CALUMNY REFUTED, BY FACTS FROM LIBERIA;
WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF THE
COLOURED PRESIDENT ROBERTS;
AN ELOQUENT SPEECH OF HILARY TEAGE, A COLOURED SENATOR;
AND
EXTRACTS FROM A DISCOURSE BY H. H. GARNETT, A FUGITIVE SLAVE,
ON THE PAST AND PRESENT CONDITION, AND DESTINY OF THE COLOURED RACE.
PRESENTED
TO THE BOSTON ANTI-SLAVERY BAZAAR, U. S.,
BY THE AUTHOR OF "A TRIBUTE FOR THE NEGRO."
"To injured Afric, liberal reader, turn,
There from her sable sons this maxim learn;--
To no complexion is the charm confined,
In every climate grows the virtuous mind."
"Ab Æthiope virtutem disce, et ne crede colori."
From the Æthiopian learn virtue, and trust not to colour.
LONDON:
CHARLES GILPIN, 5, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT;
G. W. TAYLOR, PHILADELPHIA; WILLIAM HARNED, ANTI-SLAVERY
OFFICE, NEW YORK.
1848.
LEEDS:
PRINTED BY ANTHONY PICKARD.
NOTICE TO THE READER.
The Reader will please to observe, that the following pages are printed
solely with a view of refuting the calumnious charge of incapability and
inferiority made against the Negro race, and not for the purpose of
vindicating the American Colonization Scheme, concerning which great
diversity of opinion exists.
No one can object to the Colonization of Africa, so long as it is
_perfectly voluntary_ on the part of those who go out as Colonists; in
which case, connected with legitimate commerce and plans of civil and
Christian improvement, great benefit may accrue; and which, _for the
sake of Africa_, is worthy of encouragement. But, to hold up such a
scheme, merely as a mode of expatriating the whole of the African race
from America, merits the strongest disapprobation.
If "the aristocracy of the skin" were laid aside, and the Coloured
population of America were invested with the full rights of citizenship,
and every civil prize, every useful employment, and every honourable
station were thrown open to their exertions, there can be little doubt,
as J. J. Gurney observes, in his Remarks on a Speech of Henry Clay's,
"that the mixture of colours, in the same population, would soon be
found _perfectly harmless_. Every man, white or black, would rest on his
own responsibility; character, like other things, would find its natural
level; light and truth would spread without obstruction; and the North
American Union would afford, to an admiring world, a splendid and
_unsullied_ evidence of the truth of that mighty principle on which her
constitution is founded; viz., that, 'All men are created EQUAL, and are
endowed by the Creator with certain INALIENABLE rights,--LIFE, LIBERTY,
AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.'"
W. A.
_Leeds_, _10th Mo._, 1848.
CALUMNY REFUTED, ETC., ETC.
Amidst the numerous attempts to depreciate the character of the Negro,
by exhibiting it as inferior and incapable of improvement, it is
desirable to adduce evidence of an opposite nature, and to show that
circumstances operate no less powerfully on the Sable inhabitants of a
tropical climate, than on the natives of more northern latitudes, in
which opportunities have been employed to remove the ignorance of
uncivilised man, and to invest him with the glorious light of religion
and science. How have they raised the brutal to the rational--the
degraded to the noble--the idolatrous to the Christian character! What
was once the condition of Druidical Britain, when, in the most barbarous
manner, parents sacrificed their offspring to senseless deities? And to
what can her present position amongst the nations be attributed, but to
that expansion of knowledge, human and divine, with which she has been
pre-eminently favoured?
The false philosophy which has imputed to the Negro a constitutional
inferiority, is amply refuted by facts. There is not only abundant
evidence, that the African is susceptible of all the finest feelings of
our nature, but that his intellectual capacity, under circumstances
more favourable than have generally fallen to his lot, will bear a
comparison with that of any other portion of our species.
The capabilities of this calumniated race have been remarkably exhibited
within a few years, on a portion of the Western coast of Africa
colonised by Free Blacks from the United States, most of them formerly
Slaves, including aborigines recaptured from slave-vessels as well as
Negroes from the adjoining districts. From this interesting locality,
recently constituted into the Free Republic of Liberia, overwhelming
evidence might be adduced of the ability, sound judgment, and Christian
character of its Sable inhabitants and legislators. Probably no
government exists founded more nearly on Christian principles; and the
community in general is perhaps as purely moral as any in the world.
Several public schools have been established in the country, and all
parents and guardians are required to send their children to them, or be
subject to a pecuniary fine; so that there is scarcely a child over six
years old that cannot both read and write. The state of religion and
morality amongst the people is progressive. The exertion of the
authorities has been directed to the exclusion of ardent spirits. A
short time ago, one of the colonists assisted in procuring a barrel of
rum, which was landed twelve miles distant from the colony; he was fined
one hundred dollars, deprived of his license as a trader, and considered
no longer eligible to any office in the colony. Such are the stringent
efforts to keep down a vice, which, if once suffered to exist, would no
doubt prove detrimental. Internal improvements keep pace with the
increase of commerce, and the steady revenue which arises therefrom,
enables the authorities to effect various public improvements.
