form the Board or their approbation; and they shall continue in force, until the Board shall send out their decision upon them. ARTICLE IX. This constitution is not to interfere with the jurisdiction, rights, and claims, of the Agents of the United States, over the captured Africans and others, under their care and control, so long as they shall reside within the limits of the settlement. ARTICLE X. No alteration shall be made in this Constitution, except by an unanimous consent of all present, at a regular meeting of the Board of Managers, or by a vote of two-thirds of the members present at two successive meetings of the Board of Managers. The Board received from the Colonial Agent, Mr. Ashman, early in last year, a plan of Government, exhibiting several deviations from the form sketched in 1824, but in its principles the same. These deviations Mr. Ashmun remarks, "have grown gradually out of the altered and improving state of the Colony, and are neither the offspring of a rash spirit of experiment, nor have they been made without evident necessity." At a meeting of the Board of Managers, October 22d, 1828, it was determined to consider the revised Constitution or form of Government, submitted by Mr. Ash<mun, and after due deliberation, it was Resolved, That the Constitution as modified by the Colonial Agent, Mr. Ashmun, and as now in operation, be hereby adopted. PLAN OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT FOR THE COLONY OF LIBERIA. The necessity of a mild, just, and efficient civil Government, for the preservation of individual and political rights among any people, and the advancement of true prosperity, induces the Board of Managers of the American Colonization Society to adopt, after mature consideration, the following system of Government, for the proper regulation of public affairs in the Colony of Liberia. ARTICLE I. The Agent of the American Colonization Society, resident in the Colony, possesses within the same, sovereign power, subject only to the Constitution, the chartered rights of the citizens, and the decisions of the Board. ARTICLE II. All male colored people, who have subscribed the oath to support the Constitution, and drawn, and not forfeited lands in the Colony, shall be entitled to vote for, and be eligible to the civil offices of the Colony. ARTICLE III. The Civil Officers of the Colony shall be appointed annually: and the polls for the general annual election of the Colony, shall be opened on the last Tuesday in August, and continue open not more than three, nor less than two successive days, in the different Settlements. Elections shall be organized by the Sheriff, by the appointment in each Settlement, of a President, two Judges, and two Clerks. ARTICLE IV. The Colonial Officers eligible by the annual suffrage of the freeholders, in which the Agent has the right to interpose his negative, assigning to the voters in time to renew the choice at the same election, his reason for such interposition, are for the Colony, a Vice-Agent, two Counsellors, a High Sheriff, a Register, and a Treasurer: and for each of the settlements consisting of not less than sixty families, two Commissioners of Agriculture, two Commissioners to form a Board of Health, and two Censors. ARTICLE V. The Vice-Agent shall be admitted to the counsil of the Agent in all important matters; and shall express an opinion on all questions submitted to his consideration. He shall aid the Agent in the discharge of his various duties, and in the support and execution of the laws; and in the event of the Agent's absence, or sickness, the Vice-Agent shall become the General Superintendent of Public Affairs. ARTICLE VI. The Vice-Agent with two Counsellors, shall constitute a council; who shall meet when questioned by the Agent, to deliberate on the interests of the Colony, and the measures to be taken for their security and advancement. The Vice-Agent shall also advise with the other members of the Council, on any subjects connected with the general welfare, as often as he shall think it proper; and report the result to the Agent if proper, or act upon the same, in case of his absence. ARTICLE VII. The duty of the Counsellors shall be, to aid the Agent, or Vice-Agent, with their advice and counsel, on subjects relating to the general welfare of the Colony, whenever thereto requested by either. ARTICLE VIII. The High Sheriff shall, either by himself or his deputies, aid in the organization of elections; act as Marshal for the Government of the Colony, execute all processes, judgments, and commands of the Court of Sessions, and perform, generally, the services required of the same Officer, by the common laws of England and the United States. ARTICLE IX. The Secretary of the Colony shall take charge of, and carefully keep all the papers, records, and archives of the Colony, generally; shall attend and exactly record the doings of the Agent in Council; shall publish all the ordinances, and legal enactments of the Government; publish Government notices; issue the Agent's orders, civil, military, and judicial, to the proper functionaries; deliver a fair copy of Government papers necessary to be recorded to the Register of the Colony; and manage its internal correspondence on the part, and under the directions of the Agent. ARTICLE X. The Register shall record all documents and instruments relating to the security, and title of public or individual property; Government grants; patents; licences; contracts and commissions, and all other papers which are properly a matter of record, and to which the Government of the Colony shall be a party. Every volume of records when completed, shall be delivered by the Register, to the Secretary of the Colony, for preservation, among the archives of the Colony. ARTICLE XI. The Treasurer of the Colony shall receive, and safely keep all the monies, and public securities required by law, or the judgment of courts, to be deposited in the public Treasury, and shall deliver up, and pay over the same, only by a requisition signed by the Agent, or Vice Agent of the Colony; to whom he shall render a statement of the public finances on the Monday preceding the annual election of the Colony. ARTICLE XII. The Commissioners of Agriculture shall report, and serve as the organ of the Government, on all subjects relating to the Agriculture of the Colony. The Commissioners composing