Samuel John Mills. to come, to resume the subject, for I have become deeply interested." 'I will hear you with pleasure, Caroline,' said her father. Caroline remarked, They are the lines of Mrs. Sigourney, on reading the Biography of Mr. Mills.' "Oh Africk! raise thy voice and weep For him who sought to heal thy wo, Unfetter'd by the wiles of earth, And girded for the race of heaven, To God and thee his soul was given. In hermit cells of prayerful thought, He nursed that sacred wish which sought Our western wilds where outcasts roam, Blest Obookiah's sea-girt home The ardor of his zeal embrac'd. But thou, indebted clime, that drew Through torrid seas his stranger sail, Pour forth the wildest, bitterest wail." Friends of Africa. CONVERSATION XX. "Many circumstances at present seem to concur in brightening the prospects of the Society, and cherishing the hope that the time will come when the dreadful calamity which has so long afflicted our country, and filled so many with despair, will be gradually removed, and by means consistent with justice, peace, and the general satisfaction: thus giving to our country the full enjoyment of the blessings of liberty, and to the world the full benefit of its great example."-Madison. MR. L. remarked, at the opening of this conversation, 'It has occurred to me that, in mentioning the early friends of Africa, I ought not to have omitted mentioning more particularly the name of Anthony Benezet. His name will live, whilst virtue and benevolence are respected among men ; and his earnestness in the cause of humanity will be remembered long after the history of Africa's redemption shall be written. Benezet established a free school in Philadelphia for the education of colored people, which is still in operation in Willing's alley, and at which John Williams and Peter Harris, interesting youths from the native tribes of Bassa Cove, have been partially educated; the former of whom has returned to Africa, and the latter, an African prince, is now at Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., for the completion of his education. Benezet was always prompt to plead in the behalf of the colored race, as, to their honor be it told, have ever been the respectable Society of Friends, of which he was a member, to feel a deep concern to ameliorate the condition of this unhappy class of their fellow-men. Benezet early caused to be republished in Philadelphia the celebrated tract of Granville Sharp, on the injustice of the slave. trade, and also wrote and published a work on the subject himself, which was republished in England. He commenced Anthony Benezet. - "I a correspondence with Mr. Sharp on the subject, in 1772; of this correspondence I will give you another extract :doubt not," he writes, "but thou wilt, upon inquiry, find more well-minded people ready to cry thee God speed,' in this weighty service, than thou art aware of. The most solid amongst all dissenters, particularly the Presbyterians, would be well-pleased to see an end put to the slave-trade, and many, to slavery itself. The people of New England have made a law that nearly amounts to a prohibition of the trade, and I am informed, have proposed to the governor and council, that all negroes born in the country shall be free at a certain age. The people of Maryland and Virginia, are so convinced of the inexpediency, if not of the iniquity of any further importation of negroes, that twenty thousand people would freely join in a petition to parliament, against any further import." Roberts Vaux, in his life of Benezet, says, "During the sitting of the legislature, in 1780, a session memorable for the enactment of a law which commenced the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania," Benezet "had private interviews on the subject with every member of the government, and no doubt thus essentially contributed to the adoption of that celebrated measure." 'I will now endeavor to satisfy your inquiry in respect to the object of the American Colonization Society. This can be done in a few words, by referring to the constitution itself, of the Society, the first two articles of which are as follows: “Article I. This Society shall be called the American Society FOR COLONIZING THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR of the United States. "Article II. 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 EXPEDIENT." Object of colonization. Is this alone the object of the Society?' said Caroline, I had supposed that it contemplated also the suppression of the slave-trade, and also the final emancipation of slaves in our country.' Its whole object,' said Mr. L., ' is stated in the second article of its constitution. Other important ends may be obtained as the means of establishing and building up the colony, or as consequences of the efforts for colonization; but this is the one object it has in view. Pursuing this one object, the North and the South may unite in harmonious action. The subject of emancipation it passes by, knowing that this belongs exclusively to the several States in which slavery is tolerated, and to individual proprietors in those States, under and according to their laws. The subject of the slave-trade is not contemplated directly in the constitution of the Society, for the authority for its suppression is vested only in the government of the nations. Nor does it directly aim at the education and improvement of the blacks in this country; for this must be under the direction of State governments, or of State Societies, and no interference in the domestic concerns of any one State, is admissible on the part of inhabitants of another State. At the same time, to use the language of one of its Vice-Presidents, Mr. Clay, "It hopes that if it shall demonstrate the practicability of the successful removal to Africa, of free persons of color, with their own consent; the cause of emancipation, either by States or by individuals, may be incidentally advanced. At the same time, our country will be relieved of a great evil in proportion as colonization succeeds; those who may remove will find their condition greatly improved; and by introducing knowledge, industry, and religion into Africa, we shall contribute to the suppression of the slave-trade, and to the civilization and conversion of a CONTINENT! These are ends Colonization generally approved. which will be obtained although the object of the Society is one." The course which the Society takes, unites a greater number of judicious and well disposed persons of every section of our common country, probably, than any other plan could. It is true, there are not a few who object: the slaveholder has, in some instances, indulged the suspicion that an interference" with the rights of property," may be intended; and the advocate of general and immediate emancipation without discrimination, has cast upon the Society his keenest reproaches, alleging that its influence, if not its direct object, is to perpetuate the existence of slavery. These objections, however, so diametrically opposite, many advocates of colonization regard as matter of felicitation, rather than otherwise, inasmuch as they evince the wisdom of the plan of operation which is proposed. The virulent denunciations of both extremes of public sentiment, they say, were to be expected by a Society rejecting the hurtful in the views of either, although adopting the liberal in both. Besides, had it been warmly espoused at the first by either, it would have been irreconcileably opposed by the other, and would have been itself the dividing line between two great parties, leaving no middle ground on which the great majority of the nation might stand, as now, and safely urge forward this cause of philanthropy and of patriotism, without compromise of principles, or the violation of the constitution and endangerment of the Union.' This Society,' Caroline here remarked, we know, is approved by many judicious and good men, and I do not see why it should be opposed, or suspected of designing to take any other course than that which it has taken, and still pursues. Charity thinketh no evil.” 66 Henry said, 'I wonder how the subject would strike the |