The weekly Anglo-African., 1860-02-11
TO THE FREE COL0RED EXILES
FROM ARKANSAS.

world, invoking their sympathy and pro-
test against the barbarous edict which
elected you from your homes, associations,
and all you held dear in the State of Ar
kansas, for the crime of being free men and
free a0onle,r, possessing and enjoying natur-
al liberty.
This opens another chapter in the SIRE
pressible conflict" Your complexion and
race, in this instance, were not objectiona-
BILE as slaves, but as freenaen. | could fain
hope for your success, but l fear that if
you could obtain the sympathy you desire
it would not melt the heart of the barbar-
GUS statute that exiled you; and the protest
you ask for will prove as worthless as
piece of charred paper. You unfortunate
ly belong to that class of the American
people who occupy position between the
highest state of human liberty and the low
est state of human despotism-the mere
creatures of circumstance, the automatons
of the public will, with no power to resist
its mandates. You will have to tamely
submit
The edict Of your banishment proves
that corporations have no souls" while it
supremely vindicates the ancient doctrine
Of "total depravity." The Christian senti-
ment you invoke is at discount in the
American Union, and is regarded by the
leading religious institutions of our coun-
try as being aasti-repu6licam and inGdelic,
and is therefore so very impotent in effect
ing public sentiment that it will be incap
able of rendering you any great service.
If you anticipate protest from church or
thodoxy, in my opinion you will look in
vain. The religious sentiment of Arkan-
sas that tolerates and vindicates slavery is
as much responsible for your expulsion as
the Legislature that decreed it.
So far as an exposition of the rights and
privileges of the free colored population is
concerned, in natural sense, the judicial,
legislative, and theological powers of the
country form trinity, and Judge Taney
spoke for the whole when he said we had
"no rights that white men are bound to re.
spect."
Your position, bad as it is, is far superb
or to that of the slaves you left behind,
and if those churches, ministers and politi-
cal parties will not protest against slavery,
what just reason have you to suppose they
will in the case of your banishment2 ? Con-
sistency is a jewel.
You say that Indiana, Illinois, and Ore
gon deny you home. With them your
complexion is a crime, but one of which
you cannot repent, as therecord is embIaz-
oned on your humanity. If you wish to
know where you shall go, my reply is, go
outside the boundary of the United States
Constitution, where neither your complex
ion nor your freedom will be crime that
can produce your diSfranchisement Go
to Canada, the ice-bound coast of Labra-
dor, to Africa, the West Indies, to Hayti,
or, if possible, to the Mountains of the
Moon, rather than subject yourselves and
your generations to enslavement. Go take
your property, your energies, and your
enterprise, and devote them to the advance
ment of the country that will recognize
your civil and religious liberty, and be-
queath the same illustrious blessing to your
children.
You belong to race whose productive
labor has formed the basis of prosperity in
the New World, and placed the agricultur-
al and commercial interests of this great
continent in an enviable position among
the nations of the earth The race you
represent not only furnishes a financial
barometer in this country and Europe, but
they form the keystone of the federal arch
and the pedestal on which this government
rests They represent financial value of
from four to four and half billions, on
the authority of distinguished men,, the
productive interest of which, at six per
cent annually, would be two hundred and
seventy millions of dollars, which now
forms the most powerful corporate interest
ever controlled by the will of man Go,
and take this recommendation of the pow
er and capacity of your race, with the GER
tifcate your identity imprinted on your
cheeks by natures God, and the doors of
the portals of despotism will fly off their
hinges to receive and welcome you.
As you are now on our western borders,
l would advise you to cross the Jordan
Lake, Erie and join your brethren who
have gone before you on the virgin soil of
Canada, dedicated to freedom in all CON-
ing time. Exhort them to patience and