MR. MADISON'S VIEWS ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION. To Robert J. Evans, (Author of the Pieces published under the name of Benjamin Rush.) MONTPELIER, June 15, 1819. SIR: I have received your letter of the 3d instant, requesting such hints as may have occurred to me on the subject of an eventual extinguishment of slavery in the United States. Not doubting the purity of your views, and relying on the discretion by which they will be regulated, I cannot refuse such a compliance as will, at least, manifest my respect for the object of your undertaking. A general emancipation of slaves ought to be-1. Gradual. 2. Equitable and satisfactory to the individuals immediately concerned. 3. Consistent with the existing and durable prejudices of the nation. That it ought, like remedies for other deep-rooted and wide-spread evils, to be gradual, is so obvious, that there seems to be no difference of opinion on that point. To be equitable and satisfactory, the consent of both the master and the slave should be obtained. That of the master will require a provision in the plan for compensating a loss of what he held as property, guarantied by the laws, and recognised by the Constitution. That of the slave requires that his condition in a state of freedom be preferable, in his own estimation, to his actual one in a state of bondage. To be consistent with existing, and probably unalterable prejudices in the United States, the freed blacks ought to be permanently removed beyond the region occupied by, or allotted to, a white population. The objections to a thorough incorporation of the two people are, with most of the whites, insuperable; and are admitted by all of them to be very powerful. If the blacks, strongly marked as they are by physical and lasting peculiarities, be retained amid the whites, under the degrading privation of equal rights, political or social, they must be always dissatisfied with their condition, as a change only from one to another species of oppression; always secretly confederated against the ruling and privileged class; and always uncontrolled by some of the most cogent motives to moral and respectable conduct. The character of the free blacks, even where their legal condition is least affected by their color, seems to put these truths beyond question. It is material, also, that the removal of the blacks be to a distance precluding the jealousies and hostilities to be apprehended from a neighboring people, stimulated by the contempt known to be entertained for their peculiar features; to say nothing of their vindictive recollections, or the predatory propensities which their state of society might foster. Nor is it fair in estimating the danger of collisions with the whites, to charge it wholly on the side of the blacks. There would be reciprocal antipathies doubling the danger. The Colonizing plan on foot has, as far as it extends, a due regard to these requisites; with the additional object of bestowing new blessings, civil and religious, on the quarter of the globe most in need of them. The Society proposes to transport to the African coast all free and freed blacks who may be willing to remove thither; to provide by fair means, and it is understood, with a prospect of success, a suitable territory for their reception; and to initiate them into such an establishment as may gradually and indefinitely expand itself. The experiment, under this view of it, merits encouragement from all who regard slavery as an evil, who wish to see it diminished and abolished by peaceable and just means, and who have themselves no better mode to propose. Those who have most doubted the success of the experiment must, at least, have wished to find themselves in an error. But the views of the Society are limited to the case of blacks already free, or who may be gratuitously emancipated. To provide a commensurate remedy for the evil, the plan must be extended to the great mass of blacks, and must embrace a fund sufficient to induce the master, as well as the slave, to concur in it. Without the concurrence of the master, the benefit will be very limited as it relates to the negroes, and essentially defective as it relates to the United States; and the concurrence of masters must, for the most part, be obtained by purchase. Can it be hoped that voluntary contributions, however adequate to an auspicious commencement, will supply the sums necessary to such an enlargement of the remedy? May not another question be asked? Would it be reasonable to throw so great a burden on the individuals distinguished by their philanthropy and patriotism? The object to be obtained, as an object of humanity, appeals alike to all; as a national object, it claims the interposition of the nation. It is the nation which is to reap the benefit. The nation, therefore, ought to bear the burden. Must, then, the enormous sums required to pay for, to transport, and to establish in a foreign land, all the slaves in the United States, as their masters may be willing to part with them, be taxed on the good people of the United States, or be obtained by loans, swelling the public debt to a size pregnant with evils next in degree to those of slavery itself? Happily, it is not necessary to answer this question, by remarking, that if slavery, as a national evil, is to be abolished, and it be just that it be done at the national expense, the amount of the expense is not a paramount consideration. It is the peculiar fortune, or rather a providential blessing of the United States to possess a resource commensurate to this great object, without taxes on the people, or even an increase of the public debt. I allude to the vacant territory, the extent of which is so vast, and the vendible value of which is so well ascertained. Supposing the number of slaves to be 1,500,000, and their price to average 400 dollars, the cost of the whole would be 600 millions of dollars. These estimates are probably beyond the fact; and from the number of slaves should be deducted: 1. Those whom their masters would not part with. 2. Those who may be gratuitously set free by their masters. 3. Those acquiring freedom under emancipating regulations of the States. 