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THE
COLONIZATION SCHEME CONSIDERED,
IN
ITS REJECTION BY THE COLORED PEOPLE— IN ITS
TENDENCY TO UPHOLD CASTE— IN ITS
UNFITNESS FOR CHRISTIANIZING AND CIVILIZING
THE ABORIGINES OF AFRICA,
AND FOR PUTTING A STOP TO
THE AFRICAN SL.AVE TRADE:
IN A LETTER TO
THE HON. THEODORE FREtlNGHrYSEN
AND
THE HON. BENJAMIN F. BUTLER;

BY
SAMUEL E. CORNISH AND THEODORE S. WRIGHT,
PASTORS OF THE COLORED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES IN THE CITIES OP
NEWARK AND NEW YORK.

Newark:
printed by aaron guest, 121 market-street.
1840.

TO THE
Hon. THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN
AND THE
Hon. BENJAMIN F. BUTLER :
New York, April 1, 1840.
Gentlemen . —
The undersigned, Colored citizens and Ministers of
the Gospel, have not been inattentive to the course of the Colonization
meetings, which you have either been active in getting up in this city, during
the winter, or in the proceedings of which you have shared. As.lh£_sole
object of these meetings was to act pn_th^...^interests_ofJ.h6,j;aloisd 'people, it
is a matteTotjcpurs'e, jthaFwe sTTouIdTfeel, in a_gofid-d.egree,.-anxious about tHefr
results. And this the more especially, as none o,f .that class were invited to
take part in them, and they have been carried on without, any reference
whatever to their wishes M^^inions. Shut out from these. iiieetio.ga,_\vhere,
it would seern altogether jesaentiali 'that_ojir_jd£.wsrahoiiJd_-baJ'ully knawn,
ouFnatural recourse,!? to the^rega. The fitness of resorting to the press in
matters of high public concernment, such as you have, again and again, in
the most formal and impressive manner, represented the colonization scheme
to be, is sanctioned by every day's use of it in the discussion of such matters.
The propriety of addressing ourselves to yoxi, who stand out before the com
munity among the most distinguished of its advocates, no one will question
— any more than you will our right to do so.
But we have another and a stronger reason for addressing to you what
we have to say on the present occasion. If, among those who are earnestly
urging forward Colonization, there be any, who, it may be supposed, will
weigh our arguments and judge of our facts Jairly — any, who can be brought
to sympathize with those who are still suffering the inconveniences, the har-
rassings, the afflictions, the perils, which that inexorable scheme ceases not
to bring on them — such will most probably be found among the learned
and intelligent and liberal of the Christian community. Such you are repre
sented to us to be. Viewing you in this light, we say not a word against
|your sincerity, when you profess to have in view only the promotion of our
j happiness— ^however fully we may be convinced, that you have mistaken the
'channel in which your beneficence should be made to flow. - ;
It is not our intention, at this time, to enter on the relations of the Coloni
zation scheme to the multiplied interests of our countrx-, We propose limit
ing ourselves, mainly to a few of the subjects discussed in your addresses
delivered at the meetings before referred to ; — to the effect of the scheme on
the colored people of the free States ; — and its probable influence in civilizing
and christianizing Afiica, and putting an end to the slave trade.

4
I. Mr. Butler asserted, that the Colonization project was received with great
tielight by the colored people, for whom it was set on foot, and that they
h yearnedin their hearts for Africa." If this had been said of southern
^staves — if it had been asserted that they "yearned for Africa," or indeed, for
any other part of the world, even more inhospitable and unhappy, where
they might be free from their masters, there would probably have been no
one to dissent from the opinion. But so far as it was intended to apply to
..,lhe free colored people of the South, and to the colored inhabitants of the
free States, we cannot — even after making liberal allowance for the poetic
' coloring with which it was found expedient to invest what ought to have been
a plam business matter — we cannot, we say, find sufficient grounds for excu-
srn|,"niuch less justifying Mr. Butler for saying, "the free colored people
have hearls which yearn for Africa." A few undeniable facts will justify
us in this judgment — -while they serve to correct the error of Mr. B., and
save him from falling into it on any future occasion.
The Colonization society was scarcely known to have been organized,
i, before its object was protested against, in a public meeting of the free colored
i people of Richmond, Va. Not long afterward, (in August, 1817,) the
''• largest meeting ever yet held of the colored people of the free States — the
number being; computed at 3000 — came together in Philadelphia, to consider
the Colonization scheme. Mr, James Forten, a man distinguished not only
for his wealth and successful industry, but for his suflTerings in the Revolu
tionary war, presided at its deliberations. After ample time allowed for duly
[Considering every benefit which Colonization held out to the colored people,
'there was not a single voice in that vast assembly which was not raised for
'its decisive, thorough oondemnation.
I Meetings of a similar kind were held in Washington City, in Baltimore,
INew York, Providence, Boston, — indeed, in all the cities, and in most of the
j large towns, throughout the free States. 'I'^Ke abhorrence which was gene
rally expressed of the whole scheme proved, that those to whose acceptance
I it was offered regarded it but as little more merciful than death. From the
earliest period of those public meetings up to this time, we fearlessly assert,
that no credible testimony can be adduced, showing, that there has been any
abatement in the repugnance of the colored people to colonization. 'In
January, 1839, a large public meeting was helJ in this city, at which the
following expression of sentiment was unanimously given:
" Whereas, we, the people of color, citizens of New York, feel and know
that the American ' Colonization society' is the source whence proceed most
of the various proscriptions and oppressions under which we groan and
suffer : — ^and believing, that the most efficient remedy we can apply, is, to
reiterate the sentiments which we have, at all times and places, heretofore
entertained and e.xpressed — thereby showing, that our present opposition is
not of late origin, but of as long standing as the existence of the scheme
itself; and believing also, that when our opiniijns are known, tEe blighting
influences of that unhallowed offspring of slaver^J'^annot so successfully be
exercised against iis ; — we therefore, in solemn meeting assembled, do delibe
rately and unanimously enter our protest against the whole scheme," &c.
So late as the 16th of December, a meeting of the colored people was held
in Philadelphia, to take into consideration a letter on the subject of Coloniza
tion, which the Rev. Andrew Harris had received from the Rev. R. R. Gurley.

5

Ifhe letter had' previously been submitted to a public meeting, and by it to a
Cotnmittee. We cite a part of their report, to show in what temper the pro
position it contained, even when coming from one so cautious and wary in
his approaches as Mr. Gurley, was met by that assembly. Speaking of the
ktter, the committee say ;- —
"^They find therein nothing but the same stereotyped and wicked falsities ;
nothing but the same glaring inconsistencies, and fraudulent pretensions ;
nothing but what is hateful in motive, diabolical in- principle, and murderous
in designt" , One of the resolutions offered by the committee was in these
words ;— ^
" Resolved, That all the projects which contemplate our removal from the
land of our birth, and affections will be looked upon as speculative, detes-
I TABLE AND TRAITOROUS." The report was unanjmously adopted. „__«* -
Besides the uniform testimony furnished by large meetings throughout the
fVee States,— ^and in the Slave States, too, whilst they were permitted to be
held — there is the additional fact, that the colored people have entirely ceas
ed emigrating from the former. The poetic machinery by whieh the scheme
was urged, at first beguiled some, and they went to Liberia, but to lie down in
their graves. The fete of the forty emigrants who went out in the Brig
Vine, which sailed from Boston at an early period of the enterprize, bears
mournful testimony to the reality of the delusion. They perished in a short
time — the pestilence not leaving one, it is believed, to communicate to their
friends in this country the story of their disappointment and death.
Now, gentlemen, had you known the foregoing facts, we do not believe
you would have asserted, that the "free colored people had hearts which
yearned for Africa." Why you did not know (hem, important as they are,
and accessible too ; why you hazarded an assertion so pernicious to your
colored fellow citizens, without first ascertaining whether it was true or not,
is for you, not us, to explain.
II The Colonization scheme was set on foot, and is yet maintained by
Slaveholders, with the view, as they have not been backward to declare, of
perpetuating their system of Slavery, undisturbed. From the first, no very
high expectations seem to have been entertained, that an enterprize, so unne
cessary, so unnatural, so condemned by the most elemental truths of political
economy, so profitless, so perilous, bearing about it so little of hope, so much
of despair, would commend itself strongly to that class of the community to
which it purported solely to be addressed. But little reliance appears to have
been placed on obtaining their voluntary consent to exchange for the fens and
j morasses of barbarous and heathen Africa, this, the country of their fathers
for generations, and of their own nativity — where land was abundant and
cheap — where labor was in demand and its rewards sure — where education
could be obtained, albeit, for the most part, with difficulty — where the com
mon ordinances of religion, as well as its higher institutions were established
 where every interest had the promise of advancement — and where, not^
withstanding they were called to suffer many ills brought on them by others,
, they might yet live in hope, that the dark cloud of Slavery which had so long
jobscured the free principles asserted by our governments, would one day
;pass away and permit these principles to shine in all their warmth and efful-
•gence, if not on themselves, on no very distant generation of their descendants.
The benefits (?) proposed to the free colored people by a removal, which

