“Resolved, by the Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council and freemen of the city of New Haven, in city meeting assembled, that we will resist the establishment of the proposed college in this place by every lawful means.”
The attempt at the founding of a college in Connecticut was abandoned. It is hardly necessary to more than mention the Prudence Crandall incident that disgraced the name of Connecticut at the same period.
What was a kind of National Executive Committee, and known as the Convention Board, issued the calls for the convention from time to time.
When the next convention was held in 1832, there were eight States represented with an attendance of thirty delegates, as follows: Maryland had 3; Delaware, 5; New Jersey, 3; Pennsylvania, 9; New York, 5; Connecticut, 2; Rhode Island, 1; Massachusetts, 2.
Beginning June 4th, it continued in session until the 15th. The question exciting the greatest interest was one which proposed the purchase of other lands for settlement in Canada; for 800 acres of land had already been secured, two thousand individuals had left the soil of their birth, crossed the line and laid the foundation for a structure which promised an asylum for the colored population of the United States. They had already erected two hundred log houses and 500 acres of land had been brought under cultivation. But hostility to the settlement of the Negro in that section had been manifested by Canadians, many of whom would sell no land to the Negro. This may explain the hesitation of the convention and the appointment of an agent whose duty it was to make further investigation and report to a subsequent convention.
Opposition to the colonization movement was emphasized by a strong protest against any appropriation by Congress in behalf of the American Colonization Society. Abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia was also urged at the same convention. This was one year before the organization of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
There were fifty-eight delegates present when the convention assembled June 3, 1833. The states represented were Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. Abraham D. Shadd, then of Washington, D. C., was elected President, Richard D. Johnson of Philadelphia and John G. Stewart were Vice Presidents, Ransom F. Wake of New York, was Secretary with Henry Ogden, Assistant, and John B. Depee of Philadelphia, Clerk.
The usual resolutions and addresses to the people were framed and adopted. In addition to these, the law of Connecticut, but recently passed, prohibiting the establishment of literary institutions in that State for the instruction of persons of color of other states was specifically referred to, as well as a resolution, giving the approval of the mission of William Lloyd Garrison to Europe to obtain funds for the establishment of a Manual Training School.
The emigration question was again thoroughly discussed. A committee was appointed to look into the matter of the encouragement of settlement in Upper Canada and all plans for colonization anywhere were rejected.
A general convention fund was provided for a schedule showing the population, churches, day schools, Sunday Schools, pupils, temperance societies, benevolent societies, mechanics and store-keepers. A most significant action was one recommending the establishment in different parts of the country of Free Labor Stores at which no produce from the result of slave labor would be exposed for sale.