ing proceedings. Mr. Jefferson, however, continued to agitate the subject from his retirement at Monticello; saying, in 1811: "I have long made up my mind, and have no hesitation in saying, that I have ever thought this the most desirable measure that could be adopted for drawing off this part of our population; most advantageous for them as well as for us. Going from a country possessing all the useful arts, they might be the means of transplanting them among the inhabitants of Africa; and would thus carry back to the country of their origin the seeds of civilization; which might render their sojourn here a blessing in the end to that country."

So soon as the country was again at peace, the public mind reverted with renewed interest to the subject of colonization; and in December 1816, the General Assembly passed the following resolutions by a majority of 137 out of 146 votes in the House of Delegates; and with but one dissenting voice in the Senate:

"Whereas, the General Assembly of Virginia has repeatedly sought to obtain an asylum beyond the limits of the United States for such persons of color as have been or may be emancipated under the laws of this Commonwealth, but have hitherto found all their efforts frustrated, either by the disturbed state of other nations, or by domestic causes equally unpropitious; they now avail themselves of a period when peace has healed the wounds of humanity, and the principal nations of Europe have agreed with the United States in abolishing the slave trade (a traffic which this Commonwealth, both before and after the revolution, sedulously sought to extirpate,) to renew this effort: therefore

Resolved, That the executive be requested to correspond with the President of the United States, for the purpose of obtaining a territory on the coast of Africa, or at some other place not within any of the States or Territories of the United States, to serve for an asylum of such persons of color as are now free and desire the same; and for those who may be hereafter emancipated within this Commonwealth: and that the Senators and Representatives of this State in the Congress of the United States be requested to exert their best efforts to aid in the attainment of that object."

These resolutions, which are substantially a copy of those of 1802 and 1805, contain the whole idea of the Colonization Society, as now embodied. But something more than mere political expediency, or even motives of humanity, was necessary for the realization of this idea. Grand epochs in the history of man's amelioration are signalized by higher motives than those which dictate mere human policies. Christianity is the mainspring of that intricate mechanism which is bearing the earth along from its wintry and torpid position, and bringing it under the influence of serener heavens and an awakening Spring. It was not until the spirit of God breathed the breath of life into the speculation of the politician that it became an organized and living body in the form of the "Colonization Society." Let us look back for a moment, and see how this new element entered into the combination, and secured that indispensable condition of success, the co-operation of christians and politicians to the same end.

The conversion of Central Africa to christianity had long been an insoluble problem to the christian church. The "Sun of Righteousness," in making his sun-like circuit of the earth, had visited other lands, and even illumined the frontiers of Africa; but not a ray had penetrated the land of the Black man. Ethi

opia was still the "Niobe of Nations,

childless and crownless in her voiceless woe." In response to her mute appeal, missionaries, Catholic and Protestant, casting behind them "all countryships, and all the sweet charities of Home," went forth, for two centuries, with the heroic purpose of planting the "ensigns. of the Gospel" within this intrenched camp of Satan. The result was a perfect failure; and the bones of a noble army of martyrs bleached their burning sands. To human view, the land seemed doomed; but not to the eye of faith, which saw, through these frowning Providences, "Ethiopia [in the language of the Prophet] stretching out her hands unto God." Many christian hearts were still anxiously revolving the problem;

and to them the happy thought was suggested (as we believe, by the spirit of God,) of returning to the land of their fathers christianized Africans bearing the ark of God, and all the institutions of christian civilization. Happily, there was a class of these persons (the free negroes) to whose going no objection could be opposed. Indeed, all interests, social and political, conspired to favor the suggestion. Thus, politicians and christians (each unconscious of what the other was doing) started from different stand-points and, proceeding upon different times of argument, came to the same conclusion at the same time.*

Accordingly, politicians of all parties and christians of all creeds assembled in the city of Washington soon after the passage of the Virginia resolutions, and laid the foundation of the Colonization Society; burying under its corner-stone all party feelings in politics, and all sectarian jealousies in religion. What but the over-ruling Providence of God could have produced this conjuncture of circumstances and union of minds?t

