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THE ORIGIN AND PURPOSE
() V
African Colonization mkini;
THE ANNUAL DISCOURSE
delivered at the
SIXTY-SIXTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
American Colonization So'ciet^
HELD IN IHE
New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington, D, C,
Sunday, January 14, 1883,
BY
EDWARD WILMOT BLYDEN, LL. D.,
/'resident of Liberia College.
pifmiui&izEv &v mmwm&w qw warn b@>@sbww.

WASHINGTON CITY
Colonization Building, 450 Pennsylvania Avenue,
¦ 883.

YALE

DISCOURSE.
The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have
thought, so shall it come to pass ; and as I have purposed, so
SHALL IT STAND."— Isaiah xiv-24.
Perhaps it would satisfy the evolutionist or agnostic if the passage
were read as follows :— " Surely as it has bepn conceived so shall it
come to pass; and as it has been purposed, so shall it stand." For
there is not a thinking being, whatever his religious belief, who does
not at once recognize the fact that everything in the physical and
moral world proceeds according to some plan or order. That some
subtle law, call it by whatever name you please, underlies and regu
lates the movements of the stars in their courses and the sparrows in
their flight. It is also the belief of all healthy minds that that law
or influence is always tending towards the highest and best results —
that its prerogative and design are to make darkness light, crooked
things straight and rough places smooth ; or, in the misty phraseolo
gy of modern criticism, it is the" Eternal not ourselves that makes
for righteousness," — that its fiats are irrevocable and their outcome
inevitable. With this understanding, men are now constructing the
'science of history, the science of language, the science of religion, the
science of society, formulating dogmas to set aside dogma, and con
soling themselves that they are moving to a higher level and solving
the problems of the ages.
Amonlg the conclusions to which study and research are conduct
ing philosophers, none is clearer than this — that each of the races of
mankind has a specific character and a specific work. The science
of Sociology is the science of race. •
In the midst of these discussions, Africa is forcing its claims for
consideration upon the attention of the world, and science and phi
lanthropy are bringing all their resources to bear upon its explora
tion andtamelioration. There is hardly an important city in Europe
where there is not an organization formed for the purpose of dealing
with some of the questions connected with this great continent.
There is ' The International African Association," founded at
Brussels, in 1876, of which the King of the Belgians is the patron.

4
" The Italian National Association for the exploration and civiliza
tion of Africa." The " Association Espanola para la Esploracion del
Africa." The King of Spain has taken great practical interest in
this Society. " The German Society for the Exploration of Africa,"
founded in 1872 by the German Geographical Associations. It re
ceives assistance from the government. The "Afrikanische Gesell-
schaft," in Vienna, founded in 1876, also under royal patronage. "The
Hungarian African Association," founded in 1877. " The National
Swiss Committee for the Exploration of Central Africa." The
French Government and the French Chamber of Com
merce have made large grants of money to aid in Afri
can exploration. Then there is an African Association at Rot
terdam, besides the great Royal Geographical Society of England,
which has a special fund for African researches, and has recently sent
Thomson to explore the snow covered mountains of eastern Africa.
This anxiety to penetrate the mysteries of Africa, this readiness
to turn from the subtleties of philosophy and the fascinations of sci
ence, to deal with the great physical fact of an unexplored continent;
is not a new experience in the world. The ancients were equally con
cerned. With a zealous curiosity overcoming the promptings of the
fine.r sentiments and the desire for military glory, Caesar proposed to
abandon his ambitious exploits for the privilege of gazing upon the
source of the Nile.
The modern desire for more accurate knowledge of Aftica is not
a mere sentiment; it is the philanthropic impulse to lift up the mil
lions of that continent to their proper position among the intellectu
al and moral forces of the world ; but it is also the commercial de
sire to open that vast country to the enterprises of trade. Europe is
overflowing with the material productions of its own genius. Impor
tant foreign markets, which formerly consumed these productions,
are now closing against them. Africa seems to furnish the only large
outlet for them, and the desire is to 'make the markets of Soudan
easily accessible to London. Manchester and Liverpool. The de
pressed factories of Lancashire are waiting to be inspired with new
life and energy by the development of a new and inexhaustible trade
with the millions of Central Africa ; so that Africa, as frequently in.
the past, will have again to come to the rescue and contribute to the
needs of Europe. Emergencies drove homeless wanderers to the
shores of Libya : —
" Defessi jEneadae, quae proxima ljtora, cursu
Contendunt petere, et Libyae vertuntur .id oras."*

Virgil's jEneid.

