occasion was certain information received from the United States, a part of which, relating to the future action of our Government, was at least premature. Of the details of the action or purposes of the Commissioners we are not informed, except on one point. A Boston paper of April 18 contained a dispatch from Washington, dated April 17, in the following words, viz.:

"An agent of the Government of Liberia appeared before the President to-day, and urged the compulsory transportation of freed slaves to Liberia."

This was copied into another paper, with severe comments. The Commissioners applied to the President to exonerate them from that imputation. He replied as follows:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 5, 1862. GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to reply, in answer to your communication of the 1st May, which I herewith return, that neither you nor any one else have ever advocated, in my presence, the compulsory transportation of freed slaves to Liberia or elsewhere.

You are at liberty to use this statement as you please.

Yours, very truly,

J. D. JOHNSON,

ALEX. CRUMMELL.

A. LINCOLN.

District of Columbia.-Some have supposed that the act emancipating slaves in the District of Columbia, and providing for their colonization at the expense of the Government, would furnish many emigrants. It may do so ultimately, but not now. Immediately on its passage, the Society offered its services to the Government in colonizing such as are desirous to emigrate. The number known to entertain that desire, after industrious inquiry, was one. The colored people were expecting such changes as would make the District the most desirable place for their residence.

CONCLUSION.

And so it is extensively. While white men foresee, as near at hand, a great emigration, induced by motives too strong to be resisted, people of color are waiting, in the hope of changes which will make their condition here as good as that of white men, and thus remove, as they think, all inducement to emigrate.

In this expectation we have no doubt they will be disappointed. But if their condition here could be made all that they hope or wish, still emigration would be their interest and their duty. No conditions of ease, and comfort, and wealth, and respectability in this country, which their imaginations can conceive, would be so attractive to a right-minded man as the career of prosperity, and beneficence, and glory which opens before them in the land of their ancestors. Making Africa what Africa may and must become under the influence of Christian civilization, is the most glorious triumph which yet remains to be achieved in any quarter of the world. They can do that work better than any other people on earth. Indeed, the most competent judges affirm that they are the only people on earth who are qualified for it. They have peculiar advantages for it in their consanguinity. There is among them mind, and intelligence, and wealth enough to

do it themselves, without help; and if help is desirable, it may be had in any amount in which they will show themselves ready to use it. Some of their own number have already successfully begun the work, have done more towards its accomplishment than white men have ever been able to do, and are earnestly entreating them to come over and share in their labors and their glory.

MAINE COLONIZATION SOCIETY.

PORTLAND, ME., June 28, 1862.

Reverend and Dear Sir: The annual meeting of the Maine State Colonization Society occurred in the High Street Church (Rev. Dr. Chickering's), on Thursday evening, the 26th instant.

The devotional services were conducted by Rev. Drs. Wright, of the mission to Persia, and Chickering, of Portland.

On taking the chair, Hon. Phineas Barnes, President of the Society, made an introductory address in his felicitous style.

Rev. John O. Fiske, of Bath, Secretary, made a very able report, in which he alluded to the favorable omens for the enterprise of colonization, the disadvantages of colored emigration to Hayti, and to the opinions of the founders respecting the benignant influence of African colonization upon the condition and destinies of the colored people in this country, showing that they regarded it as the most effectual way of elevating the negro to the highest position and happiness.

Rev. E. W. Blyden, professor of languages in Liberia College, followed with an address of great interest and value. Referring to the erroneous views com. monly entertained respecting the physical condition of Africa, he said it is a land of beauty and grandeur, of equable climate, of prolific soil and luxuriant vegetation, of hills, and valleys, and flowing streams. The Republic of Liberia he regarded as a "fixed fact," so that, though no more emigrants from this country should go there, she would still exist, and go on to maturity and strength.

Respecting the condition and prospects of the colored people in this country he spoke with great plainness and force. He insisted that there is no ground of hope for the highest elevation and welfare of the negro but emigration to Africa. They that would detain him here are not his best friends. That philanthropy which encourages him to stay this side of his ancestral land is but "partial and temporary." The true friends of the man of color are colonizationists, who would help him to self culture and development in a country of "his own," without the overshadowing influence of the white man. lamented the delusion which exists in the minds of many of his brethren, and of some of the professed friends of the negro, in regard to this subject. Africa is the hope for the colored race. Nature indicates this, God's providence signalizes it, and the sooner people of color and their friends recognize and act upon this fundamental truth, the happier will it be for Africa and for America. At the close of this address, which was listened to with profound interest

He

by a very large audience, in which were many clergymen and people from different parts of the State, attention was called to the fact that, while we had been delighted with one representative of Liberia-the living voice of one of her citizens, another representative had also appeared-a book written by Rev. Alex. Crummell, the fellow citizen and associate in Liberia College with Mr. Blyden-a book marking an era in African literature and progressworthy of the man, and of our times, and of universal progress.

A vote of thanks to Mr. Blyden for his address was heartily applauded.

[We will publish Mr. Blyden's address in our next No.]

Rev. Dr. Duff, of Canada East, spoke, in the happiest terms, of his entire approbation of the sentiments of Mr. Blyden, and of his great delight in the pure English and solid truths to which we had listened. He said that Canada is no fit place for the negro, and he had always believed and maintained, on the other side of the Atlantic and on this, that, for the elevation of the black, he must be endowed with nationality, and Africa is the place for that.

The officers of the last year were re-elected, among whom are

Hon. Phineas Barnes, of Portland, President; Rev. John O. Fisk, of Bath, Secretary; Freeman Clark, Esq., of Bath, Treasurer.

