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"Where neither the government nor public sentiment acknowledges any principle sanita ry and corrective of oppression-euorts tending to any other object than the removal of the oppressed from the scene of their sunerings would, justly, be deemed enthusiastic and

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absurd.".

But he thinks, if we see rightly his argument gleaming 'through a cloud. of words, that such removal from the United States, where the principle is acknowledged that "all men are created equal, and have rights that are inalienable, to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," is a "pocr shift." a "conscience-calming expedient for the present exigency." When gentlemen persist in involving a practical question in the meshes of abstraction, they ought at least to exhibit fully and fairly the bearings of the general principle on which they rest. Now, did it never occur to Mr. Birney, as it undoubtedly must have done to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, that the "inalienable rights" of individuals are not lost to them by their social union? that self-preservation is an inalienable right" of society? that it may properly apply this principle to the granting or refusing of accessions to itself? or that the people of the United States have a clear right to judge of the tendency of any system or project to affect their safety or happiness, and to determine accordingly on accepting or rejecting such system or project? Will Mr. B. affirm that they have pronounced a favorable judgment on any plan, except that of Colonization, which has hitherto been devised for the benefit of the African race? He has admitted that the Colonizing scheme has obtained great popularity in the United States. When, therefore, he orges the withdrawal of public confidence from this scheme, instead of raising a hue and ery against it, he should exhibit, fairly and particularly, his substitute. To say that the liberated slaves, on a general plan of emancipation, will consent "to take a lowly station" in the United States, assumes the very point in controversy, namely, that they can take either a lofty or a lowly station there, with safety to either themselves or the whites. It is not our business, though it ought to have been Mr. Birney's, to argue this question.

Mr. B. having tried his hand at soliloquies and dialogues, indulges, at this part of the letter, in another dramatic variety entitled "An intelligent 'free-man of-colour's most probable train of reflections." The decl. mation of this episode is rather more wordy than that of the residue of the letter, and considerably more mischievous. What good purpose to either the white or the coloured race can be accomplished by such inflammatory, iutense and strife stirring appeals, it is for their authors to explain. By such means, Mr. Birney, boasts, the free blacks have been made hostile to Colonization. If so, these who have excited these unfortunate persons against the only scheme which has done any thing for their relief, have assumed a fearful responsibility. Mr. B. gives a statement, the correctness of which we shall not stop to examine, of the expeditions to Liberia, in order to show "that the free coloured people have almost entirely abandoned the project” of Colonization. The proof of this proposition is, that the aggregate number of emigrants by four recent expeditions were 260, of whom 200 were manumitted slaves. But this is also evidence that the Colonization Society tends to promote emancipation; a doctrine which, it will be remembered Mr. Birney had called in question. The embarrassment of either the cause or the advocate must be extreme, when the argument in one part of it so often refutes the argument in another.

The only feature of reasoning observable in the "train of reflections" to which we have adverted, is where the "intelligent" reflector is made to contend that if the prejudice of the white man is strong against him here, it is not likely to be weakened by his removal to Africa; and that if he is a "nuisance" here, he will be so there. To this the answer is

obvious: Whatever prejudice against the free people of colour exists in the United States arises from their common residence with a race to which they are politically and socially inferior. But the prejudice cannot operate where an ocean divides him who suffered under, from him who entertained it; nor can the degradation co-exist with the elevating spirit of political liberty. The first branch of this proposition is self-evident; and of the second, abundant and daily thickening proofs are furnished at the Liberian Colony.

It will be observed that the reflector is made to assume that the friends of Colonization describe the free coloured people in the United States as a "nuisance." This topic had become almost stale in the hands of ultraabolitionists; but as it is calculated to make Colonization odious to the persons thus stigmatized, Mr. Birney naturally repeats it. Can he show that the Society has ever authorized this description? Or is it a part of his tactics to make the Society responsible, at every turn, for the volunteer extravagances of agents or friends?

