Abolitionism Exposed! Part 6

William L. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, manumitted 11 slaves, who sailed a few weeks ago from New-Orleans.

"In this work of benevolence, the Society of Friends, as in so many other cases, have n.o.bly distinguished themselves, and a.s.sumed a prominent att.i.tude. They have, in North Carolina, liberated no less than _652 slaves_, whom they had under their care, besides, as says my authority, an unknown number of children, husbands and wives, connected with them by consanguinity, and of whom, part went to Canada, part to Liberia, part to Hayti, and a portion to Ohio. In the performance of these acts of benevolence, they expended $12,759. They had remaining under their care, in December, 1830, 402 slaves, for whom similar arrangements were to be made.

"It holds out every encouragement to the Colonization Society, that the applications for the transportation of free negroes, and slaves proposed to be emanc.i.p.ated on condition of removal to Liberia, _far exceed its means_. There are, in North Carolina _and the adjacent states_, from _three to four thousand_ of both descriptions, ready to embark, were the society in a situation to send them away.

"_R. S. Finlay_, Esq., at a late anniversary says,--

"I know that much pains have been taken to _calumniate_ our brethren of the south, by representing them to be the advocates of perpetual despotism. From an _extensive and familiar acquaintance_ with their views and sentiments, formed upon actual observation, I know this not to be the fact. I have publicly discussed this subject _everywhere in the southern states_, from the eastern sh.o.r.e of _Maryland to the Gulf of Mexico_, in the presence of hundreds of slaves at a time, and with the general approbation of the audience to which my addresses were delivered,--and have uniformly represented it as affording the best and only safe means of _gradually_ and _entirely abolis.h.i.+ng slavery_. Indeed, so well is the moral influence of the operations of this society understood in the extreme south, that all _the advocates of perpetual slavery are bitterly opposed to it_, and _none are its advocates, but the friends of gradual, peaceful, and ultimate entire emanc.i.p.ation_!" 16th _Report_.

"In a letter, dated Nov. 4, 1831, Mr. Clarkson says,

"For myself, I freely confess, that of all the things which have occurred in our favour since the year 1787, when the abolition of the slave trade was first seriously proposed, that which is now going on in the United States, under the auspices of the American Colonization Society, is most important. It surpa.s.ses anything which has yet occurred. _No sooner had the colony been founded at Cape Montserado, than there appeared a disposition among the owners of slaves in the United States to give them freedom voluntarily, without one farthing of compensation, and to allow them to be sent to the land of their ancestors._ This is to me truly astonis.h.i.+ng! a total change of heart in the planters, _so that many thousands of slaves may be redeemed without any cost of their redemption_! Can this almost universal feeling have taken place without the intervention of the Spirit of G.o.d!"

"_Within one year it is said that more than 2000 slaves have been offered the Colonization Society from five different States, with the desire expressed on the part of both master and slave, for a pa.s.sage to Liberia. As Colonization gains ground, the freedom of untold thousands, it is to be hoped, will be secured, and Africa gladdened yet more and more with the light of civilization and christianity._"

Abolitionists a.s.sert, with a degree of confidence that not unfrequently makes an unreflecting audience receive that for unquestionable truth, which has not a shadow of truth in it, that the Colonization Society has done nothing as yet in the cause of the afflicted man of colour!

However satisfactorily the preceding instances expose the fallacy of this accusation; yet that which this Society has done, and is doing, is not confined to these cases; but extends to still further, and more important operations, which may be divided into two distinct heads.

First, the happiness and comfort bestowed on those who have gone to Liberia; and secondly, the considerable check already given to the African slave-trade, by its _total suppression along the whole coast of Liberia_.

I shall prove the first of these statements by doc.u.ments drawn up and signed by the coloured inhabitants of Liberia, who themselves had once been slaves, which is, it is presumed, the very best possible evidence that could be adduced.

At a PUBLIC MEETING, held pursuant to notice, in MONROVIA (_Liberia_) on Wednesday, Sept. 29th, 1836, J. C. Barbour, Esq., in the chair, the following resolutions were proposed and carried unanimously--

1. "On motion of the Rev. J. Revey,

"_Resolved_, That this meeting entertain the warmest grat.i.tude for what the Colonization Society have done for the people of colour, and for us particularly, and that we regard the scheme as ent.i.tled to the highest confidence of every man of colour.

