generation. The evil advances with increasing strides, and if not soon averted, their utmost endeavours will be hopeless.

For the purpose of removing or mitigating it, different schemes of emancipation and colonization have been proposed: but as any general plan of emancipation, not accompanied with a removal of the blacks out of the country, would lead to the calamitous results that have been mentioned, we shall confine our attention to the principal plans of colonization. These are, first, to colonize the blacks in Africa; second, in the country west of the Rocky Mountains; and third, to transport them to St. Domingo.

The first, that of colonizing the blacks on the coast of Africa, has this peculiar recommendation, that it restores them to the country from which they had their origin, and to which nature has especially adapted them: it may, moreover, be the means of introducing civilization and the arts into a country that has not yet emerged from barbarism. This has, accordingly, always been a favourite project with those who sought a remedy for the evil of slavery; and it gave birth, in 1816, to the "American Colonization Society," whose immediate purpose was to establish a colony of free blacks from the United States, on the coast of Africa, by means of individual contributions; and in the event of the plan succeeding, to solicit aid from the general and the state governments. The society convenes annually at Washington, and at their meeting in January last, Mr. Clay delivered the speech which is noticed at the head of this article. He thus eloquently states the purposes, and vindicates the motives of the Society:

"The object of the Society was the colonization of the free coloured people, not the slaves, of the country. Voluntary in its institution, voluntary in its continuance, voluntary in all its ramifications, all its means, purposes, and instruments are also voluntary. But it was said that no free coloured persons could be prevailed upon to abandon the comforts of civilized life, and expose themselves to all the perils of a settlement in a distant, inhospitable, and savage country that, if they could be induced to go on such a Quixotic expedition, no territory could be procured for their establishment as a colony; that the plan was altogether incompetent to effectuate its professed object; and that it ought to be rejected as the idle dream of visionary enthusiasts. The Society has outlived, thank God, all these disastrous predictions. It has survived to swell the list of false prophets. It is no longer a question of speculation, whether a colony can or cannot be planted from the United States, of free persons of colour, on the shores of Africa. It is a matter demonstrated; such a colony, in fact, exists, prospers, has made successful war, and honourable peace, and transacts all the mul tiplied business of a civilized and Christian community. It now has about five hundred souls, disciplined troops, forts, and other means of defence, sovereignty over an extensive territory, and exerts a powerful and salutary influence over the neighbouring clans.”

"The Society is reproached for agitating this question. It should be recollected that the existence of free people of colour is not limited to the states only which tolerate slavery. The evil extends itself to all the states, and some of those which do not allow of slavery, (their cities especially,) experience the evil in an extent even greater than it exists in the slave states. A common evil confers a

right to consider and apply a common remedy. Nor is it a valid objection that this remedy is partial in its operation, or distant in its efficacy. A patient, writhing under the tortures of excruciating disease, asks of his physician to cure him if he can, and, if he cannot, to mitigate his sufferings. But the remedy proposed, if generally adopted and perseveringly applied for a sufficient length of time, should it not entirely eradicate the disease, will enable the body politic to bear it without danger and without suffering.

"We are reproached with doing mischief by the agitation of this question. The Society goes into no household to disturb its domestic tranquillity; it addresses itself to no slaves to weaken their obligations of obedience. It seeks to affect no man's property. It neither has the power nor the will to affect the property of any one contrary to his consent. The execution of its scheme would augment, instead of diminishing the value of the property left behind. The Society, composed of free men, concerns itself only with the free. Collateral consequences we are not responsible for. It is not this Society which has produced the great moral revolution which the age exhibits. What would they, who thus reproach us, have done? If they would repress all tendencies towards liberty and ultimate emancipation, they must do more than put down the benevolent efforts of this Society. They must go back to the era of our liberty and independence, and muzzle the cannon which thunders its annual joyous return. They must revive the slave trade, with all its train of atrocities. They must suppress the workings of British philanthropy, seeking to meliorate the condition of the unfortunate West Indian slaves. They must arrest the career of South American deliverance from thraldom. They must blow out the moral lights around us, and extinguish that greatest torch of all which America presents to a benighted world, pointing the way to their rights, their liberties, and their happiness. And when they have achieved all these purposes, their work will be yet incomplete. They must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate the light of reason and the love of liberty. Then, and not till then, when universal darkness and despair prevail, can you perpetuate slavery, and repress all sympathies, and all humane and benevolent efforts among freemen, in behalf of the unhappy portion of our race who are doomed to bondage."

