The anti-slavery fight carried on in the North, into which the colored men entered and became powerful leaders, aroused the race to a deep study of the whole subject of liberty and brought them in sympathy with all people who had either gained or were struggling for their liberties, and prompted them to investigate all countries offering to them freedom. No country was so well studied by them as Hayti, and from 1824 to 1860 there had been considerable emigration thither. Liberia, Central and South America and Canada were all considered under the thought of emigration. Thousands went to Hayti and to Canada, but the bulk preferred to remain here. They liked America, and had become so thoroughly in love with the doctrines of the Republic, so imbued with the pride of the nation's history, so inspired with hope in the nation's future, that they resolved to live and die on her soil. When the troublous times of 1860 came and white men were fleeing to Canada, colored men remained at their posts. They were ready to stand by the old flag and to take up arms for the Union, trusting that before the close of the strife the flag might have to them a new meaning. An impassioned colored orator had said of the flag: "Its stars were for the white man, and its stripes for the Negro, and it was very appropriate that the stripes should be red." The free Negro of the North was prepared in 1861 to support Abraham Lincoln with 40,000 as good American-born champions for universal liberty as the country could present. FOOTNOTES: [1] Slave Trade--Carey. [2] Outlines--Tanner. [3] A.M.E. Magazine, 1843. [4] It is to be noted that in Maryland and Virginia an important number of white serving women married Negro slave men in the early days of these colonies. [5] In 1835 there were six high schools, or schools for higher education, in the United States that admitted colored students on equal footing with others. These were: Oneida Institute, New York; Mount Pleasant, Amherst, Mass.; Canaan, N.H.; Western Reserve, Ohio; Gettysburg, Pa.; and "one in the city of Philadelphia of which Miss Buffam" was "principal." There was also one manual labor school in Madison County, N.Y., capable of accommodating eighteen students. It was founded by Gerrit Smith. NOTES. A. THE FIRST COLORED CONVENTION. On the fifteenth day of September, 1830, there was held at Bethel Church, in the city of Philadelphia, the first convention of the colored people of these United States. It was an event of historical importance; and, whether we regard the times or the men of whom this assemblage was composed, we find matter for interesting and profitable consideration.