^\0 VIEWS 
 
 N93 
 
 or 
 
 COLONIZATION, 
 
 REV. JAMES NOURSE, A. M. 
 
 STRIKE, BUT HBA.R XK. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 N E W Y O R K : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 
 
 No. 143 NASSAU STREET. 
 
Class. 
 Book 
 
 Eja^ 
 
VIEWS 
 
 OF 
 
 COLONIZATION. 
 
 REV. JAMES NOURSE, A. M. 
 
 STRIKE, BUT HEAR ME. 
 
 SECOND KDITION. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, 
 
 No. 143 NASSAU STREET. 
 
 1839. 
 

 
 2^^^ , jj 
 

 PREFACE 
 
 We are often told, by those who are averse to some of our 
 measures, ' Well, we are abolitionists too, but — *» we have al- 
 ways been unable to see why abolitionists should feel it neces- 
 sary to be anti-colonizationists." — (e. g. N. Y. Observer, Feb. 
 16, 1839.) In reply we say, " Friends, we humbly hope that 
 we do not act or judge without good and substantial reasons ; 
 and while we are ANTI.CoLONIZATIO^"ISTs, we even pretend to 
 possess a little " Christian and common sense," (N. Y. Obs. 
 idem,) as well as they who are simply colonizationalists.' 
 
 Anti-Colonizationists are not always treated even with 
 the measure of courtesy which is discoverable in the above quo- 
 tations ; in which it is insinuated that they are wanting in 
 '' Christian and common sense." Their would-be brethren, who 
 are so warm abolitionists that they cannot get farther than co- 
 lonization, manifest an expertness in complimenting us. We 
 often meet in their writing with such beautiful " flowers" as 
 the following : — " The name of Abolitionist, which justly belongs, 
 as a name of honor, to all those States which have provided for 
 the extinction of slavery within their own territoiy, and to every 
 citizen of these States who approves and honors such a pohcy, 
 has been perverted and degraded by being claimed as the dis- 
 tinctive name of a bitter, contentious, and therefore obnoxious 
 party," &c. — (Chr. Spectator, 1836, p. 115.) "Our people, 
 [says Prof. Andrews, speaking for the Southerners,] have be- 
 come exasperated, the friends of the slave alarmed, and nothing 
 remains but that we \_i. e. all Southerners, even though friends 
 of the slave!] should unite in repel Jing the officious intermed- 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 dling of persons who do not understand the subject with which 
 they are interlering." — (Idem, p. 165.) " In minds already lit- 
 tle, anti-colonization finds a chamber ready swept and garnished ; 
 but in more elevated spirits it has a work to do — it cannot stay, 
 but it will wither and cast out the noble feeUngs of our nature. 
 It is a little and belittling cause. It is, in this one thing, an apt 
 resemblance of Milton's Pandemonium ; which, though it held 
 the throne of Satan, and embraced a vast multitude, yet com- 
 pelled the spirits within, Satan and his counsellors excepted, to 
 shrink in their dimensions to the size 
 
 ' of that small infantry 
 
 Warred on by cranes.' " (Idem, 1835, p. 563. 
 
 Now we most respectfully thank our very warm abolition brethren, 
 the colonizationists, for these and such hke favors — for they are 
 many — with which they seem to have a propensity to plaster us 
 — for, of all classes in the community, it appears to come most 
 natural to them : yet we cannot help thinking, (when they pro- 
 claim themselves "abolitionists too,") of " How we apples swim !" 
 And if the homely comparison of our thoughts should seem even 
 a little coarse, it has the merit of being equally classical as that 
 of Pandemonium and the frogs, above. 
 
 Such indeed is the peculiar charity of our colonization brethren 
 toward us, that we have learned to esteem their ordinary flatter- 
 ies quite common-place, especially since we know enough of 
 human nature to expect that when a good cause, once abused, 
 begins, by its own merits, to emerge from beneath public odi- 
 um, they who were most foul-mouthed in its condemnation will 
 be willing to appear not so much its enemies after all. Take, 
 for instance, the following : — « We do not approve, it is true, 
 in some important particulars, their principles or their spirit, 
 but their end is noble : their aims are, on the whole, benevolent 
 and patriotic : the basis of their constitution is essentially truth, 
 and their success — unless they hinder it by holding dangerous 
 error and unhallowed fire in union with their benevolence and 
 truth — is certain. [Will the world believe these disinterested 
 brethren ?] All that we are now contending against is their 
 strangely and almost unaccountably turning aside from the pur- 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 pose to which the constitution of their society limits them, to 
 hinder the success of anotlier cause, equally distinct, although 
 collateral — their persecuting it, and avowing its entire over- 
 throw. iL is the unauthorised (!) and unconstitutional enter- 
 prise of anli-colonization, which is the root of by far the greater 
 part of the bitterness, misapprehension, disparagement of mo- 
 tives, and, occasionally, something like malignity, in which a 
 large part even of the most estimable anti-colonizationists do 
 really appear to indulge."— (Chr, Spect. 18^35, p. 512.) 
 
 They who have watched the course of events which have 
 transpired in the political, the commercial, and theological world, 
 for sume years past, will not fail to acknowledge, that the crimes 
 charged upon abolitionists have at least appeared to coloniza- 
 tionists. J3ut what shall we say of the " bitterness, disparage, 
 raent of motives, and malignity," which abolitionists have been 
 called to endure from their brethren who are on the other side 1 
 Have not these things originated in the hatred which is felt to 
 anti-colonization 1 Evidently. But what else can abolitionists 
 be, than opposers of colonization ? Both in the North and in 
 the South, colonizationists, with the exception of the « Specta- 
 tor,'' and some others, have associated themselves with the 
 avowed friends of slavery, or with the foes of liberty and equal 
 rights. Separate, therefore, from any conclusion to which abo- 
 litionists might arrive, in regard to the real merits of coloniza- 
 tion, in itself considered, they have generally been drawn into 
 a combat with if, because, in a great degree, it identified itself 
 with their opponents. It is, therefore, even in this view, neither 
 strange nor unaccountable, that the enemies of slavery should 
 turn aside (if the charge indeed were truo) " from the purpose to 
 which the constitution of the Anti-Slavery Society limits them, to 
 hinder the success of another cause," distinct indeed, but not 
 collateral, viz. colonization. We can do no less than oppose it, 
 because it stands in the way of Liberty ; and to attack and over- 
 throw it, if possible, comes legitimately in our way. 
 
 The colonizationists, generally, are sensitive and irritable, and 
 their views warped, on the whole subject of Human Rights, by 
 their opinions of the colonization scheme. But Truth asks of 
 them, and of all others, only fair play. Let her be heard. Let 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 colonization be tried by the Divine law, or by the rules of com- 
 mon virtue, (if the former seems too strict,) and if found want- 
 ing, let it be condemned. And let not our brethren grow angry 
 and malignant, because we disprove the virtue of their pet. Let 
 them meet the question fairly ; and if they are anxious for the 
 advance of human happiness, as they profess, let them see that 
 the cause of colonization is essentially the cause of slavery and 
 human misery. 
 
 Here we take our stand. We examine colonization, and try 
 it by its own merits. Excitement against it, owing to its occa- 
 sional company — slavery or lynch-law, shall not so prejudge it in 
 our minds that we cannot hear its claims. If it can bear trial, 
 let it stand ; if it cannot, let it fall, though political men, self- 
 interested merchants, or learned and religious men advocate it. 
 
 The writer of the following brief essay — an essay which might 
 be enlarged on several of its topics — hopes that he has been un- 
 prejudiced while discussing the moral value of the colonization 
 scheme. He dares avow himself an Anti-Colonizationist, 
 because he is an Abolitionist ; and adds, that there are, to his 
 mind, three absurdities, which, in connection with this subject, 
 his fellow-men are guilty of: — 1st, To imagine themselves go- 
 verned by the rales of the Gospel, while they remain coloniza- 
 tionists : 2. To imagine themselves abolitionists, while they are 
 colonizationists : 3. To profess themselves colonizationists, and 
 at the same time know what slavery is. 
 
 P. S. Tiie first edition of this Essay was printed without the 
 author's inspection ; some mistakes, therefore, occurred, which 
 have been corrected in this. 
 
 Valley, Pa. April, 1839. 
 
COLONIZATION 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY. MOTIVES AND OBJECTS OF 
 
 ITS AUTHORS AND SUPPORTERS. IS THE COLONIZATION 
 
 SOCIETY ENTITLED TO THE AID OF BENEVOLENCE ? 
 
 Is it such a fast that I have chosen ? 
 Is not THIS the fast that I have chosen ? 
 To loose the bands of wickedness ; 
 To undo the heavy burdens ; 
 To let the oppressed go free ; 
 And that ye break every yoke. 
 
 Isaiah^ Iviii. 5, 6. 
 
 Section 1. Origin of the Colonization Society, and of the 
 Colony. 
 
 The Colonization Society was organized in Washing- 
 ton City, near the commencement of the year 1817. — 
 The Constitution of the Society declares that " the object 
 to which its attention is to be exclusively directed, is to 
 promote and execute a plan for colonizing, (with their 
 own consent,) the free people of color residing in our 
 country, in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall 
 deem most expedient." The Society has been in opera- 
 tion for more than twenty years, during the greater part 
 of which period it has been steadily pursuing its object ; 
 not, however, confining its labors to the removal of those 
 persons who were kcQ before their removal, but removing 
 others that they might be free. Among the individuals 
 most prominent in procuring its organization, were Dr. 
 Finley of New Jersey, and Samuel J. Mills. Much ap- 
 probation was bestowed upon the Society, as well by ma- 
 
8 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 ny distinguished men in the Southern states, as in the 
 Northern. The first important measure of the Society, 
 was to send a mission of inquiry to Africa, and for this 
 purpose Mills and Burgess sailed from Philadelphia, No- 
 vember 16, 1817, and spent about two months on the 
 African coast, surveying it, and seeking for a place of 
 settlement. Early in 1820, the Society removed from 
 Georgia a number of re-captured Africans, with some free 
 people of color, amounting to eighty, and made a tem- 
 porary settlement on Sherbro Island, where they were 
 attacked by disease ; and three agents and twenty of the 
 colonists were carried off by death. In the spring of 
 1821, Messrs. Andrews and Wiltberger, agents of the 
 Society, and Messrs. Winn and E. Bacon, agents of the 
 United States, came on the coast with additional colonists, 
 and after encountering great difficulties, failed in purchas- 
 ing land for a colony. This, however, was accomplished 
 afterwards, by Dr. Ayres and Lieut. Stockton of the 
 United States Navy, who, by terrifying the natives, suc- 
 ceeded at length in this object, by the purchase of Messu- 
 rado, a cape and territory. Here a settlement was soon 
 begun, by the colonists who had formerly settled at Sher- 
 bro, but had in the mean while removed to Fourah-bay 
 in the neighborhood of Sierra-Leone. Several difRcul. 
 ties occurred with the natives, but were setUed by Dr. 
 Ayres, who shortly left the colony on a visit to the Unit- 
 ed States. In the mean while Mr, Ashmun arrived, and 
 found himself scarcely settled, when it became necessary 
 to defend the colony by arms, from a murderous attack 
 of 800 natives, November 11, 1821, which attack was 
 renewed by 1500 on the 2d December. These were 
 driven off, not without the loss of many lives on the part 
 of the natives, and some of the colonists. Mr. Ashmun 
 remained in the colony till the year 1828, when on ac- 
 count of ill health he returned to the United States ; only, 
 however, to die among his friends. During the period of 
 his agency, the colony, governed with much prudence and 
 ibiliiy, increased in importance and population. And 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 9 
 
 since, the several reinforcements from the United States, 
 with a union of some few settlers, having constantly ad- 
 ded to the number, the population now amounts to about 
 4,000. These are scattered over a large space, in sev- 
 eral settlements ; some under the patronage and care of 
 different societies which have sprung up in aid of the 
 American Colonization Society. To appearance at pre- 
 sent the colony seems to be advancing, though improve- 
 ments have been slowly entered upon, owing to the cir- 
 cumstances of the case, and the character of the settlers. 
 The expenses, amounting to more than $500,000, have 
 been defrayed, partly by individual donations, and in part 
 by the State Legislatures of some of the slaveholding 
 States. [See Reports of Am. Col. Soc. passim.) 
 
 Section 2. Motives and objects of the Authors and Pro- 
 moters of Colonization. 
 This plan of colonizing the free people of color, was 
 proposed originally through kindness and Christian phi- 
 lanthropy on the part of Dr. Finley, Samuel J. Mills and 
 many others. The projectors concluded that no other 
 plan was then practicable, by which the people of color 
 could be raised from their generally depressed condition, 
 and allowed to enjoy the full blessings of freedom. " We 
 were at Washington, in December 1817, and there met 
 the Rev. Dr. Finley and the Rev. Samuel J. Mills, and 
 in conversation with both these gentlemen, heard them 
 both advocate African Colonization, as the only practica- 
 ble method of ultimately extinguishing slavery in the Unit' 
 ed States.'' (Colonization Herald, Philadelphia, 1836.) 
 That the motives of such men as have been named were 
 good no doubt can be entertained ; yet it must be care- 
 fully examined whether the views cind judgments which 
 gave impulse to those kind feelings were correct. But 
 these good men were not the only persons who encour- 
 aged and patronized the Colonization scheme, when it 
 was first projected. That the views of other patrons 
 were widely difTerent, the Colonization Society has itself 
 
10 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 admitted. Some espoused it, as a means of ridding the 
 slave States of their free colored population ; considering 
 the residence of that class, in a land of slavery, danger. 
 ous to themselves and to slavery. " The Plon. Charles 
 F. Mercer had, for some time previously to the establish- 
 ment of the Society, made its design a subject of much 
 reflection, communicated his sentiments to others, and by 
 a well-timed effort in the Legislature of Virginia, secured 
 the adoption of resolutions, which had unquestionably 
 much effect upon the decisions of the meeting which or- 
 ganized the institution, and a most favorable influence 
 upon its earliest operations." {Af. Repos., vol. 1. 88.) 
 Mr. Mercer, in a report to Congress, March 3, 1827, 
 speaks thus : — " All must concur in regarding the present 
 condition of the colored race in America, as inconsist- 
 ent with its future social and political advancement, and 
 where slavery exists at all, as calculated to aggravate its 
 evils without any atoning good. Their own conscious- 
 ness of their degraded condition in the United States has 
 appeared to the North as well as the South, in their re- 
 peated efforts to find a territory beyond the limits of the 
 Union, to which they may retire. Anterior to the year 
 1808, three several attempts to procure a country suited 
 to this object, had been secretly made by the General 
 Assembly of Virginia ; — the last, but at the same time the 
 earliest 'public effort to attain this object, was made by the 
 Legislature of the same State in December, 1816, some 
 time before the formation, in the city of V/ashington, of 
 the Am.erican Society for Colonizing the Free People of 
 Color. The design of this institution, the committee are 
 apprised, originated in the disclosure of the secret resolu- 
 tions of prior Legislatures of that State. This brief and 
 correct history of the American Colonization Society, 
 evinces that it sprung from a deep solicitude for southern 
 interests, and among those most competent to discern 
 them," (Af. Repos., IV. 53, 54.*) In the same report, 
 
