when those who possess it are gone, as shall be acquired by the succeeding generation. All the rest must perish. The rising generation is now called upon to take up this mighty weight; to carry it along a little way; and then hand it over, in turn, to their successors. The minds which, in their maturity, are to be the depositories of all this knowledge, are coming into existence every day and every hour, in every rank and station of life; all equally endowed with faculties; all, at the commencement, equally destitute of ideas; all starting with the ignorance and helplessness of nature; all invited to run the noble race of improvement. In the cradle there is as little distinction of persons as in the grave. The great lesson which I would teach you is, that it depends mainly on each individual, what part he will bear in the accomplishment of this great work. It is to be done by somebody. In a quiet order of things, the stock of useful knowledge is not only preserved, but augmented; and each generation improves on that which went before. It is true, there have been periods, in the history of the world, when tyranny at home, or invasion from abroad, has so blighted and blasted the condition of society, that knowledge has perished with one generation, faster than it could be learned by another; and whole nations have sunk from a condition of improvement, to one of ignorance and barbarity, sometimes in a very few years. But no such dreadful catastrophe is now to be feared. Those who come after us will not only equal, but surpass their predecessors. The existing arts will be improved, science will be carried to new heights, and the great heritage of useful knowledge will go down unimpaired and augmented. But it is all to be shared out anew; and it is for each man to say what part he will gain in the glorious patrimony. When the rich man is called from the possession of his treasures, he divides them as he will among his children and heirs. But an equal Providence deals not so with the living treasures of the mind. There are children just growing up in the bosom of obscurity, in town and in country, who have inherited nothing but poverty and health, who will, in a few years, be striving in stern contention with the great intellects of the land. Our system of free schools has opened a straight way from the thresh old of every abode, however humble, in the village or in the city, to the high places of usefulness, influence, and honor. And it is left for each, by the cultivation of every talent; by watching, with an eagle's eye, for every chance of improvement; by bounding forward, like a greyhound, at the most distant glimpse of honorable opportunity; by grappling, as with hooks of steel, to the prize, when it is won; by redeeming time, defying temptation, and scorning sensual pleasure, to make himself useful, honored, and happy. SPEECH BEFORE THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY. Ar the annual meeting of the Colonization Society, on the 16th of January, 1832, in the hall of the House of Representaives, at Washington, Mr Mercer, of Virginia, being in the chair, Mr Edward Everett offered the following resolution :— Resolved, That the colonization of the coast of Africa is the most efficient mode of suppressing the slave trade, and of civilizing the African continent. In submitting the foregoing resolution, Mr Everett addressed the chair as follows: MR CHAIRMAN, In obtruding myself, for a short time, upon your notice, this evening, I perform, in some sense, an official duty. The Legislature of the State, which I have the honor in part to represent in Congress, adopted, at its session last winter, a resolution, requesting its Senators and Representatives to lend their efforts, in cooperation with the American Colonization Society. This instruction, of course, referred to official exertions on this floor, in another capacity. But I have regarded it also as a motive of an imperative nature, in reference to the objects of this meeting, by which it is proposed to concentrate and apply the force of public opinion, in furtherance of the same great design. In the part of the country in which I live, the presence of a colored population, co-existing with the whites, is not felt as an evil. They are few in proportion to the rest of the community. They contain among their numbers many respectable and useful persons. At the same time, it is true, as a class, they are depressed to a low point in the social scale. A single fact will illustrate this remark. They form, in Massachusetts, about one seventy/fifth part of the population; but one-sixth of the convicts in our prisons, are of this class. Allowing for some exaggeration in this statement, it is still a painful disproportion. What do I infer from it? Nothing, surely, as to any superior proneness of the colored population, as such, to crime. But I think it proves, that as a class, they are ignorant and needy; ignorance and want being the parents of crime. Among the whites, I have no doubt, that of that portion who are born to hopeless want and hopeless ignorance, -an inheritance of poverty, temptation, and absence of moral restraint, an equal proportion become the subjects of our penal laws. But though this population is not felt as an evil in NewEngland, we are able to enter into those considerations, which have led the venerable Chief Justice of the United States, in the letter just read to us, to speak of it as an evil of momentous character to the peace and welfare of the Union. That evil, however, we of the North have been, for the most part, willing to leave to those whom it more immediately concerns; some of whom, I trust, speaking under the lights of observation and experience, will favor this meeting with their views on this very important subject. There are, however, aspects of the influence and operations of this Society, universally interesting to the philanthropist and friend of humanity; prospects of discharging a moral duty of the most imperative character, and of achieving a work of great, comprehensive, and ever-during benevolence. In the resolution which I have had the honor to submit, I have alluded to these views of the operations and effects of the Society. It is now somewhat more than half a century, since the abolition of the slave-trade began to be seriously agitated.* This work, I believe, sir, was begun by your native State. If I mistake not, See, on this subject, the very interesting tract,―Judge Tucker's Queries respecting Slavery, with Dr Belknap's Answers. Collections of Mass. Hist. Soc., Vol. IV, p. 191; First Series. (speaking from general recollection), Virginia led the way before the American Revolution, in prohibiting the African slave-trade. The acts of her colonial legislature to that effect, were disallowed by the British crown,-a grievance set forth in the Declaration of Independence among the causes of the Revolution. In 1776, Mr David Hartley laid upon the table of the House of Commons, some of the fetters used in confining the unhappy victims of this traffic on board the slave-ships, and moved a resolution, that it was contrary to the laws of God, and the rights of man. The public sensibility had been strongly excited about this time, by the atro- 132 cious circumstance, that one hundred and thirty-two living slaves had been thrown overboard, from a vessel engaged in the trade. In 1787, Mr Wilberforce made his first motion in the House of Commons, on this subject. The same year, the Constitution of the United States fixed the period for its abolition in the United States, which accordingly took place, by a law passed at the time prescribed,-1808. In 1788, the slave-trade was abolished in Massachusetts. In 1792, Mr Pitt made his great speech in Parliament, which continued from that time for fifteen years a grand arena, where this.question was strenuously contested, by the ablest statesmen of the day. Having carried the point at home, the British government, with praiseworthy zeal, directed its attention to procure from the continental powers, an abolition of this guilty traffic. At the Congress of Vienna, in 1815, the Sovereigns there present, and the States represented, pledged themselves to its suppression; and at length, after a tedious succession of negotiations and conventions, not very creditable to some of the high parties concerned, on the 23d of March, 1830, the prosecution of the slave-trade ceased to be lawful, for the citizens or subjects of any Christian power in Europe or America. And now, Mr Chairman, I must state the melancholy fact, that, notwithstanding all these exertions, and the success with which they seemed to be crowned, less has, at any period, been effected, than was hoped for and anticipated. Until the 23d of March, 1830, the Brazilians were allowed to carry on the trade south of the equator. There was but little difficulty thrown in the way of a very extensive prosecution of it. Slave ships of all countries, pursuing the traffic to every part of the coast, were provided with 1742 to 1807 |