...--Bishop William
Meade's "Tracts, Dialogues," etc., in the Appendix of Thomas Bacon's
_Sermons Addressed to Masters and Servants_.
LETTER TO ABBE GREGOIRE, OF PARIS, 1809
I have received the favor of your letter of August 19th, and with
it the volume you were so kind as to send me on the Literature of
Negroes. Be assured that no person living wishes more sincerely than
I do to see a complete refutation of the doubts I have myself
entertained and expressed on the grade of understanding allotted to
them by nature and to find that in this respect they are on par with
ourselves. My doubts were the result of personal observation in the
limited sphere of my own state, where the opportunities for the
development of their genius were not favorable, and those of
exercising it still less so. I expressed them therefore with great
hesitation; but whatever be their degree of talent it is no measure
of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in
understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person and property
of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the opinions
of nations, and hopeful advances are making towards their
re-establishment on an equal footing with the other colors of the
human family.
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