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ART. 2. The object to which its attention is to be exclusively directed, is to promote and execute a plan for colonizing (with their consent) the free people of color, residing in our country, in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem most expedient. And the Society shall act, to effect this object, in co-operation with the General Government, and such of the States as may adopt regulations upon the subject.

ART. 3. Every citizen of the United States, who shall subscribe these articles, and be an annual contributor of one dollar to the funds of the Society, shall be a member. On paying a sum not less than 30 dollars, at one subscription, shall be a member for life.

ART. 4. The officers of this Society shall be, a President, thirteen Vice Presidents, a Secretary, a Treasurer, a Recorder, and a Board of Managers, composed of the above named officers, and twelve other members of the Society. They shall be annually elected by the members of the Society, at their annual meeting on new year's day, (except when that happens to be the Sabbath, and then the next day,) and continue to discharge their respective duties till others are appointed.

ART. 5. It shall be the duty of the President to preside at all meetings of the Society, and of the Board of Managers, and to call meetings of the Society, and of the Board, when he thinks necessary, or when required by any three members of the Board.

ART. 6. The Vice Presidents, according to seniority, shall discharge these duties in the absence of the President.

ART. 7. The Secretary shall take minutes of the proceedings, prepare and publish notices, and discharge such other duties as the Board or the President, or in his absence the Vice President, according to seniority, (when the Board is not sitting) shall direct. And the Recorder shall record the proceedings and the names of the members, and discharge such other duties as may be required of him.

ART. 8. The Treasurer shall receive and take charge of the funds of the Society, under such security as may be prescribed by the Board of Managers: keep the accounts, and exhibit a statement of receipts and expenditures at every annual meeting, and discharge such other duties as may be required of him. ART. 9. The Board of Managers shall meet on the first Monday in January, the first Monday in April, the first Monday in July, and the first Monday in October, every year, and at such other time as the President may direct. They shall conduct the business of the Society, and take such measures for effecting its object as they shall think proper, or shall be directed at the meetings of the Society, and make an annual report of their proceedings. They shall also fill up all vacancies occuring during the year, and make such by-laws for their government as they may deem necessary: Provided, the same are not repugnant to this constitution.

ART. 10. Every Society which shall be formed in the United States to aid in the object of this Association, and which shall co-operate with its funds for the purposes thereof, agreeably to the rules and regulations of this Society, shall be considered auxiliary thereto, and its officers shall be entitled to attend and vote at all meetings of the Society, and of the Board of Managers.

The committee appointed for the purpose, having reported a draft of a memorial to Congress, discussion arose respecting the same. Whereupon, it was, on motion,

Resolved, That the committee appointed to prepare and present to Congress a memorial on the subject of this Association, be instructed to report the same to the annual meeting of the Society for its consideration.

On motion, it was also

Resolved, That the first election of officers of the Society shall be held on the first Wednesday in January ensuing; of which due notice shall be given by the Secretary in the public prints in the District of Columbia; and that, meanwhile, a book shall be opened for receiving subscriptions to the constitution, at the Reading Rooms in Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, at the office of the National Intelligencer, and with the Secretary of this meeting.

And then the meeting adjourned,

THOMAS DOUGHERTY, Secretary.

H. CLAY, Chairman.

Wednesday. January 1, 1817. The American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States met this day, agreeably to the directions of the constitution. The Hon. Henry Clay, Chairman, Thomas Dougherty, Secretary. The Society proceeded to the election of its officers.

The Honorable BUSHROD WASHINGTON was unanimously elected President.

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Elias B. Caldwell, Secretary.

W. G. D. Worthington, Recording Secretary.
David English, Treasurer.

Resolved, That the President and Board of Managers be, and they are hereby, instructed and required to present a memorial to Congress on the subject of colonizing, with their consent, the free people of color of the United States, in Africa, or elsewhere.

Mr. Clay having left the chair, Gen. Mason, one of the Vice Presidents, presided as President.

Resolved, unanimously, That the thanks of this meeting be presented to Mr. Clay, for the ability and attention with which he has presided as Chairman of the meetings in organizing the society.

On motion of Mr. Herbert,

Resolved, unanimously, That the Rev. Robert Findley be requested to close the meeting with an address to the Throne of Grace.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 14, 1817.

Memorial of the President and Board of Managers of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled:

The memorial of the President and Board of Managers of the "American Society for colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States,"

RESPECTFULLY SHOWS:

That your memorialists are delegated by a numerous and highly respectable association of their fellow citizens, recently organized at the Seat of Government, to solicit Congress to aid with the power, the patronage, and the resources of the country, the great and beneficial object of their institution-an object deemed worthy of the earnest attention, and of the strenuous and persevering exertions, as well of every patriot, in whatever condition of life, as of every enlightened, philanthropic, and practical statesman.

