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THE ELEVATION OF A RACE AND
THE REDEMPTION OF A CONTINENT.
AN ADDRESS
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
N
JAKriTARY 13, 1878,
WILLIAM H. ALLEN, LL. I).,
President of Girard College.
PSIBHESSIEC 33£ 3a£&<!a3E£®.
WASHINGTON CITY :
Colonization Building, 450 Pennsylvania Avenue.
1878.
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THE ELEVATION OF A RACE AND
THE REDEMPTION OF A CONTINENT.
AN ADDRESS
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
Abbrm Common Sogiht,
jANTJA.nY IS, 1878,
BY
WILLIAM H. ALLEN, LL. D„
President of Girard College.
WASHINGTON CITY :
Colonization Building, 450 Pennsylvania Avenue.
1878.
ADDRESS
Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen:—
When Bushrod Washington was elected President of the American
Colonization Society, sixty-one years ago, not one of the eminent men
who had organized that Society imagined that the colony they were
about to plant on the coast of Africa would be an independent nation
before the close of the next thirty years. And when, thirty years ago,
Joseph Roberts delivered his inaugural address as first president of the
infant republic, who would have dared to predict that before twenty
years should pass away there would not be a slave in the United States,
and that before the year 1878 there would be schools and colleges and
universities in successful operation for the instruction of colored youth?
The bold prophet would have been sent to prison as "a person danger-
ous to the peace of society," had he been caught in the South, and in
the North he would have been regarded as a crazy enthusiast. The
march of history is accelerated in these later years.
The succession of historical events, which, as Christians, we name the
order of Providence, is not unfrequently an evolution of good from
evil. God causes the wrath of man to praise Him. Prosperity has
sprung from adversity, right from wrong, freedom from slavery. The
Hebrew lad, sold into bondage by his brethren, becomes their preserver
and benefactor. Saul of Tarsus goes forth breathing out threatenings
and slaughter, and returns to preach tht faith he had tried to destroy.
Almost every step in the progress of civilization has been through tears
and blood. The best we have is " the good of suffering born." The
death of Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light. The cross
precedes the crown.
Let us suppose that a historical problem is to be solved. A conti-
nent is to be redeemed from barbarism, to' civilization, from idolatry to
4
Christianity. Suppose that the inhabitants of that continent are in-
capable of self-elevation, and therefore science, art, social culture and
religion are to be imported from abroad. Suppose further that the cli-
mate is insalubrious to foreigners, and therefore science, art, social cul-
ture and Christianity will not be imported by them. Suppose, finally,
that the people are too indolent to seek such benefits in other countries,
and too ignorant to appreciate them if they did. Such was, and to a
great extent is, the actual condition of a large part of Africa. How
shall her millions be instructed, elevated, civilized, Christianized ?
Look at the long catalogue of evils and sufferings of which good has
been born, and more good is yet to be born,—wars of the native tribes
to capture human merchandise; the barracoon, the slave-ship, the hor-
rors of the middle passage; the auction block, the rending asunder of
families, the consignment to hopeless and hereditary bondage; fierce
and protracted political controversy; a bloody and destructive war.
Were there no compensation for these tremendous evils we might doubt
whether there is a God in history. Let us see what good has come, or
is promised, from two centuries of suffering and wrong. By contact
with civilization a barbarous but imitative race became in a degree civ-
ilized. The bondmen learned of their masters many useful arts, and
how the comforts of life are obtained by labor. The descendants of
idolators accepted the truths of the Bible with childlike faith, and em-
braced a religion, not of the head but of the heart, a form of Christian-
ity, sentimental and emotional it may be, but suited to their imperfect
mental development. Then amidst the throes of a sanguinary war
came emancipation, citizenship, civil rights, equality before the law,
education, and for the industrious and frugal the gradual accumulation
of property. And now, last of all, thousands are looking earnestly
toward the land of their fathers, and preparing to realize the cherished
hope and prophecy of this Society,—a self-supporting emigration to
Africa. The hardy and energetic will go to better their own condition,
or at least the condition of their children; the educated and philan-
thropic, to better the condition of the native Africans by opening
schools for their children and preaching the gospel to those who sit in
the darkness of ignorance and idolatry. The elevation of a race and
the redemption of a continent are the two grand objects which the
American Colonization Society has kept steadily in view, and which
5
the present spirit of emigration, if judiciously directed,, promises to
realize.
