all three intelligent and worthy brethren, possessing the Christian esteem and confidence of all who know them. Thousands can give a hearty testimony to their prudence, forbearance, calmness, and correctness of procedure in all things. They have no wild schemes or reckless views; and while my heart has bled at their recitals, it has secretly glorified God in them, in view of the excellent spirit they evince under privations and trials of a sort, that few of their white brethren could endure for a moment. Having made special inquiries, and received answers as definite, I shall insert here a letter from the Rev. Mr. Cornish, which will speak for itself.

NEW-YORK, Dec. 4, 1833. Rev. and dear Sir.-Esteeming you as one of the warmest friends of our injured people, and mindful of the deeds of your abolition sires, I beg to present to you an objection to the scheme of Colonization, which you may not have sufficiently weighed. It is—

THE UNANIMOUS AND UNIVERSAL OPPOSITION TO THAT SCHEME, OF ALL THE INTELLIGENT OF OUR COLORED POPULATION.

ciety negotiates alone with the free, for the | are of my own denomination, and members sake of freedom; will use no restraint to ob- of the Presbytery of New York. They are tain their consent; and would abhor the thought of proceeding without it. Precisely such were my positions and replies to our trans-atlantic brethren. Then came the question of fact: Have you their consent? Here I could not answer satisfactorily to myself or them. Our opinions were directly opposed. They had evidence too, which I could not answer, that the free negroes of this country were so generally opposed to it, and that with great decision, as to constitute the rule in spite of all exceptions, and so in effect to nullify the pretensions and even the existence of the Society. I admitted that, if this were so, the Society was stopped in its career by the lawful and appropriate veto of the people themselves; and here generally my mind uneasily rested, after every concussion of sentiment. In this mentally labouring condition, I returned to my native country, purposed to take no public attitude in the matter, until that prime question was ascertained and settled. In this, I have been guilty of no rashness at all. I have withstood party influences, and committed myself to no side; and in avowing now a change A few months after the organization of the Sociof sentiment in the whole affair, I am actu-ety in 1817, the colored citizens of Philadelphia, ated mainly by a wish to apprise my breth- with James Forten in the chair, protested against ren across the ocean, of what I deem the its principles; predicted its unhappy influence; truth, that so I may undo whatever I did and appealed to the community in behalf of their improperly while among them. rights. Besides, the first public Journal ever isMy invessued by the colored citizens of this republic, (with tigations have issued in a complete convic- which Journal 1 had the honor of being connecttion that, on this ground alone, the non-con-ed,) entered its equal protest against Colonization; sent or unanimous opposition of the coloured people of this country, especially of the Northern States, and pre-eminently of the better informed of them, the Society is morally annihilated. At all events, I can advocate it no longer. More: if I had known the facts as they might have been known in our country where the colored people are perSubsequent to that time, in every eity and town long ago, I never should have advocated the mitted to assemble, they have always entered their Society; and it is quite probable that many solemn protest against colonization, as a system of others in this country are in exactly the same proscription and cruelty. This is surely an objecpredicament. Among other means influen- tion to the plan: and though there are many others tial of this change, I have had several inter-one with which I will at present trouble you. equally tangible at my fingers' ends, it is the only views and conferences with the Rev. Messrs. think on us! Cornish, and Wright, and Williams, of this city, singly and together; whose testimony is entirely one, is perfectly firm, and has never changed, on the question. The respectability of these brethren is indisputable; but alas! their skins are not as fair, nor their hair as straight as ours; and thence, "for such a worthy cause," their remonstrances have been disregarded or precluded. In this wrong, I confess myself to have participated. They did remonstrate, like men, like Christians, and with a sagacity in the matter of their own interests in which our whiter philanthropy has been, I fear, far inferior to theirs. The last of the triumvirate, is a clergyman in communion with the Episcopal church of this city; the others,

showing what we deemed the injustice of legislating away our rights-our claims to a country we had bled to redeem and sweated to cultivate, without making us a party, or allowing us a voice in the legislation, or giving us any proper representation in the discussions. These things will appear by the accompanying documents.

I am, dear Sir, in bonds of tenderest affection,
Yours &c. SAMUEL E. CORNISH.
Rev. Dr. Cox, New-York.

