retary, a Treasurer, and ten Counsellors, who shall be elected annually, by ballot, on the fourth Wednesday of January, or subsequently by adjournment, and shall hold their respective offices until others are chosen.

ART. 5. The foregoing officers shall constitute a Board of Managers, to whom shall be entrusted the disposition of the funds, and the management of the concerns of the Society. They shall have power to make their own by-laws, to fill any vacancy which may occur in their Board and to employ agents to promote the objects of the Society.

ART. 6. There shall be a public meeting of the Society annually, on the third Wednesday of January, at which the Board of Managers shall make a Report of their doings for the past year, and of the income, expenditures, and funds of the Society.

ART. 7. The President shall preside at all meetings of the Society and of the Board of Managers, or in his absence one of the Vice Presidents, or in their absence a President pro tem.

ART. 8. The Corresponding Secretary shall receive and keep all communications or publications directed to the Society, and transmit those issued by them, and shall correspond with the agents, or any other bodies or individuals, according to the directions of the Society or the Managers.

ART. 9. The Recording Secretary shall notify all meetings of the Society and of the Board of Managers, and keep the records of the same.

ART. 10. The Treasurer shall collect the subscriptions and donations to the Society, hold all its funds, and make payments according to the directions of the Managers; and he shall keep a true account of the same, and render a statement to accompany the Annual Report of the Society.

ART. 11. Any Anti-Slavery Society, or any association founded on kindred principles, may become auxiliary to this Society, by contributing to its funds, and may communicate with us by letter or delegation.

ART. 12. The Society shall hold meetings on the last Monday of March, June, and September, for the transaction of any business which may be presented by the Board of Managers, or for addresses, or for discussion of any subject connected with the objects of the Society. Special meetings may be called by the Board of Managers, or by the Recording Secretary on application from ten members of the Society.

ART. 13. This Constitution may be altered at the Annual Meeting for the choice of officers, provided the amendments proposed to be made, have been submitted to the Board of Managers, in writing, one month previous.

LETTER TO THOMAS CLARKSON.

MY DEAR FRIEND :

LIVERPOOL, 10th Month, 2d, 1832.

It has caused me deep regret to see thy name amongst those of many well-tried friends of humanity as supporters of the American Colonization Society; though I am not surprised that many under the mask of a voluntary and prosperous settlement of free blacks on the coast of Africa-a measure in which every friend of humanity must rejoice-have been led to support a scheme, the nature and effects of which are of a very different character.

In judging of this scheme, we ought never to lose sight of two facts with respect to the enslaved Africans in the United States, in which the enormities of that free country have exceeded those of any other. The first is, that slaves are regularly bred for sale. The second, that, in many of the States, the laws affecting free blacks are of so violently persecuting a character as to compel those who obtain their liberty to leave those States. From the former of these causes, instances must often occur, (from the state of morals in slave countries,) of fathers selling their own children!! From the latter has originated the Colonization Society; it arose out of those prejudices against color, and is a direct attempt to extend the same principle to transportation.

Why are slaveholders so anxious to send away free people of color? Because their slave institutions would be endangered by the competition of respectable free black laborers; and they dread still more their education and advancement in science. If they were desirous of serving the free blacks, they would instruct them at home, (not a few of them, but every one that they send,) and not send them in ignorance to a barbarous country.

To this real scheme of transporting the people of color a professed one is attached, for the ultimate extinction of slavery, by the transportation of the whole black population to the coast of Africa; and we are gravely told that one hundred thousand slaves are ready to be given up, if means can be found of sending them to Africa! A most extraordinary statement, and one for which I believe there is no foundation, in either fact or probability. Can it be believed that the slaveholders of the United States are ready to give up their property, worth at least five millions sterling ?-a liberality unheard of since the foundation of the world. In all the rest of the United States, enough to

pay the expense of their emigration cannot be raised, and hence it is sought for in England. If there was any truth in this wonderful statement, we must all of us have been sadly deceived about the debasing effects of slaveholding on the minds of those engaged in it. No other occupation ever produced such extraordinary liberality.

