COLONIZATION.

COLONIZATION,

A--

A NOTICE OF

VICTOE HUGO'S VIEWS OF SLAVEEY
IN THE UNITED STATES,
IN a letter prom
JOHN H. B. LATROBE,
OF BALTIMORE,
TO THOMAS SUFFERN
OF NEW YORK.

BALTIMORE:
PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY.
1851.

Ct*0*2-

The following letter was written at the instance
of two valued friends, during an August visit to
Newport. It made its public appearance first in
" The Newport Daily News," from which it
found its way into other newspapers in different
parts of the country. The calls upon the writer
for copies have led to the publication of it in the
present shape, for distribution among his friends,
with such additions and alterations as seemed to
be necessary to correct the carelessness of the
original hasty composition.
Baltimore, Sept. 15, 1851.

CnnUnb.

II. VICTOR HUGO TO MRS. CHAPMAN.
III. JOHN H. B. LATROBE TO VICTOR HUGO.

I. LETTER TO THOMAS 6UFFERN. |

" There must be in every well-constituted State a certain
homogeneousness of parts. Not only is it necessary that the
governing power be supreme, and free from any dread of
subversion; but the several members also of the body politic
must be in harmony, both among themselves and with the
governing power likewise."
"A foreign mass in the midst of a. society with which it
cannot assimilate is as a dead member, through which the
life blood of the body social does not circulate; if inactive, it
becomes the seat of putrescence and gangrene, which, will
shortly spread throughout the whole system, unless recourse
bs had to amputation. But in a community where this
heterogeneous part is active, being quickened by motives
and interests of its own, the disorder becomes ten fold worse.
It has no emblem, unless we imagine the body of a man
possessed at once by two discordant spirits."
JOHN L. CABBY'S " THOUGHTS CONCERNING DOMESTIC SLAVERY."

TO THOMAS SUFEEEN, ESQ.

OCEAN HOUSE, NEWPORT, R. I.
August §0, 1851.
MY DEAR SIR: The following is, probably, the substance
of my remarks, during my conversation yesterday
with Mr. J. W. Coleman and yourself, with Victor
Hugo's letter to Mrs. Chapman, of July 6th, 1851,
on the subject of Slavery in the United States, before
us. I commit them to paper at your request.
The letter of Victor Hugo is characteristic. It has
been translated so as to do justice to the terse and epi
grammatic style of the author. Argument it scarcely
pretends to ; and while you feel, that it is calculated

¦:

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to produce wrong impressions, and obtain an influ
ence to which it is not entitled, it is difficult to find
any salient point on which to hang the true view of
the subject.
The best way, perhaps, will be to consider the
letter as the expression of a strong sympathy on the
part of the writer, in the labors of a lady engaged
in promoting the cause of Anti-Slavery, — or, to speak
more accurately, Modern Abolition, in the United
States. Indeed, Victor Hugo begins by saying,
that he has been desired by her " to lift up his
voice;" and so he does.
It is plain that both of these persons belong to
the class which desires the immediate emancipatibn
of the slaves in the United States, under the impres
sion, that, not only will the country be relieved,
thereby, from a stigma which they assert rests upon
it, but the emancipated slaves will, at once, be ele
vated to a proper rank in society, and permanently
benefited. Both of them, it is taken for granted,
would shrink from the idea of a master's destroying
his slave in order that he might clear his conscience
of the guilt of holding him in bondage. Nor would
they, knowingly, sanction the employment of any
means which indirectly, no matter how remotely,
produced the same result. This being the case then,
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if we can shew, that the success of their projects in
volves the sacrifice of the objects of their benevolence, j
they must either admit such projects to be altogether
wrong, or disown what we have accorded to them, —
an honest purpose to benefit the black race. The |
reply to them, therefore, which will cover, too, what- \
ever there is of argument in Victor Hugo's letter, \
must be found in an enquiry into the probabilities of \
the future, should their anticipations be realized, that j
"within a time, not distant, the United States will j
repudiate Slavery with horror." \
Nothing is easier than to cry out " emancipation \
forthwith : " but there are a good many practical
difficulties in the way of it, which modern abolition,
whose characteristic is a total disregard of circum- \
stances, does not seem, heretofore, to have taken into
consideration. The care of the aged, the insane, the
idiotic, infants without mothers, and mothers helpless j
because of their very infants, which now falls upon |
the masters of slaves, but which would be the duty j
of no one, were the masters discharged from the obli- |
gation, would be a matter of no little consequence
and difficulty, in the event of a general and imme- j
diate emancipation. But, suppose this and all other
practical difficulties to be surmounted, we come to |
the time, when, legislation having done every thing j

