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 From the Rev. W. B. SPRAGUE, D.D. Sept. 1839. 
 
 Bprg(>gue Collection. VoL 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/orationdelivered00frel_1 
 

 delivered XT 
 
 PRZKCETON, NZrW JE&SEir^ NOV. 19, 1824. 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 SftosSersea ©olo«4a«on Soctetu, . 
 
 BY THE UOjYOURABLE 
 
 / 
 
 THEODORE FREUnrGBUYSElV. 
 
 Ertnteton JJrcsa: 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY, BY D. A. BORRENSTEIN. 
 
 1884 . 
 

 
 
 
 
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IN pursuance of a call made by the Board of Managers, 
 a Meeting of the (jlTolOiltjatlOU 
 
 was held on the \^th instant^ in the borough of prince- 
 ton, on which occasion the hon. theodore frelinghuysen 
 delivered the following ORATIOXJ. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 On Motion of the rev. dr. Alexander, seconded by 
 
 the REV. DR. MILLER, 
 
 HESOLVEB, 
 
 That the thanks of the Society be presented to the 
 Hon. Mr. Frelinghuysen for his eloquent Address, 
 and that he be requested to furnish the Society 
 with a copy for publication. 
 
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 Fellow-Citizens. 
 
 IT has become my duty, in behalf of the Ne\v-Jersey 
 Colonization Society, to present to your consideration, an ob- 
 ject, which deeply concerns us as a nation and as individuals* 
 I desire to exhibit its claims plainly and faithfully. 
 
 You are already apprized, that for several years, the Ame- 
 rican Colonization Society has been engaged in establishing a 
 Colony on the Coast of Africa ; to serve not only as an asylum 
 for the victims of the Slave Trade, who might be rescued from 
 their cruel spoilers on the ocean, but also as a home for the 
 Free people of colour in these United States. This Colony is 
 now located. It has lived through many trials and difficulties 
 and as we firmly believe, wants only the cordial co-operation 
 of the American people, to fix it upon a permanent basis, and 
 eventually to eftect the complete emancipation of the African 
 race. 
 
 It has encountered much opposition and more obloquy* 
 But in view of these, it is a delightful exercise to trace tlm 
 leadings of Divine Providence^ in the regulation and conduct 
 of human affairs : to remark from what unpromising causes, 
 often flow the most stupendous events, and through what dis- 
 couragements, the most glorious earthly objects attain tlieiV 
 full accomplishment. 
 
6 
 
 Had a cold, calculating philosopher sat in judgment upon 
 the auspices of American Lioert^', when our fathers projected 
 that mighty purpose 5 with the confidence of mathematical cer- 
 tainty, he would have predicted deteat and disgrace to so wild 
 and extravagant a scheme. He would have reasoned profound- 
 ly from cause to effect, and on every page of his political the- 
 orems, pointed to the omens of disaster. \ et the |riumph- 
 ant issue of that purpose, for forty years, we have rejoiced 
 to commemorate. 
 
 That was the cause of freedom. And my Fellow-Citizens, 
 she has other claims. As if to exemplify the strange contra- 
 dictions in the human character, here, where liberty has flour- 
 ished with singular prosperity — where our hearts have been 
 warmed into enthusiasm around her altars — here, by the pil- 
 lars of her noble temple, has grown up a polluted idol, reliev- 
 ed by no virtues, and more odious and remorseless than the 
 Juggernaut of the Heathen. On the same breeze have been 
 borne to the ear, the grateful shouts of American Freemen and 
 the heart-sickening groans of subjugated Slaves. 
 