4. Those preferring slavery where they are to freedom in an African settlement. On the other hand, it is to be noted that the expense of removal and settlement is not included in the estimated sum; and that an increase of the slaves will be going on during the period required for the execution of the plan. On the whole, the aggregate sum needed may be stated at about six hundred millions of dollars. This will require 200 millions of acres, at three dollars per acre, or 300 millions at two dollars per acre; a quantity which, though great in itself, is perhaps not a third part of the disposable territory belonging to the United States. And to what object so good, so great, and so glorious, could that peculiar fund of wealth be appropriated? Whilst the sale of territory would, on one hand, be planting one desert with a free and civilized people, it would, on the other, be giving freedom to another people, and filling with them another desert. And if in any instances wrong has been done by our forefathers to people of one color, by dispossessing them of their soil, what better atonement is now in our power than that of making what is rightfully acquired a source of justice and of blessings to a people of another color? As the revolution to be produced in the condition of the negroes must be gradual, it will suffice if the sale of territory keep pace with its progress. For a time, at least, the proceeds would be in advance. In this case, it might be best, after deducting the expense incident to the surveys and sales, to place the surplus in a situation where its increase might correspond with the natural increase of the unpurchased slaves. Should the proceeds at any time fall short of the calls for their application, anticipations might be made by temporary loans, to be discharged as the land should find a market. But it is probable that for a considerable period the sales would exceed the calls. Masters would not be willing to strip their plantations and farms of their laborers too rapidly. The slaves themselves, connected as they generally are, by tender ties with others under other masters, would be kept from the list of emigrants by the want of the multiplied consents to be obtained. It is probable, indeed, that for a long time a certain portion of the proceeds might safely continue applicable to the discharge of the debts or to other purposes of the nation, or it might be most convenient, in the outset, to appropriate a certain proportion only of the income from sales to the object in view, leaving the residue otherwise applicable. Should any plan similar to that I have sketched be deemed eligible in itself, no particular difficulty is foreseen from that portion of the nation which, with a common interest in the vacant territory, has no interest in slave property. They are too just to wish that a partial sacrifice should be made for the general good, and too well aware that whatever may be the intrinsic character of that description of property, it is one known to the Constitution, and as such, could not be constitutionally taken away without just compensation. That part of the nation has, indeed, shown a meritorious alacrity in promoting, by pecuniary contributions, the limited scheme for Colonizing the blacks, and freeing the nation from the unfortunate stain on it, which justifies the belief that any enlargement of the scheme, if founded on just principles, would find among them its earliest and warmest patrons. It ought to have great weight that the vacant lands in question have, for the most part, been deprived from grants of the States holding the slaves, to be redeemed and removed by the sale of them. It is evident, however, that in effectuating a general emancipation of slaves in the mode which has been hinted, difficulties of other sorts would be encountered. The provision for ascertaining the joint consent of the masters and slaves; for guarding against unreasonable valuations of the latter; and for the discrimination of those not proper to be conveyed to a foreign residence, or who ought to remain a charge on masters in whose service they had been disabled or worn out, and for the annual transportation of such numbers, would require the mature deliberations of the national councils. The measure implies, also, the practicability of procuring in Africa an enlargement of the district or districts for receiving the exiles sufficient for so great an augmentation of their numbers. Perhaps the legislative provision best adapted to the case would be an incorporation of the Colonizing Society, or the establishment of a similar one, with proper powers, under the appointment and superintendence of the national Executive. In estimating the difficulties, however, incident to any plan of general emancipation, they ought to be brought into comparison with those inseparable from other plans, and be yielded to or not according to the result of the comparison. One difficulty presents itself which will probably attend every plan which is to go into effect under the legislative provisions of the National Government. But whatever may be the defect of existing powers of Congress, the Constitution has pointed out the way in which it can be supplied. And it can hardly be doubted that the requisite powers might readily be procured for attaining the great object in question, in any mode whatever approved by the nation. If these thoughts can be of any aid in your search of a remedy for the great evil under which the nation labors, you are very welcome to them. PENNSYLVANIA COLONIZATION SOCIETY. Pursuant to a call of the Recording Secretary, the Board met in their annual meeting yesterday afternoon, at 5 o'clock. On motion of SAMUEL H. PERKINS, Esq., WILLIAM P PETTIT, Esq, acted as Chairman, and WILLIAM COPPINGER, the Treasurer of the Board, as Secretary. The minutes of the last meeting were read by the Secretary, approved and adopted. The President then appointed Messrs. S. H. Perkins and Dr. R. R. Reed tellers for the reception of the votes by ballot, when they reported the following officers as unanimously elected for the ensuing year: President.-John P. Crozer. Vice Presidents-Gerard Ralston, Robert R. Reed, M. D.; Thomas Hodgkin, M. D.; George D. Wood, M. D.; Stephen Colwell, Alonzo Potter, D. D; William Chester, D. D.; Edward Coles, Howard Malcom, D. D.; John Recording Secretary.-Robert B. Davidson. Managers.-L. P. Gebhard, M. D.; W. Parker Foulk, John W. Claghorn, On motion of Mr. S. H PERKINS, the Board then adjourned sine die. Below we give a sketch of the Society, and such portions of their report as will prove most interesting: "The Pennsylvania Colonization Society was instituted in this city, October 28, 1826, and incorporated January 6, 1830. Its first President was the eminent Dr. Thomas C. James, who was succeeded by Thomas P. Cope, Hon. Joseph R. Ingersoll, and Bishop Alonzo Potter. John P Crozer, Esq., is the present zealous presiding officer. The cause which it endeavors to promote is one emphatically interesting to our country. Liberia exhibits an importance and promise equal to the predictions of its disinterested friends. It opens before every free man of color a field for honorable enterprise, political privileges and social enjoyments. It offers to the American statesman a feasible method of securing permanent prosperity to our land, and to the Christian, of imparting to the teeming millions of Africa his perfect and sublime religion Emigrants.