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JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D.

FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.

SELECTED LECTURES AND ADDRESSES

OF

HON. JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LLD.,

U. S. MINISTER RESIDENT AT HAITI.

With an Introductory Sketch
BY REV. J. E. RANKIN, D. D.,
OF WASHINGTON.

WASHINGTON, D. C._
RUFUS H. DARBY, PUBLISHER.
1883.

rjt® ipflE Y6QNS O@Ii01^ED HMEI^IGHN3
_¥H0 IN HOME MD SCHOOL MD COLLEGE
ARE TRYING
T© M^KE THEMgELiVE-S W0R>Ffl¥
OF
THE PREED@ja HND GITIZENgHIP
WITH WHICH
6©D HND THEIR CQUNTRY
HAVE
END0WED THEja.

CONTENTS.

Dedication, ....
Introductory Sketch,
The World's Anti-Slavery Movement,
Daniel O'Connell,
Citizenship and the Ballot, a
Bishop Kichard Allen,
Equality Before the Law,
Eulogy on Charles Sumner,
Our Patriot Dead,
Our Political Parties,'*'
Pacific Beconstruction/^ .
The Exodus, ....
.Future of the Colored American, -^

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INTRODUCTORY SKETCH.

John Mercer Langston, one of the most remarkable
colored men of his period, for he stands with the two fore
most, Douglass and Bruce, was born ^J^uisfl__county, Vir-\/ "
ginia, December 14th, 1829. This date he gets from his
half-sister. His father was Ralph Quarles, Esq., and his
mother plain Jane Langston, of African and Indian descent,
his father's favorite slave. When Mr. Quarles died he "^
emancipated all his slaves by will, and sent them to Ohio.
Of the lad Langston, who was among them, Col. William D.
Gooch, a former friend of his father's, was appointed guar
dian by the judges of the Ross county court. By Mr.
Gooch and his family he was always treated as a son. Miss
Virginia Gooch, a young lady whom he distinctly remem
bers, taught him in the New Testament, and he never
dreamed that he did not belong to them by birth.
When he was between eight and ten years of age, Colonel
Gooch took it into his head to emigrate to Missouri, a slave
State. The family, with their furniture, were all packed on
board a boat on the Chillicothe canal, when suddenly the
sheriff, at the instance of his half-brother, William Lang
ston, appeared with a process charging an attempt to kidnap
the boy. The lad himself fearing that he was to be torn
from his own family friends, "clung frantically to them, and
when asked by Judge Keith, before whom Colonel Gooch
was taken, whether he would go with his reputed father or
his half-brother, replied that he would go with Colonel
A

10 JOHN MERGER LANGSTON, LL. D.
Gooch. Singularly enough, the lawyer who presented his
half-brother's case was the now distinguished ex-Senator
Thurman, who, not until within a few years, ever knew any
thing of the future history of the boy, when he was in
formed by Mr. Langston himself. The result of the busi
ness was, that Colonel Gooch continued his trip to Missouri,
and the lad remained under'other guardianship in Ohio. It
is not to be for one moment supposed that Colonel Gooch
had any dishonorable intention in the premises. But, had
the boy been taken to Missouri, even if he had always re
mained free, his future eminence would have been impossi
ble. In Ohio, at that time, were almost the only opportuni
ties in the country for a young colored boy to cultivate his-
mind. It is impossible to overrate the influence of Oberlin
upon the welfare of Northern Ohio, and, indeed, in 1861,
when came the time that tried men's souls, upon the destiny
of the whole country. It was the hot-bed of the most radical
sentiments in politics and religion. It was the watch-tower
of freedom and righteousness. President Finney, a man
who walked with God as Enoch did, though he looked upon
man with rather a judicial look, was at the head of it. The
pulse of his vigorous life beat in every department. To this-
institutionfyoung Langston was sent when he was thirteen.
He went into the family, as his ward, of Prof. Geo. Whip
ple, afterwards for so many years the distinguished Secre-
- tary of the American Missionary Association. Professor
Whipple^was a fatherly and judicious counsellor and friend.
After spending five years in diligent labor at his books,
young Langston graduated with honor from the college in
1849. One "year of law-study intervened with Judge An
drews, of Cleveland, when he returned to Oberlin and en-

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D. 11
tered the theological department. Fron? this, in due time,
he graduated in 1853. How strong was his tendency to the
ministry as a profession may be inferred from the theme of
his commencement oration : " The Qualification of the Pul
pit Orator." Of this oration, which is singularly clear and
forcible, this is the last paragraph :
" Cultivated rhetoric, vigorous imagination, fine dis
criminating logical powers, accurate and extensive knowl
edge, sincere respect for his fellow-men, a soul-absorbing
philanthropy, and a warm and benign earnestness; these
are the qualifications of the successful pulpit orator. These
were the qualities which gave such force and beauty to the
discourses of Hall, such point and persuasion to the ser
mons of Whitefield, and such weight and fervor to the preach
ing of Chalmers."
If one would like some idea of what this young student
meant by a soul-absorbing philanthropy, indeed, of what
then passed in Oberlin for practical religion, he will find it
in the following passage :
"Another qualification of the pulpit orator is a soul-absorb
ing philanthropy, the most glorious attribute in the character
of the Pattern Minister. This was the characteristic that
caused Him to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to
bring the riches of the gospel to the doors of the poor.
Shall not the servant be as his Lord ? Indeed, the minister
of the gospel, if he would be as his Teacher, if he would
do his entire duty as a faithful servant, must see in every
human being a brother, and adopt practically the injunction :
'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self.' Ho must be
willing to go to the dens of poverty and degradation, into
the squalid hovels of the miserably poor, as well as into the
spacious and elegantly furnished mansions of the rich. He

12 JOHN. MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D.
must not forget them who are cast down and oppressed.
He must speak in behalf of the outraged and down-trodden ;
in defence of the all-embracing doctrines of universal liberty.
He must have the moral courage to speak against every
unjust discrimination growing out of caste and accidental
difference.' He must stand forth in vindication of all reforms
in Church and State, which are the legitimate demand of
truth and love. Especially, indeed, should he speak in
trumpet tones in advocacy of the rights and claims and the
interests of the dumb, the disfranchised and the enslaved.
In a word, being a true philanthropist, possessing a spirit
akin to that of Howard and Clarkson, he should be ready to
oppose every species of oppression and wrong, whether it
come in the sermon of a soulless and obsequious D. D., in
the speech of a heartless statesman, the enactment of a
time-serving Congress, or in the huge, the colossal, the mer
cenary dimensions of slavery itself. The Bible, in legislat
ing love, is the original, the God -given proclamation of inde
pendence and freedom. And he who undertakes to expound
it to men ought to be thoroughly imbued with its spirit."
But, like the late President Garfield, whose thoughts were
first turned to the Christian ministry, Mr. Langston was to
secure his successes and rewards in another department of
labor. Had he chosen the Christian ministry (as he some
times has had lingering thoughts that perhaps he should have
done) and had he been able to realize his own high ideal in
it, he certainly would not have failed of similar successes
and rewards. As a preacher, President Finney was in many
respects Mr. Langston' s model. Clear, direct, cogent, bril
liant, Mr. Langston would have added that personal per
suasiveness and magnetism, for which, as a lawyer he has
been so distinguished, and which has made him one of the
most effective of speakers upon the stump.

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D. 13
Having determined upon the practice of law, Mr. Lang
ston repaired to Elyria, entered the office of Philimon Bliss,
Esq., and was admitted to the bar. His first cases were in
defence of the violators of the liquor license law ; for a
young lawyer is compelled to take the clients who first knock
at his office door. To these cases he brought such penetra
tion and industry and persistence, that soon this first colored
lawyer west of the Alleghanies had won for himself a bril
liant reputation. For twelve years he remained in Ohio,
adding to his resources, financial and professional, and recog
nized everywhere as a young man sure to rise. He was
once personally insulted by a member of the bar on account
of his color, to whom he administered justice with his own
right hand. An effort was made by the aggrieved lawyer to
have him indicted by the grand jury; but the effort failed,
and Mr. Langston was privately advised, by the foreman,
that if any such affront was ever put upon him again,
they would indict him, unless he dealt with the offender in
precisely the same manner. But he was not a professional
man alone. He was all the time working for the liberation
and advancement of his race. In speeches and resolutions at
conventions, and on the platform he always kept his eye sin
gle to this great end. He always looked forward to that
better time which he believed to be coming, as though this
were his motto :
Man's wrongs we still will right them,
Man's burdens help him bear,
Man's foes, we still will fight them,
And make his cause our care.
Cervantes says "every man is the son of his own works."
It was this constant toil and the fruit of it that prepared
Mr. Langston for his part in what God was preparing for

14 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D.
the nation. As early as 1854, in a convention to consider
the wisdom of emigrating to another country, where they
could be protected in their persons and rights, and have a
better opportunity to rise, as they deserved, Mr. Langston
figured in what the records of the convention speak of, as
" a speech replete with classic elegance-." Of course he di
rected his eloquence against the project. And from that day
to the day he left Ohio for other duties in Washington and
the South, he was indefatigable in his efforts for his own
people. Among the most thrilling of the rescue cases in the coun
try, was that of John Price, a young fugitive from slavery
in Kentucky. For several years he had been living in Ober
lin when one day he was observed by a Negro-catcher on
the watch for some other runaway, and his supposed master
•was notified. The informant was promised $250 if the fugi
tive was returned. Getting a young man of the village to
•decoy the fugitive from Oberlin, a party came upon them,
arrested John, and took him to a hotel in Wellington, a little
town some six miles distant. Citizens from the region gath
ered around the hotel, asked for the warrant by whic_» the
young man was held, and, finally, without force, took him
away from the United States marshal. In the company of
these rescuers were some of Oberlin's best and noblest men.
Immediately the whole section was on fire at the attempted
outrage. This rescue has gone into history as the Ober-
lin-Wellington rescue, We refer to it, not merely as show
ing what was going on between the two sections of the
country, but, also, to show what was in the blood of the
Langston race. Mr. Langston's half brother, William, was
the man at whose instance Colonel Gooch was arrested on
the charge of kidnapping. Charles was another half-brother.
That he was a man of great eloquence is evident from his

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D? 15
speech in the court when asked by the judge if he had any
thing to say why sentence should not be passed against him.
He had been convicted of complicity with others, some of
the best citizens of Oberlin, among them one who' after
ward became Mr. Langston's brother-in-law, Hon. O. S. B.
Wall, of Washington, in this rescue. I quote from a vol
ume which contains a full history of the affair. And I do
this not only from my own view of the fitness of the quota
tion, but because Mr. Langston himself, from a sense of
what he owes this half-brother and from the highest appre
ciation of his native gifts, has suggested it.
The scene is in Cleveland, Ohio; the date May 12, 1859,
and comment is unnecessary.
The Court to Mr. Charles Langston : " You have been
tried by a jury and convicted of a violation of the criminal
laws of the United States. Have you or your counsel any
thing to say why the sentence of the law should not be pro
nounced upon you ? "
Tnis was Mr, Langston's reply : " I am for the first time
in ray life before a court of justice, charged with the viola
tion of law, and am now to be sentenced. But before receiv
ing that sentence I purpose to say one or two words in re
gard to the mitigation of that sentence, if it may be so con
strued. I cannot, and of course do not expect, that any
thing I shall say will in any way change your predetermined
line of action. I ask no such favor at your hands. I know
that the courts of tbis aountry, that the laws of this country,
that the governmental machinery of the country are so con
stituted as to oppress and outrage the colored men : men of
my complexion. I cannot, then, of course, expect, judging
from the past history of the country, any mercy from the
laws, from the Constitution, or from the courts of the
country.

16 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D.
" Some days prior to the 13th of September, 1858, hap
pening to be in Oberlin on a visit, I found the country round
about there and the village itself filled with alarming rumors
as to the fact that slave-catchers, kidnappers, Negro-stealers,
were lying hidden and skulking about, waiting some oppor
tunity to get their bloody hands on some helpless creature,
to drag him back, or to drag him for the first time, into hope
less and life-long bondage. These reports becoming current
all over that neighborhood, old men and women and innocent
children became exceedingly alarmed for their safety. It
was not uncommon to hear mothers say that they durst not
send their children to school, for fear that they would be
caught up and carried off by the way. Some of these peo
ple had become free by long and patient toil at night, after
working the long, long day for cruel masters, and then, at
length, getting money enough to buy their liberty. Others
had become free by means of the good will of their masters.
And there were[others, who had become free- — to their ever
lasting honor do I say it — by the exercise of their God-given
powers, by escaping from the plantation of their masters,
eluding the blood-thirsty patrols and sentinels so thickly
scattered all along their path, outrunning bloodhounds and
horses, swimming rivers, and fording swamps, and reaching
at last, through incredible difficulties, what they, in their de
lusion, supposed to be free soil. These three classes were
in Oberlin, trembling alike for their safety, because they
well knew their fate should these men-hunters get their
hands on them.
"In the midst of such excitpraent the 13th of September
was ushered in — a day ever to be remembered in the history
of that place, and I am sure, no less in the history of this
court — in which these men, by lyiDg devices, decoyed into a
place, where they could get their hands on him — I will not

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D. 17
say a slave, for I do not know that ; but a man, a brother,
who had a right to his liberty under the law of God, under
the laws of Nature, and under the Declaration of Indepen
dence. " Many of us believed there would not be courage to make a
seizure ; but in the midst of all the excitement the news
came to us like a flash of lightning that an actual seizure, by
means of fraudulent pretenses, had been made.
"Being identified with that man by color, by race, by man
hood, by sympathies such as God has implanted in us all, I
felt it my duty to go and do what I could toward liberating
him. I had been taught by my Revolutionary father, and
by his honored associates, that the fundamental law of this
Government is, that all men have a right to life and liberty,
and coming from the Old ^Dominion, I brought into Ohio
these sentiments deeply impressed on my heart. I went to
Wellington, and having learned from the men themselves
by what authority they held this boy in custody, I conceived
from what knowledge I had of law that they had no right to
hold him. And as your honor has repeatedly laid down the
law in this court, that in the State of Ohio a man is presumed
to be free until he is proved to be legally restrained of his
liberty, I believed that upon that principle of law those men
were bound to 'take their prisoner before the first magistrate
they found, and there establish the facts set forth in their
warrant, and that until they did this, every man had a right
to presume their claim was unfounded, and to institute such
proceedings for the purpose of receiving such an investiga
tion as he might find as warranted by the laws of this State.
Now, sir, if that is not plain, common sense, and a correct
view of the law, then I have been misled by your honor, and
by the prevalent received opinion.
"It is said that they had a warrant. Why, then, should

18 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D.
they not establish its validity before the proper officers ? And
I stand here to-day, sir, to say, that, with an exception, of
which I shall soon speak, to procure such a lawful investiga
tion of the authority under which they claimed to act, was
the part I took in that day's proceedings, and the only part,
I supposed it to be my duty as a citizen of Ohio — excuse me
for saying that, sir — as an outlawof the United States [much
sensation], to do what I could to secure at least this form of
justice to my brother whose liberty was in peril. Whatever
more than that has been sworn to on this trial, as an act of
mine, is false, ridiculously false. When I found these men
refusing to go, according to the law, as I apprehend it, and
subject their claim to an official inspection, and that nothing
short of a habeas corpus would oblige such an inspection, I
was willing to go even thus far, supposing in that county a
sheriff might, perhaps, be found with nerve enough to serve
it. In this again I failed. Nothing then was left to me,
nothing to the boy in custody, but the confirmation of my
first belief that the pretended authority was worthless, and
the employment of those means of liberation which belong
to us all. With regard to the part I took in the forcible res
cue which followed I have nothing to say, farther than I
have already said. The evidence is before you. It is alleged
that I said, ' we will have him any how.' This I never said.
I did say to Mr. Lowe, what I honestly believed to be the
truth, that the crowd was very much excited, many of them
averse to longer delay and bent upon a rescue at all hazards ;
and that he being an old acquaintance and friend of mine,
I was anxious to extricate him from the dangerous position
he occupied, and, therefore, advised that he urge Jennings to
give the boy up. Further than this I did not say, either to
him or to any one else.

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D. 19
"The law under which I am arraigned is an unjust one,
one made to crush the colored man, and one that outrages
every feeling of humanity, as well as every rule of right. I
have nothing to do with its constitutionality; and about it I
care a great deal less. I have often heard it said by learned
and good men that it is unconstitutional ; I remember the
excitement that prevailed throughout all the free States when
it was passed ; and I remember how often it has been said by
individuals, conventions, communities, and legislatures, that
it never could be, nev-.r should be, and never was meant to be
enforced. I had always believed, until the contrary appeared
in the actual institution of proceedings, that the provisions
of this odious statute would never be enforced within the
bounds of this State.
"But I have another reason to offer why I should not be
sentenced, aud one that I think pertinent to the case. I
have not had a trial before a jury of my peers. The common
law of England — and you will excuse me for referring to
that, since I am but a private citizen and not a lawyer — was
that evfry man should be tried before a jury of men occupy
ing the same position in the social scale with himself. That
lords should be tried before a jury of lords ; that peers of the
realm should be tried before peers of the realm ; vassals
before vassals, and aliens before aliens, and they must not
¦come from the district where the crime was committed, lest
the prejudice of eitheT personal friends or foes should affect
the accused. The Constitution of the United States guaran
tees, not merely to its citizens, but to all persons, a trial before
an impartial jury. I have had no such trial.
" The colored man is oppressed by certain universal and
deeply fixed prejudices. Those jurors are well-known to have
shared largely in these prej udices, and I therefore consider they

20 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D.
were neither impartial, nor were they a jury of my peers. And
the prejudices which white people have against colored men
grow out of this fact : that we have, as a people, consented for
two hundred years to be slaves of the whites. We have been
scourged, crushed, and cruelly oppressed, and have submitted
to it all tamely, meekly, peaceably ; I mean as a people, and
with rare individual exceptions ; and to-day you see us thus ;
meekly submitting to the penalties of an infamous law. Now
the Americans have this feeling, and it is an honorable one,
that they will respect those who will rebel at oppression, but
despise those who tamely submit to outrage and wrong ; and
while our people as a people submit, they will as a people be
despised. W*"hy, they will hardly meet on terms of equality
with us in a whiskey shop, in a car, at a table, or even at the
altar of God. So thorough and hearty a contempt have they
for those who will meekly lie still under the heel of the
oppressor. The jury came into the box with that feeling.
They knew they had that feeling, the court itself has that
feeling, and even the counsel who defended me have that
feeling. "I was tried by a jury who were prejudiced; before a
court that was prejudiced ; prosecuted by an officer who was
prejudiced, and defended, though ably, by counsel that were
prejudiced. And therefore it is, your honor, that I urge by
all that is good and great in manhood, that I should not be
subjected to the pains and penalties of this oppressive law,
when I have not been tried, either by a jury of my peers, or
by a jury that were impartial.
"One more word, sir, and I have done. I went to Well
ington, knowing that colored men have no rights in the
United States which white men are bound to respect ; that
the courts had so decided; that Congress had so enacted;
that the people had so decreed.

