Page:A Chapter on Slavery.djvu/120

 union with a negro. The two races are essentially distinct, and that is quite enough to produce the sentiment referred to, without the supposition of intrinsic inferiority on either side. It would certainly be a more manly and dignified course for the intelligent free blacks in America to take this view of the subject and act accordingly, than to degrade themselves by servilely courting the society of the whites, content to be received among them on terms of mere sufferance.

"But we claim the right," they may say, "to remain in America: it is the place of our birth, and therefore our proper and legitimate home." Grant the right: yet does it follow that it is the wisest course, under present circumstances, to use it? "All things,". says the Apostle, "are lawful for me; but all things are not expedient." Where is the wisdom of contending for a barren right — when a voluntary abandonment of it would bring to the holder far greater ease,