Читать книгу Thoughts on African Colonization - William Lloyd Garrison - Страница 12

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Having concluded my introductory remarks, I now proceed to substantiate my accusations against the American Colonization Society, by marshalling in review the sentiments of those who first originated it, and who are its efficient managers and advocates. It is obvious that, with my limited means, and in a book designed for a cheap circulation, I shall not be able to enter into so minute a detail as the present exigency demands, or make those comments which might serve more fully to illustrate the character of this association. It should be stated, moreover, that I have not made any particular effort to procure materials for this work, being satisfied that those which have almost accidentally fallen into my hands, contain ample and conclusive evidence of the unworthiness of the Society. A vast number of the Reports of auxiliary bodies in various parts of the country, of orations and sermons and essays in favor of African colonization, are beyond my reach, and must remain unconsulted. If more proof be demanded, it shall be given to the public. There is not a sound timber in this great Babel: from the foundation to the roof, it is rotten and defective.

I shall not stop to interrogate the motives of those who planned the Society. Some of them, undoubtedly, were actuated by a benevolent desire to promote the welfare of our colored population, and could never have intended to countenance oppression. But the question is not, whether their motives were good or bad. Suppose they were all good—would this fact prove infallibly that they could not err in judgment? Do we not almost daily see men running headlong into wild and injurious enterprises with the very best intentions? There is a wide difference between meaning well and doing well. The slave trade originated in a compassionate regard for the benighted Africans; and yet we hang those who are detected in this traffic. I am willing to concede that Robert Finley and Elias B. Caldwell were philanthropic individuals; and that a large number of their followers are men of piety, benevolence and moral worth. What then? Is the American Colonization Society a beneficial institution? We shall see hereafter.

The history of this Society is familiar to the public. It was organized about the commencement of the year 1817. The first public meeting to consider the expediency of such an organization was held on the 21st of December, 1816, at which the Hon. Henry Clay presided; but I have never seen its official proceedings. It was addressed by Mr. Clay, Mr. Randolph, Mr. Caldwell, and other gentlemen, from whose speeches extracts will shortly be given.

It is my purpose in this section to show, first, the original design of the Society; secondly, that it is still strictly adhered to; and, lastly, that the Society is solemnly pledged not to interfere with the system of slavery, or in any manner to disturb the repose of the planters. Upon the rigid observance of this sinful pledge depends its existence; a single violation of it would be fatal. I want no better reason than this, to wage an uncompromising warfare against it. No man has a right to form an alliance with others, which prevents him from rebuking sin or exposing the guilt of sinners. Every individual is bound to oppose the system of slavery in the most direct, strenuous, unfaltering manner—bound by the ties of brotherhood, by the spirit of Christianity, by the genius of republicanism, by the dictates of humanity, by the requirements of justice, by the love of country, by duty to his God. He cannot suppress his voice, nor stop his ears to the groans of the prisoners, and be innocent. If he hide the truth because it may give offence—if he strike hands in amity with a thief—if he leave the needy and oppressed to perish—God will visit him with plagues. Now the language of the non-slaveholding members of the Colonization Society to the owners of slaves is virtually as follows:—'The free people of color are a nuisance to us, and plotters of sedition among your slaves. If they be not speedily removed, your property will be lost, and your lives destroyed. We therefore do solemnly agree, that, if you will unite with us in expelling this dangerous class from our shores, we will never accuse you of robbery or oppression, or irritate your feelings by asserting the right of the slaves to immediate freedom, or identify any one of you as a criminal; but, on the contrary, we will boldly assert your innocence, and applaud you as wise and benevolent men for holding your slaves in subjection until you can cast them out of the country.' I say, this is virtually their language, as I shall soon indisputably show. Thus we are presented with the strange spectacle of a procession composed of the most heterogeneous materials. There go, arm-in-arm, a New-England divine and a southern kidnapper; and there an ungodly slaveholder and a pious deacon; each eyeing the other with distrust, and fearful of exciting a quarrel, both denouncing the poor, neglected, despised free black man as a miserable, good-for-nothing creature, and both gravely complimenting their foresight and generosity in sending this worthless wretch on a religious mission to Africa!