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D. 21
" There is not a spot in this wide country, not even by the
altars of God, nor in the shadow of the shafts that tell the
imperishable fame and glory of the heroes of the Revolution ;
no, nor in the old Philadelphia hall, where any colored man
may dare to ask a mercy of a white man. Let me stand in
that hall, and tell a United States marshal that my father
was a Revolutionary soldier; that he served under Lafay
ette, and fought through the whole -war; and that he told
me that he fought for my freedom as much as for his own ;
and he would sneer at me, and clutch me with his bloody
fingers, and say he had a right to make me a slave ! And
when I appeal to Congress, they say he has a right to make
me a slave ; when I appeal to the people, they say he has a
right to make me a slave, and when I appeal to your honor,
your honor says he has a right to make me a slave, and if
any man, white or black, seeks an investigation of that
claim, he makes himself amenable to the -pains and
penalties of the Fugitive Slave Act; for black men have no
rights which white men are bound to respect. [Great ap
plause.] I, going to Wellington with the full knowledge of
all this, knew that if that man was taken to Columbus, he was
hopelessly gone, no matter whether he had ever been in slav
ery before or not. I knew that I was in the same situation
myself, and that by the decision of your honor, if any man
whatever were to claim me as his slave and seize me, and
my brother, being a lawyer, should seek to get Out a writ of
habeas corpus to expose the falsity of the claim, he would be
thrust into prison under one provision of the Fugitive Slave
Law, for interfering with the man claiming to be in pursuit
of a fugitive; and I, by the perjury of a solitary wretch,
would, by another of its provisions, be helplessly doomed
to life-long bondage, without the possibility of escape.

22 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D.
" Some persons may say there is no danger of free per
sons being seized and carried off as slaves. No one need
labor under such a delusion. Sir, four of the eight persons
who were first carried back under the act of 1850 were after
wards proved to be free men. The pretended owner de
clared that they were not his, after his agent had ' satisfied
the commissioner' that they were, by his oath. They were
free persons, but wholly at the mercy of one man. And but
last Sabbath afternoon a letter came to me from a gentle
man in St. Louis, informing me that a young lady, who was
formerly under my instruction at Columbus, a free person,
is now lying in the jail at tbat place, claimed as the slave
of some wretch who never saw her before, and waiting for
t<*stimony from relatives at Columbus to establish her free
dom. I could stand here by the hour and relate such in
stances. In the very nature of the case they must be con
stantly occurring. A letter was not long since found upon
the person of a counterfeiter when arrested, addressed to
him by some Southern gentleman, in which the writer says t
" 'Go among the niggers; find out their marks and scars;
make good descriptions and send to me, and I'll find masters
for them.'
" That is the way men are carried 'back' to slavery.
" But in view of all the facts I say, that if ever again a
man is seized near me, and is about to be carried South
ward as a slave before any legal investigation has been had,
I shall hold it to be my duty, as I held it that day, to secure
for him, if possible, a legal inquiry into the claim by which
he is held. And I go farther; I say that if it is adjudged
illegal to procure even such an investigation, then we are
thrown back upon those last defences of our rights, which
cannot be taken from us, and which God gave us that we
need not be slaves. I ask your honor, while I say this, to

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D. 23-
place yourself in my situation, and you will say with me
that if your brother, if your friend, if your wife, if your
child, had been seized by men who claimed them as fugi
tives, and the law of the land forbade you to ask any inves
tigation, and precluded the possibility of any legal protec
tion or redress — then you wili say with me, that you would
not only demand the protection of the law, but you would
call in your neighbors and your friends, and would ask
them to say with you, that these your friends should not be
taken into slavery.
" And now I thank you for this leniency, this indulgence,
in giving a man unjustly condemned, by a tribunal before
which he is declared to have no rights, the privilege of
speaking in his own behalf. I know that it will do nothing
toward mitigating your sentence, but it is a privilege to be
allowed to speak, and I thank you for it. I shall submit ta
the penalty, be it what it inay. But I stand up here to
say, that if for doing what I did on that day at Wellington,
I am to go into jail six months, and pay a fine of a thousand
dollars, according to the Fugitive Slave Law, and such is the
protection the laws of this country afford me, I must take
upon myself the responsibility of self-protection ; and when
I come to be claimed by some perjured wretch as his slave*
I shall never be taken into slavery. And as in that trying
hour I would have others do to me, as I would call upon my
friends to help me; as I would call upon you, your honor,
to help me; as I would call upon you [to the district attor
ney] to help me; and upon you [to Judge BlissJ. and upon
you [to his counsel], so help me God ! I stand htrfl to say
that I will do all I can, for any man thus seized and held,
though the inevitable penalty of six months' imprisonment
and one thousand dollars fine for each offence hangs over
me! We have a common humanity. You would do so;

24 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D.
your manhood would require it; and no matter what the
laws might be, you would honor yourself for doing it ; your
friends would honor you for doing it; your children to all
generations would honor you for doing it; and every good
and honest man would say you had done right ! " [Great
and prolonged applause in spite of the efforts of the court
and the marshal.]
The Court : " These manifestations cannot be allowed
here. The marshal has orders to clear the room if they are
repeated. "You have done injustice to the court, Mr. Langston, in
thinking that nothing you might say could effect a mitiga
tion of your sentence. You have presented considerations
to which I shall attach much weight.
" I am fully aware of the evidence that was given to the
jury ; of the circumstances that were related ; of your action
in relation to the investigation of the cause of the detention
of the fugitive, and of your advice to others to pursue a
legal course ; and although I am not disposed to question
the integrity of the jury, still I see mitigating circumstances
in the transaction which should not require, in my opinion,
the extreme penalty of the law. This court does not make
laws ; that belongs to another tribunal. We sit here under
the obligations of an oath to execute them, and whether they
be bad or whether they be good, it is not for us to say. We
appreciate fully your condition, and while it excites the cor
dial sympathies of our better natures, still the law must be
vindicated. On reflection, I am constrained to say that the
penalty in your case should be comparatively light. It is,
therefore, the sentence of the court, that you pay a fine of
one hundred dollars; that you be confined in the jail at
Cuyahoga county, under the direction of the marshal, for a
period of twenty days from date-, and that you pay the cost

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D. 25
of this prosecution ; and that in case any casualty or other
occurrence should render your confinement there insecure,
that the marshal see the sentence executed in any other
county jail within this district."
For eleven years Mr. Langston was a member of the Board
of Education at Oberlin, and when he retired from the board
to answer the summons of Gen. O. O. Howard and became
general inspector of education under the Bureau of Refugees,
Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, they passed unanimous
resolutions of confidence and regret, which only confirmed
the wisdom of General Howard's selection.
For three years, from 1867, when he went to Washington,
Mr. Langston served the bureau above named, visiting prom
inent cities in the South, and always addressing large assem
blies of colored and white people wherever he went. It may
well be imagined that such a representative speaker of his
own race, manly, straightforward and graceful, would show
the possibilities which were before them, and awaken among
them great enthusiasm. This was the case. All over the
South his addresses on education were warmly received and
wrought wonders. Just take these selections as samples of
his manner. They are extracted from an address made
before the Colored Educational Convention held in Louis
ville, Kentucky, July 14, 1869 :
" In the spirit of liberty and charity I come to speak to
you this afternoon as an earnest American citizen. Since I
am earnest and you are earnest, you will not ask me to flatter
yon. Office I care not for; political preferment I ask not
in anything, and I care not for the success of one party more
than forthe success of another. I simply ask that the colored
American in the providence of God, coming out of slavery
into the noonday of liberty, may understand what liberty is;
what its responsibilities are ; what duties are implied in it,
B

26 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D.
and meet these responsibilities and these duties with a fair
opportunity given him, to take his place, ere long, side by
side with the best men-rthe best men in this country or in
any other— as a man. Is achievement the measure and test
of quality ? It has been all along through the days of old
time. There' has been no change made by God since our
emancipation. We are not asking to be made the social
peer of Charles Sumner, President Grant or Schuyler Col-
fax, or any other learned or distinguished white American
statesman. Not at all. But I am here to ask whether, with
our hair curled and faces sooty, as they are, our condition
two hundred and forty -five years of slavery, whether we can
step out in the liberty of new life by hard work, and place
ourselves alongside with the best men of this country
and the best men of the world ? Let me illustrate. You
give a colored man that is very poor to-day exactly the
same chance you give a white man who is also very
poor. You start them in the race of life ; both go to
college together ; they leave college together, and enter
the professional school ; they enter from that into the
battle of life, both successful, and grow rapidly in the pub
lic esteem. The colored man is married the same as the
white man, and they locate in beautiful homes, with the
profits of their business. This is a law that works without
obstruction or hindrance. No man can obstruct it. One of
the finest men in this country, looking from a social stand
point, to say nothing of his moral character, nothing of his
intellectual worth, is a Negro ; who, before slavery was abol
ished, went in the society of the best men in England and
France or in any country he visited ; was the bosom-friend
of Charles Sumner and Schuyler Colfax; and when he goes
into the presence of the President of the United States, the
President, leaving his chair, advances into the middle of the

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON LL. D. 27
room to take the Negro by the hand. Need I call his name?
What Frederick Douglass is to-day or may be to-morrow,
my young friends, in the morning of life, in the midst of the
new struggles and opportunities of life, may also be. Doug
lass did not have law and theological schools open to him.
I need not exhort you to become great ; you will in spite of
yourselves. First, then, you must have character. Next,
you must have intellectual ability. Then get money and
learn how to keep it. And when you have fitted yourself
for a place, when you have achieved it, society will make
ready for you."
In October, 1868, the law department of Howard Univer
sity was organized, and Mr. Langston was chosen dean of
the department. Here he was at his best. Enthusiastically
fond of the law, with a high ideal for his pupils, and with
original methods of instruction, he succeeded at once in
drawing some of the brightest minds of the period to him
self. Indeed, for the time, this department overshadowed
the other two, while the work most needed for the colored
people, in the theological department, was at a disadvantage,
and the work in which the university has since been so in
fluential, namely, that of the medical department, was com
paratively slight. Among Mr. Langston's methods was a
lesson each Sunday morning, on the Laws of Moses — really
a law lesson from the Bible. How instructive such an ex
ercise might be made, any one familiar with the indebted
ness of humanity to Hebrew legislation, as given in such a
treatise as that of " Michaelis on the Laws of Moses," can
readily see. It was Mr. Langston's happy faculty, too, to
interest in his work such men as Senator Sumner, who once
delivered an address to the graduating class, and Ralph
Waldo Emerson, who once took the Sunday morning hour,
and talked to the students on Reading. For a short time,

28 JOHN MERCER LANGS10N, LL. D.
also, Mr. Langston was acting- president of the university,
which conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D.
For seven years from 1870, Mr. Langston was a member,
and the law-officer of the Board^of Health of the District of
Columbia, and when he retired was tendered by them [an
entertainment, at which they were pleased to express for him
their warmest appreciation and their best wishes for his suc
cess in the new position which President Hayes had asked
him to accept. That this Government should be represented
abroad by some of her best colored men was the wish of
both President Grant and President Hayes. For the Re
public of Haiti there could be found no more suitable se
lection than Mr, Langston. A diplomat by very nature, of
easy manner and gentlemanly address,with his ready mastery
of the French, his service of more than six years has proved
the wisdom of the selection. His career in Haiti opened
under the most favorable auspices. Bishop Holly states
that his address to the President made a profound impres
sion on the country. The varied functions of his office,
both consular and diplomatic, he has most admirably dis
charged. He has addressed himself to the promotion of the
commercial interests of this country and to the care of dis
tressed seamen. Through his influence American calicoes
are now imported, and Haitian coffee no longer sent mainly
to France[and England. He has also succeeded in endear
ing himself to the representatives of other governments resi
dent on the island, being their sub-dean, and sometimes act
ing as their presiding officer.
Though living abroad, Mr. Langston keeps up the most in
timate acquaintance with the public affairs of his country,
and few men, among the eminent men who have discussed
such affairs, are his superiors upon the stump ; and whenever
he?' returns home for a vacation his services are always in

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D. 29
demand. An incident really occurring immediately after
the close of the war, and narrated in one of the local news
papers of the day, is of such thrilling interest, and is so
well told, that we transcribe it. It illustrates the extremes
of this man's life ; the compensations which God has brought
in. different degrees to thousands of other men. To few,
however, to such a degree as to Mr. Langston.
The Washington Star says : — "After the close of the War
ofthe Rebellion, in 1866, 1867, and 1868, when the Southern
States were temporarily under military government, I was an
army officer stationed at Gordonsville, Va., and charged with
the reconstruction affairs of Orange and L . uisa counties. In
establishing schools for the newly-liberated blacks and attend
ing to public business at the county seats, I became quite
well acquainted with the people. One of their peculiarities
was that once a month in each county on "court day" a large
part of the population assembled at the court house, some
for business, but many for asort of holiday or social exchange,
in which the influence of intoxicatingliquor was too frequent
ly manifest. Ou one of these occasions it was given out that
John M. Langston, the colored orator, now United States
Minister to Haiti, would speaSTat Louisa court-house. The
result was an unusually large attendance of colored people,
so that the town was full. Langston was born a slave in
Louisa county, and his father, an estimable Virginia gentle
man, provided in his will that he should be liberated and
-educated and given a share of his estate. Although a long
while free, and honorably distinguished, there had never been
a time before when Mr. Langston could safely visit his na
tive county. Now he was to come back a leading man of
his race, tj speak in public, and to] revisit the scenes and to
recall the memories of his childhood. It was therefore a
great occasion for him and for the freedmen of Louisa county.

30 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D.
The white people, however, took little note of it or interest in
it; although I had tried among the lawyers and some of the
merchants, and other principal citizens, to convey the im
pression that Langston was a man they should recognize and
respect. I remember particularly trying to convince Gen
eral Gordon, then county attorney, and an excellent man,
that he might be pleased with Langston, and would be inter
ested if he came over to hear him talk. The feeling that the
Negro was in all cases necessarily inferior and totally unin
teresting was, however, too strong, and the .General and sev
eral others manifested impatience, if not a little indignation,
at my commendatory observation about Langston. They
would not have it that any 'nigger' could talk law, politics,
reconstruction, or anything else with a degree of ability and
intelligence to merit their attention; and they could not im
agine that they themselves wr re soon to attest in a remark
able manner the folly of settled enmity or contempt of' an
entire race or class of men.
"Of course Langston would not be received at any hotel in
the village, but I managed to get over that difficulty by en
gaging a room for myself at The American, inviting him into
it, and quietly ordering a private luncheon for two, of the
best the house afforded. With less difficulty a pleasant green,
where were some shade trees and a speaker's platform, was
secured for Langston's address; and after luncheon, when a
crowd of colored people had assembled, I walked with him
and a few white Republicans (objects of intense detestation to
the mass of the people) to the platform. I noticed General
Gordon and a few of the promirx-nt citizens around the out
skirts of the crowd, within hearing of the speaker, but none
S3emed to be really attending the meeting.
" Langston began by referring to old Virginia and Louisa
county as the place of his birth, and spoke in the happiest

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D. 31
vein and with all the elegance and oratorical art that distin
guish him, of the genuine affection he felt for his native State
and town, and of the pleasure it gave him to come back again
to the home of his boyhood. In a few minutes he had the
mastery of every one within his voice. He pictured the great
ness of the State in its early days, referred to its distinguish
ed men, and its history and national influence, spoke touch
ingly of its present temporary depression and' distress, and
most hopefully and glowingly of its future promise and pos
sibilities as a free State. Then with admirable taste and
tact he fell naturally into a discussion ofthe living questions
of the day, avoiding all irritating points and expressions.
In a little while I looked about me and saw the platform
and all available space near it and around it packed with
white people. The blacks, accustomed to yielding preced
ence, had given up all the best places and a white man was
wedged into every one. More eager interest I never sawin
the faces of any audience. There was General Gordon
crowding near Langston with irrepressible confession of
homage springing from his eyes and pouring down his cheeks,
while the beautiful periods, paying honor to old Virginia,
fell from the orator's lips. The address continued for two
hours with unflagging interest on the part of the audience,
and closed with an admirable peroration. Then followed a
scene of spontaneous enthusiasm that is seldom witnessed.
It was my purpose to introduce several white citizens to
Langston at the close of his speech, but the excitement
among them was too great. They crowded upon him, as
many as could get near, and fairly overwhelmed him with
the warmth and energy of their unconstrained greetings and
compliments. He was borne by the pressure into the dining-
room of the hotel, and a grand dinner was forthwith ordered
in his honor, at which General Gordon presided, and many

32 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D.
of the best citizens sat at the board. He was at once a
guest of the town, and no attention or honor seemed too
great for its good people to bestow upon him. All prejudice
against color was totally extinguished. After dinner the
white ladies sent a committee to wait on him, to invite him
to address them at the principal church in the evening. He
accepted the invitation and the auditorium was more than
crowded by the people of the place. Even the windows and
doorways were packed. General Gordon escorted him to
the pulpit, and introduced him to the audience. The best
room in the hotel was now opened to him, and the next
morning carriages were provided, and in company with a
numerous escort of gentlemen be was taken out to visit the
homestead and tomb of his father, and he did not forget the
humble grave of his darker-hued mother, who is said to have
been a woman of uncommon beauty and good qualities."
Mr. Langston's political sagacity has never been at fault.
He has never doubted the party of freedom. When Hon.
Senator Sumner felt impelled to break with President Grant,
and finally ally himself with the party which so disastrously
failed under the leadership of Mr. Greeley, it was against
Mr. Langston's urgent solicitation and request. Mr. Sumner
hesitated and wavered. Certain influential colored men en
couraged him that their people would follow. Mr. Lang
ston was better advised. He saw in the movement only a
temporary set-back to the cause of freedom, which would
react upon all engaged in it. His predictions proved more
than true.
The lessons, which many colored Americans should de
rive from Mr. Langston's career, lie upon the surface of it.
He had been all his life long fitting himself for something
higher and better. When in Ohio, if he had contented him
self to be about an average lawyer ; if he had assumed that

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D. 33
ibis color would be an insuperable barrier to recognition and
elevation ; if he had not aimed to do his very best in every
case he had, there would have been no distinguished future
before him. It is one of Carlyle' s wise sayings, that the
history of the world is the biography of great men. That
is, every man of eminence is bound to be in all the promi
nent events of his period where his name and influence may
be felt. In his boyhood Mr. Langston remembers the time
when he did not know he had a drop of colored blood in his
veins. Tracing his career forward through school, college,
seminary, law-office, we see how he was all the more identi
fied with everything which concerned his own people, and
was, therefore, necessary as one of the factors which entered
into the great struggle between freedom and slavery. As
early as 1858, as will be seen from one of the addresses in
this volume, he was discussing "The World's Anti-Slavery
Movement" as a great uplifting, under God, ofthe oppressed
nationalities ofthe world. When the wave struck this con
tinent he was sure to be found on the top of it.
Mr. Langston believed that the preamble of the declara
tion is true in this generation, as well as it was true in the
time of the Revolutionary fathers. He believed, too, that if
God had endowed all mankind with these rights and immu
nities, He would not stand idly by if the oppressed made
an effort to secure what God had given and man had taken.
Indeed, Mr. Langston has never sought to rid himself of the
belief that every earnest man's life is a plan of God ; and
not a little of his courage and persistence has arisen from
this source. This is only the Calvinism which Shakespeare
has put in this form —
" There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood leads on to fortune,
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows, and in miseries."

34 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL- •*>•
When the tide arose, Mr. Langston always embarked all
his ventures, as though he believed that God was in it, and
the result has usually shown that he was right. That the
unfolding of his life has been largely the result of God's
care, one can see very plainly, The manumission of his
father's slaves at his death ; their going from Virginia to
Ohio, where freedom was a reality, and where there was one
sacred spot where a colored man could be educated ; his
falling into the hands of Christian guardians, especially
into the hands of so discreet and even handed a guardian
as the late Dr. George Whipple ; his training in Oberlin
under such men as President Finney and Professor Morgan ;
his professional life at Oberlin ; his connection with Gen.
O. O. Howard, in the Bureau of the University ; his oppor
tunities of popular address in the South ; his intimacy with
executive circles in Washington, and finally, the gift to him
of a position of such great dignity, and ease, and influence, as
Minister Resident at Haiti : in all these events a reverent
spirit may readily discern the leading of the hand of Him
without whom the sparrow falleth not to the ground.
It is not claimed that Mr. Langston's character is a faultless
one. It is not claimed that he has at all realized his own
ideal in life. But the attention of young colored Americans
is called to the fact, that beginning as he did, thirty years
ago at the foot of the ladder, he has climbed so high and
won such a reputation and such an influence simply, by
making the best of his opportunities. In some respects, a
colored man of this generation has advantages over the
white man of the same character and ability. Circum
stances have lifted him upon a pedestal. And if there be
in him stuff to make a man of, the people will not be slow to
recognize it.

