'V ^^■•^.. ^' '.A„ ,^>' '^.>. A^^ ^\ ..^'''» 'o. cP- ,^ .A C" v^" •^-. A M -0" .-.^^% N ,, ^ "<-. '^. c*^- V -/>, ^<^^^. xV ^., c"^ ^^.,^^'' : ■ 0' o 0^ X^^x. .^> -^^ o>' "^^ * 9 1 \ v-^' •^v. .-\V A*^ « V > « ^ -O A V" ^ V J i ; .^^' '^r... .^ c ■>.^" CJ-* ^.v' >^ \ 1 7- "' ■^^ v"- "^ v^' ''c.^-^'^ x> ^' x^ ■ o o5 "^i-^ "./ \0 o ^^'^Z \d^ ^^-~^ 't. ■v,av : . ^ <: jL' .> ** -^^^^ '•;^ .„^^ -^^^ "^cP- ' ' A ^ -^- * « 1 » V^^ i ^^^^^^^^^i^B^^^' ■~^' - "^ - ~^> StiS? ADDRESS OP THE HON. EDWARD EVERETtI ktxtiwci ml StaU, DELIVERED IN WASHINGTON m M AT THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY, fS JAN. 18, 1853. i HARTFORD : PRESS OF CASE, TIFFANY AND COMPANY. 1853. ^M-j^uj^Z- A-A-^ From ABerlcan Celonizatitn Scciaty yay 28, 1913. ^ ADDRESS HON. EDWARD EVERETT. Mr. President and Gent, of the Col. Society: It was my intention when I was requested some weeks ago, to take a part in the proceedings of this evening, to give the subject of the Colonization Society and its operations on the coast of Africa, the most thorough examination in iny power, in all its bearings, considering that, whether we look to the condition of this country or the interests of Africa, no more important object could engage our attention. But dur- ing almost the whole of the interval that has since elapsed, my time and my thoughts have been so entirely taken up and preoccupied, that it has been altogether out of my power to give more than the hastiest preparation to the part which I am to take in this evening's proceedings. I am therefore obliged to throw myself upon the indulgence of this audi- ence, with such a hasty view of the subject, as I have been alone able to take. The Colonization Society seems to me to have been the subject of much unmerited odium, of much equally unmerit- ed indifference on the part of the great mass of the commu- nity, and to have received that attention which it so well deserves, from but very few. "We regard it now only in its infancy. All that we see in this country is the quiet opera- tion of a private association, pursuing the even tenor of its way without ostentation, without eclat ; and on the coast of Africa there is nothing to attract our attention but a small 1 settlement, the germ of a Republic, which, however prosper- ous, is but still in its infancy. But before .we deride even these small beginnings— before we make up our minds that the most important futurities are not wrapped up in them, even as the spreading oak is wrap- ped up in the small acorn which we can hold in our fingers, we should do well to recollect the first twenty-five or thirty years of the settlement at Jamestown, in your State, IVIr. President, the parent of Virginia. We should do well to remember the history of that dreadful winter at Plymouth, when more than half the Mayflower's little company were laid beneath the sod, and that sod smoothed over for ^ear the native savage would come and count the number of the gi-aves. I think if you look to what has been done in Libe- ria in the last quarter of a century, you will find that it com- pares favorably with the most and the best that was done in Virginia or in Plymouth, during the same period. These seem to me to be reasons why we should not look with too much distrust at the small beginnings that have been made. Gentlemen, the foundation of this Society was laid in a great political and moral necessity. The measures which were taken for the suppression of the slave trade, naturally led to the capture of slave ships, and the question immedi- ately arose what should be done with the victims that were rescued from them. It was necessary that they should be returned to Africa. They could not, each and all, be sent to their native villages. They had been collected from the whole interior of that country, many of them two thousand miles in the interior, and it was out of the question that they should immediately be sent to their homes. If they had been placcul upon the coast, in a body, at any of the usual points of resort, the result would have been to throw them at once back again into the grasp of the native chiefs who are the principal agents of the slave trade. It was, therefore, abso- lutely necessary, if the course of measures undertaken for the suppression of the slave trade was to be pursued, that some Colony should be founded, under the name and influence and patronage of a powerful Euroj)(':ui or American Slate, where these poor victims should be placed at once, safely protected, supplied with necessary provisions of all kinds, civilized if possible, and by degrees enabled to find their way biick to their native villages, which some of them no doubt, both from the English and American Colony have from time to time done ; as we know in fact that they have. This, as I understand it, was one of the first ideas that gave origin to this Society, and as I said before, it was a political and moral necessity. Then came the kindred object, which was more important, because applicable to a much larger number of persons, of providing a suitable home for that portion of the colored population of this country that were desirous of emigrating to the land of their fathers. This at first, as I understand it, for it was before my day, was an ob- ject that approved itself almost universally throughout the country, to the South as well as to the North, to the white as well as to the colored population. Every body seemed to think at first that this was a practicable, desirable and most praiseworthy object. By degrees, I am sorry to say, jealou- sies crept in ; prejudices, for so I must account them, arose ; and in process of time, it has come to pass that this Society has become, I must say, intensely unpopular with a large class of the colored population whose interests and welfare were some of the prime objects of its foundation. I will not undertake on this occasion to discuss the foun- dation of these prejudices. I will not dwell upon those, as they are called, oppressive laws, and that still more oppres- sive public sentiment in all parts of the country, which render the condition of the colored population in every part of the Union, one of disability, discouragement and hardship. In order to meet the objection to the operation of the Society which arises from the statement that it tends to cooperate with, and to strengthen these oppressive laws and this op- pressive public sentiment, I will for argument's sake, take it for granted that this legislation and this sentiment are cor- rectly thus characterized ; that they are as oppressive, cruel and tyrannical as they are declared to be. Taking this for granted, I ask in the name of common sense, in the name of humanity, does this state of things fur- nish any reason why the free colored population of the coun- try, should be discouraged from leaving a state of things like this, and going to the land of their fathers, a continent of their own, where no such legislation, where no such unfriendly pub- lic sentiment would exist ; a great and fertile land, a land that is inviting them to come and take possession of it, and in various parts of which there is everything that can attract and reward the industry of man ? It seems to me that the objection which is urged to the Society, that it cooperates with that oppressive state of things here, furnishes the very strongest reason in favor of the emigration. Let us take a parallel case. Suppose any one had gone among that little company of persecuted Christians in England, in the year lt308, who afterward became the Pilgrim church of Mr. Rob- inson at Leyden; or suppose any one had gone in 1630 to the more important company of Gov. Winthrop, the great founder of Massachusetts ; had tried to excite their feelings against the projected emigration ; had told them that En- gland belonged to them as much as it did to their oppressors ; had led them to stand upon their rights, and if necessary bleed and die for them ; had depicted the hardships and sufferings of the passage ; had painted in the darkest colors, the terrors of the wilderness into which they were about to venture: would that have been true friendship, would it have been kindness, would it have been humanity ? Or to come nearer home, suppose at the present day one should go into Ireland, or France, or Switzerland, or Germany, or Norway, or any of the countries from which hundreds of thousands of men, in a depressed, destitute and unhappy condition, are emigra- ting to the United States, to find a refuge, a home, a social position, and employment; suppose some one should go to them and try to stimulate a morbid patriotism, a bitter na- tionality, telling them the country where they were born, be- longed as much to them as to the more favored classes, indu- cing them to stay where they were born, telling them that it was doubtful whether they would get employment in the new country, talking of the expenses, the diseases, the hard- ships of the poor emigrant, and in this way endeavor to deter them from this great adventure, which is to end in procuring a home and a position in the world, and an education for themselves and their children : would this be friendship, would this be kindness, would this be humanity ? But these are the appeals which are made to the free colored population of this country, and it is by appeals like this that the Society and the colony have become, as I am sorry to say I believe is the ease, highly unpopular among them. But I must hasten on from this object of providing a home for the free colored population who wish to emigrate, to another which was a very considerable and leading object with the founders of this Society, and that is the suppression of the foreign slave trade. It is grievous to reflect, it is one of the darkest things that we read of in history, that contempo- raneously with the discovery of this continent, and mainly from mistaken humanity toward the natives, the whole western coast of Africa was thrown open to that desolating traffic, which from time immemorial, had been carried on from the ports of the Mediterranean, the Nile, and the Red Sea, and the shores of Eastern Africa. It is still more pain- ful to reflect' that it was precisely at the period when the best culture of modern Europe was moving rapidly toward its perfection, that the intercourse of Africa with Europe, in- stead of proving a blessing proved a curse. Have you well considered, Mr. President, that it was in the days of Shaks- peare, and Spenser, and Hooker, and Bacon, and other bright suns in the firmament of the glory of England, that her navi- gators first began to go forth, and as if in derision, in vessels bearing the venerable names of "the Solomon" and "the Jesus," to the coast of Africa, to tear away its wretched na- tives into a state of bondage. It was at the very time when in England and France, the last vestiges|of the feudal system were breaking down ; when private war was put an end to, and men began to venture out from the walled towns and dwell in safety in the open country, and to traverse the high roads without fear ; it was then that these most polished na- tions began to enter into competition with each other, which should monopolize that cruel traffic, the African slave trade, the principal agency of which was to stir up a system of uni- versal hostility ; not merely between nation and nation, but between tribe and tribe, clan and clan, family and family, and often between members of the same household ; for, I am sorry to say, it is no unprecedented thing for these poor creatures to sell their wives and children to the slave trader. In this way the whole western coast of Africa became like the northern and eastern coast before, one general mart for the slave trade. This lasted for three hundred years. At length the public sentiment of the world, in Europe and Amer- ica, was awakened. Several of the colonial assemblies in this country passed acts inhibiting the slave trade, but they were uniformly negatived by the crown. The Continental Con- gress in 1776, denounced the traffic. The federal convention in 1789 fixed a prospective period for its abolition in this country. The example was followed by the states of Eu- rope. At the present day, every Christian and several of the Mohammedan powers have forbidden it ; yet it is extensively can-ied on, and some authorities say that the number of slaves taken from Africa has not seriously diminished ; but I hope this is not true. This state of facts has led several persons most desirous of putting an end to the traffic, to devise some new system, some new agency ; and all agree — there is not a dissenting voice on that point— that the most effectual, and in fact the only substitute is the establishment of colonies. Wherever a colony is established on the coast of Africa un- der the direction of a Christian power in Europe or America, there the slave trade disappears ; not merely from the coast of the colony, but from tlie whole interior of the country which found an outlet at any point on that coast. In this way, from the most northern extremity of the French and English colonies down to the most southern limit of the American settlements, the slave trade has entirely disap- peared. The last slave mart in that region, the GaUinas, has within a short time, I believe, come within the jurisdiction of the American colony of Liberia. Now, along that whole line of coast and throughout tho whole interior coiniccted with it, a line of coast, as I believe, not less than that from Maine to Georgia — from every port and every harbor of which the foreign slave trade was carried on — within the memory of man, it has entirely disappear(>d. What congresses of sovereigns at Vienna, and Aix-la-Chapelle, could not do; what squadrons of war steamers cruising along the coast could not achieve ; what quintuple treaties among the pow- ers of Europe could not effect by the arts of diplomacy, has been done by these poor little colonies, one of which at least, that of Liberia, has, in latter times, been almost without the recognition of this government, struggling into permanence by the resources furnished by private benevolence. (Ap- plause.) I ask what earthly object of this kind more meri- torious than this can be named ? And what career is there' opened to any colored man in Europe or America, more praiseworthy, more inviting than this, to form as it were, in his own person, a portion of that living cordon, stretching along the coast and barring its whole extent from the ap- proaches of this traffic? (Applause.)^ But even the suppression of the slave trade, all important as it is, is but auxiliary to another .ulterior object of still more commanding importance, and that is the civilization of Af- rica. The condition of Africa is a disgrace to the rest of the civilized world. With an extent nearly three times as great as that of Europe ; its known portions of great fertility, teem- ing with animal and vegetable life ; traversed by magnificent chains of mountains, east and west, north and south, whose slopes send down the tributaries of some of the no- blest rivers in the world ; connecting on the north by the Mediterranean, with the ancient and modern culture of Eu- rope ; projecting on the west far into the Atlantic Ocean, that great highway of the world's civilization ; running on the south-east into a near proximity to our own South American continent ; open on the east to the trade of India and on the north-east, by the Red Sea and the Nile, locked closely into the Asiatic continent: one would have thought that with all these natural endowments, with this noble geographical position, Africa was destined to be the emporium, the gar- den of the globe, Man alone in this unhappy continent has dropped so far into arrears in the great march of humanity, behind the other portions of the human family, that the ques- tion has at length been started whether he does not labor under some incurable, natural inferiority. In this, for myself, I have no belief whatever. I do not deny that among the numerous races in the Af- rican continent, as among the numerous races in all the other continents, there are great diversities, from the politic and warlike tribes upon the central plateau, to the broken down hordes on the slave coast, and on the banks of the Congo, and the squalid, half human Hottentot. But do you think the difference is any greater between them than it is between the Laplander, the Gipsy, the Calmuc, and the proudest and brightest specimens of humanity in Europe or America? I think not. What then can be the cause of the continued unciviliza- tion of Africa ? "Without attempting presumptuously to pry into the mysteries of Providence, I think that adequate causes can be found in some historical and geographical circum- stances. It seems a law of human progress, which however difficult to explain, is too well sustained by facts to be doubt- ed, that in the first advances out of barbarism into civiliza- tion, the first impulses and guidances must come from abroad. This of course, leaves untouched the great mystery who could have made a beginning; but still, as far back as history or tradition runs, we do find that the first guidance and impulse came from abroad. From Egypt and Syria the germs of improvement were brought to Greece, from Greece to Rome, from Rome to the north and west of Europe, from Europe to America, and they are now spreading on from us to the farthest West, until at length it shall meet the East again. To what extent the aboriginal element shall be "borne down and overpowered by the foreign influences, or enter intoldnd- ly combinations with them, depends upon the moral and in- tellectual development of both parties. There may be such aptitude for improvement, or the disparity between the native 9 and foreign race may be so small, that a kindly combination will at once take place. This is supposed to have been the case with the ancient Grecian tribes in reference to the emigrants from Egypt and the East. Or the inaptitude may be so great, and the disparity between the natives and the foreigners may be so wide, that no such kindly union can take place. This is commonly supposed to be the case with the natives of our own continent, who are slowly and silently retiring before the inroads of a foreign influence. Now, in reference to this law of social progress, there have been in Africa two most unfortunate diiliculties. In the first place, all the other branches of the human family that have had the start of Africa in civilization, have, from the very dawn of history, been concerned in the slave trade ; so that intercourse with foreigners, instead of being a source of mu- tual improvement to both parties, particularly to the weaker, has, in the case of Africa, only tended to sink them deeper into barbarism and degeneracy of every kind. This has been one difficulty. Another is the climate — this vast equatorial expanse — this aggregate of land between the tropics, greater than aU the other parts of the globe together — her fervid ver- tical sun, burning down upon the rank vegetation of her fer- tile plains, and rendering her shores and water courses pes- tiferous to a foreign constitution. This circumstance also seems to shut Africa out from the approaches of civilization through the usual channels. The ordinary inducements of gain, are too weak to tempt the merchant to those feverous shores. Nothing but a taste for adventure, approaching to mania, attracts the traveler; and when Christian benevo- lence allures the devoted missionary to this field of labor, it lures him too often to his doom. By this combination of influences, Africa seems to have been shut out, from the beginning, from all those benefits that otherwise result from foreign intercourse. But now, mark and reverence the Providence of God, educing out of these disadvantages of climate, (disadvantages as we consider them,) and out of this colossal, moral wrong — the foreign slave trade — educing out of these seemingly hopeless elements 10 of physical and moral evil, after long cycles of crime and suf- fering, of violence and retribution, such as history no where else can parallel — educing, I say, from these almost hopeless elements, by the blessed alchemy of Christian love, the ulti- mate means of the regeneration of Africa. (Applause.) The conscience of the Christian world at last was roused ; an end it was determined should be put to the foreign slave trade ; but not till it had conveyed six millions of the children and descendants of Africa to the Western Hemisphere, of whom about one and a half millions have passed into a state of freedom ; though born and educated, no doubt, under cir- cumstances unfavorable for moral or intellectual progress, sharing in the main, the blessings and the lights of our com- mon Christian civilization, and proving themselves, in the example of the Liberian colony, amply qualified to be the medium of conveying these blessings to the land of their fathers. Thus, you see at the very moment when the work is ready to commence, the instruments are prepared. Do I err in sup- posing that the same august Providence which has arrang- ed, or has permitted the mysterious sequence of events to which I have referred, has also called out, and is inviting those chosen agents to enter upon the work ? Everything else has been tried and failed. Commercial adventure on the part of individuals has been unsuccessful ; strength, courage, endurance, almost superhuman, have failed; well appointed expeditions, fitted out under the auspices of powerful associ- ations and powerful governments, have ended in the most calamitous failure ; and it has been proved at last, by all this experience, that the white race of itself, can not civilize Africa. Sir, when that most noble expedition, I think in 1841, was fitted out, under the highest auspices in England, to found an agricultural colony at the confluence of the Niger and