We hear a great deal about emancipation—­the freedom of the African race—­free negroes, &c.  It is all sheer nonsense.  Strictly speaking, there is not a free negro in the limits of the United States!  There never has been, and there never will be.  The white and the black races have never co-existed under the same government, on equal footing, and never can.  Their liberty is only nominal!  “It is all a lie and a cheat!” Is the negro free any where in the Northern States?  No, he is not.  There is no sympathy between the two races.  Northern people loathe and despise free negroes.  They cannot bear the sight or smell of them.  The negro then is not free anywhere in the Northern States.  Not only the prejudices, but also the laws of the free states proclaim it impossible:  and the prejudices of the whites against the African race is stronger in the free states, than it is in the slave states.  Every free state in this Union is disposed to cast them off as a nuisance.  They cannot bear their presence.  Their very color renders them odious; and this aversion to the African race, is daily becoming stronger and stronger in every free state in this union.  Nothing can counteract it—­nothing can overcome it.  It is in the very nature of things impossible.  No, no!  Negro novels piled mountain high in every street and alley, in every city and village in this Union, will accomplish nothing for the poor despised African.  “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots,” then may ye who are accustomed to loathe, shun, and cast off the African race, receive them to your kind embraces.

It is true that abolitionists affect to have a great deal of sympathy for them while they are slaves in the South, but they have none for the ignorant, degraded, half starved, ill clad, free negroes in the North.  No wonder, for their Southern sympathy costs them nothing, but Northern sympathy might empty their purses.  Show me the abolitionist who is willing to meet the free negro on terms of equality.  No man can point to one—­no, not one.  The African is neglected, scorned, and trodden under foot every where; by abolitionists and every one else.  This prejudice is invincible, irremediable.  The poor African is hopelessly and irretrievably doomed to scorn, contempt and degradation while in the midst of the white race.  Is the African allowed the ordinary privileges of the white man any where in all the liberty loving North?  Show me the spot!  Where is it?  Show me the state—­show me the neighborhood—­the man—­the woman among all the white race in all the North, who is willing to allow the despised African, the ordinary privileges of white men.  Ah! you cannot do it.  Shame! shame!  Hold! cease,—­for God’s sake cease your hypocritical cant about Southern slavery.  No! no! there is not a state in all this union where they enjoy the privileges of white men.  There is not—­there never has been—­and there never will be!  They are no where equal parties in an action at law.