IX

CAPACITY OF COLORED MEN AND WOMEN AS CITIZEN MEMBERS OF COMMUNITY

The utility of men in their private capacity as citizens, is of no less import than that of any other department of the community in which they live; indeed, the fitness of men for positions in the body politic, can only be justly measured by their qualification as citizens.  And we may safely venture the declaration, that in the history of the world, there has never been a nation, that among the oppressed class of inhabitants—­a class entirely ineligible to any political position of honor, profit or trust—­wholly discarded from the recognition of citizens’ rights—­not even permitted to carry the mail, nor drive a mail coach—­there never has, in the history of nations, been any people thus situated, who has made equal progress in attainments with the colored people of the United States.  It would be as unnecessary as it is impossible, to particularize all the individuals; we shall therefore be satisfied, with a classification and a few individual cases.  Our history in this country is well known, and quite sufficiently treated on in these pages already, without the necessity of repetition here; it is enough to know that by the most cruel acts of injustice and crime, our forefathers were forced by small numbers, and enslaved in the country—­the great body now to the number of three millions and a half, still groaning in bondage—­that the half million now free, are the descendants of the few who by various means, are fortunate enough to gain their liberty from Southern bondage—­that no act of general emancipation has ever taken place, and no chance as yet for a general rebellion—­we say in view of all these facts, we proceed to give a cursory history of the attainments—­the civil, social, business and professional, and literary attainments of colored men and women, and challenge comparison with the world—­according to circumstances—­in times past and present.

Though shorn of their strength, disarmed of manhood, and stripped of every right, encouraged by the part performed by their brethren and fathers in the Revolutionary struggle—­with no records of their deeds in history, and no means of knowing them save orally, as overheard from the mouths of their oppressors, and tradition as kept up among themselves—­that memorable event, had not yet ceased its thrill through the new-born nation, until a glimmer of hope—­a ray of light had beamed forth, and enlightened minds thought to be in total darkness.  Minds of no ordinary character, but those which embraced business, professions, and literature—­minds, which at once grasped the earth, encompassed the seas, soared into the air, and mounted the skies.  And it is none the less creditable to the colored people, that among those who have stood the most conspicuous and shone the brightest in the earliest period of our history, there are those of pure and unmixed African