These are remarkable facts. Here we behold a community of Blacks, in
almost a defenceless state, located on the border of a vast country, the
swarming inhabitants of which are enshrouded in ignorance;--a regularly
organised government, which, though still in comparative embryo, is the
germ of what may become a great and powerful nation, the nucleus of a
vast political and religious empire, from which may radiate, far into
the interior of this land of moral and intellectual degradation, the
elevating and ennobling principles of civilization, and the benign and
heavenly influences of Christianity.--Liberia, amidst the gloom of
midnight darkness which envelopes the minds of the millions of Africa's
benighted children, stands as a beacon-light to direct them to the port
of freedom and the haven of everlasting rest.
The present governor of Liberia, J. J. Roberts, under discouraging
circumstances, left Virginia some ten or twelve years ago, and, unaided
by any culture beyond that attainable on the spot, has placed himself
among the most prominent of the citizens of the new Republic. His
correspondence with the commanders of British cruisers on the coast of
Africa, and his state papers, exhibit a superior force of character and
diplomatic ability. The inaugural address, annual messages, and speeches
of this Coloured statesman, before a Coloured Legislature, are highly
interesting and satisfactory.
I was much gratified in reading, a short time ago, a speech delivered in
1846, at Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, by Hilary Teage, a Coloured
senator of the infant Republic. Independent of its embracing a beautiful
exposition of the history, trials, exertions, and aspirations of the
Coloured colonists, it is a continued flow of eloquence, whilst it
breathes throughout a truly Christian spirit. When I read it, I
concluded the speaker must be a "classical scholar," probably a
"graduate in some eastern college." To my surprise, I afterwards
ascertained, he had never even _seen_ a college, his father having been
a Slave in Virginia, which place Hilary Teage left when very young, and
went to Liberia, where he received his education. Here he made rapid
advances in learning, soon overcoming the difficulties of several
languages, both ancient and modern.
The following are extracts from the Inaugural Address of President
Roberts, delivered at the first Meeting of the Legislature of the
Republic, January 3rd, 1848, followed by the speech of Hilary Teage;
which afford striking evidence of the capacity and attainments of
Negroes, whose education and life from early boyhood are thoroughly
African:--
"It is with great pleasure I avail myself of the occasion, now
presented, to express the profound impressions made on me by the
call of my fellow-citizens to the station, and the duties, to which
I am now about to pledge myself. So distinguished a mark of
confidence, proceeding from the deliberate suffrage of my
fellow-citizens, would, under any circumstances, have commanded my
gratitude, as well as filled me with an awful sense of the trust to
be assumed. But I feel particularly gratified at this evidence of
the confidence of my fellow-citizens, inasmuch as it strengthens
the impression on me, that my endeavours to discharge faithfully
the duties which devolved on me as chief Executive officer of the
Commonwealth, during the last six years of our political connection
with the American Colonization Society, have been favourably
estimated. I, nevertheless, meet the responsibilities of this day
with feelings of the deepest solicitude. I feel that the present is
a momentous period in the history of Liberia; and I assure you,
under the various circumstances which give peculiar solemnity to
the crisis, I am sensible that both the honour and the
responsibility allotted to me, are inexpressibly enhanced.
"We have just entered upon a new and important career. To give
effect to all the measures and powers of the government, we have
found it necessary to remodel our Constitution and to erect
ourselves into an independent State; which, in its infancy, is
exposed to numberless hazards and perils, and which can never
attain to maturity, or ripen into firmness, unless it is managed
with affectionate assiduity, and guarded by great abilities;--I
therefore deeply deplore my want of talents, and feel my mind
filled with anxiety and uneasiness, to find myself so unequal to
the duties of the important station to which I am called.--When I
reflect upon the weight and magnitude now belonging to the station,
and the many difficulties which, in the nature of things, must
necessarily attend it, I feel more like retreating from the
responsible position, than attempting to go forward in the
discharge of the duties of my office.
"Indeed, gentlemen of the Legislature, if I had less reliance upon
your co-operation and the indulgence and support of a reflecting
people, and felt less deeply a consciousness of the duty I owe my
country and a conviction of the guidance of an all-wise Providence
in the management of our political affairs, I should be compelled
to shrink from the task. I enter, however, upon the duties assigned
me, relying upon your wisdom and virtue to supply my defects; and
under the full conviction that my fellow-citizens at large, who, on
the most trying occasions, have always manifested a degree of
patriotism, perseverance, and fidelity, that would reflect credit
upon the citizens of any country, will support the government
established by their voluntary consent, and appointed by their own
free choice.