This meeting was one of the most interesting that I have ever attended, and its influence will be salutary and abiding.

Our friends in Maine have lost none of their faith in our principles, nor of their zeal for our success in the great work of colonization. Though the abundance of the sea does not flow into their harbors, as in better days, they do not withhold from Africa. God bless them.

Respected Sir-Among the many letters which have come addressed to President Benson, since his departure from this city for England, and which it became necessary for me to open, is one from yourself, dated 23d February, 1862, thanking his Excellency for the copy of his message forwarded to, and informing him of your intention to transmit to him, by earliest opportunity, copies of the last report of the proceedings of the Board of Directors, and of the ratification of the treaty on the subject of the Recaptured Africans. As His Excellency is absent, and is, therefore, deprived of the pleasure of reading and replying to your letter, and may not be favored in England with its duplicate, permit me, sir, in his behalf to thank you for your expressed intention to transmit to him the copies of the

report referred to. I feel safe in saying, His Excellency will, on the receipt of the report, peruse it with great interest. I hope he has ere this date arrived safe in London, and has had the pleasure of communicating as much to his numerous friends in America.

Since His Excellency's departure, great peace has prevailed among our aboriginal inhabitants, except among the Niffoo and Little Cess fishermen the latter, who have ever given us trouble, are naught but highway robbers and murderers, ever causing difficulty wherever they are permitted to locate. Our farmers are becoming more and more interested in their branch of business, and, thanks to the Lord for it the day has already come in Liberia, that the men who put aside their coats and cause the ring of their axes to be heard in the deep forest, earning their bread in the sweat of their brow, are no longer regarded as men of mean birth and of brainless heads. Among some of the things which do not keep pace with the times is, the educational interest of Liberia, notwithstanding it is two thousand per cent in advance of what it was in the days of Ashmun and up to the time of Buchanan. Unfortunately, Mr. Gurley, your letter to Rev. A. D. Williams, one of Liberia's strongest props, requesting him to express in a letter, some of his observations connected with the early settlement of Liberia, came a few months too late. True, the old veteran had the pleasure of reading the letter, but before he could make it convenient to afford you the gratification sought, he was summoned to the spirit world. Oh what a vacancy succeeded the demise of that tried champion! When I call to mind the days of Mr. Ashmun-when I think of the time, (it was in 1824 if I mistake not,) when you were here with him endeavoring to soothe his troubled mind and to quiet his spirit that had been wounded by the ungenerous act of the Society, and hear your own name mentioned in connection with those by-gone days, I fancy I can enter fully into your feelings when you yourself look back to what is now being borne away by the irrecoverable past. Could Mr. Ashmun now come forth and be once more associated with things of time, what ravishment of heart would be his, on seeing some of those little boys, now grown to be men, whom he used to pat upon the head as he passed them in the narrow foot paths of Monrovia, ruling a republic that had grown out of the little colony, for whose safety, welfare, and interest he had spent his best days and even sacrificed his life. If such meditations as these occasion sadness of heart to the writer, who has, comparatively, just come to manhood, what must be the effect of them upon the mind of Mr. Gurley? But, I turn away from these thoughts, which are only calculated to make us weep like children, and proceed to inform you that a few days ago I commissioned nine persons to go in search of a suitable site for the seat of government. Every revolving year admonishes us of the necessity of seeking in the interior some place that will be, or afford us a safeguard against the invasion of foreign powers, whose cupidity may become excited when we shall have fairly begun to develop the inexhaustible rich resources of our country.

Rev. Sir, let no untoward circumstance occur in the operations of

the Society that will have a tendency to weaken the strong ties of union and affection which have so long and so advantageously to ourselves, bound the Society and Liberia together.

I have, no doubt, greatly taxed your patience and therefore will proceed no farther.

Very respectfully, yours,

D. B. WARNER.

ON THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA,

ITS PRODUCTS AND RESOURCES.

[Continued from page 207.]

Mr. FULLER, of Sierra Leone, said he was not acquainted with Liberia, but he believed the negroes of that country were in a more advanced state than the negroes of Sierra Leone. The latter, however, had had greater advantages than were possessed by the people of Liberia. They had always had schools and the best of teachers, from the time of the colony being settled. But there was one thing which had proved a bane to Sierra Leone; that was, if he might be excused for saying so, the presence of some of the Europeans who had been sent out there, and who had set such an example to the natives, that he could not but think it would have been better if they had remained in Engand; and if the natives were to form their opinions of Englishmen in general from some of those whom they had seen in the colony, it would be a very bad opinion indeed. However, when he came to this country, and saw the good feeling which prevailed towards the negro race, and the desire that was everywhere expressed for their elevation in the social scale, he felt very thankful to the people of England upon the whole. Liberia was no doubt a very promising country, and one which he hoped to see in a short time raising its head amongst the great nations of the earth; and from all they had heard of that state that evening, he thought they must come to the conclusion that the negro was as capable of education, and of being raised in the social scale, as any other portion of the great human family. He would express a sincere hope that this country would do all in its power to advance the Republic of Liberia, and would take every means to promote the elevation of the negro in the social scale. Colonel O'CONNOR, ex-Governor of Gambia, expressed the deep interest which he felt in this subject, and his anxiety to attend the meeting, at which he had had the opportunity of seeing his excellent friend, Mr. Roberts, the ex-President of Liberia. Whilst bearing his willing testimony to the great excellence and value of the paper which had been read, he was, nevertheless, happy to have the opportunity of