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D. 35
When Desdemona's father was searching for Othello, Iago
advised him to hide himself. His reply was :
' ' Not I ! I must be found.
My parts, my title and my perfect soul
Shall manifest me rightly."
And this certainly has been true ofthe colored American
of our period ; of the men of decided character and ability,
who have found first places in the local or the general Gov
ernment, that the people havo not been slow to discover "the
parts and title and perfect soul" of everyone of them. They
have had seats in both branches of the National Legis.ature;
they have represented the nation abroad, and they have done
it with an ability and integrity too, which is, perhaps, more
remarkable, that would have brought honor to their Anglo-
Saxon fellow-citizens.
Carlyle in his " Sartor-Resartus" attributes the difference
between men mainly to clothes. "Consider, thou foolish
Teufelsdrockh, what benefit unspeakable all ages and sexes
derive from clothes. For example, when thou thyself, a
watery, pulpy, slobbery freshman and new-comer in this
planet, sattest mewling and puking in thy nurse's arms,
sucking thy coral, and looking forth into the world in the
blankest manner, what hadst thou been without thy blanket
and bibs and other nameless hulls? A terror to thyself and
mankind. Or, hast thou forgotten the day when thou first
receivest breeches, and thy lay clothes become short ? The
village where thou livest was all appraised of the fact, and
neighbor after neighbor kissed thy budding cheek and gave
thee as handsel, silver or copper coins, on that first gala
day of thy existence."
And, it is all very well for Burns to say
" The rank is but the guinea's stamp.
The man 's the gowd for a' that. "

86 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D.
But true as it is, the stamp is just as needful for the currency
of the guinea, as the gold itself. That is the trouble with that
class of men of whom the poet Gray sings :
" Par from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learned to stray,
Along the cool, sequestered vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. "
They needed the stamp to give their gold currency. There
is something beside ability, which is requisite for success
in life. Sometimes we call it personal magnetism ; sometimes
something not so flattering. Really, it is a part of what
Shakespeare means when he uses the word " title " in the
quotation above. Something which leads people to make way,
as though in England, a nobleman were coming. Of this
nameless something, which gives theworld assuranceof aman,
Mr, Langston has his share.
It is difficult for a race to which all avenues have been open
from their birth, to appreciate just what obstacles a colored
man, who would rise, has had to encounter. But, perhaps,
the last obstacle ever overcome is the sense that one is differ
ent from others, and the suspicion that everybody regards it
a sufficient reason for keeping him back. There can be no
confidence reposed in a man who is not confiding. And, if
a man is all the time suspicious that people mean to affront
him, he will be affronted. It is true in all social relatioias,
that, " Trifles light as air,
Are to the jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of Holy Writ."
And here is one of the great wrongs which slavery has
done. It has put a mark, like the mark of Cain, upon one
branch of the human family. It has made good the sentence,
which was pronounced of old, upon one of the sons of Noah :

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL. D. 37
" A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." It
has made it a presumption against any man of color, who
would be anything but a field-servant, a waiter or a barber.
Of course, I would not imply that any kind of work is dis
honorable. But, it is a wrong, when a man who is fit for' a
place, or can fit himself for it, has a presumption against him
because he is black. Thanks to the result of the civil war,
this can never be as it has been. Mr. Langston and colored
men of his period, however, had their destiny fixed before
the civil war. They fought their personal battles on earlier
fields. But, henceforth, it must be easier to win their early
victories all over this free land.
In 1855 Mr. Langston was married to Miss C. M. Wall, of
Oberlin, Ohio. The ceremony was performed by Prof. John
Morgan, for whom Mr. Langston has always cherished the
greatest admiration and affection. This lady, a native of
North Carolina, and the daughter and slave of Col. Stephen
Wall, but emancipated by him and educated among the
Quakers of Harveysburgh, Ohio, and a graduate of Oberlin
has shown herself equal to the changes which have so rapidly
transpired in the career of her husband, and is as much at
home as the wife of Minister Resident Langston, at the Re
publican court of Haiti, as of lawyer Langston, of Ohio.
They have had five children, four of whom are living, and
all but one of whom are settled in life for themselves. Mr.
Langston has always insisted that his children should have
the best of society, and the best opportunities of education.
Glorying in the influence of Oberlin, most of his children
have been educated there. The youngest son, Frank, is in
Washington learning the trade of a book -binder. Arthur, edu
cated at Oberlin, is principal of a colored public school in
St. Louis. Ralph, educated also at Oberlin, is residing at
Nashville, Tennessee, where he is in the mercantile business

38 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, LL, D.
and where resides his only sister, Mrs. J. C. Napier, also
educated at Oberlin. Mr. Napier was one of Mr. Langston's
law pupils at Howard University.
Any one acquainted withMr. Langston will see at a glance
that he represents the best type of culture among the col
ored people of America. Fond of books, an indefatigable
student, determined to get on, ambitious for himself and for
his race, with a quick and active mind, and with some of the
best of America's scholars as his teachers and friends, he has
enjoyed unusual advantages. But gifted as he is, his ad
vancement has been step by step, and has been purchased by
hard work. With less massive movement of mind and dig
nity of address than the great orator Douglass, for platform
speech he is keener, and more magnetic. In person he is
a little above the medium stature, slender and straight as an
arrow. For suavity and grace of person he might be taken
for a Frenchman. And sometimes as you look at his feat
ures you think he may be of Spanish or Italian descent.
But to-day he makes his boast that he has some of the
best blood of the three races, so historic in the great events of
the continent : the Indian, the Negro and the Anglo-Saxon.
Mr. Langston's successes have mellowed his nature and
smoothed away the asperities which his early life had a ten
dency to provoke. His honors sit gracefully upon him, and
whether at home, as an accomplished host entertaining his
many friends in this District, or abroad in the service of the
Government, he seems to be always a happy and contented
man.

SELECTED ADDRESSES.

THE

WORLD'S ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT;

ITS HEROES AND ITS TRIUMPHS.*

Ladies and Gentlemen : I have selected as an appro
priate theme upon which to address you on this occasion,
The World's Anti-Slavery Movement; its Heroes and
its Triumphs.
The anti-slavery movement, like other great movements
whose aim has been the good of mankind, has not been the
result of passion, has not been the invention of distempered
genius. It finds its origin in the wants, the necessities of
man ; and its principles of love and mercy, of beneficence
and good-will have their home in the bosom of God.
The paternity of the anti-slavery movement belongs to
no particular individual, nation or age. Wherever oppres
sion has exhibited its hydra-head, whether in the days of
antiquity or in modern times, there the spirit that animates
and energizes this grand movement, has arrayed itself in
hostile and deadly conflict against it. Indeed, it has been
the delight of the statesman, the philosopher, the poet, and
the philanthropist of all times, to leave embalmed in his
writings, as a sacred and priceless treasure to after-coming
generations, the record of his deep love of freedom and his

* A lecture delivered at Xenia and Cleveland, Ohio, August 2d and 3d, 1858.
C

42 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
intense hatred of slavery. So we read in the writings of
the great statesman of Israel words like the following :
"He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found
in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." And the
Wise Man says : " Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose
thou none of his ways." The Prophet Isaiah, too, asks with
great pith and cogency: "Is not this the fast that I have
chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy
burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye
break every yoke ? " And the words of the sacred writers
of a latter date are not less instinct with the same sentiment.
In the New Testament the law of love is revealed in all its
grandeur and beauty ; for the great Nazarene Teacher
declared : "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,
do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the proph
ets." With great force and power, also, have the writers
of Greece and Rome expressed themselves on this subject.
Socrates says : " Slavery is a system of outrage and rob
bery." Aristotle says : " It is neither for good nor is it
just, seeing all men are by nature alike and equal, that one
should be lord and master over others." And Plato says :
" Slavery is a system of the most complete injustice." The
better judgment of Rome is expressed by her noble Cicero,
in the 'following words : " By the grand laws of Nature all
men are born free and equal, and this law is universally
binding upon all men."
Nor are Germany, France, Scotland, Ireland, England,
or Russia, without the distinguished honor of bearing manly
testimony against oppression. Says Grotius: -"Those are
men stealers who abduct, keep, sell, or buy slaves or free
men. To steal a man is the highest kind of theft." And
the poet Goethe says :
" Such busy multitudes I fain would see
Stand upon free soil with a people free. "

THE WORLD'S ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. 43
A German writer of the present day uses the following truth
ful and glowing language : " Will you support by your vote
a system that recognizes property of man in man ? A sys
tem which sanctions the sale of the child by its own father,
regardless of the purpose of the buyer ? What need is there
to present to you the unmitigated wrong of slavery ?" He
continues : " Liberty is no exclusive property ; it is the prop
erty of mankind of all ages. She is immortal; though
crushed, she can never die ; though banished, she will return ;
though fettered, she will still be free."
The Frenchman Buffon pays a deserved compliment to
the colored man, and at the same time expresses commend
able sympathy and tenderness of heart, when he says : " It
is apparent that the unfortunate Negroes are endowed with
excellent hearts, and possess the seeds of every human
virtue. I cannot write their history without lamenting their
miserable condition." "Humanity," he continues, "revolts
at those odious oppressions that result from avarice."
And Brissot says : " Slavery in all its forms, in all its de
grees, is a violation of divine laws and a degradation of
human nature." The brave spirit of Scotland is beautifully
mirrored in the truthful words of Miller : " The human mind
revolts at the serious discussion of the subject of slavery.
Every individual, whatever be his country or complexion,
is entitled to freedom." More than half a century ago the
immortal Curran gave expression to these eloquent words :
"I speak in the spirit of British law, which makes liberty
commensurate with and inseparable from British soil ; which
proclaims even to the stranger and the sojourner, the moment
lie sets his foot upon British earth, that the ground on which
he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of univer
sal emancipation. No matter in what language his doom
may have been pronounced; no matter what complexion,

44 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may
have burnt upon him ; no matter in what disastrous battle
his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with
what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar
of slavery, the moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain
the altar and the god sink together in the dust ; his soul
walks abroad in her own majesty, and he stands redeemed,
regenerated, and disenthralled by the irresistible genius of
universal emancipation." Blackstone says : " If neither
captivity nor contract can, by the plain law of nature and
reason, reduce the parent to a state of slavery much less
can they reduce the offspring." And the noble Mansfield
says, in his decision in the celebrated Summerset case :
" The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable
of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but
only by positive law, which preserves its force long after the
reasons, occasion and time itself, whence it was created, is
erased from the memory. It is so odious that nothing can
be sufficient to support it but positive law. Whatever in
conveniences, therefore, may follow from the decision I can
not say this case is allowed or approved by the law of En
gland, and therefore the black must be discharged."
It only remains for me to do Russia the justice to say, in
this connection, that the enterprise recently inaugurated by
the present Emperor for the emancipation of the serfs, gives
a new lustre, a glowing halo, to her growing reputation.
Nor am I unmindful of the great American declaration in
favor of freedom and protestation against slavery, which is
encouched in these sacred words : " We hold these truths
to be self-evident : that all men are created equal, and
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,
among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Thus the great men of every nation have paid their devoirs

THE WORLD'S ANTI-SLA VER Y MO VEMENT. 45
to the Goddess of Libertj^. But this love and veneration of
freedom has not been confined to those who possessed men
tal superiority and distinguished position. The more lowly
and obscure have venerated and loved that divine principle
of liberty which underlies the anti-slavery movement, ind
whose natal day dates back to the memorable hour when
God breathed into man the breath of life, and man became
a living soul. And like this vital element implanted in man
by Deity, and of which it is an inseparable part, liberty is
itself immortal. Political assemblies can not legislate its
destruction, nor can ecclesiastical decrees tarnish the glory
of its existence.
The anti-slavery movement has always had its representa
tive men ; men who have been its advocates, its champions
and its heroes. Indeed, there is no department of history
which the anti-slavery reformer of the present day can read
with more interest and profit than that which records the
noble deeds of the brave men whose crowning honor is, that
they have labored and suffered in behalf of this cause. The
first representative man and hero of the anti-slavery move
ment of whom history makes record is the Jewish law-giver,
who was appointed to appear before Pharaoh, and to demand
the release of the children of Israel, and to lead them out of
the land of bondage into the land of freedom. And now as
we behold him " upon the misty mountain-top of antiquity "
we can but admire and applaud his grand achievements. His
God-appointed mission, his heroic devotion and indefatiga
ble zeal, his untiring energy and his glorious success, render
it altogether fit and proper that he should stand first among
the representatives of the anti-slavery movement who con
ducted to triumph that movement, whose record is at once
God's solemn protest against oppression and His ineffaceable
and eternal proclamation in favor of the largest, the fullest
freedom:

46 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
Slavery existed in Greece from her earliest history. It
existed in all her various States, under different codes of
laws, with more or less severity and rigor. In Chios the
yoke was found too galling to be borne, and multitudes,
betaking themselves to.fiight, found secure and permanent
retreats in the mountain fastnesses of the interior of the
island; and from these mountain retreats such fugitive
slaves, headed by the noble Drimacos, met the expeditions
of the Chians and vanquished them with great slaughter.
The Chians, baffled and defeated, were glad to accept the
terms, humiliating and mortifying though they were, proposed
by the commander of the insurgents, and thus secure a truce.
But the ardor and enthusiasm, the resolution and courage of
the insurgents were inspired in a goodly degree by the valor
and conduct of their brave and daring leader. Drimacos
is, indeed, worthy of the highest eulogium. His moderation
and wisdom, his generosity and magnanimity, his undying
love of liberty and just appreciation of human rights illus
trate and distinguish his character. The very last act of
his life attests the true nobility of his soul. The CMa-ns
feared his power and influence even in his old age; and,
prompted by the mean spirit of oppression, they offered a
great reward to any one who would capture him or bring his
head. The old hero, fearing the base work of treachery,
determined to make his death, as he had already made his
life, a holy sacrifice to liberty. And he did. Calling to
him a young man whom he greatly loved he said to him :
" I have ever regarded you with a stronger affection than
any other man, and to me you have been a brother. But
now the days of my life are at an end, nor would I prolong
them. With you, however, it is not so ; youth and the bloom
of youth are yours. What then is to be done ? You must
prove yourself to possess valor and greatness of soul ; and

THE WORLD'S ANTI-SLA VER Y MO VEMENT. 47
since the State offers riches and freedom to whomsoever shall
slay me and bear them my head, let the reward be yours ;
strike it off, and be happy." His heart-touching appeals
overcame the young man; and the death of the immortal
Drimacos became the price of his freedom. It is this fugi
tive slave, the "propitious hero," as the Chians afterwards
denominated him, that I would name as another representa
tive character and hero of the anti-slavery movement.
• Roman history, also, records the life and character and
conduct of a fugitive slave, who, with propriety, may be
named as another hero of the anti-slavery movement. I
refer to Eunus, the gallant leader of the Sicilian slaves who
were twice driven to rebellion by the severity, the cruelty
of their oppressors. But the noblest, the most magnificent
anti-slavery struggle recorded in Roman history is that of
the Gladiators, who rose in rebellion against their oppress
ors under the leadership of Spartacus. It is true that their
plot was discovered ; but a small body broke out, which was
greatly increased by the rapid accession of vast numbers of
other slaves, when under the courageous and skillful gen
eralship of Spartacus, they subdued a Roman consular army,
and were not themselves subdued till after a struggle of two
years, and until sixty thousand of them had fallen in battle,
and Spartacus himself fell fighting upon his knees upon a heap
of his enemies. Possessing the strength, the size and the
physical endurance that fitted him to play the part of a
gladiator, he possessed, also, the courage, the skill, the en
ergy, the resolution and the sagacity, which rendered him a
brave and formidable leader. But these were not the only
qualities which adorned and embellished his character. He
possessed a heart full of humanity, instinct with the love of
liberty. It was this sentiment of freedom that fired and
nerved his soul, that prompted every act and governed his

48 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
whole life. The language of the play, then, is but the
natural, the inevitable outburst of his manly spirit. In
addressing his fellow gladiators he is made to say: "If ye
are beasts, then stand here like fat oxen waiting for the
butcher's knife. If you are men, follow me. Strike down
your guard, gain the mountain passes, and then do bloody
work, as did your sires at old Thermopylae ! Is Sparta dead?
Is the old Grecian spirit frozen in your veins that you do
crouch and cower like a belabored hound beneath his master's
lash ? 0, comrades ! Warriors ! Thracians ! If we must
fight, let us fight for ourselves ! If we must slaughter, let us
slaughter our oppressors ! If we must die, let it be under
the clear sky, by the bright waters, in noble, honorable bat
tle ! " Among the heroes of the anti-slavery movement,
whose lives and characters are portrayed in the historical
annals of antiquity, a prominent and conspicuous place be
longs to this fugitive gladiator.
But lest I weary your patience in dwelling too long upon
the anti-slavery struggles of distant antiquity, and upon
the character and lives, the daring and achievements of their
master spirits, I will come at once to the history of certain
anti-slavery struggles of a more recent date, whose con
sideration is equally fraught with interest and profit. This
brings us to the fifteenth century, the last half of which is
certainly distinguished for three things ; first, the introduc
tion of the African slave trade, by Antonio Gonzales, a
Portuguese sea-captain; secondly, the discovery of America
in 1492 ; and thirdly, the appropriation ofthe then discovered
West India Islands by the Spaniards, with the reduction of
the natives to slavery. These natives are said to have been
a listless, improvident people, of small endurance, and ill
suited to the hard labor and . cruel usage of slaves. Their
sad and lamentable condition aroused the sympathy of the

THE WORLD 'S ANTI-SLA VER Y MO VEMENT. 49
Dominican priest, Las Casas. Through the energetic and
persevering endeavors of this advocate of the Indians, a
favorable impression was made in their behalf. But "the
relaxation" in favor of the Indian slave was only secured at
the expense of the African. As early as 1503 a few Afri
can slaves had been brought across the Atlantic. Indeed,
according to Bancroft, there were such numbers of Africans
in Hispaniola at this time that Ovando, the governor of
the island, entreated that the importation might no longer
be permitted. The first anti-slavery movement upon this
continent, however, in favor of the African slave was an
insurrection in New Segovia. Two hundred and fifty of the
slaves, who belonged in the governments of Venezuela and
Santa Marta, prompted not by their natural fierceness and
arrogance, as the Spanish historian would have us believe,
but by their love of liberty and their determination to be
free, gathered themselves together and made a desperate
struggle for their freedom. It is true that they were over
powered and put to the sword. But their attempt, their
manly struggle, though they were defeated, challenges our
admiration. The first importation of slaves from Africa by the English
was made during the reign of Queen Elizabeth in 1562.
The noble Queen herself is said to have doubted the pro
priety and lawfulness ofthe procedure. Indeed, she seems
to have entertained religious scruples concerning it, and to
have revolted at its very thought. She imposed upon Cap
tain Hawks, the first Englishman who transported African
slaves to America, the most rigid injunctions. Fearing that
the Africans would be carried away from their native land
without their consent, she declared to him that " It would
be detestable, and call down the very curse of Heaven upon
the undertakers." Though thus early introduced there was

