dinary deductions from the gross amount of that labour, but by the indolence and the immorality inseparable from its condition; by the distinctions which it creates in our society as well as in our laws; and above all, by the paralyzing influence which it must necessarily exercise over the physical energies of the nation. In the slave-holding portions of our country, this balance of evil is infinitely increased by the effect of an intermediate class of population, such as that we are considering, on the relations subsisting between the master and the slave. Made up, for the most part, either of slaves or of their immediate descendants; elevated above the class from which it has sprung, only by its exemption from domestic restraint; and effectually debarred by the law, from every prospect of equality with the actual freemen of the country; it is a source of perpetual uneasiness to the master, and of envy and corruption to the slave. Its effect is to diminish the comfort of the one, while it increases the burthens of the other; and to leave to the society, in which it exists, no other security than can be derived from an arbitrary system of laws, not less revolting to humanity, than inconsistent with the general character of our institutions.

"That these are no ordinary evils-that, however unequal they may be in their operations, they are, nevertheless, general and national in their effects-and that their removal would contribute essentially to "the common defence and the general welfare," are truths which your correspondent will hardly venture to deny. And, whatever may be his own opinion as to the power of the General Government to expend its money on objects, merely because of their connexion with "the common defence and the general welfare," a recurrence to his memory alone, will satisfy him, that the power has been conceded by a large proportion of the wisest and best men of our country, and has been sustained by the uniform practice of every Administration, from the first to the last. How else will he account for the appropriations made for the purchase of Louisiana and Florida? for the repeated acquisitions of Indian Territory-for ameliorating the condition of the savages-for relieving the distressed inhabitants of Carraccas-for restoring captured Africans to the homes from which they have been torn-for the suppression of the slave trade-for the promotion of internal improvement-and above all, for the late act of grateful munificence to the venerable La Fayette? None of them can be brought within the enumerated powers of the Government; and in the school to which Caius Gracchus evidently belongs, but few of them would be admitted among the means "necessary and proper" for the execution of enumerated powers. They are all, however, conducive, either directly or indirectly, to "the common defence" or "the general welfare." This alone has designated them as fit and proper objects to be accomplished. And it has been solemnly ❝decided," that the power of appropriation was sufficiently comprehensive to embrace them within its terms. Let the removal of the free people of colour from the country be tried by the same principles. Let it be examined ~ in its relation to the general interests of the nation, and it will not suffer in

comparison with the most favourite of the acts that have been enumerated. So long, therefore, as principle is maintained, or precedent respected, its claim to the pecuniary aid of the Government, cannot be resisted on the ground of a want of authority to grant it.

"I trust, however, that the Colonization Society, in its application to Congress, will not rely exclusively on its power of appropriation; but will endeavour to draw to the accomplishment of its object all the necessary powers of the Government. I hope and believe it is the intention of the Agents, to whom this interesting subject has been committed, to ask their Government to do for the Colony at Liberia, what the Government of Great Britain has already done for a similar settlement at Sierra Leone: to take it into their possession, to enlarge its limits, to provide for it a suitable government, to guarantee its safety, and to hold out the necessary inducements to the free people of colour to return to the land of their fathers. They owe such an application to the cause in which they are engaged; to the few Colonists that have already embarked in their enterprise; to the thousands who are yet contemplating their efforts with anxious solicitude; but above all, to the deep and lasting interests of their own country. Nor should they be alarmed by constitutional difficulties, existing only in the imaginations of those who have suggested them. Should they ask of Congress all that I have proposed to them,-and should Congress grant them all they ask, "no holy barriers of the Constitution" will be broken down, and no powers will be exercised, but such as have been exercised before, and are already acknowledged to exist. Territory must be acquired, as in the case of Louisiana and Florida, with a view to "the common defence and the general welfare:" "needful rules and regulations," in the language of the Constitution, must be provided for its government, and their efficacy must be ensured by suitable appropriations, such as necessarily appertain to every legitimate exercise of power.

