True it is, that Colonizationists protest most earnestly against being judged by any but the official language of the Board of Managers. To the justice of this protest it is impossible to assent. The Society is arraigned at the bar of the public, not for the object avowed in the constitution, but for the influence it exerts in vindicating and prolonging slavery, and in augmenting the oppression of the free blacks. This influence, if exerted at all, must be exerted by individuals in the capacity of members, agents, and officers of the Society, and the only means they possess of exerting this influence, is by the expression of their sentiments. To insist, therefore, that these sentiments may not be quoted, to show what influence the Society does exert, is to contradict the plainest suggestions of common sense. Certainly the whole Society is not necessarily responsible for the sentiments of a single member; but the question is not, whether one or two or more members have said improper things, but whether the influence generally exerted by the Society, is what it is alleged to be; and this is a question of fact, to be decided by evidence, and that evidence necessarily consists of the opinions expressed by its officers, agents, and distinguished members, and auxiliary associations.

This protest, moreover, comes with an ill grace from a Society that has appealed to the letters and the speeches of its members, to repel the objection urged against it in certain quarters, of a desire to interfere with the rights of slave-holders.* Should the members and officers of an AntiSlavery Society, continually, at its public meetings, deliver addresses in favour of intermarriages between whites and blacks should auxiliaries pass resolutions approving of such marriages-should these addresses and resolutions be published and circulated at the expense of the Society, and should its official magazine recommend such marriages, would it not be the excess of disingenuousness, for the Society to attempt to repel the charge that its influence was exerted to bring about an amalgamation of the two races, by denying that it was responsible for the language of its members, and by appealing to its constitution and

*See Af. Rep. VI. 198.

official reports, in which no allusion was made to the subject? All that can fairly be demanded, is that the quotations be honestly made, and that they be sufficiently numerous and explicit, to establish the facts they are brought to prove. It must not, however, be supposed, that we intend to prove our charges against the Society, only by the declarations of individual members. On the contrary, we shall summon as witnesses, the MANAGERS of the parent Society, and its auxiliaries; and shall exhibit in evidence their official reports and addresses. In the following pages will be found numerous extracts from Colonization documents; and it is right to observe, that they are for the most part, merely selections, and bearing generally but a small proportion to the whole number of extracts to the same point, that might have been adduced. Some few of the extracts have been made by other writers; but, the great mass of them have been selected by the author, and in no instance has he given a quotation which he does not believe is fairly and honestly made. To prevent mistakes, it may be well to mention, that the African Repository is a monthly magazine, and is, as appears from the title page, published by order of the Managers of the American Colonization Society." The Editor is understood to be the Secretary of the Society. This periodical, together with the annual reports, and occasional official addresses, are the only publications for which the managers of the Society are responsible: when Colonization newspapers are mentioned, nothing more is intended by the expression, than that they are papers which espouse the cause of the Society.

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CHAPTER II.

INFLUENCE OF THE SOCIETY ON THE CONDITION OF FREE PERSONS OF COLOR.

The object of the Society is declared by the Constitution, to be exclusively the colonization of free persons of color, with their own consent. Now there is nothing in this object necessarily benevolent. A colony may be established for commercial purposes, or as a military station,

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or as a receptacle for convicts, or to aid the diffusion of Christianity. The absence in the Constitution of all avowed motive for the proposed colony, invites the co-operation of all who advocate the scheme from any motive whatever. For the purpose of raising money, it is the policy of the Society to appeal to all the various and discordant motives that can be incited in behalf of the colony. A strong and very general prejudice exists against the free blacks. It is unfortunately the policy of the Society to aggravate this prejudice, since the more we abominate these people, the more willing we shall be to pay money for the purpose of getting rid of them. The influence of the doctrine of expediency on good men, will be seen in the unchristian language they have used, in regard to this unhappy and oppressed portion of their fellow-men.

"Free blacks are a greater NUISANCE than even slaves themselves." Address of C. C. Harper, Af. Rep. II. 189. "A horde of miserable people-the objects of universal suspicion subsisting by plunder." Speech of Gen. Mercer, Vice President.

"Of all classes of our population, the most vicious is that of the free colored-contaminated themselves, they extend their vices to all around them." Speech of Mr. Clay, Vice President, 12th Report, p. 21.

"Averse to labor, with no incentives to industry, or motives to respect, they maintain a precarious existence by petty thefts and plunder." African Rep. VI. 135.