the Chad, out of one hundred and fifty white persons that formed a part of it, every man sickened, and all but three or four died. On the other hand, out of one hundred and fifty colored men, that formed part of the expedition, only three or four sickened, and they were men who had passed some years in 11 the West Indies, and in Europe, and not one died. I tiiink that fact, in reference to the civilization of Africa is worth, I had almost said, all the treasure, and all the suffering of that ill-fated expedition. Sir, you can not civilize Africa — you Caucasian — you proud white man — you all-boasting, all-daring Anglo-Saxon, you can not do this work. You have subjugated Europe ; the native races of this country are melting before you as the untimely snows of April beneath a vernal sun; you have possessed yourself of India; you threaten China and Japan; the farthest isles of the Pacific are not distant enough to es- cape your gi'asp, or insignificant enough to elude your notice : but this great Central Africa lies at your doors and defies your power. Your war steamers and your squadrons may range along the coast, but neither on the errands of peace, nor on the en-ands of war, can you penetrate into and long keep the interior. The God of nature, for purposes inscruta- ble, but no doubt to be reconciled with His wisdom and good- ness, has drawn a cordon across the chief inlets, that you can not pass. You may hover on the coast, but woe to you if you attempt to make a permanent lodgment in the interior. Their poor mud-built villages will oppose no resistance to your arms ; but death sits portress at their undefended gates. Yellow fevers, and blue plagues, and intermittent poisons, that you can see as well as feel, hover in the air. If you attempt to go up the rivers, pestilence shoots from the man- groves, that fringe their noble banks ; and the all-glorious sun that kindles everything else into life and power, darts down disease and death into your languid frame. No, no, Anglo- Saxon, this is no part of your vocation. Yoii may direct the way, you may survey the coast, you may point your fmger into the interior ; but you must leave it to others to go and abide there. The God of natvire, in another branch of his family, has chosen out the instruments of this great work — the descendants of the torrid clime, children of the burning vertical sun — and fitted them by centuries of stern discipline for this most noble work — 12 From foreign realms and land remote, Supported by His care, They pass unharmed through burning climes, And breathe the tainted air. Sir, I believe that Africa will be civilized, and civilized by the descendants of those who were torn from the land. I be- lieve it because I will not think that this great fertile con- tinent is to be forever left waste. I believe it because I see no other agency fully competent to the work. I believe it be- cause I see in this agency a most wonderful adaptation. But doubts are entertained of the practicability of effecting this object by the instrumentality that I have indicated. They are founded in the first place, on the supposed incapacity of the free colored population of this country and the West Indies to take up and carry on such a work; and also on the supposed degradation and, if I may use such a word, unim- provability of the native African races, which is presumed to be so great as to bid defiance to any such operation. Now, I think it would be very unjust to the colored popu- lation of this country and the West Indies, to argue from what they have done under present circumstances, to what they might effect under the most favorable circumstances. I think, upon the whole, all things considered, that they have done quite as well as could be expected ; that they have done • as well as persons of European or Anglo-American origin would have done after three centuries of similar depression and hardship. You will recollect, sir, that Mr. Jefferson, in his valuable work, called " The Notes on Virginia," states in strong language the intellectual inferiority of the colored race. I have always thought that it ought to have led Mr. Jefferson to hesitate a little as to the accuracy of this opinion, when he recollected that in the very same work he was obliged to defend the Anglo-American race, to which he himself, and to which so many of us belong, against the very same im- putation, brought by an ingenious French writer, the Abb6 Raynal, whose opinions were shared by all the school of philosophers to which he belonged. Why, it is not but a very few years — I do not know that the time has now ceased — 13 when we Anglo-Americans were spoken of by onr hrclliren beyond the water, as a poor, degenerate, ahiiost seini-l)arba- rous race. .In the liberal journals of England, within tiiirty years, the question has been contemptuously asked, in refer- ence to the native country of Franklin, and Washington, and Adams, and Jefferson, and Madison, and Marshall ; of Irving, Prescott, Bancroft, Ticknor, Bryant, and Cooper, Longfellow, and Hawthorne, and hosts of others : " Who reads an Ameri- can book?" It seems to me, in view of facts like this, we ought to be a little cautious how we leap to the conclusion that the free colored African race is necessarily in a condi- tion of hopeless inferiority. Then in reference to the other difFiculty about the unim- provability of the African. It is said that the Africans alone of all the branches of the human family have never been able to rise out of barbarism. Sir, I do not know that ; I do not think that anybody knows it. An impenetrable cloud hangs over the early history of mankind in every part of the globe. We well know in reference to the whole North and West of Europe, and a great part of the South of Europe, that it was utterly barbarous until the light of the Roman civilization shone in upon it, and in comparatively recent times. We also know that in very early times one of the native African races, I mean the Egyptians, attained a high degree of cul- ture. They were the parents of all the arts of Greece, and through them of the ancient world. The Egyptians were a colored race. They did not belong to the negro type; but still they were purely a colored race, and if we should judge of their present condition, as unimprovable as any of the tribes of Central Africa. Yet we find upon the banks of the Nile, the massive monuments of their cheerless culture that have braved the storms of time more successfully than the more graceful structures of Rome and of Greece. It is true that some nations who have emerged from barbarism at a later period, have attained the precedence over Africa, and have kept it to the present day ; but I am not willing to believe that this arises from causes so fixed and permanent in their nature, that no reversal, at no length 14 of time, is to be hoped from their operation. We are led into error by contemplating things too much in the gross. There are tribes in Africa which have made no contemptible prog- ress in various branches of human improvement. On the other hand, if we look at the population of Europe — if we cast our eyes from Lisbon to Archangel, from the Hebrides to the Black Sea — if for a moment we turn our thoughts from the few who are born to wealth, and its consequent ad- vantages, culture, education, and that lordship over the for- ces of nature which belongs to cultivated mind — if we turn from these to the benighted, oppressed, destitute, supersti- tious, ignorant, suffering millions, who pass their lives in the hopeless toil of the field, the factory and the mine ; whose in- heritance from generation to generation is beggary ; whose education from sire to son is stolid ignorance ; at whose daily table hunger and thirst are the stewards ; whose occasional festivity is brutal intemperance — ^if we could count their num- bers — if we could sum up together in one frightful mass, all their 'destitution of the comforts and blessings of life, and thus form an estimate of the practical barbarism of the nom- inally civilized portions of the world, we should, I think, come to the conclusion that this supposed in-bred essential superi- ority of the European races does not really exist. If there be any such essential superiority, why has it been so late in showing itself? It is said that the Africans have persisted in their barbarism for four or five thousand years. Europe persisted in her barbarism for three or four thousand years, and in the great chronology of Divine Providence, we are taught that a thousand years are but as one day. Sir, it is only ten centuries since the Anglo-Saxons, to whose race we are so fond of claiming kindred, were as barbarous and uncivilized as many of the African tribes. They were a sav- age, ferocious, warlike people ; pirates at sea, bandits on shore ; slaves of the most detestable superstitions; worshiping idols as cruel and ferocious as themselves. And as to the foreiafn slave trade, it is but eight centuries, and perhaps less, since there was as much slave trade in proportion, upon the coast of Great Britain as in the Bight of Benin at the present day. 15 Tlie natives of England eight centuries ago, were bought and sent to the slave marts, in the south and west of Ku- ropc. At length tiie light of Christianity shone in ; refine- ment, civilization, letters, arts, and by degrees all the delights, all the improvements of life followed in their train, and now we talk with the utmost self-complacency of the essential superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race, and look down with disdain upon those ])ortions of the human family, who have lagged a little behind us in the march of civilization. Africa at the present day is not in that state of utter bar- barism, which popular opinion ascribes to it. Here again, we do not sufficiently discriminate. We judge in the gross. Certainly there are tribes wholly broken down by internal wars, and the detestable foreign slave trade ; but this is not the character of the "entire population. They are not sava- ges. Most of them live by agriculture. There is some traffic between the coast and the interior. Many of the tribes have a respectable architecture, though of a rude kind, but still im- plying some progress of the arts. Gold dust is collected ; iron is smelted and wrought ; weapons and utensils of husbandry and household use are fabricated ; cloth is woven and dyed ; palm oil is expressed ; there are schools ; and among the Mo- hammedan tribes the Koran is read. You, Mr. President, well remember that twenty-one years ago, you and I saw in one of the committee rooms of yonder Capitol, a native African, who had been forty years a field slave in the West Indies and in this country, and wrote at the age of seventy the Ara- bic character, with the fluency and the elegance of a scribe. Why, sir, to give the last test of civilization, Mungo Park tells us in his journal that in the interior of Africa lawsuits are argued with as much ability, as much fluency, and at as much length as in Edinburgh. (Laughter and applause.) Sir, I do not wish to run into paradox on this subject. I am aware that the condition of the most advanced tribes of Central Africa is wretched, mainly, in consequence of the slave trade. The only wonder is, that with this cancer eating into their vitals from age to age, any degree of civilization whatever can exist. But degraded as the ninety millions of 16 Africans are, I presume you might find in the aggregate, on the continent of Europe, another ninety millions as degra- ded, to which each country in that quarter of the globe would contribute its quota. The difference is, and it is certainly an all-important difference, that in Europe, intermingled with these ninety millions, are fifteen or twenty millions possess- ed of all degrees of culture up to the very highest, while in Africa there is not an individual who, according to our stand- ard, has attained a high degree of intellectual culture ; but if obvious causes for this can be shown, it is unphilosophical to infer from it an essential incapacity. But the question seems to me to be put at rest, by what we all must have witnessed of what has been achieved by the colored race in this country and on the coast of Africa. Unfavorable as their position has been for any intellectual progress, we still all of us know that they are competent to the common arts and business of life, to the ingenious and mechanical arts, to keeping accounts, to the common branch- es of academical and professional culture. Paul Cuffee's jame is familiar to everybody in my part of the country, and I am sure you have heard of him. He was a man of un- common energy and force of character. He navigated to Liverpool his own vessel, manned by a colored crew. His father was a "native African slave; his mother was a mem- ber of one of the broken down Indian tribes, some fragments of which still linger in the corners of Massachusetts. I have already alluded to the extraordinary attainments of that na- tive African Prince, Abdul Rahhaman. If there was ever a native-born gentleman on earth he was one. He had the port and the air of a prince, and the literary culture of a scholar. The learned Blacksmith of Alabama, now in Libe- ria, has attained a celebrity scarcely inferior to his white brother, who is known by the same designation. When I lived in Cambridge a few years ago, I used to attend, as one of the Board of Visitors, the examinations of a classical school, in which there was a colored boy, the son of a slave in Mis- sissippi, I think. He appeared to me to be of pure African blood. There were at the same time two youths from Geor- 17 gia, and one of my own sons, attending the same school. I must say that this poor negro boy, Beverly Williams, was one of the best scholars at the school, and in the Latin lan- guage he was the best scholar in his class. These are in- stances that have fallen under my own observation. There are others I am told which show still more conclusively the capacity of the colored race for every kind of intellectual cul- ture. Now look at what they have done on the coast of Africa. Think of the facts that were spread before you in that ab- stract of the Society's doings, which was read this evening. It is only twenty -five or thirty years since the little colony, was founded under the auspices of this Society. In that time what have they done ; or rather let me ask what have they not done ? They have established a well-organized constitution of republican government, which is adminis- tered with ability and energy in peace, and by the unfortu- nate necessity of circumstances, also in war. They have courts of justice, modeled after our own ; schools, churches, and lyceums. Commerce is carried on, the soil is tilled, com- munication is open to the interior. The native tribes are civilized ; diplomatic relations are creditably sustained with foreign powers; and ihe two leading powers of Europe, England and France, have acknowledged their sovereignty and independence. Would the same number of persons taken principally from the laboring classes, of any portion of England, or Anglo- America, done better than this ? Ah ! sir, there is an influence at work through the agency of this Society, and other Societies, and through the agency of the colony of Libera, and others, which I hope will be es- tablished, sufficient to produce these and still greater effects. I mean the influence of pure, unselfish Christian love. This after all, is the only influence that can never fail. Military power will at times be resisted, and overcome. Commercial enterprise, however well planned, may be blasted. State poli- cy, however deep, may be outwitted ; but pure, unselfish, manly, rather let me say heavenly love, never did, and in the long run never will fail. ( Applause.) It is a truth which this 2 18 Society ought to write upon its banners, that it is not politi- cal nor military power, but the moral sentiment, principally under the guidance and influence of religious zeal, that has in all ages civilized the world. Arms, craft, and mammon, lie in wait, and watch their chance, but they can not poison its vitality. Whatever becomes of the question of intellec- tual superiority, I should insult this audience, if I attempted to argue that in the moral sentiments, the colored race stand upon an equality with us. I read a year or two ago in a newspaper, an anecdote which illustrates this in so beautiful and striking a manner, that, with your permission, I will re- peat it. When the news of the discovery of gold reached us from California, a citizen of the upper part of Louisiana, from the Parish of Rapides, for the sake of improving his not prosper- ous fortunes, started with his servant to get a share, if he could, of the golden harvest. They repaired to the gold re- gions. They labored together for a while with success. At length the strength of the master failed, and he fell danger- ously sick. What then was the conduct of the slave in those far off hills ? In a State whose constitution did not recognize slavery, in that newly gathered and not very thor- oughly organized state of society, what was his conduct? As his master lay sick with the typhus fever, Priest and Le- vite came, and looked upon him, and passed by on the other side. The poor slave stood by him, tended him, protected him ; by night and by day his sole companion, nurse, and friend. At length the master died. What then was the conduct of the slave in those distant wastes, as he stood by him whom living he had served, but who was now laid low at his feet by the great Emancipator ? He dug his decent grave in the golden sands. He brought together the earnings of their joint labor ; these he deposited in a place of safety as a sacred trust for his master's family. He then went to work under a Californian sun to earn the wherewithal to pay his passage home. That done, he went back to the banks of the Red River, in Louisiana, and laid down the little store at the feet of his master's widow. (Applause.) 19 Sir, I do not know whether the story is true; I read it in a public journal. The Italians have a proverbial nayinj:^ of a tale like this, that if it is not true, it is well invented. This, sir, is too good to be invented. It is, it must be true. That master and that slave ought to live in marble and in brass, and if it was not presumptuous in a person like me so soon to pass away and to be forgotten, I would say their memory shall never perish. Fortunati ambo ! si quid mca carmina possint, Nulla dies unquam mcmori vos eximet aevo. There is a moral treasure in that incident. It proves the capacity of the colored race to civilize Africa. There is a moral worth in it, beyond all the riches of California. If all her gold — all that she has yet yielded to the indomitable in- dustry of the adventurer, and all that she locks from the cupidity of man, in the virgin chambers of her snow-clad sierras — were all molten into one vast ingot, it would not, in the sight of Heaven, buy the moral worth of that one incident. (Applause.) Gentlemen of the Colonization Society, I crave your par- don for this long intrusion upon your patience. I have told you — pardon that word, you knew it before — I have remind- ed you of the importance of the work, of the instrumentality by which it is to be effected, of the agents chosen, as I think, in the councils of Heaven to carry it into effect ; and now what remains for us, for every friend of humanity, but to bid God speed to the undertaking ? [The honorable gentleman resumed his seat amidst loud and long continued applause.] Note. I perceive from a note to the foregoing speech as republished in the Colonial Herald, that in speaking from memory of the J^xpedition to the Niger in 1841, I considerably overrated the mortality among the whites. Nearly every -white member of the expedition was disabled by sickness from the performance of duty ; but forty only died. This mortality, however, re- quired the immediate abandonment of the enterprise. E. E. AFRICAN COLONIZATION-ITS PRINCIPLES AND AIMS. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY JOHN H. B. LATROBE, President of the American Colonization Society, AT THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZA- TION SOCIETY HELD IN THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE, WASHINGTON CITY, JABTUARY 18, 1859. BALTIMORE: PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY. 1859. The following Address was delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the American Colonization Society, held at the Smithsonian Institute, in the City of Washington, on the Evening of the 18th of January, 1859. It has since, in pursuance of what appeared to be the wish of the Meeting, and at the invitation of the friends of Colonization in those Cities, been repeated in Richmond, Va. — Eliza- beth City, New Jersey, — New York, Albany, Harrisburg, Cincinnati and Philadelphia. It is now published in accordance with the res- olution of the Anniversary Meeting. Its principal object is to exhibit Colonization in what is believed to be its true aspect, — as a scheme, which, fitted to the circumstances of our country, must rely on the natural course of events for its full development, in a voluntary, cheerful, self-paying emigration of the free people of color to Africa, — the result of their own conviction that they will better their condition by removal, while they, at the same time, establish a separate and honorable nationality, pregnant with the happiest promise. COLONIZATION: ITS PRINCIPLES AND AIMS. Forty-two years ago, the Rev. Robert Finley of New Jersey developed, in the City of Washing- ton, the idea of planting a colony in Africa, that might induce the free people of color "to go and settle there."