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AN ADDRESS
DELIVERED ON DECEMBER 31, 1856,
AT THE OPENING OF
THE ASHMUN INSTITUTE,
NEAR OXFORD, PENNSYLVANIA.
BY
C. VAN RENSSELAER, D.D,
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF EDUCATION.
PHILADELPHIA:
JOSEPH M. WILSON,
111 SOUTH TENTH STREET.
1859.
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AN ADDRESS
DELIVERED ON DECEMBER 31, 1856,
AT THE OPENING OF
THE ASHMUN INSTITUTE,
NEAR OXFORD, PENNSYLVANIA.
C. VAN RENSSELAER, D.D.,
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF EDUCATION.
PHILADELPHIA:
JOSEPH M. WILSON,
111 SOUTH TENTH STREET.
1859.
This Address is substantially the same as delivered. Several parts, however,
have been considerably expanded. It was first published in 1857, in the Presby¬
terian Magazine, — of which the writer is the Editor, — from which periodical it
was republished in 11 Home, the School, and the Church” for 1859. A few extra
copies have been struck off, whilst the type was standing.
GOD GLORIFIED BY AFRICA.
In the name of the God of Ethiopia, and our God, the founda¬
tions of a Christian institution have been laid with pious care. The
issues of the enterprise are committed to Him, “ who hath made of
one blood all nations of men.” The grace of his Spirit is invoked;
the aid of his Providence is supplicated; the promotion of his Glory
is sought. “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and
establish thou the work of our hands upon us ; yea, the work of
our hands establish thou it.”
This institution, for the training of Africa’s sons, bears the name
of Ashmun, one of Africa’s philanthropists. A brief record of
Ashmun may be hastily but reverentially woven for the occasion.
Let us place it, a wreath to his memory, over the door of the insti¬
tution that bears his precious and immortal name.
Jehudi Ashmun was born at Champlain, N. Y., in 1794, and
died at New Haven, in 1828. In this brief but intense human in¬
terval, much was done. His thirty-four years were a long life:
who lives well, lives long.
Ashmun was a ripe scholar, a devoted Christian, a great public
benefactor. He sailed for the Colony of Liberia in 1822, at the
age of twenty-eight years. A young Columbus on a voyage of high
discovery, a continent w^as his aim; and on the streamer at the
mast-head of the brig Strong, outfiying to the wind, was the motto,
“Eor God and Africa.” As the first Colonial Governor, to plan
and to execute were his daily work. In a word, Ashmun’s admi¬
nistration gave to Liberia its character and its policy. He culti¬
vated amity with the native tribes ; purchased large additions to
the territory ; arrested the infamous slave-trade ; nurtured morals
and education ; advocated and promoted the cause of Christian
missions; admitted the Colonists to a participation in the govern¬
ment; and demonstrated to the world the utility and the glory of
the great scheme of African Colonization.
4
Ashmun’s health gave way under the double influences of a burn¬
ing sun and consuming labours. He anticipated an early death ;
and to die early was a motive for increased labour. “ The candle
of life,” he writes, “ burns fast in this region.” “I wish to make
the most of the little that remains, and to see the most work pos¬
sible accomplished in the least time.” He lived to die in
America, having survived a few days after the arrival of the vessel
at New Haven.
An affecting scene took place at his funeral. A large concourse
had assembled in the Centre Church. A hymn of Zion had been
sung, and a prayer offered to the God of hope and consolation.
The Rev. Dr. Bacon was about to begin his funeral sermon,* when
a venerable and solitary female walked slowly up the aisle, and
with a look that told the unutterable history of her sorrows, ap¬
proached the corpse. It was the mother of Ashmun. Never did
human sympathy thrill with tenderer emotion and pathos through¬
out a vast concourse of anxious spectators, than when this aged
Christian matron, who had travelled for several days and nights in
the hope of embracing her living son, pressed her lips and her heart
upon the coffin which concealed his mortal remains forever from her
sight.f
Brethren ! from the coffin and grave of Ashmun, we turn to the
cradle of our Christian institution — to this living new-born child,
that bears his name, inherits his spirit, and exists to carry forward
his great designs. Baptized in the mother arms of your Presby¬
tery, and dedicated anew this day to God, may the Ashmun In¬
stitute grow up in the nurture and power of Christian life, and
testify, to the end of time, of Christ’s grace to a benighted con¬
tinent.
The general theme of my Discourse on this occasion is, GOD
GLORIFIED BY AFRICA. The particular form in which I
shall attempt to unfold it is, by showing that the African race
IN THIS COUNTRY IS TO BE A GREAT INSTRUMENTALITY FOR SIGNAL
displays of God’s goodness, grace, and glory in Africa.
Let us approach the subject with docility' and awe. The ways
of Providence are mysterious. Their explanation is often long de¬
layed by the complications which evolve their true end in human
history. Calvin remarks: “ The Providence of God, the more cir¬
cuitously it appears to flow, shines forth all the more wonderfully
in the end; since it never really wanders from its direct object, or
fails of its effect when its due time is come.” The scroll is usually
unrolled by degrees ; and passing events disclose their purpose only
as God may condescend to establish the interpretation. Privileged
* An able and appropriate Discourse, delivered August 27th, 1828, from the
text : u To what purpose is this waste ?” Matt. 26 : 8.
f Gurley’s Life of Ashmun, p. 393.
5
are we, if we can but attain the elevation to discern, “ Lo, these
are 'parts of his ways.”
PROVIDENCE INDICATES A GREAT PLAN.
I. The first proposition offered in an attempt to solve what may
be called the African problem, is a general one, namely : Past
providences, connected with the African population in the United
States, seem to indicate some great design in the mind of God.
The facts of African history rise up in the vista of centuries,
like dark mountains, whose heights, inaccessible to mortals, are yet
reached by an illuminating sun.
1. It was a wonderful providence that permitted the African
people to be torn from, their native continent and sold into bondage.
This barbarous aggression on the rights of mankind was perpetrated
under the double plea of religion and of the necessities of labour.
On the wide Atlantic, from shore to shore, was sounded forth the
horrid cry of the Slave-trade ; Roman Catholic Spain and Portugal
uniting with Protestant Holland and England, in the paean to Bar¬
barity. The history of Christian civilization presents the strange
and dishonouring incident of the participation in the traffic of
human flesh and blood by nations of every creed. It was in the
year 1620, four months before the arrival of the Mayflower, that
a Dutch ship landed and sold its first cargo at Jamestown — a cargo
of African life, consigned under British laws to American bondage.
u Great God ! thy whole creation groans,
Thy fair world writhes in pain ;
Shall the dread incense of its moans
Arise to thee in vain ?”
Sin in Africa, like sin in Eden, was mysteriously permitted in
Divine Providence. It was permitted, but not sanctioned ; and
permitted with the certainty of being overruled. God’s decrees
relate to all his creatures, and to all their actions, without inter¬
fering with accountability or free agency, in any form or degree.
Primeval guilt, which brought an inheritance of woe, and of pun¬
ishment upon our race, has nevertheless been made to usher in the
brightest manifestations of the riches of grace in Jesus Christ.
Joseph’s bondage, incurred by the wickedness of his brethren, was
the instrument to advance the glory of Israel. In like manner
God will bring forth infinite blessings out of the deep infamies of
the slave-trade ; and will cause African captivity to promote the
triumphs of his kingdom in ways long kept back from full dis¬
closure. Providence permits, restrains, and finally circumvents
and crushes human iniquity, producing from its ruins, most holy,
wise, and powerful results. “ His providence,” in the language of
our Confession of Faith, “ disposes all things for the good of his
Church.” In what other light can Christians regard the violent
transportation of Africans into slavery ? The event will verily
6
redound to everlasting righteousness among the nations. Even the
glare of its enormity reveals purposes of mercy in the lighting up
of the distant future of a great continent. To overrule evil is a
grand principle of the Divine government. “ Surely the wrath of
man shall praise thee; the remainder of wrath thou wilt restrain.”
God will be glorified by Africa. A deep and broad foundation for
a vast superstructure of praise has been laid by the African race
divided into two bands. Events that are to be the admiration of the
world have been wrapped up in the mystery of this dispensation, the
light of whose glory begins to dawn.
2. Providence had a design for good in making the United States
the chief scene of African bondage.
Wherever the slaves, taken from Africa, were to be located, it
is obvious that their character wrould be affected by the form of
government, language, habits, and religion, of the people among
whom they dwelt. Their location was, in a great measure, to decide
their future destiny. Why were the Africans sent over to this free,
Anglo-Saxon, Protestant country, rather than to Spain, Italy, Tur¬
key, or to the West Indies or South America exclusively ? If the
necessities of labour required their transportation to this conti¬
nent, who arranged the adaptations of time and place, and esta¬
blished the providential laws that were to give to degraded slaves
the benefits of Christian civilization? The simple point, now to be
considered, is the fact that the African population in this country
have attained to a good degree of elevation of character. The best
portion of the race is with us at this day. No other equal number
of Africans possess the character of the aggregate numbers in the
United States of America. Further than this : If we exclude from
the survey a few Protestant nations, no other equal number of any
one country , or race , on the face of the globe, are more religious
and upright than our own children of bondage. They have en¬
joyed many and great advantages of general improvement which
have raised them above the degradation of barbarians and heathen,
or of corrupt and perverted Christians. Tens of thousands are
freemen in Jesus Christ, daily pouring out their hearts’ devotions
to the Everlasting God, the Father of all. On almost every plan¬
tation are to be found negroes of high character, intelligent men,
and true; and scattered throughout the land, at the north, south,
east, and west, Africa has some of the noblest specimens of huma¬
nity that the sun of heaven shines upon.
The progress of religion among the African population in the
United States may well cause the human mind to stand in awe of
the reserved destiny for which Providence seems to be training
this people. The following statistics give the number of commu¬
nicants among the different churches, so far as the writer has been
able, with some pains, to gather them.
7
Churches.
Communicants.
Presbyterians,
Methodists, .
Baptists,
Other Churches,
21,635
217,590
193,000
10,000
Total, • . 442,225
The whole African population, at the present time, being esti¬
mated at four millions, and the number of Church members being
nearly half a million, it follows, that about one in eight of the
whole population are members of the Church of Christ.
It may be further remarked, that the whole number of converts
in the heathen world, made by all churches of every country, is
estimated at about 200,000 out of the many millions to whom the
Gospel has had some access. The slaves are, therefore, in a com¬
paratively favoured position in regard to moral and religious eleva¬
tion.
Again we ask, Does not this moral elevation, under the influ¬
ences of Christianized life, point to some higher end ? Does it not
show African capability, and foreshadow still greater attainments
in social rank and in the characteristics of civilization ? Would
God send a race into bondage to obtain their training in the midst
of the institutions of liberty and religion, and yet have no great
evangelistic work to accomplish by such instrumentality ? He will
be glorified by Africa.
3. The great numbers of the African race, in this country, are
an indication that Providence has some important mission for them
to fulfil.
A comparatively small and feeble population might have re¬
mained among us, an unnoticed and inefficient element in the de¬
velopment of our national character and resources. But there are
now four millions of the descendants of Africa in the United
States. To what purpose is this vast increase ? Why is there
preserved in our midst this accumulation of distinct and unab¬
sorbed population ? Whilst the tribes of the great Indian race
have sped westward, as arrows to the mark, and leaving their prai¬
ries and mounds for the Anglo-Saxon plough, are perishing before
the advance of civilization, the African race is rising up, like the
fabled seed in the furrows, and challenges competition in numbers
with the most favoured race on the earth. The following are some
of the statistics of population developing a great future.
(1.) The total population of the United States, at the last cen¬
sus in 1850, was 23,191,876. Of this number there were
Whites, . 19,553,068
Slaves, .... 3,204,313
Free Coloured, . . 434,495
African population, . . . - 3,638,808
8
It thus appears,' that about one person in five of our entire popu¬
lation is of African descent. Not only is the proportion striking,
hut the aggregate number, which forms the proportion, shows that
this people live among us literally in masses. The descendants of
Africa already exceed the population of the American Colonies at
the era of our National Independence. Their present population
is about four millions, and the next census will, undoubtedly, in¬
crease it to between four and a half and five millions. They are
already a nation in numbers ; a prominent wheel within the cir¬
cling wheel of a vast system of living machinery.
(2.) Great as is the proportion of the African race to that of
the white race in this whole country, it deserves to be noticed that
the ratio of increase is in their favour in many of the slaveholding
States. With the exception of Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, and
perhaps one or two other States, the ratio of the blacks to the
whites has been, on the whole, increasing in the Southern States.
The slave population in Alabama and Florida is 44 per cent, of the
whole population ; in Louisiana, 47 per cent., in Mississippi, 51 per
cent., and in South Carolina 57 per cent. ; whereas it was in 1800
in Mississippi but 39 per cent., and in South Carolina but 42 per
cent. The Compendium of the Census Report affirms that “ the
proportion has been increasing for the slaves in the Southern States
generally,” with the exceptions stated. The average ratio of in¬
crease of the slaves from 1790 to 1850 has been 29 per cent, of the
whole population, including that of the free States, which has had
an accession of two millions by foreign emigration. The African
population in 1790 was 757,363; in 1850, it was 3,638,808 ; and
it is now about 4,000,000.
The question returns, What is the interpretation to be given to
these statistics ? Has God no ulterior and specific purpose towards
this mass of population ? Whilst slavery in some countries, as in
Cuba, decreases and exhausts population, so as to create a demand
on the accursed slave-trade, in our own country the natural increase
outstrips that of the white race, and confounds the ordinary cal¬
culations of political economy. Providence controls the increase
or diminution of population on the earth. African increase has a
parallel in ancient Egypt: “ And the children of Israel were fruit¬
ful, and increased abundantly and multiplied, and waxed mighty,
and the land was filled with them.”* Why ? Had God any pur¬
pose - to accomplish ? The martyred Stephen, inspired by the
Spirit, gives the interpretation ; “ When the time of the promise
drew nigh , which God had sworn unto Abraham, the people grew
and multiplied in Egypt.”f God will be glorified in Africa.
