Thoughts on African Colonization Part 5

It were needless to multiply these extracts. So precisely do they resemble each other, that they seem rather as the offspring of a single mind, than of many minds. A large majority of them come in the most official and authoritative shape, and their language is explicit beyond cavil.

Here, then, is a combination, embracing able and influential men in all parts of the country, pledging itself not only to respect the system of slavery, but to frown indignantly upon those who shall dare to a.s.sail it. And what is this system which is to be held in so much reverence, and avoided with so much care? It is a system which has in itself no redeeming feature, but is full of blood--the blood of innocent men, women and children; full of adultery and concupiscence; full of darkness, blasphemy and wo; full of rebellion against G.o.d and treason against the universe; full of wrath--impurity--ignorance--brutality--and awful impiety; full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; full of temporal suffering and eternal d.a.m.nation. It is, says Pitt, a ma.s.s, a system of enormities, which incontrovertibly bid defiance to every regulation which ingenuity can devise, or power effect, but a total extinction; a system of incurable injustice, the complication of every species of iniquity, the greatest practical evil that ever has afflicted the human race, and the severest and most extensive calamity recorded in the history of the world. Fox calls it a most unjust and horrible persecution of our fellow creatures. The Rev. Dr. Thomson declares it is a system hostile to the original and essential rights of humanity--contrary to the inflexible and paramount demands of moral justice--at eternal variance with the spirit and maxims of revealed religion--inimical to all that is merciful in the heart, and holy in the conduct--and on these accounts, necessarily exposed and subject to the curse of Almighty G.o.d. It is, says Rowland Hill, made up of every crime that treachery, cruelty and murder can invent. Wilberforce says, it is the full measure of pure, unmixed, unsophisticated wickedness; and scorning all compet.i.tion or comparison, it stands without a rival in the secure, undisputed possession of its detestable pre-eminence. In this country, slavery is a system which leaves the chast.i.ty of one million females without any protection! which condemns more than two millions of human beings to remediless bondage! which authorises their sale at public vendue in company with horses, sheep and hogs, or in a private manner, at the pleasure of their owners! which, under penalty of imprisonment, and even death, forbids their being taught the lowest rudiments of knowledge! which, by the exclusion of their testimony in courts, subjects them to worse than brutal treatment! which recognizes no connubial obligations, ruthlessly severs the holiest relations of life, tears the scarcely weaned babe from the arms of its mother, wives from their husbands, and parents from their children! But who is adequate to the task of delineating its horrors, or recording its atrocities, in full? Who can number the stripes which it inflicts, the groans and tears and imprecations which it extorts, the cruel murders which it perpetrates? or who measure the innocent blood which it spills, or the degradation which it imposes, or the guilt which it acc.u.mulates? or who reveal the waste of property, the perversion of intellect, the loss of happiness, the burial of mind, to which it is accessary? or who trace its poisonous influence and soul-destroying tendency back for two hundred years down to the end of time? None--none but G.o.d himself! It is corrupt as death--black as perdition--cruel and insatiate as the grave. To adopt the nervous language of another:--The thing I say is true. I speak the truth, though it is most lamentable. I dare not hide it, I dare not palliate it; else the horror with which it covereth me would make me do so. Wo unto such a system! wo unto the men of this land who have been brought under its operation! It is not felt to be evil, it is not acknowledged to be evil, it is not preached against as evil; and, therefore, it is only the more inveterate and fearful an evil.[H] _It hath become const.i.tutional._ IT IS FED FROM THE STREAM OF OUR LIFE, and it will grow more and more excessive, until it can no longer be endured by G.o.d, nor borne with by man.

And this is the system, with which, as the reader has seen, the American Colonization Society is resolved not to interfere; and with the upholders of which, ministers of the gospel and professors of religion of all denominations have made a treaty of peace! Tell it not abroad--publish it not in the capitals of Europe--lest the despots of the old world take courage, and infidelity strengthen its stakes!