 * The Christian Spectator, October, 1835, charges Mr. Jay with 
 dishonesty, in representing the Colonization Society as originating 
 
VIEWS ON COLONIZATION. 11 
 
 Mr. Mercer touches upon the inconvenience and danger 
 of multiplying manumissions, (pp. 52, 53,) and subse- 
 quently declared his conviction, that slaves ought not to 
 be liberated in this country ; for, *' emancipation and colo- 
 nization must go hand in hand." {Af. Repos. IV. 303.) 
 This gentleman, however, with truth, may be viewed as 
 the representative of a class of supporters differing from 
 the first, who, while they would not justify slavery in the 
 abstract, justify its present practice and continuance un- 
 der the circumstances of the case. Others, of different 
 mind, united with the Society at first ; Jackson and Cal- 
 houn were among its early officers — " its most important 
 officers," {Af. Repos., I. 90,)— and "John Randolph, that 
 remarkably tenacious holder of slaves, that unflinching 
 advocate of slavery, through evil as well as good report, 
 
 in Virginia ; or being connected with the resolutions of the Vir- 
 ginia Legislature. It may be doubted, however, whether the 
 Spectator is not itself liable to a retort of the charge ; or will it for 
 once confess itself a little ignorant of the true, or at least the ad- 
 mitted state of the case. Tlie reader may consult the African Re. 
 pository, Vol. I. p. 88, and compare it with Vol. IV. p. 54, and the 
 following statements : " In the year 1816, the Legislature of Virginia^ 
 solemnly impressed with the momentous interest of the scheme, 
 and deprecating the increasing dangers of delay, appealed with an 
 almost unanimous voice to the general government for its aid in 
 procuring an asylum for the reception of its free colored popula- 
 tion. Influenced by these examples, some fifteen or twenty of the 
 best and wisest men of the nation, formed themselves into a socie- 
 ty, called " The American Society for Colonizing," &c. (Cyrus 
 Edwards, Ai.Rei)os. VII. 90.) " The Northern States have sent 
 us some good things — they have sent us men who have become 
 useful and good citizens, [ i. e,, — a thing, very common, — they 
 became slaveholders,] but they did not send us the Colonization 
 Society — this is an institution of our own." — (Rev. Mr. Atkmson, 
 Af. Repos. XII. 65.) But what does the Society itself say ? After 
 referring to the acts of the Virginia Legislature, December, 1815, 
 and quoting the preamble and resolutions, it adds, — " Encouraged 
 by this movement on the part of a State so distinguished as Vir. 
 ginia, and so deeply interQsted in the subject of the resolution, a 
 number of gentlemen, friendly to the plan of African Colonisation, 
 assembled in the city of Washington," &c. (Af. Repos. XII. 51.) 
 — Perhaps however, the Spectator will call even this evidence dis- 
 honest, inasmuch as it contains an acknowledgment of a desire to 
 
12 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 and who could pronounce the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, because it asserts the doctrine of equal rights, a 
 * fanfaronade of nonsense,' took a prominent part in form- 
 ing the Colonization Society."* (Af. Repos. XI. 67.) 
 That Slavery is a sin, is the doctrine of a free and en- 
 lightened country ; that Slavery is an evil, but not a sin in 
 present practice, is the old but now almost antiquated 
 Virginia doctrine: that Slavery is neither a sin, nor an 
 evil, and is never to be abolished, is the old South Caro- 
 lina doctrine, now in the ascendant : — they who held then 
 different and opposite views harmonized in the institution 
 of the Colonization Society, and each class expected to 
 gain its individual object : 
 
 The object formally proposed was the removal to 
 "another country of those among the colored population 
 who were already free, or who were expected to become 
 
 aid Virginia, — «« so deeply interested." (See also Clay^s Speech^ 
 VI. 13.) [It appears from documents published in the African Re- 
 pository that it was planned by Southern slaveholders, and by them 
 communicated to Finleyon his arrival in Washington, late in 1816. 
 That he had thought of some such plan before, is altogether proba- 
 ble ; but we are not aware that he had matured any plan, much 
 less that he had communicated any to others, before he had Intel- 
 ligence that certain individuals at the South were already moving 
 in the matter. Be this as it may, however, it is certain that at 
 a public dinner given in Charleston, Virginia, to Charles F. Mer- 
 cer, one of the toasts spoke of him as " the founder of the Colony 
 of Liberia," and in the speech in which he acknowledged the com- 
 pliment, he states that in the spring of 1816, he "concerted with 
 F. S. Key and E. B. Caldwell, a plan" for action on the subject 
 of colonizing the colored people, which he communicated to others 
 on a journey to the North during the ensuing summer. (A^ee Af. 
 Rep. IX. 265.) In the course of the next winter, as is well known, 
 the Colonization Society was formed. 
 
 J. B. Harrison, in a speech at its eleventh annual meeting, (Af. 
 Rep. III. 331.) says, '* the plan of this association is exactly that 
 originated by herself [Virginia] in its objects, its scope, its adjuncts, 
 its inevitable tendencies," &c.; and adds, that the plan "had been 
 shown through the State from March till December, and was 
 finally adopted with hardly a dissenting voice in the General As. 
 eembly."] 
 
 * Mr. Randolph changed his views before he died. 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 13 
 
 free." Great evils were supposed to result from the in- 
 crease of free colored persons. And in regard to the 
 scheme we find this language used by Henry Clay. 
 " However difficult it might have been supposed in exe- 
 cution, it was an obvious remedy ; (i. e. for the evils he 
 had, as he says in the previous part of his speech, 
 '* sketched," as resulting from manumission, and " from 
 the incongruous elements of population separated from 
 each other by invincible prejudices, and by natural 
 causes,") and the suggestion may be referred back to a 
 period as remote as the revolutionary war." " From its 
 origin and throughout the whole period of its existence, 
 it [the Colonization Society] has constantly disclaimed 
 all intention whatever of interfering, in the smallest de- 
 gree, with the rights of property, or the object of eman- 
 cipation gradual or remote. It is not only without power, 
 but it is without inclination to make any such interfer- 
 ence." {Af. Repos. VI. 12, 13.) We will therefore 
 consider it unquestionable, notwithstanding the surmise 
 of many to the contrary, that this representation is true. 
 It is indeed a representation, not only made by the dis- 
 tinguished civilian whose name is connected with it, but 
 repeated by many advocates of the Society. — About the 
 time of its organization, Dr. Robert Finlev of New 
 Jersey, sometimes claimed as Father of the Society, 
 wrote thus — " What shall we do with the free people of 
 color ? What can we do for their happiness, consistently 
 with our own ? — are questions often asked by the think- 
 ing mind. The desire to make them happy has often 
 been felt, but the dif^culty of devising and accomplishing 
 an efficient plan, has hitherto appeared too great for hu- 
 manity itself to accomplish. — At present, as if by a Divine 
 impulse, men of virtue, piety and reflection are turning 
 their thoughts to this subject, and seem to see the wished- 
 for plan unfoldinfl^ in the gradual separation of the black 
 from the white 'population, by providing for the former 
 some suitahle situation, where they may enjoy the advan- 
 tages to ivhir.h they are entitled by nature a?id their Crea- 
 2 
 
14 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION 
 
 tor's will. (Af. Repos. IX. 332., see also his letter, 
 Rcpos. 1, 2.) In these statements of Mr. Clay and Dr. 
 Finley, it cannot be questioned with justice, that the au. 
 thors express the views of Colonizationists generally, in 
 regard to one point. It is taken for granted, that the 
 free people of color must remove., in order to " enjoy 
 those advantages," [more properly Finley should have 
 said "rights," for so he meant,] " to which they are en- 
 titled by nature, and their Creator's will :" and this re- 
 moval, so far as it respects those now rn bondage, or 
 hereafter to be, is to be effected, while still the right of 
 property in slaves is acknowledged, or at least not openly, 
 for the present, questioned. 
 
 Now it is remarkable, while this removal of the whole 
 or a part of the colored population, is the supposed and 
 proposed work of Colonization, — that there is no ques- 
 tioning of the propriety of tlmt spirit and feeling in the 
 community which renders their removal in an}?" sense 
 necessary or expedient. The language used upon this 
 whole subject is generally such as the following ; " Tax 
 your utmost powers of imagination, and you cannot con- 
 ceive one motive to honorable effort, which can animate 
 the bosom, or give impulse to the conduct of a free- 
 black in this country. Let him toil fi*om youth to age 
 in the honorable pursuit of wisdom — let him store his 
 mind with the most valuable researches of science and 
 literature — and let him add to a highly gifted and culti- 
 vated intellect, a pure piety, ' undefiled, and unspotted 
 from the world' — it is all nothing : — he would not be re- 
 ceived into the lowest walks of society. If we were con- 
 strained to admire so uncommon a being, our very admi- 
 ration would mingle with disgust, because, in the physical 
 organization of his frame, we meet an insurmountable 
 barrier even to an approach to social intercourse ; and in 
 the Egyptian color, which nature has stamped upon his 
 features, a principle of repulsion, so stf'ong as to forbid 
 the idea of a communion either of interest or of feeling, 
 as utterly abhorrent. Whether these feelings are founded 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 15 
 
 in reason or not, we will not now inquire — perhaps they 
 are not. But education and habit and prejudice, have so 
 firmly riveted them upon us, that they have become as 
 strong as nature itself, and to expect their removal, or 
 even their slightest modification, would be as idle and 
 preposterous as to expect that we could reach forth our 
 hands, and remove the mountains from their foundations 
 into the valleys which are beneath ihem." (C. L. Moshy, 
 Af. Repos. VII. 230, 231— see also Af. Repos. V. 51.) 
 This extract embodies the prmciple of Colonizalionism, 
 " Education, hahit, and more especially prejudice"* against 
 their color, render it necessary, as is admitted by most 
 of the intelligent Colonizationists themselves, that all co- 
 lored persons should remove. They affirm that these 
 persons cannot be elevated in society here ; but more, 
 they acknowledge the depressions of that class, as they 
 exist, but consider these depressions unavoidable : they 
 are willing also to ascribe these depressions and injuries 
 to the " prejudice" against color. If we may judge 
 from the published opinions of eminent Colonizationists, 
 this is their prime rule of action, and thus is it exhibited. — 
 "The scheme of African Colonization, offers in the first 
 place to relieve the country from one of the direst results 
 of slavery, the free black population : — They must go 
 AWAY OR PERISH." {R. J. Breckenridgc.) So it has 
 been the constant policy of the Colonization Society to 
 decry the free colored population, taking it for granted 
 that they must and will be compelled to emigrate to Africa 
 in the course of time. " No scheme of Abolition will 
 
 * ''Men always hate and despise those whom they oppress, and 
 thus attempt to cheat and silence conscience. It is because the 
 negro has been oppressed, that he is hated and despised. The 
 prejudice against Jews seems quite unaccountable to us, but it has 
 exactly the same foundation with our prejudice against negroes. 
 It is founded in oppression and wickedness. The prejudice against 
 the negro arises from oppression and wickedness, it is itself wick- 
 edness, and therefore it is neither justifiable nor invincible." (C. 
 E. Stowe^ Cincinnati, a Colonizationist, sui generis : standing as 
 respects this sentiment in "lone conspicuity.") 
 
16 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 meet my support, that leaves the emancipated blacks 
 amon^ us. Experience has proved that they become a 
 corrupt and degraded class, as burdensome to themselves 
 as they are hurtful to the rest of society. Shut out from 
 the privileges of citizens, they can never amalgamate with 
 us, but must remain forever a distinct and inferior race, re- 
 pugnant to our republican feelings and dangerous to our re- 
 publican institutions. Free blacks are a greater nuisance 
 than slaves themselves ; that is, generally speaking. There 
 are many free blacks who are honorable, honest and en- 
 lightened ; and for whom I entertain a sincere respect. Such 
 of them as are otherwise, may justly ascribe it to their situ- 
 ation. — We can make it their interest to remove." (C. 
 C. Harper, Af. Repos. II. 188, 189.) A "free colored 
 person has only a mockery of freedom here, and has 
 turned his eyes to Africa, as his only resting place and 
 refuge, in the deluge of oppression that surrounds him." 
 (Idem, Af. Repos. III. p. 324.) And so Mr. Clay af- 
 firms that the Colonization scheme does " provide effica- 
 ciously for the total and absolute separation, by an ex- 
 tensive space of water, or of land at least, of our popula- 
 tion (i. e., the white,) from that which is free of the 
 colored." {Af. Repos. VI. 12.) We do not question, 
 therefore, the motives of the founders and supporters of 
 Colonization, yet the fact is apparent — the principle of 
 Colonization is, that the free people of color must remove 
 because of the prejudice which oppresses them here. 
 Not only is this proved by the admissions and statements 
 of Colonizationists themselves, but it is conclusively de- 
 monstrated by this fact, if the freemen who had once been 
 slaves and their children changed their color with their 
 condition, there would be no talk of their removal. In- 
 deed, it has been asserted by some Southerners, that if 
 all the slaves were white, they would be emancipated. 
 
 Dr. Finley, indeed, for himself, and the class he rep- 
 resented, tells us that the good to be accomplished 
 by the Society was three-fold. " A three-fold benefit 
 would arise. We should he cleared of them : (i. e. the free 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 17 
 
 colored people ;) ice should send to Africa a population 
 PARTLY civilized and Christianized, for its benefit; and our 
 blacks themselves would be put in a belter situatio7i.'' {Af, 
 Repos. I. 2.) Admitting that this most estimable man 
 "meant well," we will be obh'ged in justice to acknowl- 
 edge that he took for granted what we have characterized 
 as the PRINCIPLE of colonization, viz. universal preju- 
 dice, supposed to be incorrigible. He took, indeed, more 
 than this for granted — even a debateable principle in each 
 of his three specifications. Benevolence ought to have 
 inquired first, whether, if human beings, (responsible in- 
 telligences) were a "nuisance," they could not be con- 
 verted into something better ; secondly, whether it would 
 answer any very good purpose to Africa, to send thither 
 those who were a nuisance here, and only ^pctr/Z?/ civilized 
 and Christianized ; and thirdly, whether some better plan 
 could not have been devised, by which " our blacks," (i. c. 
 slaves,) at home, could be put in a better situation. 
 By being "put in a better situation," we are willing to sup- 
 pose HE meant, — having the circumstances of their slave 
 condition somewhat ameliorated, and a possibility opened 
 for their gradual emancipation : — results which he suppos- 
 ed would be obtained by the removal of the free blacks, 
 and the consequent increased feeling of security among the 
 masters, leading them to treat their slaves with more len- 
 ity if they persisted in keeping them in slavery. This 
 they would of course do, if the scheme was feasible, be- 
 cause the pretended right of property in slaves would not 
 be touched, nor invaded in the least degree, but rather 
 rendered safer. These were the views of Dr. Fin ley, 
 who is sometimes claimed by the Colonization Society as 
 its parent. The errors of his views are to be ascribed to 
 the times, and the state of society, as it then was. The 
 slave trade was then tolerated : why should we expect 
 that even American clergymen, residing in slave States, 
 would go in advance of the age 1 On this ground we ex- 
 cuse him, but not many of his present followers. 
 
