The time has now come, as we believe, in which your work and our happiness may be promoted by the expression of our opinions. We reside among you, and yet are strangers; natives, and yet not citizens; surrounded by the freest people and most republican institutions in the world, and yet enjoying none of the immunities of freedom. This singularity in our condition has not failed to strike us as well as you; but we know it is irremediable here. Our difference of color, the servitude of many and most of our brethren, and the prejudices which those circumstances have naturally occasioned, will not allow us to hope, even if we could desire, to mingle with you, one day, in the benefits of citizenship. As long as we remain among you, we must be content to be a distinct caste, exposed to the indignities and dangers, physical and moral, to which our situation makes us liable. All that we may expect is, to merit, by our peaceable and orderly behavior, your consideration and the protection of your laws. It is not to be imputed to you that we. are here. Your ancestors remonstrated against the introduction of the first of our race who were brought amongst you; and it was the mother-country that insisted on their admission, that her colonies and she might profit, as she thought, by their compulsory labor. Leaving out all considerations of generosity, humanity, and benevolence, you have the strongest reasons to favor and facilitate the withdrawal from among you of such as wish to remove.
"But if you have every reason to wish for our removal, — how much greater are our inducements to remove! Though we are not slaves, yet we are not
