unreasonable avidity for public employment. During the administration
of that illustrious man, to whose civil services more than to those of
any other American patriot, living or dead, this country is indebted
for the blessings of its present constitution, now more than ten
years ago, the mission to Russia, and a place in his cabinet, were
successively offered me. A place in _his_ cabinet, at that period of
my life, was more than equivalent to any place under any administration,
at my present more advanced age. His immediate successor tendered to me
the same place in his cabinet, which he anxiously urged me to accept,
and the mission to England. Gentlemen, I hope you will believe that far
from being impelled by any vain or boastful spirit, to mention these
things, I do it with humiliation and mortification.

If I had refused the department of state, the same individuals who
now, in the absence of all proof, against all probability, and in
utter disregard of all truth, proclaim the existence of a corrupt
previous arrangement, would have propagated the same charge with the
same affected confidence which they now unblushingly assume. And it
would have been said, with at least much plausibility, that I had
contributed to the election of a chief magistrate, of whom I thought so
unfavorably that I would not accept that place in his cabinet which is
generally regarded as the first. I thought it my duty, unawed by their
denunciations, to proceed in the office assigned me by the president
and senate, to render the country the best service of which my poor
abilities are capable. If this administration should show itself
unfriendly to American liberty and to free and liberal institutions;
if it should be conducted upon a system adverse to those principles of
public policy, which I have ever endeavored to sustain, and I should
be found still clinging to office; then nothing which could be said by
those who are inimical to me, would be undeserved.

But the president ought not to have appointed one who had voted
for him. Mr. Jefferson did not think so, who called to his cabinet a
gentleman who had voted for him, in the most warmly contested election
that has ever occurred in the house of representatives, and who
appointed to other highly important offices other members of the
same house, who voted for him. Mr. Madison did not think so, who did
not feel himself restrained from sending me on a foreign service,
because I had supported his election. Mr. Monroe did not think so, who
appointed in his cabinet a gentleman, now filling the second office in
the government, who attended the caucus that nominated and warmly and
efficiently espoused his election. But, suppose the president acted
upon the most disinterested doctrine which is now contended for by
those who opposed his election, and were to appoint to public office
from _their_ ranks only, to the entire exclusion of those who voted for
him, would he then escape their censure? No! we have seen him charged,
for that equal distribution of the public service among every class of
citizens, which has hitherto characterized his administration, with the
nefarious purpose of buying up portions of the community. A spirit of
denunciation is abroad. With some, condemnation, right or wrong, is
the order of the day. No matter what prudence and wisdom may stamp the
measures of the administration, no matter how much the prosperity of
the country may be advanced, or what public evils may be averted, under
its guidance, there are persons who would make general, indiscriminate,
and interminable opposition. This is not a fit occasion, nor perhaps
am I a fit person, to enter upon a vindication of its measures. But I
hope I shall be excused for asking what measure of domestic policy has
been proposed or recommended by the present executive, which has not
its prototype in previous acts or recommendations of administrations
at the head of which was a citizen of Virginia? Can the liberal and
high-minded people of this state, condemn measures emanating from
a citizen of Massachusetts, which, when proposed by a Virginian,
commanded their express assent or silent acquiescence, or to which,
if in any instance they made opposition, it was respectful, limited,
and qualified? The present administration desires only to be judged by
its measures, and invites the strictest scrutiny and the most watchful
vigilance on the part of the public.

With respect to the Panama mission, it is true that it was not
recommended by any preceding administration, because the circumstances
of the world were not then such as to present it as a subject for
discussion. But during that of Mr. Monroe, it has been seen that it
was a matter of consideration, and there is every reason to believe, if
he were now at the head of affairs, his determination would correspond
with that of his successor. Let me suppose that it was the resolution
of this country, under no circumstances, to contract with foreign
powers intimate public engagements, and to remain altogether unbound by
any treaties of alliance; what should have been the course taken with
the very respectful invitation which was given to the United States to
be represented at Panama? Haughtily folding your arms, would you have
given it a cold and abrupt refusal? Or would you not rather accept
it, send ministers, and, in a friendly and respectful manner, endeavor
to satisfy those who are looking to us for counsel and example, and
imitating our free institutions, that there is no necessity for such an
alliance; that the dangers which alone could, in the opinion of any one,
have justified it, have vanished, and that it is not good for them or
for us?

What may be the nature of the instructions with which our ministers may
be charged, it is not proper that I should state; but all candid and
reflecting men must admit, that we have great interests in connection
with the southern republics, independent of any compacts of alliance.
Those republics, now containing a population of upwards of twenty
millions, duplicating their numbers probably in periods still shorter
than we do, comprising within their limits the most abundant sources
of the precious metals, offer to our commerce, to our manufactures, to
our navigation, so many advantages, that none can doubt the expediency
of cultivating the most friendly relations with them. If treaties
of commerce and friendship, and liberal stipulations in respect to
neutral and belligerent rights, could be negotiated with each of them
at its separate seat of government, there is no doubt that much greater
facilities for the conclusion of such treaties present themselves
at a point where, all being represented, the way may be smoothed and
all obstacles removed by a disclosure of the views and wishes of all,
and by mutual and friendly explanations. There was one consideration
which had much weight with the executive, in the decision to accept
the mission; and that was the interest which this country has, and
especially the southern states, in the fate and fortunes of the island
of Cuba. No subject of our foreign relations has created with the
executive government more anxious concern, than that of the condition
of that island and the possibility of prejudice to the southern states,
from the convulsions to which it might be exposed. It was believed,
and is yet believed, that the dangers which, in certain contingencies,
might threaten our quiet and safety, may be more successfully averted
at a place at which all the American powers should be represented
than any where else. And I have no hesitation in expressing the firm
conviction, that, if there be one section of this union more than
all others interested in the Panama mission, and the benefits which
may flow from it, that section is the south. It was, therefore, with
great and unaffected surprise, that I witnessed the obliquity of
those political views which led some gentlemen from that quarter to
regard the measure, as it might operate on the southern states, in an
unfavorable light. Whatever may be the result of the mission, its moral
effect in Europe will be considerable, and it cannot fail to make the
most friendly impressions upon our southern neighbors. It is one of
which it is difficult, in sober imagination, to conceive any possible
mischievous consequences, and which the executive could not have
declined, in my opinion, without culpable neglect of the interests
of this country, and without giving dissatisfaction to nations whose
friendship we are called upon by every dictate of policy to conciliate.

There are persons who would impress on the southern states the
belief that they have just cause of apprehending danger to a certain
portion of their property from the present administration. It is not
difficult to comprehend the object and the motive of these idle alarms.
What measure of the present administration gives any just occasion
for the smallest apprehension to the tenure by which that species of
property is held? However much the president and the members of his
administration may deprecate the existence of slavery among us, as the
greatest evil with which we are afflicted, there is not one of them
that does not believe that the constitution of the general government
confers no authority to interpose between the master and his slave,
none to apply an adequate remedy, if indeed there be any remedy
within the scope of human power. Suppose an object of these alarmists
were accomplished, and the slave-holding states were united in the
sentiment, that the policy of this government in all time to come,
should be regulated on the basis of the fact of slavery, would not
union on the one side lead to union on the other? And would not such
a fatal division of the people and states of this confederacy, produce
perpetual mutual irritation and exasperation, and ultimately disunion
itself? The slave-holding states cannot forget that they are now in
a minority, which is in a constant relative diminution, and should
certainly not be the first to put forth a principle of public action
by which they would be the greatest losers.

I am but too sensible of the unreasonable trespass on your time which I
have committed, and of the egotism of which my discourse has partaken.
I must depend for my apology upon the character of the times, on the
venom of the attacks which have been made upon my character and conduct,
and upon the generous sympathy of the gentlemen here assembled. During
this very journey a paper has been put into my hands, in which a member
of the house of representatives is represented to have said that the
distinguished individual at the head of the government, and myself,
have been indicted by the people. If that is the case, I presume that
some defence is lawful. By the bye, if the honorable member is to have
the sole conduct of the prosecution without the aid of other counsel,
I think that it is not difficult to predict that his clients will be
nonsuited, and that they will be driven out of court with the usual
judgment pronounced in such cases.

In conclusion, I beg leave to offer a toast which, if you are as dry as
I am, will, I hope, be acceptable for the sake of the wine, if not the
sentiment.

‘The continuation of the turnpike road which passes through Lewisburg,
and success to the cause of internal improvement, under every auspice.’

He then took his seat amid the repeated cheers of the whole company.

                       ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION.

             IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
      AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY,
                 AT WASHINGTON CITY, JANUARY 20, 1827.

  [THE subject of colonizing the free people of color and
  emancipated slaves, became one of deep and profound interest,
  at an early period, in the history of the United States. The
  question was agitated in Virginia in 1800, and a resolution
  passed in the legislature of that state, requesting the governor
  to correspond with the president of the United States, on the
  subject of purchasing land for a colony; and president Jefferson
  made efforts, which, however, were unsuccessful, to obtain
  by negotiation an establishment within the British colonies,
  in Africa, or the Portuguese colonies, in South America.
  The movement which finally led to a successful result, in
  establishing an American colony on the coast of Africa,
  commenced in the legislature of Virginia, in December 1816,
  by instructing the executive of that state, and their members
  of congress, to coöperate with the United States government
  in endeavoring to obtain a territory on the before-mentioned
  coast, for an asylum for free persons of color. Through the
  instrumentality of the Rev. Robert Finley, an early and zealous
  friend of the cause, a meeting of public men and private
  citizens was held at Washington city, on the twenty-first of
  December, 1816, over which Mr. Clay, then speaker of the house
  of representatives, was called to preside. A constitution of
  the American Colonization Society was adopted, at an adjourned
  meeting on the twenty-eighth of December, and on the first of
  January, 1817, the officers of the society were chosen, judge
  Bushrod Washington being elected president, and Henry Clay,
  William H. Crawford, Andrew Jackson, Robert Finley, and others,
  vice-presidents. Mr. Clay has always taken a warm and decided
  interest in the promotion of the objects of this society, and
  at the annual meeting thereof, in 1827 (being then secretary of
  state), he delivered the following address.]

I CANNOT withhold the expression of my congratulations to the society,
on account of the very valuable acquisition which we have obtained in
the eloquent gentleman from Boston, (Mr. Knapp,) who has just before
favored us with an address. He has told us of his original impressions,
unfavorable to the object of the society, and of his subsequent
conversion. If the same industry, investigation, and unbiased judgment,
manifested by himself and another gentleman (Mr. Powell), who avowed at
the last meeting of the society a similar change wrought in his mind,
were carried, by the public at large, into the consideration of the
plan of the society, the conviction of its utility would be universal.

I have risen to submit a resolution, in behalf of which I would bespeak
the favor of the society. But before I offer any observations in its
support, I must say that, whatever part I shall take in the proceedings
of this society, whatever opinions or sentiments I may utter, they
are exclusively my own. Whether they are worth any thing or not, no
one but myself is at all responsible for them. I have consulted with
no person out of this society, and I have especially abstained from
all communication or consultation with any one to whom I stand in any
official relation. My judgment on the object of this society has been
long since deliberately formed. The conclusions to which, after much
and anxious consideration, my mind has been brought, have been neither
produced nor refuted, by the official station the duties of which have
been confided to me.

From the origin of this society, every member of it has, I believe,
looked forward to the arrival of a period, when it would become
necessary to invoke the public aid in the execution of the great scheme
which it was instituted to promote. Considering itself as the mere
pioneer in the cause which it had undertaken, it was well aware that
it could do no more than remove preliminary difficulties, and point out
a sure road to ultimate success; and that the public only could supply
that regular, steady, and efficient support, to which the gratuitous
means of benevolent individuals would be found incompetent. My surprise
has been, that the society has been able so long to sustain itself, and
to do so much upon the charitable contributions of good, and pious, and
enlightened men, whom it has happily found in all parts of our country.
But our work has so prospered and grown under our hands, that the
appeal to the power and resources of the public, should be no longer
deferred. The resolution which I have risen to propose, contemplates
this appeal. It is in the following words:

‘_Resolved_, that the board of managers be empowered and directed,
at such time or times as may seem to them expedient, to make
respectful application to the congress of the United States, and to
the legislatures of the different states, for such pecuniary aid, in
furtherance of the object of this society, as they may respectively be
pleased to grant.’

