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ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 DR. JOSHUA A.JONES 
 
 PRESIDENT OF WILBERFORGE UNIVERSITY 
 WILBERFORGE. OHIO 
 
 ON THE OCCASION OF. THK ANNIVERSITY CELEBRATION 
 
 OF THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT TO 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 AT METROPOLITAN A. M. E. CHURCH 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 Tuesday Evening, March 31. 1908 
 
 MARY B, CURTIS 
 Shorthand Reporter 
 609 F Street, N. W. (First Floor, Front) 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
<\ 
 
 r 
 
 The bequest of 
 
 Daniel Murray, 
 
 Washington, D. G, 
 
 1925. 
 
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 ;i 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 ^ BY DR. JOSHUA A. JONES 
 
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 j\Ir. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 "I thank you very much for the splendid audience which you 
 have furnished me to-night. I thank you for the opportunity to 
 appear in the city of Washington after a sojourn from this city of 
 more than twenty years. I was a student at one time in my history 
 at Howard University. It was while I was at that university that 
 I imbibed from great men such as Dr. Patten and others, many of 
 the inspirations that went with me through the more than twenty 
 years of my meanderings and hard labors, and I come back to-night 
 with precious memories of those great men to greet not only this 
 audience, but, on to-morrow, to go back to that sacred spot. 
 
 "It is true that I have not visited Washington very much, not 
 because Washington was a place to me of no interest, but because 
 my life has been so exceedingly busy and I have been so greatly 
 ;taxed with the burdens that fell upon my shoulders that I could 
 do nothing more than learn of you and read of you. So while I 
 have not personally mingled with you in physical person, spiritually 
 and intellectually, I have been with you. I have been with Howard 
 University in all of her struggles, and I hope to God the time will 
 never come that Howard University will change her history or 
 ideals, but stand for the great things that she has always stood. 
 (Great applause.) 
 
 "I am glad to meet the boys of Howard, for I am one myself. 
 I want to say also that I wish to apologize for my speech to-night 
 with which I shall afflict you, and I want to say to you that my 
 only reason for wandering in this great place and in this city of 
 learning and culture for the purpose of making a speech is that 
 I am one of the Negro race in this country who shared with you 
 the benefits of this immortal amendment to the Constitution. I 
 come not because of my learning and ability to make a speech ; I 
 have come of a patriotic response to the call of my people. Some 
 two weeks ago I received a letter from my good friend, Mr. J. W. 
 Cromwell, stating that I had been selected for the purpose of speak- 
 ing on this occasion and that he wanted me to speak on the subject 
 of 'Higher Education for the Negro.' 
 
 "I did not see the relationship between the anniversary of the 
 fifteenth amendment to the Constitution and the subject of 'Higher 
 Education,' but when I reflected upon the unity of knowledge and 
 reflected also that those im.mortal amendments were intended to 
 give to the Negro political and physical freedom and the freedom 
 which education should bring to the intellect, I concluded to accept 
 the task. 
 
"I want to say also that it would seem at first that the subject 
 of education had been expounded by its exponents to the American 
 people so many times, and especially in this great center, that by this 
 time the subject has grown old and non-interesting, but that is not 
 true. The last word upon the theme of education has not yet been 
 spoken, nor will the theme have grown old with the progressive. 
 So long as the people are interested in education, the theme 'Edu- 
 cation' will be new and young and fresh in their minds, and the last 
 word, I repeat, will not have been spoken, nor can this great theme 
 grow old. It is so impressive and so inclusive, and so great and 
 comprehensive of the affairs of the state that education must ever 
 be a large subject ; hence I do not apologize for speaking to you 
 to-night upon this subject on this all important occasion. I wish 
 1 were able to do as becomes this great occasion. 
 
 "Education in general, when spoken of, or in general terms, has 
 such a unique idea that opinions concerning it are equally as unique ; 
 there is a unanimity of belief. 
 
 "Education for the Negro in particular is one that involves many 
 opinions. I come to you to-night with some pronounced opinions. 
 We speak of Negro education. Perhaps I may differ from a great 
 many Negro educators and a great many white friends of the 
 Negro. Nevertheless, I have reason for the faith that is in me. 
 You must convince me, at least, before I change my mind. I say 
 that there are a variety of opinions upon the great theme. of 'Edu- 
 cation,' and these opinions are not only varied, they are fast grow- 
 ing into great systems. 
 
