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Hon. ELISHA WHITTLESEY, Trumbull and Portage Co. Ohio.
Hon. W. M'LEAN, Piqua and Troy Counties, Ohio.
Hon. JOHN WURTS, Auxiliary C. S. of Pennsylvania.
Hon. J. LAWRENCE, Washington County, Pennsylvania.
Hon. J. S. STEVENSON, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

Mr. CLAY then resigned the Chair to the Hon. R. RUSH, another of the Vice Presidents of the Society.

The following resolutions, submitted at the meeting on the 15th inst. and which were adopted on that occasion, were read:

By Hon. S. VAN RENSSELAER,

"Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be given to the Board of Managers, for their unremitted attention to its objects during the year, and for the Report just read, and that they be requested to print the same."

By Hon. Mr. WEEMS:

"Resolved, That the thanks of this Society be presented to the various Auxiliary Associations, who, during the last year, have given their aid to its objects, and that they be respectfully and earnestly invited to co-operate still further, in accomplishing the design of the Institution."

The following resolution offered by the Hon. Mr. POWELL, of Virginia, at the meeting on Saturday, the 15th inst. was then considered and adopted:

[When offering this resolution, Mr. POWELL had borne testimony to a great change in his opinion of the Society. He said he had at first looked upon it as calculated to produce evil instead of good. He did not think it necessary to explain the manner in which the change had been effected; but he now felt convinced that this Society promised to be the instrument of great and beneficial results.]

"Resolved, That this Society has viewed with pleasure the formation of Auxiliary State Societies in several of the States of this Union, with subordinate Associations in the Counties of those States, and express the hope that a similar system may be adopt ed, as far as practicable, in all the States."

On motion of the Hon. Mr. LAWRENCE, it was

Resolved, That the thanks of this Society be presented to the Rev. Clergy, of all denominations, for the warm interest evinced on their part in the objects it has in view, and that they be respectfully and earnestly requested to take up collections for its aid, on the next Anniversary of our National Independence.

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Rev. WM. HAWLEY, Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, submitted the following preamble and resolution:

Whereas, some of the Masonic Lodges of our country, in the exercise of that charity which so pre-eminently distinguishes the Institution of Free Masonry, have generously come forward and liberally contributed to the funds of the American Colonization Society: Therefore,

Resolved, That the thanks of this Society be presented to those Lodges that have already commenced the benevolent work of aiding this Society, in not only providing an asylum for the Free People of Colour in Africa, but also of greatly contributing to the abolition of the inhuman Slave Trade, and the introduction of Christianity and Civilization into that wretched and benighted land; and that other Masonic Institutions, and the fraternity generally, throughout the United States, be invited to co-operate in this important, patriotic, and truly benevolent object.

Mr. KNAPP, of Boston, Mass. then rose and addressed the meeting. He said that he was induced to second the motion, believing that, if it were carried into effect, it would be of great benefit to the Society. During the last season, an agent of this Society travelled into that part of the country in which he (Mr. K.) resided, with the design of diffusing there a knowledge of the objects of the Society, and of invoking assistance from the benevolent and patriotic. By the means of the pulpit and the press, the agent called the attention of the community to this great concern. To al most all, it was a novel subject. True, it had been heard of through the pub. lic prints; yet, its objects and progress were not known, and the people were generally ignorant of the principles upon which it was founded. The agent pursued his labours with zeal and assiduity, aided by the few who had conceived just notions of the benevolent project; and there were some who were ready with their voices and with their purses to advance it, convinced that the Society were labouring in the cause of humanity; but with the great mass of the people, time and deliberation were required, before they could be enlisted in the good cause. Among the many means adopted by the friends of this Society in New England, for the attainment of their objects, one was an application to the Masonic Lodges. Mr. K. said he was a member of the fraternity, and with his brethren, was desirous that the subject should be considered in all its bearings, before any effective steps should be taken, and that this deliberation should be had without bias or prejudice; for Ma sons, although ever anxious to do good whenever a fair opportunity offered itself, yet, were not infected with that sickly sensibility which is forever painting in odious colours the horrors of negro slavery; crying up a crusade against the holders of slaves, and ready to oppose them in any way, without looking behind them or before for example or argument. They did deliberate. They considered the past and the present, and cast many an inquiring

