It will be observed, that we are now stating facts, not principles. Abolitionists may say, it ought not to be so, and we admit it. But their error is, in this, as in all departments of their cause, that they build and go on the principle of _perfectionism_, and refuse to submit to the suggestions of practical wisdom--of experience. They assume, that it is possible to manage society just as if it were perfect in its structure, and morally perfect in all its component parts, and insist, that it shall be so managed. The consequence is, that disturbance instantly insues, on the attempt to enforce their principles, and the colored people are doomed to suffer the evil consequences of the rashness of their pretended friends and benefactors, besides that they are injured in their temper and character as citizens. Again we observe, that we are stating facts, as we know that we are exposed to misrepresentation. We say, then, what every body knows--though we regret the fact as sincerely as any one can--that the free colored people of this country, with few exceptions, have risen, in person or by genealogy, from a depressed condition, from a state of bondage, which, in connexion with the public feeling and prejudice against the race, on account of a difference of physical constitution, subjects them unfortunately to social disadvantage, in a white population, who have always had the ascendency, and to whom society, as it exists, owes its origin and maintenance. This may be wrong in the widest view and with the most generous construction of human rights, as they are commonly maintained in the abstract; but it is a fact. We say, moreover, in reference to such a fact, it has never been known, in the history of human society, that such a class has risen, by a single step, to a full equality of social immunity and privilege. We know it is a doctrine of _perfectionism_, but it is not a practicable doctrine, in our opinion. It will doubtless commonly be regarded as impossible for such a class to be qualified, except by time and degrees, for such a station in society with a white population. To attempt, therefore, to enforce it on the people of this country, in such circumstances, is only to make the colored people unhappy, to put a claim into their mouths which they cannot hope to realize, and to arm the white population with still stronger prejudices against them.