Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1853-02-09
ADDRESS
OF THE HON. EDWARD EvERETT,
SECRETARY OF STATE,
AT THE ANNIvERsARY THE AMERICAN coIoS1z
TIoN SOCIETY, 18TH IAN 1879
ADDRESS


7 NJ. President and Gent. of the Col. Soc,v:-
1t was my intention when requested some eeks
ago. to take part in the proceedings of this even
ing to give to the subject of the Colonization So
ciety and its operations on the coast of Africa the
most thorough examination in my power, in all
IT'S bearings, considering that, whether we look TO
the condition of this country the interests of
AREA, no more important object could engage our
attention. But during almost the whole of the
interval that has since elapsed, my time and my
thoughts have been so entirely taken up and pre-
occupled,l I has been altogether out of my pow
et TO give more than the haSest preparation to the
part (which Lam to take in this evenings proceet-
lngs. am therefore obliged to throw myself up
on the indulgence of this audience, with such a
nasty view of the subject have been alone
able to make. f-.l.. q. .{rfsr,i.y.s s.a|.
The Colonization Society seems to me to have
been the subject Of much unmerited odium, of
much unmented indifference on the part of the
great mass OF the community, and to have received
that attention which it so well deserves, from but
very few. We regard it now only in its infancy
All that we see in this country is the quiet opera
ton of private association, pursuing the even
tenor Oh its waylwthout ostentation, without ecat
and on the coast of Africa there is nothing to at
tract our atte ntion but small settlement the germ
OF Republic, which, however prosperous, is but
still in its infancy. .
But before we deride even these small begin
nlngs-before we make up our minds that the most
important futurities are not wrapped up in them,
even as the spreading oak is wrapped up in the
small acorn which we can hold in our fingers, we
should do well to recoect the first twenty five or
thirty years of the settlement at jamestown, in
your State, Mr.. President, the parent of Virginia
We should do we'll 10 remember the history Of that
dreadful winter at Plymouth, when more than half
OF the Mayhower'S little company were laid be-
meath the sod, and that sod smoothed for fear
the native savage would come and count the num-
per OF the graves. think if you look to what has
been done in Liberia in the last quarter of CEN
fury, you WILL find that it compares fovorably with
han and I,1,I, A. 4
IN Plymouth, during the same period. These seem
to me to be reasons why we should not lookwith
too much dstruSt at the small beginnings that have
been made.
Gentlemen, the foundation of this Society was
laid IN great political and moral necessity. The
measures which were taken for the suppressions
oil the slave trade naturally led to the capture of
slave ships, and the question Immediately arose
what should be done with the victims that were
rescued from them. 1t was necessary that they
should be returned to Africa. They could moi
each and all, be sent to their native villages
They had been collected from the whole interior
oil that country, many of them two thousand i'll the
interior, and 1t was out of the question that they
should, Immediately be sent to their homes. Ifthey
had been placed upon the coast, in body, at any
OF the usual points ofresort, the result would have
been to throw them al once back again into the
grasp oil the native chiefs who are the PRINCIPAL
agents of the slave trade. 1t was therefore, abso-
lutey necessary ifthe course of measures underla-
ken Tor the suppression of the slave trade was to be
pursued that some Colony should be foundedunder
the name and influence and patronage of pow
erful European or American State, where these
poor victims should be placed at once, safely pro-
tected supplied with necessary provisions of all
KINDS civilized If possible, and by degrees enabled
10 md their way back to their native villages
which some of them doubt, both from the En-
gliSh and American Colony have from time to time
done; as we know in fact that they have.
This as understand it, one ofthe first ideas
that gave origin to this Society, and as said before
ne aSSifv
the kindred object, which was more important be-
cause applicable to much larger number of rer-
sons, OF providing suitable home for that portion
Of the free colored population of this country that
were DESTROYS OF emigrating to the land of their
fathers This at first, as l understand. for it was
before my day, was an object that approved itself
almost universally throughout the country, to the
south as well as to the North, to the white we'll
as 10 Tie colored population. Every body seemed
10 thnk at first that this practica BILE, desira-
Die, and most praSeworthy obiec'. BY degrees |
am sorry to say JealouSieS crept in, preiudices for
SO must account them, arose; and in process of
Time, 1t has come to pass that this Society has be-
come, must say, intensely unpopular with a large
class OF the colored ypuaton whose interests and
welfare were some of the prime objects of its foun-
datiou.
will not undertake on this occasion 10 discuss
the foundation of these preiudices [ will not
dwell upon those, as they are called, oppressive
laws, and that still more oppressive public senti-
ment IN all parts of the country, which render the
condition of the colored population in every part
OF the Union, one of disability, encouragement
and hardship In order to meet the objection to
the operation of the Society which arises from the
statement that 1t tends TO cooperate with and to
strengthen those oppressive laws and this oppres-
sive public sentiment, | will for argument sake,
take II Tor granted that this legislation and this
sentiment are correctly thus characterizeJ; that
they are oppressive, cruel, and tyrannical as they
are declared to be.
Taking this for granted | ask in the name of
common sense, in the name of humanity does this
state OF things furnish any reason why the free col
ored population of the couatry, should be dis
corraged from leaving a state of things like this
and going to the land of their fathers, continent
OF their own where no such legislation, where no
such untrendly public sentiment would exist: n
great and fertile land, land that is inviting them
to come and take possession of il, and in various
parts OF which there is everything that can attract
and reward the toll of man? 1t seems to me TINT
the objection which is urged to the Society," that il
cooperates with that oppressive state of things
here furnishes the very strongest reason in favor of
the emigration. Let us take parallel case Sun
pose any one had gone among that little company
represented chrstiansin England in the year 1905
who Afterwards became the pilgrim church of Mr.
. Robinson at Leyden; or suppose any one had gone
IN 1850 to the most important company of Governor
winthrop, the great founder of Massachusetts,; had
tired to excite their feelings against the proie cted
emigration, had told them that England belonged
10 them as much US did TO their oppressors, had
led them to stand upon their rights and if necessa
~ bleed and die for them; had depicted the hard
ships and sufferings of the passage had painted in
the darkest coIors the terors of the wilderness into
which they were about to venture; would that
have been true friendship, would it have been
Kindness, would it have been humanity: Or tn
come nearer home, suppose at the present day one
should go into Ireland, or France, or Switzerland
or Germany, or Norway, or any of the countries
from which hundreds oil thousands of men, IN a de-
pressed, destitute and unhappy condition, are emf
grating to the United States, 10 find a refuge. n
home, social position, and Observation-Disclosures
some one should go to them and Try to stimulate q
morbid patriotism, bitter nationality, telling them
The country where they were born, belonged as
much to them as to the favored classes indu-
eng them to stay where they were born. telling