that the colonization workers had in
Washington was in the nature of a "prayer meeting"[268] held in the
home of Elias B. Caldwell, a brother-in-law of Finley, clerk of the
United States Supreme Court, and afterward secretary of the American
Colonization Society. This meeting, which both Mills and Finley
attended, was "for the purpose of imploring the divine direction, on
the evening of the following day, when the expediency of forming a
Colonization Society was to be publicly discussed."[269] The
enthusiasm of Finley at this time was almost boundless; he would give
five hundred dollars of his own scanty means to insure its success;
when some, thinking the project foolhardy, laughed at it, he declared,
"I know the scheme is from God."[270] The efficacy of prayer bore the
traditional fruit, for whereas persons "were brought there from
curiosity, or by the solicitation of their friends, viewing the scheme
as too chimerical for any national being to undertake [nevertheless] a
great change"[271] was produced on them.

According to their plans, Congressman Charles Marsh, of Vermont,
having made the necessary arrangements,[272] the colonizationists held
on the next evening, December 21, 1816, in the Davis Hotel, a public
meeting, attended by citizens of Washington, Georgetown, Alexandria,
and other parts of the country. Among the men of note present, not
heretofore mentioned, were Henry Clay, Francis S. Key, Bishop William
Meade, John Randolph, and Judge Bushrod Washington.[273] Niles reports
the attendance "numerous and respectable, and its proceedings fraught
with interest."[274] The avowed object of the meeting was for the
"purpose of considering the expediency and practicability of
ameliorating the condition of the Free People of Color now in the
United States, by providing a Colonial Retreat, either on this
continent or that of Africa."[275]

Henry Clay, the chairman of the meeting, pointed out in his remarks
that no attempt was being made "to touch or agitate in the slightest
degree, a delicate question, connected with another portion of the
colored population of this country. It was not proposed to deliberate
upon or consider at all, any question of emancipation, or that which
was connected with the abolition of slavery. It was upon that
condition alone he was sure, that many gentlemen from the South and
West, whom he saw present, had attended, or could be expected to
cooperate. It was upon that condition only that h