In soliciting the countenance and support of the legislatures of
the union and the states, it is incumbent on the society, in making
out its case, to show, first, that it offers to their consideration
a scheme which is practicable, and secondly, that the execution of
the practicable scheme, partial or entire, will be fraught with such
beneficial consequences as to merit the support which is solicited.
I believe both points to be maintainable. First, it is now a little
upwards of ten years since a religious, amiable, and benevolent
resident[12] of this city, first conceived the idea of planting a
colony, from the United States, of free people of color, on the western
shores of Africa. He is no more, and the noblest eulogy which could
be pronounced on him would be, to inscribe upon his tomb, the merited
epitaph, ‘here lies the projector of the American Colonization Society.’
Amongst others, to whom he communicated the project, was the person
who now has the honor of addressing you. My first impressions, like
those of all who have not fully investigated the subject, were against
it. They yielded to his earnest persuasions and my own reflections,
and I finally agreed with him that the experiment was worthy of a fair
trial. A meeting of its friends was called, organized as a deliberative
body, and a constitution was formed. The society went into operation.
He lived to see the most encouraging progress in its exertions, and
died in full confidence of its complete success. The society was
scarcely formed before it was exposed to the derision of the unthinking;
pronounced to be visionary and chimerical by those who were capable
of adopting wiser opinions, and the most confident predictions of its
entire failure were put forth. It found itself equally assailed by the
two extremes of public sentiment in regard to our African population.
According to one, (that rash class which, without a due estimate of the
fatal consequence, would forthwith issue a decree of general, immediate,
and indiscriminate emancipation,) it was a scheme of the slaveholder
to perpetuate slavery. The other (that class which believes slavery a
blessing, and which trembles with aspen sensibility at the appearance
of the most distant and ideal danger to the tenure by which that
description of property is held,) declared it a contrivance to let
loose on society all the slaves of the country, ignorant, uneducated,
and incapable of appreciating the value or enjoying the privileges
of freedom.[13] The society saw itself surrounded by every sort of
embarrassment. What great human enterprise was ever undertaken without
difficulty? What ever failed, within the compass of human power, when
pursued with perseverance and blessed by the smiles of Providence? The
society prosecuted undismayed its great work, appealing for succor to
the moderate, the reasonable, the virtuous, and religious portions of
the public. It protested, from the commencement, and throughout all its
progress, and it now protests, that it entertains no purpose, on its
own authority or by its own means, to attempt emancipation, partial
or general; that it knows the general government has no constitutional
power to achieve such an object; that it believes that the states,
and the states only, which tolerate slavery, can accomplish the work
of emancipation; and that it ought to be left to them, exclusively,
absolutely, and voluntarily, to decide the question.

The object of the society was the colonization of the free colored
people, not the slaves, of the country. Voluntary in its institution,
voluntary in its continuance, voluntary in all its ramifications, all
its means, purposes, and instruments, are also voluntary. But it was
said that no free colored persons could be prevailed upon to abandon
the comforts of civilized life and expose themselves to all the perils
of a settlement in a distant, inhospitable, and savage country; that,
if they could be induced to go on such a quixotic expedition, no
territory could be procured for their establishment as a colony;
that the plan was altogether incompetent to effectuate its professed
object; and that it ought to be rejected as the idle dream of visionary
enthusiasts. The society has outlived, thank God, all these disastrous
predictions. It has survived to swell the list of false prophets. It is
no longer a question of speculation whether a colony can or cannot be
planted from the United States of free persons of color on the shores
of Africa. It is a matter demonstrated; such a colony, in fact, exists,
prospers, has made successful war, and honorable peace, and transacts
all the multiplied business of a civilized and christian community.[14]
It now has about five hundred souls, disciplined troops, forts, and
other means of defence, sovereignty over an extensive territory, and
exerts a powerful and salutary influence over the neighboring clans.

Numbers of the free African race among us are willing to go to
Africa. The society has never experienced any difficulty on that
subject, except that its means of comfortable transportation have
been inadequate to accommodate all who have been anxious to migrate.
Why should they not go? Here they are in the lowest state of social
gradation; aliens――political, moral, social aliens――strangers, though
natives. There, they would be in the midst of their friends and their
kindred, at home, though born in a foreign land, and elevated above
the natives of the country, as much as they are degraded here below the
other classes of the community. But on this matter, I am happy to have
it in my power to furnish indisputable evidence from the most authentic
source, that of large numbers of free persons of color themselves.
Numerous meetings have been held in several churches in Baltimore,
of the free people of color, in which, after being organized as
deliberative assemblies, by the appointment of a chairman (if not of
the same complexion) presiding as you, Mr. Vice-president, do, and
secretaries, they have voted memorials addressed to the white people,
in which they have argued the question with an ability, moderation, and
temper, surpassing any that I can command, and emphatically recommended
the colony of Liberia to favorable consideration, as the most desirable
and practicable scheme ever yet presented on this interesting subject.
I ask permission of the society to read this highly creditable document.

  [Here Mr. Clay read the memorial referred to.]

The society has experienced no difficulty in the acquisition of a
territory, upon reasonable terms, abundantly sufficient for a most
extensive colony. And land in ample quantities, it has ascertained, can
be procured in Africa, together with all rights of sovereignty, upon
conditions as favorable as those on which the United States extinguish
the Indian title to territory within their own limits.

In respect to the alleged incompetency of the scheme to accomplish its
professed object, the society asks that that object should be taken
to be, not what the imaginations of its enemies represent it to be,
but what it really proposes. They represent that the purpose of the
society is, to export the whole African population of the United States,
bond and free; and they pronounce this design to be unattainable. They
declare that the means of the whole country are insufficient to effect
the transportation to Africa of a mass of population approximating
to two millions of souls. Agreed; but that is not what the society
contemplates. They have substituted their own notion for that of the
society. What is the true nature of the evil of the existence of a
portion of the African race in our population? It is not that there
are _some_, but that there are so _many_ among us of a different
caste, of a different physical, if not moral, constitution, who
never can amalgamate with the great body of our population. In every
country, persons are to be found varying in their color, origin, and
character, from the native mass. But this anomaly creates no inquietude
or apprehension, because the exotics, from the smallness of their
number, are known to be utterly incapable of disturbing the general
tranquillity. Here, on the contrary, the African part of our population
bears so large a proportion to the residue, of European origin, as to
create the most lively apprehension, especially in some quarters of
the union. Any project, therefore, by which, in a material degree, the
dangerous element in the general mass, can be diminished or rendered
stationary, deserves deliberate consideration.

The colonization society has never imagined it to be practicable, or
within the reach of any means which the several governments of the
union could bring to bear on the subject, to transport the whole of
the African race within the limits of the United States. Nor is that
necessary to accomplish the desirable objects of domestic tranquillity,
and render us one homogeneous people. The population of the United
States has been supposed to duplicate in periods of twenty-five years.
That may have been the case heretofore, but the terms of duplication
will be more and more protracted as we advance in national age; and I
do not believe that it will be found, in any period to come, that our
numbers will be doubled in a less term than one of about thirty-three
and a third years. I have not time to enter now into details in support
of this opinion. They would consist of those checks which experience
has shown to obstruct the progress of population, arising out of its
actual augmentation and density, the settlement of waste lands, &c.
Assuming the period of thirty-three and a third, or any other number of
years, to be that in which our population will hereafter be doubled, if,
during that whole term, the capital of the African stock could be kept
down, or stationary, whilst that of European origin should be left to
an unobstructed increase, the result, at the end of the term, would be
most propitious. Let us suppose, for example, that the whole population
at present of the United States, is twelve millions, of which ten may
be estimated of the Anglo-Saxon, and two of the African race. If there
could be annually transported from the United States an amount of the
African portion equal to the annual increase of the whole of that caste,
whilst the European race should be left to multiply, we should find at
the termination of the period of duplication, whatever it may be, that
the relative proportions would be as twenty to two. And if the process
were continued, during a second term of duplication the proportion
would be as forty to two――one which would eradicate every cause
of alarm or solicitude from the breasts of the most timid. But the
transportation of Africans, by creating, to the extent to which it
might be carried, a vacuum in society, would tend to accelerate the
duplication of the European race, who by all the laws of population,
would fill up the void space.

This society is well aware, I repeat, that they cannot touch the
subject of slavery. But it is no objection to their scheme, limited,
as it is, exclusively to those free people of color who are willing
to migrate, that it admits of indefinite extension and application,
by those who alone, having the competent authority, may choose to
adopt and apply it. Our object has been to point out the way, to show
that colonization is practicable, and to leave it to those states or
individuals who may be pleased to engage in the object, to prosecute
it. We have demonstrated that a colony may be planted in Africa, by
the fact that an American colony there exists. The problem which has so
long and so deeply interested the thoughts of good and patriotic men,
is solved; a country and a home have been found, to which the African
race may be sent, to the promotion of their happiness and our own.

But, Mr. Vice-president, I shall not rest contented with the fact of
the establishment of the colony, conclusive as it ought to be deemed,
of the practicability of our purpose. I shall proceed to show, by
reference to indisputable statistical details and calculations, that it
is within the compass of reasonable human means. I am sensible of the
tediousness of all arithmetical data, but I will endeavor to simplify
them as much as possible. It will be borne in mind that the aim of
the society is, to establish in Africa a colony of the free African
population of the United States, to an extent which shall be beneficial
both to Africa and America. The whole free colored population of
the United States, amounted, in 1790, to fifty-nine thousand four
hundred and eighty-one; in 1800, to one hundred and ten thousand and
seventy-two; in 1810, to one hundred and eighty-six thousand four
hundred and forty-six; and in 1820, to two hundred and thirty-three
thousand five hundred and thirty. The ratio of annual increase during
the first term of ten years, was about eight and a half per cent.
per annum; during the second, about seven per cent. per annum; and
during the third, a little more than two and a half. The very great
difference in the rate of annual increase, during those several terms,
may probably be accounted for by the effect of the number of voluntary
emancipations operating with more influence upon the total smaller
amount of free colored persons at the first of those periods, and by
the facts of the insurrection in St. Domingo, and the acquisition of
Louisiana, both of which, occurring during the first and second terms,
added considerably to the number of our free colored population.

Of all descriptions of our population, that of the free colored, taken
in the aggregate, is the least prolific, because of the checks arising
from vice and want. During the ten years, between 1810 and 1820, when
no extraneous causes existed to prevent a fair competition in the
increase between the slave and the free African race, the former
increased at the rate of nearly three per cent. per annum, whilst
the latter did not much exceed two and a half. Hereafter it may be
safely assumed, and I venture to predict, will not be contradicted
by the return of the next census, that the increase of the free black
population will not surpass two and a half per cent. per annum. Their
amount at the last census, being two hundred and thirty-three thousand
five hundred and thirty, for the sake of round numbers, their annual
increase may be assumed to be six thousand, at the present time. Now if
this number could be annually transported from the United States during
a term of years, it is evident that, at the end of that term, the
parent capital will not have increased, but will have been kept down at
least to what it was at the commencement of the term. Is it practicable,
then, to colonize annually six thousand persons from the United States,
without materially impairing or affecting any of the great interests of
the United States? This is the question presented to the judgments of
the legislative authorities of our country. This is the whole scheme
of the society. From its actual experience, derived from the expenses
which have been incurred in transporting the persons already sent to
Africa, the entire average expense of each colonist, young and old,
including passage money and subsistence, may be stated at twenty
dollars per head. There is reason to believe that it may be reduced
considerably below that sum. Estimating that to be the expense, the
total cost of transporting six thousand souls, annually to Africa,
would be one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The tonnage requisite
to effect the object, calculating two persons to every five tons,
(which is the provision of existing law) would be fifteen thousand tons.
But as each vessel could probably make two voyages in the year, it may
be reduced to seven thousand five hundred. And as both our mercantile
and military marine might be occasionally employed on this collateral
service, without injury to the main object of the voyage, a further
abatement might be safely made in the aggregate amount of the necessary
tonnage. The navigation concerned in the commerce between the colony
and the United States, (and it already begins to supply subjects of an
interesting trade,) might be incidentally employed to the same end.

