gate of our population, the weaker of the two races must emigrate or be extirpated, not by force, but by want and its attendant sufferings-all these causes will continue to operate, whether we remain or are reconstituted one people, form two or more great confederacies, or are split into thirty-three independent States, with free cities ad libitum in addition.

Should the example of Arkansas, which has expelled the free people of color, be imitated in the slaveholding States, and the example of Indiana and Maryland, which exclude them, be followed in the Free States, and the experience of Canada be realized at the North in regard to them—and this is not merely possible, but probable-what, then, will be the situation of the free people of color? What will Liberia then be to them but a blessed refuge, and upon whom will such blessings be showered as upon those who founded the African Republic, and upon those whose hands afterwards upheld it?

In a word, the mighty fact, testified to by the recent and all the preceding censuses, cannot be overlooked; that, in 1890, the present thirty-one millions of the inhabitants of the United States will have increased to one hundred millions; and in 1930, at the end of but a single lifetime from to-day, to two hundred and forty millions. On this one fact, independent as it must be of every thing but internecine war, or famine, or pestilence—which God, in his infinite mercy, avert-rests the whole theory of colonization.

Come, then, what may, Colonizationists have but one alternative-they must remain true to this cause and firm in the support of it. The best interests of the free people of color are in their keeping. Africa still stretches forth its hands for the boon of civilization and the Gospel, which the descendants of the children of the soil are alone competent to confer. The march of events halts not, nations and individuals fall in the ranks, but others fill their places, and the onward movement still continues. Colonization has its position in it; and if Colonizationists neither grow weary nor faint by the way, their goal will be success, and should the worst come to the worst, and our country sink from beneath us, we will cherish, all the more reverently, these memories, which will recall the mighty and united people from whom Colonization sprung; still hoping, however, for better things unto the end; like the lad, who, on the deck of the sinking Arctic, continued to fire the signal as the whelming wave rolled over the cannon, which it was his duty to discharge.

Extracts from the Annual Report were read by the Rev. R. R. GURLEY, Corresponding Secretary of the Society. The audience was then addressed by the Rev. BYRON SUNDERLAND, D. D., as follows:

MR. PRESIDENT: I almost wish to be excused from saying anything. Indeed, I feel that I am standing here very much like a crooked stick, which the committee have hastily caught up by the wayside, to help the Society over this soft spot in the path of its present anniversary. Disappointed in the expectation of being borne this evening on the splendid chariots of eloquence which had been looked for from abroad, I was apprized at a late moment of the honor extended to me by the invitation to take a part in the exercises of this meeting. Without time for any adequate preparation for so distinguished a service, I have come to respond briefly to the call, as best I may, under these unfavorable cir

cumstances.

Of course I am not your orator. I only rise to bear my testimony and make a little exhortation, after the very full and instructive presentation of your esteemed Secretary in the report to which we have just listened.

With your indulgence, therefore, sir, and that of the assembly, I will submit a few fragmentary and desultory remarks, by way at least, of observing the forms, if not enhancing the interest, of this occasion.

Yet indeed it would be idle in me to attempt at any time or under any circumstances to inform you, sir, or your associates in this Society, or even the auditory usually convened on the occasions of your anniversaries, in regard to the ancient or modern condition of Africa, or in regard to the affairs of colonization along the coasts of that great continent, or in regard to the Republic of Liberia, or in regard to the fostering care which the American Colonization Society has extended to that infant State-or, in short, in regard to any of the great facts, principles, or results, involved in that sublime and beneficent undertaking. Some of you have been prominent participators for many years in this series of deeply interesting events. And your names are already written on that scroll which the muse of history will bear down to posterity, as among the illustrious benefactors of mankind.

I see before me presiding here a gentleman whose energies have long been devoted with, I had almost said a paternal solicitude, to this noble cause, and from whom I heard, but two years ago, on this very spot, one of the most elegant and thrilling recitals of the entire Liberian enterprise, to which I have ever listened. I see before me the two Secretaries of the Society, one of them having long and efficiently controled its financial operations, and who has just now crowned all the labors of former years, by one of the most energetic and praise-worthy labors, in fitting out the three vessels that have so recently borne back to their native land so many hundreds of unfortunate and suffering Africans, while the other has literally grown gray in the service of a people whose distant shores he has visited in his mission of philanthropy, and in whose behalf he has often pleaded so earnestly and so eloquently.

I see before me another gentleman now, from the Commercial Metropolis, who also has devoted his life to the same great cause, and whom neither the perils of the deep nor the discomforts of a protracted residence in that distant land, separated from home and kindred, and all that men hold dear in life, could yestrain from acting forth his self-sacrificing spirit in behalf of the despised and down-trodden tribes of that benighted but much-injured quarter of the globe.

