The character of slavery, as it exists in this country, renders emancipation to any practicable extent impossible, unless there shall be some place out of the United States, to which free persons of color may be sent, where they may enjoy the civil privileges of which, for wise purposes, it is here necessary that the laws should deprive them; and where they may obtain those means of happiness, which freedom and self government will put into their hands. No dream can be more wild, than that of emancipating slaves, who are still to remain among us free; we unhesitatingly express it as our belief, and we speak from some experience, that the free people of color, as a class in the slave holding states, are a greater nuisance to society, more comfortless, tempted to more vices, and actually less qualified to enjoy existence, than the slaves themselves. In such a state of things, manumission is no blessing to the slave, while it is an evil of the most serious kind to the whites.

This we deem an important consideration, because it brings the subject of emancipation to a single point. We suppose it is the cherished hope of every true patriot, as well as of every benevolent man, that the day will come, when the scourge of slavery shall no longer be felt in the land, when the rod of chastisement shall be withdrawn, and all voices shall join in the song of freedom. There is one possible way, and only one, in which this event can be accomplished, or even approximated. It is by colonization, and by this alone, that the mischiefs of slavery, and, what is more to be dreaded than slavery, the living pestilence of a free black population, can be lessened. We take the position to be settled, that no possible remedy can be imagined, while the people of color continue with us, whether as slaves, or as freemen subject to their present legal disabilities. Can any combination of facts more clearly demonstrate the necessity of procuring an asylum for these people, in some place remote from our own territory, or more loudly demand the union of all hearts and hands in aiding the benevolent and well designed beginnings of the Colonization Society? As all hope of future relief rests on some experiment of this sort, who does not see, that the sooner it is begun, the less formidable will be the obstacles to contend against, and the more encouraging the prospects of success?

'Great as the benefits are, says Mr Harper, which we may promise ourselves, from the colonization of the free people of color, by its tendency to prevent the discontent and corruption of our slaves, and to secure to them a better treatment by rendering them more worthy of it, there is another advantage infinitely greater, in every point of view, to which it may lead the way. It tends, and may powerfully tend, to rid us gradually and entirely, in the United States, of slaves and slavery; a great moral and political evil, of increasing virulence and extent, from which much mischief is now felt, and very great calamity in future is justly apprehended. It is in this point of view, I confess, that the scheme of colonization most strongly recommends itself, in my opinion, to attention and support. The alarming danger of cherishing in our bosom a distinct nation, which can never become incorporated with us, while it rapidly increases in numbers, and improves in intelligence; learning from us the arts of peace and war, the secret of its own strength, and the talent of combining and directing its force; a nation which must ever be hostile to us, from feeling and interest, because it can never incorporate with us, nor participate in the advantages which we enjoy; the danger of such a nation in our bosom, needs not be pointed out to any reflecting mind. It speaks not only to our understandings, but to our very senses; and however it may be derided by some, or overlooked by others, who have not the ability or the time, or do not give themselves the trouble, to reflect on, and estimate properly, the force and extent of those great moral and physical causes, which prepare gradually, and at length bring forth, the most terrible convulsions in civil society; it will not be viewed without deep and awful apprehension, by any who shall bring sound minds, and some share of political knowledge and sagacity, to the serious consideration of the subject. Such persons will give their most serious attention to any proposition, which has for its object the eradication of this terrible mischief, lurking in our vitals.'

In the course of his further remarks, Mr Harper draws a vivid picture of the mischievous effects growing out of the colored population, and sets forth the advantages, which the country would gain by gradually releasing itself from this burden. The author speaks not more from deep reflection, than from observation and experience; the accuracy of his knowledge and the soundness of his judgment are alike to be trusted. His views are philosophical; they are just in principle and fact. Revealing the causes of the evils, which now afflict us, he proves them to be radical, and suggests the only method by which they can be torn up and destroyed. Draw

off the free blacks; then give freedom to the slaves, and let' them follow. White laborers will come in and take their place, as fast as the odium of slavery wears away; labor will be more productive, lands more valuable, and the means of wealth more abundant; a vicious, worthless, dangerous population will be succeeded by an intelligent and thriving class, who will stand as pillars of strength in the social fabric. This is no impossible task, if rightly undertaken; so great a change must necessarily be brought about by imperceptible degrees; the Colonization Society has taken the first step; let its enterprise be seconded with energy, and the work will in due time be done.

Nor are the benefits at which we have hinted wholly prospective. They began to be realized when the first colonist left the country, and they will increase as others go after them. They will be seen in the improved character and condition of the slaves, who remain; and in the removal of the temptations to vice and idleness, which are thrown in their way by the free blacks. The slaves will become more peaceful and moral; they will be happier, and better qualified for enjoying the blessings of liberty, when the day shall come for them to hold a place in a colony of their free brethren. Hence the benefits to the white population in the slave holding states are twofold; the slaves are made better, and the poisonous influence of the free colored people on society grows weaker as their numbers diminish. These benefits attend the progress of the scheme, which, when it is perfected, will not only form the blacks into a new and improved race, living under their own laws, and relying on their own resources, but will add to the wealth, the physical strength, political weight, and moral and intellectual ascendancy of those districts of country, where the colored population is now the most numerous. And it will not be less a national benefit, for this is one of those cases, above all others, in which the whole has as deep an interest as a part.