involved the necessity to a great extent, of breaking up their domestic relations
—relations singularly dear to them, because of the sweet and {we speak from
experience) enduring consolations they afforded in seasons of persicution and
distress ;— of exposing their lives to the death-damps of Africa under an equa
torial sun— their own morals, and those of their children, to the influences and
temptations of the most treacherous and sin-sunken heathen that live, and of
the demons called CAwijorts, by whose teaching and example these same
heathen have been raised to their eminence in vice and crime ;— all these
benefits, we say, were unheeded, notwithstanding they were dressed out in
the gaudy and gorgeous drapery of the poet, recommended by the adroitness
of the rhetorician — pressed by the eloquence of the orator, and, what i.e more,
'sanctified by a standing proclamation of the Priesthood, both religious and
Apolitical, investing each emigrant, irrespective of character or conduct, with the
i solemn office and standing of a Christian Missionary to the heathen. But
every appeal was ineffectual, and so far as the Society depended on the vol
untary consent of the colored people, it might as well have -been dissolved.
Whatever individual exceptions there may exist among Slave-holders on
the score of goodness and gentleness, (that there may be such we will not
here stop to enquire) as an embodied interest, they know no retiring ebb
when moving upon objects connected with their atrocious system. The po
litical history of the country, from the time when South Carolina and 'Geor
gia refused to enter the Union, unless the traffic in human flesh should be
secured to them for twenty years, proves this. Their struggle and their
triumph on the Missouri question proves this. Their fierce onset — guilefully
laid aside, not abandoned — to add Texas to our territory, with the auda
ciously avowed purpose of strengthening and perpetuating the slave-system,
proves this.
Against such an enemy, glorying in his many victories, and who had never
yet been fairly defeated, even •''hen assaulting dfcisive majorities, it was not
to be expected, that so feeble an adversary as the free colored people could
successfully contend. Their modestly declining the advantages of removal
to Africa brought them neither protection nor peace, " Caithago delenda
est" had gone forth from the Slave-holding power against them, and the
^'element" jn our social organization which disturbed the " system" was to
be rooted out. Nor did the Slave-holders now confine their aims to such of
the colored class as resided amongst them, and in contact with their slaves.
(No: they comprehended all the colored inhabitants of the free States; for
^well did they know, that whilst there remained a single prosperous colored
, man at the North, so long would there be a standing rebuke to the oppressor
Lof his brethren.
Failing in their appeal to the colored people, where it ought, in fairness,
to have ended, the Slaveholders next had recourse to the whites, with whom
they knew it could be made more effective. To this end, a new school was
instituted, whose teachers first discovered and taught the dogma, that there
j is in the white man an inherent prejudice against his colored hi other, so
fixed, that its removal, Avhilst the liatter remains in this country, is not only
beyond all human power, but beyond Christianity itself, "the power of God' ¦
but that it might Surelj' be mitigated at least, if not extinguished, provided
the Atlantic Ocean could be made to roll between them. This was taucrht,
too, in the face of such facts, as, that the toilet attendants of the most fashron-

able and mincing females were coZoretZ ; that the cooks, the dininwroom
servants, the drawing-room servants, the "body" servants of the wealthy, the
luxurious, the intellectual, were colored; and that multitudes of thtse same
colored people could claim, unquestioned, through a common paternity, fra
ternal and sisterly relations to those whom they served.
When the slave-holder based his movement, not on any supposed state of
facts, the existence of which might be denied ; nor on any supposed philo
sophical truths about which men might reason — but on a state of mind that
cannot, in an absolute sense, be denied as existing in our neighbor — one that
decides without facts or arguments, and therefore cannot be reasoned with,
he showed much of the wisdom of the serpent. When he directed prejudice
against an ac<:i<i«»< of our nature which Infinite Wisdom had incorporated
with it — one which, therefore, God will not, and man cannot remove, the
malicious subtilty of the device is altogether worthy the high parentage
from which all similar devices proceed. For had they based it on a fact,
such as, that we he^d opinions on religion and government hostile to those of
the whites, then might it have been denied; or, (admitting it to be true)
further instruction and more light might have brought the heretical up to
the approved standard. If on the fact, that we were poor — that we did not
possess the average amount of wealth — then, might aroused industry and en
terprise have swept away the objection. If, our descent from a slave ances
try, and our being associated in the mind, on that account, and by reason of
our color, with the degraded slave of the South, (where alone it ought ever
to have been placed) then would breaking the yoke of Southern bondage
have also broken up this position. But no : they were too wise to hazard
their cause by placing it on grounds to which fact, or argument, or reason,
or right, or truth had any relation.
Prejudice I What is it? Lexicographers tell us, it is a decision of the
mind formeS without due examination of the facts or arguments which are
necessary to a just and impartial determination. And prejudice against col
or .' What does this mean ? You are both sensible — nay, learned men.
Pray, instruct us in this mystery of slave-holding philosoph}' — scarcely spo
ken of in Britain, wholly unknown and unfclt among the Ivarned, the wise,
the refined of France and the other nations of Europe. Can prejudice exist
against that which has in it nothing of the moral or the intellectual? Is it a
down right absurdity to say of iB£n, that they are prejudiced against sound
or sight — against the earth, or the sea, or the air, or light ? And is it a less
one to say, that they are prejudiced against co^or.? If not, how is it, gentle
men, that you can connect your names and give your influence to a great
National movement, (one which it pleased you^ to say, we were more in
debted to for the integrity of the Union than to any other cause since its
commencement) resting for support on a philosophical absurdity ? Or how,
to a scheme of benevqlence which can be carried on, only by keeping
up aprejudice against y^ur poor brother, -when you would not venture alone
into yoiir closets before our Common Father, and praying, say —
" We thank thee, O God, for the success which has thus far attended the
efforts which have been made to raise up and increase prejudice against the
work of thy hand in the person of our colored brethren ; — carry it on to a full
consummation; but if this cannot be granted, change, thou, then, their color;
and in all things pertaining to their form and visage let thy work oflnfi-

nite Wisdom be so modified as to adapt itself to the prejudices of u3, a happier
and more favored portion of the race— that we may, thus, be persuaded to love
them as bretfai en belonging to the great family thou hast made. _ _
We have said thus much on the nature of prejudice, because, first, it is
essential that the principle on which the present movement against the peace
and repose of the colored inhabitants is founded should be fully understood;
second, — our respect for yoUY virtues and intelligence forces on us the belief
that you have not bestowed on the scheme that deliberate consideration, which
on account of the wrongs it inflicts, is called for, at the hands of every be
nevolent man who has unwarily connected himself with it-
But you are ready to say,— We do not cherish this prejudice against our
poor brother, because of the complexion God has given him — we look on it as
sinister and sinful. Why, then, do you act as if you did ? Why counte
nance those v/ho do cherish it, and who bring on us such numberless ills?
What discrimin',tion can be made, except by the veriest casuist, between
those who, disclaiming a principle, yet encourage, others tO' act on it, — and
ithose who act professedly in obedience to the principle ? A man may, from
principle or education, of even from prudential considerations, be averse to
committing a particular crime — robbery, for instance; yet if he intentionally
so act as to encourage others \v'ho feel no such restraint, his conduct, in a
moral point of view, is as criminal as that of the actual perpetrator. And the
wrong suffered by the robbed paity would not be felt any the lighter, because
of the mental reserv^pns and the qualms of conscience of the instigator.
So it is in bur case. I ^ou. who do not hate us, by cooperating with thoser
who do, encourage them. We suffer the wrong ;-^and it ministers but little
of consolation, to be told that you feel none of the prejudice which others are
pouring out in full profusion on our heads!\
.^^ But you are ready again to say, — Tms prejudice is an i.xistihg fact
THAT cannot ee ALTERED ; therefore we act on it. Now, that there exists
throughout the country a prejudice against us is undeniably true. How far
this prejudice, springing out of slavery, has been kept up by the coopera
tion of influential men at the North with Southern slaveholders, we shall not
now stop to inquire ; neither shall we, to show how these same men, by pur
suing a different course, might have stayed the slaveholding power, weak
ened the bands of slavery, and brought about a happier state of things
throughout the free States, at least, so far as the colored people are concerned.
But an existing state of things does not imply, that it is to be permanent,
much less perpetual. Not very long ago, throughout Europe, there was a
strong prejudice e.^isting against the Jews. In many respects, they were as
evil-entreated as we are. They were not unfrequently banished from the
countries in which th^y were born and brought up. Their persecutors had
all the advantage of the argument based on "existing" prejudice: and it
is by no means unlikely, fhat the most religious of them may have advanced
it, out of pure compassion to these unhappy people, and in order to recon
cile to their own consciences what, without some pretext of good, would have
appeared an act of injustite and cruelty. But this prejudice against the Jews
j^sbows no signs .of perpetuating itself It is rapidly giving way before
j the influence of a religious and philosophical age; the Jews are fast acquiring
/civil privileges ; are aspi-ting to .a highei toae,of^ character and morals, and

