The Origin and Purpose of African Colonisation.
THERE is not a thinking being, whatever his religious belief, who does not recognise the fact that everything in the physical and moral world proceeds according to some plan or order; that some subtle law, call it by whatever name you please, underlies and regulates the movements of the stars in their courses and the sparrows in their flight. It is also the belief of all healthy minds that that law or influence is always tending towards the highest and best results; that its prerogative and design are to make darkness light, crooked things straight, and rough places smooth; or, in the misty phraseology of modern criticism, it is the “Eternal, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness”—that its fiats are irrevocable and their outcome inevitable. With this understanding, men are now constructing the science of History, the science of Language, the science of Religion, the science of Society, formulating dogmas to set aside dogma, and consoling themselves that they are moving to a higher level and solving the problems of the Ages.
Among the conclusions to which study and research are conducting philosophers, none is clearer than this—that each of the races of mankind has a specific character and a specific work. The science of Sociology is the science of Race.
In the midst of these discussions, Africa is forcing its claims for consideration upon the attention of the world, and science and philanthropy are bringing all their resources to bear upon its exploration and amelioration. There is hardly an important city in Europe where there is not an organisation formed for the purpose of dealing with some of the questions connected with this great continent.
There is “The International African Association,” founded at Brussels in 1876, of which the King of the Belgians is the patron; “The Italian National Association for the Exploration and Civilisation of Africa;” the “Association Espanola para la Esploracion del Africa “ (the King of Spain has taken great practical interest in this Society); “The German Society for the Exploration of Africa,” founded in 1872 by the German Geographical Associations—it receives assistance from the Government; the “Afrikanische Gesell-schaft,” in Vienna, founded in 1876, also under royal patronage; “The Hungarian African Association,” founded in 1877; “The National Swiss Committee for the Exploration of Central Africa.” The French Government and the French Chamber of Commerce have made large grants of money to aid in African exploration. Then, there is an African Association at Rotterdam, besides the great Royal Geographical Society of England, which has a special fund for African researches, and has recently sent Thomson to explore the snow- covered mountains of Eastern Africa.
This anxiety to penetrate the mysteries of Africa, this readiness to turn from the subtleties of philosophy and the fascinations of science, in order the better to deal with the great physical fact of an unexplored continent, is not a new experience in the world. It is to be found among the ancients also. With a zealous curiosity, overcoming the promptings of the finer sentiments and the desire for military glory, Caeaesar proposed to abandon his ambitious exploits for the privilege of gazing upon the source of the Nile.
The modern desire for more accurate knowledge of Africa is not a mere sentiment; it is the philanthropic impulse to lift up the millions of that continent to their proper position among the intellectual and moral forces of the world; but it is also the commercial desire to open that vast country to the enterprises of trade. Europe is overflowing with the material productions of its own genius. Important foreign markets, which formerly consumed these productions, are now closing against them. Africa seems to furnish the only large outlet, and the desire is to make the markets of the Soudan easily accessible to London, Manchester and Liverpool. The depressed factories of Lancashire are waiting to be inspired with new life and energy by the development of a new and inexhaustible trade with the millions of Central Africa; so that Africa, as frequently in the past, will have again to come to the rescue and contribute to the needs of Europe. Emergencies drove homeless wanderers to the shores of Libya:--
Defessi Æneadae, quae proxima litora, cursu Contendunt petere, et Libyae vertuntur ad oras.
But the plans proposed by Europeans for opening up Africa, as far as they can be carried out by themselves, are felt to be inadequate. Many feel that commerce, science and philanthropy may establish stations and trace out thoroughfares, but they also feel that these agencies are helpless to cope fully with the thousand questions which arise in dealing with the people.
Among the conclusions to which study and research are conducting philosophers, none is clearer than this—that each of the races of mankind has a specific character and a specific work. The science of Sociology is the science of Race.
In the midst of these discussions, Africa is forcing its claims for consideration upon the attention of the world, and science and philanthropy are bringing all their resources to bear upon its exploration and amelioration. There is hardly an important city in Europe where there is not an organisation formed for the purpose of dealing with some of the questions connected with this great continent.
There is “The International African Association,” founded at Brussels in 1876, of which the King of the Belgians is the patron; “The Italian National Association for the Exploration and Civilisation of Africa;” the “Association Espanola para la Esploracion del Africa “ (the King of Spain has taken great practical interest in this Society); “The German Society for the Exploration of Africa,” founded in 1872 by the German Geographical Associations—it receives assistance from the Government; the “Afrikanische Gesell-schaft,” in Vienna, founded in 1876, also under royal patronage; “The Hungarian African Association,” founded in 1877; “The National Swiss Committee for the Exploration of Central Africa.” The French Government and the French Chamber of Commerce have made large grants of money to aid in African exploration. Then, there is an African Association at Rotterdam, besides the great Royal Geographical Society of England, which has a special fund for African researches, and has recently sent Thomson to explore the snow- covered mountains of Eastern Africa.
This anxiety to penetrate the mysteries of Africa, this readiness to turn from the subtleties of philosophy and the fascinations of science, in order the better to deal with the great physical fact of an unexplored continent, is not a new experience in the world. It is to be found among the ancients also. With a zealous curiosity, overcoming the promptings of the finer sentiments and the desire for military glory, Caeaesar proposed to abandon his ambitious exploits for the privilege of gazing upon the source of the Nile.
The modern desire for more accurate knowledge of Africa is not a mere sentiment; it is the philanthropic impulse to lift up the millions of that continent to their proper position among the intellectual and moral forces of the world; but it is also the commercial desire to open that vast country to the enterprises of trade. Europe is overflowing with the material productions of its own genius. Important foreign markets, which formerly consumed these productions, are now closing against them. Africa seems to furnish the only large outlet, and the desire is to make the markets of the Soudan easily accessible to London, Manchester and Liverpool. The depressed factories of Lancashire are waiting to be inspired with new life and energy by the development of a new and inexhaustible trade with the millions of Central Africa; so that Africa, as frequently in the past, will have again to come to the rescue and contribute to the needs of Europe. Emergencies drove homeless wanderers to the shores of Libya:--
Defessi Æneadae, quae proxima litora, cursu Contendunt petere, et Libyae vertuntur ad oras.
But the plans proposed by Europeans for opening up Africa, as far as they can be carried out by themselves, are felt to be inadequate. Many feel that commerce, science and philanthropy may establish stations and trace out thoroughfares, but they also feel that these agencies are helpless to cope fully with the thousand questions which arise in dealing with the people.
Among the agencies proposed for carrying on the work of civilisation in Africa, none has proved so effective as the American Colonisation enterprise. People who talk of the civilising and elevating influence of mere trade on that continent, do so because they are unacquainted with the facts. Nor can missionaries alone do this work. We do not object to trade, and we would give every possible encouragement to the noble efforts of missionaries. We would open the country everywhere to commercial intercourse. We would give everywhere hospitable access to traders. Place your trading factories at every prominent point along the coast, and even let them be planted on the banks of the rivers. Let them draw the rich products from remote districts. We say, also, send the missionary to every tribe and every village. Multiply throughout the country the evangelising agencies. Line the banks of the rivers with the preachers of righteousness—penetrate the jungles with those holy pioneers—crown the mountain-tops with your churches, and fill the valleys with your schools. No single agency is sufficient to cope with the multifarious needs of the mighty work. But the indispensable agency is the Colony. Groups of Christian and civilised settlers must, in every instance bring up the rear, if the results of your work are to be widespread, beneficial and enduring.
This was the leading idea that gave birth to the Society whose anniversary we have met to celebrate. To-day we have the Sixty-sixth Annual Report of the American Colonisation Society. This fact by itself would excite no feeling, and, perhaps, no remark; but when we consider that, although this is but the sixty-sixth year of its existence, it has been successful in founding a colony which has now been for thirty-five years an independent nation, acknowledged by all the Powers of the earth, we cannot but congratulate the organisation upon an achievement which, considering the circumstances, is unparalleled in the history of civilisation, and which must be taken as one of the most beautiful illustrations of the spirit and tendency of Christianity.
