susceptible of all the tender feelings of benevolence? Is not
legislation supreme--and is not religion virtuous? Our oppressed
situation arises from their opposite causes. There is an
awakening spirit in our people to promote their elevation, which
speaks volumes in their behalf. We anticipated at the close of
the last Convention, a larger representation and an increased
number of delegates; we were not deceived, the number has been
tenfold. And we have a right to expect that future Conventions
will be increased by a geometrical ratio, until we shall present
a body not inferior in numbers to our State Legislatures, and the
_phenomenon_ of an _oppressed people_, deprived of the rights of
citizenship, in the midst of an enlightened nation, devising
plans and measures for their personal and mental elevation, by
_moral suasion alone_.

"In recommending you a path to pursue for our present good and
future elevation, we have taken into consideration the
circumstances of the free colored population, so far as it was
possible to ascertain their views and sentiments, hoping that at
a future Convention, you will all come ably represented, and that
your wishes and views may receive that deliberation and attention
for which this body is particularly associated.

"Finally, before taking our leave, we would admonish you, by all
that you hold dear, beware of that bewitching evil, that bane of
society, that curse of the world, that fell destroyer of the best
prospects and the last hope of civilized man,--INTEMPERANCE.

"Be righteous, be honest, be just, be economical, be prudent,
offend not the laws of your country,--in a word, live in that
purity of life, by both precept and example,--live in the
constant pursuit of that moral and intellectual strength which
will invigorate your understandings and render you illustrious in
the eyes of civilized nations, when they will assert that all
that illustrious worth which was once possessed by the Egyptians,
and slept for ages, has now arisen in their descendents, the
inhabitants of the New World."

Excellent as was the work of these conventions of men of color, they
nevertheless became the magazines from which the pro-slavery element
secured dangerous ammunition with which to attack the anti-slavery
movement. The white anti-sl