Peterboro, November 24,1835.
Rev. R. R. Gurley, Secretary of
American Colonization Society.
My Dear Friend, — Great as the
pleasure would be to me of meeting, at the approaching Anniversary of the
American Colonization Society, with my beloved fellow laborers in the cause of
African Colonization, I must not, for this alone, make a journey to Washington.
Could I connect with the anticipation of this pleasure the prospect of gaining
over the Society to the views which I have so long, but in vain, pressed upon
its adoption, the journey would then be made most cheerfully; but the present
circumstances and complexion of the Society afford anything but such a
prospect.
You well know, my dear sir, how faithfully I labored, at the
Anniversary of the Society in January, 1834, and for a year before; and how
much I have written to that end since, to bring back the Society to its
constitutional and neutral ground, respecting the subject of slavery. The
ineffectualness of these efforts is manifest in the fact, that the Society is
now, and has been for some time, far more interested in the question of slavery
than in the work of colonization — in the demolition of the Anti-slavery
Society, than in the building up of its colony. I need not go beyond the matter
and spirit of the last few numbers of its periodical for the justification of
this remark. Were a stranger to form his opinion by these numbers, it would be,
that the Society issuing them was quite as much an anti-abolition, as
colonization society: and this would be his opinion of a society, which has not
legitimately anything to do with slavery, either as its opponent or advocate — of
a society of which I said in my speech before it, in January 1834, and justly,
I believe, that “such is, or rather such should be its neutrality, on the
subject of slavery, that its members may be free, on the one hand, to be
slaveholders; and on the other to join the Anti-slavery Society.” It has come
to this, however, that a member of the Colonization Society cannot advocate the
deliverance of his enslaved fellow-men, without subjecting himself to such
charges of inconsistency, as the public prints abundantly cast on me, for being
at the same time a member of that Society and an abolitionist.
It was not until some six or eight months since, that I began to
despair of seeing the Colonization Society cease, within any short period, if
ever, from its interference with the subject of slavery. No more than a year
ago, and I was still confident that the Society would retrace its errors, and
be again simply a Colonization Society: and then how soon a harmonious,
successful and glorious Society!
I still owe a considerable sum on my subscriptions to the funds of the
Colonization Society. It is true that the conditions on which these
subscriptions were made, have not been fulfilled, and that it is now too late
to fulfill them. It is further true, that most of the sum I still owe has some
years to run before it is due. But I sympathize with the Society in its
embarrassments, and herewith enclose you my check for the whole balance — viz.,
three thousand dollars. It is my wish, though I would not insist on its taking
this direction against the judgment of your much esteemed board — that the
whole sum be applied towards the cancelment of the debts of the Society.
At some future period, and under happier auspices, the American
Colonization Society may possibly cease to meddle with slavery; and to claim
that it is the remedy, and the only remedy for that evil. It may then confine
its operations to their constitutional sphere, and employ all its means in the
benevolent and delightful work of aiding the free people of color in our
country to escape from the unrelenting prejudice and persecution under which
they suffer, and to obtain in a foreign land the honorable and happy home which
is cruelly and wickedly denied to them in their own. I may then have it in my
heart and in my power to contribute again to your treasury. In the mean time, I
cannot conscientiously do so, — nor, indeed, do anything else from which my
approbation of the Society could be justly inferred.
It is proper for me to say, that I am brought to this determination
earlier than I expected to be, by the recent increase of my interest in the
American Anti-Slavery Society. From its organization to the present time, I
have looked to that society as, under God, the best hope of the slave and of my
country. Since the late alarming attacks, in the persons of its members, on the
right of discussion, (and astonishing as it is, some of the suggestions for
invading this right are impliedly countenanced in the African Repository) I
have looked to it, as being also the rallying point of the friends of this
right. To that society yours is hostile, I will not say without cause — without
even as much as the certainly very great cause which it has for being the enemy
of yours. However that may be, it is enough for my present purpose and to
justify me in standing aloof from your society, to know that the Anti-Slavery
Society has now become identified with this threatened right; and that if it
fall, as your society is diligently striving that it shall, this great and
sacred right of man will fall and perish with it.
With great regard,
your friend,
Gerrit Smith.
SOURCE: Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A
Biography, p. 166-8
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