Mr. Clay regarded the society, if judiciously managed, competent to diffuse the light and blessings of civilization and christianity, under the guidance of Providence, through the entire vast regions of Africa; saying, that it proposed ‘to send, not one or two pious members of christianity, into a foreign land, among a different and perhaps a suspicious race, of another complexion, but to transport annually, for an indefinite number of years, thousands of efficient missionaries, of the descendants of Africa itself, with the same interests, sympathies, and constitutions of the natives, to communicate the benefits of our holy religion, and of the arts of civilization. And this colony of missionaries is to operate, not alone by preaching the words of truth and revelation, which, however delightful to the ears of the faithful and intelligent, are not always comprehended by untutored savages, but also by works of occular demonstration. It will open the great forest, it will build up cities, erect temples for christian worship, and thus practically exhibit to the native sons of Africa, the beautiful moral spectacle, and the superior advantages, of our religious and social systems. In this unexaggerated view of the subject, the African colony, compared with other missionary plans, presents the force and grandeur of the noble steamer majestically ascending, and with ease subduing the current of the Mississippi, in comparison with the feeble and tottering canoe, moving slowly among the reeds which fringe its shores. It holds up the image of the resistless power of the Mississippi itself, rushing down from the summit of the Rocky mountains, and making its deep and broad and rapid course through the heart of this continent, thousands of miles, to the gulf of Mexico, in comparison with that of an obscure rivulet, winding its undiscernable way through dark and dense forests or luxuriant prairies, where it is quickly and forever lost. ‘Confiding in the approving judgment of Divine Providence, and conscious of the purity and benevolence of our intentions, we may fearlessly advance in our great work. And when we shall, as soon we must, be translated from this into another existence, is the hope presumptuous, that we shall then behold the common Father of the white and the black, the Ruler of the universe, cast his all-seeing eye upon civilized and regenerated Africa, its cultivated fields, its coasts studded with numerous cities, and adorned with temples dedicated to the religion of his redeeming Son, its far-famed Niger, and all its great rivers, lined with flourishing villages, and navigated by that wonderful power which American genius first applied; and that, after dwelling with satisfaction upon the glorious spectacle, he will deign to look with approbation upon us, his humble instruments, who have contributed to produce it.’