amalgamation with all its disgusting results would be sure to follow; and then so numerous a body of ignorant men having the rights of franchise and social position denied them cannot be controlled in any other position than that in which they are now held.”
“As to amalgamation,” said the Quaker, “I regard emancipation as the only possible method of putting a stop to it; for when both races are left to their own free choice the practice ceases. It has always been so and will be no different hereafter. The laws never interfere in such matters when all parties are free. Slavery forces amalgamation; it is not in practice among free men. What thou sayest in relation to the difficulty in controling so large a body of ignorant men, having their rights denied them, is without foundation, for when they are free they will not long remain in ignorance, and as to the right of franchise, if they cannot be made good citizens without it, then why deprive them of it?” “Why deprive them?” said Ridgley, “they are deprived of it already!” “ True,” said the Quaker, “slaves do not vote, but when slavery is abolished they will be citizens, and if to make them voters will make them better citizens, more easily governed because aiding in the government, then I say, why not grant them equal rights?” “Because,” said Ridgley, “we should soon be overrun by them? Who would ever consent to be ruled by niggers?” “It seems to me,” said the Quaker, “that thee puts a low estimate on the capacity of the white race to maintain republican institutions if thee believes what thee says, that with equal rights twenty millions of whites cannot compete with four millions of black men; thy self-respect must suffer serious damage in the contemplation of such conclusions. I noticed that among the rights of which thee takes it for granted that black men, after emancipation, will be deprived, thee has
