“He that did it would be laughed at as a fool for his presumption. The white man, in his arrogance, sneers at all the rest, and thinks that his complexion is the one above all others. How does he know but what God prefers the ebony black to his white leprous skin? “The different races uphold their own color, as they should. If then, we cannot determine the type of face or color, how, then, can we fix the type of mind to be preferred? Who shall lay down a law that all men shall think alike, in a certain groove, and in a particular manner, and believe the same things in the same way, as one man or a set of men, in their assumed superiority, think the best! Why should you, or any class of men, dictate to me how I shall think about God, or in fact about anything, any more than you or they should tell me how to have my hair cut, or to select a certain pattern for my clothes? “I go into your garden, and may make suggestions about your walks, or your flowers, and you may act upon them or not, but what right have I to insist and command you to do according to my views with your own property? What right, then, have I to step into your mind, and tell you to think as I do, and believe what I tell you, or be damned? When men cannot make two faces alike, how can they expect to fashion the minds of men to one pattern? This has been attempted in all ages, and mainly by the Church, and what was the result? Persecution, imprisonment, crucifixion, burning at the stake, pouring molten lead into the ears, bursting people with water poured into their mouths, tearing them limb from limb, in short, no tortures that devilish ingenuity could invent but were inflicted, and the wars, desolating countries, the destruction of cities, the outrage and murder of helpless women and children, fire and the sword, the fiendish passions of men unrestrained, a greater destruction of property and human life by the Christian religious wars, than in all the wars of the world put together, and for what purpose? To make men think alike. Did they succeed? Not at all. Mankind will think as it pleases, fire or no fire, and in spite of the direst persecution. The attempt was so absurd and outrageous that any one, half mad or an idiot, ought to have seen the folly of it. The scientists might, with as much reason, call a convocation and pass a resolution that after a certain date all mankind should be of a certain height, and of a particular color. Yet, notwithstanding the horrible failure, the same old spirit exists, and the dungeon, the rack, fire and sword would come into use again for the same old hellish purpose if it were possible.