Page:A Chapter on Slavery.djvu/92

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78
A CHAPTER ON SLAVERY.

entreat to come over, and be one with us, and assist us in this glorious enterprise, — -and enjoy with us that liberty to which we ever were, and to which the man of color ever must be, a stranger, in America. To the ministers of the Gospel, both white and colored, we would say, come over to this great harvest, and diffuse amongst us and our benighted neighbors the light of the Gospel, without which liberty is but slavery, and freedom perpetual bondage."[1]

In this connection, too, we may present an extract from a speech made in New York by a citizen of Liberia. At a meeting of the colored people held in that city, in June, 1850, Mr. Moore, of Liberia, made the following remarks: —

"Liberia offers, as its greatest gift, a free country. Our own race there are in power and in honor. You have heard of it, we know, and therefore prize it. We are a free and independent State, having a Constitution and Bill of Rights, like that of the United States. We do our own voting, while you, in most of this country, do not. I visited Washington city before I came here, and the condition of the poor people there pained my very heart. I wanted almost to force them to enjoy our privileges. I feel no inclination to return to Washington; but if I do, it will be to induce or almost to compel some to go with me, for we will do them good. We are yet a small people and small population. Much has been done for us, and yet much remains to be done. We are, as it were, on the fringes of Africa. We are free, and rejoice at the present, and hope for the future. Our Republic may

  1. Plea, Conversation XXI.