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'!