"While I congratulate my fellow-citizens on the dawn of a new and
more perfect government, I would also remind them of the increased
responsibility they too have assumed. Indeed, if there ever was a
period in the annals of Liberia, for popular jealousy to be
awakened, and popular virtue to exert itself, it is the present.
Other eras, I know, have been marked by dangers and difficulties
which 'tried men's souls,' but whatever was their measure,
disappointment and overthrow have generally been their fate. The
patriotism and virtue which distinguish men, of every age, clime,
and colour, who are determined to be free, never forsook that
little band of patriots, the pioneers in this noble enterprise, in
the hour of important trial. At a time when they were almost
without arms, ammunition, discipline, or government--a mere handful
of insulated Christian pilgrims, in pursuit of civil and religious
liberty, surrounded by savage and warlike tribes bent upon their
ruin and total annihilation--with 'a staff and a sling' only, as it
were, they determined, in the name of the 'Lord of Hosts,' to stand
their ground and defend themselves to the last extremity against
their powerful adversary. And need I remind you, fellow-citizens,
how signally Almighty God delivered them, and how he has hitherto
prospered and crowned all our efforts with success.
"These first adventurers, inspired by the love of liberty and equal
rights, supported by industry, and protected by Heaven, became
inured to toil, to hardships, and to war. In spite, however, of
every obstacle, they obtained a settlement, and happily, under God,
succeeded in laying here the foundation of a free government. Their
attention, of course, was then turned to the security of those
rights for which they had encountered so many perils and
inconveniences. For this purpose, a constitution or form of
Government, anomalous, it is true, was adopted."
After giving some explanation of the motives which actuated the
Colonists in assuming the whole responsibilities of the government of
Liberia themselves, President Roberts observes:--
"While we exceedingly lament the want of greater intelligence and
more experience to fit us for the proper, or more perfect
management of our public affairs,--we flatter ourselves that the
adverse circumstances under which we so long laboured in the land
of our birth,[1] and the integrity of our motives, will plead
excuse for our want of abilities; and that in the candour and
charity of an impartial world, our well-meant, however feeble
efforts, will find an apology. I am also persuaded, that no
magnanimous nation will seek to abridge our rights, or withhold
from the Republic those civilities, and 'that comity which marks
the friendly intercourse between civilised and independent
communities'--in consequence of our weakness and present poverty."
The enlightened Negro legislator, after entering into a consideration
and refutation of the charge made against the Colonists, of having acted
prematurely in proclaiming their independence, continues:--
"The time has been, I admit, when men--without being chargeable
with timidity, or with a disposition to undervalue the capacities
of the African race, might have doubted the feasibility of
establishing an independent Christian state on this coast, composed
of, and conducted wholly by Coloured men,--but, fellow-citizens,
that time has passed, and I believe in my soul, that the permanency
of the government of the Republic of Liberia is now fixed upon as
firm a basis as human wisdom is capable of devising. Nor is there
any reason to apprehend that the Divine Disposer of human events,
after having separated us from the house of bondage, and led us
safely through so many dangers, towards the land of liberty and
promise, will leave the work of our political redemption, and
consequent happiness, unfinished; and either permit us to perish in
a wilderness of difficulties, or suffer us to be carried back in
chains to that country of prejudices, from whose oppression He has
mercifully delivered us with his out-stretched arm.
"It must afford the most heartfelt pleasure and satisfaction to
every friend of Liberia, and real lover of liberty, to observe by
what a fortunate train of circumstances and incidents the people of
these colonies have arrived at absolute freedom and independence.
When we look abroad and see by what slow and painful steps, marked
with blood and ills of every kind, other states of the world have
advanced to liberty and independence; we cannot but admire and
praise that all-gracious Providence, who, by His unerring ways,
has, with so few sufferings on our part, compared with other
states, led us to this happy stage in our progress towards those
great and important objects. That it is the will of Heaven that
mankind should be free, is clearly evidenced by the wealth, vigour,
virtue, and consequent happiness of all free states. But the idea
that Providence will establish such governments as he shall deem
most fit for his creatures, and will give them wealth, influence,
and happiness, without their efforts, is palpably absurd. God's
moral government of the earth is always performed by the
intervention of second causes. Therefore, fellow-citizens, while
with pious gratitude we survey the frequent interpositions of
Heaven in our behalf, we ought to remember, that as the disbelief
of an overruling Providence is Atheism, so, an absolute confidence
of having our government relieved from every embarrassment, and its
citizens made respectable and happy by the immediate hand of God,
without our own exertions, is the most culpable presumption. Nor
have we any reason to expect, that He will miraculously make
Liberia a paradise, and deliver us, in a moment of time, from all
the ills and inconveniences consequent upon the peculiar
circumstances under which we are placed, merely to convince us that
He favours our cause and government.
