LIBRARY 
 
 ©ludlogical ^fmiuary, 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J 
 No. Case, 
 
 No. Shelf, 
 
 No. Book, 
 
 
 
 
 . w.*. the Rev. W. B. SPRAGUE, D.D. Sept. 1839. 
 
 > 0 ^ 
 
 
 B^^gue C^lleefion* Vol- ^ ^ ^ 
 
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 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 . 
 
 
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 https://archive.org/details/africancolonizat00newy_2 
 

 9 
 
 PROCEEDINGS, 
 
 ON TDE 
 
 J 
 
 FORMATION OF THE NEW-YORK 
 
 - . 
 
 STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY ; 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 AN ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC, 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 MANAGERS THEREOF. 
 
 9 
 
 ALBANY: 
 
 PRINTED BY WEBSTERS AND BKINNERS, 
 

 Form of a Constitution for an Auxiliary Society, 
 
 1st. This Society shall be called , and shall be 
 
 auxiliary to the New-York State Colonization Society. 
 
 2d. The object to which it shall be exclusively devoted, shall be 
 to aid the parent Institution at Washington, in the colonization of 
 the Free People of Colour of the United States on the coast of Afri- 
 ca — and to do this not only by the contribution of money, but by 
 the exertion of its influence to promote the formation of other So- 
 cieties. 
 
 3d. An annual subscription of shall constitute an in- 
 
 dividual a member of this Society ; and the payment, at any one 
 time, of a member for life. 
 
 4th. The oflicers of this Society shall be a President, Vice- 
 
 Presidents, and INIanagers ; Secretary and Treasurer, to 
 
 be elected annually by the Society. 
 
 5th. The President, Vice-Presidents, Secretary and Treasurer, 
 shall be ex-officio members of the Board of Managers. 
 
 6th. The Board of ^Managers shall meet to transact the busi- 
 ness of the Society . 
 
 7th. The Treasurer shall keep the accounts of the Society, as 
 well as take charge of its funds, and hold them subject to an order 
 of the Board of Managers. 
 
 8th. The Secretary of the Society, shall conduct the correspon- 
 dence, under the direction of the Board of Managers, both with 
 the State and other Societies. 
 
AFRICAN COLONIZATION. 
 
 — 
 
 At a meeting of citizens from different parts of the State of 
 A^ew-York, held at the session room, in Beaver-street, in the city 
 of Albany, on the 9th day of April, 1829, Col. Elisha Jenkins, 
 of the county of Columbia, was called to iJie chair, and James O. 
 Morse, of Otsego, \vas appointed Secretary. 
 
 The objects of the meeting were briefly stated by Mr. B. P. 
 Johnson, of Oneida, and a committee, consisting of John T. Nor- 
 ton and Benjamin F. Butler, of Albany; Benjamin P. Johnson, 
 of Oneida ; Walter Hubbell, of Ontario ; John E. Hyde, of AW- 
 York, and Duncan M’Martin, Jr. of Montgomery, were appointed 
 to make the necessary arrangements for the organization of a 
 State Colonization Society. Credentials of delegates from Utica, 
 Lowville, Whitesborough, New-York, Canaan, Coluniliia county, 
 and Canandaigua, were presented. 
 
 Adjourned to meet at the Capitol on Saturday, the 11th of April 
 instant, at three o’clock in the afternoon. 
 
 Saturday^ Jipril 11, 1829. 
 
 The meeting again assembled, in the Senate chamber. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Nott, President of Union College, offered th® 
 following resolution. 
 
 Resolved, That the objects of the American Colonization Socie- 
 ty merit the aid of all the friends of our country ; of Africa ; and 
 of the human race : that its past success in the great experiments 
 which it has been making, warrants the expectation, that these im- 
 portant objects will at no very distant period, be accomplished ; 
 and that therefore, this meeting proceed to organize a State Socie- 
 ty, which will promote the views, and aid the efforts of this excel- 
 lent institution. 
 
 In support of this resolution, Dr. N^ott said, that whatever 
 motives might have led to the formation of the National Coloniza- 
 tion Society, its' present claims to public patronage could only be 
 measured by its promise of future benefits. Like those other 
 plans of magnanimity and mercy, which, in this age of adventur- 
 ous enterprize, have been brought in such rapid succession before 
 the public eye, this must stand upon its own peculiar merits — 
 
4 
 
 and the previous questions for decision are, “ Is it practicable ? 
 and if practicable, expedient ? 
 
 Is it then practicable ? Here, doubtless, experience is the wisest 
 counsellor and the safest guide. What has been done, and done 
 often, can again be done. How stands the balance of probabili- 
 ties, in the ascertained issues of kindred enterprizes, as they are 
 found recorded on the pages of authentic history ? 
 
 But, not to insist on this ; to say nothing of Greece civilized 
 by colonies from Egypt ; of Italy, by colonies from Greece ; and 
 of Europe, by colonies from Italy ; the rising and the risen repub- 
 lics of America stand forth before our eyes, impressive monuments 
 of what colonization can effect in climes more remote, and amid 
 circumstances less auspicious, than even distant and tropical Afri- 
 ca now presents. Whatever conjectural arguments may have 
 been urged against the possibility of planting colonies in Africa, 
 it is too late to repeat them now. Colonies have already been 
 planted there ; one by British, another by American, philanthropy. 
 The name of Sierra Leone is as familiar as it is dear to the friends 
 of humanity. 
 
 Much must, doubtless, be done and suffered, before the colony 
 at Montserado will have attained the same celebrity. Nor is it 
 to be concealed that much has already been done and suffered, in 
 creating, and merely sustaining it in being. Its history is brief ; 
 and, till lately, it has been a history of woes. Houseless and 
 unsheltered, the colonists have had to contend with heat and rain, 
 and war and pestilence. And yet, from these combined causes, 
 the amount of suffering and the Avaste of life, have been less at 
 Montserado than at Plymouth, that sacred locality where the pil- 
 grims landed, and to which the children of the pilgrims from their 
 ten thousand places of joyous habitations, still look back with so 
 many tender and grateful recollections. Ah ! had those pioneers 
 of civilization, in this new world, a moiety of whose numbers per- 
 ished during the rigors of the first New-England winter, been dis- 
 heartened ; or, had those friends, whence succors were derived, 
 been disheartened ; how different had been the fame acquired for 
 themselves — how different the inheritance bequeathed to their chil- 
 dren ? Neither the climate nor the natives of Africa are so terrible 
 to the Negro now, as the climate and the natives of New-England 
 were to the Briton then. And if, with all this odds against them, 
 a lodgement was made aiid maintained in the one, can tliere be a 
 
5 
 
 doubt whether, a lodgement having been made, it can be main- 
 tained in the other ? There can be none. If the enterprize be 
 worth executing, it can be executed. And the only remaining 
 question is “ cui hono^^ ? for whose benefit it is to be undertaken, 
 and will the execution compensate for the blood and treasure it 
 must cost ? 
 