I see before me other gentlemen, who have been actuated by a similar impulse, and have each, in their place and measure, borne up the cause of this noble philanthropy by their mutual efforts, counsel, and prayers.

And in this connection I am reminded, also, that you have been associated in your work, sir, with some of the greatest and noblest men that have adorned either this or any other age or country-men who have been renowned, both in the church and in the State-clergymen, scholars, jurists, statesmen, and orators, a catalogue which bears the names of HOPKINS, and FINLEY, and ALEXANDER, and RANDOLPH, and CLAY, and WEBSTER, and a host of others scarcely less distinguished-names that will stand unobscured for all time by the side of CLARKSON, and WILBERFORCE, and BUXTON, and the proud array of England's truest noblemen.

I feel, then, that I am standing, even now, in the presence of the very makers of history, and therefore it would be presumptuous, as well as idle, in one so

incompetent as myself, to undertake to instruct you in reference to the vast and munificent work in which you are engaged.

And, then, confining our view to the occurrences of the last year alone, what more could one say, or need to be said, than has been so well and admirably said by yourself, sir, and in the extracts from the Report we have heard this evening. I feel, sir, that in these documents we have received, not only the text, but the full sermon of this occasion. We need not call a more special attention to the topics therein discussed. They have already spoken for themselves.

What, therefore, remains for me, as an humble but honest friend of the cause, but only to add my testimony in a few brief words, and, as I said, to make a little exhortation following this great discourse? But where shall I begin, or what shall I say? Perhaps it makes but little difference. But, as we look at Africa, and ponder the dismal records of her past, we may truly wonder at the prospects which are now beginning to open upon her. As a natural philosopher, or as a political economist, we might have said, not one hundred nor even fifty years ago, there is no redemption for the sons of Ham; everything is against them, and chiefly their own vices and degradation. It is a land of pillage and slaughter, given up to the spoiler, and shadowed all over by the most terrific forms of barbaric violence and superstition. But, in an old book, written long ago by the Prophets of Israel, stands this mighty sentence:

66

Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God."

In that sentence stands also the unbroken purpose of the Almighty, and there, confounding the pride of all human calculation, lies the secret of those events which are now in progress before our eyes for the salvation of Africa. In that sentence was hidden the electric fire which was to kindle the souls of the men who have in our times originated and borne forward the cause of African Colonization. In the secret of that sentence was the meeting held in this Metropolis on the night of the 21st of December, in the year 1816, where the grand conception was fostered into life, and whence soon after it took organic and living form, amid the correspondence of Presidents and Senators and Representatives, and of other wise, distinguished, and philanthropic men. But, though eloquence and religion came to its assistance, it had to struggle for its life. I need not now recall the objections which fell upon it from every quarter, like a storm of hail. It is now almost half a century since that beginning and those difficulties have vanished, one after another, before the steady and resistless tread of the Divine purpose. The struggle has been indeed severe, and the trials have seemed at times almost appalling, but to this hour a Divine Providence has maintained its own cause against all opposition; we have now no longer need to argue over again the points already settled. Speculations may well give place to positive and ocular events.

There stands Liberia, speaking for herself—there is the fruit of forty-four years of toil; there it stands a monument of God's truth and fidelity to his word, in spite of human prejudice and passion, in spite of ignorance, apathy, and unconcern-in spite of misrepresentation, calumny, and abuse-in spite of former disasters, and present dangers, and every hostile demonstration, to tell what God hath wrought through the agency of this American colonizing force. If any yet remain, who doubt the tendency of these events, or deny the wisdom of the movement to which they may be traced, I turn them over to the coming time, when God, in his Providence, shall confound their skepticism, if not arouse them to an earnest co-operation in his designs.

Suppose the originators and friends of Colonization had for the last fifty years directed their energies only to the condition and prospects of the colored people in our own land-suppose their views had been limited and confined to work out some social or political salvation for this race within the borders of this Confederacy-where, to-day, would have been the scion of that Republic which is now flourishing on the shores of a continent; and which bears in its capsules, we fondly hope, the seeds of regeneration to all its tribes and territories.

Or suppose that the whole people of this Union had yielded a cordial and undivided support to the aims and objects of African Colonization from the beginning, where, to-day, might have been the advancing standards of the Liberian State? over how many millions in the heart of Africa yet unreclaimed might they have floated, the symbols of civil and religious freedom, of progress, improvement, civilization, and Christianity.

Nay, sir, you would not now be perplexed with the difficult question which is pressing on you to-day-that is, how, in the far-off Liberian hive, to crowd the increasing swarm which the Powers of the civilized world have rescued from hands of rapacity and violence, and gathered up from the sweep of the high-seas, over which they were being borne into bondage.

