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their most active & zealous members. Their
next sch was to send a delegation to Wash
-ington to consult with the Manager of the
Col. Soc. & to obtain more complete & accurate
infomation on the subject than could be pro-
cured in any other way. The result of that
Mission was that the excitement here was
raised still higher - but owing to the want of a
corresponding degree feeling & know among the clergy &
influential men of the N.E. & to the natural
decline of zeal in the minds of young men
& above all to the want of a suitable man
to assume the character of an itinerating
preaching begging agent but little has been
accomplished as yet in consequence of our ef-
forts. By the direction of our committee a
somewhat detailed account of the Col Soc
was published in the Christian Spectator
At their order a thousand copies were printed
in a pamphlet form which we are now
distributing thro' the country & of which
I take the liberty to send you one.
From the first a favorite object
with us has been the establishment of a school
for Africans on the general plan of the
Foreign Mission school. One delegates urged
it on the attention of the Board of Managers
at Washington but they declined taking any
measures on the subject at that time. Indeed
it seems to be a project indispensible to
their successful operation in Africa. The
Government of their colony must be founded
in freedom; & freedom can have no foun-
dation but intelligence & virtue: And the re-
lations of the subject to the Christianizing
of Africa are as boundless in their impor-
tance as they are obvious to our perceptioni
It would seem as if Providence had brought
these men to our shores that they might be
sent back with the light of salvation to
a continent where any other missionaries
must perish before we could begin their la-
this subject is touched in Douglas's {illegible}
on Missions p. 38 & I have thought that in
a review of that work it might be advanta-
geously brought before the public.
Another favorite object with us is to call
the attention of the people of the U.S. to the claims
of the Col. Soc. in connexion with a religious
celebration of the fourth of July. On that day
as everybody knows, Americans feel very
particularly generous & on that day a con-
tribution for such a cause might be asked
for with the greatest prospect of success. The
thing was done in a few places last year. We
have thought that if the various Ecclesiastical
bodies that meet in the spring could be induced
to recommend the plan in their pastoral letters
it might be very extensively adopted in almost
every part of the U.S. & thus by the same
measure a part of the vice & {dissibation?} at-
tendant on the ordinary celebration of that
day might be prevented & a respectable & per-
manent revenue might be afforded to a
great object of national charity. We yesterday
determined to consult with some judicious &
influential men on the propriety of this plan
& afterwards to take such steps as shall seem ex-
pedient to bring it before the public. We shall