"Such, then, is the aid to be solicited of the Federal Government: and these are the provisions under which it may be constitutionally bestowed. In acting on the subject, Congress will not be influenced by the idle jealousies and direful forebodings of Caius Gracchus. They will not be alarmed by apprehensions as groundless as a fervid imagination, operated on by habitual suspicion, could possibly have suggested. They will not be deterred from the accomplishment of an acknowledged good, by the fearful alternative prescribed to them, of either saddling the country with "a permanent Colonial System," or "of extending the rights and privileges of the Federal Union to the shores of Africa, and to a negro population." Neither will be necessary. The territory to be acquired will be acquired for a special purpose, believed to be conducive to the general interests of the nation. No provision need be made, as in the case of Louisiana and Florida, for its future admission into the Union, because no considerations of expediency will require its permanent connection with our Government. Pur chased as territory, it will retain its territorial character, subject to "the

rules and regulations of Congress," until its accomplishment of the purposes for which it was intended, will justify its erection into a separate and independent government."

Such is the aid, which, in the view of Opimius, the Society is justified in invoking from the National Government. In his second essay, he proceeds to advocate an application of the powers of the Government to the fulfilment of the design of the Society.

"Against the colonial systems of the nations of Europe, a very decided and well-founded objection has ever prevailed amongst American politicians. The advantages occasionally afforded by the Colonies, to the commerce and navigation of their mother countries, have been more than counterbalanced by the fierce and protracted contests to which they have so often given rise. And the continued restlessness and ultimate struggle for relief that have sometimes resulted from a long continued state of colonial dependence, have rendered it doubtful, whether remote settlements, established for commercial purposes, and regulated on commercial principles, are productive of very great advantages to any nation. An early contemplation of the evils inseparable from them, has, at all events, produced a decided impression amongst ourselves, that the systems out of which they have grown, would be wholly unsuited to the character of our institutions and the habits of our citizens. And it will be a matter of very serious regret, should the pride of foreign conquest, or the spirit of commercial enterprise, ever seduce us from the wholesome principles which have hitherto regulated our conduct on this subject. But it will not be fair to consider the proposed establishment at Liberia as a deviation from these principles. Wholly unconnected with views of national ambition, and designed neither to gratify our pride, to foster our navigation, nor to vary and enlarge the channels of our commerce, it furnishes, in its origin, no food for jealousy to other nations. And should it be continued in the spirit, in which it begins, of steady devotion to the purposes of Christian benevolence and national justice, it cannot fail to draw around it the sympathies of mankind, and to find in the objects of its creation, its surest protection against the enmity of any portion of the civilized world. These very objects too, by requiring for their accomplishment a course of legislation, adapted rather to the permanent prosperity of the Colony, than to any temporary interests of our own, will guard us against the restlessness and distrust of parental authority, inseparable from the colonial systems of Europe. And the obvious advantage to ourselves of dissolving as soon as possible, the connection that may be created, will furnish us at all times, with certain means of protection against a struggle for independence on the part of the Colony, the only additional danger that has ever been suggested.

"Such, then, is a fair estimate of the actual risk to be encountered in the contemplated removal of the free people of colour from the United States to the Western coast of Africa. We have yet to ascertain the probable amount of expenditure, that would also be involved. This, however, must depend so much on contingencies that cannot be 'calculated, and so much on the extent to which the Government may think proper to interfere, that all estimates on the subject must be as indefinite as the contingencies on which they rest are uncertain. We have, nevertheless, some data for calculating the most material expenses to be incurred; and I avail myself of these, to show, that in relation to mere expense, there is, in reality, nothing to alarm the fears of a Government, possessing the abundant resources that belong to ours. Land in Africa is of so little value, that the acquisition of a territory sufficient for the whole negro population of the United States, would hardly constitute a serious item of expense. The proceeds of a single year's sales of Western lands, or the cost of a single Indian settlement, would procure an African dominion of indefinite extent.-Nor would the expense of providing and maintaining in force, "the needful rules and regulations" for the government of the territory, be of a more serious character. Judging from the operations of the Colonization Society, we may consider an annual appropriation of ten thousand dollars as fully commensurate with the demands created by the civil list and the military establishment of the Colony in its earlier stages. And this appropriation, so far from increasing, would, in the course of a very few years, be entirely supplied by the resources of the Colony itself.

