Letter on Colonization

Excerpt from Letter on Colonization: Addressed to the Rev. Thornton J. Mills, Corresponding Secretary of the Kentucky Colonization Society

This was the first instance of direct action in the South, for the. Benefit of any part of the colored population, of which Itben had a personal knowledge. I was greatly encouraged at the favora ble aspect of things on this, the first trial, for It was made in a town where, considering its size, there is unusual concentration of intelligence, and in the very midst of a population numbering a majority of blacks. At that time, I believed there was in the project so much of a vivifying s irit, that to ensure success it was only necessary for the mph 0 the South once to become inter ested in it, that there was in it so much of the energy of life that it required nothing more than once to be set on foot, to put beyond all question its continuance and growth. As auxiliary to the im pulses of benevolence, I calculated upon the eel h advantages to the South. These I thought, could be so clear y and powerfully exhibited, that there would be none to gainsay or resist, and that, by the union of benevolence and selfishness, the co-operation of the whole South might be secured. I unhesitatingly declare, that the total incongruity of these two principles did not strike my mind as it has done, since I witnessed their dissociable and mutu ally destructive energy. Of the truth of this remark, the Hunts ville society will furnish good evidence, for notwithstanding its auspicious beginning, and the excitement of eloquent and naimat ing addresses, delivered, at difi'erent times, by gentlemen of distin guished ability, it never was efficient, its excitability were away as it advanced in age, and it protracted a languishing existence until last autumn, when, I apprehend, it terminated its being.

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