Because the colored people of these United States have to contend with all the multiplied ills of slavery, more cruel in it its practice and unlimited in its duration than was ever before inflicted upon any people; and we are proscribed and pressed down by prejudice more wicked and fatal than even slavery itself. These evils not only prevade the length and breadth of the land, but they have their strong hold in the Church of Jesus Christ, where they abide and act themselves out, contrary to all its holy precepts. Colored men must do something and make some effort to drive these “abominations of desolation” from the church and the world; they must establish and maintain the Press, and through it, speak out in thunder tones, until the nation repent and render to every man that which is just and equal—and until the church possess herself of the mind which was in Christ Jesus, and cease to oppress her poor brother, because God hath dyed him a darker hue.

Because our afflicted population in the free states, are scattered in handfulls over nearly 5000 towns, and can only be reached by the Press—a public journal must therefore be sent down, at least weekly, to rouse them up. To call all their energies into action—and where they have been down-trodden, paralized and worn out, to create new energies for them, that such dry bones may live.

Such an organ can be furnished at little cost, so as to come within the reach of every man, and carry him to lessons of instruction on religion and morals, lessons on industry and economy—until our entire people, are of one heart and of one mind, in all the means of their salvation, both temporal and spiritual.

Because without such an organ we never can enlist the sympathy of the nation in our behalf, and in behalf of the slave; and until this be done, we shall have accomplished nothing nor shall we have proved ourselves worthy to be freemen and to have our grievances redressed. Before the wise and good awake and consecrate themselves to our cause, we ourselves must have proclaimed our oppression and wrongs from the house-top. When did Greece and Poland win the sympathy of the world; after they had published their wrongs, asserted their rights and sued for freedom at the hands of their oppressors. Then, and only then, were they worthy to be freemen, nor should we expect the boon, until we feel its importance and pray for its possession.—With us this is to be a great moral struggle, and let us brethren, be united in our efforts.

Because no class of men, however pious and benevolent can take our place in the great work of redeeming our character and removing our disabilities. They may identify themselves with us, and enter into our sympathies. Still it is ours to will and to do—both of which, we trust, are about to be done, and in the doing of which, this journal as an appropriate engine, may exert a powerful agency. We propose to make it a journal of facts and of instruction. It will go out freighted with information for all—it will tell tales of woe, both in the church and out of the church; such as are calculated to make the heart to bleed and the ear to burn. It will bring to light many hidden things, which must be revealed and repented of, or this nation must perish.