'

My minister,' says one, is a most worthy man. ports this Society: therefore it is a good institution.'

' :

He sup

Chris

tians of all denominations are enlisted in this enterprise,' says another therefore it cannot be wrong.' 'Do you think,' says a third, that honest, godly men would countenance a scheme which is not really benevolent?' But it is unwise for beings, who are accountable only to God, to reason in this manner. All the good men upon earth cannot make persecution benevolence, nor injustice equity; and until they become infallible, implicit reliance upon their judgment is criminal. Ministers and christians, a few years since, were engaged in the use and sale of ardent spirits; but they were all wrong, and they now acknowledge their error. At the present day, a large proportion of the professed disciples of the Prince of Peace maintain the lawfulness of defensive war, and the right of the oppressed to fight and kill for liberty; but they hold this sentiment in direct opposition to the precepts of their Leader-I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.' Surely the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.'

I must pause, for a moment, and count the number of those with whom I am about to conflict. If I had to encounter only men-stealers and slaveholders, victory would be easy; but it is not the south alone that is to be subdued. The whole nation is against me. Church after church is to be converted, and the powerful influence of the clergy broken. The friendship of good men is to be turned into enmity, and their support into opposition. It is my task to change their admiration into abhorrence; to convince them that their well-meant exertions have been misdirected, and productive of greater evil than good; and to induce them to abandon an institution to which they now fondly cling.

To those who neither fear God nor regard man-who have sworn eternal animosity to their colored countrymen, and whose cry is, 'Away with them, we do not want them here! '—I make no appeal. Disregarding as they do that divine command, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,' it would be idle for

me to direct my arguments to them. I address myself to highminded and honorable men, whose heads and hearts are susceptible to the force of sound logic. I appeal to those, who have been redeemed from the bondage of sin by the precious blood of Christ, and with whom I hope to unite in a better world in ascribing glory, and honor, and praise to the Great Deliverer for ever. If I can succeed in gaining their attention, I feel sure of convincing their understandings and securing their support.

Besides the overwhelming odds which are opposed to me, I labor under other very serious disadvantages. My efforts in the cause of emancipation have been received as if they were intended to bring chaos back again, and to give the land up to pillage and its inhabitants to slaughter. My calls for an alteration in the feelings and practices of the people toward the blacks have been regarded as requiring a sacrifice of all the rules of propriety, and as seeking an overthrow of the established laws of nature! I have been thrust into prison, and amerced in a heavy fine. Epithets, huge and unseemly, have been showered upon me without mercy. I have been branded as a fanatic, a madman, a disturber of the peace, an incendiary, a cutthroat, a monster, &c. &c. &c. Assassination has been threatened me in a multitude of anonymous letters. Private and public rewards to a very large amount, by combinations of individuals and by legislative bodies at the south, have been offered to any persons who shall abduct or destroy me. 'Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.' This malignity of opposition and proximity of danger, however, are like oil to the fire of my zeal. I am not deliriously enthusiastic-I do not covet to be a martyr; but I had rather die a thousand deaths, than witness the horrible oppression under which more than two millions of my countrymen groan, and be silent. No reproaches, no dangers shall deter me. At the north or the south, at the east or the west,-wherever Providence may call me,-my voice shall be heard in behalf of the perishing slave, and against the claims of his oppressor. Mine is the frank avowal of the excellent WILBERFORCE --I can admit of no compromise

when the commands of equity and philanthropy are so imperious. I wash my hands of the blood that may be spilled. I protest against the system, as the most flagrant violation of every principle of justice and humanity. I NEVER WILL DESERT THE CAUSE. In my task it is impossible to tire: it fills my mind with complacency and peace. At night I lie down with composure, and rise to it in the morning with alacrity. I

NEVER WILL DESIST FROM THIS BLESSED WORK.

Now that the concentrated execration of the civilized world is poured upon those who engage in the foreign slave trade, how mild and inefficient, comparatively speaking, seem to have been the rebukes of Pitt, and Fox, and Wilberforce, and Clarkson! Yet these rebukes were once deemed fanatical and outrageous by good men-yea, like flames of fire, threatening a universal conflagration! So the denunciations which I am now hurling against slavery and its abettors,-which seem to many so violent and unmerited,-will be considered moderate, pertinent and just, when this murderous, soul-destroying system shall have been overthrown.

6

Fanaticism has been the crime alleged against reformers in all ages. These,' it was said of the apostles, that have turned the world upside down, come hither also.' Luther was a madman in his day what is he now in the estimation of the friends of civil and religious liberty? One of

Those starry lights of virtue, that diffuse

Through the dark depths of time their vivid flame.'