I cannot exhibit the folly and wickedness of this alliance in a clearer light than by inserting the following extract of a letter from Capt. Charles Stuart, of the English Royal Navy, one of the most indefatigable philanthropists in England:

'The American Colonization Society looks abroad over its own country, and it finds a mass of its brethren, whom God has been pleased to clothe with a darker skin. It finds one portion of these free! another enslaved! It finds a cruel prejudice, as dark and false as sin can make it, reigning with a most tyrannous sway against both. It finds this prejudice respecting the free, declaring without a blush, "We are too wicked ever to love them as God commands us to do—we are so resolute in our wickedness as not even to desire to do so—and we are so proud in our iniquity that we will hate and revile whoever disturbs us in it—We want, like the devils of old, to be let alone in our sin—We are unalterably determined, and neither God nor man shall move us from this resolution, that our free colored fellow subjects never shall be happy in their native land." The American Colonization Society, I say, finds this most base and cruel prejudice, and lets it alone; nay more, it directly and powerfully supports it.

'The American Colonization Society finds 2,000,000 of its fellow subjects most iniquitously enslaved—and it finds a resolution as proud and wicked as the very spirit of the pit can make it against obeying God and letting them go free in their native land. It lets this perfectly infernal resolution alone, nay more, it powerfully supports it; for it in fact says, as a fond and feeble father might say to some overgrown baby before whose obstinate wickedness he quailed, "Never mind, my dear, I don't want to prevent your beating and abusing your brothers and sisters—let that be—but here is a box of sugar plums—do pray give them one or two now and then." The American Colonization Society says practically to the slaveholders and the slave party in the United States, "We don't want to prevent your plundering 2,000,000 of our fellow subjects of their liberty and of the fruits of their toil; although we know that by every principle of law which does not utterly disgrace us by assimilating us to pirates, that they have as good and as true a right to the equal protection of the law as we have; and although we ourselves stand prepared to die, rather than submit even to a fragment of the intolerable load of oppression to which we are subjecting them—yet never mind—let that be—they have grown old in suffering, and we in iniquity—and we have nothing to do now but to speak peace, peace to one another in our sins. But if any of their masters, whether from benevolence, an awakened conscience, or political or personal fear, should emancipate any, let us send them to Liberia—that is, in fact, let us give a sugar plum here and there to a few, while the many are living and dying unredressed—and while we are thus countenancing the atrocious iniquity beneath which they are perishing." In this aspect I find the American Colonization Society declaring itself a substitute for emancipation, and it is in this aspect that I contend with it, and that I proclaim it, as far as it has this character, no farther, a bane to the colored people, whether enslaved or free, and a snare and a disgrace to its country.'

The second article of the Constitution of this Society is in the following language:

'The object to which its attention is to be exclusively directed, is to promote and execute a plan for colonizing (with their consent) the free people of color residing in our country, in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem most expedient. And the Society shall act, to effect this object, in co-operation with the General Government, and such of the States as may adopt regulations upon the subject.'

The following citations abundantly sustain the charge, that the Society has not swerved from its original design, and does not oppose the system of slavery:

'Whilst he was up, he would detain the Society for a few moments. It was proper again and again to repeat, that it was far from the intention of the Society to affect, in any manner, the tenure by which a certain species of property is held. He was himself a slaveholder; and he considered that kind of property as inviolable as any other in the country. He would resist as soon, and with as much firmness, encroachments upon it as he would encroachments upon any other property which he held. Nor was he disposed even to go as far as the gentleman who had just spoken, (Mr. Mercer) in saying that he would emancipate his slaves, if the means were provided of sending them from the country.'—[Speech of Henry Clay.—First Annual Report.]

'It was proper and necessary distinctly to state, that he understood it constituted no part of the object of this meeting, to touch or agitate in the slightest degree, a delicate question, connected with another portion of the colored population of our country. It was not proposed to deliberate upon or consider at all, any question of emancipation, or that which was connected with the abolition of slavery. It was upon that condition alone, he was sure, that many gentlemen from the South and West, whom he saw present, had attended, or could be expected to co-operate. It was upon that condition only, that he himself had attended.'—[Speech of Mr. Clay before the Society, Jan. 1, 1818.—Second Annual Report.]

