Thoughts on African Colonization

'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.[9 - 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.]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!