e people of the United States, published several call the coloured part of our population "a long ple in the midst of us." That they are "afflicted," - now deny, although he had just laboured to "degraded," in the true sense of the term, must lid observer of the free coloured people, to say all the States, and not the less so in the non-slaveword "degraded" does not imply, however the ison's school may define it, the moral pollution sance." Nor is it disputable, on the other hand, nces of the free people of colour in our country eir morals, which in some sections is debasing, general head, viz. "The practical influence of Cor author proposes, "for the advancement of truth," est, "the soundness of the position taken by the colony will be the great means of Christianizing And here in limine Mr. B. makes an admission nearly conclusive against him, might seem over ard, as in similar cases, of its legitimate operation. nue to grow in numbers and importance, until it may be ablished; that it will furnish a footing for missionaries and his work of benevolence: that here in future times, as in eligious will assemble to consult and organize associations Christianity among the heathen, I shall not for a moment er the extent of this admission, and the fact that lishment on the African coast, of which can be dvantages, present and prospective, named in the him, if he can, join Mr. Birney in denying the pectation "that the colony will be the great means ivilizing Africa." It is marvellous that a writer as a permanent station for missionary enterprise, the citation a civilized Aboriginal ancient no lonists are the United nial Christ abandoned vagant con gretted in t tion in this the Manag beria. It the colonis their part t happiness fit. But u public opin posed in M "But, Sir," tween the native African and the colonist from the United that can be found in colour or form." He cites Mr. Pinney as saying, that "The natives are, a intellectual cultivation, related to the colonists, as the negr to the white man; and this fact, added to their mode of dr sists of nothing usually but a handkerchief around the loi same distinction as exists in America between colours:" A my limited observation, it is evident, that as little effort. colonists to elevate them as is usually made by the high United States to elevate the lower." Mr. Samuel Jones, another of Mr. Birney's witnesses, ha ington, Danville, and elsewhere, testimony in relation to comprehensive and particular, and so favourable to it on points, that the reader would do great injustice to this witne that the "whole truth" as told by him is contained in Mr. B. his journal. Mr. Pinney will probably be surprised to learn the ma the citations from his letter have been applied. Because a civilized and Christian land, are wealthier and better inf Aboriginal heathen; because a dependant and infant colony ancient nomadic customs, and clothed naked nations; and lonists are only as solicitous to exalt their inferiors as the the United States" is "to elevate the lower;" there is, fors nial Christianity," a "scorching spirit," and Colonizatio abandoned "in all its parts and purposes!" While rejectin vagant conclusions, we admit, nevertheless, that there is n gretted in the relations between the natives and the colon tion in this respect is a leading feature of the measures lat the Managers for promoting the great objects of the establi beria. It may be reasonably hoped that the progressive in the colonists themselves will be attended with correspond their part to civilize the natives; and that the contemplat happiness will incite the natives to co-operate in plans for th fit. But until a sufficient time shall have been allowed to t public opinion will be just enough to forbear inflicting the posed in Mr. Birney's anathema. "But, Sir," asks Mr. B., "has it ever been known, that Commerci have proved to be sources of religious knowledge and improvement to th whom they have been placed? The colony of Liberia is emphatically o ter-there exists in it, according to all accounts, a rage for trade. L moment to the history of religious efforts among our neighbouring Indian us, would ever think of encouraging a trading station, or company of petty as could be induced to emigrate for gain), and upholding them, as the b knowledge of Christianiter among the Tuliona 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 preference 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 "irading 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. * 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 obstacle: that point is already settled, for rum 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 encoun ter 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 Christian 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 hea then. 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 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 expectations 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 arts and in all its measures.“ go forth 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 himself: "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 African slave trade, are doomed to suffer 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 fact 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 successful 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 questions, for who questions a customer with a full purse? The next step will be to assume a secret agency for 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 Leone 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 acquaintances, the "IFs:" "If it be true," says Mr. B. speaking of Colonization, "that, whilst it professes in itself a capacity for the relief of the country from slavery, it has, after seventeen years of trial-fair and honorable trial-done nothing that has touched the matter; if it falls in with -though it may not have originated-uncharitable feelings, unscriptural and unreasonable prejudices, and inhuman laws against the colored population among us; if it occasions a deterioration of Christian character in the great body of those who emigrate-and through them brings the Christian religion into dishonor, among the heathen-there is nothing in it, according to my poor judgment, that entitles it to the support of the patriot or the Christian." "If," indeed, these positions be true, Mr. B.'s inference from them is irresistible: and passing weak must be the reasoner who, assuming boundless license in creating his premises, should fail in his conclusions. But "if," on the other hand, as we have endeavoured to show, and sometimes with the aid of Mr. B. himself, not one of his "Ifs" be true, he is right in the opinion that only a "poor judgment" can determine that "there is ' nothing in [Colonization] which entitles it to the support of the patriot or the Christian." One topic of this recapitulatory series of "Ifs," is there introduced for the first time in the letter. Mr. B. speaks of the Colonization cause in the United States as having had "seventeen years of 'trial-fair and honorable trial." In his new born zeal against the Colonizing Society, the commencement of its operations is here dated from the preliminary meeting in Washington in December, 1816, which preceded by several years the settlement of the Liberian Colony. The epithets "fair and honorable" are italicised by Mr Birney, in order, it may be supposed, to convey the impression that the trial of the Society has been peculiarly "fair and honorable." He forgets, then, that all which traduction could do to possess the public mind with false views of the principles and proceedings of the Society, has been attempted by those with whom he disclaims any connexion, but whose opinions, nevertheless, remarkably coincide with those now professed by himself. That a large majority of the American nation have given the Society a "fair and honorable trial," and are disposed to afford it a farther hearing, it would gratefully acknowledge. With the results of the trial as hitherto disclosed, it has every reason to be satisfied. What is Mr. Birney's estimate of these results, cannot easily be told. For, we have seen in one part of his letter the Society described as "bringing around it the learned, the religious, the influen'tial;" as having "by the multiplied resolutions of favoring Legislatures, ' of ecclesiastical bodies, with their hundred conventions, assemblies, con'ferences and associations, so far exalted itself into the high places of public sentiment, as itself to constitute public sentiment;" and as having "acquired great authority over the mind of this people." And in the part of the letter which we have now reached, it is said: "Although coloniza'tion in the west and south-west-as to any effectual future action-is 'dead; yet its ghost is unceasingly beckoning us away from the only course in which our safety lies." What this "only course" is, Mr. Birney no where distinctly announces. He vaunts that his opinions are those "to 'which such minds as Wilberforce and Clarkson yielded their full assent— 'that they are the opinions of the disinterested and excellent of our own country." Though the lamented Wilberforce was induced, during his last illness, to sign the London Protest against the Colonization Society, it is well known that his mind, in its period of health and energy, was decidedly favorable to that Institution, and that the same sentiment is still entertained by the venerable Clarkson. But even were the fact otherwise, the competency of any foreigner, however morally and intellectually distinguished, to pass conclusive judgment on the intricate domestic question peculiar to the United States, may well be doubted. The claim of AntiColonizationism that "the disinterested and excellent of our own country" |