First of August Celebration at Buffalo.

Messrs. Editors:ーWill you allow me, through the columns of your valuable paper, to communicate to your readers and freedom's friends throughout the country, that grand and extensive preparations are now being made in the city of Buffalo to celebrate the commemoration of that glorious morn, when far away "amid the isles of the sea and the tocsin of liberty was sounded," and at the first peal of those glad notes eight hundred thousand human beings, bound by the despotic hoof of oppression, were enabled to arise from their bed of degredation and stand erect in all the manhood with which God has endowed them.

And though fifteen years have passed away since the first chronicling of this glorious event yet in the recollection of our citizens, the delightful scenes attendant upon that occasion are cherished with the deepest and liveliest emotions; and though we were not eye witnesses uopn the occasion, yet by the ties of brotherhood and our identity with the human family, we cherish with them the remembrance of the pleasing prospect by which they were surrounded.

And in view of this, Buffalo intends manfully to show to the world, her warm attachment to so holy and noble a cause. The services of some of the most able and talented men in the country have been engaged as speakers upon the occasion, and every arrangement will be entered into to ensure the comfort and happiness of all who may attend.

And I may but speak the sentiments of the citizens generally, when I extend a most cordial invitation to the Empire State to marshal her sons and daughters in innumerable hosts, throughout the entire length and breadth of her borders, and at the appointed time crowd every avenue and thoroughfare that shall lead safely to the Queen city.

Our Brethren further East are also invited to be present, the voice of the great West is also expected to be heard; let Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, each be ably represented and under God, we shall be enabled to fight a valiant battle for Freedom.

Yours, as ever,

George Weir, Jr.Weir, George, Jr.

The son of a minister of Buffalo’s Vine Street African Methodist Episcopal Church, George Weir, Jr., was a minister and abolitionist in Buffalo. Arthur O. White, “The Black Movement against Jim Crow Education in Buffalo, New York, 1800-1900,” , 30:383 (Winter 1969).

Buffalo, April 14th, 1849.