 "Two instances will bring to our minds forcibly what I mean. 
 I was at the quarter centennial anniversary of Tuskegee Institu- 
 tion. I sat in that vast audience for days and hours. At last there 
 came a man I wanted to hear. It was the superintendent of educa- 
 tion for the State of Alabama. When that gentleman came to the 
 platform to speak, he said, T am interested in the cause of educa- 
 tion. I believe in education, but,' says he, T do not believe that 
 the same kind of education provided for and given to white people 
 of this Republic should be given to the black man. I believe there 
 ought to be a difference in the education provided for these two 
 peoples. The white man ought to be better educated; higher, 
 broader and deeper educated than the Negro; that the Negroes 
 ought to be trained. Their education ought to consist in the matter 
 of training for the vital pursuits of the communities in which they 
 live.' ■ -I' 
 
 "That man, in my judgment, voiced the sentiments of ao^ teat 
 many in this country who have backslidden from the advar: •• ". 
 ground they took in the early days of our emancipation. (G 
 applause.) 
 
 "In the early part of the now passing academic years, the South- 
 ern Education Association, embracing all of the white teachers 
 below Mason and Dixon's line, met in Kentucky for the purpose of 
 discussing the great subject of 'Education' in its various phases. 
 They discussed it beautifully, too. I was interested in the Associated 
 Press reports concerning that meeting. 
 
"Referring to visit at the quarter centennial anniversary of Tuske- 
 gee, finally the president of that great institution came forward with 
 a splendid address. I was charmed by his utterances. Never a 
 man spake more to my condition than he. As he passed down the 
 line discussing the great theme of 'Education' he showed himself 
 a perfect master of the great theme and that great department of 
 (^ur national activities. He showed himself to be master of the 
 l)est that was written by Socrates, by Plato, by Aristotle, by F*esta- 
 lozzi, by Herbert, by Spencer, and a host of modern edvicators. I 
 ajiplauded him at almost every paragraph. When he got to the 
 middle of his address, he said, 'I pause, particularly to get your 
 attention. I wish to speak now of "Negro Education." That is a 
 subject that has been greatly neglected by us in this country, and 
 I believe that the time has come that we ought to insist upon this 
 more than we have in all the past. 1 could wish that the States 
 below Mason and Dixon's line in which misguided philanthropy has 
 built colleges and universities for the education of Negroes, would 
 take charge of these universities and modify their educational sys- 
 tems, and a system of education should be provided for the Negro 
 embracing the three r's, largely mixed with industrial training, so 
 as to fit the Negro particularly to live with the people with whom 
 he is to live and serve the comnnmities where he lives.' 
 
 "This gentleman said that there should not be the same kind 
 of education provided for the black man in this section as was 
 provided for the white man. O, I stand in the National Capital 
 to-night to say that all such doctrines are vagaries and heresies ! 
 (Great applause.) I want to say that the best of education is none 
 too good for every American citizen. I want to say as a student 
 of the history of republics, and of constitutional government, and 
 of nations still living, many dead and passed from the stage of 
 activity, that any man who studies the progress of democratic society 
 and democratic institutions must know that no democratic society 
 is safe and permanent nor perpetuated by ignorance, nor can it be. 
 It is founded by intelligence and must be saved by the intelligence 
 of its people. (Great applause.) 
 
 "I want to say further upon that very point, although many may 
 dififer with me upon this particular point I am discussing, now. it 
 matters not what any man may say. I believe in industrial educa- 
 tiu 1. I believe in all kinds of education, but you can never get my 
 CO isent to substitute a system of industrial education for real in- 
 te' -tual culture. I say that not because I am prejudiced to any 
 institution or to any movement. Industrial education is good for 
 the white man and it is good for the black man ; good for every 
 man in this country. The great thing the Negro and the white 
 man needs, and all Americans need, is real education, which makes 
 to soul enlargement, to spiritual development, enlargement of the 
 mind, a stirring of the divinity within the American citizen, living 
 up out of the small man into the big man. 
 
 "Various systems are proposed for Negro education and these 
 systems have the endorsement of many of our best white men 
 who hold the pocketbooks and the purse strings that go to support 
 
education. Many of these systems are supported and believed in by 
 many good colored men. I want to lay down a rule to-night, for 
 I say to you, I do not like to talk at random. I like to give men a 
 reason for the faith that is in me. I say to you in Washington, and 
 I wish all America could be assembled before me to-night — I say 
 to you that before you approve any system, and especially when 
 opinions are so varied as they are to-day, before you approve any 
 system for your children, be they black or white, you ought to 
 test those systems by some rule that will reveal to you whether they 
 are proper systems. No system is proper except that which is 
 inherent in itself, and stands upon its own strength and its own 
 power. That system of merits in themselves is not fitted for one 
 unless it fits the destiny of the subject which is to be educated under 
 that system. It, first of all, ought to demonstrate itself in itself 
 to be proper and right, and ought to demonstrate itself in itself 
 to fit the nature and condition and history and destiny of the 
 Negro that is to be educated. Now that brings me to this point ; 
 you ought to examine the Negro thoroughly. I wish every white 
 man could hear that statement — examine the Negro and provide for 
 him the education wdiich suits his essential nature. Examine him par- 
 ticularly on two points : psychologically and physiologically. What- 
 ever you find him to be, then suit your educational system to him 
 as such. If you find him to be a mule or a horse, or an ox or a man, 
 then fit your system to him according to the findings in the case. 
 
