to;
among others, the American Colonization Society is the most
prominent. Not doubting the sincerity of many friends who are
engaged in that cause; yet we beg leave to say, that it does not
meet with our approbation. However great the debt which these
United States may owe to injured Africa, and however unjustly
her sons have been made to bleed, and her daughters to drink of
the cup of affliction, still we who have been born and nurtured
on this soil, we, whose habits, manners and customs are the same
in common with other Americans, can never consent to take our
lives in our hands, and be the bearers of the redress offered by
that Society to that much afflicted country.

'Tell it not to barbarians, lest they refuse to be civilized,
and eject our Christian missionaries from among them, that in
the nineteenth century of the christian era, laws have been
enacted in some of the States of this great republic, to compel
an unprotected and harmless portion of our brethren to leave
their homes and seek an asylum in foreign climes: and in taking
a view of the unhappy situation of many of these, whom the
oppressive laws alluded to, continually crowd into the Atlantic
cities, dependent for their support upon their daily labor, and
who often suffer for want of employment, we have had to lament
that no means have yet been devised for their relief.'[AT]

'The Convention has not been unmindful of the operations of the
American Colonization Society; and it would respectfully suggest
to that august body of learning, talent and worth, that, in our
humble opinion, strengthened, too, by the opinions of eminent
men in this country, as well as in Europe, that they are
pursuing the direct road to perpetuate slavery, with all its
unchristianlike concomitants, in this boasted land of freedom;
and, as citizens and men whose best blood is sapped to gain
popularity for that Institution, we would, in the most feeling
manner, beg of them to desist: or, if we must be sacrificed to
their philanthropy, we would rather die at home. Many of our
fathers, and some of us, have fought and bled for the liberty,
independence and peace which you now enjoy; and, surely, it
would be ungenerous and unfeeling in you to deny us a humble and
quiet grave in that country which gave us birth!'[AU]

'Sir, upon t