its claims to public patronage. During this protracted period, and with
+such powerful auxiliaries, a careless observer might naturally suppose
+that much must have been accomplished towards abolishing slavery. But
+what is the fact? Less than one hundred and fifty souls have been
+removed annually to Africa--in all, about two thousand souls in fifteen
+years!!--a drop from the Atlantic ocean--a grain of earth from the
+American continent! In the mean time, the increase of the slaves has
+amounted to upwards of _half a million_! and every week more than _one
+thousand_ new-born victims are added to their number. Before a vessel,
+with one hundred and fifty passengers, can go to and return from Africa,
+more than ten thousand slave infants will have been added to our
+population: while she is preparing to depart, or waiting for a fair
+wind, the increase will freight her many times.
+
+The following eloquent and comprehensive Circular (published last year
+in London by Capt. Charles Stuart, in consequence of the visit of
+Elliott Cresson, an agent who was sent out to dupe the philanthropists
+of England) exhibits the inefficiency and criminality of the Society in
+a striking light:
+
+    'AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. LIBERIA.--This Society was
+    formed in the United States, in 1817.
+
+    Its Thirteenth Annual Report has just reached this country.
+
+    Its object, as expressed by itself, (see the Thirteenth Report,
+    page 41, app. 9, art. 2,) "Is to promote and execute a plan for
+    colonizing the free people of color, residing in 'the United
+    States' in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem
+    most expedient."
+
+    The facts of the case are these:
+
+      1. That the United States have about 2,000,000 enslaved blacks.
+      2. That they have about 500,000 free blacks.
+      3. That both these classes are rapidly increasing.
+      4. That both are exceedingly depressed and degraded.
+
+    The duty of the United States to them, is the same exactly as we
+    owe to our colored fellow-subjects in our slave colonies, viz.
+    to obey God, by letting them go free, by placing them beneath
+    wise and equitable laws, and by loving them all, and treating
+    them like brethren; that is to say, the unquestionable duty of
+    the people of the United States is to emancipate their 2,000,000
+    slaves, and to raise the 500,000 free colored people to that
+    estimation in their native country which is due to them.
+
+    But the American Colonization Society deliberately rejects both
+    of these first great duties, and confines itself to the
+    colonization in Africa of the free colored people. They say, in
+    page 5, of their Thirteenth Report, "To abolition she could not
+    look--and need not look." It "could do nothing in the slave
+    States for the cause of humanity;" and in page 8, "Emancipation,
+    with the liberty to remain on this side of the Atlantic, is but
+    an act of dreamy madness."
+
+    Now in thus deliberately letting the great crime of negro
+    slavery alone; and in thus substituting a little restricted act
+    of very dubious benevolence to a few, for the great and sacred
+    duty of right which they owe to all,--they hurt the great cause
+    of everlasting truth and love, in the following particulars:
+
+    1. By offering to the nation a hope, at which many of their best
+    men seem eagerly grasping, of getting rid of the colored people
+    abroad--they conduce more and more, as this hope prevails, to
+    keep out of mind the superior, unalterable, and immediate duty
+    of righting them at home.
+
+    2. By removing whatever number it be, from their native country,
+    the number which remains must be diminished,--and the more the
+    number which remains is diminished, the more helpless will they
+    become--the less will be the hope of their ever recovering their
+    own liberty--and the more and longer will they be trampled upon.
+
+    3. The more the people of the United States (and this is equally
+    true of Great Britain) substitute a _half-way_ duty, difficult,
+    expensive, and partial as it must be, and criminal as it
+    unquestionably is--for the _whole_ duty which they owe their
+    negro fellow-subjects, of putting them, before the law, upon a
+    par with themselves--the less will they be likely to feel their
+    sin in continuing to wrong them; and the less they feel their
+    sin, the less likely will they be to repent of it, and to do
+    their duty.
+
+    4. The greater the number of slaves transported, the greater
+    will be the value of the labor of those who remain; the more
+    valuable their labor is, the greater will be the temptation to
+    over-labor them, and the more, of course, they will be
+    oppressed.
+
+    5. The American Colonization Society directly supports the false
+    and cruel idea that the native country of the colored people of
+    the United States, is not their native country, and that they
+    never can be happy until they either exile themselves, or are
+    exiled; and thus powerfully conduces to extinguish in them all
+    those delightful hopes, and to prevent all that glorious
+    exertion, which would make them a blessing to their country. In
+    this particular, the American Colonization Society takes up a
+    falsehood, as cruel to the colored people, as it is disgraceful
+    to themselves; dwells upon it, as if it were an irrefragable
+    truth; urges it, as such, upon others; and thus endeavors with
+    all its force, to make _that practically true_, which is one of
+    the greatest stains in the American character; which is one of
+    the greatest scourges that could possibly afflict the free
+    colored people; and which, in itself, is essentially and
+    unalterably false. For be the pertinacity of prejudice what it
+    may, in asserting that the blacks of America never can be
+    amalgamated in all respects, in equal brotherhood with the
+    whites, it will not the less remain an everlasting truth, that
+    the wickedness which produced and perpetuates the assertion, is
+    the only ground of the difficulty, and that all that is
+    requisite to remove the whole evil, is the relenting in love of
+    the proud and cruel spirit which produced it. Could the American
+    Colonization Society succeed in establishing their views on this
+    subject, as being really true of the people of the United
+    States, it would only prove that the people of the United States
+    were past repentance; that they were given over, through their
+    obstinacy in sin, finally to believe a lie; to harden
+    themselves, and to perish in their iniquity. But they have not
+    succeeded in establishing this fearful fact against themselves;
+    and as long as they continue capable of repentance, it _never_
+    can be true, that the proud and baneful prejudices which now so
+    cruelly alienate them from their colored brethren, may not, will
+    not, must not, yield to the sword of the Spirit, to the Word of
+    God, to the blessed weapons of truth and love.
+
+    The American Colonization Society is beautiful and beneficial as
+    far as it supports the cause commenced at Sierra Leone, by
+    introducing into Africa, civilization, commerce, and genuine
+    Christianity--by checking the African slave trade--and by
+    serving in love the emigrants who choose to pass to Liberia.
+
+    But it powerfully tends to veil the existing and outrageous
+    atrocity of negro slavery; and it corroborates against the
+    people of color, whether enslaved or free, one of the most base,
+    groundless, and cruel prejudices, that has ever disgraced the
+    powerful, or afflicted the weak.
+
+    The following calculations may throw further light upon the
+    subject.
+
+    The United States have about 2,000,000 slaves, and about 500,000
+    free colored people.
+
+    The American Colonization Society has existed for thirteen
+    years, and has exported yearly, upon an average, about 150
+    persons.
+
+    Meanwhile the natural yearly increase has been 56,000 souls; and
+    nearly a million have died in slavery!!
+
+    But it may be said, this is only the beginning--more may be
+    expected hereafter.--Let us see.
+
+    The average price of transporting each individual is calculated
+    at 30 dollars: suppose it to be reduced to 20, and then, as
+    56,000 must be exported yearly, in order merely to prevent
+    increase, 1,120,000 dollars would be yearly requisite simply for
+    transportation. Where is this vast sum to come from? Or suppose
+    it supplied, still, in the mass of crime and wretchedness, as it
+    now exists, there would be _no decrease_! Two millions of human
+    beings every 30 years would still be _born_ and _die_ in
+    slavery!!
+
+    But perhaps you wish to extinguish the crime in thirty years.
+
+    Then you must begin by transporting at least 100,000 yearly. In
+    order to do this, you must have an annual income of upwards of
+    2,000,000 dollars; and if you have not only to transport, but
+    also to purchase, you would probably want yearly, _twenty
+    millions_ more!!
+
+    Where are you to get this?--
+
+    Or suppose it got, and still one generation would perish in
+    their wretchedness; 2,000,000 of immortal souls--plundered by
+    you of the most sacred rights of human nature; of rights _always
+    the same_, and everlastingly _inalienable_, however
+    plundered--would have perished _unredressed_, and gone to
+    confront you at the bar of God.
+
+    And will He not make inquisition for blood? And what will it
+    avail you to say, "Oh, we satisfied ourselves, and traversed
+    land and sea, and spent thousands to satisfy others, that if we
+    transported a few hundreds or thousands of our oppressed
+    fellow-subjects to a distant country, yearly, with care, we
+    might guiltlessly leave the remaining hundreds of thousands, or
+    the millions, in slavery, and harmlessly indulge the invincible
+    repugnance which we felt to a colored skin. We really thought it
+    better, to exile our colored brethren from their native country,
+    or to render their lives in it, intolerable by scorn, should
+    they obstinately persist in remaining in it;--we really thought
+    this better, than humbling ourselves before our brother and our
+    God, and returning to both with repenting and undissembling
+    love."
+
+    Is not such language similar to the swearer's prayer!!
+
+    Great Britain and the United States, the two most favored, and
+    the two most guilty nations upon earth, both need rebuke. They
+    ought to be brethren, mutually dear and honorable to each other,
+    in all that is true and kind. But never, never, let them support
+    one another in guilt.
+
+    People of Great Britain, it is your business--it is _your
+    duty_,--to give to negro slavery no rest, but to put it
+    down--not by letting the trunk alone, while you idly busy
+    yourselves in lopping off, or in aiding others to lop off, a few
+    of the straggling branches--but by laying the axe at once to
+    its roots, and by putting your united nerve into the steel, till
+    this great poison-tree of lust and blood, and of all abominable
+    and heartless iniquity, fall before you; and law, and love, and
+    God and man, shout victory over its ruin.
+
+    Hearken--thus saith the Lord, "Rob not the poor, because he is
+    poor; neither oppress the afflicted in the gate. For the Lord
+    will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled
+    them." Prov. xxii. 22, 23.
+
+    LONDON, July 15, 1831. C. STUART.'[Y]
+
+Sometimes the Society professes to be able to remove the whole colored
+population in less than thirty years! and the belief is prevalent that
+the project is feasible. Again it tells us--
+
+    'Admitting that the colonization scheme contemplates the
+    ultimate abolition of slavery, yet that result could only be
+    produced _by the gradual and slow operation of_ CENTURIES.' * *
+    'How came we by this population? By the prevalence for a century
+    of a guilty commerce. And will not the prevalence _for a
+    century_ of a restoring commerce, place them on their own
+    shores? Yes, surely!' * * 'There are those, Sir, who ask--and
+    could not a quarter century cease and determine the two great
+    evils? You and I, my dear Sir, on whom the frost of time has
+    fallen rather perceptibly, would say a century. And now, let me
+    ask, could ever a century, in the whole course of human affairs,
+    be better employed?'--[African Repository, vol. i. pp. 217, 347;
+    vol. v. p. 366.]
+
+
+    'It is not the work of a day nor a year, it is not a work of one
+    time, nor of two, nor of three, but it is one which will now
+    commence, _and may continue for ages_.'--[A new and interesting
+    View of Slavery. By Humanitas, a colonization advocate.
+    Baltimore, 1820.]
+
+Wild enthusiasts in the cause may respond--'The Society never expected
+to accomplish much single-handed: it is about to enlist the energies of
+the General Government--and doubtless Congress will appropriate several
+millions of dollars annually for the purchase and colonization of the
+slaves.'
+
+But are they sure, or is it probable, that Congress will make this
+appropriation? And if it should, what can they do without the consent of
+the people of color to remove? That consent can never be obtained. Is
+it, then, proposed to buy the slaves of their masters, as if the claim
+of property were valid? It were better that the money should rust at the
+bottom of the deep!--better to buy bank-notes, and convert them to
+ashes! To purchase slaves would only serve to make brisk the
+slave-market. Their value would immediately rise in all the slave
+States; especially in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and North
+Carolina, where they are now comparatively worthless--_and there would
+be an end to voluntary emancipation_: for who would sacrifice his
+'property,' when he might obtain an equivalent for it? Slave traders and
+slave owners would be zealous to prevent any lack of miserable objects
+for the bounty offered by government: if the natural increase were not
+sufficient, they would be careful to make the importation from Africa
+exceed the exportation to that ill-fated continent. Such a purchase
+would be directly patronising the slave trade, at home and abroad, and
+bribing masters to keep their slaves for the highest bidder. Besides, it
+would be a gross violation of the great fundamental principle, that 'man
+cannot hold property in man.'
+
+I know it is easy to make calculations. I know it is an old maxim, that
+'figures cannot lie:' and I very well know, too, that our philanthropic
+arithmeticians are prodigiously fond of FIGURING, but of doing nothing
+else. Give them a slate and pencil, and in fifteen minutes they will
+clear the continent of every black skin; and, if desired, throw in the
+Indians to boot. While they depopulate America, they find not the least
+difficulty in providing for the wants of the emigrating myriads to the
+coast of Africa: we have ships enough, and, notwithstanding the hardness
+of the times, money enough. O, the surpassing utility of the arithmetic!
+it is more potent than the stone of the philosopher, which, _when
+discovered_, is to transmute, at a touch, base metal into pure gold!
+
+In one breath, colonization orators tell us that the free blacks are
+pests in the community; that they are an intemperate, ignorant, lazy,
+thievish class; that their condition is worse than that of the slaves;
+and that no efforts to improve them in this country can be successful,
+owing to the prejudices of society. In the next breath we are told what
+mighty works these miserable outcasts are to achieve--that they are the
+missionaries of salvation,[Z] who are to illumine all Africa--that they
+will build up a second American republic--and that our conceptions
+cannot grasp the result of their labors. Now I, for one, have no faith
+in this instantaneous metamorphosis.[AA] I believe that neither a sea
+voyage nor an African climate has any miraculous influence upon the
+brain. I believe that ignorant and depraved black men, who are
+transported across the ocean, will be ignorant and depraved black men on
+reaching the coast of Africa. I believe, also, that they who are capable
+of doing well, surrounded by barbarians, may do better among a civilized
+and christian people.
+
+It is stated in a Circular put forth by the Society last year, that
+'from the _actual experience_ of the Society, it has been found that
+$20, _or less_, will defray the whole expense of transporting an
+individual to the Colony.' This is a very deceptive statement. The
+receipts of the Society from 1820 to 1830, amounted to $112,841 89; the
+expenses during the same period were $106,457 72; balance on hand,
+$6,384 17. Nineteen expeditions had been fitted out, and 1,857
+emigrants,[AB] _including re-captured Africans_, landing on the shores
+of Africa--averaging annually, for the ten years, about 186 persons, or
+since the organization of the Society, about 124 persons. 'The
+emigrants,' the Board of Managers inform us, in a recent address to
+Auxiliary Societies, 'for the last three years, average about 227, while
+the expenses, _exclusive of transportation, and temporary subsistence of
+the new colonists_, exceed TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS'!! In the very last
+number of the African Repository, (for April, 1832,) the Vice-Agent at
+Liberia, A. D. Williams, writes to the Rev. R. R. Gurley as follows:--'I
+think the price, say $35, fixed by the Board for the transportation of
+each emigrant, _is entirely too low_: it should be at least $40, if not
+$45.' Why, then, does the Society attempt to impose upon public
+credulity, by stating that only $20 are requisite for every individual
+transportation, when the actual cost has been more than thrice, and is
+likely to be more than double that amount?[AC]
+
+The Society has succeeded in making the people believe that the
+establishment of a colony or colonies on the coast of Africa is the only
+way to abolish the foreign slave trade: on this account it has secured
+an extensive patronage. Here is another fatal delusion. I shall show not
+only that it has not injured this trade in the least, but that the trade
+_continues to increase in activity and cruelty_. Let us look at its own
+admissions.
+
+    'We regret to say, that the slave trade appears to be carried on
+    to a great extent, and with circumstances of the most revolting
+    cruelty.' * * * 'The French slave trade, notwithstanding the
+    efforts of the government, appears to be undiminished. The
+    number of Spanish vessels employed in the trade is immense, and
+    as the treaty between England and Spain only permits the seizure
+    of vessels having slaves actually on board, many of these watch
+    their opportunity on the coast, run in, and receive all their
+    slaves on board in a single day.' * * 'By an official document
+    from Rio de Janeiro, it appears that the following importations
+    of slaves were made into that port in 1826 and 1827.
+
+      '1826, landed alive, 35,966 ... died on the passage 1,905
+      '1827, landed alive, 41,384 ... died on the passage 1,643
+
+    'Thus it would seem, (says the Boston Gazette,) that to only one
+    port in the Brazils, and in the course of two years,
+    _seventy-seven thousand three hundred and fifty_ human beings
+    were transported from their own country, and placed in a state
+    of slavery.'--[African Repository, vol. i. v. pp. 179, 181.]
+
+
+    'It is not by legal arguments, or penal statutes, or armed
+    ships, that the slave trade can be prevented. Almost every power
+    in Christendom has denounced it. It has been declared felony--it
+    has been declared piracy; and the fleets of Britain and America
+    have been commissioned to drive it from the ocean. Still, in
+    defiance of all this array of legislation and of armament, slave
+    ships ride triumphant on the ocean; and in these floating
+    caverns, less terrible only than the caverns which demons
+    occupy, from sixty to eighty thousand wretches, received
+    pinioned from the coast of Africa, are borne annually away to
+    slavery or death. Of these wretches a frightful number are, with
+    an audacity that amazes, landed and disposed of within the
+    jurisdiction of this republic.'--[Idem, vol. v. 274.]
+
+
+    'Notwithstanding all the efforts that have been made to suppress
+    the slave trade, by means of solemn treaties and laws declaring
+    it to be piracy; and notwithstanding the attempts to
+    exterminate it by the naval forces of the United States and
+    Great Britain, the inhuman traffic is still pursued to as great
+    an extent as at any former period, and with greater cruelty than
+    ever.'--[African Repository, vol. vi. p. 345.]
+
+
+    'The slave trade, which many suppose has been every where
+    abolished for years, there is reason to believe is still carried
+    on to almost as great an extent as ever. It has been recently
+    stated in the papers, that an association of merchants at Nantz,
+    in France, had undertaken to supply the island of Cuba with
+    thirty thousand fresh negro slaves annually! And in Brazil, it
+    is well known, that for several years past, the importations
+    have even exceeded this number.'--[Idem, vol. vii. p. 248.]
+
+
+    'Africa, for three long centuries, has been ravaged by the slave
+    trade. Notwithstanding all that has been done to suppress that
+    traffic, notwithstanding its formal abolition by all civilized
+    nations, it is carried on at the present hour, _with all its
+    atrocities unmitigated_. The flags of France, Portugal, Brazil,
+    and Spain, with the connivance of those governments, afford to
+    the slave trader, in spite of laws and treaties and armed
+    cruisers, a partial protection, of which he avails himself to
+    the utmost. And with what cruelty he carries on his war against
+    human nature, every year affords us illustrations sufficiently
+    horrible.'--[Christian Spectator for September, 1830.]
+
+
+    'This horrible traffic, notwithstanding its abolition by every
+    civilized nation in the world, except Portugal and Brazil, and
+    notwithstanding the decided measures of the British and American
+    governments, is still carried on to almost as great an extent as
+    ever. Not less than 60,000 slaves, according to the most
+    moderate computation, are carried from Africa annually. This
+    trade is carried on by Americans to the American states. And the
+    cruelties of this trade, which always surpassed the powers of
+    the human mind to conceive, _are greater now than they ever were
+    before_. We might, but we will not, refer to stories, recent
+    stories, of which the very recital would be torment.'--[Seventh
+    Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Notwithstanding the vigilance of the powers now engaged to
+    suppress the slave trade, I have received information, that in a
+    single year, in the single island of Cuba, slaves equal in
+    amount to one half of the above number of fifty-two thousand
+    have been illicitly introduced.' * * 'Mr Mercer submitted the
+    following preamble and resolutions:--Whereas, to the affliction
+    of the Christian world, the African slave trade, notwithstanding
+    all the efforts, past and present, for its suppression, still
+    exists and is conducted _with aggravated cruelty_, by the
+    resources of one continent, to the dishonor of another, and to
+    an extent little short of the desolation of a third,'
+    &c.--[Tenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'It is painful to state, that the Managers have reason to
+    believe that the slave trade is still prosecuted, to a great
+    extent, and with circumstances of undiminished atrocity. The
+    fact, that much was done by Mr Ashmun to banish it from the
+    territory, under the colonial jurisdiction, is unquestionable;
+    but, _it now exists, even on this territory_; and a little to
+    the north and south of Liberia, it is seen in its true
+    characters--of fraud, rapine, and blood! In the opinion of the
+    late Agent, the present efforts to suppress this trade must
+    prove abortive.'--[Thirteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Some appalling facts in regard to the slave trade have come to
+    the knowledge of the Board of Managers during the last year.
+    _With undiminished atrocity and activity_ is this odious traffic
+    now carried on _all along the African coast_. Slave factories
+    are established _in the immediate vicinity of the Colony_, and
+    at the Gallinas (between Liberia and Sierra Leone) not less than
+    nine hundred slaves were shipped during the last summer, in the
+    space of three weeks.'--[Fourteenth Annual Report, 1831.]
+
+
+    'In defiance of all laws enacted, it is estimated that no less
+    than _fifty thousand_ Africans were, during the last year,
+    (1831,) carried into foreign slavery. During the months of
+    February and March of the same year, two thousand were landed
+    on the island of Cuba.'--[Circular published by the
+    Massachusetts Colonization Society for 1832.]
+
+Here, then, is the acknowledgment of the Society, that it has
+accomplished _nothing_ toward the suppression of the slave trade in
+fifteen years! Nor has the settlement at Sierra Leone effected aught in
+thirty years! Nor have the untiring labors of Wilberforce and Clarkson,
+for a longer period, produced any visible effect! The accursed traffic
+still continues to increase--and why? Simply _because the market for
+slaves is not destroyed_. Break up this market, and you annihilate the
+slave trade. Keep it open, and you may line the shores of Africa and
+America with naval ships and armed troops, and the trade will continue.
+No proposition in Euclid is plainer. So long as there is a brisk market
+for goods, that market will be supplied. The assertion has been made in
+Congress by Mr Mercer of Virginia, (one of the Vice-Presidents of the
+Society,) that these horrible cargoes are smuggled into our southern
+states to a deplorable extent. In 1819, Mr Middleton, of South Carolina,
+declared it to be his belief 'that 13,000 Africans were annually
+smuggled into our southern states.' Mr Wright of Virginia estimated the
+number at 15,000!!!--[_Vide_ Seventh Annual Report--app.]--This number
+is seven times as great as that which the Colonization Society has
+transported in fifteen years![AD] By letting the system of slavery
+alone, then, and striving to protect it, the Society is encouraging and
+perpetuating the foreign slave trade!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Y] 'We think the annual increase, as computed by Capt. Stuart, too low
+by 10 or 15,000. The estimate also of the expense of transportation is
+much below the actual cost. Besides, there is no provision made for the
+support of these helpless beings after their arrival in Africa, until
+they could provide for their own wants. Double the cost of
+transportation would be required for their subsistence till they could
+maintain themselves, without making any provision for implements of
+husbandry, mechanics' tools, &c. &c. without which they would all
+perish, even without the help of a pestiferous climate. But yet the
+table shows at one view the utter futility of the whole scheme of
+African Colonization. Slavery can no more be removed by these means than
+the waters of the Mississippi can be exhausted by steam engines. And the
+removal of slavery is the great consummation to which all benevolent
+efforts for benefitting the African race in this country, should
+ultimately tend. All schemes that do not promote this end will prove
+futile, and will end in disappointment. The axe must be laid to the root
+of the corrupt tree. It is a system that admits of no palliation, no
+compromise.'--['Herald of Truth,' Philadelphia.]
+
+[Z] 'Every emigrant to Africa is a _missionary_ carrying with him
+credentials in the holy cause of civilization, religion, and free
+institutions'!!--[Speech of H. Clay--Tenth Annual Report.]--Why does not
+Mr Clay increase this band of _missionaries_, by sending out some of his
+own slaves? Is he consistent?
+
+[AA] 'As to the morals of the colonists, I consider them _much better
+than those of the people of the United States_. That is, you may take an
+equal number of inhabitants from any section of the Union, and you will
+find more drunkards, more profane swearers and Sabbath breakers, &c.,
+than in Liberia. Indeed I know of no country where things are conducted
+more quietly and orderly than in this colony; you rarely hear an oath,
+and as to riots or breaches of the peace, I recollect of but one
+instance, and that of a trifling nature, that has come under my notice
+since I assumed the government of the colony. The Sabbath is more
+strictly observed than I ever saw it in the United States.'--[Letter
+from J. Mechlin, Jr. Governor of the Colony of Liberia.]
+
+'I saw no intemperance, nor did I hear a profane word uttered by any
+one.' [Letter of Capt. William Abels.]
+
+If these statements be a true representation of the moral condition of
+the colonists; if 'their morals are much better than those of the people
+of the United States;' let us immediately bring back these expatriated
+_missionaries_ to civilize and reform ourselves; for, according to our
+own confession, we need their instruction and example as much as any
+heathen nation. If these 'missionaries,' who, in this country, could
+'scarcely be reached in their debasement by the heavenly light;' if
+these 'most degraded, most abandoned beings on the earth,' have actually
+risen up to this exalted height of intelligence and purity, in so brief
+a period after a separation from ourselves, how desperately wicked and
+corrupt does the fact make our own conduct appear!
+
+[AB] Of this number, nearly three-fourths were free persons of color. If
+the Society is anxious to emancipate the slaves, why does it not confine
+its efforts exclusively to their transportation, seeing so many are
+offered for that purpose? Doubtless the reply will be--'O, it is
+important, in the incipient state of the colony, to send free persons of
+color, because they are more intelligent and virtuous.' Ah! is it so?
+What! give the preference to those whom it elsewhere brands as 'more
+corrupt, depraved and abandoned than the slaves can be,' and who
+'contribute greatly to the _corruption of the slaves_?' 'O!' it may
+reply, 'a careful selection is made between the virtuous and
+vicious--none are sent whose character is not reputable.' But what is to
+become of this choice selection, when it is able (as it hopes to be) to
+send off even as many as seventy thousand annually?
+
+[AC] 'The expense of transporting such persons from the United States to
+the coast of Africa, has been variously estimated. By those who compute
+it at the lowest rate, the mere expense of this transportation has been
+estimated at $20 per head. In this estimate, however, is not
+comprehended the expense of transporting the persons destined for
+Africa, to the port of their departure from the United States, or the
+necessary expense of sustaining them, either there or in Africa, for a
+reasonable time after their first arrival. All these expenses combined,
+the Committee think they estimate very low, when they compute the amount
+at $100 per head. It has been estimated by some at double this amount;
+and if past experience may be relied upon as proving any thing, the
+official documents formerly furnished to the Senate by the Department of
+the Navy, show that the expenses attending the transportation of the few
+captured slaves who have been returned to Africa by the United States,
+at the expense of this government, _far exceeds even the largest
+estimate_. But taking the expense to be only what the Committee have
+estimated it: Then the sum requisite to transport the whole number of
+the free colored population of the United States, would exceed
+twenty-eight millions of dollars; and the expense of transporting a
+number, equal only to the mere annual increase of this population, would
+exceed seven hundred thousand dollars per annum. Sums which would impose
+upon the people of this country, an additional burthen of taxation,
+greater than this Committee believe they could easily bear; and much
+greater than ought to be imposed upon them for any such purpose.' * *
+'The annual increase of the slave population, at present, is at least
+57,000. Now allow the same sum per head for the transportation of these
+persons, that has been estimated for the transportation in the other
+similar case; and the sum requisite to defray the expense of the
+transportation of all the slaves in the United States, would be one
+hundred and ninety millions of dollars; and that requisite to defray the
+expense of the transportation of a number only equal to their mere
+annual increase, would be five millions seven hundred thousand dollars
+per annum. But to either of these sums must be added the reasonable
+equivalent, or necessary aid, to be paid by the United States to humane
+individuals, in order to induce them voluntarily to part with their
+property. The Committee have no 'data' by which they can measure what
+this might be. But any sum, however small, will make so great an
+augmentation of the amount, as almost to baffle calculation, and to
+exhibit this project at once, as one exceeding, very far, indeed, any
+revenue which the United States could ever draw from their citizens,
+even if the object was to increase and multiply, instead of reducing the
+numbers of the class of productive labor.'--[Mr Tazewell's Report--U. S.
+Senate, 1828.]
+
+[AD] The following amusing anecdote is a capital illustration of the
+folly of those colonizationists, who are endeavoring to suppress the
+rising tide of our colored population by extracting a few drops annually
+with their 'mop and pattens.' Dame Partington is clearly outdone by
+them, in regard to pertinacity of purpose and feebleness of execution.
+Rev. Sidney Smith, in his speech at the Taunton meeting, (England,)
+said:
+
+'The attempt of the House of Lords to stop the progress of Reform,
+reminded him of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington, during the
+great storm at Sidmouth, in 1824. The tide rose to an incredible height;
+the waves rushed in upon the houses, and every thing was threatened with
+destruction. In the midst of the fearful commotion of the elements, Dame
+Partington, who lived upon the sea beach, was seen at the door of her
+house, with mop and pattens, trundling her mop and sweeping out the sea
+water, and vigorously pushing back the Atlantic. The Atlantic was
+roused, and so was Mrs. Partington; but the contest was unequal. The
+Atlantic beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop or a puddle,
+but she could do nothing with a tempest.'
+
+
+END OF PART I.
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION.
+
+PART II.
+
+
+
+
+SENTIMENTS OF THE PEOPLE OF COLOR.
+
+
+If the American Colonization Society were indeed actuated by the purest
+motives and the best feelings toward the objects of its supervision; if
+it were not based upon injustice, fraud, persecution and incorrigible
+prejudice; still if its purposes be contrary to the wishes and injurious
+to the interests of the free people of color, it ought not to receive
+the countenance of the public. Even the trees of the forest are keenly
+susceptible to every touch of violence, and seem to deprecate
+transplantation to a foreign soil. Even birds and animals pine in exile
+from their native haunts; their local attachments are wonderful; they
+migrate only to return again at the earliest opportunity. Perhaps there
+is not a living thing, from the hugest animal down to the minutest
+animalcule, whose pleasant associations are not circumscribed, or that
+has not some favorite retreats. This universal preference, this love of
+_home_, seems to be the element of being,--a constitutional attribute
+given by the all-wise Creator to bind each separate tribe or community
+within intelligent and well-defined limits: for, in its absence, order
+would be banished from the world, collision between the countless
+orders of creation would be perpetual, and violence would depopulate the
+world with more than pestilential rapidity.
+
+Shall it be said that beings endowed with high intellectual powers,
+sustaining the most important relations, created for social enjoyments,
+and made but a little lower than the angels--shall it be said that their
+local attachments are less tenacious than those of trees, and birds, and
+beasts, and insects? I know that the blacks are classed, by some, who
+scarcely give any evidence of their own humanity but their shape, among
+the brute creation: but are they _below_ the brutes? or are they more
+insensible to rude assaults than forest-trees?
+
+'Men,' says an erratic but powerful writer[AE]--'men are like trees:
+they delight in a rude [and native] soil--they strike their roots
+downward with a perpetual effort, and heave their proud branches upward
+in perpetual strife. Are they to be removed?--you must tear up the very
+earth with their roots, rock and ore and impurity, or they perish. They
+cannot be translated with safety. Something of their home--a little of
+their native soil, must cling to them forever, or they die.'
+
+This love of home, of neighborhood, of country, is inherent in the human
+breast. It accompanies the child from its earliest reminiscence up to
+old age: it is written upon every tangible and permanent object within
+the habitual cognizance of the eye--upon stone, and tree, and
+rivulet--upon the green hill, and the verdant plain, and the opulent
+valley--upon house, and garden, and steeple-spire--upon the soil,
+whether it be rough or smooth, sandy or hard, barren or luxuriant.
+
+    'Like ivy, where it grows, 'tis seen
+    To wear an everlasting green.'
+
+The man who does not cherish it is regarded as destitute of sensibility;
+and to him is applied by common consent the burning rebuke of Sir Walter
+Scott:
+
+    'Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
+    Who never to himself hath said,
+      This is my own, my native land!
+    Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
+    As home his footsteps he hath turned,
+      From wandering on a foreign strand!
+    If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
+    For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
+    High though his titles, proud his name,
+    Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
+    Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
+    The wretch, concentred all in self,
+    Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
+    And, doubly dying, shall go down
+    To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
+    Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.'
+
+Whose bosom does not thrill with pleasurable emotion whenever he listens
+to that truest, sweetest, tenderest effusion,--'Home, sweet home?'
+
+    ''Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
+    Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;
+    A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
+    Which, seek thro' the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
+                  Home--home!
+                  Sweet, sweet home!
+            _There's no place like home!_
+
+    'An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain--
+    O give me my lowly thatched cottage again;
+    The birds singing gaily that came at my call--
+    Give me them, with the peace of mind dearer than all!
+                  Home--home!
+                  Sweet, sweet home!
+            _There's no place like home!_'
+
+No one will understand me to maintain that population should never be
+thinned by foreign emigration; but only that such an emigration is
+unnatural. The great mass of a neighborhood or country must necessarily
+be stable: only fractions are cast off and float away on the tide of
+adventure. Individual enterprise or estrangement is one thing: the
+translation of an entire people to an unknown clime, another. The former
+may be moved by a single impulse--by a love of novelty, or a desire of
+gain, or a hope of preferment: he leaves no perceptible void in
+society. The latter can never be expatriated but by some extraordinary
+calamity, or by the application of intolerable restraints. They must
+first be rendered broken-hearted or loaded with chains--hope must not
+merely sicken but die--cord after cord must be sundered--ere they will
+seek another home. Our pilgrim-fathers were driven out from the mother
+country by ecclesiastical domination: to worship God according to the
+dictates of their own consciences, was the only cause of their exile.
+Had they been permitted to enjoy this sacred right,--no matter how great
+were their temporal privations, or their hopes of physical
+enjoyments,--they would not have perilled their lives on the stormy
+deep, to obtain an asylum in this western hemisphere.
+
+It may be said, in reply to the foregoing remarks upon the love of home
+and of country, that the people of color cannot cherish this abhorrence
+of migration, because here they have no 'continuing city,' and are not
+recognised as fellow-countrymen. In PART I., I have shown, by copious
+extracts, that colonizationists artfully represent them as aliens and
+foreigners, wanderers from Africa--destitute of that _amor patriæ_,
+which is the bond of union--seditious--without
+alliances--irresponsible--unambitious--cherishing no attachment to the
+soil--feeling no interest in our national prosperity--ready for any
+adventure--eager to absent themselves from the land--malignant in their
+feelings towards society--incapable of local preference--content to
+remain in ignorance and degradation--&c. &c. &c.
+
+Every such representation is a libel, as I shall show in subsequent
+pages. The language of the people of color is,--'This is our country:
+here were we born--here will we live and die--we know of no other place
+that we can call our true and appropriate home--here are our earliest
+and most pleasant associations--we are freemen, we are brethren, we are
+countrymen and fellow-citizens--we are not for insurrection, but for
+peace and equality.' This is not the language of sedition or alienated
+affection. Their _amor patriæ_ is robust and deathless: like the oak,
+tempests do but strengthen its roots and confer victory upon it. Even
+the soil on which the unhappy slave toils and bleeds, is to him
+consecrated earth.
+
+African colonization is directly and irreconcileably opposed to the
+wishes of our colored population as a body. Their desires ought to be
+tenderly regarded. In all my intercourse with them in various towns and
+cities, I have never seen one of their number who was friendly to this
+scheme--and I have not been backward in canvassing their opinions on
+this subject. They are as unanimously opposed to a removal to Africa, as
+the Cherokees from the council-fires and graves of their fathers. It is
+remarkable, too, that they are as united in their respect and esteem for
+the republic of Hayti. But _this is their country_--they are resolute
+against every migratory plot, and willing to rely on the justice of the
+nation for an ultimate restoration to all their lost rights and
+privileges. What is the fact? Through the instrumentality of BENJAMIN
+LUNDY,[AF] the distinguished and veteran champion of emancipation, a
+great highway has been opened to the Haytien republic, over which our
+colored population may travel _toll free_, and at the end of their brief
+journey be the free occupants of the soil, and meet such a reception as
+was never yet given to any sojourners in any country, since the
+departure of Israel into Egypt. One would think, that, with such
+inducements and under such circumstances, this broad thoroughfare would
+present a most animating spectacle; that the bustle and roar of a
+journeying multitude would fall upon the ear like the strife of the
+ocean, or the distant thunder of the retiring storm; and that the song
+of the oppressor and the oppressed, a song of deliverance to each, would
+go up to heaven, till its echoes were seemingly the responses of angels
+and justified spirits. But it is not so. Only here and there a traveller
+is seen to enter upon the road--there is no noise of preparation or
+departure; but a silence, deeper than the breathlessness of midnight,
+rests upon our land--not a shout of joy is heard throughout our
+borders!
+
+How shall we account for this amazing apathy but on the ground that our
+colored population are unwilling to leave their native homes, no matter
+how strong soever are the inducements held out to them abroad?
+
+If it be said that they are not compelled to emigrate against their
+wishes--I answer, it is true that direct _physical force_ is not
+applied; but why are they induced to remove? Is it because they
+instinctively prefer Africa to their native country? Do they actually
+_court_ the perils of the sea,--the hostilities of a savage tribe,--the
+sickening influences of an African climate? Or are they not peremptorily
+assured that they never can, _and never shall_, enjoy their rights and
+privileges at home--and thus absolutely compelled to leave all that is
+dear behind, and to seek a shelter in a strange land--a land of darkness
+and cruelty, of barbarism and wo?
+
+The free people of color, and even the slaves, have on numerous
+occasions given ocular demonstration of their attachment to this
+country. Large numbers of them were distinguished for their patient
+endurance, their ardent devotion, and their valorous conduct during our
+revolutionary struggle. In the last war, they signalized themselves in a
+manner which extorted the applause even of their calumniators--of many
+who are doubtless at the present day representing them as seditious and
+inimical to the prosperity of the country. I have before me a
+Proclamation in the French language, issued by General Andrew Jackson,
+of which the following is a translation:
+
+    'PROCLAMATION TO THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR.
+
+    'Soldiers!--When on the banks of the Mobile, I called you to
+    take up arms, inviting you to partake the perils and glory of
+    your white fellow citizens, _I expected much from you_; for I
+    was not ignorant that you possessed qualities most formidable to
+    an invading enemy. I knew with what fortitude you could endure
+    hunger and thirst, and all the fatigues of a campaign. _I knew
+    well how you loved your_ NATIVE _country_, and that you had, as
+    well as ourselves, to defend what man holds most dear--his
+    parents, relations, wife, children and property. YOU HAVE DONE
+    MORE THAN I EXPECTED. In addition to the previous qualities I
+    before knew you to possess, I found, moreover, among you _a
+    noble enthusiasm_ which leads to the performance of great
+    things.
+
+    'Soldiers!--The President of the United States shall hear how
+    praiseworthy was your conduct in the hour of danger, and the
+    Representatives of the American people will, I doubt not, give
+    you the praise your exploits entitle you to. _Your General
+    anticipates them in applauding your noble ardor._
+
+    'The enemy approaches; his vessels cover our lakes; our brave
+    citizens are united, and all contention has ceased among them.
+    Their only dispute is, who shall win the prize of valor, or who
+    the most glory, its noblest reward.
+
+    'By order.
+
+                 'THOMAS BUTLER, _Aid de Camp_.'
+
+In commenting upon the above Proclamation, an intelligent writer in the
+New-Orleans 'LIBERALIST' of March 15, 1830, very expressively
+remarks:--'Those who served in the memorable campaign of 1814 will know
+if the hero of the west was guilty of exaggeration. Just as fatal as was
+every glance of his keen eye to the English lines, so is every word of
+this Proclamation a killing thunderbolt to the detractors of this
+portion of our fellow beings, now so inhumanly persecuted.' Yes--when
+peril rears its crest, and invasion threatens our shores, then prejudice
+is forgotten and the tongue of detraction is still--then the people of
+color are no longer brutes or a race between men and monkeys, no longer
+turbulent or useless, no longer aliens and wanderers from Africa--but
+they are complimented as intelligent, patriotic citizens from whom much
+is expected, and who have property, home and country at stake! Ay, and
+richly do they merit this compliment.
+
+A respectable colored gentleman in the city of New-York, referring to
+this famous Proclamation, makes the following brief comment: 'When we
+could be of any use to the army, we possessed all the cardinal virtues;
+but now that time has passed, we forsooth are the most miserable,
+worthless beings the Lord in his wise judgment ever sent to curse the
+rulers of this troublesome world! I feel an anathema rising from my
+heart, but I have suppressed it.'
+
+How black is the ingratitude, how pitiful the hypocrisy, manifested in
+our conduct as a people, toward our colored population! Every cheek
+should wear the blush of shame--every head be bowed in self-abasement!
+
+From the organization of the American Colonization Society, down to the
+present time, the free people of color have publicly and repeatedly
+expressed their opposition to it. They indignantly reject every overture
+for their expatriation. It has been industriously circulated by the
+advocates of colonization, that I have caused this hostility to the
+African scheme in the bosoms of the blacks; and that, until the
+Liberator was established, they were friendly to it. This story is
+founded upon sheer ignorance. It is my solemn conviction that I have not
+proselyted a dozen individuals; for the very conclusive reason that no
+conversions were necessary. Their sentiments were familiar to me long
+before they knew my own. My opponents abundantly overrate my influence,
+in acknowledging that I have overthrown, in a single year, the
+concentrated energies of the mightiest men in the land, and the
+perpetual labors of fifteen years. They shall not make me vain. Such a
+concession affords substantial evidence of perverted strength and
+misapplied exertion.
+
+If the people of color were instantly to signify their willingness to
+emigrate, my hostility to the American Colonization Society would
+scarcely abate one jot: for their assent could never justify the
+principles and doctrines propagated by the Society. Those principles and
+doctrines have been shown, I trust, to be corrupt, selfish,
+proscriptive, opposed to the genius of republicanism and to the spirit
+of christianity.
+
+The first public demonstration of hostility to the colonization scheme
+was made in 1817, by the free colored inhabitants of Richmond, Virginia.
+The proceedings of their meeting, copies of which were printed for
+distribution, I have accidentally mislaid. To the sentiments of the
+people of color, as expressed in the following pages, I cannot too
+earnestly solicit the serious attention of every good man and true
+philanthropist. After such an exhibition, persistance in expelling this
+portion of our population from our shores must be productive of
+aggravated guilt and the most dreadful collisions.
+
+
+A VOICE PROM PHILADELPHIA.
+
+                        PHILADELPHIA, January, 1817.
+
+At a numerous meeting of the people of color, convened at Bethel church,
+to take into consideration the propriety of remonstrating against the
+contemplated measure, that is to exile us from the land of our nativity;
+James Forten was called to the chair, and Russell Parrott appointed
+secretary. The intent of the meeting having been stated by the chairman,
+the following resolutions were adopted, without one dissenting voice.
+
+Whereas our ancestors (not of choice) were the first successful
+cultivators of the wilds of America, we their descendants feel ourselves
+entitled to participate in the blessings of her luxuriant soil, which
+their blood and sweat manured; and that any measure or system of
+measures, having a tendency to banish us from her bosom, would not only
+be cruel, but in direct violation of those principles, which have been
+the boast of this republic.
+
+Resolved, That we view with deep abhorrence the unmerited stigma
+attempted to be cast upon the reputation of the free people of color, by
+the promoters of this measure, 'that they are a dangerous and useless
+part of the community,' when in the state of disfranchisement in which
+they live, in the hour of danger they ceased to remember their wrongs,
+and rallied around the standard of their country.
+
+Resolved, That we never will separate ourselves voluntarily from the
+slave population in this country; they are our brethren by the ties of
+consanguinity, of suffering, and of wrong; and we feel that there is
+more virtue in suffering privations with them, than fancied advantages
+for a season.
+
+Resolved, That without arts, without science, without a proper knowledge
+of government, to cast into the savage wilds of Africa the free people
+of color, seems to us the circuitous route through which they must
+return to perpetual bondage.
+
+Resolved, That having the strongest confidence in the justice of God,
+and philanthropy of the free states, we cheerfully submit our destinies
+to the guidance of Him who suffers not a sparrow to fall, without his
+special providence.
+
+Resolved, That a committee of eleven persons be appointed to open a
+correspondence with the honorable Joseph Hopkinson, member of Congress
+from this city, and likewise to inform him of the sentiments of this
+meeting, and that the following named persons constitute the committee,
+and that they have power to call a general meeting, when they in their
+judgment may deem it proper.
+
+Rev. Absalom Jones, Rev. Richard Allen, James Forten, Robert Douglass,
+Francis Perkins, Rev. John Gloucester, Robert Gorden, James Johnson,
+Quamoney Clarkson, John Summersett, Randall Shepherd.
+
+                        JAMES FORTEN, Chairman.
+
+RUSSELL PARROTT, Secretary.
+
+
+At a numerous meeting of the free people of color of the city and county
+of Philadelphia, held in pursuance of public notice, at the school house
+in Green's court, on the evening of August 10th, for the purpose of
+taking into consideration the plan of colonizing the free people of
+color of the United States, on the coast of Africa, James Forten was
+appointed chairman, and Russell Parrott, secretary.
+
+Resolved unanimously, That the following address, signed on behalf of
+the meeting, by the Chairman and Secretary, be published and circulated.
+
+    _To the humane and benevolent Inhabitants of the city and county
+                            of Philadelphia._
+
+The free people of color, assembled together, under circumstances of
+deep interest to their happiness and welfare, humbly and respectfully
+lay before you this expression of their feelings and apprehensions.
+
+Relieved from the miseries of slavery, many of us by your aid,
+possessing the benefits which industry and integrity in this prosperous
+country assure to all its inhabitants, enjoying the rich blessings of
+religion, by opportunities of worshipping the only true God, under the
+light of Christianity, each of us according to his understanding; and
+having afforded to us and to our children the means of education and
+improvement; we have no wish to separate from our present homes, for any
+purpose whatever. Contented with our present situation and condition, we
+are not desirous of increasing their prosperity but by honest efforts,
+and by the use of those opportunities for their improvement, which the
+constitution and laws allow to all. It is therefore with painful
+solicitude, and sorrowing regret, we have seen a plan for colonizing the
+free people of color of the United States on the coast of Africa,
+brought forward under the auspices and sanction of gentlemen whose names
+give value to all they recommend, and who certainly are among the
+wisest, the best, and the most benevolent of men, in this great nation.
+
+If the plan of colonizing is intended for our benefit; and those who now
+promote it, will never seek our injury; we humbly and respectfully urge,
+that it is not asked for by us; nor will it be required by any
+circumstances, in our present or future condition; as long as we shall
+be permitted to share the protection of the excellent laws and just
+government which we now enjoy, in common with every individual of the
+community.
+
+We, therefore, a portion of those who are the objects of this plan, and
+among those whose happiness, with that of others of our color, it is
+intended to promote; with humble and grateful acknowledgments to those
+who have devised it, renounce and disclaim every connexion with it; and
+respectfully but firmly declare our determination not to participate in
+any part of it.
+
+If this plan of colonization now proposed, is intended to provide a
+refuge and a dwelling for a portion of our brethren, who are now held in
+slavery in the south, we have other and stronger objections to it, and
+we entreat your consideration of them.
+
+The ultimate and final abolition of slavery in the United States, by the
+operation of various causes, is, under the guidance and protection of a
+just God, progressing. Every year witnesses the release of numbers of
+the victims of oppression, and affords new and safe assurances that the
+freedom of all will be in the end accomplished. As they are thus by
+degrees relieved from bondage, our brothers have opportunities for
+instruction and improvement; and thus they become in some measure fitted
+for their liberty. Every year, many of us have restored to us by the
+gradual, but certain march of the cause of abolition--parents, from whom
+we have been long separated--wives and children whom we had left in
+servitude--and brothers, in blood as well as in early sufferings, from
+whom we had been long parted.
+
+But if the emancipation of our kindred shall, when the plan of
+colonization shall go into effect, be attended with transportation to a
+distant land, and shall be granted on no other condition; the
+consolation for our past sufferings and of those of our color who are in
+slavery, which have hitherto been, and under the present situation of
+things would continue to be, afforded to us and to them, will cease for
+ever. The cords, which now connect them with us, will be stretched by
+the distance to which their ends will be carried, until they break; and
+all the sources of happiness, which affection and connexion and blood
+bestow, will be ours and theirs no more.
+
+Nor do we view the colonization of those who may become emancipated by
+its operation among our southern brethren, as capable of producing their
+happiness. Unprepared by education, and a knowledge of the truths of our
+blessed religion, for their new situation, those who will thus become
+colonists will themselves be surrounded by every suffering which can
+afflict the members of the human family.
+
+Without arts, without habits of industry, and unaccustomed to provide by
+their own exertions and foresight for their wants, the colony will soon
+become the abode of every vice, and the home of every misery. Soon will
+the light of Christianity, which now dawns among that portion of our
+species, be shut out by the clouds of ignorance, and their day of life
+be closed, without the illuminations of the gospel.
+
+To those of our brothers, who shall be left behind, there will be
+assured perpetual slavery and augmented sufferings. Diminished in
+numbers, the slave population of the southern states, which by its
+magnitude alarms its proprietors, will be easily secured. Those among
+their bondmen, who feel that they should be free, by rights which all
+mankind have from God and from nature, and who thus may become dangerous
+to the quiet of their masters, will be sent to the colony; and the tame
+and submissive will be retained, and subjected to increased rigor. Year
+after year will witness these means to assure safety and submission
+among their slaves, and the southern masters will colonize only those
+whom it may be dangerous to keep among them. The bondage of a large
+portion of our brothers will thus be rendered perpetual.
+
+Should the anticipations of misery and want among the colonists, which
+with great deference we have submitted to your better judgment, be
+realized; to emancipate and transport to Africa will be held forth by
+slaveholders as the worst and heaviest of punishments; and they will be
+threatened and successfully used to enforce increased submission to
+their wishes, and subjection to their commands.
+
+Nor ought the sufferings and sorrows, which must be produced by an
+exercise of the right to transport and colonize such only of their
+slaves as may be selected by the slaveholders, escape the attention and
+consideration of those whom with all humility we now address. Parents
+will be torn from their children--husbands from their wives--brothers
+from brothers--and all the heart-rending agonies which were endured by
+our forefathers when they were dragged into bondage from Africa, will be
+again renewed, and with increased anguish. The shores of America will,
+like the sands of Africa, be watered by the tears of those who will be
+left behind. Those who shall be carried away will roam childless,
+widowed, and alone, over the burning plains of Guinea.
+
+Disclaiming, as we emphatically do, a wish or desire to interpose our
+opinions and feelings between all plans of colonization, and the
+judgment of those whose wisdom as far exceeds ours as their situations
+are exalted above ours; _we humbly_, respectfully, and fervently
+intreat and beseech your disapprobation of the plan of colonization now
+offered by 'the American Society for colonizing the free people of color
+of the United States.'--Here, in the city of Philadelphia, where the
+voice of the suffering sons of Africa was first heard; where was first
+commenced the work of abolition, on which heaven has smiled, for it
+could have had success only from the Great Maker; let not a purpose be
+assisted which will stay the cause of the entire abolition of slavery in
+the United States, and which may defeat it altogether; which proffers to
+those who do not ask for them what it calls benefits, but which they
+consider injuries; and which must insure to the multitudes whose prayers
+can only reach you through us, MISERY, _sufferings, and perpetual
+slavery_.
+
+                        JAMES FORTEN, Chairman.
+
+RUSSELL PARROTT, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM NEW-YORK.
+
+                        NEW-YORK, January, 1831.
+
+At a public meeting of the colored citizens of New-York, held at Boyer
+Lodge Room, on Tuesday evening, the 25th ult. Mr Samuel Ennals was
+called to the chair, and Mr Philip Bell appointed secretary. The
+chairman stated that the object of the meeting was to take into
+consideration the proceedings of an association, under the title of the
+'New-York Colonization Society.' An address to the 'Citizens of
+New-York' relative to that Society, was read from the Commercial
+Advertiser of the 8th ult.; whereupon the following resolutions were
+unanimously adopted.
+
+Whereas a number of gentlemen in this city, of mistaken views with
+respect to the wishes and welfare of the people of this state, on the
+subject of African colonization, and in pursuance of such mistaken views
+are using every exertion to form 'African Colonization Societies;' and
+whereas a public document, purporting to be an address to the people of
+the 'city of New-York' on this subject, contains opinions and assertions
+regarding the people of color as unfounded as they are unjust and
+derogatory to them--Therefore
+
+Resolved, That this meeting do most solemnly protest against the said
+address, as containing sentiments with respect to the people of color,
+unjust, illiberal and unfounded; tending to excite the prejudice of the
+community.
+
+Resolved, That in our opinion the sentiments put forth in the
+resolution at the formation of the 'Colonization Society of the city of
+New-York,' are such as to impress this community with the belief that
+the colored population are a growing evil, immoral, and destitute of
+religious principles.
+
+Resolved, That we view the resolution calling on the worshippers of
+Christ to assist in the unholy crusade against the colored population of
+this country, as totally at variance with true Christian principles.
+
+Resolved, That we claim _this country, the place of our birth, and not
+Africa_, as our mother country, and all attempts to send us to Africa we
+consider as gratuitous and uncalled for.
+
+Resolved, That a committee of three persons be appointed to draft an
+address to the people of New-York, and to be published, together with
+these resolutions, and the same be signed by the Chairman and Secretary.
+
+                        SAMUEL ENNALS, Chairman.
+
+PHILIP BELL, Secretary.
+
+
+_An Address to the Citizens of New-York._
+
+In protesting against the sentiments and declarations to our prejudice
+with which the above noticed 'address' and 'resolutions' abound, we are
+well aware of the power and influence we have attempted to resist. The
+gentlemen named as officers of the 'Colonization Society' are men of
+high standing, their dictum is law in morals with our community; but we
+who feel the effect of their proscription, indulge the hope of an
+impartial hearing.
+
+We believe many of those gentlemen are our friends, and we hope they all
+mean well; we care not how many Colonization Societies they form to send
+slaves from the south to a place where they may enjoy freedom; and if
+they can 'drain the ocean with a bucket,' may send '_with their own
+consent_,' the increasing free colored population: but we solemnly
+protest against that Christian philanthropy which in acknowledging our
+wrongs commits a greater by vilifying us. The conscientious man would
+not kill the animal, but cried 'mad dog,' and the rabble despatched him.
+These gentlemen acknowledge the anomaly of those political ethics which
+make a distinction between man and man, when their foundation is, 'that
+all men are born equal,' and possess in common 'unalienable rights;' and
+to justify the withholding of these 'rights' would proclaim to
+foreigners that we are 'a distinct and inferior race,' without religion
+or morals, and implying that our condition cannot be improved here
+because there exists an unconquerable prejudice in the whites towards
+us. We absolutely deny these positions, and we call upon the learned
+author of the 'address' for the indications of distinction between us
+and other men. There are different _colors_ among all species of
+animated creation. A difference of color is not a difference of species.
+Our structure and organization are the same, and not distinct from other
+men; and in what respects are we inferior? Our political condition we
+admit renders us less respectable, but does it prove us an inferior part
+of the human family? Inferior indeed we are as to the means which we
+possess of becoming wealthy and learned men; and it would argue well for
+the cause of justice, humanity and true religion, if the reverend
+gentlemen whose names are found at the bottom of President Duer's
+address, instead of showing their benevolence by laboring to move us
+some four thousand miles off, were to engage actively in the furtherance
+of plans for the improvement of our moral and political condition in the
+country of our birth. It is too late now to brand with inferiority any
+one of the races of mankind. We ask for proof. Time was when it was
+thought impossible to civilize the red man. Yet our own country presents
+a practical refutation of the vain assertion in the flourishing
+condition of the Cherokees, among whom intelligence and refinement are
+seen in somewhat fairer proportions than are exhibited by some of their
+white neighbors. In the language of a writer of expanded views and truly
+noble sentiments, 'the blacks must be regarded as the real authors of
+most of the arts and sciences which give the whites at present the
+advantage over them. While Greece and Rome were yet barbarous, we find
+the light of learning and improvement emanating from this, by
+supposition, degraded and accursed continent of Africa, out of the midst
+of this very woolly-haired, flat-nosed, thick lipped, and coal black
+race, which some persons are tempted to station at a pretty low
+intermediate point between men and monkeys.'[AG] It is needless to dwell
+on this topic; and we say with the same writer, the blacks had a long
+and glorious day: and after what they have been and done, it argues not
+so much a mistaken theory, as sheer ignorance of the most notorious
+historical facts, to pretend that they are naturally inferior to the
+whites.
+
+We earnestly desire that this address may not be misunderstood. We have
+no objection in the abstract to the Colonization Society; but we do
+protest against the means which that Society uses to effect its
+purposes. It is evident, to any impartial observer, that the natural
+tendency of all their speeches, reports, sermons, &c. is to widen the
+breach between us and the whites, and give to prejudice a tenfold
+vigor. It has produced a mistaken sentiment toward us. Africa is
+considered the home of those who have never seen its shores. The poor
+ignorant slave, who, in all probability, has never heard the name of
+Christ, by the colonization process is suddenly transformed into a
+'missionary,' to instruct in the principles of Christianity and the arts
+of civilized life. The Friends have been the last to aid the system
+pursued by the Society's advocates. And we say (for we feel it) that in
+proportion as they become colonizationists, they become less active and
+less friendly to our welfare as citizens of the United States.
+
+There does exist in the United States a prejudice against us; but is it
+unconquerable? Is it not in the power of these gentlemen to subdue it?
+If their object is to benefit us, why not better our condition here?
+What keeps us down but the want of wealth? Why do we not accumulate
+wealth? Simply because we are not encouraged. If we wish to give our
+boys a classical education, they are refused admission into your
+colleges. If we consume our means in giving them a mercantile education,
+you will not employ them as clerks; if they are taught navigation, you
+will not employ them as captains. If we make them mechanics, you will
+not encourage them, nor will white mechanics work in the same shop with
+them. And with all these disabilities, like a mill-stone about us,
+because we cannot point to our statesmen, bankers and lawyers, we are
+called an inferior race. Look at the glaring injustice towards us. (A
+foreigner, before he knows one of our streets from another, mounts a
+cart under the license of another man, or is a public porter, a
+lamp-lighter, a watchman, &c.)
+
+These gentlemen know but little of a large portion of the colored
+population of this city. Their opinions are formed from the unfortunate
+portion of our people whose characters are scrutinized by them as judges
+of courts. Their patrician principles prevent an intercourse with men in
+the middle walks of life, among whom a large portion of our people may
+be classed. We ask them to visit the dwellings of the respectable part
+of our people, and we are satisfied that they will discover more
+civilization and refinement than will be found among the same number of
+white families of an equal standing.
+
+Finally, we hope that those who have so eloquently pleaded the cause of
+the Indian, will at least endeavor to preserve consistency in their
+conduct. They put no faith in Georgia, although she declares that the
+Indians shall not be removed but '_with their own consent_.' Can they
+blame us if we attach the same credit to the declaration that they mean
+to colonize us 'only with our consent?' They cannot indeed use force;
+that is out of the question. But they harp so much on 'inferiority,'
+'prejudice,' 'distinction,' and what not, that there will no alternative
+be left us but to fall in with their plans. We are content to abide
+where we are. We do not believe that things will always continue the
+same. The time must come when the declaration of independence will be
+felt in the heart as well as uttered from the mouth, and when the rights
+of all shall be properly acknowledged and appreciated. God hasten that
+time. This is our home, and this our country. Beneath its sod lie the
+bones of our fathers: for it some of them fought, bled, and died. Here
+we were born, and here we will die.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM BOSTON.
+
+                        BOSTON, March 12, 1831.
+
+Pursuant to public notice, a meeting was held by the colored citizens of
+Boston, February 15th, at their school-house, for the purpose of
+expressing their sentiments in a remonstrance against the doings of the
+State Colonization Society, Feb. 10th. It was called to order by Mr J.
+G. Barbadoes. Mr Robert Roberts was elected chairman, and Mr James G.
+Barbadoes secretary. A prayer was then offered up to the throne of
+grace, by the Rev. Mr Snowden. The chairman having explained the object
+of the meeting, sundry resolutions were offered by Mr Barbadoes, and
+fairly discussed. On motion, a committee of five was chosen to amend the
+resolutions, and to draft an address to certain white citizens who had
+formed a State Society auxiliary to the American Colonization Society,
+and to the enlightened public. John T. Hilton, James G. Barbadoes, Rev.
+Hosea Easton, Thomas Dalton and Thomas Cole were placed on the
+committee.
+
+
+The committee, to whom was referred the subject of an attempt, by
+certain white citizens, to establish in this State a Society auxiliary
+to the American Colonization Society, whose supposed object was the
+removal of the free colored population to western Africa, have with
+diligence sought for and obtained every fact within their reach,
+relative to what was enjoined upon them by the respectable body by whom
+they were delegated; and now respectfully
+
+REPORT:
+
+That they have attended to the duty with which they were charged, with
+all the wisdom, prudence and fidelity which they possessed, and which
+the merits of the case required. They therefore submit to the
+consideration of the meeting their several conclusions on the subject.
+
+The duty of your committee seemed to be divided into three general
+inquiries:--1st. To ascertain whether the Society above named was truly
+established in this metropolis. 2d. By whom it was established, and for
+what purpose. 3d. If established for the purpose entertained by the free
+colored population, what method should be adopted in regard to
+expressing their disapprobation thereto.
+
+As to the first inquiry, your committee can state, that every doubt is
+now removed respecting the formation of such a Society, the proceedings
+of the meeting being published, together with the names of the officers.
+
+On the second inquiry, your committee refer you to the 2d Article of the
+Constitution of said Society, (published in the Boston Courier of Feb.
+16, 1831,) which reads thus:
+
+    'The object to which this Society shall be exclusively devoted,
+    shall be to aid the parent institution at Washington, in the
+    colonization of the free people of color of the United States on
+    the coast of Africa; and to do this not only by the contribution
+    of money, but by the exertion of its influence to promote the
+    formation of other societies.'
+
+We deem any explanation here unnecessary.
+
+In regard to the third and most essential inquiry, your committee
+report, that they know of no better way of expressing their
+disapprobation of such measures, than to use every exertion to persuade
+their brethren not to leave the United States upon any consideration
+whatever; but if there are or should be any exasperated in consequence
+of abuse from their white countrymen, and who are determined to leave
+the country, we think it desirable to recommend them to Hayti or Upper
+Canada, where they will find the laws equal. Your committee deem it
+expedient also to urge this duty upon the several ministers of color
+throughout the United States, and all other persons of color whose
+influence may have any bearing in preventing their brethren from
+yielding to a request so unjust and cruel.
+
+And if your respectable body should not think your committee were going
+beyond the bounds of their duty, they would recommend the clerical order
+throughout the United States, who have had or who are having any thing
+to do with the deceptive scheme above alluded to, to read the 13th
+chapter of Ezekiel. Read it--read it--and understand it. Your committee
+would recommend those clergymen, who have not defiled their garment with
+the blood of the innocent, to read the 1st, 2nd, 11th and 12th verses of
+the 24th chapter of Proverbs.
+
+In support of the sentiments thus expressed, it becomes necessary that
+our reasons should accompany them, why we object to the plan of dragging
+us to Africa--a country to us unknown, except by geography. In the first
+place, we are told that Africa is our native country; consequently the
+climate will be more congenial to our health. We readily deny the
+assertion. How can a man be born in two countries at the same time? Is
+not the position superficial to suppose that American born citizens are
+Africans? In regard to the climate, what better proof do we want of its
+salubrity, than to know that of the numerous bodies who have embarked, a
+large portion of them have immediately fallen victims, on their arrival,
+to the pestilence usual to that place?
+
+It is again said, that the establishment of a colony on the coast of
+Africa will prevent the slave trade. We might as well argue, that a
+watchman in the city of Boston would prevent thievery in New-York, or
+any other place; or that the custom-house officers there would prevent
+goods being smuggled into any other port of the United States.
+
+We are aware, that such an unnecessary expense devoted to the
+application of a remedy so far from the disease, is absolutely contrary
+to common sense. We are sensible that the moral disease, _slavery_, is
+in America, and not in Africa. If there was no market for the vending of
+slaves, there would be no inducement for the thief to steal them. The
+remedy for this evil, we humbly conceive, consists of three general
+prescriptions, viz. 1st. Let him who stealeth obey the word of God, and
+steal no more. 2d. Let him who hath encouraged the thief by purchase,
+(and consequently is a partaker with him,) do so no more. 3rd. Let the
+clerical physicians, who have encouraged, and are encouraging, both the
+thief and the receiver, by urging their influence to the removal of the
+means of their detection, desist therefrom, and with their mighty weight
+of influence step into the scale of justice: then will be done away this
+horrible traffic in blood.
+
+From the above considerations, we sincerely recommend to our white
+countrymen honor and humanity, which will render useless the
+transportation of the colored population to the coast of Africa, it
+being altogether gratuitous and uncalled for.
+
+We proceed to offer several objections to the operation alluded to--one
+is, the circumstance of the project originating with those who were
+deeply interested in slavery, and who hold slaves as their property. We
+consider the fact no evidence of the innocence of its design. We further
+object, because its members admit slavery to be an evil, and use no
+means to destroy it; but are exerting all their influence to urge every
+free person of color to Africa, (whose right to this soil holds good
+with any other citizen,) thereby rivetting the chains of slavery
+stronger than ever upon their oppressed brethren.
+
+Again we object, because the whole spring of action seems to originate
+in the fear lest the free colored people may whisper liberty in the ears
+of the oppressed. We would suggest, however, that they who are fond of
+liberty should not be annoyed at its sound, from whatever source it may
+come.
+
+Again we object, on the ground of there being sufficient land in the
+United States, on which a colony might be established that would better
+meet the wishes of the colored people, and at a much cheaper rate than
+could possibly be done by sending them to a howling wilderness far away,
+and to them unknown.
+
+One of the leaders of the newly formed Society argued that in case a
+colony was formed for the blacks in the United States, they would in a
+short time be removed, as has been the case with the poor Indians. To
+obviate this objection, we here inform him that Hayti will hold all the
+slaves he will send her; and as for the free people, we expect they can
+go where they please, either to Africa, Hayti or Upper Canada, or remain
+at home, without asking the consent of a slaveholding party. Nor can we
+conceive why free citizens, acting this liberty, should interfere with
+them, if they are--as they have represented themselves to be--honest and
+benevolent men. We conceive that the question in view stands in two
+distinct points--the removal of the free colored population from this
+country, or the acknowledgment of them as citizens. The former position
+must be acknowledged, on all sides, a means of perpetuating slavery in
+our land; the latter, of abolishing it; consequently it may be seen who
+are for the well-being of their country.
+
+We regret that our interest has thus drawn us before the public, on
+account of the regard we entertain towards many of our warmest friends
+who have been deceived by a cloak of philanthropy, smooth words, and a
+sanctified appearance. We remind them, however, that the blood of Abel
+is beginning to be heard by many who are willing to acknowledge that
+they hear it.
+
+We cannot close our duty without gratefully acknowledging the respect we
+entertain for those who have defended our cause with more than Spartan
+courage. It is the opinion of your committee, that they are to be
+respected as our countrymen, our brethren, and our fellow citizens--not
+to say they are to be applauded as men, whose great acts are based upon
+the acclamation of their fellow men; but rather let us hold up their
+hands, and let their works praise them. We shall only add an expression
+of our hopes, that the Spirit of Liberty, recently awakened in the old
+world, may redouble its thundering voice, until every tyrant is seized
+with a Belshazzar tremble at the hand-writing upon the wall of his
+corrupt palace.
+
+In addition to the above, your committee submit the following
+resolutions for your acceptance.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting contemplate, with lively interest, the rapid
+progress of the sentiments of liberty among our degraded brethren, and
+that we will legally oppose every operation that may have a tendency to
+perpetuate our present political condition.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting look upon the American Colonization Society
+as a clamorous, abusive and peace-disturbing combination.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting look upon the conduct of those clergymen,
+who have filled the ears of their respective congregations with the
+absurd idea of the necessity of removing the free colored people from
+the United States, as highly deserving the just reprehension directed to
+the false prophets and priests, by Jeremiah the true prophet, as
+recorded in the 23d chapter of his prophecy.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting appeal to a generous and enlightened public
+for an impartial hearing relative to the subject of our present
+political condition.
+
+Resolved, That the gratitude of this meeting, which is so sensibly felt,
+be fully expressed to those editors whose independence of mind and
+correct views of the rights of man have led them so fearlessly to speak
+in favor of our cause; that we rejoice to behold in them such a strong
+desire to extend towards us the inestimable blessing in the gift of a
+wise Providence which is demanded by all nature, and for which their
+veteran fathers struggled in the revolution.
+
+                        ROBERT ROBERTS, Chairman.
+
+JAMES G. BARBADOES, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM BALTIMORE.
+
+                        BALTIMORE, March 21, 1831.
+
+At a respectable meeting of persons of color, convened, pursuant to
+public notice, for the purpose of expressing their sentiments in regard
+to the pretensions of the American Colonization Society, William
+Douglass was called to the chair, and William Watkins appointed
+secretary. The object of the call having been explicitly stated, the
+meeting immediately proceeded to the consideration of the following
+resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:--On motion,
+
+Resolved, That it is the belief of this meeting, that the American
+Colonization Society is founded more in a selfish policy, than in the
+true principles of benevolence;--and, therefore, so far as it regards
+the life-giving spring of its operations, is not entitled to our
+confidence, but should be viewed by us with all that caution and
+distrust which our happiness demands.
+
+Resolved, That we are not insensible to the means usually employed by
+that Society, and its auxiliaries, to effectuate our removal--that we
+sincerely deprecate their gratuitous and illiberal attacks upon, and
+their too frequently exaggerated statements of our moral standing in the
+community--that such means are unworthy of a magnanimous people, and of
+a virtuous and noble cause.
+
+Resolved, That we consider the land in which we were born, and in which
+we have been bred, our only '_true and appropriate home_,'--and that
+when _we_ desire to remove, we will apprise the public of the same, in
+due season.
+
+Resolved, That we are deeply sensible that many of our warm and sincere
+friends have espoused the colonization system, from the purest
+motives,--and that we sincerely regret their efforts to ameliorate our
+condition are not more in accordance with our wishes.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be published in the daily
+papers of this city, signed by the Chairman and Secretary.
+
+                        WILLIAM DOUGLASS, Chairman.
+
+WILLIAM WATKINS, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM WASHINGTON.
+
+                        WASHINGTON, May 4, 1831.
+
+Pursuant to previous notice, a large and very respectable meeting of the
+colored citizens of Washington, D. C., convened at the African Methodist
+Episcopal church on Wednesday evening last, for the purpose of
+expressing their views upon the subject of African colonization. Mr John
+W. Prout was called to the chair, and Arthur Waring was appointed
+secretary.
+
+The chairman briefly explained the object of the meeting, in a short
+speech well adapted to the occasion, which was followed by several neat
+and very appropriate addresses delivered by sundry gentlemen present.
+
+The following preamble and resolutions were offered and adopted, nearly
+unanimously.
+
+Whereas we consider that the period has arrived for the colored citizens
+of this place to express their opinion upon the subject of colonization
+in Liberia; a subject of great importance to themselves, as well as to
+the colored citizens of the United States generally; and whereas our
+brethren at a distance are desirous of obtaining information relative to
+the object and policy pursued by the American Colonization Society:
+Therefore, be it
+
+Resolved, That this meeting view with distrust the efforts made by the
+Colonization Society to cause the free people of color of these United
+States to emigrate to Liberia on the coast of Africa, or elsewhere.
+
+Resolved, That it is the declared opinion of the members of this
+meeting, that the soil which gave them birth is their only _true and
+veritable home_, and that it would be impolitic, unwise and improper for
+them to leave their home without the benefits of education.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting conceive that among the advocates of the
+colonization system, they have many true and sincere friends; and do
+regret that their actions, although prompted no doubt by the purest
+motives, do not meet our approbation.
+
+Resolved, That we believe the PRESS to be the most efficient means of
+disseminating light and knowledge among our brethren; and that this
+meeting do acknowledge with gratitude the efforts made in our behalf, by
+the editors of the Genius of Universal Emancipation, and the
+Liberator;--and do most earnestly recommend their respective papers to
+our brethren generally, for their approval and support.
+
+Resolved, That the foregoing resolutions be signed by the Chairman and
+Secretary, and published.
+
+                        JOHN W. PROUT, Chairman.
+
+ARTHUR WARING, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM BROOKLYN.
+
+                        BROOKLYN, (N. Y.) June 3, 1831.
+
+At a numerous and respectable meeting of the colored inhabitants of the
+village and township of Brooklyn, convened in the African Hall,
+Nassau-street, for the purpose of taking into consideration our views in
+relation to the Colonization Society--
+
+The throne of grace was addressed by the Rev. Mr Hogarth, after which
+Henry C. Thompson was called to the chair, and George Hogarth appointed
+secretary.
+
+Appropriate addresses were delivered by Messrs George Hogarth, James
+Pennington, and George Woods. The following resolutions were then
+adopted:--
+
+Resolved, unanimously, That the call of this meeting be approved of; and
+that the colored citizens of this village have, with friendly feelings,
+taken into consideration the objects of the American Colonization
+Society, together with all its auxiliary movements, preparatory for our
+removal to the coast of Africa; and we view them as wholly gratuitous,
+not called for by us, and not essential to the real welfare of our race:
+That we know of no other country in which we can justly claim or demand
+our rights as citizens, whether civil or political, but in these United
+States of America, our native soil: And, that we shall be active in our
+endeavors to convince the members of the Colonization Society, and the
+public generally, that we are _men_, that we are _brethren_, that we are
+_countrymen_ and _fellow-citizens_, and demand an equal share of
+protection from our federal government with any other class of citizens
+in the community.
+
+It was also Resolved, That the following persons, viz.: James
+Pennington, Henry C. Thompson, and George Woods, be appointed a
+committee to draft an address to the public, expressing our views more
+fully in relation to the Colonization Society; and that a delegate be
+appointed to proceed to the city of Philadelphia, to represent us in the
+ensuing convention, (which will commence its sitting the 6th inst.) to
+co-operate with the measures that may then be adopted for the general
+welfare of our race.
+
+                        HENRY C. THOMPSON, Chairman.
+
+GEORGE HOGARTH, Secretary.
+
+
+_Address to the Colored Citizens of Brooklyn, (N. Y.) and its Vicinity._
+
+Respected brethren, and fellow-citizens:--As men and as christians,
+whose secular and eternal interests are the same, we are seriously
+called upon by truth and reason, and every thing of which human action
+is composed, to take into consideration the objects of the American
+Colonization Society; which aims to remove us, the free people of color,
+from this, our beloved and native land, to the coast of Africa; a
+country unknown to us in every respect.
+
+As they propose to remove us with our own free will and consent, we do
+not contradict the assertion, that their objects, in the abstract, are
+salutary and benevolent; but when we hear those influential gentlemen,
+who are advocating this cause, generalize by language directly
+calculated to increase that prejudice, which is already one grand reason
+of our wretchedness, we are moved by a spirit of reliance upon justice
+and humanity, to lift our positive and decided voice against their
+proceedings; and consider them as a stigma upon our morals as a people,
+as natives and citizens of this country, to whom equal rights are
+guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence.
+
+When we consider that by abridging men in their moral liberty, we touch
+their responsibility to the highest authority in the universe, we should
+shudder at the thought of retaining such feelings as would lead to any
+irreligious or impolitic acts; nor should we be willing to yield one
+particle of ours to others, unless it be on the ground of expediency,
+and in some way conducive to the glory of God.
+
+We are sorry to say that those gentlemen have injured their cause, and
+perhaps caused much good to be evil spoken of, by making use of improper
+language, in their discussions upon our character and condition in this
+country; without using one effort to improve or prepare us for the posts
+of honor and distinction which they hold forth to us, whenever we set
+foot on this much talked of, and long expected promised land. We would
+ask the Colonization Society, what are they doing at home to improve our
+condition? It is a true proverb, that 'charity begins at home.' How can
+they extend their charities with christian sympathies and feeling some
+thousand miles across the Atlantic ocean, when they are not willing,
+with a few exceptions, to give us even a christian instruction while
+among them? To prove the assertion, we would inquire, how many of our
+sable brethren have been elevated to any post of distinction in this
+country? Even in states, where our numbers have almost doubled, have we
+seen one statesman, one officer, or one juror? No! in our village and
+its vicinity, how many of us have been educated in colleges, and
+advanced into different branches of business; or taken into mercantile
+houses, manufacturing establishments, &c.? Are we not even prohibited
+from some of the common labor and drudgery of the streets, such as
+cartmen, porters, &c.? It is a strange theory to us, how these gentlemen
+can promise to honor and respect us in Africa, when they are using every
+effort to exclude us from all rights and privileges at home.
+
+They say, 'that those of our friends, who look for the day when we shall
+have equal rights in this country, are mistaken.' May we not accept it
+as an assurance, that they will do all they can to prevent us from
+arriving to any degree of respectability at home, in our own land? Away
+then with such false sympathies and friendships! they are as foreign to
+us as the coast of Africa!
+
+We truly believe, that many gentlemen who are engaged in the
+Colonization Society are our sincere friends and well-wishers; they
+wish to do something for us, consequently they have subscribed largely
+to it, because there was no other plan on foot. Some of them have been
+deluded into its schemes, with a view of thoroughly civilizing and
+christianizing Africa, by our free people of color and emancipated
+slaves, who may, from time to time, be colonized on its coasts, with
+their consent. We conceive that such measures are fraught with
+inconsistency, and in no way calculated to have such an effect. To send
+a parcel of uninstructed, uncivilized, and unchristianized people, to
+the western coast of Africa, with bibles in their hands to teach the
+natives the truths of the gospel, social happiness, and moral virtue, is
+mockery and ridicule in the extreme.
+
+Missionary families should be well instructed in the rudiments of our
+holy religion, that their example may shine forth as lights in that much
+neglected and benighted land. We are much in favor of christianizing
+Africa; but not according to the plans of the Colonization Society, to
+purchase their lands of them, with a few paltry guns, beads, &c., and
+then establish forts and garrisons, to protect traders and traffickers,
+without, perhaps, once naming the religion of Jesus to them. We well
+know that the examples of traders and traffickers are in no way
+calculated to induce heathens to embrace our religion. For example, we
+will refer to the early settlements of our American colonies, and
+inquire what religious impressions did the settlers make (who were wise
+and learned from Europe) upon the aborigines of our country? We believe
+that a few men, well instructed and possessing a true missionary spirit,
+are calculated to do more good in that country, than a thousand on the
+colonization plan.
+
+Many wish us to go to Africa, because they say that our constitutions
+are better adapted to that climate than this. If so, we would ask why so
+many of our hearty, hale and healthy brethren, on arriving in that
+country, fall victims to the malignant fevers and disorders, prevalent
+in those regions? We would observe, that none are exempt from being
+touched with the contagion. It operates more severely upon those from
+the higher latitudes.
+
+Some of our brethren have come to the conclusion to leave this country,
+with all its prejudices, and seek an asylum in foreign climes. We would
+recommend to your serious consideration, the location in Upper Canada; a
+place far better adapted to our constitutions, our habits, and our
+morals; where prejudice has not such an unlimited sway; where you will
+be surrounded by Christians, and have an opportunity to become civilized
+and christianized.
+
+Brethren, it is time for us to awake to our interests; for the
+Colonization Society is straining every nerve for the accomplishment of
+its objects. By their last publications we see, that they have invoked
+all Christian assemblies and churches throughout the Union, to exert
+their influence, by raising subscriptions to send us (the strangers
+within their gates, as they call us) to the coast of Africa. They have
+got the consent of eleven states, who have instructed their senators to
+do something in the next Congress for our removal. Maryland calls
+imperatively on the general government to send us away, or else they
+will colonize their own free blacks. They have, by their influence,
+stopped the emancipation of slaves in a measure, except for colonization
+purposes.
+
+We owe a tribute of respect to the state of New-York, for her not having
+entered into the confederacy. Though she is the last in proclaiming
+general emancipation to the slave, yet we find her slow in adopting any
+such unchristian measures. We may well say, she is deliberate in her
+councils, and determinate in her resolutions.
+
+Finally, brethren, we are not strangers; neither do we come under the
+alien law. Our constitution does not call upon us to become naturalized;
+we are already American citizens; our fathers were among the first that
+peopled this country; their sweat and their tears have been the means,
+in a measure, of raising our country to its present standing. Many of
+them fought, and bled, and died for the gaining of her liberties; and
+shall we forsake their tombs, and flee to an unknown land? No! let us
+remain over them and weep, until the day arrive when Ethiopia shall
+stretch forth her hands to God. We were born and nurtured in this
+Christian land; and are surrounded by christians, whose sacred creed is,
+to do unto all men as ye would they should do unto you--to love our
+neighbors as ourselves; and which expressly declares, if we have respect
+to persons, we commit sin. Let us, brethren, invoke the christian's God,
+in our behalf, to do away the prejudices of our brethren, that they may
+adopt the solemn truths of the gospel, and acknowledge that God is no
+respecter of persons--that he has made of one blood all the nations that
+dwell on the face of the earth--that they may no longer bring their
+reasonings in contact with the omniscience of Deity; and insinuate to
+the public, that our intellect and faculties are measurably inferior to
+those of our fairer brethren. Because adversity has thrown a veil over
+us, and we, whom God has created to worship, admire and adore his divine
+attributes, shall we be held in a state of wretchedness and degradation,
+with monkeys, baboons, slaves, and cattle, because we possess a darker
+hue?
+
+We feel it our duty ever to remain true to the constitution of our
+country, and to protect it, as we have always done, from foreign
+aggressions. Although more than three hundred thousand of us are
+virtually deprived of the rights and immunities of citizens, and more
+than two millions held in abject slavery, yet we know that God is just,
+and ever true to his purpose. Before him the whole world stands in awe,
+and at his command nations must obey. HE who has lately pleaded the
+Indian's cause in our land, and who has brought about many signal
+events, to the astonishment of our generation, we believe is in the
+whirlwind, and will soon bring about the time when the sable sons of
+America will join with their fairer brethren, and re-echo liberty and
+equal rights in all parts of Columbia's soil.
+
+We pray the Lord to hasten the day, when prejudice, inferiority,
+degradation and oppression shall be done away, and the kingdoms of this
+world become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ.
+
+Signed in behalf of a public meeting in Brooklyn.
+
+                        H. C. THOMPSON, Chairman.
+
+GEORGE HOGARTH, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM HARTFORD.
+
+                        HARTFORD, Ct., July 14, 1831.
+
+At a large and respectable meeting of the colored inhabitants of the
+city of Hartford and its vicinity, convened at the vestry room of the
+African church, on the 13th inst. for the purpose of expressing their
+views in relation to the American Colonization Society, Mr Henry Foster
+was called to the chair, and Mr Paul Drayton appointed secretary. The
+object of the meeting was then stated in a brief and pertinent manner,
+after which extracts from several speeches delivered by the founders of
+the colonization scheme, together with the general sentiments of
+colonizationists extracted from the African Repository, were laid before
+the meeting, and the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:
+
+Resolved, That it is the opinion of this meeting, that the American
+Colonization Society is actuated by the same motives which influenced
+the mind of Pharaoh, when he ordered the male children of the Israelites
+to be destroyed.
+
+Resolved, That it is the belief of this meeting, that the Society is the
+greatest foe to the free colored and slave population with whom liberty
+and equality have to contend.
+
+Resolved, That we look upon the man of color that would be influenced by
+the Society to emigrate to Liberia, as an enemy to the cause and a
+traitor to his brethren.
+
+Resolved, That it is the opinion of this meeting, that many of those who
+are engaged in this unjust scheme would be willing, if it were, in their
+power, to place us before the point of the bayonet, and drive us out of
+existence--so that they may get rid of that dark cloud, as we are
+termed, which hangs over these United States.
+
+Resolved, That, in our belief, we have committed no crime worthy of
+banishment, and that we will resist all the attempts of the Colonization
+Society to banish us from this our native land.
+
+Resolved, That we consider ourselves the legitimate sons of these United
+States, from whence we will never consent to be transported.
+
+Resolved, That we will resist, even unto death, all the attempts of this
+Society to transport us to the pestilential shores of Liberia.
+
+Resolved, That we will not countenance the doctrine of any pretended
+minister of the gospel, who is in league with those conspirators against
+our rights. We would, therefore, warn them to beware of following the
+footsteps of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block in the
+way of the children of Israel; for we verily believe, that if God
+almighty have to deliver his people by his mighty arm of power, they
+will share the fate of that false prophet.
+
+Resolved, That, though we be last in calling a meeting, we feel no less
+the pernicious influence of this Society than the rest of our brethren;
+and that we consider all their pretexts, whether under the cloak of
+religion or philanthropy, gratuitous and uncalled for. We would,
+therefore, advise the Society, that as we have learned that there are
+one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in its funds, it had better
+appropriate this sum in meliorating the condition of our brethren the
+slaves, in this their native land, and raising them from that
+degradation into which they are plunged.
+
+Resolved, That the thanks of the meeting be returned to Messrs William
+Lloyd Garrison, Isaac Knapp, and every friend of emancipation, for their
+benevolent exertions in our behalf.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to the Liberator for publication.
+
+                        HENRY FOSTER, Chairman.
+
+PAUL DRAYTON, Secretary.
+
+A VOICE FROM MIDDLETOWN.
+
+                        MIDDLETOWN, Ct., July 15, 1831.
+
+At a meeting of the colored citizens of Middletown, pursuant to public
+notice, held in the Lecture Room in the African church--Mr Joseph
+Gilbert was called to the chair, and Amos L. Beman appointed secretary.
+The meeting being thus opened, it was warmly and freely addressed by
+Messrs Jeffrey, Condoll and Gilbert, when, on motion, it was
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of our brethren in Brooklyn, N. Y., meet
+our entire approbation: they breathe our sentiments in full, and may our
+voices cheerfully accord with them in protesting against leaving this
+our native soil. Why should we leave this land, so dearly bought by the
+blood, groans and tears of our fathers? Truly this is our home: here let
+us live, and here let us die. What! emigrate to Liberia, a land so
+detrimental to our health! We have now before us a letter written by a
+friend who emigrated from this place to the burning shores of Africa, in
+hopes of splendor, wealth and ease; and he says that 'sickness and
+distress prevail to a great extent--and it is a clear case that those
+who come from the United States must undergo a long and protracted
+sickness with this country's fever, and I would not advise my friends to
+emigrate.'
+
+                        JOSEPH GILBERT, Chairman.
+
+AMOS G. BEMAN, Secretary
+
+
+A VOICE FROM NEW-HAVEN.
+
+                        NEW-HAVEN, August 8, 1831.
+
+At a meeting of the Peace and Benevolent Society of Afric-Americans,
+held on the 7th inst., Mr Henry Berrian was called to the chair, and Mr
+Henry N. Merriman was appointed secretary. The following resolutions
+were then unanimously adopted.
+
+Resolved, That we consider those christians and philanthropists, who are
+boasting of their liberty and equality, saying, that all men are born
+free and equal, and yet are endeavoring to remove us from our native
+land, to be inhuman in their proceedings, defective in their principles,
+and unworthy of our confidence.
+
+Resolved, That we consider those colonizationists and ministers of the
+gospel, who are advocating our transportation to an unknown clime,
+because our skin is a little darker than theirs, (notwithstanding God
+has made of one blood all nations of men, and has no respect of
+persons,) as violaters of the commandments of God and the laws of the
+bible, and as trying to blind our eyes by their vain movements--their
+mouths being smooth as oil, and their words sharper than any two-edged
+sword.
+
+Resolved, That, while we have no doubt of the sinister motives of the
+great body of colonizationists, we believe some of them are our friends
+and well-wishers, who have not looked deeply into the subject; but when
+they make a careful examination, we think they will find themselves in
+error.
+
+Resolved, That it is our earnest desire that Africa may speedily become
+civilized, and receive religious instruction; but not by the absurd and
+invidious plan of the Colonization Society--namely, to send a nation of
+ignorant men to teach a nation of ignorant men. We think it most wise
+for them to send missionaries.
+
+Resolved, That we will resist all attempts made for our removal to the
+torrid shores of Africa, and will sooner suffer every drop of blood to
+be taken from our veins than submit to such unrighteous treatment.
+
+Resolved, That we know of no other place that we can call our true and
+appropriate home, excepting these United States, into which our fathers
+were brought, who enriched the country by their toils, and fought, bled
+and died in its defence, and left us in its possession--and here we will
+live and die.
+
+Resolved, That we consider the American Colonization Society founded on
+principles that no Afric-American, unless very weak in mind, will
+follow; and any man who will be persuaded to leave his own country and
+go to Africa, as an enemy to his country and a traitor to his brethren.
+
+Resolved, That we have heard with pleasure of the proceedings of our
+brethren in neighboring cities; and that a number of this Society will
+willingly become auxiliary to the parent Society of Philadelphia, for
+the mutual benefit of the Afric-Americans throughout the United States.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to the Liberator for publication.
+
+                        HENRY BERRIAN, Chairman.
+
+HENRY N. MERRIMAN, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM COLUMBIA.
+
+                        COLUMBIA, Pa., August 5, 1831.
+
+At a respectable meeting of Afric-Americans convened pursuant to public
+notice, at their school-house, with a view of taking into consideration
+the novel scheme of the American Colonization Society, Mr Stephen Smith
+was called to the chair, and Mr James Richards appointed secretary. A
+prayer was then offered to the throne of grace, by Mr Smith. The
+chairman called the house to order, and explained the object of the
+meeting in a few preliminary remarks; after which, the meeting proceeded
+to business, and adopted the subsequent resolutions.
+
+Resolved, That we view the country in which we live as our only true and
+appropriate home; and let colonizationists pour contempt upon our race,
+and slaveholders look on our brethren as a nuisance to the country, yet
+here will we live, here were we born, this is the country for which some
+of our ancestors fought and bled and conquered, nor shall a conspiring
+world be able to drive us hence.
+
+Resolved, That it is our firm belief, that the Colonization Society is
+replete with infinite mischief, and that we view all the arguments of
+its advocates as mere sophistry, not worthy our notice as freemen. Being
+citizens of these United States, we could call upon our brethren to
+awake from their slumber of ignorance, break the chain of prejudice that
+has so long bound them, and in the strength of the omnipotent Spirit
+give their hearts to God.
+
+Resolved, That we will resist all attempts to send us to the burning
+shores of Africa. Beware of Alexander, the coppersmith, for he hath
+done us much harm. May the Lord reward him! We verily believe that if by
+an extraordinary perversion of nature, every man and woman, in one
+night, should become white, the Colonization Society would fall like
+lightning to the earth.
+
+Resolved, That we will not be duped out of our rights as freemen, by
+colonizationists, nor by any other combination of men. All the encomiums
+pronounced upon Liberia can never form the least temptation to induce us
+to leave our native soil, to emigrate to a strange land.
+
+Resolved, That we readily coalesce with our brethren in the different
+towns and cities, and take the liberty to say, that we as a little flock
+feel a fixed resolution to maintain our ground, till the great Author of
+our being shall say to those who deprive us of our rights,--Thus saith
+the Lord, because ye have not hearkened to me in proclaiming liberty,
+every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor, behold I will
+proclaim liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the
+pestilence, and to the famine.
+
+Resolved, That it is the decided opinion of this meeting, that African
+colonization is a scheme of southern policy, a wicked device of
+slaveholders who are desirous of riveting more firmly, and perpetuating
+more certainly, the fetters of slavery; who are only anxious to rid
+themselves of a population whose presence, influence and example have a
+tendency (as they suppose) to produce discontent among the slaves, and
+to furnish them with incitements to rebellion.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting will not encourage a scheme, which has for
+its basis prejudice and hatred. Though there may be some good wheat, yet
+it is to be feared the enemy has sown tares among it.
+
+Resolved, That we will support the colony at Canada, the climate being
+healthier, better adapted to our constitutions, and far more consonant
+with our views than that of Africa.
+
+Resolved, That we unanimously agree to patronize the Liberator, and use
+our best endeavors to get subscribers for the same; and that we are
+under renewed obligations to God, that he ever raised up such honest
+hearted men as Messrs Garrison and Knapp.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting cause its proceedings to be sent to the
+Liberator for publication; praying that the Lord will succeed all the
+lawful efforts of its conductor to meliorate the condition of our
+brethren in these United States, trusting his weapons are not carnal,
+but mighty through God to pull down the strong holds of the devil.
+
+Signed by the Chairman and Secretary.
+
+                        STEPHEN SMITH, Chairman.
+
+JAMES RICHARDS, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM NANTUCKET.
+
+                        NANTUCKET, August 5, 1831.
+
+At a respectable meeting of the colored inhabitants of the town of
+Nantucket, convened for the purpose of taking into consideration our
+views in relation to the American Colonization Society, Mr Arthur Cooper
+was called to the chair, and Edward J. Pompey appointed secretary.
+
+Addresses were delivered by Messrs William Harris and Edward J. Pompey,
+in which they took a general view of the Colonization Society, of its
+leading members, and some of the speeches and remarks made by gentlemen
+at the meetings of said Society. The following resolves were then
+adopted:
+
+Resolved, That the call of this meeting be approved of, and that the
+colored citizens of this town have with friendly feelings taken into
+consideration the objects of the Colonization Society, together with its
+movements preparatory for our removal to the coast of Africa; and we
+view them as wholly gratuitous, not called for by us, and in no way
+essential to the welfare of our race; and we believe that our condition
+can be best improved in this our own country and native soil, the United
+States of America.
+
+Resolved, That we hold this truth to be self-evident, that all men are
+born free and equal; and we are men, and therefore ought to share as
+much protection and enjoy as many privileges under our federal
+government as any other class of the community.
+
+Resolved, That we will be zealous in doing all that lies in our power to
+improve the condition of ourselves and brethren in this our native land.
+
+Resolved, That there is no philanthropy towards the people of color in
+the colonization plan, but that it is got up to delude us away from our
+country and home into a country of sickness and death.
+
+Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be returned to every friend
+who vindicates our rights and interests.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to Boston, to be published in the Liberator.
+
+                        ARTHUR COOPER, Chairman.
+
+EDWARD J. POMPEY, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM PITTSBURGH.
+
+                        PITTSBURGH, (Pa.,) Sept. 1, 1831.
+
+At a large and respectable meeting of the colored citizens of
+Pittsburgh, convened at the African Methodist Episcopal church, for the
+purpose of expressing their views in relation to the American
+Colonization Society, Mr J. B. Vashon was called to the chair, and Mr R.
+Bryan appointed secretary. The object of the meeting was then stated at
+considerable length, and in an appropriate manner, by the chairman. The
+following resolutions were then unanimously adopted:
+
+Resolved, That 'we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men
+are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
+rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
+happiness'--Liberty and Equality now, Liberty and Equality forever!
+
+Resolved, That it is the decided opinion of this meeting, that African
+colonization is a scheme to drain the better informed part of the
+colored people out of these United States, so that the chain of slavery
+may be rivetted more tightly; but we are determined not to be cheated
+out of our rights by the colonization men, or any other set of
+intriguers. We believe there is no philanthropy in the colonization plan
+towards the people of color, but that it is got up to delude us away
+from our country and home to the burning shores of Africa.
+
+Resolved, That we, the colored people of Pittsburgh and citizens of
+these United States, view the country in which we live as our only true
+and proper home. We are just as much natives here as the members of the
+Colonization Society. Here we were born--here bred--here are our
+earliest and most pleasant associations--here is all that binds man to
+earth, and makes life valuable. And we do consider every colored man who
+allows himself to be colonized in Africa, or elsewhere, a traitor to our
+cause.
+
+Resolved, That we are freemen, that we are brethren, that we are
+countrymen and fellow-citizens, and as fully entitled to the free
+exercise of the elective franchise as any men who breathe; and that we
+demand an equal share of protection from our federal government with any
+class of citizens in the community. We now inform the Colonization
+Society, that should our reason forsake us, then we may desire to
+remove. We will apprise them of this change in due season.
+
+Resolved, That we, as citizens of these United States, and for the
+support of these resolutions, with a firm reliance on the protection of
+divine providence, do mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
+fortunes, and our sacred honor, not to support a colony in Africa nor in
+Upper Canada, not yet emigrate to Hayti. Here we were born--here will we
+live by the help of the Almighty--and here we will die, and let our
+bones lie with our fathers.
+
+Resolved, That we return our grateful thanks to Messrs Garrison and
+Knapp, publishers of the Liberator, and Mr Lundy, editor of the Genius
+of Universal Emancipation, for their untiring exertions in the cause of
+philanthropy.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and published in the Liberator.
+
+                        J. B. VASHON, Chairman.
+
+R. BRYAN, Secretary.
+
+A VOICE FROM WILMINGTON.
+
+                        WILMINGTON, July 12, 1831.
+
+At a large and respectable meeting of the people of color of the borough
+of Wilmington, convened in the African Union Church, July 12th, 1831,
+for the purpose of considering the subject of colonization on the coast
+of Africa:
+
+On motion, the Rev. Peter Spencer was called to the chair, and Thomas
+Dorsey appointed secretary.
+
+The meeting was addressed by Abraham D. Shad, Junius C. Morell, Benjamin
+Pascal and John P. Thompson, after which the following resolutions were
+unanimously adopted.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting view with deep regret the attempt now making
+to colonize the free people of color on the western coast of Africa;
+believing as we do that it is inimical to the best interests of the
+people of color, and at variance with the principles of civil and
+religious liberty, and wholly incompatible with the spirit of the
+Constitution and Declaration of Independence of these United States.
+
+Resolved, That we disclaim all connexion with Africa; and although the
+descendants of that much afflicted country, we cannot consent to remove
+to any tropical climate, and thus aid in a design having for its object
+the total extirpation of our race from this country, professions to the
+contrary notwithstanding.
+
+Resolved, That a committee of three persons be appointed to prepare as
+soon as practicable an address to the public, setting forth more fully
+our views on the subject of colonization. The following persons were
+appointed: Abraham D. Shad, Rev. Peter Spencer and W. S. Thomas.
+
+Signed on behalf of the meeting.
+
+                        PETER SPENCER, Chairman.
+
+THOMAS DORSEY, Secretary.
+
+
+_Address of the Free People of Color of the Borough of Wilmington,
+Delaware._
+
+We the undersigned, in conformity to the wishes of our brethren, beg
+leave to present to the public in a calm and unprejudiced manner, our
+decided and unequivocal disapprobation of the American Colonization
+Society, and its auxiliaries, in relation to the free people of color in
+the United States. Convinced as we are, that the operations of this
+Society have been unchristian and anti-republican in principle, and at
+variance with our best interests as a people, we had reason to believe
+that the precepts of religion, the dictates of justice and humanity,
+would have prevented any considerable portion of the community from
+lending their aid to a plan which we fear was designed to deprive us of
+rights that the Declaration of Independence declares are the
+'unalienable rights' of all men. We were content to remain silent,
+believing that the justice and patriotism of a magnanimous people would
+prevent the annals of our native and beloved country from receiving so
+deep a stain. But observing the growing strength and influence of that
+institution, and being well aware that the generality of the public are
+unacquainted with our views on this important subject, we feel it a duty
+we owe to ourselves, our children and posterity, to enter our protest
+against a device so fraught with evil to us. That many sincere friends
+to our race are engaged in what they conceive to be a philanthropic and
+benevolent enterprise, we do not hesitate to admit; but that they are
+deceived, and are acting in a manner calculated most seriously to injure
+the free people of color, we are equally sensible.
+
+We are natives of the United States; our ancestors were brought to this
+country by means over which they had no control; we have our attachments
+to the soil, and we feel that we have rights in common with other
+Americans; and although deprived through prejudice from entering into
+the full enjoyment of those rights, we anticipate a period, when in
+despite of the more than ordinary prejudice which has been the result of
+this unchristian scheme, 'Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands to
+God.' But that this formidable Society has become a barrier to our
+improvement, must be apparent to every individual who will but reflect
+on the course to be pursued by the emissaries of this unhallowed
+project, many of whom, under the name of ministers of the gospel, use
+their influence to turn public sentiment to our disadvantage by
+stigmatizing our morals, misrepresenting our characters, and endeavoring
+to show what they are pleased to call the sound policy of perpetuating
+our civil and political disabilities for the avowed purpose of
+indirectly forcing us to emigrate to the western coast of Africa. That
+Africa is neither our nation nor home, a due respect to the good sense
+of the community forbids us to attempt to prove; that our language,
+habits, manners, morals and religion are all different from those of
+Africans, is a fact too notorious to admit of controversy. Why then are
+we called upon to go and settle in a country where we must necessarily
+be and remain a distinct people, having no common interest with the
+numerous inhabitants of that vast and extensive country? Experience has
+proved beyond a doubt, that the climate is such as not to suit the
+constitutions of the inhabitants of this country; the fevers and
+various diseases incident to that tropical clime, are such as in most
+cases to bid defiance to the force of medicine.
+
+The very numerous instances of mortality amongst the emigrants who have
+been induced to leave this their native, for their adopted country,
+clearly demonstrate the fallacy of those statements so frequently made
+by the advocates of colonization in regard to the healthiness of
+Liberia.
+
+With the deepest regret we have witnessed such an immense sacrifice of
+life, in advancing a cause which cannot promise the least advantage to
+the free people of color, who, it was said, were the primary objects to
+be benefitted by this 'heaven-born enterprise.' But we beg leave most
+respectfully to ask the friends of African colonization, whether their
+christian benevolence cannot in this country be equally as
+advantageously applied, if they are actuated by that disinterested
+spirit of love and friendship for us, which they profess? Have not they
+in the United States a field sufficiently extensive to show it in? There
+is embosomed within this republic, rising one million free people of
+color, the greater part of whom are unable to read even the sacred
+scriptures. Is not their ignorant and degraded situation worthy of the
+consideration of those enlightened and christian individuals, whose zeal
+for the cause of the African race has induced them to attempt the
+establishment of a republican form of government amid the burning sands
+of Liberia, and the evangelizing of the millions of the Mahometans and
+pagans that inhabit the interior of that extensive country?
+
+We are constrained to believe that the welfare of the people of color,
+to say the least, is but a secondary consideration with those engaged in
+the colonization project. Or why should we be requested to move to
+Africa, and thus separated from all we hold dear in a moral point of
+view, before their christian benevolence can be exercised in our behalf?
+Surely there is no country of which we have any knowledge, that offers
+greater facilities for the improvement of the unlearned; or where
+benevolent and philanthropic individuals can find a people, whose
+situation has greater claims on their christian sympathies, than the
+people of color. But whilst we behold a settled determination on the
+part of the American Colonization Society to remove us to Liberia,
+without using any means to better our condition at home, we are
+compelled to look with fearful diffidence on every measure of that
+institution. At a meeting held on the 7th inst. in this borough, the
+people of color were politely invited to attend, the object of which was
+to induce the most respectable part of them to emigrate. The meeting was
+addressed by several reverend gentlemen, and very flattering accounts
+given on the authority of letters and statements said to have been
+received from individuals of unquestionable veracity. But we beg leave
+to say, that those statements differ so widely from letters that we have
+seen of recent date from the colony, in regard to the condition and
+circumstances of the colonists, that we are compelled in truth to say
+that we cannot reconcile such contradictory statements, and are
+therefore inclined to doubt the former, as they appear to have been
+prepared to present to the public, for the purpose of enlisting the
+feelings of our white friends into the measure, and of inducing the
+enterprising part of the colored community to emigrate at their own
+expense. That we are in this country a degraded people, we are truly
+sensible; that our forlorn situation is not attributable to ourselves is
+admitted by the most ardent friends of colonization; and that our
+condition cannot be bettered by removing the most exemplary individuals
+of color from amongst us, we are well convinced, from the consideration
+that in the same ratio that the industrious part would emigrate, in the
+same proportion those who would remain would become more degraded,
+wretched and miserable, and consequently less capable of appreciating
+the many opportunities which are now offering for the moral and
+intellectual improvement of our brethren. We, therefore, a portion of
+those who are the objects of this plan, and amongst those whose
+happiness, with that of others of our color, it is intended to promote,
+respectfully but firmly disclaim every connexion with it, and declare
+our settled determination not to participate in any part of it.
+
+But if this plan is intended to facilitate the emancipation of those who
+are held in slavery in the South, and the melioration of their
+condition, by sending them to Liberia; we question very much whether it
+is calculated to do either. That the emancipation of slaves has been
+measurably impeded through its influence, except where they have been
+given up to the Board of Managers, to be colonized in Africa, to us is
+manifest. And when we contemplate their uneducated and vitiated state,
+destitute of the arts and unaccustomed to provide even for themselves,
+we are inevitably led to the conclusion that their situation in that
+pestilential country will be miserable in the extreme.
+
+The present period is one of deep and increasing interest to the free
+people of color, relieved from the miseries of slavery and its
+concomitant evils, with the vast and (to us) unexplored field of
+literature and science before us, surrounded by many friends whose
+sympathies and charities need not the Atlantic between us and them,
+before they can consent to assist in elevating our brethren to the
+standing of men. We therefore particularly invite their attention to
+the subject of education and improvement; sensible that it is much
+better calculated to remove prejudice, and exalt our moral character,
+than any system of colonization that has been or can be introduced; and
+in which we believe we shall have the co-operation of the wisest and
+most philanthropic individuals of which the nation can boast. The
+utility of learning and its salutary effects on the minds and morals of
+a people, cannot have escaped the notice of any rational individual
+situated in a country like this, where in order successfully to
+prosecute any mechanical or other business, education is indispensable.
+Our highest moral ambition, at present, should be to acquire for our
+children a liberal education, give them mechanical trades, and thus fit
+and prepare them for useful and respectable citizens; and leave the
+evangelizing of Africa, and the establishing of a republic at Liberia,
+to those who conceive themselves able to demonstrate the practicability
+of its accomplishment by means of a people, numbers of whom are more
+ignorant than even the natives of that country themselves.
+
+In conclusion, we feel it a pleasing duty ever to cherish a grateful
+respect for those benevolent and truly philanthropic individuals, who
+have advocated, and still are advocating our rights in our native
+country. Their indefatigable zeal in the cause of the oppressed will
+never be forgotten by us, and unborn millions will bless their names in
+the day when the all-wise Creator, in whom we trust, shall have bidden
+oppression to cease.
+
+      ABRAHAM D. SHAD, }
+      PETER SPENCER,   }  Committee to prepare
+      WM. S. THOMAS,   }  an Address.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM HARRISBURG.
+
+                        HARRISBURG, Pa., October, 1831.
+
+At a large, well informed and respectable meeting of the citizens of
+Harrisburg, convened at the African Wesleyan Methodist church, for the
+purpose of expressing their sentiments in a remonstrance against the
+proceedings of the American Colonization Society, Rev. Jacob D.
+Richardson was called to the chair, and Jacob G. Williams appointed
+secretary. After singing and prayer, Rev. Mr Richardson in some concise
+remarks,--equalled by few, and exceeded by none,--expressed the object
+of the meeting. The chairman called the house to order, and the
+following resolutions were unanimously acceded to:
+
+Resolved, That we hold these truths to be self-evident, (and it is the
+boasted declaration of our independence) that all men (black and white,
+poor and rich) are born free and equal; that they are endowed by their
+Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life,
+liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is the language of America,
+of reason, and of eternal truth.
+
+Resolved, That we feel it to be our duty to be true to the constitution
+of our country, and are satisfied with the form of government under
+which we now live; and, moreover, that we are bound in duty and reason
+to protect it against foreign invasion. We always have done so, and will
+do so still.
+
+Resolved, That we view the efforts of the Colonization Society as
+officious and uncalled for by us. We have never done any thing worthy of
+banishment from our friends and home: but this we would say--if the
+Colonization Society will use their best endeavors to get our slave
+brethren transported to Liberia, when we as a free body of people wish
+to go, we will give the colonizationists timely notice.
+
+Resolved, That it is the firm and decided opinion of this meeting, that
+were there no free people of color among us, or if those who are free
+had remained in the degraded character of slaves, (or, as they sometimes
+call us, monkeys, apes and baboons,) they would never have got up the
+chimerical scheme for our transportation to the burning shores of
+Africa, with the fancied vision of elevating us, as they say, to dignity
+and affluence.
+
+Resolved, That we cannot remain inactive while colonizationists are
+straining every nerve and racking their inventions to find out arguments
+to persuade our free colored brethren to migrate to an unknown land,
+which we can no more lay claim to than our white brethren can to England
+or any other foreign country.
+
+Resolved, That we reject the inhuman and unchristian measures taken by
+the Colonization Society, for the illumination of the colored citizens
+of the United States, their appropriate home, in a land of sickness,
+affliction and death, when they are not willing, with few exceptions, to
+give us a christian education while among them. We would wish to know of
+the colonizationists, how, in the name of common sense and reason, do
+they expect to do any thing for us thousands of miles across the
+Atlantic, when they oppose almost every measure taken by our white
+friends and brethren to improve our condition here?
+
+Resolved, That it is the united opinion of this meeting, that the
+enemies of our race, who are members of the Colonization Society, see
+that the great Author of universal existence, who 'is no respecter of
+persons,' who taught Balaam's ass to speak, and taught Solomon wisdom,
+is now enlightening the sable sons of America: hence their object to
+drain the country of the most enlightened part of our colored brethren,
+so that they may be more able to hold their slaves in bondage and
+ignorance.
+
+Resolved, That we object to leaving the land of our birth, as there is
+sufficient land in these United States, on which a colony can be
+established that would be far more consonant to the wishes of the
+colored population generally, and would be more adapted to their
+constitution: neither would it involve the country in such expense as
+would be incurred by sending them to a howling wilderness, far away from
+the graves of their forefathers, unknown to us in every respect, unless
+by geography, which few of us understand.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting look upon the Colonization Society as a
+vicious, nefarious and peace-disturbing combination, and that its
+leaders might as well essay to cure a wound with an argument, or set a
+dislocated bone by a lecture on logic, as to tell us their object is to
+better our condition; because its members acknowledge slavery to be a
+national evil, and use no means to annihilate it, but are exerting all
+their energies and influence to persuade the free people of color to
+remove to Africa, whose rights to Columbia's happy soil holds good with
+any other citizen in America.
+
+Resolved, That we look upon the conduct of those clergymen who have
+misled their respective congregations with the preposterous idea of the
+necessity of transporting the free people of color to Africa, as highly
+deserving the just reprehension directed to the false priests and
+prophets by the true prophets of the Most High; yet we gratefully
+acknowledge the respect we entertain for those who have defended our
+cause--we mean our white friends.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting appoint Mr George Chester of Harrisburg, as
+agent for the Liberator, and will use our utmost endeavors to get
+subscribers for the same.
+
+Resolved, That we will support the Colony in Canada, the climate being
+healthy and the rights of our brethren secured.
+
+Resolved, That the gratitude of this meeting, which is so sensibly felt,
+be fully expressed to the Editors of the Liberator and Genius of
+Universal Emancipation, Messrs Garrison and Lundy, whose independence of
+mind and correct views of the rights of man have led them so intrepidly
+to speak in favor of our cause.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to the Liberator for publication.
+
+                        JACOB D. RICHARDSON, Chairman.
+
+JACOB G. WILLIAMS, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM ROCHESTER.
+
+                        ROCHESTER, N. Y., October, 1831.
+
+A large number of the colored citizens of Rochester having convened
+themselves together, for the important object of taking into
+consideration the anti-republican principles of the American
+Colonization Society, the Rev. Mr Johnson was called to the chair, and
+Mr A. Lawrence was appointed secretary.
+
+The meeting was then briefly addressed by the secretary as follows:
+
+Countrymen and Brothers--When viewing the inhumanity and anti-christian
+principles of the American Colonization Society, in plotting our removal
+to Africa, (which is unknown to us as our native country,) it seems as
+though we were called upon publicly to express our feelings on the
+subject. We do not consider Africa to be our home, any more than the
+present whites do England, Scotland, or Ireland. This is the land our
+fathers have tilled before us; this is the land that gave us our
+birthright.--The meeting then
+
+Resolved, That we never will remove to Africa; but should any of our
+brethren wish to emigrate, we would recommend Canada as a country far
+more congenial to our constitutions;--that we give our most sincere
+thanks to our friendly advocates Messrs Garrison and Knapp, and Mr
+Benjamin Lundy, who are crying unto their fellow men, night and day, to
+let their countrymen go free: they will be called blessed by many
+generations yet to come. The Colonization Society say that they cannot
+treat us as men while we are with them; but if we will go out of their
+reach, they will begin their charity. What should we think of such
+religion as this? Because our skin is a little darker than theirs, they
+say they cannot think of treating us as men. The scripture says, 'Beware
+of wolves in sheep's clothing'--and such they seem to be. We earnestly
+believe, with our generous friend Garrison, that it would not be a hard
+matter to exceed them in doing right. Our blessed Lord said, that we
+should do to all men as we would have them do to us. Now what would they
+think, if we should tell them that they would be better off in New
+Holland or in Tartary?
+
+Resolved, That we will do all in our power to support the Liberator,
+printed by Mr Garrison, and all other works in our behalf.
+
+Resolved, That the foregoing proceedings be published in the Liberator.
+
+                        HENRY JOHNSON, Chairman.
+
+A. LAWRENCE, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM PROVIDENCE.
+
+                        PROVIDENCE, November 1, 1831.
+
+At a respectable meeting of the colored people of Providence, R. I.,
+duly appointed and publicly holden at the African church, on the 31st of
+October, 1831, to take into consideration the objects and motives of the
+American Colonization Society, Mr George C. Willis was called to the
+chair, and Mr Alfred Niger appointed secretary. The meeting was then
+addressed at some length by the chairman, stating their object in
+assembling together, and exposing the injustice and prejudice by which
+he believed the friends of African colonization were actuated. The
+following preamble and resolutions were read by the secretary, and
+unanimously adopted:
+
+Whereas our brethren, in different parts of the United States, have
+thought proper to call meetings to express their disapprobation of the
+American Colonization Society; we, concurring fully with them in
+opinion, have assembled ourselves together for the purpose of uniting
+with them, in declaring that we believe the operations of the Society
+have been unchristian and anti-republican, and at variance with our best
+interests as a people. Therefore,
+
+Resolved, That we will use every fair and honorable means in our power,
+to oppose the operations of the above mentioned Society.
+
+Resolved, That we are truly sensible that we are in this country a
+degraded and ignorant people; but that our ignorance and degradation are
+not to be attributed to the inferiority of our natural abilities, but to
+the oppressive treatment we have experienced from the whites in general,
+and to the prejudice excited against us by the members of the
+Colonization Society, their aiders and abettors.
+
+Resolved, That we view, with unfeigned astonishment, the anti-christian
+and inconsistent conduct of those who so strenuously advocate our
+removal from this our native country to the burning shores of Liberia,
+and who with the same breath contend against the cruelty and injustice
+of Georgia in her attempt to remove the Cherokee Indians west of the
+Mississippi.
+
+Resolved, That we firmly believe, from the recent measures adopted by
+the freemen of the city of New Haven, in regard to the establishment of
+a College for our education in that place, that the principal object of
+the friends of African colonization is to oppose our education and
+consequent elevation here, as it will deprive them of one of their
+principal arguments for our removal.
+
+Resolved, That as our fathers participated with the whites in their
+struggle for liberty and independence, and believing with the
+Declaration of that Independence, 'that all men are created free and
+equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
+rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;'
+and as we have committed no crime worthy of banishment--Therefore
+
+Resolved, That we will not leave our homes, nor the graves of our
+fathers, and this boasted land of liberty and christian philanthropy.
+
+Resolved, That, our unfeigned and sincere thanks be tendered to Messrs
+Garrison and Knapp, and to every true friend to our cause, for their
+unwearied and truly benevolent exertions in our behalf.
+
+Resolved, That we will earnestly recommend the Liberator, published in
+Boston by the above mentioned gentlemen, to the patronage of our friends
+throughout the country.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to Boston, with the request that they may be
+published in the Liberator.
+
+                        GEORGE C. WILLIS, Chairman.
+
+ALFRED NIGER, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM TRENTON.
+
+                        TRENTON, November 30, 1831.
+
+At a respectable meeting of the free people of color in Trenton,
+convened in the Mount Zion church, November 30, 1831, for the purpose of
+considering the subject of colonization on the coast of Africa--On
+motion, the Rev. Lewis Cork was called to the chair, and Abner H.
+Francis appointed secretary. The meeting was addressed by Messrs
+Gardener and Thompson; after which, the following resolutions were
+unanimously adopted.
+
+Resolved, Inasmuch as we, free people of color, have done all that is in
+our power to convince the white inhabitants of these United States, that
+it is our wish to live peaceably with all men; and inasmuch as our
+general demeanor has been that of industry and sobriety, notwithstanding
+there are some among us to the contrary, as well as among the whites;
+therefore we do most solemnly declare, that the statements made to the
+contrary by the Rev. Mr Crosby, in his late addresses in this city, and
+all statements by petitioners to legislative bodies, and by the
+Colonization Society, or any thing of the same nature, are a positive
+libel on our general character.
+
+Resolved, Whereas we have lived peaceably and quietly in these United
+States, of which we are natives, and have never been the cause of any
+insurrectionary or tumultuous movements as a body, that we do view every
+measure taken by any associated bodies to remove us to other climes,
+anti-christian and hostile to our peace, and a violation of the laws of
+humanity.
+
+Resolved, That if, in the opinion of government, our stay or liberty can
+no longer be granted in the States in which we live, we see nothing
+contrary to the constitution of these United States, or to christianity,
+justice, reason or humanity, in granting us a portion of the Western
+territory, as a state, with the same franchise as that of Pennsylvania,
+New Jersey, or any other free State; for we challenge the Union to prove
+that, as free men, we have ever given the least ground for the
+uncharitable censures that have been cast upon us.
+
+Resolved, That we view the American Colonization Society as the most
+inveterate foe both to the free and slave man of color; forasmuch as the
+agents thereof, and its members who have petitioned the several
+legislatures, have unequivocally declared its object, to wit, the
+extermination of the free people of color from the Union; and to effect
+this they have not failed to slander our character, by representing us
+as a vagrant race; and we do therefore disclaim all union with the said
+Society, and, once for all, declare that we never will remove under
+their patronage; neither do we consider it expedient to emigrate any
+where, but to remain in the land and see the salvation of God.
+Nevertheless, if any of our brethren should be compelled or see proper
+to emigrate, we would recommend to them Upper Canada or Mexico.
+
+Resolved, That we view with the highest emotion of gratitude, the
+benevolence of Great Britain and that of the Canada Company, in
+affording an asylum in the Wilberforce settlement, in Upper Canada, for
+our oppressed brethren of the South, who have been or may be forced, by
+unconstitutional laws, to leave their rightful home and place of
+nativity, without any cause except that of having a dark skin.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting approve the establishment of a college, as
+recommended by the Annual Convention held in Philadelphia last June, and
+that we give all possible aid to that institution.
+
+Resolved, That we view the Liberator, edited by William Lloyd Garrison,
+as a great herald in the cause of liberty, and that we recommend to the
+colored citizens of Trenton the utility of subscribing to the above
+named paper.
+
+Resolved, That there be a committee of three appointed to draft an
+address more expressive of our views on the above subject.
+
+Resolved, That the following persons compose that committee--Sampson
+Peters, Robert Thomas, George Cole.
+
+                        LEWIS CORK, Chairman.
+
+ABNER H. FRANCIS, Secretary.
+
+
+ADDRESS.
+
+We, the undersigned, in conformity to the above appointment, beg leave
+to present to the public, in a calm, unprejudiced manner, our decided
+disapprobation of the American Colonization Society and its auxiliaries,
+in relation to the people of color in the United States. We are well
+convinced, from the mass that has been written on the above subject by
+those who have preceded us, that it will be difficult to avoid
+repetition; nevertheless; we hope to touch some points which have not
+been fairly understood by that Society. They have supposed that our
+objections are to civilizing and evangelizing Africa; but we beg leave
+to say, that it is an error. We are well aware, that there is no surer
+way to effect this great object than to plant among the heathen,
+colonies of Christian missionaries. We wish, therefore, to be
+understood, that we highly approve of the evangelizing of Africa, but
+disapprove of the present measures of the American Colonization Society,
+if their motives have not been misrepresented by their agents and
+others, in some previous addresses in this city and elsewhere. But
+viewing them as we now do, we must say that, in our opinion, their false
+representations of our general character--their recommending our removal
+from our native land--their opposition to our having a part of the West
+appointed to us--their objections to our proposed college, and of our
+march to science--their false statements in relation to the health of
+the colony at Liberia, with a variety of other subjects of the same
+nature--all lead to a conclusion, that it is our greatest foe.
+
+We would here ask the public a few questions. First--Is the gospel of
+Jesus Christ calculated to lead to insurrectionary measures? If so, why
+then send it to the heathen? Second--What gentleman, who has set his
+slaves free, has been murdered by them for so doing? Third--What have
+those States, who have washed their hands clean of the cursed stain of
+slavery, lost by it? Fourth--What neighborhood, where education and
+general information have been disseminated among the people of color, is
+the worse for it?
+
+In closing our remarks, we would say, that we do think that the subjects
+looked to by the Colonization Society, to civilize Africa, are
+incompetent; for we do suppose that men selected for such an important
+enterprise, should be men of deed and sound piety--men of regular and
+industrious habits, of scientific knowledge and general experience: that
+such men can be obtained, we have no doubt; and if there cannot, let us
+first prepare some in this country.
+
+      SAMPSON PETERS, }
+      ROBERT THOMAS,  } Committee.
+      GEORGE COLE,    }
+
+
+A VOICE FROM LYME.
+
+                        LYME, Ct., January 9, 1832.
+
+At a respectable meeting of the colored citizens of this place, held
+pursuant to public notice--Mr Luther Wright was called to the chair, and
+Mr Daniel R. Condol appointed secretary.
+
+After some animated remarks by Messrs Wright and Condol, it was
+
+Resolved, That it is the sincere opinion of this meeting, that the
+American Colonization Society is one of the wildest projects ever
+patronised by a body of enlightened men; and further, that many of those
+who support it would be willing, if it were in their power, to drive us
+out of existence.
+
+Resolved, That though we be last in calling a meeting, we feel no less
+the pernicious influence of this Society than the rest of our brethren;
+and that we will resist every attempt to banish us from this our native
+land.
+
+Resolved, That we place unshaken reliance upon the promises of Jehovah,
+and believe that he will take our reproach away, and give freedom to
+those who are held in captivity.
+
+Resolved, That we are not for insurrection, but for peace, freedom and
+equality.
+
+Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be rendered to Messrs Garrison
+and Knapp, for their benevolent exertions in behalf of the oppressed
+descendants of Africa; and that they be requested to insert these
+proceedings in the Liberator.
+
+                        LUTHER WRIGHT, Chairman.
+
+DANIEL R. CONDOL, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE PROM LEWISTOWN.
+
+                        LEWISTOWN, Pa., January 9, 1832.
+
+At a numerous meeting held by the free people of color of the borough of
+Lewistown, in the African Methodist Episcopal church, Samuel Johnston
+was called to the chair, and Martin Johnston appointed secretary. The
+following resolutions were then read, and unanimously adopted:
+
+Resolved, That we will not leave these United States, the land of our
+birth, for a home in Africa.
+
+Resolved, That we will strenuously oppose the colonizing of the free
+people of color in Liberia.
+
+Resolved, That we are willing to emigrate to any part of the United
+States which may be granted to us.
+
+Resolved, That we will support the Liberator, a paper published in
+Boston, edited by William Lloyd Garrison; and also the colony in Upper
+Canada as an asylum for our oppressed brethren.
+
+Resolved, That a committee be appointed to prepare an address to be
+published in the Liberator.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and forwarded to the editor of the Liberator for
+publication.
+
+                        SAMUEL JOHNSTON, Chairman.
+
+MARTIN JOHNSTON, Secretary.
+
+
+ADDRESS.
+
+We, the undersigned, in conformity to the above appointment, beg leave
+to present to the public, in a calm and unprejudiced manner, our reasons
+for opposing the scheme of African colonization. This is the land of our
+birth. The Declaration of Independence declares, that 'all men are born
+free and equal:' it does not say that the _white_ man or the _black_ man
+is free,--but all, without respect to color, tongues, or nation. We
+therefore consider all laws to enslave or degrade the people of color as
+contrary to the letter and spirit of this Declaration; and that
+according to it we are freemen, and have as indisputable a right to
+enjoy our liberty as any white man. To deny it to us, because we differ
+in color, is oppression. To say that Africa is our native country is
+untrue. Here we were born, and here we mean to die; for all men are born
+free.
+
+We wish to return our grateful thanks to our friends, and to the friends
+of the abolition of slavery. We consider slavery a national sin, which,
+if not speedily overthrown, will cause this nation to mourn and weep;
+for God has declared that Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto
+him, and he will hear her cry.
+
+We would say to colonizationists that we consider them our foes instead
+of our friends. It is vain for them to say that we would do better in
+Liberia; for we do not believe it. There is room enough in this country
+for us; and if they be our friends, let them meliorate our condition
+here. Let them join in the work of immediate abolition of slavery. Let
+them wash out the stains which disfigure the national character. And
+then let them tell us about Liberia.
+
+One reason why we are opposed to leaving these United States is this:
+you have so long denied us the enjoyment and protection of the laws of
+God and man in this country, that you wish now to oppress us still more.
+But thanks be to Him who holds all things in his hand, we believe He
+will plead our cause. Your skirts are already dyed with the blood of
+millions of souls. 'Vengeance is mine--I will repay,' saith the Lord.
+
+Awake, ye wolves in sheep's clothing. Your cup is now full. You are
+daily causing innocent blood to be shed. How long, ye slavites, ye
+kidnappers, ye that traffic in human flesh, will you sleep? When will
+you awake to your best interests? For remember that you will not always
+be able to hold your victims in servile chains.
+
+      J. G. SMITH, }
+      M. WALKER,   } Committee.
+      M. JOHNSTON, }
+
+
+A VOICE FROM NEW-BEDFORD.
+
+                        NEW-BEDFORD, January 23, 1832.
+
+At a meeting of the people of color in New-Bedford, January 23d, for the
+purpose of considering and giving their opinion of the American
+Colonization Society, and the actual evil or benefit of that Society to
+the objects of its supervision, the free people of color, Mr Richard
+Johnson was called to the chair, and Richard G. Overing appointed
+secretary. After an address from the chair, it was moved that
+resolutions expressive of the views of the meeting, respecting the
+Colonization Society, be drawn up, and published in some newspaper not
+adverse to the rights and well being of all men, be their color what it
+may. The following are the resolves of the meeting:
+
+Resolved, That in whatever light we view the Colonization Society, we
+discover nothing in it but terror, prejudice and oppression; that the
+warm and beneficent hand of philanthropy is not apparent in the system,
+but the influence of the Society on public opinion is more prejudicial
+to the interest and welfare of the people of color in the United States,
+than slavery itself.
+
+Resolved, That the Society, to effect its purpose, the removal of the
+free people of color, (not the slaves) through its agents, teaches the
+public to believe that it is patriotic and benevolent to withhold from
+us knowledge and the means of acquiring subsistence, and to look upon us
+as unnatural and illegal residents in this country; and thus by force of
+prejudice, if not by law, endeavor to compel us to embark for Africa,
+and that too, apparently, by our own free will and consent.
+
+Resolved, That as great a nuisance as we may be in the estimation of
+that Society, we yet have a hope in Him who has seen fit to continue our
+existence through days worse than which we do not fear, and which
+emboldens us as peaceable citizens, to resolve to abide the issue of
+coming days in our native land, in which we ask no more than the age in
+which we live demands, and which this nation, as republicans and
+christians, should not refuse to grant.
+
+Signed in behalf of the meeting.
+
+                        RICHARD JOHNSON, Chairman.
+
+R. G. OVERING, Secretary.
+
+
+The foregoing resolutions and addresses are given in plain, it may be
+occasionally in severe language; and display an intensity of feeling, a
+depth of abhorrence, and a firmness of purpose, honorable to men who
+appreciate their rights and love their country. Before I proceed,
+however, to comment upon these important proceedings, I shall make some
+quotations from the essays and addresses of colored writers, in order to
+sustain my assertion that the American Colonization Society is directly
+opposed to the wishes of our free colored population.
+
+'A COLORED BALTIMOREAN'[AH] records his sentiments in the following
+style:
+
+    'We believe, sirs, that the people of color in the United States
+    will never be prevailed over to abandon the land of their birth,
+    and every thing vernacular with them--to forego many advantages
+    which they now possess, and many more which they have in
+    prospect, for the imaginary, or if real, the fleeting and
+    short-lived honors held out to them by our "Americo-African
+    empire." Why should we exchange a temperate and salubrious
+    climate, adapted to our constitutions as Americans, for one, to
+    us, fraught with disease and death? Why should we leave a land
+    in which the arts and sciences are flourishing, and which is
+    beginning to yield to our research, for one, where the
+    irradiating beams of the sun of science have yet to be announced
+    by the bright star of hope? Why should we leave a land
+    illuminated with the blaze of gospel light, for one enshrouded
+    in pagan gloom? Why should we, who are in tolerable
+    circumstances in America, who enjoy many of the comforts of
+    life, and are evidently on the advanced march of mind, cast away
+    these certain, real, and growing advantages, for those which are
+    precarious and chimerical? Why should we abandon our firesides,
+    and every thing associated with the dear name of _home_--undergo
+    the fatigues of a perilous voyage, and expose ourselves, our
+    wives, and our little ones, to the deleterious influences of an
+    uncongenial sun, for the enjoyment of a liberty divested of its
+    usual accompaniments, surrounded with circumstances which
+    diminish its intrinsic value, and render it indeed "a dear
+    earned morsel"? * * * * * *
+
+    'But "it is the hope of accomplishing the entire subversion of
+    the slave trade and Mahometan superstition, and all their
+    subsidiary concomitants, that has actuated the Christian and
+    stimulated the philanthropist." Noble objects indeed! And who
+    are those christians and philanthropists? Our friend tells us,
+    without distinction, that they are "those noble and heroic men
+    who have enlisted under the banner of colonization." But how
+    happens it that some of the most distinguished of these
+    _christians_ and _philanthropists_ are themselves slaveholders,
+    and so far abettors of the _slave trade_ as to be actually
+    guilty of selling into a cruel and interminable vassalage the
+    hapless victims of their tender mercies? Again, how is it that
+    none but the free people of color have been chosen to evangelize
+    Africa? Is it because they are under an exclusive moral
+    obligation to dispel the "gloom of Mahometan superstition?" Is
+    it because they are pre-eminently qualified in point of morals
+    and information for the missionary enterprise? None will say
+    this. Perhaps we shall be told, that the identity of their color
+    gives them a decided advantage over every other people. But how
+    is it that those wicked white men, who are in the habit of
+    resorting thither for the most nefarious purposes, have access
+    to these people? And we have not forgotten that during the visit
+    of the Rev. G. R. McGill, in Baltimore, he informed us that
+    colored men from the United States, being thought by the natives
+    to be men of information, are received and treated as white men,
+    and denominated by the same epithet. Since then it does not
+    appear that we are pre-eminently qualified for this work, why
+    should it be pressed upon us? * * * *
+
+    'Tell us not that the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, who is
+    not a respecter of persons, whose "tender mercies are over all
+    his works," will _never_ elevate us to the dignity of men and
+    christians, unless we emigrate to Africa. Tell us not that in
+    this _christian_ country, this "land of the free and home of the
+    brave," we must _for ever_ remain a degraded and proscribed
+    race--that we must _for ever_ be treated as the outcasts of
+    creation. We are aware that this doctrine has been asserted with
+    all the confidence of inspiration by _some_ of our gospel
+    ministers. We have heard them proclaim it in a tone calculated
+    to strengthen the prejudices existing against us. They seem to
+    forget that there is a superintending providence--that He, who
+    "sits upon the whirlwind and directs the storm," has ever
+    manifested himself a friend to the oppressed of every clime.
+    They seem to forget that the religion of Jesus, wherever it
+    reigns with unrestrained sway, demolishes every partition wall,
+    and exterminates out of the heart all those bitter prejudices
+    which impede the march of the Messiah's kingdom. We should like
+    to have these prophets give us their ideas in relation to the
+    millennial reign of Christ. We should like to have them inform
+    us whether or not the general prejudices and their inseparable
+    accompaniments, which now lie upon, and operate against us, on
+    account of our color, will be consistent with this glorious
+    reign of _peace_, and _love_, and _joy_. Let these ministers
+    consider that much of our degradation is chargeable to the
+    indifference (to say the least) that they manifest in regard to
+    our situation--that if they as patterns of piety hold us at a
+    distance, it is but natural for the inconsiderate to follow
+    their example. Let them recollect that while they are making
+    powerful and irresistible appeals to the humanity of the
+    American people in behalf of the oppressed of other climes, they
+    have a people among them whose claims upon their liberality are
+    paramount to those of any other. Let these ministers tell us how
+    often they make it their business to visit those portions of
+    their flocks whose crime is, their color. Nay, one of them said
+    not long since, to be familiar with the people of color would
+    destroy his _usefulness_ among the whites. But whether they do
+    their duty in relation to us or not, we indulge in no fears in
+    regard to our future condition. We are not distrustful of the
+    goodness and power of Him who has overruled the evil designs of
+    those men that first tore our ancestors from their native
+    shores, who is still overruling, and who will continue to
+    overrule the designs of all who would treat us as the
+    offscouring of the earth, because our Creator has not given us a
+    color as white as their own. If ever there was a people who
+    could look up to Heaven with unshaken confidence for protection,
+    it is that people whose sufferings are not the consequences of
+    their crimes; it is that people whose misfortunes work in them
+    the graces of faith, patience and hope. And why should we not
+    cherish these invaluable graces? We are told by high authority,
+    that "_all things_ shall work together _for good_ to them that
+    love God"--that "He will give grace and glory, and _no good
+    thing_ will He _withhold_ from them that walk uprightly." You
+    see, sirs, we have one straight forward course to pursue--one
+    marked out by the hand of unerring wisdom. This course we intend
+    to pursue, without giving ourselves any uneasiness as to the
+    issue; this we leave to Him who has the administration of the
+    universe in his hands, and who has declared for our
+    encouragement, "even the very hairs of your head are all
+    numbered." Tell us not of the wisdom, and power, and number of
+    our enemies; He who has given us a hope, which at least makes
+    our condition tolerable, will say to them, as He did to the
+    tempestuous billows, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;
+    and here shall thy proud waves be stayed."'
+
+    * * * * * * * * *
+
+    'What effect have the evils of slavery in this _happy_ land upon
+    the mind of the liberal, the unprejudiced, and philanthropic
+    Lafayette?
+
+    'Hear him, he will speak for himself: "When I am indulging in my
+    views of American prospects and American liberty, it is
+    mortifying to be told that in that very country a large portion
+    of the people are slaves. It is a dark spot on the face of the
+    nation. _Such a state of things cannot always exist._" It was a
+    sight of the evils alluded to, and their inseparable
+    concomitants, that extorted from the pen of Mr Jefferson that
+    comprehensive and soul-thrilling sentence--"I tremble for my
+    country when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice
+    cannot sleep for ever." But may we not indulge the hope that
+    the evils spoken of will yet awaken the sympathies of the
+    American people--soften their cruel prejudices--arouse their
+    slumbering energies--and produce in them an unconquerable
+    determination to wash from their "stars and stripes" one of the
+    blackest spots that ever cursed the globe, or stained the
+    historic page? Shall we be told that _invincible_ prejudices
+    render this great desideratum impracticable? And what is this
+    but a libel upon the American people? What is it but to say,
+    there is in them a moral incapacity to do justice, love mercy,
+    and walk uprightly? Colonization orators, designing politicians,
+    ministers of Jesus, tell me, how can you thus libel your
+    countrymen? Surely, there is a regenerating, a redeeming spirit
+    in the land--a spirit transforming misanthropes into
+    philanthropists--bondmen into freemen--abettors of slavery into
+    champions of liberty--a spirit that will yet drive from America
+    the demon of slavery, and render it indeed "the land of the free
+    and the home of the brave."'[AI]
+
+    * * * * * * * *
+
+    'I have just found time to notice a few very exceptionable
+    features of a communication over the signature of "A
+    Marylander," published, a few days ago, in the American of our
+    city. The writer is unquestionably entitled to the credit of
+    being a thorough-going colonizationist. He writes in the _true
+    spirit_ of the cause. He seems to be under an excitement
+    produced by the publication of our anti-colonization
+    resolutions. This being the case, it is not to be expected that
+    he would, throughout his communication, avail himself of the
+    guarded, accommodating, and conciliating language usual with
+    colonization writers and declaimers. After being convinced that
+    the people of color are not to be persuaded to leave the land of
+    their birth, and every thing vernacular with them, for "regions"
+    which he tells us are "now dark as the valley of the shadow of
+    death," he says, "I would propose then that Maryland should
+    colonize her own free blacks." He does not add the usual
+    qualification, "_with their own consent_:" he knows this will
+    never be obtained. He therefore says: "I earnestly _hope_ that
+    the time _is now_ come when our state will wake up to all the
+    importance of this subject, and will instantly commence _a
+    system of measures_ imperatively demanded by the _sternest_
+    principles [colonization principles?] of _sound_ policy." We
+    would tell this precocious statesman that we are not to be
+    intimidated into colonization "_measures_" by the angry
+    effusions of his illiberal soul; that we had rather die in
+    Maryland under the pressure of unrighteous and cruel laws than
+    be driven, like cattle, to the pestilential clime of Liberia,
+    where grievous privation, inevitable disease, and premature
+    death, await us in all their horrors. We are emboldened thus to
+    speak, not from a reliance on the mere arm of flesh; no--it is
+    the righteousness of our cause, a knowledge of the attributes of
+    Deity, combined with a consciousness of innocence under
+    suffering, that have inspired us with a moral courage which no
+    oppression shall shake, no fulminations overawe. Our limits will
+    not permit us to expatiate, at this time, on the import of the
+    terms, "_a system of measures--the sternest principles_," &c. We
+    would barely remark that the climax of injustice and cruelty,
+    here suggested, nay, recommended, is the legitimate fruit of the
+    operations of the American colonization societies relative to
+    the free people of color. We have always believed that the
+    "_system of measures_" here recommended, would be the dernier
+    resort of these _christian_ associations. The unmerited abuse,
+    that has been so unsparingly heaped upon us by colonizationists
+    for expressing our opinions of their project as connected with
+    our happiness, their manifest determination to effectuate their
+    object regardless of our consent, abundantly corroborate the
+    opinion we have long since entertained. We turn, however, from
+    the contemplation of the persecution and oppression, which, it
+    seems, are in reserve for us, to notice, briefly, the moving
+    cause of this virulent and relentless attack upon our rights and
+    happiness. "The _census just taken_," says A Marylander,
+    "_admonishes_ us in the strongest manner, of the necessity of
+    prompt and efficient measures to drain off this description of
+    our population." Here then is the _patriotic_, the _benevolent_,
+    the _christian_ principle, by which the colonization societies,
+    throughout our land, are actuated. This is the selfish policy of
+    which we complain, and which should be execrated by all _true_
+    patriots, philanthropists, and christians. Our increase is
+    represented as an "_alarming evil--an evil_," said one of our
+    colonization orators in the pulpit, not long since, "which
+    _threatens_ our very _existence_." Now, if all this be true, how
+    can they, on their own principles, say we can _never_ be a
+    people in this country? Surely, they are taking effectual steps
+    to convince us, that the enjoyment of our rights in this, our
+    native land, is not only possible, but highly probable. This we
+    have always believed. And we hope and pray, that it may be
+    accomplished in a way sanctioned by the gospel of peace:
+    "without confused noise, or garments rolled in blood." But this
+    glorious victory over pride and prejudice, by gospel weapons,
+    will never be accomplished by colonization principles. Nor will
+    those ministers of the gospel have any part or lot in this
+    matter, who solemnly declare, in the face of heaven and earth,
+    that we can _never enjoy, in this country_, those inalienable
+    rights of man, whose inviolable preservation promotes the
+    welfare of the whole human family. Such ministers virtually
+    declare that they do not believe the doctrines they are bound to
+    preach; that He, from whom they profess to have received their
+    commission, is, indeed, "a hard man, reaping where he has not
+    sown, and gathering where he has not strawed;" that He requires
+    of them and their flocks, that which they are morally incapable
+    of performing; that they _cannot_ love their neighbor as
+    themselves, or do unto others what they wish done unto
+    themselves, because their Lord, in his wisdom, has given some of
+    their fellow creatures a different color from their own. These
+    temporising, retrograde reformers are doing a serious injury to
+    the people of color. They heed not the warning of Heaven: "Do my
+    people no harm." They are doing more to strengthen the cruel and
+    unchristian prejudices, already too powerful against us, than
+    all the slaveholders in the Union. They hesitate not to declare,
+    that, in America, we are out of the reach of humanity. They seem
+    to think that the religion of the benevolent Saviour which
+    enjoins, "_honor all men_," and which explicitly says, "if ye
+    have _respect to persons_, ye _commit sin_," is nothing more
+    than a dead letter, or must _for ever_ remain powerless, in the
+    United States of America. And have these men the face to contend
+    with the infidels of our land? Why, one infidel, with the bible
+    in his hands, would "chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand
+    to flight." But notwithstanding these discouraging
+    circumstances, our cause will yet triumph. He who is for us, is
+    stronger than all that are against us. "The rulers" of the land
+    may "take counsel together," and some of the professed ministers
+    of Jesus may "come into their secret," but "He that sitteth in
+    the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision."
+    Fear not then, my colored countrymen, but press forward, with a
+    laudable ambition, for all that heaven has intended for you and
+    your children, remembering that the path of duty is the path of
+    safety, and that "righteousness" alone "exalteth a nation."'
+
+
+If excellence of style, a dignified carriage, sound logic, a high and
+abiding faith, and fervent piety, confer credit upon a writer, few have
+ever better illustrated these traits than 'A COLORED BALTIMOREAN,' or
+deserved a nobler tribute of praise. He who would be ashamed to
+acknowledge such a man as his countryman and brother, has yet to learn
+his own insignificance and what constitutes the majesty of human nature.
+
+The following is an extract of a letter from a colored gentleman of
+wealth and respectability in Philadelphia, whose friendship is courted
+by honorable men, and whose usefulness is scarcely exceeded by any other
+citizen:
+
+    'Is it not preposterous to one, like myself, whose family has
+    resided in the state of Pennsylvania ever since the great
+    lawgiver, William Penn, came last to this state from England;
+    and who fought for the independence of my country, whose
+    Declaration asserts, that all men are born with free and equal
+    rights--is it not preposterous to be told that this is not my
+    country? I was seven months on board of the old Jersey Prison
+    ship in the year 1780, "the times that tried men's souls;" and
+    am I now to be told that Africa is my country, by some of those
+    whose birth-place is unknown? Is it not a contradiction to say
+    that a man is an alien to the country in which he was born? To
+    separate the blacks from the whites is as impossible, as to bale
+    out the Delaware with a bucket. I have always been decidedly of
+    opinion, that if the Colonization Society would take but half
+    the pains to improve the children of color in their own country,
+    and expend but half the money that they are devoting to
+    accomplish their visionary scheme of christianizing Africa, by
+    offering premiums to master mechanics to take them as
+    apprentices, they would do more to destroy prejudice than any
+    thing else. When I look at this globe, containing eight or nine
+    hundred millions of inhabitants, and see that they differ in
+    color from the frozen to the temperate and torrid zones, and
+    that every thing is variegated, I am astonished that any man
+    should be so prejudiced against his fellow-man; but we pray for
+    the aid of the Almighty to take the scales from their eyes; and
+    that the Liberator may be one of the instruments in commencing
+    the work.'[AJ]
+
+
+    'I would ask some of our pretended white friends, and the
+    members of the American Colonization Society, why they are so
+    interested in our behalf as to want us to go to Africa? They
+    tell us that it is our home; that they desire to make a people
+    of us, which we can never be here; that they want Africa
+    civilized; and that we are the very persons to do it, as it is
+    almost impossible for any white person to exist there. I deny
+    it. Will some of those guardian angels of the people of color
+    tell me how it is that we, who were born in the same city or
+    state with themselves, can live any longer in Africa than they?
+    I consider it the most absurd assertion that any man of common
+    sense could make, unless it is supposed, as some have already
+    said, that we are void of understanding. If we had been born on
+    that continent, the transportation would be another matter; but
+    as the fact is the reverse, we consider the United States our
+    home, and not Africa as they wish to make us believe;--and if we
+    do emigrate, it will be to a place of our own choice.
+
+    'I would also mention to the supporters of the Colonization
+    Society, that if they would spend half the time and money that
+    they do, in educating the colored population and giving them
+    lands to cultivate here, and secure to them all the rights and
+    immunities of freemen, instead of sending them to Africa, it
+    would be found, in a short time, that they made as good citizens
+    as the whites. Their traducers would hear of fewer murders,
+    highway robberies, forgeries, &c. &c. being committed, than they
+    do at present among some of the white inhabitants of this
+    country.'[AK]
+
+
+    'Colonization principles, abstractly considered, are
+    unobjectionable; but the means employed for their propagation,
+    we think, are altogether objectionable. We are deprived of our
+    birthright, and pointed by the colonization partisans to another
+    country as a home. They speak of the prejudices which exist
+    against us, as an insuperable hindrance to the improvement of
+    our situation here. We are sickened by the constant reiteration
+    of "_extraneous mass_," "_African inferiority_," &c. which tends
+    immediately to justify the slaveholder in his crime, and
+    increase already existing prejudice. The Colonization Society
+    never will effect the removal of slavery. The God of justice
+    will never, in my opinion, let this nation off so easily. It is
+    in vain to hold back. The eyes of all will ultimately be opened
+    to see that nothing but universal emancipation can possibly
+    avert impending wrath.'[AL]
+
+
+    'How long, oh! ye boasters of freedom, will ye endeavor to
+    persuade us, your derided, degraded fellow countrymen, to the
+    belief that our interest and happiness are prized in high
+    estimation among you? Be it known, that we are not all such
+    misguided, deluded mortals as to be duped by your plans; that we
+    will not suffer ourselves to become so infatuated as to "hurl
+    reason from her throne," and succumb to your glittering, showy,
+    _dissimulating_ path to eminence. We spurn with contempt your
+    unrighteous schemes, and point the finger of derision at your
+    fruitless attempts. You have commenced them in a day, when
+    liberty, justice and equality are claimed by almost all, as
+    nature's rights; for behold! a beam of science, lucid as the
+    sun, has divinely fallen upon the lightless intellects of a
+    portion of that ignoble part of your fellow creatures, who have
+    been so long the victims of your fell injustice and inhumanity.
+    Would to God that conscience might subdue your malignant
+    prejudices. Tell us not that our condition can never be bettered
+    in the land of our birth: you know it not. Make but the attempt
+    in consecrating a portion of your time, talents and money upon
+    us here, and you would soon find the cause of Afric's injured
+    race vindicated by her descendants; and the day which now dawns
+    would be speedily ushered into blazing light, declaring in its
+    effulgence the joyful sound of Liberty--Justice--Equality, to
+    all mankind.'[AM]
+
+
+    'There is much to be surprised at, little to admire, and nothing
+    worthy of imitation, in the "bubbles" of our friends, the
+    colonizationists. They have enlisted the prejudices and the
+    support of the wealthy and influential in their favor; they have
+    succeeded in sending some two or three thousand to Liberia; and
+    they are flattered with their partial success, and no doubt look
+    forward to the time when they will behold the whole of the
+    colored inhabitants of America, in the far distant land of
+    Africa. But let them not anticipate too much; they have yet one
+    obstacle to overcome which threatens to overthrow their
+    "baseless fabric;" or at any rate impede their progress. Their
+    proceedings have not obtained the approbation of those, whose
+    approbation is most needed, _the colored people themselves_.
+    They are most strangely mistaken if they suppose that it is an
+    easy matter to win them, either by _sophistry_ or _force_. The
+    press has begun its revolutionizing work, overturning in its
+    progress every thing calculated to suppress inquiry or to blind
+    the understanding. Already have the intrigues of the designing
+    been exposed, and already have the colored people set their
+    faces against oppression.
+
+    'The Colonization Society has erred in matters of _policy_; for
+    instead of exerting themselves to gain the confidence of the
+    colored people, and thus by persuasion to have rid the country
+    of them, they have acted in a manner calculated to disgust every
+    humane mind, and have rendered it an utter _impossibility_ to
+    remove them; and it is most fortunate for the unfortunate, that
+    they have detected those intriguing spirits in their _humane_
+    and _charitable_ undertaking.
+
+    'How many hours of anguish, how much incalculable misery has been
+    prevented; in short, how many human beings have been saved from
+    an untimely grave, by the timely interposition of the PRESS! It
+    has said, let it be so, and it _was_ so; its thunders have been
+    heard, and the oppressor trembles like the earthquake: it has
+    overthrown, yea, totally demolished the sharp-edged sword of
+    the Colonization Society.
+
+    'Support the PRESS then, ye people of color, and the result will
+    be a total overthrow of all the darling schemes of the aforesaid
+    darling Society; it has accomplished wonders, yea, wonders
+    already; much more can, nay, will be done; again I say, support
+    the PRESS.'[AN]
+
+
+    'The African Colonization Society declares that we the people of
+    color shall have no part nor lot in the free institutions of
+    this country. Why? Because the Creator of all--the sovereign
+    Ruler of the universe, who holds in his hands the destiny of
+    nations, thought fit and proper, in his infinite wisdom, to
+    tincture us with a darker hue than the paler part of community!
+    or, if I may say, because the lot of our predecessors happened
+    to be cast in the torrid zone, beneath the scorching beams of a
+    vertical sun! These are the objections the African Colonization
+    Society offer to this community to our remaining in this
+    country--in the land of freemen! These are the considerations
+    that prompt them to tell us that we the descendants of Africa
+    can never be men unless we abandon the land of our birth, our
+    homes and people, and submit to that uncongenial clime, the
+    barbarous regions of Africa, amidst unyielding contagion and
+    mortality! O, that man would remember, that knowledge and
+    virtue, not complexion, are the emblems that constitute the
+    value of human dignity! With these, we are worthy--without them,
+    we are unworthy. By the acts and operations of wicked men,
+    shielded under a cloak of religion, we the people of color are
+    doomed to all the miseries that the human body is able to
+    sustain--deprived of light, knowledge and social intercourse, by
+    the colonization gentlemen. With all their pretended zeal and
+    love of liberty, manifested towards the African race, I count
+    them as enemies, not friends. I do not solicit their love, nor
+    regard their friendship. I speak for one: I never did, and never
+    will court an enemy as a friend, knowingly, let him be whom he
+    may--let him belong to church or state, I feel the weight of
+    their predominant power, and the finishing blow they are about
+    to strike. Thus we move by them, poor and pennyless, despised
+    and forsaken by all; creeping through your streets, submissively
+    bowed down to every foot whose skin is tinctured with a lighter
+    hue than ours--thus we sojourn in solitude, not for our crimes
+    but color.
+
+    'I came here for the purpose of showing to this community, that
+    the people of color of the United States disapprove of the
+    African Colonization plan. They do not wish to emigrate to
+    Africa. These six hundred or more, that the gentleman tells you
+    are now waiting for a passage to Liberia, are not the free
+    people of color of the United States; they are, if any, the
+    poor, old, worn-out southern slaves, freed on the condition to
+    go to Africa, or die in the tracks of slavery, no more fit for
+    their cotton and rice fields--for the laws of those states
+    forbid the master, let him be possessed of all the fine feelings
+    that the human mind is able to contain; unless he banishes them
+    to some distant region, across that "mighty ocean" they speak
+    of, they cannot be free. According to the laws of those states,
+    and the basis on which the Society is built, the emancipated
+    slaves are not free until they stand upon the shores of Liberia.
+    Thus the Northern and Middle States are called upon for
+    donations to enable the monarch of the south to bury his slaves
+    in the sands of Africa; thus far, northern capital is
+    instrumental in parting asunder parents and children--no more to
+    meet, until Jehovah will stand upon the four corners of the
+    earth, and proclaim deliverance to the captive!--when the arm of
+    tyrants shall cease to sway the rod of tyranny over the heads of
+    their helpless children--until all creation shall vanish and
+    crumble into nothing.
+
+    'About the time of the formation of this Society, the people of
+    color, in different sections of the Union, took the alarm--they
+    thought there was something wrong in the views of that combined
+    body. So, the free people of color of Richmond, convened
+    themselves together in the state of Virginia, where the
+    gentleman says the African Colonization Society first
+    originated. They assembled themselves together for the purpose
+    of ascertaining each other's feelings with regard to that
+    combined body, and after mature reflection, they petitioned
+    Congress--I will give you the words of their memorial, which are
+    sufficient evidence to substantiate in the mind of every
+    rational person, that the people of color wish to remain in this
+    country.
+
+
+    '"At a meeting of a respectable portion of the free people of
+    color of the city of Richmond, on Friday, January 24, 1817,
+    William Bowler was appointed chairman, and Lentey Craw,
+    secretary. The following preamble and resolution were read,
+    unanimously adopted, and ordered to be printed.
+
+    '"Whereas a Society has been formed at the seat of government,
+    for the purpose of colonizing, with their own consent, the free
+    people of color of the United States; therefore we, the free
+    people of color of the city of Richmond, have thought it
+    advisable to assemble together under the sanction of authority,
+    for the purpose of making a public expression of our sentiments
+    on a question in which we are so deeply interested. We perfectly
+    agree with the Society, that it is not only proper, but would
+    ultimately tend to the benefit and advantage of a great portion
+    of our suffering fellow creatures, to be colonized; but while we
+    thus express our approbation of a measure laudable in its
+    purposes, and beneficial in its designs, it may not be improper
+    in us to say, that we prefer being colonized in the most remote
+    corner of the land of our nativity, to being exiled to a foreign
+    country--and whereas the president and board of managers of the
+    said Society have been pleased to leave it to the entire
+    discretion of Congress to provide a suitable place for carrying
+    these laudable intentions into effect--Be it therefore
+
+    '"Resolved, That we respectfully submit to the wisdom of
+    Congress whether it would not be an act of charity to grant us a
+    small portion of their territory, either on the Missouri river,
+    or any place that may seem to them most conducive to the public
+    good and our future welfare, subject, however, to such rules and
+    regulations as the government of the United States may think
+    proper to adopt."
+
+                        'WM. BOWLER, Chairman.
+
+    'LENTEY CRAW, Secretary.'[AO]
+
+
+    'The _colonization craft_ is a diabolical pursuit, which a great
+    part of our christian community are engaged in. Now, brethren, I
+    need not enlarge on this point. You that have been observing,
+    have already seen the trap under the bait; and although some of
+    our population have been foolish enough to sell their birthright
+    for a mess of pottage, yet I doubt whether the Colonization
+    Society will entrap many more. It is too bare-faced, and
+    contrary to all reason, to suppose, that there is any good
+    design in this project. If they are willing to restore
+    four-fold for what they have taken by false accusation, they
+    can do it to better advantage in the bosom of our country, than
+    at several thousand miles off. How would you do, brethren, if
+    your object was really to benefit the poor? Would you send them
+    into a neighboring forest, and there deal out that food which
+    they were famishing for? Now we stand different from beggars.
+    Our ancestors were stolen property, and property which belonged
+    to God. This is well known by our religious community; and they
+    find that the owner is about to detect them. Now if they can
+    slip away the stolen goods, by smuggling all those out of the
+    country, which God would be likely to make an instrument of, in
+    bringing them to justice, and keep the rest in ignorance; by
+    such means, things would go on well with them, and they would
+    appease their consciences by telling what great things they are
+    doing for the colored population and God's cause. But we
+    understand better how it is. The deception is not so well
+    practised, but that we can discover the mark of the beast. They
+    will steal the sons of Africa, bring them to America, keep them
+    and their posterity in bondage for centuries, letting them have
+    what education they can pick up of themselves; then transport
+    them back to Africa; by which means America gets all her
+    drudgery done at little expense, and endeavors to flatter the
+    Deity, by making him a sacrifice of good works of this kind. But
+    to the awful disappointment of all such blasphemers, they will
+    meet the justice of God, which will be to them a devouring
+    sword.'[AP]
+
+
+    'Though delivered from the fetters of slavery, we are oppressed
+    by an unreasonable, unrighteous, and cruel prejudice, which aims
+    at nothing less, than the forcing away of all the free colored
+    population of the United States to the distant shores of Africa.
+    Far be it from me to impeach the motives of every member of the
+    American Colonization Society. The civilizing and christianizing
+    of that vast continent, and the extirpation of the abominable
+    traffic in slaves, (which, notwithstanding all the laws passed
+    for its suppression, is still carried on in all its horrors,)
+    are no doubt the principal motives, which induce many to give it
+    their support.
+
+    'But there are those, and those who are most active and
+    influential in this cause, who hesitate not to say, that they
+    wish to rid the country of the free colored population; and
+    there is sufficient reason to believe that with many, this is
+    the principal motive for supporting that Society; and that
+    whether Africa is civilized or not, and whether the slave-trade
+    be suppressed or not, they would wish to see the free colored
+    people removed from this country to Africa.
+
+    'Africa could certainly be brought into a state of civil and
+    religious improvement, without sending all the free people of
+    color in the United States there.
+
+    'A few well-qualified missionaries, properly fitted out and
+    supported, would do more for the instruction and improvement of
+    the natives of that country, than a host of colonists, the
+    greater part of whom would need to be instructed themselves, and
+    all of whom for a long period would find enough to do to provide
+    for themselves, instead of instructing the natives.
+
+    'How inconsistent are those who say, that Africa will be
+    benefitted by the removal of the free people of color of the
+    United States there, while they say, they are the _most vile and
+    degraded_ people in the world!--If we are as vile and degraded
+    as they represent us, and they wish the Africans to be rendered
+    a virtuous, enlightened and happy people, they should not
+    _think_ of sending _us_ among them, lest we should make them
+    worse instead of better.
+
+    'The colonies planted by white men on the shores of America, so
+    far from benefitting the aborigines, corrupted their morals, and
+    caused their ruin; and yet those who say _we_ are the most vile
+    people in the world, would send us to Africa, to improve the
+    character and condition of the natives! Such arguments would not
+    be listened to for a moment, were not the minds of the community
+    strangely warped by prejudice.
+
+    'Those who wish that that vast continent should be _compensated_
+    for the injuries done it, by sending thither the light of the
+    gospel and the arts of civilized life, should aid in sending and
+    supporting well qualified missionaries, who should be wholly
+    devoted to the work of instruction, instead of sending
+    colonists, who would be apt to turn the ignorance of the natives
+    to their own advantage, and do them more harm than good.
+
+    'Much has also been said by colonizationists, about improving
+    the character and condition of the people of color of this
+    country, by sending them to Africa. This is more inconsistent
+    still. We are to be improved by being sent far from civilized
+    society. This is a novel mode of improvement. What is there in
+    the burning sun, the arid plains, and barbarous customs of
+    Africa, that is so peculiarly favorable to our improvement? What
+    hinders our improving here, where schools and colleges abound,
+    where the gospel is preached at every corner, and where all the
+    arts and sciences are verging fast to perfection? Nothing,
+    nothing but prejudice. It requires no large expenditures, no
+    hazardous enterprises, to raise the people of color in the
+    United States to as highly improved a state, as any class of the
+    community. All that is necessary is, that those who profess to
+    be anxious for it, should lay aside their prejudices, and act
+    towards them as they do by others.
+
+    'We are NATIVES of this country; we ask only to be treated as
+    well as FOREIGNERS. Not a few of our fathers suffered and bled
+    to purchase its independence; we ask only to be treated as well
+    as those who fought against it. We have toiled to cultivate it,
+    and to raise it to its present prosperous condition; we ask only
+    to share equal privileges with those who come from distant lands
+    to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Let these moderate requests be
+    granted, and we need not go to Africa nor any where else, to be
+    improved and happy. We cannot but doubt the purity of the
+    motives of those persons who deny us these requests, and would
+    send us to Africa, to gain what they might give us at home.
+
+    'But they say, the prejudices of the country against us are
+    invincible; and as they cannot be conquered, it is better that
+    we should be removed beyond their influence. This plea should
+    never proceed from the lips of any man, who professes to believe
+    that a just God rules in the heavens.
+
+    'The American Colonization Society is a numerous and influential
+    body. Would they lay aside their _own_ prejudices, much of the
+    burden would be at once removed; and their example (especially
+    if they were as anxious to have _justice done us here_, as to
+    send us to Africa,) would have such an influence upon the
+    community at large, as would soon cause prejudice to hide its
+    deformed head.
+
+    'But alas! the course which they have pursued, has an opposite
+    tendency. By the _scandalous misrepresentations_, which they are
+    continually giving of our character and conduct, we have
+    sustained much injury, and have reason to apprehend much more.
+
+    'Without any charge of crime, we have been denied all access to
+    places, to which we formerly had the most free intercourse; the
+    colored citizens of other places, on leaving their homes, have
+    been denied the privilege of returning; and others have been
+    absolutely driven out.
+
+    'Has the Colonization Society had no effect in producing these
+    barbarous measures?
+
+    'They profess to have no other object in view, than the
+    colonizing of the free people of color on the coast of Africa,
+    with their _own consent_; but if our homes are made so
+    uncomfortable that we cannot continue in them; or if, like our
+    brethren of Ohio and New Orleans, we are driven from them, and
+    no other door is open to receive us but Africa, our removal
+    there will be any thing but voluntary.
+
+    'It is very certain, that very few free people of color _wish_
+    to go to that _land_. The Colonization Society _know_ this, and
+    yet they do certainly calculate, that in time they will have us
+    all removed there.
+
+    'How can this be effected, but by making our situation worse
+    here, and closing every other door against us?'[AQ]
+
+
+    'My attention was forcibly attracted by a communication in Mr
+    Poulson's Daily Advertiser of the 16th inst. which states, that
+    Mrs Stansbury of Trenton, N. J. has presented _one thousand
+    dollars_ to the Colonization Society. Now I think it is greatly
+    to be regretted, that this highly generous and benevolent lady
+    has been induced to make this donation for the purpose of
+    conveying some of the superannuated slaves to Africa, when
+    objects of much greater importance could be attained by offering
+    a premium to master mechanics to take colored children as
+    apprentices, so that they would become useful to themselves and
+    others. It is an inquiry becoming of the utmost importance, what
+    is to become of those children who are arriving at the age of
+    manhood?
+
+    'I am greatly astonished that the ministers of the gospel should
+    take so active a part, in endeavoring to convey the freemen of
+    color to Africa. Even in Boston and New-York, they have taken
+    the lead in support of this object. They cannot be aware of the
+    great injury they will be the means of inflicting on us: instead
+    of doing this, they should endeavor to remove prejudice, to
+    ameliorate and improve the condition of the colored people by
+    education, and by having their children placed in a situation to
+    learn a trade. I hope, through the assistance of Divine
+    Providence, that the Liberator may be the means (especially in
+    Boston, the Cradle of Liberty and Independence) of guiding the
+    people of this country in the path, which equal justice and the
+    public good so evidently indicate.
+
+    'I have never conversed with an intelligent man of color, (not
+    swayed by interested and sinister motives,) who was not
+    decidedly opposed to leaving his home for the fatal clime of
+    Africa. I am well acquainted with all the masters of vessels,
+    belonging to this port, who have been to the coast of Africa;
+    and they all agree in representing it as one of the most
+    unhealthy countries in the latitude of 40. In the months of June
+    and July, the thermometer is at from 88 to 90 degrees. What must
+    it be, then, in the latitude of 6 or 7, under a vertical sun,
+    and where, after the rainy season, the effluvium which arises
+    from the putrefaction of vegetables is productive of the most
+    fatal effects? Sir James L. Yeo agrees with their account, in
+    his statement laid before the Admiralty of Great Britain.
+
+    'Has any one, in either of our southern States, given any thing
+    like a thousand dollars to promote emigration to Africa? Not one
+    has shown so much compassion for the oppressed slave. General
+    Mercer,--who is, I believe, the President of the Colonization
+    Society,--promised to emancipate his slaves, and to sell his
+    large possessions in Virginia, and to remove with them to
+    Africa--(my friends inform me, and I believe him to be one of
+    the most humane and best of masters.) Mr Key, the great
+    advocate, and the late Judge Washington, promised to liberate
+    their slaves: I believe that neither of them has performed his
+    promise.
+
+    'According to a statement made by Mr Key, they have removed in
+    fourteen years about as many hundred emigrants. I will venture
+    to say, that at least a half million have been born during the
+    same period. We ask not their compassion and aid, in assisting
+    us to emigrate to Africa: we are contented in the land that gave
+    us birth, and for which many of our fathers fought and died,
+    during the war which established our independence. I well
+    remember that when the New England regiment marched through this
+    city on their way to attack the English army under the command
+    of Lord Cornwallis, there were several companies of colored
+    people, as brave men as ever fought; and I saw those brave
+    soldiers who fought at the battle of Red Bank, under Col. Green,
+    where Count Donop the commander was killed, and the Hessians
+    defeated. All this appears to be forgotten now; and the
+    descendants of these men, to whom we are indebted for the part
+    they took in the struggle for independence, are intended to be
+    removed to a distant and inhospitable country, while the
+    emigrants from every other country are permitted to seek an
+    asylum here from oppression, and to enjoy the blessings of both
+    civil and religious liberty, equally with those who are entitled
+    to it by birthright.
+
+    'I think the ministers of the gospel might do much towards
+    destroying the domestic slave trade, which breaks asunder the
+    sacred ties of husband, wife and children. Not a voice is
+    raised by them against this most cruel injustice. In the British
+    colonies, this is not permitted; yet it exists in the only true
+    republic on earth.'[AR]
+
+
+    '_My Friends and Countrymen_:--I trust, by this time, you have
+    known well my sentiments in relation to the American
+    Colonization Society; and the great objects, which have been set
+    forth, of a general union of interest, in funds and education,
+    for the permanent establishment and furtherance of our
+    prosperity, in this our native country.
+
+    'In addition to what has been already said on the subject, I
+    shall briefly set forth some of the leading causes of our
+    wretchedness and misery; and the prominent motives of the
+    Colonization Society in sending us away. Much theory has been
+    used, in the discussions upon our civil and political situation,
+    in this country. We have been branded, in many instances,--may I
+    not say, in the highest courts of the nation, courts of justice
+    and equity, in public and family circles?--as being an inferior
+    race of beings, not possessing like intellect and faculty with
+    the whites. We are represented as being incapable of acting for
+    ourselves; consequently not educated and qualified to be
+    admitted into public places, to vindicate the integrity of our
+    race, and the qualifications we are capable of acquiring. Many
+    of our noble statesmen, orators and lawyers, have made our
+    capital ring with the empty sound of
+    inferiority,--degradation,--the impossibility of tolerating
+    equality with the blacks. Sacred writ has been carefully
+    examined by these gentlemen of science, and construed to suit
+    their narrow consciences. Prophets have arisen among them, who
+    hold forth to the people the continuation of our political
+    thraldom, unless there be a general removal of all the free
+    among us to the coast of Africa. Others argue, that, although
+    they have good feelings towards us, and would do any thing for
+    us, if we were out of their sight and out of the hearing of
+    their slaves, yet to admit us into their circles would be to
+    pervert the present order of society, and the happiness of the
+    good white citizens of the country. These are generally bible
+    men, such as hold forth the true oracles of God; yet deny him,
+    in their actions and words, the supreme control over all his
+    creatures. There is hardly ever an action performed, whether
+    good or bad, but there is generally a reason given for so doing;
+    and he is a wicked, daring character, who cannot find a cloak,
+    at any time, to cover his hideous crimes. The men who have been
+    foremost, in withholding from us our dearest and most sacred
+    rights, have always held out false colors to the community at
+    large, (such as, inferiority, degradation, nuisance, pest,
+    slaves, species of monkey, apes, &c.) to justify their inhuman
+    and unchristian acts towards us, and to deaden the severe pangs
+    of conscience that harass them. They would wish to appear
+    innocent before the world; as doing unto all men as they would
+    they should do unto them. Do they base their objects, in full,
+    upon such frivolous excuses as these? No. The truth is, actions
+    speak louder than words. It is my candid opinion, there would
+    have been no Colonization Society formed for our transportation
+    to the western coast of Africa, had there been no free colored
+    people, and did not our numbers increase daily. If we, as a free
+    body of people, had remained in the same character with slaves,
+    monkeys and baboons, there would not have been so much
+    excitement in the community about us; but as they see by our
+    improvement, (a great improvement, indeed, within forty years,)
+    that the period is hastening on, 'when there will be no other
+    alternative but we must rank among them in civilization, science
+    and politics, they have got up this colonization scheme to
+    persuade us to leave our slave brethren, and flee to the
+    pestilential shores of Africa, where we shall be in danger of
+    being forced to hang our harps upon the willows, and our song of
+    liberty and civilization will be hushed by the impelling force
+    of barbarian despots.'[AS]
+
+
+    'And in pursuit of this great object [the elevation of the
+    people of color] various ways and means have been resorted to;
+    among others, the American Colonization Society is the most
+    prominent. Not doubting the sincerity of many friends who are
+    engaged in that cause; yet we beg leave to say, that it does not
+    meet with our approbation. However great the debt which these
+    United States may owe to injured Africa, and however unjustly
+    her sons have been made to bleed, and her daughters to drink of
+    the cup of affliction, still we who have been born and nurtured
+    on this soil, we, whose habits, manners and customs are the same
+    in common with other Americans, can never consent to take our
+    lives in our hands, and be the bearers of the redress offered by
+    that Society to that much afflicted country.
