religious world, has, for more than half a century, held in thrall the conscience as well as the reason of Christendom. Robespierre, and other patrons of the Amis des Noirs, could only present a common cause, that “universal liberty” which they declared to be the birthright of all men, and which it were better that every conceivable calamity should happen rather than this “great principle” should perish; but when it became the duty of every Christian man and woman, every follower of Christ and professor of religion, to work and pray for “the deliverance of the slave,” then a power was aroused that nothing could resist, for it became an immediate and sacred duty to labor in this cause. Missionary societies were organized, money contributed by millions both in Europe and America, enthusiastic men and women offered their services, even children were taught to give their pocket-money 28for a cause so holy as that of redeeming the “slave,” while all this time innumerable multitudes of their own race, their own blood, those whom God had created their equals, and endowed with like capacities, instincts, and wants, and therefore designed for the same happiness as themselves, were left to grovel in midnight darkness and abject misery.

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Amis des Noirs

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It is not intended to sneer at or to indulge in unkind criticism on missionary efforts. On the contrary, it is frankly admitted that they sprang from the sincerest conviction, and were generally pursued with an utter disregard of selfish and mercenary considerations; but in not understanding the diversity of races, these efforts were more likely to do harm than good. A man’s first duties are to his own household; and no amount or extent of benefits conferred on strangers, can excuse him for neglecting the former; and even if the “heathen”—the Negro, Indian, and Sandwich Islander—had been benefited by the efforts of Wilberforce and his 

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