The thought of redeeming Africa by the instrumentality of her own
children brooded in the minds of Christian philanthropists many years be-
fore it took shape in this Society. Through all the years of slavery in this
country the emancipation of individual bondmen was going slowly on.
A few of the slaves purchased their freedom by the earnings of extra
labor; others were liberated through the gratitude or conscience of hu-
mane masters; others by State laws. Thus arose two classes of colored
people, free negroes and slaves. The social status of the two classes
was very nearly equal. But in the South the free negroes were a con-
tinual menace to slavery, and the South did not want them. In the
North they competed with white labor, and the North did not want
them. The masses at the North had much sympathy for colored peo-
pie at a distance, and ill-concealed aversion to them near at hand. But
both in the North and South were found true-hearted Christian men
who sincerely desired to benefit the colored people, both bond and free.
These were the noble men, all of whom have gone up to God, who or-
ganized the American Colonization Society in 1817; planted the little
colony on the African coast a few years later, and nursed it through its
feeble infancy and dependent childhood for thirty years, and has
watched its growing youth and contributed to its welfare for thirty
years more.
A nation is not born at once, nor does a child-state grow to manhood
in a day. Time is an element in every historic movement. The Su-
preme Being is patient; "His mills grind slow, but they grind exceed-
ing fine." The infant commonwealth must draw sustenance from the
mother laud. When its bones enlarge and harden, and its sinews be-
come strong, it will stand alone. Its hand power must grow as its
brain power grows, until with the help of both it will protect itself
against aggression and violence.
Liberia has passed its infancy. It can stand alone. It is passing its
childhood and gaining strength for self-protection. Its brain power is
respectable, as the addresses and other documents written by its public
men abundantly prove. But it wants more hand power. It needs pop-
ulation. It needs men with heads to plan and hands to execute; men
with will and sinew to cultivate the exuberant soil, and add to the
6
wealth and strength of a growing State. It has a sufficiency for present
use of Esquires, and Honorables, and Excellencies. It has enough of
traders who cling to the shore and speculate on supplies for arriving im-
migrants. In a word, it wants more producers of wealth and less ex-
changers of products.
I congratulate the Society that the time has come to send emigrants
to Liberia who know how to take care of themselves. The condition
of our colored people has changed; and our mode of procedure which
was necessary some years ago, when few but the poor and dependent
were willing to emigrate, may now lie changed with advantage. The
time has come to encourage a self-paying emigration, or an emigration
at least partly self-paying. Mr. Edward S. Morris of Philadelphia, who
probably knows as much of Liberia as any man in America, and who
has given the subject of African colonization much time, thought and
money during the past quarter of a century, never spoke a truer word
than this, "The man who has no money here, will have no money in
Liberia." He, doubtless, meant that since emancipation has placed the
destiny of our colored people in their own hands, the man who has not
the industry to earn and the self-denial to save money in America, will
be a burden and not a help in Liberia. Our colored people are begin-
ning to practice thrift, to earn and save; and when any one of them
shall have earned and saved two hundred and fifty dollars, he will be
fit, if his moral character be good, to become a useful citizen of Liberia.
If he have courage to go there, send him. Give him a free passage if
you please. But do not send the timid, nor the shiftless, nor the lazy.
Do not send the dandy valet-de-chambre of a gentleman—one who wears
his hat on one side of his head, and holds a little cane in one hand and
a cigarette in the other. He is too highly educated to be useful there.
He will be a gentleman in caricature. Send stalwart, energetic men,
who will not be afraid to go out of sight of ship and shore, who will go
straight to the healthy interior *ith the means, either in cotton cloth,
tobacco, or money, to buy a piece of land, build a house and make
crops.
