This, then, is
precisely the position of the colored people generally in the United
States, compared with the whites. What is necessary to be done, in order
to attain an equality, is to change the condition, and the person is at
once changed. If, as before stated, a knowledge of all the various
business enterprises, trades, professions, and sciences, is necessary
for the elevation of the white, a knowledge of them also is necessary
for the elevation of the colored man; and he cannot be elevated without
them.
White men are producers--we are consumers. They build houses, and we
rent them. They raise produce, and we consume it. They manufacture
clothes and wares, and we garnish ourselves with them. They build
coaches, vessels, cars, hotels, saloons, and other vehicles and places
of accommodation, and we deliberately wait until they have got them in
readiness, then walk in, and contend with as much assurance for a
"right," as though the whole thing was bought by, paid for, and belonged
to us. By their literary attainments, they are the contributors to,
authors and teachers of, literature, science, religion, law, medicine,
and all other useful attainments that the world now makes use of. We
have no reference to ancient times--we speak of modern things.
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