"Sufficient indications of His will are always given, and those who
will not then believe, neither would they believe though one should
rise from the dead to inform them. Who can trace the progress of
these colonies, and mark the incidents of the wars in which they
have been engaged, without seeing evident tokens of Providential
favour. Let us, therefore, inflexibly persevere in exerting our
most strenuous efforts, in an humble and rational dependence on the
great Governor of all the world, and we have the fairest prospects
of surmounting all the difficulties which may be thrown in our way.
That we may expect, and that we shall have difficulties, sore
difficulties yet to contend against, in our progress to maturity,
is certain: and, as the political happiness or wretchedness of
ourselves and our children, and of generations yet unborn, is in
our hands, nay more, the redemption of Africa from the deep
degradation, superstition, and idolatry in which she has so long
been involved, it becomes us to lay our shoulders to the wheel, and
manfully resist every obstacle which may oppose our progress in the
great work which lies before us. The Gospel is yet to be preached
to vast numbers inhabiting this dark continent, and I have the
highest reason to believe, that it was one of the great objects of
the Almighty, in establishing these colonies, that they might be
the means of introducing civilization and religion among the
barbarous nations of this country; and to what work more noble
could our powers be applied, than that of bringing up from
darkness, debasement, and misery, our fellow-men, and shedding
abroad over them the light of science and Christianity. The means
of doing so, fellow-citizens, are within our reach, and if we
neglect, or do not make use of them, what excuse shall we make to
our Creator and final Judge? This is a question of the deepest
concern to us all, and which, in my opinion, will materially affect
our happiness in the world to come. And surely, if ever it has been
incumbent on the people of Liberia to know truth and to follow it,
it is now. Rouse, therefore, fellow-citizens, and do your duty like
men: and be persuaded, that Divine Providence, as heretofore, will
continue to bless all your virtuous efforts.
"But if there be any among us, dead to all sense of honour and love
of their country; deaf to all the calls of liberty, virtue, and
religion; forgetful of the benevolence and magnanimity of those who
have procured this asylum for them, and the future happiness of
their children; if neither the examples nor the success of other
nations, the dictates of reason and of nature, nor the great duties
they owe to their God, themselves, and their posterity, have no
effect upon them;--if neither the injuries they received in the
land whence they came, the prize they are contending for, the
future blessings or curses of their children, the applause or
reproach of all mankind, the approbation or displeasure of the
great Judge, nor the happiness or misery consequent upon their
conduct, in this and a future state, can move them; then, let them
be assured, that they deserve to be Slaves, and are entitled to
nothing but anguish and tribulation. Let them banish, for ever,
from their minds, the hope of obtaining that freedom, reputation,
and happiness, which, as men, they are entitled to. Let them forget
every duty, human and divine, remember not that they have children,
and beware how they call to mind the justice of the Supreme Being:
let them return into Slavery, and hug their chains, and be a
reproach and a by-word among all nations.
"But I am persuaded, that we have none such among us;--that every
citizen will do his duty, and exert himself to the utmost of his
abilities to sustain the honour of his country, promote her
interests, and the interests of his fellow-citizens, and to hand
down unimpaired to future generations, the freedom and independence
we this day enjoy.
"As to myself, I assure you, I have never been indifferent to what
concerns the interests of Liberia--my adopted country; and I am
sensible of no passion which could seduce me, knowingly, from the
path of duty or of justice: the weakness of human nature, and the
limits of my own understanding may, no doubt will, produce errors
of judgment.--I repeat, therefore, that I shall need the indulgence
I have hitherto received at your hands. I shall need, too, the
favour of that Being in whose hands we are, who has led us, as
Israel of old, from our native land, and planted us in a country
abounding in all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has
covered our infancy with his providence, and to whose goodness I
ask you to join with me in supplications, that He will so enlighten
the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their
measures, that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and
shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all
nations."
Anniversary Speech of Hilary Teage, a Coloured gentleman, (the son of a
Virginian Slave), delivered at Monrovia, in Liberia, December 1st,
1846:--
"Fellow-Citizens:--As far back towards the infancy of our race, as
history and tradition are able to conduct us, we have found the
custom every where prevailing among mankind, to mark, by some
striking exhibition, those events which were important and
interesting, either in their immediate bearing or in their remote
consequences upon the destiny of those among whom they occurred.
These events are epochs in the history of man--they mark the rise
and fall of kingdoms and of dynasties--they record the movements
of the human mind, and the influence of those movements upon the
destinies of the race; and whilst they frequently disclose to us
the sad and sickening spectacle of innocence bending under the
weight of injustice, and of weakness robbed and despoiled by the
hand of an unscrupulous oppression; they occasionally display, as a
theme for admiring contemplation, the sublime spectacle of the
human mind, roused by a concurrence of circumstances, to vigorous
advances in the career of improvement. To trace the operations of
these circumstances from their first appearance, as effects from
the workings of the human passions, until, as a cause, they revert
with combined and concentrated energy upon those minds from which
they at first evolved, would be at once a most interesting and
difficult task; and, let it be borne in mind, requires far higher
ability and more varied talent than he possesses who this day has
the honour to address you.
