BOSTON PUBLIC LIBR
OT
4
Raat)
mS Wr pees ee
SO eee
Ra
o
S
/ a
e
4
AFRICAN COLONIZATION.
AN ADDRESS
DELIVERED BY
JOHN H. B. LATROBE,
President of the American Colonization Society,
é gs
y some if
© Prle 2 * iy ee
AT THE
ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS
COLONIZATION SOCIETY HELD IN THE
MUSIC HALL, BOSTON,
) yen ) ) ® ey) 4 2 ) )
) )
> 33 MAW 25,,%85333 »>
cJEM-D “pp) 25 3 > 39D Dy »
) n ¥
) a 5 > b} >. 2. , 723
> 2 133) 2 ? > )
BALTIMORE:
PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY.
Ton
|
|
:
;
:
|
3
;
3
|
:
|
:
;
4
$
|
1853, |
NN I A NA LOIN ONLI IIL LID NLD RRL OLD LLLP INN
:
3
|
|
|
5
§
ee i nnn nnn
mA Ann.
“Sir, I believe that Africa will be civilized, and civilized
by the descendants of those whp were torn from the land. I
believe it because I will not think that this great fertile con-
tinent is to be forever left waste. I believe it because I see
no other agency fully competent to the work. I believe it
because I see in this agency a most wonderful adaptation.”
EDWARD EVERETT, 18th Jan’y, 1863,
eee Se eee
eee
RAP APRA APP PPP PAB P AAI BIA I I DA II FIP FPF II I DAILY NI FDO
reer rrr
I NN INN NN NE PLN ROIS PRL R RANA NA AL RAR NES A AN
ADDRESS.
MR. PRESIDENT:
I am here, at this time, to advocate the
cause of African Colonization.
CoLonizaTION, using the term in its general sense,
has been the means through which the earth, from a
single pair, has become filled with its inhabitants.
Prosecuted for the purposes of conquest, it made
Cortez lord of the valley of Mexico, and placed
Pizarro on the throne of the Incas. Resorted to as
an alternative to oppression, its power has been
demonstrated in the growth of this great Republic.
Used for the transfer of a portion of a nation from
one part of its territory to another, it finds an illus-
tration at San Francisco, unparalleled in the history
of mankind.
POPS III IPD DI IIIS es
a PLLA PDP PPP POPP LDAP APPS AP PPD AIL PLLA AAA LR AALS A A ALN NILA NA AI
nn
OPO DL OOF OF
AF RIGAIN
Nor is there in African Colonization anything to
distinguish it from the colonizations that have pre-
ceded it, except in the circumstance to which it owes
its distinctive epithet. It belongs to the class that is
influenced rather by repulsion from one land, than by
attraction, in the first instance, to another. Its repre-
sentatives are the Pilgrims of Plymouth, rather than
the founders of Vera Cruz.
There are, in the United States; two races, the
white and the colored. Brought from Africa, origi-
nally, as slaves, the progenitors of the last have trans-
mitted, even to the free of their decsendants, the
memories and the associations of servitude, which
cannot be shaken off while a portion of the same
people, still in bondage, suggests, everlastingly, the
history and the degradation of the past. Before
Emancipation commenced, the relations of the races,
as a matter of feeling, were probably of rare discus-
sion. When the first ship-load of slaves was landed,
under colonial rule, in the Chesapeake, the wisest of
the Virginia ‘‘adventurers”’ never dreamed that a day
would come, when the descendants of the captives
would be the alumni of colleges, distinguished mem-
bers of the liberal professions, and filling, because fit
to fill, political offices of the highest civilization.
Generations were born and died, before such imagin-
ee POLL LOL LOLS NR LR LOLLIPOP
4
PLDI DL LDL III PFI FS ot
|
=
COLONIZATION.
ings were entertained. But, as masters occasionally
liberated their slaves, a class of freed-men was cre-
ated, which, increasing from year to year, gradually
attracted public attention; and the far-seeing among
the statesmen of the day began to consider the proba-
bilities of the future in regard to it, with an interest
to which subsequent events have shown that it was.
fully entitled.