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in its power, the country would present the spectacle
of two free races, of different colors, with equal rights,
as citizens, under the law: — the black race, com
posed of colored persons born free and emancipated
slaves, numbering some four millions, and the white
race, composed of native born whites and whites
from other countries, numbering some twenty-one
millions. But, however liberal legislation might be, there
would be some things which it could not do. It
could give political, but not social position. It could
empower the emancipated slaves to hold property
and to vote, which has been already done in some
of the States ; but it could not remove the prejudice
which the white population entertain against their
race. It could not change those physical character
istics, which affect association with them, either as
regards their appearance or otherwise. It could not
induce fathers to give their daughters to them in
marriage, or reconcile the daughters to receive them
as husbands. Nor would this impotency of the law
be of present duration only. As already said, some
of the States have done for the negro race, all that
legislation could effect, and this too, generations
since. But no where do we hear of any such a
change in public opinion, or any prospect of such a
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change, as promises, now, or hereafter, to better their
social condition in any of the particulars we have
just mentioned.
Legislation, then, having exhausted itself, without
having been able to remove the prejudices of the
whites against the free blacks or emancipated slaves,
or give them social position^ it would have to be ad
mitted, as one among the probabilities of the future,
that the two races, thus separate and distinct, would
forever remain so, or, remain so, at least, until amal
gamation, supposing that, under any circumstances,
it could be relied on, became common and available.
Whether, when color was no longer the badge of ser
vitude, intermarriages and the gradual absorption, in
many generations, of one race into the other, would
take place, must of course be a matter of speculation.
That these intermarriages are now repugnant to the
general feeling of our entire country, is a fact, and
as such may be dealt with. The future is a conjec
ture wholly, — about which one man's opinion may
1 be entitled to as much consideration as another's.
j Prejudice, however, is traditionary; and even after the
i white generations which have seen slavery have died
j out, the prejudices, originating from that condition,
i will be handed down from generation to generation,
| maintaining and strengthening the barrier which color,
"""13"'"

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now and forever, must interpose to any general amal
gamation. This point is dwelt upon because of its import
ance. It lies at the root of the questions at issue.
If emancipation, present or gradual, is to produce
amalgamation by intermarriage between the white and
black races of the United States, as they will at any
time stand related and affected towards each other,
we give up the case. A belief to this effect is the
only apology for modern abolition.
The past furnishes no grounds for such a belief.
\ All the probabilities of the future are against it. No
: argument has been attempted to support it. We
doubt whether it has ever found a dozen respectable
and open advocates. So that we assert again, at the
risk of unnecessary repetition, that the two races,
whatever might be their legal rights, would remain
separate and distinct, while they continued to occupy
the same land. On the truth of this position our
argument rests. Of this each one must judge for
himself. The reasons of our own faith are inferences
drawn from existing facts.
The next point of enquiry is the probable rela-
i tions of these two free and distinct races, while
occupying the same land. On this point it was to
have been expected, that Victor Hugo's sympathy
~ H '""  ""  '

:

*It is presumed this is a mistake of the translator. Most probably,
the original reads de I'esclave — of the slave.

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with what he calls " the august cause of slavery,"*
and a natural curiosity as to the subsequent condition
of the new-made freemen, would have induced him
to make some investigations ; especially too when he
had at hand, in history, ample sources of information.
He does not appear, from any thing that his letter
contains, to have done so.
Had Victor Hugo reflected, as would have been
proper, before he committed himself by writing his
letter of the 6th July, he would have remembered that
all history teaches but one lesson on this point of the
enquiry, which is, that two races which cannot
AMALGAMATE BY INTERMARRIAGE, CAN EXIST IN
THE SAME LAND ONLY IN THE RELATION OF MASTER !
AND SLAVE ; OR, IF BOTH ARE NOMINALLY FREE, \
IN THAT OF THE OPPRESSOR AND THE OPPRESSED.
The instances are striking, numerous and notori- *
ous. The Moor, superior in learning to the Spaniard, j
but not amalgamating with him, was expelled the land,
or remained as an ill-treated inferior. The Saxons s
and the Normans were in continual strife, until inter- j
marriages amalgamated them as one people. Our own \
country, in its Indian history, presents another in-
stance of the truth of the dogma. In Mexico, the I

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Spaniard and the Indians amalgamated, and formed
one people : but, what a people ! ! ! In the old United
States, it is true, that some of the best blood of the
land, noble in spirit, steady in purpose, and brilliant
in talent, flows down from an Indian maternal ancestry
to the present day : but yet, the Indian in our country
will soon be a memory only. There was an experi
ence therefore to which Victor Hugo might have re
ferred, touching future probabilities, should modern
Abolition, whose advocate he is, be triumphant in the
end. It is, indeed, a pity that he did not take a
broader view of the subject, than he seems to have j
done, before, at the instance of Mrs. Chapman, he j
i wrote the letter which we refer to. Had he done I
j this justice to himself and to us, an indifferent cause,
we think, would have lost the weight of a great
I name — but humanity might have been none the worse
j off on that account.
j Nor is history, in its teachings in regard to the i
j relations of two races that cannot amalgamate by
I intermarriage, while living in the same land, without j
| the confirmation of every day's experience, in our
! own country.
In the city of New York, where the negro may be
| a voter, he is not permitted to drive a dray or a cart. I
\ I am not aware whether this is by law, or is the effect \

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of a combination among white competitors : but the
inference is the same in either case. In Philadelphia,
he has again and again been made the object of
attack by an infuriated populace. In Cincinnati, to
protect him from such attack, it has been necessary
to parade cannon in the streets. Boston and Hart
ford have both witnessed scenes of violence, when
the negro was the victim; — and yet all these cities
are in free States, where the negro has enjoyed for
years nearly, or quite, all the rights which law could
give to him. What hope is there of a different and
better future for the black man in these respects?
What prospect is there of a present change for the
benefit, either of those now free, or the whole race,
should a general emancipation take place? None
under the canopy of heaven ! A more barren present,
a more hopeless future than that of the free colored
people of the United States cannot exist. America
is the white man's home, and his exclusively. God
hath so appointed it.
So far from the future's holding out a prospect
of better things, each day of the future as it is ab
sorbed into the past, makes matters worse for the free
blacks, — small as is their present number, compared
with the whole colored population, which, through the
agency of immediate emancipation, it is proposed to |
T" '"""