 It is time to awake. After all the ingenious sophistry, 
 which selfishness has enlisted in the service of this abominable 
 tratfic, conscience bears one uniform conviction to the hearty 
 that Slavery can not be justifted : and while exigencies of cir- 
 cumstance may properly prevent its prompt abolition — yet 
 the duty of gradually removing so tremendous a curse, presses 
 upon us with all the weight of eternity j and we rejoice to know 
 that the delusions w hich have made it tolerable, are dissolving 
 before the light of Truth. The gloomy cloud, which has hung 
 for ages over this unhappy people, is already streaked, wnth 
 some cheering rays, that betoken a bright and glorious morn- 
 ing — a morning that will only reach its meridian splendour in 
 that auspicious hour, when from Maine to St. Mary’s, its^ 
 beams shall not rest on a single soul in bondage. 
 
 Among the most formidable prejudices, that have tended to 
 repress all exertions for the amelioration of the Slave, has beeir 
 
i 
 
 the" strange notion, that the African was incapable of improve- 
 ment ; that there was ah indescribable something about his na- 
 tural and moral conformation, that forbid all hope of his ele- 
 vation — that in truth, he was born to be a slave Not only 
 have the partial and imperfect experiments of philanthropy re- 
 pelled this calumny upon Providence, but permit me to in- 
 quire, what has occasioned any discouraging symptoms on this 
 subject ? 
 
 We enslave, degrade, and oppress a people through many 
 generations — shut out from them all the avenues to skill and 
 science — let scorn point its steady finger at the whole race — 
 and then we merely let them go, merely say to them, “ now 
 live and breathe for yourselves, without our aid or counte- 
 nance ; and because they cannot enter upon, and maintain a ca- 
 reer, which white men have learned to course by the unremitting 
 cares and labours of the nursery, the school, and the college, 
 they are put down as blanks in creation. It is as unjust, as it 
 is unreasonable. 
 
 Violently force away from all their privileges, a Colo- 
 ny of white men, and to run a nearer parallel, in the dis- 
 ruption, break the dearest ties of nature and friendship 5 load 
 them with chains ^ hunt them down as outlaws ; let the sys- 
 tems of their education and domestic economy, be studiously 
 directed to break their spirits, enervate their minds, and frown 
 away all generous emulation ; and in what rank in the scale 
 of moral existence, think you, five generations, would place 
 them 
 
 Give the African fair play. Let his functions have full 
 scope ; enlarge his sphere of enterprise ; open to his elevated 
 views, the road to fame, and honourable distinction *, and 
 then judge, whether his head or his heart be below our stnn* 
 dard. 
 
 I^et Toussaint, Christophe, Petion, and scores of other 
 distinguished men in science, let the flourishing Colony of 
 
8 
 
 Sierra Leone, vA\tvQ fifteen thousand souls are now living under 
 the influence of Gospel Light and rational liberty, enjoying 
 the privileges of the most favoured civilized Societies ; and 
 exliibiting in domestic and public life, talents and virtues, that 
 would not disgrace any village in America 5 silence forever this 
 cruel prejudice. 
 
 It may not be unseasonable, at this time, to recollect, that 
 we have entertained erroneous sentiments on this momentous 
 subject, in relation to our Southern Fellow-Citizens. I fear 
 we have sometimes felt indignant, when our sympathies would 
 have been more fit. And, have we not claimed, in a spirit of 
 too great complacency, the honour of breaking the shackles of 
 Slavery, when emancipation was attended by no dangers ? 
 Our laws could safely proclaim liberty to the captives. No 
 mother’s bosom felt alarm, and the sleep of the cradle was not 
 disturbed. 
 
 But cast your eye over the cities and plantations of the 
 South, and ingenuously tell me, can you. In mercy to them- 
 selves, ask of our brethren to deluge their land with the horrid 
 scenes that would certainly follow the liberation of a licentious, 
 ignorant, and irritated population restrained by no principles, 
 and with every bad passion of the heart inflamed. It would 
 in effect, be to ask of them, after unsheathing tlie sword, to 
 place it in the grasp of rapine and murder, and invoke their 
 vengeance. 
 
 Let us not forget, that duty depends on relation and cir- 
 cumstance, and when purely abstract in its influence, often 
 wastes itself in the wildness of fanaticism. 
 
