[359]
In the Keepsake1 he is represented sitting in his favorite position, cross-legged, his head pendent and lateral, and his hands retaining the eye-glass with which he was accustomed to read.
There were in reality two interviews, which are thus described in
Mr. Garrison's official report on his mission:
On the 19th of June, it was my privilege to be introduced2 to the venerable Wilberforce in Bath.
He gave me a very gracious reception, as did also his excellent lady and son. I spent about three hours in his company, during which time his cautious and active mind was very inquisitive on the subject of slavery in the United States, and particularly in reference to the American Colonization Society.
I endeavored to communicate, as briefly and clearly as possible, all the prominent facts relating to our great controversy.
In expressing to him the grief which was felt by American abolitionists, and particularly by our free colored population, in seeing the name of Wilberforce enrolled among the friends of the Colonization Society, he said that his commendation of the enterprise had been restricted to the colony at Liberia; that, relying upon the information which Mr. Cresson had given him respecting the flourishing condition of that colony, he had been induced to believe that it was aiding essentially in the civilization of benighted Africa: that he never regarded the Society as providing a remedy for slavery; that he viewed with abhorrence the doctrine of the Society denying the practicability of elevating the colored race in the United States to an equality with the whites; and that he had repeatedly contested that wicked position with Mr. Cresson, and told him that he considered it fundamentally false and unchristian.
He expressed much anxiety to learn how far Mr. Cresson had made use of his name to give currency to the Society, and desired his son to write down the following queries as he dictated them:
1. How far has Mr. Elliott Cresson made use of Mr. Wilberforce's name?
Has he merely stated that Mr. Wilberforce approved of the colony as calculated to benefit Africa; or has
