and beg to assure you, if there are any causes for it, which are founded upon justice, I shall be most happy to make them known through the Press of these Colonies, in order to remove, so far as it may be in my power, the deep reproach which appears now to attach to your State and Government. I may add, that I did think of visiting California, but that the impression now upon my mind renders it impossible. I could not willingly be a resident in a country where such a principle is acknowledged, as that the people of any class, creed, or colour, whilst they are made to contribute to the exigencies of a government in peace and war, shall be deprived of their natural rights as as men, and be stamped with an indignity, which should attach to the human race only as one of the consequences of crime. This now appears to be the prevalent and increasing opinion of the civilized nations of the world; and from the generous efforts making in the Northern States of your own Union, I did hope, although now more than fifty years of age, to have lived to see the day when these just and merciful sentiments would have effected the emancipation of a people persecuted only on account of their colour;—a circumstance, as we all know, they could have had no more to do with, than I could in the passing of a clause which appears to me to be disgraceful to humanity.
Although not an American Citizen, but a stranger, and not even a temporary resident within the precincts of your government, yet, as a Member of the Press, and of the great human family, I feel it my duty, most respectfully, to protest against an act which tends to perpetuate so great a public crime. I could not rest in life, or die in peace, humble an individual as I am, unless I did so; and consequently claim your indulgence for laying this protest before Your Excellency, on behalf of the coloured race.
I have only to add, Sir, my request, that you will receive this letter in the spirit with which it is written, viz—of respectful, earnest enquiry, and of hope that I may be enabled to show the clause to which I refer, as being an unavoidable wrong or error
