from our bible, temperance, or anti-slavery associations, except, as already mentioned, that the latitude allowed by the constitutions of these last is somewhat less extensive.

But, in fact, we have always believed, that every intelligent supporter of colonization, at the south as well as the north, if he has not taken up the scheme from motives of personal ambition, and a desire of popularity, has done so from a good-will to the colored race. We believe the fact to be so at the north, as the result of our own observation; and we think he must be a hardy asserter of doubtful propositions, who will deny, that the motives of this section have been,-we mean to speak of such as have really labored and given to the cause, almost universally benevolent. We have believed the same of the really efficient supporters of the scheme at the south; because they cannot be ignorant of our motives and feelings at the north, and would refuse to co-operate, of course, unless they either harmonize with us, or expect to deceive us. On the subject of slavery, especially, do we believe there is a common desire, though in different degrees, for the welfare of the colored race, among the efficient supporters of the cause, both at the south and the north; for, not to say any thing respecting the positive assertions which are continually made upon this subject by those who are entitled to credence, we are certain that the sentiments of the north are so well understood, that if a New-England man, of sober and respectable character, should, when passing through a southern state, declare himself, with the utmost sincerity of meaning, to be in principle an advocate of slavery, no southern advocate of slavery would believe him, or give him credit for being any thing superior to a hypocrite. So that, whatever may be said about colonization holding out one face to the north and another to the south, must be fabrication; for the very fact, that the sober and pious population of the free states so extensively support it, is signal enough to all the south, that its influence is at least supposed to be counter to slavery. It is inconceivable then, that, knowing as they do, the fixed hatred of slavery which our northern colonizationists entertain, any southern colonizationists should go hand in hand with them, without partaking, in some remote degree, at least, of the same feeling. We should be surprised, therefore, if that charge of low and detestable cunning, which Mr. Jay so dispassionately prefers against that portion of our countrymen, when he says, "it is permitted to represent the society as an antidote to slavery," because the free blacks, whom they hate, "cannot be transported without money, and much money cannot be had without the aid of the enemies of slavery," should turn out to be much better than a calumny.

But the printer warns us to close. Our remarks on Mr. Jay's labors must be left like "the story of Cambuscan bold." We propose, however, to resume the subject in the next number.

THE

QUARTERLY

CHRISTIAN SPECTATOR.

VOLUME VII-NUMBER IV.

DECEMBER, 1835.

ART. I.-COLONIZATION AND ANTI-COLONIZATION.

An Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Societies: By WILLIAM JAY. Second Edition. 1835. Letters to the Hon. William Jay; being a reply to his "Inquiry into the American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Societies." By DAVID M. REESE, M. D., of New-York.

WE resume the thread of our remarks on these books, where we left it at the close of our last number.

In respect to the compromise of principle on the part of northern colonizationists, it must be confessed, that Mr. Jay's book leads to some views of great importance. Not that there has been that deliberate compromise which Mr. Jay's hostility to colonization induces him to attribute to every unguarded or erroneous expression; but the association with southern men, whose feelings are of course very different respecting slavery, and the blacks in general, from our own; the holding of meetings in a slave-district, where of course the jealousy upon those subjects is very strong, might naturally lead to the partial if not entire abandonment of that bold and manly stand, upon many questions connected with the welfare of the colored race, which duty and nobleness alike require. It is the same influence in kind, which leads christians by their association with impenitent men, to a conformity with this world; the same influence which will be felt upon the purity of religion, if antislavery men shall invite promiscuously to their prayer-meetings,―as there seems to be reason for fearing that they will do,-evangelical christians, unitarians, christ-ians and universalists; the same which one might suspect has already reached Mr. Jay, when, as while he is writing concerning the emancipation of slaves, he inquires, "Was it misguided piety, that induced Mr. Jefferson to set his slaves free by his last will?" whereas, nothing can be plainer, than that Mr. VOL. VII.

66

Jefferson's motive, however commendable it might be in other respects, was not piety of any sort, either judicious or misguided.

66

But it is good to take counsel from an opponent. Let all colonization men, as they are solemnly bound to do, admit whatever is true against themselves, and see to it hereafter, that their conduct in this particular may give no occasion either for reproach or grief. The evil is not inseparable from colonization. Even allowing that the bitter accusations of Mr. Jay do convey a faithful and not a distorted representation of the state of facts, the purpose of destruction, towards which he aims them, may still be very sinful, and one by no means to be abetted, especially with those sentiments of unrelenting hostility" which Mr. Jay professes on godly principles to entertain. It is certainly not to be recommended, that the Colonization Society should take upon itself to act upon subjects not proposed in its constitution; but, on the other hand, it is certain, that colonization cannot stand high above opposition, unless its members boldly occupy the whole ground of truth upon every subject connected with the welfare of the blacks. If the advocates of slavery, who may be connected with colonization, will not bear this, so much the better; and if southern colonizationists will not harmonize with it, but must needs depart, let them depart. As we are accustomed to think, when southern congressmen threaten to retire from the Union, if congress shall entertain the purpose of abolishing slavery in the national domains, so do we think about this matter. We love the Union with all our hearts; we earnestly wish the co-operation of our southern brethren in a pure enterprise, but we love and and wish for the freedom and happiness of the African race still more.