It was a happy coincidence, that the year of the establishment of the Colonization Society was the year of Jas. Monroe's accession to the Presidency of the United States. We have seen Monroe's active co-operation, while governor of Virginia, with Jefferson, then President of the United States, in stimulating and shaping those acts of the General Assembly of Virginia which led to the formation of the Colonization Society. We shall now see his agency in a higher sphere, in executing those laws of Congress which were perhaps indispensable

to the establishment of the Colony itself. It was hardly possible for a private society, with small pecuniary resources, and working with such rude materials, to make a permanent plantation upon a distant and barbarous shore. And it was not likely that the government of the United States would take the responsibility of such a measure, although Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Marshall all concurred in the opinion of its expediency and constitutionality. But that Divine Providence whose ways are not as our ways had (as it seems to our short sight) laid far back in the legislation of Congress a train of causes whose effects made it the interest of our General Government to co-operate with the Colonization Society. The act of Congress prohibiting the foreign slave trade after 1808 contained a provision placing Africans recaptured by our Navy at the disposition of the legislature of any State within whose territory they might be landed. Under this provision, the legislatures of several States sold a number of recaptured Africans into slavery. In 1819, two delegates from Virginia, Messrs. Mercer and Floyd, reported a bill repealing those provisions which enabled a State to defeat the intention of Congress in prohibiting the slave trade. The law of 1819 committed all recaptured Africans to the custody of the marshals of the United States until they could be restored to their own country. It also authorized the President of the United States to appoint agents upon the coast of Africa, to receive these Africans; and appropriated $100,000 to carry its provisions into effect. The legislation of

Congress having thus devolved upon the government of the United States a necessity for providing an asylum for recaptured Africans, it became the interest of the General Government to co-operate with the Colonization Society, whose benevolent designs were just ripe for execution. We cannot tell how it strikes others, but for ourselves, we recognize with reverence in these proceedings what seem to us unmistakeable indications of a Divine Providence presiding over and "shaping the ends" of individuals and of nations.

The beneficent interpretation of this law of Congress by Mr. Monroe, and the kind offices of Capts. Wadsworth, Stockton and Spence, of the Navy, acting under his orders, enabled the Society to overcome the formidable obstacles to the successful plantation of the colony at Cape Mesurado. It was in acknowledgment of these services that the capital of the infant settlement was called Monrovia.

In 1820 (just two hundred years after the landing of the blacks at Jamestown,) the Elizabeth sailed for the coast of Africa, with eighty-three emigrants and a few white men, who had volunteered to be pioneers in this doubtful and perilous experiment. We will not stop to recite the affecting story of their adventures, which in many incidents were strangely like those of the first settlers of Virginia. The time may come when their heroism may be fitly commemorated by the muse of History.

Altho' no sculptured form should deck the place,

Or marble monuments those ashes grace, Still, for the deeds of worth which they have done,

Shall flowers unfading flourish on their tomb.

Only one-third of a century has elapsed since the little company of free negroes

pitched their tents in the African wilderness, and the result is the Republic of Liberia, whose independence has been acknowledged by most of the leading nations in the world. Colonizationists have been charged with painting too flattering portraits of this young republic. We admit that this has sometimes been done. Exaggeration is the child of enthusiasm, as enthusiasm is generally the parent of novel and bold enterprises. But if the friends of Liberia have extenuated her failings, her enemies have "set down much in malice." If our pictures are sometimes overwrought, theirs are often caricatures. If we are enthusiasts, they are fanatics, if fanaticism be, according to a great philosopher, "enthusiasm inflamed by hatred." But if we set aside the prejudiced witnesses on either side, and take only the disinterested testimony of our naval officers, we shall find evidence enough to at least encourage a national hope that our experiment will succeed. Commodores Stockton, Perry, Cooper, Lavallette, Read, Mayo, Gregory, and we believe every officer who has commanded a squadron upon the coast of Africa; with Commanders Marston, Lynch, Foote, Rudd, and many other subordinate officers, unite in bearing witness to the general contentment, comfort, and spirit of improvement which reign in Liberia, justifying, in their opinion, the confident expectation that the settlement will endure, and furnish a happy home for all of our colored people who may seek an asylum there.‡

But whatever conflicting opinions may be entertained upon this subject, the following facts are undeniable: there exists upon the coast of Africa a Republic of free blacks from the United States, organized after the American model. They live under a constitution recognizing the principles of civil and religious liberty,

which lie at the base of our own institutions, and which are not enjoyed by any other people under the sun. They have a President, who is elected every two years; and senators and representatives, who are elected annually. These elections have been for many years conducted with order and according to law. The annual messages of the President compare favorably with similar documents from the governors of our States, and breathe a more enlarged and elevated tone of morals and statesmanship than many of the latter documents. They have courts of justice, in which the laws are administered with dignity and intelligence. They have printing presses and newspapers; high schools and common schools; and many churches, which are vocal every Sunday with the sound of the gospel, and with songs of praise. They have driven the slave trade from five hundred miles of the coast; thus accomplishing with the Dove of Peace what the Lion of Great Britain and the Eagle of America, floating at the mastheads of proud squadrons, have failed to achieve.* They have extended their jurisdiction over a hundred thousand natives, who have renounced many of their savage customs, and are being gradually trained in the arts of civilization.†

They have advanced the base of our missionary operations across the Atlantic; and make the centre of African missions coincide with what was lately the centre of African barbarism. They have provided an asylum for the exile, a home for the homeless, and a nursery of indigenous missionaries, who can live in a clime fatal to the white man.