beginning to be esteemed, as other men are, according to their merits. But
in what light are their persecutors viewed ? Either as exceedingly wicked
or foolish, and often both.
But we may be told, that, in the case of the Jews, there was no ineffaceable
distinction (as with the colored people) to prevent their becoming incorporate
with the rest of the community. Granted. But the same yielding of pre
judice to reason and humanity is taking place in the W^est Indies, in relation
to the colored people there, since the particular cause which engendered and
kept it alive has been removed. The moment slavery was abolished, preju
dice against color was seen to be on the wane, and men began to be respected
according totheirworth.' "So great has been the change among the proprie-
tSrs"and property-holders ; so completely have they become reconciled to
color in freemen, that nothing would be more strenuously resisted now, than
an attempt to persuade the colored people to remove from the islands, where,
as slaves, they first heard the jubilee of freedom. And we venture the pre
diction, that after the same jubilee shall have sounded throughout our slave-
holding South — wh,icb, we trust, w^e may all live to hear — instead of the
Southerners being seen anxiously instigating the removal of the colored
people, there will be nothing that would be considered more worthy of the
Lynch practice than an attempt of the kind — no, not even the proclaiming
amongst them now, that "all men are created free, and entitled to their lib
erty." ^ V es, gentlemen, let slavery once be abolished, and, our word for it,
you will find your argument based on prejudice against color of but little
weigh t.^-^
To say of a community, that it is laboring under a present, an existing
prejudice, offers no disparagement to the power of truth; but to say, that it is
laboring under a prejudice which is irremovable, is to pronounce, that error
is an overmatch for truth, and to despair of the improvement of the
world. To assert of a people, that they will always be guided by pre- '
judice in relation to any interest, is to declare, that they are hopelessly
¦stupid and besotted. That such a notion should be entertained by minds that
reflect but a little, ought not to be expected ; but that it should be cher
ished and inculcated by gentlemen who, from the nature of their pursuits,
may be regarded as professional investigators of truth — by gentlemen who
can testify to the efficacy of that agent in exterminating deep-set prejudices
from their own hearts ; and who, beholding its mighty powers, contemplate
them with awe, and look to them for the expulsion of all error, the casting
out of all wrong, and the renovation of the world ; — this, we say, seems pass
ing strange.
-(But you may say, that, seeing the colored people cannot, as a class, "rise"
to an equality with the community around them, much less to honors and dis
tinctions, and that they cannot be happy here, we merely act on the popular
.prejudice with a single view to their happiness. Whilst we by no
means draw in question the sincerity of this declaration, we yet beg leave to
say, that the body of the colored people of this country who are free, are not
minors i_ or,"'Trthey are So considered by others, they have not yet heeii divested
of the common law right of choosing their guardians; that this they have not
as yet done, but have considered — as in Jhe_case__of^other men-rrrthat- their
happiness has been committed to their own keeping; and that, as a class,

10
they deem themselves reasonably well qualified, on the score of intelligence^
to judge what will most promote it. After mature consideration, they decided
against the Colonization scheme, as eminently hostile to their happiness.
The working of the scheme for twenty years has served but to confirni them
in the soundness of their decision. All this time, they have been suffering
under malignant influences, which, if they were not engendered by that
scheme, were greatly aggravated by it. They have remonstrated as strongly
as they could; they have entreated as earnestly as they could. But, thus
far, it has all been of no avail. . . _,
Not long since, the colonization society decided on altering its Constitu
tion. On first hearing this, the hope sprung up, that we were, after so long a
time, to be delivered from the persecutions we were suffering from this source ;
and that the conductors of the scheme, after a fruitless trial of twenty years
to recommend it to the free colored people — after they had seen them not
only reject it, but unceasingly to regard_it as their worst enemy — after all
vemigration had ceased, except, of ^.slaves sent out by the authority of their mas
ters — had at last become sensible how indecent, nay, how unjust and unfeeling
it was, to persist longer in pressing it on our acceptances^, How great has been
our disappointment to find, that on the occasion alluded to, the Society in the
face of these facts, made no substantial alteration of its constitution ; and that it
it continues to this hour, to hold out to the world as its owZy object, the removal
of the free people of color to Africa — that very people whose/re« consent was a
preliminary to their removal, and who foriwenty years have done all they could
€o, to show to its projectors how, ex animo, they repudiated, scorned and dread
ed the scheme from beginning to end. _ Had you changed your purpose,
and dedicated your labors to the transportation and colonization of slaves
^ sent out by their masters, we should have been at peace, and no one would
probably nave excepted to the scheme. But how cau it be expected that the
colonizationists, thus acting, can be regarded by us as our best friends and
safest guides ! ' ; ' -, ^"T
Besides, where are the proofs of warm regard for our happiness on the
part of colonizationists ? Have they aided and encouraged us in the edu-
., cation of our children? No I They say we ought not to be encouraged to
this, because it would induce us to remain here. Have they sought to secure
jto us those political and civil privileges and rights, without which, in their
own case, they would look on themselves as grievously oppressed 1 No !
They say our present disabilities " ought to be maintained in all their rigor."
Have they perilled for us their lives, or their persons, or their reputations,
or their property ? If so, say when, — where. Have they protected and com
forted us when assailed by the most brutal persecutions ? Tell us the oc
casions ; we ean recall none such. Have they once rebuked the slavehold
er, our envenomed enemy, for his pitiless oppression of our brethren ? No !
But they have made of him an ally in the work of benevolence projected for
us, — and to show him with what entire good faith they intend to perform their
part of the covenant, they have united with him in proclaiming to the world,
'.thaX we are " of all descriptions of our population the most corrupt, depra
ved and abandoned."
Such, gentleinen, in the view of the great body of the colored people, are

11
the proofs which the Colonizationists bring of their title to be considered and
consulted as our surest friends.
But, again: — " We cannot,in this country, rise to an equality with the
community, much less to honorable places," &c. In meeting this objection,
we do not intend to take either side of the question, whether the colored man
is naturally equal or inferior to the white in intellectual and moral powers?
What the conclusions have been, which have followed apriorior phrenological
arguments, as to this matter, we have not been very careful to enquire.
Leaving such, whatever may be their decision, out of the case, as too uncer
tain for the basis of a course of action — at all events, where experiment can
be resorted to — we hesitate not to suy, that the question, whether or not the
colored man can "rise" in this country is, as yet, wholly undecided. We
do not pronounce that he could, or that he could not ; for the experiment that
will satisfy a philosophical mind as to either remains to be made.
/Whilst we will not say, that even under the most favorable circumstances,
/the colored man would prove himself equal to the white, neither can it be
I said on the other hand, that he would not Neithet-daeiitjie in the mouth
I of him who has succeeded, by force or guile, in binding the colored man '
hand and fbot.and is stan4tng-on his neck, to assert, that his natural pow
ers to rise, and stand erect, and perform all the offices of perfect manhood,
'are weak or defective. The first impulse of a by-stander would be, to cry
out: — " Release him from his chains ! — strike off his fetters! — relieve him
from the stifling pressure of your own weight ! — try him ! and if, after time
allowed for restoring the circulation of his blood to its free and wonted course,
and for suppling his muscles, numbed and deadened by the ligatures that
bind him, — if, after this, he be unable to rise, your assertion may gain cre
dit — but not till then."
But, supposing it true, that the colored man is decidedly inferior to the
white — does it follow that he ought to be exiled ? If so, what shall be done
' with many large family-connections of whites, who, from generation to gen
eration, as far back as they can be traced, have not produced a single indi
vidual qualified for any but the most humble occupations — who are set down,
on all hands, as below the mass of their neighbors in intelligence, and who
give no promise of ever rising ubove their past and present condition. Shall
they be sent away ? You at once replj'. No : But, we answer, they can never
"rise'' — all the evidence in the case proves this, and nothing ehe. You rejoin
— What of thati Suppose every man in the country was a Milton, or a
Newton, or a Bowditch, and every woman a Somerville, or a Hemans, or a
de Stael, — what would become of us? Who would feed us? Why, we should
soon be at the point of starvation. No, Sirs, — society was never interided
to be a unit in relation to mind or occupation. It has high places and low
places, both stimulating, when properly understood, to laudable effort ; and it
\ has innumerable intermediate places, all of which ought to be filled and all
\ of which, in a well adjusted social structure, will be filled — -and that in the
most easy and natural way — if the members of the community are only left
free to fall into the several niches for which they are fitted.
Now, gentlemen, all that the colored people ask, is, that these sober and
obviously sensible views be applied in their case. Let their manacles be
struck off — let the suffocating pressure of unequal legislation be removed,
and they left free, as others, to exercise their powers to their fullest extent;

