IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY,
AT WASHINGTON CITY, JANUARY 20, 1827.
[THE subject of colonizing the free people of color and
emancipated slaves, became one of deep and profound interest,
at an early period, in the history of the United States. The
question was agitated in Virginia in 1800, and a resolution
passed in the legislature of that state, requesting the governor
to correspond with the president of the United States, on the
subject of purchasing land for a colony; and president Jefferson
made efforts, which, however, were unsuccessful, to obtain
by negotiation an establishment within the British colonies,
in Africa, or the Portuguese colonies, in South America.
The movement which finally led to a successful result, in
establishing an American colony on the coast of Africa,
commenced in the legislature of Virginia, in December 1816,
by instructing the executive of that state, and their members
of congress, to coöperate with the United States government
in endeavoring to obtain a territory on the before-mentioned
coast, for an asylum for free persons of color. Through the
instrumentality of the Rev. Robert Finley, an early and zealous
friend of the cause, a meeting of public men and private
citizens was held at Washington city, on the twenty-first of
December, 1816, over which Mr. Clay, then speaker of the house
of representatives, was called to preside. A constitution of
the American Colonization Society was adopted, at an adjourned
meeting on the twenty-eighth of December, and on the first of
January, 1817, the officers of the society were chosen, judge
Bushrod Washington being elected president, and Henry Clay,
William H. Crawford, Andrew Jackson, Robert Finley, and others,
vice-presidents. Mr. Clay has always taken a warm and decided
interest in the promotion of the objects of this society, and
at the annual meeting thereof, in 1827 (being then secretary of
state), he delivered the following address.]
I CANNOT withhold the expression of my congratulations to the society,
on account of the very valuable acquisition which we have obtained in
the eloquent gentleman from Boston, (Mr. Knapp,) who has just before
favored us with an address. He has told us of his original impressions,
unfavorable to the object of the society, and of his subsequent
conversion. If the same industry, investigation, and unbiased judgment,
manifested by himself and another gentleman (Mr. Powell), who avowed at
the last meeting of the society a similar change wrought in his mind,
were carried, by the public at large, into the consideration of the
plan of the society, the conviction of its utility would be universal.
I have risen to submit a resolution, in behalf of which I would bespeak
the favor of the society. But before I offer any observations in its
support, I must say that, whatever part I shall take in the proceedings
of this society, whatever opinions or sentiments I may utter, they
are exclusively my own. Whether they are worth any thing or not, no
one but myself is at all responsible for them. I have consulted with
no person out of this society, and I have especially abstained from
all communication or consultation with any one to whom I stand in any
official relation. My judgment on the object of this society has been
long since deliberately formed. The conclusions to which, after much
and anxious consideration, my mind has been brought, have been neither
produced nor refuted, by the official station the duties of which have
been confided to me.
From the origin of this society, every member of it has, I believe,
looked forward to the arrival of a period, when it would become
necessary to invoke the public aid in the execution of the great scheme
which it was instituted to promote. Considering itself as the mere
pioneer in the cause which it had undertaken, it was well aware that
it could do no more than remove preliminary difficulties, and point out
a sure road to ultimate success; and that the public only could supply
that regular, steady, and efficient support, to which the gratuitous
means of benevolent individuals would be found incompetent. My surprise
has been, that the society has been able so long to sustain itself, and
to do so much upon the charitable contributions of good, and pious, and
enlightened men, whom it has happily found in all parts of our country.
But our work has so prospered and grown under our hands, that the
appeal to the power and resources of the public, should be no longer
deferred. The resolution which I have risen to propose, contemplates
this appeal. It is in the following words:
‘_Resolved_, that the board of managers be empowered and directed,
at such time or times as may seem to them expedient, to make
respectful application to the congress of the United States, and to
the legislatures of the different states, for such pecuniary aid, in
furtherance of the object of this society, as they may respectively be
pleased to grant.’
In soliciting the countenance and support of the legislatures of
the union and the states, it is incumbent on the society, in making
out its case, to show, first, that it offers to their consideration
a scheme which is practicable, and secondly, that the execution of
the practicable scheme, partial or entire, will be fraught with such
beneficial consequences as to merit the support which is solicited.
