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While this mass, of wretchedness, and depravity must necessary increase
in all her borders under the influence of those laws which some of the
Southern States are compelled to enact for their own immediate safe-
ty and while she is engaging heart & hand in a thousand other schemes
of patriotic & Christian enterprise, is doing comparatively nothing for a
cause which presents its claims alike to every feeling of selfishness, to every
emotion of humanity, & to every principle of evangelical benevolence. They
knew that their fellow citizens have the patriotism, & the humanity, & the
benevolence which, if called into exercise, will lead them to prompt & efficient
actions. They knew too that the Soc. of Inq. in this Sem. had formerly been
the means of engaging the people of New England in benevolent executions:
& they trusted that, by the Helping of God, it might again put forth an influence
though not equal, yet similar to that which has gone out in streams
of light & gladness to India, to Palestine, to the Islands of the Sea, and to the
tribes of the wilderness. It was to exhibit the subject to the members of our
Soc., to excite their feelings, & to prepare them for united and efficient actions
in behalf of colonizing the free blacks in our Country, that the resolution
above was proposed, & adopted.

The Com. after having twice met & consulted on the
business, for which they were appointed, & after having made it more or
less a subject of individual study & reflexion, have found the object before
them still enlarging its dimensions, & still unfolding its relations, and have
determined, as the first step, to ask for a [it abruptly ended]
rate Caste distinguished by all that is wretched in ignorance and depra
dation, by all that is disgusting in vice, and by all that is terrible in
the combination of these elements unallayed by any of those at=
tachments which endear to every citizen the soil & the institutions
of his country. They saw too that, besides the effects of the colonization
Soct. no efforts are made or can be made to remove, or even in any
great degree to alleviate this evil. These efforts vigorously sustained
appeared to them to promise not only the greatest good to our own
country, but the light of Knowledge & the {illegible} of Christianity to the
millions of Africans looking around them, they saw that New England
while she shared in the guilt by which the cause was inflicted,
circulated & read in the Northern States as they ought to have been; & a
great portion of the people take no interest in the subject merely because
it has mever been properly presented to their minds. On this point however
we request your opinion.
Several other questions we wish to propose. some of them
may perhaps be answered in the Sixth report of your Soc which has not yet reached
us, if indeed it has been published. Nor does our Missionary Library contain a
compete set even of the previous publications of the Colonization Soc.
How is the scheme of colonizing the free blacks regarded gene-
rally in the Southern States? What are the principal objections and prejudices
against it there? and what at the North? We suppose that as you have travelled
extensively in the service of the Soc. in both sections of the country you will be
able to answer us more readily & satisfactorily than any other person.
What proportion of the funds & patronage of the Soc is derived
from the North? & what from the South? Is the Institution embarrassed
by the narrowness of its resources? How far do the Acts of Congress relating
to the Slave trade go to strengthen it? How much more Governmental aid
is desirable? How much more is it to be expected?
What is the character - moral & intellectual of the Colonists? Can
men of colour be found in sufficient numbers qualified by their talents and
{illegible} to take an active part in the management of the Colony? to be
schoolmasters, religious teachers, physicians, magistrates? Might not an institution
be advantageously established in some of the Northern or Middle States, where
pious & promising young blacks might be educated for these purposes?
I say in the Northern or Middle States because I suppose such an institu-
tion would be dangerous in the vicinity of a slave population. There is, I
believe at least there was an African Seminary in New Jersey
you give us any particular information in regard to the present state of that
school? its design, managers, resources - students? Might it not be connected
with your Society?
One thing I had nearly forgotten. We understand here that some
of the Southern States as South Carolina & Georgia have been compelled to
enact laws the tendency of which is to drive out the free blacks. Is this the
case? And if so will not the negroes thus driven out generally come
towards the North?
I hope Sir you will favor me by answering this letter as soon
as possible - Leonard Bacon