benevolence, promptly accede to, and have carried out, the plan and arrangement proposed and fully set forth in my communications to you, by the Storm King and President Benson. Under the present, which has no system, and cannot have any, complaints and memorials are being constantly received by me from various sections of the Republic, from county and town meetings, respecting the damages they are daily sustaining from the depredations of those Congoes and other recaptives from Whydah. I shall continue to do what I can to quell the complaints, by informing them that I soon expect to hear from the U. States, when I hope to be able to so supervise the interest of those unfortunate people as will relieve them of the matter of which they complain. I have advised your agents to compensate reasonably any who may sustain loss by the depredations of those people, whenever there is clear proof of the fact. The dry season is now commenced; and it is now high time government had commenced settling these people in the several counties, according to the plan set forth in my communications to you, before referred to. Do relieve us without delay, according to the proposition transmitted in those documents, or Liberia will be thrown back to a position from which it will require years for her to extricate herself. In addition to humanity, nothing else tended to influence this government to allow such a number of wild savages to be landed here in our communities, before the proper understanding and provision, than the unswerving confidence this government has in the justice, benevolence, and purity of motives of the American Colonization Society-that our patrons, by whom, during so many years of anxiety and discouragement, we were fostered, would do right, by acting justly toward Liberia, so soon as the bustle of despatching those three ships was over. * * * Though your favor did not acknowledge the receipt of my letters by the Stevens and Palmas; the sack of coffee by the former, and the mineral specimens by the latter; yet I hope they have been safely received. I close this sheet by stating that our public affairs are moving on as usual. Some seem to apprehend considerable scarcity of domestic provisions within a few months, owing to the great influx of recaptives; for, at this rate, by the close of December we shall have from 8,000 to 10,000 of these unfortunate, helpless people in our midsta population within a fraction of the Americo-Liberian population. This scarcity may take place with respect to cassada, potatoes, &c., until the new crops mature next year; but such has been the abundance of rice produced this and last year, as that, with means to purchase, enough can be bought to feed 20,000. And if this government should be placed in possession of sufficient means, it can receive and properly train as many as 20,000, with our present civilized population. I close by subscribing myself, respectfully, STEPHEN A. BENSON. REV. R. R. GURLEY, Cor. Sec. A. C. S., Washington, D. C. FORTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. The forty-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Colonization Society, will be held in this city on the third Tuesday, 15th of January, 1861. The Board of Directors will meet the same day at 12 o'clock M. RECEIPTS OF AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY, From the 20th November to the 20th December, 1860. MAINE. Wiscassett-Patrick Lennox, 5th annual subscription on his life membership NEW HAMPSHIRE. By Rev. F. ButlerPortsmouth-His Excellency Ichabod Goodwin, Rev. Chas. Burroughs, D. D., R. Jenness, D. R. Rogers, Peter Jenness, Dr. D. H. Peirce, each $5; The Misses Rogers, Mrs. N. A. Haven, Mrs. W. Williams, each $4; Mrs. H. Ladd, the Misses Ladd, Cash, each $3; Miss E. Walker, Cash, each $2; H. Webster, C. E. Myers, Miss E.Thompson, each $1-(of the above, $30 to constitute Rev. Wm. L. Gage a life member) Francestown-Hon. Wm. Bixby, $10, Rev. Charles Cutler, $2, P. H. Bixby, P. C. Butterfield, Israel Batchelder, $1 each. Franklin-Hon. Geo. W. Nesmith, Laconia-Contribution in Congregation of Rev. John K. Young, D. D. Hollis-$38; E. Lempster-$1 VERMONT. By Rev. F. Butler-$56.25St. Johnsbury-Rev. Wm. W. Thayer, Hon. Moses Kittredge, $5 