Is the annual expenditure of a sum no larger than one hundred and
twenty thousand dollars, and the annual employment of seven thousand
five hundred tons of shipping, too much for reasonable exertion,
considering the magnitude of the object in view? Are they not, on the
contrary, within the compass of moderate efforts?

Here is the whole scheme of the society――a project which has been
pronounced visionary by those who have never given themselves the
trouble to examine it, but to which I believe most unbiassed men will
yield their cordial assent, after they have investigated it.

Limited as the project is, by the society, to a colony to be formed
by the free and unconstrained consent of free persons of color, it is
no objection, but on the contrary a great recommendation, of the plan,
that it admits of being taken up and applied on a scale of much more
comprehensive utility. The society knows, and it affords just cause
of felicitation, that all or any one of the states which tolerate
slavery, may carry the scheme of colonization into effect, in regard
to the slaves within their respective limits, and thus ultimately rid
themselves of a universally acknowledged curse. A reference to the
results of the several enumerations of the population of the United
States will incontestably prove the practicability of its application
on the more extensive scale. The slave population of the United States
amounted, in 1790, to six hundred and ninety-seven thousand, six
hundred and ninety-seven; in 1800, to eight hundred and ninety-six
thousand, eight hundred and forty-nine; in 1810, to eleven hundred
and ninety-one thousand, three hundred and sixty-four; and in 1820, to
fifteen hundred and thirty-eight thousand, one hundred and twenty-eight.
The rate of annual increase, (rejecting fractions and taking the
integer to which they make the nearest approach,) during the first
term of ten years, was not quite three per centum per annum, during
the second, a little more than three per centum per annum; and during
the third, a little less than three per centum. The mean ratio of
increase for the whole period of thirty years, was very little more
than three per centum per annum. During the first two periods, the
native stock was augmented by importations from Africa in those states
which continued to tolerate them, and by the acquisition of Louisiana.
Virginia, to her eternal honor, abolished the abominable traffic among
the earliest acts of her self-government. The last term alone presents
the natural increase of the capital unaffected by any extraneous causes.
That authorizes, as a safe assumption, that the future increase will
not exceed three per centum per annum. As our population increases,
the value of slave labor will diminish, in consequence of the superior
advantages in the employment of free labor. And when the value of slave
labor shall be materially lessened, either by the multiplication of
the supply of slaves beyond the demand, or by the competition between
slave and free labor, the annual increase of slaves will be reduced, in
consequence of the abatement of the motives to provide for and rear the
offspring.

Assuming the future increase to be at the rate of three per centum
per annum, the annual addition to the number of slaves in the United
States, calculated upon the return of the last census, (one million
five hundred and thirty-eight thousand, one hundred and twenty-eight)
is forty-six thousand. Applying the data which have been already stated
and explained, in relation to the colonization of free persons of color
from the United States to Africa, to the aggregate annual increase,
both bond and free, of the African race, and the result will be found
most encouraging. The total number of the annual increase of both
descriptions is fifty-two thousand. The total expense of transporting
that number to Africa, (supposing no reduction of present prices)
would be one million and forty thousand dollars, and the requisite
amount of tonnage would be only one hundred and thirty thousand tons of
shipping――about one ninth part of the mercantile marine of the United
States. Upon the supposition of a vessel’s making two voyages in the
year, it would be reduced to one half, sixty-five thousand. And this
quantity would be still further reduced, by embracing opportunities of
incidental employment of vessels belonging both to the mercantile and
military marines.

But, is the annual application of one million and forty thousand
dollars and the employment of sixty-five or even one hundred and thirty
thousand tons of shipping, considering the magnitude of the object,
beyond the ability of this country? Is there a patriot, looking forward
to its domestic quiet, its happiness, and its glory, that would not
cheerfully contribute his proportion of the burden, to accomplish a
purpose so great and so humane? During the general continuance of the
African slave trade, hundreds of thousands of slaves have been, in a
single year, imported into the several countries whose laws authorized
their admission. Notwithstanding the vigilance of the powers now
engaged to suppress the slave trade, I have received information,
that in a single year, in the single island of Cuba, slaves equal in
amount to one half of the above number of fifty-two thousand, have been
illicitly introduced. Is it possible that those who are concerned in an
infamous traffic can effect more than the states of this union, if they
were seriously to engage in the good work? Is it credible, is it not
a libel upon human nature to suppose, that the triumphs of fraud, and
violence, and iniquity, can surpass those of virtue, and benevolence,
and humanity?

The population of the United States being, at this time, estimated at
about ten millions of the European race, and two of the African, on the
supposition of the annual colonization of a number of the latter, equal
to the annual increase, of both of its classes, during the whole period
necessary to the process of duplication of our numbers, they would,
at the end of that period, relatively stand twenty millions for the
white and two for the black portion. But an annual exportation of a
number equal to the annual increase, at the beginning of the term, and
persevered in to the end of it, would accomplish more than to keep the
parent stock stationary. The colonists would comprehend more than an
equal proportion of those of the prolific ages. Few of those who had
passed that age would migrate. So that the annual increase of those
left behind, would continue gradually, but at first insensibly, to
diminish; and by the expiration of the period of duplication, it would
be found to have materially abated. But it is not merely the greater
relative safety and happiness which would, at the termination of that
period, be the condition of the whites. Their ability to give further
stimulus to the cause of colonization will have been doubled, whilst
the subjects on which it would have to operate, will have decreased
or remained stationary. If the business of colonization should be
regularly continued, during two periods of duplication, at the end of
the second, the whites would stand to the blacks, as forty millions to
not more than two, whilst the same ability will have been quadrupled.
Even if colonization should then altogether cease, the proportion of
the African to the European race will be so small, that the most timid
may then, for ever, dismiss all ideas of danger from within or without,
on account of that incongruous and perilous element in our population.

Further; by the annual withdrawal of fifty-two thousand persons of
color, there would be annual space created for an equal number of the
white race. The period, therefore, of the duplication of the whites, by
the laws which govern population, would be accelerated.

Such, Mr. Vice-president, is the project of the society; and such
is the extension and use which may be made of the principle of
colonization, in application to our slave population, by those states
which are alone competent to undertake and execute it. All, or any
one, of the states which tolerate slavery, may adopt and execute it,
by coöperation or separate exertion. It I could be instrumental in
eradicating this deepest stain upon the character of our country, and
removing all cause of reproach on account of it, by foreign nations; if
I could only be instrumental in ridding of this foul blot that revered
state that gave me birth, or that not less beloved state which kindly
adopted me as her son; I would not exchange the proud satisfaction
which I should enjoy, for the honor of all the triumphs ever decreed to
the most successful conqueror.

Having, I hope, shown that the plan of the society is not visionary,
but rational and practicable; that a colony does in fact exist, planted
under its auspices; that free people are willing and anxious to go; and
that the right of soil as well as of sovereignty, may be acquired in
vast tracts of country in Africa, abundantly sufficient for all the
purposes of the most ample colony, and at prices almost only nominal,
the task which remains to me of showing the beneficial consequences
which would attend the execution of the scheme, is comparatively easy.

Of the utility of a total separation of the two incongruous portions of
our population, supposing it to be practicable, none have ever doubted.
The mode of accomplishing that most desirable object, has alone divided
public opinion. Colonization in Hayti, for a time, had its partisans.
Without throwing any impediments in the way of executing that scheme,
the American Colonization Society has steadily adhered to its own.
The Haytien project has passed away. Colonization beyond the Stony
mountains has sometimes been proposed; but it would be attended with an
expense and difficulties far surpassing the African project, whilst it
would not unite the same animating motives. There is a moral fitness in
the idea of returning to Africa her children, whose ancestors have been
torn from her by the ruthless hand of fraud and violence. Transplanted
in a foreign land, they will carry back to their native soil the rich
fruits of religion, civilization, law, and liberty. May it not be
one of the great designs of the Ruler of the universe, (whose ways
are often inscrutable by short-sighted mortals,) thus to transform an
original crime into a signal blessing, to that most unfortunate portion
of the globe. Of all classes of our population, the most vicious is
that of the free colored. It is the inevitable result of their moral,
political, and civil degradation. Contaminated themselves, they extend
their vices to all around them, to the slaves and to the whites. If the
principle of colonization should be confined to them; if a colony can
be firmly established and successfully continued in Africa which should
draw off annually an amount of that portion of our population equal
to its annual increase, much good will be done. If the principle be
adopted and applied by the states, whose laws sanction the existence
of slavery, to an extent equal to the annual increase of slaves, still
greater good will be done. This good will be felt by the Africans who
go, by the Africans who remain, by the white population of our country,
by Africa, and by America. It is a project which recommends itself
to favor in all the aspects in which it can be contemplated. It will
do good in every and any extent in which it may be executed. It is a
circle of ♦philanthropy, every segment of which tells and testifies
to the beneficence of the whole.

Every emigrant to Africa is a missionary carrying with him credentials
in the holy cause of civilization, religion, and free institutions. Why
is it that the degree of success of missionary exertions is so limited,
and so discouraging to those whose piety and benevolence prompt them?
Is it not because the missionary is generally an alien and a stranger,
perhaps of a different color, and from a different tribe? There is a
sort of instinctive feeling of jealousy and distrust towards foreigners
which repels and rejects them in all countries; and this feeling is in
proportion to the degree of ignorance and barbarism which prevail. But
the African colonists, whom we send to convert the heathen, are of the
same color, the same family, the same physical constitution. When the
purposes of the colony shall be fully understood, they will be received
as long lost brethren restored to the embraces of their friends and
their kindred by the dispensations of a wise providence.

The society is reproached for agitating this question. It should be
recollected that the existence of free people of color is not limited
to the states only which tolerate slavery. The evil extends itself to
all the states, and some of those which do not allow of slavery, (their
cities especially,) experience the evil in an extent even greater
than it exists in the slave states. A common evil confers a right to
consider and apply a common remedy. Nor is it a valid objection that
this remedy is partial in its operation or distant in its efficacy.
A patient, writhing under the tortures of excruciating disease, asks
of his physician to cure him if he can, and, if he cannot, to mitigate
his sufferings. But the remedy proposed, if generally adopted and
perseveringly applied, for a sufficient length of time, should it not
entirely eradicate the disease, will enable the body politic to bear it
without danger and without suffering.

We are reproached with doing mischief by the agitation of this
question. The society goes into no household to disturb its domestic
tranquillity; it addresses itself to no slaves to weaken their
obligations of obedience. It seeks to affect no man’s property. It
neither has the power nor the will to affect the property of any one
contrary to his consent. The execution of its scheme would augment
instead of diminishing the value of the property left behind. The
society, composed of free men, concerns itself only with the free.
Collateral consequences we are not responsible for. It is not this
society which has produced the great moral revolution which the age
exhibits. What would they, who thus reproach us, have done? If they
would repress all tendencies towards liberty and ultimate emancipation,
they must do more than put down the benevolent efforts of this society.
They must go back to the era of our liberty and independence, and
muzzle the cannon which thunders its annual joyous return. They must
revive the slave trade, with all its train of atrocities. They must
suppress the workings of British philanthropy, seeking to meliorate
the condition of the unfortunate West Indian slaves. They must arrest
the career of South American deliverance from thraldom. They must blow
out the moral lights around us, and extinguish that greatest torch of
all which America presents to a benighted world, pointing the way to
their rights, their liberties, and their happiness. And when they have
achieved all these purposes, their work will be yet incomplete. They
must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate the light of reason and
the love of liberty. Then, and not till then, when universal darkness
and despair prevail, can you perpetuate slavery, and repress all
sympathies, and all humane and benevolent efforts among freemen, in
behalf of the unhappy portion of our race doomed to bondage.

Our friends, who are cursed with this greatest of human evils,
deserve the kindest attention and consideration. Their property and
their safety are both involved. But the liberal and candid among them
will not, cannot, expect that every project to deliver our country from
it is to be crushed because of a possible and ideal danger. Animated
by the encouragement of the past, let us proceed under the cheering
prospects which lie before us. Let us continue to appeal to the pious,
the liberal, and the wise. Let us bear in mind the condition of our
forefathers, when, collected on the beach in England, they embarked,
amidst the scoffings and the false predictions of the assembled
multitude, for this distant land; and here, in spite of all the perils
of forest and ocean, which they encountered, successfully laid the
foundations of this glorious republic. Undismayed by the prophecies
of the presumptuous, let us supplicate the aid of the American
representatives of the people, and redoubling our labors, and invoking
the blessings of an all-wise Providence, I boldly and confidently
anticipate success. I hope the resolution which I offer will be
unanimously adopted.

