May 8, 1865
Difficult to summarize, too long to quote, the editor advocates for the dissolution of the AAS. There are then quotes from two papers, the Commonwealth, and the Anglo-African. The Commonwealth, which has often expressed itself contemptuously toward the Society, now calls for its continuation, with a newly found zeal, which incurs wonder from the editor. The quote from the Anglo-African includes a charge that AAS leaders urge dissolution only “at the very moment that they also find that it no longer pays”. The editor comments: “The low fling contained in the closing sentence of this extract is characteristic of the manners and breeding of its author, Dr. J. McCune Smith. We only notice it as illustrating the animus of certain outsiders, who are impudently assuming to thrust their advice upon a Society from which they stand aloof. Both the Commonwealth and the Anglo-African find it to their purpose to represent those who believe that the Society may now with dignity and propriety dissolve, as disposed to withdraw from all effort to place the colored population on a level with the white, in regard to their political rights. The imputation is a base one, and undeserving of serious refutation.”
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