Such
productions, however, fully satisfied those qualified men of our
people, because they were legitimately convinced (even as I myself am
convinced) that the political destinies of the people of colour could
not run one tittle of risk from anything that it pleased Mr. Froude
to write or say on the subject. But, meditating further on the
question, the reflection forced itself upon me that, beyond the mere
political personages in the circle more directly addressed by Mr.
Froude's volume, there were individuals whose influence or possible
sympathy we could not afford to disregard, or to esteem lightly. So
I deemed it right and a patriotic duty to attempt [17] the enterprise
myself, in obedience to the above stated motives.
At this point I must pause to express on behalf of the entire
coloured population of the West Indies our most heartfelt
acknowledgments to Mr. C. Salmon for the luminous and effective
vindication of us, in his volume on "West Indian Confederation,"
against Mr. Froude's libels. The service thus rendered by Mr. Salmon
possesses a double significance and value in my estimation. In the
first place, as being the work of a European of high position, quite
independent of us (who testifies concerning Negroes, not through
having gazed at them from balconies, decks of steamers, or the seats
of moving carriages, but from actual and long personal intercourse
with them, which the internal evidence of his book plainly proves to
have been as sympathetic as it was familiar), and, secondly, as the
work of an individual entirely outside of our race, it has been
gratefully accepted by myself as an incentive to self-help, on the
same more formal and permanent lines, in a matter so important to the
status which we can justly claim as a progressive, law-abiding, and
self-respecting section of Her Majesty's liege subjects.
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