The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919 | Page 9

land. His views were
presented not only to interested men of the white race, but to persons of
color as well. As may have been expected, the plan for colonization
failed, both because in principle such a plan would have been a great
injustice to the newly emancipated race, and in practice it would have
proved an impracticable and unsuccessful solution of the so-called race
problem.

CHARLES H. WESLEY.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Cf. Chapter XVII, Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, a History.
[2] President Fillmore in his last message to Congress proposed a plan
for Negro colonization and advocated its adoption. This part of his
message was suppressed on the advice of his cabinet; but even had this
not been done, there is no reason to suppose that the plan would have
been adopted. President Buchanan made arrangements with the
American Colonization Society for the transportation of a number of
slaves captured on the slaver, Echo, in 1858.
[3] Eulogy on Henry Clay, delivered in the State House at Springfield,
Illinois, July 16, 1852. The quotation here noted is taken from a speech
by Henry Clay before the American Colonization Society, 1827.
Lincoln continued: "If as friends of colonization hope, the present and
coming generations of our countrymen shall by any means succeed in
freeing our land from the dangerous presence of slavery, and at the
same time in restoring a captive people to their long lost fatherland
with bright prospects for the future, and this too so gradually that
neither races nor individuals shall have suffered by the change, it will
be a glorious consummation." The Works of Abraham Lincoln, Federal
Edition, edited by A.B. Lapsley, VIII, pp. 173-174.
[4] "The political creed of Abraham Lincoln embraced among other
tenets, a belief in the value and promise of colonization as one means
of solving the great race problem involved in the existence of slavery in
the United States.... Without being an enthusiast, Lincoln was a firm
believer in Colonization." Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln--A
History, VI, p. 354.
[5] Speech at Peoria, Ill., in reply to Douglas. Life and Works of
Abraham Lincoln, II, Early Speeches. Centenary Edition, edited by
M.M. Miller. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, October 16, 1854; p. 74.
[6] In the same speech, Lincoln said: "I have said that the separation of

the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation.... Such
separation, if ever effected at all, must be effected by Colonization."
The Works of Abraham Lincoln, Federal Edition, edited by A. B.
Lapsley, II, p. 306.
[7] Nicolay and Hay, Speeches, Letters and State Papers, Abraham
Lincoln, I, p. 235. Lincoln's Springfield Speech, June 26, 1857.
[8] Ibid., VI, p. 356.
[9] Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, VI, p. 54. First
Annual Message, December 3, 1861.
[10] Section XI of Act approved April 16, 1862.
[11] Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VI, p. 356. Act approved July
16, 1862.
[12] Raymond, Life, Public Services and State Papers, p. 504.
[13] Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VI, p. 357.
[14] Charles Sumner in a speech before a State Committee in
Massachusetts, said: "A voice from the west--God save the
west--revives the exploded theory of colonization, perhaps to divert
attention from the great question of equal rights. To that voice, I reply,
first, you ought not to do it, and secondly, you cannot do it. You ought
not to do it, because besides its intrinsic and fatal injustice, you will
deprive the country of what it most needs, which is labor. Those
freedmen on the spot are better than mineral wealth. Each is a mine, out
of which riches can be drawn, provided you let him share the product,
and through him that general industry will be established which is
better than anything but virtue, and is, indeed, a form of virtue. It is
vain to say that this is a white man's country. It is the country of man.
Whoever disowns any member of the human family as brother disowns
God as father, and thus becomes impious as well as inhuman. It is the
glory of republican institutions that they give practical form to this
irresistible principle. If anybody is to be sent away, let it be the guilty

and not the innocent."--Charles Sumner's Complete Works, XII,
Section 3, p. 334.
[15] Nicolay and Hay, Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, II, p. 205.
Nicolay and Hay, A History of Abraham Lincoln, VI, p. 356.
[16] Raymond, Life, Public Services and State Papers of Abraham
Lincoln, p. 504. Nicolay and Hay, Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln,
VIII, p. 1.
[17] Richardson, The Messages and Papers of the President,
1789-1897, p. 127. Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, VIII, p. 97.
[18] A section of the emancipation proclamation states that it is the
President's purpose upon the next meeting of Congress