 The views of Robert Finley were the avowed views of 
 
18 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 the Colonizalion Society at first ; ibis may be gathered 
 from its own documents. The Society at first contemplat- 
 ed all those objects which Dr. Finley mentioned. Thus 
 its organ spoke. " Many seem to forget that this evil 
 [slavery] can be diminished or removed only by the volun- 
 tary consent of those who feel it, and that there exists and 
 can be devised for it no instantaneous remedy. Our sym- 
 pathy for the weak, must never render us unmindful of the 
 interests of the powerful. On the supposition that the in- 
 fluence of the Colonization Society is exclusively confined 
 to the free colored people of our land, it is impossible for 
 any man, not utterly indifferent to the welfare of two 
 hundred and fifty thousand of his species, to oppose it. 
 This object alone does the Colonization Society propose 
 directly to effect." {Af. ReposAS25, 1. 226.) " If, how. 
 ever, in its progress, it should exhibit the benefits which 
 would accrue both to masters and slaves by a voluntary 
 dissolution of the bonds which unite them ; should con- 
 vince the southern people and their legislatures, that 
 emancipation might be both safe, practicable, replete with 
 blessings, and full of honor ; where, in this great repub- 
 lic, is the candid Christian man who would regret the effect 
 of its moral influence ? i. e. its influence to lead to eman- 
 cipation, that the manumitted might be immediatMy colo- 
 nized ; or rather, that they might be removed in order to 
 be manumitted. {Af. Rep. I. 34.) " But is it not certain, 
 that should the people of the Southern Stales refuse to 
 adopt the opinions of the Colonization Society, and conti- 
 nue to consider it both just and politic to leave untouched 
 a system, for the termination of which we think the whole 
 wisdom and energy of the States should be put in requisi- 
 tion, that they will contribute more effectually to the con- 
 tinuance and strength of this system, by removing those 
 now free, than by any or all other methods which can pos- 
 sibly be devised. Such has been the opinions expressed 
 by Southern gentlemen of the first talents and distinction. 
 In the decision of these individuals, as to the effects of the 
 Colonization Society, we perceive no error in judgment ; 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 19 
 
 our belief is the same as theirs." {Af. Rep. I. 227.) It 
 appears, then, that from the very beginning of its career, 
 the Colonization Society, having one distinct object direct- 
 ly in view, aspired also to root out slavery by moral in- 
 fluence ; and if it did not succeed in this way, owing to 
 the attachment of slaveholders to their system, and could 
 only accomplish its chief design, to remove the free, — the 
 chains of the slave might then be more secure. This the 
 Society avows. Yet at the same time it declares itself to 
 those who desire the removal of slavery, " the only practi- 
 cable method!^' But, in the name of common sense and 
 all honesty, if you render the system of slavery more 
 safe, do you not retard emancipation, and strengthen that 
 system ? Indeed, even to this present day, can the Coloni- 
 zation Society boast of its " moral influence ?" If we 
 would correctly estimate this, we must look at the mass 
 of the slaveholding population, not at particular and isolat- 
 ed instances of generosity, which instances would all 
 probably have occurred without the existence of the Colo- 
 nization Society. What, then, has been its moral influ- 
 ence ? Upon the slave laws ? Are they not now more 
 severe than ever ! Have they not been growing worse 
 year after year ! Upon slaveholders ? Are not manu- 
 missions now almost an hundred times less frequent in 
 proportion to the mass to be manumitted, than they were 
 twenty years ago ! What, then, has its influence been ? 
 But we are anticipating : — to return therefore, to the 
 motives and views of the Colonization Society : — In the 
 passage last quoted, is discovered the reason why the 
 Colonization scheme was favored by individuals of emi- 
 nence at the South, some of whom adopted one view of 
 the Society's influence, and some another.* Even some 
 
 * " The American Colonization Society has nothing to do with 
 any man's opinion. It asks no man what he believes, it sets forth 
 no confession of faith to be subscribed by its friends. Like the 
 Bible Society, it liolds up the single definite work which it propoB- 
 es to perform, and asks for nothing but co-operation. The only 
 point of union which connects so many persons in that ' combina- 
 tion,' as Mr. Garrison calls it, is this ; they all agree to co-operate 
 
20 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 of the strongest advocates for slavery and its perpetuity, 
 united under the behef that the influence of the Society 
 would strengthen their hands as slaveholders— these were 
 in Georgia and South Carolina. In 1820, even Charles 
 C. Pinckney of Charleston, who was afterwards so violent 
 an enemy of the Society, contributed to its funds ; so did 
 others with him to the amount of more than ^500. [Af, 
 Rep. VI, 195.) At an earlier date the Society said, 
 " some of our best and earliest friends reside in Georgia." 
 (Af. Rep. II. 11.) A reaction indeed, then took place, 
 {Af. Rep. V. 215 ;) the moral influence of the Society 
 could not convert the hearts of slaveholders. And in 
 Charleston a most bitter toned hostility has been current 
 for many years. Pinckney denounced the object of the 
 Society, as '' cruel and absurd," and the Charleston Mer- 
 cury styles it — " murderous in its principles and as tend- 
 ing inevitably to the destruction of the public peace ;" and 
 asks, " Whether the general government," to which appli- 
 cation had been made by the Society for aid, (and it is one 
 of the avowed objects of the Society to obtain aid from 
 government,) '- will become an instrument in the hands of 
 fanaticism, and act the abettors of the incendiary and as- 
 sassin." {Af. Repos. V. 196.) Numbers of the class 
 of pro-slavery men have forsaken the Society from differ- 
 ent motives — yet none of them because they quarrelled 
 with the principle of Colonization — that the free colored 
 people must go away. — The Colonization Society also as- 
 serts in the labored defences of its policy, which from 
 time to time it has found necessary to put forth, that it 
 
 in promoting the Colonization of Africa, by the emigration of free 
 people of color from America. Among them all, not one can be 
 held responsible for the opinions, political or religious, of any other." 
 (Chr, Spec. March, 1833, p. 148.) But to all this show of char- 
 ity, it is sufficient to reply ; 1st, That if the Bible Society called 
 into action wicked prejudices, it would be as deserving of condem- 
 nation as the Colonization scheme. 2d. Every society is responsi- 
 ble to the community for the influence it exerts upon that commu- 
 nity. It is then a new begging of the question, to compare the 
 Colonization Society with the American Bible Society. 
 
VIEWS ON COLONIZATION. 21 
 
 has never yet changed its views and action. This we 
 admit, knowing that the Society and its advocates still con- 
 sider that principle to be correct. The Society indeed 
 has always been cherished by those who indulge this 
 feeling, and scarcely by any others. Nay, should the 
 Society once relinquish this principle, it must inevitably 
 die. 
 
 There are are other motives which now influence Colo- 
 nizationists in supporting the scheme. Some suppose 
 that it will be a means of preventing the slave trade on 
 the coast of Africa, by their founding colonies of those 
 who are opposed to that trade. Perhaps it may have 
 some influence in this way, yet it is very evident that a 
 surer, and the only sure way of suppressing the slave 
 trade, is to abolish all markets for human flesh. — Others 
 suppose that the Colonization Society, as Dr. Finlcy ex- 
 presses it, will benefit Africa, by planting a colony there 
 of partly civilized and Christianized people. This they 
 imagine will open a door for the introduction of the Gos- 
 pel into that vast continent. This may be, in a very 
 partial degree, the effect on Africa, yet what reasonable 
 man can doubt that the most effectual method of propa- 
 gating the Gospel is, by the preaching and teaching of 
 men who are not engaged in the traffic with the ignorant 
 natives to procure a subsistence or accumulate wealth. 
 A commercial and trading colony is more likely to have 
 the same effect on the uncivilized tribes of Africa, as the 
 commercial and trading religious colonies of America 
 have had upon our own aborigines. Indeed the acknow- 
 ledgments of the Liberia Herald, the statements of intel- 
 ligent colonists, and the small progress of civilization in 
 and around the colony, not only would seem to destroy 
 this imagination, but even furnish subject of ridicule 
 against those who indulge it. At this present time (1839) 
 are not Messrs. Wilson and Wynkoop, Missionaries of 
 the A. B. C. F. M. obliged to renounce connection with 
 the colony in order to obtain influence over the natives ? 
 They are. 
 
22 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 Sec, 3. Is the Colonization Society/ entitled to the aid of 
 the benevolent ? 
 
 The Colonization Society asks to be tried, as to its 
 principles and views, by the " Constitution of the Society, 
 interpreted by the recorded opinions and by the acts of its 
 founders.^'' {Af, Repos. VI. 197.) Unquestionably this 
 is fair; and it is surely fair to consider the African Re- 
 pository as expressing those views and principles. Let 
 us give then the claims of the Society a fair trial. 
 
 First, then, the Society cZa^ms the aid of the benevolent, 
 to remove to Africa the free people of color, — 'vho are, 
 they say, " The direst results of slavery." (R. J, 
 Breckenridge, Af. Repos. IX. 327.) ^' Aliens, political, 
 moral, social aliens.'^ {H. Clay, II. 327.) Nuisances. 
 (C. C. Harper, II. 189.) " The most degraded and 
 
 MOST ABANDONED RACE ON EARTH." (/. B. Havrison, 
 
 III. 197.) *' Degraded in character and miserable 
 in condition, forever excluded by public sentiment, by 
 law and by a physical distinction, from the most power- 
 ful motives to exertion.^' {Af, Repos, I. 34.) "J[ class 
 introduced among us by violence, notoriously ignorant, de- 
 graded and miserable, m.entally diseased, broken-spirited, 
 acted on by no motives to honorable exertion, scarcely 
 reached in their debasement by the heavenly light ; yet 
 where is the sympathy and effort which a view of their 
 condition ought to exert?" {Af. Repos. I. 48.) "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 — who hang as a vile excres- 
 cence UPON SOCIETY." (C. L. Mosby, Af. Repos. VII. 
 230.) •' The negro is no where more ignorant, no 
 
 WHERE MORE DEBASED THAN HERE." (i?CU. Mr, BaCOn, 
 
 New Haven, Af. Repos. I. 172.) — This is the people, 
 at least thus characterized by the Society and its friends, 
 whom the Society seeks to remove. 
 
 That very many of the free colored population, are 
 ignorant and vicious, and in a very degraded condition, 
 cannot be denied. And with solemnity, and with better 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 23 
 
 feelings than appear to have been indulged, when the query- 
 was proposed above, we may ask, " Where is the sympa- 
 thy and effort which a view of their condition ought to 
 excite ?" Some justification may be found for some of 
 the expressions above quoted, yet whether such assertions 
 are literally true, after all, is more than questionable. It 
 is supposed by many that they are more vicious than 
 slaves, or than the lower class of whites, yet this may be 
 denied. For even in Virginia, W. B. Giles, then 
 Governor, declares that the free colored people of that 
 State were freer from vice than either of the other 
 classes.* And from the history of crimes so far as we 
 
 « " In relation to the free people of crtlor, I am far from yield- 
 ing to the opinion expressed by the intelligent committee of the 
 House of Delegates of Virginia, and the enthusiastic memorialists 
 of Powhatan, respecting the degraded and demoralized condition 
 of this caste : at least in degree and extent. It will be admitted 
 this caste of colored population, attract but little of the public sym. 
 pathy and commisscration — in fact that the public feeling and sen. 
 timent are opposed to it. It is also admitted that the penal laws 
 against it have been marked with peculiar severity, so much so, as 
 to form a characteristic to our whole penal code. When I first came 
 into the office of Governor, such was the severity of the penal laws 
 against that caste, that for all capital offences short of the punish- 
 ment of death, and for many offences not capital, slavery, sale 
 and transportation, formed the wretched doom denounced by the 
 laws against the unfavored, despised caste of colored people. About, 
 two years since, this extreme severity of punishmment was com- 
 muted. — During the existence of these extreme punishments, up to 
 the present period, the whole population of this description of peo- 
 pie may be considered at the beginning, to be about 35,000, now 
 mereased to about 40,000 in despite of all the efforts of the Colnni- 
 zation Society, and notwithstanding the laws in favor of emigration 
 and against immigration. During the existence of these extreme pun. 
 ishments, the annual conviction for offences did not exceed eleven 
 upon an increasing population of 35,000. Since the commutation of 
 the punishment, the annual average of convicts upon the increased 
 population of 40,000, is reduced to eis[ht. The proportion there- 
 fore of the annual convictions, to the whole population, is as ] to 
 5000, These facts serve to prove almost to a demonstration, 1st, 
 That this class of population is by no means so degraded, vicious 
 and demoralized, as represented by their prcijudiced friends and 
 voluntary benefactors. And, 2d, That the evils attributed to this 
 caste are vastly magnified and exaggerated." (Letter of W. B. 
 Giles^ Governorof Va., to Lafayette,1829, 
 