5
But the plans proposed by Europeans for opening up Africa, as
far as they can be carried out by themselves, are felt to be inade
quate. Many feel thai commerce, science, and philanthropy may es
tablish stations and trace out thoroughfares, but they also feel that
these agencies are helpiess to cope fully with the thousand questions
which arise in dealing with the people.
Among the agencies proposed for carrying on the work of civiliz
ation in Africa, none has proved so effective as the American Colo
nization enterprise. People who talk of the civilizing and elevating
influence of mere trade on that continen' , do so because they are un
acquainted with the facts. Nor can missionaries alone do this work.
We do not object to trade, and we would give every possible encoar-
fagement to the noble efforts of missionaries. We would open the!
country everywhere to commercial intercourse. We would give '
everywhere hospitable access to traders. Place your trading: factories
at every prominent point along the coast, and even let them be
planted on the banks of the rivers. Let them draw the
rich products from remote districts. We say, also, send the
missionary to every tribe and every village. Multiply through
out the country the evangelizing agencies. Line the banks
of the rivers with the preachers of righteousness — penetrate
the jungles with those holy pioneers — crown the mountain
tops with your churches, and fill the valleys with your schools. No
single agency is sufficient to cope with the multifarious needs of the
^mighty work. But the indispensable agency is the colony. GroupsJ
of Christian and civilized settlers must, in every instance, bringupthe
rear, if the results of your work are to be widespread, beneficial and
enduring. »
This was the leading idea that gave birth to the Society whose
anniversary we have met to celebrate. To-day we have the Sixty-
Sixth Annual Report of the American Colonization Society. This
fact by itself would excite no feeling, and perhaps no remark. But
when we consider that although this is but the sixty-sixth year of its
existence, it has been successful in founding a colony which has now
been for thirly-five years an independent nation, acknowledged by
all the Powers of the earth, we cannot but congratulate the
organizatio 1 upon an achievement which, considering the cir
cumstances, is unparalleled in the history of civilization ; and
which must be taken as one of the most beautiful illustrations of the
spirit and tendency of Christianity.
When the Society began its work, its programme was modest,
and in the early declarations of its policy it was found expedient to

emphasize the simplicity of its pretensions and the singleness
of its purpose. In describing its objects, one of the most
eloquent of its early supporters — Dr.- Leonard Bacon —
Tsaid, " The Colonization Society is not a missionary society, nor a so-^
ciety for the suppression of the slave trade, nor a society for the im
provement of the blacks, nor a society for the abolition of slavery ;
it is simply a society for the establishment of a colony on the coast of ,
LAirica." But in pursuance of its legitimate object, its labors have been fruitful
in all the ways indicated in Dr. Bacon's statement. It has not only
established a colony, but it has performed most effective missionary
work; it has suppressed the slave trade along six hundred miles of
coast; it has improved the condition of the blacks as no other means
has ; and it is abolishing domestic slavery among the Aborigines of
that continent.
Like all great movements which are the outcome of human needs,
and have in view the amelioration of the condition of large masses of
people, it attracted to its support at the opening of its career, men of
conflicting views and influenced by divers motives. Some of its ad
herents gave one reason for their allegiance, others gave another ; and
sometimes to the superficial observer or to the captious opponent,
these different reasons furnished grounds for animadversions against
the Society. Though it owed its origin to the judicious heads and
philanthropic hearts of some cf the best men that ever occupied po
sitions of prominence and trust in this nation, yet there were those
who ridiculed the scheme as wild and impracticaDle. Some opposed it
because they loved the Negro ; others discountenanced it because they
hated the Negro. Some considered that the Society in wishing to
give him an opportunity for self-government, placed too high an esti
mate upon his ability ; others thought that the idea of sending him
away to a barbarous shore was a disparaging comment upon his. ca
pacity, and robbing him of his right to remain and thrive in the land of
his birth. To not a few who neither loved nor. hated the Negro — but
were simply indifferent to him — the idea of transporting a few eman
cipated slaves to Africa with the hope of bringing about a general ex
odus of the millions in this country, or of building up a nation in that
far-off land of such materials, seemed absurd and ridiculous.
The Society was hardly fifteen yesrs in operation when it met with
organized opposition in the American Anti-Slavery Society, the
founders of which looked upon the work of Colonization as an at
tempt to evade the duty and- responsibility of emancipation. At
this time Mr. William Lloyd Garrison, a leader of the abolition move-

ment, was the most eloquent and persistent of the assailants of the
Society. He carried the war against it into England, and pursued
with unrelenting scorn and invective Mr. Elliott Cresson, who was
then representing the cause before the British public. In the inter
esting life of the great anti-slavery reformer, by Oliver Johnson, it is
said that when Mr. Garrison returned to this country from England
in 1833, he brought with him a "Protest" against the Colonization
scheme, signed by Wilberforce, Macaulay, Buxton, O'Connell and
others of scarcely less weights
• But Mr. Garrison ought to have known, and probably did know,
that it was not the Colonization scheme as conceived by its founders
that these philanthropists opposed, for they were men of a spirit kin
dred to that which animated Samuel J. Mills, and the Finleys and Cald-
wells, whose labors brought the Society into being. What they did op
pose was the scheme as they saw it under the representations of Mr.
Garrison, who, himself, benevolent at heart, had been influenced by per
sonal reasons and by the injudicious utterances of certain advocates
of Colonization. They opposed it as they saw it through the glasses
of such good old Negrois as Father Snowden of Boston, who, in
those days, offered a prayer for the Colonization Society so striking
in its eloquence as to have deserved a place, in the judgment of Mr.
Oliver Johnson, in a serious narrative of the doings of the great
anti-slavery leader — "O God," said the simple and earnest old man,
" we pray that that seven-headed, ten-horned monster, the Coloniza
tion Society, may be smitten through and through with the fiery darts
of truth, and tormented as the whale between the sword-fish and the
thresher."J I say that the friends of Africa in England did not oppose African
Colonization in itself, for just about the time of Mr. Garrison's visit
to England, cr very soon after, they adopted, under the lead of Sir
Thomas Fowell Buxton, a scheme for the regeneration of Africa by
means of her civilized sons, gathered from the countries of their ex
ile ; and at great expense sent out an expedition to the Niger, for the
purpose of securing on that river a hundred square miles of territory
on which to settle the returning exiles. Capt. William Allen, who
commanded the first Niger^expedition, on his return in 1834, when
describing the advantages of a pivilized colony, used these words:
" The very existence of such a community, exalted as it would be
* William Lloyd Garrison and his Times, by Oliver Johnson, p. 130.
J Garrison and kis Times, p .72. Mr. Oliver Johnson, throughout his work, shows his
own conception of the status and functions of the Negro, by never using a capital letter in
writing the word-that describes the race.