                               EXTRACTS

  FROM THE REPORT OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE AMERICAN
  COLONIZATION SOCIETY, PRESENTED AT ITS ANNUAL MEETING, JANUARY
  THIRTEENTH, 1827, READ BY MR. CLAY IN THE COURSE OF THE DELIVERY
  OF THE PRECEDING SPEECH.

The system of government established with the full consent of the
colonists, in the autumn of 1824, and which the managers had the
happiness to represent in their last report, as having thus far
fulfilled all the purposes of its institution, has continued its
operations during the year without the least irregularity, and with
undiminished success. The republican principle is introduced as far
as is consistent with the youthful and unformed character of the
settlement, and in the election of their officers the colonists
have evinced such integrity and judgment as afford promise of
early preparation for all the duties of self-government. ‘The civil
prerogatives and government of the colony and the body of the laws
by which they are sustained,’ says the colonial agent, ‘are the pride
of all. I am happy in the persuasion I have, that I hold the balance
of the laws in the midst of a people, with whom the first perceptible
inclination of the sacred scale determines authoritatively their
sentiments and their conduct. There are individual exceptions, but
these remarks extend to the body of the settlers.’

The moral and religious character of the colony exerts a powerful
influence on its social and civil condition. That piety which had
guided most of the early emigrants to Liberia, even before they left
this country, to respectability and usefulness among their associates,
prepared them, in laying the foundations of a colony, to act with
a degree of wisdom and energy which no earthly motives could inspire.
Humble, and for the most part unlettered men; born and bred in
circumstances the most unfavorable to mental culture; unsustained
by the hope of renown, and unfamiliar with the history of great
achievements and heroic virtues, theirs was nevertheless a spirit
unmoved by dangers or by sufferings, which misfortunes could not darken,
nor death dismay. They left America, and felt that it was forever;
they landed in Africa, possibly to find a home, but certainly a grave.
Strange would it have been had the religion of every individual of
these early settlers proved genuine; but immensely changed as have
been their circumstances and severely tried their faith, most have
preserved untarnished the honors of their profession, and to the purity
of their morals and the consistency of their conduct, is in a great
measure to be attributed the social order and general prosperity of
the colony of Liberia. Their example has proved most salutary, and
while subsequent emigrants have found themselves awed and restrained,
by their regularity, seriousness, and devotion, the poor natives have
given their confidence and acknowledged the excellence of practical
christianity. ‘It deserves record,’ says Mr. Ashmun, ‘that religion
has been the principal agent employed in laying and confirming the
foundations of the settlement. To this sentiment, ruling, restraining,
and actuating the minds of a large proportion of the colonists, must
be referred the whole strength of our civil government.’ Examples
of intemperance, profaneness, or licentiousness, are extremely rare,
and vice, wherever it exists, is obliged to seek concealment from the
public eye. The sabbath is universally respected; sunday schools, both
for the children of the colony and for the natives, are established;
all classes attend regularly upon the worship of God; some charitable
associations have been formed for the benefit of the heathen; and
though it must not be concealed, that the deep concern on the subject
of religion which resulted, towards the conclusion of the year 1825, in
the public profession of christianity by about fifty colonists, has in
a measure subsided, and some few cases of delinquency since occurred;
and though there are faults growing out of the early condition and
habits of the settlers which require amendment; yet the managers have
reason to believe, that there is a vast and increasing preponderance on
the side of correct principle and virtuous practice.

The agriculture of the colony has received less attention than its
importance demands. This is to be attributed to the fact, that the
labor of the settlers has been applied to objects conducing more
immediately to their subsistence and comfort.

It will not, the board trust, be concluded that, because more might
have been done for the agricultural interests of the colony, what
has been effected is inconsiderable. Two hundred and twenty-four
plantations, of from five to ten acres each, were, in June last,
occupied by the settlers, and most of them are believed to be at
present under cultivation. One hundred and fourteen of these are on
cape Montserado, thirty-three on Stockton creek, (denominated the
half-way farms, because nearly equidistant from Monrovia and Caldwell,
the St. Paul’s settlement) and seventy-seven at the confluence of
Stockton creek with the St. Paul’s.

The St. Paul’s territory includes the half-way farms, and is
represented as a beautiful tract of country, comparatively open,
well watered and fertile, and still further recommended as having
been for ages selected by the natives, on account of its productiveness
for their rice and cassada plantations. The agricultural habits of
the present occupants of this tract, concur with the advantages of
their situation, in affording promise of success to their exertions.
‘Nothing,’ says the colonial agent, ‘but circumstances of the most
extraordinary nature, can prevent them from making their way directly
to respectability and abundance.’

Oxen were trained to labor in the colony in 1825, and it was then
expected that the plough would be introduced in the course of another
year. Although commerce has thus far taken the lead of agriculture, yet
the excellence of the soil, the small amount of labor required for its
cultivation, and the value and abundance of its products, cannot fail,
finally, to render the latter the more cherished, as it is, certainly,
the more important interest of the colony.

The trade of Liberia has increased with a rapidity almost unexampled,
and while it has supplied the colonists not only with the necessaries,
but with the conveniences and comforts of life, the good faith with
which it has been conducted, has conciliated the friendship of the
natives, and acquired the confidence of foreigners.

The regulations of the colony allowing no credits, except by a written
permission, and requiring the barter to be carried on through factories
established for the purpose, has increased the profits of the traffic,
and prevented numerous evils which must have attended upon a more
unrestricted license.

Between the first of January and the fifteenth of July, 1826, no less
than fifteen vessels touched at Monrovia, and purchased the produce of
the country, to the amount, according to the best probable estimate,
of forty-three thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars, African value.
The exporters of this produce realize, on the sale of the goods given
in barter for it, a profit of twenty-one thousand nine hundred and
ninety dollars, and on the freight, of eight thousand seven hundred
and eighty-six dollars, making a total profit of thirty thousand seven
hundred and eighty-six dollars.

A gentleman in Portland has commenced a regular trade with the colony;
and for his last cargo landed in Liberia, amounting to eight thousand
dollars, he received payment in the course of ten days. The advantages
of this trade to the colony, are manifest from the high price of
labor, (that of mechanics being two dollars per day, and that of
common laborers from seventy-five cents to one dollar and twenty-five
cents,) and from the easy and comfortable circumstances of the settlers.
‘An industrious family, twelve months in Africa, destitute of the means
of furnishing an abundant table, is not known; and an individual, of
whatever age or sex, without ample provision of decent apparel, cannot,
it is believed, be found.’ ‘Every family,’ says Mr. Ashmun, ‘and nearly
every single adult person in the colony, has the means of employing
from one to four native laborers, at an expense of from four to six
dollars the month; and several of the settlers, when called upon in
consequence of sudden emergences of the public service, have made
repeated advances of merchantable produce, to the amount of three
hundred to six hundred dollars each.’

The managers are happy to state, that the efforts of the colonial
agent to enlarge the territory of Liberia, and particularly to bring
under the government of the colony a more extended line of coast, have
been judicious and energetic, and in nearly every instance resulted
in complete success. From cape Mount to Tradetown, a distance of one
hundred and fifty miles, the colonial government has acquired partial
jurisdiction. FOUR of the most important STATIONS on this tract,
including Montserado, belong to the society, either by actual purchase,
or by a deed of perpetual lease; and such negotiations have been
entered upon with the chiefs of the country, as amount to a preclusion
of all Europeans from any possessions within these limits. The fine
territory of the St. Paul’s, now occupied by settlers, was described
in the last annual report of the society.

The territory of Young Sesters, recently ceded to the society, is
ninety miles south of Montserado, in the midst of a very productive
rice country, affording also large quantities of palm oil, camwood,
and ivory. The tract granted to the colony, includes the bed of the
Sester’s river, and all the land on each side, to the distance of half
a league, and extending longitudinally from the river’s mouth to its
source. In compliance with the terms of the contract, the chief of the
country has constructed a commodious storehouse, and put a number of
laborers sufficient for the cultivation of a rice plantation of forty
acres, under the direction of a respectable colonist, who takes charge
of the establishment.

The right of use and occupancy have also been obtained to a region of
country on the south branch of the St. John’s river, north nine miles
from Young Sesters, and the trading factory established there, under
the superintendence of a family from Monrovia, has already provided
a valuable source of income to the colony. Rice is also here to be
cultivated, and the chief who cedes the territory, agrees to furnish
the labor.

The upright and exemplary conduct of the individual at the head of this
establishment, has powerfully impressed the natives with the importance
of inviting them to settle in their country; and consequently, the
offer made by the colonial agent for the purchase of Factory island,
has been accepted by its proprietor. This island is in the river St.
John’s, four miles from its mouth, from five to six miles in length,
and one third of a mile in breadth, and is among the most beautiful
and fertile spots in Africa. A few families are about to take up their
residence upon it, and prepare for founding a settlement, ‘which cannot
fail,’ says Mr. Ashmun, ‘in a few years, to be second to no other in
the colony, except Monrovia.’

Negotiations are also in progress with the chiefs of cape Mount,
which, if successful, will secure to the colony the whole trade of
that station, estimated at fifty thousand dollars per annum, and
may ultimately lead to its annexation to the territories of Liberia.
‘The whole country between cape Mount and Tradetown,’ observes Mr.
Ashmun, ‘is rich in soil and other natural advantages, and capable of
sustaining a numerous and civilized population beyond almost any other
country on earth. Leaving the seaboard, the traveller, every where, at
the distance of a very few miles, enters upon a uniform upland country,
of moderate elevation, intersected by innumerable rivulets, abounding
in springs of unfailing water, and covered with a verdure which knows
no other changes except those which refresh and renew its beauties.
The country directly on the sea, although verdant and fruitful to a
high degree, is found every where to yield, in both respects, to the
interior.’

Much progress has been made the last year in the construction of
public buildings and works of defence, though with adequate supplies
of lumber, more might doubtless have been accomplished. Two handsome
churches, erected solely by the colonists, now adorn the village
of Monrovia. Fort Stockton has been rebuilt in a style of strength
and beauty. A receptacle capable of accommodating one hundred and
fifty emigrants, is completed. The new agency-house, market-house,
Lancasterian school, and town-house, in Monrovia, were some months
since far advanced, and the finishing strokes were about to be
given to the government-house on the St. Paul’s. The wing of the old
agency-house has been ‘handsomely fitted up for the colonial library,
which now consists of twelve hundred volumes systematically arranged in
glazed cases with appropriate hangings. All the books are substantially
covered, and accurately labelled; and files of more than ten newspapers,
more or less complete, are preserved. The library is fitted up so as to
answer the purpose of a reading-room, and it is intended to make it a
museum of all the natural curiosities of Africa, which can be procured.’

No efforts have been spared to place the colony in a state of adequate
defence, and while it is regarded as perfectly secure from the native
forces, it is hoped and believed, that it may sustain itself against
any piratical assaults. ‘The establishment has fifteen large carriage
guns and three small pivot guns, all fit for service.’ Fort Stockton
overlooks the whole town of Monrovia, and a strong battery is now
building on the height of Thompson-town, near the extremity of the
cape, which it is thought will afford protection to vessels anchoring
in the roadstead. The militia of the colony consists of two corps
appropriately uniformed, one of artillery of about fifty men, the other
of infantry of forty men, and on various occasions have they proved
themselves deficient neither in discipline nor courage.

       EXTRACTS FROM THE REV. J. ASHMUN’S REPORT OF THE COLONY.

The money expended on these various objects has necessarily been
considerable; but, in comparison with the expense which similar
objects in this country cost European governments, it will be found
not merely moderate, but trifling. Less than has been effected towards
the extension of our limits, I could not attempt: and I am certain that
where the direction of every other establishment on the coast, except
the Portuguese, would regard itself not only authorized, but _obliged_,
to pay away thousands, I have in countless instances spent not a
_dollar_. But that species of economy which sacrifices to itself any
object essential to the success of this undertaking, I am as little
able to practice as the board is to approve.

