Mr. CLAY was chairman of the meeting, and stirring addresses were made by him, and by Messrs. CALDWELL and RANDOLPH, of Roanoke. A committee was appointed to present a memorial to Congress, asking their co-operation; John Randolph was on that committee. The society held its first meeting on the 17th of January, 1817, and elected its officers. Hon. BUSHROD WASHINGTON was made president, and among the thirteen vice-presidents were CLAY, CRAWFORD, JACKSON, and JOHN TAYLOR, of Virginia. The committee of the society prepared a memorial to Congress, which was referred to a committee of the House of Representatives, who made an able report, concluding with resolutions recommending negotiations with the great states of Europe for the abolition of the slave trade, and an application to Great Britain to receive into the colony of Sierra Leone such of the free people of color of the United States as should be carried thither. And should this proposition not be accepted, then to obtain from Great Britain a stipulation, guaranteeing a permanent neutrality to any colony established under the auspices of the United States upon the coast of Africa. On the 3d of March, 1819, Congress passed an act, authorizing the President of the United States to make such arrangements as he might deem expedient, for the safe keeping and removal out of the United States of such persons of color as might be brought into any of the States under the act abolishing the slave trade, and to appoint agents upon the coast of Africa for receiving such persons. Agents were accordingly appointed by the Government, who, acting in co-operation with the agents of the society, purchased territory, and established the colony. This purchase was made in 1822, by an agent of the society, and Captain Stockton, of the navy, on the part of the Government of the United States. From that moment the course of the colony has been steadily onward, “through evil and through good report,” until it has taken its place among the independent nations of the earth, under the denomination of the “Republic of Liberia.”