Not only upon the subject of slavery, and the topics immediately connected with it, may counsel be taken from Mr. Jay's book, respecting the errors of our past, and the duties of our fu ture conduct, but also upon the general subject of the efforts which are to be made for elevating the condition of the colored man, and promoting his happiness at home. We are aware, that, until within a very few years past, nearly every thing,-it is true, Mr. Jay, nearly every thing that has been done at all, has been the work of colonization men, rather as individuals, indeed, than in the capacity of members of any national association. But the entire amount which has been accomplished is small, compared with what the case has demanded. The reproaches of our anti-colonization fellow-citizens ought to provoke us "to love and good works." If they are just, certainly they should be received with candor; if unjust, so much the better, if still they are so received.

Now if Mr. Jay had rested his argument upon a sober view of the state of facts; if he had confessed for himself, for his friends and country, that there has been great sinfulness in this mat

ter, resting upon us in the sight of God; if then he had charged upon colonization a tendency to increase this state of things, by its having held up continually the degradation of the colored race, without any adequate expression of sympathy or efforts for its relief and remedy; if he had said further, that there is evidence that some persons, professedly attached to the society, have not been animated by love for the man of color, but by prejudice and hatred; painful as the admission must be, we could not have taken the responsibility of withholding it. But this would have tended toward reform, and not have aimed at destruction; and Mr. Jay very dispassionately charges on the scheme, hatred to the blacks, for its great animating motive, and the oppression and slander of them as a settled and deliberate system of policy; and in the second chapter of his work, trains up his heavy artillery for the attack in the two following enormous propositions, which he backs and defends by formidable quotations :

'THE SOCIETY EXCUSES AND JUSTIFIES THE OPPRESSION OF THE FREE NEGROES, AND THE PREJUDICES AGAINST THEM.

THE SOCIETY DISCOURAGES ALL ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE THE CONDITION OF THE FREE BLACKS.'

The following are a part of the quotations which precede (we shall soon give others which follow) the foregoing propositions. Mr. Jay's quotations amount to several in number under each head, and he remarks, that they are selections, and form but a small proportion of those to the same purpose which might have been adduced:

'Free blacks are a greater NUISANCE than even slaves themselves.' Address of C. C. Harper, Af. Rep. vol. ii. p. 189.

'Of all classes of our population, the most vicious is that of the free colored,-contaminated themselves, they extend their vices to all around them.' Speech of Mr. Clay, Vice President, 12th Report,

p. 21.

This class of persons, a CURSE AND CONTAGION wherever they reside.' Af. Rep. vol. iii. p. 203.

A large mass of human beings, who hang as a vile excrescence upon society.' Address of C. L. Mosby, before a Col. Soc. in Virginia.

There is a class (free blacks,) among us, introduced by violence, notoriously ignorant, degraded and miserable, mentally diseased, brokenspirited, acted upon by no motives to honorable exertions, scarcely reached in their debasement by the heavenly light.' Editorial Article, Af. Rep. vol. i. p. 68.

There are seven other quotations of the same general character; and of the twelve, all except the four which are credited

anonymously to the African Repository, are from the mouths or the pens of citizens of slave States. They are introduced by Mr. Jay by a paragraph of which the following is a part:

For the purpose of raising money, it is the policy of the Society to appeal to all the various and discordant motives that can be incited in behalf of the colony. A strong and very general prejudice exists against the free blacks. It is unfortunately the policy of the society to aggravate this prejudice, since the more we abominate these people, the more willing we shall be to pay money for the purpose of getting rid of them.' Jay, p. 18.

Now, of the spirit of the quotations, of which we have given a part, and which were thus introduced; we should say, if called upon to express our opinion, that in part it appears, to use the softest language, highly censurable, in some other part injudicious, and for the rest, that it depends much upon the connection. It is possible that some one, or more of them and others like them, which even Mr. Jay has never seen, may have been identified with some monstrous attempt made somewhere in those distant regions where we never traveled, to enhance and kindle the prejudices against the free blacks, for the purpose of raising money to get rid of them. But having long been intimate with colonization, and having in almost every article or speech which we have read, or listened to, met with some forcible exhibition of the degradation of the African race, we cannot recall a single instance, in which it did not strike us at the time, as having been made simply to show the immense importance and the benevolence of removing the colored man from under those influences which make him so degraded, and placing him where the light of heaven may shine upon him, as a man in the noblest capacities of our race. These exhibitions may have had an incidental and undesigned effect to aggravate prejudice; but never, never in a single instance, have we known the effort made, in colonization addresses, to "aggravate," or even to appeal to prejudice against that class, for the purpose of carrying on that cause. In fact, this whole community knows the motive to have been, in very many instances, if not all, directly the reverse. But Mr. Jay has gone so far in the exercise of his "unrelenting hostility," as to assert it to have been the policy of this great system of colonization, which has lain near the heart of NewEngland for many years, to cause men to abominate the blacks, with a view to collect money for their removal.

But, where a strong antipathy has taken possession of any man, it is impossible to tell what mistakes even his honesty may not run into. "I do not wonder," said an abolitionist of the modern school to the writer, "I do not wonder that colonization is unpopular with the colored people; it comes to them with so ungra