he object of the American Colonization Society is to stay the effusion
of blood, to give light to them who sit in darkness, and to make
reparation for the wrongs which have been inflicted upon the sable sons
of Africa. As the people of color must evidently be a distinct and
degraded class while they reside in this country, and as they are
threatened with universal proscription, the Society benevolently
proposes to send them back _to their native country_, by their own
_voluntary_ consent, together with those slaves who may be emancipated
for this purpose, where they may enjoy equal rights and privileges, nor
longer retain any sense of inferiority to the whites. Every emigrant
will go as a missionary to reclaim the poor natives from their
barbarism, and to spread the tidings of salvation throughout the African
continent. By forming a chain of colonies along the coast, a speedy
check will be given to the accursed slave trade,--a trade which cannot
be destroyed in any other manner. Who does not desire to see Africa
civilized and evangelized? Whose heart does not leap in view of the
suppression of the slave trade? Who does not pray for deliverance from
the evils of slavery? Who does not wish to behold the free people of
color,--cursed with ineffectual freedom here,--_recalled from their
banishment_, and placed where no obstacles will impede their march to
affluence, preferment and honor? The Colonization Society, then,
powerfully commends itself to the christian, the philanthropist and the
patriot--to every section of our country and to all denominations of
men.'

Exquisite! The picture is crowded with attractions, delightful to the
eye. The story is skilfully told, and implicitly believed; but, like
every other story, it has two sides to it. So complete is the delusion,
however, that many good people are ready to class those who denounce the
Colonization Society, among the opposers of foreign missions, bible and
tract societies, and the other benevolent operations of the age!

Far be it from me to accuse the agents of the Society of intentionally
perverting the truth or deliberately imposing upon the credulity of the
public. Some--perhaps all of them, are men of sincerity and probity;
but, deluded themselves, they help to delude others. Their vision is
imperfect; and 'if the blind lead the blind,' we may expect to find them
in the same ditch together.

Great complacency has been manifested on various occasions, by the
a