glance into the darkened mists of the future. They knew that, at one period, slavery existed throughout the whole of the thirteen States of our early Confederacy: they knew that where slavery had been abolished it had operated to the advantage of the masters, not of the slaves: they saw this fact most strikingly illustrated in the case of the free negroes of Boston. If, on the anniversary celebrated by the Free People of Colour, of the day on which slavery was abolished, they looked abroad, what did they see? Not freemen, in the enjoyment of every attribute of freedom, with the stamp of liberty upon their brows! No, sir; they saw a ragged set, crying out liberty! for whom liberty had nothing to bestow, and whose enjoyment of it was but in name. He spoke of the great body of the blacks; there were some few honourable exceptions, he knew, which only proved what might be done for all.

What then was to be done? They saw that a great, a formidable evil existed; they knew something should be done; but how to attack that evil, how to act at once with propriety and effect, were the questions. They knew that the feelings of the South were to be regarded. At the East, they hated slavery; but they loved union and harmony more; nor did they desire to compromise the latter in their endeavours to remove the former; and in any efforts to ameliorate the condition of the degraded African, they did sincerely desire that the rights and feelings of all might be regarded-and that no infringe. ment of the social compact should be involved; they wished even more that no suspicion of such an infringement should be entertained, fully sensible of the delicacy of the subject. Under these circumstances, the fraternity stopped to inquire and to deliberate; and he was made the humble instrument of that inquiry. And, sir, (said Mr. K.) I must candidly say that my prejudices were strong, but my inquiry terminated in the most satisfactory conviction, not only that the objects of this Society were wise and benevolent, but that they were even worthy of the assistance of the citizens of the South, as well as other parts of the country, to whom they promised vast benefits; and although a few individuals of the South may entertain suspicions, I trust that they will all ultimately be dispelled. I looked upon the many evils of slavery with the aversion of a freeman; but I saw also that the evils were not confined to those who are virtually slaves. I saw that to those persons on whom circumstances had bestowed freedom, it operated as a curse, when they had not the means of obtaining knowledge, and of giving scope to the talents God had given them by nature. Take the greater part of those who had received their freedom by clemency, policy, or accident, or were born free, what did they know of freedom? What sense had they of its blessings? They were still, whilst in its nominal enjoyment, the same despised, degraded beings. Ignorance was their's from infancy: they had no social or political relations in the communi ty-of which they were not members, but excrescences-thrown from a state of dependence and submission, abroad upon society; standing forth in odious distinctness from those who would not acknowledge them as fellow citizens without a root in the soil from which they sprung, their liberty was statutory, and looked well in the volume of laws, and in the code of the rights of man; but it was without essence and worthless, because it was without knowledge. It is sometimes said by the desponding, that slavery is too great an evil ever to be remedied. The civilized world, or the European part of it, once made the struggle, and after centuries of religious exertion, succeeded. For two hundred years slavery had been abolished in most of the nations which professed the Christian religion, when the Portuguese commenced the accursed traffic again, to assist their numerous colonies. France and England had not moral energy enough to refrain, but followed the example to meet their rivals in the sugar and coffee market. It was no part of the calculations of our progenitors to cultivate the lands by slaves. The first were driven on our soil by accident, and in an evil hour, the indolence of the people prevailed over their sense of justice. The magnitude of the evil was not foreseen at that moment. In my opinion, it may be cured in less time than it has been growing up. Open once the facilities of emigration-show an object for it, and like any other business, it will increase to any extent we may wish. The na tural world has yielded her impossibilities, as they were thought, to the efforts of enlightened man. Why should not he be as successful in the moral? A fair and permanent road is now built over the Alps, the passage of which was once considered as sufficient to give immortality to the successful adventurer. Inveterate diseases have yielded to skill and perseverance; political evils are vanishing before the statesman and economist; and why should the task this Society have undertaken, be held in greater dread than others?