When the Society began its work, its programme was modest, and in the early declarations of its policy, it was found expedient to emphasise the simplicity of its pretensions and the singleness of its purpose. In describing its objects, one of the most eloquent of its early supporters, Dr. Leonard Bacon, said: “The Colonisation Society is not a missionary society, nor a society for the suppression of the slave trade, nor a society for the improvement of the blacks, nor a society for the abolition of slavery: it is simply a society for the establishment of a colony on the coast of Africa.”
But, in pursuance of its legitimate objects, its labours have been fruitful in all the ways indicated in Dr. Bacon’s statement. It has not only established a colony, but it has performed most effective missionary work; it has suppressed the slave trade along six hundred miles of coast; it has improved the condition of the blacks as no other means have; and it is abolishing domestic slavery among the aborigines of that continent.
Like all great movements which are the outcome of human needs, and have in view the amelioration of the condition of large masses of people, it attracted to its support, at the opening of its career, men of conflicting views and influenced by divers motives. Some of its adherents gave one reason for their allegiance, others gave another; and sometimes, to the superficial observer or to the captious opponent, these different reasons furnished grounds for animadversions against the Society. Though it owed its origin to the judicious heads and philanthropic hearts of some of the best men that ever occupied positions of prominence and trust in this nation, yet there were those who ridiculed the scheme as wild and impracticable. Some opposed it because they loved the Negro; others discountenanced it because they hated the Negro. Some considered that the Society—in wishing to give him an opportunity for self-government—placed too high an estimate upon his ability; others thought that the idea of sending him away to a barbarous shore was a disparaging comment upon his capacity, and a robbing him of his right to remain and thrive in the land of his birth. To not a few, who neither loved nor hated the Negro, but were simply indifferent to him, the idea of transporting a few emancipated slaves to Africa, with the hope of bringing about a general exodus of the millions in this country, or of building up a nation in that far-off land of such materials, seemed absurd and ridiculous.
The Society had hardly been fifteen years in operation when it met with organised opposition in the American Anti-Slavery Society, the founders of which looked upon the work of Colonisation as an attempt to evade the duty and responsibility of emancipation. At this time, Mr. William Lloyd Garrison, a leader of the Abolition movement, was the most eloquent and persistent of the assailants of the Society. He carried the war against it into England, and pursued with unrelenting scorn and invective Mr. Elliott Cresson, who was then representing the cause before the British public. In the interesting life of the great anti-slavery reformer, by Oliver Johnson, it is said that when Mr. Garrison returned to this country from England in 1833, he brought with him a “Protest” against the Colonisation scheme, signed by Wilberforce, Macaulay, Buxton, O’Connell and others of scarcely less weight.[1]
This was the leading idea that gave birth to the Society whose anniversary we have met to celebrate. To-day we have the Sixty-sixth Annual Report of the American Colonisation Society. This fact by itself would excite no feeling, and, perhaps, no remark; but when we consider that, although this is but the sixty-sixth year of its existence, it has been successful in founding a colony which has now been for thirty-five years an independent nation, acknowledged by all the Powers of the earth, we cannot but congratulate the organisation upon an achievement which, considering the circumstances, is unparalleled in the history of civilisation, and which must be taken as one of the most beautiful illustrations of the spirit and tendency of Christianity.
When the Society began its work, its programme was modest, and in the early declarations of its policy, it was found expedient to emphasise the simplicity of its pretensions and the singleness of its purpose. In describing its objects, one of the most eloquent of its early supporters, Dr. Leonard Bacon, said: “The Colonisation Society is not a missionary society, nor a society for the suppression of the slave trade, nor a society for the improvement of the blacks, nor a society for the abolition of slavery: it is simply a society for the establishment of a colony on the coast of Africa.”
But, in pursuance of its legitimate objects, its labours have been fruitful in all the ways indicated in Dr. Bacon’s statement. It has not only established a colony, but it has performed most effective missionary work; it has suppressed the slave trade along six hundred miles of coast; it has improved the condition of the blacks as no other means have; and it is abolishing domestic slavery among the aborigines of that continent.
Like all great movements which are the outcome of human needs, and have in view the amelioration of the condition of large masses of people, it attracted to its support, at the opening of its career, men of conflicting views and influenced by divers motives. Some of its adherents gave one reason for their allegiance, others gave another; and sometimes, to the superficial observer or to the captious opponent, these different reasons furnished grounds for animadversions against the Society. Though it owed its origin to the judicious heads and philanthropic hearts of some of the best men that ever occupied positions of prominence and trust in this nation, yet there were those who ridiculed the scheme as wild and impracticable. Some opposed it because they loved the Negro; others discountenanced it because they hated the Negro. Some considered that the Society—in wishing to give him an opportunity for self-government—placed too high an estimate upon his ability; others thought that the idea of sending him away to a barbarous shore was a disparaging comment upon his capacity, and a robbing him of his right to remain and thrive in the land of his birth. To not a few, who neither loved nor hated the Negro, but were simply indifferent to him, the idea of transporting a few emancipated slaves to Africa, with the hope of bringing about a general exodus of the millions in this country, or of building up a nation in that far-off land of such materials, seemed absurd and ridiculous.
The Society had hardly been fifteen years in operation when it met with organised opposition in the American Anti-Slavery Society, the founders of which looked upon the work of Colonisation as an attempt to evade the duty and responsibility of emancipation. At this time, Mr. William Lloyd Garrison, a leader of the Abolition movement, was the most eloquent and persistent of the assailants of the Society. He carried the war against it into England, and pursued with unrelenting scorn and invective Mr. Elliott Cresson, who was then representing the cause before the British public. In the interesting life of the great anti-slavery reformer, by Oliver Johnson, it is said that when Mr. Garrison returned to this country from England in 1833, he brought with him a “Protest” against the Colonisation scheme, signed by Wilberforce, Macaulay, Buxton, O’Connell and others of scarcely less weight.[1]
Footnotes:
1 William Lloyd Garrison and his Times, by Oliver Johnson; p. 130.
1 William Lloyd Garrison and his Times, by Oliver Johnson; p. 130.
But Mr. Garrison ought to have known, and probably did know, that it was not the Colonisation scheme as conceived by its founders that these philanthropists opposed, for they were men of a spirit kindred to that which animated Samuel J. Mills, and the Finleys and Caldwells, whose labours brought the Society into being. What they did oppose was the scheme as they saw it under the representations of Mr. Garrison, who, himself benevolent at heart, had been influenced by personal reasons and by the injudicious utterances of certain advocates of Colonisation. They opposed it as they saw it through the glasses of such good old Negroes as Father Snowden, of Boston, who, in those days, offered a prayer for the Colonisation Society so striking in its eloquence as to have deserved a place, in the judgment of Mr. Oliver Johnson, in a serious narrative of the doings of the great anti-slavery leader. “O God,” said the simple and earnest old man, “we pray that that seven-headed, ten-horned monster, the Colonisation Society, may be smitten through and through with the fiery darts of truth, and tormented as the whale between the swordfish and the thresher,”[2]
I say that the friends of Africa in England did not oppose African Colonisation in itself, for just about the time of Mr. Garrison’s visit to England, or very soon after, they adopted, under the lead of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, a scheme for the regeneration of Africa by means of her civilised sons, gathered from the countries of their exile, and, at great expense, sent out an expedition to the Niger, for the purpose of securing on that river, a hundred square miles of territory on which to settle the returning exiles. Capt, William Allen, who commanded the first Niger expedition, on his return in 1834, when describing the advantages of a civilised colony, used these words:--
The very existence of such a community, exalted as it would be in its own estimation, and in the enjoyment of the benefits of civilisation, would excite among its neighbours a desire to participate in those blessings, and would be at once a normal or model society, gradually spreading to the most remote regions, and calling forth the resources of a country rich in so many things essential to commerce, might change the destinies of the whole of Western Central Africa.[3]
In a letter addressed by Stephen Lushington and Thomas Fowell Buxton to Lord John Russell, August 7, 1840, all the arguments used by the American Colonisation Society for settling civilised blacks in Africa, are reproduced.
