Rev. W. MCLAIN, _Washington_.
NOTE.—This purchase makes the coast of Liberia 700 miles in length, along
the whole course of which the Slave trade was formerly carried on to a
great extent.
_Extracts from the leading article in the African Repository and Colonial
Journal for May, 1850, (the official organ of the Colonization Society,)
on the establishment of the proposed line of Steamers._
The Colonization Society undertook to found a colony, to which the
colored people might find it advantageous to emigrate. This has already
been done. The work has been slow in its progress, as it were piling one
stone upon other, till now the foundation is laid deep and wide. The
Republic is sufficiently well established to receive a large number of
emigrants yearly: there is room enough for them, and every thing invites
them there, and these four _steamers_ afford the facilities for their
reaching there. It now only remains for the United States Government to
adopt, foster, and encourage this work, and it will be done.
The great ends to be established present considerations of sufficient
importance to induce the Government to comply with the prayer of the
memorial. When these steamers are started the United States squadron
on that coast may be withdrawn. It now costs upwards of $384,500 to
maintain that squadron a year. These four steamers, and the emigrants
carried out by them, will annually accomplish a thousand fold more for
the suppression of the slave trade, than the squadron ever has or ever
can accomplish! There cannot be a doubt of this. Does the United States
Government desire the suppression of the slave trade? Undoubtedly. Here
then is the way in which it may be done.
We may ask another question. Is it desirable that American commerce
should be extended? Undoubtedly. Here then is a way in which it may be
done. The 150,000,000 inhabitants of Africa, now all naked, must be
_clothed_, and will be as civilization advances among them. They must
have the means and appliances of agriculture and the mechanic arts. And
in return for all these, they have all the rich and varied productions of
tropical climates! How shall this work be accomplished? How shall Africa
be civilized? How shall a market be opened there for all the articles
manufactured in the United States, and for the surplus productions of our
soil? How shall the inexhaustible treasures of that immense continent be
brought to supply our wants, and increase our wealth and our glory?
By Colonization—by carrying out the plans and measures which the Society
has adopted and been struggling to achieve. Already more than 80,000
of the natives have put themselves under the laws of Liberia, and are
rising in the scale of humanity. Already there is a large demand for the
productions of this country.
When the transported population of Liberia shall be 50,000 or 200,000,
they will present a market for our surplus manufactures, and bread
stuffs, of immense value. A line of settlements on the coast will command
the commerce of the interior. If that power is held by men sent from
this country by a large and liberal policy, nurtured and grown up under
our institutions, and by our fostering care and aid, in establishing
themselves in Liberia, they will ever be inclined to trade with this
country, and thus open to our merchant, those wide fields of wealth! The
amount asked by the Company from the Government for carrying the mails,
would not affect injuriously one single interest of the country, and it
would be more than repaid with interest by the advantages of the commerce
to be secured thereby.
The advantages which would be enjoyed by the people of the United
States as the result of the removal of the free colored people, and the
separation of the races, would be immense. The blessings to them would
be incalculable. They dwell among us, but they are not of us. They do not
enjoy, and the prospect is, they never can enjoy here, true liberty! We
provide for them a means of escape from these depressing circumstances,
and place them in a situation were nothing can prevent them from rising
to the highest elevation of which they are capable.
Under these circumstances, what is the duty of the Government to do? To
sit still and lose the golden opportunity? No, this is not, this cannot
be, the wisest policy! Motives of honor, of benevolence, of justice, of
patriotism, demand a different policy.
Let it be remembered that the legislation of our country touching the
extinction of the slave trade, conferred upon her a glory as imperishable
as the Constitution herself. A just regard to our national character
calls for a perseverance in that policy, until its wisdom and benignity
shall be vindicated in the full accomplishment of its ends; the giving to
Africa civilization and the arts, and a lawful commerce!
_Extracts from the July No. of the African Repository._
In all parts of the country we perceive that the friends of Liberia look
upon this four-steamships scheme as fraught with immense promise. The
public sentiment of the country is decidedly in favor of colonization,
and of national and State appropriations for carrying it on.
We think there are indications that the State Legislatures will render
assistance to an almost unlimited extent. When it is made manifest that
colonization can and will be prosecuted on a scale of grandeur and
magnificence equal to its merits, the whole country will unite in favor
and liberality.
_We have the control of the number of emigrants who may be sent in these
steamships._ We are _not bound_ to send any specific number. _They_ are
bound to take as many as we want to send. But we shall take good care
not to send more _than the Republic can safely receive_; nor more than
we have the means of paying the passage of, and comfortably settling in
Liberia? This is our safe-guard.
