Thoughts on African Colonization. Garrison William Lloyd
may be the result of this great controversy, I shall have the consolation of believing that no efforts were lacking, on my part, to uproot the prejudices of my countrymen, to persuade them to walk in the path of duty and shun the precipice of expediency, to unloose the heavy burdens and let the prisoners go free at once, to warn them of the danger of expelling the people of color from their native land, and to convince them of the necessity of abandoning a dangerous and chimerical, as well as unchristian and anti-republican association. For these efforts I have hitherto suffered reproach and persecution, and must expect to suffer till I perish. This book will doubtless increase the rage of my enemies; but no torrent of invective shall successfully whelm it, no sophistry impair its force, no activity destroy its influence, no misrepresentation defeat its usefulness.
I commend it, particularly, to the candid attention of the two most powerful classes in this country – editors of newspapers and the clergy. It is not a light matter for either of them to propagate false doctrines and excite delusive hopes, on the subject of politics or religion. Although the press is committed to a wide extent, I place too much reliance upon the good sense and liberal patriotism of its conductors to believe that the evidence which is presented in these pages of the inefficiency and injustice of the colonization scheme, will fail to convince their understanding. I cherish still higher expectations of its salutary influence upon ministers of the gospel. It may grieve them to discover that they have been misled themselves, and that they have unwittingly misled others. To say to their flocks – 'We have erred in this matter; we have solicited your charities for an institution which is built upon prejudice and persecution; we have hastily adopted the mistaken opinions of others' – such a confession may indeed require much grace in the heart, but this grace, I am persuaded, they will obtain. As apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, sustaining high and awful responsibilities, and exerting an influence which measurably decides the eternal destiny of the souls of men, they will not shut their eyes, or stop their ears, or refuse to examine, or disregard the truth, in a case involving the temporal and eternal happiness of millions of their fellow creatures.
SECTION I
Having concluded my introductory remarks, I now proceed to substantiate my accusations against the American Colonization Society, by marshalling in review the sentiments of those who first originated it, and who are its efficient managers and advocates. It is obvious that, with my limited means, and in a book designed for a cheap circulation, I shall not be able to enter into so minute a detail as the present exigency demands, or make those comments which might serve more fully to illustrate the character of this association. It should be stated, moreover, that I have not made any particular effort to procure materials for this work, being satisfied that those which have almost accidentally fallen into my hands, contain ample and conclusive evidence of the unworthiness of the Society. A vast number of the Reports of auxiliary bodies in various parts of the country, of orations and sermons and essays in favor of African colonization, are beyond my reach, and must remain unconsulted. If more proof be demanded, it shall be given to the public. There is not a sound timber in this great Babel: from the foundation to the roof, it is rotten and defective.
I shall not stop to interrogate the motives of those who planned the Society. Some of them, undoubtedly, were actuated by a benevolent desire to promote the welfare of our colored population, and could never have intended to countenance oppression. But the question is not, whether their motives were good or bad. Suppose they were all good – would this fact prove infallibly that they could not err in judgment? Do we not almost daily see men running headlong into wild and injurious enterprises with the very best intentions? There is a wide difference between meaning well and doing well. The slave trade originated in a compassionate regard for the benighted Africans; and yet we hang those who are detected in this traffic. I am willing to concede that Robert Finley and Elias B. Caldwell were philanthropic individuals; and that a large number of their followers are men of piety, benevolence and moral worth. What then? Is the American Colonization Society a beneficial institution? We shall see hereafter.
The history of this Society is familiar to the public. It was organized about the commencement of the year 1817. The first public meeting to consider the expediency of such an organization was held on the 21st of December, 1816, at which the Hon. Henry Clay presided; but I have never seen its official proceedings. It was addressed by Mr Clay, Mr Randolph, Mr Caldwell, and other gentlemen, from whose speeches extracts will shortly be given.
It is my purpose in this section to show, first, the original design of the Society; secondly, that it is still strictly adhered to; and, lastly, that the Society is solemnly pledged not to interfere with the system of slavery, or in any manner to disturb the repose of the planters. Upon the rigid observance of this sinful pledge depends its existence; a single violation of it would be fatal. I want no better reason than this, to wage an uncompromising warfare against it. No man has a right to form an alliance with others, which prevents him from rebuking sin or exposing the guilt of sinners. Every individual is bound to oppose the system of slavery in the most direct, strenuous, unfaltering manner – bound by the ties of brotherhood, by the spirit of Christianity, by the genius of republicanism, by the dictates of humanity, by the requirements of justice, by the love of country, by duty to his God. He cannot suppress his voice, nor stop his ears to the groans of the prisoners, and be innocent. If he hide the truth because it may give offence – if he strike hands in amity with a thief – if he leave the needy and oppressed to perish – God will visit him with plagues. Now the language of the non-slaveholding members of the Colonization Society to the owners of slaves is virtually as follows: – 'The free people of color are a nuisance to us, and plotters of sedition among your slaves. If they be not speedily removed, your property will be lost, and your lives destroyed. We therefore do solemnly agree, that, if you will unite with us in expelling this dangerous class from our shores, we will never accuse you of robbery or oppression, or irritate your feelings by asserting the right of the slaves to immediate freedom, or identify any one of you as a criminal; but, on the contrary, we will boldly assert your innocence, and applaud you as wise and benevolent men for holding your slaves in subjection until you can cast them out of the country.' I say, this is virtually their language, as I shall soon indisputably show. Thus we are presented with the strange spectacle of a procession composed of the most heterogeneous materials. There go, arm-in-arm, a New-England divine and a southern kidnapper; and there an ungodly slaveholder and a pious deacon; each eyeing the other with distrust, and fearful of exciting a quarrel, both denouncing the poor, neglected, despised free black man as a miserable, good-for-nothing creature, and both gravely complimenting their foresight and generosity in sending this worthless wretch on a religious mission to Africa!
I cannot exhibit the folly and wickedness of this alliance in a clearer light than by inserting the following extract of a letter from Capt. Charles Stuart, of the English Royal Navy, one of the most indefatigable philanthropists in England:
'The American Colonization Society looks abroad over its own country, and it finds a mass of its brethren, whom God has been pleased to clothe with a darker skin. It finds one portion of these free! another enslaved! It finds a cruel prejudice, as dark and false as sin can make it, reigning with a most tyrannous sway against both. It finds this prejudice respecting the free, declaring without a blush, "We are too wicked ever to love them as God commands us to do – we are so resolute in our wickedness as not even to desire to do so – and we are so proud in our iniquity that we will hate and revile whoever disturbs us in it – We want, like the devils of old, to be let alone in our sin – We are unalterably determined, and neither God nor man shall move us from this resolution, that our free colored fellow subjects never shall be happy in their native land." The American Colonization Society, I say, finds this most base and cruel prejudice, and lets it alone; nay more, it directly and powerfully supports it.
'The American Colonization Society finds 2,000,000 of its fellow subjects most iniquitously enslaved – and it finds a resolution as proud and wicked as the very spirit of the pit can make it against obeying God and letting them go free in their native land. It lets this perfectly infernal resolution alone, nay more, it powerfully supports it; for it in fact says, as a fond and feeble father might say to some overgrown baby before whose obstinate wickedness he quailed, "Never