In our annual appeals to the churches, in behalf of the American
Colonization Society, frequent reference has been made to the purchase
of territory, in Africa, for an Ohio colony. The offer of funds for this
object, by CHARLES MCMICKEN, ESQ., was made in 1848, and the purchase
completed in 1850.
In anticipation of this result, memorials were forwarded to Columbus, in
December, 1849, asking an appropriation, by the Legislature, to aid in
the establishment of an “Ohio in Africa.” Among these petitions was one
signed by the ministers of the Ohio Methodist Conference, the Ohio
Baptist Annual Convention, the New School Presbyterian Synod of
Cincinnati, the Old School Presbyterian Synod of Cincinnati, and the Old
School Presbyterian Synod of Ohio.
In responding to these expressions of public sentiment, a resolution was
passed, by both branches of the Legislature, asking the General
Government to acknowledge the independence of Liberia; the Senate passed
another resolution, asking Congress to withdraw its squadron from the
coast of Africa, and to appropriate the $150,000 per annum, expended in
its support, to the cause of African Colonization, as a more efficient
means of suppressing the slave trade; and the House passed a bill, by a
large majority, making a liberal appropriation to aid the proposed
colony. The two last named measures were introduced so late in the
session, that they were not acted upon, except by the branches named,
and were postponed among the unfinished business.
These indications of a friendly disposition, on the part of the
Legislature, to promote Colonization, together with some movements among
the colored people favorable to the proposed enterprise, led to the
appointment of a _Committee of Correspondence_, in 1850, to coöperate
with the Agent in carrying out the enterprise so happily set on foot by
Mr. McMicken. The committee was directed to give its counsel to the
Agent, and adopt such measures as it might deem necessary to promote the
cause of Colonization in the State; but, more especially, to aim at
enlisting the churches in the work. This it has done in various ways, as
may be seen by reference to the public prints. By its direction, the
Agent renewed his efforts for an appropriation from the Legislature, but
as a new Constitution was then in the course of preparation, that body
declined all further action, until the future policy of the State should
be settled. The Constitutional Convention was then approached, and it
was proposed to introduce a special clause into the new Constitution,
giving the Legislature power to appropriate money for African
Colonization. This measure was resisted by those who were striving to
secure the privileges of citizenship, in the State, for colored men; and
by those who desired to prevent the surrounding States from driving
their free colored people into Ohio. This last party being much the
strongest in the Convention, the friends of Colonization had either to
abandon their proposition, or couple it with a provision excluding any
further immigration of colored people into the State. This policy being
repugnant to their feelings, and the general powers conferred on the
Legislature being considered amply sufficient to warrant it in fostering
Colonization, the friends of the proposition declined to press its
passage, and it was abandoned.
About this period, the project of encouraging Colonization, by
establishing a line of “Steam-Ships,” to run between this country and
Liberia, was agitated; and it so far received the advocacy of the public
press, as to lead to the hope that the General Government would adopt
the measure.
This important movement was succeeded by “Stanley’s Bill,” to devote the
last instalment of the “Surplus Revenue,” to the several States, for
Colonization purposes, in the proportions required by the law of 1836.
As the success of this Bill, in Congress, would have given to the State
of Ohio, annually, thereafter, the sum of $33,454, to build up our “Ohio
in Africa,” it was considered of vital importance to secure its passage.
Instead, therefore, of approaching our Legislature, to ask an
appropriation, the Agent was directed to secure its influence with the
General Government, in behalf of “Stanley’s Bill;” but before
recommendatory resolutions could be carried through the Legislature,
that important measure received its deathblow in Congress.
Public attention having been very fully directed, by these movements, to
the State and National Legislatures, as the proper patrons of
Colonization, the Agent found less disposition, among private
individuals, longer to sustain the enterprise, and consequently the
amount collected in the State has somewhat diminished.
For want of funds to make the necessary improvements for the protection
of colonists, at the time the purchase of Mr. McMicken was effected, and
because but few emigrants were then in our offer, to begin a settlement,
no definite arrangement was made, with the authorities of Liberia, for
the allotment of lands for our colored people. The region purchased
embraces Grand Cape Mount and Gallinas, and includes a greater extent of
country than was covered by the donation of Mr. M. The whole of this
territory has been annexed to Liberia, and her laws extended over it.