 Suddenly to emancipate the millions of the South, or to 
 raise them to the proud dignity of Freemen, in the bosom of 
 their white Society, is not their duty. It would be the mad- 
 ness of self-destruction. 
 
 But the stern necessity, that forbids it^ portrays in burn- 
 
9 
 
 ing characters, the awful enormity of the evil, and furnished 
 the most cogent plea for the claims of this Society. Let us 
 not be afraid to meet the mischief in all its measures. It is 
 the first step towards a radical reform. It is true then that 
 no domestic palliatives, no purely internal regulations can 
 reach it. As American citizens, these men never can be free.r 
 And as American freemen, they never would be valuable. Pru- 
 dence and self-preservation forbid the one, and prejudices, 
 that seem implanted in the very constitution of our nature, 
 would for ever prevent the other. Look through New- Jersey. 
 We have long had on our rates a respectable number of Free 
 blacks. The last Census rose to twelve thousamL 
 
 The experiment has been fairly made^ 
 
 No people have been mofe enthusiastic than ourselves. 
 Perhaps I wrong our sister States of New- York and Pennsyl- 
 vania. They have for many years laboured with a generous 
 ardour in this cause; some of their best men, have taken a 
 noWe stand on the side of Christian principles. Their pulpits 
 have justly brought to bear on the subject that holy charity, 
 which hails a brother in every child of Adam. Their ros- 
 trums have echoed wdth the equal rights of man. Their text 
 has been taken from the Charter of American Liberty. 
 
 But what are these unhappy men, and where are they after 
 all the toils of benevolence } A separate, degraded, scorned, 
 and humbled people. With a line of demarcation drawn deep 
 and broad ; and durable as time. 
 
 But shall this reproach of frec-men be perpetual ? Shall 
 we continue an evil of so deadly a type, that the last efforts 
 of philanthropy only aggravate its character ? To relieve the 
 embarrassments of so gloomy a dilemma, had become the sub- 
 ject of great anxiety with the judicious and reflecting friends 
 of Africa. They perceived, that slavery, with all their ex 
 ertions, was still a modified curse — that the manacles and 
 chain had indeed fallen from the slave — ^that be was no longer 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 the beast of burden and the prey of the cart-whip ; but the 
 soul was still in bondage. The fond hope that she would ex- 
 pand with the blessings of freedom and under these kindly 
 skies rise to the dignity of intelligence and virtue had been 
 painfully disappointed : and as if a sun-beam had pointed the 
 only way to complete redemption, the restoration to the 
 land of their fathers, struck the attention and awakened the 
 interest of a few distinguished philanthropists. 
 
 And in the front of these, Robert Finley, a name dear to 
 science and piety, with a sanctified and ardent zeal, appeared- 
 to press the claims of his afflicted fellow-men. And it is 
 among the happiest incidents of a life, much indebted to his 
 early counsels, that a grateful pupil is permitted on this inter- 
 esting occasion, to offer a tribute of humble praise to his ve- 
 nerated memory, and raise my voice in a cause that was cher- 
 ished in his latest prayers. It was a project, as novel as it 
 was bold and magnanimous* Its difiiculties overwhelmed the 
 timid and desponding — they ridiculed it as the vision of disor- 
 dered benevolence, and predicted disappointment and disas- 
 ter to all their plans* But the men who planned, and who 
 have hitherto sustained this colony, were not to be intimida- 
 ted by difiiculties — they possessed an energy of character 
 and purpose, that only rose in strength, as obstacles rose to 
 obstruct them. 
 
 They determined to establish a settlement of manumitted 
 slaves on the coast of Africa ; and I rejoice to assure you up- 
 on the most satisfactory authority, that the plan is practicable. 
 It is demonstrated by actual and successful experiment. A 
 colony of free and happy Africans, are now enjoying the de- 
 lights of home and a rational existence, under the protecting 
 auspices of this Society. The honoured men who have stood 
 by this struggling settlement, through its darkest periods have 
 indeed experienced ridicule at home and disasters abroad ; but 
 with untiring energy and patience they have prosecuted this 
 sacred enterprise. They committed their cause to God, and 
 He lias brought them triumphantly through the embarrassments, 
 
11 
 
 which try the faith — and discipline the patience in every no- 
 ble eftbrt. 
 
