sible; that our forlorn situation is not attributable to ourselves is
admitted by the most ardent friends of colonization; and that our
condition cannot be bettered by removing the most exemplary individuals
of color from amongst us, we are well convinced, from the consideration
that in the same ratio that the industrious part would emigrate, in the
same proportion those who would remain would become more degraded,
wretched and miserable, and consequently less capable of appreciating
the many opportunities which are now offering for the moral and
intellectual improvement of our brethren. We, therefore, a portion of
those who are the objects of this plan, and amongst those whose
happiness, with that of others of our color, it is intended to promote,
respectfully but firmly disclaim every connexion with it, and declare
our settled determination not to participate in any part of it.

But if this plan is intended to facilitate the emancipation of those who
are held in slavery in the South, and the melioration of their
condition, by sending them to Liberia; we question very much whether it
is calculated to do either. That the emancipation of slaves has been
measurably impeded through its influence, except where they have been
given up to the Board of Managers, to be colonized in Africa, to us is
manifest. And when we contemplate their uneducated and vitiated state,
destitute of the arts and unaccustomed to provide even for themselves,
we are inevitably led to the conclusion that their situation in that
pestilential country will be miserable in the extreme.

The present period is one of deep and increasing interest to the free
people of color, relieved from the miseries of slavery and its
concomitant evils, with the vast and (to us) unexplored field of
literature and science before us, surrounded by many friends whose
sympathies and charities need not the Atlantic between us and them,
before they can consent to assist in elevating our brethren to the
standing of men. We therefore particularly invite their attention to
the subject of education and improvement; sensible that it is much
better calculated to remove prejudice, and exalt our moral character,
than any system of colonization that has been or can be introduced; and
in which we believe we shall have the co-operation of the wisest and
most philanthropic individuals of which the nation can boast. The
utility of learning and its salutary effects on the minds and morals of