LETTER FROM REV. JOHN PECK.

[The following letter was handed to our printer, in our absence, and was printed last week on the fourth page. In justice to our esteemed friend Mr. Peck as well as to avail ourselves of its full corroberation of our statements, concerning the recent meeting of the National Council, we reproduce it here.]—Editor.

MR. F. DOUGLASS: DEAR BROTHER:—As yours is the only paper that has stemmed that tide of difficulties and opposition, which papers, established for the benefit of the colored race, by one that speak our own sentiments, tells our wrongs, and feels them, too, are called upon to encounter—I wish to occupy a small space for the purpose of calling (if possible) the attention of the colored people of Pennsylvania, east as well as west, to the consideration of the National Convention, held at Rochester, July, 1853.

We have, it is true, called and held a number of Conventions, all, or nearly all of which I have attended; and I have no hesitation in saying, that under the circumstances then surrounding us, much good has been done. Until then, there was not such an interchange of views, nor reciprocity of feeling among us as has since existed. There was not even that sympathy for each other, or with our brethren in bonds, that has since been manifested. On all former occasions, we returned to our homes from these Conventions after an interchange of views without effecting any permanent arrangements by which the various measures proposed might be consummated. We laid no foundation stones upon which we could safely build with the hope of producing the greatest good to the great and growing wants of the increasing number of our people. At the meeting in Rochester, though but a short time was spent, every moment was employed in what was hoped would effect some permanent good. In a meeting so large, all could not see alike, nor each express his peculiar ideas of the great work of our elevation; but all left satisfied that something had been done, from the fact that a National Council had been appointed in accordance with the design of the Call, and that this Council would be sustained by the people, and act in unity among themselves. In this I have been disappointed—yea, sadly disappointed. Indeed, I have for thirty years past been deeply interested in all the movements effecting the colored people; and while much has been done, and is still doing to improve and elevate us, it appears to me that there never was a time when our people seemed so much divided in cliques and parties as the present. We have, it is true, good men in the National Council; but even among the small number of eleven that met in Cleveland, I found that the spirit of discord had entered, to distract, to divide and to destroy.

Indeed, it was clearly manifest that there was a determination that nothing should be done by the Council, unless, in the first place, the Council would pass a vote of censure on the doings of the meeting at New York in November last, and then follow that by a vote rejecting all that was done by the Convention at Rochester, and thence begin anew on a plan that might perhaps meet the views of the Ohio Councilmen. The other members were unwilling to pursue this course, dictated by our brethern of Ohio.—It appeared to be a settled policy on the part of the Ohio members, so to manoeuvre as to always have one of their number absent, so that it was impossible to transact any business without first coming to Ohio's terms. This was to clear, that in order to effect a creditable adjournment, a motion was made by the Rev. A. G. Beman to that effect, when there happened to be just at that time a quorom.

Thus you see, fellow citizens, that our meeting was very far from what was expected; but we did succeed in preserving the Council, which will meet again at the call of the President, Dr. James McCune Smith.

JOHN PECK.