ties they form to send
slaves from the south to a place where they may enjoy freedom; and if
they can 'drain the ocean with a bucket,' may send '_with their own
consent_,' the increasing free colored population: but we solemnly
protest against that Christian philanthropy which in acknowledging our
wrongs commits a greater by vilifying us. The conscientious man would
not kill the animal, but cried 'mad dog,' and the rabble despatched him.
These gentlemen acknowledge the anomaly of those political ethics which
make a distinction between man and man, when their foundation is, 'that
all men are born equal,' and possess in common 'unalienable rights;' and
to justify the withholding of these 'rights' would proclaim to
foreigners that we are 'a distinct and inferior race,' without religion
or morals, and implying that our condition cannot be improved here
because there exists an unconquerable prejudice in the whites towards
us. We absolutely deny these positions, and we call upon the learned
author of the 'address' for the indications of distinction between us
and other men. There are different _colors_ among all species of
animated creation. A difference of color is not a difference of species.
Our structure and organization are the same, and not distinct from other
men; and in what respects are we inferior? Our political condition we
admit renders us less respectable, but does it prove us an inferior part
of the human family? Inferior indeed we are as to the means which we
possess of becoming wealthy and learned men; and it would argue well for
the cause of justice, humanity and true religion, if the reverend
gentlemen whose names are found at the bottom of President Duer's
address, instead of showing their benevolence by laboring to move us
some four thousand miles off, were to engage actively in the furtherance
of plans for the improvement of our moral and political condition in the
country of our birth. It is too late now to brand with inferiority any
one of the races of mankind. We ask for proof. Time was when it was
thought impossible to civilize the red man. Yet our own country presents
a practical refutation of the vain assertion in the flourishing
condition of the Cherokees, among whom intelligence and refinement are
seen in somewhat fairer proportions than are exhibited by some of their
white neighbors. In the language of a writer of expanded views and truly
noble sentiments, 'the blacks must be regarded as the real a