“It is now nearly thirty years since Mr. Finley, Mr. Caldwell, and some other gentlemen, met by agreement with a view to form a Colonization Society. I was one of that number. We did not intend to do more or less than establish on the shores of Africa a colony, to which free colored persons with their own voluntary consent might go. There was to be no constraint, no coercion, no compulsory process to which those who went must submit: all was to be perfectly voluntary and unconstrained in any manner or degree. Far, very far, was it from our purpose to interfere with the slaves, or to shake or affect the title by which they are held in the least degree whatever. We saw and were fully aware of the fact that the free white race and the colored race never could live together on terms of equality. We did not stop to ask whether this was right or wrong: we looked at the fact, and on that fact we founded our operations. I know, indeed, that there are men, many of them of high respectability, who hold that all this is prejudice; that it should be expelled from our minds, and that we ought to recognise in men, though of different color from ourselves, members of our common race, entitled in all respects to equal privileges with ourselves. This may be so according to their view of the matter; but we went on the broad and incontestible fact, that the two races could not, on equal terms, live in the same community harmoniously together. And we thought that the people of color should be voluntarily removed, if practicable, to their native country, or to the country at least of their ancestors: there they might enjoy all those blessings of freedom and equality of condition which to them were impossible here. Our object, let me repeat it, was limited to the free; we never thought of touching in any manner the title to slave property. We hoped to be able to demonstrate the practicability of colonizing them; and when that should have been demonstrated, those who owned slaves might avail themselves of it or not—might send liberated slaves to Africa or not, precisely as they pleased. All our purpose was to establish, if we could, a colony of free colored men, and thus to demonstrate to the world that colonization was practicable.
“It has been truly stated, that from the day of its formation to the present hour, the Society has been surrounded with difficulties. It has had to stand the fire of batteries both in front and rear, and upon both flanks. Extremes of opinion and of action, which could unite in nothing else, united in assaulting us. Those who cared for the safety of the institution of slavery assailed us on one hand, while the Abolitionists assaulted us on the other. But on what ground should either oppose such an enterprise? Our ground in regard to both was total non-interference. We meant to deal only with colored persons already free. This did not interfere with the projects of the Abolitionists. For myself, I believe those projects to be impracticable; and I am persuaded that if the same energy and effort which have been expended in getting up abolition movements, had been directed to the work of colonization, a vast amount of benefit would have resulted to the cause of humanity and to the colored race. Why should they attack us? We do not interfere with them. Their project is to emancipate at one blow the whole colored race. Well, if they can do that, then our object begins. The office of colonization commences only where theirs would end. The colored race being here in the midst of us, and not being capable of enjoying a state of equality with the whites around them, our object is to carry them to a place where they may enjoy, without molestation, all the benefits of freemen. Here is no incompatibility; and in point of fact we have thus far gone on our way without disturbing any body, either on the right or on the left.
“But it is said that our Society is incapable of effecting any great object. That our aims can never be accomplished without aid from the State governments, or unless the General Government shall send out of the country all the free blacks. It is our purpose to show the power of colonization, in competent hands, fully to carry out the benevolent ends we have in view, to work all the great results for which this Society was formed. Our purpose is to demonstrate to the American people, that if they choose to take hold of this great project in their State Legislatures, or otherwise, the end sought is practicable, and the principle of colonization is competent to carry abroad all the colored population who shall be emancipated. That demonstration has been made.
“The separation of free colored people from the white race is a measure recommended not only by the mutual and the separate good of both, but by the prospect that Africa, which has so long lain in barbarism, worshipping unknown and forbidden gods, may thus be brought to the light and blessings of Christianity. Those who met to form this Society saw not only that great good would accrue from their design to the colored race, by elevating their character, and restoring them to the possession of rights they never can enjoy here, but that it would be a probable means, in the end, of carrying to Africa all the blessing of our holy religion, and all the benefits of our civilization and freedom. What Christian is there who does not feel a deep interest in sending forth missionaries to convert the dark heathen, and bring them within the pale of Christianity? But what missionaries can be so potent as those it is our purpose to transport to the shores of Africa? Africans themselves by birth, or sharing at least African blood, will not all their feelings, all their best affections, induce them to seek the good of their countrymen? At this moment there are between four and five thousand colonists who have been sent to Africa under the care of this Society; and I will venture to say that they will accomplish as missionaries of the Christian religion more to disseminate its blessings than all the rest of the missionaries throughout the globe. Why, gentlemen, what have we heard? In the colony of Liberia there are now twenty-five places of public worship dedicated to the service of Almighty God, and to the glory of the Saviour of men; while thousands of the neighboring heathens are flocking into the colony to obtain a knowledge of the arts, and who may ultimately receive the better knowledge which Christianity alone can bestow.