That base and desperate men should thus stigmatize those who endure the cross as good soldiers, and walk as pilgrims and strangers here, is not wonderful; but that the professed followers of Jesus Christ should join in this hue-and-cry is lamentable. Singular enough, I have been almost as cruelly aspersed by ministers of the gospel and church members, as by any other class of men. Unacquainted with me, and ignorant of my sentiments, they have readily believed the accusations of my enemies. The introduction of my name into conversation has elicited from them contemptuous sneers or strong denunciations. I have a right to complain of this treatment, and I do strongly [PART I.]

2

To

protest against it as unchristian, hurtful and ungenerous. prejudge and condemn an individual, on vague and apocryphal rumors, without listening to his defence or examining evidence, is tyranny. Perhaps I am in error-perhaps I deserve unqualified condemnation; but I am at least entitled to a privilege which is granted to the vilest criminals, namely, the privilege of a fair trial. I ask nothing more. To accuse me of heresy, madness and sedition, is one thing; to substantiate the accusation, another.

Should this work chance to fall into the hands of those who have thus ignorantly reprobated my course, I appeal to their sense of rectitude whether they are not bound to give it a candid and deliberate perusal; and if they shall find in my writings nothing contrary to the immutable principles of justice, whether they ought not to be as strenuous in my defence as they have been hitherto in seeking my overthrow.

To show that I do not vacate any pledge which I have given to the public, I shall here insert all the specifications, which, from time to time, I have brought against the American Colonization Society. In The Liberator' of April 23, 1831, is the following serious compend

I am prepared to show, that those who have entered into this cONSPIRACY AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS are unanimous in abusing their victims; unanimous in their mode of attack; unanimous in proclaiming the absurdity, that our free blacks are natives of Africa; unanimous in propagating the libel, that they cannot be elevated and improved in this country; unanimous in opposing their instruction; unanimous in exciting the prejudices of the people against them; unanimous in apologising for the crime of slavery; unanimous in conceding the right of the planters to hold their slaves in a limited bondage; unanimous in their hollow pretence for colonizing, namely, to evangelize Africa; unanimous in their true motive for the measure-a terror lest the blacks should rise to avenge their accumulated wrongs. It is a conspiracy to send the free people of color to Africa under a benevolent pretence, but really that the slaves may be held more securely in bondage. It is a conspiracy based upon fear, oppression and falsehood, which draws its aliment from the prejudices of the people, which is sustained by duplicity, which really upholds the slave system, which fascinates while it destroys, which endangers the safety and happiness of the country, which no precept of the bible can justify, which is implacable in its spirit, which should be annihilated at a blow.

These are my accusations; and if I do not substantiate them, I am willing to be covored with reproach.'

The following is copied from an editorial article of July 9, 1831 :

The superstructure of the Colonization Society rests upon the following pil

lars :

1st. Persecution. It declares that the whole colored population must be removed to Africa; but as the free portion are almost unanimously opposed to a removal, it seems to be the determination of the Society to make their situations so uncomfortable and degraded here, as to compel them to migrate consequently it discourages their education and improvement in this their native home. This is persecution.

2d. Falsehood. It stigmatises our colored citizens as being natives of Africa, and talks of sending them to their native land; when they are no more related to Africa than we are to Great Britain.

3d: Cowardice. It avows as a prominent reason why colored citizens ought to be removed, that their continuance among us will be dangerous to us as a -people! This is a libel upon their character. Instead of demanding justice for this oppressed class, the Society calls for their removal !

4th. Infidelity. It boldly denies that there is power enough in the gospel to melt down the prejudices of men, and insists, that, so long as the people of color remain among us, we must be their enemies!-Every honest man should abhor the doctrine.'

In The Liberator' of July 30, 1831, alluding to the present work, I used the following language :

'I shall be willing to stake my reputation upon it for honesty, prudence, benevolence, truth and sagacity. If I do not prove the Colonization Society to be a creature without heart, without brains, eyeless, unnatural, hypocritical, relentless, unjust, then nothing is capable of demonstration-then let me be covered with confusion of face.'

The following paragraph is extracted from The Liberator' of November 19, 1831:

'It is the enemy of immediate restitution to the slaves; it courts and receives the approbation of notorious slave owners; it deprecates any interference with slave property; it discourages the improvement of the colored population, except they are removed to the shores of Africa; it is lulling the country into a fatal sleep, pretending to be something when it is nothing; it is utterly chimerical, as well as intolerant, in its design; it serves to increase the value of the slaves, and to make brisk the foreign and domestic slave trade; it nourishes and justifies the most cruel prejudices against color; it sneers at those who advocate the bestowal of equal rights upon our colored countrymen; it contends for an indefinite, dilatory, far-off emancipation; it expressly declares that it is more humane to keep the slaves in chains, than to give them freedom in this country! In short, it is the most compendious and best adapted scheme to uphold the slave