'It had been properly observed by the chairman, as well as by the gentleman from this District (Messrs Clay and Caldwell) that there was nothing in the proposition submitted to consideration which in the smallest degree touched another very important and delicate question, which ought to be left as much out of view as possible, (Negro slavery.) * * * Mr. R. concluded by saying, that he had thought it necessary to make these remarks, being a slaveholder himself, to shew, that, so far from being connected with the abolition of slavery, the measure proposed would prove one of the greatest securities to enable the master to keep in possession his own property.'—[Speech of John Randolph at the same meeting.]

'Your committee would not thus favorably regard the prayer of the memorialists, if it sought to impair, in the slightest degree, the rights of private property, or the yet more sacred rights of personal liberty, secured to every description of freemen in the United States.

'The resolution of the legislature of Virginia, the subsequent acts and declarations, as well as the high character of the memorialists themselves, added to the most obvious interest of the states who have recently sanctioned the purpose, or recognized the existence of the American Colonization Society, exclude the remotest apprehension of such injustice and inhumanity.'

—[Report of the committee of the House of Representatives of the United States, on the memorial of the President and Board of Managers of the Colonization Society.—Second Annual Report.]

'An effort for the benefit of the blacks, in which all parts of the country can unite, of course must not have the abolition of slavery for its immediate object. Nor may it aim directly at the instruction of the blacks. In either case, the prejudices and terrors of the slaveholding States would be excited in a moment; and with reason too, for it is a well-established point, that the public safety forbids either the emancipation or the general instruction of the slaves.' * * * 'It [African Colonization] is an enterprise in which all parts of the country can unite. The grand objection to every other effort is, that it excites the jealousies and fears of the south. But here is an effort in which the southern people are the first to engage, and which numbers many of their most distinguished men among its advocates and efficient supporters.'—[Review of the Reports of the Society, from the Christian Spectator.—Seventh Annual Report.]

'It will be seen at home and abroad, that the American Colonization Society, while it properly enough stands aloof from the question of slavery, and the abolition of slavery,' &c.—[Report of William McKenney.—Eighth Annual Report.]

'The objects of this institution are well known to the world; for no concealment whatever has ever been intended. The Society aims at the removal of free persons of color; it interferes, in no way whatever, with the rights of property.'—[Speech of G. W. Custis, Esq.—Ninth Annual Report.]

'We are reproached with doing mischief by the agitation of this question. The Society goes into no household to disturb its domestic tranquillity; it addresses itself to no slaves to weaken their obligations of obedience. It seeks to affect no man's property.'—[Speech of Mr. Clay.—Tenth Annual Report.]

'The Committee to whom was referred the memorial of the American Colonization Society, have had the subject under consideration, and now report:

'That upon due consideration of the said memorial, and from all other information which your committee has obtained, touching that subject, they are fully satisfied that no jealousies ought to exist, on the part of this or any other slaveholding State, respecting the objects of this Society, or the effects of its labors.'—[Report of a committee of the Legislature of Delaware, Feb. 8th, 1827.]

'The Society has reiterated the declaration that it has no ulterior views diverse from the object avowed in the constitution; and having declared that it is in nowise allied to any Abolition Society in America or elsewhere, is ready whenever there is need to pass a censure upon such Societies in America.'—[Speech of Mr. Harrison of Virginia.—Eleventh Annual Report.]

'We have the same interests in this subject with our southern brethren—the same opportunity of understanding it, and of knowing with what care and prudence it should be approached. What greater pledge can we give for the moderation and safety of our measures than our own interests as slaveholders, and the ties that bind us to the slaveholding communities to which we belong?'—[Speech of Mr. Key.—Same Report.]

