Could any contemplative mind doubt for a moment the ability of the white population of the Union, if justly disposed, to raise the colored population of the country, in a short time, to the platform of a decent respectability?  With unjust prejudice laid aside, and the work of beneficence acquiesced in, no one could reasonably doubt it.  Who deserves best at the hands of the nation’s power, the oppressor or the oppressed?  The one that grasps at the throat of the nation and attempts its overthrow merely to perpetuate his power of oppression, or the other who is crying to humanity for protection?  The voice of nature, if undefiled, will answer this question on the side of humanity—­if not, NECESSITY WILL.

The democratic theory which seeks to absolve humanity from oppression, is not confined to the resistance of a single despot.  It goes in the same degree to a privileged class that arrogates to itself the right to oppress; nor does it stop at the half-way house of mere negative protection.  It allows in its onward course the full fruition of ‘EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW.’  In theory, the law is the sovereign, and we seek to attach such qualities to that sovereign as are compatible with the general good of society.  That theory places no man above the law, nor any man below its protection.  As soon as the individual in society is raised to the point of negative protection, he is in a measure converted into a being of power.  He can then appeal to his sovereign, THE LAW, for the vindication of his rights.  Experience is continually demonstrating that men are respected in proportion to their power to command respect.  The very existence of slavery requires and demands the brutalization of the governing power that upholds it.  Were society absolved from this tyranny, matters would begin to mend.  Equalized protection would be the consequence.  Protection, not only to the colored man, but protection in an almost equal degree to the non-slaveholding white population, hitherto brought under the ban of disability by a depressing pro-slavery policy.

Until recently, when the colored race in the United States was spoken of in connection with the subject of its release from oppression, it was subjected to the same arguments that kept the white men in slavery in olden times.  The arguments of slaveholders were never truthful, and only convenient for themselves.  They damaged the slave; they damaged every collateral interest; they damaged the strength of nationality; and more than all, they damaged every humane principle of civilization.  The whole reasoning in favor of slaveholding has been a vicious fallacy; and perhaps the time has come, attended by sufficient calamity, to set the American population to thinking and acting in the right direction.