to Africa_ or _re-enslave him_. The former is the best,
_far the best_. Now, which will my countrymen do? I do not say
_fellow-citizens_, as I regard myself but as a sojourner in the land,
whose every political duty is now performed by obeying _your_ laws, be
they good or bad--not voting, nor assisting others in making _your_
laws. Will my countrymen, in deciding for themselves these questions,
_remember--will they remember_, that the first law of liberty is
obedience to God. Without this obedience to the great and noble
principles of God, truth, righteousness and justice, there can be no
liberty, no peace, no prosperity, no happiness in any earthly
government--if these are sacrificed or ignored, God will overturn and
keep overturning, until mankind learn his truth, justice and mercy, and
conform to them.

To the people of the South, we say, _obedience_ to God is better than
all sacrifices. You have sacrificed all your negroes. It was _your
ancestors_, that God made use of to form this noblest of all human
governments--no others could do it. Do not be cast down at what has
happened, and what is _yet to happen_--God will yet use you to reinstate
and remodel this government, on its just and noble principles and at the
_proper time_. The North _can never do it_. These are perilous
times--the _impending decisions will be against you, and against God_.
But keep yourselves free from _this sin--do not by your acts, nor by
your votes, invite the negro equality--if it is forced upon you_, as it
will be--obey the laws--remembering _that God will protect the
righteous_; and that his truth, like itself, will always be consistent,
and like its Author, will be always and _forever triumphant. The finger
of God is in this. Trust him._ The Bible is true.

_July_, 1840.

_December_, 1866. ARIEL.

NOTE 1. Any candid scholar, wishing to address the writer, is informed,
that any letter addressed to "Ariel," care of Messrs. Payne, James &
Co., Nashville, Tennessee, during this summer and fall (1867), will
reach him and command his attention.

NOTE 2. Some few kinky-headed negroes, have been found embalmed on the
Nile, but the inscriptions on their sarcophagii, fully explain who they
were, and how they came to be there. They were generally _negro traders_
from the interior of the country, and of much later dates.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Negro: what is His Ethnological
Status? 2nd Ed., by Buckner H. 'Ari