“There,” said he, “was a peculiar, a moral fitness, in restoring them to the land of their fathers, and if instead of the evils and sufferings which we had been the innocent cause of inflicting upon the inhabitants of Africa, we can transmit to her the blessings of our arts, our civilization, and our religion.  May we not hope that America will extinguish a great portion of that moral debt which she has contracted to that unfortunate continent?  Can there be a nobler cause than that which, whilst it proposes, &c * * * * * [you know what this means.] contemplates the spreading of the arts of civilized life, and the possible redemption from ignorance and barbarism of a benighted quarter of the globe?”

Before I proceed any further, I solicit your notice, brethren, to the foregoing part of Mr. Clay’s speech, in which he says, ([Hand->] look above)

     “and if, instead of the evils and sufferings, which we had
     been the innocent cause of inflicting,”

&c.  What this very learned statesman could have been thinking about, when he said in his speech, “we had been the innocent cause of inflicting,” etc., I have never been able to conceive.  Are Mr. Clay and the rest of the Americans, innocent of the blood and groans of our fathers and us, their children?  Every individual may plead innocence, if he pleases, but God will, before long, separate the innocent from the guilty, unless something is speedily done—­which I suppose will hardly be, so that their destruction may be sure.  Oh Americans! let me tell you, in the name of the Lord, it will be good for you, if you listen to the voice of the Holy Ghost, but if you do not you are ruined!!!!  Some of you are good men; but the will of my God must be done.  Those avaricious and ungodly tyrants among you, I am awfully afraid will drag down the vengeance of God upon you.—­When God Almighty commences his battle on the continent of America, for the oppression of his people, tyrants will wish they never were born.

But to return to Mr. Clay, whence I digressed.  He says,

“It was proper and necessary distinctly to state, that he understood it constituted no part of the object of this meeting, to touch or agitate in the slightest degree, a delicate question, connected with another portion of the coloured population of our country.  It was not proposed to deliberate upon or consider at all, any question of emancipation, or that which was connected with the abolition of slavery.  It was upon that condition alone, he was sure, that many gentlemen from the South and the West, whom he saw present, had attended, or could be expected to co-operate.  It was on that condition only, that he himself had attended.”

—­That is to say, to fix a plan to get those of the coloured people, who are said to be free, away from among those of our brethren whom they unjustly hold in bondage, so that they may be enabled to keep them the more secure in ignorance and wretchedness, to support them and their children, and consequently they would have the more obedient slaves.  For if the free are allowed to stay among the slaves, they will have intercourse together, and, of course, the free will learn the slaves bad habits, by teaching them that they are MEN, as well as other people, and certainly ought, and must be FREE.