* » It is not to be inferred from what is said in the text, which has reference to the organization of the American Colonization Society only, that Mr. Finley originated the idea of a Colony, such as was afterwards established, on the Coast of Africa. The idea belongs to others. It was Finley, however, who developed and made it avail- able, as stated above. Brissot, in 1788, travelling in the United States, met Dr. Thornton, who told him of "the efforts which he had made for the execution of a vast project conceived by him. Per- suaded that there never could exist a sincere union between the whites and blacks, even on admitting the latter to the rights of freemen, he proposed to send them back," says the traveller, "and establish them in Africa." "He, (Dr. Thornton) proposed," continues Brissot, "to be the conductor of the American negroes who should repair to Africa. He proposed to unite them to the new colony of Sierra AFRICAN COLONIZATION. He was moved, he said, by "their increasing numbers and their increasing wretchedness." Commended by some^ ridiculed by others, but proclaiming to all that he knew the scheme was from God, he persevered, until in December, 1816, the American Colonization Society was organized. Here, his existence seemed to culminate. He then went home and died. Before the exploring expe- dition sailed, he was in his grave. We meet, to night_, to report progress in his plan. We have been gradually advancing in the pros- ecution of it. If our steps have been unequal, they have been unfaltering. The colony has be- come a Kepublic. Recognized by many among the leading nations of the world, it is now known every where as the independent government of Liberia. It is still feeble^ but it stands alone. It possesses the elements of future strength. It has good laws well administered, churches and schools, the mu- tual aid societies of more advanced communities, agricultural exhibitions even, with their annual Leone. He bad sent, at his own expense into Africa, a well instruct- ed man, who had spent several years in observing the productions of the country, the manufacturers most suitable for it, the plan most convenient, and the measures necessary to be taken to secure the Col- ony from insults," &c., &c., &c. — BrissoV s Travels— Mavor' s Com- pilation, 19 vol. pp. 190, 261. AFRICAN COLONIZATION. prizes,— a militia tried and not found wanting, a traffic with the interior^ a foreign commerce. Light houses guide shi{)s into the ports to substi- tute for the shive trade something better in the sight of God and man. With a government modelled after our own, with rulers chosen, and well chosen too, thus far, by themselves, with a soil to which they are akin, capable of self-support, self-government and self- defence, the people of Liberia are slowly develop- ing a distinct nationality. No longer mere emi- grants from the United States experimenting doubtfully, they are Liberians, Americo-Liberians as their phrase is, looking forward to a future of their own. Fast losing our traditions^ they aim at becoming historical themselves. Meanwhile, with steady purpose, they pursue quietly and hon- orably the course of their destiny. The first condition af Colonization has thus been fulfilled. It remains to be seen whether the second will be accomplished: whether the free people of color will be induced, in Finley's words, to "go and settle" in the home that has been pre- pared for them, thus bringing about the avowed object of our organization, "their removal with their own consent to Africa." AFRICAN COLONIZATION. To prepare for, and facilitate this removal, we ( have been more than forty years at work. j The census of 1820 gave a free colored popiila- i tion of 233,534. In 1850, it amounted"to 434,495. It is now, probably, half a million. It has more than doubled since our Society was founded ; while the emigrants in Liberia and their descendants do not exceed twelve thousand souls. Not a twentieth part of the increase has been removed by us. Our toil, apparently, has resulted in less than "a drop in the bucket." How vain then, say our un- friends,, must be our efforts for the removal of the mass. We admit it frankly. We go further: we admit, that if such removal depended upon the American Colonization Society, even though Congress threw open to it the treasury of the nation, the work would never be accomplished, and the scheme would be the delusion it Ijas so often been pro- claimed. This, however, is not the true view of Colo- nization. Money alone may suffice to plant a colony and facilitate the earlier emigration: but it is powerless to control the affections ; powerless to sever the ties that bind to hearth-stone and grave-stone, to give the weak strength, the timid AFRICAN COLONIZATION. confidence. And yet, all this must be effected in the transplantation of a people. The reliance of Colonization, in this regard, is neither upon strength of organization, nor bound- lessness of resource, but upon one of the com- monest of all the impulses of humanity — the desire TO BETTER ONE'S CONDITION. It is this which brings the European to Ame- rica, — which takes the Englishman to Asia and Australia. Clive and Warren Hastings owed it their wealth and their renown. It has built up for us, in ten years, an empire, in resources and extent, on the Pacific. It will carry to Africa EVERY FREE PERSON OF COLOR IN AMERICA. They will go there, not because fascinated by the eloquence of Colonization Agents ; not for want of love to the land they leave ; but they will go 'Ho better their condition." They will go, too, ultimately, when the exodus of the mass takes place, at their own expense. Commerce will furnish the ships to carry them; thus acquitting itself, in part, of the debt con- tracted to the race when it brought them origi- nally to our shores. All that Colonization has done, or aimed at doing, has been in view of this voluntary, self- AFRICAN COLONIZATION. paying, ultimate, emigration ; an emigration that finds its precedents in the history of every people, from the nomadic tribe, whose encampment shifts with failing springs or withering pasturages, to the community that, driven by religious persecu- tion from the old world, landed from the May- flower, or that which encountered the perils of Cape Horn attracted by the gold fields of Cali- fornia. In this, the true aspect of Colonization, it is independent of the shewings of the census. It is to be judged, rather, by what has been already effected in Africa, and by the probable future of the free people of color in America. Were Africa as attractive to the latter as America is to the European, and it is in the power of Colonization Societies, with their limited means even, to make it so, — or, were the repul- sions of this country to influence them, as do those, for example, of Great Britain, the Irish, the emi- gration to Liberia, for a single year, of the same numbers that commerce, in a single year, has brought from the old world to the new, would sufiice for the removal of the free; and a like emigration, continued for some seven or eight years, for the removal of both slave and free, were AFRICAN COLONIZATION. botli at liberty to depart. Doubling the time^ to allow for increase dnring the process, and the entire removal would iall within twenty years. But so speedy a removal is impossible. The case is i)ut for illustration only. Years must elapse before the increase even can be ai)proxi- mated. Time and circumstances, however, are competent to the work. Time, so powerful, so unheeded. Circumstances, beyond all control, and which time is rendering irresistible. We have, here, two distinct races, the white and the colored : the latter, originally slaves^ consist- ing now of slaves and freemen. The slave — protected, provided with food, shel- ter and raiment^ treated in the vast majority of cases kindly^ affectionately often — is without care as regards his physical wants^ and with constitu- tional good humor passes happily^ in the main, through life. The free, on the other hand, without an especial protector, dependant upon himself alone, living, as the bills of mortality seem to shew, a shorter life than the slave,* and made to feel in a thousand ® The increase of the colored popuUition in what are called the free States and Territories, from 1840 to 1850, was 14.38 per cent., throughout the United States it was but 12.47; the slave popula- AFRICAN COLONIZATION. ways his social aud political inferiority, either frets away existence in aspirations, which, here, can never be realized, or, yielding hopelessly to circum- stances, falls with benumbed faculties into a con- dition that is little better than the slave's. Colonization concerns itself with the free alone. Their condition has long been appreciated. As early as 1788, "Brissot, hight de Warville, friend of the blacks," as Carlyle calls him, travelling in this country, says of them, that "deprived of the hope of rising to places of honor or trust, they seem condemned to drag out their days in a state of servility."* Finley dwelt on their "increasing tion having, within the same period, increased 28.82 per cent., and the white population 37. 74 per cent.— &£ the Census Returns, 1850. From the 14.38 per cent, increase, here credited to the free colored population in the free States, &c., a considerable deduction must be made for emigration from slave-holding States, where emancipated slaves are not permitted to remain, and from which escapes are of constant occurrence. It may be doubted if the increase by births among the colored population of the North is one per cent per annum. Be this, however, as it may, the returns of the census, above quoted, authorise the statement of the text in this regard. * The entire passage is as follows. Brissot is speaking of Dr. Thorn- ton. "This ardent friend of the blacks, says he, is persuaded, that we cannot hope to see a sincere union between them and the whites as long as they differ so much in color and in their rights as citizens. He attributes to no other cause the apathy perceivable in many blacks, even in Massachusetts where they are free. Deprived of the hope of electing or being elected, or of rising to places of honor and 10 AFRICAN COLONIZATION. numbers and increasing wretchedness," in 1815.* The Society's first memorial to Congress, in 1817, signed by its groat and good President, Judge Washington, refers to their condition as "low and hopeless." It was worse than it had been; for La Fayette, when here in 1824, is reported to have remarked upon its deterioration as compared with what it was at the Revolution. That it was uni- versally recognized as bad, and that the hope of trust, the negroes seemed condemned to drag out their days in a state of servility, or to languish in shops of retail. The whites re- proach them with a want of cleanliness, indolence and inattention. But how can they be industrious and active, while an insurmounta- ble barrier separates them from other citizens?" — BrissoVs Travels, in Mavor's Compilation of Voyages and Travels, vol. 19, pp. 260, 261. «■ The following extract from a letter from Mr. Finley to Mr. John P. Mumford of New York, affords the earliest evidence we have of his views in regard to Colonization. Dear Sir, Basking Ridge, Feb. 14, 1815. The longer I live to see the wretchedness of man, the more I admire the nature of those, who desire, and with patience, labor to execute plans for the relief of the wretched. On this subject, the state of the free blacks has very much occupied my mind. Their number increases greatly and their wretchedness too, as appears to me. Everything connected with their condition, including their color, is against them; nor is there much prospect that their state can ever greatly be meliorated while they remain among us. Could not the rich and benevolent devise means to form a colony on some part of the Coast.of Africa, similar to the one at Sierra Leone, which might gradu- ally induce many free blacks to go and settle, devising for them the means of getting there, and of protection and support till they were established, ^■c. — African Repository, vol. 1, p. 2. ^iT AFRICAN COLONIZATION. improving it was a leading motive with the earlier Colonizationists, in 1816, is unquestionable. And yet, in 1816, and for years afterwards, the days were halcyon days, comparatively, for the free people of color. No strife with the whites for employment then. There was work for all. No feeling of antagonism between the races. The foreign immigration immaterial, to the colored man's great relief. Certain kinds of labor his^ by prescription. In competition with the whites, he most frequently the favored one. Societies to pro- tect him from imposition, every where. Affections born at the breasts of slave nurses, fostered when playing with slave children, still lingered around the race made free. But what is their condition now ? In individual \ cases, the free man of color is wondrously im- proved. Better educated is he; more refined; with appreciative tastes, an elevated ambition, comfortable means, wealth, often. It would seem, indeed, that while Liberia was being built up, the J race that were to rule it had been vindicating, in anticipation, their capacity to conduct affairs with intelligence and success. And yet, the condition of the free colored population, as a class, is infe- rior, far, to what it was in 1816. AFRICAN COLONIZATION, They have been the victims of riots in more than one Northern and Western City. Excluded from many an accustomed calling, practically if noi legally, in New York ; no longer stevedores, caulkers or coal heavers in Baltimore, or fireman on the South Western waters, or levee laborers in New Orleans; crowded out of employment in the great hotels ; disappearing as domestics in private families, they find, by sad experience, how irre- sistible is a white competition in a strife for bread. Legislation, too, has been invoked to straighten their condition. To prevent their increase, eman- cipations have been prohibited. Strenuous and continuous efibrts, made under favorable circum- stances, to put them on a footing of social equality with the whites, have resulted only in increasing public prejudice.* Courts of justice have recog- nised the existence of this feeling, f and even in * A resolution, introduced in the Board of Education of Newark, N. J., to grant the colored population the same privileges and bene- fits in the public schools as the whites enjoy, was, after a warm dis- cussion, negatived by a vote of 12 to 5. — Colonization Herald, Phil- adelphia, March, 1859 t In the case of McCrea (colored) vs. Marsh, lessee of the Howard AtheniEum, Boston, the Supreme Court, on the 4th inst. sustained the verdict for the Defendant. The Plaintiff, in face of the regula- tion excluding colored people, purchased a ticket for the "dress cir- cle," and when he was refused admission at the entrance he attempted iF AFRICAN COLONIZATION. those States, whicli boast peculiar sympathies in their behalf, the distinction of caste pervades prac- tically, so far as they are concerned, the entire com- munity, both socially and politically. And why should all this be? Why, at least, have the free colored people not been permitted to maintain the kindlier relations, indifferent as they were, of half a century ago? Personally, they have not deteriorated in the interval. They voted in Maryland up to 1809; and the popular almanac, at the beginning of the present century, in the States of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, was the work of Benjamin Banneker, an individual of unmixed African descent. Why then the change in question ? There is but one cause to which it can be attri- buted, — the increase of our aggregate population. The two races are coming, day by day, into closer contact. Collisions, of old unknown, are begin- ning to occur between the masses of the respective populations. The old story of the Spaniard and the Moor is being re-enacted in our midst. We are but illustrating the law that invariably pre- to crowd in, and was put out of the building, no more force having been used than was necessary to eject him from the premises. — Colon- ization Herald, March, 1859. vails, where two races that cannot amalgamate by intermarriage occupy the same land. "This it is, and uothiug more." In the State of Maryland, for example, there is already a redundant free colored population, amounting to thirteen per cent, of the aggregate ! In Pennsylvania, the proportion is but two and three-tenths per cent. In Massachusetts, less than one per cent. In Connecticut, less than two per cent. In Ohio, one and three-tenths per cent. In New York, one and six-tenths per cent. There are more free people of color in the slave State of Maryland than in the great free States of Ohio and New York put together.* To Maryland, there- fore^ rather than to any other State, may we look for the consequences of that increase in the aggre- gate of population, to which we have attributed the change for the worse, which, in fifty years. * Extract from Table XII. of the Census of 1850.— ^war^o EdUion, page xxxiii. White. Free Colored. Slaves. Total. Maryland, 417,943 74, '723 90,368 583,034 Pennsylvania, ...2,258,160 53,626 2,311,786 Massachusetts, 985,450 9,064 994,514 Connecticut, 363,099 7,693 370,792 Ohio, 1,955,050 25,279 1,980,329 New York, 3,048,325 49,669 3,097,394 15 AFRICAN COLONIZATION. has taken place in the condition of the free people of color. And what is the experience of Maryland? Of Maryland, whose kindness, practically, to the class in question, is to be inferred from the crowd that has collected within her borders. Of Maryland — which has expended more than a quarter of a mil- lion in promoting Colonization, and which, when unable for a season to pay the interest on her pub- lic debtj never withheld for an instant her annual subsidy of ten thousand dollars to the feeble colony, that had been founded under her auspices on the coast of Africa.* All her legislation looks to the necessity of separation. Laws, already stringent, are sought to be made still more so; and the reasons given by men of high character, assembled in Convention on the Eastern Shore of the State, all resolve themselves into the "exis- tence of the present immense number of free negroes." Nor is Maryland alone in these views. A winter rarely passes without the introduction into State Legislatures of measures prejudicial to the free * The Colony at Cape Palmas, commenced in 1834 by the Mary- land State Colonization Society, long known as Maryland in Liberia, now incorporated with the Republic of Liberia. 16 AFRICAN COLONIZATION. people of color? And even where there is no legislative action, there is an unwillingness to see their numbers multiply, which, year after year, is becoming more decided and demonstrative.