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y endeavor to devise some means of obviating the misfortunes which they foresee。 In the Southern States the subject is not discussed: the planter does not allude to the future in conversing with strangers; the citizen does not communicate his apprehensions to his friends; he seeks to conceal them from himself; but there is something more alarming in the tacit forebodings of the South; than in the clamorous fears of the Northern States。
This all…pervading disquietude has given birth to an undertaking which is but little known; but which may have the effect of changing the fate of a portion of the human race。 From apprehension of the dangers which I have just been describing; a certain number of American citizens have formed a society for the purpose of exporting to the coast of Guinea; at their own expense; such free negroes as may be willing to escape from the oppression to which they are subject。 *t In 1820; the society to which I allude formed a settlement in Africa; upon the seventh degree of north latitude; which bears the name of Liberia。 The most recent intelligence informs us that 2;500 negroes are collected there; they have introduced the democratic institutions of America into the country of their forefathers; and Liberia has a representative system of government; negro jurymen; negro magistrates; and negro priests; churches have been built; newspapers established; and; by a singular change in the vicissitudes of the world; white men are prohibited from sojourning within the settlement。 *u
'Footnote t: This society assumed the name of 〃The Society for the Colonization of the Blacks。〃 See its annual reports; and more particularly the fifteenth。 See also the pamphlet; to which allusion has already been made; entitled 〃Letters on the Colonization Society; and on its probable Results;〃 by Mr。 Carey; Philadelphia; 1833。'
'Footnote u: This last regulation was laid down by the founders of the settlement; they apprehended that a state of things might arise in Africa similar to that which exists on the frontiers of the United States; and that if the negroes; like the Indians; were brought into collision with a people more enlightened than themselves; they would be destroyed before they could be civilized。'
This is indeed a strange caprice of fortune。 Two hundred years have now elapsed since the inhabitants of Europe undertook to tear the negro from his family and his home; in order to transport him to the shores of North America; at the present day; the European settlers are engaged in sending back the descendants of those very negroes to the Continent from which they were originally taken; and the barbarous Africans have been brought into contact with civilization in the midst of bondage; and have become acquainted with free political institutions in slavery。 Up to the present time Africa has been closed against the arts and sciences of the whites; but the inventions of Europe will perhaps penetrate into those regions; now that they are introduced by Africans themselves。 The settlement of Liberia is founded upon a lofty and a most fruitful idea; but whatever may be its results with regard to the Continent of Africa; it can afford no remedy to the New World。
In twelve years the Colonization Society has transported 2;500 negroes to Africa; in the same space of time about 700;000 blacks were born in the United States。 If the colony of Liberia were so situated as to be able to receive thousands of new inhabitants every year; and if the negroes were in a state to be sent thither with advantage; if the Union were to supply the society with annual subsidies; *v and to transport the negroes to Africa in the vessels of the State; it would still be unable to counterpoise the natural increase of population amongst the blacks; and as it could not remove as many men in a year as are born upon its territory within the same space of time; it would fail in suspending the growth of the evil which is daily increasing in the States。 *w The negro race will never leave those shores of the American continent; to which it was brought by the passions and the vices of Europeans; and it will not disappear from the New World as long as it continues to exist。 The inhabitants of the United States may retard the calamities which they apprehend; but they cannot now destroy their efficient cause。
'Footnote v: Nor would these be the only difficulties attendant upon the undertaking; if the Union undertook to buy up the negroes now in America; in order to transport them to Africa; the price of slaves; increasing with their scarcity; would soon become enormous; and the States of the North would never consent to expend such great sums for a purpose which would procure such small advantages to themselves。 If the Union took possession of the slaves in the Southern States by force; or at a rate determined by law; an insurmountable resistance would arise in that part of the country。 Both alternatives are equally impossible。'
'Footnote w: In 1830 there were in the United States 2;010;327 slaves and 319;439 free blacks; in all 2;329;766 negroes: which formed about one…fifth of the total population of the United States at that time。'
I am obliged to confess that I do not regard the abolition of slavery as a means of warding off the struggle of the two races in the United States。 The negroes may long remain slaves without complaining; but if they are once raised to the level of free men; they will soon revolt at being deprived of all their civil rights; and as they cannot become the equals of the whites; they will speedily declare themselves as enemies。 In the North everything contributed to facilitate the emancipation of the slaves; and slavery was abolished; without placing the free negroes in a position which could become formidable; since their number was too small for them ever to claim the exercise of their rights。 But such is not the case in the South。 The question of slavery was a question of commerce and manufacture for the slave…owners in the North; for those of the South; it is a question of life and death。 God forbid that I should seek to justify the principle of negro slavery; as has been done by some American writers! But I only observe that all the countries which formerly adopted that execrable principle are not equally able to abandon it at the present time。
When I contemplate the condition of the South; I can only discover two alternatives which may be adopted by the white inhabitants of those States; viz。; either to emancipate the negroes; and to intermingle with them; or; remaining isolated from them; to keep them in a state of slavery as long as possible。 All intermediate measures seem to me likely to terminate; and that shortly; in the most horrible of civil wars; and perhaps in the extirpation of one or other of the two races。 Such is the view which the Americans of the South take of the question; and they act consistently with it。 As they are determined not to mingle with the negroes; they refuse to emancipate them。
Not that the inhabitants of the South regard slavery as necessary to the wealth of the planter; for on this point many of them agree with their Northern countrymen in freely admitting t