CALUMNY REFUTED, BY FACTS FROM LIBERIA; WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF THE COLOURED PRESIDENT ROBERTS; AN ELOQUENT SPEECH OF HILARY TEAGE, A COLOURED SENATOR; AND EXTRACTS FROM A DISCOURSE BY H. H. GARNETT, A FUGITIVE SLAVE, ON THE PAST AND PRESENT CONDITION, AND DESTINY OF THE COLOURED RACE. PRESENTED TO THE BOSTON ANTI-SLAVERY BAZAAR, U. S., BY THE AUTHOR OF "A TRIBUTE FOR THE NEGRO." "To injured Afric, liberal reader, turn, There from her sable sons this maxim learn;-- To no complexion is the charm confined, In every climate grows the virtuous mind." "Ab Æthiope virtutem disce, et ne crede colori." From the Æthiopian learn virtue, and trust not to colour. LONDON: CHARLES GILPIN, 5, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT; G. W. TAYLOR, PHILADELPHIA; WILLIAM HARNED, ANTI-SLAVERY OFFICE, NEW YORK. 1848. LEEDS: PRINTED BY ANTHONY PICKARD. NOTICE TO THE READER. The Reader will please to observe, that the following pages are printed solely with a view of refuting the calumnious charge of incapability and inferiority made against the Negro race, and not for the purpose of vindicating the American Colonization Scheme, concerning which great diversity of opinion exists. No one can object to the Colonization of Africa, so long as it is _perfectly voluntary_ on the part of those who go out as Colonists; in which case, connected with legitimate commerce and plans of civil and Christian improvement, great benefit may accrue; and which, _for the sake of Africa_, is worthy of encouragement. But, to hold up such a scheme, merely as a mode of expatriating the whole of the African race from America, merits the strongest disapprobation. If "the aristocracy of the skin" were laid aside, and the Coloured population of America were invested with the full rights of citizenship, and every civil prize, every useful employment, and every honourable station were thrown open to their exertions, there can be little doubt, as J. J. Gurney observes, in his Remarks on a Speech of Henry Clay's, "that the mixture of colours, in the same population, would soon be found _perfectly harmless_. Every man, white or black, would rest on his own responsibility; character, like other things, would find its natural level; light and truth would spread without obstruction; and the North American Union would afford, to an admiring world, a splendid and _unsullied_ evidence of the truth of that mighty principle on which her constitution is founded; viz., that, 'All men are created EQUAL, and are endowed by the Creator with certain INALIENABLE rights,--LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.'" W. A. _Leeds_, _10th Mo._, 1848. CALUMNY REFUTED, ETC., ETC.