 "I have examined the ox and I have examined the mule and I have 
 examined the Negro and here is what I find. I find that when I 
 examined the mule or the ox his supreme virtue resides in his feet 
 which fit him for the road. I find in the horse that his own supreme 
 virtue is found in his splendid shoulders that fit him for the cart. I 
 therefore conclude when I am educating a horse, or a mule I am edu- 
 cating him either for the road or the cart. I am educating him for 
 the very thing he knows and for which God ordained him. When I 
 examine an ox, I find his virtue resides in his neck and that virtue 
 fits him for the yoke. I therefore conclude, train the ox for the yoke 
 and the others for that which nature endowed him and for which God 
 made him. I have no hesitancy in fixing his system of education 
 accordingly. But when I examine the black man ; when I examine 
 him psychologically and physiologically ; when I examine him histori- 
 cally, I find at every point that I start thie examination . 
 point where I come out with a conclusion, I find here a genus hunio, 
 known as a man. (Great appaluse.) When I examine a man, T find 
 that I examine that physical animal whose intellectual capacity has 
 no more equal on the face of God's earth and whose ciuiowment 
 makes him just a little lower than the angels. I find that the thing of 
 power in man is mind. I find that the seat of power in man is the 
 iDrain. I conclude, therefore, that he who would educate man's feet 
 or man's shoulders or man's hands accomplishes something for civili- 
 zation and for society, and he who trains the brain educates the man 
 and builds empires. 
 
"I say that man's great power resides in liis brain. It is in the 
 form of mind; it is in the form of spirit; and if you would develop 
 the mind you must seek to develop that portion of man, and you must 
 bring to bear upon him those forces and those branches of studies 
 that will break loose the fetters that bind him in this direction and it 
 is in this case and in this particular direction that the Negro needs 
 especial attention ; and especially during these trying times when 
 brains and spiritual power ; when learning and greatness are so much 
 needed to defend our cause before the American people. I want to 
 say, too, on this very particular point that I am talking about, that 
 not only is it true that the thing in man to be particular about is his 
 luind, his spirit, his soul, but about the system which is suited for the 
 education and development and training of man particularly in a 
 Republic. See to it that that system has for its chief feature the 
 enlargement of that mind ; the cultivation of that mind so as to give 
 sight to it, insight, comprehensiveness, depth and grasp, and power, 
 so that man can see what he is looking at, and be able to interpret 
 whatever man makes. 
 
 "I am firmly of the opinion that there are hosts of good white men 
 in this country, and thank God for it, but I am sorry to say that the 
 good and true and just and fair are so much in the minority that they 
 can not bring about what they would. If this race is finally re- 
 deemed, it must produce its own leaders and its own promoters. You 
 must see to it in your educational system that the important part of 
 man is enlarged. Whatever else you do with him, and do not any- 
 body get the idea that I am opposed to industrial education — my 
 theory of education is this, that everything that he comes in contact 
 with is educative ; all processes that he passes through are educa- 
 tional, but to me that is not the subject of the school house. It is a 
 subject of general experience. That is education which will redeem 
 children equally ; that will enable him to take his place in the Repub- 
 lic side by side with his fellow citizen and not be one whit behind any 
 of the races. I say to you that 10,000,000 of Negroes in any country 
 constitute too great a part of the body politic to be chained by any 
 halfway ground of the purest and best education. (Great applause.) 
 There are too many of us, and thank God that they have that poten- 
 tiality and prolificness that multiplies at an astonishing rate. (Great 
 applause.) They used to say that there was a danger of our dying out 
 like the American Indian, but that is not so. On my way from Ohio 
 last night, a gentleman said to me that from the looks of things now, 
 the white man is more sterile and the Negro more prolific. And it is 
 hardly a question what will take place within the next fifty years. 
 (Applause.) Let that be as it may and let that be considered by any 
 man as any man chooses to consider it, the one thing I am concerned 
 about, as a father of children and as a Negro, is that you, in every 
 hamlet, in every cabin, at every cross road, in every section of this 
 great nation wherever black children are born in the world, begin to 
 consult with your God at once how you can make of those children 
 the biggest possible men in America. That is the thing I am con- 
 cerned about today. (Applause.) You need not be afraid about our 
 white brethren. Overtake him in these great things, for he is put- 
 
8 > 
 
 ting spurs to his horse and he is wa}^ up the road ahead of us. Tell 
 him to go on, but for God's sake don't burn the bridges, nor close 
 the doors behind him, for we are coming. Tell him to believe it and 
 if he does not believe it, come over in Ohio and take a seat with me 
 in my office a day and I will convince him that up that same road, 
 over the same bridge, through the same door, the American black 
 man is pressing. (Great applause.) 
 
