Thoughts on African Colonization

'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.[14 - Stuart's Circular.]

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!

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,[15 - 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.] 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.' * * *