This arrangement will secure to our emigrants the protection of the
Republic, and all the privileges enjoyed by any of its citizens. These
advantages will be more than an equivalent to the extra fifty or one
hundred acres of land, which Mr. McMicken originally proposed to give to
each family; inasmuch as this bonus may still be secured to our
emigrants, along with the protection of the Republic, by an arrangement
with its government.
The recent disturbances at Grand Cape Mount, noticed in the accompanying
Lecture of our Agent, will create a necessity for its speedy settlement;
and, if we do not secure it for the colored people of Ohio, it must be
given to others, to prevent the native population from being shipped off
to the West Indies or Brazil.
The Committee feels assured, that, with a few thousand dollars, it can
prevent this transfer to other parties, and secure the settlement of
Grand Cape Mount as an Ohio Colony. This it considers very important, as
a means of encouraging emigration. Believing that the funds would
ultimately be secured for this object, such measures have been adopted,
from time to time, as would promote that end. In March, 1850, sixteen
emigrants, with the Rev. W. W. Findlay at their head, went to Liberia,
to stand prepared to coöperate in founding our Colony. Mr. Findlay is
still urgent for the commencement of the settlement; and, though
comfortably situated on a farm, he offers to remove to Grand Cape Mount,
at any time his services are needed. Himself and family are now fully
acclimated, and are thus in a position to render efficient aid in
superintending improvements for us.
About a year since, the colored people of Circleville, Ohio, appointed
one of their own number, Mr. T. J. Merrett, a delegate to Liberia, to
report on the condition and prospects of the Republic. Our Agent was
present at the meeting; the subject of an Ohio Colony was fully
explained, and the vote to commission the delegate was nearly unanimous.
He sailed for Liberia in April, 1853, remained there about six months,
and then returned to the United States. The vessel in which he embarked
was stripped of its masts and rigging, in a hurricane, during the
passage, its pumps rendered useless, and its hull only kept afloat by
constant bailing, until it was landed at St. Thomas for repairs. The
over-exertion and exposure incident to this disaster, induced ship-fever
on the vessel, to which Mr. Merrett fell a victim two days after landing
at Portland. While in Liberia, he had written an encouraging letter to
his friends in Circleville, but made no formal report, as he did not
live to reach home. Mr. Merrett was a man of good judgment, and highly
esteemed by his neighbors. His death is a serious loss to us, and has
somewhat interrupted our plans for commencing operations in Africa.
The advantages lost in the death of Mr. Merrett, may be regained by
inviting Mr. Findlay to visit this country, to confer with the colored
people of our State. The committee will adopt this course, if the funds
to meet his expenses and make the necessary improvements at Grand Cape
Mount, are placed at its disposal. The employment of such agencies, in
other States, has tended to arouse a spirit of emigration, and should
not be overlooked by our own.
The REV. JOHN MCKAY, a colored man, of Madison, Indiana, was employed in
that State last year, and succeeded in raising a company of twenty-five
emigrants, with whom he sailed to Liberia, in November. He touched at
Sierra Leone and Grand Cape Mount, and remained eighty-three days in
Liberia, to examine its condition. He returned to Indiana about the
first of May, and speaks in the most favorable terms of the civil,
social, and religious prosperity of the Republic. It is his intention to
return to Liberia with his family, after laboring awhile for the Indiana
State Board of Colonization.
Mr. McKay informs our Agent, that the adaptation of the soil and climate
of Liberia, to the production of the best qualities of cotton, sugar,
and coffee, has been fully tested; and that the willingness of the
natives to engage in the cultivation of these products, under the
direction of the Liberians, is no longer doubtful. To develop the
unbounded agricultural resources of Africa, it only remains, therefore,
that the capital to pay for the native labor, and the men to superintend
it, should be supplied. The first of these elements of success is
offered by British capitalists, and the last can be furnished by the
American Colonization Society.
