"The humanity and philanthropy," he said, "which could not
otherwise be disposed of, was ingeniously seduced into an African
Colonization Society, whereby all slaves who had grown seditious and
troublesome to their masters could be transplanted on the pestiferous
African coast. That this wretched and seemingly transparent humbug could
have deluded anybody, must now seem past belief; but I must with shame
confess the fact that I for one was deluded by it. And that fact would
put me in doubt of my own sanity at the time if I did not know that high
statesmen, presidents of colleges, able editors, and that most undoubted
of firm philanthropists, Gerritt Smith, shared the same delusion. Bible
and missionary societies fellowshipped that mean and scurvy device of
the kidnapper, in their holy work. It was spoken of as the most glorious
of Christian enterprises, had a monthly magazine devoted to itself, and
taxed about every pulpit in the land for an annual sermon in its favor."
Such was the Colonization Society, and its entrenched strength in the
piety and philanthropy of the country at the moment when Garrison
published his "Thoughts." It did not seem possible that a single arm
however powerful, was able to start its roots; but, directly upon the
launching of this bolt, the roots of the Bohun Upas, as Garrison
graphically designated the society, were seen to have started, and the
enterprise appeared blasted as by fire.
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