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Georgetown 19 May 1824 My Dear Sir, Your kind letter of March 17th after wandering about the country for two months, haveing touched at Georgetown & Charleston South Carolina on its way reached me day before yesterday. Please in future write on your letters District of Columbia for postmasters, like many other people, will not see unless compelled to do so.
Report had been forwarded, before I received your favour to many of the Gentleman you mention & now they have been sent to all. I regret that the idea of printing our Constitution did not occur to me.
Mr Dewey's zealous exertions in New York have, I think been of very considerable advantage to our cause. He has however sought most earnestly the sanction your Board to a plan for an establishment in Hayti, which
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[illegible] recent circumstances, I cannot but think injudicioius. In his last letter he expressed confidence in the wisdom of the project, and I hope will abandon it. I thank you for your account of Mr Tracy. The services of such a man would be invaluable, & I trust the time is not remote when more than one such will recieve support from our Society. Mr. Tracy shall be mentioned particularly to our Board, but I am inclined to think, they will feel themselves obliged to trust to my feeble & solitary efforts of the present year. Our Commitee have determined to make the Resolution for a time a quarterly not as promised! a northern work & this change must reduce very much the labours of the Editor. It has been thought that in the present state of our Colony, it would be difficult to give interest & novelty to a monthly publication. Another year such a work may be supported. Dr Ayres is on his way to the north. He will probably be accompanied by the {illegible} an Episcopal clergyman in Philadelphia of great worth & piety. Their mission is to aid the objects of our Board; & the statements of Dr Ayres will I trust have a powerful influence on all candid minds. You will probably see these Gentlemen in Boston or Andover Your suggestion concerning Bible & tract Societies is important. At present I am informed, the Colony is abundly supplied with religious books. As its numbers increase the plan you mention must be adopted. The most important thing to be done, at this moment seems to me to be to obtain the consent of the Churches to take up collections for our benefit on the Fourth of July. I have & shall address better in the name of our Committee to several ecclesiastical bodies on this subject & hope they wll recommend the measure. Pray, Sir, can you see that
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The object is effective in New England. An American the institution on Seminary there must be perhaps more than one, but when & where of shall be commenced I cannot say. Most sincerely & affectionately. Your brother, R.R. Gurley
paid 10 The Rev Leonard Bacon Con of Rev. Elias Cornelius Salem Massachusetts
May 19, 1824 Gurley African Repository The Colony supplied with religious books
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(CIRCULAR.) New-York, May 25, 1824 SIR, At a meeting of gentlemen convened in this city on the 14th instant to consult on the best mode of providing literary, moral, and religious instruction for the American colonies in Africa, the Rev. Dr. Edward D. Griffin, President of Williams College, Francis S. Key, Esq. of Washington, the Rev. William Patton, the Rev. Loring D. Dewey, and Mr. Sidney E. Morse, of New-York, were chosen a committee to correspond with gentlemen in different parts of the country on the subject, to devise the best measures for obtaining the above named object, and to report to a meeting to be called at such time and place as they may think proper. Three to constitute a quorum. On th 22d instant the committee met in this city and chose the Rev. Mr. Patton chariman and the Rev. Mr. Dewey secretary. The committee now beg leave to call your attention to this very important subject, and to request you to favour them with such information and suggestions in relation to this enterprise as may occur to your mind. It appears to the committee, from the experience of English missionaries and American agents, that white men cannot live in that part of Africa, which is to be occupied by the American colonies;* that unless coloured men are educated for ministers and teachers and magistrates to the colonies. the latter must sink into a state of moral degredation, lower than that of the [?]; then [?] this provision the Condomination system ought not to be prosecuted; that no other nation can be expected to provide fo our colonies or [?] the same advantages for educating the children of Africa; that our southern brethren, on whom devolves the principal part of the task of transporting the colonists, here enough upon their hands, and that for various reasons the Colonization Society cannot be expected to provide the means of education and religious instruction for the colonies, and that if this be not done by northern Christians it will not be done at all; that as several years must elapse before young men can be carried through a course of education, no time is to be lost in putting them upon the course, lest the colonies should be sunk too low to be recovered before any competent instructers can reach them, that it will be desirable, as early as possible, to erect on African ground, first schools, then academics, and afterwards colleges, but that the last two cannot be attempted before Africans are prepared on this side of the water for the higher departments of instruction, and are gradually imbued with suffient wisdom and prudence; and as a conclusion from these reasoning, that northern Christians, with such aid as their southern brethren can afford, must enter, without delay, on a asystem of energetic exertions for the education of Africans on American ground for the different professions and stations in the colonies, not confining themselves, or even the application of their charity, to the pious, but endeavoring to do for Africa, we do not say, what ministers and theological seminaries but that of the colored youth must be educated togteher, in public institutions, includingprimary schools, and academies, where they may be fitted for college, and a college itself, where [?] only beneficiaries, but the sons of rich coloured people may receive a full education; that with the college, ( and with whatever preparatory institutions may be established on the same ground,) a farm, and perhaps workshops, ought to be connected, by means of which the young men may acquire the knowledge of agriculture, and perhaps of some of the most important mechanics arts, and assist in defraying the expenses of their education, and be guarded against those lofy ideas which coloured youth educated without labour have been found sometimes to [?]
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Williams College, June 12, 1826 Dear Sir, Your favor of the first of May reached me just as I was stepping onto the stage to go to New York to attend the great meetings. Happened providentially & led my mind to inquire who then it was not intended to suggest some measures to be taken on that occasion. The more I thought of it the more it appeared my duty to take that occasion to endeavor to lay the foundation for a present society or board in New York. The result was what the Circular reveals, that if any good beginning has been made, your letter, under God, was certainly the occasion of it. And more, my dear Sir, I look to you to your associates or advisors at Andover more than to any other persons, to shape & matuer & carry forward this business. What I can I will gladly do; but my hands are so full that I cannto take upon myself any considerable part of the case or responsibility of this thing. I send you some of the Circulars for you to address to your friends, without remarks as you may think proper to make; & shall be glad to receive from you the substance of the various suggestions made to you from without, & {illegible} by those {illegible} up in your own mind. Until this thing gets fully into operation, I am wishing to spend & be spent in {illegible}. I should be willing to make one of the board of trust without any other office; but after it gets well under way I cannot consent to do more (on account of my other duties) than to fall into the ranks. I am much obliged to you for mentioning the names & qualifications of Messrs Cowles & Greene. We want young men & New England men & ardent friends of Africa & good scholars & men who will be wise in counsel & efficient in action; in accord, such men as you have described them to be. And we must begin with two at least. As soon as a Society or board is formed, it will probably be bes to employ these gentlemen as agenst to form auxiliaries look up pupils &c I wish I could see you a few days at my house. Can you not come before August? After that I expect to be on a journey. I have a {illegible} that something has been done in Boston. I am glad to hear it. Pray, what has been done? Then to tell me to whom you send the circulars, that I may not send to the same. I was to send Massachusetts & Connecticut & I think to New H