and dislike in which the free blacks
are held in all the free States of America. They are deprived of their
rights as citizens; and the white pauper, who holds out his hand for
charity (and there is no want of beggars in Philadelphia), will turn
away from a negro, or coloured man, with disdain. It is the same thing
in the Eastern States, notwithstanding their religious professions. In
fact, in the United States, a negro, from his colour, and I believe his
colour alone, is a degraded being. Is not this extraordinary, in a land
which professes universal liberty, equality, and the rights of man? In
England this is not the case. In private society no one objects to sit
in company with a man of colour, provided he has the necessary education
and respectability. Nor, indeed, is it the case in the Slave States,
where I have frequently seen a lady in a public conveyance with her
negress sitting by her, and no objection has been raised by the other
parties in the coach; but in the Free States a man of colour is not
admitted into a stage coach; and in all other public places, such as
theatres, churches, etcetera, there is always a portion divided off for
the negro population, that they may not be mixed up with the whites.
When I first landed at New York, I had a specimen of this feeling.
Fastened by a rope yarn to the rudder chains of a vessel next in the
tier, at the wharf to which the packet had hauled in, I perceived the
body of a black man, turning over and over with the ripple of the waves.
I was looking at it, when a lad came up: probably his curiosity was
excited by my eyes being fixed in that direction. He looked, and
perceiving the object, turned away with disdain, saying, "Oh, it's only
a nigger."

And all the Free States in America respond to the observation, "It's
only a nigger." [See note 1.] At the time that I was at Philadelphia a
curious cause was decided. A coloured man of the name of James Fortin,
who was, I believe, a sailmaker by profession, but at all events a
person not only of the highest respectability, but said to be worth
150,000 dollars, appealed because he was not permitted to vote at
elections, and claimed his right as a free citizen. The cause was
tried, and the verdict, a very lengthy one, was given by the judge
against him, I have not that verdict in my possession; but I have the
opinion of the Supreme Court on one which was given before, and I here
insert it as a curiosity. It is a re