because it engenders the greater
prejudice, or in other words, elicits less interest on the part of the
oppressing class, in their favor. This fact is well understood in
national conflicts, as the soldier or civilian, who is distinguished by
his dress, mustache, or any other peculiar appendage, would certainly
prove himself a madman, if he did not take the precaution to change his
dress, remove his mustache, and conceal as much as possible his peculiar
characteristics, to give him access among the repelling party.

This is mere policy, nature having nothing to do with it. Still, it is a
fact, a great truth well worthy of remark, and as such as adduce it for
the benefit of those of our readers, unaccustomed to an enquiry into the
policy of nations.

In view of these truths, our fathers and leaders in our elevation,
discovered that as a policy, we the colored people were selected as the
subordinate class in this country, not on account of any actual or
supposed inferiority on their part, but simply because, in view of all
the circumstances of the case, they were the very best class that could
be selected. They would have as readily had any other class as
subordinates in the country, as the colored people, but the condition of
society _at the time_, would not admit of it. In the struggle for
American Independence, there were among those who performed the most
distinguished parts, the most common-place peasantry of the Provinces.
English, Danish, Irish, Scotch, and others, were among those whose names
blazoned forth as heroes in the American Revolution. But a single
reflection will convince us, that no course of policy could have induced
the proscription of the parentage and relatives of such men as Benjamin
Franklin the printer, Roger Sherman the cobbler, the tinkers, and others
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. But as they were
determined to have a subservient class, it will readily be conceived,
that according to the state of society at the time, the better policy on
their part was, to select some class, who from their political
position--however much they may have contributed their aid as we
certainly did, in the general struggle for liberty by force of arms--who
had the least claims upon them, or who had the _least chance_, or was
the _least potent_ in urging their claims. This class of course was the
colored people and Indians.

The Indians who in the early settlement of the continent, before an
Af