50 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
no well-organized or well-adjusted effort made for its over
throw till 1787. This movement, however, had its fearless
harbingers, prominent among whom were Morgan Godwin,
Richard Baxter, Edmund Burke, and the pure-minded and
indomitable Granville Sharp, whose peculiar mission it was
to establish the principle that, according to English law, as
soon as a slave sets his foot on English territory his shackles
fall and he becomes free ; thus giving a complete refutation
to the opinion of York and Talbot, that a slave by coming
from the West Indies into Great Britain or Ireland, either
with or without his master, does not become free, and that
the master may legally compel him to return to his planta
tion. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and G eorge Fox,
the founder of the society of Quakers, deserve special men
tion in this connection. The names of others press upon
me, but I must not tarry to mention them. In 1785 the im
mortal Thomas Clarkson made his appearance, and took his
position as the advocate of the outraged slaves; as the
leader of the movement in favor of the abolition of the slave
trade. His labors were many and arduous. But with a
zeal and devotion worthy of the noble cause which he had
espoused, he was ready to make any sacrifice and meet the
heaviest task. The movement, however, needed a represent
ative and hero in Parliament. This want was supplied in
the mild and amiable, the firm and courageous, the able and
laborious Wilberforce. It was at this time in the history of
the cause that its friends and advocates formed themselves
into an association. Through the instrumentality of Clark
son and the members of this association outside of Parlia
ment, and Wilberforce, Pitt, Fox and Burke, with others, in
Parliament, after a twenty-years struggle, in 1807, the slave
trade was abolished. But the anti-slavery spirit of England

THE WORLD'S ANTI-SLA VER Y MO VEMENT. 51
did not become extinct with the abolition of the slave
trade. Its triumph there only nerved it for the work of
abolishing slavery itself, which reached its consummation
in the emancipation of 800,000 West India bondmen. It
is the glorious triumph of this movement that we have met
to-day to commemorate. And it is altogether fit and proper
that we should thus commemorate it ; for it is one of the
grandest achievements of the world's anti-slavery move
ment. It was not the result of a bloody and cruel war. Its
honor and glory belong not to the prowess, the cunning and
the skill of some military chieftain, It was a great moral
triumph, whose power and glory belong to those " mild arms
of truth and love made mighty through the living God."
Upon the consequences of this movement many interest
ing and important things might be said did time permit.
I will only say, however, that emancipation in the West
Indies has brought to the inhabitants the most beneficial
results. To this assertion all persons well acquainted with
the condition of the planters and laboring classes of the
islands will bear the most satisfactory testimony. The
emancipated classes are now enjoying the advantages of
freedom; are devoting themselves to honest and profitable
industry, and to the cultivation of morality and religion.
Now they enjoy the elective franchise and are eligible to
exalted positions of honor and trust in the State. They are
not only eligible to such high offices, but many of their
number are to-day filling them with great credit to them
selves and honor and profit to the State. In both. Houses
of the Legislature of Jamaica, and in the Privy Council of
the Governor, are colored men who are distinguished for
their probity, sagacity, and wisdom. Indeed, the most
eminent politician of Jamaica, Hon. Edward Jordon, is a
colored man, and is said to be the principal member of

52 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
Governor Darling's Cabinet. He is also Mayor of Kingston.
But he is not the only colored man of the island whose posi
tion entitles him to special mention in this connection. The
position and services of Vickars, Price, and Walters, not to
mention others, render them conspicuous and noteworthy.
But upon this subject, fruitful of thought and advanta
geous reflection, I cannot dwell. In leaving it I would refer
the incredulous and uninformed to the able letter of S. B.
Slack, of Jamaica, upon the actual results of emancipation
in that island, recently published in the New York Tribune.
Passing over other struggles and triumphs of the anti-
slavery movement, their heroes and representative men, I
come at once to the bloody contest of Haiti. Unlike the
peaceful triumph of the emancipation of the British West
Indies, the struggle of Haiti was full of blood, carnage, and
death." Unlike the emancipation movement of the West
Indies, also, this movement was inaugurated and carried to
triumph by colored men themselves. They caught the spirit
of the French Revolution, and vowed eternal hostility to ^
slavery. Their souls were aroused by the announcement
in the celebrated Declaration of Rights, "that all men are
free and equal." It was the struggle of a people who, driven
to desperation by inhuman and intolerable oppression, made
one last, mighty effort to throw off their yoke and gain their
manhood, and assert and maintain their rights. Fired with
this sentiment, they made that resolution which always
brings a glad and glorious success to a people armed in a
just and holy cause. The moving spirit of the first insur
rection was James Oge. While residing in Paris he made
the acquaintance and enjoyed the familiar friendship of
Brissot, Robespierre, Lafayette, and other revolutionists
connected with the society Amis des Noirs. From these
men he learned his lessons of freedom. Resolving to become

THE WORLD' S ANTI-SLA VER Y MO VEMEN T. 53
the deliverer of his race he returned to his native land on
the 12th day of October, 1790, and announced himself, in
the language of the historian, as the redresser of his people's
wrongs. He commenced his work with a force two hundred
strong. But circumstances were not yet' ripe for the under
taking. Oge was defeated and compelled, with several of
his companions, to take refuge in the Spanish portion of the
island. He was demanded, however, from the Spaniards,
and in March, 1791, was broken alive upon the wheel. A
sad fate, indeed, for a man of such generous impulses and
noble purpose, a hero of such self-sacrifice and benevolent
enterprise, a patriot so deeply devoted to his country and
the welfare of the people.
A similar though more barbarous fate was the portion of
his associates, Vincent Oge and Jean Baptiste Chevanne.
History nowhere records anything more cruel and inhuman
than the condemnation passed by the court upon these men.
The stoutest, the hardest heart must shudder at its words.
They were to be conducted, according to Lacroix, " by the
public executioner to the church of Cape Frangois, and
there bareheaded, en chemise, with a rope about their necks,
upon their knees, and holding in their hands a wax candle
of two pounds weight, to declare they had wickedly, rashly,
and by evil instigation, committed the crimes of which they
had been accused and convicted, and there and then that they
repent of them, and ask the forgiveness of God, of the king,
and the violated justice of the realm; that they should then
be conducted to La Place d'Armes of the said town, and in
the place opposite to that appropriated to the execution of
white men, to have their arms, legs, hips, and thighs broken
alive ; that they should be placed upon a wheel with their
faces toward heaven, and there remain so long as God should
preserve their lives. After their death their heads were

54 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
to be severed from their bodies and placed upon poles ; that
of Oge on the road to Dondon, that of Chevanne on the road
to Grande Riviere, and the property of both was to be con
fiscated to the king."
It is said that Oge lost his firmness in this terrible mo
ment, but that Chevanne died, as he had lived, the same
stern, unyielding foe of his oppressors, But the martyrdom
of these heroes of the first insurrection did not quench the
growing determination of the people to be free. Indeed, it
was the rallying-cry of the after-struggle. At this time all
things in France and in the island conspired to hasten the
insurrection which had been espoused by Vincent Oge
before his execution. The story of the barbarous death of
Oge created in France a terrible storm of popular indigna
tion against the planters. The feeling now in favor of the
colored people became intense and vehement. And the
National Assembly, borne along upon the tide of popular
enthusiasm, passed a decree giving citizenship to all colored
persons in the colonies born of free parents, and, also, mak
ing them eligible to seats in the colonial judicatures. But
when the news of the passage of this decree reached the
island it filled the planters with ungovernable anger. All
were for throwing off allegiance to the mother country and
hoisting the English flag. Their fierce anger was at length
allayed. It was not long, however, before the cry, " The
blacks have risen ! " sent a thrill to the hearts of the plant
ers more terrible than the awful tread of an earthquake.
It was on the night of the twenty-second day of August,
1791, that the second Haitian insurrection broke forth. Its
beginnings were of comparatively small account, but its
{ /ogress was rapid and wide-spread, so that in a short time
it reached "from the sea to the mountains." Destruction
and devastation marked its course. Neither life nor prop-

THE WORLD'S ANTI-SLA VER Y MO VEMENT. 55
erty was spared ; both were destroyed. The insurgents were
determined not only to destroy their masters, but every
thing which reminded them of their former servile condi
tion. They offered all things as a bloody and burning sacrij
fice to freedom. They made the flames that wrapt the vast
fields of cane in their fiery arms, that devoured the dwellings
and mills of flourishing plantations and the lowly cabins,
once their own homes, to illuminate the path-way of liberty
in its glorious coming to the bondmen of Haiti. To Buck-
man, Jean Frangois, Jeannot and Biassou belongs the honor
of conducting this movement through its first stages. They
led their forces against vindictive and cruel foes ; foes that
would not only subjugate, but enslave them; under whom
they had already felt the sharp sting of the lash, and suf
fered the untold agonies of slavery. It is not strange, then,
that in this contest cruelty met cruelty, barbarity barbarity,
and many things were done which all are forced to lament
and deplore.
In the mean time many white colonists, despairing of
peace and prosperity, had left the island ; some coming to
the United States, and others going to Great Britain and to
the neighboring Island of Jamaica, Through the influence
of the royalist who had gone from B'rance to Great Britain
and the colonists who had gone from Haiti, proposals were
made to the British government to take possession of the
island and make it a British colony. These proposals were
favorably received, and accordingly a British force appeared
in the island on the 20th of September, 1793. Then it was
that there was to be seen upon the field of conflict four bel
ligerent parties, the English, the French, the Spanish, and
the blacks. At this time, too, great confusion and disor
ganization prevailed.
Then it was that the master spirit of the Haitian Revolu-

56 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
tion, Toussaint l'Ouverture, made his appearance. And his
coming was like the radiance of morning, all bright and
beautiful. The eyes of the whole world were upon him.
God had brought him forth, "with Atlantean shoulders,"
strong and powerful, to bear the responsibilities of a
momentous emergency. This great man, than whom a
greater never lived, was born in 1743, on Count de Noes
plantation, a short distance from Cape Frangois. The son
of parents purely African, he was, nevertheless, even in his
boyhood, distinguished for his gentleness and stability of
temper, his deep reflection, and his love and veneration for
religion. These peculiarities marked his entire life. Indeed,
it was these qualities of character, connected with his
great genius, his remarkable patience, Christian moderation
and robust constitution, that gave him such power of endur
ance, which made him the man for the hour ; which placed
him at the head of the forces fighting for freedom.
In wery relation of life this man was a model man. As
husband and father, he was altogether without fault, always
exhibiting towards his wife the tenderest love, and towards
his children the most affectionate and fatherly solicitude;
while as a friend his conduct was distinguished by the
most unwonted generosity and magnanimity. This is beauti
fully and touchingly illustrated in his behavior towards his
master and family when danger threatened them, and he
imperilled his own life to secure their succor. As lieutenant-
governor his rigid though just discipline, his well-adjusted
and judicious plans, his magical influence and power over
the people, soon brought to the island peace and prosperity.
But the character of this extraordinary man shines most
brilliantly and beautifully in his conduct as a great military
leader and hero. It was in this capacity that his wonder
ful originality and independence, his ingenuity and skill,

THE WORLD 'S ANTI-SLA VER Y MO VEMENT. 57
his genius and power found ample scope for their display.
Toussaint I'Ouverture was the most extraordinary man of
his age, though he lived in an age remarkable for its extra
ordinary men. A slave for "nearly fifty years, he stepped
from slavery into freedom, and at once showed himself an
intellectual and moral prodigy. Superior to Napoleon and
Washington as a great military leader, he was, like Wash
ington, inclined to the arts of peace. It is not strange that
Napoleon, while he studied Toussaint as his model and
patron, feared him as a rival, and did not hesitate to make use
¦of the basest treachery to secure his overthrow and destruc
tion. He knew full well his just title to the appellation " The
Opener," and read in his great native ability and attain
ments the brilliant career that awaited him.
The words of Toussaint after his overthrow were full of
inspiration and truth : " In overthrowing me you have over
thrown only the trunk of the tree of Negro liberty in Santo
Domingo. It will arise again from the roots, because they
are many, and have struck deep." Indeed, slavery was never
re-established in that island. Christophe, Dessalines and
Clerveaux rose in arms and forty thousand Frenchmen were
made an atoning sacrifice for the temerity of Bonaparte.
I will not harrow up your feelings by dwelling upon the
sad fate of the great Haitian hero, upon his cruel separation
from his family, nor his death in a " cold, damp and gloomy
dungeon," in the castle of Joux, among the Jura mountains.
Nor will I, I need not, dwell upon the success and the happy
consequence of the Haitian revolution. To all people strug
gling for freedom, it is a glorious bow of promise, spanning
the moral heavens.
Thus, whenever, wherever liberty has made a stand against
oppression, whether with the arms of "truth and love," or
with the sword and bayonet, she has alwa3rs won the most
D

58 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
brilliant, splendid triumphs. And in these triumphs of the
past we read the sure prophecy of " the good time coming"
to the American anti-slavery movement.
This movement also had its forerunners. Upon their his
tory and doings I will not tarry to say a single word. When
the time came, however, for the movement to make a new de
velopment, to take on another type, to make a higher aim, to
assume a definite and positive character, and to receive a new
impulse, God, as in time past, raised up a man who has
shown himself equal to the arduous undertaking. That
man was the^immortal William Lloyd Garrison. A man of
obscure parentage, without the prestige of a great name or
the magical influence of wealth, but possessing great moral
courage, stability of character, and Christian fortitude, he
came forth as the advocate of liberty, declaring : "I am in
earnest ; I will not equivocate ; I will not excuse ; I will not
retreat a single inch ; and I will be heard !" He and his asso
ciates announced in substance, in their celebrated anti-slavery
declaration of 1833, that all men are created free and equal;
that slavery is a stupendous wrong ; that it is an outrage
upon humanity and a sin against God; that no man can by
right gain property in the body and soul of his fellow, and
.that slavery ought to be immediately and unconditionally
abolished. The achievements of the American anti-slav^ery movement
since that time have been such as to impart hope and
courage to every heart. Of course, I do not refer to the
achievements of any separate and distinct organization. I
refer to the achievements of that complicated and stupen
dous organization composed of persons from all parts of this
country, whose aim is the abolition of slavery and the
enfranchisement of the colored American. What, then, are
some of its accomplishments ?

THE WORLD'S ANTI-SLAVER Y MO VEMENT. 59
In the first place, it has bjrought the subject of slavery
itself distinctly and prominently before the public mind.
Indeed, in every nook and corner of American society this
matter now presents itself, demanding, and in many instances
receiving, respectful consideration. There is no gathering
of the people, whether political or religious, which is not
now forced to give a place in its deliberations to this subject.
Like' the air we breathe, it is all-pervasive. Through this
wide-spread consideration the effects of slavery upon the
slave, the slaveholder, and society generally, have been very
thoroughly demonstrated ; and as the people have under
stood these effects they have loathed and hated their foul
cause. Thus the public conscience has been aroused, and
a broad and deep and growing interest has been created in
behalf of the slave.
In the next place, it has vindicated, beyond decent cavil
even, the claim of the slave to manhood and its dignities.
No one of sense and decency now thinks that the African
slave of this country is not a man. No sensible slaveholder
now dares to deny his humanity. Instead of this, the lead
ing slaveholders now claim that all laboring classes, whether
white or black, ought to be slaves, no longer predicating
their claim to the Negro slave on the ground that he is
wanting in humanity. Possessing intellect, sensibility and
will, judgment, understanding and imagination, sense, con
sciousness and fancy, reason and conscience, the American
bondman is a man capable of the most refined culture and
the noblest endeavor. And the anti-slavery movement has
fully attested the truthfulness of this declaration.
The anti-slavery movement has also shown the real condi
tion of the poor non-slaveholding whites of the South ; that
they have no rights which are to be respected and cared for
when the interests of slavery are to be looked after ; that

60 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
their right to think freely and to give free utterance to their
opinions is altogether denied them ; that they have no free
voice, no untrammelled utterance, in political or religious
matters ; but their opinions are manufactured for them, and
they must receive them at the hands of their self-styled supe
riors ; that they are denied all educational advantages, and
their children are left to grow up in ignorance, and spend
their lives in indolence and dissipation. Nor have they the
means, the opportunity, of acquiring wealth. They cannot
with facility gain a moderate competency. Looked at from
any standpoint, their condition is truly an unfortunate one.
In it we see the blighting effects of slavery upon free labor.
Indeed, free labor and slavery cannot live together. This
must be so ; for let the masses be educated, let them enjoy
freedom of thought and freedom of speech, and slavery could
not stand. This huge image of error and wrong would soon
soon tremble and fall to the ground. May God hasten the
day when light shall burst upon the minds of these poor
whites who now sit in the shadow of death, and they, know
ing their rights, shall assert and maintain them- like men ;
and through their enfranchisement light and liberty may
come to the poor bondman ! Indeed, the poor white man of
the South and the slave ought to be linked in friendship
stronger than iron chains ; for a common enemy preys upon
their freedom.
In like manner the anti-slavery movement has fastened
the attention of the world upon the impudent and daring
encroachments of slavery upon the rights and liberties of
the people of the North. In doing this the deep baseness of
the Florida war, the annexation of Texas, the enactment of
the Fugitive Slave Law, the repeal of the Missouri Compro
mise, the attempt to force slavery upon the people of Kan
sas, and the Dred-Scott decision, have been most fully and

THE WORLD'S ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. 61
completely developed, while the nefarious outrage perpe
trated in the practical abrogation of that clause of the Con
stitution which guarantees to the citizens of each State all
the rights and immunities of the citizens of the several
States, as well as the outrage perpetrated by the greedy
assumption of well-nigh all the patronage of the National
Government, has been thoroughly exposed. This has led
the people of the North to array themselves against this
common pest of the country. And now we have a North as
well as a South.
The anti- slavery movement has also offered a most trium
phant vindication of the anti-slavery character of the Declar
ation of Independence, whose broad and comprehensive
definition of freedom includes every human being, whether
white or black, whether born in heathen lands or in the
midst of civilization and Christianity. Indeed, the Declara
tion is no glittering generality, no beautiful abstraction.
Its doctrines of freedom are solemn verities. It has also
vindicated, by an argument incapable of refutation, the anti-
slavery character of the Constitution of the United States,
and has met and refuted the foul aspersion of the Bible,
that it sanctions and sanctifies slavery. And now, in the
name of the Bible, the Constitution, and the Declaration,
we demand the immediate and unconditional abolition of
slavery. Another important and splendid achievement of this move
ment is the establishment of its own literature — a literature
peculiar and distinct, and yet distinguished for its excel
lences and beauties. This could not be otherwise, for many
of the most eminent scholars, poets and philosophers of the
country are its contributors. Our anti-slavery books, full
of valuable and interesting thoughts, rendered acceptable by
an appropriate and graceful style, are not only read by all

62 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
classes, in every section of this country, but are read and
admired by the common people, and the critics of other
lands. These books are our constant companions. In
society and solitude, the living thoughts they contain burn
and glow in our hearts. The influence of our anti-slavery
literature is silent, yet potential, well-nigh omnipotent. It
is true that one good book is more powerful than a thou
sand soldiers clad in arms. The attack of an army is for
the most part sudden; it may be desperate, but the influence
of a book is deep, wide-spread and permanent. It is im
perishable and ever active. What a wonderful, matchless
influence, then, our anti-slavery publications are exerting
upon the public mind ; through their stubborn facts, con
vincing the judgment, and through their earnest and pathetic
appeals in behalf of freedom, charming and captivating the
heart. This movement also has its living orators. These orators
possess the noblest of all themes — a theme whose simple
announcement touches the human heart, and wakes a re
sponse deep and lasting. It is a theme, too, which affords
the most ample field for the display of the stoutest faculties
of thought and reason, of imagination and fancy. Upon
the "resistless eloquence wielded" by these orators, their
incomparable rhetoric, and its admirable effect, I need not
pronounce a panegyric. The beauty and power of their pro
ductions must be admitted by all. Indeed, to them more
than any other class — to Phillips and Sumner, to Parker and
Beecher, to Smith and Cheever, to Douglas and Seward, to
Remond and Burleigh — belong the honor of building up an
aristocracy of American eloquence, whose authority and sway
are extensive and influential. In its authors and orators,
this movement has made one of its most imposing achieve
ments.