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make a free race. Every arrival from Europe is a
sign and a warning to them. During the year 1850,
the total immigration to the United States from all
foreign countries, can hardly have been less than four
hundred thousand persons ; persons of a class, that,
at once, enter into competition with the black man
in all the avenues of labor — and in most of them
drive him to the wall. In Baltimore, my home, ten
years since, the shipping at Fell's Point was loaded
by free colored stevedores. The labor at the coal
yards was free colored labor. In the rural districts
around Baltimore, the principal city of a slave State,
free colored laborers, ten years since, got in the har
vest, worked the mine banks, made the fences, and,
indeed, supplied, to a great extent, all agricultural
wants in this respect. Now all this is changed. The
white man stands in the black man's shoes ; or else,
is fast getting into them. And where, fifteen years
ago, nearly all the signs above shop doors on Fell's
Point showed English names — now two-thirds of
them are German; a fact of notoriety and almost
daily comment.
In Cincinnati, the labor that used to be performed
by free blacks in the great pork establishments, is now
performed by white men, Irishmen and Germans ; and,
as Mr. Coleman can bear witness, coming as he does
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from that city, the firemen on the steamboats on the
western waters are now whites, where they used to
be free colored men. The negro's song, as he filled
his furnaces, has ceased on the Ohio and the Missis
sippi. Instances of this sort, where the white man
has driven the black man to the wall, might be mul
tiplied indefinitely.
Nor must it be forgotten, that this state of things
exists at a time when there is a mighty drain upon
the Atlantic border for laborers to supply the vast
country lying between the crests of the Alleghany
and the shores of the Pacific. But this drain cannot
last forever; and when it ceases, should the two
races, which we have shown must ever remain dis
tinct, still occupy the land, there will be a strife for
bread, fearful and murderous ; a strife to be described
in all its horrors by some future Victor Hugo, should
talent, such as his, be perpetuated for the occasion;
a strife in which the fate of the weaker, and colored
race, may be terribly imagined ; a strife, for which
Ireland would have furnished a prototype, had its
population, in 1847, been divided into white and
black, in the same proportions as they exist in this
country, and entertaining the same feelings towards
each other, that prevail here; and had two men of
different color been required to divide between them,
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the loaf not sufficient to satisfy the craving appetite
of one starving wretch.
The teachings of history, therefore, and every
day's experience, combine to satisfy us in regard to
the probable condition of things in this country,
should Mrs. Chapman's labors and Victor Hugo's
uplifted voice succeed in accomplishing the purposes
of modern abolition. Nor can the result be obviated,
unless by the amalgamation of the white and colored
races of our country, by intermarriage between them ;
a thing which many of those shouting louder even than
Victor Hugo would recoil from in disgust. Whether
this disgust is a prejudice, or an instinct, it is not
necessary to enquire : we speak of it as a fact.
The probable condition of the two races, suppos
ing both free, has been inferred partly from the actual
present condition of the two, when only a portion of
one of them is free. With the condition of the slaves
in the United States, the present argument is in no
wise connected. The slave is protected and provided
for by his master. He does not come into contact,
to his prejudice or inconvenience, with the white
labor already in our country and thronging into it
from all other countries. It is upon the free black,
left to shift for himself, that the agencies we have
been describing operate. As he is affected now, so

20

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will the whole race be affected when the whole race
is free.* But, putting aside the idea of a general eman
cipation, occasional emancipations, often of whole
families, oftener of individuals, are constantly taking
place ; and this and the natural increase of the free
blacks would seem, wholly irrespective of modern
abolition, to be bringing us nearer to the time, when
there must be a strife between the whites and the free
blacks, if they persist in remaining together ; so that,
apart from Victor Hugo's letter, which is answered by
showing, from existing facts and fair inferences, the
condition to which the scheme in which his voice has
been "lifted up," would reduce the objects of his
bounty, it becomes important to enquire how the evils
of a state of things, to be anticipated, at any rate, can
best be obviated.
In other words, looking upon slavery as an exist
ing institution, which all such efforts as those of the
individuals in question, must be powerless to affect,
in any other way than to corroborate it, and which
has no other relation to results than as emancipations
from it, more or less frequent, may add to the num
ber of free blacks ; and looking to these last as alone
* This subject of distinct races is admirably, and at length, dis
cussed in John L. Carey's " Thoughts Concerning Domestic Slavery."
21