When we compare the feeble instruments by which these results have been wrought, and the short time in which they have been working, with the immense expenditures of "civilization and missionary societies" for two hundred

years before the founding of Liberia, it seems little less than a miracle, and looks like one of those instances in which the great Disposer of events chooses the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise and mighty.

In this view of it, African colonization is a great Christian mission, which has the fervent prayers of christians of all creeds in Virginia, and it is annually commended with unanimous voices by Methodist Conferences, Baptist Associations, Presbyterian Synods, and Episcopal Conventions; who look upon it as "God's plan" for the regeneration of Africa.

But while this is the great leading end of the Colonization Society, the fact which vitalizes it, it carries in its train many other benign results which enlist in its support the Philosopher, the Philanthropist, and the Politician. The Philosopher regards it as an interesting experiment to test the capacity of the negro for self-government. He sees that the African under the discipline of slavery has risen far above the stature of his ancestors in their native land; and he knows that man in a state of conscious inferiority cannot unfold his powers any more than a plant in the dark or under the shade. He must, in the language of Mr. Webster, come out. He must feel his equality. He must enjoy the shining sun in the heavens as much as those around him, before he feels that he is in all respects a man. The Philosopher thinks that in Liberia the negro has a favorable theatre for the full trial of the experiment; and he watches with anxiety the solution of the problem.

The Philanthropist sees in Virginia fifty thousand human beings (the free negroes) in a state of physical, mental, social and moral degradation in melancholy contrast with other classes of our people. They are nominally free, but

enjoy none of the privileges of freedom but the license of doing nothing. “Placed beneath the white man, on the one hand, and nominally above the slave, on the other; in contact with both, but in union with neither; they cannot be reached by the strong motives which impel either class to exertion and honest courses. All of the most lucrative and honorable pursuits of life are closed against them. They feel none of those nobler sentiments of our common nature which bid us, even in servitude, to cling with grateful reverence and affection to our benefactors and superiors. They do not even feel that salutary fear of impending punishment which, while it does not in itself morally elevate the slave, at least keeps him from idleness, and urges him to honest and orderly habits. Crushed by the combined agencies of superior capital and intelligence and the competing power of organized slave labor, itself wielded by intelligence and aided by capital; crowded out of the humbler occupations of life; with nothing of liberty but its name, and all of slavery but its blessings; with no country of his own, a social outcast and a political outlaw; the free negro, conscious of the irredeemable degradation of his lot, grows reckless of a future from which he has nothing to hope or fear, becomes discontented in his feelings, dishonest in his habits, and desperate in his crimes. Under these circumstances, they fill our jails with prisoners, our courts with criminals, and our penitentiary with convicts."*

We are so organized by our Creator, that, unless our moral sense is perverted by sophistical reasoning, we cannot but feel a compassion for our unfortunate fellow-creatures; especially when they lie in the dust at our feet, and are completely subject to our power. The sympathies which spring up spontaneously in our bosoms at the sight of such objects, and prompt us to extend our hands

for their relief, are honora ble to the human heart, however they may be sometimes brought into contempt by sickly sentimentalists, who do homage to this virtue by canting about what they do not feel. There are thousands of men in Virginia, worthy of all respect and honor, who have for half a century been revolving this problem of the destiny of this daily blackening mass of free negroes in our State. The result has been the suggestion of several schemes for 'their and our relief. It has been proposed to reduce them to slavery, as the most humane expedient. A proposition so opposed to the genius of our institutions and to the spirit of the age, is not likely to be seriously entertained by the legis lature of Virginia, as indeed it could not be justified upon any recognized moral or American political principle, and c be vindicated only by the "tyrant's plea" of absolute necessity, a contingency which has certainly not yet arisen. Shall we amalgamate with them? All the instincts of our nature repel the suggestion. Between us and them "there is a great gulf fixed." Until the Ethiopian can change his skin, no human power can ever bridge that gulf so that we can stand upon the same social and politi ca platform. No: the white man and the free negro

Stand and frown upon each other,
Like cliffs that have been rent asunder,
And neither heat nor frost nor thunder
Shall ever do away, I ween,

The marks of that which once hath been.

Another alternative is, to colonize them by force in the Northern States. As a measure of retaliation, this would be a just judgment upon the insane Abolitionists. But even if the scheme were practicable, we have no right to sport with these helpless creatures by making them the ministers of our vengeance. But the project is impracticable; for the subtle casuists of the North make a re