'The second objection may be resolved into this; that the Society, under the specious pretext of removing a vicious and noxious population, is secretly undermining the rights of private property. This is the objection expressed in its full force, and if your memorialists could for a moment believe it to be true in point of fact, they would never, slaveholders as they are, have associated themselves together for the purpose of co-operating with the Parent Society; and far less would they have appeared in the character in which they now do, before the legislative bodies of a slaveholding State. And, if any instance could be now adduced, in which the Society has ever manifested even an intention to depart from the avowed object, for the promotion of which it was originally instituted, none would with more willingness and readiness withdraw from it their countenance and support. But, from the time of its formation, down to the present period, all its operations have been directed exclusively to the promotion of its one grand object, namely, the colonization in Africa of the free people of color of the United States. It has always protested, and through your memorialists it again protests, that it has no wish to interfere with the delicate but important subject of slavery. It has never, in a solitary instance, addressed itself to the slave. It has never sought to invade the tranquillity of the domestic circle, nor the peace and safety of society.'—[Memorial of the Auxiliary Colonization Society of Powhatan, to the Legislature of Virginia.—Twelfth Annual Report.]

'Therefore she looked, and well might she look, to colonization and to colonization alone. To abolition she could not look, and need not look. Whatever that scheme may have done, heretofore, in the States now free, it had done nothing and could do nothing in the slave States for the cause of humanity. This subject he rejoiced to know was now better understood, and all began to see that it was wiser and safer to remove, by colonization, a great and otherwise insuperable impediment to emancipation, than to act upon the subject of emancipation itself.'—[Speech of Mr. Key.—Thirteenth Annual Report.]

'Our Society has nothing to do directly with the question of slavery.' * * * 'Whilst the Society protests that it has no designs on the rights of the master in the slave—or the property in his slave, which the laws guarantee to him,' &c.—[Speech of Gerrit Smith, Esq.—Fourteenth Annual Report.]

'Its primary object now is, and ever has been, to colonize, with their own consent, free people of color on the coast of Africa, or elsewhere, as Congress may deem expedient. And, Sir, I am unwilling to admit, under any circumstances, and particularly in this Hall, that it ever has swerved from this cardinal object.'—[Speech of Mr. Benham.—Fourteenth Annual Report.]

'Something he must yet be allowed to say, as regarded the object the Society was set up to accomplish. This object, if he understood it aright, involved no intrusion on property, NOR EVEN UPON PREJUDICE.'—[Speech of Mr. Archer of Virginia.—Fifteenth Annual Report.]

'That the effort made by the Society should be such as to unite all parts of the country—such as to be in any degree ultimately successful, it was necessary to disclaim all attempts for the immediate abolition of slavery, or the instruction of the great body of the blacks. Such attempts would have excited alarm and jealousy, would have been inconsistent with the public safety, and defeated the great purposes of the Society.' * * * 'It is pleasing to learn that the Friends, who at first were not favorable to the Society, having been inclined to the immediate abolition of slavery, are coming into what we deem the more wise policy of encouraging emancipation by colonization.'—[Speech of Harmanus Bleecker, Esq. at the Second Anniversary Meeting of the New-York Colonization Society, April 14, 1831.]

'The plan of colonization seems the only one entitled to the least consideration.'—[Speech of M. C. Paterson, Esq. on the same occasion.]

'Nor will their brethren of the North desire to interfere with their constitutional rights, or rashly to disturb a system interwoven with their feelings, habits, and prejudices. A golden mean will be pursued, which, at the same time that it consults the wishes, and respects the prejudices of the South, will provide for the claims of justice and Christianity, and avert the storm of future desolation.'—[Speech of Lucius Q. C. Elmer, Esq.—First Annual Report of the New-Jersey Colonization Society.]

'Views are attributed to us, that were never entertained, and our plan is tortured into a design to emancipate the Slaves of the South. We are made to disregard this description of property, and to touch without reserve the rights of our neighbors. We are said to tread this almost forbidden ground with firm step, and a hardihood of effort is imputed to us, which, if true, might well excite the indignation of our southern citizens.—But, Sir, our Society and the friends of colonization wish to be distinctly understood upon this point. From the beginning they have disavowed, and they do yet disavow, that their object is the emancipation of the slaves. They have no wish, if they could, to interfere in the smallest degree with what they deem the most interesting and fearful subject which can be pressed upon the American public.' * * * 'There is no people that treat their slaves with so much kindness and with so little cruelty. Nor can I believe that we shall meet with any serious opposition from that quarter, when our object is distinctly understood—when it is known that our operations are confined exclusively to the free black population. That this is our sole object, I appeal with entire confidence to the constitution of our Society and to the constitution and Annual Reports of the Parent Institution.' * * * 'We again repeat—that our operations are confined to the free black population, and that there is no ground for fear on the part of our southern friends. We hold their slaves as we hold their other property, SACRED. Let not then this slander be repeated.'—[Speech of James S. Green, Esq. on the same occasion.]