4. Again ; a remarkable providence has kept the African race
of this country in peaceable subordination for a very long period.
* Ex. 1 : 7.
f Acts, 7 : 17.
9
The love of liberty is a natural instinct in the human heart.
Some races cannot be reduced to bondage ; at least without the
contingency of bitter enmity and fierce insurrections. It is almost
impossible to subdue Indians. They will fight in the sw'amps to
the death ; or if at last hemmed in, captured, and sent by white
treaty across the “ father of waters,” they retire with a sullen ven¬
geance in the heart, that prompts them with convenient and hope¬
ful opportunity to grasp the tomahawk and rifle for a renewal of
the contest. No earthly power could keep four millions of Indians
in slavery. Other races are by nature equally refractory. But
the African race is docile, of quiet disposition, and obedient to
genial and social influences. For two centuries, they have been
peaceful and patient under their burdens, and submissive to their
condition of slavery. This will be generally regarded as a remark¬
able providence, particularly in view of the proportion of numbers
between the whites and blacks in the slaveholding States.
Throughout the entire slaveholding region there are about six
and a quarter millions of whites and three and a half millions of
blacks — a numerical advantage against the latter by no means so
decisive as to exclude a special providence in the preservation of
almost uninterrupted order.
In the eight States in which slavery has its principal dominion,
viz., Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ala¬
bama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, the number of the whites is
3,268,889, and of the blacks 2,464,583, a proportion advancing
towards numerical equality. Is not the hand of God visible in
maintaining peace between these large masses of enslaving and en¬
slaved ?
In several of the States the population is almost equal, whilst
in two States, viz., South Carolina and Mississippi, the blacks have
a majority ; in South Carolina a majority of more than 100,000.
In many of the counties and parishes of States where slavery is
still more concentrated, the slaves outnumber the whites in the
proportion of five or ten to one.
Still further ; there are many plantations in these States on
which not more than half a dozen whites reside in the midst of
hundreds of negroes. In the last cases, the physical power is de¬
cisively in the hands of the slaves.
Under these various circumstances of temptation for the trial of
physical strength, the African race has continued to serve with
characteristic and almost universal docility. The amount of evil
that might have been perpetrated, however speedily its authors were
overcome, is witnessed by the outrages of the Southampton mas¬
sacre, in 1831. An occasional outbreak, like the last, has only
demonstrated the general state of quiet subordination. There is a
significance in the fact of this universal peace. Every insurrection
arrests progress, interferes with the opportunities of intellectual
and religious improvement, and operates in many trying ways to
10
the injury of both classes of population. God has purposely
hushed for so long a time the angry feelings of the heart. He has
implanted by nature generous emotions and susceptibilities. He
has protected the white population by restraints and agencies more
efficacious than arms and citadels ; and in protecting the whites,
he has also multiplied blessings to the blacks. Grand ends are
revealed in a providence so distinguishing, in a guardianship so
gentle, active, and long continued — ends which pass beyond the
mere dwelling together in peace of two races on the same soil.
God will be glorified by Africa.
5. Another providence, indicating presumptively some great
plan for the African race, as a race , is its separation from the
whites by the fixedness of colour.
The dark skin has not been removed from the children of Ham
by their residence in America. A white race reduced to bondage
might have risen, as the fiefs and serfs of other countries have
done, to share in time the immunities of their lords and masters ;
or a dark race of a colour easily changed , might, in the process of
years, have passed from servitude to liberty by a natural and un-
obnoxious gradation. But the Ethiopian skin endures the action
of time. Generations have not eradicated it. The race-mark re¬
sists all the changes of climate and habit, in a new country, and
in a temperate zone. Has God no moral purpose in endowing so
many of his creatures with a peculiar colour ? Has he no plan in
fixing this colour so deeply in physical organization as that a
transfer to other lands and climates has wrought no very percep¬
tible change ? Providence is not chance. Colour indicates pro¬
vidence. God has a design in making African complexion survive
the bondage in America. He will be glorified by Africa.
The precise form in which God will execute his comprehensive
plans of mercy towards this long-disparaged race may not be fully
discerned. Errors are liable to enter into all human investigations
of this nature. A reverent spirit must look for knowledge above.
u Unsearchable! before whose boundless gaze
The Past, the Present, and the Future roll !
Submissive, we implore thee to unshroud
The Sun of truth.”
§
Thus far, the discussion has only attempted to point out indica¬
tions of a general purpose of benevolence.
The providences noticed claim consideration. Viewed simply as
isolated acts and ordinances in the government of the King of na¬
tions, each has an interest of its own to a reflecting mind; whilst
considered as parts of a great scheme established, sustained, and
executed by divine wisdom and power for the benefit of a race and
11
of a continent, they reflect increased glory upon the wonderful and
mysterious ways of Him who “ worketh all in all.”
Is there any connection between these providences and the wel¬
fare of Africa ? Its proof will be attempted.
THE PROVIDENTIAL PLAN POINTS TO AFRICA.
II. The providences of God have been, of late years, indicating
a closer and closer connection between our African population and
the continent OF Africa, as the chief scene of the highest de¬
velopment of the race.*
God is in history. He discloses his designs by actions as well
as by revelation. There is a logic in events that ultimately brings
out its conclusion with divine verity and majestic impression.
The imperfection of human investigation anterior to the full dis¬
closures of Providence being admitted, it is lawful, reverential,
and dutiful, to examine events in their historical connection, and
to endeavour to ascertain, if possible, their moral import. Our
Lord reproached the Pharisees for their inattention to the signs
that were ushering in the new dispensation. “ Ye can discern the
face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times ?”f
God’s condescending and advancing providences in reference to
the African race, invite to more specific inquiries concerning the
Divine intentions towards this interesting portion of the human
family.
11 Yes ! Thou art as true a man
As moves the human mass among;
As much a part of the Great Plan
That with Creation’s dawn began,
As any of the throng.”
God will be glorified by Africa. The question, pertinent
to this discussion, is, What is God doing, at the present time, to
show that Africa itself is to be the chief scene of high moral action
for the coloured population of this country?
What is God doing? Behold his wonderful works. On the
shores of the Ethiopian continent, the Republic of Liberia stands
among the nations of the earth ! Emerging from its colonial state,
it has become an independent, self-sustaining, accredited govern¬
ment, waving its flag of liberty over a favoured and happy people.
Its early obstacles and difficulties were the providential elements
* The expression “ chief scene” is used, in order not to exclude the distinct
recognition of Divine goodness — past, present, and future — towards the race in
this country. Even if God had no ulterior plan of benevolence in Africa, the re¬
sults of his plan prove, that it has accomplished great good for our coloured popu¬
lation in this country. Whilst much more may be done for their benefit in
America hereafter, we still believe that Africa is to witness the highest culture
and influence of the race.
f Matthew 1G : 3.
12
of gradual advancement, and permanent prosperity. The foun¬
dations of many generations have been laid. The Republic has its
constitution, its president, its judiciary, its legislature, its militia
and navy, its schools and churches, its arts and manufactures, its
trade and commerce, — all the political insignia of a prosperous and
independent nation. Its internal condition is the exponent of its
influence on the well-being of the surrounding tribes. A large ex¬
tent of sea-coast has been rescued from the iniquities of the slave-
trade ; the arts of civilization are penetrating into the interior ;
and religion is advancing its blessed dominion wider and wider
among the heathen. Without entering here into more detail, it is
sufficient to say that Liberia is in an excellent state of prosperity,
with every prospect of moral and political enlargement.
This Republic — who founded it ? Who were the adventurers
that came to those desolated shores, and on wastes made dreary
by crime and oppression, planted the institutions of civilization ?
They were African emigrants from the United States — men, who,
either themselves or their ancestors, were carried from their native
land into American bondage. The black race has begun on its
own soil the development of God’s grand and ulterior purposes.
The plan, foreshadowed by many signs, is in a state of actual exe¬
cution. The process is visibly going forward which demonstrates
the connection between the race in America and the race in Africa.
Deep significancy dwells in the wonderful method by which this
new government upon the earth has been established. It is be¬
coming apparent that a chief mode of blessing Africa, is in its co¬
lonization by its distant descendants. God will be glorified there,
even by transferring back to its shores pioneers of knowledge, civi¬
lization, and religion. “Lo, he doth utter his voice, and that a
mighty voice !”
Some stress must be laid upon the fact, that Liberia is the
greatest achievement of the African race. The coloured popula¬
tion in the United States have already erected on their native
shores monuments of a higher capability than that which reared
cities and empires of ancient civilization. Liberia, with its institu¬
tions of liberty and religion, surpasses, in true Christian greatness,
all the kingdoms that have ever held rule upon the continent.
This remark is pre-eminently true, if applied to the Negro race of
Western and Central Africa, from which our slaves have descended,
and with which their physical characteristics more particularly iden¬
tify them. From the Senegal and Congo to the great Cape, and
from the west to the interior, comparatively few advances have ever
been made in the habits and culture of a higher life. Heathenism
pervades the millions ; has been their destiny for centuries ; and
has in itself no promise of amelioration for the future. In all hu¬
man probability, centuries would have still passed away before a
government, of the character of Liberia, 'would have been consti¬
tuted out of native materials. The same Providence which has
13
permitted a thick darkness to settle on the land, has caused the
descendants of the negro, born in a distant country, to return to
bless it with the wonderful resources of Christian civilization. In
no part of the world have the men of the dark skin ever accom¬
plished such wonders of self-reliance, capability, and moral achieve¬
ment as on Liberian soil.* The inference is rational, that God, in
thus honouring so conspicuously their deeds on their native conti¬
nent, is designating the true and appropriate field of their highest
destiny. What is He doing? Behold what has been done !
2. “ Can ye not discern the signs of the times ?” Providence is de¬
claring that the black and white races cannot advantageously live to¬
gether as equals in this country — a declaration practically connecting
the highest destiny of the blacks with Africa. The gloomy future
of the coloured population is impenetrable on the supposition that
that population is to remain permanently in the United States.
The following theories may be suggested as aids to grope a way
through the labyrinth of this perplexity.
Can the African race conquer a portion of our territory for its
own separate and independent domain ? Never.
Will a separate territory be voluntarily given to it in any part
of our country ? There are no indications of a national gift so
generous and fraternal.
Is the African race likely to perish before civilization, as the
great Indian race has done ? No ; far from it, indeed.
Will it always remain in its present state of subjection and
slavery ? Certainly not.
Will the African race, on its deliverance from slavery, retire
into the Southwest, outside of our present national boundaries,
and there become mingled with other mixed races ? A portion of
our coloured population will, in all probability, remain on some
part of our continent, or its islands ; but the future of this rem¬
nant is far from being hopeful, in the lights and shades of passing
history.*)*
* No special allusion is made to Sierra Leone, because Liberia alone sustains
practical relations to our own country on this question ; and may be considered,
indeed, the representative of the whole colonization interests in Africa. Sierra
Leone was first settled by blacks from this country.
y The following extract from a letter, written to the Editor by one of our most
distinguished ministers, currente calamo, but from well-digested stores of learning,
will be read with great interest. The writer is a warm friend of African Coloni¬
zation, and here presents views which are supplemental to that great enterprise.
u I feel much more concern about the future of the race. God holds that pro¬
blem in his own awful hand for solution. Sometimes such faint glimpses as these
open on me :
1. Note on the map of North and South America, the solid mass of black popu¬
lation in the United States, densest in Virginia, South Carolina, &c., and shading
off at the north and west.
2. Now this column has for 150 years been suffering a marked change. Its
head once rested in Massachusetts. Every year brings this northern margin far-
14
Will the race rise to social equality and partake of political pri¬
vileges with other classes in the same community ? This is equally
improbable.
Few intelligent and reflecting minds will accept any of these
alternatives as the best and the true solution of African destiny.
God’s plan overreaches in grandeur all human proposals ; the
wonderful plan of colonization, whose pathway is across the ocean,
and whose end is the elevation of the African race on its own re¬
novated and expectant continent.
Of the foregoing theories which make this country the perma¬
nent home of our coloured population, the last is the stronghold of
the opponents of colonization. Its examination will unfold a
second proof of the ordained connection of the race with Africa
itself, as its final destination and the best field for its Christianized
energies.
It cannot be denied that there is a deep-seated repugnance and
prejudice between the white and black races, in the United States.
This prejudice does not exist, to the same extent, between the white
races in other countries and the descendants of Africa. But it
exists with no small degree of force in our own country ; and it is
not confined to the whites ; it is a mutual prejudice felt by both
parties. The recognition of the great truth that “ God hath made
of one blood all nations of men,” is not called in question by a law
of races which simply discourages unreserved social equality. The
tastes, natural or moral, of our common nature possess some autho¬
rity among races of different colour, Caucasian, Mongolian, Malay,
Ethiopian, or American, without necessarily involving sin. The
Liberians exclude the whites from civil and political privileges in
ther south. In no strong sense can we call Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia,
or East Missouri, slaveholding States. At the same time, the southeast terminus
is growing denser. The entire slave column is, with a glacier-like motion, moving
towards the south.
3. All these causes now operating will make this change more and more strik¬
ing. There is no reinforcement at the northern end. Even from Virginia, North
Carolina, and Kentucky, the black emigration sets constantly southward.
4. The region of the earth towards which this tendency of the slave-people
manifests itself, is precisely that which offers to them two great advantages.