I believe both points to be maintainable. First, it is now a little
upwards of ten years since a religious, amiable, and benevolent
resident[12] of this city, first conceived the idea of planting a
colony, from the United States, of free people of color, on the western
shores of Africa. He is no more, and the noblest eulogy which could
be pronounced on him would be, to inscribe upon his tomb, the merited
epitaph, ‘here lies the projector of the American Colonization Society.’
Amongst others, to whom he communicated the project, was the person
who now has the honor of addressing you. My first impressions, like
those of all who have not fully investigated the subject, were against
it. They yielded to his earnest persuasions and my own reflections,
and I finally agreed with him that the experiment was worthy of a fair
trial. A meeting of its friends was called, organized as a deliberative
body, and a constitution was formed. The society went into operation.
He lived to see the most encouraging progress in its exertions, and
died in full confidence of its complete success. The society was
scarcely formed before it was exposed to the derision of the unthinking;
pronounced to be visionary and chimerical by those who were capable
of adopting wiser opinions, and the most confident predictions of its
entire failure were put forth. It found itself equally assailed by the
two extremes of public sentiment in regard to our African population.
According to one, (that rash class which, without a due estimate of the
fatal consequence, would forthwith issue a decree of general, immediate,
and indiscriminate emancipation,) it was a scheme of the slaveholder
to perpetuate slavery. The other (that class which believes slavery a
blessing, and which trembles with aspen sensibility at the appearance
of the most distant and ideal danger to the tenure by which that
description of property is held,) declared it a contrivance to let
loose on society all the slaves of the country, ignorant, uneducated,
and incapable of appreciating the value or enjoying the privileges
of freedom.[13] The society saw itself surrounded by every sort of
embarrassment. What great human enterprise was ever undertaken without
difficulty? What ever failed, within the compass of human power, when
pursued with perseverance and blessed by the smiles of Providence? The
society prosecuted undismayed its great work, appealing for succor to
the moderate, the reasonable, the virtuous, and religious portions of
the public. It protested, from the commencement, and throughout all its
progress, and it now protests, that it entertains no purpose, on its
own authority or by its own means, to attempt emancipation, partial
or general; that it knows the general government has no constitutional
power to achieve such an object; that it believes that the states,
and the states only, which tolerate slavery, can accomplish the work
of emancipation; and that it ought to be left to them, exclusively,
absolutely, and voluntarily, to decide the question.
The object of the society was the colonization of the free colored
people, not the slaves, of the country. Voluntary in its institution,
voluntary in its continuance, voluntary in all its ramifications, all
its means, purposes, and instruments, are also voluntary. But it was
said that no free colored persons could be prevailed upon to abandon
the comforts of civilized life and expose themselves to all the perils
of a settlement in a distant, inhospitable, and savage country; that,
if they could be induced to go on such a quixotic expedition, no
territory could be procured for their establishment as a colony;
that the plan was altogether incompetent to effectuate its professed
object; and that it ought to be rejected as the idle dream of visionary
enthusiasts. The society has outlived, thank God, all these disastrous
predictions. It has survived to swell the list of false prophets. It is
no longer a question of speculation whether a colony can or cannot be
planted from the United States of free persons of color on the shores
of Africa. It is a matter demonstrated; such a colony, in fact, exists,
prospers, has made successful war, and honorable peace, and transacts
all the multiplied business of a civilized and christian community.[14]
It now has about five hundred souls, disciplined troops, forts, and
other means of defence, sovereignty over an extensive territory, and
exerts a powerful and salutary influence over the neighboring clans.
Numbers of the free African race among us are willing to go to
Africa. The society has never experienced any difficulty on that
subject, except that its means of comfortable transportation have
been inadequate to accommodate all who have been anxious to migrate.
Why should they not go? Here they are in the lowest state of social
gradation; aliens――political, moral, social aliens――strangers, though
natives. There, they would be in the midst of their friends and their
kindred, at home, though born in a foreign land, and elevated above
the natives of the country, as much as they are degraded here below the
other classes of the community. But on this matter, I am happy to have
it in my power to furnish indisputable evidence from the most authentic
source, that of large numbers of free persons of color themselves.
