Page:A memoir of Granville Sharp.djvu/74

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70
MEMOIR OF

to armed colonies, of the cruel iniquity of their heart, and of the daring hypocrisy of their boastings.

Liberia has already waded through two wars—defensive wars—wars, we will suppose, as virtuous as wars can be. Her first hero, exulted in the play of cannon balls, plunging like lightning upon that solid mass of human flesh, then at Monrovia. The blood of the heathen in his sins, has crimsoned her. When God "maketh inquisition for blood," will he not remember them alike, the conquerors and the conquered?

Yes—Granville Sharp, the man of peace, and armed colonies prepared to overcome evil with evil, are each others antipodes.

2d. Can we get any further light from his correspondence or memoranda?

In the volume from which I chiefly draw my materials for this short memoir, (Memoir's of Granville Sharp, by Prince Hoare, London, 1820) I find a very interesting letter from Samuel Hopkins to him, dated "Newport, Rhode Island, 15th January, 1789," together with Granville's reply. Samuel Hopkins declares his having felt it his duty to condemn and to preach against both the slave trade (1) and slavery, publicly; he says that a conviction of the evil of those practices was spreading, and notices the New-York and Philadelphian societies, which I have mentioned. He states that in Massachusetts, all were free, &c, &c. "But," adds he, "the circumstances of the freed blacks, are in many respects unhappy, while they live here among the whites;(2) as the latter look down upon the former, and are disposed to treat them as underlings, and deny them the advantages of education and employment, &c, which tends to depress their minds, and prevent their obtaining a comfortable living, and involves them in many other disadvantages. This and other considerations (3) have led many of them to desire to return to Africa (4) and settle there among their equals and brethren, and in a country and climate more natural to them than this. Particularly there are a number of religious (5) blacks, with whom I am acquainted, who wish