 That the millions of Africa, especially that part of it with 
 which this discussion is concerned, are ignorant, degraded, and 
 wretched, needs no proof. And are they to continue thus for 
 ever ? Not surely, if revelation be true, and God merciful. But 
 how is a change in their condition to be produced'? We have 
 heard of nations sinking into barbarism by their own inertia, but 
 never of their having thus arisen therefrom. So far as history 
 reaches, at least, barbarians have been civilized, and only civilized 
 by the influence of those who were not barbarians. In effecting 
 the elevation of a degraded nation, a nation already elevated sup- 
 plies to the philanthropist what Archimedes wanted — a fulcrum 
 on which to plant his lever, that he might raise the world. If it 
 be not quite impossible, it must, since it has never once occurred 
 during the lapse of six thousand years, at least be difficult, for a 
 nation utterly debased to renovate itself. Vicious habits acquired 
 and institutions established, tend to perpetuate themselves ; and, 
 if permitted to take their course, must be of long continuance, if 
 not literally eternal. But, besides the causes that bar the pro- 
 gress of other barbarians, the progress of Africa is barred by an 
 additional cause. To Africa, the Slave Trade is a distinctive and 
 special curse. While this continues, her doom is fixed. It is not 
 in man to task himself to great and continued exertion in a coun- 
 try where he is liable every moment to be seized and consigned to 
 slavery. 
 
 It is not by legal arguments, or penal statutes, or armed ships, 
 that this accursed traffic can be prevented. Almost every power 
 
 in Christendom has denounced it. It has been declared felony 
 
 it has been declared piracy ; and the fleets of Britain and America 
 have been commissioned to drive it from the ocean. Still, in de- 
 fiance of all this array of legislation and of armament, slave ships 
 ride triumphant on the ocean ; and in these floating caverns, less 
 terrible only than the caverns which demons occupy, from sixty to 
 eighty thousand wretches, received pinioned from the coast of 
 Africa, are borne annually away to slavery or death. Of these 
 
6 
 
 wretches a frightful number are, with an audacity that amazes, 
 landed and disposed of within the jurisdiction of this republic. 
 
 It is not by the blockade of her ports, but by the circumvalla- 
 tion of her coasts, that Africa can be shielded against either the 
 insinuation or the assault of that remorseless passion, the sacra 
 fames atiri,” that has for centuries rendered her habitations in- 
 secure, and her fields desolate. To afibrd an adequate protection, 
 a mighty barrier must every where be raised betw'een the oppres- 
 sor and the oppressed ; a barrier neither of woodwork, nor of ma- 
 sonry, but of muscle and sinew : a muscle and sinew that is in- 
 compatible with slavery, and can neither be bought nor sold. 
 
 This frightful scourge of Africa has ceased in the vicinity of 
 Sierra Leone. It will soon have ceased at Montserado, as it 
 will elsewhere, as other colonies are planted, and other watch- 
 towers of freedom arise. 
 
 The points thus defended along the coast, will be so many radi- 
 ant points to the interior. And in the view of this double effi- 
 ciency of the colonists, who can calculate the ultimate result ? The 
 tribes contiguous can hardly fail to learn from them something of 
 arts, of science, and of religion ; or to impart w^hat they have 
 learned to tribes more remote. And thus those humble and noise- 
 less emigrants, who are now erecting their dw'ellings, and enclos- 
 ing their fields, and w ho have already given to the little locality 
 they occupy an air of cleanliness and comfort, as novel as delight- 
 ful in that desert region, may be founding, imperceptibly, an empire 
 destined to be the centre of an enduring and mighty influence : an 
 influence that shall change the habitudes of man as w’ell as the as- 
 pect of nature ; and that shall one day be felt alike along the val- 
 leys of the Senegal and the Nile, and from the ridge of Lupata to 
 the foot of Atlas. Who knows that the landing at the Cape of 
 Montserado, will not be as pregnant of consequences as that at the 
 rock of Plymouth ? Or that Africa thus excited, will not, centuries 
 hence^ exhibit as busy an industry, send forth as rich a commerce, 
 and raise as joyful and as holy a note of praise, as either America 
 or Europe ? 
 
 But it is not Africa alone that is to be affected by the destiny of 
 Africa. The empire of man is one ; and all its provinces are re- 
 lated. By intercourse a reciprocity of benefits is conferred. Nor 
 to either will the measure of national prosperity be full, till the re- 
 sources of all have been developed. 
 
7 
 
 But what does Africa contribute to the science, or the virtue, 
 or even the wealth of nations ?- In visiting more distant Asia, 
 merchantmen traverse her coast ; bat unless freighted with fet- 
 ters and commissioned to traffic in blood, they merely traverse it. 
 
 There are individual houses in London, the failure of which 
 would affect the prosperity of millions, and produce a train of 
 evils that would be felt on both the continents ; but if the whole of 
 Western and Southern Africa were sunk, the arts, the science, 
 and the commerce of the world would remain untouched : nor 
 would the space thus occupied, vast as it is, be missed, unless as 
 a beacon, by the mariner as he crossed the ocean. Unproductive 
 Africa is already indebted to the world for long arreai*s. Her 
 mountains and plains, her hills and vallies, her rivers and lakes 
 were never created to lie waste and desolate. Nor is it by the act 
 of God, but of man, that this vast populous domain has been ren- 
 dered valueless. 
 