Numerous meetings have been held in several churches in Baltimore,
of the free people of color, in which, after being organized as
deliberative assemblies, by the appointment of a chairman (if not of
the same complexion) presiding as you, Mr. Vice-president, do, and
secretaries, they have voted memorials addressed to the white people,
in which they have argued the question with an ability, moderation, and
temper, surpassing any that I can command, and emphatically recommended
the colony of Liberia to favorable consideration, as the most desirable
and practicable scheme ever yet presented on this interesting subject.
I ask permission of the society to read this highly creditable document.
[Here Mr. Clay read the memorial referred to.]
The society has experienced no difficulty in the acquisition of a
territory, upon reasonable terms, abundantly sufficient for a most
extensive colony. And land in ample quantities, it has ascertained, can
be procured in Africa, together with all rights of sovereignty, upon
conditions as favorable as those on which the United States extinguish
the Indian title to territory within their own limits.
In respect to the alleged incompetency of the scheme to accomplish its
professed object, the society asks that that object should be taken
to be, not what the imaginations of its enemies represent it to be,
but what it really proposes. They represent that the purpose of the
society is, to export the whole African population of the United States,
bond and free; and they pronounce this design to be unattainable. They
declare that the means of the whole country are insufficient to effect
the transportation to Africa of a mass of population approximating
to two millions of souls. Agreed; but that is not what the society
contemplates. They have substituted their own notion for that of the
society. What is the true nature of the evil of the existence of a
portion of the African race in our population? It is not that there
are _some_, but that there are so _many_ among us of a different
caste, of a different physical, if not moral, constitution, who
never can amalgamate with the great body of our population. In every
country, persons are to be found varying in their color, origin, and
character, from the native mass. But this anomaly creates no inquietude
or apprehension, because the exotics, from the smallness of their
number, are known to be utterly incapable of disturbing the general
tranquillity. Here, on the contrary, the African part of our population
bears so large a proportion to the residue, of European origin, as to
create the most lively apprehension, especially in some quarters of
the union. Any project, therefore, by which, in a material degree, the
dangerous element in the general mass, can be diminished or rendered
stationary, deserves deliberate consideration.
The colonization society has never imagined it to be practicable, or
within the reach of any means which the several governments of the
union could bring to bear on the subject, to transport the whole of
the African race within the limits of the United States. Nor is that
necessary to accomplish the desirable objects of domestic tranquillity,
and render us one homogeneous people. The population of the United
States has been supposed to duplicate in periods of twenty-five years.
That may have been the case heretofore, but the terms of duplication
will be more and more protracted as we advance in national age; and I
do not believe that it will be found, in any period to come, that our
numbers will be doubled in a less term than one of about thirty-three
and a third years. I have not time to enter now into details in support
of this opinion. They would consist of those checks which experience
has shown to obstruct the progress of population, arising out of its
actual augmentation and density, the settlement of waste lands, &c.
Assuming the period of thirty-three and a third, or any other number of
years, to be that in which our population will hereafter be doubled, if,
during that whole term, the capital of the African stock could be kept
down, or stationary, whilst that of European origin should be left to
an unobstructed increase, the result, at the end of the term, would be
most propitious. Let us suppose, for example, that the whole population
at present of the United States, is twelve millions, of which ten may
be estimated of the Anglo-Saxon, and two of the African race. If there
could be annually transported from the United States an amount of the
African portion equal to the annual increase of the whole of that caste,
whilst the European race should be left to multiply, we should find at
the termination of the period of duplication, whatever it may be, that
the relative proportions would be as twenty to two. And if the process
were continued, during a second term of duplication the proportion
would be as forty to two――one which would eradicate every cause
of alarm or solicitude from the breasts of the most timid. But the
transportation of Africans, by creating, to the extent to which it
might be carried, a vacuum in society, would tend to accelerate the
duplication of the European race, who by all the laws of population,
would fill up the void space.
