Resolved, That, as soon as the portion of the existing funded debt of the United States, for the payment of which the public land of the United States is pledged, shall have been paid off, then, and thenceforth, the whole of the public land of the United States, with the net proceeds of all future sales thereof, shall constitute or form a fund, which is hereby appropriated; and the faith of the United States is pledged that the said fund shall be inviolably applied to aid the emancipation of such slaves, within any of the United States, and aid the removal of such slaves, and the removal of such free people of color, in any of the said States, as, by the laws of the States, respectively, may be allowed to be emancipated or removed, to any territory or country without the limits of the United States of America.
Extract of a letter from the Hon. James Madison to the secretary of the society, the Rev. R. R. Gurley.
Montpelier, December 29, 1831.
Dear sir: I received in due time your letter of the 21st ultimo, and with due sensibility to the subject of it. Such, however, has been the effect of a painful rheumatism on my general condition, as well as in disqualifying my fingers for the use of the pen, that I could not do justice “to the principles and measures of the Colonization Society, in all the great and various relations they sustain to our own country and to Africa,” if my views of them could have the value which your partiality supposes. I may observe, in brief, that the society had always my good wishes, though with hopes of its success less sanguine than were entertained by others, found to have been the better judges; and that I feel the greatest pleasure at the progress already made by the society, and the encouragement to encounter remaining difficulties afforded by the earlier and greater ones already overcome. Many circumstances at the present moment seem to concur in brightening the prospects of the society, and cherishing the hope that the time will come when the dreadful calamity which has so long afflicted our country, and filled so many with despair, will be gradually removed, and by means consistent with justice, peace, and the general satisfaction; thus giving to our country the full enjoyment of the blessings of liberty, and to the world the full benefit of its great example. I never considered the main difficulty of the great work as lying in the deficiency of emancipation, but in an inadequacy of asylums for such a growing mass of population, and in the great expense of removing it to its new home. The spirit of private manumissions, as the laws may permit and the exiles may consent, is increasing, and will increase; and there are sufficient indications that the public authorities in slaveholding States are looking forward to interpositions in different forms, that must have a powerful effect. With respect to the new abode for the emigrants, all agree that the choice made by the society is rendered peculiarly appropriate by considerations which need not be repeated; and, if other situations should not be found eligible receptacles for a portion of them, the prospects in Africa seem to be expanding in a highly encouraging degree.
In contemplating the pecuniary resources needed for the removal of such a number to so great a distance, my thoughts and hopes have been long turned to the rich fund presented in the western lands of our nation, which will soon entirely cease to be under a pledge for another object. The great one in question is truly of a national character, and it is known that distinguished patriots, not dwelling in slaveholding States, have viewed the object in that light, and would be willing to let the national domain he a resource in effecting it.
Should it be remarked that the States, though all may be interested in relieving our country from the colored population, are not all equally so, it is but fair to recollect that the sections most to be benefited are those whose cessions created the fund to be disposed of.
Extract of a letter from the Hon. John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United Hates, to the Rev. R. R. Gurley, dated
Richmond, December 14, 1831.
The great object of the society, I presume, is to obtain pecuniary aids. Application will undoubtedly be made, I hope successfully, to the several State legislatures, by the societies formed within them, respectively. It is extremely desirable that they should pass permanent laws on the subject; and the excitement produced by the late insurrection makes this a favorable moment for the friends of the colony to press for such acts. It would be also desirable, if such a direction could be given to State legislation, as might have some tendency to incline the people of color to migrate. This, however, is a subject of much delicacy. Whatever may be the success of our endeavors to obtain acts for permanent aids, I have no doubt that our applications for immediate contributions will receive attention. It is possible, though not probable, that more people of color may be disposed to migrate, than can be provided for with the funds the society may be enabled to command. Under this impression I suggested, some years past, to one or two of the board of managers, to allow a small additional bounty in lands to those who would pay their own passage, in whole or in part. The suggestion, however, was not approved.
It is undoubtedly of great importance to retain the countenance and protection of the General Government. Some of our cruisers stationed on the coast of Africa would, at the same time, interrupt the slave trade—a horrid traffic, detested by all good men—and would protect the vessels and commerce of the colony from pirates who infest those seas. The power of the Government to afford this aid is not, I believe, contested. I regret that its power to grant pecuniary aid is not equally free from question. On this subject I have always thought, and still think, that the proposition made by Mr. King, in the Senate, is the most unexceptionable, and the most effective, that can be devised.