y
Society and a church builder in Africa, it is interesting to note the
invective hurled against him by Governor Ashmun in 1823. The
Governor's phraseology is unique. "Wretched," "morose," "obstinate,"
"soured," "narrow," "disobliging," "moral desert," "a corroding
temper," and "destitute of natural affection," were some of the
epithets used as over against "more obliging," "affectionate husband,"
"display of tenderness," "sweet and profound humility," "promoter of
every commendable and pious design," "every laudable habit," "moral
renovation," "habit of holiness," and "redeemed" when an understanding
was perfected in 1824.[86]

The cause of the misunderstanding was of long standing. Agents of the
American Colonization Society prior to Ashmun's time were accused of
transmitting false reports to the board and of appropriating to their
own use the provisions and supplies of the colonists.[87] It is also
known that a commercial company of Baltimore, whose business it was
to prosecute the African slave trade, was jealous of the Society and
tried to undermine it. In addition, the trials and hardships
incidental to founding the colony had reduced many of the settlers to
want.[88] The most ignorant could thus fathom their condition: "We
suffer: if the Society have means and does not apply them to our
relief, it is without benevolence; if it have not means, it wants
power and in either case is unworthy of our confidence."[89]

This lack of power showed itself in the helplessness of the government
to restrain the first vestiges of insubordination and to enforce the
law. Thereupon, the discontentment of Cary and one or two others
became widespread.[90] Probably the manhood consciousness of Cary
would not have asserted itself so soon had not the occasion arisen
between August 31 and September 25, 1823, when the principal Agent
attempted to redistribute the town lots of the earliest colonists who
alleged that they held them under a former sanction of the Agent and
so refused to have them redistributed. They resolved to appeal to the
board of the American Colonization Society.[91] Moreover, they openly
avowed that they would neither survey nor cultivate any of the lots
(thickly covered with undergrowth) assigned to them nor aid in any
public improvements[92] until they should hear from the board. On the
13th of December, Ashmun published the announcement that there were in
the Colony more than a dozen healthy persons who would not