24 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 have it, in the South, it does not appear that this class is 
 " most vicious," as Mr. Clay asserts. {Af. Repos. II. 
 343.) We have scarcely any data to estimate the com. 
 parative viciousness of slaves, because masters tolerate 
 vices in their slaves which they judge they cannot cure, — 
 because slaves seldom have trials by law, — because mas- 
 ters very frequently sell their slaves for the commission 
 of petty offences. But we do not deny that many of the 
 free colored people of the North are vicious and debased. 
 The statistics of crime prove this. Nevertheless, in es- 
 timating the comparative criminality of public offenders, 
 their circumstances and their opportunities for obtaining 
 information, must be taken into consideration. — But to 
 pass on : these are the people whom the Colonization 
 Society seeks to deport. It declares that here " they 
 are under the foot of society" — and though society is 
 regulated by Colonization influence, — it affects to believe 
 that they can never be elevated in society or bettered in 
 morals at home. It therefore holds out the hope that, if 
 placed in a better situation, they would do better than 
 they can be expected to do in this country. *' Here, " 
 they say, " invincible prejudices exclude them from the 
 enjoyment of the society of the whites, and deny to them 
 all the advantages of freemen. The bar, the pulpit and 
 our legislative halls are shut to them by the irresistible 
 force of public sentiment. No talents however great, no 
 piety however pure and devoted, no patriotism however 
 ardent, can secure their admission." {Henry Clay, Af. 
 Repos. VI. 17.) "If there is in the whole world a more 
 wretched class of human beings than the people of color 
 in this country, I do not know where they are to be 
 found. They have no home, no country, no kindred, no 
 friends. They are lazy and indolent, because they have 
 no motives to prompt them." (J. A. Mc Kimieyy Af. 
 Repos, "VI. 228.) — These exaggerated statements of both 
 the worthlessness and degradation of the free colored 
 people, ColonizatJonists have insisted on, to excite a feel- 
 ing on the part of the citizens of the United States, which 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 25 
 
 will dispose them to aid in their removal, and at the same 
 time to lead the free colored people themselves to believe 
 their situation so hopeless that it cannot he bettered here. 
 But we may easily find in America, Europe, Asia, or 
 Africa, " a more wretched class of human beings than 
 the free people of color." If, as none will deny, very 
 many of the latter are pious Christians, are they not less 
 wretched than the heathen — whether lettered or unletter- 
 ed, polite or barbarous, refined or clownish, — whose con- 
 science is thoir enemy, and who are living without God 
 and without hope in the world ? Indeed some Coloniza- 
 tionists themselves admit that if they are most vicious, — 
 •' it is the inevitable result of their moral, political, and 
 civil degradation." {H. Clay, Af Repos., II. 343.) 
 " the vices of this class do not spring from any inherent 
 depravity in their natural constitution, but from their un- 
 fortunate situation. So9ial 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 cir- 
 cles of society, nor always among themselves, they resort 
 to slaves, and to the most base and worthless of the 
 whites. Corruption and all the train of petty offences 
 are the consequences." {Idem. Af. Repos., VI. 18.) 
 " While they continue here, subject to their peculiar temp- 
 tations, and their perpetual depression beneath the foot of 
 society, — [the latter being the cause of the former,] they 
 can never be saved from the impoverishment and moral 
 corruption, which with rare exceptions have, to the pre- 
 sent hour, been their lot." {Address in North Carolina, 
 Af. Repos., III. 66.) "Let them be maltreated ever so 
 much, the law gives them no redress,* unless some white 
 person happens to be present, to be a witness in the case." 
 {Af. Repos, VI. 228.)— "This multitude of beings re. 
 duced to that condition by our policy and social state." 
 R.J. Breckenridge, Af Repos. VII. 171.) "They 
 are the most abandoned race on earth. How came they 
 thus? Alas, it is we, we who have first crushed all cheer- 
 
 * The writer means, in the slave States — he is a Tennesscan. 
 3 
 
26 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 ful hope of good to come, all taste for praise paid to vir- 
 tue, by making them slaves ; have completed the work 
 by throwing them out on a world, where we are vain 
 enough to expect from them actions without motives, 
 efforts where there is no spring — where the passive quali- 
 ties bring contempt, and the active bring no honor, and 
 where vice in its worst shapes, from indolence up to felony, 
 is their shadow, their familiar, their tempter." (/. B. Har- 
 rison, Af. Repos. III. 197.) 
 
 I. Now, in answer to the supposed claim of the Soci- 
 ety upon the benevolent, we ask, is it not strange that 
 with all these acknowledgments, the only mode suggested 
 and applauded by these gentlemen ; the only mode by 
 which they propose to answer a " national sin," to pay 
 " a deep debt to injured Africa !" to atone for injuries 
 committed through prejudice ; is, by carrying out that 
 prejudice into further action, to remove the injured far 
 AWAY ? One would suppose that the first effort after con- 
 fession would be to make reparation. This is the gospel 
 rule : this is even the Mosaic institute. The reparation 
 would consist in restoring to them all of which they have 
 been unjustly deprived. Yet not one word of censure is 
 to be found in this African Repository, as conducted by 
 the Colonization Society — not one word of censure of 
 those customs and manners and prejudices and laws of 
 the whites, which produce all this degradation and misery. 
 Nay, unjust and tyrannical laws are in a measure approv- 
 ed. A deluge of oppression there is acknowledged to be, 
 yet no barrier is placed in the way of that deluge. It 
 rolls on still, without rebuke from the Colonization Soci- 
 ety. There has not been formed, through Colonization 
 influence south of the Potomac, nor in all the slave States, 
 one solitary association for the protection of the free peo- 
 pie of color. Colonizationists of the South admit that 
 they are often kidnapped ; that they are not allowed to 
 teach their children to read ; that their evidence in courts 
 of justice is of no value ; — no matter how much some 
 Colonizationists may " respect them," or how much they 
 
VIEWS ON COLONIZATION. 27 
 
 may deserve respect, or how pious and upright they may 
 be. Yet these wicked institutions, these miserable and 
 contemptible prejudices, these infamous laws must be still 
 tolerated and enforced, that the free colored people may 
 :3ee and feel and be convinced that they cannot stay in 
 this country. We find one Colonizationist who tells us 
 that " Society is bound, and tliat now and always, to see 
 that every man in it is fairly dealt by and justly paid by 
 every other man in it ; and every human being is bound 
 to do justice to every body." {R. J. Breckenridge, Af. 
 Repos., IX. 329.) The same individual, while address- 
 ing a Northern audience — declares slavery to he a sin ; 
 and two other Colonizationists, Mr. Smith, then such, 
 {Af, Repos. XI. 105,) and Mr. Young, {Af. Repos., XL 
 120,) expressed the same opinion. Yet no where do we 
 find Mr. Breckenridge, or his friends, entreating society to 
 deal fairly and justly with all persons in it. Nay, this Ro- 
 bert J. Breckenridge, this graphic delineator of the evils of 
 slavery as a system of robbery, lust, barbarism and impiety, 
 (see his essay Af. Repos. IX. 326 &;c.) even advances as 
 an argument for Colonization the fact, that colored per- 
 sons are driven from employment as draymen and drivers 
 of hacks in Baltimore, in consequence of which many of 
 them were on the verge of starvation. (Speech in Wash- 
 mgton City, Feb. 1834.) We hear Colonizationists 
 speaking thus in confession : — " we know that all of us 
 have had our share in those institutions ; in the injustice 
 and prejudice which have first brought the now free color- 
 ed people to the degradation of slavery, and then bound 
 them down to the 'baseness of ineffectual freedom.'" — 
 " W^hether then we fear or loathe them, whether we feel 
 compassion towards them, as a common feeling of human- 
 ity, or compunction as to those we have injured, cruelly in- 
 jured," — ( tken in repentance and reparation) — "we 
 
 MUST ALL DESIRE TO 'JET RID OF THEM, and if possible, tO 
 
 make better their condition thereby." (/. B. Harrison^ 
 Af. Repos., III. 198.) Benevolent, truly ! Worthy of 
 a Christian people and an enlightened age ! Again — 
 
28 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 ♦* There are now (1826) at least five thousand free blacks 
 in the city of Baltimore. We can make it their interest to 
 remove. Every thing urges them to go. By their de- 
 parture, thousands of places will be opened for our fellow 
 citizens who are in want of employment. Into these va- 
 cant places will immediately rush a white population. 
 The blacks we can provide with a home on the coast of 
 Africa, whence they originally came, and where they may 
 become, after their long captivity and dispersion, a flour- 
 ishing and enlightened people, and enjoy under our protec- 
 tion those free institutions we have taught them to ad- 
 mire." (C. C. Harper, Af Repos., II. 188.) This is 
 the sin and the repentance of Colonizationism : Not, 
 however, " new doctrine." It is coeval with Cain, and 
 branched out both in Jew and Samaritan. This last ex* 
 tract might furnish many topics for remark — and to a 
 Christian mind cannot but provide, on a careful perusal, 
 abundant subject of painful thought. I beg the reader to 
 ponder it, in view of eternity. He will see plainly con- 
 fessed, some of the most selfish and unjustifiable motives 
 which can regulate the human mind. Pray, we might 
 ask, HOW have you taught the colored people " to ad- 
 mire YOUR FREE INSTITUTIONS ?" As slavcs, by Crushing 
 them, oppressing them, chastising them for no crime, cor- 
 rupting them and brutalizing them ? Or as free people, 
 by their " constant depression beneath the foot of 
 SOCIETY ?" Reason, justice, nature, religion, God will 
 say, " out of your own mouths will I condemn you." 
 
 It is strange that an appeal is constantly made to 
 the Christian public, both in America and Great Bri- 
 tain, to aid in a project which is so wanting in the 
 first elements of Gospel charity. If indeed the Colo, 
 nization scheme proposed to colonize or concentrate on 
 the coasts of Africa the wandering tribes, to teach them 
 the arts and sciences, and the duties of civilized life, 
 to give them all the "free institutions" of this mis- 
 named free land, and to form stations whence mission- 
 aries and teachers under the guidance of other associa^ 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 29 
 
 tions might go forth to teach and instruct the natives in 
 morals or reHgion or science ; it might be a society com- 
 mercial or political, or what it pleased, and allied to the 
 benevolent operations of the age. Yet even under such 
 an organization, and with such objects in view, it would 
 have little claim upon the benevolent citizens of the United 
 States, at least no right to call for their aid in this work, 
 upon lis oicn plea. But while it gratifies that prejudice 
 which has so long crushed the colored race in this land, 
 nay, while it is the present chief means of keeping up that 
 prejudice which has been the principal cause of their de- 
 gradation and oppression, it has no such claim. Much 
 less has it a claim, than if it were merely a commercial 
 or trading corporation. It is guilty of felony and sacri- 
 lege in thus demanding and perverting, as it does, the con- 
 tributions of the benevolent, obtained by unsubstantial pre- 
 tences, and thus gratifying prejudice at an enormous ex- 
 pense to the American churches. 
 
 II. But the Colonization Society cannot claim the cha- 
 racter of a benevolent association, because it does not take 
 the proper course in regard to slavery itself. When vice 
 and misery are to be weighed, and the perpetrators con- 
 victed and sentenced, what is the weight of a feather at 
 the fulcrum of the beam ? Such is the value of Coloniza- 
 tionism in regard to the sin of slavery. It speaks not 
 against it, as becomes a benevolent society. By its ac- 
 tion it rather encourages the slaveholder than condemns 
 him. It excuses his conduct. Is this consistent with that 
 claim which it obtrudes upon us continually ? — Once the 
 writer was a Colonizationist. He served the Society as 
 an agent, repelled its gainsayers, and endeavored to ad- 
 vance its schemes both in the South and in the North, 
 (See Af. Repos., III. 349, 371, 378 ; IV. 64, 254.) but 
 this was while he did not believe slavery to be a sin : for 
 he was born and reared in a slave country (in Washing- 
 ton City,) his relatives are most of them slaveholders ; and 
 the principle of Colonization he then considered just. 
 He lumped together the "political and moral evils of 
 3* 
 
30 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 slavery" as the contingent rather than the necessary con- 
 comitants of slavery itself. Indeed it is wonderful that 
 any one can be a Colonizationist and yet believe slavery 
 sinful ; and think himself benevolent or acting under the 
 impulses of benevolence, when he aids a Society which 
 has not moral courage enough to rebuke a system acknow- 
 ledged to be one of " robbery, lust, barbarism and im- 
 piety," legalized. Would any rational being reason in 
 regard to any other sinful system, as Colonizationists do 
 of slavery ? If in the higher circles of Baltimore for in- 
 stance, adultery were practised openly without shame, 
 would the exposure of such a sin, and its prohibition by 
 severe enactments, and its abolition attended by the break- 
 ing up of all criminal connections which had been formed 
 for its commission, be productive of more evil than good ? 
 Impossible. Yet this is the sort of plea which the benevo- 
 lent Colonization Society urges in support of slavery — the 
 present infamous system of American slavery, with all its 
 accompanying injuries to the free colored people ! This 
 is the almost uniform plea ; North, South, East and West 
 it is reiterated. Strange that a benevolent society should 
 leave unrebuked a system of sin, which is causing those 
 very evils it professes to labor to remove. Nay, stranger 
 still, that in its appeals to the benevolent, the society- 
 should urge its claim upon the very ground that it does not 
 oppose slavery in a direct manner : i» e. that it neglects 
 the first duties of humanity.* 
 
 III. Can that he true benevolence which is directed only by 
 prejudice ? In the Colonization scheme, there is no re- 
 pentance for sin, no heart-breaking for that which is con- 
 fessedly "against reason" and not justified by the gos- 
 pel. On the contrary, there is a constant exercise of the 
 
 * " Should the Society presume to touch the rights of individu- 
 als over the persons of their slaves, its influence would perish. It 
 would at once be denied access to any slavcholding State." (Rev. 
 W. W. Atkinson, Af. Repos., XI. 49.) It may be observed also 
 in this connection, that Colonizationists impose upon the northern 
 community by mitigated statements of the condition of slaves. See 
 e. g. : G. P. Disosway's Oration, Newark, N. J., July 4, 1831. 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 31 
 
 sinful prejudice. Is this consistent with the rules of 
 Christ ? Does it coincide with the precept derived from 
 the conduct of the good Samaritan ? Let us hear the ad- 
 mission of an eminent gentleman, who at the time he wrote 
 it was a Colonizationist, and was altogether the most mu- 
 nificent and spirited patron of the Society. Hear what 
 he says in respect to this prejudice. — The Colonization 
 Society is opposed on the ground that *'its members are 
 prejudiced against the free colored people of this country. 
 I admit that they are thus prejudiced — wickedly preju- 
 diced. But is this prejudice peculiar to them ? have they 
 more of it than their countrymen generally have ? — In that 
 heartless and calculating policy, which we see has soiled 
 the pure benevolence of its original character and earliest 
 years, the Society is the guilty cause of encouraging the 
 popular undervaluation and scorn of the man of color." 
 (Af. Repos. XI. 71, 72.) We believe, however, that the 
 benevolence of the Colonization scheme is the same it 
 ever was- Its foundation stone was and continues to be 
 prejudice. We do not say, that all which Colonization, 
 ists have done for the colored people, is in consequence 
 of all its members indulging prejudice and only prejudice 
 at all times towards the colored population ; but we do af- 
 firm, what Colonizationists admit, that their " benevo- 
 lent" scheme would not exist, be acted upon, or continue, 
 were it not for this old and present and unreasonable pre- 
 judice. It resembles the benevolence of reconcilea bro- 
 thers, who having been long at variance can correspond 
 at a distance, call themselves " brethren," but cannot 
 • bear to look each other in the face. They may agree 
 perhaps to see each other without prejudice on a death- 
 bed, in view of eternity, and fondly hope that there shall 
 be no prejudice in their minds by and by. Such a recon- 
 ciliation furnishes matters of repentance in the hour of 
 death. Admitting that the free colored people were all 
 that the Colonization Society tells us they are — vicious 
 and degraded most of all, does that justify the organizing 
 of an association for their removal ? Why not labor to 
 
32 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 convert them at home ? especially since it is admitted 
 that they are rendered vicious and debased, and continued 
 so by the operation of prejudice? Or if vice and degrada- 
 tion are just causes of removal, why not organize associa- 
 tions to transport and expatriate to some point on the Afri- 
 can coast, WHITE nuisances" — thieves, manstealers, forni- 
 cators, adulterers, and abandoned men and women ? This 
 would be as benevolent as to carry away colored men of 
 the same character. The former deserve transportation 
 as much as the latter. If society requires the removal of 
 the one, how can it dispense with that of the other ? But 
 when we remember that in truth the alleged necessity of 
 removal is, in the case of the colored people, a mere crea- 
 ture of a prejudice irrational and wicked, and that each 
 removal, though it may produce a kind of relief for the 
 individual exile, is destitute of any tendency to subdue, 
 but rather operates to deepen and confirm that prejudice 
 which expelled him, and at the same time to rivet new 
 chains on his brethren, both bond and free, who are left 
 behind ; what then shall we say of the benevolence of the 
 expatriating scheme ? 
 
