ur race from this country, professions to the
contrary notwithstanding.

Resolved, That a committee of three persons be appointed to prepare as
soon as practicable an address to the public, setting forth more fully
our views on the subject of colonization. The following persons were
appointed: Abraham D. Shad, Rev. Peter Spencer and W. S. Thomas.

Signed on behalf of the meeting.

PETER SPENCER, Chairman.

THOMAS DORSEY, Secretary.

_Address of the Free People of Color of the Borough of Wilmington,
Delaware._

We the undersigned, in conformity to the wishes of our brethren, beg
leave to present to the public in a calm and unprejudiced manner, our
decided and unequivocal disapprobation of the American Colonization
Society, and its auxiliaries, in relation to the free people of color in
the United States. Convinced as we are, that the operations of this
Society have been unchristian and anti-republican in principle, and at
variance with our best interests as a people, we had reason to believe
that the precepts of religion, the dictates of justice and humanity,
would have prevented any considerable portion of the community from
lending their aid to a plan which we fear was designed to deprive us of
rights that the Declaration of Independence declares are the
'unalienable rights' of all men. We were content to remain silent,
believing that the justice and patriotism of a magnanimous people would
prevent the annals of our native and beloved country from receiving so
deep a stain. But observing the growing strength and influence of that
institution, and being well aware that the generality of the public are
unacquainted with our views on this important subject, we feel it a duty
we owe to ourselves, our children and posterity, to enter our protest
against a device so fraught with evil to us. That many sincere friends
to our race are engaged in what they conceive to be a philanthropic and
benevolent enterprise, we do not hesitate to admit; but that they are
deceived, and are acting in a manner calculated most seriously to injure
the free people of color, we are equally sensible.

We are natives of the United States; our ancestors were brought to this
country by means over which they had no control; we have our attachments
to the soil, and we feel that we have rights in common with other
Americans; and although deprived through prejudice from entering into
the full enjoyment of those rights, we