Thomas Clarkson, writing to a friend, under date September 12, 1842, says:--
I am glad to find that, in the Friend of Africa, you lay such stress upon native agency, or the agency of the black people themselves to forward their own cause. Good sense would have dictated this; but God seems to point it out as one of His plans. He has raised up a people by the result of emancipation, qualified, both in intellect and habituation to a hot climate, to do for us the grand work in Africa. You know well that we can find among the emancipated slaves people with religious views and with intellectual capacity equal to the whites, and from these, principally, are we to pick out labourers for the African vineyard. . . . . You cannot send two or three only to a colony. In the smallest colony there must bo more; there must be enough to form a society, both for the appearance of safety and for that converse for which man was fitted by the organs of speech to pass the time usefully to himself and others.[4]
The experience of years and the progress of Liberia have only served to illustrate the soundness of these views. European workers for Africa feel more and more the importance of such agencies as the Colonisation Society has been instrumental in establishing for civilising Africa. A writer in the London Times for May 31, 1882, says:--
As I have recently returned from Zanzibar, and can speak from some personal experience, may I be allowed to draw the attention of your readers to an attempt to bring about these results (viz., the abolition of the slave trade and civilisation of the people) with remarkable success? It is the formation of self-sustaining communities of released slaves in the countries whence they were originally brought by the slave dealers, in order that, by their example and influence, they may teach to the surrounding people the advantages of civilisation. The sight of a body of men of the same race as themselves, living in their midst, but raised to a higher level by the influence of Christianity and civilisation, has naturally produced in them a desire of raising themselves also.
In an article on ‘The Evangelisation of Africa,’ in the Dublin Review, January, 1879, written by a Roman Catholic Prelate, the writer asks—” Why should not the example given by the American Colonisation Society, in founding Liberia, be followed by us in other parts of Africa?”
In a lecture delivered in 1872, in New York, by the same distinguished author, he says:--
We have come to evangelise the coloured people in America. But our mission does not terminate with them. We are travelling through America to that great unexplored, unconverted continent of Africa. We have come to gather an army on our way, to conquer Africa for the Cross. God has his designs upon that vast land. . . . . The branch torn away from the parent stem in Africa, by our ancestors, was brought to America—brought away by Divine permission, in order that it might be engrafted upon the tree of the Gross. It will return in part to its own soil, not by violence or deportation, but willingly, and borne on the wings of faith and charity.
I say that the friends of Africa in England did not oppose African Colonisation in itself, for just about the time of Mr. Garrison’s visit to England, or very soon after, they adopted, under the lead of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, a scheme for the regeneration of Africa by means of her civilised sons, gathered from the countries of their exile, and, at great expense, sent out an expedition to the Niger, for the purpose of securing on that river, a hundred square miles of territory on which to settle the returning exiles. Capt, William Allen, who commanded the first Niger expedition, on his return in 1834, when describing the advantages of a civilised colony, used these words:--
The very existence of such a community, exalted as it would be in its own estimation, and in the enjoyment of the benefits of civilisation, would excite among its neighbours a desire to participate in those blessings, and would be at once a normal or model society, gradually spreading to the most remote regions, and calling forth the resources of a country rich in so many things essential to commerce, might change the destinies of the whole of Western Central Africa.[3]
In a letter addressed by Stephen Lushington and Thomas Fowell Buxton to Lord John Russell, August 7, 1840, all the arguments used by the American Colonisation Society for settling civilised blacks in Africa, are reproduced.
Thomas Clarkson, writing to a friend, under date September 12, 1842, says:--
I am glad to find that, in the Friend of Africa, you lay such stress upon native agency, or the agency of the black people themselves to forward their own cause. Good sense would have dictated this; but God seems to point it out as one of His plans. He has raised up a people by the result of emancipation, qualified, both in intellect and habituation to a hot climate, to do for us the grand work in Africa. You know well that we can find among the emancipated slaves people with religious views and with intellectual capacity equal to the whites, and from these, principally, are we to pick out labourers for the African vineyard. . . . . You cannot send two or three only to a colony. In the smallest colony there must bo more; there must be enough to form a society, both for the appearance of safety and for that converse for which man was fitted by the organs of speech to pass the time usefully to himself and others.[4]
The experience of years and the progress of Liberia have only served to illustrate the soundness of these views. European workers for Africa feel more and more the importance of such agencies as the Colonisation Society has been instrumental in establishing for civilising Africa. A writer in the London Times for May 31, 1882, says:--
As I have recently returned from Zanzibar, and can speak from some personal experience, may I be allowed to draw the attention of your readers to an attempt to bring about these results (viz., the abolition of the slave trade and civilisation of the people) with remarkable success? It is the formation of self-sustaining communities of released slaves in the countries whence they were originally brought by the slave dealers, in order that, by their example and influence, they may teach to the surrounding people the advantages of civilisation. The sight of a body of men of the same race as themselves, living in their midst, but raised to a higher level by the influence of Christianity and civilisation, has naturally produced in them a desire of raising themselves also.
In an article on ‘The Evangelisation of Africa,’ in the Dublin Review, January, 1879, written by a Roman Catholic Prelate, the writer asks—” Why should not the example given by the American Colonisation Society, in founding Liberia, be followed by us in other parts of Africa?”
In a lecture delivered in 1872, in New York, by the same distinguished author, he says:--
We have come to evangelise the coloured people in America. But our mission does not terminate with them. We are travelling through America to that great unexplored, unconverted continent of Africa. We have come to gather an army on our way, to conquer Africa for the Cross. God has his designs upon that vast land. . . . . The branch torn away from the parent stem in Africa, by our ancestors, was brought to America—brought away by Divine permission, in order that it might be engrafted upon the tree of the Gross. It will return in part to its own soil, not by violence or deportation, but willingly, and borne on the wings of faith and charity.
Footnotes:
2 Garrison and his Times, p. 4. Mr. Oliver Johnson, throughout his work, shows his own conception of the status and functions of the Negro by never using a capital letter in writing the word that describes the race.
3 Narrative of the Expedition to the Niger; vol. ii, p. 434.
4 African Repository; vol. xvi, p. 397.
2 Garrison and his Times, p. 4. Mr. Oliver Johnson, throughout his work, shows his own conception of the status and functions of the Negro by never using a capital letter in writing the word that describes the race.
3 Narrative of the Expedition to the Niger; vol. ii, p. 434.
4 African Repository; vol. xvi, p. 397.
It is sometimes supposed and asserted that the efforts of the Colonisation Society stir up a feeling of unrest among the coloured population, and make them dissatisfied with their condition in this country. But this charge is brought only by those who have no idea of the power of race instincts. The descendants of Africa in this country have never needed the stimulus of any organisation of white men to direct their attention to the land of their fathers. Just as the idea of a departure from the “house of bondage” in Egypt was in the minds of the Hebrews long before Moses was born, even when Joseph gave commandment concerning his bones; so, long before the formation of the Colonisation Society, there were aspirations in the breasts of thinking Negroes for a return to the land of their fathers. The first practical Colonisationist was not a white man, but a Negro, Paul Cuffee. This man took thirty Negro emigrants from New Bedford, in his own vessel, to Africa, in 1815. The law of God for each race is written on the tablets of their hearts, and no theories will ever obliterate the deep impression, or neutralise its influence upon their action; and in the process of their growth they will find or force a way for themselves. Those who are working with or for the race, therefore, should seriously consider, in any great movement in their behalf, the steps which the proper representatives deem it wise to take. “March without the people,” said a French deputy, “and you walk into night; their instincts are a finger pointing of Providence, always turning toward real benefit.”
The Colonisation Society was only the instrument of opening a field for the energies of those of the Africans who desired to go and avail themselves of the opportunities there offered. Boswell, in his life of Samuel Johnson, tells us that when the sale of Thrale’s Brewery was going forward, Johnson was asked what he really considered to be the value of the property which was to be disposed of. He replied, “We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.” So the founders of this Society looked to the “potentiality” of the few seeds they were planting on the coast of Africa. In their reply to opponents they said:—“We are not here simply to send a few Negroes to Africa, and to occupy with them a few swampy regions on the margin of a distant country, but we are endeavouring to stimulate for a race and a continent their potentiality of unlimited development.”