This society is well aware, I repeat, that they cannot touch the
subject of slavery. But it is no objection to their scheme, limited,
as it is, exclusively to those free people of color who are willing
to migrate, that it admits of indefinite extension and application,
by those who alone, having the competent authority, may choose to
adopt and apply it. Our object has been to point out the way, to show
that colonization is practicable, and to leave it to those states or
individuals who may be pleased to engage in the object, to prosecute
it. We have demonstrated that a colony may be planted in Africa, by
the fact that an American colony there exists. The problem which has so
long and so deeply interested the thoughts of good and patriotic men,
is solved; a country and a home have been found, to which the African
race may be sent, to the promotion of their happiness and our own.
But, Mr. Vice-president, I shall not rest contented with the fact of
the establishment of the colony, conclusive as it ought to be deemed,
of the practicability of our purpose. I shall proceed to show, by
reference to indisputable statistical details and calculations, that it
is within the compass of reasonable human means. I am sensible of the
tediousness of all arithmetical data, but I will endeavor to simplify
them as much as possible. It will be borne in mind that the aim of
the society is, to establish in Africa a colony of the free African
population of the United States, to an extent which shall be beneficial
both to Africa and America. The whole free colored population of
the United States, amounted, in 1790, to fifty-nine thousand four
hundred and eighty-one; in 1800, to one hundred and ten thousand and
seventy-two; in 1810, to one hundred and eighty-six thousand four
hundred and forty-six; and in 1820, to two hundred and thirty-three
thousand five hundred and thirty. The ratio of annual increase during
the first term of ten years, was about eight and a half per cent.
per annum; during the second, about seven per cent. per annum; and
during the third, a little more than two and a half. The very great
difference in the rate of annual increase, during those several terms,
may probably be accounted for by the effect of the number of voluntary
emancipations operating with more influence upon the total smaller
amount of free colored persons at the first of those periods, and by
the facts of the insurrection in St. Domingo, and the acquisition of
Louisiana, both of which, occurring during the first and second terms,
added considerably to the number of our free colored population.
Of all descriptions of our population, that of the free colored, taken
in the aggregate, is the least prolific, because of the checks arising
from vice and want. During the ten years, between 1810 and 1820, when
no extraneous causes existed to prevent a fair competition in the
increase between the slave and the free African race, the former
increased at the rate of nearly three per cent. per annum, whilst
the latter did not much exceed two and a half. Hereafter it may be
safely assumed, and I venture to predict, will not be contradicted
by the return of the next census, that the increase of the free black
population will not surpass two and a half per cent. per annum. Their
amount at the last census, being two hundred and thirty-three thousand
five hundred and thirty, for the sake of round numbers, their annual
increase may be assumed to be six thousand, at the present time. Now if
this number could be annually transported from the United States during
a term of years, it is evident that, at the end of that term, the
parent capital will not have increased, but will have been kept down at
least to what it was at the commencement of the term. Is it practicable,
then, to colonize annually six thousand persons from the United States,
without materially impairing or affecting any of the great interests of
the United States? This is the question presented to the judgments of
the legislative authorities of our country. This is the whole scheme
of the society. From its actual experience, derived from the expenses
which have been incurred in transporting the persons already sent to
Africa, the entire average expense of each colonist, young and old,
including passage money and subsistence, may be stated at twenty
dollars per head. There is reason to believe that it may be reduced
considerably below that sum. Estimating that to be the expense, the
total cost of transporting six thousand souls, annually to Africa,
would be one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The tonnage requisite
to effect the object, calculating two persons to every five tons,
(which is the provision of existing law) would be fifteen thousand tons.
But as each vessel could probably make two voyages in the year, it may
be reduced to seven thousand five hundred. And as both our mercantile
and military marine might be occasionally employed on this collateral
service, without injury to the main object of the voyage, a further
abatement might be safely made in the aggregate amount of the necessary
tonnage. The navigation concerned in the commerce between the colony
and the United States, (and it already begins to supply subjects of an
interesting trade,) might be incidentally employed to the same end.
Is the annual expenditure of a sum no larger than one hundred and
twenty thousand dollars, and the annual employment of seven thousand
five hundred tons of shipping, too much for reasonable exertion,
considering the magnitude of the object in view? Are they not, on the
contrary, within the compass of moderate efforts?
Here is the whole scheme of the society――a project which has been
pronounced visionary by those who have never given themselves the
trouble to examine it, but to which I believe most unbiassed men will
yield their cordial assent, after they have investigated it.
