le of Virginia their belief, that _in Africa alone_
can they enjoy that complete emancipation from a degrading
inequality, which in a greater or less degree pervades the
United States, if not in the laws, in the whole frame and
structure of society, and which in its effects on their moral
and social state is scarcely less degrading than slavery
itself.'--[African Repository, vol. iii. pp. 25, 26, 66, 68,
345.]

'But there is one large class among the inhabitants of this
country--degraded and miserable--whom none of the efforts in
which you are accustomed to engage, can materially benefit.
Among the twelve millions who make up our census, two millions
are Africans--separated from the possessors of the soil by
birth, _by the brand of indelible ignominy_, by prejudices,
mutual, deep, _incurable_, by an _irreconcileable diversity of
interests_. They are aliens and outcasts;--they are, as a body,
degraded beneath the influence of nearly all the motives which
prompt other men to enterprise, and almost below the sphere of
virtuous affections. Whatever may be attempted for the general
improvement of society, their wants are untouched.--Whatever may
be effected for elevating the mass of the nation in the scale of
happiness or of intellectual and moral character, their
degradation is the same--dark, and deep, and _hopeless_.
Benevolence seems to overlook them, or struggles for their
benefit in vain. Patriotism forgets them, or remembers them only
with shame for what has been, and with dire forebodings, of what
is yet to come.' * * 'It is taken _for granted_ that in present
circumstances, any effort to produce a general and thorough
amelioration in the character and condition of the free people
of color must be to a great extent fruitless. In every part of
the United States there is a broad and _impassible_ line of
demarcation between every man who has _one drop_ of African
blood in his veins and every other class in the community. The
habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of society--prejudices
which neither _refinement_, nor _argument_, nor _education_, nor
_religion_ itself can subdue--mark the people of color, whether
bond or free, as the subjects of a degradation _inevitable_ and
_incurable_. The African in this country belongs by birth to the
very lowest station in soc