Whenever the Committee of Inspection shall find persons of any particular description requiring attention, they shall immediately direct them to the committee of whose care they are the proper objects.

In matters of a mixed nature, the committee shall confer, and, if necessary, act in concert.  Affairs of great importance shall be referred to the whole committee.

The expense incurred by the prosecution of this plan, shall be defrayed by a fund, to be formed by donations or subscriptions for these particular purposes, and to be kept separate from the other funds of the Society.

The Committee shall make a report on their proceedings, and of the state of their stock, to the Society, at their quarterly meetings, in the months called April and October.—­Smyth’s Writings of Benjamin Franklin, vol. x, p. 127.

EXTRACT FROM THE “ADDRESS OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION OF DELEGATES FROM THE ABOLITION SOCIETIES, 1795”

“We cannot forbear expressing to you our earnest desire, that you will continue, without ceasing, to endeavor, by every method in your power which can promise any success, to procure, either an absolute repeal of all the laws in your state, which countenance slavery, or such an amelioration of them as will gradually produce an entire abolition.  Yet, even should that great end be happily attained, it cannot put a period to the necessity of further labor.  The education of the emancipated, the noblest and most arduous task which we have to perform, will require all our wisdom and virtue, and the constant exercise of the greatest skill and discretion.  When we have broken his chains, and restored the African to the enjoyment of his rights, the great work of justice and benevolence is not accomplished—­The new born citizen must receive that instruction, and those powerful impressions of moral and religious truths, which will render him capable and desirous of fulfilling the various duties he owes to himself and to his country.  By educating some in the higher branches of science, and all the useful parts of learning, and in the precepts of religion and morality, we shall not only do away with the reproach and calumny so unjustly lavished upon us, but confound the enemies of truth, by evincing that the unhappy sons of Africa, in spite of the degrading influence of slavery, are in no wise inferior to the more fortunate inhabitants of Europe and America.

“As a means of effectuating, in some degree, a design so virtuous and laudable, we recommend to you to appoint a committee, annually, or for any other more convenient period, to execute such plans, for the improvement of the condition and moral character of the free blacks in your state, as you may think best adapted to your particular situation.”—­Minutes of the Proceedings of the Second Convention of Delegates, 1795.

A PORTION OF THE “ADDRESS OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION OF DELEGATES TO THE FREE AFRICANS AND OTHER FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR, 1796”