ith a
far less crushing power upon the energies of the red man; yet they have
not produced a Shakspeare or a Newton. But I shall be asked how it is
that the nations of Africa, having proceeded so far in the arts of
civilization, have made a full stop, and remained century after century
without any obvious improvement? I will answer this by another question:
How long did the ancient Helvetians, Gauls, and Saxons, remain in such a
state of barbarism, that what they considered splendor and refinement,
would be called poverty and rudeness, by their German, French, and
English descendants? What was it that changed the intellectual and moral
character of these people, after ages of ignorance and ferocity? It was
the _art of printing_. But, alas, with the introduction of printing,
modern slavery was introduced! While commerce has carried books and maps
to other portions of the globe, she has sent kidnappers, with guns and
cutlasses into Africa. We have not preached the Gospel of peace to her
princes; we have incited them to make war upon each other, to fill our
markets with slaves. While knowledge, like a mighty pillar of fire, has
guided the European nations still onward, and onward, a dark cloud has
settled more and more gloomily over benighted Africa. The lessons of
time, the experience of ages, from which we have learned so much, are
entirely lost to this vast continent.

I have heard it asserted that the Indians were evidently superior to
the negroes, because it was impossible to enslave _them_. Our slave laws
prove that there are some exceptions to this remark; and it must be
remembered that the Indians have been fairly met in battle, contending
with but one nation at a time; while the whole world have combined
against the Africans--sending emissaries to lurk for them in secret
places, or steal them at midnight from their homes. The Indian will seek
freedom in the arms of death--and so will the negro. By thousands and
thousands, these poor people have died for freedom. They have stabbed
themselves for freedom--jumped into the waves for freedom--starved for
freedom--fought like very tigers for freedom! But they have been hung,
and burned, and shot--and their tyrants have been their historians! When
the Africans have writers of their own, we shall hear their efforts for
liberty called by the true title of heroism in a glorious cause. We are
told in the fable that a lion, looking at the picture of one of his own
species, co