THE WORLD >S ANTI-SLA VER Y MO VEMENT. 63
More than this, the anti-slavery movement has brought to
the colored people of the North the opportunities of develop
ing themselves intellectually and morally. It has unbarred
and thrown open to them the doors of colleges, academies, law
schools, theological seminaries and commercial institutions,
to say nothing of the incomparable district school. Of these
opportunities they have very generally availed themselves ;
and now, wherever you go, whether to the East or the West,
you will find the colored people comparatively intelligent,
industrious, energetic and thrifty, as well as earnest and
determined in their opposition to slavery. Indeed, they have
already been able to furnish a large number of earnest, labo
rious and efficient workers to this cause ; workers of whose
endeavors and success we need not be ashamed. With the
opportunities offered for their intellectual and moral devel
opment they have also had the means of acquiring wealth,
which they have not failed to improve. And now their pecu
niary ability is not of insignificant account. In the State
of Ohio alone thirty thousand colored persons are the owners
of six millions of dollars' worth of property, every cent of
which stands pledged to the support of the cause of the slave.'
Animated by the same spirit of liberty that nerved their
fathers, who* fought in the Revolutionary war and war of
1812, to free this land from British tyranny, they are the
inveterate and uncompromising enemies of oppression, and
are willing to sacrifice all that they have, both life and prop
erty, to secure its overthrow. But they have more than'
moral and pecuniary strength. In some of the States of this
Union all of their colored inhabitants, and in others a very
large class of them, enjoy the privileges and benefits of citi-*
zens. This is a source of very great power. For next to
the magical dollar, the vote is that instrumentality by which
the soul of an American is led captive at one's will. This

64 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
influence, too, is consecrated and pledged to the slave. No-
Democratic politician ; no hollow-hearted politician of any
party whatever; no man who is not a devoted, laborious,
anti-slavery man can ever secure our vote. Money cannot
buy it. Flattering promises of self-aggrandizement cannot
induce its desecration; for it is a sacred thing, and shall
be used as Ithuriel's spear, to stab the demon of slavery.
To have brought the means of education and development
to such a people, a people possessing such a spirit, is cer
tainly one of the most desirable and valuable achievements
of the American anti-slavery movement.
Another achievement of the American anti-slavery move
ment is the emancipation of forty or fifty thousand fugitive
slaves, who stand to-day as so many living, glowing refuta
tions of the brainless charge that nothing has, as yet, been
accomplished Indeed, this movement exhibits great moral
muscle and strength, shows itself amoral giant, when despite
the Fugitive Slave Law and the vigilant patrol of the South,.
it sends its powerful and magical influences to the ever
glades of Florida, the cane-fields of Louisiana, and the rice
swamps of South Carolina, and leads out thence the peeled
and broken slave. Nor does this movement leave the flee
ing bondman without protection and care in his new home
in the North. Wherever he goes, now, whether in our large
cities or into our rural districts, he finds friends either to
welcome or give him help for his further journey to the freer
land of Queen Victoria.
But the crowning achievement of the anti-slavery move
ment of this country is the establishment, full and complete,
of the fact that its great aim and mission is not merely the
liberation of four millions of American slaves, and the
enfranchisement of six hundred thousand half freemen, but
the preservation of the American Government, the preser-

THE WORLD'S ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. _ 65
vation of American liberty itself. It has been discovered,
at last, that slavery is no respecter of persons, that in its far-
reaching and broad sweep it strikes down alike the freedom
of the black man and the freedom of the white one. This
movement can no longer be regarded as a sectional one. It
is a great national one. It is not confined in its benevo
lent, its charitable offices, to any particular class ; its broad
philanthropy knows no complexional bounds. It cares for
the freedom, the rights of us all. Some may call this repre
sentation a fancy sketch ; rhetorical gammon. But it must
be evident to every one conversant with American affairs that
we are now realizing in our. national experience the impor
tant and solemn truth of history, that the enslavement and
degradation of one portion of the population fastens galling,
festering chains upon the limbs of the other. For a time
these chains may be invisible ; yet they are iron-linked and
strong; and the slave power, becoming strong-handed and
defiant, will make them felt. This identification of the inter
ests of the white and colored people of the country, this
peculiarly national feature of the anti-slavery movement is
one of its most cheering, hope-inspiring and hope-supporting
characteristics. This fact is encouraging because the white
Americans cannot stand as idle spectators to the struggle,
but must unite with us in battling against this fell enemy if
they themselves would save their own freedom. Indeed,
the unchivalrous though natural behavior of the slave oli
garchy has already aroused the people of the North to a
consciousness of this burning truth. And the deep, solemn
voice of the people as it comes thundering up from the hills
of New England and from the prairies of the West is pro
nouncing their heroic determination to meet and overthrow
this power. Their cry is : " The slave oligarchy must die-.
the slave oligarchy shall die !"

•66 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
These are some of the achievements of the anti-slavery
movements of our own country. From its very beginning
it has gone steadily on in its career of triumph. No power
has been able to withstand it. In its irresistible march it has
split to pieces all the great ecclesiastical and political organ
izations of the country. It has overthrown, utterly over
thrown, the old Whig party, and written across the Demo
cratic party, the other stronger ally of slavery, in burning
characters: "Thy days are numbered." It has changed the
National Congress and the State legislatures into anti-slavery
¦conventions, and has shipwrecked the fortunes of many dis
tinguished men, who had fastened their political destinies
to a blind though ardent defence of slavery. These achieve
ments of our American movement augur and insure its ulti
mate success, and the triumphs of the world's great anti-slav
ery movement, to which allusion has been made, predict the
sure coming of the millennium of liberty.
Let us, then, disfranchised Americans, take new courage ;
for our cause and the cause of the slave shall triumph glo
riously. With hearts full of hope, and a* determination to
battle for the right against the wrong, let us adopt the beau
tiful sentiment of the poet :
" God speed the year of Jubilee,
The wide world o'er !
When, from their galling chains set free,
The oppressed shall vilely bend the knee
And wear the yoke of tyranny,
Like brutes, no more.
That year will come, and freedom's reign
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.
God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow !
In every clime be understood
The claims of human brotherhood,

THE WORLD 'S ANTI-SLA VER Y MO VEMENT. 67
And each return for evil, good —
Not blow for blow.
That day will come, all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.
God speed the hour, the glorious hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant's presence cower,
But all to manhood's stature tower,
By equal birth !
That hour will come, to each, to all,
And from his prison-house the thrall
Go forth.
Until that year, day, hour arrive,
With head and heart and hand I'll strive
To break the rod and rend the gyve —
The spoiler of his prey deprive;
So witness, Heaven !
And never from my chosen post,
Whate'er the peril or the cost,
Be driven."

DANIEL O'CONNELL.

THE GREAT AGITATOR'S YOUNG LIFE— HIS POWER
AS A STATESMAN-HIS EFFORTS AS AN ABOLI
TIONIST—THE EFFECT OF HIS LIFE ON THE
TIMES IN WHICH HE LIVED *

I should not describe to you my feelings if I did not at
once say that I feel specially honored by the invitation
which brings me before you on this occasion, and as I enter
upon the duty which the acceptance of this invitation im
poses, I realize most keenly my inability to meet your
expectation by treating with fullness of learning and power
the subject upon which I am to speak.
Masters of the pen, orators, indeed, of this and other
countries have made Daniel O'ConneU, his peculiarities, his
virtues, his achievements, the subject of their discourse and
their address. From this very platform America's most
elegant, captivating and eloquent orator has dwelt with his
own peculiar power, in his most happy mood, upon this
theme. Why now should I, after so much has been written, so
much said, so beautifully and so eloquently, with so much
truth and power, be asked to offer a humble word in eulogy

* A lecture delivered in Lincoln Hall, 'Washington, P. C.. December !
1874.

DANIEL 0' CONN ELL. 69
and commendation of Ireland's greatest son? Is it because
he did peculiar work in behalf of the class, citizens of our
own country, with whom I am peculiarly identified ? Was he
an abolitionist, demanding at Dublin and at London, among
the Irish and the English, sending his voice, like that of the
storm, till mankind heard it, that slavery, the chattelizing of
the American Negro, be unconditionally and immediately
abolished ? Was he a reformer of such large comprehen
sion, humanity, sense of justice and right, wisdom and
sagacity, that he limited in his conceptions human freedom
and legal rights by no boundaries of color, nationality or
caste? Or has our country reached that hour when the
name of this great and good man, statesman and patriot,
should be pronounced and dwelt upon to inspirit, animate
and support those newly emancipated, admitted and wel
comed to the body-politic with the ballot in their hands, as
well as those native and naturalized, once citizens of Erin,
now citizens and voters of our country, who are resolved to
make this country, in its law, its religion, and its politics,
pure, exalted, enduring ?
As to these questions the sequel will niake my answer.
Although this answer is anticipated, if not wholly, partly
by your knowledge of the past history and utterances of the
great agitator.
Born in 1775, Daniel O'ConneU breathed from hisbirth an
atmosphere of revolution. Change, readjustment, progress,
even through blood, was seen and felt in every direction, in
the midst of the leading nations of the earth. Before he
had completed the first year of his age America made her
memorable Declaration of Independence, and thus a nation
so far discovering vigor, purpose, energy, enterprise, devo
tion and valor, has gone forward, advancing in years and
distinguishing itself in military, commercial, scientific,

70 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
literary, political and moral achievements. It is not in the
power of man to estimate the influence of our own Declara
tion and our struggle for independence upon the youthful
O'ConneU. This we know, that such a declaration was never
made by a nation of any lineage or tongue prior to the Fourth
of July, 1776, and the world has produced: no single indi
vidual who has discovered a larger and more practical
knowledge of that declaration than this great man. Nor is
it possible for us to estimate the influence of other reform
movements among other nations preceding and reaching to
and beyond the period of his birth and youth. Born at this
particular juncture in the affairs of the world, with influ
ences of the character indicated brought to bear upon him
from near and far, with native endowments peculiar to the
genuine Irishman : warmth of soul, vigor of intellect, ardor
and susceptibility of temperament, sternness and persistency
of impulse, carrying for the time being the mind and will ;
with affections tender, sympathy quick and abundant, it
was natural — indeed it would have been contrary to all
mental law had it been otherwise — that O'ConneU should
be in his manhood the brave, persistent leader of his race.
But in this connection we are not to forget that he sprang
from a people who have given the world more great men in
proportion to their numbers than any nation on the face of
the earth. And many of these eminent men are peculiarly
distinguished for the possession and display of those quali
ties of character which make the greatest men of the world.
Edmund Burke, the statesman of Beaconsfield, " whose last
thoughts, last wishes, like his first, were with his native
land," stands as author, orator and statesman, as original
thinker in the world's estimation, pre-eminent among the
great men of his day. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, in deliv
ery and effectiveness of address, in his day second to no

DANIEL O'CONNELL. 71
man in the British Parliament ; Henry Grattan, the brightest
ornament of the Home Parliament, who was present when
the constitutional charter of 1782 restored Ireland to the
rank and dignity of a free nation; who was also present
when the Legislative Union was formed destroying her inde
pendence; Plunkett, Grattan's associate and friend in the
Irish and Imperial Parliaments — with Grattan in 1782, with
him in 1800, were in their endowments, achievements, their
entire life, the mirror of those elements of character which
mark real greatness.
It will be recollected that it was Plunkett who, in 1782,
pleading for the life and independence of Ireland and her
Parliament, in addressing his associates used the memorable
words: "Yourselves you may extinguish, but Parliament
you cannot extinguish. It is enthroned in the hearts of the
people; it is enshrined in the sanctuary of the constitution-;
it is as immortal as the island that protects it. As well
might the frantic suicide imagine that the act which destroys
his miserable body should also extinguish his eternal soul.
Again, therefore, I warn you. Do not lay your hands on
the constitution; it is above your powers !"
Here other names which illustrate and adorn Irish history
crowd upon my memory : Curran, Shiel, Phillips, Emmet,
Moore, Doyle, McHale and others of like character and
influence. But upon these I may not dwell. The struggles
through which the Irish people have been led to pass, as well
as the peculiar elements of their national life, have tended
to produce in abundance, and with marked traits of charac
ter, leading and eminent men. National, like individual
struggle*, if not indispensable to, (end to the production of
power and greatness in man and nations.
I neither sympathize with those who take simply the poetic
view of Ireland, representing her as a " mountain nymph,

72 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP. .
with flowing garments, wavy ringlets, glowing countenance,
enrapt eye and Venus-like fingers, trilling the strings of a
harp," nor with those who, taking the prosaic view simply,
liken her to a " mother seated on the mud floor of a log cabin,
clad in rags, with disheveled hair, pii.ched features, eyes too
hot and dry for tears, and skinny fingers, dividing a rotten
potato among a brood of famishing children." Both views
are too extreme. To me neither seems truthful. The first,
certainly, seems unlike humanity. The latter represents a
¦condition of want and degradation which not even the op
pressed and outraged children of Ireland, as a nation, have
reached. I prefer to regard Ireland as a nation of valiant
sons and daughters, struggling with the hard things of life, '
to be sure.; deserving, as they are entitled to, better things
by far, but made of such excellent material, and possessed
and influenced by 6uch sterling purpose as that they produce
in the throes of struggle, not a few, but a multitude of great
and influential men. Such nation has given the world the
immortal O'ConneU.
Educated, as to academical study, at Saint Omers, in
France ; as to his profession, the law, in England, at London,
and in the Middle Temple ; seeing the men aud feeling the
influence of other lands than his own ; led as he was, to cul
tivate thought, sobriety and purpose of life, he learned neither
to despise nor forget, though oppressed and lowly, the land
and people of his birth and with whom he was identified in
blood, achievement and destiny.
His first tutor was an Irish priest, from whom he learned
early lessons, quickening to conscience, arousing patriotic
devotion, and fixing the ardor, the purpose, the impulses
even of his soul on the side of personal purity, fidelity and
duty. It is reported of tbis tutor that he was " a Christian in the

DANIEL 0' CON NELL. 73
truly evangelical meaning ofthe word, since his faith in Christ
Jesus brought him but sneers and persecution; a scholar,
whose views were all impregnated wilTh the salt of sound the
ology and whose manner of instruction^was often tinctured
with the solemn gloom of the cloister. Such was the first
priest with whom the future Emancipator became acquainted,
and it would be idle to deny that this good man's character
had deeply impressed him with that high admiration, 'amount
ing almost to reverence, ever manifested towards the clergy,
and that lively sense of the necessity of a Christian life, the
practice of which is one of the most glorious traits in his
character." At Saint Omers two classes of students were educated :
the sons of Irish emigrants, long resident of France, and the
sons of Irish parents, still residents of their native land, driven
thence by the penal code to seek abroad learning, knowledge,
mental discipline, indispensable tojiigh moral endeavor and
triumph. Speaking of the students of Saint Omers, the author of
"O'ConneU and His Friends" uses these beautiful words:
" It must have been a glorious sight to behold the amity
which subsisted between these two branches of the old Mile
sian stock — the one flourishing in a free, foreign soil, the other
preferring to stand on Irish ground in defiance of every
storm, still aspiring under the multitude of its chains."
To the latter class, as we know full well, O'ConneU belonged ;
and aspiring, though under chains, he gave evidence of the
possession of that faith in himself and in the Irish people
which made him in after years their liberator, and them his
willing, confiding, ardent and admiring constituency. Re
turning from England, O'ConneU was admitted to the Irish
bar, at Dublin, in 1798.
" The Irish bar," says McGee, " was still in the glory of its
E

74 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
independence ; there was buoyancy in the national heart, and
a generous emulation ran through the Senate, the bar and
the press. The voice of Curran was heard in the Four Courts,
drying the tears his pathos had caused. * * * The silver
tones and gorgeous figures of Bushe were there in meridian
brilliancy, ' charming a verdict by the silent witchery of his
manner.' The morose yet unfathomable mind of Saurin,
rich alike in logic and learning, made another giant figure
in that group of colossal jurists; while pressing hard after
them in the career of fame, came a younger and scarcely less
noble race: Holmes, Thomas Addis Emmet and Louis Perrin.
Such was the school to which the pupil of Saint Omers came,
already rich in learning, skilled in elocution and subtle in
debate. Here his first Irish lessons were received, and
assuredly he has done no discredit to his instructors."
Early in his professional life, before he gained solid foot
ing, while yet in his twenty-third year, he witnessed the defeat
of the projected revolution of the " United Irishmen." Here
he was taught, as some one has said, " another painful lesson
in the science of reform." Quickly thereafter he witnessed
with sorrowing heart what shall prove, it is to be hoped, but
the seeming death and funeral of Irish independence. The
actors, the scenes, the horrors of 1798 and 1800 made such
an impression upon his tender but vigorous and manly soul,
that he "vowed before God to devote his energies to his
country and its altars, and to live but for the emancipation
of both." As I dwell upon this consecration of O'ConneU to
the freedom of his country and countrymen, I call to mind
but a single individual consecration of grander character,
more excellent and beautiful. I refer to the consecration of
the noble, self-sacrificing and heroic American who, forget
ting the odds against him, the contempt, the ridicule, the
soeial ostracism, the baptism of pain and suffering which

DANIEL 0' CONN ELL. 75
awaited and which would pour like a flood upon him, became
the champion of the Negro's emancipation and enfranchise
ment, declaring: "I am in earnest; I will not equivocate ;
I will not excuse ; I will not retreat a single inch, and I will
be heard ! "
William Lloyd Garrison still lives. He rejoices in the
triumph of that cause to which he dedicated the strength of
his manhood and the wisdom of his age. It would have been
well, as it seems to me, could Daniel O'ConneU have witnessed
the restoration of Irish independence, the re-establishment of
her Home Parliament, as well as Catholic emancipation — the
freedom of the national conscience. But hail to these sons
of truth and freedom, whose bloodless weapons, wielded by
strong hands, sustained by stout hearts, made powerful
omnipotent through God and the right, brought liberty and
happiness to millions, sorely, bitterly oppressed.
A wise and just analysis will discover in the character of
O'ConneU those qualities which shine in leadership; which
make greatness possible. The first of these is essential and
positive individuality. Every truly great man who becomes
and does that which perpetuates his name as the friend of the
people, the conservator of virtue and the general good, is
himself. I speak not of the first class of great men ; not of
those who build up the foundations of others ; whose advo
cacy of principles or measures is by authority; but of those
who remove rubbish, lay solid and enduring foundations, and
rear thereupon superstructures of utility, grace, beauty aud
grandeur; who themselves create precedents and perpetuate
their authority. Such individuality, such essence of self
hood, O'ConneU possessed ; and the characteristics of his
nationality no more distinguished him than his individual
ism. He was an Irishman, but he was more ; he was Daniel
O'ConneU. He did not fail to assert, to render positive the

76 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
personality of which I speak, as his efforts in the forum, on
the hustings, and in Parliament, abundantly attest. Convic
tion, something other and more than the intellectual recogni
tion, acceptance even, of truth and obligation, the sense of
sincerity, honesty, faith and duty burning in his soul, firing
his imagination, impelling and controlling his will, is an
element entering largely into that rare combination of quali
ties composing the very being and distinguishing the life and
conduct of this great man.
Addressing his constituents at Ennis, refusing to take the
oath of supremacy at the bar of the House of Commons,
advancing popular reform by tongue, pen, public and private
influence, he impressed and moved every one — the people,
law-givers, officials, the king even — by the manifestation of
the intensity, the ardor, the enthusiasm of his conviction. A
learned doctor of theology once said: "My bones are on fire
of the gospel ; and if I preach not, I shall die." This
language described the feeling, the mental condition, which I
find in the moral attitude of O'ConneU.
If I name courage, moral and physical, as another of the
constituent elements of O'Connell's character, I refer to that
quality which, to my mind, is the most brilliant and beauti
ful, and the one of which his life is the most fully and radi
antly instinct. He possessed the highest type of moral
courage, the purpose and power to do that which seemed in
him, in spite of the prepossession and customs of society, right
and proper. Living at a time when, and among a people
by whom matters of honor were settled by duel ; when he
who did not accept this mode of adjusting personal difficul
ties was adjudged a coward, though physically brave, as
demonstrated in his youth and subsequently in his mature
life, after he had fought one duel successfully, he gave to his
countrymen and mankind a new and better lesson on this