The documents to which Mr. Cornish alludes are quite sufficient and conclusive in establishing the point. His letter may be considered as the voice of the colored people universally. There can be no question that it tells the truth; and if so, I see no course left for me but to abandon the Society. There are other objections to it, as my correspondent says. But at present, I will urge no other than the one in evidence. It is cardinal, conclusive, and conquerable neither by logic nor sophistry. If it be said, they may be convinced yet in its favor: Í reply, that fact will prove itself whenever it

motives of its members. The civilizing and christianizing of that vast continent, and the extirpation of the abominable traffic in slaves

"But there are those, and those who are most active and influential in its cause, who hesitate not to say, that they wish to rid the country of the free colored population; and there is sufficient reason to believe that with many this is the principle motive for supporting that Society; and that, whether Africa is civilized or not, and whether the slave-trade be suppressed or not, they would wish to see the free colored people removed from this country to Africa."

occurs. To me it now appears about as likely as that they are not men, or that God has not "made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth." If it which, notwithstanding all the laws passbe said, they might have been convinced, if ed for its suppression, is still carried on in they had not been influenced by abolitition- all its horrors-are no doubt the principal ists; I reply, there is no evidence of this; motives, which induce many to give it their and for one, I utterly disbelieve it; suppos- support. ing the other side exposed to the true and obvious retort, that few or none would ever have consented to go, if they had completely understood the matter, and if fair means only had been used by all parties to conciliate their willingness. Let us suppose ourselves in their condition, with all our boasted superiority of sense; is it very likely that we would consent to a moral prejudice against us; to a proscription resulting from it; to expatriation as its fruit; to a denial of our nativity in the place of our birth, calling us Europeans or Africans, though actually born in America; to a banishment from the land "We are NATIVES of this country: we ask only of our present affections to a climate that to be treated as well as FOREIGNERS. Not a few kills us? Impossible! One might be made of our fathers suffered and bled to purchase its inindeed, as a choice of evils, to prefer it on dependence; we ask only to be treated as well as the principle of a greater evil for that pur-cultivate it, and to raise it to its present prosperous those who fought against it. pose erected against us here, but properly condition; we ask only to share equal privileges "with our own consent," never, while we with those, who come from distant lands to enjoy belong to the species!

From one of the documents referred to, in Mr. Cornish's letter, I make the following extracts. It is a sermon preached by the Rev. Mr. Williams, Rector of St. Phillip's Church on THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1830.

"The festives of this day serve but to impress upon the minds of reflecting men of color, a deeper sense of the cruelty, the injustice, and oppression, of which they have been the victims. While others rejoice in their deliverance from a foreign yoke, they mourn that a yoke a thousand fold more grievous, is fastened upon them. Alas! they are slaves in the midst of freemen; they are slaves to those, who boast that freedom is the inalienable right of all; while the clanking of their fetters, and the voice of their wrongs, make a horrid discord in the songs of freedom which resound through the land." "No people in the world profess so high a respect for liberty and equality, as the people of the United States; and yet no people hold so many slaves or make such great dis

tinctions between man and man."

After arguing handsomely and well against removal, Mr. Williams observes:

We have toiled to

the fruits of our labour. Let these moderate re

quests be granted, and we need not go to Africa, We cannot but doubt the purity of the motives of nor any where else, to be improved and happy. those persons who deny us these requests; and who would send us to Africa to gain what they might give us at home.

has an opposite tendency. By the scandalous mis"But alas! the course which they have pursued, representations, which they are continually giving of our character and conduct, we have sustained much injury and have reason to apprehend much more.

denied all access to places, to which we formerly
"Without any charge of crime, we have been
had the most free intercourse. The coloured citi-
zens of other places, on leaving their homes, have
been denied the privilege of returning; and others
have been absolutely driven out.

producing these barbarous measures?
"Has the Colonization Society had no effect in

"They profess to have no other object in view, than the colonizing of the free people of colour on the Coast of Africa, with their own consent.

But

if our homes are made so uncomfortable that we cannot continue in them; or if, like our brethren of Ohio or New Orleans, we are driven from them, and no other door is open to receive us but Africa, our removal there will be any thing but voluntary. "It is very certain, that very few people of colThe Colonization Speaking of himself and his auditors as Society know this; and yet they do certainly calour wish to go to that land. freemen, Mr. Williams proceeds, as follows:culate, that in time they will have us all remov"But alas! the freedom to which we have attained is defective. Freedom and equality have been "put asunder." The rights of men are decided by the color of their skin; and there is as much difference made between the rights of a free white man, and a free colored man, as there is between a free colored man and a slave."

Of the Colonization Society, Mr. Williams says; "Far be it from me to impeach the

ed there.

"How can this be effected, but by making our situation worse here, and closing every other door against us?"

