might mingle in the circles of the whites, in this
country, my shade of color is so slight, and that of my wife and family
scarce perceptible. Well, perhaps, on sufferance, I might. But, to tell
you the truth, I have no wish to.

"My sympathies are not for my father's race, but for my mother's. To him
I was no more than a fine dog or horse: to my poor heart-broken mother
I was a _child_; and, though I never saw her, after the cruel sale that
separated us, till she died, yet I _know_ she always loved me dearly.
I know it by my own heart. When I think of all she suffered, of my own
early sufferings, of the distresses and struggles of my heroic wife, of
my sister, sold in the New Orleans slave-market,--though I hope to have
no unchristian sentiments, yet I may be excused for saying, I have no
wish to pass for an American, or to identify myself with them.

"It is with the oppressed, enslaved African race that I cast in my lot;
and, if I wished anything, I would wish myself two shades darker, rather
than one lighter.

"The desire and yearning of my soul is for an African _nationality_. I
want a people that shall have a tangible, separate existence of its
own; and where am I to look for it? Not in Hayti; for in Hayti they had
nothing to start with. A stream cannot rise above its fountain. The race
that formed the character of the Haytiens was a worn-out, effeminate
one; and, of course, the subject race will be centuries in rising to
anything.

"Where, then, shall I look? On the shores of Africa I see a republic,--a
republic formed of picked men, who, by energy and self-educating force,
have, in many cases, individually, raised themselves above a condition
of slavery. Having gone through a preparatory stage of feebleness, this
republic has, at last, become an acknowledged nation on the face of the
earth,--acknowledged by both France and England. There it is my wish to
go, and find myself a people.

"I am aware, now, that I shall have you all against me; but, before
you strike, hear me. During my stay in France, I have followed up, with
intense interest, the history of my people in America. I have noted the
struggle between abolitionist and colonizationist, and have received
some impressions, as a distant spectator, which could never have
occurred to me as a participator.

"I grant that this Liberia may have subserved all sorts of purposes, by
being played off, in the hands of our oppressors, against us. Doubtless
the s