since,
and have constantly received that generous and friendly consideration
which, from the reputation of Great Britain and Ireland, we had been led
to expect; and for which we are grateful.

To go back for a single moment to New York Central College. On receiving
the appointment to the professorial chair, the pro-slavery newspaper
press of the country opened a regular assault. The "_Washington Union_"
thus wrote:

"What a pity that college could not have found white men in all America
to fill its professors' chairs. What a burning shame that the trustees
should have been mean enough to rob Mr. L---- of his law student, and
the Boston bar of its ebony ornament." I was never at the Boston bar,
and therefore could not have been its ebony ornament. The imagination
of the editors supplied them with the fact, and that answered their
purpose as well.

A reverend doctor of divinity writing in a Cincinnati newspaper,
wondered "how a man of sense could enter that amalgamation college. If
this professor would go to Liberia and display his eloquence at the bar
there; or, if he has any of the grace of God in his heart, enter the
pulpit, he would then be doing a becoming work."

From Augusta, Georgia (Slave State), I received the following document,
signed by several parties, and containing the picture of a man hanging
by the neck, under which was written, "Here hangs the Professor of
Greek!"

"Augusta, Geo. Nov. 1850.

"Sir,--We perceive you have been appointed Professor of Greek in New
York Central College. Very well. We also perceive that you have
occasionally lectured in the North on the 'Probable Destiny of the
African Race.' Now, Sir, if you will only have the kindness to come to
Augusta, and visit our hemp yard, you may be sure that your destiny will
not be _probable_, but certain.

"Signed,

------

------

------"

Of course I did not go to Augusta, Georgia.

These assaults and attempts at ridicule served to bring me into general
notice. I soon found that, by reason of them, and without merit or
effort of my own, I had become known throughout the whole country as
"the Colored Professor." I had a status. The lady being the daughter of
a highly respectable minister, she also had a status. To permit