12
if then, they should prove inferior to the whites in mental force, they will,
spontaneously, as a matter of course, and without any feeling of discontent,
fall into the most humble conditions of life— be devoted to the most laborious
occupations,— to those that are the least honorable, but as necessary to the
. well being of society to be filled as the highest and the most honorable. But
this natural and peaceful order of things can never take place, while they
are oppressively dealt with in the legislation of the country— as long as the
law withholds from them the stimulus it gives to others to exert the facul
ties they possess to the utmost, for theii own and the general good. As long
as they are thus artificially depressed, the humane will exert themselves,
artificially to raise them. Place them on the same platform with others as
to civil right, arid yoa take away all ground for artificial aid. Then the
outcry against attempts to elevate the colored man, by inducting him into or-
ySmary social intercourse with the whites, will cease. So will the unneces-
j' sary alarm, about amalgamation,-^for all such matters will then stand on
* their natural basis. * , - '
III. But the colonizationist finds, in the christianization of Africa,
and the breaking up of the Slave-trade, enough to justify him for the
ills he is bringing on us. Were it even certain, that these benefits would
ensue, it would, in no wise, be a warrant for the wrongs he inflicts ; for to " do
evil that good may come" is not sounder in morals now, than it was a hundred
years ago, nor less indefensible in Protestants than in Catholics. But we
shall attempt to show that, the expectation of these benefits is delusive — not
without the hope, that, should we succeed, but to a reasonable degree of pro
bability, it may have its influence on your minds.
We do not propose to rest our success on a comparison of the multitudinous
and contradictory testimonies that have reached this country, of the ill or
good success which has, thus far, attended the Liberian colony in christian
izing the aborigines and breaking up the slave-trade. We shall omit
all argument from them ; first, because they are contradictory ; second, be
cause these testimonies, together with the comparisons of them, and the in
ferences, are, already to a considerable extent, before the public. To these
we shall make no reference where they admit of the least dispute. We wish
to have the questions before us decided, not on insulated facts, nor by accidental
or transitory occurrences, but on those broad and comprehensive and perma
nent principles, which are known to operate with unbroken uniformity, on
man in a social state, wherever, and under whatever form, that social state
exists. We call your attention, then, to the colonization of heathen countries in
modern times, conducted solely by colonists from christian countries. Sam
ples only of this we shall give. In 1492, when Hispaniola was discovered
it contained a million of people, described by Columbus as the most " affec
tionate, tractable and peaceable" that he had ever seen. Sixteen years after
ward, when the Governor (Albuquerque) made an enumeration, there were
but 14,000 left. They had been reduced to this remnant, by severe labor,
insufficient rest and food, and other hardships, notwithstanding all the efforts
of the Spanish Crown to protect them from the cruelty and rapacity of the
colonists. Spain was then, as she is now considered, one of the most r«/j,g-iOMS
nations in Europe.
The Indians have disappeared before the Pilgrim Fathers of New England,

13
¦ — ^andthis, too, without any perceptible amelioration of their moral condition!
No community has better merited the title of religious than the settlers
of New England.
So did the Indians in Pennsylvania, and disappear before the colonists of
William Penn, the brightest example on record of a Christian statesman.
Throughout our southern States similar unhappy results have taken
place. This generation is witness to the total extinction of some of the
mighty tribes that once bore svi'ay on the soil where we inhabit — to the
wasting away of others — to the transfer of their remnants from our midst to
the wilderness, on the ground that separation from us is the only way in
which they can be civilized, or even preserved from extinction— to
the hunting down with blood-hounds such of them as we have been unable
to subdue in customary warfare, and who refuse to become exiles from the
land of their fathers, and commit themselves to our broken faith. This is a
melancholy picturs, but it is one that is presented by a people who would
be unwilling to have their Christianity disparagingly compared with that of
any other people on the globe.
The fact, that christian colonization has either uniformly wrought the
extermination of the aborigines, or that it tends to do .so, except where the
Colonists themselves lapse into barbarism — as was the case with the
Portuguese settlements on the western coast of Africa — has not unfre
quently been adduced, to prove the ill success that will probably attend all
similar efforts for the christianization of the heathen ; but nowhere have
we seen a sufficient ground-work laid, to show, why these results have been
so uniform heretofore, and why they may, to a moral certainty, be expected
to exhibit the same uniformity hereafter. Colonizationists generally seem
satisfied with attributing these remarkable phenomena to the accidental
difference of color. This easy, off-hand solution owes its birth, if we mistake
not, to the colonization-school. It was not dreamed of, till this project was
set on foot by the slaveholders to secure a more quiet existence to their
" system;" and it has always kept close company Avith its parent — being
found useful in reconciling honest and conscientious persons to the indirect
compulsion it was found necessar}' to resort to, to wring from the colored
people their " consent" to be exiled. But is it convincing, gentlemen, to a
philosophical enquirer — does it satisfy your minds ? -If so, how do you dis
pose of the fact, that, in the whole history of colonization by the white race
among the colored, from the time of Vasco de Gama till now, no mention is
made of color, aS offering an obstacle to aboriginal christianization ? i Or, of
the fact, that, in allthe recordsof missions, sincetheir earliest institution, there is
not an occurrence, direct or incidental, serving to show, that a white mission
ary has been any the less useful among the colored heathen of every
shade, even the deepest, because he differed from them in complexion ? Go
to the Islands of the Pacific — of the Indian ocean — to our own aborigines
 to the black — yes, the black natives of Northern India — to the negroes of
Eastern Afi-ica — of Western Africa — and you never once hear it whispered,
that the missionary would be more acceptable, were he of a darker hue.
Shall we remind you, here, of the opinion of the late Governor Ashraun — ¦
decidedly, one of the ablest minds that has been connected whh the Liberian
scheme?' In commending to the Board of Managers at Washington, a plan

14
for a Missionary establishment— to be independent of the colony, that it
might the better 'mediate in the differences that he supposed, vyould arise
between it and the natives— he hesitated not to say, that ' the missionary or
principal of the establishment ought of preference, to be a white man." One
of the reasons for this— and in itself wholly sufficient— was, that " the natives
have universally a most affecting persuasion of the superioi ity oj white men.
With such testimony in favor of our position — and none to oppose or
contradict it — we conclude, that, in the hue of the white missionary, no obsta
cle is presented to the christianization of the darkest-colored heathen ; and
that, difference of complexion is not to be numbered among the primary
causes, why the aborigines of all countries have uniformly dwindled away,
or disappeared, before a successful system of christian colonization. These
causes, lying deeper than the skin, and having no relation to it, maybe
embodied in this principle, — the Christian form of society is one in which
the aborigines can have no place and act no part.
A christian colony (we use the word christian as opposed to heathen
or pagan) institutes society, of course, on the principles to which they have
been accustomed. Consequently, no provision is made for the heathen —
such an element being incompatible. This society at once assumes, as is un
avoidable, superiority; it becomes the upper caste. A consciousness of in
feriority soon takes possession of the natives. The colony extends itself-—
or, at least, its jurisdiction — over a large scope of country, from which it is
unnecessary, as yet, that the natives should be expelled. Thus, their social
organization, whatever it- be, they see overshadowed by that of the new-co
mers, and daily withering away under it. The example of the vicious
among the colonists, adJressingitself to the passions, is more influential than
the example of the viituous, which calls for restraints. Hence, diseases are
introduced unknown in htathen life — to the cure of which their skill is un
equal. The spread of the colony — a mark of prosperity — circumscribes
the hunting-grounds, diminishes the quantity of game, and makes the sub
sistence of the natives more precarious. The colonists, intent on their own
concerns individually, or as a community, have but little intercourse with
their rude neighbors, except as interest or convenience may, from time to
time, call for it. In rading, they overreach them ; — a thing as certainly to
be looked for, as it is certain that they are superior to them in the knowledge
of values. They lose the confidence of the natives; the latter become sus
picious — and, at last, hate, because they are too weak to enforce retribution
or inflict punishment. Thus, they resort to cunning and sinister devices.
They see their own social organization crumbling to dissolution, and know
that they are unqualified for any other. Old stimulants to high achieve
ments have passed away — no new ones are supplied; and, unsupported by
religious principle or hope, they inevitably sink down in the abjectness of
those, who, having lost all respect for themvelves, feel, that they have no title
to the respect of others. That such a people must eventually perish every
one is prepared to believe.*
• The ill success of colonies in chrii'tianizing Heathen countries, affords ne-
fative evidence, at least, of the wisdom of both Protestant and Catholic directors
f missions. They send out, at most, only a few families — not enough to con
stitute o class in society. They know, that the structure of heathen society is

