"Your Committee further believe that any express plan to colonize
our people beyond the limits of these United States, tends to
weaken the situation of those who are left behind, without any
peculiar advantage to those who emigrate. But it must be
admitted, that the rigid oppression abroad in the land is such,
that a _part_ of our suffering brethren cannot live under it, and
that the compulsory laws and the inducements held out by the
American Colonization Society are such as will cause them to
alienate all their natural attachments to their homes, and accept
of the only mode left open, which is to remove to a distant
Country to receive those rights and privileges of which they have
been deprived. And as this Convention is associated for the
purpose of recommending to our people the best mode of
alleviating their present miseries,
"Therefore, your Committee would, most respectfully, recommend to
the general Convention, now assembled, to exercise the most
vigorous means to collect monies through their auxiliaries, or
otherwise, to be applied in such manner, as will advance the
interests, and contribute to the wants of the free colored
population of this country generally.
"Your Committee would now most respectfully approach the _second
inquiry_, viz.:--Does Upper Canada possess superior advantages
and conveniences to those held out in the United States or
elsewhere?
"Your Committee, without summing up the advantages and
disadvantages of other situations, would, most respectfully
answer in the affirmative. At least they are willing to assert
that the advantage is much in favor of those who are obliged to
leave their present homes. For your more particular information
on that subject we would, most respectfully, refer you to the
interesting account given by our real and indefatigable friend,
Benjamin Lundy, in a late number of the "Genius of Universal
Emancipation." _Vide_ "Genius of Universal Emancipation," No. 10,
vol. 12.
"From the history there laid down, your Committee would, most
respectfully, request the Convention to aid, so far as in their
power lies, those who are obliged to seek an asylum in the
province of Upper Canada; and, in order that they may more
effectually carry their views into operation, they would
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