The natives of the country, but particularly of the interior,
notwithstanding their habitual indolence, produce, after supplying
their own wants, a considerable surplus of the great staple of this
part of Western Africa, rice. The moderate rate at which this grain is
purchased by such as deal directly with the growers, and the various
uses of which it is susceptible in the domestic economy, easily place
the means of supplying the first necessities of nature in the reach of
every one. Rice, moreover, always commands a ready sale with transient
trading vessels or coasters; and forms a useful object of exchange for
other provisions and necessaries, between individuals of the colony.

To this succeeds, as next in importance, the camwood of the country,
of which several hundred tons every year pass through the hands of
the settlers, and serve to introduce, in return, the provisions and
groceries of America; and the dry goods and wares, both of Europe and
America, which, from the necessary dependence of the members of every
society on each other, come soon to be distributed, for the common
advantage of all.

The ivory of Liberia is less abundant, and less valuable, than that
of other districts of Western Africa. It, however, forms a valuable
article of barter and export, to the settlement; and the amount
annually bought and sold, falls between five and eight thousand dollars.

No less than FIVE schools for different descriptions of learners,
exclusive of the Sunday schools, have been supported during the year,
and still continue in operation. The youths and children of the colony
discover, for their age, unequivocal proofs of a good degree of mental
accomplishment. The contrast between children several years in the
enjoyment of the advantages of the colony, and most others of the same
age, arriving from the United States, is striking, and would leave
an entire stranger at no loss to distinguish the one from the other.
Should emigration, but for a very few months, cease to throw the little
ignorants into the colony, from abroad, the phenomenon of a child of
five years, unable to read, it is believed, would not exist among us.

The first successful essay in the construction of small vessels, has
been made the past year. I have built, and put upon the rice trade,
between our factories to the leeward, and cape Montserado, a schooner
of ten tons burthen, adapted to the passage of the bars of all the
navigable rivers of the coast. The sailing qualities of this vessel
are so superior, that before the wind, it is believed, few, or none
of the numerous pirates of the coast, can overtake her. She makes
a trip, freighted both ways, in ten days; and commonly carries and
brings merchandise and produce, to the amount of from four to eight
hundred dollars each trip. Another craft of equal tonnage, but of very
indifferent materials, has been built by one of the colonists. The
model of the St. Paul’s (the public boat) was furnished by myself; but
she was constructed under the superintendence of J. Blake, who has thus
entitled himself to the character of a useful and ingenious mechanic.

One of the most obvious effects of this colony, has already been to
check, in this part of Africa, the prevalence of the slave-trade. The
promptness and severity with which our arms have, in every instance,
avenged the insults and injuries offered by slave ships and factories
to the colony, have, I may confidently say, banished it for ever
from this district of the coast. Our influence with the natives of
this section of the coast, is known to be so great as to expose to
certain miscarriage, any transaction entered into with them for slaves.
But there is a moral feeling at work in the minds of most of our
neighbors, contracted, doubtless, by means of their intercourse with
the colony, which represents to them the dark business in a new aspect
of repulsiveness and absurdity. Most are convinced that it is indeed
a _bad business_, and are apparently sincere in their determination to
drop it for ever, unless compelled by their wants to adventure a few
occasional speculations.

In the punishment of offences, the most lenient maxims of modern
jurisprudence have been observed, by way of experiment on human nature,
in that particular modification of it exhibited by the population
of this colony. The result has been, _so far_, favorable to the
policy pursued. The passion to which corporeal and other ignominious
punishments address their arguments, is certainly one of the least
ingenuous of the human constitution.

        EXTRACTS FROM A MEMORIAL FROM THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR
                     TO THE CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE.

We have hitherto beheld, in silence, but with the intensest interest,
the efforts of the wise and philanthropic in our behalf. If it became
us to be silent, it became us also to feel the liveliest anxiety and
gratitude.

The time has now arrived, as we believe, in which your work and our
happiness may be promoted by the expression of our opinions. We have
therefore assembled for that purpose, from every quarter of the city,
and every denomination, to offer you this respectful address, with all
the weight and influence which our number, character, and cause, can
lend it.

We reside among you, and yet are strangers; natives, and yet not
citizens; surrounded by the freest people and most republican
institutions in the world, and yet enjoying none of the immunities of
freedom.

It is not to be imputed to you that we are here. Your ancestors
remonstrated against the introduction of the first of our race, who
were brought amongst you; and it was the mother country that insisted
on their admission, that her colonies and she might profit, as she
thought, by their compulsory labor. But the gift was a curse to them,
without being an advantage to herself. The colonies, grown to womanhood,
burst from her dominion; and if they have an angry recollection
of their union and rupture, it must be at the sight of the baneful
institution which she has entailed upon them.

How much you regret its existence among you, is shown by the severe
laws you have enacted against the slave-trade, and by your employment
of a naval force for its suppression. You have gone still further. Not
content with checking the increase of the already too growing evil,
you have deliberated how you might best exterminate the evil itself.
This delicate and important subject has produced a great variety of
opinions; but we find, even in that diversity, a consolatory proof of
the interest with which you regard the subject, and of your readiness
to adopt that scheme which may appear to be the best.

Leaving out all considerations of generosity, humanity, and benevolence,
you have the strongest reasons to favor and facilitate the withdrawal
from among you of such as wish to remove. It ill consists, in the first
place, with your republican principles, and with the health and moral
sense of the body politic, that there should be, in the midst of you,
an extraneous mass of men, united to you only by soil and climate,
and irrevocably excluded from your institutions. Nor is it less for
your advantage in another point of view. Our places might, in our
opinion, be better occupied by men of your own color, who would
increase the strength of your country. In the pursuit of livelihood,
and the exercise of industrious habits, we necessarily exclude from
employment many of the whites, your fellow-citizens, who would find it
easier, in proportion as we depart, to provide for themselves and their
families.

But if _you_ have every reason to wish for our removal, how much
greater are our inducements to remove! Though we are not slaves, we
are not free. We do not, and never shall, participate in the enviable
privileges which we continually witness. Beyond a mere subsistence, and
the impulse of religion, there is nothing to arouse us to the exercise
of our faculties, or excite us to the attainment of eminence.

Of the many schemes that have been proposed, we most approve of
that of _African colonization_. If we were able, and at liberty
to go whithersoever we would, the greater number, willing to leave
this community, would prefer LIBERIA, on the coast of Africa. Others,
no doubt, would turn them towards some other regions; the world is
wide. Already established there, in the settlement of the American
colonization society, are many of our brethren, the pioneers of African
restoration, who encourage us to join them. Several were formerly
residents of this city, and highly considered by the people of their
own class and color. They have been planted at cape Montserado, the
most eligible, and one of the most elevated sites on the western coast
of Africa, selected in 1821; and their number has augmented to five
hundred. Able, as we are informed, to provide for their own defence and
support, and capable of self-increase, they are now enjoying all the
necessaries and comforts, and many of the luxuries of larger and older
communities. In Africa we shall be freemen indeed, and republicans,
after the model of this republic. We shall carry your language, your
customs, your opinions and christianity to that now desolate shore,
and thence they will gradually spread, with our growth, far into
the continent. The slave-trade, both external and internal, can be
abolished only by settlements on the coast. Africa, if destined to be
ever civilized and converted, can be civilized and converted by that
means only.

We foresee that difficulties and dangers await those who emigrate, such
as every infant establishment must encounter and endure; such as your
fathers suffered, when first they landed on this now happy shore.

The portion of comforts which they may lose, they will cheerfully
abandon. Human happiness does not consist in meat and drink, nor in
costly raiment, nor in stately habitations; to contribute to it even,
they must be joined with equal rights, and respectability, and it often
exists in a high degree without them.

That you may facilitate the withdrawal from among you of such as
wish to remove, is what we now solicit. It can best be done, we think,
by augmenting the means at the command of the American Colonization
Society, that the colony of Liberia may be strengthened and improved
for their gradual reception. The greater the number of persons sent
thither, from any part of this nation whatsoever, so much the more
capable it becomes of receiving a still greater. Every encouragement
to it, therefore, though it may not seem to have any particular portion
of emigrants directly in view, will produce a favorable effect upon
all. The emigrants may readily be enabled to remove, in considerable
numbers every fall, by a concerted system of individual contributions,
and still more efficiently by the enactment of laws to promote their
emigration, under the patronage of the state. The expense would not be
nearly so great as it might appear at first sight; for, when once the
current shall have set towards Liberia, and intercourse grown frequent,
the cost will, of course, diminish rapidly, and many will be able to
defray it for themselves. Thousands and tens of thousands poorer than
we, annually emigrate from Europe to your country, and soon have it
in their power to hasten the arrival of those they left behind. Every
intelligent and industrious colored man would continually look forward
to the day, when he or his children might go to their veritable home,
and would accumulate all his little earnings for that purpose.

We have ventured these remarks, because we know that you take a kind
concern in the subject to which they relate, and because we think they
may assist you in the prosecution of your designs. If we were doubtful
of your good will and benevolent intentions, we would remind you of
the time when you were in a situation similar to ours, and when your
forefathers were driven, by religious persecution, to a distant and
inhospitable shore. We are not so persecuted; but we, too, leave our
homes, and seek a distant and inhospitable shore: an empire may be
the result of our emigration, as of their’s. The protection, kindness,
and assistance which you would have desired for yourselves under such
circumstances, now extend to us: so may you be rewarded by the riddance
of the stain and evil of slavery, the extension of civilization and the
gospel, and the blessings of our common Creator!

                           WILLIAM CORNISH,
               Chairman of the meeting in Bethel church.

                            ROBERT COWLEY,
              Secretary of the meeting in Bethel church.

                             JAMES DEAVER,
     Chairman of the meeting in the African church, Sharp street.

                             REMUS HARVEY.
     Secretary of the meeting in the African church, Sharp street.

                     ON THE CHARGE OF CORRUPTION.

                AT LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY, JULY 12, 1827.

  [IN June, 1827, Mr. Carter Beverley, of Virginia, published in
  the United States Telegraph, printed at Washington, a letter
  from general Jackson, charging Mr. Clay with corrupt motives in
  having voted for his competitor, Mr. Adams, for president of the
  United States, in the election by congress, in 1825. Mr. Clay
  being on a visit to Kentucky during the same summer, attended
  various meetings of his former constituents and friends, who
  were desirous of testifying their continued regard for him. At
  a public dinner given him at Lexington, the following toast was
  given, in the course of his answer to which, Mr. Clay takes the
  opportunity to refute the charges of general Jackson against him,
  as will be seen in the subjoined remarks.]

  ‘_Our distinguished guest_, HENRY CLAY. The furnace of
  persecution may be heated seven times hotter, and seventy
  times more he will come out unscathed by the fire of malignity,
  brighter to all and dearer to his friends: while his enemies
  shall sink with the dross of their own vile materials.’

MR. PRESIDENT, FRIENDS, AND FELLOW-CITIZENS,

I beg permission to offer my hearty thanks, and to make my respectful
acknowledgments, for the affectionate reception which has been given
me during my present visit to my old congressional district, and for
this hospitable and honorable testimony of your esteem and confidence.
And I thank you especially for the friendly sentiments and feelings
expressed in the toast which you have just done me the honor to drink.
I always had the happiness of knowing that I enjoyed, in a high degree,
the attachment of that portion of my fellow-citizens whom I formerly
represented; but I should never have been sensible of the strength
and ardor of their affection, except for the extraordinary character
of the times. For near two years and a half I have been assailed with
a rancor and bitterness which have few examples. I have found myself
the particular object of concerted and concentrated abuse; and others,
thrusting themselves between you and me, have dared to arraign me for
treachery to your interests. But my former constituents, unaffected
by the calumnies which have been so perseveringly circulated to my
prejudice, have stood by me with a generous confidence and a noble
magnanimity. The measure of their regard and confidence has risen
with, and even surpassed, that of the malevolence, great as it is,
of my personal and political foes. I thank you, gentlemen, who are a
large portion of my late constituents. I thank you, and every one of
them, with all my heart, for the manly support which I have uniformly
received. It has cheered and consoled me, amidst all my severe trials;
and may I not add, that it is honorable to the generous hearts and
enlightened heads who have resolved to protect the character of an old
friend and faithful servant.

