Immediately after the last of the conventions just mentioned, those who were interested in emigration and had not been able to get a hearing in the regular convention issued a call for a National Emigration Convention of Colored Men to take place in Cleveland, Ohio, August 24-26, 1854.  The preliminary announcement said:  “No person will be admitted to a seat in the Convention who would introduce the subject of emigration to the Eastern Hemisphere—­either to Asia, Africa, or Europe—­as our object and determination are to consider our claims to the West Indies, Central and South America, and the Canadas.  This restriction has no reference to personal preference, or individual enterprise, but to the great question of national claims to come before the Convention."[1] Douglass pronounced the call “uncalled for, unwise, unfortunate and premature,” and his position led him into a wordy discussion in the press with James M. Whitfield, of Buffalo, prominent at the time as a writer.  Delany explained the call as follows:  “It was a mere policy on the part of the authors of these documents, to confine their scheme to America (including the West Indies), whilst they were the leading advocates of the regeneration of Africa, lest they compromised themselves and their people to the avowed enemies of their race."[2] At the secret sessions, he informs us, Africa was the topic of greatest interest.  In order to account for this position it is important to take note of the changes that had taken place between 1817 and 1854.  When James Forten and others in Philadelphia in 1817 protested against the American Colonization Society as the plan of a “gang of slaveholders” to drive free people from their homes, they had abundant ground for the feeling.  By 1839, however, not only had the personnel of the organization changed, but, largely through the influence of Garrison, the purpose and aim had also changed, and not Virginia and Maryland, but New York and Pennsylvania were now dominant in influence.  Colonization had at first been regarded as a possible solution of the race problem; money was now given, however, “rather as an aid to the establishment of a model Negro republic in Africa, whose effort would be to discourage the slave-trade, and encourage energy and thrift among those free Negroes from the United States who chose to emigrate, and to give native Africans a demonstration of the advantages of civilization."[3] In view of the changed conditions, Delany and others who disagreed with Douglass felt that for the good of the race in the United States the whole matter of emigration might receive further consideration; at the same time, remembering old discussions, they did not wish to be put in the light of betrayers of their people.  The Pittsburgh Daily Morning Post of October 18, 1854, sneered at the new plan as follows:  “If Dr. Delany drafted this report it certainly does him much credit for learning and ability; and can not fail to establish for him a reputation for vigor and brilliancy of imagination