forsook their native land, that they might plant their churches beyond the reach of intolerance, in the western wilderness. With what language would he address their descendants, on finding them leagued in a general conspiracy against their fellow Christians of a darker skin! He who once pleaded for Onesimus, the runaway slave, as his spiritual son, entreating his master to receive him, not as a slave or servant, but "above a servant, a brother beloved";-who taught in the churches, that the slave, on being "called in the Lord," became "the Lord's freeman", as the freeman was Christ's servant, and that between the Jew and the Gentile there was no difference, the same Lord over all being rich in mercy to all who call upon him;-who insisted so continually and pathetically upon the unity of the body, as having one head, one hope," one lord, one faith, one baptism ";-how would he deal with these teachers of religion, who lend their sanction to a brutal prejudice which defies every principle of Christianity? What would the Apostle have said to those who should have urged, that an ordination of Providence' forbade the realizing of that chimerical unity of the Church upon which he insisted; that the black and white portions of the mystical body of Christ are incapable of union by a law of nature; that the prayer of the Saviour is at variance with the decrees of the God of nature; that He has not made of one blood all races; and that the mountains should be moved from their foundations, before they would admit their sable fellows, " for whom Christ died", to the privileges of brethren ? Faithful disciples of Him who "gave his life a ransom for all"; who has left this prime commandment, binding upon all," As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also unto them "; and, as a test of obedience, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, when ye love one another!" We cannot forbear to address a few words to those Christian ministers in this country, who cherish, as becomes them, a brotherly regard for the transatlantic churches, and are apt to look with a degree of fondness and partiality to the land of religious freedom, where Christianity has seemed to put forth of late so holy an energy. Far be it from us to wish to check those feelings, and to sow discord between the two countries. But this we must say; that it becomes the Christians of England to make their voice heard across the Atlantic on behalf of their coloured brethren; and that our ministers are more especially bound to enter a solemn protest against the antichristian prejudice which the American pastors seem either timidly to yield to, or criminally to participate. Nor, speaking for ourselves, and willing to bear all the blame attaching to the avowal, shall we be disposed to place much faith in American revivals, or to augur well for the interests of religion in the United States, so long as American Christianity shall be found so partial or so feeble in its operation, as to exert no modifying influence upon this unjust, cruel, and insolent prejudice. Its essential immorality is evinced by the avowals we have transcribed, which shew that all moral distinctions are lost sight of in comparison with a superficial physical difference. Virtue is not to be discriminated from vice, knowledge from ignorance, probity from dishonesty, piety from infidelity, if veiled beneath a coloured skin. The lowest profligate, the meanest villain, if a white, shall be admitted to contact and fellowship, rather than Toussaint L'Ouverture, or Lott Carey, or any coloured minister of Christ. The Brazilian Catholic does not scruple to receive the sacred wafer at the hands of a black priest: the American Protestant will not enter the same church as his black fellow citizen! And what is this insurmountable physical barrier? Prejudice is not to be reasoned with, but let us be allowed to examine the matter physiologically. National antipathies are generally founded upon, or fostered by, a difference of creed, of language, of habits, or an hereditary feud between an intrusive and an aboriginal race. In respect to the whites and coloured people of the United States, the creed, the language, the habits are the same; and both are alike exotic races who have become naturalized to the soil together. The one belongs as much to Europe, as the other to Africa; and the indigenous tribes may regard both alike as intruders. Both races are American by birth, English in language, Christian in creed, citizens of the same political family. What prevents their amalgamation? A difference of race? No, for the races have blended; the proud white blood has mingled itself with the African, in America as in the West Indies and every where else, till new terms have been rendered necessary to describe the shades that distinguish the gradations by which the mulatto fades into the quadroon or darkens into the zambo. Physical antipathy between the white and black races, nature