RESPONSE TO LEXINGTON RESOLUTIONS.

291

announced. The necessity for such a "voice potential" at the critical time is well told in the language of the address of the immense meeting which convened at the Tabernacle in New York, the 20th of December, 1847, to respond to the Lexington resolutions:-

"The spirit now dominant in the national councils, and rampant throughout the land, not only mocks at gray hairs and tramples on the lessons of experience, but regards with impatience and ill-disguised contempt every appeal to considerations of morality, philanthropy, or religion, in regard to the prosecution or termination of the war. The fierce bay of the bloodhound on the warm track of his prey drowns the calm voice of reason and the soft pleadings of humanity. Who that realizes the moral accountability of nations can doubt that we have fallen upon evil days?

"In this crisis a voice from the west reaches the ear and fixes the regard of the American people. A venerable patriot, illustrious by forty years of eminent service in the national councils, emerges from his honored seclusion to address words of wise admonition to his fellow-citizens. That voice, which never counselled aught to dishonor or injure this Union, is lifted up, probably for the last time, in exposure of the specious pretexts on which this war was commenced, in reprehension of its character and objects, and in remonstrance against its further prosecution. At the sound of that impressive voice, the scales of delusion fall from thousands of flashing eyes, the false glitter of the conqueror's glory vanishes, revealing the hideous lineaments of carnage; and the stern question which stung the first murderer is brought home essentially to every breast which enfolds a conscience: 'Where is thy brother?-To what end do we despoil and slay our fellow-men guilty of being born two thousand miles southwest of us? By what divine law are we authorized thus to deface and destroy the image of God?

"The great statesman of the west was too well acquainted with human nature, and had too much experience of its worst developments, to hope that such an appeal as he has made to the nation's moral sense would not be resented and resisted. He knew that exposed depravity would pour out its vials of wrath on his devoted head; that fell rapacity would neglect for a moment its prey to tear him with its fangs; and that malice would stimulate calumny to hunt and defame him through the length and breadth of the land. Calmly he bared his breast to the storm; unflinchingly he contemplates its fiercest rage, its most dismal howlings. Shielded in the panoply of an approving conscience and of the commendation of the wise and good throughout the world, he proffers no resistance, requires no sympathy, solicits no aid. For himself he desires nothing; for his imperilled country he demands the services and the sacrifices of all her upright and patriotic sons.

"And his appeal has not been fruitless. On every side the people, aroused as by a trumpet-blast, are awaking to a consciousness of their duty. No longer sunk in apathy because they can perceive no mode in which exertion can avail, they realize at last that every honorable means should be employed to arrest the work of carnage; and they feel that, in view of the brilliant achievements of our armies, and the utter prostration of their foes, the honor of our country can best be preserved and exalted by the exercise of magnanimity toward the vanquished. The means of terminating the war have been clearly pointed out by him who is emphatically first in the affections and in the confidence of the American people, HENRY CLAY; and

it needs but that their representatives shall be faithful as he has been fear. less to insure a speedy restoration of peace."

The language subsequently adopted at the meeting at CastleGarden the largest meeting ever gathered in this country under one roof-was:

Resolved, That we regard the late speech of Mr. Clay at Lexington, in exposure of the causes, character, and objects, of the present war on Mexico, as among the noblest and most patriotic efforts of the great and true man, who would rather be right than be president.""

XXVIII.

COLONIZATION-DEATH OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

EARLY in the congressional session of 1847-'48, Mr. Clay was carried by professional business to Washington. His reception there was brilliant and hearty beyond measure. He had declined all public testimonials, but he could not evade the greetings which the people rose as one man to extend. “Mr. Clay's personal popularity suffers no abatement," writes one. "He can not move without having a throng at his heels. He lives in an atmosphere of hurrahs." The character of his journey to the seat of government may be told in his own language at the meeting of the American colonization society in January, 1848, in the hall of the house of representatives :

"I have just terminated, a journey of considerable length and arduousness, performed in mid-winter, and surrounded at every place where I have stopped by throngs of friends, leaving absolutely no leisure whatever for that preparation which ought always to be made before a man presents himself to address so respectable and intelligent an audience as this. I come before you without a solitary note, and with very little mental preparation of any sort, absolutely with no preparedness for an elaborate address."

We have already alluded to Mr. Clay's efforts in the cause of the Colonization society. The report that he was to speak at their annual meeting called forth one of the largest assemblages ever convened in the capitol. Every nook and corner in the hall of the house was crowded, and hundreds of anxious attendants were disappointed in obtaining admission. Mr. Clay

ADDRESS BEFORE THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY.

293

showed no abatement of intellectual vigor or patriotic ardor. Experience had fully demonstrated the wisdom of those views to which he had given utterance almost half a century before. Time had shown that his colonization scheme, like his protective policy, was founded in justice and benevolence, and bore in itself the germ of future blessings. It had been opposed by the apathy of southern advocates of slavery, and by the perverse hostility of northern professors of philanthropy; in the words of Mr. Clay, "it had been surrounded by difficulties, and beset by enemies in front and in rear, and on both flanks. The abolitionists have assailed it, as well as those of the opposite extreme." But in spite of all obstacles, it has grown, as truth must ever grow, though slowly, yet surely.

