States the disguised whites would enter the houses of free colored men
at night, and take them out and give them from thirty to fifty lashes,
to get them to consent to go to Liberia.

It was in the spring of 1830 that the young man we have sketched,
Hezekiah Grice, conceived the plan of calling together a meeting or
convention of colored men in some place north of the Potomac, for the
purpose of comparing views and of adopting a harmonious movement
either of emigration or of determination to remain in the United
States; convinced of the hopelessness of contending against the
oppressions in the United States, living in the very depth of that
oppression and wrong, his own views looked to Canada; but he held them
subject to the decision of the majority of the convention which might
assemble.

On the 2d of April, 1830, he addressed a written circular to prominent
colored men in the free States, requesting their opinions on the
necessity and propriety of holding such convention, and stated that if
the opinions of a sufficient number warranted it, he would give time
and place at which duly elected delegates might assemble. Four months
passed away, and his spirit almost died within him, for he had not
received a line from any one in reply. When he visited Mr. Garrison
in his office, and stated his project, Mr. Garrison took up a copy of
Walker's Appeal, and said, although it might be right, yet it was too
early to have published such a book.

On the 11th of August, however, he received a sudden and peremptory
order from Bishop Allen to come instantly to Philadelphia, about the
emigration matter. He went, and found a meeting assembled to consider
the conflicting reports on Canada of Messrs. Lewis and Dutton; at a