out in one or two instances at this meeting, is a deep seated and an absorbing desire to see their homes, their fathers, and especially their mothers, who seemed to hold in their hearts an equal place with their wives and children. "Fifteen of these Africans were present at this meeting. Each one of them exhibited his improvement in reading and spelling. A hymn was sung by them, and also two or three of their native songs. An account of their adventure in the Amistad was related by one of them in such broken English as could however be understood by a quick ear, and afterwards repeated by CINQUEZ in his native tongue. An impression very much in their favor seemed to be felt by the audience." If it be indeed true, that the sterile regions of the North bind the affections so forcibly to the soil, is it not reasonable to infer that the children of Africa should feel still more the power of this attraction, and that while freedom of thought is left to them, they will remember with impatient wishes the home of their fathers? The unsophisticated native of the tropical climes, is every where "Lord of the Manor"-the wild groves of the almond and the orange, his primeval garden-the sunny sky, his canopywhile the forest, with its variety of delicious game, furnishes sustenance and delight for the passing day. Filial love and duty have their laws also in his bosom. He cherishes with tender fondness the waning years of his mother, and venerates the authority and the presence of an aged father. These memorials of the past recall the days of childhood, and the wild scenes of beautiful nature are associated in his recollections with maternal care. The undisciplined mind may be unconscious of the operations of thought and feeling, yet the process and the effect is the same in all. These Mendi men have passed through the successive stages of life to manhood-have heard the song of the mother as she hushed their infancy to sleep-have welcomed the father and the brother as they came weary from the chase, to supply the board with the fruits of their arduous enterprise-have danced in the twilight shades under the boughs of the banyan, by the side of the smooth flowing stream, while the spicy odors of the lime and the citron scented the evening breeze, and perhaps breathed upon their spirits a harmonizing and exalting influence. We cannot read the plain statements inserted above, without following out the connexion of the past and present, with all their peculiar associations, to these Africans. They ask for their homes, their birth-place, the land of their fathers. They have been thrown, uneducated heathens, upon our shores by Providence. Does it not seem to present an apt and imperative inducement to us to improve the opportunity of doing good to a less favored people and country, by instructing them, as far as possible, in our arts, our laws, and Religion, and sending them back to diffuse among their own race and color the advantages which their example and precepts may afford to Africa? NEW YORK COLONIZATION SOCIETY. THIS Society held its Anniversary meeting in the Middle Dutch Church, and was well attended. The meeting was opened by the Choir singing the following hymn, composed by Mrs. Dr. PALMER, for the Ninth Anniversary of the New York State Colonization Society : God of all grace! O Lord of Hosts! And of thy wonderous works proclaim. Are schemes of love and mercy wrought- Fountain of wisdom, power and light! To show where gloomy terrors reigned- To these dark shores the way is cleared- And Israel's triumph song is heard, Rising to Heaven with sweet accord. Hosanna! let the swell of praise Bound through the earth and rend the skies: Redeemed, enlightened Afric, rise. The Rev. Mr. EATON, of Poughkeepsie, next read the 72d Psalm, after which the Rev. Mr. DEMEREST offered up a prayer. Dr. REESE, of this city, then read a variety of letters, principally from gentlemen who had been invited to attend this Anniversary. The first was from the President and Board of Managers of the American Colonization Society at Washington, in which they spoke of the prosperity of the cause in which they were engaged. From New Orleans, they said, forty-one emigrants were about to embark for Africa; and in Tennessee, Kentucky, and other States, a good feeling prevailed towards their cause, and as soon as the existing embarrassments shall have passed away from the country, it might be expected that the Colonization enterprise would receive from those States a generous support. Within the last two years the Board of Directors had been able to discharge all their liabilities, exceeding $15,000 in Liberia, and have reduced the debt of the Society from $60,000 to $15,000 in this country. Of the Colony of Liberia it was said that its condition was highly improved. The next letter was from Dr. MILLDOLLAR, of New Brunswick, who regretted his inability to attend the Anniversary; his views had been favorable to this Society from the beginning, and he believed its commercial advantages were amongst the least considerations which could influence his judgment in its favor. He believed the time would come when this Society would not only emancipate the slave, but break up the horrible piracy of the slave trade. The Rev. Dr. Woods, of Andover, had also written a letter, in which he said the Colonization enterprise had been always dear to him, and he was .surprised that any man could object to it. He said it was gaining favor in his neighborhood and throughout the United States. If any other mode of benefitting the Africans could be found, he hoped it would be adopted; but he felt quite sure this was a safe and