They assisted a few courageous men to go and plant a colony on those distant and barbarous shores, in days when nearly every body doubted the wisdom and expediency of such a step. Who, then, could have divined the results? Considering the circumstances of those pioneer settlers and the darkness of the outlook when they started, no man could have believed, until he learned it as a matter of history that those few men could have established an independent nation on that coast. The story of their trials and struggles and conquests would furnish the material for an exciting novel—many portions of it would resemble chapters, not from Froude or Hallam, but from Thackeray or Scott. The string of episodes in the first thirty years of their history would form the basis of an interesting epic.
Now what is the work thus far accomplished and being accomplished on that coast? If, when those colonists landed on those shores, inexperienced and uneducated ex-slaves as they were, they had had to contend with simple barbarism or the absence of civilisation, their task would have been comparatively easy; but they had to deal with tribes demoralised by ages of intercourse with the most abandoned of foreigners—slave-traders and pirates, who had taken up their abode at various points of the coast, and had carried on for generations, without interruption, their work of disintegration and destruction. When, therefore, the colonists found themselves in possession of a few miles of territory, they very soon perceived that they had more to do than simply to clear up the land, build and cultivate. They saw that they had to contend, not with the simple prejudices of the Aborigines, but with the results of the unhallowed intercourse of European adventurers. But they were brave men. Their spirits, though chastened by the burden of slavery and the sorrows of oppression, were never clouded by any doubt in their destiny. They felt themselves able to build up a State, and they set themselves cheerfully to deal with the new and difficult problems which confronted them. Fierce were the struggles in which they had to engage before they succeeded in expelling the pirates from the neighbourhood of their settlements. And after they had dislodged these demons in human form, the mischievous consequences of their protracted residence in the land continued and still, to a great extent, continue.
In his last Message to the Liberian Legislature, the President of the Republic, referring to the difficulties at Cape Mount, says:—“The native wars which have been going on in the vicinity of Cape Mount have now nearly exhausted themselves. These periodical wars are, for the most part, the results of long-standing feuds arising from the horrible slave trade, that dreadful scourge which distinguished the intercourse of the European world with Africa for more than ten generations.”
The Colonisation Society was only the instrument of opening a field for the energies of those of the Africans who desired to go and avail themselves of the opportunities there offered. Boswell, in his life of Samuel Johnson, tells us that when the sale of Thrale’s Brewery was going forward, Johnson was asked what he really considered to be the value of the property which was to be disposed of. He replied, “We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.” So the founders of this Society looked to the “potentiality” of the few seeds they were planting on the coast of Africa. In their reply to opponents they said:—“We are not here simply to send a few Negroes to Africa, and to occupy with them a few swampy regions on the margin of a distant country, but we are endeavouring to stimulate for a race and a continent their potentiality of unlimited development.”
They assisted a few courageous men to go and plant a colony on those distant and barbarous shores, in days when nearly every body doubted the wisdom and expediency of such a step. Who, then, could have divined the results? Considering the circumstances of those pioneer settlers and the darkness of the outlook when they started, no man could have believed, until he learned it as a matter of history that those few men could have established an independent nation on that coast. The story of their trials and struggles and conquests would furnish the material for an exciting novel—many portions of it would resemble chapters, not from Froude or Hallam, but from Thackeray or Scott. The string of episodes in the first thirty years of their history would form the basis of an interesting epic.
Now what is the work thus far accomplished and being accomplished on that coast? If, when those colonists landed on those shores, inexperienced and uneducated ex-slaves as they were, they had had to contend with simple barbarism or the absence of civilisation, their task would have been comparatively easy; but they had to deal with tribes demoralised by ages of intercourse with the most abandoned of foreigners—slave-traders and pirates, who had taken up their abode at various points of the coast, and had carried on for generations, without interruption, their work of disintegration and destruction. When, therefore, the colonists found themselves in possession of a few miles of territory, they very soon perceived that they had more to do than simply to clear up the land, build and cultivate. They saw that they had to contend, not with the simple prejudices of the Aborigines, but with the results of the unhallowed intercourse of European adventurers. But they were brave men. Their spirits, though chastened by the burden of slavery and the sorrows of oppression, were never clouded by any doubt in their destiny. They felt themselves able to build up a State, and they set themselves cheerfully to deal with the new and difficult problems which confronted them. Fierce were the struggles in which they had to engage before they succeeded in expelling the pirates from the neighbourhood of their settlements. And after they had dislodged these demons in human form, the mischievous consequences of their protracted residence in the land continued and still, to a great extent, continue.
In his last Message to the Liberian Legislature, the President of the Republic, referring to the difficulties at Cape Mount, says:—“The native wars which have been going on in the vicinity of Cape Mount have now nearly exhausted themselves. These periodical wars are, for the most part, the results of long-standing feuds arising from the horrible slave trade, that dreadful scourge which distinguished the intercourse of the European world with Africa for more than ten generations.”
Having secured an undisturbed footing in the land of their fathers, the next step on the part of the colonists was to conciliate the Aborigines and to enlarge the borders of the Colony by purchase from the native lords of the soil. In this way, the Colony increased in power and influence, until 1847, when it became a sovereign and independent State. As such it has been acknowledged by all the Powers of Europe and by the United States.
The special work which, at this moment, claims the attention of the Republic is to push the settlements beyond the sea-board to the elevated and salubrious regions of the interior, and to incorporate the Aborigines, as fast as practicable, into the Republic. Native chiefs are summoned to the Legislature from the different counties, and take part in the deliberations; but, as yet, only those Aborigines who conform to the laws of the Republic as to the tenure of land, are allowed to exercise the elective franchise. All the other questions which press upon independent nations, questions of education, of finance, of commerce, of agriculture, are receiving the careful attention of the people. They feel the importance of making provisions by judicious laws and by proper executive, legislative and judicial management, for the preservation and growth of the State.
In educational matters, there is daily noticeable improvement. We are developing a system of common schools, with a College at the head as a guarantee for their efficiency. The educational work is felt to be of the greatest possible importance; education, not only in its literary and religious forms, but also in its industrial, mechanical, and commercial aspects.
The effort now is to enlarge the operations and increase the influence of the College.
We have application for admission to its advantages from numerous youths in various institutions of learning in this country, who wish, on the completion of their course, to labour in Africa. Influential chiefs on the coast and in the interior are also anxious to send their sons; and we shall, before very long, have young men from the powerful tribes in our vicinity— Mandingoes, Foulahs, Veys, Bassas, Kroos, Greboes.
A female department has also lately been established in connection with this Institution, and a Christian lady of education and culture, in this country, longing to labour in the land of her fathers, has been appointed as first Principal. She will sail in a few months.
In financial matters the Republic is hopeful. The public debt is not so large that it cannot, by the reforms now contemplated, be easily managed and placed under such control as to give no inconvenience to the State. There are evidences of an abundance of gold in the territory of the Republic. The precious metal is brought to the coast from various points in the interior. But the Government is not anxious to encourage the opening of gold mines. We prefer the slow but sure, though less dazzling process, of becoming a great nation by lapse of time, and by the steady growth of internal prosperity—by agriculture, by trade, by proper domestic economy.
In commercial matters, there is also everything to encourage. Three lines of steamers from England and Germany, and sailing vessels from the United States, visit the Liberian ports regularly for trading purposes. And the natural resources of the Republic have, in various portions of it, hardly yet been touched. Palm oil, cam wood, ivory, rubber, gold-dust, hides, beeswax, gurn copal, may be produced in unlimited quantities. For the enterprising merchants of this country—coloured or white—there is no better field for the investment of pecuniary capital.
