e all on an
average fifteen years old, those vengeful ex-slaves of to-day will be
all men of sixty-five years of age; and, allowing for the delay in
getting the franchise, somewhat further advanced towards the human
life-term of threescore and ten years. Again, in order to organize and
carry out any scheme of legislative and social retaliation of the kind
set forth in the "Bow of Ulysses," there must be (which unquestionably
there is not) a considerable, well-educated, and very influential
number surviving of those who had actually [15] been in bondage.
Moreover, the vengeance of these people (also assuming the foregoing
nonexistent condition) would have, in case of opportunity, to wreak
itself far more largely and vigorously upon members of their own race
than upon Whites, seeing that the increase of the Blacks, as correctly
represented in the "Bow of Ulysses," is just as rapid as the diminution
of the White population. And therefore, Mr. Froude's
"Danger-to-the-Whites" cry in support of his anti-reform manifesto
would not appear, after all, to be quite so justifiable as he possibly
thinks.

Feeling keenly that something in the shape of the foregoing programme
might be successfully worked up for a public defence of the maligned
people, I disregarded the bodily and mental obstacles that have beset
and clouded my career during the last twelve years, and cheerfully
undertook the task, stimulated thereto by what I thought weighty
considerations. I saw that no representative of Her Majesty's Ethiopic
West Indian subjects cared to come forward to perform this work in the
more permanent shape that I felt to be not only desirable but essential
for our self-vindication. [16] I also realized the fact that the "Bow
of Ulysses" was not likely to have the same ephemeral existence and
effect as the newspaper and other periodical discussions of its
contents, which had poured from the press in Great Britain, the United
States, and very notably, of course, in all the English Colonies of the
Western Hemisphere. In the West Indian papers the best writers of our
race had written masterly refutations, but it was clear how difficult
the task would be in future to procure and refer to them whenever
occasion should require. Such productions, however, fully satisfied
those qualified men of our people, because they were legitimately
convinced (even as I myself am convinced) that the political destinies
of the people of colour could not ru