plied by this board with an ample stock of agricultural implements, and with tools of various descriptions for his workshops.

The Ninus arrived at Liberia on the 8th of last December, and on the next day proceeded to Bassa Cove, which had been previously examined by Governor Pinney, the Rev. Mr. Teage, a Methodist missionary, Doctors Skinner, and M'Dowal, and Messrs. Russwurm and Prout, both experienced settlers of the old colony, who all concurred in giving to that location a decided preference, and in representing the health of the country about it as superior to any other in the vicinity; the expense of settling there less than at any other part of Liberia, and that the certain effect of such a measure would be the destruction of a neighboring slave factory, and thus prevent many hundred of the natives from being sold and exported as slaves. The most favorable and encouraging accounts of this expedition have just been received by the return of the Ninus to Philadelphia. On board of her came passenger a son of one of the native princes in whose dominions the slave trade was formerly carried on, but who has since, through the influence of the civilization introduced by the colonists of Liberia, abandoned that traffic and entrusted his son for education to the Pennsylvania Society.

The cost of this expedition was about eight thousand dollars; viz. two thousand five hundred, for the charter of the vessel, and about five thousand five hundred, for stores and merchandise. Of this sum two

thousand one hundred and eighty dollars were obtained from the executors of Dr. Hawes, who, by his will, bequeathed the sum of twenty dollars toward defraying the expenses of the emigration of each of his manumitted slaves. The remainder was raised by the donations and subscriptions of benevolent individuals, principally in Philadelphia, and partially in this city.

From the contributions and exertions of this board on this pressing occasion, it has hitherto been prevented from taking any definitive measure for the removal of the Georgia emigrants-toward the expense of which are, however, applicable a sum of seven hundred and thirty dollars received from Andover in Massachusetts, on condition that every twenty-one dollars thereof should be appropriated to the payment of the passage to Liberia, of one emancipated slave; and a farther sum of twelve hundred dollars collected and contributed by Mr. Clay, in express reference to this purpose. To make up the deficiency, and provide funds for the emigration and settlement, not only of these, but of numerous other slaves in different parts of the Union, not less in the aggregate than eight hundred persons, whose owners have offered to manumit them upon condition of their removal to Liberia, the board determined to send as soon as practicable another expedition to Bassa Cove, and for this purpose to raise the sum of fifteen thousand dollars. The first step toward the execution of this measure was to call a public meeting of the citizens of New-York friendly to the colonization cause; which was accordingly held on the fifteenth of January last, and was respectably and numerously attended.

6

Among the resolutions adopted by this meeting, was one declaring that it regarded the union and plan of operation agreed upon between the Colonization Society of the city of New-York, and the Young Men's VOL. VI.-July, 1835.

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Colonization Society of Pennsylvania, as an event promising to be highly beneficial to the colonization cause; and cordially recommending it to the approbation and support of all the friends of our colored population.' Another resolution approved of the plan of raising fifteen thousand dollars in aid of the objects of this society,' and proposed that a subscription should be opened for the purpose ;' which was immediately done, and the sum of six hundred and thirty dollars was collected and subscribed before the adjournment of the meeting. But this board has not since been able to procure the balance yet deficient; although the immediate necessities of the new colony, and the strong claims of the people at Savannah, and of those numerous slaves who elsewhere await only the means of emigration to receive their manumission, press heavily upon the board, and impel them to renew the appeal to their fellow citizens, in behalf of these meritorious and suffering individuals, and in furtherance of the measures designed for their relief.

Much of the delay which has occurred in carrying these plans into execution, is doubtless to be ascribed to the persevering opposition which the efforts of this board have encountered from certain persons in the northern and eastern states, who believe or pretend, that the system of colonization is fraught with evil and pernicious consequences to all the people of color in the country, whether held in bondage or emancipated, and whether the latter are induced to emigrate to the land from which they sprang, or prefer remaining in that of their involuntary adoption. In short, that the colonization system' tends to rivet the chains of the slave, and extends to Africa the vices, but not the benefits of civilization.' Upon these grounds or pretexts the persons in question both in their individual capacities, and collective organization under the name of Anti-Slavery' societies, not only counteract the influence and traduce the principles of the American Colonization Society, and impugn the motives in which it originated, but actually if not wilfully, misrepresent its acts, policy, and proceedings, as well as the sentiments and conduct of all who publicly support its objects, or advocate its cause. They indiscriminately condemn every measure that has ever been adopted or suggested in relation to the colony of Liberia, defame the characters of those who from time to time have been engaged in its management and superintendence, exaggerate every error and misfortune which has occurred in its administration or government, and attempt to impeach the evidence they cannot refute, of its beneficial effects and prospective advantages-and all this avowedly, because they deem its prosperity and existence incompatible with their uncompromising and impracticable project for the immediate abolition of slavery in the south.

