According to previous notice an adjourned meeting of this Society took place at four O’clock PM. Mr. R. S. Holloway President elect being present was duly installed. The letter of application from Mr. Arthur Lee which had passed through the Constitutional process was then balloted for & he declared unanimously elected.

The Society then proceeded into the Hall, where a brilliant assemblage of the fairer & sterner sex greeted their presence. The exercises being opened with prayer by Mr. H. Cardozo Jr. the annual oration was delivered by Mr. Benjamain Roberts. For twenty or thirty minutes did he enchain an enlightened auditory on the various phases of Education. The Press, the Pulpit, the College as well as the achievements of Watt, a Newton & the other channels & instruments of the onward march of Education, were dilated on by the Master touch of the Orator.¹ The ascendant star in the galaxy of Palestine’s hopes was bu^r^nished with a sun-like aspect by this son of Clio & the not far distant day when Ethiopia too shall shall stretch forth her hands,² appeared but as the ’morrow before the phrophetic [sic] touch of the speaker. Concluding with an exhorting appeal to his fellow members, he took his seat amidst the plaudits of surrounding friends. The benediction being pronounced, the Society as well as the audience, dispersed with the solemn conviction, that they were well repaid for leaving their homes & firesides.

W. O. Weston, Secretary

A regular meeting of the above named Society was held at the usual time and place.

Page 126 →The first roll being called, the proceedings of the two last meetings were read and approved. The Vice President being absent, Mr. Cardozo was appointed in his place. Mr. C. Ludeke was appointed Reporter the incumbent being absent. The evening being far advanced the only important business transacted, was the election of Mr. R. S. Holloway as Annual Orator. The reporter made his report & the last roll being called, the Society on motion adjourned.

W. O. Weston, Secretary

A regular meeting of the above named Society was held at the usual time & place; The first roll being called the proceedings of the last meeting were read and approved. At this time a present of “Josephus works”³ to the Society was announced & a vote of thanks unanimously tendered the munificent donor. The gift was still more highly cherished when it was known, that it came from an Honorary Member Mr. Richard Dereef who has ever been ready in time of need to subscribe liberally to Clio’s funds.⁴ Mr. Sanders Orator elect having declined, that & the debates were postponed untill next meeting. A letter of thanks was ordered to be written to Mr. Dereef for his kindness. The Society on motion after the report & roll was called adjourned.

W. O. Weston, Sec.

A regular meeting of the above named Society was held at the usual time & place. The first roll being called, the proceedings of the last meeting were read & approved. The long postponed debate then took place. Mr. H. J. D. Cardozo the affirmative debatant being absent & the gentleman of the negative Mr. J. M. F. Dereef having pleaded from a variety of reasons non compulsion to debate, the floor was opened to any disputants. The discussion was warm & ceased not untill the President gave notice that what was not said, could not again be said—at least publicly. It was decided in the affirmative.

The vacant Semi Annual Oratorship was then filled by the election of Mr. W. H. Gaillard; notice was also given that an election for general officers would be held at the next meeting. No more business appearing to demand the attention of the Society, it was on motion after reporter made report, adjourned.

W. O. Weston, Secretary

Erratum. The President being absent Mr. E. G. Beaird was called to the Chair.

The question adopted for the next meeting read thus—“Is the occurrence of great events indicative of a progressive spirit”—Mr. R. L. Deas was appointed on the affirmative, and Mr. W. H. Gaillard on the negative of the question.

A regular meeting of this Society was held on the evening of the above date. The first roll was called, the proceedings of the last meeting read and approved. The regular debates were now opened and were spiritedly carried on even beyond the time for closing, after which the President announced his decision in favor of the affirmative.

The question adopted for next meeting’s discussion read thus “Do the consequences of Success tend to Good or Evil.” Mr. I. A. Hyams⁵ was appointed on the former, and Mr. B. E. K. Hampton on the latter portion of the question. The general election of officers now took place, which resulted as follows (see Officers list). At the opening of the meeting Mr. H. Cardozo Jr. was appointed Secretary pro-tem. All business being now concluded, the Reporter made his report, the last roll was called, and the Society on motion adjourned.

H. Cardozo Jr., Sec. pro-tem

1. 1. Roberts refers to the Scottish inventor James Watt (1736–1819), best known for his steam engine, which contributed to the Industrial Revolution, and to Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), the English physicist and mathematician whose laws of motion prompted the law of universal gravitation.
2. 2. The biblical phrase “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God” (Psalm 68:31, KJV) was commonly used among nineteenth-century advocates of African evangelization.
3. 3. Several editions of the works of the first-century CE Jewish historian Flavius Josephus were available in 1855.
4. 4. Richard E. Dereef (1798–1876) was a wealthy wood factor, an enslaver, a member of the Brown Fellowship and Friendly Union Societies, and the father of Clionian regular member J. M. F. Dereef. See Eric Foner, Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders during Reconstruction, rev. ed. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996), 62; Bernard E. Powers Jr., Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822–1885 (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1994), 43; Larry Koger, Black Slaveowners: Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790–1860 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1985), 16; and List of the Tax Payers of the City of Charleston for 1860 (Charleston, SC: Evans and Cogswell, 1861), 319.
5. 5. This is the last mention of Isadore A. Hyames (1829–1901) in the Clionian minutes. Hyames was also a member of the Friendly Association; on August 27, 1856, that group recorded receipt of a letter from Hyames declaring his intention to leave South Carolina permanently. In 1861 he served as a corporal in the New York State Militia for three months. For the remainder of the century, census records and city directories listed him as a tailor in Manhattan. At his death in 1901, he was interred in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, where former Clionian honorary member Job G. Bass was buried earlier that year. See Friendly Association Records, 1853–1869, South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston, SC; Isadore A. Hyames, Co. D, Eighth New York State Militia, in Records of the Adjutant General’s Page 128 →Office, 1780s–1917, Record Group 94, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC; “New York, New York, U.S., Death Index, 1892–1898, 1900–1902,” Ancestry.com (online database), 2003, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6492/; and Green-Wood Historic Fund, “Burial and Vital Records, 1840–1937,” Brooklyn, NY, 2024, https://www.green-wood.com/burial-and-vital-records/.