The agriculture of the country is rapidly on the increase. Liberia has been supplying the Coffee Planters of Ceylon and Brazil with a new and superior kind of coffee for their agricultural industry. The Liberian coffee is considered among the best in the world, and the people are now turning their attention largely to its cultivation. As immigrants arrive from this country, extensive farms under their persevering industry are taking the place of the dense forests. The new settlements, pushing out to the rich valleys and fertile slopes of the interior, are a marvel to those who, a few years ago, saw the country in its primitive condition; and to the Negro new comer from this country in search of a field for his energy and enterprise, there is no picture which, for inspiration and grandeur, can ever equal the sight of these new proprietors of land and these new directors of labour engaged in their absorbing and profitable pursuits. When he sees the thriving villages, the comfortable dwellings, the increasing agriculture, all supervised and controlled by men just like himself, who had only been more fortunate in preceding him by a few years, a feeling of pride and gratification takes possession of him. Like Æneas when he witnessed the enterprise of the Tyrian colonists in the building of Carthage, he exclaims,--
O fortunati, quorum jam moenia surgunt.
But, unlike the mythical author of that exclamation, he feels that he has a part in the rising fortunes of the settlements; that what he beholds is not only what he himself may accomplish, but is the promise and pledge of the future greatness of his adopted country.
The special work which, at this moment, claims the attention of the Republic is to push the settlements beyond the sea-board to the elevated and salubrious regions of the interior, and to incorporate the Aborigines, as fast as practicable, into the Republic. Native chiefs are summoned to the Legislature from the different counties, and take part in the deliberations; but, as yet, only those Aborigines who conform to the laws of the Republic as to the tenure of land, are allowed to exercise the elective franchise. All the other questions which press upon independent nations, questions of education, of finance, of commerce, of agriculture, are receiving the careful attention of the people. They feel the importance of making provisions by judicious laws and by proper executive, legislative and judicial management, for the preservation and growth of the State.
In educational matters, there is daily noticeable improvement. We are developing a system of common schools, with a College at the head as a guarantee for their efficiency. The educational work is felt to be of the greatest possible importance; education, not only in its literary and religious forms, but also in its industrial, mechanical, and commercial aspects.
The effort now is to enlarge the operations and increase the influence of the College.
We have application for admission to its advantages from numerous youths in various institutions of learning in this country, who wish, on the completion of their course, to labour in Africa. Influential chiefs on the coast and in the interior are also anxious to send their sons; and we shall, before very long, have young men from the powerful tribes in our vicinity— Mandingoes, Foulahs, Veys, Bassas, Kroos, Greboes.
A female department has also lately been established in connection with this Institution, and a Christian lady of education and culture, in this country, longing to labour in the land of her fathers, has been appointed as first Principal. She will sail in a few months.
In financial matters the Republic is hopeful. The public debt is not so large that it cannot, by the reforms now contemplated, be easily managed and placed under such control as to give no inconvenience to the State. There are evidences of an abundance of gold in the territory of the Republic. The precious metal is brought to the coast from various points in the interior. But the Government is not anxious to encourage the opening of gold mines. We prefer the slow but sure, though less dazzling process, of becoming a great nation by lapse of time, and by the steady growth of internal prosperity—by agriculture, by trade, by proper domestic economy.
In commercial matters, there is also everything to encourage. Three lines of steamers from England and Germany, and sailing vessels from the United States, visit the Liberian ports regularly for trading purposes. And the natural resources of the Republic have, in various portions of it, hardly yet been touched. Palm oil, cam wood, ivory, rubber, gold-dust, hides, beeswax, gurn copal, may be produced in unlimited quantities. For the enterprising merchants of this country—coloured or white—there is no better field for the investment of pecuniary capital.
The agriculture of the country is rapidly on the increase. Liberia has been supplying the Coffee Planters of Ceylon and Brazil with a new and superior kind of coffee for their agricultural industry. The Liberian coffee is considered among the best in the world, and the people are now turning their attention largely to its cultivation. As immigrants arrive from this country, extensive farms under their persevering industry are taking the place of the dense forests. The new settlements, pushing out to the rich valleys and fertile slopes of the interior, are a marvel to those who, a few years ago, saw the country in its primitive condition; and to the Negro new comer from this country in search of a field for his energy and enterprise, there is no picture which, for inspiration and grandeur, can ever equal the sight of these new proprietors of land and these new directors of labour engaged in their absorbing and profitable pursuits. When he sees the thriving villages, the comfortable dwellings, the increasing agriculture, all supervised and controlled by men just like himself, who had only been more fortunate in preceding him by a few years, a feeling of pride and gratification takes possession of him. Like Æneas when he witnessed the enterprise of the Tyrian colonists in the building of Carthage, he exclaims,--
O fortunati, quorum jam moenia surgunt.
But, unlike the mythical author of that exclamation, he feels that he has a part in the rising fortunes of the settlements; that what he beholds is not only what he himself may accomplish, but is the promise and pledge of the future greatness of his adopted country.
The nations of the earth are now looking to Liberia as one of the hopeful spots on the continent of Africa. The President of the United States, in his last Message, referred to the interest which this Government feels in that youngest sister of the great international family. To a deputation from the Colonisation Society, which called upon him a year ago, President Arthur said that he “had always taken great interest in the work of the Colonisation Society, which was, in his judgment, eminently practical.”
President Gardner, who has for the last five years presided over the little nation, expresses the views entertained by its most enlightened citizens as follows:--
The ship of State which, in 1847, we launched in fear and trembling, is still afloat, with timbers sound and spars unharmed. The Lone Star of Liberia, untarnished, is pushing its way eastward, successfully achieving victories of peace even to the slopes of the Niger, gathering willing thousands under its elevating and hopeful folds. The American Colonisation Society must feel greatly strengthened in its work. It has achieved what no other philanthropic agency in modem times has accomplished, and what, perhaps, no nation could have effected, viz., the giving to the Negro an independent home in the land of his fathers, where he has unlimited scope for development and expansion. Had Liberia been the colony of a powerful government, political and commercial jealousies, and the purposes of party spirit, might have prevented the surrender of the colony to the absolute control of the colonists. Hayti had to fight for her independence. It is not practicable for Great Britain to give up Jamaica, or Barbadoes, or Sierra Leone, or Lagos, But the American Colonisation Society founded a nation, and continues to strengthen it. So God takes the weak things of the earth to confound the things that are mighty.
In a letter dated at the Palace of Madrid, February 11, 1882, King Alfonso XII, of Spain, writes to the President of Liberia as follows:--
GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND,
Desiring to give you a public testimony of my Royal appreciation and my particular esteem, I have had special pleasure in nominating you Knight of the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Isabel the Catholic. I am pleased by this action also to furnish new proof of the desire which animates me to strengthen more and more the friendly relations which happily exist between Spain and the Republic of Liberia; and with this motive I repeat to you the assurance of the affection which I entertain towards you, and with which I am, Great and Good Friend,
Your Great and Good Friend
Palace at Madrid, February 11,1882. ALFONSO.
The Republic of Liberia now stands before the world—the realisation of the dreams of the founders of the American Colonisation Society, and, in many respects, more than the realisation. Its effect upon that great country is not to be estimated solely by the six hundred miles of coast which it has brought under civilised law. A sea of influence has been created, to which rivulets and large streams are attracted from the distant interior; and up those streams, for a considerable distance, a tide of regeneration continually flows. Far beyond the range of the recognised limits of Liberia, hundreds of miles away from the coast, I have witnessed the effects of American civilisation; not only in the articles of American manufactures, which I have been surprised to see in those remote districts, but in the intelligible use of the English language, which I have encountered in the far inland regions, all going out from Liberia. None can calculate the wide-spreading results of a single channel of wholesome influence. Travellers in Syria tell us that Damascus owes its fertility and beauty to one single stream —the river Abana. Without that little river, the charm and glory of Damascus would disappear. It would be a city in a desert. So the influence of Liberia, insignificant as it may seem, is the increasing source of beauty and fertility, of civilisation and progress, to West and Central Africa.
As time has gone on, and the far-reaching plans of the Society have been developed, its bitterest opponents among the whites have relaxed their opposition. They see more and more that the idea which gave rise to it had more than a temporary or provisional importance; that, as long as there are Christian Negroes in this land who may do a civilising work in Africa, and who desire to go thither, so long will this colonisation enterprise be a necessary and beneficent agency.
