to be more depraved than the white, it must not be forgotten, that reasons can be assigned for it, without alleging the existence of ingenerate evil beyond the common lot of humanity. All philosophy proves, that man must be incited to virtue and to greatness, by the impulses of honourable ambition and the hopes of reward. We find men starting from the sinks of vice and the obscurity of indigence, and winning their way to wealth, honour and distinction, amid a thousand obstacles, and a thousand obstructions. Even the dignity of patrician rank, in England, intrenched as it is behind inveterate customs, and all the outposts of princely wealth, has been invaded by the daring encroachments of plebeian merit. But however elevated the natural spirit, it will

ards, more profane swearers and Sabbath-breakers, &c., than in Liberia. You rarely hear an oath, and as to riots and breaches of the peace, I recollect of but one instance, and that of a trifling nature, that has come under my notice since I assumed the government of the colony." Capt. Sherman says, "There is a greater proportion of moral and religious characters in Monrovia than in this city," (Philadelphia.) Capt. Abels, who spent thirteen days in the settlement, in the early part of 1832, thus attests the moral condition of the colony; "I saw no intemperance, nor did I hear a profane word uttered by any one. Being a minister of the Gospel, on Christmas-day I preached both in the Methodist and Baptist Church, to full and attentive congregations, of from three to four hundred persons in each. I know of no place where the Sabbath appears to be more respected than in Monrovia." The following testimony is borne by Simpson and Moore, who visited the colony together. "We noticed, particularly, the moral state of things, and during our visit, saw but one man who appeared to be intemperate, and but two who used any profane language. We think the settlers more moral, as a people, than the citizens of the United States." It is to be wished, that we had more recent information of the state of the criminal calendar. Capt. Sherman, who was in Liberia in 1830, furnishes the latest news upon this subject. It is, however, all that the most sanguine mind could anticipate. That gentleman says, “To the honour of the emigrants, be it mentioned, that but five of their number have been committed for stealing or misdemeanour, since 1827." During these three years, which produced but five convictions for stealing or misdemeanour,' the population of the emigrants averaged one thousand five hundred souls. Now, if the moral character of the colonists of Liberia, were not better than that of the free blacks of Pennsylvania in the year 1830, instead of five convictions, there would have been sextuple that amount; that is to say, if the convictions in Liberia were in the same proportion to the population, as among the free blacks of Pennsylvania, instead of five, there would have been thirty convictions in those three years!

remain tame or torpid without some stirring incentive, some powerful stimulus to action. When intellectual superiority or moral virtue is held in estimation, when its possessor is admired and venerated, we find numerous candidates for the honours attendant upon its acquisition. Why is all this? Because, in the absence of legal impediment, humble merit is sure of success, if it be seconded by the feelings and sympathies of the people. But can the aspirations of the negro in this country be awakened by a similar hope? He feels himself the descendant of a slave, and essentially distinguished from the mass around him. He sees the European foreigner, however differing from us in language and habits, possess every exterior resemblance, and give to his posterity the characteristics of the nation he has adopted. He sees his own offspring but the counterpart of himself, and they likely to transmit their inheritance to their successors from generation to generation. He sees that a repugnance arising from his ancestry and complexion, prevents him from enjoying those rights which the laws accord to him. He feels, that though benevolent solicitude for his caste has been alert for nearly a century, yet the mere privilege of voting-that franchise, without which, liberty is but an empty name, is denied him at the peril of his life. He feels that social communion with the white man, upon equal terms, is a franchise more difficult to purchase than that of suffrage to exercise. He feels that the very kindness which he experiences, is a kind of abstract, short-lived sympathy, at a distance, rather than prompted by the admission of undisputed equality, or the desire of nearer approach. Thus seeing and thus reasoning, is it surprising that his moral and intellectual nature has not yielded to longcontinued and sedulous care? Promising himself little from the pursuits of industry, or the practice of virtue, save the gratifications of animal existence, and the peaceful consciousness of acting well, he gives up both in despair.

In such a state of things it has been suggested, that it is the part of Christian philanthropy to break down the idle prejudices of lineage and colour by offering to

tercourse.

the coloured man the refinements of society, and to admit him to full participation in the endearments of social inLet those who inculcate these doctrines set before us the spectacle of their own bright example. Let them, if they can, thus violate all the sanctities of feeling, all the heart felt charities of private life; let them, if they can, upon Christian principles, make the invidious distinction between the negro and his own correspondent class among the whites. An exaltation of the negro above the head of his white compeer, would be unavoidably attended with a twofold impropriety and absurdity. The exclusion of the latter of equal deserts is indefensible, invidious and unjust, while the admission of the former, places him in a station for which he is unfit, and by which he is incapable of deriving advantage. A forced and unnatural union, repugnant alike to reason and to feeling, must ever be the parent of infelicity. But the projectors of amalgamation not having reached that point of moral sublimity which can overlook these various objections, it may be considered as a question broached, rather as a metaphysical abstraction, than with the hope, desire, or expectation of ever seeing it reduced to practice. As the negro, in this country, is from the causes adverted to, curtailed of his moral and mental proportions, it seems rather the dictate of enlightened benevolence to frame plans for his ulterior improvement and practical melioration, than to seek to render him odious by a premature, an indiscreet, and unnatural elevation.

