'But there is one large class among the inhabitants of this country--degraded and miserable--whom none of the efforts in which you are accustomed to engage, can materially benefit. Among the twelve millions who make up our census, two millions are Africans--separated from the possessors of the soil by birth, _by the brand of indelible ignominy_, by prejudices, mutual, deep, _incurable_, by an _irreconcileable diversity of interests_. They are aliens and outcasts;--they are, as a body, degraded beneath the influence of nearly all the motives which prompt other men to enterprise, and almost below the sphere of virtuous affections. Whatever may be attempted for the general improvement of society, their wants are untouched.--Whatever may be effected for elevating the mass of the nation in the scale of happiness or of intellectual and moral character, their degradation is the same--dark, and deep, and _hopeless_. Benevolence seems to overlook them, or struggles for their benefit in vain. Patriotism forgets them, or remembers them only with shame for what has been, and with dire forebodings, of what is yet to come.' * * 'It is taken _for granted_ that in present circumstances, any effort to produce a general and thorough amelioration in the character and condition of the free people of color must be to a great extent fruitless. In every part of the United States there is a broad and _impassible_ line of demarcation between every man who has _one drop_ of African blood in his veins and every other class in the community. The habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of society--prejudices which neither _refinement_, nor _argument_, nor _education_, nor _religion_ itself can subdue--mark the people of color, whether bond or free, as the subjects of a degradation _inevitable_ and _incurable_. The African in this country belongs by birth to the very lowest station in society; and from that station _he can never rise_, BE HIS TALENTS, HIS ENTERPRISE, HIS VIRTUES WHAT THEY MAY.... They constitute a class by themselves--a class out of which _no individual can be elevated_, and below which, none can be depressed. And this is the difficulty, the invariable and insuperable difficulty in the way of every scheme for their benefit. Much can be done for them--much has been done; but still they are, and, _in this country_, ALWAYS MUST BE a depressed and abject race.'--[African Repository, vol. iv. pp. 117, 118, 119.]