each; E. Jewett, E. C. Redington, $3 each; Rev. E. C. Cummings, T. M. Howard, E. Chamberlain, $2 each; S. Jewett, J. C. Bingham, J. M. Warner, J. H. Colby, $1 each Hartland-Collection in Congrega tional Church Ascutneyville-Rev. Moses Kimball Windsor-C. S. Johnson Newbury By Rev. J. Orcutt-$62.50Brattleboro-N. B. Williston, $10, Anthony Van Doorn, W. Good- Jacobs, each $5; Hiram Orcutt, 58 00 15 00 2.00 7.00 39 00 121 00 28 00 8 25 1.00 1.00 20.00 40 00 MASSACHUSETTS. Newburyport-Two Ladies, one $3 and the other $2, by Captain G. Barker. RHODE ISLAND. By Rev. John Orcutt-$335.78Providence-Robert Ives 25, Mrs. S. A. Paine, Mrs. Moses B. Ives, Mrs. A. and Daughter, Miss Julia Bullock, J. P. Ives, H. N. Slater, J. N. Mason, A. D. & J.Y. Smith, each $10, II. A. Rogers, J.Rogers, E. W. Howard, E. P. Mason, Rufus Waterman, Mrs. Eliza Waterman, Prof. Dunn, Miss A. L. Harris, each $5; Gilbert Congdon, $4, Miss Mary S. Dean $2, Rev. David Henshaw $1, Parishioners of Rev. Cyrus H. Fay, to constitute him a life member, as follows: Earl Carpenter & Sons $5, D. C. Anthony, A. W. Fisk, William Sheldon, R. A. Webster, each $2; W. Handy, H. L. Webster, S. Smith, L. N. Perry, S.H.Thomas, Joshua Gray, S. B. Darling, G. W. Babcock, C. W. Randall, T. Curtis, J. A. Darling, S. S. Warren, G. E. Cleveland, R. Sanders, P. A. Munroe, B. B. Manchester, each $1; H. G. Tucker, C. o. Ballou, each 50 cents. Perry Davis & Son, a donation in Pain Killer' sent to Liberia, valued at $36 Pawtucket-Mrs. Larned Pitcher $5, B. L. Pitcher, Mrs. F. Sayles, Robert Sherman, each $3; Rev. Dr. Blodget, E. B. Pitcher, James Budlong, J. S. Budlong, James Davis, each $2; J. C. Tower, A. O. Read, F. K. King, F. Pratt, W. Newell, Geo. Newell, Dr.Wheaton, Dr. Manchester, J. H. Willard, C. S. Beers, each $1 Slatersville-W. S. Slater Bristol-Mrs. Ruth DeWolf $15, in part towards a life membership; Two friends $15, Charles Sherry, jr., W. Fales, Robert Rogers, each $10; Mrs. Sarah Peck, Mrs. L. S. French, each $3; J. De Wolf Perry, $1 5 00 218 00 34 00 10 00 73 78 335 78 CONNECTICUT. By Rev. John Orcutt-$113.29- Windsor-Mrs. Nancy Pierson $5, Kensington-Collection in Congrega- Norwich Mrs. J. E. Huntington PENNSYLVANIA. By Rev. B. O. Plimpton-$53-(his Breacht $5, Otis Reed $5, S. 6 00 FOR REPOSITORY. 405 00 MAINE.-Wiscassett-Patrick Len 7 00 Erie-Elihu Marvin 36 00 nox NEW HAMPSHIRE.-By Rev. F. ney-Mrs. Phebe Ruggles, $8 RHODE ISLAND.-Providence-Gil- MARYLAND.- Baltimore-Zebulon 1 00 11 00 9 00. 2.00 46 00 5 00 Dover-Individuals $6, M. W. B. $10, Cash, Cash, each $5 26 00 VIRGINIA. - Richmond- Cornelius -Hamp Smyrna-W. E., and W. C. E., each stead-Charles G. Alexander, in $5 10 00 Milford Harrington 3 17 NORTH CAROLINA.-Edenton-Miss 1 00 Delaware City-. New Castle-Individuals 8 68 GEORGIA.-Macon-John L. Gresh C. D. Mallary, $2. Bell 101 97 OHIO.-By Rev. B. O. Plimpton, $1, 5 19 INDIANA.-Rockville-N. Y. Allen, to Jan. '61 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 8 00 1 00 2. 00 51 87 2,011 90 . 12,358 33 $14,422 10 THE AFRICAN REPOSITORY. Vol. xxxvii.] WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY, 1861. [No. 2. ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. The forty-fourth annual meeting of this Society was held in the Hall of the Smithsonian Institution on the evening of the 15th of January, 1861. The Hon. J. H. B. LATROBE, President of the Society, took the Chair. The Divine blessing was invoked by the Rev. PETER PARKER, of Washington. The President of the Society then addressed the meeting in the following words: We have met here to-night to commemorate the organization of our Society in December, 1816. Our country had then just emerged from war. Less than two years had elapsed since the treaty of peace with Great Britain. Victories at sea, victories upon land, had signalized the martial character of our people. The sectional disaffection that had existed at the commencement of the war had been drowned in the triumphs of the "United States" and the "Constitution," Lake Erie and Lake Champlain, and Lundy's Lane, and Chippewa, and New Orleans. A common danger had united all men. Commercial activity was the order of the day. The national energy, ceasing to manifest itself in battle, had turned to the subjugation of the wilderness. Mr. MONROE