-Thirty-three of the colored population of Pennsylvania emigrated to Liberia since the last report, viz: seventeen from Alleghany county, one from Dauphin county, one from Lancaster county, four from Philadelphia, and ten from Washington county. An expedition is now preparing in New York to sail on the first of November next. By this the indications are, that our State will be represented by some twenty of its colored residents, one hundred and seven of whom have become citizens of the young African Republic since May 1, 1859. Receipts. Since the last annual meeting of the Society, there has been received the sum of $5,344 66. Nine life members were constituted, making the whole number at this date, four hundred and forty-six. The number of voluntary Fourth of July " collections were twenty-five, realizing $327 18. Portraits. Two portraits have been added to the Society's gallery of dis. tinguished African Colonizationists. They are those of the Rev. R. R. GURLEY, painted from life and presented by E. D. MARCHANT, Esq., and of Dr RICHARD RANDALL, who early fell in his chosen field of labor, copied and contributed by A. B. ROCKEY, Esq. To these artists and generous friends the Board again express their obligations. Recaptives. The last report mentioned the capture by our naval cruisers of five slavers, and the landing in Liberia, by order of the Government of the United States, of their surviving freight-twenty-three hundred and seventygix souls. To these must be added the seizure off the Congo river, of three more slave ships, and the deposit from them, at Monrovia, of twenty-three hundred and eleven liberated Africans. These make a total of this class, received by the Liberians, within a period of less than nine months-August 21, 1860, to May 8, 1861-of four thousand four hundred and eighty-seven recaptives! The authorities of Liberia have, with commendable zeal, taken the charge of this large and sudden addition to its population. They have placed some in the families of such citizens as were deemed competent to their care, and established others on public farms, with instructions to train them in the customs of civilized and Christian life. Late intelligence represents them as generally in course of rapid assimilation to Americo-Liberian habits. They go to their schools, crowd their churches, adopt their dress, and speak English. THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. LIBERIAN INDEPENDENCE. Colonization. We quote the following remarks of President LINCOLN, on the Independence of Liberia and Colonization. The Colonization Societies of New York and Pennsylvania have adopted earnest resolutions in behalf of both objects. “If any good reason exists why we should persevere longer in withholding our recognition of the Independence and Sovereignty of Hayti and Liberia, I am unable to discern it. Unwilling, however, to inaugurate a novel policy in regard to them, without the approbation of Congress, I submit for your consideration the expediency of an appropriation for maintaining a Chargé d' Affaires near each of those new States. It does not admit of a doubt that important commercial advantages might be secured by favorable treaties with them. "Under and by virtue of the act of Congress, entitled "An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes," approved August 6, 1861, the legal claims of certain persons to the labor and service of certain other persons have become forfeited, and numbers of the latter thus liberated, are already dependent on the United States, and must be provided for in some way. Besides this, it is not impossible that some of the States will pass similar en-. actments for their own benefit respectively, and by operation of which, persons of the same class will be thrown upon them for disposal. In such cases I recommend that Congress provide for accepting such persons from such States, according to some mode of valuation in lieu pro tanto of direct taxes, or upon some other plan to be agreed upon with such States respectively, that such persons on such acceptances by the General Government be at once deemed free, and that, in any event steps be taken for colonizing both classes, (or the one first mentioned, if the other shall not be brought into existence,) at some place or places in a climate congenial to them. It might be well to consider, too, whether the free colored people already in the United States, could not, so far as individuals may desire, be included in such colonization. "To carry out the plan of colonization may involve the acquiring of territory, and also the appropriation of money beyond that to be expended in the territorial acquisition. Having practised the acquisition of territory for nearly sixty years, the question of the constitutional power to do so is no longer an open one with us. The power was questioned at first by Mr. JEFFERSON, who, however, in the purchase of Louisiana, yielded his scruples on the plea of great expediency. If it be said that the only legitimate object of acquiring territory is to furnish homes for white men, this measure effects that object, for the emigration of colored men leaves additional room for white men remaining or coming here. Mr. JEFFERSON, however, placed the importance of procuring Louisiana more on political and commercial grounds, than on providing room for population. On this whole proposition, including the appropriation of money with the acquisition of territory, does not the expediency amount to absolute necessity, that, without which, the Government itself cannot be perpetuated if the war continues? "In considering the policy to be adopted for suppressing the insurrection, I have been anxious and careful that the inevitable conflict for this purpose shall not degenerate into a violent and remorseless revolutionary struggle. I have, therefore, in every case, thought it proper to keep the integrity of the Union prominent as the primary object of the contest on our part, leaving all questions, which are not of vital military importance, to the more deliberate action of the Legislature." |
