"If, as is most true, the crimes of the white man robbed
Africa of her sons, let atonement be made by returning the
descendants of the stolen to the clime of their ancestors,
and then all the claims of redeeming justice will have been
discharged. There let centuries of future rights, atone for
centuries of past wrongs. Let the regenerated African rise to
Empire; nay, let Genius flourish, and Philosophy shed its
mild beams to enlighten and instruct the posterity of Ham,
returning 'redeemed and disenthralled' from their long
captivity in the new world. But, Sir, be all these benefits
enjoyed by the African race under the shade of their native
palms. Let the Atlantic billow heave its high and everlasting
barrier between their country and ours. Let this fair land
which the white man won by his chivalry, which he has adorned
by the arts and elegancies of polished life, be kept sacred
for his descendants, untarnished by the footprint of him who
hath ever been a slave."
6. Mr. Henry Clay's speech, before the Society, January 1st,
1818--2d Annual Report, page 110. "Further, several of the
slaveholding states had, and perhaps all of them would,
prohibit entirely, emancipation, without some such outlet was
created. A sense of their own safety required the painful
prohibition. Experience proved that persons turned loose who
were neither freemen nor slaves, constituted a great moral
evil, threatening to contaminate all parts of society. Let
the colony once be successfully planted, and legislative
bodies who have been grieved at the necessity of passing
those 'prohibitory laws,' which at a distance might appear to
'stain our codes,' will hasten to remove the impediments to
the exercise of benevolence and humanity. They will annex the
condition that the emancipated shall leave the country, and
he has placed a false estimate upon liberty, who believes
there are many who would refuse the boon, when coupled even
with such a condition."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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