Coloured men of intelligence are also taking a more comprehensive view of the question. The coloured people in various parts of the country are not only asserting their independence of party trammels, but are taking higher ground with regard to their relations to Africa. The Colonisation Society no longer stands between them and the land of their fathers as a dividing agency; no longer the gulf that separates, but, for many, the bridge that connects. Liberia is producing the elements which—if they do not, to the minds of the thinking coloured people, vindicate the methods of some colonisationists in days gone by—amply justify the policy of the Colonisation Society. The leading men of colour are recognising the distinction between Liberia as an independent nation, claiming their respect and support, and the Colonisation Society, which, from their standpoint, contemplated their expatriation.
President Gardner, who has for the last five years presided over the little nation, expresses the views entertained by its most enlightened citizens as follows:--
The ship of State which, in 1847, we launched in fear and trembling, is still afloat, with timbers sound and spars unharmed. The Lone Star of Liberia, untarnished, is pushing its way eastward, successfully achieving victories of peace even to the slopes of the Niger, gathering willing thousands under its elevating and hopeful folds. The American Colonisation Society must feel greatly strengthened in its work. It has achieved what no other philanthropic agency in modem times has accomplished, and what, perhaps, no nation could have effected, viz., the giving to the Negro an independent home in the land of his fathers, where he has unlimited scope for development and expansion. Had Liberia been the colony of a powerful government, political and commercial jealousies, and the purposes of party spirit, might have prevented the surrender of the colony to the absolute control of the colonists. Hayti had to fight for her independence. It is not practicable for Great Britain to give up Jamaica, or Barbadoes, or Sierra Leone, or Lagos, But the American Colonisation Society founded a nation, and continues to strengthen it. So God takes the weak things of the earth to confound the things that are mighty.
In a letter dated at the Palace of Madrid, February 11, 1882, King Alfonso XII, of Spain, writes to the President of Liberia as follows:--
GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND,
Desiring to give you a public testimony of my Royal appreciation and my particular esteem, I have had special pleasure in nominating you Knight of the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Isabel the Catholic. I am pleased by this action also to furnish new proof of the desire which animates me to strengthen more and more the friendly relations which happily exist between Spain and the Republic of Liberia; and with this motive I repeat to you the assurance of the affection which I entertain towards you, and with which I am, Great and Good Friend,
Your Great and Good Friend
Palace at Madrid, February 11,1882. ALFONSO.
The Republic of Liberia now stands before the world—the realisation of the dreams of the founders of the American Colonisation Society, and, in many respects, more than the realisation. Its effect upon that great country is not to be estimated solely by the six hundred miles of coast which it has brought under civilised law. A sea of influence has been created, to which rivulets and large streams are attracted from the distant interior; and up those streams, for a considerable distance, a tide of regeneration continually flows. Far beyond the range of the recognised limits of Liberia, hundreds of miles away from the coast, I have witnessed the effects of American civilisation; not only in the articles of American manufactures, which I have been surprised to see in those remote districts, but in the intelligible use of the English language, which I have encountered in the far inland regions, all going out from Liberia. None can calculate the wide-spreading results of a single channel of wholesome influence. Travellers in Syria tell us that Damascus owes its fertility and beauty to one single stream —the river Abana. Without that little river, the charm and glory of Damascus would disappear. It would be a city in a desert. So the influence of Liberia, insignificant as it may seem, is the increasing source of beauty and fertility, of civilisation and progress, to West and Central Africa.
As time has gone on, and the far-reaching plans of the Society have been developed, its bitterest opponents among the whites have relaxed their opposition. They see more and more that the idea which gave rise to it had more than a temporary or provisional importance; that, as long as there are Christian Negroes in this land who may do a civilising work in Africa, and who desire to go thither, so long will this colonisation enterprise be a necessary and beneficent agency.
Coloured men of intelligence are also taking a more comprehensive view of the question. The coloured people in various parts of the country are not only asserting their independence of party trammels, but are taking higher ground with regard to their relations to Africa. The Colonisation Society no longer stands between them and the land of their fathers as a dividing agency; no longer the gulf that separates, but, for many, the bridge that connects. Liberia is producing the elements which—if they do not, to the minds of the thinking coloured people, vindicate the methods of some colonisationists in days gone by—amply justify the policy of the Colonisation Society. The leading men of colour are recognising the distinction between Liberia as an independent nation, claiming their respect and support, and the Colonisation Society, which, from their standpoint, contemplated their expatriation.
Your speaker has had the honour of being listened to on the various occasions on which, recently, he has spoken in this city, by full houses composed of the most intelligent classes of the coloured population, who, a few years ago, would not have thought of attending any meeting which had the remotest connection with Liberia. He has also had the privilege of being the guest, for several days, at Uniontown, of the leading coloured man of the United States, better known than any other Negro in both hemispheres; and this address was written under his hospitable roof, and, perhaps, on the same table on which, in years gone by, had been forged those thunderbolts which he hurled with so much power and effect against Colonisation; but tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis—the times are changed, and we are changed with them.
The dawn of a new day in the history of the coloured people is not only inspiring them with new views, but bringing forward new actors or leaders. It is not that those who are coming forward are superior to those who have passed away, or are passing away. No; the giants of former years—the Wards and Garnets and Douglasses —can never be surpassed, or even reproduced.
They were the peculiar product of their times. But it is, that the present times require different instruments, and leaders are arising with different purposes and different aspirations. I saw, in large letters, in a prominent part of Mr. Frederick Douglass’s residence, the scriptural injunction, “Live peaceably with all men”—a fitting motto, I thought, for the soldier who, after the hard- fought battle and the achievement of the victory, has laid down his arms. The motto in the days of Douglass’s greatest activity was, “Fight the good fight.” Now the days of peace have come. The statesman’s office comes after the soldier’s. Cedant arma togae. The Negro youth—as a result of the training which he is now so generously receiving in the schools—will seek to construct States, He will aspire after feats of statesmanship, and Africa will be the field to which he will look for the realisation of his desires. Bishop Turner, of the African Missionary Episcopal Church, who enjoys exceptional opportunities for knowing the feelings of the coloured people of this country, said, in a newspaper article published a few days ago:--
There never was a time when the coloured people were more concerned about Africa, in every respect, than at present. In some portions of the country it is the topic of conversation; and if a line of steamers were started from New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah or Charleston, they would be crowded to density every trip they made to Africa. There is a general unrest and a wholesale dissatisfaction among our people in a number of sections of the country, to my certain knowledge, and they sigh for conveniences to and from the continent of Africa. Something has to be done; matters cannot go on as at present, and the remedy is thought by tens of thousands to be a NEGRO NATIONLITY. This much the history of the world establishes, that races either fossilised, oppressed, or degraded, must emigrate before any material change takes place in their civil, intellectual, or moral status; otherwise extinction is the consequence.[5]
The general practice among superficial politicians and irresponsible coloured journalists in this country, is to ignore and deprecate the craving for the fatherland among the Negro population. But nothing is clearer to those who know anything of race instincts and tendencies than that this craving is a permanent and irrepressible impulse. For some reason the American Government has never seen its way clear to give any practical recognition to these aspirations. In vain, apparently, does the American Colonisation Society, from year to year, present the cries and petitions of thousands and hundreds of thousands who yearn for a home in the land of their fathers. Individual philanthropists may admit that such cries deserve respectful sympathy, but the Government takes no note of them. It must be stated, however, that the Government is ever ready to extend assistance to Liberia, and on the ground, partly, as often urged in their diplomatic correspondence, that Liberia is to be the future home of thousands of American citizens of African descent.
Has not the time now come when an earnest and united effort should be made by all sections of this great country to induce the Government to assist the thousands who are longing to betake themselves to those vast and fertile regions to which they are directed by the strongest impulses that have ever actuated the movements of humanity? While it is true that there are causes of dissatisfaction with his position in this country on the part of the Negro, still he will be carried to Africa by a higher impulse than that which brings millions to this country from Europe. Mr. Bright has said: “There are streams of emigration flowing towards. America, and much of this arises from the foolishness of European peoples and European Governments,” and he quotes from Mr. Bancroft the statement that “the history of the colonisation of America is the history of the crimes of Europe.”
