try engaged in war--white men cutting one another's
throats--none knowing how far it will extend--and then consider what we
know to be the truth: But for your race among us there could not be war,
although many men engaged on either side do not care for you one way or
the other. Nevertheless I repeat, without the institution of slavery and
the colored race as a basis, the war could not have an existence. It is
better for us both, therefore, to be separated. I know that there are free
men among you, who, even if they could better their condition, are not as
much inclined to go out of the country as those who, being slaves, could
obtain their freedom on this condition. I suppose one of the principal
difficulties in the way of colonization is that the free colored man
cannot see that his comfort would be advanced by it. You may believe
that you can live in WASHINGTON, or elsewhere in the United States, the
remainder of your life, as easily, perhaps more so, than you can in any
foreign Country; and hence you may come to the conclusion that you have
nothing to do with the idea of going to a foreign country.

This is (I speak in no unkind sense) an extremely selfish view of the
case. You ought to do something to help those who are not so fortunate as
yourselves. There is an unwillingness on the part of our people, harsh
as it may be, for you free colored people to remain with us. Now, if you
could give a start to the white people, you would open a wide door for
many to be made free. If we deal with those who are not free at the
beginning, and whose intellects are clouded by slavery, we have very poor
material to start with. If intelligent colored men, such as are before me,
would move in this matter, much might be accomplished.

It is exceedingly important that we have men at the beginning capable
of thinking as white men, and not those who have been systematically
oppressed. There is much to encourage you. For the sake of your race you
should sacrifice something of your present comfort for the purpose of
being as grand in that respect as the white people. It is a cheering
thought throughout life that something can be done to ameliorate the
condition of those who have been subject to the hard usages of the world.
It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy of
himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him. In the American
Revolutionary war sacrifices were made by men engaged in it, but they we