The weekly Anglo-African. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1859-1861, 1859-09-17
LETTER FROM WIN. c. NELL.
RosroN, Sept. 10, 1859.

held in Joy street Church, Boston, where
in reference is made which, taken in con-
nection with what was said at the meeting,
is SO easily calculated to misrepresent me,
that do not choose to let the occasion
pass without prompt correction. AS
matter of fair play, then, l ask room in your
next paper for the following brief narration
of facts:
Returning to the city after an absence
of several days, I found letter from Mr..
Garnet, urging my cooperation with the
other gentlemen for his meeting on August
3Oth in behalf of African Civilization.
As 1 was to leave town next morning,
and "The Liberator" was about making up
for press, 1 hurried to confer with the par
tief alluded to. from whom heard several
reasons (many seeming to me conclusive,)
why the meeting had better be deferred.
accordingly SO wrote to Mr.. Garnet, adding
that though dissented from his present
position, yet would at any time assist him
in having hearing.
A few days after, was told OF MIR. Gar
nets intention, nevertheless, to be present
and hold his meeting. Not knowing but
that there might be some omission to pre-
pare full church notices, made special IN
quiries, intending to do so much on the
score of friendship and free speech; but L
found that the work had already been done
by others.
The manner in which 1 was held up by
Mr.. Garnet at the meeting and after its ad-
journment, especially considering the fra
ternal relations for SO many years existing
between us, was an experience unlocked
for, unkind, and not easily forgotten.
While my pen is in hand, allow me to
allude to two other matters connected with
the meeting in question, that your readers
may be enabled to judge Understandings
of the issue presented The fact that some
colored men are successfully engaged in
African commerce, Though, so far as l
know, is universally approved Of has moth
ing whatever to do withthe question of AT
rican civilization This is matter of in
dividual enterprise, between which and the
American colonization schemes the public
can easily discriminate Facts can be pill
ed Olympus high in proof that the Afri-
can Civilization movement is accepted by
Colonizationists as but another channel for
their own. cherished operations to remove
colored Americans from their homes to AT
RIGA; and they are revealing in the antici-
patton that the seeds of restlessness and
dissatisfaction planted by themselves, now
being watered and nourished by colored
hands, may expand into that tree whose
death distilling branches will mildew and
blast all the aspirations of colored Ameri-
cans for freedom and equality here in their
own, their native land.
Another, and to my mind an unconquer-
able objection to the African Civilization
scheme, as presented by the agents to
whom l have listened, is that the colored
American has no reason to hope for equali-
ty in the United States. This is the pre-
mise to which embarking for Africa is the
conclusion.
Remove from them this foundation, and
their argument falls like the baseless fab
ric of vision. In view of my observation
and experience of the anti-slavery progress
within the last twenty-five years, l must
be most jolly green to accept any such un-
philosophical and fallacious presentation.
For these, if no other reasons existed,
the colored people Of Boston regard the Af-
rican Civilization movement with a jealous
eye; and it is none the more palatable to
them because the chalice is commended to
their lips by colored men.
One word as to the resolutions, about
which such flourish of trumpets is sound
ed, laudatory of MIR. Garnet. have no
hesitation in testifying to the fact that the
general past course of Mr.. Garnet has been
very acceptable to the colored people of
Boston, and the resolution saying as much,
and its passage, urged in the plenitude of
partiality, was engineered through during
combination of circumstances most
disgraceful and discordant state of things,
such as was never witnessed here before;
and all classes now unite in the prayer,
May many suns rise and set before the
like occurs in our city again" Had it been,
however, distinctive test vote, endorsing
the present position of Mr.. Garnet as Pres
ident of the African Civilization Society,
everybody here knows that the negative
would have been most emphatic one. AS
it is already claimed by some as an Afri-
can Civilization victory, all l have to say
I'll kha Ion xUOI1