If men who are reputedly wise and good--if religious teachers and political leaders, those whose opinions are almost implicitly adopted, and whose examples are readily followed by the ma.s.s of the people--if such men suppress their voices on this momentous subject, and turn their eyes from its contemplation, and give the right hand of fellows.h.i.+p to the buyers and sellers of human flesh, is there not cause for lamentation and alarm? The pulpit is false to its trust, and a moral paralysis has seized the vitals of the church. The sanct.i.ty of religion is thrown, like a mantle, over the horrid system. Under its auspices, robbery and oppression have become popular and flouris.h.i.+ng. The press, too, by its profound silence, or selfish neutrality, or equivocal course, or active partizans.h.i.+p, is enlisted in the cause of tyranny--the mighty press, which has power, if exerted aright, to break every fetter, and emanc.i.p.ate the land. If this state of things be not speedily reversed, 'we be all dead men.' Unless the pulpit lift up the voice of warning, supplication and wo, with a fidelity which no emolument can bribe, and no threat intimidate; unless the church organise and plan for the redemption of the benighted slaves, and directly a.s.sault the strong holds of despotism; unless the press awake to its duty, or desist from its b.l.o.o.d.y co-operation; as sure as Jehovah lives and is unchangeable, he will pour out his indignation upon us, and consume us with the fire of his wrath, and our own way recompense upon our heads. 'Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters! When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: _your hands are full of blood_. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; _seek judgment, relieve the oppressed_, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: _for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it_.'

I know the covert behind which colonizationists take refuge. They profess to be--and, doubtless, in many instances are--aiming at the ultimate emanc.i.p.ation of the slaves; but they are all for _gradual_ abolition--all too courteous to give offence--too sober to be madmen--too discreet to adopt _rash_ measures. But I shall show, in the progress of this work, that they not only s.h.i.+eld the holders of slaves from reproach, (and thus, by a.s.suring them of their innocence, destroy all motives for repentance,) but earnestly dissuade them from emanc.i.p.ating their slaves without an immediate expulsion. Fine conceptions of justice! Enemies of slavery, with a vengeance!

Suppose a similar course had been pursued by the friends of Temperance--when would have commenced that mighty reformation which has taken place before our eyes--unparalleled in extent, completeness and rapidity? Suppose, instead of exposing the guilt of trafficking in ardent spirits, and demanding instant and entire abstinence, they had a.s.sociated themselves together for the exclusive purpose of colonizing all the drunkards in the land, as a cla.s.s dangerous to our safety and irremediably degraded, on a spot where they could not obtain the poisonous alcohol, but could rise to respect and affluence--how would such an enterprise have been received? Suppose they had pledged themselves not to 'meddle' with the business of the traders in spirituous liquors, or to injure the 'property' of distillers, and had dwelt upon the folly and danger of 'immediate' abstinence, and had denounced the advocates of this doctrine as madmen and fanatics, and had endeavored, moreover, to suppress inquiry into the lawfulness of rum-selling--how many importers, makers and venders of the liquid poison would have abandoned their occupation, or how many of the four hundred thousand individuals, who are now enrolled under the banner of entire abstinence, would have been united in this great enterprise? Suppose, further, that, in a lapse of fifteen years, this a.s.sociation had transported two thousand drunkards, and the tide of intemperance had continued to rise higher and higher, and some faithful watchmen had given the alarm and showed the fatal delusion which rested upon the land, and the Society should have defended itself by pointing to the two thousand sots who had been saved by its instrumentality--would the public attention have been successfully diverted from the _immense evil_ to the _partial good_? Suppose, once more, that this Society, composed indiscriminately of rum-sellers and sober, pious men, on being charged with perpetuating the evils of intemperance, with removing only some of the fruits thereof instead of the tree itself, should have indignantly repelled the charge, and said--'We are as much opposed to drunkenness, and as heartily deprecate its existence, as any of our violent, fanatical opposers; but the holders of ardent spirit have invested their capital in it, and to destroy its sale would invade the right of _property_; policy at least, bids us not to a.s.sail their conduct, as otherwise we might exasperate them, and so lose their aid in colonizing the tipplers.' What would have been accomplished? But no such logic was used: the duty of immediate reform was constantly pressed upon the people, and a mighty reform took place.

