In this well-nigh desperate state of things, the star of Liberia once more appears amid the gloom To the despairing she holds out hope: to the bound she offers deliverance and peace. This is the gate of freedom which God has opened, and it is vain to seek for any other. And through this gate, although so lately opened, how many have already passed to the enjoyment of liberty and prosperity! No sooner had the Colonization Society commenced its great undertaking, than the far-sighted Clarkson saw the good that would at once result to the cause so dear to his heart. "For myself," he says (to adduce once more his memorable words), "I am free to say, that of all things that have been going on in our favor since 1787, when the abolition of the slave-trade was seriously proposed, that which is going on in the United States is the most important. It surpasses everything that has yet occurred. No sooner had your colony been established on Cape Montserado, than there appeared a disposition among the owners of slaves to give them freedom voluntarily and without compensation, and allow them to be sent to the land of their fathers, so that you have many thousands redeemed, without any cost for their redemption. To me this is truly astonishing. Can this have taken place without the spirit of God."[1] — "Among the most promising and encouraging circumstances attending the career of this society," remarks the late benevolent Matthew Carey of Philadelphia, "are the numerous manumissions that have taken place in almost all the Slave States, on the express condition of the freed people being sent to
- ↑ See Freeman's Plea, Conversation XIX.