Let it be remembered, that it will be some two or three years before
the steamships will be ready for operation. This will give time for
consideration, for preparation, and for gathering up the resources for a
grand demonstration of what can be done. The work is worthy of a nation’s
energy! Why may we not hope that it will receive it?
Does any one say, “the time has not yet come?” Are you sure of it? Is not
this the day of great things? How rapid has been the march of improvement
during the last few years! Who can predict what is next to come? Is it
not a fact that the Government of Liberia is now firmly established? Do
they not want more citizens of education and influence? Are there not
thousands of acres of the richest land there, waiting for cultivation?
Have we not all been for years looking to the time when the work of
colonization should be carried on with means and resources adequate to
the greatness of the work? How much longer, then, shall we wait before
we make the attempt to summon these means, and enter on these enlarged
operations? Has not the time fully come? We are persuaded it has.
At the annual meeting of the American Colonization Society, on January
16th, 1850, the Hon. HENRY CLAY was elected President of the Society, and
the following gentlemen were elected Vice Presidents:
1. General John H. Cocke, of Virginia.
2. Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts.
3. Charles F. Mercer, of Florida.
4. Rev. Jeremiah Day, D.D., of Connecticut.
5. Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New York.
6. Louis McLane, of Baltimore.
7. Moses Allen, of New York.
8. General W. Jones, of Washington.
9. Joseph Gales, of Washington.
10. Right Rev. Wm. Meade, D. D., Bishop of Virginia.
11. John McDonogh, of Louisiana.
12. Rev. James O. Andrews, Bishop of the M. E. Church
13. William Maxwell, of Virginia.
14. Elisha Whittlesey, of Ohio.
15. Walter Lowrie, of New York.
16. Jacob Burnet, of Ohio.
17. Dr. Stephen Duncan, of Mississippi.
18. William C. Rives, of Virginia.
19. Rev. J. Laurie, D. D., of Washington.
20. Rev. Wm. Winans, of Mississippi.
21. James Boorman, of New York.
22. Henry A. Foster, of New York.
23. Dr. John Ker, of Mississippi.
24. Robert Campbell, of Georgia.
25. Peter D. Vroom, of New Jersey.
26. James Garland, of Virginia.
27. Right Hon. Lord Bexley, of London.
28. Willard Hall, of Delaware.
29. Right Rev. Bishop Otey, of Tennessee.
30. Gerard Ralston, of London.
31. Rev. Courtland Van Rensselaer, of New Jersey.
32. Dr. Hodgkin, of London.
33. Rev. E. Burgess, D. D., of Massachusetts.
34. Thos. R. Hazard, of Rhode Island.
35. Dr. Thomas Massie, of Virginia.
36. Major General Winfield Scott, of Washington.
37. Rev. A. Alexander, D. D., of New Jersey.
38. L. Q. C. Elmer, of New Jersey.
39. James Railey, of Mississippi.
40. Rev. Geo. W. Bethune, D. D., of Philadelphia.
41. Rev. C. C. Cuyler, D. D., of Philadelphia.
42. Elliot Cresson, of Philadelphia.
43. Anson G. Phelps, of New York.
44. Rev. Leonard Woods, D. D., of Massachusetts.
45. Jonathan Hide, of Maine.
46. Rev. Beverly Waugh, Bishop M. E. Church, Baltimore.
47. Rev. Dr. W. B. Johnson, of South Carolina.
48. Moses Sheppard, Baltimore.
49. Bishop McIlvain, of Ohio.
50. Rev. Dr. Edgar, Nashville, Tennessee.
51. Rev. P. Lindsley, D. D., of Tennessee.
52. Hon. J. R. Underwood, of Kentucky.
53. Rev. J. J. Janeway, D. D., of New Jersey.
54. H. L. Lumpkin, Esq., Athens, Georgia.
55. James Lenox, of New York.
56. Bishop Soule, D. D., of Tennessee.
57. Professor T. C. Upham, of Maine.
58. Hon. Thomas Corwin, of Ohio.
59. Hon. Thos. W. Williams, of Connecticut.
60. Hon. Simon Greenleaf, of Massachusetts.
61. Rev. John Early, D. D., of Virginia.
62. Rev. Lovick Pierce, of Georgia.
63. Hon. R. J. Walker, of Mississippi.
64. Samuel Gurney, England.
65. Charles McMicken, Esq., Cincinnati, Ohio.
66. John Bell, M. D. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.