This can be done, easily done, if the proper course be pursued, and necessity will hold them together as it holds together the United States of North America—­self-preservation.  As the British nation serves to keep in check the Americans; so would the United States serve to keep in Union the South American States.

We should also enter into solemn treaties with Great Britain, and like other free and independent nations, take our chance, and risk consequences.  Talk not of consequences; we are now in chains; shall we shake them off and go to a land of liberty? shall our wives and children be protected, secure, and affectionately cherished, or shall they be debased and degraded as our mothers and fathers were?  By the light of heaven, no!  By the instincts of nature, no!

Talk not about consequences.  White men seek responsibilities; shall we shun them?  They brave dangers and risk consequences; shall we shrink from them?  What are consequences, compared in the scale of value, with liberty and freedom; the rights and privileges of our wives and children?  In defence of our liberty—­the rights of my wife and children; had we the power, we would command the vault of a volcano, charged with the wrath of heaven, and blast out of existence, every thing that dared obstruct our way.

The time has now fully arrived, when the colored race is called upon by all the ties of common humanity, and all the claims of consummate justice, to go forward and take their position, and do battle in the struggle now being made for the redemption of the world.  Our cause is a just one; the greatest at present that elicits the attention of the world.  For it there is a remedy; that remedy is now at hand.  God himself as assuredly as he rules the destinies of nations, and entereth measures into the “hearts of men,” has presented these measures to us.  Our race is to be redeemed; it is a great and glorious work, and we are the instrumentalities by which it is to be done.  But we must go from among our oppressors; it never can be done by staying among them.  God has, as certain as he has ever designed any thing, has designed this great portion of the New World, for us, the colored races; and as certain as we stubborn our hearts, and stiffen our necks against it, his protecting arm and fostering care will be withdrawn from us.

Shall we be told that we can live nowhere, but under the will of our North American oppressors; that this (the United States,) is the country most favorable to our improvement and progress?  Are we incapable of self-government, and making such improvements for ourselves as we delight to enjoy after American white men have made them for themselves?  No, it is not true.  Neither is it true that the United States is the best country for our improvement.  That country is the best, in which our manhood can be best developed; and that is Central and South America, and the West Indies—­all belonging to this glorious Continent.