 IV. But can the Colonization Society be considered a 
 benevolent scheme, since from its very commencement to 
 the present time, it has opposed all emancipation, and the 
 abolition of slavery in the United States, except in its own 
 WAY ; i. e. by a very gradual process accompanied by 
 the colonizing of the liberated : and has presented no plea 
 and professed no desire for manumission, or for the edu- 
 cation of colored persons, on any other ground ? " It is 
 in nowise allied to any abolition society in America, or 
 elsewhere, and is ready, whenever there is need, to pass a 
 censure upon such societies in America." (/. B. Harris 
 son, Af. Repos., III. 203.) " To these, the Colonization 
 Society would say, your object is unttainable, your zeal 
 dangerous, and nothing can give it a right direction or a 
 right temperature, but your surrendering your plan to 
 ours." (Idem, III. 203.) " Let the abolitionist give up 
 liis cause, as impossible of execution, hateful to the com 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 33 
 
 munity, ruinous to the cause of the blacks, and founded 
 upon principles wrong in themselves." {R, J. Brecken. 
 ■ridge, Af. Repos., IX. 331.) "With the enthusiasts of 
 the North, I embark not in the wild and destructive 
 scheme, which calls on the South for immediate and uni- 
 versal emancipation." {R. F. Stockton, Af. Repos., I. 13.) 
 " So frequent were manumissions in Maryland and Vir- 
 ginia, before counteracted by legal preventions, as to 
 throw upon the public an immense mass of wretched peo- 
 ple." {Editorial, Af. Repos. I. 162.) "The inconve- 
 nience and danger of multiplying their number [i. e. of 
 free colored persons] where slavery exists at all." (C 
 F. Mercer, Af. Repos. IV. 53.) " This law (the law 
 forbidding emancipated persons to remain in Virginia 
 longer than a year after emancipatio ,) 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 formida- 
 ble." (Memorial to Virginia Legislature, Af. Repos., V. 
 20, 21.) " Its members are sustaining the wise policy of 
 the law of Virginia, forbidding slaves emancipated since 
 May, 1806, to reside within the State." {Lynchburg Col, 
 Soc, Af. Repos., V. 241.) "Whatever abolition may 
 have done heretofore, in the States now free, it had done 
 nothing and could do nothing in the slave States for the 
 cause of humanity." {F. S. Key, Af. Repos., V. 364.) 
 " Emancipation with the liberated to remain on this side 
 of the Atlantic, is but an act of dreamy madness." (G, 
 W. P. Custis, Af. Repos., V. 306.) " 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 it would be un- 
 wise to emancipate them." (H. Clay, Af. Repos., VI. 5.) 
 
34 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 " A sense of their own safety required the painful prohi- 
 bition." {Idem, 2d An. Report, 110.) " We would say, 
 liberate them only on condition of their going to Africa or 
 Hayti." {Af. Repos., III. 26, quoted from an Indiana 
 paper.) 
 
 These are the sentiments of colonizationists generally, 
 and hence the Society has constantly made an effort to en- 
 gross the favor of the public, both by direct appeals to 
 its prejudices, to its fears and its benevolence, and by 
 open opposition to abolitionists. The friends of the So- 
 ciety also boast of their success ; " that the friends of colo. 
 nization have done more in twelve years for the black 
 race than the abolitionists have done for twelve centu- 
 ries." (R. J. Breckenridge, Af. Repos., IX. 328.) 
 This last assertion is palpably erroneous, yet so great is 
 the hallucination of some, that they believe it. We ask, 
 however, can that institution which opposes the pulling 
 down of such a system of sin, as American slavery, be 
 called a benevolent society; especially since it opposes 
 with a fiery zeal, those very plans which have been else- 
 where successful in destroying that system ? Many of its 
 members admit that if ever the Colonization Society suc- 
 ceeds, it can only be in the course of a " century" or cen- 
 turies. {Af. Repos., V. 367.) Thus then, all the evils of 
 slavery are to be continued for a century, that the Coloniza- 
 tion Society may have a fair trial to succeed. 
 
 V. Lastly, can that Society be entitled to the aid of 
 the benevolent, which misrepresents and slanders those 
 who are in this country, opposing slavery as a sin ? Since 
 the excitement began in our country, the Colonization 
 Society seems to have taken pains by every possible 
 method to prevent those persons who are more imme- 
 diately interested in the abolition of slavery, from be- 
 coming acquainted with the true views and motives of abo- 
 litionists. It is to this that the excitement may be 
 chiefly ascribed. The Colonizationists having engrossed 
 the public attention in the South, by the clamor which, in 
 connection with the defenders of slavery in the abstract, 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 35 
 
 they have raised against the abolitionists, have alntiost 
 entirely prevented the latter from being heard. The 
 Society, encouraged by almost all Colonizationists, has even 
 taunted the abolition isis with cowardice, after, having suc- 
 ceeded in rendering them unjustly odious. " He is a 
 cowardly soldier, says a Colonization orator, who gets 
 beyond the reach of his adversary before he fires his gun. 
 Why do not these anti -slavery lecturers come among us, 
 who are so enveloped in darkness and guilt, and point out 
 to us our iniquity and our danger, our duty and the man- 
 ner in which we may perform it." {Af, Repos., XI. 227.) 
 This bravado is repeated, when the Society knows that, — 
 principally owing to her false representations — an abo 
 litionist's life would be forfeited, if he went into the South 
 to explain his views and propose that plan for the remov- 
 al of slavery which he believes safe, practicable and hap- 
 py for all concerned. Colonizationists generally have 
 united in the slanderous cry, against the abolitionists, of 
 "incendiarism, fanaticism, &c." The Society charges 
 them with lying {Af. Repos.^ XI. 274) ; condescends in 
 the fervor of zeal for abolition in its own icay, to record 
 with approbation that a check was given to abolition in 
 Kentucky {Af, Repos., XI. 285) ; charges the abolition- 
 ists with producing *' an excitement deplored by every 
 friend of the constitution ;" and has even given the sanc- 
 tion of its name to the proposition to prevent the press in 
 the North from speaking about slavery. Eminent 
 Colonizationists, such as Mr. Clay, Mr. Key and Mr. 
 Everett, (Governor of Massachusetts,) have recommend- 
 ed legislation against abolitionists.* 
 
 ♦Colonizationists, governed as they admit by prejudice, have 
 recommended both civil and ecclesiastical legislation against 
 abolitionists : e. g. Gov. Everett, of Massachusetts ; Gov. Wolf, of 
 Pennsylvania ; 3Tr. Clay, of Kentucky — (at the annual meeting 
 of Colonization Society, Dec 1835, — Washington City ; Mr. Key, 
 prosecuting attorney of the District of Columbia, (see the trial of 
 Dr. Crandall in which Mr. Key labored hard to convict Dr. Cran- 
 dall of doing and saying what he had himself said, making it 
 evident, as was affirmed by the lawyers at the trial, that the whole 
 
36 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 To judge of the truth and virtue of the Society, let any- 
 one read the African Repository for October 1835, (Vol. 
 XI.) — a document set forth by a benevolent society ! — It 
 must be edifying to benevolent Colonizationists to com- 
 pare the sentiments of the Society, with those uttered 
 about the same time by an advocate for slavery in the ab- 
 stract — whom Colonizationists pronounce " odious in 
 thought," " We are of those who believe the South has 
 nothing to fear from a servile war. We do not believe 
 the abolitionists intended, nor could they if they would, 
 excite the slaves to insurrection. The danger of this is 
 remote. We believe we have most to fear from the 
 organized action upon the consciences and fears of the 
 slaveholders themselves — from the insinuations of the 
 dangerous heresies* into our schools and pulpits and do- 
 mestics circles." {United States Telegraphy November 
 24th, 1835.) 
 
 Alas ? that this " great and benevolent " institution 
 should thus stand reproved, and convicted of slander, by 
 a defender of slavery as right in itself; as being " the 
 best existing organization of civil society." The Colon- 
 ization Society knows that the abolitionists deprecate a 
 servile insurrection, that they abhor the thought of 
 slave murderers, 6z;c.,yetshe bears false witness against 
 them to the South. Where is the benevolence of this 
 scheme which resorts even to falsehood for its support ? 
 
 was a contest of the Colonization Society with the abolitionists ); 
 Rev. Mr. Bacon, of New Haven, an eminent Colonizationist intro- 
 duced the resolutions which were adopted by the general associa- 
 tions of Connecticut and Massachusetts — the evident design of 
 the mover being to shut out from a hearing the agents of the 
 American Anti-Slavery Society. — Colonizationists have rendered 
 that treatment to the abolitionists, of which in the early life of the 
 Colonization Society, itself so much complained. (See Vol. I. 
 and II. and VII. 99. of Af. Repos.) 
 
 * '* Dnrigerous heresies," i. e. the doctrine that slavery is a sin, 
 and an evil ; for the editor avows his belief of the propriety of 
 slavery and of its continuance. — He and his friends take consis- 
 tent giuund, at least. 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 37 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DOES THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY PURSUE A REASONABLE 
 AND JUDICIOUS COURSE ? — IS ITS SCHEME PRACTICABLE ? — 
 IS THE SOCIETr NECESSARY? — CONCLUDING REMARKS ; 
 WM. JAY AND DR. REESE. 
 
 A certain mode of feeling is generated, of the utter unreason- 
 ableness of which " the mind is dimly conscious, and to rid itself 
 of the uneasy sense of being absurd, rushes on towards sentiments 
 still more absurd, that by their aid it may quite surround itself 
 with false impressions, and lose all recollection of calm truths." 
 (Fanaticism, p. 23.) 
 
 Section 1 . — Is the course of the Society judicious ? 
 
 Secondly. — It is proposed by the Colonization Socie- 
 ty, to colonize free colored persons, either those who 
 are already free, or those who may be put into its hands 
 to be colonized that they may be free ; and thus to colo- 
 nize all. And the society, pleading that its plan is reas- 
 onable and proper, here advances another claim for aid. 
 
 1. To colonize those toko are already free. The So- 
 ciety must necessarily, if it would not destroy its colony, 
 send out emigrants of good moral character. Hence it 
 labors to induce the best of those who are among us, to 
 emigrate. This operation pursued extensively is not 
 salutary in its influence upon the free colored people as 
 a body. We shall not dwell upon the strange inconsis- 
 tency of sending out " nuisances," or, persons " j)artly 
 civilized and Christianized^^ to Christianize them in 
 Africa, and through them to civilize and Christianize 
 Africa it.self — a point on which the Colonization Society 
 has opened itself to a charge ; but we will admit that 
 the Society has ever been desirous of sending out " se- 
 lect emigrants." It picks out, then, the sound limbs of a 
 corrupted and corrupting body, as it says, and deports 
 them to a more congenial soil. So doing, the Society is 
 constantly aggravating the evil at home. This is the 
 necessary, legitimate result. Suppose, for instance, that 
 of the five thousand free colored people in the city of 
 4 
 
38 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 Baltimore, in 1826, the portion which exerted a whole- 
 some influence on the entire mass, — the " some " who 
 were entitled to the " respect" of Mr. Harper, — amount- 
 ed to one hundred ; while the whole were separated by 
 an " insurmountable barrier from the whites," and the 
 great majority of them of little moral worth, " degraded 
 and miserable." Would not the abduction of the influ- 
 ence exerted by the respectable and various hundred, be 
 soon felt ? — felt not only on the colored mass, but on 
 the whole of society 1 Nay, would not the departure of 
 one fourth part, or one-tenth part of those who constitute 
 a good leaven, aflect injuriously the entire community ? 
 It would be just as reasonable to draw a sound tooth from 
 a jaw in which almost all are decayed, as to remove an 
 educated and virtuous person from an ignorant and de- 
 graded community. Such removals always have exert- 
 ed and always will exert an evil influence upon the 
 portion remaining at home. It is very questionable 
 whether our cities and our country in general, are pur- 
 suing a policy, in this particular, which will tend to se- 
 cure public order, tranquillity, sobriety and good morals. 
 The emigration of the better class of colored people 
 from Philadelphia and New York, would be an event 
 much to be deplored. And, in Hie South, take the case of 
 those three individuals, whose exclusion from the right of 
 voting, by the new constitution of North Carolina, oc- 
 casioned expressions of public regret. [John C. Stan- 
 ley of Newborn, Lewis Sheridan of Bladen, now in Li. 
 beria, and Jo7ies of Raleigh. See the North Carolina 
 papers, about the time of the adoption of the present 
 Constitution of North Carolina.) Such men in their 
 connection with colored people, serve as a moral res- 
 traint on them, and as a safe-guard to the whites in case 
 the slaves should make or meditate trouble. Their ex- 
 ample and conduct altogether was and is known to be 
 admirable. The writer has seen and conversed with 
 many individuals in the South, whose expatriation it 
 would be wise in the slaveholding community to oppose. 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 39 
 
 If the Colonization Society should gain its object and 
 induce the better class of free colored persons to re- 
 move to Liberia, not only would the whole as a body 
 deteriorate, but a large portion of the white population 
 would deteriorate with them. And this deterioration 
 would })rogress in proportion to the success which would 
 attend the Society. This is a matter of serious regret, 
 if not of alarm. 
 
