, and
was several days in session, of which mention was made on page
59. These minutes show that my statement of the societies
represented needs correction. The Rhode Island Society appears to
have had no delegates present. The Virginia Society appointed
delegates; but, for reasons stated below, they were not admitted.
Several societies, however, were represented, of which before I
had seen no mention. As the convention met in the depth of
winter, and as traveling was then expensive and difficult, it is
evidence of a deep interest in the subject, that so many
delegations attended.

The convention met in the City Hall, at Philadelphia, and
organized by choosing Joseph Bloomfield, of New Jersey,
President; John McCrea, Secretary; and Joseph Fry, Door-keeper.

The following societies were represented by the delegates named:

_Connecticut Society_--Uriah Tracy.

_New York Society_--Peter Jay Munroe, Moses Rogers, Thomas
Franklin, Jr., William Dunlap.

_New Jersey Society_--Joseph Bloomfield, William Coxe, Jr., John
Wistar, Robert Pearson, Franklin Davenport.

_Pennsylvania Society_--William Rogers, William Rawle, Samuel
Powel Griffitts, Robert Patterson, Samuel Coates, Benjamin Rush.

_Washington (Pa.) Society_--Absalom Baird.

_Delaware Society_--Warren Mifflin, Isaiah Rowland, Joseph
Hodgson, John Pemberton.

_Wilmington (Del.) Society_--Joseph Warner, Isaac H. Starr,
Robert Coram.

_Maryland Society_--Samuel Sterett, James Winchester, Joseph
Townsend, Adam Fonerdon, Jesse Hollingsworth.

_Chester-town (Md.) Society_--Joseph Wilkinson, James Maslin,
Abraham Ridgely.

A letter, directed to the convention, from Robert Pleasants,
chairman of the Committee of Correspondence of the Virginia
Society, was presented and read. By this letter it appeared that
Samuel Pleasants and Israel Pleasants, of Philadelphia, were
appointed to represent that society in the convention; and in
case of their declining, or being prevented from acting, the
convention were at liberty to nominate two other persons as their
representatives. In the letter was inclosed "an authentic account
of several vessels lately fitted out in Virginia for the African
slave-trade." The convention, after considering the proposition
of the Virginia Soc