* *The frequeucy of legislative enactments iu regard to the tree people of color, during the past winter, is startling in definiteness, and in their very stringent features. Thus, Arkansas has passed a law to expel its free colored population. It is further provided that, if they do not leave during the present year, they are liable to be seized and hired out, so as to procure the means of removing from the State. The lower House of 'the Legislature of Missouri has likewise passed a bill, by a vote of eighty-eight yeas to twenty-nine nays, in which it is declared that all "free negroes" residing in the State in 1860, shall become slaves. It also forbids emancipation within the limits of the State. Similar measures have been proposed in the Legislatures of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, North Caro- lina, Virginia, Maryland, and doubtless in other States. The Legis- lature of Arkansas passed an act which prohibits, under severe penalties, the employment of "free negroes" on water crafts navi- gating the rivers of that State. No slave, however worthy, can henceforth, in Louisiana and . several other States, have freedom conferred upon him while in those States; neither is he permitted to return after being emancipated. The Supreme Judicial Tribunal of Virginia have decided, "that slaves have no civil or social rights, and that the slave cannot choose between freedom and slavery, if the offer be made him by his master; and that, consequently, a slave left by his master with freedom, if he choose to take it, can have no legal right to choose freedom, and must, therefore, still be a slave." It will thus be seen that the free colored man is likely to be driven from the Southern States by new legislative enactments ; and that, where wills allowing the. slave, at the death of the master, to elect freedom or continue in servitude, were once favored, now they are under the ban of law. The constitutions of the recently admitted free States show that n AFRICAN COLONIZATION. What then can be their anticipations? Appre- hensive, as the intelligent among them must be, of the colored uiaii is not desired as an element of population. In the House of Representatives of Indiana a bill has been rejected, by a vote of sixty-five yeas to twenty nays, repealing the existing law, which makes "negroes and mulattoes" incompetent as witnesses. In the Legislature of Michigan, a proposed amendment to the consti- tution of that State, granting to "negroes" the right of suffrage on a property qualification, was defeated. Even in the generally re- ceived pro-African State of Ohio, a law has just passed its Legisla- ture, which declares that no person having any African blood in his j veins shall be permitted to exercise the elective franchise within that \ commonwealth. Petitions from citizens of Bucks and Philadelphia / Counties, for a legal enactment to prevent "negroes" of other States ;; from settling in Pennsylvania, have been presented to our State < Legislature. — Philadelphia Ledger, April 1, 1859. I The Pittsburg Gazette says, that a company of colored People in '; that City desired to form a party to emigrate westward and settle \ upon and pre-empt public lands. Their counsel communicated with ; the Land Department at Washington, and received in reply a flat / refusal : — it being the settled ruling of that office that colored per- ^ sons are not citizens of the United States, as contemplated by the I pre-emption law of the 4th September, 1841, and are, therefore, not c legally entitled to pre-empt public lands. — Colonization Herald, I March, 1859, Philadelphia. \ Free Negroes Presented. — It will be seen by the following pre- \ sentmeni of the Grand Jurors of this District, at the recent terra of ( the Court of Common Pleas, that the evil of the presence of free f negroes in this State has attracted their attention, and that they ] have taken the only means in their power to bring the subject before j the Legislature of the State. We are pleased at this act of the \ Grand Snry, and hope other Grand Juries will follow the example, 'i and thus impress the matter upon our law-makers until they shall be J forced to abate the nuisance. \ Presentment of the Grand Jury, at Spuing Term, 1859. — We 18 AFRICAN COLONIZATION. the future, — hopeless, surely, of bettering their condition where they are, — whither can they look? They have already tried Hayti and found it want- ing. Alike in color, unlike in all other respects, they have neither affinities nor sympathies with its people. They have no desire to be hewers of wood and drawers of water in the British Colonies of Trinidad and Demerara. They fully appreciate the' motives of those who invite them to the West Indies. With no spot on the Ame- rican Continent, not appropriated to the white man's use^ and his exclusively, whither can they go, to avoid the throng of multiplying thousands now competing with them in all the avenues of labor? Whither, when the West, which, now, by absorbing the foreign immigration, relieves them from the pressure on the seaboard that would otherwise crush them against the wall, — whither, when the West, too, shall have a redun- dant population, whither shall they go? Whither, but to Africa, — to that Africa of the Tropics, where climate, genial and salubrious to the de- scendants of the soil, protects them, as with a further present the free negroes of the District as a nuisance, and recommend that the Legislature pass some law that will have the effect of relieving the community of this troublesome population. — Cherau {S. C.) Gazette. AFRICAN COLONIZATION. wall of fire, against the encroachments of the white man, — guards the headland^ — sentinels the mine, — and stays, even on the very border of the sea_, on the river, and in the forest, that march of Empire, which pestilence alone can check. There may be some who imagine we are false prophets of evil; some, who, in the sunshine of to-day, hope that the sky will never be obscured. Only a portion of our story has been told, how- ever. "Beholding the little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand," pregnant with increasing evil to the free people of color, we would urge them to better their condition, by removal, "before the Heaven was dark with wind and rain." In doing so, we have dealt with the developments of to-day alone. Our calculations come up to the seventh census only. But what will be the shewing of the census of 1900. Judging from the past decades, our population will then exceed ninety-eight mil- lion. Many of my hearers will live to verify the estimate. In three score years and ten, the scrip- tural limit of a man's life, the fifteenth census will bring our numbers near to two hundred and forty million. Children are living who will be counted among these millions in 1930.* *The above results are obtained as follows. Table LXIII. of the isyo. 1840. 1850. 34.03 34.72 37.74 33.86 20.87 12.47 30. G2 23.31 28.82 33.26 32.74 35.86 AFRICAN COLONIZATION. If then we are correct in attributing the present condition of the free people of color to tlie addition I Quarto Edition of the 7th Census gives the "ratio of increase in the < United States of white, free colored, slaves and total population since I 1790." Thus I 1800. 1810. 1820. I Whites, 35.68 36.18 34.12 I Free Colored, 82,28 72. 25.25 Slaves, 28.1 33.4 29.10 \ Aggregate,... 35.01 36.44 33.35 \ Averaging the decades, and we have for the decennial increase of j the whites 35.41; of the free colored, 41.62; of the slaves, 28.74; I and of the aggregate of population, 34.44 per cent. The above proportion of the increase of the aggregate is not given in Table LXIII., but has been calculated from its data. The calcu- l lations of the Table refer to the aggregate of the free and the aggre- ] gate of the colored only. 1 Table LX. gives the proportion of the white, free colored and I slaves, for the above periods, as follows : i 1790. 1800. 1810. 1820. Whites, 80.73 81.13 80.97 81.57 Free Colored, ... . 1.57 2.04 2.57 2.47 Slaves, 17.76 16.83 16.46 15.96 The foregoing tables shew sufficient uniformity in the past seven decades to authorize an average in estimating the population at future decades; and the average of the aggregate, or 34.44 per cent. has accordingly been assumed, with the following results : Estimated aggregate population of the United States at the next eight census periods respectively. 1860. 1870. 1880. 1890. 1900. 1910. 1920. 1930. While it is admitted that these figures afford approximations only, and that a wide margin must be allowed for possible contingencies, yet 1830. 1840. 1850. 81.90 83.17 84.31 2.48 2.26 1.87 15.62 14.57 13.82 AFRICAN COLONIZATION. of twenty-one million to the aggregate population of 1816, assuming the latter to have been nine million, and the total now to be thirty million, what will be their condition, when we number sixty-eight million more; and what again^ when we add two hundred and ten million to the population of to-day? We commend the question to every lover of his country. Earnestly, solemnly, as a friend, who for more than thirty years has labored in their behalf, we commend it to every free colored man in America. Had Ireland, in 1847, been inhabited by white and free colored men, in the Maryland proportions, influenced, too, by like feelings, which would have borne the brunt of the great famine? millions may be dropped from the estimate, and still leave an increase large enough to justify the anticipations of the text. It will matter little to the free colored man, in 1930, whether the pressure that crushes him proceeds from a population of 200,000,000 or 240,000,000. The actual numbers of the respective classes of the population at the several decades from 1790, as shewn by the same tables, are as follows : 1790. 1800. 1810. 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. Whites, 3,172,464 4,304,489 5,862,004 7,861.937 10,537,378 14,195,695 19,553,068 F.CoI'd, 59,456 108,395 186,446 233,524 319,599 386,303 434,495 Slaves, 697,897 893,041 1,191,364 1,538,038 2,009,043 2,487,455 3,204,313 Aggreg'e, 3,929,827 5,305,925 7,239,814 9,654,696 12,866,020 17,069,453 23,191,876 22 AFRICAN COLONIZATION. The famine of 1847 is not the Last that may occur ill the history of the worUl. Those wlio anticipated its coming by emigration to America, to better their condition, "before the Heaven was dark with wind and rain," manifested a wisdom that we do not venture to hope will be exhibited here, in a similar emigration to Africa, for years to come. The free colored people themselves, however, are unwittingly hastening 'such a result. They resolve for instance, in Ohio, that "a combi- nation of capital and labor, will, in every field of enterprise, be their true policy ; that combination stores of every kind, combination work shops, combination farms, will, if every where estab- lished, greatly increase their wealth and with it their power." And they publish these resolutions, too, as if to place themselves in direct antagonism to the whites, as a distinct race, with separate interests, struggling for power!* They are pro- * Convention of Colored People for the State of Ohio. — A Con- vention of colored men for the State of Ohio, designed to institute measures and take action which shall gain for the colored citizens political and social rights equal to those of the white citizens, as- sembled in Cincinnati on Wednesday morning, at the Baker Street Church. Among the resolutions adopted were the following : Resolved, That we say to those who would induce us to emigrate to Africa or elsewhere, that the amount of labor and self-sacrifice required to establish a home in a foreign land, would, if exercised AFRICAN COLONIZATION. yoking a contest which the commonest prudence counsels them to postpone or to avoid. They are seeking a strife in which they cannot but be worsted. They are warring, not against Coloni- zationists, "who," to use their own words, "would induce them to emigrate to Africa or elsewhere," but against the inevitable future ; and their pros- pect of success is in exact proportion to their ability to diminish the increase of our population, or to paralize our wondrous and unprecedented development. In all this, they are but working out their destiny ; but accelerating the approach of that voluntary self-paying emigration, which will be the fruition of the Colonization scheme : a scheme to succeed fully, perhaps, after generations only ; but thoroughly meeting all the exigencies of here, redeem our native land from the grasp of slavery ; therefore we are resolved to remain where we are, confident that "truth is mighty and will prevail." Resolved, That a combination of labor and capital will, in every field of enterprise, be our true policy. Combination stores of every kind, combination work shops, and combination farms will, if everyr where established, greatly increase our wealth, and with it our power. Resolved, That the State Central Committee be instructed to pre- pare two petitions for general circulation, one to be signed by whites favorable to equal rights, and the other by the colored people, male and female, old and young, omitting none who are able to make their mark. — Baltimore Daily Exchange, 29 November, 1858. AFRICAN COLONIZATION. the future; the work of friends, not unfriends; counselling, not compelling ; leaving it to the irresolute, the inert, tlie unfitted, the visionary, to linger out existence where they are; hut pro- claiming to the ambitious, tlie energetic, the intel- ligent, and the brave, new fields of enterprise beyond the sea, Avhcre talent, capital and labor, instead of being confined to stores' and workshops, may be devoted to the development of a nation's prosperity and renown. Nor are there wanting still higher motives to suggest to those for whom the Colony, proposed by Finley, has been founded, to induce them "to go and settle there." As a missionary people, their's will it be to influence and control the des- tinies, to a great extent, of the vast continent, to which they will bear the blessed truths of that Religion, whose temples, in the fulfilment of pro- phecy, must yet be reflected in the tranquil waters of the Tsad and the Ngami, assemble their thousands of worshippers in the broad valley of the Niger, and commemorate the exploit of Liv- ingstone, as they ause along his route on the banks of the Leeba and the Zambesi. But it may be said, that in the next forty or seventy years the free colored population will be 25 AFRICAN COLONIZATION. lost sight of, even should it remain here^ as a turbid confluent is lost in the clearer hue of the ereat river to whose volume it forms but an incon- siderable addition. It might be so, were the "wretchedness" referred to a matter of proportion. But, due as it is to the aggregate of population, the pressure will be regulated by the density of the mass. White striving with white, as well as white with colored, will feel it; with this difference^, that where there is not bread enough for both, those will be the greatest sufferers who are socially and politically the weakest. Regarding Liberia then, as the means of obvia- ting results which, were there no Liberia, would be among the gloomiest apprehensions of coming years, we can hardly place too high an estimate upon what has been accomplished by Coloniza- tion. As well might we disregard the feeble thread of water that trickles across the levee, when the Mississippi, at the season of its floods, threatens to "o'er bear its continents," as disregard Liberia in its relations to the United States: for as the one may prove the outlet through whose wasting bor- ders the swollen and unbridled stream, fertilizing even where it overwhelms, may sooner find the AFRICAN COLONIZATION. gulf of Mexico, so the other may become the means by which the increasing and redundant volume of our free colored population may diffuse over another land the civilization and religion it has accumulated during its abode in this. Not only may we not disregard Liberia, but we feel as though we did not dare to doubt its destiny. This is not the occasion to reiterate the oft told story of Plymouth and Jamestown. We all know how long it was before success crowned the efforts of those who laid the foundations of New England, and how little it was that Smith, who strode, like a paladin of old, through the forests of the New world, was able to accomplish in the establishment of Virginia. The wisdom and the chivalry of Europe were represented in the contest with the wilderness of America; and king Philip at Mount Hope, and Powhatan on the James River, vindi- cated in many a bloody contest the valor and the prowess of the race, whose last lingering rem- nants now seek, in vain, towards the setting sun, a refuge from the overwhelming wave of a civilization which not even Christianity may moderate that they may be preserved. But, how different was it on the coast of Africa. A few emancipated slaves, a few free people of AFRICAN COLONIZATION. color, ignorant and inexperienced, foot sore and weary, landed at Monrovia, maintained themselves against the natives, who would have driven them into the sea,' received, slowly, year after year, accessions from America, and by degrees acquiring strength and making no step backward, finally proclaimed their independence, and are now the people we have described. What could have strengthened such weak hands save the blessing of Him from whom cometh every good and perfect gift. Nor can we doubt that the blessing will be continued unto the end ; and we look forward to the future of Liberia, as we do to the future of California and Oregon ; and we are not more certain that a teeming white population will line the Sacramento and the Columbia, than we are^ that the free colored people of the United States and their descendants will carry our language and our institutions up the Cavalla and the St. Paul's, and, crossing the dividing mountains, make them familiar to the heart of Central Africa. For the accomplishment of these results, we rely neither upon the spirit of adventure, such as ani- mates the young, and is fitful and capricious; upon the love of gold operating on all, but requir- ing a California or an Australia for its full devel- 28 AFRICAN COLONIZATION. opment; upon religious excitement, which too often exhausts itself far short of the mark it aims at; upon political aspirations or patriotic impulses: hut our reliance is upon the inevitable increase of our aggregate of population. Adventure may die out, gold may pall, religion become apathetic_, politics inoperative, and patriotism a dream ; but years after years will, nevertheless, add their hun- dreds of thousands to the numbers of our people, until the ninety-eight million of 1900 will be made up, and the two hundred and forty million of the fifteenth census will be completed. So noiseless is this mighty increase that we no more heed it than we do the flight of the hours that hastens the results that it involves. We note the progress of the tide as it creeps upwards on the sand — the shadows as they lengthen with the waning day, — for we walk the beach and watch the dial ; but the growth of the population of a country, vast as ours, is beyond the limit of daily individual observation, and exhibited only in statistics too dull to have an interest for the mass, neither teaches nor warns, until both teaching and warn- ing may be too late. Just now, however, there is much restlessness among the free people of color in many parts of 29 ^ AFRICAN COLONIZATION. the Union. Sometimes, it exhibits itself in plans for obtaining information — sometimes^ in combina- tion resolutions — sometimes, in an emphatic deter- mination to remain where they are — as if Coloniza- tion, instead of offering them an asylum, sought to force them into exile. But, whatever form this restlessness assumes, it proceeds from a doubt, fast becoming general, whether America, after all, is more than a temporary abiding place; a doubt sug- gested, not, as often asserted, by Colonizationists, but by circumstances, wholly beyond their control, and which, having foreseen, they have provided ao-ainst in the establishment of Liberia. Great events in the world's history rarely come unheralded to those who watch the portents of the times. Washington, Napoleon, Cromwell, were the developments of long germinating principles, the maturities of years of preparation. When they appeared, every thing was in readiness, and their missions were accomplished. So, we humbly hope, has it been with Colonization. It exists, because the time for it has arrived. The opposition it has encountered, the vituperation with which it has been assailed, the slowness of its progress, have all had their uses in perfecting it. The day of its ordeal has not yet drawn to a close. But the Ito' AFRICAN COLONIZATION. cloud that retards, the sunshine tliat hastens ma- turity, are incidents only in the history of the golden I'ruit that blushes at its own beauty belbre Autumn's gaze. So with men and with nations. We may not prejudge their destiny from the isolated facts of their existence; but, gathering the whole into one category, find in the result the evidence of that overruling wisdom, that makes all discord harmony in the accomplishment of its designs. It is in this connection that the interest, which has of late years sprung up in regard to Africa, is not without its significance. Half a century and more ago, Park lost his life at Boussa, and no man was tempted to enterprise in the direction of his grave. Northern Africa was the corsairs. Egypt obeyed the Mamelukes. Belzoni had not pierced the Pyramid. Few were the strangers who in- clined the ear at sunrise before the vocal Memnon. The Cape of Good Hope was little more than a water station on the voyage to India. On the borders of Africa^ the barracoou was the evidence of civilization, and the maps represented the interior as a desert impassable by man. But presently, all this is changed. The corsair disappears. The Mamelukes are exterminated. 31 AFRICAN COLONIZATION. The ascent and exploration of the pyramids, a can- * ter across the plain of Thebes, become the pleasant incidents of a summer's tour. Civilization marches, drum and trumpet in the van, perhaps, north- ward from the Cape. The Christian Church rises not uufrequently on the ruins of the barracoon. Denham sees the Tsad. Clapperton finds his way to Sokatu. The Landers make their voyage down the Niger to the sea. Steam subsequently ascends the river. Caille becomes an explorer. Andersen is the hero of the Lake Ngami. Barth opens up another portion of the Continent. Livingstone crosses it from St. Paul de Loando to Quillimane, and gives to the Niagara of Africa, the name of the Queen of England. Missionaries multiply every where. New maps are made, and cities and towns, and great rivers and lesser streams, and mountain ranges and intervening vallies, and divisions into kingdoms, whose rulers bear now familiar names, fill the void on the maps of the deserts of the old geographers. Cotemporaneous with all this activ- ity, Colonization completes its experiment, and Liberia stands forth its illustration and its tri- umph. Commerce, too, the right arm of civilization, the agent we rely on for the scheme we have at heart, AFRICAN COLONIZATION. has been busy in the interval.* Palm oil lias become a necessity. Hides, camwood, ivory, gold dust, gums and spices, take the place of human beings in the traffic of the country. Steam carries the mails of Great Britain along tlie windward and leeward coasts to the Islands at the bottom of the Bight of Biafra. At a recent meeting, in London, * No less than four Liberian vessels have arrived in the United States this year, with cargoes of Liberian produce. Of what descrip- tion and value those products are, may be judged from the cargo of the schooner Antelope, which arrived here on the 14th Inst. She lias 14,000 pounds of sugar, 17,000 gallons of syrup, palm oil, cam- wood and some coflFee, and could have obtained double the quantity 'of sugar had she waited tea days longer, as the farmers were busy manufacturing it, and bringing it down the St. Paul's river to Mon- rovia to market where it found a ready sale. We are informed that a colored firm, Messrs. Johnson, Turpin & Dunbar, have established a commercial house in this city, in connec- tion with one at Monrovia, for the purpose of facilitating and pro- moting the Liberian trade, and have purchased the bark "Mendi," a vessel of 300 to 400 tons burthen, to run as a regular freight and passenger packet between this port and Monrovia, making three or four trips a j^ear. They have also contracted for a small steamer, which they design to run coastwise between Cape Palmas and Mon- rovia, touching at all principal points to collect freight and passen- gers, and to connect with the above vessel on her regular sailing days; though the chief object of this enterprise will be to collect the mails along the coast, with a view to supply the deficiency in the mail service occasioned by the British steamers discontinuing to touch at Monrovia, as they have hitherto done. This will insure regularity in the mails, which, under the present arrangements, are very uncertain, and will be a great accommodation to merchants and others. — iV. Y. Journal of Commerce, May, 1859. 