They must blow out the moral lights around us and extinguish that
greatest torch of all which America presents to a benighted
world--pointing the way to their rights, their liberties, and their
happiness. And when they have achieved all those purposes their work will
be yet incomplete. They must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate the
light of reason and the love of liberty. Then, and not till then, when
universal darkness and despair prevail, can you perpetuate slavery and
repress all sympathy and all humane and benevolent efforts among free men
in behalf of the unhappy portion of our race doomed to bondage."
The American Colonization Society was organized in 1816. Mr. Clay, though
not its projector, was one of its earliest members; and he died, as for
many preceding years he had been, its president. It was one of the most
cherished objects of his direct care and consideration, and the
association of his name with it has probably been its very greatest
collateral support. He considered it no demerit in the society that it
tended to relieve the slave-holders from the troublesome presence of the
free negroes; but this was far from being its whole merit in his
estimation.
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