Colonizationists boast inordinately of having emanc.i.p.ated three or four hundred slaves by their scheme, and contemptuously inquire of abolitionists, 'What have _you_ effected?' Many persons have been deceived by this _show_ of success, and deem it conclusive evidence of the usefulness of the Colonization Society. But, in the first place, it is very certain that none of these slaves were liberated in consequence of the faithful appeals of the Society to the consciences of the masters; for it has never troubled their consciences by any such appeals. Secondly, it is obvious that these manumissions are the fruits of the uncompromising doctrines of abolitionists; for they are calculated to bring slaveholders to repentance, and they will yet liberate other slaves to be caught up and claimed by the Society as trophies of its success. Thirdly, it has been shown that while this Society (allowing it the utmost that it claims) is effecting very little and very doubtful good, it is inflicting upon the nation great and positive evil, by refusing to arraign the oppressors at the bar of eternal justice, and by obstructing the formation of abolition societies. It rivets a thousand fetters where it breaks one. It annually removes, on an average, two hundred of our colored population, whereas the annual increase is about seventy thousand. It releases some scores of slaves, and says to the owners of more than two millions--'Hold on!

don't emanc.i.p.ate too fast!'

What have the abolitionists _done_? They have done more, during the past year, to overthrow the system of slavery, than has been accomplished by the gradualists in half a century. They have succeeded in fastening the attention of the nation upon its enormities, and in piercing the callous consciences of the planters. They are reforming and consolidating public opinion, dispelling the mists of error, inspiring the hearts of the timid, enlightening the eyes of the blind, and disturbing the slumbers of the guilty. Colonizationists gather a few leaves which the tree has cast off, and vaunt of the deed: abolitionists 'lay the axe at once to its roots, and put their united nerve into the steel'--nor shall their strokes be in vain--for soon shall 'this great poison-tree of l.u.s.t and blood, and of all abominable and heartless iniquity, fall before them; and law and love, and G.o.d and man, shout victory over its ruin.'

Has the reader duly considered the fatal admissions of the advocates of the colonization scheme, presented in the preceding pages? Some of them it may be serviceable to the cause of truth and justice to recapitulate.

1. _The Society does not aim directly at the instruction of the blacks: their moral, intellectual and political improvement within the United States, is foreign to its powers._

2. _The public safety forbids either the emanc.i.p.ation or the general instruction of the slaves._

3. _The Society properly enough stands aloof from the question of slavery._

4. _It is ready to pa.s.s censure upon abolition societies._

5. _It involves no intrusion on property, nor even upon prejudice._

6. _It has no wish, if it could, to interfere in the smallest degree with the system of slavery._

7. _It acknowledges the necessity by which the present continuance of the system and the rigorous provisions for its maintenance are justified._

8. _It denies the design of attempting emanc.i.p.ation either partial or general: into its accounts the subject of emanc.i.p.ation does not enter at all: it has no intention to open the door to universal liberty._

9. _The rights of masters are to remain sacred in the eyes of the Society._

10. _It condemns no man because he is a slaveholder._

Each of these particulars deserves a volume of comments, but I am compelled to dismiss them in rotation with a single remark.

1. One reason a.s.signed by the Society for refusing to promote the education of our colored population, is, a dread of exciting 'the _prejudices_ and _terrors_ of the slaveholding States'! Is it credible?

As far, then, as this Society extends its influence, more than two millions of ignorant, degraded beings in this boasted land of liberty and light have nothing to hope: their moral, intellectual and political improvement is foreign to its powers! Cruel neglect! barbarous coalition! A sinful fear of rousing the prejudices of oppressors outweighs the claims of the contemned blacks, the requirements of the gospel, the dictates of humanity, and the convictions of duty. Will this plea avail aught at the bar of G.o.d? Millions of our countrymen purposely kept in darkness, although we are able to pour daylight upon their vision, merely to gratify and protect their buyers and sellers!

