The President on African Colonization

August 22, 1862

The text of the President’s address, here cited, appears in the Refuge of Oppression column, but here is comment on it by the editor.  The occasion was when a group of colored citizens, invited by the President, listened to his proposition for their removal to Central America.  The paper calls it, “A spectacle, as humiliating as it was extraordinary…”  In regard to the address, the editor says:  “Can anything be more puerile, absurd, illogical, impertinent, untimely?   Will it not excite the derision and scorn, if not the astonishment, of all Europe?..”   The article then proceeds to comment on particulars of the address.

Comments are closed.