in consequence of oppression, nearly lost the spirit of man, and, in no very trifling degree, adopted that of brutes?  Do you answer, No?—­I ask you, then, what set of men can you point me to, in all the world, who are so abjectly employed by their oppressors as we are by our natural enemies?  How can, Oh! how can those enemies but say that we and our children are not of the HUMAN FAMILY, but were made by our creator to be an inheritance to them and theirs forever?  How can the slave-holders but say that they can bribe the best coloured person in the country, to sell his brethren for a trifling sum of money, and take that atrocity to confirm them in their avaricious opinion, that we were made to be slaves to them and their children?  How could Mr. Jefferson but say,[11]

“I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind?” “It,” says he, “is not against experience to suppose, that different species of the same genus, or varieties of the same species, may possess different qualifications.”

[Here, my brethren listen to him.]

[Hand->] “Will not a lover of natural history then, one who views the gradations in all the races of animals with the eye of philosophy, excuse an effort to keep those in the department of MAN as distinct as nature has formed them?”

I hope you will try to find out the meaning of this verse—­its widest sense and all its bearings:  whether you do or not, remember the whites do.  This very verse, brethren, having emanated from Mr. Jefferson, a much greater philosopher the world never afforded, has in truth injured us more, and has been as great a barrier to our emancipation as any thing that has ever been advanced against us.  I hope you will not let it pass unnoticed.  He goes on further, and says: 

“This unfortunate difference of colour, and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of these people.  Many of their advocates, while they wish to vindicate the liberty of human nature are anxious also to preserve its dignity and beauty.  Some of these, embarrassed by the question, ’What further is to be done with them? join themselves in opposition with those who are actuated by sordid avarice only.”

Now I ask you candidly, my suffering brethren in time, who are candidates for the eternal worlds, how could Mr. Jefferson but have given the world these remarks respecting us, when we are so submissive to them, and so much servile deceit prevails among ourselves—­when we so meanly submit to their murderous lashes, to which neither the Indians or any other people under heaven would submit?  No, they could die to a man, before they would suffer such things from men who are no better than themselves, and perhaps