The native American., 1838-11-24
Ertracts from the Southern Literary Messenger.
ABOLITION AND COLONIZATION.

.
Abolition of slavery in the southern States, and
the admission of slaves to the rights OF freemen,
constitute the widest scheme that ever entered
the brain Of visionary enthusiasts. The color,
the character, the capacity of the negro, the con-
as we'll as in the slave States, bear melancholy
testimony to the truth, that if the colored popua-
tion are to remain among us, the safety of the
white man, and the happiness of the black, as
the weaker party, require that the blacks should
be retained in slavery. We will not presume to
fathom the designs of Providence, we will not at
tempt to indicate the peculiar destiny, or the
similarity of the children of Ham to the descen-
dants Of Abraham, but it is manifest that the dis
tinctive character of the Iraeite, does not so eff
fectually cut him off from full communion with
the human family, as does the prejudice raising
from color separate the Anglo-Saxon from the
African. No matter whether this prejudice be
implanted for wise and holy purposes, or whether
it be the curse of the age, it exists, its roots
deeply implanted, it is part Of ourselves, and he
is but shallow observer of man, a blind and
biggotted philosophst, who will overlook or de-
spise this pervading and resstless feeling origi-
nate whence it may.
The only hope for the African slave is in his
removal from the house of bondage to the land of
his forefathers. The unqualified advocate of
slavery and the aboltionsts occupy the two ex-
tremes Of this much vexed question. But the
scheme of colonization is the juste milleu. This
is the broad platform upon which the friends of
this unhappy race may meet in soberness and
safety. The morals and misery of the free ne
groes in the northern States, the perpetual and
bloody conflicts between them and the white man
in New York, New England and Philadelphia,
show that to them freedom carries no healing
on its wings, and liberty, that blesses all, has no
blessing for them.
Denied the protecting care which the interest,
if not the feeling of the owner, extends to the
slave; subjected to all the prejudice of color;
with some of the rights of freeman, and all the
sentiments of slave; they constitute an inter-
mediate class, having no bonds Of common inter-
est, no ties of sympathy to sustain them; too in
dolent to labor, and too insolent to serve, they
are the most depraved and unhappy race under
this government. 1t has been the constant prac-
tice of northern writers to dwell upon the
oppression and cruelty of the task-master Of the
south, and the i'll usage and suferings of the
slave; but those who are familiar with their do
mestc institutions well know, that where the
agitator is unknown, there is not upon the face
Of the globe, people doomed literally to earn
their bread by the sweat Of their brow, who are
more cheerful, contented and happy. Examples
of fidelity and devotion to their masters not un-
frequently break forth upon an admiring world,
and but that the agitator is wilfully blind to all
such cheering views upon the broad waste of
slavery, his restless eye might dwell for season
upon them. In that dark hour of danger, when
the pride and the chivalry and the beauty of the
south were smitten on the waters by the angel
of death, slaue was found coolly and diligently
laboring to construct raft of the fragments of the
ill-fated Pulaski, to 'try and save his MASTER
Such masters are no tyrants, and such slave
has no task-master. Cast him loose from his
bondage, and this estimable but humble being
becomes that most wretched of the human family:
free negro. It'd "
Redeemed from slavery by the mild influence
Of the laws, by the generosity of their owners, or
by the persuasive force of a wholesome public
opinion, and translated to the shores of Africa,
these men will be superior to the native races,
as the whites are to them. And the prejudice of
color being thus removed, the natives may be
civilized and enlightened through their agency.
They can there blend by intermarriage, without
the aid of Mr.. Tappan. They may plant the
cross amid the sterile sands of the desert, and be
the heralds of salvation to benighted people.
We feel little inclination to offend the moral
reaQer. Dy any aIIelpI 10 expose the RIDICULOUS
and revolving scheme of amagamation; let its
projectors be classed with those fanatical advocates
of temperance, who shall substitute butter-milk
for wine in the Lords supper. 1t is by coloni-
zation alone that the descendants of Ham can be
redeemed. There at present but few spots
on the African continent settled for this purpose,
and their growth is feeble and sickly, as were
the colonies Of jamestown and Plymouth on our
own shores. But the little fountains that now
swell up in the desert may multiply and blend,
and roll on until they sweep onward not un-
like their own Nile in one resistless and fertili-
zing stream. How long was it before the early
colonists of America toiled up the summit OF
the Allegheny, and from another Pisgah looked
down upon the land Of promise! Yet as they
descended, in little more than one generation OF
the children of men, empires have arisen and
cities have peopled the wilderness.
| The first fruits Of abolition we have already
gathered, and the branch which bore them is OF
the tree of death. In its destructive progress Of
abolition would more speedily effect revolution,
but when its wild fury shall have been exhausted,
its stormy depths will settle down into sullen
and stagnant pool, not unlike the sluggish waters
which sleep upon ruins in the valley of Siddim,
containing no living thing within their BOSOM Colo,
nization, with its mild and wholesome influence,
operating slowly but ehectually, will lead the
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