lication. To give offence I
am loath, but more to hide or modify the truth. I shall deal with the
Society in its collective form--as one body--and not with individuals.
While I shall be necessitated to marshal individual opinions in review,
I protest, _ab origine_, against the supposition that indiscriminate
censure is intended, or that every friend of the Society cherishes
similar views. He to whom my reprehension does not apply, will not
receive it. It is obviously impossible, in attacking a numerous and
multiform combination, to exhibit private dissimilarities, or in every
instance to discriminate between the various shades of opinion. It is
sufficient that exceptions are made. My warfare is against the AMERICAN
COLONIZATION SOCIETY. If I shall identify its general, preponderating
and clearly developed traits, it must stand or fall as they shall prove
benevolent or selfish.

I bring to this momentous investigation an unbiassed mind, a lively
sense of accountability to God, and devout aspirations for the guidance
of the Holy Spirit. Unless He 'in whom there is no darkness at all,'
pours light upon my path, I shall go astray. I have taken Him at His
word: 'If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given
him.' Confessing my own foolishness, I have sought that knowledge which
cannot err.

I would premise, that, like many others, I formerly supposed the
Colonization Society was a praiseworthy association, although I always
doubted its efficiency. This opinion was formed for me by others, upon
whom I placed implicit confidence: it certainly was not based upon any
research or knowledge of my own, as I had not at that time perused a
single Report of the Society, nor a page in its organ, the African
Repository. My approval was the offspring of credulity and ignorance. I
am explicit on this point, because my opponents have accused me of
inconsistency--though it ought not surely to disgrace a man, that,
discovering himself to be in error, he promptly turns to the embrace of
truth. As if opinions, once formed, must be as irrevocable as the laws
of the Medes and Persians! If this were so, accountability would lose
its hold on the conscience, and the light of knowledge be blown out, and
reason degenerate into brutish instinct. Much stress has been laid upon
the fact, that, in 1828, I delivered an address in Park-street
meeting-house on the Fourth of July, on which occasion a collection was
made in behalf of the