No natural impulses bring the European hither—artificial or economical causes move him to emigrate. The Negro is drawn to Africa by the necessities of his nature.
We do not ask that all the coloured people should leave the United States and go to Africa. If such a result were possible it is not, for the present, at least, desirable; certainly it is not indispensable For the work to be accomplished much less than one-tenth of the six millions will be necessary. “In a return from exile, in the restoration of a people,” says George Eliot, “the question is not whether certain rich men will choose to remain behind, but whether there will be found worthy men who will choose to lead the return. Plenty of prosperous Jews remained in Babylon when Ezra marshalled his band of forty thousand, and began a new, glorious epoch in the history of his race, making the preparation for that epoch in the history of the world, which has been held glorious enough to be dated from forevermore.”
The dawn of a new day in the history of the coloured people is not only inspiring them with new views, but bringing forward new actors or leaders. It is not that those who are coming forward are superior to those who have passed away, or are passing away. No; the giants of former years—the Wards and Garnets and Douglasses —can never be surpassed, or even reproduced.
They were the peculiar product of their times. But it is, that the present times require different instruments, and leaders are arising with different purposes and different aspirations. I saw, in large letters, in a prominent part of Mr. Frederick Douglass’s residence, the scriptural injunction, “Live peaceably with all men”—a fitting motto, I thought, for the soldier who, after the hard- fought battle and the achievement of the victory, has laid down his arms. The motto in the days of Douglass’s greatest activity was, “Fight the good fight.” Now the days of peace have come. The statesman’s office comes after the soldier’s. Cedant arma togae. The Negro youth—as a result of the training which he is now so generously receiving in the schools—will seek to construct States, He will aspire after feats of statesmanship, and Africa will be the field to which he will look for the realisation of his desires. Bishop Turner, of the African Missionary Episcopal Church, who enjoys exceptional opportunities for knowing the feelings of the coloured people of this country, said, in a newspaper article published a few days ago:--
There never was a time when the coloured people were more concerned about Africa, in every respect, than at present. In some portions of the country it is the topic of conversation; and if a line of steamers were started from New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah or Charleston, they would be crowded to density every trip they made to Africa. There is a general unrest and a wholesale dissatisfaction among our people in a number of sections of the country, to my certain knowledge, and they sigh for conveniences to and from the continent of Africa. Something has to be done; matters cannot go on as at present, and the remedy is thought by tens of thousands to be a NEGRO NATIONLITY. This much the history of the world establishes, that races either fossilised, oppressed, or degraded, must emigrate before any material change takes place in their civil, intellectual, or moral status; otherwise extinction is the consequence.[5]
The general practice among superficial politicians and irresponsible coloured journalists in this country, is to ignore and deprecate the craving for the fatherland among the Negro population. But nothing is clearer to those who know anything of race instincts and tendencies than that this craving is a permanent and irrepressible impulse. For some reason the American Government has never seen its way clear to give any practical recognition to these aspirations. In vain, apparently, does the American Colonisation Society, from year to year, present the cries and petitions of thousands and hundreds of thousands who yearn for a home in the land of their fathers. Individual philanthropists may admit that such cries deserve respectful sympathy, but the Government takes no note of them. It must be stated, however, that the Government is ever ready to extend assistance to Liberia, and on the ground, partly, as often urged in their diplomatic correspondence, that Liberia is to be the future home of thousands of American citizens of African descent.
Has not the time now come when an earnest and united effort should be made by all sections of this great country to induce the Government to assist the thousands who are longing to betake themselves to those vast and fertile regions to which they are directed by the strongest impulses that have ever actuated the movements of humanity? While it is true that there are causes of dissatisfaction with his position in this country on the part of the Negro, still he will be carried to Africa by a higher impulse than that which brings millions to this country from Europe. Mr. Bright has said: “There are streams of emigration flowing towards. America, and much of this arises from the foolishness of European peoples and European Governments,” and he quotes from Mr. Bancroft the statement that “the history of the colonisation of America is the history of the crimes of Europe.”
No natural impulses bring the European hither—artificial or economical causes move him to emigrate. The Negro is drawn to Africa by the necessities of his nature.
We do not ask that all the coloured people should leave the United States and go to Africa. If such a result were possible it is not, for the present, at least, desirable; certainly it is not indispensable For the work to be accomplished much less than one-tenth of the six millions will be necessary. “In a return from exile, in the restoration of a people,” says George Eliot, “the question is not whether certain rich men will choose to remain behind, but whether there will be found worthy men who will choose to lead the return. Plenty of prosperous Jews remained in Babylon when Ezra marshalled his band of forty thousand, and began a new, glorious epoch in the history of his race, making the preparation for that epoch in the history of the world, which has been held glorious enough to be dated from forevermore.”
Footnotes:
5 Christian Recorder; January 4, 1883.
5 Christian Recorder; January 4, 1883.
There are Negroes enough in this country to join in the return— descendants of Africa enough, who are faithful to the instincts of the race, and who realise their duty to their fatherland. I rejoice to know that here, where the teachings of generations have been to disparage the race, there are many who are faithful, there are men, and women who will go, who have a restless sense of homelessness which will never be appeased until they stand in the great land where their forefathers lived; until they catch glimpses of the old sun, and moon and stars, which still shine in their pristine brilliancy upon that vast domain; until, from the deck of the ship which bears them back home, they see visions of the hills rising from the white margin of the continent, and listen to the breaking music of the waves—the exhilarating laughter of the sea as it dashes against the beach. These are the elements of the great restoration. It may come in our own life time. It may be our happiness to see those rise up who will formulate progress for Africa— embody the ideas which will reduce our social and political life to order; and we may, before we die, thank God that we have seen His salvation; that the Negro has grasped with a clear knowledge his meaning in the world’s vast life—in politics, in science, in religion.
I say it is gratifying to know that there are Negroes of this country who will go to do this great work—cheerfully go and brave the hardships and perils necessary to be endured in its accomplishment. These will be among the redeemers of Africa. If they suffer they will suffer devotedly, and if they die, they will die well. And what is death for the redemption of a people? History is full of examples of men who have sacrificed themselves for the advancement of a great cause—for the good of their country. Every man who dies for Africa—if it is necessary to die—adds to Africa a new element of salvation, and hastens the day of her redemption. And when God lets men suffer and gives them to pain and death, it is not the abandoned, it is not the worst or the guiltiest, but the best and the purest, whom He often chooses for His work, for they will do it best. Spectators weep and wonder; but the sufferers themselves accept the pain in the joy of doing redemptive work, and rise out of lower levels to the elevated regions of those nobler spirits—the glorious army of martyrs—who rejoice that they are counted worthy to die for men.
The nation now being reared in Africa by the returning exiles from this country will not be a reproduction of the American. The restoration of the Negro to the land of his fathers will be the restoration of a race to its original integrity, to itself; and working by itself, for itself and from itself, it will discover the methods of its own development, and they will not be the same as the Anglo-Saxon methods.
In Africa there are no physical problems to be confronted upon the solution of which human comfort and even human existence depend. In the temperate regions of the earth there are ever-recurring problems, first physical or material, and then intellectual, which press for solution and cannot be deferred without peril.
It is this constant pressure which has developed the scientific intellect and the thoughtfulness of the European. Africa can afford to hand over the solution of these problems to those who, driven by the exigencies of their circumstances, must solve them or perish. And when they are solved, we shall apply the results to our purposes, leaving us leisure and taste for the metaphysical and spiritual. Africa will be largely an agricultural country. The people, when assisted by proper impulse from without—and they need this help just as all other races have needed impulse from without—will live largely in contact with Nature. The Northern races will take the raw materials from Africa and bring them back in such forms as shall contribute to the comfort and even elegance of life in that country; while the African, in the simplicity and purity of rural enterprises, will be able to cultivate those spiritual elements in humanity which are suppressed, silent and inactive under the pressure and exigencies of material progress. He will find out, not under pressure, but in an entirely normal and natural way, what his work is to be.
