reach, that I would not have meddled with it, were it not to solicit
each of my brethren, who has the spirit of a man, to buy a copy of Mr.
Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia," and put it in the hand of his son.
For let no one of us suppose that the refutations which have been
written by our white friends are enough--they are _whites_--we are
_blacks_. We, and the world wish to see the charges of Mr. Jefferson
refuted by the blacks _themselves_, according to their chance: for we
must remember that what the whites have written respecting this
subject, is other men's labors and did not emanate from the blacks. I
know well, that there are some talents and learning among the coloured
people of this country, which we have not a chance to develope, in
consequence of oppression; but our oppression ought not to hinder us
from acquiring all we can.--For we will have a chance to develope them
by and by. God will not suffer us, always to be oppressed. Our
sufferings will come to an _end_, in spite of all the Americans this
side of _eternity_. Then we will want all the learning and talents
among ourselves, and perhaps more, to govern ourselves.--"Every dog
must have its day," the American's is coming to an end.

But let us review Mr. Jefferson's remarks respecting us some further.
Comparing our miserable fathers, with the learned philosophers of
Greece, he says:

"Yet notwithstanding these and other discouraging
circumstances among the Romans, their slaves were often
their rarest artists. They excelled too in science, insomuch
as to be usually employed as tutors to their master's
children; Epictetus, Terence and Phædrus, were slaves,--but
they were of the race of whites. It is not their _condition_
then, but _nature_, which has produced the distinction."[9]