'Nothing has contributed more to retard the operations of the Colonization Society than the mistaken notion that it interferes directly with slavery. This objection is rapidly vanishing away, and many of the slaveholding States are becoming efficient supporters of the national society. In the Senate of Louisiana during its last session, resolutions were adopted expressive of the opinion that the object of this Society was deserving the patronage of the general government. An enlightened community now see, that this Society infringes upon no man's rights, that its object is noble and benevolent—to remedy an evil which is felt and acknowledged at the north and south—to give the free people of color the privileges of freemen.'—[From a Tract issued by the Massachusetts Colonization Society in 1831, for gratuitous distribution.]

'This institution proposes to do good by a single specific course of measures. Its direct and specific purpose is not the abolition of slavery, or the relief of pauperism, or the extension of commerce and civilization, or the enlargement of science, or the conversion of the heathen. The single object which its constitution prescribes, and to which all its efforts are necessarily directed, is, African colonization from America. It proposes only to afford facilities for the voluntary emigration of free people of color from this country to the country of their fathers.'—[Review on African Colonization.—Christian Spectator for September, 1830.]

'It interferes in nowise with the right of property, and hopes and labors for the gradual abolition of slavery, by the voluntary and gradual manumission of slaves, when the free persons of color shall have first been transferred to their aboriginal climate and soil.'—[G. W. P. Custis, Esq.—African Repository, vol. i. p. 39.]

'Does this Society wish to meddle with our slaves as our rightful property? I answer no, I think not.'—[African Repository, vol. ii. p. 13.]

'They have been denounced by some as fanatical and visionary innovators, pursuing without regard to means or consequences, an object destructive of the rights of property, and dangerous to the public peace.' * * * 'The sole object of the Society, as declared at its institution, and from which it can never be allowed to depart, is 'to remove with their own consent, to the coast of Africa, the free colored population, now existing in the United States, and such as hereafter may become free.'' * * * 'In pursuing their object, therefore, (although such consequences may result from a successful prosecution of it,) the Society cannot be justly charged with aiming to disturb the rights of property or the peace of society. Your memorialists refer with confidence to the course they have pursued, in the prosecution of their object for nine years past, to shew that it is possible, without danger or alarm, to carry on such an operation, notwithstanding its supposed relation to the subject of slavery, and that they have not been regardless, in any of their measures, of what was due to the state of society in which they live. They are, themselves, chiefly slaveholders, and live, with all the ties of life binding them to a slaveholding community. They know when to speak and when to forbear upon topics connected with this painful and difficult subject. They put forth no passionate appeals before the public, seek to excite no feeling, and avoid, with the most sedulous care, every measure that would endanger the public tranquillity.' * * * 'The managers could, with no propriety, depart from their original and avowed purpose, and make emancipation their object. And they would further say, that if they were not thus restrained by the terms of their association, they would still consider any attempts to promote the increase of the free colored population by manumission, unnecessary, premature, and dangerous.' * * * 'It seems now to be admitted that, whatever has any bearing upon that question, must be managed with the utmost consideration; that the peace and order of society must not be endangered by indiscreet and ill-timed efforts to promote emancipation; and that a true regard should be manifested to the feelings and the fears, and even the prejudices of those, whose co-operation is essential.'—[Memorial of the Society to the several States.—A. R. vol. ii. pp. 57, 58, 60.]

'To found in Africa an empire of christians and republicans; to reconduct the blacks to their native land, without disturbing the order of society, the laws of property, or the rights of individuals; rapidly, but legally, silently, gradually, to drain them off; these are the noble ends of the colonization scheme.'—[African Repository, vol. ii. p. 375.]

