nd to colored people on such inviting
conditions as not only speedily allowed many of
those who had already settled in the country to
undertake 'farming on their own account,' but
encouraged many more to escape from their American
masters, to try their fortunes in this now
far-famed 'land of liberty and promise.' The
stream having thus begun to flow, the secret
workings of the humane, but not unexceptionable
abolitionist societies, existing in the American
States, speedily widened and deepened the channel
of approach, until a flood of colored immigrants,
of the very worst classes, has been progressively
introduced into the District, which had, last
year, reached an aggregate of about 1500 souls,
and which threatens to be doubled in the course of
a very short time, unless it be within the power
of the Government to counteract it;--but which,
_if suffered to roll on unchecked_, will sooner or
later lead to the most serious, if not most
lamentable consequences.

"From my making so strong an observation at the
very threshold of my remarks, it will be readily
perceived that my opinion of these unfortunate
people is unfavorable. I am therefore anxious,
before proceeding further, to shield myself from
the imputation of either groundless antipathy or
pre-indisposition toward men of color, and to have
it thoroughly understood that, as far as I can
judge of my own feelings, _they_ are the very
reverse, having not only been warmly in favor of
the poor enslaved negro, but having for near
twenty years of my life been surrounded by free
colored people, and retained my favorable leaning
toward even the African race, till some time after
my arrival in this Province. Unfortunately,
however, for this pre-disposition, as well as for
the character of this ill-fated race, my attention
was shortly after directed by particular
circumstances to the quiet study of their
disposition and habits, and ended in a thorough
conviction that without a radical change they
would ere long, like the snake in the bosom of the
hus