These are but extracts from a sermon which is an honor to the head and heart of its author. Here then I take my position, not to be moved by the common arguments that array their poverty against it. The colored people of this country, as a whole.

rights of men, as "by nature free and equal" respect our white brethren at the South; we universally; and seeking, in every possible will show unto them "a more excellent way;" way, to enlighten and correct public senti- we will remind them of THE NECESSITY OF ment respecting them; not by ferocity or THEIR OWN BENEVOLENT ACTION in the denunciation, or epithets of coarse crimina- case; we will compare theories, with freetion; but by wisdom, argument, kindness, dom and frankness, and examine all their arfirmness, Christian example, and prayer to guments as well as entreat them to examine Almighty God, who "executeth righteous- ours; we will deal iu facts, axioms, texts of ness and judgment for all that are oppress- Scripture, inferences, and kindness; we will ed." These are the only means that I pro-appeal to the intelligence of the South, to pose to use; and what cannot be done by THE GREAT AMOUNT OF UNEASY MORAL CONthem, I will not do. But be it here the motto sCIOUSNESS THAT IS THERE INCREASINGLY, of the good-WHAT OUGHT TO BE DONE CAN to their piety of which they are by no means BE DONE.. To doubt this, and despair, or do destitute, and their hopes in one for the presnothing, is quite unworthy of a Christian. ent and the future world. We will beg God is beginning wonderfully to act for Af- leave fraternally to discuss the morality of rica. The signs of the times are quite in-matters with them. We will raise questions telligible. They are striking and glorious. of expediency, necessity, and political econThe public sentiment of Christendom is mit-omy, in the case. We will perhaps canvass igating and increasing in their favor; it is becoming stimulated and enlightened; it will soon, BY ITS GLORIOUS MORAL FORCES ALONE, melt down the icebergs of prejudice, and proclaim to the sable captives of all lands, in the inspiring language of Montgomery:

their objections, and beg them to look as well at ours. We will not blame them for the legacy they have received from their ancestors, but only warn them of that they are about to bequeath to their posterity. We will admit their plea of innocence, as to the Thy chains are broken! Africa, be free! original sin that introduced slavery to our When will men learn that the way to country; but question it as to "the innumemake others better, is to treat them gene-rable actual transgressions," in which they rously and kindly? How is it that God accomplishes our sanctification? "God so loved the world-in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. BELOVED, IF GOD so LOVED US, WE OUGHT ALSO TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER." Let these principles enlighten the eyes and pervade the hearts of our whole people-the whites, towards their colored brethren of the species, "for whom Christ died;" let their proper and spontaneous fruits be seen abounding among us-and the work is done, or it begins its efficient advances immediately, in our national community. Will any man say, these principles never can predominate in the bosoms of the whites? Why-are the whites so degraded? Darker in spirit, than the others in body? And is it a Christian, who has ascertained that their ascendency is impossible? Ah! cannot God give them currency and triumph? Who converted him—if indeed he is converted, whose unbelief is barbarous and blind enough to limit the resources of Omnipotence, in spreading the victories of "grace and truth" through the earth? We wish to do nothing in the way of violence; to perpetrate no breach of the CONSTITUTION of our country against the South; to do nothing against their will, or even to denounce them: but remembering that " THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE ARE NOT CARNAL," BUT SPIRITUAL; and MIGHTY THROUGH GOD, TO THE DEMOLITION OF STRONG HOLDS; we will

may be in danger of "filling up the measure of their fathers." We may interrogate them as to their own present agency in perpetuating a system, which, whoever started it at first, it may be impolicy and iniquity in them not to arrest, and supersede by a better. We may show them the current of the portentous river, in its flood, now comparatively young and fordable; and urge them immediately to cross it while they may, lest their tardiness may be visited with ruin inundating and inevitable. We may try to demonstrate that no man will do right and remain subordinate, but as the result of enlightened and principled consciousness as an accountable being; that in order to this, he must be brought to know himself to be what God has made him-a moral agent, and so to own and feel his personal and perfect responsibility'; that responsibility without liberty cannot be felt, because proportionately it cannot exist; that if the codes of State legislation at the South are all revolutionized by their constituted authorities, so as to invest the colored people universally with the rights and the duties of freemen, with the liberties and the responsibilities of other men, they would be legally manageable, in case of any misrule, as now they are not, while the motives to honest industry, frugality, order, and correct behavior in all things, would instantly become powerful, as they never could be, in a state of abject vassalage and deep disfranchisement, such as at present defines them; and that at all events, whatever the South and the West may do or refuse to do, the Christians of the North and the East will aim at their duty in benefitting their colored