tion of one of his educated friends, Banneker
now undertook to extend his calculations so as to make an Almanac,
then the most comprehensive medium of scientific information. Banneker
continued the work required to complete his almanac, and finished the
first one to cover the year 1792, when he was sixty-one years old.
This attracted to him a number of prominent men, among whom was Mr.
James McHenry, of Baltimore, a member of John Adams's cabinet. This
gentleman, through his high regard for Banneker's achievements, had
his almanac published by the firm of Goddard and Angell of Baltimore.
In his letter to this firm McHenry paid a fine tribute to the
character of the author, although some of his statements as to
Banneker's parentage do not harmonize with what appears to the writer
as more reliable information from another source. McHenry laid special
stress upon the fact that Banneker's work, in the preparation of his
almanac, "was begun and finished without the least information or
assistance from any person, or from any other books," than those he
had obtained from Mr. Ellicott, "so that whatever merit is attached to
his present performance is exclusively and peculiarly his own."[164]

That Mr. McHenry attached a wider significance to Banneker's
attainments than is implied in a merely personal achievement is shown
in his statement that he considered "this negro as a fresh proof that
the powers of the mind are disconnected with the color of the skin,
or, in other words, a striking contradiction to Mr. Hume's doctrine,
that the negroes are naturally inferior to the whites, and
unsusceptible of attainments in arts and sciences?" "In every
civilized country," said he, "we shall find thousands of whites,
liberally educated and who have enjoyed greater opportunities for
instruction than this negro, (who are) his inferiors in those
intellectual acquirements and capacities that form the most
characteristic features in the human race.[165] But the system that
would assign to these degraded blacks _an origin different from the
whites_, if it is not ready to be deserted by philosophers, must be
relinquished as similar instances multiply; and that such must
frequently happen, cannot be doubted, _should no check impede the
progress of_ _humanity_, which, ameliorating the conditions of
slavery, necessarily leads to its final extinction."[166]

Referring to their attitude, the publishers said in their editorial
notice that "they fel