osity and adventurous enterprise, impelled by
no malignant influences, but by the spontaneous promptings of the mind.
Far different is the case of our colored population. Their _voluntary_
banishment is _compulsory_--they are _forced_ to turn _volunteers_, as
will be shown in other parts of this work.

The following proposition is self-evident: The success of an enterprise
furnishes no proof that it is in accordance with justice, or that it
meets the approbation of God, or that it ought to be prosecuted to its
consummation, or that it is the fruit of disinterested benevolence.

I do not doubt that the Colony at Liberia, by a prodigal expenditure of
life and money, will ultimately flourish; but a good result would no
more hallow that persecution which is seeking to drag the blacks away,
than it would if we should burn every distillery, and shut up in prison
every vender of ardent spirits, in order to do good and to prevent
people from becoming drunkards. Because Jehovah overrules evil for good,
shall we therefore continue to do evil?

If ten thousand white mechanics, farmers, merchants, &c. &c. were to
emigrate to Africa, does any man doubt whether permanent good would
result from the enterprise--good to that benighted continent, which
would counterbalance all the sacrifices and sufferings attending it? And
yet is there a single mechanic, farmer or merchant, who feels it to be
his duty, or would be willing to go? Suppose the people of color should
get the power into their hands to-morrow, and should argue that the
whites must not be admitted to equal privileges with themselves; but
that, having so long plundered Africa, and oppressed her children,
justice demanded that they should be sent to that desolate land to build
up colonies, and carry the light of civilization and knowledge, as a
sort of reparation--and that, having superior instruction in literature
and science, they were peculiarly qualified for such a mission--how
would this doctrine relish? 'It is a poor rule that will not work both
ways,' says the proverb. Yet this logic would be more sound than is our
own with regard to the colonization of the blacks.

On this point, deception is practised to a great extent. The advocates
of the Colonization Society are constantly aiming to divert public
attention from the only proper subject of inquiry, namely, 'Is it based
upon benevolence and justice?'--to the success of the colony. Granting
all that they assert, it pr