33 AFRICAN COLONIZATION. of the African Steamship Company, it was stated, that there were now "almost as frequent communi- cations with the interior of Africa, as ten or twelve years ago were had with Constantinople." Not the least interesting of the facts, reported on this occasion, was the use that the native Africans were themselves beginning to make of the facilities which steam affords. "The number of negro passen- gers," it was said, "paying from five to ten dollars a head, had increased from eight to twelve hun- dred, and it was expected would soon be doubled from Sierra Leone to Lagos, and from the Bonny and the Palm oil rivers to Cape Palmas and the Kroo country." Trade, in fact, is expanding itself in all directions. Cottons, with the stamp of the mills of Massachuvsetts, are found far inland among the native tribes on the banks of the Zambesi. New markets of immense extent are being opened — virgin markets almost — at a time too, when all existing markets are glutted with the products of a manufacturing skill, whose faculty of supply, ex- ceeding every present demand, requires just such a continent of consumers as Africa affords, — a con- tinent whose wants are capable of doubling even the clatter of every loom, and the ring of every anvil in Europe and America. 34 AFRICAN COLONIZATION. Can it be, that this newly awakened interest in Africa — these new relations that are being estab- lished with its people, are accidental merely, having no connection with the masses of free Christian and civilized descendants of Africans amongst us. Can it be nothing more than a curious coincidence, that, when the time has come for the unsealing of a continent, that revelation may be inscribed there — this people — the only people competent to the work, should be found qualified to embark in it ; a peo- ple, too_, nioi must go sometvhere. Is it not far more probable, that their existence here is but a part of that grand series of events, that are to co- operate until prophecy shall be fulfilled ; not to-day or to-morrow, not in this generation or the next, but speedily, notwithstanding, looking to the scale of time by which are measured the epochs of society. We are confident that we do not over-estimate our cause, when we place it in the relations that are here suggested. The test proposed upwards of eighteen hundred years ago, on a far more solemn occasion, when it was said, "refrain from these men and leave them alone, for if this counsel or this work be of man, it will come to nought," is one which the past history of Colonization and \ 35 AFRICAN COLONIZATION. Liberia has fully demonstrated their capacity to stand. Forty-two years of labor have not been thrown away. Jefferson, Madison, Munroe^ Mar- shall, Mercer, Harper, Randolph, Clay, supported not a cause, which, in the hands of tlieir successors, will fail to realize their expectations. Ashmun, Buchanan, Randall, sleep not in vain beneath the palm trees of Liberia. A new member has not been added to the family of nations without a mission to fulfil in the history of mankind. Ceas- ing to be ignored by the politicians of tlie day, philanthrophy shall yet be thanked by statesman- ship for its labors on the coasts of Africa. And the liglit which Park and Lander and Living- stone, the representatives of their periods of ex- ploration, have shed on this great continent, and the feeling now pervading the world in its regard, shall yet guide and cheer the march of thousands and tens of thousands of emigrants ; — a march as determined as that which brought forth Israel from beneath the shadow of the pyramids, — as triumph- ant as that celebrated by Miriam's song ; — a march heralded by the gospel, and bearing back to Africa, in the blessings of civilization and religion, trea- sures more precious far than the gold and silver vessels of which Egypt was despoiled, in those days AFRICAN COLONIZATION; of old, when, with timbrels 'and dances, the pro- phetess proclaimed — "the horse and his rider are thrown into the sea." Preceded by no plagues — pursued after by no oppressors — protected by "the Right Hand — glorious in power," such shall yet be the march of the free people of color of our country; and in the cities which they will build_, the institutions they will establish, the laws they will maintain and the knowledge they will impart, will be recognized the vindication of the holy confidence, the persevering enthusiasm, that animated the founder of our society, when he pro- claimed that "he knew the scheme was from God." 37 African Colonization. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ^uuntinn i»lottiMiiiti0n f^ocictg, Washington, D. C, January 19, 1869, BX Hon. Joseph J. noBERTs, President of Liberia College, and formerly for eight years President of the Liberia Republic. j>i. jBranch Office OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. Jl o o in iNTo. S-4r Bible H o n s e , jVJE^W YORK OITY. Rev. JOHN ORCUTT, Secretary. ADDRESS OF HOiST. JOSEI^I-I J. ROI3KRTS, Ex-President of the Jlejnihlic of Liberia. Mr. Presideni : An annual meeting of tlio American Colonization Society can never fail, I presume, to be an occasion of deep interest to the friends of an enterprise so eminently philanthropic in all its purposes, au'l particularly grand in its design to introduce the blessings of civiliza- tion and Christianity into the Avaste places of long-neglected and deeply- degraded Africa. On thcL :; occasions, while the attention of the managers of the affairs of the Society is specially drawn to a review of the labors and results of the year immediately preceding, and to the adoption of additional measures deemed desirable or necessary to the further prose- cution of the undertaliing, the minds of its patrons instinctively revert to the great objects originally contemplated by the enterprise, and a roAnew of the progress that has been made in their definite accomplish- ment. And in turning their thoughts to these on the present occasion, I think there can be no question that, notwithstanding the stern opposition encountered from certain quarters, in consecjuence of a total misappre- hension of the true policy and objects of the Christian promoters of African colonization, and the embarrassments and discoui'agements which liave occasionally arisen from other causes during tlie progress of the enterpfise, the friends of the cause have great reason to-day for con- gratulation and thankfulness at the Avonderful success which has so far attended their efforts — a success, I dare say, far beyond the most san- guine expectation of those distinguished philanthropists who first gave form and impulse to a scheme which, though surrounded by many diffi- culties and apprehensions, they hoped and believed would, under Divine Providence, eventuate in good and great results to a people they earnestly desired to benefit. The scneme of African colonization is the offspring of a groat Chris- tian idea, which, more than half a century ago, fixed itself in the minda of Drs. Finley and Thornton, Gen. Charles Fenton Mercer, Elias B. Cald- well, Francis S. Key. and other kindred spirits, who deeply deplored the oppression to which the people of color were subjected in this country, and feeling profoundly impressed with the importance of devising some plan by which the condition of a part of this people might be immedi- ately and radically changed, and in such a way as to create a reflex influence which would produce a salutary effect upon — as then existed — the abominable institution of American slavery. Hence the organization of the American Colonization Society, which you, Mr. President, and the Board of Directors here present to-day, represent. Those piire and dis- interested men, with a wise forethought which penetrated far into the future, contemplated with earnest solicitude tho accomplishment of designs in respect to Africa, no less gigantic in their jiroportions than important in their results ; and it is not surprising that irresolute minds questioned the ability of any mere private association to fulfill so great an under- taking. The programme of the founders of the American Colonization Society, as I have always understood it, and which, as far as I know, has not been departed from, Avas : 1st. To establish on the shores of Africa an asylum where such of her scattered children as might choose to avail themselves of it would find a free and happy home ; and in this connection they would fairly test the capacity of the African for self-government and the maintenance ol free political institutions. 2d. That through the instrumentality of a colony thus established, composed of men who had themselves been the victims of cruel servitude, additional facilities would be afforded for the extirpa- tion of the slave trade, then rampant, with all its attendant horrors, at nearly every prominent point along that Western coast. 3d. By means of Christian settlements, in the midst of that barbarous people, to intro- duce the blessings of civilization and Christianity among the heathen tribes of that degraded land. These were grand conceptions, embracing nothing less than the founding of an empire with negro nationality, and the redemption of a continent from pagan superstition and idolatry. Of course, a work of such magnitude required large material resources and suitable men as emigrants, to conduct it in a manner promising successful results. We can, therefore, readily imagine the serious misgivings which must have weighed heavily on the minds of those good men when they engaged in an enterprise necessarily Involving, in all its details, so many apprehen- sions as to the future. But they were men of great faith and energy. fully imbued with the spirit of their mission in behalf of humanity and religion, and, therefore, hesitated not to commit the success of their undertaking to the direction and support of an all-wiso Providence. But it is not my purpose on this occasion to trace the history of tho American Colonization Society, either in regai^d to the opposition it has encountered, or the sympathy and care by which it has been fostered and sustained during its long years of agency in promoting tho civil, social, and religious interests of Africa. The work of colonizing a people, inider tho most favorable auspices, has always been attended with man}' difficul- ties and discouragements; and, in tlie case of this Society, dependent entirely upon voluntary, individual contributions for the means of prose- cuting its enterprise, and also considering the remoteness of the country to which its efforts were directed, it could not be otherwise than that its progress in colonizing would be slow and peculiarly difficult. Neverthe- less, with unfaltering perseverance, tho Society has pursued its course, and has already effected an amount of good that entitles it to the confidence and generous support of the Christian public. And yet, even now, it is sometimes asked : " What has African colonization accomplished ? Have the labors, the sacrifices, and the means Avhich have been expended pro- • duced such results as should satisfy the public mind of its practical utility and proljable ultimate success ?" These questions, to be sure, may not bo regarded as impertinent on the part of those Avho are really ignorant of the history of African colonization, and what has actually been accom- plished under the auspices of the American Colonization Society. And as these questions have been put to mo more than once during my present visit to the United States, I don't know that I can do better than to avail myself of this occasion to present a brief statement of the rise and progress of Liberia under the auspices of this Society, and then I shall be content to allow those who seem to be in doubt as to the utility of Afri- can colonization to settle the question in their own minds as to whether the colonization enterprise is entitled to their confidence and support or not. As soon as practicable after the formal organization of the American Colonization Society, and the necessary preUminary arrangements towards planting a colony in Western Africa had been concluded, steps were taken for sending forward the first company of emigrants to organize a new civil society on that distant, barbarous coast. Therefore, early in the year 1820, eighty-six persons, from the States of Pennsylvania, Vir- ginia, Jlaryland, and New York, asserabled in the city of New York, for tho purpose of embarking upon this new and perilous enterprise. It was a profoundly anxious time, no less with the patrons of the Society than with the emigrants. The friends of the Society were deeply concerned in regard to tlie suitableness of the men about to be employed in so great an undertaking, and where so much depended upon the adaptability of the materials tlius engaged for the foundation of a new civil and political superstructure. Doubtless their hopes and fears were about equally balanced. On the part of the emigrants, as often related to me by Rev. , Elijah Johnson, the most prominent individual of the company, their feelings were greatly excited by conflicting emotions, which swayed to and fro between the present and the future. They^were about severing all the ties of early associations, and many of them leaving comfortable liomes for a far-off land, wholly unbroken by civilization, and presenting but few attractions — other than liberty dwelt there. They, therefore, resolved to flee a country which repudiated their manhood, and closed against them every avenue to political preferment ; and, with their lives in their hands, they determined to bravo, not only the perils of the sea, but every other danger and inconvenience consequent upon settling in a new and heathen country, where they might establish for themselves and their children, and, peradventure, for future generations, a home, under governmental institutions, free from all the trammels of unequal law and unholy prejudices. These were true men, stout of heart and firm of purpose, and, in the sequel, proved themselves equal to the responsibili- ties they had assumed, and fulfilled the most sanguine expectations of their patrons and friends. Our Christian pioneers — like the Pilgrim Fathers just two hundred years before, when about to embark from Delft Haven, in search of a more desirable home in the new world — by solemn and appropriate religious services, committed themselves and their cause to the protect- ing caro of Almighty God ; and, having completed all their arrangements for the voyage, sailed from New York on board the good ship "Elizabeth," on the Gth day of February, 1820, and, in due time, were landed on the coast of Africa, at the British colony of Sierra Leone. For obvious reasons, it was not contemplated to incorporate these emigrants with the inhabitants of this British colony ; and, therefore, early measures were taktni to remove them to Fihcrbro Island, about one nundrcd and twenty miles south of Sierra Leone, where it was proposed to purchase lands from the native chiefs, and organize a settlement, with the view of car- rying out the original plans of the Society. This location, however, proved to be exceedingly insalubrious, and in a short time, many of the settlers were prostrated by disease. Having encountered here many difficulties and hardships, and finding their luuiibers greatly reduced by deaths, the place was abandoned, and the survivors removed to Fourah Bay, within the precincts of Sierra Leone. This first attempt was, of course, discouraging, but the emigrants faltered not in their purpose ; and, being joined at Fourali Bay, in March, 1822, by another company of pioneers, a second eifort was determined upon at Cape Mesurado, which had, in the meantime, been selected and purchased by Captain Stockton and Doctor Ayres— a location much mora commanding an I eligible than the first, and, I have often thought, the very place of all others on that coast, designed by Providence as tlie starting point of our settlers. And in January, 1822, the colonists landed, and occupied a little island, comprising about three acres of land, near tlie entrance of the Mesurado Kiver. This island, during its occupancy by the colonists, ■was the scene of many stirring incidents, and several, as appeared to the colonists, providential deliverances ; wherefore, in commemoration of these, it bears the name of "Providence Island." They had been but a short time on this island, Avhen the forei^m slave dealers, "svho were then conducting a large business in slaves at the Cape, became convinced of the danger to which their trade was exposed through the influence of the colonists, incited the natives to hostilities against the new comers ; and, witliout any previous intimation, they found themselves cut off from all communication with the main land, whence they drew their only supply of fresh water. In this emergency, they were providentially relieved by the kindness of a friendly chief, who conveyed to them stealthily, at night, a sufficient quantity of water to supply their pressing demands; and this he continued for several weeks. At this critical juncture, their public -warehouse, with nearly all their stores of provisions and merchandise, was consumed by fire, and their utter ruin seemed now inevitable. But a remarkable incident, occurring a few days after, greatly conti-ibuted to their relief, and, pos- sibly, saved the little settlement from total destruction. A Spanish slave schooner, in charge of an English prize crew, bound to Sierra Leone, was unaccountably stranded in the harbor, but a short distance from the island; and the commanding officer, having saved a large portion of the ship's stores, readily supplied the colonists with several articles pressingly needed to replenish their almost-exhausted means of sub- sistence. After a while, through the intervention of a friendly chief, a partial reconciliation with the natives was efi'ected, and the colonists availed themselves of the opportunity, April 25th, to gain a lodgment on Cape Mesurado, where they placed themselves, as speedily as possible, in the best state of defense their means would allow. The natives, however, urged on by the slavers, appeared still threatening in their demeatiur. The Society's agents, under the conflicting aspect of things, became hope- lessly discouraged, and proposed the abandonment of the enterprise, and the return of the emigrants to the United States. But our old hero, Elijah Johnson, was not so moved ; and, remembering something of the history of tlie difficulties and hardships of the earl}- settlers of Plymouth and Jamestown, and feeling tliat by perseverance and patient endurance they, al;>o, might succeed, answered : " No ; I have been two years ' searching for a home in Africa, and I have found it, and I shall stay here.'" Tn this determination the whole company, as though moved by pomo divine impulse, heartily concurred. I^evertheless, their situation was extremely perilous ; the natives had again suspended all intercourse Avith them, leaving them in a painful state of opprehension and suspense. They knew, however, in whom they trusted, and upon whose strength they might rely. The arrival in the harbor, peading this uncertainty, of a British man-of-war) was particularly opportune, and doubtless delayed an attack upon the settlement, which, as was afterwards learned, had been concerted. The commander had an interview with the chiefs, and stron"-ly remonstrated against their course towards the settlers. They listened sullenly, and replied evasively. The commander then tendered to the colonists a small force of marines, to aid in their defense, in case of need, and, at the same time, suggested the cession of a few feet of ground, on which to erect a British flag during *his sojourn; but thisj '. Elijah Johnson, then in charge of the colony, declined, for the reason, as he stated, '' that it might cost more to pull down that flag than to whip the natives." However, the services of the marines were not brought into requisition. Thus matters continued, v/hen, on the 9tli of August, the hearts of the settlers Avere cheered by the arrival of -another small com- pany of emigrants, with the intrepid and self-sacrificing Jehudi Ashmun, who entered immediately on the duties of his office as agent of the Amer- ican Colonization Society. Mr. Ashmun, having carefully surveyed -the situation, pushed forward with great energy the defenses of the settle- ment, and in the meantime, exerted every possible effort to reconcile the natives. The slavers, however, becoming more intent upon the purpose of ridding themselves of neighbors so inimical to their traffic, assembled a council of chiefs, and, by most inhuman artifices, so excited their cupidity as to induce King George, Chief King of the Dey tribe, to declare his intention of sacking and burning the settlement. Intelligence of this declaration, and of the preparations being made for carrying it into effect, reached the settlers, through a friendly native, who, at great personal hazard, found the means of advising them from time to time of Avhat was going on. Our brave pioneers, -n-ith breathless anx- iety, awaited the impending struggle, when, at early dawn, on the morn- ing of the 11th of November, about eight hundred warriors, with deafen- ing whoops, fell upon them with great fury. They were met, however, with steady firmness, and repulsed with considerable loss. The colo- nists again breathed freely in the hope that their most serious troubles were now fully ended. But not so. King George, with great secrecy, collected another and greatly augmented force, intending to surprise the settlement on all sides, and thus make the settlers an easy prey. Hap- pily for them, their good