 "I want to say also that this attempt to substitute what is known as 
 industrialism for real education is not only damaging to the Negro, 
 but is thought to be particularly helpful to the white man by many 
 of its advocates ; but I want to say that the black man is not alone 
 injured by the attempt to substitute industrial training for intellectual 
 training. It is a fact demonstrated by philosophy, demonstrated by 
 experience, everywhere coming up before our eyes, in a democratic 
 country where all are supposed to be equal ; in a constitutional gov- 
 ernment where all are the same before the law ; in a republic where 
 people look to their leaders and law makers, it is dangerous for that 
 country to have ten millions of that people to be kept one whit behind 
 the rest of the people. And our great legislature saw that in time. 
 If I lived in Springfield with my distinguished J. W. Keifer (Great 
 applause) and there is no interest in the City of Springfield that 
 affects his wife or daughter, or his house that would not in the final 
 analysis affect him ; and for that very reason I would be as good a 
 man and as big a man as he is. (Great applause.) 
 
 "The motives which lie behind the attempt to substitute industrial 
 education for the Negroes instead of intellectual, I have placed under 
 three general heads : 
 
 "i. My first reason is — I am not talking about what man says, 
 for if men's actions were always in keeping with their words, we 
 would not have any trouble with this Government — I am talking 
 about the thing that is and not the thing it is said to be. I say 
 to-night as a student of these affairs that one of the great motives that 
 lies behind the attempt to substitute industrial for real education is 
 'Old time Helotism.' The Negro was brought from Africa not .for 
 the purpose of being made a Christian ; not for the purpose of being 
 made an American citizen, a self-directing leader and self-directing 
 land owner of himself, his wife and children, but for the express 
 purpose of helotism ; hewers of wood and drawers of water ; servants 
 of servants in the house of his brethren because of the strength ar-^ 
 power of this motive. Every door to intellectual learning was close 
 and learning was absolutely forbidden, and if a man dared to gv i 
 him of that forbidden fruit, that day he died. Learning was madr 
 to him a veritable forbidden fruit for the reason that enlarged mw'i 
 and unfettered spirit and cowarlly servitude did not go together. The 
 white men in this covintry in the days of slavery knew it well and 
 hence they made education the veritable forbidden fruit, and the 
 white man that dared to give the Negro this forbidden fruit had to 
 forswear that business or go the way of the worst of criminals. Why 
 was it so? There was a specific purpose for which the Negro was 
 brought to this country — to be servants of servants in the house of 
 his brethren. But out of that condition the Just God, the Mighty, the 
 
Eternal Father wlio nnmbers the hairs upon our heads ; who takes 
 notice of the tiny grass ; who takes notice of the worm that turns in 
 the (lust; who cares for the sparrow, finally called a man up out of 
 the 'Wilderness' of Kentucky and sent him forth, like a gigantic child 
 of nature, untutored except by God and His Spirit force, who led him 
 to bum his oil at midnight ; that great gigantic rail splitter who stood 
 in the Kentucky Legislature and said, if ever the opportunity comes 
 to me to hit that 'damnable institution,' I will hit it. (Great ap- 
 plause.) God brought that man out of Kentucky and sent him forth- 
 with into the White House and placed him on that high eminence, 
 and he never forgot his promise. When the opportunity came, he 
 drew his greatest strength together and he struck that institution at 
 Gettysburg ; he struck it at Bull Run ; he struck it at Antietam ; he 
 struck it at Milliken's Bend ; he struck it in the Wilderness ; and he 
 struck it in the Battle above the Clouds ; yes, he struck it at Appo- 
 matox Court House and that 'damnable institution' fell! (Long ap- 
 plause.) I tell you. he struck it and it fell and was buried in its 
 rotten hell beyond all resurrection. 
 
 "With the death of American slavery helotism ought to have died, 
 but it did not. But as soon as the men gathered themselves from that 
 awful conflict, they began to devise ways so that what they lost 'n 
 one form they would gain in another. They proposed for the Negro 
 a different kind of education from which they gave the white man 
 and they took particular enjoyment in giving him an education that 
 would fit him for the highest service, but for the same old business. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 "Now you may say I am a poor philosopher, but I have been i cach- 
 ing that subject for ten years and I ought to know a little about it by 
 this time. 
 
