The moral, intellectual, and political improvement of people of color within the United States, are objects foreign to the powers of this Society." Address of the Am. Col. Soc. to its auxiliaries: Af. Rep. VII. 291.

Let us see also what two religious colonization papers say on this subject.

"If the free people of color were generally taught to read, it might be an inducement to them to remain in this country; we would offer them no such inducements." Southern Religious Telegraph, Feb. 19, 1831.

"It must appear evident to all, that every endeavor to divert the attention of the community, or even a portion of the means which the present crisis so imperatively calls for, from the Colonization Society, to measures calculated to bind the colored population to this country, and seeking to raise them to a level with the whites, whether by founding colleges, or in any other way, tends directly in the proportion that it succeeds, to counteract and thwart the whole plan of colonization." New Haven Religious Intelligencer, July, 1831.

We perceive from these extracts, that the improvement of the free blacks is represented by Colonizationists as impossible, and of course it is folly to attempt what is impracticable. The very attempt, moreover, is calculated to counteract and thwart the whole plan of Colonization, as far as it succeeds. But this is not all. Some might think the obligations of Christianity required us to instruct the ignorant, and to succor the oppressed. To remove this préjudice, we are assured that even Christianity cannot help the negro in America! When before, has the power of our blessed religion in changing the heart, subduing evil affections, and removing unholy prejudices, been questioned by professing Christians?

The influence of the gospel of Christ, has led thousands and tens of thousands to offer themselves as willing victims at the stake or in the amphitheatre-it has prostrated the temples, the altars, and the gods of paganism-it has triumphed over ancient and endeared superstitions-it has delivered the Hindoo from the fetters of caste, and tamed the North American savage, and yet according to Coloniza

tionists, it is utterly impotent, when brought into collision with the prejudices of American Christians, towards an unhappy portion of their fellow countrymen!

And what unsuccessful experiments justify this depreciation of the gospel of Jesus Christ? When have those who thus speak of the inefficacy of religion in subduing these sinful prejudices, tried its power? When have Colonizationists warned Christians that the negro is created by the same Almighty Being, descended from the same parent, redeemed by the same Saviour, and made an heir of the same immortality with themselves? When have we been reminded by them of that heart-searching declaration which will be uttered by the Judge at the last day," inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me?"

Admitting that the blacks who have gone to Africa have improved their condition, what is the total amount of good thus effected? Of the 319,467 free negroes in the United States, 2,122 have in the last 18 years been sent to Liberia. Supposing them to be happy in their new abode, at what a deplorable sacrifice of the happiness of their brethren here, has their own been purchased! To raise funds for their transportation, our churches and halls, in all parts of the United States, have rung with reproaches and accusations against the free people of color. Orators, preachers, legislators, have denounced them as nuisances, vile excrescences on the body politic; ignorant, depraved, debased, and utterly incapable of improvement and elevation. The laws oppressing them have been vindicated, and all legislation deprecated, that would even encourage the hope of their permanent improvement.

And is it possible that this general and united effort to prevent these people from rising, and to render them odious to the community, should have no practical effect on public opinion and conduct? Already do we hear their forcible expulsion from the country, urged in petitions, and advocated in our State Legislatures. He must be wilfully blind to passing events, who does not perceive that the persecution of these people is increasing in extent and malignity. Lafayette remarked in his last visit with astonishment, the aggravation of the prejudices against the blacks,

and stated that in the revolutionary war, the black and white soldiers messed together without hesitation.

In no instance, perhaps, has Colonization had so direct and obvious an influence in augmenting the injuries and oppression of this unhappy race, as in Connecticut. To that State have good men long rejoiced to look as to a bright pattern of a Christian republic. There they beheld political liberty in its highest perfection, and so divested by the influence of religion, of those irregularities of conduct which too often attend it, that the State was proverbially distinguished as "the land of steady habits." In no part of the world were the blessings of education more highly valued, or more generally diffused. The Colonization Society had there taken a strong hold on the affections of the people, and had found in Connecticut divines and politicians, and in the religious periodicals of New-Haven, zealous and able champions.