(1.) Congenial climate. The Northern climate kills off thousands:
(2.) Diminution of the prejudice of colour. As a consequence, intermarriage
of the races not only can take place more easily, but does take place. Mexico is
a country of amalgamation. I have seen numerous mulatto officers on Mexican
frigates. The rescue of the pure Spanish blood, la sangre azul, is now hopeless.
Even in Jamaica the like is true. In New Grenada, Venezuela, and Brazil, the
mixture is proceeding yet more rapidly.
5. Hateful, therefore, as amalgamation is to our mind, it is in regular and in¬
creasing operation.
6. The issue, some ages hence, will be a people, in tropical America, who shall
be the resultant of Indian, African, and Caucasian blood.
7. Less confidently, but with some assurance, I foresee such economic and com¬
mercial changes, as shall make Southern slavery unprofitable, and then it will
cease.
8. Our present duty is to prepare the race for such a destiny.”
15
their republic, after the same manner that we do men of their colour
in ours. Without denying that these natural prejudices often give
occasion for the excitement of sinful emotions, it is impossible not
to see that the two races are really kept distinct in this country ;
and so distinct, that their commingling together on terms of social
and political equality seems out of the question.
This is a harsh alternative. But all races must abide their
destiny, and yield to providential law. The present unequal dis¬
tributions of Providence may be the wisest means of eventually
working out the true compensations of the African race. Compen¬
sation will at last come.
“ We will trust God. The blank interstices
Men take for ruins, He will build into
With pillared marbles rare, or knit across
With generous arches, till the fane’s complete.
This world has no perdition, if some loss.”
Far better for our coloured population to retire from an unequal
contest against inveterate prejudice, than stand disheartened and
dismayed before the discipline of its stern emergency. God will re¬
pair their losses in a better way and in a better land. The mingling
together of the two races on equal terms in this country appears an
impracticability ; or rather, it is an event which does not seem to be
within the design of Providence.
The experiment has been tried for a long time. More than a
century has passed away since the races were brought into contact.
Has time softened the prejudices of colour, and removed the alien¬
ations of diverse and unequal condition ?
The experiment has been tried under every variety of circum¬
stance. Emancipation in the Slave States has not elevated the con¬
dition of the negro. The Free States refuse to the African race a
fundamental right of freemen, — the right of voting for their rulers;*
and however much their general condition may be ameliorated, there
is not the slightest approximation to social equality with the whites.
Even the ultra-abolitionists do not practically carry out their horta¬
tory views by personal example. The Irish emigrants are negro-
haters, to a very great extent, and refuse matrimonial alliances.
Under what form of external circumstance has not the experiment
been proved an impracticability ?
The experiment has been tried with advantages of religion and
liberty on its side. No country has a purer religious faith, or a
more earnest practical religion than ours. Our free institutions
also naturally cherish sentiments of equality and fraternity. But
* The writer has no sympathy with this legislation, which he regards as inex¬
pedient, unrepublican, and oppressive. When the new Constitution of New Jersey
was submitted to the people in 1844, the writer was in the minority who voted
against it, and he did so because the new Constitution refused to recognize the
political rights of the free coloured population.
16
neither religion nor liberty has broken down the barrier between
the races. The most enlightened conviction has been as ineffica¬
cious as the most favoured forms of political condition in rescuing
the blacks from their inferior position.
Further still; the experiment has been tried with increasing
improbability of its success. The mutual prejudices of the two
races are greater now than ever. Our Free States, in forming new
constitutions have almost unanimously denied to the coloured popu¬
lation the political privileges granted to others. The new States of
the West have surpassed the older ones in their restrictions and
disabilities ; and at least one or two prohibit residence by penal¬
ties.* So clearly defined has the question now become, that our
National Executive Department, which is no doubt in sympathy
with our National Judiciary, has lately decided that free coloured
persons are not “ citizens of the United States.” f The feeling of
alienation on the part of the blacks increases with all these oppres¬
sive and disparaging manifestations. Forming a distinct class in
the community, they have a separate social position ; they worship
God generally in churches of their own, called African churches ;
their children are educated in African schools ; and provision by
law and custom seems to be made for the perpetuation of these dis¬
tinctions. When Slavery shall approach its final crisis, and the spirit
of insurrection shall sound forth its cries of terror, the general ex¬
asperation on both sides will be fiercely augmented, and embittered
beyond all previous experience.
In this aspect of affairs, it is obvious that the African race has
no encouragement to regard the United States as a permanent
residence. Providence is pointing it back to its native country, as
by the proclamation of a king ; not in despotic wrath, but in regal
love. All things will be overruled for its good.J
* Indiana, Iowa, and to some extent, Ohio.
f See the late letter of the Honorable William L. Marcy, Secretary of State,
in which he declines to give regular passports to free coloured persons travel¬
ling abroad, on the ground that they are not citizens in the proper sense of that
word.
Whilst these sheets are passing through the press (1856), the news has arrived
that the Supreme Court of the United States has given a decision, wherein it is
announced that free persons of African descent are not citizens of the United
States of America. As a citizen of the Republic, the writer does not hesitate to
express his humiliation. At the same time, he has no doubt that this decision,
affecting the rights and interests of many, will be overruled for good. God reigns.
He is 11 a great King above all gods.”
f We may here refer to an able and interesting letter of J. H. B. Latrobe, Esq.,
written from Newport, in August, 1851, to Thomas Suffern, Esq. Mr. Latrobe
endeavours to. sustain the following propositions :
1. That the two races of white and black in the United States must forever re¬
main separate and distinct, while they continue in the same land — whether all the
blacks are free, or only a portion of them.
2. That the necessary consequence of this state of things, as illustrated by the
present, and in accordance with all history, must be that the weaker of the two
races must, directly or indirectly, be oppressed, the extent of the oppression being
IT
3. Another of the signs of the times is, that no other races are
aiming to colonize Africa. By common consent, the continent is
given up to the conquest of its own race. Excluding the small
parts, whose occupation for military or commercial purposes has
been attempted by the French, English, and Portuguese, Africa
may be said to be surrendered to its own descendants.
A writer, under the striking title of “ Trying to Create
Nations,” compares the English Cape Colony with that of the
French at Algiers, and states that the former “has now been occu¬
pied fifty years, at a cost of not less than twenty-five or thirty
millions of dollars for governing and defending it, yet the whole
population at this day, Hottentot, free Negro, Dutch, and English,
does not exceed 260,000 souls. The whole of the appurtenant
territory, spread over not less than 130,000 square miles, serves
no other object beyond providing us with fresh relays of CafFres to
fight. It will not take our convicts, it will not fight its own
invaders, and it cannot induce settlers to immigrate. The pet
Colony of the French, at Algiers, presents a very like picture.
Twenty-six years have been wasted, and in a province of ninety
millions of acres, three-fourths as large as France itself, the Euro¬
pean population is only 134,000, and has to be protected by an
army of 100,000 men, at an expense of some twelve million dollars
per annum !”
Man cannot create nations. The inheritance of the earth is
under providential control. The five principal currents of modern
in proportion to the occasions of collision between the two in competition for em¬
ployment.
3. That another necessary consequence of this state of things is, that the two
races must separate — in this as in all other similar cases — or, in other words,
there must be a Colonization, to be carried on like all other previous Coloniza¬
tions — which may be facilitated by aid in the commencement, but which must
ultimately be a self-paying Colonization — the emigrants paying their own ex¬
penses.
4. That existing circumstances already press upon the free coloured man the
necessity of emigration, and that he is beginning to appreciate its importance.
That these circumstances, growing mainly out of the vast increase of our white
population, by native birth and foreign immigration, are accumulating beyond
all control, and will ultimately leave the free coloured man no alternative but
emigration.
5. That Africa is the place for 'which he is destined — and that the colonies
planted there, now the Republic of Liberia, are to be his ultimate home. That
in Africa alone can he escape the white man’s power, while the latter will be
dependent upon him for the missionary and commercial agencies here refer¬
red to.
6. That while the present means for emigration may be supplied by individual
or other aid, yet the commerce which is rapidly growing up between Africa and
this country, will, in a brief time — looking to the ends to be obtained — furnish
facilities for the same emigration from America to Africa, that is now taking
place between Europe and this continent — an emigration which would soon re¬
lieve the United States from its entire free coloured population — and towards
which, where the Irishman or German has one motive the free black man has
ten.
2
18
emigration are, (1), from Europe to America ; (2), from the East¬
ern United States to the Western, and onward to the Pacific;
(8), from England to Australia ; (4), from China to California ;
(5), from the United States to Africa. These currents are more or
less regular ; and in spite of occasional perturbations, they are
likely to continue their sweeping courses in the vast sea of human
life. The current towards Africa appears to become stronger year
after year, and to be unalterable in direction, flowing out like the
great Gulf-stream between two hemispheres. Where is the race
that gives any signs of competition with the Americo-African ?
What other people on the globe have any expectation of making
large and permanent settlements in Africa, especially in the com¬
paratively unknown western and central regions ? Here is the
great African reservation , set apart by the solemn compact of
Providence for the possession of the coloured population taken to
America centuries ago. They alone, of all nations, are looking to
Africa as a field of genial and hopeful colonization. This remark¬
able incident in history confirms the relation between our coloured
population and that continent. It shows how God’s plans are
unfolding. Whilst, with one hand, He beckons the children of
captivity to return to their native land, with the other he warns
away the intruders of other nations. He will be glorified by Africa.
4. There are certain peculiarities of adaptation which desig¬
nate the coloured population of this country as a natural and fixed
instrumentality for the displays of Divine goodness, grace, and
glory in Africa.
(1.) An adaptation of brotherhood qualifies the African popula¬
tion of this country to promote the welfare of their native conti¬
nent. The great mass of the African population in the United
States are separated by only one, two, or three generations from
the native tribes who roam between the Senegal, the Niger, and
the Congo. A small part were actually born in Africa. The tra¬
ditions of a foreign extraction are clear and unquestioned through¬
out the whole four millions. The land of their forefathers is across
the waters. This community of origin, which admirably adapts
them to be pioneers among their kindred in missions and in civili¬
zation, will, in due time, exercise its sway.
An alienation from Africa, as a place of residence has, indeed,
existed for some time, especially among our free coloured popula¬
tion. This has been owing partly to the impression that African
Colonization was a compulsory measure, or one which originated in
worldly policy and feelings of disaffection in the minds of the whites ;
partly from the notion that their condition was better here than in
Africa ; partly from old habits and an aversion to change ; and
partly from exasperated appeals to their bad passions and preju¬
dices. These causes of disaffection will be all ultimately removed.
God’s plans move slowly onward until the crisis of advanced action
19
arrives; and then, as lightning from one part under heaven answers
to that of the other, the majesty of final results illuminates the
horizon with rapid change.
There are three things which must ever retain in the African
mind of this country, a remembrance of their forefathers’ continent.
One of these is natural distinctive colour. God has made a mark
upon the African race that identifies it everywhere. The Jew is
known in all lands ; much more the African. Without referring
again to the prejudices between the black and white races, I simply
remark that there is a natural congeniality between the blacks as
blacks, and between the whites as whites — a congeniality that will
assert its claims in the time of God’s demand, and operate to pro¬
duce sympathy of feeling and of action between the African popu¬
lation in America and in Africa.
Another cause that will assist in developing the emotions of bro¬
therhood between these two classes of the same population is the
dependence of the one upon the other. The native Africans have
been made dependent by the doom of Providence upon their
brethren in America. The men of Congo and Angola beckon for
help over the waters, with an earnestness greater than Macedonian
supplication. Can this cry be long unheeded, especially when God
opens the windows of heaven, baptizes the people with new unction,
and fills them with the constraining love of Christ ?
Another effectual means to bind the two classes of Africans to¬
gether is, the increasing advantages held out by Africa as a resi¬
dence. Liberia is well calculated to keep the African mind of this
country in an expectant and interested state. As the young re¬
public continues to develope its career of prosperity and honour, it
will form a bond of union that oceans cannot break.
These remarks are sufficient to show, that a feeling of brother¬
hood exists by nature between the coloured population here and in
Africa ; that this feeling has been already cultivated in Divine
Providence, and will gather strength in the natural course of
events ; and hence that there is an adaptation which stimulates the
African people here, to identify themselves with the welfare of
their brethren in the native land.
(2.) The Africans in America possess the adaptation of Christian
character and advanced knowledge. Many of them are already
qualified, in a good degree, to carry the arts of civilization and the
ordinances of religion to the country of their ancestors. Provi¬
dence seems to have been waiting until they were ready for their
work. Each generation has made an advance upon the preceding
one. Plans have been set in operation for their evangelization
and general improvement, which have met with wonderful success.
So that there is an increasing adaptation to perform their mission
of elevating their “ kindred according to the flesh,” as well as of
enjoying for themselves the blessings of liberty in a land of glorious
inheritance.
20
(3.) There is also an adaptation of 'physical endurance. The
coloured skin can better bear the burning sun and the peculiarities
of the African climate. It is true, that even the Africans, who
emigrate, must go through the process of acclimation ; but its
dangers are far less with them than with the whites. The records
of mortality are quite fearful among the white missionaries who
have gone to Africa. “ Out of 117 missionaries sent out by the
Wesleyan Missionary Society , during forty years, from 1811 to
1850, no less than 54 died on the field, 39 of them within one year
after their arrival ; and of those who survived, 13 were obliged to
return after a residence of from six to twenty-one months. During
thirty years, from 1806 to 1835, the Church Missionary Society
of London sent out 109 missionaries, more than 50 of whom died
at their stations, 3 or 4 on their passage home ; 14 returned home
with impaired constitutions, and in 1835, only 3 labourers remained.
