maintain that
it cannot; we maintain that the character of the Society has
from the commencement been uniformly the same, and that its
proceedings have been consistent with its character. Were or are
the design and principles of the Society hostile to the rights
and interest of the Southern States? We maintain that they were
and are not; but on the contrary, are worthy to be cherished by
the citizens of these States, and to be sustained with all their
energies as means of their political and moral strength.' * * *
'The _free_ people of color alone are to be colonized by the
Society, and whether the benefits of its scheme are ever to be
extended to _others_, is a question referred to those to whom it
pertains as a matter of right and duty to decide.' * * * 'The
Colonization Society would be the last Institution in the world
to disturb the domestic tranquillity of the South.'--[Defence of
the Society.--Idem, pp. 197, 207, 209.]

'This Society, here in the outset, most explicitly disclaims all
intention to interfere in the smallest degree with the slave
population. It is with the free colored population alone, and
that too, with their own consent, that this Society proposes to
act.'--[Address of the Maryland State Colonization Society to
the People of Maryland.]

'To the slaveholder, who had charged upon them the wicked design
of interfering with the rights of property under the specious
pretexts of removing a vicious and dangerous free population,
they address themselves in a tone of conciliation and sympathy.
We know your rights, say they, and we respect them--we know your
difficulties, and we appreciate them. _Being mostly slaveholders
ourselves_, having a common interest with you in this subject,
an equal opportunity of understanding it, and the same motives
to prudent action, what better guarantee can be afforded for the
just discrimination, and the safe operation of our measures? And
what ground for apprehension that we, who are bound to you by
the strongest ties of interest and of sympathy, should intrude
upon the repose of the domestic circle, or invade the peace and
security of society? Have not the thirteen years' peaceful, yet
efficient, operations of our Society attested the _moderation of
our views_ and the safety of our plans? We have protested from
the