In a word: If we take into consideration the origin of this race, the barbarism, the brutal degradation, and the customary inhuman vices of their ancestry, which remain the same to this day in Africa; if we look at the different conditions and fate of other portions of the same race, who, in consequence of such a state of things in the land of their fathers, have been carried away from their native shores; and then compare the whole with the general progress of nations and tribes in human improvement over the face of the earth, we shall, as we think, be compelled to the conclusion, that no other people can be found on the globe, civilized or uncivilized, who have, within the same period of time, risen so much, or been improved so much, as a body, in their actual condition, social character, privileges, relations, and prospects, for time and for eternity, as that portion of the African race now to be found in the United States of North America. Let it not be understood or said, that we adduce this _great fact_, as a bar to any claims that may be fairly asserted by the colored people of this country, bond or free, or in their behalf, to still farther improvement; but only, that it is proper--that in present circumstances, we are bound--to take the most enlarged view of so great a question; that we are bound to consider, as human nature is, and in such a world as ours, that all nations and tribes, in their best estate, necessarily advance in improvement by _degrees_; that one tribe or nation cannot claim to rise at the expense of another, more especially when their own vices have put them at the bottom of the scale; and that all must fall in with the fair, proper, and unavoidable influence of time, events, and accidental circumstances, over which society, in a regular and constituted course of action, has no control. To insist on breaking in upon this general and conventional movement by violence, on disturbing the established order of human society, to force forward one race, one nation, one tribe, and one class, at the expense of another, and in violation of the recognized principles and actual frame of society, is treason to society, and to the general rights of mankind. The time of absolute _perfectionism_, either as to individual character, or as to the structure of human society, in our opinion, has not yet come. And while all are anxious for improvement, public and private, and are striving for it, all must consent to carry it forward on recognized principles--on principles which will not tear down society, and subvert and overthrow important advantages and vital interests already acquired for common good.