Sir, this Society has grown up from the immediate spot where these evils most abound-from the slave holding States. The originators of this Society saw the danger of this growing ill, and enquired how it might be alleviated at the present, and obliterated by degrees. They looked around them with the humane endeavour to find a place where the liberty of the African might be real-where it might be no longer the emptiest of mockeries: for what is freedom without the emancipation of intellect? Where should this holy spot be found? What land should give freedom to this degraded race? They could not hope to fix a colony in America. We wanted no nation of blacks here; and had they been fixed on some of our uncultivated lands of the remote West, they would have been in danger from red men and white. They would be distant from either, and abused by both. This was first thought of by some; but those who saw how rapidly the Western regions were filling up with a white population, wisely argued that it would not do to send the colony there. The Society then turned their eyes upon Africa. And where should they fix the place of African regeneration, but in Africa? To many, the very name of Africa conveys an idea of indistinct horror; in the imagination, that word is often associated with all that is fearful in nature. It implies endless forests, into which man never penetrated; vast deserts, whose sands are eternally tossed by the whirlwind; sweeping torrents, spreading devasta. tion, poisonous serpents, darting upon the venturous traveller; furious beasts, and every wild and formidable terror.

But, sir, this is entirely a fallacy. Africa is the only continent which derives its name from itself-from the character of its soil and climate. The word implies a horn of plenty, or an ear of corn; and Africa is the most fertile country on the globe. It has more sea coast than any other of the continents of the Eastern Hemisphere. Its climate affords every delicacy which nature produces; there was not a luxury on the table of a Roman epicure, which Africa did not yield. The coffee, the tea plant, and the sugar cane, find there a congenial soil, and yield rich harvests; and that the soil will produce grain in abundance, is not to be doubted. It is an established rule of nature, that where man exists, that which is necessary for his support shall be pro

duced.

It had been said that establishing this Colonization Society was merely a method adopted to get rid of these People, and that as such it would doubt. less succeed, as they would go to Africa and die, and thus the object would be effected; but this is opposed to philosophy and experience; for it is a gen eral rule, that every climate to which man becomes acclimated, is equally healthy. And, for proof of the nature of an African climate, witness the bones and muscles, and the hardy frames of the natives. Why then, it may be asked, cannot this Colony support itself, if it is so well situated as to soil and climate? I believe, the history of man shows us no instance, in which an early Colony supported itself. How was it with the two great Colonies of this country? Did they support themselves? Did Jamestown go on in its early period, without assistance? No, sir;-that great State, which has produced so many Statesmen and Orators, was in its incipient stages, sustained, and, I may say, established, by courtesy: for, it will be remembered, that the Government of England granted a lottery for the benefit of the Colonists; and, without that aid, notwithstanding the bravery of Smith, and the constant perseverance of the settlers, they must have failed in their endeavors to found a great and wealthy State. I will now come nearer home, and consider the condition of the fathers of New England. The feeble Colonists of Plymouth could never have sustained themselves without other aid than their own. They never could have braved, with success, the perils of their early settlement, unassisted. And this leads me again to speak of the effect of climate upon the first Colonists of a new country. Where were the first settlers of Jamestown before the four seasons had rolled over their new habi tations? They were in their graves. And most of those persecuted men, who first stood upon the rock of Plymouth, were numbered with the dead, ere the next December's sun shone sickly upon the iron bound coast.

Those early Colonists were a sacrifice to publis good. They were destined to make way for other offerings on the altar of enterprize. This is not unusual. The history of all times is full of instances. A thousand causes which might be mentioned, lead to it; privations, over exertions, and want of a thorough knowledge of the climate, are among them. Other reasons come to us in a formal array against the endeavour to plant a Colony in Africa. It is said, that the mind of the people of Nigritia and other parts of Africa is

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