Colonization correspondence 1825-1831

ATS Soc. of Inq. Colonization Comm.; Corresp., 1825-1832

Office of the Col. Sec. Washington Aug 16 1825

Dear Sir

I rejoice to hear that the packages have arrived, and hope that before this their contents are in circulation.

Our Board allow a commission of twenty per cent upon all subscriptions to the Repository paid over to our Treasurer I hope Mr. Pomeroy will accept the Agency, if not for the reward for the sake of our cause. Will you have the goodness to converse with him on the subject and inform me of the result. Please also to let me know what numbers he would wish transmitted to the mode of their conveyance.

On the subject of Articles to the Repository

permit me to say, that the subject of slavery must be touched with a cautious & delicate hand. The South is not prepared for a bold attack upon this system especially for an attack from Our Society. We are bringing slowly perhaps, but surely the publick mind into a favourable State and the apologists for slavery are decreasing in number every day. I rejoice to hear the Truth on this subject sounded out through the Land, but the management of our cause requires great discretion and it must be our aim to soften down and blend

into unanimity the feelings of the North & South. I shall be thankful for your communications.

Most truly, & Mr George Howe. with great esteem RR Gurley

Mr George Howe (Theol. Seminary) Andover Massachussets

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[upside down]R R Gurley Aug 10. 1823.

CIRCULAR, IN BEHALF OF THE AFRICAN EDUCATION SOCIETY.

SIR: AS a Commitee on behalf of the AFRICAN EDUCATION SOCIETY, we beg leave to present to your consideration, and we hope to your favourable regard, an object that has hitherto attracted but little notice, and interested but few friends.

A respectable number of the Citizens of the County of Essex, met at Newark, N. J. in the month of February last, to adopt measures for the relief of the degraded children of Africa. The condition of this afflicted people in the United States and on the continent of Africa, has, for many years, been deplored by pious and benevolent individuals, in England and America. WILBERFORCE, SHARP, and CLARKSON, have successfully plead their cause ;—and here, the subject of slavery has been the theme of very general reprobation—and a few philanthropic spirits have ardently laboured to ameliorate its harsher features, and gradually to abolish it altogether.

The AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY, which now, by its prosperity, vindicates its patrons from teh repeated charges of wild and visionary, sprung from their counsels and prayers. To this sacred enterprize, the Rev. ROBERT FINLEY, consecrated the energies of his expanded mind; and the precious memory of the devoted MILLS, becomes more fragrant by the recollection, that not only his labours and prayers, but his very life, were the pledges given of his convinction, that the claims of injured Africa rested with momentous weight upon his country. While his dust sleeps in the bosom of the Atlantic, let his country remember, that it was in seeking a home for oppressed strangers in the land of their fathers, that this man of God received the shock to his constitution, which consigned him to an early grave. The smiles of a benignant Providence, that have in the last two years, signally blessed the efforts of the Colonization Society on the coast of Africa, in the social order of four hundred free and happy coloured emmigrants at Liberia—and the exemplary piety of most of them—the grateful intelligence that the Lord had there, poured out the influences of His Spirit, and called fifty immortal beings out of the darkness of sin, into the light and purity of His Gospel, encouraged the friends of African improvement, to attempt further measures, as well for the welfare of the Colony, as for the moral and intellectual elevation of those who might prefer to remain in the United States.

And at the meeting in February last, incipient steps were taken to assemble a more general meeting on the third Monday in April thereafter—which meeting was accordingly held at Newark, and the subject fully and freely discussed. It was then unanimously resolved, to incorporate, under a law of New-Jersey, (for the promotion of Literary Societies,) as an African Education Society, for the education of free coloured children and youth in the United States. One interesting object of the Society was stated to be, to fit these youth for usefulness in Africa—and it is hoped, that many of them, will, by the blessing of God, be prepared to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, to their heathen brethren—and will yet plant the standard of the Cross in the bosom of that benighted continent. At this meeting in April last, seven Trustees were appointed—This number is limited by the law of Incorporation— but it si intended to obtain leave of the Legislature in November next, to increase the number to twenty-five ; so that we may bring into our counsels, the friends of Africa, from among every denomination of our christian brethren.

The Trustees at present chose, are : the Rev. Dr. Asa Hillyet, the Rev. Mr. William T. Hamilton, Joshua T. Russell and Gideon N. Judd, and Benjamin L. Lear, Joseph C. Hornblower and Theodore Frelinghuysen, Esquires.

At a subsequent meeting of the Trustees, the importance of the object, submitted to their management, was sensibly felt ; and the peculiar embarrassments and difficulties of an enterprise, which had as yet awakened but little else, than prejudice and ridicule, determined the Trustees, to invite a num-