"The utility of thus marking the progress of time--of recording the
occurrence of events--and of holding up remarkable personages to
the contemplation of mankind, is too obvious to need remark. It
arises from the instincts of mankind--the irrepressible spirit of
emulation--and the ardent longings after immortality; and this
restless passion to perpetuate their existence, which they find it
impossible to suppress, impels them to secure the admiration of
succeeding generations in the performance of deeds, by which,
although dead, they may yet speak. In commemorating events thus
powerful in forming the manners and sentiments of mankind, and in
rousing them to strenuous exertion and to high and sustained
emulation, it is obvious that such, and such only, should be
selected as virtue and humanity would approve; and that, if any of
an opposite character be held up, they should be displayed only as
beacons, or as a towering Pharos throwing a strong but lurid light
to mark the melancholy grave of mad ambition, and to warn the
inexperienced voyager of the existing danger.
"Thanks to the improved and humanised spirit--or, should I not
rather say, the chastened and pacific civilization of the age in
which we live,--that laurels gathered upon the field of mortal
strife, and bedewed with the tears of the Widow and the Orphan, are
regarded now, not with admiration but with horror--that the armed
warrior, reeking with the gore of murdered thousands, who, in the
age that is just passing away, would have been hailed with noisy
acclamation by the senseless crowd, is now regarded only as the
savage commissioner of an unsparing oppression, or at best as the
ghostly executioner of an unpitying justice.--He who would embalm
his name in the grateful remembrance of coming generations--he who
would secure for himself a niche in the temple of undying fame--he
who would hew out for himself a monument of which his country may
boast--he who would entail upon heirs a name which they may be
proud to wear, must seek some other field than that of battle as
the theatre of his exploits.
"Still, we honour the heroes of the age that has passed. No slander
can tarnish their hard-earned fame--no morbid sentimentalism sully
their peerless glory--no mean detraction abate the
disinterestedness of their conduct. They bowed to the spirit of
their age: and, acting up to the light afforded them, they yielded
to the dictates of an honest conscience. While assembled here
to-day, on this festal occasion, to commemorate the event for which
the founders of our infant Republic toiled, and fought, and bled,
we seem to behold the forms of the departed ones mingling in our
assembly: we seem to behold them taking their seats by the side of
their venerable compeers yet spared among us: watching with intense
anxiety the emotions which agitate our bosoms, and marking the
character of the resolves which the occasion is ripening. Rest in
peace, ye venerable shades! And ye, their living
representatives--calm be the evening of your days. We honour you.
And though no sculptured marble transmit your fame, a nobler
monument shall be yours--the happy hearts of unborn millions shall
be the shrine in which your names will be treasured. In your high
example--in your noble disinterestedness--in your entire
subordination of every thought, and act, and scheme, and interest,
to the heaven-born purpose of human regeneration and human
elevation, we hear the language of encouragement.
"Fellow-citizens,--on this occasion, so big with subjects of
profitable meditation--when it is so natural that the mind should
oscillate between the events of the past and the prospects of the
future, we can conceive of nothing more proper than the enquiry,
how we can best execute the solemn trust committed to our hand--how
we may challenge and secure the admiration and the gratitude of a
virtuous and a happy posterity, by transmitting to them the
patrimony received from our fathers, not only in all its original
entireness, but in vastly augmented beauty, order, and strength. In
a word, how we may best conduct ourselves so as to encite them to
high and sustained exertion in the cause of virtue and humanity.
"In order to impress your minds with the propriety of this enquiry,
there is, I trust, no need that I shall remind you of the
peculiarity of our condition. It will suffice that I remark, that,
should you succeed in rearing upon the foundation already
laid,--or, to drop the figure--should you succeed in establishing a
community of virtuous, orderly, intelligent, and industrious
citizens, this very peculiarity must enter largely into every
consideration on the amount of praise to which you shall be held
entitled.
"Let us, then, for a moment look back, that from the events of the
past we may derive hope for the future.
"We have not yet numbered twenty-six years since he who is the
oldest colonist amongst us was the inhabitant--not the citizen--of
a country--and that too the country of his birth--where the
prevailing sentiment is, that he and his race are incapacitated, by
an inherent defect in their mental constitution, to enjoy that
greatest of all blessings, and to exercise that greatest of all
rights, bestowed by a beneficent God upon his rational
creatures--namely, the government of themselves. Acting upon this
opinion--an opinion as false as it is foul--acting upon this
opinion, as upon a self-evident proposition, those who held it
proceeded with a fiendish consistency to deny the rights of
citizens to those whom they had declared incapable of performing
the duties of citizens. It is not necessary, and therefore I will
not disgust you with the hideous picture of that state of things
which followed upon the prevalence of this blasphemous opinion. The
bare mention that such an opinion prevailed, would be sufficient to
call up in the mind, even of those who had never witnessed its
operation, images of the most sickening and revolting character.