 "2. There is another motive. Not all of my brethren are included 
 in this same class. That class is made up of good white men and 
 good negroes, plenty of them, who say that industrial education is 
 the chief form of education for the Negro because it is practical. 
 But this word practical misleads a great many Negroes and a great 
 many white men. Now that is practical which aids a man in the 
 surest and deepest way to accomplish the things of his life and iiis 
 destiny. That is practicality, when in a community it makes J. H. 
 Jones the biggest possible Jones that can be. (Great applause.) Not 
 the thing that is best suited for Brother Keifer's use, but the thing 
 tluii 5s best suited for my own use is practical. And I say to you, 
 liiai word 'practical' has misled so many good people ; for if you fol- 
 low it out it is an illusive word. It is the ghost in another dress. 
 Nothing more. 
 
 "3. But there is another class and this class is made up largely 
 of Negroes, and many educators of the country form this class. 
 It is the 'get much theory.' They preach from the river to the end 
 of the world ; from Dan to Beersheba. If you would take their advice, 
 you would capitalize cities instead of educating cities. They will see 
 that you get much of life. Therefore it is the best thing. How 
 illusive is this term ; how deceptive. It is not the man that gets a 
 great lot out of the world ; it is the man who makes of himself the 
 
biggest instrumentality in the world ; the man who makes much out 
 of himself, that man can get much out of the world. 1 have no hesi- 
 tancy in telling you — no matter how good a blacksmith you are, nor 
 how good a carpenter you are ; or how good you are at this thing or 
 the other — I do not care what you say, if you say you are in earnest 
 that you are going to take your blacksmith trade and push your cause 
 against mine because I have nothing, I will take the house you 
 build from you. I will take it from you by my scientific and classi- 
 cal, my deeper and broader knowledge. I will take your horse and 
 wagon away from you. I will take every house you build from now 
 until you go to your grave, and will ride in your buggies beside. 
 (Great applause.) 
 
 "The thing a republic needs is not less big men and big women but 
 men and women who have intellectual minds ; men and women whose 
 minds are cultured and so enlarged that they can not stoop to small 
 things and the armies of the rabble can not run them away. When 
 we manufacture those kind of men and women out of our ten mil- 
 lions we will have nothing to fear in America. I do not want any- 
 body to suppose that I am opposed to industrial education. I be- 
 lieve in work, in industries for black men and white men alike, how- 
 ever. I do not believe it is fair for the white men and a few well 
 thinking Negroes to industrially educate the Negro and get him away 
 from the higher and let him drop to the peasant class, while the white 
 man goes on to glory in other good things. I believe in industrial 
 education. I believe in it as a supplement to mental culture. But as 
 a supplement to mental culture, if I am to have one without the 
 other, for God's sake unchain my mind and with my mind I will un- 
 chain my hands myself. (Great applause.) 
 
 "And now, ladies and gentlemen, that brings me to the higher 
 form of my discussion and I am sorry the evening has grown so old 
 that I must cut short my argument. I am glad that Senator Foraker 
 is not here — although I would be very glad to hear him — as I am 
 using my time and his also. As the Negro is a man psychologically 
 and physiologically constructed, he chiefly needs the kind of educa- 
 tion which I have described. It is best for the republic ! it is best for 
 the white man that Negroes be given higher education and if the 
 white man really knows his business, he will see to it that every 
 Negro who can afford higher education ior his children shall have 
 it. If the Negro can not afford to give his chilldren higher educa- 
 tion, then white philanthropy together with what money the state 
 would give ought to give them this higher education. If the white 
 man knew what was the best good of the republic he would insist 
 upon higher education being placed within the reach of all the 
 people. 
 
 "For development, I lay down seven species : I will proceed with 
 the lower to the higher and if I must leave off any, I will leave oft" 
 the heavier so that in the near future I will get an invitation to come 
 back and finish my speech. (Applause.) 
 
 "i. The first reason I give and hold for higher education for the 
 Negro as a patriotic duty and national necessity, is this : I claim 
 that this verv civilization itself demands it. This civilization is a 
 
]M-ocluct of higher education. It is a product of intensive intellect. 
 and not the product of the coarse white production, but of the braini- 
 est white men of this cour.try. It is a civilization high in its charac- 
 ter, vast in its limitations. Xo man, white or black, can comprehend 
 it unless he is an intelligent man. This is my first reason. 
 
 "2. This civilization should never be lowered in order to come 
 down on an average level with Negro intelligence. All Negroes 
 should be lifted up. I would not like to see this civilization lowered 
 one whit. My only fear is that it will go down, and if the white men 
 do not use a little more brains and less brute force, this civilization 
 has marked its height already. 
 
