Now see with what earnestness and inveteracy the friends of the Colonization Society oppose immediate abolition!
'It appears, indeed, to be the only feasible mode by which we can remove that stigma as well as danger from among us. Their sudden and entire freedom would be a fearful, and perhaps dreadful experiment, destructive of all the ends of liberty, for which their condition would unfit them, and which they would doubtless greatly abuse. Even their release, at apparently proper intervals, but uncontrolled as to their future habits and location, would be a very hazardous charity. Their gradual emancipation, therefore, under the advantages of a free government, formed, in their native land, by their own hands, offering all the rewards usual to industry and economy, and affording the means of enjoying, in comfort, a reputable and free existence, is the only rational scheme of relieving them from the bondage of their present condition.' * * * 'To eradicate or remove the evil immediately, is impossible; nor can any law of conscience govern necessity.'—[Af. Rep. vol. i. pp. 89, 258.]
'Vaunt not over us, dear brethren of the north, we inherited the evil from our forefathers, and we really do not think you do your brethren any good, or that you serve the interests of the people of color, when you recommend and enforce premature schemes of emancipation.' * * * 'The operation, we were aware, must be—and, for the interests of our country, ought to be gradual.' * * * 'According to one, (that rash class which, without a due estimate of the fatal consequence, would forthwith issue a decree of general, immediate, and indiscriminate emancipation,) it was a scheme of the slaveholder to perpetuate slavery.'—[Idem, vol. ii. pp. 12, 254, 336.]
'Slavery, in its mildest form, is an evil of the darkest character. Cruel and unnatural in its origin, no plea can be urged in justification of its continuance, but the plea of necessity—not that necessity which arises from our habits, our prejudices, or our wants; but the necessity which requires us to submit to existing evils, rather than substitute, by their removal, others of a more serious and destructive character. It was this which produced the recognition of slavery in the constitution of our country; it is this which has justified its continuance to the present day; and it is in this only that we can find a palliation for the rigors of our laws, which might otherwise be considered as the cruel enactments of a dark and dismal despotism. There have not, I am aware, been found wanting individuals to deny both the existence and the obligations of such a necessity. There are men, actuated in some instances, by a blind and mistaken enthusiasm, and in others, by a spirit of mischievous intent, loudly calling on us, in the names of justice and humanity, for the immediate and unqualified emancipation of our slaves. To men of this description, it is in vain to point out the inevitable effects of such a course, as well on the objects of their real or pretended solicitude, as on the community in which they exist. It is in vain to assure them, that while the preservation of the latter would require a policy even more rigorous than pertains to slavery itself, the short-lived and nominal freedom of the former must end in their ultimate and utter extinction. All this is of no consequence. Provided slavery be abolished in name, it matters not what horrors may be substituted in its room.' * * * 'The scope of the Society is large enough, but it is in no wise 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.'—[Af. Rep. vol. iii. pp. 15, 197.]
'What is to be done? Immediate and universal emancipation will find few, if any advocates, among judicious and reflecting men.' * * * 'There is a portion of our brethren, who have been laboring for many years, with the most benevolent intentions, but, as I conceive, with erroneous views, in the cause of abolition.' * * * 'The Colonization Society, as such, have renounced wholly the name and the characteristics of abolitionists.' * * * 'Into their accounts the subject of emancipation does not enter at all.' * * * 'Here, that race is in every form a curse, and if the system, so long contended for by the uncompromising abolitionist, could prevail, its effect would be to spread discord and devastation from one end of the Union to the other.'—[Idem, vol. iv. pp. 202, 303, 306, 363.]
'With a writer in the Southern Review we say, "the situation of the people of these States was not of their own choosing. When they came to the inheritance, it was subject to this mighty incumbrance, and it would be criminal in them to ruin or waste the estate, to get rid of the burden at once." With this writer we add also, in the language of Capt. Hall, that the "slaveholders ought not (immediately) to disentangle themselves from the obligations which have devolved upon them, as the masters of slaves." We believe that a master may sustain his relation to the slave, with as little criminality as the slave sustains his relation to the master. But we feel little sympathy for those who, in the language of Mr Harrison of Virginia, "still look upon their slaves in the light in which most men regarded them when the slave trade was legitimate. Of those, wherever they are, who hold their slaves with that same sentiment which impelled the kidnapper when he forcibly bore them off, I know not how morality can distinguish them from the original wrong-doers, pirates by nature, and pirates by civilized law." That the system of slavery must exist temporarily in this country, we as firmly believe, as that for its existence a single moment, there can be offered justly no plea but necessity. Were the very spirit of angelic charity to pervade and fill the hearts of all the slaveholders in our land, it would by no means require that all the slaves should be instantaneously liberated.'—[Af. Rep. vol. v. p. 329.]
'The long established habits of the South, the attachments which are frequently found subsisting between the proprietor and his servants, together with the difficulty of substituting at once white for slave labor, and the derangement which would ensue in the domestic concerns of life, would not merely make general emancipation at once inexpedient, but the attempt would denote the extremity of madness and folly, and convulse this government to its centre.'—[Idem, vol. vi. p. 291.]
'The Society, meeting the objections of the abolition enthusiast, in a like spirit of mildness and forbearance, assures him of their equal devotion to the pure principles of liberty and the powerful claims of humanity. We know, say they, and we deplore the evil of slavery as the deadliest curse to our common country. We see, and we lament its demoralizing effects upon the children of our affections, from the budding innocence of infancy, to the full maturity of manhood. But, we have not, we do not, and we will not interfere with this delicate, this important subject. There are rights to be respected, prejudices to be conciliated, fears to be quelled, and safety to be observed in all our operations. And we protest, most solemnly protest, against the adoption of your views, as alike destructive of the ends of justice, of policy, and of humanity. No wild dream of the wildest enthusiast was ever more extravagant than that of turning loose upon society two millions of blacks, idle and therefore worthless, vicious and therefore dangerous, ignorant and therefore incapable of appreciating and enjoying the blessings of freedom. Could your wishes be realized, your gratulation would be quickly changed into mourning, your joy into grief, and your labor of love into visits of mercy to our jails and our penitentiaries, to the abodes of vice and the haunts of poverty. Come, ye abolitionists, away with your wild enthusiasm, your misguided philanthropy.'—[African Repository, vol. vii. p. 101.]
'The Colonization Society is removing the greatest obstacles in the way of emancipation; but none, we think, who is acquainted with the circumstances and condition of our southern States, and who has any conscience or humanity, would deem it expedient or christian to dissolve instantaneously all the ties which unite masters and slaves.'—[Idem, vol. vii. p. 186.]
'It is not right that men should be free, when their freedom will prove injurious to themselves and others.' * * 'He has encountered determined opposition from several individuals, who are so reckless and fanatical as to require the instantaneous remedying of an acknowledged evil, which may be remedied gradually, with safety, but which cannot be remedied immediately without jeopardizing all the interests of all parties concerned.'—[Idem, p. 202, 280.]