Amalgamation by intermarriage, as a remedy for
the anticipated evils of the increase, was never for a
moment thought of; and as the experience of all his-
tory had shown that two races, which could not so
amalgamate, could exist in the same land in no other
relations than those of master and slave, or, where
both were nominally free, of the oppressor and the
oppressed, the idea of separation naturally became
prominent,—a separation so wide as to preclude the
fear, or chance even, of any subsequent collision.
Hence the plan of colonizing the free people of color
of the United States; and hence the selection of the
locality,—suggested, doubtless, by the origin of the
emigrants,—which has given to this particular colo-
nization its epithet of ‘‘African.?? Under the in-
fluence, at first, of such a repulsion as filled the May-
flower; under the influence, hereafter, of such an
attraction as filled the caravels of Cortez; under both
5
|
ann AA
AAA PAA APPLE AA ALLE PPP LPR LPL LPP PRL LSI PPP LLL PRP PIE PPL PP PPPS PN
PR PO—POPP_PLPOP_PPIEP_PPP PIII OOOO LLL aes
PPL PDI OI OOOO PII eee
NN
/
een
AFRICAN
influences, indeed, now and hereafter, according to
the temperament of the individual colonists, this colo-
nization is to go forward unto the accomplishment of
the end.
On the 28th of December, 1816, the first meeting
to form the present Society was held in Washington.
The speakers were Henry Clay, Elias B. Caldwell,
John Randolph of Roanoke, and Robert Wright of
Maryland. With the exception of a suggestion of
Mr. Randolph, that the condition of the slaves would
be improved by removing the free colored people, the
views expressed were confined exclusively to the best
interests of the latter, and the advantages that would
result collaterally to Africa from the prosecution of the
scheme; and the object of the Society was declared
to be, ‘‘to promote and execute a plan for colonizing,
with their own consent, the free people of color of the
United States in Africa, or such other place as Con-
gress might deem most expedient;’’—the definition
carefully excluding the idea of compulsory action on
the part of the Society, as well as the idea of any
interference with slavery.
Thirty-seven years have passed since the meeting
here referred to. ‘The voices of the speakers can be
heard no more. His,—the great orator’s, the strong-
willed statesman’s, which swayed the hearts of men
OOOO
)
>
OO Oe OO
‘attention ee PLL PII
a ae a anaes
Ie
COLONIZATION.
to and fro, as doth the wind the yielding corn,—has
so recently been hushed, that its echoes hardly yet
have ceased to vibrate around us. Thirty-seven years
have passed, and the quiet scheme of philanthropy of
1816 has become a great politica] necessity, still per-
fect in its plan, still adapted to every emergency, and
presenting the only solution to a problem that has,
more than once, threatened our existence as an united
people.
The importance that in later years has been ac-
quired by colonization, was hardly anticipated when
the Society was formed. It is due, almost wholly, to
the changes that have since taken place in the rela-
tions of the white and the free colored population.
In 1816, the feeling between the two was that of
kindness. ‘There was then no difficulty in obtaining
employment, to create unfriendly competition. Cer-
tain occupations seemed to be conceded by prescrip-
tion to the colored man. If preferences were given,
he obtained them. Associations protecting his free-
dom existed, even in the slave-holding States. Eman-
cipations were constantly taking place around him.
And, if at any time disposed to complain of the infe-
riority of his social position, he recognized, neverthe-
less, the force of the circumstances to which it was
owing, and left its amelioration to time and events.
(PPP PPP ABP PAID Inve et POPP PII III III
7
DAA
SO ee
OPI nr.
AFRICAN
The long wars of Europe, just ended, had kept the
emigrating classes at home, that they might be used
there for manuring old lands with their blood, rather
than be sent to people new ones with their enterprise;
and, in 1820, the total number of immigrants and their
descendants in the United States was but 359,000,
and the annual immigration did not exceed 12,000
persons from all countries. Our foreign element,
therefore, which has always been the most hostile to
the free colored population, was scarcely felt. The
condition of things, then, in 1816, was most favorable
to the free colored man,—nor, to the mass of the com-
munity, was there any probability of a change.
