ALLEGHENY CITY, Sept. 13th, 1854.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS: DEAR SIR:—Your paper of Sept. 8th, contained an article taken from the National Era, headed "what becomes of the free colored people?" and signed 'G', to which I wish briefly to call attention. It is not the truth of the article that I hope to impeach. Alas! no; G has stated many lamentable facts, and shown that he knows but too well the deep places of our degradation. But while we admit, with shame and sorrow, the truth of many of his statements, we feel disposed to dispute the inference which he deduces from these facts, viz.: that the redemption of the Africo-American from slavery and degradation, can only be brought about by the wholesale prostitution of our wives and daughters. We repel the thought that the negro's way upward to the heaven of respectability and equality lies through the slough of indiscriminate concubinage, and the wicked gate of illicit intercourse. It is evident that G of the Era, and De Tocqueville whom he quotes, have been chiefly conversant with the colored population of the slave States, where their estimate of the virtue of colored females may not be far from correct. But at the same time, let it be remembered that it is more than hinted that chastity even among the women of the "superior" class in the South, is by no means a drug in market. I am not a Southron, nor have I ever been in a slave State, hence I cannot speak on this subject from experience or observation. But if rumor with her hundred tongues be not ten thousand times a perjured dame, male house servants at the South, are not unfrequently required by their Mistresses to serve them in the performance of certain duties, that cannot properly be classed under the head of servile labor. Nor is it difficult, (so saith rumor) to find Southern women of the "superior" class, who, like Potiphar's wife of old, do not disdain to "cast an eye" of favor upon colored, but consenting Josephs. The assertion of G that "every one of African descent values himself in preparation [sic] to the degree of white blood in his veins," is too near the truth to admit of cavil, yet there are many exceptions to this general rule, to be found among colored men of every hue. But there are many of us, who have yet to learn that slavery leaves its impress on the soul, not in the color of the skin,—that the lineaments of degradation are found in the thoughts of the heart—not in the texture of the hair. There are many called colored, who differ very little, or not at all from the whites in external appearance, but whose mental characteristics are widely different. To illustrate, the white man believes his race to be the race par excellence; the colored man believes his race naturally inferior. The white trusts in the energy of his own stern will, and in the strength of his own strong arm; the not at all white trusts in the protection of his all-white brother, and bows his own will to his dictation. With the one, life is a race, which he must strive to win; with the other, life is an experiment, which he would like to try if the Lord is willing, and the white man will help him a little. Ah! sir, the colored man is sadly mistaken if he thinks to become just like a white man by merely acquiring, honorably or dishonorably, sharp features and straight hair. Let the man of whatever hue, respect himself, and be true to the instincts of his manhood; then, and not till then, will he be the co-equal, and compeer of the haughty Anglo-Saxon.

Yours truly,

M. H. FREEMAN.