promising cause, and that by it a great amount of blessing would be produced to the colored race, here and in Africa. The Hon. GIDEON LEE, of Ontario county, New York, in his letter, spoke of this as a good cause and a most glorious enterprise. He believed both the present race of Africans and their posterity would be benefitted by it. He anticipated by it the spread of the Gospel and the progress of .civilization through the long benighted regions of Africa. He concluded with a wish that a good Providence may speed this good work. The Rev. Dr. MILLER, of Princeton, in his letter said that the plan of Colonization of the free people of color, with their own consent, on that dark continent, appeared to him to be so benevolent and so noble, his constant wonder was that there could be any one professing to be friendly to the colored race, to withhold his support, and to cover it with reproach. He looked upon such persons as tending to destroy one of the most benevolent plans of the present day. The cause appeared to him to be a great Christian enterprise; it was a scheme admirably calculated to benefit the colored race, and to give them an elevation, both morally and politically, which they could not obtain here for one hundred years to come; it would also benefit and civilize Africa in the most easy manner. He was surprised that any one could represent the Colony of Liberia as one of dubious promise. The Colony of their Pilgrim fathers was far more adverse than the Colony on the coast of Africa; and the influence it would exert in breaking up the nefarious traffic, the slave trade, would be great beyond calculation. Every colored man sent there, he said, would stand a witness against that trade, and he hoped the cause would daily gather strength, and that every effort which the Society made might serve to extend the Redeemer's kingdom. The Hon. JOSHUA N. SPENCER, of Utica, spoke of it as a great and good cause, and said his heart was with the meeting. He believed the Society was producing a result which would rescue this country from the anomalous position in which slavery placed it, and was making some atonement for the wrongs of the down trodden slave. The Report of the Managers was next read, from which the following facts were gathered. There has been received during the year from one individual a donation of $500, from another $300, from two others $250 each, from three others $200 each, from eleven individuals $100 each, from twenty-one individuals $50 each, from thirty-seven individuals $30 each, from eleven, to constitute life members, of $50 each, from ladies. The Society now numbers three hundred clergymen as members for life, the great proportion of whom were constituted by the ladies of this country. The total receipts from the 12th May, 1840, to 12th May, 1841, were $10,266 10. There has been paid for goods, wares, and merchandize, sent by the ship Hobart to the Colony at Liberia, $6,156 51; the balance due the treasurer at the last Anniversary, which has been paid, was $970 95; amount paid for elerk hire, fuel, postage, stationary, &c., $433 36; for printing the eighth annual report and sundry other jobs of printing, counterfeit money, depreciated bank paper, and expenses of the last meeting $782 73; repairing a ship $560; paid to the corresponding Secretary on account of his salary $2000; his travelling expenses $8,160 90. Total, $10,266 06; leaving due from the Society for acceptances, and the balance of bills and notes due $2,048 21. The Rev. Dr. CONE then read the annual report, in which the Colony at Liberia was very highly extolled. None who had seen the houses, villages, and cultivated grounds of the colonists, would doubt that they are an industrious people. Their appearance is much improved since 1834, and they have farms, farm houses, churches, school houses, &c., as good as in any other country. The cultivation of the soil is receiving particular attention; their progress is steadily and rapidly advancing, and the most profound peace prevails through all the country adjoining. Many thousand acres were planted with the coffee, sugar cane, &c., and no Colony could be found to have arrived at such a state of respectability in so early a period of its infancy. The colonists have schools for the instruction and elevation of their youth. They are forming societies for the relief of their own poor and indigent, and for other benevolent purposes; and the minds of the colored race, now free from the influence of depreciating circumstances, are expanding by their native buoyancy to their proper rank. Many have been added to Jesus the Mediator, and there emphatically a door has been opened. There are seventy missionaries employed around and in the Colony, colored and white, and they are not laboring in vain, nor spending their strength for nought. The claim of Africa to the sympathies and charities of this country were set forth. The Rev. Dr. YALE rose and said:-Sir, I rejoice to hear that report, and I desire that all others may also hear it or read it; and therefore with pleasure I offer the following resolution: Resolved, That the Report of the Board of Managers, now read, be adopted, and printed under the direction of the Executive Committee. You desire to see the African a man, but we despair of seeing what our hearts desire at present, at least in our own land, under present circumstances in which they are placed. Some may call it prejudice, but how are you to reason it down? There is great difficulty in this matter, and we fear, after all that can be done for the colored man in the United States, and in the West Indies, he will not be a free