To assume superiority, is to deny the
equality of others, and to deny their equality, is to premise their
incapacity for self-government. Let this once be conceded, and there
will be little or no sympathy for the oppressed, the oppressor being
left to prescribe whatever terms at discretion for their government,
suits his own purpose.
Such then is the condition of various classes in Europe; yes, nations,
for centuries within nations, even without the hope of redemption among
those who oppress them. And however unfavorable their condition, there
is none more so than that of the colored people of the United States.
II
COMPARATIVE CONDITION OF THE COLORED PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES
The United States, untrue to her trust and unfaithful to her professed
principles of republican equality, has also pursued a policy of
political degradation to a large portion of her native born countrymen,
and that class is the Colored People. Denied an equality not only of
political but of natural rights, in common with the rest of our fellow
citizens, there is no species of degradation to which we are not
subject.
Reduced to abject slavery is not enough, the very thought of which
should awaken every sensibility of our common nature; but those of their
descendants who are freemen even in the non-slaveholding States, occupy
the very same position politically, religiously, civilly and socially,
(with but few exceptions,) as the bondman occupies in the slave States.
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