disowns. It is not strong enough, in tropical climes, to become the faintest check upon immorality. To an American critic, nothing seems so unnatural, so monstrous as the love of Desdemona for the Moor, which Shakspeare has shewn his matchless knowledge of human nature in depicting so well. Brabantio talks just like a lordly American, incredulous that a maid so tender, fair, and happy, So opposite to marriage, that she shunn'd The noble Venetian is, however, much more easily pacified than an American would be, on finding that no witchcraft had been employed, and on hearing Desdemona's simple confession, 'I saw Othello's visage in his mind.' It is not every Our readers will excuse this little digression. body, we admit, that would readily fall in love with a Moor; yet, in Spain, in Sicily, in Syria, Moor and Christian, the fairskinned European and the swarthy African, have freely mingled. Will it be said, that the Moor, although an African, is not a black, or not of the negro race? Even admitting this, the facts referred to prove that black is no distinctive mark of a particular or distinct race, and that nature has placed no barrier of antipathy between the black and white races. But let it be remembered, the coloured Americans are not all blacks*; nor is it their being black, that excludes them, as a degraded caste, from the privileges of citizenship. The least drop of African blood, if detected in the complexion, although not darker than that of an Andalusian beauty, is fatal to their rights. No proportion of white blood can ennoble them. This anti-social antipathy, therefore, is not founded on mere difference of colour, or of race; for, if so, it would diminish in strength as the physical cause became modified. What then is its real source? It is the pride of caste. The association of slavery with the darker complexion, is so strong, that the American hidalgo, in whom, as Burke expressed it, the haughtiness of domination combines with the spirit of freedom', cannot disconnect them. Freedom is to the Americans, as that great orator remarked, not only an enjoyment, but a rank and a privilege'; and the white aristocrat is consequently at once proud and jealous of his freedom". But in whatever way we may account for the strength of the prejudice, are the claims of justice and humanity annulled by its existence? Is the haughtiness of caste to be allowed for ever to suspend or to trample upon the laws of morality? Christianity has been sufficiently powerful to break down the middle wall that partitioned off the Jew from the Gentile,-to loosen the yoke of caste from the neck of the Indian Soodra, and reduce the unsocial pride of the Brahmin, -to make savage nations forget their ancient feuds and mutual antipathies; and shall it be said that it * Mr. Garrison says: In truth, it is often so difficult, in the Slave States, to distinguish between the fruits of mixed intercourse and the children of white parents, that witnesses are summoned at court to solve the problem! Talk of the barriers of Nature, when the land swarms with living refutations of the statement! Happy, indeed, would it be for many a female slave, if such a barrier could exist.' (p. 145.) cannot subdue this pride of caste in the American? It must and will give way. The whole tale of the wrongs of the coloured race has not, however, yet been told. We regret to state, that the projected expulsion of the free coloured natives, is only a counterpart of the system which is pursued towards both that class and the slaves, whom it is determined to retain in the lowest degradation, lest their knowledge should become power, and that power prove fatal to irresponsible tyranny. What will our readers think of the following disclosures? The legislative enactment of Ohio, which not long since drove many of the coloured inhabitants of that State into Upper Canada, was the legitimate fruit of the anathemas of the Colonization Society. A bill has been reported in the same legislature, for preventing free people of colour from participating in the benefit of the common school fund, in order to hasten their expulsion from the State! Other States are multiplying similar disabilities, and hanging heavier weights upon their free coloured population. The Legislature of Louisiana has enacted, that whosoever shall make use of language, in any public discourse, from the bar, the bench, the pulpit, the stage, or, in any other place whatsoever, shall make use of language, in any private discourses, or shall make use of signs or actions having a tendency to produce discontent among the coloured population, shall suffer imprisonment at hard labour, not less than three years, nor more than twenty-one years, or DEATH, at the discretion of the court!! It has also prohibited the instruction of the blacks in Sabbath Schools-500 dollars penalty for the first offence-DEATH for the second!! The Legislature of Virginia has passed a bill which subjects all free negroes