It is a pleasant thing for us to remember at this hour, that a considerable quantity of the publications of this Society were still on hand in our Southern depositaries at the outbreak of the rebellion, and that they may have done something towards supplying the religious wants of those who are so madly arrayed against us. That is a sort of aid and comfort which I do not believe you will be charged with treason for having furnished. I heartily hope that the day is not far distant when there will be once more a free course and circulation for all that you can supply throughout the length and breadth of our beloved country; and I trust that you may be in a condition to avail yourselves fully of such an opportunity, whenever in the good providence of God it shall have arrived.

More than any thing else, more than any thing else, we shall need hereafter a renewal, a revival, of those common religious influences and sympathies, which these great National societies have done so much to kindle and keep alive. Every thing has been going on as prosperously and as triumphantly for the Union cause as we had a right to expect, so far as our armies and navies are concerned. Victory after victory has gladdened our hearts in the West and in the South; and there is nothing in the recent retreat of that brave little band in the valley of the Shenandoah, which ought seriously to disturb any one except those who are responsible for leaving it exposed to such overwhelming odds.

Every thing is still in the way of being accomplished, so far as military force can reach, for the rightful vindication of the National authority, and for the restoration of the old Constitution, the old Union, and the old Flag of our Fathers.

But there is one conquest which will remain yet longer to be achieved. There must be a change of heart in the rebellious breast. The terrible spirit of rebellion must be assuaged or exorcised at the South; and if there be any spirit of mere vengeance or injustice of any sort, growing up among ourselves, under provocations to which none of us can be insensible, that, too, must be seasonably checked. The words of the great Apostle are as applicable at this hour, as when they were first addressed to the Romans: "Be not overcome of evil; but overcome evil with good."

If there be "a devil in secession," as that fearless Tennessee patriot has recently told us, we all know what is the only power which has ever succeeded in casting out devils. It was not the power of Beelzebub. Nor was it the power of man. No military stratagems, no civil statesmanship, no policy of man's device, no wholesale confiscations or emancipations, can reach it. It came of old, and it must come again, from higher than human sources or influences. We must look, in God's good time, for a spirit of reconciliation, breathed forth from the very throne of the Most High, to turn back our hearts to each other and to Himself; and we must invite it, and invoke it, and prepare the way for it, by all the instrumentalities in our power.

In a word, my friends, the influences of a common religion, the sympathies of a common faith, the blessing of a common Father and Saviour, must come to our aid in this great crisis of our country's fate, or all our blood and treasure may still fail of accomplishing that restoration of National unity and concord, which is the only aim of all true patriots.

Once more, then, let me express the earnest hope, before taking my seat, that while every thing in our power is done to sustain and uphold the physical strength and military power of the Government, these religious associations whose anniversaries have so long shed a hallowed influence over this last week of May, may still be counted, as they deserve to be counted, among the best sanitary commissions, not only for our own armies, but for the whole country; and that their treasuries may not fail of being replenished with abundant means for carrying on the glorious work to which they are pledged and consecrated.

AFRICAN COLONIZATION.

A SPEECH MADE AT THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS COLONIZATION SOCIETY, MAY 28, 1862.

AFTER the interesting and admirable address of the gentleman from New York (the Hon. William E. Dodge), which we have all heard with so much gratification, I shall detain you, ladies and gentlemen, but a very few minutes. I came here rather to listen than to speak. Your worthy Secretary will bear me witness that I declined to be responsible for any formal address on this occasion. But I could not resist the appeal of your President, a day or two since, that I would give expression in a few brief sentences to the interest which I feel in the cause in which we are assembled.

Beyond a doubt, my friends, the cause of African colonization has assumed a new interest, a new importance, in view of the existing condition of our country. Whatever indifference any of us may have heretofore felt in regard to it, there is now an emergency to which no one can be altogether insensible. And no one I think, can help rejoicing that there is a society already in existence; with an established national organization; with branches in so many of the States; with most valuable experience already acquired; with carefully considered and deliberately adopted plans; and prepared, providentially prepared, to meet, in so considerable degree, the precise emergency which has now arisen.

There need be no question here, upon subjects which are giving occasion to so much angry controversy elsewhere. I need hardly say that I am no advocate of any wholesale projects of emancipation, whether under the color of confiscation, or upon

any pretence of the imaginary necessities of martial law. The adoption of any such scheme would do nothing but aggravate and protract the war in which we are engaged. The mere agitation of it has already increased the embarrassments of the Government and the perils of our patriot volunteers. But none of us can be blind to the fact, that whatever policy may prevail on points like these, a vast number of the African race will be, and indeed have already been, thrown upon the Country by the unavoidable contingencies of the existing rebellion, for whom a policy of some sort must be adopted. And the simple question submitted to us now, is whether the means shall be supplied for transporting to the land from which they sprung, such of these persons as may be found willing and ready to go there, and who would otherwise be destined to a reluctant and wretched existence upon our own shores.

Let it never be forgotten, my friends, that, under the auspices of some of the wisest and best men of all sections of the Union, -men for the like of whom our country is looking, and looking in vain, in this hour of its agony,men like Henry Clay, whose bugle-note at this moment would be better than a hundred thousand men for the defence of the Union, the American Colonization Society was originally formed, and has been steadily maintained, altogether upon the principle of voluntary emigration. It is nothing more or less than a great Emigrant Aid Society; not designed to drive out from our land any who may deliberately desire to remain here, but only to afford the means of transportation to those who may wish to return to the old, original, and only true home of the African race.

Of that home it has been well said, by the worthy President of the parent society (Mr. Latrobe), that "Liberia is the portal." There, a noble colony has already been planted; there, churches and schools have been instituted; a college, even, inaugurated'; and a constitution of government, framed after the model of our own republic, and provided with all the securities of a just and equal administration, is there already in successful operation. There, at that open gateway, better than any Port Royal which we are likely to establish on our own Continent, Africa stands, ready to welcome back to a condition of peace and prosperity

those of her children, or their descendants, who may have been torn from her in the prosecution of a barbarous traffic.

It may be that other and larger colonies may be found necessary hereafter. It may be that other and nearer places may hereafter be found, for carrying out more conveniently and more effectively the great scheme of colonization, as it may be developed by future events. For the present, however, Liberia is sufficient; and with its established institutions, its increasing trade, and its now recognized independence, it presents the most favorable opportunity for accomplishing the great ends for which this Society was formed.

My friends, if the only effect of promoting the welfare of that colony were to establish a permanent foothold for civilization and Christianity in Africa, the cause would be worthy of our most favorable attention, and might well be ranked among the most interesting and important Missionary enterprises of the age.

But when it is regarded in connection with the present emergencies of our own land; when it is contemplated as furnishing the first successful example of a movement which may, at some future day, relieve our country from the difficulties and dissensions which are inevitably incident to the continuance of such vast and rapidly increasing numbers of the African race, whether bond or free, within our limits, it calls for a still more earnest and zealous support.

The President of the United States, whose wisdom, moderation, and patriotism we all concur in acknowledging and admiring, whether as exhibited in the measures he has taken to overcome the assaults of his enemies, or to overrule the mad and monstrous projects of some of his friends, has urgently and repeatedly insisted, as we all remember, that a well-devised scheme of colonization is one of the great necessities of the present hour. I believe that, in doing so, he has expressed the opinion of nine-tenths of the people of the United States out of New England; and I trust it may prove, in New England also.

For myself, certainly, I say amen to this declaration of Presi dent Lincoln with all my heart. Every consideration of justice both to the black man and to the white; every regard for the