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interested in the present enquiry, and as being numer
ous enough to make the subject, as it affects them,
one of the deepest interest, both politically and phi-
lanthropically,* — we ask the question, — what is to be
the result of their presence among us ; and, if it is an
evil, how is it to be obviated ? And, leaving Victor
Hugo, we go to this branch of our subject.
The nature of the evil suggests the character of
the remedy. If the two races cannot live together,
except in the relations we have referred to, they must
separate. The colonization of the free negroes, and
of such slaves as may be emancipated, from time to
time, is, in other words, the only remedy.
When, from any cause, a family or a nation ceases
to live in harmony, separation, or colonization, if you
\ please, is and ever has been the remedy. All coloni
zations, too, have been alike, with some differences in
the impelling motive; and, leaving out of view the
; penal colonies of different countries, and some pauper
emigrants from Europe to the United States — it will
be found that colonists have, as a general rule, left
their old homes to better their condition, at their own
cost. Of the same character must be the coloniza
tion of the free colored people of the United States.
The must go for their own good ; and they must ulti
mately pay their own expenses. As a class, they are

COLONIZATION.
better able to do so than the Irish and German emi
grants who come in ship loads to America. They
have, generally, when destitute, more friends to help
them than these have. The country to which they
must emigrate has been designated, not by the socie
ties that have established colonies there, but by our
common Maker. It is the only country in the world
where the white man cannot live ; and fever and death
will protect the black emigrant in Africa, as with a
wall of flame, from being followed by his old com
petitors, in search of the golden sands, which are
brought down by the Niger and the Cavally, as well
as by the Sacramento and the San Joaquin.
It is the country to which circumstances will ulti
mately force him to remove. Circumstances, advan
cing beyond all control, with the crushing force of
an avalanche; but, unlike an avalanche, slowly and
with due warning, so that they who perish before
them will be the authors of their own destruction.
What these circumstances are, we have already
indicated, in speaking of the condition of the two
races in this country, so far as both are now free,
and of the hopelessness of any change to benefit the
weaker, until their separation shall take place. To
illustrate their present effect, even upon intelligent
free colored persons, I will venture to mention to you
23"

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one or two cases within my own recent personal
experience. Within the last two months, a colored clergyman
of the Methodist Church, called on me, as the Presi
dent of the Maryland State Colonization Society, for
some information connected with the Society's affairs.
He had, some years before, seceded from the religious
society to which he belonged, and had been enabled,
through his activity and popularity, to build up a
church for himself. The cause of his secession was
the stand which the Methodist Church had taken in
favor of colonization, to which the person alluded to
was then bitterly opposed. He was a well-informed
man on general subjects, and had been practising
physic with success, among his own color, for several
years. After his business was concluded, I asked him
to tell me frankly, why he was going to Africa, not
only with his own family, but with some fifty or sixty
of his friends, who proposed to accompany him. His
answer, as nearly as I can recollect, in words, was
! this: "My practice as a physician has been gradually
| increasing from year to year, and is now larger than
| ever it was. My patients are generally the same indi-
| viduals. My popularity, as far as I can judge, is
unimpaired ; but my income has, year after year, been
I growing less and less, and is now less than ever it

COLONIZATION.
was. My wife and myself have been struck with this,
and for a year or two have been discussing the cause
of it; and we have come to the conclusion, — indeed,
sir, we had no other to come to, — that my receipts
diminished as the condition of my patients grew
worse and worse in pecuniary matters. I saw that
they received less money than they used to receive.
White men were getting into places which they used
to fill. Others, of my friends, with whom I consulted,
had, I found, come to the same conclusion. We saw
no chance of things getting better ; and, therefore, we
are going to Africa, while there is a society ready
and willing to pay our expenses, and before the times
grow darker than they are."
Another colored man, a drayman of more than ordi
nary intelligence, doing well, earning enough money
for his support and able to lay by something, gave me
as his reason for going, that the Irish and Germans
were getting into his business : that the old feeling
among the whites, which had induced them to employ
colored men by preference, no longer existed; that
every year made matters worse ; and that, seeing this,
he determined to emigrate, while he was still young
enough to do something in his new home.
I run the risk of wearying you with these anec
dotes ; but, falling within my own knowledge, they are
.. ... -.- - _ .~

COLONIZATION. \
to me corroboration strong of the views, which are \
here expressed, in regard to the imperious effect of \
the circumstances I have referred to.
These circumstances, left to themselves, would \
bring about the gradual removal of the free people j
of color quietly, and as an event of natural occur- j
rence, — exciting no more surprise than the sailing j
of vessels with passengers for San Francisco does \<
in one of our sea-ports. But they are not left to i
themselves. Their action is hastened by the very
persons who deny their operation, or are struggling,
to the utmost of their abilities, to obviate it. Modern
abolition, which dates some twenty years back, has
done more to promote the ultimate success of coloni
zation, than all the agencies which have been set on
foot, with that object directly in view. And how ?
Why, by making the relations between the two races
a matter of constant agitation ; by forcing the public
mind to think upon the subject; by bringing almost
all men to the conviction that amalgamation is out \
of the question ; by creating jealousies between the j
two races, which have always resulted to the preju- s
dice of the weaker; by making the owner of slaves j
a more suspicious and harder master than he used to !
be; by exciting him against the free blacks, as the s
agents through whom massacres might be planned in i
"26 ~