Under the iron reign of this crushing sentiment, most of us who are
assembled here to-day, drew our first breath and sighed away the
years of our youth. No hope cheered us: no noble object looming in
the dim and distant future kindled our ambition. Oppression--cold,
cheerless oppression, like the dreary region of an eternal winter,
chilled every noble passion and fettered and paralysed every arm.
And if among the oppressed millions there were found here and there
one in whose bosom the last glimmer of a generous passion was not
yet extinguished--one, who, from the midst of the inglorious
slumberers in the deep degradation around him, would lift his voice
and demand those rights which the God of nature hath bestowed in
equal gift upon all His rational creatures, he was met at once by
those who had at first denied and then enforced, with the stern
reply, that for him and for all his race--LIBERTY and EXPATRIATION
are inseparable.
"Dreadful as the alternative was--fearful as was the experiment now
proposed to be tried, there were hearts equal to the task--hearts
which quailed not at the dangers which loomed and frowned in the
distance, but calm, cool, and fixed in their purpose, prepared to
meet them with the watchword--Give me Liberty or give me Death.
"On the 6th day of February, in the year of Our Lord One Thousand
Eight Hundred and Twenty, the ship Elizabeth cast loose from her
moorings at New York, and on the 8th day of March, of the same
year, the pilgrims first beheld the land of their fathers, the
cloud-capped mountains of Sierra Leone, and cast anchor in that
harbour. A few days afterwards they again weighed anchor, stood to
the south, and debarked upon the low and deadly island of Sherbro.
On the character of those who formed her noble company, I deem it
unnecessary to remark. They are sufficiently commended to our
esteem, as being the first to encounter the difficulties and to
face the dangers of an enterprise, which, we trust, is to wipe away
from us the reproach of ages--to silence the calumny of those who
abuse us, and to restore to Africa her long-lost glory. I need not
detain you with a narrative of their privations and sufferings: nor
will I stop to tell you--though it would be a pleasing task to do
so--with what happy hearts they greeted a reinforcement of pilgrims
who joined them in 1821, by the Nautilus. Passing by intermediate
events, which, did the time allow, it would be interesting to
notice, we hasten to that grand event--that era of our separate
existence, the 25th day of April, in the year of Grace 1822, when
the American flag first threw out its graceful folds to the breeze
on the heights of Mesurado, and the pilgrims, relying upon the
protection of Heaven and the moral grandeur of their cause, took
solemn possession of the land in the name of virtue, humanity, and
religion.
"It would discover an unpardonable apathy, were we to pass on
without pausing a moment to reflect upon the emotions which heaved
the bosoms of the pilgrims, when they stood for the first time
where we now stand. What a prospect spread out before them!! They
stood in the midst of an ancient wilderness, rank and compacted by
the growth of a thousand years, unthinned and unreclaimed by a
single stroke of the woodman's axe. Few and far between might be
found inconsiderable openings, where the ignorant native erected
his rude habitation, or, savage as his patrimonial wilderness,
celebrated his bloody rites, and presented his votive gifts, to
Demons. Already the late proprietors of the soil had manifested
unequivocal symptoms of hostility, and an intention to expel the
strangers, as soon as an opportunity to do so should be presented.
The rainy season, that terrible ordeal of foreign constitutions,
was about setting in; the lurid lightning shot its fiery bolt into
the forest around them; the thunder muttered its angry tones over
their head; and the frail tenements, the best which their
circumstances would afford, to shield them from a scorching sun by
day and drenching rains at night, had not yet been completed. To
suppose that at this time, when all things above and around them
seemed to combine their influences against them, to suppose they
did not perceive the full danger and magnitude of the enterprise
they had embarked in, would be to suppose, not that they were
heroes, but that they had lost the sensibility of men. True courage
is equally remote from blind recklessness and unmanning timidity;
and true heroism does not consist in insensibility to danger. He is
a hero who calmly meets, and fearlessly grapples the dangers which
duty and honour forbid him to decline. The pilgrims rose to a full
perception of all the circumstances of their condition. But when
they looked back to that country from which they had come out, and
remembered the degradations in that house of bondage out of which
they had been so fortunate as to escape, they bethought themselves;
and, recollecting the high satisfaction with which they knew
success would gladden their hearts, the rich inheritance they would
entail upon their children, and the powerful aid it would lend to
the cause of universal humanity, they yielded to the noble
inspiration and girded them to the battle, either for doing or for
suffering.
"Let it not be supposed, because I have laid universal humanity
under a tribute of gratitude to the founders of Liberia, that I
have attached to their humble achievements too important an
influence, in that grand system of agencies which is now at work,
renovating human society, and purifying and enlarging the sources
of its enjoyment. In the system of that Almighty Being, without
whose notice not a sparrow falls to the ground:
'Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall:
Atoms or systems into ruin hurled,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world:'
--In the system of the Almighty One, no action of a mortal being is
unimportant. Every action of every rational creature hath its
assigned place in his system of operations, and is made to bear,
however undesigned by the agent, with force upon the end which His
wisdom and goodness have in view to accomplish.
