IMPORTANT DISCUSSION.

Oxford, May 22, 1854.

TO THE COLORED FREEMEN OF BUTLER COUNTY.

At a meeting of the Oxford Council, auxiliary to the State Council of the Free Colored People of Ohio, held on the 5th inst., the following preamble and resolutions were adopted for consideration; and on the 12th inst., an additional resolution was passed, inviting the members of the several Councils, in Butler county, to participate in the discussion. Notice is, therefore, hereby given, to all interested, that the discussion of the said preamble and resolutions will be commenced on Friday, the 26th inst., at two o’clock, P. M., in Oxford, and be continued, from time to time, until disposed of by the Council.

ALEXANDER PROCTOR, Pres’t.

Samuel D. Fox, Secretary.

Whereas, the Colored People of the United States, from the peculiar crisis which has arrived in their condition, are taking their rights into their own hands:

And, whereas, slavery, that “sum of all villainies,” is lengthening its cords and strengthening its stakes, and still more broadly exerting its baleful influence over the free as well as the slave portion of our people:

And, whereas, we believe, that to remain passive and indifferent, under all these great evils, is at once to show ourselves unworthy of those noble rights for which we contend:

And, whereas, the minds of the colored people, North, South, East, and West, are agitated, and parties and factions are being organized all over the Union, each urging its peculiar panacea for the ills we endure:

And, whereas, others are engaged in making investigations relative to Canada, the West Indies, and Central America, with the view of deciding where the safest asylum can be secured for ourselves and our posterity:

And, whereas, the time has fully come, we are convinced, when every subject, every system, every argument, should be thoroughly examined; and that to shrink from an honest and impartial investigation of all systems and subjects, African colonization not excepted, is behind the spirit of the age, and is pusillanimous rather than magnanimous: therefore,

Resolved, 1st, That we are in favor of availing ourselves of all the information we can obtain, as to the advantages afforded to emigrants in the Republic of Liberia, and the inducements held out by that Colony to free colored people.

2. That we will endeavor to procure all the correct knowledge we can, of Grand Cape Mount, in Africa, as the point of emigration for any of our people who may choose Liberia as their future home.

3. That, being informed of the existence of an Association in England, which has been organized to promote the agricultural resources of Africa, by advances of goods and money to intelligent and honest emigrants and colonists; we hereby authorize our President and Secretary to correspond with the said association, and learn the extent of encouragement it proposes to give to emigrants from the United States.

4. That in the adoption of any or all of these resolutions, we do not intend to be understood as committing ourselves either as Emigrationists or Colonizationists, but as honest inquirers after truth, and as men not afraid to investigate every question at issue in the great controversy in which we are involved.

[1]. 1806.

[2]. Mr. Mills enlisted in this cause himself, but on the organization of the American Colonization Society, he embarked in it as the more practicable scheme.

[3]. 1812.

[4]. 1817.

[5]. The receipts, for the first six years, averaged only $3,276 per annum.

[6]. Cape Palmas, in its political organization, is a distinct colony from Liberia. It was established by Maryland, and has recently declared its independence. We shall speak of it, however, as a part of Liberia. Their territories lie contiguous, and the Missions of most of the Societies are common to both colonies.

[7]. Missionary Advocate, April, 1853.

[8]. Letter to the Colonization Herald—October, 1853.

[9]. Gammel’s History of the American Baptist Missions.

[10]. Gammel’s History of the American Baptist Missions.

[11]. Ibid.

[12]. Baptist Missionary Magazine, March, 1854.

[13]. Mr. Bowen was in Abbeokuta, when the king of Dahomey attempted its destruction, as detailed hereafter.

[14]. Report of Bishop Payne, June 6, 1853.

[15]. Report of Bishop Payne, June 6, 1853.

[16]. The funds for this purpose were supplied as follows: Charles McMicken, Esq., of Cincinnati, $5000; Solomon Sturges, Esq., of Putnam, Ohio, $1000; and Samuel Gurney, Esq., of London, England, $5000.

[17]. This system, in its moral bearings upon the Islands, is little better than the old African Slave trade. The disparity in the sexes is fully as great under the apprenticeship system, as it was during the prevalence of the slave trade, and it must be equally as demoralizing. Take, as an example, a few imports of apprentices from India and China, for the supply of English planters. The cargoes of five vessels, were composed of 1,433 males, 257 females, and 84 children.

The practical effect of this system upon Africa, in exciting wars, and carrying off the male population, is identical with that of the slave trade. See President Roberts’ letter on that subject in Appendix.

[18]. This sum is about equal to the price usually paid by the slave traders for slaves.

[19]. African Repository, August, 1853. [See Appendix.]

[20]. Officer of U. S. Navy, in Gurley’s Report. Vice President Benson also bears the following testimony to an improvement in the character of the natives.