8
in its own estimation, and in the enjoyment .of the benefits of civiliza
tion, would excite among its neighbors a desire to participate in those
blessings, and would be at once a normal or model society, gradually
spreading to the most remote regions, and, calling forth the resourc
es of a country rich in so many things essential to commerce, might
change the destinies of the whole of Western Central Africa."*
In a letter addressed by Stephen Lushington and Thomas Fowell
Buxton to Lord John Russell, August 7, 1840, all the arguments used
by the American Colonization Society forkcolonizing civilized blacks
in Africa, are reproduced.
Thomas Clarkson, writing to a friend under date Sept. 12, 1842,
says : " I am glad to find that in the Friend of Africa you lay such
stress upon native agency, or the agency of the black
people themselves to forward their own cause. Good sense would
have dictated this; but God seems to point it out as one of His plans.
. He has raised up a people by the result of emancipation, qualified
both in intellect and habituation to a hot climate, to do for us the
grand work in Africa. You know well that we can find among the
emancipated slaves people with religious views and with intellectual
capacity equal to the whites, and from these, principally, are we to
pick out laborers for the African vineyard. * * * You
cannot send two or three only to a colony. In the smallest colony
there must be more ; there must be enough to form a society, both
for the appearance of safety and for that converse for which man was
fitted by the organs of speech to pass the time usefully to himself and
others."!' The experience of years and the progress of Liberia have only.
served to illustrate the soundness of these views. European workers
for Africa feel more and more the importance of such agencies as the
Colonization Society has been instrumental in establishing for civiliz
ing Africa. A writer in the London Times for May 31st, 1882, says :
" As I have recently returned from Zanzibar, and can speak from'
some personal experience, may I be allowed to draw the attention of
your readers to an attempt to bring about these results, viz.:— -the
abolition of the slave trade and civilization of the people— with re
markable success ? It is the formation of self-sustaining communities of
released slaves in the countries whence they were originally brought
by the slave- dealers, in order that by their example and influence
they may teach to the surrounding people the advantages of civiliza
tion. The sight of a body of men of the same race as themselves, living

* Narrative of the Expedition to the Niger. Vol. II., p. 434.
t African Repository, Vol.. xvi . p. 397.

in their midst, but raised to a higher level by the influence of • Chris
tianity and civilization, has naturally produced in them a desire of
raising themselves also."
In an able article on " The Evangelization of Africa," in the Dub
lin Review, Januaiy, 1879, written by a Roman Catholic Prelate, the
writer asks — " Why should not the example given by the American
Colonization Society in founding Liberia, be followed by us in other
parts of Africa?"
In a lecture, delivered in 1872, in New York, by the same dis
tinguished author, he says :
1 "We have come to evangelize the colored people in America)
But our mission does not terminate with them. We are travelling
through America to that great unexplored, unconverted continent
of Africa. We have come to gather an army on our way, to con-
-quer Africa for the Cross. God has His designs upon that vast
land. * * * * The branch torn away from the pa
rent stem in Africa, by our ancestors, was brought to America —
brought away by divine permission, in order that it might be en-
igrafted upon the tree of the Cross. It will return in part to its own
soil, not by violence or deportation, but willingly, and borne on
ithe wings of faith and charity,"
It is sometimes supposed and asserted that the efforts of the '
Colonization Society stir up a feeling of unre<t among the colored
population, and make them dissatisfied with their condition in
this country. But this charge is brought only by those who have
no idea of the power of race instincts. The descendants of Africa
in this country have never needed the stimulus of any organiza
tion of white men to direct their attention to the land of their
fathers. Just as the idea of a departure from the house of bondage
in Egypt was in the minds of the Hebrews long before Moses was
born, even when Joseph gave commandment concerning his bones;
so long before the formation of the Colonization Society there were
.aspirations in the breasts of thinking Negroes for a return to the land
of their fathers. The first practical Colonizationist was not a white
man but a Negro, Paul Cuffee. This man took thirty Negro emi
grants from. New Bedford in his own vessel to Africa in 181 5. The
law of God for each race is written on the tablets of their hearts, and
no theories will ever obliterate the deep impression or neutralize its
influence upon their action; and in the process of their growth they
will find or force a way for themselves. Those who are working with
or for the race, therefore, should seriously consider in any great move
ment in their behalf, the steps which the proper representatives