About 30 of these 50 died in one year after their arrival. Such
is the general record of white effort in Africa. Latterly it has not
been so terribly distressing ; but even now the martyrs to the
climate live, on an average, only four years ; while comparatively
nothing was effected till colonies of African origin were planted
on the seaboard, and the colonial and the missionary work was
combined.”
I have read with care the argument in favour of continuing to
send out white missionaries to Africa, which is to be found in the
admirable volume on Africa, written by my friend and brother, the
Rev. John Leighton Wilson, D.D. I agree with his conclu¬
sions ; but their main strength consists in the fact that competent
coloured missionaries have not yet been obtained. One of the
objects of the Ashmun Institute is to supply missionaries capable
of doing the work of the Church in the torrid zone and on Africa’s
shores. It is certain that the superior capability of the African
race for physical endurance in the climate of Africa, constitutes
an adaptation, on the part of our coloured population, to co-operate
in blessing the African continent, to the glory of the riches of
God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
(4.) The Africans in this country have an adaptation of indus¬
trial training. The great products of cotton, tobacco, corn, wheat,
rice, and sugar, which they have been accustomed to cultivate, can
all be grown upon the soil of Liberia. The skill acquired in this
country will have a ready demand, and can be immediately put to
profitable employment in the new location. Thus Africa, long
a neglected waste, may be made to abound in the richest harvests
of agriculture, and in the teeming resources of newly applied and
active industry. Nations are waiting for the development of
its trade and commerce. The native tribes need the stimulus of
industrial example and success ; and of all people suited to take
the lead in this work, our own coloured population is the best trained
and the most competent.
21
(5.) There is an adaptation of mutual advantage to the two
classes of the African race. The advantage to Africa itself in
having civilization brought within its borders by means of Chris¬
tian colonies, is incalculable. Providence has searched profoundest
depths of wisdom to bring to pass this consummation. Ethiopia’s
heart will bless the King of nations for the mighty methods and
results of Christian civilization, that are soon to extend along her
coasts and to penetrate her vast domains. Scarcely less obvious
is the advantage to our own coloured population, in becoming emi¬
grants to the land of their forefathers. Few inducements are offered
here for their advancement in the higher pursuits of life, and for
the attainment of the objects of a laudable ambition. With all the
disadvantages of their position, it is remarkahle that the upward
pressure of the race has been so strong and persevering. The
struggle is adventurous, but vain. Providence has better ends.
The highest capabilities of the African are not to be witnessed
here. Liberia is demonstrating the advantages of a fresh position,
and of independent, vigorous, self-managed institutions. Our free
coloured population sympathizes more than ever with the objects
and prospects of African Colonization ; and the time is coming
when no earthly power can prevent the best portion from emigrat¬
ing back to the great ancestral continent.
“An ignorance of means may minister
To greatness ; but an ignorance of aims
Makes it impossible to be great at all.
I tell you rather, that whoever may
Discern true ends here, shall grow pure enough
To love them, brave enough to strive for them,
And strong to reach them, though the road be rough.”
These various adaptations indicate that the plan of blessing
Africa by means of the race in this country will be a permanent
one, and that a reunion on their own continent will afford the
brightest displays of Divine goodness towards this long-afflicted
and disparaged people. In Africa shall God be glorified, with
hosannahs from every land. There, the mysteries of Providence
shall be .vindicated ; and then, new revelations of mercy be made
known.
5. The common conviction of the Christian Church may
be added as additional confirmation of the providential relation
between our coloured population and Africa.
This conviction arose early. In 1773, an Address, proposing
the formation of an African Missionary Society to educate and
send out coloured missionaries to Africa, was published, with the
signatures of Ezra Stiles, afterwards President of Yale College,
and Samuel Hopkins, both Congregational pastors at Newport,
22
R. I.* The British philanthropists, Granville Sharp, Wilberforce,
and others, probably deriving the suggestion from this appeal, de¬
vised a plan, in 1T8T, of settling at Sierra Leone a company of
slaves who had deserted to the British army in the Revolutionary
War, and who accompanied the British troops on their return to
England. The success at Sierra Leone hastened the establishment
of the American Colonization Society. The same arguments that
are now used for the prosecution of African colonization, were ad¬
vanced by American and British Christians nearly a century ago.
The strifes of modern times had no share in originating this great
scheme. God early enlisted in its behalf the minds and hearts of
the wisq and good, and arranged a place for it in the affections of
coming generations.
The confidence of Christians in African colonization is universal.
It is not limited to sect ; it belongs to the larger idea of Christianity,
and pervades all branches of the Church. And it is strong as well
as universal. Opposition to the emigration of the coloured popu¬
lation to Africa has been made in vain by fanaticism and infidelity.
The appliances of ambitious, restless, energetic agitation never
ended in a more complete failure than in the attempt to place the
Church in a hostile attitude to this great African scheme. The
strength of Christian conviction in its favour is a “ token of perdi¬
tion” to the efforts of its adversaries, and a “ sign from heaven”
to its friends. All Christian denominations have solemnly placed
upon their official records their strong expectation, under God, of
great blessings to Africa from its colonization by its descendants. f
The 'prayers and efforts of Christians have followed their con¬
victions, and are the expression of their sincerity. God is not
accustomed to abandon his Church to delusion and error, and to
* Two young Africans were sent by Dr. Hopkins to Princeton College, to be
educated under the supervision of Dr. Witherspoon 5 but the Revolutionary War
interrupted this scheme of benevolence, and one of the young men died early. Dr.
Hopkins afterwards revived the scheme and published an able address. Two other
pupils afterwards went to Sierra Leone.
f The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church is believed to be the first
ecclesiastical body that took action in favour of the objects and principles of the
American Colonization Society. Its first action was in May, 1817, a few months
after the formation of the Society. Since that time, it has repeatedlyexpressed
itself in favour of African colonization.
I may here add, that the founder of the American Colonization Society was Dr.
Robert Finley, one of our own ministers. Francis S. Key, Esq., of George¬
town, who was intimately acquainted with the whole movement, said, in a public
address, in 1842, u From its origin, when first proposed by the venerated Finley ,
to the present time, in its darkest day, I have never doubted.” (Kennedy’s Report ,
• page 65.)
Dr. Finley, on his way to Washington, stopped at Princeton, N. J., where he
called a meeting to consider the subject. The Professors of the College and
Theological Seminary attended, and the venerable Dr. Archibald Alexander
addressed the people in favour of the scheme. Dr.Alexander says, in his History,
u The first public meeting, which ever took place to consider the subject of African
colonization in this country, was held in the Presbyterian Church in the borough
of Princeton.”
/
23
give to its worship and philanthropy a false direction. The early,
long-continued, universal, prayerful, practical conviction of the
Church, may be regarded as interpreting the Divine will on this
subject more clearly than any oracle on earth.
Grouping together, then, the five varieties of proof here pre¬
sented, their collective force is apparently sufficient to establish
an African direction in God’s wonderful providences. The destiny
of Africa seems to be linked by a Divine concatenation, with the
intellect and heart of the coloured population in this country.
The execution of the providential plan is for the elevation OF
Africa. The “ signs of the times,” which flash across the firma¬
ment, are bright as the prophetic evening’s enkindled sky. “When
it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.”
Fair weather to Africa’s tempest-tossed shores ! Fair weather to
her sky long clouded and lowering ! “ The night is far spent ;
the day is at hand.” Her sun is rising in its greatness ! God will
be GLORIFIED BY AFRICA.
god’s GOODNESS, GRACE, AND GLORY IN AFRICA.
lit The destiny of Africa will receive a new develop¬
ment BY THE EXECUTION OF THE PROVIDENTIAL PLAN ; and great
displays of God’s goodness, grace, and glory will be made on the
shores of that long-afflicted continent.
All the antecedent 'probabilities favour the expectation of great
blessings to Africa from the scheme of African Colonization. Some
of the grandest providences in the history of the world have con¬
tributed to the unfolding of the plan in its present hopeful aspects.
What conjunctures of events ; what moral, political, and physical
adaptations ; what progressive, and yet tardy movements in society ;
what combinations of various and apparently discordant elements,
must be established and made ready for co-operation, before a high
purpose can emerge into organized activity ! The providential pre¬
paration, however, is the argument and the assurance of eventual
triumph. The patriarch’s departure from Mesopotamia, the bond¬
age of Egypt, and the Exodus with miracles, rendered certain at
last, the conquest of Canaan. Every step in the majestic pathway
of means for the elevation of the African race, shows the sure direc¬
tion and the final end of the divine purposes. All the providences
that have pressed forward African Colonization to the prominence
of one of the greatest social and political movements of the age,
prefigure future benefits, on a great scale, to the black man’s conti¬
nent. The fallow ground of Africa has been broken up ; the seeds
of empires have been sown; and the handful of corn, in the com¬
ing harvest, shall shake like Lebanon. The purposes of God, long
ripening, come to maturity at last,
24
u And freshening upward to his feet
In gradual growth, his full-leaved will
Expands from world to world.”
African Colonization has, indeed, had its “ day of small things.”
It has received reproach and bitter opposition, even from those
whose good was sought, — like the expedition from Egypt to Canaan,
which encountered its severest trials from Israelitish perverseness.
But African Colonization has the armorial bearings of its King. It
is an undertaking that unfolds from its banner remarkable signs of
greatness. It has far-reaching contemplations of God and man.
It originates a new and higher order of thought concerning the
destiny of a despised and downtrodden race. It seeks to found
new empires, to carry the blessings of religion to a fourth part of
the habitable globe, and to create throughout Christendom a public
sentiment that shall re-establish the brotherhood of Shem, Ham,
and Japheth. All the antecedent probabilities, growing out of an
origin and a support in divine Providence, announce the success
of African Colonization. God will be glorified by Africa.
2. The scheme of African Colonization contains elements of
power, which place it in a commanding position in reference to
present prosperity and future greatness.
The republican form of government , in Liberia, is the model
form for Africa. The petty and local independencies, which con¬
stitute the prevalent system of government, are utterly inconsistent
with social and public improvement. Nor would the wants of
Africa be met by the rise of great monarchies, or of a vaster auto¬
cracy like that of Russia. An important requisite for the future
of nations, is a type of government that shall draw forth the spirit
of the people, stimulate industry in agriculture and the arts, and
establish public prosperity upon a sure foundation. The Republic
of Liberia undertakes this mission for Africa. It stands upon its
oppressed shores, like the gateway to the temple of its Liberty.
The outward form of civilization which is to spread throughout
those vast realms, will influence the destiny of generations. Human
improvement would have been reversed for centuries, if Asiatic
civilization had impressed its despotism upon the rising States of
Europe, by the unchecked conquests of the Medo-Persian empire.
It was Athens, standing firm at the Thermopylae of European
liberty, that preserved for the East the more genial forms of Gre¬
cian and Roman republicanism. Liberty is not a vain idea. There is
11 A serious, sacred meaning and full use
Of freedom for a nation.”
Liberia will model, until the end of time, the political institu¬
tions of the continent it aims to bless. What liberty has been, and
is, to America, it is and will be to Africa. Ethiopian as well as
25
Anglo-Saxon intellect needs, and must have, the glowing culture of
free institutions.
With the institutions of freedom, knowledge advances into Li¬
beria. The Ethiopian world must be enlightened. Ignorance is
adjusted to despotism by laws which make knowledge congenial to
a republic. The debasement of Africa must be rolled away. Uni¬
versal education must be carried up her mighty streams, across her
arid deserts, beyond her ridges of mountains, throughout her plains
and prairies, along her vast lines of latitude and longitude north
and south to either sea, and east and west to every shore. The
institutions of learning, which exist in Liberia, are resources of
human elevation. Schools, academies, and colleges will be to
African mind, like the irrigations of the Nile to its valley, like the
sea-breeze to the fevered coast, like morning light to unbroken
darkness.
The Protestant religion is an element of power among the re¬
sources of African Colonization. Religion is offered by Liberia to
the surrounding nations as the richest blessing from heaven. The
Papal hierarchy has already made its experiment in Western Africa.
In former years, the Roman Church held extensive sway in Congo,
Angola, and along the western coast; but every vestige of its pomp
and power has disappeared. The transmission of Roman Catholic
faith and politics into the civilization of this expanding continent
would be a calamity to the world. Liberia is Protestant in thought,
heart, and life. Its emigrants have learned religion in a land of
Bibles. Their simple faith welcomes a Saviour. They possess
the creed of the apostles and martyrs. Ethiopia has never been,
is not, will not be,
u A bondsman shivering at a Jesuit’s foot,”
but she stands erect in the liberty of Redemption, stretching forth
her hands unto God. The religion of the Reformation is Africa’s
hope. God is opening the way for the evangelization of her mil¬
lions, by the return of her own kindred with blessings of life and
immortality. In the enjoyment of the pure and glorious Gospel of
the Son of man, Africa will assume her true rank among the con¬
tinents of the world.
The Anglo-Saxon tongue is carried into Africa with freedom,
knowledge, and religion. Among the certainties of language is its
power in the formation of national character ; its bond of union
among all who use the same forms of speech ; the influence of its
published literature in extending and perpetuating opinions ; and
its general capability in developing the religion and civilization of
the world. The providential origin of the diversities of human
language, and the use which God has made of particular forms,
especially the Hebrew and Greek, suggest the great importance of
the subject in its evangelistic relations. The Anglo-Saxon is pro-
26
eminently the language of freedom, civilization, and Christianity.*
It is extending itself beyond every other variety of spoken or
written language. It has entered upon new conquests in Africa.
The citizens of Liberia enjoy its benefits.
u They speak the tongue
That Shakspeare spake ; the faith and morals hold
Which Milton held.”