had just been elected President, and was tranquilly awaiting inauguration. Business of every description prospered; and in the quiet of peace, the better appreciated because of the late hot strife, we found ourselves a proud, and brave, and contented nation. It was at such a time, when a future, bright with promise, was opening to our people, that the distresses of another people in our midst, but not of us, and who had no future, attracted the sympathies of statesmen and philanthropists. CLAY, whose clarion voice cheered the hearts of his countrymen when saddened by defeat; RANDOLPH, whose eloquence and sarcasm, whose quick retort and biting jest have become traditional; MADISON, the commentator of the Constitution, the President of the Republic it had created, by whom the war, just ended, had been brought to a triumphant close; CALDWELL, the philanthropist; MERCER, whose heart embraced every human interest under every sky; and KEV, the accomplished lawyer, the Christian gentleman, the patriot poet, who, amid the din of war, the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air," conceived and gave to his country the noblest ode that ever yet adorned a nation's song-these were the men who, with others like them, perfected the plan of a home for the free people of color of the United States, where, on another continent, they too might have a future, in the long vista of which war might hang up its banners, peace display its trophies, religion erect its altars, until prophecy should be fulfilled. Of all that was done in the years following the peace of 1815, whether in commercial enterprise, clearing the forest, exploring the mine, building the manufactory, constructing the highway, nothing was more worthy of praise than this turning aside, as it were, from the grand march of events, that the weak and the dependent might have such a future as we have suggested. And so will History yet speak of the American Colonization Society. She may pass by without comment men prominent in the politics of the hour; the countless heroes of small occasions; the orators of party, rising, rocket-like and noisily, only to explode and disappear-all these History at pleasure may ignore, but Liberia, a nation now among the nations, will not permit its founders to be forgotten. It is well known to all who have been in the habit of attending the meetings of our Society how carefully all tendency to political discussion has been avoided. Occupying, as we have done, a common ground between the North and the South, we have confined ourselves to topics germane to the exclusive object of the association-the removal of the free people of color, with their own consent, to Africa. Nor is it intended now to depart from this Constitutional observance, when reference is thus made to what may be termed the hallowed memories of our cause. On occasion, however, when we are forced to regard it as a possibility, at the least, that this meeting of our Society, with its present constituency, may be our last, we may be permitted to look back, though through tears, to the day when there were no such words as dissolution and disunion; when the Republic-E pluribus Unum-swept forward in beauty on the highway of what then seemed a glorious destiny, and illustrated its bounteous capability of good in such creations as our own. We may be permitted, we repeat, to recall these reminiscences of the past, if only to express the hope that, as they are common to the whole people, the heart of the whole people may yet swell with them, until, as between brothers who have stood opposed, the fame of a common mother, the generous rivalries of a common manhood, may moderate and overcome the angry feelings of a temporary strife, and the harmony of a household, hallowed in the estimation of every lover of liberty and friend of humanity throughout the world, may be again restored. But whatever result, the importance of Colonization, in connexion with the free people of color, cannot be impaired. The differences of race, the prejudices of caste, are independent of the aggrandizement or the belittleing of nations. The law of labor, the relation of wages to supply and demand, the certainty that in the competition inevitable upon the increase of the aggre |