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neighborhoods, or on plantations, like that at South
ampton, in 1831 ; by destroying the affectionate rela
tions, which all familiar with the South know were
at one time characteristic of the mixed white and
black population ; and, so at last creating a convic
tion, now rapidly growing and soon to become uni
versal, that, as freemen, the two races can only live
in happiness when separated, through the agency
of that very colonization of which modern abolition
has ever been the opponent.
Victor Hugo may turn to Mrs. Chapman, and ask
her if this is so ; if the agitation, into which he has
been persuaded to throw himself, can really have had
results so prejudicial to those in whose cause he has
embarked : and Mrs. Chapman may tell him, as she
doubtless believes, that the writer is mistaken. But,
in proof of what we have said, we refer to every can
did man who has lived in any of the great cities since
1821 : and more, we are willing to rely on the tes
timony of the intelligent free colored persons them
selves, in Boston, New York, Philadelphia or Balti
more. Nor could it have been otherwise. If agitation
will put down error, it will develope truth; and the
great truth, which was to be developed here, was
that already so much dwelt upon, — that the two

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races, incapable of amalgamation, must separate, to
be really free.
The colonizationist, therefore, has no real ground
of quarrel with the abolitionist, so far as results are
concerned. On the contrary, if his opposition has
retarded emigration, he deserves his thanks, for he
has forced him to adopt the rule of "festina lente" —
in this, as in so many other instances, the best guar
antee of permanent success. The only true ground
of complaint against the abolitionist is the fact, that
he has prejudiced the comfort and the cause of those,
whom both colonizationist and abolitionist, according
to their respective lights, are laboring to benefit.*
But it may be said, that the colonization societies
are wholly incompetent to the end they aim at. Now
* While this pamphlet has been in press, intelligence has been
received of the murder of Mr. Gorsuch, of Maryland, at Christiana,
in Pennsylvania, whither he had gone in pursuit of some three
or four runaway slaves, under the fugitive slave law. The perpe
trators of the crime were free colored people, with one or two white
men, who armed themselves in resistance of the law, and deliber
ately shot the owner of the slaves, and wounded his son. Time has
scarcely elapsed for a full exhibition of the public feeling on the
occasion : but enough is already known of it, to shew, that the crime
of these desperate men will be visited, not only upon themselves,
but upon the entire colored race, as it widens the increasing gulf
between it and the whites ; corroborating the conviction, which the
text has dwelt upon as becoming general, that the happiness of
the two races, when free, is inconsistent with their continuing to
gether in the same land. """29" "

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a good deal depends upon what their aim is. If it
is to remove the entire free colored population of the
United States, with means to be obtained from legis
latures and individuals, — then colonization is, indeed,
a drop in the bucket, and not worth prosecuting as
a political undertaking. It will do, then, as a mis
sionary scheme, and will help in the suppression of
the foreign slave trade ; but nothing more. This is
most freely granted. But if their aim is, or has been,
to establish such a colony as the Republic of Liberia,
which, growing in prosperity year after year, shall
gradually become as attractive to the free colored
man, as the United States is to the foreign emi
grant, — emigration to which will be promoted, not
merely by its attractiveness, but by circumstances in
this country rapidly accumulating, and forcing the
conviction on the free black man's mind, that the day
will come when there will be no alternative for him,
but extirpation or removal — then I say, as I do say,
in the firm belief impressed on my mind by a close
attention to the subject for near thirty years, that
colonization has already fulfilled its great mission ;
that it exists now, only to facilitate what nothing can
prevent ; that the day and the hour are at hand when
the Exodus must take place; not perhaps in this
year or the next, in this generation or in that of our
"29 "

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children, but soon, very soon, looking to the periods
which measure the histories of the world and the
nations thereof.
The finger of the Almighty has been apparent in
the whole work of colonization. A nation is not to
be transplanted like an apple tree. The black man's
heart, enlarged in a sphere of real freedom, or dwarfed
in the atmosphere which he breathes when his free
dom is but a name,— is still a human heart, endowed
with the finest sensibilities, capable of the highest im
provement, as Liberia has already proved, clinging to
the natale solum with vast tenacity, more so even than
the white man's does; and the black man cannot, rea
sonably, be expected to remove from familiar places,
without a struggling hold, yielding only to the sternest
circumstances. It was necessary, therefore, that colo
nization should be a slow work. It must continue
to be a slow one, measured, as its progress always
will be, by human impatience. But there is ample
time for it. The West, even unto the Pacific, is to
be filled up. Space for years, for white and black,
will be left for them to move in, without more than
jostling: and the desire of the free colored people
to emigrate, slowly formed as it must be, will increase
with the increasing native and immigrant population
of our country, with the growing commerce that is
"30"

COLONIZATION.
to furnish the means of a voluntary and self-paying
colonization, with the capacity of the colonies to re
ceive immigrants, and with a gradually enlarging
intelligence among the latter, making them more
and more fit to be the earliest citizens of the new
republics. All this is well and wisely ordered. The
cause is in His hands; and man may safely leave it
there, judging even from the lights of his past expe- i
rience. Had colonization gone forward faster than it \
has done, it would have smothered itself at Monrovia
and Cape Palmas ; and no more would have been
heard of it. But, against the wishes of its friends — j
against their best endeavors, it has been kept back \
by One who knew better than they did ; until each
succeeding ship-load of immigrants having had time
to establish themselves, the result has been the pre- i
sent well-ordered governments on the coast of Africa.
So much for the colonies. Every thing I have
already said may, I am aware, be admitted, and
still the effect upon our free colored population may
be doubted. Let us look at facts in a parallel case,
and draw our inferences from them.
The annual increase of the whole colored popu
lation of the United States, slave and free, was, ten
years ago, some fifty-five thousand. The result of
the last census I have not yet learned. The white
3l"