15
But, during the whole of this consuming process, there may be among
the colonists many good men, who, commiserating the condition of the na
tives, are rtiade instrumental of heavenly blessings to individuals among
them — as is the case in this country in relation to the Indians — but they can
effect but little with the great mass, as long as they have to contend with the
corrupting influences of a majority of the colonists, or, as long it remains
true, tha» "one sinner destroyeth much good."*
/" The operation of the principle to which we have attributed these results
ijo_dis,istrons to the_heatheD,.and which we have lattempted, though in a very |
summary manner, to indicate, isjthflllyLUBCoxLnected^with color. It has no \
relation to color. In the history of the cases there is nothing to warrant the
opinion, that the resuhs would not have taken place as they did, had the
Volonists been identical in color with the natives or, that similar resuhs will
not again follow, whenever similar disparities exist, irrespective of color.
The particular instances to whieh we have called your attention — as, in
deed, with a single exception, are all the other instances of modern coloni
zation — are, of colonists drawn from the most educated, refined, and christian
communities, going to heathen of the most simple, unsophisticated, and harm
less habits — uncorrupted, too, by the vices of civilized life. If, from the
nature of these enterprizes, success had not been really unattainable, the
elements of character on both sides would have warranted the highest expect
ations. But no: after prosecuting them for generations, through scenes of
injustice, and blood, and carnage, and usurpation, and desolation, at the bare
recital of which posterity (it is to be hoped, more virtuous) will shudder and
be astounded, — they have all failed — wholly failed, so far as the civilization
or christianization of the aborigines is concerned.
Let us now compare the leading features in the cases presented with those
in the one under consideration.
First — as to the character of the colonists, in reference to their qualifica
tions for redeeming the continent of Africa from the vices and pollutions of
to be reformed and puriiied — noi^crushed. as it inevitably must be, whenever a chris
tian class in society is set up in the same country. The heathen must not be
made, at once to lose all respect for themselves, or their own social institutions ;
but they ought to have in the example of two or three Christian families — really
such — that, with which they can compare themselves, and thus be persuaded, with
as little mortification as possible, to alter what they will be apt enough to see is
amiss. If the conduct of these families is seen to flow from their religious belief,
— the belief will soon be embraced.
* The opinion has sometimes been advanced, that if a general emancipation
were to take place in the South, the colored people would waste away, as the
Indians have. Those who advance it, seem not to have considered, that the so
cial structure of the South is already formed ; and that one of the ehmetils of it
is the colored population, to whom certain offices have been assigned ; and that
they can perform these offices as well in a state of freedom as in a state of ser
vitude. If, when emancipation takes place in the South, the masters exercise
ordinary prudence, there will hardly be any derangement of the business of the
country The emancipated — if fairly dealt by and paid for their work — will na
turally continue in the discharge of offices to which they have been accustomed,
and in which they have become expert ;— the more especially, as there will be,
at least for a long time, any other offices for them to labor in for their support.

16 civilization : —
I propor-
....... of a out ofiO, the emigrants may be expected to be illiterate ;¦¦—¦" I must
renew the painful inference that the emigrants to this country will bring
with them no established moral habits ;"—" Your emigrants I must also
assume to be immoral."
The Rev. Mr. Jones, a native of the south, a clergyman, and for some
time, by permission of the planters, a missionary among the slaves, says of
them, " Generally speaking, they appear to us to be without God, and without
hope, a nation of heathen in our very midst."
The Hon. Mr. Mercer, of Virginia, a Vice President of the colonization
society, pronounces the free colored people, " a horde of miserable people ;
'"• the objects of universal suspicion, subsisting by plunder."
The late Hon. John Randolph, of Virginia, calls them. " depositories
OF STOLEN GOODS AND PROMOTERS OF MISCHIEF."
The Rev. R. R. Gurley, Corresponding Secretary of the Society, declares,
they are "notoriously ignorant, degraded, and miserable, mentally diseased
— scarcely reach-id in their debasement by the heavenly light."
The Hon. H. Clay, the President of the Society, says of them, that, " con
taminated themselves, they extend their vices to all around them, to the slaves
and TO THE whites:" and assures us, that " of all descriptions of our popu-
- lation [the free negroes are] the most corrupt, depraved, artd abandoned ;"
thus, putting them even lower than the slaces of whom Mr. Jones speaks.
/ ThisJlLeja,Js ihejiharacter — not drawn by us, but by the colonizationists
/themselves — of the.pfiisons who are Xohe sent.
Secondly, we will, endeavor to ascertain the character of those to whom
this band of missionaries, so rarely qualified for their work, are to be sent,
and on whom they are to make their first aggressive movement toward the
christianization and civilization of a continent. If other evidence were want
ing, the fact that they have been engaged, for two centuries and more, in the
accursed slave trade — carried on in the persons of their own countrymen,
and this too, at the instigation of men, who, perverting the benefits of being
born and brought up in a Christian land, have had their wits sharpened
by avarice to every fiendish counsel and diabolical device — ^this, we say,
if other evidence were wanting, would, of itself, be sufficient. But other
evidence is not wanting. We again refer to Governor Ashmun
"Children receive no instruction from their parents, seldom parental correc
tion; lying and petty thefts among them only excite merriment."
" The adult is commonly devoid of moral principle altogether."
" They have no forms of worship., The most enlightened among them are
commonly the most superstitious."
" Polygamy and domestic slavery arc as universal as the scanty means ef
the people will permit. And a licentiousness of practice prevails, which not
the worst part of any civilized community can parallel."
- " They are sunk, perhaps, to the lowest state of debasement to which human
nature can diiscend. They are degraded to the eondition nearly of the better
sort of brutes in human form."
—• Being now in possession of the character of those who are to act, and of
those who are to be acted on, in this magnificent enterprize for the exaltation
and refinement, political and civil and religious, of a benighted continent, we
are prepared —

17
Thirdly, — to look into the actuality of the movement, and to judge from
the effects already produced by the coming together of the parties, to what
extent the inflated expectations of its advocates hnve been authorized, and
how far- their extravagant hopes may continue to be indulged.
In 1820, eighty emiirrants were despatched from this country by the Presi
dent of the United States, under the authority conferred by the act of
March 1819, in the Elizabeth — who were to be employed at the expense of
the government in prepuring accommodations for the reception of recaptured
Africans. No territory having, as yet, been purchased, they effected a tem
porary location in the island of Sherbro, and at Sierra Leone. In Decem
ber 1821, Lieutenant Stockton and Dr. Ayres, as agents of the Government,
under the act above mentioned, arrived on the African coast, and purchased
Cape Montserado. The fiist colonial settlement was made at this point in
June 1S22, by the emigrants already mentioned. Whilst they were being
transported to the Cape, an unpleasant state of feeling seems to have sprung
up against them among the Deys, one of the neighborinff tribes, from whom
the purchase is alleged to have been made. The cause of it, if revealed, we
have not been able to ascertain. But it rose so high, that on the arrival of the
first division of the colonists, they were forbidden, and with menaces of vio
lence, from landing. Notwithstanding, they finally succeeded in landing on a
small island neir the Cape, without any actual opposition. The agent, how
ever, did not succeed — if he tried — 'in conciliating the friendship of the na
tives, and they seem not to have relinquished the purpose of compelling the
removal of the colonists. Feigning reconciliation, they succeeded in get
ting possession of Dr. Ayres' person. As the condition of his enlargement,
he agreed to accept the remnant of the goods which had been advanced; a
short time before, in part payment for the lands, and thus annul the contract.
It appears too, that he was enjoined to depart from the country — -taking the
colonists with him. This he " continued to evade, ' says Governor Ashmun,
who is the historian of this unworthy proceeding, by " alleging'' the want
of vessels for the purpose.
Thus, Liberian colonization began, in deceiving the natives, to say the
least of it. Soon afterwards a " secret, ex parte arrangement" was made with
king George, who resided on the Cape, by which the settlers were permit
ted to pass over from the island to the site of their intended town. The
•' compliment" paid for this privilege was "half a dozen gallons of rum, an
equal amount in African trade, cloth and tobacco." Soon after this success
ful effort at negotiation with king George, an event took place strongly
indicating the character of the colonists, — their deficiency in wisdom,
their recklessness of the institutions and feelings and friendship of the natives.
The custom of the coast appropriates to the petty chief on whose lands
a wreck takes place, the vessel with its entire cargo.* An F.nglish schooner
was wrecked on the territory of king George, and he sent his people to
take possession. They were resisted by the captain and crew who sent to
the colonists for assistance. Without attempting remonstrance or en
treaty — even admitting that remonstrance or entreaty against the operation of
a law of the country, would, in their circumstances, have been proper, but
*By the common law of England, all wrecks were, anciently, the property of
the Crown. 2*