Mr. J. B. Jordan, a highly intelligent merchant of Liberia, is expected
in Cincinnati, soon, to tarry a few weeks. He has been in correspondence
with some of the intelligent colored men of this city, for more than a
year past, and has expressed himself in the strongest terms, as to the
superiority of that Republic, over the United States, as a home for the
colored man. When on his way, at first, to Liberia, he visited our Agent
at Oxford, Ohio, and agreed to coöperate in the erection of the proposed
Ohio Colony.
Our Agent has several applications for information, as to the time when
emigrants can remove to the proposed “Ohio in Africa;” and some have
resolved to proceed to Liberia, to undergo the acclimating process,
preparatory to entering into their inheritance.
In connection with this subject, we are gratified in being able to
state, that companies of slaves, qualified to enter at once upon the
cultivation of the lands in Africa, are occasionally offered, and may be
of much value, as freemen, in our proposed settlement. In 1852, Mrs.
LUDLOW, of Cincinnati, presented twenty-one slaves, then in Texas, to
our Agent, as emigrants to Liberia; and they were forwarded in March,
1853, to their future homes. At the present moment, another family of
seventeen slaves, valued at about $15,000, is offered to him, and will
be accepted as soon as the preliminary arrangements for their removal
can be made. Their master is a resident of a State in which there is no
Colonization Agent; and, being acquainted with our Agent, he has
appealed to him to accept his slaves, and provide for them in a land of
freedom. As these people have been trained to Cotton-growing, it is
important they should be sent to our Colony, to promote the cultivation
of that valuable staple. Should they succeed well in Liberia, it is
expected that other emancipations in the same region will follow, and a
large number of cotton-growers thus be secured to aid in developing the
resources of the African Republic.
The Resolutions of the Oxford Council, appended to this address, emanate
from colored men of more than ordinary intelligence. None of them are
advocates of Colonization, but they are capable of taking a
comprehensive view of the questions involved in the enslavement of their
race. They are now convinced, that unless the free colored people assume
a position enabling them to engage largely in tropical cultivation,
slavery, by retaining the monopoly of the supply of tropical products,
must continue to possess the power of extending itself at will. The only
question, with them, is, Where can the free colored people become the
most efficient agents in the deliverance and elevation of their race?
They have resolved, therefore, to collect information from Africa, while
others are investigating South America. The slavery question, in their
opinion, is now assuming a position in which attention must be more
fully directed to its economical aspects. Moral considerations, they
perceive, are powerless in arresting its progress. The cumulative
demands of commerce, for tropical productions, are stimulating slavery
in an unprecedented degree; and unless free labor can be enlisted in
tropical cultivation, it must continue to extend until the whole of
tropical America submits to its sway.
As only a part of the towns and congregations in Ohio could be visited
during a single year; as the opposition to Colonization had been more
extended, and its agencies more perfectly systematized here than,
perhaps, in any other State; as it was impossible to obtain audiences,
generally, to hear lectures, except on the Sabbath, when the secular
aspects of the subject could not be discussed; and, as the people of
African descent, almost to a man, were bitterly opposed to Liberia, and
willing to believe every ill report its enemies put into circulation;
the Agent found it necessary, at an early period of his labors, to
resort to his pen, as a means of correcting public sentiment, and
disseminating truth among the colored people. The fifth and last
document of this kind is forwarded herewith, and commended to your
attention. Its object, mainly, is to demonstrate the necessity of
Colonization as an auxiliary to missions in Africa; to show what colored
men, themselves, have accomplished for the elevation of their race; and
to afford the pastors of congregations a brief outline of facts to lay
before their people.
Before the peace of the tribes around Cape Mount can be secured, and the
interference of foreigners to procure laborers for the West Indies, as
apprentices or slaves, can be prevented, we must settle a colony there;
and before this can be accomplished, suitable houses and fortifications,
for the comfort and security of emigrants, must be erected. The
government of Liberia, were it able, can not be expected to make these
improvements; and the Colonization Society, were it willing, is equally
unsupplied with funds for such an object. Aid is not expected, at
present, from either our State Legislature or from Congress.