From the characters and reputation of some of these individuals both for integrity and understanding, it is impossible to doubt their sincerity; while from the language and conduct of the most forward of their associates, it is equally impossible to concede that these are regulated by the precepts of Christian charity, even admitting them to flow from the purest and most unquestionable motives. But whether deluded or designing, the ignorance or recklessness of these persons in regard to rights secured to the several states and their citizens, by the constitution of the Union-their misconception or disregard of

public sentiment, even at the south, with respect to slavery,-their misinformation or wanton misrepresentation of the actual condition and uniform treatment of the whole colored population, without exception or discrimination-their crude and visionary notions in regard to the practicability, and their imperfect views of the actual progress of emancipation-the precipitate and hazardous measures which they urge to promote it, tending to postpone instead of accelerating its accomplishment-and their oversight or contempt of the insuperable local obstacles to the real improvement and social elevation of our free colored population, are circumstances which, in conjunction with the propagation of their doctrines by foreign emissaries-betray if not the foreign origin of their plan, its subservience at least to foreign interests and views. It has indeed been alleged, by one of our own citizens,* to whom we allude 'more in sorrow than in anger,' as a sufficient reason for denouncing the colonization system and its advocates, that ‘if various ecclesiastical bodies in our country have recommended it to the patronage of their churches, it is regarded with abhorrence by almost the whole religious community of Great Britain;' yet even this objection seems to have been prompted by these intrusive foreigners, or urged to countenance their presumptuous interference.

But, be the statement his or theirs, and admitting it to be correct; admitting too, that the Solemn Protest' bearing the name of the agitator O'Connel, as well as of the exemplary Wilberforce, affords conclusive evidence of the opinions of almost the whole religious community of Great Britain,' this board can never acknowledge the competency or authority of persons at best but imperfectly acquainted with the peculiarities and complexity of our political institutions; uninformed, except by mischievous fanatics, of the situation of our colored population; of the actual condition and treatment of those held in slavery; and of the practicability or consequences of their immediate emancipation; this board, we repeat it, can never admit either the competency or the authority of men whose lives and fortunes are not involved in the controversy, and who have no common sympathies with those whose welfare and existence depend on the issue, but are aliens to our country and its institutions; to pronounce their anathemas against the doctrines and conduct of the American Colonization Society,'-whatever may be the characters, respectability, or stations of such persons; however distinguished for their wisdom or moderation as British statesmen, for the catholic spirit of their beneficence as British philanthropists, or for their patriotism and loyalty as British subjects.

The board will neither undertake to decide whether the prudence and delicacy of their interference, the courtesy of the terms, or the charitable spirit of their denunciation, are equal to the zeal by which they seem to have been prompted; nor whether that zeal might not have been as reasonably excited by a consideration of the state of the Irish peasantry, or to the consequences of the sudden abolition of slavery in their own colonies. These are questions which this board willingly leaves to the conscientious and deliberate reflection of the surviving parties to the Protest;' though it would feel more confident of a reversal of their opinions, could the purified spirit of Wilberforce exercise over them an influence equal in degree, but opposite in character,

* The Hon. William Jay, of Westchester.

to that which operated upon his enfeebled mind when, almost in the article of death, he was induced to sign that instrument.

That the Protest' does not speak the sentiments of 'the whole religious community of Great Britain,' is however manifest from a letter already before the public, addressed to the president of this society by Lord Bexley, the president of the British and Foreign Bible society, as well as of the British African Colonization Society, an institution formed under the patronage of the only member of the royal family of England, who has uniformly supported the abolition of slavery in her colonies. But with all our veneration and respect for England, her religion, her literature, and her laws; with all our gratitude and attachment to the land from which we derive our origin, our language, polity, and jurisprudence; with all our sympathy with her philanthropists, and admiration of her benevolent institutions,-let public sentiment in Great Britain be on this subject what it may, it is more important to show, to the satisfaction of our own countrymen, that the aspersions cast on this society, either by the undistinguishing zeal of foreigners, or the less excusable infatuation of our own enthusiasts, are alike undeserved and unjustifiable, and wholly irreconcilable with truth, candor, and Christian charity.