deem it wise to take . "March without the people," said a French
deputy, "and you walk into night; their instincts are a finger
pointing of providence, always turning toward real benefit."
The Colonization Society was only the instrument of opening a
field for the energies of those of the Africans who desired to go and
avail themselves of the opportunities there offered. Mr Boswell, in
his life of Samuel Johnson, tells us that when the sale of Thrales'
Brewery was going forward, Johnson was asked what he really consid
ered to be the value of the property which was to be disposed of. He
replied, "We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the
potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice." So the-
founders of this Society looked to the "potentiality'' of the few seeds
they were planting on the coast of Africa. In their reply to oppo
nents they said : " We are not here simply to send a few Negroes to
Africa and to occupy with them a few swampy regions on the margin
of a distant country, but we are endeavoring to stimulate for a race
and a continent their potentiality of unlimited development."
They assisted a few courageous men to go and plant a colony on
those distant and barbarous shores, in days when nearly every body
doubted the wisdom and expediency of such a step, Who then could
have divined the results ? Considering the circumstances of those
pioneer settlers and the darkness of the outlook when they started, no
man could have believed until he learned it as a matter of history,
that those few men could have established an independent nation on
that coast. The story of their trials and struggles and conquests
would furnish the material for an exciting novel — many portions of
it would resemble chapters not from Froude or Hallam but from
Thackeray or Scott. The string of episodes in the first thirty years of"
their history would form the basis of an interesting epic.
Now what is the work thus far accomplished and being accom
plished on that coast ? If, when those colonists landed on those shores,.
inexperienced and uneducated ex-slaves as they were, they had had to
contend with simple barbarism or the absence of civilization, their task
would have been comparatively easy. But they had to deal with
tribes demoralized by ages of intercourse with the most abandoned of
foreigners —slave traders and pirates, who had taken up their abode
at various points of the coast, and. had carried on for generations,
without interruption, their work of disintegration and destruction.
When, therefore, the colonists found themselves in possesion of a few
miles of territory, they very soon. perceived. that they had more to do
than simply to clear up the land, build and cultivate. They saw that they
had to contend not with the simple prejudices of the Aborigines but with

the results of the unhallowed intercourse- of, European adventurers.
But they were brave rrien. Their spirits, though chastened by the
burden of slavery and the sorrows of oppression were never clouded
by any doubt in their destiny. They felt themselves able to build up
a State, and they set themselves cheerfully to deal with the new and
difficult problems which confronted them. Fierce were the struggles
in which they had to engage before they succeeded in expelling the
pirates from the neighborhood of their settlements. And after they
had dislodged these demons in human form, thy mischievous conse
quences of their protracted residence in the land continued and still,
to a great extent, continue. In his last message to the Liberian Legis
lature, the President of the Republic referring to the difficulties at
Cape Mount says: "The native wars which have been going on in the
vicinity of Cape Mount have now nearly exhausted themselves. These
periodical wars are, for the most part, the results of long standing
feuds arising from the horrible slave-trade, that dreadful scourge
which distinguished the intercourse of the European world with Afri
ca for more than ten generations."
Having secured an undisturbed footing in the land of their fathers,
the next step on the part of the colonists was to conciliate the Abori
gines and to enlarge the borders of the Colony by purchase from the
native lords of thesoil. In this way the Colony increased in power
and influence, until 1847, when it became a sovereign and independent
State. As such it has been acknowledged by all the Powers of Eu
rope and by the United States.
The special work which at this moment claims the attention of the
Republic is to push the settlements beyond the sea-board to- the el
evated and salubrious regions of the interior, and to incorporate the
Aborigines, as fast as practicable, into the Republic. Native chiefs are
summoned to the Legislature from the different counties and take
part in the deliberations; but as yet only those Aborigines who con
form to the laws of the Republic as to the tenure of land, are allowed
to exercise the elective franchise. All the other questions which press
uponindependent nations, questions of education, of finance, of com
merce, of agriculture, are receiving the careful attention of the people-
They feel the importance of making provisions by judicious laws and
by proper executive, legislative and judicial management, for the
preservation and growth of the State.
In educational matters there is daily noticeable encouraging im
provement. We are developing a system of common schools, with a
College at the head as a guarantee for their efficiency. The educa
tional work is felt to be of the greatest possible importance ; education.

not only in its literary and religious forms, but also in its industrial,
mechanical, and commercial aspects.
The effort now is to enlarge the operations and increase the influ
ence of the College. The faculty has just been added to by the elec
tion of two new Professors in this country, young men of learning
and culture, who will sail for their field of labor in a few weeks.
It will be gratifying to the people of Liberia as well as to their friends'
on this side, to observe how heartily the press of this country, both
secular and religious, has endorsed and commended this new move
forthe advancement of education in that land. The College now contains
fifty students in the two departments, and it is hoped that the
number will soon increase to hundreds, if we can only get the needed
help. We have application for admission to its advantages from numer
ous youths in various institutions' of learning in this country, who wish,
on the completion of their course, to labor in Africa. Influential chiefs
on the coast and in the interior are also anxious to send their sons ; and
we shall, before very long, have young men from the powerful tribes in
our vicinity — Mandingoes, Foulahs, Veys, Bassas, Kroos, Greboes.
A female department has also lately been established in connec
tion with this institution, and a Christian lady of education and cul
ture, in this country, longing to labor in the land of her fathers, has
been appointed as first Principal. She will sail in a few months.
In financial matters the Republic is hopeful. The public debt is
not so large that it cannot, by the reforms now contemplated, be easily
managed and placed under such control as to give no inconvenience
to the State. There are evidences of an abundance of gold in the ter
ritory of the Republic. The precious metal is brought to the coast
from various points in the interior. But the government is not anx
ious to encourage the opening of gold mines. We prefer the slow but
sure, though less dazzling process of becoming a grea't nation by lapse
of time, and by the steady growth of internal prosperity  by agricul
ture, by trade, by proper domestic economy.
In commercial matters there is also everything to encourage. Three
lines of steamers from England and Germany, and sailing vessels from
the United States visit the Liberian ports regularly for trading purposes.
And the natural resources of the Republic have in various portions of
it hardly yet been touched. Palm oil, cam-wood, ivory, rubber, gold-
dust, hides, beeswax, gum copal, may be be produced in unlimited
quantities. For the enterprising merchants of this country  colored
or white — there is no- better field for the investment of pecuniary
capital. The agriculture of the country is rapidly on the increase. Liberia