+
+    'Tell it not to barbarians, lest they refuse to be civilized,
+    and eject our Christian missionaries from among them, that in
+    the nineteenth century of the christian era, laws have been
+    enacted in some of the States of this great republic, to compel
+    an unprotected and harmless portion of our brethren to leave
+    their homes and seek an asylum in foreign climes: and in taking
+    a view of the unhappy situation of many of these, whom the
+    oppressive laws alluded to, continually crowd into the Atlantic
+    cities, dependent for their support upon their daily labor, and
+    who often suffer for want of employment, we have had to lament
+    that no means have yet been devised for their relief.'[AT]
+
+
+    'The Convention has not been unmindful of the operations of the
+    American Colonization Society; and it would respectfully suggest
+    to that august body of learning, talent and worth, that, in our
+    humble opinion, strengthened, too, by the opinions of eminent
+    men in this country, as well as in Europe, that they are
+    pursuing the direct road to perpetuate slavery, with all its
+    unchristianlike concomitants, in this boasted land of freedom;
+    and, as citizens and men whose best blood is sapped to gain
+    popularity for that Institution, we would, in the most feeling
+    manner, beg of them to desist: or, if we must be sacrificed to
+    their philanthropy, we would rather die at home. Many of our
+    fathers, and some of us, have fought and bled for the liberty,
+    independence and peace which you now enjoy; and, surely, it
+    would be ungenerous and unfeeling in you to deny us a humble and
+    quiet grave in that country which gave us birth!'[AU]
+
+
+    'Sir, upon the whole, my view of the operations of the
+    Colonization Society, in relieving the slave States of the evil
+    which weighs them down more than a hundred tariffs, is
+    illustrated by an old fable, in which it is stated, that a man
+    was seen at the foot of a mountain, scraping away the dust with
+    his foot. One passing by, asked him what he was doing? I wish to
+    remove this mountain, said he. You fool, replied the other, you
+    can never do it in that way. Well, said he, I can raise a dust,
+    can't I?
+
+    'Sir, I do not wish to censure the motives of this Society, but
+    surely they are visionary. Its supporters are bewildered in
+    their own dust, which is well calculated to injure the vision of
+    good men. The Commercial Advertiser says they do indeed wish to
+    wipe away from the national records the stain of slavery, "but
+    hope it may be accomplished (as the Virginia Enquirer has it)
+    surely but quietly." Yes, Sir, and quietly enough!
+
+    'Our ambition leads not to superiority, but to our _freedom_ and
+    _political rights_. _Grant this!_ we ask no more! If the places
+    in which we dwell are too straight for us and the white
+    population, place us in a state far to the West--take us
+    into the Union--give us our _rights_ as _freemen_. Let the
+    southern states make all born after a date not two years
+    distant, free! and let the Colonization Society turn its
+    attention and energies to the removing of liberated slaves
+    there: the free people will go without their aid. But if the
+    Government is fearful of retaliation, it may allay its fears by
+    a consideration of the fact of there not being one freeman
+    engaged in the late insurrections--of freemen informing against
+    slaves--the peaceable manner in which we live in the
+    neighborhoods of the south, and throughout the whole Union. The
+    meetings that have lately been held, and resolutions passed
+    expressive of our disapprobation of such measures, may all show
+    that such fears are groundless. I repeat again--_Give us our
+    rights--we ask no more!_
+
+    'Yes, Sir, if I possessed the Indies, I would pledge the whole
+    that if such measures were taken, and such grants made, no
+    retaliation would be made by us as a body for former evils.'[AV]
+
+
+    'In no age of our existence have there been more pains taken by
+    priests and people, in public and private, in church and state,
+    to give them currency, than at present. The whole theme of that
+    wicked, persecuting combination--the Colonization Society--is
+    calculated to impress upon the mind of the public these
+    atrocious maxims which every day strengthen a prejudice not only
+    cherished by the whites against the blacks, but by the blacks
+    against the whites. That foul fiend of hell, that destroying
+    angel who hath power to take peace from the earth, and to kill
+    with the sword, is gaining a commanding influence very fast over
+    both parties. And who, but the advocates of the Colonization
+    Society, receive him as a welcome guest? Who but they have built
+    him a temple, and cried, "Long live Prejudice against free born
+    Americans of sable hue!" Who but they are continually crying,
+    "The free blacks are dangerous! the free blacks are dangerous!
+    Away with them--away with them to Africa!" Who but they are the
+    apologists for murder, theft, and all the horrid concomitants of
+    slavery? Who but they have defiled our temples of worship
+    dedicated to God for his service, making merchandise of the
+    souls of men by transferring them over to the keeping of
+    prejudice?'[AW]
+
+
+Other extracts might be recorded, but these must suffice. I have given
+the sentiments of the people of color as expressed individually, in
+public orations, in conventions of delegates, and in popular assemblies.
+Their proceedings evince a keen discrimination between true and false
+philanthropy, and an intellectual ability successfully to defend their
+cause. Their instincts are more than a match for the specious sophistry
+and learned sense of colonizationists: they meet them on every point,
+and on every point achieve a victory. Conscious of the fact that in
+their complexion is found the only motive for their banishment, they
+clearly illustrate the hypocrisy and injustice of the African crusade.
+Their union of purpose is such as cannot be broken. How intense is their
+love of country! how remarkable their patient endurance of wrongs! how
+strong their abhorrence of expatriation! how auspicious the talents
+which they display!
+
+Every humane and honorable man will assent to the proposition, that no
+scheme for the removal of a numerous people from one continent to
+another, ought to be prosecuted contrary to their desires. A scheme
+cannot be benevolent which thrives upon persecution. Benevolent
+oppression is a solecism.
+
+Another self-evident truth is, that no such removal can be effected
+merely by the presentation of selfish inducements, or without resorting
+to coercive measures. To show that coercion is openly advocated by some
+of the prominent supporters of the Colonization Society, I make the
+following extracts from the speeches of Messrs Broadnax and Fisher,
+delivered during the 'Great Debate' in the Virginia House of Delegates a
+short time since. Mr Broadnax said:
+
+    'IT IS IDLE TO TALK ABOUT NOT RESORTING TO FORCE. Every body
+    must look to the introduction of force of some kind or
+    other--and it is in truth a question of expediency; of moral
+    justice; of political good faith--whether we shall fairly
+    delineate our whole system on the face of the bill, or leave the
+    acquisition of extorted consent to other processes. The real
+    question--the only question of magnitude to be settled, is the
+    great preliminary question--Do you intend to send the free
+    persons of color out of Virginia, or not?'
+
+    'If the free negroes are willing to go, they will go--if not
+    willing, they must be compelled to go. Some gentlemen think it
+    politic not now to insert this feature in the bill, though they
+    proclaim their readiness to resort to it when it becomes
+    necessary; they think that for a year or two a sufficient number
+    will consent to go, and then the rest can be compelled. For my
+    part, I deem it better to approach the question and settle it at
+    once, and avow it openly. The intelligent portion of the free
+    negroes know very well what is going on.--Will they not see your
+    debates? _Will they not see that coercion is ultimately to be
+    resorted to?_ They will perceive that the edict has gone forth,
+    and that it must fall, if not now, in a short time upon them.'
+
+    'I have already expressed it as my opinion that few, very few,
+    will _voluntarily_ consent to emigrate, if no COMPULSORY MEASURE
+    be adopted.--With it--many, in anticipation of its sure and
+    certain arrival, will, in the mean time, go away--they will be
+    sensible that the time would come when they would be forced to
+    leave the State. Without it--you will still, no doubt, have
+    applicants for removal equal to your means. Yes, Sir, people who
+    will not only consent, but beg you to deport them. But what sort
+    of _consent_--a consent extorted by a series of oppression
+    calculated to render their situation among us insupportable.
+    Many of those who have already been sent off, went with _their
+    avowed consent_, but under the influence of a more decided
+    compulsion than any which this bill holds out. I will not
+    express, in its full extent, the idea I entertain of what has
+    been done, or what enormities will be perpetrated to induce this
+    class of persons to leave the State. Who does not know that when
+    a free negro, by crime or otherwise, has rendered himself
+    obnoxious to a neighborhood, how easy it is for a party to visit
+    him one night, take him from his bed and family, and apply to
+    him the gentle admonition of a severe flagellation, to induce
+    him to _consent_ to go away? In a few nights the dose can be
+    repeated, perhaps increased, until, in the language of the
+    physicians, _quantum suff._ has been administered to produce the
+    desired operation; and the fellow then becomes _perfectly
+    willing_ to move away. I have certainly heard, if incorrectly,
+    the gentleman from Southampton will put me right, that of the
+    large cargo of emigrants lately transported from that country to
+    Liberia, all of whom _professed_ to be _willing_ to go, were
+    rendered so by some such severe ministrations as those I have
+    described. A lynch club--a committee of vigilance--could easily
+    exercise a kind of inquisitorial _surveillance_ over any
+    neighborhood, and convert any desired number, I have no doubt,
+    at any time, into a willingness to be removed. But who really
+    prefers such means as these to the course proposed in this bill?
+    And one or the other is inevitable. For no matter how you change
+    this bill--sooner or later the free negroes will be _forced_ to
+    leave the State. Indeed, Sir, ALL OF US LOOK TO FORCE of some
+    kind or other, direct or indirect, moral or physical, legal or
+    illegal. Many who are opposed, they say, to any compulsory
+    feature in the bill, desire to introduce such severe regulations
+    into our police laws--such restrictions of their existing
+    privileges--such inability to hold property--obtain
+    employment--rent residences, &c., as to make it impossible for
+    them to remain amongst us. _Is not this force?_'
+
+Mr Fisher said:
+
+    'If we wait until the free negroes consent to leave the State,
+    we shall wait until "time is no more." _They never will give
+    their consent_; and if the House amend the bill as proposed,
+    their consent is in a manner pointed out by the gentleman from
+    Dinwiddie--and it is a great question whether we shall force the
+    people to extort their consent from them in this way.--He
+    believed if the compulsory principle were stricken out, this
+    class of people would be forced to leave by the harsh treatment
+    of the whites. The people in those parts of the State where they
+    most abound, were determined,--as far as they could learn
+    through the newspapers and other sources,--to get rid of the
+    blacks.'
+
+What a revelation, what a confession, is here! The free blacks taken
+from their beds, and severely flagellated, to make them willing to
+emigrate! And legislative compulsion openly advocated to accomplish this
+nefarious project! Yes, the gentlemen say truly, 'few, very few will
+_voluntarily_ consent to emigrate'--'they never will give their
+consent'--and therefore they must be expelled by force! It is true, the
+bill proposed by Mr Broadnax was rejected by a small majority; but it
+serves to illustrate the spirit of the colonization leaders.
+
+The editor of the Lynchburg Virginian, an advocate of the Society, uses
+the following language:
+
+    'But, if they will not consider for themselves, WE _must
+    consider for them_. The safety of the people is the supreme law;
+    and to that law all minor considerations must bend. If the free
+    negroes will not emigrate, _they must be contented to endure
+    those privations which the public interest and safety call
+    for_.--In the last Richmond Enquirer we notice an advertisement,
+    setting forth, that "a petition will be presented to the next
+    legislature of Virginia, from the county of Westmoreland,
+    praying the passage of some law to _compel_ the free negroes in
+    this commonwealth to emigrate therefrom, under a penalty which
+    will effectually promote this object." So, too, at a meeting of
+    the citizens of Prince George county, in Maryland, it was
+    resolved to "petition the next legislature to remove all the
+    free negroes out of that State, and to prohibit all persons from
+    manumitting slaves without making provision for their removal."'
+
+I close this work with a specimen of the sophistry which is used to give
+_eclat_ to the American Colonization Society.
+
+In the month of June, 1830, I happened to peruse a number of the
+Southern Religious Telegraph, in which I found an essay, enforcing the
+duty of clergymen to take up collections in aid of the funds of the
+Colonization Society on the then approaching fourth of July. After an
+appropriate introductory paragraph, the writer proceeds in the following
+remarkable strain:
+
+    'But--we have a plea like a peace offering to man and to God. We
+    answer poor blinded Africa in her complaint--that we have her
+    children, and that they have served on our plantations. And we
+    tell her, look at their returning! We took them barbarous,
+    though measurably free,--untaught--rude--without
+    science--without the true religion--without philosophy--and
+    strangers to the best civil governments. And now we return them
+    to her bosom, _with the mechanical arts_ ... _with science_ ...
+    _with philosophy_ ... with civilization ... with republican
+    feelings ... and above all, with the true knowledge of the true
+    God, and the way of salvation through the Redeemer.'
+
+'The mechanical arts!'--with whom did they serve an apprenticeship?
+'With philosophy!'--in what colleges were they taught? It is strange
+that we should be so anxious to get rid of these scientific men of
+color--these philosophers--these republicans--these christians, and that
+we should shun their company as if they were afflicted with the
+hydrophobia, or carried a deadly pestilence in their train! Certainly,
+they _must_ have singular notions of the christian religion which
+tolerates--or, rather, which is so perverted as to tolerate--the
+oppression of God's rational creatures by its professors! They must feel
+a peculiar kind of brotherly love for those _good men_ who banded
+together to remove them to Africa, because they were too proud to
+associate familiarly with men of a sable complexion! But the writer
+proceeds:
+
+    'We tell her, look at the little colony on her shores. We tell
+    her, look to the consequences that must flow to all her borders
+    from religion, and science, and knowledge, and civilization, and
+    republican government! And then we ask her--_is not one ship
+    load of emigrants returning with these multiplied blessings,
+    worth more to her than a million of her barbarous sons?_'
+
+So! every ship load of ignorant and helpless emigrants is to more than
+compensate Africa for every million of her children who have been
+kidnapped, buried in the ocean and on the land, tortured with savage
+cruelty, and held in perpetual servitude! Truly, this is a compendious
+method of balancing accounts. In the sight of God, of Africa, and of the
+world, we are consequently blameless--and rather praiseworthy--for our
+past transgressions. It is such sophistry as is contained in the
+foregoing extract, that kindles my indignation into a blaze. I abhor
+cant--I abhor hypocrisy--and if some of the advocates of the
+Colonization Society do not deal largely in both, I am unable to
+comprehend the meaning of these terms.
+
+Of the whole number of individuals constituting the officers of the
+Society, nearly three-fourths, I believe, _are the owners of slaves_, or
+interested in slave property; not one of whom, to my knowledge, has
+emancipated any of his slaves to be sent to Liberia!! The President of
+the Society, (CHARLES CARROLL,) owns, I have understood, nearly _one
+thousand slaves_! And yet he is lauded, beyond measure, as a patriot, a
+philanthropist, and a christian! The former President, (Judge BUSHROD
+WASHINGTON,) so far from breaking the fetters of his slaves, actually
+while holding his office offered a large reward for a runaway female
+slave, to any person who would secure her by putting her into any jail
+within the United States! What a mockery it is for such persons to
+profess to deplore the existence of slavery, or to denounce the foreign
+slave trade! for they neither cease from their own oppressive acts, nor
+act much more honestly than the slave dealers--the latter stealing those
+who are born on the coast of Africa, and the former those who are born
+in this country!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[AE] John Neal.
+
+[AF] _Vide_ the Fourth Volume of the Genius of Universal Emancipation
+for 1829.
+
+[AG] Alexander H. Everett, Esq. vide his work entitled 'America, or a
+General Survey,' &c. &c. pp. 212, 225.
+
+[AH] Genius of Universal Emancipation for November 27, 1829.
+
+[AI] Genius of Universal Emancipation, January 29, 1830.
+
+[AJ] 'The Liberator' for January 22, 1832.
+
+[AK] 'A Colored Philadelphian'--vide 'The Liberator' for Feb. 12, 1831.
+
+[AL] Correspondent of 'The Liberator,' Feb. 26, 1831.
+
+[AM] Correspondent of 'The Liberator,' March 12, 1831.
+
+[AN] 'African Sentinel,' Oct. 8, 1831, printed at Albany.
+
+[AO] Extracts from 'An Address to the Gentlemen and Ladies of the County
+of Otsego, N. Y., delivered on the 30th September, 1830, by Hayden
+Waters, a man of color.' The proceedings of the colored inhabitants of
+Virginia, incorporated into this Address, are those referred to on page
+8 as having been accidentally mislaid.
+
+[AP] 'Address delivered before the colored population of Providence, R.
+I., November 27, 1828, by Rev. Hosea Easton.'
+
+[AQ] 'A Discourse delivered in St. Philip's Church, for the benefit of
+the colored community of Wilberforce, in Upper Canada, on the Fourth of
+July, 1830. By Rev. Peter Williams, Rector of St. Philip's Church,
+New-York.' Mr Williams is a clergyman of superior talents and great
+moral worth, and beloved by an extensive circle of acquaintance.
+
+[AR] From the pen of the Colored Gentleman in Philadelphia, referred to
+on page 58--vide 'The Liberator,' March 12, 1831.
+
+[AS] 'Address delivered before a Colored Association in Brooklyn, N. Y.,
+August 5, 1831,' by George Hogarth. Vide 'The Liberator' for August 27,
+1831.
+
+[AT] Conventional Address of the People of Color in Philadelphia, in
+1830.
+
+[AU] 'Minutes and Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of the
+People of Color, held by adjournment in the city of Philadelphia, in
+June, 1831.'
+
+[AV] 'Philadelphia Evangelist'--vide 'The Liberator' for November 26,
+1831.
+
+[AW] Correspondent of 'The Liberator,' December 17, 1831.
+
+
+END OF PART II.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thoughts on African Colonization, by 
+William Lloyd Garrison
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thoughts on African Colonization, by 
+William Lloyd Garrison
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+Title: Thoughts on African Colonization
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+Author: William Lloyd Garrison
+
+Release Date: February 4, 2010 [EBook #31178]
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+Language: English
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+
+<h1><span style="font-size: larger">THOUGHTS ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION</span></h1>
+<div class="tnote">
+Detailed Transcriber's Notes are included at the <a href="#Transcribers_Notes">end</a> of this eBook.
+Corrections to typographical errors are underlined <ins class="mycorr" title="Original: like thsi">like this</ins>. Mouse over to view the original text.
+</div>
+
+<h3>Table of Contents</h3>
+<table id="TOC" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr><td class="indent1">PREFACE</td><td style="text-align:right;"><a href="#PREFACE">xix</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><br />PART I.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent1">INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.</td><td style="text-align:right;"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent1">SECTION I.</td><td style="text-align:right;"><a href="#SECTION_I">39</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent2">THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS PLEDGED NOT TO OPPOSE THE SYSTEM OF SLAVERY.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent1">SECTION II.</td><td style="text-align:right;"><a href="#SECTION_II">61</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent2">THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY APOLOGISES FOR SLAVERY AND SLAVEHOLDERS.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent1">SECTION III.</td><td style="text-align:right;"><a href="#SECTION_III">68</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent2">THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY RECOGNISES SLAVES AS PROPERTY.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent1">SECTION IV.</td><td style="text-align:right;"><a href="#SECTION_IV">74</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent2">THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY INCREASES THE VALUE OF SLAVES.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent1">SECTION V.</td><td style="text-align:right;"><a href="#SECTION_V">78</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent2">THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE ENEMY OF IMMEDIATE ABOLITION.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent1">SECTION VI.</td><td style="text-align:right;"><a href="#SECTION_VI">95</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent2">THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS NOURISHED BY FEAR AND SELFISHNESS.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent1">SECTION VII.</td><td style="text-align:right;"><a href="#SECTION_VII">111</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent2">THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY AIMS AT THE UTTER EXPULSION OF THE BLACKS.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent1">SECTION VIII.</td><td style="text-align:right;"><a href="#SECTION_VIII">124</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent2">THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE DISPARAGER OF THE FREE BLACKS.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent1">SECTION IX.</td><td style="text-align:right;"><a href="#SECTION_IX">134</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent2">THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY DENIES THE POSSIBILITY OF ELEVATING THE BLACKS IN THIS COUNTRY.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent1">SECTION X.</td><td style="text-align:right;"><a href="#SECTION_X">151</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent2">THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY DECEIVES AND MISLEADS THE NATION.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><br />PART II.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="indent1">SENTIMENTS OF THE PEOPLE OF COLOR.</td><td style="text-align:right;"><a href="#pt2-Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h1><span style="font-size: larger">THOUGHTS</span>
+<br /><br /><span style="font-size: smaller">ON</span>
+<br /><br />AFRICAN COLONIZATION<br /><br />
+</h1>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="caption">SECTION OF A SLAVE SHIP.</span>
+<img src="images/005.png" width="600" height="352"
+  alt="SECTION OF A SLAVE SHIP. From Walsh's Notes of Brazil."
+  title="SECTION OF A SLAVE SHIP. From Walsh's Notes of Brazil." />
+<span class="caption"><i>From Walsh's Notes of Brazil.</i></span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[Pg xix]</a></span></div>
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">I dedicate</span> this work to my countrymen, in whose intelligence,
+magnanimity and humanity I place the utmost reliance. Although they have
+long suffered themselves to be swayed by a prejudice as unmanly as it is
+wicked, and have departed widely from the golden rule of the gospel, in
+their treatment of the people of color, to suppose that they will always
+be the despisers and persecutors of this unfortunate class is, in my
+opinion, to libel their character. A change in their feelings and
+sentiments is already visible&mdash;a change which promises, ere long, to
+redeem their character from the bloody stains which slavery has cast
+upon it, and to release the prisoner from his chains. May they be
+ashamed to persist in a mean and thievish course of conduct, and afraid
+to quarrel with the workmanship of God! May a righteous indignation be
+kindled in their breasts against a combination which is holding them up,
+for the scorn and contempt of other nations, as incorrigible oppressors,
+whom neither self-respect, nor the opinions of mankind, nor the fear of
+God, can bring to repentance! Their duty is plain, and it may easily be
+done. Slavery must be overthrown either by their own moral strength, or
+by the physical strength of the slaves. Let them imitate the example of
+the people of <i>Great Britain</i>, by seeking the immediate overthrow of the
+horrid system. Let a National Anti-Slavery Society be immediately
+organized, the object of which shall be, to quicken and consolidate the
+moral influence of the nation, so that Congress and the State
+Legislatures may be burdened with petitions for the removal of the
+evil&mdash;to scatter tracts, like rain-drops, over the land, on the subject
+of slavery&mdash;to employ active and eloquent agents to plead the cause
+incessantly, and to form auxiliary societies&mdash;to encourage planters to
+cultivate their lands by freemen, by offering large premiums; to promote
+education and the mechanical arts among the free people of color, and to
+recover their lost rights. Religious professors, of all denominations,
+must bear unqualified testimony against slavery. They must not support,
+they must not palliate it. No slaveholder ought to be embraced within
+the pale of a christian church; consequently, the churches must be
+purified 'as by fire.' Slavery in the District of Columbia is sustained
+in our national capacity: it ought, therefore, to be prostrated at a
+blow. The clause in the Constitution should be erased, which tolerates,
+greatly to the detriment and injustice of the non-slaveholding States, a
+slave representation in Congress. Why should property be represented at
+the impoverished south, and not at the opulent north?</p>
+
+<p>To impair the force of this exposition, the ardent advocates of the
+Colonization Society will undoubtedly attempt to evade the ground of
+controversy, and lead uncautious minds astray in a labyrinth of
+sophistry. But the question is not, whether the climate of Africa is
+salubrious, nor whether the mortality among the emigrants has been
+excessive, nor whether the colony is in a prosperous condition, nor
+whether the transportation of our whole colored population can be
+effected in thirty years or three centuries, nor whether any slaves have
+been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[Pg xx]</a></span>emancipated on condition of banishment; but whether the doctrines
+and principles of the Society accord with the doctrines and principles
+of the gospel, whether slaveholders are the just proprietors of their
+slaves, whether it is not the sacred duty of the nation to abolish the
+system of slavery now, and to recognise the people of color as brethren
+and countrymen who have been unjustly treated and covered with unmerited
+shame. <i>This is the question&mdash;and the only question.</i></p>
+
+<p>With such a mass of evidence before them, of the pernicious, cruel and
+delusive character of the American Colonization Society, I leave the
+patriot, the philanthropist and the christian to judge of the fitness of
+the following inflated and presumptuous assertions of its
+advocates:&mdash;'The plan is of heavenly origin, against which the gates of
+hell shall never prevail'&mdash;'a circle of philanthropy, every segment of
+which tells and testifies to the beneficence of the whole'&mdash;'addressing
+its claims alike to the patriot, and the christian, it being
+emphatically the cause of liberty, of humanity, of religion'<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a>&mdash;'so
+full of benevolence and the hallowed impulses of Heaven's own mercy,
+that one might, with the propriety of truth, compare its radiant
+influences to a rainbow, insufferably bright, spanning the sombre clouds
+of human wrong, that have accumulated on the horizon of our country's
+prosperity, and beating back, with calm and heavenly power, the
+blackening storm that always threatens, in growling thunders, a heavy
+retribution'<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a>&mdash;'that citizen of the United States who lifts a finger
+to retard this institution, nay, that man who does not use his
+persevering efforts to promote its benevolent object, fails, in our
+opinion, to discharge his duty to his God and his
+country'<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a><a name="FNanchor_1_5" id="FNanchor_1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_5" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>&mdash;'nothing but a distinct knowledge and a calm
+consideration of the facts in the case, is wanting to make every man of
+common intelligence, common patriotism, and common humanity, the earnest
+friend of the Colonization Society'!!<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a></p>
+
+<p>There is one important consideration, which, owing to the contractedness
+of my limits, I have omitted to enforce in this work. It is this: the
+serious injury which our interests must inevitably suffer by the removal
+of our colored population. Their labor is indispensably necessary and
+extremely valuable. By whom shall the plantations at the south be
+cultivated but by them? It is universally conceded that they can resist
+the intensity of a southern sun, and endure the fatigues attendant on
+the cultivation of rice, cotton, tobacco and sugar-cane, better than
+white laborers: at least, their bodies are now inured to this
+employment. I do not believe that any equivalent would induce the
+planters to part with their services, or white laborers to occupy their
+places. In the great cities, and in various parts of the southern
+States, free persons of color constitute a laborious and useful class.
+In a pecuniary point of view, the banishment of one-sixth of our
+population,&mdash;of those whom we specially need,&mdash;would be an act of
+suicide. The veriest smatterer in political economy cannot but perceive
+the ruinous tendency of such a measure.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> African Repository.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Rev. Mr Maffit's 'Plea for Africa.'</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> Western Luminary.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> Christian Spectator.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_5" id="Footnote_1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_5"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The clerical gentleman who presumes to utter this opinion
+is the same who has also the hardihood to assert that 'many of the best
+citizens of our land are holders of slaves, and hold them <i>in strict
+accordance with the principles of humanity and justice</i>'!!</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></div>
+<h1><span style="font-size: larger">THOUGHTS</span>
+<br /><span style="font-size: smaller">ON</span>
+<br />AFRICAN COLONIZATION.<br /></h1>
+
+<h2>PART I.</h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> attacking the system of slavery, I clearly foresaw all that has
+happened to me. I knew, at the commencement, that my motives would be
+impeached, my warnings ridiculed, my person persecuted, my sanity
+doubted, my life jeoparded: but the clank of the prisoner's chains broke
+upon my ear&mdash;it entered deeply into my soul&mdash;I looked up to Heaven for
+strength to sustain me in the perilous work of emancipation&mdash;and my
+resolution was taken.</p>
+
+<p>In opposing the American Colonization Society, I have also counted the
+cost, and as clearly foreseen the formidable opposition which will be
+arrayed against me. Many of the clergy are enlisted in its support:
+their influence is powerful. Men of wealth and elevated station are
+among its contributors: wealth and station are almost omnipotent. The
+press has been seduced into its support: the press is a potent engine.
+Moreover, the Society is artfully based upon and defended by <i>popular
+prejudice</i>: it takes advantage of wicked and preposterous opinions, and
+hence its success. These things grieve, they cannot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> deter me. 'Truth is
+mighty, and will prevail.' It is able to make falsehood blush, and tear
+from hypocrisy its mask, and annihilate prejudice, and overthrow
+persecution, and break every fetter.</p>
+
+<p>I am constrained to declare, with the utmost sincerity, that I look upon
+the colonization scheme as inadequate in its design, injurious in its
+operation, and contrary to sound principle; and the more scrupulously I
+examine its pretensions, the stronger is my conviction of its
+sinfulness. Nay, were Jehovah to speak in an audible voice from his holy
+habitation, I am persuaded that his language would be, 'Who hath
+required this at your hands?'</p>
+
+<p>It consoles me to believe that no man, who knows me personally or by
+reputation, will suspect the honesty of my skepticism. If I were
+politic, and intent only on my own preferment or pecuniary interest, I
+should swim with the strong tide of public sentiment instead of
+breasting its powerful influence. The hazard is too great, the labor too
+burdensome, the remuneration too uncertain, the contest too unequal, to
+induce a selfish adventurer to assail a combination so formidable.
+Disinterested opposition and sincere conviction, however, are not
+conclusive proofs of individual rectitude; for a man may very honestly
+do mischief, and not be aware of his error. Indeed, it is in this light
+I view many of the friends of African colonization. I concede to them
+benevolence of purpose and expansiveness of heart; but in my opinion,
+they are laboring under the same delusion as that which swayed Saul of
+Tarsus&mdash;persecuting the blacks even unto a strange country, and verily
+believing that they are doing God service. I blame them, nevertheless,
+for taking this mighty scheme upon trust; for not perceiving and
+rejecting the monstrous doctrines avowed by the master spirits in the
+crusade; and for feeling so indifferent to the moral, political and
+social advancement of the free people of color in this their only
+legitimate home.</p>
+
+<p>In the progress of this discussion I shall have occasion to use very
+plain, and sometimes very severe language. This would be an unpleasant
+task, did not duty imperiously demand its application. To give offence I
+am loath, but more to hide or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> modify the truth. I shall deal with the
+Society in its collective form&mdash;as one body&mdash;and not with individuals.
+While I shall be necessitated to marshal individual opinions in review,
+I protest, <i>ab origine</i>, against the supposition that indiscriminate
+censure is intended, or that every friend of the Society cherishes
+similar views. He to whom my reprehension does not apply, will not
+receive it. It is obviously impossible, in attacking a numerous and
+multiform combination, to exhibit private dissimilarities, or in every
+instance to discriminate between the various shades of opinion. It is
+sufficient that exceptions are made. My warfare is against the <span class="smcap">American
+Colonization Society</span>. If I shall identify its general, preponderating
+and clearly developed traits, it must stand or fall as they shall prove
+benevolent or selfish.</p>
+
+<p>I bring to this momentous investigation an unbiassed mind, a lively
+sense of accountability to God, and devout aspirations for the guidance
+of the Holy Spirit. Unless He 'in whom there is no darkness at all,'
+pours light upon my path, I shall go astray. I have taken Him at His
+word: 'If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given
+him.' Confessing my own foolishness, I have sought that knowledge which
+cannot err.</p>
+
+<p>I would premise, that, like many others, I formerly supposed the
+Colonization Society was a praiseworthy association, although I always
+doubted its efficiency. This opinion was formed for me by others, upon
+whom I placed implicit confidence: it certainly was not based upon any
+research or knowledge of my own, as I had not at that time perused a
+single Report of the Society, nor a page in its organ, the African
+Repository. My approval was the offspring of credulity and ignorance. I
+am explicit on this point, because my opponents have accused me of
+inconsistency&mdash;though it ought not surely to disgrace a man, that,
+discovering himself to be in error, he promptly turns to the embrace of
+truth. As if opinions, once formed, must be as irrevocable as the laws
+of the Medes and Persians! If this were so, accountability would lose
+its hold on the conscience, and the light of knowledge be blown out, and
+reason degenerate into brutish instinct. Much stress has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> laid upon
+the fact, that, in 1828, I delivered an address in Park-street
+meeting-house on the Fourth of July, on which occasion a collection was
+made in behalf of the American Colonization Society. It is true&mdash;but
+whereas I was then blind, now I see. My address, however, was far from
+being acceptable to the friends of colonization who were present, not
+only on account of my denunciation of slaveholders, but because I
+inserted only a single sentence in favor of the Society. In all my
+writings, I have never commended this combination in as many sentences
+as I have used in making this explanation. So much for my marvellous
+apostacy!</p>
+
+<p>It is only about two years since I was induced to examine the claims of
+the Colonization Society upon the patronage and confidence of the
+nation. I went to this examination with a mind biassed by preconceived
+opinions favorable to the Society, and rather for the purpose of
+defending it against opposition than of bringing it into disrepute.
+Every thing, apart from its principles, was calculated to secure my
+friendship. Nothing but its revolting features could have induced me to
+turn loathingly away from its embrace. I had some little reputation to
+sustain; many of my friends were colonizationists; I saw that eminent
+statesmen and honorable men were enlisted in the enterprise; the great
+body of the clergy gave their unqualified support to it; every fourth of
+July the charities of the nation were secured in its behalf; wherever I
+turned my eye in the free States, I saw nothing but unanimity; wherever
+my ear caught a sound, I heard nothing but excessive panegyric. No
+individual had ventured to blow the trumpet of alarm, or exert his
+energies to counteract the influence of the scheme. If an assailant had
+occasionally appeared, he had either fired a random shot and retreated,
+or found in the inefficiency of the Society the only cause for
+hostility. It was at this crisis, and with such an array of motives
+before me to bias my judgment, that I resolved to make a close and
+candid examination of the subject.</p>
+
+<p>I went, first of all, to the fountain head&mdash;to the African Repository
+and the Reports of the Society. I was not long in discovering sentiments
+which seemed to me as abhorrent to humanity as contrary to reason. I
+perused page after page, first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> with perplexity, then with astonishment,
+and finally with indignation. I found little else than sinful
+palliations, fatal concessions, vain expectations, exaggerated
+statements, unfriendly representations, glaring contradictions, naked
+terrors, deceptive assurances, unrelenting prejudices, and unchristian
+denunciations. I collected together the publications of auxiliary
+societies, in order to discern some redeeming traits; but I found them
+marred and disfigured with the same disgusting details. I courted the
+acquaintance of eminent colonizationists, that I might learn how far
+their private sentiments agreed with those which were so offensive in
+print; and I found no dissimilarity between them. I listened to
+discourses from the pulpit in favor of the Society; and the same moral
+obliquities were seen in minister and people.</p>
+
+<p>These discoveries affected my mind so deeply that I could not rest. I
+endeavored to explain away the meaning of plain and obvious language; I
+made liberal concessions for good motives and unsuspicious confidence; I
+resorted to many expedients to vindicate the disinterested benevolence
+of the Society; but I could not rest. The sun in its mid-day splendor
+was not more clear and palpable to my vision, than the anti-christian
+and anti-republican character of this association. It was evident to me
+that the great mass of its supporters at the north did not realise its
+dangerous tendency. They were told that it was designed to effect the
+ultimate emancipation of the slaves&mdash;to improve the condition of the
+free people of color&mdash;to abolish the foreign slave trade&mdash;to reclaim and
+evangelize benighted Africa&mdash;and various other marvels. Anxious to do
+something for the colored population&mdash;they knew not what&mdash;and having no
+other plan presented to their view, they eagerly embraced a scheme which
+was so big with promise, and which required of them nothing but a small
+contribution annually. Perceiving the fatality of this delusion, I was
+urged by an irresistible impulse to attempt its removal. I could not
+turn a deaf ear to the cries of the slaves, nor throw off the
+obligations which my Creator had fastened upon me. Yet in view of the
+inequalities of the contest, of the obstacles which towered like
+mountains in my path, and of my own littleness, I trembled, and
+exclaimed in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> the language of Jeremiah,&mdash;'Ah, Lord God! behold I cannot
+speak: for I am a child.' But I was immediately strengthened by these
+interrogations: 'Is any thing too hard for the Lord?' Is Error, though
+unwittingly supported by a host of good men, stronger than Truth? Are
+Right and Wrong convertible terms, dependant upon popular opinion? Oh
+no! Then I will go forward in the strength of the Lord of Hosts&mdash;in the
+name of Truth&mdash;and under the banner of Right. As it is not by might nor
+by power, but by the Spirit of God, that great moral changes are
+effected, I am encouraged to fight valiantly in this good cause,
+believing that I shall 'come off conqueror, and more than
+conqueror'&mdash;yet not I, but Truth and Justice. It is in such a contest
+that one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.
+'The Lord disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands
+cannot perform their enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own
+craftiness; and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.'
+'Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of
+God is stronger than men.'</p>
+
+<p>Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions and practices of
+notoriously wicked men; but to rebuke great and good men for their
+conduct, and to impeach their discernment, is the highest effort of
+moral courage. The great mass of mankind shun the labor and
+responsibility of forming opinions for themselves. The question is
+not&mdash;what is true? but&mdash;what is popular? Not&mdash;what does God say?
+but&mdash;what says the public? Not&mdash;what is my opinion? but&mdash;what do others
+believe? If people would pin their faith upon the bible, and not upon
+the sleeves of their neighbors, half of the heresies in the world would
+instantly disappear. If they would use their own eyes, their own ears,
+their own understandings, instead of the eyes, and ears, and
+understandings of others, imbecility, credulity and folly would be as
+rare as they are now common in community. But, unhappily, to borrow the
+words of Ganganelli, a large majority of mankind are 'mere abortions:'
+calling themselves rational and intelligent beings, they act as if they
+had neither brains nor conscience, and as if there were no God, no
+accountability, no heaven, no hell, no eternity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'My minister,' says one, 'is a most worthy man. He supports this
+Society: therefore it is a good institution.' 'Christians of all
+denominations are enlisted in this enterprise,' says another: 'therefore
+it cannot be wrong.' 'Do you think,' says a third, 'that honest, godly
+men would countenance a scheme which is not really benevolent?' But it
+is unwise for beings, who are accountable only to God, to reason in this
+manner. All the good men upon earth cannot make persecution benevolence,
+nor injustice equity; and until they become infallible, implicit
+reliance upon their judgment is criminal. Ministers and christians, a
+few years since, were engaged in the use and sale of ardent spirits;
+<i>but they were all wrong</i>, and they now acknowledge their error. At the
+present day, a large proportion of the professed disciples of the Prince
+of Peace maintain the lawfulness of defensive war, and the right of the
+oppressed to fight and kill for liberty; but they hold this sentiment in
+direct opposition to the precepts of their Leader&mdash;'I say unto you which
+hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that
+curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.' Surely 'the
+time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.'</p>
+
+<p>I must pause, for a moment, and count the number of those with whom I am
+about to conflict. If I had to encounter only men-stealers and
+slaveholders, victory would be easy; but it is not the south alone that
+is to be subdued. The whole nation is against me. Church after church is
+to be converted, and the powerful influence of the clergy broken. The
+friendship of good men is to be turned into enmity, and their support
+into opposition. It is my task to change their admiration into
+abhorrence; to convince them that their well-meant exertions have been
+misdirected, and productive of greater evil than good; and to induce
+them to abandon an institution to which they now fondly cling.</p>
+
+<p>To those who neither fear God nor regard man&mdash;who have sworn eternal
+animosity to their colored countrymen, and whose cry is, 'Away with
+them, we do not want them here!'&mdash;I make no appeal. Disregarding as they
+do that divine command, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,' it
+would be idle for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> me to direct my arguments to them. I address myself
+to high-minded and honorable men, whose heads and hearts are susceptible
+to the force of sound logic. I appeal to those, who have been redeemed
+from the bondage of sin by the precious blood of Christ, and with whom I
+hope to unite in a better world in ascribing glory, and honor, and
+praise to the Great Deliverer for ever. If I can succeed in gaining
+their attention, I feel sure of convincing their understandings and
+securing their support.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the overwhelming odds which are opposed to me, I labor under
+other very serious disadvantages. My efforts in the cause of
+emancipation have been received as if they were intended to bring chaos
+back again, and to give the land up to pillage and its inhabitants to
+slaughter. My calls for an alteration in the feelings and practices of
+the people toward the blacks have been regarded as requiring a sacrifice
+of all the rules of propriety, and as seeking an overthrow of the
+established laws of nature! I have been thrust into prison, and amerced
+in a heavy fine. Epithets, huge and unseemly, have been showered upon me
+without mercy. I have been branded as a fanatic, a madman, a disturber
+of the peace, an incendiary, a cutthroat, a monster, &amp;c. &amp;c. &amp;c.
+Assassination has been threatened me in a multitude of anonymous
+letters. Private and public rewards to a very large amount, by
+combinations of individuals and by legislative bodies at the south, have
+been offered to any persons who shall abduct or destroy me. 'Yea, mine
+own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath
+lifted up his heel against me.' This malignity of opposition and
+proximity of danger, however, are like oil to the fire of my zeal. I am
+not deliriously enthusiastic&mdash;I do not covet to be a martyr; but I had
+rather die a thousand deaths, than witness the horrible oppression under
+which more than two millions of my countrymen groan, <i>and be silent</i>. No
+reproaches, no dangers shall deter me. At the north or the south, at the
+east or the west,&mdash;wherever Providence may call me,&mdash;my voice shall be
+heard in behalf of the perishing slave, and against the claims of his
+oppressor. Mine is the frank avowal of the excellent <span class="smcap">Wilberforce</span>:&mdash;I can
+admit of no compromise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> when the commands of equity and philanthropy are
+so imperious. I wash my hands of the blood that may be spilled. I
+protest against the system, as the most flagrant violation of every
+principle of justice and humanity. <span class="smcap">I never will desert the cause.</span> In my
+task it is impossible to tire: it fills my mind with complacency and
+peace. At night I lie down with composure, and rise to it in the morning
+with alacrity. <span class="smcap">I never will desist from this blessed work.</span></p>
+
+<p>Now that the concentrated execration of the civilized world is poured
+upon those who engage in the foreign slave trade, how mild and
+inefficient, comparatively speaking, seem to have been the rebukes of
+Pitt, and Fox, and Wilberforce, and Clarkson! Yet these rebukes were
+once deemed fanatical and outrageous by good men&mdash;yea, like flames of
+fire, threatening a universal conflagration! So the denunciations which
+I am now hurling against slavery and its abettors,&mdash;which seem to many
+so violent and unmerited,&mdash;will be considered moderate, pertinent and
+just, when this murderous, soul-destroying system shall have been
+overthrown.</p>
+
+<p>Fanaticism has been the crime alleged against reformers in all ages.
+'These,' it was said of the apostles, 'that have turned the world upside
+down, come hither also.' Luther was a madman in his day: what is he now
+in the estimation of the friends of civil and religious liberty? One of</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Those starry lights of virtue, that diffuse<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Through the dark depths of time their vivid flame.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>That base and desperate men should thus stigmatize those who endure the
+cross as good soldiers, and walk as pilgrims and strangers here, is not
+wonderful; but that the professed followers of Jesus Christ should join
+in this hue-and-cry is lamentable. Singular enough, I have been almost
+as cruelly aspersed by ministers of the gospel and church members, as by
+any other class of men. Unacquainted with me, and ignorant of my
+sentiments, they have readily believed the accusations of my enemies.
+The introduction of my name into conversation has elicited from them
+contemptuous sneers or strong denunciations. I have a right to complain
+of this treatment, and I do strongly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> protest against it as unchristian,
+hurtful and ungenerous. To prejudge and condemn an individual, on vague
+and apocryphal rumors, without listening to his defence or examining
+evidence, is tyranny. Perhaps I am in error&mdash;perhaps I deserve
+unqualified condemnation; but I am at least entitled to a privilege
+which is granted to the vilest criminals, namely, the privilege of a
+fair trial. I ask nothing more. To accuse me of heresy, madness and
+sedition, is one thing; to substantiate the accusation, another.</p>
+
+<p>Should this work chance to fall into the hands of those who have thus
+ignorantly reprobated my course, I appeal to their sense of rectitude
+whether they are not bound to give it a candid and deliberate perusal;
+and if they shall find in my writings nothing contrary to the immutable
+principles of justice, whether they ought not to be as strenuous in my
+defence as they have been hitherto in seeking my overthrow.</p>
+
+<p>To show that I do not vacate any pledge which I have given to the
+public, I shall here insert all the specifications, which, from time to
+time, I have brought against the American Colonization Society. In 'The
+Liberator' of April 23, 1831, is the following serious compend:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'I am prepared to show, that those who have entered into this
+<span class="smcap">CONSPIRACY AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS</span> are unanimous in abusing their
+victims; unanimous in their mode of attack; unanimous in
+proclaiming the absurdity, that our free blacks are natives of
+Africa; unanimous in propagating the libel, that they cannot be
+elevated and improved in this country; unanimous in opposing
+their instruction; unanimous in exciting the prejudices of the
+people against them; unanimous in apologising for the crime of
+slavery; unanimous in conceding the right of the planters to
+hold their slaves in a limited bondage; unanimous in their
+hollow pretence for colonizing, namely, to evangelize Africa;
+unanimous in their <i>true motive</i> for the measure&mdash;a terror lest
+the blacks should rise to avenge their accumulated wrongs. It is
+a conspiracy to send the free people of color to Africa under a
+benevolent pretence, but really that the slaves may be held more
+securely in bondage. It is a conspiracy based upon fear,
+oppression and falsehood, which draws its aliment from the
+prejudices of the people, which is sustained by duplicity, which
+really upholds the slave system, which fascinates while it
+destroys, which endangers the safety and happiness of the
+country, which no precept of the bible can justify, which is
+implacable in its spirit, which should be annihilated at a blow.</p>
+
+<p>'These are my accusations; and if I do not substantiate them, I
+am willing to be covered with reproach.'</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The following is copied from an editorial article of July 9, 1831:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'The superstructure of the Colonization Society rests upon the
+following pillars:</p>
+
+<p>'1st. <i>Persecution.</i> It declares that the whole colored
+population must be removed to Africa; but as the free portion
+are almost <i>unanimously</i> opposed to a removal, it seems to be
+the determination of the Society to make their situations so
+uncomfortable and degraded here, as to compel them to migrate:
+consequently it discourages their education and improvement in
+this their native home. This is persecution.</p>
+
+<p>'2d. <i>Falsehood.</i> It stigmatises our colored citizens as being
+natives of Africa, and talks of sending them to their native
+land; when they are no more related to Africa than we are to
+Great Britain.</p>
+
+<p>'3d. <i>Cowardice.</i> It avows as a prominent reason why colored
+citizens ought to be removed, that their continuance among us
+will be dangerous to us as a people! This is a libel upon their
+character. Instead of demanding justice for this oppressed
+class, the Society calls for their removal!</p>
+
+<p>'4th. <i>Infidelity.</i> It boldly denies that there is power enough
+in the gospel to melt down the prejudices of men, and insists,
+that, so long as the people of color remain among us, <i>we must
+be their enemies!</i>&mdash;Every honest man should abhor the doctrine.'</p></div>
+
+<p>In 'The Liberator' of July 30, 1831, alluding to the present work, I
+used the following language:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'I shall be willing to stake my reputation upon it for honesty,
+prudence, benevolence, truth and sagacity. If I do not prove the
+Colonization Society to be a creature without heart, without
+brains, eyeless, unnatural, hypocritical, relentless, unjust,
+then nothing is capable of demonstration&mdash;then let me be covered
+with confusion of face.'</p></div>
+
+<p>The following paragraph is extracted from 'The Liberator' of November
+19, 1831:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'It is the enemy of immediate restitution to the slaves; it
+courts and receives the approbation of notorious slave owners;
+it deprecates any interference with slave property; it
+discourages the improvement of the colored population, except
+they are removed to the shores of Africa; it is lulling the
+country into a fatal sleep, pretending to be something when it
+is nothing; it is utterly chimerical, as well as intolerant, in
+its design; it serves to increase the value of the slaves, and
+to make brisk the foreign and domestic slave trade; it nourishes
+and justifies the most cruel prejudices against color; it sneers
+at those who advocate the bestowal of equal rights upon our
+colored countrymen; it contends for an indefinite, dilatory,
+far-off emancipation; it expressly declares that it is more
+humane to keep the slaves in chains, than to give them freedom
+in this country! In short, it is the most compendious and best
+adapted scheme to uphold the slave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> system that human ingenuity
+can invent. Moreover, it is utterly and irreconcileably opposed
+to the wishes and sentiments of the great body of the free
+people of color, repeatedly expressed in the most public manner,
+but cruelly disregarded by it.'</p></div>
+
+<p>The following passages are taken from my Address to the People of Color,
+delivered in various places in June, 1831:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Let me briefly examine the doctrines of colonizationists. They
+generally agree in publishing the misstatement, that you are
+strangers and foreigners. Surely they know better. They know,
+that, as a body, you are no more natives of Africa, than they
+themselves are natives of Great Britain. Yet they repeat the
+absurd charge; and they do so, in order to cover their
+anti-republican crusade. But suppose you were foreigners: would
+such an accident justify this persecution and removal? And, if
+so, then all foreigners must come under the same ban, and must
+prepare to depart. There would be, in that case, a most alarming
+deduction from our population. Suppose a philanthropic and
+religious crusade were got up against the Dutch, the French, the
+Swiss, the Irish, among us, to remove them to New Holland, to
+enlighten and civilize her cannibals? Who would not laugh at the
+scheme&mdash;who would not actively oppose it? Would any one blame
+the above classes for steadfastly resisting it? Just so, then,
+in regard to African colonization. But our colored population
+are not aliens; they were born on our soil; they are bone of our
+bone, and flesh of our flesh; their fathers fought bravely to
+achieve our independence during the revolutionary war, without
+immediate or subsequent compensation; they spilt their blood
+freely during the last war; they are entitled, in fact, to every
+inch of our southern, and much of our western territory, having
+worn themselves out in its cultivation, and received nothing but
+wounds and bruises in return. Are these the men to stigmatize as
+foreigners?</p>
+
+<p>'Colonizationists generally agree in asserting that the people
+of color cannot be elevated in this country, nor be admitted to
+equal privileges with the whites. Is not this a libel upon
+humanity and justice&mdash;a libel upon republicanism&mdash;a libel upon
+the Declaration of Independence&mdash;a libel upon christianity? "All
+men are born equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain
+inalienable rights&mdash;among which are life, liberty, and the
+pursuit of happiness." What is the meaning of that declaration?
+That <i>all</i> men possess these rights&mdash;whether they are six feet
+five inches high, or three feet two and a half&mdash;whether they
+weigh three hundred or one hundred pounds&mdash;whether they parade
+in broadcloth or flutter in rags&mdash;whether their skins are jet
+black or lily white&mdash;whether their hair is straight or woolly,
+auburn or red, black or gray&mdash;does it not? We, who are present,
+differ from each other in our looks, in our color, in height,
+and in bulk; we have all shades, and aspects, and sizes. Now,
+would it not be anti-republican and anti-christian for us to
+quarrel about sitting on this seat or that, because this man's
+complexion is too dark, or that man's looks are too ugly? and to
+put others out of the house, because they happen to be ignorant,
+or poor, or helpless? To commit this violence would be evidently
+wrong: then to do it in a large assemblage&mdash;in a community, in a
+state, or in a nation, it is equally un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>just. But is not this
+the colonization principle? Who are the individuals that
+applaud, that justify, that advocate this exclusion? Who are
+they that venture to tell the American people, that they have
+neither honesty enough, nor patriotism enough, nor morality
+enough, nor religion enough, to treat their colored brethren as
+countrymen and citizens? Some of them&mdash;I am sorry to say&mdash;are
+professedly ministers of the gospel; others are christian
+professors; others are judges and lawyers; others are our
+Senators and Representatives; others are editors of newspapers.
+These ministers and christians dishonor the gospel which they
+profess; these judges and lawyers are the men spoken of by the
+Saviour, who bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and
+lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move
+them with one of their fingers. These Senators and
+Representatives ought not to receive the suffrages of the
+people. These editors are unworthy of public patronage.</p>
+
+<p>'Colonizationists too generally agree in discouraging your
+instruction and elevation at home. They pretend that ignorance
+is bliss; and therefore 'tis folly to be wise. They pretend that
+knowledge is a dangerous thing in the head of a colored man;
+they pretend that you have no ambition; they pretend that you
+have no brains; in fine, they pretend a thousand other absurd
+things&mdash;they are a combination of pretences. What tyranny is
+this! Shutting up the human intellect&mdash;binding with chains the
+inward man&mdash;and perpetuating ignorance. May we not address them
+in the language of Christ? "Wo unto you, scribes and pharisees,
+hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men:
+for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are
+entering to go in! Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin,
+and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment,
+mercy and faith."</p>
+
+<p>'Colonizationists generally agree in apologising for the crime
+of slavery. They get behind the contemptible subterfuge, that it
+was entailed upon the planters. As if the continuance of the
+horrid system were not criminal! as if the robberies of another
+generation justify the robberies of the present! as if the
+slaves had not an inalienable right to freedom! as if slavery
+were not an individual as well as a national crime! as if the
+tearing asunder families, limb from limb,&mdash;branding the flesh
+with red hot irons,&mdash;mangling the body with whips and
+knives,&mdash;feeding it on husks and clothing it with
+rags,&mdash;crushing the intellect and destroying the soul,&mdash;as if
+such inconceivable cruelty were not chargeable to those who
+inflict it!</p>
+
+<p>'As to the effect of colonization upon slavery, it is rather
+favorable than injurious to the system. Now and then, indeed,
+there is a great flourish of trumpets, and glowing accounts of
+the willingness of planters to emancipate their slaves on
+condition of transportation to Africa. Now and then a slave is
+actually manumitted and removed, and the incident is dwelt upon
+for months. Why, my friends, hundreds of worn-out slaves are
+annually turned off to die, like old horses. No doubt their
+masters will thank the Colonization Society, or any one else, to
+send them out of the country; especially as they will gain much
+glorification in the newspapers, for their <i>disinterested</i>
+sacrifices. Let no man be deceived by these man&oelig;uvres.</p>
+
+<p>'My time is consumed&mdash;and yet I have scarcely entered upon the
+threshold of my argument. Now, what a spectacle is presented to
+the world!&mdash;the Amer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>ican people, boasting of their free and
+equal rights&mdash;of their abhorrence of aristocratical
+distinctions&mdash;of their republican equality; proclaiming on every
+wind, "that all men are born <i>equal</i>, and endowed with certain
+inalienable <i>rights</i>," and that this land is an asylum for the
+persecuted of all nations; and yet as loudly proclaiming that
+they are determined to deprive millions of their own countrymen
+of every political and social right, and to send them to a
+barbarous continent, because the Creator has given them a sable
+complexion. Where exists a more rigorous despotism? What
+conspiracy was ever more cruel? What hypocrisy and
+tergiversation so enormous? The story is proclaimed in our
+pulpits, in our state and national assemblies, in courts of law,
+in religious and secular periodicals,&mdash;among all parties, and in
+all quarters of the country,&mdash;that there is a <i>moral incapacity</i>
+in the people to do justly, love mercy, and to walk
+uprightly&mdash;that they must always be the enemies and oppressors
+of the colored people&mdash;that no love of liberty, no dictate of
+duty, no precept of republicanism, no dread of retribution, no
+claim of right, no injunction of the gospel, can possibly
+persuade them to do unto their colored countrymen, as they would
+that they should do unto them in a reversal of circumstances.
+Now, to these promulgators of unrighteousness, with the
+Declaration of Independence in one hand, and the Bible in the
+other, I fearlessly give battle. Rich and mighty and numerous as
+they are, by the help of the Lord I will put them to open shame.
+They shall not libel me, they shall not libel my country, with
+impunity. They shall not make our boasted republicanism a
+by-word and a hissing among all nations, nor sink the christian
+religion below heathen idolatry; and if they persist in
+publishing their scandalous proclamations, they shall be
+labelled as the enemies of their species and of the republic,
+and treated accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>'The Colonization Society, therefore, instead of being a
+philanthropic and religious institution, is anti-republican and
+anti-christian in its tendency. Its pretences are false, its
+doctrines odious, its means contemptible. If we are to send away
+the colored population because they are profligate and vicious,
+what sort of missionaries will they make? Why not send away the
+vicious among the whites, for the same reason and the same
+purpose? If ignorance be a crime, where shall we begin to
+select? How much must a man know to save him from
+transportation? How white must he be? If we send away a mixed
+breed, how many will be left? If foreigners only, then the
+people of color must remain&mdash;for they are our countrymen. Would
+foreigners submit? No&mdash;not for an instant. Why should the
+American people make this enormous expenditure of life and
+money? Why not use the funds of the Society to instruct and
+elevate our colored population at home? This would be rational
+and serviceable. Instead of removing men from a land of
+civilization and knowledge&mdash;of schools, and seminaries, and
+colleges&mdash;to give them instruction in a land of darkness and
+desolation&mdash;would it not be wiser and better to reverse the
+case, and bring the ignorant here for cultivation?'</p></div>
+
+<p>The foregoing accusations are grave, weighty, positive&mdash;involving a
+perilous responsibility, and requiring ample and irrefragable proof.
+They are expressed in vehement terms: but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> to measure the propriety of
+language, we must first examine the character of the system, or the
+nature of the object, against which it is directed. If we see a person
+wilfully abusing the goods of an individual, we may reprehend him, but
+with comparative mildness. If we see him maiming, or in any way
+maltreating another man's cattle, we may increase the severity of our
+rebuke. But if we see him violating all the social and sacred relations
+of life,&mdash;daily defrauding a number of his fellow creatures of the
+fruits of their toil, calling them his property, selling them for money,
+lacerating their bodies, and ruining their souls,&mdash;we may use the
+strongest terms of moral indignation. Nor is plain and vehement
+denunciation of crime inconsistent with the most benevolent feelings
+towards the perpetrators of it. We are sustained in these positions by
+the example of Christ, and the apostles, and the prophets, and the
+reformers.</p>
+
+<p>So, also, if there be an institution, the direct tendency of which is to
+perpetuate slavery, to encourage persecution, and to invigorate
+prejudice,&mdash;although many of its supporters may be actuated by pure
+motives,&mdash;it ought to receive unqualified condemnation.</p>
+
+<p>It is proper to call things by their right names. What does the law term
+him who steals your pocket-book, or breaks into your dwelling, or strips
+you on the highway? A robber! Is the charge inflammatory or unjust? or
+will it please the villain? The abuse of language is seen only in its
+misapplication. Those who object to the strength of my denunciation must
+prove its perversion before they accuse me of injustice.</p>
+
+<p>Probably I may be interrogated by individuals,&mdash;'Why do you object to a
+colony in Africa? Are you not willing people should choose their own
+places of residence? And if the blacks are willing to remove, why throw
+obstacles in their path or deprecate their withdrawal? All go
+<i>voluntarily</i>: of what, then, do you complain? Is not the colony at
+Liberia in a flourishing condition, and expanding beyond the most
+sanguine expectations of its founders?'</p>
+
+<p>Pertinent questions deserve pertinent answers. I say, then, in reply,
+that I do not object to a colony, <i>in the abstract</i>&mdash;to use the popular
+phraseology of the day. In other words, I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> entirely willing men
+should be as free as the birds in choosing the time when, the mode how,
+and the place where they shall migrate. The power of locomotion was
+given to be used at will; as beings of intelligence and enterprise,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'The world is all before them, where to choose<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The emigration from New-England to the far West is constant and large.
+Almost every city, town or village suffers annually by the departure of
+some of its adventurous inhabitants. Companies have been formed to go
+and possess the Oregon territory&mdash;an enterprise hazardous and
+unpromising in the extreme. The old States are distributing their
+population over the whole continent, with unexampled fruitfulness and
+liberality. But why this restless, roving, unsatisfied disposition? Is
+it because those who cherish it are treated as the offscouring of all
+flesh, in the place of their birth? or because they do not possess equal
+rights and privileges with other citizens? or because they are the
+victims of incorrigible hate and prejudice? or because they are told
+that they must choose between exilement and perpetual degradation? or
+because the density of population renders it impossible for them to
+obtain preferment and competence here? or because they are estranged by
+oppression and scorn? or because they cherish no attachment to their
+native soil, to the scenes of their childhood and youth, or to the
+institutions of government? or because they consider themselves as
+dwellers in a strange land, and feel a burning desire, a feverish
+longing to return home? No. They lie under no odious disabilities,
+whether imposed by public opinion or by legislative power; to them the
+path of preferment is wide open; they sustain a solid and honorable
+reputation; they not only can rise, but have risen, and may soar still
+higher, to responsible stations and affluent circumstances; no calamity
+afflicts, no burden depresses, no reproach excludes, no despondency
+enfeebles them; and they love the spot of their nativity almost to
+idolatry. The air of heaven is not freer or more buoyant than they.
+Theirs is a spirit of curiosity and adventurous enterprise, impelled by
+no malignant influences, but by the spontaneous promptings of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> the mind.
+Far different is the case of our colored population. Their <i>voluntary</i>
+banishment is <i>compulsory</i>&mdash;they are <i>forced</i> to turn <i>volunteers</i>, as
+will be shown in other parts of this work.</p>
+
+<p>The following proposition is self-evident: The success of an enterprise
+furnishes no proof that it is in accordance with justice, or that it
+meets the approbation of God, or that it ought to be prosecuted to its
+consummation, or that it is the fruit of disinterested benevolence.</p>
+
+<p>I do not doubt that the Colony at Liberia, by a prodigal expenditure of
+life and money, will ultimately flourish; but a good result would no
+more hallow that persecution which is seeking to drag the blacks away,
+than it would if we should burn every distillery, and shut up in prison
+every vender of ardent spirits, in order to do good and to prevent
+people from becoming drunkards. Because Jehovah overrules evil for good,
+shall we therefore continue to do evil?</p>
+
+<p>If ten thousand white mechanics, farmers, merchants, &amp;c. &amp;c. were to
+emigrate to Africa, does any man doubt whether permanent good would
+result from the enterprise&mdash;good to that benighted continent, which
+would counterbalance all the sacrifices and sufferings attending it? And
+yet is there a single mechanic, farmer or merchant, who feels it to be
+his duty, or would be willing to go? Suppose the people of color should
+get the power into their hands to-morrow, and should argue that the
+whites must not be admitted to equal privileges with themselves; but
+that, having so long plundered Africa, and oppressed her children,
+justice demanded that they should be sent to that desolate land to build
+up colonies, and carry the light of civilization and knowledge, as a
+sort of reparation&mdash;and that, having superior instruction in literature
+and science, they were peculiarly qualified for such a mission&mdash;how
+would this doctrine relish? 'It is a poor rule that will not work both
+ways,' says the proverb. Yet this logic would be more sound than is our
+own with regard to the colonization of the blacks.</p>
+
+<p>On this point, deception is practised to a great extent. The advocates
+of the Colonization Society are constantly aiming to divert public
+attention from the only proper subject of inquiry, namely, 'Is it based
+upon benevolence and justice?'&mdash;to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> success of the colony. Granting
+all that they assert, it proves nothing; but of this success I shall
+have occasion, doubtless, to speak hereafter. Fine stories are trumpeted
+all over the country, of the happiness, intelligence, industry, virtue,
+enterprise and dignity of the colonists; and changes, absolutely
+miraculous, are gravely recorded for the admiration and credulity of
+community. 'The simple,' says Solomon, 'believeth every word: but the
+prudent man looketh well to his going.'</p>
+
+<p>The doctrine, that the 'end sanctifies the means,' belongs, I trust,
+exclusively to the creed of the Jesuits. If I were sure that the Society
+would accomplish the entire regeneration of Africa by its present
+measures, my detestation of its principles would not abate one jot, nor
+would I bestow upon it the smallest modicum of praise. Never shall the
+fruits of the mercy and overruling providence of God,&mdash;ever bringing
+good out of evil and light out of darkness,&mdash;be ascribed to the
+prejudice and sin of man.</p>
+
+<p>It is certain that many a poor native African has been led to embrace
+the gospel, in consequence of his transportation to our shores, who else
+had lived and died a heathen. Is the slave trade therefore a blessing?
+Suppose one of those wretches who are engaged in this nefarious commerce
+were brought before the Supreme Court, and being convicted, should be
+asked by the Judge, whether he had aught to say why sentence of death
+should not be pronounced upon him? And suppose the culprit should espy
+some of his sable victims in court, whom he knew had made a profession
+of faith, and he should boldly reply&mdash;'May it please your Honor, I
+abducted these people away from their homes, it is true; but they were
+poor, miserable, benighted idolators, and must have inevitably remained
+as such unto the hour of their death, if I had not brought them to this
+land of christianity and bibles, where they have been taught a knowledge
+of the true God, and are now rejoicing in hope of a glorious
+immortality. I therefore offer as a conclusive reason why sentence
+should not be pronounced, <i>that I have rescued souls from perdition</i>,
+and thus enlarged the company of the saints in light.' Would the villain
+be acquitted, and, instead of a halter, receive the panegyric of the
+Court for his conduct?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Our pilgrim fathers, not being able to worship God according to the
+dictates of their own consciences in the mother country, were compelled
+by ecclesiastical despotism to seek a refuge in this rude and barbarous
+continent. Wonderful have been the fruits of their expulsion! A mighty
+republic established&mdash;the freest, the wisest, the most religious on
+earth!&mdash;influencing the world by its example, and exciting the emulation
+of all nations! Now suppose we should occasionally find in the pages of
+the Edinburgh or Quarterly Review, or in the columns of the English
+newspapers, not only a full justification of this oppressive treatment
+in view of its astonishing consequences, but a claim to approbation on
+account of its exercise. Would not such effrontery amaze us? Would not
+an honest indignation burn within us? Should we look with a more
+complacent aspect upon the bigots who kindled those fires of persecution
+around the Puritans, which, but for the interposition of Heaven, had
+consumed them to ashes?</p>
+
+<p>The death of our Lord Jesus Christ was essential to the salvation of the
+world. Suppose Judas, at the judgment day, should build upon this fact
+in extenuation of his dreadful crime. What would be the decision of the
+assembled universe? Yea, what was the condemnation passed upon him by
+the Illustrious Sufferer? 'Wo to that man by whom the Son of man is
+betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born!'</p>
+
+<p>Let not, then, any imaginary or real prosperity of the settlement at
+Liberia lead any individual to applaud the Colonization Society,
+reckless whether it be actuated by mistaken philanthropy, or perverted
+generosity, or selfish policy, or unchristian prejudice.</p>
+
+<p>I should oppose this Society, even were its doctrines harmless. It
+imperatively and effectually seals up the lips of a vast number of
+influential and pious men, who, for fear of giving offence to those
+slaveholders with whom they associate, and thereby leading to a
+dissolution of the compact, dare not expose the flagrant enormities of
+the system of slavery, nor denounce the crime of holding human beings in
+bondage. They dare not lead to the onset against the forces of tyranny;
+and if <i>they</i> shrink from the conflict, how shall the victory be won? I
+do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> not mean to aver, that, in their sermons, or addresses, or private
+conversations, they never allude to the subject of slavery; for they do
+so frequently, or at least every Fourth of July. But my complaint is,
+that they content themselves with representing slavery as an evil,&mdash;a
+misfortune,&mdash;a calamity which has been entailed upon us by former
+generations,&mdash;<i>and not as an individual</i> <span class="smcap">CRIME</span>, embracing in its folds
+robbery, cruelty, oppression and piracy. <i>They do not identify the
+criminals</i>; they make no direct, pungent, earnest appeal to the
+consciences of men-stealers; by consenting to walk arm-in-arm with them,
+they virtually agree to abstain from all offensive remarks, and to aim
+entirely at the expulsion of the free people of color; their lugubrious
+exclamations, and solemn animadversions, and reproachful reflections,
+are altogether indefinite; they 'go about, and about, and all the way
+round to nothing;' they generalize, they shoot into the air, they do not
+disturb the repose nor wound the complacency of the sinner; 'they have
+put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed
+difference between the unclean and the clean.' Thus has free inquiry
+been suppressed, and a universal fear created, and the tongue of the
+boldest silenced, and the sleep of death fastened upon the nation.
+'Truth has fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter.' The plague
+is raging with unwonted fatality; but no <i>cordon sanitaire</i> is
+established&mdash;no adequate remedy sought. The tide of moral death is
+constantly rising and widening; but no efforts are made to stay its
+desolating career. The fire of God's indignation is kindling against us,
+and thick darkness covers the heavens, and the hour of retribution is at
+hand; but we are obstinate in our transgression, we refuse to repent, we
+impiously throw the burden of our guilt upon our predecessors, we affect
+resignation to our <i>unfortunate</i> lot, we descant upon the mysterious
+dispensations of Providence, we deem ourselves objects of God's
+compassion rather than of his displeasure. 'Shall I not visit for these
+things? saith the Lord. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as
+this?'</p>
+
+<p>Were the American Colonization Society bending its energies directly to
+the immediate abolition of slavery; seeking to enlighten and consolidate
+public opinion, on this momentous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> subject; faithfully exposing the
+awful guilt of the owners of slaves; manfully contending for the
+bestowal of equal rights upon our free colored population in this their
+native land; assiduously endeavoring to uproot the prejudices of
+society; and holding no fellowship with oppressors; my opposition to it
+would cease. It might continue to bestow its charities upon those who
+should desire to seek another country, and at the same time launch its
+thunders against the system of oppression. But, alas! it looks to the
+banishment of the free people of color as the only means to abolish
+slavery, and conciliate the feelings of the planters.</p>
+
+<p>The popularity of the Society is not attributable to its merits, but
+exclusively to its congeniality with those unchristian prejudices which
+have so long been cherished against a sable complexion. It is agreeable
+to slaveholders, because it is striving to remove a class of persons who
+they fear may stir up their slaves to rebellion; all who avow undying
+hostility to the people of color are in favor of it; all who shrink from
+acknowledging them as brethren and friends, or who make them a distinct
+and inferior caste, or who deny the possibility of elevating them in the
+scale of improvement here, most heartily embrace it. Having ample funds,
+it has been able to circulate its specious appeals in every part of the
+country; and to employ active and eloquent agents, who have glowingly
+described to the people the immense advantages to be reaped from the
+accomplishment of its designs. With this entire preoccupancy of the
+ground, and these common though unworthy dispositions in its favor, the
+wonder is, that it is not more popular.</p>
+
+<p>Much cleverness is not requisite to tell a fine story; and a fine story
+is always agreeable to a credulous listener. An agent of the Society
+goes into a place, and finds no difficulty in procuring a pulpit from
+which to address a congregation. The benevolent pastor, who, perhaps,
+has had neither time nor opportunity to examine the principles of the
+Society, readily officiates on the occasion, and, in the fulness of his
+heart, believing that he is not asking amiss, supplicates the
+benediction of Heaven upon the object of the meeting. This co-operation
+of the pastor with the agent makes an impression decidedly fa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>vorable to
+the latter upon the minds of the audience, and prepares them to receive
+his statements with confidence. He first dwells upon the miserable
+condition of Africa&mdash;desolated with civil wars&mdash;the prey of
+kidnappers&mdash;given up to idolatry&mdash;full of intellectual darkness and
+spiritual death&mdash;and bleeding at every pore. He next depicts the horrors
+of the slave trade, and shows how inefficient have been the laws enacted
+for its suppression. He finally expatiates upon the evils and dangers of
+slavery; and is particularly minute in describing the degradation of the
+free people of color, which he declares to be irreclaimable in this land
+of gospel light. 'Now, my christian brethren and friends,' he continues,
+'the object of the American Colonization Society is to stay the effusion
+of blood, to give light to them who sit in darkness, and to make
+reparation for the wrongs which have been inflicted upon the sable sons
+of Africa. As the people of color must evidently be a distinct and
+degraded class while they reside in this country, and as they are
+threatened with universal proscription, the Society benevolently
+proposes to send them back <i>to their native country</i>, by their own
+<i>voluntary</i> consent, together with those slaves who may be emancipated
+for this purpose, where they may enjoy equal rights and privileges, nor
+longer retain any sense of inferiority to the whites. Every emigrant
+will go as a missionary to reclaim the poor natives from their
+barbarism, and to spread the tidings of salvation throughout the African
+continent. By forming a chain of colonies along the coast, a speedy
+check will be given to the accursed slave trade,&mdash;a trade which cannot
+be destroyed in any other manner. Who does not desire to see Africa
+civilized and evangelized? Whose heart does not leap in view of the
+suppression of the slave trade? Who does not pray for deliverance from
+the evils of slavery? Who does not wish to behold the free people of
+color,&mdash;cursed with ineffectual freedom here,&mdash;<i>recalled from their
+banishment</i>, and placed where no obstacles will impede their march to
+affluence, preferment and honor? The Colonization Society, then,
+powerfully commends itself to the christian, the philanthropist and the
+patriot&mdash;to every section of our country and to all denominations of
+men.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Exquisite! The picture is crowded with attractions, delightful to the
+eye. The story is skilfully told, and implicitly believed; but, like
+every other story, it has two sides to it. So complete is the delusion,
+however, that many good people are ready to class those who denounce the
+Colonization Society, among the opposers of foreign missions, bible and
+tract societies, and the other benevolent operations of the age!</p>
+
+<p>Far be it from me to accuse the agents of the Society of intentionally
+perverting the truth or deliberately imposing upon the credulity of the
+public. Some&mdash;perhaps all of them, are men of sincerity and probity;
+but, deluded themselves, they help to delude others. Their vision is
+imperfect; and 'if the blind lead the blind,' we may expect to find them
+in the same ditch together.</p>
+
+<p>Great complacency has been manifested on various occasions, by the
+advocates of the Society, on the ground that it was at first suspected
+of sinister designs, both at the north and the south, but is now
+receiving the countenance of both. This exultation is premature. The
+opposition formerly manifested to the Society by the holders of slaves,
+grew out of their ignorance of its purpose; but a very large majority of
+them now perceive that it is their devoted servant, crouching down at
+their feet, shielding them from reproach, dragging those away whom they
+dread, allowing them to sin with impunity, and generously granting them
+and their children whole centuries in which to repent, and to surrender
+what they have stolen! It dissuades them from emancipating their slaves
+faster than they can be transported to Africa; and thus regards their
+persistance in robbery and oppression as evidence of wisdom, benevolence
+and sanity! It is natural, that, discovering their mistake, they should
+now rally in a body around the Society; and, consequently, we find that
+the legislatures of the several slaveholding States are passing
+encomiums upon it, and in some instances appropriating sums of money to
+be paid over to it by instalments.</p>
+
+<p>The people of the north have been shamefully duped by this scheme; but,
+like the slaveholders, they begin to discover their error. Unlike them,
+however, they are withdrawing their sup<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>port, in obedience to the
+injunction of the Apostle: 'Be ye not unequally yoked together with
+unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with
+unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what
+concord hath Christ with Belial? Wherefore come out from among them, and
+be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I
+will receive you.'</p>
+
+<p>To Africa this country owes a debt larger than she is able to liquidate.
+Most intensely do I desire to see that ill-fated continent transformed
+into the abode of civilization, of the arts and sciences, of evangelical
+piety, of liberty, and of all that adds to the dignity, the renown, and
+the temporal and eternal happiness of man. Shame and confusion of face
+belong to the Church, that she has so long disregarded the claims of
+Africa upon her sympathies, and prayers, and liberality&mdash;claims as much
+superior as its wrongs to those of any other portion of the globe. It is
+indeed most strange that, like the Priest and the Levite, she should
+have 'passed by on the other side,' and left the victim of thieves to
+bleed and sicken and die. As the Africans were the only people doomed to
+perpetual servitude, and to be the prey of kidnappers, she should have
+long since directed almost her undivided efforts to civilize and convert
+them,&mdash;not by establishing colonies of ignorant and selfish foreigners
+among them, who will seize every opportunity to overreach or oppress, as
+interest or ambition shall instigate,&mdash;but by sending intelligent, pious
+missionaries; men fearing God and eschewing evil&mdash;living evidences of
+the excellence of christianity&mdash;having but one object, not the
+possession of wealth or the obtainment of power or the gratification of
+selfishness, but <i>the salvation of the soul</i>. Had she made this attempt,
+as she was bound to have made it by every principle of justice and every
+feeling of humanity, a century ago, Africa would have been, at the
+present day, 'redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled,' and the slavery
+of her children brought to an end. No pirates would now haunt her coast
+to desolate her villages with fire and sword, in order to supply a
+christian people with hewers of wood and drawers of water. How much has
+been needlessly lost to the world by this criminal neglect!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The conception of evangelizing a heathenish country by sending to it an
+illiterate, degraded and irreligious population, belongs exclusively to
+the advocates of African colonization. For absurdity and inaptitude, it
+stands, and must forever stand, without a parallel. Of all the offspring
+of prejudice and oppression, it is the most shapeless and unnatural. But
+more of this hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>History is full of instruction on the subject of colonization. The
+establishment of colonies, in all ages, with scarcely an exception, has
+resulted either in their subversion by the vices or physical strength of
+the natives, or by a fatal amalgamation with them; or else in the rapid
+destruction of the natives by the superior knowledge and greedy avarice
+of the new settlers. It is presumption to suppose that the colony at
+Liberia, composed of the worst materials imaginable, will present an
+example of forbearance, stability and good faith, hitherto unwitnessed
+in the world.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after its establishment, the colony narrowly escaped a bloody
+extirpation, and was the cause of a murderous warfare in which several
+of the colonists and a large number of the natives were slain. The
+steady growth of the colony excited the jealousy and alarm of some of
+the neighboring tribes; and, accordingly, a consultation was held, at
+which <ins id="mycorr1" class="mycorr" title="Original: Kings"><a name="corr1" id="corr1"></a>King</ins> George, Governor, and all the other head men, contended that
+'The Americans were strangers <i>who had forgot their attachment to the
+land of their fathers</i>; for if not, why had they not renounced their
+connexion with white men altogether, and placed themselves under the
+protection of the kings of the country? King George had already been
+under the necessity of removing from his town, and leaving the Cape in
+their hands. This was but the first step of their encroachments. If left
+alone, they must, in a very few years, master the whole country. And as
+all other places were full, their own tribe must be without a home, and
+cease any longer to remain a nation.'<a name="FNanchor_E_6" id="FNanchor_E_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_6" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> This appeal (which evinces an
+intimate acquaintance with human nature and much foresight) induced the
+attack to which allusion has been made. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> single paragraph from the
+Rev. Mr Ashmun's account of the battle with the natives may suffice to
+give the reader an idea of its destructiveness:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'A few musketeers with E. Johnson at their head, by passing
+round upon the enemy's flank, served to increase the
+consternation which was beginning to pervade their unwieldy
+body. In about twenty minutes after the settlers had taken their
+stand, the front of the enemy began to recoil. But from the
+numerous obstructions in their rear, the entire absence of
+discipline, and the extreme difficulty of giving a reversed
+motion to so large a body, a small part only of which was
+directly exposed to danger, and the delay occasioned by the
+practice of carrying off all their dead and wounded, rendered a
+retreat for some minutes longer, impossible. The very violence
+employed by those in the front, in their impatience to hasten
+it, by increasing the confusion, produced an effect opposite to
+that intended. The Americans perceiving their advantage, now
+regained possession of the western post, and instantly brought
+the long nine to rake the whole line of the enemy. Imagination
+can scarcely figure to itself a throng of human beings in a more
+capital state of exposure to the destructive power of the
+machinery of modern warfare! Eight hundred men were here pressed
+shoulder to shoulder, in so compact a form, that a child might
+easily walk upon their heads from one end of the mass to the
+other, presenting in their rear a breadth of rank equal to
+twenty or thirty men, and all exposed to a gun of great power,
+raised on a platform, at only thirty to sixty yards distance!
+<i>Every shot literally spent its force in a solid mass of living
+human flesh!</i> Their fire suddenly terminated. A savage yell was
+raised, which filled the dismal forest with a momentary horror.
+It gradually died away; and the whole host disappeared. At 8
+o'clock, the well known signal of their dispersion and return to
+their homes was sounded, and many small parties seen at a
+distance, directly afterwards, moving off in different
+directions. One large canoe, employed in reconveying a party
+across the mouth of the Montserado, venturing within the range
+of the long gun, was struck by a shot, and several men
+killed.'<a name="FNanchor_F_7" id="FNanchor_F_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_7" class="fnanchor">[F]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>The above (which cannot be perused without a thrill of horror) is one of
+the legitimate fruits of foreign colonization. Subsequent to this bloody
+affair, another battle took place, which resulted in the defeat of the
+natives and the loss of many lives. It is true, the colony since that
+period has received little molestation, and has succeeded, moreover, in
+making some amicable treaties with the natives; but in proportion to its
+means of defence and numerical force will be its liability to encroach
+upon the rights of the Africans, and thus to provoke hostilities. If
+this prophecy should not be fulfilled, history will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> have spoken in
+vain, and human nature experienced a total regeneration.</p>
+
+<p>No man of refined sensibility can contemplate the fate of the aborigines
+of this country, without shuddering at the consequences of colonization;
+and if <i>they</i> melted away at the presence of the pilgrims and their
+descendants, like frost before the meridian blaze of the sun,&mdash;if <i>they</i>
+fell to the earth, like the leaves of the forest before the autumnal
+blast, by the settlement of men reputedly humane, wise and pious, in
+their vicinage,&mdash;what can be our hope for the preservation of the
+Africans, associated with a population degraded by slavery, and, to a
+lamentable extent, destitute of religious and secular knowledge? The
+argument, that the difference of complexion between our forefathers and
+the aborigines (which is not a distinctive feature between the settlers
+at Liberia and the natives) was the real cause of this deadly enmity, is
+more specious than solid. <i>Conduct</i>, not <i>color</i>, secures friendship or
+excites antipathy, as it happens to be just or unjust. The venerated
+William Penn and his pacific followers furnish a case in point.</p>
+
+<p>I avow it&mdash;the natural tendency of the colony at Liberia excites the
+most melancholy apprehensions in my mind. Its birth was conceived in
+blood, and its footsteps will be marked with blood down to old age&mdash;the
+blood of the poor natives&mdash;unless a special interposition of Divine
+Providence prevent such a calamity. The emigrants will be eager in the
+acquisition of wealth, ease and power; and, having superior skill and
+discernment in trade, they will outwit and defraud the natives as often
+as occasion permits. This knavish treatment once detected,&mdash;as it surely
+will be, for even an uncivilized people may soon learn that they have
+been cheated,&mdash;will provoke retaliation, and stir up the worst passions
+of the human breast. Bloody conflicts will ensue, in which the colonists
+will be victorious. This success will serve to increase the enmity of
+the natives, and to perpetuate the murderous struggle. The extirpation
+of one generation may put the colonists in undisputed possession of the
+land.</p>
+
+<p>This is not a fancy sketch&mdash;it is not improbable: on the contrary, it is
+the obvious and hitherto certain consequence of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> bringing hastily
+together large bodies of civilized men with unlettered barbarians.</p>
+
+<p>Jealousy will be another fruitful source of contention. The population
+of Africa is divided into a vast number of tribes, governed by petty
+kings,&mdash;sometimes indeed united by an amicable league, but commonly
+distinct and independent. Some of these tribes will form alliances with
+the colonists, either to obtain protection from their more formidable
+rivals or from motives of fear, curiosity or selfishness. In this
+manner, tribe will be arrayed against tribe throughout that vast
+continent; the tide of commotion, gathering fresh impetuosity in its
+headlong career, will rush from the mountains down to the ocean,
+devastating all that is beautiful, and swiftly defacing that which will
+require the labors of centuries to restore to its pristine excellence;
+there will be wars and rumors of wars, succeeded by deceitful and
+unstable treaties ratified only to be broken at a favorable moment; and
+these collisions will not cease until the colonists obtain an undisputed
+mastery over the natives.</p>
+
+<p>Would to Heaven these fears might prove to be but the offspring of a
+distracted mind! May the colonists be so just in their intercourse with
+the Africans, as never to impeach their own integrity; so pacific, as to
+disarm retaliation and perpetuate good will; so benevolent, as to excite
+gratitude and diffuse joy wherever their names shall be known; and so
+holy, as to exalt the christian religion in the eyes of an idolatrous
+nation! But he must be grossly ignorant of human nature, or strangely
+infatuated, who believes that they will always, or commonly, exhibit
+this unexceptionable conduct.</p>
+
+<p>It is my sober conviction, that no contrivance or enterprise could
+possibly be planned more fatally calculated to obstruct the progress of
+christianity in a heathenish country, than the establishment of a
+colony, or colonies, of selfish, ignorant, or even intelligent and
+high-minded men, on its shores. In every settlement of this kind,&mdash;no
+matter how choice the original materials,&mdash;vice will soon preponderate
+over virtue, intemperance over sobriety, knavery over honesty,
+oppression over liberty, and impiety over godliness. The natives will
+see just enough of christianity to hate and shun it; finding that its
+fruits are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> generally bad&mdash;that it has no restraining influence upon the
+mass of its nominal professors,&mdash;they will not easily comprehend the
+utility of abandoning their own idolatrous worship; looking only to the
+pernicious examples of the intruders, they will spurn with contempt the
+precepts of the gospel. Their confidence will be abused&mdash;their lands
+craftily trafficked for nought&mdash;their ignorance cheated&mdash;their
+inferiority treated oppressively; and then what must naturally follow?
+Why&mdash;<span class="smcap">WAR</span>&mdash;<i>a war of retaliation</i>. All the vices, and few of the virtues,
+of the instructers, will be faithfully copied; and thus barriers will be
+erected against the progress of the Christian religion, not absolutely
+insurmountable, it is true, but sufficiently tall and strong to retard
+its noble career&mdash;barriers not only of superstition and ignorance, but
+of hatred and revenge. These reflections might be extended to the size
+of a volume; but they are probably sufficient to convince every
+unprejudiced, discerning mind, that the establishment of foreign
+colonies in a barbarous land is the surest way to prevent its speedy
+evangelism and civilization.</p>
+
+<p>In reply to this reasoning, some of the advocates of African
+colonization may argue, that schools and houses of worship, multiplying
+with the growth of the settlement at Liberia, will check the evil
+propensities and passions of the emigrants, and qualify them to act as
+missionaries or instructers among the natives; and thus great good will
+be bestowed upon Africa. This is at least a summary, if not a sure mode
+of obviating these difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, it is by no means certain&mdash;nay, it is not probable,
+especially if the number of emigrants annually exported to Liberia swell
+from hundreds to thousands, (and this increase of transportation is
+positively promised by the Parent Society, and absolutely necessary to
+cause a perceptible diminution in the annual enlargement of our colored
+population)&mdash;I say, it is neither certain nor probable that the
+multiplication of literary and religious privileges will keep pace with
+the unnatural and enormous growth of the colony. Nine years after the
+first settlement of Liberia, it appears by the following extract of a
+letter from a highly respectable colored emigrant, (the Rev. George M.
+Erskine,) there was but the 'remnant of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> school' left! This letter is
+dated '<i>Caldwell, Liberia, April 3, 1830</i>.'</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Sir, the state of things, with regard to schools, is truly
+lamentable. <i>The only school in the Colony at this time, is a
+remnant of one at the Cape.</i> Among the present emigrants, there
+are seventeen out of forty-eight that can read the Holy
+Scriptures, <i>leaving thirty-one that cannot</i>. Now, Sir, suppose
+each company of emigrants to this place bring a like proportion
+of illiterate persons into the Colony, then what state, think
+you, it must be in? But again, Sir: I am greatly mistaken if
+this Colony is not, for several years yet to come, mostly to be
+peopled with slaves sent out by their present owners, without
+any education themselves, and without means and very little
+desire to have their children instructed; and add to the above,
+that this people is planted in the midst, and are daily
+conversant with, a people that are not only heathen, but a
+people extremely partial in favor of their grovelling
+superstition. My dear Sir, this being the case, <i>whether is it
+probable that they will come over to us, or we go down to them</i>?
+To me the latter is the most likely, <i>as it is the very essence
+of human nature to seek the lowest depth of degradation</i>. Permit
+me to say, Sir, there must be a great revolution in this Colony
+before it can have a salutary influence on the surrounding
+natives; that is, before it can have a moral influence over
+them.'<a name="FNanchor_G_8" id="FNanchor_G_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_8" class="fnanchor">[G]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Subsequent accounts, I am happy to state, present a better aspect in
+relation to the education of this outcast and persecuted people: their
+wants, however, are only partially supplied.</p>
+
+<p>The annual increase of the free colored and slave population in the
+United States is variously estimated from sixty to seventy-five
+thousand. The American Colonization Society proposes the annual removal
+of this vast body,&mdash;and more, if it be possible,&mdash;provided the energies
+and patronage of the General Government be enlisted in this expulsive
+crusade. Now, suppose the entire transportation effected, let any candid
+man decide how extremely difficult, not to say impracticable, it would
+be to discipline and instruct such an overwhelming mass of ignorance, or
+any considerable portion of it&mdash;and how pernicious must be the
+consequences to the colony and the natives, if it should not receive
+immediate culture!</p>
+
+<p>Secondly. It is neither certain nor probable that, allowing all that is
+assumed by colonizationists, the influence of secular and religious
+instruction would be sufficient to restrain the selfish desires and
+knavish propensities of those whose main object is,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> not to evangelize
+the natives, but to secure, by a summary process, competence and power
+for themselves. Indeed, their juxtaposition with the natives would be
+eminently calculated to induce the fever of avarice, and to generate the
+lust of dominion. It is well known that so eager are the colonists to
+acquire a rapid accumulation of wealth, by trafficking their paltry
+beads and poisonous rum and tobacco for ivory, camwood and gold dust, it
+is with the utmost difficulty any considerable portion of them are
+persuaded to cultivate the soil and engage in agricultural pursuits.
+Thus we are presented with the disgraceful, if not singular spectacle of
+a rivalry in cunning and trickishness between a colony of <i>soi-disant</i>
+missionaries (really avaricious and unscrupulous foreigners) and the
+tribes who are to come under their pious pupilage. If equal dexterity in
+trade is not apparent, each party is equally pleased with its successful
+attempts at deception, and both renew the fraudulent commerce with fresh
+alacrity&mdash;the one to gain a new triumph, and the other to retrieve an
+old defeat. And this is the mode of colonizationists to evangelize
+Africa! and this their mode to suppress the slave trade! and this their
+mode to elevate the free people of color! and this their mode to
+emancipate the slaves! It combines the folly and absurdity of a farce
+with the solemnity and murderment of a tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>Far be it from me to leave the impression upon the mind of the reader,
+from these representations, that all the colonists are actuated by the
+same selfish motives, or that they have exhibited any new and
+extraordinary traits of character in their commerce with the Africans.
+Many of them, I believe, are men who fear God and desire the welfare of
+his creatures: all of them have behaved as honorably, perhaps, and
+trafficked as equitably, as any other body of men, white or yellow,
+would have done in the same situation and under the same circumstances.
+Dishonesty in trade is no prodigy, even in this country. To bring
+accusations of fraud, cupidity and cunning against human nature, is not
+libellous. I am persuaded that robbery,&mdash;well contrived, deliberately
+executed robbery,&mdash;is perpetrated in every community among ourselves,
+without any due estimate of its moral turpitude, by reputable merchants
+and traders upon their cus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>tomers, to a larger extent than all the
+avowed and heinous thefts collectively, which are committed against
+society. It is lamentable to see how studiously conscience and fair
+dealing are excluded from the secular business of the world. If we see,
+every day, illustrations of this dishonest conduct, given by men of
+refinement, intelligence and good character, what should we expect from
+those whose fetters have hardly fallen from their limbs; who have been
+systematically degraded by slavery; who have not consequently that
+lively sense of moral obligation which accompanies intelligence; who are
+beyond the influence of public sentiment, and surrounded by a barbarous
+people?</p>
+
+<p>The establishment of a colony of speculators, then, to evangelize
+Africa, does not discover much wisdom or promise much success; but, on
+the contrary, exhibits a total blindness of vision and a most
+unfavorable aspect.</p>
+
+<p>Let it be remembered, however, that <i>rum</i> and <i>tobacco</i> (two poisons
+which are exactly adapted to destroy both soul and body) are the
+principal articles given to the natives&mdash;because pertinaciously demanded
+by them&mdash;in exchange for their own. Their appetite for spirituous
+liquor, first created by the slave traders and subsequently excited by
+the colonists, is insatiate. Even the justly lamented <span class="smcap">Ashmun</span>, if I do
+not mistake, for I have not his letter now before me, was so imprudent
+in one of his epistles to the Board of Managers as to concede the fatal
+necessity of selling rum freely to the natives, in order to maintain a
+commercial intercourse with them. Rum they would have, or nothing; and
+rum they obtained then, and do now obtain. Any one who will take the
+trouble to read the advertisements in the Liberia Herald will discover
+that ardent spirits form a prominent item in the list of articles
+offered for sale. Of the sobriety of the colonists, however, common
+report speaks in the most gratifying manner; but as their number is to
+be increased by a redundant importation, we have reason to fear a
+declension of morals.</p>
+
+<p>Thirdly. Colonizationists strenuously contend that our colored
+population are destined always to remain a degraded class in this
+country. If educated any where, they must be educated in Africa. We must
+take them in their ignorance, and just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> released from bondage, and
+translate them to another continent on the wings of the wind. Delay
+would be injurious to ourselves, and calamitous to them. They must go in
+large bodies&mdash;by thousands and tens of thousands annually&mdash;till the
+whole be expelled from our shores. For it seems, according to the logic
+of colonizationists, every individual tainted with black blood must be
+transported, to insure the regeneration of Africa! Neither fifty
+thousand, nor one hundred thousand, nor half a million of these
+<i>missionaries</i> will be able to accomplish the task; but two millions of
+slaves and four hundred thousand free people of color, and all their
+descendants in time to come, here&mdash;even little babes (pretty prattling
+reformers!) and children&mdash;the maimed, the halt, and the blind&mdash;all must
+be sent off&mdash;else alas! alas! for poor benighted Africa! This is no
+caricature. An ugly face is sure to quarrel with its own likeness. But
+what is the portrait worth, if it bear no resemblance to the living
+original? They who place themselves in a ridiculous attitude must not
+claim exemption from ridicule.</p>
+
+<p>Let us turn to the picture once more. It is worth our while to
+contemplate it a few moments longer.</p>
+
+<p>What do we see? More than one-sixth portion of the American
+people&mdash;confessedly the most vicious, degraded and dangerous
+portion&mdash;crowded on the shores of Africa, by means which are hereafter
+to be considered, and at an expense which we shall not stop now to
+calculate, for the purpose of civilizing and evangelizing Africa, and of
+improving their own condition! Here, then, are <i>two</i> ignorant and
+depraved nations to be regenerated instead of <i>one</i>!&mdash;if we may call all
+the natives that occupy that vast continent a nation&mdash;two huge and
+heterogeneous masses of contagion mingled together for the preservation
+of each! One of these nations is so incorrigibly stupid, or unfathomably
+deep in pollution, (for such is the argument,) that, although surrounded
+by ten millions of people living under the full blaze of gospel light,
+and having every desirable facility to elevate and save it, it never can
+rise until it be removed at least three thousand miles from their
+vicinage!&mdash;and yet it is first to be evangelized in a barbarous land, by
+a feeble, inadequate process, before it can be qualified to evangelize
+the other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> nation! In other words, men who are intellectually and
+morally blind are violently removed from light effulgent into thick
+darkness, in order that they may obtain light themselves and diffuse
+light among others! Ignorance is sent to instruct ignorance, ungodliness
+to exhort ungodliness, vice to stop the progress of vice, and depravity
+to reform depravity! All that is abhorrent to our moral sense, or
+dangerous to our quietude, or villanous in human nature, we benevolently
+disgorge upon Africa for her temporal and eternal welfare! We propose to
+build upon her shores, for her glory and defence, colonies framed of
+materials which we discard as worthless for our own use, and which
+possess no fitness or durability! Admirable consistency! surprising
+wisdom! unexampled benevolence! As rationally might we think of
+exhausting the ocean by multiplying the number of its tributaries, or
+extinguishing a fire by piling fuel upon it.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly. Any scheme to proselytize which requires for its protection the
+erection of forts and the use of murderous weapons, is opposed to the
+genius of christianity and radically wrong. If the gospel cannot be
+propagated but by the aid of the sword,&mdash;if its success depend upon the
+muscular power and military science of its apostles,&mdash;it were better to
+leave the pagan world in darkness. The first specimen of <i>benevolence</i>
+and <i>piety</i>, which the colonists gave to the natives, was the building
+of a fort, and supplying it with arms and ammunition! This was an
+earnest manifestation of that 'peace on earth, good will to man,' which
+these expatriated <i>missionaries</i> were sent to inculcate! How eminently
+calculated to inspire the confidence, excite the gratitude, and
+accelerate the conversion of the Africans! Their 'dread of the great
+guns of the Islanders,' (to adopt the language of Mr Ashmun,) must from
+the beginning have made a deep and salutary impression upon their minds;
+and when, not long afterward, 'every shot' from these guns '<i>spent its
+force in a solid mass of living human flesh</i>'&mdash;their own flesh&mdash;they
+must have experienced a total regeneration. Bullets and cannon balls
+argue with resistless effect, and as easily convert a barbarous as
+civilized people. One sanguinary conflict was sufficient to spread the
+glad tidings of salvation among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> a thousand tribes, almost with the
+rapidity of light!&mdash;But even irony, though appropriate, is painful. I
+forbear.</p>
+
+<p>But&mdash;says an objector&mdash;these reflections come too late. The colony is
+planted, whatever may be its influence. What do you recommend? Its
+immediate abandonment to want and ruin? Shall we not bestow upon it our
+charities, and commend it to the protection of Heaven?</p>
+
+<p>I answer&mdash;Let the colony continue to receive the aid, and elicit the
+prayers of the good and benevolent. Still let it remain within the pale
+of christian sympathy. Blot it not out of existence. But let it
+henceforth develope itself naturally. Crowd not its population. Let
+transportation cease. Seek no longer to exile millions of our colored
+countrymen. For, assuredly, if the Colonization Society succeed in its
+efforts to remove thousands of their number annually, it could not
+inflict a heavier curse upon Africa, or more speedily assist in the
+entire subversion of the colony.</p>
+
+<p>But&mdash;the objector asks&mdash;how shall we evangelize Africa?</p>
+
+<p>In the same manner as we have evangelized the Sandwich and Society
+Islands, and portions of Burmah, Hindostan, and other lands. By sending
+missionaries of the Cross <i>indeed</i>, who shall neither build forts nor
+trust in weapons of war; who shall be actuated by a holy zeal and
+genuine love; who shall be qualified to instruct, admonish, enlighten,
+and proselyte; who shall not by their examples impugn the precepts, or
+subject to suspicion the inspiration of the Word of Life; who shall not
+be covered with pollution and shame as with a garment, or add to the
+ignorance, sin and corruption of paganism; and who shall abhor
+dishonesty, violence and treachery. Such men have been found to
+volunteer their services for the redemption of a lost world; and such
+men may be found now to embark in the same glorious enterprise. A
+hundred evangelists like these, dispersed along the shores and in the
+interior of Africa, would destroy more idols, make more progress in
+civilizing the natives, suppress more wars, unite in amity more hostile
+tribes, and convert more souls to Christ, in ten years, than a colony of
+twenty-thousand ignorant, uncultivated, selfish emigrants in a century.
+Such a mission would be consonant with reason and com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>mon sense; nor
+could it fail to receive the approbation of God. How simple was the
+command of our blessed Saviour to his disciples!&mdash;'Go ye forth into all
+the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' Not&mdash;'Send out from
+among yourselves those whom you despise or against whom you cherish a
+strong antipathy; those who need to be instructed and converted
+themselves; those who are the dregs of society, made vicious and
+helpless by oppression and public opinion; those who are beyond the
+reach of the gospel in a Christian land; those whose complexions are not
+precisely like yours, or who have any personal blemishes whatever that
+excite your dislike;&mdash;send out <i>all</i> these to evangelize the nations
+which sit in darkness and in the regions of the shadow of death!'</p>
+
+<p>Denham, Clapperton, and Lander, travellers in <ins id="mycorr2" class="mycorr" title="Original: Afria"><a name="corr2" id="corr2"></a>Africa</ins>, represent the
+natives in a light most favorable for the introduction of christianity;
+as eager to learn and become a civilized and great people like the
+Europeans. Excepting the followers of Mohammed, they are not tenacious
+of their forms of religious worship; and a considerable portion of them
+are totally indifferent to devotional exercises. It seems apparent, that
+the fruits of a mission in Africa would be thrice as numerous as those
+of one in India, because the obstacles to be surmounted are far less
+formidable.</p>
+
+<p>But&mdash;says the objector&mdash;the climate of Africa is fatal to white men.</p>
+
+<p>So is the climate of India. But our missionaries have not counted their
+lives dear unto themselves; and, as fast as one is cut down, another
+stands ready to supply his place.</p>
+
+<p>I do not believe that the Creator has immoveably fixed the habitations
+of any people within a boundary narrower than the circumference of the
+globe. I believe that rapid transitions from intensity of heat and cold,
+and cold and heat, are destructive to animal life; but I also believe
+that the human body is easily acclimated, in any region of the world. I
+believe the time is swiftly approaching when empires and continents
+shall as freely commingle their population as do states and
+neighborhoods. To limit or obstruct this intercourse, is to impoverish
+and circumscribe human happiness. Civilization will remove<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> those causes
+which now engender pestilence and death, and neutralize the effects of
+atmospherical contagion.</p>
+
+<p>Hence it will be seen that I do not assail the Colonization Society, as
+many others have done, simply because the settlement at Liberia is
+unhealthy. It is true, the mortality among the emigrants has been
+excessive; and so it was among the first settlers of New-England. But
+the climate of New-England is no longer pestiferous; and the climate of
+Africa will grow sweet and salubrious as her forests disappear, and the
+purifying influences of Christianity penetrate into the interior. I
+expressly contend, however, that it is murderous, indiscriminately to
+colonize large bodies of men, women and children, in a foreign land,
+before the natives are to some extent elevated by missionary effort: and
+therefore I consider the Colonization Society as responsible for the
+lives of those who have perished prematurely at Liberia.</p>
+
+<p>But the objection is fallacious. If white missionaries cannot, black
+ones can survive in Africa. What, then, is our duty? Obviously to
+educate colored young men of genius, enterprise and piety, expressly to
+carry the 'glad tidings of great joy' to her shores. Enough, I venture
+to affirm, stand ready to be sent, if they can first be qualified for
+their mission. If our free colored population were brought into our
+schools, and raised from their present low estate, I am confident that
+an army of christian volunteers would go out from their ranks, by a
+divine impulse and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to redeem
+their African brethren from the bondage of idolatry and the dominion of
+spiritual death.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever may be the result of this great controversy, I shall have the
+consolation of believing that no efforts were lacking, on my part, to
+uproot the prejudices of my countrymen, to persuade them to walk in the
+path of duty and shun the precipice of expediency, to unloose the heavy
+burdens and let the prisoners go free at once, to warn them of the
+danger of expelling the people of color from their native land, and to
+convince them of the necessity of abandoning a dangerous and chimerical,
+as well as unchristian and anti-republican association. For these
+efforts I have hitherto suffered reproach and persecution, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> must
+expect to suffer till I perish. This book will doubtless increase the
+rage of my enemies; but no torrent of invective shall successfully whelm
+it, no sophistry impair its force, no activity destroy its influence, no
+misrepresentation defeat its usefulness.</p>
+
+<p>I commend it, particularly, to the candid attention of the two most
+powerful classes in this country&mdash;editors of newspapers and the clergy.
+It is not a light matter for either of them to propagate false doctrines
+and excite delusive hopes, on the subject of politics or religion.
+Although the press is committed to a wide extent, I place too much
+reliance upon the good sense and liberal patriotism of its conductors to
+believe that the evidence which is presented in these pages of the
+inefficiency and injustice of the colonization scheme, will fail to
+convince their understanding. I cherish still higher expectations of its
+salutary influence upon ministers of the gospel. It may grieve them to
+discover that they have been misled themselves, and that they have
+unwittingly misled others. To say to their flocks&mdash;'We have erred in
+this matter; we have solicited your charities for an institution which
+is built upon prejudice and persecution; we have hastily adopted the
+mistaken opinions of others'&mdash;such a confession may indeed require much
+grace in the heart, but this grace, I am persuaded, they will obtain. As
+apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, sustaining high and awful
+responsibilities, and exerting an influence which measurably decides the
+eternal destiny of the souls of men, they will not shut their eyes, or
+stop their ears, or refuse to examine, or disregard the truth, in a case
+involving the temporal and eternal happiness of millions of their fellow
+creatures.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_6" id="Footnote_E_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_6"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> Memoir of American Colonists&mdash;vide 'The African
+Repository,' vol. 2, p. 174.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_7" id="Footnote_F_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_7"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> African Repository, vol. 2, p. 179.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_8" id="Footnote_G_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_8"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> African Repository, vol. 6, p. 121.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="SECTION_I" id="SECTION_I"></a>SECTION I.</h2>
+<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></div>
+<h3>THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS PLEDGED NOT TO OPPOSE THE SYSTEM OF
+SLAVERY.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Having</span> concluded my introductory remarks, I now proceed to substantiate
+my accusations against the American Colonization Society, by marshalling
+in review the sentiments of those who first originated it, and who are
+its efficient managers and advocates. It is obvious that, with my
+limited means, and in a book designed for a cheap circulation, I shall
+not be able to enter into so minute a detail as the present exigency
+demands, or make those comments which might serve more fully to
+illustrate the character of this association. It should be stated,
+moreover, that I have not made any particular effort to procure
+materials for this work, being satisfied that those which have almost
+accidentally fallen into my hands, contain ample and conclusive evidence
+of the unworthiness of the Society. A vast number of the Reports of
+auxiliary bodies in various parts of the country, of orations and
+sermons and essays in favor of African colonization, are beyond my
+reach, and must remain unconsulted. If more proof be demanded, it shall
+be given to the public. There is not a sound timber in this great Babel:
+from the foundation to the roof, it is rotten and defective.</p>
+
+<p>I shall not stop to interrogate the motives of those who planned the
+Society. Some of them, undoubtedly, were actuated by a benevolent desire
+to promote the welfare of our colored population, and could never have
+intended to countenance oppression. But the question is not, whether
+their motives were good or bad. Suppose they were all good&mdash;would this
+fact prove infallibly that they could not err in judgment? Do we not
+almost daily see men running headlong into wild and injurious
+enterprises with the very best intentions? There is a wide<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> difference
+between meaning well and doing well. The slave trade originated in a
+compassionate regard for the benighted Africans; and yet we hang those
+who are detected in this traffic. I am willing to concede that Robert
+Finley and Elias B. Caldwell were philanthropic individuals; and that a
+large number of their followers are men of piety, benevolence and moral
+worth. What then? Is the American Colonization Society a beneficial
+institution? We shall see hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>The history of this Society is familiar to the public. It was organized
+about the commencement of the year 1817. The first public meeting to
+consider the expediency of such an organization was held on the 21st of
+December, 1816, at which the Hon. Henry Clay presided; but I have never
+seen its official proceedings. It was addressed by Mr Clay, <i>Mr
+Randolph</i>, Mr Caldwell, and other gentlemen, from whose speeches
+extracts will shortly be given.</p>
+
+<p>It is my purpose in this section to show, first, the original design of
+the Society; secondly, that it is still strictly adhered to; and,
+lastly, that the Society is solemnly pledged not to interfere with the
+system of slavery, or in any manner to disturb the repose of the
+planters. Upon the rigid observance of this sinful pledge depends its
+existence; a single violation of it would be fatal. I want no better
+reason than this, to wage an uncompromising warfare against it. No man
+has a right to form an alliance with others, which prevents him from
+rebuking sin or exposing the guilt of sinners. Every individual is bound
+to oppose the system of slavery in the most direct, strenuous,
+unfaltering manner&mdash;bound by the ties of brotherhood, by the spirit of
+Christianity, by the genius of republicanism, by the dictates of
+humanity, by the requirements of justice, by the love of country, by
+duty to his God. He cannot suppress his voice, nor stop his ears to the
+groans of the prisoners, and be innocent. If he hide the truth because
+it may give offence&mdash;if he strike hands in amity with a thief&mdash;if he
+leave the needy and oppressed to perish&mdash;God will visit him with
+plagues. Now the language of the non-slaveholding members of the
+Colonization Society to the owners of slaves is virtually as
+follows:&mdash;'The free people of color are a nuisance to us, and plotters
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> sedition among your slaves. If they be not speedily removed, your
+<i>property</i> will be lost, and your lives destroyed. We therefore do
+solemnly agree, that, if you will unite with us in expelling this
+dangerous class from our shores, we will never accuse you of robbery or
+oppression, or irritate your feelings by asserting the right of the
+slaves to immediate freedom, or identify any one of you as a criminal;
+but, on the contrary, we will boldly assert your innocence, and applaud
+you as wise and benevolent men for holding your slaves in subjection
+until you can cast them out of the country.' I say, this is <i>virtually</i>
+their language, as I shall soon indisputably show. Thus we are presented
+with the strange spectacle of a procession composed of the most
+heterogeneous materials. There go, arm-in-arm, a New-England divine and
+a southern kidnapper; and there an ungodly slaveholder and a pious
+deacon; each eyeing the other with distrust, and fearful of exciting a
+quarrel, both denouncing the poor, neglected, despised free black man as
+a miserable, good-for-nothing creature, and both gravely complimenting
+their foresight and generosity in sending this worthless wretch on a
+religious mission to Africa!</p>
+
+<p>I cannot exhibit the folly and wickedness of this alliance in a clearer
+light than by inserting the following extract of a letter from Capt.
+Charles Stuart, of the English Royal Navy, one of the most indefatigable
+philanthropists in England:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'The American Colonization Society looks abroad over its own
+country, and it finds a mass of its brethren, whom God has been
+pleased to clothe with a darker skin. It finds one portion of
+these free! another enslaved! It finds a cruel prejudice, as
+dark and false as sin can make it, reigning with a most
+tyrannous sway against both. It finds this prejudice respecting
+the <i>free</i>, declaring without a blush, "We are too wicked ever
+to love them as God commands us to do&mdash;we are so resolute in our
+wickedness as not even to desire to do so&mdash;and we are so proud
+in our iniquity that we will hate and revile whoever disturbs us
+in it&mdash;We want, like the devils of old, to be let alone in our
+sin&mdash;We are unalterably determined, and neither God nor man
+shall move us from this resolution, that our free colored fellow
+subjects never shall be happy in their native land." The
+American Colonization Society, I say, finds this most base and
+cruel prejudice, <i>and lets it alone</i>; nay more, it directly and
+powerfully supports it.</p>
+
+<p>'The American Colonization Society finds 2,000,000 of its fellow
+subjects most iniquitously enslaved&mdash;and it finds a resolution
+as proud and wicked as the very spirit of the pit can make it
+against <i>obeying</i> God and <i>letting them</i> go free in their native
+land. <i>It lets this perfectly infernal resolution alone</i>, nay
+more, it powerfully supports it; for it in fact says, as a fond
+and feeble father might say to some overgrown baby before whose
+obstinate wickedness he quailed, "Never mind, my dear, I don't
+want to prevent your beating and abusing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> your brothers and
+sisters&mdash;let that be&mdash;but here is a box of sugar plums&mdash;do pray
+give them one or two now and then." The American Colonization
+Society says practically to the slaveholders and the slave party
+in the United States, "We don't want to prevent your plundering
+2,000,000 of our fellow subjects of their liberty and of the
+fruits of their toil; although we know that by every principle
+of law which does not utterly disgrace us by assimilating us to
+pirates, that they have as good and as true a right to the equal
+protection of the law as we have; and although we ourselves
+stand prepared to die, rather than submit even to a fragment of
+the intolerable load of oppression to which we are subjecting
+them&mdash;yet never mind&mdash;let that be&mdash;they have grown old in
+suffering, and we in iniquity&mdash;and we have nothing to do now but
+to speak <i>peace</i>, <i>peace</i> to one another in our sins. But if any
+of their masters, whether from benevolence, an awakened
+conscience, or political or personal fear, should emancipate
+any, let us send them to Liberia&mdash;that is, in fact, let us give
+a sugar plum here and there to a few, while the many are living
+and dying unredressed&mdash;and while we are thus countenancing the
+atrocious iniquity beneath which they are perishing." In this
+aspect I find the American Colonization Society declaring itself
+a substitute for emancipation, and it is in this aspect that I
+contend with it, and that I proclaim it, <i>as far as it has this
+character</i>, no farther, a bane to the colored people, whether
+enslaved or free, and a snare and a disgrace to its country.'</p></div>
+
+<p>The second article of the Constitution of this Society is in the
+following language:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'The object to which its attention is to be <i>exclusively</i>
+directed, is to promote and execute a plan for colonizing (with
+their consent) the free people of color residing in our country,
+in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem most
+expedient. And the Society shall act, to effect this object, in
+co-operation with the General Government, and such of the States
+as may adopt regulations upon the subject.'</p></div>
+
+<p>The following citations abundantly sustain the charge, that the Society
+has not swerved from its original design, and does not oppose the system
+of slavery:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Whilst he was up, he would detain the Society for a few
+moments. It was proper again and again to repeat, that it was
+far from the intention of the Society to affect, <i>in any
+manner</i>, the tenure by which a certain species of property is
+held. He was himself a slaveholder; <i>and he considered that kind
+of property as inviolable as any other in the country</i>. He would
+resist as soon, and with as much firmness, encroachments upon it
+as he would encroachments upon any other property which he held.
+Nor was he disposed even to go as far as the gentleman who had
+just spoken, (Mr Mercer) in saying that he would emancipate his
+slaves, if the means were provided of sending them from the
+country.'&mdash;[Speech of Henry Clay.&mdash;First Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It was proper and necessary distinctly to state, that he
+understood it constituted no part of the object of this meeting,
+to touch or agitate in the slightest degree, a delicate
+question, connected with another portion of the colored
+population of our country. It was not proposed to deliberate
+upon or consider at all, any question of emancipation, or that
+which was connected with the abolition of slavery. It was upon
+that condition alone, he was sure, that many gentlemen from the
+South and West, whom he saw present, had attended, or could be
+expected to co-operate. It was upon that condition only, that he
+himself had attended.'&mdash;[Speech of Mr Clay before the Society,
+Jan. 1, 1818.&mdash;Second Annual Report.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It had been properly observed by the chairman, as well as by
+the gentleman from this District (Messrs Clay and Caldwell) that
+there was nothing in the proposition submitted to consideration
+which in the smallest degree touched another very important and
+delicate question, which ought to be left as much out of view as
+possible, (Negro slavery.)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mr R. concluded by saying, that
+he had thought it necessary to make these remarks, being a
+slaveholder himself, to shew, that, so far from being connected
+with the abolition of slavery, <i>the measure proposed would prove
+one of the greatest securities to enable the master to keep in
+possession his own property</i>.'&mdash;[Speech of John Randolph at the
+same meeting.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Your committee would not thus favorably regard the prayer of
+the memorialists, if it sought to impair, <i>in the slightest
+degree</i>, the rights of private property, or the yet more sacred
+rights of personal liberty, secured to every description of
+freemen in the United States.</p>
+
+<p>'The resolution of the legislature of Virginia, the subsequent
+acts and declarations, as well as the high character of the
+memorialists themselves, added to the most obvious interest of
+the states who have recently sanctioned the purpose, or
+recognized the existence of the American Colonization Society,
+exclude <i>the remotest apprehension of such injustice and
+inhumanity</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;[Report of the committee of the House of Representatives of
+the United States, on the memorial of the President and Board of
+Managers of the Colonization Society.&mdash;Second Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'An effort for the benefit of the blacks, in which all parts of
+the country can unite, of course <i>must not have the abolition of
+slavery for its immediate object</i>. <span class="smcap">Nor may it aim directly at
+the instruction of the blacks.</span> In either case, the <i>prejudices</i>
+and <i>terrors</i> of the slaveholding States would be excited in a
+moment; and with reason too, for it is a well-established point,
+that <i>the public safety forbids either the emancipation or the
+general instruction of the slaves</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It [African
+Colonization] is an enterprise in which <i>all parts of the
+country can unite</i>. The grand objection to every other effort
+is, that it excites the <i>jealousies</i> and <i>fears</i> of the south.
+But here is an effort in which the southern people are the first
+to engage, and which numbers many of their most distinguished
+men among its advocates and efficient supporters.'&mdash;[Review of
+the Reports of the Society, from the Christian
+Spectator.&mdash;Seventh Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It will be seen at home and abroad, that the American
+Colonization Society, while it <i>properly enough</i> stands aloof
+from the question of slavery, and the abolition of slavery,'
+&amp;c.&mdash;[Report of William McKenney.&mdash;Eighth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The objects of this institution are well known to the world;
+for no concealment whatever has ever been intended. The Society
+aims at the removal of free persons of color; <i>it interferes, in
+no way whatever, with the rights of property</i>.'&mdash;[Speech of G.
+W. Custis, Esq.&mdash;Ninth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We are reproached with doing mischief by the agitation of this
+question. The Society goes into no household to disturb its
+domestic tranquillity; it addresses itself to no slaves to
+weaken their obligations of obedience. <i>It seeks to affect no
+man's property.</i>'&mdash;[Speech of Mr Clay.&mdash;Tenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The Committee to whom was referred the memorial of the American
+Colonization Society, have had the subject under consideration,
+and now report:</p>
+
+<p>'That upon due consideration of the said memorial, and from all
+other information which your committee has obtained, touching
+that subject, they are fully satisfied that no jealousies ought
+to exist, on the part of this or any other slaveholding State,
+respecting the objects of this Society, or the effects of its
+labors.'&mdash;[Report of a committee of the Legislature of Delaware,
+Feb. 8th, 1827.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The Society has reiterated the declaration that it has no
+ulterior views diverse from the object avowed in the
+constitution; and having declared that it is in nowise allied to
+any Abolition Society in America or elsewhere, is ready whenever
+there is need <span class="smcap">to pass a censure upon such Societies in
+America</span>.'&mdash;[Speech of Mr Harrison of Virginia.&mdash;Eleventh Annual
+Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We have the same interests in this subject with our southern
+brethren&mdash;the same opportunity of understanding it, and of
+knowing with what <i>care</i> and <i>prudence</i> it should be approached.
+What greater pledge can we give for the moderation and safety of
+our measures than our own interests as slaveholders, and the
+ties that bind us to the slaveholding communities to which we
+belong?'&mdash;[Speech of Mr Key.&mdash;Same Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The second objection may be resolved into this; that the
+Society, under the specious pretext of removing a vicious and
+noxious population, is secretly undermining the rights of
+private property. This is the objection expressed in its full
+force, and if your memorialists could for a moment believe it to
+be true in point of fact, they would never, <i>slaveholders as
+they are</i>, have associated themselves together for the purpose
+of co-operating with the Parent Society; and far less would they
+have appeared in the character in which they now do, before the
+legislative bodies of a slaveholding State. And, if any instance
+could be now adduced, in which the Society has ever manifested
+even an intention to depart from the avowed object, for the
+promotion of which it was originally instituted, none would with
+more willingness and readiness withdraw from it their
+countenance and support. But, from the time of its formation,
+down to the present period, all its operations have been
+directed exclusively to the promotion of its one grand object,
+namely, the colonization in Africa of the free people of color
+of the United States. It has always protested, and through your
+memorialists it again protests, that <i>it has no wish to
+interfere</i> with the delicate but important subject of slavery.
+It has never, in a solitary instance, addressed itself to the
+slave. It has never sought to invade the tranquillity of the
+domestic circle, nor the peace and safety of
+society.'&mdash;[Memorial of the Auxiliary Colonization Society of
+Powhatan, to the Legislature of Virginia.&mdash;Twelfth Annual
+Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Therefore she looked, and well might she look, to colonization
+and to colonization alone. To abolition <i>she could not look</i>,
+and need not look. Whatever that scheme may have done,
+heretofore, in the States now free, it had done nothing and
+could do nothing in the slave States for the cause of humanity.
+This subject he rejoiced to know was now better understood, and
+all began to see that it was <i>wiser</i> and <i>safer</i> to remove, by
+colonization, a great and otherwise insuperable impediment to
+emancipation, <i>than to act upon the subject of emancipation
+itself</i>.'&mdash;[Speech of Mr Key.&mdash;Thirteenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Our Society has nothing to do directly with the question of
+slavery.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Whilst the Society protests that it has no
+designs on the rights of the master in the slave&mdash;or the
+property in his slave, which the laws guarantee to him,'
+&amp;c.&mdash;[Speech of Gerrit Smith, Esq.&mdash;Fourteenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Its primary object now is, and ever has been, to colonize, with
+their own consent, free people of color on the coast of Africa,
+or elsewhere, as Congress may deem expedient. And, Sir, I am
+unwilling to admit, under any circumstances, and particularly in
+this Hall, that it ever has swerved from this cardinal
+object.'&mdash;[Speech of Mr Benham.&mdash;Fourteenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Something he must yet be allowed to say, as regarded the object
+the Society was set up to accomplish. This object, if he
+understood it aright, <i>involved no intrusion on property</i>, <span class="smcap">NOR
+EVEN UPON PREJUDICE</span>.'&mdash;[Speech of Mr Archer of
+Virginia.&mdash;Fifteenth Annual Report.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'That the effort made by the Society should be such as to unite
+all parts of the country&mdash;such as to be in any degree ultimately
+successful, it was necessary to <i>disclaim all attempts for the
+immediate abolition of slavery, or the instruction of the great
+body of the blacks</i>. Such attempts would have excited alarm and
+jealousy, would have been inconsistent with the public safety,
+and defeated the great purposes of the Society.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It is
+pleasing to learn that the Friends, who at first were not
+favorable to the Society, <i>having been inclined to the immediate
+abolition of slavery</i>, are coming into what we deem the <i>more
+wise policy</i> of encouraging emancipation by
+colonization.'&mdash;[Speech of Harmanus Bleecker, Esq. at the Second
+Anniversary Meeting of the New-York Colonization Society, April
+14, 1831.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The plan of colonization seems <i>the only one entitled to the
+least consideration</i>.'&mdash;[Speech of M. C. Paterson, Esq. on the
+same occasion.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Nor will their brethren of the North desire to interfere with
+their constitutional rights, or rashly to disturb a system
+interwoven with their feelings, habits, and prejudices. A golden
+mean will be pursued, which, at the same time that it <i>consults
+the wishes</i>, and <i>respects the prejudices</i> of the South, will
+provide for the claims of justice and Christianity, and avert
+the storm of future desolation.'&mdash;[Speech of Lucius Q. C. Elmer,
+Esq.&mdash;First Annual Report of the New-Jersey Colonization
+Society.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Views are attributed to us, that were never entertained, and
+our plan is tortured <i>into a design to emancipate the Slaves of
+the South</i>. We are made to disregard this description of
+property, and to touch without reserve the rights of our
+neighbors. We are said to tread this almost forbidden ground
+with firm step, and a hardihood of effort is imputed to us,
+which, if true, might well excite the indignation of our
+southern citizens.&mdash;But, Sir, our Society and the friends of
+colonization wish to be distinctly understood upon this point.
+From the beginning they have <i>disavowed</i>, and they do yet
+<i>disavow</i>, that their object is <i>the emancipation of the
+slaves</i>. They have no wish, <i>if they could</i>, to interfere in the
+smallest degree with what they deem the most interesting and
+fearful subject which can be pressed upon the American public.'
+*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'There is no people that treat their slaves with so much
+kindness and with so little cruelty. Nor can I believe that we
+shall meet with any serious opposition from that quarter, when
+our object is distinctly understood&mdash;when it is known that our
+operations are confined exclusively to the free black
+population. That this is our <i>sole</i> object, I appeal with entire
+confidence to the constitution of our Society and to the
+constitution and Annual Reports of the Parent Institution.'
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'We again repeat&mdash;that our operations are confined to the free
+black population, and that there is no ground for fear on the
+part of our southern friends. We hold their slaves as we hold
+their other property, <span class="smcap">SACRED</span>. Let not then this slander be
+repeated.'&mdash;[Speech of James S. Green, Esq. on the same
+occasion.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Nothing has contributed more to retard the operations of the
+Colonization Society than the mistaken notion that it interferes
+directly with slavery. This objection is rapidly vanishing away,
+and many of the slaveholding States are becoming efficient
+supporters of the national society. In the Senate of Louisiana
+during its last session, resolutions were adopted expressive of
+the opinion that the object of this Society was deserving the
+patronage of the general government. An enlightened community
+now see, that this Society infringes upon no man's rights, that
+its object is noble and benevolent&mdash;to remedy an evil which is
+felt and acknowledged at the north and south&mdash;to give the free
+people of color the privileges of freemen.'&mdash;[From a Tract
+issued by the Massachusetts Colonization Society in 1831, for
+gratuitous distribution.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'This institution proposes to do good by a single specific
+course of measures. Its direct and specific purpose <i>is not the
+abolition of slavery</i>, or the relief of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> pauperism, or the
+extension of commerce and civilization, or the enlargement of
+science, or the conversion of the heathen. The single object
+which its constitution prescribes, and to which all its efforts
+are necessarily directed, is, African colonization from America.
+It proposes only to afford facilities for the voluntary
+emigration of free people of color from this country to the
+country of their fathers.'&mdash;[Review on African
+Colonization.&mdash;Christian Spectator for September, 1830.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It interferes in nowise with the right of property, and hopes
+and labors for the gradual abolition of slavery, by the
+voluntary and gradual manumission of slaves, when the free
+persons of color shall have first been transferred to their
+aboriginal climate and soil.'&mdash;[G. W. P. Custis, Esq.&mdash;African
+Repository, vol. i. p. 39.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Does this Society wish to meddle with our slaves as our
+rightful property? I answer <i>no</i>, I think not.'&mdash;[African
+Repository, vol. ii. p. 13.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'They have been denounced by some as fanatical and visionary
+innovators, pursuing without regard to means or consequences, an
+object destructive of the rights of property, and dangerous to
+the public peace.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The sole object of the Society, as
+declared at its institution, and from which it can never be
+allowed to depart, is 'to remove with their own consent, to the
+coast of Africa, the free colored population, now existing in
+the United States, and such as hereafter may become free.''&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+'In pursuing their object, therefore, (although such
+consequences may result from a successful prosecution of it,)
+the Society cannot be justly charged with aiming to disturb the
+rights of property or the peace of society. Your memorialists
+refer with confidence to the course they have pursued, in the
+prosecution of their object for nine years past, to shew that it
+is possible, without danger or alarm, to carry on such an
+operation, notwithstanding its supposed relation to the subject
+of slavery, and that they have not been regardless, in any of
+their measures, of what was due to the state of society in which
+they live. They are, themselves, chiefly slaveholders, and live,
+with all the ties of life binding them to a slaveholding
+community. They know when to speak and when to forbear upon
+topics connected with this painful and difficult subject. They
+put forth no passionate appeals before the public, seek to
+excite no feeling, and avoid, with the most sedulous care, every
+measure that would endanger the public tranquillity.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The
+managers could, with no propriety, depart from their original
+and avowed purpose, <i>and make emancipation their object</i>. And
+they would further say, that if they were not thus restrained by
+the terms of their association, they would still consider any
+attempts to promote the increase of the free colored population
+by manumission, <i>unnecessary</i>, <i>premature</i>, and <i>dangerous</i>.'
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It seems now to be admitted that, whatever has any bearing
+upon that question, must be managed with the utmost
+consideration; that the peace and order of society must not be
+endangered by indiscreet and ill-timed efforts to promote
+emancipation; and that a true regard should be manifested to the
+feelings and the fears, and even the <i>prejudices</i> of those,
+whose co-operation is essential.'&mdash;[Memorial of the Society to
+the several States.&mdash;A. R. vol. ii. pp. 57, 58, 60.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'To found in Africa an empire of <i>christians and republicans</i>;
+to reconduct the blacks to their native land, without disturbing
+the order of society, the laws of property, or the rights of
+individuals; rapidly, but legally, <i>silently</i>, <i>gradually</i>, to
+drain them off; these are the noble ends of the colonization
+scheme.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. ii. p. 375.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Nor have I ever been able to see, for my part, why the
+patronage of Congress to a benevolent and patriotic Society,
+which, without interfering, in the smallest degree, with that
+<i>delicate interest</i>, only aims to remove what we all consider as
+a great evil&mdash;our free people of color&mdash;(and which evil <i>does</i>
+inter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>fere with that interest,) should excite the jealousy or
+spleen of our most watchful and determined advocates of state
+rights.'&mdash;[Idem, p. 383.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Recognising the constitutional and legitimate existence of
+slavery, it seeks not to interfere, either directly or
+indirectly, with the rights which it creates. <i>Acknowledging the
+necessity by which its present continuance and the rigorous
+provisions for its maintenance are justified</i>, it aims only at
+furnishing the States, in which it exists, the means of
+immediately lessening its severities, and of ultimately
+relieving themselves from its acknowledged evils.'&mdash;[Opimius in
+reply to Caius Gracchus.&mdash;African Repository, vol. iii. p. 16.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'<i>It is no abolition Society</i>; it addresses as yet <i>arguments to
+no master</i>, and disavows with horror the idea of offering
+temptations to any slave. <span class="smcap">It denies the design of attempting
+emancipation, either partial or general</span>; it denies, with us,
+that the General Government have any power to emancipate; and
+declares that the States have exclusively the right to regulate
+the whole subject of slavery. The scope of the Society is large
+enough, but it is in nowise mingled or confounded with the broad
+sweeping views of <i>a few fanatics</i> in America, who would urge us
+on to the sudden and total abolition of slavery.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The
+first great material objection is that the Society does, in
+fact, in spite of its denial, meditate and conspire the
+emancipation of the slaves. To the candid, let me say that there
+are names on the rolls of the Society too high to be rationally
+accused of the duplicity and insidious falsehood which this
+implies; farther, the Society and its branches are composed, in
+by far the larger part, of <i>citizens of slaveholding States</i>,
+who cannot gravely be charged with a design so perilous to
+themselves. To the uncandid disputant, I say, let him put his
+finger on one single sentiment, declaration or act of the
+Society, or of any person, with its sanction, which shows such
+to be their object: there is in fact no pretext for the charge.'
+*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Let me repeat, the <i>friends</i> of the Colonization Society,
+three-fourths of them are <span class="smcap">SLAVEHOLDERS</span>; the legislatures of
+Maryland, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee, all slaveholding
+States, have approved it; <i>every member</i> of this auxiliary
+Society is, <i>either in himself, or his nearest relatives,
+interested in holding slaves</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Once more; this Society
+is no way connected with certain Abolition Societies in the
+country. To these the Colonization Society would say, "Your
+object is unattainable, your zeal dangerous, and nothing can
+give it the right direction or the right temperature, but your
+surrendering your plan to ours: be convinced, that if the blacks
+are ever to be removed from us, it will be by the free will of
+the owners, and by means of the opportunity which our <i>innocent</i>
+plan of an asylum for such as may be sent will afford."'&mdash;['The
+Col. Society Vindicated.'&mdash;Idem, pp. 197, 200, 202, 203.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'They can impress upon the southern slaveholder, by the strength
+of facts, and by the recorded declarations of honest men, that
+the objects of the Colonization Society are altogether pure and
+praiseworthy, and <i>that it has no intention to open the door to
+universal liberty</i>, but only to cut out a channel, where the
+merciful providence of God may cause those dark waters to flow
+off.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. iv. p. 145.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'About twelve years ago, some of the wisest men of the nation,
+(<i>mostly slaveholders</i>,) formed, in the city of Washington, the
+present American Colonization Society. Among them were men high
+in office, who had spent many years in studying the interests of
+their country, and who could not, therefore, be suspected of
+short-sighted enthusiasm, or any secret design of disturbing the
+rights or the safety of our southern citizens.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'You will
+observe, first, that <i>there is to be no intermeddling with
+property in slaves</i>. <span class="smcap">The rights of masters are to remain sacred
+in the eyes of the Society</span>. The tendency of the scheme, and one
+of its objects, is to <i>secure slaveholders, and the whole
+southern country</i>, against certain evil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> consequences, growing
+out of the three-fold mixture of our population.'&mdash;[Address of
+the Rockbridge Col. Society.&mdash;Idem, p. 274.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It is true, their operations have been <ins id="mycorr3" class="mycorr"
+title="Original: confied"><a name="corr3" id="corr3"></a>confined</ins> to the single
+object, colonization.&mdash;They do nothing directly to effect the
+manumission of slaves.&mdash;They think nothing can be advantageously
+done in favor of emancipation, but by means of colonization, of
+which emancipation will be a certain consequence that may be
+safely and quietly awaited.'&mdash;[Mr Key's Address.&mdash;Idem, p. 303.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The Colonization Society, as such, have renounced wholly the
+name and the characteristics of abolitionists. On this point
+they have been unjustly and injuriously slandered. They need no
+such barrier to restrict them, as the sentiment of Mr Harrison,
+for their operations are entirely in a different department.
+<span class="smcap">Into their accounts the subject of emancipation does not enter
+at all</span>.'&mdash;['N. E.'&mdash;Idem, p. 306.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Being, chiefly, slaveholders ourselves, we well know how it
+becomes us to approach such a subject as this in a slaveholding
+state, and in every other. If there were room for a reasonable
+jealousy, we among the first should feel it; being as much
+interested in the welfare of the community, and having as much
+at heart, as any men can have, the security of ourselves, our
+property and our families.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Our object is, not to prevail
+upon the master to part with his slave, for that we leave to his
+own reflection and <span class="smcap">CONVENIENCE</span>; but to afford to those masters
+who have determined, or may determine, to manumit their slaves;
+provided they can be removed from this country, the means of
+removing them to a place where they may be really free,
+virtuous, respectable and happy.&mdash;Nothing can be more innocent
+and less alarming.'&mdash;[Review of Mr Tazewell's Report.&mdash;Idem, p.
+341.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The American Colonization Society has, at all times, solemnly
+disavowed any purpose of interference with the institutions or
+rights of our Southern communities.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. v. p. 307.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'From its origin, and throughout the whole period of its
+existence, it has constantly disclaimed all intention whatever
+of interfering, in the smallest degree, with the rights of
+property, or the object of emancipation, gradual or immediate.
+<i>It is not only without inclination</i>, but it is without power,
+to make any such interference. It is not even a chartered or
+incorporated company; and it has no other foundation than that
+of Bible Societies, or any other christian or charitable
+unincorporated companies in our country. It knows that the
+subject of emancipation belongs exclusively to the several
+States in which slavery is tolerated, and to individual
+proprietors of slaves in those States, under and according to
+their laws.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The Society presents to the American public
+<i>no project of emancipation</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Its exertions have been
+confined exclusively to the free colored people of the United
+States, and to those of them who are willing to go. It has
+neither <i>purpose</i> nor power to extend them to the larger portion
+of that race held in bondage. Throughout the whole period of its
+existence, this disclaimer has been made, and incontestible
+facts establish its truth and sincerity. It is now repeated, in
+its behalf, that the spirit of misrepresentation may have no
+pretext for abusing the public ear.'&mdash;[Mr Clay's Speech.&mdash;African
+Repository, vol. vi. pp. 13, 17, 19.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The Society, from considerations like these, whilst it
+disclaims the remotest idea of ever disturbing the right of
+property in slaves, conceives it to be possible that the time
+may arrive, when, with the approbation of their owners, they
+shall all be at liberty; and, with those already free, be
+removed, with their own consent, to the land of their
+ancestors.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. vi. p. 69.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'<i>It is not the object of this Society to liberate slaves, or
+touch the rights of property</i>. <span class="smcap">To set them loose among us would
+be an evil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></span> <span class="smcap">more intolerable than slavery itself</span>. It would make
+our situation insecure and dangerous.'&mdash;[Report of the Kentucky
+Col. Soc.&mdash;Idem, p. 81.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It contemplates no purpose of abolition: it touches no slave
+until his fetters have been voluntarily stricken off by the hand
+of his own master.'&mdash;[Speech of John A. Dix, Esq.&mdash;Idem, p.
+165.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'What has awakened that spirit of suspicion and enmity which is
+now manifested by these men in every form of open and active
+hostility? Can it be attributed to any departure of the Society
+from its avowed original design and principles? We maintain that
+it cannot; we maintain that the character of the Society has
+from the commencement been uniformly the same, and that its
+proceedings have been consistent with its character. Were or are
+the design and principles of the Society hostile to the rights
+and interest of the Southern States? We maintain that they were
+and are not; but on the contrary, are worthy to be cherished by
+the citizens of these States, and to be sustained with all their
+energies as means of their political and moral strength.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+'The <i>free</i> people of color alone are to be colonized by the
+Society, and whether the benefits of its scheme are ever to be
+extended to <i>others</i>, is a question referred to those to whom it
+pertains as a matter of right and duty to decide.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The
+Colonization Society would be the last Institution in the world
+to disturb the domestic tranquillity of the South.'&mdash;[Defence of
+the Society.&mdash;Idem, pp. 197, 207, 209.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'This Society, here in the outset, most explicitly disclaims all
+intention to interfere in the smallest degree with the slave
+population. It is with the free colored population alone, and
+that too, with their own consent, that this Society proposes to
+act.'&mdash;[Address of the Maryland State Colonization Society to
+the People of Maryland.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'To the slaveholder, who had charged upon them the wicked design
+of interfering with the rights of property under the specious
+pretexts of removing a vicious and dangerous free population,
+they address themselves in a tone of conciliation and sympathy.
+We know your rights, say they, and we respect them&mdash;we know your
+difficulties, and we appreciate them. <i>Being mostly slaveholders
+ourselves</i>, having a common interest with you in this subject,
+an equal opportunity of understanding it, and the same motives
+to prudent action, what better guarantee can be afforded for the
+just discrimination, and the safe operation of our measures? And
+what ground for apprehension that we, who are bound to you by
+the strongest ties of interest and of sympathy, should intrude
+upon the repose of the domestic circle, or invade the peace and
+security of society? Have not the thirteen years' peaceful, yet
+efficient, operations of our Society attested the <i>moderation of
+our views</i> and the safety of our plans? We have protested from
+the commencement, and during our whole progress, and we do now
+protest, that we have never entertained the purpose of
+intermeddling with the private property of individuals. We know
+that we have not the power, even if we had the inclination, to
+do so. Your rights, as guarantied by the Constitution, are held
+sacred in our eyes; and we should be among the foremost to
+resist, as a flagrant usurpation, any encroachment upon those
+rights. Our only object, as at all times avowed, is to provide
+for the removal to the coast of Africa, with their own consent,
+of such persons of color as are already free, and of such others
+as the humanity of individuals, or the laws of the different
+states, may hereafter liberate. Is there any thing, say they, in
+this proposition at war with your interest, your safety, your
+honor, or your happiness? Do we not all regard this mixed and
+intermediate population of free blacks, made up of slaves or
+their immediate descendants, as a mighty and a growing evil,
+exerting a dangerous and baneful influence on all around
+them?'&mdash;[Address of Cyrus Edwards, Esq. of Illinois.&mdash;African
+Repository, vol. vii. p. 100.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It was never the intention of the Society to interfere with the
+rights of the proprietors of slaves; nor has it at any time done
+so.'&mdash;[Address of R. J. Breckenridge of Kentucky.&mdash;Idem p. 176.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The specific object to which the entire funds of the
+Institution are devoted, is simple and plainly unexceptionable
+in this respect, that it interferes with no rights of
+individuals, and with no law of the land.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It embraces in
+its provisions only the free. It does not interfere&mdash;it desires
+not to interfere, in any way, with the rights or the interests
+of the proprietors of slaves. <i>It condemns no man because he is
+a slaveholder</i>; it seeks to quiet all unkind feelings between
+the sober and virtuous men of the North and of the South on the
+subject of slavery; it sends abroad no influence to disturb the
+peace, and endanger the security and prosperity of any portion
+of the country.'&mdash;[Character and Influence of the Colonization
+Society.&mdash;African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 194, 200.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Can it be a ruthless scheme of political speculation, which
+would trample, with rude and unhallowed step, upon the rights of
+property, to gratify the visionary and fanatical projects of its
+authors? No: this is impossible. Yet such is the language of
+intemperate opposition, with which this Society has been
+assailed by its enemies.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Equally absurd and false is the
+objection, that this Society seeks indirectly to disturb the
+rights of property, and to interfere with the well-established
+relation subsisting between master and slave. The man who avows
+such monstrous purposes as these, and seeks to shelter himself
+under the sanction and authority of the American Colonization
+Society, is a base traitor to the cause which it seeks to
+advance&mdash;<span class="smcap">AN ENEMY OF THE WORST AND MOST DANGEROUS STAMP</span>, because
+he assumes the specious garb of a friend and coadjutor. Let him
+stand, or let him fall, by the verdict of an insulted and
+outraged community&mdash;but do not make liable for his acts a great
+Institution, whose real friends will be the first to reject and
+discountenance him, and to mark upon his forehead in indelible
+characters, "This is a traitor to the cause of his country and
+the cause of humanity."&mdash;It is true that the friends of the
+American Colonization Society have permitted themselves to
+entertain the high and exalted hope, that, by its influences,
+ultimate and remote, the burdens which are incident to slavery
+may be greatly mitigated, and possibly the evil itself at some
+future day be entirely removed. But mark, Mr President, and mark
+well, ye hearers, the grounds upon which this hope is founded.
+It could not be sustained by any effort, direct or indirect, to
+invade the rights of the slaveholding community, for the plain
+and palpable reason, that the effort itself would furnish the
+most certain means of defeating the object in view, even
+supposing the friends of the Society reckless enough to
+entertain it. It would denote on the part of those who made it,
+an extremity of madness and folly, wholly unprecedented in the
+history of the world, and if persevered in, would dissolve the
+government into its original elements, even though the principle
+of union which holds it together were a thousand-fold stronger
+than it is.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Surely the friends of the Colonization
+Society have done nought either to alarm the honest fears of the
+patriot, or excite the morbid sensibilities of the
+slaveholder.'&mdash;[Address delivered before the Lynchburg Auxiliary
+Colonization Society, August 18, 1831.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'While, therefore, <i>they determined to avoid the question of
+slavery</i>, they proposed the formation of a colony on the coast
+of Africa, as an asylum for free people of color.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The
+emancipation of slaves or the amelioration of their condition,
+with the moral, intellectual, and political improvement of
+people of color within the United States, <i>are subjects foreign
+to the powers of this Society</i>.'&mdash;[Address of the Board of
+Managers of the American Colonization Society to its Auxiliary
+Societies.&mdash;African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 290, 291.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The American Colonization Society was formed with special
+reference to the <i>free</i> blacks of our country. With the
+<i>delicate subject</i> of slavery it presumes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> not to interfere. And
+yet doubtless from the first it has cherished the hope of being
+in some way or other a medium of relief to the entire colored
+population of the land. Such a hope is certainly both innocent
+and benevolent. And so long as the Society adheres to the object
+announced in its constitution, as it hitherto has done, the
+master can surely find no reasonable cause of anxiety. And it is
+a gratifying circumstance that the Society has from the first
+<i>obtained its most decided and efficient support from the
+slaveholding States</i>.'&mdash;[Sermon, delivered at Springfield,
+Mass., July 4th, 1829, before the Auxiliary Colonization Society
+of Hampden County, by Rev. B. Dickinson.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The American Colonization Society in no way directly meddles
+with slavery. It disclaims all such
+interference.'&mdash;[Correspondent of the Southern Religious
+Telegraph.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'This system is sanctioned by the laws of independent and
+sovereign states. Congress cannot constitutionally pass laws
+which shall tend directly to abolish it. If it ever be abolished
+by legislative enactments, it must be done by the respective
+legislatures of the States in which it exists. It never designed
+to interfere with what the laws consider as the rights of
+masters&mdash;it has made no appeals to them to release their slaves
+for colonization, nor to their slaves to abandon their masters.
+With this delicate subject, the Society has avowedly nothing to
+do. Its ostensible object is necessarily the removal of our free
+colored population.'&mdash;[Middletown (Connecticut) Gazette.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'With slaves, however, the American Colonization Society has <i>no
+concern</i> whatever, except to transport to Africa such as their
+owners may liberate for that purpose.'&mdash;[Oration delivered at
+Newark, N. J., July 4th, 1831, by Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It disclaims, and always has disclaimed, all intention
+whatever, of interfering in the smallest degree, direct or
+indirect, with the rights of slaveholders, the right of
+property, <i>or the object of emancipation, gradual or immediate.
+It knows that the owners of slaves are the owners, and no one
+else&mdash;it does not, in the most remote degree, touch that
+delicate subject</i>. Every slaveholder may, therefore, remain at
+ease concerning it or its progress or objects.'&mdash;[An advocate of
+the Society in the New-Orleans Argus.]</p></div>
+
+<p>It were needless to multiply these extracts. So precisely do they
+resemble each other, that they seem rather as the offspring of a single
+mind, than of many minds. A large majority of them come in the most
+official and authoritative shape, and their language is explicit beyond
+cavil.</p>
+
+<p>Here, then, is a combination, embracing able and influential men in all
+parts of the country, pledging itself not only to respect the system of
+slavery, but to frown indignantly upon those who shall dare to assail
+it. And what is this system which is to be held in so much reverence,
+and avoided with so much care? It is a system which has in itself no
+redeeming feature, but is full of blood&mdash;the blood of innocent men,
+women and children; full of adultery and concupiscence; full of
+darkness, blasphemy and wo; full of rebellion against God and treason
+against the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> universe; full of wrath&mdash;impurity&mdash;ignorance&mdash;brutality&mdash;and
+awful impiety; full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; full of
+temporal suffering and eternal damnation. It is, says Pitt, a mass, a
+system of enormities, which incontrovertibly bid defiance to every
+regulation which ingenuity can devise, or power effect, but a total
+extinction; a system of incurable injustice, the complication of every
+species of iniquity, the greatest practical evil that ever has afflicted
+the human race, and the severest and most extensive calamity recorded in
+the history of the world. Fox calls it a most unjust and horrible
+persecution of our fellow creatures. The Rev. Dr. Thomson declares it is
+a system hostile to the original and essential rights of
+humanity&mdash;contrary to the inflexible and paramount demands of moral
+justice&mdash;at eternal variance with the spirit and maxims of revealed
+religion&mdash;inimical to all that is merciful in the heart, and holy in the
+conduct&mdash;and on these accounts, necessarily exposed and subject to the
+curse of Almighty God. It is, says Rowland Hill, made up of every crime
+that treachery, cruelty and murder can invent. Wilberforce says, it is
+the full measure of pure, unmixed, unsophisticated wickedness; and
+scorning all competition or comparison, it stands without a rival in the
+secure, undisputed possession of its detestable pre-eminence. In this
+country, slavery is a system which leaves the chastity of one million
+females without any protection! which condemns more than two millions of
+human beings to remediless bondage! which authorises their sale at
+public vendue in company with horses, sheep and hogs, or in a private
+manner, at the pleasure of their owners! which, under penalty of
+imprisonment, and even death, forbids their being taught the lowest
+rudiments of knowledge! which, by the exclusion of their testimony in
+courts, subjects them to worse than brutal treatment! which recognizes
+no connubial obligations, ruthlessly severs the holiest relations of
+life, tears the scarcely weaned babe from the arms of its mother, wives
+from their husbands, and parents from their children! But who is
+adequate to the task of delineating its horrors, or recording its
+atrocities, in full? Who can number the stripes which it inflicts, the
+groans and tears and imprecations which it extorts, the cruel murders
+which it perpetrates?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> or who measure the innocent blood which it
+spills, or the degradation which it imposes, or the guilt which it
+accumulates? or who reveal the waste of property, the perversion of
+intellect, the loss of happiness, the burial of mind, to which it is
+accessary? or who trace its poisonous influence and soul-destroying
+tendency back for two hundred years down to the end of time? None&mdash;none
+but God himself! It is corrupt as death&mdash;black as perdition&mdash;cruel and
+insatiate as the grave. To adopt the nervous language of another:&mdash;The
+thing I say is true. I speak the truth, though it is most lamentable. I
+dare not hide it, I dare not palliate it; else the horror with which it
+covereth me would make me do so. Wo unto such a system! wo unto the men
+of this land who have been brought under its operation! It is not felt
+to be evil, it is not acknowledged to be evil, it is not preached
+against as evil; and, therefore, it is only the more inveterate and
+fearful an evil.<a name="FNanchor_H_9" id="FNanchor_H_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_9" class="fnanchor">[H]</a> <i>It hath become constitutional.</i> <span class="smcap">It is fed from the
+stream of our life</span>, and it will grow more and more excessive, until it
+can no longer be endured by God, nor borne with by man.</p>
+
+<p>And this is the system, with which, as the reader has seen, the American
+Colonization Society is resolved not to interfere; and with the
+upholders of which, ministers of the gospel and professors of religion
+of all denominations have made a treaty of peace! Tell it not
+abroad&mdash;publish it not in the capitals of Europe&mdash;lest the despots of
+the old world take courage, and infidelity strengthen its stakes!</p>
+
+<p>If men who are reputedly wise and good&mdash;if religious teachers and
+political leaders, those whose opinions are almost implicitly adopted,
+and whose examples are readily followed by the mass of the people&mdash;if
+such men suppress their voices on this momentous subject, and turn their
+eyes from its contemplation, and give the right hand of fellowship to
+the buyers and sellers of human flesh, is there not cause for
+lamentation and alarm? The pulpit is false to its trust, and a moral
+paralysis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> has seized the vitals of the church. The sanctity of religion
+is thrown, like a mantle, over the horrid system. Under its auspices,
+robbery and oppression have become popular and flourishing. The press,
+too, by its profound silence, or selfish neutrality, or equivocal
+course, or active partizanship, is enlisted in the cause of tyranny&mdash;the
+mighty press, which has power, if exerted aright, to break every fetter,
+and emancipate the land. If this state of things be not speedily
+reversed, 'we be all dead men.' Unless the pulpit lift up the voice of
+warning, supplication and wo, with a fidelity which no emolument can
+bribe, and no threat intimidate; unless the church organise and plan for
+the redemption of the benighted slaves, and directly assault the strong
+holds of despotism; unless the press awake to its duty, or desist from
+its bloody co-operation; as sure as Jehovah lives and is unchangeable,
+he will pour out his indignation upon us, and consume us with the fire
+of his wrath, and our own way recompense upon our heads. 'Ah, sinful
+nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children
+that are corrupters! When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine
+eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: <i>your
+hands are full of blood</i>. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of
+your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well;
+<i>seek judgment, relieve the oppressed</i>, judge the fatherless, plead for
+the widow. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the
+land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword:
+<i>for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>I know the covert behind which colonizationists take refuge. They
+profess to be&mdash;and, doubtless, in many instances are&mdash;aiming at the
+ultimate emancipation of the slaves; but they are all for <i>gradual</i>
+abolition&mdash;all too courteous to give offence&mdash;too sober to be
+madmen&mdash;too discreet to adopt <i>rash</i> measures. But I shall show, in the
+progress of this work, that they not only shield the holders of slaves
+from reproach, (and thus, by assuring them of their innocence, destroy
+all motives for repentance,) but earnestly dissuade them from
+emancipating their slaves without an immediate expulsion. Fine
+conceptions of justice! Enemies of slavery, with a vengeance!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Suppose a similar course had been pursued by the friends of
+Temperance&mdash;when would have commenced that mighty reformation which has
+taken place before our eyes&mdash;unparalleled in extent, completeness and
+rapidity? Suppose, instead of exposing the guilt of trafficking in
+ardent spirits, and demanding instant and entire abstinence, they had
+associated themselves together for the exclusive purpose of colonizing
+all the drunkards in the land, as a class dangerous to our safety and
+irremediably degraded, on a spot where they could not obtain the
+poisonous alcohol, but could rise to respect and affluence&mdash;how would
+such an enterprise have been received? Suppose they had pledged
+themselves not to 'meddle' with the business of the traders in
+spirituous liquors, or to injure the 'property' of distillers, and had
+dwelt upon the folly and danger of 'immediate' abstinence, and had
+denounced the advocates of this doctrine as madmen and fanatics, and had
+endeavored, moreover, to suppress inquiry into the lawfulness of
+rum-selling&mdash;how many importers, makers and venders of the liquid poison
+would have abandoned their occupation, or how many of the four hundred
+thousand individuals, who are now enrolled under the banner of entire
+abstinence, would have been united in this great enterprise? Suppose,
+further, that, in a lapse of fifteen years, this association had
+transported two thousand drunkards, and the tide of intemperance had
+continued to rise higher and higher, and some faithful watchmen had
+given the alarm and showed the fatal delusion which rested upon the
+land, and the Society should have defended itself by pointing to the two
+thousand sots who had been saved by its instrumentality&mdash;would the
+public attention have been successfully diverted from the <i>immense evil</i>
+to the <i>partial good</i>? Suppose, once more, that this Society, composed
+indiscriminately of rum-sellers and sober, pious men, on being charged
+with perpetuating the evils of intemperance, with removing only some of
+the fruits thereof instead of the tree itself, should have indignantly
+repelled the charge, and said&mdash;'We are as much opposed to drunkenness,
+and as heartily deprecate its existence, as any of our violent,
+fanatical opposers; but the holders of ardent spirit have invested their
+capital in it, and to destroy its sale would invade the right of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+<i>property</i>; policy at least, bids us not to assail their conduct, as
+otherwise we might exasperate them, and so lose their aid in colonizing
+the tipplers.' What would have been accomplished? But no such logic was
+used: the duty of immediate reform was constantly pressed upon the
+people, and a mighty reform took place.</p>
+
+<p>Colonizationists boast inordinately of having emancipated three or four
+hundred slaves by their scheme, and contemptuously inquire of
+abolitionists, 'What have <i>you</i> effected?' Many persons have been
+deceived by this <i>show</i> of success, and deem it conclusive evidence of
+the usefulness of the Colonization Society. But, in the first place, it
+is very certain that none of these slaves were liberated in consequence
+of the faithful appeals of the Society to the consciences of the
+masters; for it has never troubled their consciences by any such
+appeals. Secondly, it is obvious that these manumissions are the fruits
+of the uncompromising doctrines of abolitionists; for they are
+calculated to bring slaveholders to repentance, and they will yet
+liberate other slaves to be caught up and claimed by the Society as
+trophies of its success. Thirdly, it has been shown that while this
+Society (allowing it the utmost that it claims) is effecting very little
+and very doubtful good, it is inflicting upon the nation great and
+positive evil, by refusing to arraign the oppressors at the bar of
+eternal justice, and by obstructing the formation of abolition
+societies. It rivets a thousand fetters where it breaks one. It annually
+removes, on an average, two hundred of our colored population, whereas
+the annual increase is about seventy thousand. It releases some scores
+of slaves, and says to the owners of more than two millions&mdash;'Hold on!
+don't emancipate too fast!'</p>
+
+<p>What have the abolitionists <i>done</i>? They have done more, during the past
+year, to overthrow the system of slavery, than has been accomplished by
+the gradualists in half a century. They have succeeded in fastening the
+attention of the nation upon its enormities, and in piercing the callous
+consciences of the planters. They are reforming and consolidating public
+opinion, dispelling the mists of error, inspiring the hearts of the
+timid, enlightening the eyes of the blind, and disturbing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> slumbers
+of the guilty. Colonizationists gather a few leaves which the tree has
+cast off, and vaunt of the deed: abolitionists 'lay the axe at once to
+its roots, and put their united nerve into the steel'&mdash;nor shall their
+strokes be in vain&mdash;for soon shall 'this great poison-tree of lust and
+blood, and of all abominable and heartless iniquity, fall before them;
+and law and love, and God and man, shout victory over its ruin.'</p>
+
+<p>Has the reader duly considered the fatal admissions of the advocates of
+the colonization scheme, presented in the preceding pages? Some of them
+it may be serviceable to the cause of truth and justice to recapitulate.</p>
+
+<ol>
+<li><i>The Society does not aim directly at the instruction of the blacks:
+their moral, intellectual and political improvement within the United
+States, is foreign to its powers.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>The public safety forbids either the emancipation or the general
+instruction of the slaves.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>The Society properly enough stands aloof from the question of
+slavery.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>It is ready to pass censure upon abolition societies.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>It involves no intrusion on property, nor even upon prejudice.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>It has no wish, if it could, to interfere in the smallest degree
+with the system of slavery.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>It acknowledges the necessity by which the present continuance of
+the system and the rigorous provisions for its maintenance are
+justified.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>It denies the design of attempting emancipation either partial or
+general: into its accounts the subject of emancipation does not enter at
+all: it has no intention to open the door to universal liberty.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>The rights of masters are to remain sacred in the eyes of the
+Society.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>It condemns no man because he is a slaveholder.</i></li>
+</ol>
+
+<p>Each of these particulars deserves a volume of comments, but I am
+compelled to dismiss them in rotation with a single remark.</p>
+
+<p>1. One reason assigned by the Society for refusing to promote the
+education of our colored population, is, a dread of exciting 'the
+<i>prejudices</i> and <i>terrors</i> of the slaveholding States'! Is it credible?
+As far, then, as this Society extends its influ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>ence, more than two
+millions of ignorant, degraded beings in this boasted land of liberty
+and light have nothing to hope: their moral, intellectual and political
+improvement is foreign to its powers! Cruel neglect! barbarous
+coalition! A sinful fear of rousing the prejudices of oppressors
+outweighs the claims of the contemned blacks, the requirements of the
+gospel, the dictates of humanity, and the convictions of duty. Will this
+plea avail aught at the bar of God? Millions of our countrymen purposely
+kept in darkness, although we are able to pour daylight upon their
+vision, merely to gratify and protect their buyers and sellers!</p>
+
+<p>2. There never was a more abominable or more absurd heresy propagated,
+than the assumption that the public safety would be jeoparded by an
+immediate compliance with the demands of justice: yet it has obtained
+among all orders of society. Even ministers of the gospel, who are bound
+to cry aloud, and spare not,&mdash;to lift up their voices like a trumpet,
+and show this guilty nation its sins,&mdash;to say to the holders of slaves,
+'Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the
+oppressed go free, <i>and break every yoke</i>,'&mdash;even they fly to this
+subterfuge, and deprecate a general emancipation. On this subject, 'they
+know not what they do;' they reason like madmen or atheists; they
+advance sentiments which unhinge the moral government of the universe,
+and directly encourage the commission of the most heinous crimes. How
+long would any one of their number retain his situation, if he were to
+preach in explicit terms to his congregation as follows?&mdash;'My dear
+hearers, if any among you are daily oppressing the weak, or defrauding
+the poor, do not cease from your robbery and cruelty at once, as you
+value your own happiness and the welfare of society! Relax your
+tyrannous grasp gradually from the throat of your neighbor, and steal
+not quite so much from him this year as you did the last!'&mdash;But they
+emphatically hold this language whenever they advise slaveholders not to
+repent <i>en masse</i>, or too hastily. The public safety, they say, forbids
+emancipation! or, in other words, the public safety depends upon your
+persistance in cheating, whipping, starving, debasing your slaves! Nay,
+more&mdash;many of them, horrible to tell, are traffickers in human flesh!
+'For this thing which it cannot bear, the earth is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> disquieted. The
+gospel of peace and mercy preached by him who steals, buys and sells the
+purchase of Messiah's blood!&mdash;rulers of the church making merchandize of
+their brethren's souls!&mdash;and Christians trading the persons of men!'<a name="FNanchor_I_10" id="FNanchor_I_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_I_10" class="fnanchor">[I]</a></p>
+
+<p>3. The system of slavery is full of danger, outrage, desolation and
+death&mdash;'a volcano in full operation'&mdash;a monster that is annually
+supplied with sixty thousand new victims, devoured as soon as born&mdash;and
+yet the Colonization Society 'properly enough stands aloof' from it!! It
+utters no lamentations&mdash;makes no supplications&mdash;gives no
+rebukes&mdash;presents no motives for repentance!</p>
+
+<p>4. The Society is not only ready to pass, but it is constantly bestowing
+its censure upon abolition societies. It represents their members as
+guided by a visionary, wild and fanatical spirit, as invaders of rights
+which are sacred, incendiaries, disturbers of the peace of society, and
+enemies to the safety and happiness of the planters. Determining itself
+to avoid the question of emancipation&mdash;to leave millions of human beings
+to pine in bondage without exposing the guilt of the oppressors&mdash;it
+endeavors to prevent any other association agitating the subject. Hence
+between colonization and abolition societies there is no affinity of
+feeling or action; and hence arises the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> cause, inexplicable to many,
+why they cannot pursue their objects amicably together.</p>
+
+<p>5. The attempt of the Society to conciliate the holders of slaves must
+result either in disappointment, or in an abandonment of the path of
+duty. If they are guilty of robbery and oppression, they must be
+arraigned as criminals, or they never will reform: for why should
+honest, benevolent men change their conduct? If, through a false
+delicacy of feeling or cringing policy, their wickedness be covered up,
+alas for the slaves, and alas for the regeneration of the south! all
+hope is lost.</p>
+
+<p>6. The Society has no wish, <i>if it could</i>, to interfere with the system
+of slavery! Monstrous indifference, or barbarous cruelty! And yet it
+presumes to occupy the whole ground of the controversy, and to direct
+the actions of the friends of the blacks throughout the land! By the
+phrase '<i>interfere</i>,' is meant no desire to contest the claims of the
+planters to their bondmen, or to kindle the indignation of the people
+against their atrocious practices.</p>
+
+<p>7. It appears that all those terrible enactments which have been made
+for the government of the slaves&mdash;such, for example, as forbid their
+learning to read under the penalty of stripes, and even death&mdash;are
+acknowledged by the Society to be necessary for the maintenance of
+order! What a concession!</p>
+
+<p>8. Sometimes we are told that the Society is aiming at the liberation of
+all the slaves, and then that it has no design of attempting either
+partial or general emancipation: so contradictory are its assurances! It
+is manifest that it does not mean to touch the question of slavery; and
+hence the imperious necessity of forming abolition societies.</p>
+
+<p>9. The rights of masters are to remain sacred in the eyes of the
+Society! What rights? Those by which the intelligent creatures of God
+are bought and sold and used like cattle? those which are founded upon
+piracy, cruelty and outrage?<a name="FNanchor_J_11" id="FNanchor_J_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_J_11" class="fnanchor">[J]</a> Yes! This, then, is an abandonment of
+the ground of right and justice, and ends the controversy between truth
+and error.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>10. It condemns no man because he is a slaveholder! Certainly, then, it
+allows that slaveholders are upright men&mdash;not guilty of fraud&mdash;not
+oppressors&mdash;not extortioners! and that the slaves are truly and justly
+their property&mdash;not entitled to freedom&mdash;not better than cattle&mdash;not
+conscious of evil treatment&mdash;not worthy of remuneration for their
+toil&mdash;not rational and accountable beings!</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_9" id="Footnote_H_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_9"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> The term evil is used here in a criminal sense. I know that
+colonizationists regard slavery as an evil; but an evil which has been
+<i>entailed</i> upon this land, for the existence of which we are no more to
+blame than for the prevalence of plague or famine.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I_10" id="Footnote_I_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I_10"><span class="label">[I]</span></a> 'If the most guilty and daring transgressor be sought, he
+is a Gospel Minister, who solemnly avows his belief of the Presbyterian
+Confession of Faith, or the Methodist Discipline, and notwithstanding
+himself is a Negro Pedler, who steals, buys, sells, and keeps his
+brethren in slavery, or supports by his taciturnity, or his smooth
+prophesying, or his direct defence, the Christian professor who unites
+in the kidnapping trade. Truth forces the declaration, that every church
+officer, or member, who is a slaveholder, records himself, by his own
+creed, a hypocrite!'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'To pray and kidnap! to commune and rob men's
+all! to preach justice, and steal the laborer with his recompense! to
+recommend mercy to others, and exhibit cruelty in our own conduct! to
+explain religious duties, and ever impede the performance of them! to
+propound the example of Christ and his Apostles, and declare that a
+slaveholder imitates them! to enjoin an observance of the Lord's day,
+and drive the slaves from the temple of God! to inculcate every social
+affection, and instantly exterminate them! to expatiate upon bliss
+eternal, and preclude sinners from obtaining it! to unfold the woes of
+Tophet, and not drag men from its fire! are the most preposterous
+delusion, and the most consummate mockery.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The Church of God
+groans. It is the utmost Satanic delusion to talk of religion and
+slavery. Be not deceived: to affirm that a slaveholder is a genuine
+disciple of Jesus Christ, is most intelligible contradiction. A brother
+of Him who went about doing good, and steal, enslave, torment, starve
+and scourge a man because his skin is of a different tinge! Such
+Christianity is the Devil's manufacture to delude souls to the regions
+of wo.'&mdash;<span class="smcap">Rev. George Bourne.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_J_11" id="Footnote_J_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_J_11"><span class="label">[J]</span></a> 'We are told not to meddle with vested rights: I have a
+sacred feeling about vested rights; but when vested rights become vested
+wrongs, I am less scrupulous about them.'&mdash;<i>Speech of Rev. Mr. Burnett,
+of England.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="SECTION_II" id="SECTION_II"></a>SECTION II.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY APOLOGISES FOR SLAVERY AND
+SLAVEHOLDERS.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My</span> charges against the American Colonization Society acquire breadth and
+solemnity as I progress in my task. I have fairly and abundantly
+sustained my first,&mdash;<i>that the Society is not the enemy of the
+slave-system</i>; and I now proceed to prove my second,&mdash;<i>that it
+apologises for slavery and slaveholders</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'There is a golden mean, which all who would pursue the solid
+interest and reputation of their country may discern at the very
+heart of their confederation, and will both advocate and
+enforce&mdash;a principle, of justice, conciliation and humanity&mdash;a
+principle, sir, which is not inconsistent with itself, and yet
+can sigh over the degradation of the slave, <i>defend the wisdom
+and prudence of the South against the charge of studied and
+pertinacious cruelty</i>,' &amp;c.&mdash;[Address of Robert F. Stockton,
+Esq. at the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Parent Society.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It is a fact, given us on the most unquestionable authority,
+that there are now in the southern States of our union,
+hundreds, and even thousands of proprietors, who would gladly
+give liberty to their slaves, but are deterred by the
+apprehension of doing injury to their country, and perhaps to
+the slaves themselves.'&mdash;[Discourse by the Rev. Dr.
+Dana.&mdash;African Repository, vol. i. p. 145.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Guarding that system, the existence of which, though
+<i>unfortunate</i>, <span class="smcap">THEY DEEM NECESSARY</span>.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol.
+i. p. 227.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We all know from a variety of considerations which it is
+unnecessary to name, and in consequence of the policy which is
+obliged to be pursued in the southern States, that it is
+extremely difficult to free a slave, and hence the enactment of
+those laws <i>which a fatal necessity seems to demand</i>.'&mdash;[African
+Repository, vol. ii. p. 12.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'They are convinced, that there are now hundreds of masters who
+are so only from <i>necessity</i>.'&mdash;[Memorial of the Society to the
+several States.&mdash;A. R. vol. ii. p. 60.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>'<i>I do not condemn</i>, let
+me be understood, <i>their detention in bondage</i> under the
+circumstances which are yet existing.'&mdash;['The Colonization
+Society Vindicated.'&mdash;Idem, vol. iii. p. 201.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'A third point in which the first promoters of this object were
+united, is, that few individual slaveholders can, in the present
+state of things, emancipate their slaves if they would. There is
+a certain relation between the proprietor of slaves and the
+beings thus thrown upon him, which is far more complicated, and
+far less easily dissolved, than a mind unacquainted with the
+subject is ready to imagine. The relation is one which, where it
+exists, grows out of the very structure of society, and for the
+existence of which, the master is ordinarily as little
+accountable as the slave.'</p>
+
+<p>'He [the planter] looks around him and sees that the condition
+of the great mass of emancipated Africans is one <i>in comparison
+with which the condition of his slaves is enviable</i>;&mdash;and he is
+convinced that if he withdraws from his slaves his authority,
+his support, his protection, and leaves them to shift for
+themselves, he turns them out to be vagabonds, and paupers, and
+felons, and to find in the work-house and the penitentiary, the
+home which they ought to have retained on his paternal
+acres.&mdash;Hundreds of humane and Christian slaveholders retain
+their fellow-men in bondage, because <i>they are convinced that
+they can do no better</i>.'&mdash;[Address of the Managers of the
+Colonization Society of Connecticut.&mdash;Af. Rep. vol. iv. pp. 119,
+120.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'<span class="smcap">I am not complaining of the owners of slaves</span>; they cannot get
+rid of them.&mdash;<i>I do not doubt that masters treat their slaves
+with kindness</i>, nor that the slaves are happier than they could
+be if set free in this country.'&mdash;[Address delivered before the
+Hampden Col. Soc., July 4th, 1828, by Wm. B. O. Peabody, Esq.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'<i>Policy</i>, and even <i>the voice of humanity</i> forbade the progress
+of manumission; and the <i>salutary hand of law</i> came forward to
+co-operate with our convictions, and to arrest the flow of our
+feelings, and the ardor of our desires.'&mdash;[Review of the Report
+of the Committee of Foreign Relations.&mdash;Af. Rep. vol. iv. p.
+268.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'When an owner of slaves tells me that he will freely relinquish
+his slaves, or even that he will relinquish one-half of their
+value, <i>on condition that he be compensated for the other half</i>,
+and provision be made for their transportation, I feel that he
+has made a generous proposal, and <i>I cannot charge him with all
+the guilt of slavery</i>, though he may continue to be a
+slaveholder.'&mdash;[Af. Rep. vol. v. p. 63.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Even slavery must be viewed as a great national calamity; a
+public evil entailed upon us by untoward circumstances, <i>and
+perpetuated for the want of appropriate remedies</i>.'&mdash;[Idem, vol.