In their Address to the people of the United States, published several years ago, the Managers call the coloured part of our population "a long afflicted and degraded people in the midst of us." That they are "afflicted," Mr. B. will probably not now deny, although he had just laboured to prove it: That they are "degraded," in the true sense of the term, must be obvious to every candid observer of the free coloured people, to say nothing of the slaves, in all the States, and not the less so in the non-slaveholding States. But the word "degraded" does not imply, however the philologists of Mr. Garrison's school may define it, the moral pollution meant by the term "nuisance." Nor is it disputable, on the other hand, that the social circumstances of the free people of colour in our country exert an influence on their morals, which in some sections is debasing, and in all unfavorable.

On reaching his third general head, viz. "The practical influence of Colonization on Africa," our author proposes, "for the advancement of truth," to examine, i. e. to contest, "the soundness of the position taken by the colonizationists, that the colony will be the great means of Christianizing and civilizing Africa." And here in limine Mr. B. makes an admission which being, we think, nearly conclusive against him, might seem over candid, but for his disregard, as in similar cases, of its legitimate operation. His words are,

"That the colony will continue to grow in numbers and importance, until it may be considered as permanently established; that it will furnish a footing for missionaries and others, who may engage in this work of benevolence: that here in future times, as in many of our cities now, the religious will assemble to consult and organize associations for diffusing a knowledge of Christianity among the heathen, I shall not for a moment

controvert.'

Let the reader consider the extent of this admission, and the fact that Liberia is the only establishment on the African coast, of which can be predicated the religious advantages, present and prospective, named in the admission: and then let him, if he can, join Mr. Birney in denying the reasonableness of the expectation "that the colony will be the great means of Christianizing and civilizing Africa." It is marvellous that a writer who describes the colony as a permanent station for missionary enterprise, and as the seat of future congresses of pious men, assembling to diffuse the blessings of Christianity among the heathen, should, almost in the same breath, invoke a Christian people, his own fellow-citizens, "to be utterly divorced from Colonization in all its parts and in all its measures!"

It denouncing African Colonization, Mr. Birney declares war on the

Colonization principle generally. In "Colonial Christianity" particularly, there is a "scorching spirit!" The historical examples adduced to prove this position, besides other inaptitudes to their purpose, are liable to an objection so obvious, that Mr. B. anticipates, and attempts to answer it. The objection, as he states it, is this: "The European colonists differed in colour from the natives of countries where they established themselves; whereas the negro colonist of this country goes to Africa with all the advantages of similar colour and physical conformation."

But Mr. B. thinks that there are "causes as completely repulsive between the native African and the colonist from the United States, as any that can be found in colour or form."

He cites Mr. Pinney as saying, that "The natives are, as to wealth and intellectual cultivation, related to the colonists, as the negro of America is to the white man; and this fact, added to their mode of dress, which consists of nothing usually but a handkerchief around the loins, leads to the same distinction as exists in America between colours:" And also, "from my limited observation, it is evident, that as little effort is made by the colonists to elevate them as is usually made by the higher class in the United States to elevate the lower."

Mr. Samuel Jones, another of Mr. Birney's witnesses, has given at Lexington, Danville, and elsewhere, testimony in relation to the colony, so comprehensive and particular, and so favourable to it on many important points, that the reader would do great injustice to this witness in supposing that the "whole truth" as told by him is contained in Mr. B.'s extracts from his journal.

Mr. Pinney will probably be surprised to learn the manner in which the citations from his letter have been applied. Because emigrants from a civilized and Christian land, are wealthier and better informed than the Aboriginal heathen; because a dependant and infant colony has not changed ancient nomadic customs, and clothed naked nations; and because the colonists are only as solicitous to exalt their inferiors as the "higher class in the United States" is "to elevate the lower;" there is, forsooth, in "Colonial Christianity," a "scorching spirit," and Colonization ought to be abandoned "in all its parts and purposes!" While rejecting these extravagant conclusions, we admit, nevertheless, that there is much to be regretted in the relations between the natives and the colonists. Melioration in this respect is a leading feature of the measures lately adopted by the Managers for promoting the great objects of the establishments at Liberia. It may be reasonably hoped that the progressive improvement of the colonists themselves will be attended with corresponding efforts on their part to civilize the natives; and that the contemplation of colonial happiness will incite the natives to co-operate in plans for their own benefit. But until a sufficient time shall have been allowed to the experiment, public opinion will be just enough to forbear inflicting the penalty proposed in Mr. Birney's anathema.

