e or prepare us for the posts
of honor and distinction which they hold forth to us, whenever we set
foot on this much talked of, and long expected promised land. We would
ask the Colonization Society, what are they doing at home to improve our
condition? It is a true proverb, that 'charity begins at home.' How can
they extend their charities with christian sympathies and feeling some
thousand miles across the Atlantic ocean, when they are not willing,
with a few exceptions, to give us even a christian instruction while
among them? To prove the assertion, we would inquire, how many of our
sable brethren have been elevated to any post of distinction in this
country? Even in states, where our numbers have almost doubled, have we
seen one statesman, one officer, or one juror? No! in our village and
its vicinity, how many of us have been educated in colleges, and
advanced into different branches of business; or taken into mercantile
houses, manufacturing establishments, &c.? Are we not even prohibited
from some of the common labor and drudgery of the streets, such as
cartmen, porters, &c.? It is a strange theory to us, how these gentlemen
can promise to honor and respect us in Africa, when they are using every
effort to exclude us from all rights and privileges at home.

They say, 'that those of our friends, who look for the day when we shall
have equal rights in this country, are mistaken.' May we not accept it
as an assurance, that they will do all they can to prevent us from
arriving to any degree of respectability at home, in our own land? Away
then with such false sympathies and friendships! they are as foreign to
us as the coast of Africa!

We truly believe, that many gentlemen who are engaged in the
Colonization Society are our sincere friends and well-wishers; they
wish to do something for us, consequently they have subscribed largely
to it, because there was no other plan on foot. Some of them have been
deluded into its schemes, with a view of thoroughly civilizing and
christianizing Africa, by our free people of color and emancipated
slaves, who may, from time to time, be colonized on its coasts, with
their consent. We conceive that such measures are fraught with
inconsistency, and in no way calculated to have such an effect. To send
a parcel of uninstructed, uncivilized, and unchristianized people, to
the western coast of Africa, with bibles in their hands to teach the
natives the truths of the gospel, social hap