who shall be convicted of remaining in the commonwealth contrary to law, to the liability of being sold by the sheriff. All meetings of free negroes, at any school-house or meeting-house, for teaching them reading or writing, are declared an unlawful assembly; and it is made the duty of any justice of the peace to issue his warrant to enter the house where such unlawful assemblage is held, for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such free negroes. A fine is to be imposed on every white person who instructs at such meeting. All emancipated slaves, who shall remain more than twelve months, contrary to law, shall revert to the executors as assets. Laws have been passed in Georgia and North. Carolina, imposing a heavy tax or imprisonment on every free person of colour who shall come into their ports in the capacity of stewards, cooks, or seamen of any vessels belonging to the non-slave-holding States. The Legislature of Tennessee has passed an act forbidding free blacks from coming into the State to remain more than twenty days. The penalty is a fine of from ten to fifty dollars, and confinement in the penitentiary from one to two years. Double the highest penalty is to be inflicted after the first offence. The act also prohibits manumission, without an immediate removal from the State. The last Legislature of Maryland passed a bill, by which no free negro or mulatto is allowed to emigrate to, or settle in the State, under the penalty of fifty dollars for every week's residence therein; and if he VOL. IX.-N.S. refuse or neglect to pay such fine, he shall be committed to jail and sold by the sheriff at public sale; and no person shall employ or harbour him, under the penalty of twenty dollars for every day he shall be so employed, hired, or harboured! It is not lawful for any free blacks to attend any meetings for religious purposes, unless conducted by a white licensed or ordained preacher, or some respectable white person duly authorized! All free coloured persons residing in the State, are compelled to register their names, ages, &c. &c.; and if any negro or mulatto shall remove from the State, and remain without the limits thereof for a space longer than thirty consecutive days, unless before leaving the State he deposits with the clerk of the county in which he resides, a written statement of his object in doing so, and his intention of returning again, or unless he shall have been detained by sickness or coercion, of which he shall bring a certificate, he shall be regarded as a resident of another State, and be subject, if he return, to the penalties imposed by the foregoing provisions upon free negroes and mulattoes of another State, migrating to Maryland! It is not lawful for any person or persons to purchase of any free negro or mulatto any articles, unless he produce a certificate from a justice of the peace, or three respectable persons residing in his neighbourhood, that he or they have reason to believe, and do believe, that such free negro or mulatto came honestly and bona fide into possession of any such articles so offered for sale! A bill has been reported to the Legisla ture of Pennsylvania, which enacts, that from and after a specified time, no negro or mulatto shall be permitted to emigrate into and settle in that State, without entering into bond in the penal sum of five hundred dollars, conditioned for his good behaviour. If he neglect or refuse to comply with this requisition, such punishment shall be inflicted upon him as is now directed in the case of vagrants. Free coloured residents are not to be allowed to migrate from one township or county to another, without producing a certificate from the clerk of the Court of Quarter Sessions, or a Justice of the Peace, or an Alderman! The passage of a similar law has been urged even upon the Legislature of Massachusetts by a writer in the Salem Gazette! All these proscriptive measures, and others less conspicuous but equally oppressive, which are not only flagrant violations of the constitution of the United States, but in the highest degree disgraceful and inhuman,—are resorted to, (to borrow the language of the Secretary in his Fifteenth Annual Report,) "for the more complete accomplishment of the great objects of the American Colonization Society"!! pp. 106-108. In the Appendix to the Seventh Annual Report, p. 94, the position is assumed, that "it is a well established point, that the public safety forbids either the emancipation or general instruction of the slaves." The recent enactment of laws in some of the slave States, prohibiting the instruction of free coloured persons as well as slaves, has received something more than a tacit approval from the organ of the Society. A prominent advocate of the Society, (G. P. Disosway, Esq.,) in an oration on the fourth of July, 1831, alluding to these laws, says: "The public safety of our brethren at the South requires them [the slaves] to be kept ignorant and unin |