 The desponding predictions of those timid spirits, who on- 
 ly feel secure while they can keep the eye upon a guide post, 
 or beacon ahead, have been signally thwarted by the happy 
 results of this project of genius and humanity. At this very 
 moment, nearly three hundred American slaves are conducting 
 the economy of police and government, at the American Co- 
 lony of Liberia. No finger of scorn there, to drive back to 
 the iieart, the rising emotions of manly independence — no in- 
 vidious contrasts to keep in constant remembrance, their de- 
 grail ation, and to extinguish every hope of elevation^ 
 
 They feel and act and labour as men— they have now a 
 stake in the hedge” — the soil which they cultivate is their 
 own — they feel incentives to honourable exertion, springing 
 from every domestic relation — and when the husbandman, 
 brushes with his early footsteps the morning dew, his 
 walk is the stately step of a conscious free-man. Let it not 
 be supposed, that we view in any other light, than that of an 
 honourable co-operation the liberal and magnanimous offers 
 from the President of Hayti — we bid them God speed — but 
 we must still be permitted to urge the superior claims of the 
 National Society — as embracing a much greater compass of 
 good — more extensive in its influence, and more fixed and 
 permanent in its objects. And besides, the trespass was com- 
 mitted against the continent — and to the continent, let retri- 
 bution be made. Here it was, that a father’s tears were wrung 
 by human cannibals, tearing from him the child of his old 
 age — then it was, that distracted mothers, groaned and sup- 
 plicated and cried for vengeance — and there let America pay 
 her recompense. Let the same canvass that bore from her 
 shores, her stolen children, revisit that ill-fated country, with 
 her long lost wanderers. Sufler not the ardour of a just and 
 enlightened zeal to be chilled by the suggestion that the plan 
 .and objects of this Society are chimerical. There is no ob- 
 stacle in the way, that should for a moment depress the hopes. 
 
12 
 
 or relax the efforts of good men in this cause. Avarice, has 
 in twentj-hve years, robbed from this suffering country, two 
 millions of her children — and shall Christian America, the fa- 
 voured of heaven — the land of liberty, and enterprise, and 
 charity, be told, that philanthropy, cannot achieve more than 
 this wicked spirit. 
 
 Why, if Africa could now offer in the ear of heartless spe- 
 culation, five hundred dollars a head, for each restored captive ; 
 how would her vessels groan with the weight of crowded car- 
 goes. W e can accomplish this desire — already it begins to 
 animate every bosom. We can send home to Africa all her 
 sons — and we must — or endure a reproach that will be the 
 shame and the curse of our country. 
 
 But, my countrymen, this Society languishes for want of 
 your pecuniary aid. It is high time to act ; we have mourned 
 over it — we have deplored it, as a national curse, that was by 
 its weight sinking our energies : now a door of deliverance is 
 opened. When Greece, subjugated by no fault of ours, late- 
 ly sent to us her supplication — how was the appeal answered 
 from every city and village ? Did Turkish despotism, rouse 
 your sympathies ? Remember, that over Africa, the blackness 
 of moral darkness has brooded for centuries. 
 
 Citizens of New-Jersey — we appeal to you — survey your 
 cultivated fields — your comfortable habitations — your children 
 rising around you to bless you. Who, under Providence, 
 caused those hills to rejoice, and those vallies to smile } — who 
 ploughed those fields and cleared those forests ^ Remember the 
 toil and the tears of black men, and pay your debt to Africa. 
 