The numerous manifestations of your confidence and attachment will
be among the latest and most treasured recollections of my life. They
impose upon me obligations which can never be weakened or cancelled.
One of these obligations is, that I should embrace every fair
opportunity to vindicate that character which you have so generously
sustained, and to evince to you and to the world, that you have not
yielded to the impulses of a blind and enthusiastic sentiment. I feel
that I am, on all fit occasions, especially bound to vindicate myself
to my former constituents. It was as _their_ representative, it was
in fulfilment of a high trust which _they_ confided to me, that I have
been accused of violating the most sacred of duties――of treating their
wishes with contempt, and their interests with treachery. Nor is this
obligation, in my conception of its import, at all weakened by the
dissolution of the relations which heretofore existed between us. I
would instantly resign the place I hold in the councils of the nation,
and directly appeal to the suffrages of my late constituents, as a
candidate for reëlection, if I did not know that my foes are of that
class whom one rising from the dead cannot convince, whom nothing can
silence, and who wage a war of extermination. On the issue of such
an appeal they would redouble their abuse of you and of me, for their
hatred is common to us both.

They have compelled me so often to be the theme of my addresses to
the people, that I should have willingly abstained, on this festive
occasion, from any allusion to this subject, but for a new and imposing
form which the calumny against me has recently assumed. I am again put
on my defence, not of any new charge, nor by any new adversary; but
of the old charges, clad in a new dress, and exhibited by an open and
undisguised enemy. The fictitious names have been stricken from the
foot of the indictment, and that of a known and substantial prosecutor
has been voluntarily offered. Undaunted by the formidable name of that
prosecutor, I will avail myself, with your indulgence, of this fit
opportunity of free and unreserved intercourse with you, as a large
number of my late constituents, to make some observations on the past
and present state of the question. When evidence shall be produced, as
I have now a clear right to demand, in support of the accusation, it
will be the proper time for me to take such notice of it as its nature
shall require.

In February, 1825, it was my duty, as the representative of this
district, to vote for some one of the three candidates for the
presidency, who were returned to the house of representatives. It has
been established, and can be further proved, that, before I left this
state the preceding fall, I communicated to several gentlemen of the
highest respectability, my fixed determination not to vote for general
Jackson. The friends of Mr. Crawford asserted to the last, that the
condition of his health was such as to enable him to administer the
duties of the office. I thought otherwise, after I reached Washington
city, and visited him to satisfy myself; and thought that physical
impediment, if there were no other objections, ought to prevent his
election. Although the delegations from four states voted for him,
and his pretensions were zealously pressed to the very last moment,
it has been of late asserted, and I believe by some of the very persons
who then warmly espoused his cause, that his incompetency was so
palpable as clearly to limit the choice to two of the three returned
candidates. In my view of my duty, there was no alternative but that
which I embraced. That I had some objections to Mr. Adams, I am ready
freely to admit; but these did not weigh a feather in comparison
with the greater and insurmountable objections, long and deliberately
entertained against his competitor. I take this occasion, with great
satisfaction, to state, that my objections to Mr. Adams arose chiefly
from apprehensions which have not been realized. I have found him at
the head of the government able, enlightened, patient of investigation,
and ever ready to receive with respect, and, when approved by his
judgment, to act upon, the counsels of his official advisers. I add,
with unmixed pleasure, that, from the commencement of the government,
with the exception of Mr. Jefferson’s administration, no chief
magistrate has found the members of his cabinet so united on all public
measures, and so cordial and friendly in all their intercourse, private
and official, as these are of the present president.

Had I voted for general Jackson, in opposition to the well-known
opinions which I entertained of him, one tenth part of the ingenuity
and zeal which have been employed to excite prejudices against me,
would have held me up to universal contempt; and what would have been
worse, _I_ should have _felt_ that I really deserved it.

Before the election, an attempt was made by an abusive letter,
published in the Columbian Observer, at Philadelphia, a paper which,
as has since transpired, was sustained by Mr. senator Eaton, the
colleague, the friend, and the biographer of general Jackson, to
assail my motives, and to deter me in the exercise of my duty. This
letter being avowed by Mr. George Kremer, I instantly demanded from the
house of representatives an investigation. A committee was accordingly,
on the fifth day of February, 1825, appointed in the rare mode of
balloting by the house, instead of by selection of the speaker. It was
composed of some of the leading members of that body, not one of whom
was my political friend in the preceding presidential canvass. Although
Mr. Kremer, in addressing the house, had declared his willingness to
bring forward his proofs, and his readiness to abide the issue of the
inquiry, his fears, or other counsels than his own, prevailed upon him
to take refuge in a miserable subterfuge. Of all possible periods, that
was the most fitting to substantiate the charge, if it were true. Every
circumstance was then fresh; the witnesses all living and present; the
election not yet complete; and therefore the imputed corrupt bargain
not fulfilled. All these powerful considerations had no weight with
the conspirators and their accessories, and they meanly shrunk from
even an attempt to prove their charge, for the best of all possible
reasons――because, being false and fabricated, they could adduce no
proof which was not false and fabricated.

During two years and a half, which have now intervened, a portion of
the press devoted to the cause of general Jackson has been teeming with
the vilest calumnies against me, and the charge, under every chameleon
form, has been a thousand times repeated. Up to this time, I have in
vain invited investigation, and demanded evidence. None, not a particle,
has been adduced.

The extraordinary ground has been taken, that the accusers were not
bound to establish by proof the guilt of their designated victim. In
a civilized, christian, and free community, the monstrous principle
has been assumed, that accusation and conviction are synonymous; and
that the persons who deliberately bring forward an atrocious charge are
exempted from all obligations to substantiate it! And the pretext is,
that the crime, being of a political nature, is shrouded in darkness,
and incapable of being substantiated. But is there any real difference,
in this respect, between political and other offences? Do not all the
perpetrators of crime endeavor to conceal their guilt and to elude
detection? If the accuser of a political offence is absolved from
the duty of supporting his accusation, every other accuser of offence
stands equally absolved. Such a principle, practically carried into
society, would subvert all harmony, peace, and tranquillity. None――no
age, nor sex, nor profession, nor calling――would be safe against its
baleful and overwhelming influence. It would amount to a universal
license to universal calumny!

No one has ever contended that the proof should be exclusively that
of eye-witnesses, testifying from their senses positively and directly
to the fact. Political, like other offences, may be established by
circumstantial as well as positive evidence. But I do contend, that
_some_ evidence, be it what it may, ought to be exhibited. If there be
none, how do the accusers know that an offence has been perpetrated?
If they do know it, let us have the _fact_ on which their conviction
is based. I will not even assert, that, in public affairs, a citizen
has not a right freely to express his _opinions_ of public men, and
to speculate upon the motives of their conduct. But if he chooses to
promulgate opinions, let them be given as _opinions_. The public will
correctly judge of their value and their grounds. No one has a right
to put forth a positive assertion, that a political offence has been
committed, unless he stands prepared to sustain, by satisfactory proof
of some kind, its actual existence.

If he who exhibits a charge of political crime is, from its very nature,
disabled to establish it, how much more difficult is the condition of
the accused? How can he exhibit negative proof of his innocence, if no
affirmative proof of his guilt is or can be adduced?

It must have been a conviction that the justice of the public required
a definite charge, by a responsible accuser, that has at last extorted
from general Jackson his letter of the sixth of June, lately published.
I approach that letter with great reluctance, not on my own account,
for on that I do most heartily and sincerely rejoice that it has
made its appearance. But it is reluctance, excited by the feelings of
respect which I would anxiously have cultivated towards its author. He
has, however, by that letter, created such relations between us, that,
in any language which I may employ, in examining its contents, I feel
myself bound by no other obligations than those which belong to truth,
to public decorum, and to myself.

The first consideration which must, on the perusal of the letter, force
itself upon every reflecting mind, is that which arises out of the
delicate posture in which general Jackson stands before the American
public. He is a candidate for the presidency, avowed and proclaimed. He
has no competitor at present, and there is no probability of his having
any, but one. The charges which he has allowed himself to be the organ
of communicating to the very public who is to decide the question of
the presidency, though directly aimed at me, necessarily implicate
his only competitor. Mr. Adams and myself are both guilty, or we are
both innocent of the imputed arrangement between us. _His_ innocence
is absolutely irreconcilable with _my_ guilt. If general Jackson,
therefore, can establish my guilt, and, by inference or by insinuation,
that of his sole rival, he will have removed a great obstacle to the
consummation of the object of his ambition. And if he can, at the same
time, make out his own purity of conduct, and impress the American
people with the belief, that his purity and integrity alone prevented
his success before the house of representatives, his claims will become
absolutely irresistible. Were there ever more powerful motives to
propagate, was there ever greater interest, at all hazards, to prove
the truth of charges?

I state the case, I hope, fairly; I mean to state it fairly and
fearlessly. If the position be one which exposes general Jackson
to unfavorable suspicions, it must be borne in mind that he has
voluntarily taken it, and he must abide the consequences. I am acting
on the defensive, and it is he who assails me, and who has called forth,
by the eternal laws of self-protection, the right to use all legitimate
means of self-defence.

General Jackson has shown in his letter, that he is not exempt
from the influence of that bias towards one’s own interest, which
is unfortunately the too common lot of human nature. It is _his_
interest to make out that he is a person of spotless innocence, and of
unsullied integrity; and to establish by direct charge, or by necessary
inference, the want of those qualities in his rival. Accordingly, we
find, throughout the letter, a labored attempt to set forth his own
immaculate purity in striking contrast with the corruption which is
attributed to others. We would imagine from his letter, that he very
seldom touches a newspaper. The Telegraph is mailed regularly for him
at Washington, but it arrives at the Hermitage very irregularly. He
would have the public to infer, that the postmaster at Nashville, whose
appointment happened not to be upon his recommendation, obstructed his
reception of it. In consequence of his not receiving the Telegraph,
he had not on the sixth of June, 1827, seen Carter Beverley’s famous
Fayetteville letter, dated the eighth of the preceding March, published
in numerous gazettes, and published, I have very little doubt, although
I have not the means of ascertaining the fact, in the gazettes of
Nashville. I will not say, contrary to general Jackson’s assertion,
that he had never read that letter, when he wrote that of the sixth
of June, but I must think that it is very strange that he should
not have seen it; and I doubt whether there is another man of any
political eminence in the United States who has not read it. There is a
remarkable coincidence between general Jackson and certain editors who
espouse his interest, in relation to Mr. Beverley’s letter. They very
early took the ground, in respect to it, that I ought, under my _own
signature_, to come out and deny the statements. And general Jackson
now says, in his letter of the sixth of June, that he ‘always intended,
should Mr. Clay come out over his own signature, and deny having any
knowledge of the communication made by his friends to my friends and to
me, that I would give him the name of the gentleman through whom that
communication came.’