Besides these advantages, which pertain to our domestic prosperity, many others may be expected of a commercial nature, from the establishment of a colony in Africa. On this subject it is impossible to speak with the accuracy of calculation, and conjectures would be fruitless; yet we may affirm, that no part of the world is more fertile, than western

Africa, or better calculated to produce the articles of commerce usually found in tropical climates. A trade of considerable profit has for many years been carried on with the natives along the coast, by individuals both in this country and Europe. The slave trade has been a severe check to the success of lawful enterprise, as it has bartered with the natives and taken in exchange, not the fruits of their industry, the products of their soil, the rewards of honest labor, but the spoils of unnatural wars, commenced on the barbarous principle that strength gives right, and prosecuted with the cruel intention of conquering to enslave. The physical strength of the country has been employed, not in the thriving pursuits of agriculture, and the improvement of the arts, but in sanguinary contests for the plunder of human beings, in murders, kidnappings, and all the atrocious outrages, which savage man, under the dominion of his savage passions, can inflict on his fellow The inhuman traffic in slaves has resisted the tide of lawful commerce, by rendering it unnecessary to the natives; but this bar will gradually be removed; justice will not always be deaf to the cries of the sufferer; the energetic measures adopted by the United States and Great Britain will continue, as they have done, to scatter terror in the minds of the miscreant trafficers in blood and crime; and even the Holy Alliance may one day think its plighted faith worth remembering, although in an unguarded hour it was for once pledged in the cause of freedom and humanity. Let the slave trade be driven from the earth, and few countries will afford more inducements to commercial enterprise, than western Africa.*

man.

The instance of Sierra Leone presents us with no unfavorable view of what may be done in the way of commerce. That colony contended for a long time with many embarrassments; it was owned by a Company, whose means were

*On the 8th of February, 1815, the Congress of Vienna, consisting of five of the principal European powers, made a solemn engagement, that the traffic in slaves should cease. Three of these powers have since enacted municipal laws to carry this engagement into effect. But here the farce has ended. Except England, not one of the assembled powers has done any thing to prove that it was in earnest, notwithstanding the promptness of the British government to remind them of their failure of duty, and to acquaint them with the perpetual violation of the compact under the sanction of their respective flags. For an interesting and detailed correspondence of the British Ministry with Foreign Powers on this subject, see Parliamentary Papers on the Slave Trade printed by order of the House of Commons, April, 1822, Nos. III, IV.

exhausted before its commercial operations could go into complete effect; it suffered from wars and privations. Yet all these difficulties have vanished, and the commerce of Sierra Leone has of late been flourishing. Thirty five vessels were entered at that port in the year 1821, registered chiefly in London, and containing goods, whose invoice amount was somewhat more than $450,000. The duties collected in the colony during the same year amounted to $28,000. The principal articles exported in return were ivory, palm oil, camwood, gum, beeswax, gold dust, hides, rice, lumber of various sorts, mahogany in logs, coffee, African wild spices, Guinea grains, leopard skins, and mats. These are brought down by the natives to Sierra Leone, and exchanged for cheap cloths, and various articles of European manufacture. The trade is a profitable one to the importer, and, as it extends, will run into new and promising channels. Mesurado is better situated for trade than Sierra Leone; it stands at the mouth of a much larger river, is in the neighborhood of a more fertile country, and accessible to a larger population in the interior. Why, then, should it not grow up to be a place of commercial importance, employ many of our seamen, add to the tonnage of our shipping, contribute to our revenue, and thus confer a positive good on the nation, at the same time it relieves us of a positive and alarming evil? Nor ought our views to be confined to Mesurado. Civilization and commerce will go hand in hand, and new sources of profitable intercourse will be opened, in proportion as the natives learn the best modes of supplying their wants.

Let the scheme of colonization next be considered as affecting the Slave Trade, and it will be seen, that its benefits, in regard to the suppression of this traffic, are scarcely less important, than those already enumerated.* In 1808, the earliest time provided by the Constitution, the slave trade was prohibited in the United States, and laws were enacted inflicting severe penalties of fines, imprisonments, and forfeitures on those, who should participate in this guilty traffic. Ten years afterwards this law was improved, by throwing on the defendant the burden of proof, that the colored person intro

*For a brief, but clear and well digested history of the laws abolishing the Slave Trade, both in Great Britain and this country, we refer our readers to Mr Walsh's Appeal, Sec. IX.

New Series, No. 17.

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