leges of our country, depends on another circumstance than
that of character--a circumstance, which, as it was entirely beyond his
control, so it is unchangeable, and will for ever operate. This
circumstance is--_he is a black man_'!! And the Board of Managers of the
Parent Society, in their Fifteenth Annual Report, declare that '_an
ordination of Providence_' prevents the general improvement of the
people of color in this land! How are God and our country dishonored,
and the requirements of the gospel contemned, by this ungodly plea!
Having satisfied himself that the Creator is alone blameable for the
past and present degradation of the free blacks, Dr. Nott draws the
natural and unavoidable inference that 'here, therefore, they must be
_for ever debased, for ever useless, for ever a nuisance, for ever a
calamity_,' and then gravely declares (mark the climax!) 'and yet THEY,
[these ignorant, helpless, miserable creatures!] AND THEY ONLY, are
qualified for colonizing Africa'!! 'Why then,' he asks, '_in the name of
God_,'--(the abrupt appeal, in this connexion, seems almost
profane,)--'should we hesitate to encourage their departure?'

Nature, we are positively assured, has raised up impassable barriers
between the races. I understand by this expression, that the blacks are
of a different species from ourselves, so that all attempts to generate
offspring between us and them must prove as abortive, as between a man
and a beast. It is a law of Nature that the lion shall not beget the
lamb, or the leopard the bear. Now the planters at the south have
clearly demonstrated, that an amalgamation with their slaves is not only
possible, but a matter of course, and eminently productive. It neither
ends in abortion nor produces monsters. In truth, it is often so
difficult in the slave States to distinguish between the fruits of this
intercourse and the children of white parents, that witnesses are
summoned at court to solve the problem! Talk of the barriers of Nature,
when the land swarms with living refutations of the statement! Happy
indeed would it be for many a female slave, if such a barrier could
exist during the period of her servitude to protect her from the lust of
her master!

In France,[W] England,[X] Spain, and other countries, persons of color
maintain as high a rank and are treated as honorably as any other class
of the inhabitants, in despite of the 'impassable barriers of Nature.'
Yet it is proclaimed to the world