2. "On motion of S. Benedict, Esq.,

"_Resolved_, That we return our grateful acknowledgments to * * * *, * * * *, Esqrs., and other early and devoted friends of colonization; names for which we shall ever cherish the highest esteem; that we hear with regret, _from misrepresentation or want of accurate information_, they have abandoned the n.o.ble scheme; and that we hope the day is not far distant in which they will again reunite their energies to advance the high and benevolent object.

3. "On motion of Mr. H. Teage,

"_Resolved_, That this meeting regard the colonizing inst.i.tution as one of the highest, holiest, and most benevolent enterprises of the present day; that as a plan for the amelioration of the coloured race it takes the precedence of all that have been presented to the attention of the modern world: that in its operations it is peaceful and safe; in its tendencies, beneficial and advantageous; that it is ent.i.tled to the highest veneration and unbounded confidence of every man of colour; that what it has already accomplished demands our devout thanks and grat.i.tude to those n.o.ble and disinterested philanthropists that compose it, as being, under G.o.d, the greatest earthly benefactors of a despised and depressed portion of the human family.

"The hour being late, on motion of Rev. B. R. Wilson,

"_Resolved_, That the meeting adjourn until to-morrow, 10 o'clock, A. M., to the First Baptist Meeting-house.

"_Thursday_, 10th.--Met according to adjournment.

4. "On motion of James Brown, Esq.--_Resolved_, That the thanks of this meeting be presented to those ladies of the United States, particularly to those of New-York, Philadelphia, and Richmond, for their disinterested efforts to educate the children of this colony; and that they be a.s.sured that, in no department of the colony, do the effects of colonization s.h.i.+ne more conspicuously than in the schools supported by their benevolence.

5. "On motion of Doctor J. W. Prout,--_Resolved_, That this meeting entertain grateful remembrance of General Robert G.

Harper of Baltimore, an early and devoted friend of colonization; also of the name of the late Daniel Murray, Esq.

of Baltimore, and that we regard the Colonization Society and its friends as powerfully efficient in elevating the man of colour.

"Whereas it has been widely and maliciously circulated, in the United States of America, that the inhabitants of this colony are unhappy in their situation, and anxious to return:

6. "On motion of Rev. B. R. Wilson,--_Resolved_, That the report is false and malicious, and originated only in a design to injure the colony, by calling off the support and sympathy of its friends: that, so far from a desire to return, we would regard such an event as the greatest calamity that could befall us.

7. "On motion of Rev. G. R. McGill,--_Resolved_, That the name of Rev. R. R. Gurley never be forgotten.

8. "On motion of S. Benedict, Esq.,--_Resolved_, That we entertain lively feelings of grat.i.tude towards H. R. Sheldon, Esq. for his munificent donation towards the erection of a high school in this colony.

9. "On motion of Mr. Uriah Tyner,--_Resolved_, That the thanks of this meeting are due to the members of the Colonization Society, for their unwearied zeal to promote the interest of this community.

10. "On motion of Mr. Lewis Ciples,--_Resolved_, That this meeting entertain the highest respect for the memory of the late Thomas S. Grimkey, of South Carolina, for his persevering efforts in behalf of the Colonization Society.

11. "On motion of Rev. Amos Herring,--_Resolved_, That this meeting entertain the deepest grat.i.tude for the members of the Colonization Society, for the organization and continuation of an enterprise, so n.o.ble and praiseworthy as that of restoring to the blessings of liberty, hundreds and thousands of the sore oppressed and long neglected sons of Africa; that we believe it the only inst.i.tution that can, under existing circ.u.mstances, succeed in elevating the coloured population; and that advancement in agriculture, mechanism, and science, will enable us speedily to aspire to a rank with other nations of the earth.

12. "On motion of Mr. H. B. Matthews,--Success to the _wheels_ of colonization; may they roll over every opposer, and roll on, until all the oppressed sons of Africa shall be rolled _home_!

13. "On motion of Mr. David Moore,--_Resolved_, That we recollect, with peculiar satisfaction, the active part which the benevolent, in the state of Mississippi, have taken in the welfare of this colony.

14. "On motion of Major L. R. Johnson,--_Resolved_, That this meeting cherish the most grateful remembrance of the name of the late Rev. R. Finley, of New Jersey, the founder and indefatigable patron of this colony.