+v. p. 89.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Slavery is an evil which is entailed upon the present
+generation of slaveholders, which they must suffer, <i>whether
+they will or not</i>.'&mdash;[Idem, p. 179.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Our brethren of the South, have the same sympathies, the same
+moral sentiments, the same love of liberty as ourselves. By them
+as by us, slavery is felt to be an evil, a hindrance to our
+prosperity, and a blot upon our character. But it was in being
+when they were born, and has been forced upon them by a previous
+generation.'&mdash;[Address of Rev. Dr. Nott.&mdash;Idem, p. 277.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'With a writer in the Southern Review we say, "the situation of
+the people of these States was not of their choosing. When they
+came to the inheritance, it was subject to this mighty
+incumbrance, and it would be criminal in them to rain or waste
+the estate, to get rid of the burden at once." With this writer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+we add also, in the language of Captain Hall, that the
+"slaveholders ought not (immediately) to disentangle themselves
+from the obligations which have devolved upon them, as the
+masters of slaves." We believe that a master <i>may</i> sustain his
+relation to the slave, with as little criminality as the slave
+sustains his relation to the master.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Slavery, in its
+mildest form, is an evil of the darkest character. Cruel and
+unnatural in its origin, no plea can be urged in justification
+of its continuance but the plea of <i>necessity</i>.'&mdash;[Af. Rep. vol.
+v. pp. 329, 334.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'How much more consistent and powerful would be our example, but
+for that population within our limits, whose condition
+(<i>necessary</i> condition, I will not deny) is so much at war with
+our institutions, and with that memorable national
+Declaration&mdash;"that all men are created equal."'&mdash;[Fourteenth
+Ann. Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'<i>It</i> [the Society] <i>condemns no man because he is a
+slaveholder.</i>'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'They [abolitionists] confound the
+<i>misfortunes</i> of one generation with the crimes of another, and
+would sacrifice both individual and public good to an
+<i>unsubstantial theory of the rights of man</i>.'&mdash;[A. R. vol. vii.
+pp. 200, 202.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Many thousand individuals in our native State, you well know,
+Mr President, are restrained, said Mr Mercer, from manumitting
+their slaves, as you and I are, by the melancholy conviction,
+that they cannot yield to the suggestions of humanity, without
+manifest injury to their country.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The laws of Virginia
+now discourage, and very wisely, perhaps, the emancipation of
+slaves.'&mdash;[Speech of Mr Mercer.&mdash;First Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We are ready even to grant, for our present purpose, that, so
+far as mere animal existence is concerned, the slaves have no
+reason to complain, and the friends of humanity have no reason
+to complain for them.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'There are men in the southern
+states, who long to do something effectual for the benefit of
+their slaves, and would gladly emancipate them, did not
+<i>prudence</i> and <i>compassion</i> alike forbid such a
+measure.'&mdash;[Review of the Reports of the Society, from the
+Christian Spectator.&mdash;Seventh Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Such unhappily is the case; but there is a <i>necessity</i> for it,
+[for oppressive laws,] and so long as they remain amongst us
+will that necessity continue.'&mdash;[Ninth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'<span class="smcap">I may be permitted to declare that I would be a slaveholder
+to-day without scruple.</span>'&mdash;[Fourteenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'For the existence of slavery in the United States, those, and
+those only, are accountable who bore a part in originating such
+a constitution of society. The bible contains no explicit
+prohibition of slavery. There is neither chapter nor verse of
+holy writ, which lends any countenance to the fulminating spirit
+of universal emancipation, of which some exhibitions may be seen
+in some of the newspapers.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The embarrassment which many
+a philanthropic proprietor has felt in relation to his slaves,
+has been but little known at the north, and has had but little
+sympathy. He finds himself the lord of perhaps a hundred human
+beings; and is anxious to do them all the good in his power. He
+would emancipate them; but if he does, their prospect of
+happiness can hardly be said to be improved by the change. Some
+half a dozen, perhaps, in the hundred, become industrious and
+useful members of society; and the rest are mere vagabonds,
+idle, wicked, and miserable.'</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;[Review on African Colonization.&mdash;Vide the Christian Spectator
+for September, 1830, in which the reader will find an elaborate
+apology for the system of slavery, and this, too, by a
+clergyman!]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The existence of slavery among us, though not at all to be
+objected to our southern brethren as a <i>fault</i>, is yet a blot on
+our national character, and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> mighty drawback from our national
+strength.'&mdash;[Second Annual Report of the N. Y. State Col. Soc.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Entertaining these views of this fearful subject, why should
+our opponents endeavor to prejudice our cause with our southern
+friends? And we are the more anxious on this point, for we
+sincerely entertain exalted notions of their sense of right, of
+their manliness and independence of feeling&mdash;of their dignity of
+deportment&mdash;of their honorable and chivalric turn of thought,
+which spurns a mean act as death. And if I was allowed to
+indulge a personal feeling, I would say that there is something
+to my mind in the candor, hospitality and intelligence of the
+South, which charms and captives, which wins its way to the
+heart and gives assurance of all that is upright, honorable, and
+humane. There is no people that treat their slaves with so
+little cruelty and with so much kindness. There is nothing in
+the condition of slavery more congenial with the feelings of the
+South than with the feelings of the North. Philanthropy and
+benevolence flourish with as much vigor with them as with
+us&mdash;their hearts are as warm as ours&mdash;they feel for the
+distresses of others with as much acuteness as we do&mdash;their ears
+are as open to the calls of charity as ours&mdash;they as deeply
+regret as we do the existence of slavery&mdash;and oh! how their
+hearts would thrill with delight, if the mighty incubus could be
+removed without injury or destruction to every thing around
+them.'&mdash;[Speech of James S. Green, Esq. on the same occasion.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Many of the best citizens of our land are holders of slaves,
+and hold them IN STRICT ACCORDANCE WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF
+HUMANITY AND JUSTICE.'&mdash;[Rev. Thomas T. Skillman, editor of the
+Western Luminary, an ardent supporter of the Col. Soc.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It is a very common impression that a principal evil of the
+condition of the southern blacks, is the severity of their
+treatment. <span class="smcap">This is an error.</span> It is almost every where
+disreputable to treat slaves with severity; and though there are
+indeed exceptions, yet in most cases in the South, even tyranny
+itself could not long withstand the reproaches of public
+opinion. A STILL GREATER AND MORE DANGEROUS EVIL, IS THE VERY
+REVERSE. It is <i>indulgence</i>; not only in such things as are
+proper and innocent, but in indolent habits and vicious
+propensities.'</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;[From an address prepared for the use of those who advocate
+the cause of the African Education Society at Washington&mdash;a
+Society which educates none but those who consent to remove to
+Liberia.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'How should a benevolent Virginian, in view of the fact, that
+out of thirty-seven thousand free people of color in his State,
+only two hundred were proprietors of land, how should he be in
+favor of general emancipation? But, show him, that if he will
+emancipate his slaves, there is a way in which he can without
+doubt improve their condition, while he rids himself of a
+grievous burden, and he will promptly obey the demands of
+justice&mdash;he will then feel that his generous wishes can with
+certainty be fulfilled. While he knows that scarcely any thing
+is done to meliorate the condition of those now free, and
+reflects on the many obstacles in the way of doing it in this
+land, he feels bound by a regard to what he owes himself&mdash;his
+children&mdash;his country, and even his slaves themselves, not to
+emancipate them. For he is sure, that, by emancipation, he will
+only add to the wretchedness of the one, and at the same time
+put at imminent hazard the dearest interests of the other. Thus
+he is forced to refrain from manumission, and not only so, but
+against all his benevolent inclinations, he is forced to
+co-operate with his fellow-citizens in sustaining the present
+system of slavery. He would most cheerfully follow the impulse
+of his noblest feelings&mdash;he would remove the curse which the
+short-sighted policy of his fathers entailed upon him; but he
+cannot disregard the first law of nature; especially not, when,
+were he to do it, he would render the <i>curse</i> still more
+calamitous in its consequences.'&mdash;[An advocate of the
+Colonization Society in the Middletown (Connecticut) Gazette.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Slavery is indeed a curse; and bitter is the lot of him who is
+born with slaves on his hands. And now, instead of denouncing as
+inhuman and unmerciful monsters and tyrants, those who are thus
+<i>unfortunate</i>, I say, let the commiseration and pity of every
+good citizen and christian in the land be excited, and let
+fervent prayers be offered in their behalf, and that God would
+direct the whole American mind to the adoption of the most
+effectual measures for the accomplishment of the total abolition
+of slavery.'&mdash;[New-Haven Religious Intelligencer for July 16,
+1831.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Special reference will also be had to the condition and wishes
+of the slave States. In most of them it is a prevailing
+sentiment, that it is not safe to furnish slaves with the means
+of instruction. Much as we lament the reasons for this
+sentiment, and the <i>apparent necessity</i> of keeping a single
+fellow creature in ignorance, we willingly leave to others the
+consideration and the remedy of this evil, in view of the
+overwhelming magnitude of the remaining objects before
+us.'&mdash;[Address of the Board of Managers of the African Education
+Society of the United States.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'And when we [of New-England] did emancipate our slaves, we were
+driven to the measure by the force of example; and we did not do
+it until it was found quite convenient; and then what provision
+was made for the poor blacks? Let our State Prison records
+answer the question. Our Southern brethren have been <i>more
+kind</i>: they will not emancipate them until they send them where
+they can enjoy <i>liberty</i>, more than in name. As a Northern man I
+feel it my duty, and I take pleasure in giving the <i>meed of
+praise</i> to my Southern brethren.'&mdash;[Speech of Rev. Mr Gallaudet,
+at a colonization meeting in New-York city.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The slave works for his master, who feeds and clothes him,
+defends him from harm, and takes care of him when he is sick.
+The free colored man works for himself, and has nobody to take
+care of him but himself.'</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;[From a little colonization work, published in Baltimore in
+1828, 'for the use of the African Schools in the United
+States'!! entitled 'A Voice from Africa.']</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The slaveholder will tell you, that he did not take liberty
+from the African&mdash;he was a slave when he found him, and he is no
+more than a slave yet. The man who owns one hundred acres of
+land more than he can cultivate himself, is as much a
+slaveholder as he who owns a slave.'&mdash;[An advocate of
+colonization in the Richmond (Indiana) Palladium for Oct. 1,
+1831.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'<span class="smcap">I do not mean to speak of slavery as a system of cruelty and of
+suffering.</span> On this point I am free to say, from personal
+observation and occasional residences for some years at the
+South, there has been much misapprehension among our
+fellow-citizens of the North. And I rejoice to add, that <i>the
+condition of the slaves generally is such as the friends of
+humanity have no reason to complain of</i>.'&mdash;[Oration delivered at
+Newark, N. J. July 4th, 1831, by Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Slavery, it is true, is an evil&mdash;a national evil. Every
+laudable effort to exterminate it should be encouraged. And we
+presume that nine-tenths of the slaveholders themselves, would
+rejoice at the event, could it be accomplished, of the entire
+freedom from the country of every person of color, and would
+willingly relinquish every slave in their possession. But the
+slaves <i>are</i> in their possession&mdash;they are entailed upon them by
+their ancestors. And can they set them free, and still suffer
+them to remain in the country? Would this be policy? Would it be
+safe? No. When they can be transported to the soil from whence
+they were derived&mdash;by the aid of the Colonization Society, by
+Government, by individuals, or by any other means&mdash;then let them
+be emancipated, and not before.'&mdash;[Lowell (Mass.) Telegraph.]</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is a self-evident proposition, that just so far as you alleviate the
+pressure of guilt upon the consciences of evil doers, you weaken the
+power of motive to repent, and encourage them to sin with impunity. To
+descant upon the wrongs of the slave-system, and yet exonerate the
+supporters of it from reprehension, is to deal in absurdities: we might
+preach in this manner until the crack of doom, and never gain a convert.
+Paradoxes may amuse, but they never convince the mind.</p>
+
+<p>Now, I defy the most ingenious advocates of perpetual slavery to produce
+stronger arguments in its favor than are given in the foregoing
+extracts. What better plea could they make? what higher justification
+could they need? Nay, these apologies of colonizationists represent
+oppression not merely as innocent, but even commendable&mdash;as a system of
+benevolence, upheld by philanthropists and sages!</p>
+
+<p>'I do not condemn the detention of the slaves in bondage under the
+circumstances which are yet existing,' says an advocate; by which
+consolatory avowal we are taught that the criminality of man-stealing
+depends upon <i>circumstances</i>, and not upon the fact that it is a daring
+violation of the rights of man and the laws of God.</p>
+
+<p>'The planter sees that the condition of the great mass of emancipated
+Africans is one, in comparison with which the condition of his slaves is
+<i>enviable</i>,' assert the Board of Managers!&mdash;a concession which
+transforms robbery into generosity, cruelty into mercy, and leads the
+slaveholder to believe that, instead of deserving censure, his conduct
+is really meritorious!&mdash;a concession which is at war with common sense,
+and contrary to truth.</p>
+
+<p>'I am not complaining of the owners of slaves&mdash;I do not doubt that the
+slaves are happier than they could be if set free in this country,'
+declares an apologist, even in Massachusetts! Stripes and servitude
+would doubtless soon alter his opinion. With him, to sell human beings
+at public auction, and to separate husbands and wives, and children and
+parents, is not a subject of complaint! and to be a slave, to be fed
+upon a peck of corn per week, unable to possess property, liable to be
+torn from the partner of his bosom and children at a moment's warn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>ing
+mal-treated worse than a brute, &amp;c. &amp;c. &amp;c. is more desirable than to be
+a free man, able to acquire wealth, unrestricted in his movements, from
+whom none may wrest his wife or children, and who can find redress for
+any outrage upon his person or property!</p>
+
+<p>'Policy, and even <i>humanity</i>,' cries another, 'forbid the progress of
+manumission'! Indeed! But is it right to hold our fellow creatures as
+chattels, and to perpetuate their ignorance and servitude? O no! this is
+<i>wrong</i>, but it would be a greater wrong to emancipate them! Is this
+folly or villany? To oppress our brother is wrong, but to cease from
+oppressing him would not be right!</p>
+
+<p>'I would be a slaveholder to-day without scruple,' says another
+advocate.</p>
+
+<p>'Many owners of slaves,' another declares, 'hold them in strict
+accordance with the principles of humanity and justice'!!! Yes, to
+deprive men of their inalienable rights is to do unto them as we would
+have them do unto us!</p>
+
+<p>Finally, another boldly declares that the slaves are treated <i>too
+indulgently</i>!&mdash;The laws which regard them as beasts, but punish them for
+the commission of crime as severely as if they possessed the knowledge
+of angels, he must suppose are too lenient. Their allowance of corn is
+too liberal; they ought not to wear any raiment; to sleep in their
+wretched huts is calculated to make them effeminate&mdash;the open field is a
+more suitable place for cattle; no religious instruction should be
+granted even orally to them! The slaves, as a body, too kindly treated!
+The Lord have compassion upon any of their number who shall come under
+the control of him who holds this opinion!</p>
+
+<p>Sentiments, like these, act upon the consciences of slave owners like
+opiates upon the body, lulling them into a slumber as profound and fatal
+as death. It were almost as hopeless a task to attempt to arouse, alarm
+and animate them, so long as they repose under the stupefying effects of
+this poison, as to raise the dead. This must not be. Slaveholders are
+the enemies of God and man; their garments are red with the blood of
+souls; their guilt is aggravated beyond the power of language to
+describe; and they must be made to see and realise their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> awful
+condition. Truth must send its arrows into their consciences, and Terror
+rouse them to exertion, and Conviction bring them upon their knees, and
+Repentance propitiate the anger of Heaven, or they perish by the sword.
+The slaves must be free; and He who is no respecter of person is now
+holding out to us this alternative&mdash;either to wait until they burst
+their chains and wade through a river of blood to freedom, or to
+liberate them willingly ourselves. Can we hesitate in our choice? Be
+this our only reply to those who apologise for the oppressors, and fix
+the standard of policy higher than that of duty: 'Wo unto them that call
+evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for
+darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Wo unto them
+that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! which
+justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the
+righteous from him!'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="SECTION_III" id="SECTION_III"></a>SECTION III.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY RECOGNISES SLAVES AS PROPERTY.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> heresies of this combination are flagrant and numerous. A larger
+volume than this is needed to define and illustrate them all. Much
+important evidence, and many pertinent reflections, I am compelled to
+suppress.</p>
+
+<p>My next allegation against it is, <i>that it recognises slaves as
+property</i>. This recognition is not merely technical, or strictly
+confined to a statutable interpretation. I presume the advocates of the
+Society will attempt to evade this point, by saying that it never meant
+to concede the moral right of the masters to possess human beings; but
+the evidence against them is full and explicit. The Society, if language
+mean any thing, does unequivocally acknowledge property in slaves to be
+as legitimate and sacred as any other property, of which to deprive the
+owners either by force or by legislation, without making restitution,
+would be unjust and tyrannical. Here is the proof:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'It interferes in no wise with the <i>rights of property</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+'It is utterly opposed to any measures which might infringe upon
+the <i>rights of property</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'We hold their slaves <i>as we hold
+their other property</i>, <span class="smcap">SACRED</span>.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. i.
+pp. 39, 225, 283.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Does this Society wish to meddle with our slaves as our
+<i>rightful property</i>? I answer <i>no</i>, I think not.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The
+Society cannot be justly charged with aiming to disturb the
+<i>rights of property</i> or the peace of society.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It seeks to
+affect no man's <i>property</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'To found in Africa, an empire
+of <i>christians and republicans</i>; to reconduct the blacks to
+their native land, without disturbing the order of society, the
+<i>laws of property</i>, or the rights of individuals,' &amp;c.&mdash;[African
+Repository, vol. ii. pp. 13, 58, 334, 375.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'They are also convinced, that the Society have conducted their
+operations with so much prudence, as to give no cause of alarm
+to the holders of slaves, for the security of <i>this
+property</i>.'&mdash;[African Repository, volume iii. p. 341.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The rights of masters are to remain sacred in the eyes of the
+Society.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. iv. p. 274.]</p>
+
+<p>'The Society has never interfered, and has no disposition to
+interfere with the rights of private property.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The alarm
+for the rights of property appears to have subsided, and the
+Society is no longer charged with any sinister or insidious
+design. It has constantly disclaimed any intention of disturbing
+the rights of others; and its conduct entitles its declaration
+to credit.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The American Colonization Society has, at all
+times, solemnly disavowed any purpose of interference with the
+institutions or rights of our Southern communities.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Our
+friends, who are cursed with this greatest of human evils
+(slavery) deserve our kindest attention and consideration. Their
+<i>property</i> and safety are both involved.'&mdash;[African Repository,
+vol. v. pp. 215, 241, 307, 334.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It has constantly disclaimed all intention whatever of
+interfering, in the smallest degree, with the rights of
+property.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The Society, from considerations like these,
+whilst it disclaims the remotest idea of ever disturbing the
+<i>right of property</i> in slaves,' &amp;c.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It is not the object of
+this Society to liberate slaves, or touch the rights of
+<i>property</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Honorable instances might be adduced of
+<i>disinterested benevolence</i> on the part of the owners of slaves,
+and of their <i>sacrificing property</i> to a large amount, in their
+enfranchisement and restoration to the land of their ancestors.'
+*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The American Society has disclaimed from the first moment
+of its institution, all intention of interfering with <i>rights of
+property</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The federal government has no control over this
+subject: it concerns rights of property secured by the federal
+compact, upon which our civil liberties mainly depend; it is a
+part of the same collection of political rights; and <i>any
+invasion of it would impair the tenure by which every other is
+held</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It is equally plain and undeniable, that the
+Society in the prosecution of this work, has never interfered or
+evinced even a disposition to interfere in any way with the
+<i>rights of proprietors of slaves</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The slaveholder, so far
+from having just cause to complain of the Colonization Society,
+has reason to congratulate himself, that in this Institution a
+channel is opened up, in which the public feeling and public
+action can flow on, without doing violence to his
+<i>rights</i>.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. vi. pp. 13, 69, 81, 153,
+165, 169, 205, 363.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It was proper again and again to repeat, that it was far from
+the intention of the Society to affect, in any manner, the
+tenure by which a <i>certain species of property</i> is held. He was
+himself a slaveholder; <i>and he considered that kind of property
+as inviolable as any other in the country</i>.'&mdash;[Speech of Henry
+Clay.&mdash;First Annual Report.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Your committee would not thus favorably regard the prayer of
+the memorialists, if it sought to impair, <i>in the slightest
+degree, the rights of private property</i>.'&mdash;[Report of the
+committee of the House of Representatives of the United States,
+on the memorial of the President and Board of Managers of the
+Colonization Society.&mdash;Second Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The Society has at all times recognised the constitutional and
+<span class="smcap">LEGITIMATE</span> existence of slavery.'&mdash;[Tenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The Society protests that it has no designs on the rights of
+the master in the slave&mdash;or the property in his slave, which the
+laws guarantee to him.'&mdash;[Fourteenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Something he must yet be allowed to say, as regarded the object
+the Society was set up to accomplish. This object, if he
+understood it aright, <i>involved no intrusion on property</i>, <span class="smcap">NOR
+EVEN UPON PREJUDICE</span>.'&mdash;[Fifteenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'To the slaveholder, who had charged upon them the wicked design
+of interfering with the <span class="smcap">RIGHTS OF PROPERTY</span> under the specious
+pretext of removing a vicious and dangerous free population,
+they address themselves in a tone of conciliation and sympathy.
+We know your rights, say they, and <i>we respect them</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+'Equally absurd and false is the objection, that this Society
+seeks indirectly to disturb the rights of property, and to
+interfere with the well established relation subsisting between
+master and slave.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 100,
+228.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'I repeat, that though not a slaveholder, yet I think that every
+man ought to be protected in his property, and as the laws of
+our country have decreed that negroes are property, every person
+that holds a slave, according to these laws, ought to be
+protected.'&mdash;['A new and interesting View of Slavery.' By
+Humanitas, a colonization advocate. Baltimore, 1820.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We are made to disregard this description of <i>property</i>, and to
+touch without reserve the <i>rights</i> of our
+neighbors.'&mdash;[Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the
+New-Jersey Colonization Society.]</p></div>
+
+<p>Thus the American Colonization Society shamelessly surrenders the claims
+of justice, and leaves the enemies of oppression weaponless! Hence it
+rejects the proposition, that <i>man cannot hold property in man</i>; and we
+are called upon to prove that which is self-evident. No accidental
+differences of condition or complexion&mdash;no vicissitudes of fortune&mdash;no
+reprisal or purchase or inheritance, can justly make one individual the
+slave of another. When God created man, he gave him dominion over the
+fowls of the air and the beasts of the field; but not over his fellow
+man. 'All men are born free and equal,' and are 'made of one blood.'
+Shall we look to wealth as giving one a title to the labor and freedom
+of another? Wealth is the creature of circumstances, and not an
+arbitrary law of nature. It takes to itself wings, and flies away; and
+he who is an opulent tyrant to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>-day, may on this principle be an
+impoverished slave to-morrow. Does physical strength make valid this
+claim? This, too, is evanescent: sickness and age would ultimately
+degrade the most muscular tyrants to servitude; and mankind would be
+composed of but two parties&mdash;the strong and the weak. Can high birth
+annul the rights of the lower classes? There is no difference at their
+birth, between the children of the beggar and those of the king. 'We
+brought nothing into this world,' says an inspired apostle, 'and it is
+certain we can carry nothing out.'</p>
+
+<p>Man is created a rational being; and therefore he is a subject of moral
+government, and accountable. Being rational and accountable, he is bound
+to improve his mind and intellect. With this design, his Creator has
+outstretched the heavens, and set the sun in his course, and hung out
+the burning jewels of the sky, and spread abroad the green earth, and
+poured out the seas, that he might steadily progress in knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>The slaves are men; they were born, then, as free as their masters; they
+cannot be property; and he who denies them an opportunity to improve
+their faculties, comes into collision with Jehovah, and incurs a fearful
+responsibility. But we know that they are not treated like rational
+beings, and that oppression almost entirely obliterates their sense of
+moral obligation to God or man.</p>
+
+<p>I fully coincide in opinion with the authoress of a work entitled,
+'<span class="smcap">Immediate, not Gradual Abolition</span>,' that the holder of a slave, whether
+he obtained him by purchase or by inheritance, is as guilty as the
+original thief.<a name="FNanchor_K_12" id="FNanchor_K_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_K_12" class="fnanchor">[K]</a> The wretch who stole him could by no possible means
+acquire or transmit the right to make a slave of him, or to keep him in
+slavery. <i>He has a right to his liberty:</i>&mdash;through whatever number of
+transfers the usurpation of it may have passed, the right is
+undiminished.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>No man, says Algernon Sidney, can have a right over others, unless it be
+by them granted to him: That which is not just, is not law; and that
+which is not law, ought not to be in force: Whosoever grounds his
+pretensions of right upon usurpation and tyranny, declares himself to be
+an usurper and a tyrant&mdash;that is, an enemy to God and man&mdash;and to have
+no right at all: <i>That which was unjust in its beginning, can of itself
+never change its nature:</i> <span class="smcap">He who persists in doing injustice, aggravates
+it, and takes upon himself all the guilt of his predecessors</span>: The right
+to be free is a truth planted in the hearts of men, and acknowledged so
+to be by all who have hearkened to the voice of nature, and disproved by
+none but such as through wickedness, stupidity, or baseness of spirit,
+seem to have degenerated into the worst of beasts, and to have retained
+nothing of men but the outward shape, or the ability of doing those
+mischiefs which they have learnt from their master the devil.</p>
+
+<p>The following is the indignant, emphatic, eloquent language of <span class="smcap">Henry
+Brougham</span>, on the subject of slave property:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'<i>Tell me not of rights&mdash;talk not of the property of the planter
+in his slaves.</i> <span class="smcap">I deny the right&mdash;I acknowledge not the
+property.</span> The principles, the feelings of our common nature,
+rise in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the
+understanding or to the heart, the sentence is the same that
+rejects it. In vain you tell me of the laws that sanction such a
+claim! There is a law above all the enactments of human
+codes&mdash;the same throughout the world, the same in all
+times&mdash;such as it was before the daring genius of Columbus
+pierced the night of ages, and opened to one world the sources
+of power, wealth and knowledge; to another, all unutterable
+woes;&mdash;such it is at this day: it is the law written by the
+finger of God on the heart of man; and by that law, unchangeable
+and eternal, while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and
+abhor blood, they shall reject with indignation the wild and
+guilty fantasy, that man can hold property in man! In vain you
+appeal to treaties, to covenants between nations. The covenants
+of the Almighty, whether the old or the new, denounce such
+unholy pretensions. To those laws did they of old refer, who
+maintained the African trade. Such treaties did they cite, and
+not untruly; for by one shameful compact, you bartered the
+glories of Blenheim for the traffic in blood. Yet, in despite of
+law and of treaties, that infernal traffic is now destroyed, and
+its votaries put to death like other pirates. How came this
+change to pass? Not assuredly by parliament leading the way; but
+the country at length awoke; the indignation of the people was
+kindled; it descended in thunder, and smote the traffic, and
+scattered its guilty profits to the winds. Now, then, let the
+planters beware&mdash;let their assemblies beware&mdash;let the government
+at home beware&mdash;let the parliament beware! the same country is
+once more awake,&mdash;awake to the condition of negro slavery; the
+same indignation kindles in the bosom of the same people; the
+same cloud is gathering that annihilated the slave trade; and,
+if it shall descend again, they, on whom its crash shall fall,
+will not be destroyed before I have warned them; but I pray that
+their destruction may turn away from us the more terrible
+judgments of God!'</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Is this the language of fanaticism? Is Henry Brougham a madman?</p>
+
+<p>The following extracts must close the evidence in support of my third
+allegation, that the Colonization Society disregards the fundamental
+principle of human liberty and equality, that man cannot hold <i>property</i>
+in man:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Let me ask, who can wish under existing circumstances that the
+constitution should be altered, when it must bring with it a
+<i>violation of property</i>&mdash;and when that violation of private
+property must engender such hostility of feelings, and elicit
+such bitter vituperation? The whole Union would feel a
+concussion, and no one can count the costs of the contest.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'By
+means of our colony, they may remove their slaves and
+restore them to freedom&mdash;and at the same time no way jeopardize
+the safety of themselves or their <i>property</i>.'&mdash;[Proceedings of
+the First Annual Meeting of the New-Jersey Colonization
+Society.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The establishment of our colony will afford facilities to
+proprietors for completing in Africa the exercise of the <i>right
+which can only be partially exercised in this country, of
+disposing of our property, in our own way, without injury to the
+community</i>.'&mdash;[Fourteenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<p>What audacity do those advocates of the Society exhibit, who use, in
+reference to beings made a little lower than the angels, language like
+this&mdash;'disposing of <i>our property</i> in <i>our own way</i>'&mdash;'we hold their
+<i>slaves</i>, as we hold their other <i>property</i>, <span class="smcap">SACRED</span>'!!<a name="FNanchor_L_13" id="FNanchor_L_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_L_13" class="fnanchor">[L]</a> If they really
+mean and believe what they say, it is something more heinous than
+impertinence to urge the planters to dispossess themselves of their
+property by colonization; and if the slaves belong <i>of right</i> to
+them,&mdash;are on a par with goods and chattels,&mdash;how idle, how supremely
+ridiculous it is to mourn over their <i>wretched condition</i>, to sigh for
+their emancipation, to declaim against the evil and wickedness of
+slavery, or even to denounce the slave trade! But the unfortunate blacks
+are not now, and never can be, the property of the planters;
+consequently the claims of their pretended owners are no better than
+those of the pirate or highway robber.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_K_12" id="Footnote_K_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_K_12"><span class="label">[K]</span></a> The owners of slaves are licensed robbers, and not the just
+proprietors of what they claim: freeing them is not depriving them of
+property, but restoring it to the right owner; it is suffering the
+unlawful captive to escape. It is not wronging the master, but doing
+justice to the slave, restoring him to himself. Emancipation would only
+take away property that is its own property, and not ours; property that
+has the same right to possess us, as we have to possess it; property
+that has the same right to convert our children into dogs and calves and
+colts, as we have to convert theirs into these beasts; property that may
+transfer our children to strangers, by the same right that we transfer
+theirs.&mdash;<i>Rice.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_L_13" id="Footnote_L_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_L_13"><span class="label">[L]</span></a> 'Is there no difference between a vested interest in a house
+or a tenement, and a vested interest in a human being? No difference
+between a right to bricks and mortar, and a right to the flesh of man&mdash;a
+right to torture his body and to degrade his mind at your good will and
+pleasure? There is this difference,&mdash;the right to the house originates
+in law, and is reconcilable to justice; the claim (for I will not call
+it a right) to the man, originated in robbery, and is an outrage upon
+every principle of justice, and every tenet of religion.'&mdash;<i>Speech of
+Fowell Buxton in the British Parliament.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></div>
+<h2><a name="SECTION_IV" id="SECTION_IV"></a>SECTION IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY INCREASES THE VALUE OF SLAVES.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">I come</span> now to my fourth charge,&mdash;which, although not more serious or
+consequential than any of the foregoing, may possibly create more
+surprise,&mdash;namely, that the Society <i>increases the value of slaves, and
+adds strength and security to the system of slavery</i>. It is the
+discovery of this fact that is so wonderfully, and to many superficial
+observers so inexplicably, increasing the popularity of the Society at
+the south. It would require more pages of this work than its necessarily
+contracted limits permit, to sum up minutely the evidence on this point,
+and to give those illustrations which might serve more clearly to
+establish its validity. The most common, as it is the most potent,
+argument used by colonization agents among slave owners, to secure their
+patronage, is,&mdash;'The successful prosecution of our scheme will remove
+the chief source of danger to yourselves, and enable you to hold your
+property in greater security: the presence of free persons of color
+among your slaves is eminently calculated to make them insubordinate,
+and to procure their violent emancipation.' This argument, I say, is
+introduced into every conversation, and every public address, and every
+essay; and whoever carefully consults the numbers of the African
+Repository, through seven volumes, will find it repeated in almost every
+appeal to the south.</p>
+
+<p>I choose to consider the testimony of southern men, in regard to the
+invigorating effects of the colonization enterprise upon the system of
+slavery, conclusive. Here is a very small portion of it: more may be
+found under the sixth section of this work.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'The object of the Colonization Society commends itself to every
+class of society. The landed proprietor may ENHANCE THE VALUE OF
+HIS PROPERTY by assisting the enterprise.'&mdash;[African Repository,
+vol. i. p. 67.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'But is it not certain, that should the people of the Southern
+States refuse to adopt the opinions of the Colonization Society,
+[relative to the gradual abolition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> of slavery,] and continue to
+consider it both just and politic to leave, untouched, a system,
+for the termination of which, we think the whole wisdom and
+energy of the States should be put in requisition, that they
+will CONTRIBUTE MORE EFFECTUALLY TO THE CONTINUANCE AND STRENGTH
+OF THIS SYSTEM, by removing those now free, than by any or all
+other methods which can possibly be devised? Such has been the
+opinion expressed by Southern gentlemen of the first talents and
+distinction. Eminent individuals have, we doubt not, lent their
+aid to this cause, in expectation of at once accomplishing a
+generous and noble work for the objects of their patronage and
+for Africa, and GUARDING THAT SYSTEM, the existence of which,
+though <i>unfortunate</i>, they deem <i>necessary</i>, by separating from
+it those, whose disturbing force augments its inherent vices,
+and darkens all the repulsive attributes of its character. In
+the decision of these individuals, as to the effects of the
+Colonization Society, <i>we perceive no error of judgment</i>: OUR
+BELIEF IS THE SAME AS THEIRS.'&mdash;[Idem, p. 227.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'THE EXECUTION OF ITS SCHEME WOULD AUGMENT INSTEAD OF
+DIMINISHING THE VALUE OF THE PROPERTY LEFT BEHIND.'&mdash;[Idem, vol.
+ii. p. 344.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The removal of every single free black in America, would be
+productive of nothing but safety to the slaveholder, nor would
+the emancipation of as many as the benevolence of individual
+masters would send off, as far as I can see, be productive of
+disaffection among the remainder, more than the example of such
+as are every day set free, and sent to the Ohio or elsewhere;
+and if so large a part should ever be set free as to create
+discontent among the remainder, (and nothing but the
+emancipation of a great majority can do this,) yet that
+remainder must then, from the terms of the proposition, be so
+much diminished, as to be easily kept down by superior
+numbers.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. iii. p. 202.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The tendency of the scheme, and one of its objects, is to
+<i>secure slaveholders and the whole Southern country</i>, against
+certain evil consequences, growing out of the present threefold
+mixture of our population.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. iv. p. 274.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We all know the effects produced on our slaves by the
+fascinating, but delusive appearance of happiness, exhibited in
+persons of their own complexion, roaming in idleness and vice
+among them. By removing the most fruitful source of discontent
+from among our slaves, we should render them more industrious
+and attentive to our commands; and by rendering them more
+industrious and obedient, we should naturally secure their
+better treatment&mdash;we should ameliorate their condition. Our
+enemies have admitted that good would result from the removal of
+this class. Caius Gracchus declares, that if the Society could
+attain "this single object in good faith, (the removal of the
+free people of color) he should, perhaps, be among the last
+citizens in the commonwealth&mdash;who would raise his voice against
+it," and the author of the Crisis (who is doubtless regarded as
+authority in South Carolina) acknowledges, "that there is no
+doubt but that if we in the South, were relieved of this
+population, it would be better for our southern cities, where
+they principally reside." Nothing can be more plain then, than
+that the Colonization Society, in its efforts to remove the free
+people of color, is accomplishing a work to which the citizens
+of the South, whether friends or foes to the Society, have given
+their decided approbation.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. vi. p. 205.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'If, as is most confidently believed, the colonization of the
+free people of color will render the slave who remains in
+America more obedient, more faithful, more honest, and,
+consequently, <i>more useful to his master</i>,' &amp;c.&mdash;[Second Annual
+Report.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'There was but one way, [to avert danger,] but that might be
+made effectual, fortunately! It was to PROVIDE AND KEEP OPEN A
+DRAIN FOR THE EXCESS BEYOND THE OCCASIONS OF PROFITABLE
+EMPLOYMENT. Mr Archer had been stating the case in the
+supposition, that after the present class of free blacks had
+been exhausted, by the operation of the plan he was
+recommending, others would be supplied for its action, in the
+proportion of the excess of colored population it would be
+necessary to throw off, by the process of voluntary manumission
+or sale. This effect must result inevitably from the
+depreciating value of the slaves ensuing their disproportionate
+multiplication. <i>The depreciation would be relieved and retarded
+at the same time, by the process.</i> The two operations would aid
+reciprocally, and sustain each other, and both be in the highest
+degree beneficial. It was on the ground of interest, therefore,
+the most indisputable <i>pecuniary interest</i>, that he addressed
+himself to the people and Legislatures of the slaveholding
+States.'&mdash;[Speech of Mr Archer.&mdash;Fifteenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Every motive which operates on the minds of slaveholders,
+tending to make the colonization of the free blacks an object of
+<i>interest</i> to them, should operate in an equal degree to secure
+the hearty co-operation of the government of every slaveholding
+State.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. vii. p. 176.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'None are obliged to follow our example; AND THOSE WHO DO NOT,
+WILL FIND THE VALUE OF THEIR NEGROES INCREASED BY THE DEPARTURE
+OF OURS.'&mdash;[An advocate of colonization in the Western (Ky.)
+Luminary.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'So far from its having a dangerous tendency, when properly
+considered, it will be viewed as AN ADDITIONAL GUARD TO OUR
+PECULIAR SPECIES OF PROPERTY.'&mdash;[An advocate of the Society in
+the New-Orleans Argus.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The slaveholder, who is in danger of having his slaves
+contaminated by their free friends of color, will not only be
+relieved from this danger, but THE VALUE OF HIS SLAVE WILL BE
+ENHANCED.'&mdash;[A new and interesting View of Slavery. By
+Humanitas, a colonization advocate. Baltimore, 1820.]</p></div>
+
+<p>It is perfectly obvious, that whatever tends to weaken and depress the
+present system, must render the holding of slaves less desirable, and
+the prospect of emancipation more auspicious. Cherishing this
+conviction, thousands of individuals in this country, and tens of
+thousands in Great Britain, are led by conscientious motives to abstain
+from the use of productions raised by slave labor, and to prefer those
+only which are the fruits of the toil of freemen. They believe in the
+soundness of the axiom, that 'the receiver is as bad as the thief;' and
+knowing that the slaves are held in bondage not on the ground of
+benevolence, or because their liberation would endanger the public
+safety, but <i>because they are profitable to their owners</i>, they also
+believe that the consumers of slave goods contribute to a fund for
+supporting slavery with all its abominations; that they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> are the Alpha
+and the Omega of the business; that the slave-trader, the slave-owner,
+and the slave-driver, are virtually the agents of the consumer, for by
+holding out the temptation, he is the original cause, the first mover in
+the horrid process; that we are imperiously called upon to refuse those
+articles of luxury, which are obtained at an absolute and lavish waste
+of the blood of our fellow men; that a merchant, who loads his vessel
+with the proceeds of slavery, does nearly as much in helping forward the
+slave trade, as he who loads his vessel in Africa with slaves&mdash;they are
+both twisting the same rope at different ends; that our patronage is
+putting an immense bribe into the hands of the slaveholders to kidnap,
+rob and oppress; that, were it not for this, they would be compelled by
+sheer necessity to liberate their slaves&mdash;for as soon as slave labor
+becomes unprofitable, the horrid system cannot be upheld.</p>
+
+<p>None of these scruples, to my knowledge, are entertained by
+colonizationists: their only aim and anxiety seem to be, 'to prune and
+nourish the system,'&mdash;not to overthrow it; to increase the avarice of the
+planters by rendering the labor of their bondmen more productive,&mdash;not
+to abridge and starve it; to remove the cause of those apprehensions
+which might lead them to break the fetters of their victims,&mdash;not to
+perpetuate it; 'to provide (I quote the confession of the last
+distinguished proselyte to the Society, Mr Archer of Virginia) and to
+keep open a drain for the <i>excess of increase beyond the occasions of</i>
+<span class="smcap">PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT</span>,'&mdash;not to make slave labor ruinous to the
+planters.</p>
+
+<p>By removing whatever number of slaves it be, from this country, the
+number which remains must be diminished&mdash;and the more the number which
+remains is diminished, the more helpless will they become, the less will
+be the hope of their ever recovering their own liberty, and the more and
+the longer they will be trampled upon.</p>
+
+<p>The greater the number of slaves transported, <i>the greater will be the
+value of the labor of those who remain</i>; the more valuable their labor
+is, <i>the greater will be the temptation to over-labor them, and the
+more, of course, they will be oppressed</i>.<a name="FNanchor_M_14" id="FNanchor_M_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_M_14" class="fnanchor"></a>[M]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The increase of the free colored population disturbs the security of the
+planters, and forces many to manumit their slaves through sheer terror.
+The expatriation of this class, therefore, manifestly tends to quiet the
+apprehensions of the oppressors, to rivet more firmly the chains of the
+slaves, to make their services in higher demand, and to render even
+their gradual emancipation impracticable.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the American Colonization Society is the <i>apologist</i>, the <i>friend</i>,
+and the <i>patron</i> of <span class="smcap">SLAVEHOLDERS</span> and <span class="smcap">SLAVERY</span>!</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_M_14" id="Footnote_M_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_M_14"><span class="label">[M]</span></a> Stuart's Circular.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="SECTION_V" id="SECTION_V"></a>SECTION V.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE ENEMY OF IMMEDIATE ABOLITION.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> follows, as a necessary consequence, that a Society which is not
+hostile to slavery, which apologises for the system and for
+slaveholders, which recognises slaves as rightful property,<a name="FNanchor_N_15" id="FNanchor_N_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_N_15" class="fnanchor">[N]</a> and which
+confessedly increases their value, is <i>the enemy of immediate
+abolition</i>. This, I am aware, in the present corrupt state of public
+sentiment, will not generally be deemed an objectionable feature; but I
+regard it with inexpressible abhorrence and dismay.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Since the deception practised upon our first parents by the old serpent,
+there has not been a more fatal delusion in the minds of men than that
+of the gradual abolition of slavery. <i>Gradual</i> abolition! do its
+supporters really know what they talk about? Gradually abstaining from
+what? From sins the most flagrant, from conduct the most cruel, from
+acts the most oppressive! Do colonizationists mean, that slave-dealers
+shall purchase or sell a few victims less this year than they did the
+last? that slave-owners shall liberate one, two or three out of every
+hundred slaves during the same period? that slave-drivers shall apply
+the lash to the scarred and bleeding backs of their victims somewhat
+less frequently? Surely not&mdash;I respect their intelligence too much to
+believe that they mean any such thing. But if any of the slaves should
+be exempted from sale or purchase, why not all? if justice require the
+liberation of the few, why not of the many? if it be right for a driver
+to inflict a number of lashes, how many shall be given? Do
+colonizationists mean that the practice of separating the husband from
+the wife, the wife from the husband, or children from their parents,
+shall come to an end by an almost imperceptible process? or that the
+slaves shall be defrauded of their just remuneration, less and less
+every month or every year? or that they shall be under the absolute,
+irresponsible control of their masters? Oh no! I place a higher value
+upon their good sense, humanity and morality than this! Well, then, they
+would immediately break up the slave traffic&mdash;they would put aside the
+whip&mdash;they would have the marriage relations preserved inviolate&mdash;they
+would not separate families&mdash;they would not steal the wages of the
+slaves, nor deprive them of personal liberty! This is
+abolition&mdash;<i>immediate abolition</i>. It is simply declaring that slave
+owners are bound to fulfil&mdash;now, without any reluctance or delays&mdash;the
+golden rule, namely, to do as they would be done by; and that, as the
+right to be free is inherent and inalienable in the slaves, there ought
+now to be a disposition on the part of the people to break their
+fetters. All the horrid spectres which are conjured up, on this subject,
+arise from a confusion of the brain, as much as from a corruption of the
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>I utterly reject, as delusive and dangerous in the extreme, every plea
+which justifies a procrastinated and an indefinite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> emancipation, or
+which concedes to a slave owner the right to hold his slaves as
+<i>property</i> for any limited period, or which contends for the gradual
+preparation of the slaves for freedom; believing all such pretexts to be
+a fatal departure from the high road of justice into the bogs of
+expediency, a surrender of the great principles of equity, an
+indefensible prolongation of the curse of slavery, a concession which
+places the guilt upon any but those who incur it, and directly
+calculated to perpetuate the thraldom of our species.</p>
+
+<p>Immediate abolition does not mean that the slaves shall immediately
+exercise the right of suffrage, or be eligible to any office, or be
+emancipated from law, or be free from the benevolent restraints of
+guardianship. We contend for the immediate personal freedom of the
+slaves, for their exemption from punishment except where law has been
+violated, for their employment and reward as free laborers, for their
+exclusive right to their own bodies and those of their own children, for
+their instruction and subsequent admission to all the trusts, offices,
+honors and emoluments of intelligent freemen. Emancipation will increase
+and not destroy the value of their labor; it will also increase the
+demand for it. Holding out the stimulus of good treatment and an
+adequate reward, it will induce the slaves to toil with a hundred fold
+more assiduity and faithfulness. Who is so blind as not to perceive the
+peaceful and beneficial results of such a change? The slaves, if freed,
+will come under the watchful cognizance of law; they will not be idle,
+but <i>avariciously</i> industrious; they will not rush through the country,
+firing dwellings and murdering the inhabitants; for freedom is all they
+ask&mdash;all they desire&mdash;the obtainment of which will transform them from
+enemies into friends, from nuisances into blessings, from a corrupt,
+suffering and degraded, into a comparatively virtuous, happy and
+elevated population.</p>
+
+<p>Nor does immediate abolition mean that any compulsory power, other than
+moral, should be used in breaking the fetters of slavery. It calls for
+no bloodshed, or physical interference; it jealously regards the welfare
+of the planters; it simply demands an entire revolution in public
+sentiment, which will lead to better conduct, to contrition for past
+crimes, to a love instead of a fear of justice, to a reparation of
+wrongs, to a healing of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> breaches, to a suppression of revengeful
+feelings, to a quiet, improving, prosperous state of society!</p>
+
+<p>Now see with what earnestness and inveteracy the friends of the
+Colonization Society oppose immediate abolition!</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'It appears, indeed, to be the only feasible mode by which we
+can remove that stigma as well as <i>danger</i> from among us. Their
+sudden and entire freedom would be a fearful, and perhaps
+dreadful experiment, destructive of all the ends of liberty, for
+which their condition would unfit them, and which they would
+doubtless greatly abuse. Even their release, at apparently
+proper intervals, but uncontrolled as to their future habits and
+location, would be a very hazardous charity. Their gradual
+emancipation, therefore, under the advantages of a free
+government, formed, in their native land, by their own hands,
+offering all the rewards usual to industry and economy, and
+affording the means of enjoying, in comfort, a reputable and
+free existence, is the only rational scheme of relieving them
+from the bondage of their present condition.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'To
+eradicate or remove the evil <i>immediately</i>, is impossible; nor
+can any law of conscience govern necessity.'&mdash;[Af. Rep. vol. i.
+pp. 89, 258.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Vaunt not over us, dear brethren of the north, we inherited the
+evil from our forefathers, and we really do not think you do
+your brethren any good, or that you serve the interests of the
+people of color, when you recommend and enforce premature
+schemes of emancipation.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The operation, we were aware,
+must be&mdash;and, for the interests of our country, ought to be
+gradual.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'According to one, (that rash class which,
+without a due estimate of the fatal consequence, would forthwith
+issue a decree of general, immediate, and indiscriminate
+emancipation,) it was a scheme of the slaveholder to perpetuate
+slavery.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. ii. pp. 12, 254, 336.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Slavery, in its mildest form, is an evil of the darkest
+character. Cruel and unnatural in its origin, no plea can be
+urged in justification of its continuance, but the plea of
+necessity&mdash;not that necessity which arises from our habits, our
+prejudices, or our wants; but the necessity which requires us to
+submit to existing evils, rather than substitute, by their
+removal, others of a more serious and destructive character. It
+was this which produced the recognition of slavery in the
+constitution of our country; it is this which has justified its
+continuance to the present day; and it is in this only that we
+can find a palliation for the rigors of our laws, which might
+otherwise be considered as the cruel enactments of a dark and
+dismal despotism. There have not, I am aware, been found wanting
+individuals to deny both the existence and the obligations of
+such a necessity. There are men, actuated in some instances, by
+a blind and mistaken enthusiasm, and in others, by a spirit of
+mischievous intent, loudly calling on us, in the names of
+justice and humanity, for the immediate and unqualified
+emancipation of our slaves. To men of this description, it is in
+vain to point out the inevitable effects of such a course, as
+well on the objects of their real or pretended solicitude, as on
+the community in which they exist. It is in vain to assure them,
+that while the preservation of the latter would require a policy
+even more rigorous than pertains to slavery itself, the
+short-lived and nominal freedom of the former must end in their
+ultimate and utter extinction. All this is of no consequence.
+Provided slavery be abolished in name, it matters not what
+horrors may be substituted in its room.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The scope of the
+Society is large enough, but it is in no wise mingled or
+confounded with the broad sweeping views of <i>a few fanatics</i> in
+America, who would urge us on to the sudden and total abolition
+of slavery.'&mdash;[Af. Rep. vol. iii. pp. 15, 197.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'What is to be done? Immediate and universal emancipation will
+find few, if any advocates, among judicious and reflecting men.'
+*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> is a portion of our brethren, who have been
+laboring for many years, with the most benevolent intentions,
+but, as I conceive, with erroneous views, in the cause of
+abolition.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The Colonization Society, as such, have
+renounced wholly the name and the characteristics of
+abolitionists.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'<span class="smcap">Into their accounts the subject of
+emancipation does not enter at all.</span>'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Here, that race is
+in every form a curse, and if the system, so long contended for
+by the uncompromising abolitionist, could prevail, its effect
+would be to spread discord and devastation from one end of the
+Union to the other.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. iv. pp. 202, 303, 306, 363.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'With a writer in the Southern Review we say, "the situation of
+the people of these States was not of their own choosing. When
+they came to the inheritance, it was subject to this mighty
+incumbrance, and it would be criminal in them to ruin or waste
+the estate, to get rid of the burden at once." With this writer
+we add also, in the language of Capt. Hall, that the
+"slaveholders ought not (immediately) to disentangle themselves
+from the obligations which have devolved upon them, as the
+masters of slaves." We believe that a master <i>may</i> sustain his
+relation to the slave, with as little criminality as the slave
+sustains his relation to the master. But we feel little sympathy
+for those who, in the language of Mr Harrison of Virginia,
+"still look upon their slaves in the light in which most men
+regarded them when the slave trade was legitimate. Of those,
+wherever they are, who hold their slaves with that same
+sentiment which impelled the kidnapper when he forcibly bore
+them off, I know not how morality can distinguish them from the
+original wrong-doers, pirates by nature, and pirates by
+civilized law." That the system of slavery must exist
+temporarily in this country, we as firmly believe, as that for
+its existence a single moment, there can be offered justly no
+plea but necessity. Were the very spirit of angelic charity to
+pervade and fill the hearts of all the slaveholders in our land,
+it would by no means require that all the slaves should be
+instantaneously liberated.'&mdash;[Af. Rep. vol. v. p. 329.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The long established habits of the South, the attachments which
+are frequently found subsisting between the proprietor and his
+servants, together with the difficulty of substituting at once
+white for slave labor, and the derangement which would ensue in
+the domestic concerns of life, would not merely make general
+emancipation at once inexpedient, but the attempt would denote
+the extremity of madness and folly, and convulse this government
+to its centre.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. vi. p. 291.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The Society, meeting the objections of the <i>abolition
+enthusiast</i>, in a like spirit of mildness and forbearance,
+assures him of their equal devotion to the pure principles of
+liberty and the powerful claims of humanity. We know, say they,
+and we deplore the evil of slavery as the deadliest curse to our
+common country. We see, and we lament its demoralizing effects
+upon the children of our affections, from the budding innocence
+of infancy, to the full maturity of manhood. But, we have not,
+we do not, and <i>we will not</i> interfere with this delicate, this
+important subject. There are rights to be respected, prejudices
+to be conciliated, fears to be quelled, and safety to be
+observed in all our operations. And we protest, <i>most solemnly
+protest</i>, against the adoption of your views, as alike
+destructive of the ends of justice, of policy, and of humanity.
+No wild dream of the wildest enthusiast was ever more
+extravagant than that of turning loose upon society two millions
+of blacks, idle and therefore worthless, vicious and therefore
+dangerous, ignorant and therefore incapable of appreciating and
+enjoying the blessings of freedom. Could <i>your</i> wishes be
+realized, your gratulation would be quickly changed into
+mourning, your joy into grief, and your labor of love into
+visits of mercy to our jails and our penitentiaries, to the
+abodes of vice and the haunts of poverty. Come, ye
+abolitionists, away with your <i>wild enthusiasm</i>, your <i>misguided
+philanthropy</i>.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. vii. p. 101.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The Colonization Society is removing the greatest obstacles in
+the way of emancipation; but none, we think, who is acquainted
+with the circumstances and condition of our southern States,
+<i>and who has any conscience or humanity</i>, would deem it
+expedient or christian to dissolve instantaneously all the ties
+which unite masters and slaves.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. vii. p. 186.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It is not right that men should be free, when their freedom
+will prove injurious to themselves and others.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'He has
+encountered determined opposition from several individuals, who
+are so reckless and fanatical as to require the instantaneous
+remedying of an acknowledged evil, which may be remedied
+gradually, with safety, but which cannot be remedied immediately
+without jeopardizing all the interests of all parties
+concerned.'&mdash;[Idem, p. 202, 280.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'He was quite sure that in the Northern States, there was no
+opinion generally prevailing, that immediate, absolute, and
+universal emancipation was desirable. There might be, said Mr
+Storrs, some who are actuated by pure motives and benevolent
+views, who considered it practicable; but he might say with
+confidence, that very few, if any, believed that it would be
+truly humane or expedient to turn loose upon the community more
+than a million of persons, totally destitute of the means of
+subsistence, and altogether unprepared in every moral point of
+view, to enjoy or estimate their new privileges. Such a
+cotemporaneous emancipation of the colored population of the
+Southern States could only bring a common calamity on all the
+States, and the most severe misery on those who were to be thus
+thrown upon society, under the most abject, helpless and
+deplorable circumstances.'&mdash;[Speech of Hon. Mr Storrs.&mdash;Twelfth
+Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The condition of a slave suddenly emancipated, and thrown upon
+his own resources, is very far from being improved; and, however
+laudable the feeling which leads to such emancipation, its
+policy and propriety are at least questionable.'&mdash;[Report of the
+Pennsylvania Colonization Society.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We may, therefore, fairly conclude the object of immediate
+universal emancipation wholly unattainable, or, if attainable,
+at too high a price.'&mdash;[Mathew Carey's Essays.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Observation has fully convinced them that emancipation has
+often proved injurious to both: consequently laws have been
+enacted in several of the States to discourage, if not to
+prevent it. The public safety and interest, as well as
+individual happiness, seemed to require of legislatures the
+adoption of such a measure. For, it appeared highly probable
+that the manumitted would not only be poor and wretched, but
+likewise a public nuisance; and perhaps at some future day, form
+the nucleus of rebellion among those unhappy persons still in
+slavery.'&mdash;[A colonization advocate in the Middletown
+(Connecticut) Gazette.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'To our mind, it is clearly the doctrine of the Bible, that
+there may be circumstances, in which the immediate and universal
+emancipation of slaves is not a duty. Demanding instantaneous
+and universal emancipation, and denouncing every instance of
+<i>holding</i> slaves as a crime, is not the way to bring it to pass.
+If such a course proceeds from a right spirit, it is from a
+right spirit misinformed.'&mdash;[Vermont Chronicle.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'When the writer visited England from the colonies, he was
+constantly astonished to find the Wilberforceans, or saints, as
+they were called, influenced by the <i>wildest enthusiasm</i> upon
+the sublime theory of liberty; urging <i>immediate emancipation</i>
+of the slave, and yet totally uninformed as to its destructive
+consequences to their future welfare, in their present
+uneducated condition, without some provision being made to so
+enlighten them that they may be enabled to estimate religions
+obligations and distinguish between right and wrong; oth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>erwise
+it would be indispensable to have strong military posts and
+constant martial law to preserve order, and prevent a murderous
+anarchy and lawless confusion. It is not anticipated that this
+state of things could ever be consummated in the United States;
+but it may afford a very salutary lesson in guiding our
+consideration of similar occurrences that may take place.'</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;[From a colonization pamphlet, entitled 'Remarks upon a plan
+for the total abolition of slavery in the United States. By a
+Citizen of New-York.']</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We do not wish to be understood, as sanctioning the measures
+now pursued with respect to the subject of slavery, by some
+misguided enthusiasts in the northern and eastern sections of
+the United States. Were the measures they advocate with so much
+heat, to be adopted, a heavier curse could hardly fall upon our
+country. Their operation, we feel fully satisfied, would work
+the ruin of those, whom these imprudent advocates of instant and
+total emancipation, wish primarily to benefit. We have always
+regarded these advocates for the instantaneous abolition of
+slavery, in all cases, as doing more injury to our colored
+population than any other class of men in the community. The
+slaves of this country cannot be at once emancipated. It is
+folly, it is madness to talk of it. From the very nature of the
+case, in justice to that deeply injured class, in justice to
+ourselves, the work must be gradual.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'We cannot doubt the
+ultimate success of the American Colonization Society. And
+however much some of the clamorous advocates of instant,
+immediate abolition may vent their rage against this noble
+institution, it will prosper, it will flourish. Our intelligent
+community are beginning to see that the American Colonization
+Society presents <i>the only door of hope</i> to the
+republic.'&mdash;[Western Luminary.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'But <i>what</i> shall be done? Some&mdash;and their motives and
+philanthropic zeal are worthy of all honor&mdash;plead for immediate
+emancipation. But Mr Ladd had seen enough to know that <i>that</i>
+would be a curse to all parties. He acknowledged a difficulty
+here; <i>but it is a difficulty that often occurs in morals</i>. When
+we have gone far in a wrong road, it often happens that we
+cannot in a moment put ourselves in the right one. One penalty
+of such a sin is, that it clings to us, and cannot be shaken off
+at once with all its bitter consequences by a mere
+volition.'&mdash;[Speech of William Ladd, Esq.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The warmest friend to the abolition of slavery, while he
+deplores the existence of the evil, must admit the necessity of
+cautious and gradual measures to remove it. The inhabitants of
+the South cannot, and ought not, suddenly to emancipate their
+slaves, to remain among them free. Such a measure would be no
+blessing to the slaves, but the very madness of self-destruction
+to the whites. In the South, the horrid scenes that would too
+certainly follow the liberation of their slaves, are present to
+every imagination, to stifle the calls of justice and humanity.
+A fell spirit of avarice is thus invigorated and almost
+justified, by the plea of necessity.'&mdash;[First Annual Report of
+the New Jersey Col. Soc.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The impropriety and impolicy of manumitting slaves, <i>in any
+case</i>, in our country, one would suppose, must be apparent to
+all. It is not a little astonishing that individuals acquainted
+with the facts, and the evils brought upon society by the free
+black population, should persist in declaring that duty and
+humanity call upon us to give the slaves their freedom. It
+really appears to me that there is entirely too much "namby
+pamby sentimentality" and affected feeling exhibited respecting
+the condition of slaves. Do these individuals believe that
+benevolence and humanity command us to turn loose upon society a
+set of persons who confessedly only serve to swell the amount of
+crime, while they add nothing to the industry, to the wealth, or
+the strength of the country? Because abstractedly considered,
+man has no right to hold his fellow man in bondage, shall we
+give up our liberty, and the peace of society, in order that
+this principle may not be violated? The fact is, <i>the negroes
+are happier when kept in bondage</i>. In their master they find a
+willing and efficient protector, to guard them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> from injury and
+insult, to attend to them when sick and in distress, and to
+provide for their comfort and support, when old age overtakes
+them. When in health, they are well fed and clothed, and by no
+means, in common cases, are they hardly worked.'&mdash;[A warm
+advocate of African Colonization in the Alexandria Gazette.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'But there are other difficulties in the way of immediate
+emancipation. We believe that no one, who has taken charge of an
+infant, and made a cripple of him, either in his feet, his
+hands, or his mind, so that when he is of mature age, he is
+unable to take care of himself, has a right to turn him out of
+doors, to perish or destroy himself, and call it, giving him his
+liberty. After having reduced him to this condition, he is bound
+to afford him the support and protection, which he has rendered
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>'This appears to us to be the true relation of the southern
+planters to their slaves. Not that the southern planters have
+generally been guilty of personal cruelty; but such has been the
+general result of the system acted upon, and such the relation
+growing out of it. The slaves have grown up, under the eye of
+their masters, unable to take care of themselves; and their
+masters, for whose comfort and convenience this has been done,
+are bound to provide for them.</p>
+
+<p>'Nor do we think that the exhortation, to "do right and trust
+Providence," applies at all to this case; for the very question
+is, "what is right?" Would it be right for the slave merchant,
+in the midst of the Atlantic, to knock the manacles from his
+prisoners and throw them overboard, and call this, giving them
+their liberty and trusting Providence with the result? But how
+else could he reduce the doctrine of immediate and complete
+emancipation to practice?'&mdash;[Vermont Chronicle.]</p></div>
+
+<p>The miserable sophistry contained in the foregoing extracts scarcely
+needs a serious refutation. 'To say that immediate emancipation will
+only increase the wretchedness of the slaves, and that we must pursue a
+system of <i>gradual</i> abolition, is to present to us the double paradox,
+that we must continue to do evil, in order to cure the evil which we are
+doing; and that we must continue to be unjust, and to do evil, that good
+may come.' The fatal error of <i>gradualists</i> lies here: They talk as if
+the friends of abolition contended only for the emancipation of the
+slaves, without specifying or caring what should be done with or for
+them! as if the planters were invoked to cease from one kind of villany,
+only to practise another! as if the manumitted slaves must necessarily
+be driven out from society into the wilderness, like wild beasts! This
+is talking nonsense: it is a gross perversion of reason and common
+sense. Abolitionists have never said, that mere manumission would be
+doing justice to the slaves: they insist upon a remuneration for years
+of unrequited toil, upon their employment as free laborers, upon their
+immediate and coefficient instruction, and upon the exercise of a
+benevolent supervision over them on the part of their employers. They
+declare, in the first place, that to break the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> fetters of the slaves,
+and turn them loose upon the country, without the preservative
+restraints of law, and destitute of occupation, would leave the work of
+justice only half done; and, secondly, that it is absurd to suppose that
+the planters would be wholly independent of the labor of the blacks&mdash;for
+they could no more dispense with it next week, were emancipation to take
+place, than they can to-day. The very ground which they assume for their
+opposition to slavery,&mdash;that it necessarily prevents the improvement of
+its victims,&mdash;shows that they contemplate the establishment of schools
+for the education of the slaves, and the furnishing of productive
+employment, immediately upon their liberation. If this were done, none
+of the horrors which are now so feelingly depicted, as the attendants of
+a sudden abolition, would ensue.</p>
+
+<p>But we are gravely told that education must <i>precede</i> emancipation. The
+logic of this plea is, that intellectual superiority justly gives one
+man an oppressive control over another! Where would such a detestable
+principle lead but to practices the most atrocious, and results the most
+disastrous, if carried out among ourselves? Tell us, ye hair-splitting
+sophists, the exact quantum of knowledge which is necessary to
+constitute a freeman. If every dunce should be a slave, your servitude
+is inevitable; and richly do you deserve the lash for your obtuseness.
+Our white population, too, would furnish blockheads enough to satisfy
+all the classical kidnappers in the land.</p>
+
+<p>The reason why the slaves are so ignorant, is because they are held in
+bondage; and the reason why they are held in bondage, is because they
+are so ignorant! They ought not to be freed until they are educated; and
+they ought not be educated, because on the acquisition of knowledge they
+would burst their fetters! Fine logic, indeed! How men, who make any
+pretensions to honesty or common sense, can advance a paradox like this,
+is truly inexplicable. 'I never met with a man yet,' says an able writer
+in Kentucky, 'who impliedly admits the enslaving of human beings as
+consistent with the exercise of christian duties, who could talk or
+write ten minutes on the subject, without expressing nonsense, or
+contradicting himself, or advancing heresy which would expose him to
+censure on any other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> subject.' In this connexion, I make the following
+extract from the Report of the <i>Dublin Negro's Friend Society</i>, of which
+<span class="smcap">Wilberforce</span> is President, and <span class="smcap">Clarkson</span> Vice President:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'They do not recognize the false principle, that education, as a
+preparation for freedom, must precede emancipation; or that an
+amelioration of the slaves' condition should be a substitute for
+it: on the contrary, THEY INSIST UPON UNPROCRASTINATED
+EMANCIPATION, as a right which is unrighteously withheld, and
+the restoration of which is, in their opinion, the first and
+most indispensable step to all improvement, and absolutely
+essential to the application of the only remedy for that moral
+debasement, in which slavery has sunk its victims.'</p></div>
+
+<p>I cannot portray the absurdity of the doctrine of gradual abolition, and
+the danger and folly of attempting to mitigate the system of slavery,
+more strikingly, than by presenting the following eloquent extracts from
+a speech of the Rev. Dr. Thomson of Edinburgh, one of the most learned
+and able divines in Great Britain, whose sudden death was recorded in
+the newspapers a few months since:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'The word <i>immediate</i> may no doubt be considered as a strong
+word; but you will observe that it is used as contrasted with
+the word <i>gradual</i>. And were I to criticise the term <i>gradual</i>
+as certain opponents have treated the term <i>immediate</i>, I could
+easily, by the help of a little quibbling, bring you to the
+conclusion, that as hitherto employed it means that the
+abolition is never to take place, and that, by putting it into
+their petition, they are to be understood as deprecating rather
+than asking the emancipation of the slaves. "<i>Immediate</i>," they
+argue, "evanishes as soon as you utter it; it is gone before
+your petition reaches parliament." How absurd! If I should say
+to my servant while engaged in work, "You must go to the south
+side of the town with a message for me <i>immediately</i>," is it
+indeed implied in the order I have given him, that he could not
+fulfil it, unless he set off without his hat, without his coat,
+without his shoes, without those habiliments which are requisite
+for his appearing decently in the streets of Edinburgh, and
+executing the task that I had assigned him? The meaning of the
+word as used by us is perfectly clear, and cannot be
+misapprehended by any one: it is not to be made a subject of
+metaphysical animadversion: it is to be considered and
+understood under the direction of common sense, and especially
+as modified and expounded by those statements with which it is
+associated both in our resolutions and in the petition; and
+viewed in that light, <i>immediate abolition</i> is not merely an
+intelligible phrase, but one that does not warrant a particle of
+the alarm which some have affected to take at it, and is not
+liable to any one of those objections which some have been
+pleased to make to it.</p>
+
+<p>'To say that we will come out of the sin by degrees&mdash;that we
+will only forsake it slowly, and step by step&mdash;that we will
+pause and hesitate and look well about us before we consent to
+abandon its gains and its pleasures&mdash;that we will allow another
+age to pass by ere we throw off the load of iniquity that is
+lying so heavy upon us, lest certain secularities should be
+injuriously affected&mdash;and that we will postpone the duty of
+"doing justly and loving mercy," till we have removed every
+petty difficulty out of the way, and got all the conflicting
+interests that are involved in the measure reconciled and
+satisfied;&mdash;to say this, is to trample on the demands of moral
+obligation, and to disregard the voice which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> speaks to as from
+heaven. The path of duty is plain before us; and we have nothing
+to do but to enter it at once, and to walk in it without turning
+to the right hand or to the left. Our concern is not with the
+result that may follow our obedience to the divine will. Our
+great and primary concern is to obey that will. God reigns over
+his universe in the exercise of infinite perfection: he commands
+us to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke; and
+submitting, without procrastination, and without any attempts at
+compromise, to that command, we may be assured that he will take
+care of all the effects that can be produced by compliance with
+his authority, and give demonstration to the truth that
+obedience to his behests is our grand and only security for a
+prosperous lot.</p>
+
+<p>'We are by no means indifferent to the expediency of the case.
+On the contrary, we think ourselves prepared to prove, by fair
+reasoning and by ascertained fact, that the expediency of the
+thing is all on our side; that immediate abolition is the only
+secure and proper way of attaining the object which we all
+profess to have in view; that to defer the measure to a distant
+period, and to admit the propriety of getting at it by a course
+of mitigation, is the surest mode of frustrating every hope we
+might otherwise entertain, and giving over the slaves to
+interminable bondage.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>'I do not deny, Sir, that the evils of practical slavery may be
+lessened. By parliamentary enactments, by colonial arrangements,
+by appeals to the judgment and feelings of planters, and by
+various other means, a certain degree of melioration <i>may</i> be
+secured. But I say, in the first place, that, with all that you
+can accomplish, or reasonably expect, of mitigation, you cannot
+alter the nature of slavery itself. With every improvement you
+have superinduced upon it, you have not made it less debasing,
+less cruel, less destructive, in its essential character. The
+black man is still the <i>property</i> of the white man. And that one
+circumstance not only implies in it the transgression of
+inalienable right and everlasting justice, but is the fruitful
+and necessary source of numberless mischiefs, the very thought
+of which harrows up the soul, and the infliction of which no
+superintendence of any <ins id="mycorr4" class="mycorr"
+title="Original: goverment"><a name="corr4" id="corr4"></a>government</ins> can either prevent or control.
+Mitigate and keep down the evil as much as you can, still it is
+there in all its native virulence, and still it will do its
+malignant work in spite of you. The improvements you have made
+are merely superficial. You have not reached the seat and vital
+spring of the mischief. You have only concealed in some measure,
+and for a time, its inherent enormity. Its essence remains
+unchanged and untouched, and is ready to unfold itself whenever
+a convenient season arrives, notwithstanding all your
+precaution, and all you vigilance, in those manifold acts of
+injustice and inhumanity, which are its genuine and its
+invariable fruits. You may white-wash the sepulchre,&mdash;you may
+put upon it every adornment that fancy can suggest,&mdash;you may
+cover it over with all the flowers and evergreens that the
+garden or the fields can furnish, so that it will appear
+beautiful outwardly unto men. But it is a sepulchre still,&mdash;full
+of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Disguise slavery as
+you will,&mdash;put into the cup all the pleasing and palatable
+ingredients which you can discover in the wide range of nature
+and of art,&mdash;still it is a bitter, bitter draught, from which
+the understanding and the heart of every man, in whom nature
+works unsophisticated and unbiassed, recoils with unutterable
+aversion and abhorrence. Why, Sir, slavery is the very Upas tree
+of the moral world, beneath whose pestiferous shade all
+intellect languishes, and all virtue dies. And if you would get
+quit of the evil, you must go more thoroughly and effectually to
+work than you can ever do by any or by all of those palliatives,
+which are included under the term "mitigation." The foul
+sepulchre must be taken away. The cup of oppression must be
+dashed to pieces on the ground. The pestiferous tree must be cut
+down and eradicated; it must be, root and branch of it, cast
+into the consuming fire, and its ashes scattered to the four
+winds of heaven. It is thus you must deal with slavery. You must
+annihilate it,&mdash;annihilate it now,&mdash;and annihilate it for ever.</p>
+
+<p>'Get your mitigation. I say in the second place, that you are
+thereby, in all probability farther away than ever from your
+object. It is not to the Govern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>ment or the Parliament at home
+that you are to look&mdash;neither is it to the legislatures and
+planters abroad that you are to look&mdash;for accomplishing the
+abolition of negro slavery. Sad experience shows that, if left
+to themselves, they will do nothing efficient in this great
+cause. It is to the sentiments of the people at large that you
+are to look, to the spread of intellectual light, to the
+prevalence of moral feeling, to the progress, in short, of
+public opinion, which, when resting on right principles and
+moving in a right direction, must in this free and Christian
+country prove irresistible. But observe, Sir, the public mind
+will not be sufficiently affected by the statement of abstract
+truths, however just, or by reasonings on the tendencies of a
+system, however accurate. It must be more or less influenced by
+what is visible, or by what is easily known and understood of
+the actual atrocities which accompany slavery, wherever it is
+left to its own proper operation. Let it be seen in its native
+vileness and cruelty, as exhibited when not interfered with by
+the hand of authority, and it excites universal and unqualified
+detestation. But let its harsher asperities be rubbed off; take
+away the more prominent parts of its iniquity; see that it look
+somewhat smoother and milder than it did before; make such
+regulations as ought, if faithfully executed, to check its
+grosser acts of injustice and oppression; give it the appearance
+of its being put under the humanizing sway of religious
+education and instruction; do all this, and you produce one
+effect at least,&mdash;you modify the indignation of a great number
+of the community; you render slavery much less obnoxious; you
+enable its advocates and supporters to say in reply to your
+denunciations of its wickedness, "O, the slaves are now
+comfortable and happy; they do not suffer what they did; they
+are protected and well treated," and in proof of all this, they
+point to what are called "mitigations." But mark me, Sir; under
+these mitigations, slavery still exists, ready at every
+convenient season to break forth in all its countless forms of
+inhumanity; meanwhile the public feeling in a great measure
+subsides; and when the public feeling&mdash;such an important and
+indispensable element in our attempts to procure abolition&mdash;is
+allowed to subside, tell me, Sir, when, and where, and by what
+means it is again to be roused into activity. I must say, for
+one, that though I sympathize with my sable brethren, when I
+hear of them being spared even one lash of the cart-whip; yet
+when I take a more enlarged view of their condition&mdash;when I
+consider the nature of that system under which they are placed,
+and when I look forward to their deliverance, and the means by
+which alone it is to be effected, I am tempted, and almost if
+not altogether persuaded, to deprecate that insidious thing
+termed "mitigation," because it directly tends to perpetuate the
+mighty evil, which will by and by throw off the improvements by
+which it is glossed over as quite unnatural to it, will
+ultimately grow up again into all its former dreadfulness, and
+continue to wither and crush beneath it, all that is excellent
+and glorious in man.</p>
+
+<p>'But if our rulers and legislators will undertake to emancipate
+the slaves, and do it as it ought to be done, immediately, I beg
+those who set themselves against such <ins id="mycorr5" class="mycorr"
+title="Original: a a measure"><a name="corr5" id="corr5"></a>a measure</ins>, to point out
+the danger, and to prove it. The <i>onus</i> lies upon <i>them</i>. And
+what evidence do they give us? Where is it to be found? In what
+circumstance shall we discover it? From what principles and
+probabilities shall we infer it? We must not have mere
+hypothesis&mdash;mere allegations&mdash;mere fancied horrors, dressed up
+in frightful language. We must have proof to substantiate, in
+some good measure, their theory of rebellion, warfare, and
+blood. If any such thing exists, let them produce it.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'But
+if you push me, and still urge the argument of insurrection and
+bloodshed, for which you are far more indebted to fancy than to
+fact, as I have shown you, then I say, be it so. I repeat that
+maxim, taken from a heathen book, but pervading the whole Book
+of God, <i>Fiat justitia</i>&mdash;<i>ruat c&aelig;lum</i>. Righteousness, Sir, is
+the pillar of the universe. Break down that pillar, and the
+universe falls into ruin and desolation. But preserve it, and
+though the fair fabric may sustain partial dilapidations, it may
+be rebuilt and repaired&mdash;it <i>will</i> be rebuilt, and repaired, and
+restored to all its pristine strength, and magnificence, and
+beauty. If there must be violence, let it even come, for it will
+soon pass away&mdash;let it come and rage its little hour, since it
+is to be succeeded by lasting freedom, and prosperity and
+happiness. Give<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> me the hurricane rather than the pestilence.
+Give me the hurricane, with its thunder, and its lightning, and
+its tempest;&mdash;give me the hurricane, with its partial and
+temporary devastations, awful though they be;&mdash;give me the
+hurricane, with its purifying, healthful, salutary
+effects;&mdash;give me that hurricane, infinitely rather than the
+noisome pestilence, whose path is never crossed, whose silence
+is never disturbed, whose progress is never arrested, by one
+sweeping blast from the heavens; which walks peacefully and
+sullenly through the length and breadth of the land, breathing
+poison into every heart, and carrying havoc into every home,
+enervating all that is strong, defacing all that is beautiful,
+and casting its blight over the fairest and happiest scenes of
+human life&mdash;and which, from day to day, and from year to year,
+with intolerant and interminable malignity, sends its thousands
+and its tens of thousands of hapless victims into the
+ever-yawning and never-satisfied grave!'</p></div>
+
+<p>It is said, by way of extenuation, that the present owners of slaves are
+not responsible for the origin of this system. I do not arraign them for
+the crimes <i>of their ancestors</i>, but for the constant perpetration and
+extension of similar crimes. The plea that the evil of slavery was
+entailed upon them, shall avail them nothing: in its length and breadth
+it means that the robberies of one generation justify the robberies of
+another! that the inheritance of stolen property converts it into an
+honest acquisition! that the atrocious conduct of their fathers
+exonerates them from all accountability, thus presenting the strange
+anomaly of a race of men incapable of incurring guilt, though daily
+practising the vilest deeds! Scarcely any one denies that blame attaches
+somewhere: the present generation throws it upon the past&mdash;the past,
+upon its predecessor&mdash;and thus it is cast, like a ball, from one to
+another, down to the first importers of the Africans! 'Can that be
+<i>innocence</i> in the temperate zone, which is the <i>acme of all guilt</i> near
+the equator? Can that be <i>honesty</i> in one meridian of longitude, which,
+at one hundred degrees east, is the <i>climax of injustice</i>?' Sixty
+thousand infants, the offspring of slave-parents, are annually born in
+this country, and doomed to remediless bondage. Is it not as atrocious a
+crime to kidnap these, as to kidnap a similar number on the coast of
+Africa?</p>
+
+<p>It is said, moreover, that we ought to legislate prospectively, on this
+subject; that the fetters of the present generation of slaves cannot be
+broken; and that our single aim should be, to obtain the freedom of
+their offspring, by fixing a definite period after which none shall be
+born slaves. But this is inconsistent, inhuman and unjust. The following
+extracts from the speech of the Rev. Dr. Thomson are conclusive on this
+point:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'In the first place, it amounts to an indirect sanction of the
+continued slavery of all who are now alive, and of all who may
+be born before the period fixed upon. This is a renunciation of
+the great moral principles upon which the demand for abolition
+proceeds. It consigns more than 800,000 human beings to bondage
+and oppression, while their title to freedom is both
+indisputable and acknowledged. And it is not merely an
+inconsistency on the part of the petitioners, and a violation of
+the duty which they owe to such a multitude of their fellow-men,
+but it weakens or surrenders the great argument by which they
+enforce their application for the extinction of colonial
+slavery.</p>
+
+<p>'Besides, it is vain to expect that the planters will acquiesce
+in such a prospective measure, any more than in the liberation
+of the existing slaves, for the progeny of the existing slaves
+must be considered by them as much a part of their property as
+these slaves themselves. And they would regard it equally unjust
+to deprive them of what is hereafter to be produced from their
+own slave stock, as it would be to deprive a farmer, by an
+anticipating law of all the foals and of all the calves that
+might be produced in his stable and in his cow-house, after a
+given specified date.</p>
+
+<p>'We must be true to our own maxims, which are taken from the
+word of God; and ask for all that we are entitled to have on the
+ground of justice and humanity, and be contented with nothing
+less.</p>
+
+<p>'In the second place, the plan objected to is not merely an
+acquiescence in the continuance of crime, it is a violation of
+the best feelings of our nature. For, let any man but reflect on
+the circumstance of children being born to slavery, merely
+because they came into the world the last hour of December 1830,
+instead of the first hour of January 1, 1831&mdash;and of children in
+the same family, brothers and sisters&mdash;some of them destined to
+bondage for life, and others gifted with freedom, for no other
+reason than that the former were born before, and the latter
+after, a particular day of a particular year&mdash;and of parents
+being unjustly and inhumanly flogged in the very sight of their
+offspring arbitrarily made free, while they are as arbitrarily
+kept slaves&mdash;let any man but reflect on those things, and unless
+the sensibilities of his heart be paralysed even to deadness, he
+must surely revolt at such a cruel and cold blooded allotment in
+the fortune of those little ones, and be satisfied with nothing
+short of the emancipation of the whole community, without a
+single exception.</p>
+
+<p>'In the third place, supposing all children born after January
+1, 1831, were declared free, how are they to be educated? That
+they may be prepared for the enjoyment of that liberty with
+which you have invested them, they must undergo a particular and
+appropriate training. So say the <i>gradualists</i>. Very well; under
+whom are they to get this training? Are they to be separated
+from their parents? Is that dearest of natural ties to be broken
+asunder? Is this necessary for your plan? And are not you thus
+endeavoring to cure one species of wickedness by the
+instrumentality of another? But if they are to be left with
+their parents and brought up under their care, then either they
+will be imbued with the faults and degeneracies that are
+characteristic of slavery, and consequently be as unfit for
+freedom as those who have not been disenthralled: or they will
+be well nurtured and well instructed by their parents, and this
+implies a confession that their parents themselves are
+sufficiently prepared for liberty, and that there is no good
+reason for withholding from them, the boon that is bestowed upon
+their children.</p>
+
+<p>'Whatever view, in short, we take of the question, the
+prospective plan is full of difficulty or contradictions, and we
+are made more sensible than ever that there is nothing left for
+us, but to take the consistent, honest, uncompromising course of
+demanding the abolition of slavery with respect to the present,
+as well as to every future generation of the negroes in our
+colonies.'</p></div>
+
+<p>We are told that 'it is not right that men should be free, when their
+freedom will prove injurious to themselves and oth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>ers.' This has been
+the plea of tyrants in all ages. If the immediate emancipation of the
+slaves would prove a curse, it follows that slavery is a blessing; and
+that it cannot be unjust, but benevolent, to defraud the laborer of his
+hire, to rank him as a beast, and to deprive him of his liberty. But
+this, every one must see, is at war with common sense, and avowedly
+doing evil that good may come. This plea must mean, either that a state
+of slavery is more favorable to the growth of virtue and the
+dispensation of knowledge than a state of freedom&mdash;(a glaring
+absurdity)&mdash;or that an immediate compliance with the demands of justice
+would be most unjust&mdash;(a gross contradiction.)</p>
+
+<p>It is boldly asserted by some colonizationists, that '<i>the negroes are
+happier when kept in bondage</i>,' and that 'the condition of the great
+mass of emancipated Africans is one in comparison with which the
+condition of the slaves is <i>enviable</i>.' What is the inference? Why,
+either that slavery is not oppression&mdash;(another paradox)&mdash;or that real
+benevolence demands the return of the free people of color to their
+former state of servitude. Every kidnapper, therefore, is a true
+philanthropist! Our legislature should immediately offer a bounty for
+the body of every free colored person! The colored population of
+Massachusetts, at $200 for each man, woman and child, would bring at
+least <i>one million three hundred thousand dollars</i>. This sum would
+seasonably replenish our exhausted treasury. The whole free colored
+population of the United States, at the same price, (which is a low
+estimate,) would be worth <i>sixty-five millions of dollars</i>!! Think how
+many churches this would build, schools and colleges establish,
+beneficiaries educate, missionaries support, bibles and tracts
+circulate, railroads and canals complete, &amp;c. &amp;c. &amp;c.!!!</p>
+
+<p>The Secretary of the Colonization Society assures us, (vide the African
+Repository, vol. v. p. 330,) that '<i>were the very spirit of angelic
+charity to pervade and fill the hearts of all the slaveholders in our
+land, it would by no means require that all the slaves should be
+instantaneously liberated</i>'!!&mdash;i. e. should the slaveholders become
+instantaneously metamorphosed into angels, they would still hold the
+rational creatures of God as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> their <i>property</i>, and yet commit no sin!
+Think, for one moment, of an angel in the capacity of a
+man-stealer&mdash;feeding his victims upon a peck of corn per week, or three
+bushels of corn and a few herrings every 'quarter-day,' as a
+compensation for their severe labor&mdash;flourishing a cowskin over their
+heads, and applying it frequently to their naked bodies! Think of him
+selling parents from children, and children from parents, at private
+sale or public auction!</p>
+
+<p>Many slaveholders are giving up their slaves from conscientious motives;
+they cannot, they dare not longer keep them in servitude; they believe
+that the law of God has a higher claim upon their obedience than the
+laws of their native State. Now suppose all the owners of slaves in our
+land should be suddenly and simultaneously convicted of sin, and moved
+to repentance in a similar manner, and should say to their slaves, 'God
+forbid that we should longer call you our property, or place you on a
+level with our cattle, or defraud you of your just dues, or sell you or
+your wives or children to others, or deny you the means of instruction,
+or lacerate your bodies! henceforth you are free&mdash;but you want
+employment, and we need laborers&mdash;go and work as freemen, and be paid as
+freemen!'&mdash;suppose, I say, a case like this should happen, and a troop
+of <i>gradualists</i> should surround these penitent oppressors, and cry,
+'Were the very spirit of angelic charity to pervade and fill your
+hearts, it would by no means require that all your slaves should be
+instantaneously liberated&mdash;your throats will be cut, your houses
+pillaged, and desolation will stalk through the land, if you carry your
+mad purpose into effect&mdash;emancipate by a slow, imperceptible
+process!'&mdash;how would this advice sound? What should be their reply?
+Clearly this: 'Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto
+men more than unto God, judge ye.' Here would be presented a strange
+spectacle indeed&mdash;one party confessing and resolving to forsake their
+sins, and another urging them to disregard the admonitions of
+conscience, and to leave off sinning by degrees! To be sure, a few, a
+very few, would be <i>generously</i> allowed to reform <i>instanter</i>!</p>
+
+<p>Those who prophesy evil, and only evil, concerning immediate abolition,
+absolutely disregard the nature and constitution of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> man, as also his
+inalienable rights, and annihilate or reverse the causes and effects of
+human action. They are continually fearful lest the slaves, in
+consequence of their grievous wrongs and intolerable sufferings, should
+attempt to gain their freedom by revolution; and yet they affect to be
+equally fearful lest a general emancipation should produce the same
+disastrous consequences. How absurd! They <i>know</i> that oppression must
+cause rebellion; and yet they pretend that a removal of the cause will
+produce a bloody effect! This is to suppose an effect without a cause,
+and, of course, is a contradiction in terms. Bestow upon the slaves
+personal freedom, and all motives for insurrection are destroyed. Treat
+them like rational beings, and you may surely expect rational treatment
+in return: treat them like beasts, and they will behave in a beastly
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, precedent and experience make the ground of abolitionists
+invulnerable. In no single instance where their principles have been
+adopted, has the result been disastrous or violent, but beneficial and
+peaceful even beyond their most sanguine expectations. The immediate
+abolition of slavery in Mexico, in Colombia, and in St. Domingo,<a name="FNanchor_O_16" id="FNanchor_O_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_O_16" class="fnanchor">[O]</a> was
+eminently preservative<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> and useful in its effects. The manumitted slaves
+(numbering more than two thousand,) who were settled in Nova Scotia, at
+the close of our revolutionary war, by the British government, 'led a
+harmless life,' says Clarkson, 'and gained the character of an
+industrious and honest people from their white neighbors.' A large
+number who were located at Trinidad, as free laborers, at the close of
+our last war, 'are now,' according to the same authority, 'earning their
+own livelihood, and with so much industry and good conduct, that the
+calumnies originally spread against them have entirely died away.'
+According to the Anti-Slavery Reporter for January, 1832, three thousand
+prize negroes at the Cape of Good Hope had received their freedom&mdash;four
+hundred in one day; 'but not the least difficulty or disorder occurred:
+servants found masters, masters hired servants&mdash;all gained homes, and at
+night scarcely an idler was to be seen.'</p>
+
+<p>These and many other similar facts show conclusively the safety of
+immediate abolition. Gradualists can present, in abatement of them,
+nothing but groundless apprehensions and criminal distrust. The argument
+is irresistible.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_N_15" id="Footnote_N_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_N_15"><span class="label">[N]</span></a> The slaves, they say, are their <i>property</i>. Once admit
+this, and all your arguments for interference are vain, and all your
+plans for amelioration are fruitless. The whole question may be said to
+hang upon this point. If the slaves are not property, then slavery is at
+an end. The slaveholders see this most clearly; they see that while you
+allow these slaves to be their <i>property</i>, you act inconsistently and
+oppressively in intermeddling, as you propose to do, with what is theirs
+as much as any other of their goods and chattels: you must proceed,
+therefore, in your measures for amelioration, as you call it, with
+'hesitating steps and slow;' and there is nothing you can do for
+restraining punishment, for regulating labor, for enforcing manumission,
+for introducing education and Christianity, which will not be met with
+the remonstrance, undeniably just by your own concessions, that you are
+encroaching on the sacred rights of property,&mdash;the slaveholders see all
+this, and they can employ it to paralyse and defeat all your efforts to
+get at emancipation, and to prepare for it. It is on this account, that
+I wish it settled in your minds, as a fixed and immutable principle,
+that there is and can be no property of man in man. Adopt this
+principle, and give it that ascendency over your minds to which it is
+entitled;&mdash;and slavery is swept away.&mdash;<i>Speech of Rev. Dr Thomson of
+Edinburgh.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_O_16" id="Footnote_O_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_O_16"><span class="label">[O]</span></a> The history of the Revolution in St Domingo is not
+generally understood in this country. The result of the instantaneous
+emancipation of the slaves, in that island, by an act of the
+Conventional Assembly of France in the month of February, 1794, settles
+the controversy between the <i>immediatists</i> and <i>gradualists</i>. 'After
+this public act of emancipation,' says Colonel Malenfant, who was
+resident in the island at the time, 'the negroes <i>remained quiet</i> both
+in the South and in the West, and <i>they continued to work upon all the
+plantations</i>.' 'Upon those estates which were abandoned, <i>they continued
+their labors</i>, where there were any, even inferior agents, to guide
+them; and on those estates, where no white men were left to direct them,
+they betook themselves to the planting of provisions; but upon <i>all the
+plantations</i> where the whites resided, the blacks <i>continued to labor as
+quietly as before</i>.' 'On the Plantation Gourad, consisting of more than
+four hundred and fifty laborers, <i>not a single negro refused to work</i>;
+and yet this plantation was thought to be under the worst discipline and
+the slaves the most idle of any in the plain.' General Lacroix, who
+published his 'Memoirs for a History of St Domingo,' at Paris, in 1819,
+uses these remarkable words: 'The colony marched, <i>as by enchantment</i>,
+towards its ancient splendor; <i>cultivation prospered</i>; every day
+produced perceptible proofs of its progress. The city of the Cape and
+the plantations of the North rose up again visibly to the eye.' General
+Vincent, who was a general of a brigade of artillery in St Domingo, and
+a proprietor of estates in that island, at the same period, declared to
+the Directory of France, that 'every thing was <i>going on well in St
+Domingo</i>. The proprietors were in peaceable possession of their estates;
+cultivation was making rapid progress; <i>the blacks were industrious, and
+beyond example happy</i>.' So much for the horrible concomitants of a
+general emancipation! So much for the predicted indolence of the
+liberated slaves! Let confusion of face cover all abolition alarmists in
+view of these historical facts! This peaceful and prosperous state of
+affairs continued from 1794, to the invasion of the island by Leclerc in
+1802. The attempt of Bonaparte to reduce the island to its original
+servitude was the sole cause of that sanguinary conflict which ended in
+the total extirpation of the French from its soil.&mdash;[Vide Clarkson's
+'Thoughts on the Necessity of Improving the Condition of the Slaves in
+the British Colonies,' &amp;c.]</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="SECTION_VI" id="SECTION_VI"></a>SECTION VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS NOURISHED BY FEAR AND SELFISHNESS.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> reader will find on the fifth page of my introductory remarks, the
+phrase 'naked terrors;' by which I mean, that, throughout all the
+speeches, addresses and reports in behalf of the Society, it is
+confessed, in language strong and explicit, that an irrepressible and
+agonizing fear of the influence of the free people of color over the
+slave population is the primary, essen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>tial and prevalent motive for
+colonizing them on the coast of Africa&mdash;and not, as we are frequently
+urged to believe, a desire simply to meliorate their condition and
+civilize that continent. On this point, the evidence is abundant.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'In reflecting on the utility of a plan for colonizing the free
+people of color, with whom our country abounds, it is natural
+that we should be first struck by its tendency to confer a
+benefit on ourselves, by ridding us of a population for the most
+part idle and useless, and too often vicious and mischievous.'
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Such a class must evidently be a burden and a nuisance to
+the community; and every scheme which affords a prospect of
+removing so great an evil must deserve to be most favorably
+considered.</p>
+
+<p>'But it is not in themselves merely that the free people of
+color are a nuisance and burthen. They contribute greatly to the
+corruption of the slaves, and to aggravate the evils of their
+condition, by rendering them idle, discontented and disobedient.
+This also arises from the necessity under which the free blacks
+are, of remaining incorporated with the slaves, of associating
+habitually with them, and forming part of the same class in
+society. The slave seeing his free companion live in idleness,
+or subsist however scantily or precariously by occasional and
+desultory employment, is apt to grow discontented with his own
+condition, and to regard as tyranny and injustice the authority
+which compels him to labor.<a name="FNanchor_P_17" id="FNanchor_P_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_P_17" class="fnanchor">[P]</a></p>
+
+<p>'Great, however, as the benefits are, which we may thus promise
+ourselves, from the colonization of the free people of color, by
+its tendency to prevent the discontent and corruption of our
+slaves,' &amp;c.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The considerations stated in the first part of
+this letter, have long since produced a thorough conviction in
+my mind, that the existence of a class of free people of color
+in this country is highly injurious to the whites, the slaves
+and the free people of color themselves: consequently that all
+emancipation, to however small an extent, which permits the
+persons emancipated to remain in this country, is an evil, which
+must increase with the increase of the operation, and would
+become altogether intolerable, if extended to the whole, or even
+to a very large part of the black population. I am therefore
+strongly opposed to emancipation, in every shape and degree,
+unless accompanied by colonization.'&mdash;[General Harper's
+Letter&mdash;First Annual Report, pp. 29, 31, 32, 33, 36.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The slaves would be greatly benefitted by the removal of the
+free blacks, who now corrupt them and render them
+discontented.'&mdash;[Second An. Rep.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'What are these objects? They are in the first place to aid
+ourselves, by relieving us from a species of population pregnant
+with future danger and present inconvenience.'&mdash;[Seventh
+Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'They are dangerous to the community, and this danger ought to
+be removed. Their wretchedness arises not only from their
+bondage, but from their political and moral degradation. The
+danger is not so much that we have a million and a half of
+slaves, as that we have in our borders nearly two millions of
+men who are necessarily any thing rather than loyal
+citizens&mdash;nearly two millions of ignorant and miserable beings
+who are banded together by the very same circumstances, by which
+they are so widely separated in character and in interest from
+all the citizens of our great republic.'&mdash;[Seventh Annual
+Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It may be safely assumed, that there is not an individual in
+the community, who has given to the subject a moment's
+consideration, who does not regard the existence of the free
+people of color in the bosom of the country, as an evil of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+immense magnitude, and of a dangerous and alarming tendency.
+Their abject and miserable condition is too obvious to be
+pointed out. All must perceive it, and perceiving it, cannot but
+lament it. But their deplorable condition is not more obvious to
+the most superficial observer, than is (what is far worse, and
+still more to be dreaded,) the powerful and resistless influence
+which they exert over the slave population. While their
+character remains what it now is, (and the laws and structure of
+the country in which they reside, prevent its permanent
+improvement,) this influence must of necessity be baneful and
+contaminating. Corrupt themselves, like the deadly Upas, they
+impart corruption to all around them. Their numbers too, are
+constantly and rapidly augmenting. Their annual increase is
+truly astonishing, certainly unexampled. The dangerous
+ascendency which they have already acquired over the slaves, is
+consequently increasing with every addition to their numbers;
+and every addition to their numbers is a subtraction from the
+wealth and strength, and character, and happiness, and safety of
+the country. And if this be true, as it unquestionably is, the
+converse is also true; the danger of their undue influence will
+lessen with every diminution of their numbers; and every
+diminution of their numbers must add, and add greatly, to the
+prosperity of the country.'&mdash;[Twelfth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Another reason is, the pressing and vital importance of
+relieving ourselves, as soon as practicable, from this most
+dangerous element in our population.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'We all know the
+effects produced on our slaves by the fascinating, but delusive
+appearance of happiness, exhibited in some persons of their own
+complexion, roaming in idleness and vice among them. By removing
+the most fruitful source of discontent from among our slaves, we
+should render them more industrious and attentive to our
+commands.'&mdash;[Fourteenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'What is the free black to the slave? A standing perpetual
+incitement to discontent. Though the condition of the slave be a
+thousand times the best&mdash;supplied, protected, instead of
+destitute and desolate&mdash;yet, the folly of the condition, held to
+involuntary labor, finds, always, allurement, in the spectacle
+of exemption from it, without consideration of the adjuncts of
+destitution and misery. The slave would have then, little
+excitement to discontent but for the free black.'&mdash;[Fifteenth
+Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The evils which arise from the communication of the free people
+of color with our slaves, must be obvious to every reflecting
+mind; and the consequences which may result from this
+communication at some future day, when circumstances are more
+favorable to their views, are of a more alarming character. Sir,
+circumstances must have brought us to the conclusion, if our
+observation had not enabled us to make the remark, that it is
+natural for our slaves, so closely allied to the free black
+population by national peculiarities, and by relationship, to
+make a comparison between their respective conditions, and to
+repine at the difference which exists between them. This is a
+serious evil, and can only be removed <i>by preventing the
+possibility of a comparison</i>.</p>
+
+<p>'By removing these people, we rid ourselves of a <ins id="mycorr6" class="mycorr" title="Original: lage"><a name="corr6" id="corr6"></a>large</ins> party who
+will always be ready to assist our slaves in any mischievous
+design which they may conceive; and who are better able, by
+their intelligence, and the facilities of their communication,
+to bring those designs to a successful termination.'&mdash;[African
+Repository, vol. i. p. 176.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The labors of the Colonization Society appear to us highly
+deserving of praise. The blacks, whom they carry from the
+country, belong to a class far more noxious than the slaves
+themselves. They are free without any sense of character to
+restrain them, or regular means of obtaining an honest
+livelihood. Most of the criminal offences committed in the
+southern States are chargeable to them, and their influence over
+the slaves is pernicious and alarming.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'What is the true
+nature of the evil of the existence of a portion of the African
+race in our population? It is not that there are some, but that
+there are so many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> among us of a different caste, of a different
+physical, if not moral, constitution, who never can amalgamate
+with the great body of our population. In every country, persons
+are to be found varying in their color, origin and character,
+from the native mass. But this anomaly creates no inquietude or
+apprehension, because the exotics, from the smallness of their
+number, are known to be utterly incapable of disturbing the
+general tranquillity. Here, on the contrary, the African part of
+our population bears so large a proportion to the residue of
+European origin, as to create the most lively apprehension,
+especially in some quarters of the Union. Any project,
+therefore, by which, in a material degree, the dangerous element
+in the general mass, can be diminished or rendered stationary,
+deserves deliberate consideration.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol.
+ii. pp. 27, 338.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Made up, for the most part, either of slaves or of their
+immediate descendants; elevated above the class from which it
+has sprung, only by its exemption from domestic restraint; and
+effectually debarred by the law, from every prospect of equality
+with the actual freemen of the country; it is a source of
+perpetual uneasiness to the master, and of envy and corruption
+to the slave.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'To remove these persons from among us, will
+increase the <i>usefulness</i>, and improve the moral character of
+those who remain in servitude, and <i>with whose labors the
+country is unable to dispense</i>. That instances are to be found
+of colored free persons, upright and industrious, is not to be
+denied. But the greater portion, as is well known, are a source
+of malignant depravity to the slaves on the one hand, and of
+corrupt habits to many of our white population on the other. The
+arts of subsistence with many of them, are incompatible with the
+security of property.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'I am a Virginian&mdash;I dread for her
+the corroding evil of this numerous caste, and I tremble for the
+danger of a disaffection spreading through their seductions,
+among our servants.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Are they vipers, who are sucking our
+blood? we will hurl them from us. It is not sympathy alone,&mdash;not
+sickly sympathy, no, nor manly sympathy either,&mdash;which is to act
+on us; but vital policy, self-interest, are also enlisting
+themselves on the humane side in our breasts.'&mdash;[African
+Repository, vol. iii. pp. 10, 67, 197, 201.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'All must concur in regarding the present condition of the free
+colored race in America as inconsistent with its future social
+and political advancement, and, where slavery exists at all, as
+calculated to aggravate its evils without any atoning good.
+Among those evils, the most obvious is the restraint imposed
+upon emancipation by the laws of so many of the slaveholding
+States: laws, deriving their recent origin from the obvious
+manifestation which the increase of the free colored population
+has furnished, of the inconvenience and danger of multiplying
+their number where slavery exists at all.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'By the success
+of this scheme, our country will be enriched. The free blacks
+constitute a material spoke in that wheel which is crushing down
+the wealth of our land. The moment we carry this plan into
+vigorous prosecution, we shall call many of our countrymen to a
+state of comparative wealth. The removal of the annual increase
+of our colored population, would give to our mariners a
+considerable scope of employment, whilst the trade of the Colony
+would be a source of profit.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It places the attainment of
+the grand object in view, that is, to withdraw from the United
+States annually, so many of the colored population, and provide
+them a comfortable home and all the advantages of civilization
+in Africa, <i>as will make the number here remain stationary</i>.'
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Let us recur to the principle abovementioned&mdash;that every
+black family occupies the room of a white family. On this
+principle we are lost, if we suffer the colored population to
+multiply, unchecked, upon our hands; because they will increase
+faster than the whites, and will crowd them out of all the
+Southern country. But on the same principle we are saved, if by
+any means of colonization, we can retard the increase of the
+blacks, and gain ground on them in the South. That we can do
+with ease, if our people will unite in prosecuting the scheme.
+Every family taken from the blacks, will add also a family to
+the whites, and make an actual difference of two families in our
+favor. This exchange will leave fewer blacks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> to remove, while
+it will increase our ability to remove them. Self-interest and
+self-preservation furnish motives enough to excite our
+exertions.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'By thus repressing the rapid increase of
+blacks, the white population would be enabled to reach and soon
+overtop them. The consequence would be security.'&mdash;[African
+Repository, vol. iv. pp. 53, 141, 271, 276, 344.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The existence of a class of men in the bosom of the community,
+who occupy a middle rank between the citizen and the slave&mdash;who
+encountering every positive evil incident to each condition,
+share none of the benefits peculiar to either, has been long
+clearly seen and deeply deplored by every man of observation.
+The master feels it in the unhappy influence which the free
+blacks have upon the slave population. The slave feels it in the
+restless, discontented spirit which his association with the
+free black engenders.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'But, there is yet a more
+important and alarming view, in which this subject necessarily
+presents itself to the mind of every Virginian. A community of
+the character that has been described, with this additional
+peculiarity, that it differs from the class from which it has
+sprung, only in its exemption from <i>the wholesome restraints of
+domestic authority</i>, is found in the midst of a numerous and
+rapidly increasing slave population; and while its partial
+freedom, trammelled, as it is, by the necessary rigors of the
+law, is nevertheless sufficiently attractive, to be a source of
+uneasiness and dissatisfaction to those who have not attained to
+its questionable privileges, its exemption from the prompt and
+efficient inquisition appertaining to slavery, makes it an
+important instrument in the corruption and seduction of those,
+who yet remain the property of their masters.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Who would
+not rejoice to see our country liberated from her black
+population? Who would not participate in any efforts to restore
+those children of misfortune to their native shores, and kindle
+the lights of science and civilization through Africa? Who that
+has reflection, does not tremble for the political and moral
+well-being of a country, that has within its bosom, a growing
+population, bound to its institutions by no common sympathies,
+and ready to fall in with any faction that may threaten its
+liberties?'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The existence of this race among us; a race
+that can neither share our blessings nor incorporate in our
+society, is already felt to be a curse; and though the only
+curse entailed on us, if left to take its course, it will become
+the greatest that could befal the nation.</p>
+
+<p>'Shall we then cling to it, and by refusing the timely expedient
+now offered for deliverance, retain and foster the <i>alien
+enemies</i>, till they have multiplied into such greater numbers,
+and risen into such mightier consequence as will for ever bar
+the possibility of their departure, and by barring it, bar also
+the possibility of fulfilling our own high destiny?'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The
+object of this Society is two-fold; for while it immediately and
+ostensibly directs its energies to the amelioration of the
+condition of the free people of color, it relieves our country
+from an unprofitable burden, and which, if much longer submitted
+to, may record upon our history the dreadful cries of vengeance
+that but a few years since were registered in characters of
+blood at St. Domingo.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It is the removal of the <i>free</i>
+blacks from among us, that is to save us, sooner or later, from
+those dreadful events foreboded by Mr Jefferson, or from the
+horrors of St. Domingo. The present number of this unfortunate,
+degraded, and anomalous class of inhabitants cannot be much
+short of half a million; and the number is fast increasing. They
+are emphatically a mildew upon our fields, a scourge to our
+backs, and a stain upon our escutcheon. To remove them is mercy
+to ourselves, and justice to them.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol.
+v. pp. 28, 51, 88, 278, 304, 348.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'All admit the utility of the separation of the free people of
+color from the residue of the population of the United States,
+if it be practicable. It is desirable for them, <i>for the slaves
+of the United States</i>, and for the white race. The vices of this
+class do not spring from any inherent depravity in their natural
+constitution, but from their unfortunate situation. Social
+intercourse is a want which we are prompted to gratify by all
+the properties of our nature. And as they cannot obtain it in
+the better circles of society, nor always among them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>selves,
+they resort to slaves and to the most debased and worthless of
+the whites. Corruption, and all the train of petty offences, are
+the consequences. Proprietors of slaves in whose neighborhood
+any free colored family is situated, know how infectious and
+pernicious this intercourse is.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Who, if this promiscuous
+residence of whites and blacks, of freemen and slaves, is for
+ever to continue, can imagine the servile wars, the carnage and
+the crimes which will be its probable consequences, without
+shuddering with horror?'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It were madness to shut our eyes
+to these facts and conclusions. This rapid increase of the
+blacks is as certain as the progress of time. The fatal
+consequences of that increase, if it be not checked, are equally
+so. Something must be done. The American Colonization Society
+proposes a remedy&mdash;the removal to Africa of the blacks who are
+free, or shall hereafter become so, with their consent.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+'The colored population is considered by the people of Tennessee
+and Alabama in general, as an immense evil to the country&mdash;but
+the free part of it, by all, as the greatest of all evils....
+They feel severely the effects of the deleterious influence
+which the free negroes exert upon the slaves&mdash;and they look,
+moreover, into futurity, and there they behold an appalling
+scene&mdash;in less than one hundred years, (a short time, we should
+hope, in the life of this republic,) 16,000,000 of blacks.'
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Since the recent revolution in the island of St. Domingo,
+which has placed it in the hands of the African race, it was
+thought by some that there an asylum might be found for this
+part of our population. But to that place there were also
+serious objections, which would prevent its adoption to any
+considerable extent. The nearness of that Island to our southern
+borders, and the evil consequences that might result from
+embodying the free persons of color in the vicinity of those
+parts of the United States, where slaves are so numerous,
+forbade the friends of humanity to provide a home for them in
+that Island.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. vi. pp. 17, 23, 68, 77,
+226.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The existence, within the very bosom of our country, of an
+<ins id="mycorr8" class="mycorr" title="Original: amomalous"><a name="corr8" id="corr8"></a>anomalous</ins> race of beings, the most debased upon earth, who
+neither enjoy the blessings of freedom, nor are yet in the bonds
+of slavery, is a great national evil, which every friend of his
+country most deeply deplores. They constitute a large mass of
+human beings, who hang as a vile excrescence upon society&mdash;the
+objects of a low debasing envy to our slaves, and to ourselves
+of universal suspicion and distrust.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'If this process were
+continued a second term of duplication, it would produce the
+extraordinary result of forty white men to one black in the
+country&mdash;a state of things in which we should not only cease to
+feel the burdens which now hang so heavily upon us, but actually
+regard the poor African as an object of curiosity, and not
+uneasiness.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Enough, under favorable circumstances, might
+be removed for a few successive years&mdash;if young <i>females</i> were
+encouraged to go&mdash;to keep the whole colored population in
+check.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 230, 232, 246.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The existence of such a population among us is a most manifest
+evil. And every year adds to its threatening aspect. They are
+more than a sixth of our population! Their ratio of increase
+exceeds that of the whites. They have all the lofty and immortal
+powers of man. And the time must arrive, when they will
+fearlessly claim the prerogatives of man. They may do it in the
+spirit of revenge. They may do it in the spirit of desperation.
+And the result of such a mustering of their energies&mdash;who can
+look at it even in distant prospect without horror? Almost as
+numerous are they now, as our whole population when this nation
+stood forth for freedom in a contest with the mightiest power of
+the civilized world. And if nothing is done to <i>arrest their
+increase</i>, we shall have in twenty years four millions of
+slaves; in forty years eight millions; in sixty years sixteen
+millions, and a million of free blacks;&mdash;seventeen millions of
+people; seven millions more than our present white
+population;&mdash;enough for a powerful empire! And how can they be
+governed? Who can foretel those scenes of carnage and terror
+which our own children may witness, unless a sea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>sonable remedy
+be applied? The remedy is now within our reach. <i>We can stop
+their increase</i>; we can diminish their number.'&mdash;[Rev. Baxter
+Dickinson's Sermon delivered at Springfield, Mass. in 1829.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We have a numerous people, who, though they are among us, are
+not of us; who are aliens and outcasts in the land of their
+birth. A people whose condition is degraded and miserable; who,
+so far from adding to our national strength, are an element of
+weakness, and detract from the amount of human effort. A people,
+whose condition, while it excites our commiseration, must awaken
+our fears.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Those persons of color who have been
+emancipated, are only nominally free; and the whole race, so
+long as they remain among us, and whether they be slaves or
+free, must <i>necessarily</i> be kept in a condition full of
+wretchedness to them and full of danger to the whites. This view
+of the subject is rendered the more alarming by the rapid
+increase of this portion of our population.'&mdash;[Second Annual
+Report of the New-York State Colonization Society, pp. 4, 34.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We would ask, whence have the troubles, which have taken place
+among the slaves of Louisiana, originated? Trace the causes, and
+we will invariably find them to have proceeded from the
+suggestions and officious interferences of the free blacks.
+Their very existence in our limits, enjoying supposed
+independence, excites the envy and dissatisfaction of the
+slaves. The latter naturally inquire, why is it, that persons of
+the same color, are permitted to possess more privileges than
+they do?... We know the danger to which we are exposed from such
+a class of beings living in the very heart of our population,
+and increasing greatly every year.'&mdash;[An advocate of the Society
+in the New-Orleans Argus.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Among us the free negroes are multiplying rapidly; both
+conscience and religion, as well as propagation, increase them,
+and, unless instant and decisive steps are taken to prevent
+their increase, you will soon have 50,000 <i>determined and
+vengeful enemies</i> in the heart of your country, protected there
+by the constitution, forsooth, by which it seems we are
+forbidden to expel the free negroes, or to prevent farther
+importations of this deadly pest in the persons of
+slaves.'&mdash;[Louisville Focus.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Will not the people of the United States be induced to do
+something to remove their colored population? I refer to their
+condition, whether bond or free. They are wretched and
+dangerous, and should be removed. And the danger arises, not
+because we have thousands of slaves within our borders, but
+because there are nearly two millions of colored men, who are by
+necessity any thing rather than loyal citizens.'&mdash;[Address by
+Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It is not now a novel or a debateable proposition, that slavery
+is a great moral and political curse. It is equally clear that
+its multitudinous evils are greatly increased by the existence
+among us of a mongrel population, who, freed from the shackles
+of bondage, yet bear about them the badge of inferiority,
+stamped upon them indelibly by the hand of nature, and are
+therefore deprived of those rights of citizenship, without which
+they must necessarily be a degraded caste&mdash;depraved in morals
+and vicious in conduct, and <i>exercising a mischievous and
+dangerous influence over those to whom they are nominally
+superior</i>. Their mere existence among the slaves is sufficient,
+of itself, to excite in the bosoms of the latter a feeling of
+dissatisfaction with their own condition, apparently worse,
+because of the coercion to labor which it imposes; but
+essentially better, because of the comforts which that labor
+procures, and of which the idle and dissolute habits of the free
+negro almost invariably deprive him. The slave, however, is not
+capable of reasoning correctly, if he reasons at all, on these
+truths. He envies the free negro his idleness, and his freedom
+from restraint, with all its attendant disadvantages of poverty
+and disease,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> crime and punishment&mdash;and hence, he will sometimes
+indulge the delusive dream of effecting his own emancipation by
+the murder of those who hold him in bondage. Take away from him
+this cause of dissatisfaction, and this incentive to
+insurrection, and then these "impracticable hopes," which now
+sometimes flit before his imagination, will no longer embitter
+his hours of labor, and urge him to the commission of those
+horrid deeds of massacre, which, though they may glut a
+momentary revenge, must result disastrously, not only to the
+slaves engaged immediately in their perpetration, but to all
+that unfortunate race. Our true interests require that they
+shall remove from among us&mdash;and no longer be a source of
+disquietude to the whites, <i>of envy to the slaves</i>, and of
+degradation to themselves.'&mdash;[Lynchburg (Va.) Virginian.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'For the most conclusive reasons this removal should be to
+Africa. If it be to the West Indies, to Texas, to Canada, then,
+how strong and various the objections to building up, in the
+vicinity of our own nation, a mighty empire, from a race of men,
+<i>so unlike ourselves</i>? But, if the removal be to Africa, then it
+is to a <i>happy distance</i> from us and to their father land....
+Then let it aid in removing that population, which, under its
+peculiar relation to the whites, and under its degrading social
+and civil disabilities, is a most fruitful source of national
+dishonor, demoralization, weakness and <i>horrid
+danger</i>.'&mdash;[Memorial of the New-York State Colonization
+Society.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The males removed should be persons between 16 and 17 years of
+age; the females between 13 and 14. Now as a number would be
+annually removed equal to the whole increase, and as that number
+would be composed of individuals, of such ages that their
+removal would affect the future increase of the race in the
+greatest possible degree, I believe that their numbers would not
+only not increase, but would diminish. And the number removed
+might be increased as the proportion of white persons in the
+State became greater, until the removal reached a point at which
+all the males who attained the age of sixteen, and all the
+females who attained the age of fourteen, in any given year,
+would during that year be removed.'&mdash;[Petersburg (Va.) Times.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'They are well calculated to render the slaves sullen,
+discontented, unhappy and refractory&mdash;and the masters
+suspicious, fearful of consequences, and disposed to enhance the
+rigor of the condition of their slaves, in order to avert the
+dangers that appear to impend over them from the promulgation of
+the anti-slavery doctrines; thus, in this case, as in so many
+others, the imprudent zeal of friends is likely to produce as
+much substantial injury as the animosity of decided enemies
+could accomplish.'&mdash;[Mathew Carey's Essays.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Hatred to the whites is, with the exception in some cases of an
+attachment to the person and family of the master, nearly
+universal among the black population. We have then a foe,
+cherished in our very bosoms&mdash;a foe willing to draw our
+life-blood whenever the opportunity is offered, and, in the mean
+time, intent upon doing us all the mischief in his
+power.'&mdash;[Southern Religious Telegraph.]</p></div>
+
+<p>Does the reader wish for any additional proof that the governing motive
+of the American Colonization Society is fear&mdash;undisguised, <i>excessive</i>
+<span class="smcap">FEAR</span>? Language is altogether inadequate to express my indignation and
+contempt, in view of such a heartless and cowardly exhibition of
+sentiment. There is a deep sense of guilt, an awful dread of
+retribution, manifested in the foregoing extracts; but we perceive no
+evidence of contrition for past or present injustice, on the part of
+those terror<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>-stricken plotters. Instead of returning to those, whom
+they have so deeply injured, 'with repenting and undissembling love;'
+instead of seeking to conciliate and remunerate the victims of their
+prejudice and oppression; instead of resolving to break the yoke of
+servitude and let the oppressed go free; it seems to be their only
+anxiety and aim to outwit the vengeance of Heaven, and strengthen the
+bulwarks of tyranny, by expelling the free people of color from our
+shores, and effecting such a diminution of the number of slaves as shall
+give the white population a triumphant and irresistible superiority!
+'<i>Check the increase!</i>' is their cry&mdash;'let us retain in everlasting
+bondage as many as we can, <i>safely</i>; but the proportion must be at least
+ten millions of ourselves to two millions of our vassals, else we shall
+live in jeopardy! To do justly is not our intention; we only mean to
+remove the surplus of our present stock; we think we shall be able, by
+this prudent device, to oppress and rob with impunity. Our present
+wailing is not for our heinous crimes, but only because our avarice and
+cruelty have carried us beyond our ability to protect ourselves: we
+lament, not because we hold so large a number in fetters of iron, but
+because we cannot safely hold more!'</p>
+
+<p>Ye crafty calculators! ye hard-hearted, incorrigible sinners! ye greedy
+and relentless robbers! ye contemners of justice and mercy! ye
+trembling, pitiful, pale-faced usurpers! my soul spurns you with
+unspeakable disgust. Know ye not that the reward of your hands shall be
+given you? 'Wo unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write
+grievousness which they have prescribed; to turn aside the needy from
+judgment, and to take away the right from the poor, that widows may be
+their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! And what will ye do in
+the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far?
+to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your
+glory?'&mdash;'What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the
+face of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts.'&mdash;'Behold, the hire of
+the laborers which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept
+back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are
+entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.' Repent! repent!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> <i>now</i>,
+in sackcloth and ashes. Think not to succeed in your expulsive crusade;
+you cannot hide your motives from the Great Searcher of hearts; and if a
+sinful worm of the dust, like myself, is fired with indignation at your
+dastardly behaviour and mean conspiracy to evade repentance and
+punishment, how must the anger of Him, whose holiness and justice are
+infinite, burn against you? Is it not a fearful thing to fall into the
+hands of the living God? You may plot by day and by night; you may heap
+together the treasures of the land, and multiply and enlarge your
+combinations, to extricate yourselves from peril; but <i>you cannot
+succeed</i>. Your only alternative is, either to redress the wrongs of the
+oppressed <i>now</i>, and humble yourselves before God, or prepare for the
+chastisements of Heaven. I repeat it&mdash;<span class="smcap">Repentance</span> or <span class="smcap">Punishment</span> must be
+yours.</p>
+
+<p>There are several points upon which I wish to fasten the attention of
+the reader:</p>
+
+<p>1. The inhumanity and craftiness of these propositions for the removal
+of the free people of color.</p>
+
+<p>It will be seen that the conspirators have taxed their ingenuity to the
+utmost, to ascertain the exact number of emigrants which must be
+transported annually, the amount of money that must be raised, the
+persons that must be selected, the number of vessels that must be
+employed, &amp;c. &amp;c. It is their determination, if the necessary means can
+be obtained, to transport the annual increase of our colored population;
+but in this calculation we find no allowance made for unwillingness or
+resistance on the part of those who are the objects of their
+supervision. It is taken for granted that all will be induced to go into
+exile, or must be made willing compulsorily. Nothing else is
+contemplated but their entire expulsion. In order to insure a reduction
+of this 'alarming increase,' and effectually to check the fruitfulness
+of generation, even the unmanly and scandalous proposition is made to
+remove principally those of both sexes who are just come to the age of
+puberty! The system of <i>espionage</i>, established by Napoleon to prevent
+the possibility of a successful conspiracy, was not more detestable and
+observant than is this violent and unnatural project. 'If young
+<i>females</i> were encouraged to go'!&mdash;why, then they could not propagate
+here! Infamous calculation!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>2. The principal object avowed for the removal of the free people of
+color, is, their corruptive and dangerous influence over the slave
+population.</p>
+
+<p>It is demonstrated, then, beyond disputation, that this removal will
+infuse new strength into the tottering system of slavery, tighten the
+grasp of the masters upon the throats of the slaves, lull them into a
+profound and quiet sleep, postpone the hour of emancipation, and enhance
+the security and value of slave property. The terror of mind which calls
+for this separation cannot be benevolence, and the combination which
+seeks to effect it cannot merit support. It were folly to hope that the
+owners of slaves will ultimately emancipate them, from conscientious
+motives. In the first place, they affect to be innocent in holding their
+victims in servitude; secondly, they are assured by their colonization
+brethren that they are not guilty of oppression, but, on the contrary,
+are watchful guardians; and lastly, they are obstinate in shutting their
+eyes upon the light, and kindle into a rage on being arraigned for their
+tyrannous conduct. Our only ground of hope, then, is in increasing the
+difficulty of holding their slaves, in multiplying the causes of their
+apprehensions, in destroying the value of slave labor, and in making
+their situation full of disquietude and distress. Such a course is not
+inconsistent with benevolence&mdash;such a course we are obligated to pursue,
+as we value the present and everlasting welfare of the oppressor and the
+oppressed, and desire to have a conscience void of offence toward God
+and toward man. It may&mdash;it <i>must</i> be effected by a scrupulous abstinence
+from the productions of slavery; by encouraging planters to cultivate
+their lands by the hands of free laborers; by educating our free colored
+population, and placing them on an equality with ourselves; and by
+constantly exhibiting the criminality of holding rational and immortal
+beings in servile bondage. Thus, and thus only, shall we be able to
+liberate our enslaved countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>3. Consider the inevitable consequence of these reiterated and malignant
+statements, with regard to the habits and designs of the free people of
+color.</p>
+
+<p>First, it deters a large number of masters from liberating their slaves,
+and hence directly perpetuates the evils of slavery:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> it deters them for
+two reasons&mdash;an unwillingness to augment the wretchedness of those who
+are in servitude by turning them loose upon the country, and a dread of
+increasing the number of their enemies. It creates and nourishes the
+bitterest animosity against the free blacks. It has spread an alarm
+among all classes of society, in all parts of the country; and, acting
+under this fearful impulse, they begin to persecute, believing
+self-preservation imperiously calls for this severe treatment. The
+legislative enactment of Ohio, which not long since drove many of the
+colored inhabitants of that State into Upper Canada, was the legitimate
+fruit of the anathemas of the Colonization Society. A bill has been
+reported in the same legislature for preventing free people of color
+from participating in the benefit of the common school fund, in order to
+hasten their expulsion from the State! Other States are multiplying
+similar disabilities, and hanging heavier weights upon their free
+colored population. The Legislature of Louisiana has enacted that
+whosoever shall make use of language, in any public discourse, from the
+bar, the bench, the pulpit, the stage, or in any other place whatsoever
+shall make use of language, in any private discourses, or shall make use
+of signs or actions having a tendency to produce discontent among the
+colored population, shall suffer imprisonment at hard labor, not less
+than three years, nor more than twenty-one years, or <span class="smcap">DEATH</span>, at the
+discretion of the court!! It has also prohibited the instruction of the
+blacks in Sabbath Schools&mdash;$500 penalty for the first offence&mdash;<span class="smcap">DEATH</span> for
+the second!! The Legislature of Virginia has passed a bill which
+subjects all free negroes who shall be convicted of remaining in the
+commonwealth contrary to law, to the liability of <i>being sold by the
+sheriff</i>. All meetings of free negroes, at any school-house or
+meeting-house, for teaching them reading or writing, are declared an
+unlawful assembly; and it is made the duty of any justice of the peace
+to issue his warrant to enter the house where such unlawful assemblage
+is held, for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such free
+negroes. A fine is to be imposed on every white person who instructs at
+such meetings. All emancipated slaves, who shall remain more than twelve
+months, contrary to law, shall revert to the executors as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> assets. Laws
+have been passed in Georgia and North Carolina, imposing a heavy tax or
+imprisonment on every free person of color who shall come into their
+ports in the capacity of stewards, cooks, or seamen of any vessels
+belonging to the non-slaveholding States. The Legislature of Tennessee
+has passed an act forbidding free blacks from coming into the State to
+remain more than twenty days. The penalty is a fine of from ten to fifty
+dollars, and confinement in the penitentiary from one to two years.
+Double the highest penalty is to be inflicted after the first offence.
+The act also prohibits manumission, without an immediate removal from
+the State. The last Legislature of Maryland passed a bill, by which no
+free negro or mulatto is allowed to emigrate to, or settle in the State,
+under the penalty of fifty dollars for every week's residence therein;
+and if he refuse or neglect to pay such fine, he shall be committed to
+jail and sold by the sheriff at public sale; and no person shall employ
+or harbor him, under the penalty of twenty dollars for every day he
+shall be so employed, hired or harbored! It is not lawful for any free
+blacks to attend any meetings for religious purposes, unless conducted
+by a <i>white</i> licensed or ordained preacher, or some respectable white
+person duly authorised! All free colored persons residing in the State,
+are compelled to register their names, ages, &amp;c. &amp;c.; and if any negro
+or mulatto shall remove from the State, and remain without the limits
+thereof for a space longer than thirty consecutive days, unless before
+leaving the State he deposits with the clerk of the county in which he
+resides, <i>a written statement of his object in doing so</i>, and his
+intention of returning again, or unless he shall have been detained by
+sickness or coercion, <i>of which he shall bring a certificate</i>, he shall
+be regarded as a resident of another State, and be subject, if he
+return, to the penalties imposed by the foregoing provisions upon free
+negroes and mulattoes of another State, migrating to Maryland! It is not
+lawful for any person or persons to purchase of any free negro or
+mulatto any articles, unless he produce a certificate from a justice of
+the peace, or three respectable persons residing in his neighborhood,
+that he or they have reason to believe, and do believe, that such free
+negro or mulatto came honestly and bona fide into possession of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> any
+such articles so offered for sale! A bill has been reported to the
+Legislature of Pennsylvania, which enacts, that from and after a
+specified time, no negro or mulatto shall be permitted to emigrate into
+and settle in that State, without entering into bond in the penal sum of
+<i>five hundred dollars</i>, conditioned for his good behavior. If he neglect
+or refuse to comply with this requisition, such punishment shall be
+inflicted upon him as is now directed in the case of vagrants. Free
+colored residents are not to be allowed to migrate from one township or
+county to another, without producing a certificate from the Clerk of the
+Court of Quarter Sessions, or a Justice of the Peace, or an Alderman!
+The passage of a similar law has been urged even upon the Legislature of
+Massachusetts by a writer in the Salem Gazette!</p>
+
+<p>All these proscriptive measures, and others less conspicuous but equally
+oppressive,&mdash;which are not only flagrant violations of the Constitution
+of the United States, but in the highest degree disgraceful and
+inhuman,&mdash;are resorted to, (to borrow the language of the Secretary in
+his Fifteenth Annual Report,) 'for the more complete accomplishment of
+the great objects of the American Colonization Society'!!</p>
+
+<p>I appeal to the candor and common sense of the reader, if this grievous
+persecution be not justly chargeable to the Society? It is constantly
+thundering in the ears of the slave States&mdash;'Your free blacks
+contaminate your slaves, excite their deadliest hate, and are a source
+of <i>horrid danger</i> to yourselves! They must be removed, or your
+destruction is inevitable!' What is their response? Precisely such as
+might be expected&mdash;'We know it; we dread the presence of this class;
+their influence over our slaves weakens our power, and endangers our
+safety; they must, <i>they shall</i> be expatriated, or be crushed to the
+earth if they remain!' It says to the free States&mdash;'Your colored
+population can never be rendered serviceable, intelligent or loyal; they
+will only, and always, serve to increase your taxes, crowd your
+poor-houses and penitentiaries, and corrupt and impoverish society!'
+Again, what is the natural response?&mdash;'It is even so; they are offensive
+to the eye, and a pest in community; theirs is now, and must inevitably
+be,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> without a reversal of the laws of nature, the lot of vagabonds; it
+were useless to attempt their intellectual and moral improvement among
+ourselves; and therefore be this their alternative&mdash;either to emigrate
+to Liberia, or remain for ever a despicable caste in this country!'</p>
+
+<p>Hence the enactment of those sanguinary laws, to which reference has
+been made: hence, too, the increasing disposition which is every where
+seen to render the situation of the free blacks intolerable. Never was
+it so pitiable and distressing&mdash;so full of peril and anxiety&mdash;so
+burdened with misery, despondency and scorn; never were the prejudices
+of society so virulent and implacable against them; never were their
+prospects so dark, and dreary, and hopeless; never was the hand of power
+so heavily laid upon their limbs; never were they so restricted in
+regard to locomotion and the advantages of education, as at the present
+time. Athwart their sky scarcely darts a single ray of light&mdash;above and
+around them darkness reigns, and an angry tempest is mustering its
+fearful strength, and 'thunders are uttering their voices.' Treachery is
+seeking to decoy, and violence to expel them. For all this, and more
+than this, and more that is to come, the American Colonization Society
+is responsible. And no better evidence is needed than this: <span class="smcap">their
+persecution, traducement and wretchedness increase in exact ratio with
+the influence, popularity and extension of this Society</span>! The fact is
+undeniable, and it is conclusive. For it is absurd to suppose, that as
+the disposition and ability of an association to alleviate misery
+increase, so will the degradation and suffering of the objects of its
+charities.</p>
+
+<p>The assertion that the free blacks corrupt the morals of the slaves, is
+too ludicrous to need a serious refutation. Corrupt the morals of those
+who are recognized and treated as brutes, and who know as little of the
+laws of God as of the laws of the land! Immaculate creatures! The system
+of slavery is constantly developing new excellencies: it is, we now
+perceive, the protector of virtue, the enemy of vice, and a purifier of
+the soul!</p>
+
+<p>But something more indiscreet and preposterous than this, is advanced
+for our admiration. We are gravely assured, first, by a New-England
+clergyman, that, generally, the condition of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> free man of color 'is
+one in comparison with which the condition of the slave is <i>enviable</i>;'
+and, secondly, by the last distinguished convert to the Colonization
+Society&mdash;the Hon. Mr. Archer of Virginia&mdash;'the condition of the slave is
+<i>a thousand times</i> the best, [the disparity is wonderful!]&mdash;<i>supplied</i>,
+<i>protected</i>, instead of <i>destitute</i> and <i>desolate</i>'!<a name="FNanchor_Q_18" id="FNanchor_Q_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_Q_18" class="fnanchor">[Q]</a> Let us draw a
+brief comparison. The limbs of the free black are fetterless; he is
+controlled by no brutal driver; he bleeds not under the lash; he is his
+own master; his wife and children cannot be torn from his arms; he
+enjoys the fruits of his own labor; he can improve his own mind, make
+his own bargains, manage his own business, go from place to place, and
+assert his own rights. The situation and privileges of the slave are
+exactly the reverse. Reader, are they 'enviable'&mdash;'a thousand times the
+best'&mdash;in comparison with those of the former? I do not mean to say that
+there are no instances in which the slave fares as well as the free man
+of color; but the argument of these apologists implies that a state of
+slavery is superior to a state of freedom, or it is worthless.</p>
+
+<p>4. It appears, from the quotations that have been given, that the only
+reason why the free blacks are not colonized in the 'far West,' or in
+Canada, or Hayti, or Mexico, is, because their proximity to the slave
+States might prove detrimental. If they could be sent to any or to all
+these places, without any danger to ourselves, why then all objections
+would cease. This confession places the hypocrisy of this Society in
+bold relief. It pretends to be anxious to evangelize benighted Africa,
+and stop the slave trade; but only assure it that the blacks may be
+safely colonized nearer home, and Africa might still continue to grope
+in darkness, and the slave trade to increase in enormity, and its bowels
+of compassion would speedily cease to yearn!&mdash;Hence it is that the rapid
+enlargement of the Wilberforce Settlement in Upper Canada so disturbs
+the repose of the advocates of African colonization; and many of them
+would rejoice at its overthrow.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_P_17" id="Footnote_P_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_P_17"><span class="label">[P]</span></a> How very strange that the slave should 'regard as tyranny
+and injustice the authority <ins id="mycorr7" class="mycorr" title="Original: which which"><a name="corr7" id="corr7"></a>which</ins> compels him to labor' without
+recompense!!!</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_Q_18" id="Footnote_Q_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_Q_18"><span class="label">[Q]</span></a> Paupers and criminals are supplied and <i>protected</i>. How
+invidious to treat them so generously, and leave honest, hard-working
+men exposed to destitution and abandonment! They ought to be sent to the
+poor-house or penitentiary forthwith.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></div>
+<h2><a name="SECTION_VII" id="SECTION_VII"></a>SECTION VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY AIMS AT THE UTTER EXPULSION OF THE
+BLACKS.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> implacable spirit of this Society is most apparent in its
+determination not to cease from its labors, until our whole colored
+population be expelled from the country. The following is the evidence
+in confirmation of this charge:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'How came we by this population? By the prevalence for a century
+of a guilty commerce. And will not the prevalence for a century
+of a restoring commerce, place them on their own shores? Yes,
+surely!'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. i. p. 347.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'For several years the subject of abolition of slavery has been
+brought before you. I am decidedly opposed to the project
+recommended. NO SCHEME OF ABOLITION WILL MEET MY SUPPORT, THAT
+LEAVES THE EMANCIPATED BLACKS AMONG US. Experience has proved,
+that they become a corrupt and degraded class, as burthensome to
+themselves as they are hurtful to the rest of society. To permit
+the blacks to remain amongst us, after their emancipation, would
+be to aggravate and not to cure the evil.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. ii. pp.
+188, 189.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We would say, LIBERATE THEM ONLY ON CONDITION OF THEIR GOING TO
+AFRICA OR TO HAYTI.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. iii. p. 26.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'<i>I am not complaining of the owners of slaves</i>; IT WOULD BE AS
+HUMANE TO THROW THEM FROM THE DECKS IN THE MIDDLE PASSAGE, AS TO
+SET THEM FREE IN OUR COUNTRY.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The Colonization Society,
+I undertake to show, presents such a scheme. Slaveholders have
+given it their approbation; they will approve it, and they can
+approve of no other. <i>Any scheme of emancipation without
+colonization</i>, they know and see and feel to be productive of
+nothing but evil; evil to all whom it affects: to the white
+population, to the slaves, to the <i>manumitted themselves</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+'Throughout the slaveholding States there is a strong objection,
+even among the warmest friends of the African race, to slaves
+being liberated and allowed to remain among us; and some States
+have enacted laws against it. <i>The objection is, in our
+individual opinion, well founded.</i>'&mdash;[Idem, vol. iv. pp. 226,
+300, 340.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'In connexion with this subject, your memorialists beg leave to
+mention, that by an act of the Virginia Legislature, passed in
+1805, emancipated slaves forfeit their freedom by remaining for
+a longer period than twelve months, within the limits of the
+Commonwealth. This law, odious and unjust as it may at first
+view appear, and hard as it may seem to bear upon the liberated
+negro, was doubtless dictated by sound policy, and <i>its repeal
+would be regarded by none with more unfeigned regret, than by
+the friends of African Colonization</i>. It has restrained many
+masters from giving freedom to their slaves, and has thereby
+contributed to check the growth of an evil <i>already too great
+and formidable</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Under the influence of a policy, already
+referred to, <i>and justified by the necessity from which it
+sprung</i>, the laws of Virginia have prohibited emancipa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>tion
+within the limits of the State, but on condition of the early
+removal of the individual emancipated.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'While hundreds,
+perhaps we might say thousands, of the free colored people, are
+seeking a passage to Liberia; hundreds who hold slaves, would
+willingly set them at liberty, were the means of their removal
+provided. And till those means are provided, the liberation of
+the slave would neither be a blessing to himself, nor the
+public. His liberty under any circumstances may be a debt due,
+in the abstract, to the claims of human nature; but when applied
+to him individually, it would be a calamity. We cannot conceive
+of a more deplorable state of society, than what our
+slaveholding states would present, with their black population
+afloat, without a home, without the means of subsistence, and
+without those self-relying habits, which might lead them to
+obtain an independent livelihood. <i>It is not therefore incumbent
+upon those who hold slaves, to set them at liberty, till some
+means are provided for their removal, or at least for their
+subsistence.</i> They owe it neither to themselves, to their
+country, nor the unfortunate beings around them.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Those
+slaves still in my possession, I cannot conscientiously
+emancipate, unless they shall be removed by the Society to
+Liberia.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. v. pp. 20, 53, 89, 177.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'If the question were submitted, whether there should be either
+immediate or gradual emancipation of all the slaves in the
+United States, <i>without their removal or colonization</i>, painful
+as it is to express the opinion, I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT IT WOULD
+BE UNWISE TO EMANCIPATE THEM.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Is our posterity doomed to
+endure forever not only all the ills flowing from the state of
+slavery, but all which arise from incongruous elements of
+population, separated from each other by invincible prejudices,
+and by natural causes? Whatever may be the character of the
+remedy proposed, we may confidently pronounce it inadequate,
+unless it provides efficaciously for the <i>total</i> and <i>absolute</i>
+separation, by an extensive space of water or of land, at least,
+of the white portion of our population from that, which is free,
+of the colored.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Who, if this promiscuous residence of
+whites and blacks, of freemen and slaves, is forever to
+continue, can imagine the servile wars, the carnage and the
+crimes which will be its probable consequences, without
+shuddering with horror?'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Gentlemen of the highest
+respectability from the South, assure us, that there is among
+the owners of slaves a very extensive and increasing desire to
+emancipate them. Their patriotism, their humanity, nay their
+self-interest, prompt to this; but it is not expedient, it is
+not safe to do it, <i>without being able to remove them</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+'How important it is, as it respects our character abroad, that
+we hasten to <i>clear our land of our black population</i>!'</p>
+
+<p>'Some benevolent minds in the overflowings of their
+philanthropy, advocate amalgamation of the two classes, saying,
+let the colored class be freed, and remain among us as denizens
+of the Empire; surely all classes of mankind are alike descended
+from the primitive parentage of Eden, then why not intermingle
+in one common society as friends and brothers. <i>No, Sir, no.</i> I
+hope to prove at no very distant day, that a Southron can make
+sacrifices for the cause of Colonization beyond seas; but for a
+Home Department in those matters, I repeat, <i>no, Sir, no</i>. What
+right, I demand, have the children of Africa to an homestead in
+the white man's country?'<a name="FNanchor_R_19" id="FNanchor_R_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_R_19" class="fnanchor">[R]</a></p>
+
+<p>'Let the regenerated African rise to Empire; nay, let Genius
+flourish, and Philosophy shed its mild beams to enlighten and
+instruct the posterity of Ham, returning "redeemed and
+disenthralled," from their long captivity in the New World. But,
+Sir, be all these benefits enjoyed by the African race under the
+shade of their native palms. <i>Let the Atlantic billow heave its
+high and</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span><i> everlasting barrier between their country and ours.</i>
+Let this fair land, which the white man won by his chivalry,
+which he has adorned by the arts and elegancies of polished
+life, be kept sacred for his descendants, untarnished by the
+footprint of him who hath ever been a slave.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. vi.
+pp. 5, 12, 23, 110, 364, 371, 372.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The idea of emancipating our slaves, and <i>permitting them to
+remain within the limits of the U. S.</i> whether as a measure of
+humanity or of policy, is most decisively reprobated by
+universal public sentiment.... Does any man in his senses desire
+this population to remain among us? If the whole community could
+reply, IT WOULD RESPOND IN ONE UNIVERSAL NEGATIVE.'&mdash;[Idem, vol.
+vii. pp. 230, 231.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'In reflecting on the utility of a plan for colonizing the free
+people of color, with whom our country abounds, it is natural
+that we should be first struck by its tendency to confer a
+benefit on ourselves, <i>by ridding us of a population</i> for the
+most part idle and useless, and too often vicious and
+mischievous.... All emancipation, to however small an extent,
+<i>which permits the persons emancipated to remain in this
+country</i>, is an evil, which must increase with the increase of
+the operation, and would become altogether intolerable, if
+extended to the whole, or even to a very large part, of the
+black population. I am therefore strongly opposed to
+emancipation, in every shape and degree, <i>unless accompanied by
+colonization</i>.'&mdash;[First Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'They will annex the condition that the emancipated SHALL LEAVE
+THE COUNTRY.'&mdash;[Second Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'They require that the <i>whole mass</i> of free persons of color,
+and those who may become such with the consent of their owners,
+<i>should be progressively removed</i> from among us, as fast as
+their own consent can be obtained, and as the means can be found
+for their removal and for their proper establishment in Africa.
+Nothing short of this progressive but complete removal can
+accomplish the great objects of this measure, in relation to the
+security, prosperity, and happiness of the United
+States.'&mdash;[Seventh Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Is it either safe or prudent to retain amongst us a large
+population, on whom we can place no reliance, but from the
+control which the laws exercise over it? Can this class be
+animated by any feelings of patriotism towards a country by
+which they feel themselves oppressed?'&mdash;[Ninth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Colonization, to be correct, must be beyond seas.&mdash;Emancipation,
+<i>with the liberty to remain on this side of the Atlantic</i>, IS
+BUT AN ACT OF DREAMY MADNESS!'&mdash;[Thirteenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Has our country the resources demanded for the accomplishment
+of an object of such magnitude? The transportation of more than
+two millions of souls to a remote country is indeed an object of
+formidable aspect. It obviously cannot be accomplished at once.
+But that the number can be gradually diminished, <i>till utterly
+extinguished</i>, may be made to appear, it is believed, from a
+little arithmetical calculation....' 'It has been said that the
+entire shipping of the country, both public and private, would
+hardly be competent for an object of this magnitude. But careful
+calculation has proved, that one eighteenth of the mercantile
+shipping alone, entirely devoted to the enterprise, is competent
+to carry it into complete consummation. And why might not our
+brilliant and growing <i>navy</i> aid to some extent the humane and
+patriotic cause? If necessary, why might not <i>the marine of
+other lands</i> be chartered? Strange indeed it is if shipping
+enough could be found half a century ago to reduce hundreds of
+thousands of this race in a single year to a wretched vassalage,
+and in this age of aug<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>mented light, and wealth, and improvement
+in every art, enough cannot be found for the single benevolent
+object before us!'&mdash;[Rev. Baxter Dickinson's Sermon delivered in
+Springfield in 1829.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'How much soever we may regret that so little is done for the
+intellectual and moral improvement of the free colored
+population, as the surest preventive against crime, still we
+must acknowledge it is in vain to attempt raising their
+character to a level with that of the other inhabitants. They
+must find an asylum beyond the influence of the white
+population, or the majority of them will <i>ever be found unworthy
+of the boon of freedom</i>. There must be that asylum for them, or
+we despair of ever being able to improve materially their
+condition, or to eradicate slavery from our soil, and thus
+prevent the awful catastrophe which threatens our republic. They
+must be furnished with facilities to leave this country and
+establish themselves in a community of their own.'&mdash;'I have
+alluded to the difficulties which are presented to the minds of
+benevolent and conscientious slaveholders, wishing to manumit
+their slaves. From what has been said, it is evident that unless
+some drain is opened to convey out of the country the
+emancipated, the laws which relate to emancipation, must
+continue in force with all their rigor. Without this drain, we
+can hope for no repeal, or relaxation of those laws where the
+slaves are very numerous. The mass of slaveholders can never let
+go their hold on their slaves, and suffer them, ignorant,
+vicious and treacherous, to roam at large. If no drain is
+opened, necessity will compel them, as their slaves increase,
+and consequently the danger, to add statute to statute in regard
+to their slaves, until it be found necessary to arm one part of
+the population to control the other. I may add, that as bitter
+an enemy as I am to slavery, I cannot greatly desire that these
+laws should be relaxed&mdash;that slavery should be abolished,
+<i>unless its unfortunate and degraded subjects can be removed
+from the country</i>. If this is not effected, whatever may be our
+views and wishes on this subject, I am confident that
+slaveholders will justify themselves in resorting to almost any
+measures to keep their slaves in entire subjection.'&mdash;[An
+advocate of the Society in the Middletown (Ct.) Gazette.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'To talk of emancipating the slave population of these States
+without providing them with an asylum, is truly idle. The free
+blacks already scattered through the country, are a dangerously
+burthensome order of people. They cannot amalgamate with the
+population&mdash;the ordinances of nature are against it. They must,
+in the main, be a degraded order, hanging loosely upon
+society.'&mdash;[Idem.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The slaves <i>are</i> in their possession&mdash;they are entailed upon
+them by their ancestors. And can they set them free, <i>and still
+suffer them to remain in the country</i>? Would this be
+policy?&mdash;Would it be safe? NO. When they can be transported to
+the soil from whence they were derived&mdash;by the aid of the
+Colonization Society, by government, by individuals, or by any
+other means&mdash;then let them be emancipated, and not
+before.'&mdash;[Lowell (Mass.) Telegraph.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Avarice and iniquity have torn from that injured continent,
+within thirty years, no less than 1,500,000 slaves; and cannot
+humanity, religion, and justice, restore an equal number in the
+same time? If we desire to accomplish this work, it is plain
+that we can do it, and that too with a sum contemptible when
+compared with the magnitude of the evil.'&mdash;[Address of Gabriel
+P. Disosway.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We thank God that the ultimate accomplishment of the great
+scheme of colonization is now placed beyond a doubt, in
+Maryland; and that the day is not even distant when <i>the whole
+of our colored population</i> will have transferred themselves, by
+our assistance, from slavery or degradation here, to peace, and
+plenty, and power, and prosperity, and liberty, and
+independence, in a land which Providence originally gave
+them.'&mdash;[Baltimore Gazette.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It tends, and may powerfully tend, to rid us gradually and
+entirely, in the United States, of slaves and slavery: a great
+moral and political evil, of increasing virulence and extent,
+from which much mischief is now felt, and very great calamity in
+future is justly apprehended.'&mdash;[First Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'What can be done to mitigate or prevent the existing and
+apprehended evils, resulting from our black population?
+EMANCIPATION, WITHOUT REMOVAL FROM THE COUNTRY, IS OUT OF THE
+QUESTION.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'As long as our present feelings and prejudices
+exist, the abolition of slavery cannot be accomplished without
+the removal of the blacks&mdash;THEY CANNOT BE EMANCIPATED AS A
+PEOPLE, AND REMAIN AMONG US.'&mdash;[Second Annual Report of the
+New-York State Col. Soc.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It would gladly, however, grasp at a still grander object&mdash;that
+of restoring to the land of their fathers the whole colored race
+within our borders. Nor probably will it be satisfied to rest
+from its labors, till this object, in all its magnitude, is
+accomplished.'&mdash;[Rev. Baxter Dickinson's Sermon.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It must appear evident to all, that every endeavor to divert
+the attention of the community, or even a portion of the means,
+which the present crisis to imperatively calls for, from the
+Colonization Society, to measures calculated to bind the colored
+population to this country and seeking to raise them (<i>an
+impossibility</i>) to a level with the whites, whether by founding
+colleges or in any other way, tends directly in the proportion
+that it succeeds, to counteract and thwart the whole plan of
+colonization. Although none would rejoice more than myself to
+see this unhappy race elevated to the highest scale of human
+being, it has always seemed to me that this country was not the
+theatre for such a change. Far happier they, far happier we, had
+they never touched our soil, or breathed our air. As it is, to
+attain solid happiness and permanent respectability, they should
+now remove to a more congenial clime.'&mdash;[New Haven Religious
+Intelligencer for July, 1831.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The recent murderous movements of the people of color in some
+of the southern States, evinces the dreadful consequences of
+slavery, and the absolute necessity of colonizing all free
+blacks immediately, and of manumitting and colonizing slaves as
+fast as circumstances will justify the measure. We believe, and
+have for many years, that this is the only course, which will
+ensure prosperity and safety to our southern
+brethren.'&mdash;[New-Hampshire Observer.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The removal annually of one hundred thousand, it may be safely
+calculated, would sink the parent stock forty thousand in each
+year, and this in thirty years would reduce the blacks of the
+Union to a very small number&mdash;perhaps not one would
+remain.'&mdash;[National (Ohio) Historian.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We will demonstrate, that the conveyance of the present annual
+increase would, in less than thirty years, remove the whole to
+Africa. Let all, for instance, born in any single year, say of
+the age of twenty, be removed to Africa; and in each succeeding
+year, let all of that age be removed in the same manner.&mdash;Then,
+admitting, what is far too much to admit, that a generation
+lasts fifty years, on an average, the generation on the stage
+when the process commenced, would have become extinct at the end
+of thirty years, and all their increase or offspring would have
+been removed to Africa. Thirty years would, even in this way,
+clear them entirely from this country.&mdash;But there are two
+circumstances which would, in fact, make the time much shorter.</p>
+
+<p>'1. It is known that a generation lasts but a little more than
+thirty years. The generation, then, on the stage at the
+commencement of the process, would virtually be extinct in a
+little more than ten years. 2. By the removal of the most
+prolific part, the annual increase would itself be diminished
+more than a thirtieth part, in each successive year; that is, it
+would be diminished in an arithmetical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> ratio, so that it would
+be reduced to nothing before the arrival of the thirtieth
+year.'&mdash;[American Spectator.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It is "a consummation devoutly to be wished," that we should
+get clear of the free people of color now, and as they are
+successively liberated, as well on their own account as ours;
+and I trust and hope, we shall both have the pleasure to see a
+moral certainty of the removal of all these poor people back to
+the same country from which their ancestors were
+taken.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. iii. p. 311.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Neither do we consider liberty worth their acceptance, <i>unless
+they can be sent out of the country</i>. There is no doubt that a
+large proportion of the slaves enjoy life quite as well as those
+who are free.'&mdash;[Oxford (Me.) Observer.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It is estimated that there are 2,350,680 blacks in the United
+States, 339,360 of whom are free denizens of this republic. The
+object of this Society is <span class="smcap">the removal of these to
+Africa</span>.'&mdash;[New-York Standard.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We hope to make it for the interest of the owners, in some way,
+to part with their slaves;&mdash;not to be let loose among our white
+population, but to be carried back to the land of their
+fathers.'&mdash;[N. Y. Journal of Commerce.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'If they are to be placed above their present degraded
+condition, they must be removed to a country where they can rise
+as high as any man&mdash;be eligible to any office&mdash;then you will see
+them rise with the rapidity of the tide.'&mdash;[Southern Religious
+Telegraph.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'God has put a mark upon the black man.' ... 'The God of Nature
+intended they should be a <i>distinct</i>, free and independent
+community.'&mdash;[New-Haven Palladium.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We do not ask that the provisions of our Constitution and
+statute book should be so modified as to relieve and exalt the
+condition of the colored people, <i>whilst they remain with us</i>.
+LET THESE PROVISIONS STAND IN ALL THEIR RIGOR, to work out the
+ultimate and unbounded good of this people. Persuaded that their
+condition here is not susceptible of a radical and permanent
+improvement, <span class="smcap">WE WOULD DEPRECATE ANY LEGISLATION THAT SHOULD
+ENCOURAGE THE VAIN AND INJURIOUS HOPE OF IT</span>.'&mdash;[Memorial of the
+New-York State Colonization Society.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Let the wise and good among us unite in removing the blacks
+from the country. Would it not be expedient for the properly
+constituted authorities to prevent the manumission of slaves in
+every case, unless provision is made, at the same time, to
+secure their removal from the country?'&mdash;[Alexandria Gazette.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We should be in favor of the abolition of slavery, if its
+abolishment could be effected with safety, and the colored
+population sent back to Africa; but merely to have them obtain
+freedom and let loose upon society, would be the greatest curse
+that could befal <i>them</i> or <i>community</i>.'&mdash;[Essex Chronicle and
+County Republican.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY WAS NO OBJECT OF DESIRE TO HIM, UNLESS
+ACCOMPANIED BY COLONIZATION. So far was he from desiring it,
+unaccompanied by this condition, that HE WOULD NOT LIVE IN A
+COUNTRY WHERE THE ONE TOOK PLACE WITHOUT THE OTHER'!!!&mdash;[Mr
+Mercer's Speech in Congress.]</p></div>
+
+<p>In order to wipe off the reproach due to this violent expulsion, it was
+necessary, on the part of the Society, to find some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> pretext that would
+not only seem to justify but confer credit on the measure. Accordingly,
+it agreed to represent the colored inhabitants of the United States as
+aliens and foreigners, who, cast upon our shores by a cruel fatality,
+were sighing to return to their native land. 'Poor unfortunate
+exiles!'&mdash;how touching the appeal, how powerful the motive to assist,
+how likely to excite the compassion of the nation! Ah! what an air of
+disinterested benevolence, of generous compassion, of national
+attachment, must such an enterprise wear in the eyes of the world! Who
+that loved his own country, and deprecated an eternal absence from it,
+could refuse to help in restoring the unfortunate Africans to their
+long-estranged home? Such was, and is, and is likely to be, the artifice
+resorted to, in order to cover a base conspiracy, and give popularity to
+one of the wildest and most disgraceful crusades the world has ever
+witnessed. Let the following evidence suffice:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'At no very distant period, we should see all the free colored
+people in our land transferred to <i>their own country</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Let
+us send them back to <i>their native land</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'By returning
+them to <i>their own ancient land</i> of Africa, improved in
+knowledge and in civilization, we repay the debt which has so
+long been due them.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. i. pp. 65, 146,
+176.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'And though we may not live to see the day when the sons of
+Africa shall have returned to <i>their native soil</i>,' &amp;c.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'To
+found in Africa an empire of christians and republicans; to
+reconduct the blacks to <i>their native land</i>,' &amp;c.&mdash;[Idem, pp.
+13, 375.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Who would not rejoice to see our country liberated from her
+black population? Who would not participate in any efforts to
+restore those children of misfortune to <i>their native shores</i>?'
+*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The colored population of this country can never rise to
+respectability here; in <i>their native soil</i> they can.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The
+only remedy afforded is, to colonize them in <i>their mother
+country</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'They would go to that <i>home</i> from which they
+have been long absent.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Shall we ... retain and foster the
+<i>alien enemies</i>?'&mdash;[Idem, 88, 179, 185, 237.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Be all these benefits enjoyed by the African race under the
+shade of their native palms.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. vi. p. 372.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We have a numerous people, who, though they are among us, <i>are
+not of us</i>.'&mdash;[Second Annual Report of the N. Y. State Col.
+Soc.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Among us is a growing population of <i>strangers</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It will
+furnish the means of granting to <i>every African exile</i> among us
+a happy home in the land of his fathers.'&mdash;[Rev. Baxter
+Dickinson's Sermon.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Africa is indeed inviting her long exiled children to return to
+her bosom.'&mdash;[Circular of Rev. Mr Gurley.]</p></div>
+
+<p>Nothing could be more invidious or absurd than the foregoing
+representation. The great mass of our colored popula<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>tion were born in
+this country. This is their native soil; here they first saw the light
+of heaven, and inhaled the breath of life; here they have grown from
+infancy to manhood and old age; from these shores they have never
+wandered; they are the descendants of those who were forcibly torn from
+Africa two centuries ago; their fathers assisted in breaking the yoke of
+British oppression, and achieving that liberty which we prize above all
+price; and they cherish the strongest attachment to the land of their
+birth. Now, as they could not have been born in two countries, and as
+they were certainly born here, it follows that Africa is not their
+native home, and, consequently, that the Society has dealt in romance,
+or something more culpable, in representing them as strangers and
+aliens. It might as rationally charge them with being natives of Asia or
+Europe, or with having descended from the regions of the moon. To see
+ourselves gravely represented in a British periodical as natives of
+Great Britain, I doubt not would create great merriment; and a scheme
+for our transportation would add vastly to our sport.</p>
+
+<p>'But,' we are told, 'God has put a mark upon the black man.' True; and
+he has also put a mark upon every man, woman and child, in the world; so
+that every one differs in appearance from another&mdash;is easily
+identified&mdash;and, to make the objection valid, should occupy a <i>distinct</i>
+portion of territory, be himself a nation, enact his own laws, and live
+in perpetual solitude! The difference between a black and a white skin
+is not greater than that between a white and a black one. In either
+case, the mark is distinctive; and the blacks may as reasonably expel
+the whites, as the whites the blacks. To make such a separation we have
+no authority; to attempt it, would end only in disappointment; and, if
+it were carried into effect, those who are clamorous for the measure
+would be among the first to be cast out. The all-wise Creator, having
+'made of <i>one blood</i> all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the
+earth,' it is proper for them to associate freely together; and he is a
+proud worm of the dust who is ashamed to acknowledge this common
+relationship.</p>
+
+<p>Again we are told: 'The God of Nature intended the blacks should be a
+<i>distinct</i> community.' But has he been frustrated in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> his intentions?
+Where is the proof of such purpose? Let us have something more than the
+<i>ipse dixit</i> of the Society. Yes, we are seriously assured that Nature
+has played falsely! Colored persons were born by mistake in this
+country: they should have been born in Africa! We must therefore rectify
+the error, with all despatch, by transporting them to their <i>native
+soil</i>! Truly, a most formidable enterprise! There occur at least sixty
+thousand of such <i>mistakes</i>, annually; while the Society has corrected
+only about two thousand in fourteen years! But&mdash;courage! men engaged in
+a laudable enterprise should never despair!</p>
+
+<p>There are some difficulties, however, in the accomplishment of this
+mighty task, which cannot be easily overcome. Granting the position
+assumed by colonizationists, that the <i>blacks</i> and the <i>whites</i> should
+occupy different countries, how do they intend to dispose of that
+numerous and rapidly increasing class who are neither white nor black,
+called mulattoes? We have not been informed to what country they belong;
+but the point ought to be settled before any classification be made.
+Colonizationists must define, moreover, the exact shade of color which
+is to retain or banish individuals; for every candid mind will admit,
+that it would be as unnatural to send <i>white</i> blood to Africa, as to
+keep <i>black</i> blood in America. 'If the color of the skin is to give
+construction to our constitution and laws, let us, at once, begin the
+work of excision. Let us raise an army of pure whites, if such an army
+can be found; and let us drive out and transport to foreign climes, men,
+women and children, who cannot bring the most satisfactory vouchers,
+that their veins are flowing with the purest English blood. Indeed, let
+us shut up our ports against our own mariners, who are returning from an
+India voyage, and whose cheeks and muscles could not wholly withstand
+the influence of the breezes and tropics to which they were exposed. Let
+us make every shade of complexion, every difference of stature, and
+every contraction of a muscle, a Shibboleth, to detect and cut off a
+brother Ephraimite, at the fords of Jordan. Though such a crusade would
+turn every man's sword against his fellow; yet, it might establish the
+right of precedence to different features, statures and colors, and
+oblige<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> some friends of colonization to test the feasibility and equity
+of their own scheme.'</p>
+
+<p>If I must become a colonizationist, I insist upon being consistent:
+there must be no disagreement between my creed and practice. I must be
+able to give a reason why all our tall citizens should not conspire to
+remove their more diminutive brethren, and all the corpulent to remove
+the lean and lank, and all the strong to remove the weak, and all the
+educated to remove the ignorant, and all the rich to remove the poor, as
+readily as for the removal of those whose skin is 'not colored like my
+own;' for Nature has sinned as culpably in diversifying the size as the
+complexion of her progeny, and Fortune in the distribution of her gifts
+has been equally fickle. I cannot perceive that I am more excusable in
+desiring the banishment of my neighbor because his skin is darker than
+mine, than I should be in desiring his banishment because he is a
+smaller or feebler man than myself. Surely it would be sinful for a
+black man to repine and murmur, and impeach the wisdom and goodness of
+God, because he was made with a sable complexion; and dare I be guilty
+of such an impeachment, by persecuting him on account of his color? I
+dare not: I would as soon deny the existence of my Creator, as quarrel
+with the workmanship of his hands. I rejoice that he has made one star
+to differ from another star in glory; that he has not given to the sun
+the softness and gentleness of the moon, nor to the moon the intensity
+and magnificence of the sun; that he presents to the eye every
+conceivable shape, and aspect, and color, in the gorgeous and
+multifarious productions of Nature; and I do not rejoice less, but
+admire and exalt him more, that, notwithstanding he has made of one
+blood the whole family of man, he has made the whole family of man to
+differ in personal appearance, habits and pursuits.</p>
+
+<p>I protest against sending any to Africa, in whose blood there is any
+mixture of our own; for, I repeat it, white blood in Africa would be as
+repugnant to Nature, as black blood is in this country. Now; most
+unfortunately for colonizationists, the spirit of amalgamation has been
+so active for a long series of years,&mdash;especially in the slave
+States,&mdash;that there are comparatively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> few, besides those who are
+annually smuggled into the south from Africa, whose blood is not tainted
+with a foreign ingredient. Here, then, is a difficulty! What shall be
+done? All black blood <i>must</i> be sent to Africa; but how to collect it is
+the question. What shall be done! Why, we must resort to <i>phlebotomy</i>!</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the flesh.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; nor cut thou less nor more,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But just a pound of flesh: if thou tak'st more,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or less, than just a pound,&mdash;be it but so much<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As makes it light, or heavy, in the substance,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or the division of the twentieth part<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of one poor scruple; nay, if the scale do turn<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But in the estimation of a hair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate!'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The colonization crusade cannot now fail of being popular. Phlebotomy
+being agreed to as a <i>dernier resort</i>, I shall briefly enumerate some of
+the various professions and classes which may expect to derive no
+inconsiderable gain from its execution; for as our government, in
+conjunction with benevolent associations, is to appropriate millions of
+dollars to accomplish this object, the pay will be sure and liberal.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, there will be more than a million patients, for
+whose accommodation hospitals must be erected. These hospitals will
+employ brick-makers, masons, carpenters, painters, glaziers, &amp;c. &amp;c.
+&amp;c.; of course, the approval of a large body of mechanics is readily
+secured.</p>
+
+<p>Physicians will next obtain an extensive practice. Their patients, in
+consequence of a free application of the lancet, must necessarily be
+debilitated, and can be kept 'quite low' until a long score of charges
+be run up against the government.</p>
+
+<p>Among so many patients and so much unavoidable sickness, druggists and
+apothecaries will obtain a profitable sale for their medicines. Nurses
+will be next in demand, who may expect high wages. Even the lowly
+washers of soiled clothes will find the life-blood of the victims
+'coined into drachms' for their reward. It is highly probable that many
+of the patients may die under the expurgatory process, and hence sextons
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> coffin-makers may calculate upon good times. With death come
+mourning and lamentation, and 'weeds of wo.' Dealers in crape will
+doubtless secure a handsome patronage. Lawyers may hope to profit by the
+demise of those who possess property. Indeed, almost every class in
+community must, to a greater or less extent, feel the beneficial effects
+of this philanthropic but novel experiment. The blood, taken from the
+veins of the blacks, may be transfused into our own, and the general
+pulse acquire new vigor.</p>
+
+<p>Supposing a majority of the patients should recover, three other classes
+will thrive by their expulsion&mdash;namely, ship-builders, merchants and
+seamen. As our vessels are all occupied in profitable pursuits, new ones
+must be built&mdash;freights will rise&mdash;and the wages of seamen be
+proportionably enhanced.&mdash;But a truce to irony.</p>
+
+<p>The American Colonization Society, in making the banishment of the
+slaves the condition of their emancipation, inflicts upon them an
+aggravated wrong, perpetuates their thraldom, and disregards the claims
+of everlasting and immutable justice. The language of its most
+distinguished supporters is, 'Emancipation, with the liberty to remain
+on this side of the Atlantic, is but an act of dreamy
+madness'&mdash;'Emancipation, without removal from the country, is out of the
+question'&mdash;'All emancipation, to however small an extent, which permits
+the person emancipated to remain in this country, is an evil'&mdash;'They
+cannot be emancipated as a people, and remain among us.' Thus the
+restoration of an inalienable right, and an abandonment of robbery and
+oppression, are made to depend upon the practicability of transporting
+more than one sixth portion of our whole population to a far distant and
+barbarous land! It is impossible to imagine a more cruel, heaven-daring
+and God-dishonoring scheme. It exhibits a deliberate and perverse
+disregard of every moral obligation, and bids defiance to the
+requisitions of the gospel.</p>
+
+<p>Listen to the avowal of Mr Mercer of Virginia, one of the main pillars
+and most highly extolled supporters of the Society: 'The abolition of
+slavery was no object of desire to him, unless accompanied by
+colonization. So far was he from de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>siring it, unaccompanied by this
+condition, that <i>he would not live in a country where the one took place
+without the other</i>'! This language may be correctly rendered thus: 'I
+desire to see two millions of human beings plundered of their rights,
+and subjected to every species of wrong and outrage, <i>ad infinitum</i>, if
+they cannot be driven out of the country. I am perfectly willing to live
+with them while they are treated worse than cattle,&mdash;ignorant, vicious,
+and wretched,&mdash;and while they are held under laws which forbid their
+instruction; and not only am I willing thus to live, but I am determined
+to practise the same oppression. But, if they should be emancipated with
+liberty to remain here, and placed in a situation favorable to their
+moral and intellectual improvement&mdash;a situation in which they could be
+no longer bought and sold, lacerated and manacled, defrauded and
+oppressed&mdash;I would abandon my native land, and never return to her
+shores.' And this is the language of a <i>philanthropist</i>! and this the
+moral principle of the boasted champion of the American Colonization
+Society! Whose indignation does not kindle, whose astonishment is not
+profound, whose disgust is not excited, in view of these sentiments?</p>
+
+<p>But this is not the acme of colonization insanity. The assertion is made
+by a highly respectable partisan, and endorsed by the organ of the
+Society, that '<i>it would be as humane to throw the slaves from the decks
+in the middle passage</i>, [i. e. into the ocean,] <i>as to set them free in
+our country</i>'!!! And even Henry Clay, who is an oracle in the cause, has
+had the boldness to declare, that the slaves should be held in
+everlasting servitude if they cannot be colonized in Africa!! And this
+sentiment is echoed by another, who says, 'Liberate them only on
+condition of their going to Africa or Hayti'!</p>
+
+<p>I will not even seem to undervalue the good sense and quick perception
+of the candid and intelligent reader, by any farther endeavors to
+illustrate the sacrifice of principle and inhumanity of purpose which
+are contained in the extracts under the present section. With so strong
+an array of evidence before him, no one, who is not mentally blind or
+governed by prejudice, can fail to rise from its perusal with amazement
+and abhorrence, and a determination to assist in overthrowing a
+combination which is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> based upon the rotten foundation of expediency and
+violence.</p>
+
+<p>The Colonization Society expressly denies the right of the slaves to
+enjoy freedom and happiness in this country; and this denial
+incontestibly tends to rivet their fetters more firmly, or make them the
+victims of a relentless persecution.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_R_19" id="Footnote_R_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_R_19"><span class="label">[R]</span></a> What right have we to an homestead in the red man's
+country? Let us return to the land of our fathers, and leave this soil
+untarnished by the footprint of him who hath a white skin! What right
+have the hosts of foreign emigrants, who are flocking to our shores, to
+an homestead among ourselves?</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="SECTION_VIII" id="SECTION_VIII"></a>SECTION VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE DISPARAGER OF THE FREE BLACKS.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> leaders in the African colonization crusade seem to dwell with a
+malignant satisfaction upon the poverty and degradation of the free
+people of color, and are careful never to let an opportunity pass
+without heaping their abuse and contempt upon them. It is a common
+device of theirs to contrast the condition of the slaves with that of
+this class, and invariably to strike the balance heavily in favor of the
+former! In this manner, thousands are led to look upon slavery as a
+benevolent system, and to deprecate the manumission of its victims.
+Nothing but a love of falsehood, or an utter disregard of facts, could
+embolden these calumniators to deal so extensively in fiction. What! the
+slaves more happy, more moral, more industrious, more orderly, more
+comfortable, more exalted, than the free blacks! A more enormous
+exaggeration, a more heinous libel, a wider departure from truth, was
+never fabricated, or uttered, or known. The slaves, as a body, are in
+the lowest state of degradation; they possess no property; they cannot
+read; they are as ignorant, as their masters are reckless, of moral
+obligation; they have no motive for exertion; they are thieves from
+necessity and usage; their bodies are cruelly lacerated by the
+cart-whip; and they are disposable property. And yet these poor
+miserable, perishing, mutilated creatures are placed above our free
+colored population in dignity, in enjoyment, in privilege, in
+usefulness, in respectability!!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'There is a class, however, more numerous than all these,
+introduced amongst us by violence, notoriously ignorant,
+degraded and miserable, mentally diseased, broken-spirited,
+<i>acted upon by no motives to honorable exertions</i>, SCARCELY
+REACHED IN THEIR DEBASEMENT BY THE HEAVENLY LIGHT; yet where is
+the sympathy and effort which a view of their condition ought to
+excite? They wander unsettled and unbefriended through our land,
+or sit indolent, abject and sorrowful, by the "streams which
+witness their captivity." Their freedom is <i>licentiousness</i>, and
+to many RESTRAINT <span class="smcap">WOULD PROVE A BLESSING</span>. To this remark there
+are exceptions; exceptions proving that to change their state
+would be to elevate their character; that virtue and enterprise
+are absent, only, because absent are the causes which create the
+one, and the motives which produce the other.'&mdash;[African
+Repository, vol. i. p. 68.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Free blacks are a greater nuisance than even slaves
+themselves.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'They knew that where slavery had been
+abolished it had operated to the advantage of the masters, not
+of the slaves: they saw this fact most strikingly illustrated in
+the case of the free negroes of Boston. If, on the anniversary
+celebrated by the free people of color, of the day on which
+slavery was abolished, they looked abroad, what did they see?
