the negro race
_in its own land_, they must appeal to every generous heart in behalf
of the benighted continent.

It has lately become common to assert that Providence permits _an
exodus through slavery_, in order that the liberated negro may in time
return, and, with foreign acquirements, become the pioneer of African
civilization. It is attempted to reconcile us to this "good from
evil," by stopping inquiry with the "inscrutability of God's ways!"
But we should not suffer ourselves to be deceived by such imaginary
irreverence; for, in God's ways, there is nothing _less_ inscrutable
than his _law of right_. That law is never qualified in this world. It
moves with the irresistible certainty of organized nature, and, while
it makes man free, in order that his responsibility may be
unquestionable, it leaves mercy, even, for the judgment hereafter.
Such a system of divine law can never palliate _the African slave
trade_, and, in fact, it is the basis of that human legislation which
converts the slaver into a pirate, and awards him a felon's doom.

For these reasons, we should discountenance schemes like those
proposed not long ago in England, and sanctioned by the British
government, for the encouragement of spontaneous emigration from
Africa under the charge of _contractors_. The plan was viewed with
fear by the colonial authorities, and President Roberts at once issued
a proclamation to guard the natives. No one, I think, will read this
book without a conviction that the idea of _voluntary expatriation_
has not dawned on the African mind, and, consequently, what might
begin in laudable philanthropy would be likely to end in practical
servitude.

Intercourse, trade, and colonization, in slow but steadfast growth,
are the providences intrusted to us for the noble task of
civilization. They who are practically acquainted with the colored
race of our country, have long believed that gradual colonization was
the only remedy for Africa as well as America. The repugnance of the
free blacks to _emigration from our shores_ has produced a tardy
movement, and thus the African population has been thrown back grain
by grain, and not wave by wave. Every one conversant with the state of
our colonies, knows how beneficial this languid accretion has been. It
moved many of the most enterprising, thrifty, and independent. It
established a social nucleus from the best classes of American colored
people. Like human growth, it allowed the