It is said when the Duke of Wellington commanded the British army
in the war against Napoleon, he ordered a certain regiment to take
spades and intrench. They demurred; said they were gentlemen; came
to fight, not to dig. Wellington wrote to the minister of war, " Send
7
me 110 more gentlemen, send me men." He wanted men who could
handle a spade as well as a musket. So does Liberia. She wants more
men with spade and hoe. Agriculture is the basis of all wealth; it
supplies the material of commerce and manufactures; it is the handmaid
of civilization, the support of nations. The wise man said, " The king
himself is served by the field."
The exhibit which Mr. Morris made of Liberian products at our Cen-
tennial Exposition, demonstrated the ability of that country to supply
commerce with a goodly number of articles which the people of other
countries desire and will pay for. Coffee, indigo, palm-oil, palm-soap,
ivory, cam-wood, India rubber, sugar, arrow-root, ginger, ground-nuts,
iron ore, gums and spices are products which the world demands and
will consume. These are the promise and prophecy of prosperity and
power; but they are not to be had without labor. The observation of
a Greek philosopher, "God gives nothing valuable to men without
labor," is as true now as it was in the days of Socrates; as true of Libe-
ria as of America. We must not deceive our colored friends by descrip-
tions drawn from imagination and not from facts. Liberia is not an
El Dorado where gold may be gathered like stones in the highway.
Without industry, intelligently directed, there can be no prosperity
anywhere. If the emigrant wants food or gold, he mdst dig for it; if
he wants coffee, he must plant the trees and wait three years for a crop;
if he wants a cabin for shelter, he must build it. There, as here, free-
dom means freedom to work, save and enjoy, or to be idle, destitute
and miserable.
The Exodus Associations, now organizing in the United States, are
taking steps in the right direction. They contribute money and send
delegates to Liberia to examine and report the condition* climate, soil
' and productions of the country, select healthy localities at a distance
from the coast, and ascertain on what terms lands may be purchased,
either of the Liberian Government or $he natives. If the reports be
favorable, large numbers will apply for passage with means to establish
themselves in the selected localities, and relieve the Society of all
further expense.
It has been objected that this exodus will deprive the country of the
labor of a valuable class of colored people, and leave behind the idle,
the dissolute, the aged and infirm, a burden on the community. This
s
objection seems, on first view, to have some weight; but when we con-
sider that our colored population is between four and five millions, it is
obvious that the exportation of one or two thousand a year would reduce
the productive force of the country in only an infinitesimal amount, and
would cause no serious disturbance of its industrial interests. The exo-
dus on any scale probable, or even possible within the lives of the pres-
ent generation, will be but a small fraction of the natural increase of
the race.
But if we admit, for the sake of argument^ that the exodus of one in a
hundred of robust, industrious men and women may diminish produc-
tion temporarily in this country in a perceptible degree, its effect on the
colored people who remain would be favorable. So far as competition
for employment would be diminished, they would be better off. They
would receive higher wages, because the labor supply would be less and
the demand equal. They would receive better treatment from their em-
ployers, whose interest it would be to keep them in the country and in
their service.
But there is no danger of "a corner" in the labor market. The com-
fortable and contented will not emigrate; the timid and ignorant will
not. They who have young children or aged parents to support will
" rather bear the ills they have than fly to others that they know not of."
The ambitious, aspiring and discontented will emigrate. He who re-
sents social ostracism and political inferiority will look to a country
where his race is dominant and the government his own. It is not
enough that his personal freedom is secure, that all his civil rights are
guaranteed, that he has facilities for the education of his children, that
his life, property and reputation are under the aegis of law; the intel-
ligent, thinking colored man feels keenly that it is not in the law, nor
in his stars, but in himself, that he is an underling! He is one of a
depressed race; and so long as he remains under the shadow of a domi-
nant race, so long will he remain an underling. He will go where he
will be the peer of the best.
It would be an error for emigrants to expect, during the first few
years of their residence in Liberia, all the comforts of life which they
enjoyed in America. Such a mistake would lead to disappointment.
