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We have collected twenty dollars, which please receive and appropriate according to the wishes of the donors.

Letter dated Cross Roads, Washington county, Pa. Aug. 15, 1834

Enclosed you have $35 collected from the Roads Presbyterian congregation, for the Colonization Society; this amount, though small, has exceeded our former contributions--which, I believe, has been the result of unjustifiable opposition made by a few Abolitionists to the Colonization Society here.

Extract of a Letter dated Fairfield, N. J. 18th August, 1834.

The enclosed $12, was taken up in the congregation (of which I am Pastor) on the Sabbath succeeding the 4th of July, to aid the Colonization Society in their benevolent operations. We are pleased with the prudent and Christian principles on which the proceedings of your Society are conducted; and which, so far as I know, are almost unanimously approved of by the people in these parts. No Abolitionists here.

We are sorry to hear of some things unfavorable to the prosperity of the Colony; but glad to learn that you are likely to surmount the obstacles which seemed to retard the progress of the Colony. And I pray that God would more abundantly prosper the benevolent operations of your Society, and make them a blessing to our Republic, to the Colony, and to the unknown millions of human beings in Africa.

Extract of a Letter dated Pitts Grove, Salem county, N. J. August 19, 1834.

Enclosed is a ten dollar bill, the avails of a collection taken in our church on the 10th inst. I regret that circumstances arose that day to diminish our numbers, and consequently our contribution. But in a few weeks I hope to forward the first fruits of an effort to form a Female Auxiliary Society here, which as yet, is not quite organized.

Your ably conducted Repository, brings constant and accumulating tes timony of the paramount importance of this glorious effort.

"Secto corpore fortior,"

may be now the honourable motto of the American Colonization Society, It has, during the past year, proved itself worthy of the times. It has foiled "Jannes and Jambres" in many a well contested debate; has patiently endured the contradictions of those fanatics; has enlisted new affections, new hearts, and new talents on its side; and has by the peculiar trials which have met its bright career, only developed more and more fully, the fact, that our country cannot do without it. The two races cannot live together. The malaria of Africa on the one hand, and the or ganization of American Society on the other, will forever forbid it. With the warmest desires and prayers for the continued and much enlarged success of the Society, I remain, &c,

*

*

Extract of a Letter dated New Orleans, 23rd August, 1834. Enclosed is a bill on Henry Henderson, of Baltimore, at sight, for one hundred and two dollars and fifty cents, being amount of my subscription on G. Smith's Plan, and one year's subscription to the Repository.

*

I would have remitted this sooner, but for having been absent. My Agent had instructions, but neglected them. I subscribe myself a firmer friend than ever to the good cause.

IMMEDIATE ABOLITION.

The subjoined article, from the Christian Mirror, of August 7, published at Portland, is evidently the production of a sensible writer, well informed as to the facts which he cites, and justly estimating the relation of the free blacks in the United States to the white population. It deserves and will doubltess receive a careful and general perusal.

THE AGITATING QUESTION.

Dear Sir:-The question of emancipation is generally treated by the "Abolitionists," as one, in which the master and slave are alone interested. The rights of society, of the community at large, are seldom if ever, taken into consideration; and yet these are by no means unimportant points, in the discussion of the subject. A large number of the United States hold no slaves; and within the slaveholding States, more especially Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, a large and respectable portion of our citizens are personally exempt from the crime and its profits. That these have a right to be protected from the evil and fatal consequences of immediate emancipation. they at least, have no doubt, and this right they ground upon the fundamental law of society, which gives the community a right to protect itself against a portion of its own citizens, by restricting and controlling their rights, when incompatible with the interests of the whole. The white apprentice, though free borne, and entitled to the unqualified use of his own limbs, and the aggregate profits of his own labor, in an abstract point of view, and this as fully, and completely during any one year or period of his life as during any other, is nevertheless by the laws of society, (which by the way he has no voice in making,) condemned to a qualified servitude for seven years of his life; and so general and unquestionable are the beneficial results of such servitude, that its propriety, and the right of society to impose it, are never questioned.— Other instances in the laws of all civilized societies in relation to paupers, servants and women, corroborate and sustain the general principle. This right of society is also its duty, and should be exercised, not only in reference to the present generation, but to posterity.

