Our colored brethren have always understood that colonization means
expatriation, a cruel driving out of the country. And it is remarkable
how few of them, by all the art, and argument, and benevolence too, of
the colonization community, have been persuaded to embrace the scheme.
An old colored woman, who had been most of her life a slave in
Virginia, said to the writer of this, when he spoke to her of the
bright prospects of Liberia, “Ah, sir, if it’s going to be so good a
place, the white folks will come and take it, by and by. I know them
well enough. They always take what’s best.” It is needless to say that
this woman could not be convinced of the benevolence of colonization.
It is not to be denied by any body, that there is in this country a
very general hatred of the colored people. And it might have been
predicted with certainty, that any plan for their general removal,
however benevolent its motive, and however careful it might be to act
only by their _own consent_, would bring into life and action a
general desire to _drive them out_. Such has been the fact in regard
to the American Colonization Society. We have abundance of proof, but
at present have only room for the following.
_Extract from the Maryland Temperance Herald, of May 30, 1835._ “We
are indebted to the committee of publication, for the first number of
the Maryland Colonization Journal, a new quarterly periodical, devoted
to the cause of colonization in our state. Such a paper has long been
necessary; we hope this will be useful.
“Every reflecting man must be convinced, that the time is not far
distant when the safety of the country will require the EXPULSION of
the blacks from its limits.――It is perfect folly to suppose that a
foreign population, whose physical peculiarities must forever render
them distinct from the owners of the soil, can be permitted to grow
and strengthen among us with impunity. Let hair-brained enthusiasts
speculate as they may, no abstract considerations of the natural
rights of man will ever elevate the negro population to an equality
with the whites. As long as they remain in the land of their bondage,
they will be morally, if not physically, enslaved, and indeed, as long
as their distinct nationality is preserved, their _enlightenment_ will
be a measure of _doubtful policy_. Under such circumstances, every
philanthropist will wish to see them removed, but gradually, and with
as little violence as possible. For effecting this purpose, no scheme
is liable to so few objections as that of African Colonization. It has
been said that this plan has effected but little――true, but no other
has done any thing. We do not expect that the exertions of benevolent
individuals will be able to rid us of the millions of blacks who
oppress and are oppressed by us. All they can accomplish, is, to
satify the public of the practicability of the scheme――they can make
the experiment――they are making it, and with success. The state of
Maryland has already adopted this plan, and before long, every
southern state will have its colony. The whole African coast will be
strewn with cities, and then should some fearful convulsion render it
necessary to the public safety TO BANISH THE MULTITUDE AT ONCE, a
house of refuge will have been provided for them in the land of their
fathers.”
At a convention of gradualists and colonizationists, held on the 23d
of May, 1835, at Shelbyville, Kentucky, the following resolutions were
passed.
“_Resolved_, That the system of domestic slavery, as it exists in this
commonwealth, is both a moral and political evil, and a violation of
the natural rights of man.
“_Resolved_, That no system of emancipation will meet with our
approbation, unless colonization be inseparably connected with it; and
that any scheme of emancipation which shall leave the blacks within
our borders, is more to be deprecated than slavery itself.”
So the only condition on which the slaves are to be emancipated is
_exile_. This is no emancipation at all. For if a man is free, he must
be free to stay in the land of his birth. The plain meaning of these
resolutions is, that the resolvers are so bent upon expatriating their
poor colored laborers, that they rush on to a “violation of the
natural rights of man” to effect their purpose. Would it be any worse
in principle to free the slaves by cutting their throats? And again,
is it not wrong to advocate a scheme which gives the least countenance
to such iniquity?
At the anniversaries in New Hampshire, the Rev. R. R. Gurley,
secretary of the American Colonization Society, being called upon by
Mr. May to give his opinion concerning the Maryland scheme, gave
utterance to the following remarkable sentiment. With regard to direct
legislation he would confess his mind was not clear. This he would
say, on his own responsibility, that when the time arrived that
slavery should become a great political question, he conceived it
might be justifiable for a state to select a spot, _here or in Africa,
and carry the blacks there, willing or unwilling_. But he should
object to the Maryland scheme, because, _at the present time_, such
rigorous laws were unnecessary.
Here is a sentiment as _murderous_ to the peace of the colored people
as a dagger thrust into the heart.