Note 8 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
The sentiment of the Colonization Society, was expressed in the following resolution, embraced in its annual report of 1826:
"Resolved,—That the society disclaims, in the most unqualified terms, the design attributed to it, of interfering, on the one hand, with the legal rights and obligations of slavery; and, on the other, of perpetuating its existence within the limits of the country."
On another occasion Mr. Clay, on behalf of the society, defined its position thus:
"It protested, from the commencement, and throughout all its progress, and it now protests, that it entertains no purpose, on its own authority, or by its own means, to attempt emancipation, partial or general; that it knows the General Government has no constitutional power to achieve such an object; that it believes that the States, and the States only, which tolerate slavery, can accomplish the work of emancipation; and that it ought to be left to them exclusively, absolutely, and voluntarily, to decide the question."—Tenth Annual Report, p. 14, 1828.