2. There never was a more abominable or more absurd heresy propagated, than the a.s.sumption that the public safety would be jeoparded by an immediate compliance with the demands of justice: yet it has obtained among all orders of society. Even ministers of the gospel, who are bound to cry aloud, and spare not,--to lift up their voices like a trumpet, and show this guilty nation its sins,--to say to the holders of slaves, 'Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, _and break every yoke_,'--even they fly to this subterfuge, and deprecate a general emanc.i.p.ation. On this subject, 'they know not what they do;' they reason like madmen or atheists; they advance sentiments which unhinge the moral government of the universe, and directly encourage the commission of the most heinous crimes. How long would any one of their number retain his situation, if he were to preach in explicit terms to his congregation as follows?--'My dear hearers, if any among you are daily oppressing the weak, or defrauding the poor, do not cease from your robbery and cruelty at once, as you value your own happiness and the welfare of society! Relax your tyrannous grasp gradually from the throat of your neighbor, and steal not quite so much from him this year as you did the last!'--But they emphatically hold this language whenever they advise slaveholders not to repent _en ma.s.se_, or too hastily. The public safety, they say, forbids emanc.i.p.ation! or, in other words, the public safety depends upon your persistance in cheating, whipping, starving, debasing your slaves! Nay, more--many of them, horrible to tell, are traffickers in human fles.h.!.+

'For this thing which it cannot bear, the earth is disquieted. The gospel of peace and mercy preached by him who steals, buys and sells the purchase of Messiah's blood!--rulers of the church making merchandize of their brethren's souls!--and Christians trading the persons of men!'[I]

3. The system of slavery is full of danger, outrage, desolation and death--'a volcano in full operation'--a monster that is annually supplied with sixty thousand new victims, devoured as soon as born--and yet the Colonization Society 'properly enough stands aloof' from it!! It utters no lamentations--makes no supplications--gives no rebukes--presents no motives for repentance!

4. The Society is not only ready to pa.s.s, but it is constantly bestowing its censure upon abolition societies. It represents their members as guided by a visionary, wild and fanatical spirit, as invaders of rights which are sacred, incendiaries, disturbers of the peace of society, and enemies to the safety and happiness of the planters. Determining itself to avoid the question of emanc.i.p.ation--to leave millions of human beings to pine in bondage without exposing the guilt of the oppressors--it endeavors to prevent any other a.s.sociation agitating the subject. Hence between colonization and abolition societies there is no affinity of feeling or action; and hence arises the cause, inexplicable to many, why they cannot pursue their objects amicably together.

5. The attempt of the Society to conciliate the holders of slaves must result either in disappointment, or in an abandonment of the path of duty. If they are guilty of robbery and oppression, they must be arraigned as criminals, or they never will reform: for why should honest, benevolent men change their conduct? If, through a false delicacy of feeling or cringing policy, their wickedness be covered up, alas for the slaves, and alas for the regeneration of the south! all hope is lost.

6. The Society has no wish, _if it could_, to interfere with the system of slavery! Monstrous indifference, or barbarous cruelty! And yet it presumes to occupy the whole ground of the controversy, and to direct the actions of the friends of the blacks throughout the land! By the phrase '_interfere_,' is meant no desire to contest the claims of the planters to their bondmen, or to kindle the indignation of the people against their atrocious practices.

7. It appears that all those terrible enactments which have been made for the government of the slaves--such, for example, as forbid their learning to read under the penalty of stripes, and even death--are acknowledged by the Society to be necessary for the maintenance of order! What a concession!

8. Sometimes we are told that the Society is aiming at the liberation of all the slaves, and then that it has no design of attempting either partial or general emanc.i.p.ation: so contradictory are its a.s.surances! It is manifest that it does not mean to touch the question of slavery; and hence the imperious necessity of forming abolition societies.

9. The rights of masters are to remain sacred in the eyes of the Society! What rights? Those by which the intelligent creatures of G.o.d are bought and sold and used like cattle? those which are founded upon piracy, cruelty and outrage?[J] Yes! This, then, is an abandonment of the ground of right and justice, and ends the controversy between truth and error.