A blight would have fallen upon African civilization, if the dia¬
lect of Spain, France, or Italy had been incorporated into the Libe¬
rian commonwealth. The Anglo-Saxon tongue is the representative
tongue of Liberty and Religion. It is a tower of strength, whose
top, unfrowned upon by the Holy One, goes up towards heaven.
Liberia thrives in its light. Africa shall advance on her career
with its illuminations ; and Anglo-Saxon speech and literature shall
enhance the blessings which Freedom, Knowledge, and Religion
convey throughout the vast realms of the rejoicing continent.
These four elements of political and moral prosperity place the
Republic of Liberia on high vantage-ground as a nation. Liberia
possesses resources of power. Her prospects of realizing a vigor¬
ous and permanent progress, by the favour of Heaven, are far more
promising than those of many nations, now her superiors in political
position. Her stability is on a firmer foundation than that of
France, Italy, or Austria. Changes and reverses may, indeed, take
place. Clouds may gather in her sky, but beyond them shines un¬
quenched light. A nation’s strength consists in its reverence for
the laws of God, in its acknowledgment of the rights of man, and
in its appliances to enlighten the public conscience, invigorate the
industry of its citizens, and train up its generations to serve God
throughout the earth. Liberia possesses these resources, which are
competent, with the Divine blessing, to establish it on a sure foun¬
dation. He who has given to it freedom, knowledge, religion, and
the English tongue, will be glorified by Africa.
3. The History of Liberia inspires hope, not only in the
success of its own institutions, but in the importance of coloniza¬
tion as an instrumentality for the civilization of Africa.
The Colony, formed under many disadvantages, has risen steadily
to its present high condition. Recaptured Africans, and slaves
indiscriminately emancipated, were its first citizens. Its greatest
trial has been the impracticability of selecting emigrants with
special reference to the greatness of the work. The aggregate
character of the emigrants sent out to Liberia, has scarcely equalled
* An able, original, and instructive Discourse on the Anglo-Saxon tongue was
delivered by tlie Rev. James W. Alexander, D.D., on Thanksgiving Day, 1856,
in his own church, in New York. It was published in the New York Observer ,
and was republished in the June number of the Presbyterian Magazine , 1857.
27
the average worth and respectability of the coloured population of
the United States. The original condition of Liberia, in this re¬
spect, is very different from that of the Pilgrim Colonies, whose
materials were “ the siftings of three kingdoms.” Yet these poor
and honest African emigrants showed, in the depths of their de¬
gradation, no ordinary traits of manhood. In the language of Dr.
Alexander, “I cannot but admire the honest ambition and the noble
daring of the first emigrants from this country to Africa. Then, no
Liberia existed. The Society did not own one foot of ground on
that continent, and it was extremely doubtful whether they would
be able to obtain any territory for a colony. Yet, these lion-hearted
men resolved to run every risk ; they took, as it were, their lives
in their hands. They went out, like Abraham, not knowing whither
they went. And the event has proved that they were called by the
Providence of God to engage in this hazardous undertaking.”*
The progress of Liberia has surpassed that of other colonies,
more favoured at the beginning. The settlement of America from
Canada to Brazil cannot produce examples of greater success than
colonization on the Western coast of Africa, between the Senegal
and the Niger. The Anglo-Saxon movement of Jamestown lacked
the spirit of a great moral enterprise, and failed, for a long time,
to gain a foothold upon the soil of the Cavaliers, from whence their
slaves’ descendants have emigrated with overshadowing favour.
The Pilgrims of Plymouth Bock encountered many stern obstacles
and difficulties ; nor did they, for a series of years, bring forth re¬
sults of colonization equalling the first-fruits of African toil and
industry. The establishment of Liberia is a triumph in history.
The children of Ham lift up the banner above the heads of Shem
and Japheth.
The location of Liberia is favourable to all the objects of its
growth as a nation. It is the nearest point to America on the
coast, and the navigation is a safe one. “ Of the one hundred and
thirty voyages, which have been made direct to Liberia by vessels
in the service of the Colonization Society, since 1820, all have been
made safely, without having to make a single claim on the insur¬
ance companies for damages. This proves a safe navigation be¬
tween the United States and Liberia. ”f Considered in reference
to Africa , the location of the Colony is also auspicious. It has the
command of the Slave Coast ; it is adjacent to influential tribes ;
it is only a few degrees from the sources and the mouths of the
Niger ; and is capable of holding ready communication with Tim-
buctoo, one of the capitals of Central Africa, with which city a
railroad may connect it at no distant day. As regards Europe and
Asia , the situation on the coast is quite favourable. The Bepublic
stands on the highway of nations. The commerce of India, China,
and Australia, passes its domain. Moreover, Liberia is sufficiently
* History of Colonization, p. 20.
f Colonization Herald, Philadelphia.
near to England and America for the purposes of trade, and suf¬
ficiently remote from other nations to diminish the danger of un¬
timely foreign interference. Nature, indeed, has not provided for
it every advantage, especially in climate and harbours ; but it
combines as many substantial advantages as the western coast of
Africa can afford.
A brief view of the actual results of African Colonization is es¬
sential to the elucidation of our subject. What, then, has been
accomplished that forebodes great good, in the future, to the African
race ?
(1.) Liberia has provided a home for the coloured population of
the United States. About ten thousand have already emigrated;
all of whom have exchanged an inferior condition of society for one
of independence and dignity. The total number of emigrants, up
to January 1st, 1857, was 8954. Of this number, 8676 were born
free ; and the remainder in slavery.
Liberia is a rallying point of hope for our African popula¬
tion in all the emergencies of their condition. Comparatively few
of the free coloured people have, as yet, had the enterprise to be¬
come citizens of the African Republic. Only 698 of their number
have emigrated from the Free States. Every year, however, is
adding to the attractions of Liberia, and diminishing the desirable¬
ness of residence in America. Providence will bring to pass its
plans of emigration. Soon large numbers of our free-coloured
population will set out on their long-delayed journey, thanking God
for the African Republic whose flag of liberty waves over the land
of the free.
(2.) Colonization has established a flourishing African govern¬
ment on the basis of popular elections, a republican administration,
and judicial tribunals recognizing the right of trial by jury. This
government has already gained much favour with civilized nations.
Its independence has been acknowledged by Great Britain, France,
Prussia, Belgium, Brazil, and soon, it is to be hoped, by the Uni¬
ted States ; and it has treaties of amity and commerce with Eng¬
land, France, and the Hanseatic States of Hamburg, Lubec, and
Bremen.
The religious and educational statistics of Liberia compare ad¬
vantageously with those of any other nation. The total number
of church members is not far from 4000 ; of whom about 1000 are
natives, or recaptured Africans. There are 35 churches, com¬
posed of Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and
Friends. The number of ministers and missionaries is about 60,
of whom 7 are whites.
The number of scholars exceed 800 in 40 schools : of which the
most important are the White Plains Methodist School, on the St.
Paul’s River; the Alexander High School, at Monrovia; the Epis¬
copal Mission School, at Cape Palmas ; and a private female
academy, at Monrovia. The materials of a large college building
29
have recently been despatched from this country, at a cost of
$18,000. The college is to be located on the St. Paul’s River,
near Monrovia ; and ex-President Roberts has accepted the presi¬
dency of the institution.
The number of settlements in Liberia is twenty-five. The re¬
public is divided into three counties ; and additions are being made
to its territory from time to time.*
Such a republic is accomplishing, by its very existence and
prosperity, unspeakable benefits for the whole race. God has
planted it on African shores for the present and future advantage
of bond and free, of American born and African born, descendants
of Ham.
(3.) Liberia is a centre of trade and commerce in Africa. The
continent has materials of a large commerce on the Mediterranean,
on the eastern coast from the Red Sea to Port Natal, and on the
western coast. Liberia is developing its proportions of West
African trade. In 1855, more than thirty vessels were freighted
with palm-oil alone, at her ports. The value of her imports and
exports is about $2,000,000 annually. So extensive and impor¬
tant is the commerce of Western Africa, that a company in Eng¬
land is constructing six steamers for regular communication with
the coast, and a number of smaller steamers to run up the rivers.
The subject of African commerce is engaging more and more the
attention of our own merchants ; and the power of Liberia will
soon be felt in the commercial world.
But it is in its moral relations that the commerce of Africa as¬
sumes its chief importance. The civilization of the world is car¬
ried forward by the intercourse of nations ; and the Gospel uses
civilization as one of the conditions of its own permanent exten¬
sion. Religion and commerce are thus mutual allies ; and the in¬
creasing trade of Liberia and of the surrounding nations is among
the best signs of the colonization enterprise.
(4.) Liberia has acquired influence over, and given protection
to, 250,000 of the natives, who reside within the bounds of the
commonwealth, and who are gradually adopting the forms of civi¬
lized life. In Section XIII of the Constitution of Liberia, it is
declared that “ the improvement of the natives, and their advance¬
ment in the arts of agriculture and husbandry, is a cherished ob¬
ject of this government.” President Benson, in his inaugural
message, thus alludes to the native tribes : “ In regard to this peo¬
ple, we have the highest human trust committed to our hands. Let
us not be unfaithful. Providence, I doubt not, has chosen us not
only as the pioneers of better days to our unfortunate race in the
* These religious and educational statistics are taken, almost verbatim, from a
letter, written by Mr. William Coppinger, the intelligent and worthy Treasurer
of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society, to whom application was made for the
information given.
30
scale of nationality, but also as his instruments in effecting the
great work of Africa’s redemption.”
Perfection cannot be expected of Liberia in its intercourse with
the surrounding tribes. Every civilized nation contains evil-dis¬
posed and wicked citizens ; and religion does not always control
the public administration of affairs. Jealousies and contentions
may arise at intervals between the colonists and the natives ; but
the community of origin must, with the advance of civilization and
the progress of the new African States, ultimately blend together
the entire African population.
(5.) A large extent of sea-coast, at least 500 miles in length,
has been delivered from the horrors of the slave trade, by the in¬
fluence of the Liberian settlements. The indescribable agonies
inflicted upon the seaward and the interior tribes by this infa¬
mous trafic, are in a great measure ended. African Colonization
is the best permanent remedy, however essential for a time has
been the presence of ships of war. The total extent of coast
rescued from this horrid trade by colonies, missionary stations, and
naval armaments, is 2500 miles. “ Canot, the famous Portuguese
slaver, who ought to know, affirms in his memoir, that Liberia has
exerted an immense influence in the suppression of the slave
trade.”*
(6.) Liberia furnishes posts of influence to extend exploration,
civilization, and religion into the interior. What has been done is
little in comparison with what, it is demonstrated, can be done.
Liberia is not a mere local commonwealth ; it has continental rela¬
tions. Providence has established it to be a light to Africa. Its
inhabitants are beginning to open communications with other dis¬
tricts. The settlements on the St. Paul are but the stepping-stones
to the highland interior. New Christian states will, it is believed,
soon arise on the banks of the Niger, and Central Africa be a land
of Liberty and Law. The influence of the Americo-African Re¬
public in exploring, civilizing, and Christianizing Central Africa,
will probabiy be handed down among the interesting memorials of
its national achievements.
(T.) Liberia has a present and prospective relation to slavery in
the United States, which in the end will add greatly to the resources
of African civilization. Large numbers now in slavery, or their
children, will become citizens of Africa. Although the Coloniza¬
tion Society itself does not come in contact with slavery, either by
its constitution or its executive management, yet its incidental and
moral influences are all on the side of African freedom. Its mea¬
sures give relief to the consciences of individuals by furnishing
the opportunity of emancipation ; and the very establishment and
prosperity of an African Republic, a majority of whose citizens
are liberated slaves, is a silent protest against the system of bond-
* T. J. Bowen’s Central Africa, page 34.
31
age. This is the natural order of things, and offers no violence to
existing rights in any quarter.
How large a portion of our African population will ultimately
emigrate to Africa is among the secrets of Providence. The prob¬
lem cannot be solved until the people have the liberty to go. Three
things are certain : there is land enough in Liberia for them, es¬
pecially with its prospective enlargement, which can be carried on
to any extent ; there are resources enough in this country to send
them — money enough to purchase and transport them, and vessels
enough to carry them ; and they are acquiring an intellectual,
moral, and industrial preparation for freedom. We adopt the opin¬
ion of the sagacious Dr. Alexander : “ If Liberia should continue
to flourish and increase, it is not so improbable as many suppose,
that the greater part of the African race, now in this country, will,
in the inscrutable dispensations of Providence, be restored to the
country of their fathers.”* Although the plan of Christianizing
and civilizing Africa does not essentially depend upon numbers, yet
this is an element of no mean value. In numbers are majesty and
power. The territory of Liberia can be readily enlarged to meet
the wants of a mighty Americo- African emigration. Other States
or Republics may be established, in the neighbourhood of Liberia,
or even in other parts of Africa, especially on its southeastern
coast. The truth is, that African Colonization is capable of inde¬
finite expansion. Its territory will be large enough for the return
of hundreds of thousands of Africa’s descendants to its shores, and
the work of civilization may be correspondingly increased in its
aspiring and encircling range. Who can foretell the results to
Africa, a century hence, of the Colonization scheme, when unfolded
to the length and breadth of its benevolence by the Providence of
God working outwardly upon its plans and resources, and the Spirit
of God working inwardly upon the minds and hearts of its sub¬
jects ?
In this great movement of the age, the sympathies of the King
of nations are with Africa. The Bible is full of hope to the poor,
the injured, the despised. God sustains the right in human affairs.
His attributes plead the cause of truth. If civilized nations sym¬
pathize in the work of African Colonization, much more does He
who superintends the interests of humanity, and in whose hands
are all the nations of the earth.
