American Colonization Society. It is true--but
whereas I was then blind, now I see. My address, however, was far from
being acceptable to the friends of colonization who were present, not
only on account of my denunciation of slaveholders, but because I
inserted only a single sentence in favor of the Society. In all my
writings, I have never commended this combination in as many sentences
as I have used in making this explanation. So much for my marvellous
apostacy!

It is only about two years since I was induced to examine the claims of
the Colonization Society upon the patronage and confidence of the
nation. I went to this examination with a mind biassed by preconceived
opinions favorable to the Society, and rather for the purpose of
defending it against opposition than of bringing it into disrepute.
Every thing, apart from its principles, was calculated to secure my
friendship. Nothing but its revolting features could have induced me to
turn loathingly away from its embrace. I had some little reputation to
sustain; many of my friends were colonizationists; I saw that eminent
statesmen and honorable men were enlisted in the enterprise; the great
body of the clergy gave their unqualified support to it; every fourth of
July the charities of the nation were secured in its behalf; wherever I
turned my eye in the free States, I saw nothing but unanimity; wherever
my ear caught a sound, I heard nothing but excessive panegyric. No
individual had ventured to blow the trumpet of alarm, or exert his
energies to counteract the influence of the scheme. If an assailant had
occasionally appeared, he had either fired a random shot and retreated,
or found in the inefficiency of the Society the only cause for
hostility. It was at this crisis, and with such an array of motives
before me to bias my judgment, that I resolved to make a close and
candid examination of the subject.

I went, first of all, to the fountain head--to the African Repository
and the Reports of the Society. I was not long in discovering sentiments
which seemed to me as abhorrent to humanity as contrary to reason. I
perused page after page, first with perplexity, then with astonishment,
and finally with indignation. I found little else than sinful
palliations, fatal concessions, vain expectations, exaggerated
statements, unfriendly representations, glaring contradictions, naked
terrors, deceptive assurances, unrelenting prejudices, and unchristian
denunciations.