15. "On motion of J. J. Roberts, Esq.,--_Resolved_, That the thanks of this meeting be presented to the friends of this colony in England.

"On motion of Mr. Dixon B. Brown,--_Resolved_, That the resolutions of this meeting be published in the Liberia Herald."

The second statement which I have made respecting what the Colonization Society has done towards checking the _slave-trade_, cannot better be substantiated than by the following paragraph taken from the Colonization Herald of Sept. 5th, 1835.

"The success of the Colonization Society, may indeed be said to be little short of miraculous--for in the brief s.p.a.ce of thirteen years, _with funds whose aggregate amount scarcely equals the individual outlay of Sir Walter Raleigh in Virginia_, they have banished the slaver from nearly 200 miles of coast, and rescued hundreds of his hapless victims--they have settled nearly 4000 emigrants (one half of them emanc.i.p.ated for the purpose,)--they have established schools, churches, temperance societies, and a newspaper:--agriculture, the mechanic arts, and a legitimate commerce, employing nearly twenty sail of coasting vessels, have sprung up, while the activity of their foreign commerce is attested by our own marine lists.

"That the despised Colonizationists have effected all this, is beyond the reach of cavil--it is now a part of the history of our enterprising country. And while our opponents have been gravely debating the possibility of establis.h.i.+ng _one_ colony, a little constellation has risen--star by star--and shed its light along the dreary coast, giving promise of new 'United States' in due season. May not these benevolent founders of Liberia be well satisfied with their experiment? Need I blush to acknowledge that these results have dispelled all my doubts? And may not the statesman safely a.s.sume that if a feeble society, a.s.sailed from its very formation with ridicule and reproach, has been able to found and sustain a young state, the patriotism, the philanthropy, and the piety of this great nation can accomplish the n.o.ble work of justice to them, and mercy to both? Nor is it among the least cheering of the results achieved by this noiseless and unpretending system of _practical benevolence_ to the black man, that it has won its way to the love, and confidence, and grat.i.tude of benevolent proprietors--so that the society has, from its very commencement, been distressed by offers of emanc.i.p.ation--_distressed_, because its funds have not enabled it to relieve a t.i.the of the cases presented. There are at this moment, between one and two thousand applicants for the privilege of Colonization, and thousands more are in a state of training for the same purpose. Each year's developement of the ample resources of the colonies for securing the welfare of the colonists, and of their importance to the commerce and manufactures of this country, will increase the tide of emigration, until, with due aid from the national treasury, the stream shall exceed the annual increase, and then a rapid decrease in the existing total of coloured population will ensue. This I know will be denied--but I appeal to facts as the best data for my conclusions. Let us then remember that by official returns, the emigration from the United Kingdom was 76,000 last year. And have not our poor blacks quite as many reasons for seeking an asylum in that growing realm--so emphatically their own--from the increasing severity of Southern laws, and the horrors of Northern mobs? Will not this be the more extensively felt, as these African States open up new channels to profitable industry, until the emigration shall reach 56,000 per annum--which was the average yearly increase of the whole coloured population during the ten years from 1820 to 1830? And when we recollect that they would, under our system, be wafted thither free of expense to themselves, there is every reason to believe their numbers would soon equal the British emigration, which is in most cases at the proper cost of the parties themselves. If only that point was reached, an access of 20,000 per annum would accrue beyond the present natural increase, and thus create an actual diminution in our coloured population--augmented too, by the circ.u.mstance that the emigrants would generally be of the young, the active, and the procreating cla.s.s--while the relative disproportion of the races would be rapidly felt through the great increase of the whites.

"I am well aware that it has been most gratuitously and absurdly a.s.serted, 'that our whole marine is insufficient to convey to Africa this annual increase!' And yet 42,000 tons of s.h.i.+pping, only making two trips each year, and allowing each emigrant six times the s.p.a.ce allowed on board the slavers--or one ton and a half each--would accommodate the whole! What then shall we say to those who a.s.sert that the annual wealth of this great nation, with a surplus of ten millions annually, is unable to carry _to_ Africa, _one_-third as many of the offspring of oppression, as a band of pirates and outlaws each year drag away in chains _from_ her sh.o.r.es! A late writer in Blackwood's Magazine, a.s.serts that no less than 200,000 slaves were s.h.i.+pped in 1831--Walsh that 50,000 were landed at Rio Janeiro alone, in 1828. We may, then, without difficulty, colonize 100,000 annually--a number that would in thirty years transfer our whole coloured population to Africa, by an outlay of three millions of dollars yearly,--a sum which the weekly contribution of three cents by one-seventh of our people, would supply; or, if voted as a measure of justice for the many wrongs received at our hands by poor Africa and her children, would afford a safe mode of depleting our overburdened treasury."

