When I acknowledged a few days ago the receipt of your invitation to put in writing my views upon the management of the negro race as part of the free population of the United States, I stated to you that there was a preliminary question of the utmost importance to be examined first, since whatever convictions may be formed upon that point must necessarily influence everything else relating to the subject. The question is simply this: Is there to be a permanent black population upon the continent after slavery is everywhere abolished and no inducement remains to foster its increase? Should this question be answered in the negative, it is evident that a wise policy would look to the best mode of removing that race from these States, by the encouragement and acceleration of emigration. Should the question be answered, on the contrary, in the affirmative, then it is plain that we have before us one of the most difficult problems, upon the solution of which the welfare of our own race may in a measure depend, namely, the combination in one social organization of two races more widely different from one another than all the other races. In effecting this combination it becomes our duty to avoid the recurrence of great evils, one of which is already foreshadowed in the advantage which unscrupulous managers are taking of the freedmen, whenever the latter are brought into contact with new social relations. I will, for the present, consider only the case of the unmixed negroes of the Southern States, the number of which I suppose to be about two millions. It is certainly not less,--it may be a little more. From whatever point of view you look upon these people you must come to the conclusion that, left to themselves, they will perpetuate their race ad infinitum where they are. According to the prevalent theory of the unity of mankind it is assumed that the different races have become what they are in consequence of their settlement in different parts of the world, and that the whole globe is everywhere a fit abode for human beings who adapt themselves to the conditions under which they live. According to the theory of a multiple origin of mankind the different races have first appeared in various parts of the globe, each with the peculiarities best suited to their primitive home. Aside from these theoretical views the fact is, that some races inhabit very extensive tracts of the earth's surface, and are now found upon separate continents, while others are very limited in their range. This distribution is such that there is no reason for supposing that the negro is less fitted permanently to occupy at least the warmer parts of North and South America, than is the white race to retain possession of their more temperate portions. Assuming our pure black race to be only two millions, it is yet larger than the whole number of several races that have held uninterrupted possession of different parts of the globe ever since they have