About the time of this action of the Virginia Legislature there
assembled at Washington on the 21st of December 1816, a body of
prominent citizens from various states, who effected a tentative
organization, from which resulted the American Colonization Society.
Over this meeting Henry Clay presided, and among the notable persons
present were Daniel Webster, Bushrod Washington and John Randolph of
Roanoke. The Rev. Robert Finley, of New Jersey, and Mr. E. B.
Caldwell, at that time Clerk of the Supreme Court at Washington, were
especially active in bringing about the assemblage. Charles Fenton
Mercer, of Virginia, and Francis Scott Key, of Maryland, were also
among the most zealous friends of the enterprise. In addition to
Randolph and Washington, Bishop William Meade, Rev. William H. Wilmer,
John Taylor, Edmund I. Lee and other Virginians were also present. Mr.
Clay has left upon record that "the original conception of the project
is to be traced to a date long anterior," to the meeting and that "the
State of Virginia, always prominent in works of benevolence, prior to
the formation of the American Colonization Society ... had expressed
her approbation of the plan of colonization."[81]
On the first of January, 1817, the permanent organization of the
society was effected by the selection of Mr. Justice Bushrod
Washington, of Virginia, as President, a position which he held for
thirteen years. Judge Washington was succeeded by Charles Carroll, of
Carrollton, James Madison, Henry Clay and John H. B. Latrobe, the last
named holding office until after the Civil War.