But how great, nevertheless, the change that has,
in point of fact, taken place in the interval! All the
kindly relations, which so many then supposed would
last forever, have been broken up, beyond the power
of reparation. Instead of moving along harmoniously
in the avenues of labor, the whites and the free
colored people now meet there only with ill-feeling
and bad blood: and into these avenues, to increase
the strife for bread and add to the confusion, there
throngs an annual immigration, which, in thirty-three
years, has multiplied from twelve thousand to five
hundred thousand, making the whole number of immi-
grants and their descendants, now in our country,
OOOO ALLL NL A ONAL NEN PANO LOL NER A AL AP Pt el APE
8
Aer rrr rrr Sn ——
_s NRO ed Aree
See
COLONIZATION.
upwards of five millions of souls. Jealousy and sus-
picion characterize to-day the relations of the parties.
Political influences are beginning to operate. Legis-
lation is invoked; and State after State, slaveholding
as well as non-slaveholding, is passing, or threaten-
ing to pass, laws hostile to the continued residence
amongst us of the free colored population. It is this
PRP PPP PVP IPOD PDA PALL AI PL AEAAA PRAARAE AAA
state of things, no longer the dimly-shadowed possi-
bility, to men of fearful minds, of 1816, but a palpable
and ominous fact, that gives to colonization, as the
only means yet devised for obviating an impending
calamity, the character that is claimed for it, of a
great national and political interest.
The causes of the change here described are inti-
mately connected with the proper consideration of the
subject: they are manifest, and they are uncontrollable.
The first, strangely enough it may be thought, is
in education and refinement, which has been going on
since 1816, and which, at first sight, would seem to
furnish a reason why they should be permitted to re-
main undisturbed amongst us, with a gradual amelio-
ration of their social position. ‘This, however, is the
superficial view of the subject.
The slave is callous, because he is ignorant, or
the gradual improvement of the free colored people, .
|
:
because, without scope for aspiration, contentment |
NWAAAAAAAAAA AH AAAAARAFAAAAAAAAARAAAAAARARAAARREA FARABAAAAAANAANMAAAAAAE ADA AE AA AERO OOOO On ne
B
PEI APD AOS
tate ee OOO
Oe NANNING EP oe
AFRICAN
becomes an incident of his condition. But make a
freed-man of him; educate him; enable him to see
the rewards of ambition, only to discover that they
are beyond his reach,—to appreciate social and politi-
cal rank, only to learn that it is unattainable; and he
becomes sensitive and restless, just in proportion as
he is capable and enlightened. A strife begins within
him, that manifests itself in all his actions. He com-
plains to those who will listen to him. He finds sym-
pathizers, naturally enough, among the whites. He is
looked upon as one who has “a cause.”? His friends
fancy they have ‘‘a mission.”? Spirit chafes against
spirit. Excitement is produced. Organization takes
place. The sphere of action dilates. Soon it em-
braces the question of slavery. The rarely gifted
individual, the cause of the particular effervescence, is
assumed as a fair representative of the entire race;
and a crusade commences, which ultimately involves
the whole country, and makes the free colored people
the subjects of a family feud, as North and South
array themselves in bitter antagonism. Nor is the
reference to domestic affairs, thus suggested, inappli-
cable. On the contrary, as he who is the subject of
a household quarrel always finds himself obliged to
leave the family, that peace may be restored between
its members, so the contest, that has been waging
INN INI Nt NALIN AL ORION AANA OI OPAL NRL APO NANA NNN NAN © FN PN EN aN NAR NEN Al NANI NP a
10
CODONIZADLON.
among the whites in regard to the free colored people,
threatens to end in the abandonment, by the latter, of
the scene of the agitation, that, in a distant land, they
may find a new home and work out a different destiny.
Had they remained as slaves in feeling, had education
wrought in them no miracles, had refinement brought
no sensitiveness, this state of things would never have
existed as one cause of the change in question.
The other of the causes is the foreign immigration.
tability on the part of the better classes of the free
colored people; and it is felt inconveniently, not only
by those of them whose care does not extend beyond
others in active competition for employment; a com-
petition which was far from existing while the foreign
immigration remained comparatively inconsiderable.