 This is not mere idle speculation. There has been exported 
 from Sierra Leone alone, in a single year, a greater amount of 
 value, since the abolition of the slave trade, than was exported in 
 the same period, from the whole Western coast of Africa anterior 
 to that event. What then might not be expected, if the change of 
 condition that has taken place in this one locality, were to become 
 universal ? Were the slave trade every where abolished, and the 
 African race for ever relieved from the paralyzing apprehension of 
 treachery and violence ; were Africa throughout regenerated, and 
 arts and science, and religion introduced through all the terra in- 
 cognita of her vast interior ; were her soil cultivated, her mines 
 worked, her water-power rendered productive, and the agency of 
 wind and steam employed in her workshops, and on her waters ; 
 were her gold and her ivory, her sandal-wood and her gums, her 
 dies and her drugs, with all the rich and the varied produce of her 
 now forsaken fields, and impenetrable forests, poured down along 
 the many tributary streams into the Nile, the Niger, the Senegal 
 and the Gambia, and thence sent forward in rich abundance to the 
 mart of nations ; w’hat a vast accession would be made to the 
 comfort and riches, and what an impulse given to the enterprise 
 and commerce of the world ! Could such a result be produced by 
 the expenditure of millions, economy, as well as philanthropy, 
 would sanction the expenditure. To have a fourth of the soil of 
 the earth uncultivated or badly cultivated, to have a fifth of the hu- 
 
8 
 
 man race unemployed, or employed uselessly, is a mighty draw- 
 back oa the thrift and prosperity of the residue, to which neither 
 the philanthropist nor the economist can ever be reconciled. Were 
 Europe suddenly sunk to the condition of Africa, how great would 
 be our loss ! 8o great would be our gain, were Africa suddenly 
 raised to the condition of Europe. Nations, like individuals, are 
 to each other reciprocally consumers and producers ; and the more 
 numerous and the more wealthy the customers of each become, 
 the greater the benefit that accrues to all. 
 
 But if it would be policy in other nations to encourage coloniza- 
 tion in Africa, how much more so in us ? Many and great as were 
 the blessings conferred by our national independence, there exists 
 among us one class on whom that event has conferred no benefits. 
 1 allude to our citizens of colour. Citizens whom freedom has 
 rendered only more wretched and debased. It probably was ex- 
 pected that the mere striking off the chains from these bondmen 
 would remove their disability and restore them to society. Time 
 has for ever dissipated that illusion. Statutes have failed either 
 to change the complexion, or to quicken the intellect. Apart from 
 the fact of previous bondage, nature had interposed a barrier which 
 they could not surmount, nor we demolish. 
 
 Hence, and notwithstanding all the immunities and privileges 
 that legal enactments could confer, they remain among us an out- 
 cast and isolated race ; shunned at least, if not contemned and 
 despised. They may be met as convicts in penitentiaries and 
 prisons ; they may be met as menials in stables and kitchens ; but 
 excluded from the parlor of fashion and the hall of science, they 
 are no where met, not even in the temple of grace, as equals and 
 companions. All the incentives to exertion and enterprise are re- 
 moved from them ; all the avenues to wealth and honor are barred 
 against them. Degraded themselves, they degrade the very la- 
 bor which they perform ; and hence it is tliat temperance and 
 honesty are well nigh banished from the vocation which they fol- 
 low. And yet it is not inferiority of faculties, but the force of con- 
 dition, that has produced this degradation. 
 
 Recent events in a neighboring republic evince that the Afri- 
 can race are capable of as intuitive a perception, as sublime an 
 energy, and as dauntless a fortitude, as the residue of the species, 
 and that they only require a theatre of action, and motive to act, 
 to wipe away the reproach so long and so undeservedly cast upon 
 
9 
 
 I them. With us they have been degraded by slavery, and still fur- 
 ther degraded by the mockery of nominal freedom. We have en- 
 deavored, but endeavored in vain, to restore them either to self- 
 respect, or to the respect of others. It is not our fault that we 
 have failed ; it is not theirs. It has resulted from a cause over 
 which neither they, nor we, can ever have control. Here, there- 
 fore, they must be for ever debased : more than this, they must be 
 for ever useless ; more even than this, they must be for ever 
 a nuisance, from which it were a blessing for society to be 
 rid. And yet they, and they only, are qualified for colonizing 
 Africa. Africa is their country. In colour, in constitution, in 
 habitude, they are suited to its climate. There they may be bless- 
 ed, and be a blessing. Here they can be neither. Benevolence, 
 patriotism, self-interest, all pronounce alike on the expediency of _ 
 their removing. Let us then in mercy to them, in mercy to our- 
 selves, and in mercy to Africa, favor and facilitate their removal. 
 
 Here we might rest the argument. But the population of whom 
 we have been speaking is not the only population among us to 
 whom its conclusivencss applies. 
 
 Strange that it should be so, yet so it is, in this land of freedom 
 slavery exists, and freemen are attended and served by slaves. 
 This only institution of tyranny is a curse engendered in other 
 times, and under a different form of government. Still it is a 
 curse not the less real, or the less grievous, on that account : a 
 curse that has grown with our growth, and strengthened with our 
 strength, till it threatens, if not the being, at least the well-being 
 of our republic. 
 
 I am aware that our domestic slavery is considered by many as 
 merely a local evil ; and that it has become fashionable to think, 
 and speak of it, as though we at the IVorth were no way injplicated 
 in its guilt, or liable to be afiected by that ultimate \engranc9 it 
 threatens to inflict. Is it then forgotten that slavery was once le- 
 galized in New'England ; or is it unknown that, till recently, it 
 was legalized in New-York ? Meet we not with the memorials of 
 Its once greater prevalence in those degraded menials that still 
 carry about with them the print of chains, retain the manners, and 
 speak the dialect of bondage ? If the number of blacks and of 
 slaves be less at the North than at the South, we owe this envi- 
 able distinction to our climate, not our virtue. It was neither the 
 foresight nor the piety of the pilgrims, but the good providence 
 of God, that traced the line® of their inheritance on this side the 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 , natural limit of negro habitation. If the planter of the South has 
 long appeared in the odious character of receiver of stolen men^ the 
 trader of the North has as long appeared in the still more odious 
 character of man-stealer. 
 
 It must be admitted — with humiliation indeed — but still it must 
 be admitted, that with New-England capital slave ships have been 
 built, and with New-England seamen navigated. In New-Eng- 
 land, too, have stood the work-shops in which those yokes and 
 manacles were forged that weighed on the limbs of the captive 
 negro during his passage to bondage. On Virginia, at least, sla- 
 very was forced contrary to her will, and against her remonstrance. 
 Can as much be said in favor of other and more northern colo- 
 nies ? 
 
 But whatever may have been tbe comparative guilt of the par- 
 ties concerned in that worst of abominations, the making mer- 
 chandize of men, the alarming consequence of their joint iniquity, 
 is sufficiently apparent by the existence among us of more than 
 one million six hundred thousand slaves. This is an abatement 
 of national prosperity connected with no alleviating circumstance ; 
 nor is there any softening light in which this horrid feature in our 
 condition can be viewed. Slavery, in all its forms, is odious — in 
 all its bearings hurtful. It is an evil gratuitous and unmixed ; 
 and equally an evil to the slave, his master, and the state. 
 
