that the complexion of the individual should not exclude him from the enjoyment of his “inalienable rights.” These people protected the fleeing fugitive, secreted him from his pursuers, and conducted him from station to station till he was landed in Canada. The secrecy with which they managed the matter and the certainty of the delivery of the passengers on their line, gave by common consent the name of the Underground Railroad. The number of those who escaped is a wonder, in view of the difficulties encountered. It is estimated by a prominent refugee from Kentucky, who made his escape in 1836, that fully thirty-five thousand fugitives have reached Canada from the Slave States. As would be expected, only the shrewdest, able bodied and most enterprising would succeed. They secured land in the home of their adoption, became successful farmers and mechanics, and an important acquisition to the Queen’s dominions.
The success of the Underground Railroad in transporting colored men to Canada presents a striking contrast with that of the African colonization scheme. The Colonization Society was organized in 1816—many years before the Underground Railroad was instituted. From the time of that organization to 1857, a period of forty years, there were 9,502 emigrants sent to Africa, of whom 3,676 were born free, 326 purchased their own liberty and 5,500 were emancipated on condition of being sent to Africa. It will thus be seen that nearly four times as many emigrated to Canada as to Liberia, and in developing the soil, building churches, schoolhouses, manufacturing establishments, and the surroundings of comfortable homes, and the facilities for the enjoyment of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the Wilberforce Colony will compare favorably with Liberia and Sierra Leone, though it is not doubted that African colonization has exerted a beneficial influence on the dark shores of the African continent. The Underground Railroad, it will be seen, has done much the greatest work in behalf of human liberty.
The conductors on this route were some of the noblest, self sacrificing men the world ever saw. No civil penalties dismayed them. They boldly proclaimed by deeds of moral heroism and self-sacrifice their faith in the higher law, before which human statutes were impotent when human liberty was at stake.
The remarkable exodus now in progress, which threatens to deprive the cotton States of a considerable portion of their laboring population, notwithstanding the sufferings of the refugees, presents a striking contrast with that under the management of the Underground Railroad: in the present case the philanthropist can exercise his charity toward the suffering, and no law