I do not anticipate for Africa any large and densely crowded cities. For my own taste, I cannot say that I admire these agglomerations of humanity. For me, man has marred the earth’s surface by his cities. “God made the country and man the town.”
I say it is gratifying to know that there are Negroes of this country who will go to do this great work—cheerfully go and brave the hardships and perils necessary to be endured in its accomplishment. These will be among the redeemers of Africa. If they suffer they will suffer devotedly, and if they die, they will die well. And what is death for the redemption of a people? History is full of examples of men who have sacrificed themselves for the advancement of a great cause—for the good of their country. Every man who dies for Africa—if it is necessary to die—adds to Africa a new element of salvation, and hastens the day of her redemption. And when God lets men suffer and gives them to pain and death, it is not the abandoned, it is not the worst or the guiltiest, but the best and the purest, whom He often chooses for His work, for they will do it best. Spectators weep and wonder; but the sufferers themselves accept the pain in the joy of doing redemptive work, and rise out of lower levels to the elevated regions of those nobler spirits—the glorious army of martyrs—who rejoice that they are counted worthy to die for men.
The nation now being reared in Africa by the returning exiles from this country will not be a reproduction of the American. The restoration of the Negro to the land of his fathers will be the restoration of a race to its original integrity, to itself; and working by itself, for itself and from itself, it will discover the methods of its own development, and they will not be the same as the Anglo-Saxon methods.
In Africa there are no physical problems to be confronted upon the solution of which human comfort and even human existence depend. In the temperate regions of the earth there are ever-recurring problems, first physical or material, and then intellectual, which press for solution and cannot be deferred without peril.
It is this constant pressure which has developed the scientific intellect and the thoughtfulness of the European. Africa can afford to hand over the solution of these problems to those who, driven by the exigencies of their circumstances, must solve them or perish. And when they are solved, we shall apply the results to our purposes, leaving us leisure and taste for the metaphysical and spiritual. Africa will be largely an agricultural country. The people, when assisted by proper impulse from without—and they need this help just as all other races have needed impulse from without—will live largely in contact with Nature. The Northern races will take the raw materials from Africa and bring them back in such forms as shall contribute to the comfort and even elegance of life in that country; while the African, in the simplicity and purity of rural enterprises, will be able to cultivate those spiritual elements in humanity which are suppressed, silent and inactive under the pressure and exigencies of material progress. He will find out, not under pressure, but in an entirely normal and natural way, what his work is to be.
I do not anticipate for Africa any large and densely crowded cities. For my own taste, I cannot say that I admire these agglomerations of humanity. For me, man has marred the earth’s surface by his cities. “God made the country and man the town.”
It is the cities which have furnished the deadliest antagonisms to prophets and reformers. The prophets and apostles are nurtured in the Nazareths and Bethlehems of the world. I cherish the feeling that in Africa there will never be any Jerusalem, or Rome, or Athens, or London; but I have a strong notion that the Bethlehems and Nazareths will spring up in various parts of the continent. In the solitudes of the African forests, where the din of Western civilisation has never been heard, I have realised the saying of the poet that the “Groves were God’s first temples.” I have felt that I stood in the presence of the Almighty; and the trees and the birds and the sky and the air have whispered to me of the great work yet to be achieved on that continent. I trod lightly through those forests, for I felt there was “a spirit in the woods.” And I could understand how it came to pass that the prophets of a race— the great reformers who have organised states and elevated peoples, received their inspiration on mountains, in caves, in grottoes. I could understand something of the power which wrought upon Sakya Muni under the trees of India; upon Numa Pompilius in the retreat of the Nymph Egeria; upon Mohammed in the silent cave; upon Martin Luther, Xavier and Ignatius Loyola in the cloisters. One the sweetest of American poets—Whittier—in his poem on the Quaker Meeting, pictures the beauty and instructive power of unbroken stillness--
And so I find it well to come
For deeper rest, to this still room;
For here the habit of the soul
Feels less the outer world’s control.
And from the silence multiplied
By these still forms on either side,
The world that time and sense have known
Falls off, and leaves us God alone.
So to the calmly gathered thought
The innermost of truth is taught,
The mystery, dimly understood,
That love of God is love of good.
It is under such circumstances that the African will gather inspiration for his work. He will grow freely, naturally unfolding his powers in a healthy progress.
The world needs such a development of the Negro on African soil. He will bring as his contribution the softer aspects of human nature. The harsh and stern fibre of the Caucasian races needs this milder element. The African is the Feminine; and we must not suppose that this is of least importance in the ultimate development of humanity. “We are apt,” says Matthew Arnold, “to account amiability weak and hardness strong,” but even if it were so, there are forces, as George Sands says, truly and beautifully, “there are forces of weakness, of docility, of attractiveness or of suavity, which are quite as real as the forces of vigour, of encroachment, of violence, of brutality.”[6]
Soon after the close of the war it was the favourite cry of some that the Colonisation Society had done its work and should be dropped. But that cry has been effectually hushed by the increasing light of experience, and under the louder cries of the thousands and tens of thousands, who in various parts of the country are asking for aid to reach the land of their fathers. Both white and coloured are now recognising the fact that the Society with its abundant knowledge, with its organised plans, is an indispensible machinery for the diffusion of that special information about Africa of which the American people are generally so destitute, and for the inoffensive creation among the Negro portion of the population of those enlightened opinions about the land of their fathers, and their duty to that land which will lead some at least of them to enter upon it with intelligence and efficiency.
There is evidently, at this moment, no philanthropic institution before the American public that has more just and reasonable claims upon private and official benevolence than the American Colonisation Society. And the Christian sentiment of the country, as I gather it from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, is largely in favour of giving substantial and generous aid to that struggling Christian Republic in West Africa, the power of which, it is conceded, it should be the pride of this nation, as it is its commercial interest, to increase and perpetuate.
And so I find it well to come
For deeper rest, to this still room;
For here the habit of the soul
Feels less the outer world’s control.
And from the silence multiplied
By these still forms on either side,
The world that time and sense have known
Falls off, and leaves us God alone.
So to the calmly gathered thought
The innermost of truth is taught,
The mystery, dimly understood,
That love of God is love of good.
It is under such circumstances that the African will gather inspiration for his work. He will grow freely, naturally unfolding his powers in a healthy progress.
The world needs such a development of the Negro on African soil. He will bring as his contribution the softer aspects of human nature. The harsh and stern fibre of the Caucasian races needs this milder element. The African is the Feminine; and we must not suppose that this is of least importance in the ultimate development of humanity. “We are apt,” says Matthew Arnold, “to account amiability weak and hardness strong,” but even if it were so, there are forces, as George Sands says, truly and beautifully, “there are forces of weakness, of docility, of attractiveness or of suavity, which are quite as real as the forces of vigour, of encroachment, of violence, of brutality.”[6]
Soon after the close of the war it was the favourite cry of some that the Colonisation Society had done its work and should be dropped. But that cry has been effectually hushed by the increasing light of experience, and under the louder cries of the thousands and tens of thousands, who in various parts of the country are asking for aid to reach the land of their fathers. Both white and coloured are now recognising the fact that the Society with its abundant knowledge, with its organised plans, is an indispensible machinery for the diffusion of that special information about Africa of which the American people are generally so destitute, and for the inoffensive creation among the Negro portion of the population of those enlightened opinions about the land of their fathers, and their duty to that land which will lead some at least of them to enter upon it with intelligence and efficiency.
There is evidently, at this moment, no philanthropic institution before the American public that has more just and reasonable claims upon private and official benevolence than the American Colonisation Society. And the Christian sentiment of the country, as I gather it from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, is largely in favour of giving substantial and generous aid to that struggling Christian Republic in West Africa, the power of which, it is conceded, it should be the pride of this nation, as it is its commercial interest, to increase and perpetuate.
Footnotes:
6 Nineteenth Century, June, 1881.
6 Nineteenth Century, June, 1881.
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