Page:An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans.djvu/192

178 O, miserable chieftain! where and when Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not; do thou Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow: Though fallen thyself, never to rise again, Live, and take comfort. Thou has left behind Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies; There 's not a breathing of the common wind That will forget thee; thou hast great allies. Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And love, and man's unconquerable mind."

Godwin, in his admirable Lectures on Colonial Slavery, says: "Can the West India islands, since their first discovery by Columbus, boast a single name which deserves comparison with that of Toussaint L'Ouverture?"

If we are willing to see and believe, we have full opportunity to convince ourselves that the colored population are highly susceptible of cultivation. St Domingo produces black legislators, scholars, and gentlemen.—The very negroes who had been slaves, formed a constitution that would do credit to paler-faced statesmen—Americans may well blush at its consistent republicanism.

The enemies of true freedom were very ready to predict that the government of Hayti could not continue for any length of time; but it has now lasted nearly thirty years, constantly increasing in respectability and wealth. The affairs of Greece have been managed with much less ability and discretion, though all the cabinets of Europe have given assistance and advice. St Domingo achieved her independence alone and unaided—nay, in the very teeth of prejudice and scorn. The Greeks had loans from England, and contributions from America, and sympathy from half the world; the decisive battle of Navarino was gained by the combined fleets of England, France and Russia. Is it asked why Hayti has not produced any examples of splendid genius? In reply let me inquire, how long did the Europeans ridicule us for our poverty in literature? When Raynal reproached the United States with not having produced one celebrated man, Jefferson requested him to wait until we had existed "as long as the Greeks before they had a Homer, the Romans a Virgil, and the French a Racine." Half a century elapsed before our republic produced Irving, Cooper, Sedgwick, Halleck, and Bryant. We must not