To the above may be added the testimony of Mr. J. F. C. Finlay, who, writing from Millsburg, in the colony of Liberia, to the Rev. Dr.

Wilson, of Cincinnati, under date of 6th December, 1834, says,--

"The colony of Liberia has done at least five times as much towards abolis.h.i.+ng the slave-trade on this coast, as _the whole of the United States_."

As to the objections which have been raised against the climate of Liberia, and the ill-health which the settlers first suffered, I am only astonished how any one _in America_ could allow such futile arguments to influence them! It is an undeniable fact that the first inhabitants of all new countries suffer much from ill-health, and that just _in proportion to the fertility of the soil_; which is evidently attributable to the impregnation of the air and water with the gases arising from the quant.i.ty of decomposing vegetable matter with which the ground is covered, and which renders the land, after due cultivation, most productive. Do Americans forget the fact in respect to the now flouris.h.i.+ng State of Louisiana? The colony of Iberville was begun to be settled in 1699, and in the ensuing thirteen years, 2500 colonists were landed there, out of whom only 400 whites and 20 negroes remained at the end of that time. On the Island of Orleans, where a settlement was begun in 1717, the early settlers died by hundreds; and both settlements were given up once or twice, by those who began them, and commenced anew by other hands.

It was so with Jamestown: it was so with Plymouth, although in a northern climate. They were both desolated by sickness, and the mortality was far greater than it has ever been in Liberia. Five hundred emigrants at one time landed in Jamestown, in Virginia, and in less than five months their numbers were reduced to sixty. Disaster and defeat seemed to embitter all the struggles of the Pilgrim fathers at Plymouth.

More than half their number died the first winter.

The following testimonies of several highly respectable gentlemen, Physicians and others, as published in the "Plea for Africa," (p. 233,) are so satisfactory that to say one word more in refutation of the Abolition misstatements, would be an insult to an enlightened community.

1st. "Dr. Shane, of Cincinnati, went with a company of emigrants to Liberia in 1832, sailing from New-Orleans; and, among other things, writes, 'I see not in Liberia as fine and splendid mansions as in the United States; nor as extensive and richly stocked farms as the well-tilled lands of Ohio; but I see a fine and very fertile country, inviting its poor and oppressed sons to thrust in their sickles and gather up its fullness. I here see many who left the United States in straitened circ.u.mstances, living with all the comforts of life around them; enjoying a respectable and useful station in society, and wondering that their brethren in the United States, who have it in their power, do not flee to this asylum of happiness and liberty, where they can enjoy all the unalienable rights of man. * * I do not think an unprejudiced person can visit here without becoming an ardent and sincere friend of colonization. I can attribute the apathy and indifference on which it is looked by many, as arising from ignorance on the subject alone, and would that every free coloured man in the United States could get a glimpse of his brethren, their situation and prospects. * * * Let but the coloured man come and see for himself, and the tear of grat.i.tude will beam in his eye, as he looks forward to the not far distant day, when Liberia shall take her stand among the nations of the world, and proclaim abroad an empire founded by benevolence, offering a home to the poor, oppressed, and weary. Nothing but a want of knowledge of Liberia, prevents thousands of honest, industrious free blacks from rus.h.i.+ng to this heaven-blessed land, where liberty and religion, with all their blessings, are enjoyed.'

2d. "Captain Kennedy, who visited Liberia in 1831, says, 'with impressions unfavourable to the scheme of the Colonization Society, I commenced my inquiries.' The colonists 'considered that they had started into a _new existence_. * * They felt themselves _proud in their att.i.tude_.' He further says, 'many of the settlers appear to be rapidly acquiring property; and I have no doubt they are doing better for themselves and for their children, in Liberia, than they could do in any other part of the world.'

3d. "Captain Nicholson of the United States' Navy, gave as favourable a report. Captain Abels says, 'My expectations were more than realized. I saw no intemperance, nor did I hear a profane word uttered by any one. I know of no place where the Sabbath seems to be more respected than in Monrovia.'