COLONIZATION.
immigration of the present year will be perhaps half
a million. Did the same commerce exist between
this country and Africa, that crowds this immigra
tion upon us from Europe, it could carry an emigra
tion to Africa that would, of course, release us from
the whole colored population in a very few years,
if all, slaves and free, were then permitted to leave
America. As we all know, however, that there is
not such a commerce, the whole question must turn
upon the probability of its ever existing, and then
again upon the likelihood of the colored population
availing themselves of it as a means of leaving the
United States. This last point has been already so
fully considered, that I shall rest, in regard to it,
upon what I have already said of the circumstances
that must one day deprive the black man of the free
dom of choice, and force him to emigrate.
But, while the commerce with Africa is compara
tively small, yet it is one which is increasing with a
rapidity surpassing anything known in commercial
history, if we except the trade of San Francisco.
It already far surpasses the commerce of the colo
nies of this country, when they were as old as the
colonies on the coast of Africa — far surpasses it.
It must grow: it cannot be stopped. A mighty
continent — a quarter of the habitable globe, filled
"32"

\ COLONIZATION.
, ^ ^ . _™.
j with a teeming population, is still to be supplied
> with all that civilization can produce ; a population
; which, instead of perishing as the new comers press
\ upon it, is of the same blood and lineage, and must
i unite with them as one people.
i England has long appreciated Africa's capacity
j to absorb manufactures as her sands absorb the dews.
Hence her attempts to penetrate into the interior by
> the expeditions which she has sent up the Niger:
hence the costly establishments maintained by her
on the coast. But the interior of Africa can be
reached for commercial purposes but in one way,
and that is, through the colonies of free colored peo
ple from the United States established upon her
borders. Colonies of white men will not do, because
they become charnel houses. Colonies of recaptured
Africans will not do, as has been shown at Sierra
Leone, because they want the civilization necessary
to make them the agents of civilization in its rela- j
tions with commerce. But the free colored man from j
America can live, for he is in the clime of his an- 1
cestors ; and, being fully civilized, and Christian too,
he is the agent, and the only agent, that the world j
contains, adapted to the purpose. He has already
proved his efficiency. j
In no aspect of colonization has it more inter- |
""e" -~~-~_~~

COLONIZATION.
esting relations than in its commercial aspect. The
strife now, among the great of the old nations, Eng
land at their head, England first and especially, is
the opening of new markets ; and in this all man
kind is interested. Her manufacturers obtain better
prices for their goods, are able to pay better wages,
and to give more constant employment to persons
dependent upon them. Our manufacturers are inter
ested, first in a participation in the profits of the
new market, and again, in being relieved, as the
over production of the English manufactories finds
its way into new countries, and no longer creates a
glut, to the ruin of all parties, in our own.
Human ingenuity, now more actively at work
than ever, has facilitated all the processes of labor.
A flier is made to revolve more rapidly, and the
already immense production of a cotton mill is
doubled. The slow processes of human hands are
becoming fast superseded by the lightning-like pro-
i cesses of hands of brass and steel. In a thousand
i
i instances, ingenuity is spurring on production, until
\ the latter gets far ahead of the demand of the ex-
\ isting markets of the world.
! Now, just at the time when this over production
\ is taking place, and all the sufferings consequent
i upon a stagnant trade afflict the manufacturing coun-
'34 ~"

COLONIZATION.
tries of the world, colonization comes into existence;
being able, alone able, to throw open a world to be
filled with the products of civilization ; and compe
tent, in doing so, to build up the commerce, which
is to do for Africa, in the way of facilitating emi
gration from this country, what commerce is doing
for Ireland, and indeed all Europe, in transporting
their people to our shores. The wants of Africa,
her demands for civilization and its products, will
build the bridge of boats, which shall make the At
lantic a great highway between the two countries,
crowded with those whom circumstances will not
suffer to remain here, and whose departure will in
this manner be facilitated.
Nor will this be the only effect of a state of
things as certain to happen as the coming of to
morrow. Along with commerce will religion go :
that gospel which Victor Hugo, with the confidence
of prophecy, says we must " renounce unless slavery
is renounced." Strange assertion ! Does he not
know that slavery, introduced during the colonial
times, has existed in America for upwards of two
hundred years? Does he not know, also, that dur
ing this long period, and down to the present time,
the gospel has been preserved here in a purity and
power, through wars and tumults, which, unless uni-
35

COLONIZATION.
versal report is wofully at fault, France herself might
envy ! Even Mrs. Chapman would, we doubt not,
be willing to admit, that as a missionary enterprise,
colonization had its claims to consideration ; and she
would probably even agree to aid it, were it to con
fine its labors to reflecting upon Africa that gospel
light which now shines upon America, and which,
we are sure, she believes will continue to shine,
even though her correspondent predicts its extinc
tion. But we are not without our hope, that Vic
tor Hugo himself will one day admit, that if slavery
has been driven in Turkey "from the hearth of
Omar," where it has left Mahometanism behind it,
by the way, it has been permitted to exist " at the
hearth of Franklin," by Him whose ways are not
as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts, in
order that a nation of missionaries might be formed,
through whose agency the prophecy should be real
ized, which promises that Ethiopia shall lift up her
hands unto God.
There is one paragraph in Victor Hugo's letter
that we adopt most cordially, and we copy it en
tire : —
"There is an inflexible logic, which developes
more or less slowly, which fashions, which reduces
according to a mysterious plan, perceptible only to
36