 "3. This civilization itself demands preservative conditions, which 
 make for the ramification with nations. The definite conditions for 
 national affairs are laid and founded and grounded upon the laws of 
 God and the laws of God everywhere ramify the affairs of nations 
 in order that these laws might operate among men for the govern- 
 ment of society and preservation of the masses of the people. 
 
 '■4. I have still another reason, which I think is greater. The 
 national conditions for national welfare are grounded upon the 
 ixjwers, the resources and activities of nature. A nation can not 
 thrive and can not take care of its daily increasing population unless 
 the intelligence of the people are lifted up so they can more fully 
 understand nature's laws and operations and get in harmony with 
 those laws so as to bring from nature the yield which God intended 
 it should give forth for the maintenance of this great republic. 
 
 "5. But that is not all. I claim that the wealth of a nation, of a 
 republic, is also grounded upon intelligence and virtue of its citizens. 
 
 "6. I need not go farther, yet more I claim, that the humanity of 
 the Negro ought to demand humanity of the white man. They served 
 the white man 250 years in servitude and made it possible for the 
 white man to enjoy his labor. The humanity in the Negro which 
 caused him to do this ought to appeal to the white man to let him 
 have some of that money that he made for him and let him rise up 
 and care for his mother, his own wife and children. 
 
 "And now to you, black men : You are looking to IVesident 
 Roosevelt for redemption as the father of the Nation. You are look- 
 ing to him for help and amelioration of your condition in the affairs 
 of the nation. You are looking to our great War Secretary and to 
 a great many of the Cabinet to carry out the mission of Christ to 
 ameliorate the conditions of the Negro; b;t mark you, tonight, and 
 tell this to your wife when you go home ; tell it to your children, wake 
 them up out of bed and whisper in their ears ; tell your sons and 
 daugliters to tell to their children and their children that a man came 
 from Ohio to Washington for the sane purpose to say to vou Ne- 
 groes of Washington, to the Cnited States that the history of civii- 
 zation throughout all nations, all ages tells one unbroken story which 
 I give to you tonight that wherever a weak people come into the 
 midst of a strong people and take r,]) its habitation and remain weak 
 and ignorant that strong people will always hitch that weak people 
 by the side of the mule and horse and work him for his enjoyment. 
 I say your redemption is in self-evolution. You want to preach it 
 
12 
 
 to every Negro child in the land to rise up and be somebody ; to rise 
 up and be a man ; and if in the attempt you die. die and go on to 
 heaven for you are better off. (Great applause.) 
 
 "Yes, I plead for higher education for the Negro. I plead as a 
 patriotic duty to the state and as a necessity to the nation, as a good 
 to the republic, as a good to the black man and white man. I would 
 not stint his education. I would teach him mathematics from the 
 simplest principles of arithmetic to objective geometry and celestial 
 mechanics. And if by his mathematical principles he was able to 
 take possession of Mars and Jupiter, he should have the opportunity 
 so far as I was concerned. It would enable him to see with radiation, 
 with breadth and sweep to his vision. He would know his friends 
 even before they had spoken. Such an education would give a 
 Negro thorough introduction to the visible universe and when he had 
 reached that point, he would ask nobody but God to be his friend. 
 That is the kind of education I would give the black man. You are 
 neglecting the study of the great languages. I know that Negroes, 
 as well as white men, are inclined to ridicule the idea of Greek and 
 Latin. I want to tell you that my experience with black men and 
 white men is, if you want to enlighten a man's mind, you must teach 
 to him the 350 forms of Greek verbs ; the declensions of Latin ; the 
 intricate tasks of the Caesars and all of those great actors of great 
 acumen. When you have gone over that track, you will have put 
 in that man a liberal mind and a liberal spirit. I plead that the black 
 man ought to be given an education that will give him an intimate 
 knowledge of the great languages ; should include a great knowl- 
 edge of history which would enable him to know the nations that 
 rose and fell and the causes that led to their failure ; the great races 
 and their relation to each other, so that we may know what to pre- 
 serve and what to kick aside. But you can not know these things 
 unless you are a student of broad scholarship. This education should 
 include an economic and broad knowledge of all things. 
 
