d of our misery--knowledge instead of our ignorance.

_Resolved_, That while we appreciate and acknowledge the sincerity of
the motives and the activity of the zeal of those who, during an
agitation of twenty years, have honestly struggled to place us on a
footing of social and political equality with the white population of
the country, yet we cannot conceal from ourselves the fact that no
advancement has been made towards a result to us so desirable; but
that on the contrary, our condition as a class is less desirable now
than it was twenty years ago.

_Resolved_, That in the face of an emigration from Europe, which is
greater each year than it was the year preceding, and during the
prevalence of a feeling in regard to us, which the very agitation
intended for good has only served apparently to embitter, we cannot
promise ourselves that the future will do that which the past has
failed to accomplish.

_Resolved_, That we recognize in ourselves the capacity of conducting
our own public affairs in a manner at once creditable and well
calculated to further among us the cause of religion, virtue,
morality, truth and enlightenment--and to acquire for ourselves the
possession and enjoyment of that elevated refinement which so much
adorns and beautifies social intercourse among mankind, and leads
them to a proper appreciation of the relations existing between man
and Deity--man and his fellow men, and man and that companion whom
God has bestowed upon him, to console him in the hours of trouble and
darkness, or enjoy with him the blessings that heaven vouchsafed
occasionally to shower upon our pathway through life.

_Resolved_, That in a retrospective survey of the past, we see
between the white and colored races a disparity of thought, feeling
and intellectual advancement, which convinces us that it cannot be
that the two races will ever overcome their natural prejudices
towards each other sufficiently to dwell together in harmony and in
the enjoyment of like social and political privileges, and we
therefore hold that a separation of ourselves from our white
neighbors, many of whom we cannot but love and admire for the
generosity they have displayed towards us from time to time, is an
object devoutly to be desired an