It is now reduced to be a maxim, equally approved in philosophy and practice, that the existence of distinct and separate castes, or classes, forming exceptions to the general system of policy adapted to the community, is an inherent vice in the composition of society: pregnant with baneful consequences, both moral and political, and demanding the utmost exertion of human energy and foresight to remedy or remove it If this maxim be true in the general, it applies with peculiar force to the relative condition of the free people of color in the United States; between whom and the rest of the community, a combination of causes, political, physical, and moral, has created distinctions, unavoidable in their origin, and most unfortunate in their consequences. The actual and prospective condition of that class of people; their anomalous and indefinite relations to the political institutions and social ties of the community; their deprivation of most of those independent, political, and social rights, so indispensable to the progressive melioration of our nature; rendered, by systematic exclusion from all the higher rewards of excellence, dead to all the elevating hopes that might prompt a generous ambition to excel-all these considerations demonstrate that it equally imports the public good, as the individual and social happiness of the persons more immediately concerned; that it is equally a debt of patriotism and of humanity, to provide some adequate and effectual remedy. The evil has become so apparent, and the necessity for a remedy so palpable, that some of the most considerable of the slave-holding States have been induced to impose restraints upon the practice of emancipation, by annexing conditions, which have no effect but to transfer the evil from one State to another; or, by inducing other States to adopt countervailing regulations, end in the total abrogation of a right, which benevolent or conscientious pro

prietors had long enjoyed under all the sanctions of positive law and of ancient usage. Your memorialists beg leave, with all deference, to suggest that the fairest and most inviting opportunities are now presented to the General Government for repairing a great evil in our social and political institutions, and at the same time for elevating, from a low and hopeless condition, a numerous and rapidly increasing race of men, who want nothing but a proper theatre to enter upon the pursuit of happiness and independence, in the ordinary paths which a benign Providence has left open to the human race. Those great ends, it is conceived, may be accomplished by making adequate provision for planting, in some salubrious and fertile region, a colony, to be composed of such of the above description of persons as may choose to emigrate; and for extending to it the authority and protection of the United States, until it shall have attained sufficient strength and consistency to be left in a state of independence.

Independently of the motives derived from political foresight and civil prudence on the one hand, and from moral justice and philanthropy on the other, there are additional considerations and more expanded views to engage the sympathies and excite the ardor of a liberal and enlightened people. It may be reserved for our Government, (the first to denounce an inhuman and abominable traffic, in the guilt and disgrace of which most of the civilized nations of the world were partakers) to become the honorable instrument, under Divine Providence, of conferring a still higher blessing upon the large and interesting portion of mankind benefitted by that deed of justice, by demonstrating that a race of men, composing numerous tribes, spread over a continent of vast and unexplored extent, fertility, and riches, unknown to the enlightened nations af antiquity, and who had yet made no progress in the refinements of civilization; for whom history has preserved no monuments of arts or arms; that even this hitherto il fated race may cherish the hope of beholding at last the orient star revealing the best and highest aims and attributes of man. Out of such materials, to rear the glorious edifice of well ordered and polished society, upon the deep and sure foundations of equal laws and diffusive education, would give a sufficient title to be enrolled among the illustrious benefactors of mankind; whilst it afforded a precious and consolatory evidence of the all prevailing power of liberty, enlightened by knowledge and corrected by religion. If the experiment, in its more remote consequences, should ultimately tend to the diffusion of similar blessings through those vast regions and unnumbered tribes, yet obscured in primeval darkness; reclaim the rude wanderer from a life of wretchedness to civilization and humanity; and convert the blind idolater, from gross and abject superstitions, to the holy charities, the sublime morality, and humanizing discipline of the Gospel, the nation or the individual that shall have taken the most conspicuous lead in achieving the benignant enterprise, will have raised a monument of that true and imperishable glory, founded in the moral approbation and gratitude of the human race; unapproachable to all but the clected instruments of divine beneficence-a glory, with which the most splendid achievements of human force or power must sink in the competition, and appear insignificant and vulgar in the comparison. And above all should it be considered, that 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 effort 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 have just alluded. They hope to be excused for intimating some of the reasons which would bring that portion of the world before us, when engaged in dicovering a place the most proper to be selected; leaving it, with perfect confidence, to the better information and better judgment of your honorable body to make the choice.

Your memorialists, without presuming 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 effectual measures, will only pray, that the subject may be recommended to their serious consideration, and that, as an humble auxiliary in this great work, the association represented by your memorialists may be permitted to aspire to the hope of contributing its labors and resources.

BUSH. WASHINGTON, President.

The memorial, after being read in the House of Representatives, and ordered to be printed, was referred to the Committee on the Slave Trade, Messrs. Pickering, Comstock, Condict, Tucker, Taggart, Cilly, and Hooks: their report and resolutions follow:

NOTE. The report and resolutions here referred to, are those presented by Mr. Pickering, February 11th, 1817, and will be found in the preceding part of this appendix.

Letter from the Committee of the Colonization Society to the House of Representatives.

To the Hon. HENRY CLAY,

Specker of the House of Representatives:

SIR: In obedience to instructions from the American Society for Coloniz ing the Free People of Color of the United States, we beg leave to lay before Congress some account of the measures pursued by the Society for accomplishing the great objects of its institution; and the result of their inquiries and researches after such facts and information as might most clearly demonstrate how far any scheme of colonization, dependent for its success upon the interior state of Africa, and upon the actual condition and disposition of her native tribes, might be practicable, and also enable the founders of the intended colony to make the most prudent and judicious selection of a situation for it. In order to obtain the most recent and accurate information, from sources of the most unquestionable authority, the Society sent out, at great expense, two agents, Mr. Mills and Mr. Burgess; who have proved themselves eminently qualified for the undertaking. The agents first visited England, with a view to acquire such preparatory instruction in the most efficacious mode of pursuing the objects of their mission, as the great mass of rare, valuable, and authentic information, collected in that country, from various sources, might afford them. They proceeded from England to the West coast of Africa, where they prosecuted their researches with such zeal, industry, and intelligence, as to have contributed essentially to the illustration of many inportant and interesting facts, connected with the geography, climate, soil, and products, of that part of the continent; and with the habits, manners, social institutions, and domestic economy, of its inhabitants. From the information thus obtained, the present period would

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