DANIEL O'CONNELL. 77
subject. He taught his brave and fiery nation, acquainted
with war and familiar with bloodshed, that " no political
change is worth the shedding of one drop of human blood ;"
that "he who commits a crime gives strength to the enemy ;
that nothing can be politically right which is morally wrong."
These aphorisms of his moral code, their utterance and vin
dication, not only demonstrate the adoption and cultivation
of a wise pacific policy as to individuals and nations, but the
possession of a moral courage, Christian heroism, of surpass
ing beauty.
The personal courage of O'ConneU, not less than his love
of peace, is fully and satisfactorily sustained by the facts of
his history. His vow, however, against duelling, made " in a
state of society and in scenes of such danger " as surrounded
the English and Irish politicians of his time, required the
moral courage indicated, as well as that decision and energy
which are its natural and inevitable fruit.
His determination and rigor of character, prompt and
ready apprehension of duty, individual and national, are
worthy of special comment. His own duty made clear, either
by reflection or intuition, was pursued and performed with a
will and power as irresistible as the truth.
These qualities, not less than his general strength and
power of character, were especially marked in great emer
gencies. Then he was borne, but beautifully sustained even
above his usual power, great as this always was, when he
made display of genius and vigor of mind, splendid and
powerful in the highest sense. The first political speech of
O'ConneU is said to have been made against the legislative
union of Great Britain and Ireland. On this occasion his
whole soul was moved, and his power of argument, declama
tion and invective were^ stirred indeed. He portrayed this
final degradation of Ireland by England with a master's power,

78 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
and it is perhaps true that no speech of his in after years
surpassed the one delivered then before the congregated thou
sands of Dublin. At this time, and in this effort, he gave
his countrymen proof of the power of the youthful advocate
and defender of Irish nationality ; the world, proof of what
he was capable when aroused and tested.
Another trait of character peculiarly distinguishing O'Con
neU, is the breadth of his humanity. He was a patriot ; he
loved deeply his country and his race. But his patriotism
had no streak of selfishness in it. Its soul seemed that of
benevolence ; comprehending every child of Ireland. It did
not forget nor neglect any son of mankind — enslaved or
oppressed, on island or continent, whether of European, Asi
atic or African extraction.
Truthfully and well has it been said : " Were those who
have been benefited by his labors to assemble in congress, at
the call of gratitude, an assembly would be formed without
a parallel in all past history. The Asiatic of the Indian
peninsula would leave his rice crops by the sacred Ganges ;
Africa would send forth her dusky deputies ; the West
Indies their emancipated dark men ; Canada her grateful
reformers, and Europe the noblest of her free and of her fallen
• races." And I may add to this list of grateful and worthy
representatives assembling in the grandest international
gathering the world ever saw, to honor this benefactor of so
many and diversified peoples and classes, deputies of the dark-
hued sons of America, whose " immediate and unconditional
freedom" he demanded in fit and powerful words. His
broad humanity, his far-reaching and comprehensive benevo
lence, his wise and deep sense of duty to the race, make us
ail his debtors. His individuality, conviction, moral courage,
decision of character and compreh<__osive humanity constitute
the bottom elements of O'Connell's moral nature. Such

DANIEL O'CONNELL. 79
qualities were essential to his moral constitution, course of
life and success.
Were I to dwell upon the intellectual qualities, the powers
and peculiarities of O'ConneU, I should speak of his reason,
massive but acute, active and reliable, affirming moral truth
in the words of wisdom itself, with the authority of inspira
tion ; his conscience, quick and responsive, accepting and
enforcing the affirmations of the reason with resistless power ;
his understanding, capable of the largest endeavor, the most
unflagging and persistent effort, as well as the broadest, the
most varied and exalted achievement; his logical acumen,
as sharp and vigorous in the search for knowledge and truth
as stern and positive in indicating and sustaining them ; his
invective, as keen as a blade ; his sarcasm, scorching and
burning as a fire ; his imagination, as lively and radiant as
the light; his sensibility, as tender as the heart of the Singer
of Israel. With such powers of intellect, an industry that
knew no weariness, aDd a physical endurance as lasting as his
mental activity, O'ConneU gained the largest and most varied
learning, as he wielded the most telling and lasting influence.
An American, having seen and heard him on more than one
occasion, bears this testimony with regard to him :
" He possessed a mind of uncommon native vigor, trained
by a complete education, and enlarged with a knowledge of
men and things varied and ample. The versatility of his
genius, his extensive information, and his capacity to adapt
himself to the matter under discussion, or the audience before
him, were surprising. I have heard him exhaust topics that
required for their elucidation an intimate acquaintance with
the Constitution of the United States, with the condition of
the barbarous tribes in the interior of Africa, with the wrongs
inflicted by the East India Company upon the dwellers in
Hindostan, with the commercial tariffs of European nations,
with the persecution of the Jews in Asia, with the causes of
the opium war in China, with the relative rights of planters

80 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
and laborers in the Western Archipelago, and he was at home
in each. I have seen him hold the House of Commons spell
bound, call shouts from the elite of British intelligence and
philanthropy in Exeter hall, lash into fury or hush into repose
acres of wild peasantry gathered on the moors of Ireland, and
he was at home with each."
The opinion is unanimous of friends and foes alike that
O'ConneU was a master spirit. Historically considered as
Catholic, statesman, abolitionist and orator, he occupies none
other than the most conspicuous place.
Perhaps there is no short-coming we are so ready to forgive
and overlook in our eminent men as neglect of religious duty
and culture. And it is, perhaps, equally true we are more
tardy in our recognition and appreciation of exalted Christian
character in such persons than any other marked peculiarity. .
No one, however, can fittingly and truthfully describe, por
tray the character of O'ConneU who does not dwell with
special emphasis upon his Catholic Christian devotion and
consistency. In his religion, a Roman Catholic, he was not
less true to his church than his country. As zealous as Paul
on his way to or returning from Damascus, he was as con
scientious and consistent. He was loyal to his own convic
tions, earnest, vigorous and faithful in his profession, and his
life, like his death, reveals and illustrates the beauty and
loveliness of his active religious devotion and consistency.
Indeed the church and Catholicity are largely and specially
indebted to this marked and model representative for the
exalted standard which he lifted up and sustained by his
conversation and life, the influence he exerted and impressed
in his remarkable and interesting death. With his powers of
mind still strong, his faith steady and aglow, in his seventy-
second year, after forty-nine years of professional and public
service, he died bearing an eloquent and affecting testimony
of his devotion and faithfulness to the church no less than to
his country.

DANIEL O'CONNELL. 81
Both he seems to have regarded with an affection vigorous
and deep, for in his last strange dispositions he remembered
each in making the bequest : " My body to Ireland, my heart
to Rome, my soul to Heaven."
Father Ventura, in the concluding passage of his elaborate
and masterly funeral discourse upon the dead Christian hero,
explains the words by saying :
" He loves his country, and therefore he leaves to it his
body ; he loves still more the church, and hence he bequeathes
to it his heart ; and still more than the church he loves God,
and therefore confides to Him his soul."
As to whether he loved the church more than Ireland, more
than independence of judgment and freedom of conscience
for all, O'ConneU leaves us in doubt; for he says in a
speech delivered at a meeting of the Catholic board, Decem
ber 24, 1813 :
"No man is ever converted from his opinions by persecu
tion or abuse. Let all those subjects be forever banished from
among us, and let us set the glorious example of preaching
and practicing the doctrines of that Christianity which is
founded in fraternal affection and best evidenced .by fraternal
charity. " For my own part I have devoted much of my time to the
Catholic cause; a time of little value, alas to my country,
but of great value to myself ; but I would not give up one
hour of that time, or a single exertion of my mind to procure
the mere victory of any one sect or persuasion over the others.
No, my object is of a loftier and different nature. I am an
agitator with ulterior views. I wish for liberty ; real liberty.
" But there can be, no freedom anywhere without perfect
liberty of conscience. That is of the essence of freedom in
every place. In Ireland, it is eminently, almost exclusively,
the hope of liberty.
" The emancipation I look for is one which would establish
the rights of conscience upon a general principle to which
every class of Christians could equally resort, a principle

82 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
which would serve and liberate th.e Catholics in Ireland, but
would be equaUy useful to the Protestant in Spain : a princi
ple, in short, that would destroy the Inquisition and the
Orange lodges together, and have no sacrilegious intruder
between man and his Creator! I esteem the Roman Catholic
religion as the most eligible. All I require is that the
Protestant, the Presbyterian, the Dissenter, the Methodist,
should pay the same compliment to his own persuasion, and
leave its success to its own persuasive powers without calling
in the profane assistance of temporal terrors, or the corrupt
influence of temporal rewards."
Hereafter we shall more fully perceive how deeply he loved
his country. Though not a Catholic, one can but admire and
applaud the consistency, Zealand devotion — if not wise, earnest
and genuine — of this valiant son of the church. Let every
one be true to his own soul ; let him stand or fall on its judg
ment alone. For one true to himself cannot, will not, be false
either to God or humanity. So it was with this distinguished
Irish Catholic layman.
In this connection, and on this occasion, I may neither
make assertion nor enter upon any discussion as to whether
O'ConneU might not have shown greater wisdom, have more
largely secured the good of his country by accepting Protest
antism and union and co-operation with its friends. I only
maintain, and no man can reasonably deny, that he was
faithful and loyal to the religion of his choice. Nor does it
come within the line of my duty to discuss the question as to
whether if the Orangemen had been given complete and
undisputed control of Ireland — Catholicity being held entirely
subordinate to Protestantism — the independence ofthe coun
try might not have been maintained, or, if lost for a time,
more speedly re-established, and the happiness of the people
more securely sustained and prolonged.
Ireland has been, is to-day unfortunate. Her divisions
have been sore and fruitful of great evil. But political, no

DANIEL O'CONNELL. 83
less than religious differences, breed divisions which work
frequently to the woe of the people. These differences among
all nations, however thoughtful, enterprising and progres
sive, will, in the very nature of things must, exist. While
the human mind retains its present constitution, the human
soul its fidelity to its own affirmations with regard to duty,
there can be no absolute religious union, no subordination of
all individuals of a single nation, or all nations, to the same
religious belief. O'ConneU favored that union, that concilia
tion and cordiality between Catholics and Protestants con
sistent with this independence of judgment, this natural
difference of religious conviction. In his speech on the
" French Party " he says :
" Our first desire, and the motives which govern us, are to
take away from France even the hope of success by removing
those excuses of distrust and dissension and weakness in this
country, which at present are really so many temptations to
the enemy to invade us. We would fain excite a national
and Irish party, capable of annihilating any foreign oppres
sor whatever, and devoted to the amelioration of this our
native land. This is, indeed, a French party that doe.* exist
in Ireland ; a party most useful to the views and designs of
France. It is the party of the present ministry ; that party
which exerts its vicious energies to divide, distract and oppress
the realm ; that loads the nation with the weight of ill-judged
taxation, and employs the money wrung from poverty and
distress in fomenting internal dissensions ; in calumniating
the Irish people to each other; accusing the Catholics of 'dis
loyalty, because they seek the rights of the constitution,
charging the Protestants with bigotry, and yet encouraging
them to become intolerant. It is, in fine, this party which
desolates this country, and then talks to us of our growing
prosperity." George Canning, one of the first orators of Great Britain,
and who frequently took part in the debates on the Catholic
question, " with signal superiority of eloquence, and liberality

84 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
of sentiment," makes on one occasion, when dwelling on this
subject, this statement :
"The great body of Irish Catholics are, it is said, in the
hands of agitators, who wish to keep their discontents alive ;
who care not for the professed objects of Catholic desire, but
look to ihe ulterior purposes of mischief; to separation and
revolution. If this is so, we can only defeat the evil inten
tions of such men in two ways : either by correcting their
disposition or by taking away their means. The former is
beyond human power; let us avail ourselves of the latter.
Let us remove those circumstances which, operating upon the
feelings of the Catholics, render them fit instruments in the
hands of agitators for the promotion of such dangerous
designs. I am inclined to believe that there are those who
have ulterior views and designs.
"Of those who are the most clamorous for concession there
are some, I do believe, who would be much disappointed if
that concession were granted. And next to the gratification
which I should feel in tranquillizing a loyal and high-minded
people by the introduction of that equality of right without
which there can be no reciprocal liking and confidence, is
that of disappointing the guilty hopes of those who delight,
not in tranquillity and comfort, but in grievances and remon
strances; who use their siucere and warm-hearted country
men as screens to their own ambitious purposes, and who
consider a state of turbulence and discontent as best suited
to the ends which they have in view. That state it may be
their wish to prolong, but so much the rather is it our inter
est and our duty to terminate as speedily as possible."
O'ConneU was the " arch-agitator," and with ulterior views
or designs ; but what these designs were we have already
learned from his words quoted a moment ago. He agitated
but for liberty, real liberty ; and he was earnest, sincere
and true. The father and liberator of his country, sacrificing
for her his private resources, his professional emoluments,
his personal comfort and repose, he stands in history with a
Christian, though Catholic name and character, which, in
their beauty, lustre, glory, are unsurpassed.

DANIEL O'CONNELL. 85
Mankind are not agreed as to whether O'ConneU was a
statesman. Two opinions certainly are entertained with
regard to this subject. Some claim that if he is to be regarded
as a statesman at all he does not deserve to be placed in the
first class. Others claim that he is not only to be given place
among the first statesmen of the world, but that he is entitled
to conspicuous place among the most prominent even of this
class. In estimating O'Connell's character as a statesman, as in
all such cases, very much depends upon our conception and
definition of statesmanship If we mean by statesman, a
mere politician, one connected with party, seeking mere party
ends, and through party personal and selfish aggrandizement;
if we mean by statesman one conversant only with the
affairs of his own country and government, and interested
solely in the progress and prosperity of his own people, even
to the neglect or damage of other and possibly higher, though
interests of foreign nations; if by statesman we mean a par
tisan, self-seeking, narrow, illiberal in his views and judg
ment with respect to state affairs, individual and national
obligation and duty in this regard ; if by statesmanship we
mean the qualities or functions of the mere politician, the
partisan, then O'ConneU was not a statesman — he did not
cultivate statesmanship. He had no party. He was not
a partisan. He had to learn no party tactics. He was
schooled in no party drill. The Irish people composed his
party. It was their welfare he sought. He was solicitous to
adopt, develop and sustain those methods, measures and means
conducing to this end. Nor did he seek to advance and
establish the welfare of his own country without due regard
to the claims and rights of others. He accepted and applied
to national, as well as individual life, the Christian maxim :
" What we demand for ourselves, that concede." If, on the

86 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
other hand, we mean by statesman one acquainted with state
craft, one conversant with its learning and philosophy as
found in national experience and achievement, who, while >
valuing organization for important state and popular objects,
is committed to no party ; one who does not seek selfish pro
motion or emolument thereby, who, while understanding and
insisting upon the just demands of his own country, concedes
all that can be fairly and properly demanded of his own, we
must pronounce O'ConneU a statesman, and give him high
rank, too, among the foremost statesmen of the world.
When O'ConneU entered professional life there existed the
strongest reasons for avoiding politics, and he seems rather
to have been borne'by the influence and pressure of a great
occasion, when others hesitated and faltered, into the course
and current of his subsequent life. His son and biographer
says: " No lawyer could then hope to rise in his profession unless
willing to be the parasite and slave of the government, and
it was not even safe, in Ireland at least, for Protestant or
Catholic, but especially for the latter, to be found in opposi
tion. "For these and other reasons the leading members of Mr.
O'Connell's family and circle of friends were very much in
disposed to his putting himself forward in any public struggle,
and he was himself, of course, fully aware ofthe disadvan
tages and dangers he must incur by so doing. But he could
not be silent when he saw the legislative independence of his
country about jx> be annihilated, and when it had become
clear that the Minister sought to implicate the Catholics of
Ireland in his crime. Overtures had already been made in
private to some of their nominal leaders, and rumor said that
they had not been unfavorably received, timidity, credulity
or corruption, jointly or separately, operating to produce this
result. There could not, indeed, be a doubt that the great
bulk of the Catholic body felt as Irishmen should on this
occasion, and abhorred the idea of the Union ; but they were

DANIEL O'CONNELL. 87
entirely unaccustomed to acting in concert or coming forward
in their aggregate character. Some one was wanted to show
them the way. Their 'natural leaders,' as the phrase went,
hung back, or were inclined to acquiescence in the proposed
measure. The Minister's designs against the good repute
and independence of the Catholic body seemed about to be
consummated, when just at the critical moment Daniel O'Con
neU stepped forward."
Seventy-five years ago, on the 13th of January, 1799, O'Con
neU delivered a speech at the Royal Exchange, Dublin, in
connection with which he introduced a series of resolutions,
the first and last of Which embody and define, in few words,
his political philosophy. These resolutions read as follows :
"Resolved, That we are of opinion that the proposed incor
porate union ofthe Legislature of Great Britain and Ireland
is, in fact, an extinction of the liberty of this country, which
would be reduced to the abject condition of a province sur
rendered to the mercy of the minister and legislature of
another country, to be bound by their absolute will, and taxed
at their pleasure by laws, in the making of which this coun
try would have no efficient participation whatever.
"Resolved, That, having heretofore determined not to come
forward any more in the distinct character of Catholics, but to>
consider our claims and our cause, not as those of a sect, but
involved in the general fate ofour country, we now think it
right, notwithstanding such determination, to publish the
present resolutions in order to undeceive our fellow-subjects
who may have been led to believe, by a false representation,
that we are capable of giving any concurrence whatsoever to
so foul and fatal a project, to assure them we are incapable of
sacrificing our common country to either pique or pretension;
and that we are of opinion that this deadly attack upon the
nation is the great calLof nature, of country and posterity
upon Irishmen of all descriptions and persuasions, to every
constitutional and legal resistance; and that we sacredly
pledge ourselves to persevere in obedience to that call as long
as we have life."
The words of these resolutions, the wise, just and liberal

88 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
sentiments which they contain, remind one of the eloquent
and sagacious utterances of the leading American statesmen
of our Revolutionary times.
James Otis, one of ihe first and foremost champions of
freedom and popular government, concentrating and voicing
the judgment of these statesmen, declares that "government
springs from the necessities of nature, and have an everlasting
foundation in the unchangeable will of God. The first princi
ple and great end of government being to provide for the best
good of all people, this can only be done by a supreme legis
lature and executive ultimately in the people or the whole
community, where God has plated it. The right of every
man to his life, his liberty, no created being can rightfully
contest. They are rights derived from the Author of Nature ;
inherent, inalienable and indefeasible by any law, compacts,
contracts, covenants or stipulations which man can devise.
God made all men naturally equal."
As a statesman O'ConneU labored to establish the unity,
independence, and freedom of Ireland. To this end he
would emancipate every inhabitant, and perpetuate freedom
of conscience ; he would annul the Legislative Union between
England and Ireland, and give to Ireland her own constitu
tion and the rights it guaranteed, through her own govern.
ment. In considering his long and persistent labors in
behalf of his country, the*sacrifices which he made, the
sufferings and trials which he endured, his imprisonment
and triumphant release therefrom, his double election from
Clare, his entry and brilliant career in the Imperial Parlia
ment, his matchless and eloquent addresses before the con
gregated thousands who gathered at Dublin, Ennis, Tara
and other places made classic by his presence and utterances,
we accept as fit and truthful when he says :
" I have already devoted all the faculties of my soul to