+Not freemen, in the enjoyment of every attribute of freedom,
+with the stamp of liberty upon their brows! No, Sir; they saw a
+ragged set, crying out liberty! for whom liberty had nothing to
+bestow, and whose enjoyment of it was but in name. He spoke of
+the great body of the blacks; there were some few honorable
+exceptions, he knew, which only proved what might be done for
+all.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. ii. p. 328.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Although there are individual exceptions distinguished by high
+moral and intellectual worth, yet the free blacks in our country
+are, as a body, more vicious and degraded than any other which
+our population embraces.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'If, then, they are a useless
+and dangerous species of population, we would ask, is it
+generous in our southern friends to burthen us with them?
+Knowing themselves the evils of slavery, can they wish to impose
+upon us an evil scarcely less tolerable? We think it a mistaken
+philanthropy, which would liberate the slave, unfitted by
+education and habit for freedom, and cast him upon a merciless
+and despising world, where his only fortune must be poverty, his
+only distinction degradation, and his only comfort
+insensibility.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'I will look no farther when I seek for
+the <i>most degraded, the most abandoned race on the earth</i>, but
+rest my eyes on this people. What but sorrow can we feel at the
+<i>misguided piety</i> which has set free so many of them by
+death-bed devise or sudden conviction of injustice? Better, far
+better, for us, had they been kept in bondage, where the
+opportunity, the inducements, the necessity of vice would not
+have been so great. Deplorable necessity, indeed, to one borne
+down with the consciousness of the violence we have done. Yet I
+am clear that, whether we consider it with reference to the
+welfare of the State, or the happiness of the blacks, it were
+better to have left them in chains, than to have liberated them
+to receive such freedom as they enjoy, and greater freedom <i>we
+cannot, must not</i> allow them.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'There is not a State in the
+Union not at this moment groaning under the evil of this class
+of persons, a curse and a contagion whereever they reside.'
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The increase of a free black population among us has been
+regarded as a greater evil than the increase of
+slaves.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. iii. pp. 24, 25, 197, 203,
+374.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Mr. Mercer adverted to the situation of his native State, and
+the condition of the free black population existing there, whom
+he described as a horde of miserable people&mdash;the objects of
+universal suspicion; <i>subsisting by plunder</i>.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. iv.
+p. 363.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'They leave a country in which though born and reared, they are
+strangers and aliens; where <i>severe necessity</i> places them in a
+class of degraded beings; where they are free without the
+blessings and privileges of liberty; where in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> ceasing to be
+slaves of one, they have become subservient to many; where,
+neither freemen nor slaves, but placed in an anomalous grade
+which they do not understand and others disregard; where no kind
+instructer, no hope of preferment, no honorable emulation
+prompts them to virtue or deters from vice; their industry
+waste, not accumulation; their regular vocation, any thing or
+nothing as it may happen; their greater security, sufferance;
+their highest reward, forgiveness; vicious themselves and the
+cause of vice in others; discontented and exciting discontent;
+scorned by one class and <i>foolishly envied by another</i>; thus,
+and <span class="smcap">WORSE CIRCUMSTANCED</span>, they, cannot but choose to
+move.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. v. p. 238.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Of all the descriptions of our population, <i>and of either
+portion of the African race</i>, the free people of color are, by
+far, as a class, the <span class="smcap">MOST CORRUPT, DEPRAVED, AND ABANDONED</span>. The
+laws, it is true, proclaim them free; but prejudices, more
+powerful than any laws, deny them the privileges of freemen.
+They occupy a middle station between the free white population
+and the slaves of the United States, and the tendency of their
+habits is to corrupt both.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'That the free colored
+population of our country is a great and constantly increasing
+evil must be readily acknowledged. Averse to labor, with no
+incentives to industry or motives to self-respect, they maintain
+a precarious existence by petty thefts and plunder, themselves,
+or by inciting our domestics, not free, to rob their owners to
+supply their wants.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'If there is in the whole world, a
+more wretched class of human beings than the free people of
+color in this country, I do not know where they are to be found.
+They have no home, no country, no kindred, no friends. They are
+lazy and indolent, because they have no motives to prompt them
+to be industrious. They are in general destitute of principle,
+because they have nothing to stimulate them to honorable and
+praise-worthy conduct. Let them be maltreated ever so much, the
+law gives them no redress unless some white person happens to be
+present, to be a witness in the case. If they acquire property,
+they hold it by the courtesy of every vagabond in the country;
+and sooner or later, are sure to have it filched from
+them.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. vi. pp. 12, 135, 228.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The existence, within the very bosom of our country, of an
+anomalous race of beings, <span class="smcap">THE MOST DEBASED UPON EARTH</span>, who
+neither enjoy the blessings of freedom, nor are yet in the bonds
+of slavery, is a great national evil, which every friend of his
+country most deeply deplores.... Tax your utmost powers of
+imagination, and you cannot conceive one motive to honorable
+effort, which can animate the bosom, or give impulse to the
+conduct of a free black in this country. Let him toil from youth
+to age in the honorable pursuit of wisdom&mdash;let him store his
+mind with the most valuable researches of science and
+literature&mdash;and let him add to a highly gifted and cultivated
+intellect, a piety pure, undefiled, and "unspotted from the
+world"&mdash;it is all nothing: he would not be received into the
+very lowest walks of society. If we were constrained to admire
+so uncommon a being, our very admiration would mingle with
+disgust, because, in the physical organization of his frame, we
+meet an insurmountable barrier, even to an approach to social
+intercourse, and in the Egyptian color, which nature has stamped
+upon his features, a principle of repulsion so strong as to
+forbid the idea of a communion either of interest or of feeling,
+as utterly abhorrent. Whether these feelings are founded in
+reason or not, we will not now inquire&mdash;perhaps they are not.
+But education and habit, and prejudice have so firmly riveted
+them upon us, that they have become as strong as nature
+itself&mdash;and to expect their removal, or even their slightest
+modification, would be as idle and preposterous as to expect
+that we could reach forth our hands, and remove the mountains
+from their foundations into the vallies, which are beneath
+them.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 230, 331.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'We have been charged with wishing only to remove our free
+blacks, that we may the more effectually rivet the chains of the
+slave. But the class we first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> seek to remove, are neither
+freemen nor slaves; <i>but between both</i>, <span class="smcap">AND MORE MISERABLE THAN
+EITHER</span>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Who is there, that does not know something of
+the condition of the blacks in the northern and middle States?
+They may be seen in our cities and larger towns, wandering like
+foreigners and outcasts, in the land which gave them birth. They
+may be seen in our penitentiaries, and jails, and poor-houses.
+They may be found inhabiting the abodes of poverty, and the
+haunts of vice. But if we look for them in the society of the
+honest and respectable&mdash;if we visit the schools in which it is
+our boast that the meanest citizen can enjoy the benefits of
+instruction&mdash;we might also add, if we visit the sanctuaries
+which are open for all to worship,<a name="FNanchor_S_20" id="FNanchor_S_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_S_20" class="fnanchor">[S]</a> and to hear the word of
+God; we shall not find them there.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Leaving slavery and its
+subjects for the moment entirely out of view, there are in the
+United States 238,000 blacks denominated free, but whose freedom
+confers on them, we might say, no privilege but the <i>privilege
+of being more vicious and miserable than slaves can
+be</i>.'&mdash;[Seventh Annual Report, pp. 12, 87, 99.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Placed midway between freedom and slavery, they know neither
+the incentives of the one, nor the restraints of the other; but
+are alike injurious by their conduct and example, to all other
+classes of society.'&mdash;[Eight Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Of all classes of our population, the most vicious is that of
+the free colored. It is the inevitable result of their moral,
+political, and civil degradation. Contaminated themselves, they
+extend their vices to all around them, to the slaves and to the
+whites.'&mdash;[Tenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The question arises, where shall these outcasts go? Ohio, and
+the free States of the West, which formerly invited them into
+their bosom, no longer offer them a welcome home. Disgusted with
+their laziness and vice, the inevitable concomitants of the
+anomalous relation in which they stand to society, the
+authorities of those States are seeking to get rid of what they
+find, too late, to be a curse to any settlement of whites&mdash;a
+thriftless race of vagabonds, whose footsteps are the sure
+precursors of indigence and crime. One of the most intelligent
+gentlemen of Ohio, (Mr Charles Hammond,) in a recent notice of
+this subject, says, "This dangerous class of population has
+increased considerably within a few years past, and the slaves
+States cannot too soon adopt efficient measures to get rid of
+it. Emigrations to Liberia ought to be provided for, and
+insisted upon, and the legislatures should pass laws to prevent
+emancipation, without adequate provision for the <ins id="mycorr11" class="mycorr" title="Original: transportion"><a name="corr11" id="corr11"></a>transportation</ins> of
+the manumitted."'&mdash;[Lynchburg Virginian.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'As it is now, they are for the most part in a debased and
+wretched condition. They have the vices of our community without
+its virtues. And what is worse, I speak of the majority, they
+have no desire to rise from their state of abject depression&mdash;no
+wish to gain a respectable elevation of character. Consequently
+it is difficult, if not impossible, to present them motives
+Which shall incite them to enter on a course of industry and
+virtue.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Bound by no political ties to the community in
+which they dwell, and excluded for the most part from exercising
+the rights and privileges of freemen, on the ground of their
+alleged inferiority and worthlessness, they have no inducements
+to abandon lives of indolence, sensuality and recklessness, or
+to support the laws and institutions of the government placed
+over them. Nothing but the fear of suffering the penalty of
+violated law, can prevent them from preying on those among whom
+they live.'&mdash;[Middletown (Ct.) Gazette.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'They have taken the free black that, as a class, dwells among
+us a living nuisance, nominally free, but bowed to the ground by
+public opinion&mdash;<span class="smcap">IN ONE PART OF THE COUNTRY DULL AS A BRUTISH
+BEAST, IN ANOTHER THE WILD STIRRER UP OF SEDITION AND
+INSURRECTION</span>&mdash;they have shewn him to be capable of quiet and
+judicious self-government.&mdash; ... We cannot shut our eyes any
+longer upon the disadvantages of our black population, whether
+in slavery or freedom. It is a sword perpetually suspended over
+our heads by a single hair; it is the fountain of bitter waters
+that poisons all our enjoyments.'&mdash;[Speeches of J. R. Townsend,
+Esq. and W. W. Campbell, Esq. New-York city.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The fact was most glaring, without an inquiry, that the same
+shackles which bound them, fastened them also to the resources
+of the soil, and the interests of the community; and when these
+were broken, and the incentives of authority removed, the weight
+of ignorance, the want of better incentives, and the fatal and
+untried power of grateful but ruinous idleness, sunk them to a
+state, which, however elevated in theory, was in fact more
+degraded and more miserable than that of bondage. In addition to
+all this, pauperism, with the numerous evils of corrupt and
+corrupting indolence, threatened to impose its sluggish weight
+upon a groaning community. Hence, the progress of emancipation
+was, for the time, most righteously arrested.'&mdash;[Address of the
+Board of Managers of the African Education Society.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Who are the free people of color in the United States? In what
+circumstances does philanthropy find them! There are indeed
+individuals and families, who are sober, industrious, pious. But
+what are the remainder, the mass? Every one knows that their
+condition is deep and wretched degradation; but, only a few have
+ever formed any accurate conception of the reality. The fact is,
+that as a class they are branded. They have no home, no country,
+no such personal interest in the welfare of the community, as
+gives a certain degree of manliness to almost every white
+man.... Three hundred thousand freemen in this country, are
+freemen only in name, forming only little else than a mass of
+pauperism and crime.... Here the black man is paralysed and
+crushed by the constant sense of inferiority. He has no
+effectual incentives to manly enterprise. He stands in a
+degraded class of society; and out of that class he never dreams
+of rising.'&mdash;[Christian Spectator.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'This is the true condition of the free colored population of
+our land. They are placed mid way between freedom and slavery;
+they feel neither the moral stimulants of the one, nor the
+restraints of the other, and are alike injurious to every other
+class of the community.'&mdash;[Southern Religious Telegraph.]</p></div>
+
+<p>I repel these charges against the free people of color, as unmerited,
+wanton and untrue. It would be absurd to pretend,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> that, as a class,
+they maintain a high character: it would be equally foolish to deny,
+that intemperance, indolence and crime prevail among them to a mournful
+extent. But I do not hesitate to assert, from an intimate acquaintance
+with their condition, that they are more temperate and more industrious
+than that class of whites who are in as indigent circumstances, but who
+have certainly far greater incentives to labor and excel; that they are
+superior in their habits to the hosts of foreign emigrants who are
+crowding to our shores, and poisoning our moral atmosphere; and that
+their advancement in intelligence, in wealth, and in morality,
+considering the numberless and almost insurmountable difficulties under
+which they have labored, has been remarkable. I am informed that
+twenty-five or thirty years ago, the colored inhabitants of Philadelphia
+scarcely owned a dollar's worth of real estate, whereas they now own
+enough to amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. This fact speaks
+volumes in praise of their industry and economy; for, be it remembered,
+they have had to accumulate this property in small sums, by shaving the
+beards, cleaning the boots and clothes, and being the servants of their
+white contemners, and in other menial employments. In Baltimore,
+Philadelphia, New-York, and other places, there are several colored
+persons whose individual property is worth from ten thousand to one
+hundred thousand dollars;<a name="FNanchor_T_21" id="FNanchor_T_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_T_21" class="fnanchor">[T]</a> and in all those cities, there are primary
+and high schools for the education of the colored
+population&mdash;flourishing churches of various denominations&mdash;and numerous
+societies for mutual assistance and improvement, &amp;c. In Philadelphia
+alone, I believe, there are nearly fifty colored<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> associations for
+benevolent, literary, scientific and moral purposes.<a name="FNanchor_U_22" id="FNanchor_U_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_U_22" class="fnanchor">[U]</a> Yet these are
+the people of whom it is said, 'they are acted upon by no motives to
+honorable exertions;' that they are 'scarcely reached in their
+debasement by the heavenly light' (almost a denial of the power of the
+Holy Ghost); that 'their freedom is licentiousness;' that 'they are a
+greater nuisance than even the slaves themselves;' that they are 'the
+most degraded, the most abandoned race on the earth;' that they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+'worse circumstanced than the slave population;' that they have 'no
+privilege but the privilege of being more vicious and miserable than
+slaves can be;' and that they are 'a thriftless race of vagabonds, whose
+footsteps are the sure precursors of indigence and crime.' And these
+false and infamous charges are brought against them by a Society which
+professes to cherish for them the highest regard, and to be anxious to
+give them respectability in the eyes of the world!</p>
+
+<p>The truth is, the traducers of the free blacks have no adequate
+conception of the amount of good sense, sterling piety, moral honesty,
+virtuous pride of character, and domestic enjoyment, which exists among
+this class. The spirited remarks of the colored citizens of New-York, in
+their address to the public, (<i>vide</i> <span class="smcap">Part II</span>. p. 16,) in reference to
+their calumniators, are exceedingly apposite: 'Their patrician
+principles prevent an intercourse with men in the middle walks of life,
+among whom a large portion of our people may be classed. We ask them to
+visit the dwellings of the respectable part of our people, and we are
+satisfied that they will discover more civilization and refinement, than
+will be found among the same number of white families of an equal
+standing.' A personal examination enables me to say that this challenge
+is neither presumptuous nor boastful. I confess, I have been most
+agreeably, nay, wonderfully disappointed, in my intercourse with them,
+which is daily elevating them in my estimation. Many of their number I
+proudly rank among my most familiar friends and correspondents.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the 'ragged set in Boston, crying out liberty!' every
+candid resident will testify that this is a libellous representation;
+that our free blacks are a quiet, orderly, well-dressed, and (as far as
+they can obtain employment) industrious class of citizens; and that
+their improvement is rapid and constant. Every curious observer who
+visits their houses of worship, will be surprised at the general
+neatness of attire and propriety of manners of the worshippers. 'A
+ragged set,' forsooth! The slander may be uttered in the city of
+Washington, at an anniversary of the American Colonization Society; but
+no man, who regards his character for veracity and intelligence, <i>dare</i>
+publish it in Boston.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The effects of this reiterated abuse are eminently mischievous. It
+serves to kindle the fires of persecution, to strengthen prejudice, to
+drive its victims to despair, and to increase the desire for their
+banishment. 'Tax your utmost powers of imagination,' says one of the
+colonization advocates, 'and you cannot conceive <i>one motive</i> to
+honorable effort, which can animate the bosom, or give impulse to the
+conduct of the free black in this country'! Is this language calculated
+to allay animosity, or beget confidence, or suppress contempt, or heal
+division, or excite sympathy? Far otherwise. Are there not thousands of
+living witnesses to prove the falsity of this assertion; thousands who
+adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour, and whose 'motives to honorable
+effort' are higher than heaven and vast as eternity; thousands, who,
+though their enemies spare no efforts to crush them in the dust, and in
+despite of mountains of difficulties, rise up with a giant's strength to
+respectability and usefulness? 'No motive to honorable effort'! Perish
+the calumny!</p>
+
+<p>Again, they are stigmatized as the 'wild stirrers up of sedition and
+insurrection.' This charge is even more malignant than the other, and
+utterly groundless. Its propagation, however, tends directly to excite a
+persecution which may drive the accused to sedition, in self-defence.
+There is no evidence that any free man of color was enlisted in the late
+bloody struggle in Virginia, or in any manner accessary thereto. On the
+contrary, it was deprecated by our colored citizens generally, not only
+on account of its sanguinary acts, but because they knew it would
+operate to their own disadvantage by being placed to their account. The
+following honorable expression of feeling was made at a public meeting
+of the people of color in Wilmington, Delaware, about that period:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'The subscribers, having a knowledge of the alarm which prevails
+in the minds of some of the citizens of this place, on account
+of various reports which some mischievous person or persons have
+circulated, in regard to the colored population, beg leave to
+represent, on behalf of themselves and brethren, that having
+made inquiry into the subject, they have found said reports to
+be without the least foundation; and they owe it to themselves
+further to declare, that, so far from any disposition on the
+part of the colored people to disturb the peace and good order
+of the community, they are, on the contrary, fully aware that it
+consists not less with their interests than their duty to
+refrain from every art that would excite commotion or disorder,
+in which the colored people would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> every thing to lose and
+nothing to gain. We have been treated by the citizens of
+Wilmington and its vicinity with kindness, for which we ought to
+be grateful, and it is our solemn purpose to pursue such a
+course of conduct as may merit a continuance of their favor and
+confidence. Should any among us be found so wicked and blinded
+as to enter into plots and contrivances, inimical to the present
+harmony, we thus solemnly pledge ourselves to our white friends
+and neighbors, that we will be among the first to sound the
+alarm, and unite in effecting their apprehension and
+suppression.'</p></div>
+
+<p>The free colored citizens of Baltimore, Maryland, also came out unitedly
+in the following pacific and truly exemplary spirit:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Whereas, there has prevailed in this city, during the past
+week, a very unpleasant excitement, originating from suspicions
+and reports totally without foundation, and highly derogatory to
+our good sense; and whereas this excitement, though
+unnecessarily created, may, in its ultimate tendency, prove
+prejudicial to the interests of the free colored population of
+this State. Therefore,</p>
+
+<p>'Resolved, That we challenge the most rigid investigation as to
+the truth of those evil reports, which have recently been so
+industriously propagated in this city by the credulous, and
+those who are totally unacquainted with the character of colored
+Baltimoreans.</p>
+
+<p>'Resolved, That we are not so reckless of our true interest, so
+blind to utter helplessness&mdash;not to say so devoid of humanity,
+as to entertain the hostile designs, or to cherish the fiendish
+passions, which it seems have been, by the unthinking, so
+unjustly attributed to us.</p>
+
+<p>'Resolved, That we have been too long in the land of bibles, and
+temples, and ministers, to look upon blood and carnage with
+complacency&mdash;that we have been too long in this enlightened
+metropolis, to think of the amelioration of our condition, in
+any other way than that sanctioned by the Gospel of Peace.</p>
+
+<p>'Resolved, That we rely upon a peaceable and upright conduct, for
+a continuance of that favor and protection which we have
+hitherto enjoyed, and which, the liberal, the wise, and the
+good, are ever ready to accord.'</p></div>
+
+<p>How impolitic, then, as well as unjust, to brand this meek and
+magnanimous class as 'the wild stirrers up of sedition and
+insurrection'!</p>
+
+<p>This treatment, I repeat, is impolitic&mdash;nay, suicidal. To abuse,
+proscribe and exasperate them, to trample them under our feet, to goad
+them on the right hand and on the left, is not the way to secure their
+loyalty, but rather to make them revengeful, desperate and seditious.
+Our true policy is, to meliorate their condition, invigorate their
+hopes, instruct their ignorant minds, admit them to an equality of
+privileges with ourselves, nourish and patronise their genius, and, by
+giving them mechanical trades and mercantile advantages, open to them
+the avenue to competence and wealth. We shall thus make them contented
+and happy, and place them in a situation which will lead them still more
+heartily to deprecate any insurrectionary movements among our slave
+population. The following is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> conciliatory and generous language of
+a man, who has been denounced as a blood-hound and a monster. It will be
+well for us if we profit by it.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Americans! notwithstanding you have and do continue to treat us
+more cruel than any heathen nation ever did a people it had
+subjected to the same condition that you have us, let us reason.
+Had you not better take our body, while you have it in your
+power, and while we are yet ignorant and wretched, not knowing
+but little, give us education, and teach us the pure religion of
+our Lord and Master, which is calculated to make the lion lie
+down in peace with the lamb, and which millions of you have
+beaten us nearly to death for trying to obtain since we have
+been among you, and thus at once gain our affection while we are
+ignorant? Throw away your fears and prejudices then, and
+enlighten us and treat us like men, and we will like you more
+than we do now hate you. And tell us now no more about
+colonization; for America is as much our country as it is yours.
+Treat us like men, and there is no danger but we will all live
+in peace and happiness together; for we are not, like you,
+hard-hearted, unmerciful, and unforgiving. What a happy country
+this will be, if the whites will listen! What nation under
+heaven, will be able to do any thing with us, unless God gives
+us up into its hand? But, Americans, I declare to you, while you
+keep us and our children in bondage, and treat us like brutes,
+to make us support you and your families, we cannot be your
+friends. You do not look for it, do you? Treat us then like men,
+and we will be your friends. And there is not a doubt in my
+mind, but that the whole of the past will be sunk into oblivion,
+and we yet, under God, will become a united and happy
+people.'<a name="FNanchor_V_23" id="FNanchor_V_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_V_23" class="fnanchor">[V]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_S_20" id="Footnote_S_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_S_20"><span class="label">[S]</span></a> A cruel taunt. The wonder is not that colored persons do
+not more generally visit our sanctuaries, but that they <i>ever</i> should
+attend. If they go, they are thrust into obscure, remote and unseemly
+pens or boxes, as if they were not embraced in the offers of redeeming
+love, and were indeed a part of the brute creation. It is an awful
+commentary upon the pride of human nature. I never can look up to these
+scandalous retreats for my colored brethren, without having my soul
+overwhelmed with emotions of shame, indignation and sorrow. No black
+man, however virtuous, respectable or pious he may be, can own or occupy
+a pew in a central part of any of our houses of worship. And yet it is
+reproachfully alleged&mdash;by a clergyman, too!&mdash;that 'if we visit the
+sanctuaries which are <i>open to all</i> (!) to worship, and to hear the word
+of God, we shall not find them there'! No&mdash;I hope they will respect
+themselves and the religion of Jesus more, than to occupy the places
+alluded to.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_T_21" id="Footnote_T_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_T_21"><span class="label">[T]</span></a> Francis Devany, the colored sheriff of Liberia, is reputed
+by colonizationists to be worth property to the value of twenty-five
+thousand dollars; and they have trumpeted the fact all over the country,
+and so repeatedly as almost to lead one to imagine that he is the
+greatest and wealthiest man in all the world! James Forten, the
+reputable colored sail-maker of Philadelphia,&mdash;a gentleman of highly
+polished manners and superior intelligence,&mdash;with whom Devany worked as
+a journeyman, can <i>buy him out</i> three or four times over. Joseph Cassey,
+another estimable and intelligent man of color, or the widow of Bishop
+Allen, both of Philadelphia, can purchase him. I mention their names,
+not to extol them, but simply to show, that what begets fame in Liberia
+is unproductive here.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_U_22" id="Footnote_U_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_U_22"><span class="label">[U]</span></a> The following statement, recently published in the
+Philadelphia 'Friend and Advocate of Truth,' is very creditable to the
+colored inhabitants of that city:</p>
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Many erroneous opinions have prevailed, with regard to the true
+character and condition of the free colored people of
+Pennsylvania. They have been represented as an idle and
+worthless class, furnishing inmates for our poor-houses and
+penitentiaries. A few plain facts are sufficient to refute these
+gratuitous allegations. In the city and suburbs of Philadelphia,
+by the census of 1830, they constituted about eleven per cent.,
+or one ninth of the whole population. From the account of the
+guardians of the poor, printed by order of the board, it appears
+that of the out-door poor receiving regular weekly supplies, in
+the first month, 1830, the time of the greatest need, the people
+of color were about one to twenty-three whites; or not quite
+four per cent., a disproportion of whites to colored, of more
+than two to one in favor of the latter. When it is considered
+that they perform the lowest offices in the community&mdash;that the
+avenues to what are esteemed the most honorable and profitable
+professions in society, are in a great measure, if not wholly
+closed against them, these facts are the more creditable to
+them. One cause of this disproportion, which we presume is but
+little known, but which is worthy of special notice, will be
+found in the numerous societies among themselves for mutual aid.
+These societies expended, in one year, about six thousand
+dollars for the relief of the sick and the indigent of their own
+color, from funds raised among themselves. Besides, the taxes
+paid by the colored people of Philadelphia, exceed in amount the
+sums expended out of the funds of the city for the relief of
+their poor.'</p></div>
+<p>
+It is also a fact that the proportion of whites in the alms-house in
+New-York is greater than that of the blacks. I am aware that other
+evidence, of a different kind, may be adduced in other places; but it is
+in the highest degree unfair to measure the whole body of blacks by the
+whole body of whites&mdash;for the privileges and advantages of the whites
+are as ten thousand to one: they monopolise almost every branch of
+business and every pursuit of life&mdash;they have all the means necessary to
+make men virtuous, intelligent, active, and opulent. Far different is
+the situation of the free blacks. How slender are their means! how mean
+and limited their occupations! how inferior their advantages! Almost
+every avenue to wealth, preferment and usefulness, is closed against
+them. How are they persecuted! how avoided in the streets! how excluded
+from the benefits of society! To point at them the finger of scorn, to
+taunt them for their inferiority or helplessness, is like putting out
+the eyes and clipping the wings of the eagle, and then reproaching him
+because he can neither see nor fly. To boast of our superior refinement,
+intelligence and virtue, is the extreme of vainglory, and adding insult
+to injury. Shame! shame!</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="SECTION_IX" id="SECTION_IX"></a>SECTION IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY DENIES THE POSSIBILITY OF ELEVATING
+THE BLACKS IN THIS COUNTRY.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> detestation of feeling, the fire of moral indignation, and the agony
+of soul which I have felt kindling and swelling within me, in the
+progress of this review, under this section reach the acme of intensity.
+It is impossible for the mind to conceive, or the tongue to utter, or
+the pen to record, sentiments more derogatory to the character of a
+republican and Christian people than the following:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Introduced as this class has been, in a way which cannot be
+justified, injurious in its influence to the community, degraded
+in character and miserable in condition, <i>forever excluded</i>, by
+public sentiment, by law and by a physical distinction, from the
+most powerful motives to exertion,' &amp;c.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'In addition to all
+the causes which tend to pollute, to degrade and render them
+miserable, there are principles of <i>repulsion</i> between them and
+us, which can <i>never</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> be overcome.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Their bodies are free,
+their minds enslaved. They can neither bless their brethren in
+servitude, nor rise from their own obscurity, nor add to the
+purity of our morals, nor to our wealth, nor to our political
+strength.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Let us recollect that our fathers have placed
+them here; and that our prejudices, prejudices <i>too deep to be
+eradicated</i> while they remain among us, have produced the
+standard of their morals.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Nor will it be questioned that
+their establishment on the African coast ... will confer on them
+invaluable blessings which <i>in this country</i> they can <i>never</i>
+enjoy.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'They <i>must be</i> hewers of wood and drawers of water.
+Do what they will, there is but this one prospect before
+them.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. 1, pp. 34, 144, 162, 176, 226,
+317.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Shut out from the privileges of citizens, separated from us by
+the <i>insurmountable</i> barrier of color, they can <i>never</i>
+amalgamate with us, but must remain <i>for ever</i> a distinct and
+inferior race, repugnant to our republican feelings, and
+dangerous to our republican institutions.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It is not that
+there are some, but that there are so many among us of a
+different physical, if not moral, constitution, who <i>never</i> can
+amalgamate with the great body of our population.'&mdash;[African
+Repository, vol. ii. pp. 188, 189, 338.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'In consequence of his own inveterate habits, and the no less
+inveterate prejudices of the whites, it is a sadly demonstrated
+truth, that the negro <i>cannot, in this country</i>, become an
+enlightened and useful citizen. Driven to the lowest stratum of
+society, and enthralled there for melancholy ages, his mind
+becomes proportionably grovelling, and to gratify his animal
+desires is his most exalted aspiration.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The negro, <i>while
+in this country</i>, will be treated as an inferior being.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+'Our slavery is such, as that no device of our philanthropy for
+elevating the wretched subjects of its debasement to the
+ordinary privileges of men, can descry one cheering glimpse of
+hope that our object can <i>ever</i> be accomplished. The very
+commencing act of freedom to the slave, is to place him in a
+condition still worse, if possible, both for his moral habits,
+his outward provision, and for the community that embosoms him,
+than even that, deplorable as it was, from which he has been
+removed. He is now a freeman; but his complexion, his features,
+every peculiarity of his person, pronounce to him another
+doom,&mdash;that every wish he may conceive, every effort he can
+make, shall be <i>little better than vain</i>. Even to every talent
+and virtuous impulse which he may feel working in his bosom,
+obstacles stand in impracticable array; not from a defect of
+essential title to success, but from <i>a positive external law,
+unreasoning and irreversible</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The elevation of a degraded
+class of beings to the privileges of freemen, which, though
+free, they can <i>never</i> enjoy, and to the prospects of a happy
+immortality.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'They again most solemnly repeat to the free
+colored people of Virginia their belief, that <i>in Africa alone</i>
+can they enjoy that complete emancipation from a degrading
+inequality, which in a greater or less degree pervades the
+United States, if not in the laws, in the whole frame and
+structure of society, and which in its effects on their moral
+and social state is scarcely less degrading than slavery
+itself.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. iii. pp. 25, 26, 66, 68,
+345.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'But there is one large class among the inhabitants of this
+country&mdash;degraded and miserable&mdash;whom none of the efforts in
+which you are accustomed to engage, can materially benefit.
+Among the twelve millions who make up our census, two millions
+are Africans&mdash;separated from the possessors of the soil by
+birth, <i>by the brand of indelible ignominy</i>, by prejudices,
+mutual, deep, <i>incurable</i>, by an <i>irreconcileable diversity of
+interests</i>. They are aliens and outcasts;&mdash;they are, as a body,
+degraded beneath the influence of nearly all the motives which
+prompt other men to enterprise, and almost below the sphere of
+virtuous affections. Whatever may be attempted for the general
+improvement of society, their wants are untouched.&mdash;Whatever may
+be effected for elevating the mass of the nation in the scale of
+happiness or of intellectual and moral character, their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+degradation is the same&mdash;dark, and deep, and <i>hopeless</i>.
+Benevolence seems to overlook them, or struggles for their
+benefit in vain. Patriotism forgets them, or remembers them only
+with shame for what has been, and with dire forebodings, of what
+is yet to come.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It is taken <i>for granted</i> that in present
+circumstances, any effort to produce a general and thorough
+amelioration in the character and condition of the free people
+of color must be to a great extent fruitless. In every part of
+the United States there is a broad and <i>impassible</i> line of
+demarcation between every man who has <i>one drop</i> of African
+blood in his veins and every other class in the community. The
+habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of society&mdash;prejudices
+which neither <i>refinement</i>, nor <i>argument</i>, nor <i>education</i>, nor
+<i>religion</i> itself can subdue&mdash;mark the people of color, whether
+bond or free, as the subjects of a degradation <i>inevitable</i> and
+<i>incurable</i>. The African in this country belongs by birth to the
+very lowest station in society; and from that station <i>he can
+never rise</i>, <span class="smcap">BE HIS TALENTS, HIS ENTERPRISE, HIS VIRTUES WHAT
+THEY MAY</span>.... They constitute a class by themselves&mdash;a class out
+of which <i>no individual can be elevated</i>, and below which, none
+can be depressed. And this is the difficulty, the invariable and
+insuperable difficulty in the way of every scheme for their
+benefit. Much can be done for them&mdash;much has been done; but
+still they are, and, <i>in this country</i>, <span class="smcap">ALWAYS MUST BE</span> a
+depressed and abject race.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. iv. pp.
+117, 118, 119.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The distinctive complexion by which it is marked, <i>necessarily</i>
+debars it from all familiar intercourse with the more favored
+society that surrounds it, and of course denies to it <i>all hope</i>
+of either social or political elevation, by means of individual
+merit, however great, or individual exertions, however
+unremitted.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It is deemed unnecessary to repeat what has
+already been said, of the character of the population in
+question, of its <i>hopeless degradation</i>, and its baneful
+influence, in the situation in which it is now placed.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+'The colored population of this country can <i>never</i> rise to
+respectability and happiness here.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It was at an early
+period seen and acknowledged, that neither the objects of
+benevolence nor the interests of the nation could be materially
+benefitted by any plan or measures that permitted them to remain
+within the United States.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'They leave a country in which
+though born and reared, they are strangers and aliens; where
+severe necessity places them in a class of degraded beings.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+'With us they have been degraded by slavery, and <span class="smcap">STILL FURTHER
+DEGRADED</span> <i>by the mockery of nominal freedom</i>. We have
+endeavored, but endeavored in vain, to restore them either to
+self-respect, or to the respect of others. <i>It is not our fault
+that we have failed</i>; it is not theirs. It has resulted from a
+cause over which neither they, nor we, can ever have control.
+<i>Here</i>, therefore, they must be <i>for ever debased</i>: more than
+this, they must be <i>for ever useless</i>; more even than this, they
+must be <span class="smcap">FOR EVER A NUISANCE</span>, from which it were a blessing for
+society to be rid. And yet they, and they only, are qualified
+for colonizing Africa.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Whether bond or free, their
+presence will be <i>for ever a calamity</i>. Why then, in the name of
+God, should we hesitate to encourage their departure? The
+existence of this race among us; a race that can neither share
+our blessings nor incorporate in our Society, is already felt to
+be a curse.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. v. pp. 51, 53, 179, 234,
+238, 276, 278.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Is our posterity doomed to endure for ever not only all the
+ills flowing from the state of slavery, but all which arise from
+incongruous elements of population, separated from each other by
+<i>invincible prejudices</i>, and by natural causes?'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Here
+<i>invincible prejudices</i> exclude them from the enjoyment of the
+society of the whites, and deny them all the advantages of
+freemen. The bar, the pulpit, and our legislative halls are shut
+to them by the irresistible force of public sentiment. No
+talents however great, no piety however pure and devoted, no
+patriotism however ardent, can secure their admission. They
+constantly hear the accents, and behold the triumphs, of a
+liberty <i>which here they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> can never enjoy</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'It is against
+this increase of colored persons, who take but a nominal freedom
+here, and <i>cannot rise</i> from their degraded condition, that this
+Society attempts to provide.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'They may be emancipated; but
+emancipation <i>cannot elevate their condition</i> or augment their
+capacity for self-preservation.&mdash;Want and suffering will
+gradually diminish their numbers, and they will disappear, as
+the inferior has always disappeared, before the superior race.'
+*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Our great and good men purposed it primarily as a system of
+relief for two millions of fellow men in our own county&mdash;a
+population dangerous to ourselves and <i>necessarily degraded
+here</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The free blacks, by the moral necessity of their
+civil disabilities, are and <i>must for ever be a
+nuisance</i>&mdash;equally, and more to the owner of slaves, than to
+other members of the community.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. vi.
+pp. 12, 17, 82, 168, 295, 368.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Incorporated into our country as freemen, yet separated from it
+by odious and degrading distinctions, they feel themselves
+condemned to a hopeless and debasing inferiority. They know that
+their very complexion will <i>for ever</i> exclude them from the
+rank, the privileges, the honors, of freemen. No matter how
+great their industry, or how abundant their wealth&mdash;no matter
+what their attainments in literature, science or the arts&mdash;no
+matter how correct their deportment or what respect their
+characters may inspire, they can never, <span class="smcap">NO, NEVER</span> be raised to a
+footing of equality, not even to a familiar intercourse with the
+surrounding society.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'To us it seems evident that the man
+of color may as soon <i>change his complexion</i>, as rise above all
+sense of past inferiority and debasement in a community, from
+the social intercourse of which, he must expect to be in a great
+measure excluded, not only until prejudice shall have no
+existence therein, but until the freedom of man in regulating
+his social relations is proved to be abridged by some law of
+morality or the gospel.... Is it not <i>wise</i>, then, for the free
+people of color and their friends to <i>admit</i>, what cannot
+reasonably be doubted, that the people of color must, in this
+country, remain for ages, <i>probably for ever</i>, a separate and
+inferior caste, weighed down by causes, powerful, universal,
+inevitable; <i>which neither legislation nor christianity can
+remove?</i>'</p>
+
+<p>'Let the free black in this country toil from youth to age in
+the honorable pursuit of wisdom&mdash;let him store his mind with the
+most valuable researches of science and literature&mdash;and let him
+add to a highly gifted and cultivated intellect, a piety pure,
+undefiled, and "unspotted from the world"&mdash;it is all nothing: he
+would not be received into the very lowest walks of society. If
+we were constrained to admire so uncommon a being, our very
+admiration would mingle with disgust, because, in the physical
+organization of his frame, we meet an insurmountable barrier,
+even to an approach to social intercourse, and in the Egyptian
+color, which nature has stamped upon his features, a principle
+of repulsion so strong as to forbid the idea of a communion
+either of interest or of feeling, as utterly abhorrent. Whether
+these feelings are founded in reason or not, we will not now
+inquire&mdash;perhaps they are not. But education and habit and
+prejudice have so firmly riveted them upon us, that they have
+become as strong as nature itself&mdash;and to expect their removal,
+or even their slightest modification, would be as idle and
+preposterous as to expect that we could reach forth our hands,
+and remove the mountains from their foundations into the
+vallies, which are beneath them.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol.
+vii. pp. 100, 195, 196, 231.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'And can we not find some spot on this large globe which will
+receive them kindly, and where they may escape those prejudices
+which, in this country, must <i>ever</i> keep them <i>inferior</i> and
+<i>degraded</i> members of society?'&mdash;[Third Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'A population which, even if it were not literally enslaved,
+<i>must for ever remain</i> in a state of degradation no better than
+bondage.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Here the thing is impossible; a slave cannot be
+really emancipated. You may call him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> free, you may enact a
+statute book of laws to make him free, but you cannot bleach him
+into the enjoyment of freedom.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The Soodra is not farther
+separated from the Brahmin in regard to all his privileges,
+civil, intellectual, and moral, than the negro is from the white
+man by the prejudices which result from the difference made
+between them by the God of nature. A barrier more difficult to
+be surmounted than the institution of the caste, cuts off, and
+while the present state of society continues <i>must always</i> cut
+off, the negro from all that is valuable in
+citizenship.'&mdash;[Seventh Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Let the arm of our government be stretched out for the defence
+of our African colony, and this objection will no longer exist.
+There, <i>and there alone</i>, the colored man can enjoy the motives
+for honorable exertion.'&mdash;[Ninth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'In the distinctive and indelible marks of their color, and the
+prejudices of the people, an <i>insuperable</i> obstacle has been
+placed to the execution of any plan for elevating their
+character, and placing them on a footing with their brethren of
+the same common family.'&mdash;[Tenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Far from shuddering at the thought of leaving the comfortable
+fireside among us, for a distant and unknown shore yet covered
+by the wilderness, they have preferred real liberty there, to a
+mockery of freedom here, and have turned their eyes to Africa,
+as the only resting place and refuge of the colored man, in the
+deluge of oppression that surrounds him.'&mdash;[Eleventh Annual
+Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The race in question were known, as a class, to be destitute,
+depraved&mdash;the victims of all forms of social misery. The
+peculiarity of their fate was, that this was not their condition
+by accident or transiently, but <i>inevitably</i> and <i>immutably</i>,
+whilst they remained in their present place, by a law as
+infallible in its operation, as any of physical nature.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+'Their residence amongst us is attended by evil consequences to
+society&mdash;causes <i>beyond the control of the human will</i> must
+prevent their <i>ever</i> rising to equality with the whites.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+'The Managers consider it clear that causes exist, and are
+operating to prevent their improvement and elevation to any
+considerable extent as a class, in this country, which are
+fixed, not only beyond the control of the friends of humanity,
+<span class="smcap">BUT OF ANY HUMAN POWER</span>. <i>Christianity cannot do for them here,
+what it will do for them in Africa.</i> This is not the fault of
+the colored man, <i>nor of the white man, nor of Christianity; but
+an ordination of Providence, and no more to be changed than the
+laws of nature</i>. Yet, were it otherwise, did no cause exist but
+prejudice, to prevent the elevation, in this country, of our
+free colored population, still, were this prejudice so strong
+(which is indeed the fact) as to forbid the hope of any great
+favorable change in their condition, what folly for them to
+reject blessings in another land, because it is prejudice which
+debars them from such blessings in this! But in truth no
+legislation, no humanity, no benevolence can make them
+insensible to their past condition, can unfetter their minds,
+can relieve them from the disadvantages resulting from inferior
+means and attainments, can abridge the right of freemen to
+regulate their social intercourse and relations, which will
+leave them <i>for ever a separate and depressed class</i> in the
+community; in fine, nothing can in any way do much here to raise
+them from their miseries to respectability, honor and
+usefulness.'&mdash;[Fifteenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'That no adequate means of attaining this great end existed,
+short of the segregation of the black population from the
+white&mdash;that an <span class="smcap">IMPASSIBLE BARRIER</span> existed in the state of
+society in this country, between these classes&mdash;that whatever
+might be the liberal sentiments of some good men among us, the
+blacks were marked with an <i>indelible note of inferiority</i>&mdash;they
+saw placed high before them a station which here they <i>could
+never reach</i>, and by a natural reaction they fell back into a
+position where self-respect lent them no stim<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>ulus, and virtuous
+principles and actions lost more than half their motive&mdash;that in
+fact they were a branded and degraded caste&mdash;the Pariahs of the
+United States, and destined <i>as long as they remained with us</i>
+to be hewers of wood and drawers of water&mdash;that the increase of
+this population in a greater ratio than the whites, was
+calculated to excite just apprehension&mdash;that no one could say
+that when a few more millions should be added to their numbers,
+the example of Hayti might not rouse them to an effort to break
+their chains; and he would ask what man could contemplate,
+without shuddering, all the complicated atrocity and bloody
+revenge of such a revolt?'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Those persons of color who have
+been emancipated, are only nominally free, and the whole race,
+so long as they remain among us, and whether they be slaves or
+free, must <i>necessarily</i> be kept in a condition full of
+wretchedness to them and full of danger to the whites.'&mdash;[Second
+Annual Report of New-York State Colonization Society.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Many of those citizens who ardently wish for the removal of
+such of the free colored population, as are willing to go, to
+any place where they could enjoy, <i>what they can never enjoy
+here</i>, that is, all the advantages of society,' &amp;c.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'That
+the free colored population in this country labor under the most
+oppressive disadvantages, which their freedom can by no means
+counterbalance, is too obvious to admit of doubt. I waive all
+inquiry whether this is right or wrong. I speak of things as
+they are&mdash;not as they might, or as they ought to be. They are
+cut off from the most remote chance of amalgamation with the
+white population, by feelings or prejudices, call them what you
+will, that are ineradicable. Their situation is more unfavorable
+than that of many slaves. "With all the burdens, cares and
+responsibilities of freedom, they have few or none of its
+substantial benefits. Their associations are, and must be,
+chiefly with slaves. Their right of suffrage gives them little,
+if any, political influence, and they are practically, if not
+theoretically excluded from representation and weight in our
+public councils." <i>No merit, no services, no talents can elevate
+them to a level with the whites.</i> Occasionally, an exception may
+arise. A colored individual, of great talents, merits, and
+wealth, may emerge from the crowd. Cases of this kind are to the
+last degree rare. The colored people are subject to legal
+disabilities, more or less galling and severe, in almost every
+state of the Union. Who has not deeply regretted their late
+harsh expulsion from the State of Ohio, and their being forced
+to abandon the country of their birth, which had profited by
+their labors, and to take refuge in a foreign land? Severe
+regulations have been recently passed in Louisiana, to prevent
+the introduction of free people of color into the State.
+Whenever they appear, they are to be banished in sixty days. The
+strong opposition to a negro college in New-Haven, speaks in a
+language not to be mistaken, the jealousy with which they are
+regarded. And there is no reason to expect, that the lapse of
+centuries will make any change in this respect. <span class="smcap">They will always
+unhappily be regarded as an inferior race.</span>'&mdash;[Mathew Carey's
+'Reflections.']</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Instances of emancipation have not essentially benefitted the
+African, and <i>probably never will</i>, while he remains among us.
+In this country, public opinion does, <i>and will</i>, consign him to
+an inferiority, <i>above which he can never rise</i>. Emancipation
+can <span class="smcap">NEVER</span> make the African, while he remains in this country, a
+real free man. Degradation <span class="smcap">MUST</span> and <span class="smcap">WILL</span> press him to the earth;
+no cheering, stimulating influence will he here feel, <i>in any of
+the walks of life</i>.'&mdash;[Circular of the Massachusetts
+Colonization Society for 1832.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'With us color is the bar. Nature has raised up barriers between
+the races, <i>which no man with a proper sense of the dignity of
+his species desires to see surmounted</i>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'What effects does
+emancipation produce without removal? A discontented and useless
+population; having no sympathies with the rest of the community,
+<i>doomed by immoveable barriers to eternal degradation</i>. I know
+that there are among us, those of warm and generous hearts, who
+believe that we may retain the black man here, and raise him up
+to the full<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> and perfect stature of human nature. That degree of
+improvement can never take place except the races be
+amalgamated; and amalgamation is a day-dream. It may seem
+strong, but it is true that "a skin not colored like our own"
+will separate them from us, <i>as long as our feelings continue a
+part of our nature</i>.'&mdash;[Speeches delivered at the formation of
+the Young Men's Auxiliary Colonization Society in New-York
+city.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'These [subsistence, political and social considerations] they
+can <i>never</i> enjoy here.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'You may manumit the slave, but you
+cannot make him a white man. He still remains a negro or a
+mulatto. The mark and the recollection of his origin and former
+state still adhere to him; the feelings produced by that
+condition, in his own mind and in the minds of the whites, still
+exist; he is associated by his color, and by these recollections
+and feelings, with the class of slaves; and a barrier is thus
+raised between him and the whites, that is between him and the
+free class, which he can never hope to transcend.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'A vast
+majority of the free blacks, as we have seen, are and <i>must be</i>,
+an idle, worthless and thievish race.'&mdash;[First Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Here they are condemned to a state of <i>hopeless</i> inferiority,
+and consequent degradation. As they <i>cannot</i> emerge from this
+state, they lose, by degrees, the hope, at last the desire of
+emerging.'&mdash;[Second Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The existence in any community of a people forming a distinct
+and degraded caste, <i>who are forever excluded by the fiat of
+society and the laws of the land</i>, from all hopes of equality in
+social intercourse and political privileges, must, from the
+nature of things, be fraught with unmixed evil. Did this
+committee believe it possible, by any acts of legislation, to
+remove this blotch upon the body politic, by so elevating the
+social and moral condition of the blacks in Ohio, that they
+would be received into society on terms of equality, and would
+by common consent be admitted to a participation of political
+privileges&mdash;<span class="smcap">WERE SUCH A THING POSSIBLE</span>, even after a lapse of
+time and by pecuniary sacrifice, most gladly would they
+recommend such measures as would subserve the cause of humanity,
+by producing such a result. For the purposes of legislation, it
+is sufficient to know, that the blacks in Ohio <i>must always
+exist as a separate and degraded race</i>, that when the leopard
+shall change his spots and the Ethiopian his skin, then, <span class="smcap">BUT NOT
+TILL THEN</span>, may we expect that the descendants of Africans will
+be admitted into society, on terms of social and political
+equality.'&mdash;[Report of a Select Committee of the Legislature of
+Ohio.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'No possible contingency can ever break down or weaken the
+impassable barrier which at present separates the whites from
+social communion with the blacks. Neither education, nor wealth,
+nor any other means of distinction known to our communities, can
+elevate blacks to a level with whites, in the United
+States.'&mdash;[American Spectator.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'However unjust may be the prejudices which exist in the whites
+against the blacks, and which operate so injuriously to the
+latter&mdash;<i>they are probably too deep to be obliterated</i>; and true
+philanthropy would dictate the separation of two races of men,
+so different, <span class="smcap">WHOM NATURE HERSELF HAS FORBIDDEN TO MINGLE INTO
+ONE</span>; but of whom, while they remain associated, <i>one or the
+other must of necessity have the superiority</i>. For the future
+welfare of both, we trust that the project of colonizing the
+Africans, as they shall gradually be emancipated, although a
+work of time, may not be altogether hopeless.'&mdash;[Brandon (Vt.)
+Telegraph.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The character and circumstances of this portion of the
+community fall under every man's notice, and the least
+observation shows that they <i>cannot</i> be useful or happy among
+us.'&mdash;[Oration by Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It is of vast importance to these people, as a class, that
+their hopes and expectations of temporal prosperity <i>should be
+turned to Africa</i>, and that they should not regard our country
+as their permanent residence, or as that country in which they
+will <i>ever</i>, as a people, enjoy equal privileges and blessings
+with the whites.'&mdash;[Rev. Mr Gurley's Letter to the Rev. S. S.
+Jocelyn.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'To attain solid happiness and permanent respectability, they
+should now remove to a more congenial clime.... To raise them to
+a level with the whites is <span class="smcap">AN IMPOSSIBILITY</span>.'&mdash;[New-Haven
+Religious Intelligencer.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'In Liberia&mdash;the land of their forefathers, they will be
+restored to real freedom, which they have never yet enjoyed, and
+which it is folly for them to expect they can ever enjoy among
+the whites.'&mdash;[Norfolk Herald.]</p></div>
+
+<p>'My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a
+noise in me.' Are we pagans, are we savages, are we devils? Can pagans,
+or savages, or devils, exhibit a more implacable spirit, than is seen in
+the foregoing extracts? It is enough to cause the very stones to cry
+out, and the beasts of the field to rebuke us.</p>
+
+<p>Of this I am sure: no man, who is truly willing to admit the people of
+color to an equality with himself, can see any insuperable difficulty in
+effecting their elevation. When, therefore, I hear an
+individual&mdash;especially a professor of Christianity&mdash;strenuously
+contending that there can be no fellowship with them, I cannot help
+suspecting the sincerity of his own republicanism or piety, or thinking
+that the beam is in his own eye. My bible assures me that the day is
+coming when even the 'wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
+shall lie down with the kid, and the wolf and the young lion and the
+fatling together;' and, if this be possible, I see no cause why those of
+the same species&mdash;God's rational creatures&mdash;fellow countrymen, in truth,
+cannot dwell in harmony together.</p>
+
+<p>How abominably hypocritical, how consummately despicable, how
+incorrigibly tyrannical must this whole nation appear in the eyes of the
+people of Europe!&mdash;professing to be the <i>friends</i> of the free blacks,
+actuated by the purest motives of benevolence toward them, desirous to
+make atonement for past wrongs, challenging the admiration of the world
+for their patriotism, philanthropy and piety&mdash;and yet (hear, O heaven!
+and be astonished, O earth!) shamelessly proclaiming, with a voice
+louder than thunder, and an aspect malignant as sin, that while their
+colored countrymen remain among them, they must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> trampled beneath
+their feet, treated as inferior beings, deprived of all the invaluable
+privileges of freemen, separated by the brand of indelible ignominy, and
+debased to a level with the beasts that perish! Yea, that they may as
+soon change their complexion as rise from their degradation! that no
+device of philanthropy can benefit them here! that they constitute a
+class out of which <i>no individual can be elevated</i>, and below which,
+<i>none can be depressed</i>! that no talents however great, no piety however
+pure and devoted, no patriotism however ardent, no industry however
+great, no wealth however abundant, can raise them to a footing of
+equality with the whites! that 'let them toil from youth to old age in
+the honorable pursuit of wisdom&mdash;let them store their minds with the
+most valuable researches of science and literature&mdash;and let them add to
+a highly gifted and cultivated intellect, a piety pure, undefiled, and
+unspotted from the world, <i>it is all nothing</i>&mdash;they would not be
+received into the <i>very lowest walks of society</i>&mdash;admiration of such
+uncommon beings would mingle with <i>disgust</i>!' Yea, that 'there is a
+broad and impassible line of demarcation between every man who has <i>one
+drop</i> of African blood in his veins and every other class in the
+community'! Yea, that 'the habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of
+society&mdash;prejudices which neither <i>refinement</i>, nor <i>argument</i>, nor
+<i>education</i>, nor <span class="smcap">RELIGION</span> itself can subdue&mdash;mark the people of color,
+whether bond or free, as the subjects of a degradation <i>inevitable</i> and
+<i>incurable</i>'! Yea, that '<i>Christianity</i> cannot do for them here, what it
+will do for them in Africa'! Yea, that 'this is not the fault of the
+colored man, <span class="smcap">NOR OF THE WHITE MAN</span>, nor of Christianity; but <span class="smcap">an
+ordination of Providence</span>, <i>and no more to be changed than the</i> <span class="smcap">LAWS OF
+NATURE</span>'!!!</p>
+
+<p>Again I ask, are we pagans, are we savages, are we devils? Search the
+records of heathenism, and sentiments more hostile to the spirit of the
+gospel, or of a more black and blasphemous complexion than these, cannot
+be found. I believe that they are libels upon the character of my
+countrymen, which time will wipe off. I call upon the spirits of the
+just made perfect in heaven, upon all who have experienced the love of
+God in their souls here below, upon the christian converts in India and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+the islands of the sea, to sustain me in the assertion that there <i>is</i>
+power enough in the religion of Jesus Christ to melt down the most
+stubborn prejudices, to overthrow the highest walls of partition, to
+break the strongest caste, to improve and elevate the most degraded, to
+unite in fellowship the most hostile, and to equalize and bless all its
+recipients. Make me <i>sure</i> that there is not, and I will give it up, now
+and for ever. 'In Christ Jesus, all are one: there is neither Jew nor
+Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor
+female.'</p>
+
+<p>These sentiments were not uttered by infidels, nor by worthless
+wretches, but in many instances by professors of religion and <i>ministers
+of the gospel</i>! and in almost every instance by reputedly the most
+enlightened, patriotic and benevolent men in the land! Tell it not
+abroad! publish it not in the streets of Calcutta! Even the eminent
+President of Union College, (Rev. Dr. Nott,) could so far depart,
+unguardedly I hope, from christian love and integrity, as to utter this
+language in an address in behalf of the Colonization Society:&mdash;'With us
+they [the free people of color] have been degraded by slavery, and
+<i>still further degraded by the mockery of nominal freedom</i>.' Were this
+true, it would imply that we of the free States are more barbarous and
+neglectful than even the traffickers in souls and men-stealers at the
+south. We have not, it is certain, treated our colored brethren as the
+law of kindness and the ties of brotherhood demand; but have we outdone
+slaveholders in cruelty? Were it true, to forge new fetters for the
+limbs of these degraded beings would be an act of benevolence. But their
+condition is as much superior to that of the slaves, as happiness is to
+misery. The second portion of this work, containing their proceedings in
+a collective capacity, shows whether they have made any progress in
+intelligence, in virtue, in piety, and in happiness, since their
+liberation. Again he says: '<i>We have endeavored</i>, but endeavored in
+vain, <i>to restore them either to self-respect, or to the respect of
+others</i>.' It is painful to contradict so worthy an individual; but
+nothing is more certain than that this statement is altogether
+erroneous. We have derided, we have shunned, we have neglected them, in
+every possible manner. They have had to rise not only under the
+mountainous weight of their own ignorance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> and vice, but with the
+additional and constant pressure of our contempt and injustice. In
+despite of us, they have done well. Again: '<i>It is not our fault that we
+have failed</i>; it is not theirs.' We <i>are</i> wholly and exclusively in
+fault. What have we done to raise them up from the earth? What have we
+<i>not</i> done to keep them down? Once more: 'It has resulted from a cause
+over which neither they, nor we, can ever have control.' In other words,
+they have been made with skins not colored like our own,' and
+<i>therefore</i> we cannot recognise them as fellow-countrymen, or treat them
+like rational beings! One sixth of our whole population <i>must</i>, <span class="smcap">FOR
+EVER</span>, in this land, remain a wretched, ignorant and degraded race,&mdash;and
+yet nobody be culpable&mdash;<i>none but the Creator</i> who has made us
+<i>incapable</i> of doing unto others as we would have them do unto us!
+Horrible&mdash;horrible! If this be not an impeachment of Infinite
+Goodness,&mdash;I do not say intentionally but <i>really</i>,&mdash;I cannot define it.
+The same sentiment is reiterated by a writer in the Southern Religious
+Telegraph, who says&mdash;'The exclusion of the free black from the civil and
+literary privileges of our country, depends on another circumstance than
+that of character&mdash;a circumstance, which, as it was entirely beyond his
+control, so it is unchangeable, and will for ever operate. This
+circumstance is&mdash;<i>he is a black man</i>'!! And the Board of Managers of the
+Parent Society, in their Fifteenth Annual Report, declare that '<i>an
+ordination of Providence</i>' prevents the general improvement of the
+people of color in this land! How are God and our country dishonored,
+and the requirements of the gospel contemned, by this ungodly plea!
+Having satisfied himself that the Creator is alone blameable for the
+past and present degradation of the free blacks, Dr. Nott draws the
+natural and unavoidable inference that 'here, therefore, they must be
+<i>for ever debased, for ever useless, for ever a nuisance, for ever a
+calamity</i>,' and then gravely declares (mark the climax!) 'and yet <span class="smcap">THEY</span>,
+[these ignorant, helpless, miserable creatures!] <span class="smcap">AND THEY ONLY</span>, are
+qualified for colonizing Africa'!! 'Why then,' he asks, '<i>in the name of
+God</i>,'&mdash;(the abrupt appeal, in this connexion, seems almost
+profane,)&mdash;'should we hesitate to encourage their departure?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nature, we are positively assured, has raised up impassable barriers
+between the races. I understand by this expression, that the blacks are
+of a different species from ourselves, so that all attempts to generate
+offspring between us and them must prove as abortive, as between a man
+and a beast. It is a law of Nature that the lion shall not beget the
+lamb, or the leopard the bear. Now the planters at the south have
+clearly demonstrated, that an amalgamation with their slaves is not only
+possible, but a matter of course, and eminently productive. It neither
+ends in abortion nor produces monsters. In truth, it is often so
+difficult in the slave States to distinguish between the fruits of this
+intercourse and the children of white parents, that witnesses are
+summoned at court to solve the problem! Talk of the barriers of Nature,
+when the land swarms with living refutations of the statement! Happy
+indeed would it be for many a female slave, if such a barrier could
+exist during the period of her servitude to protect her from the lust of
+her master!</p>
+
+<p>In France,<a name="FNanchor_W_24" id="FNanchor_W_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_W_24" class="fnanchor">[W]</a> England,<a name="FNanchor_X_25" id="FNanchor_X_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_X_25" class="fnanchor">[X]</a> Spain, and other countries, persons of color
+maintain as high a rank and are treated as honorably as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> any other class
+of the inhabitants, in despite of the 'impassable barriers of Nature.'
+Yet it is proclaimed to the world by the Colonization Society, that the
+American people can never be as republican in their feelings and
+practices as Frenchmen, Spaniards or Englishmen! Nay, that <i>religion</i>
+itself cannot subdue their malignant prejudices, or induce them to treat
+their dark-skinned brethren in accordance with their professions of
+republicanism! My countrymen! is it so? Are you willing thus to be held
+up as tyrants and hypocrites for ever? as less magnanimous and just than
+the populace of Europe? No&mdash;no! I cannot give you up as incorrigibly
+wicked, nor my country as sealed over to destruction. My confidence
+remains, like the oak&mdash;like the Alps&mdash;unshaken, storm-proof. I am not
+discouraged&mdash;I am not distrustful. I still place an unwavering reliance
+upon the omnipotence of truth. I still believe that the demands of
+justice will be satisfied; that the voice of bleeding humanity will melt
+the most obdurate hearts; and that the land will be redeemed and
+regenerated by an enlightened and energetic public opinion. As long as
+there remains among us a single copy of the Declaration of Independence,
+or of the New Testament, I will not despair of the social and political
+elevation of my sable countrymen. Already a rallying-cry is heard from
+the East and the West, from the North and the South; towns and cities
+and states are in commotion; volunteers are trooping to the field; the
+spirit of freedom and the fiend of oppression are in mortal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> conflict,
+and all neutrality is at an end. Already the line of division is drawn:
+on one side are the friends of truth and liberty, with their banner
+floating high in the air, on which are inscribed in letters of light,
+'<span class="smcap">Immediate Abolition</span>'&mdash;'<span class="smcap">No compromise with Oppressors</span>'&mdash;'<span class="smcap">Equal
+Rights</span>'&mdash;'<span class="smcap">No Expatriation</span>'&mdash;'<span class="smcap">Duty, and not Consequences</span>'&mdash;'<span class="smcap">Let Justice
+be done, though the heavens should fall!</span>'&mdash;On the opposite side stand
+the supporters and apologists of slavery in mighty array, with a black
+flag on which are seen in bloody characters, '<span class="smcap">African
+Colonization</span>'&mdash;'<span class="smcap">Gradual Abolition</span>'&mdash;'<span class="smcap">Rights of Property</span>'&mdash;'<span class="smcap">Political
+Expediency</span>'&mdash;'<span class="smcap">No Equality</span>'&mdash;'<span class="smcap">No Repentance</span>'&mdash;'<span class="smcap">Expulsion of the
+Blacks</span>'&mdash;'<span class="smcap">Protection to Tyrants!</span>'&mdash;Who can doubt the issue of this
+controversy, or which side has the approbation of the Lord of Hosts?</p>
+
+<p>In the African Repository for September, 1831, there is an elaborate
+defence of the Colonization Society, in which occurs the following
+passage:&mdash;'It has been said that the Society is unfriendly to the
+improvement of the free people of color while they remain in the United
+States. <i>The charge is not true.</i>' I reiterate the charge; and the
+evidence of its correctness is before the reader. The Society prevents
+the education of this class in the most insidious and effectual manner,
+by constantly asserting that they must always be a degraded people in
+this country, and that the cultivation of their minds will avail them
+nothing. Who does not readily perceive that the prevalence of this
+opinion must at once paralyze every effort for their improvement? For it
+would be a waste of time and means, and unpardonable folly, for us to
+attempt the accomplishment of an impossible work&mdash;of that which we know
+will result in disappointment. Every discriminating and candid mind must
+see and acknowledge, that, to perpetuate their ignorance, it is only
+necessary to make the belief prevalent that they 'must be for ever
+debased, for ever useless, for ever an inferior race,' and their
+thraldom is sure.</p>
+
+<p>I am aware that a school has been established for the education of
+colored youth, under the auspices of the Society; but it is sufficient
+to state that none but those who consent to emigrate to Liberia are
+embraced in its provisions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the Appendix to the Seventh Annual Report, p. 94, the position is
+assumed that 'it is a well established point, that the public safety
+forbids either the emancipation or <i>general instruction</i> of the slaves.'
+The recent enactment of laws in some of the slave States, prohibiting
+the instruction of free colored persons as well as slaves, has received
+something more than a tacit approval from the organ of the Society. A
+prominent advocate of the Society, (G. P. Disosway, Esq.,) in an oration
+on the fourth of July, 1831, alluding to these laws, says,&mdash;'The public
+safety of our brethren at the South requires them [the slaves] to be
+kept ignorant and uninstructed.' The Editor of the Southern Religious
+Telegraph, who is a clergyman and a warm friend of the colonization
+scheme, remarking upon the instruction of the colored population of
+Virginia, says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Teaching a servant to read, is not teaching him the religion of
+Christ. The great majority of the white people of our country
+are taught to read; but probably not one in five, of those who
+have the Bible, is <i>a christian</i>, in the legitimate sense of the
+term. If black people are as depraved and as averse to true
+religion as the white people are&mdash;and we know of no difference
+between them in this respect&mdash;teaching them to read the Bible
+will make christians of <i>very</i> few of them. [What a plea!] ...
+If christian masters were to teach their servants to read, we
+apprehend that they would not feel the obligation as they ought
+to feel it, of giving them oral instruction, and often
+impressing divine truth on their minds. [!!] ... If the free
+colored people were generally taught to read, <i>it might be an
+inducement to them to remain in this country</i>. WE WOULD OFFER
+THEM NO SUCH INDUCEMENT. [!!] ... A knowledge of letters and of
+all the arts and sciences, cannot counteract the influences
+under which the character of the negro <i>must</i> be formed in this
+country.... It appears to us that a greater benefit <ins id="mycorr9"
+class="mycorr" title="Original: may may"><a name="corr9" id="corr9"></a>may</ins> be
+conferred on the free colored people, by planting good schools
+for them in Africa, and encouraging them to remove there, than
+by giving them the knowledge of letters to make them contented
+in their present condition.'&mdash;[Telegraph of Feb. 19, 1831.]</p></div>
+
+<p>Jesuitism was never more subtle&mdash;Papal domination never more exclusive.
+The gospel of peace and mercy preached by him who holds that ignorance
+is the mother of devotion! who would sequestrate the bible from the eyes
+of his fellow men! who contends that knowledge is the enemy of religion!
+who denies the efficacy of education in elevating a degraded population!
+who would make men brutes in order to make them better christians! who
+desires to make the clergy infallible guides to heaven! Now what folly
+and impiety is all this! Besides, is it not mockery to preach
+repentance, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to the benighted blacks,
+and at the same time deny them the right and ability to 'search the
+scriptures' for themselves?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The proposition which was made last year to erect a College for the
+education of colored youth in New-Haven, it is well known, created an
+extraordinary and most disgraceful tumult in that place, (the hot-bed of
+African colonization,) and was generally scouted by the friends of the
+Society in other places. The American Spectator at Washington, (next to
+the African Repository, the mouth-piece of the Society,) used the
+following language, in relation to the violent proceedings of the
+citizens of New-Haven: 'We not only <i>approve the course</i>, which they
+have pursued, but we <i>admire the moral courage</i>, which induced them,
+<i>for the love of right</i>, (!) to incur the censure of both sections of
+the country.'</p>
+
+<p>As a farther illustration of the complacency with which colonizationists
+regard the laws prohibiting the instruction of the blacks, I extract the
+following paragraph from the 'Proceedings of the New-York State
+Colonization Society, on its second anniversary:'</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'It is the business of the free&mdash;<i>their safety requires it</i>&mdash;to
+keep the slaves in ignorance. Their education is utterly
+prohibited. Educate them, and they break their fetters. Suppose
+the slaves of the south to have the knowledge of freemen, they
+would be free, or be exterminated by the whites. This renders it
+necessary to prevent their instruction&mdash;to keep them from Sunday
+Schools, and other means of gaining knowledge. But a few days
+ago, a proposition was made in the legislature of Georgia, to
+allow them so much instruction as to enable them to read the
+bible; which was promptly rejected by a large majority. I do not
+mention this for the purpose of <i>condemning the policy</i> of the
+slaveholding States, but to lament its <i>necessity</i>.'</p></div>
+
+<p>Elias B. Caldwell, one of the founders, and the first Secretary of the
+Parent Society, in a speech delivered at its formation, advanced the
+following monstrous sentiments:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'The more you improve the condition of these people, the more
+you cultivate their minds, the more <i>miserable</i> you make them in
+their present state. You give them a higher relish for those
+privileges <i>which they can never attain</i>, and turn what you
+intend for a blessing into a curse. No, if they must remain in
+their present situation, <i>keep them in the lowest state of
+ignorance and degradation</i>. The nearer you bring them to the
+condition of <i>brutes</i>, the better chance do you give them of
+possessing their apathy.'</p></div>
+
+<p>So, then, the American Colonization Society advocates, and to a great
+extent perpetuates the ignorance and degradation of the colored
+population of the United States!</p>
+
+<p>In a critical examination of the pages of the African Repository, and of
+the reports and addresses of the Parent Society and its auxiliaries, I
+cannot find in a single instance any impeachment of the conduct and
+feelings of society toward the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> people of color, or any hint that the
+prejudice which is so prevalent against them is unmanly and sinful, or
+any evidence of contrition for past injustice, or any remonstrance or
+entreaty with a view to a change of public sentiment, or any symptoms of
+moral indignation at such unchristian and anti-republican treatment. On
+the contrary, I find the doctrine every where inculcated that this
+hatred and contempt, this abuse and proscription, are not only
+excusable, but the natural, inevitable and incurable effects of
+constitutional dissimilitude, growing out of an ordination of
+Providence, for which there is no remedy but a separation between the
+two races. If the free blacks, then, have been 'still further degraded
+by the mockery of nominal freedom,' if they 'must always be a separate
+and degraded race,' if 'degradation must and will press them to the
+earth,' if from their present station 'they can never rise, be their
+talents, their enterprise, their virtues what they may,' if 'in Africa
+alone, they can enjoy the motives for honorable ambition,' the American
+Colonization Society is responsible for their debasement and misery; for
+as it numbers among its supporters the most influential men in our
+country, and boasts of having the approbation of an overwhelming
+majority of the wise and good whose examples are laws, it is able, were
+it willing, to effect a radical change in public sentiment&mdash;nay, it is
+at the present time public sentiment itself. But though it has done
+much, and may do more, (all that it can it will do,) to depress,
+impoverish and dispirit the free people of color, and to strengthen and
+influence mutual antipathies, it is the purpose of God, I am fully
+persuaded, to humble the pride of the American people by rendering the
+expulsion of our colored countrymen utterly impracticable, and the
+necessity for their admission to equal rights imperative. As neither
+mountains of prejudice, nor the massy shackles of law and of public
+opinion, have been able to keep them down to a level with slaves, I
+confidently anticipate their exaltation among ourselves. Through the
+vista of time,&mdash;a short distance only,&mdash;I see them here, not in Africa,
+not bowed to the earth, or derided and persecuted as at present, not
+with a downcast air or an irresolute step, but standing erect as men
+destined heavenward, unembarrassed, untrammelled, with none to molest or
+make them afraid.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_V_23" id="Footnote_V_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_V_23"><span class="label">[V]</span></a> Walker's Appeal.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_W_24" id="Footnote_W_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_W_24"><span class="label">[W]</span></a> Why is it that the free people of color are now, in almost
+every part of our country, threatened with banishment from State to
+State, and with hunting from city to city, until there shall be no place
+for the soles of their feet in this their native land? Is it because
+they are in reality, as slaveholders tell us, an inferior race of
+beings? No, my friends: their consistent conduct, their polished
+manners, and their great respectability, wherever they have enjoyed the
+advantages of equality of education and equality of motives, proclaim
+the contrary. The true cause of this almost universal prescription is to
+be found in the melancholy fact that we have been guilty of the most
+atrocious injustice to their forefathers and to themselves. We would
+therefore now banish the evidence of our guilt from before our eyes: for
+whom a man has injured, he is almost sure to hate. Some of the finest
+men I met with, during a residence of three years in London and Paris,
+were the offspring of African mothers. There no distinction is made in
+any grade of society, on account of color. I have repeatedly seen black
+gentlemen sitting on the sofas, conversing with the ladies, at the
+hospitable mansion of that universal philanthropist, <span class="smcap">Lafayette</span>; and
+there were no persons present who appeared more respectable, or who were
+more respected.&mdash;[Address of Arnold Buffum, President of the New-England
+Anti-Slavery Society, delivered in Boston, Feb. 16, 1832.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_X_25" id="Footnote_X_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_X_25"><span class="label">[X]</span></a> In England, it is common to see respectable and genteel
+people open their pews when a black stranger enters the church; and at
+hotels, nobody thinks it a degradation to have a colored traveller sit
+at the same table. We have heard a well authenticated anecdote, which
+illustrates the different state of feeling in the two countries on this
+subject. A wealthy American citizen was residing at London for a season,
+which time the famous Mr Prince Saunders was there. The London breakfast
+hour is very late; and Prince Saunders happened to call upon the
+American while his family were taking their morning repast. Politeness
+and native good feelings prompted the lady to ask her guest to take a
+cup of coffee&mdash;but then the <i>prejudices of society</i>&mdash;how could she
+overcome <i>them</i>? True, he was a gentleman in character, manners and
+dress; but he had a black skin; and how could white skins sit at the
+same table with him? If his <i>character</i> had been as black as perdition,
+the difficulty might have been overcome, however reluctantly; but his
+<i>skin</i> being black, it was altogether out of the question. So the lady
+sipped her coffee, and Prince Saunders sat at the window, occasionally
+speaking in reply to conversation addressed to him. At last all retired
+from the breakfast table&mdash;and then the lady, with an air of sudden
+recollection, said, 'I forgot to ask if you had breakfasted, Mr
+Saunders! Won't you let me give you a cup of coffee?' 'I thank you,
+madam,' he replied, with a dignified bow, 'I am engaged to breakfast
+with the <span class="smcap">Prince Regent</span> this morning!'
+</p><p>
+We laugh at the narrow bigotry of the Mahometan, who feels contaminated
+if a Christian shares his dinner, and who will not give his vile carcass
+burial, for fear of pollution. Is our prejudice against persons of color
+more rational or more just? The plain fact is, our prejudice has the
+same foundation as that of the Mahometan&mdash;both are grounded in pride and
+selfishness. A law has lately passed in Turkey, imposing a fine upon
+whoever shall call a Christian a dog. <i>Let us try to keep pace with the
+Turks in candor and benevolence.</i>&mdash;[Massachusetts Journal and Tribune.]</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></div>
+<h2><a name="SECTION_X" id="SECTION_X"></a>SECTION X.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY DECEIVES AND MISLEADS THE NATION.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> is now about fifteen years since the American Colonization Society
+sprang into existence&mdash;a space of time amply sufficient to test its
+ability. In its behalf the pulpit and the press (two formidable engines)
+have been exerted to an extraordinary degree; statesmen, and orators,
+and judges, and lawyers, and philanthropists, have eloquently advocated
+its claims to public patronage. During this protracted period, and with
+such powerful auxiliaries, a careless observer might naturally suppose
+that much must have been accomplished towards abolishing slavery. But
+what is the fact? Less than one hundred and fifty souls have been
+removed annually to Africa&mdash;in all, about two thousand souls in fifteen
+years!!&mdash;a drop from the Atlantic ocean&mdash;a grain of earth from the
+American continent! In the mean time, the increase of the slaves has
+amounted to upwards of <i>half a million</i>! and every week more than <i>one
+thousand</i> new-born victims are added to their number. Before a vessel,
+with one hundred and fifty passengers, can go to and return from Africa,
+more than ten thousand slave infants will have been added to our
+population: while she is preparing to depart, or waiting for a fair
+wind, the increase will freight her many times.</p>
+
+<p>The following eloquent and comprehensive Circular (published last year
+in London by Capt. Charles Stuart, in consequence of the visit of
+Elliott Cresson, an agent who was sent out to dupe the philanthropists
+of England) exhibits the inefficiency and criminality of the Society in
+a striking light:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'<span class="smcap">American Colonization Society. Liberia.</span>&mdash;This Society was
+formed in the United States, in 1817.</p>
+
+<p>Its Thirteenth Annual Report has just reached this country.</p>
+
+<p>Its object, as expressed by itself, (see the Thirteenth Report,
+page 41, app. 9, art. 2,) "Is to promote and execute a plan for
+colonizing the free people of color, residing in 'the United
+States' in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem
+most expedient."</p>
+
+<p>The facts of the case are these:</p>
+
+<p>
+1. That the United States have about 2,000,000 enslaved blacks.<br />
+2. That they have about 500,000 free blacks.<br />
+3. That both these classes are rapidly increasing.<br />
+4. That both are exceedingly depressed and degraded.<br />
+</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+The duty of the United States to them, is the same exactly as we
+owe to our colored fellow-subjects in our slave colonies, viz.
+to obey God, by letting them go free, by placing them beneath
+wise and equitable laws, and by loving them all, and treating
+them like brethren; that is to say, the unquestionable duty of
+the people of the United States is to emancipate their 2,000,000
+slaves, and to raise the 500,000 free colored people to that
+estimation in their native country which is due to them.</p>
+
+<p>But the American Colonization Society deliberately rejects both
+of these first great duties, and confines itself to the
+colonization in Africa of the free colored people. They say, in
+page 5, of their Thirteenth Report, "To abolition she could not
+look&mdash;and need not look." It "could do nothing in the slave
+States for the cause of humanity;" and in page 8, "Emancipation,
+with the liberty to remain on this side of the Atlantic, is but
+an act of dreamy madness."</p>
+
+<p>Now in thus deliberately letting the great crime of negro
+slavery alone; and in thus substituting a little restricted act
+of very dubious benevolence to a few, for the great and sacred
+duty of right which they owe to all,&mdash;they hurt the great cause
+of everlasting truth and love, in the following particulars:</p>
+
+<p>1. By offering to the nation a hope, at which many of their best
+men seem eagerly grasping, of getting rid of the colored people
+abroad&mdash;they conduce more and more, as this hope prevails, to
+keep out of mind the superior, unalterable, and immediate duty
+of righting them at home.</p>
+
+<p>2. By removing whatever number it be, from their native country,
+the number which remains must be diminished,&mdash;and the more the
+number which remains is diminished, the more helpless will they
+become&mdash;the less will be the hope of their ever recovering their
+own liberty&mdash;and the more and longer will they be trampled upon.</p>
+
+<p>3. The more the people of the United States (and this is equally
+true of Great Britain) substitute a <i>half-way</i> duty, difficult,
+expensive, and partial as it must be, and criminal as it
+unquestionably is&mdash;for the <i>whole</i> duty which they owe their
+negro fellow-subjects, of putting them, before the law, upon a
+par with themselves&mdash;the less will they be likely to feel their
+sin in continuing to wrong them; and the less they feel their
+sin, the less likely will they be to repent of it, and to do
+their duty.</p>
+
+<p>4. The greater the number of slaves transported, the greater
+will be the value of the labor of those who remain; the more
+valuable their labor is, the greater will be the temptation to
+over-labor them, and the more, of course, they will be
+oppressed.</p>
+
+<p>5. The American Colonization Society directly supports the false
+and cruel idea that the native country of the colored people of
+the United States, is not their native country, and that they
+never can be happy until they either exile themselves, or are
+exiled; and thus powerfully conduces to extinguish in them all
+those delightful hopes, and to prevent all that glorious
+exertion, which would make them a blessing to their country. In
+this particular, the American Colonization Society takes up a
+falsehood, as cruel to the colored people, as it is disgraceful
+to themselves; dwells upon it, as if it were an irrefragable
+truth; urges it, as such, upon others; and thus endeavors with
+all its force, to make <i>that practically true</i>, which is one of
+the greatest stains in the American character; which is one of
+the greatest scourges that could possibly afflict the free
+colored people; and which, in itself, is essentially and
+unalterably false. For be the pertinacity of prejudice what it
+may, in asserting that the blacks of America never can be
+amalgamated in all respects, in equal brotherhood with the
+whites, it will not the less remain an everlasting truth, that
+the wickedness which produced and perpetuates the assertion, is
+the only ground of the difficulty, and that all that is
+requisite to remove the whole evil, is the relenting in love of
+the proud and cruel spirit which produced it. Could the American
+Colonization Society succeed in establishing their views on this
+subject, as being really true of the people of the United
+States, it would only prove that the people of the United States
+were past repentance; that they were given over, through their
+obstinacy in sin, finally to believe a lie; to harden
+themselves, and to perish in their iniquity. But they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> have not
+succeeded in establishing this fearful fact against themselves;
+and as long as they continue capable of repentance, it <i>never</i>
+can be true, that the proud and baneful prejudices which now so
+cruelly alienate them from their colored brethren, may not, will
+not, must not, yield to the sword of the Spirit, to the Word of
+God, to the blessed weapons of truth and love.</p>
+
+<p>The American Colonization Society is beautiful and beneficial as
+far as it supports the cause commenced at Sierra Leone, by
+introducing into Africa, civilization, commerce, and genuine
+Christianity&mdash;by checking the African slave trade&mdash;and by
+serving in love the emigrants who choose to pass to Liberia.</p>
+
+<p>But it powerfully tends to veil the existing and outrageous
+atrocity of negro slavery; and it corroborates against the
+people of color, whether enslaved or free, one of the most base,
+groundless, and cruel prejudices, that has ever disgraced the
+powerful, or afflicted the weak.</p>
+
+<p>The following calculations may throw further light upon the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>The United States have about 2,000,000 slaves, and about 500,000
+free colored people.</p>
+
+<p>The American Colonization Society has existed for thirteen
+years, and has exported yearly, upon an average, about 150
+persons.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the natural yearly increase has been 56,000 souls; and
+nearly a million have died in slavery!!</p>
+
+<p>But it may be said, this is only the beginning&mdash;more may be
+expected hereafter.&mdash;Let us see.</p>
+
+<p>The average price of transporting each individual is calculated
+at 30 dollars: suppose it to be reduced to 20, and then, as
+56,000 must be exported yearly, in order merely to prevent
+increase, 1,120,000 dollars would be yearly requisite simply for
+transportation. Where is this vast sum to come from? Or suppose
+it supplied, still, in the mass of crime and wretchedness, as it
+now exists, there would be <i>no decrease</i>! Two millions of human
+beings every 30 years would still be <i>born</i> and <i>die</i> in
+slavery!!</p>
+
+<p>But perhaps you wish to extinguish the crime in thirty years.</p>
+
+<p>Then you must begin by transporting at least 100,000 yearly. In
+order to do this, you must have an annual income of upwards of
+2,000,000 dollars; and if you have not only to transport, but
+also to purchase, you would probably want yearly, <i>twenty
+millions</i> more!!</p>
+
+<p>Where are you to get this?&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Or suppose it got, and still one generation would perish in
+their wretchedness; 2,000,000 of immortal souls&mdash;plundered by
+you of the most sacred rights of human nature; of rights <i>always
+the same</i>, and everlastingly <i>inalienable</i>, however
+plundered&mdash;would have perished <i>unredressed</i>, and gone to
+confront you at the bar of God.</p>
+
+<p>And will He not make inquisition for blood? And what will it
+avail you to say, "Oh, we satisfied ourselves, and traversed
+land and sea, and spent thousands to satisfy others, that if we
+transported a few hundreds or thousands of our oppressed
+fellow-subjects to a distant country, yearly, with care, we
+might guiltlessly leave the remaining hundreds of thousands, or
+the millions, in slavery, and harmlessly indulge the invincible
+repugnance which we felt to a colored skin. We really thought it
+better, to exile our colored brethren from their native country,
+or to render their lives in it, intolerable by scorn, should
+they obstinately persist in remaining in it;&mdash;we really thought
+this better, than humbling ourselves before our brother and our
+God, and returning to both with repenting and undissembling
+love."</p>
+
+<p>Is not such language similar to the swearer's prayer!!</p>
+
+<p>Great Britain and the United States, the two most favored, and
+the two most guilty nations upon earth, both need rebuke. They
+ought to be brethren, mutually dear and honorable to each other,
+in all that is true and kind. But never, never, let them support
+one another in guilt.</p>
+
+<p>People of Great Britain, it is your business&mdash;it is <i>your
+duty</i>,&mdash;to give to negro slavery no rest, but to put it
+down&mdash;not by letting the trunk alone, while you idly busy
+yourselves in lopping off, or in aiding others to lop off, a few
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> the straggling branches&mdash;but by laying the axe at once to
+its roots, and by putting your united nerve into the steel, till
+this great poison-tree of lust and blood, and of all abominable
+and heartless iniquity, fall before you; and law, and love, and
+God and man, shout victory over its ruin.</p>
+
+<p>Hearken&mdash;thus saith the Lord, "Rob not the poor, because he is
+poor; neither oppress the afflicted in the gate. For the Lord
+will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled
+them." Prov. xxii. 22, 23.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">London</span>, July 15, 1831. <span class="rfloat">C. STUART.'</span><a name="FNanchor_Y_26" id="FNanchor_Y_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_Y_26" class="fnanchor">[Y]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Sometimes the Society professes to be able to remove the whole colored
+population in less than thirty years! and the belief is prevalent that
+the project is feasible. Again it tells us&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Admitting that the colonization scheme contemplates the
+ultimate abolition of slavery, yet that result could only be
+produced <i>by the gradual and slow operation of</i> <span class="smcap">CENTURIES</span>.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+'How came we by this population? By the prevalence for a century
+of a guilty commerce. And will not the prevalence <i>for a
+century</i> of a restoring commerce, place them on their own
+shores? Yes, surely!'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'There are those, Sir, who ask&mdash;and
+could not a quarter century cease and determine the two great
+evils? You and I, my dear Sir, on whom the frost of time has
+fallen rather perceptibly, would say a century. And now, let me
+ask, could ever a century, in the whole course of human affairs,
+be better employed?'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. i. pp. 217, 347;
+vol. v. p. 366.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It is not the work of a day nor a year, it is not a work of one
+time, nor of two, nor of three, but it is one which will now
+commence, <i>and may continue for ages</i>.'&mdash;[A new and interesting
+View of Slavery. By Humanitas, a colonization advocate.
+Baltimore, 1820.]</p></div>
+
+<p>Wild enthusiasts in the cause may respond&mdash;'The Society never expected
+to accomplish much single-handed: it is about to enlist the energies of
+the General Government&mdash;and doubtless Congress will appropriate several
+millions of dollars annually for the purchase and colonization of the
+slaves.'</p>
+
+<p>But are they sure, or is it probable, that Congress will make this
+appropriation? And if it should, what can they do without the consent of
+the people of color to remove? That con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>sent can never be obtained. Is
+it, then, proposed to buy the slaves of their masters, as if the claim
+of property were valid? It were better that the money should rust at the
+bottom of the deep!&mdash;better to buy bank-notes, and convert them to
+ashes! To purchase slaves would only serve to make brisk the
+slave-market. Their value would immediately rise in all the slave
+States; especially in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and North
+Carolina, where they are now comparatively worthless&mdash;<i>and there would
+be an end to voluntary emancipation</i>: for who would sacrifice his
+'property,' when he might obtain an equivalent for it? Slave traders and
+slave owners would be zealous to prevent any lack of miserable objects
+for the bounty offered by government: if the natural increase were not
+sufficient, they would be careful to make the importation from Africa
+exceed the exportation to that ill-fated continent. Such a purchase
+would be directly patronising the slave trade, at home and abroad, and
+bribing masters to keep their slaves for the highest bidder. Besides, it
+would be a gross violation of the great fundamental principle, that 'man
+cannot hold property in man.'</p>
+
+<p>I know it is easy to make calculations. I know it is an old maxim, that
+'figures cannot lie:' and I very well know, too, that our philanthropic
+arithmeticians are prodigiously fond of <span class="smcap">FIGURING</span>, but of doing nothing
+else. Give them a slate and pencil, and in fifteen minutes they will
+clear the continent of every black skin; and, if desired, throw in the
+Indians to boot. While they depopulate America, they find not the least
+difficulty in providing for the wants of the emigrating myriads to the
+coast of Africa: we have ships enough, and, notwithstanding the hardness
+of the times, money enough. O, the surpassing utility of the arithmetic!
+it is more potent than the stone of the philosopher, which, <i>when
+discovered</i>, is to transmute, at a touch, base metal into pure gold!</p>
+
+<p>In one breath, colonization orators tell us that the free blacks are
+pests in the community; that they are an intemperate, ignorant, lazy,
+thievish class; that their condition is worse than that of the slaves;
+and that no efforts to improve them in this country can be successful,
+owing to the prejudices of society. In the next breath we are told what
+mighty works these miser<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>able outcasts are to achieve&mdash;that they are the
+missionaries of salvation,<a name="FNanchor_Z_27" id="FNanchor_Z_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_Z_27" class="fnanchor">[Z]</a> who are to illumine all Africa&mdash;that they
+will build up a second American republic&mdash;and that our conceptions
+cannot grasp the result of their labors. Now I, for one, have no faith
+in this instantaneous metamorphosis.<a name="FNanchor_AA_28" id="FNanchor_AA_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_AA_28" class="fnanchor">[AA]</a> I believe that neither a sea
+voyage nor an African climate has any miraculous influence upon the
+brain. I believe that ignorant and depraved black men, who are
+transported across the ocean, will be ignorant and depraved black men on
+reaching the coast of Africa. I believe, also, that they who are capable
+of doing well, surrounded by barbarians, may do better among a civilized
+and christian people.</p>
+
+<p>It is stated in a Circular put forth by the Society last year, that
+'from the <i>actual experience</i> of the Society, it has been found that
+$20, <i>or less</i>, will defray the whole expense of transporting an
+individual to the Colony.' This is a very deceptive statement. The
+receipts of the Society from 1820 to 1830, amounted to $112,841 89; the
+expenses during the same period were $106,457 72; balance on hand,
+$6,384 17. Nine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>teen expeditions had been fitted out, and 1,857
+emigrants,<a name="FNanchor_AB_29" id="FNanchor_AB_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_AB_29" class="fnanchor">[AB]</a> <i>including re-captured Africans</i>, landing on the shores
+of Africa&mdash;averaging annually, for the ten years, about 186 persons, or
+since the organization of the Society, about 124 persons. 'The
+emigrants,' the Board of Managers inform us, in a recent address to
+Auxiliary Societies, 'for the last three years, average about 227, while
+the expenses, <i>exclusive of transportation, and temporary subsistence of
+the new colonists</i>, exceed <span class="smcap">TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS</span>'!! In the very last
+number of the African Repository, (for April, 1832,) the Vice-Agent at
+Liberia, A. D. Williams, writes to the Rev. R. R. Gurley as follows:&mdash;'I
+think the price, say $35, fixed by the Board for the transportation of
+each emigrant, <i>is entirely too low</i>: it should be at least $40, if not
+$45.' Why, then, does the Society attempt to impose upon public
+credulity, by stating that only $20 are requisite for every individual
+transportation, when the actual cost has been more than thrice, and is
+likely to be more than double that amount?<a name="FNanchor_AC_30" id="FNanchor_AC_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_AC_30" class="fnanchor">[AC]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Society has succeeded in making the people believe that the
+establishment of a colony or colonies on the coast of Africa is the only
+way to abolish the foreign slave trade: on this account it has secured
+an extensive patronage. Here is another fatal delusion. I shall show not
+only that it has not injured this trade in the least, but that the trade
+<i>continues to increase in activity and cruelty</i>. Let us look at its own
+admissions.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'We regret to say, that the slave trade appears to be carried on
+to a great extent, and with circumstances of the most revolting
+cruelty.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The French slave trade, notwithstanding the
+efforts of the government, appears to be undiminished. The
+number of Spanish vessels employed in the trade is immense, and
+as the treaty between England and Spain only permits the seizure
+of vessels having slaves actually on board, many of these watch
+their opportunity on the coast, run in, and receive all their
+slaves on board in a single day.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'By an official document
+from Rio de Janeiro, it appears that the following importations
+of slaves were made into that port in 1826 and 1827.</p>
+
+<p class="indent2">'1826, landed alive, 35,966 ... died on the passage 1,905</p>
+<p class="indent2">'1827, landed alive, 41,384 ... died on the passage 1,643</p>
+
+<p>'Thus it would seem, (says the Boston Gazette,) that to only one
+port in the Brazils, and in the course of two years,
+<i>seventy-seven thousand three hundred and fifty</i> human beings
+were transported from their own country, and placed in a state
+of slavery.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. i. v. pp. 179, 181.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It is not by legal arguments, or penal statutes, or armed
+ships, that the slave trade can be prevented. Almost every power
+in Christendom has denounced it. It has been declared felony&mdash;it
+has been declared piracy; and the fleets of Britain and America
+have been commissioned to drive it from the ocean. Still, in
+defiance of all this array of legislation and of armament, slave
+ships ride triumphant on the ocean; and in these floating
+caverns, less terrible only than the caverns which demons
+occupy, from sixty to eighty thousand wretches, received
+pinioned from the coast of Africa, are borne annually away to
+slavery or death. Of these wretches a frightful number are, with
+an audacity that amazes, landed and disposed of within the
+jurisdiction of this republic.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. v. 274.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Notwithstanding all the efforts that have been made to suppress
+the slave trade, by means of solemn treaties and laws declaring
+it to be piracy; and not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>withstanding the attempts to
+exterminate it by the naval forces of the United States and
+Great Britain, the inhuman traffic is still pursued to as great
+an extent as at any former period, and with greater cruelty than
+ever.'&mdash;[African Repository, vol. vi. p. 345.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The slave trade, which many suppose has been every where
+abolished for years, there is reason to believe is still carried
+on to almost as great an extent as ever. It has been recently
+stated in the papers, that an association of merchants at Nantz,
+in France, had undertaken to supply the island of Cuba with
+thirty thousand fresh negro slaves annually! And in Brazil, it
+is well known, that for several years past, the importations
+have even exceeded this number.'&mdash;[Idem, vol. vii. p. 248.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Africa, for three long centuries, has been ravaged by the slave
+trade. Notwithstanding all that has been done to suppress that
+traffic, notwithstanding its formal abolition by all civilized
+nations, it is carried on at the present hour, <i>with all its
+atrocities unmitigated</i>. The flags of France, Portugal, Brazil,
+and Spain, with the connivance of those governments, afford to
+the slave trader, in spite of laws and treaties and armed
+cruisers, a partial protection, of which he avails himself to
+the utmost. And with what cruelty he carries on his war against
+human nature, every year affords us illustrations sufficiently
+horrible.'&mdash;[Christian Spectator for September, 1830.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'This horrible traffic, notwithstanding its abolition by every
+civilized nation in the world, except Portugal and Brazil, and
+notwithstanding the decided measures of the British and American
+governments, is still carried on to almost as great an extent as
+ever. Not less than 60,000 slaves, according to the most
+moderate computation, are carried from Africa annually. This
+trade is carried on by Americans to the American states. And the
+cruelties of this trade, which always surpassed the powers of
+the human mind to conceive, <i>are greater now than they ever were
+before</i>. We might, but we will not, refer to stories, recent
+stories, of which the very recital would be torment.'&mdash;[Seventh
+Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Notwithstanding the vigilance of the powers now engaged to
+suppress the slave trade, I have received information, that in a
+single year, in the single island of Cuba, slaves equal in
+amount to one half of the above number of fifty-two thousand
+have been illicitly introduced.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Mr Mercer submitted the
+following preamble and resolutions:&mdash;Whereas, to the affliction
+of the Christian world, the African slave trade, notwithstanding
+all the efforts, past and present, for its suppression, still
+exists and is conducted <i>with aggravated cruelty</i>, by the
+resources of one continent, to the dishonor of another, and to
+an extent little short of the desolation of a third,'
+&amp;c.&mdash;[Tenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'It is painful to state, that the Managers have reason to
+believe that the slave trade is still prosecuted, to a great
+extent, and with circumstances of undiminished atrocity. The
+fact, that much was done by Mr Ashmun to banish it from the
+territory, under the colonial jurisdiction, is unquestionable;
+but, <i>it now exists, even on this territory</i>; and a little to
+the north and south of Liberia, it is seen in its true
+characters&mdash;of fraud, rapine, and blood! In the opinion of the
+late Agent, the present efforts to suppress this trade must
+prove abortive.'&mdash;[Thirteenth Annual Report.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Some appalling facts in regard to the slave trade have come to
+the knowledge of the Board of Managers during the last year.
+<i>With undiminished atrocity and activity</i> is this odious traffic
+now carried on <i>all along the African coast</i>. Slave factories
+are established <i>in the immediate vicinity of the Colony</i>, and
+at the Gallinas (between Liberia and Sierra Leone) not less than
+nine hundred slaves were shipped during the last summer, in the
+space of three weeks.'&mdash;[Fourteenth Annual Report, 1831.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'In defiance of all laws enacted, it is estimated that no less
+than <i>fifty thousand</i> Africans were, during the last year,
+(1831,) carried into foreign slavery. During the months of
+February and March of the same year, two thousand were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> landed
+on the island of Cuba.'&mdash;[Circular published by the
+Massachusetts Colonization Society for 1832.]</p></div>
+
+<p>Here, then, is the acknowledgment of the Society, that it has
+accomplished <i>nothing</i> toward the suppression of the slave trade in
+fifteen years! Nor has the settlement at Sierra Leone effected aught in
+thirty years! Nor have the untiring labors of Wilberforce and Clarkson,
+for a longer period, produced any visible effect! The accursed traffic
+still continues to increase&mdash;and why? Simply <i>because the market for
+slaves is not destroyed</i>. Break up this market, and you annihilate the
+slave trade. Keep it open, and you may line the shores of Africa and
+America with naval ships and armed troops, and the trade will continue.
+No proposition in Euclid is plainer. So long as there is a brisk market
+for goods, that market will be supplied. The assertion has been made in
+Congress by Mr Mercer of Virginia, (one of the Vice-Presidents of the
+Society,) that these horrible cargoes are smuggled into our southern
+states to a deplorable extent. In 1819, Mr Middleton, of South Carolina,
+declared it to be his belief 'that 13,000 Africans were annually
+smuggled into our southern states.' Mr Wright of Virginia estimated the
+number at 15,000!!!&mdash;[<i>Vide</i> Seventh Annual Report&mdash;app.]&mdash;This number
+is seven times as great as that which the Colonization Society has
+transported in fifteen years!<a name="FNanchor_AD_31" id="FNanchor_AD_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_AD_31" class="fnanchor">[AD]</a> By letting the system of slavery
+alone, then, and striving to protect it, the Society is encouraging and
+perpetuating the foreign slave trade!</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_Y_26" id="Footnote_Y_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_Y_26"><span class="label">[Y]</span></a> 'We think the annual increase, as computed by Capt. Stuart,
+too low by 10 or 15,000. The estimate also of the expense of
+transportation is much below the actual cost. Besides, there is no
+provision made for the support of these helpless beings after their
+arrival in Africa, until they could provide for their own wants. Double
+the cost of transportation would be required for their subsistence till
+they could maintain themselves, without making any provision for
+implements of husbandry, mechanics' tools, &amp;c. &amp;c. without which they
+would all perish, even without the help of a pestiferous climate. But
+yet the table shows at one view the utter futility of the whole scheme
+of African Colonization. Slavery can no more be removed by these means
+than the waters of the Mississippi can be exhausted by steam engines.
+And the removal of slavery is the great consummation to which all
+benevolent efforts for benefitting the African race in this country,
+should ultimately tend. All schemes that do not promote this end will
+prove futile, and will end in disappointment. The axe must be laid to
+the root of the corrupt tree. It is a system that admits of no
+palliation, no compromise.'&mdash;['Herald of Truth,' Philadelphia.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_Z_27" id="Footnote_Z_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_Z_27"><span class="label">[Z]</span></a> 'Every emigrant to Africa is a <i>missionary</i> carrying with
+him credentials in the holy cause of civilization, religion, and free
+institutions'!!&mdash;[Speech of H. Clay&mdash;Tenth Annual Report.]&mdash;Why does not
+Mr Clay increase this band of <i>missionaries</i>, by sending out some of his
+own slaves? Is he consistent?</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AA_28" id="Footnote_AA_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AA_28"><span class="label">[AA]</span></a></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'As to the morals of the colonists, I consider them <i>much better
+than those of the people of the United States</i>. That is, you may
+take an equal number of inhabitants from any section of the
+Union, and you will find more drunkards, more profane swearers
+and Sabbath breakers, &amp;c., than in Liberia. Indeed I know of no
+country where things are conducted more quietly and orderly than
+in this colony; you rarely hear an oath, and as to riots or
+breaches of the peace, I recollect of but one instance, and that
+of a trifling nature, that has come under my notice since I
+assumed the government of the colony. The Sabbath is more
+strictly observed than I ever saw it in the United
+States.'&mdash;[Letter from J. Mechlin, Jr. Governor of the Colony of
+Liberia.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'I saw no intemperance, nor did I hear a profane word uttered by
+any one.' [Letter of Capt. William Abels.]</p></div>
+
+<p>If these statements be a true representation of the moral condition of
+the colonists; if 'their morals are much better than those of the people
+of the United States;' let us immediately bring back these expatriated
+<i>missionaries</i> to civilize and reform ourselves; for, according to our
+own confession, we need their instruction and example as much as any
+heathen nation. If these 'missionaries,' who, in this country, could
+'scarcely be reached in their debasement by the heavenly light;' if
+these 'most degraded, most abandoned beings on the earth,' have actually
+risen up to this exalted height of intelligence and purity, in so brief
+a period after a separation from ourselves, how desperately wicked and
+corrupt does the fact make our own conduct appear!</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AB_29" id="Footnote_AB_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AB_29"><span class="label">[AB]</span></a> Of this number, nearly three-fourths were free persons of
+color. If the Society is anxious to emancipate the slaves, why does it
+not confine its efforts exclusively to their transportation, seeing so
+many are offered for that purpose? Doubtless the reply will be&mdash;'O, it
+is important, in the incipient state of the colony, to send free persons
+of color, because they are more intelligent and virtuous.' Ah! is it so?
+What! give the preference to those whom it elsewhere brands as 'more
+corrupt, depraved and abandoned than the slaves can be,' and who
+'contribute greatly to the <i>corruption of the slaves</i>?' 'O!' it may
+reply, 'a careful selection is made between the virtuous and
+vicious&mdash;none are sent whose character is not reputable.' But what is to
+become of this choice selection, when it is able (as it hopes to be) to
+send off even as many as seventy thousand annually?</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AC_30" id="Footnote_AC_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AC_30"><span class="label">[AC]</span></a> 'The expense of transporting such persons from the United
+States to the coast of Africa, has been variously estimated. By those
+who compute it at the lowest rate, the mere expense of this
+transportation has been estimated at $20 per head. In this estimate,
+however, is not comprehended the expense of transporting the persons
+destined for Africa, to the port of their departure from the United
+States, or the necessary expense of sustaining them, either there or in
+Africa, for a reasonable time after their first arrival. All these
+expenses combined, the Committee think they estimate very low, when they
+compute the amount at $100 per head. It has been estimated by some at
+double this amount; and if past experience may be relied upon as proving
+any thing, the official documents formerly furnished to the Senate by
+the Department of the Navy, show that the expenses attending the
+transportation of the few captured slaves who have been returned to
+Africa by the United States, at the expense of this government, <i>far
+exceeds even the largest estimate</i>. But taking the expense to be only
+what the Committee have estimated it: Then the sum requisite to
+transport the whole number of the free colored population of the United
+States, would exceed twenty-eight millions of dollars; and the expense
+of transporting a number, equal only to the mere annual increase of this
+population, would exceed seven hundred thousand dollars per annum. Sums
+which would impose upon the people of this country, an additional
+burthen of taxation, greater than this Committee believe they could
+easily bear; and much greater than ought to be imposed upon them for any
+such purpose.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'The annual increase of the slave population, at
+present, is at least 57,000. Now allow the same sum per head for the
+transportation of these persons, that has been estimated for the
+transportation in the other similar case; and the sum requisite to
+defray the expense of the transportation of all the slaves in the United
+States, would be one hundred and ninety millions of dollars; and that
+requisite to defray the expense of the transportation of a number only
+equal to their mere annual increase, would be five millions seven
+hundred thousand dollars per annum. But to either of these sums must be
+added the reasonable equivalent, or necessary aid, to be paid by the
+United States to humane individuals, in order to induce them voluntarily
+to part with their property. The Committee have no 'data' by which they
+can measure what this might be. But any sum, however small, will make so
+great an augmentation of the amount, as almost to baffle calculation,
+and to exhibit this project at once, as one exceeding, very far, indeed,
+any revenue which the United States could ever draw from their citizens,
+even if the object was to increase and multiply, instead of reducing the
+numbers of the class of productive labor.'&mdash;[Mr Tazewell's Report&mdash;U. S.
+Senate, 1828.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AD_31" id="Footnote_AD_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AD_31"><span class="label">[AD]</span></a> The following amusing anecdote is a capital illustration
+of the folly of those colonizationists, who are endeavoring to suppress
+the rising tide of our colored population by extracting a few drops
+annually with their 'mop and pattens.' Dame Partington is clearly
+outdone by them, in regard to pertinacity of purpose and feebleness of
+execution. Rev. Sidney Smith, in his speech at the Taunton meeting,
+(England,) said:
+</p><p>
+'The attempt of the House of Lords to stop the progress of Reform,
+reminded him of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington, during the
+great storm at Sidmouth, in 1824. The tide rose to an incredible height;
+the waves rushed in upon the houses, and every thing was threatened with
+destruction. In the midst of the fearful commotion of the elements, Dame
+Partington, who lived upon the sea beach, was seen at the door of her
+house, with mop and pattens, trundling her mop and sweeping out the sea
+water, and vigorously pushing back the Atlantic. The Atlantic was
+roused, and so was Mrs. Partington; but the contest was unequal. The
+Atlantic beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop or a puddle,
+but she could do nothing with a tempest.'</p></div>
+</div>
+<h4>END OF PART I.</h4>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_1" id="pt2-Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></div>
+<h1><span style="font-size: larger">THOUGHTS</span>
+<br /><span style="font-size: smaller">ON</span>
+<br />AFRICAN COLONIZATION.<br /></h1>
+
+<h2>PART II.</h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>SENTIMENTS OF THE PEOPLE OF COLOR.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">If</span> the American Colonization Society were indeed actuated by the purest
+motives and the best feelings toward the objects of its supervision; if
+it were not based upon injustice, fraud, persecution and incorrigible
+prejudice; still if its purposes be contrary to the wishes and injurious
+to the interests of the free people of color, it ought not to receive
+the countenance of the public. Even the trees of the forest are keenly
+susceptible to every touch of violence, and seem to deprecate
+transplantation to a foreign soil. Even birds and animals pine in exile
+from their native haunts; their local attachments are wonderful; they
+migrate only to return again at the earliest opportunity. Perhaps there
+is not a living thing, from the hugest animal down to the minutest
+animalcule, whose pleasant associations are not circumscribed, or that
+has not some favorite retreats. This universal preference, this love of
+<i>home</i>, seems to be the element of being,&mdash;a constitutional attribute
+given by the all-wise Creator to bind each separate tribe or community
+within intelligent and well-defined limits: for, in its absence, order
+would be banished<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_2" id="pt2-Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> from the world, collision between the countless
+orders of creation would be perpetual, and violence would depopulate the
+world with more than pestilential rapidity.</p>
+
+<p>Shall it be said that beings endowed with high intellectual powers,
+sustaining the most important relations, created for social enjoyments,
+and made but a little lower than the angels&mdash;shall it be said that their
+local attachments are less tenacious than those of trees, and birds, and
+beasts, and insects? I know that the blacks are classed, by some, who
+scarcely give any evidence of their own humanity but their shape, among
+the brute creation: but are they <i>below</i> the brutes? or are they more
+insensible to rude assaults than forest-trees?</p>
+
+<p>'Men,' says an erratic but powerful writer<a name="FNanchor_AE_32" id="FNanchor_AE_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_AE_32" class="fnanchor">[AE]</a>&mdash;'men are like trees:
+they delight in a rude [and native] soil&mdash;they strike their roots
+downward with a perpetual effort, and heave their proud branches upward
+in perpetual strife. Are they to be removed?&mdash;you must tear up the very
+earth with their roots, rock and ore and impurity, or they perish. They
+cannot be translated with safety. Something of their home&mdash;a little of
+their native soil, must cling to them forever, or they die.'</p>
+
+<p>This love of home, of neighborhood, of country, is inherent in the human
+breast. It accompanies the child from its earliest reminiscence up to
+old age: it is written upon every tangible and permanent object within
+the habitual cognizance of the eye&mdash;upon stone, and tree, and
+rivulet&mdash;upon the green hill, and the verdant plain, and the opulent
+valley&mdash;upon house, and garden, and steeple-spire&mdash;upon the soil,
+whether it be rough or smooth, sandy or hard, barren or luxuriant.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Like ivy, where it grows, 'tis seen<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To wear an everlasting green.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The man who does not cherish it is regarded as destitute of sensibility;
+and to him is applied by common consent the burning rebuke of Sir Walter
+Scott:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who never to himself hath said,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_3" id="pt2-Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span><br />
+<span class="i2">This is my own, my native land!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As home his footsteps he hath turned,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From wandering on a foreign strand!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If such there breathe, go, mark him well;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For him no Minstrel raptures swell;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">High though his titles, proud his name,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Despite those titles, power, and pelf,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The wretch, concentred all in self,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Living, shall forfeit fair renown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, doubly dying, shall go down<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Whose bosom does not thrill with pleasurable emotion whenever he listens
+to that truest, sweetest, tenderest effusion,&mdash;'Home, sweet home?'</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">''Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which, seek thro' the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.<br /></span>
+<span class="i7">Home&mdash;home!<br /></span>
+<span class="i7">Sweet, sweet home!<br /></span>
+<span class="i4"><i>There's no place like home!</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O give me my lowly thatched cottage again;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The birds singing gaily that came at my call&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Give me them, with the peace of mind dearer than all!<br /></span>
+<span class="i7">Home&mdash;home!<br /></span>
+<span class="i7">Sweet, sweet home!<br /></span>
+<span class="i4"><i>There's no place like home!</i>'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>No one will understand me to maintain that population should never be
+thinned by foreign emigration; but only that such an emigration is
+unnatural. The great mass of a neighborhood or country must necessarily
+be stable: only fractions are cast off and float away on the tide of
+adventure. Individual enterprise or estrangement is one thing: the
+translation of an entire people to an unknown clime, another. The former
+may be moved by a single impulse&mdash;by a love of novelty, or a desire of
+gain,<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_4" id="pt2-Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> or a hope of preferment: he leaves no perceptible void in
+society. The latter can never be expatriated but by some extraordinary
+calamity, or by the application of intolerable restraints. They must
+first be rendered broken-hearted or loaded with chains&mdash;hope must not
+merely sicken but die&mdash;cord after cord must be sundered&mdash;ere they will
+seek another home. Our pilgrim-fathers were driven out from the mother
+country by ecclesiastical domination: to worship God according to the
+dictates of their own consciences, was the only cause of their exile.
+Had they been permitted to enjoy this sacred right,&mdash;no matter how great
+were their temporal privations, or their hopes of physical
+enjoyments,&mdash;they would not have perilled their lives on the stormy
+deep, to obtain an asylum in this western hemisphere.</p>
+
+<p>It may be said, in reply to the foregoing remarks upon the love of home
+and of country, that the people of color cannot cherish this abhorrence
+of migration, because here they have no 'continuing city,' and are not
+recognised as fellow-countrymen. In <span class="smcap">Part I.</span>, I have shown, by copious
+extracts, that colonizationists artfully represent them as aliens and
+foreigners, wanderers from Africa&mdash;destitute of that <i>amor patri&aelig;</i>,
+which is the bond of union&mdash;seditious&mdash;without
+alliances&mdash;irresponsible&mdash;unambitious&mdash;cherishing no attachment to the
+soil&mdash;feeling no interest in our national prosperity&mdash;ready for any
+adventure&mdash;eager to absent themselves from the land&mdash;malignant in their
+feelings towards society&mdash;incapable of local preference&mdash;content to
+remain in ignorance and degradation&mdash;&amp;c. &amp;c. &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>Every such representation is a libel, as I shall show in subsequent
+pages. The language of the people of color is,&mdash;'This is our country:
+here were we born&mdash;here will we live and die&mdash;we know of no other place
+that we can call our true and appropriate home&mdash;here are our earliest
+and most pleasant associations&mdash;we are freemen, we are brethren, we are
+countrymen and fellow-citizens&mdash;we are not for insurrection, but for
+peace and equality.' This is not the language of sedition or alienated
+affection. Their <i>amor patri&aelig;</i> is robust and deathless: like the oak,
+tempests do but strengthen its roots and confer victory<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_5" id="pt2-Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> upon it. Even
+the soil on which the unhappy slave toils and bleeds, is to him
+consecrated earth.</p>
+
+<p>African colonization is directly and irreconcileably opposed to the
+wishes of our colored population as a body. Their desires ought to be
+tenderly regarded. In all my intercourse with them in various towns and
+cities, I have never seen one of their number who was friendly to this
+scheme&mdash;and I have not been backward in canvassing their opinions on
+this subject. They are as unanimously opposed to a removal to Africa, as
+the Cherokees from the council-fires and graves of their fathers. It is
+remarkable, too, that they are as united in their respect and esteem for
+the republic of Hayti. But <i>this is their country</i>&mdash;they are resolute
+against every migratory plot, and willing to rely on the justice of the
+nation for an ultimate restoration to all their lost rights and
+privileges. What is the fact? Through the instrumentality of <span class="smcap">Benjamin
+Lundy</span>,<a name="FNanchor_AF_33" id="FNanchor_AF_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_AF_33" class="fnanchor">[AF]</a> the distinguished and veteran champion of emancipation, a
+great highway has been opened to the Haytien republic, over which our
+colored population may travel <i>toll free</i>, and at the end of their brief
+journey be the free occupants of the soil, and meet such a reception as
+was never yet given to any sojourners in any country, since the
+departure of Israel into Egypt. One would think, that, with such
+inducements and under such circumstances, this broad thoroughfare would
+present a most animating spectacle; that the bustle and roar of a
+journeying multitude would fall upon the ear like the strife of the
+ocean, or the distant thunder of the retiring storm; and that the song
+of the oppressor and the oppressed, a song of deliverance to each, would
+go up to heaven, till its echoes were seemingly the responses of angels
+and justified spirits. But it is not so. Only here and there a traveller
+is seen to enter upon the road&mdash;there is no noise of preparation or
+departure; but a silence, deeper than the breathlessness of midnight,
+rests upon our land&mdash;not a shout of joy is heard throughout our
+borders!<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_6" id="pt2-Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>How shall we account for this amazing apathy but on the ground that our
+colored population are unwilling to leave their native homes, no matter
+how strong soever are the inducements held out to them abroad?</p>
+
+<p>If it be said that they are not compelled to emigrate against their
+wishes&mdash;I answer, it is true that direct <i>physical force</i> is not
+applied; but why are they induced to remove? Is it because they
+instinctively prefer Africa to their native country? Do they actually
+<i>court</i> the perils of the sea,&mdash;the hostilities of a savage tribe,&mdash;the
+sickening influences of an African climate? Or are they not peremptorily
+assured that they never can, <i>and never shall</i>, enjoy their rights and
+privileges at home&mdash;and thus absolutely compelled to leave all that is
+dear behind, and to seek a shelter in a strange land&mdash;a land of darkness
+and cruelty, of barbarism and wo?</p>
+
+<p>The free people of color, and even the slaves, have on numerous
+occasions given ocular demonstration of their attachment to this
+country. Large numbers of them were distinguished for their patient
+endurance, their ardent devotion, and their valorous conduct during our
+revolutionary struggle. In the last war, they signalized themselves in a
+manner which extorted the applause even of their calumniators&mdash;of many
+who are doubtless at the present day representing them as seditious and
+inimical to the prosperity of the country. I have before me a
+Proclamation in the French language, issued by General Andrew Jackson,
+of which the following is a translation:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'<big><span class="smcap">Proclamation to the Free People of Color.</span></big></p>
+
+<p>'Soldiers!&mdash;When on the banks of the Mobile, I called you to
+take up arms, inviting you to partake the perils and glory of
+your white fellow citizens, <i>I expected much from you</i>; for I
+was not ignorant that you possessed qualities most formidable to
+an invading enemy. I knew with what fortitude you could endure
+hunger and thirst, and all the fatigues of a campaign. <i>I knew
+well how you loved your</i> <span class="smcap">NATIVE</span> <i>country</i>, and that you had, as
+well as ourselves, to defend what man holds most dear&mdash;his
+parents, relations, wife, children and property. <span class="smcap">You have done
+more than I expected.</span> In addition to the previous qualities I
+before knew you to possess, I found, more<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_7" id="pt2-Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>over, among you <i>a
+noble enthusiasm</i> which leads to the performance of great
+things.</p>
+
+<p>'Soldiers!&mdash;The President of the United States shall hear how
+praiseworthy was your conduct in the hour of danger, and the
+Representatives of the American people will, I doubt not, give
+you the praise your exploits entitle you to. <i>Your General
+anticipates them in applauding your noble ardor.</i></p>
+
+<p>'The enemy approaches; his vessels cover our lakes; our brave
+citizens are united, and all contention has ceased among them.
+Their only dispute is, who shall win the prize of valor, or who
+the most glory, its noblest reward.</p>
+
+<p>'By order.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>'THOMAS BUTLER</big>, <i>Aid de Camp</i>.'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In commenting upon the above Proclamation, an intelligent writer in the
+New-Orleans '<span class="smcap">Liberalist</span>' of March 15, 1830, very expressively
+remarks:&mdash;'Those who served in the memorable campaign of 1814 will know
+if the hero of the west was guilty of exaggeration. Just as fatal as was
+every glance of his keen eye to the English lines, so is every word of
+this Proclamation a killing thunderbolt to the detractors of this
+portion of our fellow beings, now so inhumanly persecuted.' Yes&mdash;when
+peril rears its crest, and invasion threatens our shores, then prejudice
+is forgotten and the tongue of detraction is still&mdash;then the people of
+color are no longer brutes or a race between men and monkeys, no longer
+turbulent or useless, no longer aliens and wanderers from Africa&mdash;but
+they are complimented as intelligent, patriotic citizens from whom much
+is expected, and who have property, home and country at stake! Ay, and
+richly do they merit this compliment.</p>
+
+<p>A respectable colored gentleman in the city of New-York, referring to
+this famous Proclamation, makes the following brief comment: 'When we
+could be of any use to the army, we possessed all the cardinal virtues;
+but now that time has passed, we forsooth are the most miserable,
+worthless beings the Lord in his wise judgment ever sent to curse the
+rulers of this troublesome world! I feel an anathema rising from my
+heart, but I have suppressed it.'</p>
+
+<p>How black is the ingratitude, how pitiful the hypocrisy, manifested in
+our conduct as a people, toward our colored popula<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_8" id="pt2-Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>tion! Every cheek
+should wear the blush of shame&mdash;every head be bowed in self-abasement!</p>
+
+<p>From the organization of the American Colonization Society, down to the
+present time, the free people of color have publicly and repeatedly
+expressed their opposition to it. They indignantly reject every overture
+for their expatriation. It has been industriously circulated by the
+advocates of colonization, that I have caused this hostility to the
+African scheme in the bosoms of the blacks; and that, until the
+Liberator was established, they were friendly to it. This story is
+founded upon sheer ignorance. It is my solemn conviction that I have not
+proselyted a dozen individuals; for the very conclusive reason that no
+conversions were necessary. Their sentiments were familiar to me long
+before they knew my own. My opponents abundantly overrate my influence,
+in acknowledging that I have overthrown, in a single year, the
+concentrated energies of the mightiest men in the land, and the
+perpetual labors of fifteen years. They shall not make me vain. Such a
+concession affords substantial evidence of perverted strength and
+misapplied exertion.</p>
+
+<p>If the people of color were instantly to signify their willingness to
+emigrate, my hostility to the American Colonization Society would
+scarcely abate one jot: for their assent could never justify the
+principles and doctrines propagated by the Society. Those principles and
+doctrines have been shown, I trust, to be corrupt, selfish,
+proscriptive, opposed to the genius of republicanism and to the spirit
+of christianity.</p>
+
+<p>The first public demonstration of hostility to the colonization scheme
+was made in 1817, by the free colored inhabitants of Richmond, Virginia.
+The proceedings of their meeting, copies of which were printed for
+distribution, I have accidentally mislaid. To the sentiments of the
+people of color, as expressed in the following pages, I cannot too
+earnestly solicit the serious attention of every good man and true
+philanthropist. After such an exhibition, persistance in expelling this
+portion of our population from our shores must be productive of
+aggravated guilt and the most dreadful collisions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_9" id="pt2-Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE PROM PHILADELPHIA.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, January, 1817.</p>
+
+<p>At a numerous meeting of the people of color, convened at Bethel church,
+to take into consideration the propriety of remonstrating against the
+contemplated measure, that is to exile us from the land of our nativity;
+James Forten was called to the chair, and Russell Parrott appointed
+secretary. The intent of the meeting having been stated by the chairman,
+the following resolutions were adopted, without one dissenting voice.</p>
+
+<p>Whereas our ancestors (not of choice) were the first successful
+cultivators of the wilds of America, we their descendants feel ourselves
+entitled to participate in the blessings of her luxuriant soil, which
+their blood and sweat manured; and that any measure or system of
+measures, having a tendency to banish us from her bosom, would not only
+be cruel, but in direct violation of those principles, which have been
+the boast of this republic.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we view with deep abhorrence the unmerited stigma
+attempted to be cast upon the reputation of the free people of color, by
+the promoters of this measure, 'that they are a dangerous and useless
+part of the community,' when in the state of disfranchisement in which
+they live, in the hour of danger they ceased to remember their wrongs,
+and rallied around the standard of their country.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we never will separate ourselves voluntarily from the
+slave population in this country; they are our brethren by the ties of
+consanguinity, of suffering, and of wrong; and we feel that there is
+more virtue in suffering privations with them, than fancied advantages
+for a season.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That without arts, without science, without a proper knowledge
+of government, to cast into the savage wilds of Africa the free people
+of color, seems to us the circuitous route through which they must
+return to perpetual bondage.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That having the strongest confidence in the justice of God,
+and philanthropy of the free states, we cheerfully submit our destinies
+to the guidance of Him who suffers not a sparrow to fall, without his
+special providence.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That a committee of eleven persons be appointed to open a
+correspondence with the honorable Joseph Hopkinson, member of Congress
+from this city, and likewise to inform him of the sentiments of this
+meeting, and that the following named persons constitute the committee,
+and that they have power to call a general meeting, when they in their
+judgment may deem it proper.<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_10" id="pt2-Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Rev. Absalom Jones, Rev. Richard Allen, James Forten, Robert Douglass,
+Francis Perkins, Rev. John Gloucester, Robert Gorden, James Johnson,
+Quamoney Clarkson, John Summersett, Randall Shepherd.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>JAMES FORTEN</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Russell Parrott</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+<p>At a numerous meeting of the free people of color of the city and county
+of Philadelphia, held in pursuance of public notice, at the school house
+in Green's court, on the evening of August 10th, for the purpose of
+taking into consideration the plan of colonizing the free people of
+color of the United States, on the coast of Africa, James Forten was
+appointed chairman, and Russell Parrott, secretary.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved unanimously, That the following address, signed on behalf of
+the meeting, by the Chairman and Secretary, be published and circulated.</p>
+
+<h4><i>To the humane and benevolent Inhabitants of the city and county
+of Philadelphia.</i></h4>
+
+<p>The free people of color, assembled together, under circumstances of
+deep interest to their happiness and welfare, humbly and respectfully
+lay before you this expression of their feelings and apprehensions.</p>
+
+<p>Relieved from the miseries of slavery, many of us by your aid,
+possessing the benefits which industry and integrity in this prosperous
+country assure to all its inhabitants, enjoying the rich blessings of
+religion, by opportunities of worshipping the only true God, under the
+light of Christianity, each of us according to his understanding; and
+having afforded to us and to our children the means of education and
+improvement; we have no wish to separate from our present homes, for any
+purpose whatever. Contented with our present situation and condition, we
+are not desirous of increasing their prosperity but by honest efforts,
+and by the use of those opportunities for their improvement, which the
+constitution and laws allow to all. It is therefore with painful
+solicitude, and sorrowing regret, we have seen a plan for colonizing the
+free people of color of the United States on the coast of Africa,
+brought forward under the auspices and sanction of gentlemen whose names
+give value to all they recommend, and who certainly are among the
+wisest, the best, and the most benevolent of men, in this great nation.</p>
+
+<p>If the plan of colonizing is intended for our benefit; and those who now
+promote it, will never seek our injury; we humbly and respectfully urge,
+that it is not asked for by us;<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_11" id="pt2-Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> nor will it be required by any
+circumstances, in our present or future condition; as long as we shall
+be permitted to share the protection of the excellent laws and just
+government which we now enjoy, in common with every individual of the
+community.</p>
+
+<p>We, therefore, a portion of those who are the objects of this plan, and
+among those whose happiness, with that of others of our color, it is
+intended to promote; with humble and grateful acknowledgments to those
+who have devised it, renounce and disclaim every connexion with it; and
+respectfully but firmly declare our determination not to participate in
+any part of it.</p>
+
+<p>If this plan of colonization now proposed, is intended to provide a
+refuge and a dwelling for a portion of our brethren, who are now held in
+slavery in the south, we have other and stronger objections to it, and
+we entreat your consideration of them.</p>
+
+<p>The ultimate and final abolition of slavery in the United States, by the
+operation of various causes, is, under the guidance and protection of a
+just God, progressing. Every year witnesses the release of numbers of
+the victims of oppression, and affords new and safe assurances that the
+freedom of all will be in the end accomplished. As they are thus by
+degrees relieved from bondage, our brothers have opportunities for
+instruction and improvement; and thus they become in some measure fitted
+for their liberty. Every year, many of us have restored to us by the
+gradual, but certain march of the cause of abolition&mdash;parents, from whom
+we have been long separated&mdash;wives and children whom we had left in
+servitude&mdash;and brothers, in blood as well as in early sufferings, from
+whom we had been long parted.</p>
+
+<p>But if the emancipation of our kindred shall, when the plan of
+colonization shall go into effect, be attended with transportation to a
+distant land, and shall be granted on no other condition; the
+consolation for our past sufferings and of those of our color who are in
+slavery, which have hitherto been, and under the present situation of
+things would continue to be, afforded to us and to them, will cease for
+ever. The cords, which now connect them with us, will be stretched by
+the distance to which their ends will be carried, until they break; and
+all the sources of happiness, which affection and connexion and blood
+bestow, will be ours and theirs no more.</p>
+
+<p>Nor do we view the colonization of those who may become emancipated by
+its operation among our southern brethren, as capable of producing their
+happiness. Unprepared by education, and a knowledge of the truths of our
+blessed religion, for their new situation, those who will thus become
+colonists will themselves be surrounded by every suffering which can
+afflict the members of the human family.<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_12" id="pt2-Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Without arts, without habits of industry, and unaccustomed to provide by
+their own exertions and foresight for their wants, the colony will soon
+become the abode of every vice, and the home of every misery. Soon will
+the light of Christianity, which now dawns among that portion of our
+species, be shut out by the clouds of ignorance, and their day of life
+be closed, without the illuminations of the gospel.</p>
+
+<p>To those of our brothers, who shall be left behind, there will be
+assured perpetual slavery and augmented sufferings. Diminished in
+numbers, the slave population of the southern states, which by its
+magnitude alarms its proprietors, will be easily secured. Those among
+their bondmen, who feel that they should be free, by rights which all
+mankind have from God and from nature, and who thus may become dangerous
+to the quiet of their masters, will be sent to the colony; and the tame
+and submissive will be retained, and subjected to increased rigor. Year
+after year will witness these means to assure safety and submission
+among their slaves, and the southern masters will colonize only those
+whom it may be dangerous to keep among them. The bondage of a large
+portion of our brothers will thus be rendered perpetual.</p>
+
+<p>Should the anticipations of misery and want among the colonists, which
+with great deference we have submitted to your better judgment, be
+realized; to emancipate and transport to Africa will be held forth by
+slaveholders as the worst and heaviest of punishments; and they will be
+threatened and successfully used to enforce increased submission to
+their wishes, and subjection to their commands.</p>
+
+<p>Nor ought the sufferings and sorrows, which must be produced by an
+exercise of the right to transport and colonize such only of their
+slaves as may be selected by the slaveholders, escape the attention and
+consideration of those whom with all humility we now address. Parents
+will be torn from their children&mdash;husbands from their wives&mdash;brothers
+from brothers&mdash;and all the heart-rending agonies which were endured by
+our forefathers when they were dragged into bondage from Africa, will be
+again renewed, and with increased anguish. The shores of America will,
+like the sands of Africa, be watered by the tears of those who will be
+left behind. Those who shall be carried away will roam childless,
+widowed, and alone, over the burning plains of Guinea.</p>
+
+<p>Disclaiming, as we emphatically do, a wish or desire to interpose our
+opinions and feelings between all plans of colonization, and the
+judgment of those whose wisdom as far exceeds ours as their situations
+are exalted above ours; <i>we humbly</i>, respect<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_13" id="pt2-Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>fully, and fervently
+intreat and beseech your disapprobation of the plan of colonization now
+offered by 'the American Society for colonizing the free people of color
+of the United States.'&mdash;Here, in the city of Philadelphia, where the
+voice of the suffering sons of Africa was first heard; where was first
+commenced the work of abolition, on which heaven has smiled, for it
+could have had success only from the Great Maker; let not a purpose be
+assisted which will stay the cause of the entire abolition of slavery in
+the United States, and which may defeat it altogether; which proffers to
+those who do not ask for them what it calls benefits, but which they
+consider injuries; and which must insure to the multitudes whose prayers
+can only reach you through us, <span class="smcap">MISERY</span>, <i>sufferings, and perpetual
+slavery</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>JAMES FORTEN</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Russell Parrott</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM NEW-YORK.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">New-York</span>, January, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At a public meeting of the colored citizens of New-York, held at Boyer
+Lodge Room, on Tuesday evening, the 25th ult. Mr Samuel Ennals was
+called to the chair, and Mr Philip Bell appointed secretary. The
+chairman stated that the object of the meeting was to take into
+consideration the proceedings of an association, under the title of the
+'New-York Colonization Society.' An address to the 'Citizens of
+New-York' relative to that Society, was read from the Commercial
+Advertiser of the 8th ult.; whereupon the following resolutions were
+unanimously adopted.</p>
+
+<p>Whereas a number of gentlemen in this city, of mistaken views with
+respect to the wishes and welfare of the people of this state, on the
+subject of African colonization, and in pursuance of such mistaken views
+are using every exertion to form 'African Colonization Societies;' and
+whereas a public document, purporting to be an address to the people of
+the 'city of New-York' on this subject, contains opinions and assertions
+regarding the people of color as unfounded as they are unjust and
+derogatory to them&mdash;Therefore</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That this meeting do most solemnly protest against the said
+address, as containing sentiments with respect to the people of color,
+unjust, illiberal and unfounded; tending to excite the prejudice of the
+community.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That in our opinion the sentiments put forth in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_14" id="pt2-Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+resolution at the formation of the 'Colonization Society of the city of
+New-York,' are such as to impress this community with the belief that
+the colored population are a growing evil, immoral, and destitute of
+religious principles.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we view the resolution calling on the worshippers of
+Christ to assist in the unholy crusade against the colored population of
+this country, as totally at variance with true Christian principles.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we claim <i>this country, the place of our birth, and not
+Africa</i>, as our mother country, and all attempts to send us to Africa we
+consider as gratuitous and uncalled for.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That a committee of three persons be appointed to draft an
+address to the people of New-York, and to be published, together with
+these resolutions, and the same be signed by the Chairman and Secretary.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>SAMUEL ENNALS</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Philip Bell</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>An Address to the Citizens of New-York.</i></h4>
+
+<p>In protesting against the sentiments and declarations to our prejudice
+with which the above noticed 'address' and 'resolutions' abound, we are
+well aware of the power and influence we have attempted to resist. The
+gentlemen named as officers of the 'Colonization Society' are men of
+high standing, their dictum is law in morals with our community; but we
+who feel the effect of their proscription, indulge the hope of an
+impartial hearing.</p>
+
+<p>We believe many of those gentlemen are our friends, and we hope they all
+mean well; we care not how many Colonization Societies they form to send
+slaves from the south to a place where they may enjoy freedom; and if
+they can 'drain the ocean with a bucket,' may send '<i>with their own
+consent</i>,' the increasing free colored population: but we solemnly
+protest against that Christian philanthropy which in acknowledging our
+wrongs commits a greater by vilifying us. The conscientious man would
+not kill the animal, but cried 'mad dog,' and the rabble despatched him.
+These gentlemen acknowledge the anomaly of those political ethics which
+make a distinction between man and man, when their foundation is, 'that
+all men are born equal,' and possess in common 'unalienable rights;' and
+to justify the withholding of these 'rights' would proclaim to
+foreigners that we are 'a distinct and inferior race,' without religion
+or morals, and implying that our condition cannot be improved here
+because there exists an unconquerable prejudice in the whites towards
+us. We absolutely deny these positions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_15" id="pt2-Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> and we call upon the learned
+author of the 'address' for the indications of distinction between us
+and other men. There are different <i>colors</i> among all species of
+animated creation. A difference of color is not a difference of species.
+Our structure and organization are the same, and not distinct from other
+men; and in what respects are we inferior? Our political condition we
+admit renders us less respectable, but does it prove us an inferior part
+of the human family? Inferior indeed we are as to the means which we
+possess of becoming wealthy and learned men; and it would argue well for
+the cause of justice, humanity and true religion, if the reverend
+gentlemen whose names are found at the bottom of President Duer's
+address, instead of showing their benevolence by laboring to move us
+some four thousand miles off, were to engage actively in the furtherance
+of plans for the improvement of our moral and political condition in the
+country of our birth. It is too late now to brand with inferiority any
+one of the races of mankind. We ask for proof. Time was when it was
+thought impossible to civilize the red man. Yet our own country presents
+a practical refutation of the vain assertion in the flourishing
+condition of the Cherokees, among whom intelligence and refinement are
+seen in somewhat fairer proportions than are exhibited by some of their
+white neighbors. In the language of a writer of expanded views and truly
+noble sentiments, 'the blacks must be regarded as the real authors of
+most of the arts and sciences which give the whites at present the
+advantage over them. While Greece and Rome were yet barbarous, we find
+the light of learning and improvement emanating from this, by
+supposition, degraded and accursed continent of Africa, out of the midst
+of this very woolly-haired, flat-nosed, thick lipped, and coal black
+race, which some persons are tempted to station at a pretty low
+intermediate point between men and monkeys.'<a name="FNanchor_AG_34" id="FNanchor_AG_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_AG_34" class="fnanchor">[AG]</a> It is needless to dwell
+on this topic; and we say with the same writer, the blacks had a long
+and glorious day: and after what they have been and done, it argues not
+so much a mistaken theory, as sheer ignorance of the most notorious
+historical facts, to pretend that they are naturally inferior to the
+whites.</p>
+
+<p>We earnestly desire that this address may not be misunderstood. We have
+no objection in the abstract to the Colonization Society; but we do
+protest against the means which that Society uses to effect its
+purposes. It is evident, to any impartial observer, that the natural
+tendency of all their speeches, reports, sermons, &amp;c. is to widen the
+breach between us and<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_16" id="pt2-Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> the whites, and give to prejudice a tenfold
+vigor. It has produced a mistaken sentiment toward us. Africa is
+considered the home of those who have never seen its shores. The poor
+ignorant slave, who, in all probability, has never heard the name of
+Christ, by the colonization process is suddenly transformed into a
+'missionary,' to instruct in the principles of Christianity and the arts
+of civilized life. The Friends have been the last to aid the system
+pursued by the Society's advocates. And we say (for we feel it) that in
+proportion as they become colonizationists, they become less active and
+less friendly to our welfare as citizens of the United States.</p>
+
+<p>There does exist in the United States a prejudice against us; but is it
+unconquerable? Is it not in the power of these gentlemen to subdue it?
+If their object is to benefit us, why not better our condition here?
+What keeps us down but the want of wealth? Why do we not accumulate
+wealth? Simply because we are not encouraged. If we wish to give our
+boys a classical education, they are refused admission into your
+colleges. If we consume our means in giving them a mercantile education,
+you will not employ them as clerks; if they are taught navigation, you
+will not employ them as captains. If we make them mechanics, you will
+not encourage them, nor will white mechanics work in the same shop with
+them. And with all these disabilities, like a mill-stone about us,
+because we cannot point to our statesmen, bankers and lawyers, we are
+called an inferior race. Look at the glaring injustice towards us. (A
+foreigner, before he knows one of our streets from another, mounts a
+cart under the license of another man, or is a public porter, a
+lamp-lighter, a watchman, &amp;c.)</p>
+
+<p>These gentlemen know but little of a large portion of the colored
+population of this city. Their opinions are formed from the unfortunate
+portion of our people whose characters are scrutinized by them as judges
+of courts. Their patrician principles prevent an intercourse with men in
+the middle walks of life, among whom a large portion of our people may
+be classed. We ask them to visit the dwellings of the respectable part
+of our people, and we are satisfied that they will discover more
+civilization and refinement than will be found among the same number of
+white families of an equal standing.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, we hope that those who have so eloquently pleaded the cause of
+the Indian, will at least endeavor to preserve consistency in their
+conduct. They put no faith in Georgia, although she declares that the
+Indians shall not be removed but '<i>with their own consent</i>.' Can they
+blame us if we attach the same credit to the declaration that they mean
+to colonize us<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_17" id="pt2-Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> 'only with our consent?' They cannot indeed use force;
+that is out of the question. But they harp so much on 'inferiority,'
+'prejudice,' 'distinction,' and what not, that there will no alternative
+be left us but to fall in with their plans. We are content to abide
+where we are. We do not believe that things will always continue the
+same. The time must come when the declaration of independence will be
+felt in the heart as well as uttered from the mouth, and when the rights
+of all shall be properly acknowledged and appreciated. God hasten that
+time. This is our home, and this our country. Beneath its sod lie the
+bones of our fathers: for it some of them fought, bled, and died. Here
+we were born, and here we will die.</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM BOSTON.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Boston</span>, March 12, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>Pursuant to public notice, a meeting was held by the colored citizens of
+Boston, February 15th, at their school-house, for the purpose of
+expressing their sentiments in a remonstrance against the doings of the
+State Colonization Society, Feb. 10th. It was called to order by Mr J.
+G. Barbadoes. Mr Robert Roberts was elected chairman, and Mr James G.
+Barbadoes secretary. A prayer was then offered up to the throne of
+grace, by the Rev. Mr Snowden. The chairman having explained the object
+of the meeting, sundry resolutions were offered by Mr Barbadoes, and
+fairly discussed. On motion, a committee of five was chosen to amend the
+resolutions, and to draft an address to certain white citizens who had
+formed a State Society auxiliary to the American Colonization Society,
+and to the enlightened public. John T. Hilton, James G. Barbadoes, Rev.
+Hosea Easton, Thomas Dalton and Thomas Cole were placed on the
+committee.</p>
+
+<p>The committee, to whom was referred the subject of an attempt, by
+certain white citizens, to establish in this State a Society auxiliary
+to the American Colonization Society, whose supposed object was the
+removal of the free colored population to western Africa, have with
+diligence sought for and obtained every fact within their reach,
+relative to what was enjoined upon them by the respectable body by whom
+they were delegated; and now respectfully</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Report:</span></p>
+
+<p>That they have attended to the duty with which they were charged, with
+all the wisdom, prudence and fidelity which they<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_18" id="pt2-Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> possessed, and which
+the merits of the case required. They therefore submit to the
+consideration of the meeting their several conclusions on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>The duty of your committee seemed to be divided into three general
+inquiries:&mdash;1st. To ascertain whether the Society above named was truly
+established in this metropolis. 2d. By whom it was established, and for
+what purpose. 3d. If established for the purpose entertained by the free
+colored population, what method should be adopted in regard to
+expressing their disapprobation thereto.</p>
+
+<p>As to the first inquiry, your committee can state, that every doubt is
+now removed respecting the formation of such a Society, the proceedings
+of the meeting being published, together with the names of the officers.</p>
+
+<p>On the second inquiry, your committee refer you to the 2d Article of the
+Constitution of said Society, (published in the Boston Courier of Feb.
+16, 1831,) which reads thus:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'The object to which this Society shall be exclusively devoted,
+shall be to aid the parent institution at Washington, in the
+colonization of the free people of color of the United States on
+the coast of Africa; and to do this not only by the contribution
+of money, but by the exertion of its influence to promote the
+formation of other societies.'</p></div>
+
+<p>We deem any explanation here unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p>In regard to the third and most essential inquiry, your committee
+report, that they know of no better way of expressing their
+disapprobation of such measures, than to use every exertion to persuade
+their brethren not to leave the United States upon any consideration
+whatever; but if there are or should be any exasperated in consequence
+of abuse from their white countrymen, and who are determined to leave
+the country, we think it desirable to recommend them to Hayti or Upper
+Canada, where they will find the laws equal. Your committee deem it
+expedient also to urge this duty upon the several ministers of color
+throughout the United States, and all other persons of color whose
+influence may have any bearing in preventing their brethren from
+yielding to a request so unjust and cruel.</p>
+
+<p>And if your respectable body should not think your committee were going
+beyond the bounds of their duty, they would recommend the clerical order
+throughout the United States, who have had or who are having any thing
+to do with the deceptive scheme above alluded to, to read the 13th
+chapter of Ezekiel. Read it&mdash;read it&mdash;and understand it. Your committee
+would recommend those clergymen, who have not defiled their garment with
+the blood of the innocent, to read the 1st, 2nd, 11th and 12th verses of
+the 24th chapter of Proverbs.</p>
+
+<p>In support of the sentiments thus expressed, it becomes<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_19" id="pt2-Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> necessary that
+our reasons should accompany them, why we object to the plan of dragging
+us to Africa&mdash;a country to us unknown, except by geography. In the first
+place, we are told that Africa is our native country; consequently the
+climate will be more congenial to our health. We readily deny the
+assertion. How can a man be born in two countries at the same time? Is
+not the position superficial to suppose that American born citizens are
+Africans? In regard to the climate, what better proof do we want of its
+salubrity, than to know that of the numerous bodies who have embarked, a
+large portion of them have immediately fallen victims, on their arrival,
+to the pestilence usual to that place?</p>
+
+<p>It is again said, that the establishment of a colony on the coast of
+Africa will prevent the slave trade. We might as well argue, that a
+watchman in the city of Boston would prevent thievery in New-York, or
+any other place; or that the custom-house officers there would prevent
+goods being smuggled into any other port of the United States.</p>
+
+<p>We are aware, that such an unnecessary expense devoted to the
+application of a remedy so far from the disease, is absolutely contrary
+to common sense. We are sensible that the moral disease, <i>slavery</i>, is
+in America, and not in Africa. If there was no market for the vending of
+slaves, there would be no inducement for the thief to steal them. The
+remedy for this evil, we humbly conceive, consists of three general
+prescriptions, viz. 1st. Let him who stealeth obey the word of God, and
+steal no more. 2d. Let him who hath encouraged the thief by purchase,
+(and consequently is a partaker with him,) do so no more. 3rd. Let the
+clerical physicians, who have encouraged, and are encouraging, both the
+thief and the receiver, by urging their influence to the removal of the
+means of their detection, desist therefrom, and with their mighty weight
+of influence step into the scale of justice: then will be done away this
+horrible traffic in blood.</p>
+
+<p>From the above considerations, we sincerely recommend to our white
+countrymen honor and humanity, which will render useless the
+transportation of the colored population to the coast of Africa, it
+being altogether gratuitous and uncalled for.</p>
+
+<p>We proceed to offer several objections to the operation alluded to&mdash;one
+is, the circumstance of the project originating with those who were
+deeply interested in slavery, and who hold slaves as their property. We
+consider the fact no evidence of the innocence of its design. We further
+object, because its members admit slavery to be an evil, and use no
+means to destroy it; but are exerting all their influence to urge every
+free<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_20" id="pt2-Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> person of color to Africa, (whose right to this soil holds good
+with any other citizen,) thereby rivetting the chains of slavery
+stronger than ever upon their oppressed brethren.</p>
+
+<p>Again we object, because the whole spring of action seems to originate
+in the fear lest the free colored people may whisper liberty in the ears
+of the oppressed. We would suggest, however, that they who are fond of
+liberty should not be annoyed at its sound, from whatever source it may
+come.</p>
+
+<p>Again we object, on the ground of there being sufficient land in the
+United States, on which a colony might be established that would better
+meet the wishes of the colored people, and at a much cheaper rate than
+could possibly be done by sending them to a howling wilderness far away,
+and to them unknown.</p>
+
+<p>One of the leaders of the newly formed Society argued that in case a
+colony was formed for the blacks in the United States, they would in a
+short time be removed, as has been the case with the poor Indians. To
+obviate this objection, we here inform him that Hayti will hold all the
+slaves he will send her; and as for the free people, we expect they can
+go where they please, either to Africa, Hayti or Upper Canada, or remain
+at home, without asking the consent of a slaveholding party. Nor can we
+conceive why free citizens, acting this liberty, should interfere with
+them, if they are&mdash;as they have represented themselves to be&mdash;honest and
+benevolent men. We conceive that the question in view stands in two
+distinct points&mdash;the removal of the free colored population from this
+country, or the acknowledgment of them as citizens. The former position
+must be acknowledged, on all sides, a means of perpetuating slavery in
+our land; the latter, of abolishing it; consequently it may be seen who
+are for the well-being of their country.</p>
+
+<p>We regret that our interest has thus drawn us before the public, on
+account of the regard we entertain towards many of our warmest friends
+who have been deceived by a cloak of philanthropy, smooth words, and a
+sanctified appearance. We remind them, however, that the blood of Abel
+is beginning to be heard by many who are willing to acknowledge that
+they hear it.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot close our duty without gratefully acknowledging the respect we
+entertain for those who have defended our cause with more than Spartan
+courage. It is the opinion of your committee, that they are to be
+respected as our countrymen, our brethren, and our fellow citizens&mdash;not
+to say they are to be applauded as men, whose great acts are based upon
+the acclamation of their fellow men; but rather let us hold up their
+hands, and let their works praise them. We shall only add an expression
+of our hopes, that the Spirit of Liberty, recently<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_21" id="pt2-Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> awakened in the old
+world, may redouble its thundering voice, until every tyrant is seized
+with a Belshazzar tremble at the hand-writing upon the wall of his
+corrupt palace.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the above, your committee submit the following
+resolutions for your acceptance.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That this meeting contemplate, with lively interest, the rapid
+progress of the sentiments of liberty among our degraded brethren, and
+that we will legally oppose every operation that may have a tendency to
+perpetuate our present political condition.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That this meeting look upon the American Colonization Society
+as a clamorous, abusive and peace-disturbing combination.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That this meeting look upon the conduct of those clergymen,
+who have filled the ears of their respective congregations with the
+absurd idea of the necessity of removing the free colored people from
+the United States, as highly deserving the just reprehension directed to
+the false prophets and priests, by Jeremiah the true prophet, as
+recorded in the 23d chapter of his prophecy.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That this meeting appeal to a generous and enlightened public
+for an impartial hearing relative to the subject of our present
+political condition.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the gratitude of this meeting, which is so sensibly felt,
+be fully expressed to those editors whose independence of mind and
+correct views of the rights of man have led them so fearlessly to speak
+in favor of our cause; that we rejoice to behold in them such a strong
+desire to extend towards us the inestimable blessing in the gift of a
+wise Providence which is demanded by all nature, and for which their
+veteran fathers struggled in the revolution.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>ROBERT ROBERTS</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">James G. Barbadoes</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM BALTIMORE.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Baltimore</span>, March 21, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At a respectable meeting of persons of color, convened, pursuant to
+public notice, for the purpose of expressing their sentiments in regard
+to the pretensions of the American Colonization Society, William
+Douglass was called to the chair, and William Watkins appointed
+secretary. The object of the call having been explicitly stated, the
+meeting immediately proceeded to the consideration of the following
+resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:&mdash;On motion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_22" id="pt2-Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That it is the belief of this meeting, that the American
+Colonization Society is founded more in a selfish policy, than in the
+true principles of benevolence;&mdash;and, therefore, so far as it regards
+the life-giving spring of its operations, is not entitled to our
+confidence, but should be viewed by us with all that caution and
+distrust which our happiness demands.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we are not insensible to the means usually employed by
+that Society, and its auxiliaries, to effectuate our removal&mdash;that we
+sincerely deprecate their gratuitous and illiberal attacks upon, and
+their too frequently exaggerated statements of our moral standing in the
+community&mdash;that such means are unworthy of a magnanimous people, and of
+a virtuous and noble cause.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we consider the land in which we were born, and in which
+we have been bred, our only '<i>true and appropriate home</i>,'&mdash;and that
+when <i>we</i> desire to remove, we will apprise the public of the same, in
+due season.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we are deeply sensible that many of our warm and sincere
+friends have espoused the colonization system, from the purest
+motives,&mdash;and that we sincerely regret their efforts to ameliorate our
+condition are not more in accordance with our wishes.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be published in the daily
+papers of this city, signed by the Chairman and Secretary.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>WILLIAM DOUGLASS</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">William Watkins</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM WASHINGTON.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, May 4, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>Pursuant to previous notice, a large and very respectable meeting of the
+colored citizens of Washington, D. C., convened at the African Methodist
+Episcopal church on Wednesday evening last, for the purpose of
+expressing their views upon the subject of African colonization. Mr John
+W. Prout was called to the chair, and Arthur Waring was appointed
+secretary.</p>
+
+<p>The chairman briefly explained the object of the meeting, in a short
+speech well adapted to the occasion, which was followed by several neat
+and very appropriate addresses delivered by sundry gentlemen present.</p>
+
+<p>The following preamble and resolutions were offered and adopted, nearly
+unanimously.</p>
+
+<p>Whereas we consider that the period has arrived for the colored citizens
+of this place to express their opinion upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_23" id="pt2-Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> subject of colonization
+in Liberia; a subject of great importance to themselves, as well as to
+the colored citizens of the United States generally; and whereas our
+brethren at a distance are desirous of obtaining information relative to
+the object and policy pursued by the American Colonization Society:
+Therefore, be it</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That this meeting view with distrust the efforts made by the
+Colonization Society to cause the free people of color of these United
+States to emigrate to Liberia on the coast of Africa, or elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That it is the declared opinion of the members of this
+meeting, that the soil which gave them birth is their only <i>true and
+veritable home</i>, and that it would be impolitic, unwise and improper for
+them to leave their home without the benefits of education.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That this meeting conceive that among the advocates of the
+colonization system, they have many true and sincere friends; and do
+regret that their actions, although prompted no doubt by the purest
+motives, do not meet our approbation.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we believe the <span class="smcap">PRESS</span> to be the most efficient means of
+disseminating light and knowledge among our brethren; and that this
+meeting do acknowledge with gratitude the efforts made in our behalf, by
+the editors of the Genius of Universal Emancipation, and the
+Liberator;&mdash;and do most earnestly recommend their respective papers to
+our brethren generally, for their approval and support.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the foregoing resolutions be signed by the Chairman and
+Secretary, and published.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>JOHN W. PROUT</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Arthur Waring</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM BROOKLYN.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Brooklyn</span>, (N. Y.) June 3, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At a numerous and respectable meeting of the colored inhabitants of the
+village and township of Brooklyn, convened in the African Hall,
+Nassau-street, for the purpose of taking into consideration our views in
+relation to the Colonization Society&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The throne of grace was addressed by the Rev. Mr Hogarth, after which
+Henry C. Thompson was called to the chair, and George Hogarth appointed
+secretary.</p>
+
+<p>Appropriate addresses were delivered by Messrs George Hogarth, James
+Pennington, and George Woods. The following resolutions were then
+adopted:<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_24" id="pt2-Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, unanimously, That the call of this meeting be approved of; and
+that the colored citizens of this village have, with friendly feelings,
+taken into consideration the objects of the American Colonization
+Society, together with all its auxiliary movements, preparatory for our
+removal to the coast of Africa; and we view them as wholly gratuitous,
+not called for by us, and not essential to the real welfare of our race:
+That we know of no other country in which we can justly claim or demand
+our rights as citizens, whether civil or political, but in these United
+States of America, our native soil: And, that we shall be active in our
+endeavors to convince the members of the Colonization Society, and the
+public generally, that we are <i>men</i>, that we are <i>brethren</i>, that we are
+<i>countrymen</i> and <i>fellow-citizens</i>, and demand an equal share of
+protection from our federal government with any other class of citizens
+in the community.</p>
+
+<p>It was also Resolved, That the following persons, viz.: James
+Pennington, Henry C. Thompson, and George Woods, be appointed a
+committee to draft an address to the public, expressing our views more
+fully in relation to the Colonization Society; and that a delegate be
+appointed to proceed to the city of Philadelphia, to represent us in the
+ensuing convention, (which will commence its sitting the 6th inst.) to
+co-operate with the measures that may then be adopted for the general
+welfare of our race.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>HENRY C. THOMPSON</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">George Hogarth</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Address to the Colored Citizens of Brooklyn, (N. Y.) and its Vicinity.</i></h4>
+
+<p>Respected brethren, and fellow-citizens:&mdash;As men and as christians,
+whose secular and eternal interests are the same, we are seriously
+called upon by truth and reason, and every thing of which human action
+is composed, to take into consideration the objects of the American
+Colonization Society; which aims to remove us, the free people of color,
+from this, our beloved and native land, to the coast of Africa; a
+country unknown to us in every respect.</p>
+
+<p>As they propose to remove us with our own free will and consent, we do
+not contradict the assertion, that their objects, in the abstract, are
+salutary and benevolent; but when we hear those influential gentlemen,
+who are advocating this cause, generalize by language directly
+calculated to increase that prejudice, which is already one grand reason
+of our wretchedness, we are moved by a spirit of reliance upon justice
+and humanity, to lift our positive and decided voice against their
+proceed<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_25" id="pt2-Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>ings; and consider them as a stigma upon our morals as a people,
+as natives and citizens of this country, to whom equal rights are
+guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence.</p>
+
+<p>When we consider that by abridging men in their moral liberty, we touch
+their responsibility to the highest authority in the universe, we should
+shudder at the thought of retaining such feelings as would lead to any
+irreligious or impolitic acts; nor should we be willing to yield one
+particle of ours to others, unless it be on the ground of expediency,
+and in some way conducive to the glory of God.</p>
+
+<p>We are sorry to say that those gentlemen have injured their cause, and
+perhaps caused much good to be evil spoken of, by making use of improper
+language, in their discussions upon our character and condition in this
+country; without using one effort to improve or prepare us for the posts
+of honor and distinction which they hold forth to us, whenever we set
+foot on this much talked of, and long expected promised land. We would
+ask the Colonization Society, what are they doing at home to improve our
+condition? It is a true proverb, that 'charity begins at home.' How can
+they extend their charities with christian sympathies and feeling some
+thousand miles across the Atlantic ocean, when they are not willing,
+with a few exceptions, to give us even a christian instruction while
+among them? To prove the assertion, we would inquire, how many of our
+sable brethren have been elevated to any post of distinction in this
+country? Even in states, where our numbers have almost doubled, have we
+seen one statesman, one officer, or one juror? No! in our village and
+its vicinity, how many of us have been educated in colleges, and
+advanced into different branches of business; or taken into mercantile
+houses, manufacturing establishments, &amp;c.? Are we not even prohibited
+from some of the common labor and drudgery of the streets, such as
+cartmen, porters, &amp;c.? It is a strange theory to us, how these gentlemen
+can promise to honor and respect us in Africa, when they are using every
+effort to exclude us from all rights and privileges at home.</p>
+
+<p>They say, 'that those of our friends, who look for the day when we shall
+have equal rights in this country, are mistaken.' May we not accept it
+as an assurance, that they will do all they can to prevent us from
+arriving to any degree of respectability at home, in our own land? Away
+then with such false sympathies and friendships! they are as foreign to
+us as the coast of Africa!</p>
+
+<p>We truly believe, that many gentlemen who are engaged in the
+Colonization Society are our sincere friends and well-wish<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_26" id="pt2-Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>ers; they
+wish to do something for us, consequently they have subscribed largely
+to it, because there was no other plan on foot. Some of them have been
+deluded into its schemes, with a view of thoroughly civilizing and
+christianizing Africa, by our free people of color and emancipated
+slaves, who may, from time to time, be colonized on its coasts, with
+their consent. We conceive that such measures are fraught with
+inconsistency, and in no way calculated to have such an effect. To send
+a parcel of uninstructed, uncivilized, and unchristianized people, to
+the western coast of Africa, with bibles in their hands to teach the
+natives the truths of the gospel, social happiness, and moral virtue, is
+mockery and ridicule in the extreme.</p>
+
+<p>Missionary families should be well instructed in the rudiments of our
+holy religion, that their example may shine forth as lights in that much
+neglected and benighted land. We are much in favor of christianizing
+Africa; but not according to the plans of the Colonization Society, to
+purchase their lands of them, with a few paltry guns, beads, &amp;c., and
+then establish forts and garrisons, to protect traders and traffickers,
+without, perhaps, once naming the religion of Jesus to them. We well
+know that the examples of traders and traffickers are in no way
+calculated to induce heathens to embrace our religion. For example, we
+will refer to the early settlements of our American colonies, and
+inquire what religious impressions did the settlers make (who were wise
+and learned from Europe) upon the aborigines of our country? We believe
+that a few men, well instructed and possessing a true missionary spirit,
+are calculated to do more good in that country, than a thousand on the
+colonization plan.</p>
+
+<p>Many wish us to go to Africa, because they say that our constitutions
+are better adapted to that climate than this. If so, we would ask why so
+many of our hearty, hale and healthy brethren, on arriving in that
+country, fall victims to the malignant fevers and disorders, prevalent
+in those regions? We would observe, that none are exempt from being
+touched with the contagion. It operates more severely upon those from
+the higher latitudes.</p>
+
+<p>Some of our brethren have come to the conclusion to leave this country,
+with all its prejudices, and seek an asylum in foreign climes. We would
+recommend to your serious consideration, the location in Upper Canada; a
+place far better adapted to our constitutions, our habits, and our
+morals; where prejudice has not such an unlimited sway; where you will
+be surrounded by Christians, and have an opportunity to become civilized
+and christianized.</p>
+
+<p>Brethren, it is time for us to awake to our interests; for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_27" id="pt2-Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+Colonization Society is straining every nerve for the accomplishment of
+its objects. By their last publications we see, that they have invoked
+all Christian assemblies and churches throughout the Union, to exert
+their influence, by raising subscriptions to send us (the strangers
+within their gates, as they call us) to the coast of Africa. They have
+got the consent of eleven states, who have instructed their senators to
+do something in the next Congress for our removal. Maryland calls
+imperatively on the general government to send us away, or else they
+will colonize their own free blacks. They have, by their influence,
+stopped the emancipation of slaves in a measure, except for colonization
+purposes.</p>
+
+<p>We owe a tribute of respect to the state of New-York, for her not having
+entered into the confederacy. Though she is the last in proclaiming
+general emancipation to the slave, yet we find her slow in adopting any
+such unchristian measures. We may well say, she is deliberate in her
+councils, and determinate in her resolutions.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, brethren, we are not strangers; neither do we come under the
+alien law. Our constitution does not call upon us to become naturalized;
+we are already American citizens; our fathers were among the first that
+peopled this country; their sweat and their tears have been the means,
+in a measure, of raising our country to its present standing. Many of
+them fought, and bled, and died for the gaining of her liberties; and
+shall we forsake their tombs, and flee to an unknown land? No! let us
+remain over them and weep, until the day arrive when Ethiopia shall
+stretch forth her hands to God. We were born and nurtured in this
+Christian land; and are surrounded by christians, whose sacred creed is,
+to do unto all men as ye would they should do unto you&mdash;to love our
+neighbors as ourselves; and which expressly declares, if we have respect
+to persons, we commit sin. Let us, brethren, invoke the christian's God,
+in our behalf, to do away the prejudices of our brethren, that they may
+adopt the solemn truths of the gospel, and acknowledge that God is no
+respecter of persons&mdash;that he has made of one blood all the nations that
+dwell on the face of the earth&mdash;that they may no longer bring their
+reasonings in contact with the omniscience of Deity; and insinuate to
+the public, that our intellect and faculties are measurably inferior to
+those of our fairer brethren. Because adversity has thrown a veil over
+us, and we, whom God has created to worship, admire and adore his divine
+attributes, shall we be held in a state of wretchedness and degradation,
+with monkeys, baboons, slaves, and cattle, because we possess a darker
+hue?<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_28" id="pt2-Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We feel it our duty ever to remain true to the constitution of our
+country, and to protect it, as we have always done, from foreign
+aggressions. Although more than three hundred thousand of us are
+virtually deprived of the rights and immunities of citizens, and more
+than two millions held in abject slavery, yet we know that God is just,
+and ever true to his purpose. Before him the whole world stands in awe,
+and at his command nations must obey. <span class="smcap">He</span> who has lately pleaded the
+Indian's cause in our land, and who has brought about many signal
+events, to the astonishment of our generation, we believe is in the
+whirlwind, and will soon bring about the time when the sable sons of
+America will join with their fairer brethren, and re-echo liberty and
+equal rights in all parts of Columbia's soil.</p>
+
+<p>We pray the Lord to hasten the day, when prejudice, inferiority,
+degradation and oppression shall be done away, and the kingdoms of this
+world become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ.</p>
+
+<p>Signed in behalf of a public meeting in Brooklyn.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>H. C. THOMPSON</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">George Hogarth</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM HARTFORD.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Hartford</span>, Ct., July 14, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At a large and respectable meeting of the colored inhabitants of the
+city of Hartford and its vicinity, convened at the vestry room of the
+African church, on the 13th inst. for the purpose of expressing their
+views in relation to the American Colonization Society, Mr Henry Foster
+was called to the chair, and Mr Paul Drayton appointed secretary. The
+object of the meeting was then stated in a brief and pertinent manner,
+after which extracts from several speeches delivered by the founders of
+the colonization scheme, together with the general sentiments of
+colonizationists extracted from the African Repository, were laid before
+the meeting, and the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That it is the opinion of this meeting, that the American
+Colonization Society is actuated by the same motives which influenced
+the mind of Pharaoh, when he ordered the male children of the Israelites
+to be destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That it is the belief of this meeting, that the Society is the
+greatest foe to the free colored and slave population with whom liberty
+and equality have to contend.<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_29" id="pt2-Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we look upon the man of color that would be influenced by
+the Society to emigrate to Liberia, as an enemy to the cause and a
+traitor to his brethren.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That it is the opinion of this meeting, that many of those who
+are engaged in this unjust scheme would be willing, if it were, in their
+power, to place us before the point of the bayonet, and drive us out of
+existence&mdash;so that they may get rid of that dark cloud, as we are
+termed, which hangs over these United States.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That, in our belief, we have committed no crime worthy of
+banishment, and that we will resist all the attempts of the Colonization
+Society to banish us from this our native land.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we consider ourselves the legitimate sons of these United
+States, from whence we will never consent to be transported.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will resist, even unto death, all the attempts of this
+Society to transport us to the pestilential shores of Liberia.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will not countenance the doctrine of any pretended
+minister of the gospel, who is in league with those conspirators against
+our rights. We would, therefore, warn them to beware of following the
+footsteps of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block in the
+way of the children of Israel; for we verily believe, that if God
+almighty have to deliver his people by his mighty arm of power, they
+will share the fate of that false prophet.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That, though we be last in calling a meeting, we feel no less
+the pernicious influence of this Society than the rest of our brethren;
+and that we consider all their pretexts, whether under the cloak of
+religion or philanthropy, gratuitous and uncalled for. We would,
+therefore, advise the Society, that as we have learned that there are
+one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in its funds, it had better
+appropriate this sum in meliorating the condition of our brethren the
+slaves, in this their native land, and raising them from that
+degradation into which they are plunged.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the thanks of the meeting be returned to Messrs William
+Lloyd Garrison, Isaac Knapp, and every friend of emancipation, for their
+benevolent exertions in our behalf.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to the Liberator for publication.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>HENRY FOSTER</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Paul Drayton,</span> Secretary.<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_30" id="pt2-Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM MIDDLETOWN.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Middletown</span>, Ct., July 15, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At a meeting of the colored citizens of Middletown, pursuant to public
+notice, held in the Lecture Room in the African church&mdash;Mr Joseph
+Gilbert was called to the chair, and Amos L. Beman appointed secretary.
+The meeting being thus opened, it was warmly and freely addressed by
+Messrs Jeffrey, Condoll and Gilbert, when, on motion, it was</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the proceedings of our brethren in Brooklyn, N. Y., meet
+our entire approbation: they breathe our sentiments in full, and may our
+voices cheerfully accord with them in protesting against leaving this
+our native soil. Why should we leave this land, so dearly bought by the
+blood, groans and tears of our fathers? Truly this is our home: here let
+us live, and here let us die. What! emigrate to Liberia, a land so
+detrimental to our health! We have now before us a letter written by a
+friend who emigrated from this place to the burning shores of Africa, in
+hopes of splendor, wealth and ease; and he says that 'sickness and
+distress prevail to a great extent&mdash;and it is a clear case that those
+who come from the United States must undergo a long and protracted
+sickness with this country's fever, and I would not advise my friends to
+emigrate.'</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>JOSEPH GILBERT</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Amos G. Beman</span>, Secretary</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM NEW-HAVEN.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">New-Haven</span>, August 8, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At a meeting of the Peace and Benevolent Society of Afric-Americans,
+held on the 7th inst., Mr Henry Berrian was called to the chair, and Mr
+Henry N. Merriman was appointed secretary. The following resolutions
+were then unanimously adopted.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we consider those christians and philanthropists, who are
+boasting of their liberty and equality, saying, that all men are born
+free and equal, and yet are endeavoring to remove us from our native
+land, to be inhuman in their proceedings, defective in their principles,
+and unworthy of our confidence.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we consider those colonizationists and ministers of the
+gospel, who are advocating our transportation to an unknown clime,
+because our skin is a little darker than theirs, (notwithstanding God
+has made of one blood all nations of men,<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_31" id="pt2-Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> and has no respect of
+persons,) as violaters of the commandments of God and the laws of the
+bible, and as trying to blind our eyes by their vain movements&mdash;their
+mouths being smooth as oil, and their words sharper than any two-edged
+sword.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That, while we have no doubt of the sinister motives of the
+great body of colonizationists, we believe some of them are our friends
+and well-wishers, who have not looked deeply into the subject; but when
+they make a careful examination, we think they will find themselves in
+error.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That it is our earnest desire that Africa may speedily become
+civilized, and receive religious instruction; but not by the absurd and
+invidious plan of the Colonization Society&mdash;namely, to send a nation of
+ignorant men to teach a nation of ignorant men. We think it most wise
+for them to send missionaries.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will resist all attempts made for our removal to the
+torrid shores of Africa, and will sooner suffer every drop of blood to
+be taken from our veins than submit to such unrighteous treatment.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we know of no other place that we can call our true and
+appropriate home, excepting these United States, into which our fathers
+were brought, who enriched the country by their toils, and fought, bled
+and died in its defence, and left us in its possession&mdash;and here we will
+live and die.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we consider the American Colonization Society founded on
+principles that no Afric-American, unless very weak in mind, will
+follow; and any man who will be persuaded to leave his own country and
+go to Africa, as an enemy to his country and a traitor to his brethren.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we have heard with pleasure of the proceedings of our
+brethren in neighboring cities; and that a number of this Society will
+willingly become auxiliary to the parent Society of Philadelphia, for
+the mutual benefit of the Afric-Americans throughout the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to the Liberator for publication.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>HENRY BERRIAN</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Henry N. Merriman</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM COLUMBIA.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Columbia</span>, Pa., August 5, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At a respectable meeting of Afric-Americans convened pursuant to public
+notice, at their school-house, with a view of<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_32" id="pt2-Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> taking into consideration
+the novel scheme of the American Colonization Society, Mr Stephen Smith
+was called to the chair, and Mr James Richards appointed secretary. A
+prayer was then offered to the throne of grace, by Mr Smith. The
+chairman called the house to order, and explained the object of the
+meeting in a few preliminary remarks; after which, the meeting proceeded
+to business, and adopted the subsequent resolutions.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we view the country in which we live as our only true and
+appropriate home; and let colonizationists pour contempt upon our race,
+and slaveholders look on our brethren as a nuisance to the country, yet
+here will we live, here were we born, this is the country for which some
+of our ancestors fought and bled and conquered, nor shall a conspiring
+world be able to drive us hence.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That it is our firm belief, that the Colonization Society is
+replete with infinite mischief, and that we view all the arguments of
+its advocates as mere sophistry, not worthy our notice as freemen. Being
+citizens of these United States, we could call upon our brethren to
+awake from their slumber of ignorance, break the chain of prejudice that
+has so long bound them, and in the strength of the omnipotent Spirit
+give their hearts to God.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will resist all attempts to send us to the burning
+shores of Africa. Beware of Alexander, the coppersmith, for he hath
+done us much harm. May the Lord reward him! We verily believe that if by
+an extraordinary perversion of nature, every man and woman, in one
+night, should become white, the Colonization Society would fall like
+lightning to the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will not be duped out of our rights as freemen, by
+colonizationists, nor by any other combination of men. All the encomiums
+pronounced upon Liberia can never form the least temptation to induce us
+to leave our native soil, to emigrate to a strange land.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we readily coalesce with our brethren in the different
+towns and cities, and take the liberty to say, that we as a little flock
+feel a fixed resolution to maintain our ground, till the great Author of
+our being shall say to those who deprive us of our rights,&mdash;Thus saith
+the Lord, because ye have not hearkened to me in proclaiming liberty,
+every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor, behold I will
+proclaim liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the
+pestilence, and to the famine.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That it is the decided opinion of this meeting, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_33" id="pt2-Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> African
+colonization is a scheme of southern policy, a wicked device of
+slaveholders who are desirous of riveting more firmly, and perpetuating
+more certainly, the fetters of slavery; who are only anxious to rid
+themselves of a population whose presence, influence and example have a
+tendency (as they suppose) to produce discontent among the slaves, and
+to furnish them with incitements to rebellion.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That this meeting will not encourage a scheme, which has for
+its basis prejudice and hatred. Though there may be some good wheat, yet
+it is to be feared the enemy has sown tares among it.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will support the colony at Canada, the climate being
+healthier, better adapted to our constitutions, and far more consonant
+with our views than that of Africa.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we unanimously agree to patronize the Liberator, and use
+our best endeavors to get subscribers for the same; and that we are
+under renewed obligations to God, that he ever raised up such honest
+hearted men as Messrs Garrison and Knapp.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That this meeting cause its proceedings to be sent to the
+Liberator for publication; praying that the Lord will succeed all the
+lawful efforts of its conductor to meliorate the condition of our
+brethren in these United States, trusting his weapons are not carnal,
+but mighty through God to pull down the strong holds of the devil.</p>
+
+<p>Signed by the Chairman and Secretary.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>STEPHEN SMITH</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">James Richards</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM NANTUCKET.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Nantucket</span>, August 5, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At a respectable meeting of the colored inhabitants of the town of
+Nantucket, convened for the purpose of taking into consideration our
+views in relation to the American Colonization Society, Mr Arthur Cooper
+was called to the chair, and Edward J. Pompey appointed secretary.</p>
+
+<p>Addresses were delivered by Messrs William Harris and Edward J. Pompey,
+in which they took a general view of the Colonization Society, of its
+leading members, and some of the speeches and remarks made by gentlemen
+at the meetings of said Society. The following resolves were then
+adopted:</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the call of this meeting be approved of, and that the
+colored citizens of this town have with friendly feel<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_34" id="pt2-Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>ings taken into
+consideration the objects of the Colonization Society, together with its
+movements preparatory for our removal to the coast of Africa; and we
+view them as wholly gratuitous, not called for by us, and in no way
+essential to the welfare of our race; and we believe that our condition
+can be best improved in this our own country and native soil, the United
+States of America.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we hold this truth to be self-evident, that all men are
+born free and equal; and we are men, and therefore ought to share as
+much protection and enjoy as many privileges under our federal
+government as any other class of the community.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will be zealous in doing all that lies in our power to
+improve the condition of ourselves and brethren in this our native land.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That there is no philanthropy towards the people of color in
+the colonization plan, but that it is got up to delude us away from our
+country and home into a country of sickness and death.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be returned to every friend
+who vindicates our rights and interests.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to Boston, to be published in the Liberator.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>ARTHUR COOPER</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Edward J. Pompey</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM PITTSBURGH.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Pittsburgh</span>, (Pa.,) Sept. 1, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At a large and respectable meeting of the colored citizens of
+Pittsburgh, convened at the African Methodist Episcopal church, for the
+purpose of expressing their views in relation to the American
+Colonization Society, Mr J. B. Vashon was called to the chair, and Mr R.
