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CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Impressions of America
My brothers and sisters of America: By your indulgence and brotherly kindness, I have been permitted to deliver to you the message which I was commissioned to bear from my people in India to you, and it has been received in the spirit in which I endeavoured to present it. For this not, unexpected reception, but none the less therefore grateful to me, I do not find words at my command to express my gratitude,
My subject to-day may be properly called "Impressions that Thave received during my sojourn in this country' the impressions of various characters which may or may not be correct.
In presenting these impressions I shall not be able to do so in as connected and perfect a manner as more mature consideration would enable me to do therefore, you will be prepared to overlook what may appear to be a desultory or fragmentary discourse. I deem it my duty and feel under obligations to give utterance to the impressions which I have received, but I must beg you, my brothers and sisters, to acquit me in the very beginning of approaching this subject in any particular, in the spirit of criticism. It might seem to be the most politic and the politest thing to do, to refrain from uttering an opinion that might
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