The city of New-Haven had been long, alike distinguished for its literary institutions, and for the sobriety and piety of its inhabitants. It is not, therefore, surprising that some of the most intelligent and influential of our colored citizens, were led to believe that New-Haven would be a proper site for a school for their children, and that such a school would there find generous patrons. In 1831, a convention was held in Philadelphia of delegates from the free colored people in other States, and it was determined that an effort should be made to raise funds for " a Collegiate school, on the manual labor system." A committee was appointed to carry the plan into execution. This committee published in Philadelphia, " An appeal to the benevolent," in which they stated the necessity of the proposed school, on account of the difficulty which colored children experienced in gaining admission into ordinary seminaries, or mechanical establishments; and that the proposed seminary would be located at New-Haven, and "established on the self supporting system, so that the student may cultivate habits of industry, and obtain a useful mechanical or agricultural profession, while pursuing

classical studies."

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Bishops White and Onderdonk, and the Rev. Doctors Mc Auley, Bedell, and Ely, of Philadelphia, gave the Com

mittee written certificates of their approbation, of the education of colored youth. Little, alas, did these gentlemen anticipate the feeling this effort would excite, among the Christians of New Haven. No sooner had intelligence of the intended school reached that city, than the mayor summoned a town meeting " to take into consideration a scheme, said to be in progress, for the establishment in this city of a college for the education of colored youth." The meeting was held on the 8th September, 1831, and it was 'Resolved by the Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council, and free men of the city of New Hayen, in city meeting assembled, that we will resist the establishment of the proposed college in this place by every lawful means." This resolution was preceded by a preamble, stating that "in connexion with this establishment, the immediate, abolition of slavery in the United States, is not only recommended and encouraged by the advocates of the proposed college, but demanded as a right," and "that the propagation of sentiments, favorable to the immediate emancipation of slaves, in disregard of the civil institutions of the States to which they belong, and as auxiliary thereto, the contemporaneous founding of colleges for educating colored people, is an unwarrantable and dangerous interference with the internal concerns of other States, and ought to be discouraged."

That the education of colored citizens in Connecticut, is an unwarrantable interference with, the internal concerns of other States, and that the friends of the proposed college ever recommended the immediate emancipation of slaves in disregard of the civil institutions of the States to which they belong, are assertions which the Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council, and free men of the city of New Haven, prudently permitted to rest on their own authority, without adducing any other evidence of their truth.

But surely, the pious and excellent Colonizationists of New Haven, who are so anxious to civilize the natives of Africa, must have been indignant at this attempt to keep Americans in ignorance. Alas, in that crowded assembly, there was but one voice raised against its unholy resolution, and that was the voice of a decided Anti-colonizationist, the Rev. S. S. Jocelyn, while one of the public advocates of the resolution, was the Secretary of the New Haver

Committee of Correspondence of the American Colonization Society.

The Colonization party in New Haven, could have prevented this high handed oppression, but their influence was exerted not for, but against the improvement and elevation of their colored brethren.

Unhappily for the character of Connecticut, for that of our common country, and even of Christianity itself, the proceedings in New Haven were but the commencement of a series of outrages on justice, humanity, and the rights of freemen.

There are occasions on which it is treason to truth and honor, if not to religion, to suppress our indignation; and while we shall scrupulously adhere to truth in relating the measures pursued in Connecticut, to prevent the education of a certain class of colored persons, we shall not shrink from a free expression of our opinions of those measures, and of their authors.

Miss Crandall, a communicant in the Baptist church, and, as we believe, a lady of irreproachable character, had for some time been at the head of a female boarding school, in the town of Canterbury, Connecticut, when in the autumn of 1832, a pious colored female applied to her for admission into her school, stating that she wanted" to get a little more learning-enough if possible to teach colored children." After some hesitation, Miss Crandall consented to admit her, but was soon informed that this intruder must be dismissed, or that the school would be greatly injured. This threat turned her attention to the cruel prejudices and disadvantages under which the blacks are suffering, and she resolved to open a school exclusively for colored girls. It has been thought expedient to doubt the philanthropy of this resolution, and to attribute it to pecuniary motives. Whatever may have been her motives, and pecuniary ones would not have been unlawful, she had a perfect right to open a school for pupils of any color whatever, and had not the moral sense of the community been perverted, this attempt to instruct the poor, the friendless, and the ignorant, would have met with applause instead of contumely. She discontinued her school, and in February, 1833, gave public notice of her intention to open one for