e himself had
attended."[276]

The principal address was delivered by Elias B. Caldwell, the
Princeton schoolmate of Charles Fenton Mercer. He argued for the
expediency and practicability of African colonization. It was
expedient because the free blacks have a demoralizing influence on our
civil institutions; they can never enjoy equality among the whites in
America; only in a district by themselves will they ever be happy. To
colonize them in America would invite the possibility of their making
common cause with the Indians and border nations, and furnish an
asylum for fugitives and runaway slaves. Africa seemed the best place
to send them: there was a settlement already in Sierra Leone, the
climate was agreeable to the colored man's constitution, they could
live cheaply there, and above all other reasons, they could carry
civilization and Christianity to the Africans. While the expense would
be greater than that connected with a settlement on the American
Continent yet, in order to make atonement for the wrongs done Africa,
America should contribute to this object both from the treasury of the
national government and from the purse of private individuals. With
the promise of equality, a homestead, and a free passage, no black
would refuse to go. In concluding his speech he said: "It is for us to
make the experiment and the offers; we shall then, and not till then,
have discharged our duty. It is a plan in which all interests, all
classes, and descriptions of people may unite, in which all discordant
feelings may be lost in those of humanity, in promoting 'peace on
earth and good will to man.'"[277]

Robert Wright of Maryland, having pointed out some difficulties, gave
colonization his approbation with the hope that there would arise for
gradual emancipation some plan in which slaves would be prepared for
freedom, and slaveholders would be remunerated out of the funds of the
nation.[278]

It appeared to John Randolph of Roanoke that "it had not been
sufficiently insisted on with a view to obtain the cooperation of all
the citizens of the United States, not only that this meeting does not
in any wise affect the question of Negro Slavery, but, as far as it
goes, must materially tend to secure the property of every master in
the United States over his slaves." He considered the free black "a
great evil," "a nuisance," and "a bug-bear to every man who feels an
inclination to emancipate his slaves." "If a place could be