 We have injured, and we must make reparation — we have 
 tempted the wicked cupidity of the slave dealer — we have fed 
 and nourished — yes, glutted the maw of this infernal Moloch. 
 It cried, men, fathers, and children — wives and mothers for 
 money — and we — we responded, money for men ! It is record- 
 ed against us. And when America beholds, flaming from the 
 
13 
 
 eternal throne, ‘‘ The blood of injured Africa calls for Judg- 
 ment,” what must be our plea? Guilty before God. There 
 can be no evasion then ; the temporising systems ot political 
 expediency, will then have passed away — nothing but truth 
 can stand the scrutiny of that searching inquest. 
 
 The proof will be resistless ; the smothered groans of the 
 slave-ships will come up to condemn us. Is there no angel of 
 mercy, to stay the uplifted hand, and soften the frown of ven- 
 geance? Yes — oppressed, heart-broken Africa, clad in mourn- 
 ing for her children, appears and pleads, “ Father forgive 
 them they have restored my sons. No vultures prey upon 
 the life of my children — the stain of blood has been washed 
 away — the shrieks of kidnapped wives have ceased — and on 
 Afric’s happy plains have been heard the songs of salvation, and 
 the voice of praise. I have forgiven, and I pray thee forgive.' 
 
 And, moreover, a great design of this Society, concerns 
 the temporal and eternal welfare of J^ty millions of our fel- 
 low-men, on that benighted continent ; whose dark places are 
 full of the habitations of cruelty. The day has come, when 
 our Saviour’s injunction is no more regarded as a mystical le- 
 gend, without meaning or authority. “ Go ye into all the 
 world and preach the gospel to every creature,” now exerts a 
 kindred influence with the plainest behests of the Bible. In 
 India, the Islands of the Sea, and our own Western wilderness, 
 the devoted Missionary is proclaiming the Gospel of Peace, to 
 the nations who sit in the shadow of death and God has been 
 pleased, by many distinguishing tokens of his favour, to own 
 and bless these labours of love. And shall poor, bleeding Af- 
 rica, stretch forth her hands in vain ? Shall her appeal be made 
 to us — to us, who have wronged and crushed her, in vain ? It 
 cannot be. And to evangelize we must civilize them. The 
 mists of moral and intellectual darkness still rest upon this 
 unhappy race; the vices of ignorance sunk them below 
 humanity, and prepared them for bondage — and we loved to 
 have it so. We have reaped the harvest of blood and w retch- 
 edness — we know better. A gracious and benignant Being had 
 
14 
 
 planted us amidst Sabbaths and Bibles and the lights of sci- 
 ence. Our intercourse, for the last century, has been con- 
 stant with her coasts. Every breeze wafted to their shores 
 our vessels, from the land of Freemen, We sent men — men 
 that had hearts to feel at home ; but when they reached the 
 Congo and Senegal, did they ever feel, could they plead there 
 for mercy on human misery ? Did they ever open to that de- 
 luded people, the way to peace and virtue and heaven.' Did 
 they ever tell them how happy Christians lived, and what a 
 treasure they might find in the Bible ? Did one of them ever 
 take his stand against the wasting scourge, and in the name of 
 an offended God, say to the destroyer, stay thy desolations, 
 it is treason against nature ? Did they ever yet, my country- 
 men ? And is it not time?— -What object on this side of eter- 
 nity, presents more solemnly interesting motives to engage our 
 concern.^ — And the process by which to achieve it, is as sim- 
 ple as it is pow erful. Every cargo of emancipated black men 
 that you send home, will be the pioneers of their benighted 
 countrymen — may be the instructors of their youth, and the 
 preachers of righteousness. And when as Christians, you re- 
 member that the word has long since gone forth, that Ethiopia 
 shall yet stretch forth her hands unto God. When you behold 
 the mighty movements of Providence, that seem to lead right 
 on the way to those glorious periods, when a nation shall be 
 born in a day. What more can you need to urge your zeal- 
 ous and efficient co-operation. What more to encourage your 
 prayers ? 
 
 Christians, as you love your Bible, pray for Africa — and as 
 you love your country, pra} that the Lord would awaken ten 
 millions of freemen, in one united, decided, and persevering 
 effort, to relieve us for ever from this national reproach. 
 
^ V