page_0002

In my address at Boston after attempting to fix the
attention of my hearers on the whole African race
whether on their own continent or in foreign lands at
the partakers of one common degradation, I undertook
to show that provience had made such arrangements
that if we would do anything effectual for the benefit of
either of the two great nations of that race we must
set up such a system of operations as shall aim
at the c. omplete renovation of both. In other words
the cheapest if not the only way to civilise Africa is
to elevate the character & condition of Africans in
foreign countries & at the same time it is true that
the civilization of Africa will rapidlly & powerfully
& yet without danger promote the improvement &
happiness of her exiled children. This principle, which
I cannot express so clearly as I might wish without
more illustration than it would be pertinent for me
to attempt giving it here, seems to my mind to shed
some light ot only on the importance of
the Seminary proposed but also on the precise character
which it ought to assume & the aspect in
which it may be most advantageously presented to the
public. We want a Seminary which shall operate at
once on both departments of the great system of African
improvement: a Seminary which shall elevate
intellectual beings, & which shall send forth its
alumni not only to carry to their brethren in
Africa the hopes & blessings of the gospel, but to
kindle on the shores of their own continent the