Of the possibility of the deportation of the freedmen, a thoughtful
man will have many doubts. The shipment of the natural increase for
one year of our present slave population, sixty thousand, (60,000,)
would tax the energies and resources of the nation to an extent
which they who talk of it have not very fully measured. And then
the original 4,000,000 remain. To those who have been accustomed
to advocate the removal of the colored race from this country, we
recommend a matter-of-fact calculation in ships and money and time.
It will be both interesting and profitable; possibly it will impart
some new ideas on the matter. For ourselves, we may say that we
deem the proposition for the deportation of a race of four millions,
with a yearly increase of sixty thousand, a wild dream, one of the
emptiest that a sane man cares to entertain. The history of the
race has never known such a thing; it has seen the emigration of
millions, but the sending of them never.

But passing this, is the colonization of the colored race in
this country desirable or necessary? For the entering upon a work
so gigantic, even were it possible, there ought to be reasons the
most imperative, absolute, and pressing. Mere opinions, theories,
or prejudices, will not be sufficient; the demand for it must be
made to appear with sunlight clearness.

What are these reasons? To us it does not seem easy to exhibit
them. It is easy to declaim about the inferiority of the race, the
impossibility of their ever living on an equality with the white
race, their lack of ability to support themselves, and the like,
but in the end it is very difficult to perceive the logicals
consecutiveness of the argument. The inferiority of a race can
hardly be shown to be a valid reason for its banishment from the