on and piracy. _They do not identify the
criminals_; they make no direct, pungent, earnest appeal to the
consciences of men-stealers; by consenting to walk arm-in-arm with them,
they virtually agree to abstain from all offensive remarks, and to aim
entirely at the expulsion of the free people of color; their lugubrious
exclamations, and solemn animadversions, and reproachful reflections,
are altogether indefinite; they 'go about, and about, and all the way
round to nothing;' they generalize, they shoot into the air, they do not
disturb the repose nor wound the complacency of the sinner; 'they have
put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed
difference between the unclean and the clean.' Thus has free inquiry
been suppressed, and a universal fear created, and the tongue of the
boldest silenced, and the sleep of death fastened upon the nation.
'Truth has fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter.' The plague
is raging with unwonted fatality; but no _cordon sanitaire_ is
established--no adequate remedy sought. The tide of moral death is
constantly rising and widening; but no efforts are made to stay its
desolating career. The fire of God's indignation is kindling against us,
and thick darkness covers the heavens, and the hour of retribution is at
hand; but we are obstinate in our transgression, we refuse to repent, we
impiously throw the burden of our guilt upon our predecessors, we affect
resignation to our _unfortunate_ lot, we descant upon the mysterious
dispensations of Providence, we deem ourselves objects of God's
compassion rather than of his displeasure. 'Shall I not visit for these
things? saith the Lord. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as
this?'

Were the American Colonization Society bending its energies directly to
the immediate abolition of slavery; seeking to enlighten and consolidate
public opinion, on this momentous subject; faithfully exposing the
awful guilt of the owners of slaves; manfully contending for the
bestowal of equal rights upon our free colored population in this their
native land; assiduously endeavoring to uproot the prejudices of
society; and holding no fellowship with oppressors; my opposition to it
would cease. It might continue to bestow its charities upon those who
should desire to seek another country, and at the same time launch its
thunders against the system of oppression. But, alas! it looks to the
banishment of the free people of col