It would be interesting to know to what class these men belong. Is it the practice of selling their own children which has produced this extraordinary effect? Or are these men amongst the slave buyers, who purchase them for no other purpose than to give them their freedom so soon as the means of sending them to Liberia can be found? Is it not strange indeed, that any man can be bold enough to make assertions so obviously at variance with truth? To whatsoever extent this transportation of slaves was carried, the slaveholders know that the price of those slaves which remained would be enhanced, and their condition embittered, by the removal of all hopes of liberty, so precious to the human soul. The free colored people being kept few and poor, will be prevented from rising, by fair competion, to the equal rank and honor to which that competition naturally conducts, when not marred in its progress by some such scheme as the American Colonization Society. No wonder that, with the exception of some who do not understand the plan, the planters are friendly to the colonization scheme. But the free people of color are opposed to this scheme. They have committed no crime, and do not like to be transported and suffer the highest penalty of the law next to death.

To whatever extent the United States expatriate their cotton cultivators, they destroy one of the chief sinews of their own prosperity, and increase the temptation to other States to renew the slave trade by fresh importations. The whole revenue of the United States, for thirty years to come, would be required to purchase the slaves, and to transport them and the free blacks. to Africa. Such an idea as the extinction of slavery by means of the Colonization Society can never have been seriously contemplated. No! perpetuation, and not extinction of slavery, is its object!

The first command ever given to man was- Be fruitful and multiply.' Who can doubt that it is for his interest to obey this and every other command of God? But in no case is it so manifest as when in a state of slavery. The value of men, as of every other commodity, is governed by their plenty or scarcity; where they are so abundant that parishes are willing to pay the expenses of emigration to get rid of them, there must be an end of slavery. Every increase of numbers tends, whilst it is a proof of better treatment, to promote the mitigation and final

extinction of slavery; and it must be admitted that the Americans evince this proof of better treatment.

The slaves in the United States have rapidly increased, and this increase has been highly beneficial to the cause of humanity. It is estimated that they have increased since 1808, (the time of both our and their abolition of the slave trade,) from 1,130,000 to 2,010,000, and they have more than trebled the growth of cotton since the peace of 1814, and have reduced its price to one third of what it then was, though the Brazils, with all their slave trading, have only added one fourth part to their growth of cotton in the same time. Hence it is plain, that if there has been any increase in the cotton cultivators of Brazils, few or no slaves can have been imported for its cultivation. May we not then say that the increase of the slave population of the United States has done more than all our enormous expenditure for the suppression of the African slave trade?

It cannot but be interesting to thee to know what would have been the effect of a similar increase in the English West Indian slaves. Had they increased in the same proportion as those of the United States (since the abolition of the slave trade) their numbers would have been 728,317 more than they now are, which, if employed in the cultivation of sugar, would have been sufficient to have produced an increase of 240,000 tons annually, whilst all the slave trading of the Brazils and Cuba and the French colonies have only added 115,000 tons to their growth. an increase of sugar would have greatly reduced its price, and consequently the price of slaves, and thereby have destroyed the slave trade for the growth of sugar, as it has long since extinguished that for the cultivation of indigo, and more recently for the growth of cotton.

Such

The disguise is now removing, and the real tendency of the Society is becoming apparent. A bill was reported to House of Delegates of Virginia, for sending the free blacks away by force; but though this compulsory clause was rejected, it is added that several other motions were made, and decided by majorities which amply proved the determination of the House, to adopt some measure for the removal of the free blacks. These legislators admit that the free blacks will not leave the land without some sort of force; which may either be absolute, or by rendering their situation absolutely intolerable.

The

Great injury has been done to the cause of negro emancipation by the encouragement which the agent of this most diabol ical scheme has received from the sanction of thy name. term diabolical is not too severe; for never did Satan, with more success, transform himself into an angel of light, than in the gloss which has covered its deformities.

These persecuted free blacks view the whole plan with the abhorrence which is justly due it, and with which we should view a plan of general transportation from the land of our nativity. The slave-owners are its advocates and supporters. Surely the name of Clarkson will be withdrawn from the ranks of the oppressors, and will be found, as it has ever yet been, amongst the friends of the oppressed African race.

Let us repair the injury which has been done on both sides of the water by this unholy connection between slaveholders and philanthropists; for since this scheme has been on foot, its deadening influence on the energies of the friends of humanity in the United States has been most manifest.

Let there no longer be any doubt which side is taken by the philanthropists of England. Let them declare their deep feeling of sympathy with these sorely persecuted and oppressed people; and such an example will be followed in the U. States, where the friends of humanity will hasten to leave the ranks of the oppressors, and the cause of justice will again flourish.

May I particularly request thy attentive perusal of the following twenty pages, written by my friend Charles Stuart, one of the most devoted Christians I have ever known, and an unwearied advocate of the oppressed Africans.

I am, with great regard,

Thy sincere friend,

JAMES CROPPER.