This effort at colonizing so many Negroes in the State of Ohio led to much discussion.  There arose an anti-free Negro party which sounded the alarm against such philanthropy and undertook to frighten all blacks away.  The sentiment of such alarmists may be obtained from the following: 

“By the following letter from a gentleman on a tour through Virginia to the editor, it will appear that we are to have a colony of free negroes (no less than five hundred) planted in our adjoining county.  Much as we commiserate the situation of those who, when emancipated, are obliged to leave their country or again be enslaved, we trust our constitution and laws are not so defective as to suffer us to be overrun by such a wretched population: 

      “’Richmond, Va., May 10, 1819.

“’Dear Sir:—­Since my arrival in this county I have understood that a large family of negroes, consisting of about five hundred, have lately been liberated and are to be marched to Ohio, and there settled on land provided for them agreeably to the will of a Mr. Gess, who formerly owned them.  There are persons now engaged in collecting the poor miserable beings from different quarters and driving them like cattle to Goochland county, from whence they will take up their line of march to Ohio.  I am told that they are perhaps as depraved and ignorant a set of people as any of their kind and that their departure is hailed with joy by all those who have lived in their neighborhood.  Ohio will suffer seriously from the iniquitous policy pursued by the States of Virginia and Kent. in driving all their free negroes upon us.  The people of Ohio are bound in justice to themselves to adopt some counteracting measure.  Many people here are of the opinion that we may be compelled to introduce slavery in Ohio in self-defense, and they appear to be gratified that we are suffering many of the evils attending it, without (as they call it) any of the benefits.  I have been gratified to tell them what I believe to be true—­that nineteen twentieths of the people of Ohio are so opposed to slavery that they would not consent to its introduction under any circumstances; and, although they commiserate the situation of those who have been liberated and compelled to abandon their country or again be made slaves, yet in justice to themselves and their posterity they will refuse admittance to such a population.

      “’Your most ob’t., “‘A.  T.’

“(Editor) We understand from a respectable authority that 270 of said negroes have landed at Ripley and are to settle near the center of Brown county on White Oak, the residue of 500 to follow soon after.”—­Quillin’s “The Color Line in Ohio,” pp. 28-29 and The Supporter, Chillicothe, June 16, 1819.

In view of this alarm aroused by the so-called Negro invasion the Ohio colonizationists availed themselves of the opportunity to set forth their plan as the only solution of the problem.  The following articles are interesting.