DANIEL O'CONNELL. 89
the pursuit of the liberties of my country ; and humble as
my capabilities are, I had already given them all to my
native land. ,
" Alas ! the gift was small, but it included certainly purity
of design, sincerity of intention, perseverance of exertion,
contempt of personal danger, neglect of personal advantage,
and, finally, incorruptible integrity and truth."
And those other words which he uttered after accepting
the plate tendered him on behalf of the Catholic people of
Ireland, when, continuing, he said :
" For myself I need not tell you that, in the struggle for
the liberties of Ireland, every peril, personal or political, is
to me a source of pleasure and gratification. * * * I
have heretofore loved my country for herself. I am now her
bribed servant, and no other master can possibly tempt me
to neglect, forsake, or betray her interests."
O'ConneU claimed and demanded "home rule" for Ire
land ; the repeal of the act of union, and the restoration of
the situation of 1782-1800, when Ireland had her separate
and independent Parliament. And it will prove a difficult
task for the opposers of such restoration to show why inde
pendent home government, wisely and firmly established
under a just constitution, would not prove of the greatest
benefit to the Irish, bringing them national peace, union and
prosperity. Such government, judiciously administered, can
prove no source of confusion, can generate no feelings of
malcontent among the people.
If we in our States may enjoy self-government, indepen
dent as to all matters pertaining to State sovereignty, with
out confusion and with the largest good order and happiness,
why may not Ireland with her home Parliament? Popular
government is worth so much, is so desirable, is so calcu
lated—if we may judge from national experience, our own
especially — to work and support popular good that we

90 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
demand for Ireland and the Irish people this inestimable
blessing. It would seem that Americans could do no less,
no other thing. I know that the colored American, so
lately made free, lifted from chattelhood to the dignity of
manhood, citizenship, political responsibility and official
duty, in the ardor and enthusiasm inspired by his new life
of freedom, makes haste to extend his hand of sympathy and
encouragement to the struggling son of Ireland, whose soul,
catching the accents, the deathless, eloquent voice of O'Con
neU, would throw off its chains and assert its natural, inhe
rent right of self-government. The colored American is
too sensible of his debt of gratitude to O'ConneU and the
great leaders of the Irish people to be unsympathetic or
indifferent to Ireland's conditions and struggles.
Before this audience, at this time, when popular convic
tion is so distinct and pronounced, as far as government by
every nation for itself and in its own interest is concerned,
¦I need not say that the enunciation and advocacy of this
measure discover the wisdom of commanding and genuine
statesmanship. And its establishment in Ireland, I believe,
is the only thing that will bring conciliation and cordiality
to Catholics and Protestants, securing justice, peace, pros
perity and happiness to all the people.
History gives O'ConneU yet another and not less interest
ing and pleasing character. I refer now to him as an
abolitionist, occupying a deservedly conspicuous place by
Clarkson, Wilberforce, Buxton, Brougham, Macaulay,
Sturge, and others who compose the brilliant group of
Great Britain's leading abolitionists. It has been well said
that the " tribute which Great Britain has paid to the genius
of humanity by her efforts and sacrifices for the abolition of
the African slave trade and Negro slavery, is the aspect
in which she delights to be contemplated by other nations.

DANIEL O'CONNELL. 91
If this be true we may not forget on this occasion what
she owes to the no ole sons of Ireland, whose eloquent words
go so far to complete the beautiful testimony which she has
borne on this subject. We may not forget the words of Cur-
ran ; here I may emphasize those of O'ConneU. More than
half a century ago the former declared in words familiar to us -.
" I speak in the spirit of our constitution, which makes
liberty commensurate with and inseparable from our soil ;
which proclaims, even to the stranger and the sojourner, the
moment he sets his foot upon our native earth, that the ground
he treads is holy and consecrated by the genius of universal
emancipation ; no matter in what language his doom may
have been pronounced ; no matter what complexion, incom
patible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may
have burnt upon him ; no matter in what disastrous battle
his liberty may have been cloven down ; no matter with what
solemnities he may have been devoted on the altar of slavery,
the first moment he touches our sacred soil the altar and the
god sink together in the dust ; his soul walks abroad in her own
majesty ; his body swells beyond the measure of his chains
that burst around him, and he stands redeemed, regenerated
and disenthralled by the irresistible genius of universal
emancipation." In 1830, a year memorable as the one in which the friends
of the abolition movement urged and demanded immediate,
as opposed to gradual emancipation, O'ConneU uttered these
noble and grateful words :
" I am for speedy, immediate abolition. I care not what
caste, creed or color slavery may assume, I am for its total,
its instant abolition. Whether it be personal or political,
mental or corporal, intellectual or spiritual, I am for its
immediate abolition. I enter into no compromise with slav
ery; I am for justice in the name of humanity, and accord
ing to the law of the living God."
The utterance of such sentiments, made with force, elo
quence and power, was well calculated, not only to change,

92 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
reform and settle the popular judgment of Great Britain and
the West India Islands, where slavery existed, against that
institution, but, since the utterance was made by O'ConneU,
an orator of rare, royal power, a statesman of consummate
ability, commanding by his address the attention of senates
as well as the people of all civilized lands, its influence was
felt especially and appreciated in our own country, encourag
ing, strengthening and sustaining the noble band of American
abolitionists in their warfare upon a despotism black and
cruel as death. O'ConneU was not content, however, with
the indirect, though inevitable effect, produced by his utter
ances on this subject upon the American people. He knew,
too, how large the number of Irishmen was — sons of his own
native land, Catholics, with church relationships in Ireland,
which had been incorporated into our body politic, and
become responsible in a good measure for the character of
our nation as regarded by mankind. He therefore bore a
direct and earnest and uncompromising and positive testi
mony against our enslavement of the Negro, and the pro
scription, the feeling of caste, which it generated and fostered.
We remember his address to the Irish Repeal Association, of
Cincinnati, Ohio, accompanying the Pope's allocution of slav
ery and the slave trade. Addressing the association, he
commences by saying :
"We have read with the deepest affliction, not unmixed
with some surprise and much indignation, your detailed and
anxious vindication of the most hideous crime that has ever
stained humanity — the slavery of men of color in the United
States of America. We are lost in utter amazement at the
perversion of mind and depravity of heart which your
address evinces. How can the generous, the charitable, the
humane, the noble emotions of the Irish heart have become
extinct among you ? Huw can your nature be so totally
changed as that you should become the apologists and defend
ers of that execrable system which makes mac the. property

DANIEL O'CONNELL. 93
of his fellow-man, destroys the founda* ion of all moral and
social virtues, condemns to ignorance, immorality and irre
ligion, millions of our fellow-creatures ; renders the slave
hopeless of relief, and perpetuates oppression by law, and
in the name of what you call a constitution ?
"It was not in Ireland you learned this cruelty. Your
mothers are gentle, kind and humane. Their bosoms over
flow with the honey of human charity. Your sisters are prob
ably many of them still among us, and participate in all that
is good and benevolent in sentiment and action. How, then,
can you have become so depraved ? How can your souls
have become stained with a darkness blacker than the Negro's
skin? You say you have no pecuniary interest in Negro
slavery. "Would that you had, for it might be some palliation of
your crime ! But, alas ! you have inflicted upon us the hor
ror of beholding you the volunteer advocates of despotism
in its most frightful state; of slavery in its most loathsome
and unrelenting form."
The association had made in its address this statement :
"The very odor of the Negro is almost insufferable to the
white, and, however much humanity may lament it, we make
no rash declaration when we say the two races cannot exist
together on equal terms under our Government and our
institutions." He replies : " In the first place, as to the
odor of the Negroes, we are quite aware that they have not
as yet come to use much of the ottar-of-roses or eau-de-cologne.
* * * But it is indeed deplorable that you should use
a ludicrous assertion of that description as one ofthe induce
ments to prevent the abolition of slavery. The Negroes
would certainly smell at least as sweet when free as they do
now being slaves."
Continuing, he asks : " Have you enough of the genuine
Irishman among you to ask what it is we require you to do ?
It is this :
" First, we call upon you in the sacred name of humanity

94 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
never again to volunteer on behalf of the oppressor, nor even
for self-interest to vindicate the hideous crime of personal
slavery. " Secondly, we ask you to assist in every way you can in
promoting the education of the free man of color, and in
discountenancing the foolish feeling of selfishness, of that
criminal selfishness, which makes the white man treat the
man of color as a degraded or inferior being.
"Thirdly, we ask you to assist in obtaining for the free
men of color the full benefit of all the rights and franchises
of a freeman in whatever State he may inhabit.
" Fourthly, we ask you to exert yourselves in endeavoring
to procure for the man of color in every case the benefit of
trial by jury, and especially where a man, insisting that he
is a freeman, is claimed to be a slave.
"Fifthly, we ask you to exert yourselves in every pos
sible way to induce slave-owners to emancipate as many
slaves as possible. * * *
" Sixthly, we ask you to exert yourselves in all the ways
you possibly can to put an end to the internal slave-trade
of the States. * * *
" Seventhly, we ask you to use every exertion in your
power to procure the abolition of slavery by the Congress in
the District of Columbia.
" Eighthly, we ask you to use your best exertions to com
pel the Congress to receive and read the petitions of the
wretched Negroes, and above all the petitions of their white
advocates. " Ninthly, we ask you never to cease your efforts until the
crime of which Lord Morpeth has accused the Irish in Amer
ica, ' of being the worst enemies of the men of color,' shall
be atoned for and blotted out and effaced forever."
He dwells then upon the duty of the Catholics and of the
Catholic clergy, holding that "the Catholic clergy may endure,
but they assuredly do not encourage the slave-owners. We
have, indeed, heard it said that some Catholic clergymen
have slaves of their own, but it is added and we are assured
positively that no Irish Catholic clergyman is a slave-owner.

DANIEL O'CONNELL. 95
At all events, every Catholic knows how distinctly slave-
holding, and especially slave-trading, is condemned by the
Catholic church. That most eminent man, His Holiness,
the present Pope, has, by an allocution published through
out the world, condemned all dealing and traffic in slaves.
Nothing can be more distinct nor more powerful than the
Pope's denunciation of that most abominable crime. Yet it
subsists, in a more abominable form than His Holiness could
possibly describe, in the traffic which still exists in the sale
of slaves from one State of America to another. What,
then, are we to think of you, Irish Catholics, who send us
an elaborate vindication of slavery without the slightest cen
sure of that hateful crime — a crime which the Pope has so
completely condemned — namely, the diabolical raising of
slaves for sale, and selling them to other States ? "
He adds : " We conclude by conjuring you, and all other
Irishmen in America, in the name of your fatherland, in the
name of humanity, in the name of the God of mercy and char
ity, we conjure you, Irishmen and descendants of Irishmen,
to abandon forever all defence of the hideous Negro slavery
^system. Let it no more be said that your feelings are made
so obtuse by the air of America that you cannot feel, as
Catholics and Christians ought to feel, this truth, the plain
truth, that one man cannot have any property in another man.
There is not one of you who does not recognize that prin
ciple in his own person ; yet we perceive, and this agonizes
us almost to madness, that you, boasting an Irish descent,
should, without the instigation of any pecuniary or inter
ested motive, but out of the sheer and single love of wick
edness and crime, come forward as the volunteer defenders
of the most degrading species of human slavery."
O' Connell' s opposition to slavery was positive, stern, un
compromising, allowing no excuse or palliation. He refused

96 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
even to take the hand of an American who was not opposed
to the institution. Robert Purvis, Esq., one of the most distin
guished colored Americans, an old abolitionist of consistent
and useful record, wrote me a letter on the 14th instant,
from which I take these words :
" It was my good fortune, while in England, to meet Ire
land's great liberator, Daniel O'ConneU. The interview
occurred at the House of Commons. Upon being intro
duced to him as an American gentleman, he declined taking
my hand. Whereupon my friend, John Scoble, Esq., (to
whom I was indebted for the introduction), upon seeing this,
immediately said : ' Mr. Purvis is an abolitionist, and is
also identified with the oppressed race of the United States.'
Mr. O'ConneU instantly advanced toward me, and taking
my hand in his, shook it warmly, saying : ' I will never take
the hand of an American, nor should any honest man in this
country do so, unless assured that he is opposed to the
' accursed system of chattel slavery.' "
The words of the address of O'ConneU referred to, written
in 1843, sound even now as wise counsel, earnest, pater
nal exhortation to the Irish citizens of America, being un
mindful of the past, solicitous only for the future, to unite
with the once enslaved and disfranchised colored American,
to-day a fellow-citizen and a voter, in cordial, fraternal and
patriotic purpose, and endeavor to put our Government and
laws in harmony with that doctrine of our Declaration, the
equality of rights for all before the law, upon which we
have formed and built our political fabric as upon the rock.
It is well if such purposes animate the heart of the Irishman ;
if these classes, so similar in past experience of oppression
and suffering, so alike in duty and destiny, under American
law, unite in such endeavor.
My opinion of O'ConneU as an orator is sufficiently indi
cated already. It will be conceded that the world has seen
few abler, more skillful and powerful popular orators than

DANIEL O'CONNELL. 97
he. John Randolph called him the finest orator in Europe.
Possessing rare native vigor of mind, its powers disciplined
by complete education ; his memory filled with varied and
large knowledge of men and things; his imagination buoy
ant and elastic; his logic, his humor, his invective, his
sarcasm abundant, and trained, musical voice, with the
power and manner of an actor, he was irresistible, and, in
many respects, incomparable. An American writer says of
him that " every chord of the human bosom lay open to his
touch, and he played upon its passions and emotions with a
master's hand. He could subdue his hearers to tears by his
pathos, or toss them with laughter by his humor. His im
agination could bear them to a giddy height on its elastic
wing, or he could enchain their judgment by the strong links
of his logic. He could blanch their cheeks as he painted
before their eyes some atrocity red with blood, or he could
make them hold their sides as he related some broad Irish
ancedote fresh from Cork."
O'ConneU was indeed an orator of wondrous, marvelous
power, and it all he dedicated to truth, freedom and justice.
It is as the defender of the Catholics of Ireland — demanding
for them in forum, Parliament, or in popular assembly
emancipation and freedom of conscience; as the advocate
and expounder of propositions of governmental reform in
the interest of his countrymen ; as the champion of British
and American abolitionism, insisting upon liberty and equal
rights for the Negro, that his oratorical power appears in
its most resplendent character, dazzling our vision.
But I must conclude. Such, too briefly and imperfectly
described, are the qualities of character, the transcendant
powers and the beneficent achievements of him who stands
in history a figure of light, full-orbed and radiant, the best
type and representative of the Irish name, the benefactor of
mankind.

98 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
In my youth I read and was moved and deeply impressed
by the words with which I conclude may address. Henry
B. Stanton, Esq., dwelling upon the fact that a demand wa3
made finally that the National Repeal Association repudiate
the non-resistant doctrine of O'ConneU, says :
" The alienation of large numbers of his friends overtak
ing him when his powers were impaired by years of exhaust
ing toil broke the spirit of the old man, undermined his
constitution, and compelled him to repair to the continent
to resuscitate his waning health and drooping heart. But he
left the field of action too late. His energies rapidly
declined ; death overtook him while on his weary pilgrimage ;
his eye saw the sun for the last time in a foreign sky, and
he slept his final sleep far from the land which gave him
birth, and from that ocean by whose side his cradle was
rocked. The stroke that felled him to the earth sent a pang
through many a heart in every country whore humanity has
a dwelling-place ; for his sympathies, like his reputation, were
world wide. He had delivered his own countrymen from the
bonds of ecclesiastical tyranny, and had pleaded for the vic
tims of a hellish traffic on the shores of Africa, for the
swarthy surfs of British cupidity on the banks of the Gan
ges, for the persecuted Jews of ancient Damascus, and for
the stricken slaves in the isles of the Carribbean Sea and in
the distant States of America.''
Requiescat in pace! Let him rest in peace ! His name
is immortal- — the priceless, enduring heritage of mankind.

CITIZENSHIP AND THE BALLOT.

THE RELATIONS OF THE COLORED AMERICAN TO
THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS DUTY TO HIM-A
COLORED AMERICAN THE FIRST HERO OF THE
REVOLUTIONARY WAR.*

In the broad and far-reaching track of slavery across this
country, we witness a grand desolation of civil and political
rights. Every class in the American population can enter
its complaint that it has been shorn of many rights and
privileges, by reason of its existence. But none can utter
that long, loud, lamentable complaint, making the ear to
tingle and the heart to bleed, that can be uttered by the
colored American, the immediate victim of its barbarous
torture. As a slave he has been denied himself, his wife,
his children, and his earnings. And when emancipated his
freedom has been, in some sense, a mockery, because he has
been deprived of those civil and political rights and powers
which render enfranchised manhood valuable and its digni
ties a blessing.
The colored man is not content when given simple eman
cipation. That certainly is his due, at once and without
condition ; but he demands much more than that : he de
mands absolute legal equality. He claims the right to bring
a suit in any and all the courts of the country, to be a wit-

* Address delivered before the Colored Men's Convention of Indiana, in
Masonic Hall, at Indianapolis, October 25, 1865.