Thanks to the vast country, yet to be filled with
population, between the Atlantic and the Pacific, the
demand for labor in the West, and the rapidly in-
creasing facilities for transporting it from place to
place, this crowding immigration disappears from the
seaboard as fast as it arrives, so that the pressure
created by it is not intolerable. But still, the immi-
gration is not diminishing. Population is becoming
denser and denser every day; and as a cause for the
Its effect is two-fold. It operates to increase the irri-
|
|
:
;
;
to-day, but by those also of the whites who meet the
I IID NN RNR NEL RE IONRS, PRL AL AL NAL AS NA AP ALAA APRA LAL AA AL NAA AAA ANGE AAD PAA AA al SAPARD AANA! AN
11
OOO
Re nw — Vn Pn A
Sa aaa eae e eee ~S OI Sees Sm
AFRICAN
change we are accounting for, the increase of foreign
labor amongst us must continue to operate unto the
end.
That the explanation thus given is the true one,
there can be but little doubt. Indeed, none other has
been suggested during the angry controversy which
for years past has shaken the fabric of our govern-
ment, rousing all men from their indifference, and
obliging them to look the future fully im the face.
The question, then, arises, as to the proper remedy.
The answer is plain. Either the white man’s preju-
dices must be overcome, that the colored man’s sensi-
tiveness may be conciliated; or the immigration that
brings the two races into collision must be stayed; or
the weaker must escape from the influences that will
make this collision intolerable. The mere statement
of these alternatives indicates the inevitable choice.
Twenty years have been consumed by zealous white
men, aided by unquestionable instances of high intel-
lectual cultivation and social refinement among the
free people of color, in trying to place the latter upon
a footing of social equality with the whites; and ad-
mitting, though the fact is not stated as of the speaker’s
knowledge, that, in rare cases and in particular neigh-
borhoods, this may have been accomplished, yet it
must be conceded that, as a general thing, the experi-
ie
Se rn
PBB PPD DDPPV POPPE OLD OWL LO ODO OOOO OOOO OOOO DOO"
oN
“we
PII ree
COV ROW ZaAe ial O-IN%
ment, undertaken in perfect good faith, and vigorously
prosecuted, has been an utter failure. To this point,
let the free people of color speak for themselves. At
a convention held in Baltimore, as late as 1852, of
delegates from various parts of Maryland, and whose
proceedings were conducted with propriety and dig-
nity, the following resolutions were passed :—
‘‘Resolved, ‘That while we appreciate and acknow-
ledge the sincerity of the motives and the activity of
the zeal of those who, during an agitation of twenty
years, have honestly struggled to place us on a foot-
ing of social and political equality with the white
population of the country, yet we cannot conceal from
ourselves the fact, that no advancement has been made
towards the result, to us so desirable; but that, on
the contrary, our condition as a class is less desira-
ble now than it was twenty years ago.
‘Resolved, That, in the face of an immigration
from Europe, which is greater each year than it was
the year preceding, and during the prevalence of a
feeling in regard to us which the very agitation in-
tended for our good, has only served, apparently, to
embitter, we cannot promise ourselves that the future
will do that which the past has failed to accom-
plish.”’
eer
LILO PRP
~
nc inaciatesp enna tte waste alae tao rsteginmit cle tt GGL AL
i ROO COO
AFRICAN
Further proof would be surplusage, in regard to
this part of the argument.
But, perhaps, the stream of European immigration
may be stayed. If it could, it would, at best, but
leave things in their present position, sure to grow
worse with the natural increase of our existing popu-
lation. . But, who dreams of staying it? It lands,
and we lose sight of it. It is the leaven which is
absorbed in the loaf it quickens. We are reminded
of its presence, only when we hear its axe in the
forest; its pick and spade along the great highways
its labor builds for us; its shout, as, from the summit
of the Rocky Mountains, in its westward progress, it
looks down upon the slopes of the Pacific. We could
not stay it, if we would. It is part and parcel of the
great system, of which the colonization we are dis-
cussing is another part. It moves forward in the well-
ordered array of events, known by us as Progress. It
assumed its place therein at the right time; and to
interfere with its operation is as much beyond man’s
power, as it is for the fly on the wheel of the chariot
to check the rapidity of its whirl. ‘This immigration
was delayed until a refuge had been prepared for
those whose places it was to fill as they disappeared
before it; and it is now, only now, when Africa is
ready to receive the free colored people of the United
14
RRR RNR RNR IIIA DLLs
OP OOOO POPDOOPPIPPPPOPPOPOPPPPUL_UPLLRLPPLELDLRAARLAA AAD ALAA SRA PAS ALAA RAIA ALARA ARS ARAN
COLONIZATION.
