VI. HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE OF COLONIZATION.
Colonization has come to be looked upon with unmerited indifference - with an apathy which its history and achievements surely do not deserve. To some, perhaps the present condition of the Republic seems a discouraging and inadequate return for the life and treasure lavished upon it; for others, hoping for a bloodless and gradual extinction of slavery, the Civil War carried away the chief element of interest. Others still, who looked for a ready solution of the Negro Problem in this country, have gradually lost heart in the face of the increasing millions of the race. And so, some from one cause, some from another, have lost interest in colonization and in Liberia, until a time has come when few have more than the vaguest knowledge of these terms. Sometimes the voice of contempt is heard; but this is always a proof of ignorance. Liberia stands forth historically as the embodiment of a number of ideas, efforts, principles, any one of which ought to secure at the least our respect, if not our sympathy and enthusiasm.