COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE. BOSTON. John Tappan, Esq. Chairman. David Hale, Treasurer. The Hon. Samuel Hubbard, Rev. Mr. Wisner, Mr. Jenks, Mr. Wm. Lambert, Jerrard Hallock, Secretary. UTICA, N. Y. Jonas Platt, Esq. Chairman. Thomas Walker, A. G. Doby, Wm. Williams, Thomas Hastings, Esq. Secretary. NEW HAVEN, CONN. Simeon Baldwin, Esq. Chairman. Rev. Harry Crosswell, Claudius Herrick, Timothy Dwight, Esq. Ralph I. Ingersol, Esq. Sec'ry. HARTFORD, CONN. Henry L. Elsworth, Esq. Chairman. Rev. Mr. Hawes, - Mr Lindsey, - Mr. Cushman, S. H. Huntingdon, Esq. Sec'ry. PROVIDENCE, R. I. Nicholas Brown, Esq. Alexander Jones, Esq. FEBRUARY 20, 1826. The following article has just appeared in the Norfolk Beacon, which will, we have no doubt, be particularly gratifying to our friends : The ship Indian Chief, Captain Cochran, chartered by the American Colonization Society, sailed from this port on Wednesday last, the 15th inst. for the Society's settlement at Cape Montserado, on the Coast of Africa. She takes out one hundred and fifty-four free people of colour, with supplies for the Colony, the frames of five large buildings which the government intend to provide for the accommodation of a number of captured Africans who will be sent out hereafter in another vessel, the frames of two long boats for the trade of the rivers, and other things. She takes out also, DR. PEACO, a surgeon of the navy, a gentleman of professional skill, who will act in the double character of an agent of the government, and a physician to the people. The emigrants, we understand, are chiefly from the counties of Perquimans, Pasquotank, and Chowan, in our neighbor state of North Carolina. About fifty of them are sent out, decently furnished for the voyage, by the friends under whose care they have heretofore been living. Eleven are the freedmen of the Rev. John D. Paxton, of Prince Edward county, in this state, given over to the Society to transport them; one the donation in like manner of Dr. Webb, of the Great-Bridge, near this place, and one of the Rev. Cave Jones, of New York. They go out for the most part in families, and are of all ages, but chiefly young men and women, boys and girls, with a few old persons and young infants. Among the men are some good mechanics; but the greater part of them have been used to handle the plough and hoe. With the industrious habits which we understand they have manifested, we have no doubt they will do well in their new country. We owe it, we think, to these emigrants to state, that during the three or four months that they have been detained (the greater part of them) in this place, waiting for the vessel in which they were to embark, they have, with hardly a single exception, displayed a degree of patience, humility, and good order, that entitles them to our warmest praise. And nothing indeed, can more strongly evince their affection for this enterprise than the plain fact, that under all the circumstances of discouragement in which they were placed, and assailed as they were, in some instances, with artful temptations, not one of them was found to flinch from sailing. We are gratified also to record in this place, that the citizens of our borough have shown their usual kindness and charity to the emigrants. Our community indeed is too small to favor that sort of benevolent excitement which we observe was displayed in Boston on the sailing of the Vine; nor would it be altogether wise perhaps to make any public parade of our feelings, in our southern cities, on such occasions. We are glad, however, to be able to state, that we did not send these people away from our shores without some proofs of that sympathy which it surely became us to feel. In this view, we are happy to state that our citizens, and some individuals of Smithfield and Suffolk, gave them liberal donations of clothes and farming utensils, and other things of which they were in want. And we are particularly gratified to add, that on the day before her sailing, the reverend gentlemen of the clergy, of different denominations, went on board the ship, then dropped down below the forts, with a few gentlemen and ladies, friends of the Society, in company, to see the emigrants, and give them a parting prayer. We understand, from one who was present, that the services, on the occasion, aided, no doubt, by the interest of the scene, were very solemn and impressive. It was impossible, indeed, we can easily conceive, to see such a group of human beings, embracing all the relations and charities of life, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, brothers and sisters, all about to sail from our shores forever, and under such peculiar circumstances, without feeling the deepest sympathy in their situation, and the most lively interest in all their future fates. We must take this occasion to say again, that we do most cordially approve of this plan of the Society. We are no enthusiasts, indeed, (as we perceive it is the pleasure of some to call the friends of the cause,) but, with the evidence, daily increasing, which we have before us, of the perfect practicableness of colonizing these people in the land of their fathers, of their own ardor in the undertaking, and of the happy effects which may be fairly expected to flow from its achievement, we should look upon ourselves as exposed to a still more serious charge than that of a want of sober sense-a want of common humanity-if we did not feel and avow our hearty interest in its success. Let our Colonization Societies, and their friends, continue to pursue their great object, with that moderation and prudence which the nature of their engagement so forcibly suggests, and they cannot fail, we should think, to enlist all hearts and hands in their cause. 1056 UNIV. OF JAN 29 1014 |