The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919 | Page 4

in which they had formerly
resided as slaves. With an increasingly large number securing legal
manumission, the problem caused by their presence became to the
slaveholding group a most serious one. The Colonization Society,
therefore, sought to colonize the freedmen on the west coast of Africa,
thus definitely removing the problem which was of such concern to the
planters in slaveholding States.
The colony of Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, was chosen as a
favorable one to receive the group of freed slaves. Branches of the
Colonization Society were organized in many States and a large
membership was secured throughout the country. James Madison and
Henry Clay were among its Presidents. Many States made grants of
money and the United States Government encouraged the plan by
sending to the colony slaves illegally imported. But to the year 1830
only 1,162 Negroes had been sent to Liberia. The full development of
the cotton gin, the expansion of the cotton plantation and the

consequent rise in the price of slaves forced many supporters of both
emancipation and colonization to lose their former ardor.
As the antebellum period of the fifties came on these questions loomed
larger in the public view. The proposition for colonizing free Negroes
grew in favor as the slavery question grew more acute between the
sections. Reformers favored it, public men of note urged its adoption
and finally, as the forensic strife between the representatives of the two
sections of the country developed in intensity, even distinguished
statesmen began to propose and consider the adoption of colonization
schemes.[2]
Abraham Lincoln, as early as 1852, gave a clear demonstration of his
interest in colonization by quoting favorably in one of his public
utterances an oft-repeated statement of Henry Clay,--"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."[3]
In popular parlance, however, Lincoln is not a colonizationist. He has
become not only the Great Emancipator but the Great Lover of the
Negro and promoter of his welfare. He is thought of, popularly always,
as the champion of the race's equality. A visit to some of our
emancipation celebrations or Lincoln's birthday observances is
sufficient to convince one of the prevalence of this sentiment. Yet,
although Lincoln believed in the destruction of slavery, he desired the
complete separation of the whites and blacks.
Throughout his political career Lincoln persisted in believing in the
colonization of the Negro.[4] In the Lincoln-Douglas debates the
beginning of this idea may be seen. Lincoln said: "If all earthly power
were given me, I should not know what to do as to the existing
institution. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves and send
them to Liberia--to their own native land. But a moment's reflection
would convince me that, whatever of high hope (as I think there is)
there may be in this, in the long run its sudden execution is impossible.
If they were all landed there in a day, they would all perish in the next
ten days; and there are not surplus shipping and surplus money enough
in the world to carry them there in many times ten days. What then?

Free them all and keep them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain
that this betters their condition? I think that I would not hold one in
slavery at any rate, yet the point is not clear enough for me to denounce
people upon. What next? Free them and make them politically and
socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this, and if mine
would, we well know that those of the great mass of whites will not.
Whether this feeling accords with sound judgment is not the sole
judgment, if indeed it is any part of it."[5]
A few years later in a speech in Springfield, Lincoln said:[6] "The
enterprise is a difficult one, but where there is a will there is a way, and
what colonization needs most is a hearty will. Will springs from the
two elements of moral sense and self-interest. Let us be brought to
believe it is morally right, and at the same time favorable to, or at least
not against our interests to transfer the African to his native clime, and
we shall find a way to do it, however great the task may be."[7] It is
apparent, therefore, that before coming to the presidency, Lincoln had
quite definite views on the matter of colonization. His interest arose not
only with the good of the freedmen in view, but with the welfare of the
white race in mind, as he is frank enough to state.
After being made President, the question of colonization arose again.
Large numbers of slaves