For one, sir, I have been astounded at the facts not only intimated in the Report of your Secretary, but even more fully disclosed in the usual annual report of the venerable Secretary of State, General Cass, for the current year; showing a frightful activity in the execrable business of the slave trade, and some of the efforts which have been made to arrest it.

It is stated, upon these authorities, that no less than twelve slavers, with the aggregate number of 3,119 negroes, have been seized by our Government vessels alone during the past twelve months; while we know that many more than this have been taken by vessels from Europe in the very act of their inhuman work. Of the number of Africans thus recaptured, nearly 4,000 have been returned to Liberia, in part by the agency of your Society. Sir, I thank God that it exists to-day, if for no other cause than that, to aid in mitigating, and, so far as possible, in counteracting the indescribable horrors of this piratical and despicable trade. But I will not dwell upon this.

Here is a proposition which has always struck my mind with a peculiar force, and early made me a friend of this cause. It is, that in reference to the white and black races, as they exist either in our own country or in other portions of the world, no plan, viewed in whatsoever light, has ever been broached or propounded, from any quarter, so feasible, and at the same time so benign in its influence upon all sides, and all the genuine interests of mankind, as this very system. No other scheme has actually succeeded so well, taking all things into view, and therefore, thus far, no other system has been able to so great a degree to array in its behalf the approving smiles of Providence. All other ideas are still struggling in embryo, or, yet crude and half developed, have consigned thousands of their unhappy subjects to the terrible relapse of savage ignorance, anarchy, cruelty, and blood. Tell me, then, you who have read the story of the African, wheresoever found, for the last two hundred years, where is the record of any success in the amelioration of his condition, like that which has attended the projects and operations of this Society, on both sides of the ocean. This has been the thought and the foresight of many of the wisest and best men in all parts of our country for the last fifty years, and down to this day they have not been disappointed. Time and commerce, philanthropy and religion,

prosperity and Providence, have all set their seal upon the Herculean enterprise. Can there be any doubt that the purpose of God is in it? Can there be any doubt that this is the open avenue, through the long-drawn vista of future ages, in which alone we may discern the ultimate destiny of the black man, and the solution of those portentous questions which in the Providence of God, are cast upon our hands?

Some may be

But the magnitude of that work which remains to be done! inclined to feel that this labor of Colonization is utterly incompetent; that it can never meet the wants of 160,000,000 of the race. They may tell us that we might as well think of emptying the ocean with a sieve as to attempt to dry up or dissipate the evils of their condition. Well, then, if inability to do all argues it wise to do nothing, where shall charity be found on earth? Besides, this is a universal objection; if good against one species of benevolence, then it is good against all. But we do not propose, in this instrumentality, more than is possible in our day and to our strength. We do not propose to touch problems for which we see no practical solution; we cannot turn aside to wrangle on "foolish and unlearned questions which gender strife." Life is too short, and time too precious; we see that something can be done, and we propose to do it. And, sir, if in our day there has been kindled but one dim light upon the shores of a distant and darkened continent, who shall say that it may not yet illumine the whole horizon as the dawn of that coming morning, when all the children of Ethiopia shall indeed awake and "stretch forth their hands to God."

Well, sir, that light has been kindled ; there it is already burning; there is its example, and there its silent influence; already its beams are spreading on either hand, and penetrating inland into the old barbaric night of ages. This is our work, and the next generation will have its work, and “the little one shall become a thousand ;" and the great God who keeps his word, that in due time it may be fulfilled, will bring it all to pass

!

I do, then, exhort that we shall not cease our work, for this is the point to which I am coming at last-that we shall not be disheartened by the magnitude of the task, nor discouraged at the apparent feebleness of our efforts, although there is with us, as it was in Jerusalem of old, “much rubbish," to obstruct our toil: and although it may be a time of trouble, such as we who were born of this generation never before beheld.

Sir, strange thoughts are passing in my mind to-night. Our beloved Union has at least subsisted long enough to have cast a seed out of her bosom, away upon the coast of the Old World, whose fruitage, as it grows, will bear the impress and likeness of this illustrious Empire of the West. There are our institutions, our religion, our language, and our laws. Can it be, that when this once glorious Confederacy is broken into fragments, and all our greatness has become as an idle song, Liberia shall be stretching forward in her noble career, and, embracing the wide realms of one quarter of the globe, shall stand one homogeneous, undivided people, and a mighty Power among the nations of the earth? Must the mother die in this travail for her child? God only knows. Oh, that with a confident assurance we could call up a better and brighter vision.

This question was thrust upon us before the Republic had an existence, and was in waiting when the Federal Government went into operation. Would that Liberia, the State which you have planted yonder, might become in turn a star of hope to us in our present darkness. It would seem then to be to us, as when the mariner, tossed upon the surge, and swept before the terrific storm,