less strange to see him enslaved and compelled by his labor to maintain
both his master and himself, after having declared him incapable of doing
either. Why not let him go then? Why hold with an unyielding grasp, so
miserable and useless a piece of property? Is it benevolence that binds
him with his master's chain? Judge ye. Stranger still is the fact of
attaching such vast influence to his presence and so much concern
regarding his movements, when in a state of freedom, if indeed, he is of
so little worth and consequence, and so nearly related to the brutes that
perish.

Surely, the Legislature of Ohio, or of any other State, would never feel
called upon to sit in grave counsel, for the purpose of framing laws which
would impose fine and imprisonment on a monkey, should one chance to
locate within its jurisdiction; nor would they think it advisable for the
court to assemble, or a jury to be empanelled, to drive from their midst
an ourang-outang. And yet this and more must be done to get rid of the
hated negro, who has been born in that State, or has fled to it for
protection from the manstealer.

When strangers pass hastily through this country, and after a careless
glance at the colored population, report them to be "an indolent,
improvident, and vicious class of persons," they should consider some of
the many obstacles thrown in the way of the most favored of that race.
Knowing as they do, the rigor of the law, and feeling as they do, the
oppressive power of prejudice, it becomes almost impossible for them
to rise to that station they were designed to fill, and for which their
natural abilities as certainly qualify them, as though they had never
been robbed of their God-given rights. But let us return to our tried
friends in Cincinnati.