The abolitionists contend that slavery is a crime and that immediate, unconditional emancipation is the only remedy; that it is the duty of the masters, and perfectly safe to all concerned. Slaveholders generally admit the evil, but contend that arson, robbery, assassinations, Southampton tragedies and anarchy, (which they say would be the results of immediate emancipation) are greater crimes, and that it is not their duty, to do that which will terminate in the extermination by violence, of either the blacks or whites.

To this the abolitionists reply, "You are interested in this question in a pecuniary point of view!-your testimony as witnesses, and your decision as judges cannot therefore be received; your fears are the result of your cupidity and their sincerity may well be questioned." The slaveholder answers "We have correct means of judging upon the subject, you have not. We know intimately, and not by report, the character, feelings, and dispositions of our slaves, you do not. In the experiment of emancipation would be invol ved, not only our property in slaves, but all our property, and the lives and welfare of our selves, our wives and our children; while your only stake is a mere matter of opinion." Let us turn from the opinions of these 'interested' and 'ignorant' judges, to that of others standing indifferent, between the parties, and relieved, if not of all interest, at least of that-pecuniary interest-which the law lays down as the ground of incompetency.

The citizens of the State of Ohio, are by birth, education and habits, opposed to slavery; so much so that slaveholders seldom think it worth their while, to attempt reclaiming runaways in that state. Every legal obstacle is thrown in the way of such attempts, and when such means fail, slaves are often rescued from their reclaiming masters by force, and secreted from subsequent arrest. Now notwithstanding this general sentiment in favor of freedom, and the small number of free blacks in the State, she has been obliged to pass severe laws against the influx of blacks by laying them under regulations not generally in their power to comply with. The burden and danger of such a population overcome their feelings of humanity towards them. Again; it is known to most of those who have any acquaintance with the proceedings of the Colonization Society, that many conscientious slaveholders in the Southern States, have liberated their slaves and even furnished them with an outfit, on condition of their emigration to Liberia. This testimony, exhibited at the expense and loss of hundreds, and in some cases thousands of dollars, presents strong claims to disinterestedness. These same individuals would, however, under their views of the danger of emancipation upon the soil, have felt it their duty to retain them still in slavery, if no means nor place were provided for their emigration from the State.

The citizens of the free States bordering immediately upon the slaveholding States, and also those citizens of the slaveholding States, who own and hold no slaves, however conscientiously and strenuously they may be opposed to the system or the sin, are almost unanimously opposed to emancipation, either immediate or upon the soil. Eo far as

mere opinions go, these are certainly entitled to much weight, but facts are preferable to opinions.

The objections to immediate, unconditional emancipation are that it is dangerous to so. ciety, and unproductive of benefit to the slaves themselves. By this it is not meant that many individual cases of hardship and oppression would not be relieved, but that even if the mightier evils of insurrection and crime are avoided, neither the physical, moral, nor religious character of the blacks would be improved, while intolerable evils would be the consequence to the whites.

In support of this view of the subject, I beg leave to adduce a few facts in reference to a county and Borough, in the western part of Pennsylvania. This State by an act of the Legislature of 1780, provided for the gradual emancipation of its slaves. There are but 2 or 3 hundred in the State, and those of very advanced ages. The free blacks in the State, number about 38,000. In the county of which I speak, the white population is 42,784, the black 852-ratio 1-50. In the Borough, whites 1816, blacks 154-ratio about 1-12.— Probably 1-2 of the whole were free born-and the remainder, free at 28 years of age.Of course, the evils attendant upon the sudden acquisition of freedom by a numerous, ignorant and depraved population, were with us, happily avoided. Few in number, gradually prepared for freedom, partially instructed in reading and writing and in the possession of freedom commensurate in every respect with the whites, a case is presented favorable to their advancement in all that makes life valuable. You will ask me, "Are they industrious?" I answer, Wealth appears to have no charms for any of them. They are idle and poor. An entire want of energy of mind and body, is and ever has been the first consequence of their freedom. Although able to obtain equal wages with the laboring whites, none of them acquire property. They live in cabins, little one story log huts, chinked with mud, in the suburbs of the town. These generally contain but one room, and often have mud floors. The interior presents a picture of poverty, and too often squalidity. I believe there is but one of these houses, owned by the black tenant, or a colored person. The whole amount of Borough tax collected in 1833, was $1965,46.— The whole amount paid by the colored population, was $4,84. The proportion received by them as paupers, has generally been from one half to two thirds of the whole amount of funds expended for the support and relief of the poor, although constituting as before observed, but 1-12th of the population. They live from hand to mouth-proverbially making no provision for the future. Although a cow is protected from execution for debt, it is rare indeed, that one is owned by a black man.