COLONIZATION.

great spirits, the facts, the men, the laws, the mo
rals and the people ; or, better, under all human
things, there are things divine."
Exactly so. But whether Mrs. Chapman or Vic
tor Hugo are influenced by the sub-divinity here re
ferred to may be questionable. One thing is cer
tain, — that the Republic of Liberia and the Colony
at Cape Palmas have been founded, and enjoy at
this time an honorable and prosperous existence, by
emigrants, the mass of whom were ignorant and un
lettered, and whose success, unparalleled in the his
tory of the world, can be attributed to nothing but
the protection of the builder up and puller down of
earthly kingdoms. The people who have done this
are the only agents through whom, as already said,
commerce can penetrate Africa, — the only mission
aries, who, in the providence of God, can live
there; — they afford the only efficient means of sup
pressing the slave trade, which, having accomplished
the purpose for which divine wisdqm permitted it,
is to be extirpated by the children of those, whose
fathers it brought from Africa, that their descend
ants might be fitted to extirpate it, when its end
was answered.
African colonization was commenced in 1816,
and since then it has gone on with uniform success,

37

COLONIZATION.
though slowly, until the results are the Republic of
Liberia, and the State of Maryland's independent
colony at Cape Palmas. The means with which
these results have been produced, have been ob
tained mainly from individuals, except in the case
of the Maryland Colony, which has been established
through an appropriation of $200,000 from the State
Treasury.* And, without entering into details, it
may be stated roundly, and without fear of contra-
diction, that the history of the world presents no in
stance of a colonization as successful as this has been.
The ways of Providence are mysterious : but we
think the divine agency which controls is rather more
apparent in the success of the colonies that have been
planted from this country on the coast of Africa, than
it has been in the success which has attended the
anti-slavery and abolition societies from their birth
to the present day. Nor do we believe that there is
anything, "perceptible only to great spirits," which
either Victor IJugo or Mrs. Chapman has seen, to
prevent our looking to the success thus far of colo
nization, as more likely to be the result of divine in-
*It deserves to be mentioned, to the honor of Maryland, that
when she was for a time unable to pay the interest on her public
debt, the annual appropriation to the colony, filled with free colored
people who had trusted her, was paid punctually to the day.
"38"

COLONIZATION.
telligence, than the schemes which these two persons
advocate. The practical effect of modern abolition, thus far,
has been to disturb the glorious harmony of a happy
people, threatening to place brother in armed array
against brother; while, at the same time, not only
have all the friendly and affectionate relations for
merly existing between the whites and the free blacks
been, to a very great extent, if not altogether, prema
turely destroyed, but the bonds of the slave have been
tightened, and his privileges curtailed ; so that the
acts of their pretended friends have, in their results,
been a curse to both bond and free.
Whether this ought to be so, — whether benevo
lence, because it is ignorant, should be tolerated and
respected, when its theme is mischievous, and its
practical working destructive, — whether the master
should praise and thank him who excited his slaves
to rise and break their chains over his head, that is,
to murder him and his wife and children, — whether,
were the world better ordered, this should not be
so, is what we do not propose to argue. Taking
the world as we find it, we rely upon the facts we
know, rather than upon the speculations of a French
poet and novelist — and a great poet and a great
novelist, too — even when he raises his voice at the
"39"

COLONIZATION.
instigation of an American lady, who, we think,
might have found advisers who knew more about
the subject in her own country, than the gentleman
whose "upliftings" we refer to.
This letter, my dear sir, is a very long one. But
the subject is the great subject of the day — and is
inexhaustible. I have endeavored to sustain the fol
lowing propositions.
I. That the two races of white and black in the
United States must forever remain separate and dis
tinct, while they continue in the same land — whether
all the blacks are free, or only a portion of them.
II. That a necessary consequence of this state of
things, as illustrated by present experience, and in
accordance with all history, must be, that the weaker
of the two races, not actually held as slaves, must,
directly or indirectly, be oppressed, — the extent of the
oppression being in proportion to the occasions of
collision between the two, in competition for em
ployment. III. That another necessary consequence of this
state of things is, that the two races must separate —
in this as in all other similar cases; or, in other
words, there must be a colonization, — to be carried
on like all other previous colonizations, — which may
be facilitated by aid in the commencement, but in
"io"

COLONIZATION.
which, ultimately, the emigrants must pay their own
expenses. IV. That existing circumstances already press
upon the free colored man the necessity of emigra
tion, and that he is beginning to appreciate its im
portance. That these circumstances, growing mainly
out of the vast increase of our white population, by
native birth and from foreign countries, are accumu
lating beyond all control, and will ultimately leave
the free colored man no alternative but emigration.
V. That Africa is the place for which he is des
tined; and that the colonies planted there, now the
Republic of Liberia, are to be his ultimate home.
That in Africa alone can he escape the white man's
power; while the latter will be dependent upon him
for all the missionary and commercial agencies in
which he is interested.
VI. That, while the present means for emigration
may be supplied by individual, or other aid, yet the
commerce, which is rapidly growing up between
Africa and this country, will, in a brief time — look
ing to the ends to be obtained — furnish facilities for
the same emigration from America to Africa that is
now taking place between Europe and this conti
nent, — an emigration which would soon relieve the
United States from its entire free colored population —