fortune in this extremity failed them not. Bob Grey, an influential chief of Grand Bassa, whom King George had attempted to enlist in his second attack, and who knew all his plans, con- veyod to Air. Aslnnun tinioly information of all G(!orgo'.s avraiipjonionts, and cvon named tlio day on Avliidi the atla'ck Avould likely l)u niado. Now, another very scrions onil)arvassniont presented itself. In tho last fight the settlers had expended a largo portion of their anniunntion, especially powder; and how and whei'e to obtain an additional supply cf this needed article were questions of the deepest concern. No trading 3 vessel had visited the harbor for some time ; and despair began to dispel hope, Avhen relief came in a very remarkable manner. Duiing night, while an English trading vessel Avas passing the Cape, the attention of the master was attracted by frequent reports of musketry on shore, wliieh seemed to him singular at so late an hour, and, wishing to learn the cause, turned and entered the har1)or, and, in the morning, ascertained that the natives had been indulging, through the night, a grand war- dance — iisual on such occasions when preparing for war. Unobserved by the natives, a sufficient supply of powder was obtained from this vessel. The dreaded time, as advised by Bob Grey, having arrived, sure enough, during the night of the 1st of December 1822, the native troops occupied positions on three sides of the settlement, as they supposed, unobserved ; and in the gray of morning rushed, like so many demons, upon the almost defenseless stockade. But the colonists, with unflinching courage, notwithstanding the fearful odds against them, defended them- selves bravely; and after a desperate conflict of several hours, found {hem- selves again wonderfully preserved. I say wonderfully, because on this occasion the colonists seem to have exerted superhuman strength and powers of endurance, for there were only thirty-five effective men opposed to a host of not less than fifteen hundred native troops. Some of the soul-stirring incidents and acts of real heroism on that memorable day would, I presume, if mentioned here, scarcely be credited. A day of thanksgiving was proclainied, which the colonists strictly observed in prayer and praise to Almighty God for His wonderful deliv- erance. But King George and his slave-trading prompters were not yet sat- isfied, lie again consulted his " gree-grees," and being again reassured of su(;cess, he determined on another attempt ; and to place success this time beyond peradventure, he would employ i force sufficiently large to overwhelm and destroy the colony, without the possibility of escape. With this view, he sought to engage the services of King Boatswain, of Boporo, the most powerful and dreaded chieftain in that region. At his invitation. King Boatswain, with a large retinue of warriors, made a visit to King George, which was protracted several days, causing the colonists extreme anxiety. King George, however, could present no just ground of complaint against the colonists therefore, Boatswain not only condemned his unprovoked enmity toward them, but, iu very decided 10 terms, announced his determination to protect them in their new home. King Boatswain tlien called on Mr. Ashniun, informed him of the re- sult of his interview with King George, and assured him of his friend- ship. NeiterMr. Ashmun nor King George mistrusted KingBoatswain''9 sincerity, and very soon a good understanding was established with all the surrounding tribes. Now was settled definitely the question of a permament asylum. Liberia was established. Emigration increased ; intercourse and trade with the natives also increased ; new settlements were formed ; and in a few years the colony assumed an impoiiance which secured to it several im- portant immunities. Yet many hardships and serious embarrassments had to be encoun- tered. The unhealthiness of the climate was a formidable enemy; and the slave-traders along the coast ceased not their tamperings with the native cheifs to incite them to acts of hostiHty against the colony. But the time arrived when the colonists found themselves in a situation sufficiently advanced, not only to frustrate the machinations of these fiendish plotters, but to put in execution also their own long-cherished purpose of doing all in their power to extirpate a traffic which, aside from the extreme cruelties of the middle passage, had, for many years afflicted Africa with all the attendant consequences of war, rapine, and murder. On the execution of tliis purpose the colonists-entered with a hearty good-will; and, besides efficient servdce rendered from time to time bjt^ foreign cruisers then employed in suppressing the slave-trade on that coast, the slave barracoons at Mamma Town, Little Cape Mount, Little Bassa, New Cestors, and Trade Town, were demolished, and thousands of slaves liberated, solely by the power of the little Commonwealth ; and there was no relaxation of this purpose until every slaver had been ex- pelled from the whole line of coast now comprehended within -the^territo- rial jurisdiction of Liberia. During these years, all that related to the public welfare and general progress of the colony received proper attention. The Society's agents devoted themselves assiduously to tlie Govermental interests of the colony, and the colonists to their respective industrial pursuits, with a zeal and activity truly commendable. As immigration increased, new points of the coast were selected and occupied. Settlements were formed at Junk Eiver, Grand Bassa, Sinoe, and Cape Palmas ; and soon a lucrative legitimate trade began to develop itseli between the colonists and the natives In the meantime, the religious and educational interests of the people were not only :oi neglected, but every possible means were employed to extefxd and improve these ; and it is with feelings of profound gratitude I allude to the ^act that Liberia is to-day greatly indebted to the several Missionary Societies of tho United States for the timely and efficient 11 efforts maclo in behalf of oolonista and nativos to advaneo these essential interests ; and I shall hope tliat these Societies will continue their ChriR- tian efforts until Africa, poor degraded Africa, shall ho wholly redeemed from her present state of cruel l)arharisTu. Under the fostering caro and political guidance of the American Colo- nization Society, Liheria c;)utinued to advance in all her important interests. Iler territorial limits increased by purchases froiu native ' chiefs, who were glad to place themselves and their people under the protection of the Colonial Government. A profitable trade, in African products, along the Liberian coast, soon attracted the attention of enter- prising merchants in Europe, and in the United States ; foreign vessels made frequent visits to Liberian ports ; and for many years this commer- cial intercourse was reciprocally remunerative and harmonious. But the time came when certain British traders repudiated the right of the Colo- nial Govei'nment to require of them the payment of custom duties on merchandise landed at jioints where, for centuries, British merchants had been accustomed to trade ; and also claimed to have purchased from the natives, with the perpetual right of free trade, certain tracts of land, for trading purposes, before the territories embracing said tracts were pur- chased and brought within the jurisdiction of Liberia. The Government. of course, declined to recognize these demands as paramount to its poht- ical authority, and therefore continued to enforce its revenue laws. These traders invoked the interference of British naval officers serving on the coast ; these offices, after unavailing remonstrances, submitted the ques- tion to the British Government ; that Government demanded a full con- cession of the immunities chiimed by British subjects. A long and per- plexing correspondence ensued between British naval officers, acting under special Instructions from their Government, and the Colonial authorities. Her Majesty's Government maintained that, as the Amer- ican Colonization Society, composed of mere private Individuals, possessed no political power, and of consequence could delegate no such power to others ; and as the levying of imposts is the prerogative of a sovereign power only, and as Liberia had no recognized national existence, she must, therefore, desist from all Interruptions to the free intercourse of British commerce. And the Liberian authorities were given distinctly to imderstand that this decision would be enforced by the British navy. LTnder this emphatic annoimcemcnt, but one altematlvo remained open to the colonists, and this involved questions of the gravest importance, which awakened In Liberia, as well as on the part of its friends in this country, most serious reflections. For two years or more, the subject was under constant and earnest censlderatlon; when, in January, 18-J6, the American Colonization Society, Ijy a formal vote, recommended that the colonists "take Into their own hands tlio whole work of self-government, and publish to the world a declaration of their true character as a sov- 12 ereign independent State."" The fullowiug October, the colonists also voted to dissolve their pohtical connection with the Society, and to assume the entire responsibility of government, with independent sovereign power. A Constitution, adapted to the new order of things, having been adopted, by delegates assembled in Convention for the purpose, July 26, 1847, and duly ratified by the people the following September, the Government was thus reorganized, and entered, with some misgivings to be sure, upon its new career and increased responsibilities. Its recognition by other Powers now claimed the earliest attention, and Avithout delay measures were taken to this end by sohciting of foreign Governments an interchange of friendly national relations. And, within a year after the new organization, England, France, Prussia, and Belgium had acknowledged the independence of the new Eepublic ; and shortly afterwards treaties of friendship, amity, and commerce were concluded with the two former. In the meantime, the domestic affairs of the country had progressed as satisfactorily as might reasonably be expected. Several matters of dispute between native chiefs were adjusted and settled ; public improvements viere extended ; agriculture and commerce increased ; and the people had steadily advanced in all the essentials of civilized life. Nevertheless, in the midst of this evident progress, many difficulties and embarrassments had to be met and overcome. Occasional predatory incursions of the natives had to be checked and sometimes severely punished by the mili- tary power of the Government ; and foreign traders also, particularly British, caused the Government much trouble and annoyance. But, in the order of a beneficent Providence, all were successfully accomplished, and the majesty of the laws eventually maintained. From the beginning, the people of Liberia, with a commendable zeal and firmness, pursued a steady purpose towards the fulfillment of the great objects of their mission to Africa. They have established on her shores an asylum free from political oppression, and from all the disabil- ities of an unholy prejudice ; they have aided essentially in extirpating the slave-trade from the whole line of her Western coast ; they have introduced the blessings of civihzation and Christianity among her heathen population ; and I may also assume that by their entire freedom from all insubordination or disregard of lawful authority, and by their successful diplomacy with England, France, and Spain, on matters involving very perplexing international questions, they have indicated some ability, at least, for self-government and the management of their own public affairs. And just here — as I find that exceptions are pretty generally taken in this coimtry to the exclusion of whites from all participation in the Govern- ment of Liberia — I may remark that this provision in the organic law of the Eepublic was not prompted byany feeUngs of prejudice against white men, but was desirable more especially for the reason that the colonists 13 would retfiin in thoir own hands the wholo control of the Govornmont until they .should fully demonstrate tlio pi'oblem as to tlieir ability to conduct tho affairs of a State. And, INfr. President, this, T suppose, may now bo accounted as settled. The Republic of Liljcria is now a fi.Vi'd fact, with all tho elements of free institutions and self-government, em- bracing* within her territorial limits, at tho present time, about six hund- red miles of sea-coast, and an interior over which she may readily ac- it which Mr. Morris made of Liberian products at our Cen- tennial Exposition, demonstrated the ability of that country to supply commerce with a goodly number of articles which the people of other countries desire and will pay for. Coffee, indigo, palm-oil, palm-soup, ivory, cam-wood, India rubber, sugar, arrow-root, ginger, ground-nuts, iron ore, gums and spices are products which the world demands and will consume. These are the promise and prophecy of prosperity and power ; but they are not to be had without labor. The observation of a Greek philosopher, "'God gives nothing valuable to men without labor," is as true now as it was in the days of Socrates; as true of Libe- ria as of America. We must not deceive our colored friends by descrip- tions drawn from imagination and not from facts. Liberia is not an El Dorado where gold may be gathered like stones in the highway. Without industry, intelligently directed, there can be no prosperity anywhere. If the emigrant wants food or gold, he must dig for it ; if he wants coffee, he must plant the trees and wait three years for a crop ; if he wants a cabin for shelter, he must build it. There, as here, free- dom means freedom to work, save and enjoy, or to be idle, destitute and miserable. The Exodus Associations, now organizing in the United States, are taking steps in the right direction. They contribute money and send delegates to Liberia to examine and report the condition, climate, soil and productions of the country, select healthy localities at a distance from the coast, and ascertain on what terms lands may be purchased, either of the Liberian Government or the natives. If the reports be favorable, large uumljers will apply for passage with means to establish themselves in the selected localities, and relieve the Society of all further expense. It has been objected that this exodus will deprive the country of the labor of a valuable class of colored people, and leave behind the idle, the dissolute, the aged and infirm, a burden on the community. This objection seems, on first view, to have some weight; but when we con- sider that our colored population is between four and five millions, it is obvious that the exportation of one or two thousand a year would reduce the productive force of the country in only an infinitesimal amount, and would cause no serious disturbance of its industrial interests. The exo- dus on any scale probable, or even possible within the lives of the pres- ent generation, will be but a small fraction of the natural increase of the race. But if we admit, for the sake of argument, that the exodus of one in a hundred of robust, industrious men and women may diminish, produc- tion temporarily in this country in a perceptible degree, its effect on the colored people who remain would be favorable. So far as competition for employment would be diminished, they would be better off. They would receive higher wages, because the labor supply would be less and the demand equal. They would receive better t^reatment from their em- ployers, whose interest it would be to keep them in the country and in their service. But there is no danger of "a corner " in the labor market. The com- fortable and contented will not emigrate ; the timid and ignorant will not. They who have young children or aged parents to support will " rather bear the ills they have than fly to others that they know not of.'' The ambitious, aspiring and discontented will emigrate. He who re- sents social ostracism and political inferiority will look to a country where his race is dominant and the government his own. It is not enough that his personal freedom is secure, that all his civil rights are guaranteed, that he has facilities for the education of his children, that his life, property and reputation are under the aegis of law ; the intel- ligent, thinking colored man feels keenly that it is not in the law, nor in his stars, but in himself, that he is an underling. He is one of a depressed race ; and so long as he remains under the shadow of a domi- nant race, so long will he remain an underling. He will go where he will be the peer of the best. It would be an error for emigrants to expect, during the first few years of their residence in Liberia, all the comforts of life which they enjoyed in America. Such a mistake would lead to disappointment. The children of Israel were released from bondage, but, weary and footsore, hungry and thirsty, in their desert journey, they longed for the 9 leeks and onions and fleshpots of Egypt. So the despondent cmij^rant. during the early part of his residence, may say to our Society as the Israelites said to Moses, "Why hast thou brought us forth to die in this wilderness ? " The early colonists who landed at Jamestown and Ply- mouth endured similar and more severe sufferings. Even those who heed the dictum, "Go "West, young man," sacrifice something of present enjoyment to future well-being. The feeble in mind or body are dis- couraged ; the strong and hopeful work and wait and reap their harvest of good in due time. A self-sustaining emigration will be of immense value to the present A merico- Africans. The little republic needs men capal)le of bearing arms;— men to make roads to open up the country,— men of the various mechanical trades as well as farmers, who will contribute to the national wealth by their intelligence and industry. And who can estimate the lilessings of such an emigration to the native tribes, especially to those which acknowledge allegiance to the Liberian government ? What in- crease of products by labor more intelligently directed ! What advance- ment in education! What moral and physical improvement! What diffusion of Christian light in the dark places of superstition ! Where industry goes, commerce will follow ; where commerce goes, the mis- sionary will follow,— the Bible, the school, the printing-press, the steam-engine, the railway, all will follow in rapid succession. There are political considerations which favor a closer connection than exists at the present time between Liberia and the United States. But it is not probable that either party desires annexation. Liberia would not willingly surrender her independence, however prematurely it was declared. Her citizens would feel themselves dwarfed if their country should become an appendage of a distant and powerful nation in which they would be of no more importance than one of its fifth rate cities. Nor would the people of the United States desire the annexa- tion of an African territory with the responsibility of defending it in the event of a foreign war. Nations are more infiuenced by interest than by sympathy. They are slow to accept a bargain in which they take all the risk and expense, with but slender prospect of any compen- sating advantage. We are not going to make a railway from Monrovia to Cairo as a gratuity through sheer benevolence. Two and a-half centu- ries were required to prepare this country for a railway to the Pacific. 10 The railway from Monrovia to Cairo will be built, but it will be built piece by piece, as the needs of commerce and travel demand, and as capital shall find it a paying investment. Annexation would not promote the safety of Liberia, but in certain contingencies would increase her perils. Except in conflicts with na- tive tribes, the surest defence of Liberia is her weakness. No powerful nation would wage war against a people too feeble to make even a show of resistance. The whole world would cry "shame." But if Liberia were annexed, it would be the most vulnerable part of the United States. An outlying territory, the gate to the rich commerce of a con- tinent, would be strongly coveted, easily seized, firmly held, and never evacuated except as the result of unsuccessful war. A protectorate, in some form, would conduce more to the safety of Liberia, and to the commercial and political interests of the United States than an organic union. We may rightfully say, we ought emphatically to say, to botli her native and foreign enemies, if such there be, "Hands off! Don't touch this foster child of ours." No doubt the English merchants covet Liberia, because they wish to monopolize the trade of all Western and Southern Africa, from the gi-eat desert to the Cape of Good Hope. They will defy when they dare, and intrigue when they cannot intimidate. They will lend money to an impecunious government, as the price of its independence; and when pay-day comes they will say, "stand and deliver," unless we dis- pute the claim. We have a right to share in that profitable commerce, and sliall not suffer the gate to be barred against us. Self-interest will induce the United States to protect Liberia against the neighboring tribes, which are peaceable unless made hostile by foreign intrigue. Permit me to say in conclusion, Mr. President, that this Society per- ceives in the near future tlie fruition of its hopes ; the consummation of its work. It has encountered obloquy at home and discouragements abroad. In circumstances the most adverse, it has cherished an abid- ing faith in the final triumph of its cause. Its firm trust in God, and love of humanity, sustained it when even the colored people, whose best friend it was, turned their hearts and faces against it. And now the day is dawning. Light breaks in all over the land. Education, industry and frugality are preparing an emigration, of moderate num- bers at first, but gradually swelling to a mighty stream, as Liberia shall 11 be ill a coadition to absorl) it, until commerce, civilization and Chris- ^tianity, overleaping the boundaries of the Americo-African repuVilic, shall redeem the continent. