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 himself to a friend as follows: The longer I live to see the wretched  [sic] of men, the more I admire the virtue of those who devise, and patiently labor to execute, plans for the relief of the wretched. Under this view, the state of the free blacks has very much occupied my mind. Their number is increasing greatly, and, as it appears to me, their wretchedness also. Everything connected with their condition, including their color, is against them; nor is there much prospect that their state can ever be greatly ameliorated while they continue among us. Could not the rich and benevolent devise means to form a colony on some part of the coast of Africa, similar to the one at Sierra Leone, which might gradually induce many free blacks to go and settle, devising for them the means of getting there, and of protection and, support till they are established? Could they be sent back to Africa, a threefold benefit would arise. We should be cleared of them; we should send to Africa a I population partly civilized and Christianized, for its benefit; and our blacks themselves would be in a much better situation. Mr. Finley was satisfied of the practicability and utility of the project; and encouraged by the opinions of others, resolved to make a great effort to carry his benevolent views into effect In making preparatory arrangements, he spent a considerable part of the fall of 1816; and, determining ti test the popularity and in some measure the practicability of the whole system, he at length introduced the subject to public notice in the city of Washington. For this purpose he visited several members of Congress, the President, the Heads of Departments, and