 "They tell me that the negro is imitative. If that is so, I want 
 every negro tonight to prove it and imitate the white man in one 
 great essential. Imitate the white man in the matter of education. 
 Did you hear what I said, imitate the white man in one great essential 
 and that essential is embraced in education. When a white child is 
 born into this world from a respectable parentage, when that beautiful 
 mother looks over the cradle at the child, which she produced, bone 
 of her bone, flesh of her flesh, she looks in her husband's face and 
 says to him, 'my dear, what sacrifice can we make to God in order 
 to make of this little bundle of protoplasm the biggest organic body 
 that ever sat on a throne?' (Great applause.) That is her question. 
 That is what I want you to do. If you have gone out to work in the 
 morning and on returning home you find a new born black baby has 
 come, put aside your dinner, lean over it, imitate the example of 
 these great people. This mother day and night watches over this 
 tender child, singing lullabies to it and kissing it on the cheek. She 
 does not tell it ghost stories like many of our mothers do, but sings 
 perfection. As soon as that little fellow gets so he can call mamma 
 
'3 
 
 sweetly to it and kisses its brow until its very tissues emulate into 
 and papa, she takes him up in her arms and places him in a kinder- 
 garten under the very best pedagogue the country has produced. His 
 development begins. After that he is placed in a grammar school 
 for eight long years, being under the strictest vigilance and most 
 careful culture and best training that the world has ever known. He 
 is trained in all the rudiments of the King's English, elements of 
 arithmetic and other splendid things of history, and then when he 
 reaches the age of ten or twelve, he is taken to the high school where 
 he remains four long years under the best teachers and studies the 
 rudiments of higher learning. At the end of the four years, that 
 same boy or girl is taken to' one or more of the noted colleges of 
 America where this learning is made deep and broad, where the very 
 best culture is put into him and where the most experienced teachers 
 the world has ever seen direct his education. He comes out at the 
 age of eighteen or twenty and enters a imiversity and takes up higher 
 courses still, which places him into some specialty. He traces that 
 specialty out and out and out until he strikes the very limit of the 
 visible universe, and he stands there with nobody around but the 
 awakened divinity that has come through the way of this long study. 
 He looks out into the darkness, and as he peers out into that dark- 
 ness, dizzily, he finds that he can not fathom it. He cries out, who 
 art thou that movest in the darkness, beware for this white man is 
 after thee! ("Great applause.) 
 
 "I want to ask that you imitate that white man in the education of 
 your sons and your daughters. 
 
 "And now, fellow citizens, and Mr. Chairman, we have come to- 
 night for the purpose of celebrating the thirty-eighth anniversary of 
 the adoption of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. It guar- 
 antees to every American citizen the right of casting his ballot in 
 every station, town and cross road. You could have made no occa- 
 sion more worthy than this one. I congratulate you upon your patri- 
 otism. It matters not that we have been robbed largely of that privi- 
 lege, still we are right in that we appreciate the great cause which 
 these immortal amendments celebrate, and the men that were con- 
 nected with them, and the men that stand for them today. 
 
 "We are told by some wise Negroes and lots of white men that 
 Negroes ought to stay out of politics. We are told by white men who 
 live below Mason and Dixon's line that if we do not stay out of 
 nolitics. they will take it from us. Hence they have turned up the 
 .' ,^ ' ather clause' and all other clauses which will keep the Negroes 
 oting. There are men in Congress who have sworn under 
 " , ^ ^V-ion to stand by the Constitution and who stand guilty at the 
 bar ■■i God as falsifying its organic law. 
 
 ' [ say to you that all who preach the doctrine that the Negro 
 ought to eschew politics and let it alone, do not know how to prop- 
 erly diagnose you. You ought not to pay any attention to them. 
 If I were you, I would ask the general Government to make a general 
 appropriation to gather up all those Negroes and put them in a free 
 school. To me the ballot has three great purposes, in the hands of 
 the common man : 
 
14 
 
 "i. One great office of the American ballot is to teach the com- 
 mon citizen the principles of politics by the use of the ballot, of the 
 interests of the affairs of the State, county, and nation. It will help 
 you to know the departments of the Government, and to know when 
 any offense is committed by any of its officers and how to correct 
 that one when he needs correcting. It is one of the greatest educa- 
 tors that can be given a people. We can not afford to be without the 
 ballot. There is no school more potential than is the school of the 
 American ballot. 
 
 "2. Another reason is that it is the intention of the Republic, the 
 intention of every constitutional government, of any democracy 
 from the days of the Greeks, the Romans and of all the old nations 
 under constitutional governments from whom we have learned the 
 idea that the ballot in the hands of the common man was a protection 
 against the law maker and the executive, because if they did not do 
 their duty and legislate fairly for all the people, with the might of 
 the ballot they could be silenced. It was for this reason that the 
 ballot was given the poor and the weak in any country and he can 
 not afford to give up his ballot, his constitutional correction for evils 
 in the country. 
 