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BKFORE THE |merican |olonization Iociety, tTAXi-UAX*^ 21, lO'ZQ. Genl. S. C. ARMSTRONG, Principal of Hampton Instiiuie, Virginia. PUBLISHKD BY REQUEST. WASHINGTON, CITY: Colonization Building, 450 Pennsylvania Avenue. 1879. ADDRESS. What is the sentiment of the colored people of this country, the South especially, in respect to making the United States their home, and in respect to emigration to Liberia ? A few evenings ago, I asked of the over two hundred young colored men and women who have come from thoughout the land, principally from the South, to the Hampton school for an education, what they thought of going to Liberia. A dozen hands went quickly up. I in- quired of each one the ground of his idea. A variety of reasons was given that, I believe, fairly illustrates the status of the negro mind on the Liberia question. One young man had, in the spirit of Christian discipleship, consecrat- ed himself to the work of preaching the gospel in that laud ; several felt that in this country the negro never will be, as they expressed it, "free;" that the black man is and will be far from being free to all that is open to the white man, and that only in a land of their own can they be on even terms with all, and find the freedom which they seek. The students had heard of coffee culture in Liberia and of other in- ducements to go; but, on the other hand, some were awaiting letters from friends who had gone over promising to write how they got on, but had never been heard from ; some had heard of great havoc among emigrants, and there was a general sense of insecurity and uncertainty as to that country. One fair-skinned, bright girl had an uncle who had organized sixteen churches in Liberia and was full of hope and enthusiasm . She meant to go as a missionary ; other young women had the same idea ; the great majority had no thought of emigration, and many had decided notions against the Republic. As a whole, the students of Hampton expect to remain in this coun- try, their idea being expressed by one who said "The colored man is better off here than anywhere else in the world." Our students have, more than once, been addressed by prominent Southern men who have said to them, in effect: "Many of you are Virginians; we must work together to build up this Commonwealth, We believe in this work of education; you shall have your share of the school money and we will protect you in your rights." This is the tone of progressive men at the South, and their strength is indicated by the fact that, at least in Virginia, no Democratic candi- date dares venture, in his canvas for election to office, to denounce the public school system. The intelligent colored men and women who are honestly working for the real welfare of their people in the Southern States, are, so far as I know about them, winning the respect, good-will and moral support of the people of all classes, and in spite of many discouragements, are gen- erally cheerful and contented. Even the average freedman does not care to change his home . Yet, in some quarters, there are grievous com- plaints of hard times, poor pay and bad treatment, which create a desire for a place where living may be easier. It would be strange if among the four millions of Anglo-Africans there were not men of honest purpose, and good capacity, anxious to try a country of their own. The missionary idea is gaining strength every year. The little company of graduates from negro schools in America, one of them from Hampton, who are doing excellent work at the Mendi Mission, under the American Missionary Association, near to Liberia, is proof that the peculiar field of the enlightened freedmen of this country is not forgotten. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Bos- ton is looking to the South for men to enter the grand field opened up by Stanley whenever the means shall be in hand ; and I do not think it will seek in vain. Twelve years ago an earnest but unsuccessful effort was made by that Board to secure colored missionaries for Africa ; yet there were many scores of educated negroes in the Northern States, We are likely, I believe, to find in the South the finest products of Anglo-African civilization, a better, simpler, more straight-forward de- velopment. Thence, not exclusively of course, will go across the sea the men who will best illustrate to the world the capabilities of their race. White men will get a large part of the money that is to be made from African trade, but I have faith that colored men will do their full share in the work of regeneration waiting to be done there, the need of which is the most piteous " Macedonian Cry " that ever was sent over to Christendom. Africa — Liberia as one of its open doors — is the field for an Anglo- African crusade. No other region is for a moment to be thought of compared with this. Just as, in the Providence of God, his people are set free, and the young and earnest and able among them are rising to a plane of Christian manhood and womanhood, the wonders and resources of the Dark Continent are unfolded. Who doubts the final triumph of right over wrong in the carrying back there of the very Clirist to build up whose Kingdom the slave-hunters were unconscious agents. But there must be men and women of pure devotion and lives, of clear, wise heads, and endowed with common sense. The requisition for common sense will be the hardest to fill. Among our colored people there is a discontented class; on edge with things here ; much occupied with its grievances, and, those of this class who are plucky and adventurous, are disposed to try the Colored Re- public. As things are here, the finer the cultivation of a colored man, the keener his sufferings — especially in the North, where his mental and moral wants are so lavishly supplied, but his social cravings neglected, and his tinted skin is a tahoo from congenial association . I think I am right in stating that their advanced culture in America tends to skepticism. The old religious nature is, to an educated negro, with- ered by the pain that comes from finding that that which God made, his complexion, is as a sign set against him a — mark of degradation. Yet among the colored people themselves there is a prejudice of color, here unobserved, because overpowered by that of the whites which lumps together under its ban the purest black and the clearest white (provided a few drops of negro blood can be traced to the latter, ) and by making common cause between them forces them into one social body. Remove this pressure from the outside and those of pure and mixed blood become mutually jealous; the latter assuming a superiority by reason of the white or "Norman " blood in their veins, and the pure being proud of their purity. This is illustrated in Jamaica where the whites, col- ored and blacks are completely severed socially. A trustee of Libe- ria College told me that this question had given some trouble in the appointments at that institution, and it appears in Liberian politics. Going over there is not entire escape from prejudice of color. There was evinced, in my conversation with the students at Hampton, much curiosity about Liberia. They represent a class of negroes who take a very matter-of-fact view of that country ; they wish to ' ' better themselves, " and in their pincliing poverty, and in the money famine of the South, turn eagerly to brighter prospects. Wise, just treatment of the colored laborer in the South is far from universal. I never saw or heard of a successful Southern farmer who did not believe in negro labor as "the best in the world; " yet one of the leading agricultural journals says, "We are cursed with negro labor." The "darkey " is a convenient scapegoat for those who want to blame somebody if ends don't meet. Good, kind management and wise di- recting heads are indispensable to success with colored workmen, and that they don't always get ; the latter depend very much for the value of their labor upon favorable outward conditions, the frequent absence of which is to be expected in their circumstances. Liberia, as giving to the enterprising but discontented or ill-treated negro laborer scope and challenge for all his powers, is a most impor- tant factor in reconstruction. It is simple justice, very inadequate, but 80 far as it goes is a recognition of his claim to try the land he was torn from. Thirty years ago, statesmen like Clay and Webster talked of the na- tion's debt to the negro, and this inspired the Colonization scheme, which commanded a strong support from tlie South. After slapping the abolitionists in the face with their talk of right and wrong, a later generation freed the slave, as a war measure enfranchised him, used his vote as political capital, and, after squandering it, have left the burden of his education and improvement to the old slave-holders. The ac- count has not yet been squared. It is as true to day as it was thirty years ago that there is debt to the race brought here by violence and wrong, and a part of that debt is a fair chance in the land of their fathers. A difficulty in the Liberian question is the negroes' self-distrust. The race has sadly, perhaps inevitably, adopted the white man's idea of itself. It has, as a whole, no enthusiasm, no idea or sentiment. It lacks organizing power, guiding instincts. It has no genius for throwing and keeping uppermost its best and ablest men ; it has plenty of feeling, but no flow of it, no tendency to any clear and general end or purpose. Such tendency is developed slowly, by long experience, by endless struggle with difficulty ending in victory, and that the citizens of Liberia have just commenced. The ex-slave is not easily allured to a •country ruled by his own people. I have an impression that the Libe- rians are lacking, like the race hei-e, in esprit de corps, in patriotic sen- timent and in strong administration. There should be accorded to the freedmen the widest opportunity to make for themselves homes on African shores if they choose to try it. I rejoice in the existence of the Colonization Society, believing in its work, the founding of an African Republic. I believe in it as a begin- ning not as an end; a hopeful beginning; a good showing for thirty years of effort. It is not a power ; but is it not a germ of power ? Gen- erations alone can answer this. To disparage it by contrast is to re- proach the negro for being unfortunate. It were better to blame the Almighty directly for His doings in permitting suffering, injustice and misfortune to exist. Give the negro a chance. You don't despise the tottering steps of a little child : time and hard knocks only can bring strength. Let the black man's slender self-respect stiffen by struggle, and his race pride gain by race effort. In the United States it is a curse to be black ; the highly educated negro is like a man without a country. Help him to make one for himself. The African race has been pushed suddenly from the depths of bond- age to the highest liberty; it has skipped centuries in the line of devel- opment. On its unaccustomed height it is confused; it is in its own way; easily victimized by bad men, and troubles are inevitable. Genuine progress is slow, and is the result not so much of struggle, as of successful struggle. The thing must not only be attempted, but it must be done, and there should be a century in which to do it. When a Northern man recently asked me "Have the colored people improved in morals in the past ten years," I asked him, " Has New Eng- land improved in morals in tlie past ten years ? " Every stage of civili- zation has its peculiar difficulties and nations forge slowly ahead. Progress is a moral rather than a material thing. All that is good in civilization is "The sum of the sacrifices of those who have gone before us." The African question, at bottom, is whether there will be enough men and women of that race who shall unselfishly and wisely devote them- selves to its welfare. Whatever shall be fine in their future will rest on this foundation of sacrifice. Has Liberia the men, or can she get them from here ? With them her future is assured, and she will move Africa. Ten such men would save her. The Colonization Society claims much for its success so far. Consid- ering that it has planted exotic ideas where men have for ages been fixed in the lowest conditions, the Republic may be considered a wonder. ■Compare it with the early stages of our own country's growth and there is nothing to discourage. We know too little about her. The roll of pamphlets sent me to read •contains no exhaustive statement of facts, but general expressions of praise. I never felt really informed about Liberia till I read the letters of Mr. Williams, correspondent of the Charleston News and Courier^ whose mingled criticism and commendation made the Republic appear like any new terrestrial region, full of advantages and of disadvantages. Por the first time I found what an intelligent man would say against it. There is need of a fair, forcible account of that country, with maps and pictures, that shall be to the colored man what a chart is to a sailor — a guide to success and a guard against disaster. How about colored communities in the United States ? A colony composed of the 450 manumitted slaves of John Randolph was, in 184G, placed in Miami County, Ohio. "They suffered much at ^' first from prejudice, yet soon found kind friends. While producing " nothing remarkable, the old have died off and the new generation has "made considerable advancement. They, however, owe more to exter- *'nal influences than to inherent qualities." This statement I gleaned from an apparently reliable letter to the New York Tribune. 9 There are negro communities of which I have no definite knowledge, notably one or two in Canada; but all, I believe, were established by an influence from without. Certainly, in America, the negroes show no tendency in themselves to segregate. They drift to the cities in throngs, where their mortality increases and their self-respect, as a class, seems to diminish. In a simple, industrious, country life, the freedmen gain in numbers and in average prosperity and worth. Against this background of life in America, stands Liberia, attempt- achievements whose success its record here makes doubtlul. Let us wait and see the negro on his own ground, on his own resour- ces, blundering away, but slowly learning from his blunders — as we all do — getting experience and digesting it. Let the negro race maintain a respectable republic, and it will furnish the best possible answer to the charge so often made, "The negro has done nothing." AFRICAN COLONIZATION. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFOEB THE AlERIOl COLOMZATION SoCIETf ^^PCtDAElY 2^8t» iQfQ Rt. Rev. M. A. DeWolfe Howe, D.D., LLD., Bishop of Central Pennsylvania. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. WASHINGTON, CITY : Colonization Building, 450 Pennsylvania Avenue. 1879. ADDRESS No thoughtful American can withhold the acknowledgment that there is due to people of African descent, in this country, the best that can be done for their welfare and happiness. Their ancestors did not, like those of European stock, come here as colonists of their own ac- cord to find new homes, and achieve a higher destiny. They were the victims of a policy then common to the civilized world. France, Spain and England drew from the shores of Africa unwilling servants to toil for them in their colonial possessions. And so, all along our Atlantic border, the children of Ham, were, before we became a nation, " hew- ers of wood and drawers of water," — menials in house and field to other families of the human race. In the progress of human events, their descendants, now numbered by millions, are here no longer in involuntary servitude. All legal im- pediments to their advancement are removed. They are now free to aspire after any social or civil position to which their intelligence, edu- cation, and moral worth may entitle them. They may amass wealthy wield influence, hold oflBce, like any other citizens. And individuals of their race have achieved such distinction among us. I think there are very few who are offended by these examples of men who have strug- gled up from the general abasement of their people, disarmed prejudice, and fairly secured positions of prominence and respect. Enthusiasts, who once espoused their cause when all this was impossible, and who have visions of the future of the race which, I apprehend, can never be realized on this continent, say, — why not let them remain where they are, on their native soil, and work out the problem of life, under the ad- vantages which now are accorded to them by the amended Constitution? Doubtless, the great mass of them will continue; and get, and hold possession of all the titular rights which belong to American citizens. The removal of 5,000,000 of people across the ocean is too vast an en- terprise to be seriously considered ; most of them will abide where Providence, favoring or adverse, has fixed their lot. Yet it will be a new chapter in human history if with all the inherent difficulties of their position — difficulties which no change in the laws of the land can possibly annul — they can attain to the same level of social, commercial, and civil progression to which a dominant race of overshadowing num- bers has long ago risen. And this perpetual inferiority will not be in any great degree attributable to the prejudice which persists in looking down upon a people who have once been in bondage. It is equally true that the Indian, — civilize him as much as you will, — and the Mongo- lian, — in whatever swarms he may come to our shores — can never com- pete on the same arena with the race that for a thousand years has been in the van of human progress, and has the advantage of prepossession of education, property and power. And so, the African, impeded by his condition and history in this country, and crowded off from the track of progress by competitors of traditional precedence and overwhelming numbers, will, save in a few exceptional cases, earn a precarious liveli- hood by the sweat of his brow, hated and spurned by the laborers of another race who dig and delve at his side. The more intelligent and aspiring of African stock have a far more inviting field of enterprise open before them on their ancestral shores. A free Colony, which has now risen to the dignity of an independent Republic, and which has been planted long enough to demonstrate that it has in it the elements of permanency and progression, offers them an unstinted share in its noble mission, and in its exalted destiny. There is an unencumbered field in which they may seek advancement in all that man esteems honorable without encountering invidious rivalry or universal and indomitable prejudice. Here, at a disadvantage, because their civilization is inferior to that which surrounds and overshadows them, — thither they can carry a degree of moral and mental enlighten- ment which shall entitle them at once to social respect, and incite them to strive for the prizes of fortune and the honors of office. For, most of the colonists who have already found a home in Liberia imigrated under far less favorable circumstances than theirs who now, and hereafter, may embark on the same great life enterprise. They went in comparative ignorance, just released from the tutelage of servi- tude, and invested with tlic terrible responsibilities of liberty in a strange land. These have been for half a generation In the hard school of self- dependence — introduced by philanthropists to the rudiments of book- learning, and through freedom have regained the consciousness, and are fired with the ambitions of manhood. They can contribute to the com- mon stock of society there more of the ingredients which constitute national strength, prosperty, and honor, than their predecessors could afford. The pioneers have broken up the waste and made it ready, and have beaten back the savages that would drive them from the strand ; — now is the time ; and here are the men qualified by a special Providence to go in with the winnowed grain of a higher civilization, to " possess the land which the Lord sware unto their fathers." The time for colonization has not passed by: — "the fulness" of it has just come. The tokens of this fact are found both here and in Af- rica. The experiment of political equality, now tried among us for nearly a score of years has not shown that all distinctions of race are or will be forgotten. Centuries cannot efface even the factitious lines of demarkation between the races, which a century of untoward re- lations has produced, and deeply scored. Nature forbids them to blend; and history pronounces that they cannot stand side by side on the same plane of elevation. On the other hand, Africa was never so attractive as now. The American Colony, to which this Society has sent out more than 15,000 settlers is more prosperous than ever. It is recognized in the family of Nations. Its productions and exports are increasing year by year. Its intercourse with the more intelligent tribes of the interior is constant- ly widening and becoming more profitable. Its schools and other institutions for the advancement of the people; its laws and admin- istration of government, are growing more efficient and better adapted to their needs. It has had no inconsiderable share in the