"Great and increasing efforts are made to instruct the slaves in religion, and elevate their characters. Missionaries are employed solely for their benefit. It is very common for ministers to preach in the forenoon to the whites, and in the afternoon of each Sabbath to the blacks. The slaves of my acquaintance are generally contented and happy. The master is reprobated who will divide families. Many thousands of slaves of this State give evidence of piety. In many churches they form the majority. Thousands of them give daily thanks to God, that they or their fathers were brought to this land of Slavery. "And now, perhaps, I ought to add, that I am not a slave-holder, and do not intend to continue in a slave country; but wherever I may be, I intend to speak the TRUTH. "The next document related particularly to _Virginia_,--the largest and most powerful of the slave states; but had also a general reference to the whole south, and to the whole question at issue. The sentiments it contained were entitled to extraordinary consideration, on account of the source of them. Mr. Van Renselaer was the son of one of the most wealthy and distinguished citizens of the great free state of New York. He had gone to Virginia to preach to the slaves. He had everywhere succeeded; was everywhere beloved by the slaves, and honoured by their masters. He had access to perhaps forty different plantations,--on which he from time to time preached,--and which might have been doubled, had his strength been equal to the task. In the midst of his usefulness--the storm of abolition arose. Mr. Thompson, like some baleful star, landed on our shores; organized a reckless agitation, made many at the north frantic with folly--and as many at the south furious with passion. Mr. Van Renselaer, like many others, saw a storm raging which they had no power to control; and like them withdrew from his benevolent labours. The following brief statements made by him at a great meeting of the Colonization Society of New York, exhibit his own view of the conduct and duty of the parties. "_The Rev. Cortlandt Van Renselaer_, formerly of Albany, but who has lately resided in Virginia, addressed the meeting, and after alluding to the difference of opinion which prevailed among the friends of Colonization, touching the present condition and treatment of the coloured population in this country, proceeded to offer reasons why the people of the North should approach their brethren in the South, who held the control of the coloured population, with deference, and in a spirit of kindness and conciliation.