every delegate must declare himself in favor of it before hand, as a condition of taking his seat, is like the handle of the jug, all on one side."[78] James M. Whitfield, the Negro poet of America, came to the defense of his co-workers, he and Douglass continuing the literary duel for a number of weeks.  The convention was accordingly held.  In it there appeared three parties, one led by Doctor Delaney who desired to go to the Niger Valley in Africa, another by Whitfield, whose interests seemed to be in Central America, and a third by Holly who showed a preference for Haiti.  The leaders of these respective parties were commissioned to go to these various countries to do what they could in carrying out their schemes.[79] Holly went to Haiti and took up with the Minister of the Interior the question of admitting Negro emigrants from the United States.[80]

Among the colored people of the Northwest there appeared evidence of considerable interest in emigration.  This was especially true of Illinois and Indiana, from which commissioners had been sent out to spy the land.[81] This is evidenced too by the sentiment expressed by delegates attending the Cleveland Convention in 1854.  The next emigration convention was held at Chatham, Canada West, in 1856.  One of the important features of this meeting was the hearing the report of Holly who went to Haiti the previous year.  From this same meeting Martin R. Delaney proceeded on his mission to the Niger Valley in Africa.  There he concluded a treaty with eight African kings, offering inducements to Negroes to emigrate.  In the meantime James Redpath had gone to Haiti and accomplished some things that Holly failed to achieve.  He was appointed Haitian Commissioner of Emigration in the United States, with Holly as his co-worker.  They succeeded in sending to Haiti as many as two thousand emigrants, the first sailing in 1861.  Owing to their unpreparedness and the unfavorable climate, not more than one third of them remained.[82]

Considering the facts herein set forth we are compelled to say that the colonization movement was a failure.  Although it did finally interest a number of free Negroes their concern in it did not materialize on account of the outbreak of the Civil War occurring soon thereafter.  On the whole, the movement never appealed to a large number of intelligent free people of color.  With the exception of those who hoped to be especially benefited thereby, few leading Negroes dared to support the enterprise.  The most weighty evidence we can offer is statistics themselves.  The report of the Colonization Society shows that from 1820 to 1833 [83] only 2,885 colored persons had been sent out by the Society.  More than 2,700 of this number were taken from the slave States, and about two thirds of these were slaves manumitted on the condition of their emigrating.  Of the 7,836[84] sent out of the United States up to 1852, 2,720 were born free, 204 purchased their freedom, 3,868 were emancipated in view of removing them to Liberia, and 1,044 were liberated Africans sent out by the United States Government.  When we consider the fact that there were 434,495[85] free persons of color in the United States in 1850 and 488,070 in 1860, this element of the population had not been materially decreased by the efforts of the American Colonization Society.