are the Alpha and the Omega of the business; that the slavetrader, the slave-owner, and the slave-driver, are virtually the agents of the consumer, for by holding out the temptation, he is the original cause, the first mover in the horrid process; that we are imperiously called upon to refuse those articles of luxury, which are obtained at an absolute and lavish waste of the blood of our fellow men; that a merchant, who loads his vessel with the proceeds of slavery, does nearly as much in helping forward the slave trade, as he who loads his vessel in Africa with slaves-they are both twisting the same rope at different ends; that our patronage is putting an immense bribe into the hands of the slaveholders to kidnap, rob and oppress; that, were it not for this, they would be compelled by sheer necessity to liberate their slaves-for as soon as slave labor becomes unprofitable, the horrid system cannot be upheld.

None of these scruples, to my knowledge, are entertained by colonizationists: their only aim and anxiety seem to be, 'to prune and nourish the system,—not to overthrow it; to increase the avarice of the planters by rendering the labor of their bondmen more productive,—not to abridge and starve it; to remove the cause of those apprehensions which might lead them to break the fetters of their victims,-not to perpetuate it; 'to provide (I quote the confession of the last distinguished proselyte to the Society, Mr Archer of Virginia) and to keep open a drain for the excess of increase beyond the occasions of PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT,'-not to make slave labor ruinous to the planters.

By removing whatever number of slaves it be, from this country, the number which remains must be diminished—and the more the number which remains is diminished, the more helpless will they become, the less will be the hope of their ever recovering their own liberty, and the more and the longer they will be trampled upon.

The greater the number of slaves transported, the greater will be the value of the labor of those who remain; the more valuable their labor is, the greater will be the temptation to overlabor them, and the more, of course, they will be oppressed.*

*Stuart's Circular.

The increase of the free colored population disturbs the security of the planters, and forces many to manumit their slaves through sheer terror. The expatriation of this class, therefore, manifestly tends to quiet the apprehensions of the oppressors, to rivet more firmly the chains of the slaves, to make their services in higher demand, and to render even their gradual emancipation impracticable.

Thus the American Colonization Society is the apologist, the friend, and the patron of SLAVEHOLDERS and SLAVERY !

SECTION V.

THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION

SOCIETY IS THE ENEMY OF

IMMEDIATE ABOLITION.

Ir follows, as a necessary consequence, that a Society which is not hostile to slavery, which apologises for the system and for slaveholders, which recognises slaves as rightful property,* and which confessedly increases their value, is the enemy of immediate abolition. This, I am aware, in the present corrupt state of public sentiment, will not generally be deemed an objectionable feature; but I regard it with inexpressible abhorrence and dismay.

*The slaves, they say, are their property. Once admit this, and all your arguments for interference are vain, and all your plans for amelioration are fruitless. The whole question may be said to hang upon this point. If the slaves are not property, then slavery is at an end. The slaveholders see this most clearly; they see that while you allow these slaves to be their property, you act inconsistently and oppressively in intermeddling, as you propose to do, with what is theirs as much as any other of their goods and chattels you must proceed, therefore, in your measures for amelioration, as you call it, with hesitating steps and slow;' and there is nothing you can do for restraining punishment, for regulating labor, for enforcing manumission, for introducing education and Christianity, which will not be met with the remonstrance, undeniably just by your own concessions, that you are encroaching on the sacred rights of property, the slaveholders see all this, and they can employ it to paralyse and defeat all your efforts to get at emancipation, and to prepare for it. It is on this account, that I wish it settled in your minds, as a fixed and immutable principle, that there is and can be no property of man in man. Adopt this principle, and give it that ascendency over your minds to which it is entitled-and slavery is swept away.Speech of Rev. Dr Thomson of Edinburgh.

Since the deception practised upon our first parents by the old serpent, there has not been a more fatal delusion in the minds of men than that of the gradual abolition of slavery. Gradual abolition! do its supporters really know what they talk about? Gradually abstaining from what? From sins the most flagrant, from conduct the most cruel, from acts the most oppressive ! Do colonizationists mean, that slave-dealers shall purchase or sell a few victims less this year than they did the last? that slave-owners shall liberate one, two or three out of every hundred slaves during the same period? that slave-drivers shall apply the lash to the scarred and bleeding backs of their victims somewhat less frequently? Surely not-I respect their intelligence too much to believe that they mean any such thing. But if any of the slaves should be exempted from sale or purchase, why not all? if justice require the liberation of the few, why not of the many? if it be right for a driver to inflict a number of lashes, how many shall be given? Do colonizationists mean that the practice of separating the husband from the wife, the wife from the husband, or children from their parents, shall come to an end by an almost imperceptible process? that the slaves shall be defrauded of their just remuneration, less and less every month or every year ? or that they shall be under the absolute, irresponsible control of their masters? Oh no! I place a higher value upon their good sense, humanity and morality than this! Well, then, they would immediately break up the slave traffic-they would put aside the whip-they would have the marriage relations preserved inviolate-they would not separate families-they would not steal the wages of the slaves, nor deprive them of personal liberty! This is abolition-immediate abolition. It is simply declaring that slave owners are bound to fulfil-now, without any reluctance or delay-the golden rule, namely, to do as they would be done by; and that, as the right to be free is inherent and inalienable in the slaves, there ought now to be a disposition on the part of the people to break their fetters. All the horrid spectres which are conjured up, on this subject, arise from a confusion of the brain, as much as from a corruption of the heart.

or

I utterly reject, as delusive and dangerous in the extreme, évery plea which justifies a procrastinated and an indefinite

emancipation, or which concedes to a slave owner the right to hold his slaves as property for any limited period, or which contends for the gradual preparation of the slaves for freedom; believing all such pretexts to be a fatal departure from the high road of justice into the bogs of expediency, a surrender of the great principles of equity, an indefensible prolongation of the curse of slavery, a concession which places the guilt upon any but those who incur it, and directly calculated to perpetuate the thraldom of our species.

