icable.

Thus the American Colonization Society is the _apologist_, the _friend_,
and the _patron_ of SLAVEHOLDERS and SLAVERY!

FOOTNOTES:

[M] Stuart's Circular.

SECTION V.

THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE ENEMY OF IMMEDIATE ABOLITION.

It follows, as a necessary consequence, that a Society which is not
hostile to slavery, which apologises for the system and for
slaveholders, which recognises slaves as rightful property,[N] and which
confessedly increases their value, is _the enemy of immediate
abolition_. This, I am aware, in the present corrupt state of public
sentiment, will not generally be deemed an objectionable feature; but I
regard it with inexpressible abhorrence and dismay.

Since the deception practised upon our first parents by the old serpent,
there has not been a more fatal delusion in the minds of men than that
of the gradual abolition of slavery. _Gradual_ abolition! do its
supporters really know what they talk about? Gradually abstaining from
what? From sins the most flagrant, from conduct the most cruel, from
acts the most oppressive! Do colonizationists mean, that slave-dealers
shall purchase or sell a few victims less this year than they did the
last? that slave-owners shall liberate one, two or three out of every
hundred slaves during the same period? that slave-drivers shall apply
the lash to the scarred and bleeding backs of their victims somewhat
less frequently? Surely not--I respect their intelligence too much to
believe that they mean any such thing. But if any of the slaves should
be exempted from sale or purchase, why not all? if justice require the
liberation of the few, why not of the many? if it be right for a driver
to inflict a number of lashes, how many shall be given? Do
colonizationists mean that the practice of separating the husband from
the wife, the wife from the husband, or children from their parents,
shall come to an end by an almost imperceptible process? or that the
slaves shall be defrauded of their just remuneration, less and less
every month or every year? or that they shall be under the absolute,
irresponsible control of their masters? Oh no! I place a higher value
upon their good sense, humanity and morality than this! Well, then, they
would immediately break up the slave traffic--they would put aside the
whip--they would have the marriage relations preserved inviolate--they
would not separate families--they would not steal the wages of the