Were the American Colonization Society bending its energies directly to the immediate abolition of slavery ; seeking to enlighten and consolidate public opinion, on this momentous subject ; faithfully exposing the awful guilt of the owners of slaves ; manfully contending for the bestowal of equal rights upon our free colored population in this their native land ; assiduously endeavoring to uproot the prejudices of society ; and holding no fellowship with oppressors ; my opposition to it would cease. It might continue, without censure, to bestow its charities upon such as spontaneously desire to remove to Africa, whether animated by religious considerations, or the hope of bettering their temporal condition. But, alas ! its governing spirit and purpose are of an opposite character.The first several sentences sound like Stefan Molyneux talking about anyone who averts their eyes to breaches of the Non-Aggression Principle.
The popularity of the Society is not attributable to its merits, but exclusively to its congeniality with those unchristian prejudices which have so long been cherished against a sable complexion. It is agreeable to slaveholders, because it is striving to remove a class of persons who they fear may stir up their slaves to rebellion. All who avow undying hostility to the people of color are in favor of it ; all who shrink from acknowledging them as brethren and friends, or who make them a distinct and inferior caste, or who deny the possibility of elevating them in the scale of improvement here, most heartily embrace it.
Here's another good point:
The argument, that the difference of complexion between our forefathers and the aborigines (which is not a distinctive feature between the settlers at Liberia and the natives) was the real cause of this deadly enmity, is more specious than solid. Conduct, not color, secures friendship or excites antipathy, as it happens to be just or unjust. The venerated William Penn and his pacific followers furnish a case in point.
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