>
States, that Ireland and Germany seem disposed to
empty themselves upon America.
The first and second of the alternatives suggested,
then, being out of the question, there remains the last
only to be taken; and separation, or colonization,
becomes inevitable.
There are many doubtless, however, who, admitting
the force of the argument that has been attempted,
look at what has been accomplished in Liberia and
the United States since 1816, and then turning to the
hundreds of thousands still remaining and still in-
strength of the conclusion which leaves no other
resource than one, that, in thirty-seven years, has,
they fear, only demonstrated its own incapacity.
But what are the facts in this respect? If the
process of transplanting a people from one continent
to another, is to be compared to that of transplanting
an apple-tree from a hill side to a meadow, then cer-
tainly nothing has been done. But, compare coloni-
zation with colonization, and it will be found, that
more has already been wrought by African Coloniza-
tion, than has been accomplished by any preceding
colonization, in the same time, since the world began.
African Colonization is to be, as American Coloniza-
tion was, the work of generations upon generations:
LOLOL LPL OL LLL PLL PLL! PRLS IL PL IRL PPP PPR INDRA IRA POD
15
3
2
3
|
3
.. . ;
creasing in our midst, regret, in honest despair, the :
;
;
;
|
|
AFRICAN
and no one is known who complains that the latter
was two slow, or who finds fault with its results.
Yet, in its commencement, it was a series of misfor-
tunes; while African Colonization has, up to this
time, been a series of astonishing successes. War
and Famine characterized the early history of the
first, —Peace and Plenty the infancy of the last. After
a colonial existence of an hundred and fifty years had
closed with a seven year’s war, the United States
obtained their independence as a reward of victory on
many a stricken field. At the end of thirty-four years
from its first settlement, Liberia received indepen-
dence and nationality as a free gift due to the ability
and worth of the recipients. Comparing, then, the
two colonizations by their results, at the end of simi-
lar periods, that of Africa is, unquestionably, not the
loser. And why should not the results of the future
be equally favorable?
Commerce is the great agent upon which all colo-
nization must ultimately depend. How stands it with
reference to that which is under consideration? Let
us push the comparison we have been making into
details.
In the seventeenth century, the commerce of the
world was feeble. Now it is in a state of intense
activity. Then, the Géede Vrow of Knickerbocker
OOOO PAAR EE RAE
EEE, rm ee ss: OT eee OOOO OOOO OO OOOO Oars ee an
ee rr = a
RRR PP PRP LLL PAPAL PALL PPP APRA
CORON T ZAG ON:
was very nearly the model of its ships, to which the
laboring’ winds toiled uselessly to impart velocity.
Now, steam drives arrows through the waves. The
Mayflower was sixty-five days in coming from Eng-
land to America. Thirty days is now the average
passage of sailing vessels from the Chesapeake to
Africa.
Emigration is one of the collaterals of commerce,
not its principal object. It reacts to promote its
activity, it is true; but commerce, whose great agency
is to effect exchanges, furnishes transportation, as a
general rule, incidentally only. There was scant
occasion for its legitimate functions in the infancy of
the Thirteen Colonies. The colonists themselves were
the principal consumers of foreign importations. The
Indian wanted but little, and, except in furs, had
little to give in exchange for what he did want: nor,
in truth, had the old world much to spare for him.