Liberia commences her national existence with trust in God.
Her history, although not free from imperfections, is as yet com¬
paratively pure. Liberia has not provoked the Divine wrath by
crimes committed against the light and truth of the Gospel. She
has no daring sins to settle in the reckoning of God’s unforgetting
judgment. The blood of martyrs does not cry for vengeance from
* History of Colonization, p. 12. The Introduction to the History ought to
be published by some Colonization Society in a tract form, for circulation by
agents, friends, colporteurs, &c.
82
her soil. Inquisitions and Bartholomew massacres have not stained
her annals with infamy and wrong. Liberia starts on her young
career and lofty mission with G-od on her side.
These glimpses of the present history of Colonization, and of the
distant outlines of its great prospective, give some assurance of the
displays of goodness, grace, and glory, which are awaiting a reno¬
vated continent. God will be glorified by Africa.
4. The Capabilities of the African Race, as a co-ordinate
and rising branch of the human family, confirm the expectation of
a successful civilization on the field of its new activity.
God’s plan gives to different races a varying position in the his¬
tory of the world. Each has had successive periods of advance¬
ment, of influential administration, and of gradual decline. The
Asiatic races, which were once high in political dominion, have
long since culminated and passed into comparative obscurity. The
Venetian states, the Dutch republic, the Spanish monarchy, once
almost lawgivers on their continent, have sunk into insignificance ;
whilst Anglo-Saxon England, Celtic France, and Sclavonic Rus¬
sia, rule the destiny of the world. Races have risen and fallen,
like empires. Having fulfilled the purposes of their providential
appointment in the Divine administration, they have been dis¬
missed from their stations of national greatness, to make way
for other races ordained of God for the emergencies of a new ser¬
vice.
It may be here remarked that many of the Africans, originally
transported into the United States, did not fully represent their
race in intellectual vigour. Large numbers belonged to the lower
order of tribes on their native continent. The mass of the slaves
were naturally captured from the most abject, defenceless, and in¬
ferior class ; and, besides this, the tribes dwelling near the sea-
coast were generally more degraded than the others, in conse¬
quence of their long contact with the slave trade and its attendant
vices. According to the observation of missionaries, the tribes in
the interior appear, in most cases, to be of a higher order of in¬
telligence and physical development. The Rev. John Leighton
Wilson, D.D., who was a missionary in Africa for nearly twenty
years, expresses the following opinion :
u Looking at the African race, as we have done, in their native country, we
have seen no obstacles to their elevation which would not apply equally to all
other uncultivated races of men. They are ignorant, superstitious, and demo¬
ralized, it is true, but it is the circumstances of heathenism, in which they have
always lived, that have made them such, and not anything that inherently per-
tains to them as a race. Compared with the civilized nations of the earth, their
deficiencies become palpable enough : but compared with the South Sea Islanders,
previous to the period when they were brought under the influence of Christianity,
the Indian tribes of our own country, who have never enjoyed the blessings of
education, or even with the great masses of ignorant poor who throng all the
great cities of the civilized world, they do not appear to any disadvantage what-
I
33
ever. No one can live among them without being impressed with their natural
energy of character, and their shrewdness and close observation.”
The African race is yet in its infancy. It has been kept back
from prominent action in human affairs, when — if it had pleased
God — he might have clothed it with the terror of Mohammedan ag¬
gression, or wielded it with the supremacy of Anglo-Saxon civiliza¬
tion. The race is yet in its childhood. It is new, fresh, open to
formative influences. Its heart has not been hardened by the re¬
jection of the Gospel of Christ. It is not an old, effete race. It
has had, as yet, no historical development. Merged in heathen
darkness, its past has lacked the advantage of a favourable experi¬
ment. The set time for its action seems at length to have come.
The all-wise Being who transferred many of its members from
their barbaric homes for education under ameliorating influences,
is now sending them back to discharge a mission worthy of the
nineteenth century. Docile in temper, unambitious in spirit, sus¬
ceptible to the attractions of goodness, this young race is destined
to perform an important evangelistic part in the spread of religion
throughout the earth. Its present attitude is one of great interest.
So far as it has been brought into contact with Christian institu¬
tions in this country or elsewhere, the result has been in a high
degree honourable to its susceptibility of intellectual and moral
cultivation.
Other races were once as uncultivated as the Africans. Hordes
of savage tribes overran Europe at a period not far distant in the
past. The rude inhabitants of the North — the Goths and Vandals.
— the Normans, Saxons, Celts, were comprehended in the general
catalogue of barbarians. If, under the transforming power of
Christianity, these unenlightened and debased nations have at
length risen to their present condition, may not Africa also attain
civilization ?
Behold, too, the progress which religion is making, during the
present generation, among other savage races in different parts of
the earth. The Esquimaux render homage to Christ amidst Arctic
desolation. The Sandwich Islanders, with their schools, churches,
and political institutions, now belong to civilized nations. The
inhabitants of Polynesia, abandoning idolatry and savage life, ac¬
cept the reformation which brings blessings to the Gentiles. Wher¬
ever Christianity is carried in its pure faith by godly men, it wins
its way to the heart by the grace of God, and elevates degenerate
human nature from the degradation of ages.
Under appropriate cultivation, and with the advantage of time,
African intellect will make known its capability. In the midst of
disparaging and unequal opportunities, it has given tokens of genu¬
ine promise. Through the clouds of a dark sky, its lights already
shine, here and there. The men of Liberia rise up to their emer¬
gency. Lott Cary, Roberts, Benedict, Benson, Augustus Wash-
3
84
ington, Lewis, Williams, and others, are not inferior, as writers,
executive officers, and wise leaders of the people, to the public offi¬
cers in the different States of the American Union.* Opportunity
is the mother of greatness. Cultivated mind will yet avenge the
wrongs of African degradation, and demonstrate the powers of an
untried and despised race.
Civilization has a peculiar mission in Africa, which is to be ful¬
filled by the gradual elevation of the Negro race. The civilization
of the Jews unfolded to the world the great idea of the relation of
the state to God ; that of the Greeks and Romans aspired to the
perfection of municipal regulations, to the accurate definition of
the rights of individuals and the governing powers ; Norman,
Gothic, and Saxon civilization illustrated the manhood and inde¬
pendence of the races ; whilst African civilization is destined to
demonstrate the equality of the races as members of the hu¬
man family. This great problem of the book of nature finds some
of its elements already calculated in the book of Providence.
The human faculties are dependent upon God, who bestows gifts
upon whom He will. Nor does he allow His plans to fail from
want of intellectual or moral capacity in His creatures. “ There
is a spirit in man : and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him
understanding.” He who raised up “ wise-hearted” men in the
wilderness to construct the tabernacle and to perform the required
service in all the mechanical arts, will communicate all the gifts of
intellect that are needed for the work of the African wilderness
and for the establishment of the children of Ham in their ances¬
tral habitation. Human pride exalts the creature, and attributes
to human efficiency the pre-eminence of one race over another.
But the conceit of man shall receive correction in a contest with
Providence. God sets up one and puts down another. Retribu¬
tion, as well as grace, developes a principle that may be applied to
races as well as to individuals, “ the first shall be last, and the last
shall be first.” Those who despise in man,
11 The shadowed livery of the burnished sun,”
may witness in the end the humiliation of a reversed condition.
In the “ set time” of the Divine purposes, the Negro race shall be
* The late Dr. Alexander, who was well acquainted with African character
and history, remarks in relation to the success of Liberia, u The problem has
been fairly solved that the coloured race are as capable of improvement as the
whites ; and in every department of government, they have manifested sound
sense and discretion, equal to what could have been expected from people of
any other nation, with no greater advantages of education than they have en¬
joyed. Indeed we have not seen any state papers which indicate a sounder
judgment, and more just discernment of the true interests of the Colony, than
those of Governor Roberts. Even in his correspondence with officers of the
British navy on points of international law, he appears to oreat advantage.” —
Hist, of Col. p. 7.
35
elevated intellectually, morally, and politically, to equal dignity
with other races of mankind. God will be glorified by Africa.
5. The remarkable position of the continent of Africa
AT the present time indicates an approaching advancement in
the destiny of its race. Long shut out from intercourse with civi¬
lized nations, Africa at last opens her gates, as if in concert with a
higher power.
Among the reasons for this long providential separation from the
civilized world may have been, in the first place, the preservation
of the continent from greater evils. Intercourse with other nations,
when unaccompanied by Christianity, has only added the worst
vices of civilization to those of barbarism. The savage tribes on
the western coast of Africa have been made tenfold more “ the
children of hell” than they were before, by the monstrous atroci¬
ties of the slave trade. Spain, Portugal, Holland, and England,
for more than a century, added to the woes of Africa ; and if free
intercourse had existed with the interior, the injuries would have
been increased to a corresponding extent. Providence has guarded
the continent from open communication with other nations, until
they were prepared to bring Christianity with trade, and the means
of evangelization with the enterprise of commerce. In the second
place, the entrance of other races in to Africa, in any considerable
numbers, would have interfered with the higher plan of blessing
the continent through its own restored and Christianized descen¬
dants. And in the third place, the time for the execution of God’s
great African plans had not yet come.
God is now opening Africa to the world. The unfolding portals
of the continent invite nations to share its intercourse and partake
of its destined greatness. Travellers are penetrating its territory
on every side. Its lakes, Tchad and Ngami, have been brought
into geographical connection with those of Europe and America ;
the city of Timbuctoo, the metropolis of West Central Africa, has
been verified as to existence, extent, and resources ; caravans,
freighted with traffic, have been seen in long procession ; rivers
have been navigated by steamers, and the White Nile, the Niger,
and the Zambezi have been traced far up in their meanderings ;
snow-clad mountains loom to view, with prairies and fertile regions
of vast extent. Cotton, sugar, rice, wheat, corn, and all the rich
vegetable products of tropical regions, are successfully cultivated.
The ruins of Cyrenaica, of Agharme, and of Harar, the ancient
metropolis of a once mighty race in Eastern Africa, are enrolled
among the curiosities of historic wonder ; the unknown space be¬
tween St. Paul de Loando in Angola and Quillemane on the Mozam¬
bique Channel, has been traversed by Livingstone ; people pos¬
sessing claims to civilization are met with in the remote interior ;
and
. 11 A thousand realms horizoned to the view”
36
give promise of a large population and invite to missionary labour.
In short, a knowledge has been secured of African climate, soil,
productions, natural history, geography, resources, and races, which
is of the utmost importance to the future intercourse and progress
of the continent.
The hand of God is in these African explorations. He who
causeth “ the stork in the heavens to know her appointed times,
and the turtle, the crane, and the swallow to observe the time of
their coming,”* has arranged the motives, the principles, and the
circumstances by which so many men have made discoveries which
bring before the civilized world the prospects of Africa’s future
greatness. As every important invention has come to pass at the
very time it was most calculated to ameliorate the condition of the
human family, f so every geographical discovery has corresponded,
in time, place, and extent, with great moral purposes in the Divine
government. When a Western continent was needed for the foun¬
dation of a new Christian empire, then, and not till then, was
America brought in contact with the Eastern hemisphere. Africa
is now emerging from its gloom, almost with the light of a new
discovery, and at a period when everything points to its higher
agency in the world’s affairs. Some of the thoughts suggested by
the present aspect of Africa, may be summarily recapitulated :
(1.) The Providence of God superintends the fate of continents
by the unsearchable methods of infinite wisdom.
(2.) The time of Africa’s prominence is drawing near, in the ad¬
vent of a higher destiny.
(3.) Great advantages will accrue to the world from the opening
of a new continent to commerce, trade, manufactures, and the arts,
and especially to the prayers and efforts of Christianity.
(4.) The coincidence of African explorations and discoveries
with the progress of African colonization and the expansion of
the institutions of Liberia, is interesting, instructive, and en¬
couraging.
(5.) God is calling upon the Christian and civilized world to
sympathize with and labour for the African race with more earnest
zeal and hope ; bound with them as bond, and helpers of their free¬
dom, if free.
God will be glorified by Africa. The continent responds to his
call.
6. The future triumphs of Redemption include the regene¬
ration of Africa. Prophecy comes to the aid of reason, faith, and
philanthropy ; and uplifting the veil of a continent’s glory, shows
its tribes and kingdoms rejoicing in God.
The scheme of colonization does not arrogate to itself the ex-
* Jeremiah 8 : 7.
f See Blakely’s Theology of Inventions , republished by the Messrs. Carter.
37
elusive instrumentality of renovating Africa. Other means, and
from other quarters, will co-operate in the blessed labour of love.
White missionaries for Africa will be in greater demand during the
next half century than ever before. The whole interior being ac¬
cessible to the Gospel, the cry for help must be immediately an¬
swered, and it can be answered by none so promptly and efficiently
as by the missionaries of the Evangelical churches of the United
States and Great Britain. A large part of the evangelistic opera¬
tions on this continent, so far as the preaching of the Gospel is
concerned, must be carried on for an interval by white missiona¬
ries, as heretofore. It will take more than one generation to send
forth suitable coloured preachers in sufficient numbers.
Nor will the West be the only quarter from wdience aggressive
movements will be made against African barbarism and degrada¬
tion. The southeastern part of Africa, from Port Natal to the
Zambezi, and up to Cape Gardefui, will supply a field of influ¬
ential missionary operations into the interior. This district of
country is likely to be one of the most inviting on the whole con¬
tinent. It is here that Moffat and Livingstone propose to com¬
mence missionary stations, in a high, healthy location, and in con¬
tact with intelligent, populous tribes. Another part of Africa
from whence light may be expected to spring forth, is from the an¬
cient Copts and Abyssinians, in the valley of the Nile. Providence
has preserved these Christians in the midst of Mohammedan and
barbaric rule for some great purpose ; and although now corrupt, as
a Church, they are, nevertheless, in possession of seeds of truth
which grace can germinate into a glorious harvest.