+Bryan appointed secretary. The object of the meeting was then stated at
+considerable length, and in an appropriate manner, by the chairman. The
+following resolutions were then unanimously adopted:</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That 'we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men
+are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
+rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
+happiness'&mdash;Liberty and Equality now, Liberty and Equality forever!<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_35" id="pt2-Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That it is the decided opinion of this meeting, that African
+colonization is a scheme to drain the better informed part of the
+colored people out of these United States, so that the chain of slavery
+may be rivetted more tightly; but we are determined not to be cheated
+out of our rights by the colonization men, or any other set of
+intriguers. We believe there is no philanthropy in the colonization plan
+towards the people of color, but that it is got up to delude us away
+from our country and home to the burning shores of Africa.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we, the colored people of Pittsburgh and citizens of
+these United States, view the country in which we live as our only true
+and proper home. We are just as much natives here as the members of the
+Colonization Society. Here we were born&mdash;here bred&mdash;here are our
+earliest and most pleasant associations&mdash;here is all that binds man to
+earth, and makes life valuable. And we do consider every colored man who
+allows himself to be colonized in Africa, or elsewhere, a traitor to our
+cause.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we are freemen, that we are brethren, that we are
+countrymen and fellow-citizens, and as fully entitled to the free
+exercise of the elective franchise as any men who breathe; and that we
+demand an equal share of protection from our federal government with any
+class of citizens in the community. We now inform the Colonization
+Society, that should our reason forsake us, then we may desire to
+remove. We will apprise them of this change in due season.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we, as citizens of these United States, and for the
+support of these resolutions, with a firm reliance on the protection of
+divine providence, do mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
+fortunes, and our sacred honor, not to support a colony in Africa nor in
+Upper Canada, not yet emigrate to Hayti. Here we were born&mdash;here will we
+live by the help of the Almighty&mdash;and here we will die, and let our
+bones lie with our fathers.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we return our grateful thanks to Messrs Garrison and
+Knapp, publishers of the Liberator, and Mr Lundy, editor of the Genius
+of Universal Emancipation, for their untiring exertions in the cause of
+philanthropy.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and published in the Liberator.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>J. B. VASHON</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">R. Bryan</span>, Secretary.<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_36" id="pt2-Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM WILMINGTON.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Wilmington</span>, July 12, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At a large and respectable meeting of the people of color of the borough
+of Wilmington, convened in the African Union Church, July 12th, 1831,
+for the purpose of considering the subject of colonization on the coast
+of Africa:</p>
+
+<p>On motion, the Rev. Peter Spencer was called to the chair, and Thomas
+Dorsey appointed secretary.</p>
+
+<p>The meeting was addressed by Abraham D. Shad, Junius C. Morell, Benjamin
+Pascal and John P. Thompson, after which the following resolutions were
+unanimously adopted.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That this meeting view with deep regret the attempt now making
+to colonize the free people of color on the western coast of Africa;
+believing as we do that it is inimical to the best interests of the
+people of color, and at variance with the principles of civil and
+religious liberty, and wholly incompatible with the spirit of the
+Constitution and Declaration of Independence of these United States.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we disclaim all connexion with Africa; and although the
+descendants of that much afflicted country, we cannot consent to remove
+to any tropical climate, and thus aid in a design having for its object
+the total extirpation of our race from this country, professions to the
+contrary notwithstanding.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That a committee of three persons be appointed to prepare as
+soon as practicable an address to the public, setting forth more fully
+our views on the subject of colonization. The following persons were
+appointed: Abraham D. Shad, Rev. Peter Spencer and W. S. Thomas.</p>
+
+<p>Signed on behalf of the meeting.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>PETER SPENCER</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Thomas Dorsey</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Address of the Free People of Color of the Borough of Wilmington,
+Delaware.</i></h4>
+
+<p>We the undersigned, in conformity to the wishes of our brethren, beg
+leave to present to the public in a calm and unprejudiced manner, our
+decided and unequivocal disapprobation of the American Colonization
+Society, and its auxiliaries, in relation to the free people of color in
+the United States. Convinced as we are, that the operations of this
+Society have been unchristian and anti-republican in principle, and at
+variance with our best interests as a people, we had reason to believe
+that the precepts of religion, the dictates of justice and humanity,
+would<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_37" id="pt2-Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> have prevented any considerable portion of the community from
+lending their aid to a plan which we fear was designed to deprive us of
+rights that the Declaration of Independence declares are the
+'unalienable rights' of all men. We were content to remain silent,
+believing that the justice and patriotism of a magnanimous people would
+prevent the annals of our native and beloved country from receiving so
+deep a stain. But observing the growing strength and influence of that
+institution, and being well aware that the generality of the public are
+unacquainted with our views on this important subject, we feel it a duty
+we owe to ourselves, our children and posterity, to enter our protest
+against a device so fraught with evil to us. That many sincere friends
+to our race are engaged in what they conceive to be a philanthropic and
+benevolent enterprise, we do not hesitate to admit; but that they are
+deceived, and are acting in a manner calculated most seriously to injure
+the free people of color, we are equally sensible.</p>
+
+<p>We are natives of the United States; our ancestors were brought to this
+country by means over which they had no control; we have our attachments
+to the soil, and we feel that we have rights in common with other
+Americans; and although deprived through prejudice from entering into
+the full enjoyment of those rights, we anticipate a period, when in
+despite of the more than ordinary prejudice which has been the result of
+this unchristian scheme, 'Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands to
+God.' But that this formidable Society has become a barrier to our
+improvement, must be apparent to every individual who will but reflect
+on the course to be pursued by the emissaries of this unhallowed
+project, many of whom, under the name of ministers of the gospel, use
+their influence to turn public sentiment to our disadvantage by
+stigmatizing our morals, misrepresenting our characters, and endeavoring
+to show what they are pleased to call the sound policy of perpetuating
+our civil and political disabilities for the avowed purpose of
+indirectly forcing us to emigrate to the western coast of Africa. That
+Africa is neither our nation nor home, a due respect to the good sense
+of the community forbids us to attempt to prove; that our language,
+habits, manners, morals and religion are all different from those of
+Africans, is a fact too notorious to admit of controversy. Why then are
+we called upon to go and settle in a country where we must necessarily
+be and remain a distinct people, having no common interest with the
+numerous inhabitants of that vast and extensive country? Experience has
+proved beyond a doubt, that the climate is such as not to suit the
+constitutions of the inhabitants of this country; the fevers and
+various<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_38" id="pt2-Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> diseases incident to that tropical clime, are such as in most
+cases to bid defiance to the force of medicine.</p>
+
+<p>The very numerous instances of mortality amongst the emigrants who have
+been induced to leave this their native, for their adopted country,
+clearly demonstrate the fallacy of those statements so frequently made
+by the advocates of colonization in regard to the healthiness of
+Liberia.</p>
+
+<p>With the deepest regret we have witnessed such an immense sacrifice of
+life, in advancing a cause which cannot promise the least advantage to
+the free people of color, who, it was said, were the primary objects to
+be benefitted by this 'heaven-born enterprise.' But we beg leave most
+respectfully to ask the friends of African colonization, whether their
+christian benevolence cannot in this country be equally as
+advantageously applied, if they are actuated by that disinterested
+spirit of love and friendship for us, which they profess? Have not they
+in the United States a field sufficiently extensive to show it in? There
+is embosomed within this republic, rising one million free people of
+color, the greater part of whom are unable to read even the sacred
+scriptures. Is not their ignorant and degraded situation worthy of the
+consideration of those enlightened and christian individuals, whose zeal
+for the cause of the African race has induced them to attempt the
+establishment of a republican form of government amid the burning sands
+of Liberia, and the evangelizing of the millions of the Mahometans and
+pagans that inhabit the interior of that extensive country?</p>
+
+<p>We are constrained to believe that the welfare of the people of color,
+to say the least, is but a secondary consideration with those engaged in
+the colonization project. Or why should we be requested to move to
+Africa, and thus separated from all we hold dear in a moral point of
+view, before their christian benevolence can be exercised in our behalf?
+Surely there is no country of which we have any knowledge, that offers
+greater facilities for the improvement of the unlearned; or where
+benevolent and philanthropic individuals can find a people, whose
+situation has greater claims on their christian sympathies, than the
+people of color. But whilst we behold a settled determination on the
+part of the American Colonization Society to remove us to Liberia,
+without using any means to better our condition at home, we are
+compelled to look with fearful diffidence on every measure of that
+institution. At a meeting held on the 7th inst. in this borough, the
+people of color were politely invited to attend, the object of which was
+to induce the most respectable part of them to emigrate. The meeting was
+addressed by several reverend gentlemen, and very flattering ac<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_39" id="pt2-Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>counts
+given on the authority of letters and statements said to have been
+received from individuals of unquestionable veracity. But we beg leave
+to say, that those statements differ so widely from letters that we have
+seen of recent date from the colony, in regard to the condition and
+circumstances of the colonists, that we are compelled in truth to say
+that we cannot reconcile such contradictory statements, and are
+therefore inclined to doubt the former, as they appear to have been
+prepared to present to the public, for the purpose of enlisting the
+feelings of our white friends into the measure, and of inducing the
+enterprising part of the colored community to emigrate at their own
+expense. That we are in this country a degraded people, we are truly
+sensible; that our forlorn situation is not attributable to ourselves is
+admitted by the most ardent friends of colonization; and that our
+condition cannot be bettered by removing the most exemplary individuals
+of color from amongst us, we are well convinced, from the consideration
+that in the same ratio that the industrious part would emigrate, in the
+same proportion those who would remain would become more degraded,
+wretched and miserable, and consequently less capable of appreciating
+the many opportunities which are now offering for the moral and
+intellectual improvement of our brethren. We, therefore, a portion of
+those who are the objects of this plan, and amongst those whose
+happiness, with that of others of our color, it is intended to promote,
+respectfully but firmly disclaim every connexion with it, and declare
+our settled determination not to participate in any part of it.</p>
+
+<p>But if this plan is intended to facilitate the emancipation of those who
+are held in slavery in the South, and the melioration of their
+condition, by sending them to Liberia; we question very much whether it
+is calculated to do either. That the emancipation of slaves has been
+measurably impeded through its influence, except where they have been
+given up to the Board of Managers, to be colonized in Africa, to us is
+manifest. And when we contemplate their uneducated and vitiated state,
+destitute of the arts and unaccustomed to provide even for themselves,
+we are inevitably led to the conclusion that their situation in that
+pestilential country will be miserable in the extreme.</p>
+
+<p>The present period is one of deep and increasing interest to the free
+people of color, relieved from the miseries of slavery and its
+concomitant evils, with the vast and (to us) unexplored field of
+literature and science before us, surrounded by many friends whose
+sympathies and charities need not the Atlantic between us and them,
+before they can consent to assist in elevating our brethren to the
+standing of men. We therefore par<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_40" id="pt2-Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>ticularly invite their attention to
+the subject of education and improvement; sensible that it is much
+better calculated to remove prejudice, and exalt our moral character,
+than any system of colonization that has been or can be introduced; and
+in which we believe we shall have the co-operation of the wisest and
+most philanthropic individuals of which the nation can boast. The
+utility of learning and its salutary effects on the minds and morals of
+a people, cannot have escaped the notice of any rational individual
+situated in a country like this, where in order successfully to
+prosecute any mechanical or other business, education is indispensable.
+Our highest moral ambition, at present, should be to acquire for our
+children a liberal education, give them mechanical trades, and thus fit
+and prepare them for useful and respectable citizens; and leave the
+evangelizing of Africa, and the establishing of a republic at Liberia,
+to those who conceive themselves able to demonstrate the practicability
+of its accomplishment by means of a people, numbers of whom are more
+ignorant than even the natives of that country themselves.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion, we feel it a pleasing duty ever to cherish a grateful
+respect for those benevolent and truly philanthropic individuals, who
+have advocated, and still are advocating our rights in our native
+country. Their indefatigable zeal in the cause of the oppressed will
+never be forgotten by us, and unborn millions will bless their names in
+the day when the all-wise Creator, in whom we trust, shall have bidden
+oppression to cease.</p>
+
+<table class="left" id="t1" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td><big>ABRAHAM D. SHAD</big>,</td><td style="width:2em;text-align:center;"> }</td><td style="width:10em;" rowspan="3">Committee to prepare an Address.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><big>PETER SPENCER</big>,</td><td style="width:2em;text-align:center;"> }</td></tr>
+<tr><td><big>WM. S. THOMAS</big>,</td><td style="width:2em;text-align:center;"> }</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM HARRISBURG.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Harrisburg</span>, Pa., October, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At a large, well informed and respectable meeting of the citizens of
+Harrisburg, convened at the African Wesleyan Methodist church, for the
+purpose of expressing their sentiments in a remonstrance against the
+proceedings of the American Colonization Society, Rev. Jacob D.
+Richardson was called to the chair, and Jacob G. Williams appointed
+secretary. After singing and prayer, Rev. Mr Richardson in some concise
+remarks,&mdash;equalled by few, and exceeded by none,&mdash;expressed the object
+of the meeting. The chairman called the house to order, and the
+following resolutions were unanimously acceded to:<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_41" id="pt2-Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we hold these truths to be self-evident, (and it is the
+boasted declaration of our independence) that all men (black and white,
+poor and rich) are born free and equal; that they are endowed by their
+Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life,
+liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is the language of America,
+of reason, and of eternal truth.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we feel it to be our duty to be true to the constitution
+of our country, and are satisfied with the form of government under
+which we now live; and, moreover, that we are bound in duty and reason
+to protect it against foreign invasion. We always have done so, and will
+do so still.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we view the efforts of the Colonization Society as
+officious and uncalled for by us. We have never done any thing worthy of
+banishment from our friends and home: but this we would say&mdash;if the
+Colonization Society will use their best endeavors to get our slave
+brethren transported to Liberia, when we as a free body of people wish
+to go, we will give the colonizationists timely notice.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That it is the firm and decided opinion of this meeting, that
+were there no free people of color among us, or if those who are free
+had remained in the degraded character of slaves, (or, as they sometimes
+call us, monkeys, apes and baboons,) they would never have got up the
+chimerical scheme for our transportation to the burning shores of
+Africa, with the fancied vision of elevating us, as they say, to dignity
+and affluence.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we cannot remain inactive while colonizationists are
+straining every nerve and racking their inventions to find out arguments
+to persuade our free colored brethren to migrate to an unknown land,
+which we can no more lay claim to than our white brethren can to England
+or any other foreign country.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we reject the inhuman and unchristian measures taken by
+the Colonization Society, for the illumination of the colored citizens
+of the United States, their appropriate home, in a land of sickness,
+affliction and death, when they are not willing, with few exceptions, to
+give us a christian education while among them. We would wish to know of
+the colonizationists, how, in the name of common sense and reason, do
+they expect to do any thing for us thousands of miles across the
+Atlantic, when they oppose almost every measure taken by our white
+friends and brethren to improve our condition here?</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That it is the united opinion of this meeting, that the
+enemies of our race, who are members of the Colonization<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_42" id="pt2-Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> Society, see
+that the great Author of universal existence, who 'is no respecter of
+persons,' who taught Balaam's ass to speak, and taught Solomon wisdom,
+is now enlightening the sable sons of America: hence their object to
+drain the country of the most enlightened part of our colored brethren,
+so that they may be more able to hold their slaves in bondage and
+ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we object to leaving the land of our birth, as there is
+sufficient land in these United States, on which a colony can be
+established that would be far more consonant to the wishes of the
+colored population generally, and would be more adapted to their
+constitution: neither would it involve the country in such expense as
+would be incurred by sending them to a howling wilderness, far away from
+the graves of their forefathers, unknown to us in every respect, unless
+by geography, which few of us understand.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That this meeting look upon the Colonization Society as a
+vicious, nefarious and peace-disturbing combination, and that its
+leaders might as well essay to cure a wound with an argument, or set a
+dislocated bone by a lecture on logic, as to tell us their object is to
+better our condition; because its members acknowledge slavery to be a
+national evil, and use no means to annihilate it, but are exerting all
+their energies and influence to persuade the free people of color to
+remove to Africa, whose rights to Columbia's happy soil holds good with
+any other citizen in America.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we look upon the conduct of those clergymen who have
+misled their respective congregations with the preposterous idea of the
+necessity of transporting the free people of color to Africa, as highly
+deserving the just reprehension directed to the false priests and
+prophets by the true prophets of the Most High; yet we gratefully
+acknowledge the respect we entertain for those who have defended our
+cause&mdash;we mean our white friends.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That this meeting appoint Mr George Chester of Harrisburg, as
+agent for the Liberator, and will use our utmost endeavors to get
+subscribers for the same.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will support the Colony in Canada, the climate being
+healthy and the rights of our brethren secured.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the gratitude of this meeting, which is so sensibly felt,
+be fully expressed to the Editors of the Liberator and Genius of
+Universal Emancipation, Messrs Garrison and Lundy, whose independence of
+mind and correct views of the rights of man have led them so intrepidly
+to speak in favor of our cause.<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_43" id="pt2-Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to the Liberator for publication.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>JACOB D. RICHARDSON</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Jacob G. Williams</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM ROCHESTER.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Rochester</span>, N. Y., October, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>A large number of the colored citizens of Rochester having convened
+themselves together, for the important object of taking into
+consideration the anti-republican principles of the American
+Colonization Society, the Rev. Mr Johnson was called to the chair, and
+Mr A. Lawrence was appointed secretary.</p>
+
+<p>The meeting was then briefly addressed by the secretary as follows:</p>
+
+<p>Countrymen and Brothers&mdash;When viewing the inhumanity and anti-christian
+principles of the American Colonization Society, in plotting our removal
+to Africa, (which is unknown to us as our native country,) it seems as
+though we were called upon publicly to express our feelings on the
+subject. We do not consider Africa to be our home, any more than the
+present whites do England, Scotland, or Ireland. This is the land our
+fathers have tilled before us; this is the land that gave us our
+birthright.&mdash;The meeting then</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we never will remove to Africa; but should any of our
+brethren wish to emigrate, we would recommend Canada as a country far
+more congenial to our constitutions;&mdash;that we give our most sincere
+thanks to our friendly advocates Messrs Garrison and Knapp, and Mr
+Benjamin Lundy, who are crying unto their fellow men, night and day, to
+let their countrymen go free: they will be called blessed by many
+generations yet to come. The Colonization Society say that they cannot
+treat us as men while we are with them; but if we will go out of their
+reach, they will begin their charity. What should we think of such
+religion as this? Because our skin is a little darker than theirs, they
+say they cannot think of treating us as men. The scripture says, 'Beware
+of wolves in sheep's clothing'&mdash;and such they seem to be. We earnestly
+believe, with our generous friend Garrison, that it would not be a hard
+matter to exceed them in doing right. Our blessed Lord said, that we
+should do to all men as we would have them do to us. Now what would they
+think, if we should tell them that they would be better off in New
+Holland or in Tartary?<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_44" id="pt2-Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will do all in our power to support the Liberator,
+printed by Mr Garrison, and all other works in our behalf.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the foregoing proceedings be published in the Liberator.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>HENRY JOHNSON</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">A. Lawrence</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM PROVIDENCE.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Providence</span>, November 1, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At a respectable meeting of the colored people of Providence, R. I.,
+duly appointed and publicly holden at the African church, on the 31st of
+October, 1831, to take into consideration the objects and motives of the
+American Colonization Society, Mr George C. Willis was called to the
+chair, and Mr Alfred Niger appointed secretary. The meeting was then
+addressed at some length by the chairman, stating their object in
+assembling together, and exposing the injustice and prejudice by which
+he believed the friends of African colonization were actuated. The
+following preamble and resolutions were read by the secretary, and
+unanimously adopted:</p>
+
+<p>Whereas our brethren, in different parts of the United States, have
+thought proper to call meetings to express their disapprobation of the
+American Colonization Society; we, concurring fully with them in
+opinion, have assembled ourselves together for the purpose of uniting
+with them, in declaring that we believe the operations of the Society
+have been unchristian and anti-republican, and at variance with our best
+interests as a people. Therefore,</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will use every fair and honorable means in our power,
+to oppose the operations of the above mentioned Society.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we are truly sensible that we are in this country a
+degraded and ignorant people; but that our ignorance and degradation are
+not to be attributed to the inferiority of our natural abilities, but to
+the oppressive treatment we have experienced from the whites in general,
+and to the prejudice excited against us by the members of the
+Colonization Society, their aiders and abettors.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we view, with unfeigned astonishment, the anti-christian
+and inconsistent conduct of those who so strenuously advocate our
+removal from this our native country to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_45" id="pt2-Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> burning shores of Liberia,
+and who with the same breath contend against the cruelty and injustice
+of Georgia in her attempt to remove the Cherokee Indians west of the
+Mississippi.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we firmly believe, from the recent measures adopted by
+the freemen of the city of New Haven, in regard to the establishment of
+a College for our education in that place, that the principal object of
+the friends of African colonization is to oppose our education and
+consequent elevation here, as it will deprive them of one of their
+principal arguments for our removal.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That as our fathers participated with the whites in their
+struggle for liberty and independence, and believing with the
+Declaration of that Independence, 'that all men are created free and
+equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
+rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;'
+and as we have committed no crime worthy of banishment&mdash;Therefore</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will not leave our homes, nor the graves of our
+fathers, and this boasted land of liberty and christian philanthropy.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That, our unfeigned and sincere thanks be tendered to Messrs
+Garrison and Knapp, and to every true friend to our cause, for their
+unwearied and truly benevolent exertions in our behalf.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will earnestly recommend the Liberator, published in
+Boston by the above mentioned gentlemen, to the patronage of our friends
+throughout the country.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to Boston, with the request that they may be
+published in the Liberator.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>GEORGE C. WILLIS</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Alfred Niger</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM TRENTON.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Trenton</span>, November 30, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At a respectable meeting of the free people of color in Trenton,
+convened in the Mount Zion church, November 30, 1831, for the purpose of
+considering the subject of colonization on the coast of Africa&mdash;On
+motion, the Rev. Lewis Cork was called to the chair, and Abner H.
+Francis appointed secretary. The meeting was addressed by Messrs
+Gardener and Thompson; after which, the following resolutions were
+unanimously adopted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_46" id="pt2-Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Resolved, Inasmuch as we, free people of color, have done all that is in
+our power to convince the white inhabitants of these United States, that
+it is our wish to live peaceably with all men; and inasmuch as our
+general demeanor has been that of industry and sobriety, notwithstanding
+there are some among us to the contrary, as well as among the whites;
+therefore we do most solemnly declare, that the statements made to the
+contrary by the Rev. Mr Crosby, in his late addresses in this city, and
+all statements by petitioners to legislative bodies, and by the
+Colonization Society, or any thing of the same nature, are a positive
+libel on our general character.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, Whereas we have lived peaceably and quietly in these United
+States, of which we are natives, and have never been the cause of any
+insurrectionary or tumultuous movements as a body, that we do view every
+measure taken by any associated bodies to remove us to other climes,
+anti-christian and hostile to our peace, and a violation of the laws of
+humanity.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That if, in the opinion of government, our stay or liberty can
+no longer be granted in the States in which we live, we see nothing
+contrary to the constitution of these United States, or to christianity,
+justice, reason or humanity, in granting us a portion of the Western
+territory, as a state, with the same franchise as that of Pennsylvania,
+New Jersey, or any other free State; for we challenge the Union to prove
+that, as free men, we have ever given the least ground for the
+uncharitable censures that have been cast upon us.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we view the American Colonization Society as the most
+inveterate foe both to the free and slave man of color; forasmuch as the
+agents thereof, and its members who have petitioned the several
+legislatures, have unequivocally declared its object, to wit, the
+extermination of the free people of color from the Union; and to effect
+this they have not failed to slander our character, by representing us
+as a vagrant race; and we do therefore disclaim all union with the said
+Society, and, once for all, declare that we never will remove under
+their patronage; neither do we consider it expedient to emigrate any
+where, but to remain in the land and see the salvation of God.
+Nevertheless, if any of our brethren should be compelled or see proper
+to emigrate, we would recommend to them Upper Canada or Mexico.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we view with the highest emotion of gratitude, the
+benevolence of Great Britain and that of the Canada Company, in
+affording an asylum in the Wilberforce settlement, in Upper Canada, for
+our oppressed brethren of the South, who have been or may be forced, by
+unconstitutional laws, to leave<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_47" id="pt2-Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> their rightful home and place of
+nativity, without any cause except that of having a dark skin.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That this meeting approve the establishment of a college, as
+recommended by the Annual Convention held in Philadelphia last June, and
+that we give all possible aid to that institution.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we view the Liberator, edited by William Lloyd Garrison,
+as a great herald in the cause of liberty, and that we recommend to the
+colored citizens of Trenton the utility of subscribing to the above
+named paper.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That there be a committee of three appointed to draft an
+address more expressive of our views on the above subject.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the following persons compose that committee&mdash;Sampson
+Peters, Robert Thomas, George Cole.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>LEWIS CORK</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Abner H. Francis</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>ADDRESS.</h4>
+
+<p>We, the undersigned, in conformity to the above appointment, beg leave
+to present to the public, in a calm, unprejudiced manner, our decided
+disapprobation of the American Colonization Society and its auxiliaries,
+in relation to the people of color in the United States. We are well
+convinced, from the mass that has been written on the above subject by
+those who have preceded us, that it will be difficult to avoid
+repetition; nevertheless; we hope to touch some points which have not
+been fairly understood by that Society. They have supposed that our
+objections are to civilizing and evangelizing Africa; but we beg leave
+to say, that it is an error. We are well aware, that there is no surer
+way to effect this great object than to plant among the heathen,
+colonies of Christian missionaries. We wish, therefore, to be
+understood, that we highly approve of the evangelizing of Africa, but
+disapprove of the present measures of the American Colonization Society,
+if their motives have not been misrepresented by their agents and
+others, in some previous addresses in this city and elsewhere. But
+viewing them as we now do, we must say that, in our opinion, their false
+representations of our general character&mdash;their recommending our removal
+from our native land&mdash;their opposition to our having a part of the West
+appointed to us&mdash;their objections to our proposed college, and of our
+march to science&mdash;their false statements in relation to the health of
+the colony at Liberia, with a variety of other subjects of the same
+nature&mdash;all lead to a conclusion, that it is our greatest foe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_48" id="pt2-Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We would here ask the public a few questions. First&mdash;Is the gospel of
+Jesus Christ calculated to lead to insurrectionary measures? If so, why
+then send it to the heathen? Second&mdash;What gentleman, who has set his
+slaves free, has been murdered by them for so doing? Third&mdash;What have
+those States, who have washed their hands clean of the cursed stain of
+slavery, lost by it? Fourth&mdash;What neighborhood, where education and
+general information have been disseminated among the people of color, is
+the worse for it?</p>
+
+<p>In closing our remarks, we would say, that we do think that the subjects
+looked to by the Colonization Society, to civilize Africa, are
+incompetent; for we do suppose that men selected for such an important
+enterprise, should be men of deed and sound piety&mdash;men of regular and
+industrious habits, of scientific knowledge and general experience: that
+such men can be obtained, we have no doubt; and if there cannot, let us
+first prepare some in this country.</p>
+
+<table class="left" id="t2" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td><big>SAMPSON PETERS</big>,</td><td style="width:2em;text-align:center;"> }</td><td style="width:10em;" rowspan="3">Committee.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><big>ROBERT THOMAS</big>,</td><td style="width:2em;text-align:center;"> }</td></tr>
+<tr><td><big>GEORGE COLE</big>,</td><td style="width:2em;text-align:center;"> }</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM LYME.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Lyme</span>, Ct., January 9, 1832.</p>
+
+<p>At a respectable meeting of the colored citizens of this place, held
+pursuant to public notice&mdash;Mr Luther Wright was called to the chair, and
+Mr Daniel R. Condol appointed secretary.</p>
+
+<p>After some animated remarks by Messrs Wright and Condol, it was</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That it is the sincere opinion of this meeting, that the
+American Colonization Society is one of the wildest projects ever
+patronised by a body of enlightened men; and further, that many of those
+who support it would be willing, if it were in their power, to drive us
+out of existence.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That though we be last in calling a meeting, we feel no less
+the pernicious influence of this Society than the rest of our brethren;
+and that we will resist every attempt to banish us from this our native
+land.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we place unshaken reliance upon the promises of Jehovah,
+and believe that he will take our reproach away, and give freedom to
+those who are held in captivity.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we are not for insurrection, but for peace, freedom and
+equality.<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_49" id="pt2-Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be rendered to Messrs Garrison
+and Knapp, for their benevolent exertions in behalf of the oppressed
+descendants of Africa; and that they be requested to insert these
+proceedings in the Liberator.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>LUTHER WRIGHT</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Daniel R. Condol</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>A VOICE PROM LEWISTOWN.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Lewistown</span>, Pa., January 9, 1832.</p>
+
+<p>At a numerous meeting held by the free people of color of the borough of
+Lewistown, in the African Methodist Episcopal church, Samuel Johnston
+was called to the chair, and Martin Johnston appointed secretary. The
+following resolutions were then read, and unanimously adopted:</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will not leave these United States, the land of our
+birth, for a home in Africa.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will strenuously oppose the colonizing of the free
+people of color in Liberia.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we are willing to emigrate to any part of the United
+States which may be granted to us.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That we will support the Liberator, a paper published in
+Boston, edited by William Lloyd Garrison; and also the colony in Upper
+Canada as an asylum for our oppressed brethren.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That a committee be appointed to prepare an address to be
+published in the Liberator.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and forwarded to the editor of the Liberator for
+publication.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>SAMUEL JOHNSTON</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Martin Johnston</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+
+<h4>ADDRESS.</h4>
+
+<p>We, the undersigned, in conformity to the above appointment, beg leave
+to present to the public, in a calm and unprejudiced manner, our reasons
+for opposing the scheme of African colonization. This is the land of our
+birth. The Declaration of Independence declares, that 'all men are born
+free and equal:' it does not say that the <i>white</i> man or the <i>black</i> man
+is free,&mdash;but all, without respect to color, tongues, or nation. We
+therefore consider all laws to enslave or degrade the people of color as
+contrary to the letter and spirit of this Declaration;<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_50" id="pt2-Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> and that
+according to it we are freemen, and have as indisputable a right to
+enjoy our liberty as any white man. To deny it to us, because we differ
+in color, is oppression. To say that Africa is our native country is
+untrue. Here we were born, and here we mean to die; for all men are born
+free.</p>
+
+<p>We wish to return our grateful thanks to our friends, and to the friends
+of the abolition of slavery. We consider slavery a national sin, which,
+if not speedily overthrown, will cause this nation to mourn and weep;
+for God has declared that Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto
+him, and he will hear her cry.</p>
+
+<p>We would say to colonizationists that we consider them our foes instead
+of our friends. It is vain for them to say that we would do better in
+Liberia; for we do not believe it. There is room enough in this country
+for us; and if they be our friends, let them meliorate our condition
+here. Let them join in the work of immediate abolition of slavery. Let
+them wash out the stains which disfigure the national character. And
+then let them tell us about Liberia.</p>
+
+<p>One reason why we are opposed to leaving these United States is this:
+you have so long denied us the enjoyment and protection of the laws of
+God and man in this country, that you wish now to oppress us still more.
+But thanks be to Him who holds all things in his hand, we believe He
+will plead our cause. Your skirts are already dyed with the blood of
+millions of souls. 'Vengeance is mine&mdash;I will repay,' saith the Lord.</p>
+
+<p>Awake, ye wolves in sheep's clothing. Your cup is now full. You are
+daily causing innocent blood to be shed. How long, ye slavites, ye
+kidnappers, ye that traffic in human flesh, will you sleep? When will
+you awake to your best interests? For remember that you will not always
+be able to hold your victims in servile chains.</p>
+
+<table class="left" id="t3" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td><big>J. G. SMITH</big>,</td><td style="width:2em;text-align:center;"> }</td><td style="width:10em;" rowspan="3">Committee.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><big>M. WALKER</big>,</td><td style="width:2em;text-align:center;"> }</td></tr>
+<tr><td><big>M. JOHNSTON</big>,</td><td style="width:2em;text-align:center;"> }</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<h4>A VOICE FROM NEW-BEDFORD.</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">New-Bedford</span>, January 23, 1832.</p>
+
+<p>At a meeting of the people of color in New-Bedford, January 23d, for the
+purpose of considering and giving their opinion of the American
+Colonization Society, and the actual evil or benefit of that Society to
+the objects of its supervision, the free people of color, Mr Richard
+Johnson was called to the chair, and Richard G. Overing appointed
+secretary. After an ad<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_51" id="pt2-Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>dress from the chair, it was moved that
+resolutions expressive of the views of the meeting, respecting the
+Colonization Society, be drawn up, and published in some newspaper not
+adverse to the rights and well being of all men, be their color what it
+may. The following are the resolves of the meeting:</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That in whatever light we view the Colonization Society, we
+discover nothing in it but terror, prejudice and oppression; that the
+warm and beneficent hand of philanthropy is not apparent in the system,
+but the influence of the Society on public opinion is more prejudicial
+to the interest and welfare of the people of color in the United States,
+than slavery itself.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That the Society, to effect its purpose, the removal of the
+free people of color, (not the slaves) through its agents, teaches the
+public to believe that it is patriotic and benevolent to withhold from
+us knowledge and the means of acquiring subsistence, and to look upon us
+as unnatural and illegal residents in this country; and thus by force of
+prejudice, if not by law, endeavor to compel us to embark for Africa,
+and that too, apparently, by our own free will and consent.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved, That as great a nuisance as we may be in the estimation of
+that Society, we yet have a hope in Him who has seen fit to continue our
+existence through days worse than which we do not fear, and which
+emboldens us as peaceable citizens, to resolve to abide the issue of
+coming days in our native land, in which we ask no more than the age in
+which we live demands, and which this nation, as republicans and
+christians, should not refuse to grant.</p>
+
+<p>Signed in behalf of the meeting.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>RICHARD JOHNSON</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">R. G. Overing</span>, Secretary.</p>
+
+<p>The foregoing resolutions and addresses are given in plain, it may be
+occasionally in severe language; and display an intensity of feeling, a
+depth of abhorrence, and a firmness of purpose, honorable to men who
+appreciate their rights and love their country. Before I proceed,
+however, to comment upon these important proceedings, I shall make some
+quotations from the essays and addresses of colored writers, in order to
+sustain my assertion that the American Colonization Society is directly
+opposed to the wishes of our free colored population.<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_52" id="pt2-Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'<span class="smcap">A Colored Baltimorean</span>'<a name="FNanchor_AH_35" id="FNanchor_AH_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_AH_35" class="fnanchor">[AH]</a> records his sentiments in the following
+style:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'We believe, sirs, that the people of color in the United States
+will never be prevailed over to abandon the land of their birth,
+and every thing vernacular with them&mdash;to forego many advantages
+which they now possess, and many more which they have in
+prospect, for the imaginary, or if real, the fleeting and
+short-lived honors held out to them by our "Americo-African
+empire." Why should we exchange a temperate and salubrious
+climate, adapted to our constitutions as Americans, for one, to
+us, fraught with disease and death? Why should we leave a land
+in which the arts and sciences are flourishing, and which is
+beginning to yield to our research, for one, where the
+irradiating beams of the sun of science have yet to be announced
+by the bright star of hope? Why should we leave a land
+illuminated with the blaze of gospel light, for one enshrouded
+in pagan gloom? Why should we, who are in tolerable
+circumstances in America, who enjoy many of the comforts of
+life, and are evidently on the advanced march of mind, cast away
+these certain, real, and growing advantages, for those which are
+precarious and chimerical? Why should we abandon our firesides,
+and every thing associated with the dear name of <i>home</i>&mdash;undergo
+the fatigues of a perilous voyage, and expose ourselves, our
+wives, and our little ones, to the deleterious influences of an
+uncongenial sun, for the enjoyment of a liberty divested of its
+usual accompaniments, surrounded with circumstances which
+diminish its intrinsic value, and render it indeed "a dear
+earned morsel"?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>'But "it is the hope of accomplishing the entire subversion of
+the slave trade and Mahometan superstition, and all their
+subsidiary concomitants, that has actuated the Christian and
+stimulated the philanthropist." Noble objects indeed! And who
+are those christians and philanthropists? Our friend tells us,
+without distinction, that they are "those noble and heroic men
+who have enlisted under the banner of colonization." But how
+happens it that some of the most distinguished of these
+<i>christians</i> and <i>philanthropists</i> are themselves slaveholders,
+and so far abettors of the <i>slave trade</i> as to be actually
+guilty of selling into a cruel and interminable vassalage the
+hapless victims of their tender mercies? Again, how is it that
+none but the free people of color have been chosen to evangelize
+Africa? Is it because they are under an exclusive moral
+obligation to dispel the "gloom<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_53" id="pt2-Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> of Mahometan superstition?" Is
+it because they are pre-eminently qualified in point of morals
+and information for the missionary enterprise? None will say
+this. Perhaps we shall be told, that the identity of their color
+gives them a decided advantage over every other people. But how
+is it that those wicked white men, who are in the habit of
+resorting thither for the most nefarious purposes, have access
+to these people? And we have not forgotten that during the visit
+of the Rev. G. R. McGill, in Baltimore, he informed us that
+colored men from the United States, being thought by the natives
+to be men of information, are received and treated as white men,
+and denominated by the same epithet. Since then it does not
+appear that we are pre-eminently qualified for this work, why
+should it be pressed upon us?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>'Tell us not that the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, who is
+not a respecter of persons, whose "tender mercies are over all
+his works," will <i>never</i> elevate us to the dignity of men and
+christians, unless we emigrate to Africa. Tell us not that in
+this <i>christian</i> country, this "land of the free and home of the
+brave," we must <i>for ever</i> remain a degraded and proscribed
+race&mdash;that we must <i>for ever</i> be treated as the outcasts of
+creation. We are aware that this doctrine has been asserted with
+all the confidence of inspiration by <i>some</i> of our gospel
+ministers. We have heard them proclaim it in a tone calculated
+to strengthen the prejudices existing against us. They seem to
+forget that there is a superintending providence&mdash;that He, who
+"sits upon the whirlwind and directs the storm," has ever
+manifested himself a friend to the oppressed of every clime.
+They seem to forget that the religion of Jesus, wherever it
+reigns with unrestrained sway, demolishes every partition wall,
+and exterminates out of the heart all those bitter prejudices
+which impede the march of the Messiah's kingdom. We should like
+to have these prophets give us their ideas in relation to the
+millennial reign of Christ. We should like to have them inform
+us whether or not the general prejudices and their inseparable
+accompaniments, which now lie upon, and operate against us, on
+account of our color, will be consistent with this glorious
+reign of <i>peace</i>, and <i>love</i>, and <i>joy</i>. Let these ministers
+consider that much of our degradation is chargeable to the
+indifference (to say the least) that they manifest in regard to
+our situation&mdash;that if they as patterns of piety hold us at a
+distance, it is but natural for the inconsiderate to follow
+their example. Let them recollect that while they are making
+powerful and irresistible appeals to the humanity of the
+American people in behalf of the oppressed of other climes, they
+have a people among them whose claims<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_54" id="pt2-Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> upon their liberality are
+paramount to those of any other. Let these ministers tell us how
+often they make it their business to visit those portions of
+their flocks whose crime is, their color. Nay, one of them said
+not long since, to be familiar with the people of color would
+destroy his <i>usefulness</i> among the whites. But whether they do
+their duty in relation to us or not, we indulge in no fears in
+regard to our future condition. We are not distrustful of the
+goodness and power of Him who has overruled the evil designs of
+those men that first tore our ancestors from their native
+shores, who is still overruling, and who will continue to
+overrule the designs of all who would treat us as the
+offscouring of the earth, because our Creator has not given us a
+color as white as their own. If ever there was a people who
+could look up to Heaven with unshaken confidence for protection,
+it is that people whose sufferings are not the consequences of
+their crimes; it is that people whose misfortunes work in them
+the graces of faith, patience and hope. And why should we not
+cherish these invaluable graces? We are told by high authority,
+that "<i>all things</i> shall work together <i>for good</i> to them that
+love God"&mdash;that "He will give grace and glory, and <i>no good
+thing</i> will He <i>withhold</i> from them that walk uprightly." You
+see, sirs, we have one straight forward course to pursue&mdash;one
+marked out by the hand of unerring wisdom. This course we intend
+to pursue, without giving ourselves any uneasiness as to the
+issue; this we leave to Him who has the administration of the
+universe in his hands, and who has declared for our
+encouragement, "even the very hairs of your head are all
+numbered." Tell us not of the wisdom, and power, and number of
+our enemies; He who has given us a hope, which at least makes
+our condition tolerable, will say to them, as He did to the
+tempestuous billows, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;
+and here shall thy proud waves be stayed."'</p>
+
+<p class="center">*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>'What effect have the evils of slavery in this <i>happy</i> land upon
+the mind of the liberal, the unprejudiced, and philanthropic
+Lafayette?</p>
+
+<p>'Hear him, he will speak for himself: "When I am indulging in my
+views of American prospects and American liberty, it is
+mortifying to be told that in that very country a large portion
+of the people are slaves. It is a dark spot on the face of the
+nation. <i>Such a state of things cannot always exist.</i>" It was a
+sight of the evils alluded to, and their inseparable
+concomitants, that extorted from the pen of Mr Jefferson that
+comprehensive and soul-thrilling sentence&mdash;"I tremble for my
+country when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice
+cannot sleep<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_55" id="pt2-Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> for ever." But may we not indulge the hope that
+the evils spoken of will yet awaken the sympathies of the
+American people&mdash;soften their cruel prejudices&mdash;arouse their
+slumbering energies&mdash;and produce in them an unconquerable
+determination to wash from their "stars and stripes" one of the
+blackest spots that ever cursed the globe, or stained the
+historic page? Shall we be told that <i>invincible</i> prejudices
+render this great desideratum impracticable? And what is this
+but a libel upon the American people? What is it but to say,
+there is in them a moral incapacity to do justice, love mercy,
+and walk uprightly? Colonization orators, designing politicians,
+ministers of Jesus, tell me, how can you thus libel your
+countrymen? Surely, there is a regenerating, a redeeming spirit
+in the land&mdash;a spirit transforming misanthropes into
+philanthropists&mdash;bondmen into freemen&mdash;abettors of slavery into
+champions of liberty&mdash;a spirit that will yet drive from America
+the demon of slavery, and render it indeed "the land of the free
+and the home of the brave."'<a name="FNanchor_AI_36" id="FNanchor_AI_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_AI_36" class="fnanchor">[AI]</a></p>
+
+<p class="center">*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>'I have just found time to notice a few very exceptionable
+features of a communication over the signature of "A
+Marylander," published, a few days ago, in the American of our
+city. The writer is unquestionably entitled to the credit of
+being a thorough-going colonizationist. He writes in the <i>true
+spirit</i> of the cause. He seems to be under an excitement
+produced by the publication of our anti-colonization
+resolutions. This being the case, it is not to be expected that
+he would, throughout his communication, avail himself of the
+guarded, accommodating, and conciliating language usual with
+colonization writers and declaimers. After being convinced that
+the people of color are not to be persuaded to leave the land of
+their birth, and every thing vernacular with them, for "regions"
+which he tells us are "now dark as the valley of the shadow of
+death," he says, "I would propose then that Maryland should
+colonize her own free blacks." He does not add the usual
+qualification, "<i>with their own consent</i>:" he knows this will
+never be obtained. He therefore says: "I earnestly <i>hope</i> that
+the time <i>is now</i> come when our state will wake up to all the
+importance of this subject, and will instantly commence <i>a
+system of measures</i> imperatively demanded by the <i>sternest</i>
+principles [colonization principles?] of <i>sound</i> policy." We
+would tell this precocious statesman that we are not to be
+intimidated into colonization "<i>measures</i>" by the angry
+effusions of his illiberal soul; that we had rather die in
+Maryland under the pressure of unrighteous and<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_56" id="pt2-Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> cruel laws than
+be driven, like cattle, to the pestilential clime of Liberia,
+where grievous privation, inevitable disease, and premature
+death, await us in all their horrors. We are emboldened thus to
+speak, not from a reliance on the mere arm of flesh; no&mdash;it is
+the righteousness of our cause, a knowledge of the attributes of
+Deity, combined with a consciousness of innocence under
+suffering, that have inspired us with a moral courage which no
+oppression shall shake, no fulminations overawe. Our limits will
+not permit us to expatiate, at this time, on the import of the
+terms, "<i>a system of measures&mdash;the sternest principles</i>," &amp;c. We
+would barely remark that the climax of injustice and cruelty,
+here suggested, nay, recommended, is the legitimate fruit of the
+operations of the American colonization societies relative to
+the free people of color. We have always believed that the
+"<i>system of measures</i>" here recommended, would be the dernier
+resort of these <i>christian</i> associations. The unmerited abuse,
+that has been so unsparingly heaped upon us by colonizationists
+for expressing our opinions of their project as connected with
+our happiness, their manifest determination to effectuate their
+object regardless of our consent, abundantly corroborate the
+opinion we have long since entertained. We turn, however, from
+the contemplation of the persecution and oppression, which, it
+seems, are in reserve for us, to notice, briefly, the moving
+cause of this virulent and relentless attack upon our rights and
+happiness. "The <i>census just taken</i>," says A Marylander,
+"<i>admonishes</i> us in the strongest manner, of the necessity of
+prompt and efficient measures to drain off this description of
+our population." Here then is the <i>patriotic</i>, the <i>benevolent</i>,
+the <i>christian</i> principle, by which the colonization societies,
+throughout our land, are actuated. This is the selfish policy of
+which we complain, and which should be execrated by all <i>true</i>
+patriots, philanthropists, and christians. Our increase is
+represented as an "<i>alarming evil&mdash;an evil</i>," said one of our
+colonization orators in the pulpit, not long since, "which
+<i>threatens</i> our very <i>existence</i>." Now, if all this be true, how
+can they, on their own principles, say we can <i>never</i> be a
+people in this country? Surely, they are taking effectual steps
+to convince us, that the enjoyment of our rights in this, our
+native land, is not only possible, but highly probable. This we
+have always believed. And we hope and pray, that it may be
+accomplished in a way sanctioned by the gospel of peace:
+"without confused noise, or garments rolled in blood." But this
+glorious victory over pride and prejudice, by gospel weapons,
+will never be accomplished by colonization principles. Nor will
+those ministers of the gospel have any part or lot in this<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_57" id="pt2-Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+matter, who solemnly declare, in the face of heaven and earth,
+that we can <i>never enjoy, in this country</i>, those inalienable
+rights of man, whose inviolable preservation promotes the
+welfare of the whole human family. Such ministers virtually
+declare that they do not believe the doctrines they are bound to
+preach; that He, from whom they profess to have received their
+commission, is, indeed, "a hard man, reaping where he has not
+sown, and gathering where he has not strawed;" that He requires
+of them and their flocks, that which they are morally incapable
+of performing; that they <i>cannot</i> love their neighbor as
+themselves, or do unto others what they wish done unto
+themselves, because their Lord, in his wisdom, has given some of
+their fellow creatures a different color from their own. These
+temporising, retrograde reformers are doing a serious injury to
+the people of color. They heed not the warning of Heaven: "Do my
+people no harm." They are doing more to strengthen the cruel and
+unchristian prejudices, already too powerful against us, than
+all the slaveholders in the Union. They hesitate not to declare,
+that, in America, we are out of the reach of humanity. They seem
+to think that the religion of the benevolent Saviour which
+enjoins, "<i>honor all men</i>," and which explicitly says, "if ye
+have <i>respect to persons</i>, ye <i>commit sin</i>," is nothing more
+than a dead letter, or must <i>for ever</i> remain powerless, in the
+United States of America. And have these men the face to contend
+with the infidels of our land? Why, one infidel, with the bible
+in his hands, would "chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand
+to flight." But notwithstanding these discouraging
+circumstances, our cause will yet triumph. He who is for us, is
+stronger than all that are against us. "The rulers" of the land
+may "take counsel together," and some of the professed ministers
+of Jesus may "come into their secret," but "He that sitteth in
+the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision."
+Fear not then, my colored countrymen, but press forward, with a
+laudable ambition, for all that heaven has intended for you and
+your children, remembering that the path of duty is the path of
+safety, and that "righteousness" alone "exalteth a nation."'</p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_58" id="pt2-Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p><p>If excellence of style, a dignified carriage, sound logic, a high and
+abiding faith, and fervent piety, confer credit upon a writer, few have
+ever better illustrated these traits than '<span class="smcap">A Colored Baltimorean</span>,' or
+deserved a nobler tribute of praise. He who would be ashamed to
+acknowledge such a man as his countryman and brother, has yet to learn
+his own insignificance and what constitutes the majesty of human nature.</p>
+
+<p>The following is an extract of a letter from a colored gentleman of
+wealth and respectability in Philadelphia, whose friendship is courted
+by honorable men, and whose usefulness is scarcely exceeded by any other
+citizen:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Is it not preposterous to one, like myself, whose family has
+resided in the state of Pennsylvania ever since the great
+lawgiver, William Penn, came last to this state from England;
+and who fought for the independence of my country, whose
+Declaration asserts, that all men are born with free and equal
+rights&mdash;is it not preposterous to be told that this is not my
+country? I was seven months on board of the old Jersey Prison
+ship in the year 1780, "the times that tried men's souls;" and
+am I now to be told that Africa is my country, by some of those
+whose birth-place is unknown? Is it not a contradiction to say
+that a man is an alien to the country in which he was born? To
+separate the blacks from the whites is as impossible, as to bale
+out the Delaware with a bucket. I have always been decidedly of
+opinion, that if the Colonization Society would take but half
+the pains to improve the children of color in their own country,
+and expend but half the money that they are devoting to
+accomplish their visionary scheme of christianizing Africa, by
+offering premiums to master mechanics to take them as
+apprentices, they would do more to destroy prejudice than any
+thing else. When I look at this globe, containing eight or nine
+hundred millions of inhabitants, and see that they differ in
+color from the frozen to the temperate and torrid zones, and
+that every thing is variegated, I am astonished that any man
+should be so prejudiced against his fellow-man; but we pray for
+the aid of the Almighty to take the scales from their eyes; and
+that the Liberator may be one of the instruments in commencing
+the work.'<a name="FNanchor_AJ_37" id="FNanchor_AJ_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_AJ_37" class="fnanchor">[AJ]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'I would ask some of our pretended white friends, and the
+members of the American Colonization Society, why they are so
+interested in our behalf as to want us to go to Africa? They
+tell us that it is our home; that they desire to make a people
+of us, which we can never be here; that they want Africa
+civilized; and that we are the very persons to do it, as it is
+almost impossible for any white person to exist there. I deny
+it. Will some of those guardian angels of the people of color
+tell me how it is that we, who were born in the same city or
+state with themselves, can live any longer in Africa than they?
+I consider<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_59" id="pt2-Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> it the most absurd assertion that any man of common
+sense could make, unless it is supposed, as some have already
+said, that we are void of understanding. If we had been born on
+that continent, the transportation would be another matter; but
+as the fact is the reverse, we consider the United States our
+home, and not Africa as they wish to make us believe;&mdash;and if we
+do emigrate, it will be to a place of our own choice.</p>
+
+<p>'I would also mention to the supporters of the Colonization
+Society, that if they would spend half the time and money that
+they do, in educating the colored population and giving them
+lands to cultivate here, and secure to them all the rights and
+immunities of freemen, instead of sending them to Africa, it
+would be found, in a short time, that they made as good citizens
+as the whites. Their traducers would hear of fewer murders,
+highway robberies, forgeries, &amp;c. &amp;c. being committed, than they
+do at present among some of the white inhabitants of this
+country.'<a name="FNanchor_AK_38" id="FNanchor_AK_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_AK_38" class="fnanchor">[AK]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Colonization principles, abstractly considered, are
+unobjectionable; but the means employed for their propagation,
+we think, are altogether objectionable. We are deprived of our
+birthright, and pointed by the colonization partisans to another
+country as a home. They speak of the prejudices which exist
+against us, as an insuperable hindrance to the improvement of
+our situation here. We are sickened by the constant reiteration
+of "<i>extraneous mass</i>," "<i>African inferiority</i>," &amp;c. which tends
+immediately to justify the slaveholder in his crime, and
+increase already existing prejudice. The Colonization Society
+never will effect the removal of slavery. The God of justice
+will never, in my opinion, let this nation off so easily. It is
+in vain to hold back. The eyes of all will ultimately be opened
+to see that nothing but universal emancipation can possibly
+avert impending wrath.'<a name="FNanchor_AL_39" id="FNanchor_AL_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_AL_39" class="fnanchor">[AL]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'How long, oh! ye boasters of freedom, will ye endeavor to
+persuade us, your derided, degraded fellow countrymen, to the
+belief that our interest and happiness are prized in high
+estimation among you? Be it known, that we are not all such
+misguided, deluded mortals as to be duped by your plans; that we
+will not suffer ourselves to become so infatuated as to "hurl
+reason from her throne," and succumb to your glittering, showy,
+<i>dissimulating</i> path to eminence. We spurn with contempt your<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_60" id="pt2-Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+unrighteous schemes, and point the finger of derision at your
+fruitless attempts. You have commenced them in a day, when
+liberty, justice and equality are claimed by almost all, as
+nature's rights; for behold! a beam of science, lucid as the
+sun, has divinely fallen upon the lightless intellects of a
+portion of that ignoble part of your fellow creatures, who have
+been so long the victims of your fell injustice and inhumanity.
+Would to God that conscience might subdue your malignant
+prejudices. Tell us not that our condition can never be bettered
+in the land of our birth: you know it not. Make but the attempt
+in consecrating a portion of your time, talents and money upon
+us here, and you would soon find the cause of Afric's injured
+race vindicated by her descendants; and the day which now dawns
+would be speedily ushered into blazing light, declaring in its
+effulgence the joyful sound of Liberty&mdash;Justice&mdash;Equality, to
+all mankind.'<a name="FNanchor_AM_40" id="FNanchor_AM_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_AM_40" class="fnanchor">[AM]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'There is much to be surprised at, little to admire, and nothing
+worthy of imitation, in the "bubbles" of our friends, the
+colonizationists. They have enlisted the prejudices and the
+support of the wealthy and influential in their favor; they have
+succeeded in sending some two or three thousand to Liberia; and
+they are flattered with their partial success, and no doubt look
+forward to the time when they will behold the whole of the
+colored inhabitants of America, in the far distant land of
+Africa. But let them not anticipate too much; they have yet one
+obstacle to overcome which threatens to overthrow their
+"baseless fabric;" or at any rate impede their progress. Their
+proceedings have not obtained the approbation of those, whose
+approbation is most needed, <i>the colored people themselves</i>.
+They are most strangely mistaken if they suppose that it is an
+easy matter to win them, either by <i>sophistry</i> or <i>force</i>. The
+press has begun its revolutionizing work, overturning in its
+progress every thing calculated to suppress inquiry or to blind
+the understanding. Already have the intrigues of the designing
+been exposed, and already have the colored people set their
+faces against oppression.</p>
+
+<p>'The Colonization Society has erred in matters of <i>policy</i>; for
+instead of exerting themselves to gain the confidence of the
+colored people, and thus by persuasion to have rid the country
+of them, they have acted in a manner calculated to disgust every
+humane mind, and have rendered it an utter <i>impossibility</i> to
+remove them; and it is most fortunate for the unfortunate, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_61" id="pt2-Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+they have detected those intriguing spirits in their <i>humane</i>
+and <i>charitable</i> undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>'How many hours of anguish, how much incalculable misery has been
+prevented; in short, how many human beings have been saved from
+an untimely grave, by the timely interposition of the <span class="smcap">PRESS</span>! It
+has said, let it be so, and it <i>was</i> so; its thunders have been
+heard, and the oppressor trembles like the earthquake: it has
+overthrown, yea, totally demolished the sharp-edged sword of
+the Colonization Society.</p>
+
+<p>'Support the <span class="smcap">PRESS</span> then, ye people of color, and the result will
+be a total overthrow of all the darling schemes of the aforesaid
+darling Society; it has accomplished wonders, yea, wonders
+already; much more can, nay, will be done; again I say, support
+the <span class="smcap">PRESS</span>.'<a name="FNanchor_AN_41" id="FNanchor_AN_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_AN_41" class="fnanchor">[AN]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The African Colonization Society declares that we the people of
+color shall have no part nor lot in the free institutions of
+this country. Why? Because the Creator of all&mdash;the sovereign
+Ruler of the universe, who holds in his hands the destiny of
+nations, thought fit and proper, in his infinite wisdom, to
+tincture us with a darker hue than the paler part of community!
+or, if I may say, because the lot of our predecessors happened
+to be cast in the torrid zone, beneath the scorching beams of a
+vertical sun! These are the objections the African Colonization
+Society offer to this community to our remaining in this
+country&mdash;in the land of freemen! These are the considerations
+that prompt them to tell us that we the descendants of Africa
+can never be men unless we abandon the land of our birth, our
+homes and people, and submit to that uncongenial clime, the
+barbarous regions of Africa, amidst unyielding contagion and
+mortality! O, that man would remember, that knowledge and
+virtue, not complexion, are the emblems that constitute the
+value of human dignity! With these, we are worthy&mdash;without them,
+we are unworthy. By the acts and operations of wicked men,
+shielded under a cloak of religion, we the people of color are
+doomed to all the miseries that the human body is able to
+sustain&mdash;deprived of light, knowledge and social intercourse, by
+the colonization gentlemen. With all their pretended zeal and
+love of liberty, manifested towards the African race, I count
+them as enemies, not friends. I do not solicit their love, nor
+regard their friendship. I speak for one: I never did, and never
+will court an enemy as a friend, knowingly, let him be whom he
+may&mdash;let him belong to church or state, I feel<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_62" id="pt2-Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> the weight of
+their predominant power, and the finishing blow they are about
+to strike. Thus we move by them, poor and pennyless, despised
+and forsaken by all; creeping through your streets, submissively
+bowed down to every foot whose skin is tinctured with a lighter
+hue than ours&mdash;thus we sojourn in solitude, not for our crimes
+but color.</p>
+
+<p>'I came here for the purpose of showing to this community, that
+the people of color of the United States disapprove of the
+African Colonization plan. They do not wish to emigrate to
+Africa. These six hundred or more, that the gentleman tells you
+are now waiting for a passage to Liberia, are not the free
+people of color of the United States; they are, if any, the
+poor, old, worn-out southern slaves, freed on the condition to
+go to Africa, or die in the tracks of slavery, no more fit for
+their cotton and rice fields&mdash;for the laws of those states
+forbid the master, let him be possessed of all the fine feelings
+that the human mind is able to contain; unless he banishes them
+to some distant region, across that "mighty ocean" they speak
+of, they cannot be free. According to the laws of those states,
+and the basis on which the Society is built, the emancipated
+slaves are not free until they stand upon the shores of Liberia.
+Thus the Northern and Middle States are called upon for
+donations to enable the monarch of the south to bury his slaves
+in the sands of Africa; thus far, northern capital is
+instrumental in parting asunder parents and children&mdash;no more to
+meet, until Jehovah will stand upon the four corners of the
+earth, and proclaim deliverance to the captive!&mdash;when the arm of
+tyrants shall cease to sway the rod of tyranny over the heads of
+their helpless children&mdash;until all creation shall vanish and
+crumble into nothing.</p>
+
+<p>'About the time of the formation of this Society, the people of
+color, in different sections of the Union, took the alarm&mdash;they
+thought there was something wrong in the views of that combined
+body. So, the free people of color of Richmond, convened
+themselves together in the state of Virginia, where the
+gentleman says the African Colonization Society first
+originated. They assembled themselves together for the purpose
+of ascertaining each other's feelings with regard to that
+combined body, and after mature reflection, they petitioned
+Congress&mdash;I will give you the words of their memorial, which are
+sufficient evidence to substantiate in the mind of every
+rational person, that the people of color wish to remain in this
+country.</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'"At a meeting of a respectable portion of the free people of
+color of the city of Richmond, on Friday, January 24, 1817,<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_63" id="pt2-Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+William Bowler was appointed chairman, and Lentey Craw,
+secretary. The following preamble and resolution were read,
+unanimously adopted, and ordered to be printed.</p>
+
+<p>'"Whereas a Society has been formed at the seat of government,
+for the purpose of colonizing, with their own consent, the free
+people of color of the United States; therefore we, the free
+people of color of the city of Richmond, have thought it
+advisable to assemble together under the sanction of authority,
+for the purpose of making a public expression of our sentiments
+on a question in which we are so deeply interested. We perfectly
+agree with the Society, that it is not only proper, but would
+ultimately tend to the benefit and advantage of a great portion
+of our suffering fellow creatures, to be colonized; but while we
+thus express our approbation of a measure laudable in its
+purposes, and beneficial in its designs, it may not be improper
+in us to say, that we prefer being colonized in the most remote
+corner of the land of our nativity, to being exiled to a foreign
+country&mdash;and whereas the president and board of managers of the
+said Society have been pleased to leave it to the entire
+discretion of Congress to provide a suitable place for carrying
+these laudable intentions into effect&mdash;Be it therefore</p>
+
+<p>'"Resolved, That we respectfully submit to the wisdom of
+Congress whether it would not be an act of charity to grant us a
+small portion of their territory, either on the Missouri river,
+or any place that may seem to them most conducive to the public
+good and our future welfare, subject, however, to such rules and
+regulations as the government of the United States may think
+proper to adopt."</p>
+
+<p class="right"><big>'WM. BOWLER</big>, Chairman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">'Lentey Craw</span>, Secretary.'<a name="FNanchor_AO_42" id="FNanchor_AO_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_AO_42" class="fnanchor">[AO]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The <i>colonization craft</i> is a diabolical pursuit, which a great
+part of our christian community are engaged in. Now, brethren, I
+need not enlarge on this point. You that have been observing,
+have already seen the trap under the bait; and although some of
+our population have been foolish enough to sell their birthright
+for a mess of pottage, yet I doubt whether the Colonization
+Society will entrap many more. It is too bare-faced, and
+contrary to all reason, to suppose, that there is any<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_64" id="pt2-Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> good
+design in this project. If they are willing to restore
+four-fold for what they have taken by false accusation, they
+can do it to better advantage in the bosom of our country, than
+at several thousand miles off. How would you do, brethren, if
+your object was really to benefit the poor? Would you send them
+into a neighboring forest, and there deal out that food which
+they were famishing for? Now we stand different from beggars.
+Our ancestors were stolen property, and property which belonged
+to God. This is well known by our religious community; and they
+find that the owner is about to detect them. Now if they can
+slip away the stolen goods, by smuggling all those out of the
+country, which God would be likely to make an instrument of, in
+bringing them to justice, and keep the rest in ignorance; by
+such means, things would go on well with them, and they would
+appease their consciences by telling what great things they are
+doing for the colored population and God's cause. But we
+understand better how it is. The deception is not so well
+practised, but that we can discover the mark of the beast. They
+will steal the sons of Africa, bring them to America, keep them
+and their posterity in bondage for centuries, letting them have
+what education they can pick up of themselves; then transport
+them back to Africa; by which means America gets all her
+drudgery done at little expense, and endeavors to flatter the
+Deity, by making him a sacrifice of good works of this kind. But
+to the awful disappointment of all such blasphemers, they will
+meet the justice of God, which will be to them a devouring
+sword.'<a name="FNanchor_AP_43" id="FNanchor_AP_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_AP_43" class="fnanchor">[AP]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Though delivered from the fetters of slavery, we are oppressed
+by an unreasonable, unrighteous, and cruel prejudice, which aims
+at nothing less, than the forcing away of all the free colored
+population of the United States to the distant shores of Africa.
+Far be it from me to impeach the motives of every member of the
+American Colonization Society. The civilizing and christianizing
+of that vast continent, and the extirpation of the abominable
+traffic in slaves, (which, notwithstanding all the laws passed
+for its suppression, is still carried on in all its horrors,)
+are no doubt the principal motives, which induce many to give it
+their support.</p>
+
+<p>'But there are those, and those who are most active and
+influential in this cause, who hesitate not to say, that they
+wish to rid the country of the free colored population; and
+there is suf<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_65" id="pt2-Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>ficient reason to believe that with many, this is
+the principal motive for supporting that Society; and that
+whether Africa is civilized or not, and whether the slave-trade
+be suppressed or not, they would wish to see the free colored
+people removed from this country to Africa.</p>
+
+<p>'Africa could certainly be brought into a state of civil and
+religious improvement, without sending all the free people of
+color in the United States there.</p>
+
+<p>'A few well-qualified missionaries, properly fitted out and
+supported, would do more for the instruction and improvement of
+the natives of that country, than a host of colonists, the
+greater part of whom would need to be instructed themselves, and
+all of whom for a long period would find enough to do to provide
+for themselves, instead of instructing the natives.</p>
+
+<p>'How inconsistent are those who say, that Africa will be
+benefitted by the removal of the free people of color of the
+United States there, while they say, they are the <i>most vile and
+degraded</i> people in the world!&mdash;If we are as vile and degraded
+as they represent us, and they wish the Africans to be rendered
+a virtuous, enlightened and happy people, they should not
+<i>think</i> of sending <i>us</i> among them, lest we should make them
+worse instead of better.</p>
+
+<p>'The colonies planted by white men on the shores of America, so
+far from benefitting the aborigines, corrupted their morals, and
+caused their ruin; and yet those who say <i>we</i> are the most vile
+people in the world, would send us to Africa, to improve the
+character and condition of the natives! Such arguments would not
+be listened to for a moment, were not the minds of the community
+strangely warped by prejudice.</p>
+
+<p>'Those who wish that that vast continent should be <i>compensated</i>
+for the injuries done it, by sending thither the light of the
+gospel and the arts of civilized life, should aid in sending and
+supporting well qualified missionaries, who should be wholly
+devoted to the work of instruction, instead of sending
+colonists, who would be apt to turn the ignorance of the natives
+to their own advantage, and do them more harm than good.</p>
+
+<p>'Much has also been said by colonizationists, about improving
+the character and condition of the people of color of this
+country, by sending them to Africa. This is more inconsistent
+still. We are to be improved by being sent far from civilized
+society. This is a novel mode of improvement. What is there in
+the burning sun, the arid plains, and barbarous customs of
+Africa, that is so peculiarly favorable to our improvement? What
+hinders our improving here, where schools and colleges abound,
+where the gospel is preached at every corner, and where all the
+arts and sciences are verging fast to<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_66" id="pt2-Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> perfection? Nothing,
+nothing but prejudice. It requires no large expenditures, no
+hazardous enterprises, to raise the people of color in the
+United States to as highly improved a state, as any class of the
+community. All that is necessary is, that those who profess to
+be anxious for it, should lay aside their prejudices, and act
+towards them as they do by others.</p>
+
+<p>'We are <span class="smcap">NATIVES</span> of this country; we ask only to be treated as
+well as <span class="smcap">FOREIGNERS</span>. Not a few of our fathers suffered and bled
+to purchase its independence; we ask only to be treated as well
+as those who fought against it. We have toiled to cultivate it,
+and to raise it to its present prosperous condition; we ask only
+to share equal privileges with those who come from distant lands
+to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Let these moderate requests be
+granted, and we need not go to Africa nor any where else, to be
+improved and happy. We cannot but doubt the purity of the
+motives of those persons who deny us these requests, and would
+send us to Africa, to gain what they might give us at home.</p>
+
+<p>'But they say, the prejudices of the country against us are
+invincible; and as they cannot be conquered, it is better that
+we should be removed beyond their influence. This plea should
+never proceed from the lips of any man, who professes to believe
+that a just God rules in the heavens.</p>
+
+<p>'The American Colonization Society is a numerous and influential
+body. Would they lay aside their <i>own</i> prejudices, much of the
+burden would be at once removed; and their example (especially
+if they were as anxious to have <i>justice done us here</i>, as to
+send us to Africa,) would have such an influence upon the
+community at large, as would soon cause prejudice to hide its
+deformed head.</p>
+
+<p>'But alas! the course which they have pursued, has an opposite
+tendency. By the <i>scandalous misrepresentations</i>, which they are
+continually giving of our character and conduct, we have
+sustained much injury, and have reason to apprehend much more.</p>
+
+<p>'Without any charge of crime, we have been denied all access to
+places, to which we formerly had the most free intercourse; the
+colored citizens of other places, on leaving their homes, have
+been denied the privilege of returning; and others have been
+absolutely driven out.</p>
+
+<p>'Has the Colonization Society had no effect in producing these
+barbarous measures?</p>
+
+<p>'They profess to have no other object in view, than the
+colonizing of the free people of color on the coast of Africa,
+with their <i>own consent</i>; but if our homes are made so
+uncom<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_67" id="pt2-Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>fortable that we cannot continue in them; or if, like our
+brethren of Ohio and New Orleans, we are driven from them, and
+no other door is open to receive us but Africa, our removal
+there will be any thing but voluntary.</p>
+
+<p>'It is very certain, that very few free people of color <i>wish</i>
+to go to that <i>land</i>. The Colonization Society <i>know</i> this, and
+yet they do certainly calculate, that in time they will have us
+all removed there.</p>
+
+<p>'How can this be effected, but by making our situation worse
+here, and closing every other door against us?'<a name="FNanchor_AQ_44" id="FNanchor_AQ_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_AQ_44" class="fnanchor">[AQ]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'My attention was forcibly attracted by a communication in Mr
+Poulson's Daily Advertiser of the 16th inst. which states, that
+Mrs Stansbury of Trenton, N. J. has presented <i>one thousand
+dollars</i> to the Colonization Society. Now I think it is greatly
+to be regretted, that this highly generous and benevolent lady
+has been induced to make this donation for the purpose of
+conveying some of the superannuated slaves to Africa, when
+objects of much greater importance could be attained by offering
+a premium to master mechanics to take colored children as
+apprentices, so that they would become useful to themselves and
+others. It is an inquiry becoming of the utmost importance, what
+is to become of those children who are arriving at the age of
+manhood?</p>
+
+<p>'I am greatly astonished that the ministers of the gospel should
+take so active a part, in endeavoring to convey the freemen of
+color to Africa. Even in Boston and New-York, they have taken
+the lead in support of this object. They cannot be aware of the
+great injury they will be the means of inflicting on us: instead
+of doing this, they should endeavor to remove prejudice, to
+ameliorate and improve the condition of the colored people by
+education, and by having their children placed in a situation to
+learn a trade. I hope, through the assistance of Divine
+Providence, that the Liberator may be the means (especially in
+Boston, the Cradle of Liberty and Independence) of guiding the
+people of this country in the path, which equal justice and the
+public good so evidently indicate.</p>
+
+<p>'I have never conversed with an intelligent man of color, (not
+swayed by interested and sinister motives,) who was not
+decidedly opposed to leaving his home for the fatal clime of<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_68" id="pt2-Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+Africa. I am well acquainted with all the masters of vessels,
+belonging to this port, who have been to the coast of Africa;
+and they all agree in representing it as one of the most
+unhealthy countries in the latitude of 40. In the months of June
+and July, the thermometer is at from 88 to 90 degrees. What must
+it be, then, in the latitude of 6 or 7, under a vertical sun,
+and where, after the rainy season, the effluvium which arises
+from the putrefaction of vegetables is productive of the most
+fatal effects? Sir James L. Yeo agrees with their account, in
+his statement laid before the Admiralty of Great Britain.</p>
+
+<p>'Has any one, in either of our southern States, given any thing
+like a thousand dollars to promote emigration to Africa? Not one
+has shown so much compassion for the oppressed slave. General
+Mercer,&mdash;who is, I believe, the President of the Colonization
+Society,&mdash;promised to emancipate his slaves, and to sell his
+large possessions in Virginia, and to remove with them to
+Africa&mdash;(my friends inform me, and I believe him to be one of
+the most humane and best of masters.) Mr Key, the great
+advocate, and the late Judge Washington, promised to liberate
+their slaves: I believe that neither of them has performed his
+promise.</p>
+
+<p>'According to a statement made by Mr Key, they have removed in
+fourteen years about as many hundred emigrants. I will venture
+to say, that at least a half million have been born during the
+same period. We ask not their compassion and aid, in assisting
+us to emigrate to Africa: we are contented in the land that gave
+us birth, and for which many of our fathers fought and died,
+during the war which established our independence. I well
+remember that when the New England regiment marched through this
+city on their way to attack the English army under the command
+of Lord Cornwallis, there were several companies of colored
+people, as brave men as ever fought; and I saw those brave
+soldiers who fought at the battle of Red Bank, under Col. Green,
+where Count Donop the commander was killed, and the Hessians
+defeated. All this appears to be forgotten now; and the
+descendants of these men, to whom we are indebted for the part
+they took in the struggle for independence, are intended to be
+removed to a distant and inhospitable country, while the
+emigrants from every other country are permitted to seek an
+asylum here from oppression, and to enjoy the blessings of both
+civil and religious liberty, equally with those who are entitled
+to it by birthright.</p>
+
+<p>'I think the ministers of the gospel might do much towards
+destroying the domestic slave trade, which breaks asunder the
+sacred ties of husband, wife and children. Not a voice is<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_69" id="pt2-Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+raised by them against this most cruel injustice. In the British
+colonies, this is not permitted; yet it exists in the only true
+republic on earth.'<a name="FNanchor_AR_45" id="FNanchor_AR_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_AR_45" class="fnanchor">[AR]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'<i>My Friends and Countrymen</i>:&mdash;I trust, by this time, you have
+known well my sentiments in relation to the American
+Colonization Society; and the great objects, which have been set
+forth, of a general union of interest, in funds and education,
+for the permanent establishment and furtherance of our
+prosperity, in this our native country.</p>
+
+<p>'In addition to what has been already said on the subject, I
+shall briefly set forth some of the leading causes of our
+wretchedness and misery; and the prominent motives of the
+Colonization Society in sending us away. Much theory has been
+used, in the discussions upon our civil and political situation,
+in this country. We have been branded, in many instances,&mdash;may I
+not say, in the highest courts of the nation, courts of justice
+and equity, in public and family circles?&mdash;as being an inferior
+race of beings, not possessing like intellect and faculty with
+the whites. We are represented as being incapable of acting for
+ourselves; consequently not educated and qualified to be
+admitted into public places, to vindicate the integrity of our
+race, and the qualifications we are capable of acquiring. Many
+of our noble statesmen, orators and lawyers, have made our
+capital ring with the empty sound of
+inferiority,&mdash;degradation,&mdash;the impossibility of tolerating
+equality with the blacks. Sacred writ has been carefully
+examined by these gentlemen of science, and construed to suit
+their narrow consciences. Prophets have arisen among them, who
+hold forth to the people the continuation of our political
+thraldom, unless there be a general removal of all the free
+among us to the coast of Africa. Others argue, that, although
+they have good feelings towards us, and would do any thing for
+us, if we were out of their sight and out of the hearing of
+their slaves, yet to admit us into their circles would be to
+pervert the present order of society, and the happiness of the
+good white citizens of the country. These are generally bible
+men, such as hold forth the true oracles of God; yet deny him,
+in their actions and words, the supreme control over all his
+creatures. There is hardly ever an action performed, whether
+good or bad, but there is generally a reason given for so doing;
+and he is a wicked, daring character, who cannot find a cloak,
+at any time, to cover his<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_70" id="pt2-Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> hideous crimes. The men who have been
+foremost, in withholding from us our dearest and most sacred
+rights, have always held out false colors to the community at
+large, (such as, inferiority, degradation, nuisance, pest,
+slaves, species of monkey, apes, &amp;c.) to justify their inhuman
+and unchristian acts towards us, and to deaden the severe pangs
+of conscience that harass them. They would wish to appear
+innocent before the world; as doing unto all men as they would
+they should do unto them. Do they base their objects, in full,
+upon such frivolous excuses as these? No. The truth is, actions
+speak louder than words. It is my candid opinion, there would
+have been no Colonization Society formed for our transportation
+to the western coast of Africa, had there been no free colored
+people, and did not our numbers increase daily. If we, as a free
+body of people, had remained in the same character with slaves,
+monkeys and baboons, there would not have been so much
+excitement in the community about us; but as they see by our
+improvement, (a great improvement, indeed, within forty years,)
+that the period is hastening on, 'when there will be no other
+alternative but we must rank among them in civilization, science
+and politics, they have got up this colonization scheme to
+persuade us to leave our slave brethren, and flee to the
+pestilential shores of Africa, where we shall be in danger of
+being forced to hang our harps upon the willows, and our song of
+liberty and civilization will be hushed by the impelling force
+of barbarian despots.'<a name="FNanchor_AS_46" id="FNanchor_AS_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_AS_46" class="fnanchor">[AS]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'And in pursuit of this great object [the elevation of the
+people of color] various ways and means have been resorted to;
+among others, the American Colonization Society is the most
+prominent. Not doubting the sincerity of many friends who are
+engaged in that cause; yet we beg leave to say, that it does not
+meet with our approbation. However great the debt which these
+United States may owe to injured Africa, and however unjustly
+her sons have been made to bleed, and her daughters to drink of
+the cup of affliction, still we who have been born and nurtured
+on this soil, we, whose habits, manners and customs are the same
+in common with other Americans, can never consent to take our
+lives in our hands, and be the bearers of the redress offered by
+that Society to that much afflicted country.</p>
+
+<p>'Tell it not to barbarians, lest they refuse to be civilized,
+and eject our Christian missionaries from among them, that in<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_71" id="pt2-Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+the nineteenth century of the christian era, laws have been
+enacted in some of the States of this great republic, to compel
+an unprotected and harmless portion of our brethren to leave
+their homes and seek an asylum in foreign climes: and in taking
+a view of the unhappy situation of many of these, whom the
+oppressive laws alluded to, continually crowd into the Atlantic
+cities, dependent for their support upon their daily labor, and
+who often suffer for want of employment, we have had to lament
+that no means have yet been devised for their relief.'<a name="FNanchor_AT_47" id="FNanchor_AT_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_AT_47" class="fnanchor">[AT]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'The Convention has not been unmindful of the operations of the
+American Colonization Society; and it would respectfully suggest
+to that august body of learning, talent and worth, that, in our
+humble opinion, strengthened, too, by the opinions of eminent
+men in this country, as well as in Europe, that they are
+pursuing the direct road to perpetuate slavery, with all its
+unchristianlike concomitants, in this boasted land of freedom;
+and, as citizens and men whose best blood is sapped to gain
+popularity for that Institution, we would, in the most feeling
+manner, beg of them to desist: or, if we must be sacrificed to
+their philanthropy, we would rather die at home. Many of our
+fathers, and some of us, have fought and bled for the liberty,
+independence and peace which you now enjoy; and, surely, it
+would be ungenerous and unfeeling in you to deny us a humble and
+quiet grave in that country which gave us birth!'<a name="FNanchor_AU_48" id="FNanchor_AU_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_AU_48" class="fnanchor">[AU]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'Sir, upon the whole, my view of the operations of the
+Colonization Society, in relieving the slave States of the evil
+which weighs them down more than a hundred tariffs, is
+illustrated by an old fable, in which it is stated, that a man
+was seen at the foot of a mountain, scraping away the dust with
+his foot. One passing by, asked him what he was doing? I wish to
+remove this mountain, said he. You fool, replied the other, you
+can never do it in that way. Well, said he, I can raise a dust,
+can't I?</p>
+
+<p>'Sir, I do not wish to censure the motives of this Society, but
+surely they are visionary. Its supporters are bewildered in
+their own dust, which is well calculated to injure the vision of
+good men. The Commercial Advertiser says they do indeed wish to
+wipe away from the national records the stain of slavery, "but
+hope it may be accomplished (as the Virginia Enquirer has it)
+surely but quietly." Yes, Sir, and quietly enough!<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_72" id="pt2-Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Our ambition leads not to superiority, but to our <i>freedom</i> and
+<i>political rights</i>. <i>Grant this!</i> we ask no more! If the places
+in which we dwell are too straight for us and the white
+population, place us in a state <ins id="mycorr12" class="mycorr" title="Original: far to far"><a name="corr12" id="corr12"></a>far to</ins> the West&mdash;take us
+into the Union&mdash;give us our <i>rights</i> as <i>freemen</i>. Let the
+southern states make all born after a date not two years
+distant, free! and let the Colonization Society turn its
+attention and energies to the removing of liberated slaves
+there: the free people will go without their aid. But if the
+Government is fearful of retaliation, it may allay its fears by
+a consideration of the fact of there not being one freeman
+engaged in the late insurrections&mdash;of freemen informing against
+slaves&mdash;the peaceable manner in which we live in the
+neighborhoods of the south, and throughout the whole Union. The
+meetings that have lately been held, and resolutions passed
+expressive of our disapprobation of such measures, may all show
+that such fears are groundless. I repeat again&mdash;<i>Give us our
+rights&mdash;we ask no more!</i></p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Sir, if I possessed the Indies, I would pledge the whole
+that if such measures were taken, and such grants made, no
+retaliation would be made by us as a body for former evils.'<a name="FNanchor_AV_49" id="FNanchor_AV_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_AV_49" class="fnanchor">[AV]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="newquot">'In no age of our existence have there been more pains taken by
+priests and people, in public and private, in church and state,
+to give them currency, than at present. The whole theme of that
+wicked, persecuting combination&mdash;the Colonization Society&mdash;is
+<ins id="mycorr10" class="mycorr" title="Original: calulated"><a name="corr10" id="corr10"></a>
+calculated</ins> to impress upon the mind of the public these
+atrocious maxims which every day strengthen a prejudice not only
+cherished by the whites against the blacks, but by the blacks
+against the whites. That foul fiend of hell, that destroying
+angel who hath power to take peace from the earth, and to kill
+with the sword, is gaining a commanding influence very fast over
+both parties. And who, but the advocates of the Colonization
+Society, receive him as a welcome guest? Who but they have built
+him a temple, and cried, "Long live Prejudice against free born
+Americans of sable hue!" Who but they are continually crying,
+"The free blacks are dangerous! the free blacks are dangerous!
+Away with them&mdash;away with them to Africa!" Who but they are the
+apologists for murder, theft, and all the horrid concomitants of
+slavery? Who but they have defiled our temples of worship
+dedicated to God for his service, making merchandise of the
+souls of men by transferring them over to the keeping of
+prejudice?'<a name="FNanchor_AW_50" id="FNanchor_AW_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_AW_50" class="fnanchor">[AW]</a></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_73" id="pt2-Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Other extracts might be recorded, but these must suffice. I have given
+the sentiments of the people of color as expressed individually, in
+public orations, in conventions of delegates, and in popular assemblies.
+Their proceedings evince a keen discrimination between true and false
+philanthropy, and an intellectual ability successfully to defend their
+cause. Their instincts are more than a match for the specious sophistry
+and learned sense of colonizationists: they meet them on every point,
+and on every point achieve a victory. Conscious of the fact that in
+their complexion is found the only motive for their banishment, they
+clearly illustrate the hypocrisy and injustice of the African crusade.
+Their union of purpose is such as cannot be broken. How intense is their
+love of country! how remarkable their patient endurance of wrongs! how
+strong their abhorrence of expatriation! how auspicious the talents
+which they display!</p>
+
+<p>Every humane and honorable man will assent to the proposition, that no
+scheme for the removal of a numerous people from one continent to
+another, ought to be prosecuted contrary to their desires. A scheme
+cannot be benevolent which thrives upon persecution. Benevolent
+oppression is a solecism.</p>
+
+<p>Another self-evident truth is, that no such removal can be effected
+merely by the presentation of selfish inducements, or without resorting
+to coercive measures. To show that coercion is openly advocated by some
+of the prominent supporters of the Colonization Society, I make the
+following extracts from the speeches of Messrs Broadnax and Fisher,
+delivered during the 'Great Debate' in the Virginia House of Delegates a
+short time since. Mr Broadnax said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'IT IS IDLE TO TALK ABOUT NOT RESORTING TO FORCE. Every body
+must look to the introduction of force of some kind or
+other&mdash;and it is in truth a question of expediency; of moral
+justice; of political good faith&mdash;whether we shall fairly
+delineate our whole system on the face of the bill, or leave the
+acquisition of extorted consent to other processes. The real
+question&mdash;the only question of magnitude to be settled, is the
+great preliminary question&mdash;Do you intend to send the free
+persons of color out of Virginia, or not?'</p>
+
+<p>'If the free negroes are willing to go, they will go&mdash;if not
+willing, they must be compelled to go. Some gentlemen think it
+politic not now to insert this feature in the bill, though they
+proclaim their readiness to resort to it when it becomes
+necessary; they think that for a year or two a sufficient number
+will consent to go, and then the rest can be compelled. For my
+part, I deem it better to approach the question and settle it at
+once, and avow it openly. The intelligent portion of the free
+negroes know very well what is going on.&mdash;Will they not see your
+debates? <i>Will they not see that coercion is ultimately to be</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_74" id="pt2-Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+<i>resorted to?</i> They will perceive that the edict has gone forth,
+and that it must fall, if not now, in a short time upon them.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have already expressed it as my opinion that few, very few,
+will <i>voluntarily</i> consent to emigrate, if no <span class="smcap">COMPULSORY MEASURE</span>
+be adopted.&mdash;With it&mdash;many, in anticipation of its sure and
+certain arrival, will, in the mean time, go away&mdash;they will be
+sensible that the time would come when they would be forced to
+leave the State. Without it&mdash;you will still, no doubt, have
+applicants for removal equal to your means. Yes, Sir, people who
+will not only consent, but beg you to deport them. But what sort
+of <i>consent</i>&mdash;a consent extorted by a series of oppression
+calculated to render their situation among us insupportable.
+Many of those who have already been sent off, went with <i>their
+avowed consent</i>, but under the influence of a more decided
+compulsion than any which this bill holds out. I will not
+express, in its full extent, the idea I entertain of what has
+been done, or what enormities will be perpetrated to induce this
+class of persons to leave the State. Who does not know that when
+a free negro, by crime or otherwise, has rendered himself
+obnoxious to a neighborhood, how easy it is for a party to visit
+him one night, take him from his bed and family, and apply to
+him the gentle admonition of a severe flagellation, to induce
+him to <i>consent</i> to go away? In a few nights the dose can be
+repeated, perhaps increased, until, in the language of the
+physicians, <i>quantum suff.</i> has been administered to produce the
+desired operation; and the fellow then becomes <i>perfectly
+willing</i> to move away. I have certainly heard, if incorrectly,
+the gentleman from Southampton will put me right, that of the
+large cargo of emigrants lately transported from that country to
+Liberia, all of whom <i>professed</i> to be <i>willing</i> to go, were
+rendered so by some such severe ministrations as those I have
+described. A lynch club&mdash;a committee of vigilance&mdash;could easily
+exercise a kind of inquisitorial <i>surveillance</i> over any
+neighborhood, and convert any desired number, I have no doubt,
+at any time, into a willingness to be removed. But who really
+prefers such means as these to the course proposed in this bill?
+And one or the other is inevitable. For no matter how you change
+this bill&mdash;sooner or later the free negroes will be <i>forced</i> to
+leave the State. Indeed, Sir, <span class="smcap">ALL OF US LOOK TO FORCE</span> of some
+kind or other, direct or indirect, moral or physical, legal or
+illegal. Many who are opposed, they say, to any compulsory
+feature in the bill, desire to introduce such severe regulations
+into our police laws&mdash;such restrictions of their existing
+privileges&mdash;such inability to hold property&mdash;obtain
+employment&mdash;rent residences, &amp;c., as to make it impossible for
+them to remain amongst us. <i>Is not this force?</i>'</p></div>
+
+<p>Mr Fisher said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'If we wait until the free negroes consent to leave the State,
+we shall wait until "time is no more." <i>They never will give
+their consent</i>; and if the House amend the bill as proposed,
+their consent is in a manner pointed out by the gentleman from
+Dinwiddie&mdash;and it is a great question whether we shall force the
+people to extort their consent from them in this way.&mdash;He
+believed if the compulsory principle were stricken out, this
+class of people would be forced to leave by the harsh treatment
+of the whites. The people in those parts of the State where they
+most abound, were determined,&mdash;as far as they could learn
+through the newspapers and other sources,&mdash;to get rid of the
+blacks.'</p></div>
+
+<p>What a revelation, what a confession, is here! The free blacks taken
+from their beds, and severely flagellated, to make them willing to
+emigrate! And legislative compulsion openly advocated to accomplish this
+nefarious project! Yes, the gentlemen say truly, 'few, very few will
+<i>voluntarily</i> consent to emigrate'&mdash;'they never will give their
+consent'&mdash;and therefore they must be expelled by force! It is true, the
+bill pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_75" id="pt2-Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>posed by Mr Broadnax was rejected by a small majority; but it
+serves to illustrate the spirit of the colonization leaders.</p>
+
+<p>The editor of the Lynchburg Virginian, an advocate of the Society, uses
+the following language:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'But, if they will not consider for themselves, <span class="smcap">WE</span> <i>must
+consider for them</i>. The safety of the people is the supreme law;
+and to that law all minor considerations must bend. If the free
+negroes will not emigrate, <i>they must be contented to endure
+those privations which the public interest and safety call
+for</i>.&mdash;In the last Richmond Enquirer we notice an advertisement,
+setting forth, that "a petition will be presented to the next
+legislature of Virginia, from the county of Westmoreland,
+praying the passage of some law to <i>compel</i> the free negroes in
+this commonwealth to emigrate therefrom, under a penalty which
+will effectually promote this object." So, too, at a meeting of
+the citizens of Prince George county, in Maryland, it was
+resolved to "petition the next legislature to remove all the
+free negroes out of that State, and to prohibit all persons from
+manumitting slaves without making provision for their removal."'</p></div>
+
+<p>I close this work with a specimen of the sophistry which is used to give
+<i>eclat</i> to the American Colonization Society.</p>
+
+<p>In the month of June, 1830, I happened to peruse a number of the
+Southern Religious Telegraph, in which I found an essay, enforcing the
+duty of clergymen to take up collections in aid of the funds of the
+Colonization Society on the then approaching fourth of July. After an
+appropriate introductory paragraph, the writer proceeds in the following
+remarkable strain:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'But&mdash;we have a plea like a peace offering to man and to God. We
+answer poor blinded Africa in her complaint&mdash;that we have her
+children, and that they have served on our plantations. And we
+tell her, look at their returning! We took them barbarous,
+though measurably free,&mdash;untaught&mdash;rude&mdash;without
+science&mdash;without the true religion&mdash;without philosophy&mdash;and
+strangers to the best civil governments. And now we return them
+to her bosom, <i>with the mechanical arts</i> ... <i>with science</i> ...
+<i>with philosophy</i> ... with civilization ... with republican
+feelings ... and above all, with the true knowledge of the true
+God, and the way of salvation through the Redeemer.'</p></div>
+
+<p>'The mechanical arts!'&mdash;with whom did they serve an apprenticeship?
+'With philosophy!'&mdash;in what colleges were they taught? It is strange
+that we should be so anxious to get rid of these scientific men of
+color&mdash;these philosophers&mdash;these republicans&mdash;these christians, and that
+we should shun their company as if they were afflicted with the
+hydrophobia, or carried a deadly pestilence in their train! Certainly,
+they <i>must</i> have singular notions of the christian religion which
+tolerates&mdash;or, rather, which is so perverted as to tolerate&mdash;the
+oppression of God's rational creatures by its professors! They must feel
+a peculiar kind of brotherly love for those <i>good men</i> who banded
+together<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_76" id="pt2-Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> to remove them to Africa, because they were too proud to
+associate familiarly with men of a sable complexion! But the writer
+proceeds:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'We tell her, look at the little colony on her shores. We tell
+her, look to the consequences that must flow to all her borders
+from religion, and science, and knowledge, and civilization, and
+republican government! And then we ask her&mdash;<i>is not one ship
+load of emigrants returning with these multiplied blessings,
+worth more to her than a million of her barbarous sons?</i>'</p></div>
+
+<p>So! every ship load of ignorant and helpless emigrants is to more than
+compensate Africa for every million of her children who have been
+kidnapped, buried in the ocean and on the land, tortured with savage
+cruelty, and held in perpetual servitude! Truly, this is a compendious
+method of balancing accounts. In the sight of God, of Africa, and of the
+world, we are consequently blameless&mdash;and rather praiseworthy&mdash;for our
+past transgressions. It is such sophistry as is contained in the
+foregoing extract, that kindles my indignation into a blaze. I abhor
+cant&mdash;I abhor hypocrisy&mdash;and if some of the advocates of the
+Colonization Society do not deal largely in both, I am unable to
+comprehend the meaning of these terms.</p>
+
+<p>Of the whole number of individuals constituting the officers of the
+Society, nearly three-fourths, I believe, <i>are the owners of slaves</i>, or
+interested in slave property; not one of whom, to my knowledge, has
+emancipated any of his slaves to be sent to Liberia!! The President of
+the Society, (<span class="smcap">Charles Carroll</span>,) owns, I have understood, nearly <i>one
+thousand slaves</i>! And yet he is lauded, beyond measure, as a patriot, a
+philanthropist, and a christian! The former President, (Judge <span class="smcap">Bushrod
+Washington</span>,) so far from breaking the fetters of his slaves, actually
+while holding his office offered a large reward for a runaway female
+slave, to any person who would secure her by putting her into any jail
+within the United States! What a mockery it is for such persons to
+profess to deplore the existence of slavery, or to denounce the foreign
+slave trade! for they neither cease from their own oppressive acts, nor
+act much more honestly than the slave dealers&mdash;the latter stealing those
+who are born on the coast of Africa, and the former those who are born
+in this country!<span class='pagenum'><a name="pt2-Page_77" id="pt2-Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AE_32" id="Footnote_AE_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AE_32"><span class="label">[AE]</span></a> John Neal.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AF_33" id="Footnote_AF_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AF_33"><span class="label">[AF]</span></a> <i>Vide</i> the Fourth Volume of the Genius of Universal
+Emancipation for 1829.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AG_34" id="Footnote_AG_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AG_34"><span class="label">[AG]</span></a> Alexander H. Everett, Esq. vide his work entitled
+'America, or a General Survey,' &amp;c. &amp;c. pp. 212, 225.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AH_35" id="Footnote_AH_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AH_35"><span class="label">[AH]</span></a> Genius of Universal Emancipation for November 27, 1829.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AI_36" id="Footnote_AI_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AI_36"><span class="label">[AI]</span></a> Genius of Universal Emancipation, January 29, 1830.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AJ_37" id="Footnote_AJ_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AJ_37"><span class="label">[AJ]</span></a> 'The Liberator' for January 22, 1832.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AK_38" id="Footnote_AK_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AK_38"><span class="label">[AK]</span></a> 'A Colored Philadelphian'&mdash;vide 'The Liberator' for Feb.
+12, 1831.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AL_39" id="Footnote_AL_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AL_39"><span class="label">[AL]</span></a> Correspondent of 'The Liberator,' Feb. 26, 1831.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AM_40" id="Footnote_AM_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AM_40"><span class="label">[AM]</span></a> Correspondent of 'The Liberator,' March 12, 1831.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AN_41" id="Footnote_AN_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AN_41"><span class="label">[AN]</span></a> 'African Sentinel,' Oct. 8, 1831, printed at Albany.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AO_42" id="Footnote_AO_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AO_42"><span class="label">[AO]</span></a> Extracts from 'An Address to the Gentlemen and Ladies of
+the County of Otsego, N. Y., delivered on the 30th September, 1830, by
+Hayden Waters, a man of color.' The proceedings of the colored
+inhabitants of Virginia, incorporated into this Address, are those
+referred to on page 8 as having been accidentally mislaid.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AP_43" id="Footnote_AP_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AP_43"><span class="label">[AP]</span></a> 'Address delivered before the colored population of
+Providence, R. I., November 27, 1828, by Rev. Hosea Easton.'</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AQ_44" id="Footnote_AQ_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AQ_44"><span class="label">[AQ]</span></a> 'A Discourse delivered in St. Philip's Church, for the
+benefit of the colored community of Wilberforce, in Upper Canada, on the
+Fourth of July, 1830. By Rev. Peter Williams, Rector of St. Philip's
+Church, New-York.' Mr Williams is a clergyman of superior talents and
+great moral worth, and beloved by an extensive circle of acquaintance.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AR_45" id="Footnote_AR_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AR_45"><span class="label">[AR]</span></a> From the pen of the Colored Gentleman in Philadelphia,
+referred to on page 58&mdash;vide 'The Liberator,' March 12, 1831.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AS_46" id="Footnote_AS_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AS_46"><span class="label">[AS]</span></a> 'Address delivered before a Colored Association in
+Brooklyn, N. Y., August 5, 1831,' by George Hogarth. Vide 'The
+Liberator' for August 27, 1831.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AT_47" id="Footnote_AT_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AT_47"><span class="label">[AT]</span></a> Conventional Address of the People of Color in
+Philadelphia, in 1830.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AU_48" id="Footnote_AU_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AU_48"><span class="label">[AU]</span></a> 'Minutes and Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of
+the People of Color, held by adjournment in the city of Philadelphia, in
+June, 1831.'</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AV_49" id="Footnote_AV_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AV_49"><span class="label">[AV]</span></a> 'Philadelphia Evangelist'&mdash;vide 'The Liberator' for
+November 26, 1831.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AW_50" id="Footnote_AW_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AW_50"><span class="label">[AW]</span></a> Correspondent of 'The Liberator,' December 17, 1831.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<h4>END OF PART II.</h4>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="tnote">
+<h2><a name="Transcribers_Notes" id="Transcribers_Notes"></a>Transcriber's Notes:</h2>
+
+<p>This eBook is based on a 1968 reprint by Arno Press, New York, of the
+original edition, published in 1832 by Garrison and Knapp, Boston. The
+Table of Contents has been added by the transcriber.</p>
+
+<p>Inconsistent use of "Mr." and "Mr"; use of variable numbers of asterisks
+as ellipses; irregular and archaic spelling other than noted below;
+inconsistent capitalization (e.g. Christian vs. christian) and
+hyphenation, are as per the original.</p>
+
+<p>2 blank lines between sequential block quotes indicate a new quote; 1
+blank line indicates a new paragraph in the same quote; this is similar
+to the typesetting of the original.</p>
+
+<p>Footnotes have been re-indexed sequentially, using letters where symbols
+were used and numbers where numbers were used in the original, and
+moved to the end of each section to preserve the flow of the text.</p>
+
+<p>Minor punctuation errors, in particular inconsistent use of quotation marks, have been corrected without note. The following
+typographical errors have been corrected:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="indent1">Part I.</span><br />
+<span class="indent2">P. <a href="#corr1">25</a> "... was held, at which King George, ..." (had "Kings").</span><br />
+<span class="indent2">P. <a href="#corr2">36</a> "... Lander, travellers in Africa, represent ..." (had "Afria").</span><br />
+<span class="indent2">P. <a href="#corr3">48</a> "... operations have been confined to ..." (had "confied").</span><br />
+<span class="indent2">P. <a href="#corr4">88</a> "... superintendence of any government ..." (had "goverment").</span><br />
+<span class="indent2">P. <a href="#corr5">89</a> "... such a measure, to point ..." (had "a a").</span><br />
+<span class="indent2">P. <a href="#corr6">97</a> "... rid ourselves of a large party ..." (had "lage").</span><br />
+<span class="indent2">Footnote <a href="#corr7">P</a> "... the authority which compels ..." (had "which which").</span><br />
+<span class="indent2">P. <a href="#corr8">126</a> "... country, of an anomalous race ..." (had "amomalous").</span><br />
+<span class="indent2">P. <a href="#corr11">127</a> "... transportation of the manumitted ..." (had "transportion").</span><br />
+<span class="indent2">P. <a href="#corr9">148</a> "... that a greater benefit may be ..." (had "may may").</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="indent1">Part II.</span><br />
+<span class="indent2">P. <a href="#corr12">72</a> "... a state far to the West ..." (had "far to far").</span><br />
+<span class="indent2">P. <a href="#corr10">72</a> "... calculated to impress upon ..." (had "calulated").</span><br />
+
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thoughts on African Colonization, by 
+William Lloyd Garrison
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thoughts on African Colonization, by
+William Lloyd Garrison
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Thoughts on African Colonization
+
+Author: William Lloyd Garrison
+
+Release Date: February 4, 2010 [EBook #31178]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOUGHTS ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Pattison, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+This eBook is based on a 1968 reprint by Arno Press, New York, of the
+original edition, published in 1832 by Garrison and Knapp, Boston. The
+Table of Contents has been added by the transcriber.
+
+Inconsistent use of "Mr." and "Mr"; use of variable numbers of asterisks
+as ellipses; irregular and archaic spelling other than noted below;
+inconsistent capitalization (especially Christian vs. christian) and
+hyphenation, are as per the original.
+
+2 blank lines between sequential block quotes indicate a new quote; 1
+blank line indicates a new paragraph in the same quote; this is similar
+to the typesetting of the original.
+
+Footnotes have been re-indexed sequentially, using letters where symbols
+were used and numbers where numbers were used in the original, and
+moved to the end of each section to preserve the flow of the text.
+
+Minor punctuation errors, in particular inconsistent use of quotation
+marks, have been corrected without note. The following typographical
+errors have been corrected:
+
+  Part I.
+    P. 25 "... was held, at which King George, ..." (had "Kings").
+    P. 36 "... Lander, travellers in Africa, represent ..." (had "Afria").
+    P. 48 "... operations have been confined to ..." (had "confied").
+    P. 88 "... superintendence of any government ..." (had "goverment").
+    P. 89 "... such a measure, to point ..." (had "a a").
+    P. 97 "... rid ourselves of a large party ..." (had "lage").
+    Footnote [P] "... the authority which compels ..." (had "which which").
+    P. 126 "... country, of an anomalous race ..." (had "amomalous").
+    P. 127 "... transportation of the manumitted ..." (had "transportion").
+    P. 148 "... that a greater benefit may be ..." (had "may may").
+
+  Part II.
+    P. 72 "... a state far to the West ..." (had "far to far").
+    P. 72 "... calculated to impress upon ..." (had "calulated").
+
+
+
+
+Table of Contents
+
+     PREFACE                                                       xix
+
+  PART I.
+
+     INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.                                           1
+
+     SECTION I.                                                     39
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS PLEDGED NOT TO OPPOSE THE
+     SYSTEM OF SLAVERY.
+
+     SECTION II.                                                    61
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY APOLOGISES FOR SLAVERY AND
+     SLAVEHOLDERS.
+
+     SECTION III.                                                   68
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY RECOGNISES SLAVES AS PROPERTY.
+
+     SECTION IV.                                                    74
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY INCREASES THE VALUE OF SLAVES.
+
+     SECTION V.                                                     78
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE ENEMY OF IMMEDIATE
+     ABOLITION.
+
+     SECTION VI.                                                    95
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS NOURISHED BY FEAR AND
+     SELFISHNESS.
+
+     SECTION VII.                                                  111
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY AIMS AT THE UTTER EXPULSION OF
+     THE BLACKS.
+
+     SECTION VIII.                                                 124
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE DISPARAGER OF THE FREE
+     BLACKS.
+
+     SECTION IX.                                                   134
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY DENIES THE POSSIBILITY OF
+     ELEVATING THE BLACKS IN THIS COUNTRY.
+
+     SECTION X.                                                    151
+
+     THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY DECEIVES AND MISLEADS THE
+     NATION.
+
+  PART II.
+
+     SENTIMENTS OF THE PEOPLE OF COLOR.                              1
+
+
+
+
+                      THOUGHTS
+                         ON
+                AFRICAN COLONIZATION
+
+
+[Illustration: SECTION OF A SLAVE SHIP. _From Walsh's Notes of Brazil._]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+I dedicate this work to my countrymen, in whose intelligence,
+magnanimity and humanity I place the utmost reliance. Although they have
+long suffered themselves to be swayed by a prejudice as unmanly as it is
+wicked, and have departed widely from the golden rule of the gospel, in
+their treatment of the people of color, to suppose that they will always
+be the despisers and persecutors of this unfortunate class is, in my
+opinion, to libel their character. A change in their feelings and
+sentiments is already visible--a change which promises, ere long, to
+redeem their character from the bloody stains which slavery has cast
+upon it, and to release the prisoner from his chains. May they be
+ashamed to persist in a mean and thievish course of conduct, and afraid
+to quarrel with the workmanship of God! May a righteous indignation be
+kindled in their breasts against a combination which is holding them up,
+for the scorn and contempt of other nations, as incorrigible oppressors,
+whom neither self-respect, nor the opinions of mankind, nor the fear of
+God, can bring to repentance! Their duty is plain, and it may easily be
+done. Slavery must be overthrown either by their own moral strength, or
+by the physical strength of the slaves. Let them imitate the example of
+the people of _Great Britain_, by seeking the immediate overthrow of the
+horrid system. Let a National Anti-Slavery Society be immediately
+organized, the object of which shall be, to quicken and consolidate the
+moral influence of the nation, so that Congress and the State
+Legislatures may be burdened with petitions for the removal of the
+evil--to scatter tracts, like rain-drops, over the land, on the subject
+of slavery--to employ active and eloquent agents to plead the cause
+incessantly, and to form auxiliary societies--to encourage planters to
+cultivate their lands by freemen, by offering large premiums; to promote
+education and the mechanical arts among the free people of color, and to
+recover their lost rights. Religious professors, of all denominations,
+must bear unqualified testimony against slavery. They must not support,
+they must not palliate it. No slaveholder ought to be embraced within
+the pale of a christian church; consequently, the churches must be
+purified 'as by fire.' Slavery in the District of Columbia is sustained
+in our national capacity: it ought, therefore, to be prostrated at a
+blow. The clause in the Constitution should be erased, which tolerates,
+greatly to the detriment and injustice of the non-slaveholding States, a
+slave representation in Congress. Why should property be represented at
+the impoverished south, and not at the opulent north?
+
+To impair the force of this exposition, the ardent advocates of the
+Colonization Society will undoubtedly attempt to evade the ground of
+controversy, and lead uncautious minds astray in a labyrinth of
+sophistry. But the question is not, whether the climate of Africa is
+salubrious, nor whether the mortality among the emigrants has been
+excessive, nor whether the colony is in a prosperous condition, nor
+whether the transportation of our whole colored population can be
+effected in thirty years or three centuries, nor whether any slaves have
+been emancipated on condition of banishment; but whether the doctrines
+and principles of the Society accord with the doctrines and principles
+of the gospel, whether slaveholders are the just proprietors of their
+slaves, whether it is not the sacred duty of the nation to abolish the
+system of slavery now, and to recognise the people of color as brethren
+and countrymen who have been unjustly treated and covered with unmerited
+shame. _This is the question--and the only question._
+
+With such a mass of evidence before them, of the pernicious, cruel and
+delusive character of the American Colonization Society, I leave the
+patriot, the philanthropist and the christian to judge of the fitness of
+the following inflated and presumptuous assertions of its
+advocates:--'The plan is of heavenly origin, against which the gates of
+hell shall never prevail'--'a circle of philanthropy, every segment of
+which tells and testifies to the beneficence of the whole'--'addressing
+its claims alike to the patriot, and the christian, it being
+emphatically the cause of liberty, of humanity, of religion'[A]--'so
+full of benevolence and the hallowed impulses of Heaven's own mercy,
+that one might, with the propriety of truth, compare its radiant
+influences to a rainbow, insufferably bright, spanning the sombre clouds
+of human wrong, that have accumulated on the horizon of our country's
+prosperity, and beating back, with calm and heavenly power, the
+blackening storm that always threatens, in growling thunders, a heavy
+retribution'[B]--'that citizen of the United States who lifts a finger
+to retard this institution, nay, that man who does not use his
+persevering efforts to promote its benevolent object, fails, in our
+opinion, to discharge his duty to his God and his
+country'[C][1]--'nothing but a distinct knowledge and a calm
+consideration of the facts in the case, is wanting to make every man of
+common intelligence, common patriotism, and common humanity, the earnest
+friend of the Colonization Society'!![D]
+
+There is one important consideration, which, owing to the contractedness
+of my limits, I have omitted to enforce in this work. It is this: the
+serious injury which our interests must inevitably suffer by the removal
+of our colored population. Their labor is indispensably necessary and
+extremely valuable. By whom shall the plantations at the south be
+cultivated but by them? It is universally conceded that they can resist
+the intensity of a southern sun, and endure the fatigues attendant on
+the cultivation of rice, cotton, tobacco and sugar-cane, better than
+white laborers: at least, their bodies are now inured to this
+employment. I do not believe that any equivalent would induce the
+planters to part with their services, or white laborers to occupy their
+places. In the great cities, and in various parts of the southern
+States, free persons of color constitute a laborious and useful class.
+In a pecuniary point of view, the banishment of one-sixth of our
+population,--of those whom we specially need,--would be an act of
+suicide. The veriest smatterer in political economy cannot but perceive
+the ruinous tendency of such a measure.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] African Repository.
+
+[B] Rev. Mr Maffit's 'Plea for Africa.'
+
+[C] Western Luminary.
+
+[D] Christian Spectator.
+
+[1] The clerical gentleman who presumes to utter this opinion is the
+same who has also the hardihood to assert that 'many of the best
+citizens of our land are holders of slaves, and hold them _in strict
+accordance with the principles of humanity and justice_'!!
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION.
+
+
+PART I.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
+
+
+In attacking the system of slavery, I clearly foresaw all that has
+happened to me. I knew, at the commencement, that my motives would be
+impeached, my warnings ridiculed, my person persecuted, my sanity
+doubted, my life jeoparded: but the clank of the prisoner's chains broke
+upon my ear--it entered deeply into my soul--I looked up to Heaven for
+strength to sustain me in the perilous work of emancipation--and my
+resolution was taken.
+
+In opposing the American Colonization Society, I have also counted the
+cost, and as clearly foreseen the formidable opposition which will be
+arrayed against me. Many of the clergy are enlisted in its support:
+their influence is powerful. Men of wealth and elevated station are
+among its contributors: wealth and station are almost omnipotent. The
+press has been seduced into its support: the press is a potent engine.
+Moreover, the Society is artfully based upon and defended by _popular
+prejudice_: it takes advantage of wicked and preposterous opinions, and
+hence its success. These things grieve, they cannot deter me. 'Truth is
+mighty, and will prevail.' It is able to make falsehood blush, and tear
+from hypocrisy its mask, and annihilate prejudice, and overthrow
+persecution, and break every fetter.
+
+I am constrained to declare, with the utmost sincerity, that I look upon
+the colonization scheme as inadequate in its design, injurious in its
+operation, and contrary to sound principle; and the more scrupulously I
+examine its pretensions, the stronger is my conviction of its
+sinfulness. Nay, were Jehovah to speak in an audible voice from his holy
+habitation, I am persuaded that his language would be, 'Who hath
+required this at your hands?'
+
+It consoles me to believe that no man, who knows me personally or by
+reputation, will suspect the honesty of my skepticism. If I were
+politic, and intent only on my own preferment or pecuniary interest, I
+should swim with the strong tide of public sentiment instead of
+breasting its powerful influence. The hazard is too great, the labor too
+burdensome, the remuneration too uncertain, the contest too unequal, to
+induce a selfish adventurer to assail a combination so formidable.
+Disinterested opposition and sincere conviction, however, are not
+conclusive proofs of individual rectitude; for a man may very honestly
+do mischief, and not be aware of his error. Indeed, it is in this light
+I view many of the friends of African colonization. I concede to them
+benevolence of purpose and expansiveness of heart; but in my opinion,
+they are laboring under the same delusion as that which swayed Saul of
+Tarsus--persecuting the blacks even unto a strange country, and verily
+believing that they are doing God service. I blame them, nevertheless,
+for taking this mighty scheme upon trust; for not perceiving and
+rejecting the monstrous doctrines avowed by the master spirits in the
+crusade; and for feeling so indifferent to the moral, political and
+social advancement of the free people of color in this their only
+legitimate home.
+
+In the progress of this discussion I shall have occasion to use very
+plain, and sometimes very severe language. This would be an unpleasant
+task, did not duty imperiously demand its application. To give offence I
+am loath, but more to hide or modify the truth. I shall deal with the
+Society in its collective form--as one body--and not with individuals.
+While I shall be necessitated to marshal individual opinions in review,
+I protest, _ab origine_, against the supposition that indiscriminate
+censure is intended, or that every friend of the Society cherishes
+similar views. He to whom my reprehension does not apply, will not
+receive it. It is obviously impossible, in attacking a numerous and
+multiform combination, to exhibit private dissimilarities, or in every
+instance to discriminate between the various shades of opinion. It is
+sufficient that exceptions are made. My warfare is against the AMERICAN
+COLONIZATION SOCIETY. If I shall identify its general, preponderating
+and clearly developed traits, it must stand or fall as they shall prove
+benevolent or selfish.
+
+I bring to this momentous investigation an unbiassed mind, a lively
+sense of accountability to God, and devout aspirations for the guidance
+of the Holy Spirit. Unless He 'in whom there is no darkness at all,'
+pours light upon my path, I shall go astray. I have taken Him at His
+word: 'If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given
+him.' Confessing my own foolishness, I have sought that knowledge which
+cannot err.
+
+I would premise, that, like many others, I formerly supposed the
+Colonization Society was a praiseworthy association, although I always
+doubted its efficiency. This opinion was formed for me by others, upon
+whom I placed implicit confidence: it certainly was not based upon any
+research or knowledge of my own, as I had not at that time perused a
+single Report of the Society, nor a page in its organ, the African
+Repository. My approval was the offspring of credulity and ignorance. I
+am explicit on this point, because my opponents have accused me of
+inconsistency--though it ought not surely to disgrace a man, that,
+discovering himself to be in error, he promptly turns to the embrace of
+truth. As if opinions, once formed, must be as irrevocable as the laws
+of the Medes and Persians! If this were so, accountability would lose
+its hold on the conscience, and the light of knowledge be blown out, and
+reason degenerate into brutish instinct. Much stress has been laid upon
+the fact, that, in 1828, I delivered an address in Park-street
+meeting-house on the Fourth of July, on which occasion a collection was
+made in behalf of the American Colonization Society. It is true--but
+whereas I was then blind, now I see. My address, however, was far from
+being acceptable to the friends of colonization who were present, not
+only on account of my denunciation of slaveholders, but because I
+inserted only a single sentence in favor of the Society. In all my
+writings, I have never commended this combination in as many sentences
+as I have used in making this explanation. So much for my marvellous
+apostacy!
+
+It is only about two years since I was induced to examine the claims of
+the Colonization Society upon the patronage and confidence of the
+nation. I went to this examination with a mind biassed by preconceived
+opinions favorable to the Society, and rather for the purpose of
+defending it against opposition than of bringing it into disrepute.
+Every thing, apart from its principles, was calculated to secure my
+friendship. Nothing but its revolting features could have induced me to
+turn loathingly away from its embrace. I had some little reputation to
+sustain; many of my friends were colonizationists; I saw that eminent
+statesmen and honorable men were enlisted in the enterprise; the great
+body of the clergy gave their unqualified support to it; every fourth of
+July the charities of the nation were secured in its behalf; wherever I
+turned my eye in the free States, I saw nothing but unanimity; wherever
+my ear caught a sound, I heard nothing but excessive panegyric. No
+individual had ventured to blow the trumpet of alarm, or exert his
+energies to counteract the influence of the scheme. If an assailant had
+occasionally appeared, he had either fired a random shot and retreated,
+or found in the inefficiency of the Society the only cause for
+hostility. It was at this crisis, and with such an array of motives
+before me to bias my judgment, that I resolved to make a close and
+candid examination of the subject.
+
+I went, first of all, to the fountain head--to the African Repository
+and the Reports of the Society. I was not long in discovering sentiments
+which seemed to me as abhorrent to humanity as contrary to reason. I
+perused page after page, first with perplexity, then with astonishment,
+and finally with indignation. I found little else than sinful
+palliations, fatal concessions, vain expectations, exaggerated
+statements, unfriendly representations, glaring contradictions, naked
+terrors, deceptive assurances, unrelenting prejudices, and unchristian
+denunciations. I collected together the publications of auxiliary
+societies, in order to discern some redeeming traits; but I found them
+marred and disfigured with the same disgusting details. I courted the
+acquaintance of eminent colonizationists, that I might learn how far
+their private sentiments agreed with those which were so offensive in
+print; and I found no dissimilarity between them. I listened to
+discourses from the pulpit in favor of the Society; and the same moral
+obliquities were seen in minister and people.
+
+These discoveries affected my mind so deeply that I could not rest. I
+endeavored to explain away the meaning of plain and obvious language; I
+made liberal concessions for good motives and unsuspicious confidence; I
+resorted to many expedients to vindicate the disinterested benevolence
+of the Society; but I could not rest. The sun in its mid-day splendor
+was not more clear and palpable to my vision, than the anti-christian
+and anti-republican character of this association. It was evident to me
+that the great mass of its supporters at the north did not realise its
+dangerous tendency. They were told that it was designed to effect the
+ultimate emancipation of the slaves--to improve the condition of the
+free people of color--to abolish the foreign slave trade--to reclaim and
+evangelize benighted Africa--and various other marvels. Anxious to do
+something for the colored population--they knew not what--and having no
+other plan presented to their view, they eagerly embraced a scheme which
+was so big with promise, and which required of them nothing but a small
+contribution annually. Perceiving the fatality of this delusion, I was
+urged by an irresistible impulse to attempt its removal. I could not
+turn a deaf ear to the cries of the slaves, nor throw off the
+obligations which my Creator had fastened upon me. Yet in view of the
+inequalities of the contest, of the obstacles which towered like
+mountains in my path, and of my own littleness, I trembled, and
+exclaimed in the language of Jeremiah,--'Ah, Lord God! behold I cannot
+speak: for I am a child.' But I was immediately strengthened by these
+interrogations: 'Is any thing too hard for the Lord?' Is Error, though
+unwittingly supported by a host of good men, stronger than Truth? Are
+Right and Wrong convertible terms, dependant upon popular opinion? Oh
+no! Then I will go forward in the strength of the Lord of Hosts--in the
+name of Truth--and under the banner of Right. As it is not by might nor
+by power, but by the Spirit of God, that great moral changes are
+effected, I am encouraged to fight valiantly in this good cause,
+believing that I shall 'come off conqueror, and more than
+conqueror'--yet not I, but Truth and Justice. It is in such a contest
+that one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.
+'The Lord disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands
+cannot perform their enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own
+craftiness; and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.'
+'Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of
+God is stronger than men.'
+
+Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions and practices of
+notoriously wicked men; but to rebuke great and good men for their
+conduct, and to impeach their discernment, is the highest effort of
+moral courage. The great mass of mankind shun the labor and
+responsibility of forming opinions for themselves. The question is
+not--what is true? but--what is popular? Not--what does God say?
+but--what says the public? Not--what is my opinion? but--what do others
+believe? If people would pin their faith upon the bible, and not upon
+the sleeves of their neighbors, half of the heresies in the world would
+instantly disappear. If they would use their own eyes, their own ears,
+their own understandings, instead of the eyes, and ears, and
+understandings of others, imbecility, credulity and folly would be as
+rare as they are now common in community. But, unhappily, to borrow the
+words of Ganganelli, a large majority of mankind are 'mere abortions:'
+calling themselves rational and intelligent beings, they act as if they
+had neither brains nor conscience, and as if there were no God, no
+accountability, no heaven, no hell, no eternity.
+
+'My minister,' says one, 'is a most worthy man. He supports this
+Society: therefore it is a good institution.' 'Christians of all
+denominations are enlisted in this enterprise,' says another: 'therefore
+it cannot be wrong.' 'Do you think,' says a third, 'that honest, godly
+men would countenance a scheme which is not really benevolent?' But it
+is unwise for beings, who are accountable only to God, to reason in this
+manner. All the good men upon earth cannot make persecution benevolence,
+nor injustice equity; and until they become infallible, implicit
+reliance upon their judgment is criminal. Ministers and christians, a
+few years since, were engaged in the use and sale of ardent spirits;
+_but they were all wrong_, and they now acknowledge their error. At the
+present day, a large proportion of the professed disciples of the Prince
+of Peace maintain the lawfulness of defensive war, and the right of the
+oppressed to fight and kill for liberty; but they hold this sentiment in
+direct opposition to the precepts of their Leader--'I say unto you which
+hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that
+curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.' Surely 'the
+time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.'
+
+I must pause, for a moment, and count the number of those with whom I am
+about to conflict. If I had to encounter only men-stealers and
+slaveholders, victory would be easy; but it is not the south alone that
+is to be subdued. The whole nation is against me. Church after church is
+to be converted, and the powerful influence of the clergy broken. The
+friendship of good men is to be turned into enmity, and their support
+into opposition. It is my task to change their admiration into
+abhorrence; to convince them that their well-meant exertions have been
+misdirected, and productive of greater evil than good; and to induce
+them to abandon an institution to which they now fondly cling.
+
+To those who neither fear God nor regard man--who have sworn eternal
+animosity to their colored countrymen, and whose cry is, 'Away with
+them, we do not want them here!'--I make no appeal. Disregarding as they
+do that divine command, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,' it
+would be idle for me to direct my arguments to them. I address myself
+to high-minded and honorable men, whose heads and hearts are susceptible
+to the force of sound logic. I appeal to those, who have been redeemed
+from the bondage of sin by the precious blood of Christ, and with whom I
+hope to unite in a better world in ascribing glory, and honor, and
+praise to the Great Deliverer for ever. If I can succeed in gaining
+their attention, I feel sure of convincing their understandings and
+securing their support.
+
+Besides the overwhelming odds which are opposed to me, I labor under
+other very serious disadvantages. My efforts in the cause of
+emancipation have been received as if they were intended to bring chaos
+back again, and to give the land up to pillage and its inhabitants to
+slaughter. My calls for an alteration in the feelings and practices of
+the people toward the blacks have been regarded as requiring a sacrifice
+of all the rules of propriety, and as seeking an overthrow of the
+established laws of nature! I have been thrust into prison, and amerced
+in a heavy fine. Epithets, huge and unseemly, have been showered upon me
+without mercy. I have been branded as a fanatic, a madman, a disturber
+of the peace, an incendiary, a cutthroat, a monster, &c. &c. &c.
+Assassination has been threatened me in a multitude of anonymous
+letters. Private and public rewards to a very large amount, by
+combinations of individuals and by legislative bodies at the south, have
+been offered to any persons who shall abduct or destroy me. 'Yea, mine
+own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath
+lifted up his heel against me.' This malignity of opposition and
+proximity of danger, however, are like oil to the fire of my zeal. I am
+not deliriously enthusiastic--I do not covet to be a martyr; but I had
+rather die a thousand deaths, than witness the horrible oppression under
+which more than two millions of my countrymen groan, _and be silent_. No
+reproaches, no dangers shall deter me. At the north or the south, at the
+east or the west,--wherever Providence may call me,--my voice shall be
+heard in behalf of the perishing slave, and against the claims of his
+oppressor. Mine is the frank avowal of the excellent WILBERFORCE:--I can
+admit of no compromise when the commands of equity and philanthropy are
+so imperious. I wash my hands of the blood that may be spilled. I
+protest against the system, as the most flagrant violation of every
+principle of justice and humanity. I NEVER WILL DESERT THE CAUSE. In my
+task it is impossible to tire: it fills my mind with complacency and
+peace. At night I lie down with composure, and rise to it in the morning
+with alacrity. I NEVER WILL DESIST FROM THIS BLESSED WORK.
+
+Now that the concentrated execration of the civilized world is poured
+upon those who engage in the foreign slave trade, how mild and
+inefficient, comparatively speaking, seem to have been the rebukes of
+Pitt, and Fox, and Wilberforce, and Clarkson! Yet these rebukes were
+once deemed fanatical and outrageous by good men--yea, like flames of
+fire, threatening a universal conflagration! So the denunciations which
+I am now hurling against slavery and its abettors,--which seem to many
+so violent and unmerited,--will be considered moderate, pertinent and
+just, when this murderous, soul-destroying system shall have been
+overthrown.
+
+Fanaticism has been the crime alleged against reformers in all ages.
+'These,' it was said of the apostles, 'that have turned the world upside
+down, come hither also.' Luther was a madman in his day: what is he now
+in the estimation of the friends of civil and religious liberty? One of
+
+    'Those starry lights of virtue, that diffuse
+    Through the dark depths of time their vivid flame.'
+
+That base and desperate men should thus stigmatize those who endure the
+cross as good soldiers, and walk as pilgrims and strangers here, is not
+wonderful; but that the professed followers of Jesus Christ should join
+in this hue-and-cry is lamentable. Singular enough, I have been almost
+as cruelly aspersed by ministers of the gospel and church members, as by
+any other class of men. Unacquainted with me, and ignorant of my
+sentiments, they have readily believed the accusations of my enemies.
+The introduction of my name into conversation has elicited from them
+contemptuous sneers or strong denunciations. I have a right to complain
+of this treatment, and I do strongly protest against it as unchristian,
+hurtful and ungenerous. To prejudge and condemn an individual, on vague
+and apocryphal rumors, without listening to his defence or examining
+evidence, is tyranny. Perhaps I am in error--perhaps I deserve
+unqualified condemnation; but I am at least entitled to a privilege
+which is granted to the vilest criminals, namely, the privilege of a
+fair trial. I ask nothing more. To accuse me of heresy, madness and
+sedition, is one thing; to substantiate the accusation, another.
+
+Should this work chance to fall into the hands of those who have thus
+ignorantly reprobated my course, I appeal to their sense of rectitude
+whether they are not bound to give it a candid and deliberate perusal;
+and if they shall find in my writings nothing contrary to the immutable
+principles of justice, whether they ought not to be as strenuous in my
+defence as they have been hitherto in seeking my overthrow.
+
+To show that I do not vacate any pledge which I have given to the
+public, I shall here insert all the specifications, which, from time to
+time, I have brought against the American Colonization Society. In 'The
+Liberator' of April 23, 1831, is the following serious compend:
+
+    'I am prepared to show, that those who have entered into this
+    CONSPIRACY AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS are unanimous in abusing their
+    victims; unanimous in their mode of attack; unanimous in
+    proclaiming the absurdity, that our free blacks are natives of
+    Africa; unanimous in propagating the libel, that they cannot be
+    elevated and improved in this country; unanimous in opposing
+    their instruction; unanimous in exciting the prejudices of the
+    people against them; unanimous in apologising for the crime of
+    slavery; unanimous in conceding the right of the planters to
+    hold their slaves in a limited bondage; unanimous in their
+    hollow pretence for colonizing, namely, to evangelize Africa;
+    unanimous in their _true motive_ for the measure--a terror lest
+    the blacks should rise to avenge their accumulated wrongs. It is
+    a conspiracy to send the free people of color to Africa under a
+    benevolent pretence, but really that the slaves may be held more
+    securely in bondage. It is a conspiracy based upon fear,
+    oppression and falsehood, which draws its aliment from the
+    prejudices of the people, which is sustained by duplicity, which
+    really upholds the slave system, which fascinates while it
+    destroys, which endangers the safety and happiness of the
+    country, which no precept of the bible can justify, which is
+    implacable in its spirit, which should be annihilated at a blow.
+
+    'These are my accusations; and if I do not substantiate them, I
+    am willing to be covered with reproach.'
+
+The following is copied from an editorial article of July 9, 1831:
+
+    'The superstructure of the Colonization Society rests upon the
+    following pillars:
+
+    '1st. _Persecution._ It declares that the whole colored
+    population must be removed to Africa; but as the free portion
+    are almost _unanimously_ opposed to a removal, it seems to be
+    the determination of the Society to make their situations so
+    uncomfortable and degraded here, as to compel them to migrate:
+    consequently it discourages their education and improvement in
+    this their native home. This is persecution.
+
+    '2d. _Falsehood._ It stigmatises our colored citizens as being
+    natives of Africa, and talks of sending them to their native
+    land; when they are no more related to Africa than we are to
+    Great Britain.
+
+    '3d. _Cowardice._ It avows as a prominent reason why colored
+    citizens ought to be removed, that their continuance among us
+    will be dangerous to us as a people! This is a libel upon their
+    character. Instead of demanding justice for this oppressed
+    class, the Society calls for their removal!
+
+    '4th. _Infidelity._ It boldly denies that there is power enough
+    in the gospel to melt down the prejudices of men, and insists,
+    that, so long as the people of color remain among us, _we must
+    be their enemies!_--Every honest man should abhor the doctrine.'
+
+In 'The Liberator' of July 30, 1831, alluding to the present work, I
+used the following language:
+
+    'I shall be willing to stake my reputation upon it for honesty,
+    prudence, benevolence, truth and sagacity. If I do not prove the
+    Colonization Society to be a creature without heart, without
+    brains, eyeless, unnatural, hypocritical, relentless, unjust,
+    then nothing is capable of demonstration--then let me be covered
+    with confusion of face.'
+
+The following paragraph is extracted from 'The Liberator' of November
+19, 1831:
+
+    'It is the enemy of immediate restitution to the slaves; it
+    courts and receives the approbation of notorious slave owners;
+    it deprecates any interference with slave property; it
+    discourages the improvement of the colored population, except
+    they are removed to the shores of Africa; it is lulling the
+    country into a fatal sleep, pretending to be something when it
+    is nothing; it is utterly chimerical, as well as intolerant, in
+    its design; it serves to increase the value of the slaves, and
+    to make brisk the foreign and domestic slave trade; it nourishes
+    and justifies the most cruel prejudices against color; it sneers
+    at those who advocate the bestowal of equal rights upon our
+    colored countrymen; it contends for an indefinite, dilatory,
+    far-off emancipation; it expressly declares that it is more
+    humane to keep the slaves in chains, than to give them freedom
+    in this country! In short, it is the most compendious and best
+    adapted scheme to uphold the slave system that human ingenuity
+    can invent. Moreover, it is utterly and irreconcileably opposed
+    to the wishes and sentiments of the great body of the free
+    people of color, repeatedly expressed in the most public manner,
+    but cruelly disregarded by it.'
+
+The following passages are taken from my Address to the People of Color,
+delivered in various places in June, 1831:
+
+    'Let me briefly examine the doctrines of colonizationists. They
+    generally agree in publishing the misstatement, that you are
+    strangers and foreigners. Surely they know better. They know,
+    that, as a body, you are no more natives of Africa, than they
+    themselves are natives of Great Britain. Yet they repeat the
+    absurd charge; and they do so, in order to cover their
+    anti-republican crusade. But suppose you were foreigners: would
+    such an accident justify this persecution and removal? And, if
+    so, then all foreigners must come under the same ban, and must
+    prepare to depart. There would be, in that case, a most alarming
+    deduction from our population. Suppose a philanthropic and
+    religious crusade were got up against the Dutch, the French, the
+    Swiss, the Irish, among us, to remove them to New Holland, to
+    enlighten and civilize her cannibals? Who would not laugh at the
+    scheme--who would not actively oppose it? Would any one blame
+    the above classes for steadfastly resisting it? Just so, then,
+    in regard to African colonization. But our colored population
+    are not aliens; they were born on our soil; they are bone of our
+    bone, and flesh of our flesh; their fathers fought bravely to
+    achieve our independence during the revolutionary war, without
+    immediate or subsequent compensation; they spilt their blood
+    freely during the last war; they are entitled, in fact, to every
+    inch of our southern, and much of our western territory, having
+    worn themselves out in its cultivation, and received nothing but
+    wounds and bruises in return. Are these the men to stigmatize as
+    foreigners?
+
+    'Colonizationists generally agree in asserting that the people
+    of color cannot be elevated in this country, nor be admitted to
+    equal privileges with the whites. Is not this a libel upon
+    humanity and justice--a libel upon republicanism--a libel upon
+    the Declaration of Independence--a libel upon christianity? "All
+    men are born equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain
+    inalienable rights--among which are life, liberty, and the
+    pursuit of happiness." What is the meaning of that declaration?
+    That _all_ men possess these rights--whether they are six feet
+    five inches high, or three feet two and a half--whether they
+    weigh three hundred or one hundred pounds--whether they parade
+    in broadcloth or flutter in rags--whether their skins are jet
+    black or lily white--whether their hair is straight or woolly,
+    auburn or red, black or gray--does it not? We, who are present,
+    differ from each other in our looks, in our color, in height,
+    and in bulk; we have all shades, and aspects, and sizes. Now,
+    would it not be anti-republican and anti-christian for us to
+    quarrel about sitting on this seat or that, because this man's
+    complexion is too dark, or that man's looks are too ugly? and to
+    put others out of the house, because they happen to be ignorant,
+    or poor, or helpless? To commit this violence would be evidently
+    wrong: then to do it in a large assemblage--in a community, in a
+    state, or in a nation, it is equally unjust. But is not this
+    the colonization principle? Who are the individuals that
+    applaud, that justify, that advocate this exclusion? Who are
+    they that venture to tell the American people, that they have
+    neither honesty enough, nor patriotism enough, nor morality
+    enough, nor religion enough, to treat their colored brethren as
+    countrymen and citizens? Some of them--I am sorry to say--are
+    professedly ministers of the gospel; others are christian
+    professors; others are judges and lawyers; others are our
+    Senators and Representatives; others are editors of newspapers.
+    These ministers and christians dishonor the gospel which they
+    profess; these judges and lawyers are the men spoken of by the
+    Saviour, who bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and
+    lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move
+    them with one of their fingers. These Senators and
+    Representatives ought not to receive the suffrages of the
+    people. These editors are unworthy of public patronage.
+
+    'Colonizationists too generally agree in discouraging your
+    instruction and elevation at home. They pretend that ignorance
+    is bliss; and therefore 'tis folly to be wise. They pretend that
+    knowledge is a dangerous thing in the head of a colored man;
+    they pretend that you have no ambition; they pretend that you
+    have no brains; in fine, they pretend a thousand other absurd
+    things--they are a combination of pretences. What tyranny is
+    this! Shutting up the human intellect--binding with chains the
+    inward man--and perpetuating ignorance. May we not address them
+    in the language of Christ? "Wo unto you, scribes and pharisees,
+    hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men:
+    for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are
+    entering to go in! Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin,
+    and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment,
+    mercy and faith."
+
+    'Colonizationists generally agree in apologising for the crime
+    of slavery. They get behind the contemptible subterfuge, that it
+    was entailed upon the planters. As if the continuance of the
+    horrid system were not criminal! as if the robberies of another
+    generation justify the robberies of the present! as if the
+    slaves had not an inalienable right to freedom! as if slavery
+    were not an individual as well as a national crime! as if the
+    tearing asunder families, limb from limb,--branding the flesh
+    with red hot irons,--mangling the body with whips and
+    knives,--feeding it on husks and clothing it with
+    rags,--crushing the intellect and destroying the soul,--as if
+    such inconceivable cruelty were not chargeable to those who
+    inflict it!
+
+    'As to the effect of colonization upon slavery, it is rather
+    favorable than injurious to the system. Now and then, indeed,
+    there is a great flourish of trumpets, and glowing accounts of
+    the willingness of planters to emancipate their slaves on
+    condition of transportation to Africa. Now and then a slave is
+    actually manumitted and removed, and the incident is dwelt upon
+    for months. Why, my friends, hundreds of worn-out slaves are
+    annually turned off to die, like old horses. No doubt their
+    masters will thank the Colonization Society, or any one else, to
+    send them out of the country; especially as they will gain much
+    glorification in the newspapers, for their _disinterested_
+    sacrifices. Let no man be deceived by these manoeuvres.
+
+    'My time is consumed--and yet I have scarcely entered upon the
+    threshold of my argument. Now, what a spectacle is presented to
+    the world!--the American people, boasting of their free and
+    equal rights--of their abhorrence of aristocratical
+    distinctions--of their republican equality; proclaiming on every
+    wind, "that all men are born _equal_, and endowed with certain
+    inalienable _rights_," and that this land is an asylum for the
+    persecuted of all nations; and yet as loudly proclaiming that
+    they are determined to deprive millions of their own countrymen
+    of every political and social right, and to send them to a
+    barbarous continent, because the Creator has given them a sable
+    complexion. Where exists a more rigorous despotism? What
+    conspiracy was ever more cruel? What hypocrisy and
+    tergiversation so enormous? The story is proclaimed in our
+    pulpits, in our state and national assemblies, in courts of law,
+    in religious and secular periodicals,--among all parties, and in
+    all quarters of the country,--that there is a _moral incapacity_
+    in the people to do justly, love mercy, and to walk
+    uprightly--that they must always be the enemies and oppressors
+    of the colored people--that no love of liberty, no dictate of
+    duty, no precept of republicanism, no dread of retribution, no
+    claim of right, no injunction of the gospel, can possibly
+    persuade them to do unto their colored countrymen, as they would
+    that they should do unto them in a reversal of circumstances.
+    Now, to these promulgators of unrighteousness, with the
+    Declaration of Independence in one hand, and the Bible in the
+    other, I fearlessly give battle. Rich and mighty and numerous as
+    they are, by the help of the Lord I will put them to open shame.
+    They shall not libel me, they shall not libel my country, with
+    impunity. They shall not make our boasted republicanism a
+    by-word and a hissing among all nations, nor sink the christian
+    religion below heathen idolatry; and if they persist in
+    publishing their scandalous proclamations, they shall be
+    labelled as the enemies of their species and of the republic,
+    and treated accordingly.
+
+    'The Colonization Society, therefore, instead of being a
+    philanthropic and religious institution, is anti-republican and
+    anti-christian in its tendency. Its pretences are false, its
+    doctrines odious, its means contemptible. If we are to send away
+    the colored population because they are profligate and vicious,
+    what sort of missionaries will they make? Why not send away the
+    vicious among the whites, for the same reason and the same
+    purpose? If ignorance be a crime, where shall we begin to
+    select? How much must a man know to save him from
+    transportation? How white must he be? If we send away a mixed
+    breed, how many will be left? If foreigners only, then the
+    people of color must remain--for they are our countrymen. Would
+    foreigners submit? No--not for an instant. Why should the
+    American people make this enormous expenditure of life and
+    money? Why not use the funds of the Society to instruct and
+    elevate our colored population at home? This would be rational
+    and serviceable. Instead of removing men from a land of
+    civilization and knowledge--of schools, and seminaries, and
+    colleges--to give them instruction in a land of darkness and
+    desolation--would it not be wiser and better to reverse the
+    case, and bring the ignorant here for cultivation?'
+
+The foregoing accusations are grave, weighty, positive--involving a
+perilous responsibility, and requiring ample and irrefragable proof.
+They are expressed in vehement terms: but to measure the propriety of
+language, we must first examine the character of the system, or the
+nature of the object, against which it is directed. If we see a person
+wilfully abusing the goods of an individual, we may reprehend him, but
+with comparative mildness. If we see him maiming, or in any way
+maltreating another man's cattle, we may increase the severity of our
+rebuke. But if we see him violating all the social and sacred relations
+of life,--daily defrauding a number of his fellow creatures of the
+fruits of their toil, calling them his property, selling them for money,
+lacerating their bodies, and ruining their souls,--we may use the
+strongest terms of moral indignation. Nor is plain and vehement
+denunciation of crime inconsistent with the most benevolent feelings
+towards the perpetrators of it. We are sustained in these positions by
+the example of Christ, and the apostles, and the prophets, and the
+reformers.
+
+So, also, if there be an institution, the direct tendency of which is to
+perpetuate slavery, to encourage persecution, and to invigorate
+prejudice,--although many of its supporters may be actuated by pure
+motives,--it ought to receive unqualified condemnation.
+
+It is proper to call things by their right names. What does the law term
+him who steals your pocket-book, or breaks into your dwelling, or strips
+you on the highway? A robber! Is the charge inflammatory or unjust? or
+will it please the villain? The abuse of language is seen only in its
+misapplication. Those who object to the strength of my denunciation must
+prove its perversion before they accuse me of injustice.
+
+Probably I may be interrogated by individuals,--'Why do you object to a
+colony in Africa? Are you not willing people should choose their own
+places of residence? And if the blacks are willing to remove, why throw
+obstacles in their path or deprecate their withdrawal? All go
+_voluntarily_: of what, then, do you complain? Is not the colony at
+Liberia in a flourishing condition, and expanding beyond the most
+sanguine expectations of its founders?'
+
+Pertinent questions deserve pertinent answers. I say, then, in reply,
+that I do not object to a colony, _in the abstract_--to use the popular
+phraseology of the day. In other words, I am entirely willing men
+should be as free as the birds in choosing the time when, the mode how,
+and the place where they shall migrate. The power of locomotion was
+given to be used at will; as beings of intelligence and enterprise,
+
+    'The world is all before them, where to choose
+    Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.'
+
+The emigration from New-England to the far West is constant and large.
+Almost every city, town or village suffers annually by the departure of
+some of its adventurous inhabitants. Companies have been formed to go
+and possess the Oregon territory--an enterprise hazardous and
+unpromising in the extreme. The old States are distributing their
+population over the whole continent, with unexampled fruitfulness and
+liberality. But why this restless, roving, unsatisfied disposition? Is
+it because those who cherish it are treated as the offscouring of all
+flesh, in the place of their birth? or because they do not possess equal
+rights and privileges with other citizens? or because they are the
+victims of incorrigible hate and prejudice? or because they are told
+that they must choose between exilement and perpetual degradation? or
+because the density of population renders it impossible for them to
+obtain preferment and competence here? or because they are estranged by
+oppression and scorn? or because they cherish no attachment to their
+native soil, to the scenes of their childhood and youth, or to the
+institutions of government? or because they consider themselves as
+dwellers in a strange land, and feel a burning desire, a feverish
+longing to return home? No. They lie under no odious disabilities,
+whether imposed by public opinion or by legislative power; to them the
+path of preferment is wide open; they sustain a solid and honorable
+reputation; they not only can rise, but have risen, and may soar still
+higher, to responsible stations and affluent circumstances; no calamity
+afflicts, no burden depresses, no reproach excludes, no despondency
+enfeebles them; and they love the spot of their nativity almost to
+idolatry. The air of heaven is not freer or more buoyant than they.
+Theirs is a spirit of curiosity and adventurous enterprise, impelled by
+no malignant influences, but by the spontaneous promptings of the mind.
+Far different is the case of our colored population. Their _voluntary_
+banishment is _compulsory_--they are _forced_ to turn _volunteers_, as
+will be shown in other parts of this work.
+
+The following proposition is self-evident: The success of an enterprise
+furnishes no proof that it is in accordance with justice, or that it
+meets the approbation of God, or that it ought to be prosecuted to its
+consummation, or that it is the fruit of disinterested benevolence.
+
+I do not doubt that the Colony at Liberia, by a prodigal expenditure of
+life and money, will ultimately flourish; but a good result would no
+more hallow that persecution which is seeking to drag the blacks away,
+than it would if we should burn every distillery, and shut up in prison
+every vender of ardent spirits, in order to do good and to prevent
+people from becoming drunkards. Because Jehovah overrules evil for good,
+shall we therefore continue to do evil?
+
+If ten thousand white mechanics, farmers, merchants, &c. &c. were to
+emigrate to Africa, does any man doubt whether permanent good would
+result from the enterprise--good to that benighted continent, which
+would counterbalance all the sacrifices and sufferings attending it? And
+yet is there a single mechanic, farmer or merchant, who feels it to be
+his duty, or would be willing to go? Suppose the people of color should
+get the power into their hands to-morrow, and should argue that the
+whites must not be admitted to equal privileges with themselves; but
+that, having so long plundered Africa, and oppressed her children,
+justice demanded that they should be sent to that desolate land to build
+up colonies, and carry the light of civilization and knowledge, as a
+sort of reparation--and that, having superior instruction in literature
+and science, they were peculiarly qualified for such a mission--how
+would this doctrine relish? 'It is a poor rule that will not work both
+ways,' says the proverb. Yet this logic would be more sound than is our
+own with regard to the colonization of the blacks.
+
+On this point, deception is practised to a great extent. The advocates
+of the Colonization Society are constantly aiming to divert public
+attention from the only proper subject of inquiry, namely, 'Is it based
+upon benevolence and justice?'--to the success of the colony. Granting
+all that they assert, it proves nothing; but of this success I shall
+have occasion, doubtless, to speak hereafter. Fine stories are trumpeted
+all over the country, of the happiness, intelligence, industry, virtue,
+enterprise and dignity of the colonists; and changes, absolutely
+miraculous, are gravely recorded for the admiration and credulity of
+community. 'The simple,' says Solomon, 'believeth every word: but the
+prudent man looketh well to his going.'
+
+The doctrine, that the 'end sanctifies the means,' belongs, I trust,
+exclusively to the creed of the Jesuits. If I were sure that the Society
+would accomplish the entire regeneration of Africa by its present
+measures, my detestation of its principles would not abate one jot, nor
+would I bestow upon it the smallest modicum of praise. Never shall the
+fruits of the mercy and overruling providence of God,--ever bringing
+good out of evil and light out of darkness,--be ascribed to the
+prejudice and sin of man.
+
+It is certain that many a poor native African has been led to embrace
+the gospel, in consequence of his transportation to our shores, who else
+had lived and died a heathen. Is the slave trade therefore a blessing?
+Suppose one of those wretches who are engaged in this nefarious commerce
+were brought before the Supreme Court, and being convicted, should be
+asked by the Judge, whether he had aught to say why sentence of death
+should not be pronounced upon him? And suppose the culprit should espy
+some of his sable victims in court, whom he knew had made a profession
+of faith, and he should boldly reply--'May it please your Honor, I
+abducted these people away from their homes, it is true; but they were
+poor, miserable, benighted idolators, and must have inevitably remained
+as such unto the hour of their death, if I had not brought them to this
+land of christianity and bibles, where they have been taught a knowledge
+of the true God, and are now rejoicing in hope of a glorious
+immortality. I therefore offer as a conclusive reason why sentence
+should not be pronounced, _that I have rescued souls from perdition_,
+and thus enlarged the company of the saints in light.' Would the villain
+be acquitted, and, instead of a halter, receive the panegyric of the
+Court for his conduct?
+
+Our pilgrim fathers, not being able to worship God according to the
+dictates of their own consciences in the mother country, were compelled
+by ecclesiastical despotism to seek a refuge in this rude and barbarous
+continent. Wonderful have been the fruits of their expulsion! A mighty
+republic established--the freest, the wisest, the most religious on
+earth!--influencing the world by its example, and exciting the emulation
+of all nations! Now suppose we should occasionally find in the pages of
+the Edinburgh or Quarterly Review, or in the columns of the English
+newspapers, not only a full justification of this oppressive treatment
+in view of its astonishing consequences, but a claim to approbation on
+account of its exercise. Would not such effrontery amaze us? Would not
+an honest indignation burn within us? Should we look with a more
+complacent aspect upon the bigots who kindled those fires of persecution
+around the Puritans, which, but for the interposition of Heaven, had
+consumed them to ashes?
+
+The death of our Lord Jesus Christ was essential to the salvation of the
+world. Suppose Judas, at the judgment day, should build upon this fact
+in extenuation of his dreadful crime. What would be the decision of the
+assembled universe? Yea, what was the condemnation passed upon him by
+the Illustrious Sufferer? 'Wo to that man by whom the Son of man is
+betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born!'
+
+Let not, then, any imaginary or real prosperity of the settlement at
+Liberia lead any individual to applaud the Colonization Society,
+reckless whether it be actuated by mistaken philanthropy, or perverted
+generosity, or selfish policy, or unchristian prejudice.
+
+I should oppose this Society, even were its doctrines harmless. It
+imperatively and effectually seals up the lips of a vast number of
+influential and pious men, who, for fear of giving offence to those
+slaveholders with whom they associate, and thereby leading to a
+dissolution of the compact, dare not expose the flagrant enormities of
+the system of slavery, nor denounce the crime of holding human beings in
+bondage. They dare not lead to the onset against the forces of tyranny;
+and if _they_ shrink from the conflict, how shall the victory be won? I
+do not mean to aver, that, in their sermons, or addresses, or private
+conversations, they never allude to the subject of slavery; for they do
+so frequently, or at least every Fourth of July. But my complaint is,
+that they content themselves with representing slavery as an evil,--a
+misfortune,--a calamity which has been entailed upon us by former
+generations,--_and not as an individual_ CRIME, embracing in its folds
+robbery, cruelty, oppression and piracy. _They do not identify the
+criminals_; they make no direct, pungent, earnest appeal to the
+consciences of men-stealers; by consenting to walk arm-in-arm with them,
+they virtually agree to abstain from all offensive remarks, and to aim
+entirely at the expulsion of the free people of color; their lugubrious
+exclamations, and solemn animadversions, and reproachful reflections,
+are altogether indefinite; they 'go about, and about, and all the way
+round to nothing;' they generalize, they shoot into the air, they do not
+disturb the repose nor wound the complacency of the sinner; 'they have
+put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed
+difference between the unclean and the clean.' Thus has free inquiry
+been suppressed, and a universal fear created, and the tongue of the
+boldest silenced, and the sleep of death fastened upon the nation.
+'Truth has fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter.' The plague
+is raging with unwonted fatality; but no _cordon sanitaire_ is
+established--no adequate remedy sought. The tide of moral death is
+constantly rising and widening; but no efforts are made to stay its
+desolating career. The fire of God's indignation is kindling against us,
+and thick darkness covers the heavens, and the hour of retribution is at
+hand; but we are obstinate in our transgression, we refuse to repent, we
+impiously throw the burden of our guilt upon our predecessors, we affect
+resignation to our _unfortunate_ lot, we descant upon the mysterious
+dispensations of Providence, we deem ourselves objects of God's
+compassion rather than of his displeasure. 'Shall I not visit for these
+things? saith the Lord. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as
+this?'
+
+Were the American Colonization Society bending its energies directly to
+the immediate abolition of slavery; seeking to enlighten and consolidate
+public opinion, on this momentous subject; faithfully exposing the
+awful guilt of the owners of slaves; manfully contending for the
+bestowal of equal rights upon our free colored population in this their
+native land; assiduously endeavoring to uproot the prejudices of
+society; and holding no fellowship with oppressors; my opposition to it
+would cease. It might continue to bestow its charities upon those who
+should desire to seek another country, and at the same time launch its
+thunders against the system of oppression. But, alas! it looks to the
+banishment of the free people of color as the only means to abolish
+slavery, and conciliate the feelings of the planters.
+
+The popularity of the Society is not attributable to its merits, but
+exclusively to its congeniality with those unchristian prejudices which
+have so long been cherished against a sable complexion. It is agreeable
+to slaveholders, because it is striving to remove a class of persons who
+they fear may stir up their slaves to rebellion; all who avow undying
+hostility to the people of color are in favor of it; all who shrink from
+acknowledging them as brethren and friends, or who make them a distinct
+and inferior caste, or who deny the possibility of elevating them in the
+scale of improvement here, most heartily embrace it. Having ample funds,
+it has been able to circulate its specious appeals in every part of the
+country; and to employ active and eloquent agents, who have glowingly
+described to the people the immense advantages to be reaped from the
+accomplishment of its designs. With this entire preoccupancy of the
+ground, and these common though unworthy dispositions in its favor, the
+wonder is, that it is not more popular.
+
+Much cleverness is not requisite to tell a fine story; and a fine story
+is always agreeable to a credulous listener. An agent of the Society
+goes into a place, and finds no difficulty in procuring a pulpit from
+which to address a congregation. The benevolent pastor, who, perhaps,
+has had neither time nor opportunity to examine the principles of the
+Society, readily officiates on the occasion, and, in the fulness of his
+heart, believing that he is not asking amiss, supplicates the
+benediction of Heaven upon the object of the meeting. This co-operation
+of the pastor with the agent makes an impression decidedly favorable to
+the latter upon the minds of the audience, and prepares them to receive
+his statements with confidence. He first dwells upon the miserable
+condition of Africa--desolated with civil wars--the prey of
+kidnappers--given up to idolatry--full of intellectual darkness and
+spiritual death--and bleeding at every pore. He next depicts the horrors
+of the slave trade, and shows how inefficient have been the laws enacted
+for its suppression. He finally expatiates upon the evils and dangers of
+slavery; and is particularly minute in describing the degradation of the
+free people of color, which he declares to be irreclaimable in this land
+of gospel light. 'Now, my christian brethren and friends,' he continues,
+'the object of the American Colonization Society is to stay the effusion
+of blood, to give light to them who sit in darkness, and to make
+reparation for the wrongs which have been inflicted upon the sable sons
+of Africa. As the people of color must evidently be a distinct and
+degraded class while they reside in this country, and as they are
+threatened with universal proscription, the Society benevolently
+proposes to send them back _to their native country_, by their own
+_voluntary_ consent, together with those slaves who may be emancipated
+for this purpose, where they may enjoy equal rights and privileges, nor
+longer retain any sense of inferiority to the whites. Every emigrant
+will go as a missionary to reclaim the poor natives from their
+barbarism, and to spread the tidings of salvation throughout the African
+continent. By forming a chain of colonies along the coast, a speedy
+check will be given to the accursed slave trade,--a trade which cannot
+be destroyed in any other manner. Who does not desire to see Africa
+civilized and evangelized? Whose heart does not leap in view of the
+suppression of the slave trade? Who does not pray for deliverance from
+the evils of slavery? Who does not wish to behold the free people of
+color,--cursed with ineffectual freedom here,--_recalled from their
+banishment_, and placed where no obstacles will impede their march to
+affluence, preferment and honor? The Colonization Society, then,
+powerfully commends itself to the christian, the philanthropist and the
+patriot--to every section of our country and to all denominations of
+men.'
+
+Exquisite! The picture is crowded with attractions, delightful to the
+eye. The story is skilfully told, and implicitly believed; but, like
+every other story, it has two sides to it. So complete is the delusion,
+however, that many good people are ready to class those who denounce the
+Colonization Society, among the opposers of foreign missions, bible and
+tract societies, and the other benevolent operations of the age!
+
+Far be it from me to accuse the agents of the Society of intentionally
+perverting the truth or deliberately imposing upon the credulity of the
+public. Some--perhaps all of them, are men of sincerity and probity;
+but, deluded themselves, they help to delude others. Their vision is
+imperfect; and 'if the blind lead the blind,' we may expect to find them
+in the same ditch together.
+
+Great complacency has been manifested on various occasions, by the
+advocates of the Society, on the ground that it was at first suspected
+of sinister designs, both at the north and the south, but is now
+receiving the countenance of both. This exultation is premature. The
+opposition formerly manifested to the Society by the holders of slaves,
+grew out of their ignorance of its purpose; but a very large majority of
+them now perceive that it is their devoted servant, crouching down at
+their feet, shielding them from reproach, dragging those away whom they
+dread, allowing them to sin with impunity, and generously granting them
+and their children whole centuries in which to repent, and to surrender
+what they have stolen! It dissuades them from emancipating their slaves
+faster than they can be transported to Africa; and thus regards their
+persistance in robbery and oppression as evidence of wisdom, benevolence
+and sanity! It is natural, that, discovering their mistake, they should
+now rally in a body around the Society; and, consequently, we find that
+the legislatures of the several slaveholding States are passing
+encomiums upon it, and in some instances appropriating sums of money to
+be paid over to it by instalments.
+
+The people of the north have been shamefully duped by this scheme; but,
+like the slaveholders, they begin to discover their error. Unlike them,
+however, they are withdrawing their support, in obedience to the
+injunction of the Apostle: 'Be ye not unequally yoked together with
+unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with
+unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what
+concord hath Christ with Belial? Wherefore come out from among them, and
+be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I
+will receive you.'
+
+To Africa this country owes a debt larger than she is able to liquidate.
+Most intensely do I desire to see that ill-fated continent transformed
+into the abode of civilization, of the arts and sciences, of evangelical
+piety, of liberty, and of all that adds to the dignity, the renown, and
+the temporal and eternal happiness of man. Shame and confusion of face
+belong to the Church, that she has so long disregarded the claims of
+Africa upon her sympathies, and prayers, and liberality--claims as much
+superior as its wrongs to those of any other portion of the globe. It is
+indeed most strange that, like the Priest and the Levite, she should
+have 'passed by on the other side,' and left the victim of thieves to
+bleed and sicken and die. As the Africans were the only people doomed to
+perpetual servitude, and to be the prey of kidnappers, she should have
+long since directed almost her undivided efforts to civilize and convert
+them,--not by establishing colonies of ignorant and selfish foreigners
+among them, who will seize every opportunity to overreach or oppress, as
+interest or ambition shall instigate,--but by sending intelligent, pious
+missionaries; men fearing God and eschewing evil--living evidences of
+the excellence of christianity--having but one object, not the
+possession of wealth or the obtainment of power or the gratification of
+selfishness, but _the salvation of the soul_. Had she made this attempt,
+as she was bound to have made it by every principle of justice and every
+feeling of humanity, a century ago, Africa would have been, at the
+present day, 'redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled,' and the slavery
+of her children brought to an end. No pirates would now haunt her coast
+to desolate her villages with fire and sword, in order to supply a
+christian people with hewers of wood and drawers of water. How much has
+been needlessly lost to the world by this criminal neglect!
+
+The conception of evangelizing a heathenish country by sending to it an
+illiterate, degraded and irreligious population, belongs exclusively to
+the advocates of African colonization. For absurdity and inaptitude, it
+stands, and must forever stand, without a parallel. Of all the offspring
+of prejudice and oppression, it is the most shapeless and unnatural. But
+more of this hereafter.
+
+History is full of instruction on the subject of colonization. The
+establishment of colonies, in all ages, with scarcely an exception, has
+resulted either in their subversion by the vices or physical strength of
+the natives, or by a fatal amalgamation with them; or else in the rapid
+destruction of the natives by the superior knowledge and greedy avarice
+of the new settlers. It is presumption to suppose that the colony at
+Liberia, composed of the worst materials imaginable, will present an
+example of forbearance, stability and good faith, hitherto unwitnessed
+in the world.
+
+Soon after its establishment, the colony narrowly escaped a bloody
+extirpation, and was the cause of a murderous warfare in which several
+of the colonists and a large number of the natives were slain. The
+steady growth of the colony excited the jealousy and alarm of some of
+the neighboring tribes; and, accordingly, a consultation was held, at
+which King George, Governor, and all the other head men, contended that
+'The Americans were strangers _who had forgot their attachment to the
+land of their fathers_; for if not, why had they not renounced their
+connexion with white men altogether, and placed themselves under the
+protection of the kings of the country? King George had already been
+under the necessity of removing from his town, and leaving the Cape in
+their hands. This was but the first step of their encroachments. If left
+alone, they must, in a very few years, master the whole country. And as
+all other places were full, their own tribe must be without a home, and
+cease any longer to remain a nation.'[E] This appeal (which evinces an
+intimate acquaintance with human nature and much foresight) induced the
+attack to which allusion has been made. A single paragraph from the
+Rev. Mr Ashmun's account of the battle with the natives may suffice to
+give the reader an idea of its destructiveness:
+
+    'A few musketeers with E. Johnson at their head, by passing
+    round upon the enemy's flank, served to increase the
+    consternation which was beginning to pervade their unwieldy
+    body. In about twenty minutes after the settlers had taken their
+    stand, the front of the enemy began to recoil. But from the
+    numerous obstructions in their rear, the entire absence of
+    discipline, and the extreme difficulty of giving a reversed
+    motion to so large a body, a small part only of which was
+    directly exposed to danger, and the delay occasioned by the
+    practice of carrying off all their dead and wounded, rendered a
+    retreat for some minutes longer, impossible. The very violence
+    employed by those in the front, in their impatience to hasten
+    it, by increasing the confusion, produced an effect opposite to
+    that intended. The Americans perceiving their advantage, now
+    regained possession of the western post, and instantly brought
+    the long nine to rake the whole line of the enemy. Imagination
+    can scarcely figure to itself a throng of human beings in a more
+    capital state of exposure to the destructive power of the
+    machinery of modern warfare! Eight hundred men were here pressed
+    shoulder to shoulder, in so compact a form, that a child might
+    easily walk upon their heads from one end of the mass to the
+    other, presenting in their rear a breadth of rank equal to
+    twenty or thirty men, and all exposed to a gun of great power,
+    raised on a platform, at only thirty to sixty yards distance!
+    _Every shot literally spent its force in a solid mass of living
+    human flesh!_ Their fire suddenly terminated. A savage yell was
+    raised, which filled the dismal forest with a momentary horror.
+    It gradually died away; and the whole host disappeared. At 8
+    o'clock, the well known signal of their dispersion and return to
+    their homes was sounded, and many small parties seen at a
+    distance, directly afterwards, moving off in different
+    directions. One large canoe, employed in reconveying a party
+    across the mouth of the Montserado, venturing within the range
+    of the long gun, was struck by a shot, and several men
+    killed.'[F]
+
+The above (which cannot be perused without a thrill of horror) is one of
+the legitimate fruits of foreign colonization. Subsequent to this bloody
+affair, another battle took place, which resulted in the defeat of the
+natives and the loss of many lives. It is true, the colony since that
+period has received little molestation, and has succeeded, moreover, in
+making some amicable treaties with the natives; but in proportion to its
+means of defence and numerical force will be its liability to encroach
+upon the rights of the Africans, and thus to provoke hostilities. If
+this prophecy should not be fulfilled, history will have spoken in
+vain, and human nature experienced a total regeneration.
+
+No man of refined sensibility can contemplate the fate of the aborigines
+of this country, without shuddering at the consequences of colonization;
+and if _they_ melted away at the presence of the pilgrims and their
+descendants, like frost before the meridian blaze of the sun,--if _they_
+fell to the earth, like the leaves of the forest before the autumnal
+blast, by the settlement of men reputedly humane, wise and pious, in
+their vicinage,--what can be our hope for the preservation of the
+Africans, associated with a population degraded by slavery, and, to a
+lamentable extent, destitute of religious and secular knowledge? The
+argument, that the difference of complexion between our forefathers and
+the aborigines (which is not a distinctive feature between the settlers
+at Liberia and the natives) was the real cause of this deadly enmity, is
+more specious than solid. _Conduct_, not _color_, secures friendship or
+excites antipathy, as it happens to be just or unjust. The venerated
+William Penn and his pacific followers furnish a case in point.
+
+I avow it--the natural tendency of the colony at Liberia excites the
+most melancholy apprehensions in my mind. Its birth was conceived in
+blood, and its footsteps will be marked with blood down to old age--the
+blood of the poor natives--unless a special interposition of Divine
+Providence prevent such a calamity. The emigrants will be eager in the
+acquisition of wealth, ease and power; and, having superior skill and
+discernment in trade, they will outwit and defraud the natives as often
+as occasion permits. This knavish treatment once detected,--as it surely
+will be, for even an uncivilized people may soon learn that they have
+been cheated,--will provoke retaliation, and stir up the worst passions
+of the human breast. Bloody conflicts will ensue, in which the colonists
+will be victorious. This success will serve to increase the enmity of
+the natives, and to perpetuate the murderous struggle. The extirpation
+of one generation may put the colonists in undisputed possession of the
+land.
+
+This is not a fancy sketch--it is not improbable: on the contrary, it is
+the obvious and hitherto certain consequence of bringing hastily
+together large bodies of civilized men with unlettered barbarians.
+
+Jealousy will be another fruitful source of contention. The population
+of Africa is divided into a vast number of tribes, governed by petty
+kings,--sometimes indeed united by an amicable league, but commonly
+distinct and independent. Some of these tribes will form alliances with
+the colonists, either to obtain protection from their more formidable
+rivals or from motives of fear, curiosity or selfishness. In this
+manner, tribe will be arrayed against tribe throughout that vast
+continent; the tide of commotion, gathering fresh impetuosity in its
+headlong career, will rush from the mountains down to the ocean,
+devastating all that is beautiful, and swiftly defacing that which will
+require the labors of centuries to restore to its pristine excellence;
+there will be wars and rumors of wars, succeeded by deceitful and
+unstable treaties ratified only to be broken at a favorable moment; and
+these collisions will not cease until the colonists obtain an undisputed
+mastery over the natives.
+
+Would to Heaven these fears might prove to be but the offspring of a
+distracted mind! May the colonists be so just in their intercourse with
+the Africans, as never to impeach their own integrity; so pacific, as to
+disarm retaliation and perpetuate good will; so benevolent, as to excite
+gratitude and diffuse joy wherever their names shall be known; and so
+holy, as to exalt the christian religion in the eyes of an idolatrous
+nation! But he must be grossly ignorant of human nature, or strangely
+infatuated, who believes that they will always, or commonly, exhibit
+this unexceptionable conduct.
+
+It is my sober conviction, that no contrivance or enterprise could
+possibly be planned more fatally calculated to obstruct the progress of
+christianity in a heathenish country, than the establishment of a
+colony, or colonies, of selfish, ignorant, or even intelligent and
+high-minded men, on its shores. In every settlement of this kind,--no
+matter how choice the original materials,--vice will soon preponderate
+over virtue, intemperance over sobriety, knavery over honesty,
+oppression over liberty, and impiety over godliness. The natives will
+see just enough of christianity to hate and shun it; finding that its
+fruits are generally bad--that it has no restraining influence upon the
+mass of its nominal professors,--they will not easily comprehend the
+utility of abandoning their own idolatrous worship; looking only to the
+pernicious examples of the intruders, they will spurn with contempt the
+precepts of the gospel. Their confidence will be abused--their lands
+craftily trafficked for nought--their ignorance cheated--their
+inferiority treated oppressively; and then what must naturally follow?
+Why--WAR--_a war of retaliation_. All the vices, and few of the virtues,
+of the instructers, will be faithfully copied; and thus barriers will be
+erected against the progress of the Christian religion, not absolutely
+insurmountable, it is true, but sufficiently tall and strong to retard
+its noble career--barriers not only of superstition and ignorance, but
+of hatred and revenge. These reflections might be extended to the size
+of a volume; but they are probably sufficient to convince every
+unprejudiced, discerning mind, that the establishment of foreign
+colonies in a barbarous land is the surest way to prevent its speedy
+evangelism and civilization.
+
+In reply to this reasoning, some of the advocates of African
+colonization may argue, that schools and houses of worship, multiplying
+with the growth of the settlement at Liberia, will check the evil
+propensities and passions of the emigrants, and qualify them to act as
+missionaries or instructers among the natives; and thus great good will
+be bestowed upon Africa. This is at least a summary, if not a sure mode
+of obviating these difficulties.