COLONIZATION.
and towards which, where the Irishman or German
has one motive to leave Europe, the free black man
has ten to leave America.
In these propositions is involved the answer to
the arguments of all those, including Victor Hugo,
if you please, who favor modern abolition as a means
of benefiting the blacks. It is not my purpose to
discuss the subject of slavery in the abstract. The
scope of this letter does not include it. So far as
colonization may promote emancipation, by inducing
masters to free their slaves to go to Africa, who
would not free them to remain in this country, so
far only is it connected with the subject of slavery,
and no farther. Slavery is an existing institution,
guaranteed by the constitution under which we live.
Men may think what they please of it, but have no
right to interfere with it. If the question were put,
whether the United States would not be better off
with a homogeneous population of white men, than
it now is, the majority would probably be found to
reply in the affirmative. But when, first and fore
most, the now evident result of the abolition move
ment is a curse to the objects of it; when it wages
a war against existing rights already protected by
fundamental law; when it threatens to dissolve a

42

COLONIZATION.
Union like ours, — it is the duty of good men and true
to stand up against it, even when its cause is sought
to be promoted by the epistolary eloquence of an
American lady, and the "uplifted" voice of a French
poet. Anti-slavery — a false friend to the colored
race, because of its own ignorance — seeks for freedom
through emancipation, without reference to results.
The true friends of the colored race, looking at con
sequences, consider them in their action, and, be
lieving that the two races to be happy must be sepa
rated, advocate colonization.
In thus complying, at so great a length, with the
request of Mr. Coleman and yourself, I have been,
very probably, far more diffuse than was necessary.
My prolixity must be taken as an evidence of a
desire to gratify your wishes, on the part of,
Dear Sir,
Yours, very truly and respectfully,

JOHN H. B. LATROBE. i

43

r

VICTOR HUGO TO MRS. CHAPMAN.

[TRANSLATION.]

MADAM:

I have scarcely any thing to add to
your letter. I would cheerfully sign every line of it.
Pursue your holy work. You have with you all
great souls and all good hearts.
You are pleased to believe, and to assure me, that
my voice, in this august cause of slavery, will be
listened to by the great American people, whom I
love so profoundly, and whose destinies, I am fain
to think, are closely linked with the mission of
France. You desire me to lift up my voice.
I will do it at once, and I will do it on all oc
casions. I agree with you in thinking, that within
a definite time, — that within a time not distant, the
United States will repudiate slavery with horror.

Slavery in such a country! Can there be an in
congruity more monstrous. Barbarism installed in
the very heart of a society, which is itself the af
firmation of civilization; liberty bearing a chain;
blasphemy echoing from the altar; the collar of the
negro chained to the pedestal of Washington! It
is a thing unheard of. I say more, it is impossible.
Such a spectacle would destroy itself. The light
of the nineteenth century alone is enough to de
stroy it.
What! Slavery sanctioned by law among that
illustrious people, who for seventy years have mea
sured the progress of civilization by their march,
demonstrated democracy by their power, and liberty
by their prosperity ! Slavery in the United States !
It is the duty of this Republic to set such a bad
example no longer. It is a shame; and she was
never born to bow her head.
It is not when slavery is taking leave of old
nations, that it should be received by the new.
What! When slavery is departing from Turkey,
shall it rest on America! What! Drive it from
the hearth of Omar, and adopt it at the hearth of
Franklin! No! No! No!
There is an inflexible logic which develops more
or less slowly, which fashions, which redresses ac-

COLONIZATION.
cording to a mysterious plan, perceptible only to
great spirits, the facts, the men, the laws, the morals,
the people; or better, under all human things, there
are things divine.
Let all those great souls who love the United
States, as a country, be re-assured. The United
States must renounce slavery, or they must renounce
liberty. They cannot renounce liberty. They must
renounce slavery or renounce the Gospel. They
will never renounce the Gospel !
Accept, Madam, with my devotion to the cause
you advocate, the homage of my respect.
VICTOR HUGO.
6 July, 1851, Paris.

46

JOHN H. B. LATROBE TO VICTOR HUGO.

BALTIMORE, September §6, 1851.
SIR: I have the honor to enclose to you a
publication suggested by your letter, of July 6th, to
Mrs. Chapman.
The authorship of this letter has ^rrayed you as
one of a party, small indeed in numbers, but whose
violence and perseverance have done much to es
tablish relations of unkindness, if not of hostility,
between two sections of a great Republic, which the
interests of true freedom, and of the human race,
require should be united, — to interrupt that march,
which, you are pleased to say, has, "for seventy
years, measured the progress of civilization." Your
name, sir, is the name of no common man. Your
47"

COLONIZATION.
reputation is one, which gives weight to whatever
you may say: — and, if, in the publication which is
sent to you, the endeavor has been to shew how
much you are in error, the pains that have been
ta*ken must be considered as the best evidence that
can be furnished of the high estimation in which I
hold your talents and your influence.
That you have assailed his country, is the only
justification needed, by even the humblest of her
sons, in an attempt to vindicate her.
I have the honor to be,
With sentiments of high consideration,
Your obedient servant,
JOHN H. B. LATROBE.

48

K.4S