'Nor have I ever been able to see, for my part, why the patronage of Congress to a benevolent and patriotic Society, which, without interfering, in the smallest degree, with that delicate interest, only aims to remove what we all consider as a great evil—our free people of color—(and which evil does interfere with that interest,) should excite the jealousy or spleen of our most watchful and determined advocates of state rights.'—[Idem, p. 383.]

'Recognising the constitutional and legitimate existence of slavery, it seeks not to interfere, either directly or indirectly, with the rights which it creates. Acknowledging the necessity by which its present continuance and the rigorous provisions for its maintenance are justified, it aims only at furnishing the States, in which it exists, the means of immediately lessening its severities, and of ultimately relieving themselves from its acknowledged evils.'—[Opimius in reply to Caius Gracchus.—African Repository, vol. iii. p. 16.]

'It is no abolition Society; it addresses as yet arguments to no master, and disavows with horror the idea of offering temptations to any slave. It denies the design of attempting emancipation, either partial or general; it denies, with us, that the General Government have any power to emancipate; and declares that the States have exclusively the right to regulate the whole subject of slavery. The scope of the Society is large enough, but it is in nowise mingled or confounded with the broad sweeping views of a few fanatics in America, who would urge us on to the sudden and total abolition of slavery.' * * * 'The first great material objection is that the Society does, in fact, in spite of its denial, meditate and conspire the emancipation of the slaves. To the candid, let me say that there are names on the rolls of the Society too high to be rationally accused of the duplicity and insidious falsehood which this implies; farther, the Society and its branches are composed, in by far the larger part, of citizens of slaveholding States, who cannot gravely be charged with a design so perilous to themselves. To the uncandid disputant, I say, let him put his finger on one single sentiment, declaration or act of the Society, or of any person, with its sanction, which shows such to be their object: there is in fact no pretext for the charge.' * * * 'Let me repeat, the friends of the Colonization Society, three-fourths of them are SLAVEHOLDERS; the legislatures of Maryland, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee, all slaveholding States, have approved it; every member of this auxiliary Society is, either in himself, or his nearest relatives, interested in holding slaves.' * * * 'Once more; this Society is no way connected with certain Abolition Societies in the country. To these the Colonization Society would say, "Your object is unattainable, your zeal dangerous, and nothing can give it the right direction or the right temperature, but your surrendering your plan to ours: be convinced, that if the blacks are ever to be removed from us, it will be by the free will of the owners, and by means of the opportunity which our innocent plan of an asylum for such as may be sent will afford."'—['The Col. Society Vindicated.'—Idem, pp. 197, 200, 202, 203.]

'They can impress upon the southern slaveholder, by the strength of facts, and by the recorded declarations of honest men, that the objects of the Colonization Society are altogether pure and praiseworthy, and that it has no intention to open the door to universal liberty, but only to cut out a channel, where the merciful providence of God may cause those dark waters to flow off.'—[Idem, vol. iv. p. 145.]

'About twelve years ago, some of the wisest men of the nation, (mostly slaveholders,) formed, in the city of Washington, the present American Colonization Society. Among them were men high in office, who had spent many years in studying the interests of their country, and who could not, therefore, be suspected of short-sighted enthusiasm, or any secret design of disturbing the rights or the safety of our southern citizens.' * * * 'You will observe, first, that there is to be no intermeddling with property in slaves. The rights of masters are to remain sacred in the eyes of the Society. The tendency of the scheme, and one of its objects, is to secure slaveholders, and the whole southern country, against certain evil consequences, growing out of the three-fold mixture of our population.'—[Address of the Rockbridge Col. Society.—Idem, p. 274.]

'It is true, their operations have been confined to the single object, colonization.—They do nothing directly to effect the manumission of slaves.—They think nothing can be advantageously done in favor of emancipation, but by means of colonization, of which emancipation will be a certain consequence that may be safely and quietly awaited.'—[Mr. Key's Address.—Idem, p. 303.]

'The Colonization Society, as such, have renounced wholly the name and the characteristics of abolitionists. On this point they have been unjustly and injuriously slandered. They need no such barrier to restrict them, as the sentiment of Mr. Harrison, for their operations are entirely in a different department. Into their accounts the subject of emancipation does not enter at all.'—['N. E.'—Idem, p. 306.]