18
with rashness that seems akin to dementation, a boat was instantly man
ned and sent to their assistance, and a field piece brought to h ar on the
natives, who were accordingly routed, with the loss of several killed and
wounded. This act of folly greatly aggravated the feelings of discontent and suspi
cion, already lodged in the breast of the natives. From what cause these
discontents ,y?r.s^' arose, we repeat, we are not distinctly informed, but we
gather from incidental circumstances in the account, that the people con
sidered the land to have been unlawfully granted by their kings. Alleg
ing this against one of them, (king Peter) he was capitally impeached, the
accusation' was duly substantiated, audit was with difficulty that he escaped
the punishment of high treason.
Notwithstanding the unquiet and hostile feelings of the natives, no gentle
means seem to have been tried to conciliate them. But such as are not un
usual in sinailar cases were triid, and to all appearance, at least for the time,
they were effectual. The chief, Ba Caia, who had, proved by multiplied
acts of kindness, the sincerity of his professions of friendship to the colo
nists, found it neces,sary, on account of the exposed condition of his posses
sions and people, to keep on good terms with his neighbois, the Deys, The
cplonisls, affecting however, to look on his conduct- suspiciously, he was per
suaded, with a view to a general adjustment of the difficulties connected
nected with the grant, to call in the friendly mediation of king Boat-
wain, an old ally of his, and one of the most powerful chiefs of the
ondoes. With savage promptitude, Boatswain appeared at the Cape to" do
^ slice", as he said — bringing along with him a force sufficient to carryhis de-
*-^sions into immediate effect. This arbiter, having convoked the head chiefs
of the neighborhood, the agents and principal settlers were called on to make
known their complaints. They complained, as might naturally be expected,
of the "bad faith" of the Deys, in relation to the land, and of the ..hostilities
committed by King George, [of course, since the killing of his people in their
attempt to take possession of the schooner.] What, if any thing, waa
said by the Deys and king George, in defence, it is not recorded. Boat
swain pronounced his decision, which ended with this speech addressed to the
agents: — If these people give' you further disturbance, send for me; and I
swear, if they oblige me to come again to quiet them, I will do it to purpose, by
taking their heads from their shoulders, as I did old king George's on my
last visit to the coast, to settle disputes." A- good admonition this to young
King George.
These transactions all took place within two or three months from the first
appearance of the colonists at the Cape. In this short time, so unwise had
been their conduct, that they had excited the most decided feelings of aliena
tion and distrust in the minds of the natives.
We thought it proper to be as minute as we have been in the foregoing
account, which may be said to embrace the first epoch of Liberian coloniza
tion, in order tfaat the spirit of the colonists, shown in the commencement of
of their intercourse vi-itb the natives — in their toeaknes% when, if ever, it
would be most likely to be gentle — may be fully seen. We shall be more
brief in succeeding details..
The fear of provoking Boatswain's resentment kept the natives quiet, up
to the arrival in the colony of the Rev, Mr, Ashmun, in August 1822,' as

19
agent of the United States, Notwithstanding what had tak' n place, he re
ceived assurances of friendship from many of the kings and hnad-raen of
the nt^iohbouring tribes. That there was some sincerity in their professions
may be believed from the fact, that several of them (as many as were allovir-
ed) sent their sons to reside with the agent, to receive itistr- ciion in the
English language, &c. However this may have been, we find Mr. Ashmun
on the '26th of November, only three months after his arrival, writing thus
to the Secretary of the Navy " We are noio engaged in a bloody and
perilous war with the native tribes around us" The natives were defeated of
course. The number of the slain on their side was never ascertained, though
Mr. Ashmun supposes the " carnage was great." Ten or twelve trips of
a canoe which would carry twelve persons, were seen to be niade in
transporting the dead and wounded across the Mesurado river. Twenty-seven
bodies were discovered in the woods a few days after, when the stench from
putrid carcases had "become intolerable." Pro-positions for peace were now,
unsuccessfully however, set on foot ; the war was renewed and another ter
rible cirnage of the natives took place. In the negotiations between the
parties, we find what the natives alleged as their ground of discontent. It
was that " having brought the low ground on Bwshrad Island, the America;ns,
had seized on the Cape toithout light — that the country people visiting the
settlement had been cheated and roughly used by the store-keeper — that the
agents had not fulfilled their promises of instructing the people."
For several years, and during the remainder of Mr. Ashmun's administra
tion, peace reigned. In 1832, war was made on the Deys and Gurrahs. They
were beaten, of course — with a loss of" fifteen 'killed and many wounded."
These are the wars which the colonists regard as having brought a consid
erable revenue of " glory" to them as a people.
So much for their warlike prowess — we will now examine whether as
missi&naries they are as liki ly to be equally successful.
In March 182.5, Mr. Ashmun, in a letter from Monrovia, pressing upon
the managers of the society the importance of sending white missionaries to
Africa, says : " Every month's experience proves to me, that our neighbors {the
natives) are corrupted by the influence of bad examples, and
DERIVE NO BENEFIT FROM THE GOOD, that are Set in the Colony."
InMay 182'7, writing to the same body, he says :
<flt is not known to every one how little difference can be perceived in the
measure of intellect possessed by an illiterate rustic from the United States
and a sprightly native of the coasQ-" the fact certainly is, that the advan
tage is oftenest, clearly on the sidf^the latter.'" — ' An unlimited indulgence
of appetite ; and the labored excitement and unbounded gratification of lust
the most unbridled and beastly —are ingredients of the African character.''
Such is the common character of all ; and it operates with all the power of
an ever present example on the colonists * * * from the moment of their arri
val in Africa. It must produce its effects. It has produced them, and
without a powerful counteracting agency, it must, at no great distance of
time, as surely leaven the whole mass, as human, nature shall continue lohdt
it is" Colonists thus suffer a double disadvantage— are~ subjected to all that
is contaminating in the character of the natives, at the same time that they
have passed beyond the reach of the corrective example of enlightened christ
ians."

20
In Feh 1834, Rev. Mr. Pinney (the Governor,) writing from Monrovia;
Bays— ^
':/7%e natives are perfect menials (/ mean those in town) and sorry am I
to be%liged to say, that, from my limited observation, it is- evident, that as
little effort is made by the colonists to elevate them, as is usually made by
the higher class in the United States [the whites] to elevate the lower [the col
ored peoplejx " Nothing has been done for the natives, hitherto, by the colon
ists, except, ^^0 educate a few who were in their families in the capacity of
servants." The same gentleman in 1 836 publicly stated — "the colony has existed
now for fifteen years,- and yet the 9,0,^0 Africans around it have not mate
rially altered any of their marmers — they dress in the same negligent way,
[their only clothing being a piece of cloth around the loins]: — i/iey dwell in
the same poor huts — they have the same mode of agriculture — as when we
first came here."
The late Governor Skinner, in 1837, says, ' but few of the natives have
been civilized. I have known but ywe instances ; two of them are professors
of religion." 'Yhese five civilized Were, in all likelihood, the " few," spoken
of by Governor Pinney, as living with the colonists as" servants."
The foregoing are the statements of men holding the highest official station in
the colony. Their account of its condition is to be presumed in every respect as
favorable as th^i facts in the case would reasonably warrant. If they be true — -
and they are, entirely accordant — so far as we are aware, with the
prose of the colony, if not with the poetry of its advocates in this country — -
where is the ground of hope, that Liberia is about to prove an exception to
all the colonies of modern times ?
IV. We will next examine whether the likelihood of the slave trade being
broken up by the colonies, is as encouraging as the christianizing ef the ab
origines by the same instrumentality.
Without intending, in any way, to countenance the loathsome character
given of the emigrant class by the colonizationists, we may safely hazard
the opinion, that their moral restraints from e- aging in the slave trade are
not, in any way, stronger than those of the iLnites in this country. Now,
aUhough kidnapping, by thelaws of (perhaps) all the States, is visited with
severe punishment; and aUhough public sentiment gives its support to the
laws ; yet, kidnapping persons from the free States, and selling them for slaves
at the south, is a business which is carried on by white persons among us, to
by no means an inconsiderable extent, nor without a due regard to system.
From all the free States bordering on the slave, and even from some of the
farming slaveholding States, scores of persons, born undeniably free, are
every year trepanned by kidnappers, and beguiled, or hurried forcibly away,
into the planting South, where they are sold as slaves, with but little chance
of regaining their liberty. Three young men, whose free birth admits of no
question, were inveigled in this city, not very long ago, and taken to New, Or
leans, where they were sold as slaves, by the captain of the vessel with whom
they sailed as hands. One of them has succeeded in getting back; all traces
cf the others are lost, and the kidnapper is unpunished. Nor was it very
long since, that three men, apparently confederates, were apprehended in Cin
cinnati, on suspicion of having kidnapped, and taken away,, several colored
people, who were suddenly missed from their dwellings. On examinino- the