(t Copt, Abyssinian, from the dust
Of ages shall their raiment shake ;
And many spirits of the just
In these degenerate sons awake !
.Dry bones they are — but God can raise
Old Anthony and Athanase.”
These three principal centres of evangelical effort — correspond¬
ing in the general with the three mighty rivers, Niger, Zambezi,
and Nile — will contribute to swell “ the stream which shall make
glad” in Africa “ the city of our God.” As related to the negro race,
Liberia, with its scheme of colonization, inspires the most hope for
the renovation of the continent. The providences alluded to in pre¬
vious portions of this Address seem to magnify the converted Afri¬
cans of America as the chief instruments of civilization and religion
on theip native shores.
God takes time to fulfil his counsels. “ A day is with the Lord
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day.” The cap¬
tivity of Egypt and the training of the wilderness were irksome to
the generations doomed to perish in their perversities ; but forty
years of special training , after two hundred years of bondage, con-
38
stituted the Divine preparation for entering into Canaan. Some
striking analogies may be here briefly noticed between the history
of the Israelites in Egypt and of the Africans in America, in their
training for a special work in a distant land : (1.) Both people
were consigned into foreign bondage as a condition of their future
elevation and usefulness. (2.) They were preserved distinct in
the midst of an abounding population of a different race. (3.) In
their state of subjection they greatly increased in number. (4.)
They were kept in slavery for a long period. (5.) They were made
to take their departure out of the land of bondage in a way that
brought to view God’s wmnder-working hand [only partially ful¬
filled as to the Africans]. (6.) They had a preliminary training,
even after they were set free — the Israelites in the wilderness, the
Africans in Liberia, where they may be said to be, as yet, prepar¬
ing for their great work.* (T.) They took possession of the land,
at last, in the name of the King of kings. One of the diversities
of the history is, that the Israelites went out together in one band
by a single royal edict of emancipation, whereas the Africans are
sent forth in separate companies, and few at a time. But this di¬
versity may be explained, partly by the different character of the
bondage, which necessitated a simultaneous exodus of the Israelites,
and partly by the immediate work to be done in the new country,
which in the one case was warlike, and in the other peaceful and
spiritual. The analogies are sufficiently close between the two
cases to constitute a plea for time on the part of God to train and
bring forth the Africans for the religious conquest of the land of
their fathers.
However long delayed, the period of Africa’s redemption will
come. “ The night is far spent; the day is at hand.” Morning
beams already play along the coast, and streaks of “ sunrise in
the tropics” cast their tints upon an increasing moral vegetation.
The valleys begin to sing. Gospel culture will convert Central
Africa into a garden of the Lord. The blood of Christ was shed
for the four continents of the human race, and is offered to all in
the great commission to u preach the Gospel to every creature.”
Prophecy declares the things that shall be : “ The whole earth
shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover
the sea.” Every land shall become Immanuel’s ; and in holy
union with tribes and people of every tongue, “ Ethiopia shall
stretch out her hands unto God.”
11 And Afric’s dusky swarms,
That from Morocco to Angola dwelt,
And drank the Niger from his native wells,
Or roused the lion in Numidia’s groves ;
The tribes that sat anjong the fabled cliffs
Of Atlas, looking to Atlanta;s wave,
* The remark also holds true in regard to the free coloured population in the
United States.
39
With joy and melody arose and came ;
Zara awoke and came ; and Egypt came,
Casting her idols into the Nile.
Black Ethiopia, that, shadowless,
Beneath the Torrid burned, arose and came.
Dauma and Medra, and the pirate tribes
Of Algeri, with incense came and pure
Offerings, annoying now the seas no more.”
Is it too much to suppose that, in the ingathering of nations,
the bondmen of America may sustain to the quickening of Africa
at least something of the relation of the Jews to the Gentiles —
even life from the dead ?
As astronomers have visited Africa for the purpose of taking
observations of the heavens, to the greatest advantage, so the con¬
tinent of Ham may ultimately afford to the eye of faith the bright¬
est displays of Providence and the grandest sights of Redemption.
Many things, it is true, are unrevealed ; but Africa’s redemption
is made sure. 44 Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom
and the knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are his judgments,
and his ways past finding out !”
, Africa is a continent of great historical associations. Egypt is
generally supposed to have attained an earlier and higher civiliza¬
tion than any other nation in the ancient world. There stand her
mighty Pyramids — mute sentinels of history, guarding the myste¬
rious memorials of centuries. In later ages, on the Libyan co;ist,
Carthage contended with Rome for the mastery of the world. Alex¬
andria, bright among the centres of civilization with its learning
and its library, shone like the watch-tower of the Nile. The asso¬
ciations of religion transcend those of civil history. Abraham,
the bearer of the covenant of promise, full of blessings to all na¬
tions, twice came down to dwell in the land of Egypt. Here the
Israelites groaned in bondage for two hundred years ; and from
African ground their cry went up into heaven. In Africa, God
wrought the stupendous miracles of his outstretched arm, in glorious
succession, to the extreme boundary of the continent. Moses, the
legislator of the Old Testament dispensation, was Egypt-born, and
nurtured at the Nile. And beyond Abraham, to whom the Pro¬
mises were given, and Moses, through whom came the Law, the
Son of Man tarried in Africa, the fulfiller of Promises, the mag¬
nifier of Law, the teacher of Grace and Truth. Yes, the Redeem¬
er’s feet touched African soil, and his eyes beheld her sky and
stars. The infant Jesus became a refugee from the bloody tyranny
of men, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by
the prophet, 44 Out of Egypt have I called my Son.” On the day
of the crucifixion of the Lord of glory, the burden of bearing the
cross was laid upon 44 one Cymon, a Cyrenian and in Africa
lived and died Augustin, the Defender of the Faith, and the Fa¬
ther of the theology of the Reformation.
4
40
The succession of great events shall be restored to Africa Christian¬
ized. New kingdoms shall arise in the light of the blessings of the
Gospel of Christ, whose civilization shall excel the monumental
glories of perished dynasties. Institutions of learning shall be planted
throughout her latitudes and longitudes, from Liberia to Abyssinia,
and from Congo to Caffraria ; churches of Jesus Christ shall be
established on her prairies, hills, and along her rolling rivers ; phi¬
losophers, statesmen, and philanthropists shall have names “ full of
might and immortality the Negro race shall fulfil its high and
wonderful destiny in the divine counsels ; and on Africa’s shores
displays of God’s goodness, grace, and glory shall be unfolded to
the admiration of men and of angels. At the resurrection of the
just, millions of ransomed ones shall spring forth from tropical
graves. The descendants of Ham shall stand, with those of Shem
and Japheth, amidst “ the great multitude which no man can num¬
ber, before the throne of God and before the Lamb, clothed with
white robes and with palms in their hands, and shall cry with a
loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the
throne and unto the Lamb forever.”
THE OBJECTS OF THE ASHMUN INSTITUTE.
Our discussion is ended. It has aimed to show that the Provi¬
dence of God, which has been exercising its benevolence for many
years towards the coloured race in this country, now points to Africa
as the chief scene of its high and influential action. Thus, the return
of the barbarian bondmen, as Christian freemen, will be made the
occasion of great displays of the Divine goodness, grace and glory
to a benighted continent ; and God will be glorified by Africa.
A practical injunction of the discussion is the importance and
necessity of African education in our own country. Insti¬
tutions of learning like the Ashmun Institute, possess the sanction
of a providential command. To be guided by the pillar and the cloud
is only less glorious than to dwell in the light of the Shekina. A
greater or more interesting work was never committed to the Church
than that of elevating the children of Ham to their true social and
religious condition on their own continent, and among the nations
of the earth. Privileged is the land and the age that shall behold
enlarged efforts for the moral and political recovery of Africa.
The views presented in this Address tend, it is believed, to bene¬
volent and immediate action. They impart a dignity to the coloured
man which he can never possess, simply as an American citizen,
and assign to him a relation to Africa’s redemption infinitely more
honourable than any distinction attainable in the United States.
Upon the people of America rests the obligation to supply the in¬
stitutions of learning which are suited to the mission of the African
race at the present eventful period of its history. Here, in America,
this population have been sent for intellectual and moral elevation
✓
41
in the Providence of God ; here they have already received a Chris¬
tian training of great interest, in the midst of many disparagements;
here, are enrolled more than three millions of members of the
Christian Church, who may be supposed to sympathize with their
lowly estate, and who possess love enough and wealth enough
to supply every want ; here, stands the great fulcrum upon which
rests the lever of African Colonization with its sweep of power ;
here, the hopes of the present and future generations are centred
with increasing light and glory. The wrongs of the past plead for our
good-will and good deeds in all time to come. Philanthropy’s best
parting gift to the coloured race on their high career, is Christian
training of mind and heart. Even the Egyptians lent to the Isra¬
elites, at the Exodus, “such things as they required,” “jewels of
silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment.” With what higher readi¬
ness shall American Christians send forth the freemen of Africa,
enriched with the jewels and silver of intellectual cultivation and
the investitures of moral and immortal culture !
The Ashmun Institute wisely looks to Africa as the seat of its
principal influence. Its plans and policy are to the East. It faces
the rising sun. Its public instruction, its private counsels, its Chris¬
tian example, its hopes and efforts, will all and always exalt Africa.
Its name is an everlasting remembrancer of its purpose. Ashmun
lived and died for the continent ; and the Institute that hears his
name, is African in heart and in life, now and forever. Neverthe¬
less, the liberty of private judgment will be held inviolate, and the
institution will accomplish its utmost for all its pupils, whatever be
the place of their destination.
Education for the ministry is a prominent object of the Ashmun
Institute. The Gospel of the Son of God is the divine instrument
of salvation, and of civilization. To preach it to every creature
is the high duty of the Church. The Presbytery of Newcastle,
therefore, welcome to the institution all young men of promise
whom God may call to this great work. Even if a single ambas¬
sador shall be led by the Divine Spirit to come out from the world,
and to prepare to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, the
undertaking will receive an enduring and satisfying reward. It
will possess a triumph greater than the military deeds celebrated
by cannon captured at Waterloo, or by the guns of the Tuileries.
Spiritual victories will be echoed back to these walls from far dis¬
tant lands. A goodly number of ministers, it may be believed, will
be educated at the Ashmun Institute ; and of these, some will be
missionaries to Africa.
Missionaries of the coloured race must naturally exert a peculiar
influence among the native tribes in preaching the Gospel. Even
in our own country, educated coloured men create a favourable im¬
pression, not only personally, but in behalf of their race ; much
42
more in Africa will they exhibit an example of Christian and cul¬
tivated life that will awaken new interest and render more effective
the efforts to win the tribes to civilization and Christianity. But
missionaries cannot labour to full advantage, unless they are dis¬
ciplined, well-furnished, educated. The Church must do her best
in sending the Gospel to Africa. Pious ignorance is insufficient ;
and mere human learning is helpless. Religion and learning, in
holy union, are the general qualifications for the ministry. Our
missionaries to Africa should be men of both humble piety and of
enlightened cultivation. The Rev. John Leighton Wilson, D.D.,
makes some appropriate and important observations on this point,
in his work on Africa : —
u If coloured men of education, intelligence, and of humble and undoubted
piety could be found willing to engage in this work, those who are now on the
field would not only give them a hearty welcome as fellow-labourers, but if they
were sufficiently numerous, would cheerfully commit the whole work into their
hands, and seek some other sphere of labour for themselves. But it is in view
of the fact that so few coloured men of suitable qualifications have come forward
to engage in this work, and in view of the fact, likewise, that the future presents
no near prospects in this respect brighter than the past, that we are to inquire
what are our duties to the perishing millions of Africa.”
u I have been particular in stating that coloured men, in order to be useful
missionaries in Africa, must be men of high moral and intellectual qualifications,
and of tried and undoubted piety. On this point we feel that we can not insist
too strongly. Every observing person must have seen* that it is neither wise nor
economical to send out men to the heathen who have not the capacity to exert a
commanding influence in their native country. If there is any place in the world
where thorough piety and mental energy are indispensable to success, it is on
heathen ground. How can it be otherwise ? To look into all the windings and
intricacies of heathen character ; to render one’s self familiar with the habits,
feelings, and motives of a class of men who have no sympathies with ourselves ;
to acquire the art of exerting an influence over the minds of men who have been
trained up in heathenism ; to lay hold of an unwritten, barbarous language, spend
months and years in developing its rules and principles, and acquire that lan¬
guage so as to use it with perfect ease ; to call into exercise energies that have
slumbered for centuries ; and to endure patiently the reverses, trials, and disap¬
pointments incident to missionary life, require the best and the ablest men the
Church can furnish. If the number of coloured men in this country capable of
meeting these high demands is considerable, we know it not. There is a small
number of such now in the African field, and we cheerfully award them the praise
of great self-denial and extensive usefulness.”*
The relation of the Ashmun Institute to the work of missions in
Africa is undoubtedly prominent among the various attractions of
the institution. Young men, who might otherwise have never risen
above “ hewers of wood and drawers of water,” will by God’s grace
be endued with power to impress their influence upon a continent.
Eyes that here study lessons of preparatory learning, shall see the
bold promontory of inviting Mesurado, the fertile fields of Liberia
and Angola, and the mountains and lakes of a strangely interesting
land. Feet that tread these halls shall stand on soil, once wet with
the crime of the slave trade, and shall explore plains,
* Western Africa, pp. 506, 507.
43
u Where Afric’s sunny fountains
Roll down their golden sand.”