 That the horrible cruelties elsewhere practised are of rare oc= 
 currence in the United States, may readily be believed. But that 
 slavery, even here, is maintained without cruelty, affirm this who 
 may, is not to be believed. No ; if there be either truth in his- 
 tory, or uniformity in nature, it is not to be believed. Not because 
 the owners of slaves are masters, but because they are men. For 
 when, or where, or by whom has absolute power been irresponsi- 
 bly exercised, and yet not abused ? 
 
 But to say nothing of bonds, and stripes, and imprisonments ; 
 and though it were admitted that with respect to mere animal exis- 
 tence, slaves were subsisted as well, and treated as kindly as 
 other animals — who can think, without shuddering, of one million 
 six hundred thousand human beings, with their countless pro- 
 geny through all future generations, excluded from human sym- 
 pathy, deprived of civil and of personal rights, sold from master 
 to master, transferred from plantation to plantation, moving and 
 forbearing to move at the bidding of a driver ; denied the means 
 
11 
 
 of education ; denied the consolations of religion ; denied the 
 reading of the bible ; denied even the public worship of God ; 
 and reduced both by usage and by penal enactment, as far as it is 
 in the power of man to reduce a being, conscious and immortal like 
 himself, to the mere condition of a brute ; who can think of this 
 without shuddering ? 
 
 Though the evil of slavery to the master be less terrible, it is 
 not less real. And here again, to say nothing of the dread of plots 
 and insurrections that must occasionally cross the mind ; to say 
 nothing of the habitual absence of that joyous feeling of security, 
 that springs from a conscious interchange of benefits among the 
 different classes of a free community ; to say nothing of the thil- 
 ling thought that we derive our food and raiment from the reluc- 
 tant toil of fellow creatures who surround us in the capacity of 
 slaves, by whom our persons are abhorred, and whose fears are 
 the only tenure by which even life is held ; to say nothing of these 
 things, it is as little conducive to virtue as to happiness, to be 
 placed in circumstances where power may be abused with impu- 
 nity, and injury inflicted without resistance. 
 
 But I will not dw^ell upon this article. Whatever slavery may 
 be to the master, to the state it is confessedly a calamity. Every 
 free citizen added to the republic is an addition to its essential 
 strength and riches : every slave, to its poverty and weakness. 
 The more, therefore, the latter encrease, the more the community 
 are empoverished and enfeebled. How much greater would be 
 our present national strength, and how much greater our prospec- 
 tive blessedness, if the million and a half of slaves w'e already 
 possess were transported ; the mass of ignorance and degradation 
 inseparable from their presence swept away, and their place sup- 
 plied by an equal number of educated enterprising freemen, sym- 
 pathizing in our sympathies, attached to our institutions, glorying 
 in the glory of the republic, and ready to exert their influence in 
 the advancement of its interests, or to shed their blood in its de- 
 fence ? 
 
 But the full curse of slavery is not yet developed. It is a mor- 
 tal malady, as yet indeed, in an inceptive state, and preying on 
 the extremities of the body politic : but it is a malady that is si- 
 lently extending itself, and which, if not speedily arrested, may 
 one day reach the seat of life. It is idle to speak lightly of our 
 danger : idle to shut our eyes against it. The prudent man fore- 
 seeth the evil. 
 
12 
 
 There ie already existing among us a slave population greater 
 by half a million than the whole population of the colonies at the 
 time of their first and their last numbering, before they engaged 
 in the struggle for independence. In 1820, our slave population 
 amounted to 1,500,000. Their number doubles in about twenty 
 years. The prospective calculation is therefore neither doubtful 
 nor difficult. If their present rate of increase continues, the steps 
 of progression will be from 1,500,000, to 3,000,000 ; to 6,000,000; 
 to 12,000,000 ; to 24,000,000 ! with which number the next 
 century will commence, carrying forward to a still more fright- 
 ' ful extent this interminable series. 
 
 Bu-t not to pursue the calculation beyond the century in which 
 w’e live, and to the close of which some who are now living may 
 remain alive, the prospect of a census in which 24,000,000 of 
 slaves shall be returned has enough of humiliation and sorrow in 
 . it. Twenty-four millions of slaves ! And is this republic so soon 
 to embosom such an appalling amount of ignorant, vicious, de- 
 graded, and brutal population ! What a drawback from our 
 strength ; what a tax on our own resources ; what a hindrance to 
 our growth ; what a stain on our character / and what an im- 
 pediment to the fulfilment of our destiny ! Could our worst ene- 
 mies, or the worst enemies of republics, wish us a severer reproach, 
 or a heavier judgment ? Twenty-four millions of slaves ! Though 
 even then, as now, they should submissively bow their neck to the 
 yoke, and bare their back to the lash, and ply their task at a dri- 
 ver's bidding, how will it tell in history ; and what a showing for 
 a nation to make who are jealous of their rights and boastful of 
 their liberty ; a nation held up as an example to other nations ; 
 whose sympathy distant and oppressed humanity enjoys ; whose 
 rebuke the holy alliance have felt, and on the symbol of whose 
 faith there remains inscribed, among truths held sacred and self- 
 evident, ^ that all men are born free and equal ; that they are en- 
 “ dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; and 
 “ that among these rights are — life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness’’ ? 
 
 Though we were sure of uninterrupted tranquility, twenty-four 
 millions of slaves to a young and a free people must be equally a 
 calamity and a disgrace. But are we sure of uninterrupted tran- 
 quility I During this perpetual increase of ignorant and slumber- 
 ing enemies whthin, are we sure that wakeful and sagacious ene- 
 
13 
 
 mies without will not discover our vulnerable point, and inculcat- 
 ing in their turn upon our slaves those lessons of freedom which 
 we have inculcated on their subjects, and superadding force to 
 counsel, in some awful moment, direct, to the overthrow of this re- 
 public, these tremendous and unnatural elements of its own crea- 
 tion ? 
 
 Or should our foreign enemies, less quick-sighted than we have 
 any right to apprehend they will be, leave us unmolested to abide 
 the slower but not less fatal consequences of protracted slavery, 
 is there no danger that there will, among a people goaded from age 
 to age, at length arise some second Touissant Louverture, who 
 reckless of consequences, shall array a force and cause a move- 
 ment throughout the zone of bondage, which, however long or 
 short its continuance, shall, like the movement of Hyder Ally, only 
 leave behind it plantations waste, and mansions desolate ? Is it to 
 be believed that this tremendous physical force will remain for ever 
 spell-bound and quiescent ? And that millions after millions will 
 arise in being in a land of freedom, and surrounded by the monu- 
 ments of freedom, and yet never attempt to exercise their preroga- 
 tive and assert their rights ? And, in the prospect of such a possi- 
 ble contest, who does not tremble for his country, and the more so 
 when it is considered that God is just ? 
 