"But the great expense to be incurred, would be that of transportation: and although a considerable portion of it might, as heretofore, be left to the contributions of particular communities, to the general benevolence of the nation, and in many instances, to the individual means of the negroes themselves, we will, nevertheless, in forming our estimates, consider the whole of it as falling on the Government of the United States. The expenditures of the Colonization Society under this head, have been continually diminishing, as the attention and experience of its Agents have increased.-In the expedition of last spring, the cost per head, including a supply of provisions for several months, did not exceed twenty dollars; and, if I mistake not, the present intelligent Agent of the Society, anticipates a still further reduction, possibly to ten dollars. But that I may err (if I err at all) on the right side, I will assume the average cost of the transportation of the Colonists to be twenty-five dollars;* and Caius Gracchus himself, will probably be surprised to learn, that, at this rate, the whole black population of the country might be removed to the shores of Africa for fifty millions of dollars, while that

*"Since writing the above, I am informed that a commercial company in Baltimore have proposed to the Colonization Society, to transport any number of Colonists to Africa, at twenty dollars each, to be paid by the Colonists themselves, at the end of two years.

portion of it, already free, would cost something less than six millions of dollars."

"But the present object of the Colonization Society, and that to which the attention of the Government will be first directed, is, the removal of the free people of colour, consisting of something less than two hundred and fifty thousand. Their annual increase at three per cent. would be seven thousand five hundred; the cost of removing which, at twenty-five dollars each, would be one hundred and eighty-seven thousand, five hundred dollars. But as the object is not only to prevent their increase, but also to ensure their rapid decrease in the country, it is hoped that if the Government be induced to act on the subject at all, such an appropriation will be made, as will ensure the removal in the course of ten years, not only of those who are now free, and their descendants, but of all such also, as the humanity of individuals may, in the course of that time, liberate with a view to their colonization on the coast of Africa. And such, I venture to assert, would be an annual appropriation of one million of dollars, calculated to defray every expense connected with the transportation and government of thirty thousand individuals. Whether such an appropriation would exceed in value, the object to be accomplished, will appear from the considerations which I am now about to offer.

"In forming a just estimate of the objects of the Colonization Society, and of their claim "to the aid and patronage" of the General Government, it is impossible to overlook entirely, their influence on the present degraded condition of Africa, or to forget how large a share of the long continued sufferings of that devoted section of the world, might be traced to the cu pidity and inhumanity of our own countrymen. I should be sorry to see the energies and resources of our Government withdrawn from objects of importance at home, and wasted on idle attempts at civilizing and improving the condition of foreign nations. But I cannot consider it an objection to any scheme of domestic policy, that its benefits are to be participated in, by others as well as ourselves. And when it is Africa and her wretched inhabitants, on whom these benefits are to fall, I envy not the feelings of that man, who can contemplate with hostility, or even with cold indifference, the effort of his country, to carry civilization and religion to those who have hitherto received at its hand, nothing but stripes, and chains, and death. America stands deservedly foremost in the noble struggle to arrest the injuries of Africa. But she will have accomplished little, if she stops here. The recollection of the injuries she has done, is yet fresh in the memory of mankind; and while the moral and political degradation of Africa continues, she will find in it, a perpetual remembrancer to herself of her former deeds of injustice and cruelty. If the plan of the Colonization Society, therefore, presented no other claim to public consideration, the opportunity which it offers for removing from before us, this horrid spectre of early and unatoned-for guilt, ought alone to secure to it, the countenance of the nation, and the patronage of the Government. But, fortunately for the