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Show ADDITIONAL NOTE. of we11 orJered and polished society, upon the deep aml sure fouu· dations of equal Jaws and diffusive education, would give a sufficient title to be enrolled among the illustl'ious benefactors of mankind : whilst it afforded a precious and consolatory evidence of the all-pre· ·vailiog power of liberty, enlightened by knowledge and corrected by reli&ion .. If the experiment, in its remote (~onsequeuccs, should ultimately tend to the diffusion of similar blessings through those va&t regions and unnumbered tribes yet obscured in pl'imcval darkness; reclaim tbe rude wanderer, from a life of wretchedness, to civilizalion and humanity; and convert the blind idolater, from gross and abject snpers!itions, to the holy charities, the sublime morality and humanizing discipline of the gospelj the nation, or the individual, that shall have taken the Rlost conspicuous lead in achieving the bt:niguant enterprize, will have raised a monument of that true and imperishable glory, founded in the npr•robation and grutitude of the human race; unnpproachnble to all but the elected instruments of divine beneficence: a glory with which the most SJJientJid achievements o! human force or power must sink in the competition and appear insignificant and vulgar in the comparisen. And above all, should it be considered, tbat the nation or the individual, whose energies have been faithfully given to this august work, will have secured, by this exalted beneficence the favor of that Being, ''whose compassion is over all his works," and whose unspeakable rewards will never fail to bless the humblest elfort to do good to his creatures. Your memorialists do not presume to determine that the views of congress will be necessarily directed to the country to which they bave just alluded. They hope to be excused for intimating some of the reasons which would bring that Jtortion of the world before us, when engaged in discovering a place lhc most proper to be selected, leaving it with eonfillcncc, to the better information and better judgment of your honorable botiy to make the choice. Your memorialists, without p1·esumiug to mark out, in detail, the measures which it may be proper to adopt in furtherance of the object in view; but implicitly relying upon the wisdom of congress to devise the most etTec.tual measures; will only Jlray, that the subject may be recommended to their serious consideration, and !hat, as an bumble auxiliary in this great work, the nssocinlion, reprcsenle1l by your memorialists, may be permitted to aspire to the hope of con~ tributing its labors and resources. BUSH. WASHING1'0N, President. With respect to the most eligible situation for the establishment of the proposrd colony, l shall probably more certainly avoid the imputation of unbecoming assurance, by omitting, for the present, to add any thing more specific to what I had already expressed (see page 29) before the least intimation of the design of forming this association had come to my knowledge. I cannot forbear, however, to remark, that although it ADiinTIONAL NOTE. 93 would give me inexpressible pleasure to see the banners of knowledge and rational religion triumphing over ignorance and superstition, in Africa, as well as in the many other vast re· gions of the earth, yet it impresses me that it will absorb all the benevolence, all the delegated authority, and all the resources, for a century to come, of both our national and state legislatures, to reclaim from the awful abyss of ignorance, vice, and consequential misery, in which thousands and hundreds of thousands of human beings, of all colours and all extractions, are:: involved on our own continent :-That moral contamination on this continent cannot produce religion and moral purification by a transfer to the continent of Africa:And that the great moral debt which this continent has incur· red, is due more specifically to the immense population of the sons of Africa, who stilt remain in the sh:tckle::s of slavery, than to those who are now· enjoying personal liberty, or to the continent of Africa. I have been assured by citizens of Philadelphia, who were active in aiding Capt. Cuffee in collecting emigrants for Sierra Leone, that the injunctions of the British authorities were very positive not to admit any without testimonials of an irreproach· able moral character from respectable magistrates. After a proper system of African education has become matured in this country, the seeds of much future good might be gradu· ally disseminated in Africa, by frequent exportations to that country of well instructed virtuous school-masters, artisans and farmers; as the Society of Friends have done, with encouraging prospects of success, amongst the aboriginal natives of this country. I will conclude for the present, with a transcript of the pro. ceedings of a meeting of the free coloured people at Richmond, (Virg.) which have come to hand (through the "Freeman's Journal,") just in time for insertion, befon: this work is dismissed from the press.-They are similar to those of a simi· lar meeting at Georgetown several weeks ago: RICHMOND, Jan. 28. MEETING OF FREE PEOPLE OF COLOUR. At n meeting of a respectable portion of tbe Free People of Colour, of the city of Richmond, on Friday, the 24th of January, 1817, \Villiam Bowler was appointed Chairman, Ephraim Speed, 1\Ioderator, a:~d Lantey Crow, Secretary. The following Preamble and Resolution was read, unanimousJy adopted, ond ordered to be printed: JVhtrew, A Society has been formed at Ute scat of Government, for the purpose of "colonizing (with their own consent,) the Free People of Colour of the United States;'' therefore, we the Free People of Colour of the city of Richmond, have thought it adviseabJe to aa- |