Limited as the project is, by the society, to a colony to be formed
by the free and unconstrained consent of free persons of color, it is
no objection, but on the contrary a great recommendation, of the plan,
that it admits of being taken up and applied on a scale of much more
comprehensive utility. The society knows, and it affords just cause
of felicitation, that all or any one of the states which tolerate
slavery, may carry the scheme of colonization into effect, in regard
to the slaves within their respective limits, and thus ultimately rid
themselves of a universally acknowledged curse. A reference to the
results of the several enumerations of the population of the United
States will incontestably prove the practicability of its application
on the more extensive scale. The slave population of the United States
amounted, in 1790, to six hundred and ninety-seven thousand, six
hundred and ninety-seven; in 1800, to eight hundred and ninety-six
thousand, eight hundred and forty-nine; in 1810, to eleven hundred
and ninety-one thousand, three hundred and sixty-four; and in 1820, to
fifteen hundred and thirty-eight thousand, one hundred and twenty-eight.
The rate of annual increase, (rejecting fractions and taking the
integer to which they make the nearest approach,) during the first
term of ten years, was not quite three per centum per annum, during
the second, a little more than three per centum per annum; and during
the third, a little less than three per centum. The mean ratio of
increase for the whole period of thirty years, was very little more
than three per centum per annum. During the first two periods, the
native stock was augmented by importations from Africa in those states
which continued to tolerate them, and by the acquisition of Louisiana.
Virginia, to her eternal honor, abolished the abominable traffic among
the earliest acts of her self-government. The last term alone presents
the natural increase of the capital unaffected by any extraneous causes.
That authorizes, as a safe assumption, that the future increase will
not exceed three per centum per annum. As our population increases,
the value of slave labor will diminish, in consequence of the superior
advantages in the employment of free labor. And when the value of slave
labor shall be materially lessened, either by the multiplication of
the supply of slaves beyond the demand, or by the competition between
slave and free labor, the annual increase of slaves will be reduced, in
consequence of the abatement of the motives to provide for and rear the
offspring.
Assuming the future increase to be at the rate of three per centum
per annum, the annual addition to the number of slaves in the United
States, calculated upon the return of the last census, (one million
five hundred and thirty-eight thousand, one hundred and twenty-eight)
is forty-six thousand. Applying the data which have been already stated
and explained, in relation to the colonization of free persons of color
from the United States to Africa, to the aggregate annual increase,
both bond and free, of the African race, and the result will be found
most encouraging. The total number of the annual increase of both
descriptions is fifty-two thousand. The total expense of transporting
that number to Africa, (supposing no reduction of present prices)
would be one million and forty thousand dollars, and the requisite
amount of tonnage would be only one hundred and thirty thousand tons of
shipping――about one ninth part of the mercantile marine of the United
States. Upon the supposition of a vessel’s making two voyages in the
year, it would be reduced to one half, sixty-five thousand. And this
quantity would be still further reduced, by embracing opportunities of
incidental employment of vessels belonging both to the mercantile and
military marines.
But, is the annual application of one million and forty thousand
dollars and the employment of sixty-five or even one hundred and thirty
thousand tons of shipping, considering the magnitude of the object,
beyond the ability of this country? Is there a patriot, looking forward
to its domestic quiet, its happiness, and its glory, that would not
cheerfully contribute his proportion of the burden, to accomplish a
purpose so great and so humane? During the general continuance of the
African slave trade, hundreds of thousands of slaves have been, in a
single year, imported into the several countries whose laws authorized
their admission. Notwithstanding the vigilance of the powers now
engaged to suppress the slave trade, I have received information,
that in a single year, in the single island of Cuba, slaves equal in
amount to one half of the above number of fifty-two thousand, have been
illicitly introduced. Is it possible that those who are concerned in an
infamous traffic can effect more than the states of this union, if they
were seriously to engage in the good work? Is it credible, is it not
a libel upon human nature to suppose, that the triumphs of fraud, and
violence, and iniquity, can surpass those of virtue, and benevolence,
and humanity?