"On the morning of the 1st day of December, in the year of Our Lord
One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-two; on that morning, just
when the gloom of night was retiring before the advancing light of
day, the portentous cloud which had been some time rising upon the
horizon of Liberia, increasing and gathering blackness as it
advanced, filling all hearts with fearful apprehension, burst upon
the colony with the force of a tornado. The events of that day have
marked it as the most conspicuous in our annals, and it is the
anniversary of that day we are here assembled to celebrate.
"And what, fellow-citizens, are the particular circumstances of
that most eventful day which more than others awaken our
exultation? On which one amongst them all is our attention most
intensely fixed? Is it on that our fathers fought, and fought
bravely, and strewed the ensanguined plain with the dead bodies of
their savage assailants? Is it on the bloody lesson of their
superiority which they taught them in the hoarse thunder of the
murderous cannon? Is it on that greater skill they displayed in the
inglorious art of slaughter and death? I trust not. These trophies
of their valour serve not to awaken exultation, but to call up a
sigh of regret. It was as the possessors of far higher and nobler
virtues they desired to be remembered; as such we tenderly cherish
the remembrance of them; and to exult over the fallen foe would be
to grieve the pure spirit of those by whose arm the savage fell.
Necessity, stern necessity, unsheathed their sword and forced upon
them an alternative from which all the feelings of their heart
turned with instinctive recoil.
"But there is a circumstance connected with the events of that day,
with which our hearts cannot be too deeply impressed, as it will
serve, on each appropriate occasion, as a check upon presumption
and an antidote against despair. Think upon the number of the
assailants, and compare it with the number of the assailed, and
then say whether any scepticism short of downright, unblushing
Atheism, can doubt the interposition, in the events of that day, of
an overruling Providence. Most emphatically does the issue of that
contest declare, 'The battle is not to the strong.' The Lord was a
shield around them, so that when their foes rose up against them,
they stumbled and fell. To the interposition of an ever-gracious
Providence, manifested in no ordinary way, we owe the privileges
and pleasure of this day.
"At this epoch we date the establishment of the colony.
"Having sustained and repulsed every external attack, and
maintained its ground against the combined and concentrated forces
of the country, it had now to commence its onward career. If there
were any, who, because the colonists had repulsed the natives,
supposed they had passed the greatest danger, and overcome the most
formidable obstacles, they gave, in this very supposition, evidence
of a deplorable ignorance of human nature and of human history. It
is from within, that the elements of national overthrow have most
commonly evolved: and the weakness under which nations expire,
generally results from disease of the national heart. Luxury and
ambition, oppression on the one side and insubordination on the
other; these are the fatal elements which, with more than volcanic
force, rend to atoms the fabric of human institutions. A common
danger, a danger equally menacing all, is almost sure to sink
every minor and merely personal consideration, and to be met by a
combination of energy, concentration of effort, and unity of
action: and in proportion as the pressure of the danger is great,
will there be want of scope for those passions which, in a certain
class, possess such fearful and disorganising potency.
"From the period of their landing, up to the moment of which we
have just spoken, all minds had been possessed by an undefined
apprehension of impending danger, and the first and the constant
lesson which their critical position inculcated upon them was,
Union and Subordination. The pressure was now taken off, the angry
cloud had now passed away, the heavens shone bright and clear, the
face of nature was calm and placid, and on every breeze was wafted
the fragrance from the surrounding groves. All breathed freely.
Each one had time to look around him, to contemplate with calmness
and composure the circumstances of his condition, and to select
that particular mode of operation, and line of conduct, which was
most congenial with his disposition. All were free; All were equal.
Here was unbounded scope for the operation of the passions. Will
they, who have been declared incapable of enjoying liberty without
running into the wildest excesses of anarchy--will they, now the
gift is enjoyed in its largest extent, restrain themselves within
the bounds of a rational and virtuous freedom? Will they connect
those two ideas which are at one and the same time the base and the
summit of all just political theories, and which can never be
separated? Will their liberty be tempered by just and wholesome
law? Is it to be expected that a people just set free from the
chains of the most abject oppression and slavery, can be otherwise
than turbulent, insubordinate, and impatient of the least
restraint? Is it among the things to be hoped, that they into whose
minds the idea of political action had not been allowed to enter,
will not, now political power is entrusted to their hands, rush
into the wildest extremes of crude legislation?
"Fellow-Citizens! the voice of twenty-four years this day gives
the answer; and we are assembled to hear it, and let those who
abuse us hear it; let them hear it and be for ever silent, when
they hear that Liberty regulated by Law, and Religion free from
Superstition, form the foundation on which rests the cement which
unites, and the ornament which beautifies, our political and social
edifice.
