MEN AND BRETHREN: The time has fully come when we, as an oppressed people, should do something effectively, and use those means adequate to the attainment of the great and long desired end--do something to meet the actual demands of the present and prospective necessities of the rising generation of our people in this country. To do this, we must occupy a position of entire _equality_, of _unrestricted_ rights, composing in fact, an acknowledged _necessary_ part of the _ruling element_ of society in which we live. The policy _necessary_ to the _preservation_ of this _element_ must be _in our favor_, if ever we expect the enjoyment, freedom, sovereignty, and equality of rights anywhere. For this purpose, and to this end, then, all colored men in favor of Emigration out of the United States, and _opposed_ to the American Colonization scheme of leaving the Western Hemisphere, are requested to meet in CLEVELAND, OHIO, TUESDAY, the 24th day of AUGUST, 1854, in a great NATIONAL CONVENTION, then and there to consider and decide upon the great and important subject of Emigration from the United States. No person will be admitted to a seat in the Convention, who would introduce the subject of Emigration to the Eastern Hemisphere--either to Asia, Africa, or Europe--as our object and determination are to consider our claims to the West Indies, Central and South America, and the Canadas. This restriction has no reference to _personal_ preference, or _individual_ enterprise; but to the great question of national claims to come before the Convention. All persons coming to the Convention must bring credentials properly authenticated, or bring verbal assurance to the Committee on Credentials--appointed for the purpose--of their fidelity to the measures and objects set forth in this call, as the Convention is specifically by and for the friends of Emigration, and none others--and no opposition to them will be entertained. The question is not whether our condition can be bettered by emigration, but whether it can be made worse. If not, then, there is no part of the wide spread universe, where our social and political condition are not better than here in our native country, and nowhere in the world as here, proscribed on account of color.