"They are alike injurious by their conduct and example to all other classes of society." Memorial of Manchester Col. Soc. to Virginia Legislature.

"A large mass of human beings who hang as a vile excrescence upon society." Address of C. L. Mosby, before a Col. Soc. in Virginia.

"This class of persons a CURSE AND CONTAGION wherever they reside." African Rep. III. 203.

"Of all the descriptions of our population, and of either portion of the African race, the free persons of color are by far, as a class, the most corrupt, depraved and aban

doned." Speech of Mr. Clay, African Rep. VI. 12.

"An anomalous race of beings, the most depraved upon

earth." African Rep. VII. 230.

"They are a mildew upon our fields, a scourge to our backs, and a stain upon our escutcheon." Memorial of Kentucky Col. Soc. to Congress.

"I will look no farther when I seek for the most degraded, the most abandoned race on the earth, but rest my eye on this people." Address before the Lynchburgh Col.

Soc.

"There is a class (free blacks) among us, introduced by violence, notoriously ignorant, degraded and miserable, mentally diseased, broken spirited, acted upon by no motives to honorable exertions, scarcely reached in their debasement by the heavenly light." Editorial Article, Afr. Rep. I. 68.

We may here remark, that the tone of these extracts is very different from that used when the speaker desires to excite sympathy for the wretched. We are told that these people are vicious and debased, but no hint is given that their vice and debasement are the result of sinful prejudices and cruel laws.-No appeal is made to the spirit of Christianity to pour oil and wine into the wound of suffering humanity. We are not reminded that these wretches are our brethren for whom Christ died. Nothing is omitted to impress us with a sense of the depth of the misery into which they are plunged; but for what object are these frightful pictures presented to us? Is it to urge us to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to instruct the ignorant, and to reform the wicked! No, but to transport them to Africa!

To an unsophisticated Christian it would seem that the true way of relieving the wretchedness and vice of these people would be, first to protest against their unrighteous oppression, and to procure the repeal of those laws which forbid their instruction; and then to make them partakers of the blessings of education and religion. But far from the Colonization Society are all such old fashioned ways of doing good. Instead of protesting against the causes of all this misery, THE SOCIETY EXCUSES AND JUSTIFIES THE

OPPRESSION OF THE FREE NEGROES, AND THE PREJUDICES AGAINST THEM.

"SEVERE NECESSITY places them (free negroes) in a class of degraded beings." Address of Mr. Rives to Lynchburgh Col. Soc. Afr. Rep. V. 238.

"The severe legislation, I will not say that under all circumstances it is too severe, the severe legislation of the slave States which drives their emancipated blacks to the free States, and scatters the NUISANCE there, attests that we have a share in this evil." Speech of G. Smith, Esq. Vice President. 14th Report, p. xiii.

"This law," (a law by which a manumitted negro be comes again a slave if he remains twelve months in the state) "odious and unjust as it may at first view appear, and hard as it may seem to bear upon the liberated negro, was doubtless dictated by sound policy, and its repeal would be regarded by none with more unfeigned regret than by the friends of African colonization. It has restrained many masters from giving freedom to their slaves, and has thereby contributed to check the growth of an evil already too great and formidable." Memorial from Powhatan Col. Soc. to Virginia Legislature.

"I am clear that whether we consider it with reference to the welfare of the state, or the happiness of the blacks, it were better to have left them in CHAINS, than to have liberated them to receive such freedom as they enjoy, and greater freedom we cannot, must not allow them." Rep. III. 197.

Af.

"The habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of society -prejudices which neither refinement, nor argument, nor education, NOR RELIGION ITSELF CAN subdue, mark the people of color, whether bond or free, as the subjects of a degradation inevitable and incurable." Address of the

Connecticut Col. Soc.

"The managers consider it clear that causes exist and are now operating to prevent their improvement and elevation to any considerable extent as a class in this country, which are fixed not only beyond the control of the friends of humanity, but of any human power: CHRISTIANITY cannot do for them here what it will do for them in Africa. This is not the fault of the colored man, nor of the white man, but AN ORDINATION OF PROVIDENCE, and no more to be changed than the laws of nature." 15th Report, p. 47. "We do not ask that the provisions of our Constitution and statute book should be so modified as to relieve and exalt the condition of the colored people whilst they remain