 I am aware it has been said by one whose view’s, in general, on 
 this subject are as enlightened as they are liberal, that any success- 
 ful resistance of the slave must be remote : “ for at any time within 
 “ sixty or a hundred years, the beacon-fires of insurrection would 
 “ only rally the strength of the nation.’’ And I am also aware 
 that it has been said, in the same spirit of conciliation, “ that there 
 “ is hardly any enterprize to which the militia of Vermont or 
 “ Connecticut would march with more zeal than to crush a servile 
 “ rebellion.” 
 
 It may be even so. I know it would be remembered by them 
 that southern men were at the side of their fathers when they brav- 
 ed the Canadian snows, and scaled the icy bulwarks of Quebec : 
 that the hunting shirt of the South was seen at the heights of Cam- 
 bridge, and that ere it was seen, a cry was sent forward, “ go on ; 
 we are hastening to support you.” But I also know it will be re- 
 membered, that w’hen the South came to the assistance of the 
 North, it was in the spirit of freemen, and to co-operate in the es- 
 tablishment of freedom. It was not to bind, but to break the fet- 
 ters of the captive, and set free the oppressed from the oppressor. 
 
14 
 
 But should the militia of Vermont or Connecticut ever be sum- 
 moned to such an enterprize, (which may Heaven prevent !) 
 whether they obeyed with alacrity or with reluctance, it would be an 
 enterprize in which there would be no fields of glory to gather, 
 nor laurels of honor to be won. And though necessity were laid 
 upon them, as they advanced along the line of their march, the 
 thought must be saddening that they were going to employ in the 
 re-establishnlent of slavery, those arms inherited from their fathers, 
 and which their fathers employed only for the overthrow of ty- 
 rants ; and still more saddening must be the thought, that no dis- 
 interested being, in either earth or heaven, sympathized in the 
 cause they were marching to espouse, and that not an attribute of 
 God w’as on their side ! 
 
 But in whatever spirit such a march were undertaken, it would 
 be as barren of benefits as of glory. The very occasion that made 
 it necessary would make it nugatory ; and faithless would be the 
 hope that rested on it. The vengeance that bondmen execute is 
 sudden vengeance. 
 
 Distant succor would arrive too late to prevent its execution. 
 The hostile slave might afterw'ards be crushed, and desolation car- 
 ried a second time over the domains of the master ; but his life 
 could not be restored, nor his authority, thus shaken, re-establish- 
 ed. The race of slaves may, indeed, should they become rebel- 
 lious, be exterminated ; but slavery itself, on a great scale, can 
 never, under a government like ours, be long upheld by military 
 force. Whenever such a force becomes requisite the system itself 
 must perish. Slave labor, even now, is not the most productive 
 labor, and should it hereafter become charged with the additional 
 expense of troops to enforce it, it will cease to be enforced, for 
 it will no longer be worth enforcing : it being obviously cheaper to 
 employ the yeomanry, whether of the North or South, as cultiva- 
 tors of the field, than to employ them as militia to enforce its cul- 
 tivation. 
 
 But it is not by insurrection on the one part, or recourse to arms 
 on the other, that the question of slavery with us is likely to be 
 decided. Its existence at present depends, as its continuance 
 must hereafter, much less on physical force than on the force of 
 opinion. The existence of slavery, however, bespeaks an unnat- 
 ural state of things. In whatever society the few lord it over the 
 many, the balance of energies is disturbed ; and there will be a 
 
15 
 
 constant tendency in the system to weaken the preponderance of 
 power, and restore the equilibrium. Even in governments less 
 popular than our own, this tendency is apparent, Roman slavery 
 has long since ceased. Feudal tyranny has passed away from Eu- 
 rope, and the condition of the cerfs of Saxony, and the boors of 
 Russia, is ameliorating ; and, though not free, they are gradually 
 approximating towards freedom. 
 
 But there are causes that render the perpetuity of slavery here 
 more difficult than elsewhere, and more difficult in the present, 
 than in former ages. 
 
 Domestic slavery is not abhorrent to the feelings of a communi- 
 ty accustomed to political slavery, nor inconsistent in principle 
 with governments founded on prescriptive and hereditary privilege. 
 It harmonizes with the institutions of Tunis, Morocco, Algiers, 
 and the other provinces of Turkish despotism. Religion even 
 sanctions it ; and it is felt to be as righteous as it is convenient to 
 compel the followers of Christ to become hewers of wood and draw- 
 ers of water to the followers of Mahomet. With us it is otherwise. 
 iSlavery is here a perfect anomaly. It stands out by itself an 
 isolated institution, unsupported, unconnected, and at variance with 
 all our other institutions. It is at variance with the spirit of our 
 government ; at variance with its letter. It is at variance with 
 our political principles, at variance with our religious principles, 
 revolting to our moral feelings, and crosses all our habits of thought 
 and action. And can there be a question whether slavery under 
 such circumstances, in such a country, and among such a people, 
 can be eternal ? If villanage in Britain, and even in Gaul, has 
 ceased ; if the cerfs of Saxony and the boors of Russia are rising 
 in the scale of being, and there be even hope that the degraded 
 Hindoo will be one day disenthralled by the diffusion of science, 
 and the slow but resistless march of public opinion, is there no 
 hope of disenthralment for the African, who breaths the air, and 
 sees the light, and treads the soil of freedom ? Impossible ! Such 
 an outrage can not be perpetual. The constitution of man, of na- 
 ture, of heaven and earth, must change, or slavery be subverted. 
 It cannot stand against the progress of society. Its doom has 
 been pronounced already ; and the forward movement of the world 
 will overthrow it. 
 
 Is it forgotten that this abomination was once sanctioned by 
 even ecclesiastical authority ; and that the cross and the crescent 
 
16 
 
 were alike arrayed on its side ? Is it forgotten that the negro race 
 have been solemnly consigned to perpetual bondage by the highest 
 authority in Christendom, because they never attended mass, and 
 w’ere of the colour of the damned ? And thereafter that centuries 
 rolled away during which Africa was considered as rightfully given 
 up to plunder by Christian nations ; who, without compunction and 
 without regret, conspired to ravage her coast and reduce her cap- 
 tive sons to slavery ? 
 