The distinguished member of congress who bore the alleged overture,
according to general Jackson, presented himself with diplomatic
circumspection, lest he should wound the very great sensibility of
the general. He avers that the communication was intended with the
most friendly motives, ‘that he came as a friend,’ and that he hoped,
however it might be received, there would be no alteration in the
friendly feelings between them. The general graciously condescends to
receive the communication, and, in consideration of the high standing
of the distinguished member, and of his having always been a professed
friend, he is promised impunity, and assured that there shall be no
change of amicable ties. After all these necessary preliminaries are
arranged between the high negotiating powers, the envoy proceeds: ‘he
had been informed by the friends of Mr. Clay, that the friends of Mr.
Adams had made overtures to them, saying if Mr. Clay and his friends
would unite in aid of the election of Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay should be
secretary of state; that the friends of Mr. Adams were urging, as a
reason to induce the friends of Mr. Clay to accede to their proposition,
that if I was elected president, Mr. Adams would be continued secretary
of state, (inuendo, there would be no room for Kentucky.)’ [Is this
general Jackson’s inuendo, or that of the distinguished member of
congress?] ‘That the friends of Mr. Clay stated the west does not
want to separate from the west, and if I would say, or permit any of
my confidential friends to say that, in case I was elected president,
Mr. Adams should not be continued secretary of state, by a complete
union of Mr. Clay and his friends, they would put an end to the
presidential contest in one hour; and he was of opinion it was right
to fight such intriguers with their own weapons.’ To which the general
states himself to have replied in substance, ‘that in politics, as in
every thing else, my guide was principle, and contrary to the expressed
and unbiased will of the people or their constituted agents, I never
would step into the presidential chair; and requested him to say to Mr.
Clay and his friends, (for I did _suppose_ he had come from Mr. Clay,
_although he used the terms Mr. Clay’s friends_,) that before I would
reach the presidential chair by such means of bargain and corruption, I
would see the earth open and swallow both Mr. Clay and his friends and
myself with them.’ Now all these professions are very fine, and display
admirable purity. But its sublimity would be somewhat more impressive,
if some person other than general Jackson had proclaimed it. He would
go into the presidential chair, but never, no! never, contrary to ‘the
expressed and unbiased will of the people, or their constituted agents:’
two modes of arriving at it the more reasonable, as there happens to
be no other constituted way. He would see ‘the earth open and swallow
both Mr. Clay and his friends and myself,’ before he would reach the
presidential chair by ‘such means of bargain and corruption.’ I hope
general Jackson did not intend that the whole human race should be
also swallowed up, on the contingency he has stated, or that they were
to guaranty that he has an absolute repugnance to the employment of
any exceptionable means to secure his elevation to the presidency.
If he had rendered the distinguished member of congress a little more
distinguished, by instantly ordering him from his presence, and by
forthwith denouncing him and the infamous propositions which he bore,
to the American public, we should be a little better prepared to admit
the claims to untarnished integrity, which the general so modestly puts
forward. But, according to his own account, a corrupt and scandalous
proposal is made to him; the person who conveyed it, advises him to
accept it, and yet that person still retains the friendship of general
Jackson, who is so tender of his character that his name is carefully
concealed and reserved to be hereafter brought forward as a witness! A
man, who, if he be a member of the house of representatives, is doubly
infamous――infamous for the advice which he gave, and infamous for his
willingness to connive at the corruption of the body of which he is a
sworn member――is the credible witness by whom general Jackson stands
ready to establish the corruption of men, whose characters are never
questioned!

Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is
so highly prized as that of character. General Jackson cannot be
insensible to its value, for he appears to be the most anxious to set
forth the loftiness and purity of his own. How has he treated mine?
During the dispensation of the hospitalities of the hermitage, in the
midst of a mixed company of individuals from various states, he permits
himself to make certain statements respecting my friends and me, which,
if true, would forever dishonor and degrade us. The words are hardly
passed from his mouth, before they are committed to paper, by one
of his guests, and transmitted in the form of a letter to another
state, when they are published in a newspaper, and thence circulated
throughout the union. And now he pretends that these statements were
made ‘without any calculation that they were to be thrown into the
public journals.’ Does he reprove the indiscretion of this guest who
had violated the sanctity of a conversation at the hospitable board?
Far from it. The public is incredulous. It cannot be, general Jackson
would be so wanting in delicacy and decorum. The guest appeals to
him for the confirmation of the published statements; and the general
promptly addresses a letter to him, in which ‘he unequivocally confirms
(says Mr. Carter Beverley,) all I have said regarding the overture made
to him pending the last presidential election before congress; and he
_asserts a great deal more than he ever told me_.’ I should be glad to
know if all the versions of the tale have now made their appearance,
and whether general Jackson will allege, that he did not ‘calculate’
upon the publication of his letter of the sixth of June.

The general states that the unknown envoy used the terms, ‘Mr. Clay’s
friends,’ to the exclusion, therefore, of myself, but he nevertheless
inferred that he had come from me. Now, why did he draw this inference
contrary to the import of the statement which he received? Does not
this disposition to deduce conclusions unfavorable to me, manifest
the spirit which actuates him? And does not general Jackson exhibit
throughout his letter a desire to give a coloring to the statements
of his friend, the distinguished member of congress, higher than
they would justify? No one should ever resort to implication but
from necessity. Why did he not ascertain from the envoy if he had
come from me? Was any thing more natural than that general Jackson
should ascertain the persons who had deputed the envoy? If his slacked
sensibility and indignant virtue and patriotism would not allow him
to inquire into particulars, ought he to have hazarded the assertion,
that I was privy to the proposal, without assuring himself of the fact;
could he not, after rejecting the proposal, continuing, as he did, on
friendly terms with the organ of it, have satisfied himself if I were
conusant of it? If he had not time then, might he not have ascertained
the fact from his friend or from me, during the intervening two and a
half years? The compunctions of his own conscience appear for a moment
to have visited him towards the conclusion of his letter, for he there
does say, ‘that in the supposition stated, _I may_ have done injustice
to Mr. Clay; if so, the gentleman informing me can explain.’ No good
or honorable man will do another voluntarily any injustice. It was not
necessary that general Jackson should have done me any. And he cannot
acquit himself of the rashness and iniquity of his conduct towards me,
by referring at this late day to a person whose name is withheld from
the public. This compendious mode of administering justice, by first
hanging and then trying a man, however justifiable it may be, according
to the precepts of the Jackson code, is sanctioned by no respectable
system of jurisprudence.

It is stated in the letter of the sixth of June, that the overture was
made early in January; and that the second day after the communication,
it ‘was announced in the newspapers, that Mr. Clay had come out openly
and avowedly in favor of Mr. Adams.’ The object of this statement is
obvious. It is to insinuate that the proposal which was rejected with
disdain by general Jackson, was accepted with promptitude by Mr. Adams.
This renders the fact as to the time of the alleged annunciation very
important. It is to be regretted that general Jackson had not been a
little more precise. It was _early_ in January that the overture was
made, and the _second_ day after, the annunciation of my intention
took place. Now, I will not assert that there may not have been some
speculations in the newspapers about that time, (although I do not
believe there were any _speculations_ so early,) as to the probable
vote which I should give; but I should be glad to see any newspaper
which the second day after early in January, asserted in its columns,
that I had come out ‘openly and avowedly in favor of Mr. Adams.’
I challenge the production of such a paper. I do not believe my
intention so to vote for Mr. Adams was announced in the newspapers
openly and avowedly during the whole month of January, or at any
rate until late in that month. The only _avowal_ of my intention to
vote for him, which was publicly made in the newspapers, prior to the
election, is contained in my letter to Judge Brooke, which is dated
the twenty-eighth of January. It was first published in the Enquirer
at Richmond, some time in the ensuing month. I go further; I do not
believe any newspaper at Washington can be produced, announcing, before
the latter part of January, the fact, whether upon my avowal or not,
of my intention to vote for Mr. Adams. General Jackson’s memory must
deceive him. He must have confounded events and circumstances. His
friend, Mr. George Kremer, in his letter to the Columbian Observer
bearing date the twenty-fifth of January, has, according to my
recollection of the public prints, a claim to the merit of being the
first, or among the first, to announce to the public my intended vote.
That letter was first published at Philadelphia, and returned in the
Columbian Observer to Washington city, on the thirty-first of January.
How long before its date that letter was written to Mr. Kremer, does
not appear. Whether there be any connection made by the distinguished
member of congress, and that letter, perhaps general Jackson can
explain.

At the end of more than two years after a corrupt overture has
been made to general Jackson, he now, for the first time, openly
proclaims it. It is true, as I have ascertained since the publication
of Mr. Beverley’s Fayetteville letter, the general has been for a long
time secretly circulating the charge. Immediately on the appearance
at Washington of that letter in the public prints, the editor of the
Telegraph asserted, in his paper, that general Jackson had communicated
the overture to him about the period of the election, not as he now
states, but according to Mr. Beverley’s version of the tale. Since
I left Washington on the tenth of last month, I have understood that
general Jackson has made a similar communication to several other
persons at different and distant points. Why has the overture been
thus clandestinely circulated? Was it that through the medium of the
Telegraph, the leading paper supporting the interest of general Jackson,
and through his other depositories, the belief of the charge should be
duly and gradually infused into the public mind, and thus contribute
to the support of his cause? The zeal and industry with which it has
been propagated, the daily columns of certain newspapers can testify.
Finding the public still unconvinced, has the general found it to
be necessary to come out in proper person, through the thin veil of
Mr. Carter Beverley’s agency?

When the alleged overture was made, the election remained undecided.
Why did not general Jackson then hold up to universal scorn and
indignation the infamous bearer of the proposal, and those who dared
to insult his honor, and tamper with his integrity? If he had at that
time denounced all the infamous parties concerned, demanded an inquiry
in the house of representatives, and established by satisfactory proof
the truth of his accusation, there might and probably would have been a
different result to the election. Why, when at my instance, a committee
was on the fifth day of February, 1825, (only four days before the
election,) appointed to investigate the charges of Mr. Kremer, did not
general Jackson present himself and establish their truth? Why, on the
seventh of that month, two days before the election, when the committee
reported that Mr. Kremer declined to come forward, and that ‘if _they
knew_ of any reason for such investigation, they would have asked to
be clothed with the proper power, but not having themselves any such
knowledge, they have felt it to be their duty only to lay before the
house the communication which they have received;’ why did not general
Jackson authorize a motion to recommit the report, and manfully come
forward with all his information? The congress of the nation is in
session. An important election has devolved on it. All eyes are turned
towards Washington. The result is awaited with intense anxiety and
breathless expectation. A corrupt proposition, affecting the election,
is made to one of the candidates. He receives it, is advised to
accept it, deliberates, decides upon it. A committee is in session to
investigate the very charge. The candidate, notwithstanding, remains
profoundly silent, and, after the lapse of more than two years, when
the period of another election is rapidly approaching, in which he is
the only competitor for the office, for the first time, announces it
to the American republic! They must have more than an ordinary share
of credulity who do not believe that general Jackson labors under some
extraordinary delusion.

It is possible that he may urge by way of excuse, for what must be
deemed his culpable concealment of meditated corruption, that he did
not like to volunteer as a witness before the committee, or to transmit
to it the name of his friend, the distinguished member of the house
of representatives, although it is not very easy to discern any just
reason for his volunteering now, which would not have applied with
more force at that time. But what apology can be made for his failure
to discharge his sacred duty as an American senator? More than two
months after the alleged overture, my nomination to the office which
I now hold, was made to the senate of the United States, of which
general Jackson was then a sworn member. On that nomination he had to
deliberate and to act in the most solemn manner. If I were privy to
a corrupt proposal to general Jackson, touching the recent election;
if I had entered into a corrupt bargain with Mr. Adams to secure his
elevation, I was unworthy of the office to which I was nominated;
and it was the duty of general Jackson, if he really possessed the
information which he now puts forward, to have moved the senate to
appoint a committee of inquiry, and by establishing my guilt, to have
preserved the national councils from an abominable contamination.
As the conspiracy of George Kremer & Co. had a short time before
meanly shrunk from appearing before the committee of the house of
representatives, to make good their charges, I requested a senator
of the United States, when my nomination should be taken up, to ask
of the senate the appointment of a committee of inquiry, unless it
should appear to him to be altogether unnecessary. One of our senators
was compelled, by the urgency of his private business, to leave
Washington before my nomination was disposed of; and as I had but
little confidence in the fidelity and professed friendship of the
other, I was constrained to present my application to a senator from
another state. I was afterwards informed that when it was acted upon,
general Jackson, and every other senator present, was silent as to the
imputation now made; no one presuming to question my honor or integrity.
How can general Jackson justify to his conscience or to his country,
this palpable breach of his public duty? It is in vain to say that
he gave a silent negative vote. _He_ was in possession of information
which, if true, must have occasioned the rejection of my nomination. It
does not appear that any other senator possessed the same information.
Investigation was alike due to the purity of the national councils,
to me, and, as an act of strict justice, to all the other parties
implicated. It is impossible for him to escape from the dilemma that
he has been faithless as a senator of the United States, or has lent
himself to the circulation of an atrocious calumny.

After the election, general Jackson was among the first who eagerly
pressed his congratulations upon his successful rival. If Mr. Adams had
been guilty of the employment of impure means to effect his election,
general Jackson ought to have disdained to sully his own hands by
touching those of his corrupt competitor.

On the tenth of February, 1825, the very next day after the election,
general Jackson was invited to a public dinner at Washington, by some
of his friends. He expressed to them his wish that he might be excused
from accepting the invitation, because, alluding to the recent election,
he said, ‘any evidence of kindness and regard, such as you propose,
might, by many, be viewed as conveying with it EXCEPTION, murmurings,
and feelings of complaint, which I sincerely hope belong to none of my
friends.’ More than one month after the corrupt proposal is pretended
to have been received, and after, according to the insinuation of
general Jackson, a corrupt arrangement had been made between Mr. Adams
and me: after the actual termination of an election, the issue of which
was brought about, according to general Jackson, by the basest means,
he was unwilling to accept the honors of a public dinner, lest it
should imply even an _exception_ against the result of the election.