That the colonization in Africa of our free people of color tends to the immediate and essential improvement of their condition; that it is in fact the only method by which they can be raised to political and social equality with the whites, while so far from preventing or retarding the extinction of slavery, it operates directly to promote emancipation, in the most eligible, safe, and certain mode, must be plain to every fair and dispassionate inquirer, who will examine this momentous subject with the patient labor and careful attention its importance demands. It must however be recollected in entering upon the investigation, that the abolition of slavery is not the direct object proposed by the establishment of colonization societies; it is neither embraced in terms by their plan, nor referred to in their constitutions; and to whatever extent it may be encouraged or accomplished by their operations, it is only by incidental, though perhaps, necessary consequence. They regard the subject, as it truly is, one which the constitution of the United States leaves to the sole regulation and control of the several states in which slavery exists, and consequently as one upon which congress cannot legislate, and with which no other power, whether self-created or deriving its authority from the people of the union, or of any other state, is warranted to interfere. The exclusive right of each state in which slavery exists, to legislate in regard to its abolition,' is indeed expressly admitted by the constitution of the AntiSlavery Society itself, which declares that its aim is to convince our fellow citizens by arguments addressed to their reason and consciences, that slave-holding is a heinous crime in the sight of God; and that the duty, safety, and best interests of all concerned require its immediate abandonment without expatriation:** while the avowed object of the American Colonization Society and its auxiliaries is merely the removal, and settlement upon the coast of Africa, of free persons of the African race, with their own free consent.

To establish the first of the propositions thus officially promulgated * Vide Constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society.

by our opponents, no argument need be addressed to the reason and consciences,' of many of our fellow citizens ;'-for no member of this society, or of this community, and comparatively few, it is believed, even among the enlightened slaveholders at the south, require to be 'convinced of the guilt of voluntarily reducing to bondage, or holding in perpetual servitude, a fellow creature. They deny however that it is a crime in them to retain in subjection to the laws, and to other imperious circumstances, those ignorant and helpless beings who have been cast upon their protection as well as thrown into their power, by no act of their own. The points really at issue, then, arise upon the second of the propositions embodied in the constitution of the immediate abolitionists, taken in connection with its express repugnancy to colonization, or, as it terms it,' expatriation:' and these, as they relate to two descriptions of persons, naturally resolve themselves into two questions, viz :-First, whether the safety and best interests' of those people of color who have obtained their freedom, will be most certainly and effectually promoted by their continuance in this country, or by their voluntary emigration as colonists ;-and secondly, whether the general emancipation of the slaves in the southern states will be more speedily effected by arguments addressed to their owners, by northern men, than by the inducements to manumission afforded by the plan of colonization, in which the north and south are united, in offering the means of removing them, when manumitted, to Africa.

I. With respect to the first question, it will be perceived that, as it is practical in its nature, it can only be determined by experiment; and in order to decide upon the comparative merits of the two systems, both having in view the intellectual, moral, and religious improvement of our free colored population,' and differing only with respect to the theatre of their operations, we must be enabled to look at their respective results. It will be perceived, too, that even upon the point of difference there is no necessary incompatibility or inconsistency in their co-existence. Both systems, so far as free persons of color are concerned, may be carried into full operation without the least interference with each other. The colonization society does not contemplate the removal to Africa of the whole mass of our free people of color, but only of such of them as are willing and qualified to emigrate; and the success of their scheme depends mainly on the characters and qualifications of the emigrants. It is the interest therefore, as well as the declared object of this society, to promote the emigration of the most exemplary and intelligent individuals of the colored race; and surely it may safely be left to the judgments of such persons to determine for themselves, whether a greater degree of comfort, welfare, respect. ability, and happiness may be attained and enjoyed by them in this country, where they are surrounded by a more numerous population of a distinct race and different color, by the great majority of whom they will, so long as slavery endures in any portion of the union, be regarded as an inferior caste, and excluded from all equality of social intercourse, even when admitted to an equal participation of political and civil privileges, than in the colony of Liberia, where no such distinctions, prejudice, or degradation can exist, where they will be secure of perfect equality in the enjoyment of all social advantages as well as of political freedom, civil fiberty, and religious privileges; and where