 Nor w^as it till our owui times that the spell which had so long 
 bound the understanding, and the moral sense of Christendom, was 
 broken. There are those now living who remember when the 
 slave trade, unassailed and w ithout an enemy, remained interwoven 
 with the policy, and intrenched in the prepossessions of every 
 Christian nation ; when the king, and the parliament, and the peo- 
 ple, of even Britain, stood firm in its defence ; w hen in opposition 
 to this array of opinion and of power, Grenville Sharp first raised 
 his voice, and Clarkson and Wilberforce, and their coadjutors 
 took their stand ; and who remember too the contempt wdth which 
 the first humble efforts of these men of mercy were regarded : ef- 
 forts which W'ere destined to shake, and w'hich have already shak- 
 en, the system they assailed to its base, and which have changed 
 the current of feeling throughout the w'orld. The slave, of w hat- 
 ever cast or colour, has long since been declared free the moment 
 he sets his foot on British soil ; and the trade in slaves, already 
 abolished by Britain, has been denounced by almost every Chris- 
 tian nation. 
 
 Every w’here, as discussion has increased, the friends of slavery 
 have diminished : and results as memorable have been effected on 
 this side the Atlantic as on the other. Time was when slavery 
 sat as easy on the conscience of the puritan of the North, as the 
 planter of the South : when statesmen of the purest patriotism, 
 and clergymen of the loftiest intellect New'-England ever boasted, 
 were found among its champions ; and when, even there, men of 
 every rank, as much expected their slaves as their lands to de- 
 scend in perpetuity to their children. 
 
 I The slave trade, however, has not only been abolished by the 
 j national republic, but slavery itself has also been abolished in the 
 w'hole of New’-England, New- Jersey and New”-York. In Dela- 
 ware and Maryland it is waning to its close, and in Virginia, 
 though it exists in strength, yet its existence is abhorred : w'hile, by 
 
17 
 
 I the rise of kindred republics in Spanish America, it has, through 
 / vast and contiguous territories, suddenly ceased to exist. 
 
 These are splendid triumphs which the march of public opinion 
 has achieved. It is still on the advance, gathering momentum as 
 it advances. From the North and from the South alike, an influ- 
 ence will be sent into that narrow zone of bondage now remaining 
 between two lands of freedom. Though the dwellers in that zone 
 might resist the servile force that will from age to age accumulate, 
 there is a mightier moral force accumulating, which they can not 
 resist. No matter how bold the attitude they may assume ; no 
 matter how stern the decrees they may pass ; no matter how des- 
 perate the measures they may adopt, the result will be the same. 
 It is impossible to stay this forward movement of society, and up- 
 hold abuses that shock the conscience and cross the prevalent 
 opinions of mankind. The more desperate the measures resorted 
 to, the sooner the foundation on which they are based will sink be- 
 neath the pressure. And the posterity of the generation now so 
 intent on sustaining slavery will not consent to its being sustained. 
 , There is not an enlightened patriot at the South, who does not 
 already abhor the system who does not regard it as an evil : who 
 does not desire its abolition. Our brethren of the South have the 
 same sympathies, the same moral sentiments, the same love of 
 liberty as ourselves. By them, as by us, slavery is felt to be an 
 evil, a hindrance to our prosperity, and a blot upon our character. 
 That it exists to such a fearful extent among them is not the re- 
 sult of choice, but of necessity. It was in being when they were 
 born, and has been forced on them by a previous generation. 
 
 Can any considerate man, in the view of what has been done, 
 and what is now doing, believe that amid so many merciful de- 
 signs, so many benevolent activities, the negro slave will experi- 
 ence no deliverance 1 That the master will remain for ever undis- 
 turbed by the presence of stripes and chains, and continue without 
 relentings from year to year, from generation to generation, to eat 
 the bread and wear the raiment, and export the staple, produced by 
 the tears and sweat of bondmen ? That the free and enlightened in- 
 habitants of this proud republic will go on celebrating their fourth 
 of July ; reading their declaration of independence ; and, regard- 
 less of the groans of so many millions held in bondage, persist in 
 the mockery of holding up before the eyes of reproaching despots, 
 of eulogizing republics, and an insulted universe, the ensign of 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 liberty ? It cannot be. To sustain such an abuse, under such cir- 
 cumstances, is impossible. There needs no domestic insurrection, 
 no foreign interference, to subvert an institution so repugnant to 
 our feelings, so repugnant to all our other institutions. Public 
 opinion has already pronounced on it ; and the moral energy of 
 the nation will sooner or later effect its overthrow. 
 
 But the solemn question here arises — in what condition will this 
 momentous change place us ? The freed men of other countries 
 have long since disappeared, having been amalgamated in the 
 general mass. Here there can be no amalgamation. Our manu- 
 mitted bondmen have remained already to the third and fourth, as 
 they will to the thousandth, generation — a distinct, a degraded, 
 and a wretched race. When therefore the fetters, whether grad- 
 ually or suddenly, shall be stricken off, and stricken off they will 
 be, from those accumulating millions yet to be born in bondage, it 
 is evident that this land, unless some outlet be provided, will be 
 flooded with a population as useless as it will be wretched ; a 
 population which, with every increase, will detract from our 
 strength, and only add to our numbers, our pauperism and our 
 crimes. Whether bond or free, their presence will be for ever a 
 calamity. Why then, in the name of God, should we hesitate to 
 encourage their departure ? It is as wise as merciful to send back 
 to Africa, as citizens, those sons of hers, whom, as slaves and 
 in chains, %ve have to our injury borne from thence. 
 
 The existence of this race among us, a race that can neither 
 share our blessings nor incorporate in our society, is already felt 
 to be a curse ; and though the only curse entailed on us, if left to 
 take its course, it will become the greatest that could befall the 
 nation. 
 
 Shall we then cling to if ; and by refusing the timely expedient 
 how offered for deliverance, retain and foster the alien enemies 
 till they have multiplied into such greater numbers, and risen into 
 such mightier consequence, as will for ever bar the possibility of 
 their departure, and by barring it, bar also the possibility of fulfill- 
 ing our own high destiny ? As yet it requires only to provide an 
 asylum, and the means of reaching it, to mitigate, if not entirely 
 to remove, this alarming evil. The self-interest and the benevo- 
 lence of masters will do the rest. Many will eventually be colo- 
 nized, and all manumitted. 
 