Mr. Clay alluded to the fact that about thirty years ago, the Rev. Dr. Finney of New Jersey, and others with him, met in that hall, and consulted and agreed upon the great principles of the foundation of the society. Of that number Mr. Clay was one. At first they did not intend to do more than to establish a colony on the coast of Africa, to which the free people of color in the United States might voluntarily and with their own free consent without the least restraint, coercion, or compulsion, proceed and enjoy untrammelled those social and political privileges which under the circumstances of the case they could not enjoy here. The founder saw, what is now manifest to the country, that the people of color and the white race could not possibly live together on terms of equality. They did not stop to inquire whether this state of things was right or wrong. They took the fact of impossibility for these two races to live together in equal social conditions, and proceeded to operate upon that fact, without regard to the question whether the fact arose from an unworthy prejudice, that should be expelled from our breasts, or whether it was an instinct for our guidance. The simple object was to demonstrate before the world the practicability of establishing a colony of free blacks in Africa.

Utopian and impracticable as the colonizationists believed the purpose of the abolition movement to be-to emancipate without a moment's delay the whole of the black race in the United States —they did not interfere with it in any way. Their object was

to demonstrate the practicability of colonization. That demonstration has been made.

But it has been urged that this is the country of the black man and therefore he should not be sent to Africa, which is not his country. In some sense, those blacks who have been born upon the soil may claim this for their country; and so could the Israelites claim Egypt for their country, because during a long period of time they were captives in Egypt. So could all the Israelites born in the wilderness during their progress from Egypt to the promised land, claim the wilderness for their country; but still, in contemplating the beam which guided the progress of that most remarkable of all the families of man, neither Egypt nor the wilderness, but Canaan, was their home, and to that home they were finally led. Who, then, can doubt, in a solitary instance, that Africa is the real home of the blacks, though they may have had a casual birth upon this continent? And who can fail to see that native missionaries will be the most effective for the conversion of their African brethren, who are of the same body with themselves, and with whom they can completely harmonize in all their interests, sympathies, and affections? At this moment there have been four or five thousand colonists sent to Africa, and we have heard that there are in the republic of Liberia twenty-five places of public worship dedicated to the same Lord and Savior whom we worship, and that thousands of the natives are rushing into the colonies in order to obtain the benefits of Christian education and a knowledge of the arts.

With regard to the argument that it is impossible to transport to Africa all the free people of color in the United States, Mr. Clay remarked :

"Why, gentlemen, if I am not mistaken, there comes yearly into the single port of New York an emigration amounting almost to the annual increase of the population in that city, and perhaps exceeding the annual increase of all the free people of color in the United States. And this is done voluntarily, upon the great motives of all human action. Thus, the German and Irish immigrants flock to our shores annually, with no considerable aid on the part of their governments and with no individual aid, in numbers equal, perhaps, to the annual increase of all the Africans in the United States, bond and free. These all come to our country in obedience to one of the laws of our nature-in pursuance of the great controlling principle of human action, and which enters into all great enterprises: they come here to better their condition; and I hope they will better their con

ADDRESS BEFORE THE COLONIZATOIN SOCIETY.

295

dition. And so it would be with all our free people of color. Were they to be transported from the United States to Africa, would not their condition be physically, morally, socially, and politically, better and happier than anything which they could attain to or hope for here? It is vain to attempt to eradicate the feeling which keeps a sunder these two classes. It is vain for the office of philosophy or humanity to attempt what is so utterly impracticable as joining together those whom God himself, by the difference of color and various other distinctions, perhaps, has declared ought to be separate. [Cheers.] Then, to send them to Africa-not by violence, not by coercion, not against their will, but with their own full consent-let me say to abolitionists and to those on the other extreme-to all men-why should not the free colored race residing among us have the option to go to Africa or remain in the United States?"

Mr. Clay compared the growth of the colony of Liberia with that of Jamestown and Plymouth. The ravages of disease had been much less in the instance of the former. Its growth, too, had been encouraging in comparison. It should be in this case as in all other settlements in new countries. There should be forerunners--pioneers-who will prepare the way, raise subsistence, build houses, make places of comfort and convenience for those who are to follow them; otherwise they may be thrown upon the shores of the continent of Africa to suffer. Better to proceed according to the laws of Nature herself-slowly, surely, and so carefully measuring every step that we take.

Mr. Clay related a case illustrative of the increased rigor of the laws against the black population in some states of the south, so that emancipation is prohibited.

"In the state of Alabama, a respectable and kind gentleman, whom I never saw in my life, devised to me in his will some twenty-five or thirty slaves, without any intimation as to the cause or motive of the bequest. I was surprised at this, but had some reason to believe, in consequence of my connection with this society, that the generous devisor had confidence in me, and that I would send them to Liberia. Accordingly I took measures to accomplish the object of their colonization, and have been happy to learn since I came to this city that twenty-three of them have actually embarked at the port of New Orleans for that colony, and the remainder will follow as soon as they are ready. Now, what would have been the condition of these poor creatures but for the existence of the colonization society! They could not have been freed in Alabama, for the laws of that state prohibit emancipation-in consequence, no doubt, of the imprudent agitation of this subject at the north. I had to take them to New Orleans as my slaves, and they were regarded as my slaves until they got out of the jurisdiction of the United States."

Here, then, appears the object of the Colonization society— that of affording individuals, as well as states, who may have the control of free people of color and slaves which they may wish