report, though the island was afterwards to prove by no means healthy.
The Society was impressed, but efforts might have languished at this
important stage if Monroe, now President, had not found it possible to
bring the resources of the United States Government to assist in
the project. Smuggling, with the accompanying evil of the sale of
"recaptured Africans," had by 1818 become a national disgrace, and on
March 3, 1819, a bill designed to do away with the practice became a
law. This said in part: "The President of the United States is hereby
authorized to make such regulations and arrangements as he may deem
expedient for the safe-keeping, support, and removal beyond the limits
of the United States, of all such Negroes, mulattoes, or persons of
color as may be so delivered and brought within their jurisdiction; and
to appoint a proper person or persons residing upon the coast of Africa
as agent or agents for receiving the Negroes, mulattoes, or persons of
color, delivered from on board vessels seized in the prosecution of the
slave-trade by commanders of the United States armed vessels." For the
carrying out of the purpose of this act $100,000 was appropriated, and
Monroe was disposed to construe as broadly as necessary the powers given
him under it. In his message of December 20, he informed Congress
that he had appointed Rev. Samuel Bacon, of the American Colonization
Society, with John Bankson as assistant, to charter a vessel and take
the first group of emigrants to Africa, the understanding being that
he was to go to the place fixed upon by Mills and Burgess. Thus the
National Government and the Colonization Society, while technically
separate, began to work in practical coöperation. The ship _Elizabeth_
was made ready for the voyage; the Government informed the Society that
it would "receive on board such free blacks recommended by the Society
as might be required for the purpose of the agency"; $33,000 was placed
in the hands of Mr. Bacon; Rev. Samuel A. Crozer was appointed as the
Society's official representative; 88 emigrants were brought together