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all attest, how much need there is of a reformation among the blacks of this place. This degraded state of manners cannot justly be attributed to any national inferiority, but must be entirely ascribed to the circumstance of a great part of them having so lately emerged from a state of abject slavery calculated to paralyze every noble faculty of the mind, and extinguish every moral sentiment; but every day furnishes us with increasing evidence, that the African race is not inferior to the inhabitants of the other quarters of the world, either in the natural endowments of the understanding or the heart.
It cannot be denied that there are many exceptions to the general remarks which have been made, respecting the degraded state of the people of color in this place. It is well known and must afford pleasure to every benevolent person, that there are some of them, who, in respect to intellect and moral improvement, rank high among their fellow citizens: but these are among the first to acknowledge and deplore the wretched situation of a large porportion of the people of color. And it deserves to be mentioned to their praise, that they have lately instituted a society, the express object of which, is to ameliorate the condition of their brethren according to the flesh, by the suppression of vice and the communication of moral and religious instruction among them. And will not every friend of virtue and good order among the whites, lend his aid in promoting this good work? Are we not bound by every consideration, of justice, of charity, of humanity, and of self-interest, to give our best assistance towards civilizing and reforming this numerous and increasing class of inhabitants? And what means so effectual for this purpose as the faithful preaching of the Gospel? The restraints of civil law are acknowledged to be salutary and necessary, and the influence of public opinion on the conduct of men is not to be despised; but after exhausting all our ingenuity in planning schemes of reformation, the preaching of the Gospel will maintain its importance, as the most successful and only effectual means of producing radical reformation among men. But in speaking of the good effects of the Christian religion, it would be unpardonable to confine our views to the present world. Its chief praise, is, that it is "able to make men wise unto salvation." Shall we, then, who profess a religion whose very essence is benevolence, be indifferent to the eternal salvation of our fellow men? Shall we suffer them to perish through "lack of knowledge," when it is so much in our power to supply them with the means of instruction? And that too when we have been accessary, as a people, in bringing them into their present wretched situation.