has been supplying the coffee planters of Ceylon and Brazil with a new
and superior kind of coffee for their agricultural industry. The Libe-
rian coffee is considered among the best in the world, and the people
are now turning their attention largely to its cultivation. As immi
grants arrive from this country, extensive farms under their persever
ing industry are taking the place of the dense forests. The new settle
ments pushing out to the rich valleys and fertile slopes of the interior-
are a marvel to those who a few years ago saw the country in its primi
tive condition ; and to the Negro newcomer from this country in search
of a field for his energy and enterprise, there is no picture which, for
inspiration and grandeur, can ever equal the sight of these new pro
prietors of land and these new directors of labor engaged in their ab
sorbing and profitable pursuits. When he sees the thriving villages,
the comfortable dwellings, the increasing agriculture, all supervised
and controlled by men just like himself, who had only been more for
tunate in preceding him by a few years, a feeling of pride and gratifi-
fication takes possession of him. Like Aeneas, when he witnessed the
enterprise of the Tyrian colonists in the building of Carthage, he ex
claims , *"0 fortunati, quorum jam moenia surgunl."
But, unlike the mythical author of that exclamation, he feels that
he has a part in the rising fortunes of the settlements ; that what he
beholds is not only what he himself may accomplish, but is the prom
ise and pledge of the future greatness of his adopted country.
The nations' of the earth are now looking to Liberia as one of the
hopeful spots on that continent. The President of the United States
in his last message,, referred to the interest which this Government
feels in that youngest sister of the great international family. To a
deputation from the Colonization Society, which called upon him a
year ago, President Arthur said that he " had always taken great in
terest in the work of the Colonization Society, which was, in his
judgment, eminently practical."
President Gardner, who has for the last five years presided over
that little nation, expresses the views entertained by its most enlight
ened citizens as follows :
"The ship of state which, in 1847, we launched in fear and tremb
ling, is still afloat, with timbers sound, and spars unharmed. The
Lone Star of Liberia untarnished is pushing its way eastward, suc
cessfully achieving victories of peace even to the slopes of the Niger,
gathering willing thousands under its elevating and hopeful folds.
The American Colonization Society must feel greatly strengthen-
* Aenead 1. 437.

14
ed in its work. It has achieved what no other philanthropic - agen
cy in modern times has accomplished, arid what, perhaps, no nation
could have effected, viz : the giving to the Negro an independent
home in the land of his fathers, where he has unlimited scope for de
velopment and expansion. Had Liberia been the colony of a power
ful government, political and commercial jealousies, and the purposes
of party spirit, might have prevented the surrender of the colony to
the absolute control of the colonists. Hayti had to fight for her in
dependence. It is not practicable for Great Britain to give up Jamaica,
or Barbadoes, or Sierra Leone, or Lagos. But the American Coloni
zation Society founded a nation, and continues to strengthen it. So
God takes the weak things of the earth to confound the things that are
mighty." In a letter dated at the Palace of Madrid, February n, 1882,
King Alfonso XII, of Spain, writes to the President of Liberia as fol
lows: "Great and Good Friend,
Desiring to give to you a public testimony of my Royal apprecia
tion and my particular esteem, I have had special pleasure in nomi
nating you Knight of the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Isabel
the Catholic. I am pleased by this action also to furnish new
proof of the desire which animates me to strengthen more and more,
the friendly relations which happily exist between Spain and the
Republic of Liberia ; and with this motive I repeat to you the assur
ance of the affection which I ..entertain towards you, and with which
I am, Great and Good Friend,
Your Great and Good Friend,
Alfonso."
Palace at Madrid, February ir, 1SS2.
The Republic of Liberia now stands before the world — the realiza
tion of the dreams of the founders of the American Colonization So
ciety, and in many respects more than the realization. Its effect up
on that great country is not to be estimated solely by the six hundred
miles of coast which it has brought under civilized law. A sea of in
fluence has been created, to which rivulets and large streams are at
tracted from the distant interior; and up those streams, for a consid
erable distance, a tide of regeneration continually flows. Far beyond
the range of the recognized limits of Liberia, hundreds of miles away
from the coast, I have witnessed the effects of American civilization ;
not only in the articles of American manufactures which I have been
surprised to see in those remote districts, but in the intelligible use of
the English language, which I have encountered in the far inland re-

