At a meeting of the Oxford Council, auxiliary to the State Council of
the Free Colored People of Ohio, held on the 5th inst., the following
preamble and resolutions were adopted for consideration; and on the 12th
inst., an additional resolution was passed, inviting the members of the
several Councils, in Butler county, to participate in the discussion.
Notice is, therefore, hereby given, to all interested, that the
discussion of the said preamble and resolutions will be commenced on
Friday, the 26th inst., at two o’clock, P. M., in Oxford, and be
continued, from time to time, until disposed of by the Council.
ALEXANDER PROCTOR, Pres’t.
SAMUEL D. FOX, Secretary.
Whereas, the Colored People of the United States, from the peculiar
crisis which has arrived in their condition, are taking their rights
into their own hands:
And, whereas, slavery, that “sum of all villainies,” is lengthening its
cords and strengthening its stakes, and still more broadly exerting its
baleful influence over the free as well as the slave portion of our
people:
And, whereas, we believe, that to remain passive and indifferent, under
all these great evils, is at once to show ourselves unworthy of those
noble rights for which we contend:
And, whereas, the minds of the colored people, North, South, East, and
West, are agitated, and parties and factions are being organized all
over the Union, each urging its peculiar panacea for the ills we endure:
And, whereas, others are engaged in making investigations relative to
Canada, the West Indies, and Central America, with the view of deciding
where the safest asylum can be secured for ourselves and our posterity:
And, whereas, the time has fully come, we are convinced, when every
subject, every system, every argument, should be thoroughly examined;
and that to shrink from an honest and impartial investigation of all
systems and subjects, African colonization not excepted, is behind the
spirit of the age, and is pusillanimous rather than magnanimous:
therefore,
_Resolved_, 1st, That we are in favor of availing ourselves of all the
information we can obtain, as to the advantages afforded to emigrants in
the Republic of Liberia, and the inducements held out by that Colony to
free colored people.
2. That we will endeavor to procure all the correct knowledge we can, of
Grand Cape Mount, in Africa, as the point of emigration for any of our
people who may choose Liberia as their future home.
3. That, being informed of the existence of an Association in England,
which has been organized to promote the agricultural resources of
Africa, by advances of goods and money to intelligent and honest
emigrants and colonists; we hereby authorize our President and Secretary
to correspond with the said association, and learn the extent of
encouragement it proposes to give to emigrants from the United States.
4. That in the adoption of any or all of these resolutions, we do not
intend to be understood as committing ourselves either as Emigrationists
or Colonizationists, but as honest inquirers after truth, and as men not
afraid to investigate every question at issue in the great controversy
in which we are involved.
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Footnote 1:
1806.
Footnote 2:
Mr. Mills enlisted in this cause himself, but on the organization of
the American Colonization Society, he embarked in it as the more
practicable scheme.
Footnote 3:
1812.
Footnote 4:
1817.
Footnote 5:
The receipts, for the first six years, averaged only $3,276 per annum.
Footnote 6:
Cape Palmas, in its political organization, is a distinct colony from
Liberia. It was established by Maryland, and has recently declared its
independence. We shall speak of it, however, as a part of Liberia.
Their territories lie contiguous, and the Missions of most of the
Societies are common to both colonies.
Footnote 7:
Missionary Advocate, April, 1853.
Footnote 8:
Letter to the Colonization Herald—October, 1853.
Footnote 9:
Gammel’s History of the American Baptist Missions.
Footnote 10:
Gammel’s History of the American Baptist Missions.
Footnote 11:
Ibid.
Footnote 12:
Baptist Missionary Magazine, March, 1854.
Footnote 13:
Mr. Bowen was in Abbeokuta, when the king of Dahomey attempted its
destruction, as detailed hereafter.
Footnote 14:
Report of Bishop Payne, June 6, 1853.
Footnote 15:
Report of Bishop Payne, June 6, 1853.
Footnote 16:
The funds for this purpose were supplied as follows: Charles McMicken,
Esq., of Cincinnati, $5000; Solomon Sturges, Esq., of Putnam, Ohio,
$1000; and Samuel Gurney, Esq., of London, England, $5000.
Footnote 17:
This system, in its moral bearings upon the Islands, is little better
than the old African Slave trade. The disparity in the sexes is fully
as great under the _apprenticeship system_, as it was during the
prevalence of the slave trade, and it must be equally as demoralizing.
Take, as an example, a few imports of apprentices from India and
China, for the supply of English planters. The cargoes of five
vessels, were composed of 1,433 males, 257 females, and 84 children.
The practical effect of this system upon Africa, in exciting wars, and
carrying off the male population, is identical with that of the slave
trade. See President Roberts’ letter on that subject in Appendix.
Footnote 18:
This sum is about equal to the price usually paid by the slave traders
for slaves.
Footnote 19: