^o« A <* *'7vT* .G* o. -o . » o •fay* :4»: ^ < :M&>*- «*> v 1, *1^U > ^ 0° ^ **. \b, -o.** A v ^, %^ ^ C W ..*> -W **<*5^^* *5V ,8"20 3.43 2.77 2.95 2.93 3.33 1820 to 1830 3.38 3.41 3.01 3.06 3.32 1830 to 1840 3.46 2.08 2.32 2.33 3.26 Average 3.48 4.73 2.88 3.06 3.41 "* Adopting this rule of computation, we find that the emancipations in the slave states, from 1790 to 1830, must have been 131,700. If to this we add one-half of the number who were free in 1790, or 30,000, it makes the total emancipations up to 1830 amount to 161, 700. The extent of the pecuniary sacrifice made to the cause of emancipation by benevolent men involved in slavery, will be better understood by estimating the number emancipated at $350 each, which gives a product of $56,595,000. This estimated value is low enough. To this sum, however, should be added the number of slaves emancipated and sent to Liberia, which, up to 1843, amounted to 2,290. If to these are added the emancipated slaves sent out to * We find the following statement in relation to the number of slaves in the United States at an earlier period, in a religious periodical. At the time of the Declaration of Independence, in 1776, the whole number of slaves was estimated at 500,000, viz. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 3,500 4,373 6,000 629 15,000 7,600 10,000 Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Georgia, Total, 9,000 80,000 16,500 75,000 110,000 16,000 502,133 14 Emancipation of Slaves in the United States. Africa since that period, the number of which we cannot at present as- ceitain, we shall have more than another million of dollars to add to the above sum, thus making the amount sacrificed to the cause of eman- cipation but little short of Jiffy-eight millions of dollars. But in granting the slave his freedom, it seemed to be decided by- common consent, that the British statesman was right in asserting that Negroes could not become Republicans. The right of suffrage was not extended to them. The stimulus of entering into competition for the highest posts of honor was not afforded to the man of color to prompt him to great mental effort. Able to find employment only in the more menial occupations, his opportunities for intellectual advancement were poor, and his prospects of moral improvement still more gloomy. These results of emancipation in the northern states were watched with great interest by the philanthropic citizens of the slave states. The liberation of the slaves in the free states had fallen so far short of securing the amount of good anticipated, that the friends of the colored man became less urgent and zealous in their efforts to secure further legislative action, while the opponent of the measure was furnished with a new argument to sustain him in his course of hostil- ity to emancipation, and was soon able to secure the passage of laws for its prohibition, under the specious plea that a large increase of the free colored population by emancipation could not be productive of o-ood either to themselves or to the whites. That some powerful cause operated in checking emancipations after 1810, and that it again received a new impulse from 1820 to 1830, is undeniable. The number emancipated in the slave states, during the several periods, as is determined by the rule before adopted, was as follows : 1790 to 1800 emancipations were 37,042 1800 to 1810 " " 56,414 1810 to 1820 " " 14,471 1820 to 1830 « " 33,772* 1830 to 1840 " " 000 From 1790 to 1810 some of the most powerful minds in the nation were directed to the consideration of the enormous evils of slavery, and the effects of their labors are exhibited in the number of emancipations made during that period. The decline of emancipa- tions after 1810, we believe to be due to the cause assigned above — the little benefit, apparently, which had resulted from the liberation of the slaves, and the consequent relaxation of effort by the friends of emancipation. The impulse given to emancipation between 1820 and 1S30, it is believed, was caused by the favorable influences exerted by the Colonization Society, which enjoyed a great degree of popularity during this period. But from 1830 to 1840, the period when the Society had the fewest friends, the increase of the free colored *The 10,000 emancipated in New York being deducted, will leave 23,7?2 in this period. Emancipation of Slaves in the United Slates. 15 population was reduced to only two per cent, per annum, showing that emancipations must have nearly ceased, or that the deaths among our free colored people are so nearly equal to the births, that some decisive measures are demanded, by considerations of humanity, to place them under circumstances more favorable than they at present enjoy. It may be well in this place to call attention to the fact, that while the natural increase of our free colored population cannot exceed two per cent, per annum, that of the slaves, notwithstanding the numerous emancipations, has been three per cent, per annum, excepting in the first period, when the disparity in the sexes produced by the slave trade might produce a greater mortality than would afterward occur ; and iu the last period, between 1830 and 1840, during which the great revulsions in business, producing an immense number of bank- ruptcies in the south, caused thousands of embarrassed debtors to remove their slaves to Texas, beyond the reach of their creditors. The slaves thus removed, not being included in the census of 1840, caused a reduction in the ratio of our slave increase. See table III. Thus we find, that in the earlier periods of our history, the promptings of philanthropy and the influence of Christian principle produced a public sentiment which controlled legislation, and broke the chain of the slave. And where legislation failed, it operated with equal power on the hearts of men, and produced the same salutary effects. But while emancipation was found to have produced to the white man the richest fruits, it was observed, with painful feelings, that to the colored man it had been productive of little else than the "Apples of Sodom." These results of emancipation led to anxious inquiries in relation to the disposal of the free colored population. It was all-important, in the judgment of the friends of the colored man, that he should be placed under circumstances where the degradation of centuries might be forgotten, and where he might become an honor to his race and a benefactor to the world. The conviction forced itself upon their minds, that a separate political organization — a Government of his otvn, where he would be free in fact as well as in name — was the only means by which they could fully discharge the debt due to him, and place him in a position where his prospects of advancement would be based upon a sure foundation. These remarks bring us to the consideration of the third branch of our subject. III. The provision to be made for the people of color when liberated. A separate political organization was decided upon, and Coloniza- tion, at a distant point, beyond the influence of the whites, considered the only means of future security to the colored man. To select the field for the founding of the future African Empire was not such an easy task. The history of the Indian tribes had proved, but too forcibly, that an establishment upon the territory of the United States 16 Colonization to Liberia. would soon become unsafe, in consequence of the rapid and universal extension of the white population. The unsettled state of the South American Republics was considered as offering still less security. Europe had no room for them, nor desire to possess them. England had already removed those cast upon herself and her Canadian pos- sessions, by the casualties of war, back again to Africa, and founded her Colony of Sierra Leone. The only remaining point was Africa. Its western coast was of most easy access, being but little further from us than Havre or Liverpool. The condition of its native population offered many obstacles to the establishment of a colony. But the inducements to select it as the field of the enterprise in contempla- tion were also many. It was the land of the fathers of those who were to emigrate. It was deeply sunk in both moral and intellectual darkness. The lowest rites of Pagan worship were widely practised. Human sacrifices extensively prevailed, and even cannibalism often added its horrors to fill up the picture of its dismal degradation. And, as though the Spirit of Evil had resolved on concentrating in one point all the enormities that could be invented by the fiends of the nether pit, the slave trade was added to the catalogue, to stimulate the worst passions of the human heart, and produce developments of wickedness and of cruelty, at the bare recital of which humanity shudders. Except at a few points, no ray of moral light, to guide to a blissful eternity, had yet penetrated the more than midnight moral darkness which had for ages shrouded the land. The deadly influ- ence of the climate, together with the interference of the slave trade, had hitherto defeated the success of missionary effort, and there seemed to be no hope for the moral renovation of Africa but through the agency of men of African blood, whose constitutions could be- come adapted to the climate, and who could thus gain a foothold upon the continent, repel the slave traders, and introduce civilization and the gospel. Here, then, was a field for the action of the freed-men of the United States. Here was a theater upon which to exhibit before the world the capacities of the colored race. Here, too, could be solved the problem of the value of the republican form of government. And, above all, here could be fully tested the regenerating, the elevating, and the humanizing power of the gospel of Christ. In commencing the settlement of a colony of colored persons on the coast of Africa, two objects were to be accomplished : 1. To improve the condition of the free colored people of the United States. 2. To civilize and christianize Africa. To these objects the friends of the colored man devoted themselves. The first emigrants were sent out in 1820. The pecuniary means of the society were never very great, and its progress in sending out emigrants and in building up the colony has necessarily been slow. From the first it met with violent opposition from the slave traders on the coast of Africa, who, by creating the impression upon the minds of the natives that the colonists would prevent their further connection Colonization to Liberia. 17 with the slave trade, and thus cut off their chief source of acquiring wealth, inflamed the minds of the chiefs, and prompted them to make war upon the colonists. Soon after the settlement of the colony, the native warriors, one thousand strong, attacked the emigrants, who numbered but thirty-five effective men. But a kind Providence shielded them from the infuriated savages who assailed them, and enabled that handful of men to defeat their foes, in two successive assaults, separated from each other by several weeks of time, and, finally, to establish themselves in peace in all their borders. Additional emigrants, from year to year, were sent out. Mission- aries labored, with more or less faithfulness, in establishing schools and in preaching the gospel. The natives, in a few years, became convinced that the colonists were their true friends, and that the adoption of civilized habits would secure to them greater comforts than could be obtained by a continuation of the slave trade. Their children were sent to school with those of the colonists. A moral renovation commenced and progressed until, in the course of twenty- six years from the landing of the first emigrants at Monrovia, the colony attained a condition of strength warranting its erection into an Independent Republic. Accordingly, in July, 1847, its independence was declared, and a population of 80,000 adopted the constitution and laws and became members of the Republic. Its newly-elected President, J. J. Roberts, a man of color, in his recent visit to England, France and Germany, was treated with great respect, and found no difficulty in securing the acknowledgment of the indepen- dence of the Republic of Liberia by the two former governments. But it may be said, that, after all, but little has been done, compared with the means expended, in this effort to make provision for the free colored people, and for the introduction of a Christian civilization into Africa. A more striking view of the results will be brought out by contrasting the products of the labors of the American Coloniza- tion Society with some of the other efforts which have been made to rescue Africa from the wrongs inflicted upon her. England, mighty in power, and possessing the means of executing magnificent enterprises, has expended, as already stated, more than one hundred millions of dollars for the suppression of the slave trade and the civilization of Africa. But her labors and her treasures have been spent in vain. Her gold might better have been sunk in the ocean. The monster, hydra-like, when smitten and one head sever- ed from the body, has constantly reproduced two in its place ; and, at this moment, as before shown, it is prosecuted with greater activity than for many years. It must be remembered that these efforts of Great Britain have been made during the period of the existence of the American Col onization Society, and in seeming contempt of its pigmy efforts. For years previous to the independence of Liberia, and while England was aiming at making Africa a dependency of her Crown, she, on several occasions, manifested a disposition to cripple the energies of our colony. And so extensive were the agencies she seems to have 2 18 Colonization to Liberia. employed, that it is now matter of wonder that she had not succeeded in wholly crushing the colonization enterprise, and securing to herself the control of that richest of all the tropical portions of the world. But all her efforts at checking the progress of this heaven-born enter- prise have been as fruitless as those adopted by her in reference to the slave trade, or for civilizing Africa. The fact stands acknow- ledged before the world, that Great Britain, after the expenditure of more than one hundred millions of dollars, has failed in suppressing the slave trade on one mile of coast beyond the limits of her colonies, while our colonization efforts have swept it from nearly four hundred miles of coast, where it formerly existed in its chief strength. But why is it that there is such a marked difference in the results ? Why is it that the Colonization Society, with a yearly income some- times of only $10,000 and rarely ever reaching $50,000, should have, in twenty-six years, annihilated the slave trade on 400 miles of coast, and secured the blessings of freedom to 80,000 men, formerly slaves, and have succeeded in binding, by treaties, 200,000 more, never again to eno-age in the traffic in their brethren, — while Great Britain, with all her wealth and power, has accomplished nothing? We will not undertake to answer these questions. It cannot always' be discerned by men why the Ruler of the Universe often defeats the best devised human schemes, which to them may seem certain of success, and prospers those which, to human foresight, were the least promising. We need only remind you that Great Britain has relied, almost exclusively, upon the employment of physical force to accomplish her purposes, while the Colonization Society has depended, as exclusively, upon moral means. The agencies it has employed have been the humble mechanic, the hus- bandman, the school-master, the missionary and the Bible. And, though often thwarted in its purposes by those who felt interested in its overthrow, yet, relying upon moral means, and never resorting to force but yi self-defense, it has signally triumphed and put to shame the wisdom of men and the power of kingdoms. Its operations have proved that the schoolmaster, the missionary and the Bible possess a moral power infinitely more potent than coronets and crowns. These results go very far toward proving the truth of the proposi- tion, announced in the outset, — that the Gospel of Christ is the medium through which God operates in bringing mankind into sub- jection to his will, and that a reliance upon any other means for the moral redemption of the nations of the world, must prove an utter failure. In view of all these results, we are fully warranted in maintaining that the Colonization Society, in its measures for benefitting the colored people, has done an incalculable amount of good, and demands our confidence and our support, and that it is justly entitled to the paternity of three measures which have been productive of the great- est good to Africa : 1. The procuring of the first legal enactments declaring the slave trade piracy. Colonization to Liberia. 19 2. The total extinction of that cruel traffic from near 400 miles of the coast of Africa. 3. The establishment of an Independent Christian Republic on that continent. There is another feature of this question, of the disposal of the free colored population of the United States, which demands attention, and is of the utmost importance in selecting for them a home. The northern latitudes of the United States do not furnish a suitable home for men of African descent. The evidence of this fact is furnished by their own movements when left free to act. The census tables supply the testimony upon this subject. By referring to table III, it will be seen that the ratio of the natural increase of the free colored population is tivo per cent, per annum. The knowledge of this fact furnishes the key to determine the in- crease or decrease, by emigration, in any state or group of states. IV. Free colored population in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Vermont. TEARS. 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 Total number 13,126 17,317 19,488 21,248 21,331 22,634 Actual increase 4,191 2,171 1,760 83 1,303 Increase per cent. per annum 3.19 1.25 0.90 0.03 0.61 Slaves in do. 3,886 1,340 418 145 48 23 In the prosecution of the investigation of the question before us, the effect of climate upon the African constitution, we find that previous to 1790, the desire of the manumitted slave to escape from the scenes of his oppressions had given to the six New England states a free colored population of 13,126. From 1790 to 1800 the census tables show that the line of emigration was still northward, and augmented their ratio of increase more than one-third over the natural rate. But during the -next forty years, ending with 1840, their ratio of increase, as shown in table IV, was rapidly diminished, and fell so far below the ratio of their natural increase, that, from 1820 to 1830, with a free colored population of 21,248, they had an in- crease in these ten years of only eighty three persons. The aggre- gate for the whole period stands thus: In 1810 they had a free colored population of 19,488, and in 1840 but 22,634, being an in- crease of only 3,146; while their natural increase, if retained, would have augmented their numbers to 33,648. This diminution must have been caused by emigration back again toward the south, because we find that New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, had a corresponding increase during this period, with the exception of the last ten years, when they also lost a portion of their natural increase. But this tendency of colored men to avoid northern latitudes is quite as fully proved by a comparison of the northern parts of New 20 Influence of Climate on Colored Men. York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, with their southern portions, as it is exhibited in the case of the New England States, when compared with those further south. Take, for example, a few of the counties in the north-east of Ohio. In 1840, Geauga had only 3 persons of color, Ashtabula 17, Lake 21, Portage 39, Summit 42, Medina 13, Lorain 62, Trumbull 70, and Cuyahoga, including the city of Cleve- land, 121, in all 388. Now look at a few of the counties bordering the slave states and in the more southern part of the state. Belmont, in 1840, had 724, Gallia 799, Highland 786, Brown 614, Ross 1195, Franklin 805, and Hamilton 2546. This contrast, which might be extended much further, reveals the fact, that any one of the last named counties, in the southern portion of the state, had nearly double, and several of them more than double the number of colored persons that the whole eight northern counties above named included. But to give a more forcible illustration of the truth of our proposi- tion, allow me to extend this contrast between the northern and southern counties of Ohio, so as to include the whole free colored population of the state. By drawing a line east and west across the state, so as to divide its territory into about equal parts, giving an excess of counties, as now divided, to the north, the result is, that in 1840, the 38 northern counties, now divided into 42, included only 2,360 persons of color, while the 40 counties of the southern half embraced a colored population of 15,000. And if we deduct Stark, Columbiana and Harrison on the east, and Mercer on the west, from the northern counties, they will have left, in the 36 remaining coun- ties, a free colored population of only 1372, or a little more than half the number in Hamilton county. I append the list of all the coun- ties, that it may be accessible to those who may wish to prosecute this investigation.* After making all due allowance for the alledged defect of energy in the colored man, as accounting for his not seeking a residence in the north ; and what has still more influence on his mind — the greater indulgence which he finds from the planter of the south, now settled in our more southern counties, than he does from the northern man who is a stranger to his habits, — there is, we affirm, ample testimony to prove, that the northern latitudes of the United States do not furnish a suitable climate for men of African blood, and that they are con- oregating as far south as circumstances will permit. This fact, we insist, proves conclusively the necessity of securing a tropical home for colored men. But in addition to all the foregoing details, which prove the inadapt- ation of northern latitudes, to the African, we have, very recently, the fact revealed to us in a late census of Upper Canada, that in that province, where we had been a thousand times assured that from 20, 000 to 25,000 runaway slaves from the United States had found refuge, there were, in 1847, barely 5,571 colored persons in the *See Note, page 21. Influence of Climate on Colored Men. 21 colony. In this statement, however, which includes the whole twenty districts, there may be an error in one of them which may vary this result. But I cannot dismiss this part of our subject without a few remarks. The citizens of our northern counties often charge us, of the south- ern, with being destitute of the ordinary feelings of humanity and benevolence, because we are disposed to discourage the further immi- gration of colored men into the state, and because we advocate a separation of the races by colonization. And this they do with an apparent seriousness that warrants us in concluding that they believe what they say. Perhaps if we had only three to a county, like old The following statement, referred to on the previous page, gives the colored popu- lation of Ohio in the several counties, commencing at the northern and southern extremities, as presented in the census of 1840. Ashtabula ....... Lake Hamilton ......... 2576 ... 122 ... 614 ... 63 Scioto 206 Gallia ... 148 . . . . 799 ... 28 ... 315 Pike . . . . 329 . . . . 786 . • . . 254 . . 341 . . . . 377 . . . 1195 . . 46 ... 55 . . . . 269 . . 13 . . . . 68 Perrv 47 Fairfield 342 Pickaway 333 Fayette 239 ■Greene 344 Clark 200 Montgomery 376 Preble , . 88 Darke 200 Miami 211 Shelby 262 Logan 407 Champaign 328 Madison 97 Franklin 805 Licking 140 Muskingum 562 Guernsey 190 Belmont 742 Jefferson 497 17 21 3 121 70 39 42 13 62 97 106 41 5 65 32 54 6 2 204 23 8 4 52 5 65 ' 41 3 204 49 Columbiana 417 Geauga Cuyahoga Trumbull . Portage Summit Medina Lorain . . Erie . . . Huron . . Sandusky Ottawa Seneca . . Wood . . Lucas . . Henry . . Williams . Paulding . Van Wert Mercer . . Allen . . Hancock . Hardin . . Marion • . Crawford . Richland . Wayne Holmes Stark . . Carroll . . Harrison . Tuscarawas Coshocton Knox . . Delaware . Union . . Morrow Mahoning Auglaize Defiance 163 71 38 63 76 78 22 Influence of Climate and Foreign Emigration. Geauga, we, too, might be disposed to catch them for pets, to amuse our children, as we do mocking birds and paroquets. But with us the novelty of seeing a colored man has long since passed away, and we no longer make pets of them, on account of color, but treat them precisely as we do other men. The upright and industrious we respect and encourage. The immoral and degraded we wish anywhere else than in our households or as near neighbors. V. Free colored population in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- vania. YEARS. 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 Total number 13,953 29,340 55,668 74,742 101,103 118,925 Actual increase 15,387 26,328 19,074 26,361 17,822 Increase per cent. per annum 11.02 8.97 3.42 3.54 1.76 Slaves in do. 36,484 34,471 26,663 17,856 2,732 742 But in addition to climate, the colored man has another formidable adversary to contend with. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- vania, as before stated, and as the figures in table V show us, had accessions to their colored population much beyond the natural in- crease on their original numbers up till 1830. But from 1830 to 1840 these states also commenced repelling their free colored population, and their ratio of increase was reduced considerably below two per cent, per annum — Pennsylvania, however, still having a ratio of 2. r %\, showing that she had not been as much affected as the other two states, though between 1820 and 1830 her ratio had been reduced to 1. per cent, per annum. VI. Free colored population of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. YEARS. 1790 1800 1810 1820 | 1830 1840 Total number 24,718 47,979 77,633 89,817116,141 128,781 Actual increase 23,261 29,654 12,184j 26,324 12,640 Increase per cent. per annum 9.41 6.13 1.55] 2.93 1.08 Slaves 405,350 457,584 508,197 537,060,576,043 530,087 VII. Free colored population of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. YEARS. 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 Total number 7,174 11,247 16,621 23,205 29,950 33,761 Actual increase 4,073 5,374 6,584 6,745 3,811 Increase per cent. per annum 5.67 4.77 3.96 2.90 1.27 Slaves 236,930J338,851 470,407 613,148 778,533 853,799 Influence of Slavery and Foreign Emigration. 23 Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, also repulsed nearly one half of their natural increase between 1830 and 1840, as exhibited in tables VI and VII, showing that the emigration from the northern states was not passing in that direction. VIII. Free colored population of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. YEARS. 1790 475 1800 1810 1820 1830 18 10 Total number 1,050 3,030 6,353 11,044 14,880 Actual increase 575 1,980 3,323 3,691 3,836 Increase per cent. per annum 12.10 18.85 10.96 7.35 3.47 Slaves 15,247 53,927 125,096 254,278 424,365 618,849 Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, though for a time, receiving large accessions of free colored people emigrating, probably, from Virginia and North Carolina, westward into their bounds, seem also to have checked it, between 1830 and 1840, to a considerable extent. But as more energetic measures have since been adopted to repel all immigration, extending even to the selling of the intruders into slavery, as was the case last year in Kentucky; the census of 1850 will no doubt exhibit a reduction of the ratio of these states, also, to the natural rate of increase, if not below it. Louisiana, alone, of all the larger slave states, has maintained a uniform increase of her free colored population. Her position on the Mississippi affords great facilities to enterprising colored men, wishing to escape from the rigors of northern winters, to penetrate her territory. IX. Free colored population of Louisiana. YEARS. 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 Total number 7,585 10,960 16,710 25,502 Actual increase 3,375 5,750, 8,792 Increase per cent. per annum 4.44 5.24 5.26 Slaves 34,660 69,064 109,588 168,452 In the slave 'states, the prejudices and the rigid laws in relation to their free colored people, will account for the losses which they have sustained. But in New York and New Jersey, some other cause must have exerted a repelling influence, or there would not have been such a desertion of that region by colored men. This cause will, we believe, be found to exist in the foreign emigration into our country. The foreign emigrant, escaping from the tyranny of the despotisms which have so long crushed his energies, and where he had been accustomed to work for a mere subsistence, is overjoyed, on reaching this country, to receive a rate of wages for which the colored man is unwilling to labor. He is thus the most 24 Influence of Slavery and Foreign Emigration. formidable rival of the colored man, and supplants him in his employ- ments and drives him from his temporary home. But while this rivalry of the foreigner, the prejudice of the slave holder, and the influence of climate, seem to create insuperable obstacles to the success of any scheme of securing to colored men a permanent home in the north, it affords a strong proof of the wisdom of the scheme of African Colonization, where the rivalry of white men and the influ- ence of climate, or the prejudice against color, can never reach him or interrupt him in his pursuits. But there is still another subject connected with the movements of the free colored people which greatly interests the citizens of Ohio. We have seen that a regular movement of the free colored population, from north to south, has been in progress ever since 1800, and that it was only checked, in its southern course, by reaching the borders of the slave states. But after 1830 this floating mass took a new direc- tion. As the foreign emigration first touches the eastern coast, its effects are first felt there, and from thence it rolls westward. While the current of the colored emigration, therefore, is setting in from the north, it is met by this opposing tide from the east, and deflected to the west. On turning to the west, we find that while this continuous stream of colored emigration has been pouring out of all the states norlh-east, east, and south-east of us, they have been concentrating with almost equal rapidity in the Ohio valley. X. Free colored population in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. YEARS. 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 Total number 500 2,905 6,598 14,834 28,105 Actual increase 2,405 3,693 8,236 13,271 Increase per cent. per annum 48.10 12.71 12.48 8.94 Look at the figures in table X. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, in 1800, had 500 free persons of color in their bounds. In 1840 they numbered 28,105. If the influx, since 1840, has been as great as in the preceding period, these three states will have a free colored popu- lation, at present, of over 50,000, of which the share of Ohio is 30,000. To afford a more striking contrast of the position in which we stand, as compared with the six New England States, it is only necessary to say, that the ratio of the annual increase of the free colored population of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, from 1820 to 1830, doubled their numbers in eight years, while that of the former six states would require, to double theirs, a period of two hundred and fifty six years. But to avoid a charge of unfairness in selecting a period of only ten years, and that the most favorable to our purpose, we shall extend the contrast to forty years, from 1840 back to 1800, and the result is Free Colored Emigration into Ohio. 25 still more startling. During this period of forty years, the six New England States did not increase their colored population quite one third, ( it was jfc ) wmle 0hio ' Indiana, and Illinois, have doubled fifty-five times on their original numbers. Our increase, therefore, when compared with theirs for a period of forty years, stands as 55 to i. . . Here, now, is presented a condition of things which demands the attention of the Legislature and the people of Ohio. We have, for years, been disposed to evade the question of the provision to be made for the people of color. The causes operating to concentrate them in the Ohio valley are beyond our control, and they must con- tinue to congregate here. Nor can we check this movement by any ordinary precautions, were we disposed to make the effort, because we cannot, by any legislation of ours, reach the causes which compel them to leave the other states. We cannot change the climate of the north-east, nor mold the African constitution so that it may endure the rigors of its winters ; and much less can we impart to the colored man a spirit of energy and activity in business which shall enable him to compete with the New Englander. We are still less able to roll back the mighty wave of foreign emigration, which, annually, supplies to the east a surplus of cheap labor, and drives the man of color from his employments, and compels him to wander to the west in search of bread. And it is still more impracticable for us to induce the slave states to repeal the laws and give up the prejudices which drive out the free colored man from amongst them. The colored people, if disposed, cannot extend westward and southward. The iron wall of slavery and the prohibitions in the new constitutions of Illinois and Iowa, will prevent emigration in that direction. They are, therefore, shut up, imprisoned among us, and instead of any diminution we must prepare for an increase of tbeir numbers. It is a fact well understood, that in the slave states, no movement, involving emancipation to any great extent, can now take place except in connection with the removal of the freedmen from among them. Some of them at present talk of emancipation and colonization in Africa, but if we should open our doors as widely as many desire, the slave holder need not tax himself with the expense of the passage of his slaves to Liberia. It will be cheaper and less troublesome to let them alone, and they will soon put themselves under the care of their loving brothers across the Ohio river. And, in adopting this course, the slave holder may feel that he is conferring a favor upon us, because, on several occasions, where masters had emancipated their slaves, and started them for Liberia, they have been pursuaded to escape to Ohio or Pennsylvania. Several of the border states will, before many years, become free states, because of the growing conviction among the people that the presence of slaves upon their soil has created a blighting influence- — that it has paralyzed the physical and moral energies of the white youth — that until the slaves are removed, the sons of their yeomanry will not engage in field labor, and that until this revolution is effected 26 Free Colored Emigration into Ohio. the slave states cannot prosper as the free states have done. They are further convinced that the presence of colored people, as free laborers, will exert equally as baneful an effect upon the industry of the whites, as the presence of the slave has done. We have failed, in a twenty years war of words, to change these opinions. They know that their sons scorn the idea of laboring upon an equality with men of servile origin. This may all be wrong, but that does not alter the fact. The people of the slave states will never consent to emancipation, but in connection with the removal of the freedmen. This is their fixed purpose : and any measure for the melioration of the condition of the colored man which does not include this fact, and adapt itself to it, will be so far defective. Now, it seems evident, that to whatever extent emancipation may take place, whether by individuals or by states ; and further, to what- ever degree the slave states may carry their hostility to the free colored people among them, and succeed in driving them out ; to the same extent may ^ve expect to be made the receivers of the un- fortunate wanderers, unless we can divert the current of emigration in some other direction. With all these facts before us — the influence of climate — the rival- ry of the foreign emigrant — the prejudices of the slave holder — the adverse legislation of the slave states — the rapid concentration of the free colored people along the southern margin of the Ohio valley — and the impracticability of their emigrating further south or west — it must be apparent, at once, that we occupy a very different position from that of the New England States and the northern counties of Ohio. We are constantly receiving large accessions from the slave states. Many of our towns and villages have had their colored population doubled since 1840, and there is no prospect, at present, of their influx being checked. The Ohio Black Laws, though designed, originally, to operate as a check upon colored immigration, have wholly failed of their object, and have only added another to the numerous inefficient measures adopted for protection against the evils generated by slavery — evils so numerous and complicated, that, often, the remedies applied only increase the malady. And here we must be allowed to remark, that few men can excel our northern friends in depicting the horrors of slavery. They have studied it chiefly in that point of view. Its degrading and brutifying tendencies, generating vices the most debasing and destructive, have been portrayed, but too truly, in our hearing, by them, a thousand times. They, of course, expect us to believe their statements and to adopt their views of the odiousness of the system. Now, in return, we ask of them that they shall believe us. And if one half they have told us be true, in relation to the low state of morals — the deep and damning depravity of the victims of slavery— then visit us with the plague, or any other physical calamity, rather than bring this moral pestilence into contact with our childrren. We speak but the common sentiment of the great mass of our citizens. Necessity of Colonization. 27 These sentiments are not generated by hostile feelings to the colored man. any more than the missionary, who wishes to guard well the virtues of his children and impart to them a nobility of thought and sentiment, should be charged with hating the degraded Hindoo or Hottentot, for whose intellectual and moral elevation he risks his life, because he sends his children back to a Christian country to be edu- cated by Christian friends. Many of the first settlers of southern Ohio had fled from Virginia, Kentucky, and the Carolinas, to rear their families beyond the reach of the demoralizing effects of slavery, and in the enactment of the Black Laws they hoped to erect an impassable barrier between them- selves and slavery, or any of its fruits. It was not prejudice against color, alone, that dictated the passage of the Black Laws of Ohio, and which has kept them so long upon our statute book, but it was a dictate of self-preservation. It was a determination to confine slavery, with all its fruits, within the limits where it existed, and to guard themselves and their children against moral contamination by contact with those unfortunate beings whose deplorable degradation has been so eloquently, and often, but too truly delineated to us. A repeal of the Black Laws may be proper;* some modification of them, at least, is demanded. But it forms no part of the task assign- ed us to express an opinion on the subject. This much, however, we can say, that something more is needed than the repeal of these laws, before the colored man can have justice done him, or the public mind be satisfied with the posture of affairs. Nor can we be persuaded that he who rarely ever sees a colored person, and who knows nothing of the unfavorable circumstances in which a majority of the colored people are placed, where they are congregated in large numbers, is the proper man to mature measures for their relief. He has not the opportunity of forming a practical judgment in the case, and his schemes, therefore, will be more apt to partake of the visionary than the practicable. But we are told that it is our duty to labor for the elevation and im- provement of the colored man, and thus prepare him for citizenship. In reply, it is only necessary to say, that of the importance of this duty the friends of colonization are fully aware, and to discharge it is their direct and purposed aim ; but through the unhappy opposition of their enemies, in this good work, who have assumed to be exclu- sively the friends of the man of color, inducing him to believe that we are his "inveterate enemies" we have been, to a great extent, excluded from that access to him requisite to the fulfillment of our wishes. The colored people, therefore, are not accessible to us, and the responsibility of their improvement does not rest upon us, but upon those who have them in charge. And even if they were access- ible to us, and we had their confidence, should the emigration from the other states continue to be as rapid as heretofore, the execution This lecture was written before their repeal by the present Legislature. 28 Necessity of Colonization. of the task of their education would be a burden too heavy for Ohio to bear. But had we the means, the circumstances of inequality, to which reference has already been made, and which neither authorita- tive legislation nor the resolves of voluntary associations can remedy, forbid the hope of giving that form and measure of education requisite to qualify any man for the high duties and enjoyments of citizenship. "What then can we do ? No large body of men will long remain contented in the bosom of any community or nation, unless in the enjoyment of equal social and political rights. Ignorant, and vicious, and lazy men are dangerous in any community; because, not under- standing their true interests, and but little inclined to do their duty, they are easily turned into an engine of evil to society. Our own peace and safety, therefore, demand that we should secure to our colored people the blessings of education and the advantages of political equality. But we firmly believe that the first of these objects, the education of the free colored people, can only be accomplished under circum- stances where the colored man can, by the labor of his own hands, provide for his own wants, while he is prosecuting his studies. And we as fully believe, that such a combination of circumstances as will make the thorough education of our colored people practicable, exists only in Liberia. In that climate winter makes no demands, and the labor of one man will easily support three. Schools are already or- ganized, and every parent is required by law to educate his children. In a climate, like ours, however, demanding almost constant labor during summer to provide for winter, and where schools are accessi- ble to but few of the colored people, there is but little to encourage the hope that their education can become general. To this conclusion intelligent colored men themselves have arrived, and the erection of the Colored Manual Labor School, near Columbus, Ohio, where 200 acres of land have been secured for this object, and paid for, chiefly, by contributions from colored men — where education and labor can go hand in hand — shows the strength of the hold which this convic- tion has upon their minds. But the advantages of such an institution cannot be enjoyed by very many. At most, only a few hundreds can be accommodated at the same time. Such an institution, therefore, while it may be of immense advantage to a few, cannot be relied upon to secure general education ; and advantageous as it may be to those few, still it will be very partial ; far from reaching that high education which gives character, and without which, for the standing and hap- piness of the citizen, mere learning is, comparatively, of little value. We are also as fully convinced that it will be equally as impractica- ble, as their general education, to secure to our free colored people the advantages of political equality any where else than in the Republic of Liberia, or in a new one of their own creation upon that continent. That the free colored population of our country can be raised to that degree of moral and intellectual elevation which they should possess, without the enjoyment of all the social and political privi- leges which are the natural birthright of man, none will pretend to Necessity of Colonization. 29 claim. These blessings must be secured to them before any material advancement can be expected from them. But the opposition to granting them equal social and political privileges in Ohio is a "fixed fact." It is believed that no permanent good to the colored man could grow out of such a measure. The granting to him the right of suffrage has been productive of no good in the states which have conceded to him that privilege. Instead of increasing their free colored population, since that act of liberality, these states have had a regular diminution of it. The right of suffrage to the colored man, where the whites have a large preponderance of numbers, seems of about the same utility as the tin rattle, or little doll, presented to the discontented child, to amuse it and keep it from crying. It is the settled conviction of nearly all our thinking men, that colored men, intellectually, morally, or politically, can no more flourish in the midst of the whites, than the tender sprout from the bursting acorn can have a rapid advance to maturity beneath the shade of the full-grown oak; while the light of the sun, so essential to its growth, penetrates not through the thick foliage to impart its invigora- ting influences to the humble tenant of the soil; and where, each day, it is liable to be crushed under the feet of those who seek shelter from the noon-day heat beneath the boughs of its lordly superior. This is no overwrought picture of the condition of the free colored people among us. Those stimulants to mental and moral effort, which beget such a superiority in citizens of free governments, reach not to the mind of the colored man, to rouse him to action. And so fully convinced of this fact are intelligent colored men themselves becoming, that they are beginning to act in concert in reference to securing the necessary territory to adopt a separate political organiza- tion. This affords strong grounds for hoping that the day of their political redemption is dawning. Heretofore they have been deluded with the hope that their elevation would be effected among the whites ; that hope is now fading from their minds. The adoption of measures to secure a distinct political organization is an acknowledg- ment of the truth, that a separation from the whites is essential to the prosperity of the colored man, and that colonization at some point offers to him his only hope of deliverance. This is an impor- tant step in the progress toward a settlement of this vexed question. It is true, that, at present, an eye is turned, by many of those who are agitating this subject, toward a grant of land from congress out of the territory acquired from Mexico. As this is the only territory now at the disposal of congress, and as the question of its future ownership will be settled during the next year, at furthest, there will soon be a decision of that matter. Out of that territory, if any where on the continent, must the donation of lands be made for the future African state. And upon it, or to Liberia, must the wave of emi- gration roll when it recedes from our borders. Here, then, we perceive that this question is assuming a new and definite form. A separate political organization is desired by many of the colored men. But they think Liberia is too distant, and too 30 Necessity of Colonization. unhealthy, and therefore wish a grant out of New Mexico or Califor- nia. There is, perhaps, not a man in this audience, nor in the north, who would object to such a grant for such a purpose, so far as the grant of United States' property is concerned. Your speaker,'.for his part, is willing to raise up both hands and shout at the topmost pitch of his voice, in the ears of congress, to secure it, if he thought it could be obtained, and that it would, to the occupant, be a peaceful pos- session, and safe for the country. But he believes it is idle, it is wicked, longer to keep the poor colored man pursuing phantoms which always must elude his grasp. We say, frankly, that we have no hope that such a grant of territory can be had from congress. And even if it could, dare we hope that it would prove a peaceful home, such as prudent Christian men would wish to leave as a legacy to their children ? Its proximity to the slave states, it is feared, might lead to continual collisions. It is useless, however, to discuss this question, because, whenever our intelligent colored men are put in possession of the facts in relation to Liberia, they must greatly prefer it to any point on this continent. We are aware that some of the colored orators declaim loudly against any attempts to persuade the free colored people to emigrate to Africa, while three millions of their brethren remain behind in slavery. Now, it is very natural that a benevolent heart should dic- tate such feelings, and we must respect their motives. But we would remind all such objectors to emigration to Liberia, that while three millions of their brethren are enchained here, there are, according to the best authorities, one hundred and ten millions in Africa, eighty millions of whom are of their own caste, including, no doubt, their own blood relations, who are mostly crushed under a system of oppression and of cruelty, and reduced to a condition of moral degra- dation, compared with which, American slavery, with all its woes, is bliss itself. These eighty millions of men are nearly all destitute of the gospel of Christ, and, consequently, without the elements of an intellectual and moral renovation. The sale of their brethren into slavery, excepting in a few sunny spots, illuminated by Christian colonies, still continues with all its attendant horrors. The slave trade, baffling the utmost exertions for its suppression, is still prose- cuted with unabated vigor. • Its wretched victims are still found wedged together in the foul and close recesses of the slave ships, with scarcely space enough to each for the heart to swell in the agony of its despair.' All hope that it can be suppressed by operations on the ocean are at an end. It must be assailed where it originated, — on the land. The instrumentality to be employed must be that which the result of long experience dictates, — the gospel. The agents to per- form this great work are as clearly designated — colored Christian colonists. This combined agency of the gospel and colonization has already begun to redress the wrongs of Africa. " It is fast restoring a continent shrouded in the darkness of accumulated centuries, to the lights of civilization and Christianity. It is opening up to that degraded and impoverished people, new sources of prosperity and Practicability of Colonization. 31 new fields of enterprise in the boundless resources of that great con- tinent.' The agencies so successfully begun by the colonization scheme, need only to be sufficiently augmented to secure the regen- eration of Africa. Then, with such ample provision made for the free colored man, and with such a field of future greatness and of glory openino- up before him, why should he not be encouraged, and why not aided, to enter upon his rich inheritance, instead of begging for a home on this continent, where, at best, his future prospects would be overcast with gloom. Does the man of color wish to speak to the southern slave-holder in tones that can be heard and will be respected ? instead of relying upon the feeble cry of three and a half millions in this country, Africa has eighty millions of voices which he may control, and whose united shout for freedom to the slave, would shake the fetters from his limbs and give him liberty. IV. The practicability of colonizing the free people of color. The best mode of discussing the practicability of any scheme, is, first to ascertain what is to be accomplished. The following list of the twenty-four principal states, and the number of free colored peo- ple in each, in 1840, presents the amount of persons to be provided for, and the manner of their distribution throughout the union. Maine, 1,355 Pennsylvania, 47,854 N. Hampshire, 537 Ohio, 17,342 Massachusetts, 8,669 Indiana, 7,165 Rhode Island, 3,238 Illinois, 3,598 Connecticut, 8,105 Delaware, 16,919 Vermont, 730 Maryland, 62,020 New York, 50,027 Virginia, 49,842 New Jersey, 21,044 Kentucky, 7,317 Tennessee, 5,524 N. Carolina, 22,732 S. Carolina, 8,276 Georgia, 2,753 Mississippi, 1,366 Missouri, 1,574 Alabama, . 2,039 Louisiana, 25,502 It will be seen, under our first head, that the number of human beings torn from Africa, on American account alone, in 1847, all of whom, perhaps, were for the Brazilian market, amounted to 84,356. Now, we would ask whether this fact does not furnish a useful lesson upon the subject of the practicability of colonization from the United States to Africa. The total annual increase of the whole colored population of the United States, slave and free, from 1830 to 1840, was 54,356, or, 30,000 less than the exports of slaves, in 1847, from Africa for the American market. The whole number of the free colored population of the United States, in 1840, was 386,235, or only a little over four and a half times greater than one year's importation from Africa. The total increase of the free colored population of the United States, from 1830 to 1840, was 6,664, annually, making the number torn from Africa, in one year, more than twelve and a half times as great as the whole annual increase of the free colored population of the United States. The total free colored population of Ohio, is, at present, about 32 Practicability of Colonization. 30,000, and thatof Indiana and Illinois 20,000. The other states will have but a small advance on their free colored population of 1840. The exports of slaves from Africa, in one year, are, therefore, nearly three times greater than the whole number of free colored people at present in Ohio ; more than four times that of Indiana and Illinois ; nearly four times that of the six New England states in 1840; nearly double that of Pennsylvania ; thirteen thousand more than that of New York and New Jersey ; four thousand more than Delaware and Maryland ; nearly double that of Virginia ; nearly seventeen thousand more than double that of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia ; nearly six times that of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama; and nearly four times that of Louisiana. If, therefore, a set of desperadoes, not so numerous but that they have eluded detection and capture, can, in one year, accomplish all that is here enumerated, what could not the united efforts of the legislatures of the several states accomplish, without oppressive taxa- tion, were they simultaneously to commence the work of colonizing the free colored people? Suppose each of the states in the foregoing list, were, as a prepar- atory measure, to appropriate to the colonization society, one dollar for each colored person in their bounds, the sum of $375,528 would be raised, being about one half the whole sum expended by the society since its origin. Now, there is scarcely one of the states named, which could not give an annual appropriation of the sum stated, without the tax being felt by its people. The sum required by this scheme, to be expended by Ohio, would be only one cent and a half for each of the two millions of her present population. To pay the expenses of the transportation of her whole 30,000 'free colored people, at $50 each, — the sum for which the colonization society agrees to take out emigrants — would cost but seventy-five cents for each person. But suppose Ohio could prevent all further immigration into the state, and would agree to send out the natural increase only, which, at two per cent, on 30,000, would be 600, the tax would be but one cent and a half to each citizen of the State. Then, who will say that it will not he practicable to raise this sum in Ohio, on condition that six hundred persons of color, annually, would volunteer to emigrate ? And which of the other states would decline entering into a measure of such easy accomplishment ? We trust not one. As it may amuse the curious, and furnish a rule to determine the quota of each state for paying the cost of emigration of its natural increase, we would here state, that one dollar per head, for the whole free colored population, is exactly fifty dollars a head for the natural increase, — the ratio of increase being two per cent. One dollar a head, for each free colored person in a state, will, therefore, transfer its natural increase to Africa, and put them in possession of a home- stead upon which to make a living. I shall not, here, refer to the probabilities of the free colored people Influence of Colonization on Missionary Efforts. 33 being willing to accept the offered boon of a home in Liberia, but* leave it to another branch of our subject. V. The influence of Colonization upon the native Africans, and upon Missionary efforts in Africa. On these points we shall study great brevity. The influence of colonization upon the native Africans has been, in all respects, bene- ficial. It is only necessary to state, that in purchasing the lands from the native kings and head men, and thus securing the right of sovereignty over the soil, the inhabitants are at once secured in the protection of the laws of the Liberian government, and in the enjoy- ment of its advantages. Those held in slavery, and they constitute about eight-tenths of the population, are at once emancipated. The same care is taken in promoting their education that is observed in the instruction of emigrants from the United States. When suffi- ciently advanced in intelligence, they are admitted to the rights of citizenship. In this way, 75,000 of the natives have been emanci- pated from slavery, and secured in all the rights of freemen. By treaties with surrounding tribes, 200,000 more are bound not to engage in the slave trade, nor to go to war amongst themselves. These treaties secure to the respective tribes embraced, the protection of the Republic against all other hostile tribes. A breach of the conditions of these treaties, on the part of any tribe, forfeits the pro- tection of the colony. Thus, for ten years past, the colony has preserved peace amongst many petty tribes • whose trade formerly was war. Colonization, therefore, in many respects, has done great good to Africa. And, in addition to all this, we may add, that such is the favorable impression which our colonies are beginning to send abroad among the native tribes, that, recently, six kings have com- bined and annexed their territories, including one hundred miles of coast, to the Maryland colony. This statement we have met with, as coming from Bev. Mr. Pinney, for a time the governor of Liberia. The motive prompting these kings to annex, is, that they may enjoy the protection of the colony. The History of Missionary efforts in Western Africa, fully sus- tains the truthfulness of the pictures which have been drawn of the fatality of the climate to the white man, and of the dreadful moral darkness which overspreads the land.* Catholic missionaries labored for two hundred and forty-one years, but every vestige of their influence has been gone for many genera- tions. The Moravians, beginning in 1736, toiled for thirty-four years, making five attempts, at a cost of eleven lives, and effected nothing. An English attempt, at Bulama Island, in 1792, partly missionary in its character, was abandoned in two years, with a loss of one hundred lives. A mission sent to the Foulahs, from England, in 1795, returned without commencing its labors. The London, * We have drawn our facts mostly from Mr. Tracy's history of Colonization and Missions. 34 Influence of Colonization on Missionary Efforts. Edinburgh and Glasgow society, commenced three stations in 1797, which were extinct in three years, and five of the six missionaries dead. The Church missionary society sent out its first missionaries in 1804, but it was four years before they could find a place out of the colony ot Sierra Leone, where they could commence their labors. They established and attempted to maintain ten stations. But the hostility of the natives, who preferred the slave traders to them, drove the missionaries from nine of them, and forced them to take refuge in Sierra Leone, the only place where they could labor with safety and with hope. The tenth station at Goree, was also abandoned and given up to the French. " Here, then, without counting Sierra Leone and Goree, are eigh- teen Protestant missionary attempts, before the settlement of Liberia, all of which failed from the influence of climate, and the hostility of the natives, generated by the opposition of the slave traders." And, since the settlement of Liberia, until 1845, when these investiga- tions were completed, all attempts to sustain missions beyond the influence of the Colony have also failed. " But while we mourn over these failures in attempts to do good to Africa, it is a source of the most profound gratitude to have the facts placed authentically before the world, that every attempt at coloniz- ing Africa with colored persons, and every missionary effort con- nected with the Colonies, either of England or America, have been successful." These facts prove, conclusively, that while other lands may be approached and blessed by other methods, the only hope for Africa appears to be in Colonization by persons of color. This is the only star of promise which kindles its light on her dark horizon. It is the only apparent means of her salvation. "After the presentation of such an array of facts, extending over a period of four centuries, may we not claim that the question is decided — that the facts of the case preclude all possibility of reason- able doubt— that the combined action of Colonization and missions is proved to be an effectual means, and is the only known means, of converting and civilizing Africa.' 1 '' And who that believes this, will not give heart and hand to the work, and labor, through good report and through ill, for the con- centration of all the talent and piety, belonging to the colored people, upon that coast? Who that truly desires the redemption of the African race from their degradation of accumulated centuries, but would rejoice to see hundreds and thousands, and tens of thousands, of the virtuous and intelligent of our colored population, like so many angels of mercy, flocking to Africa, and employed in that labor of love which must be performed before Ethiopia can stretch out her hands to God ? After what has been said, in relation to the low state of morals amongst the slaves, and the new accessions of colored emigrants which we are likely to receive from the slave states, it is proper, in this place, that we should present some explanation. Our observa- Influence of Colonization on Missionary Efforts. 35 tions, it will be noticed, were based upon the representations made by our northern friends on the degrading and brutifying tendencies of slavery, and were offered, partly, as a retort upon them for wish- ing to overstock us with such a population as they must necessarily believe will emanate from the midst of slavery, while they them- selves scarcely touch the burthen with the tip of the finger. Our views, however, differ materially from theirs, in relation to the moral condition of the slaves. While we believe that slavery, like despotism in any other form, in itself considered, contains no one principle which tends to elevate and improve the intellect and the heart, yet we know that there are accidents connected with it, in this country, as there have been with despotism in Europe, which afford to its victims the means of improvement. We believe that the Providence of God never places men, towards whom he has designs of mercy, in circumstances where the gospel of Christ is not adapted to their condition. That gospel, we know, has spoken peace to thousands of poor slaves, and whispered to their desponding hearts the hope of freedom in heaven. It is undeniable, that an immense degree of intellectual and moral advancement, beyond that of the native of African, has been made by the slaves of the United States, under all the disadvantages to which they have been subjected. It is true, that thousands of masters are laboring with much success for the moral and religious improvement of their slaves. It is well known, that the moral character and religious principle of many a slave will compare with and excel that of many of the whites, even in the north. It is certain, that the voluntary emancipations which occur, are by this class of masters and from this class of slaves. And it is a fact, that the greater number of the newly emancipated slaves, who come to the free states, have more or less acquaintance with their social, moral, and religious duties, and are more or less disposed to make further efforts for their own advancement. And knowing and be- lieving all this, we are prepared to take them by the hand and to encourage them to the full extent of the numbers that we are able to receive. We are also prepared to co-operate with, and do aid them, in their efforts at education. In the village in which your speaker resides, a Presbytery of the church with which he is connected, pays, regularly, from a donation by a deceased member, the half of the salary of a teacher for a colored school. From observation there, and elsewhere, we have learned that though but a small portion of the parents have a right appreciation of the importance of educa- tion and of the arduousness of the task of acquiring knowledge, yet, upon the whole, they manifest fully as much interest in the work as the same number of whites would do, who possess no higher a standard of intellectual attainment. Were it in our power, therefore, to increase the facilities for their education a thousand fold, we would do it at once. Because we feel it to be an imperative duty resting on the white men of the United States, allowing of no halfway measures or efforts, 36 Relations of England to Liberia. to labor for the redemption of Africa, and to repair the wrongfr that have been done her. But to execute this task, we must call to our aid men of African blood. We should have one teacher or missionary for every 1000 inhabitants. To supply the whole 80,000,000 of people of color in Africa, with teachers and missionaries, will, therefore, require an educated army of 80,000 colored men, who must be supplied from the United States and from Liberia. While, then, we struggle to elevate and improve the colored man in the United States, we point him to Africa as the field of usefulness in which we wish to see him labor. VI. The certainty of success of the Colonization scheme, and of the perpetuity of the Republic of Liberia. In the facts which have been already presented, in the course of our investigations, many reasons will be found to encourage our hopes that the colonization scheme must continue to prosper, and that the experiment of an African Republic must succeed. We shall now proceed to offer additional facts and considerations of much more weight and importance on this point, than any which we have, yet, produced. The first and more important is based upon the com- mercial advantages, in Africa, which Liberia is beginning to unfold to civilized nations. But as time will not allow us to enter upon an extended investigation of the peculiar advantages which each nation will derive from the civilization of Africa, we shall confine ourselves to those of England, because she is more vitally interested in the success of Liberia than all the others. When the facts in her case are known, it will be easy to make the application to other nations. It will be seen, in the course of these investigations, that it is of the utmost importance to England to aid the Republic of Liberia in extending its influence with all possible rapidity over the continent of Africa. The reasons upon which we base this opinion are briefly as follows : Next to the necessity under which the government of Great Britain is laid to create new markets for her manufactures, comes the vast importance which she attaches to having the control of tropical possessions and tropical productions. Their importance to her heretofore, in contributing to give to her the ascendency which she acquired amongst nations, was thus strongly stated by McQueen, in 1844, when this highly intelligent Englishman was urging upon his government the great necessity which existed for securing to itself the control of the labor and the products of tropical Africa. " During the fearful struggle of a quarter of a century, for her existence as a nation, against the power and resources of Europe, directed by the most intelligent but remorseless military ambition against her, the command of the productions of the torrid zone, and the advantageous commerce which that afforded, gave to Great Britain the power and the resources which enabled her to meet, to combat, and to overcome, her numerous and reckless enemies in Relations of England to Liberia. every battle-field, whether by sea or by land, throughout the world. In her the world saw realized the fabled giant of antiquity. With her hundred hands she grasped her foes in every region under heaven, and crushed them with resistless energy." If the possession and control of tropical products gave to Eng- land such immense resources, and secured to her such superiority and such power, then, to be deprived of these resources would of course exert a corresponding opposite effect, and she would not yield them to another but in a death-struggle for their fnaifitai nance. Now, we expect to prove that this struggle has commenced and progressed to a point of the utmost interest, both to England and to the cause of humanity; and that the present moment finds Great Britain in & position so disadvantageous, arising from the progress of other nations in. tropieal cultivation, that one principal means of her extrication is in the success of Liberia- Mr. McQueen, in proceeding further with his investigations, reveals to us the true position of England by the following startling announcement: " The increased cultivation and prosperity of foreign tropical pos- sessions is beeo^ne so great, and is advancing so rapidly the power and resources of other nations, that these are embarrassing this country (England,) in all her commercial relations, in her pecuniary resources, said in all her political relations and negotiations." The peculiar force of these remarks, and the cause for alarm which existed, will be better understood by an examination of the figures in the following table. They contrast the condition of Great Britain as compared with only a few other countries, in the produc- tion of three articles, alone, of tropical produce* Sugar— 1842 British possessions. West Indies, cwts. 2,508,552 East Indies, " 940,452 Mauritius, (1841) " 544,767 Total West Indies, East Indies, lbs 3,993,771 Coffee 9,186,555 18,206,448 Foreign countries. Cuba, Brazil, Java, Louisiana, cwts. 5,800,000 " 2,400,000 " 1,105,757 " 1,400,000 Total 10,705,757 Total 27,393,003 -1842. Java, Brazils, Cuba, Venezuela, Cotton West Indies, lbs. 427,529 East Indies, " 77,015,917 To China, from do. " 60,000,000 Total 137,443,446 lbs. 134,842,715 " 135,000,800 33,589,325 34,000,000 Total 337,432,840 — 1840. United States, lbs. 790,479,275 Java, " 165,504,800 Brazil, " 25,22 2,828 Total 981,206,903 38 Relations of England to Liberia. But that this exhibit may convey its full force to the mind, it must be observed, that nearly three-fourths of this slave-grown pro- duce, has been created, says McQueen, within thirty years prece- ding the date of his writing. (1844.) It will be noticed, also, that the whole of these products, with the exception of those of Java and Venezuela, are the produce of slave labor ; and it must be remembered, also, that the perpetuation and increase of this labor is, in a great degree, except in Louisiana, depending upon the slave trade for its continuance. It is easy, then, to perceive, from the foregoing facts, that the slave trade has been very sensibly and very seriously affecting the interests of the British government — that it has been an engine in the hands of other nations, by which they have thrown England into the back ground in the production of those articles of which she formerly had the monopoly, and which had given to her such power — and that Great Britain must either crush the slave trade, or it ivill continue to paralyze her. Here is the true secret of her movements in reference to the slave trade and slavery. Public sentiment, under the control of Chris- tian principle, compelled her in 1806, to a first step in this great work of philanthropy ; and this step, once taken, there could be no retreat. But this first step, the abolition of the slave trade in her colonies, gave to Spain and Portugal all the advantages of that traffic, and the cheaper and more abundant labor, thus secured, gave a powerful stimulus to the production of tropical commodities in their colonies of Cuba and Brazil, and soon enabled them to rival, and greatly surpass England, in the amount of her exports of these articles. But the investigations which had led to the knowledge of the enormities of the slave trade, necessarily exhibited the evils of slavery itself. Public opinion decreed the annihilation of both, and the British government had no other alternative but to comply. The means to which she resorted for the suppression of the slave trade, and their failure hitherto, have been already noticed. The measures adopted for the emancipation of her West India slaves, have resulted still more unfavorably to her interests than those for the extinction of the slave trade. It was considered absolutely neeessary to the prosperity of Eng- land, that she should regain the advantageous position whieh she had occupied in being the chief producer of tropical commodities. But to effect this, it was necessary that she should be able to double the exports from her own Islands, and greatly diminish those of her rivals. This could be accomplished, only, by an increase of laborers from abroad, or by stimulating those on the Islands to double activity in their work. An increase of laborers from abroad could only be secured by a resort to the slave trade, which was impossible ; or to voluntary emigration from other countries to the Islands, which was improbable. The only remaining alternative was to render the labor already in the Islands more productive. Relations of England to Liberia. 39 This could not be done by the whip, as it had already expended its force, and could not afford the relief demanded. This position of affairs made the government willing to listen to the appeals of the friends of West India emancipation. They had long argued that free labor was cheaper than slave labor — that one freeman, under the stimulus of wages, would do twice the work of a slave com- pelled to industry by the whip — that the government, by immediate emancipation, could demonstrate the truth of this proposition, and thus furnish a powerful ^rgument against slavery — that the world should be convinced that the employment of slave labor is a great economic error — and that this truth, onee believed, the abolition of slavery would every where take place, and the demand for slaves being thus destroyed, the slave trade must cease. Parliament, yield- ing to these arguments, passed her West India Emancipation act, 1833, with certain restrictions, by which the liberated slaves were to be held by their old masters as apprentices, partly until Aug. 1, 1838, and partly until Aug. 1, 1840. This apprenticeship system, however, being productive of greater cruelties than even slavery, the Legislative councils of the Islands, coerced by public sentiment in England, were forced to precipitate the final emancipation of the slaves, and on Aug. 1, 1838, they were declared free. This act at once brought on the crisis in the experiment. The results are stated in the following official table, taken from the Westminster Review, 1844. Sugar Exported from Average of 1831-2-3. 3yrs of Slavery. Average of 1835-6-7. 3yrs of Apprent'ship. "Average of 1839-40-41. 3yrs of Freedom. St. Vincent, Trinidad, Jamaica, Total W. Indies, 23,400,000 lbs. 18,923 tons. 86,080 hhd. 3,841,153 cwt. 22,500,000 lbs. 18,255 tons. 62,960 hhd. 3,477,592 cwt. 14,100,000 lbs. 14,828 tons. 34,415 hhd. 2,396,784cwt. This immense and unexpected reduction of West India products under the system of freedom, was cause of great alarm. The experiment which was to prove the superiority of free labor over that of slave labor had failed. The hope of doubling the exports by that means was blasted. $500,000,000* of British capital, invested in the Islands, says McQueen, was on the brink of destruction for want of laborers to make it available. The English government found her commerce greatly lessened, and her home supply of tro- pical products falling below the actual wants of her own people. This diminution rendered her unable to furnish any surplus for the markets of those of her colonies and other countries which she formerly supplied. These results at once extended the market for slave grown products, and gave a new impulse to the slave trade. The government and its advisers now found themselves in the mortifying position of having blundered miserably in their emancipa- tion scheme, and of having landed themselves in a dilemma of singu- * We reckon the pound sterling, here and elsewhere, for_convenience, at live dollars. 40 Relations of England to Liberia Jar perplexity. Had England induced, or compelled Portugal, Spain, and Brazil, — the latter then no longer a colony but an independent nation, — to fulfill the conditions of the treaty declaring the slave trade piracy, and also to abolish slavery, she might have succeeded in her object. But she did not await the accomplishment of this work before she declared the freedom of her own slaves. This act resulted so favorably to the interests of those countries employing slave labor, by enlarging the markets for slave grown products, that the difficulty of inducing them to cease from it, was increased a hundred fold. Nor did the expedients to which she resorted prove successful in extricating her from the difficulties in which she was involved. A duty of near 39 shillings, afterwards raised to 41 shillings the cwt., or 4j§ pence the pound, levied on slave grown sugar — designed to prohibit its importation into England and secure the monopoly to the West India planter, thereby enabling him to pay higher wages for labor — while it failed to stimulate the activities of the freedmen sufficiently to increase the exports to their former amount — resulted only in taxing the English people, by the increase of prices consequent upon a diminution of the supply, in a single year, says Porter in his Progress of Nations, to the enormous amount of $25,000,000 more than the inhabitants of other countries paid for the same quantity of sugar. This enormous tax accrued during 1840, from the protective duty, but was greatly above that of any other year during its continuance. The whole amount of the bounty to the planter, thus drawn from the pockets of the English people and placed in those of the West India negro laborers in excessive high wages, in the course of six or seven years, says McQueen, 1844, amounted to $50,000,000. The crisis had become so imminent, that energetic measures were immediately adopted to guard against the impending danger. Eng- land must either regain her advantages in tropical countries and tropical products, or she must be shorn of a part of her power and greatness. This truth was so fully impressed upon the minds of her intelligent statesmen, that one of the best informed on this sub- ject, (McQueen,) declared, that " If the foreign slave trade be not extinguished, and the cultiva- tion of the tropical territories of other powers opposed and checked by British tropical cultivation, then the interests and the power of such states will rise into a preponderance over those of Great Britain ; and the power and the influence of the latter will cease to be felt, feared and respected, amongst the civilized and powerful nations of the world." To relieve the English people from the onerous tax of the sugar duties, and at the same time, in obedience to the dictates of public opinion, to continue the exclusion of slave groivn products from the English markets, sugar, the product of free labor, it was decided, should be admitted at a duty of 10 shillings the cwt. But it was soon discerned, that this policy would only create a circuitous commerce, by which the slave grown sugar of Cuba and Brazil Relations of England to Liberia. 41 would be taken by Holland and Spain, for their own consumption, and that of Java and Manilla sent to England ; thus creating a more extensive demand for slave grown products and consequently for slave labor, and giving to the slave trade an additional impulse in an increased demand for slaves. The necessity for this continuous supply of slave laborers from Africa, for the planters of Cuba and Brazil, will be better understood, when the nature of West India and Brazilian slavery is made known. When England prohibited the slave trade in 1806, the number of slaves in her colonies was 800,000. In twenty-three years afterwards, or near the time she emancipated them, they numbered but 700,000. The decrease in this period was, therefore, 100,000; (Memoirs of Buxton). The United States, in 1800, had a slave population of 893,000. In 1830 she numbered 2,009,000, being an increase of 1,116,000. Thus, in thirty years, the United States had an increase of one million one hundred and sixteen thousand on a population of 893,000; while the West Indies, under the English system of slavery, with a slave population nearly equal to that of the United States, in a period only six years less, suffered an actual decrease of one hundred thousand. The destruction of human life in the slavery of Cuba and Brazil will, doubtless, be equal to what it was formerly in the West Indies, inasmuch as the same causes prevail — the great disparity of the sexes amongst those brought by slave traders, from Africa, for the planters. In the slave population of Cuba this disproportion, says McQueen, is 150,000 females to 275,000 males. It is estimated, that to keep up the slave population of Cuba and Brazil, will require, yearly, 130,000 people from Africa. It is, then, at once apparent, that Cuba and Brazil are dependent, as we have said, upon the slave trade for keeping up the supply of their laborers; and, that, if this annual importation of slaves should be stopped, then, their foreign exports would be proportionally lessened and their growing prosperity checked. Under these circumstances, there could be no doubt, that if Eng- land could suppress the slave trade, she would at once cut off the supply of laborers furnished by that traffic to Cuba and Brazil, and " check " their ability to rival her as producers of tropical com- modities; and, further, if she could increase the number of laborers in the West Indies sufficiently, she could restore those Islands to their former productiveness, and recover her former advantages. She, therefore, renewed her efforts for the suppression of the slave trade, with greatly increased activity. She also commenced the transfer of free laborers from the East Indies and from Africa to the West Indies. Every slave trading vessel captured, was made to yield up its burden of human beings to the West India planters, instead of to those of Cuba and Brazil ; thus securing to the former all the advantages of laborers which had been designed for the latter. This arrangement was adopted in 1842, and the only 42 Relations of England to Liberia. exception to it was in relation to Spanish slavers, which were to be given up, with their cargoes of slaves, to the authorities of Cuba. A premium was paid to her naval officers and seamen for all the slaves thus captured and transported to her West India Colonies. The expenditure for this object, in 1844, says McQueen, had amounted to $4,700,000. In this movement an intelligent colored man, Mr. William Brown, of Oxford, Ohio, has remarked, that England seems to have copied the example of the eagle, which disdains to soil his own plumage by a plunge in the water, but, as he must have the fish or die, makes no scruple of robbing the more daring fish-hawk of its prey and appropriating the captive fish to his own use, instead of restoring it to its native element. All these efforts, however, failed in relieving England from her difficulties. The slave trade continued to increase, and the slave grown productions to multiply. The number of free laborers trans- ported as emigrants from Africa and the East Indies, or captured from the slave traders, and landed in the Islands, were so few, comparatively, as to make no sensible difference in the amount of West India productions, and the scheme, though still continued, has failed of its main object — the increase of British West India pro- ductions. Some other means of replacing England in her former position, must, therefore, be devised. But let us look a moment, before we proceed, at the West Indies, and learn more fully, the extent and nature of the influences which have gone forth upon the world as the result of West India Eman- cipation and British policy and philanthropy. It seems to have been a great error of judgment in the British philanthropists, who urged West India Emancipation upon the ground that free labor would be more productive than slave labor, — that a freeman, under the stimulus of icages, would do twice the labor of a slave toiling beneath the lash: because this proposition is true only in reference to men of intelligence and forethought, but is untrue when applied to an ignorant and degraded class of men. The ox under the yoke, or the mule in the harness, when spurred on by the goad or the whip, will do more labor than when turned out to shiff for themselves. So it will be with any barbarous people, or with the mass of such a slave population as the West Indies then included ; where but little more care had been taken of the greater portion of them than if they had been mere brute beasts, and not moral agents. If any higher estimate had been put upon them, than as mere machines to be used in the production of tropical commodities, then it had been impossible for their numbers to have been reduced one hundred thousand in so short a period as before stated. The first impulse of the heart of the more intelligent slaves, when they awoke to a consciousness of freedom, would prompt them to withdraw their wives, daughters, and younger children, from the sugar plantations, that the mothers might attend to their household duties, and the children be sent to school. This would deprive the Relations of England to Liberia. 43 planters of much of the labor upon which they had depended. The men, too, would many of them prefer mechanical pursuits, or confine themselves to the cultivation of small portions of land, and decline laboring for their old masters, in whose presence they must still have felt a sense of inferiority. Many, from sheer indolence and recklessness of consequences, would only labor when necessity com- pelled them to seek a supply of their wants. The marriages taking place would withdraw still more of the laborers from the fields, and reduce the amount of the products of the Islands. While, therefore, the ease, comfort, and welfare, of the colored man was secured, the interests of the planters were almost ruined by 'emancipation, and the influence and power of England put in jeopardy. Little did the 700,000 West India freedmen, who refused to labor regularly for the planters, think, when following their own inclinations, or lounging at their ease under the shade trees of these sunny Islands, that their want of industry, their reluctance to go back to the sugar mills, for the wages offered, was crippling the power of one of the greatest empires on earth, and robbing Africa of 400,000 of her children, annually, to supply to the world, from Cuba and Brazil, those very commodities which they were refusing to produce. Yet such was the fact, and such the mysterious links connecting man with his fellow, that the want of ambition in the West India freedman to earn more than a subsistence, depriving the planters of the necessary free labor to keep up the usual amount of exports, created a corresponding demand for slave grown products, and robbed Africa, in each two years thereafter, of a number of men more than equal to the whole of the slaves emancipated in the British Islands. There would seem, then, to have been but little gain to the cause of humanity by West India Emancipation. This view of its results, however, would be very erroneous. On the contrary, there is exhibited here, in this result, another mysterious link in the chain of events connected with the redemption of Africa. The failure of the West India experiment, has been a failure, only, of England's ex- periment adopted to restore herself to her former position and her former advantages, and will not retard the onward progress of the cause of humanity. It has, on the contrary, no doubt greatly tended to precipitate upon the world the solution of a problem of the first importance in the great work of its recovery from barbarism. It must now be admitted that mere personal liberty, even connected with the stimulus of high wages, is insufficient to secure the indus- try of an ignorant population. It is Intelligence, alone, that can be acted upon by such motives. Intelligence must precede voluntary Industry. This proposition, we claim, has been fairly proved in the West India experiment. And, hereafter, that man or nation, may find it difficult to command respect or succeed in being esteemed wise, who will not, along with exertions to extend personal freedom to men, intimately blend with their efforts adequate means for intellectual and moral improvement. The West India colored 44 Relations of England to Liberia. population, now released from the restraints of slavery, and accessible to the missionaries and teachers, sent to them from English Chris- tians, are rising in intelligence and respectability ,- and, thus, West India emancipation has been productive of infinite advantage to them, though English capitalists may have been ruined by the act. But we will go further, and give it as our deliberate opinion, that as soon as intelligence and morality, growing out of the religious training now enjoyed, shall sufficiently prevail, the amount of products raised in the West Indies will greatly exceed that yielded under the system of slavery. Liberty and Religion can make its inhabitants as pros- perous and happy as those of any other spot on earth. We do not say, however, that this can take place while they sustain the posi- tion of vassals of the British crown, and their importance in the scale of being continues to be estimated according to the extent to which they can add to its prosperity and its glory. Had the West India colored men, under the stimulus of freedom and high wages each performed twice the labor of a slave, as they, no doubt, might have done, and as was confidently anticipated by the enthusiastic friends of emancipation, more than twice the products of former years would have been exported from the Islands, and England, in that event, restored to her former position, and looking only to self aggrandizement, would have remained content, and con- tinued to employ men as mere machines, as she heretofore had done, nor cared for their intellectual and moral elevation. But the failure of England in the West Indies, forced her to renewed efforts for the acquisition of additional tropical possessions, where, with better prospects of success, she could bring free labor into competition with slave labor. Before tracing the movements of Great Britain, however, in her prosecution of this enterprise, let us again look a moment at her position. "Instead of supplying her own wants with tropical pro- ductions, and next nearly all Europe, as she formerly did, she had scarcely enough, says McQueen, 1844, of some of the most impor- tant articles, for her own consumption, while her colonies were mostly supplied with foreign slave produce." " In the mean time tropical productions had been increased from $75,000,000 to $300,- 000,000 annually. The English capital invested in tropical pro- ductions in the East and West Indies, had been, by emancipation in the latter, reduced from $750,000,000 to $650,000,000 ; while, since 1808, on the part of foreign nations $4,000,000,000 of fixed capital had been created in slaves and in cultivation wholly dependent upon the labor of slaves." * The odds, therefore, in agricultural and com- mercial capital and. interest, and consequently in political power and influence, arrayed against the British tropical possessions, were very fearful — six to one.' This, then, was the position of England from 1840 to 1844, and these the forces marshalled against her, and which she must meet and combat. In all her movements hitherto, she had only added to the strength of her rivals. Her first step, the suppression of the slave Relations of England to Liberia. 45 trade,' had diminished her West India laborers 100,000 in twenty- three years, and reduced her means of production to that extent, giving all the benefits, arising from this and from the slave trade, to rival nations, who have but too well improved their advantages. But, besides her commercial sacrifices, she had expended 8100,000,000 to remunerate the planters for the slaves emancipated, and another $100,000,000 for an armed repression of the slave trade. And yet, in all this enormous expenditure, resulting only in loss to England, Africa had received no advantage whatever, but, on the contrary, she had been robbed, since 1808, of at least, 3,500,000 slaves, (McQueen) who had been exported to Cuba and Brazil from her coast, making a total loss to Africa, by the rule of Buxton, of 11,660,000 human beings, or one million more than the whole white population of the United States in 1830, and more than three times the number of our present slave population. Now, it was abundantly evident, that Great Britain was impelled by an overpowering necessity, by the instinct of self-preservation, to attempt the suppression of the slave trade. It was true, no doubt, that considerations of justice and humanity were among the motives which influenced her actions. Interest and duty were, therefore, combined to stimulate her to exertion. The measures to be adopted to secure success, were also becoming more apparent. Few other nations are guided by statesmen more quick to perceive the best course to adopt in an emergency, and none more readily abandon a scheme as soon as it proves impracticable. Great Britain stood pledged to her own citizens and to the world for the suppression of the slave trade. She stood equally pledged to demonstrate, that free labor can be made more productive than slave labor, even in the cultivation of tropical commodities. These pledges she could not deviate from nor revoke. Her interests as well as her honor were deeply involved in their fulfillment. But she could only demonstrate the greater productiveness of free labor over slave labor, by opposing the one to the other, in their practical operations on a scale coexten- sive with each other. She must produce tropical commodities so cheaply and so abundantly, by free labor, that she could undersell slave-grown products to such an extent, and glut the markets of the world with them so fully, as to render it unprofitable any longer to employ slaves in tropical cultivation. Such an enterprise, success- fully carried out, would be a death blow to slavery and the slave trade. " But," says McQueen, " there remained no portion of the tropical world, where labor could be had on the spot, and whereon Great Britain could conveniently and safely plant her foot, in order to accomplish this desirable object — extensive tropical cultivation — but in tropical Africa. Every other part was occupied by independent nations, or by people that might and would soon become independent." Africa, therefore, was the field upon which Great Britain was compelled to enter and to make her second grand experiment. Her citizens were becoming convinced that it was unwise, if not unjust, to abstract aborers, even as free emigrants, from Africa, to be employed in other 46 Relations of England to Liberia. parts of the world, when their labor might be employed to much better advantage in Africa itself. The government could, therefore, safely resort to some modification of her former policy. To confine her efforts for the recovery of her prosperity, within the limits of her own tropical possessions, would be to abandon the vast regions of tropical Africa to other nations, and thus permit them, by taking possession of it, to redouble the advantages over her which they already possessed. By employing the labor of Africa within Africa, she would cut off* the supply of laborers derived by other nations from the slave trade, and would have an advantage over them, not only of the capital expended in the transportation of slaves from Africa, but she would have a gain of seven-tenths in the saving of human life now destroyed by the slave trade. British capital, instead of being directly and indirectly employed in the slave trade, as has been abundantly shown by the Hon. Mr. Wise, late American minister to Brazil, could be more honorably and safely invested in the cultivation of the richer fields of tropical Africa. In her West India experiment, however, England had been taught the all-important lesson, that intelligence must precede voluntary industry. Her Niger expedition of 1842, already noticed, was based upon this principle, and hence the extensive preparations connected with that movement, for the improvement of the intelligence and morals and industry of the natives. But the terrible mortality which destroyed that enterprise taught her another lesson, that white men cannot fulfill the agency of Africa's intellectual elevation. Since that period, England has been mostly occupied with the settle- ment of her difficulties with China, and her war with the Sikhs of India, and she has made but little progress in her African affairs ; excepting by explorations into the interior and negociations with the powers interested in the slave trade. In the meantime the colony of Liberia had been pursuing its quiet and unostentatious course, and working out the problem of the colored man's capability for self-government. The active industry of that handful of men, had created a commerce of much importance, and supplied exports to the value of $100,000 annually. Its declaration of independence was published to the world at a period the most auspicious. France, under those generous impulses so characteristic of her people, had herself trampled the last relics of despotism in the dust, and declared the Republic. Great as she herself is, she did not despise the little African republic, but, extending her view down the stream of time, discerned in it the germ of future empire and greatness, and therefore, she welcomed it into the family of nations. But lest, in its feebleness, it should receive a wound to its honor, or an injury to its commerce, from an attack of the dealers in human flesh infesting its borders, with distinguished liberality she offered the use of her war vessels for their destruction. England, too, found herself in a position inclining her to favor the young republic ; nay, not only inclining but imposing upon her the necessity of promoting its welfare. Impelled by her own interests Relations of England to Liberia. 47 and wants, to secure extensive tropical cultivation, by free labor, in Africa, she had been surveying the whole vast field of that continent, the only country now remaining where her grand experiment could be commenced, and found much of it already occupied. Fiance, fully alive to the importance of the commerce with Africa, had, within a short period, securely placed herself at the mouth of the Senegal and at Goree, extending her influence eastward and southeastward from both places. She had a settlement at Albreda, on the Gambia, a short distance above St. Mary's, and which commands that river. She had formed a settlement at the mouth of the Gaboon, and another near the chief mouth of the Niger. She had fixed herself at Massuah and Bure, on the west shore of the Red Sea, commanding the inlets into Abyssinia. She had endeavored to fix her flag at Brava and the mouth of the Jub, and had taken permanent possession of the im- portant island of Johanna, situated in the center of the northern outlet of the Mozambique channel, by which she acquired its command. Her active agents were placed in southern Abyssinia, and employed in traversing the borders of the Great White Nile ; while Algiers on the northern shores of Africa, must speedily be her own. Spain had planted herself, since the Niger expedition, in the island of Fernando Po, which commands all the outlets of the Niger and the rivers, from Cameroons to the equator. Portugal witnessing these movements, had taken measures to revive her once fine and still important colon- ies in tropical Africa. They included 17° of latitude on the east coast, from the tropic of Capricorn to Zanzibar, and nearly 19° on the west coast, from the 20th° south latitude, northward to cape Lopez. The Imaum of Muscat claimed the sovereignty on the east coast, from Zanzibar to Babelmandel,with the exception of the station of the French at Brava. From the Senegal northward to Algeria was in the possession of the independent Moorish princes. Tunis, Tripoli, and Egypt were north of the tropic of Cancer, and independent tributaries of Turkey. Here, then, all the eastern and northern coasts of Africa, and also the west coast from the Gambia northwards, was found to be in the actual possession of independent sovereignties, who, of course, would not yield the right to England. Southern Africa, below the tropic of Capricorn, already belonging to England, though only the same distance south of the equator that Cuba and Florida are north of it, is highly elevated above the sea-level, and not adapted to tropical productions. The claims of Portugal on the west coast, before noticed, extending from near the British south African line to Cape Lopez, excluded England from that district. From Cape Lopez to the mouth of the Niger, including the Gaboon and Fernando Po, as before stated, was under the control of the French and Spanish. The only territory, therefore, not claimed by civilized countries, which could be made available to England for her great scheme of tropical cultivation, was that between the Niger and Liberia, embra- cing nearly fourteen degrees of longitude. But this territory includes 48 Relations of England to Liberia. the powerful kingdom of Dahomey and that of Ashantee, whose right to the sovereignty of the soil could not, probably, be purchased, as was that of the former petty kings on the line of coast occupied by Liberia. Their territory, however, and that of Liberia, together with the whole of the vast basin of the Niger, under the hand of industry could be made to teem with those productions, the command of which were of such essential importance to England. But both Dahomey and Ashantee were engaged in the slave trade, and, like other parts of the continent, nine-tenths of the population held as slaves. — (Dr. Goheen.) This territory, therefore, could not be made available to England until she could succeed in securing the discontinuance of their connection with the slave trade and the abolition of their system of slavery; and not even then, as we have before proved, until intelligence should be introduced and diffused and industry begot- ten — a work of generations. But negotiations in relation to these ob- jects had been commenced, says M'Queen, in 1844, under favorable auspices, and the king of Dahomey had agreed to abolish the slave trade, and had favorably received some Wesleyan missionaries. England has, since that period, successfully exerted her influence in other quarters for its suppression. In the British House of Com- mons, lately, Lord Palmerston announced, that the Bey of Tunis had abandoned within his dominions, not merely the slave trade but slav- ery itself — that the Sultan of Turkey had prohibited the slave trade amono- his subjects in the eastern seas — that the Imaum of Muscat had abolished it within certain latitudes — that the Arabian Chiefs in the Persian Gulf have also abandoned it — and that the Shah of Persia has prohibited it throughout his dominions. Thus, then, though the system of an armed repression of the slave trade has entirely failed, as before shown, yet the hope is springing up that it may soon be so circumscribed that its extermination can be more easily effected by encirclinc the remaining parts of the coast with Christian colonies. But all these movements, important as they are to the cause of humanity, do not, in the least, check the slave trade with Cuba and Brazil, and the reason seems to be this : the slave trade is not a business by itself, and the slave traders are not a distinct class of men. The trade is so mixed up with the general business of the world, that it can derive facilities from the most innocent commercial trans- actions. In Brazil it is neither unlawful nor disreputable, and, it is said that nobody abstains from it, or from dealing with those concerned in it, from any fear of law, scruples of conscience, or regard of charac- ter ; and that to trade with Brazil at all is to trade with a slave trader, or with some one who deals freely with slave traders. Hence, Eng- lish capitalists in loaning money in Brazil, or English manufacturers in fillino" orders for goods from Brazil, are furnishing facilities for the slave traders to prosecute their infamous pursuits. The ship-builders of the United States, in selling fast-sailing merchant vessels to Brazil- ians, are furnishing to slave traders the means for transporting slaves from Africa. Thus British capital and industry and American skill, thouo-h, to the superficial observer, employed in a lawful way, are Relations of England to Liberia. 49 indirectly furnishing the means for the prosecution of the slave trade, and affording facilities to those engaged directly in it, which, if with- drawn, would greatly embarrass their operations, and make it much less difficult to suppress it. Nor has the success of England, in securing the above named acts for the suppression of the slave trade, accomplished anything in her great work of extensive tropical free labor cultivation in Africa, as the means upon which she relies to recover her former position, and to break down the prosperity of her rivals. In Sierra Leone, the commercial affairs being in the hands of white men, has prevented that advancement in industry, and in the know- ledge of business among the colored population, which must exist, before habits of active industry will be adopted by them. But in Liberia all the business is in the hands of colored men, and some of them have accumulated fortunes. Their success has encouraged others to follow their example, and industry is beginning to prevail. The'great work of tropical cultivation by free labor has been success- fully commenced by the Freemen of Liberia. Tropical products have been exported in small quantities, from the colony to England. Its coffee was found to be superior to that of all other countries, except Mocha, and about equal to it. The coffee tree, in Liberia, produces double the quantity, annually, which that of the West Indies bears. Its cotton, a native of its forests, is of a superior quality. Its capacity for producing sugar has been tested, and found equal to any other country. Capital and labor only are required to make Liberia more than rival Louisiana, because frosts never touch its crops, and labor- ers will not be thrown idle in the former, from that cause, as they are in the latter. Such is the nature of the soil and climate of Liberia, and such the easy cultivation of the products used for food, that the labor of a man, one third of his time, will supply him with necessary sub- sistence, leaving him the remaining two-thirds for mental improvement and to cultivate articles for export. An industrious man in Liberia must, therefore, become rich, and able to indulge his taste for the elegancies of life, leading him to the purchase of foreign commodities. Liberia, therefore, offered to England a field in which she could at once commence her experiment. All that is needed in Liberia to develop its resources, and to give it the ascendancy over all other portions of the tropical world, is capital and labor. The first can be abundantly supplied by England ; the second by the United States and Africa. But African labor, beyond the limits of the colony where intelligence prevails, cannot be made productive until the education of the natives has been undertaken. This work, if extended very rapid- ly, must be performed, in a good degree, by emigrant teachers and missionaries from the United States. Hence the wisdom of the policy of England in now favoring our colony. We can supply teachers to aid in civilizing Africa. Great Britain cannot, and, disconnected from our colony, she cannot create intelligence and industry, and there- fore, cannot, at present, commence her scheme of extensive tropical cultivation without the aid of Liberia. 4 50 Relations of England to Liberia. Here, now, we claim, is the solution of the question of England's pres- ent liberality toward Liberia. Her own interests and purposes, demand an early demonstration of the practicability of employing free labor in opposition to slave labor, on an extensive scale, in tropical Africa. Her own African colonies have been, says McQueen, very injudicious- ly selected for extending an influence into Africa. But the position of Liberia is much more favorable, and will enable her, perhaps, from the head of the St. Pauls, to reach across the Kong mountains, and grasp the tributaries of the upper Niger, and, connecting the two rivers by rail-road, secure the commerce of the interior to the capital of the Republic, as the cities of New York and Philadelphia have secured that of the Mississippi valley. England, therefore, at the moment that President Roberts visited London, found herself in a position compelling her to a change of policy toward our colony. Liberia at that moment, was the only territory under heaven, where could be commenced, immediately, her darling scheme of extensive tropical cultivation by free labor. And Liberia only, of all the territory that might be made available, contained the elements of success, — intelligence and industry. Here was England's position and here Liberia's. The old Empire, shaken by powerful rivals, and driven to extremity, was seeking a prop of sufficient strength to support her. The young Republic in the feebleness of infancy was needing a protector. That secret, unseen, hidden, invincible, and all-controlling Power, which had impelled England onward in her giant efforts to extirpate the slave trade and to abolish slavery, and which had inspired the hearts of American Christians to restore the colored man to Africa, and had watched over and protected the feeble colony until it could assume a national position ; that Providence which had made England's crimes of former years, to react upon and embarrass her in all her relations, had now brought, face to face, the Prime Minister ol England and the President of the Republic of Liberia. The first, was the representative of that once unscrupulous but powerful government, whose participa- tion in the slave trade, to build up an extensive commerce and to ag- grandize herself, had doomed the children of Africa to perpetual bond- age; but who was now, as a consequence of that very slave trade, compelled to the most powerful exertions for its suppression, to save herself from commercial embarrassment and national decline : the se- cond, was the Executive of a new Nation — himself a descendant of one of the victims of the English slave traders — seeking the admis- sion of an African Republic into the family of nations. The old Monarchy and the new Republic thus found themselves standing in the relation to each other of mutual dependence — the one, to secure a field for the immediate commencement of her grand experiment of rendering free labor more productive than slave labor, and of creating new markets for her manufactures, — the other, to obtain protection and to offer the products of the labor of the freemen of Liberia to the commerce of the world. But it may be asked, why Great Britain should be willing to aid Relations of England to Liberia. 51 Liberia in extending her influence over Africa, and thus introduce into the world a new nation who, as soon as its eighty millions of people are civilized and stimulated to industry, can have the preponderance over all the world in tropical productions, and consequently, have the means of acquiring power and influence in the world equal to that of other nations. The solution of this question is not difficult. The policy of Great Britain, for a long period, caused her to grasp after foreign colonial possessions, and her glory and her strength was believed to be measured by the extent to which she could multiply her foreign dependencies. When her manufacturing interests began to multiply, she found a great stimulus to this branch of her national resources, in the markets furnished by her colonies. The increased commerce thus created, furnished another channel for the employment of British capital and enterprise. The multitude of sailors required for the merchant service, were readily transferred to her navy in times of war, and gave her immense power on the ocean. • But the unfortunate attempt of England,' says McCulloch, in his statistical account of the British Empire, to compel the American colonists ' to contribute toward the revenue of the empire, terminating so disas- trously, has led her ever since to renounce all attempts to tax her colonies for any purpose, except that of their own internal government and police.' Colonies, therefore, have since been cherished chiefly on account of the outlets they afford to her surplus population; the field they offer to private adventurers for the acquisition of fortunes, to be afterwards transferred to the mother country; the increase they add to her commerce ; the markets which they furnish for her manu- factures ; and the agricultural or mineral products which they supply, in return, for consumption and use in England. An opinion, however, is beginning to possess the public mind in England, that the possession of colonies is not of the especial importance to her that they were once considered. The expenditure for their government and defence often outweighs the political and commercial advantages realized from their possession. It is now believed, that her commercial and manufacturing interests can be as well if not better promoted, by a liberal commerce with independent states, than with colonies under her own control. This conviction has been forced upon the English, chiefly by the results which have followed the Independence of the United States. The British go- vernment now derives ten times more advantage, says McCulloch, from intercourse with the United States, than when she had a Governor in every state, or than she has derived from all her other colonies put together. In a more comprehensive view of British relations, by Porter, in his Progress of Nations, we find it stated, that, in 1837, the exports of Great Britain to the United States amounted to more than half the sum of her shipments to the whole of Europe, while of her entire foreign exports, amounting to $235,- 000,000, only one-third was consumed by her colonies. But as other governments have arisen and attained stability, and encouragement has been afforded by them to home industry, the 52 Relations of England to Liberia. instinct of self preservation has led to the adoption of such restric- tive duties as would protect their people, in the infancy of their manufacturing efforts, against the superiority in machinery, capital and skill of older nations. In this way England has been so much restricted, from time to time, in her commercial operations, that, in 1844, (Westminster Review) her exports to the European states, notwithstanding their vast increase of population, were considerably less than they had been forty years ago. But England has been embarrassed, not only by the restrictive duties of other governments, but many of them are beginning to rival her, in the sale of' manufactures, in those countries whose markets are still open to foreign competition. This rivalry in manufactures is one of more serious import to Great Britain than even the rivalry which opposes her in tropical productions. The latter is to her as the arteries, the former the heart. The truth of this assertion will be seen in the following statements. The great leading interest of England, — her principal dependence for the maintainance of her power and influence, — is her manufac- tures. Out of this interest grows her immense commerce, and from her commerce arises her ability to sustain her vast navy, giving to her such a controlling influence in the affairs of the world. ' Wealth, civilization, and knowledge, add rapidly and indefinitely to the powers of manufacturing and commercial industry.' All these Great Britain possesses in an eminent degree. ' It is asserted that the manufactures of England could, in a short time, be made to quadruple their produce — that so vast is the power which the steam engine has added to the means of production in commercial industry, that it is susceptible of almost indefinite and immediate extension — that Manchester and Glasgow could, in a few years, prepare themselves for furnishing muslin and cotton goods to the whole world — that with England the great difficulty always felt is, not to get hands to keep pace with the demand of the consumers, but to get a demand to keep pace with the hands employed in the production.'' With such resources and capabilities, and with such interests involved in their development and extension — interests involving the very existence of the empire — England is not to be easily defeated in her purposes. When restricted or excluded from one market, she speedily seeks or creates another. The intelligence, the enter- prise, and the energies, of her subjects, are called forth by govern- ment, and made subservient to the promotion of her interests and the extension of her commerce and her power. The desert or savage Islands of the sea; the bulwarks of India, or the walls of China; the frozen regions of the north, or the tropical suns, of the south, present few obstacles to her enterprise. Nor need we stop to prove, in detail, that the almost irresistible energies of Great Britain, thus put forth, and embracing in their range all the earth, find their chief motive power in her desire to extend the sale of her manufactures . Crush her manufactures, and the throne will soon totter to its fall. But what gives a tenfold interest and importance to her enterprises, Relations of England to Liberia. 53 is, that wherever she goes, wherever her standard is planted, a Christian Civilization, though forming no part of her design, almost invariably follows her conquest of, or treaty with, a pagan nation or a savage tribe. The greatness of England, and her con- sequent necessities, are thus compelling her to the fulfillment of a mission of vast moment to the world ; and in its execution she seems likely to be driven from point to point until she completes the earth's circuit. Though she " meaneth not so," yet she may emphatically be called the great agent for the extension of civilization. She is now, it seems, compelled to expend her energies upon Africa, so as to secure to herself the advantages arising from its civilization. Two hundred thousand of her own subjects are now annually emi- grating to other countries. This is to England an annual loss of two hundred thousand laborers, whom she cannot profitably employ at home. But were the hordes of barbarians in tropical Africa civilized, and engaged in developing its immense resources, the demand created in the supply of their wants would furnish labor for all unemployed English subjects, and add immensely to the pros- perity of Great Britain. It will now be seen that England is not only interested in encour- aging the cultivation of tropical productions by Liberia, as a means of destroying the slave trade and slavery, and of crippling the energies of her rivals, but that she is also most deeply interested in securing the markets which Liberia will open up in Africa for English manufactures. Tropical Africa can never afford an outlet for European emigration, and can, therefore, be of no importance to England for that purpose. Its commercial advantages can be as well secured in the hands of independent states, as if England had posses- sion of it as colonies. Great Britain, therefore, can, consistently with her policy and her interests, employ her influence and her power in promoting the welfare of Liberia. Nay, more, it will be seen, when all the facts stated are' considered, that she is compelled, by her own necessities, to use the most energetic measures for the speedy exten- sion of the influence and the sovereignty of the Republic of Liberia, as the point where she can, at the earliest period, commence her important experiment. Other points hereafter, may, and no doubt will be speedily made subservient to her purpose, but Liberia is her only present reliance for the commencement of her great work. Civiliza- tion is here already introduced and begins to radiate into the interior, and only needs the necessary aid and time to extend its blessings throughout Africa. It is true, that England will have rivals, in the sale of her manu- factures, in Liberia. She cares but little for that, however, because her facilities for manufacturing are, at present, and must be for years to come, so much superior to that of all other countries, that she can successfully rival them, even in their own markets, when not embar- rassed by tariffs. She has taken good care to make the first treaty of commerce and amity with Liberia, and thus stands in the fore- ground, as the friend of the young Republic. 54 Relations of England to Liberia. Now, then, we repeat, without the fear of successful contradiction, that Great Britain finds herself in a position, at this moment, so disadvantageous, both in her relations to tropical cultivation and in the sale of her manufactures, that her only present means of extrica- tion is in the success of Liberia," and that she is, therefore, vitally interested in having the young Republic extend its influence, with all possible rapidity, over the continent of Africa ; so as, at the earliest practicable day, to have her eighty millions of naked or half-clothed inhabitants subjected to civilization, stimulated to industry, clothed in British fabrics, and, in return, producing abundantly those tropical products now become absolutely necessary, for the manufactures, the luxuries, and the necessities of life, amongst the civilized nations of the temperate zones. And with such interests involved in the suc- cess of Liberia, and with such power and influence enlisted in her support, humanly speaking, how can our Colonization scheme fail ? But we must hasten to a conclusion of this protracted discussion, and leave many points of additional interest untouched. Indeed nothing but the great importance of the bearings of the questions which have been investigated, can justify the occupa- tion of so much time.* The cause of humanity, however, demands that attention shall be given to these topics. Africa has long groaned hopelessly to be delivered from the deluge of woes which has for ages rolled over her. The dawn of her re- demption is now appearing.. The light of civilization and Christianity has broken forth upon her shores and begins to dispel the gloom of centuries. The slave traders, like so many spirits of darkness, are compelled to limit their hellish labors to districts yet unillumined by that light. Nothing seems to be wanting to the accomplishment of Africa's redemption but a sufficient increase of the agencies which have already been productive of such rich fruits in Liberia. These agencies are being rapidly called into action. The Providence of God is operating upon the nations, most di- rectly concerned in the question of Africa's future destiny, so as to make it their in- terest to faVor the civilization of the inhabitants of that continent. Great Britain, as already shown, is enlisted by considerations, commercial and manufacturing, which she never overlooks, to aid in this great work of philanthropy. She can supply un- limited sums of money to stimulate enterprise and industry, and to promote civiliza- tion in Africa, and she will do it as fast as it can be profitably employed. The people of France, having achieved their own liberties, soon pronounced the freedom of the slaves in their islands. France did not wait to calculate the political and commercial considerations involved in emancipation, before she obeyed the dic- tates of humanity. Herself free, she desired the freedom of the world. Having pos- session of many important points on the coast of Africa, she will crush the slave trade wherever she has control, and thus greatly aid in its suppression and in the promotion of African civilization. But as she has not within herself, the command of the agencies necessary to civilize the districts which she owns, she may find herself compelled to call upon the colored people of the United States to commence and carry on the work, and thus promote our colonization enterprise. And as France has al- ready proved herself capable of acts of the greatest magnanimity, we must ask of her one favor, though it may seem, in us, an act of presumption. But as an American Republican, we can appeal to French Republicans. It is of the utmost importance to the Republic of Liberia, that it should have guaranteed to it, by other nations, the right to purchase and annex the whole line of* oast from Sierra Leone to Cape Lo- pez, so that no other power may be allowed to interfere with the extension of its jurisdiction over that region. The Gaboon, now in the possession of France, lies at the southeastern limits of this region, and is one of the most valuable points in Africa. We ask of France, therefore, that she shall offer the Gaboon country, as a free gift, to the free colored people of the United States, upon which to form a new state in connexion with Liberia. And, from the circumstances under which her title to this Concluding Remarks. 55 territory was acquired, during the Monarchy, it is believed that the Republic, when the subject is presented for its consideration, will yield it for that purpose. The United States is also deeply interested in the success of Liberia, and is being involved in difficulties and perplexities propelling her onward to a point where she, too, must exert herself in behalf of the young Republic. Commercial and manu- facturing interests will influence her, as they have already influenced Great Britain. But in addition to these, other considerations of far deeper import will soon press themselves upon our attention. The rapid increase of our slave population is begin- ning to alarm the stoutest advocates of the perpetuation of slavery. With their uniform ratio of increase continued, which, it will be remembered, is three per cent, per annum, in 50 years, from 1850, the slave population of the United States, will number 12,000,000, with an annual increase of 360,000. In 100 years hence, they will have increased to 44,500,000, with an annual increase of 1,300,000. And in 150 years their numbers will be 165,000,000, and the yearly increase 5,000,000. Now, it is utterly impossible that this number of slaves can be held in bondage, Or be profitably employed, by the southern states of our union, for half the period included in our calculation. But how emancipation is to be ultimately effected, we cannot foretell. This we know, that it must be done. The South is becoming aware of the difficulties of the future of slavery, and are beginning to look at its appalling consequences. Many states have already legislated to prevent the sale and transfer of the slaves of the more northern states into their bounds, and it would not be unexpected, if, in a few years, the slave holders of the more northern slave states, should be unable to find a market for their surplus slaves. And whenever this event occurs, the masters will soon be over-supplied with laborers which they cannot employ profitably, and emancipation must take place. And when ever this work commences, the work of Colonization to Africa will be greatly increased. Liberia, therefore, is to the south- ern states, as well as to those of the north, and to the nations of Europe, a point of very great interest. Not one of them, scarcely, can carry out their present policy without promoting the interests of our colony. In these facts we find an additional argument for the perpetuity of the Republic of Liberia. And further, if the scheme of tropical cultivation in Africa, by free labor, can be successfully carried out, at an early day, and of which we entertain but little doubt, the work of emancipation in this country may be forced to a consummation much more rapidly than many suppose. The United States, it must be borne in mind, have not one acre of tropical lands. Our crops of cotton and sugar, are both liable to blight, by frosts, before they are fully matured and secured. But it is not so in Africa. More than three fourths of the lands of that vast continent are within the tropics, and secure from the action of frosts. The employment of capital, in tropical cultivation in Africa, would long since have been extended to millions upon millions of dollars, but for the error committed in attempting it by white men and amongst an uncivilized people. This error is now detected and will not be repeated. The American Colonization Society has, by its efforts, dispelled the doubts and difficulties overhanging the question of African Civilization. Capital, in a few years, can be employed more profitably in Liberia than in the United States. Capital and labor will soon both find their way to Africa, and perhaps in modes not now anticipated. It is no uncommon occurrence now, for a slave holder, in this country, to let his slave out on parole, to earn a fixed price, upon the payment of which to the master, the slave is a freeman. It is very rare, in such cases, that a breach of faith occurs. Now, it may not be long, if the southern market should be closed against the sale of northern slaves, before this system of self-emancipation may be carried out upon a grand scale, by masters bargaining with their slaves to emigrate to Liberia, there to earn the price of their freedom. Such an arrangement would add to the amount of free labor products which must come*into competition with those of the slave labor of our southern states. In this way Kentucky and Virginia could retaliate, with fearful effect, upon South Carolina and Louisiana. But, as we hasten to a conclusion, we can only throw out suggestions without waiting to dwell upon them. We are fully aware, that the idea that tropical culti- vation in Africa, can seriously affect the value of slave labor in the United States, for centuries to come, will be considered visionary. But we must ask all such doubters to recollect, that commercial revolutions occur almost as suddenly, in this age, as 56 Concluding Bemarks. political ones. The world has learned how to achieve great things in a short time. We western men have witnessed such wonders pass before our eyes, that we believe capital and labor, skill and enterprise, can accomplish any thing within the range of human power, and that what formerly required centuries for its consummation, can now be executed in months or years. Born in Ohio, when it was yet comparatively a wilderness, I, myself, have seen it rise to what it now is, and have also seen State after State called rapidly into existence, in the wilderness of the west, in less than half a century. And yet the sources of this prosperity and this progress are unex- hausted and inexhaustible. No limits can be set to this progress but the impassable barriers of the great Pacific. Give to Liberia intelligent and industrious emigrants, and she, too, will advance in prosperity and in greatness. The materials of such an emigration exist in the United States, and our colored men, generally, are only awaiting the evidences of the truth of what is said of Liberia. When convinced that it is not a trap to enslave them again, as they have been told, they will move with the heart of one man, as the Is- raelites of old removed from Egypt to Canaan. The sympathies of our colored men are with England and France. These nations possess their confidence more fully than Americans. England and France are both interested in blessing Africa with civilization. A formal invitation from these two governments, addressed to our free colored people, and asking them to emigrate to Liberia, under their protection and oatronage, would enlist tens of thousands to remove at once to the young Republic. These emigrants, being settled at suitable points along the coast, would greatly aid in checking the slave trade, -and thus, its risks being much increased, the British capital employed at present in that traffic, would be withdrawn from Brazil and transferred to Liberia. A large concentration of capital and labor in Africa, which are both practicable, would soon be felt, in the markets of the world, by the increased supply of free labor tropical products brought into competition with those of slave labor. When this event shall occur, as occur it will, a reduction of the value of slave labor must follow ; and this together with the rapidly increasing bulk of the now unwieldy mass of our slave population, must greatly hasten the period of final emancipation. Now, if the possession- of the sovereignty of the soil of tropical Africa, and the control of its products, be of such vast political and commercial importance to such governments as France and England, as their policy towards Africa, heretofore, so fully indicates; we would respectfully enquire of our colored people, whether their possession and control are not of equal importance and value to African men them- selves] And, if the monopoly of tropical products once secured to Englishmen an ascendancy among nations ; will not the same advantages be of equal importance to African men, and afford to them the means of rising into national greatness and na- tional glory] And, further, if Africa is of such importance to European nations, that they will expend millions of dollars to secure to themselves the advantages of its products and its commerce; what will posterity, what will the world say, of those of our African population, who refuse to receive such a rich inheritance, though offered to their acceptance as afree.gift? And, again, if the destruction of the slave trade and the abolition of slavery, be matters of such vast moral importance as to call for the united efforts of Christian men, throughout the world, to destroy them; and if these greatest of all modern moral enterprises, inferior only to our purely missionary efforts, cannot be accomplished, but by our Christian colored men forming themselves into a rampart around the African coast ; and if colored men can, by engaging in this great moral and religious movement, better their own condition and secure to themselves and their children, and ultimately to the millions of Africa, all the blessings of social, civil, and religious liberty; why should we not urge them to a fair and candid consideration of the question of returning to Africa as civilized and christianized men', to take peaceful possession of that ancient inheritance from which their uncivilized and pagan forefathers were forcibly torn ? But we shall not further wearyyour patience. We had designed presenting an argument for the success of the Republic of Liberia, based upon the innate moral principle existing within her, and growing out of the religious freedom secured to her citizens, and the ample means of religious instruction provided for her people. But we forbear. 54 W o>9 V^ o ° " • * ^ O^ - l ' n3 * c u ; * AT ^ . 4* .'J^*>* i ,0*V'*« ^\ ^