Hearts that have been here trained to exercise an enlightened com¬
passion for perishing souls, shall plead with the tribes and kindred
of their race, and point inquiring Ethiopians to “the Lamb of God,
who taketh away the sin of the world.” Young men shall here
learn to live and to die for Africa. “ The night is far spent, the
day is at hand.” Awake, Christian descendants of Ham, to “spend
and be spent” for God. At such a time as this, and for such a con¬
tinent as yours, gird on the Gospel armour.
u In an age on ages telling
To be living is sublime.”
Where, and how, can a Christian minister of your race, do more
than by preaching the cross of Christ to the millions of Africa ?
Educated laymen will be sent forth to Africa from the Ashrnun
Institute. Leaders for the people must be raised up. The educa¬
tion, which God provided for Moses, made him “learned in all the
wisdom of the Egyptians,” preparatory to the work of governing
the Israelites. A rising state calls for cultivated intellect. The
formation of its character and the management of its affairs cannot
be intrusted to ignorant and narrow-minded men. Liberia has too
much at stake to be under any other control than that of wise, in¬
fluential, public-spirited statesmen. Its executive department, its
legislation, its courts of justice, its literature, its professions, must
all be sustained at an elevation that will secure its prosperity and
command the respect of the world. The emigration from this
country ought to furnish its just proportion of educated youth,
qualified to engage in all the departments of professional and public
life. We must “ tend the root,” if we would be “ careful of the
branches ;” and
u Expand
The inner souls of men, before we strive
For civic heroes.”
Who can estimate the immense good that may accrue to Liberia
and to Africa from the education of gifted intellects in this insti¬
tution of learning ? The Ashrnun Institute stands like a nursing
mother, appointed of God to watch her opportunity by the Nile of
turbid and overflowing worldliness ; and she longs to rescue some
noble Africans from their bark of slime, and to train them for the
statesmanship of a great and growing Republic.
The Ashrnun Institute offers to educate promising young men
who expect to remain in our own country . Large numbers of the
African population will continue to reside in the United States, at
least for many generations, and perhaps forever. Whilst the wave
of African Colonization will bear onward masses to Africa, and the
44
wave of southwestern emigration press downward many towards
Mexico and Central America, a remnant will abide upon the soil
of their nativity.* An ample field of usefulness opens for effort
among our African population, immediately and prospectively.
Under the present aspect of things, abundant opportunities to do
good can be found in churches, in Sabbath-schools, in day-schools,
at the press, by colportage, in useful occupations of every kind.
African elevation is the aim of the Institute — elevation by
learning and religion — true Christian elevation — elevation of the
highest kind practicable and among the largest class possible. The
home work of the Institute, as w7ell as its foreign v7ork, is import¬
ant. Even as a separate and entirely independent field of action,
this country offers great inducements for the establishment of high
educational institutions for the benefit of our coloured population.
The Ashmun Institute may be expected to record visitations of
Divine grace among its pupils. God may condescend in the many
forms of his goodness, to use this Christian institution as an in¬
strumentality for the conversion of sinners. Faith looks forward
to a favoured future. In her visions, she beholds the answer to
prayer in the sanctification of instruction. An institution of learn¬
ing possesses great resources of present and eternal good for its
pupils. Dedicated to God, established with true Christian aims,
and inculcating Divine truth in connection with general knowledge,
it carries the richest blessings of religion in its course. Schools,
Academies, and Colleges have ever been hallowed to the salvation
of immortal minds. Youth, who come here strangers to the cove¬
nant of promise, may be expected, by God’s grace, to learn its
power and to dedicate their lives to his service ; whilst others, who
are already on the Lord’s side, shall be edified and established in
holy faith and practice. Religion keeps the fountains of learning
pure: and preparation for this life becomes, under its genial power,
preparation for immortality.
The Ashmun Institute will assist in rallying the hopes of the
friends of Africa , especially by placing before them work to be
done. An unhopeful, desponding spirit backslides into inactivity ;
a zeal that has nothing to do rushes forward into fanaticism. This
Christian institution unites hope and work. If adequately sus¬
tained, its blessings will be numerous and extensive ; but its estab¬
lishment on an enduring basis will require resolute effort, self-denial,
and patience. Much is to be done in raising funds for the build¬
ings ; in providing an endowment for the Professors ; in obtaining
scholars of promise ; in giving a high Christian character to the en-
* We have read with care 11 Slavery and its Remedy • or, Principles and Sug¬
gestions for a Remedial Code, by Samuel Nott a production of much interest
and received with some favour at the South. A remedial code, like that sug¬
gested, would be highly beneficial.
45
terprise, and in so directing its plans and operations as to secure the
confidence of the public in its progress and success. By God’s bless¬
ing, all this will be accomplished, but not without much labour ac¬
cording to the analogies of Providence.
Other institutions of a similar character will doubtless be estab¬
lished, in the light of the example of the Ashinun Institute. If
our present undertaking should happily succeed, it will lead the
way for greater efforts in other parts of the country. The interests
of our coloured population have been too much neglected. Large
and generous provision for their education ought to be furnished,
wherever Providence favours it. Academies of a high order are
needed in many places for the purpose of developing African mind
to its full capabilities. “ The night is far spent ; the day is at
hand.”
The Ashmun Institute excites much interest in'the Presbyterian
Church. An official recommendation of its aims and plans has
been given by the General Assembly with a hearty good-will, and
in consistency with a clear, Christian testimony, repeatedly placed
on record, in reference to the whole subject of Slavery and Coloni¬
zation. Our Church maintains impregnably the scriptural ground,
on this important social and political question. Its general views
and principles may be summarily stated as follows : (1) The Pres¬
byterian Church affirms that Scripture tolerates slavery under cer¬
tain circumstances, and that the relation is not necessarily and
always sinful. (2) It inculcates the reciprocal duties of masters
and slaves, employing discipline when required. (3) It carries the
Gospel to all classes of society, in the spirit of love. (4) It re¬
gards the system of Slavery as unjust in its beginning, anomalous
in its continuance, and naturally doomed to extinction by the force
of circumstances and the prevalence of truth. (5) It favours all
measures that aim at the elevation and welfare of the African race,
at home or abroad. — Our ministers in the Slave-holding States are
labouring with zeal, fidelity, and success, to evangelize all classes
of the population. Many of them have a special service for the
slaves. They pray and preach and live in the faith of precious
promises, in the hope of present and everlasting blessings, and in
the love of God and of their fellow-men. Whatever imperfection
of spirit and of service the Presbyterian Church may be guilty of,
in the infirmity incident to all human administration, she pleads its
forgiveness through the blood of her Lord and Intercessor. She
has always taken a deep interest in the African race ; and hails
the Ashmun Institute as a dispenser of God’s blessings with the
right hand and with the left.
The Institute has been put into operation in the true spirit of de¬
votion to Africa, and with a firm trust in God. It will do its work
silently, and, it is hoped, with power. Educational institutions, for
the elevation of the African race here, will propel their influence
through the hills and plains of a vast continent. Like the great
I
46
African rivers, which flow down in their bounty and magnificence
from sources hitherto unexplored and unknown, our institutions of
education will pour their blessings through tribes and kingdoms,
albeit their names and their fountain-heads may never be ascertained
or sought after. The men, who have projected this institution,
have enlarged views, and are valiant men for God and Africa. The
spirit of ancient Presbyterianism dwells in their hearts.
u The valiant standeth as a rock, and the billows break upon him.”
President Davies, the great Apostle to the slaves, was born and
ordained within the bounds of Newcastle Presbytery. If the in¬
stitution should disappoint public expectation, the fault will not be
with its projectors. The Ashmun Institute is national in its claims.
It invites co-operation from every section of the Church and from
every lover of his country and of Africa. Its relations are wide¬
spread, and of intense interest. It seeks to realize the great maxim
of Ashmun, “ to accomplish the most possible good in the least
time.” It aims at a connection with God’s great providential
plans. May it flourish for generations ! May it stand like the
African palm-tree, majestic for stateliness and beauty, and the
emblem of prosperity ; its fruit giving food, and its shade affording
rest, to thousands and tens of thousands in the ancestral tropical
land.
Heaven bless the Institute in its plans, its officers, and its pupils.
Bless it, God of Ethiopia, who hast “made of one blood all nations
of men.” Be thou glorified on every continent ! Be thou glori¬
fied by Africa !
APPENDIX.
ASHMUN INSTITUTE.
The Aslimun Institute was established by the Presbytery of New Castle, at a
Stated Meeting, held on the 5th of October 1853, when the initiatory action was
taken.
“ This Presbytery, trusting in God, and, under Him, depending on the Chris¬
tian liberality of the friends of the African race
mine as follows :
u There shall be established within our bounds, and under our supervision, an
Institution, to be called the Ashmun Institute, for the Scientific, Classical, and
Theological education of coloured youth of the male sex.”
At this meeting, measures were also taken to procure a Charter from the State
of Pennsylvania, and a Committee was appointed to take charge of the under¬
taking. A Board of Trustees was also nominated, and their powers defined as
follows : 11 It shall be the duty of this Board, under general instructions from this
Presbytery, to put up suitable buildings and improvements, as they may have the
necessary means ; in no case ever involving this Presbytery in pecuniary obliga¬
tions. They shall appoint the teachers and professors, and name their salaries ;
they shall establish rules and regulations for the government of the Institution ;
they shall have authority to procure its endowment, not exceeding the sum of
$100,000 ; and, when required by this Presbytery, they shall report to it the state
of the Institution, the state of the funds, and all interests committed to their
trust.”
On the 14th of November following, this Committee, having met and elected
their officers, agreed to purchase a certain property, containing about thirty acres,
for the sum of twelve hundred and fifty dollars ; and they appointed a sub-com¬
mittee to draw up a copy of the charter, and procure its enactment by the Legis¬
lature of Pennsylvania.
In 1854, an Act of Incorporation was obtained from the Legislature of Penn¬
sylvania, in conformity with the wishes of the Presbytery of New Castle.
The buildings were finished in 1856, and consist of the Principal’s house and
the Academical edifice. The Principal’s house is 40 feet by 36, two stories in
height, well arranged, and neatly but plainly finished. The school or college
building proper, is plain in its style, yet with an imposing fagade, three storied, and
admirably arranged for all the purposes of such an establishment ; the first story
furnishes apartments for the steward, and a large dining-room 5 the second,
reached from without by a flight of steps, affords two fine recitation rooms and a
hall of instruction 30 feet by 40 ; on the third, there are eight well-ventilated
dormitories of good size. On the front a stone is placed bearing the name of
the Institution, the date of its erection, and this significant and cheering motto,
“ The night is far spent, the day is at hand.”
The location is one of the finest that could be selected. It overlooks the
country for miles around, and has a beautiful view of cultivated fields and wooded
hills and fertile valleys. The site is equidistant from the churches of Oxford,
throughout our country, do deter-
48
New London, and Fagg’s Manor (about four miles from each) ; and is near a
village called Hinsonville, where some families of coloured persons have resided
for a number of years, being owners of small tracts of land.
On the 3 1st of December, 1857, the Ashmun Institute was dedicated to the
purpose of its erection, and the Rev. J. P. Carter, A.M., of Maryland, was in¬
stalled President and Professor of Theology.
The following is the Circular of the Trustees :
THE ASHMUN INSTITUTE :
A COLLEGE AND THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY FOR THE EDUCATION OF
COLOURED MEN.
The Trustees of this Institution respectfully announce that they have elected
the Rev. John P. Carter, of the Presbytery of Baltimore, President of the Faculty ;
and that its sessions were opened on the 1st of January, 1857, with fair prospects,
as to pupils and ultimate success.
The course of instruction will be liberal and thorough ; designed to prepare
students for the work of missionaries in Africa, for the Gospel ministry among
the coloured people in this country, and for any other position of usefulness to
which they may be called.
The collegiate year will be one session of eight months ; commencing on the
1st of September and closing on the 1st of May.
For theological students there will be no charge for tuition. Their only ex¬
pense will be for boarding and incidentals, per session, $85.
Students, not having the ministry in view, will be charged, per session, $110.
This sum covers all expenses for tuition, boarding, and incidentals.
As it is not expected that the class of persons for whose benefit this institution
is established, will be able to sustain themselves in receiving an education, and
as it is not designed, at the present time, to attempt to endow the Institution, the
Trustees appeal to the Christian community to furnish those means as they may
be required. They look to the churches and other ecclesiastical bodies, and to
benevolent masters, to furnish both the students and the means to educate them.
The Trustees have erected suitable buildings for the residence of the Faculty,
and a college edifice for the accommodation of forty pupils, embracing a fine
prayer hall, recitation and study rooms, &c.
The location is at Hinsonville, Chester County, Pennsylvania, surrounded by
the Presbyterian congregations of Oxford, Fagg’s Manor, and New London, and
can be reached by public conveyance from Parkesburg, on the Columbia Rail¬
road, Pa., and from Newark, Delaware, on the Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Wil¬
mington Railroad.
Donations in money, library and text books, apparatus, furniture, clothing, &c.,
will be very thankfully received.
Communications, relating to the Institution, may be addressed to
REF. J. P. CARTER,
President of the Faculty, Oxford, Pa.
Or, Rev. Dr. J. M. Dickey, President of the Board of Trustees, Oxford, Chester
County, Pa.
TRUSTEES. — MEMBERS OF NEW CASTLE PRESBYTERY.
Ministers: J. M. Dickey, Oxford; J. B. Spotswood, New Castle; Jas. Latta,
Penningtonville ; Alfred Hamilton, Fagg’s Manor; Wm. Chester, Philadelphia.
Elders: J. M. Kelton, New London ; S. J. Dickey, Hopewell; Wm. Wilson,
Chatham.
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