 It may be said ' if the best go first, the rest will follow.' 
 But will they do so voluntarily 1 We cannot compel them. 
 That would be, not Colonization, but expatriation and 
 the deportation of felons. Or suppose they will go, either 
 of their own accord or by compulsion. Will the Coloni- 
 zation Society take them ? Will it not deprecate their 
 going? Will the colonists receive them? Will they 
 not be obliged eventually to lay a prohibition on the im- 
 portation of such persons ? If they should shut their 
 ports against an influx of the refuse of the population of 
 this land, what then shall we do ? Wait a " century" 
 again before another place could be within reach ! — It is 
 very probable, not to say certain, that as the colony ad- 
 vances in improvement, a regard to their own welfare 
 will induce the colonists to adopt some such measure for 
 self-defence. Else there is much reason to fear their 
 boasted privileges will all be good for nothing. Has the 
 public forgotten the influence upon the colony at Liberia, 
 of the two " cargoes of vagabonds," which Mr. Brecken- 
 ridge says were " coerced away from Virginia, as truly 
 as if it had been done with a cart whip." (Speech, Feb. 
 1834.*) The colony has not forgotten it. The Society 
 
 * In the discussion of the Colonization question in Glasgow, 
 Scotland, Mr. Breckenridge says this is an " unfair report ;" and 
 charges the editor of the Evangelist with giving it '' to serve a 
 special purpose." Such an assertion implicating the character of 
 Mr. Leavitt is as base as it is unfounded. The New York Observer, 
 Feb. 15, 1834, gives the passage thus — " experience has made us 
 cautious how we connive at the transportation to Africa, as heralds 
 of civilization and religion, of free vagabonds, coerced away against 
 their will, by the concentrated virulence of public odium, as really 
 
40 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 has not forgotten it ; and with good reason does she yet 
 remember it. It had nearly ruined the colony, and the 
 Society too. But if " two cargoes" could produce such 
 mischief in 1832, what will not twenty or fifty in 1932 ? 
 The Board of Managers have not forgotten the oversight 
 they committed, and for which they were severely berated 
 by some of their best friends ; and having learned wisdom 
 by experience, they will be very careful in future. The 
 Southampton massacre was the leading cause of driving 
 off those wretched people. Some of them were whipped 
 to make them willing to go. This, as Mr. Breckenridge 
 says, was "the concentrated virulence of public odium." 
 (N. Y. Observer, Feb. 15, 1834.) Should such troubles 
 again occur, as they will, if slavery continues, what will 
 the Society do ? Confess its incompetency, refuse a pass- 
 port to the miserable " outcasts" who may be coerced 
 under similar circumstances, (thus tempting the southern 
 people to transport them themselves, and of their own ac- 
 cord to make Liberia a Botany Bay,) or again jeopardize 
 their own existence and the happiness of every colonist, 
 by receiving all who will come or be sent, whatever may 
 be their moral character ? 
 
 The society recovered from the shock, but it has now 
 confessedly relinquished the hope of building up the colo- 
 ny from the free colored people. It looks to the slave- 
 holders of the South, and informs us that many masters 
 through the kindly influence of the Society, are willing to 
 liberate their slaves on condhion of their going to Liberia. 
 The Society is beginning to see that the free colored 
 people generally are hostile to its designs, and will not 
 go under its auspices. (See R. J. Breckenridge's Speech, 
 February, 1834.) And we are glad of it. Not only have 
 the free colored people already been injured by the ab- 
 duction of the influence of men whom the Colonization 
 Society transported, but some of those men, had they re- 
 
 as if they were manacled and carried away beneath the hatches." 
 Is there here any essential difference ? Doubtless Mr. B. knew they 
 were whipped to make them willing to go. — Compare Broadnax's 
 Speech, in Va. House of Delegates. Jay's Enq. p. 52. 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 41 
 
 mained at home, would have given less ambiguous proof 
 of good moral character. If then the society adheres to 
 its professed determination to remove none but those of 
 good character, how is it ever to benefit the free colored 
 people in general ? — or if it eventually departs from this, 
 how is it ever to build up a Christian society there ? Or 
 what security can the Society give, that as soon as the co- 
 lonists have reached that stage of improvement which will 
 give them universally a knowledge of their strength and 
 their rights — they will not be unwilling to jeopardize their 
 own security and happiness by admitting all sorts of per- 
 sons 1 Will they not feel equal jealousy against the intro- 
 duction of those of their own color who are unlettered 
 and vicious, which is so extensively felt in this country 
 against foreign emigrants and paupers ? 
 
 2. The Colonization Society will deport those who may 
 be liberated for this purpose ; or more correctly, will take 
 away those who may be entrusted to it for the 'purpose of 
 transporting, them that they may he free in Africa. What 
 does a man prize dearer than freedom ? " We utter the 
 common sentiment of mankind, when we say, none ever 
 continue a moment slaves, after they are conscious of their 
 ability to retrieve their freedom." (R. J. Breckenridge, 
 Af Repos., IX. 326.) Yet some have been offered their 
 freedom, upon condition of their going to Liberia, and have 
 preferred bondage to such freedom. Had it indeed been 
 proved to their conviction, that freedom would have been 
 happily secured to them in Africa ; had it not been " mat- 
 ter of conjecture or calculation," they would probably 
 have gone. Hundreds, however, of these ignorant and 
 unfortunate slaves have been sent out, whether willing or 
 unwilling, and many others are offered to the Society. 
 But if these alone are the inhabitants of a colony, it is 
 doubtful whether their literary and moral state will for a 
 time be much removed from barbarism, though they may 
 have been taught a sort of Tantalus-like* admiration of 
 
 * Tantalus is represented by the heathen poets as punished in 
 hell, with an insatiable thirst, and placed up to his chin in a pool 
 4* 
 
42 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 " our free institutions." The Society sends, say forty, 
 from one plantation, the master of which had all at once 
 become convinced that it was wrong to keep human beings 
 as properly. Some of these are worthless, degraded and 
 injurious. None, or very few, ca.n read. In the co- 
 lony they must learn the elements of education.* If, as some 
 say, they are incapable of learning here, will crossing the 
 ocean sharpen their natural wit ? Rather will they not 
 find the same motives there operating, which would have 
 operated here, had these unfortunate beings been liberated 
 and kindly dealt with ? The same reasons which render 
 it desirable they should be instructed in Africa, make it 
 desirable they should be instructed here. But, passing 
 this by, some of these forty may be religious persons, but 
 without knowledge to guide them. And is it likely that 
 in a colony, where preachers are merchants, and the poor 
 slave first begins to breathe free air ; where " the world" 
 is rushing upon him, and cares burdening him ; is it like- 
 ly that he will vastly improve ? The inevitable conse- 
 quence of huddling together ignorant persons, is a per- 
 petuation of ignorance with its attendant evils. — The "in- 
 creased severity of the slave code," while it may prove a 
 part of the moral influence of the Colonization Society, 
 (as was said by an eminent V. P. of the Col. Society,) 
 will nevertheless be a great barrier in the way of its suc- 
 cess. This has already been shown in some considerable 
 degree. Hence the deplored evils of ignorance and idle- 
 
 of water, which flows away as soon as he attempts to taste it. A 
 bough richly loaded with delicious fruit hangs above his head, 
 which as soon as he attempts to seize is driven out of his reach by 
 a sudden gust of wind. If this were not fable, we should deem it 
 almost prophetic, and that an American slave had sat for the pic- 
 ture. Poor slave, how does he admire the water and the fruit ! — 
 the " free institutions" of C. C. Harper; or the benevolence of 
 Colonizationism ! 
 
 * In April, 1830, the Rev. Geo. M. Erskine thus addressed the 
 Secretary of the Am. Col. Society. " Sir, the state of things with 
 regard to schools, is truly lamentable. The only school in the colo. 
 ny at this time is a remnant of one at the Cape. Among the pre- 
 sent emigrants, there are seventeen out of forty-eight that can 
 lead.— (Af. Rep. VI. 121.) 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 43 
 
 ness in the colony :* hence the fact that even preachers 
 in the colony, men whom we might suppose to know the 
 sweets of freedom, and whom we should expect to be 
 virtuous, acted so " nefariously," when the colony was in 
 distress, " as to charge the Society three or four hundred 
 per cent, on articles for the use of the poor, and for the 
 support of the colony. (R. J. Breckenridge's Speech, 
 Feb. 1834.) In this view, how just are the observations 
 of Professor Silliman. " It will be as much as they can 
 do to manage the slaves who are emancipated on condi- 
 tion of immediate emigration, and who must therefore be 
 received as they are : but it is most obvious that no African 
 colony can flourish, which does not contain a good pro- 
 portion of religious, moral, and instructed men : men who 
 have some acquaintance with business, and with useful 
 arts and trades, and who are qualified to manage the con- 
 cerns of a recent and immature community." Af. Repos., 
 VIII. 174.) We would therefore remind the Coloniza- 
 tion Society, and the Southerners generally, that, admitting 
 as some of them say, these deported slaves are " fit for 
 freedom," the slaves thus fitted are not the persons whom 
 they ought to deport. If they are prepared for freedom 
 by good moral habits, and established virtue, they are 
 all needed at home. Southerners should beware how 
 they send off the best they have. Of the whole colored 
 
 * The African Repository, may in one view be styled the Colo- 
 nial Thermometer. Now, we have flattering accounts of the pros- 
 perity, the agriculture, &c. of the African settlements ; anon, we 
 are affected with lugubrious lamentations over the absence of these 
 very things. These alternations return at about regular intervals. 
 The colony is thus invested with an hermaphrodite character, and, 
 like the scheme itself, is " not to be managed on any one set of 
 PRINCIPLES." (Speech of R. J. Breckenridge. Pliiladelphia, May 
 1838.) Let us believe, therefore, the Af. Rep., Col. Herald, .Soc, 
 and we arrive at the following safe conclusion, the colony is 
 prospering, — it is not prospering. The colony is advancing in 
 education, — it is not advancing. The Colonists are agriculturalists 
 — they are not agriculturalists. Now all this is consistent with no- 
 thing else but " the scheme"— which \z only a second Janus, in 
 its physiognomy. 
 
44 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 population, the best ought not to be sent, and the rest tlie 
 Society will not take. 
 
 Sec. '^. — Is the Colonization Society <idequate to the task 
 it has undertaken. 
 Thirdly. — -The Colonization Society proposes its 
 scheme as practicable, and sufficient to meet the evils 
 complained of. We ask, then, in the third place, is it 
 capable of accomplishing the task it has entered upon — 
 viz : to rid the United States of slavery ? I do not affirm 
 that the Society avows in its constitution, that it is the 
 only practicable method of destroying the deadly curse 
 of slavery in the United Slates : but it is apparent that 
 many intelligent Colonizationists indulge this hope, and 
 avow it. Nay, if this were not the case, no reason can 
 be assigned why so much bitter opposition should be 
 manifested by the Society and Colonizationists gene- 
 rally, against all other efforts to remove slavery, by 
 those who are not Colonizationists. That Colonization, 
 ists indulge this hope is evident also from the fact that 
 while they oppose every other plan but their own, they 
 still express the hope that the United States will be de- 
 livered from slavery, and in connection with this hope 
 still continue their operations in opposition to uncondition- 
 al emancipation.* 
 
 * Dr. Reese in his letters to Mr. Jay, pp. 4, 5, flatly denies that 
 the Colonization Society esteems itself the only remedy for sla- 
 very, yet this is asserted by those who are as well entitled to credit 
 as himself. Thus, Mr. Gerrit Smith, (then a Colonizationist,) 
 says : " we find the Society, setting itself up not only as the 
 exclusive fit means of promoting the interests of our free color- 
 ed population, but even as the only means which could be right- 
 fully employed to deliver this land from the curse of slavery," 
 &c. (J,/. Repos., XL 70.) See the passages quoted above, chap. 
 I., beginning of section second, or the Repository generally : e. g. 
 IV. 368 ; III. 197 ; III. 355 •, III. 66 ; IV. 299 ; IX. 331 ; II. 
 188 ; VIII. 172 ; V. 366 ; particularly the whole of Mr. Smith's 
 observations, XI. 70. Dr. Reese admits, p. 5, that it would be 
 " arrogance" in the Colonization Society to assume this ground, 
 while ho declares that it would be " utterly absurd to suppose 
 that the allegation can have any foundation in truth," This reck- 
 less and unsustained assertion is but a specimen of Dr. Reese's 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 45 
 
 I. Let us now meet the question. Is the Coloniza- 
 lion scheme adequate to this task it has undertaken ? 
 There are now in the United States, upwards of 2,5005- 
 000 slaves, or more than 3,000,000 of colored persons, 
 slave and free. " Their annual increase, from 1830 to 
 1840, will not be very much from 80,000 a year." {R. 
 J. Breckcnridge, Kl Repos., IX. 331.) "In 1840," 
 Matthew Carey savs " they will amount to 3,045,504, in 
 1870, to 7,500,000 nearly." The Christian Spectator 
 says " their number doubles in less then 20 years : things 
 remaining as they now are, we shall have in 1830, 
 12,000,000 of slaves." (CA. Spectator, 1823.) By the low- 
 est calculation, unless some unforeseen calamity occurs, 
 to arrest the increase, there will be, in 1940, " a century" 
 hence, 100,000,000 of colored persons in the present 
 national limits of our territory. The colonization 
 scheme, whether the present number of the colored 
 people, or their probable number in years future be con- 
 sidered, proposes to remove millions of people to a foreign 
 land, or to induce them to remove themselves, i. e. by keep- 
 ing up and strengthening the existing prejudice against 
 color, to " make it their interest to remove." But during 
 the more than twenty years in which the Society has been 
 in operation, it has not removed over the present increase 
 OF THREE WEEKS ! Yet the Society boasts of its suc- 
 cess, and of the rapidly increasing strength of the colo- 
 ny at Liberia! Nevertheless, on the admission of 
 colonizationists themselves, not two thousand persons 
 yearly can be carried thither at this present time. Thus 
 Mr. Bacon, addressing the Society, in February, 1834, 
 says, " I cannot but think it a mistaken kindness to send 
 700 emigrants to Africa with our means, in a single 
 year." [Af. Repos. XI. 361.) It will probably be ten 
 years before the colony will be able to bear even the 
 gradual annual addition of 2,000 in each year. But 
 
 book. Could the Colonization Society have found no advocate 
 more just, candid and veracious thnn Dr. Reese 1 or are advocates 
 possessing better character, ashamed to appear ? 
 
46 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 during that period, the colored population will have in- 
 creased more than 500,000, over and above the whole 
 possible amount of deportation during that period. It 
 will probably be twenty years, and it may be more, be- 
 fore the colony can sustain 20,000 people, but during 
 that same period, the colored population in this country 
 will have increased by 2,000,000, and more. 
 
 Rusticus cxpectat dum transeat amiiis ; at ille 
 Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis aevura. 
 
 which may thus be translated — 
 
 The rustic waiting stands to see the flowing river dry 
 
 Not thinking its high fountains, continuous streams supply : 
 
 'Downward it comes and rolls, and will, till time itself shall die. 
 
