Page:A memoir of Granville Sharp.djvu/79

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GRANVILLE SHARP.
75

of that most atrocious system—and how affectingly does the brotherly respect and love, which his letter displays for the colored people, compare with the slanderous contempt and abuse of them, trumpeted over the world by the Colonization Society.

4th. What are the fundamental principles of the two establishments? Those of Sierra Leone, we have seen in page 60. They are full of benignity to Africa; not "by purchase of territory"—or "commercial speculation"—or "colonial settlement"—but by means of light and law! Not a word is said to disparage the poor settlers, in England, or to point out Africa to them, as the only refuge from British insanity, cruelty and pride.

The exclusive object of 'the American Colonization Society, "is to promote and execute a plan for colonizing (with their consent) the free people of color, residing in our country, in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem most expedient. And the society shall act, to effect this object, in cooperation with the general government, and such of the states as may adopt regulations on the subject."

As if "our country," were not the country of the free people of color, as much as ours! As if consent, thus obtained, under existing circumstances here, could, in general, Be voluntary! As if a society, acting in concert with Nicholas, of Russia, in sending the poor Poles to Siberia, could be just and benignant towards the Poles. As if a heathen and uncivilized country, could be the place, to which undissembling love would send guiltless and unaccused American citizens, from a land, so glorious in many respects, as the United States are!

But I pause, and refer my readers to "Jay's Inquiry," thanking God for such a timely and unanswerable exposition of the real character and influences of the American Colonization Society.

5th. What was the state of the national mind in Great Britain, compared with America ?

The English loved and cherished strangers, irrespectively of color—and if oppressed or wronged, they obtained a