suppression of the slave trade, which is now denounced by all civilized nations, and by the vigilance of their navies is almost banished from the seas. Just considered as a home for the colored race, where there are none to jostle them out of the way of progress — no impediment of law or 6 prejudice, or preoccupation on the arena of manly effort, where suc- ceeding generations may reasonably hope to surpass their fathers in all that ennobles man and makes his life a joy to himself and a blessing to others, Liberia is, I believe, the most inviting spot on the habita- ble earth ! But, regarding the Colony on the Coast of Africa, planted, enlarged, cultivated, and defended by colored emigrants from the United States, as a theatre on which men of the same race can most hopefully ex- ercise and develop the manhood that is in them, we do not half ap- preciate its advantages, if we think of it as a mere isolated commu- nity, bounded by the geographical limits, defined in the treaties with the barbarous tribes that compass it about ; it is the gate of entrance to interior Africa. And, what interior Africa is we are only begin- ning to know. The researches of Barth and Livingstone, and our own Stanley, reveal to us that it is swarming with intelligent people, far su- perior to the tribes which on the sea coast have been debased by in- cessant wars, waged for the capture of prisoners to be sold to the slave-traders ; that the population of the Continent is estimated at two hundred millions; that it is rich in arable lands and precious minerals; that navigable lakes and rivers traverse the interior, and that only civilization and enterprise(which are familiar to us, so that the products of them seem to us natural elements like fire and water), are required to introduce steamboats and railroads, and telegraphs. Then those vast resources which have been " hidden from ages and generations" shall be brought out and mingled with the commerce of the world, and the millions that now "sit in darkness" shall learn to live like men, and to die in hope of immortality ! Among the first colonies of historic times were those planted by the Phenicians on the Northern shores of Africa, where France, nominally Christian, and thoroughly tolerant, has now her Colony of Algeria. England has unfurled her Red-cross banner at Sierra Leone on the West, at Cape Colony and Natal on the South, and Zanzibar on the East; and America has her wntch-tower also in the cordon of Christian civilization which almost girts the Continent. The circumvallation about the stronghold of ignorance and degradation is well-nigh complete. Why do not these allied hosts interchange the signal of onset, and rise up, and go in, and possess the land for humanity, and for God ? Nay, why * have not the civilization and enterprise of Europe, and America long since penetrated "the dark Continent,'' and brought its people, and its products into contact with the commerce of mankind ? I answer; — first, because the reports of proceedings on the Coasts have made tlie tribes of the interior afraid to deal with the pale-faced and ruthless invaders from beyond the sea; second, because the climatic influences of the region have been regarded as fatal to the white race ; and finally, because hith- erto there have been no representatives of their own branch of the human family who in sufficient numbers have been uplifted by the civilization which they have rather seen than shared in other lands, and made will- ing to return to Africa, and there to do or to suffer for the regeneration of their "brethren after the flesh." When the Colonies of America and Great Britain, shall have trained or drawn to themselves from lands where they were once in bondage, and always in subserviency, Negro men of lofty hopes, and generous impulses, and practical education, and daring enterprise — then Central Africa will be reached by missionaries of civilization and religion ; its resources will be developed, and circu- lated ; its people will thrill with the sense of a new and higher life ; and the story of its estrangement from the great family of nations will pass ^way. I pity the man of the swarthy skin, who, entrusted with the clues of liberty and education, has no ambition to follow them when they lead out of darkness and doubt to such a destiny, — to possibilities ■of good for himself and his progeny, nowhere else to be enjoyed ! In the distribution of the human race, the sons of Ham were as- signed to Africa; to its peculiarities of food and climate their constitu- tions are accommodated. A century of life in other climes has not ob- literated this natural adaptation. Experiment has proved that colored emigrants from America survive and flourish where men of another race lose vigor, sicken and die. They are the elected redeemers of their Father Land. It waits their coming : — it sent them forth with tears ; it will receive them again with joy ! This Society, which once was impugned as an agent of domestic agi- tation, and again traduced as the enemy of the blacks, has in all time numbered among its supporters many of the distinguished divines, pat- riots and statesmen of our country. Its beneficent errand and work is, to aid worthy colored persons of either sex, and in any vigorous stage of life, who may desire to seek a home on the shores of that fruitful and pleasant Continent from which their fathers were torn away ; to help them in their outfit, and to secure them a freehold on their arrival. It is a noble, and far-reaching charity, conferring a blessing not only on its immediate recipients, but on their children and children's children, " even to the years of many generations;" — not only on these, but by them replenishing that well-spring of life and hope, in the desert, the overflow of whose waters will refresh, and gladden the waste places that lie beyond. And again, the civilization which through this medium shall reach at length to the waiting myriads in Central Africa will give back a reflected light to the source of its emanation, and the entire world will be brighter and happier when there shall no longer be a dark and dreary spot on all its habitable compass. I stood lately in Westminster Abbey, that Mausoleum of the mighty dead, at the spot where rest the weary feet of the great English Explorer, by whose adventurous journeys the world has learned so much of the "secret places" of the earth; and on Livingstone's monument which overhangs the place of his repose, I read the record of his prayer of- fered in loneliness in the wilds of Central Africa; and here I repeat it as my own in this place of concourse, "May Heaven's richest blessing come down on every one, American, English or Turk, who helps to heal the open sore of the world. Amen." !11 BUTf OF STiEIBTHiIII& MSMIA. AN ADDRESS HON. G. WASHINGTON WARREN, Delivered in }Vashington, D. C, Sixty-Third Annual Meeting of THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY, JANUARY 20, 1880. PuMished iy Request of the Society . WASHINGTON CITY: Colonization Building, 450 Pennsylvania Avenue. 1880. ADDRESS. Mr. President: The American Colonization Society is distinguished from all other charitable and benevolent institutions in this, that it is or- ganized, and holds its place of business in the National Capital. New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston and other large cities have or- ganized Societies which from those centres extend their operations throughout the country ; and they have State Societies auxiliary to the American Colonization Society. But it is a significant fact, and indicative of the National and supreme importance of our Society, that it was founded here in Washington, that here it has held its Annual Meetings for nearly two-thirds of a century, and has during all this period, had its executive committee composed of eminent and patriotic men holding frequent sessions here, and diligently endeavoring to pro- mote its philanthropic objects. Again, this Society, more than any other in our country, has here- tofore held intimate relations with our National Government, and has been its selected agent in carrying out its most delicate and humane mission . After Liberia had been established on the western coast of Africa, by the far-seeing wisdom of the founders of the American Col- onization Society, whenever, during that darkest period of the slave trade, our ships of war seized a slave-ship, and brought her into an American port, the Government contracted with it to transport to and colonize the re-captured Africans in that home of the free. In the course of time, Liberia which had become the home of so many who had been snatched or redeemed from slavery, was an efficient and zealous in- strument in the cause of humanity, in breaking up that most detestable traffic. 4' Every great nation has had its colonies. History is full of the settle- ments of new countries by peoples banished or voluntarily emigrating from their homes, and of the exactions made upon them as they grew up and flourished, but were still kept in subjection as tributaries to the mother country. Liberia is the only instance in history of a free and independent nation colonized by another country — not indeed by the Government, but by its incorporated Society, which thus has become the founder of a distant State, destined to have a leading influence in the Christianization of a Continent. It will be the province of History at some future period, to draw a parallel between the policy and aims, and their comparative results, of the East India Company and those of the American Colonization Society : the one founded upon the lust of personal gain and plunder, and for the extension of National dominion, the other solely in the interest of humanity and for the amelioration of a dow'n- trodden race. If the United States has greatly developed her material resources by the enforced employment of the slave labor of those of Afi-ican descent in the cultivation of what was once her chief staple, she not only has expiated the National sin by the sacrifice of blood and treasure in the late war, resulting in emancipation, but she, as it were, made an atone- ment m advance by presenting to Africa the form and example of a free republic in Liberia. President Anthony W. Gardner, in his message addressed to the first session of the 17th Legislature of Liberia on the 10th of last month, depicts in glowing terms the auspicious omens of their National prosper- ity and their means of advancing the permanent interests of the neighboring peoples. He recommends the passage by the Legislature of a resolution of thanks to the Government of the United States for sending the U. S. ship Ticonderoga at a critical juncture, and for the friendly services rendered by her Commander, Commodore Shu- feldt. He recommends liberal appropriations tor the support of the schools and the college, and favors the encouragement of internal im- provements. Let me quote a few eloquent passages on the Mission of Liberia. "Permit me to remark to you, gentlemen constituting this honor- able body, our duty to our Brethren of the Interior is providentially plain before us. Let us heed the Macedonian call now, lest we have cause, when too late, to regret it. God in Ilis overruling providence has inclin- ed and predisposed the hearts of our Aboriginal brethren toward us for good. Let me urge upon you the importance of heeding the divine monition, and of engaging in the work of enlarging our borders, and making strong our bands, by uniting with this intelligent people who like ourselves can read and write (though in a different language) and who occupy no mean rank in mathematical and classical literature. A people who for many generations have been free from the destructive effects of intoxicating drinks, and are therefore in the happy enjoyment of an unimpaired body and mind, an undwarfed manhood, and a soul that delights in the free worship and adoration of the Great God, the merciful and the compassionate. ***** "The aboriginal tribes also in and about Cape Palmas with the ex- ception of the Bereby section, present a most encouraging and gratify- ing aspect. ******* " From these references, gentlemen, your honorable body will be able to form some idea of the vast and favorable opportunities present- ed to Government for uniting our brethren of the tribes around and be- yond with ourselves, and thus laying the foundation of a powerful fu- ture State. * ****** "I am willing, gentlemen, and I believe you are, to follow the in- dications of the Great Arbiter of all events in the work of civilizing and evangelizing Africa. Who can divine the motive that induced the Mohammedan King, Ibrahima Sissi, to seek the co-operation of the Li- berian Government ? Who can foresee the sublime results that may hang upon the appeals echoing from the Barline, Mar, Soreka, and Grebo tribes, for a more intimate connection with Liberia in all her in- terests ? Admit that their motives are wholly selfish and mercenary. Admit that their object is only for gain ; even in that case they will compare favorably with other nations and peoples on the globe wlio make a much louder boast of having higher aims in view than the mam- mon of this world. But can you positively assert that there may not be a background of the most thrilling events, pregnant with the highest interests of African elevation and redemption behind the scenes ? You cannot ; you dare not . "It seems to me that I can see in the call of the Mohammedan chief the fall, or the bowing of the crescent before the cross, at least, in Af- 6 rica. And who can tell the part that Christian Liberia is to play in this great drama ? Gentlemen, allow me to repeat, we have a great work before us, and it is our duty as a Christian Government to go for- ward, and do all we can in our day and generation, to bring about the grand result, not only for the unification, but the civilization and Chris- tianization of the thousands of heathen now sitting in darkness and in the region and shadow of death." * * :>: h< In concluding this topic, he announces the Liberian policy to be, "Interior development; and the incorporation of the native tribes into the Liberian Body Politic." Mr. President, it would seem from reading these words, warm from the pen of the President of Liberia, and in the presence here of those who liave grown gray in this cause, that our Society might hope for the speedy realization of the desire of its founders, and say with Simeon, of old, " Our eyes have seen Thy salvation which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all the people." Now is the glorious opportunity of this Society. What is wanted is, that through its officers and agents, at public meetings and through the press, it should make an appeal in earnest to the whole country. The apathy which has lately fallen upon our people with regard to helping on the African colonization cause is owing to a strange misap- prehension of our duty. We often hear it said. Your Colonization So- ciety did much good in the time of slavery in the South, but, since the day of emancipation, its mission is ended. The colored people have a right to stay here, and their labor is wanted here. If any wish to go to Liberia, let them obtain the means themselves. At any rate, it is no affair of ours ; we are not responsible for their present condi tion. Now this position is untenable ; we are all wrong. The fact is, the whole country, and every State, as part of the Union, is morally re- sponsible for the former existence of African slavery in the South, and the consequent present condition of the freedmen. All the old States agreed to the continuance of the slave trade for twenty years after the formation of the Constitution of the United States. Subsequently, the whole country became responsible for the enforcement of the law for the rendition of fugitive slaves from within its borders; and for those Northern statesmen educated in the North, who afterwards settled in Southern States, became Governors, or Senators and Representatives in Congress, and were most pronounced in their pro-slavery opinions and influence. We have only to remember that the late civil war was for the defense of the National integrity. Southern States claimed the right to secede. The North and "West declared secession impossible— that our country was indivisible. By the grand result, we are all members of one body politic. If, therefore, one member suffers, all the other members suffer with it. If there is local disorder in one part, the other parts are affected. If the cholera or yellow fever decimates the population in one State, the other States send relief. If the Indian is wronged, the whole counfry moves for him. And so, the problem of the proper care of the freedmeu is a problem for the whole Nation to solve. What the Government cannot or will not do, the people should be asked to supply. Now thousands upon thousands of the freedmen yearn to go to their fatherland. If we throw obstacles in their way, if we refuse to aid them, because they are wanted to till the soil and raise the profitable crops of this country, we are just so much partakers in the guilt of our ancestors who favored the bringing of the ancestors of the freedmen from Africa here, and placing them in bondage for their labor . The American Colonization Society has now a broader field than ever before, and it deserves a place among the missionary efforts and benevolent objects of the Christian community. By a zealous prosecu- tion of its missionary work, not only will Africa be brought more and more under the benign influence of Christianity, but the condition of the freedmen remaining at the South will be vastly improved, when it shall be known, that if they cannot fully enjoy the equal rights of citi- zenship, they may readily obtain the means of going to what they would deem a better country, where they could work out their own des- tiny as a distinct race, and could accomplish the greatest results under the most favorable conditions. We ask, therefore, for the sympathy, the moral support, and the generous aid of the whole country. And one word more ought to be said at this sixty-third Anniversary Meeting in the National Capital. Two things can the National Govern- ment, in the proper exercise of its constitutional functions, do for the cause of our Society. Congress can respond favorably to the able me- morial presented at its last session for an appropriation for explorations and surveys of the western coast of Africa, and from Liberia into Cen- tral Africa, in the interest of commerce and civilization. And the Ex- ecutive might be authorized to employ some of the U. S. Steamships in carrying bi-monthly mails from one or more ports of the United States, so that, no longer we shall be dependent upon British steamers, via Liverpool, as a means of communication with the Republic we founded ; and that no longer we shall be in danger of losing our well-earned pres- tige on the African coast, by the superior enterprise and foresight of the Bi'itish Government; but shall henceforth show ourselves able and willing to cherish and secure the commercial advantages which we were the first to develop. And shall not the plea of humanity be made and answered ? The United States, in her early history, lifted up her voice for the freedom of Modern Greece; she has repeatedly exerted her National power to rescue a naturalized citizen from the custody of his native country which claimed him as her subject. And will she not now grant this boon to those deserving freedmen who long for their fatherland, and to Liberia which has sprung from her very loins, and which promises to be a remedial power for the healing of the African Nations ? 1^. THE EXODUS: Its Effect upon the People of the South Colored Labor not Indispensable. AN ADDRESS DEI.IVEltKI) liEKOItli TlIK Board of Directors ifiiikati8i§iiii« JANUARY 21, 1880, — BY — Rev. C. K. MARSHALL, D. U. Ok VicKsr.ur.G, Miss. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. washington city : Colonization Rooms, 450 Pennsylvania Avenuk. 1880. . Extract from the Minutes of the Board of Directors of the American Colonization Society, at the Annual Meeting held in Washington, D. C, January 21, 1880: " On motion, it was "Resolved, Tliat the thanks of tiie Board are iiereby tendered to the Rev. C. K. Marshall, D.D., of Vielisburg, Miss., for his able, interest- ing, and instructive Address just delivered, and tliat lie be requested to furnish a copy of the same u'ith a view to publication." A true copy. Attest : William Coppinger, Secretary. ADDRESS.* Mr. Prksident : For many years T have taken a deep Interest in the labors of the Society over which you so fittingly preside. I have studied its principles, watched with sjTnpathy its achievements, and prayed for its success. At the South, since the war, we have been so rocked upon stormy billows, that we have not had the time or means to keep up our former interest in the Society, and it seems almost as if the Society and the South had mutually forgotten each other. Nevertheless the institution has survived the thousand perils of the past, and it is to-day a living entity — healthy, brave, and pre- pared for carrying on its work ; and to me it seems as if, though it is the sixty-third anniversary of your life, your real work has scarcely commenced. As a child, as a youth, it has been full of promise and has accomplished much, as some youths perform manly work before their beards are grown. But a new era has dawned upon this land ; old things have passed aAvay — new things wear their shoes ; new forms of evil have arisen, and philanthropic men are looking to find appropriate remedies for them, while old grievances must be remedied by fresh and energetic measures. The South is no longer what it was when this Society was or- ganized. The Negro is no longer a bondsman. Nor yet is he *NoTE. — It is proper tliat, I .