BOSTON, October 1st, 1855.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, ESQ: DEAR SIR:—An adjourned man meeting was held in the vestry of the 12th Baptist Church last Monday evening. Dr. J. S. Rock was chosen Chairman, and J. B. McCrea, Secretary. The Committee appointed at the last meeting reported the names of Robert Morris, Esq., Rev. L. A. Grimes, and Dr. J. S. Rock, as delegates to represent us at the National Convention, to be held in Philadelphia on the 16th inst. The report was unanimously accepted—the above named gentlemen were also empowered to grant credentials to others in the name of the citizens of Boston. It is quite probable that Mr. R. Morris will not be there, and Dr. J. S. Rock is sick—so that the duty will fall upon Rev. L. A. Grimes, who, being a gentleman of leisure, will, no doubt, be there. It is quite probable, that Mr. Lewis Hayden, Mr. J. B. McCrea, Mr. W. C. Nell, and Mr. John Stephenson, will also be appointed as delegates.

There still remains among us the barbarous custom of designating men by their color.—There is, on our tax lists, the word "" after every colored man's name. We have often wondered why our Mayor and Aldermen keep up this invidious distinction. We have no doubt but that it serves as a guide to keep colored men out of the jury box. Six years ago, every colored man's name was proscribed in our City Directory. Mr. Adams was the man who caused its abolition. Now we call upon our city authorities to bury these shameful distinctions on account of color, "new, henceforth, and forever." The time has come, when we should know men by their principles and practice, and not by their color.

We suggested the name of our esteemed friend, Mr. Franklin Turner, of Philadelphia, some months since as an invaluable correspondent for your paper, and we had hoped, ere this, that his fiery words of living truth would have rekindled the flame in our own bosom, and induced us to renew, with redoubled energy, our exertions in favor of Freedom; but unfortunately we fear that he did not hear us; we call on him again, from behind our hay-stack, to come forth and write his sermons for us to read. I know he is not a Methodist, yet I am puzzled to know how he can resist a call to preach!—There are many others there, whom we esteem as warm and enthusiastic friends of Freedom, who, we think, would be willing to set apart one hour each day for this cause. There are our good friends, Messrs. J. C.Bowers, John C.

and T. J. Bowers, Dr. J. H. Wilson, Mr. Isaiah WeirWeir, Isaiah C.

, Dr. J. J. G. BiasBias, James Joshua Gould

James Joshua Gould Bias (1807–60) was a physician and preacher living in Philadelphia. Born a slave in Maryland, he learned some medical knowledge while working with a physician there. When Bias obtained his freedom, he moved to Philadelphia, attending the Eclectic Medical School and graduating in 1852. He devoted much of his time before the Civil War tending to the medical and dental needs to fugitive slaves in Southeast Pennsylvania. Bias also was the pastor at the Bethel Church in Philadelphia. He played a leading role in the Colored Conventions movement, holding a number of positions. While Bias endorsed emigration, he rejected the policies of the American Colonization Society, rejecting its White leadership. “Our Philadelphia Letter,”(New York, N.Y.) Weekly Anglo-African, 7 July 1860; George F. Bragg, Jr., Men of Maryland (Baltimore: Church Advocate Press, 1925), 54–55; Michael Dickinson, “Dr. J. J. Gould Bias,” Colored Conventions Project, Coloredconventions.org. , Rev. Wm. T. CattoCatto, William T.