man; or if he be in some sense, he will not be so in another; he will not stand on equal ground with the people with whom he dwells. But we see a prospect opening before us where he may enjoy the privilege of equality with our countrymen; we desire to see him where he will enjoy all that we desire to enjoy ourselves, and therefore we give him the opportunity to go to Liberia. That is the enterprise in which we are engaged; it is near our hearts-not because we wish to get rid of the colored man from our soil-we do not wish merely to free the land from what we consider a disgrace, but we desire it for the benefit of the African-for the benefit of those who wish to send there, and of those who are in the far distant land. We wish to send him to that land from which we have heard a report so interesting to every philanthropist and christian. I wish, for one, that this report may go forth and tell its story to all, both far and near, to influence some and animate others-to show them the reasons on which we act, and desire them to operate with us. Sir, I hope the resolution will pass. The Rev. Dr. BOND, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, seconded the motion, which was carried. The Rev. Professor HOLDREDGE, of the Wesleyan University, Conn., moved a resolution to the effect that the clergymen and churches of every denomination be earnestly solicited to take up a collection on the 4th of July, the Anniversary of our National Independence, on behalf of the Colonization Society. When the sentiment of the celebrated African comedian “I am a man, and nothing is foreign to me that interests mankind”was first uttered on the Roman stage, it elicited rapturous applause; there was something of moral sublimity in it. The author of that sentiment was a liberated slave; the audience before him was a motley group, composed of strangers, allies, and citizens of Rome, and with one consent, fimultaneously, they burst out with one round of approbation. That berated slave touched a chord that vibrated every heart amongst his audiHe did more; he struck out an electric spark that flashed along the whole chain that binds our whole brotherhood. "I am a man, and nothing is alien to me that interests mankind." ence. It was in obedience to that, that they had assembled and listened to that report this evening; and in accordance with that sentiment, that resolution was presented to the meeting. The clergy and churches were solicited to take up collections on the Sabbath of the 4th of July, on behalf of the New York Colonization Society. The cause in which they were engaged, was the cause of science and education; they therefore called upon men of science and education. It was the cause of civilization, and they presented it to the civilized and the refined. It was the cause of freedom, and they presented it to the independent and the free. It was the cause of religion, and they had commended it to the Clergy of the land, the patrons and foster parents of piety, and asked their faith, piety and charity. It was the cause of freedom; they therefore appointed the Sabbath day, the 4th of July, combining piety and liberty in their most delightful union, and has asked the Clergy to take up a collection on the 4th of July-that holy day, so dear as a day of piety, of liberty, and intelligence-for the benighted sons of Africa. They regarded it as the cause of pure and lofty philanthropy of a far reaching generosity; and they regarded it in no other light. But what were the objects of this undertaking? Let them consider them for a moment. There were in this land three millions or thereabout of the children of Africa; five-sixths of these are in a state of thraldom; and he freely admitted, though they might allow something for false coloring and generalizing from particular facts, that these enthralled Africans had a deep claim on their commisseration. Their hearts there felt it, and they should be recreant to the common sentiments of humanity, if in any place or on any occasion, they feared to say it. But the remaining onesixth of these unhappy Africans were nominally free in our country. He admitted that slavery was a bitter drug-that freedom is a precious boon, and yet when they come to facts-when they took things as they were— when they looked to the aspect of the future as gathered from the present, he confessed it was a little difficult to say which was the better condition, that of the slave or the free man. He then gave as an illustration an anecdote on that subject. A few years ago he inquired from a gentleman from the State of Delaware, which was a slave State, though there were few slaves in it, as they had been voluntarily manumitted, the question-which was apparently the best condition, that of slavery or freedom, for the people of color. The answer was, and there was perhaps not an individual in the State better able to answer the question, that he must consider them in a worse condition than before, worse fed, worse clothed, and had worse morals. He did not give that anecdote with a view to justify slavery or to discourage emancipation, but to show that difficulties exist in the way of emancipation, and to show the light in which many persons view it, by the testimony of a wealthy and intelligent abolitionist, who had freed all his slaves and never desired to possess another. After all, freedom is a precious boon, yet here it is environed with many difficulties. Again. In Kentucky a slave owner found his station uncomfortable, and after deliberation he came to the conclusion to manumit his slaves; with that view he called them together and laid the proposal before them, |