+
+In the first place, it is by no means certain--nay, it is not probable,
+especially if the number of emigrants annually exported to Liberia swell
+from hundreds to thousands, (and this increase of transportation is
+positively promised by the Parent Society, and absolutely necessary to
+cause a perceptible diminution in the annual enlargement of our colored
+population)--I say, it is neither certain nor probable that the
+multiplication of literary and religious privileges will keep pace with
+the unnatural and enormous growth of the colony. Nine years after the
+first settlement of Liberia, it appears by the following extract of a
+letter from a highly respectable colored emigrant, (the Rev. George M.
+Erskine,) there was but the 'remnant of a school' left! This letter is
+dated '_Caldwell, Liberia, April 3, 1830_.'
+
+    'Sir, the state of things, with regard to schools, is truly
+    lamentable. _The only school in the Colony at this time, is a
+    remnant of one at the Cape._ Among the present emigrants, there
+    are seventeen out of forty-eight that can read the Holy
+    Scriptures, _leaving thirty-one that cannot_. Now, Sir, suppose
+    each company of emigrants to this place bring a like proportion
+    of illiterate persons into the Colony, then what state, think
+    you, it must be in? But again, Sir: I am greatly mistaken if
+    this Colony is not, for several years yet to come, mostly to be
+    peopled with slaves sent out by their present owners, without
+    any education themselves, and without means and very little
+    desire to have their children instructed; and add to the above,
+    that this people is planted in the midst, and are daily
+    conversant with, a people that are not only heathen, but a
+    people extremely partial in favor of their grovelling
+    superstition. My dear Sir, this being the case, _whether is it
+    probable that they will come over to us, or we go down to them_?
+    To me the latter is the most likely, _as it is the very essence
+    of human nature to seek the lowest depth of degradation_. Permit
+    me to say, Sir, there must be a great revolution in this Colony
+    before it can have a salutary influence on the surrounding
+    natives; that is, before it can have a moral influence over
+    them.'[G]
+
+Subsequent accounts, I am happy to state, present a better aspect in
+relation to the education of this outcast and persecuted people: their
+wants, however, are only partially supplied.
+
+The annual increase of the free colored and slave population in the
+United States is variously estimated from sixty to seventy-five
+thousand. The American Colonization Society proposes the annual removal
+of this vast body,--and more, if it be possible,--provided the energies
+and patronage of the General Government be enlisted in this expulsive
+crusade. Now, suppose the entire transportation effected, let any candid
+man decide how extremely difficult, not to say impracticable, it would
+be to discipline and instruct such an overwhelming mass of ignorance, or
+any considerable portion of it--and how pernicious must be the
+consequences to the colony and the natives, if it should not receive
+immediate culture!
+
+Secondly. It is neither certain nor probable that, allowing all that is
+assumed by colonizationists, the influence of secular and religious
+instruction would be sufficient to restrain the selfish desires and
+knavish propensities of those whose main object is, not to evangelize
+the natives, but to secure, by a summary process, competence and power
+for themselves. Indeed, their juxtaposition with the natives would be
+eminently calculated to induce the fever of avarice, and to generate the
+lust of dominion. It is well known that so eager are the colonists to
+acquire a rapid accumulation of wealth, by trafficking their paltry
+beads and poisonous rum and tobacco for ivory, camwood and gold dust, it
+is with the utmost difficulty any considerable portion of them are
+persuaded to cultivate the soil and engage in agricultural pursuits.
+Thus we are presented with the disgraceful, if not singular spectacle of
+a rivalry in cunning and trickishness between a colony of _soi-disant_
+missionaries (really avaricious and unscrupulous foreigners) and the
+tribes who are to come under their pious pupilage. If equal dexterity in
+trade is not apparent, each party is equally pleased with its successful
+attempts at deception, and both renew the fraudulent commerce with fresh
+alacrity--the one to gain a new triumph, and the other to retrieve an
+old defeat. And this is the mode of colonizationists to evangelize
+Africa! and this their mode to suppress the slave trade! and this their
+mode to elevate the free people of color! and this their mode to
+emancipate the slaves! It combines the folly and absurdity of a farce
+with the solemnity and murderment of a tragedy.
+
+Far be it from me to leave the impression upon the mind of the reader,
+from these representations, that all the colonists are actuated by the
+same selfish motives, or that they have exhibited any new and
+extraordinary traits of character in their commerce with the Africans.
+Many of them, I believe, are men who fear God and desire the welfare of
+his creatures: all of them have behaved as honorably, perhaps, and
+trafficked as equitably, as any other body of men, white or yellow,
+would have done in the same situation and under the same circumstances.
+Dishonesty in trade is no prodigy, even in this country. To bring
+accusations of fraud, cupidity and cunning against human nature, is not
+libellous. I am persuaded that robbery,--well contrived, deliberately
+executed robbery,--is perpetrated in every community among ourselves,
+without any due estimate of its moral turpitude, by reputable merchants
+and traders upon their customers, to a larger extent than all the
+avowed and heinous thefts collectively, which are committed against
+society. It is lamentable to see how studiously conscience and fair
+dealing are excluded from the secular business of the world. If we see,
+every day, illustrations of this dishonest conduct, given by men of
+refinement, intelligence and good character, what should we expect from
+those whose fetters have hardly fallen from their limbs; who have been
+systematically degraded by slavery; who have not consequently that
+lively sense of moral obligation which accompanies intelligence; who are
+beyond the influence of public sentiment, and surrounded by a barbarous
+people?
+
+The establishment of a colony of speculators, then, to evangelize
+Africa, does not discover much wisdom or promise much success; but, on
+the contrary, exhibits a total blindness of vision and a most
+unfavorable aspect.
+
+Let it be remembered, however, that _rum_ and _tobacco_ (two poisons
+which are exactly adapted to destroy both soul and body) are the
+principal articles given to the natives--because pertinaciously demanded
+by them--in exchange for their own. Their appetite for spirituous
+liquor, first created by the slave traders and subsequently excited by
+the colonists, is insatiate. Even the justly lamented ASHMUN, if I do
+not mistake, for I have not his letter now before me, was so imprudent
+in one of his epistles to the Board of Managers as to concede the fatal
+necessity of selling rum freely to the natives, in order to maintain a
+commercial intercourse with them. Rum they would have, or nothing; and
+rum they obtained then, and do now obtain. Any one who will take the
+trouble to read the advertisements in the Liberia Herald will discover
+that ardent spirits form a prominent item in the list of articles
+offered for sale. Of the sobriety of the colonists, however, common
+report speaks in the most gratifying manner; but as their number is to
+be increased by a redundant importation, we have reason to fear a
+declension of morals.
+
+Thirdly. Colonizationists strenuously contend that our colored
+population are destined always to remain a degraded class in this
+country. If educated any where, they must be educated in Africa. We must
+take them in their ignorance, and just released from bondage, and
+translate them to another continent on the wings of the wind. Delay
+would be injurious to ourselves, and calamitous to them. They must go in
+large bodies--by thousands and tens of thousands annually--till the
+whole be expelled from our shores. For it seems, according to the logic
+of colonizationists, every individual tainted with black blood must be
+transported, to insure the regeneration of Africa! Neither fifty
+thousand, nor one hundred thousand, nor half a million of these
+_missionaries_ will be able to accomplish the task; but two millions of
+slaves and four hundred thousand free people of color, and all their
+descendants in time to come, here--even little babes (pretty prattling
+reformers!) and children--the maimed, the halt, and the blind--all must
+be sent off--else alas! alas! for poor benighted Africa! This is no
+caricature. An ugly face is sure to quarrel with its own likeness. But
+what is the portrait worth, if it bear no resemblance to the living
+original? They who place themselves in a ridiculous attitude must not
+claim exemption from ridicule.
+
+Let us turn to the picture once more. It is worth our while to
+contemplate it a few moments longer.
+
+What do we see? More than one-sixth portion of the American
+people--confessedly the most vicious, degraded and dangerous
+portion--crowded on the shores of Africa, by means which are hereafter
+to be considered, and at an expense which we shall not stop now to
+calculate, for the purpose of civilizing and evangelizing Africa, and of
+improving their own condition! Here, then, are _two_ ignorant and
+depraved nations to be regenerated instead of _one_!--if we may call all
+the natives that occupy that vast continent a nation--two huge and
+heterogeneous masses of contagion mingled together for the preservation
+of each! One of these nations is so incorrigibly stupid, or unfathomably
+deep in pollution, (for such is the argument,) that, although surrounded
+by ten millions of people living under the full blaze of gospel light,
+and having every desirable facility to elevate and save it, it never can
+rise until it be removed at least three thousand miles from their
+vicinage!--and yet it is first to be evangelized in a barbarous land, by
+a feeble, inadequate process, before it can be qualified to evangelize
+the other nation! In other words, men who are intellectually and
+morally blind are violently removed from light effulgent into thick
+darkness, in order that they may obtain light themselves and diffuse
+light among others! Ignorance is sent to instruct ignorance, ungodliness
+to exhort ungodliness, vice to stop the progress of vice, and depravity
+to reform depravity! All that is abhorrent to our moral sense, or
+dangerous to our quietude, or villanous in human nature, we benevolently
+disgorge upon Africa for her temporal and eternal welfare! We propose to
+build upon her shores, for her glory and defence, colonies framed of
+materials which we discard as worthless for our own use, and which
+possess no fitness or durability! Admirable consistency! surprising
+wisdom! unexampled benevolence! As rationally might we think of
+exhausting the ocean by multiplying the number of its tributaries, or
+extinguishing a fire by piling fuel upon it.
+
+Lastly. Any scheme to proselytize which requires for its protection the
+erection of forts and the use of murderous weapons, is opposed to the
+genius of christianity and radically wrong. If the gospel cannot be
+propagated but by the aid of the sword,--if its success depend upon the
+muscular power and military science of its apostles,--it were better to
+leave the pagan world in darkness. The first specimen of _benevolence_
+and _piety_, which the colonists gave to the natives, was the building
+of a fort, and supplying it with arms and ammunition! This was an
+earnest manifestation of that 'peace on earth, good will to man,' which
+these expatriated _missionaries_ were sent to inculcate! How eminently
+calculated to inspire the confidence, excite the gratitude, and
+accelerate the conversion of the Africans! Their 'dread of the great
+guns of the Islanders,' (to adopt the language of Mr Ashmun,) must from
+the beginning have made a deep and salutary impression upon their minds;
+and when, not long afterward, 'every shot' from these guns '_spent its
+force in a solid mass of living human flesh_'--their own flesh--they
+must have experienced a total regeneration. Bullets and cannon balls
+argue with resistless effect, and as easily convert a barbarous as
+civilized people. One sanguinary conflict was sufficient to spread the
+glad tidings of salvation among a thousand tribes, almost with the
+rapidity of light!--But even irony, though appropriate, is painful. I
+forbear.
+
+But--says an objector--these reflections come too late. The colony is
+planted, whatever may be its influence. What do you recommend? Its
+immediate abandonment to want and ruin? Shall we not bestow upon it our
+charities, and commend it to the protection of Heaven?
+
+I answer--Let the colony continue to receive the aid, and elicit the
+prayers of the good and benevolent. Still let it remain within the pale
+of christian sympathy. Blot it not out of existence. But let it
+henceforth develope itself naturally. Crowd not its population. Let
+transportation cease. Seek no longer to exile millions of our colored
+countrymen. For, assuredly, if the Colonization Society succeed in its
+efforts to remove thousands of their number annually, it could not
+inflict a heavier curse upon Africa, or more speedily assist in the
+entire subversion of the colony.
+
+But--the objector asks--how shall we evangelize Africa?
+
+In the same manner as we have evangelized the Sandwich and Society
+Islands, and portions of Burmah, Hindostan, and other lands. By sending
+missionaries of the Cross _indeed_, who shall neither build forts nor
+trust in weapons of war; who shall be actuated by a holy zeal and
+genuine love; who shall be qualified to instruct, admonish, enlighten,
+and proselyte; who shall not by their examples impugn the precepts, or
+subject to suspicion the inspiration of the Word of Life; who shall not
+be covered with pollution and shame as with a garment, or add to the
+ignorance, sin and corruption of paganism; and who shall abhor
+dishonesty, violence and treachery. Such men have been found to
+volunteer their services for the redemption of a lost world; and such
+men may be found now to embark in the same glorious enterprise. A
+hundred evangelists like these, dispersed along the shores and in the
+interior of Africa, would destroy more idols, make more progress in
+civilizing the natives, suppress more wars, unite in amity more hostile
+tribes, and convert more souls to Christ, in ten years, than a colony of
+twenty-thousand ignorant, uncultivated, selfish emigrants in a century.
+Such a mission would be consonant with reason and common sense; nor
+could it fail to receive the approbation of God. How simple was the
+command of our blessed Saviour to his disciples!--'Go ye forth into all
+the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' Not--'Send out from
+among yourselves those whom you despise or against whom you cherish a
+strong antipathy; those who need to be instructed and converted
+themselves; those who are the dregs of society, made vicious and
+helpless by oppression and public opinion; those who are beyond the
+reach of the gospel in a Christian land; those whose complexions are not
+precisely like yours, or who have any personal blemishes whatever that
+excite your dislike;--send out _all_ these to evangelize the nations
+which sit in darkness and in the regions of the shadow of death!'
+
+Denham, Clapperton, and Lander, travellers in Africa, represent the
+natives in a light most favorable for the introduction of christianity;
+as eager to learn and become a civilized and great people like the
+Europeans. Excepting the followers of Mohammed, they are not tenacious
+of their forms of religious worship; and a considerable portion of them
+are totally indifferent to devotional exercises. It seems apparent, that
+the fruits of a mission in Africa would be thrice as numerous as those
+of one in India, because the obstacles to be surmounted are far less
+formidable.
+
+But--says the objector--the climate of Africa is fatal to white men.
+
+So is the climate of India. But our missionaries have not counted their
+lives dear unto themselves; and, as fast as one is cut down, another
+stands ready to supply his place.
+
+I do not believe that the Creator has immoveably fixed the habitations
+of any people within a boundary narrower than the circumference of the
+globe. I believe that rapid transitions from intensity of heat and cold,
+and cold and heat, are destructive to animal life; but I also believe
+that the human body is easily acclimated, in any region of the world. I
+believe the time is swiftly approaching when empires and continents
+shall as freely commingle their population as do states and
+neighborhoods. To limit or obstruct this intercourse, is to impoverish
+and circumscribe human happiness. Civilization will remove those causes
+which now engender pestilence and death, and neutralize the effects of
+atmospherical contagion.
+
+Hence it will be seen that I do not assail the Colonization Society, as
+many others have done, simply because the settlement at Liberia is
+unhealthy. It is true, the mortality among the emigrants has been
+excessive; and so it was among the first settlers of New-England. But
+the climate of New-England is no longer pestiferous; and the climate of
+Africa will grow sweet and salubrious as her forests disappear, and the
+purifying influences of Christianity penetrate into the interior. I
+expressly contend, however, that it is murderous, indiscriminately to
+colonize large bodies of men, women and children, in a foreign land,
+before the natives are to some extent elevated by missionary effort: and
+therefore I consider the Colonization Society as responsible for the
+lives of those who have perished prematurely at Liberia.
+
+But the objection is fallacious. If white missionaries cannot, black
+ones can survive in Africa. What, then, is our duty? Obviously to
+educate colored young men of genius, enterprise and piety, expressly to
+carry the 'glad tidings of great joy' to her shores. Enough, I venture
+to affirm, stand ready to be sent, if they can first be qualified for
+their mission. If our free colored population were brought into our
+schools, and raised from their present low estate, I am confident that
+an army of christian volunteers would go out from their ranks, by a
+divine impulse and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to redeem
+their African brethren from the bondage of idolatry and the dominion of
+spiritual death.
+
+Whatever may be the result of this great controversy, I shall have the
+consolation of believing that no efforts were lacking, on my part, to
+uproot the prejudices of my countrymen, to persuade them to walk in the
+path of duty and shun the precipice of expediency, to unloose the heavy
+burdens and let the prisoners go free at once, to warn them of the
+danger of expelling the people of color from their native land, and to
+convince them of the necessity of abandoning a dangerous and chimerical,
+as well as unchristian and anti-republican association. For these
+efforts I have hitherto suffered reproach and persecution, and must
+expect to suffer till I perish. This book will doubtless increase the
+rage of my enemies; but no torrent of invective shall successfully whelm
+it, no sophistry impair its force, no activity destroy its influence, no
+misrepresentation defeat its usefulness.
+
+I commend it, particularly, to the candid attention of the two most
+powerful classes in this country--editors of newspapers and the clergy.
+It is not a light matter for either of them to propagate false doctrines
+and excite delusive hopes, on the subject of politics or religion.
+Although the press is committed to a wide extent, I place too much
+reliance upon the good sense and liberal patriotism of its conductors to
+believe that the evidence which is presented in these pages of the
+inefficiency and injustice of the colonization scheme, will fail to
+convince their understanding. I cherish still higher expectations of its
+salutary influence upon ministers of the gospel. It may grieve them to
+discover that they have been misled themselves, and that they have
+unwittingly misled others. To say to their flocks--'We have erred in
+this matter; we have solicited your charities for an institution which
+is built upon prejudice and persecution; we have hastily adopted the
+mistaken opinions of others'--such a confession may indeed require much
+grace in the heart, but this grace, I am persuaded, they will obtain. As
+apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, sustaining high and awful
+responsibilities, and exerting an influence which measurably decides the
+eternal destiny of the souls of men, they will not shut their eyes, or
+stop their ears, or refuse to examine, or disregard the truth, in a case
+involving the temporal and eternal happiness of millions of their fellow
+creatures.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[E] Memoir of American Colonists--vide 'The African Repository,' vol. 2,
+p. 174.
+
+[F] African Repository, vol. 2, p. 179.
+
+[G] African Repository, vol. 6, p. 121.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS PLEDGED NOT TO OPPOSE THE SYSTEM OF
+SLAVERY.
+
+
+Having concluded my introductory remarks, I now proceed to substantiate
+my accusations against the American Colonization Society, by marshalling
+in review the sentiments of those who first originated it, and who are
+its efficient managers and advocates. It is obvious that, with my
+limited means, and in a book designed for a cheap circulation, I shall
+not be able to enter into so minute a detail as the present exigency
+demands, or make those comments which might serve more fully to
+illustrate the character of this association. It should be stated,
+moreover, that I have not made any particular effort to procure
+materials for this work, being satisfied that those which have almost
+accidentally fallen into my hands, contain ample and conclusive evidence
+of the unworthiness of the Society. A vast number of the Reports of
+auxiliary bodies in various parts of the country, of orations and
+sermons and essays in favor of African colonization, are beyond my
+reach, and must remain unconsulted. If more proof be demanded, it shall
+be given to the public. There is not a sound timber in this great Babel:
+from the foundation to the roof, it is rotten and defective.
+
+I shall not stop to interrogate the motives of those who planned the
+Society. Some of them, undoubtedly, were actuated by a benevolent desire
+to promote the welfare of our colored population, and could never have
+intended to countenance oppression. But the question is not, whether
+their motives were good or bad. Suppose they were all good--would this
+fact prove infallibly that they could not err in judgment? Do we not
+almost daily see men running headlong into wild and injurious
+enterprises with the very best intentions? There is a wide difference
+between meaning well and doing well. The slave trade originated in a
+compassionate regard for the benighted Africans; and yet we hang those
+who are detected in this traffic. I am willing to concede that Robert
+Finley and Elias B. Caldwell were philanthropic individuals; and that a
+large number of their followers are men of piety, benevolence and moral
+worth. What then? Is the American Colonization Society a beneficial
+institution? We shall see hereafter.
+
+The history of this Society is familiar to the public. It was organized
+about the commencement of the year 1817. The first public meeting to
+consider the expediency of such an organization was held on the 21st of
+December, 1816, at which the Hon. Henry Clay presided; but I have never
+seen its official proceedings. It was addressed by Mr Clay, _Mr
+Randolph_, Mr Caldwell, and other gentlemen, from whose speeches
+extracts will shortly be given.
+
+It is my purpose in this section to show, first, the original design of
+the Society; secondly, that it is still strictly adhered to; and,
+lastly, that the Society is solemnly pledged not to interfere with the
+system of slavery, or in any manner to disturb the repose of the
+planters. Upon the rigid observance of this sinful pledge depends its
+existence; a single violation of it would be fatal. I want no better
+reason than this, to wage an uncompromising warfare against it. No man
+has a right to form an alliance with others, which prevents him from
+rebuking sin or exposing the guilt of sinners. Every individual is bound
+to oppose the system of slavery in the most direct, strenuous,
+unfaltering manner--bound by the ties of brotherhood, by the spirit of
+Christianity, by the genius of republicanism, by the dictates of
+humanity, by the requirements of justice, by the love of country, by
+duty to his God. He cannot suppress his voice, nor stop his ears to the
+groans of the prisoners, and be innocent. If he hide the truth because
+it may give offence--if he strike hands in amity with a thief--if he
+leave the needy and oppressed to perish--God will visit him with
+plagues. Now the language of the non-slaveholding members of the
+Colonization Society to the owners of slaves is virtually as
+follows:--'The free people of color are a nuisance to us, and plotters
+of sedition among your slaves. If they be not speedily removed, your
+_property_ will be lost, and your lives destroyed. We therefore do
+solemnly agree, that, if you will unite with us in expelling this
+dangerous class from our shores, we will never accuse you of robbery or
+oppression, or irritate your feelings by asserting the right of the
+slaves to immediate freedom, or identify any one of you as a criminal;
+but, on the contrary, we will boldly assert your innocence, and applaud
+you as wise and benevolent men for holding your slaves in subjection
+until you can cast them out of the country.' I say, this is _virtually_
+their language, as I shall soon indisputably show. Thus we are presented
+with the strange spectacle of a procession composed of the most
+heterogeneous materials. There go, arm-in-arm, a New-England divine and
+a southern kidnapper; and there an ungodly slaveholder and a pious
+deacon; each eyeing the other with distrust, and fearful of exciting a
+quarrel, both denouncing the poor, neglected, despised free black man as
+a miserable, good-for-nothing creature, and both gravely complimenting
+their foresight and generosity in sending this worthless wretch on a
+religious mission to Africa!
+
+I cannot exhibit the folly and wickedness of this alliance in a clearer
+light than by inserting the following extract of a letter from Capt.
+Charles Stuart, of the English Royal Navy, one of the most indefatigable
+philanthropists in England:
+
+    'The American Colonization Society looks abroad over its own
+    country, and it finds a mass of its brethren, whom God has been
+    pleased to clothe with a darker skin. It finds one portion of
+    these free! another enslaved! It finds a cruel prejudice, as
+    dark and false as sin can make it, reigning with a most
+    tyrannous sway against both. It finds this prejudice respecting
+    the _free_, declaring without a blush, "We are too wicked ever
+    to love them as God commands us to do--we are so resolute in our
+    wickedness as not even to desire to do so--and we are so proud
+    in our iniquity that we will hate and revile whoever disturbs us
+    in it--We want, like the devils of old, to be let alone in our
+    sin--We are unalterably determined, and neither God nor man
+    shall move us from this resolution, that our free colored fellow
+    subjects never shall be happy in their native land." The
+    American Colonization Society, I say, finds this most base and
+    cruel prejudice, _and lets it alone_; nay more, it directly and
+    powerfully supports it.
+
+    'The American Colonization Society finds 2,000,000 of its fellow
+    subjects most iniquitously enslaved--and it finds a resolution
+    as proud and wicked as the very spirit of the pit can make it
+    against _obeying_ God and _letting them_ go free in their native
+    land. _It lets this perfectly infernal resolution alone_, nay
+    more, it powerfully supports it; for it in fact says, as a fond
+    and feeble father might say to some overgrown baby before whose
+    obstinate wickedness he quailed, "Never mind, my dear, I don't
+    want to prevent your beating and abusing your brothers and
+    sisters--let that be--but here is a box of sugar plums--do pray
+    give them one or two now and then." The American Colonization
+    Society says practically to the slaveholders and the slave party
+    in the United States, "We don't want to prevent your plundering
+    2,000,000 of our fellow subjects of their liberty and of the
+    fruits of their toil; although we know that by every principle
+    of law which does not utterly disgrace us by assimilating us to
+    pirates, that they have as good and as true a right to the equal
+    protection of the law as we have; and although we ourselves
+    stand prepared to die, rather than submit even to a fragment of
+    the intolerable load of oppression to which we are subjecting
+    them--yet never mind--let that be--they have grown old in
+    suffering, and we in iniquity--and we have nothing to do now but
+    to speak _peace_, _peace_ to one another in our sins. But if any
+    of their masters, whether from benevolence, an awakened
+    conscience, or political or personal fear, should emancipate
+    any, let us send them to Liberia--that is, in fact, let us give
+    a sugar plum here and there to a few, while the many are living
+    and dying unredressed--and while we are thus countenancing the
+    atrocious iniquity beneath which they are perishing." In this
+    aspect I find the American Colonization Society declaring itself
+    a substitute for emancipation, and it is in this aspect that I
+    contend with it, and that I proclaim it, _as far as it has this
+    character_, no farther, a bane to the colored people, whether
+    enslaved or free, and a snare and a disgrace to its country.'
+
+The second article of the Constitution of this Society is in the
+following language:
+
+    'The object to which its attention is to be _exclusively_
+    directed, is to promote and execute a plan for colonizing (with
+    their consent) the free people of color residing in our country,
+    in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem most
+    expedient. And the Society shall act, to effect this object, in
+    co-operation with the General Government, and such of the States
+    as may adopt regulations upon the subject.'
+
+The following citations abundantly sustain the charge, that the Society
+has not swerved from its original design, and does not oppose the system
+of slavery:
+
+    'Whilst he was up, he would detain the Society for a few
+    moments. It was proper again and again to repeat, that it was
+    far from the intention of the Society to affect, _in any
+    manner_, the tenure by which a certain species of property is
+    held. He was himself a slaveholder; _and he considered that kind
+    of property as inviolable as any other in the country_. He would
+    resist as soon, and with as much firmness, encroachments upon it
+    as he would encroachments upon any other property which he held.
+    Nor was he disposed even to go as far as the gentleman who had
+    just spoken, (Mr Mercer) in saying that he would emancipate his
+    slaves, if the means were provided of sending them from the
+    country.'--[Speech of Henry Clay.--First Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'It was proper and necessary distinctly to state, that he
+    understood it constituted no part of the object of this meeting,
+    to touch or agitate in the slightest degree, a delicate
+    question, connected with another portion of the colored
+    population of our country. It was not proposed to deliberate
+    upon or consider at all, any question of emancipation, or that
+    which was connected with the abolition of slavery. It was upon
+    that condition alone, he was sure, that many gentlemen from the
+    South and West, whom he saw present, had attended, or could be
+    expected to co-operate. It was upon that condition only, that he
+    himself had attended.'--[Speech of Mr Clay before the Society,
+    Jan. 1, 1818.--Second Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'It had been properly observed by the chairman, as well as by
+    the gentleman from this District (Messrs Clay and Caldwell) that
+    there was nothing in the proposition submitted to consideration
+    which in the smallest degree touched another very important and
+    delicate question, which ought to be left as much out of view as
+    possible, (Negro slavery.) * * * Mr R. concluded by saying, that
+    he had thought it necessary to make these remarks, being a
+    slaveholder himself, to shew, that, so far from being connected
+    with the abolition of slavery, _the measure proposed would prove
+    one of the greatest securities to enable the master to keep in
+    possession his own property_.'--[Speech of John Randolph at the
+    same meeting.]
+
+
+    'Your committee would not thus favorably regard the prayer of
+    the memorialists, if it sought to impair, _in the slightest
+    degree_, the rights of private property, or the yet more sacred
+    rights of personal liberty, secured to every description of
+    freemen in the United States.
+
+    'The resolution of the legislature of Virginia, the subsequent
+    acts and declarations, as well as the high character of the
+    memorialists themselves, added to the most obvious interest of
+    the states who have recently sanctioned the purpose, or
+    recognized the existence of the American Colonization Society,
+    exclude _the remotest apprehension of such injustice and
+    inhumanity_.'
+
+    --[Report of the committee of the House of Representatives of
+    the United States, on the memorial of the President and Board of
+    Managers of the Colonization Society.--Second Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'An effort for the benefit of the blacks, in which all parts of
+    the country can unite, of course _must not have the abolition of
+    slavery for its immediate object_. NOR MAY IT AIM DIRECTLY AT
+    THE INSTRUCTION OF THE BLACKS. In either case, the _prejudices_
+    and _terrors_ of the slaveholding States would be excited in a
+    moment; and with reason too, for it is a well-established point,
+    that _the public safety forbids either the emancipation or the
+    general instruction of the slaves_.' * * * 'It [African
+    Colonization] is an enterprise in which _all parts of the
+    country can unite_. The grand objection to every other effort
+    is, that it excites the _jealousies_ and _fears_ of the south.
+    But here is an effort in which the southern people are the first
+    to engage, and which numbers many of their most distinguished
+    men among its advocates and efficient supporters.'--[Review of
+    the Reports of the Society, from the Christian
+    Spectator.--Seventh Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'It will be seen at home and abroad, that the American
+    Colonization Society, while it _properly enough_ stands aloof
+    from the question of slavery, and the abolition of slavery,'
+    &c.--[Report of William McKenney.--Eighth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The objects of this institution are well known to the world;
+    for no concealment whatever has ever been intended. The Society
+    aims at the removal of free persons of color; _it interferes, in
+    no way whatever, with the rights of property_.'--[Speech of G.
+    W. Custis, Esq.--Ninth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'We are reproached with doing mischief by the agitation of this
+    question. The Society goes into no household to disturb its
+    domestic tranquillity; it addresses itself to no slaves to
+    weaken their obligations of obedience. _It seeks to affect no
+    man's property._'--[Speech of Mr Clay.--Tenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The Committee to whom was referred the memorial of the American
+    Colonization Society, have had the subject under consideration,
+    and now report:
+
+    'That upon due consideration of the said memorial, and from all
+    other information which your committee has obtained, touching
+    that subject, they are fully satisfied that no jealousies ought
+    to exist, on the part of this or any other slaveholding State,
+    respecting the objects of this Society, or the effects of its
+    labors.'--[Report of a committee of the Legislature of Delaware,
+    Feb. 8th, 1827.]
+
+
+    'The Society has reiterated the declaration that it has no
+    ulterior views diverse from the object avowed in the
+    constitution; and having declared that it is in nowise allied to
+    any Abolition Society in America or elsewhere, is ready whenever
+    there is need TO PASS A CENSURE UPON SUCH SOCIETIES IN
+    AMERICA.'--[Speech of Mr Harrison of Virginia.--Eleventh Annual
+    Report.]
+
+
+    'We have the same interests in this subject with our southern
+    brethren--the same opportunity of understanding it, and of
+    knowing with what _care_ and _prudence_ it should be approached.
+    What greater pledge can we give for the moderation and safety of
+    our measures than our own interests as slaveholders, and the
+    ties that bind us to the slaveholding communities to which we
+    belong?'--[Speech of Mr Key.--Same Report.]
+
+
+    'The second objection may be resolved into this; that the
+    Society, under the specious pretext of removing a vicious and
+    noxious population, is secretly undermining the rights of
+    private property. This is the objection expressed in its full
+    force, and if your memorialists could for a moment believe it to
+    be true in point of fact, they would never, _slaveholders as
+    they are_, have associated themselves together for the purpose
+    of co-operating with the Parent Society; and far less would they
+    have appeared in the character in which they now do, before the
+    legislative bodies of a slaveholding State. And, if any instance
+    could be now adduced, in which the Society has ever manifested
+    even an intention to depart from the avowed object, for the
+    promotion of which it was originally instituted, none would with
+    more willingness and readiness withdraw from it their
+    countenance and support. But, from the time of its formation,
+    down to the present period, all its operations have been
+    directed exclusively to the promotion of its one grand object,
+    namely, the colonization in Africa of the free people of color
+    of the United States. It has always protested, and through your
+    memorialists it again protests, that _it has no wish to
+    interfere_ with the delicate but important subject of slavery.
+    It has never, in a solitary instance, addressed itself to the
+    slave. It has never sought to invade the tranquillity of the
+    domestic circle, nor the peace and safety of
+    society.'--[Memorial of the Auxiliary Colonization Society of
+    Powhatan, to the Legislature of Virginia.--Twelfth Annual
+    Report.]
+
+
+    'Therefore she looked, and well might she look, to colonization
+    and to colonization alone. To abolition _she could not look_,
+    and need not look. Whatever that scheme may have done,
+    heretofore, in the States now free, it had done nothing and
+    could do nothing in the slave States for the cause of humanity.
+    This subject he rejoiced to know was now better understood, and
+    all began to see that it was _wiser_ and _safer_ to remove, by
+    colonization, a great and otherwise insuperable impediment to
+    emancipation, _than to act upon the subject of emancipation
+    itself_.'--[Speech of Mr Key.--Thirteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Our Society has nothing to do directly with the question of
+    slavery.' * * * 'Whilst the Society protests that it has no
+    designs on the rights of the master in the slave--or the
+    property in his slave, which the laws guarantee to him,'
+    &c.--[Speech of Gerrit Smith, Esq.--Fourteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Its primary object now is, and ever has been, to colonize, with
+    their own consent, free people of color on the coast of Africa,
+    or elsewhere, as Congress may deem expedient. And, Sir, I am
+    unwilling to admit, under any circumstances, and particularly in
+    this Hall, that it ever has swerved from this cardinal
+    object.'--[Speech of Mr Benham.--Fourteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Something he must yet be allowed to say, as regarded the object
+    the Society was set up to accomplish. This object, if he
+    understood it aright, _involved no intrusion on property_, NOR
+    EVEN UPON PREJUDICE.'--[Speech of Mr Archer of
+    Virginia.--Fifteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'That the effort made by the Society should be such as to unite
+    all parts of the country--such as to be in any degree ultimately
+    successful, it was necessary to _disclaim all attempts for the
+    immediate abolition of slavery, or the instruction of the great
+    body of the blacks_. Such attempts would have excited alarm and
+    jealousy, would have been inconsistent with the public safety,
+    and defeated the great purposes of the Society.' * * * 'It is
+    pleasing to learn that the Friends, who at first were not
+    favorable to the Society, _having been inclined to the immediate
+    abolition of slavery_, are coming into what we deem the _more
+    wise policy_ of encouraging emancipation by
+    colonization.'--[Speech of Harmanus Bleecker, Esq. at the Second
+    Anniversary Meeting of the New-York Colonization Society, April
+    14, 1831.]
+
+
+    'The plan of colonization seems _the only one entitled to the
+    least consideration_.'--[Speech of M. C. Paterson, Esq. on the
+    same occasion.]
+
+
+    'Nor will their brethren of the North desire to interfere with
+    their constitutional rights, or rashly to disturb a system
+    interwoven with their feelings, habits, and prejudices. A golden
+    mean will be pursued, which, at the same time that it _consults
+    the wishes_, and _respects the prejudices_ of the South, will
+    provide for the claims of justice and Christianity, and avert
+    the storm of future desolation.'--[Speech of Lucius Q. C. Elmer,
+    Esq.--First Annual Report of the New-Jersey Colonization
+    Society.]
+
+
+    'Views are attributed to us, that were never entertained, and
+    our plan is tortured _into a design to emancipate the Slaves of
+    the South_. We are made to disregard this description of
+    property, and to touch without reserve the rights of our
+    neighbors. We are said to tread this almost forbidden ground
+    with firm step, and a hardihood of effort is imputed to us,
+    which, if true, might well excite the indignation of our
+    southern citizens.--But, Sir, our Society and the friends of
+    colonization wish to be distinctly understood upon this point.
+    From the beginning they have _disavowed_, and they do yet
+    _disavow_, that their object is _the emancipation of the
+    slaves_. They have no wish, _if they could_, to interfere in the
+    smallest degree with what they deem the most interesting and
+    fearful subject which can be pressed upon the American public.'
+    * * * 'There is no people that treat their slaves with so much
+    kindness and with so little cruelty. Nor can I believe that we
+    shall meet with any serious opposition from that quarter, when
+    our object is distinctly understood--when it is known that our
+    operations are confined exclusively to the free black
+    population. That this is our _sole_ object, I appeal with entire
+    confidence to the constitution of our Society and to the
+    constitution and Annual Reports of the Parent Institution.' * * *
+    'We again repeat--that our operations are confined to the free
+    black population, and that there is no ground for fear on the
+    part of our southern friends. We hold their slaves as we hold
+    their other property, SACRED. Let not then this slander be
+    repeated.'--[Speech of James S. Green, Esq. on the same
+    occasion.]
+
+
+    'Nothing has contributed more to retard the operations of the
+    Colonization Society than the mistaken notion that it interferes
+    directly with slavery. This objection is rapidly vanishing away,
+    and many of the slaveholding States are becoming efficient
+    supporters of the national society. In the Senate of Louisiana
+    during its last session, resolutions were adopted expressive of
+    the opinion that the object of this Society was deserving the
+    patronage of the general government. An enlightened community
+    now see, that this Society infringes upon no man's rights, that
+    its object is noble and benevolent--to remedy an evil which is
+    felt and acknowledged at the north and south--to give the free
+    people of color the privileges of freemen.'--[From a Tract
+    issued by the Massachusetts Colonization Society in 1831, for
+    gratuitous distribution.]
+
+
+    'This institution proposes to do good by a single specific
+    course of measures. Its direct and specific purpose _is not the
+    abolition of slavery_, or the relief of pauperism, or the
+    extension of commerce and civilization, or the enlargement of
+    science, or the conversion of the heathen. The single object
+    which its constitution prescribes, and to which all its efforts
+    are necessarily directed, is, African colonization from America.
+    It proposes only to afford facilities for the voluntary
+    emigration of free people of color from this country to the
+    country of their fathers.'--[Review on African
+    Colonization.--Christian Spectator for September, 1830.]
+
+
+    'It interferes in nowise with the right of property, and hopes
+    and labors for the gradual abolition of slavery, by the
+    voluntary and gradual manumission of slaves, when the free
+    persons of color shall have first been transferred to their
+    aboriginal climate and soil.'--[G. W. P. Custis, Esq.--African
+    Repository, vol. i. p. 39.]
+
+
+    'Does this Society wish to meddle with our slaves as our
+    rightful property? I answer _no_, I think not.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. ii. p. 13.]
+
+
+    'They have been denounced by some as fanatical and visionary
+    innovators, pursuing without regard to means or consequences, an
+    object destructive of the rights of property, and dangerous to
+    the public peace.' * * * 'The sole object of the Society, as
+    declared at its institution, and from which it can never be
+    allowed to depart, is 'to remove with their own consent, to the
+    coast of Africa, the free colored population, now existing in
+    the United States, and such as hereafter may become free.'' * * *
+    'In pursuing their object, therefore, (although such
+    consequences may result from a successful prosecution of it,)
+    the Society cannot be justly charged with aiming to disturb the
+    rights of property or the peace of society. Your memorialists
+    refer with confidence to the course they have pursued, in the
+    prosecution of their object for nine years past, to shew that it
+    is possible, without danger or alarm, to carry on such an
+    operation, notwithstanding its supposed relation to the subject
+    of slavery, and that they have not been regardless, in any of
+    their measures, of what was due to the state of society in which
+    they live. They are, themselves, chiefly slaveholders, and live,
+    with all the ties of life binding them to a slaveholding
+    community. They know when to speak and when to forbear upon
+    topics connected with this painful and difficult subject. They
+    put forth no passionate appeals before the public, seek to
+    excite no feeling, and avoid, with the most sedulous care, every
+    measure that would endanger the public tranquillity.' * * * 'The
+    managers could, with no propriety, depart from their original
+    and avowed purpose, _and make emancipation their object_. And
+    they would further say, that if they were not thus restrained by
+    the terms of their association, they would still consider any
+    attempts to promote the increase of the free colored population
+    by manumission, _unnecessary_, _premature_, and _dangerous_.'
+    * * * 'It seems now to be admitted that, whatever has any bearing
+    upon that question, must be managed with the utmost
+    consideration; that the peace and order of society must not be
+    endangered by indiscreet and ill-timed efforts to promote
+    emancipation; and that a true regard should be manifested to the
+    feelings and the fears, and even the _prejudices_ of those,
+    whose co-operation is essential.'--[Memorial of the Society to
+    the several States.--A. R. vol. ii. pp. 57, 58, 60.]
+
+
+    'To found in Africa an empire of _christians and republicans_;
+    to reconduct the blacks to their native land, without disturbing
+    the order of society, the laws of property, or the rights of
+    individuals; rapidly, but legally, _silently_, _gradually_, to
+    drain them off; these are the noble ends of the colonization
+    scheme.'--[African Repository, vol. ii. p. 375.]
+
+
+    'Nor have I ever been able to see, for my part, why the
+    patronage of Congress to a benevolent and patriotic Society,
+    which, without interfering, in the smallest degree, with that
+    _delicate interest_, only aims to remove what we all consider as
+    a great evil--our free people of color--(and which evil _does_
+    interfere with that interest,) should excite the jealousy or
+    spleen of our most watchful and determined advocates of state
+    rights.'--[Idem, p. 383.]
+
+
+    'Recognising the constitutional and legitimate existence of
+    slavery, it seeks not to interfere, either directly or
+    indirectly, with the rights which it creates. _Acknowledging the
+    necessity by which its present continuance and the rigorous
+    provisions for its maintenance are justified_, it aims only at
+    furnishing the States, in which it exists, the means of
+    immediately lessening its severities, and of ultimately
+    relieving themselves from its acknowledged evils.'--[Opimius in
+    reply to Caius Gracchus.--African Repository, vol. iii. p. 16.]
+
+
+    '_It is no abolition Society_; it addresses as yet _arguments to
+    no master_, and disavows with horror the idea of offering
+    temptations to any slave. IT DENIES THE DESIGN OF ATTEMPTING
+    EMANCIPATION, EITHER PARTIAL OR GENERAL; it denies, with us,
+    that the General Government have any power to emancipate; and
+    declares that the States have exclusively the right to regulate
+    the whole subject of slavery. The scope of the Society is large
+    enough, but it is in nowise mingled or confounded with the broad
+    sweeping views of _a few fanatics_ in America, who would urge us
+    on to the sudden and total abolition of slavery.' * * * 'The
+    first great material objection is that the Society does, in
+    fact, in spite of its denial, meditate and conspire the
+    emancipation of the slaves. To the candid, let me say that there
+    are names on the rolls of the Society too high to be rationally
+    accused of the duplicity and insidious falsehood which this
+    implies; farther, the Society and its branches are composed, in
+    by far the larger part, of _citizens of slaveholding States_,
+    who cannot gravely be charged with a design so perilous to
+    themselves. To the uncandid disputant, I say, let him put his
+    finger on one single sentiment, declaration or act of the
+    Society, or of any person, with its sanction, which shows such
+    to be their object: there is in fact no pretext for the charge.'
+    * * * 'Let me repeat, the _friends_ of the Colonization Society,
+    three-fourths of them are SLAVEHOLDERS; the legislatures of
+    Maryland, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee, all slaveholding
+    States, have approved it; _every member_ of this auxiliary
+    Society is, _either in himself, or his nearest relatives,
+    interested in holding slaves_.' * * * 'Once more; this Society
+    is no way connected with certain Abolition Societies in the
+    country. To these the Colonization Society would say, "Your
+    object is unattainable, your zeal dangerous, and nothing can
+    give it the right direction or the right temperature, but your
+    surrendering your plan to ours: be convinced, that if the blacks
+    are ever to be removed from us, it will be by the free will of
+    the owners, and by means of the opportunity which our _innocent_
+    plan of an asylum for such as may be sent will afford."'--['The
+    Col. Society Vindicated.'--Idem, pp. 197, 200, 202, 203.]
+
+
+    'They can impress upon the southern slaveholder, by the strength
+    of facts, and by the recorded declarations of honest men, that
+    the objects of the Colonization Society are altogether pure and
+    praiseworthy, and _that it has no intention to open the door to
+    universal liberty_, but only to cut out a channel, where the
+    merciful providence of God may cause those dark waters to flow
+    off.'--[Idem, vol. iv. p. 145.]
+
+
+    'About twelve years ago, some of the wisest men of the nation,
+    (_mostly slaveholders_,) formed, in the city of Washington, the
+    present American Colonization Society. Among them were men high
+    in office, who had spent many years in studying the interests of
+    their country, and who could not, therefore, be suspected of
+    short-sighted enthusiasm, or any secret design of disturbing the
+    rights or the safety of our southern citizens.' * * * 'You will
+    observe, first, that _there is to be no intermeddling with
+    property in slaves_. THE RIGHTS OF MASTERS ARE TO REMAIN SACRED
+    IN THE EYES OF THE SOCIETY. The tendency of the scheme, and one
+    of its objects, is to _secure slaveholders, and the whole
+    southern country_, against certain evil consequences, growing
+    out of the three-fold mixture of our population.'--[Address of
+    the Rockbridge Col. Society.--Idem, p. 274.]
+
+
+    'It is true, their operations have been confined to the single
+    object, colonization.--They do nothing directly to effect the
+    manumission of slaves.--They think nothing can be advantageously
+    done in favor of emancipation, but by means of colonization, of
+    which emancipation will be a certain consequence that may be
+    safely and quietly awaited.'--[Mr Key's Address.--Idem, p. 303.]
+
+
+    'The Colonization Society, as such, have renounced wholly the
+    name and the characteristics of abolitionists. On this point
+    they have been unjustly and injuriously slandered. They need no
+    such barrier to restrict them, as the sentiment of Mr Harrison,
+    for their operations are entirely in a different department.
+    INTO THEIR ACCOUNTS THE SUBJECT OF EMANCIPATION DOES NOT ENTER
+    AT ALL.'--['N. E.'--Idem, p. 306.]
+
+
+    'Being, chiefly, slaveholders ourselves, we well know how it
+    becomes us to approach such a subject as this in a slaveholding
+    state, and in every other. If there were room for a reasonable
+    jealousy, we among the first should feel it; being as much
+    interested in the welfare of the community, and having as much
+    at heart, as any men can have, the security of ourselves, our
+    property and our families.' * * * 'Our object is, not to prevail
+    upon the master to part with his slave, for that we leave to his
+    own reflection and CONVENIENCE; but to afford to those masters
+    who have determined, or may determine, to manumit their slaves;
+    provided they can be removed from this country, the means of
+    removing them to a place where they may be really free,
+    virtuous, respectable and happy.--Nothing can be more innocent
+    and less alarming.'--[Review of Mr Tazewell's Report.--Idem, p.
+    341.]
+
+
+    'The American Colonization Society has, at all times, solemnly
+    disavowed any purpose of interference with the institutions or
+    rights of our Southern communities.'--[Idem, vol. v. p. 307.]
+
+
+    'From its origin, and throughout the whole period of its
+    existence, it has constantly disclaimed all intention whatever
+    of interfering, in the smallest degree, with the rights of
+    property, or the object of emancipation, gradual or immediate.
+    _It is not only without inclination_, but it is without power,
+    to make any such interference. It is not even a chartered or
+    incorporated company; and it has no other foundation than that
+    of Bible Societies, or any other christian or charitable
+    unincorporated companies in our country. It knows that the
+    subject of emancipation belongs exclusively to the several
+    States in which slavery is tolerated, and to individual
+    proprietors of slaves in those States, under and according to
+    their laws.' * * * 'The Society presents to the American public
+    _no project of emancipation_.' * * * 'Its exertions have been
+    confined exclusively to the free colored people of the United
+    States, and to those of them who are willing to go. It has
+    neither _purpose_ nor power to extend them to the larger portion
+    of that race held in bondage. Throughout the whole period of its
+    existence, this disclaimer has been made, and incontestible
+    facts establish its truth and sincerity. It is now repeated, in
+    its behalf, that the spirit of misrepresentation may have no
+    pretext for abusing the public ear.'--[Mr Clay's Speech.--African
+    Repository, vol. vi. pp. 13, 17, 19.]
+
+
+    'The Society, from considerations like these, whilst it
+    disclaims the remotest idea of ever disturbing the right of
+    property in slaves, conceives it to be possible that the time
+    may arrive, when, with the approbation of their owners, they
+    shall all be at liberty; and, with those already free, be
+    removed, with their own consent, to the land of their
+    ancestors.'--[African Repository, vol. vi. p. 69.]
+
+
+    '_It is not the object of this Society to liberate slaves, or
+    touch the rights of property_. TO SET THEM LOOSE AMONG US WOULD
+    BE AN EVIL MORE INTOLERABLE THAN SLAVERY ITSELF. It would make
+    our situation insecure and dangerous.'--[Report of the Kentucky
+    Col. Soc.--Idem, p. 81.]
+
+
+    'It contemplates no purpose of abolition: it touches no slave
+    until his fetters have been voluntarily stricken off by the hand
+    of his own master.'--[Speech of John A. Dix, Esq.--Idem, p.
+    165.]
+
+
+    'What has awakened that spirit of suspicion and enmity which is
+    now manifested by these men in every form of open and active
+    hostility? Can it be attributed to any departure of the Society
+    from its avowed original design and principles? We maintain that
+    it cannot; we maintain that the character of the Society has
+    from the commencement been uniformly the same, and that its
+    proceedings have been consistent with its character. Were or are
+    the design and principles of the Society hostile to the rights
+    and interest of the Southern States? We maintain that they were
+    and are not; but on the contrary, are worthy to be cherished by
+    the citizens of these States, and to be sustained with all their
+    energies as means of their political and moral strength.' * * *
+    'The _free_ people of color alone are to be colonized by the
+    Society, and whether the benefits of its scheme are ever to be
+    extended to _others_, is a question referred to those to whom it
+    pertains as a matter of right and duty to decide.' * * * 'The
+    Colonization Society would be the last Institution in the world
+    to disturb the domestic tranquillity of the South.'--[Defence of
+    the Society.--Idem, pp. 197, 207, 209.]
+
+
+    'This Society, here in the outset, most explicitly disclaims all
+    intention to interfere in the smallest degree with the slave
+    population. It is with the free colored population alone, and
+    that too, with their own consent, that this Society proposes to
+    act.'--[Address of the Maryland State Colonization Society to
+    the People of Maryland.]
+
+
+    'To the slaveholder, who had charged upon them the wicked design
+    of interfering with the rights of property under the specious
+    pretexts of removing a vicious and dangerous free population,
+    they address themselves in a tone of conciliation and sympathy.
+    We know your rights, say they, and we respect them--we know your
+    difficulties, and we appreciate them. _Being mostly slaveholders
+    ourselves_, having a common interest with you in this subject,
+    an equal opportunity of understanding it, and the same motives
+    to prudent action, what better guarantee can be afforded for the
+    just discrimination, and the safe operation of our measures? And
+    what ground for apprehension that we, who are bound to you by
+    the strongest ties of interest and of sympathy, should intrude
+    upon the repose of the domestic circle, or invade the peace and
+    security of society? Have not the thirteen years' peaceful, yet
+    efficient, operations of our Society attested the _moderation of
+    our views_ and the safety of our plans? We have protested from
+    the commencement, and during our whole progress, and we do now
+    protest, that we have never entertained the purpose of
+    intermeddling with the private property of individuals. We know
+    that we have not the power, even if we had the inclination, to
+    do so. Your rights, as guarantied by the Constitution, are held
+    sacred in our eyes; and we should be among the foremost to
+    resist, as a flagrant usurpation, any encroachment upon those
+    rights. Our only object, as at all times avowed, is to provide
+    for the removal to the coast of Africa, with their own consent,
+    of such persons of color as are already free, and of such others
+    as the humanity of individuals, or the laws of the different
+    states, may hereafter liberate. Is there any thing, say they, in
+    this proposition at war with your interest, your safety, your
+    honor, or your happiness? Do we not all regard this mixed and
+    intermediate population of free blacks, made up of slaves or
+    their immediate descendants, as a mighty and a growing evil,
+    exerting a dangerous and baneful influence on all around
+    them?'--[Address of Cyrus Edwards, Esq. of Illinois.--African
+    Repository, vol. vii. p. 100.]
+
+
+    'It was never the intention of the Society to interfere with the
+    rights of the proprietors of slaves; nor has it at any time done
+    so.'--[Address of R. J. Breckenridge of Kentucky.--Idem p. 176.]
+
+
+    'The specific object to which the entire funds of the
+    Institution are devoted, is simple and plainly unexceptionable
+    in this respect, that it interferes with no rights of
+    individuals, and with no law of the land.' * * * 'It embraces in
+    its provisions only the free. It does not interfere--it desires
+    not to interfere, in any way, with the rights or the interests
+    of the proprietors of slaves. _It condemns no man because he is
+    a slaveholder_; it seeks to quiet all unkind feelings between
+    the sober and virtuous men of the North and of the South on the
+    subject of slavery; it sends abroad no influence to disturb the
+    peace, and endanger the security and prosperity of any portion
+    of the country.'--[Character and Influence of the Colonization
+    Society.--African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 194, 200.]
+
+
+    'Can it be a ruthless scheme of political speculation, which
+    would trample, with rude and unhallowed step, upon the rights of
+    property, to gratify the visionary and fanatical projects of its
+    authors? No: this is impossible. Yet such is the language of
+    intemperate opposition, with which this Society has been
+    assailed by its enemies.' * * * 'Equally absurd and false is the
+    objection, that this Society seeks indirectly to disturb the
+    rights of property, and to interfere with the well-established
+    relation subsisting between master and slave. The man who avows
+    such monstrous purposes as these, and seeks to shelter himself
+    under the sanction and authority of the American Colonization
+    Society, is a base traitor to the cause which it seeks to
+    advance--AN ENEMY OF THE WORST AND MOST DANGEROUS STAMP, because
+    he assumes the specious garb of a friend and coadjutor. Let him
+    stand, or let him fall, by the verdict of an insulted and
+    outraged community--but do not make liable for his acts a great
+    Institution, whose real friends will be the first to reject and
+    discountenance him, and to mark upon his forehead in indelible
+    characters, "This is a traitor to the cause of his country and
+    the cause of humanity."--It is true that the friends of the
+    American Colonization Society have permitted themselves to
+    entertain the high and exalted hope, that, by its influences,
+    ultimate and remote, the burdens which are incident to slavery
+    may be greatly mitigated, and possibly the evil itself at some
+    future day be entirely removed. But mark, Mr President, and mark
+    well, ye hearers, the grounds upon which this hope is founded.
+    It could not be sustained by any effort, direct or indirect, to
+    invade the rights of the slaveholding community, for the plain
+    and palpable reason, that the effort itself would furnish the
+    most certain means of defeating the object in view, even
+    supposing the friends of the Society reckless enough to
+    entertain it. It would denote on the part of those who made it,
+    an extremity of madness and folly, wholly unprecedented in the
+    history of the world, and if persevered in, would dissolve the
+    government into its original elements, even though the principle
+    of union which holds it together were a thousand-fold stronger
+    than it is.' * * * 'Surely the friends of the Colonization
+    Society have done nought either to alarm the honest fears of the
+    patriot, or excite the morbid sensibilities of the
+    slaveholder.'--[Address delivered before the Lynchburg Auxiliary
+    Colonization Society, August 18, 1831.]
+
+
+    'While, therefore, _they determined to avoid the question of
+    slavery_, they proposed the formation of a colony on the coast
+    of Africa, as an asylum for free people of color.' * * * 'The
+    emancipation of slaves or the amelioration of their condition,
+    with the moral, intellectual, and political improvement of
+    people of color within the United States, _are subjects foreign
+    to the powers of this Society_.'--[Address of the Board of
+    Managers of the American Colonization Society to its Auxiliary
+    Societies.--African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 290, 291.]
+
+
+    'The American Colonization Society was formed with special
+    reference to the _free_ blacks of our country. With the
+    _delicate subject_ of slavery it presumes not to interfere. And
+    yet doubtless from the first it has cherished the hope of being
+    in some way or other a medium of relief to the entire colored
+    population of the land. Such a hope is certainly both innocent
+    and benevolent. And so long as the Society adheres to the object
+    announced in its constitution, as it hitherto has done, the
+    master can surely find no reasonable cause of anxiety. And it is
+    a gratifying circumstance that the Society has from the first
+    _obtained its most decided and efficient support from the
+    slaveholding States_.'--[Sermon, delivered at Springfield,
+    Mass., July 4th, 1829, before the Auxiliary Colonization Society
+    of Hampden County, by Rev. B. Dickinson.]
+
+
+    'The American Colonization Society in no way directly meddles
+    with slavery. It disclaims all such
+    interference.'--[Correspondent of the Southern Religious
+    Telegraph.]
+
+
+    'This system is sanctioned by the laws of independent and
+    sovereign states. Congress cannot constitutionally pass laws
+    which shall tend directly to abolish it. If it ever be abolished
+    by legislative enactments, it must be done by the respective
+    legislatures of the States in which it exists. It never designed
+    to interfere with what the laws consider as the rights of
+    masters--it has made no appeals to them to release their slaves
+    for colonization, nor to their slaves to abandon their masters.
+    With this delicate subject, the Society has avowedly nothing to
+    do. Its ostensible object is necessarily the removal of our free
+    colored population.'--[Middletown (Connecticut) Gazette.]
+
+
+    'With slaves, however, the American Colonization Society has _no
+    concern_ whatever, except to transport to Africa such as their
+    owners may liberate for that purpose.'--[Oration delivered at
+    Newark, N. J., July 4th, 1831, by Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]
+
+
+    'It disclaims, and always has disclaimed, all intention
+    whatever, of interfering in the smallest degree, direct or
+    indirect, with the rights of slaveholders, the right of
+    property, _or the object of emancipation, gradual or immediate.
+    It knows that the owners of slaves are the owners, and no one
+    else--it does not, in the most remote degree, touch that
+    delicate subject_. Every slaveholder may, therefore, remain at
+    ease concerning it or its progress or objects.'--[An advocate of
+    the Society in the New-Orleans Argus.]
+
+It were needless to multiply these extracts. So precisely do they
+resemble each other, that they seem rather as the offspring of a single
+mind, than of many minds. A large majority of them come in the most
+official and authoritative shape, and their language is explicit beyond
+cavil.
+
+Here, then, is a combination, embracing able and influential men in all
+parts of the country, pledging itself not only to respect the system of
+slavery, but to frown indignantly upon those who shall dare to assail
+it. And what is this system which is to be held in so much reverence,
+and avoided with so much care? It is a system which has in itself no
+redeeming feature, but is full of blood--the blood of innocent men,
+women and children; full of adultery and concupiscence; full of
+darkness, blasphemy and wo; full of rebellion against God and treason
+against the universe; full of wrath--impurity--ignorance--brutality--and
+awful impiety; full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; full of
+temporal suffering and eternal damnation. It is, says Pitt, a mass, a
+system of enormities, which incontrovertibly bid defiance to every
+regulation which ingenuity can devise, or power effect, but a total
+extinction; a system of incurable injustice, the complication of every
+species of iniquity, the greatest practical evil that ever has afflicted
+the human race, and the severest and most extensive calamity recorded in
+the history of the world. Fox calls it a most unjust and horrible
+persecution of our fellow creatures. The Rev. Dr. Thomson declares it is
+a system hostile to the original and essential rights of
+humanity--contrary to the inflexible and paramount demands of moral
+justice--at eternal variance with the spirit and maxims of revealed
+religion--inimical to all that is merciful in the heart, and holy in the
+conduct--and on these accounts, necessarily exposed and subject to the
+curse of Almighty God. It is, says Rowland Hill, made up of every crime
+that treachery, cruelty and murder can invent. Wilberforce says, it is
+the full measure of pure, unmixed, unsophisticated wickedness; and
+scorning all competition or comparison, it stands without a rival in the
+secure, undisputed possession of its detestable pre-eminence. In this
+country, slavery is a system which leaves the chastity of one million
+females without any protection! which condemns more than two millions of
+human beings to remediless bondage! which authorises their sale at
+public vendue in company with horses, sheep and hogs, or in a private
+manner, at the pleasure of their owners! which, under penalty of
+imprisonment, and even death, forbids their being taught the lowest
+rudiments of knowledge! which, by the exclusion of their testimony in
+courts, subjects them to worse than brutal treatment! which recognizes
+no connubial obligations, ruthlessly severs the holiest relations of
+life, tears the scarcely weaned babe from the arms of its mother, wives
+from their husbands, and parents from their children! But who is
+adequate to the task of delineating its horrors, or recording its
+atrocities, in full? Who can number the stripes which it inflicts, the
+groans and tears and imprecations which it extorts, the cruel murders
+which it perpetrates? or who measure the innocent blood which it
+spills, or the degradation which it imposes, or the guilt which it
+accumulates? or who reveal the waste of property, the perversion of
+intellect, the loss of happiness, the burial of mind, to which it is
+accessary? or who trace its poisonous influence and soul-destroying
+tendency back for two hundred years down to the end of time? None--none
+but God himself! It is corrupt as death--black as perdition--cruel and
+insatiate as the grave. To adopt the nervous language of another:--The
+thing I say is true. I speak the truth, though it is most lamentable. I
+dare not hide it, I dare not palliate it; else the horror with which it
+covereth me would make me do so. Wo unto such a system! wo unto the men
+of this land who have been brought under its operation! It is not felt
+to be evil, it is not acknowledged to be evil, it is not preached
+against as evil; and, therefore, it is only the more inveterate and
+fearful an evil.[H] _It hath become constitutional._ IT IS FED FROM THE
+STREAM OF OUR LIFE, and it will grow more and more excessive, until it
+can no longer be endured by God, nor borne with by man.
+
+And this is the system, with which, as the reader has seen, the American
+Colonization Society is resolved not to interfere; and with the
+upholders of which, ministers of the gospel and professors of religion
+of all denominations have made a treaty of peace! Tell it not
+abroad--publish it not in the capitals of Europe--lest the despots of
+the old world take courage, and infidelity strengthen its stakes!
+
+If men who are reputedly wise and good--if religious teachers and
+political leaders, those whose opinions are almost implicitly adopted,
+and whose examples are readily followed by the mass of the people--if
+such men suppress their voices on this momentous subject, and turn their
+eyes from its contemplation, and give the right hand of fellowship to
+the buyers and sellers of human flesh, is there not cause for
+lamentation and alarm? The pulpit is false to its trust, and a moral
+paralysis has seized the vitals of the church. The sanctity of religion
+is thrown, like a mantle, over the horrid system. Under its auspices,
+robbery and oppression have become popular and flourishing. The press,
+too, by its profound silence, or selfish neutrality, or equivocal
+course, or active partizanship, is enlisted in the cause of tyranny--the
+mighty press, which has power, if exerted aright, to break every fetter,
+and emancipate the land. If this state of things be not speedily
+reversed, 'we be all dead men.' Unless the pulpit lift up the voice of
+warning, supplication and wo, with a fidelity which no emolument can
+bribe, and no threat intimidate; unless the church organise and plan for
+the redemption of the benighted slaves, and directly assault the strong
+holds of despotism; unless the press awake to its duty, or desist from
+its bloody co-operation; as sure as Jehovah lives and is unchangeable,
+he will pour out his indignation upon us, and consume us with the fire
+of his wrath, and our own way recompense upon our heads. 'Ah, sinful
+nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children
+that are corrupters! When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine
+eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: _your
+hands are full of blood_. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of
+your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well;
+_seek judgment, relieve the oppressed_, judge the fatherless, plead for
+the widow. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the
+land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword:
+_for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it_.'
+
+I know the covert behind which colonizationists take refuge. They
+profess to be--and, doubtless, in many instances are--aiming at the
+ultimate emancipation of the slaves; but they are all for _gradual_
+abolition--all too courteous to give offence--too sober to be
+madmen--too discreet to adopt _rash_ measures. But I shall show, in the
+progress of this work, that they not only shield the holders of slaves
+from reproach, (and thus, by assuring them of their innocence, destroy
+all motives for repentance,) but earnestly dissuade them from
+emancipating their slaves without an immediate expulsion. Fine
+conceptions of justice! Enemies of slavery, with a vengeance!
+
+Suppose a similar course had been pursued by the friends of
+Temperance--when would have commenced that mighty reformation which has
+taken place before our eyes--unparalleled in extent, completeness and
+rapidity? Suppose, instead of exposing the guilt of trafficking in
+ardent spirits, and demanding instant and entire abstinence, they had
+associated themselves together for the exclusive purpose of colonizing
+all the drunkards in the land, as a class dangerous to our safety and
+irremediably degraded, on a spot where they could not obtain the
+poisonous alcohol, but could rise to respect and affluence--how would
+such an enterprise have been received? Suppose they had pledged
+themselves not to 'meddle' with the business of the traders in
+spirituous liquors, or to injure the 'property' of distillers, and had
+dwelt upon the folly and danger of 'immediate' abstinence, and had
+denounced the advocates of this doctrine as madmen and fanatics, and had
+endeavored, moreover, to suppress inquiry into the lawfulness of
+rum-selling--how many importers, makers and venders of the liquid poison
+would have abandoned their occupation, or how many of the four hundred
+thousand individuals, who are now enrolled under the banner of entire
+abstinence, would have been united in this great enterprise? Suppose,
+further, that, in a lapse of fifteen years, this association had
+transported two thousand drunkards, and the tide of intemperance had
+continued to rise higher and higher, and some faithful watchmen had
+given the alarm and showed the fatal delusion which rested upon the
+land, and the Society should have defended itself by pointing to the two
+thousand sots who had been saved by its instrumentality--would the
+public attention have been successfully diverted from the _immense evil_
+to the _partial good_? Suppose, once more, that this Society, composed
+indiscriminately of rum-sellers and sober, pious men, on being charged
+with perpetuating the evils of intemperance, with removing only some of
+the fruits thereof instead of the tree itself, should have indignantly
+repelled the charge, and said--'We are as much opposed to drunkenness,
+and as heartily deprecate its existence, as any of our violent,
+fanatical opposers; but the holders of ardent spirit have invested their
+capital in it, and to destroy its sale would invade the right of
+_property_; policy at least, bids us not to assail their conduct, as
+otherwise we might exasperate them, and so lose their aid in colonizing
+the tipplers.' What would have been accomplished? But no such logic was
+used: the duty of immediate reform was constantly pressed upon the
+people, and a mighty reform took place.
+
+Colonizationists boast inordinately of having emancipated three or four
+hundred slaves by their scheme, and contemptuously inquire of
+abolitionists, 'What have _you_ effected?' Many persons have been
+deceived by this _show_ of success, and deem it conclusive evidence of
+the usefulness of the Colonization Society. But, in the first place, it
+is very certain that none of these slaves were liberated in consequence
+of the faithful appeals of the Society to the consciences of the
+masters; for it has never troubled their consciences by any such
+appeals. Secondly, it is obvious that these manumissions are the fruits
+of the uncompromising doctrines of abolitionists; for they are
+calculated to bring slaveholders to repentance, and they will yet
+liberate other slaves to be caught up and claimed by the Society as
+trophies of its success. Thirdly, it has been shown that while this
+Society (allowing it the utmost that it claims) is effecting very little
+and very doubtful good, it is inflicting upon the nation great and
+positive evil, by refusing to arraign the oppressors at the bar of
+eternal justice, and by obstructing the formation of abolition
+societies. It rivets a thousand fetters where it breaks one. It annually
+removes, on an average, two hundred of our colored population, whereas
+the annual increase is about seventy thousand. It releases some scores
+of slaves, and says to the owners of more than two millions--'Hold on!
+don't emancipate too fast!'
+
+What have the abolitionists _done_? They have done more, during the past
+year, to overthrow the system of slavery, than has been accomplished by
+the gradualists in half a century. They have succeeded in fastening the
+attention of the nation upon its enormities, and in piercing the callous
+consciences of the planters. They are reforming and consolidating public
+opinion, dispelling the mists of error, inspiring the hearts of the
+timid, enlightening the eyes of the blind, and disturbing the slumbers
+of the guilty. Colonizationists gather a few leaves which the tree has
+cast off, and vaunt of the deed: abolitionists 'lay the axe at once to
+its roots, and put their united nerve into the steel'--nor shall their
+strokes be in vain--for soon shall 'this great poison-tree of lust and
+blood, and of all abominable and heartless iniquity, fall before them;
+and law and love, and God and man, shout victory over its ruin.'
+
+Has the reader duly considered the fatal admissions of the advocates of
+the colonization scheme, presented in the preceding pages? Some of them
+it may be serviceable to the cause of truth and justice to recapitulate.
+
+1. _The Society does not aim directly at the instruction of the blacks:
+their moral, intellectual and political improvement within the United
+States, is foreign to its powers._
+
+2. _The public safety forbids either the emancipation or the general
+instruction of the slaves._
+
+3. _The Society properly enough stands aloof from the question of
+slavery._
+
+4. _It is ready to pass censure upon abolition societies._
+
+5. _It involves no intrusion on property, nor even upon prejudice._
+
+6. _It has no wish, if it could, to interfere in the smallest degree
+with the system of slavery._
+
+7. _It acknowledges the necessity by which the present continuance of
+the system and the rigorous provisions for its maintenance are
+justified._
+
+8. _It denies the design of attempting emancipation either partial or
+general: into its accounts the subject of emancipation does not enter at
+all: it has no intention to open the door to universal liberty._
+
+9. _The rights of masters are to remain sacred in the eyes of the
+Society._
+
+10. _It condemns no man because he is a slaveholder._
+
+Each of these particulars deserves a volume of comments, but I am
+compelled to dismiss them in rotation with a single remark.
+
+1. One reason assigned by the Society for refusing to promote the
+education of our colored population, is, a dread of exciting 'the
+_prejudices_ and _terrors_ of the slaveholding States'! Is it credible?
+As far, then, as this Society extends its influence, more than two
+millions of ignorant, degraded beings in this boasted land of liberty
+and light have nothing to hope: their moral, intellectual and political
+improvement is foreign to its powers! Cruel neglect! barbarous
+coalition! A sinful fear of rousing the prejudices of oppressors
+outweighs the claims of the contemned blacks, the requirements of the
+gospel, the dictates of humanity, and the convictions of duty. Will this
+plea avail aught at the bar of God? Millions of our countrymen purposely
+kept in darkness, although we are able to pour daylight upon their
+vision, merely to gratify and protect their buyers and sellers!
+
+2. There never was a more abominable or more absurd heresy propagated,
+than the assumption that the public safety would be jeoparded by an
+immediate compliance with the demands of justice: yet it has obtained
+among all orders of society. Even ministers of the gospel, who are bound
+to cry aloud, and spare not,--to lift up their voices like a trumpet,
+and show this guilty nation its sins,--to say to the holders of slaves,
+'Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the
+oppressed go free, _and break every yoke_,'--even they fly to this
+subterfuge, and deprecate a general emancipation. On this subject, 'they
+know not what they do;' they reason like madmen or atheists; they
+advance sentiments which unhinge the moral government of the universe,
+and directly encourage the commission of the most heinous crimes. How
+long would any one of their number retain his situation, if he were to
+preach in explicit terms to his congregation as follows?--'My dear
+hearers, if any among you are daily oppressing the weak, or defrauding
+the poor, do not cease from your robbery and cruelty at once, as you
+value your own happiness and the welfare of society! Relax your
+tyrannous grasp gradually from the throat of your neighbor, and steal
+not quite so much from him this year as you did the last!'--But they
+emphatically hold this language whenever they advise slaveholders not to
+repent _en masse_, or too hastily. The public safety, they say, forbids
+emancipation! or, in other words, the public safety depends upon your
+persistance in cheating, whipping, starving, debasing your slaves! Nay,
+more--many of them, horrible to tell, are traffickers in human flesh!
+'For this thing which it cannot bear, the earth is disquieted. The
+gospel of peace and mercy preached by him who steals, buys and sells the
+purchase of Messiah's blood!--rulers of the church making merchandize of
+their brethren's souls!--and Christians trading the persons of men!'[I]
+
+3. The system of slavery is full of danger, outrage, desolation and
+death--'a volcano in full operation'--a monster that is annually
+supplied with sixty thousand new victims, devoured as soon as born--and
+yet the Colonization Society 'properly enough stands aloof' from it!! It
+utters no lamentations--makes no supplications--gives no
+rebukes--presents no motives for repentance!
+
+4. The Society is not only ready to pass, but it is constantly bestowing
+its censure upon abolition societies. It represents their members as
+guided by a visionary, wild and fanatical spirit, as invaders of rights
+which are sacred, incendiaries, disturbers of the peace of society, and
+enemies to the safety and happiness of the planters. Determining itself
+to avoid the question of emancipation--to leave millions of human beings
+to pine in bondage without exposing the guilt of the oppressors--it
+endeavors to prevent any other association agitating the subject. Hence
+between colonization and abolition societies there is no affinity of
+feeling or action; and hence arises the cause, inexplicable to many,
+why they cannot pursue their objects amicably together.
+
+5. The attempt of the Society to conciliate the holders of slaves must
+result either in disappointment, or in an abandonment of the path of
+duty. If they are guilty of robbery and oppression, they must be
+arraigned as criminals, or they never will reform: for why should
+honest, benevolent men change their conduct? If, through a false
+delicacy of feeling or cringing policy, their wickedness be covered up,
+alas for the slaves, and alas for the regeneration of the south! all
+hope is lost.
+
+6. The Society has no wish, _if it could_, to interfere with the system
+of slavery! Monstrous indifference, or barbarous cruelty! And yet it
+presumes to occupy the whole ground of the controversy, and to direct
+the actions of the friends of the blacks throughout the land! By the
+phrase '_interfere_,' is meant no desire to contest the claims of the
+planters to their bondmen, or to kindle the indignation of the people
+against their atrocious practices.
+
+7. It appears that all those terrible enactments which have been made
+for the government of the slaves--such, for example, as forbid their
+learning to read under the penalty of stripes, and even death--are
+acknowledged by the Society to be necessary for the maintenance of
+order! What a concession!
+
+8. Sometimes we are told that the Society is aiming at the liberation of
+all the slaves, and then that it has no design of attempting either
+partial or general emancipation: so contradictory are its assurances! It
+is manifest that it does not mean to touch the question of slavery; and
+hence the imperious necessity of forming abolition societies.
+
+9. The rights of masters are to remain sacred in the eyes of the
+Society! What rights? Those by which the intelligent creatures of God
+are bought and sold and used like cattle? those which are founded upon
+piracy, cruelty and outrage?[J] Yes! This, then, is an abandonment of
+the ground of right and justice, and ends the controversy between truth
+and error.
+
+10. It condemns no man because he is a slaveholder! Certainly, then, it
+allows that slaveholders are upright men--not guilty of fraud--not
+oppressors--not extortioners! and that the slaves are truly and justly
+their property--not entitled to freedom--not better than cattle--not
+conscious of evil treatment--not worthy of remuneration for their
+toil--not rational and accountable beings!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[H] The term evil is used here in a criminal sense. I know that
+colonizationists regard slavery as an evil; but an evil which has been
+_entailed_ upon this land, for the existence of which we are no more to
+blame than for the prevalence of plague or famine.
+
+[I] 'If the most guilty and daring transgressor be sought, he is a
+Gospel Minister, who solemnly avows his belief of the Presbyterian
+Confession of Faith, or the Methodist Discipline, and notwithstanding
+himself is a Negro Pedler, who steals, buys, sells, and keeps his
+brethren in slavery, or supports by his taciturnity, or his smooth
+prophesying, or his direct defence, the Christian professor who unites
+in the kidnapping trade. Truth forces the declaration, that every church
+officer, or member, who is a slaveholder, records himself, by his own
+creed, a hypocrite!' * * 'To pray and kidnap! to commune and rob men's
+all! to preach justice, and steal the laborer with his recompense! to
+recommend mercy to others, and exhibit cruelty in our own conduct! to
+explain religious duties, and ever impede the performance of them! to
+propound the example of Christ and his Apostles, and declare that a
+slaveholder imitates them! to enjoin an observance of the Lord's day,
+and drive the slaves from the temple of God! to inculcate every social
+affection, and instantly exterminate them! to expatiate upon bliss
+eternal, and preclude sinners from obtaining it! to unfold the woes of
+Tophet, and not drag men from its fire! are the most preposterous
+delusion, and the most consummate mockery.' * * * 'The Church of God
+groans. It is the utmost Satanic delusion to talk of religion and
+slavery. Be not deceived: to affirm that a slaveholder is a genuine
+disciple of Jesus Christ, is most intelligible contradiction. A brother
+of Him who went about doing good, and steal, enslave, torment, starve
+and scourge a man because his skin is of a different tinge! Such
+Christianity is the Devil's manufacture to delude souls to the regions
+of wo.'--REV. GEORGE BOURNE.
+
+[J] 'We are told not to meddle with vested rights: I have a sacred
+feeling about vested rights; but when vested rights become vested
+wrongs, I am less scrupulous about them.'--_Speech of Rev. Mr. Burnett,
+of England._
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY APOLOGISES FOR SLAVERY AND
+SLAVEHOLDERS.
+
+
+My charges against the American Colonization Society acquire breadth and
+solemnity as I progress in my task. I have fairly and abundantly
+sustained my first,--_that the Society is not the enemy of the
+slave-system_; and I now proceed to prove my second,--_that it
+apologises for slavery and slaveholders_.
+
+    'There is a golden mean, which all who would pursue the solid
+    interest and reputation of their country may discern at the very
+    heart of their confederation, and will both advocate and
+    enforce--a principle, of justice, conciliation and humanity--a
+    principle, sir, which is not inconsistent with itself, and yet
+    can sigh over the degradation of the slave, _defend the wisdom
+    and prudence of the South against the charge of studied and
+    pertinacious cruelty_,' &c.--[Address of Robert F. Stockton,
+    Esq. at the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Parent Society.]
+
+
+    'It is a fact, given us on the most unquestionable authority,
+    that there are now in the southern States of our union,
+    hundreds, and even thousands of proprietors, who would gladly
+    give liberty to their slaves, but are deterred by the
+    apprehension of doing injury to their country, and perhaps to
+    the slaves themselves.'--[Discourse by the Rev. Dr.
+    Dana.--African Repository, vol. i. p. 145.]
+
+
+    'Guarding that system, the existence of which, though
+    _unfortunate_, THEY DEEM NECESSARY.'--[African Repository, vol.
+    i. p. 227.]
+
+
+    'We all know from a variety of considerations which it is
+    unnecessary to name, and in consequence of the policy which is
+    obliged to be pursued in the southern States, that it is
+    extremely difficult to free a slave, and hence the enactment of
+    those laws _which a fatal necessity seems to demand_.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. ii. p. 12.]
+
+
+    'They are convinced, that there are now hundreds of masters who
+    are so only from _necessity_.'--[Memorial of the Society to the
+    several States.--A. R. vol. ii. p. 60.]
+
+
+    '_I do not condemn_, let me be understood, _their detention in
+    bondage_ under the circumstances which are yet existing.'--['The
+    Colonization Society Vindicated.'--Idem, vol. iii. p. 201.]
+
+
+    'A third point in which the first promoters of this object were
+    united, is, that few individual slaveholders can, in the present
+    state of things, emancipate their slaves if they would. There is
+    a certain relation between the proprietor of slaves and the
+    beings thus thrown upon him, which is far more complicated, and
+    far less easily dissolved, than a mind unacquainted with the
+    subject is ready to imagine. The relation is one which, where it
+    exists, grows out of the very structure of society, and for the
+    existence of which, the master is ordinarily as little
+    accountable as the slave.'
+
+    'He [the planter] looks around him and sees that the condition
+    of the great mass of emancipated Africans is one _in comparison
+    with which the condition of his slaves is enviable_;--and he is
+    convinced that if he withdraws from his slaves his authority,
+    his support, his protection, and leaves them to shift for
+    themselves, he turns them out to be vagabonds, and paupers, and
+    felons, and to find in the work-house and the penitentiary, the
+    home which they ought to have retained on his paternal
+    acres.--Hundreds of humane and Christian slaveholders retain
+    their fellow-men in bondage, because _they are convinced that
+    they can do no better_.'--[Address of the Managers of the
+    Colonization Society of Connecticut.--Af. Rep. vol. iv. pp. 119,
+    120.]
+
+
+    'I AM NOT COMPLAINING OF THE OWNERS OF SLAVES; they cannot get
+    rid of them.--_I do not doubt that masters treat their slaves
+    with kindness_, nor that the slaves are happier than they could
+    be if set free in this country.'--[Address delivered before the
+    Hampden Col. Soc., July 4th, 1828, by Wm. B. O. Peabody, Esq.]
+
+
+    '_Policy_, and even _the voice of humanity_ forbade the progress
+    of manumission; and the _salutary hand of law_ came forward to
+    co-operate with our convictions, and to arrest the flow of our
+    feelings, and the ardor of our desires.'--[Review of the Report
+    of the Committee of Foreign Relations.--Af. Rep. vol. iv. p.
+    268.]
+
+
+    'When an owner of slaves tells me that he will freely relinquish
+    his slaves, or even that he will relinquish one-half of their
+    value, _on condition that he be compensated for the other half_,
+    and provision be made for their transportation, I feel that he
+    has made a generous proposal, and _I cannot charge him with all
+    the guilt of slavery_, though he may continue to be a
+    slaveholder.'--[Af. Rep. vol. v. p. 63.]
+
+
+    'Even slavery must be viewed as a great national calamity; a
+    public evil entailed upon us by untoward circumstances, _and
+    perpetuated for the want of appropriate remedies_.'--[Idem, vol.
+    v. p. 89.]
+
+
+    'Slavery is an evil which is entailed upon the present
+    generation of slaveholders, which they must suffer, _whether
+    they will or not_.'--[Idem, p. 179.]
+
+
+    'Our brethren of the South, have the same sympathies, the same
+    moral sentiments, the same love of liberty as ourselves. By them
+    as by us, slavery is felt to be an evil, a hindrance to our
+    prosperity, and a blot upon our character. But it was in being
+    when they were born, and has been forced upon them by a previous
+    generation.'--[Address of Rev. Dr. Nott.--Idem, p. 277.]
+
+
+    'With a writer in the Southern Review we say, "the situation of
+    the people of these States was not of their choosing. When they
+    came to the inheritance, it was subject to this mighty
+    incumbrance, and it would be criminal in them to rain or waste
+    the estate, to get rid of the burden at once." With this writer
+    we add also, in the language of Captain Hall, that the
+    "slaveholders ought not (immediately) to disentangle themselves
+    from the obligations which have devolved upon them, as the
+    masters of slaves." We believe that a master _may_ sustain his
+    relation to the slave, with as little criminality as the slave
+    sustains his relation to the master.' * * * 'Slavery, in its
+    mildest form, is an evil of the darkest character. Cruel and
+    unnatural in its origin, no plea can be urged in justification
+    of its continuance but the plea of _necessity_.'--[Af. Rep. vol.
+    v. pp. 329, 334.]
+
+
+    'How much more consistent and powerful would be our example, but
+    for that population within our limits, whose condition
+    (_necessary_ condition, I will not deny) is so much at war with
+    our institutions, and with that memorable national
+    Declaration--"that all men are created equal."'--[Fourteenth
+    Ann. Report.]
+
+
+    '_It_ [the Society] _condemns no man because he is a
+    slaveholder._' * * * 'They [abolitionists] confound the
+    _misfortunes_ of one generation with the crimes of another, and
+    would sacrifice both individual and public good to an
+    _unsubstantial theory of the rights of man_.'--[A. R. vol. vii.
+    pp. 200, 202.]
+
+
+    'Many thousand individuals in our native State, you well know,
+    Mr President, are restrained, said Mr Mercer, from manumitting
+    their slaves, as you and I are, by the melancholy conviction,
+    that they cannot yield to the suggestions of humanity, without
+    manifest injury to their country.' * * * 'The laws of Virginia
+    now discourage, and very wisely, perhaps, the emancipation of
+    slaves.'--[Speech of Mr Mercer.--First Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'We are ready even to grant, for our present purpose, that, so
+    far as mere animal existence is concerned, the slaves have no
+    reason to complain, and the friends of humanity have no reason
+    to complain for them.' * * * 'There are men in the southern
+    states, who long to do something effectual for the benefit of
+    their slaves, and would gladly emancipate them, did not
+    _prudence_ and _compassion_ alike forbid such a
+    measure.'--[Review of the Reports of the Society, from the
+    Christian Spectator.--Seventh Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Such unhappily is the case; but there is a _necessity_ for it,
+    [for oppressive laws,] and so long as they remain amongst us
+    will that necessity continue.'--[Ninth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'I MAY BE PERMITTED TO DECLARE THAT I WOULD BE A SLAVEHOLDER
+    TO-DAY WITHOUT SCRUPLE.'--[Fourteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'For the existence of slavery in the United States, those, and
+    those only, are accountable who bore a part in originating such
+    a constitution of society. The bible contains no explicit
+    prohibition of slavery. There is neither chapter nor verse of
+    holy writ, which lends any countenance to the fulminating spirit
+    of universal emancipation, of which some exhibitions may be seen
+    in some of the newspapers.' * * * 'The embarrassment which many
+    a philanthropic proprietor has felt in relation to his slaves,
+    has been but little known at the north, and has had but little
+    sympathy. He finds himself the lord of perhaps a hundred human
+    beings; and is anxious to do them all the good in his power. He
+    would emancipate them; but if he does, their prospect of
+    happiness can hardly be said to be improved by the change. Some
+    half a dozen, perhaps, in the hundred, become industrious and
+    useful members of society; and the rest are mere vagabonds,
+    idle, wicked, and miserable.'
+
+    --[Review on African Colonization.--Vide the Christian Spectator
+    for September, 1830, in which the reader will find an elaborate
+    apology for the system of slavery, and this, too, by a
+    clergyman!]
+
+
+    'The existence of slavery among us, though not at all to be
+    objected to our southern brethren as a _fault_, is yet a blot on
+    our national character, and a mighty drawback from our national
+    strength.'--[Second Annual Report of the N. Y. State Col. Soc.]
+
+
+    'Entertaining these views of this fearful subject, why should
+    our opponents endeavor to prejudice our cause with our southern
+    friends? And we are the more anxious on this point, for we
+    sincerely entertain exalted notions of their sense of right, of
+    their manliness and independence of feeling--of their dignity of
+    deportment--of their honorable and chivalric turn of thought,
+    which spurns a mean act as death. And if I was allowed to
+    indulge a personal feeling, I would say that there is something
+    to my mind in the candor, hospitality and intelligence of the
+    South, which charms and captives, which wins its way to the
+    heart and gives assurance of all that is upright, honorable, and
+    humane. There is no people that treat their slaves with so
+    little cruelty and with so much kindness. There is nothing in
+    the condition of slavery more congenial with the feelings of the
+    South than with the feelings of the North. Philanthropy and
+    benevolence flourish with as much vigor with them as with
+    us--their hearts are as warm as ours--they feel for the
+    distresses of others with as much acuteness as we do--their ears
+    are as open to the calls of charity as ours--they as deeply
+    regret as we do the existence of slavery--and oh! how their
+    hearts would thrill with delight, if the mighty incubus could be
+    removed without injury or destruction to every thing around
+    them.'--[Speech of James S. Green, Esq. on the same occasion.]
+
+
+    'Many of the best citizens of our land are holders of slaves,
+    and hold them IN STRICT ACCORDANCE WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF
+    HUMANITY AND JUSTICE.'--[Rev. Thomas T. Skillman, editor of the
+    Western Luminary, an ardent supporter of the Col. Soc.]
+
+
+    'It is a very common impression that a principal evil of the
+    condition of the southern blacks, is the severity of their
+    treatment. THIS IS AN ERROR. It is almost every where
+    disreputable to treat slaves with severity; and though there are
+    indeed exceptions, yet in most cases in the South, even tyranny
+    itself could not long withstand the reproaches of public
+    opinion. A STILL GREATER AND MORE DANGEROUS EVIL, IS THE VERY
+    REVERSE. It is _indulgence_; not only in such things as are
+    proper and innocent, but in indolent habits and vicious
+    propensities.'
+
+    --[From an address prepared for the use of those who advocate
+    the cause of the African Education Society at Washington--a
+    Society which educates none but those who consent to remove to
+    Liberia.]
+
+
+    'How should a benevolent Virginian, in view of the fact, that
+    out of thirty-seven thousand free people of color in his State,
+    only two hundred were proprietors of land, how should he be in
+    favor of general emancipation? But, show him, that if he will
+    emancipate his slaves, there is a way in which he can without
+    doubt improve their condition, while he rids himself of a
+    grievous burden, and he will promptly obey the demands of
+    justice--he will then feel that his generous wishes can with
+    certainty be fulfilled. While he knows that scarcely any thing
+    is done to meliorate the condition of those now free, and
+    reflects on the many obstacles in the way of doing it in this
+    land, he feels bound by a regard to what he owes himself--his
+    children--his country, and even his slaves themselves, not to
+    emancipate them. For he is sure, that, by emancipation, he will
+    only add to the wretchedness of the one, and at the same time
+    put at imminent hazard the dearest interests of the other. Thus
+    he is forced to refrain from manumission, and not only so, but
+    against all his benevolent inclinations, he is forced to
+    co-operate with his fellow-citizens in sustaining the present
+    system of slavery. He would most cheerfully follow the impulse
+    of his noblest feelings--he would remove the curse which the
+    short-sighted policy of his fathers entailed upon him; but he
+    cannot disregard the first law of nature; especially not, when,
+    were he to do it, he would render the _curse_ still more
+    calamitous in its consequences.'--[An advocate of the
+    Colonization Society in the Middletown (Connecticut) Gazette.]
+
+
+    'Slavery is indeed a curse; and bitter is the lot of him who is
+    born with slaves on his hands. And now, instead of denouncing as
+    inhuman and unmerciful monsters and tyrants, those who are thus
+    _unfortunate_, I say, let the commiseration and pity of every
+    good citizen and christian in the land be excited, and let
+    fervent prayers be offered in their behalf, and that God would
+    direct the whole American mind to the adoption of the most
+    effectual measures for the accomplishment of the total abolition
+    of slavery.'--[New-Haven Religious Intelligencer for July 16,
+    1831.]
+
+
+    'Special reference will also be had to the condition and wishes
+    of the slave States. In most of them it is a prevailing
+    sentiment, that it is not safe to furnish slaves with the means
+    of instruction. Much as we lament the reasons for this
+    sentiment, and the _apparent necessity_ of keeping a single
+    fellow creature in ignorance, we willingly leave to others the
+    consideration and the remedy of this evil, in view of the
+    overwhelming magnitude of the remaining objects before
+    us.'--[Address of the Board of Managers of the African Education
+    Society of the United States.]
+
+
+    'And when we [of New-England] did emancipate our slaves, we were
+    driven to the measure by the force of example; and we did not do
+    it until it was found quite convenient; and then what provision
+    was made for the poor blacks? Let our State Prison records
+    answer the question. Our Southern brethren have been _more
+    kind_: they will not emancipate them until they send them where
+    they can enjoy _liberty_, more than in name. As a Northern man I
+    feel it my duty, and I take pleasure in giving the _meed of
+    praise_ to my Southern brethren.'--[Speech of Rev. Mr Gallaudet,
+    at a colonization meeting in New-York city.]
+
+
+    'The slave works for his master, who feeds and clothes him,
+    defends him from harm, and takes care of him when he is sick.
+    The free colored man works for himself, and has nobody to take
+    care of him but himself.'
+
+    --[From a little colonization work, published in Baltimore in
+    1828, 'for the use of the African Schools in the United
+    States'!! entitled 'A Voice from Africa.']
+
+
+    'The slaveholder will tell you, that he did not take liberty
+    from the African--he was a slave when he found him, and he is no
+    more than a slave yet. The man who owns one hundred acres of
+    land more than he can cultivate himself, is as much a
+    slaveholder as he who owns a slave.'--[An advocate of
+    colonization in the Richmond (Indiana) Palladium for Oct. 1,
+    1831.]
+
+
+    'I DO NOT MEAN TO SPEAK OF SLAVERY AS A SYSTEM OF CRUELTY AND OF
+    SUFFERING. On this point I am free to say, from personal
+    observation and occasional residences for some years at the
+    South, there has been much misapprehension among our
+    fellow-citizens of the North. And I rejoice to add, that _the
+    condition of the slaves generally is such as the friends of
+    humanity have no reason to complain of_.'--[Oration delivered at
+    Newark, N. J. July 4th, 1831, by Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]
+
+
+    'Slavery, it is true, is an evil--a national evil. Every
+    laudable effort to exterminate it should be encouraged. And we
+    presume that nine-tenths of the slaveholders themselves, would
+    rejoice at the event, could it be accomplished, of the entire
+    freedom from the country of every person of color, and would
+    willingly relinquish every slave in their possession. But the
+    slaves _are_ in their possession--they are entailed upon them by
+    their ancestors. And can they set them free, and still suffer
+    them to remain in the country? Would this be policy? Would it be
+    safe? No. When they can be transported to the soil from whence
+    they were derived--by the aid of the Colonization Society, by
+    Government, by individuals, or by any other means--then let them
+    be emancipated, and not before.'--[Lowell (Mass.) Telegraph.]
+
+It is a self-evident proposition, that just so far as you alleviate the
+pressure of guilt upon the consciences of evil doers, you weaken the
+power of motive to repent, and encourage them to sin with impunity. To
+descant upon the wrongs of the slave-system, and yet exonerate the
+supporters of it from reprehension, is to deal in absurdities: we might
+preach in this manner until the crack of doom, and never gain a convert.
+Paradoxes may amuse, but they never convince the mind.
+
+Now, I defy the most ingenious advocates of perpetual slavery to produce
+stronger arguments in its favor than are given in the foregoing
+extracts. What better plea could they make? what higher justification
+could they need? Nay, these apologies of colonizationists represent
+oppression not merely as innocent, but even commendable--as a system of
+benevolence, upheld by philanthropists and sages!
+
+'I do not condemn the detention of the slaves in bondage under the
+circumstances which are yet existing,' says an advocate; by which
+consolatory avowal we are taught that the criminality of man-stealing
+depends upon _circumstances_, and not upon the fact that it is a daring
+violation of the rights of man and the laws of God.
+
+'The planter sees that the condition of the great mass of emancipated
+Africans is one, in comparison with which the condition of his slaves is
+_enviable_,' assert the Board of Managers!--a concession which
+transforms robbery into generosity, cruelty into mercy, and leads the
+slaveholder to believe that, instead of deserving censure, his conduct
+is really meritorious!--a concession which is at war with common sense,
+and contrary to truth.
+
+'I am not complaining of the owners of slaves--I do not doubt that the
+slaves are happier than they could be if set free in this country,'
+declares an apologist, even in Massachusetts! Stripes and servitude
+would doubtless soon alter his opinion. With him, to sell human beings
+at public auction, and to separate husbands and wives, and children and
+parents, is not a subject of complaint! and to be a slave, to be fed
+upon a peck of corn per week, unable to possess property, liable to be
+torn from the partner of his bosom and children at a moment's warning
+mal-treated worse than a brute, &c. &c. &c. is more desirable than to be
+a free man, able to acquire wealth, unrestricted in his movements, from
+whom none may wrest his wife or children, and who can find redress for
+any outrage upon his person or property!
+
+'Policy, and even _humanity_,' cries another, 'forbid the progress of
+manumission'! Indeed! But is it right to hold our fellow creatures as
+chattels, and to perpetuate their ignorance and servitude? O no! this is
+_wrong_, but it would be a greater wrong to emancipate them! Is this
+folly or villany? To oppress our brother is wrong, but to cease from
+oppressing him would not be right!
+
+'I would be a slaveholder to-day without scruple,' says another
+advocate.
+
+'Many owners of slaves,' another declares, 'hold them in strict
+accordance with the principles of humanity and justice'!!! Yes, to
+deprive men of their inalienable rights is to do unto them as we would
+have them do unto us!
+
+Finally, another boldly declares that the slaves are treated _too
+indulgently_!--The laws which regard them as beasts, but punish them for
+the commission of crime as severely as if they possessed the knowledge
+of angels, he must suppose are too lenient. Their allowance of corn is
+too liberal; they ought not to wear any raiment; to sleep in their
+wretched huts is calculated to make them effeminate--the open field is a
+more suitable place for cattle; no religious instruction should be
+granted even orally to them! The slaves, as a body, too kindly treated!
+The Lord have compassion upon any of their number who shall come under
+the control of him who holds this opinion!
+
+Sentiments, like these, act upon the consciences of slave owners like
+opiates upon the body, lulling them into a slumber as profound and fatal
+as death. It were almost as hopeless a task to attempt to arouse, alarm
+and animate them, so long as they repose under the stupefying effects of
+this poison, as to raise the dead. This must not be. Slaveholders are
+the enemies of God and man; their garments are red with the blood of
+souls; their guilt is aggravated beyond the power of language to
+describe; and they must be made to see and realise their awful
+condition. Truth must send its arrows into their consciences, and Terror
+rouse them to exertion, and Conviction bring them upon their knees, and
+Repentance propitiate the anger of Heaven, or they perish by the sword.
+The slaves must be free; and He who is no respecter of person is now
+holding out to us this alternative--either to wait until they burst
+their chains and wade through a river of blood to freedom, or to
+liberate them willingly ourselves. Can we hesitate in our choice? Be
+this our only reply to those who apologise for the oppressors, and fix
+the standard of policy higher than that of duty: 'Wo unto them that call
+evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for
+darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Wo unto them
+that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! which
+justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the
+righteous from him!'
+
+
+
+
+SECTION III.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY RECOGNISES SLAVES AS PROPERTY.
+
+
+The heresies of this combination are flagrant and numerous. A larger
+volume than this is needed to define and illustrate them all. Much
+important evidence, and many pertinent reflections, I am compelled to
+suppress.
+
+My next allegation against it is, _that it recognises slaves as
+property_. This recognition is not merely technical, or strictly
+confined to a statutable interpretation. I presume the advocates of the
+Society will attempt to evade this point, by saying that it never meant
+to concede the moral right of the masters to possess human beings; but
+the evidence against them is full and explicit. The Society, if language
+mean any thing, does unequivocally acknowledge property in slaves to be
+as legitimate and sacred as any other property, of which to deprive the
+owners either by force or by legislation, without making restitution,
+would be unjust and tyrannical. Here is the proof:
+
+    'It interferes in no wise with the _rights of property_.' * *
+    'It is utterly opposed to any measures which might infringe upon
+    the _rights of property_.' * * 'We hold their slaves _as we hold
+    their other property_, SACRED.'--[African Repository, vol. i.
+    pp. 39, 225, 283.]
+
+
+    'Does this Society wish to meddle with our slaves as our
+    _rightful property_? I answer _no_, I think not.' * * 'The
+    Society cannot be justly charged with aiming to disturb the
+    _rights of property_ or the peace of society.' * * 'It seeks to
+    affect no man's _property_.' * * 'To found in Africa, an empire
+    of _christians and republicans_; to reconduct the blacks to
+    their native land, without disturbing the order of society, the
+    _laws of property_, or the rights of individuals,' &c.--[African
+    Repository, vol. ii. pp. 13, 58, 334, 375.]
+
+
+    'They are also convinced, that the Society have conducted their
+    operations with so much prudence, as to give no cause of alarm
+    to the holders of slaves, for the security of _this
+    property_.'--[African Repository, volume iii. p. 341.]
+
+
+    'The rights of masters are to remain sacred in the eyes of the
+    Society.'--[African Repository, vol. iv. p. 274.]
+
+    'The Society has never interfered, and has no disposition to
+    interfere with the rights of private property.' * * 'The alarm
+    for the rights of property appears to have subsided, and the
+    Society is no longer charged with any sinister or insidious
+    design. It has constantly disclaimed any intention of disturbing
+    the rights of others; and its conduct entitles its declaration
+    to credit.' * * 'The American Colonization Society has, at all
+    times, solemnly disavowed any purpose of interference with the
+    institutions or rights of our Southern communities.' * * 'Our
+    friends, who are cursed with this greatest of human evils
+    (slavery) deserve our kindest attention and consideration. Their
+    _property_ and safety are both involved.'--[African Repository,
+    vol. v. pp. 215, 241, 307, 334.]
+
+
+    'It has constantly disclaimed all intention whatever of
+    interfering, in the smallest degree, with the rights of
+    property.' * * 'The Society, from considerations like these,
+    whilst it disclaims the remotest idea of ever disturbing the
+    _right of property_ in slaves,' &c. * * 'It is not the object of
+    this Society to liberate slaves, or touch the rights of
+    _property_.' * * 'Honorable instances might be adduced of
+    _disinterested benevolence_ on the part of the owners of slaves,
+    and of their _sacrificing property_ to a large amount, in their
+    enfranchisement and restoration to the land of their ancestors.'
+    * * 'The American Society has disclaimed from the first moment
+    of its institution, all intention of interfering with _rights of
+    property_.' * * 'The federal government has no control over this
+    subject: it concerns rights of property secured by the federal
+    compact, upon which our civil liberties mainly depend; it is a
+    part of the same collection of political rights; and _any
+    invasion of it would impair the tenure by which every other is
+    held_.' * * 'It is equally plain and undeniable, that the
+    Society in the prosecution of this work, has never interfered or
+    evinced even a disposition to interfere in any way with the
+    _rights of proprietors of slaves_.' * * 'The slaveholder, so far
+    from having just cause to complain of the Colonization Society,
+    has reason to congratulate himself, that in this Institution a
+    channel is opened up, in which the public feeling and public
+    action can flow on, without doing violence to his
+    _rights_.'--[African Repository, vol. vi. pp. 13, 69, 81, 153,
+    165, 169, 205, 363.]
+
+
+    'It was proper again and again to repeat, that it was far from
+    the intention of the Society to affect, in any manner, the
+    tenure by which a _certain species of property_ is held. He was
+    himself a slaveholder; _and he considered that kind of property
+    as inviolable as any other in the country_.'--[Speech of Henry
+    Clay.--First Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Your committee would not thus favorably regard the prayer of
+    the memorialists, if it sought to impair, _in the slightest
+    degree, the rights of private property_.'--[Report of the
+    committee of the House of Representatives of the United States,
+    on the memorial of the President and Board of Managers of the
+    Colonization Society.--Second Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The Society has at all times recognised the constitutional and
+    LEGITIMATE existence of slavery.'--[Tenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The Society protests that it has no designs on the rights of
+    the master in the slave--or the property in his slave, which the
+    laws guarantee to him.'--[Fourteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Something he must yet be allowed to say, as regarded the object
+    the Society was set up to accomplish. This object, if he
+    understood it aright, _involved no intrusion on property_, NOR
+    EVEN UPON PREJUDICE.'--[Fifteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'To the slaveholder, who had charged upon them the wicked design
+    of interfering with the RIGHTS OF PROPERTY under the specious
+    pretext of removing a vicious and dangerous free population,
+    they address themselves in a tone of conciliation and sympathy.
+    We know your rights, say they, and _we respect them_.' * *
+    'Equally absurd and false is the objection, that this Society
+    seeks indirectly to disturb the rights of property, and to
+    interfere with the well established relation subsisting between
+    master and slave.'--[African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 100,
+    228.]
+
+
+    'I repeat, that though not a slaveholder, yet I think that every
+    man ought to be protected in his property, and as the laws of
+    our country have decreed that negroes are property, every person
+    that holds a slave, according to these laws, ought to be
+    protected.'--['A new and interesting View of Slavery.' By
+    Humanitas, a colonization advocate. Baltimore, 1820.]
+
+
+    'We are made to disregard this description of _property_, and to
+    touch without reserve the _rights_ of our
+    neighbors.'--[Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the
+    New-Jersey Colonization Society.]
+
+Thus the American Colonization Society shamelessly surrenders the claims
+of justice, and leaves the enemies of oppression weaponless! Hence it
+rejects the proposition, that _man cannot hold property in man_; and we
+are called upon to prove that which is self-evident. No accidental
+differences of condition or complexion--no vicissitudes of fortune--no
+reprisal or purchase or inheritance, can justly make one individual the
+slave of another. When God created man, he gave him dominion over the
+fowls of the air and the beasts of the field; but not over his fellow
+man. 'All men are born free and equal,' and are 'made of one blood.'
+Shall we look to wealth as giving one a title to the labor and freedom
+of another? Wealth is the creature of circumstances, and not an
+arbitrary law of nature. It takes to itself wings, and flies away; and
+he who is an opulent tyrant to-day, may on this principle be an
+impoverished slave to-morrow. Does physical strength make valid this
+claim? This, too, is evanescent: sickness and age would ultimately
+degrade the most muscular tyrants to servitude; and mankind would be
+composed of but two parties--the strong and the weak. Can high birth
+annul the rights of the lower classes? There is no difference at their
+birth, between the children of the beggar and those of the king. 'We
+brought nothing into this world,' says an inspired apostle, 'and it is
+certain we can carry nothing out.'
+
+Man is created a rational being; and therefore he is a subject of moral
+government, and accountable. Being rational and accountable, he is bound
+to improve his mind and intellect. With this design, his Creator has
+outstretched the heavens, and set the sun in his course, and hung out
+the burning jewels of the sky, and spread abroad the green earth, and
+poured out the seas, that he might steadily progress in knowledge.
+
+The slaves are men; they were born, then, as free as their masters; they
+cannot be property; and he who denies them an opportunity to improve
+their faculties, comes into collision with Jehovah, and incurs a fearful
+responsibility. But we know that they are not treated like rational
+beings, and that oppression almost entirely obliterates their sense of
+moral obligation to God or man.
+
+I fully coincide in opinion with the authoress of a work entitled,
+'IMMEDIATE, NOT GRADUAL ABOLITION,' that the holder of a slave, whether
+he obtained him by purchase or by inheritance, is as guilty as the
+original thief.[K] The wretch who stole him could by no possible means
+acquire or transmit the right to make a slave of him, or to keep him in
+slavery. _He has a right to his liberty:_--through whatever number of
+transfers the usurpation of it may have passed, the right is
+undiminished.
+
+No man, says Algernon Sidney, can have a right over others, unless it be
+by them granted to him: That which is not just, is not law; and that
+which is not law, ought not to be in force: Whosoever grounds his
+pretensions of right upon usurpation and tyranny, declares himself to be
+an usurper and a tyrant--that is, an enemy to God and man--and to have
+no right at all: _That which was unjust in its beginning, can of itself
+never change its nature:_ HE WHO PERSISTS IN DOING INJUSTICE, AGGRAVATES
+IT, AND TAKES UPON HIMSELF ALL THE GUILT OF HIS PREDECESSORS: The right
+to be free is a truth planted in the hearts of men, and acknowledged so
+to be by all who have hearkened to the voice of nature, and disproved by
+none but such as through wickedness, stupidity, or baseness of spirit,
+seem to have degenerated into the worst of beasts, and to have retained
+nothing of men but the outward shape, or the ability of doing those
+mischiefs which they have learnt from their master the devil.
+
+The following is the indignant, emphatic, eloquent language of HENRY
+BROUGHAM, on the subject of slave property:
+
+    '_Tell me not of rights--talk not of the property of the planter
+    in his slaves._ I DENY THE RIGHT--I ACKNOWLEDGE NOT THE
+    PROPERTY. The principles, the feelings of our common nature,
+    rise in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the
+    understanding or to the heart, the sentence is the same that
+    rejects it. In vain you tell me of the laws that sanction such a
+    claim! There is a law above all the enactments of human
+    codes--the same throughout the world, the same in all
+    times--such as it was before the daring genius of Columbus
+    pierced the night of ages, and opened to one world the sources
+    of power, wealth and knowledge; to another, all unutterable
+    woes;--such it is at this day: it is the law written by the
+    finger of God on the heart of man; and by that law, unchangeable
+    and eternal, while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and
+    abhor blood, they shall reject with indignation the wild and
+    guilty fantasy, that man can hold property in man! In vain you
+    appeal to treaties, to covenants between nations. The covenants
+    of the Almighty, whether the old or the new, denounce such
+    unholy pretensions. To those laws did they of old refer, who
+    maintained the African trade. Such treaties did they cite, and
+    not untruly; for by one shameful compact, you bartered the
+    glories of Blenheim for the traffic in blood. Yet, in despite of
+    law and of treaties, that infernal traffic is now destroyed, and
+    its votaries put to death like other pirates. How came this
+    change to pass? Not assuredly by parliament leading the way; but
+    the country at length awoke; the indignation of the people was
+    kindled; it descended in thunder, and smote the traffic, and
+    scattered its guilty profits to the winds. Now, then, let the
+    planters beware--let their assemblies beware--let the government
+    at home beware--let the parliament beware! the same country is
+    once more awake,--awake to the condition of negro slavery; the
+    same indignation kindles in the bosom of the same people; the
+    same cloud is gathering that annihilated the slave trade; and,
+    if it shall descend again, they, on whom its crash shall fall,
+    will not be destroyed before I have warned them; but I pray that
+    their destruction may turn away from us the more terrible
+    judgments of God!'
+
+Is this the language of fanaticism? Is Henry Brougham a madman?
+
+The following extracts must close the evidence in support of my third
+allegation, that the Colonization Society disregards the fundamental
+principle of human liberty and equality, that man cannot hold _property_
+in man:
+
+    'Let me ask, who can wish under existing circumstances that the
+    constitution should be altered, when it must bring with it a
+    _violation of property_--and when that violation of private
+    property must engender such hostility of feelings, and elicit
+    such bitter vituperation? The whole Union would feel a
+    concussion, and no one can count the costs of the contest.'
+    * * * 'By means of our colony, they may remove their slaves and
+    restore them to freedom--and at the same time no way jeopardize
+    the safety of themselves or their _property_.'--[Proceedings of
+    the First Annual Meeting of the New-Jersey Colonization
+    Society.]
+
+
+    'The establishment of our colony will afford facilities to
+    proprietors for completing in Africa the exercise of the _right
+    which can only be partially exercised in this country, of
+    disposing of our property, in our own way, without injury to the
+    community_.'--[Fourteenth Annual Report.]
+
+What audacity do those advocates of the Society exhibit, who use, in
+reference to beings made a little lower than the angels, language like
+this--'disposing of _our property_ in _our own way_'--'we hold their
+_slaves_, as we hold their other _property_, SACRED'!![L] If they really
+mean and believe what they say, it is something more heinous than
+impertinence to urge the planters to dispossess themselves of their
+property by colonization; and if the slaves belong _of right_ to
+them,--are on a par with goods and chattels,--how idle, how supremely
+ridiculous it is to mourn over their _wretched condition_, to sigh for
+their emancipation, to declaim against the evil and wickedness of
+slavery, or even to denounce the slave trade! But the unfortunate blacks
+are not now, and never can be, the property of the planters;
+consequently the claims of their pretended owners are no better than
+those of the pirate or highway robber.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[K] The owners of slaves are licensed robbers, and not the just
+proprietors of what they claim: freeing them is not depriving them of
+property, but restoring it to the right owner; it is suffering the
+unlawful captive to escape. It is not wronging the master, but doing
+justice to the slave, restoring him to himself. Emancipation would only
+take away property that is its own property, and not ours; property that
+has the same right to possess us, as we have to possess it; property
+that has the same right to convert our children into dogs and calves and
+colts, as we have to convert theirs into these beasts; property that may
+transfer our children to strangers, by the same right that we transfer
+theirs.--_Rice._
+
+[L] 'Is there no difference between a vested interest in a house or a
+tenement, and a vested interest in a human being? No difference between
+a right to bricks and mortar, and a right to the flesh of man--a right
+to torture his body and to degrade his mind at your good will and
+pleasure? There is this difference,--the right to the house originates
+in law, and is reconcilable to justice; the claim (for I will not call
+it a right) to the man, originated in robbery, and is an outrage upon
+every principle of justice, and every tenet of religion.'--_Speech of
+Fowell Buxton in the British Parliament._
+
+
+
+
+SECTION IV.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY INCREASES THE VALUE OF SLAVES.
+
+
+I come now to my fourth charge,--which, although not more serious or
+consequential than any of the foregoing, may possibly create more
+surprise,--namely, that the Society _increases the value of slaves, and
+adds strength and security to the system of slavery_. It is the
+discovery of this fact that is so wonderfully, and to many superficial
+observers so inexplicably, increasing the popularity of the Society at
+the south. It would require more pages of this work than its necessarily
+contracted limits permit, to sum up minutely the evidence on this point,
+and to give those illustrations which might serve more clearly to
+establish its validity. The most common, as it is the most potent,
+argument used by colonization agents among slave owners, to secure their
+patronage, is,--'The successful prosecution of our scheme will remove
+the chief source of danger to yourselves, and enable you to hold your
+property in greater security: the presence of free persons of color
+among your slaves is eminently calculated to make them insubordinate,
+and to procure their violent emancipation.' This argument, I say, is
+introduced into every conversation, and every public address, and every
+essay; and whoever carefully consults the numbers of the African
+Repository, through seven volumes, will find it repeated in almost every
+appeal to the south.
+
+I choose to consider the testimony of southern men, in regard to the
+invigorating effects of the colonization enterprise upon the system of
+slavery, conclusive. Here is a very small portion of it: more may be
+found under the sixth section of this work.
+
+    'The object of the Colonization Society commends itself to every
+    class of society. The landed proprietor may ENHANCE THE VALUE OF
+    HIS PROPERTY by assisting the enterprise.'--[African Repository,
+    vol. i. p. 67.]
+
+
+    'But is it not certain, that should the people of the Southern
+    States refuse to adopt the opinions of the Colonization Society,
+    [relative to the gradual abolition of slavery,] and continue to
+    consider it both just and politic to leave, untouched, a system,
+    for the termination of which, we think the whole wisdom and
+    energy of the States should be put in requisition, that they
+    will CONTRIBUTE MORE EFFECTUALLY TO THE CONTINUANCE AND STRENGTH
+    OF THIS SYSTEM, by removing those now free, than by any or all
+    other methods which can possibly be devised? Such has been the
+    opinion expressed by Southern gentlemen of the first talents and
+    distinction. Eminent individuals have, we doubt not, lent their
+    aid to this cause, in expectation of at once accomplishing a
+    generous and noble work for the objects of their patronage and
+    for Africa, and GUARDING THAT SYSTEM, the existence of which,
+    though _unfortunate_, they deem _necessary_, by separating from
+    it those, whose disturbing force augments its inherent vices,
+    and darkens all the repulsive attributes of its character. In
+    the decision of these individuals, as to the effects of the
+    Colonization Society, _we perceive no error of judgment_: OUR
+    BELIEF IS THE SAME AS THEIRS.'--[Idem, p. 227.]
+
+
+    'THE EXECUTION OF ITS SCHEME WOULD AUGMENT INSTEAD OF
+    DIMINISHING THE VALUE OF THE PROPERTY LEFT BEHIND.'--[Idem, vol.
+    ii. p. 344.]
+
+
+    'The removal of every single free black in America, would be
+    productive of nothing but safety to the slaveholder, nor would
+    the emancipation of as many as the benevolence of individual
+    masters would send off, as far as I can see, be productive of
+    disaffection among the remainder, more than the example of such
+    as are every day set free, and sent to the Ohio or elsewhere;
+    and if so large a part should ever be set free as to create
+    discontent among the remainder, (and nothing but the
+    emancipation of a great majority can do this,) yet that
+    remainder must then, from the terms of the proposition, be so
+    much diminished, as to be easily kept down by superior
+    numbers.'--[Idem, vol. iii. p. 202.]
+
+
+    'The tendency of the scheme, and one of its objects, is to
+    _secure slaveholders and the whole Southern country_, against
+    certain evil consequences, growing out of the present threefold
+    mixture of our population.'--[Idem, vol. iv. p. 274.]
+
+
+    'We all know the effects produced on our slaves by the
+    fascinating, but delusive appearance of happiness, exhibited in
+    persons of their own complexion, roaming in idleness and vice
+    among them. By removing the most fruitful source of discontent
+    from among our slaves, we should render them more industrious
+    and attentive to our commands; and by rendering them more
+    industrious and obedient, we should naturally secure their
+    better treatment--we should ameliorate their condition. Our
+    enemies have admitted that good would result from the removal of
+    this class. Caius Gracchus declares, that if the Society could
+    attain "this single object in good faith, (the removal of the
+    free people of color) he should, perhaps, be among the last
+    citizens in the commonwealth--who would raise his voice against
+    it," and the author of the Crisis (who is doubtless regarded as
+    authority in South Carolina) acknowledges, "that there is no
+    doubt but that if we in the South, were relieved of this
+    population, it would be better for our southern cities, where
+    they principally reside." Nothing can be more plain then, than
+    that the Colonization Society, in its efforts to remove the free
+    people of color, is accomplishing a work to which the citizens
+    of the South, whether friends or foes to the Society, have given
+    their decided approbation.'--[Idem, vol. vi. p. 205.]
+
+
+    'If, as is most confidently believed, the colonization of the
+    free people of color will render the slave who remains in
+    America more obedient, more faithful, more honest, and,
+    consequently, _more useful to his master_,' &c.--[Second Annual
+    Report.]
+
+
+    'There was but one way, [to avert danger,] but that might be
+    made effectual, fortunately! It was to PROVIDE AND KEEP OPEN A
+    DRAIN FOR THE EXCESS BEYOND THE OCCASIONS OF PROFITABLE
+    EMPLOYMENT. Mr Archer had been stating the case in the
+    supposition, that after the present class of free blacks had
+    been exhausted, by the operation of the plan he was
+    recommending, others would be supplied for its action, in the
+    proportion of the excess of colored population it would be
+    necessary to throw off, by the process of voluntary manumission
+    or sale. This effect must result inevitably from the
+    depreciating value of the slaves ensuing their disproportionate
+    multiplication. _The depreciation would be relieved and retarded
+    at the same time, by the process._ The two operations would aid
+    reciprocally, and sustain each other, and both be in the highest
+    degree beneficial. It was on the ground of interest, therefore,
+    the most indisputable _pecuniary interest_, that he addressed
+    himself to the people and Legislatures of the slaveholding
+    States.'--[Speech of Mr Archer.--Fifteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Every motive which operates on the minds of slaveholders,
+    tending to make the colonization of the free blacks an object of
+    _interest_ to them, should operate in an equal degree to secure
+    the hearty co-operation of the government of every slaveholding
+    State.'--[African Repository, vol. vii. p. 176.]
+
+
+    'None are obliged to follow our example; AND THOSE WHO DO NOT,
+    WILL FIND THE VALUE OF THEIR NEGROES INCREASED BY THE DEPARTURE
+    OF OURS.'--[An advocate of colonization in the Western (Ky.)
+    Luminary.]
+
+
+    'So far from its having a dangerous tendency, when properly
+    considered, it will be viewed as AN ADDITIONAL GUARD TO OUR
+    PECULIAR SPECIES OF PROPERTY.'--[An advocate of the Society in
+    the New-Orleans Argus.]
+
+
+    'The slaveholder, who is in danger of having his slaves
+    contaminated by their free friends of color, will not only be
+    relieved from this danger, but THE VALUE OF HIS SLAVE WILL BE
+    ENHANCED.'--[A new and interesting View of Slavery. By
+    Humanitas, a colonization advocate. Baltimore, 1820.]
+
+It is perfectly obvious, that whatever tends to weaken and depress the
+present system, must render the holding of slaves less desirable, and
+the prospect of emancipation more auspicious. Cherishing this
+conviction, thousands of individuals in this country, and tens of
+thousands in Great Britain, are led by conscientious motives to abstain
+from the use of productions raised by slave labor, and to prefer those
+only which are the fruits of the toil of freemen. They believe in the
+soundness of the axiom, that 'the receiver is as bad as the thief;' and
+knowing that the slaves are held in bondage not on the ground of
+benevolence, or because their liberation would endanger the public
+safety, but _because they are profitable to their owners_, they also
+believe that the consumers of slave goods contribute to a fund for
+supporting slavery with all its abominations; that they are the Alpha
+and the Omega of the business; that the slave-trader, the slave-owner,
+and the slave-driver, are virtually the agents of the consumer, for by
+holding out the temptation, he is the original cause, the first mover in
+the horrid process; that we are imperiously called upon to refuse those
+articles of luxury, which are obtained at an absolute and lavish waste
+of the blood of our fellow men; that a merchant, who loads his vessel
+with the proceeds of slavery, does nearly as much in helping forward the
+slave trade, as he who loads his vessel in Africa with slaves--they are
+both twisting the same rope at different ends; that our patronage is
+putting an immense bribe into the hands of the slaveholders to kidnap,
+rob and oppress; that, were it not for this, they would be compelled by
+sheer necessity to liberate their slaves--for as soon as slave labor
+becomes unprofitable, the horrid system cannot be upheld.
+
+None of these scruples, to my knowledge, are entertained by
+colonizationists: their only aim and anxiety seem to be, 'to prune and
+nourish the system,'--not to overthrow it; to increase the avarice of the
+planters by rendering the labor of their bondmen more productive,--not
+to abridge and starve it; to remove the cause of those apprehensions
+which might lead them to break the fetters of their victims,--not to
+perpetuate it; 'to provide (I quote the confession of the last
+distinguished proselyte to the Society, Mr Archer of Virginia) and to
+keep open a drain for the _excess of increase beyond the occasions of_
+PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT,'--not to make slave labor ruinous to the
+planters.
+
+By removing whatever number of slaves it be, from this country, the
+number which remains must be diminished--and the more the number which
+remains is diminished, the more helpless will they become, the less will
+be the hope of their ever recovering their own liberty, and the more and
+the longer they will be trampled upon.
+
+The greater the number of slaves transported, _the greater will be the
+value of the labor of those who remain_; the more valuable their labor
+is, _the greater will be the temptation to over-labor them, and the
+more, of course, they will be oppressed_.[M]
+
+The increase of the free colored population disturbs the security of the
+planters, and forces many to manumit their slaves through sheer terror.
+The expatriation of this class, therefore, manifestly tends to quiet the
+apprehensions of the oppressors, to rivet more firmly the chains of the
+slaves, to make their services in higher demand, and to render even
+their gradual emancipation impracticable.
+
+Thus the American Colonization Society is the _apologist_, the _friend_,
+and the _patron_ of SLAVEHOLDERS and SLAVERY!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[M] Stuart's Circular.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION V.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE ENEMY OF IMMEDIATE ABOLITION.
+
+
+It follows, as a necessary consequence, that a Society which is not
+hostile to slavery, which apologises for the system and for
+slaveholders, which recognises slaves as rightful property,[N] and which
+confessedly increases their value, is _the enemy of immediate
+abolition_. This, I am aware, in the present corrupt state of public
+sentiment, will not generally be deemed an objectionable feature; but I
+regard it with inexpressible abhorrence and dismay.
+
+Since the deception practised upon our first parents by the old serpent,
+there has not been a more fatal delusion in the minds of men than that
+of the gradual abolition of slavery. _Gradual_ abolition! do its
+supporters really know what they talk about? Gradually abstaining from
+what? From sins the most flagrant, from conduct the most cruel, from
+acts the most oppressive! Do colonizationists mean, that slave-dealers
+shall purchase or sell a few victims less this year than they did the
+last? that slave-owners shall liberate one, two or three out of every
+hundred slaves during the same period? that slave-drivers shall apply
+the lash to the scarred and bleeding backs of their victims somewhat
+less frequently? Surely not--I respect their intelligence too much to
+believe that they mean any such thing. But if any of the slaves should
+be exempted from sale or purchase, why not all? if justice require the
+liberation of the few, why not of the many? if it be right for a driver
+to inflict a number of lashes, how many shall be given? Do
+colonizationists mean that the practice of separating the husband from
+the wife, the wife from the husband, or children from their parents,
+shall come to an end by an almost imperceptible process? or that the
+slaves shall be defrauded of their just remuneration, less and less
+every month or every year? or that they shall be under the absolute,
+irresponsible control of their masters? Oh no! I place a higher value
+upon their good sense, humanity and morality than this! Well, then, they
+would immediately break up the slave traffic--they would put aside the
+whip--they would have the marriage relations preserved inviolate--they
+would not separate families--they would not steal the wages of the
+slaves, nor deprive them of personal liberty! This is
+abolition--_immediate abolition_. It is simply declaring that slave
+owners are bound to fulfil--now, without any reluctance or delays--the
+golden rule, namely, to do as they would be done by; and that, as the
+right to be free is inherent and inalienable in the slaves, there ought
+now to be a disposition on the part of the people to break their
+fetters. All the horrid spectres which are conjured up, on this subject,
+arise from a confusion of the brain, as much as from a corruption of the
+heart.
+
+I utterly reject, as delusive and dangerous in the extreme, every plea
+which justifies a procrastinated and an indefinite emancipation, or
+which concedes to a slave owner the right to hold his slaves as
+_property_ for any limited period, or which contends for the gradual
+preparation of the slaves for freedom; believing all such pretexts to be
+a fatal departure from the high road of justice into the bogs of
+expediency, a surrender of the great principles of equity, an
+indefensible prolongation of the curse of slavery, a concession which
+places the guilt upon any but those who incur it, and directly
+calculated to perpetuate the thraldom of our species.
+
+Immediate abolition does not mean that the slaves shall immediately
+exercise the right of suffrage, or be eligible to any office, or be
+emancipated from law, or be free from the benevolent restraints of
+guardianship. We contend for the immediate personal freedom of the
+slaves, for their exemption from punishment except where law has been
+violated, for their employment and reward as free laborers, for their
+exclusive right to their own bodies and those of their own children, for
+their instruction and subsequent admission to all the trusts, offices,
+honors and emoluments of intelligent freemen. Emancipation will increase
+and not destroy the value of their labor; it will also increase the
+demand for it. Holding out the stimulus of good treatment and an
+adequate reward, it will induce the slaves to toil with a hundred fold
+more assiduity and faithfulness. Who is so blind as not to perceive the
+peaceful and beneficial results of such a change? The slaves, if freed,
+will come under the watchful cognizance of law; they will not be idle,
+but _avariciously_ industrious; they will not rush through the country,
+firing dwellings and murdering the inhabitants; for freedom is all they
+ask--all they desire--the obtainment of which will transform them from
+enemies into friends, from nuisances into blessings, from a corrupt,
+suffering and degraded, into a comparatively virtuous, happy and
+elevated population.
+
+Nor does immediate abolition mean that any compulsory power, other than
+moral, should be used in breaking the fetters of slavery. It calls for
+no bloodshed, or physical interference; it jealously regards the welfare
+of the planters; it simply demands an entire revolution in public
+sentiment, which will lead to better conduct, to contrition for past
+crimes, to a love instead of a fear of justice, to a reparation of
+wrongs, to a healing of breaches, to a suppression of revengeful
+feelings, to a quiet, improving, prosperous state of society!
+
+Now see with what earnestness and inveteracy the friends of the
+Colonization Society oppose immediate abolition!
+
+    'It appears, indeed, to be the only feasible mode by which we
+    can remove that stigma as well as _danger_ from among us. Their
+    sudden and entire freedom would be a fearful, and perhaps
+    dreadful experiment, destructive of all the ends of liberty, for
+    which their condition would unfit them, and which they would
+    doubtless greatly abuse. Even their release, at apparently
+    proper intervals, but uncontrolled as to their future habits and
+    location, would be a very hazardous charity. Their gradual
+    emancipation, therefore, under the advantages of a free
+    government, formed, in their native land, by their own hands,
+    offering all the rewards usual to industry and economy, and
+    affording the means of enjoying, in comfort, a reputable and
+    free existence, is the only rational scheme of relieving them
+    from the bondage of their present condition.' * * * 'To
+    eradicate or remove the evil _immediately_, is impossible; nor
+    can any law of conscience govern necessity.'--[Af. Rep. vol. i.
+    pp. 89, 258.]
+
+
+    'Vaunt not over us, dear brethren of the north, we inherited the
+    evil from our forefathers, and we really do not think you do
+    your brethren any good, or that you serve the interests of the
+    people of color, when you recommend and enforce premature
+    schemes of emancipation.' * * * 'The operation, we were aware,
+    must be--and, for the interests of our country, ought to be
+    gradual.' * * * 'According to one, (that rash class which,
+    without a due estimate of the fatal consequence, would forthwith
+    issue a decree of general, immediate, and indiscriminate
+    emancipation,) it was a scheme of the slaveholder to perpetuate
+    slavery.'--[Idem, vol. ii. pp. 12, 254, 336.]
+
+
+    'Slavery, in its mildest form, is an evil of the darkest
+    character. Cruel and unnatural in its origin, no plea can be
+    urged in justification of its continuance, but the plea of
+    necessity--not that necessity which arises from our habits, our
+    prejudices, or our wants; but the necessity which requires us to
+    submit to existing evils, rather than substitute, by their
+    removal, others of a more serious and destructive character. It
+    was this which produced the recognition of slavery in the
+    constitution of our country; it is this which has justified its
+    continuance to the present day; and it is in this only that we
+    can find a palliation for the rigors of our laws, which might
+    otherwise be considered as the cruel enactments of a dark and
+    dismal despotism. There have not, I am aware, been found wanting
+    individuals to deny both the existence and the obligations of
+    such a necessity. There are men, actuated in some instances, by
+    a blind and mistaken enthusiasm, and in others, by a spirit of
+    mischievous intent, loudly calling on us, in the names of
+    justice and humanity, for the immediate and unqualified
+    emancipation of our slaves. To men of this description, it is in
+    vain to point out the inevitable effects of such a course, as
+    well on the objects of their real or pretended solicitude, as on
+    the community in which they exist. It is in vain to assure them,
+    that while the preservation of the latter would require a policy
+    even more rigorous than pertains to slavery itself, the
+    short-lived and nominal freedom of the former must end in their
+    ultimate and utter extinction. All this is of no consequence.
+    Provided slavery be abolished in name, it matters not what
+    horrors may be substituted in its room.' * * * 'The scope of the
+    Society is large enough, but it is in no wise mingled or
+    confounded with the broad sweeping views of _a few fanatics_ in
+    America, who would urge us on to the sudden and total abolition
+    of slavery.'--[Af. Rep. vol. iii. pp. 15, 197.]
+
+
+    'What is to be done? Immediate and universal emancipation will
+    find few, if any advocates, among judicious and reflecting men.'
+    * * * 'There is a portion of our brethren, who have been
+    laboring for many years, with the most benevolent intentions,
+    but, as I conceive, with erroneous views, in the cause of
+    abolition.' * * * 'The Colonization Society, as such, have
+    renounced wholly the name and the characteristics of
+    abolitionists.' * * * 'INTO THEIR ACCOUNTS THE SUBJECT OF
+    EMANCIPATION DOES NOT ENTER AT ALL.' * * * 'Here, that race is
+    in every form a curse, and if the system, so long contended for
+    by the uncompromising abolitionist, could prevail, its effect
+    would be to spread discord and devastation from one end of the
+    Union to the other.'--[Idem, vol. iv. pp. 202, 303, 306, 363.]
+
+
+    'With a writer in the Southern Review we say, "the situation of
+    the people of these States was not of their own choosing. When
+    they came to the inheritance, it was subject to this mighty
+    incumbrance, and it would be criminal in them to ruin or waste
+    the estate, to get rid of the burden at once." With this writer
+    we add also, in the language of Capt. Hall, that the
+    "slaveholders ought not (immediately) to disentangle themselves
+    from the obligations which have devolved upon them, as the
+    masters of slaves." We believe that a master _may_ sustain his
+    relation to the slave, with as little criminality as the slave
+    sustains his relation to the master. But we feel little sympathy
+    for those who, in the language of Mr Harrison of Virginia,
+    "still look upon their slaves in the light in which most men
+    regarded them when the slave trade was legitimate. Of those,
+    wherever they are, who hold their slaves with that same
+    sentiment which impelled the kidnapper when he forcibly bore
+    them off, I know not how morality can distinguish them from the
+    original wrong-doers, pirates by nature, and pirates by
+    civilized law." That the system of slavery must exist
+    temporarily in this country, we as firmly believe, as that for
+    its existence a single moment, there can be offered justly no
+    plea but necessity. Were the very spirit of angelic charity to
+    pervade and fill the hearts of all the slaveholders in our land,
+    it would by no means require that all the slaves should be
+    instantaneously liberated.'--[Af. Rep. vol. v. p. 329.]
+
+
+    'The long established habits of the South, the attachments which
+    are frequently found subsisting between the proprietor and his
+    servants, together with the difficulty of substituting at once
+    white for slave labor, and the derangement which would ensue in
+    the domestic concerns of life, would not merely make general
+    emancipation at once inexpedient, but the attempt would denote
+    the extremity of madness and folly, and convulse this government
+    to its centre.'--[Idem, vol. vi. p. 291.]
+
+
+    'The Society, meeting the objections of the _abolition
+    enthusiast_, in a like spirit of mildness and forbearance,
+    assures him of their equal devotion to the pure principles of
+    liberty and the powerful claims of humanity. We know, say they,
+    and we deplore the evil of slavery as the deadliest curse to our
+    common country. We see, and we lament its demoralizing effects
+    upon the children of our affections, from the budding innocence
+    of infancy, to the full maturity of manhood. But, we have not,
+    we do not, and _we will not_ interfere with this delicate, this
+    important subject. There are rights to be respected, prejudices
+    to be conciliated, fears to be quelled, and safety to be
+    observed in all our operations. And we protest, _most solemnly
+    protest_, against the adoption of your views, as alike
+    destructive of the ends of justice, of policy, and of humanity.
+    No wild dream of the wildest enthusiast was ever more
+    extravagant than that of turning loose upon society two millions
+    of blacks, idle and therefore worthless, vicious and therefore
+    dangerous, ignorant and therefore incapable of appreciating and
+    enjoying the blessings of freedom. Could _your_ wishes be
+    realized, your gratulation would be quickly changed into
+    mourning, your joy into grief, and your labor of love into
+    visits of mercy to our jails and our penitentiaries, to the
+    abodes of vice and the haunts of poverty. Come, ye
+    abolitionists, away with your _wild enthusiasm_, your _misguided
+    philanthropy_.'--[African Repository, vol. vii. p. 101.]
+
+
+    'The Colonization Society is removing the greatest obstacles in
+    the way of emancipation; but none, we think, who is acquainted
+    with the circumstances and condition of our southern States,
+    _and who has any conscience or humanity_, would deem it
+    expedient or christian to dissolve instantaneously all the ties
+    which unite masters and slaves.'--[Idem, vol. vii. p. 186.]
+
+
+    'It is not right that men should be free, when their freedom
+    will prove injurious to themselves and others.' * * 'He has
+    encountered determined opposition from several individuals, who
+    are so reckless and fanatical as to require the instantaneous
+    remedying of an acknowledged evil, which may be remedied
+    gradually, with safety, but which cannot be remedied immediately
+    without jeopardizing all the interests of all parties
+    concerned.'--[Idem, p. 202, 280.]
+
+
+    'He was quite sure that in the Northern States, there was no
+    opinion generally prevailing, that immediate, absolute, and
+    universal emancipation was desirable. There might be, said Mr
+    Storrs, some who are actuated by pure motives and benevolent
+    views, who considered it practicable; but he might say with
+    confidence, that very few, if any, believed that it would be
+    truly humane or expedient to turn loose upon the community more
+    than a million of persons, totally destitute of the means of
+    subsistence, and altogether unprepared in every moral point of
+    view, to enjoy or estimate their new privileges. Such a
+    cotemporaneous emancipation of the colored population of the
+    Southern States could only bring a common calamity on all the
+    States, and the most severe misery on those who were to be thus
+    thrown upon society, under the most abject, helpless and
+    deplorable circumstances.'--[Speech of Hon. Mr Storrs.--Twelfth
+    Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The condition of a slave suddenly emancipated, and thrown upon
+    his own resources, is very far from being improved; and, however
+    laudable the feeling which leads to such emancipation, its
+    policy and propriety are at least questionable.'--[Report of the
+    Pennsylvania Colonization Society.]
+
+
+    'We may, therefore, fairly conclude the object of immediate
+    universal emancipation wholly unattainable, or, if attainable,
+    at too high a price.'--[Mathew Carey's Essays.]
+
+
+    'Observation has fully convinced them that emancipation has
+    often proved injurious to both: consequently laws have been
+    enacted in several of the States to discourage, if not to
+    prevent it. The public safety and interest, as well as
+    individual happiness, seemed to require of legislatures the
+    adoption of such a measure. For, it appeared highly probable
+    that the manumitted would not only be poor and wretched, but
+    likewise a public nuisance; and perhaps at some future day, form
+    the nucleus of rebellion among those unhappy persons still in
+    slavery.'--[A colonization advocate in the Middletown
+    (Connecticut) Gazette.]
+
+
+    'To our mind, it is clearly the doctrine of the Bible, that
+    there may be circumstances, in which the immediate and universal
+    emancipation of slaves is not a duty. Demanding instantaneous
+    and universal emancipation, and denouncing every instance of
+    _holding_ slaves as a crime, is not the way to bring it to pass.
+    If such a course proceeds from a right spirit, it is from a
+    right spirit misinformed.'--[Vermont Chronicle.]
+
+
+    'When the writer visited England from the colonies, he was
+    constantly astonished to find the Wilberforceans, or saints, as
+    they were called, influenced by the _wildest enthusiasm_ upon
+    the sublime theory of liberty; urging _immediate emancipation_
+    of the slave, and yet totally uninformed as to its destructive
+    consequences to their future welfare, in their present
+    uneducated condition, without some provision being made to so
+    enlighten them that they may be enabled to estimate religions
+    obligations and distinguish between right and wrong; otherwise
+    it would be indispensable to have strong military posts and
+    constant martial law to preserve order, and prevent a murderous
+    anarchy and lawless confusion. It is not anticipated that this
+    state of things could ever be consummated in the United States;
+    but it may afford a very salutary lesson in guiding our
+    consideration of similar occurrences that may take place.'
+
+    --[From a colonization pamphlet, entitled 'Remarks upon a plan
+    for the total abolition of slavery in the United States. By a
+    Citizen of New-York.']
+
+
+    'We do not wish to be understood, as sanctioning the measures
+    now pursued with respect to the subject of slavery, by some
+    misguided enthusiasts in the northern and eastern sections of
+    the United States. Were the measures they advocate with so much
+    heat, to be adopted, a heavier curse could hardly fall upon our
+    country. Their operation, we feel fully satisfied, would work
+    the ruin of those, whom these imprudent advocates of instant and
+    total emancipation, wish primarily to benefit. We have always
+    regarded these advocates for the instantaneous abolition of
+    slavery, in all cases, as doing more injury to our colored
+    population than any other class of men in the community. The
+    slaves of this country cannot be at once emancipated. It is
+    folly, it is madness to talk of it. From the very nature of the
+    case, in justice to that deeply injured class, in justice to
+    ourselves, the work must be gradual.' * * * 'We cannot doubt the
+    ultimate success of the American Colonization Society. And
+    however much some of the clamorous advocates of instant,
+    immediate abolition may vent their rage against this noble
+    institution, it will prosper, it will flourish. Our intelligent
+    community are beginning to see that the American Colonization
+    Society presents _the only door of hope_ to the
+    republic.'--[Western Luminary.]
+
+
+    'But _what_ shall be done? Some--and their motives and
+    philanthropic zeal are worthy of all honor--plead for immediate
+    emancipation. But Mr Ladd had seen enough to know that _that_
+    would be a curse to all parties. He acknowledged a difficulty
+    here; _but it is a difficulty that often occurs in morals_. When
+    we have gone far in a wrong road, it often happens that we
+    cannot in a moment put ourselves in the right one. One penalty
+    of such a sin is, that it clings to us, and cannot be shaken off
+    at once with all its bitter consequences by a mere
+    volition.'--[Speech of William Ladd, Esq.]
+
+
+    'The warmest friend to the abolition of slavery, while he
+    deplores the existence of the evil, must admit the necessity of
+    cautious and gradual measures to remove it. The inhabitants of
+    the South cannot, and ought not, suddenly to emancipate their
+    slaves, to remain among them free. Such a measure would be no
+    blessing to the slaves, but the very madness of self-destruction
+    to the whites. In the South, the horrid scenes that would too
+    certainly follow the liberation of their slaves, are present to
+    every imagination, to stifle the calls of justice and humanity.
+    A fell spirit of avarice is thus invigorated and almost
+    justified, by the plea of necessity.'--[First Annual Report of
+    the New Jersey Col. Soc.]
+
+
+    'The impropriety and impolicy of manumitting slaves, _in any
+    case_, in our country, one would suppose, must be apparent to
+    all. It is not a little astonishing that individuals acquainted
+    with the facts, and the evils brought upon society by the free
+    black population, should persist in declaring that duty and
+    humanity call upon us to give the slaves their freedom. It
+    really appears to me that there is entirely too much "namby
+    pamby sentimentality" and affected feeling exhibited respecting
+    the condition of slaves. Do these individuals believe that
+    benevolence and humanity command us to turn loose upon society a
+    set of persons who confessedly only serve to swell the amount of
+    crime, while they add nothing to the industry, to the wealth, or
+    the strength of the country? Because abstractedly considered,
+    man has no right to hold his fellow man in bondage, shall we
+    give up our liberty, and the peace of society, in order that
+    this principle may not be violated? The fact is, _the negroes
+    are happier when kept in bondage_. In their master they find a
+    willing and efficient protector, to guard them from injury and
+    insult, to attend to them when sick and in distress, and to
+    provide for their comfort and support, when old age overtakes
+    them. When in health, they are well fed and clothed, and by no
+    means, in common cases, are they hardly worked.'--[A warm
+    advocate of African Colonization in the Alexandria Gazette.]
+
+
+    'But there are other difficulties in the way of immediate
+    emancipation. We believe that no one, who has taken charge of an
+    infant, and made a cripple of him, either in his feet, his
+    hands, or his mind, so that when he is of mature age, he is
+    unable to take care of himself, has a right to turn him out of
+    doors, to perish or destroy himself, and call it, giving him his
+    liberty. After having reduced him to this condition, he is bound
+    to afford him the support and protection, which he has rendered
+    necessary.
+
+    'This appears to us to be the true relation of the southern
+    planters to their slaves. Not that the southern planters have
+    generally been guilty of personal cruelty; but such has been the
+    general result of the system acted upon, and such the relation
+    growing out of it. The slaves have grown up, under the eye of
+    their masters, unable to take care of themselves; and their
+    masters, for whose comfort and convenience this has been done,
+    are bound to provide for them.
+
+    'Nor do we think that the exhortation, to "do right and trust
+    Providence," applies at all to this case; for the very question
+    is, "what is right?" Would it be right for the slave merchant,
+    in the midst of the Atlantic, to knock the manacles from his
+    prisoners and throw them overboard, and call this, giving them
+    their liberty and trusting Providence with the result? But how
+    else could he reduce the doctrine of immediate and complete
+    emancipation to practice?'--[Vermont Chronicle.]
+
+The miserable sophistry contained in the foregoing extracts scarcely
+needs a serious refutation. 'To say that immediate emancipation will
+only increase the wretchedness of the slaves, and that we must pursue a
+system of _gradual_ abolition, is to present to us the double paradox,
+that we must continue to do evil, in order to cure the evil which we are
+doing; and that we must continue to be unjust, and to do evil, that good
+may come.' The fatal error of _gradualists_ lies here: They talk as if
+the friends of abolition contended only for the emancipation of the
+slaves, without specifying or caring what should be done with or for
+them! as if the planters were invoked to cease from one kind of villany,
+only to practise another! as if the manumitted slaves must necessarily
+be driven out from society into the wilderness, like wild beasts! This
+is talking nonsense: it is a gross perversion of reason and common
+sense. Abolitionists have never said, that mere manumission would be
+doing justice to the slaves: they insist upon a remuneration for years
+of unrequited toil, upon their employment as free laborers, upon their
+immediate and coefficient instruction, and upon the exercise of a
+benevolent supervision over them on the part of their employers. They
+declare, in the first place, that to break the fetters of the slaves,
+and turn them loose upon the country, without the preservative
+restraints of law, and destitute of occupation, would leave the work of
+justice only half done; and, secondly, that it is absurd to suppose that
+the planters would be wholly independent of the labor of the blacks--for
+they could no more dispense with it next week, were emancipation to take
+place, than they can to-day. The very ground which they assume for their
+opposition to slavery,--that it necessarily prevents the improvement of
+its victims,--shows that they contemplate the establishment of schools
+for the education of the slaves, and the furnishing of productive
+employment, immediately upon their liberation. If this were done, none
+of the horrors which are now so feelingly depicted, as the attendants of
+a sudden abolition, would ensue.
+
+But we are gravely told that education must _precede_ emancipation. The
+logic of this plea is, that intellectual superiority justly gives one
+man an oppressive control over another! Where would such a detestable
+principle lead but to practices the most atrocious, and results the most
+disastrous, if carried out among ourselves? Tell us, ye hair-splitting
+sophists, the exact quantum of knowledge which is necessary to
+constitute a freeman. If every dunce should be a slave, your servitude
+is inevitable; and richly do you deserve the lash for your obtuseness.
+Our white population, too, would furnish blockheads enough to satisfy
+all the classical kidnappers in the land.
+
+The reason why the slaves are so ignorant, is because they are held in
+bondage; and the reason why they are held in bondage, is because they
+are so ignorant! They ought not to be freed until they are educated; and
+they ought not be educated, because on the acquisition of knowledge they
+would burst their fetters! Fine logic, indeed! How men, who make any
+pretensions to honesty or common sense, can advance a paradox like this,
+is truly inexplicable. 'I never met with a man yet,' says an able writer
+in Kentucky, 'who impliedly admits the enslaving of human beings as
+consistent with the exercise of christian duties, who could talk or
+write ten minutes on the subject, without expressing nonsense, or
+contradicting himself, or advancing heresy which would expose him to
+censure on any other subject.' In this connexion, I make the following
+extract from the Report of the _Dublin Negro's Friend Society_, of which
+WILBERFORCE is President, and CLARKSON Vice President:
+
+    'They do not recognize the false principle, that education, as a
+    preparation for freedom, must precede emancipation; or that an
+    amelioration of the slaves' condition should be a substitute for
+    it: on the contrary, THEY INSIST UPON UNPROCRASTINATED
+    EMANCIPATION, as a right which is unrighteously withheld, and
+    the restoration of which is, in their opinion, the first and
+    most indispensable step to all improvement, and absolutely
+    essential to the application of the only remedy for that moral
+    debasement, in which slavery has sunk its victims.'
+
+I cannot portray the absurdity of the doctrine of gradual abolition, and
+the danger and folly of attempting to mitigate the system of slavery,
+more strikingly, than by presenting the following eloquent extracts from
+a speech of the Rev. Dr. Thomson of Edinburgh, one of the most learned
+and able divines in Great Britain, whose sudden death was recorded in
+the newspapers a few months since:
+
+    'The word _immediate_ may no doubt be considered as a strong
+    word; but you will observe that it is used as contrasted with
+    the word _gradual_. And were I to criticise the term _gradual_
+    as certain opponents have treated the term _immediate_, I could
+    easily, by the help of a little quibbling, bring you to the
+    conclusion, that as hitherto employed it means that the
+    abolition is never to take place, and that, by putting it into
+    their petition, they are to be understood as deprecating rather
+    than asking the emancipation of the slaves. "_Immediate_," they
+    argue, "evanishes as soon as you utter it; it is gone before
+    your petition reaches parliament." How absurd! If I should say
+    to my servant while engaged in work, "You must go to the south
+    side of the town with a message for me _immediately_," is it
+    indeed implied in the order I have given him, that he could not
+    fulfil it, unless he set off without his hat, without his coat,
+    without his shoes, without those habiliments which are requisite
+    for his appearing decently in the streets of Edinburgh, and
+    executing the task that I had assigned him? The meaning of the
+    word as used by us is perfectly clear, and cannot be
+    misapprehended by any one: it is not to be made a subject of
+    metaphysical animadversion: it is to be considered and
+    understood under the direction of common sense, and especially
+    as modified and expounded by those statements with which it is
+    associated both in our resolutions and in the petition; and
+    viewed in that light, _immediate abolition_ is not merely an
+    intelligible phrase, but one that does not warrant a particle of
+    the alarm which some have affected to take at it, and is not
+    liable to any one of those objections which some have been
+    pleased to make to it.
+
+    'To say that we will come out of the sin by degrees--that we
+    will only forsake it slowly, and step by step--that we will
+    pause and hesitate and look well about us before we consent to
+    abandon its gains and its pleasures--that we will allow another
+    age to pass by ere we throw off the load of iniquity that is
+    lying so heavy upon us, lest certain secularities should be
+    injuriously affected--and that we will postpone the duty of
+    "doing justly and loving mercy," till we have removed every
+    petty difficulty out of the way, and got all the conflicting
+    interests that are involved in the measure reconciled and
+    satisfied;--to say this, is to trample on the demands of moral
+    obligation, and to disregard the voice which speaks to as from
+    heaven. The path of duty is plain before us; and we have nothing
+    to do but to enter it at once, and to walk in it without turning
+    to the right hand or to the left. Our concern is not with the
+    result that may follow our obedience to the divine will. Our
+    great and primary concern is to obey that will. God reigns over
+    his universe in the exercise of infinite perfection: he commands
+    us to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke; and
+    submitting, without procrastination, and without any attempts at
+    compromise, to that command, we may be assured that he will take
+    care of all the effects that can be produced by compliance with
+    his authority, and give demonstration to the truth that
+    obedience to his behests is our grand and only security for a
+    prosperous lot.
+
+    'We are by no means indifferent to the expediency of the case.
+    On the contrary, we think ourselves prepared to prove, by fair
+    reasoning and by ascertained fact, that the expediency of the
+    thing is all on our side; that immediate abolition is the only
+    secure and proper way of attaining the object which we all
+    profess to have in view; that to defer the measure to a distant
+    period, and to admit the propriety of getting at it by a course
+    of mitigation, is the surest mode of frustrating every hope we
+    might otherwise entertain, and giving over the slaves to
+    interminable bondage.' * * *
+
+    'I do not deny, Sir, that the evils of practical slavery may be
+    lessened. By parliamentary enactments, by colonial arrangements,
+    by appeals to the judgment and feelings of planters, and by
+    various other means, a certain degree of melioration _may_ be
+    secured. But I say, in the first place, that, with all that you
+    can accomplish, or reasonably expect, of mitigation, you cannot
+    alter the nature of slavery itself. With every improvement you
+    have superinduced upon it, you have not made it less debasing,
+    less cruel, less destructive, in its essential character. The
+    black man is still the _property_ of the white man. And that one
+    circumstance not only implies in it the transgression of
+    inalienable right and everlasting justice, but is the fruitful
+    and necessary source of numberless mischiefs, the very thought
+    of which harrows up the soul, and the infliction of which no
+    superintendence of any government can either prevent or control.
+    Mitigate and keep down the evil as much as you can, still it is
+    there in all its native virulence, and still it will do its
+    malignant work in spite of you. The improvements you have made
+    are merely superficial. You have not reached the seat and vital
+    spring of the mischief. You have only concealed in some measure,
+    and for a time, its inherent enormity. Its essence remains
+    unchanged and untouched, and is ready to unfold itself whenever
+    a convenient season arrives, notwithstanding all your
+    precaution, and all you vigilance, in those manifold acts of
+    injustice and inhumanity, which are its genuine and its
+    invariable fruits. You may white-wash the sepulchre,--you may
+    put upon it every adornment that fancy can suggest,--you may
+    cover it over with all the flowers and evergreens that the
+    garden or the fields can furnish, so that it will appear
+    beautiful outwardly unto men. But it is a sepulchre still,--full
+    of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Disguise slavery as
+    you will,--put into the cup all the pleasing and palatable
+    ingredients which you can discover in the wide range of nature
+    and of art,--still it is a bitter, bitter draught, from which
+    the understanding and the heart of every man, in whom nature
+    works unsophisticated and unbiassed, recoils with unutterable
+    aversion and abhorrence. Why, Sir, slavery is the very Upas tree
+    of the moral world, beneath whose pestiferous shade all
+    intellect languishes, and all virtue dies. And if you would get
+    quit of the evil, you must go more thoroughly and effectually to
+    work than you can ever do by any or by all of those palliatives,
+    which are included under the term "mitigation." The foul
+    sepulchre must be taken away. The cup of oppression must be
+    dashed to pieces on the ground. The pestiferous tree must be cut
+    down and eradicated; it must be, root and branch of it, cast
+    into the consuming fire, and its ashes scattered to the four
+    winds of heaven. It is thus you must deal with slavery. You must
+    annihilate it,--annihilate it now,--and annihilate it for ever.
+
+    'Get your mitigation. I say in the second place, that you are
+    thereby, in all probability farther away than ever from your
+    object. It is not to the Government or the Parliament at home
+    that you are to look--neither is it to the legislatures and
+    planters abroad that you are to look--for accomplishing the
+    abolition of negro slavery. Sad experience shows that, if left
+    to themselves, they will do nothing efficient in this great
+    cause. It is to the sentiments of the people at large that you
+    are to look, to the spread of intellectual light, to the
+    prevalence of moral feeling, to the progress, in short, of
+    public opinion, which, when resting on right principles and
+    moving in a right direction, must in this free and Christian
+    country prove irresistible. But observe, Sir, the public mind
+    will not be sufficiently affected by the statement of abstract
+    truths, however just, or by reasonings on the tendencies of a
+    system, however accurate. It must be more or less influenced by
+    what is visible, or by what is easily known and understood of
+    the actual atrocities which accompany slavery, wherever it is
+    left to its own proper operation. Let it be seen in its native
+    vileness and cruelty, as exhibited when not interfered with by
+    the hand of authority, and it excites universal and unqualified
+    detestation. But let its harsher asperities be rubbed off; take
+    away the more prominent parts of its iniquity; see that it look
+    somewhat smoother and milder than it did before; make such
+    regulations as ought, if faithfully executed, to check its
+    grosser acts of injustice and oppression; give it the appearance
+    of its being put under the humanizing sway of religious
+    education and instruction; do all this, and you produce one
+    effect at least,--you modify the indignation of a great number
+    of the community; you render slavery much less obnoxious; you
+    enable its advocates and supporters to say in reply to your
+    denunciations of its wickedness, "O, the slaves are now
+    comfortable and happy; they do not suffer what they did; they
+    are protected and well treated," and in proof of all this, they
+    point to what are called "mitigations." But mark me, Sir; under
+    these mitigations, slavery still exists, ready at every
+    convenient season to break forth in all its countless forms of
+    inhumanity; meanwhile the public feeling in a great measure
+    subsides; and when the public feeling--such an important and
+    indispensable element in our attempts to procure abolition--is
+    allowed to subside, tell me, Sir, when, and where, and by what
+    means it is again to be roused into activity. I must say, for
+    one, that though I sympathize with my sable brethren, when I
+    hear of them being spared even one lash of the cart-whip; yet
+    when I take a more enlarged view of their condition--when I
+    consider the nature of that system under which they are placed,
+    and when I look forward to their deliverance, and the means by
+    which alone it is to be effected, I am tempted, and almost if
+    not altogether persuaded, to deprecate that insidious thing
+    termed "mitigation," because it directly tends to perpetuate the
+    mighty evil, which will by and by throw off the improvements by
+    which it is glossed over as quite unnatural to it, will
+    ultimately grow up again into all its former dreadfulness, and
+    continue to wither and crush beneath it, all that is excellent
+    and glorious in man.
+
+    'But if our rulers and legislators will undertake to emancipate
+    the slaves, and do it as it ought to be done, immediately, I beg
+    those who set themselves against such a measure, to point out
+    the danger, and to prove it. The _onus_ lies upon _them_. And
+    what evidence do they give us? Where is it to be found? In what
+    circumstance shall we discover it? From what principles and
+    probabilities shall we infer it? We must not have mere
+    hypothesis--mere allegations--mere fancied horrors, dressed up
+    in frightful language. We must have proof to substantiate, in
+    some good measure, their theory of rebellion, warfare, and
+    blood. If any such thing exists, let them produce it' * * * 'But
+    if you push me, and still urge the argument of insurrection and
+    bloodshed, for which you are far more indebted to fancy than to
+    fact, as I have shown you, then I say, be it so. I repeat that
+    maxim, taken from a heathen book, but pervading the whole Book
+    of God, _Fiat justitia_--_ruat caelum_. Righteousness, Sir, is
+    the pillar of the universe. Break down that pillar, and the
+    universe falls into ruin and desolation. But preserve it, and
+    though the fair fabric may sustain partial dilapidations, it may
+    be rebuilt and repaired--it _will_ be rebuilt, and repaired, and
+    restored to all its pristine strength, and magnificence, and
+    beauty. If there must be violence, let it even come, for it will
+    soon pass away--let it come and rage its little hour, since it
+    is to be succeeded by lasting freedom, and prosperity and
+    happiness. Give me the hurricane rather than the pestilence.
+    Give me the hurricane, with its thunder, and its lightning, and
+    its tempest;--give me the hurricane, with its partial and
+    temporary devastations, awful though they be;--give me the
+    hurricane, with its purifying, healthful, salutary
+    effects;--give me that hurricane, infinitely rather than the
+    noisome pestilence, whose path is never crossed, whose silence
+    is never disturbed, whose progress is never arrested, by one
+    sweeping blast from the heavens; which walks peacefully and
+    sullenly through the length and breadth of the land, breathing
+    poison into every heart, and carrying havoc into every home,
+    enervating all that is strong, defacing all that is beautiful,
+    and casting its blight over the fairest and happiest scenes of
+    human life--and which, from day to day, and from year to year,
+    with intolerant and interminable malignity, sends its thousands
+    and its tens of thousands of hapless victims into the
+    ever-yawning and never-satisfied grave!'
+
+It is said, by way of extenuation, that the present owners of slaves are
+not responsible for the origin of this system. I do not arraign them for
+the crimes _of their ancestors_, but for the constant perpetration and
+extension of similar crimes. The plea that the evil of slavery was
+entailed upon them, shall avail them nothing: in its length and breadth
+it means that the robberies of one generation justify the robberies of
+another! that the inheritance of stolen property converts it into an
+honest acquisition! that the atrocious conduct of their fathers
+exonerates them from all accountability, thus presenting the strange
+anomaly of a race of men incapable of incurring guilt, though daily
+practising the vilest deeds! Scarcely any one denies that blame attaches
+somewhere: the present generation throws it upon the past--the past,
+upon its predecessor--and thus it is cast, like a ball, from one to
+another, down to the first importers of the Africans! 'Can that be
+_innocence_ in the temperate zone, which is the _acme of all guilt_ near
+the equator? Can that be _honesty_ in one meridian of longitude, which,
+at one hundred degrees east, is the _climax of injustice_?' Sixty
+thousand infants, the offspring of slave-parents, are annually born in
+this country, and doomed to remediless bondage. Is it not as atrocious a
+crime to kidnap these, as to kidnap a similar number on the coast of
+Africa?
+
+It is said, moreover, that we ought to legislate prospectively, on this
+subject; that the fetters of the present generation of slaves cannot be
+broken; and that our single aim should be, to obtain the freedom of
+their offspring, by fixing a definite period after which none shall be
+born slaves. But this is inconsistent, inhuman and unjust. The following
+extracts from the speech of the Rev. Dr. Thomson are conclusive on this
+point:
+
+
+    'In the first place, it amounts to an indirect sanction of the
+    continued slavery of all who are now alive, and of all who may
+    be born before the period fixed upon. This is a renunciation of
+    the great moral principles upon which the demand for abolition
+    proceeds. It consigns more than 800,000 human beings to bondage
+    and oppression, while their title to freedom is both
+    indisputable and acknowledged. And it is not merely an
+    inconsistency on the part of the petitioners, and a violation of
+    the duty which they owe to such a multitude of their fellow-men,
+    but it weakens or surrenders the great argument by which they
+    enforce their application for the extinction of colonial
+    slavery.
+
+    'Besides, it is vain to expect that the planters will acquiesce
+    in such a prospective measure, any more than in the liberation
+    of the existing slaves, for the progeny of the existing slaves
+    must be considered by them as much a part of their property as
+    these slaves themselves. And they would regard it equally unjust
+    to deprive them of what is hereafter to be produced from their
+    own slave stock, as it would be to deprive a farmer, by an
+    anticipating law of all the foals and of all the calves that
+    might be produced in his stable and in his cow-house, after a
+    given specified date.
+
+    'We must be true to our own maxims, which are taken from the
+    word of God; and ask for all that we are entitled to have on the
+    ground of justice and humanity, and be contented with nothing
+    less.
+
+    'In the second place, the plan objected to is not merely an
+    acquiescence in the continuance of crime, it is a violation of
+    the best feelings of our nature. For, let any man but reflect on
+    the circumstance of children being born to slavery, merely
+    because they came into the world the last hour of December 1830,
+    instead of the first hour of January 1, 1831--and of children in
+    the same family, brothers and sisters--some of them destined to
+    bondage for life, and others gifted with freedom, for no other
+    reason than that the former were born before, and the latter
+    after, a particular day of a particular year--and of parents
+    being unjustly and inhumanly flogged in the very sight of their
+    offspring arbitrarily made free, while they are as arbitrarily
+    kept slaves--let any man but reflect on those things, and unless
+    the sensibilities of his heart be paralysed even to deadness, he
+    must surely revolt at such a cruel and cold blooded allotment in
+    the fortune of those little ones, and be satisfied with nothing
+    short of the emancipation of the whole community, without a
+    single exception.
+
+    'In the third place, supposing all children born after January
+    1, 1831, were declared free, how are they to be educated? That
+    they may be prepared for the enjoyment of that liberty with
+    which you have invested them, they must undergo a particular and
+    appropriate training. So say the _gradualists_. Very well; under
+    whom are they to get this training? Are they to be separated
+    from their parents? Is that dearest of natural ties to be broken
+    asunder? Is this necessary for your plan? And are not you thus
+    endeavoring to cure one species of wickedness by the
+    instrumentality of another? But if they are to be left with
+    their parents and brought up under their care, then either they
+    will be imbued with the faults and degeneracies that are
+    characteristic of slavery, and consequently be as unfit for
+    freedom as those who have not been disenthralled: or they will
+    be well nurtured and well instructed by their parents, and this
+    implies a confession that their parents themselves are
+    sufficiently prepared for liberty, and that there is no good
+    reason for withholding from them, the boon that is bestowed upon
+    their children.
+
+    'Whatever view, in short, we take of the question, the
+    prospective plan is full of difficulty or contradictions, and we
+    are made more sensible than ever that there is nothing left for
+    us, but to take the consistent, honest, uncompromising course of
+    demanding the abolition of slavery with respect to the present,
+    as well as to every future generation of the negroes in our
+    colonies.'
+
+We are told that 'it is not right that men should be free, when their
+freedom will prove injurious to themselves and others.' This has been
+the plea of tyrants in all ages. If the immediate emancipation of the
+slaves would prove a curse, it follows that slavery is a blessing; and
+that it cannot be unjust, but benevolent, to defraud the laborer of his
+hire, to rank him as a beast, and to deprive him of his liberty. But
+this, every one must see, is at war with common sense, and avowedly
+doing evil that good may come. This plea must mean, either that a state
+of slavery is more favorable to the growth of virtue and the
+dispensation of knowledge than a state of freedom--(a glaring
+absurdity)--or that an immediate compliance with the demands of justice
+would be most unjust--(a gross contradiction.)
+
+It is boldly asserted by some colonizationists, that '_the negroes are
+happier when kept in bondage_,' and that 'the condition of the great
+mass of emancipated Africans is one in comparison with which the
+condition of the slaves is _enviable_.' What is the inference? Why,
+either that slavery is not oppression--(another paradox)--or that real
+benevolence demands the return of the free people of color to their
+former state of servitude. Every kidnapper, therefore, is a true
+philanthropist! Our legislature should immediately offer a bounty for
+the body of every free colored person! The colored population of
+Massachusetts, at $200 for each man, woman and child, would bring at
+least _one million three hundred thousand dollars_. This sum would
+seasonably replenish our exhausted treasury. The whole free colored
+population of the United States, at the same price, (which is a low
+estimate,) would be worth _sixty-five millions of dollars_!! Think how
+many churches this would build, schools and colleges establish,
+beneficiaries educate, missionaries support, bibles and tracts
+circulate, railroads and canals complete, &c. &c. &c.!!!
+
+The Secretary of the Colonization Society assures us, (vide the African
+Repository, vol. v. p. 330,) that '_were the very spirit of angelic
+charity to pervade and fill the hearts of all the slaveholders in our
+land, it would by no means require that all the slaves should be
+instantaneously liberated_'!!--i. e. should the slaveholders become
+instantaneously metamorphosed into angels, they would still hold the
+rational creatures of God as their _property_, and yet commit no sin!
+Think, for one moment, of an angel in the capacity of a
+man-stealer--feeding his victims upon a peck of corn per week, or three
+bushels of corn and a few herrings every 'quarter-day,' as a
+compensation for their severe labor--flourishing a cowskin over their
+heads, and applying it frequently to their naked bodies! Think of him
+selling parents from children, and children from parents, at private
+sale or public auction!
+
+Many slaveholders are giving up their slaves from conscientious motives;
+they cannot, they dare not longer keep them in servitude; they believe
+that the law of God has a higher claim upon their obedience than the
+laws of their native State. Now suppose all the owners of slaves in our
+land should be suddenly and simultaneously convicted of sin, and moved
+to repentance in a similar manner, and should say to their slaves, 'God
+forbid that we should longer call you our property, or place you on a
+level with our cattle, or defraud you of your just dues, or sell you or
+your wives or children to others, or deny you the means of instruction,
+or lacerate your bodies! henceforth you are free--but you want
+employment, and we need laborers--go and work as freemen, and be paid as
+freemen!'--suppose, I say, a case like this should happen, and a troop
+of _gradualists_ should surround these penitent oppressors, and cry,
+'Were the very spirit of angelic charity to pervade and fill your
+hearts, it would by no means require that all your slaves should be
+instantaneously liberated--your throats will be cut, your houses
+pillaged, and desolation will stalk through the land, if you carry your
+mad purpose into effect--emancipate by a slow, imperceptible
+process!'--how would this advice sound? What should be their reply?
+Clearly this: 'Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto
+men more than unto God, judge ye.' Here would be presented a strange
+spectacle indeed--one party confessing and resolving to forsake their
+sins, and another urging them to disregard the admonitions of
+conscience, and to leave off sinning by degrees! To be sure, a few, a
+very few, would be _generously_ allowed to reform _instanter_!
+
+Those who prophesy evil, and only evil, concerning immediate abolition,
+absolutely disregard the nature and constitution of man, as also his
+inalienable rights, and annihilate or reverse the causes and effects of
+human action. They are continually fearful lest the slaves, in
+consequence of their grievous wrongs and intolerable sufferings, should
+attempt to gain their freedom by revolution; and yet they affect to be
+equally fearful lest a general emancipation should produce the same
+disastrous consequences. How absurd! They _know_ that oppression must
+cause rebellion; and yet they pretend that a removal of the cause will
+produce a bloody effect! This is to suppose an effect without a cause,
+and, of course, is a contradiction in terms. Bestow upon the slaves
+personal freedom, and all motives for insurrection are destroyed. Treat
+them like rational beings, and you may surely expect rational treatment
+in return: treat them like beasts, and they will behave in a beastly
+manner.
+
+Besides, precedent and experience make the ground of abolitionists
+invulnerable. In no single instance where their principles have been
+adopted, has the result been disastrous or violent, but beneficial and
+peaceful even beyond their most sanguine expectations. The immediate
+abolition of slavery in Mexico, in Colombia, and in St. Domingo,[O] was
+eminently preservative and useful in its effects. The manumitted slaves
+(numbering more than two thousand,) who were settled in Nova Scotia, at
+the close of our revolutionary war, by the British government, 'led a
+harmless life,' says Clarkson, 'and gained the character of an
+industrious and honest people from their white neighbors.' A large
+number who were located at Trinidad, as free laborers, at the close of
+our last war, 'are now,' according to the same authority, 'earning their
+own livelihood, and with so much industry and good conduct, that the
+calumnies originally spread against them have entirely died away.'
+According to the Anti-Slavery Reporter for January, 1832, three thousand
+prize negroes at the Cape of Good Hope had received their freedom--four
+hundred in one day; 'but not the least difficulty or disorder occurred:
+servants found masters, masters hired servants--all gained homes, and at
+night scarcely an idler was to be seen.'
+
+These and many other similar facts show conclusively the safety of
+immediate abolition. Gradualists can present, in abatement of them,
+nothing but groundless apprehensions and criminal distrust. The argument
+is irresistible.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[N] The slaves, they say, are their _property_. Once admit this, and all
+your arguments for interference are vain, and all your plans for
+amelioration are fruitless. The whole question may be said to hang upon
+this point. If the slaves are not property, then slavery is at an end.
