emperance had
continued to rise higher and higher, and some faithful watchmen had
given the alarm and showed the fatal delusion which rested upon the
land, and the Society should have defended itself by pointing to the two
thousand sots who had been saved by its instrumentality--would the
public attention have been successfully diverted from the _immense evil_
to the _partial good_? Suppose, once more, that this Society, composed
indiscriminately of rum-sellers and sober, pious men, on being charged
with perpetuating the evils of intemperance, with removing only some of
the fruits thereof instead of the tree itself, should have indignantly
repelled the charge, and said--'We are as much opposed to drunkenness,
and as heartily deprecate its existence, as any of our violent,
fanatical opposers; but the holders of ardent spirit have invested their
capital in it, and to destroy its sale would invade the right of
_property_; policy at least, bids us not to assail their conduct, as
otherwise we might exasperate them, and so lose their aid in colonizing
the tipplers.' What would have been accomplished? But no such logic was
used: the duty of immediate reform was constantly pressed upon the
people, and a mighty reform took place.

Colonizationists boast inordinately of having emancipated three or four
hundred slaves by their scheme, and contemptuously inquire of
abolitionists, 'What have _you_ effected?' Many persons have been
deceived by this _show_ of success, and deem it conclusive evidence of
the usefulness of the Colonization Society. But, in the first place, it
is very certain that none of these slaves were liberated in consequence
of the faithful appeals of the Society to the consciences of the
masters; for it has never troubled their consciences by any such
appeals. Secondly, it is obvious that these manumissions are the fruits
of the uncompromising doctrines of abolitionists; for they are
calculated to bring slaveholders to repentance, and they will yet
liberate other slaves to be caught up and claimed by the Society as
trophies of its success. Thirdly, it has been shown that while this
Society (allowing it the utmost that it claims) is effecting very little
and very doubtful good, it is inflicting upon the nation great and
positive evil, by refusing to arraign the oppressors at the bar of
eternal justice, and by obstructing the formation of abolition
societies. It rivets a thousand fetters where it breaks one. It annua