Manufactures were in their infancy; steam was un-
born; and men who tilled their fields with their guns
within their grasp, and hurried with them in their
hands from the house of God, to use them in self-
defence against a relentless enemy, were not such cus-
tomers as trade was wont to thrive upon, even at the
distant day to which we are referring. Very differ-
ent, indeed, are the present relations of commerce
Cc 17
PADRES RR PRRAARAADRD TT RRA nn nn enn
a eee
RPP PPPOE III RRA ARR Re,
ai OOO III I EE RLALEAAARAADADRAAAARAA A.
~
eee RPP LPP LILA RPDALSAN DWAAANAMAAAA wae ~AA
RRA PPADS RA ~ ARAN, PPP DA Pw ae ~_
~ rr, LLLP L IL LA ee ~~
I ne ee
AFRICAN
with Africa, to what they were in the seventeenth
century with America. Instead of a population, scant
and sparse, of hunters, having few wants for civiliza-
tion to supply, the population of Africa is one of
teeming millions, athirst for everything that civiliza-
tion can produce, from the richest fabrics of the loom
to the humblest fabrics of the lapstone. If, for up-
wards of two hundred years, the slave trade has been
giving sharpness to the edge of African appetite for
guns and powder, rum and tobacco, it has, at the
same time, produced commercial relations which will
eventually be the all-powerful agents of African Colo-
nization. Throughout all Nigritia,—throughout all
Ethiopia,—from the Kong Mountains to the Mediter-.
ranean,—from the Kong Mountains to the Cape of
Good Hope,—from Cape Verde to Cape Guardafui,
there are vast markets, which have become the neces-
sities of manufacturing civilization, whose over-pro-
duction, in its search for outlets, has given that ac-
tivity to commerce which is one of the most striking
features of the age we live in. These markets are to
be reached, that they may be supplied. Tuis, THE
TASK OF COMMERCE, IS TO BE THE GUARANTY OF
COLONIZATION.
Nor is the African himself without his manufactures.
He makes, in many places, an iron, which is superior
PA
18
ae ‘
PPP
PAF PIL PA BALLAD AL ALAA L ALLEL AAA APLAR AAR AAAAALAS,
RNIN NIN IRR SINAN NR IR PRL RRO OSL NNR RNR PRE PN NINES INNA PRISER IRIAN.
'
|
° RN ee n . = ee a
_~ ~ INI RR nn nn nn nee RN ey
COLONIZATION.
to the imported article; out of which he fabricates
weapons, and often armor. The chains and rings of
gold of the Mandingoes are of rare excellence. In
leather, the native is a skillful workman; and his
loom, of the simplest fashion, supplies him with a cot-
ton cloth, strong and serviceable, and frequently dyed
with a taste that would do credit to an artist’s skill.
That slaves have been the articles of trade heretofore
obtained from him, is a consequence of the white
man’s teaching. But the time has come for a wiser
instruction; and wherever colonization plants a settle-
ment, gold and ivory and rich dye-woods, hides and
wax, gums and spices, rice and palm oil, exclude from
the market the fellow-beings of the merchant.
While, therefore, in the case of America, coloniza-
tion was the principal, and commerce the accessory ,—
in the case of Africa, it is just the reverse; and in-
stead of having a commerce to build up, coloni-
zation takes advantage of one that has existed for
generations, and is now increasing with a rapidity
that is due to the extent of the market to be sup-
plied by it.
But, there is one of the relations between commerce
and African Colonization that is peculiar, and the
importance of which, in every point of view, can
scarcely be over-estimated. ‘The markets extending
;
3
2
POOL LOLLIPOP
AAA
ee
PPP EAD POPPI AAA AA AADAA AAA AAA AAA
j
aa PPP LLLP PLL LLP LLL IO
19
AFRICAN
from the Gambia coastwise to the Zaire, and to the
interior across the mountains that form the southern
boundary of the valley of the Niger, and across the
river and the valley to its northern confines, can be
reached in no way so well as through the portal of
Liberia. The English have in vain tried to penetrate
them by expeditions up the Niger, and from their
establishments on the coast. But they are beyond the
white man’s reach, except through the factors sup-
plied by the colored population of the United States.