 By what calculation therefore is it, that the Coloniza- 
 tion Society proposes to rid the United States of sla- 
 very ?* Their process is as wise as that of Cudjo, who 
 would have measured off the ocean with a quart pot. — 
 But to give the Colonization Society credit for what it 
 asks ; it supposes that such will be the state of society 
 generally in the United States, and such its state in Li- 
 beria, that the colored people will feel themselves im- 
 pelled by " moral influences'^ to emigrate from this coun- 
 try thither. That this might possibly be the case, if 
 they were few in number, we shall not now question. 
 But when thousands upon thousands of our colored 
 population shall have found a comfortable home among 
 us, as they will in spite of prejudice and oppression, 
 — having really been " taught to admire our free in- 
 stitutions," — before the colony of Liberia shall have 
 reached even a population of 20,000, it will be no easy 
 matter to persuade or coerce them away. But can, in- 
 deed, colonizationists seriously hope that ever a period 
 will arrive when thousands will go in one year across the 
 
 * The scheme of Colonization, in order to be effectual, must 
 contemplate and eftect the deportation at once of millions of la- 
 borers, and the importation of at least one million to take their 
 place ;" more than this ; it must, by miracle, work habits of in- 
 dustry in the white population of the South. 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 47 
 
 ocean to seek a home in Africa ? Tiiey ask for a cen- 
 tury to complete their labor. When that has elapsed 
 will they not as wisely ask for a century of centuries ? 
 Indeed when we compare the requests of the Society 
 witli the admission of one of its Vice Presidents in 1824, 
 we can believe that nothing but the blindest infatuation 
 could lead it to imagine itself adequate in any degree, to 
 remove the colored population, or to induce them to 
 remove. It will, in truth, require ages. " The removal 
 of a few thousand individuals will^ in an evil of such 
 magnitude^ produce hut little effect ; it will not mate- 
 rially benefit this class of population themselves for it 
 consists of more than a million and a half of persons, 
 (1824; now, 1839, 3,000,000,) and though 3 or 400, 
 000, already free, should be removed, the great polit. 
 ical mischief among us will be but slightly affected." (R. 
 J. Harper^ V. P., 1824, 7th Report, p. 8.) This passage 
 is worthy the attention of all colonizationists. 
 
 II. Let the community look in the face, all the difficul- 
 ties with which this scheme is encumbered, and say, is 
 success possible? Not only is it rendered impracticable 
 by the vastness of the undertaking, but there are other 
 obstacles. It is not merely problematical whether slave- 
 masters will ever consent to part with their slaves through 
 colonization influence. The difficulties in the way of 
 persuading them are constantly increasing ; and indeed 
 what has the Colonization Society to hope for from the 
 rising generation of slave-holders, when the example of 
 the present race, their fathers, teaches them the lawful- 
 ness and propriety of slavery. — There are many nulli- 
 fiers in the South, and there may yet be many more, 
 some of whom seem almost ready to take up arms when- 
 ever the general government offers to patronize the Co- 
 lonization Society. — There are many abolitionists both 
 in the North and in the South, who are increasing in 
 strength and moral influence. — Then the colored people 
 are themselves determined against the Society ; the free 
 will scarcely go at all, and the slave will scarcely go un- 
 
48 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 less compelled. — There are the difficulties which attend 
 every new settlement : difficulties which those accustom- 
 ed to freedom find hard to contend with, and which are 
 still harder to him who has been a slave all his life. 
 Hence we find that many colonists at Liberia give way 
 under them. — Even if we admit that Africa is a healthy 
 country for the colored man, still we assert that it is less 
 healthy than America. The colored people know this ; 
 and endangering life first, in crossing the ocean and then 
 in a new settlement, will and should be avoided whenever 
 it well can be. — There are difficulties also with the na- 
 tives. Since the first settlement at Monrovia, the colo- 
 nists have had three pitched battles and two or three 
 skirmishes with the natives. Does this fact show a pros- 
 pect of amalgamation between the parties ? (see also Af, 
 Repos.f X. 317,318.) — Moreover if thousands are willing 
 to go, where are the means ? Settlers must be taken 
 care of by the public there, till they are acclimated,* and 
 if it has cost the Society, including $130,000 received 
 from government for the settlement of recaptured Afri- 
 cans, about $500,000 to build up a colony of 4000 
 people, i. e. about $125 per head, including all expenses 
 
 * Colonization agents pass through the country asking for $25, 
 " to carry a man to Africa, and make him a freeman." Do they not 
 know that it costs much more than this to settle an emigrant ? It 
 costs $100 and more. Where then is the truth of their statements? 
 Twenty.five dollars is the passage-fee. This is besides the ex- 
 pense of the voyage, and, of keeping every emigrant for months. 
 ' How long does the seasoning last V ' From 3 to 24 months. 
 * What would be necessary to enable a man to live comfortably, if 
 he went from here to Liberia ?' ' A suitable set of utensils, fur- 
 niture, clothes, for 2 or 3 years, enough of food to last till he could 
 raise a crop.' {Questions to Jones, and replies. Af. Repos. X. 
 318.) 
 
 It is desirable that some person who has time, would estimate the 
 number of deaths which have occurred in the colony, of Agents, «Scc., 
 including children ; (see a list of emigrants, Af. Repos., X. 292,) 
 and inquire how far the increase of the population by births has 
 fallen short of that of the free colored people in the United 
 States, and we shall have data from which the real prosperity of 
 the country can be estimated. 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 49 
 
 — to remove one million will at the same rate cost about 
 one hundred and twenty-five millions of dollars. If from 
 this be deducted $25,000,000, (the cost of transportation 
 at twenty- five dollars a head, in American vessels,) the 
 remainder would be a total loss to this country. If to 
 this sum be added the money and goods transported 
 thither with settlers, as sifts, there will be to the United 
 States for settling 1,000,000 of colored persons a total 
 loss of probably 150,000,000 of dollars.* Any action 
 of Congress on the Society's own admission, is an action 
 in favor of an association for the removal of Slavery. 
 It must not expect that Southerners and Northerners 
 will ever consent that the government shall violate the 
 Constitution of the United States in its behalf. Had the 
 Society the purse of the nation at its disposal, it has no 
 right to use it, especially since both the justice and the 
 benevolence of its scheme are more than questionable. 
 III. But the Colonization scheme contains in hself the 
 elements of self defeat. It admits, which ought never to 
 be admitted, that slaves are property, Hence it endea- 
 vors to conciliate the slave holders by admitting what 
 they call their " rights" — (see speech of Cyrus Edwards, 
 Af. Repos., VII. 100, and of Henry Clay, Af. Repos., 
 VII. 13.) The attacks of Colonizationists upon those 
 who advocate unconditional emancipation (except as they 
 spring from retaliation or revenge, or mere malignity,) 
 are based upon tliis, that one party admits, while the 
 other denies, the right of property. — Now it is of the na- 
 ture of property to be in demand, and to be produced, 
 according to its value ; and its value at any one time 
 is regulated by supply and demand. Slaves, by the 
 rem.oval from their vicinity of the " dangerous" free col- 
 ored people, or of those liberated for the purpose of re- 
 moval, become more valuable, and the system of slavery 
 is more safe. This is admitted by some colonizationists. 
 
 * Compare on this topic Mr. Tazewell's report iii Senate U. S. 
 1828. 
 
50 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 Thus if, by some process — poison or deportation — you re- 
 move all the horses from the city of Philadelphia, there 
 would soon be an influx of as many more from the sur- 
 rounding country, and, until the demand was satisfied, 
 they would be sold at an advanced price. But would 
 the influx of a thousand horses into Philadelphia, in 
 one week diminish the race, or remove it from the 
 neighborhood'/ By no means. Horses are 'property. 
 Farmers would be careful to retain as many as they 
 wanted themselves, for labor and breeding: — destruc- 
 tion of some within a given space would increase the 
 value of the rest, and this would induce those who 
 had the means, to breed more, until the equilibrium 
 should again return. Destroy one-half the horses in the 
 world, and the process would be the same in principle, 
 though the relative value might never again be as low as 
 it now is. Remove one-half the slaves from South Caro- 
 lina, and while slaves are held as property, there would 
 be an increased demand, and such an effort to supply 
 it, that in a short time the same state of things as for- 
 merly existed would return. So will it be, throughout 
 the South. If one-half the slaves in the world were 
 suddenly to die, while the principle that man may be held 
 as property is acknowledged, the aggregate number 
 would in a short time be nearly or quite what it was be- 
 fore. If no other means would suflSce, masters would 
 cohabit with their own slaves, that they might increase 
 the number of their human chattels. Colonization in 
 this view of it, while it renders slaves as property more 
 secure, does but hold out a bait to the covetousness of 
 slave holders, instead of diminishing the evils and rigors 
 of slavery. 
 
 Besides, if slaves were not acknowledged as property, 
 the gradual emigration of hundreds of thousands, cannot 
 so affect the great body of the colored race among us, 
 as ever to render practicable the removal of the whole. 
 What effect has emigration on Germany ? Thousands 
 are every year seeking new settlements, and this has 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 51 
 
 continued since the early days of Rome. But is Ger- 
 many decreasing in population ? Ireland has sent off her 
 thousands every year, for many years past. Is there 
 any more room in Ireland for the English than at first ? 
 All this emigration has not perceptibly diminished the 
 ratio of the increase of population in Germany and Ire- 
 land. The true state of this case appears by the follow- 
 ing remarks. " In the year 1790, there were in that 
 small portion of Virginia's territory, which lies between 
 her blue ridge of mountains and her sea shore, 25,000 
 more whites than blacks. Since that time we have been 
 constantly engaged, from this same district, in colonizing 
 with blacks the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Ken- 
 tucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and 
 Florida, and yet in 1830, there were in that district, where 
 this majority of 25,000 whites once existed, a majority 
 of 81,000 blacks ; showing an increase, in forty years, of 
 106,000 blacks. If with all the advantages of our thousands 
 of scavengers, in the shape of negro-buyers,* who have 
 been constantly and sedulously engaged in tending and 
 nursing this filthy drain, this wonderful increase has oc- 
 curred, what are we to expect in the next forty years ?"f 
 {Mr. Roane, in the Virginia Legislature^ 1832.) Does 
 the Colonization Society then hope to accomplish more 
 in relation to the colored race among us, then all the op- 
 pressions in Germany, Austria and Ireland, or even in the 
 eastern part of Virginia (Maryland,) and in the District 
 of Columbia, have accomplished in respect to those who 
 dwell in those places respectively 1 Or does she intend 
 to urge the North to drive away the already persecuted 
 and tyrant-trodden colored race 1 — or, which is the same 
 thing — does she intend to labor till the prejudice against 
 color which urges the removal of that race, shall be en- 
 throned in the National breast ? If so, and I fear it, — 
 
 * Or Colonization packets, or transports. 
 
 t During the year 1836, it is estimated that 120,000 slaves were 
 exported from Virginia. These were worth on an average ^600 each, 
 equal to $72,000,000. — During this period how many were colo 
 nized in Africa from the the same State ? Not two hundred. 
 
42 
 
 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION 
 
 she will stand convicted before God and her country of 
 destroying the happiness and the Uberties of mihions. 
 
 Sec. 3. Is the Colonization Society necessary ? 
 
 Fourthly. Is the Colonization Society at all necessary ? 
 Before proceeding to answer this query, which will be 
 the last in relation to the Society, let us observe : — 
 
 (1.) We consider the Colonization Society a scheme 
 of INJUSTICE. '* Its movements do but sanction and en- 
 courage, the most high-handed oppression. This it does 
 by the admission of the principle that emancipation may 
 be [and ought to be] conditioned on expatriation." 
 (Phelps' Lectures, App. 278, 279.) 
 
 (2.) Admitting that the scheme of Colonization will 
 benefit Africa in a greater or less degree, it is not neces- 
 sary if that benefit can be conferred in an equal or greater 
 degree in some less exceptionable — some benevolent 
 way.* 
 
 (3.) It is very questionable whether the moral in flu- 
 €nce of the Society can be very great or very good. 
 When " weighed in the balance" of the divine law it is 
 *' found wanting." For (1) it acknowledges that man 
 may have property in his fellow man, thus encouraging 
 sin ; (2) it admits the tyrant's plea of necessity for pre- 
 sent acknowledged wrong ; — (3) its benevolence operates 
 through prejudice ; (4) it enlists the covetousness of 
 slaveholders in its behalf; (5) its influence stands decided- 
 ly in the way of emancipation. 
 
 Is then this Society necessary ? — it consumes money, 
 employs the time of valuable men, and diverts the mind of 
 benevolence, from other objects. Would it not be better 
 for it to die ? " An honest death would be a thousand fold 
 better for it than a life of fraud." [Gerrit Smith, then 
 Vice President, Af, Repos., XI. 70.) If necessary, it is 
 either as an abolition society, or as an institution for the 
 promotion of some other benevolent enterprise. But it is 
 neither. 
 
 * Who can doubt that if slavery is abolished, multitudes of 
 colored missionaries would be found for Africa ? 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 53 
 
 1st. By its own admission "it is no abolition society." 
 It passes many "censures on such societies." Take for 
 an example the following, from the pen of its Secretary. 
 " The Anti-Slavery Societies at the North, as at present 
 conducted, are, I humbly conceive, staking the peace and 
 safety of the country on a dangerous experiment." (J/. 
 Repos., X. 137.) Some of the friends of the Society do 
 indeed claim that it proposes the ultimate abolition of 
 slavery, but on a condition — even according to their ad- 
 mission — which we have shown to be impossible : — the 
 removal of all the slaves. ^^ All emancipation, to hoicever 
 small an extent, which permits the persons emancipated to 
 remain in this country, is an evil. [First Report of the 
 Colonization Society.) Thus colonizalionists are, in ef- 
 fect, saying it is right to keep up and strengthen a system 
 of robbery, lust, barbarism, and impiety, unless those who 
 suffer by its continuance will leave, or be driven from the 
 country. Hence we find scarcely any of the leading 
 southern colonizationists emancipating their slaves. 
 *' Such a state of affairs (they say) would be produced by 
 universal emancipation, that we could not live in the 
 United States." Perhaps by a change of conditions with 
 tlie sufferers for a short time, they would better learn how 
 to apply the fundamental principles of the Gospel.* If 
 3,000,000 of the people of Europe were suffering under 
 the pride, rapacity, lust, impiety, barbarity and luxury of 
 3,000,000 of their neighbors, would the Colonization So- 
 ciety justify the continuance of that oppression, till the 
 oppressed would move beyond its reach ? The Society 
 indeed devoutly prays for the abolition of the foreign 
 slave-trade, but neglects the suffering poor at its own 
 door. Against the piratical internal slave trade — though 
 not inferior in atrocity to the distant evil so much de- 
 plored — it never raises its voices. 
 