"In respect to the alleged incompetency of the scheme to accomplish its professed object, the Society asks that that object should be taken to be, not what the imaginations of its enemies represent it to be, but what it really proposes. They represent that the purpose of the Society is to export the whole African population of the United States, bond and free; and they pronounce this design to be unattainable. They declare that the means of the whole country are insufficient to effect the transportation to Africa of a mass of population approximating to two millions of souls. Agreed; but that is not what the Society contemplates. They have substituted their own notion for that of the Society. What is the true nature of the evil of the existence of a portion of the African race in our population? It is not that there are some, but that there are so many among us of a different caste, of a different physical, if not moral constitution, who never can amalgamate with the great body of our population. In every country, persons are to be found varying in their colour, origin, and character, from the native mass. But this anomaly creates no inquietude or apprehension, because the exotics, from the smallness of their number, are known to be utterly incapable of disturbing the general tranquillity. Here, on the contrary, the African part of our population bears so large a proportion to the residue, of European origin, as to create the most lively apprehension, especially in some quarters of the Union. Any project, therefore, by which, in a material degree, the dangerous element in the general mass, can be diminished or rendered stationary, deserves deliberate consideration."

In the justice of this defence we entirely concur. If the characters of the individuals who compose this society, which comprehends among its members some of the most distinguished

politicians of all parties, did not give assurance that they meditated nothing inconsistent with the interests of the country, we would ask what possible motive, men who were born and bred, and still live in slaveholding states, whose nearest friends are slaveholders, and who are owners of slaves themselves, could have for giving their time and money to do mischief to all that they hold dear? It is then impossible to doubt the integrity of their views, and the only question is as to their sincerity. If their motives have been misunderstood and misrepresented; if some who have mingled in the association, may be the advocates of a precipitate emancipation, (though we know not whether there be such,) nay, more, if here and there an ignorant negro, misconceiving the objects of the society, from the false representations of its enemies, should be more discontented with his condition, shall they be deterred from their praiseworthy purposes by these considerations? For every negro that they send out of the country, they confer a public benefit: whilst the mischief which has been imputed to them, is either imaginary or insignificant, and is to be imputed yet more to their opponents than themselves.

Lest it should be supposed that we have any personal motives in these remarks, we will here take occasion to say, that we are not, and never were members of any colonization society. But while we cheerfully give the tribute of praise to the motives of the society, and general tendency of its measures, as well as our thanks to the eloquent statesman who can raise himself above the smoke and dirt of party strife and ephemeral politics, to discuss this, the greatest of all the remote interests of our country, we must take occasion to dissent from some of his views.

In the first place, we are persuaded that he is mistaken in the comparative expense and difficulty of transporting colonists to Africa, and to the country beyond the Rocky Mountains. Taking his estimate of five tons for every two passengers from the United States to Africa, the cost of transportation must considerably exceed twenty dollars for each individual; and if there have been instances of their being conveyed at that rate, it has been owing aids from individual liberality, or other circumstances, which cannot be permanently counted upon. We believe, that if a road were opened through one of the most practicable passes of that great chain which separates the waters of the Atlantic from those of the Pacific, and small stations were provided at convenient distances, the expense of travelling to a settlement on the Columbia river, would be much less than half the cost of a voyage across the Atlantic. Supposing the journey to require the same time as the voyage, the provisions which the colonists would consume, in the one case, would be at the lowest

price they bear in our country, while in the other, they would be at the highest.

