e colony at
Liberia in a flourishing condition, and expanding beyond the most
sanguine expectations of its founders?'

Pertinent questions deserve pertinent answers. I say, then, in reply,
that I do not object to a colony, _in the abstract_--to use the popular
phraseology of the day. In other words, I am entirely willing men
should be as free as the birds in choosing the time when, the mode how,
and the place where they shall migrate. The power of locomotion was
given to be used at will; as beings of intelligence and enterprise,

'The world is all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.'

The emigration from New-England to the far West is constant and large.
Almost every city, town or village suffers annually by the departure of
some of its adventurous inhabitants. Companies have been formed to go
and possess the Oregon territory--an enterprise hazardous and
unpromising in the extreme. The old States are distributing their
population over the whole continent, with unexampled fruitfulness and
liberality. But why this restless, roving, unsatisfied disposition? Is
it because those who cherish it are treated as the offscouring of all
flesh, in the place of their birth? or because they do not possess equal
rights and privileges with other citizens? or because they are the
victims of incorrigible hate and prejudice? or because they are told
that they must choose between exilement and perpetual degradation? or
because the density of population renders it impossible for them to
obtain preferment and competence here? or because they are estranged by
oppression and scorn? or because they cherish no attachment to their
native soil, to the scenes of their childhood and youth, or to the
institutions of government? or because they consider themselves as
dwellers in a strange land, and feel a burning desire, a feverish
longing to return home? No. They lie under no odious disabilities,
whether imposed by public opinion or by legislative power; to them the
path of preferment is wide open; they sustain a solid and honorable
reputation; they not only can rise, but have risen, and may soar still
higher, to responsible stations and affluent circumstances; no calamity
afflicts, no burden depresses, no reproach excludes, no despondency
enfeebles them; and they love the spot of their nativity almost to
idolatry. The air of heaven is not freer or more buoyant than they.
Theirs is a spirit of curi