r5
¦gions, all going out from Liberia. None can calculate the wide-spread
ing results of a single channel of wholesome influence. Travellers
in Syria tell us that Damascus owes its fertility and beauty to one
single stream, the river Abana. Without that little river the charm
and glory of Damascus would disappear. It would be a city in a desert-
So the influence of Liberia, insignificant as it may seem, is the in
creasing source of beauty and fertility, of civilization and progress, to
West and Central Africa.
As time has gone on and the far reaching plans of the Society have
been developed, its bitterest opponents among the whites have relax
ed their opposition. They see more and more that the idea which
gave rise to it, had more than a temporary or provisional importance ;
that as long as there are Christian Negroes in this land who may do
a civilizing work in Africa, and who desire to go thither, so long will
this colonization enterprise be a necessary and beneficent agency.
Colored men of intelligence are also taking a more comprehensive
view of the question. The colored people in various parts of the-
country are not only asserting their independence of party trammels
but are taking higher ground with regard to their relations to Africa.
The Colonization Society no longer stands between them and the
land of their fathers as a dividing agency ; no longer the gulf that
separates, but for many the bridge that connects. Liberia is producing
the elements, which, if they do not to the minds of the thinking col
ored people, vindicate the methods of some colonizationists in days
gone by, amply justify the policy of the Colonization Society. The
leading men of color are recognizing the distinction between Liberia
as an independent nation, claiming their respect and support, and the
Colonization Society, which, from their stand-point, contemplated their
expatriation. Your speaker has had the honor of being listened to on the vari
ous occasions on which, recently, he has spoken in this city, by full
houses composed of the most intelligent classes of the colored popu
lation, who a few years ago would not have thought of attending any
meeting which had the remotest connection With Liberia.
He has also had the gratifying privilege of being the guest for
several days at Uniontown of the leading colored man of the United
States, better known than any other Negro in both hemispheres ; and
this address was written under his hospitable roof and, perhaps, on
the same table on which, in years gone by, had been forged those
thunderbolts which he hurled with so much power and effect against
Colonization; but,' temfora mutantur et nos mutamur in Mis. The
times are changed and we are changed with them.

i6
The dawn of a new day in the history of the colored people is not
only inspiring them with new views, but bringing forward new actors
or leaders. It is not that those who are coming forward are superior
to those who have passed away or are passing away. No ; the giants
of former years — the Wards and Garnets and Douglasses — can never
be surpassed or even reproduced. They were the peculiar product of
their times. But it is, that the present times require different instru
ments, and leaders are arising with different purposes and different
aspirations. I saw in large letters in a prominent part of Mr. Fred
erick' Douglass's residence the scriptural injunction, " Live peaceably
with all men ;" a fitting motto, I thought, for the soldier who, after the
hard fought battle and the achievement of the victory, has laid down
his arms. The motto in the days of Douglass's greatest activity was,
" Fight the good fight." Now the days of peace have come. The
statesman's office comes after the soldier's. Cedant arma togae. The
Negro youth as a result of the training which he is now so generously
receiving in the schools, will seek to construct States. He will aspire
after feats of statesmanship, and Africa will be the field to which he will
look forthe realization of his desires. Bishop Turner, of the African M.
E. Church, who enjoys exceptional opportunities for knowing the feel
ings of the colored people of this country, said in a newspaper article
published a few days ago:
" There never was a time when the colored people were more con
cerned about Africa in every respect, than at present. In some por
tions of the country it is the topic of conversation, and if a line of
steamers were started from New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah or
Charleston, they would be crowded to density every trip they made
to Africa. There is a general unrest and a wholesale dissatisfaction
among our people in a number of sections of the country to my cer
tain knowledge, and they sigh for conveniences to and from the Con
tinent of Africa. Something has to be done, matters cannot go on
as at present, and the remedy is thought by tens of thousands to be
a Negro nationality. This much the history of the world estab
lishes, that races either fossilized, oppressed or degraded, must emi
grate before any material change takes place in their civil, intellectual
or moral status; otherwise extinction is the consequence." *
The general practice among superficial politicians and irresponsi
ble colored journalists in this country is to ignore and deprecate the
craving for the fatherland among the Negro population. But noth
ing is clearer to those who know anything of race instincts and ten
dencies than that this craving is a permanent and irrepressible im-
* Christian Recorder, Jan. 4. 1883.

I?
pulse. For some reason the American Government has never seen
its way clear to give any practical recognition to these aspirations.
In vain, apparently, does the American Colonization Society from
year to year present the cries and petitions of thousands and hun-
reds of thousands who yearn for a home in the land of their fathers.
Individual philanthropists may admit that such cries deserve respect
ful sympathy, but the Government takes no note of them. It must
be stated, however, that the Government is ever read)- to extend as
sistance to Liberia, and on the ground, parti}-, as often urged in their
diplomatic correspondence, that Liberia is to be the future home of
thousands of American citizens of African descent.
Has not the time now come when an earnest and united effort
should be made by all sections of this great country to induce the
Government to assist the thousands who are longing to betake
themselves to those vast and fertile regions to which they are directed
by the strongest impulses that have ever actuated the movements of
humanity? While it is true that there are causes of dissatisfaction
with his position in this country on the part of the Negro, still he
will be carried to Africa by a higher impulse than that which brings
millions to this country from Europe. Mr. Bright has said : "There
are streams of emigration flowing towards America, and much of this
arises from the foolishness of European peoples and European gov
ernments," and he quotes from Mr. Bancroft the statement that "the
history of the colonization of America is the history of the crimes of
Europe." No natural impulses bring the European hither — artificial or exter
nal causes move him to emigrate. The Negro is drawn to Africa by
the necessities of his nature.
We do not ask that all the colored people should leave the United
States and go to Africa. If such a result were possible it is not,
for the present at least, desirable, certainly it is not indispensable.
For the work to be accomplished much less than one-tenth of the six
millions would be necessary. " In a return from exile, in the restora
tion of a people," says George Eliot, "the question is not whether cer
tain rich men will choose to remain behind, but whether there will be
found worthy men who will choose to lead the return. Plenty of
prosperous Jews remained in Babylon when Ezra marshalled his band
of forty thousand, and began a new glorious epoch in the history of
his race, making the preparation for that epoch in the history of
the world, which has been held glorious enough to be dated from for-
evermore." There are Negroes enough in this country to join in the return —