Intelligent, educated, experienced, with peculiar fit-
ness for trade, and exempted, constitutionally, from
those diseases of the climate which protect the Libe-
rians from the encroachments of the people they have
left, the colonists from this country may, in their
especial adaptation to the functions they are called
upon to fill, find another reason to acknowledge the
hand of Providence in the series of events, which,
commencing with the slavery of their ancestors, ends
in the return of their descendants to the continent
from whence they came, after a probation, which, like _
that of Israel of old, seems to have been necessary to
fit them to become the agents of African Civilization.
AMERICA WAS OPEN TO THE COLONISTS OF THE
WoRLD. THERE IS BUT ONE PEOPLE THAT CAN
COLONIZE WrSTERN AFRICA AND LIVE.
PRAARAN cae
NNN ONL — - ONIN ———
— ——_—~ a Ce a a IO.
aaa _ eee
:
COBONITIZATION.
And how compare the motives respectively of
American and African Colonization? For this is a
feature in the inquiry which should not be lost sight
of. Where the Englishman had one motive to leave
his home for America, even in the most adverse times,
the free colored resident in the United States has
many. ‘There was nothing in English law, nothing
in English prejudice, to prevent the Carvers, the
Robinsons, the Winthrops, and Winslows, from being
Lord High Chancellors of the realm. There is noth-
ing now, in law or prejudice, in Great Britain, to
prevent the poorest Irishman from aspiring to, and
winning, the highest political distinction. But what
can the other hope to obtain by remaining in America?
An unharmed respectability in insignificance,—pro-
tection for such property as an active competition will
permit him to acquire,—here and there a right to vote,
as an incident to his possessions of land or money,—
and even all this enjoyed under a constant apprehen-
sion of measures hostile to his peace, comfort and
dignity. This is said in no spirit of unkindness. It is
said as a prominent truth, due to the fair discussion
of the subject. African Colonization is built upon a
conviction of the absolute capacity of the colored race,
when relieved from the pressure of circumstances, for
the highest intellectual development; and the real
OOOO
21
OOOO PIF OR een ee es.
-. PPE PPA nn
ae
AFRICAN
friends of the race ought rather to promote its removal
to a home where this development can take place at
once, than by retaining it where this is impossible,
perpetuate its inferiority. Words of counsel, it is
admitted, are of small avail, where the native soil is to
be abandoned, and the hearth-stone left desolate; and
yet we would say to the intelligent and educated
among the free people of color, that, although in the
land they leave, they have wielded no power, built up
no monuments, it may be wise to take to heart the
story and imitate the example of the Moor, and seek
another Grenada, where the Aragonese and the Cas-
tilian, who have refused to treat them as equals, can
no longer overshadow them with their greatness.
But the counsel thus given, would not now be
proper in every instance. Colonization, which has
provided a City of Refuge, when circumstances will
compel removal, leaves it to every one to determine
for himself the day and the hour of his emigration.
It is not every one who is fit to be a colonist. Those
who are fit, may be detained in this country by para-
mount considerations of duty. The great mass will
remain while they suffer no physical inconvenience.
And it is better that it should be so. Many now
living may hand down the question of removal to
their grand-children and great-grand-children; and
a
RPP PERPRRIRIRPIPPPPPBPRPPRL_PPPROIPDDOPOOODDLPODPRPPDLLDLPOO LLL Ot
COTO NT ZARA ON.
even these may hesitate. If it is so, it will be because
it is a part of the scheme that it should beso. To
the adventurous, the able and the ambitious only, the
men who seek to carve their names on the founda-
tion-stones of empires, may emigration be counseled
without responsibility. But to all it may be said,
AFRICAN COLONIZATION, SOONER OR LATER, IS DEs-
tiny. ‘The call to strike the tent and fill the knap-
sack will sound in each man’s heart;—and when his
inward being thrills with it, let him march on his
way, and join the army with banners, the cross in the
van,—the Exodus of Africa,—that shall then be on
its journey eastward across the sea. ,
The motive to emigrate existing, then, as powerfully
as has been suggested, and commerce being relied
upon to afford the means of transportation, but one
question remains, which is, the efficiency of commerce
for the purpose. It has been already stated, that the
foreign immigration of 1852 amounted to five hundred
thousand; and there is every reason to believe that,
during the present year, even this large number will
be exceeded. Every one of these immigrants comes
at his own cost, or with means remitted by friends who
have already established themselves in America; and
he comes from a class which is far less able to pay its
expenses on the voyage than the corresponding class
PARARAA AAA AAA ANNI ae oes
23
AA RARAPRAPAARALLADALAAAAALAAAAAAAAAARA AN"
PRP AP PI DIDO LLL EAL AAO
AFRICAN
of free colored men in the United States, very few of
whom could not collect, among white friends, upon
the instant, money to pay their passage; while the
Irishman and German have, in ninety-nine cases out
of the hundred, to rely upon themselves exclusively.
