That
colored boys would get situations in their shops and stores, and every
other advantage tending to elevate them as far as possible, would be
extended to them. At least, it was expected, that in Anti-Slavery
establishments, colored men would have the preference. Because, there
was no other ostensible object in view, in the commencement of the
Anti-Slavery enterprise, than the _elevation_ of the _colored man_, by
facilitating his efforts in attaining to equality with the white man. It
was urged, and it was true, that the colored people were susceptible of
all that the whites were, and all that was required was to give them a
fair opportunity, and they would prove their capacity. That it was
unjust, wicked, and cruel, the result of an unnatural prejudice, that
debarred them from places of respectability, and that public opinion
could and should be corrected upon this subject. That it was only
necessary to make a sacrifice of feeling, and an innovation on the
customs of society, to establish a different order of things,--that as
Anti-Slavery men, they were willing to make these sacrifices, and
determined to take the colored man by the hand, making common cause with
him in affliction, and bear a part of the odium heaped upon him.
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