'Being, chiefly, slaveholders ourselves, we well know how it becomes us to approach such a subject as this in a slaveholding state, and in every other. If there were room for a reasonable jealousy, we among the first should feel it; being as much interested in the welfare of the community, and having as much at heart, as any men can have, the security of ourselves, our property and our families.' * * * 'Our object is, not to prevail upon the master to part with his slave, for that we leave to his own reflection and CONVENIENCE; but to afford to those masters who have determined, or may determine, to manumit their slaves; provided they can be removed from this country, the means of removing them to a place where they may be really free, virtuous, respectable and happy.—Nothing can be more innocent and less alarming.'—[Review of Mr. Tazewell's Report.—Idem, p. 341.]

'The American Colonization Society has, at all times, solemnly disavowed any purpose of interference with the institutions or rights of our Southern communities.'—[Idem, vol. v. p. 307.]

'From its origin, and throughout the whole period of its existence, it has constantly disclaimed all intention whatever of interfering, in the smallest degree, with the rights of property, or the object of emancipation, gradual or immediate. It is not only without inclination, but it is without power, to make any such interference. It is not even a chartered or incorporated company; and it has no other foundation than that of Bible Societies, or any other christian or charitable unincorporated companies in our country. It knows that the subject of emancipation belongs exclusively to the several States in which slavery is tolerated, and to individual proprietors of slaves in those States, under and according to their laws.' * * * 'The Society presents to the American public no project of emancipation.' * * * 'Its exertions have been confined exclusively to the free colored people of the United States, and to those of them who are willing to go. It has neither purpose nor power to extend them to the larger portion of that race held in bondage. Throughout the whole period of its existence, this disclaimer has been made, and incontestible facts establish its truth and sincerity. It is now repeated, in its behalf, that the spirit of misrepresentation may have no pretext for abusing the public ear.'—[Mr. Clay's Speech.—African Repository, vol. vi. pp. 13, 17, 19.]

'The Society, from considerations like these, whilst it disclaims the remotest idea of ever disturbing the right of property in slaves, conceives it to be possible that the time may arrive, when, with the approbation of their owners, they shall all be at liberty; and, with those already free, be removed, with their own consent, to the land of their ancestors.'—[African Repository, vol. vi. p. 69.]

'It is not the object of this Society to liberate slaves, or touch the rights of property. To set them loose among us would be an evil more intolerable than slavery itself. It would make our situation insecure and dangerous.'—[Report of the Kentucky Col. Soc.—Idem, p. 81.]

'It contemplates no purpose of abolition: it touches no slave until his fetters have been voluntarily stricken off by the hand of his own master.'—[Speech of John A. Dix, Esq.—Idem, p. 165.]

'What has awakened that spirit of suspicion and enmity which is now manifested by these men in every form of open and active hostility? Can it be attributed to any departure of the Society from its avowed original design and principles? We maintain that it cannot; we maintain that the character of the Society has from the commencement been uniformly the same, and that its proceedings have been consistent with its character. Were or are the design and principles of the Society hostile to the rights and interest of the Southern States? We maintain that they were and are not; but on the contrary, are worthy to be cherished by the citizens of these States, and to be sustained with all their energies as means of their political and moral strength.' * * * 'The free people of color alone are to be colonized by the Society, and whether the benefits of its scheme are ever to be extended to others, is a question referred to those to whom it pertains as a matter of right and duty to decide.' * * * 'The Colonization Society would be the last Institution in the world to disturb the domestic tranquillity of the South.'—[Defence of the Society.—Idem, pp. 197, 207, 209.]

'This Society, here in the outset, most explicitly disclaims all intention to interfere in the smallest degree with the slave population. It is with the free colored population alone, and that too, with their own consent, that this Society proposes to act.'—[Address of the Maryland State Colonization Society to the People of Maryland.]