the Board of Health, shall report, and serve as the organ of the Government, on all subjects relating to the health of the Colony; shall ascertain the proper objects of medical attention; report nuisances prejudicial to the public health, direct their removal; and make themselves generally active in diminishing the sufferings and dangers of the settlers caused by sickness. Each of these Committees shall record, for the future use of the Colony all important observations and facts relating to the subjects of their charge. ARTICLE XIII. The two Censors shall act as conservators of the public morals, and promoters of the public industry; and be obliged to all the duties, and invested with all the legal powers, on whatever relates to the public morals and industry, which are lawfully required of, and possessed by grand jurors, in such parts of the United States as recognize such auxiliaries to their magistracy. It shall be the special duty of these officers to ascertain in what way every person, in their proper districts, acquires a livelihood; to report or present idlers; detect vicious or suspected practices; and present for legal investigation and cure, every actual or probable evil, growing out of the immoralities, either of a portion of the community, or of individuals. ARTICLE XIV. The Judiciary of the Colony shall consist of the Agent and a competent number of Justices of the peace, created by his appointThe Justices shall have cognizance of all cases affecting the peace, and of all criminal cases within the definition of petit larceny, and all actions of debt not exceeding twenty dollars. In the court of Monthly Sessions, whether acting as a court of law, or a court of equity, the Agent or Vice-Agent shall preside, and the Justices be his associates. ment. The court of Monthly Sessions shall have original Jurisdiction in all actions of debt, in which the amount in litigation shall exceed twenty dollars: and in criminal causes above the degree of petit larceny; and shall have appellate jurisdiction in all civil causes whatsoever. The requisite number of Constables for the Colony shall be appointed by the Agent annually. A Clerk and a Crier of the Court of Sessions shall also be appointed by the said Court, annually. An Auctioneer, who shall conduct all auction sales except those of the Sheriff and Constables, in pursuance of the judgment of the Courts of the Colony, shall also be created by annual appointment of the Agent. A Store Keeper, Librarian, Commissary of Ordnance, to be appointed by the Agent, shall be respected and obeyed in matters belonging to their respective functions, as officers of the Colony. Instructors in all public schools having the sanction of a public charter, or participating in any degree in the public funds, shall be appointed and employed by the regular school committees of the Colony, but with the Agent's approbation and concurrence. All Custom, Port, Infirmary, Medical, Guard and Police officers, not appointed by the Managers of the Colonization Society, and whose services are required and defined by the laws of the Colony, together with the public Measurers, Inspectors, and Appraisers, shall be appointed by the Agent of the Colony. ARTICLE XV. The Militia of the Colony, shall consist wholly of such uniformed Volunteer Corps as shall obtain charters under the Govern ment of the Colony; of which charters, the following shall be fundamental articles: 1st. That the Corps shall always comply with any requisitions for their services, either wholly or in part, made by the executive Government of the Colony. 2nd. That the Corps shall ever preserve and hold themselves and their arms and equipments in a state of readiness for actual service, at the shortest notice. 3rd. That the Officers be commissioned by the Agent; and 4thly. That they shall muster, parade, and serve in the line of the Colony, under general Officers, when thereto required by the executive Government. General officers shall be appointed by the Agent; and when especial reasons do not forbid, shall be taken from the Officers of the several Corps, and promoted according to rank, and the seniority of their commissions. All Military Officers and delinquencies, shall be tried by a General Court Martial, to be composed, except the officers and Guards of the Court, of Commissioned Officers; and to sit quarterly. A correct copy. J. ASHMUN. [For a digest of the Laws of the Colony, see the Appendix of the Twelfth Report, page 38.] (C.) Extracts from a Pamphlet, entitled "Reflections on the causes which led to the formation of the Colonization Society, with their probable results." By MATTHEW CAREY, Esq. Increase of the coloured population. South Carolina is the State which is more particularly interested in the success of the Colonization Society than any other State in the Union, except perhaps Louisiana-as these are the only two States in which the slave population exceeds the whites-and the increase of the former has been in a considerably greater ratio than that of the whites. In 1790, the number of in South Carolina was the slaves, In 1830, the whites, the slaves, 131,181 107,094 257,878 315,565 Thus it appears that while the slaves nearly trebled their numbers in forty years, the whites were only doubled. The relative situation of the whites and the blacks, East of the Blue Ridge, in Virginia, in 1790 and 1830, as stated in a memorial lately presented to the legislature of that State, places the subject in a striking point of view. By this statement, it appears that the blacks have in forty years gained on the whites not less than 106,176, being more than a fourth of the present number of whites in that section of country! To render this result still more appalling, it is to be observed, that, during this period, the shipment of slaves, from that portion of Virginia, to the more southern States, had been carried to an enormous extent. By the census of 1790, there were whites East of the Blue Ridge, There were of blacks, Majority of whites, In 1800, there were blacks, 314,523 289,425 25,098 339,393 336,289 81,078 The following table exhibits the increase of the free coloured people in the Uni ted States, from the year 1790 to the present time: In 1790, 50,481 1800, 110,073 1810, 188,465 The number of slaves, In 1790, 697,697 Being a multiplication almost three-fold. In 1820, 233,530 In 1830, 2,010,527 |