 "3. Another great reason is that it is the only weapon the demo- 
 cratic tyrant is afraid of. That democrat is never afraid of the weak 
 man until he finds that weak man wields a ballot. The people of the 
 South saw this or the legislatures of the South would never have 
 inserted in the statute books a 'GrandfathpT- Clause.' With the ballot 
 in the hand of the Negro, there is no legislature in America that 
 would dare put on the statute books a 'Jim Crow' car law, or a 
 'Grandfather Clause.' There is not a Southern State, municipality, 
 a school district, that would dare legislate to give the whites three- 
 fourths of the money raised for education, while the Negro gets one- 
 fourth. Remember the day will come, and that day is not far off, 
 as I believe it is not, when over the land wherever the stars and 
 stripes float, the black rhan will be permitted to cast his ballot with- 
 out favor. I was sitting in my office the other night and my soul 
 grew weary and my heart got sick ; I really got tired when I remem- 
 bered that the Secretary of the Treasury, the President of the United 
 States and the Secretary of War, when they saw fit went to Cuba 
 and took over the Cuban Government in their hands until they 
 could arrange for a fair and honest election and here under the ve 
 shadow of the Government they could do nothing. I say my heart 
 got sick when I thought of the same three great officers setting up 
 the American Government in Cuba, while at home nothing has been 
 done to preserve the organic law of the land. It is an awful pity. 
 It is an aAvful sight to behold. Where is the Navy? Where is the 
 Army? Where is the Treasury? Where is Cuba? Where is the 
 Grand Army of the Republic when the Constitution is being walked 
 on as if it were a dirty rag? (Great applause.) 
 
15 
 And now, ladies and gentlemen, 
 
 " 'Right forever on the scaffold, 
 
 Wrong forever on the throne. 
 Yet that scaffold sways the future 
 
 And behind the dim unknown 
 Standeth God within the shadow 
 
 Keeping watch upon His own.' 
 
 "God has not forgotten us. I beg you not to be disconsolate. Do 
 not lose faith in this Great Republic, this Ship of State will right 
 itself some day. Yes, thank God, it will ! What a spectacle have we 
 not witnessed ! In less than seventy-two months these very black 
 men representing her by fighting under Old Glory in Cuba, in the 
 Philippines, in China and around the world in her conflicts, and then 
 coming home to be quartered at Brownsville right under the flag, 
 right under the shadow of the Capitol, they are to be belittled, they 
 are to be misrepresented in so much that it is the conclusion at least 
 of those in high quarters that fifteen or eighteen were guilty of shoot- 
 ing up Brownsville and because that conclusion has been reached by 
 those in high quarters, 300 of the bravest men that ever carried a 
 gun in any battle were thrown out in disgrace : some of which having 
 served their country for twenty-six years. Whoever heard of similar 
 jurisprudence, where the innocent must first prove himself innocent 
 before he can be regarded as not guilty. 
 
 "Thank God, my fellow citizens, the brave men are not all dead 
 yet; for in that trying hour, if that great man had not risen and 
 spoken out from that high eminence, I believe the rocks out of which 
 the Capitol is built would have spoken. None too late, but born out 
 of due time, there arose from the great State of Ohio a soldier, a 
 statesman, a patriot, who has never faltered for two generations in 
 standing for the Constitution, for Justice and Righteousness at the 
 bar of the xA^merican Republic, who stood up in the Senate, wrapped 
 his judicial robes about him and stooped down and picked up the 
 cause of the black soldier, when that cause had been trampled in the 
 dust beneath his enemies' feet, that giant picked it up and held it up 
 before their gaze and restored it to its former position, step by step, 
 until, thank God, that cause no longer trails in the dust, but Heaven 
 .i£cJ"recog"-zed it. (Great applause.) That soldier, that jurist, that 
 statesman, that patriot, that lawyer was no less a figure than Joseph 
 Benson Foraker. (Long and loud applause.) 
 
 "T .im f. r Foraker! I am for Foraker! because I am for the Con- 
 s . (Great applause.) I am for the Constitution because I 
 
 am lor tne flag and the nation. And if I forget him. 'O, Jerusalem, 
 let my lips forget her cunning and my tongue cleave fast to the roof 
 of my mouth.' I can not forget him! I will not forget him! T will 
 stand by him until the last stars go down. (Great applause.) T do 
 not care who is offended. H they choose to be offended at me because 
 I am thus, they are offended with a man. (Applause.) I owe alle- 
 giance to the State, but deeper and truer to the sympathy which God 
 
e 
 
 i6 
 
 has placed within him. My country claims my fealty, but before it 
 made me a citizen, Great Nature made me a man. (Great applause.) 
 
 "And now, ladies and gentlemen, I beg- your pardon for this long 
 speech. I have kept you late, thinking that my distinguished Senator 
 from Ohio would be here. I have tried to be particular about my 
 own side and particular about his good name. So I thank you for 
 your kindness, although, I am sure, I have not finished my speech ; 
 I could speak six hours longer. 
 
 "I beg you to accept my deepest thanks for the presence of the 
 students of my old Alma Mater. God bless her ; God bless them ; 
 God bless the American people. I thank you." (Long applause.) 
 
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