And considering
that these blessings will descend to the '_nati natorum, et qui
nascentur ab illis_,' we shall in the long run have rendered them
perhaps more good than evil. To fulfil this object, the colony of
Sierra Leone promises well, and that of Mesurado adds to our prospect of
success. Under this view, the Colonization Society is to be considered
as a missionary society, having in view, however, objects more humane,
more justifiable, and less aggressive on the peace of other nations,
than the others of that appellation.
The second object, and the most interesting to us, as coming home to
our physical and moral characters, to our happiness and safety, is to
provide an asylum to which we can, by degrees, send the whole of that
population from among us, and establish them under our patronage and
protection, as a separate, free, and independent people, in some country
and climate friendly to human life and happiness. That any place on the
coast of Africa should answer the latter purpose, I have ever deemed
entirely impossible. And without repeating the other arguments which
have been urged by others, I will appeal to figures only, which admit
no controversy. I shall speak in round numbers, not absolutely accurate,
yet not so wide from truth as to vary the result materially. There are
in the United States a million and a half of people of color in
slavery. To send off the whole of these at once, nobody conceives to be
practicable for us, or expedient for them.
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