North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1852, 1851-08-23
From the Richmond Enquirer.

The abolition of slavery in amaica has CONVEX
ted that garden of the West Indies into desola'e
waste, Prosperity has fed from the Island ana
what was once an Observation-Disclosures mouse OF
wealth to the British Empire, is now "orth.ess
dependency Englishmen are al last ehoeaVoring
to supply to Jamaica that labor wnlcn negro ar
nranticesbin ia found incapable of furnishing-that
tahor without which its prolific soil and teemnS
vegetation are worthless both to its ruined PoP.'i
ton and to the unnatural government WHICH, IN
shirt of blind bgotry, and of unworthy Jealousy
towards our own country, has beggared as ~
most PROSPEROUS colony. The apprentices IAll a.
removed but one degree from ms ori :,-.aIIa ~
t;on unon his native coasts, is found lncaPaDie VI
+op;no that low position in civilization winch the
Rr;+;sb sVstem of apprenticeship assigns hih' MOI
~; soc;es Of freedom elevated but one grade
ohova sIavery-ifit be at all above 1T whch IS ques-
+;onable-suis the native African The TACT beconl-
;ng apparent our slaYery-abhorrng- EnghsnInan
turns his eyes to the free negroes OF our ooutlern
States for laborng population adapted to the ne
cosStes of Jamaica. Are these free negroes more
capable of supplying his purpose than the native
Af;can9 He confesses the fact, and why! Only
bv virtue of the tutelage they have received III tner
" 1eoradino and accused condition in these Will
fed and mathematical States. Here Is BRUSH
confession that the free negro of the United states Is
superior to the free negro OF Jamaica Is DetCer SUIT
ed for the position of laborer in civilized society
than the Jamaica apprentice who has not been sub
iected to the "debasing influences OF slavery lie
writes to Mr.. CLAY whether this class OF our PoPu-
lation can be induced to emigrate to his hlapoa-
ted and decaying colony. Mr.. Clay answers III the
snbioned letter, not as we think pithily or to the
noint: but in terms amounting to this declaration
The eaancipated SLAVE of the United States can
not be induced TO t0ke the place OF the dpprentced
FREEMAN :" of British jamaica
Mr. Clay, to Mr.. Hdnkey.
ASHLAND Nav 10, 1851.
have received from Thomas Hankey, Jr., Esq,
of London memorandum respecting the removal
of free blacks from the United States to the Brit
ish West India colonies, with the view OF supply
np the wants of these colonies in regard to agrl-
cultural labor; and requesting any information
which NAV be able to communicate, as to the prac-
ticablty of effecting such removal. | have great
pleasure in replying to MIR. Hankev request as Tar
as it is in my power.
The free colored population Of the United States
amount to about half a million. The exact num-
Der will be seen, 1t existed Ill 1859, when the
census taken in that year shall be published. That
colored population is dispersed throughout the
whole United States but Is most concentrated III
the two States of Virginia and Maryland. 1t con-
ssts of numbers who were born free, their ances-
tors many years ago having been emancipated, and
of Others who have been more recently liberated.
The disposition of large portion OF this coored
population is to prefer residence in our cities and
villages where they perform the mental offices of
life and the lower departments of labor. What
proportion of them congregated in the cities,
and what apply themselves to agricultural labor,
have no means of accurately ascertaining, but l
think it probable that about half of the whole col
ored population is engaged in these respective pur
SUITS Taken entire class they are an improv |
ident and thoughtless race, addicted to habits of
vice much more extensively than any other portion
of our population. There are however, many graf
flying exceptions. Their condition in this respect
is, perhaps partly owing to the physical and intel
lectual constitution of the African race but mainly
to the degraded position which they occupy in the
United States, where they do not, and probably I
never can, enjoy equal privileges, social and poti
cal, with the whites.
| have no doubt that it would conduce to the |
happiness of both races if the blacks were removed
from the United States by colonization or expatria
ton but that object unattanable with regard to
the slave portion of that population whilst their
bondage continues to exist in the United States. !
My own opinion long and deliberately entertained, !
is, that they held in slavery for the purpose
of obtaining a necessary supply Of labor, slavery |
will cease whenever, by the increase of white pop
ulation, free white labor can be procured cheaper
than that of black.
But, although a separation of the slave portion |
of the blacks is impracticable, in consequence of
their being held in slavery, obstacle exists with
regard to the free portion of the pack population,
and every passing year more and more evinces the
necessity of such a separation In many of the |
States laws have been passed. with rigorous penal
ties, to prevent the free people of color from set
ting in them, and in one or more of the States |
proposal has been seriously made to eXpatrate them
by compulsory means. So thoroughly have been !
convinced, for great length of time of the expe-
diency of the removal of the free blacks from the
United States, that, in cooperation with others en-
tertalmng the same opinion, upwards of thirty years
ago we established the American Colonization So |
ciety for transporting them with their own consent
to the western coast of Africa and subsequently
planted the colony of Liberia. There appeared to
US to be combination of more powerful motives
for eolonizng these people in Africa than any where
else There they would be returned to the coun-
try from which their ancestors came their consti-
tutons were we'll adapted to the climate and they
might, we hoped and believed, be made conducive
to the introduction of christianity the arts and civ
lllzation, into Africa We have had encouraging
success in the work of African colonization and we
mean to persevere in it. We persuade ourselves
that the foundations of great republic or empire
have been laid the western coast of Africa and
that, ultimately, it may be made the asylum of a
large number of the free colored people of the Uni
ted States, and Of those in future that from what
ever cause, from time to time become free.
But, although for the reasons already stated. I
lave decided preference for Africa to anv other
country for coonizng the free blacks Of the United
States, there is no ncompatbility between the OBJ
Ject OF transporting them to Africa and that of SEN
ding them to the British West India colonies
whether they 90 to the one or to the other place.
Of Al