Their improvement in education is about upon a par with their pecuniary advancement and domestic economy. But a few of them can write, and I have never known one read so well as to take pleasure in reading. Books form no part of their cabin furniture or sources of enjoyment. The most of them, perhaps it might be said of all, who acquire any education, receive it at the public expense. Repeated efforts of philanthropic citizeus to procure their general and regular attendance at Sabbath schools, and also to organise them into a separate school to be governed and instructed by teachers and managers from among themselves, have produced nothing but mortifying failures.

The most of them, old and young, depend for their dress upon the cast clothing of the whites, and of course have in the shabbiness of their cloths, a ready excuse for non-attendance at school and at meeting, when from idleness or any other cause they choose to absent themselves. Morals and religion seem to be at as low an ebb amongst them, as can well be conceived of in a Christian country. The moral tone of their preachers may be judged of from the fact, that a distinguished one among them in this place, openly and unblushingly arccated their right to steal from the whites. I have no statistics of crime before me, but i have no hesitation in saying, where they form 1-50th of the population, they furnish 1-8th: of the criminals in our jails.

Free, but realizing none of the nobler advantages of freedom-possessing the right of elective franchise, but never claiming to exercise it-ignorant and degraded, among schools and in the midst of education and refinement-attaining no higher eminence even in the mechanic arts, than the lowest and meanest handicrafts, which not one in fifty attains to as a class, poor in the extreme and oftentimes actual sufferers from penury in a land of ease, wealth, and plenty-adding nothing to the stock of national wealth or national defence, but a drawback upon both-they form any thing but a valuable class of the community, and however much we may pity their situation, the hope of improving it here, is feeble indeed.

Is it to be expected that under these circumstances, and with these facts staring us in the face, we can desire the unconditional emancipation of the Slaves of the United States; exposing ourselves to an influx of such a population ten and perhaps forty times as numerous as the present? and this too while we know that the evils accompanying a degraded population increase in a geometrical and not arithmetical proportion to their numbers. It should be recollected too, that the burden and loss to the wealth of the community from such a class, bear no comparison as evils, with the injuries resulting to the moral tone and character imparted by them to the lower classes of the whites. Of the cause of this degradation and the means of removing it, I may perhaps speak hereafter; the present remarks are advanced only as arguments against immediate, unconditional emancipation. G. O. W.

[From the Vermont Chronicle, June 6.]

THE OBJECT, AND ITS BEARINGS.

In examining the claims of the Colonization Society the two ought to be considered separately; for the Society, as such, has one single and simple object, while its members have different views of the bearings of the enterprize, and those bearings depend indeed entirely on the manner in which the enterprize is carried on. The object is to colonize, from the United States, in Africa or elsewhere, free people of color who are willing to go. Now a commercial colony would be one thing and an agricultural another -a Christian colony would be a blessing, a slave-trading one, a curse to Africa and the world. The establishment of a parcel of ignorant, idle and vicious free blacks on the coast of Africa, is to be deprecated, while nothing could be more cheering to the eye of a Christian philanthropist, than a community of the virtuous and intelligent from that class of our citizens, established there, happy in themselves and a light amid the darkness of their father land.

What then may we reasonably expect to be the bearings of this enterprize?

Mr. Stuart says of Liberia, that "for Africa it is good. It interrupts the slave trade within its own limits; and the least interruption to that nefarious traffic is an unspeakable good." Even the enemies of the Society, then, are compelled to acknowledge that its affairs have been so conducted as to establish on the coast of Africa a colony that interrupts the slave trade. So far it is well. The bearings of the enterprize are good. And when the reader considers that this is already true of a long extent of coast in Liberia that it is rapidly stretching along in both directions-that the new colony at Cape Palmas will be equally effective in the cause of humanity-and that the slave trade may be interrupted along the whole coast by a mere extension of the same plan; when he remembers, too, the horrors of that trade, and thinks of the amount of good involved in its suppression,he will acknowledge that this single item is enough to overbalance a vast amount of incidental evil-should such be found connected with it—and to repay abundantly any probable labors and sacrifices that may be required to effect it.

