'Far from shuddering at the thought of leaving the comfortable fireside among us, for a distant and unknown shore yet covered by the wilderness, they have preferred real liberty there, to a mockery of freedom here, and have turned their eyes to Africa, as the only resting place and refuge of the colored man, in the deluge of oppression that surrounds him.'—[Eleventh Annual Report.]
'The race in question were known, as a class, to be destitute, depraved—the victims of all forms of social misery. The peculiarity of their fate was, that this was not their condition by accident or transiently, but inevitably and immutably, whilst they remained in their present place, by a law as infallible in its operation, as any of physical nature.' * * 'Their residence amongst us is attended by evil consequences to society—causes beyond the control of the human will must prevent their ever rising to equality with the whites.' * * 'The Managers consider it clear that causes exist, and are operating to prevent their improvement and elevation to any considerable extent as a class, in this country, which are fixed, not only beyond the control of the friends of humanity, BUT OF ANY HUMAN POWER. Christianity cannot do for them here, what it will do for them in Africa. This is not the fault of the colored man, nor of the white man, nor of Christianity; but an ordination of Providence, and no more to be changed than the laws of nature. Yet, were it otherwise, did no cause exist but prejudice, to prevent the elevation, in this country, of our free colored population, still, were this prejudice so strong (which is indeed the fact) as to forbid the hope of any great favorable change in their condition, what folly for them to reject blessings in another land, because it is prejudice which debars them from such blessings in this! But in truth no legislation, no humanity, no benevolence can make them insensible to their past condition, can unfetter their minds, can relieve them from the disadvantages resulting from inferior means and attainments, can abridge the right of freemen to regulate their social intercourse and relations, which will leave them for ever a separate and depressed class in the community; in fine, nothing can in any way do much here to raise them from their miseries to respectability, honor and usefulness.'—[Fifteenth Annual Report.]
'That no adequate means of attaining this great end existed, short of the segregation of the black population from the white—that an IMPASSIBLE BARRIER existed in the state of society in this country, between these classes—that whatever might be the liberal sentiments of some good men among us, the blacks were marked with an indelible note of inferiority—they saw placed high before them a station which here they could never reach, and by a natural reaction they fell back into a position where self-respect lent them no stimulus, and virtuous principles and actions lost more than half their motive—that in fact they were a branded and degraded caste—the Pariahs of the United States, and destined as long as they remained with us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water—that the increase of this population in a greater ratio than the whites, was calculated to excite just apprehension—that no one could say that when a few more millions should be added to their numbers, the example of Hayti might not rouse them to an effort to break their chains; and he would ask what man could contemplate, without shuddering, all the complicated atrocity and bloody revenge of such a revolt?' * * 'Those persons of color who have been emancipated, are only nominally free, and the whole race, so long as they remain among us, and whether they be slaves or free, must necessarily be kept in a condition full of wretchedness to them and full of danger to the whites.'—[Second Annual Report of New-York State Colonization Society.]
'Many of those citizens who ardently wish for the removal of such of the free colored population, as are willing to go, to any place where they could enjoy, what they can never enjoy here, that is, all the advantages of society,' &c. * * 'That the free colored population in this country labor under the most oppressive disadvantages, which their freedom can by no means counterbalance, is too obvious to admit of doubt. I waive all inquiry whether this is right or wrong. I speak of things as they are—not as they might, or as they ought to be. They are cut off from the most remote chance of amalgamation with the white population, by feelings or prejudices, call them what you will, that are ineradicable. Their situation is more unfavorable than that of many slaves. "With all the burdens, cares and responsibilities of freedom, they have few or none of its substantial benefits. Their associations are, and must be, chiefly with slaves. Their right of suffrage gives them little, if any, political influence, and they are practically, if not theoretically excluded from representation and weight in our public councils." No merit, no services, no talents can elevate them to a level with the whites. Occasionally, an exception may arise. A colored individual, of great talents, merits, and wealth, may emerge from the crowd. Cases of this kind are to the last degree rare. The colored people are subject to legal disabilities, more or less galling and severe, in almost every state of the Union. Who has not deeply regretted their late harsh expulsion from the State of Ohio, and their being forced to abandon the country of their birth, which had profited by their labors, and to take refuge in a foreign land? Severe regulations have been recently passed in Louisiana, to prevent the introduction of free people of color into the State. Whenever they appear, they are to be banished in sixty days. The strong opposition to a negro college in New-Haven, speaks in a language not to be mistaken, the jealousy with which they are regarded. And there is no reason to expect, that the lapse of centuries will make any change in this respect. They will always unhappily be regarded as an inferior race.'—[Mathew Carey's 'Reflections.']