Consequently, we are thrown back upon the liberality of the churches,
and of individuals, in our own State, for the means of rendering the
lands, purchased by Mr. McMicken, available to those for whom they were
designed. And shall we seize the opportunity now presented, by a
favoring Providence, for barring, forever, the traffickers in human
flesh, by whatever name they may be called, from all access to Grand
Cape Mount? Or, after the site has been secured, shall we suffer it to
be transferred to others, and the citizens of our State robbed, by their
own negligence, of the honor of perfecting what has been so successfully
commenced?
To remove any remaining prejudices against Colonization, and to secure
more prompt and general action by the different Churches, appeals have
been made to the several Ecclesiastical Courts, where opportunity
offered, to recommend the cause of Colonization to their people. Three
Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Ohio, at their last
sessions, passed resolutions approving the Colonization Society; and two
of them—the Cincinnati and the Ohio, visited by our Agent—recommended
collections to be taken up in the Churches under their care. The General
Assemblies of both divisions of the Presbyterian Church, have also
recommended the Society to the patronage of their people. The Baptists
and the Protestant Episcopal Church, both, have missions in Liberia, and
their people need no other inducements, it is conceived, than the fact
that their contributions are needed, to enlist them in aiding emigration
to that Republic. The Associate Reformed Church, and the Reformed
Presbyterian Church, have also expressed their confidence in African
Colonization, and recommended their people to sustain the enterprise.
The newer division of the Baptists—the Christian Church—have recently
enlisted in the cause of African evangelization, and sent out a
missionary. The people of that denomination, doubtless, will unite with
us in promoting the great work of emigration to Africa.
And now, Christian Brethren, with these facts before you, and with these
expressions of confidence in Colonization, by the Churches to which you
belong, may we not urge upon you to lay this subject promptly before
your people; so that, through your instrumentality and their pecuniary
aid, we may have the means placed in our hands of delivering Grand Cape
Mount from the long reign of rapine, cruelty, and war, to which it has
been doomed; and of placing it under the protection of the Banner of the
Cross, and subjecting it to the dominion of the Prince of Peace.
You will readily understand, Dear Brethren, that the Committee has
progressed to a point, in its efforts to establish an Ohio Colony in
Africa, where it is powerless without money. And, having accomplished so
much—having territory enough, almost, for a kingdom—must all be lost for
want of the ability to proceed? We can not but believe that the
Christian people, under your care, will heartily respond to this appeal;
and, that they will give us, at once, ample means of carrying out all
the measures necessary to secure success.
C. P. McILVAINE,
SAMUEL W. FISHER,
SAMUEL R. WILSON,
ALEXANDER GUY,
J. P. KILBRETH,
RUFUS KING,
JAMES HOGE,
H. H. LEAVITT,
H. G. COMINGO,
_Colonization Committee of Correspondence for Ohio_.
DAVID CHRISTY, _Secretary of the Committee_.
☞ All communications, in reference to this subject, and all
remittances of money, may be made to the Agent, DAVID CHRISTY,
Oxford, Butler county, Ohio, or to Rev. WM. MCLAIN, Washington City.
☞ The following paragraph, from the New York Times, was handed to
the Agent just as this Address was going to press. It affords a sad
confirmation of the doctrine of this Lecture, that there can be
little security for African Missions, except in connection with
Colonization: “Schooner _Cortes_, Capt. Stanhope, arrived at this
port yesterday morning, from Gaboon, West Coast of Africa, whence
she sailed April 14. We learn from Captain S., that on the 4th of
April, the Mission Houses, Church, and other houses, belonging to
the Church, at Corisco, were set on fire by the natives and entirely
destroyed. Two female servants belonging to the United States were
burned to death.”
☞ The Committee publish the annexed proceedings of the Oxford
Council, as a matter of news, and as an important step for the
colored people, without designing to indorse all the sentiments they
contain.
☞ Rev. G. G. LYONS, of Toledo, is an authorized Agent for
northwestern Ohio; and J. C. STOCKTON, of Mt. Vernon, for the
northeastern counties.
_From the Hamilton Intelligencer._