15
Final Choice and Consequences.
for any indication of ill-breeding or want of urbanity on the part of the Liberians; and never have they failed to receive courtesy and outward respect from their white guests, whatever may have been the feelings of the latter under other circumstances. I say, this I have seen in Liberia—can you conceive that it will ever occur in America? But the society of Liberia admits of the same variety as elsewhere. You will there find people of all classes and grades, from the President in his chair of State, to the drunken vagabond in the street, or the felon within the walls of a jail. If you emigrate, it will rest mainly with yourselves as to what class you will be associated with. There, the highest position, either political or social, is not beyond your reach. Your destiny will be, in a great degree, in your own hands. You cannot there say you are oppressed and borne down by law or by a dominant race. If you sink, it will be by the weight of your own worthlessness, the want of energy and ability to keep yourselves up. As liberty brings its blessings, so also it brings responsibilities, and do not expect to enjoy the former and shun the latter.
I have thus in a brief and imperfect manner gone over the whole ground, and endeavored to be perfectly candid and impartial. I have avoided all high coloring, either true or false, and even refrained from speaking warmly, as I always feel, of the charms of the tropical world; and, I think, underrated many of the advantages attendant upon emigration, feeling strongly as I do the responsibility I assume. In fact I have never seen fit to advocate or advise this step, except for one cause, or on one sole ground, viz:—the advancement from a State of serfdom, of degradation, social and political, to that of Manhood and Freedom.—Were I a colored man, fully possessed, as I am, of all the facts of the case, no other cause would induce me to emigrate, or leave this country, but, that in view, nothing short of death itself should prevent my doing so.—In the first place, a desire for my own personal liberty would impel me, next, that of my family, then, duty to my race—and lastly, to assist in controlling the destinies of that mighty continent of millions of people, and make their power properly felt in the earth.
I put the case plainly and fairly to you. Go for such motives, the highest that can influence man for worldly good! Go and live, the saviours of yourselves, your families and your people! or take the other and only alternative, stay and enjoy a living death, condemn your posterity to a like degradation, and entail on them the curse of caste; stay, and confirm the bold assertions of your enemies, that, "The black man is only fit for a dependent state of existence—a serf and a slave."
Baltimore, December, 1858