'Instances of emancipation have not essentially benefitted the African, and probably never will, while he remains among us. In this country, public opinion does, and will, consign him to an inferiority, above which he can never rise. Emancipation can NEVER make the African, while he remains in this country, a real free man. Degradation MUST and WILL press him to the earth; no cheering, stimulating influence will he here feel, in any of the walks of life.'—[Circular of the Massachusetts Colonization Society for 1832.]
'With us color is the bar. Nature has raised up barriers between the races, which no man with a proper sense of the dignity of his species desires to see surmounted.' * * 'What effects does emancipation produce without removal? A discontented and useless population; having no sympathies with the rest of the community, doomed by immoveable barriers to eternal degradation. I know that there are among us, those of warm and generous hearts, who believe that we may retain the black man here, and raise him up to the full and perfect stature of human nature. That degree of improvement can never take place except the races be amalgamated; and amalgamation is a day-dream. It may seem strong, but it is true that "a skin not colored like our own" will separate them from us, as long as our feelings continue a part of our nature.'—[Speeches delivered at the formation of the Young Men's Auxiliary Colonization Society in New-York city.]
'These [subsistence, political and social considerations] they can never enjoy here.' * * 'You may manumit the slave, but you cannot make him a white man. He still remains a negro or a mulatto. The mark and the recollection of his origin and former state still adhere to him; the feelings produced by that condition, in his own mind and in the minds of the whites, still exist; he is associated by his color, and by these recollections and feelings, with the class of slaves; and a barrier is thus raised between him and the whites, that is between him and the free class, which he can never hope to transcend.' * * 'A vast majority of the free blacks, as we have seen, are and must be, an idle, worthless and thievish race.'—[First Annual Report.]
'Here they are condemned to a state of hopeless inferiority, and consequent degradation. As they cannot emerge from this state, they lose, by degrees, the hope, at last the desire of emerging.'—[Second Annual Report.]
'The existence in any community of a people forming a distinct and degraded caste, who are forever excluded by the fiat of society and the laws of the land, from all hopes of equality in social intercourse and political privileges, must, from the nature of things, be fraught with unmixed evil. Did this committee believe it possible, by any acts of legislation, to remove this blotch upon the body politic, by so elevating the social and moral condition of the blacks in Ohio, that they would be received into society on terms of equality, and would by common consent be admitted to a participation of political privileges—WERE SUCH A THING POSSIBLE, even after a lapse of time and by pecuniary sacrifice, most gladly would they recommend such measures as would subserve the cause of humanity, by producing such a result. For the purposes of legislation, it is sufficient to know, that the blacks in Ohio must always exist as a separate and degraded race, that when the leopard shall change his spots and the Ethiopian his skin, then, BUT NOT TILL THEN, may we expect that the descendants of Africans will be admitted into society, on terms of social and political equality.'—[Report of a Select Committee of the Legislature of Ohio.]
'No possible contingency can ever break down or weaken the impassable barrier which at present separates the whites from social communion with the blacks. Neither education, nor wealth, nor any other means of distinction known to our communities, can elevate blacks to a level with whites, in the United States.'—[American Spectator.]