Although these laws are founded neither in humanity, nor Christianity, yet evidently in good policy; and they are necessarily connected with slavery, in the extent to which it exists. The physical power of the black population, in many districts of our country, bears such an alarming proportion to that of the whites, that nothing is wanting on their part but information, to enable them to assert and maintain their rights. Only let them know what they are, and of what they are capable, and in one month’s time the Tragedy of St. Domingo would be re-acted on this side of the Gulf-Stream.
By this time, my hearers, I presume you have begun to inquire for the remedy of this “legion of evils:” and some of you may have drawn the conclusion, that nothing short of the immediate and absolute emancipation of all the slaves of our country would satisfy my mind. But this is not the fact. However highly my feelings may be wrought on this subject, they have not got the better of my understanding. I am perfectly satisfied that it is one of those evils which cannot be removed by a single stroke. The immediate emancipation of all the slaves, would doubtless be attended with consequences, both upon themselves and the whites, vastly more terrible and distressing, than all the horrours of slavery. And if St. Paul himself were now on earth, and consulted on the subject, I doubt not he would disapprove of such a measure. It has been already shown that there are evils existing in the pagan world, which are directly opposed to Christianity; and yet the genius of the gospel, upon its first introduction, does not demand their immediate and entire abolition. And although this country is not strictly speaking a pagan country, yet the practice in question is a pagan practice; and so effectually wrought into the habits and feelings and institutions of our land, that its complete extirpation must necessarily be the work of time.—But here let it be particularly observed, that, in all such cases, we have no licence for the toleration of any sinful custom, a single moment, without the adoption of wise and prudent measures calculated ultimately to abolish it.
This, it appears to me, is the only course that can be adopted in this country for the annihilation of slavery; and in this point of view, I introduce to your notice, the object and operations of the “American Colonization Society.”
This association was formed, at the city of Washington, in the beginning of the year 1817; and is patronized by many of the most distinguished officers of the general government. The Chief Justice of the United States has been, from its first formation, the president of the Society. Its object is the transportation to Africa of the free people of colour, who are willing to go, and the establishment of them in a colony, or colonies, under all the advantages of civil and religious privileges. Though its incipient measures were attended with some adverse providences, yet it has progressed with as much success, and with as flattering prospects as could possibly have been anticipated. A district of fertile territory on the Western Coast of Africa has been purchased of the natives, and a flourishing colony planted there, under the direction and control of resident agents. Schools are organized, and the means of grace established among them. The plan has been countenanced, though not explicitly approved, by the government of our country; and it has been distinctly recommended by the supreme judicatories of several of the most numerous and respectable denominations of Christians to the patronage of their members, especially on this interesting occasion.
As this Society, since its organization, has met with considerable opposition, I feel it to be my duty to present a few considerations in support of its claims.
If the slaves of our country are ever to enjoy all the blessings of freedom, it must evidently be, in a state of total separation from the white population. Such are the present feelings of our citizens, and so firmly are they fixed in their breasts, that we need never expect to see the blacks amalgamated with the whites in all the social connexions of life. In what district of our country will the latter become willing to connect themselves with the former in the relations of the domestick circle? What legislature will be willing to admit the negro to equal privileges and powers with the white man, on the floor of the senate chamber? What University will hold forth the same advantages and honours to our own children and the descendants of Africans? But until all these things are realized, if they must live together in the same territory, the negro’s mind will forever be depressed to the dust with a sense of conscious inferiority, and can never aspire to those elevated distinctions of which it is capable. And this is the grand reason of all that present dulness and stupidity, which are frequently adduced, as evidence that negroes are a race of beings but little elevated above the brutal creation. If therefore universal liberty should be proclaimed through our land, and the African race still be permitted to live in the midst of us, disfranchised by our feelings and customs, if not by our laws,[[2]] of the rights of freemen, we have no reason to suppose that they would be essentially improved or benefited by their freedom. It is therefore most palpably manifest, that if our slaves are ever to enjoy all the blessings of liberty, they must not only be liberated from the chains of bondage, but at the same time, be placed in a situation in which they may aspire to all the advantages and distinctions of civilized life.
[2]. In some of the states, even where slavery is abolished, the blacks are disfranchised of the rights of citizens. To the eternal disgrace of our own state, the despotick principles of our Constitution have been multiplied instead of being diminished by the late Convention. By the old Constitution, only one class of citizens were divested of certain natural rights without having committed any crime to forfeit them. But by the present Constitution there are two. And the reasons in both cases are very similar; in the one, wearing a black coat, and in the other, a black skin. But the operation of these regulations is much more oppressive in the latter, than in the former case. The colour of a man’s dress depends on his own will; but, “the Ethiopian CANNOT change his skin,” if he would.
This is the immediate object of the Colonization Society. Nor is it a mere matter of doubtful experiment. A similar attempt has long since been made by the British nation, at Sierra Leone, and the result has fully proven to the world, that the minds of black men are as capable as the whites, when placed under equal circumstances of improvement. The same results are beginning to be realized in the infant colony planted by our own countrymen at Cape Mesurado. And nothing is wanting, but the patronage of our own citizens, to extend the same advantages to hundreds and thousands of the degraded and oppressed sons of Africa, who are still in our land.
In further confirmation of the same views, it may be observed, that in the slave-holding states there are many owners of slaves who would gladly emancipate them, but are expressly prohibited. It is impossible, therefore, for them to proclaim “liberty to the captives,” unless they can transport them without the limits of the state. What then can such benevolent masters do with their slaves? To turn them out into our western wilds, would be to expose them to certain starvation; or if any survived, they would be hunted down as wild beasts, by a herd of brutal kidnappers, and carried back and sold to less merciful masters than they served before. To transport them to a foreign shore, if any individual were able to incur the expense, without any concert of action, would be to expose them to immediate death by barbarous hands. It is therefore impossible to afford those who are disposed, an opportunity to emancipate their slaves, without such a concert of action as shall protect the colony in its infantile state, till it shall acquire strength and ability to defend itself. Such is the object of the Colonization Society.
Let not this effort of beneficence be paralized by the plea, that it is an insignificant undertaking compared with the magnitude of the evil intended to be removed. Did you never see a cloud, no bigger than a man’s hand, at its first appearance, finally overspread the whole horizon and pour a copious blessing on the thirsty earth? What plan of benevolence, in this fallen world, was not small at its commencement? Even the kingdom of God was once like a grain of mustard seed; but it has gradually increased and will continue to grow till it fills the world. The Herculean labour of abolishing the slave-trade, with all its bloody horrours, was commenced, within our recollection, by a single individual, in the legislature of a single nation, amidst the clamours of a host of opposition; and yet that individual has lived, and we have lived, to see the horrid traffick proscribed, not only by that nation, but by the civilized world, and the practice declared piracy by several nations. What influence then can a consideration of the smallness of the means, compared with the end, have upon the benevolent mind in relation to this subject? It may indeed stimulate to increased exertion, but it surely can produce no discouraging effect.