[1] The clerical gentleman who presumes to utter this opinion is the same who has also the hardihood to assert that 'many of the best citizens of our land are holders of slaves, and hold them _in strict accordance with the principles of humanity and justice_'!! THOUGHTS ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION. PART I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. In attacking the system of slavery, I clearly foresaw all that has happened to me. I knew, at the commencement, that my motives would be impeached, my warnings ridiculed, my person persecuted, my sanity doubted, my life jeoparded: but the clank of the prisoner's chains broke upon my ear--it entered deeply into my soul--I looked up to Heaven for strength to sustain me in the perilous work of emancipation--and my resolution was taken. In opposing the American Colonization Society, I have also counted the cost, and as clearly foreseen the formidable opposition which will be arrayed against me. Many of the clergy are enlisted in its support: their influence is powerful. Men of wealth and elevated station are among its contributors: wealth and station are almost omnipotent. The press has been seduced into its support: the press is a potent engine. Moreover, the Society is artfully based upon and defended by _popular prejudice_: it takes advantage of wicked and preposterous opinions, and hence its success. These things grieve, they cannot deter me. 'Truth is mighty, and will prevail.' It is able to make falsehood blush, and tear from hypocrisy its mask, and annihilate prejudice, and overthrow persecution, and break every fetter. I am constrained to declare, with the utmost sincerity, that I look upon the colonization scheme as inadequate in its design, injurious in its operation, and contrary to sound principle; and the more scrupulously I examine its pretensions, the stronger is my conviction of its sinfulness. Nay, were Jehovah to speak in an audible voice from his holy habitation, I am persuaded that his language would be, 'Who hath required this at your hands?'