+The slaveholders see this most clearly; they see that while you allow
+these slaves to be their _property_, you act inconsistently and
+oppressively in intermeddling, as you propose to do, with what is theirs
+as much as any other of their goods and chattels: you must proceed,
+therefore, in your measures for amelioration, as you call it, with
+'hesitating steps and slow;' and there is nothing you can do for
+restraining punishment, for regulating labor, for enforcing manumission,
+for introducing education and Christianity, which will not be met with
+the remonstrance, undeniably just by your own concessions, that you are
+encroaching on the sacred rights of property,--the slaveholders see all
+this, and they can employ it to paralyse and defeat all your efforts to
+get at emancipation, and to prepare for it. It is on this account, that
+I wish it settled in your minds, as a fixed and immutable principle,
+that there is and can be no property of man in man. Adopt this
+principle, and give it that ascendency over your minds to which it is
+entitled;--and slavery is swept away.--_Speech of Rev. Dr Thomson of
+Edinburgh._
+
+[O] The history of the Revolution in St Domingo is not generally
+understood in this country. The result of the instantaneous emancipation
+of the slaves, in that island, by an act of the Conventional Assembly of
+France in the month of February, 1794, settles the controversy between
+the _immediatists_ and _gradualists_. 'After this public act of
+emancipation,' says Colonel Malenfant, who was resident in the island at
+the time, 'the negroes _remained quiet_ both in the South and in the
+West, and _they continued to work upon all the plantations_.' 'Upon
+those estates which were abandoned, _they continued their labors_, where
+there were any, even inferior agents, to guide them; and on those
+estates, where no white men were left to direct them, they betook
+themselves to the planting of provisions; but upon _all the plantations_
+where the whites resided, the blacks _continued to labor as quietly as
+before_.' 'On the Plantation Gourad, consisting of more than four
+hundred and fifty laborers, _not a single negro refused to work_; and
+yet this plantation was thought to be under the worst discipline and the
+slaves the most idle of any in the plain.' General Lacroix, who
+published his 'Memoirs for a History of St Domingo,' at Paris, in 1819,
+uses these remarkable words: 'The colony marched, _as by enchantment_,
+towards its ancient splendor; _cultivation prospered_; every day
+produced perceptible proofs of its progress. The city of the Cape and
+the plantations of the North rose up again visibly to the eye.' General
+Vincent, who was a general of a brigade of artillery in St Domingo, and
+a proprietor of estates in that island, at the same period, declared to
+the Directory of France, that 'every thing was _going on well in St
+Domingo_. The proprietors were in peaceable possession of their estates;
+cultivation was making rapid progress; _the blacks were industrious, and
+beyond example happy_.' So much for the horrible concomitants of a
+general emancipation! So much for the predicted indolence of the
+liberated slaves! Let confusion of face cover all abolition alarmists in
+view of these historical facts! This peaceful and prosperous state of
+affairs continued from 1794, to the invasion of the island by Leclerc in
+1802. The attempt of Bonaparte to reduce the island to its original
+servitude was the sole cause of that sanguinary conflict which ended in
+the total extirpation of the French from its soil.--[Vide Clarkson's
+'Thoughts on the Necessity of Improving the Condition of the Slaves in
+the British Colonies,' &c.]
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VI.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS NOURISHED BY FEAR AND SELFISHNESS.
+
+
+The reader will find on the fifth page of my introductory remarks, the
+phrase 'naked terrors;' by which I mean, that, throughout all the
+speeches, addresses and reports in behalf of the Society, it is
+confessed, in language strong and explicit, that an irrepressible and
+agonizing fear of the influence of the free people of color over the
+slave population is the primary, essential and prevalent motive for
+colonizing them on the coast of Africa--and not, as we are frequently
+urged to believe, a desire simply to meliorate their condition and
+civilize that continent. On this point, the evidence is abundant.
+
+    'In reflecting on the utility of a plan for colonizing the free
+    people of color, with whom our country abounds, it is natural
+    that we should be first struck by its tendency to confer a
+    benefit on ourselves, by ridding us of a population for the most
+    part idle and useless, and too often vicious and mischievous.'
+    * * * 'Such a class must evidently be a burden and a nuisance to
+    the community; and every scheme which affords a prospect of
+    removing so great an evil must deserve to be most favorably
+    considered.
+
+    'But it is not in themselves merely that the free people of
+    color are a nuisance and burthen. They contribute greatly to the
+    corruption of the slaves, and to aggravate the evils of their
+    condition, by rendering them idle, discontented and disobedient.
+    This also arises from the necessity under which the free blacks
+    are, of remaining incorporated with the slaves, of associating
+    habitually with them, and forming part of the same class in
+    society. The slave seeing his free companion live in idleness,
+    or subsist however scantily or precariously by occasional and
+    desultory employment, is apt to grow discontented with his own
+    condition, and to regard as tyranny and injustice the authority
+    which compels him to labor.[P]
+
+    'Great, however, as the benefits are, which we may thus promise
+    ourselves, from the colonization of the free people of color, by
+    its tendency to prevent the discontent and corruption of our
+    slaves,' &c. * * 'The considerations stated in the first part of
+    this letter, have long since produced a thorough conviction in
+    my mind, that the existence of a class of free people of color
+    in this country is highly injurious to the whites, the slaves
+    and the free people of color themselves: consequently that all
+    emancipation, to however small an extent, which permits the
+    persons emancipated to remain in this country, is an evil, which
+    must increase with the increase of the operation, and would
+    become altogether intolerable, if extended to the whole, or even
+    to a very large part of the black population. I am therefore
+    strongly opposed to emancipation, in every shape and degree,
+    unless accompanied by colonization.'--[General Harper's
+    Letter--First Annual Report, pp. 29, 31, 32, 33, 36.]
+
+
+    'The slaves would be greatly benefitted by the removal of the
+    free blacks, who now corrupt them and render them
+    discontented.'--[Second An. Rep.]
+
+
+    'What are these objects? They are in the first place to aid
+    ourselves, by relieving us from a species of population pregnant
+    with future danger and present inconvenience.'--[Seventh
+    Report.]
+
+
+    'They are dangerous to the community, and this danger ought to
+    be removed. Their wretchedness arises not only from their
+    bondage, but from their political and moral degradation. The
+    danger is not so much that we have a million and a half of
+    slaves, as that we have in our borders nearly two millions of
+    men who are necessarily any thing rather than loyal
+    citizens--nearly two millions of ignorant and miserable beings
+    who are banded together by the very same circumstances, by which
+    they are so widely separated in character and in interest from
+    all the citizens of our great republic.'--[Seventh Annual
+    Report.]
+
+
+    'It may be safely assumed, that there is not an individual in
+    the community, who has given to the subject a moment's
+    consideration, who does not regard the existence of the free
+    people of color in the bosom of the country, as an evil of
+    immense magnitude, and of a dangerous and alarming tendency.
+    Their abject and miserable condition is too obvious to be
+    pointed out. All must perceive it, and perceiving it, cannot but
+    lament it. But their deplorable condition is not more obvious to
+    the most superficial observer, than is (what is far worse, and
+    still more to be dreaded,) the powerful and resistless influence
+    which they exert over the slave population. While their
+    character remains what it now is, (and the laws and structure of
+    the country in which they reside, prevent its permanent
+    improvement,) this influence must of necessity be baneful and
+    contaminating. Corrupt themselves, like the deadly Upas, they
+    impart corruption to all around them. Their numbers too, are
+    constantly and rapidly augmenting. Their annual increase is
+    truly astonishing, certainly unexampled. The dangerous
+    ascendency which they have already acquired over the slaves, is
+    consequently increasing with every addition to their numbers;
+    and every addition to their numbers is a subtraction from the
+    wealth and strength, and character, and happiness, and safety of
+    the country. And if this be true, as it unquestionably is, the
+    converse is also true; the danger of their undue influence will
+    lessen with every diminution of their numbers; and every
+    diminution of their numbers must add, and add greatly, to the
+    prosperity of the country.'--[Twelfth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Another reason is, the pressing and vital importance of
+    relieving ourselves, as soon as practicable, from this most
+    dangerous element in our population.' * * 'We all know the
+    effects produced on our slaves by the fascinating, but delusive
+    appearance of happiness, exhibited in some persons of their own
+    complexion, roaming in idleness and vice among them. By removing
+    the most fruitful source of discontent from among our slaves, we
+    should render them more industrious and attentive to our
+    commands.'--[Fourteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'What is the free black to the slave? A standing perpetual
+    incitement to discontent. Though the condition of the slave be a
+    thousand times the best--supplied, protected, instead of
+    destitute and desolate--yet, the folly of the condition, held to
+    involuntary labor, finds, always, allurement, in the spectacle
+    of exemption from it, without consideration of the adjuncts of
+    destitution and misery. The slave would have then, little
+    excitement to discontent but for the free black.'--[Fifteenth
+    Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The evils which arise from the communication of the free people
+    of color with our slaves, must be obvious to every reflecting
+    mind; and the consequences which may result from this
+    communication at some future day, when circumstances are more
+    favorable to their views, are of a more alarming character. Sir,
+    circumstances must have brought us to the conclusion, if our
+    observation had not enabled us to make the remark, that it is
+    natural for our slaves, so closely allied to the free black
+    population by national peculiarities, and by relationship, to
+    make a comparison between their respective conditions, and to
+    repine at the difference which exists between them. This is a
+    serious evil, and can only be removed _by preventing the
+    possibility of a comparison_.
+
+    'By removing these people, we rid ourselves of a large party who
+    will always be ready to assist our slaves in any mischievous
+    design which they may conceive; and who are better able, by
+    their intelligence, and the facilities of their communication,
+    to bring those designs to a successful termination.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. i. p. 176.]
+
+
+    'The labors of the Colonization Society appear to us highly
+    deserving of praise. The blacks, whom they carry from the
+    country, belong to a class far more noxious than the slaves
+    themselves. They are free without any sense of character to
+    restrain them, or regular means of obtaining an honest
+    livelihood. Most of the criminal offences committed in the
+    southern States are chargeable to them, and their influence over
+    the slaves is pernicious and alarming.' * * * 'What is the true
+    nature of the evil of the existence of a portion of the African
+    race in our population? It is not that there are some, but that
+    there are so many among us of a different caste, of a different
+    physical, if not moral, constitution, who never can amalgamate
+    with the great body of our population. In every country, persons
+    are to be found varying in their color, origin and character,
+    from the native mass. But this anomaly creates no inquietude or
+    apprehension, because the exotics, from the smallness of their
+    number, are known to be utterly incapable of disturbing the
+    general tranquillity. Here, on the contrary, the African part of
+    our population bears so large a proportion to the residue of
+    European origin, as to create the most lively apprehension,
+    especially in some quarters of the Union. Any project,
+    therefore, by which, in a material degree, the dangerous element
+    in the general mass, can be diminished or rendered stationary,
+    deserves deliberate consideration.'--[African Repository, vol.
+    ii. pp. 27, 338.]
+
+
+    'Made up, for the most part, either of slaves or of their
+    immediate descendants; elevated above the class from which it
+    has sprung, only by its exemption from domestic restraint; and
+    effectually debarred by the law, from every prospect of equality
+    with the actual freemen of the country; it is a source of
+    perpetual uneasiness to the master, and of envy and corruption
+    to the slave.' * * 'To remove these persons from among us, will
+    increase the _usefulness_, and improve the moral character of
+    those who remain in servitude, and _with whose labors the
+    country is unable to dispense_. That instances are to be found
+    of colored free persons, upright and industrious, is not to be
+    denied. But the greater portion, as is well known, are a source
+    of malignant depravity to the slaves on the one hand, and of
+    corrupt habits to many of our white population on the other. The
+    arts of subsistence with many of them, are incompatible with the
+    security of property.' * * * 'I am a Virginian--I dread for her
+    the corroding evil of this numerous caste, and I tremble for the
+    danger of a disaffection spreading through their seductions,
+    among our servants.' * * * 'Are they vipers, who are sucking our
+    blood? we will hurl them from us. It is not sympathy alone,--not
+    sickly sympathy, no, nor manly sympathy either,--which is to act
+    on us; but vital policy, self-interest, are also enlisting
+    themselves on the humane side in our breasts.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. iii. pp. 10, 67, 197, 201.]
+
+
+    'All must concur in regarding the present condition of the free
+    colored race in America as inconsistent with its future social
+    and political advancement, and, where slavery exists at all, as
+    calculated to aggravate its evils without any atoning good.
+    Among those evils, the most obvious is the restraint imposed
+    upon emancipation by the laws of so many of the slaveholding
+    States: laws, deriving their recent origin from the obvious
+    manifestation which the increase of the free colored population
+    has furnished, of the inconvenience and danger of multiplying
+    their number where slavery exists at all.' * * * 'By the success
+    of this scheme, our country will be enriched. The free blacks
+    constitute a material spoke in that wheel which is crushing down
+    the wealth of our land. The moment we carry this plan into
+    vigorous prosecution, we shall call many of our countrymen to a
+    state of comparative wealth. The removal of the annual increase
+    of our colored population, would give to our mariners a
+    considerable scope of employment, whilst the trade of the Colony
+    would be a source of profit.' * * 'It places the attainment of
+    the grand object in view, that is, to withdraw from the United
+    States annually, so many of the colored population, and provide
+    them a comfortable home and all the advantages of civilization
+    in Africa, _as will make the number here remain stationary_.'
+    * * * 'Let us recur to the principle abovementioned--that every
+    black family occupies the room of a white family. On this
+    principle we are lost, if we suffer the colored population to
+    multiply, unchecked, upon our hands; because they will increase
+    faster than the whites, and will crowd them out of all the
+    Southern country. But on the same principle we are saved, if by
+    any means of colonization, we can retard the increase of the
+    blacks, and gain ground on them in the South. That we can do
+    with ease, if our people will unite in prosecuting the scheme.
+    Every family taken from the blacks, will add also a family to
+    the whites, and make an actual difference of two families in our
+    favor. This exchange will leave fewer blacks to remove, while
+    it will increase our ability to remove them. Self-interest and
+    self-preservation furnish motives enough to excite our
+    exertions.' * * 'By thus repressing the rapid increase of
+    blacks, the white population would be enabled to reach and soon
+    overtop them. The consequence would be security.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. iv. pp. 53, 141, 271, 276, 344.]
+
+
+    'The existence of a class of men in the bosom of the community,
+    who occupy a middle rank between the citizen and the slave--who
+    encountering every positive evil incident to each condition,
+    share none of the benefits peculiar to either, has been long
+    clearly seen and deeply deplored by every man of observation.
+    The master feels it in the unhappy influence which the free
+    blacks have upon the slave population. The slave feels it in the
+    restless, discontented spirit which his association with the
+    free black engenders.' * * * * 'But, there is yet a more
+    important and alarming view, in which this subject necessarily
+    presents itself to the mind of every Virginian. A community of
+    the character that has been described, with this additional
+    peculiarity, that it differs from the class from which it has
+    sprung, only in its exemption from _the wholesome restraints of
+    domestic authority_, is found in the midst of a numerous and
+    rapidly increasing slave population; and while its partial
+    freedom, trammelled, as it is, by the necessary rigors of the
+    law, is nevertheless sufficiently attractive, to be a source of
+    uneasiness and dissatisfaction to those who have not attained to
+    its questionable privileges, its exemption from the prompt and
+    efficient inquisition appertaining to slavery, makes it an
+    important instrument in the corruption and seduction of those,
+    who yet remain the property of their masters.' * * * 'Who would
+    not rejoice to see our country liberated from her black
+    population? Who would not participate in any efforts to restore
+    those children of misfortune to their native shores, and kindle
+    the lights of science and civilization through Africa? Who that
+    has reflection, does not tremble for the political and moral
+    well-being of a country, that has within its bosom, a growing
+    population, bound to its institutions by no common sympathies,
+    and ready to fall in with any faction that may threaten its
+    liberties?' * * * 'The existence of this race among us; a race
+    that can neither share our blessings nor incorporate in our
+    society, is already felt to be a curse; and though the only
+    curse entailed on us, if left to take its course, it will become
+    the greatest that could befal the nation.
+
+    'Shall we then cling to it, and by refusing the timely expedient
+    now offered for deliverance, retain and foster the _alien
+    enemies_, till they have multiplied into such greater numbers,
+    and risen into such mightier consequence as will for ever bar
+    the possibility of their departure, and by barring it, bar also
+    the possibility of fulfilling our own high destiny?' * * 'The
+    object of this Society is two-fold; for while it immediately and
+    ostensibly directs its energies to the amelioration of the
+    condition of the free people of color, it relieves our country
+    from an unprofitable burden, and which, if much longer submitted
+    to, may record upon our history the dreadful cries of vengeance
+    that but a few years since were registered in characters of
+    blood at St. Domingo.' * * 'It is the removal of the _free_
+    blacks from among us, that is to save us, sooner or later, from
+    those dreadful events foreboded by Mr Jefferson, or from the
+    horrors of St. Domingo. The present number of this unfortunate,
+    degraded, and anomalous class of inhabitants cannot be much
+    short of half a million; and the number is fast increasing. They
+    are emphatically a mildew upon our fields, a scourge to our
+    backs, and a stain upon our escutcheon. To remove them is mercy
+    to ourselves, and justice to them.'--[African Repository, vol.
+    v. pp. 28, 51, 88, 278, 304, 348.]
+
+
+    'All admit the utility of the separation of the free people of
+    color from the residue of the population of the United States,
+    if it be practicable. It is desirable for them, _for the slaves
+    of the United States_, and for the white race. The vices of this
+    class do not spring from any inherent depravity in their natural
+    constitution, but from their unfortunate situation. Social
+    intercourse is a want which we are prompted to gratify by all
+    the properties of our nature. And as they cannot obtain it in
+    the better circles of society, nor always among themselves,
+    they resort to slaves and to the most debased and worthless of
+    the whites. Corruption, and all the train of petty offences, are
+    the consequences. Proprietors of slaves in whose neighborhood
+    any free colored family is situated, know how infectious and
+    pernicious this intercourse is.' * * * 'Who, if this promiscuous
+    residence of whites and blacks, of freemen and slaves, is for
+    ever to continue, can imagine the servile wars, the carnage and
+    the crimes which will be its probable consequences, without
+    shuddering with horror?' * * 'It were madness to shut our eyes
+    to these facts and conclusions. This rapid increase of the
+    blacks is as certain as the progress of time. The fatal
+    consequences of that increase, if it be not checked, are equally
+    so. Something must be done. The American Colonization Society
+    proposes a remedy--the removal to Africa of the blacks who are
+    free, or shall hereafter become so, with their consent.' * *
+    'The colored population is considered by the people of Tennessee
+    and Alabama in general, as an immense evil to the country--but
+    the free part of it, by all, as the greatest of all evils....
+    They feel severely the effects of the deleterious influence
+    which the free negroes exert upon the slaves--and they look,
+    moreover, into futurity, and there they behold an appalling
+    scene--in less than one hundred years, (a short time, we should
+    hope, in the life of this republic,) 16,000,000 of blacks.'
+    * * * * 'Since the recent revolution in the island of St. Domingo,
+    which has placed it in the hands of the African race, it was
+    thought by some that there an asylum might be found for this
+    part of our population. But to that place there were also
+    serious objections, which would prevent its adoption to any
+    considerable extent. The nearness of that Island to our southern
+    borders, and the evil consequences that might result from
+    embodying the free persons of color in the vicinity of those
+    parts of the United States, where slaves are so numerous,
+    forbade the friends of humanity to provide a home for them in
+    that Island.'--[African Repository, vol. vi. pp. 17, 23, 68, 77,
+    226.]
+
+
+    'The existence, within the very bosom of our country, of an
+    anomalous race of beings, the most debased upon earth, who
+    neither enjoy the blessings of freedom, nor are yet in the bonds
+    of slavery, is a great national evil, which every friend of his
+    country most deeply deplores. They constitute a large mass of
+    human beings, who hang as a vile excrescence upon society--the
+    objects of a low debasing envy to our slaves, and to ourselves
+    of universal suspicion and distrust.' * * 'If this process were
+    continued a second term of duplication, it would produce the
+    extraordinary result of forty white men to one black in the
+    country--a state of things in which we should not only cease to
+    feel the burdens which now hang so heavily upon us, but actually
+    regard the poor African as an object of curiosity, and not
+    uneasiness.' * * 'Enough, under favorable circumstances, might
+    be removed for a few successive years--if young _females_ were
+    encouraged to go--to keep the whole colored population in
+    check.'--[African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 230, 232, 246.]
+
+
+    'The existence of such a population among us is a most manifest
+    evil. And every year adds to its threatening aspect. They are
+    more than a sixth of our population! Their ratio of increase
+    exceeds that of the whites. They have all the lofty and immortal
+    powers of man. And the time must arrive, when they will
+    fearlessly claim the prerogatives of man. They may do it in the
+    spirit of revenge. They may do it in the spirit of desperation.
+    And the result of such a mustering of their energies--who can
+    look at it even in distant prospect without horror? Almost as
+    numerous are they now, as our whole population when this nation
+    stood forth for freedom in a contest with the mightiest power of
+    the civilized world. And if nothing is done to _arrest their
+    increase_, we shall have in twenty years four millions of
+    slaves; in forty years eight millions; in sixty years sixteen
+    millions, and a million of free blacks;--seventeen millions of
+    people; seven millions more than our present white
+    population;--enough for a powerful empire! And how can they be
+    governed? Who can foretel those scenes of carnage and terror
+    which our own children may witness, unless a seasonable remedy
+    be applied? The remedy is now within our reach. _We can stop
+    their increase_; we can diminish their number.'--[Rev. Baxter
+    Dickinson's Sermon delivered at Springfield, Mass. in 1829.]
+
+
+    'We have a numerous people, who, though they are among us, are
+    not of us; who are aliens and outcasts in the land of their
+    birth. A people whose condition is degraded and miserable; who,
+    so far from adding to our national strength, are an element of
+    weakness, and detract from the amount of human effort. A people,
+    whose condition, while it excites our commiseration, must awaken
+    our fears.' * * 'Those persons of color who have been
+    emancipated, are only nominally free; and the whole race, so
+    long as they remain among us, and whether they be slaves or
+    free, must _necessarily_ be kept in a condition full of
+    wretchedness to them and full of danger to the whites. This view
+    of the subject is rendered the more alarming by the rapid
+    increase of this portion of our population.'--[Second Annual
+    Report of the New-York State Colonization Society, pp. 4, 34.]
+
+
+    'We would ask, whence have the troubles, which have taken place
+    among the slaves of Louisiana, originated? Trace the causes, and
+    we will invariably find them to have proceeded from the
+    suggestions and officious interferences of the free blacks.
+    Their very existence in our limits, enjoying supposed
+    independence, excites the envy and dissatisfaction of the
+    slaves. The latter naturally inquire, why is it, that persons of
+    the same color, are permitted to possess more privileges than
+    they do?... We know the danger to which we are exposed from such
+    a class of beings living in the very heart of our population,
+    and increasing greatly every year.'--[An advocate of the Society
+    in the New-Orleans Argus.]
+
+
+    'Among us the free negroes are multiplying rapidly; both
+    conscience and religion, as well as propagation, increase them,
+    and, unless instant and decisive steps are taken to prevent
+    their increase, you will soon have 50,000 _determined and
+    vengeful enemies_ in the heart of your country, protected there
+    by the constitution, forsooth, by which it seems we are
+    forbidden to expel the free negroes, or to prevent farther
+    importations of this deadly pest in the persons of
+    slaves.'--[Louisville Focus.]
+
+
+    'Will not the people of the United States be induced to do
+    something to remove their colored population? I refer to their
+    condition, whether bond or free. They are wretched and
+    dangerous, and should be removed. And the danger arises, not
+    because we have thousands of slaves within our borders, but
+    because there are nearly two millions of colored men, who are by
+    necessity any thing rather than loyal citizens.'--[Address by
+    Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]
+
+
+    'It is not now a novel or a debateable proposition, that slavery
+    is a great moral and political curse. It is equally clear that
+    its multitudinous evils are greatly increased by the existence
+    among us of a mongrel population, who, freed from the shackles
+    of bondage, yet bear about them the badge of inferiority,
+    stamped upon them indelibly by the hand of nature, and are
+    therefore deprived of those rights of citizenship, without which
+    they must necessarily be a degraded caste--depraved in morals
+    and vicious in conduct, and _exercising a mischievous and
+    dangerous influence over those to whom they are nominally
+    superior_. Their mere existence among the slaves is sufficient,
+    of itself, to excite in the bosoms of the latter a feeling of
+    dissatisfaction with their own condition, apparently worse,
+    because of the coercion to labor which it imposes; but
+    essentially better, because of the comforts which that labor
+    procures, and of which the idle and dissolute habits of the free
+    negro almost invariably deprive him. The slave, however, is not
+    capable of reasoning correctly, if he reasons at all, on these
+    truths. He envies the free negro his idleness, and his freedom
+    from restraint, with all its attendant disadvantages of poverty
+    and disease, crime and punishment--and hence, he will sometimes
+    indulge the delusive dream of effecting his own emancipation by
+    the murder of those who hold him in bondage. Take away from him
+    this cause of dissatisfaction, and this incentive to
+    insurrection, and then these "impracticable hopes," which now
+    sometimes flit before his imagination, will no longer embitter
+    his hours of labor, and urge him to the commission of those
+    horrid deeds of massacre, which, though they may glut a
+    momentary revenge, must result disastrously, not only to the
+    slaves engaged immediately in their perpetration, but to all
+    that unfortunate race. Our true interests require that they
+    shall remove from among us--and no longer be a source of
+    disquietude to the whites, _of envy to the slaves_, and of
+    degradation to themselves.'--[Lynchburg (Va.) Virginian.]
+
+
+    'For the most conclusive reasons this removal should be to
+    Africa. If it be to the West Indies, to Texas, to Canada, then,
+    how strong and various the objections to building up, in the
+    vicinity of our own nation, a mighty empire, from a race of men,
+    _so unlike ourselves_? But, if the removal be to Africa, then it
+    is to a _happy distance_ from us and to their father land....
+    Then let it aid in removing that population, which, under its
+    peculiar relation to the whites, and under its degrading social
+    and civil disabilities, is a most fruitful source of national
+    dishonor, demoralization, weakness and _horrid
+    danger_.'--[Memorial of the New-York State Colonization
+    Society.]
+
+
+    'The males removed should be persons between 16 and 17 years of
+    age; the females between 13 and 14. Now as a number would be
+    annually removed equal to the whole increase, and as that number
+    would be composed of individuals, of such ages that their
+    removal would affect the future increase of the race in the
+    greatest possible degree, I believe that their numbers would not
+    only not increase, but would diminish. And the number removed
+    might be increased as the proportion of white persons in the
+    State became greater, until the removal reached a point at which
+    all the males who attained the age of sixteen, and all the
+    females who attained the age of fourteen, in any given year,
+    would during that year be removed.'--[Petersburg (Va.) Times.]
+
+
+    'They are well calculated to render the slaves sullen,
+    discontented, unhappy and refractory--and the masters
+    suspicious, fearful of consequences, and disposed to enhance the
+    rigor of the condition of their slaves, in order to avert the
+    dangers that appear to impend over them from the promulgation of
+    the anti-slavery doctrines; thus, in this case, as in so many
+    others, the imprudent zeal of friends is likely to produce as
+    much substantial injury as the animosity of decided enemies
+    could accomplish.'--[Mathew Carey's Essays.]
+
+
+    'Hatred to the whites is, with the exception in some cases of an
+    attachment to the person and family of the master, nearly
+    universal among the black population. We have then a foe,
+    cherished in our very bosoms--a foe willing to draw our
+    life-blood whenever the opportunity is offered, and, in the mean
+    time, intent upon doing us all the mischief in his
+    power.'--[Southern Religious Telegraph.]
+
+Does the reader wish for any additional proof that the governing motive
+of the American Colonization Society is fear--undisguised, _excessive_
+FEAR? Language is altogether inadequate to express my indignation and
+contempt, in view of such a heartless and cowardly exhibition of
+sentiment. There is a deep sense of guilt, an awful dread of
+retribution, manifested in the foregoing extracts; but we perceive no
+evidence of contrition for past or present injustice, on the part of
+those terror-stricken plotters. Instead of returning to those, whom
+they have so deeply injured, 'with repenting and undissembling love;'
+instead of seeking to conciliate and remunerate the victims of their
+prejudice and oppression; instead of resolving to break the yoke of
+servitude and let the oppressed go free; it seems to be their only
+anxiety and aim to outwit the vengeance of Heaven, and strengthen the
+bulwarks of tyranny, by expelling the free people of color from our
+shores, and effecting such a diminution of the number of slaves as shall
+give the white population a triumphant and irresistible superiority!
+'_Check the increase!_' is their cry--'let us retain in everlasting
+bondage as many as we can, _safely_; but the proportion must be at least
+ten millions of ourselves to two millions of our vassals, else we shall
+live in jeopardy! To do justly is not our intention; we only mean to
+remove the surplus of our present stock; we think we shall be able, by
+this prudent device, to oppress and rob with impunity. Our present
+wailing is not for our heinous crimes, but only because our avarice and
+cruelty have carried us beyond our ability to protect ourselves: we
+lament, not because we hold so large a number in fetters of iron, but
+because we cannot safely hold more!'
+
+Ye crafty calculators! ye hard-hearted, incorrigible sinners! ye greedy
+and relentless robbers! ye contemners of justice and mercy! ye
+trembling, pitiful, pale-faced usurpers! my soul spurns you with
+unspeakable disgust. Know ye not that the reward of your hands shall be
+given you? 'Wo unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write
+grievousness which they have prescribed; to turn aside the needy from
+judgment, and to take away the right from the poor, that widows may be
+their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! And what will ye do in
+the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far?
+to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your
+glory?'--'What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the
+face of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts.'--'Behold, the hire of
+the laborers which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept
+back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are
+entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.' Repent! repent! _now_,
+in sackcloth and ashes. Think not to succeed in your expulsive crusade;
+you cannot hide your motives from the Great Searcher of hearts; and if a
+sinful worm of the dust, like myself, is fired with indignation at your
+dastardly behaviour and mean conspiracy to evade repentance and
+punishment, how must the anger of Him, whose holiness and justice are
+infinite, burn against you? Is it not a fearful thing to fall into the
+hands of the living God? You may plot by day and by night; you may heap
+together the treasures of the land, and multiply and enlarge your
+combinations, to extricate yourselves from peril; but _you cannot
+succeed_. Your only alternative is, either to redress the wrongs of the
+oppressed _now_, and humble yourselves before God, or prepare for the
+chastisements of Heaven. I repeat it--REPENTANCE or PUNISHMENT must be
+yours.
+
+There are several points upon which I wish to fasten the attention of
+the reader:
+
+1. The inhumanity and craftiness of these propositions for the removal
+of the free people of color.
+
+It will be seen that the conspirators have taxed their ingenuity to the
+utmost, to ascertain the exact number of emigrants which must be
+transported annually, the amount of money that must be raised, the
+persons that must be selected, the number of vessels that must be
+employed, &c. &c. It is their determination, if the necessary means can
+be obtained, to transport the annual increase of our colored population;
+but in this calculation we find no allowance made for unwillingness or
+resistance on the part of those who are the objects of their
+supervision. It is taken for granted that all will be induced to go into
+exile, or must be made willing compulsorily. Nothing else is
+contemplated but their entire expulsion. In order to insure a reduction
+of this 'alarming increase,' and effectually to check the fruitfulness
+of generation, even the unmanly and scandalous proposition is made to
+remove principally those of both sexes who are just come to the age of
+puberty! The system of _espionage_, established by Napoleon to prevent
+the possibility of a successful conspiracy, was not more detestable and
+observant than is this violent and unnatural project. 'If young
+_females_ were encouraged to go'!--why, then they could not propagate
+here! Infamous calculation!
+
+2. The principal object avowed for the removal of the free people of
+color, is, their corruptive and dangerous influence over the slave
+population.
+
+It is demonstrated, then, beyond disputation, that this removal will
+infuse new strength into the tottering system of slavery, tighten the
+grasp of the masters upon the throats of the slaves, lull them into a
+profound and quiet sleep, postpone the hour of emancipation, and enhance
+the security and value of slave property. The terror of mind which calls
+for this separation cannot be benevolence, and the combination which
+seeks to effect it cannot merit support. It were folly to hope that the
+owners of slaves will ultimately emancipate them, from conscientious
+motives. In the first place, they affect to be innocent in holding their
+victims in servitude; secondly, they are assured by their colonization
+brethren that they are not guilty of oppression, but, on the contrary,
+are watchful guardians; and lastly, they are obstinate in shutting their
+eyes upon the light, and kindle into a rage on being arraigned for their
+tyrannous conduct. Our only ground of hope, then, is in increasing the
+difficulty of holding their slaves, in multiplying the causes of their
+apprehensions, in destroying the value of slave labor, and in making
+their situation full of disquietude and distress. Such a course is not
+inconsistent with benevolence--such a course we are obligated to pursue,
+as we value the present and everlasting welfare of the oppressor and the
+oppressed, and desire to have a conscience void of offence toward God
+and toward man. It may--it _must_ be effected by a scrupulous abstinence
+from the productions of slavery; by encouraging planters to cultivate
+their lands by the hands of free laborers; by educating our free colored
+population, and placing them on an equality with ourselves; and by
+constantly exhibiting the criminality of holding rational and immortal
+beings in servile bondage. Thus, and thus only, shall we be able to
+liberate our enslaved countrymen.
+
+3. Consider the inevitable consequence of these reiterated and malignant
+statements, with regard to the habits and designs of the free people of
+color.
+
+First, it deters a large number of masters from liberating their slaves,
+and hence directly perpetuates the evils of slavery: it deters them for
+two reasons--an unwillingness to augment the wretchedness of those who
+are in servitude by turning them loose upon the country, and a dread of
+increasing the number of their enemies. It creates and nourishes the
+bitterest animosity against the free blacks. It has spread an alarm
+among all classes of society, in all parts of the country; and, acting
+under this fearful impulse, they begin to persecute, believing
+self-preservation imperiously calls for this severe treatment. The
+legislative enactment of Ohio, which not long since drove many of the
+colored inhabitants of that State into Upper Canada, was the legitimate
+fruit of the anathemas of the Colonization Society. A bill has been
+reported in the same legislature for preventing free people of color
+from participating in the benefit of the common school fund, in order to
+hasten their expulsion from the State! Other States are multiplying
+similar disabilities, and hanging heavier weights upon their free
+colored population. The Legislature of Louisiana has enacted that
+whosoever shall make use of language, in any public discourse, from the
+bar, the bench, the pulpit, the stage, or in any other place whatsoever
+shall make use of language, in any private discourses, or shall make use
+of signs or actions having a tendency to produce discontent among the
+colored population, shall suffer imprisonment at hard labor, not less
+than three years, nor more than twenty-one years, or DEATH, at the
+discretion of the court!! It has also prohibited the instruction of the
+blacks in Sabbath Schools--$500 penalty for the first offence--DEATH for
+the second!! The Legislature of Virginia has passed a bill which
+subjects all free negroes who shall be convicted of remaining in the
+commonwealth contrary to law, to the liability of _being sold by the
+sheriff_. All meetings of free negroes, at any school-house or
+meeting-house, for teaching them reading or writing, are declared an
+unlawful assembly; and it is made the duty of any justice of the peace
+to issue his warrant to enter the house where such unlawful assemblage
+is held, for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such free
+negroes. A fine is to be imposed on every white person who instructs at
+such meetings. All emancipated slaves, who shall remain more than twelve
+months, contrary to law, shall revert to the executors as assets. Laws
+have been passed in Georgia and North Carolina, imposing a heavy tax or
+imprisonment on every free person of color who shall come into their
+ports in the capacity of stewards, cooks, or seamen of any vessels
+belonging to the non-slaveholding States. The Legislature of Tennessee
+has passed an act forbidding free blacks from coming into the State to
+remain more than twenty days. The penalty is a fine of from ten to fifty
+dollars, and confinement in the penitentiary from one to two years.
+Double the highest penalty is to be inflicted after the first offence.
+The act also prohibits manumission, without an immediate removal from
+the State. The last Legislature of Maryland passed a bill, by which no
+free negro or mulatto is allowed to emigrate to, or settle in the State,
+under the penalty of fifty dollars for every week's residence therein;
+and if he refuse or neglect to pay such fine, he shall be committed to
+jail and sold by the sheriff at public sale; and no person shall employ
+or harbor him, under the penalty of twenty dollars for every day he
+shall be so employed, hired or harbored! It is not lawful for any free
+blacks to attend any meetings for religious purposes, unless conducted
+by a _white_ licensed or ordained preacher, or some respectable white
+person duly authorised! All free colored persons residing in the State,
+are compelled to register their names, ages, &c. &c.; and if any negro
+or mulatto shall remove from the State, and remain without the limits
+thereof for a space longer than thirty consecutive days, unless before
+leaving the State he deposits with the clerk of the county in which he
+resides, _a written statement of his object in doing so_, and his
+intention of returning again, or unless he shall have been detained by
+sickness or coercion, _of which he shall bring a certificate_, he shall
+be regarded as a resident of another State, and be subject, if he
+return, to the penalties imposed by the foregoing provisions upon free
+negroes and mulattoes of another State, migrating to Maryland! It is not
+lawful for any person or persons to purchase of any free negro or
+mulatto any articles, unless he produce a certificate from a justice of
+the peace, or three respectable persons residing in his neighborhood,
+that he or they have reason to believe, and do believe, that such free
+negro or mulatto came honestly and bona fide into possession of any
+such articles so offered for sale! A bill has been reported to the
+Legislature of Pennsylvania, which enacts, that from and after a
+specified time, no negro or mulatto shall be permitted to emigrate into
+and settle in that State, without entering into bond in the penal sum of
+_five hundred dollars_, conditioned for his good behavior. If he neglect
+or refuse to comply with this requisition, such punishment shall be
+inflicted upon him as is now directed in the case of vagrants. Free
+colored residents are not to be allowed to migrate from one township or
+county to another, without producing a certificate from the Clerk of the
+Court of Quarter Sessions, or a Justice of the Peace, or an Alderman!
+The passage of a similar law has been urged even upon the Legislature of
+Massachusetts by a writer in the Salem Gazette!
+
+All these proscriptive measures, and others less conspicuous but equally
+oppressive,--which are not only flagrant violations of the Constitution
+of the United States, but in the highest degree disgraceful and
+inhuman,--are resorted to, (to borrow the language of the Secretary in
+his Fifteenth Annual Report,) 'for the more complete accomplishment of
+the great objects of the American Colonization Society'!!
+
+I appeal to the candor and common sense of the reader, if this grievous
+persecution be not justly chargeable to the Society? It is constantly
+thundering in the ears of the slave States--'Your free blacks
+contaminate your slaves, excite their deadliest hate, and are a source
+of _horrid danger_ to yourselves! They must be removed, or your
+destruction is inevitable!' What is their response? Precisely such as
+might be expected--'We know it; we dread the presence of this class;
+their influence over our slaves weakens our power, and endangers our
+safety; they must, _they shall_ be expatriated, or be crushed to the
+earth if they remain!' It says to the free States--'Your colored
+population can never be rendered serviceable, intelligent or loyal; they
+will only, and always, serve to increase your taxes, crowd your
+poor-houses and penitentiaries, and corrupt and impoverish society!'
+Again, what is the natural response?--'It is even so; they are offensive
+to the eye, and a pest in community; theirs is now, and must inevitably
+be, without a reversal of the laws of nature, the lot of vagabonds; it
+were useless to attempt their intellectual and moral improvement among
+ourselves; and therefore be this their alternative--either to emigrate
+to Liberia, or remain for ever a despicable caste in this country!'
+
+Hence the enactment of those sanguinary laws, to which reference has
+been made: hence, too, the increasing disposition which is every where
+seen to render the situation of the free blacks intolerable. Never was
+it so pitiable and distressing--so full of peril and anxiety--so
+burdened with misery, despondency and scorn; never were the prejudices
+of society so virulent and implacable against them; never were their
+prospects so dark, and dreary, and hopeless; never was the hand of power
+so heavily laid upon their limbs; never were they so restricted in
+regard to locomotion and the advantages of education, as at the present
+time. Athwart their sky scarcely darts a single ray of light--above and
+around them darkness reigns, and an angry tempest is mustering its
+fearful strength, and 'thunders are uttering their voices.' Treachery is
+seeking to decoy, and violence to expel them. For all this, and more
+than this, and more that is to come, the American Colonization Society
+is responsible. And no better evidence is needed than this: THEIR
+PERSECUTION, TRADUCEMENT AND WRETCHEDNESS INCREASE IN EXACT RATIO WITH
+THE INFLUENCE, POPULARITY AND EXTENSION OF THIS SOCIETY! The fact is
+undeniable, and it is conclusive. For it is absurd to suppose, that as
+the disposition and ability of an association to alleviate misery
+increase, so will the degradation and suffering of the objects of its
+charities.
+
+The assertion that the free blacks corrupt the morals of the slaves, is
+too ludicrous to need a serious refutation. Corrupt the morals of those
+who are recognized and treated as brutes, and who know as little of the
+laws of God as of the laws of the land! Immaculate creatures! The system
+of slavery is constantly developing new excellencies: it is, we now
+perceive, the protector of virtue, the enemy of vice, and a purifier of
+the soul!
+
+But something more indiscreet and preposterous than this, is advanced
+for our admiration. We are gravely assured, first, by a New-England
+clergyman, that, generally, the condition of the free man of color 'is
+one in comparison with which the condition of the slave is _enviable_;'
+and, secondly, by the last distinguished convert to the Colonization
+Society--the Hon. Mr. Archer of Virginia--'the condition of the slave is
+_a thousand times_ the best, [the disparity is wonderful!]--_supplied_,
+_protected_, instead of _destitute_ and _desolate_'![Q] Let us draw a
+brief comparison. The limbs of the free black are fetterless; he is
+controlled by no brutal driver; he bleeds not under the lash; he is his
+own master; his wife and children cannot be torn from his arms; he
+enjoys the fruits of his own labor; he can improve his own mind, make
+his own bargains, manage his own business, go from place to place, and
+assert his own rights. The situation and privileges of the slave are
+exactly the reverse. Reader, are they 'enviable'--'a thousand times the
+best'--in comparison with those of the former? I do not mean to say that
+there are no instances in which the slave fares as well as the free man
+of color; but the argument of these apologists implies that a state of
+slavery is superior to a state of freedom, or it is worthless.
+
+4. It appears, from the quotations that have been given, that the only
+reason why the free blacks are not colonized in the 'far West,' or in
+Canada, or Hayti, or Mexico, is, because their proximity to the slave
+States might prove detrimental. If they could be sent to any or to all
+these places, without any danger to ourselves, why then all objections
+would cease. This confession places the hypocrisy of this Society in
+bold relief. It pretends to be anxious to evangelize benighted Africa,
+and stop the slave trade; but only assure it that the blacks may be
+safely colonized nearer home, and Africa might still continue to grope
+in darkness, and the slave trade to increase in enormity, and its bowels
+of compassion would speedily cease to yearn!--Hence it is that the rapid
+enlargement of the Wilberforce Settlement in Upper Canada so disturbs
+the repose of the advocates of African colonization; and many of them
+would rejoice at its overthrow.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[P] How very strange that the slave should 'regard as tyranny and
+injustice the authority which compels him to labor' without
+recompense!!!
+
+[Q] Paupers and criminals are supplied and _protected_. How invidious to
+treat them so generously, and leave honest, hard-working men exposed to
+destitution and abandonment! They ought to be sent to the poor-house or
+penitentiary forthwith.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VII.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY AIMS AT THE UTTER EXPULSION OF THE
+BLACKS.
+
+
+The implacable spirit of this Society is most apparent in its
+determination not to cease from its labors, until our whole colored
+population be expelled from the country. The following is the evidence
+in confirmation of this charge:
+
+    'How came we by this population? By the prevalence for a century
+    of a guilty commerce. And will not the prevalence for a century
+    of a restoring commerce, place them on their own shores? Yes,
+    surely!'--[African Repository, vol. i. p. 347.]
+
+
+    'For several years the subject of abolition of slavery has been
+    brought before you. I am decidedly opposed to the project
+    recommended. NO SCHEME OF ABOLITION WILL MEET MY SUPPORT, THAT
+    LEAVES THE EMANCIPATED BLACKS AMONG US. Experience has proved,
+    that they become a corrupt and degraded class, as burthensome to
+    themselves as they are hurtful to the rest of society. To permit
+    the blacks to remain amongst us, after their emancipation, would
+    be to aggravate and not to cure the evil.'--[Idem, vol. ii. pp.
+    188, 189.]
+
+
+    'We would say, LIBERATE THEM ONLY ON CONDITION OF THEIR GOING TO
+    AFRICA OR TO HAYTI.'--[Idem, vol. iii. p. 26.]
+
+
+    '_I am not complaining of the owners of slaves_; IT WOULD BE AS
+    HUMANE TO THROW THEM FROM THE DECKS IN THE MIDDLE PASSAGE, AS TO
+    SET THEM FREE IN OUR COUNTRY.' * * * 'The Colonization Society,
+    I undertake to show, presents such a scheme. Slaveholders have
+    given it their approbation; they will approve it, and they can
+    approve of no other. _Any scheme of emancipation without
+    colonization_, they know and see and feel to be productive of
+    nothing but evil; evil to all whom it affects: to the white
+    population, to the slaves, to the _manumitted themselves_.' * *
+    'Throughout the slaveholding States there is a strong objection,
+    even among the warmest friends of the African race, to slaves
+    being liberated and allowed to remain among us; and some States
+    have enacted laws against it. _The objection is, in our
+    individual opinion, well founded._'--[Idem, vol. iv. pp. 226,
+    300, 340.]
+
+
+    'In connexion with this subject, your memorialists beg leave to
+    mention, that by an act of the Virginia Legislature, passed in
+    1805, emancipated slaves forfeit their freedom by remaining for
+    a longer period than twelve months, within the limits of the
+    Commonwealth. This law, odious and unjust as it may at first
+    view appear, and hard as it may seem to bear upon the liberated
+    negro, was doubtless dictated by sound policy, and _its repeal
+    would be regarded by none with more unfeigned regret, than by
+    the friends of African Colonization_. It has restrained many
+    masters from giving freedom to their slaves, and has thereby
+    contributed to check the growth of an evil _already too great
+    and formidable_.' * * 'Under the influence of a policy, already
+    referred to, _and justified by the necessity from which it
+    sprung_, the laws of Virginia have prohibited emancipation
+    within the limits of the State, but on condition of the early
+    removal of the individual emancipated.' * * 'While hundreds,
+    perhaps we might say thousands, of the free colored people, are
+    seeking a passage to Liberia; hundreds who hold slaves, would
+    willingly set them at liberty, were the means of their removal
+    provided. And till those means are provided, the liberation of
+    the slave would neither be a blessing to himself, nor the
+    public. His liberty under any circumstances may be a debt due,
+    in the abstract, to the claims of human nature; but when applied
+    to him individually, it would be a calamity. We cannot conceive
+    of a more deplorable state of society, than what our
+    slaveholding states would present, with their black population
+    afloat, without a home, without the means of subsistence, and
+    without those self-relying habits, which might lead them to
+    obtain an independent livelihood. _It is not therefore incumbent
+    upon those who hold slaves, to set them at liberty, till some
+    means are provided for their removal, or at least for their
+    subsistence._ They owe it neither to themselves, to their
+    country, nor the unfortunate beings around them.' * * * 'Those
+    slaves still in my possession, I cannot conscientiously
+    emancipate, unless they shall be removed by the Society to
+    Liberia.'--[Idem, vol. v. pp. 20, 53, 89, 177.]
+
+
+    'If the question were submitted, whether there should be either
+    immediate or gradual emancipation of all the slaves in the
+    United States, _without their removal or colonization_, painful
+    as it is to express the opinion, I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT IT WOULD
+    BE UNWISE TO EMANCIPATE THEM.' * * 'Is our posterity doomed to
+    endure forever not only all the ills flowing from the state of
+    slavery, but all which arise from incongruous elements of
+    population, separated from each other by invincible prejudices,
+    and by natural causes? Whatever may be the character of the
+    remedy proposed, we may confidently pronounce it inadequate,
+    unless it provides efficaciously for the _total_ and _absolute_
+    separation, by an extensive space of water or of land, at least,
+    of the white portion of our population from that, which is free,
+    of the colored.' * * 'Who, if this promiscuous residence of
+    whites and blacks, of freemen and slaves, is forever to
+    continue, can imagine the servile wars, the carnage and the
+    crimes which will be its probable consequences, without
+    shuddering with horror?' * * 'Gentlemen of the highest
+    respectability from the South, assure us, that there is among
+    the owners of slaves a very extensive and increasing desire to
+    emancipate them. Their patriotism, their humanity, nay their
+    self-interest, prompt to this; but it is not expedient, it is
+    not safe to do it, _without being able to remove them_.' * *
+    'How important it is, as it respects our character abroad, that
+    we hasten to _clear our land of our black population_!'
+
+    'Some benevolent minds in the overflowings of their
+    philanthropy, advocate amalgamation of the two classes, saying,
+    let the colored class be freed, and remain among us as denizens
+    of the Empire; surely all classes of mankind are alike descended
+    from the primitive parentage of Eden, then why not intermingle
+    in one common society as friends and brothers. _No, Sir, no._ I
+    hope to prove at no very distant day, that a Southron can make
+    sacrifices for the cause of Colonization beyond seas; but for a
+    Home Department in those matters, I repeat, _no, Sir, no_. What
+    right, I demand, have the children of Africa to an homestead in
+    the white man's country?'[R]
+
+    'Let the regenerated African rise to Empire; nay, let Genius
+    flourish, and Philosophy shed its mild beams to enlighten and
+    instruct the posterity of Ham, returning "redeemed and
+    disenthralled," from their long captivity in the New World. But,
+    Sir, be all these benefits enjoyed by the African race under the
+    shade of their native palms. _Let the Atlantic billow heave its
+    high and everlasting barrier between their country and ours._
+    Let this fair land, which the white man won by his chivalry,
+    which he has adorned by the arts and elegancies of polished
+    life, be kept sacred for his descendants, untarnished by the
+    footprint of him who hath ever been a slave.'--[Idem, vol. vi.
+    pp. 5, 12, 23, 110, 364, 371, 372.]
+
+
+    'The idea of emancipating our slaves, and _permitting them to
+    remain within the limits of the U. S._ whether as a measure of
+    humanity or of policy, is most decisively reprobated by
+    universal public sentiment.... Does any man in his senses desire
+    this population to remain among us? If the whole community could
+    reply, IT WOULD RESPOND IN ONE UNIVERSAL NEGATIVE.'--[Idem, vol.
+    vii. pp. 230, 231.]
+
+
+    'In reflecting on the utility of a plan for colonizing the free
+    people of color, with whom our country abounds, it is natural
+    that we should be first struck by its tendency to confer a
+    benefit on ourselves, _by ridding us of a population_ for the
+    most part idle and useless, and too often vicious and
+    mischievous.... All emancipation, to however small an extent,
+    _which permits the persons emancipated to remain in this
+    country_, is an evil, which must increase with the increase of
+    the operation, and would become altogether intolerable, if
+    extended to the whole, or even to a very large part, of the
+    black population. I am therefore strongly opposed to
+    emancipation, in every shape and degree, _unless accompanied by
+    colonization_.'--[First Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'They will annex the condition that the emancipated SHALL LEAVE
+    THE COUNTRY.'--[Second Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'They require that the _whole mass_ of free persons of color,
+    and those who may become such with the consent of their owners,
+    _should be progressively removed_ from among us, as fast as
+    their own consent can be obtained, and as the means can be found
+    for their removal and for their proper establishment in Africa.
+    Nothing short of this progressive but complete removal can
+    accomplish the great objects of this measure, in relation to the
+    security, prosperity, and happiness of the United
+    States.'--[Seventh Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Is it either safe or prudent to retain amongst us a large
+    population, on whom we can place no reliance, but from the
+    control which the laws exercise over it? Can this class be
+    animated by any feelings of patriotism towards a country by
+    which they feel themselves oppressed?'--[Ninth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Colonization, to be correct, must be beyond seas.--Emancipation,
+    _with the liberty to remain on this side of the Atlantic_, IS
+    BUT AN ACT OF DREAMY MADNESS!'--[Thirteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Has our country the resources demanded for the accomplishment
+    of an object of such magnitude? The transportation of more than
+    two millions of souls to a remote country is indeed an object of
+    formidable aspect. It obviously cannot be accomplished at once.
+    But that the number can be gradually diminished, _till utterly
+    extinguished_, may be made to appear, it is believed, from a
+    little arithmetical calculation....' 'It has been said that the
+    entire shipping of the country, both public and private, would
+    hardly be competent for an object of this magnitude. But careful
+    calculation has proved, that one eighteenth of the mercantile
+    shipping alone, entirely devoted to the enterprise, is competent
+    to carry it into complete consummation. And why might not our
+    brilliant and growing _navy_ aid to some extent the humane and
+    patriotic cause? If necessary, why might not _the marine of
+    other lands_ be chartered? Strange indeed it is if shipping
+    enough could be found half a century ago to reduce hundreds of
+    thousands of this race in a single year to a wretched vassalage,
+    and in this age of augmented light, and wealth, and improvement
+    in every art, enough cannot be found for the single benevolent
+    object before us!'--[Rev. Baxter Dickinson's Sermon delivered in
+    Springfield in 1829.]
+
+
+    'How much soever we may regret that so little is done for the
+    intellectual and moral improvement of the free colored
+    population, as the surest preventive against crime, still we
+    must acknowledge it is in vain to attempt raising their
+    character to a level with that of the other inhabitants. They
+    must find an asylum beyond the influence of the white
+    population, or the majority of them will _ever be found unworthy
+    of the boon of freedom_. There must be that asylum for them, or
+    we despair of ever being able to improve materially their
+    condition, or to eradicate slavery from our soil, and thus
+    prevent the awful catastrophe which threatens our republic. They
+    must be furnished with facilities to leave this country and
+    establish themselves in a community of their own.'--'I have
+    alluded to the difficulties which are presented to the minds of
+    benevolent and conscientious slaveholders, wishing to manumit
+    their slaves. From what has been said, it is evident that unless
+    some drain is opened to convey out of the country the
+    emancipated, the laws which relate to emancipation, must
+    continue in force with all their rigor. Without this drain, we
+    can hope for no repeal, or relaxation of those laws where the
+    slaves are very numerous. The mass of slaveholders can never let
+    go their hold on their slaves, and suffer them, ignorant,
+    vicious and treacherous, to roam at large. If no drain is
+    opened, necessity will compel them, as their slaves increase,
+    and consequently the danger, to add statute to statute in regard
+    to their slaves, until it be found necessary to arm one part of
+    the population to control the other. I may add, that as bitter
+    an enemy as I am to slavery, I cannot greatly desire that these
+    laws should be relaxed--that slavery should be abolished,
+    _unless its unfortunate and degraded subjects can be removed
+    from the country_. If this is not effected, whatever may be our
+    views and wishes on this subject, I am confident that
+    slaveholders will justify themselves in resorting to almost any
+    measures to keep their slaves in entire subjection.'--[An
+    advocate of the Society in the Middletown (Ct.) Gazette.]
+
+
+    'To talk of emancipating the slave population of these States
+    without providing them with an asylum, is truly idle. The free
+    blacks already scattered through the country, are a dangerously
+    burthensome order of people. They cannot amalgamate with the
+    population--the ordinances of nature are against it. They must,
+    in the main, be a degraded order, hanging loosely upon
+    society.'--[Idem.]
+
+
+    'The slaves _are_ in their possession--they are entailed upon
+    them by their ancestors. And can they set them free, _and still
+    suffer them to remain in the country_? Would this be
+    policy?--Would it be safe? NO. When they can be transported to
+    the soil from whence they were derived--by the aid of the
+    Colonization Society, by government, by individuals, or by any
+    other means--then let them be emancipated, and not
+    before.'--[Lowell (Mass.) Telegraph.]
+
+
+    'Avarice and iniquity have torn from that injured continent,
+    within thirty years, no less than 1,500,000 slaves; and cannot
+    humanity, religion, and justice, restore an equal number in the
+    same time? If we desire to accomplish this work, it is plain
+    that we can do it, and that too with a sum contemptible when
+    compared with the magnitude of the evil.'--[Address of Gabriel
+    P. Disosway.]
+
+
+    'We thank God that the ultimate accomplishment of the great
+    scheme of colonization is now placed beyond a doubt, in
+    Maryland; and that the day is not even distant when _the whole
+    of our colored population_ will have transferred themselves, by
+    our assistance, from slavery or degradation here, to peace, and
+    plenty, and power, and prosperity, and liberty, and
+    independence, in a land which Providence originally gave
+    them.'--[Baltimore Gazette.]
+
+
+    'It tends, and may powerfully tend, to rid us gradually and
+    entirely, in the United States, of slaves and slavery: a great
+    moral and political evil, of increasing virulence and extent,
+    from which much mischief is now felt, and very great calamity in
+    future is justly apprehended.'--[First Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'What can be done to mitigate or prevent the existing and
+    apprehended evils, resulting from our black population?
+    EMANCIPATION, WITHOUT REMOVAL FROM THE COUNTRY, IS OUT OF THE
+    QUESTION.' * * 'As long as our present feelings and prejudices
+    exist, the abolition of slavery cannot be accomplished without
+    the removal of the blacks--THEY CANNOT BE EMANCIPATED AS A
+    PEOPLE, AND REMAIN AMONG US.'--[Second Annual Report of the
+    New-York State Col. Soc.]
+
+
+    'It would gladly, however, grasp at a still grander object--that
+    of restoring to the land of their fathers the whole colored race
+    within our borders. Nor probably will it be satisfied to rest
+    from its labors, till this object, in all its magnitude, is
+    accomplished.'--[Rev. Baxter Dickinson's Sermon.]
+
+
+    'It must appear evident to all, that every endeavor to divert
+    the attention of the community, or even a portion of the means,
+    which the present crisis to imperatively calls for, from the
+    Colonization Society, to measures calculated to bind the colored
+    population to this country and seeking to raise them (_an
+    impossibility_) to a level with the whites, whether by founding
+    colleges or in any other way, tends directly in the proportion
+    that it succeeds, to counteract and thwart the whole plan of
+    colonization. Although none would rejoice more than myself to
+    see this unhappy race elevated to the highest scale of human
+    being, it has always seemed to me that this country was not the
+    theatre for such a change. Far happier they, far happier we, had
+    they never touched our soil, or breathed our air. As it is, to
+    attain solid happiness and permanent respectability, they should
+    now remove to a more congenial clime.'--[New Haven Religious
+    Intelligencer for July, 1831.]
+
+
+    'The recent murderous movements of the people of color in some
+    of the southern States, evinces the dreadful consequences of
+    slavery, and the absolute necessity of colonizing all free
+    blacks immediately, and of manumitting and colonizing slaves as
+    fast as circumstances will justify the measure. We believe, and
+    have for many years, that this is the only course, which will
+    ensure prosperity and safety to our southern
+    brethren.'--[New-Hampshire Observer.]
+
+
+    'The removal annually of one hundred thousand, it may be safely
+    calculated, would sink the parent stock forty thousand in each
+    year, and this in thirty years would reduce the blacks of the
+    Union to a very small number--perhaps not one would
+    remain.'--[National (Ohio) Historian.]
+
+
+    'We will demonstrate, that the conveyance of the present annual
+    increase would, in less than thirty years, remove the whole to
+    Africa. Let all, for instance, born in any single year, say of
+    the age of twenty, be removed to Africa; and in each succeeding
+    year, let all of that age be removed in the same manner.--Then,
+    admitting, what is far too much to admit, that a generation
+    lasts fifty years, on an average, the generation on the stage
+    when the process commenced, would have become extinct at the end
+    of thirty years, and all their increase or offspring would have
+    been removed to Africa. Thirty years would, even in this way,
+    clear them entirely from this country.--But there are two
+    circumstances which would, in fact, make the time much shorter.
+
+    '1. It is known that a generation lasts but a little more than
+    thirty years. The generation, then, on the stage at the
+    commencement of the process, would virtually be extinct in a
+    little more than ten years. 2. By the removal of the most
+    prolific part, the annual increase would itself be diminished
+    more than a thirtieth part, in each successive year; that is, it
+    would be diminished in an arithmetical ratio, so that it would
+    be reduced to nothing before the arrival of the thirtieth
+    year.'--[American Spectator.]
+
+
+    'It is "a consummation devoutly to be wished," that we should
+    get clear of the free people of color now, and as they are
+    successively liberated, as well on their own account as ours;
+    and I trust and hope, we shall both have the pleasure to see a
+    moral certainty of the removal of all these poor people back to
+    the same country from which their ancestors were
+    taken.'--[African Repository, vol. iii. p. 311.]
+
+
+    'Neither do we consider liberty worth their acceptance, _unless
+    they can be sent out of the country_. There is no doubt that a
+    large proportion of the slaves enjoy life quite as well as those
+    who are free.'--[Oxford (Me.) Observer.]
+
+
+    'It is estimated that there are 2,350,680 blacks in the United
+    States, 339,360 of whom are free denizens of this republic. The
+    object of this Society is THE REMOVAL OF THESE TO
+    AFRICA.'--[New-York Standard.]
+
+
+    'We hope to make it for the interest of the owners, in some way,
+    to part with their slaves;--not to be let loose among our white
+    population, but to be carried back to the land of their
+    fathers.'--[N. Y. Journal of Commerce.]
+
+
+    'If they are to be placed above their present degraded
+    condition, they must be removed to a country where they can rise
+    as high as any man--be eligible to any office--then you will see
+    them rise with the rapidity of the tide.'--[Southern Religious
+    Telegraph.]
+
+
+    'God has put a mark upon the black man.' ... 'The God of Nature
+    intended they should be a _distinct_, free and independent
+    community.'--[New-Haven Palladium.]
+
+
+    'We do not ask that the provisions of our Constitution and
+    statute book should be so modified as to relieve and exalt the
+    condition of the colored people, _whilst they remain with us_.
+    LET THESE PROVISIONS STAND IN ALL THEIR RIGOR, to work out the
+    ultimate and unbounded good of this people. Persuaded that their
+    condition here is not susceptible of a radical and permanent
+    improvement, WE WOULD DEPRECATE ANY LEGISLATION THAT SHOULD
+    ENCOURAGE THE VAIN AND INJURIOUS HOPE OF IT.'--[Memorial of the
+    New-York State Colonization Society.]
+
+
+    'Let the wise and good among us unite in removing the blacks
+    from the country. Would it not be expedient for the properly
+    constituted authorities to prevent the manumission of slaves in
+    every case, unless provision is made, at the same time, to
+    secure their removal from the country?'--[Alexandria Gazette.]
+
+
+    'We should be in favor of the abolition of slavery, if its
+    abolishment could be effected with safety, and the colored
+    population sent back to Africa; but merely to have them obtain
+    freedom and let loose upon society, would be the greatest curse
+    that could befal _them_ or _community_.'--[Essex Chronicle and
+    County Republican.]
+
+
+    'THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY WAS NO OBJECT OF DESIRE TO HIM, UNLESS
+    ACCOMPANIED BY COLONIZATION. So far was he from desiring it,
+    unaccompanied by this condition, that HE WOULD NOT LIVE IN A
+    COUNTRY WHERE THE ONE TOOK PLACE WITHOUT THE OTHER'!!!--[Mr
+    Mercer's Speech in Congress.]
+
+In order to wipe off the reproach due to this violent expulsion, it was
+necessary, on the part of the Society, to find some pretext that would
+not only seem to justify but confer credit on the measure. Accordingly,
+it agreed to represent the colored inhabitants of the United States as
+aliens and foreigners, who, cast upon our shores by a cruel fatality,
+were sighing to return to their native land. 'Poor unfortunate
+exiles!'--how touching the appeal, how powerful the motive to assist,
+how likely to excite the compassion of the nation! Ah! what an air of
+disinterested benevolence, of generous compassion, of national
+attachment, must such an enterprise wear in the eyes of the world! Who
+that loved his own country, and deprecated an eternal absence from it,
+could refuse to help in restoring the unfortunate Africans to their
+long-estranged home? Such was, and is, and is likely to be, the artifice
+resorted to, in order to cover a base conspiracy, and give popularity to
+one of the wildest and most disgraceful crusades the world has ever
+witnessed. Let the following evidence suffice:
+
+    'At no very distant period, we should see all the free colored
+    people in our land transferred to _their own country_.' * * 'Let
+    us send them back to _their native land_.' * * 'By returning
+    them to _their own ancient land_ of Africa, improved in
+    knowledge and in civilization, we repay the debt which has so
+    long been due them.'--[African Repository, vol. i. pp. 65, 146,
+    176.]
+
+
+    'And though we may not live to see the day when the sons of
+    Africa shall have returned to _their native soil_,' &c. * * 'To
+    found in Africa an empire of christians and republicans; to
+    reconduct the blacks to _their native land_,' &c.--[Idem, pp.
+    13, 375.]
+
+
+    'Who would not rejoice to see our country liberated from her
+    black population? Who would not participate in any efforts to
+    restore those children of misfortune to _their native shores_?'
+    * * 'The colored population of this country can never rise to
+    respectability here; in _their native soil_ they can.' * * 'The
+    only remedy afforded is, to colonize them in _their mother
+    country_.' * * 'They would go to that _home_ from which they
+    have been long absent.' * * 'Shall we ... retain and foster the
+    _alien enemies_?'--[Idem, 88, 179, 185, 237.]
+
+
+    'Be all these benefits enjoyed by the African race under the
+    shade of their native palms.'--[Idem, vol. vi. p. 372.]
+
+
+    'We have a numerous people, who, though they are among us, _are
+    not of us_.'--[Second Annual Report of the N. Y. State Col.
+    Soc.]
+
+
+    'Among us is a growing population of _strangers_.' * * 'It will
+    furnish the means of granting to _every African exile_ among us
+    a happy home in the land of his fathers.'--[Rev. Baxter
+    Dickinson's Sermon.]
+
+
+    'Africa is indeed inviting her long exiled children to return to
+    her bosom.'--[Circular of Rev. Mr Gurley.]
+
+Nothing could be more invidious or absurd than the foregoing
+representation. The great mass of our colored population were born in
+this country. This is their native soil; here they first saw the light
+of heaven, and inhaled the breath of life; here they have grown from
+infancy to manhood and old age; from these shores they have never
+wandered; they are the descendants of those who were forcibly torn from
+Africa two centuries ago; their fathers assisted in breaking the yoke of
+British oppression, and achieving that liberty which we prize above all
+price; and they cherish the strongest attachment to the land of their
+birth. Now, as they could not have been born in two countries, and as
+they were certainly born here, it follows that Africa is not their
+native home, and, consequently, that the Society has dealt in romance,
+or something more culpable, in representing them as strangers and
+aliens. It might as rationally charge them with being natives of Asia or
+Europe, or with having descended from the regions of the moon. To see
+ourselves gravely represented in a British periodical as natives of
+Great Britain, I doubt not would create great merriment; and a scheme
+for our transportation would add vastly to our sport.
+
+'But,' we are told, 'God has put a mark upon the black man.' True; and
+he has also put a mark upon every man, woman and child, in the world; so
+that every one differs in appearance from another--is easily
+identified--and, to make the objection valid, should occupy a _distinct_
+portion of territory, be himself a nation, enact his own laws, and live
+in perpetual solitude! The difference between a black and a white skin
+is not greater than that between a white and a black one. In either
+case, the mark is distinctive; and the blacks may as reasonably expel
+the whites, as the whites the blacks. To make such a separation we have
+no authority; to attempt it, would end only in disappointment; and, if
+it were carried into effect, those who are clamorous for the measure
+would be among the first to be cast out. The all-wise Creator, having
+'made of _one blood_ all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the
+earth,' it is proper for them to associate freely together; and he is a
+proud worm of the dust who is ashamed to acknowledge this common
+relationship.
+
+Again we are told: 'The God of Nature intended the blacks should be a
+_distinct_ community.' But has he been frustrated in his intentions?
+Where is the proof of such purpose? Let us have something more than the
+_ipse dixit_ of the Society. Yes, we are seriously assured that Nature
+has played falsely! Colored persons were born by mistake in this
+country: they should have been born in Africa! We must therefore rectify
+the error, with all despatch, by transporting them to their _native
+soil_! Truly, a most formidable enterprise! There occur at least sixty
+thousand of such _mistakes_, annually; while the Society has corrected
+only about two thousand in fourteen years! But--courage! men engaged in
+a laudable enterprise should never despair!
+
+There are some difficulties, however, in the accomplishment of this
+mighty task, which cannot be easily overcome. Granting the position
+assumed by colonizationists, that the _blacks_ and the _whites_ should
+occupy different countries, how do they intend to dispose of that
+numerous and rapidly increasing class who are neither white nor black,
+called mulattoes? We have not been informed to what country they belong;
+but the point ought to be settled before any classification be made.
+Colonizationists must define, moreover, the exact shade of color which
+is to retain or banish individuals; for every candid mind will admit,
+that it would be as unnatural to send _white_ blood to Africa, as to
+keep _black_ blood in America. 'If the color of the skin is to give
+construction to our constitution and laws, let us, at once, begin the
+work of excision. Let us raise an army of pure whites, if such an army
+can be found; and let us drive out and transport to foreign climes, men,
+women and children, who cannot bring the most satisfactory vouchers,
+that their veins are flowing with the purest English blood. Indeed, let
+us shut up our ports against our own mariners, who are returning from an
+India voyage, and whose cheeks and muscles could not wholly withstand
+the influence of the breezes and tropics to which they were exposed. Let
+us make every shade of complexion, every difference of stature, and
+every contraction of a muscle, a Shibboleth, to detect and cut off a
+brother Ephraimite, at the fords of Jordan. Though such a crusade would
+turn every man's sword against his fellow; yet, it might establish the
+right of precedence to different features, statures and colors, and
+oblige some friends of colonization to test the feasibility and equity
+of their own scheme.'
+
+If I must become a colonizationist, I insist upon being consistent:
+there must be no disagreement between my creed and practice. I must be
+able to give a reason why all our tall citizens should not conspire to
+remove their more diminutive brethren, and all the corpulent to remove
+the lean and lank, and all the strong to remove the weak, and all the
+educated to remove the ignorant, and all the rich to remove the poor, as
+readily as for the removal of those whose skin is 'not colored like my
+own;' for Nature has sinned as culpably in diversifying the size as the
+complexion of her progeny, and Fortune in the distribution of her gifts
+has been equally fickle. I cannot perceive that I am more excusable in
+desiring the banishment of my neighbor because his skin is darker than
+mine, than I should be in desiring his banishment because he is a
+smaller or feebler man than myself. Surely it would be sinful for a
+black man to repine and murmur, and impeach the wisdom and goodness of
+God, because he was made with a sable complexion; and dare I be guilty
+of such an impeachment, by persecuting him on account of his color? I
+dare not: I would as soon deny the existence of my Creator, as quarrel
+with the workmanship of his hands. I rejoice that he has made one star
+to differ from another star in glory; that he has not given to the sun
+the softness and gentleness of the moon, nor to the moon the intensity
+and magnificence of the sun; that he presents to the eye every
+conceivable shape, and aspect, and color, in the gorgeous and
+multifarious productions of Nature; and I do not rejoice less, but
+admire and exalt him more, that, notwithstanding he has made of one
+blood the whole family of man, he has made the whole family of man to
+differ in personal appearance, habits and pursuits.
+
+I protest against sending any to Africa, in whose blood there is any
+mixture of our own; for, I repeat it, white blood in Africa would be as
+repugnant to Nature, as black blood is in this country. Now; most
+unfortunately for colonizationists, the spirit of amalgamation has been
+so active for a long series of years,--especially in the slave
+States,--that there are comparatively few, besides those who are
+annually smuggled into the south from Africa, whose blood is not tainted
+with a foreign ingredient. Here, then, is a difficulty! What shall be
+done? All black blood _must_ be sent to Africa; but how to collect it is
+the question. What shall be done! Why, we must resort to _phlebotomy_!
+
+    'Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
+    ---------------- nor cut thou less nor more,
+    But just a pound of flesh: if thou tak'st more,
+    Or less, than just a pound,--be it but so much
+    As makes it light, or heavy, in the substance,
+    Or the division of the twentieth part
+    Of one poor scruple; nay, if the scale do turn
+    But in the estimation of a hair,
+    Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate!'
+
+The colonization crusade cannot now fail of being popular. Phlebotomy
+being agreed to as a _dernier resort_, I shall briefly enumerate some of
+the various professions and classes which may expect to derive no
+inconsiderable gain from its execution; for as our government, in
+conjunction with benevolent associations, is to appropriate millions of
+dollars to accomplish this object, the pay will be sure and liberal.
+
+In the first place, there will be more than a million patients, for
+whose accommodation hospitals must be erected. These hospitals will
+employ brick-makers, masons, carpenters, painters, glaziers, &c. &c.
+&c.; of course, the approval of a large body of mechanics is readily
+secured.
+
+Physicians will next obtain an extensive practice. Their patients, in
+consequence of a free application of the lancet, must necessarily be
+debilitated, and can be kept 'quite low' until a long score of charges
+be run up against the government.
+
+Among so many patients and so much unavoidable sickness, druggists and
+apothecaries will obtain a profitable sale for their medicines. Nurses
+will be next in demand, who may expect high wages. Even the lowly
+washers of soiled clothes will find the life-blood of the victims
+'coined into drachms' for their reward. It is highly probable that many
+of the patients may die under the expurgatory process, and hence sextons
+and coffin-makers may calculate upon good times. With death come
+mourning and lamentation, and 'weeds of wo.' Dealers in crape will
+doubtless secure a handsome patronage. Lawyers may hope to profit by the
+demise of those who possess property. Indeed, almost every class in
+community must, to a greater or less extent, feel the beneficial effects
+of this philanthropic but novel experiment. The blood, taken from the
+veins of the blacks, may be transfused into our own, and the general
+pulse acquire new vigor.
+
+Supposing a majority of the patients should recover, three other classes
+will thrive by their expulsion--namely, ship-builders, merchants and
+seamen. As our vessels are all occupied in profitable pursuits, new ones
+must be built--freights will rise--and the wages of seamen be
+proportionably enhanced.--But a truce to irony.
+
+The American Colonization Society, in making the banishment of the
+slaves the condition of their emancipation, inflicts upon them an
+aggravated wrong, perpetuates their thraldom, and disregards the claims
+of everlasting and immutable justice. The language of its most
+distinguished supporters is, 'Emancipation, with the liberty to remain
+on this side of the Atlantic, is but an act of dreamy
+madness'--'Emancipation, without removal from the country, is out of the
+question'--'All emancipation, to however small an extent, which permits
+the person emancipated to remain in this country, is an evil'--'They
+cannot be emancipated as a people, and remain among us.' Thus the
+restoration of an inalienable right, and an abandonment of robbery and
+oppression, are made to depend upon the practicability of transporting
+more than one sixth portion of our whole population to a far distant and
+barbarous land! It is impossible to imagine a more cruel, heaven-daring
+and God-dishonoring scheme. It exhibits a deliberate and perverse
+disregard of every moral obligation, and bids defiance to the
+requisitions of the gospel.
+
+Listen to the avowal of Mr Mercer of Virginia, one of the main pillars
+and most highly extolled supporters of the Society: 'The abolition of
+slavery was no object of desire to him, unless accompanied by
+colonization. So far was he from desiring it, unaccompanied by this
+condition, that _he would not live in a country where the one took place
+without the other_'! This language may be correctly rendered thus: 'I
+desire to see two millions of human beings plundered of their rights,
+and subjected to every species of wrong and outrage, _ad infinitum_, if
+they cannot be driven out of the country. I am perfectly willing to live
+with them while they are treated worse than cattle,--ignorant, vicious,
+and wretched,--and while they are held under laws which forbid their
+instruction; and not only am I willing thus to live, but I am determined
+to practise the same oppression. But, if they should be emancipated with
+liberty to remain here, and placed in a situation favorable to their
+moral and intellectual improvement--a situation in which they could be
+no longer bought and sold, lacerated and manacled, defrauded and
+oppressed--I would abandon my native land, and never return to her
+shores.' And this is the language of a _philanthropist_! and this the
+moral principle of the boasted champion of the American Colonization
+Society! Whose indignation does not kindle, whose astonishment is not
+profound, whose disgust is not excited, in view of these sentiments?
+
+But this is not the acme of colonization insanity. The assertion is made
+by a highly respectable partisan, and endorsed by the organ of the
+Society, that '_it would be as humane to throw the slaves from the decks
+in the middle passage_, [i. e. into the ocean,] _as to set them free in
+our country_'!!! And even Henry Clay, who is an oracle in the cause, has
+had the boldness to declare, that the slaves should be held in
+everlasting servitude if they cannot be colonized in Africa!! And this
+sentiment is echoed by another, who says, 'Liberate them only on
+condition of their going to Africa or Hayti'!
+
+I will not even seem to undervalue the good sense and quick perception
+of the candid and intelligent reader, by any farther endeavors to
+illustrate the sacrifice of principle and inhumanity of purpose which
+are contained in the extracts under the present section. With so strong
+an array of evidence before him, no one, who is not mentally blind or
+governed by prejudice, can fail to rise from its perusal with amazement
+and abhorrence, and a determination to assist in overthrowing a
+combination which is based upon the rotten foundation of expediency and
+violence.
+
+The Colonization Society expressly denies the right of the slaves to
+enjoy freedom and happiness in this country; and this denial
+incontestibly tends to rivet their fetters more firmly, or make them the
+victims of a relentless persecution.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[R] What right have we to an homestead in the red man's country? Let us
+return to the land of our fathers, and leave this soil untarnished by
+the footprint of him who hath a white skin! What right have the hosts of
+foreign emigrants, who are flocking to our shores, to an homestead among
+ourselves?
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VIII.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE DISPARAGER OF THE FREE BLACKS.
+
+
+The leaders in the African colonization crusade seem to dwell with a
+malignant satisfaction upon the poverty and degradation of the free
+people of color, and are careful never to let an opportunity pass
+without heaping their abuse and contempt upon them. It is a common
+device of theirs to contrast the condition of the slaves with that of
+this class, and invariably to strike the balance heavily in favor of the
+former! In this manner, thousands are led to look upon slavery as a
+benevolent system, and to deprecate the manumission of its victims.
+Nothing but a love of falsehood, or an utter disregard of facts, could
+embolden these calumniators to deal so extensively in fiction. What! the
+slaves more happy, more moral, more industrious, more orderly, more
+comfortable, more exalted, than the free blacks! A more enormous
+exaggeration, a more heinous libel, a wider departure from truth, was
+never fabricated, or uttered, or known. The slaves, as a body, are in
+the lowest state of degradation; they possess no property; they cannot
+read; they are as ignorant, as their masters are reckless, of moral
+obligation; they have no motive for exertion; they are thieves from
+necessity and usage; their bodies are cruelly lacerated by the
+cart-whip; and they are disposable property. And yet these poor
+miserable, perishing, mutilated creatures are placed above our free
+colored population in dignity, in enjoyment, in privilege, in
+usefulness, in respectability!!
+
+    'There is a class, however, more numerous than all these,
+    introduced amongst us by violence, notoriously ignorant,
+    degraded and miserable, mentally diseased, broken-spirited,
+    _acted upon by no motives to honorable exertions_, SCARCELY
+    REACHED IN THEIR DEBASEMENT BY THE HEAVENLY LIGHT; yet where is
+    the sympathy and effort which a view of their condition ought to
+    excite? They wander unsettled and unbefriended through our land,
+    or sit indolent, abject and sorrowful, by the "streams which
+    witness their captivity." Their freedom is _licentiousness_, and
+    to many RESTRAINT WOULD PROVE A BLESSING. To this remark there
+    are exceptions; exceptions proving that to change their state
+    would be to elevate their character; that virtue and enterprise
+    are absent, only, because absent are the causes which create the
+    one, and the motives which produce the other.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. i. p. 68.]
+
+
+    'Free blacks are a greater nuisance than even slaves
+    themselves.' * * * 'They knew that where slavery had been
+    abolished it had operated to the advantage of the masters, not
+    of the slaves: they saw this fact most strikingly illustrated in
+    the case of the free negroes of Boston. If, on the anniversary
+    celebrated by the free people of color, of the day on which
+    slavery was abolished, they looked abroad, what did they see?
+    Not freemen, in the enjoyment of every attribute of freedom,
+    with the stamp of liberty upon their brows! No, Sir; they saw a
+    ragged set, crying out liberty! for whom liberty had nothing to
+    bestow, and whose enjoyment of it was but in name. He spoke of
+    the great body of the blacks; there were some few honorable
+    exceptions, he knew, which only proved what might be done for
+    all.'--[African Repository, vol. ii. p. 328.]
+
+
+    'Although there are individual exceptions distinguished by high
+    moral and intellectual worth, yet the free blacks in our country
+    are, as a body, more vicious and degraded than any other which
+    our population embraces.' * * * 'If, then, they are a useless
+    and dangerous species of population, we would ask, is it
+    generous in our southern friends to burthen us with them?
+    Knowing themselves the evils of slavery, can they wish to impose
+    upon us an evil scarcely less tolerable? We think it a mistaken
+    philanthropy, which would liberate the slave, unfitted by
+    education and habit for freedom, and cast him upon a merciless
+    and despising world, where his only fortune must be poverty, his
+    only distinction degradation, and his only comfort
+    insensibility.' * * * 'I will look no farther when I seek for
+    the _most degraded, the most abandoned race on the earth_, but
+    rest my eyes on this people. What but sorrow can we feel at the
+    _misguided piety_ which has set free so many of them by
+    death-bed devise or sudden conviction of injustice? Better, far
+    better, for us, had they been kept in bondage, where the
+    opportunity, the inducements, the necessity of vice would not
+    have been so great. Deplorable necessity, indeed, to one borne
+    down with the consciousness of the violence we have done. Yet I
+    am clear that, whether we consider it with reference to the
+    welfare of the State, or the happiness of the blacks, it were
+    better to have left them in chains, than to have liberated them
+    to receive such freedom as they enjoy, and greater freedom _we
+    cannot, must not_ allow them.' * * 'There is not a State in the
+    Union not at this moment groaning under the evil of this class
+    of persons, a curse and a contagion whereever they reside.' * *
+    'The increase of a free black population among us has been
+    regarded as a greater evil than the increase of
+    slaves.'--[African Repository, vol. iii. pp. 24, 25, 197, 203,
+    374.]
+
+
+    'Mr. Mercer adverted to the situation of his native State, and
+    the condition of the free black population existing there, whom
+    he described as a horde of miserable people--the objects of
+    universal suspicion; _subsisting by plunder_.'--[Idem, vol. iv.
+    p. 363.]
+
+
+    'They leave a country in which though born and reared, they are
+    strangers and aliens; where _severe necessity_ places them in a
+    class of degraded beings; where they are free without the
+    blessings and privileges of liberty; where in ceasing to be
+    slaves of one, they have become subservient to many; where,
+    neither freemen nor slaves, but placed in an anomalous grade
+    which they do not understand and others disregard; where no kind
+    instructer, no hope of preferment, no honorable emulation
+    prompts them to virtue or deters from vice; their industry
+    waste, not accumulation; their regular vocation, any thing or
+    nothing as it may happen; their greater security, sufferance;
+    their highest reward, forgiveness; vicious themselves and the
+    cause of vice in others; discontented and exciting discontent;
+    scorned by one class and _foolishly envied by another_; thus,
+    and WORSE CIRCUMSTANCED, they, cannot but choose to
+    move.'--[Idem, vol. v. p. 238.]
+
+
+    'Of all the descriptions of our population, _and of either
+    portion of the African race_, the free people of color are, by
+    far, as a class, the MOST CORRUPT, DEPRAVED, AND ABANDONED. The
+    laws, it is true, proclaim them free; but prejudices, more
+    powerful than any laws, deny them the privileges of freemen.
+    They occupy a middle station between the free white population
+    and the slaves of the United States, and the tendency of their
+    habits is to corrupt both.' * * * 'That the free colored
+    population of our country is a great and constantly increasing
+    evil must be readily acknowledged. Averse to labor, with no
+    incentives to industry or motives to self-respect, they maintain
+    a precarious existence by petty thefts and plunder, themselves,
+    or by inciting our domestics, not free, to rob their owners to
+    supply their wants.' * * * 'If there is in the whole world, a
+    more wretched class of human beings than the free people of
+    color in this country, I do not know where they are to be found.
+    They have no home, no country, no kindred, no friends. They are
+    lazy and indolent, because they have no motives to prompt them
+    to be industrious. They are in general destitute of principle,
+    because they have nothing to stimulate them to honorable and
+    praise-worthy conduct. Let them be maltreated ever so much, the
+    law gives them no redress unless some white person happens to be
+    present, to be a witness in the case. If they acquire property,
+    they hold it by the courtesy of every vagabond in the country;
+    and sooner or later, are sure to have it filched from
+    them.'--[Idem, vol. vi. pp. 12, 135, 228.]
+
+
+    'The existence, within the very bosom of our country, of an
+    anomalous race of beings, THE MOST DEBASED UPON EARTH, who
+    neither enjoy the blessings of freedom, nor are yet in the bonds
+    of slavery, is a great national evil, which every friend of his
+    country most deeply deplores.... Tax your utmost powers of
+    imagination, and you cannot conceive one motive to honorable
+    effort, which can animate the bosom, or give impulse to the
+    conduct of a free black in this country. Let him toil from youth
+    to age in the honorable pursuit of wisdom--let him store his
+    mind with the most valuable researches of science and
+    literature--and let him add to a highly gifted and cultivated
+    intellect, a piety pure, undefiled, and "unspotted from the
+    world"--it is all nothing: he would not be received into the
+    very lowest walks of society. If we were constrained to admire
+    so uncommon a being, our very admiration would mingle with
+    disgust, because, in the physical organization of his frame, we
+    meet an insurmountable barrier, even to an approach to social
+    intercourse, and in the Egyptian color, which nature has stamped
+    upon his features, a principle of repulsion so strong as to
+    forbid the idea of a communion either of interest or of feeling,
+    as utterly abhorrent. Whether these feelings are founded in
+    reason or not, we will not now inquire--perhaps they are not.
+    But education and habit, and prejudice have so firmly riveted
+    them upon us, that they have become as strong as nature
+    itself--and to expect their removal, or even their slightest
+    modification, would be as idle and preposterous as to expect
+    that we could reach forth our hands, and remove the mountains
+    from their foundations into the vallies, which are beneath
+    them.'--[African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 230, 331.]
+
+
+    'We have been charged with wishing only to remove our free
+    blacks, that we may the more effectually rivet the chains of the
+    slave. But the class we first seek to remove, are neither
+    freemen nor slaves; _but between both_, AND MORE MISERABLE THAN
+    EITHER.' * * * 'Who is there, that does not know something of
+    the condition of the blacks in the northern and middle States?
+    They may be seen in our cities and larger towns, wandering like
+    foreigners and outcasts, in the land which gave them birth. They
+    may be seen in our penitentiaries, and jails, and poor-houses.
+    They may be found inhabiting the abodes of poverty, and the
+    haunts of vice. But if we look for them in the society of the
+    honest and respectable--if we visit the schools in which it is
+    our boast that the meanest citizen can enjoy the benefits of
+    instruction--we might also add, if we visit the sanctuaries
+    which are open for all to worship,[S] and to hear the word of
+    God; we shall not find them there.' * * 'Leaving slavery and its
+    subjects for the moment entirely out of view, there are in the
+    United States 238,000 blacks denominated free, but whose freedom
+    confers on them, we might say, no privilege but the _privilege
+    of being more vicious and miserable than slaves can
+    be_.'--[Seventh Annual Report, pp. 12, 87, 99.]
+
+
+    'Placed midway between freedom and slavery, they know neither
+    the incentives of the one, nor the restraints of the other; but
+    are alike injurious by their conduct and example, to all other
+    classes of society.'--[Eight Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Of all classes of our population, the most vicious is that of
+    the free colored. It is the inevitable result of their moral,
+    political, and civil degradation. Contaminated themselves, they
+    extend their vices to all around them, to the slaves and to the
+    whites.'--[Tenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The question arises, where shall these outcasts go? Ohio, and
+    the free States of the West, which formerly invited them into
+    their bosom, no longer offer them a welcome home. Disgusted with
+    their laziness and vice, the inevitable concomitants of the
+    anomalous relation in which they stand to society, the
+    authorities of those States are seeking to get rid of what they
+    find, too late, to be a curse to any settlement of whites--a
+    thriftless race of vagabonds, whose footsteps are the sure
+    precursors of indigence and crime. One of the most intelligent
+    gentlemen of Ohio, (Mr Charles Hammond,) in a recent notice of
+    this subject, says, "This dangerous class of population has
+    increased considerably within a few years past, and the slaves
+    States cannot too soon adopt efficient measures to get rid of
+    it. Emigrations to Liberia ought to be provided for, and
+    insisted upon, and the legislatures should pass laws to prevent
+    emancipation, without adequate provision for the transportation
+    of the manumitted."'--[Lynchburg Virginian.]
+
+
+    'As it is now, they are for the most part in a debased and
+    wretched condition. They have the vices of our community without
+    its virtues. And what is worse, I speak of the majority, they
+    have no desire to rise from their state of abject depression--no
+    wish to gain a respectable elevation of character. Consequently
+    it is difficult, if not impossible, to present them motives
+    Which shall incite them to enter on a course of industry and
+    virtue.' * * * 'Bound by no political ties to the community in
+    which they dwell, and excluded for the most part from exercising
+    the rights and privileges of freemen, on the ground of their
+    alleged inferiority and worthlessness, they have no inducements
+    to abandon lives of indolence, sensuality and recklessness, or
+    to support the laws and institutions of the government placed
+    over them. Nothing but the fear of suffering the penalty of
+    violated law, can prevent them from preying on those among whom
+    they live.'--[Middletown (Ct.) Gazette.]
+
+
+    'They have taken the free black that, as a class, dwells among
+    us a living nuisance, nominally free, but bowed to the ground by
+    public opinion--IN ONE PART OF THE COUNTRY DULL AS A BRUTISH
+    BEAST, IN ANOTHER THE WILD STIRRER UP OF SEDITION AND
+    INSURRECTION--they have shewn him to be capable of quiet and
+    judicious self-government.-- ... We cannot shut our eyes any
+    longer upon the disadvantages of our black population, whether
+    in slavery or freedom. It is a sword perpetually suspended over
+    our heads by a single hair; it is the fountain of bitter waters
+    that poisons all our enjoyments.'--[Speeches of J. R. Townsend,
+    Esq. and W. W. Campbell, Esq. New-York city.]
+
+
+    'The fact was most glaring, without an inquiry, that the same
+    shackles which bound them, fastened them also to the resources
+    of the soil, and the interests of the community; and when these
+    were broken, and the incentives of authority removed, the weight
+    of ignorance, the want of better incentives, and the fatal and
+    untried power of grateful but ruinous idleness, sunk them to a
+    state, which, however elevated in theory, was in fact more
+    degraded and more miserable than that of bondage. In addition to
+    all this, pauperism, with the numerous evils of corrupt and
+    corrupting indolence, threatened to impose its sluggish weight
+    upon a groaning community. Hence, the progress of emancipation
+    was, for the time, most righteously arrested.'--[Address of the
+    Board of Managers of the African Education Society.]
+
+
+    'Who are the free people of color in the United States? In what
+    circumstances does philanthropy find them! There are indeed
+    individuals and families, who are sober, industrious, pious. But
+    what are the remainder, the mass? Every one knows that their
+    condition is deep and wretched degradation; but, only a few have
+    ever formed any accurate conception of the reality. The fact is,
+    that as a class they are branded. They have no home, no country,
+    no such personal interest in the welfare of the community, as
+    gives a certain degree of manliness to almost every white
+    man.... Three hundred thousand freemen in this country, are
+    freemen only in name, forming only little else than a mass of
+    pauperism and crime.... Here the black man is paralysed and
+    crushed by the constant sense of inferiority. He has no
+    effectual incentives to manly enterprise. He stands in a
+    degraded class of society; and out of that class he never dreams
+    of rising.'--[Christian Spectator.]
+
+
+    'This is the true condition of the free colored population of
+    our land. They are placed mid way between freedom and slavery;
+    they feel neither the moral stimulants of the one, nor the
+    restraints of the other, and are alike injurious to every other
+    class of the community.'--[Southern Religious Telegraph.]
+
+I repel these charges against the free people of color, as unmerited,
+wanton and untrue. It would be absurd to pretend, that, as a class,
+they maintain a high character: it would be equally foolish to deny,
+that intemperance, indolence and crime prevail among them to a mournful
+extent. But I do not hesitate to assert, from an intimate acquaintance
+with their condition, that they are more temperate and more industrious
+than that class of whites who are in as indigent circumstances, but who
+have certainly far greater incentives to labor and excel; that they are
+superior in their habits to the hosts of foreign emigrants who are
+crowding to our shores, and poisoning our moral atmosphere; and that
+their advancement in intelligence, in wealth, and in morality,
+considering the numberless and almost insurmountable difficulties under
+which they have labored, has been remarkable. I am informed that
+twenty-five or thirty years ago, the colored inhabitants of Philadelphia
+scarcely owned a dollar's worth of real estate, whereas they now own
+enough to amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. This fact speaks
+volumes in praise of their industry and economy; for, be it remembered,
+they have had to accumulate this property in small sums, by shaving the
+beards, cleaning the boots and clothes, and being the servants of their
+white contemners, and in other menial employments. In Baltimore,
+Philadelphia, New-York, and other places, there are several colored
+persons whose individual property is worth from ten thousand to one
+hundred thousand dollars;[T] and in all those cities, there are primary
+and high schools for the education of the colored
+population--flourishing churches of various denominations--and numerous
+societies for mutual assistance and improvement, &c. In Philadelphia
+alone, I believe, there are nearly fifty colored associations for
+benevolent, literary, scientific and moral purposes.[U] Yet these are
+the people of whom it is said, 'they are acted upon by no motives to
+honorable exertions;' that they are 'scarcely reached in their
+debasement by the heavenly light' (almost a denial of the power of the
+Holy Ghost); that 'their freedom is licentiousness;' that 'they are a
+greater nuisance than even the slaves themselves;' that they are 'the
+most degraded, the most abandoned race on the earth;' that they are
+'worse circumstanced than the slave population;' that they have 'no
+privilege but the privilege of being more vicious and miserable than
+slaves can be;' and that they are 'a thriftless race of vagabonds, whose
+footsteps are the sure precursors of indigence and crime.' And these
+false and infamous charges are brought against them by a Society which
+professes to cherish for them the highest regard, and to be anxious to
+give them respectability in the eyes of the world!
+
+The truth is, the traducers of the free blacks have no adequate
+conception of the amount of good sense, sterling piety, moral honesty,
+virtuous pride of character, and domestic enjoyment, which exists among
+this class. The spirited remarks of the colored citizens of New-York, in
+their address to the public, (_vide_ PART II. p. 16,) in reference to
+their calumniators, are exceedingly apposite: 'Their patrician
+principles prevent an intercourse with men in the middle walks of life,
+among whom a large portion of our people may be classed. We ask them to
+visit the dwellings of the respectable part of our people, and we are
+satisfied that they will discover more civilization and refinement, than
+will be found among the same number of white families of an equal
+standing.' A personal examination enables me to say that this challenge
+is neither presumptuous nor boastful. I confess, I have been most
+agreeably, nay, wonderfully disappointed, in my intercourse with them,
+which is daily elevating them in my estimation. Many of their number I
+proudly rank among my most familiar friends and correspondents.
+
+With regard to the 'ragged set in Boston, crying out liberty!' every
+candid resident will testify that this is a libellous representation;
+that our free blacks are a quiet, orderly, well-dressed, and (as far as
+they can obtain employment) industrious class of citizens; and that
+their improvement is rapid and constant. Every curious observer who
+visits their houses of worship, will be surprised at the general
+neatness of attire and propriety of manners of the worshippers. 'A
+ragged set,' forsooth! The slander may be uttered in the city of
+Washington, at an anniversary of the American Colonization Society; but
+no man, who regards his character for veracity and intelligence, _dare_
+publish it in Boston.
+
+The effects of this reiterated abuse are eminently mischievous. It
+serves to kindle the fires of persecution, to strengthen prejudice, to
+drive its victims to despair, and to increase the desire for their
+banishment. 'Tax your utmost powers of imagination,' says one of the
+colonization advocates, 'and you cannot conceive _one motive_ to
+honorable effort, which can animate the bosom, or give impulse to the
+conduct of the free black in this country'! Is this language calculated
+to allay animosity, or beget confidence, or suppress contempt, or heal
+division, or excite sympathy? Far otherwise. Are there not thousands of
+living witnesses to prove the falsity of this assertion; thousands who
+adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour, and whose 'motives to honorable
+effort' are higher than heaven and vast as eternity; thousands, who,
+though their enemies spare no efforts to crush them in the dust, and in
+despite of mountains of difficulties, rise up with a giant's strength to
+respectability and usefulness? 'No motive to honorable effort'! Perish
+the calumny!
+
+Again, they are stigmatized as the 'wild stirrers up of sedition and
+insurrection.' This charge is even more malignant than the other, and
+utterly groundless. Its propagation, however, tends directly to excite a
+persecution which may drive the accused to sedition, in self-defence.
+There is no evidence that any free man of color was enlisted in the late
+bloody struggle in Virginia, or in any manner accessary thereto. On the
+contrary, it was deprecated by our colored citizens generally, not only
+on account of its sanguinary acts, but because they knew it would
+operate to their own disadvantage by being placed to their account. The
+following honorable expression of feeling was made at a public meeting
+of the people of color in Wilmington, Delaware, about that period:
+
+    'The subscribers, having a knowledge of the alarm which prevails
+    in the minds of some of the citizens of this place, on account
+    of various reports which some mischievous person or persons have
+    circulated, in regard to the colored population, beg leave to
+    represent, on behalf of themselves and brethren, that having
+    made inquiry into the subject, they have found said reports to
+    be without the least foundation; and they owe it to themselves
+    further to declare, that, so far from any disposition on the
+    part of the colored people to disturb the peace and good order
+    of the community, they are, on the contrary, fully aware that it
+    consists not less with their interests than their duty to
+    refrain from every art that would excite commotion or disorder,
+    in which the colored people would have every thing to lose and
+    nothing to gain. We have been treated by the citizens of
+    Wilmington and its vicinity with kindness, for which we ought to
+    be grateful, and it is our solemn purpose to pursue such a
+    course of conduct as may merit a continuance of their favor and
+    confidence. Should any among us be found so wicked and blinded
+    as to enter into plots and contrivances, inimical to the present
+    harmony, we thus solemnly pledge ourselves to our white friends
+    and neighbors, that we will be among the first to sound the
+    alarm, and unite in effecting their apprehension and
+    suppression.'
+
+The free colored citizens of Baltimore, Maryland, also came out unitedly
+in the following pacific and truly exemplary spirit:
+
+    'Whereas, there has prevailed in this city, during the past
+    week, a very unpleasant excitement, originating from suspicions
+    and reports totally without foundation, and highly derogatory to
+    our good sense; and whereas this excitement, though
+    unnecessarily created, may, in its ultimate tendency, prove
+    prejudicial to the interests of the free colored population of
+    this State. Therefore,
+
+    'Resolved, That we challenge the most rigid investigation as to
+    the truth of those evil reports, which have recently been so
+    industriously propagated in this city by the credulous, and
+    those who are totally unacquainted with the character of colored
+    Baltimoreans.
+
+    'Resolved, That we are not so reckless of our true interest, so
+    blind to utter helplessness--not to say so devoid of humanity,
+    as to entertain the hostile designs, or to cherish the fiendish
+    passions, which it seems have been, by the unthinking, so
+    unjustly attributed to us.
+
+    'Resolved, That we have been too long in the land of bibles, and
+    temples, and ministers, to look upon blood and carnage with
+    complacency--that we have been too long in this enlightened
+    metropolis, to think of the amelioration of our condition, in
+    any other way than that sanctioned by the Gospel of Peace.
+
+    'Resolved, That we rely upon a peaceable and upright conduct, for
+    a continuance of that favor and protection which we have
+    hitherto enjoyed, and which, the liberal, the wise, and the
+    good, are ever ready to accord.'
+
+How impolitic, then, as well as unjust, to brand this meek and
+magnanimous class as 'the wild stirrers up of sedition and
+insurrection'!
+
+This treatment, I repeat, is impolitic--nay, suicidal. To abuse,
+proscribe and exasperate them, to trample them under our feet, to goad
+them on the right hand and on the left, is not the way to secure their
+loyalty, but rather to make them revengeful, desperate and seditious.
+Our true policy is, to meliorate their condition, invigorate their
+hopes, instruct their ignorant minds, admit them to an equality of
+privileges with ourselves, nourish and patronise their genius, and, by
+giving them mechanical trades and mercantile advantages, open to them
+the avenue to competence and wealth. We shall thus make them contented
+and happy, and place them in a situation which will lead them still more
+heartily to deprecate any insurrectionary movements among our slave
+population. The following is the conciliatory and generous language of
+a man, who has been denounced as a blood-hound and a monster. It will be
+well for us if we profit by it.
+
+    'Americans! notwithstanding you have and do continue to treat us
+    more cruel than any heathen nation ever did a people it had
+    subjected to the same condition that you have us, let us reason.
+    Had you not better take our body, while you have it in your
+    power, and while we are yet ignorant and wretched, not knowing
+    but little, give us education, and teach us the pure religion of
+    our Lord and Master, which is calculated to make the lion lie
+    down in peace with the lamb, and which millions of you have
+    beaten us nearly to death for trying to obtain since we have
+    been among you, and thus at once gain our affection while we are
+    ignorant? Throw away your fears and prejudices then, and
+    enlighten us and treat us like men, and we will like you more
+    than we do now hate you. And tell us now no more about
+    colonization; for America is as much our country as it is yours.
+    Treat us like men, and there is no danger but we will all live
+    in peace and happiness together; for we are not, like you,
+    hard-hearted, unmerciful, and unforgiving. What a happy country
+    this will be, if the whites will listen! What nation under
+    heaven, will be able to do any thing with us, unless God gives
+    us up into its hand? But, Americans, I declare to you, while you
+    keep us and our children in bondage, and treat us like brutes,
+    to make us support you and your families, we cannot be your
+    friends. You do not look for it, do you? Treat us then like men,
+    and we will be your friends. And there is not a doubt in my
+    mind, but that the whole of the past will be sunk into oblivion,
+    and we yet, under God, will become a united and happy
+    people.'[V]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[S] A cruel taunt. The wonder is not that colored persons do not more
+generally visit our sanctuaries, but that they _ever_ should attend. If
+they go, they are thrust into obscure, remote and unseemly pens or
+boxes, as if they were not embraced in the offers of redeeming love, and
+were indeed a part of the brute creation. It is an awful commentary upon
+the pride of human nature. I never can look up to these scandalous
+retreats for my colored brethren, without having my soul overwhelmed
+with emotions of shame, indignation and sorrow. No black man, however
+virtuous, respectable or pious he may be, can own or occupy a pew in a
+central part of any of our houses of worship. And yet it is
+reproachfully alleged--by a clergyman, too!--that 'if we visit the
+sanctuaries which are _open to all_ (!) to worship, and to hear the word
+of God, we shall not find them there'! No--I hope they will respect
+themselves and the religion of Jesus more, than to occupy the places
+alluded to.
+
+[T] Francis Devany, the colored sheriff of Liberia, is reputed by
+colonizationists to be worth property to the value of twenty-five
+thousand dollars; and they have trumpeted the fact all over the country,
+and so repeatedly as almost to lead one to imagine that he is the
+greatest and wealthiest man in all the world! James Forten, the
+reputable colored sail-maker of Philadelphia,--a gentleman of highly
+polished manners and superior intelligence,--with whom Devany worked as
+a journeyman, can _buy him out_ three or four times over. Joseph Cassey,
+another estimable and intelligent man of color, or the widow of Bishop
+Allen, both of Philadelphia, can purchase him. I mention their names,
+not to extol them, but simply to show, that what begets fame in Liberia
+is unproductive here.
+
+[U] The following statement, recently published in the Philadelphia
+'Friend and Advocate of Truth,' is very creditable to the colored
+inhabitants of that city:
+
+    'Many erroneous opinions have prevailed, with regard to the true
+    character and condition of the free colored people of
+    Pennsylvania. They have been represented as an idle and
+    worthless class, furnishing inmates for our poor-houses and
+    penitentiaries. A few plain facts are sufficient to refute these
+    gratuitous allegations. In the city and suburbs of Philadelphia,
+    by the census of 1830, they constituted about eleven per cent.,
+    or one ninth of the whole population. From the account of the
+    guardians of the poor, printed by order of the board, it appears
+    that of the out-door poor receiving regular weekly supplies, in
+    the first month, 1830, the time of the greatest need, the people
+    of color were about one to twenty-three whites; or not quite
+    four per cent., a disproportion of whites to colored, of more
+    than two to one in favor of the latter. When it is considered
+    that they perform the lowest offices in the community--that the
+    avenues to what are esteemed the most honorable and profitable
+    professions in society, are in a great measure, if not wholly
+    closed against them, these facts are the more creditable to
+    them. One cause of this disproportion, which we presume is but
+    little known, but which is worthy of special notice, will be
+    found in the numerous societies among themselves for mutual aid.
+    These societies expended, in one year, about six thousand
+    dollars for the relief of the sick and the indigent of their own
+    color, from funds raised among themselves. Besides, the taxes
+    paid by the colored people of Philadelphia, exceed in amount the
+    sums expended out of the funds of the city for the relief of
+    their poor.'
+
+It is also a fact that the proportion of whites in the alms-house in
+New-York is greater than that of the blacks. I am aware that other
+evidence, of a different kind, may be adduced in other places; but it is
+in the highest degree unfair to measure the whole body of blacks by the
+whole body of whites--for the privileges and advantages of the whites
+are as ten thousand to one: they monopolise almost every branch of
+business and every pursuit of life--they have all the means necessary to
+make men virtuous, intelligent, active, and opulent. Far different is
+the situation of the free blacks. How slender are their means! how mean
+and limited their occupations! how inferior their advantages! Almost
+every avenue to wealth, preferment and usefulness, is closed against
+them. How are they persecuted! how avoided in the streets! how excluded
+from the benefits of society! To point at them the finger of scorn, to
+taunt them for their inferiority or helplessness, is like putting out
+the eyes and clipping the wings of the eagle, and then reproaching him
+because he can neither see nor fly. To boast of our superior refinement,
+intelligence and virtue, is the extreme of vainglory, and adding insult
+to injury. Shame! shame!
+
+
+
+
+SECTION IX.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY DENIES THE POSSIBILITY OF ELEVATING
+THE BLACKS IN THIS COUNTRY.
+
+
+The detestation of feeling, the fire of moral indignation, and the agony
+of soul which I have felt kindling and swelling within me, in the
+progress of this review, under this section reach the acme of intensity.
+It is impossible for the mind to conceive, or the tongue to utter, or
+the pen to record, sentiments more derogatory to the character of a
+republican and Christian people than the following:
+
+    'Introduced as this class has been, in a way which cannot be
+    justified, injurious in its influence to the community, degraded
+    in character and miserable in condition, _forever excluded_, by
+    public sentiment, by law and by a physical distinction, from the
+    most powerful motives to exertion,' &c. * * 'In addition to all
+    the causes which tend to pollute, to degrade and render them
+    miserable, there are principles of _repulsion_ between them and
+    us, which can _never_ be overcome.' * * 'Their bodies are free,
+    their minds enslaved. They can neither bless their brethren in
+    servitude, nor rise from their own obscurity, nor add to the
+    purity of our morals, nor to our wealth, nor to our political
+    strength.' * * 'Let us recollect that our fathers have placed
+    them here; and that our prejudices, prejudices _too deep to be
+    eradicated_ while they remain among us, have produced the
+    standard of their morals.' * * 'Nor will it be questioned that
+    their establishment on the African coast ... will confer on them
+    invaluable blessings which _in this country_ they can _never_
+    enjoy.' * * 'They _must be_ hewers of wood and drawers of water.
+    Do what they will, there is but this one prospect before
+    them.'--[African Repository, vol. 1, pp. 34, 144, 162, 176, 226,
+    317.]
+
+
+    'Shut out from the privileges of citizens, separated from us by
+    the _insurmountable_ barrier of color, they can _never_
+    amalgamate with us, but must remain _for ever_ a distinct and
+    inferior race, repugnant to our republican feelings, and
+    dangerous to our republican institutions.' * * * 'It is not that
+    there are some, but that there are so many among us of a
+    different physical, if not moral, constitution, who _never_ can
+    amalgamate with the great body of our population.'--[African
+    Repository, vol. ii. pp. 188, 189, 338.]
+
+
+    'In consequence of his own inveterate habits, and the no less
+    inveterate prejudices of the whites, it is a sadly demonstrated
+    truth, that the negro _cannot, in this country_, become an
+    enlightened and useful citizen. Driven to the lowest stratum of
+    society, and enthralled there for melancholy ages, his mind
+    becomes proportionably grovelling, and to gratify his animal
+    desires is his most exalted aspiration.' * * 'The negro, _while
+    in this country_, will be treated as an inferior being.' * *
+    'Our slavery is such, as that no device of our philanthropy for
+    elevating the wretched subjects of its debasement to the
+    ordinary privileges of men, can descry one cheering glimpse of
+    hope that our object can _ever_ be accomplished. The very
+    commencing act of freedom to the slave, is to place him in a
+    condition still worse, if possible, both for his moral habits,
+    his outward provision, and for the community that embosoms him,
+    than even that, deplorable as it was, from which he has been
+    removed. He is now a freeman; but his complexion, his features,
+    every peculiarity of his person, pronounce to him another
+    doom,--that every wish he may conceive, every effort he can
+    make, shall be _little better than vain_. Even to every talent
+    and virtuous impulse which he may feel working in his bosom,
+    obstacles stand in impracticable array; not from a defect of
+    essential title to success, but from _a positive external law,
+    unreasoning and irreversible_.' * * 'The elevation of a degraded
+    class of beings to the privileges of freemen, which, though
+    free, they can _never_ enjoy, and to the prospects of a happy
+    immortality.' * * 'They again most solemnly repeat to the free
+    colored people of Virginia their belief, that _in Africa alone_
+    can they enjoy that complete emancipation from a degrading
+    inequality, which in a greater or less degree pervades the
+    United States, if not in the laws, in the whole frame and
+    structure of society, and which in its effects on their moral
+    and social state is scarcely less degrading than slavery
+    itself.'--[African Repository, vol. iii. pp. 25, 26, 66, 68,
+    345.]
+
+
+    'But there is one large class among the inhabitants of this
+    country--degraded and miserable--whom none of the efforts in
+    which you are accustomed to engage, can materially benefit.
+    Among the twelve millions who make up our census, two millions
+    are Africans--separated from the possessors of the soil by
+    birth, _by the brand of indelible ignominy_, by prejudices,
+    mutual, deep, _incurable_, by an _irreconcileable diversity of
+    interests_. They are aliens and outcasts;--they are, as a body,
+    degraded beneath the influence of nearly all the motives which
+    prompt other men to enterprise, and almost below the sphere of
+    virtuous affections. Whatever may be attempted for the general
+    improvement of society, their wants are untouched.--Whatever may
+    be effected for elevating the mass of the nation in the scale of
+    happiness or of intellectual and moral character, their
+    degradation is the same--dark, and deep, and _hopeless_.
+    Benevolence seems to overlook them, or struggles for their
+    benefit in vain. Patriotism forgets them, or remembers them only
+    with shame for what has been, and with dire forebodings, of what
+    is yet to come.' * * 'It is taken _for granted_ that in present
+    circumstances, any effort to produce a general and thorough
+    amelioration in the character and condition of the free people
+    of color must be to a great extent fruitless. In every part of
+    the United States there is a broad and _impassible_ line of
+    demarcation between every man who has _one drop_ of African
+    blood in his veins and every other class in the community. The
+    habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of society--prejudices
+    which neither _refinement_, nor _argument_, nor _education_, nor
+    _religion_ itself can subdue--mark the people of color, whether
+    bond or free, as the subjects of a degradation _inevitable_ and
+    _incurable_. The African in this country belongs by birth to the
+    very lowest station in society; and from that station _he can
+    never rise_, BE HIS TALENTS, HIS ENTERPRISE, HIS VIRTUES WHAT
+    THEY MAY.... They constitute a class by themselves--a class out
+    of which _no individual can be elevated_, and below which, none
+    can be depressed. And this is the difficulty, the invariable and
+    insuperable difficulty in the way of every scheme for their
+    benefit. Much can be done for them--much has been done; but
+    still they are, and, _in this country_, ALWAYS MUST BE a
+    depressed and abject race.'--[African Repository, vol. iv. pp.
+    117, 118, 119.]
+
+
+    'The distinctive complexion by which it is marked, _necessarily_
+    debars it from all familiar intercourse with the more favored
+    society that surrounds it, and of course denies to it _all hope_
+    of either social or political elevation, by means of individual
+    merit, however great, or individual exertions, however
+    unremitted.' * * 'It is deemed unnecessary to repeat what has
+    already been said, of the character of the population in
+    question, of its _hopeless degradation_, and its baneful
+    influence, in the situation in which it is now placed.' * * *
+    'The colored population of this country can _never_ rise to
+    respectability and happiness here.' * * 'It was at an early
+    period seen and acknowledged, that neither the objects of
+    benevolence nor the interests of the nation could be materially
+    benefitted by any plan or measures that permitted them to remain
+    within the United States.' * * 'They leave a country in which
+    though born and reared, they are strangers and aliens; where
+    severe necessity places them in a class of degraded beings.' * *
+    'With us they have been degraded by slavery, and STILL FURTHER
+    DEGRADED _by the mockery of nominal freedom_. We have
+    endeavored, but endeavored in vain, to restore them either to
+    self-respect, or to the respect of others. _It is not our fault
+    that we have failed_; it is not theirs. It has resulted from a
+    cause over which neither they, nor we, can ever have control.
+    _Here_, therefore, they must be _for ever debased_: more than
+    this, they must be _for ever useless_; more even than this, they
+    must be FOR EVER A NUISANCE, from which it were a blessing for
+    society to be rid. And yet they, and they only, are qualified
+    for colonizing Africa.' * * * 'Whether bond or free, their
+    presence will be _for ever a calamity_. Why then, in the name of
+    God, should we hesitate to encourage their departure? The
+    existence of this race among us; a race that can neither share
+    our blessings nor incorporate in our Society, is already felt to
+    be a curse.'--[African Repository, vol. v. pp. 51, 53, 179, 234,
+    238, 276, 278.]
+
+
+    'Is our posterity doomed to endure for ever not only all the
+    ills flowing from the state of slavery, but all which arise from
+    incongruous elements of population, separated from each other by
+    _invincible prejudices_, and by natural causes?' * * 'Here
+    _invincible prejudices_ exclude them from the enjoyment of the
+    society of the whites, and deny them all the advantages of
+    freemen. The bar, the pulpit, and our legislative halls are shut
+    to them by the irresistible force of public sentiment. No
+    talents however great, no piety however pure and devoted, no
+    patriotism however ardent, can secure their admission. They
+    constantly hear the accents, and behold the triumphs, of a
+    liberty _which here they can never enjoy_.' * * 'It is against
+    this increase of colored persons, who take but a nominal freedom
+    here, and _cannot rise_ from their degraded condition, that this
+    Society attempts to provide.' * * 'They may be emancipated; but
+    emancipation _cannot elevate their condition_ or augment their
+    capacity for self-preservation.--Want and suffering will
+    gradually diminish their numbers, and they will disappear, as
+    the inferior has always disappeared, before the superior race.'
+    * * 'Our great and good men purposed it primarily as a system of
+    relief for two millions of fellow men in our own county--a
+    population dangerous to ourselves and _necessarily degraded
+    here_.' * * 'The free blacks, by the moral necessity of their
+    civil disabilities, are and _must for ever be a
+    nuisance_--equally, and more to the owner of slaves, than to
+    other members of the community.'--[African Repository, vol. vi.
+    pp. 12, 17, 82, 168, 295, 368.]
+
+
+    'Incorporated into our country as freemen, yet separated from it
+    by odious and degrading distinctions, they feel themselves
+    condemned to a hopeless and debasing inferiority. They know that
+    their very complexion will _for ever_ exclude them from the
+    rank, the privileges, the honors, of freemen. No matter how
+    great their industry, or how abundant their wealth--no matter
+    what their attainments in literature, science or the arts--no
+    matter how correct their deportment or what respect their
+    characters may inspire, they can never, NO, NEVER be raised to a
+    footing of equality, not even to a familiar intercourse with the
+    surrounding society.' * * 'To us it seems evident that the man
+    of color may as soon _change his complexion_, as rise above all
+    sense of past inferiority and debasement in a community, from
+    the social intercourse of which, he must expect to be in a great
+    measure excluded, not only until prejudice shall have no
+    existence therein, but until the freedom of man in regulating
+    his social relations is proved to be abridged by some law of
+    morality or the gospel.... Is it not _wise_, then, for the free
+    people of color and their friends to _admit_, what cannot
+    reasonably be doubted, that the people of color must, in this
+    country, remain for ages, _probably for ever_, a separate and
+    inferior caste, weighed down by causes, powerful, universal,
+    inevitable; _which neither legislation nor christianity can
+    remove?_'
+
+    'Let the free black in this country toil from youth to age in
+    the honorable pursuit of wisdom--let him store his mind with the
+    most valuable researches of science and literature--and let him
+    add to a highly gifted and cultivated intellect, a piety pure,
+    undefiled, and "unspotted from the world"--it is all nothing: he
+    would not be received into the very lowest walks of society. If
+    we were constrained to admire so uncommon a being, our very
+    admiration would mingle with disgust, because, in the physical
+    organization of his frame, we meet an insurmountable barrier,
+    even to an approach to social intercourse, and in the Egyptian
+    color, which nature has stamped upon his features, a principle
+    of repulsion so strong as to forbid the idea of a communion
+    either of interest or of feeling, as utterly abhorrent. Whether
+    these feelings are founded in reason or not, we will not now
+    inquire--perhaps they are not. But education and habit and
+    prejudice have so firmly riveted them upon us, that they have
+    become as strong as nature itself--and to expect their removal,
+    or even their slightest modification, would be as idle and
+    preposterous as to expect that we could reach forth our hands,
+    and remove the mountains from their foundations into the
+    vallies, which are beneath them.'--[African Repository, vol.
+    vii. pp. 100, 195, 196, 231.]
+
+
+    'And can we not find some spot on this large globe which will
+    receive them kindly, and where they may escape those prejudices
+    which, in this country, must _ever_ keep them _inferior_ and
+    _degraded_ members of society?'--[Third Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'A population which, even if it were not literally enslaved,
+    _must for ever remain_ in a state of degradation no better than
+    bondage.' * * 'Here the thing is impossible; a slave cannot be
+    really emancipated. You may call him free, you may enact a
+    statute book of laws to make him free, but you cannot bleach him
+    into the enjoyment of freedom.' * * 'The Soodra is not farther
+    separated from the Brahmin in regard to all his privileges,
+    civil, intellectual, and moral, than the negro is from the white
+    man by the prejudices which result from the difference made
+    between them by the God of nature. A barrier more difficult to
+    be surmounted than the institution of the caste, cuts off, and
+    while the present state of society continues _must always_ cut
+    off, the negro from all that is valuable in
+    citizenship.'--[Seventh Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Let the arm of our government be stretched out for the defence
+    of our African colony, and this objection will no longer exist.
+    There, _and there alone_, the colored man can enjoy the motives
+    for honorable exertion.'--[Ninth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'In the distinctive and indelible marks of their color, and the
+    prejudices of the people, an _insuperable_ obstacle has been
+    placed to the execution of any plan for elevating their
+    character, and placing them on a footing with their brethren of
+    the same common family.'--[Tenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Far from shuddering at the thought of leaving the comfortable
+    fireside among us, for a distant and unknown shore yet covered
+    by the wilderness, they have preferred real liberty there, to a
+    mockery of freedom here, and have turned their eyes to Africa,
+    as the only resting place and refuge of the colored man, in the
+    deluge of oppression that surrounds him.'--[Eleventh Annual
+    Report.]
+
+
+    'The race in question were known, as a class, to be destitute,
+    depraved--the victims of all forms of social misery. The
+    peculiarity of their fate was, that this was not their condition
+    by accident or transiently, but _inevitably_ and _immutably_,
+    whilst they remained in their present place, by a law as
+    infallible in its operation, as any of physical nature.' * *
+    'Their residence amongst us is attended by evil consequences to
+    society--causes _beyond the control of the human will_ must
+    prevent their _ever_ rising to equality with the whites.' * *
+    'The Managers consider it clear that causes exist, and are
+    operating to prevent their improvement and elevation to any
+    considerable extent as a class, in this country, which are
+    fixed, not only beyond the control of the friends of humanity,
+    BUT OF ANY HUMAN POWER. _Christianity cannot do for them here,
+    what it will do for them in Africa._ This is not the fault of
+    the colored man, _nor of the white man, nor of Christianity; but
+    an ordination of Providence, and no more to be changed than the
+    laws of nature_. Yet, were it otherwise, did no cause exist but
+    prejudice, to prevent the elevation, in this country, of our
+    free colored population, still, were this prejudice so strong
+    (which is indeed the fact) as to forbid the hope of any great
+    favorable change in their condition, what folly for them to
+    reject blessings in another land, because it is prejudice which
+    debars them from such blessings in this! But in truth no
+    legislation, no humanity, no benevolence can make them
+    insensible to their past condition, can unfetter their minds,
+    can relieve them from the disadvantages resulting from inferior
+    means and attainments, can abridge the right of freemen to
+    regulate their social intercourse and relations, which will
+    leave them _for ever a separate and depressed class_ in the
+    community; in fine, nothing can in any way do much here to raise
+    them from their miseries to respectability, honor and
+    usefulness.'--[Fifteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'That no adequate means of attaining this great end existed,
+    short of the segregation of the black population from the
+    white--that an IMPASSIBLE BARRIER existed in the state of
+    society in this country, between these classes--that whatever
+    might be the liberal sentiments of some good men among us, the
+    blacks were marked with an _indelible note of inferiority_--they
+    saw placed high before them a station which here they _could
+    never reach_, and by a natural reaction they fell back into a
+    position where self-respect lent them no stimulus, and virtuous
+    principles and actions lost more than half their motive--that in
+    fact they were a branded and degraded caste--the Pariahs of the
+    United States, and destined _as long as they remained with us_
+    to be hewers of wood and drawers of water--that the increase of
+    this population in a greater ratio than the whites, was
+    calculated to excite just apprehension--that no one could say
+    that when a few more millions should be added to their numbers,
+    the example of Hayti might not rouse them to an effort to break
+    their chains; and he would ask what man could contemplate,
+    without shuddering, all the complicated atrocity and bloody
+    revenge of such a revolt?' * * 'Those persons of color who have
+    been emancipated, are only nominally free, and the whole race,
+    so long as they remain among us, and whether they be slaves or
+    free, must _necessarily_ be kept in a condition full of
+    wretchedness to them and full of danger to the whites.'--[Second
+    Annual Report of New-York State Colonization Society.]
+
+
+    'Many of those citizens who ardently wish for the removal of
+    such of the free colored population, as are willing to go, to
+    any place where they could enjoy, _what they can never enjoy
+    here_, that is, all the advantages of society,' &c. * * 'That
+    the free colored population in this country labor under the most
+    oppressive disadvantages, which their freedom can by no means
+    counterbalance, is too obvious to admit of doubt. I waive all
+    inquiry whether this is right or wrong. I speak of things as
+    they are--not as they might, or as they ought to be. They are
+    cut off from the most remote chance of amalgamation with the
+    white population, by feelings or prejudices, call them what you
+    will, that are ineradicable. Their situation is more unfavorable
+    than that of many slaves. "With all the burdens, cares and
+    responsibilities of freedom, they have few or none of its
+    substantial benefits. Their associations are, and must be,
+    chiefly with slaves. Their right of suffrage gives them little,
+    if any, political influence, and they are practically, if not
+    theoretically excluded from representation and weight in our
+    public councils." _No merit, no services, no talents can elevate
+    them to a level with the whites._ Occasionally, an exception may
+    arise. A colored individual, of great talents, merits, and
+    wealth, may emerge from the crowd. Cases of this kind are to the
+    last degree rare. The colored people are subject to legal
+    disabilities, more or less galling and severe, in almost every
+    state of the Union. Who has not deeply regretted their late
+    harsh expulsion from the State of Ohio, and their being forced
+    to abandon the country of their birth, which had profited by
+    their labors, and to take refuge in a foreign land? Severe
+    regulations have been recently passed in Louisiana, to prevent
+    the introduction of free people of color into the State.
+    Whenever they appear, they are to be banished in sixty days. The
+    strong opposition to a negro college in New-Haven, speaks in a
+    language not to be mistaken, the jealousy with which they are
+    regarded. And there is no reason to expect, that the lapse of
+    centuries will make any change in this respect. THEY WILL ALWAYS
+    UNHAPPILY BE REGARDED AS AN INFERIOR RACE.'--[Mathew Carey's
+    'Reflections.']
+
+
+    'Instances of emancipation have not essentially benefitted the
+    African, and _probably never will_, while he remains among us.
+    In this country, public opinion does, _and will_, consign him to
+    an inferiority, _above which he can never rise_. Emancipation
+    can NEVER make the African, while he remains in this country, a
+    real free man. Degradation MUST and WILL press him to the earth;
+    no cheering, stimulating influence will he here feel, _in any of
+    the walks of life_.'--[Circular of the Massachusetts
+    Colonization Society for 1832.]
+
+
+    'With us color is the bar. Nature has raised up barriers between
+    the races, _which no man with a proper sense of the dignity of
+    his species desires to see surmounted_.' * * 'What effects does
+    emancipation produce without removal? A discontented and useless
+    population; having no sympathies with the rest of the community,
+    _doomed by immoveable barriers to eternal degradation_. I know
+    that there are among us, those of warm and generous hearts, who
+    believe that we may retain the black man here, and raise him up
+    to the full and perfect stature of human nature. That degree of
+    improvement can never take place except the races be
+    amalgamated; and amalgamation is a day-dream. It may seem
+    strong, but it is true that "a skin not colored like our own"
+    will separate them from us, _as long as our feelings continue a
+    part of our nature_.'--[Speeches delivered at the formation of
+    the Young Men's Auxiliary Colonization Society in New-York
+    city.]
+
+
+    'These [subsistence, political and social considerations] they
+    can _never_ enjoy here.' * * 'You may manumit the slave, but you
+    cannot make him a white man. He still remains a negro or a
+    mulatto. The mark and the recollection of his origin and former
+    state still adhere to him; the feelings produced by that
+    condition, in his own mind and in the minds of the whites, still
+    exist; he is associated by his color, and by these recollections
+    and feelings, with the class of slaves; and a barrier is thus
+    raised between him and the whites, that is between him and the
+    free class, which he can never hope to transcend.' * * 'A vast
+    majority of the free blacks, as we have seen, are and _must be_,
+    an idle, worthless and thievish race.'--[First Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Here they are condemned to a state of _hopeless_ inferiority,
+    and consequent degradation. As they _cannot_ emerge from this
+    state, they lose, by degrees, the hope, at last the desire of
+    emerging.'--[Second Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'The existence in any community of a people forming a distinct
+    and degraded caste, _who are forever excluded by the fiat of
+    society and the laws of the land_, from all hopes of equality in
+    social intercourse and political privileges, must, from the
+    nature of things, be fraught with unmixed evil. Did this
+    committee believe it possible, by any acts of legislation, to
+    remove this blotch upon the body politic, by so elevating the
+    social and moral condition of the blacks in Ohio, that they
+    would be received into society on terms of equality, and would
+    by common consent be admitted to a participation of political
+    privileges--WERE SUCH A THING POSSIBLE, even after a lapse of
+    time and by pecuniary sacrifice, most gladly would they
+    recommend such measures as would subserve the cause of humanity,
+    by producing such a result. For the purposes of legislation, it
+    is sufficient to know, that the blacks in Ohio _must always
+    exist as a separate and degraded race_, that when the leopard
+    shall change his spots and the Ethiopian his skin, then, BUT NOT
+    TILL THEN, may we expect that the descendants of Africans will
+    be admitted into society, on terms of social and political
+    equality.'--[Report of a Select Committee of the Legislature of
+    Ohio.]
+
+
+    'No possible contingency can ever break down or weaken the
+    impassable barrier which at present separates the whites from
+    social communion with the blacks. Neither education, nor wealth,
+    nor any other means of distinction known to our communities, can
+    elevate blacks to a level with whites, in the United
+    States.'--[American Spectator.]
+
+
+    'However unjust may be the prejudices which exist in the whites
+    against the blacks, and which operate so injuriously to the
+    latter--_they are probably too deep to be obliterated_; and true
+    philanthropy would dictate the separation of two races of men,
+    so different, WHOM NATURE HERSELF HAS FORBIDDEN TO MINGLE INTO
+    ONE; but of whom, while they remain associated, _one or the
+    other must of necessity have the superiority_. For the future
+    welfare of both, we trust that the project of colonizing the
+    Africans, as they shall gradually be emancipated, although a
+    work of time, may not be altogether hopeless.'--[Brandon (Vt.)
+    Telegraph.]
+
+
+    'The character and circumstances of this portion of the
+    community fall under every man's notice, and the least
+    observation shows that they _cannot_ be useful or happy among
+    us.'--[Oration by Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]
+
+
+    'It is of vast importance to these people, as a class, that
+    their hopes and expectations of temporal prosperity _should be
+    turned to Africa_, and that they should not regard our country
+    as their permanent residence, or as that country in which they
+    will _ever_, as a people, enjoy equal privileges and blessings
+    with the whites.'--[Rev. Mr Gurley's Letter to the Rev. S. S.
+    Jocelyn.]
+
+
+    'To attain solid happiness and permanent respectability, they
+    should now remove to a more congenial clime.... To raise them to
+    a level with the whites is AN IMPOSSIBILITY.'--[New-Haven
+    Religious Intelligencer.]
+
+
+    'In Liberia--the land of their forefathers, they will be
+    restored to real freedom, which they have never yet enjoyed, and
+    which it is folly for them to expect they can ever enjoy among
+    the whites.'--[Norfolk Herald.]
+
+'My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a
+noise in me.' Are we pagans, are we savages, are we devils? Can pagans,
+or savages, or devils, exhibit a more implacable spirit, than is seen in
+the foregoing extracts? It is enough to cause the very stones to cry
+out, and the beasts of the field to rebuke us.
+
+Of this I am sure: no man, who is truly willing to admit the people of
+color to an equality with himself, can see any insuperable difficulty in
+effecting their elevation. When, therefore, I hear an
+individual--especially a professor of Christianity--strenuously
+contending that there can be no fellowship with them, I cannot help
+suspecting the sincerity of his own republicanism or piety, or thinking
+that the beam is in his own eye. My bible assures me that the day is
+coming when even the 'wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
+shall lie down with the kid, and the wolf and the young lion and the
+fatling together;' and, if this be possible, I see no cause why those of
+the same species--God's rational creatures--fellow countrymen, in truth,
+cannot dwell in harmony together.
+
+How abominably hypocritical, how consummately despicable, how
+incorrigibly tyrannical must this whole nation appear in the eyes of the
+people of Europe!--professing to be the _friends_ of the free blacks,
+actuated by the purest motives of benevolence toward them, desirous to
+make atonement for past wrongs, challenging the admiration of the world
+for their patriotism, philanthropy and piety--and yet (hear, O heaven!
+and be astonished, O earth!) shamelessly proclaiming, with a voice
+louder than thunder, and an aspect malignant as sin, that while their
+colored countrymen remain among them, they must be trampled beneath
+their feet, treated as inferior beings, deprived of all the invaluable
+privileges of freemen, separated by the brand of indelible ignominy, and
+debased to a level with the beasts that perish! Yea, that they may as
+soon change their complexion as rise from their degradation! that no
+device of philanthropy can benefit them here! that they constitute a
+class out of which _no individual can be elevated_, and below which,
+_none can be depressed_! that no talents however great, no piety however
+pure and devoted, no patriotism however ardent, no industry however
+great, no wealth however abundant, can raise them to a footing of
+equality with the whites! that 'let them toil from youth to old age in
+the honorable pursuit of wisdom--let them store their minds with the
+most valuable researches of science and literature--and let them add to
+a highly gifted and cultivated intellect, a piety pure, undefiled, and
+unspotted from the world, _it is all nothing_--they would not be
+received into the _very lowest walks of society_--admiration of such
+uncommon beings would mingle with _disgust_!' Yea, that 'there is a
+broad and impassible line of demarcation between every man who has _one
+drop_ of African blood in his veins and every other class in the
+community'! Yea, that 'the habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of
+society--prejudices which neither _refinement_, nor _argument_, nor
+_education_, nor RELIGION itself can subdue--mark the people of color,
+whether bond or free, as the subjects of a degradation _inevitable_ and
+_incurable_'! Yea, that '_Christianity_ cannot do for them here, what it
+will do for them in Africa'! Yea, that 'this is not the fault of the
+colored man, NOR OF THE WHITE MAN, nor of Christianity; but AN
+ORDINATION OF PROVIDENCE, _and no more to be changed than the_ LAWS OF
+NATURE'!!!
+
+Again I ask, are we pagans, are we savages, are we devils? Search the
+records of heathenism, and sentiments more hostile to the spirit of the
+gospel, or of a more black and blasphemous complexion than these, cannot
+be found. I believe that they are libels upon the character of my
+countrymen, which time will wipe off. I call upon the spirits of the
+just made perfect in heaven, upon all who have experienced the love of
+God in their souls here below, upon the christian converts in India and
+the islands of the sea, to sustain me in the assertion that there _is_
+power enough in the religion of Jesus Christ to melt down the most
+stubborn prejudices, to overthrow the highest walls of partition, to
+break the strongest caste, to improve and elevate the most degraded, to
+unite in fellowship the most hostile, and to equalize and bless all its
+recipients. Make me _sure_ that there is not, and I will give it up, now
+and for ever. 'In Christ Jesus, all are one: there is neither Jew nor
+Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor
+female.'
+
+These sentiments were not uttered by infidels, nor by worthless
+wretches, but in many instances by professors of religion and _ministers
+of the gospel_! and in almost every instance by reputedly the most
+enlightened, patriotic and benevolent men in the land! Tell it not
+abroad! publish it not in the streets of Calcutta! Even the eminent
+President of Union College, (Rev. Dr. Nott,) could so far depart,
+unguardedly I hope, from christian love and integrity, as to utter this
+language in an address in behalf of the Colonization Society:--'With us
+they [the free people of color] have been degraded by slavery, and
+_still further degraded by the mockery of nominal freedom_.' Were this
+true, it would imply that we of the free States are more barbarous and
+neglectful than even the traffickers in souls and men-stealers at the
+south. We have not, it is certain, treated our colored brethren as the
+law of kindness and the ties of brotherhood demand; but have we outdone
+slaveholders in cruelty? Were it true, to forge new fetters for the
+limbs of these degraded beings would be an act of benevolence. But their
+condition is as much superior to that of the slaves, as happiness is to
+misery. The second portion of this work, containing their proceedings in
+a collective capacity, shows whether they have made any progress in
+intelligence, in virtue, in piety, and in happiness, since their
+liberation. Again he says: '_We have endeavored_, but endeavored in
+vain, _to restore them either to self-respect, or to the respect of
+others_.' It is painful to contradict so worthy an individual; but
+nothing is more certain than that this statement is altogether
+erroneous. We have derided, we have shunned, we have neglected them, in
+every possible manner. They have had to rise not only under the
+mountainous weight of their own ignorance and vice, but with the
+additional and constant pressure of our contempt and injustice. In
+despite of us, they have done well. Again: '_It is not our fault that we
+have failed_; it is not theirs.' We _are_ wholly and exclusively in
+fault. What have we done to raise them up from the earth? What have we
+_not_ done to keep them down? Once more: 'It has resulted from a cause
+over which neither they, nor we, can ever have control.' In other words,
+they have been made with skins not colored like our own,' and
+_therefore_ we cannot recognise them as fellow-countrymen, or treat them
+like rational beings! One sixth of our whole population _must_, FOR
+EVER, in this land, remain a wretched, ignorant and degraded race,--and
+yet nobody be culpable--_none but the Creator_ who has made us
+_incapable_ of doing unto others as we would have them do unto us!
+Horrible--horrible! If this be not an impeachment of Infinite
+Goodness,--I do not say intentionally but _really_,--I cannot define it.
+The same sentiment is reiterated by a writer in the Southern Religious
+Telegraph, who says--'The exclusion of the free black from the civil and
+literary privileges of our country, depends on another circumstance than
+that of character--a circumstance, which, as it was entirely beyond his
+control, so it is unchangeable, and will for ever operate. This
+circumstance is--_he is a black man_'!! And the Board of Managers of the
+Parent Society, in their Fifteenth Annual Report, declare that '_an
+ordination of Providence_' prevents the general improvement of the
+people of color in this land! How are God and our country dishonored,
+and the requirements of the gospel contemned, by this ungodly plea!
+Having satisfied himself that the Creator is alone blameable for the
+past and present degradation of the free blacks, Dr. Nott draws the
+natural and unavoidable inference that 'here, therefore, they must be
+_for ever debased, for ever useless, for ever a nuisance, for ever a
+calamity_,' and then gravely declares (mark the climax!) 'and yet THEY,
+[these ignorant, helpless, miserable creatures!] AND THEY ONLY, are
+qualified for colonizing Africa'!! 'Why then,' he asks, '_in the name of
+God_,'--(the abrupt appeal, in this connexion, seems almost
+profane,)--'should we hesitate to encourage their departure?'
+
+Nature, we are positively assured, has raised up impassable barriers
+between the races. I understand by this expression, that the blacks are
+of a different species from ourselves, so that all attempts to generate
+offspring between us and them must prove as abortive, as between a man
+and a beast. It is a law of Nature that the lion shall not beget the
+lamb, or the leopard the bear. Now the planters at the south have
+clearly demonstrated, that an amalgamation with their slaves is not only
+possible, but a matter of course, and eminently productive. It neither
+ends in abortion nor produces monsters. In truth, it is often so
+difficult in the slave States to distinguish between the fruits of this
+intercourse and the children of white parents, that witnesses are
+summoned at court to solve the problem! Talk of the barriers of Nature,
+when the land swarms with living refutations of the statement! Happy
+indeed would it be for many a female slave, if such a barrier could
+exist during the period of her servitude to protect her from the lust of
+her master!
+
+In France,[W] England,[X] Spain, and other countries, persons of color
+maintain as high a rank and are treated as honorably as any other class
+of the inhabitants, in despite of the 'impassable barriers of Nature.'
+Yet it is proclaimed to the world by the Colonization Society, that the
+American people can never be as republican in their feelings and
+practices as Frenchmen, Spaniards or Englishmen! Nay, that _religion_
+itself cannot subdue their malignant prejudices, or induce them to treat
+their dark-skinned brethren in accordance with their professions of
+republicanism! My countrymen! is it so? Are you willing thus to be held
+up as tyrants and hypocrites for ever? as less magnanimous and just than
+the populace of Europe? No--no! I cannot give you up as incorrigibly
+wicked, nor my country as sealed over to destruction. My confidence
+remains, like the oak--like the Alps--unshaken, storm-proof. I am not
+discouraged--I am not distrustful. I still place an unwavering reliance
+upon the omnipotence of truth. I still believe that the demands of
+justice will be satisfied; that the voice of bleeding humanity will melt
+the most obdurate hearts; and that the land will be redeemed and
+regenerated by an enlightened and energetic public opinion. As long as
+there remains among us a single copy of the Declaration of Independence,
+or of the New Testament, I will not despair of the social and political
+elevation of my sable countrymen. Already a rallying-cry is heard from
+the East and the West, from the North and the South; towns and cities
+and states are in commotion; volunteers are trooping to the field; the
+spirit of freedom and the fiend of oppression are in mortal conflict,
+and all neutrality is at an end. Already the line of division is drawn:
+on one side are the friends of truth and liberty, with their banner
+floating high in the air, on which are inscribed in letters of light,
+'IMMEDIATE ABOLITION'--'NO COMPROMISE WITH OPPRESSORS'--'EQUAL
+RIGHTS'--'NO EXPATRIATION'--'DUTY, AND NOT CONSEQUENCES'--'LET JUSTICE
+BE DONE, THOUGH THE HEAVENS SHOULD FALL!'--On the opposite side stand
+the supporters and apologists of slavery in mighty array, with a black
+flag on which are seen in bloody characters, 'AFRICAN
+COLONIZATION'--'GRADUAL ABOLITION'--'RIGHTS OF PROPERTY'--'POLITICAL
+EXPEDIENCY'--'NO EQUALITY'--'NO REPENTANCE'--'EXPULSION OF THE
+BLACKS'--'PROTECTION TO TYRANTS!'--Who can doubt the issue of this
+controversy, or which side has the approbation of the Lord of Hosts?
+
+In the African Repository for September, 1831, there is an elaborate
+defence of the Colonization Society, in which occurs the following
+passage:--'It has been said that the Society is unfriendly to the
+improvement of the free people of color while they remain in the United
+States. _The charge is not true._' I reiterate the charge; and the
+evidence of its correctness is before the reader. The Society prevents
+the education of this class in the most insidious and effectual manner,
+by constantly asserting that they must always be a degraded people in
+this country, and that the cultivation of their minds will avail them
+nothing. Who does not readily perceive that the prevalence of this
+opinion must at once paralyze every effort for their improvement? For it
+would be a waste of time and means, and unpardonable folly, for us to
+attempt the accomplishment of an impossible work--of that which we know
+will result in disappointment. Every discriminating and candid mind must
+see and acknowledge, that, to perpetuate their ignorance, it is only
+necessary to make the belief prevalent that they 'must be for ever
+debased, for ever useless, for ever an inferior race,' and their
+thraldom is sure.
+
+I am aware that a school has been established for the education of
+colored youth, under the auspices of the Society; but it is sufficient
+to state that none but those who consent to emigrate to Liberia are
+embraced in its provisions.
+
+In the Appendix to the Seventh Annual Report, p. 94, the position is
+assumed that 'it is a well established point, that the public safety
+forbids either the emancipation or _general instruction_ of the slaves.'
+The recent enactment of laws in some of the slave States, prohibiting
+the instruction of free colored persons as well as slaves, has received
+something more than a tacit approval from the organ of the Society. A
+prominent advocate of the Society, (G. P. Disosway, Esq.,) in an oration
+on the fourth of July, 1831, alluding to these laws, says,--'The public
+safety of our brethren at the South requires them [the slaves] to be
+kept ignorant and uninstructed.' The Editor of the Southern Religious
+Telegraph, who is a clergyman and a warm friend of the colonization
+scheme, remarking upon the instruction of the colored population of
+Virginia, says:
+
+    'Teaching a servant to read, is not teaching him the religion of
+    Christ. The great majority of the white people of our country
+    are taught to read; but probably not one in five, of those who
+    have the Bible, is _a christian_, in the legitimate sense of the
+    term. If black people are as depraved and as averse to true
+    religion as the white people are--and we know of no difference
+    between them in this respect--teaching them to read the Bible
+    will make christians of _very_ few of them. [What a plea!] ...
+    If christian masters were to teach their servants to read, we
+    apprehend that they would not feel the obligation as they ought
+    to feel it, of giving them oral instruction, and often
+    impressing divine truth on their minds. [!!] ... If the free
+    colored people were generally taught to read, _it might be an
+    inducement to them to remain in this country_. WE WOULD OFFER
+    THEM NO SUCH INDUCEMENT. [!!] ... A knowledge of letters and of
+    all the arts and sciences, cannot counteract the influences
+    under which the character of the negro _must_ be formed in this
+    country.... It appears to us that a greater benefit may be
+    conferred on the free colored people, by planting good schools
+    for them in Africa, and encouraging them to remove there, than
+    by giving them the knowledge of letters to make them contented
+    in their present condition.'--[Telegraph of Feb. 19, 1831.]
+
+Jesuitism was never more subtle--Papal domination never more exclusive.
+The gospel of peace and mercy preached by him who holds that ignorance
+is the mother of devotion! who would sequestrate the bible from the eyes
+of his fellow men! who contends that knowledge is the enemy of religion!
+who denies the efficacy of education in elevating a degraded population!
+who would make men brutes in order to make them better christians! who
+desires to make the clergy infallible guides to heaven! Now what folly
+and impiety is all this! Besides, is it not mockery to preach
+repentance, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to the benighted blacks,
+and at the same time deny them the right and ability to 'search the
+scriptures' for themselves?
+
+The proposition which was made last year to erect a College for the
+education of colored youth in New-Haven, it is well known, created an
+extraordinary and most disgraceful tumult in that place, (the hot-bed of
+African colonization,) and was generally scouted by the friends of the
+Society in other places. The American Spectator at Washington, (next to
+the African Repository, the mouth-piece of the Society,) used the
+following language, in relation to the violent proceedings of the
+citizens of New-Haven: 'We not only _approve the course_, which they
+have pursued, but we _admire the moral courage_, which induced them,
+_for the love of right_, (!) to incur the censure of both sections of
+the country.'
+
+As a farther illustration of the complacency with which colonizationists
+regard the laws prohibiting the instruction of the blacks, I extract the
+following paragraph from the 'Proceedings of the New-York State
+Colonization Society, on its second anniversary:'
+
+    'It is the business of the free--_their safety requires it_--to
+    keep the slaves in ignorance. Their education is utterly
+    prohibited. Educate them, and they break their fetters. Suppose
+    the slaves of the south to have the knowledge of freemen, they
+    would be free, or be exterminated by the whites. This renders it
+    necessary to prevent their instruction--to keep them from Sunday
+    Schools, and other means of gaining knowledge. But a few days
+    ago, a proposition was made in the legislature of Georgia, to
+    allow them so much instruction as to enable them to read the
+    bible; which was promptly rejected by a large majority. I do not
+    mention this for the purpose of _condemning the policy_ of the
+    slaveholding States, but to lament its _necessity_.'
+
+Elias B. Caldwell, one of the founders, and the first Secretary of the
+Parent Society, in a speech delivered at its formation, advanced the
+following monstrous sentiments:
+
+    'The more you improve the condition of these people, the more
+    you cultivate their minds, the more _miserable_ you make them in
+    their present state. You give them a higher relish for those
+    privileges _which they can never attain_, and turn what you
+    intend for a blessing into a curse. No, if they must remain in
+    their present situation, _keep them in the lowest state of
+    ignorance and degradation_. The nearer you bring them to the
+    condition of _brutes_, the better chance do you give them of
+    possessing their apathy.'
+
+So, then, the American Colonization Society advocates, and to a great
+extent perpetuates the ignorance and degradation of the colored
+population of the United States!
+
+In a critical examination of the pages of the African Repository, and of
+the reports and addresses of the Parent Society and its auxiliaries, I
+cannot find in a single instance any impeachment of the conduct and
+feelings of society toward the people of color, or any hint that the
+prejudice which is so prevalent against them is unmanly and sinful, or
+any evidence of contrition for past injustice, or any remonstrance or
+entreaty with a view to a change of public sentiment, or any symptoms of
+moral indignation at such unchristian and anti-republican treatment. On
+the contrary, I find the doctrine every where inculcated that this
+hatred and contempt, this abuse and proscription, are not only
+excusable, but the natural, inevitable and incurable effects of
+constitutional dissimilitude, growing out of an ordination of
+Providence, for which there is no remedy but a separation between the
+two races. If the free blacks, then, have been 'still further degraded
+by the mockery of nominal freedom,' if they 'must always be a separate
+and degraded race,' if 'degradation must and will press them to the
+earth,' if from their present station 'they can never rise, be their
+talents, their enterprise, their virtues what they may,' if 'in Africa
+alone, they can enjoy the motives for honorable ambition,' the American
+Colonization Society is responsible for their debasement and misery; for
+as it numbers among its supporters the most influential men in our
+country, and boasts of having the approbation of an overwhelming
+majority of the wise and good whose examples are laws, it is able, were
+it willing, to effect a radical change in public sentiment--nay, it is
+at the present time public sentiment itself. But though it has done
+much, and may do more, (all that it can it will do,) to depress,
+impoverish and dispirit the free people of color, and to strengthen and
+influence mutual antipathies, it is the purpose of God, I am fully
+persuaded, to humble the pride of the American people by rendering the
+expulsion of our colored countrymen utterly impracticable, and the
+necessity for their admission to equal rights imperative. As neither
+mountains of prejudice, nor the massy shackles of law and of public
+opinion, have been able to keep them down to a level with slaves, I
+confidently anticipate their exaltation among ourselves. Through the
+vista of time,--a short distance only,--I see them here, not in Africa,
+not bowed to the earth, or derided and persecuted as at present, not
+with a downcast air or an irresolute step, but standing erect as men
+destined heavenward, unembarrassed, untrammelled, with none to molest or
+make them afraid.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[V] Walker's Appeal.
+
+[W] Why is it that the free people of color are now, in almost every
+part of our country, threatened with banishment from State to State, and
+with hunting from city to city, until there shall be no place for the
+soles of their feet in this their native land? Is it because they are in
+reality, as slaveholders tell us, an inferior race of beings? No, my
+friends: their consistent conduct, their polished manners, and their
+great respectability, wherever they have enjoyed the advantages of
+equality of education and equality of motives, proclaim the contrary.
+The true cause of this almost universal prescription is to be found in
+the melancholy fact that we have been guilty of the most atrocious
+injustice to their forefathers and to themselves. We would therefore now
+banish the evidence of our guilt from before our eyes: for whom a man
+has injured, he is almost sure to hate. Some of the finest men I met
+with, during a residence of three years in London and Paris, were the
+offspring of African mothers. There no distinction is made in any grade
+of society, on account of color. I have repeatedly seen black gentlemen
+sitting on the sofas, conversing with the ladies, at the hospitable
+mansion of that universal philanthropist, LAFAYETTE; and there were no
+persons present who appeared more respectable, or who were more
+respected.--[Address of Arnold Buffum, President of the New-England
+Anti-Slavery Society, delivered in Boston, Feb. 16, 1832.]
+
+[X] In England, it is common to see respectable and genteel people open
+their pews when a black stranger enters the church; and at hotels,
+nobody thinks it a degradation to have a colored traveller sit at the
+same table. We have heard a well authenticated anecdote, which
+illustrates the different state of feeling in the two countries on this
+subject. A wealthy American citizen was residing at London for a season,
+which time the famous Mr Prince Saunders was there. The London breakfast
+hour is very late; and Prince Saunders happened to call upon the
+American while his family were taking their morning repast. Politeness
+and native good feelings prompted the lady to ask her guest to take a
+cup of coffee--but then the _prejudices of society_--how could she
+overcome _them_? True, he was a gentleman in character, manners and
+dress; but he had a black skin; and how could white skins sit at the
+same table with him? If his _character_ had been as black as perdition,
+the difficulty might have been overcome, however reluctantly; but his
+_skin_ being black, it was altogether out of the question. So the lady
+sipped her coffee, and Prince Saunders sat at the window, occasionally
+speaking in reply to conversation addressed to him. At last all retired
+from the breakfast table--and then the lady, with an air of sudden
+recollection, said, 'I forgot to ask if you had breakfasted, Mr
+Saunders! Won't you let me give you a cup of coffee?' 'I thank you,
+madam,' he replied, with a dignified bow, 'I am engaged to breakfast
+with the PRINCE REGENT this morning!'
+
+We laugh at the narrow bigotry of the Mahometan, who feels contaminated
+if a Christian shares his dinner, and who will not give his vile carcass
+burial, for fear of pollution. Is our prejudice against persons of color
+more rational or more just? The plain fact is, our prejudice has the
+same foundation as that of the Mahometan--both are grounded in pride and
+selfishness. A law has lately passed in Turkey, imposing a fine upon
+whoever shall call a Christian a dog. _Let us try to keep pace with the
+Turks in candor and benevolence._--[Massachusetts Journal and Tribune.]
+
+
+
+
+SECTION X.
+
+THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY DECEIVES AND MISLEADS THE NATION.
+
+
+It is now about fifteen years since the American Colonization Society
+sprang into existence--a space of time amply sufficient to test its
+ability. In its behalf the pulpit and the press (two formidable engines)
+have been exerted to an extraordinary degree; statesmen, and orators,
+and judges, and lawyers, and philanthropists, have eloquently advocated
+its claims to public patronage. During this protracted period, and with
+such powerful auxiliaries, a careless observer might naturally suppose
+that much must have been accomplished towards abolishing slavery. But
+what is the fact? Less than one hundred and fifty souls have been
+removed annually to Africa--in all, about two thousand souls in fifteen
+years!!--a drop from the Atlantic ocean--a grain of earth from the
+American continent! In the mean time, the increase of the slaves has
+amounted to upwards of _half a million_! and every week more than _one
+thousand_ new-born victims are added to their number. Before a vessel,
+with one hundred and fifty passengers, can go to and return from Africa,
+more than ten thousand slave infants will have been added to our
+population: while she is preparing to depart, or waiting for a fair
+wind, the increase will freight her many times.
+
+The following eloquent and comprehensive Circular (published last year
+in London by Capt. Charles Stuart, in consequence of the visit of
+Elliott Cresson, an agent who was sent out to dupe the philanthropists
+of England) exhibits the inefficiency and criminality of the Society in
+a striking light:
+
+    'AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. LIBERIA.--This Society was
+    formed in the United States, in 1817.
+
+    Its Thirteenth Annual Report has just reached this country.
+
+    Its object, as expressed by itself, (see the Thirteenth Report,
+    page 41, app. 9, art. 2,) "Is to promote and execute a plan for
+    colonizing the free people of color, residing in 'the United
+    States' in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem
+    most expedient."
+
+    The facts of the case are these:
+
+      1. That the United States have about 2,000,000 enslaved blacks.
+      2. That they have about 500,000 free blacks.
+      3. That both these classes are rapidly increasing.
+      4. That both are exceedingly depressed and degraded.
+
+    The duty of the United States to them, is the same exactly as we
+    owe to our colored fellow-subjects in our slave colonies, viz.
+    to obey God, by letting them go free, by placing them beneath
+    wise and equitable laws, and by loving them all, and treating
+    them like brethren; that is to say, the unquestionable duty of
+    the people of the United States is to emancipate their 2,000,000
+    slaves, and to raise the 500,000 free colored people to that
+    estimation in their native country which is due to them.
+
+    But the American Colonization Society deliberately rejects both
+    of these first great duties, and confines itself to the
+    colonization in Africa of the free colored people. They say, in
+    page 5, of their Thirteenth Report, "To abolition she could not
+    look--and need not look." It "could do nothing in the slave
+    States for the cause of humanity;" and in page 8, "Emancipation,
+    with the liberty to remain on this side of the Atlantic, is but
+    an act of dreamy madness."
+
+    Now in thus deliberately letting the great crime of negro
+    slavery alone; and in thus substituting a little restricted act
+    of very dubious benevolence to a few, for the great and sacred
+    duty of right which they owe to all,--they hurt the great cause
+    of everlasting truth and love, in the following particulars:
+
+    1. By offering to the nation a hope, at which many of their best
+    men seem eagerly grasping, of getting rid of the colored people
+    abroad--they conduce more and more, as this hope prevails, to
+    keep out of mind the superior, unalterable, and immediate duty
+    of righting them at home.
+
+    2. By removing whatever number it be, from their native country,
+    the number which remains must be diminished,--and the more the
+    number which remains is diminished, the more helpless will they
+    become--the less will be the hope of their ever recovering their
+    own liberty--and the more and longer will they be trampled upon.
+
+    3. The more the people of the United States (and this is equally
+    true of Great Britain) substitute a _half-way_ duty, difficult,
+    expensive, and partial as it must be, and criminal as it
+    unquestionably is--for the _whole_ duty which they owe their
+    negro fellow-subjects, of putting them, before the law, upon a
+    par with themselves--the less will they be likely to feel their
+    sin in continuing to wrong them; and the less they feel their
+    sin, the less likely will they be to repent of it, and to do
+    their duty.
+
+    4. The greater the number of slaves transported, the greater
+    will be the value of the labor of those who remain; the more
+    valuable their labor is, the greater will be the temptation to
+    over-labor them, and the more, of course, they will be
+    oppressed.
+
+    5. The American Colonization Society directly supports the false
+    and cruel idea that the native country of the colored people of
+    the United States, is not their native country, and that they
+    never can be happy until they either exile themselves, or are
+    exiled; and thus powerfully conduces to extinguish in them all
+    those delightful hopes, and to prevent all that glorious
+    exertion, which would make them a blessing to their country. In
+    this particular, the American Colonization Society takes up a
+    falsehood, as cruel to the colored people, as it is disgraceful
+    to themselves; dwells upon it, as if it were an irrefragable
+    truth; urges it, as such, upon others; and thus endeavors with
+    all its force, to make _that practically true_, which is one of
+    the greatest stains in the American character; which is one of
+    the greatest scourges that could possibly afflict the free
+    colored people; and which, in itself, is essentially and
+    unalterably false. For be the pertinacity of prejudice what it
+    may, in asserting that the blacks of America never can be
+    amalgamated in all respects, in equal brotherhood with the
+    whites, it will not the less remain an everlasting truth, that
+    the wickedness which produced and perpetuates the assertion, is
+    the only ground of the difficulty, and that all that is
+    requisite to remove the whole evil, is the relenting in love of
+    the proud and cruel spirit which produced it. Could the American
+    Colonization Society succeed in establishing their views on this
+    subject, as being really true of the people of the United
+    States, it would only prove that the people of the United States
+    were past repentance; that they were given over, through their
+    obstinacy in sin, finally to believe a lie; to harden
+    themselves, and to perish in their iniquity. But they have not
+    succeeded in establishing this fearful fact against themselves;
+    and as long as they continue capable of repentance, it _never_
+    can be true, that the proud and baneful prejudices which now so
+    cruelly alienate them from their colored brethren, may not, will
+    not, must not, yield to the sword of the Spirit, to the Word of
+    God, to the blessed weapons of truth and love.
+
+    The American Colonization Society is beautiful and beneficial as
+    far as it supports the cause commenced at Sierra Leone, by
+    introducing into Africa, civilization, commerce, and genuine
+    Christianity--by checking the African slave trade--and by
+    serving in love the emigrants who choose to pass to Liberia.
+
+    But it powerfully tends to veil the existing and outrageous
+    atrocity of negro slavery; and it corroborates against the
+    people of color, whether enslaved or free, one of the most base,
+    groundless, and cruel prejudices, that has ever disgraced the
+    powerful, or afflicted the weak.
+
+    The following calculations may throw further light upon the
+    subject.
+
+    The United States have about 2,000,000 slaves, and about 500,000
+    free colored people.
+
+    The American Colonization Society has existed for thirteen
+    years, and has exported yearly, upon an average, about 150
+    persons.
+
+    Meanwhile the natural yearly increase has been 56,000 souls; and
+    nearly a million have died in slavery!!
+
+    But it may be said, this is only the beginning--more may be
+    expected hereafter.--Let us see.
+
+    The average price of transporting each individual is calculated
+    at 30 dollars: suppose it to be reduced to 20, and then, as
+    56,000 must be exported yearly, in order merely to prevent
+    increase, 1,120,000 dollars would be yearly requisite simply for
+    transportation. Where is this vast sum to come from? Or suppose
+    it supplied, still, in the mass of crime and wretchedness, as it
+    now exists, there would be _no decrease_! Two millions of human
+    beings every 30 years would still be _born_ and _die_ in
+    slavery!!
+
+    But perhaps you wish to extinguish the crime in thirty years.
+
+    Then you must begin by transporting at least 100,000 yearly. In
+    order to do this, you must have an annual income of upwards of
+    2,000,000 dollars; and if you have not only to transport, but
+    also to purchase, you would probably want yearly, _twenty
+    millions_ more!!
+
+    Where are you to get this?--
+
+    Or suppose it got, and still one generation would perish in
+    their wretchedness; 2,000,000 of immortal souls--plundered by
+    you of the most sacred rights of human nature; of rights _always
+    the same_, and everlastingly _inalienable_, however
+    plundered--would have perished _unredressed_, and gone to
+    confront you at the bar of God.
+
+    And will He not make inquisition for blood? And what will it
+    avail you to say, "Oh, we satisfied ourselves, and traversed
+    land and sea, and spent thousands to satisfy others, that if we
+    transported a few hundreds or thousands of our oppressed
+    fellow-subjects to a distant country, yearly, with care, we
+    might guiltlessly leave the remaining hundreds of thousands, or
+    the millions, in slavery, and harmlessly indulge the invincible
+    repugnance which we felt to a colored skin. We really thought it
+    better, to exile our colored brethren from their native country,
+    or to render their lives in it, intolerable by scorn, should
+    they obstinately persist in remaining in it;--we really thought
+    this better, than humbling ourselves before our brother and our
+    God, and returning to both with repenting and undissembling
+    love."
+
+    Is not such language similar to the swearer's prayer!!
+
+    Great Britain and the United States, the two most favored, and
+    the two most guilty nations upon earth, both need rebuke. They
+    ought to be brethren, mutually dear and honorable to each other,
+    in all that is true and kind. But never, never, let them support
+    one another in guilt.
+
+    People of Great Britain, it is your business--it is _your
+    duty_,--to give to negro slavery no rest, but to put it
+    down--not by letting the trunk alone, while you idly busy
+    yourselves in lopping off, or in aiding others to lop off, a few
+    of the straggling branches--but by laying the axe at once to
+    its roots, and by putting your united nerve into the steel, till
+    this great poison-tree of lust and blood, and of all abominable
+    and heartless iniquity, fall before you; and law, and love, and
+    God and man, shout victory over its ruin.
+
+    Hearken--thus saith the Lord, "Rob not the poor, because he is
+    poor; neither oppress the afflicted in the gate. For the Lord
+    will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled
+    them." Prov. xxii. 22, 23.
+
+    LONDON, July 15, 1831. C. STUART.'[Y]
+
+Sometimes the Society professes to be able to remove the whole colored
+population in less than thirty years! and the belief is prevalent that
+the project is feasible. Again it tells us--
+
+    'Admitting that the colonization scheme contemplates the
+    ultimate abolition of slavery, yet that result could only be
+    produced _by the gradual and slow operation of_ CENTURIES.' * *
+    'How came we by this population? By the prevalence for a century
+    of a guilty commerce. And will not the prevalence _for a
+    century_ of a restoring commerce, place them on their own
+    shores? Yes, surely!' * * 'There are those, Sir, who ask--and
+    could not a quarter century cease and determine the two great
+    evils? You and I, my dear Sir, on whom the frost of time has
+    fallen rather perceptibly, would say a century. And now, let me
+    ask, could ever a century, in the whole course of human affairs,
+    be better employed?'--[African Repository, vol. i. pp. 217, 347;
+    vol. v. p. 366.]
+
+
+    'It is not the work of a day nor a year, it is not a work of one
+    time, nor of two, nor of three, but it is one which will now
+    commence, _and may continue for ages_.'--[A new and interesting
+    View of Slavery. By Humanitas, a colonization advocate.
+    Baltimore, 1820.]
+
+Wild enthusiasts in the cause may respond--'The Society never expected
+to accomplish much single-handed: it is about to enlist the energies of
+the General Government--and doubtless Congress will appropriate several
+millions of dollars annually for the purchase and colonization of the
+slaves.'
+
+But are they sure, or is it probable, that Congress will make this
+appropriation? And if it should, what can they do without the consent of
+the people of color to remove? That consent can never be obtained. Is
+it, then, proposed to buy the slaves of their masters, as if the claim
+of property were valid? It were better that the money should rust at the
+bottom of the deep!--better to buy bank-notes, and convert them to
+ashes! To purchase slaves would only serve to make brisk the
+slave-market. Their value would immediately rise in all the slave
+States; especially in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and North
+Carolina, where they are now comparatively worthless--_and there would
+be an end to voluntary emancipation_: for who would sacrifice his
+'property,' when he might obtain an equivalent for it? Slave traders and
+slave owners would be zealous to prevent any lack of miserable objects
+for the bounty offered by government: if the natural increase were not
+sufficient, they would be careful to make the importation from Africa
+exceed the exportation to that ill-fated continent. Such a purchase
+would be directly patronising the slave trade, at home and abroad, and
+bribing masters to keep their slaves for the highest bidder. Besides, it
+would be a gross violation of the great fundamental principle, that 'man
+cannot hold property in man.'
+
+I know it is easy to make calculations. I know it is an old maxim, that
+'figures cannot lie:' and I very well know, too, that our philanthropic
+arithmeticians are prodigiously fond of FIGURING, but of doing nothing
+else. Give them a slate and pencil, and in fifteen minutes they will
+clear the continent of every black skin; and, if desired, throw in the
+Indians to boot. While they depopulate America, they find not the least
+difficulty in providing for the wants of the emigrating myriads to the
+coast of Africa: we have ships enough, and, notwithstanding the hardness
+of the times, money enough. O, the surpassing utility of the arithmetic!
+it is more potent than the stone of the philosopher, which, _when
+discovered_, is to transmute, at a touch, base metal into pure gold!
+
+In one breath, colonization orators tell us that the free blacks are
+pests in the community; that they are an intemperate, ignorant, lazy,
+thievish class; that their condition is worse than that of the slaves;
+and that no efforts to improve them in this country can be successful,
+owing to the prejudices of society. In the next breath we are told what
+mighty works these miserable outcasts are to achieve--that they are the
+missionaries of salvation,[Z] who are to illumine all Africa--that they
+will build up a second American republic--and that our conceptions
+cannot grasp the result of their labors. Now I, for one, have no faith
+in this instantaneous metamorphosis.[AA] I believe that neither a sea
+voyage nor an African climate has any miraculous influence upon the
+brain. I believe that ignorant and depraved black men, who are
+transported across the ocean, will be ignorant and depraved black men on
+reaching the coast of Africa. I believe, also, that they who are capable
+of doing well, surrounded by barbarians, may do better among a civilized
+and christian people.
+
+It is stated in a Circular put forth by the Society last year, that
+'from the _actual experience_ of the Society, it has been found that
+$20, _or less_, will defray the whole expense of transporting an
+individual to the Colony.' This is a very deceptive statement. The
+receipts of the Society from 1820 to 1830, amounted to $112,841 89; the
+expenses during the same period were $106,457 72; balance on hand,
+$6,384 17. Nineteen expeditions had been fitted out, and 1,857
+emigrants,[AB] _including re-captured Africans_, landing on the shores
+of Africa--averaging annually, for the ten years, about 186 persons, or
+since the organization of the Society, about 124 persons. 'The
+emigrants,' the Board of Managers inform us, in a recent address to
+Auxiliary Societies, 'for the last three years, average about 227, while
+the expenses, _exclusive of transportation, and temporary subsistence of
+the new colonists_, exceed TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS'!! In the very last
+number of the African Repository, (for April, 1832,) the Vice-Agent at
+Liberia, A. D. Williams, writes to the Rev. R. R. Gurley as follows:--'I
+think the price, say $35, fixed by the Board for the transportation of
+each emigrant, _is entirely too low_: it should be at least $40, if not
+$45.' Why, then, does the Society attempt to impose upon public
+credulity, by stating that only $20 are requisite for every individual
+transportation, when the actual cost has been more than thrice, and is
+likely to be more than double that amount?[AC]
+
+The Society has succeeded in making the people believe that the
+establishment of a colony or colonies on the coast of Africa is the only
+way to abolish the foreign slave trade: on this account it has secured
+an extensive patronage. Here is another fatal delusion. I shall show not
+only that it has not injured this trade in the least, but that the trade
+_continues to increase in activity and cruelty_. Let us look at its own
+admissions.
+
+    'We regret to say, that the slave trade appears to be carried on
+    to a great extent, and with circumstances of the most revolting
+    cruelty.' * * * 'The French slave trade, notwithstanding the
+    efforts of the government, appears to be undiminished. The
+    number of Spanish vessels employed in the trade is immense, and
+    as the treaty between England and Spain only permits the seizure
+    of vessels having slaves actually on board, many of these watch
+    their opportunity on the coast, run in, and receive all their
+    slaves on board in a single day.' * * 'By an official document
+    from Rio de Janeiro, it appears that the following importations
+    of slaves were made into that port in 1826 and 1827.
+
+      '1826, landed alive, 35,966 ... died on the passage 1,905
+      '1827, landed alive, 41,384 ... died on the passage 1,643
+
+    'Thus it would seem, (says the Boston Gazette,) that to only one
+    port in the Brazils, and in the course of two years,
+    _seventy-seven thousand three hundred and fifty_ human beings
+    were transported from their own country, and placed in a state
+    of slavery.'--[African Repository, vol. i. v. pp. 179, 181.]
+
+
+    'It is not by legal arguments, or penal statutes, or armed
+    ships, that the slave trade can be prevented. Almost every power
+    in Christendom has denounced it. It has been declared felony--it
+    has been declared piracy; and the fleets of Britain and America
+    have been commissioned to drive it from the ocean. Still, in
+    defiance of all this array of legislation and of armament, slave
+    ships ride triumphant on the ocean; and in these floating
+    caverns, less terrible only than the caverns which demons
+    occupy, from sixty to eighty thousand wretches, received
+    pinioned from the coast of Africa, are borne annually away to
+    slavery or death. Of these wretches a frightful number are, with
+    an audacity that amazes, landed and disposed of within the
+    jurisdiction of this republic.'--[Idem, vol. v. 274.]
+
+
+    'Notwithstanding all the efforts that have been made to suppress
+    the slave trade, by means of solemn treaties and laws declaring
+    it to be piracy; and notwithstanding the attempts to
+    exterminate it by the naval forces of the United States and
+    Great Britain, the inhuman traffic is still pursued to as great
+    an extent as at any former period, and with greater cruelty than
+    ever.'--[African Repository, vol. vi. p. 345.]
+
+
+    'The slave trade, which many suppose has been every where
+    abolished for years, there is reason to believe is still carried
+    on to almost as great an extent as ever. It has been recently
+    stated in the papers, that an association of merchants at Nantz,
+    in France, had undertaken to supply the island of Cuba with
+    thirty thousand fresh negro slaves annually! And in Brazil, it
+    is well known, that for several years past, the importations
+    have even exceeded this number.'--[Idem, vol. vii. p. 248.]