"Let us now turn from those who preceded us, and ask, What are the
peculiar obligations which rest upon us: what the particular duties
to which we are called? Let us not suppose, that because we are not
called upon to drive the invading native from our door--that
because we can lie down at night without fear--because the savage
war-whoop does not now ring upon the midnight air,--therefore we
have nothing to do. No mistake can be more fatal. Ours is a moral
fight. It is a keener warfare, a sharper conflict.
"For, after indulging to the utmost allowed extent in hyperbolical
expression and figurative declamation, still we are forced to
confess, the work is but just commenced. The nervous arm of our
predecessor marked out the site, and laid the foundation, and
reared the walls, of the edifice. The scaffold is still around it.
It is ours to mount it--to commence where they ended, and to
conduct it on towards a glorious completion. How shall we execute
our trust--how shall we conduct ourselves so as to stand acquitted
before the bar of coming generations, and obtain from them a
favourable and an honorable verdict? By what means shall we secure
and perpetuate our own prosperity, and transmit it an inheritance
to our children? These are questions which seem peculiarly
appropriate to this interesting occasion. And let me congratulate
you, fellow-citizens, that you have the experience of others to
guide you. The art of government is now elevated to the dignity of
a science. The most gifted minds--minds which do honour to human
nature, have long been turned to the subject: and maxims and
propositions which, consecrated by time, had grown into the
strength of axioms--maxims which had obtained universal assent and
universal application--maxims which would have overwhelmed him who
should have doubted them, with more than sacrilegious turpitude and
sent him to atone for his presumption upon the scaffold, or in the
gloomy depths of a dungeon--maxims the legitimate offspring of
ignorance and oppression, have been successfully explored and the
human mind disenthralled. That more than magical phrase, in the
hand of the despot, 'the divine right of kings,' has lost its power
to charm; and frequent examinations into the foundations of society
have at length taught men the interesting truth, that the duties
and rights of magistrate and subject are correlate--that government
is made for the people, and not the people for the government: thus
establishing the eternal truth first enunciated in the Declaration
of American Independence, 'That all men are free and equal.' The
bare utterance of those ever-memorable words, by the immortal
Jefferson, whilst it struck the fetters from the human mind, and
sent it bounding on in a career of improvement, wrested the sceptre
from the tyrant's hand and dissolved his throne beneath him. 'Magna
est veritas et prævalebit.'[2]--Truth threw a strong and steady
light where there was naught but darkness before: man beheld his
dignity and his rights, and prepared to demand the one and sustain
the other. But I return. By what means shall we advance our
prosperity?
"The first requisite, to permanent advancement, if I may so speak,
is order. Order is heaven's first law. It is this which imparts
stability to human institutions, because, while like the laws of
nature it restrains each one in his proper sphere, it leaves all to
operate freely and without disturbance. Here will be no jostling.
When I say order, I mean not to restrict the term to the ordinary
occupations of life; I extend the word to mean, a strict and
conscientious submission to established law. It is said to be the
boast of that form of government under which we live, that no man,
however high in office, can violate with impunity the sacred trust
committed to his hand, and long insult the people by trampling
upon their rights: that the distinguishing excellence of a
republican form of government is, that, under it, oppression can
have no place. This opinion I am not disposed to combat; but as it
is a fact, that a safe and constitutional remedy for all grievances
of this kind is in the hands of the people, this circumstance alone
should dispose every one to submit, for a time, to some
inconvenience rather than apply a rash and violent corrective. I
admit, there are cases in which the minions of office become so
intoxicated with a little brief power--that, forgetting all men are
free and possess certain constitutional privileges, and forgetting
also, that they were elevated to office not to be oppressors but
conservators, their haughty, vexatious, and oppressive conduct,
becomes intolerable. In such cases as these, let the strong
indignation of an outraged public, calmly but firmly expressed,
awaken the dreamer from his vision of greatness, and send him back
to re-enact his dream in his original obscurity.
"Another argument for order and subordination lies in the fact,
that the laws are in the hands of the people. Legislators are not
elevated to office for their private emolument and honour, but for
the nobler purpose of advancing and securing the happiness of their
constituents: and they are bound--by the most solemn
considerations--they are bound, to enact such laws, and such laws
only, as are suited to the genius and circumstances of the people.
If they betray the high trust committed to them, and enact laws
either oppressive or partial, the corrective is equally in the
hands of the people. They have only to apply the constitutional
remedy. Here, then, is no apology for disorder. Order, then, must
be our rule; for without subordination, and prompt and constant and
conscientious obedience to wholesome law, there can be no security
for person nor property. The bands of society would be untwisted,
and the whole fabric exposed to ruin on the first popular outbreak.
Be it, then, fellow-citizens, our first concern to sustain our
officers in the proper discharge of their constitutional duties;
to secure obedience to the laws, and to preserve them from
violation with the same jealousy with which we watch the first
encroachment of power.