But admitting that the expense of transportation to Africa would in general be the cheapest, yet it should be recollected, that one of the difficulties of any plan of colonization, arises from the blacks themselves; and it might happen, that many would be tempted to migrate on terra firma, who would be unwilling to encounter a voyage across the ocean, to a land which is at present more alien to their feelings and tastes, than that in which they have been brought up. The progress of the colony in Liberia, is an illustration of this preference; for with all the inducements which the removal to Africa holds out to their race, and all the aids which the Colonization Society has been able to afford them, thousands have transported themselves to Ohio, and other western states, in the same time that only five hundred have been conveyed to Africa.

We are aware that an objection has been also made to a colony on the Pacific coast, on the ground that it would plant a troublesome neighbour on our western frontier. But they would, as a state, be too feeble and insignificant, compared with the United States, to become formidable to us, though we might, and should be so to them. It is a yet more satisfactory answer to this objection, that the country lying east of the Rocky Mountains, the rivers of which all disembogue into the Atlantic ocean, or the Gulf of Mexico, is yet more completely separated from that which lies on the west of those mountains, whose waters empty into the Pacific, by their interests, than by the physical barrier between them. Remote as the two are by distance, separated as they are by high mountains and sandy deserts, and trading with opposite hemispheres, they would continue united only so long as the country on the Pacific was capable of maintaining its independence; and if they are to constitute a separate government, surely it is better for us, that a contiguous territory should be possessed by a feeble nation, such as the blacks would be, than by a people of the same character with ourselves. By setting this portion of our territory apart for the blacks whom we now have in the bosom of our country, we virtually appropriate it to our permanent use, in the only mode which is practicable, and in the most eligible mode, if any other were practicable. This country, in a word, must be occupied by a black or a white population: but for every black sent there, we increase our present and future strength; and for every white, we incur present loss and future inconvenience.

Let it not be supposed, that while we plead in favour of a colony on the Pacific, we would discourage colonization in Africa. It seems to us, that it is an error which has pervaded every meliorating scheme on the subject, that it has been regarded as ne

oessarily exclusive of every other. Now, we see no good reason why they may not all be put into operation together. Some persons may be inclined, or find it convenient, to favour one plan, and some another. Thus, the free negroes of Kentucky, Tennessee, or Missouri, might be more easily conveyed across the Rocky Mountains; while those living near the seacoast, may be less averse to colonize themselves in Africa. And others again, may be encouraged to settle in Hayti, where, although they no longer invite migration by a bounty, there is no doubt that settlers would be welcome. We think, that to make any considerable reduction of the black population, it will require all the resources of the country, and they must all be put into active ope

ration.

We will here take occasion to notice some small errors in the political arithmetic of Mr. Clay, which are not unimportant in our speculations on this subject. He estimates the tenth part of the rate of increase in ten, as the rate of increase for one year: but he forgets, that as the increase of each term of ten years is greater than that of the term which preceded it, so also is that of each of the succeeding ten years, since the increase is in a compound ratio. An annual increase, therefore, of three per cent., which Mr. Clay supposes to be somewhat less than that of the slaves, will give an increase in ten years, not merely of 30 per cent., but of 34.39 per cent., and would produce a duplication in less than twenty-four years. But the increase of the slaves which has actually taken place from 1810 to 1820, of 28 per cent., and which we have argued is likely to continue with little diminution, so long as slave labour is profitable, gives an annual increase of but 24 per cent. in a year, and a duplication in about twenty-eight years. Assuming then their annual increase to be 24 per cent., the total amount of that annual increase of both descriptions of the African race, bond and free, is upwards of 59,000-that is 52,500 slaves, and 7000 free persons of colour; and if the annual increase was 3 per cent. for the slaves, and 24 per cent. for the free persons of colour, the total annual increase at this time would be, instead of 52,000, upwards of 70,000.

We agree with Mr. Clay, that the evil is not "that there are some, but that there are so many among us of a different caste;" and with him we should consider slavery as stript of all its perils, if not of all its odious and injurious character, provided we could send off, every year, a number of blacks equal to their natural increase. We also believe, that if all the resources of the country were put in requisition, and the blacks were sent indiscriminately to Africa, to the Pacific, or to Hayti, as their inclinations led and convenience recommended; it would be practicable to rid ourselves of this number-and we do not think that we could go much beyond it; supposing that it required thirty dollars on an