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151

   In the Convention I have just spoken of there was nothing

remarkable in the appearance of the Members of either race. In another Convention, however, where I spent a morning? this was not the case, for I did not see in it a single White who had at all the air of a legislator, or even the appearance of a respectable member of Society. Here I heard a man who was Black, or as nearly Black as one cd be, make several speeches. He assumed a kind of Leadership, or at all events of authority in the Assembly, to which as far as I cd judge he was most fully entitled. He certainly was the best speaker I heard in the United States; or indeed ever heard anywhere else, as far as his knowledge went. He spoke with perfect ease, & complete confidence in himself, & at the same time quite in good taste. He said nothing but what appeared to be most reasonable, proper, & fair to both races. He was for putting an end at once to all ideas & hopes of confiscation on the part of the Blacks, & the fears of the Whites on the subject, by some authoritative declaration, for he believed that this was giving false expectations to his own race, & causing much uncertainty in the minds of the Whites, which prevented their setting about the reestablishment of cultivation on their estates. He had a good musical voice, & he cd vary its tones at his pleasure. His thoughts were clearly conceived, & clearly put. I must not, however, omit to mention that, though the traces of white blood were so slight in the colour of his skin, he had most completely the head & features of the European - a high forehead, a thin straight nose & a small chin & mouth. His hair was woolly in the extreme. I afterwards understood that the whites in