+
+
+    'Africa, for three long centuries, has been ravaged by the slave
+    trade. Notwithstanding all that has been done to suppress that
+    traffic, notwithstanding its formal abolition by all civilized
+    nations, it is carried on at the present hour, _with all its
+    atrocities unmitigated_. The flags of France, Portugal, Brazil,
+    and Spain, with the connivance of those governments, afford to
+    the slave trader, in spite of laws and treaties and armed
+    cruisers, a partial protection, of which he avails himself to
+    the utmost. And with what cruelty he carries on his war against
+    human nature, every year affords us illustrations sufficiently
+    horrible.'--[Christian Spectator for September, 1830.]
+
+
+    'This horrible traffic, notwithstanding its abolition by every
+    civilized nation in the world, except Portugal and Brazil, and
+    notwithstanding the decided measures of the British and American
+    governments, is still carried on to almost as great an extent as
+    ever. Not less than 60,000 slaves, according to the most
+    moderate computation, are carried from Africa annually. This
+    trade is carried on by Americans to the American states. And the
+    cruelties of this trade, which always surpassed the powers of
+    the human mind to conceive, _are greater now than they ever were
+    before_. We might, but we will not, refer to stories, recent
+    stories, of which the very recital would be torment.'--[Seventh
+    Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Notwithstanding the vigilance of the powers now engaged to
+    suppress the slave trade, I have received information, that in a
+    single year, in the single island of Cuba, slaves equal in
+    amount to one half of the above number of fifty-two thousand
+    have been illicitly introduced.' * * 'Mr Mercer submitted the
+    following preamble and resolutions:--Whereas, to the affliction
+    of the Christian world, the African slave trade, notwithstanding
+    all the efforts, past and present, for its suppression, still
+    exists and is conducted _with aggravated cruelty_, by the
+    resources of one continent, to the dishonor of another, and to
+    an extent little short of the desolation of a third,'
+    &c.--[Tenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'It is painful to state, that the Managers have reason to
+    believe that the slave trade is still prosecuted, to a great
+    extent, and with circumstances of undiminished atrocity. The
+    fact, that much was done by Mr Ashmun to banish it from the
+    territory, under the colonial jurisdiction, is unquestionable;
+    but, _it now exists, even on this territory_; and a little to
+    the north and south of Liberia, it is seen in its true
+    characters--of fraud, rapine, and blood! In the opinion of the
+    late Agent, the present efforts to suppress this trade must
+    prove abortive.'--[Thirteenth Annual Report.]
+
+
+    'Some appalling facts in regard to the slave trade have come to
+    the knowledge of the Board of Managers during the last year.
+    _With undiminished atrocity and activity_ is this odious traffic
+    now carried on _all along the African coast_. Slave factories
+    are established _in the immediate vicinity of the Colony_, and
+    at the Gallinas (between Liberia and Sierra Leone) not less than
+    nine hundred slaves were shipped during the last summer, in the
+    space of three weeks.'--[Fourteenth Annual Report, 1831.]
+
+
+    'In defiance of all laws enacted, it is estimated that no less
+    than _fifty thousand_ Africans were, during the last year,
+    (1831,) carried into foreign slavery. During the months of
+    February and March of the same year, two thousand were landed
+    on the island of Cuba.'--[Circular published by the
+    Massachusetts Colonization Society for 1832.]
+
+Here, then, is the acknowledgment of the Society, that it has
+accomplished _nothing_ toward the suppression of the slave trade in
+fifteen years! Nor has the settlement at Sierra Leone effected aught in
+thirty years! Nor have the untiring labors of Wilberforce and Clarkson,
+for a longer period, produced any visible effect! The accursed traffic
+still continues to increase--and why? Simply _because the market for
+slaves is not destroyed_. Break up this market, and you annihilate the
+slave trade. Keep it open, and you may line the shores of Africa and
+America with naval ships and armed troops, and the trade will continue.
+No proposition in Euclid is plainer. So long as there is a brisk market
+for goods, that market will be supplied. The assertion has been made in
+Congress by Mr Mercer of Virginia, (one of the Vice-Presidents of the
+Society,) that these horrible cargoes are smuggled into our southern
+states to a deplorable extent. In 1819, Mr Middleton, of South Carolina,
+declared it to be his belief 'that 13,000 Africans were annually
+smuggled into our southern states.' Mr Wright of Virginia estimated the
+number at 15,000!!!--[_Vide_ Seventh Annual Report--app.]--This number
+is seven times as great as that which the Colonization Society has
+transported in fifteen years![AD] By letting the system of slavery
+alone, then, and striving to protect it, the Society is encouraging and
+perpetuating the foreign slave trade!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Y] 'We think the annual increase, as computed by Capt. Stuart, too low
+by 10 or 15,000. The estimate also of the expense of transportation is
+much below the actual cost. Besides, there is no provision made for the
+support of these helpless beings after their arrival in Africa, until
+they could provide for their own wants. Double the cost of
+transportation would be required for their subsistence till they could
+maintain themselves, without making any provision for implements of
+husbandry, mechanics' tools, &c. &c. without which they would all
+perish, even without the help of a pestiferous climate. But yet the
+table shows at one view the utter futility of the whole scheme of
+African Colonization. Slavery can no more be removed by these means than
+the waters of the Mississippi can be exhausted by steam engines. And the
+removal of slavery is the great consummation to which all benevolent
+efforts for benefitting the African race in this country, should
+ultimately tend. All schemes that do not promote this end will prove
+futile, and will end in disappointment. The axe must be laid to the root
+of the corrupt tree. It is a system that admits of no palliation, no
+compromise.'--['Herald of Truth,' Philadelphia.]
+
+[Z] 'Every emigrant to Africa is a _missionary_ carrying with him
+credentials in the holy cause of civilization, religion, and free
+institutions'!!--[Speech of H. Clay--Tenth Annual Report.]--Why does not
+Mr Clay increase this band of _missionaries_, by sending out some of his
+own slaves? Is he consistent?
+
+[AA] 'As to the morals of the colonists, I consider them _much better
+than those of the people of the United States_. That is, you may take an
+equal number of inhabitants from any section of the Union, and you will
+find more drunkards, more profane swearers and Sabbath breakers, &c.,
+than in Liberia. Indeed I know of no country where things are conducted
+more quietly and orderly than in this colony; you rarely hear an oath,
+and as to riots or breaches of the peace, I recollect of but one
+instance, and that of a trifling nature, that has come under my notice
+since I assumed the government of the colony. The Sabbath is more
+strictly observed than I ever saw it in the United States.'--[Letter
+from J. Mechlin, Jr. Governor of the Colony of Liberia.]
+
+'I saw no intemperance, nor did I hear a profane word uttered by any
+one.' [Letter of Capt. William Abels.]
+
+If these statements be a true representation of the moral condition of
+the colonists; if 'their morals are much better than those of the people
+of the United States;' let us immediately bring back these expatriated
+_missionaries_ to civilize and reform ourselves; for, according to our
+own confession, we need their instruction and example as much as any
+heathen nation. If these 'missionaries,' who, in this country, could
+'scarcely be reached in their debasement by the heavenly light;' if
+these 'most degraded, most abandoned beings on the earth,' have actually
+risen up to this exalted height of intelligence and purity, in so brief
+a period after a separation from ourselves, how desperately wicked and
+corrupt does the fact make our own conduct appear!
+
+[AB] Of this number, nearly three-fourths were free persons of color. If
+the Society is anxious to emancipate the slaves, why does it not confine
+its efforts exclusively to their transportation, seeing so many are
+offered for that purpose? Doubtless the reply will be--'O, it is
+important, in the incipient state of the colony, to send free persons of
+color, because they are more intelligent and virtuous.' Ah! is it so?
+What! give the preference to those whom it elsewhere brands as 'more
+corrupt, depraved and abandoned than the slaves can be,' and who
+'contribute greatly to the _corruption of the slaves_?' 'O!' it may
+reply, 'a careful selection is made between the virtuous and
+vicious--none are sent whose character is not reputable.' But what is to
+become of this choice selection, when it is able (as it hopes to be) to
+send off even as many as seventy thousand annually?
+
+[AC] 'The expense of transporting such persons from the United States to
+the coast of Africa, has been variously estimated. By those who compute
+it at the lowest rate, the mere expense of this transportation has been
+estimated at $20 per head. In this estimate, however, is not
+comprehended the expense of transporting the persons destined for
+Africa, to the port of their departure from the United States, or the
+necessary expense of sustaining them, either there or in Africa, for a
+reasonable time after their first arrival. All these expenses combined,
+the Committee think they estimate very low, when they compute the amount
+at $100 per head. It has been estimated by some at double this amount;
+and if past experience may be relied upon as proving any thing, the
+official documents formerly furnished to the Senate by the Department of
+the Navy, show that the expenses attending the transportation of the few
+captured slaves who have been returned to Africa by the United States,
+at the expense of this government, _far exceeds even the largest
+estimate_. But taking the expense to be only what the Committee have
+estimated it: Then the sum requisite to transport the whole number of
+the free colored population of the United States, would exceed
+twenty-eight millions of dollars; and the expense of transporting a
+number, equal only to the mere annual increase of this population, would
+exceed seven hundred thousand dollars per annum. Sums which would impose
+upon the people of this country, an additional burthen of taxation,
+greater than this Committee believe they could easily bear; and much
+greater than ought to be imposed upon them for any such purpose.' * *
+'The annual increase of the slave population, at present, is at least
+57,000. Now allow the same sum per head for the transportation of these
+persons, that has been estimated for the transportation in the other
+similar case; and the sum requisite to defray the expense of the
+transportation of all the slaves in the United States, would be one
+hundred and ninety millions of dollars; and that requisite to defray the
+expense of the transportation of a number only equal to their mere
+annual increase, would be five millions seven hundred thousand dollars
+per annum. But to either of these sums must be added the reasonable
+equivalent, or necessary aid, to be paid by the United States to humane
+individuals, in order to induce them voluntarily to part with their
+property. The Committee have no 'data' by which they can measure what
+this might be. But any sum, however small, will make so great an
+augmentation of the amount, as almost to baffle calculation, and to
+exhibit this project at once, as one exceeding, very far, indeed, any
+revenue which the United States could ever draw from their citizens,
+even if the object was to increase and multiply, instead of reducing the
+numbers of the class of productive labor.'--[Mr Tazewell's Report--U. S.
+Senate, 1828.]
+
+[AD] The following amusing anecdote is a capital illustration of the
+folly of those colonizationists, who are endeavoring to suppress the
+rising tide of our colored population by extracting a few drops annually
+with their 'mop and pattens.' Dame Partington is clearly outdone by
+them, in regard to pertinacity of purpose and feebleness of execution.
+Rev. Sidney Smith, in his speech at the Taunton meeting, (England,)
+said:
+
+'The attempt of the House of Lords to stop the progress of Reform,
+reminded him of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington, during the
+great storm at Sidmouth, in 1824. The tide rose to an incredible height;
+the waves rushed in upon the houses, and every thing was threatened with
+destruction. In the midst of the fearful commotion of the elements, Dame
+Partington, who lived upon the sea beach, was seen at the door of her
+house, with mop and pattens, trundling her mop and sweeping out the sea
+water, and vigorously pushing back the Atlantic. The Atlantic was
+roused, and so was Mrs. Partington; but the contest was unequal. The
+Atlantic beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop or a puddle,
+but she could do nothing with a tempest.'
+
+
+END OF PART I.
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION.
+
+PART II.
+
+
+
+
+SENTIMENTS OF THE PEOPLE OF COLOR.
+
+
+If the American Colonization Society were indeed actuated by the purest
+motives and the best feelings toward the objects of its supervision; if
+it were not based upon injustice, fraud, persecution and incorrigible
+prejudice; still if its purposes be contrary to the wishes and injurious
+to the interests of the free people of color, it ought not to receive
+the countenance of the public. Even the trees of the forest are keenly
+susceptible to every touch of violence, and seem to deprecate
+transplantation to a foreign soil. Even birds and animals pine in exile
+from their native haunts; their local attachments are wonderful; they
+migrate only to return again at the earliest opportunity. Perhaps there
+is not a living thing, from the hugest animal down to the minutest
+animalcule, whose pleasant associations are not circumscribed, or that
+has not some favorite retreats. This universal preference, this love of
+_home_, seems to be the element of being,--a constitutional attribute
+given by the all-wise Creator to bind each separate tribe or community
+within intelligent and well-defined limits: for, in its absence, order
+would be banished from the world, collision between the countless
+orders of creation would be perpetual, and violence would depopulate the
+world with more than pestilential rapidity.
+
+Shall it be said that beings endowed with high intellectual powers,
+sustaining the most important relations, created for social enjoyments,
+and made but a little lower than the angels--shall it be said that their
+local attachments are less tenacious than those of trees, and birds, and
+beasts, and insects? I know that the blacks are classed, by some, who
+scarcely give any evidence of their own humanity but their shape, among
+the brute creation: but are they _below_ the brutes? or are they more
+insensible to rude assaults than forest-trees?
+
+'Men,' says an erratic but powerful writer[AE]--'men are like trees:
+they delight in a rude [and native] soil--they strike their roots
+downward with a perpetual effort, and heave their proud branches upward
+in perpetual strife. Are they to be removed?--you must tear up the very
+earth with their roots, rock and ore and impurity, or they perish. They
+cannot be translated with safety. Something of their home--a little of
+their native soil, must cling to them forever, or they die.'
+
+This love of home, of neighborhood, of country, is inherent in the human
+breast. It accompanies the child from its earliest reminiscence up to
+old age: it is written upon every tangible and permanent object within
+the habitual cognizance of the eye--upon stone, and tree, and
+rivulet--upon the green hill, and the verdant plain, and the opulent
+valley--upon house, and garden, and steeple-spire--upon the soil,
+whether it be rough or smooth, sandy or hard, barren or luxuriant.
+
+    'Like ivy, where it grows, 'tis seen
+    To wear an everlasting green.'
+
+The man who does not cherish it is regarded as destitute of sensibility;
+and to him is applied by common consent the burning rebuke of Sir Walter
+Scott:
+
+    'Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
+    Who never to himself hath said,
+      This is my own, my native land!
+    Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
+    As home his footsteps he hath turned,
+      From wandering on a foreign strand!
+    If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
+    For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
+    High though his titles, proud his name,
+    Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
+    Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
+    The wretch, concentred all in self,
+    Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
+    And, doubly dying, shall go down
+    To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
+    Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.'
+
+Whose bosom does not thrill with pleasurable emotion whenever he listens
+to that truest, sweetest, tenderest effusion,--'Home, sweet home?'
+
+    ''Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
+    Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;
+    A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
+    Which, seek thro' the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
+                  Home--home!
+                  Sweet, sweet home!
+            _There's no place like home!_
+
+    'An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain--
+    O give me my lowly thatched cottage again;
+    The birds singing gaily that came at my call--
+    Give me them, with the peace of mind dearer than all!
+                  Home--home!
+                  Sweet, sweet home!
+            _There's no place like home!_'
+
+No one will understand me to maintain that population should never be
+thinned by foreign emigration; but only that such an emigration is
+unnatural. The great mass of a neighborhood or country must necessarily
+be stable: only fractions are cast off and float away on the tide of
+adventure. Individual enterprise or estrangement is one thing: the
+translation of an entire people to an unknown clime, another. The former
+may be moved by a single impulse--by a love of novelty, or a desire of
+gain, or a hope of preferment: he leaves no perceptible void in
+society. The latter can never be expatriated but by some extraordinary
+calamity, or by the application of intolerable restraints. They must
+first be rendered broken-hearted or loaded with chains--hope must not
+merely sicken but die--cord after cord must be sundered--ere they will
+seek another home. Our pilgrim-fathers were driven out from the mother
+country by ecclesiastical domination: to worship God according to the
+dictates of their own consciences, was the only cause of their exile.
+Had they been permitted to enjoy this sacred right,--no matter how great
+were their temporal privations, or their hopes of physical
+enjoyments,--they would not have perilled their lives on the stormy
+deep, to obtain an asylum in this western hemisphere.
+
+It may be said, in reply to the foregoing remarks upon the love of home
+and of country, that the people of color cannot cherish this abhorrence
+of migration, because here they have no 'continuing city,' and are not
+recognised as fellow-countrymen. In PART I., I have shown, by copious
+extracts, that colonizationists artfully represent them as aliens and
+foreigners, wanderers from Africa--destitute of that _amor patriae_,
+which is the bond of union--seditious--without
+alliances--irresponsible--unambitious--cherishing no attachment to the
+soil--feeling no interest in our national prosperity--ready for any
+adventure--eager to absent themselves from the land--malignant in their
+feelings towards society--incapable of local preference--content to
+remain in ignorance and degradation--&c. &c. &c.
+
+Every such representation is a libel, as I shall show in subsequent
+pages. The language of the people of color is,--'This is our country:
+here were we born--here will we live and die--we know of no other place
+that we can call our true and appropriate home--here are our earliest
+and most pleasant associations--we are freemen, we are brethren, we are
+countrymen and fellow-citizens--we are not for insurrection, but for
+peace and equality.' This is not the language of sedition or alienated
+affection. Their _amor patriae_ is robust and deathless: like the oak,
+tempests do but strengthen its roots and confer victory upon it. Even
+the soil on which the unhappy slave toils and bleeds, is to him
+consecrated earth.
+
+African colonization is directly and irreconcileably opposed to the
+wishes of our colored population as a body. Their desires ought to be
+tenderly regarded. In all my intercourse with them in various towns and
+cities, I have never seen one of their number who was friendly to this
+scheme--and I have not been backward in canvassing their opinions on
+this subject. They are as unanimously opposed to a removal to Africa, as
+the Cherokees from the council-fires and graves of their fathers. It is
+remarkable, too, that they are as united in their respect and esteem for
+the republic of Hayti. But _this is their country_--they are resolute
+against every migratory plot, and willing to rely on the justice of the
+nation for an ultimate restoration to all their lost rights and
+privileges. What is the fact? Through the instrumentality of BENJAMIN
+LUNDY,[AF] the distinguished and veteran champion of emancipation, a
+great highway has been opened to the Haytien republic, over which our
+colored population may travel _toll free_, and at the end of their brief
+journey be the free occupants of the soil, and meet such a reception as
+was never yet given to any sojourners in any country, since the
+departure of Israel into Egypt. One would think, that, with such
+inducements and under such circumstances, this broad thoroughfare would
+present a most animating spectacle; that the bustle and roar of a
+journeying multitude would fall upon the ear like the strife of the
+ocean, or the distant thunder of the retiring storm; and that the song
+of the oppressor and the oppressed, a song of deliverance to each, would
+go up to heaven, till its echoes were seemingly the responses of angels
+and justified spirits. But it is not so. Only here and there a traveller
+is seen to enter upon the road--there is no noise of preparation or
+departure; but a silence, deeper than the breathlessness of midnight,
+rests upon our land--not a shout of joy is heard throughout our
+borders!
+
+How shall we account for this amazing apathy but on the ground that our
+colored population are unwilling to leave their native homes, no matter
+how strong soever are the inducements held out to them abroad?
+
+If it be said that they are not compelled to emigrate against their
+wishes--I answer, it is true that direct _physical force_ is not
+applied; but why are they induced to remove? Is it because they
+instinctively prefer Africa to their native country? Do they actually
+_court_ the perils of the sea,--the hostilities of a savage tribe,--the
+sickening influences of an African climate? Or are they not peremptorily
+assured that they never can, _and never shall_, enjoy their rights and
+privileges at home--and thus absolutely compelled to leave all that is
+dear behind, and to seek a shelter in a strange land--a land of darkness
+and cruelty, of barbarism and wo?
+
+The free people of color, and even the slaves, have on numerous
+occasions given ocular demonstration of their attachment to this
+country. Large numbers of them were distinguished for their patient
+endurance, their ardent devotion, and their valorous conduct during our
+revolutionary struggle. In the last war, they signalized themselves in a
+manner which extorted the applause even of their calumniators--of many
+who are doubtless at the present day representing them as seditious and
+inimical to the prosperity of the country. I have before me a
+Proclamation in the French language, issued by General Andrew Jackson,
+of which the following is a translation:
+
+    'PROCLAMATION TO THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR.
+
+    'Soldiers!--When on the banks of the Mobile, I called you to
+    take up arms, inviting you to partake the perils and glory of
+    your white fellow citizens, _I expected much from you_; for I
+    was not ignorant that you possessed qualities most formidable to
+    an invading enemy. I knew with what fortitude you could endure
+    hunger and thirst, and all the fatigues of a campaign. _I knew
+    well how you loved your_ NATIVE _country_, and that you had, as
+    well as ourselves, to defend what man holds most dear--his
+    parents, relations, wife, children and property. YOU HAVE DONE
+    MORE THAN I EXPECTED. In addition to the previous qualities I
+    before knew you to possess, I found, moreover, among you _a
+    noble enthusiasm_ which leads to the performance of great
+    things.
+
+    'Soldiers!--The President of the United States shall hear how
+    praiseworthy was your conduct in the hour of danger, and the
+    Representatives of the American people will, I doubt not, give
+    you the praise your exploits entitle you to. _Your General
+    anticipates them in applauding your noble ardor._
+
+    'The enemy approaches; his vessels cover our lakes; our brave
+    citizens are united, and all contention has ceased among them.
+    Their only dispute is, who shall win the prize of valor, or who
+    the most glory, its noblest reward.
+
+    'By order.
+
+                 'THOMAS BUTLER, _Aid de Camp_.'
+
+In commenting upon the above Proclamation, an intelligent writer in the
+New-Orleans 'LIBERALIST' of March 15, 1830, very expressively
+remarks:--'Those who served in the memorable campaign of 1814 will know
+if the hero of the west was guilty of exaggeration. Just as fatal as was
+every glance of his keen eye to the English lines, so is every word of
+this Proclamation a killing thunderbolt to the detractors of this
+portion of our fellow beings, now so inhumanly persecuted.' Yes--when
+peril rears its crest, and invasion threatens our shores, then prejudice
+is forgotten and the tongue of detraction is still--then the people of
+color are no longer brutes or a race between men and monkeys, no longer
+turbulent or useless, no longer aliens and wanderers from Africa--but
+they are complimented as intelligent, patriotic citizens from whom much
+is expected, and who have property, home and country at stake! Ay, and
+richly do they merit this compliment.
+
+A respectable colored gentleman in the city of New-York, referring to
+this famous Proclamation, makes the following brief comment: 'When we
+could be of any use to the army, we possessed all the cardinal virtues;
+but now that time has passed, we forsooth are the most miserable,
+worthless beings the Lord in his wise judgment ever sent to curse the
+rulers of this troublesome world! I feel an anathema rising from my
+heart, but I have suppressed it.'
+
+How black is the ingratitude, how pitiful the hypocrisy, manifested in
+our conduct as a people, toward our colored population! Every cheek
+should wear the blush of shame--every head be bowed in self-abasement!
+
+From the organization of the American Colonization Society, down to the
+present time, the free people of color have publicly and repeatedly
+expressed their opposition to it. They indignantly reject every overture
+for their expatriation. It has been industriously circulated by the
+advocates of colonization, that I have caused this hostility to the
+African scheme in the bosoms of the blacks; and that, until the
+Liberator was established, they were friendly to it. This story is
+founded upon sheer ignorance. It is my solemn conviction that I have not
+proselyted a dozen individuals; for the very conclusive reason that no
+conversions were necessary. Their sentiments were familiar to me long
+before they knew my own. My opponents abundantly overrate my influence,
+in acknowledging that I have overthrown, in a single year, the
+concentrated energies of the mightiest men in the land, and the
+perpetual labors of fifteen years. They shall not make me vain. Such a
+concession affords substantial evidence of perverted strength and
+misapplied exertion.
+
+If the people of color were instantly to signify their willingness to
+emigrate, my hostility to the American Colonization Society would
+scarcely abate one jot: for their assent could never justify the
+principles and doctrines propagated by the Society. Those principles and
+doctrines have been shown, I trust, to be corrupt, selfish,
+proscriptive, opposed to the genius of republicanism and to the spirit
+of christianity.
+
+The first public demonstration of hostility to the colonization scheme
+was made in 1817, by the free colored inhabitants of Richmond, Virginia.
+The proceedings of their meeting, copies of which were printed for
+distribution, I have accidentally mislaid. To the sentiments of the
+people of color, as expressed in the following pages, I cannot too
+earnestly solicit the serious attention of every good man and true
+philanthropist. After such an exhibition, persistance in expelling this
+portion of our population from our shores must be productive of
+aggravated guilt and the most dreadful collisions.
+
+
+A VOICE PROM PHILADELPHIA.
+
+                        PHILADELPHIA, January, 1817.
+
+At a numerous meeting of the people of color, convened at Bethel church,
+to take into consideration the propriety of remonstrating against the
+contemplated measure, that is to exile us from the land of our nativity;
+James Forten was called to the chair, and Russell Parrott appointed
+secretary. The intent of the meeting having been stated by the chairman,
+the following resolutions were adopted, without one dissenting voice.
+
+Whereas our ancestors (not of choice) were the first successful
+cultivators of the wilds of America, we their descendants feel ourselves
+entitled to participate in the blessings of her luxuriant soil, which
+their blood and sweat manured; and that any measure or system of
+measures, having a tendency to banish us from her bosom, would not only
+be cruel, but in direct violation of those principles, which have been
+the boast of this republic.
+
+Resolved, That we view with deep abhorrence the unmerited stigma
+attempted to be cast upon the reputation of the free people of color, by
+the promoters of this measure, 'that they are a dangerous and useless
+part of the community,' when in the state of disfranchisement in which
+they live, in the hour of danger they ceased to remember their wrongs,
+and rallied around the standard of their country.
+
+Resolved, That we never will separate ourselves voluntarily from the
+slave population in this country; they are our brethren by the ties of
+consanguinity, of suffering, and of wrong; and we feel that there is
+more virtue in suffering privations with them, than fancied advantages
+for a season.
+
+Resolved, That without arts, without science, without a proper knowledge
+of government, to cast into the savage wilds of Africa the free people
+of color, seems to us the circuitous route through which they must
+return to perpetual bondage.
+
+Resolved, That having the strongest confidence in the justice of God,
+and philanthropy of the free states, we cheerfully submit our destinies
+to the guidance of Him who suffers not a sparrow to fall, without his
+special providence.
+
+Resolved, That a committee of eleven persons be appointed to open a
+correspondence with the honorable Joseph Hopkinson, member of Congress
+from this city, and likewise to inform him of the sentiments of this
+meeting, and that the following named persons constitute the committee,
+and that they have power to call a general meeting, when they in their
+judgment may deem it proper.
+
+Rev. Absalom Jones, Rev. Richard Allen, James Forten, Robert Douglass,
+Francis Perkins, Rev. John Gloucester, Robert Gorden, James Johnson,
+Quamoney Clarkson, John Summersett, Randall Shepherd.
+
+                        JAMES FORTEN, Chairman.
+
+RUSSELL PARROTT, Secretary.
+
+
+At a numerous meeting of the free people of color of the city and county
+of Philadelphia, held in pursuance of public notice, at the school house
+in Green's court, on the evening of August 10th, for the purpose of
+taking into consideration the plan of colonizing the free people of
+color of the United States, on the coast of Africa, James Forten was
+appointed chairman, and Russell Parrott, secretary.
+
+Resolved unanimously, That the following address, signed on behalf of
+the meeting, by the Chairman and Secretary, be published and circulated.
+
+    _To the humane and benevolent Inhabitants of the city and county
+                            of Philadelphia._
+
+The free people of color, assembled together, under circumstances of
+deep interest to their happiness and welfare, humbly and respectfully
+lay before you this expression of their feelings and apprehensions.
+
+Relieved from the miseries of slavery, many of us by your aid,
+possessing the benefits which industry and integrity in this prosperous
+country assure to all its inhabitants, enjoying the rich blessings of
+religion, by opportunities of worshipping the only true God, under the
+light of Christianity, each of us according to his understanding; and
+having afforded to us and to our children the means of education and
+improvement; we have no wish to separate from our present homes, for any
+purpose whatever. Contented with our present situation and condition, we
+are not desirous of increasing their prosperity but by honest efforts,
+and by the use of those opportunities for their improvement, which the
+constitution and laws allow to all. It is therefore with painful
+solicitude, and sorrowing regret, we have seen a plan for colonizing the
+free people of color of the United States on the coast of Africa,
+brought forward under the auspices and sanction of gentlemen whose names
+give value to all they recommend, and who certainly are among the
+wisest, the best, and the most benevolent of men, in this great nation.
+
+If the plan of colonizing is intended for our benefit; and those who now
+promote it, will never seek our injury; we humbly and respectfully urge,
+that it is not asked for by us; nor will it be required by any
+circumstances, in our present or future condition; as long as we shall
+be permitted to share the protection of the excellent laws and just
+government which we now enjoy, in common with every individual of the
+community.
+
+We, therefore, a portion of those who are the objects of this plan, and
+among those whose happiness, with that of others of our color, it is
+intended to promote; with humble and grateful acknowledgments to those
+who have devised it, renounce and disclaim every connexion with it; and
+respectfully but firmly declare our determination not to participate in
+any part of it.
+
+If this plan of colonization now proposed, is intended to provide a
+refuge and a dwelling for a portion of our brethren, who are now held in
+slavery in the south, we have other and stronger objections to it, and
+we entreat your consideration of them.
+
+The ultimate and final abolition of slavery in the United States, by the
+operation of various causes, is, under the guidance and protection of a
+just God, progressing. Every year witnesses the release of numbers of
+the victims of oppression, and affords new and safe assurances that the
+freedom of all will be in the end accomplished. As they are thus by
+degrees relieved from bondage, our brothers have opportunities for
+instruction and improvement; and thus they become in some measure fitted
+for their liberty. Every year, many of us have restored to us by the
+gradual, but certain march of the cause of abolition--parents, from whom
+we have been long separated--wives and children whom we had left in
+servitude--and brothers, in blood as well as in early sufferings, from
+whom we had been long parted.
+
+But if the emancipation of our kindred shall, when the plan of
+colonization shall go into effect, be attended with transportation to a
+distant land, and shall be granted on no other condition; the
+consolation for our past sufferings and of those of our color who are in
+slavery, which have hitherto been, and under the present situation of
+things would continue to be, afforded to us and to them, will cease for
+ever. The cords, which now connect them with us, will be stretched by
+the distance to which their ends will be carried, until they break; and
+all the sources of happiness, which affection and connexion and blood
+bestow, will be ours and theirs no more.
+
+Nor do we view the colonization of those who may become emancipated by
+its operation among our southern brethren, as capable of producing their
+happiness. Unprepared by education, and a knowledge of the truths of our
+blessed religion, for their new situation, those who will thus become
+colonists will themselves be surrounded by every suffering which can
+afflict the members of the human family.
+
+Without arts, without habits of industry, and unaccustomed to provide by
+their own exertions and foresight for their wants, the colony will soon
+become the abode of every vice, and the home of every misery. Soon will
+the light of Christianity, which now dawns among that portion of our
+species, be shut out by the clouds of ignorance, and their day of life
+be closed, without the illuminations of the gospel.
+
+To those of our brothers, who shall be left behind, there will be
+assured perpetual slavery and augmented sufferings. Diminished in
+numbers, the slave population of the southern states, which by its
+magnitude alarms its proprietors, will be easily secured. Those among
+their bondmen, who feel that they should be free, by rights which all
+mankind have from God and from nature, and who thus may become dangerous
+to the quiet of their masters, will be sent to the colony; and the tame
+and submissive will be retained, and subjected to increased rigor. Year
+after year will witness these means to assure safety and submission
+among their slaves, and the southern masters will colonize only those
+whom it may be dangerous to keep among them. The bondage of a large
+portion of our brothers will thus be rendered perpetual.
+
+Should the anticipations of misery and want among the colonists, which
+with great deference we have submitted to your better judgment, be
+realized; to emancipate and transport to Africa will be held forth by
+slaveholders as the worst and heaviest of punishments; and they will be
+threatened and successfully used to enforce increased submission to
+their wishes, and subjection to their commands.
+
+Nor ought the sufferings and sorrows, which must be produced by an
+exercise of the right to transport and colonize such only of their
+slaves as may be selected by the slaveholders, escape the attention and
+consideration of those whom with all humility we now address. Parents
+will be torn from their children--husbands from their wives--brothers
+from brothers--and all the heart-rending agonies which were endured by
+our forefathers when they were dragged into bondage from Africa, will be
+again renewed, and with increased anguish. The shores of America will,
+like the sands of Africa, be watered by the tears of those who will be
+left behind. Those who shall be carried away will roam childless,
+widowed, and alone, over the burning plains of Guinea.
+
+Disclaiming, as we emphatically do, a wish or desire to interpose our
+opinions and feelings between all plans of colonization, and the
+judgment of those whose wisdom as far exceeds ours as their situations
+are exalted above ours; _we humbly_, respectfully, and fervently
+intreat and beseech your disapprobation of the plan of colonization now
+offered by 'the American Society for colonizing the free people of color
+of the United States.'--Here, in the city of Philadelphia, where the
+voice of the suffering sons of Africa was first heard; where was first
+commenced the work of abolition, on which heaven has smiled, for it
+could have had success only from the Great Maker; let not a purpose be
+assisted which will stay the cause of the entire abolition of slavery in
+the United States, and which may defeat it altogether; which proffers to
+those who do not ask for them what it calls benefits, but which they
+consider injuries; and which must insure to the multitudes whose prayers
+can only reach you through us, MISERY, _sufferings, and perpetual
+slavery_.
+
+                        JAMES FORTEN, Chairman.
+
+RUSSELL PARROTT, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM NEW-YORK.
+
+                        NEW-YORK, January, 1831.
+
+At a public meeting of the colored citizens of New-York, held at Boyer
+Lodge Room, on Tuesday evening, the 25th ult. Mr Samuel Ennals was
+called to the chair, and Mr Philip Bell appointed secretary. The
+chairman stated that the object of the meeting was to take into
+consideration the proceedings of an association, under the title of the
+'New-York Colonization Society.' An address to the 'Citizens of
+New-York' relative to that Society, was read from the Commercial
+Advertiser of the 8th ult.; whereupon the following resolutions were
+unanimously adopted.
+
+Whereas a number of gentlemen in this city, of mistaken views with
+respect to the wishes and welfare of the people of this state, on the
+subject of African colonization, and in pursuance of such mistaken views
+are using every exertion to form 'African Colonization Societies;' and
+whereas a public document, purporting to be an address to the people of
+the 'city of New-York' on this subject, contains opinions and assertions
+regarding the people of color as unfounded as they are unjust and
+derogatory to them--Therefore
+
+Resolved, That this meeting do most solemnly protest against the said
+address, as containing sentiments with respect to the people of color,
+unjust, illiberal and unfounded; tending to excite the prejudice of the
+community.
+
+Resolved, That in our opinion the sentiments put forth in the
+resolution at the formation of the 'Colonization Society of the city of
+New-York,' are such as to impress this community with the belief that
+the colored population are a growing evil, immoral, and destitute of
+religious principles.
+
+Resolved, That we view the resolution calling on the worshippers of
+Christ to assist in the unholy crusade against the colored population of
+this country, as totally at variance with true Christian principles.
+
+Resolved, That we claim _this country, the place of our birth, and not
+Africa_, as our mother country, and all attempts to send us to Africa we
+consider as gratuitous and uncalled for.
+
+Resolved, That a committee of three persons be appointed to draft an
+address to the people of New-York, and to be published, together with
+these resolutions, and the same be signed by the Chairman and Secretary.
+
+                        SAMUEL ENNALS, Chairman.
+
+PHILIP BELL, Secretary.
+
+
+_An Address to the Citizens of New-York._
+
+In protesting against the sentiments and declarations to our prejudice
+with which the above noticed 'address' and 'resolutions' abound, we are
+well aware of the power and influence we have attempted to resist. The
+gentlemen named as officers of the 'Colonization Society' are men of
+high standing, their dictum is law in morals with our community; but we
+who feel the effect of their proscription, indulge the hope of an
+impartial hearing.
+
+We believe many of those gentlemen are our friends, and we hope they all
+mean well; we care not how many Colonization Societies they form to send
+slaves from the south to a place where they may enjoy freedom; and if
+they can 'drain the ocean with a bucket,' may send '_with their own
+consent_,' the increasing free colored population: but we solemnly
+protest against that Christian philanthropy which in acknowledging our
+wrongs commits a greater by vilifying us. The conscientious man would
+not kill the animal, but cried 'mad dog,' and the rabble despatched him.
+These gentlemen acknowledge the anomaly of those political ethics which
+make a distinction between man and man, when their foundation is, 'that
+all men are born equal,' and possess in common 'unalienable rights;' and
+to justify the withholding of these 'rights' would proclaim to
+foreigners that we are 'a distinct and inferior race,' without religion
+or morals, and implying that our condition cannot be improved here
+because there exists an unconquerable prejudice in the whites towards
+us. We absolutely deny these positions, and we call upon the learned
+author of the 'address' for the indications of distinction between us
+and other men. There are different _colors_ among all species of
+animated creation. A difference of color is not a difference of species.
+Our structure and organization are the same, and not distinct from other
+men; and in what respects are we inferior? Our political condition we
+admit renders us less respectable, but does it prove us an inferior part
+of the human family? Inferior indeed we are as to the means which we
+possess of becoming wealthy and learned men; and it would argue well for
+the cause of justice, humanity and true religion, if the reverend
+gentlemen whose names are found at the bottom of President Duer's
+address, instead of showing their benevolence by laboring to move us
+some four thousand miles off, were to engage actively in the furtherance
+of plans for the improvement of our moral and political condition in the
+country of our birth. It is too late now to brand with inferiority any
+one of the races of mankind. We ask for proof. Time was when it was
+thought impossible to civilize the red man. Yet our own country presents
+a practical refutation of the vain assertion in the flourishing
+condition of the Cherokees, among whom intelligence and refinement are
+seen in somewhat fairer proportions than are exhibited by some of their
+white neighbors. In the language of a writer of expanded views and truly
+noble sentiments, 'the blacks must be regarded as the real authors of
+most of the arts and sciences which give the whites at present the
+advantage over them. While Greece and Rome were yet barbarous, we find
+the light of learning and improvement emanating from this, by
+supposition, degraded and accursed continent of Africa, out of the midst
+of this very woolly-haired, flat-nosed, thick lipped, and coal black
+race, which some persons are tempted to station at a pretty low
+intermediate point between men and monkeys.'[AG] It is needless to dwell
+on this topic; and we say with the same writer, the blacks had a long
+and glorious day: and after what they have been and done, it argues not
+so much a mistaken theory, as sheer ignorance of the most notorious
+historical facts, to pretend that they are naturally inferior to the
+whites.
+
+We earnestly desire that this address may not be misunderstood. We have
+no objection in the abstract to the Colonization Society; but we do
+protest against the means which that Society uses to effect its
+purposes. It is evident, to any impartial observer, that the natural
+tendency of all their speeches, reports, sermons, &c. is to widen the
+breach between us and the whites, and give to prejudice a tenfold
+vigor. It has produced a mistaken sentiment toward us. Africa is
+considered the home of those who have never seen its shores. The poor
+ignorant slave, who, in all probability, has never heard the name of
+Christ, by the colonization process is suddenly transformed into a
+'missionary,' to instruct in the principles of Christianity and the arts
+of civilized life. The Friends have been the last to aid the system
+pursued by the Society's advocates. And we say (for we feel it) that in
+proportion as they become colonizationists, they become less active and
+less friendly to our welfare as citizens of the United States.
+
+There does exist in the United States a prejudice against us; but is it
+unconquerable? Is it not in the power of these gentlemen to subdue it?
+If their object is to benefit us, why not better our condition here?
+What keeps us down but the want of wealth? Why do we not accumulate
+wealth? Simply because we are not encouraged. If we wish to give our
+boys a classical education, they are refused admission into your
+colleges. If we consume our means in giving them a mercantile education,
+you will not employ them as clerks; if they are taught navigation, you
+will not employ them as captains. If we make them mechanics, you will
+not encourage them, nor will white mechanics work in the same shop with
+them. And with all these disabilities, like a mill-stone about us,
+because we cannot point to our statesmen, bankers and lawyers, we are
+called an inferior race. Look at the glaring injustice towards us. (A
+foreigner, before he knows one of our streets from another, mounts a
+cart under the license of another man, or is a public porter, a
+lamp-lighter, a watchman, &c.)
+
+These gentlemen know but little of a large portion of the colored
+population of this city. Their opinions are formed from the unfortunate
+portion of our people whose characters are scrutinized by them as judges
+of courts. Their patrician principles prevent an intercourse with men in
+the middle walks of life, among whom a large portion of our people may
+be classed. We ask them to visit the dwellings of the respectable part
+of our people, and we are satisfied that they will discover more
+civilization and refinement than will be found among the same number of
+white families of an equal standing.
+
+Finally, we hope that those who have so eloquently pleaded the cause of
+the Indian, will at least endeavor to preserve consistency in their
+conduct. They put no faith in Georgia, although she declares that the
+Indians shall not be removed but '_with their own consent_.' Can they
+blame us if we attach the same credit to the declaration that they mean
+to colonize us 'only with our consent?' They cannot indeed use force;
+that is out of the question. But they harp so much on 'inferiority,'
+'prejudice,' 'distinction,' and what not, that there will no alternative
+be left us but to fall in with their plans. We are content to abide
+where we are. We do not believe that things will always continue the
+same. The time must come when the declaration of independence will be
+felt in the heart as well as uttered from the mouth, and when the rights
+of all shall be properly acknowledged and appreciated. God hasten that
+time. This is our home, and this our country. Beneath its sod lie the
+bones of our fathers: for it some of them fought, bled, and died. Here
+we were born, and here we will die.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM BOSTON.
+
+                        BOSTON, March 12, 1831.
+
+Pursuant to public notice, a meeting was held by the colored citizens of
+Boston, February 15th, at their school-house, for the purpose of
+expressing their sentiments in a remonstrance against the doings of the
+State Colonization Society, Feb. 10th. It was called to order by Mr J.
+G. Barbadoes. Mr Robert Roberts was elected chairman, and Mr James G.
+Barbadoes secretary. A prayer was then offered up to the throne of
+grace, by the Rev. Mr Snowden. The chairman having explained the object
+of the meeting, sundry resolutions were offered by Mr Barbadoes, and
+fairly discussed. On motion, a committee of five was chosen to amend the
+resolutions, and to draft an address to certain white citizens who had
+formed a State Society auxiliary to the American Colonization Society,
+and to the enlightened public. John T. Hilton, James G. Barbadoes, Rev.
+Hosea Easton, Thomas Dalton and Thomas Cole were placed on the
+committee.
+
+
+The committee, to whom was referred the subject of an attempt, by
+certain white citizens, to establish in this State a Society auxiliary
+to the American Colonization Society, whose supposed object was the
+removal of the free colored population to western Africa, have with
+diligence sought for and obtained every fact within their reach,
+relative to what was enjoined upon them by the respectable body by whom
+they were delegated; and now respectfully
+
+REPORT:
+
+That they have attended to the duty with which they were charged, with
+all the wisdom, prudence and fidelity which they possessed, and which
+the merits of the case required. They therefore submit to the
+consideration of the meeting their several conclusions on the subject.
+
+The duty of your committee seemed to be divided into three general
+inquiries:--1st. To ascertain whether the Society above named was truly
+established in this metropolis. 2d. By whom it was established, and for
+what purpose. 3d. If established for the purpose entertained by the free
+colored population, what method should be adopted in regard to
+expressing their disapprobation thereto.
+
+As to the first inquiry, your committee can state, that every doubt is
+now removed respecting the formation of such a Society, the proceedings
+of the meeting being published, together with the names of the officers.
+
+On the second inquiry, your committee refer you to the 2d Article of the
+Constitution of said Society, (published in the Boston Courier of Feb.
+16, 1831,) which reads thus:
+
+    'The object to which this Society shall be exclusively devoted,
+    shall be to aid the parent institution at Washington, in the
+    colonization of the free people of color of the United States on
+    the coast of Africa; and to do this not only by the contribution
+    of money, but by the exertion of its influence to promote the
+    formation of other societies.'
+
+We deem any explanation here unnecessary.
+
+In regard to the third and most essential inquiry, your committee
+report, that they know of no better way of expressing their
+disapprobation of such measures, than to use every exertion to persuade
+their brethren not to leave the United States upon any consideration
+whatever; but if there are or should be any exasperated in consequence
+of abuse from their white countrymen, and who are determined to leave
+the country, we think it desirable to recommend them to Hayti or Upper
+Canada, where they will find the laws equal. Your committee deem it
+expedient also to urge this duty upon the several ministers of color
+throughout the United States, and all other persons of color whose
+influence may have any bearing in preventing their brethren from
+yielding to a request so unjust and cruel.
+
+And if your respectable body should not think your committee were going
+beyond the bounds of their duty, they would recommend the clerical order
+throughout the United States, who have had or who are having any thing
+to do with the deceptive scheme above alluded to, to read the 13th
+chapter of Ezekiel. Read it--read it--and understand it. Your committee
+would recommend those clergymen, who have not defiled their garment with
+the blood of the innocent, to read the 1st, 2nd, 11th and 12th verses of
+the 24th chapter of Proverbs.
+
+In support of the sentiments thus expressed, it becomes necessary that
+our reasons should accompany them, why we object to the plan of dragging
+us to Africa--a country to us unknown, except by geography. In the first
+place, we are told that Africa is our native country; consequently the
+climate will be more congenial to our health. We readily deny the
+assertion. How can a man be born in two countries at the same time? Is
+not the position superficial to suppose that American born citizens are
+Africans? In regard to the climate, what better proof do we want of its
+salubrity, than to know that of the numerous bodies who have embarked, a
+large portion of them have immediately fallen victims, on their arrival,
+to the pestilence usual to that place?
+
+It is again said, that the establishment of a colony on the coast of
+Africa will prevent the slave trade. We might as well argue, that a
+watchman in the city of Boston would prevent thievery in New-York, or
+any other place; or that the custom-house officers there would prevent
+goods being smuggled into any other port of the United States.
+
+We are aware, that such an unnecessary expense devoted to the
+application of a remedy so far from the disease, is absolutely contrary
+to common sense. We are sensible that the moral disease, _slavery_, is
+in America, and not in Africa. If there was no market for the vending of
+slaves, there would be no inducement for the thief to steal them. The
+remedy for this evil, we humbly conceive, consists of three general
+prescriptions, viz. 1st. Let him who stealeth obey the word of God, and
+steal no more. 2d. Let him who hath encouraged the thief by purchase,
+(and consequently is a partaker with him,) do so no more. 3rd. Let the
+clerical physicians, who have encouraged, and are encouraging, both the
+thief and the receiver, by urging their influence to the removal of the
+means of their detection, desist therefrom, and with their mighty weight
+of influence step into the scale of justice: then will be done away this
+horrible traffic in blood.
+
+From the above considerations, we sincerely recommend to our white
+countrymen honor and humanity, which will render useless the
+transportation of the colored population to the coast of Africa, it
+being altogether gratuitous and uncalled for.
+
+We proceed to offer several objections to the operation alluded to--one
+is, the circumstance of the project originating with those who were
+deeply interested in slavery, and who hold slaves as their property. We
+consider the fact no evidence of the innocence of its design. We further
+object, because its members admit slavery to be an evil, and use no
+means to destroy it; but are exerting all their influence to urge every
+free person of color to Africa, (whose right to this soil holds good
+with any other citizen,) thereby rivetting the chains of slavery
+stronger than ever upon their oppressed brethren.
+
+Again we object, because the whole spring of action seems to originate
+in the fear lest the free colored people may whisper liberty in the ears
+of the oppressed. We would suggest, however, that they who are fond of
+liberty should not be annoyed at its sound, from whatever source it may
+come.
+
+Again we object, on the ground of there being sufficient land in the
+United States, on which a colony might be established that would better
+meet the wishes of the colored people, and at a much cheaper rate than
+could possibly be done by sending them to a howling wilderness far away,
+and to them unknown.
+
+One of the leaders of the newly formed Society argued that in case a
+colony was formed for the blacks in the United States, they would in a
+short time be removed, as has been the case with the poor Indians. To
+obviate this objection, we here inform him that Hayti will hold all the
+slaves he will send her; and as for the free people, we expect they can
+go where they please, either to Africa, Hayti or Upper Canada, or remain
+at home, without asking the consent of a slaveholding party. Nor can we
+conceive why free citizens, acting this liberty, should interfere with
+them, if they are--as they have represented themselves to be--honest and
+benevolent men. We conceive that the question in view stands in two
+distinct points--the removal of the free colored population from this
+country, or the acknowledgment of them as citizens. The former position
+must be acknowledged, on all sides, a means of perpetuating slavery in
+our land; the latter, of abolishing it; consequently it may be seen who
+are for the well-being of their country.
+
+We regret that our interest has thus drawn us before the public, on
+account of the regard we entertain towards many of our warmest friends
+who have been deceived by a cloak of philanthropy, smooth words, and a
+sanctified appearance. We remind them, however, that the blood of Abel
+is beginning to be heard by many who are willing to acknowledge that
+they hear it.
+
+We cannot close our duty without gratefully acknowledging the respect we
+entertain for those who have defended our cause with more than Spartan
+courage. It is the opinion of your committee, that they are to be
+respected as our countrymen, our brethren, and our fellow citizens--not
+to say they are to be applauded as men, whose great acts are based upon
+the acclamation of their fellow men; but rather let us hold up their
+hands, and let their works praise them. We shall only add an expression
+of our hopes, that the Spirit of Liberty, recently awakened in the old
+world, may redouble its thundering voice, until every tyrant is seized
+with a Belshazzar tremble at the hand-writing upon the wall of his
+corrupt palace.
+
+In addition to the above, your committee submit the following
+resolutions for your acceptance.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting contemplate, with lively interest, the rapid
+progress of the sentiments of liberty among our degraded brethren, and
+that we will legally oppose every operation that may have a tendency to
+perpetuate our present political condition.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting look upon the American Colonization Society
+as a clamorous, abusive and peace-disturbing combination.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting look upon the conduct of those clergymen,
+who have filled the ears of their respective congregations with the
+absurd idea of the necessity of removing the free colored people from
+the United States, as highly deserving the just reprehension directed to
+the false prophets and priests, by Jeremiah the true prophet, as
+recorded in the 23d chapter of his prophecy.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting appeal to a generous and enlightened public
+for an impartial hearing relative to the subject of our present
+political condition.
+
+Resolved, That the gratitude of this meeting, which is so sensibly felt,
+be fully expressed to those editors whose independence of mind and
+correct views of the rights of man have led them so fearlessly to speak
+in favor of our cause; that we rejoice to behold in them such a strong
+desire to extend towards us the inestimable blessing in the gift of a
+wise Providence which is demanded by all nature, and for which their
+veteran fathers struggled in the revolution.
+
+                        ROBERT ROBERTS, Chairman.
+
+JAMES G. BARBADOES, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM BALTIMORE.
+
+                        BALTIMORE, March 21, 1831.
+
+At a respectable meeting of persons of color, convened, pursuant to
+public notice, for the purpose of expressing their sentiments in regard
+to the pretensions of the American Colonization Society, William
+Douglass was called to the chair, and William Watkins appointed
+secretary. The object of the call having been explicitly stated, the
+meeting immediately proceeded to the consideration of the following
+resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:--On motion,
+
+Resolved, That it is the belief of this meeting, that the American
+Colonization Society is founded more in a selfish policy, than in the
+true principles of benevolence;--and, therefore, so far as it regards
+the life-giving spring of its operations, is not entitled to our
+confidence, but should be viewed by us with all that caution and
+distrust which our happiness demands.
+
+Resolved, That we are not insensible to the means usually employed by
+that Society, and its auxiliaries, to effectuate our removal--that we
+sincerely deprecate their gratuitous and illiberal attacks upon, and
+their too frequently exaggerated statements of our moral standing in the
+community--that such means are unworthy of a magnanimous people, and of
+a virtuous and noble cause.
+
+Resolved, That we consider the land in which we were born, and in which
+we have been bred, our only '_true and appropriate home_,'--and that
+when _we_ desire to remove, we will apprise the public of the same, in
+due season.
+
+Resolved, That we are deeply sensible that many of our warm and sincere
+friends have espoused the colonization system, from the purest
+motives,--and that we sincerely regret their efforts to ameliorate our
+condition are not more in accordance with our wishes.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be published in the daily
+papers of this city, signed by the Chairman and Secretary.
+
+                        WILLIAM DOUGLASS, Chairman.
+
+WILLIAM WATKINS, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM WASHINGTON.
+
+                        WASHINGTON, May 4, 1831.
+
+Pursuant to previous notice, a large and very respectable meeting of the
+colored citizens of Washington, D. C., convened at the African Methodist
+Episcopal church on Wednesday evening last, for the purpose of
+expressing their views upon the subject of African colonization. Mr John
+W. Prout was called to the chair, and Arthur Waring was appointed
+secretary.
+
+The chairman briefly explained the object of the meeting, in a short
+speech well adapted to the occasion, which was followed by several neat
+and very appropriate addresses delivered by sundry gentlemen present.
+
+The following preamble and resolutions were offered and adopted, nearly
+unanimously.
+
+Whereas we consider that the period has arrived for the colored citizens
+of this place to express their opinion upon the subject of colonization
+in Liberia; a subject of great importance to themselves, as well as to
+the colored citizens of the United States generally; and whereas our
+brethren at a distance are desirous of obtaining information relative to
+the object and policy pursued by the American Colonization Society:
+Therefore, be it
+
+Resolved, That this meeting view with distrust the efforts made by the
+Colonization Society to cause the free people of color of these United
+States to emigrate to Liberia on the coast of Africa, or elsewhere.
+
+Resolved, That it is the declared opinion of the members of this
+meeting, that the soil which gave them birth is their only _true and
+veritable home_, and that it would be impolitic, unwise and improper for
+them to leave their home without the benefits of education.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting conceive that among the advocates of the
+colonization system, they have many true and sincere friends; and do
+regret that their actions, although prompted no doubt by the purest
+motives, do not meet our approbation.
+
+Resolved, That we believe the PRESS to be the most efficient means of
+disseminating light and knowledge among our brethren; and that this
+meeting do acknowledge with gratitude the efforts made in our behalf, by
+the editors of the Genius of Universal Emancipation, and the
+Liberator;--and do most earnestly recommend their respective papers to
+our brethren generally, for their approval and support.
+
+Resolved, That the foregoing resolutions be signed by the Chairman and
+Secretary, and published.
+
+                        JOHN W. PROUT, Chairman.
+
+ARTHUR WARING, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM BROOKLYN.
+
+                        BROOKLYN, (N. Y.) June 3, 1831.
+
+At a numerous and respectable meeting of the colored inhabitants of the
+village and township of Brooklyn, convened in the African Hall,
+Nassau-street, for the purpose of taking into consideration our views in
+relation to the Colonization Society--
+
+The throne of grace was addressed by the Rev. Mr Hogarth, after which
+Henry C. Thompson was called to the chair, and George Hogarth appointed
+secretary.
+
+Appropriate addresses were delivered by Messrs George Hogarth, James
+Pennington, and George Woods. The following resolutions were then
+adopted:--
+
+Resolved, unanimously, That the call of this meeting be approved of; and
+that the colored citizens of this village have, with friendly feelings,
+taken into consideration the objects of the American Colonization
+Society, together with all its auxiliary movements, preparatory for our
+removal to the coast of Africa; and we view them as wholly gratuitous,
+not called for by us, and not essential to the real welfare of our race:
+That we know of no other country in which we can justly claim or demand
+our rights as citizens, whether civil or political, but in these United
+States of America, our native soil: And, that we shall be active in our
+endeavors to convince the members of the Colonization Society, and the
+public generally, that we are _men_, that we are _brethren_, that we are
+_countrymen_ and _fellow-citizens_, and demand an equal share of
+protection from our federal government with any other class of citizens
+in the community.
+
+It was also Resolved, That the following persons, viz.: James
+Pennington, Henry C. Thompson, and George Woods, be appointed a
+committee to draft an address to the public, expressing our views more
+fully in relation to the Colonization Society; and that a delegate be
+appointed to proceed to the city of Philadelphia, to represent us in the
+ensuing convention, (which will commence its sitting the 6th inst.) to
+co-operate with the measures that may then be adopted for the general
+welfare of our race.
+
+                        HENRY C. THOMPSON, Chairman.
+
+GEORGE HOGARTH, Secretary.
+
+
+_Address to the Colored Citizens of Brooklyn, (N. Y.) and its Vicinity._
+
+Respected brethren, and fellow-citizens:--As men and as christians,
+whose secular and eternal interests are the same, we are seriously
+called upon by truth and reason, and every thing of which human action
+is composed, to take into consideration the objects of the American
+Colonization Society; which aims to remove us, the free people of color,
+from this, our beloved and native land, to the coast of Africa; a
+country unknown to us in every respect.
+
+As they propose to remove us with our own free will and consent, we do
+not contradict the assertion, that their objects, in the abstract, are
+salutary and benevolent; but when we hear those influential gentlemen,
+who are advocating this cause, generalize by language directly
+calculated to increase that prejudice, which is already one grand reason
+of our wretchedness, we are moved by a spirit of reliance upon justice
+and humanity, to lift our positive and decided voice against their
+proceedings; and consider them as a stigma upon our morals as a people,
+as natives and citizens of this country, to whom equal rights are
+guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence.
+
+When we consider that by abridging men in their moral liberty, we touch
+their responsibility to the highest authority in the universe, we should
+shudder at the thought of retaining such feelings as would lead to any
+irreligious or impolitic acts; nor should we be willing to yield one
+particle of ours to others, unless it be on the ground of expediency,
+and in some way conducive to the glory of God.
+
+We are sorry to say that those gentlemen have injured their cause, and
+perhaps caused much good to be evil spoken of, by making use of improper
+language, in their discussions upon our character and condition in this
+country; without using one effort to improve or prepare us for the posts
+of honor and distinction which they hold forth to us, whenever we set
+foot on this much talked of, and long expected promised land. We would
+ask the Colonization Society, what are they doing at home to improve our
+condition? It is a true proverb, that 'charity begins at home.' How can
+they extend their charities with christian sympathies and feeling some
+thousand miles across the Atlantic ocean, when they are not willing,
+with a few exceptions, to give us even a christian instruction while
+among them? To prove the assertion, we would inquire, how many of our
+sable brethren have been elevated to any post of distinction in this
+country? Even in states, where our numbers have almost doubled, have we
+seen one statesman, one officer, or one juror? No! in our village and
+its vicinity, how many of us have been educated in colleges, and
+advanced into different branches of business; or taken into mercantile
+houses, manufacturing establishments, &c.? Are we not even prohibited
+from some of the common labor and drudgery of the streets, such as
+cartmen, porters, &c.? It is a strange theory to us, how these gentlemen
+can promise to honor and respect us in Africa, when they are using every
+effort to exclude us from all rights and privileges at home.
+
+They say, 'that those of our friends, who look for the day when we shall
+have equal rights in this country, are mistaken.' May we not accept it
+as an assurance, that they will do all they can to prevent us from
+arriving to any degree of respectability at home, in our own land? Away
+then with such false sympathies and friendships! they are as foreign to
+us as the coast of Africa!
+
+We truly believe, that many gentlemen who are engaged in the
+Colonization Society are our sincere friends and well-wishers; they
+wish to do something for us, consequently they have subscribed largely
+to it, because there was no other plan on foot. Some of them have been
+deluded into its schemes, with a view of thoroughly civilizing and
+christianizing Africa, by our free people of color and emancipated
+slaves, who may, from time to time, be colonized on its coasts, with
+their consent. We conceive that such measures are fraught with
+inconsistency, and in no way calculated to have such an effect. To send
+a parcel of uninstructed, uncivilized, and unchristianized people, to
+the western coast of Africa, with bibles in their hands to teach the
+natives the truths of the gospel, social happiness, and moral virtue, is
+mockery and ridicule in the extreme.
+
+Missionary families should be well instructed in the rudiments of our
+holy religion, that their example may shine forth as lights in that much
+neglected and benighted land. We are much in favor of christianizing
+Africa; but not according to the plans of the Colonization Society, to
+purchase their lands of them, with a few paltry guns, beads, &c., and
+then establish forts and garrisons, to protect traders and traffickers,
+without, perhaps, once naming the religion of Jesus to them. We well
+know that the examples of traders and traffickers are in no way
+calculated to induce heathens to embrace our religion. For example, we
+will refer to the early settlements of our American colonies, and
+inquire what religious impressions did the settlers make (who were wise
+and learned from Europe) upon the aborigines of our country? We believe
+that a few men, well instructed and possessing a true missionary spirit,
+are calculated to do more good in that country, than a thousand on the
+colonization plan.
+
+Many wish us to go to Africa, because they say that our constitutions
+are better adapted to that climate than this. If so, we would ask why so
+many of our hearty, hale and healthy brethren, on arriving in that
+country, fall victims to the malignant fevers and disorders, prevalent
+in those regions? We would observe, that none are exempt from being
+touched with the contagion. It operates more severely upon those from
+the higher latitudes.
+
+Some of our brethren have come to the conclusion to leave this country,
+with all its prejudices, and seek an asylum in foreign climes. We would
+recommend to your serious consideration, the location in Upper Canada; a
+place far better adapted to our constitutions, our habits, and our
+morals; where prejudice has not such an unlimited sway; where you will
+be surrounded by Christians, and have an opportunity to become civilized
+and christianized.
+
+Brethren, it is time for us to awake to our interests; for the
+Colonization Society is straining every nerve for the accomplishment of
+its objects. By their last publications we see, that they have invoked
+all Christian assemblies and churches throughout the Union, to exert
+their influence, by raising subscriptions to send us (the strangers
+within their gates, as they call us) to the coast of Africa. They have
+got the consent of eleven states, who have instructed their senators to
+do something in the next Congress for our removal. Maryland calls
+imperatively on the general government to send us away, or else they
+will colonize their own free blacks. They have, by their influence,
+stopped the emancipation of slaves in a measure, except for colonization
+purposes.
+
+We owe a tribute of respect to the state of New-York, for her not having
+entered into the confederacy. Though she is the last in proclaiming
+general emancipation to the slave, yet we find her slow in adopting any
+such unchristian measures. We may well say, she is deliberate in her
+councils, and determinate in her resolutions.
+
+Finally, brethren, we are not strangers; neither do we come under the
+alien law. Our constitution does not call upon us to become naturalized;
+we are already American citizens; our fathers were among the first that
+peopled this country; their sweat and their tears have been the means,
+in a measure, of raising our country to its present standing. Many of
+them fought, and bled, and died for the gaining of her liberties; and
+shall we forsake their tombs, and flee to an unknown land? No! let us
+remain over them and weep, until the day arrive when Ethiopia shall
+stretch forth her hands to God. We were born and nurtured in this
+Christian land; and are surrounded by christians, whose sacred creed is,
+to do unto all men as ye would they should do unto you--to love our
+neighbors as ourselves; and which expressly declares, if we have respect
+to persons, we commit sin. Let us, brethren, invoke the christian's God,
+in our behalf, to do away the prejudices of our brethren, that they may
+adopt the solemn truths of the gospel, and acknowledge that God is no
+respecter of persons--that he has made of one blood all the nations that
+dwell on the face of the earth--that they may no longer bring their
+reasonings in contact with the omniscience of Deity; and insinuate to
+the public, that our intellect and faculties are measurably inferior to
+those of our fairer brethren. Because adversity has thrown a veil over
+us, and we, whom God has created to worship, admire and adore his divine
+attributes, shall we be held in a state of wretchedness and degradation,
+with monkeys, baboons, slaves, and cattle, because we possess a darker
+hue?
+
+We feel it our duty ever to remain true to the constitution of our
+country, and to protect it, as we have always done, from foreign
+aggressions. Although more than three hundred thousand of us are
+virtually deprived of the rights and immunities of citizens, and more
+than two millions held in abject slavery, yet we know that God is just,
+and ever true to his purpose. Before him the whole world stands in awe,
+and at his command nations must obey. HE who has lately pleaded the
+Indian's cause in our land, and who has brought about many signal
+events, to the astonishment of our generation, we believe is in the
+whirlwind, and will soon bring about the time when the sable sons of
+America will join with their fairer brethren, and re-echo liberty and
+equal rights in all parts of Columbia's soil.
+
+We pray the Lord to hasten the day, when prejudice, inferiority,
+degradation and oppression shall be done away, and the kingdoms of this
+world become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ.
+
+Signed in behalf of a public meeting in Brooklyn.
+
+                        H. C. THOMPSON, Chairman.
+
+GEORGE HOGARTH, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM HARTFORD.
+
+                        HARTFORD, Ct., July 14, 1831.
+
+At a large and respectable meeting of the colored inhabitants of the
+city of Hartford and its vicinity, convened at the vestry room of the
+African church, on the 13th inst. for the purpose of expressing their
+views in relation to the American Colonization Society, Mr Henry Foster
+was called to the chair, and Mr Paul Drayton appointed secretary. The
+object of the meeting was then stated in a brief and pertinent manner,
+after which extracts from several speeches delivered by the founders of
+the colonization scheme, together with the general sentiments of
+colonizationists extracted from the African Repository, were laid before
+the meeting, and the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:
+
+Resolved, That it is the opinion of this meeting, that the American
+Colonization Society is actuated by the same motives which influenced
+the mind of Pharaoh, when he ordered the male children of the Israelites
+to be destroyed.
+
+Resolved, That it is the belief of this meeting, that the Society is the
+greatest foe to the free colored and slave population with whom liberty
+and equality have to contend.
+
+Resolved, That we look upon the man of color that would be influenced by
+the Society to emigrate to Liberia, as an enemy to the cause and a
+traitor to his brethren.
+
+Resolved, That it is the opinion of this meeting, that many of those who
+are engaged in this unjust scheme would be willing, if it were, in their
+power, to place us before the point of the bayonet, and drive us out of
+existence--so that they may get rid of that dark cloud, as we are
+termed, which hangs over these United States.
+
+Resolved, That, in our belief, we have committed no crime worthy of
+banishment, and that we will resist all the attempts of the Colonization
+Society to banish us from this our native land.
+
+Resolved, That we consider ourselves the legitimate sons of these United
+States, from whence we will never consent to be transported.
+
+Resolved, That we will resist, even unto death, all the attempts of this
+Society to transport us to the pestilential shores of Liberia.
+
+Resolved, That we will not countenance the doctrine of any pretended
+minister of the gospel, who is in league with those conspirators against
+our rights. We would, therefore, warn them to beware of following the
+footsteps of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block in the
+way of the children of Israel; for we verily believe, that if God
+almighty have to deliver his people by his mighty arm of power, they
+will share the fate of that false prophet.
+
+Resolved, That, though we be last in calling a meeting, we feel no less
+the pernicious influence of this Society than the rest of our brethren;
+and that we consider all their pretexts, whether under the cloak of
+religion or philanthropy, gratuitous and uncalled for. We would,
+therefore, advise the Society, that as we have learned that there are
+one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in its funds, it had better
+appropriate this sum in meliorating the condition of our brethren the
+slaves, in this their native land, and raising them from that
+degradation into which they are plunged.
+
+Resolved, That the thanks of the meeting be returned to Messrs William
+Lloyd Garrison, Isaac Knapp, and every friend of emancipation, for their
+benevolent exertions in our behalf.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to the Liberator for publication.
+
+                        HENRY FOSTER, Chairman.
+
+PAUL DRAYTON, Secretary.
+
+A VOICE FROM MIDDLETOWN.
+
+                        MIDDLETOWN, Ct., July 15, 1831.
+
+At a meeting of the colored citizens of Middletown, pursuant to public
+notice, held in the Lecture Room in the African church--Mr Joseph
+Gilbert was called to the chair, and Amos L. Beman appointed secretary.
+The meeting being thus opened, it was warmly and freely addressed by
+Messrs Jeffrey, Condoll and Gilbert, when, on motion, it was
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of our brethren in Brooklyn, N. Y., meet
+our entire approbation: they breathe our sentiments in full, and may our
+voices cheerfully accord with them in protesting against leaving this
+our native soil. Why should we leave this land, so dearly bought by the
+blood, groans and tears of our fathers? Truly this is our home: here let
+us live, and here let us die. What! emigrate to Liberia, a land so
+detrimental to our health! We have now before us a letter written by a
+friend who emigrated from this place to the burning shores of Africa, in
+hopes of splendor, wealth and ease; and he says that 'sickness and
+distress prevail to a great extent--and it is a clear case that those
+who come from the United States must undergo a long and protracted
+sickness with this country's fever, and I would not advise my friends to
+emigrate.'
+
+                        JOSEPH GILBERT, Chairman.
+
+AMOS G. BEMAN, Secretary
+
+
+A VOICE FROM NEW-HAVEN.
+
+                        NEW-HAVEN, August 8, 1831.
+
+At a meeting of the Peace and Benevolent Society of Afric-Americans,
+held on the 7th inst., Mr Henry Berrian was called to the chair, and Mr
+Henry N. Merriman was appointed secretary. The following resolutions
+were then unanimously adopted.
+
+Resolved, That we consider those christians and philanthropists, who are
+boasting of their liberty and equality, saying, that all men are born
+free and equal, and yet are endeavoring to remove us from our native
+land, to be inhuman in their proceedings, defective in their principles,
+and unworthy of our confidence.
+
+Resolved, That we consider those colonizationists and ministers of the
+gospel, who are advocating our transportation to an unknown clime,
+because our skin is a little darker than theirs, (notwithstanding God
+has made of one blood all nations of men, and has no respect of
+persons,) as violaters of the commandments of God and the laws of the
+bible, and as trying to blind our eyes by their vain movements--their
+mouths being smooth as oil, and their words sharper than any two-edged
+sword.
+
+Resolved, That, while we have no doubt of the sinister motives of the
+great body of colonizationists, we believe some of them are our friends
+and well-wishers, who have not looked deeply into the subject; but when
+they make a careful examination, we think they will find themselves in
+error.
+
+Resolved, That it is our earnest desire that Africa may speedily become
+civilized, and receive religious instruction; but not by the absurd and
+invidious plan of the Colonization Society--namely, to send a nation of
+ignorant men to teach a nation of ignorant men. We think it most wise
+for them to send missionaries.
+
+Resolved, That we will resist all attempts made for our removal to the
+torrid shores of Africa, and will sooner suffer every drop of blood to
+be taken from our veins than submit to such unrighteous treatment.
+
+Resolved, That we know of no other place that we can call our true and
+appropriate home, excepting these United States, into which our fathers
+were brought, who enriched the country by their toils, and fought, bled
+and died in its defence, and left us in its possession--and here we will
+live and die.
+
+Resolved, That we consider the American Colonization Society founded on
+principles that no Afric-American, unless very weak in mind, will
+follow; and any man who will be persuaded to leave his own country and
+go to Africa, as an enemy to his country and a traitor to his brethren.
+
+Resolved, That we have heard with pleasure of the proceedings of our
+brethren in neighboring cities; and that a number of this Society will
+willingly become auxiliary to the parent Society of Philadelphia, for
+the mutual benefit of the Afric-Americans throughout the United States.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to the Liberator for publication.
+
+                        HENRY BERRIAN, Chairman.
+
+HENRY N. MERRIMAN, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM COLUMBIA.
+
+                        COLUMBIA, Pa., August 5, 1831.
+
+At a respectable meeting of Afric-Americans convened pursuant to public
+notice, at their school-house, with a view of taking into consideration
+the novel scheme of the American Colonization Society, Mr Stephen Smith
+was called to the chair, and Mr James Richards appointed secretary. A
+prayer was then offered to the throne of grace, by Mr Smith. The
+chairman called the house to order, and explained the object of the
+meeting in a few preliminary remarks; after which, the meeting proceeded
+to business, and adopted the subsequent resolutions.
+
+Resolved, That we view the country in which we live as our only true and
+appropriate home; and let colonizationists pour contempt upon our race,
+and slaveholders look on our brethren as a nuisance to the country, yet
+here will we live, here were we born, this is the country for which some
+of our ancestors fought and bled and conquered, nor shall a conspiring
+world be able to drive us hence.
+
+Resolved, That it is our firm belief, that the Colonization Society is
+replete with infinite mischief, and that we view all the arguments of
+its advocates as mere sophistry, not worthy our notice as freemen. Being
+citizens of these United States, we could call upon our brethren to
+awake from their slumber of ignorance, break the chain of prejudice that
+has so long bound them, and in the strength of the omnipotent Spirit
+give their hearts to God.
+
+Resolved, That we will resist all attempts to send us to the burning
+shores of Africa. Beware of Alexander, the coppersmith, for he hath
+done us much harm. May the Lord reward him! We verily believe that if by
+an extraordinary perversion of nature, every man and woman, in one
+night, should become white, the Colonization Society would fall like
+lightning to the earth.
+
+Resolved, That we will not be duped out of our rights as freemen, by
+colonizationists, nor by any other combination of men. All the encomiums
+pronounced upon Liberia can never form the least temptation to induce us
+to leave our native soil, to emigrate to a strange land.
+
+Resolved, That we readily coalesce with our brethren in the different
+towns and cities, and take the liberty to say, that we as a little flock
+feel a fixed resolution to maintain our ground, till the great Author of
+our being shall say to those who deprive us of our rights,--Thus saith
+the Lord, because ye have not hearkened to me in proclaiming liberty,
+every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor, behold I will
+proclaim liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the
+pestilence, and to the famine.
+
+Resolved, That it is the decided opinion of this meeting, that African
+colonization is a scheme of southern policy, a wicked device of
+slaveholders who are desirous of riveting more firmly, and perpetuating
+more certainly, the fetters of slavery; who are only anxious to rid
+themselves of a population whose presence, influence and example have a
+tendency (as they suppose) to produce discontent among the slaves, and
+to furnish them with incitements to rebellion.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting will not encourage a scheme, which has for
+its basis prejudice and hatred. Though there may be some good wheat, yet
+it is to be feared the enemy has sown tares among it.
+
+Resolved, That we will support the colony at Canada, the climate being
+healthier, better adapted to our constitutions, and far more consonant
+with our views than that of Africa.
+
+Resolved, That we unanimously agree to patronize the Liberator, and use
+our best endeavors to get subscribers for the same; and that we are
+under renewed obligations to God, that he ever raised up such honest
+hearted men as Messrs Garrison and Knapp.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting cause its proceedings to be sent to the
+Liberator for publication; praying that the Lord will succeed all the
+lawful efforts of its conductor to meliorate the condition of our
+brethren in these United States, trusting his weapons are not carnal,
+but mighty through God to pull down the strong holds of the devil.
+
+Signed by the Chairman and Secretary.
+
+                        STEPHEN SMITH, Chairman.
+
+JAMES RICHARDS, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM NANTUCKET.
+
+                        NANTUCKET, August 5, 1831.
+
+At a respectable meeting of the colored inhabitants of the town of
+Nantucket, convened for the purpose of taking into consideration our
+views in relation to the American Colonization Society, Mr Arthur Cooper
+was called to the chair, and Edward J. Pompey appointed secretary.
+
+Addresses were delivered by Messrs William Harris and Edward J. Pompey,
+in which they took a general view of the Colonization Society, of its
+leading members, and some of the speeches and remarks made by gentlemen
+at the meetings of said Society. The following resolves were then
+adopted:
+
+Resolved, That the call of this meeting be approved of, and that the
+colored citizens of this town have with friendly feelings taken into
+consideration the objects of the Colonization Society, together with its
+movements preparatory for our removal to the coast of Africa; and we
+view them as wholly gratuitous, not called for by us, and in no way
+essential to the welfare of our race; and we believe that our condition
+can be best improved in this our own country and native soil, the United
+States of America.
+
+Resolved, That we hold this truth to be self-evident, that all men are
+born free and equal; and we are men, and therefore ought to share as
+much protection and enjoy as many privileges under our federal
+government as any other class of the community.
+
+Resolved, That we will be zealous in doing all that lies in our power to
+improve the condition of ourselves and brethren in this our native land.
+
+Resolved, That there is no philanthropy towards the people of color in
+the colonization plan, but that it is got up to delude us away from our
+country and home into a country of sickness and death.
+
+Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be returned to every friend
+who vindicates our rights and interests.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to Boston, to be published in the Liberator.
+
+                        ARTHUR COOPER, Chairman.
+
+EDWARD J. POMPEY, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM PITTSBURGH.
+
+                        PITTSBURGH, (Pa.,) Sept. 1, 1831.
+
+At a large and respectable meeting of the colored citizens of
+Pittsburgh, convened at the African Methodist Episcopal church, for the
+purpose of expressing their views in relation to the American
+Colonization Society, Mr J. B. Vashon was called to the chair, and Mr R.
+Bryan appointed secretary. The object of the meeting was then stated at
+considerable length, and in an appropriate manner, by the chairman. The
+following resolutions were then unanimously adopted:
+
+Resolved, That 'we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men
+are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
+rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
+happiness'--Liberty and Equality now, Liberty and Equality forever!
+
+Resolved, That it is the decided opinion of this meeting, that African
+colonization is a scheme to drain the better informed part of the
+colored people out of these United States, so that the chain of slavery
+may be rivetted more tightly; but we are determined not to be cheated
+out of our rights by the colonization men, or any other set of
+intriguers. We believe there is no philanthropy in the colonization plan
+towards the people of color, but that it is got up to delude us away
+from our country and home to the burning shores of Africa.
+
+Resolved, That we, the colored people of Pittsburgh and citizens of
+these United States, view the country in which we live as our only true
+and proper home. We are just as much natives here as the members of the
+Colonization Society. Here we were born--here bred--here are our
+earliest and most pleasant associations--here is all that binds man to
+earth, and makes life valuable. And we do consider every colored man who
+allows himself to be colonized in Africa, or elsewhere, a traitor to our
+cause.
+
+Resolved, That we are freemen, that we are brethren, that we are
+countrymen and fellow-citizens, and as fully entitled to the free
+exercise of the elective franchise as any men who breathe; and that we
+demand an equal share of protection from our federal government with any
+class of citizens in the community. We now inform the Colonization
+Society, that should our reason forsake us, then we may desire to
+remove. We will apprise them of this change in due season.
+
+Resolved, That we, as citizens of these United States, and for the
+support of these resolutions, with a firm reliance on the protection of
+divine providence, do mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
+fortunes, and our sacred honor, not to support a colony in Africa nor in
+Upper Canada, not yet emigrate to Hayti. Here we were born--here will we
+live by the help of the Almighty--and here we will die, and let our
+bones lie with our fathers.
+
+Resolved, That we return our grateful thanks to Messrs Garrison and
+Knapp, publishers of the Liberator, and Mr Lundy, editor of the Genius
+of Universal Emancipation, for their untiring exertions in the cause of
+philanthropy.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and published in the Liberator.
+
+                        J. B. VASHON, Chairman.
+
+R. BRYAN, Secretary.
+
+A VOICE FROM WILMINGTON.
+
+                        WILMINGTON, July 12, 1831.
+
+At a large and respectable meeting of the people of color of the borough
+of Wilmington, convened in the African Union Church, July 12th, 1831,
+for the purpose of considering the subject of colonization on the coast
+of Africa:
+
+On motion, the Rev. Peter Spencer was called to the chair, and Thomas
+Dorsey appointed secretary.
+
+The meeting was addressed by Abraham D. Shad, Junius C. Morell, Benjamin
+Pascal and John P. Thompson, after which the following resolutions were
+unanimously adopted.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting view with deep regret the attempt now making
+to colonize the free people of color on the western coast of Africa;
+believing as we do that it is inimical to the best interests of the
+people of color, and at variance with the principles of civil and
+religious liberty, and wholly incompatible with the spirit of the
+Constitution and Declaration of Independence of these United States.
+
+Resolved, That we disclaim all connexion with Africa; and although the
+descendants of that much afflicted country, we cannot consent to remove
+to any tropical climate, and thus aid in a design having for its object
+the total extirpation of our race from this country, professions to the
+contrary notwithstanding.
+
+Resolved, That a committee of three persons be appointed to prepare as
+soon as practicable an address to the public, setting forth more fully
+our views on the subject of colonization. The following persons were
+appointed: Abraham D. Shad, Rev. Peter Spencer and W. S. Thomas.
+
+Signed on behalf of the meeting.
+
+                        PETER SPENCER, Chairman.
+
+THOMAS DORSEY, Secretary.
+
+
+_Address of the Free People of Color of the Borough of Wilmington,
+Delaware._
+
+We the undersigned, in conformity to the wishes of our brethren, beg
+leave to present to the public in a calm and unprejudiced manner, our
+decided and unequivocal disapprobation of the American Colonization
+Society, and its auxiliaries, in relation to the free people of color in
+the United States. Convinced as we are, that the operations of this
+Society have been unchristian and anti-republican in principle, and at
+variance with our best interests as a people, we had reason to believe
+that the precepts of religion, the dictates of justice and humanity,
+would have prevented any considerable portion of the community from
+lending their aid to a plan which we fear was designed to deprive us of
+rights that the Declaration of Independence declares are the
+'unalienable rights' of all men. We were content to remain silent,
+believing that the justice and patriotism of a magnanimous people would
+prevent the annals of our native and beloved country from receiving so
+deep a stain. But observing the growing strength and influence of that
+institution, and being well aware that the generality of the public are
+unacquainted with our views on this important subject, we feel it a duty
+we owe to ourselves, our children and posterity, to enter our protest
+against a device so fraught with evil to us. That many sincere friends
+to our race are engaged in what they conceive to be a philanthropic and
+benevolent enterprise, we do not hesitate to admit; but that they are
+deceived, and are acting in a manner calculated most seriously to injure
+the free people of color, we are equally sensible.
+
+We are natives of the United States; our ancestors were brought to this
+country by means over which they had no control; we have our attachments
+to the soil, and we feel that we have rights in common with other
+Americans; and although deprived through prejudice from entering into
+the full enjoyment of those rights, we anticipate a period, when in
+despite of the more than ordinary prejudice which has been the result of
+this unchristian scheme, 'Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands to
+God.' But that this formidable Society has become a barrier to our
+improvement, must be apparent to every individual who will but reflect
+on the course to be pursued by the emissaries of this unhallowed
+project, many of whom, under the name of ministers of the gospel, use
+their influence to turn public sentiment to our disadvantage by
+stigmatizing our morals, misrepresenting our characters, and endeavoring
+to show what they are pleased to call the sound policy of perpetuating
+our civil and political disabilities for the avowed purpose of
+indirectly forcing us to emigrate to the western coast of Africa. That
+Africa is neither our nation nor home, a due respect to the good sense
+of the community forbids us to attempt to prove; that our language,
+habits, manners, morals and religion are all different from those of
+Africans, is a fact too notorious to admit of controversy. Why then are
+we called upon to go and settle in a country where we must necessarily
+be and remain a distinct people, having no common interest with the
+numerous inhabitants of that vast and extensive country? Experience has
+proved beyond a doubt, that the climate is such as not to suit the
+constitutions of the inhabitants of this country; the fevers and
+various diseases incident to that tropical clime, are such as in most
+cases to bid defiance to the force of medicine.
+
+The very numerous instances of mortality amongst the emigrants who have
+been induced to leave this their native, for their adopted country,
+clearly demonstrate the fallacy of those statements so frequently made
+by the advocates of colonization in regard to the healthiness of
+Liberia.
+
+With the deepest regret we have witnessed such an immense sacrifice of
+life, in advancing a cause which cannot promise the least advantage to
+the free people of color, who, it was said, were the primary objects to
+be benefitted by this 'heaven-born enterprise.' But we beg leave most
+respectfully to ask the friends of African colonization, whether their
+christian benevolence cannot in this country be equally as
+advantageously applied, if they are actuated by that disinterested
+spirit of love and friendship for us, which they profess? Have not they
+in the United States a field sufficiently extensive to show it in? There
+is embosomed within this republic, rising one million free people of
+color, the greater part of whom are unable to read even the sacred
+scriptures. Is not their ignorant and degraded situation worthy of the
+consideration of those enlightened and christian individuals, whose zeal
+for the cause of the African race has induced them to attempt the
+establishment of a republican form of government amid the burning sands
+of Liberia, and the evangelizing of the millions of the Mahometans and
+pagans that inhabit the interior of that extensive country?
+
+We are constrained to believe that the welfare of the people of color,
+to say the least, is but a secondary consideration with those engaged in
+the colonization project. Or why should we be requested to move to
+Africa, and thus separated from all we hold dear in a moral point of
+view, before their christian benevolence can be exercised in our behalf?
+Surely there is no country of which we have any knowledge, that offers
+greater facilities for the improvement of the unlearned; or where
+benevolent and philanthropic individuals can find a people, whose
+situation has greater claims on their christian sympathies, than the
+people of color. But whilst we behold a settled determination on the
+part of the American Colonization Society to remove us to Liberia,
+without using any means to better our condition at home, we are
+compelled to look with fearful diffidence on every measure of that
+institution. At a meeting held on the 7th inst. in this borough, the
+people of color were politely invited to attend, the object of which was
+to induce the most respectable part of them to emigrate. The meeting was
+addressed by several reverend gentlemen, and very flattering accounts
+given on the authority of letters and statements said to have been
+received from individuals of unquestionable veracity. But we beg leave
+to say, that those statements differ so widely from letters that we have
+seen of recent date from the colony, in regard to the condition and
+circumstances of the colonists, that we are compelled in truth to say
+that we cannot reconcile such contradictory statements, and are
+therefore inclined to doubt the former, as they appear to have been
+prepared to present to the public, for the purpose of enlisting the
+feelings of our white friends into the measure, and of inducing the
+enterprising part of the colored community to emigrate at their own
+expense. That we are in this country a degraded people, we are truly
+sensible; that our forlorn situation is not attributable to ourselves is
+admitted by the most ardent friends of colonization; and that our
+condition cannot be bettered by removing the most exemplary individuals
+of color from amongst us, we are well convinced, from the consideration
+that in the same ratio that the industrious part would emigrate, in the
+same proportion those who would remain would become more degraded,
+wretched and miserable, and consequently less capable of appreciating
+the many opportunities which are now offering for the moral and
+intellectual improvement of our brethren. We, therefore, a portion of
+those who are the objects of this plan, and amongst those whose
+happiness, with that of others of our color, it is intended to promote,
+respectfully but firmly disclaim every connexion with it, and declare
+our settled determination not to participate in any part of it.
+
+But if this plan is intended to facilitate the emancipation of those who
+are held in slavery in the South, and the melioration of their
+condition, by sending them to Liberia; we question very much whether it
+is calculated to do either. That the emancipation of slaves has been
+measurably impeded through its influence, except where they have been
+given up to the Board of Managers, to be colonized in Africa, to us is
+manifest. And when we contemplate their uneducated and vitiated state,
+destitute of the arts and unaccustomed to provide even for themselves,
+we are inevitably led to the conclusion that their situation in that
+pestilential country will be miserable in the extreme.
+
+The present period is one of deep and increasing interest to the free
+people of color, relieved from the miseries of slavery and its
+concomitant evils, with the vast and (to us) unexplored field of
+literature and science before us, surrounded by many friends whose
+sympathies and charities need not the Atlantic between us and them,
+before they can consent to assist in elevating our brethren to the
+standing of men. We therefore particularly invite their attention to
+the subject of education and improvement; sensible that it is much
+better calculated to remove prejudice, and exalt our moral character,
+than any system of colonization that has been or can be introduced; and
+in which we believe we shall have the co-operation of the wisest and
+most philanthropic individuals of which the nation can boast. The
+utility of learning and its salutary effects on the minds and morals of
+a people, cannot have escaped the notice of any rational individual
+situated in a country like this, where in order successfully to
+prosecute any mechanical or other business, education is indispensable.
+Our highest moral ambition, at present, should be to acquire for our
+children a liberal education, give them mechanical trades, and thus fit
+and prepare them for useful and respectable citizens; and leave the
+evangelizing of Africa, and the establishing of a republic at Liberia,
+to those who conceive themselves able to demonstrate the practicability
+of its accomplishment by means of a people, numbers of whom are more
+ignorant than even the natives of that country themselves.
+
+In conclusion, we feel it a pleasing duty ever to cherish a grateful
+respect for those benevolent and truly philanthropic individuals, who
+have advocated, and still are advocating our rights in our native
+country. Their indefatigable zeal in the cause of the oppressed will
+never be forgotten by us, and unborn millions will bless their names in
+the day when the all-wise Creator, in whom we trust, shall have bidden
+oppression to cease.
+
+      ABRAHAM D. SHAD, }
+      PETER SPENCER,   }  Committee to prepare
+      WM. S. THOMAS,   }  an Address.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM HARRISBURG.
+
+                        HARRISBURG, Pa., October, 1831.
+
+At a large, well informed and respectable meeting of the citizens of
+Harrisburg, convened at the African Wesleyan Methodist church, for the
+purpose of expressing their sentiments in a remonstrance against the
+proceedings of the American Colonization Society, Rev. Jacob D.
+Richardson was called to the chair, and Jacob G. Williams appointed
+secretary. After singing and prayer, Rev. Mr Richardson in some concise
+remarks,--equalled by few, and exceeded by none,--expressed the object
+of the meeting. The chairman called the house to order, and the
+following resolutions were unanimously acceded to:
+
+Resolved, That we hold these truths to be self-evident, (and it is the
+boasted declaration of our independence) that all men (black and white,
+poor and rich) are born free and equal; that they are endowed by their
+Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life,
+liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is the language of America,
+of reason, and of eternal truth.
+
+Resolved, That we feel it to be our duty to be true to the constitution
+of our country, and are satisfied with the form of government under
+which we now live; and, moreover, that we are bound in duty and reason
+to protect it against foreign invasion. We always have done so, and will
+do so still.
+
+Resolved, That we view the efforts of the Colonization Society as
+officious and uncalled for by us. We have never done any thing worthy of
+banishment from our friends and home: but this we would say--if the
+Colonization Society will use their best endeavors to get our slave
+brethren transported to Liberia, when we as a free body of people wish
+to go, we will give the colonizationists timely notice.
+
+Resolved, That it is the firm and decided opinion of this meeting, that
+were there no free people of color among us, or if those who are free
+had remained in the degraded character of slaves, (or, as they sometimes
+call us, monkeys, apes and baboons,) they would never have got up the
+chimerical scheme for our transportation to the burning shores of
+Africa, with the fancied vision of elevating us, as they say, to dignity
+and affluence.
+
+Resolved, That we cannot remain inactive while colonizationists are
+straining every nerve and racking their inventions to find out arguments
+to persuade our free colored brethren to migrate to an unknown land,
+which we can no more lay claim to than our white brethren can to England
+or any other foreign country.
+
+Resolved, That we reject the inhuman and unchristian measures taken by
+the Colonization Society, for the illumination of the colored citizens
+of the United States, their appropriate home, in a land of sickness,
+affliction and death, when they are not willing, with few exceptions, to
+give us a christian education while among them. We would wish to know of
+the colonizationists, how, in the name of common sense and reason, do
+they expect to do any thing for us thousands of miles across the
+Atlantic, when they oppose almost every measure taken by our white
+friends and brethren to improve our condition here?
+
+Resolved, That it is the united opinion of this meeting, that the
+enemies of our race, who are members of the Colonization Society, see
+that the great Author of universal existence, who 'is no respecter of
+persons,' who taught Balaam's ass to speak, and taught Solomon wisdom,
+is now enlightening the sable sons of America: hence their object to
+drain the country of the most enlightened part of our colored brethren,
+so that they may be more able to hold their slaves in bondage and
+ignorance.
+
+Resolved, That we object to leaving the land of our birth, as there is
+sufficient land in these United States, on which a colony can be
+established that would be far more consonant to the wishes of the
+colored population generally, and would be more adapted to their
+constitution: neither would it involve the country in such expense as
+would be incurred by sending them to a howling wilderness, far away from
+the graves of their forefathers, unknown to us in every respect, unless
+by geography, which few of us understand.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting look upon the Colonization Society as a
+vicious, nefarious and peace-disturbing combination, and that its
+leaders might as well essay to cure a wound with an argument, or set a
+dislocated bone by a lecture on logic, as to tell us their object is to
+better our condition; because its members acknowledge slavery to be a
+national evil, and use no means to annihilate it, but are exerting all
+their energies and influence to persuade the free people of color to
+remove to Africa, whose rights to Columbia's happy soil holds good with
+any other citizen in America.
+
+Resolved, That we look upon the conduct of those clergymen who have
+misled their respective congregations with the preposterous idea of the
+necessity of transporting the free people of color to Africa, as highly
+deserving the just reprehension directed to the false priests and
+prophets by the true prophets of the Most High; yet we gratefully
+acknowledge the respect we entertain for those who have defended our
+cause--we mean our white friends.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting appoint Mr George Chester of Harrisburg, as
+agent for the Liberator, and will use our utmost endeavors to get
+subscribers for the same.
+
+Resolved, That we will support the Colony in Canada, the climate being
+healthy and the rights of our brethren secured.
+
+Resolved, That the gratitude of this meeting, which is so sensibly felt,
+be fully expressed to the Editors of the Liberator and Genius of
+Universal Emancipation, Messrs Garrison and Lundy, whose independence of
+mind and correct views of the rights of man have led them so intrepidly
+to speak in favor of our cause.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to the Liberator for publication.
+
+                        JACOB D. RICHARDSON, Chairman.
+
+JACOB G. WILLIAMS, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM ROCHESTER.
+
+                        ROCHESTER, N. Y., October, 1831.
+
+A large number of the colored citizens of Rochester having convened
+themselves together, for the important object of taking into
+consideration the anti-republican principles of the American
+Colonization Society, the Rev. Mr Johnson was called to the chair, and
+Mr A. Lawrence was appointed secretary.
+
+The meeting was then briefly addressed by the secretary as follows:
+
+Countrymen and Brothers--When viewing the inhumanity and anti-christian
+principles of the American Colonization Society, in plotting our removal
+to Africa, (which is unknown to us as our native country,) it seems as
+though we were called upon publicly to express our feelings on the
+subject. We do not consider Africa to be our home, any more than the
+present whites do England, Scotland, or Ireland. This is the land our
+fathers have tilled before us; this is the land that gave us our
+birthright.--The meeting then
+
+Resolved, That we never will remove to Africa; but should any of our
+brethren wish to emigrate, we would recommend Canada as a country far
+more congenial to our constitutions;--that we give our most sincere
+thanks to our friendly advocates Messrs Garrison and Knapp, and Mr
+Benjamin Lundy, who are crying unto their fellow men, night and day, to
+let their countrymen go free: they will be called blessed by many
+generations yet to come. The Colonization Society say that they cannot
+treat us as men while we are with them; but if we will go out of their
+reach, they will begin their charity. What should we think of such
+religion as this? Because our skin is a little darker than theirs, they
+say they cannot think of treating us as men. The scripture says, 'Beware
+of wolves in sheep's clothing'--and such they seem to be. We earnestly
+believe, with our generous friend Garrison, that it would not be a hard
+matter to exceed them in doing right. Our blessed Lord said, that we
+should do to all men as we would have them do to us. Now what would they
+think, if we should tell them that they would be better off in New
+Holland or in Tartary?
+
+Resolved, That we will do all in our power to support the Liberator,
+printed by Mr Garrison, and all other works in our behalf.
+
+Resolved, That the foregoing proceedings be published in the Liberator.
+
+                        HENRY JOHNSON, Chairman.
+
+A. LAWRENCE, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM PROVIDENCE.
+
+                        PROVIDENCE, November 1, 1831.
+
+At a respectable meeting of the colored people of Providence, R. I.,
+duly appointed and publicly holden at the African church, on the 31st of
+October, 1831, to take into consideration the objects and motives of the
+American Colonization Society, Mr George C. Willis was called to the
+chair, and Mr Alfred Niger appointed secretary. The meeting was then
+addressed at some length by the chairman, stating their object in
+assembling together, and exposing the injustice and prejudice by which
+he believed the friends of African colonization were actuated. The
+following preamble and resolutions were read by the secretary, and
+unanimously adopted:
+
+Whereas our brethren, in different parts of the United States, have
+thought proper to call meetings to express their disapprobation of the
+American Colonization Society; we, concurring fully with them in
+opinion, have assembled ourselves together for the purpose of uniting
+with them, in declaring that we believe the operations of the Society
+have been unchristian and anti-republican, and at variance with our best
+interests as a people. Therefore,
+
+Resolved, That we will use every fair and honorable means in our power,
+to oppose the operations of the above mentioned Society.
+
+Resolved, That we are truly sensible that we are in this country a
+degraded and ignorant people; but that our ignorance and degradation are
+not to be attributed to the inferiority of our natural abilities, but to
+the oppressive treatment we have experienced from the whites in general,
+and to the prejudice excited against us by the members of the
+Colonization Society, their aiders and abettors.
+
+Resolved, That we view, with unfeigned astonishment, the anti-christian
+and inconsistent conduct of those who so strenuously advocate our
+removal from this our native country to the burning shores of Liberia,
+and who with the same breath contend against the cruelty and injustice
+of Georgia in her attempt to remove the Cherokee Indians west of the
+Mississippi.
+
+Resolved, That we firmly believe, from the recent measures adopted by
+the freemen of the city of New Haven, in regard to the establishment of
+a College for our education in that place, that the principal object of
+the friends of African colonization is to oppose our education and
+consequent elevation here, as it will deprive them of one of their
+principal arguments for our removal.
+
+Resolved, That as our fathers participated with the whites in their
+struggle for liberty and independence, and believing with the
+Declaration of that Independence, 'that all men are created free and
+equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
+rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;'
+and as we have committed no crime worthy of banishment--Therefore
+
+Resolved, That we will not leave our homes, nor the graves of our
+fathers, and this boasted land of liberty and christian philanthropy.
+
+Resolved, That, our unfeigned and sincere thanks be tendered to Messrs
+Garrison and Knapp, and to every true friend to our cause, for their
+unwearied and truly benevolent exertions in our behalf.
+
+Resolved, That we will earnestly recommend the Liberator, published in
+Boston by the above mentioned gentlemen, to the patronage of our friends
+throughout the country.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and sent to Boston, with the request that they may be
+published in the Liberator.
+
+                        GEORGE C. WILLIS, Chairman.
+
+ALFRED NIGER, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE FROM TRENTON.
+
+                        TRENTON, November 30, 1831.
+
+At a respectable meeting of the free people of color in Trenton,
+convened in the Mount Zion church, November 30, 1831, for the purpose of
+considering the subject of colonization on the coast of Africa--On
+motion, the Rev. Lewis Cork was called to the chair, and Abner H.
+Francis appointed secretary. The meeting was addressed by Messrs
+Gardener and Thompson; after which, the following resolutions were
+unanimously adopted.
+
+Resolved, Inasmuch as we, free people of color, have done all that is in
+our power to convince the white inhabitants of these United States, that
+it is our wish to live peaceably with all men; and inasmuch as our
+general demeanor has been that of industry and sobriety, notwithstanding
+there are some among us to the contrary, as well as among the whites;
+therefore we do most solemnly declare, that the statements made to the
+contrary by the Rev. Mr Crosby, in his late addresses in this city, and
+all statements by petitioners to legislative bodies, and by the
+Colonization Society, or any thing of the same nature, are a positive
+libel on our general character.
+
+Resolved, Whereas we have lived peaceably and quietly in these United
+States, of which we are natives, and have never been the cause of any
+insurrectionary or tumultuous movements as a body, that we do view every
+measure taken by any associated bodies to remove us to other climes,
+anti-christian and hostile to our peace, and a violation of the laws of
+humanity.
+
+Resolved, That if, in the opinion of government, our stay or liberty can
+no longer be granted in the States in which we live, we see nothing
+contrary to the constitution of these United States, or to christianity,
+justice, reason or humanity, in granting us a portion of the Western
+territory, as a state, with the same franchise as that of Pennsylvania,
+New Jersey, or any other free State; for we challenge the Union to prove
+that, as free men, we have ever given the least ground for the
+uncharitable censures that have been cast upon us.
+
+Resolved, That we view the American Colonization Society as the most
+inveterate foe both to the free and slave man of color; forasmuch as the
+agents thereof, and its members who have petitioned the several
+legislatures, have unequivocally declared its object, to wit, the
+extermination of the free people of color from the Union; and to effect
+this they have not failed to slander our character, by representing us
+as a vagrant race; and we do therefore disclaim all union with the said
+Society, and, once for all, declare that we never will remove under
+their patronage; neither do we consider it expedient to emigrate any
+where, but to remain in the land and see the salvation of God.
+Nevertheless, if any of our brethren should be compelled or see proper
+to emigrate, we would recommend to them Upper Canada or Mexico.
+
+Resolved, That we view with the highest emotion of gratitude, the
+benevolence of Great Britain and that of the Canada Company, in
+affording an asylum in the Wilberforce settlement, in Upper Canada, for
+our oppressed brethren of the South, who have been or may be forced, by
+unconstitutional laws, to leave their rightful home and place of
+nativity, without any cause except that of having a dark skin.
+
+Resolved, That this meeting approve the establishment of a college, as
+recommended by the Annual Convention held in Philadelphia last June, and
+that we give all possible aid to that institution.
+
+Resolved, That we view the Liberator, edited by William Lloyd Garrison,
+as a great herald in the cause of liberty, and that we recommend to the
+colored citizens of Trenton the utility of subscribing to the above
+named paper.
+
+Resolved, That there be a committee of three appointed to draft an
+address more expressive of our views on the above subject.
+
+Resolved, That the following persons compose that committee--Sampson
+Peters, Robert Thomas, George Cole.
+
+                        LEWIS CORK, Chairman.
+
+ABNER H. FRANCIS, Secretary.
+
+
+ADDRESS.
+
+We, the undersigned, in conformity to the above appointment, beg leave
+to present to the public, in a calm, unprejudiced manner, our decided
+disapprobation of the American Colonization Society and its auxiliaries,
+in relation to the people of color in the United States. We are well
+convinced, from the mass that has been written on the above subject by
+those who have preceded us, that it will be difficult to avoid
+repetition; nevertheless; we hope to touch some points which have not
+been fairly understood by that Society. They have supposed that our
+objections are to civilizing and evangelizing Africa; but we beg leave
+to say, that it is an error. We are well aware, that there is no surer
+way to effect this great object than to plant among the heathen,
+colonies of Christian missionaries. We wish, therefore, to be
+understood, that we highly approve of the evangelizing of Africa, but
+disapprove of the present measures of the American Colonization Society,
+if their motives have not been misrepresented by their agents and
+others, in some previous addresses in this city and elsewhere. But
+viewing them as we now do, we must say that, in our opinion, their false
+representations of our general character--their recommending our removal
+from our native land--their opposition to our having a part of the West
+appointed to us--their objections to our proposed college, and of our
+march to science--their false statements in relation to the health of
+the colony at Liberia, with a variety of other subjects of the same
+nature--all lead to a conclusion, that it is our greatest foe.
+
+We would here ask the public a few questions. First--Is the gospel of
+Jesus Christ calculated to lead to insurrectionary measures? If so, why
+then send it to the heathen? Second--What gentleman, who has set his
+slaves free, has been murdered by them for so doing? Third--What have
+those States, who have washed their hands clean of the cursed stain of
+slavery, lost by it? Fourth--What neighborhood, where education and
+general information have been disseminated among the people of color, is
+the worse for it?
+
+In closing our remarks, we would say, that we do think that the subjects
+looked to by the Colonization Society, to civilize Africa, are
+incompetent; for we do suppose that men selected for such an important
+enterprise, should be men of deed and sound piety--men of regular and
+industrious habits, of scientific knowledge and general experience: that
+such men can be obtained, we have no doubt; and if there cannot, let us
+first prepare some in this country.
+
+      SAMPSON PETERS, }
+      ROBERT THOMAS,  } Committee.
+      GEORGE COLE,    }
+
+
+A VOICE FROM LYME.
+
+                        LYME, Ct., January 9, 1832.
+
+At a respectable meeting of the colored citizens of this place, held
+pursuant to public notice--Mr Luther Wright was called to the chair, and
+Mr Daniel R. Condol appointed secretary.
+
+After some animated remarks by Messrs Wright and Condol, it was
+
+Resolved, That it is the sincere opinion of this meeting, that the
+American Colonization Society is one of the wildest projects ever
+patronised by a body of enlightened men; and further, that many of those
+who support it would be willing, if it were in their power, to drive us
+out of existence.
+
+Resolved, That though we be last in calling a meeting, we feel no less
+the pernicious influence of this Society than the rest of our brethren;
+and that we will resist every attempt to banish us from this our native
+land.
+
+Resolved, That we place unshaken reliance upon the promises of Jehovah,
+and believe that he will take our reproach away, and give freedom to
+those who are held in captivity.
+
+Resolved, That we are not for insurrection, but for peace, freedom and
+equality.
+
+Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be rendered to Messrs Garrison
+and Knapp, for their benevolent exertions in behalf of the oppressed
+descendants of Africa; and that they be requested to insert these
+proceedings in the Liberator.
+
+                        LUTHER WRIGHT, Chairman.
+
+DANIEL R. CONDOL, Secretary.
+
+
+A VOICE PROM LEWISTOWN.
+
+                        LEWISTOWN, Pa., January 9, 1832.
+
+At a numerous meeting held by the free people of color of the borough of
+Lewistown, in the African Methodist Episcopal church, Samuel Johnston
+was called to the chair, and Martin Johnston appointed secretary. The
+following resolutions were then read, and unanimously adopted:
+
+Resolved, That we will not leave these United States, the land of our
+birth, for a home in Africa.
+
+Resolved, That we will strenuously oppose the colonizing of the free
+people of color in Liberia.
+
+Resolved, That we are willing to emigrate to any part of the United
+States which may be granted to us.
+
+Resolved, That we will support the Liberator, a paper published in
+Boston, edited by William Lloyd Garrison; and also the colony in Upper
+Canada as an asylum for our oppressed brethren.
+
+Resolved, That a committee be appointed to prepare an address to be
+published in the Liberator.
+
+Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman
+and Secretary, and forwarded to the editor of the Liberator for
+publication.
+
+                        SAMUEL JOHNSTON, Chairman.
+
+MARTIN JOHNSTON, Secretary.
+
+
+ADDRESS.
+
+We, the undersigned, in conformity to the above appointment, beg leave
+to present to the public, in a calm and unprejudiced manner, our reasons
+for opposing the scheme of African colonization. This is the land of our
+birth. The Declaration of Independence declares, that 'all men are born
+free and equal:' it does not say that the _white_ man or the _black_ man
+is free,--but all, without respect to color, tongues, or nation. We
+therefore consider all laws to enslave or degrade the people of color as
+contrary to the letter and spirit of this Declaration; and that
+according to it we are freemen, and have as indisputable a right to
+enjoy our liberty as any white man. To deny it to us, because we differ
+in color, is oppression. To say that Africa is our native country is
+untrue. Here we were born, and here we mean to die; for all men are born
+free.
+
+We wish to return our grateful thanks to our friends, and to the friends
+of the abolition of slavery. We consider slavery a national sin, which,
+if not speedily overthrown, will cause this nation to mourn and weep;
+for God has declared that Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto
+him, and he will hear her cry.
+
+We would say to colonizationists that we consider them our foes instead
+of our friends. It is vain for them to say that we would do better in
+Liberia; for we do not believe it. There is room enough in this country
+for us; and if they be our friends, let them meliorate our condition
+here. Let them join in the work of immediate abolition of slavery. Let
+them wash out the stains which disfigure the national character. And
+then let them tell us about Liberia.
+
+One reason why we are opposed to leaving these United States is this:
+you have so long denied us the enjoyment and protection of the laws of
+God and man in this country, that you wish now to oppress us still more.
+But thanks be to Him who holds all things in his hand, we believe He
+will plead our cause. Your skirts are already dyed with the blood of
+millions of souls. 'Vengeance is mine--I will repay,' saith the Lord.
+
+Awake, ye wolves in sheep's clothing. Your cup is now full. You are
+daily causing innocent blood to be shed. How long, ye slavites, ye
+kidnappers, ye that traffic in human flesh, will you sleep? When will
+you awake to your best interests? For remember that you will not always
+be able to hold your victims in servile chains.
+
+      J. G. SMITH, }
+      M. WALKER,   } Committee.
+      M. JOHNSTON, }
+
+
+A VOICE FROM NEW-BEDFORD.
+
+                        NEW-BEDFORD, January 23, 1832.
+
+At a meeting of the people of color in New-Bedford, January 23d, for the
+purpose of considering and giving their opinion of the American
+Colonization Society, and the actual evil or benefit of that Society to
+the objects of its supervision, the free people of color, Mr Richard
+Johnson was called to the chair, and Richard G. Overing appointed
+secretary. After an address from the chair, it was moved that
+resolutions expressive of the views of the meeting, respecting the
+Colonization Society, be drawn up, and published in some newspaper not
+adverse to the rights and well being of all men, be their color what it
+may. The following are the resolves of the meeting:
+
+Resolved, That in whatever light we view the Colonization Society, we
+discover nothing in it but terror, prejudice and oppression; that the
+warm and beneficent hand of philanthropy is not apparent in the system,
+but the influence of the Society on public opinion is more prejudicial
+to the interest and welfare of the people of color in the United States,
+than slavery itself.
+
+Resolved, That the Society, to effect its purpose, the removal of the
+free people of color, (not the slaves) through its agents, teaches the
+public to believe that it is patriotic and benevolent to withhold from
+us knowledge and the means of acquiring subsistence, and to look upon us
+as unnatural and illegal residents in this country; and thus by force of
+prejudice, if not by law, endeavor to compel us to embark for Africa,
+and that too, apparently, by our own free will and consent.
+
+Resolved, That as great a nuisance as we may be in the estimation of
+that Society, we yet have a hope in Him who has seen fit to continue our
+existence through days worse than which we do not fear, and which
+emboldens us as peaceable citizens, to resolve to abide the issue of
+coming days in our native land, in which we ask no more than the age in
+which we live demands, and which this nation, as republicans and
+christians, should not refuse to grant.
+
+Signed in behalf of the meeting.
+
+                        RICHARD JOHNSON, Chairman.
+
+R. G. OVERING, Secretary.
+
+
+The foregoing resolutions and addresses are given in plain, it may be
+occasionally in severe language; and display an intensity of feeling, a
+depth of abhorrence, and a firmness of purpose, honorable to men who
+appreciate their rights and love their country. Before I proceed,
+however, to comment upon these important proceedings, I shall make some
+quotations from the essays and addresses of colored writers, in order to
+sustain my assertion that the American Colonization Society is directly
+opposed to the wishes of our free colored population.
+
+'A COLORED BALTIMOREAN'[AH] records his sentiments in the following
+style:
+
+    'We believe, sirs, that the people of color in the United States
+    will never be prevailed over to abandon the land of their birth,
+    and every thing vernacular with them--to forego many advantages
+    which they now possess, and many more which they have in
+    prospect, for the imaginary, or if real, the fleeting and
+    short-lived honors held out to them by our "Americo-African
+    empire." Why should we exchange a temperate and salubrious
+    climate, adapted to our constitutions as Americans, for one, to
+    us, fraught with disease and death? Why should we leave a land
+    in which the arts and sciences are flourishing, and which is
+    beginning to yield to our research, for one, where the
+    irradiating beams of the sun of science have yet to be announced
+    by the bright star of hope? Why should we leave a land
+    illuminated with the blaze of gospel light, for one enshrouded
+    in pagan gloom? Why should we, who are in tolerable
+    circumstances in America, who enjoy many of the comforts of
+    life, and are evidently on the advanced march of mind, cast away
+    these certain, real, and growing advantages, for those which are
+    precarious and chimerical? Why should we abandon our firesides,
+    and every thing associated with the dear name of _home_--undergo
+    the fatigues of a perilous voyage, and expose ourselves, our
+    wives, and our little ones, to the deleterious influences of an
+    uncongenial sun, for the enjoyment of a liberty divested of its
+    usual accompaniments, surrounded with circumstances which
+    diminish its intrinsic value, and render it indeed "a dear
+    earned morsel"? * * * * * *
+
+    'But "it is the hope of accomplishing the entire subversion of
+    the slave trade and Mahometan superstition, and all their
+    subsidiary concomitants, that has actuated the Christian and
+    stimulated the philanthropist." Noble objects indeed! And who
+    are those christians and philanthropists? Our friend tells us,
+    without distinction, that they are "those noble and heroic men
+    who have enlisted under the banner of colonization." But how
+    happens it that some of the most distinguished of these
+    _christians_ and _philanthropists_ are themselves slaveholders,
+    and so far abettors of the _slave trade_ as to be actually
+    guilty of selling into a cruel and interminable vassalage the
+    hapless victims of their tender mercies? Again, how is it that
+    none but the free people of color have been chosen to evangelize
+    Africa? Is it because they are under an exclusive moral
+    obligation to dispel the "gloom of Mahometan superstition?" Is
+    it because they are pre-eminently qualified in point of morals
+    and information for the missionary enterprise? None will say
+    this. Perhaps we shall be told, that the identity of their color
+    gives them a decided advantage over every other people. But how
+    is it that those wicked white men, who are in the habit of
+    resorting thither for the most nefarious purposes, have access
+    to these people? And we have not forgotten that during the visit
+    of the Rev. G. R. McGill, in Baltimore, he informed us that
+    colored men from the United States, being thought by the natives
+    to be men of information, are received and treated as white men,
+    and denominated by the same epithet. Since then it does not
+    appear that we are pre-eminently qualified for this work, why
+    should it be pressed upon us? * * * *
+
+    'Tell us not that the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, who is
+    not a respecter of persons, whose "tender mercies are over all
+    his works," will _never_ elevate us to the dignity of men and
+    christians, unless we emigrate to Africa. Tell us not that in
+    this _christian_ country, this "land of the free and home of the
+    brave," we must _for ever_ remain a degraded and proscribed
+    race--that we must _for ever_ be treated as the outcasts of
+    creation. We are aware that this doctrine has been asserted with
+    all the confidence of inspiration by _some_ of our gospel
+    ministers. We have heard them proclaim it in a tone calculated
+    to strengthen the prejudices existing against us. They seem to
+    forget that there is a superintending providence--that He, who
+    "sits upon the whirlwind and directs the storm," has ever
+    manifested himself a friend to the oppressed of every clime.
+    They seem to forget that the religion of Jesus, wherever it
+    reigns with unrestrained sway, demolishes every partition wall,
+    and exterminates out of the heart all those bitter prejudices
+    which impede the march of the Messiah's kingdom. We should like
+    to have these prophets give us their ideas in relation to the
+    millennial reign of Christ. We should like to have them inform
+    us whether or not the general prejudices and their inseparable
+    accompaniments, which now lie upon, and operate against us, on
+    account of our color, will be consistent with this glorious
+    reign of _peace_, and _love_, and _joy_. Let these ministers
+    consider that much of our degradation is chargeable to the
+    indifference (to say the least) that they manifest in regard to
+    our situation--that if they as patterns of piety hold us at a
+    distance, it is but natural for the inconsiderate to follow
+    their example. Let them recollect that while they are making
+    powerful and irresistible appeals to the humanity of the
+    American people in behalf of the oppressed of other climes, they
+    have a people among them whose claims upon their liberality are
+    paramount to those of any other. Let these ministers tell us how
+    often they make it their business to visit those portions of
+    their flocks whose crime is, their color. Nay, one of them said
+    not long since, to be familiar with the people of color would
+    destroy his _usefulness_ among the whites. But whether they do
+    their duty in relation to us or not, we indulge in no fears in
+    regard to our future condition. We are not distrustful of the
+    goodness and power of Him who has overruled the evil designs of
+    those men that first tore our ancestors from their native
+    shores, who is still overruling, and who will continue to
+    overrule the designs of all who would treat us as the
+    offscouring of the earth, because our Creator has not given us a
+    color as white as their own. If ever there was a people who
+    could look up to Heaven with unshaken confidence for protection,
+    it is that people whose sufferings are not the consequences of
+    their crimes; it is that people whose misfortunes work in them
+    the graces of faith, patience and hope. And why should we not
+    cherish these invaluable graces? We are told by high authority,
+    that "_all things_ shall work together _for good_ to them that
+    love God"--that "He will give grace and glory, and _no good
+    thing_ will He _withhold_ from them that walk uprightly." You
+    see, sirs, we have one straight forward course to pursue--one
+    marked out by the hand of unerring wisdom. This course we intend
+    to pursue, without giving ourselves any uneasiness as to the
+    issue; this we leave to Him who has the administration of the
+    universe in his hands, and who has declared for our
+    encouragement, "even the very hairs of your head are all
+    numbered." Tell us not of the wisdom, and power, and number of
+    our enemies; He who has given us a hope, which at least makes
+    our condition tolerable, will say to them, as He did to the
+    tempestuous billows, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;
+    and here shall thy proud waves be stayed."'
+
+    * * * * * * * * *
+
+    'What effect have the evils of slavery in this _happy_ land upon
+    the mind of the liberal, the unprejudiced, and philanthropic
+    Lafayette?
+
+    'Hear him, he will speak for himself: "When I am indulging in my
+    views of American prospects and American liberty, it is
+    mortifying to be told that in that very country a large portion
+    of the people are slaves. It is a dark spot on the face of the
+    nation. _Such a state of things cannot always exist._" It was a
+    sight of the evils alluded to, and their inseparable
+    concomitants, that extorted from the pen of Mr Jefferson that
+    comprehensive and soul-thrilling sentence--"I tremble for my
+    country when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice
+    cannot sleep for ever." But may we not indulge the hope that
+    the evils spoken of will yet awaken the sympathies of the
+    American people--soften their cruel prejudices--arouse their
+    slumbering energies--and produce in them an unconquerable
+    determination to wash from their "stars and stripes" one of the
+    blackest spots that ever cursed the globe, or stained the
+    historic page? Shall we be told that _invincible_ prejudices
+    render this great desideratum impracticable? And what is this
+    but a libel upon the American people? What is it but to say,
+    there is in them a moral incapacity to do justice, love mercy,
+    and walk uprightly? Colonization orators, designing politicians,
+    ministers of Jesus, tell me, how can you thus libel your
+    countrymen? Surely, there is a regenerating, a redeeming spirit
+    in the land--a spirit transforming misanthropes into
+    philanthropists--bondmen into freemen--abettors of slavery into
+    champions of liberty--a spirit that will yet drive from America
+    the demon of slavery, and render it indeed "the land of the free
+    and the home of the brave."'[AI]
+
+    * * * * * * * *
+
+    'I have just found time to notice a few very exceptionable
+    features of a communication over the signature of "A
+    Marylander," published, a few days ago, in the American of our
+    city. The writer is unquestionably entitled to the credit of
+    being a thorough-going colonizationist. He writes in the _true
+    spirit_ of the cause. He seems to be under an excitement
+    produced by the publication of our anti-colonization
+    resolutions. This being the case, it is not to be expected that
+    he would, throughout his communication, avail himself of the
+    guarded, accommodating, and conciliating language usual with
+    colonization writers and declaimers. After being convinced that
+    the people of color are not to be persuaded to leave the land of
+    their birth, and every thing vernacular with them, for "regions"
+    which he tells us are "now dark as the valley of the shadow of
+    death," he says, "I would propose then that Maryland should
+    colonize her own free blacks." He does not add the usual
+    qualification, "_with their own consent_:" he knows this will
+    never be obtained. He therefore says: "I earnestly _hope_ that
+    the time _is now_ come when our state will wake up to all the
+    importance of this subject, and will instantly commence _a
+    system of measures_ imperatively demanded by the _sternest_
+    principles [colonization principles?] of _sound_ policy." We
+    would tell this precocious statesman that we are not to be
+    intimidated into colonization "_measures_" by the angry
+    effusions of his illiberal soul; that we had rather die in
+    Maryland under the pressure of unrighteous and cruel laws than
+    be driven, like cattle, to the pestilential clime of Liberia,
+    where grievous privation, inevitable disease, and premature
+    death, await us in all their horrors. We are emboldened thus to
+    speak, not from a reliance on the mere arm of flesh; no--it is
+    the righteousness of our cause, a knowledge of the attributes of
+    Deity, combined with a consciousness of innocence under
+    suffering, that have inspired us with a moral courage which no
+    oppression shall shake, no fulminations overawe. Our limits will
+    not permit us to expatiate, at this time, on the import of the
+    terms, "_a system of measures--the sternest principles_," &c. We
+    would barely remark that the climax of injustice and cruelty,
+    here suggested, nay, recommended, is the legitimate fruit of the
+    operations of the American colonization societies relative to
+    the free people of color. We have always believed that the
+    "_system of measures_" here recommended, would be the dernier
+    resort of these _christian_ associations. The unmerited abuse,
+    that has been so unsparingly heaped upon us by colonizationists
+    for expressing our opinions of their project as connected with
+    our happiness, their manifest determination to effectuate their
+    object regardless of our consent, abundantly corroborate the
+    opinion we have long since entertained. We turn, however, from
+    the contemplation of the persecution and oppression, which, it
+    seems, are in reserve for us, to notice, briefly, the moving
+    cause of this virulent and relentless attack upon our rights and
+    happiness. "The _census just taken_," says A Marylander,
+    "_admonishes_ us in the strongest manner, of the necessity of
+    prompt and efficient measures to drain off this description of
+    our population." Here then is the _patriotic_, the _benevolent_,
+    the _christian_ principle, by which the colonization societies,
+    throughout our land, are actuated. This is the selfish policy of
+    which we complain, and which should be execrated by all _true_
+    patriots, philanthropists, and christians. Our increase is
+    represented as an "_alarming evil--an evil_," said one of our
+    colonization orators in the pulpit, not long since, "which
+    _threatens_ our very _existence_." Now, if all this be true, how
+    can they, on their own principles, say we can _never_ be a
+    people in this country? Surely, they are taking effectual steps
+    to convince us, that the enjoyment of our rights in this, our
+    native land, is not only possible, but highly probable. This we
+    have always believed. And we hope and pray, that it may be
+    accomplished in a way sanctioned by the gospel of peace:
+    "without confused noise, or garments rolled in blood." But this
+    glorious victory over pride and prejudice, by gospel weapons,
+    will never be accomplished by colonization principles. Nor will
+    those ministers of the gospel have any part or lot in this
+    matter, who solemnly declare, in the face of heaven and earth,
+    that we can _never enjoy, in this country_, those inalienable
+    rights of man, whose inviolable preservation promotes the
+    welfare of the whole human family. Such ministers virtually
+    declare that they do not believe the doctrines they are bound to
+    preach; that He, from whom they profess to have received their
+    commission, is, indeed, "a hard man, reaping where he has not
+    sown, and gathering where he has not strawed;" that He requires
+    of them and their flocks, that which they are morally incapable
+    of performing; that they _cannot_ love their neighbor as
+    themselves, or do unto others what they wish done unto
+    themselves, because their Lord, in his wisdom, has given some of
+    their fellow creatures a different color from their own. These
+    temporising, retrograde reformers are doing a serious injury to
+    the people of color. They heed not the warning of Heaven: "Do my
+    people no harm." They are doing more to strengthen the cruel and
+    unchristian prejudices, already too powerful against us, than
+    all the slaveholders in the Union. They hesitate not to declare,
+    that, in America, we are out of the reach of humanity. They seem
+    to think that the religion of the benevolent Saviour which
+    enjoins, "_honor all men_," and which explicitly says, "if ye
+    have _respect to persons_, ye _commit sin_," is nothing more
+    than a dead letter, or must _for ever_ remain powerless, in the
+    United States of America. And have these men the face to contend
+    with the infidels of our land? Why, one infidel, with the bible
+    in his hands, would "chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand
+    to flight." But notwithstanding these discouraging
+    circumstances, our cause will yet triumph. He who is for us, is
+    stronger than all that are against us. "The rulers" of the land
+    may "take counsel together," and some of the professed ministers
+    of Jesus may "come into their secret," but "He that sitteth in
+    the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision."
+    Fear not then, my colored countrymen, but press forward, with a
+    laudable ambition, for all that heaven has intended for you and
+    your children, remembering that the path of duty is the path of
+    safety, and that "righteousness" alone "exalteth a nation."'
+
+
+If excellence of style, a dignified carriage, sound logic, a high and
+abiding faith, and fervent piety, confer credit upon a writer, few have
+ever better illustrated these traits than 'A COLORED BALTIMOREAN,' or
+deserved a nobler tribute of praise. He who would be ashamed to
+acknowledge such a man as his countryman and brother, has yet to learn
+his own insignificance and what constitutes the majesty of human nature.
+
+The following is an extract of a letter from a colored gentleman of
+wealth and respectability in Philadelphia, whose friendship is courted
+by honorable men, and whose usefulness is scarcely exceeded by any other
+citizen:
+
+    'Is it not preposterous to one, like myself, whose family has
+    resided in the state of Pennsylvania ever since the great
+    lawgiver, William Penn, came last to this state from England;
+    and who fought for the independence of my country, whose
+    Declaration asserts, that all men are born with free and equal
+    rights--is it not preposterous to be told that this is not my
+    country? I was seven months on board of the old Jersey Prison
+    ship in the year 1780, "the times that tried men's souls;" and
+    am I now to be told that Africa is my country, by some of those
+    whose birth-place is unknown? Is it not a contradiction to say
+    that a man is an alien to the country in which he was born? To
+    separate the blacks from the whites is as impossible, as to bale
+    out the Delaware with a bucket. I have always been decidedly of
+    opinion, that if the Colonization Society would take but half
+    the pains to improve the children of color in their own country,
+    and expend but half the money that they are devoting to
+    accomplish their visionary scheme of christianizing Africa, by
+    offering premiums to master mechanics to take them as
+    apprentices, they would do more to destroy prejudice than any
+    thing else. When I look at this globe, containing eight or nine
+    hundred millions of inhabitants, and see that they differ in
+    color from the frozen to the temperate and torrid zones, and
+    that every thing is variegated, I am astonished that any man
+    should be so prejudiced against his fellow-man; but we pray for
+    the aid of the Almighty to take the scales from their eyes; and
+    that the Liberator may be one of the instruments in commencing
+    the work.'[AJ]
+
+
+    'I would ask some of our pretended white friends, and the
+    members of the American Colonization Society, why they are so
+    interested in our behalf as to want us to go to Africa? They
+    tell us that it is our home; that they desire to make a people
+    of us, which we can never be here; that they want Africa
+    civilized; and that we are the very persons to do it, as it is
+    almost impossible for any white person to exist there. I deny
+    it. Will some of those guardian angels of the people of color
+    tell me how it is that we, who were born in the same city or
+    state with themselves, can live any longer in Africa than they?
+    I consider it the most absurd assertion that any man of common
+    sense could make, unless it is supposed, as some have already
+    said, that we are void of understanding. If we had been born on
+    that continent, the transportation would be another matter; but
+    as the fact is the reverse, we consider the United States our
+    home, and not Africa as they wish to make us believe;--and if we
+    do emigrate, it will be to a place of our own choice.
+
+    'I would also mention to the supporters of the Colonization
+    Society, that if they would spend half the time and money that
+    they do, in educating the colored population and giving them
+    lands to cultivate here, and secure to them all the rights and
+    immunities of freemen, instead of sending them to Africa, it
+    would be found, in a short time, that they made as good citizens
+    as the whites. Their traducers would hear of fewer murders,
+    highway robberies, forgeries, &c. &c. being committed, than they
+    do at present among some of the white inhabitants of this
+    country.'[AK]
+
+
+    'Colonization principles, abstractly considered, are
+    unobjectionable; but the means employed for their propagation,
+    we think, are altogether objectionable. We are deprived of our
+    birthright, and pointed by the colonization partisans to another
+    country as a home. They speak of the prejudices which exist
+    against us, as an insuperable hindrance to the improvement of
+    our situation here. We are sickened by the constant reiteration
+    of "_extraneous mass_," "_African inferiority_," &c. which tends
+    immediately to justify the slaveholder in his crime, and
+    increase already existing prejudice. The Colonization Society
+    never will effect the removal of slavery. The God of justice
+    will never, in my opinion, let this nation off so easily. It is
+    in vain to hold back. The eyes of all will ultimately be opened
+    to see that nothing but universal emancipation can possibly
+    avert impending wrath.'[AL]
+
+
+    'How long, oh! ye boasters of freedom, will ye endeavor to
+    persuade us, your derided, degraded fellow countrymen, to the
+    belief that our interest and happiness are prized in high
+    estimation among you? Be it known, that we are not all such
+    misguided, deluded mortals as to be duped by your plans; that we
+    will not suffer ourselves to become so infatuated as to "hurl
+    reason from her throne," and succumb to your glittering, showy,
+    _dissimulating_ path to eminence. We spurn with contempt your
+    unrighteous schemes, and point the finger of derision at your
+    fruitless attempts. You have commenced them in a day, when
+    liberty, justice and equality are claimed by almost all, as
+    nature's rights; for behold! a beam of science, lucid as the
+    sun, has divinely fallen upon the lightless intellects of a
+    portion of that ignoble part of your fellow creatures, who have
+    been so long the victims of your fell injustice and inhumanity.
+    Would to God that conscience might subdue your malignant
+    prejudices. Tell us not that our condition can never be bettered
+    in the land of our birth: you know it not. Make but the attempt
+    in consecrating a portion of your time, talents and money upon
+    us here, and you would soon find the cause of Afric's injured
+    race vindicated by her descendants; and the day which now dawns
+    would be speedily ushered into blazing light, declaring in its
+    effulgence the joyful sound of Liberty--Justice--Equality, to
+    all mankind.'[AM]
+
+
+    'There is much to be surprised at, little to admire, and nothing
+    worthy of imitation, in the "bubbles" of our friends, the
+    colonizationists. They have enlisted the prejudices and the
+    support of the wealthy and influential in their favor; they have
+    succeeded in sending some two or three thousand to Liberia; and
+    they are flattered with their partial success, and no doubt look
+    forward to the time when they will behold the whole of the
+    colored inhabitants of America, in the far distant land of
+    Africa. But let them not anticipate too much; they have yet one
+    obstacle to overcome which threatens to overthrow their
+    "baseless fabric;" or at any rate impede their progress. Their
+    proceedings have not obtained the approbation of those, whose
+    approbation is most needed, _the colored people themselves_.
+    They are most strangely mistaken if they suppose that it is an
+    easy matter to win them, either by _sophistry_ or _force_. The
+    press has begun its revolutionizing work, overturning in its
+    progress every thing calculated to suppress inquiry or to blind
+    the understanding. Already have the intrigues of the designing
+    been exposed, and already have the colored people set their
+    faces against oppression.
+
+    'The Colonization Society has erred in matters of _policy_; for
+    instead of exerting themselves to gain the confidence of the
+    colored people, and thus by persuasion to have rid the country
+    of them, they have acted in a manner calculated to disgust every
+    humane mind, and have rendered it an utter _impossibility_ to
+    remove them; and it is most fortunate for the unfortunate, that
+    they have detected those intriguing spirits in their _humane_
+    and _charitable_ undertaking.
+
+    'How many hours of anguish, how much incalculable misery has been
+    prevented; in short, how many human beings have been saved from
+    an untimely grave, by the timely interposition of the PRESS! It
+    has said, let it be so, and it _was_ so; its thunders have been
+    heard, and the oppressor trembles like the earthquake: it has
+    overthrown, yea, totally demolished the sharp-edged sword of
+    the Colonization Society.
+
+    'Support the PRESS then, ye people of color, and the result will
+    be a total overthrow of all the darling schemes of the aforesaid
+    darling Society; it has accomplished wonders, yea, wonders
+    already; much more can, nay, will be done; again I say, support
+    the PRESS.'[AN]
+
+
+    'The African Colonization Society declares that we the people of
+    color shall have no part nor lot in the free institutions of
+    this country. Why? Because the Creator of all--the sovereign
+    Ruler of the universe, who holds in his hands the destiny of
+    nations, thought fit and proper, in his infinite wisdom, to
+    tincture us with a darker hue than the paler part of community!
+    or, if I may say, because the lot of our predecessors happened
+    to be cast in the torrid zone, beneath the scorching beams of a
+    vertical sun! These are the objections the African Colonization
+    Society offer to this community to our remaining in this
+    country--in the land of freemen! These are the considerations
+    that prompt them to tell us that we the descendants of Africa
+    can never be men unless we abandon the land of our birth, our
+    homes and people, and submit to that uncongenial clime, the
+    barbarous regions of Africa, amidst unyielding contagion and
+    mortality! O, that man would remember, that knowledge and
+    virtue, not complexion, are the emblems that constitute the
+    value of human dignity! With these, we are worthy--without them,
+    we are unworthy. By the acts and operations of wicked men,
+    shielded under a cloak of religion, we the people of color are
+    doomed to all the miseries that the human body is able to
+    sustain--deprived of light, knowledge and social intercourse, by
+    the colonization gentlemen. With all their pretended zeal and
+    love of liberty, manifested towards the African race, I count
+    them as enemies, not friends. I do not solicit their love, nor
+    regard their friendship. I speak for one: I never did, and never
+    will court an enemy as a friend, knowingly, let him be whom he
+    may--let him belong to church or state, I feel the weight of
+    their predominant power, and the finishing blow they are about
+    to strike. Thus we move by them, poor and pennyless, despised
+    and forsaken by all; creeping through your streets, submissively
+    bowed down to every foot whose skin is tinctured with a lighter
+    hue than ours--thus we sojourn in solitude, not for our crimes
+    but color.
+
+    'I came here for the purpose of showing to this community, that
+    the people of color of the United States disapprove of the
+    African Colonization plan. They do not wish to emigrate to
+    Africa. These six hundred or more, that the gentleman tells you
+    are now waiting for a passage to Liberia, are not the free
+    people of color of the United States; they are, if any, the
+    poor, old, worn-out southern slaves, freed on the condition to
+    go to Africa, or die in the tracks of slavery, no more fit for
+    their cotton and rice fields--for the laws of those states
+    forbid the master, let him be possessed of all the fine feelings
+    that the human mind is able to contain; unless he banishes them
+    to some distant region, across that "mighty ocean" they speak
+    of, they cannot be free. According to the laws of those states,
+    and the basis on which the Society is built, the emancipated
+    slaves are not free until they stand upon the shores of Liberia.
+    Thus the Northern and Middle States are called upon for
+    donations to enable the monarch of the south to bury his slaves
+    in the sands of Africa; thus far, northern capital is
+    instrumental in parting asunder parents and children--no more to
+    meet, until Jehovah will stand upon the four corners of the
+    earth, and proclaim deliverance to the captive!--when the arm of
+    tyrants shall cease to sway the rod of tyranny over the heads of
+    their helpless children--until all creation shall vanish and
+    crumble into nothing.
+
+    'About the time of the formation of this Society, the people of
+    color, in different sections of the Union, took the alarm--they
+    thought there was something wrong in the views of that combined
+    body. So, the free people of color of Richmond, convened
+    themselves together in the state of Virginia, where the
+    gentleman says the African Colonization Society first
+    originated. They assembled themselves together for the purpose
+    of ascertaining each other's feelings with regard to that
+    combined body, and after mature reflection, they petitioned
+    Congress--I will give you the words of their memorial, which are
+    sufficient evidence to substantiate in the mind of every
+    rational person, that the people of color wish to remain in this
+    country.
+
+
+    '"At a meeting of a respectable portion of the free people of
+    color of the city of Richmond, on Friday, January 24, 1817,
+    William Bowler was appointed chairman, and Lentey Craw,
+    secretary. The following preamble and resolution were read,
+    unanimously adopted, and ordered to be printed.
+
+    '"Whereas a Society has been formed at the seat of government,
+    for the purpose of colonizing, with their own consent, the free
+    people of color of the United States; therefore we, the free
+    people of color of the city of Richmond, have thought it
+    advisable to assemble together under the sanction of authority,
+    for the purpose of making a public expression of our sentiments
+    on a question in which we are so deeply interested. We perfectly
+    agree with the Society, that it is not only proper, but would
+    ultimately tend to the benefit and advantage of a great portion
+    of our suffering fellow creatures, to be colonized; but while we
+    thus express our approbation of a measure laudable in its
+    purposes, and beneficial in its designs, it may not be improper
+    in us to say, that we prefer being colonized in the most remote
+    corner of the land of our nativity, to being exiled to a foreign
+    country--and whereas the president and board of managers of the
+    said Society have been pleased to leave it to the entire
+    discretion of Congress to provide a suitable place for carrying
+    these laudable intentions into effect--Be it therefore
+
+    '"Resolved, That we respectfully submit to the wisdom of
+    Congress whether it would not be an act of charity to grant us a
+    small portion of their territory, either on the Missouri river,
+    or any place that may seem to them most conducive to the public
+    good and our future welfare, subject, however, to such rules and
+    regulations as the government of the United States may think
+    proper to adopt."
+
+                        'WM. BOWLER, Chairman.
+
+    'LENTEY CRAW, Secretary.'[AO]
+
+
+    'The _colonization craft_ is a diabolical pursuit, which a great
+    part of our christian community are engaged in. Now, brethren, I
+    need not enlarge on this point. You that have been observing,
+    have already seen the trap under the bait; and although some of
+    our population have been foolish enough to sell their birthright
+    for a mess of pottage, yet I doubt whether the Colonization
+    Society will entrap many more. It is too bare-faced, and
+    contrary to all reason, to suppose, that there is any good
+    design in this project. If they are willing to restore
+    four-fold for what they have taken by false accusation, they
+    can do it to better advantage in the bosom of our country, than
+    at several thousand miles off. How would you do, brethren, if
+    your object was really to benefit the poor? Would you send them
+    into a neighboring forest, and there deal out that food which
+    they were famishing for? Now we stand different from beggars.
+    Our ancestors were stolen property, and property which belonged
+    to God. This is well known by our religious community; and they
+    find that the owner is about to detect them. Now if they can
+    slip away the stolen goods, by smuggling all those out of the
+    country, which God would be likely to make an instrument of, in
+    bringing them to justice, and keep the rest in ignorance; by
+    such means, things would go on well with them, and they would
+    appease their consciences by telling what great things they are
+    doing for the colored population and God's cause. But we
+    understand better how it is. The deception is not so well
+    practised, but that we can discover the mark of the beast. They
+    will steal the sons of Africa, bring them to America, keep them
+    and their posterity in bondage for centuries, letting them have
+    what education they can pick up of themselves; then transport
+    them back to Africa; by which means America gets all her
+    drudgery done at little expense, and endeavors to flatter the
+    Deity, by making him a sacrifice of good works of this kind. But
+    to the awful disappointment of all such blasphemers, they will
+    meet the justice of God, which will be to them a devouring
+    sword.'[AP]
+
+
+    'Though delivered from the fetters of slavery, we are oppressed
+    by an unreasonable, unrighteous, and cruel prejudice, which aims
+    at nothing less, than the forcing away of all the free colored
+    population of the United States to the distant shores of Africa.
+    Far be it from me to impeach the motives of every member of the
+    American Colonization Society. The civilizing and christianizing
+    of that vast continent, and the extirpation of the abominable
+    traffic in slaves, (which, notwithstanding all the laws passed
+    for its suppression, is still carried on in all its horrors,)
+    are no doubt the principal motives, which induce many to give it
+    their support.
+
+    'But there are those, and those who are most active and
+    influential in this cause, who hesitate not to say, that they
+    wish to rid the country of the free colored population; and
+    there is sufficient reason to believe that with many, this is
+    the principal motive for supporting that Society; and that
+    whether Africa is civilized or not, and whether the slave-trade
+    be suppressed or not, they would wish to see the free colored
+    people removed from this country to Africa.
+
+    'Africa could certainly be brought into a state of civil and
+    religious improvement, without sending all the free people of
+    color in the United States there.
+
+    'A few well-qualified missionaries, properly fitted out and
+    supported, would do more for the instruction and improvement of
+    the natives of that country, than a host of colonists, the
+    greater part of whom would need to be instructed themselves, and
+    all of whom for a long period would find enough to do to provide
+    for themselves, instead of instructing the natives.
+
+    'How inconsistent are those who say, that Africa will be
+    benefitted by the removal of the free people of color of the
+    United States there, while they say, they are the _most vile and
+    degraded_ people in the world!--If we are as vile and degraded
+    as they represent us, and they wish the Africans to be rendered
+    a virtuous, enlightened and happy people, they should not
+    _think_ of sending _us_ among them, lest we should make them
+    worse instead of better.
+
+    'The colonies planted by white men on the shores of America, so
+    far from benefitting the aborigines, corrupted their morals, and
+    caused their ruin; and yet those who say _we_ are the most vile
+    people in the world, would send us to Africa, to improve the
+    character and condition of the natives! Such arguments would not
+    be listened to for a moment, were not the minds of the community
+    strangely warped by prejudice.
+
+    'Those who wish that that vast continent should be _compensated_
+    for the injuries done it, by sending thither the light of the
+    gospel and the arts of civilized life, should aid in sending and
+    supporting well qualified missionaries, who should be wholly
+    devoted to the work of instruction, instead of sending
+    colonists, who would be apt to turn the ignorance of the natives
+    to their own advantage, and do them more harm than good.
+
+    'Much has also been said by colonizationists, about improving
+    the character and condition of the people of color of this
+    country, by sending them to Africa. This is more inconsistent
+    still. We are to be improved by being sent far from civilized
+    society. This is a novel mode of improvement. What is there in
+    the burning sun, the arid plains, and barbarous customs of
+    Africa, that is so peculiarly favorable to our improvement? What
+    hinders our improving here, where schools and colleges abound,
+    where the gospel is preached at every corner, and where all the
+    arts and sciences are verging fast to perfection? Nothing,
+    nothing but prejudice. It requires no large expenditures, no
+    hazardous enterprises, to raise the people of color in the
+    United States to as highly improved a state, as any class of the
+    community. All that is necessary is, that those who profess to
+    be anxious for it, should lay aside their prejudices, and act
+    towards them as they do by others.
+
+    'We are NATIVES of this country; we ask only to be treated as
+    well as FOREIGNERS. Not a few of our fathers suffered and bled
+    to purchase its independence; we ask only to be treated as well
+    as those who fought against it. We have toiled to cultivate it,
+    and to raise it to its present prosperous condition; we ask only
+    to share equal privileges with those who come from distant lands
+    to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Let these moderate requests be
+    granted, and we need not go to Africa nor any where else, to be
+    improved and happy. We cannot but doubt the purity of the
+    motives of those persons who deny us these requests, and would
+    send us to Africa, to gain what they might give us at home.
+
+    'But they say, the prejudices of the country against us are
+    invincible; and as they cannot be conquered, it is better that
+    we should be removed beyond their influence. This plea should
+    never proceed from the lips of any man, who professes to believe
+    that a just God rules in the heavens.
+
+    'The American Colonization Society is a numerous and influential
+    body. Would they lay aside their _own_ prejudices, much of the
+    burden would be at once removed; and their example (especially
+    if they were as anxious to have _justice done us here_, as to
+    send us to Africa,) would have such an influence upon the
+    community at large, as would soon cause prejudice to hide its
+    deformed head.
+
+    'But alas! the course which they have pursued, has an opposite
+    tendency. By the _scandalous misrepresentations_, which they are
+    continually giving of our character and conduct, we have
+    sustained much injury, and have reason to apprehend much more.
+
+    'Without any charge of crime, we have been denied all access to
+    places, to which we formerly had the most free intercourse; the
+    colored citizens of other places, on leaving their homes, have
+    been denied the privilege of returning; and others have been
+    absolutely driven out.
+
+    'Has the Colonization Society had no effect in producing these
+    barbarous measures?
+
+    'They profess to have no other object in view, than the
+    colonizing of the free people of color on the coast of Africa,
+    with their _own consent_; but if our homes are made so
+    uncomfortable that we cannot continue in them; or if, like our
+    brethren of Ohio and New Orleans, we are driven from them, and
+    no other door is open to receive us but Africa, our removal
+    there will be any thing but voluntary.
+
+    'It is very certain, that very few free people of color _wish_
+    to go to that _land_. The Colonization Society _know_ this, and
+    yet they do certainly calculate, that in time they will have us
+    all removed there.
+
+    'How can this be effected, but by making our situation worse
+    here, and closing every other door against us?'[AQ]
+
+
+    'My attention was forcibly attracted by a communication in Mr
+    Poulson's Daily Advertiser of the 16th inst. which states, that
+    Mrs Stansbury of Trenton, N. J. has presented _one thousand
+    dollars_ to the Colonization Society. Now I think it is greatly
+    to be regretted, that this highly generous and benevolent lady
+    has been induced to make this donation for the purpose of
+    conveying some of the superannuated slaves to Africa, when
+    objects of much greater importance could be attained by offering
+    a premium to master mechanics to take colored children as
+    apprentices, so that they would become useful to themselves and
+    others. It is an inquiry becoming of the utmost importance, what
+    is to become of those children who are arriving at the age of
+    manhood?
+
+    'I am greatly astonished that the ministers of the gospel should
+    take so active a part, in endeavoring to convey the freemen of
+    color to Africa. Even in Boston and New-York, they have taken
+    the lead in support of this object. They cannot be aware of the
+    great injury they will be the means of inflicting on us: instead
+    of doing this, they should endeavor to remove prejudice, to
+    ameliorate and improve the condition of the colored people by
+    education, and by having their children placed in a situation to
+    learn a trade. I hope, through the assistance of Divine
+    Providence, that the Liberator may be the means (especially in
+    Boston, the Cradle of Liberty and Independence) of guiding the
+    people of this country in the path, which equal justice and the
+    public good so evidently indicate.
+
+    'I have never conversed with an intelligent man of color, (not
+    swayed by interested and sinister motives,) who was not
+    decidedly opposed to leaving his home for the fatal clime of
+    Africa. I am well acquainted with all the masters of vessels,
+    belonging to this port, who have been to the coast of Africa;
+    and they all agree in representing it as one of the most
+    unhealthy countries in the latitude of 40. In the months of June
+    and July, the thermometer is at from 88 to 90 degrees. What must
+    it be, then, in the latitude of 6 or 7, under a vertical sun,
+    and where, after the rainy season, the effluvium which arises
+    from the putrefaction of vegetables is productive of the most
+    fatal effects? Sir James L. Yeo agrees with their account, in
+    his statement laid before the Admiralty of Great Britain.
+
+    'Has any one, in either of our southern States, given any thing
+    like a thousand dollars to promote emigration to Africa? Not one
+    has shown so much compassion for the oppressed slave. General
+    Mercer,--who is, I believe, the President of the Colonization
+    Society,--promised to emancipate his slaves, and to sell his
+    large possessions in Virginia, and to remove with them to
+    Africa--(my friends inform me, and I believe him to be one of
+    the most humane and best of masters.) Mr Key, the great
+    advocate, and the late Judge Washington, promised to liberate
+    their slaves: I believe that neither of them has performed his
+    promise.
+
+    'According to a statement made by Mr Key, they have removed in
+    fourteen years about as many hundred emigrants. I will venture
+    to say, that at least a half million have been born during the
+    same period. We ask not their compassion and aid, in assisting
+    us to emigrate to Africa: we are contented in the land that gave
+    us birth, and for which many of our fathers fought and died,
+    during the war which established our independence. I well
+    remember that when the New England regiment marched through this
+    city on their way to attack the English army under the command
+    of Lord Cornwallis, there were several companies of colored
+    people, as brave men as ever fought; and I saw those brave
+    soldiers who fought at the battle of Red Bank, under Col. Green,
+    where Count Donop the commander was killed, and the Hessians
+    defeated. All this appears to be forgotten now; and the
+    descendants of these men, to whom we are indebted for the part
+    they took in the struggle for independence, are intended to be
+    removed to a distant and inhospitable country, while the
+    emigrants from every other country are permitted to seek an
+    asylum here from oppression, and to enjoy the blessings of both
+    civil and religious liberty, equally with those who are entitled
+    to it by birthright.
+
+    'I think the ministers of the gospel might do much towards
+    destroying the domestic slave trade, which breaks asunder the
+    sacred ties of husband, wife and children. Not a voice is
+    raised by them against this most cruel injustice. In the British
+    colonies, this is not permitted; yet it exists in the only true
+    republic on earth.'[AR]
+
+
+    '_My Friends and Countrymen_:--I trust, by this time, you have
+    known well my sentiments in relation to the American
+    Colonization Society; and the great objects, which have been set
+    forth, of a general union of interest, in funds and education,
+    for the permanent establishment and furtherance of our
+    prosperity, in this our native country.
+
+    'In addition to what has been already said on the subject, I
+    shall briefly set forth some of the leading causes of our
+    wretchedness and misery; and the prominent motives of the
+    Colonization Society in sending us away. Much theory has been
+    used, in the discussions upon our civil and political situation,
+    in this country. We have been branded, in many instances,--may I
+    not say, in the highest courts of the nation, courts of justice
+    and equity, in public and family circles?--as being an inferior
+    race of beings, not possessing like intellect and faculty with
+    the whites. We are represented as being incapable of acting for
+    ourselves; consequently not educated and qualified to be
+    admitted into public places, to vindicate the integrity of our
+    race, and the qualifications we are capable of acquiring. Many
+    of our noble statesmen, orators and lawyers, have made our
+    capital ring with the empty sound of
+    inferiority,--degradation,--the impossibility of tolerating
+    equality with the blacks. Sacred writ has been carefully
+    examined by these gentlemen of science, and construed to suit
+    their narrow consciences. Prophets have arisen among them, who
+    hold forth to the people the continuation of our political
+    thraldom, unless there be a general removal of all the free
+    among us to the coast of Africa. Others argue, that, although
+    they have good feelings towards us, and would do any thing for
+    us, if we were out of their sight and out of the hearing of
+    their slaves, yet to admit us into their circles would be to
+    pervert the present order of society, and the happiness of the
+    good white citizens of the country. These are generally bible
+    men, such as hold forth the true oracles of God; yet deny him,
+    in their actions and words, the supreme control over all his
+    creatures. There is hardly ever an action performed, whether
+    good or bad, but there is generally a reason given for so doing;
+    and he is a wicked, daring character, who cannot find a cloak,
+    at any time, to cover his hideous crimes. The men who have been
+    foremost, in withholding from us our dearest and most sacred
+    rights, have always held out false colors to the community at
+    large, (such as, inferiority, degradation, nuisance, pest,
+    slaves, species of monkey, apes, &c.) to justify their inhuman
+    and unchristian acts towards us, and to deaden the severe pangs
+    of conscience that harass them. They would wish to appear
+    innocent before the world; as doing unto all men as they would
+    they should do unto them. Do they base their objects, in full,
+    upon such frivolous excuses as these? No. The truth is, actions
+    speak louder than words. It is my candid opinion, there would
+    have been no Colonization Society formed for our transportation
+    to the western coast of Africa, had there been no free colored
+    people, and did not our numbers increase daily. If we, as a free
+    body of people, had remained in the same character with slaves,
+    monkeys and baboons, there would not have been so much
+    excitement in the community about us; but as they see by our
+    improvement, (a great improvement, indeed, within forty years,)
+    that the period is hastening on, 'when there will be no other
+    alternative but we must rank among them in civilization, science
+    and politics, they have got up this colonization scheme to
+    persuade us to leave our slave brethren, and flee to the
+    pestilential shores of Africa, where we shall be in danger of
+    being forced to hang our harps upon the willows, and our song of
+    liberty and civilization will be hushed by the impelling force
+    of barbarian despots.'[AS]
+
+
+    'And in pursuit of this great object [the elevation of the
+    people of color] various ways and means have been resorted to;
+    among others, the American Colonization Society is the most
+    prominent. Not doubting the sincerity of many friends who are
+    engaged in that cause; yet we beg leave to say, that it does not
+    meet with our approbation. However great the debt which these
+    United States may owe to injured Africa, and however unjustly
+    her sons have been made to bleed, and her daughters to drink of
+    the cup of affliction, still we who have been born and nurtured
+    on this soil, we, whose habits, manners and customs are the same
+    in common with other Americans, can never consent to take our
+    lives in our hands, and be the bearers of the redress offered by
+    that Society to that much afflicted country.
+
+    'Tell it not to barbarians, lest they refuse to be civilized,
+    and eject our Christian missionaries from among them, that in
+    the nineteenth century of the christian era, laws have been
+    enacted in some of the States of this great republic, to compel
+    an unprotected and harmless portion of our brethren to leave
+    their homes and seek an asylum in foreign climes: and in taking
+    a view of the unhappy situation of many of these, whom the
+    oppressive laws alluded to, continually crowd into the Atlantic
+    cities, dependent for their support upon their daily labor, and
+    who often suffer for want of employment, we have had to lament
+    that no means have yet been devised for their relief.'[AT]
+
+
+    'The Convention has not been unmindful of the operations of the
+    American Colonization Society; and it would respectfully suggest
+    to that august body of learning, talent and worth, that, in our
+    humble opinion, strengthened, too, by the opinions of eminent
+    men in this country, as well as in Europe, that they are
+    pursuing the direct road to perpetuate slavery, with all its
+    unchristianlike concomitants, in this boasted land of freedom;
+    and, as citizens and men whose best blood is sapped to gain
+    popularity for that Institution, we would, in the most feeling
+    manner, beg of them to desist: or, if we must be sacrificed to
+    their philanthropy, we would rather die at home. Many of our
+    fathers, and some of us, have fought and bled for the liberty,
+    independence and peace which you now enjoy; and, surely, it
+    would be ungenerous and unfeeling in you to deny us a humble and
+    quiet grave in that country which gave us birth!'[AU]
+
+
+    'Sir, upon the whole, my view of the operations of the
+    Colonization Society, in relieving the slave States of the evil
+    which weighs them down more than a hundred tariffs, is
+    illustrated by an old fable, in which it is stated, that a man
+    was seen at the foot of a mountain, scraping away the dust with
+    his foot. One passing by, asked him what he was doing? I wish to
+    remove this mountain, said he. You fool, replied the other, you
+    can never do it in that way. Well, said he, I can raise a dust,
+    can't I?
+
+    'Sir, I do not wish to censure the motives of this Society, but
+    surely they are visionary. Its supporters are bewildered in
+    their own dust, which is well calculated to injure the vision of
+    good men. The Commercial Advertiser says they do indeed wish to
+    wipe away from the national records the stain of slavery, "but
+    hope it may be accomplished (as the Virginia Enquirer has it)
+    surely but quietly." Yes, Sir, and quietly enough!
+
+    'Our ambition leads not to superiority, but to our _freedom_ and
+    _political rights_. _Grant this!_ we ask no more! If the places
+    in which we dwell are too straight for us and the white
+    population, place us in a state far to the West--take us
+    into the Union--give us our _rights_ as _freemen_. Let the
+    southern states make all born after a date not two years
+    distant, free! and let the Colonization Society turn its
+    attention and energies to the removing of liberated slaves
+    there: the free people will go without their aid. But if the
+    Government is fearful of retaliation, it may allay its fears by
+    a consideration of the fact of there not being one freeman
+    engaged in the late insurrections--of freemen informing against
+    slaves--the peaceable manner in which we live in the
+    neighborhoods of the south, and throughout the whole Union. The
+    meetings that have lately been held, and resolutions passed
+    expressive of our disapprobation of such measures, may all show
+    that such fears are groundless. I repeat again--_Give us our
+    rights--we ask no more!_
+
+    'Yes, Sir, if I possessed the Indies, I would pledge the whole
+    that if such measures were taken, and such grants made, no
+    retaliation would be made by us as a body for former evils.'[AV]
+
+
+    'In no age of our existence have there been more pains taken by
+    priests and people, in public and private, in church and state,
+    to give them currency, than at present. The whole theme of that
+    wicked, persecuting combination--the Colonization Society--is
+    calculated to impress upon the mind of the public these
+    atrocious maxims which every day strengthen a prejudice not only
+    cherished by the whites against the blacks, but by the blacks
+    against the whites. That foul fiend of hell, that destroying
+    angel who hath power to take peace from the earth, and to kill
+    with the sword, is gaining a commanding influence very fast over
+    both parties. And who, but the advocates of the Colonization
+    Society, receive him as a welcome guest? Who but they have built
+    him a temple, and cried, "Long live Prejudice against free born
+    Americans of sable hue!" Who but they are continually crying,
+    "The free blacks are dangerous! the free blacks are dangerous!
+    Away with them--away with them to Africa!" Who but they are the
+    apologists for murder, theft, and all the horrid concomitants of
+    slavery? Who but they have defiled our temples of worship
+    dedicated to God for his service, making merchandise of the
+    souls of men by transferring them over to the keeping of
+    prejudice?'[AW]
+
+
+Other extracts might be recorded, but these must suffice. I have given
+the sentiments of the people of color as expressed individually, in
+public orations, in conventions of delegates, and in popular assemblies.
+Their proceedings evince a keen discrimination between true and false
+philanthropy, and an intellectual ability successfully to defend their
+cause. Their instincts are more than a match for the specious sophistry
+and learned sense of colonizationists: they meet them on every point,
+and on every point achieve a victory. Conscious of the fact that in
+their complexion is found the only motive for their banishment, they
+clearly illustrate the hypocrisy and injustice of the African crusade.
+Their union of purpose is such as cannot be broken. How intense is their
+love of country! how remarkable their patient endurance of wrongs! how
+strong their abhorrence of expatriation! how auspicious the talents
+which they display!
+
+Every humane and honorable man will assent to the proposition, that no
+scheme for the removal of a numerous people from one continent to
+another, ought to be prosecuted contrary to their desires. A scheme
+cannot be benevolent which thrives upon persecution. Benevolent
+oppression is a solecism.
+
+Another self-evident truth is, that no such removal can be effected
+merely by the presentation of selfish inducements, or without resorting
+to coercive measures. To show that coercion is openly advocated by some
+of the prominent supporters of the Colonization Society, I make the
+following extracts from the speeches of Messrs Broadnax and Fisher,
+delivered during the 'Great Debate' in the Virginia House of Delegates a
+short time since. Mr Broadnax said:
+
+    'IT IS IDLE TO TALK ABOUT NOT RESORTING TO FORCE. Every body
+    must look to the introduction of force of some kind or
+    other--and it is in truth a question of expediency; of moral
+    justice; of political good faith--whether we shall fairly
+    delineate our whole system on the face of the bill, or leave the
+    acquisition of extorted consent to other processes. The real
+    question--the only question of magnitude to be settled, is the
+    great preliminary question--Do you intend to send the free
+    persons of color out of Virginia, or not?'
+
+    'If the free negroes are willing to go, they will go--if not
+    willing, they must be compelled to go. Some gentlemen think it
+    politic not now to insert this feature in the bill, though they
+    proclaim their readiness to resort to it when it becomes
+    necessary; they think that for a year or two a sufficient number
+    will consent to go, and then the rest can be compelled. For my
+    part, I deem it better to approach the question and settle it at
+    once, and avow it openly. The intelligent portion of the free
+    negroes know very well what is going on.--Will they not see your
+    debates? _Will they not see that coercion is ultimately to be
+    resorted to?_ They will perceive that the edict has gone forth,
+    and that it must fall, if not now, in a short time upon them.'
+
+    'I have already expressed it as my opinion that few, very few,
+    will _voluntarily_ consent to emigrate, if no COMPULSORY MEASURE
+    be adopted.--With it--many, in anticipation of its sure and
+    certain arrival, will, in the mean time, go away--they will be
+    sensible that the time would come when they would be forced to
+    leave the State. Without it--you will still, no doubt, have
+    applicants for removal equal to your means. Yes, Sir, people who
+    will not only consent, but beg you to deport them. But what sort
+    of _consent_--a consent extorted by a series of oppression
+    calculated to render their situation among us insupportable.
+    Many of those who have already been sent off, went with _their
+    avowed consent_, but under the influence of a more decided
+    compulsion than any which this bill holds out. I will not
+    express, in its full extent, the idea I entertain of what has
+    been done, or what enormities will be perpetrated to induce this
+    class of persons to leave the State. Who does not know that when
+    a free negro, by crime or otherwise, has rendered himself
+    obnoxious to a neighborhood, how easy it is for a party to visit
+    him one night, take him from his bed and family, and apply to
+    him the gentle admonition of a severe flagellation, to induce
+    him to _consent_ to go away? In a few nights the dose can be
+    repeated, perhaps increased, until, in the language of the
+    physicians, _quantum suff._ has been administered to produce the
+    desired operation; and the fellow then becomes _perfectly
+    willing_ to move away. I have certainly heard, if incorrectly,
+    the gentleman from Southampton will put me right, that of the
+    large cargo of emigrants lately transported from that country to
+    Liberia, all of whom _professed_ to be _willing_ to go, were
+    rendered so by some such severe ministrations as those I have
+    described. A lynch club--a committee of vigilance--could easily
+    exercise a kind of inquisitorial _surveillance_ over any
+    neighborhood, and convert any desired number, I have no doubt,
+    at any time, into a willingness to be removed. But who really
+    prefers such means as these to the course proposed in this bill?
+    And one or the other is inevitable. For no matter how you change
+    this bill--sooner or later the free negroes will be _forced_ to
+    leave the State. Indeed, Sir, ALL OF US LOOK TO FORCE of some
+    kind or other, direct or indirect, moral or physical, legal or
+    illegal. Many who are opposed, they say, to any compulsory
+    feature in the bill, desire to introduce such severe regulations
+    into our police laws--such restrictions of their existing
+    privileges--such inability to hold property--obtain
+    employment--rent residences, &c., as to make it impossible for
+    them to remain amongst us. _Is not this force?_'
+
+Mr Fisher said:
+
+    'If we wait until the free negroes consent to leave the State,
+    we shall wait until "time is no more." _They never will give
+    their consent_; and if the House amend the bill as proposed,
+    their consent is in a manner pointed out by the gentleman from
+    Dinwiddie--and it is a great question whether we shall force the
+    people to extort their consent from them in this way.--He
+    believed if the compulsory principle were stricken out, this
+    class of people would be forced to leave by the harsh treatment
+    of the whites. The people in those parts of the State where they
+    most abound, were determined,--as far as they could learn
+    through the newspapers and other sources,--to get rid of the
+    blacks.'
+
+What a revelation, what a confession, is here! The free blacks taken
+from their beds, and severely flagellated, to make them willing to
+emigrate! And legislative compulsion openly advocated to accomplish this
+nefarious project! Yes, the gentlemen say truly, 'few, very few will
+_voluntarily_ consent to emigrate'--'they never will give their
+consent'--and therefore they must be expelled by force! It is true, the
+bill proposed by Mr Broadnax was rejected by a small majority; but it
+serves to illustrate the spirit of the colonization leaders.
+
+The editor of the Lynchburg Virginian, an advocate of the Society, uses
+the following language:
+
+    'But, if they will not consider for themselves, WE _must
+    consider for them_. The safety of the people is the supreme law;
+    and to that law all minor considerations must bend. If the free
+    negroes will not emigrate, _they must be contented to endure
+    those privations which the public interest and safety call
+    for_.--In the last Richmond Enquirer we notice an advertisement,
+    setting forth, that "a petition will be presented to the next
+    legislature of Virginia, from the county of Westmoreland,
+    praying the passage of some law to _compel_ the free negroes in
+    this commonwealth to emigrate therefrom, under a penalty which
+    will effectually promote this object." So, too, at a meeting of
+    the citizens of Prince George county, in Maryland, it was
+    resolved to "petition the next legislature to remove all the
+    free negroes out of that State, and to prohibit all persons from
+    manumitting slaves without making provision for their removal."'
+
+I close this work with a specimen of the sophistry which is used to give
+_eclat_ to the American Colonization Society.
+
+In the month of June, 1830, I happened to peruse a number of the
+Southern Religious Telegraph, in which I found an essay, enforcing the
+duty of clergymen to take up collections in aid of the funds of the
+Colonization Society on the then approaching fourth of July. After an
+appropriate introductory paragraph, the writer proceeds in the following
+remarkable strain:
+
+    'But--we have a plea like a peace offering to man and to God. We
+    answer poor blinded Africa in her complaint--that we have her
+    children, and that they have served on our plantations. And we
+    tell her, look at their returning! We took them barbarous,
+    though measurably free,--untaught--rude--without
+    science--without the true religion--without philosophy--and
+    strangers to the best civil governments. And now we return them
+    to her bosom, _with the mechanical arts_ ... _with science_ ...
+    _with philosophy_ ... with civilization ... with republican
+    feelings ... and above all, with the true knowledge of the true
+    God, and the way of salvation through the Redeemer.'
+
+'The mechanical arts!'--with whom did they serve an apprenticeship?
+'With philosophy!'--in what colleges were they taught? It is strange
+that we should be so anxious to get rid of these scientific men of
+color--these philosophers--these republicans--these christians, and that
+we should shun their company as if they were afflicted with the
+hydrophobia, or carried a deadly pestilence in their train! Certainly,
+they _must_ have singular notions of the christian religion which
+tolerates--or, rather, which is so perverted as to tolerate--the
+oppression of God's rational creatures by its professors! They must feel
+a peculiar kind of brotherly love for those _good men_ who banded
+together to remove them to Africa, because they were too proud to
+associate familiarly with men of a sable complexion! But the writer
+proceeds:
+
+    'We tell her, look at the little colony on her shores. We tell
+    her, look to the consequences that must flow to all her borders
+    from religion, and science, and knowledge, and civilization, and
+    republican government! And then we ask her--_is not one ship
+    load of emigrants returning with these multiplied blessings,
+    worth more to her than a million of her barbarous sons?_'
+
+So! every ship load of ignorant and helpless emigrants is to more than
+compensate Africa for every million of her children who have been
+kidnapped, buried in the ocean and on the land, tortured with savage
+cruelty, and held in perpetual servitude! Truly, this is a compendious
+method of balancing accounts. In the sight of God, of Africa, and of the
+world, we are consequently blameless--and rather praiseworthy--for our
+past transgressions. It is such sophistry as is contained in the
+foregoing extract, that kindles my indignation into a blaze. I abhor
+cant--I abhor hypocrisy--and if some of the advocates of the
+Colonization Society do not deal largely in both, I am unable to
+comprehend the meaning of these terms.
+
+Of the whole number of individuals constituting the officers of the
+Society, nearly three-fourths, I believe, _are the owners of slaves_, or
+interested in slave property; not one of whom, to my knowledge, has
+emancipated any of his slaves to be sent to Liberia!! The President of
+the Society, (CHARLES CARROLL,) owns, I have understood, nearly _one
+thousand slaves_! And yet he is lauded, beyond measure, as a patriot, a
+philanthropist, and a christian! The former President, (Judge BUSHROD
+WASHINGTON,) so far from breaking the fetters of his slaves, actually
+while holding his office offered a large reward for a runaway female
+slave, to any person who would secure her by putting her into any jail
+within the United States! What a mockery it is for such persons to
+profess to deplore the existence of slavery, or to denounce the foreign
+slave trade! for they neither cease from their own oppressive acts, nor
+act much more honestly than the slave dealers--the latter stealing those
+who are born on the coast of Africa, and the former those who are born
+in this country!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[AE] John Neal.
+
+[AF] _Vide_ the Fourth Volume of the Genius of Universal Emancipation
+for 1829.
+
+[AG] Alexander H. Everett, Esq. vide his work entitled 'America, or a
+General Survey,' &c. &c. pp. 212, 225.
+
+[AH] Genius of Universal Emancipation for November 27, 1829.
+
+[AI] Genius of Universal Emancipation, January 29, 1830.
+
+[AJ] 'The Liberator' for January 22, 1832.
+
+[AK] 'A Colored Philadelphian'--vide 'The Liberator' for Feb. 12, 1831.
+
+[AL] Correspondent of 'The Liberator,' Feb. 26, 1831.
+
+[AM] Correspondent of 'The Liberator,' March 12, 1831.
+
+[AN] 'African Sentinel,' Oct. 8, 1831, printed at Albany.
+
+[AO] Extracts from 'An Address to the Gentlemen and Ladies of the County
+of Otsego, N. Y., delivered on the 30th September, 1830, by Hayden
+Waters, a man of color.' The proceedings of the colored inhabitants of
+Virginia, incorporated into this Address, are those referred to on page
+8 as having been accidentally mislaid.
+
+[AP] 'Address delivered before the colored population of Providence, R.
+I., November 27, 1828, by Rev. Hosea Easton.'
+
+[AQ] 'A Discourse delivered in St. Philip's Church, for the benefit of
+the colored community of Wilberforce, in Upper Canada, on the Fourth of
+July, 1830. By Rev. Peter Williams, Rector of St. Philip's Church,
+New-York.' Mr Williams is a clergyman of superior talents and great
+moral worth, and beloved by an extensive circle of acquaintance.
+
+[AR] From the pen of the Colored Gentleman in Philadelphia, referred to
+on page 58--vide 'The Liberator,' March 12, 1831.
+
+[AS] 'Address delivered before a Colored Association in Brooklyn, N. Y.,
+August 5, 1831,' by George Hogarth. Vide 'The Liberator' for August 27,
+1831.
+
+[AT] Conventional Address of the People of Color in Philadelphia, in
+1830.
+
+[AU] 'Minutes and Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of the
+People of Color, held by adjournment in the city of Philadelphia, in
+June, 1831.'
+
+[AV] 'Philadelphia Evangelist'--vide 'The Liberator' for November 26,
+1831.
+
+[AW] Correspondent of 'The Liberator,' December 17, 1831.
+
+
+END OF PART II.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thoughts on African Colonization, by
+William Lloyd Garrison
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