, Prof. Charles ReasonReason, Charles Lewis

Born in New York City, the son of Haitian emigres, Charles Lewis Reason (1818-93) was a prominent leader in the black community of his native city and state for over fifty years. From the age of fourteen until his death he was a teacher in or principal of various black schools in New York City], except for the brief period in the 1850s when he headed the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, and the few years that he spent before this as professor of belles-lettres, French, and mathematics at Central College in McGrawville, New York. He was the first black man to hold a professorship in an American college. Reason helped organize the New York Society for the Promotion of Education among Colored Children, a black organization that won from the state legislature in 1847 authority over black schools in New York City. After the Civil War, he was one of the leaders in the successful effort to integrate the city school system. Reason was no less active in the antebellum struggle to pressure the New York legislature into abolishing the property qualifications for black voters. In this connection he served as secretary of the Association for the Political Improvement of the People of Color in 1837 (or 1838) and as secretary of the State Convention of Colored Citizens, which met in Albany in 1840. Reason's opposition to Negro colonization was long standing, beginning in 1838 when he joined in the call for a "Great Anti-Colonization Meeting" in New York City and carried through into the 1850s, when he was outspoken in his criticism of the African Civilization Society, the black colonizationist organization. NASS, 3 May 1849; NS, 27 April, 4, 30 May 1849; FDP, 15 July 1853, 17 February 1854, 21 September 1855; Cleveland Gazette, 5 September 1885; Simmons, Men of Mark, 1105-09; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 114, 145, 172; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 10, 86-87, 148, 175, 258, 270-71; Dick, Black Protest, 21, 50, 190; Anthony R. Mayo, "Charles Lewis Reason," NHB, 5:212-15 (June 1942); Charles H. Wesley, "The Negroes of New York in the Emancipation Movement," JNH, 24:65103 (January 1939); Freeman, "Free Negro in New York City," 41-42, 53, 136, 188, 237, 279, 345, 350, 353, 368. , and others, who are heart and soul in the work, and anxious that our car of Progression should proceed. Will some one "lay his shoulder to the wheel?"

What arrangements are being made in Philadelphia for the Convention? The public houses are shut against colored persons in that city. Where are the delegates to go? Are there any boarding houses, or houses prepared to accommodate the delegates? We know that the colored people in Philadelphia are proverbial for their hospitality, and it is quite probable that every necessary arrangement will be made. But will it not be much more satisfactory for the delegates to know where they are going? Where is the Convention to be held? "Little Wesley Church," and the "Philadelphia Institute" have been suggested. Would not "Franklin Hall," or the "Methodist Church" up town, be more comfortable?

Our political warfare has commenced, and we have entered into the campaign in earnest. Rockwell and Brown are the men of our choice; and in November we expect the friends of Freedom to roll up 60,000 votes for the Republican ticket. If Gardner is nominated by the Know Nothing Convention which meets on Wednesday in this city, and if he accepts that nomination, it is quite probable that he may receive 30,000 votes. The Hunker Whigs have called a Convention, which meets to-morrow in Worcester; they will probably nominate a man who may secure 15,000 votes, and the Democrats and Anti-Maine Law men having united upon a man in favor of Rum and Slavery, it is quite probable that they will secure 40,000 votes. The main issue at least, you see, will be between Slavery, Rum, and Romanism on the one hand, and Freedom, Temperance, and Protestantism on the other. We hope the Republicans will not allow the Temperance or the Catholic question to distract their ranks.—Let us make the single issue of Slavery the only issue on our part, in this campaign. Let minor differences be waived and, one grand rally once made in favor of Freedom, and against the aggression of the slave power.—We are considered a fanatical Temperance man because we go for of so much pauperism and crime, disease and death as exists among us; but now we are willing to waive our favorite hobby for the sake of striking a death blow to General Pierce's Administration. Let every man, no matter how he stood before, whether a Temperance man or an Anti-Temperance man, whether a Roman Catholic or a Protestant, whether a Soft Shelled Whig or a Hunker Locofoco—let us all unite upon one platform to establish a party uncompromisingly and sternly on the side of Freedom.

We are about to establish a society to protect ourselves against the host of swindling impostors who go about begging money to buy their relatives, or for other charitable purposes, and whose object is merely to get a dishonest living at the expense of the little sympathy there is for the colored people. We propose to organize a society whose object it shall be to investigate all claims for sympathy, and if found worthy, to recommend them, and to caution the public against any persons soliciting aid without the proper credentials. There are now a host of lazy scamps who, under the pretence of buying themselves, or their relatives, or as agents of some charitable association, or religious denomination, go about and do us much injury. Many a worthy object of charity is obliged to suffer because so little confidence can be placed in the mass of those who solicit aid for benevolent purposes. Our society is designated to remedy the evil by exposing the guilty, and by protecting and aiding all persons found worthy. We request our colored friends in all cities and towns, in the Eastern, Middle, and Western States, to organize such societies among themselves, and inform us of their proper officers.—We expect to be able to send you, at an early day, an account of the organization of this contemplated society, and a list of the officers.

S.