"But, Sir," asks Mr. B., "has it ever been known, that Commercial establishments have proved to be sources of religious knowledge and improvement to the heathen, among whom they have been placed? The colony of Liberia is emphatically one of this charac ter-there exists in it, according to all accounts, a rage for trade. Let us recur for a moment to the history of religious efforts among our neighbouring Indians. Who, amongst us, would ever think of encouraging a trading station, or company of petty shopkeepers (such as could be induced to emigrate for gain), and upholding them, as the best means of diffusing a knowledge of Christianity among the Indians as missionary stations!"

That the phrase "commercial establishments" is here used in its exclusive sense, as synonymous with "trading stations," is shown by the

illustrations, which are resorted to. It is unfortunately true, that too great a fondness for trade has existed, and we fear, still exists at the colony. But it is also true that so soon as the excess of this predilection became known to the Managers, they adopted salutary correctives. The most efficient would, they judged, be to create a preierence for agriculture by offering proper inducements to farming pursuits. To this end much of their legislation, especially of late, has tended, as the public are already informed through the medium of this journal; and strong reliance is felt by the Board on the successful issue of the measures in progress. Meanwhile, to call Liberia a "trading station," as if trade were its exclusive object, because trade is carried on there, or the motive for its establishment, is an abuse of language. Mr. Birney might as well call London or Philadelphia a "trading station." In regard to the traffic between the colonists and the natives*, whatever there may be in it which deserves censure, Mr. B., in order to justify his sentence of plenary condemnation, ought to show that it is more pernicious to the natives, than the trade was which they pursued before the existence of the colony. This, we apprehend, it would be easier to assert than to prove.

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In reference to Mr. Birney's use of this topic. the New York Observer of September 6, contains the following judicious remarks:-"We confess that we are among those who have indulged the expectation that the colony of Liberia will exert a powerful influence in spreading civilization and Christianity over Western Africa; and after duly weighing all that Mr. Birney has said on the subject, we see no reason for abandoning this expectation. We freely admit that the trade in ardent spirits and the implements of war, wherever it exists, is a formidable obstacle to the success of the Christian missionary. But in regard to the coast of West Africa, the question is not, whether the missionaries shall encounter this bstacle: that point is already settled, for run and gunpowder have been the great articles of trade with the natives on all that coast for more than two centuries, and there is no spot to which the missionary could obtain access where he would not find the trader in these articles already established, and from his little factory exerting a controlling influence over the natives around him. The question is, whether, (Christian colonies being abolished) the missionary shall be left alone and unaided, to encounter the trader on his own territory, where there is no power that can check his bad influence, or whether he shall avail himself of the assistance that may be derived from a government framed and conducted by men willing to second him in all his views, and from the public sentiment of a community trained in the principles of the Gospel, and as capable as any other Christian community of being made to feel the obligation of these principles The question is, whether Liberia as it now is, does not on the whole present more eligible stations for missionaries to the heathen than it would if there were no colony on its territory? Let the conduct of the American board of Foreign Missions answer this question. That board, composed of some of the wisest men in our country, have been studying the subject of Christiar missions for more than twenty years; they have their missionaries in every part of the heathen world, and they understand the nature of obstacles to Christian missions better than any other men in the land. The board have recently determined to establish missions in Western Africa; and out of the hundred points presented for their choice along a coast of two thousand miles, which do they select? Are they not the points in the immediate vicinity of our Christian colony? And is not this proof that the men who are best competent to judge in the case regard Christian colonies on the coast of Africa as, on the whole, favorable to the success of missions among the heathen. But if Liberia, with all its present imperfections, is viewed by the most intelligent promoters of missions to the heathen as an aid to their cause, what may we not hope for, when public sentiment in this country, operating upon public sentiment in the colony, shall consign to merited disgrace the trader in all articles which are destructive to the bodies and souls of men? What may we not hope for, when new colonies, like that at Cape Palmas, adopting the purest principles of morality as fundamental articles in their constitution, shall be established along the whole coast from Sierra Leone to the Cape of Good Hope? What may we not hope for, when the most intelligent coloured men in this country, burning with zeal to preach the Gospel to their heathen brethren in Africa, and trained for the office by the best instructers, both here and in the colonies, shall go forth from all the points secured by those colonies, to publish the good news of salvation to the millions, whom the voice of the white man can never reach? Does Mr. Birney regard such exp ctations as merely a delusive dream? We believe that this dream may be realiz d, and we dare not, therefore, call upon our Christian brethren 'to divorce themselves from colonization in all its parts and in all its measures.