Now, the entire free colored population of our country
is but 428,661,* or less than a year’s work for the
shipping employed in 1852 in bringing immigrants
across the Atlantic. Indeed, had the entire colored
population, slave and free, been ready for removal,
the 3,633,750 composing it would have afforded less
than seven years’ work to the same vessels. It is
most true that years must elapse before the increase
of this population, even, is visibly affected; but the
statistics here given show the efficiency of commerce,
as the agent that is to produce the result; and the
only question left open is the question of time.
The conclusion, then, which, it is thought, may be
fairly drawn, is, that the separation of the free colored
race from the whites of this country is inevitable, and
essential to the happiness of both parties; that it will
be brought about gradually, by the operation of causes
that cannot be controlled; that it will proceed silently,
producing no more sensation than is produced by em-
igration to California, ‘‘oozing,” to use the most
* The numbers of the census of 1850 are used here.
PAAL AA
24
PRR LOR RL LR LR LO OR IRR, PR IROL LARA PRR PRLS LALOR A LAIR LA LALA OPN PO PN LX PPO cc
aA
I PAA AAA AD AAA AAA
COLONIZATION.
expressive term of the Chinese, when speaking of the
disappearance of silver, from amongst us, to be quietly
and usefully absorbed in Liberia; involving here no
rude partings; leaving no voids, the means of filling
which are not at hand; the emigrants, in the end,
paying their own expenses, and going forth cheerfully
and hopefully, with confident assurance of a happy
and honorable home. ‘This will be the glorious frui-
tion of the great plan of African colonization, which
will then have fulfilled all the exigencies of a political
necessity, under the holy influences of the pure phi-
lanthropy and wise forethought in which it originated.
The Society which now has charge of this work,
while emigration, in its feebleness, still requires pecu-
niary aid, will then exist, in all probability, rather to
perpetuate its associations, than to facilitate a process
which will long since have become independent of
assistance. Or, perhaps, its organization, even, hay-
ing fallen into desuetude, it may occupy no other place
than as a portion of that vast temple, whose materials.
are the good deeds of men. Be this, however, as it
may; whether the existence of the American Coloni-
zation Society shall then be practical or historical, an
empire will acknowledge it as its founder. It will be
spoken of in terms of gratitude, as the exterminator
of the slave-trade. The missionary to nations whose
|
:
|
|
|
|
|
ORRIN RRR LOPE LAL LOLOL LLLP
D v5)
eee eee EO ES SO ll ll lll ll
COLON TAA ON.
names even have not yet reached the ears of civilization
shall fashion uncouth languages to define and describe
it. The lessons of the Sunday School, taught beneath
the palm trees, which then will cast their shadows on
a Christian land, shall make infancy lisp its story.
Cities will perpetuate, in their names, the memories
of those who have been prominent in its cause; and,
from Senegambia to the Niger, the voice of grateful
millions shall shout the chorus of its praise.
PADIAAARAARAAALRIAANNAAADR ARAN PLR PPD PLO DR LSPA RALO PRIOR LAID PN ne
LARA AY a i
eaioeds
A
eee ‘
NOS Tey
Wrarety cays
mi SNAG it
RE Nes
Aya)
SCeNe
Ra
teats
AXD
hs SA aA
bo to hy
se
. pacar ay
Wer “
ts cat ‘
yi ora)
A
,
seat
Baty '