21
party, ropes, cords, and straps with slip-knots, &c., and ingenious contrivan
ces of various kinds for quickly and securely binding human victims, were
found on them. And it was but the other day, that two citizens of Massachu
setts were convicted of kidnapping, and selling as a slave in Virginia, a lad,
the son of one of their neighbors. In ferreting out this case, another of the
same kind was discovered." If now, with all these appliances and means of
restraint — early education, public opinion, the danger of detection, disgrace,
and punishment; — if all these prove ineffectual on the whites, for breaking
down the slave trade in its most odious form here among us, ought it to be
expected of the colonists, that they will surpass the whites, and not only re
frain from engaging in the trade themselves, and reaping its large profits,
but that they will outstrip their teachers in being officious to break it up ? —
and this too, in a part of the world where it is as much the great business, as
the raising and selling of cotton is the great business of the planting South?
Neither philosophy nor experience warrants such calculations.
The circumstances in which the southern slaves are brought up — and it is
from this class that the colonists have, for a long time, been mostly drawn —
are unfavorable to the supposition, that they would be averse to participating
in the slave trade, or, to becoming slaveholders themselves. They who sup
pose, that men who have suffered the degradation, as well as the other ills, of
slavery, would be the last to inflict the same ills on others, have not learned
human nature in the same school we have. Drivers selected fiom slave-
gangs are proverbially cruel. Slaves, of any color, becoming free in coun
tries where their own race are in bondage, show as much, if not more eager
ness (when they possess the means) to become masters, than such as are
born free. And their treatment of their slaves is generally more cruel.
But what are the " unfavorable circumstances," to the influence of which
the slaves of this country are exposed ? These are some of them. They see
the bench, the bar, the banquet, the ball, the hall of legislation, the sanctuary
of the Most High, — the things of this world — the things of the world to come,
— all, in the hands, and under the direction, of slaveholders I
Can this fail of exerting a pernicious influence on an ignorant, uneducated
slave ?
And are there no such influences operating on the colored people of the
free States? Who is it that is most caressed among us ? The slaveholder.
Who is it that is most honorably treated by the most honorable in the free
stales ? The slaveholder. To whom do the Legislatures of the free states
grant peculiar privileges — to whom give carte blanche to dishonor their
free principles and displace their free institutions, wherever he may travel in
their confines, by suffering him to introduce among them, at pleasure, troops
of slaves, with all the usages of a slaveholding countiy and constitution? To
the southern slaveholder, and no one else. Is a political meeting to be
harangued in New York, or Boston, or Philadelphia — who is so sought after
to do it as a Kentucky, or a Tennessee, or a South Carolina slaveholder?
Is one of our wealthy and fashionable congregations to be preached to?
What minister more sure of acceptance than he who visits the North, to sell
his five hundred or thousand cotton bales, raised by the unpaid labor of his
scores of slaves? Who so certain as he to hear, " welcome, brother" ! — while
he that would rebuke him is repelled with, " begone, fanatic" !
Now, Sirs, can it be possible, constituted as human nature is, that such ho-

22
nors heaped on the slaveholder should not produce a strong effect on nieo
of uneducated and undisciplined minds ?
Thus brought to associate all that is dignified and desirable with slave-
holding, up to the period of their leaving this country ,is it likely that the west
ern coast of Africa will work a change for the:betterin the feelings of the
emigra;its? The kings and princes and head-men there, are all engaged in
the slave trade. Whatever there is among them of wealth, of fashion, or per
taining to thecourt, it is all associated with the slave trade. On the western
coast, human bodies are the great article cf traffic, just as on our southern
coast, cotton, produced from the toil of these bodies is the great article of traf
fic. Bodies safely stowed away for sale in a barracoon, reflect no less con
sequence on king Joe Harris in Africa, than the same number of bodies at
work in the cotton-field, without wages, at the end of the overseer's lash^
give to Governor McDuffie in America. The same difference that would
be made between slaveholder Preston, or slaveholder Calhonn, and any
poor tar-burner, at the south, would be unhesitatingly accorded to king Peter
or king Boatswain, when brought along-side of some shirtless collector of
palm-oil or ivory, or gold-dust, on the coast. The colonist not having
been taught the more recondite mysteries of slaveholding casuistry, is una
ble to place the two on different platforms of respectability. King Peter
Uses bodies for profit, by selling them — the American senator uses bodies for
profit, by working them.* To the inexperienced the whole appears but one
concern — as a large business, divided for greater ease in carrying it on
— each paity falling into that particular department, which he finds most
convenient and profitable for him — the '• sansculottes" prince into the selling

departmgnt, — the American senator into the buying and consuming depart
¦ment. ^he colonist, in many instances at least, would be sadly put to it,
to say, why "buying and consuming," and occasional selling was quite right
in America, whilst re^wZar selling ought to Be broken up, at all hazards, in
AfricaTJ Moreover, qii_the_cflast,_-the-reg-ular slave-traders axs_jhs..jaLomed^eTi.
They have their large /ac^ories. Their abundant supply of goods of every
kind, — of powder and ball, guns and swords, of pistols and dirks and rum,
throw contempt on the "petty traffickers" of the Cape, large as their stock of
these articles has often been. The truth is, they are the " great ones" of the
land. And if General Wade Hampton, in his life-time, was gazed at with ad
miration, and waited on with servile attention, when he visited New
York or Philadelphia, because he was the holder of but a thousand slaves
af the south — what must be the pleasing consternation excited at the
Cape, when Don Pedro Blanco, the annupl exporter of four thousand slaves,
deigns to pay a visitto the poor, suffering, halfstaived Monrovians?
You, gentlemen, would of course, feel none of the influence lo which we
are adverting; — but take the mass of uneducated men, brought up in the
lowest conditions of life, and the case is widely different.
The expeiiment made by the British Government at Sierra Leone, gives
but feeble encouragement to the hope, that colonies composed, for the most
part, of needy, ignorant, and uneducated settlers, exposed to the malignant

' And selling them, too, whenever occasion calls for it..

2,3
influences of every kind, which abound on the western coast, will ever con
tribute either to putting down the slave tiade, or to christianizing the abo
rigines. Sierra Leone was planted by the efforts of individual philanthropists.
It was transferred to the Government (in 1307) about the time the Alrican
slave trade was abolished by Parliament — and with a special view to its
being made subsidiary to breaking up that abominable traffic. Almost in
credible sums have been expended in sustaining Sierra Leone. Troops are
stationed there for its protection. Vessels of war are either continually in
port, or on the coast to guard it from harm. Schools have been established
and liberally supplied with teachers. Religious institutions have been set
up, and abundantly provided with persons quilified to instruct. The Go
vernors of the colony have been men of high character — able and prompt,
and interested personally in putting down the slave trade. In fine, whatever
a powerful government could do for a favoiite colony — one that was to be
made eminently instrumental in a work which the whole country had warmly
at heart, and from which it expected a large measure of true glory, has been
done for Sierra Leone. Besides, all the moral influences of the nation were
sincerely opposed to the slave-trade ; — especially have they been for the last
twelve or fifteen years. The church throughout, established and dissent
ing, has been opposed to it ; — together with all the clergy and ministers, —
none of whom have had the hardihood to plead for it, or any thing kindred to
it, on scriptural grounds; all political parties have been opposed to it — so have
the Commons, — the Lords, — the Sovereign.
Here, then, is a remirkable case ; — of a small and dependent colony ex
posed, to be sure, to the pernicious operation of contrary and ever present
circumstances, but not, (to the superficial judgment) of such magnitude as to
be irremovable by the great amount of moral, and other influences that such a
people could bring to bear upon it. If the end were, in the nature of things,
attainable, we might reasonably expect such an experiment to be successful.
But it has been unsuccessful. So far from the colony's aiding in putting
down the slavetrade, the unceasing vigilance of Great Britain has been, and
is still, required to keep it from corrupting itself with that abomination.
Judge Jeffcott, Chief Justice of Sierra Leone, officially declared in 1831,
that the colony " established for the express purpose of suppressing tliis vile
traffic, was made a mart for carrying it on." Parliamentary enquiries put
the fact beyond all doubt, that instances have occurred in the colony of per
sons being actually spirited away, and sold as slaves, by their fellow colo
nists. Now, gentlemen, if this experiment, made, we repeat, under the most fa
vorable auspices, has failed, why look you for a different issue of the Libe
rian experiment, made under the most unfavorable auspices ? The slave
trade of this the parent country is carried on both by sea and by land — to an
enormous extent — openly and without any necessity or concenlmeiit. The co
lonists are not ignorant of this. If a slaver be wrecked on the coast of a
free country, and her cargo transmuted into men, our government moves
heaven and earth to re-convert it into things, or to obtain indemnity for the
traders, who, were the scene changed to Africa, would expiate their crime, as
pirates, at the yard-arm. The colonists are riot ignorant of this. The
National legislature is favorable to the slave-trade — one branch of it refu
sirtg tO' consider— 1:^6 other, to receive any petitions, praying that it may be