General Jackson professes in his letter of the sixth of June――I
quote again his words――‘to have always intended, should Mr. Clay
come out over his own signature, and deny having any knowledge of
the communication made by his friends to my friends, and to me,
that I would give him the name of the gentleman through whom that
communication came.’ He pretends never to have seen the Fayetteville
letter; and yet the pretext of a denial under _my signature_ is
precisely that which had been urged by the principal editors who
sustain his cause. If this be an unconcerted, it is nevertheless a
most wonderful coincidence. The general never communicated to me his
professed intention, but left me in entire ignorance of his generous
purpose; like the overture itself, it was profoundly concealed from
me. There was an authorized denial from me, which went to the circle
of the public prints, immediately after the arrival at Washington of
the Fayetteville letter. In that denial my words are given. They were
contained in a letter dated at Washington city on the eighteenth day of
April last, and are correctly stated to have been ‘that the statement
that his (my) friends had made such a proposition as the latter
describes to the friends of general Jackson was, as far as he knew
or believed, utterly destitute of foundation; that he was unwilling
to believe that general Jackson had made any such statement; but
that no matter with whom it had originated, he was fully persuaded
it was a gross fabrication of the same calumnious character with the
Kremer story, put forth for the double purpose of injuring his public
character, and propping the cause of general Jackson; and then for
himself and for his friends he _defied_ the substantiation of the
charge before any fair tribunal whatever.’ Such were my own words,
transmitted in the form of a letter from a friend to a _known_ person.
Whereas the charge which they repelled was contained in a letter
written by a person then unknown to some person also unknown. Did I not
deny the charge under my own signature, in my card of the thirty-first
of January, 1825, published in the National Intelligencer? Was not
there a substantial denial of it in my letter to Judge Brooke, dated
the twenty-eighth of the same month? In my circular to my constituents?
In my Lewisburg speech? And may I not add, in the whole tenor of my
public life and conduct? If general Jackson had offered to furnish
me the name of a member of congress, who was capable of advising his
acceptance of a base and corrupt proposition, ought I to have resorted
to his infamous and discredited witness?

It has been a thousand times asserted and repeated, that I violated
instructions which I ought to have obeyed. I deny the charge; and I
am happy to have this opportunity of denying it in the presence of my
assembled constituents. The general assembly requested the Kentucky
delegation to vote in a particular way. A majority of that delegation,
including myself, voted in opposition to that request. The legislature
did not intend to give an _imperative_ instruction. The distinction
between a request and an instruction was familiar to the legislature,
and their rolls attest that the former is always addressed to the
members of the house of representatives, and the latter only to the
senators of the United States.

But I do not rely exclusively on this recognised distinction. I dispute
at once the right of the legislature to issue a mandatory instruction
to the representatives of the people. Such a right has no foundation
in the constitution, in the reason or nature of things, nor in usage of
the Kentucky legislature. Its exercise would be a manifest usurpation.
The general assembly has the incontrovertible right to express its
opinions and to proclaim its wishes on any political subject whatever;
and to such an expression great deference and respect are due; but
it is not obligatory. The people, when, in August, 1824, they elected
members to the general assembly, did not invest them with any power
to regulate or control the exercise of the discretion of the Kentucky
delegation in the congress of the United States. I put it to the candor
of every elector present, if he intended to part with his own right, or
anticipated the exertion of any such power, by the legislature, when he
gave his vote in August, 1824?

The only instruction which I received from a legitimate source,
emanated from a respectable portion of my immediate constituents; and
that directed me to exercise my own discretion, regardless of the will
of the legislature. You subsequently ratified my vote by unequivocal
demonstrations, repeatedly given, of your affectionate attachment
and your unshaken confidence. You ratified it two years ago, by the
election of my personal and political friend, (judge Clarke) to succeed
me in the house of representatives, who had himself subscribed the only
legitimate instruction which I received. You ratify it by the presence
and the approbation, of this vast and respectable assemblage.

I rejoice again and again, that the contest has at last assumed
its present practical form. Heretofore, malignant whispers and dark
surmises have been clandestinely circulated, or openly or unblushingly
uttered by irresponsible agents. They were borne upon the winds, and
like them were invisible and intangible. No responsible man stood
forward to sustain them, with his acknowledged authority. They have
at last a local habitation and a name. General Jackson has now thrown
off the mask and comes confessedly forth from behind his concealed
batteries, publicly to accuse and convict me. We stand confronted
before the American people. Pronouncing the charges, as I again
do, destitute of all foundation, and gross aspersions, whether
clandestinely or openly issued from the halls of the capitol, the
saloons of the hermitage, or by press, by pen, or by tongue, and safely
resting on my conscious integrity, I demanded the witness, and await
the event with fearless confidence.

The issue is fairly joined. The imputed offence does not comprehend
a single friend, but the collective body of my friends in congress;
and it accuses them of offering, and me with sanctioning, corrupt
_propositions_, derogating from honor, and in violation of the most
sacred of duties. The charge has been made after two years deliberation.
General Jackson has voluntarily taken his position, and without
provocation. In voting against him as president of the United States,
I gave him no just cause of offence. I exercised no more than my
indisputable privilege, as, on a subsequent occasion, of which I have
never complained, he exercised his in voting against me as secretary
of state. Had I voted for him, I must have gone counter to every
fixed principle of my public life. I believed him incompetent, and his
election fraught with danger. At this early period of the republic,
keeping steadily in view the dangers which had overturned every other
free state, I believed it to be essential to the lasting preservation
of our liberties, that a man, devoid of civil talents, and offering
no recommendation but one founded on military service, should not
be selected to administer the government. I believe so yet; and I
shall consider the days of the commonwealth numbered, when an opposite
principle is established. I believed, and still believe, that now,
when our institutions are in comparative infancy, is the time to
establish the great principle, that military qualification alone is
not a sufficient title to the presidency. If we start right, we may run
a long race of liberty, happiness, and glory. If we stumble in setting
out, we shall fall as others have fallen before us, and fall without
even a claim to the regrets or sympathies of mankind.

I have never done general Jackson, knowingly, any injustice. I have
taken pleasure, on every proper occasion, to bestow on him merited
praise, for the glorious issue of the battle of New Orleans. No
American citizen enjoyed higher satisfaction than I did with the event.
I heard it for the first time on the boulevards of Paris; and I eagerly
perused the details of the actions, with the anxious hope that I should
find that the gallant militia of my own state had avenged, on the banks
of the Mississippi, the blood which they had so freely spilt on the
disastrous field of Raisin. That hope was not then gratified; and
although I had the mortification to read in the official statement,
that they ingloriously fled, I was nevertheless thankful for the
success of the arms of my country, and felt grateful to him who had
most contributed to the ever memorable victory. This concession is not
now made for the purpose of conciliating the favor or mitigating the
wrath of general Jackson. He has erected an impassable barrier between
us, and I would scorn to accept any favor at his hands. I thank my God
that He has endowed me with a soul incapable of apprehensions from the
anger of any being but himself.

           ON HEEDLESS ENTHUSIASM FOR MERE MILITARY RENOWN.

                 DELIVERED AT BALTIMORE, MAY 13, 1828.

  [MR. CLAY having visited Philadelphia in the spring of 1828, for
  the purpose of consulting a medical gentleman, on the state of
  his health, which at that period was exceedingly delicate, was
  invited by a committee, in behalf of his friends in Baltimore,
  to remain in that city a short time, on his return. He arrived
  there on Monday afternoon, the twelfth of May, of the above year,
  and was greeted with even more than usual enthusiasm. The next
  day, Mr. Clay received the visits and congratulations of his
  fellow-citizens of Baltimore, who thronged in vast numbers, to
  press the right hand so often raised in their eloquent defence.
  Having declined a _public_ dinner, he partook of one in company
  with the committee who attended upon him, and the chairmen of
  the various ward committees of the city, on which occasion the
  following, among other toasts, were drank:――

  1. The president of the United States.

  2. A great statesman has said, ‘What is a public man worth,
  who will not suffer for his country?’ We have seen a public
  man sacrifice much for his country, and rise resplendently
  triumphant over the calumnies of his enemies.]

MR. CLAY then rose, (evidently laboring under debility from
indisposition, probably increased by the ceremonies of the day,) and
said, ‘Although I have been required, by the advice of my physicians,
to abstain from all social entertainments, with their consequent
excitements, I cannot leave Baltimore, without saying a few words,
by way of public acknowledgment, for the cordial congratulations with
which I have been received during my present visit. I am not so vain,
indeed, as to imagine that any personal considerations have prompted
the enthusiastic demonstrations by which my approach to this city,
and my short sojourn, have been so highly distinguished. Their honored
object, has, it is true, some claims upon the justice, if not the
sympathy, of a generous, intelligent, and high-minded people. Singled
out for proscription and destruction, he has sustained all the fury
of the most ferocious attacks. Calumnious charges, directed against
the honor of his public character, dearer than life itself, sanctioned
and republished by one who should have scorned to lend himself
to such a vile purpose, have been echoed by a thousand profligate
or deluded tongues and presses. Supported by the consciousness of
having faithfully discharged his duty, and defended by the virtue and
intelligence of an enlightened people, he has stood firm and erect
amidst all the bellowings of the political storm. What is a public man,
what is any man worth, who is not prepared to sacrifice himself, if
necessary, for the good of his country?

‘But,’ continued Mr. Clay, ‘the demonstrations which I have here
witnessed, have a higher and a nobler source, than homage to an
individual; they originate from that cause with which I am an humble
associate――the cause of the country――the cause of the constitution――the
cause of free institutions. They would otherwise be unworthy of
freemen, and less gratifying to me. I am not, I hope, so uncharitable
as to accuse all the opponents of that cause with designs unfriendly
to human liberty. I know that they make, many of them sincerely, other
professions. They talk, indeed, of republicanism, and some of them
impudently claim to be the exclusive republican party! Yes! we find
men who, but yesterday, were the foremost in other ranks, upon whose
revolting ears the grating sound of republicanism ever fell, and upon
whose lips the exotic word still awkwardly hangs, now exclaiming, or
acquiescing in the cry, that _they_ are the republican party! I had
thought, if any one, more than all other principles, characterized the
term republican party, it was their ardent devotion to liberty, to its
safety, to all its guarantees. I had supposed, that the doctrines of
that school taught us to guard against the danger of standing armies,
to profit by the lessons which all history inculcates, and never to
forget that liberty, and the predominance of the military principle,
were utterly incompatible. The republican party! In this modern,
new-fangled, and heterogeneous party, Cromwell and Cæsar have
recently found apologists. The judgment of centuries is reversed;
long-established maxims are overturned; the Ethiopian is washed white;
and the only genuine lovers of liberty were the Philips, the Cæsars,
the Cromwells, the Mariuses, and the Syllas, of former ages.

‘It is time for slumbering patriotism to awake, when such doctrines
as these are put forth from the capitol, and from popular assemblies.
It is time that the _real_ republican party, (I speak not of former
divisions, springing from causes no longer existing, and which are
sought to be kept up by some men in particular places, only for
sinister purposes,)――that party, under whatever flag its members may
have heretofore acted, that party which loves freedom, for freedom’s
sake――justly to estimate the impending perils, and to proceed with an
energy, and union, called for by the existing crisis in the republic.
Regardless of all imputations, and proud of the opportunity of free
and unrestrained intercourse with all my fellow-citizens, if it were
physically possible, and compatible with my official duties, I would
visit every state, go to every town and hamlet, address every man in
the union, and entreat them, by their love of country, by their love
of liberty, for the sake of themselves and their posterity――in the
name of their venerated ancestors, in the name of the human family,
deeply interested in the fulfilment of the trust committed to their
hands――by all the past glory which we have won――by all that awaits
us as a nation――if we are true and faithful in gratitude to Him who
has hitherto so signally blessed us――to pause――solemnly pause――and
contemplate the precipice which yawns before us! If, indeed, we have
incurred the divine displeasure, and it be necessary to chastise this
people with the rod of his vengeance, I would humbly prostrate myself
before Him, and implore his mercy, to visit our favored land with war,