'To the slaveholder, who had charged upon them the wicked design of interfering with the rights of property under the specious pretexts of removing a vicious and dangerous free population, they address themselves in a tone of conciliation and sympathy. We know your rights, say they, and we respect them—we know your difficulties, and we appreciate them. Being mostly slaveholders ourselves, having a common interest with you in this subject, an equal opportunity of understanding it, and the same motives to prudent action, what better guarantee can be afforded for the just discrimination, and the safe operation of our measures? And what ground for apprehension that we, who are bound to you by the strongest ties of interest and of sympathy, should intrude upon the repose of the domestic circle, or invade the peace and security of society? Have not the thirteen years' peaceful, yet efficient, operations of our Society attested the moderation of our views and the safety of our plans? We have protested from the commencement, and during our whole progress, and we do now protest, that we have never entertained the purpose of intermeddling with the private property of individuals. We know that we have not the power, even if we had the inclination, to do so. Your rights, as guarantied by the Constitution, are held sacred in our eyes; and we should be among the foremost to resist, as a flagrant usurpation, any encroachment upon those rights. Our only object, as at all times avowed, is to provide for the removal to the coast of Africa, with their own consent, of such persons of color as are already free, and of such others as the humanity of individuals, or the laws of the different states, may hereafter liberate. Is there any thing, say they, in this proposition at war with your interest, your safety, your honor, or your happiness? Do we not all regard this mixed and intermediate population of free blacks, made up of slaves or their immediate descendants, as a mighty and a growing evil, exerting a dangerous and baneful influence on all around them?'—[Address of Cyrus Edwards, Esq. of Illinois.—African Repository, vol. vii. p. 100.]

'It was never the intention of the Society to interfere with the rights of the proprietors of slaves; nor has it at any time done so.'—[Address of R. J. Breckenridge of Kentucky.—Idem p. 176.]

'The specific object to which the entire funds of the Institution are devoted, is simple and plainly unexceptionable in this respect, that it interferes with no rights of individuals, and with no law of the land.' * * * 'It embraces in its provisions only the free. It does not interfere—it desires not to interfere, in any way, with the rights or the interests of the proprietors of slaves. It condemns no man because he is a slaveholder; it seeks to quiet all unkind feelings between the sober and virtuous men of the North and of the South on the subject of slavery; it sends abroad no influence to disturb the peace, and endanger the security and prosperity of any portion of the country.'—[Character and Influence of the Colonization Society.—African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 194, 200.]

'Can it be a ruthless scheme of political speculation, which would trample, with rude and unhallowed step, upon the rights of property, to gratify the visionary and fanatical projects of its authors? No: this is impossible. Yet such is the language of intemperate opposition, with which this Society has been assailed by its enemies.' * * * 'Equally absurd and false is the objection, that this Society seeks indirectly to disturb the rights of property, and to interfere with the well-established relation subsisting between master and slave. The man who avows such monstrous purposes as these, and seeks to shelter himself under the sanction and authority of the American Colonization Society, is a base traitor to the cause which it seeks to advance—AN ENEMY OF THE WORST AND MOST DANGEROUS STAMP, because he assumes the specious garb of a friend and coadjutor. Let him stand, or let him fall, by the verdict of an insulted and outraged community—but do not make liable for his acts a great Institution, whose real friends will be the first to reject and discountenance him, and to mark upon his forehead in indelible characters, "This is a traitor to the cause of his country and the cause of humanity."—It is true that the friends of the American Colonization Society have permitted themselves to entertain the high and exalted hope, that, by its influences, ultimate and remote, the burdens which are incident to slavery may be greatly mitigated, and possibly the evil itself at some future day be entirely removed. But mark, Mr. President, and mark well, ye hearers, the grounds upon which this hope is founded. It could not be sustained by any effort, direct or indirect, to invade the rights of the slaveholding community, for the plain and palpable reason, that the effort itself would furnish the most certain means of defeating the object in view, even supposing the friends of the Society reckless enough to entertain it. It would denote on the part of those who made it, an extremity of madness and folly, wholly unprecedented in the history of the world, and if persevered in, would dissolve the government into its original elements, even though the principle of union which holds it together were a thousand-fold stronger than it is.' * * * 'Surely the friends of the Colonization Society have done nought either to alarm the honest fears of the patriot, or excite the morbid sensibilities of the slaveholder.'—[Address delivered before the Lynchburg Auxiliary Colonization Society, August 18, 1831.]