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Show 14 T HE CoLORED P EOPLE'S to such an Institution, present fair claims to the o.ssistancc of the entire American people. Whenever emancipation shall take place, immediate though it be, the subjects of it, lilm many who now make up the so-called free population, will be in what Geologists call, the «Transition State." The prejudice now felt against_ them for bearing on their persons the brand of slaves, cannot die out immediately. Severe trials will still be their portion-the curse of a "taunted race" must be expiated by almost miruculons proofs of advancement; and some of these miracles must be anteceilcnt to the great <lay of Jubilee. To fight the battle on the bare grounil of abstract principles, will fail to give ns complete vic· tory. The subterfuges of pro-slavery selfishness must now be dragged to light, and the last weak argument, -that the negro can never contribute anything to advance the national· character, "nailed to the counter as base coin." To the conquering of the difficulties heaped up in the path of his industry, the free-colored man of the North has pledged himself. Already he sees, springing into growth, from out his foster workschool, intelligent young laborers, competent to enrich the world with necessary products-industrious " I NDUSTRIAL COLLEGE~ 15 citizens, contributing their proportion to aid on the advancing civilization of the country ;-self-providing artizans vindicating their people from tlic never· ceasing charge of a fitness for servile positions. Abolitionists ought to consider it a legitimate part of their great work, to aid in such an enterprise-to abolish not only chattel servitude, but that other kind of slavery, wbicb, for generation after generation, dooms an oppressed people to a condition of dependence and pauperism. Such an Institution would be a shining mark, in even this enlightened age; and every man and woman, equipped by its discipline to do good battle in the arena of active life, would be, next to the emancipated bondman, the most desirable "Autograph for Freedom." |