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Fully as each part of this singular epistle under examination prepares the reader for extravagance in the sequel, one proposition is introduced towards its close, so monstrous as to put at fault all his previous discipline. Will it believed that Mr. Birney considers the Liberian colony as tending to PROMOTE the prosecution of the slave trade? Let him speak for him

self:

"Is it not very probable, that those very persons who have looked with high expectations, to the scheme of Colonization, as the best that could be devised for the annihilation of the Airican slave trade, are doomed to suner utter disappointment. This trade has been carried on since the establishment of the colonies at Sierra Leone and Liberia, as vigorously as it ever had been driven at any former period; and notwithstanding it is regarded by the laws of the states of Europe, as well as of our own country, piracy, and is punishable with death, and many of the public ships of these powers, particularly of England, are continually cruising in the African seas in quest of slavers, yet, sir, is this traffic in human flesh carried on throughout the whole coast, and to no contemptible extent, even in their own colony established for its suppression This tact was fully disclosed by an inquiry instituted not long since, in the British Parliament. Nor am I, by any means, sure that the result of the same inquiry does not, on very strong grounds, implicate some of our own colonists of either directly participating in the trade, or else conniving at its existence in the neighborhood of Monrovia.

May we not be prepared to expect this, from the evidence already before the public, of the entire deterioration of the Christian character in such of the colonists as have been most success.ul in trade, and their utter neglect, thus far, of the natives? If men professing Christianity will at this day consent to enrich themselves by the sale of such vast quantities of ardent spirits as have been sold to the natives by church members in Liberia, their next movement will be to sell to the slaver his supplies--suspecting him to be such, yet asking no qu stions, for who questions a customer with a full purse? The next step will be to assume a secret agency tor him; the next, a direct participation in the profits connected with the agency; and lastly, when such men by their wealth and influence . have moulded public opinion to sustain their views, and the colony is left to its own government, there will, in all probability, be a shameless and open prosecution of the trade in their fellow-beings."

Mr. Birney has not denied and cannot deny, that along a coast of nearly three hundred miles, wherever the influence of the Colony could reach, the African slave trade has been extinguished. The expectation fairly springing from this fact, is that as the Colonial settlements grow in numbers and importance, they will exert increased efficacy in suppressing the slave trade. But Mr. B. prefers to this obvious calculation, inferences from premises palpably insufficient for any purpose except to manifest a spirit of exaggeration against the Colony. The slave trade, we are told, has been carried on since the establishment of the Colonies at Sierra Le' one and Liberia, as vigorously" (even Mr. B. shrinks from saying as extensively) as at any former period;" it has even been prosecuted at the Colony of Sierra Leone. Mr. B. is not "by any means sure," [a fresh specimen of his stiletto style of accusation!] that "some of our own Colonists" are not even now concerned in the slave trade; some of the Liberian merchants are alleged, but not proved, to have grown rich by selling ardent spirits to the natives; ergo, these merchants will hereafter be slave traders themselves; and ergo again, when "the Colony is left to its own government, there will, in all probability, be a shameless and open prosecution of the 'trade in their fellow beings"! To say nothing of the uncharitableness of this mode of reasoning, we venture to say that in a court of justice, the advocate of a party charged with a criminal offence, who should hazard an argument so loose in its connexion, and so violent in its presumptions, would be deemed by Court, jury and audience, as being culpably regardless of the interests of his client, and of his own fame. What shall be said of such licentiousness, when the object is not defence, but crimination? As this Protest against the Colonization Society approaches its long desiderated conclusion, the reader once more meets with his old acquaintan ces, the "IFs:"

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