 Encouraged by the prospect which the measures of this society 
 
19 
 
 have opened, the process of giving freedom to their bondmen has 
 already commenced among the planters of the south. If the way 
 be kept open it will progress ; and progress as fast as prudence 
 and humanity would dictate. And thus the time may yet arrive 
 when a second and a finished independence shall be achieved, nor 
 print of vassal footstep defile our soil, nor chain be worn beneath 
 our sun of freedom ! 
 
 Gerrit Smith, Esq. of Madison county, seconded the resolu- 
 tion. 
 
 He argued, that the white population of this country, or at 
 least, of a very large section of it, must eventually amalgamate 
 with the rapidly growing millions of blacks in it ; or that the one 
 must give up the soil to the other and seek another home. He 
 showed the better title of the whites to this land, and then asked 
 where the blacks should go ? Whether we should colonize them in 
 some remote portion of our new territory, or facilitate their removal 
 to St Domingo, or some other West India island ? To such a 
 disposition of our coloured population, he contended there were 
 very great objections. A populous nation in our vicinity, of such 
 a peculiar and degraded character as not to permit it to come into 
 the great family of nations on this continent, is, in many points of 
 view, extremely undesirable and dangerous. We must send 
 them back to their father-land. For every reason, it is their only 
 home. 
 
 Mr. S. argued, that the American Colonization Society was 
 pursuing the only effectual course for suppressing the slave trade ; 
 that experience had abundantly proved the ineffectualness of all 
 laws and treaties against it ; that it would never cease so long as 
 it could be prosecuted ; and, that it could be until the slave coast 
 was lined with settlements of Christian freemen. The suppression 
 of the slave trade, if the society accomplished no further good, 
 would make the society for ever dear to every friend of mankind. 
 
 Mr. S. enlarged on the degraded condition of Africa, and show- 
 ed how hopeless would be all attempts to pour in regenerating in- 
 fluences upon her from the North or East, and how certain it is, 
 that it must be left to settlements, which Christian nations make 
 on her western coast, to radiate the beams of civilization and 
 Christianity through that black empire of ignorance and sin. 
 
 Mr. S. considered some of the objections that are raised to the 
 practicablenesB of the scheme of the Colonization Society, and 
 
20 
 
 said that they, who talk and write about the society needing tens 
 and hundreds of millions of dollars to accomplish that scheme, 
 misapprehended the extent of the undertaking of the society. The 
 society has not undertaken to remove the whole of our black popu- 
 lation to Africa, but to make a beginning in this work so necessary 
 to be done, and when the society shall have a hundred or even 
 fifty thousand colonists on the coast of Africa, its own part of the 
 Tv'ork wdll be done and the society dissolved. But little more then 
 can be expected of the society than to pursue the work of coloniza- 
 tion so far — to carry forward their settlements there to such a pitch 
 of prosperity, and give them such an inviting aspect, that a strong 
 desire will be created in our black population to emigrate to them. 
 The society is but laboring to form there an attractive nucleus, 
 around w'hich the blacks of our country may spontaneously gather, 
 and grow into a great nation. He relied on that strong desire to 
 emigrate, to accomplish the whole remaining work. For the abili- 
 ty to gratify that desire, we depend much on the resources of the 
 blacks themselves ; much on the aid of our governments ; much 
 on individual benevolence : and to how great an extent will self- 
 interest prompt our white population to make large contributions 
 to get rid of a people, subsisting to so great a degree on private 
 charity, and creating so much public insecurity and expense, as 
 our poor houses and prisons abundantly testify, by their peculiar 
 addictedness to indolence, vice and crime ? 
 
 Mr. S. dwelt much on the importance, the necessity of making 
 this desire in our blacks to emigrate, strong and constant, inas- 
 much as their efforts to go would be proportioned to its strength 
 and constancy. He would teach them that America is not 
 their home — that here they cannot throw off their degrada- 
 tion ; and that never until they strike the soil of Africa, can they 
 hold up their heads in manly independence. Mr. S. illustrated 
 the feasibleness of even our poorest blacks getting to Africa, 
 though entirely unaided, by referring to the thousands and tens of 
 thousands of pennyless foreigners, who annually flock to our 
 shores. The oppressions which these foreigners suffer at home, 
 and the happy prospects that allure them to America, make them 
 willing, even to sell themselves for their passage-money in order 
 to get here. Why wnll not like causes, in the case of our blacks, 
 produce like effects ; and they, even the poorest and least assisted 
 of them, be seen flocking by thousands to Africa, where the prices 
 of labor are, and for a long time will be, twice as great as here ? 
 
21 
 
 Mr. S. denied, that the emigration of our blacks must be limited 
 io such of them, as are now free, and their descendants. Our 
 southern slaveholders are as kind-hearted and as generous men as 
 w’e are, and they deplore the evils of slavery, for which they are 
 no more chargeable than ourselves, as much as we do. The own- 
 ers of thousands of slaves are now impatient to emancipate them ; 
 but cannot do so consistently W'ith the laws under which they live, 
 nor consistently with kindness to their slaves, until a way is pro- 
 vided for their removal. Our slaveholders will give up their 
 slaves for emigration to Africa, full as fast as the colony there can 
 receive them — full as fast as the Northern states will aid the re- 
 moval of them. 
 
 Mr. S. expressed his great pleasure in the prospect of there be- 
 ing a New-York State Colonization Society. Our state had been 
 slow to move in this subject, but he trusted she would, at last, move 
 in it in her strength. He was persuaded, that the people of this state 
 needed but to become acquainted wnth the American Colonization 
 Society, in order to appreciate it, and to respond liberally to its 
 claims upon them. He was persuaded, that no cause is united to 
 make so powerful an appeal as this could to the heart of the Ameri- 
 can Christian, and to the heart of the American patriot — for here it 
 is not alone the 2,000,000 of blacks in our own land, whose spir- 
 itual interests the Christian is called on to serve, but the hundred 
 millions of immortal beings in benighted Africa to wdiom the socie- 
 ty gives him access. And surely, the American patriot could 
 never survey this land without the recollection of his country's 
 greatest, it might almost be said, only danger, mingling with his 
 delightful and exulting anticipations, the gloomiest forebodings. 
 Are we Christians ? Are we patriots ? Let us be persuaded then, 
 that in either character the Colonization Society offers us a work 
 to do — and by all that is excellent in our holy religion, and by all 
 that we love in our dear country, let us engage in that work 
 heartily. 
 
 The resolution was thereupon unanimously adopted. 
 
