e blacks and whites;
and that there were a sufficient number of educated, upright, free
colored men, in the United States, to establish and sustain a Republic
on the coast of Africa, "whose citizens, rising rapidly in the scale of
existence, under the stimulants to noble effort by which they would be
surrounded, might soon become equal to the people of Europe, or of
European origin--so long their masters and oppressors." These were the
sentiments of the first Report of the Colonization Society, and often
repeated since. Its appeals were made to the moral and intelligent of
the free colored people; and, with their co-operation, the success of
its scheme was considered certain. But the very persons needed to lead
the enterprise, were, mostly, persuaded to reject the proffered aid, and
the society was left to prosecute its plans with such materials as
offered. In consequence of this opposition, it was greatly embarrassed,
and made less progress in its work of African redemption, than it must
have done under other circumstances. Had three-fourths of its emigrants
been the enlightened, free colored men of the country, a dozen Liberias
might now gird the coast of Africa, where but one exists; and the slave
trader be entirely excluded from its shores. Doubtless, a wise
Providence has governed here, as in other human affairs, and may have
permitted this result, to show how speedily even semi-civilized men can
be elevated under American Protestant free institutions. The great body
of emigrants to Liberia, and nearly all the leading men who have sprung
up in the colony, and contributed most to the formation of the Republic,
went out from the very midst of slavery; and yet, what encouraging
results! It has been a sad mistake to oppose colonization, and thus to
retard Africa's redemption!
But how has it fared with the free colored people elsewhere? The answer
to this question will be the solution of the inquiry, What has
abolitionism accomplished by its hostility to colonization, and what is
the condition of the free colored people, whose interests it volunteered
to promote, and whose destinies it attempted to control?
The abolitionists themselves shall answer this question. The colored
people shall see what kind of commendations their tutors give them, and
what the world is to think of them, on the testimony of their particular
friends.
The concentration of a colored population in Canada, is the work of
American abolitionist
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