Thoughts on African Colonization. Garrison William Lloyd

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СКАЧАТЬ session, resolutions were adopted expressive of the opinion that the object of this Society was deserving the patronage of the general government. An enlightened community now see, that this Society infringes upon no man's rights, that its object is noble and benevolent – to remedy an evil which is felt and acknowledged at the north and south – to give the free people of color the privileges of freemen.' – [From a Tract issued by the Massachusetts Colonization Society in 1831, for gratuitous distribution.]

      'This institution proposes to do good by a single specific course of measures. Its direct and specific purpose is not the abolition of slavery, or the relief of pauperism, or the extension of commerce and civilization, or the enlargement of science, or the conversion of the heathen. The single object which its constitution prescribes, and to which all its efforts are necessarily directed, is, African colonization from America. It proposes only to afford facilities for the voluntary emigration of free people of color from this country to the country of their fathers.' – [Review on African Colonization. – Christian Spectator for September, 1830.]

      'It interferes in nowise with the right of property, and hopes and labors for the gradual abolition of slavery, by the voluntary and gradual manumission of slaves, when the free persons of color shall have first been transferred to their aboriginal climate and soil.' – [G. W. P. Custis, Esq. – African Repository, vol. i. p. 39.]

      'Does this Society wish to meddle with our slaves as our rightful property? I answer no, I think not.' – [African Repository, vol. ii. p. 13.]

      'They have been denounced by some as fanatical and visionary innovators, pursuing without regard to means or consequences, an object destructive of the rights of property, and dangerous to the public peace.' * * * 'The sole object of the Society, as declared at its institution, and from which it can never be allowed to depart, is 'to remove with their own consent, to the coast of Africa, the free colored population, now existing in the United States, and such as hereafter may become free.'' * * * 'In pursuing their object, therefore, (although such consequences may result from a successful prosecution of it,) the Society cannot be justly charged with aiming to disturb the rights of property or the peace of society. Your memorialists refer with confidence to the course they have pursued, in the prosecution of their object for nine years past, to shew that it is possible, without danger or alarm, to carry on such an operation, notwithstanding its supposed relation to the subject of slavery, and that they have not been regardless, in any of their measures, of what was due to the state of society in which they live. They are, themselves, chiefly slaveholders, and live, with all the ties of life binding them to a slaveholding community. They know when to speak and when to forbear upon topics connected with this painful and difficult subject. They put forth no passionate appeals before the public, seek to excite no feeling, and avoid, with the most sedulous care, every measure that would endanger the public tranquillity.' * * * 'The managers could, with no propriety, depart from their original and avowed purpose, and make emancipation their object. And they would further say, that if they were not thus restrained by the terms of their association, they would still consider any attempts to promote the increase of the free colored population by manumission, unnecessary, premature, and dangerous.' * * * 'It seems now to be admitted that, whatever has any bearing upon that question, must be managed with the utmost consideration; that the peace and order of society must not be endangered by indiscreet and ill-timed efforts to promote emancipation; and that a true regard should be manifested to the feelings and the fears, and even the prejudices of those, whose co-operation is essential.' – [Memorial of the Society to the several States. – A. R. vol. ii. pp. 57, 58, 60.]

      'To found in Africa an empire of christians and republicans; to reconduct the blacks to their native land, without disturbing the order of society, the laws of property, or the rights of individuals; rapidly, but legally, silently, gradually, to drain them off; these are the noble ends of the colonization scheme.' – [African Repository, vol. ii. p. 375.]

      'Nor have I ever been able to see, for my part, why the patronage of Congress to a benevolent and patriotic Society, which, without interfering, in the smallest degree, with that delicate interest, only aims to remove what we all consider as a great evil – our free people of color – (and which evil does interfere with that interest,) should excite the jealousy or spleen of our most watchful and determined advocates of state rights.' – [Idem, p. 383.]

      'Recognising the constitutional and legitimate existence of slavery, it seeks not to interfere, either directly or indirectly, with the rights which it creates. Acknowledging the necessity by which its present continuance and the rigorous provisions for its maintenance are justified, it aims only at furnishing the States, in which it exists, the means of immediately lessening its severities, and of ultimately relieving themselves from its acknowledged evils.' – [Opimius in reply to Caius Gracchus. – African Repository, vol. iii. p. 16.]

      'It is no abolition Society; it addresses as yet arguments to no master, and disavows with horror the idea of offering temptations to any slave. It denies the design of attempting emancipation, either partial or general; it denies, with us, that the General Government have any power to emancipate; and declares that the States have exclusively the right to regulate the whole subject of slavery. The scope of the Society is large enough, but it is in nowise mingled or confounded with the broad sweeping views of a few fanatics in America, who would urge us on to the sudden and total abolition of slavery.' * * * 'The first great material objection is that the Society does, in fact, in spite of its denial, meditate and conspire the emancipation of the slaves. To the candid, let me say that there are names on the rolls of the Society too high to be rationally accused of the duplicity and insidious falsehood which this implies; farther, the Society and its branches are composed, in by far the larger part, of citizens of slaveholding States, who cannot gravely be charged with a design so perilous to themselves. To the uncandid disputant, I say, let him put his finger on one single sentiment, declaration or act of the Society, or of any person, with its sanction, which shows such to be their object: there is in fact no pretext for the charge.' * * * 'Let me repeat, the friends of the Colonization Society, three-fourths of them are SLAVEHOLDERS; the legislatures of Maryland, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee, all slaveholding States, have approved it; every member of this auxiliary Society is, either in himself, or his nearest relatives, interested in holding slaves.' * * * 'Once more; this Society is no way connected with certain Abolition Societies in the country. To these the Colonization Society would say, "Your object is unattainable, your zeal dangerous, and nothing can give it the right direction or the right temperature, but your surrendering your plan to ours: be convinced, that if the blacks are ever to be removed from us, it will be by the free will of the owners, and by means of the opportunity which our innocent plan of an asylum for such as may be sent will afford."' – ['The Col. Society Vindicated.' – Idem, pp. 197, 200, 202, 203.]

      'They can impress upon the southern slaveholder, by the strength of facts, and by the recorded declarations of honest men, that the objects of the Colonization Society are altogether pure and praiseworthy, and that it has no intention to open the door to universal liberty, but only to cut out a channel, where the merciful providence of God may cause those dark waters to flow off.' – [Idem, vol. iv. p. 145.]

      'About twelve years ago, some of the wisest men of the nation, (mostly slaveholders,) formed, in the city of Washington, the present American Colonization Society. Among them were men high in office, who had spent many years in studying the interests of their country, and who could not, therefore, be suspected of short-sighted enthusiasm, or any secret design of disturbing the rights or the safety of our southern citizens.' * * * 'You will observe, first, that there is to be no intermeddling with property in slaves. The rights of masters are to remain sacred in the eyes of the Society. The tendency of the scheme, and one of its objects, is to secure slaveholders, and the whole southern country, against certain evil consequences, growing out of the three-fold mixture of our population.' – [Address of the Rockbridge Col. Society. – Idem, p. 274.]

      'It is true, their operations have been confined to СКАЧАТЬ