 Mr. B. P. Johnson, from the committee appointed at the last 
 meeting, reported a draught of a constitution, and on his motion, 
 seconded by Mr, J. B. Skinner, of Genesee, it was adopted. 
 
 A committee consisting of Charles R. Webster, of Albany, 
 Walter Hubbell, of Ontario, William H. Maynard, of Oneida, 
 
22 
 
 Alonzo C. Paige, of Schenectady, and John T. Norton, of Albany, 
 was appointed to make a nomination of the officers of the society. 
 
 Rev. Isaac Orr, the agent of the American Colonization Society, 
 then addressed the meeting, and related a variety of interesting 
 facts in relation to the colony at Liberia, on the coast of Africa.* 
 Mr. Webster, from the nominating committee, reported the fol- 
 lowing names, which report was accepted, and the gentlemen 
 elected officers of the society. 
 
 JOHN SAVAGE, President 
 
 Vice-Presidents. 
 
 1st district — J ames Milnor, 
 
 2d “ N. P. Tallmadge, 
 
 3d 
 
 4th 
 
 Eliphalet Nott, 1 Tth 
 Luther Bradish, 8th 
 
 5th district — G errit Smith, 
 6th “ Samuel Nelson, 
 
 Benjamin F. Butler, 
 Harmanus Bleecker, 
 Charles R. Webster, 
 
 N. W. Howell, 
 “ David E. Evans. 
 
 Managers, 
 
 Jabez D. Hammond, 
 
 John Willard, 
 
 Richard Yates, Treasurer ^ 
 
 Richard Varick De Witt, Secretary. 
 
 On motion of S. M. Hopkins, Resolved, That the Colonization 
 Society should be kept separate from all local and party considera- 
 tions — that it should endeavor by every proper method, and espe- 
 cially by circulating suitable publications, to unite in its favor all 
 classes of people throughout our country ; and that for the attain- 
 ment of objects so important, it should be ready to give up every 
 thing but the principles and object of its existence, and the lawful 
 and honorable means of its prosperity. 
 
 On motion of Jabez D. Hammond, Esq. seconded by the Rev. 
 Mr. Campbell, an agent of the American Society, 
 
 Resolved, That the distracted and miserable state of Africa 
 calls loudly for our commiseration and charitable efforts ; and that 
 the Colonization Society is pursuing by far the most probable, if 
 not the only means, of enlightening the benighted and savage 
 tribes of that continent, and of raising them to the rank and the 
 blessings of Christian nations. 
 
 Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be published in 
 the several papers of this city. 
 
 Thereupon the meeting adjourned. 
 
 ELISHA JENKINS, Chaii'man. 
 
 James O. Morse, Secretary. 
 
 * The meeting was, at different periods of its deliberations, addressed by 
 the gentlemen who moved or seconded resolutions, and by other gentle- 
 men who took part in the proceedings. 
 
23 
 
 To the People of the State of JWw- York : • 
 The Managers of the New-York State Colonization Society 
 commend the foregoing proceedings to the attentive consideration 
 and the favorable notice of their fellow citizens throughout the 
 state. Being themselves deeply impressed with a sense of the 
 great importance of the subject, they are anxious to awaken, ia 
 the minds of others, corresponding emotions. 
 
 The general objects of the American Colonization Society are 
 so well known, and the arguments in their support so fully exhib- 
 ited in the preceding pages, that it is deemed unnecessary, in this 
 appeal, to enlarge on those topics further than to state — that the 
 colony at Liberia now numbers about 1400 souls and is daily en- 
 creasing in strength, intelligence, and the means of happiness ; — 
 that the accounts received from it during the present year, though 
 in some particulars calamitous and saddening — (we allude more 
 especially to the death of Dr. Randall) — are, upon the whole, of 
 the most cheering character ; — that new evidence is furnished in 
 every communication received from the colonists . and from those 
 who visit them, of the practicability and usefulness of building 
 up the little state, whose foundations have been laid by American 
 benevolence ; — that many hundred applicants for a passage are 
 now on the books of the society at Washington ; — that several 
 masters of slaves have long been waiting for an opportunity to 
 emancipate them ; — and that such are the embarrassments under 
 which the parent institution is now laboring, that its managers 
 have recently felt themselves compelled to state, “ that unless the 
 contributions to their cause this season, shall exceed the amount 
 of receipts in any former year, it will be difficult, if not impossi, 
 ble, to send off a single expedition.” 
 
 Under these circumstances, we earnestly solicit the active co- 
 operation of the people of New-York. We are persuaded, that 
 if the Christians, the patriots and tlie philanthropists of our state, 
 will but reflect on the immense good that has already been accom- 
 plished, and look forward to the still greater results which may be 
 confidently expected from continued exertions, they will not suf- 
 fer this great experiment to be abandoned. We seek not to divert 
 their sympathies or their efforts, from other plans of benevolence ; 
 we ask only that this stupendous work — a work destined to exert 
 the widest influence, on the character, interests and prospects — 
 
not only of America and Africa, but of the whole family of man — 
 may receive its just measure of support. 
 
 The most efficient means of permanent assistance, will be found 
 in the establishment of associations in the interior, auxiliary to 
 the state society. If such a society were formed in each county 
 of the state, a moderate contribution from each member, with a 
 yearly collection in the churches, would produce a sum in the 
 state of New-York, without injury or inconvenience to any one, 
 which would not only furnish from year to year, new proofs of her 
 liberality and benevolence, but in its reflex operation on other 
 portions of the Union, and on public opinion, would probably se- 
 cure, the successful progress, and the ultimate triumph, of the 
 great object in view. We therefore respectfully urge the speedy 
 formation, and the vigorous support, of such societies ; and we 
 indulge the hope that an appeal will not be made in vain. The 
 form of a constitution will be found in the second page ; to which 
 it is only necessary to add, that whenever an auxiliary shall be 
 formed, notice thereof, with the names of its officers, should be 
 transmitted to the secretary of the state society. 
 
 The managers beg leave also to reiterate the request made to 
 the clergy of all denominations in this state, prior to the fourth of 
 July last ; and to remind those who were prevented from taking 
 up a collection pursuant to that request, that the omision may yet 
 he supplied / and that the reasons already urged in favor of the 
 measure, are greatly strengthened by the pressing wants of the 
 parent society. 
 
 BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, 
 HARMANUS BLEECKER, 
 CHARLES R. WEBSTER, 
 
 JABEZ D. HAMMOND, 
 
 JOHN WILLARD, 
 
 Managers of the New-York State Colonization Society. 
 
 Albany, August, 1829. 
 
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