The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 7.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

‘ [18] all intention of interfering, in the smallest degree, with the rights of property, or the object of emancipation, gradual or immediate.’... ‘The society presents to the American public no project of emancipation.’¹

‘The emancipation of slaves or the amelioration of their condition, with the moral, intellectual, and political improvement of people of color within the United States, are subjects foreign to the powers of this society.’²

‘The society, as a society, recognizes no principles in reference to the slave system. It says nothing, and proposes to do nothing, respecting it.’... ‘So far as we can ascertain, the supporters of the colonization policy generally believe that slavery is in this country a constitutional and legitimate system, which they have no inclination, interest, nor ability to disturb.’³

3. It regards God's rational creatures as property.

Proof. ‘We hold their slaves, as we hold their other property, sacred.’⁴

‘It is equally plain and undeniable that the society, in the prosecution of this work, has never interfered or evinced even a disposition to interfere in any way with the rights of proprietors of slaves.’⁵