10. It condemns no man because he is a slaveholder! Certainly, then, it allows that slaveholders are upright men--not guilty of fraud--not oppressors--not extortioners! and that the slaves are truly and justly their property--not ent.i.tled to freedom--not better than cattle--not conscious of evil treatment--not worthy of remuneration for their toil--not rational and accountable beings!

FOOTNOTES:

[H] The term evil is used here in a criminal sense. I know that colonizationists regard slavery as an evil; but an evil which has been _entailed_ upon this land, for the existence of which we are no more to blame than for the prevalence of plague or famine.

[I] 'If the most guilty and daring transgressor be sought, he is a Gospel Minister, who solemnly avows his belief of the Presbyterian Confession of Faith, or the Methodist Discipline, and notwithstanding himself is a Negro Pedler, who steals, buys, sells, and keeps his brethren in slavery, or supports by his taciturnity, or his smooth prophesying, or his direct defence, the Christian professor who unites in the kidnapping trade. Truth forces the declaration, that every church officer, or member, who is a slaveholder, records himself, by his own creed, a hypocrite!' * * 'To pray and kidnap! to commune and rob men's all! to preach justice, and steal the laborer with his recompense! to recommend mercy to others, and exhibit cruelty in our own conduct! to explain religious duties, and ever impede the performance of them! to propound the example of Christ and his Apostles, and declare that a slaveholder imitates them! to enjoin an observance of the Lord's day, and drive the slaves from the temple of G.o.d! to inculcate every social affection, and instantly exterminate them! to expatiate upon bliss eternal, and preclude sinners from obtaining it! to unfold the woes of Tophet, and not drag men from its fire! are the most preposterous delusion, and the most consummate mockery.' * * * 'The Church of G.o.d groans. It is the utmost Satanic delusion to talk of religion and slavery. Be not deceived: to affirm that a slaveholder is a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ, is most intelligible contradiction. A brother of Him who went about doing good, and steal, enslave, torment, starve and scourge a man because his skin is of a different tinge! Such Christianity is the Devil's manufacture to delude souls to the regions of wo.'--REV. GEORGE BOURNE.

[J] 'We are told not to meddle with vested rights: I have a sacred feeling about vested rights; but when vested rights become vested wrongs, I am less scrupulous about them.'--_Speech of Rev. Mr. Burnett, of England._

SECTION II.

THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY APOLOGISES FOR SLAVERY AND SLAVEHOLDERS.

My charges against the American Colonization Society acquire breadth and solemnity as I progress in my task. I have fairly and abundantly sustained my first,--_that the Society is not the enemy of the slave-system_; and I now proceed to prove my second,--_that it apologises for slavery and slaveholders_.

'There is a golden mean, which all who would pursue the solid interest and reputation of their country may discern at the very heart of their confederation, and will both advocate and enforce--a principle, of justice, conciliation and humanity--a principle, sir, which is not inconsistent with itself, and yet can sigh over the degradation of the slave, _defend the wisdom and prudence of the South against the charge of studied and pertinacious cruelty_,' &c.--[Address of Robert F. Stockton, Esq. at the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Parent Society.]

'It is a fact, given us on the most unquestionable authority, that there are now in the southern States of our union, hundreds, and even thousands of proprietors, who would gladly give liberty to their slaves, but are deterred by the apprehension of doing injury to their country, and perhaps to the slaves themselves.'--[Discourse by the Rev. Dr.

Dana.--African Repository, vol. i. p. 145.]

'Guarding that system, the existence of which, though _unfortunate_, THEY DEEM NECESSARY.'--[African Repository, vol.

i. p. 227.]

'We all know from a variety of considerations which it is unnecessary to name, and in consequence of the policy which is obliged to be pursued in the southern States, that it is extremely difficult to free a slave, and hence the enactment of those laws _which a fatal necessity seems to demand_.'--[African Repository, vol. ii. p. 12.]

'They are convinced, that there are now hundreds of masters who are so only from _necessity_.'--[Memorial of the Society to the several States.--A. R. vol. ii. p. 60.]

'_I do not condemn_, let me be understood, _their detention in bondage_ under the circ.u.mstances which are yet existing.'--['The Colonization Society Vindicated.'--Idem, vol. iii. p. 201.]