The population of the United States being, at this time, estimated at
about ten millions of the European race, and two of the African, on the
supposition of the annual colonization of a number of the latter, equal
to the annual increase, of both of its classes, during the whole period
necessary to the process of duplication of our numbers, they would,
at the end of that period, relatively stand twenty millions for the
white and two for the black portion. But an annual exportation of a
number equal to the annual increase, at the beginning of the term, and
persevered in to the end of it, would accomplish more than to keep the
parent stock stationary. The colonists would comprehend more than an
equal proportion of those of the prolific ages. Few of those who had
passed that age would migrate. So that the annual increase of those
left behind, would continue gradually, but at first insensibly, to
diminish; and by the expiration of the period of duplication, it would
be found to have materially abated. But it is not merely the greater
relative safety and happiness which would, at the termination of that
period, be the condition of the whites. Their ability to give further
stimulus to the cause of colonization will have been doubled, whilst
the subjects on which it would have to operate, will have decreased
or remained stationary. If the business of colonization should be
regularly continued, during two periods of duplication, at the end of
the second, the whites would stand to the blacks, as forty millions to
not more than two, whilst the same ability will have been quadrupled.
Even if colonization should then altogether cease, the proportion of
the African to the European race will be so small, that the most timid
may then, for ever, dismiss all ideas of danger from within or without,
on account of that incongruous and perilous element in our population.
Further; by the annual withdrawal of fifty-two thousand persons of
color, there would be annual space created for an equal number of the
white race. The period, therefore, of the duplication of the whites, by
the laws which govern population, would be accelerated.
Such, Mr. Vice-president, is the project of the society; and such
is the extension and use which may be made of the principle of
colonization, in application to our slave population, by those states
which are alone competent to undertake and execute it. All, or any
one, of the states which tolerate slavery, may adopt and execute it,
by coöperation or separate exertion. It I could be instrumental in
eradicating this deepest stain upon the character of our country, and
removing all cause of reproach on account of it, by foreign nations; if
I could only be instrumental in ridding of this foul blot that revered
state that gave me birth, or that not less beloved state which kindly
adopted me as her son; I would not exchange the proud satisfaction
which I should enjoy, for the honor of all the triumphs ever decreed to
the most successful conqueror.
Having, I hope, shown that the plan of the society is not visionary,
but rational and practicable; that a colony does in fact exist, planted
under its auspices; that free people are willing and anxious to go; and
that the right of soil as well as of sovereignty, may be acquired in
vast tracts of country in Africa, abundantly sufficient for all the
purposes of the most ample colony, and at prices almost only nominal,
the task which remains to me of showing the beneficial consequences
which would attend the execution of the scheme, is comparatively easy.
Of the utility of a total separation of the two incongruous portions of
our population, supposing it to be practicable, none have ever doubted.
The mode of accomplishing that most desirable object, has alone divided
public opinion. Colonization in Hayti, for a time, had its partisans.
Without throwing any impediments in the way of executing that scheme,
the American Colonization Society has steadily adhered to its own.
The Haytien project has passed away. Colonization beyond the Stony
mountains has sometimes been proposed; but it would be attended with an
expense and difficulties far surpassing the African project, whilst it
would not unite the same animating motives. There is a moral fitness in
the idea of returning to Africa her children, whose ancestors have been
torn from her by the ruthless hand of fraud and violence. Transplanted
in a foreign land, they will carry back to their native soil the rich
fruits of religion, civilization, law, and liberty. May it not be
one of the great designs of the Ruler of the universe, (whose ways
are often inscrutable by short-sighted mortals,) thus to transform an
original crime into a signal blessing, to that most unfortunate portion
of the globe. Of all classes of our population, the most vicious is
that of the free colored. It is the inevitable result of their moral,
political, and civil degradation. Contaminated themselves, they extend
their vices to all around them, to the slaves and to the whites. If the
principle of colonization should be confined to them; if a colony can
be firmly established and successfully continued in Africa which should
draw off annually an amount of that portion of our population equal
to its annual increase, much good will be done. If the principle be
adopted and applied by the states, whose laws sanction the existence
of slavery, to an extent equal to the annual increase of slaves, still
greater good will be done. This good will be felt by the Africans who
go, by the Africans who remain, by the white population of our country,
by Africa, and by America. It is a project which recommends itself
to favor in all the aspects in which it can be contemplated. It will
do good in every and any extent in which it may be executed. It is a
circle of ♦philanthropy, every segment of which tells and testifies
to the beneficence of the whole.