 2d. Is this Society necessary as pursuing any other be- 
 nevolent scheme ? The negative has been fully proved. 
 
 * "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to 
 hem likewise." — Luke vi, 3l. 
 A* 
 
54 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 It therefore cannot be prospered by Heaven. All the 
 good to the colored race it has ever accomplished, might 
 have been gained in a less objectionable manner, and in- 
 finitely more would have been gained if it had never ex- 
 isted. What if the colony is flourishing ? Would not the 
 same number, nay an hundred fold the number of colored 
 people have been in a better condition in this land, if Colo 
 nization had never been heard of? Would not the recap 
 tured Africans have been in better circumstances, if go 
 vernment had located them somewhere in this country, 
 and appropriated $130,000 for their benefit ? Coloniza 
 tionists seem to be aware that as soon as slavery is abo 
 lished, their scheme falls to the ground. Hence the be 
 nevolence of Finley is prostituted to the worst of pur 
 poses. Were he and his heavenly-minded coadjutor, 
 Samuel J. Mills, alive on earth, they would disown the 
 company which at present claims ihem : we doubt not 
 they look down from heaven upon them with pity. 
 
 Sec. 4. Concluding Remarks. 
 
 If it were admitted that the Colonization Society is ad- 
 vancing a benevolent scheme ; that the scheme is practi- 
 cable, though requiring centuries to complete it ; that it 
 is exercising a beneficial influence on Africa ; that it has 
 a right to apply to the general government for support ; — 
 in short were most admitted that Colonizationists in gene- 
 ral ask ; — would it not be the duty of the same to pro- 
 mote the abolition of slavery in other ways ?* 
 
 * If the Colonization Society adhered strictly to the letter of its 
 constitution, it could not deport one slave entrusted to it, for the 
 purpose of freeing him. (See Const, of Col. Soc. Art. I. and II,) 
 It stepped out of its proper sphere, when it entered upon the re- 
 moval of slaves, not of actual freemen, and has thus become a 
 tool in the hands of tyrants, to remove those who would not have 
 gone if they could have had their freedom here, and who were only 
 willing to go because they had no alternative. A person may 
 leave his slaves free by will — by " misguided piety or death-bed de- 
 vice," as Mr. Harrison says, or "sudden conviction of injustice." 
 (Af, Repos., III. 197.) His executors construe this freedom condi- 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 55 
 
 Admitting that the Society is right in its position, that 
 slavery must and will be removed, why does it so con- 
 stantly strike at the abolitionist ? Is it because the latter 
 condemns its principles ? Then it should be able to show 
 that those principles are founded in reason and religion, 
 and not upon prejudice. 
 
 Though once the writer was a Colonizationist, an agent 
 of the Society, and served it to the best of his ability, be- 
 cause he cannot on maturer reflection and more know- 
 ledge approve its principles, he feels it his duty to preach, 
 pray, write, and speak against it. 
 
 Being requested by a friend to read "Jay's Inquiry," 
 he felt so hostile to it, that he deferred it as long as he 
 well could. He heard of " Reese's Reply," and still de- 
 ferred reading the former till he could read the latter also. 
 In the meantime it pleased God to show him the sin of 
 slavery in all cases. Objections then naturally started in 
 his mind, to the scheme of Colonization, principally at 
 first on the score of its insufficiency, which he had in part 
 before believed. He spent days and nights in the exam- 
 ination of the African Repository, and the Reports of the 
 Society. The result of the examination may be seen in 
 the present attempt to disseminate the truth on this sub- 
 ject of inexpressible importance. 
 
 Judge Jay and Dr. Reese. 
 
 Notwithstanding the " Imprimatur^^ of such names as 
 those which appear in Dr. Reese's reply to Judge Jay, 
 the candid and careful reader will find in it, much blinking 
 of the question, — *' much irrelevant matter," and not a 
 little blustering and egotism. None of Jay's important 
 charges against the Colonization Society are answered or 
 refuted. Jay affirms that the Colonization Society pro- 
 poses itself as the only remedy for slavery, and backs his 
 charge by quotations from the published papers of the So- 
 ciety. Does his opponent grapple with the charge ? He 
 
 tional on their removal, and applying to the Colonization Society, 
 they are removed. (See Af. Rcpos., XI. 184, 1st and 4th cases of 
 emancipation mentioned.) 
 
66 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 denies it flatly, in the face of evidence, and shows that the 
 Constitution of the Society says nothing about it ! (see Jay, 
 p. 104. Reese, p. 4.) Jay affirms that the Colonization 
 Society opposes the moral cultivation of the colored popu- 
 lation at home. Dr. Reese shows that some Coloniza- 
 tionists do not. Yet the fact is, Colonizationists generally 
 have made no effort to instruct the colored race, except 
 with the hope that they will emigrate to Africa. (See, for 
 instance, the Constitution of the " African Education So- 
 ciety,^^ Washington City, &c.) Jay asserts that the Colo- 
 nization Society assails and villifies abolitionists. Dr. 
 Reese "records" his " unequivocal denial." This denial, 
 however, is not founded on truth, if we may believe others. 
 Thus Mr. Smith, then a Colonizationlst, admits the charge. 
 (Af Repos., XI. 70, 71. See also the quotation from 
 Secretary Gurley, above, Af Repos., X. 137, and Vol. 
 XII. of Repository passim.) Jay affirms that the Society 
 excuses and justifies slaveholders. Dr. Reese knows that 
 not only himself, but Colonizationists generally, express 
 sympathy for the slaveholders. But not to dwell upon all 
 the misstatements and special pleading^ of the latter, (see 
 Reese, pp. 2, 4, 9, 16, 35,58, 94, 111, 112, 114, &c.,) 
 let the candid reader examine for himself Even the 
 Christian Spectator, a warm Colonization paper, com- 
 plains " of the slighting terms which Dr. Reese has ap- 
 plied in his preface, to the work of Jay, not so much be- 
 cause they are slighting, as because they are not founded 
 as we think in truth ; pp. of preface 5, 7." (See Quart. 
 C. Spec. Sept. 1835, p. 513.) 
 
 That the cause of truth and justice will be promoted by 
 such a book as that of Dr. Reese, few candid well-inform- 
 ed persons will affirm. It is indeed, as he says, a pity 
 " that some abler hand had not been assigned for the task," 
 for which he harnessed himself. One possessing an abler 
 pen, a better heart, and a more candid mind — himself a 
 munificent patron of the Colonization Society — admitted 
 that in respect to the question of slavery, it " had de- 
 parted from the neutrality of its constitution." (African 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 57 
 
 Repository, XI. 67,) The success of Dr. Reese's de- 
 fence, however, may be estimated from a remark of the 
 Christian Spectator, a co-champion of the same " client.* 
 " We need follow Dr. Reese no further, only to add, that 
 Mr. Jay's apparent inconsistencies are made such, only 
 by Dr. Reese withholding the connection and bearings in 
 which the passages are found." (C. Spectator, p. 514.) 
 Was this the Doctor's " special pleading" — or was it 
 sterling honesty ? 
 
 Dr. Reese and many of his friends are pleased to charge 
 all the members of the Anti-Slavery Society with being 
 "fanatics," {preface, p. 8,) but neither has he proved his 
 accusation, nor is it true. 
 
 1. Dr. Reese has not proved that they are fanatics. 
 Here is his charge, accompanied, with his reason. *' If 
 the members of the Anti-Slavery Society were not all fa- 
 natics, they would by this time discover, what is palpably 
 manifest to every body else, that their doctrines afid 
 measures are only inflicting accumulating and irreparable 
 mischiefs upon the oppressed race, for whose welfare and 
 happiness they profess exclusive zeal and benevolence, 
 and for whose good, many of them are doubtless consci- 
 entiously laboring. In the name of the afflicted free 
 blacks of the North and the South, I would point chem to 
 the new and oppressive legislation which they have pro- 
 voked by their ill-timed endeavors, and the rash impet- 
 uosity of their blind and mistaken zeal. And in behalf 
 of the slaves of this land, I would invoke their humanity 
 and religion, while groaning under already intolerable 
 laws, and beseech them to withhold themselves from efforts, 
 which in their results have already aggravated the num- 
 ber and severity of the privations and hardships which 
 bondage inflicts." {Preface, pp. 8, 9.) This reason, 
 thus sophistically assigned, is " special pleading" for ty- 
 rants. We would commend to Dr. Reese's notice, at 
 least a part of the following words : 
 
 " O for a world in principle as chaste, 
 As this is gross and selfish ! over which 
 
68 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 Custom and prejudice shall bear no sway, — 
 Nor cunning justify the proud man's wrong — 
 Leaving the poor no remedy but tears,^* SfC. {Task, VI.) 
 
 Is not the Doctor's pleading an endeavor to "justify the 
 proud man's wrong?" Had Dr. Reese been a Roman in 
 the time of the early emperors, for the same reason he 
 now invokes abolitionists to cease their " conscientious 
 efforts!" he would then have besought the preachers of 
 the gospel to cease condemning the sports and games, the 
 gladiatorial shows, the circus, saturnalia, &c. (none of 
 which are by name condemned in Scripture,) lest their 
 condemning these should be the occasion of " more op- 
 pressive legislation" against their fellow Christians. On 
 the same principle he would have urged Martin Luther 
 and others not to inveigh so bitterly against the tyranny of 
 the papal See, lest their boldness in reproving sin, should 
 provoke the monster Leo X. and his successors, more 
 cruelly to injure the Waldenses, persecute the Huguenots 
 and inquisitorially murder Jews and Christians. On this 
 same principle, he would have besought the Redeemer not 
 so openly to condemn the traditions of the Pharisees, 
 least he should be persecuted ; and the apostles to forbear 
 preaching Christ, lest the Sanhedrim should resent it ! — 
 On the other hand an eminent Colonizationist (then such) 
 tells us, that efforts for the good of others are not to be 
 arrested because they are accompanied with incidental 
 sufferings. This *' involves a doctrine which would stop 
 the wheels as well of divine as human benevolence ; — the 
 Anti-Slavery Society therefore is not to be blamed, if it 
 shall be, as we have supposed it may become, the innocent 
 occasion of sufferings to some of the objects of its benevo- 
 lent solicitude." {Gerrit Smith, Af. Repos., XL 66.) 
 
 Dr. Reese is an advocate of *' health and temperance." 
 He condemns tight-lacing and the use of malt-liquors, 
 (See ''Strictures'' by D. M. Reese, M. D., New-York, 
 1825.) If the Doctor's strictures had enraged the corset- 
 makers and brewers, and induced them to labor more ef- 
 fectually and more fatally to introduce their respective 
 
VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 59 
 
 articles of manufacture into use, would not he have been 
 guilty of all this ? Doubtless ! 
 
 Not the abolitionist, but slavery is the cause of that 
 "oppressive legislation" superadded to already intolera- 
 ble laws. Let Dr. Reese think of the 70,000 members 
 of his own church who are in slavery, (p. 116,) and ask 
 God whether He will not avenge His own poor. 
 
 2. Abolitionists are not fanatics. This charge is not 
 preferred by Dr. Reese alone, but is repeated again and 
 again by the editors of the public papers, from some of 
 whom, such as those of the New York Observer, better 
 tilings might be expected, than that they would thus revile 
 their fellow-men, and fellow Christians, and thus keep 
 company with the real fanatics and incendiaries of the 
 South. 
 
 What is fanaticism ? for the term is often used by those 
 who " want information" respecting its true meaning. 
 " Fanaticism,'* says a most discriminating writer, " is 
 ENTHUSIASM INFLAMED BY HATRED. After quitc rejecting 
 from our account that opprobrious sense of the word fa- 
 naticism which the virulent calumniator of religion and 
 of the religious assigns to it, it will be found, as we be- 
 lieve, that the elementary idea attaching to the term in its 
 manifold applications, is that of fervor in religion^ render- 
 ed turbulent^ morose or rancorous^ by junction with some 
 one or more of the unsocial emotions.' " {Fanaticism, p. 
 21.) Now it cannot be maintained with the least show of 
 evidence, that abolitionists are, in their religion, which Dr. 
 Reese allows them, (pp. 8, 9.) inflamed with hatred to- 
 wards any individual, or that they are under the influence 
 of "unsocial emotions." Their contest with their fellow- 
 men, is an effort to render the social emotions triumphant. 
 We do not charge Dr. Reese and his associates with be- 
 ing fanatics, (this might be as ungentlemanly and unbe- 
 coming in us as it was in himself,) but we beg them can- 
 didly to inquire and see who are most under the influence 
 of unsocial emotions, — the slaveholder and his patron the 
 Colonizationist on the one hand, or on the other hand, the 
 
60 VIEWS OF COLONIZATION. 
 
 abolitionist who seeks to destroy the detestable aod unso- 
 cial feeling that the colored race must remove from Ameri. 
 ca. As respects the elements of liinaticism, (see Fanati- 
 cism, p. 54) will some dispassionate inquirer tell us whe- 
 ther they enter most into the composition of that scheme 
 which calls aloud upon all men^ everywhere^ now and 
 ALWAYS to do justice to all, or that which concludes 
 that God has placed an insurmountable barrier — " through 
 corrupt favoritism^" between members of the same gene 
 ral family ? Abolitionists do not contend that '"'special 
 favors are granted to nations, to families, and to individij. 
 als, who are honored and benefited by immense advan- 
 tages, notwithstanding enormous delinquencies." {Fa- 
 naticism, p. 272.) This is slavery as supported by 
 Charlestonians " on moral and scriptural grounds," (see 
 Resolution of City of Charleston, Aug. 1835,) or in a 
 milder form — emancipation necessarily accompanied with 
 deportation. The true Christian, however, is taught the 
 very reverse of this in the Bible. " Exclusiveness of feel- 
 ing is denied him, nor can he harbor that grudging of 
 grace, which distinguishes the fanatic." (p. 276.) t)r. 
 Reese and the pro-slavery defenders should have charity 
 enough, while their fellow Christians declare these to be 
 their rules of action, to believe them sincere. It is to be 
 hoped that Colonizationists will not any longer wilfully 
 say " Raca" and " thou fool" to brethren ! — Let me con- 
 elude by desiring the attention of such, and of all who sneer 
 at plain and homely truths, because they thwart unreason- 
 able prejudices, to the following language, addressed by 
 Bishop Horsley to the British House of Lords. " Beware 
 how you are persuaded to brmg under the opprobrious 
 name of fanaticism, the regard which you owe to the great 
 duties of justice and mercy ; for the neglect of which, if 
 you should neglect them, you will be answerable at that 
 tribunal where no prevarication of witnesses can misin- 
 form the Judge — where no subtlety of an advocate, mis- 
 calling the names of things, ' putting evil for good and 
 good for evil,' can mislead his judgment." {Speech against 
 slave trade, July, 1799.) 
 
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