"I have, Sir, other and personal objections to entering into such an enterprise. I have never been sufficiently successful in the cause of our brethren to have a value set upon my efforts. I have labored for naught and received nothing. If I except the use of fifty dollars borrowed from a donation of one hundred dollars, presented by the Ladies' Fair to 'The North Star,' which sum I have to pay, the present sum of ten dollars, and various articles of clothing for myself and wife and little children, during my stay in Philadelphia last winter, by several excellent colored ladies, is more than I ever before realized, during seven years as editor of different papers, the last eighteen months of which, thus, were devoted entirely to the cause.
"I am full persuaded that to embark in a new enterprise of this kind, would be heedless in me, and the last precipitous stride and gasping struggle to the certain starvation of my family, whom I am bound by all the ties of consanguinity and self respect, and what is stronger than self love, or conjugal and filial affections, to protect and support, protect alike against starvation as well as oppression and personal injury and abuse. . . My ardent desire for the elevation of our race has caused me to sacrifice more than I was able to bear, more than my share.
"I have no other desire to do that which I conceive to be just and right towards God and man, to justify myself without wronging my neighbor. I detest that dog in the manger ambition, which because I cannot eat the hay myself, will suffer no other one to eat it; and that Pharisaical philanthropy, which because Israel cannot be gathered together, would prevent Jacob from receiving his reward.
"No, thank God, I have a different object and higher aim in view, the elevation of our race, I care not by whom it be effected so that it be properly done. Let it be Henry Highland Garnet, Samuel R. Ward, W.W. (William Wells) Brown, Henry Bibb, Charles Lenox Remond, Frederick Douglass, or whom. I have no ambition whatever for popular fame and personal distinction in the heaven decreed pursuit of philanthropy.
"It admits of no such rivalry. That which partakes of the nature of Deity, can possess neither hatred or envy. It is an assumption to force one's services, where they are not wanted, especially when they are useless, and he who does it is an intruder, if not an usurper.
"This being my case, I have determined to remain in the seclusion of obscurity, where I have ever been, wishing Godspeed to our public great men, in every good and laudable undertaking in which they may embark.
To H.H. Burnham of Zanesville, Ohio, Oct. 5, 1849, on the idea of starting a newspaper there with digressions. (Ullman, p. 109)