Every emigrant to Africa is a missionary carrying with him credentials
in the holy cause of civilization, religion, and free institutions. Why
is it that the degree of success of missionary exertions is so limited,
and so discouraging to those whose piety and benevolence prompt them?
Is it not because the missionary is generally an alien and a stranger,
perhaps of a different color, and from a different tribe? There is a
sort of instinctive feeling of jealousy and distrust towards foreigners
which repels and rejects them in all countries; and this feeling is in
proportion to the degree of ignorance and barbarism which prevail. But
the African colonists, whom we send to convert the heathen, are of the
same color, the same family, the same physical constitution. When the
purposes of the colony shall be fully understood, they will be received
as long lost brethren restored to the embraces of their friends and
their kindred by the dispensations of a wise providence.
The society is reproached for agitating this question. It should be
recollected that the existence of free people of color is not limited
to the states only which tolerate slavery. The evil extends itself to
all the states, and some of those which do not allow of slavery, (their
cities especially,) experience the evil in an extent even greater
than it exists in the slave states. A common evil confers a right to
consider and apply a common remedy. Nor is it a valid objection that
this remedy is partial in its operation or distant in its efficacy.
A patient, writhing under the tortures of excruciating disease, asks
of his physician to cure him if he can, and, if he cannot, to mitigate
his sufferings. But the remedy proposed, if generally adopted and
perseveringly applied, for a sufficient length of time, should it not
entirely eradicate the disease, will enable the body politic to bear it
without danger and without suffering.
We are reproached with doing mischief by the agitation of this
question. The society goes into no household to disturb its domestic
tranquillity; it addresses itself to no slaves to weaken their
obligations of obedience. It seeks to affect no man’s property. It
neither has the power nor the will to affect the property of any one
contrary to his consent. The execution of its scheme would augment
instead of diminishing the value of the property left behind. The
society, composed of free men, concerns itself only with the free.
Collateral consequences we are not responsible for. It is not this
society which has produced the great moral revolution which the age
exhibits. What would they, who thus reproach us, have done? If they
would repress all tendencies towards liberty and ultimate emancipation,
they must do more than put down the benevolent efforts of this society.
They must go back to the era of our liberty and independence, and
muzzle the cannon which thunders its annual joyous return. They must
revive the slave trade, with all its train of atrocities. They must
suppress the workings of British philanthropy, seeking to meliorate
the condition of the unfortunate West Indian slaves. They must arrest
the career of South American deliverance from thraldom. They must blow
out the moral lights around us, and extinguish that greatest torch of
all which America presents to a benighted world, pointing the way to
their rights, their liberties, and their happiness. And when they have
achieved all these purposes, their work will be yet incomplete. They
must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate the light of reason and
the love of liberty. Then, and not till then, when universal darkness
and despair prevail, can you perpetuate slavery, and repress all
sympathies, and all humane and benevolent efforts among freemen, in
behalf of the unhappy portion of our race doomed to bondage.
Our friends, who are cursed with this greatest of human evils,
deserve the kindest attention and consideration. Their property and
their safety are both involved. But the liberal and candid among them
will not, cannot, expect that every project to deliver our country from
it is to be crushed because of a possible and ideal danger. Animated
by the encouragement of the past, let us proceed under the cheering
prospects which lie before us. Let us continue to appeal to the pious,
the liberal, and the wise. Let us bear in mind the condition of our
forefathers, when, collected on the beach in England, they embarked,
amidst the scoffings and the false predictions of the assembled
multitude, for this distant land; and here, in spite of all the perils
of forest and ocean, which they encountered, successfully laid the
foundations of this glorious republic. Undismayed by the prophecies
of the presumptuous, let us supplicate the aid of the American
representatives of the people, and redoubling our labors, and invoking
the blessings of an all-wise Providence, I boldly and confidently
anticipate success. I hope the resolution which I offer will be
unanimously adopted.