24
stopped. The colonists are not ignorant of this. The President of the
United States is favorable to the continuance of the slave-trade — having
pledged to the slave-traders and slaveholders all his official powers to pre
vent the abolition of slavery at the Capitol, till they consent to it The co-
lohis's are not ignorant of this. The American Church is not opposed to
slavery and the slave-trade. Her ministers and rulers are oftentimes slave
holders — and instances are not wanting where they have been concerned in
the systematized traffic. The colonists are not ignorant of this. The
governing South solemnly asseverates, that it prefers perpetual slavery and
its adjunct, the slave-trade, before all the benefits of the Union — and the
governed North submissively responds. Amen, Amen, so let it be. The co
lonists a e not ignorant of this.
Why, Sirs, do you look for an impression on the colony dissimilar from
the lineaments of the nation that makes it? Why for offspring wholly un
like the parent ? Is it, that, cause has ceased to produce its efect ? Or, that
men are beginning to gather thorns from grapes and figs from thistles?
But as we have thought proper not to rest this cause on insulated state
ments, or items of testimony, but rather on those great principles, out of the
control of which communities cannot throw themselves, it may be replied,
that the slave-trade has, actually, been banished from the territory withinthe
jurisdiction of the Colony. The extent of this territory has been variously
stated. It is usually set down to be about 300 miles coast-wise, — extending
from 10 to 40 into the interior. From this territory, it has been repeated,
over and over, in this country, for the last five or six years, that the slave-
trade has been wholly^ exterminated. A late pamphleteer has the temerity to
assert, that " the Commonwealth of Liberia  is allowed to have sup
pressed the slave-trade principally to the extent of seven miles on the coast."
By whom this has been allowed we know not ; but we will proceed to adduce
some evidence of so strictly authoritative a character as to render the state
ment, to say the least, quite improbable.
1. Since the settlement of the colony, Pedro Blanco, mentioned above,
one of the largest slave-traders in the world, has established himself at the
mouth of the Gallinas River, between Monrovia and Sierra Leone, with
in fifty miles of the former, and about treble that distance from the latter.
What Pedro Blanco's opinion is (and doubtless it is a very sound one) as to
the effect of the colonies on his business, the naked fact of his establishing
himself in their neighborhood sufficiently indicates.
2. To go no further back than 1836:—
" I have had constant difficuUies with the natives, in consequence of the
wars in which they are engaged, and the capture of persons to sell as
slaves, some of whom have been taken from our purchased territories. Boats
havebe?n sent from Spanish slavers into the St. Paul's and slaves have been
bought in that river." — Letter from Governor of Liberia, 8th Jan. 1836.
["The St. Paul's penetrates into the very heart of Liberia ; — its mouth is
within a few miles of Monrovia, and the settlements, Caldwell and Miils-
burg, are on its banks.]
3. In the Baptist Missionary Magazine for Nov. 1836, Mr. Crocker a
missionary, writing from Edina, says : — '
" '^"'"r °u *'"'®® ^^^'^^ ^^°' ^ '"''^ ^"y- ^^°^^ ^^S^^ y«»'s °^^' who was fre
quently following me about, and jabbering in the language of the country,

25
was carried off", to be sold as a slave.' • « # # . -^Ye fre
quently see them [the slavers] lying off, at no great distance from the shore
waiting to take m a cargo of slaves. I have seen the king and his son
fiercely qiiarrelling in consequence of drinking rum which the slaver had
sent to induce him to trade.'
" We have heard from a source entitled to authority, that a few days ago
a large town belonging to Fartorah, was, in the midst of fancied security'
surprised by a party of Big Town people. From 60 to 80 victims were
seized and marched down to Little Cape Mount, wehre a Spanish schoo
ner, from t/ie leeward coast, was lying at the time. They were imme
diately bartered for goods, and shipped on board.' '
[Little Cape Mount is on the coast about two-thirds of the distance from
Monrovia to Pedro Blanco's Factory.]
"Within a year, four slave factories have been established almost
within sight of the Colony. — Captain Nicholson's report to Secretary of Na
ry, Jan. 8th, 1837. '
[By colony, we suppose, Captain N. means 3Ionrovia.]
5. The British Parliament have lately published various documents rela
tive to the slave trade — among them is an intercepted letter from the cap
tain of a slaver to his owner in Cuba. The captain writes (28th Sep , 1838,)
from Little Bassi, (Liberia,) as follows: —
" Ta-morrow the schooner sails for New Sestos (believed to be also in
Liberia,) to take on board a cargo of slaves which I have ready there. I
have been obliged to have one hundred sets of shackles made at Cape Messu-
rado," (Monrovia.)
a On the 28th February, 1838, the British consul at the Cape de Verd
Islands made the following- astonishing disclosures in a letter to Lord Pal-
merston : —
"On the 15th February, 1838, arrived at this piort, a vessel under Ame
rican colors, named the Monrovia, last from Liberia, with a bill of sale and
list of crew from the collector of that colony. This vessel had neither re
gister nor a sea letter. I have ascertained, without doubt, that she is a ves
sel belonging to Don Pedro Blanco of the Gallinas : has put in here direc
ted to his agent for a fit-out for the coast, and that a cargo of slaves is ready
for her. There is a black man on board for a flag captain, who speaks English
well. Don Pedro Blanco's agent in Liberia is J. N. Lewis, commission
merchant." 7. "Before my arrival here, .business of every kind in the colony had be
come exceedingly dull, and the general impression was, that the patrons in
America were losing their interest in affairs here, and that poor Liberia
must go down. In this state of things, while our mechanics could find no
employment at home, the slavers offered them plenty of work, high wages
and good Spanish Doubloons for pay. The temptation was irresistible, and
some whose necessities were too strong for their principles, went among
them ; but I recalled all the wanderers as soon as I came here." *****
* * — Letter of Gov. Buchanan, IQth Aug. 1839.
i While the facts, that the slave trade was on the increase in the vicinity
' and almost in sight of Monrovia, and, that the colonists had in various ways
' connected themselves with the slave traders, were thus unhesitatingly testified
' to by the officers of the colony, and by gentlemen in our own and the British

26
Navy, in their communications to their respective Governments, has it not been
the hurden of almost every colonization meeting in this country, that the
slave trade was banished from the j urisdictional confines of Liberia ? Whilst
we charge no' one with intentional misrepresentation, we have good rea
son to complain of the recklessness that has led to such statements— espe
cially at the very time that the Newspaper of the colony contained such in
formation asthe following: —
8. " The first requisite to the prosperity and advancement of the colony is
the suppression of the slave trade in our vicinity. This trade has been gra
dually acquiring strength for the last four years. Its ravages have been more
fearful, and the vessels engaged in it more numerous, than at any former pe
riod of the Colony's history. An exterminating war has raged over an extent
of fifty miles around us ; nearly all communication with the interior has
been cut off; lands have remained unlilled, every article of food has advanced
200 per cent in price, and hobror and confusion have raged on every side."
— Liberia Herald May, 1838.
We have thus, gentlemen, furnished you with facts that bear especially on
such parts of the Colonization scheme, as have of late been almost exclu
sively held up before the public wherewith to win its favor. With these
facts we think you have not before been made acquainted. We have also,
presented you with the reasonings which they have given rise to in our
minds. With these, it is not to be supposed, that you are familiar.
Having now done what we could, we ask you in view of the whole case,
whether you ought longer to take advantage of our weakness to press on us
an enterprise that we have unremittingly rejected from the first? Whether
you ought to persist in a scheme which nourishes an unreasonable and
unchristian prejudice — which persuades legislators to continue their unjust
enactments against us in all their rigor — which exposes us to the persecution
of the proud profligate — which cuts us off from employment, and straitens
our means of subsistence — which afflicts us with the feeling^ that our con
dition is unstable, and prevents us from making systematic effort for our im
provement, or for the advancement of our own usefulness and happiness and
that of our families.
We ask fo^- an answer. May it be such as shall give peace to your own
consciences, and be approved of God in " the judgment of the great day.''
With Christian regard, we are, gentlemen, respectfully yours,
SAMUEL E. CORNISH,
THEODORE S. WRIGHT.

ERRATA.

Page 7, line 21. For " If, our descept'/ read " Ijo» our descent."
Page 13, line 4. For " So did the Indians in Pennsylvania, and disappear"
read " So did the Indians in Pennsylvania disappear.."
Page 15, note at the bottom, line next the last. For "the more especially as
there vdU be" read " will not be."
Page 24, line 27. For "to the extent of seven 'miles on the coast" read "to
the extent of seven AwTw^rai milra. on the coast."
Page 26, line 29. For "of the proud proffigate" read " of thj proud; awd
proffigate." -

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