i8
descendants of Africa enough, who are faithful to the instincts of the
race, and who realize their duty to their fatherland. I rejoice to
know that here where the teachings of generations have been to dis
parage the race, there are many who are faithful, there are men and
women who will go, who have a restless sense of homelessness which
will never be appeased until they stand in the great land where their
forefathers lived ; until they catch glimpses of the old sun, and moon
and stars, which still shine in their pristine brilliancy upon that vast
domain ; until from the deck of the ship which bears them back home
they see visions of the hills rising from the white margin of the conti
nent, and listen to the breaking music of the waves — the exhilarating
laughter of the sea as it dashes against the beach. These are the ele
ments of the great restoration. It may come in our own life time,
It may be our happiness to see those rise up who will formulate pro
gress for Africa — embody the ideas which will reduce our social and
political life to order ; and we may, before we die, thank God that we
have seen His salvation; that the Negro has grasped with a 'clear
knowledge his meaning in the world's vast life— in politics — in
science — in religion.
I say it is gratifying to know that there are Negroes of this coun
try who will go to do this great work — cheerfully go and brave the
hardships and perils necessary to be endured in its accomplishment.
These will be among the redeemers of Africa. If they suffer they
will suffer devotedly, and if they die, they will die well. And what is
death for the redemption of a people ? History is full of examples of
men who have sacrificed themselves for the advancement of a great
cause — for the good of their country. Every man who dies for
Africa — if it is necessary to die — adds to Africa a new element of sal
vation, and hastens the day of her redemption. And when God lets
men suffer and gives them to pain and death, it is not the abandoned,
it is not the worst or the guiltiest, but the best and the purest, whom
He often chooses for His work, for they will do it best. Spectators
weep and wonder ; but the sufferers themselves accept the pain in the
joy of doing redemptive work, and rise out of lower levels to the ele
vated regions of those nobler spirits — the glorious army of martyrs —
who rejoice that they are counted worthy to die for men.
The nation now being reared in Africa by the . returning exiles
from this country will not be a reproduction of this. The restoration
of the Negro to the land of his fathers, will be the restoration
of a race to its original integrity, to itself ; and working by itself, for
itself and from itself, it will discover the methods of its own develop-.
ment, and they will not be the same as the Anglo-Saxon methods,

In Africa there are no physical problems to be confronted upon
the solution of which human comfort and even human existence de
pend. In the temperate regions of the earth there are ever recurring
problems, first physical or material, and then intellectual, which press
for solution and cannot be deferred without peril.
It is this constant pressure which has developed the scientific in
tellect and the thoughtfulness of the European. Africa can afford to
hand over the solution of these problems to those who, driven by the
exigencies of their circumstances, must solve them or perish. And
when they are solved we shall apply the results to our purposes,- leav
ing us leisure and taste for the metaphysical and spiritual. Africa
will be largely an agricultural country. The people, when assisted by
proper impulse from without— and they need this help just as all other
races have needed impulse from without — will live largely in
contact with nature. The Northern races will take the raw materials
from Africa and bring them back in such forms as shall contribute to
the comfort and even elegance of life in that country; while the Afri
can, in the simplicity and purity of rural enterprises, will be able to
cultivate those spiritual elerunts in hummity which are suppressed,
silent and inactive under the pressure and exigencies of material prog
ress. He will find out, not under pressure but in an entirely normal
and natural way, what his work is to be.
I do not anticipate for Africa any large and densely crowded ci
ties. For my own taste I cannot say that I admire these agglomera
tions of humanity. For me man has marred the earth's surface by his
cities. "God made the country and man made the town."
It is the cities which have furnished the deadliest antagonisms to
prophets and reformers. The prophets and apostles are nurtured in
the Nazareths and Bethlehems of the world. I cherish the feeling
that in Africa there will never be any Jerusalem or Rome or Athens or
London; but I have a strong notion that the Bethlehems and Naza
reths will spring up in various parts of the continent. In the solitudes
of the African forests, where the din of western civilization has never
been heard, I have realized the saying of the poet that the "Groves
were God's first temples." I have felt that I stood in the presence of
the Almighty ; and the trees and the birds and the sky and the air
have whispered to me of the great work yet to be achieved on that
continent. I trod lightly through those forests, for I felt there was "a
spirit in the woods." And I could understand how it came to pass
that the prophets of a race— the great reformers who have organized
states and elevated peoples, received their inspiration on mountains,
in caves, in grottoes. I could understand something of the power

