_Nation_ against the bloody
aggressions of the Southern Confederacy.

THE COLONIZATION ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY ante-dated any of the other
organizations. Benjamin Lundy was one of the earliest advocates of
colonization. The object of colonizationists was to transport to
Liberia, on the West Coast of Africa, all manumitted slaves. Only
_free_ Negroes were to be colonized. It was claimed by the advocates
of the scheme that this was the only hope of the free Negro; that the
proscription everywhere directed against his social and intellectual
endeavors cramped and lamed him in the race of life; that in Liberia
he could build his own government, schools, and business; and there
would be nothing to hinder him in his ambition for the highest places
in Church or State. Moreover, they claimed that the free Negro owed
something to his benighted brethren who were still in pagan darkness;
that a free Negro government on the West Coast of Africa could exert a
missionary influence upon the natives, and thus the evangelization of
Africa could be effected by the free Negro himself.[21]

To this method Henry Clay, of Kentucky, Horace Mann, of Massachusetts;
Rev. Howard Malcom, of Pennsylvania; Rev. R. R. Gurley, of New York;
and many other persons of distinction, gave their endorsement and
assistance. The American Colonization Society was organized in 1817.
Its earliest supporters were from the Southern and Middle States. A
fair idea can be had of the character of the men who sustained the
cause of colonization by an examination of the following list of
officers elected in March, 1834.

"_President._--JAMES MADISON, of Virginia.

"_Vice-Presidents._--Chief-Justice MARSHALL; General LAFAYETTE,
of France, Hon. WM. H. CRAWFORD, of Georgia; Hon. HENRY CLAY, of
Lexington, Kentucky; Hon. JOHN C. HERBERT, of Maryland; ROBERT
RALSTON, Esq., of Philadelphia; Gen. JOHN MASON, of Georgetown,
D. C.; SAMUEL BAYARD, Esq., of New Jersey; ISAAC MCKIM, Esq., of
Maryland; Gen. JOHN HARTWELL COCKE, of Virginia; Rt. Rev. Bishop
WHITE, of Pennsylvania; Hon. DANIEL WEBSTER, of Boston; Hon.
CHARLES F. MERCER, of Virginia; JEREMIAH DAY, D.D., of Yale
College; Hon. RICHARD RUSH, of Pennsylvania; Bishop MCKENDREE;
PHILIP E. THOMAS, Esq., of Maryland; Dr. THOMAS C. JAMES, of
Philadelphia; Hon. JOHN COTTON SMITH, of Connecticut; Hon.
THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN, of New Jersey; Hon. LOUIS MCLANE, of