Autographs
Historic “James Madison” Signed Black History Related “AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY” Certificate
JAMES MADISON (1751-1836). 4th President of the United States (1809–1817), hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being instrumental in the Drafting of the United States Constitution and as the Key Champion and Author of the United States Bill of Rights. He served as a Politician much of his adult life. A Virginia Statesmen and President of the Slave “Colonization Society,” he was a Slaveholder at his inherited plantation known as Montpelier, and owned Hundreds of Slaves during his lifetime to cultivate tobacco and other crops.
Extremely Rare and Important, Partially-Printed Document, Signed “James Madison,” at Washington (DC), 1 page, measuring 7” x 10.25”, no date, unaccomplished, Copper-Plate Engraved Decorative Membership Certificate, by “Henry Stone, sculp.” (in printed text at bottom center), Very Fine. An uncommon Membership Certificate, this uncompleted blank form being Signed in advance by the Society's President, “James Madison” conferring a Life Membership in the controversial American Colonization Society (officially known as the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States). Well printed in black on period wove paper that has been laid down on a slightly larger sheet for prior display, small .5” edge tear and corner tip replaced at the lower left, having overall even age tone, the signature “James Madison” is quite bold. This official Membership Certificate showing the sun's rays shining from the clouds, across which is the bold legend "Office of the COLONIZATION SOCIETY - Washington". The Society's circular emblem is shown in a central oval at bottom center, illustrating a vignette of a Ship Sailing to “LIBERIA” with Latin motto, "Lex in Tenebris" which translates as, “Light Amid Darkness.” The emblem is flanked by sheaves of banana and palm leaves. James Madison Signs in deep rich brown ink at lower right. According to the Library of Congress the selling Life Memberships was a standard fundraising practice. In 1825, at a price of Thirty Dollars per Membership Certificate, not less than Fifty Thousand Dollars was raised in this way.

Only in 1964 did America finally fully reject the idea of separatism in favor of full legal equality. In that year Congress passed, and President Lyndon Johnson signed into law landmark Civil Rights legislation; and the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States finally dissolved its charter. Fully Signed Membership Certificates from the American Colonization Society are rare. Only about four have appeared at auction in the last 30 years.
The American Colonization Society's mission was to remove Free Blacks from the United States and to relocate them to the African Colony of Liberia. James Madison, along with Bushrod Washington, James Monroe, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Andrew Jackson and Francis Scott Key, all were among the historical luminaries who lent their names to this enterprise.

The highly animating idea and theory behind it, that Whites and Free Blacks could never live together in peace, long predated the Society's creation in 1816. Thomas Jefferson actually urged the removal of Blacks when he wrote his, “Notes on the State of Virginia” in 1782, stating, in part: "Deep-rooted prejudices entertained by the Whites; ten thousand recollections, by the Blacks, of the injuries they have sustained... will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions, which will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other race." Another example was, "THE TWO RACES CANNOT COEXIST" (by James Madison).

Jefferson's disciple in this concept, as in so many other things, James Madison also believed that "the two races cannot coexist, both being free and equal. The great sina qua non, therefore, is some external asylum for the coloured race" (Ketchum, James Madison, page 628). With a $100,000 bequest from Congress, the first boat load of settlers arrived in 1822. Most fell victim to diseases within months of their arrival. Only about 2,600 Blacks made the journey over the next decade. No more than 15,000 did so over the entire life of the Society.

Most of the members were Slave owners from the upper South, like Madison and Clay. Jefferson realized that colonization would never work. "We cannot get rid of them this way," he said. Yet this strange idea persisted. Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Grant would briefly toy with colonization schemes during their own presidencies.