which wrought upon Sakya Muni under the trees of India, upon Nu-
ma Pompilius in the retreat of the Nymph Egeria, upon Mohammed
in the silent cave; upon Martin Luther, Xavier and Ignatius Loyola in
the cloisters. One of the sweetest of American poets— Whittier- - in
his poem on the Quaker Meeting, pictures the beauty and instructive
power of unbroken stillness —
"And so I find it well to come
For deeper rest to this still room,
For here the habit of the soul
Feels less the outer world's control .
" And from the silence multiplied
By these still'forms on either side,
The world that time and sense have known
Falls off and leaves us God alone,
" So to the calmly gathered thought
The innermost of truthis taught,
The mystery, dimly understood,
That love of God is love of good."
It is under such circumstances that the African will gather inspira
tion for his work. He will grow freely, naturally, unfolding his pow
ers in a completely healthy progress.
The world needs such a development of the Negro on African
soil. He will bring as his contribution the softer aspects of human na
ture. The harsh and stern fibre of the Caucasian races needs this
milder element. The African is the feminine; and we must not suppose
that this is of least importance in the ultimate development of humani
ty. "We are apt," says Matthew Arnold, "to account amiability weak and
hardness strong," but even if it were so, there are forces, as George Sands
says truly and beautifully, " there are forces of weakness, of docility, of
attractiveness or of suavity, which are quite as real as the forces of vig
or, of encroachment, of violence, of brutality." *
I see that Michelet claims for France this feminine character a-
mong the nations. Speaking of Jeanne d' Arc, he says: "It was fit
that the savior of France should be a woman. France herself is a wo
man. She has the fickleness of the sex but also its amiable gentleness
its facile and charming pity, and the excellence of its first impulses."
The beauty of woman is not in cowardly yielding or careless servil
ity. An English poet has embodied in a few striking and beautiful
lines, a description of woman's sphere and power;

?Nineteenth Century. June,

" I saw her upon nearer view
A spirit, yet a woman too;
Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin liberty;
A countenance in which did meet
Sweet records, promises as sweet;
A perfect woman nobly planned
To warn, to comfort, to command,
And yet a spirit still, and bright
With something of an angel light."
Such will be the African's place when he rises to the proper sphere
of his work. France does not occupy that place. That nation may
at times wear woman's dress, and go about with light and sportive air,
but beneath those charming habiliments beats the same stern and
masculine heart that we discern in other European races.
It was a proof of the great confidence felt by Mrs. Stowe in the
idea of African Colonization — in the mighty results to be achieved
through its means for Africa and for humanity — that she sends two of
the most striking characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin to Africa ; one, the
bright, the enlightened, the cultivated George Harris, goes to Liberia.
And never were more forcible reasons given for the emigration of per
sons of color from this country to that Republic than are presented
in the able and eloquent letter which she makes him write to set
forth his reasons for emigrating. His arguments are pathetic and un
answerable. George Harris's letter at least shows what a cultivated Anglo-
Saxon and an abolitionist feels ought to be the views of an educated
and cultivated colored American ; and supplies a hint to those colored
writers and speakers who amuse themselves with agitating questions
of amalgamation. Mrs. Stowe speaks of Liberia as "the refuge which the providence
of God has provided in Africa." But she does not approve an indis
criminate emigration to Africa. In arguing against it she says
wisely, .
" To fill up Liberia with an ignorant, inexperienced, half-barbar
ized race, just escaped from the chains of slavery, would be only to
prolong, for ages, the period of struggle and conflict which attend
the inception of new enterprises. Let the church of the north re
ceive these poor sufferers in the spirit of Christ ; receive them to the
educating advantages of Christian republican society and schools, un
til they have attained to somewhat of a moral and intellectual matur
ity, and then assist them in their passage to those, scores, where they
may put in practice the lessons they have learned in. America."

Mrs. Stowe's idea does not seem to be that after they have risen
to a certain stage of progress they should be absorbed into the great
American nation. Her plan is exactly that of the American Coloniza
tion Society — to " assist them in their passage to those shores, where
they may put in practice the lessons they have learned in America."
The attention of those who look to an ultimate American destiny for
the American Negro should be called to these utterances of an ac
knowledged friend and able defender of the race. Mrs. Stowe's won
derful novel was not only the harbinger of emancipation, but the har
binger also of the vast colonization which will sooner or later take
place. And that friends of the African should have seized upon her
words in the one capacity and not in the other, can only be explained
by the fact that as an angel of Abolition the nation was ready for her ;
but to receive her as an angel of Colonization, it is only now in the
process of preparation.
Soon after the close of the war it was the favorite cry of some that
the Colonization Society had done its work and should be dropped.
But that cry has been effectually hushed by the increasing light of
experience, and under the louder cries of the thousands and tens of
thousands, who in various parts of the country are asking for aid to
reach the land of their fathers. Both white and colored are now re
cognizing the fact that the Society with its abundant knowledge, with
its organized plans, is an indispensable machinery for the diffusion of
that special information about Africa of which the American people
are so generally destitute, and for the inoffensive creation among the
Negro portion of the population of those enlightened opinions about
the land of their fathers, and their duty to that land which will lead
some at least of the anxious thousands to enter upon it with intelli
gence and efficiency.
There is evidently, at this moment, no philanthropic institution
before the American public that has more just and reasonable claims
upon private and official benevolence than the American Coloniza
tion Society. And the Christian sentiment of the country, as I gather
it from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south,
is largely in favor of giving substantial and generous aid to that
struggling Christian Republic in West Africa, the power of which, it
is conceded, it should be the pride of this nation, as it is its com
mercial interest, to increase and perpetuate.