“It is also gratifying to know that the natives are becoming increasingly assimilated to us in manners and habits; their requisitions for civilized productions increase annually; they are seldom satisfied with the same size and quality of the piece of cloth they wore last year—some of them habitually wear a pair of pantaloons, shirt or coat, and others all of these at once: and of the thousands that have intercourse with our settlements, and used to glory in their greegree, and were afraid to utter an expression against it, very many of them are now ashamed to be seen with a vestige of it about them, and if a particle of it should be about them, they try to secrete it, and if detected, it is with mortification depicted in their countenances; they disclaim it, or make some excuse. There is also manifestly, a spirit of commendable competition among them throughout the country; they try to rival each other in many of the civilized customs, a pride and ambition that I feel sure will never abate materially, till they are raised to the perfect level of civilized life, and flow in one common channel with us, civilly and religiously. It is certainly progressing, and though some untoward circumstances may retard its consummation, yet nothing shall ultimately prevent it.”

[21]. The details of mortality connected with the Baptist mission, have been given full, as an example of the effects of the climate on white missionaries.

[22]. Letter to the Colonization Herald, October, 1853.

[23]. “Immemorial usage preserves a positive law, after the occasion or accident which gave rise to it, has been forgotten; and tracing the subject to natural principles, the claim of slavery never can be supported. The power claimed never was in use here, or acknowledged by the law. Upon the whole, we can not say the cause returned is sufficient by the law; and therefore the man must be discharged.”—Close of Lord Mansfield’s decision in the Somerset case.

[24]. Clarkson’s History of the slave trade.

[25]. Wadstrom, page 220.

[26]. Memoirs of Granville Sharp.

[27]. Wadstrom, page 221.

[28]. Wadstrom.

[29]. They had first gone to Nova Scotia, from whence they sailed to Sierra Leone.

[30]. See my Lectures on African Colonization, and on the Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor, for the main facts in relation to the increase of the Slave-trade.

[31]. It does not appear that the Nova Scotia fugitives sent their children to these Schools.

[32]. Although these Nova Scotia free blacks,—or rather these American fugitive slaves,—had gone to work so freely at first, in building churches and establishing schools, nothing farther is heard of them, in the history of missions, until the Wesleyans, 18 years afterwards, undertook their spiritual oversight. Their failure in securing the civil privileges for which they took up arms, seems to have placed them in a position of antagonism to the English Church.

[33]. “Abbeokuta, or Sunrise in the Tropics.”

[34]. “Where are your charms?” said a Mohammedan chief, under whom part of the Christian converts fought against the Dahomians. “You will all be killed.” “We have no charms,” was the simple reply, “but our faith in the Son of God, who died for sinners.” A watchful eye was kept upon them in the field of battle, for it was said that Christianity was making women of them; but they acquitted themselves like men: so much so, as to gain the praise even of those who persecuted them; and the result showed that it was possible to be brave, and yet Christian, and to escape the risks of battle without amulets.—Church Missionary Intelligencer, Oct. 1853.

When, in the midst of the battle, another chief, addressing one of the converts, exclaimed: “Ah, Kashi, if all fought like you, they might follow what religion they like.”—“Sunrise in the Tropics.”

[35]. Church Missionary Intelligencer, June, 1853.

[36]. Abbeokuta, or Sunrise in the Tropics.

[37]. Church Missionary Intelligencer, December, 1853.

[38]. Capt. Paul Cuffee, a wealthy colored man of Boston, in 1815, took out 38 emigrants to Sierra Leone.

[39]. The whole population on the present enlarged territory of Liberia, is estimated at 300,000; but the partly civilized population, called citizens, is only 80,000.

[40]. The native population, along the coast, are found to be more degraded than those of the interior.

[41]. Bishop Ames, at the anniversary meeting of our Missionary Society, held in Cincinnati, 1853, paid the following just compliment to the Republic of Liberia:—

“Nations reared under religious and political restraint are not capable of self-government, while those who enjoy only partially these advantages have set an example of such capability. We have in illustration of this a well-authenticated historical fact: we refer to the colored people of this country, who, though they have grown up under the most unfavorable circumstances, were enabled to succeed in establishing a sound republican government in Africa. They have given the most clear and indubitable evidence of their capability of self-government, and in this respect have shown a higher grade of manhood than the polished Frenchman himself.”—Methodist Mis. Adv.

[42]. Missionary Herald, January, 1854.

[43]. Missionary Herald, August, 1853.

[44]. See Moffat’s South African Missions.

[45]. Missionary Herald, for December, 1853, and January, 1854.

[46]. Missionary Herald, February, 1853.

[47]. Recent developments at Sierra Leone, have proved, beyond all question, that certain persons, in that English Colony, have long been secretly engaged in the slave-trade. There is reason to believe, however, that these wars have been excited by the English scheme of restocking their West India plantations by purchasing emigrants, at $10 per head, from the African chiefs. See the letter of President Roberts, on this subject, in Appendix.

[48]. American Missionary, March, 1853.

[49]. Barbarism is the ignorance of infancy prolonged into adult age. This definition will convey a true idea of its relations to moral and religious truth.

[50]. The German term for farmers.

[51]. Missionary Magazine and Chronicle, October, 1853.

[52]. Report of Annual Meeting, May, 1853.

[53]. Baird’s Retrospect, pages 400–2.

[54]. The comparative condition of the missions in West Africa, South Africa, and the West Indies, according to Baird’s Retrospect for 1850, was as follows:

W. Africa.S. Africa.W. Indies.
Missionaries,93214283
Assistant Missionaries,17015536
Native Assistants,758349
Communicants,9,62512,11675,503
Schools,15260160
Pupils,13,63120,10211,042

[55]. In England.

[56]. United States.