The children of Israel were released from bondage, but, weary and
footsore, hungry and .thirsty, in their desert journey, they longed for the
9
leeks and onions and fleshpots of Egypt. So the despondent emigrant,
during the early part of his residence, may say to our Society as the
Israelites said to Moses, "Why hast thou brought us forth to die in this
wilderness ? " The early colonists who landed at Jamestown and Ply-
mouth endured similar and more severe sufferings. Even those who
heed the dictum, "Go West, young man," sacrifice something of present
enjoyment to future well-being. The feeble in mind or body are dis-
couraged; the strong and hopeful work and wait and reap their harvest
of good in due time,
A self-sustaining emigrat^n will be of immense value, to the present
Americo-Africans. The little republic needs men capable of bearing
arms;—men to make roads to open up the country,—men of the various
mechanical trades as well as farmers, who will contribute to the national
wealth by their intelligence and industry. And who can-estimate the
blessings of such an emigration to the native tribes, especially to those
which acknowledge allegiance to the Liberian government ? What in-
crease of products by labor more intelligently directed ! What advance-
ment in education! What moral and physical improvement! What
diffusion of Christian light in the dark places of superstition! Where
industry goes, commerce will follow; where commerce goes, the mis-
sionary will follow,—the Bible, the school, the printing-press, the
steam-engine, the railway, all will follow in rapid succession.
There are political considerations which favor a closer connection
than exists at the present time between Liberia and the United States.
But it is not probable that either- party desires annexation. Liberia
would not willingly surrender her independence, however prematurely
it was declared. Her citizens would feel themselves dwarfed if their
country should become an appendage of a distant and powerful nation
in which they wouM be of no more importance than one of its fifth rate
cities. Nor would the people of the United States desire the annexa-
tion of an African territory with the responsibility of defending it in
the event of a foreign war. Nations are more influenced by interest
than by sympathy. 'f'hey are slow to accept a bargain in which they
take all the risk and expense, with but slender prospect of any compen-
sating advantage. We are not going to make a railway from Monrovia
to Cairo -as a gratuity through sheer benevolence. Two and a-half centu-
ries were required to prepare this country for a railway to the Pacific,
10
The railway from Monrovia to Cairo will be built, but it will be built
piece by piece, as the needs of commerce and travel demand, and as
capital shall find it a paying investment.
Annexation would not promote the safety of Liberia, but in certain
contingencies would increase her perils. Except in conflicts with na-
tive tribes, the surest defence of Liberia is her weakness. No powerful
nation would wage war against a people too feeble to make even a show
of resistance. The whole world would cry "shame." But if Liberia
were annexed, it would be the most vulnerable part of the United
States. An outlying territory, the gate to The rich commerce of a con-
tinent, would be strongly coveted, easily seized, firmly held, and never
evacuated except as the result of unsuccessful war. A protectorate,
in some form, would conduce more to the safety of Liberia, and to the
commercial and political interests of the United States than an organic
union. We may rightfully say, we ought emphatically to say, to both
her native and foreign etiemies, if such there be, "Hands off! Don't
touch this foster child of ours."
No doubt the English merchants coVtet Liberia, because they wish to
monopolize the trade of all Western and Southern Africa, from the
great desert to the Cape of Good Hope. They will defy when they
dare, and intrigue when they cannot intimidate. They will lend money
to an impecunious government, as the price of its independence; and
when pay-day comes they will say, "stand and deliver," unless we dis-
pute the claim. We have a right to share in that profitable commerce,
and shall not suffer the gate to be barred against us. Self-interest will
induce the United States to protect Liberia against the neighboring
tribes, which are peaceable unless made hostile by foreign intrigue.
Permit me to say in conclusion, Mr. President, that this Society per-
ceives in the near future the fruition of its hopes; the consummation of
its work. It has encountered obloquy at home and discouragements
abroad. In circumstances the most adverse, it has cherished an abid-
ing faith in the final triumph of its cause. Its firm trust in God, and
love of humanity, sustained it when even the colored people, whose
best friend it was, turned their hearts and faces against it. And now
the day is dawning. Light breaks in all over the land. Education,
industry and frugality are preparing an emigration, of moderate num-
bers at first, but gradually swelling to a mighty stream, as Liberia shall
11
be ia a condition to absorb it, until commerce, civilization and Chris-
tianity, overleaping the boundaries of the Americo-African republic,
shall redeem the continent.
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