gladly taken up in families, factories, &c.
And, like other men, they ought to be allowed to fit themselves for more
important usefulness, as far and as fast as they can.

There will, in all human probability, never be any decrease in the black
population of the United States. Here they are, and here they must
remain, in very large numbers, do what we will. We may at once agree
to live together in mutual good-will, and perform a mutual use to each
other--or we may go on, increasing tyranny on one side, and jealousy and
revenge on the other, until the fearful elements complete their work of
destruction, and something better than this sinful republic rises on the
ruins. Oh, how earnestly do I wish that we may choose the holier and
safer path!

To transport the blacks in such annual numbers as has hitherto been
done, cannot have any beneficial effect upon the present state of
things. It is Dame Partington with her pail mopping up the rushing
waters of the Atlantic! So far as this gradual removal _has_ any effect,
it tends to keep up the price of slaves in the market, and thus
perpetuate the system. A writer in the Kentucky Luminary, speaking of
colonization, uses the following argument: "None are obliged to follow
our example; and those who do not, _will find the value of their negroes
increased by the departure of ours_."

If the value of slaves is kept up, it will be a strong temptation to
smuggle in the commodity; and thus while one vessel carries them out
from America, another will be bringing them in from Africa. This would
be like dipping up the water of Chesapeake Bay into barrels, conveying
it across the Atlantic, and emptying it into the Mediterranean: the
Chesapeake would remain as full as ever, and by the time the vessel
returned, wind and waves would have brought the _same_ water back again.

Slave-owners have never yet, in any part of the world, been known to
favor, as a body, any scheme, which could ultimately _tend_ to abolish
slavery; yet in this country, they belong to the Colonization Society in
large numbers, and agree to pour from their State treasuries into its
funds. Individuals object to it, it is true; but the scheme is very
generally favored in the slave States.

The following extract from Mr. Wood's speech in the Legislature of
Virginia, will show upon what ground the owners of slaves are willing
to sanction any schemes of benevolence. The "Colonization Society may be
a part of the grand syst