Again, Mr. Stuart acknowledges that Liberia, like Sierra Leone and the Cape of Good Hope, "forms a new centre, whence civilization and Christianity are radiating through the adjoining darkness. In this respect," he says "no praise can equal the worth of these settlements." Here, also, the character of the colony is so evident, that even an enemy is compelled to acknowledge its value as a means of extending through Africa the blessings of civilization and Christianity. What are these blessings? Such as to be counterbalanced by trifling evils? Such that to bestow them on Africa is an object worthy of but little effort and but trifling sacrifices? Let these questions be meditated upon in the spirit of Christ.

What must be the plan and actual character of a colony, the influence of which is such as Mr. Stuart describes. What in fact is the plan and character of the colonies at Liberia and Cape Palmas? These questions are not to be. answered by petty cavils at the conduct of this or that individual, or by the mention of censurable customs that may have been, in some quarters, countenanced. The subject must be considered as a whole, and in all its bearings. If the general plan is good, mistakes and errors in the minor details of it will be corrected by experience: and it is mean and illiberal, as well as unchristian, to oppose the enterprize by attempting to fix attention exclusively on a few alleged faults, even if the allegations are founded in fact. But this point deserves an article by itself.

THE NATIONAL SIN.

The Mosaic law required the liberation of Hebrew servants at the end of every sixth year. This law had long been disregarded, when Zedekiah at one time attempted to enforce it. He induced the people to "enter into a covenant" to observe it; and those who had been unjustly retained in bondage were accordingly set free. The principles of the law were acknowledged to be just and of binding force. This spirit, however did not long continue;-but passed away apparently with the circumstances that called it forth. The liberated servants were again brought into subjection, in contempt of law, and in violation of solemnly acknowledged principles of right. In these circumstances, Jeremiah was sent to the Jews with a message of solemn expostulation and warning. He reminded them of the original law-of the neglect of it by their fathers of their own solemn and practical recognition of its obligations, which he declared to have been right in the sight of the Lord-then upbraided them with their relapse. into the same sin in circumstances that greatly increased its enormity, and ended with a terrible warning, which begins thus:

"Therefore thus saith the LORD: Ye have not hearkened to me in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine."*

Now we as a nation have sinned just as those Jews did. The principles of right, in accordance with which we have from the first settlement of our country claimed to be treated ourselves, we have refused to apply to the case of our brethren whom we hold in bondage. That liberty, the claim to which on our part, and the principles of which as we have acknowledged and proclaimed to the world, we know to be right we have withheld. We have known the right, and have boastfully proclaimed our knowledge of and allegiance to it; but have refused or neglected to extend its benefits to our slaves. And we are thus exposing ourselves to the very curse threatened by the prophet. So far as we have as individuals, failed to do our duty in regard to making this whole people consistent in applying the principles of American Liberty, just so far ought we as individuals, to regard as addressed to ourselves, the expostulations and warnings of Jeremiah.

In such circumstances what are we, in Vermont, to do? Can we be silent and inactive? What course can we take in order no longer to be partakers in the guilt connected with the continuance of slavery? How can we best combat the spirit of slavery; how most successfully labor to secure to its victims what is required by justice and the law of love?

We answer, by continuing to support the Colonization Society on antislavery principles. In connexion with what we do, let our principles in regard to slavery be fully and earnestly proclaimed. Let it be seen that we think and feel, and act under the control of deep convictions of duty on the subject; and that we are willing to labor and to make sacrifices in obedience to these convictions. Let our support of this society be such, and given on such grounds, as to prove our readiness to do our part towards making every man in the United States an intelligent freeman. Such support given to the cause here would operate in favor of the abolition of slavery in several ways,-of which we will now mention only one:

It would increase the Anti-Slavery influence of the Colonization Society in the slave-holding states. When a man liberates his slaves in order to

*See the 34th Chapter of Jeremiah.

We speak of the people of the United States as a people bound by the laws of love and righteousness. Some of the States, as such, have become consistent. But as Christians, and friends of liberty, we are bound, to the extent of our influence, to see that such consistency prevails throughout the whole country.

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