“These are the great purposes we had in view when a few of us met to form this Society. As soon as a purchase of territory had been effected by the agent we dispatched to Africa for that purpose, the first colonists, about twenty-five years since, left the American shores, and were safely transplanted to the land of their ancestors.
“I know it was then urged, as it has been since, that other places might have been selected with equal advantage. I do not concur in that opinion. Look at the expense alone. It has been stated in your report that the sum of fifty dollars is sufficient to cover the expense of transporting one emigrant to Liberia, and of maintaining him there for six months after his arrival. To what other position in the known world could he be sent at so cheap a rate? Not to the Pacific; not to Oregon; not to Mexico. Then consider the advantages of this position in point of navigation: remember the shortness of the voyage. When these things are duly considered, it must be evident that to no other spot on the face of the globe could the free colored people be sent with so much propriety as to the coast of Africa. Besides, in any other place that might be selected, you would deprive yourselves of accomplishing those high moral and religious objects which, in Africa, may be so confidently hoped for.
“But, again, it has been said that the object of carrying all the free colored race from this country to Africa is one which the Government itself, with all its means, could not effect. Now, on that point, let me state a fact by way of reply. If I am not mistaken, the immigration from abroad into the port of New York alone, in the course of the last year, was fully equal to the annual increase of the free colored population of the Union, and yet all that was done voluntarily, and in most cases without any, or with very little aid. The fact rests on the great motive which, to a greater or less extent, governs all human action. Why is it that the Germans and the Irish have thus flocked to our shores in numbers to meet the annual increase of our free colored people not only, but, as I believe, that of the slave population also? They come in obedience to one of the great laws of our nature; they have come under that efficient motive which propels men to all enterprises—the desire to better their condition. A like motive will sway the free blacks when enlightened as to the real facts of the case. If they reach the shores of Africa, whether by their own means, or by the aid and agency of others, their position will be physically, morally, and politically better than by any possibility it ever can be here. It is not our office to attempt impracticabilities; to amalgamate two races which God himself, by a difference of color, besides other inherent distinctions, has declared must be separate, and remain separate, from each other. And if such be of necessity their condition here, to send them to Africa, not by coercion, but with their own free consent, is surely the best practicable mode of doing them good. And here I would say to those in both extremes of opinion and of feeling on the subject of slavery—I would say to all men—why should the free people of color of these United States not have the option of removing to Africa, or remaining where they are, just as they themselves shall choose? That is all we attempt. We wish to describe to him the country, to facilitate his emigration to it, and then leave him to his free choice. And if after this he chooses to go, why interpose any obstacle in his way? In reply, it is said to be an act of cruelty to send him there. The climate is represented as inhospitable; he will be exposed to inevitable sickness, and will probably soon find a grave on that distant shore. To send a colored man out of the United States to a country like that is held up as an act of the greatest inhumanity. But, happily, our records bear the most grateful testimony to the reverse of all this. Let us for a moment compare the mortality of Liberia with that of the colonies planted on our own shores. Within the first seventeen years from the settlement of Jamestown, in Virginia, nine thousand colonists arrived, £150,000 sterling were expended in transporting them from England, yet at the end of that period but about two thousand of them remained alive. All the rest had fallen victims either to the climate, or to the tomahawk of the savage, or had perished from other causes. Then look at Plymouth. History records that in less than six months after the arrival of the Mayflower, full half of all who landed had been destroyed by disease, want, and suffering. Now, compare with these efforts at British colonization the results of our settlement at Liberia. In twenty-five years, since the first emigrants landed from the United States, the deaths amounted to but twenty per cent. of the entire number, being far less than died at Plymouth in six months; far less than at Jamestown in seventeen years. The deaths at Jamestown were in seventeen years more than four times as numerous, in proportion, as at Liberia in twenty-five years. There is then nothing in the climate to discourage us, nothing in the alleged dreadful mortality of the colony to frighten us.
“But it is said we have done very little. All the great enterprises of man have had small beginnings. The founders of Rome, if we may believe the tale of tradition, were suckled by a wolf. Jamestown and Plymouth both languished for years after the period to which I have already referred. Yet now, what land is there on the broad surface of the habitable globe, what sea spreads out its waste of waters, that has not been penetrated and traversed by the enterprise, the skill, and the courage of our New England brethren? And on what battle-field, in what council chamber, can a single spot in our vast country be found where the Virginian character has not displayed itself in its gallantry or its deliberative wisdom? I repeat it; all the greatest enterprises of man have had small beginnings. Our colony is but twenty-five years old; it has received already between four and five thousand colored emigrants, besides hundreds more of recaptured Africans; all of which have been sent there by order of this Government. Immense numbers of the natives are crowding into the colony to obtain the benefits of education, of civilization, and of Christianity. In addition to all these, there are many thousands more in the United States now seeking the advantages of colonization through the means held out by this Society. As far then as we have gone, good is done.