Immediate abolition does not mean that the slaves shall immediately exercise the right of suffrage, or be eligible to any office, or be emancipated from law, or be free from the benevolent restraints of guardianship. We contend for the immediate. personal freedom of the slaves, for their exemption from punishment except where law has been violated, for their employment and reward as free laborers, for their exclusive right to their own bodies and those of their own children, for their instruction and subsequent admission to all the trusts, offices, honors and emoluments of intelligent freemen. Emancipation will increase and not destroy the value of their labor; it will also increase the demand for it. Holding out the stimulus of good treatment and an adequate reward, it will induce the slaves to toil with a hundred fold more assiduity and faithfulness. Who is so blind as not to perceive the peaceful and beneficial results of such a change? The slaves, if freed, will come under the watchful cognizance of law; they will not be idle, but avariciously industrious; they will not rush through the country, firing dwellings and murdering the inhabitants; for freedom is all they ask-all they desire-the obtainment of which will transform them from enemies into friends, from nuisances into blessings, from a corrupt, suffering and degraded, into a comparatively virtuous, happy and elevated population.

Nor does immediate abolition mean that any compulsory power, other than moral, should be used in breaking the fetters of slavery. It calls for no bloodshed, or physical interference; it jealously regards the welfare of the planters; it simply demands an entire revolution in public sentiment, which will lead to better conduct, to contrition for past crimes, to a love instead of a fear of justice, to a reparation of wrongs, to a healing of

breaches, to a suppression of revengeful feelings, to a quiet, improving, prosperous state of society!

Now see with what earnestness and inveteracy the friends of the Colonization Society oppose immediate abolition!

'It appears, indeed, to be the only feasible mode by which we can remove that stigma as well as danger from among us. Their sudden and entire freedom would be a fearful, and perhaps dreadful experiment, destructive of all the ends of liberty, for which their condition would unfit them, and which they would doubtless greatly abuse. Even their release, at apparently proper intervals, but uncontrolled as to their future habits and location, would be a very hazardous charity. Their gradual emancipation, therefore, under the advantages of a free government, formed, in their native land, by their own hands, offering all the rewards usual to industry and economy, and affording the means of enjoying, in comfort, a reputable and free existence, is the only rational scheme of relieving them from the bondage of their present condition.' * * * To eradicate or remove the evil immediately, is impossible; nor can any law of conscience govern necessity.'-[Af. Rep. vol. i. pp. 89, 258.]

*

*

*

'Vaunt not over us, dear brethren of the north, we inherited the evil from our forefathers, and we really do not think you do your brethren any good, or that you serve the interests of the people of color, when you recommend and enforce premature schemes of emancipation.' The operation, we were aware, must be—and, for the interests of our country, ought to be gradual.' According to one, (that rash class which, without a due estimate of the fatal consequence, would forthwith issue a decree of general, immediate, and indiscriminate emancipation,) it was a scheme of the slaveholder to perpetuate slavery.'-[Idem, vol. ii. pp. 12, 254, 336.]

* * * 6

'Slavery, in its mildest form; is an evil of the darkest character. Cruel and unnatural in its origin, no plea can be urged in justification of its continuance, but the plea of necessity-not that necessity which arises from our habits, our prejudices, or our wants; but the necessity which requires us to submit to existing evils, rather than substitute, by their removal, others of a more serious and destructive character. It was this which produced the recognition of slavery in the constitution of our country; it is this which has justified its continuance to the present day; and it is in this only that we can find a palliation for the rigors of our laws, which might otherwise be considered as the cruel enactments of a dark and dismal despotism. There have not, I am aware, been found wanting individuals to deny both the existence and the obligations of such a necessity. There are men, actuated in some instances, by a blind and mistaken enthusiasm, and in others, by a spirit of mischievous intent, loudly calling on us, in the names of justice and humanity, for the immediate and unqualified emancipation of our slaves. To men of this description, it is in vain to point out the inevitable effects of such a course, as well on the objects of their real or pretended solicitude, as on the community in which they exist. It is in vain to assure them, that while the preservation of the latter would require a policy even more rigorous than pertains to slavery itself, the short-lived and nominal freedom of the former must end in their ultimate and utter extinction. All this is of no consequence. Provided slavery be abolished in name, it matters not what horrors may be substituted in its room.' ** * The scope of the Society is large enough, but it is in no wise mingled or confounded with the broad sweeping views of a few fanatics in America, who would urge us on to the sudden and total abolition of slavery.'—[Af. Rep. vol. iii. pp. 15, 197.]

'What is to be done? Immediate and universal emancipation will find few, if any advocates, among judicious and reflecting men.'

* * *

There