Such being the results of long continued and strenuous efforts at abolition, and such the condition and prospects of the free coloured population, it seemed to be desirable, that a new essay should be made, offering more hopeful expectations of success. It was seen that little had been done at the North, and that the great work of Southern Abolition could not be advanced by companies in the free states. It was seen that statutory disability existed to prevent private enfranchisements, unless accompanied by removal from the slave holding territory. It was seen that the free negroes of the United States, stinted and restrained in regard to the finer

properties and higher attributes which characterise humanity in positions favourable to its growth and cultivation, were abridged of those common enjoyments which usually fall to the lot of man in a free country. It was under these circumstances, and with these impressions, that the Colonization Society grew into being. Though commenced in the North, it met with approbation in the South, and from the era of its establishment to the present time, both the North and the South have harmoniously united in the projects of an enterprise so transcendently good and glorious. The simple scheme of removing to Africa all who should consent to emigrate, would, it was honestly believed, promote the ultimate hopes of the Abolition Societies. Let these institutions, by mental and moral culture, prepare the negro for self-government in his father-land. Let them unfold to the free blacks the advantages which are likely to accrue to themselves, their brethren, and posterity, from erecting free governments in Africa. Let them paint to their imaginations, with pencils glowing with the greatness of the truth, the enjoyments of unrestrained liberty and perfect equality, in a region designed by nature, both in its climate and productions, for their exclusive possession.* Let them awaken their ambition as the

* There seems to be a peculiar fitness in placing the negro in Africa, when it is recollected that large portions of its immense tracts are suited only to his constitution. The white man will languish and die beneath a sun which is congenial to the animal nature of the black man. Nature herself, therefore, would seem to concur with this philanthropy, unless it be thought that she designed those regions, which are so well calculated for the residence of the latter, and for him only, to lie waste and uninhabited. Capt. Nicholson, of the U. S. Navy, says of Liberia, which he visited in 1828, "It was, I believe, never intended that the white man should inhabit this region of the globe: at least, we know that the diseases of this climate are more fatal to him than to the man of colour. They luxuriate in the intense heat, while a white man sinks under its exhausting influence." I cannot forbear from quoting, in confirmation of these views, some judicious remarks of a learned writer in a late number of the Phrenological Journal of Edinburgh. "If we look," says he, " to that well marked and vast peninsula called Africa, we find that equally marked race, the negro, with slight modifications, forming its native population throughout all its regions. We find the temperature of his blood, the chemical action of his skin, the very texture of his wool-like hair, all fitting him for the vertical sun of Africa; and if every surviving African of the present day, who is living

founders of a future commonwealth, to be virtuous and enlightened, rich in the ownership of multiplied blessings, and widely diffusive in the effects of example and influence. If they do this, we shall find the American negro, now dwindled in his morals and intellect, developing those latent capacities and inborn energies, which, though oppression might check or conceal, it could not uproot and destroy. We shall find him planting a tree in the midst of a howling desert, bearing the rich fruits of religion, civilization, and liberty, and inviting to the covert of its thick spreading branches and clustering foliage, the people of a continent which has lain. so long exposed, uncovered, defenceless, and oppressed.

The direct and incidental effects of Colonization are very large and expansive. They are not limited to a qualified benefit resulting to the free blacks only, at the expense of injury to the slave, but comprehend in their wide range the cause of abolition, the absolute disenthraling of the man of colour, the extinction of the slave trade, and the civilization of Africa. For the accomplishment of these great purposes, an extensive region of sea-coast has been selected on the western side of the African continent, stretching two hundred and eighty miles from the river Gallinas on the north, to the territory of Kroo Settra on the south. Being intended for the abode of freemen, this extensive domain bears the appropriate title, Liberia. The actual jurisdiction of the Colony, at present, extends one hundred and fifty miles from Cape Mount to Trade Town. Between these points is beautifully situated, at Bassa Cove, the locality of the Pennsylvan Colony. A few leagues beyond the northern limits of

in degradation and destitution in other lands, for which he was never intended, were actually restored to the peculiar land of his peculiar race, in independence and comfort, would any man venture to affirm, that Christianity had been lost sight of by all who had in any way contributed to such a consummation? It matters not to brotherly love on which side of the Atlantic the negro is made enlightened, virtuous, and happy, if he is actually so far blessed; but it does matter on which side of the ocean you place him, when there is only one where he will be as happy and respectable as benevolence would wish to see him, and certainly there, a rightly applied morality and religion would sanction his being placed."