100 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
ness of competent character therein, to make contracts,
under seal or otherwise, to acquire, hold, and transmit prop
erty, to be liable to none other than the common and usual
punishment for offences committed by him, to have the
benefit of trial by a jury of his peers, to acquire and enjoy
without hindrance education and its blessings, to enjoy the
free exercise of religious worship, and to be subjected by
law to no other restraints and qualifications, with regard to
personal rights, than such as are imposed upon others. All
this he claims. In some States all this is Conceded to him.
There is one thing more, however, he demands ; he demands
it at the hands of the nation and in all the States. It is
the free and untrammelled use of the ballot. Shall he have
it? Never was there a more fitting time to consider, discuss,
and decide this question. Since the outbreak of the terrible
rebellion, the colored American has had another and better
introduction to the American people. They are beginning
to regard him with greater favor, and their old stubborn
prejudices are beginning to soften. Indeed, in some States
they have already entered upon the work of repealing those
legislative malformations known as Black Laws. Once in
the path of justice and of duty, it is easy for us to pursue
it till we reach tbe glorious goal.
It becomes our duty in this connection to consider and
refute, if possible, the chief objections urged against Negro
suffrage. In the first place, it is urged, with an air of very great
confidence, that none other than a white man can, or ought
to be, an elector. Hence it is that in well-nig% all the States
in which persons of African descent are denied the elective
franchise, you will find in their organic laws language like
the following :
" Every white male citizen of the United States, of the

CITIZENSHIP AND THE BALLOT. 101
age of twenty-one years, who shall have been a resident of
the State one year next preceding the election, and of the
county, township, or ward in which he resides such time as
may be prescribed by law, shall have the qualifications of
an elector and be entitled to vote at all elections."
What is meant by the word white as here used? The
courts have not left us without an answer to this question.
For the courts of Ohio, from whose constitution these words
are quoted, both under the constitution of 1802 and the con
stitution of 1851, have given a full consideration to the word
"white" and settled its definition for all time in the light of
what they please to call well-established legal principles.
They furnish us in their definition this very unique and
remarkable classification of the people, to wit, the black, the
mulatto, and the white; and they hold "that all men nearer
white than black, or of the grade between the mulatto and
the white are white, and entitled to vote as white male citi
zens." This certainly gives breadth and comprehension to
the word " white," and makes all persons except blacks and
mulattoes "white." Let one more drop of Anglo-Saxon
blood than Negro course your veins and you are at once
endowed with the requisite qualifications of an elector.
On this point let full justice be done the court. Let it
speak for itself. In the case of Parker Jeffries vs. John
Ankeny and others, at the December term of the court
in banc, this doctrine was held, in the following words :
"In the constitution and laws on this subject there were
enumerated three descriptions of persons, whites, blacks, and
mulattoes, upon the last two of which disabilities rested;
that the mulatto was the middle term between the extremes,
or the offspring of a white and a black ; that all nearer white
than black or of the grade between the mulattoes and the
whites were entitled to enjoy every political and social priv-

102 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
ilege of the white citizen ; that no other rule could be adopted
so intelligible and so practicable as this, and that further
refinements would lead to inconvenience and no good result."
This is the law ,of Ohio to-day.
In 1859, when the Legislature of Ohio was within Demo
cratic control, " an act to prescribe the duties of judges of
elections in certain cases and preserve the purity of elec
tions," was passed, the first section of which reads as follows :
" That the judge or judges of any election held under the
authority of any of the laws of this State, shall reject the
vote of any person offering to vote at such election and
claiming to be a white male citizen of the United States
whenever it shall appear to such judge or judges that the
person so offering to vote has a distinct and visible admix
ture of African blood." This statute, however, has been
pronounced unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, in the
celebrated case of Anderson vs. Millikin and others, as re
ported in the eleventh of the Ohio State Reports, and the
old doctrine on this subject reaffirmed.
Upon what principles of humanity, justice, and law is
this doctrine founded ? And upon what principles of logic
or law are such complexional discriminations made ? This
color theory of the elective franchise finds no sanction in the
affirmations of reason, or in the dictates of common sense.
Nor is any sanction given it in the organic law of our nation.
The Declaration of Independence announces the doctrine,
" that all men are created equal," and the Constitution, in
which no word "white" is found, provides "that Congress
shall guarantee to each State a republican form of govern
ment," and "that the citizens of each State shall be entitled to
all the privileges and immunities of the citizens of the several
States." Democracy, too, which is the soul of law, and but
another name for justice itself, " conceding nothing but what

CITIZENSHIP AND THE BALLOT. 103
it demands, and demanding nothing but what it concedes,"
guarding the rights of the humble as well as the exalted,
and protecting the rights of the black man as well as the
rights of the white man, scouts it as absurd and unjust, incon
sistent and irrational.
It is true that the opinion obtains to a very great extent
among all classes of our people that the Constitution of the
United States, either by the direct use of the word " white,"
or by some phraseology equivalent thereto, does, and was
intended to exclude colored men from every right and privi
lege of a legal and political character under it. Hence the
gibberish jargon "that our government is a white man's gov
ernment." This notion, however, is forever refuted by these
masculine and truthful words of one of the justices of our
national Supreme Court. He says :
" It has been often asserted that the Constitution was made
exclusively by and for the white race. It has already been
shown that in five of the thirteen original States colored per
sons then possessed the elective franchise, and were among
those by whom the Constitution was ordained aud established.
If so, it is not true, in point of fact, that the Constitution was
made exclusively by the white race. And that it was made
¦exclusively for the white race is, in my opinion, not only an
assumption not warranted by anything in the Constitution,
but contradicted by its open declaration, that it was ordained
and established by the people of the United States, for them
selves and their posterity ; and, as free colored persons were
then citizens of at least five States, and so in every sense part
of the people of the United States, they were among those
for whom and whose posterity the Constitution was ordained
and established."
On what ground, then, does the white man claim to be a
voter ? And on what argument can he predicate his monop
oly of the voting privilege ? Does he claim it as an inherent
_and natural right, peculiar to himself? Does he claim it. on

104 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
the ground of peculiarity of origin ? Does he demand it on
the basis of peculiar conventional regulation ? What are the
peculiar legal or political characteristics that distinguish him
to the exclusion of his black fellow-countryman as a citizen
of the United States and a voter ? Blind prejudice can make
answer to these questions with great readiness. It would say,
he is white. But what is the answer of wisdom, logic, and
law ? They would say, the color of a man's skin is no crite
rion or measure of his rights.
This fact will be fully recognized by our courts when they
come to make that definition of citizenship, and the rights and
powers of a citizen, which, while it excludes the elements of
white and black, but contains all the essential qualities that
distinguish the citizen, will challenge criticism and defy refu
tation. It is to be hoped that the Supreme Court of the na
tion will have occasion to give us this definition very soon.
We certainly need it. It ought to be given, in justice to the
colored American, and that the whole people of the country
may learn from some authoritative source who constitute the
citizens of the land, and upon what their rights and powers
depend. This objection to the black man's voting is wholly physical
and external. He is black, and therefore he shall not vote.
It is as if all the men who have black hair and black beards,
being in the majority and having the power, should decide that
they alone are voters, and that no man having light hair and
sandy, beard shall vote ; or, as if all the men of large noses in
the land banding themselves together, should decide that they
alone are voters, and that no man having a small nose shall
vote. One might well ask, where is the justice of this pro
cedure? Men of light hair and sandy beards might resist
with propriety the decision of the black -hair and black-beard
gentry. And who would say that the small-nose men had no

CITIZENSHIP AND THE BALLOT. 105
right to utter powerful anathemas against the men of large
nasal proportions, who had committed this unnatural outrage.
These supposed cases sufficiently illustrate and refute this
objection. It is also urged, by way of objection to our use of the bal
lot, " that we are an ignorant and degraded class, and would
not use the elective franchise in an intelligent and manly man
ner if we had it."
This objection, like all others of similar character, is to be
met with firmness and candor. It is not to be forgotten in
this connection, that we have served as slaves in this country
for more than two hundred years, and that during these many
years of our servitude few indeed have been the rays of light
that have streaked the darkness of our existence. Nor is it to
be forgotten that the nominally free among us have been
haunted by a prejudice more terrible than that which pur
sued the Cagots of Spain and France. This pro slavery public
sentiment has been well-nigh omnipotent, as omnipresent. It
has entered every cranny and crevice of American society. It
has closed against us the school, the college, the law, and the
theological seminary. It has hindered our progress in politics,.
religion, literature, and the arts.
Notwithstanding all this, we have made surprising ad
vancement in all things that pertain to a well-ordered and
dignified life. Though uttered frequently, it may be, in
unclassic and inelegant English, we have always been able
to give the reason for our political as well as our religious:
faith. We have grown among us authors and orators, doctors and
lawyers ; we have established newspapers and periodicals ;
we have founded churches and erected schools; we have
furnished our pulpits with ministers and our school rooms
with teachers of our own complexion.
a

106 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
We have held large State and national conventions, con
ducting our business with accuracy and precision, according
to the rules by which ordinary deliberative assemblies are
governed. The leading men of these gatherings, in handling
the great subjects of interest to the American people at
large, as well as the topics pertaining more especiaUy to our
own welfare, have made exhibitions of a very correct and
thorough understanding of our national history, the genius
of our institutions and the philosophy of our politics. In
deed the newspapers and periodicals of this and foreign
¦countries on such occasions have made handsome and flat
tering mention of their displays of learning, eloquence, and
power. It may not be inappropriate to offer here the opinion of
Hon. Samuel Galloway on this very point, given as long ago as
1849. In speaking of our condition and progress he said :
"Now they (the colored people) have many and well-con
ducted schools ; they have teachers of respectable intellectual
and moral qualifications; there are many who command gen-
-eral respect and confidence for integrity and intelligence;
¦questions of general and proper interest have become with
them topics of discussion and conversation; in a few words,
the intellectual and moral tone of their being is ameliorated."
But it may be said that such words, if true, can only have
;application to the colored men of the North. This, however,
•cannot be so, for it must be well understood by all conver
sant with the history and character of the colored people of
this country, North and South, that very many of our most
sober, industrious, and thrifty men come from the South;
indeed it will not be denied that seven-eighths of our me
chanics, gun-smiths, blacksmiths, brick and stone masons,
carpenters, cabinet-makers, plasterers, and painters come
from the Southern section of the land. This is said not in

CITIZENSHIP AND THE BALLOT. 107
praise of slavery and slave-holding institutions, but in spite
of them. This statement only testifies to the energy, the
enterprise, the purpose and genius of the colored American.
On this point the history of our country will furnish us
no inconsiderable evidence, for if it can be shown that in
the past, when opportunity was given us, we wielded the
ballot with intelligence and conscientiousness, who can say,
after many years of progress in all substantial and valuable
attainments, that we are not now able to vote in a skillful
and conscientious manner.
It will be remembered that persons of African descent,
under our old confederation, were voting citizens of the
United States, and voted in at least five States of the Union
at the time of the adoption of our national Constitution.
With regard to this matter, Justice Curtis, formerly of the
United States Supreme Court, in his dissenting opinion in
the famous Dred-Scott case uses these words : " Of this
there can be no doubt. At the time of the ratification of
the articles of confederation all free native-born inhabitants
of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts.New York,
New Jersey, and North Carolina, though descended from
African slaves, were not only citizens of those States, but
such of them as had the necessary qualifications possessed
the franchise of electors on equal terms with other citizens."
And he might have added that when the United States Con
stitution was framed colored men voted also in Pennsyl
vania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Tennessee.
Indeed they voted in a majority of the States, and in very
many of the Northern States they have continued to vote to
this day.
In this connection the manly and vigorous words of North
Carolina's ablest and most distinguished jurist are of special
value. The Hon. William Gaston, of the supreme court of

108 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
North Carolina, in pronouncing the opinion of that court in
the case of the State vs. Manuel, makes use of these brave
utterances :
"According to the laws of this State (North Carolina) all the
human beings within it, who are not slaves, fall within one
of two classes. Whatever distinctions may have existed in
the Roman laws between citizens and free inhabitants, they
are unknown to our institutions. Before our Revolution, all
free persons born within the dominions of the King of Great
Britain, whatever their color or complexion, were native-
born British subjects — those born out of his allegiance were
aliens. Slavery did not exist in England, but it did in the
British Colonies. Slaves were not, in legal parlance, per
sons, but property. The moment the incapacity, the disquali
fication of slavery was removed, they became persons, and
were then either British subjects or not British subjects,
according as they were or were not born within the allegi
ance of the British King. Upon the Revolution no other
change took place in the laws of North Carolina than was
consequent on the transition from a colony dependent on a
European King to a free and sovereign State — slaves re
mained slaves, British subjects in North Carolina became
North Carolina freemen, foreigners, until made members
of the State, remained aliens, slaves manumitted here
became freemen ; and, therefore, if born within North Caro
lina are citizens of North Carolina, and all free persons born
within the State are born citizens of the State. The Con
stitution extended the elective franchise to every freeman
who had arrived at the age of twenty-one, and paid a public
tax, and it is a matter of universal notoriety that, under it,
free persons, without regard to color, claimed and exercised
the franchise until it was taken from freemen of color a
few years since by our amended Constitution."
In none of these States, in which we have been allowed
the use of the ballot, have we betrayed the confidence or the
trust reposed in us. No flattering promises, no false state
ments of designing politicians, no offers of money or strong

CITIZENSHIP AND THE BALLOT. 109
potations of liquor have been used by partisans with any
degree of success in our case. We have constantly sought
out the party and the candidates that would conserve and
perpetuate American liberty and free institutions. No mere
party shibboleth has ever had weight with us. Our training,
secured in a life of oppression; our experience, gathered
from contact with the instruments of torture and despotism,
wed us to the party of freedom and free principles.
Touching the capability and sincerity with which the right
of suffrage is exercised by the colored men of New York,
the Hon. Wm. H. Seward, now occupying the first position
in the Cabinet of President Johnson, holds the views pre
sented in the following letter :
Washington, May 16th, 1850.
Dear Sie : Your letter of the 6th inst. has been received.
I reply to it cheerfully and with pleasure.
It is my deliberate opinion, founded upon careful obser
vation, that the right of suffrage is exercised by no citizen
of New York more conscientiously, or more sincerely, or
with more beneficial result's to society, than it is by the
electors of African descent. I sincerely hope that the fran
chise will before long be extended, as it justly ought, to this
race who of all others need it most.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Wm. H. Sewaed.
This objection, however, if it possesses any real signifi
cance, and if urged with any degree of sincerity and candor
covers entirely too much ground. For under it, what be
comes of the ignorant and degraded white American, and
what of the newly-naturalized foreigner, whose untutored
mind fails to read and understand the meaning of American
politics? Leaving these objections, then, we come with sobriety and
earnestness to the question : Upon what ground does the
colored American plant his claims to the elective franchise?

lie FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
As far as the native-born inhabitants of the country are
concerned, we have no faith in the opinion that the right of
suffrage is, in any sense to be regarded simply as conven
tional. We hold that it is an inseparable and essential ele
ment of self-government ; and none, certainly, on reflection,
will question this position. Without the privilege of say
ing who shall make our laws, what they shall be, and- who
shall execute them, there can be no self-government. This
was the sentiment ofthe Fathers ofthe Republic; and upon
this foundation-principle, as upon enduring granite, they
established the free institutions of the land. This right is
not created by constitutions simply, nor is it uncreated by
them. Its existence does not depend upon the texture of
man's hair, the conformation of his countenance,, or the
color of his skin. It is a constituent element of manhood;
and it stands prominent among the chief duties of civil
society to sustain and guard it.
But are we men, and are we so related to the American
Government that it owes us any obligation of protection in
the exercise of this right ? The declaration that we are
men requires no amplification or illustration. The anti-
slavery movement of this country has progressed too far,
and the character and achievements of the colored Ameri
can stand now too prominently before the world for his
manhood to be doubted. Nor is it any denial of his man
hood that his fellows, overcoming him by brute force, have
enslaved and outraged him; for this notion was forever
blasted when Terence, clad in chains, rushed out upon the
Amphitheater of Rome, thrilling the vast concourse there
assembled, by the announcement of the masculine and
nervous sentiment : " Homo sum : atque nihil humani a me
alienum puto."
Our relation to the Government will be seen at once,

CITIZENSHIP AND THE BALLOT. Ill
when it is remembered, in the first place, that we are native-
born inhabitants and therefore citizens. That nativity gives
citizenship is a doctrine fully recognized by American law
and American usage. Its existence, as far as our country
is concerned, dates back to the very beginning of the Gov
ernment. Chancellor Kent gives it full indorsement in
these terms : " Citizens, under o,ur Constitution and laws,
mean free inhabitants, born within the United States or
naturalized by the laws of Congress. If a slave born in the
United States be manumitted or otherwise legally discharged
from bondage, or if a black man be born within the United
States, and born free, he becomes thenceforward a citizen."
But when we urge our citizenship as a reason why we should
be allowed to vote, we are very gravely informed that voting
and holding office are not essential to citizenship. It is said,
women are citizens, and so are minors, but they are neither
allowed to vote nor hold office. Why put us in the category and
condition of women and minors? Qualified by age, residence,.
and general attainments, our position is now one of men, and we
demand this right prima facie as such. There may be inge
nuity in this ambidexterity, but certainly no reason. It is
but a crude and inconsistent dogma, injected into American
law and American politics by slavery. Its true character,
however, becomes more apparent as we progress.
Our relation to the Government and its duty toward us will
be more fully apprehended when we call to mind the fact that
we are, and always have been, taxpayers. Nor is the amount
of tax we pay to be regarded as trivial and of small account.
In proportion to our number, we pay a very handsome and
considerable sum. In the State of Ohio, in which, according
to the census of 1860, the colored men number only 36,673,
over ten millions of dollars are held by them, subject to tax
ation. In the city of Cincinnati alone they are owners of

112 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
nearly two million of dollars' worth of personal property and
real estate. In the farming districts of the State — in Gallia,
Jackson, Pike, Ross, Highland, Franklin, Clark, Shelby, and
Mercer counties — the colored men are owners of large farms,
which, in many instances, are well stocked and cultivated
according to the most approved methods of agriculture. But
the taxes paid by the colored men of Ohio are small, com
pared with those, paid by the same class in the larger and
more densely populated States. The taxes of the colored
men of the States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Louisi
ana swell to large, indeed, enormous proportions.
These tax burdens, too, we have met most cheerfully. Never
have we excused ourselves, and never have we been excused
from them on account of our color or our race: Even when,
after payment of them, denial has been made us of any ad
vantage accruing therefrom, on account of our color, they
have been levied and paid to the entire satisfaction of the
Government. It will not be denied that taxation and protection are cor
relative terms. If the Government taxes a man it owes him
protection. Nor can it be justly denied that he who meets
the burden imposed by the Government, who pays its taxes,
who supplies it with the materials of life and development,
•should have a voice in the enactment and execution of the
laws according to which its taxes are imposed, collected, and
expended. Taxation, protection, and representation we hold,
therefore, to be inseparable, constituting at once the bond of
union and the bond of obligation between the Government
and the citizen.
It is to be borne in mind, also, that we have not only
promptly met our obligations as taxpayers, but we have be
haved ourselves, at all times and under all circumstances, as
earnest and devoted patriots.

CITIZENSHIP AND THE BALLOT. 113
Indeed, we love this country. We love it as our native
country, although it has been the land of our sore oppression.
Its Constitution and the free institutions, which are its natural
outgrowth, are objects of our fondest affection. The evidences
of this affection are found scattered through the history of the
country, as it records the heroic deeds of the colored Ameri
can in our revolutionary struggles, the war of 1812, and the
bloody battles of our late stupendous rebeUion.
Always on the side of the Government, always struggling
for the maintenance of law and order, we have rallied at the
call of the country, bringing her our strong arms, our indom
itable courage, and our unswerving loyalty.
To our own conduct in this respect our statesmen, orators,
and generals have borne their testimony in the most eulogistic
terms. Over the gallant conduct of the colored soldiers of
the Revolution the glowing periods of Eustis and Pinckney
cast a halo of immortal beauty, while their brilliant achieve
ments on Lake Erie and at New Orleans are immortalized in
the eloquent sentences of Drake and Jackson.
Says Governor Eustis, of Massachusetts, in a speech deliv
ered in Congress, December 12, 1820:
"At the commencement of the Revolutionary War, there
were found in the Middle and Northern States many blacks
and other people of color capable of bearing arms, a part of
them free, the greater part slaves. The freemen entered our
ranks with the whites. The time of those who were slaves
was purchased by the States, and they were induced to enter
the service in consequence of a law, by which, on condition
of their serving in the ranks during the war, they were made
freemen. In Rhode Island, where their numbers were more
considerable, they were formed, under the same considera
tions, into a regiment commanded by white officers, and it is
required in justice to them to add that they discharged their
duty with zeal and fidelity. The gallant defence of Red
Bank, in which this black regiment bore a part, is among the
proofs of their valor.

114 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
"Among the traits that distinguish this regiment was their
devotion to their officers; when their brave Colonel Greene
was afterwards cut down and mortally wounded, the sabres
ofthe enemy reached his body only through the limbs of his
faithful guard of blacks, who hovered over him, and protect
ed him, every one of whom was killed, and whom he was not
ashamed to call his children. The services of this description
of men in the navy is also well known."
The Hon. Charles Pinkney, of South Carolina, when ad
dressing the House of Representatives of the United States
on the same occasion, also said :
"It is a most remarkable fact that, notwithstanding, in the
course ofthe Revolution, the Southern States were complete
ly overrun by the British, and that every negro in them had
an opportunity of leaving his owner, few did. They were
then, and still are, as valuable a part of our population to
the Union as any other equal number of inhabitants. They
were in numerous instances the pioneers, and, in all, the
laborers of your aimies.' To their haqds were owing the
erection of the greatest part of the fortifications raised for the
protection of our country, some of which, particularly Fort
Moultrie, gave at that early period of the iuexperiences and
untried valor ofour citizens, immortality to American arms,
and in the Northern States numerous bodies of them were
enrolled into and fought, by the side of the whites, the bat
tles of the Revolution."
In the constitutional convention of New York held in
1821, Dr, Drake, the delegate from Delaware County, said:
"In your late war they (the colored people of Ne>v York)
contributed largely to some of your most splendid victories.
Ou Lakes Erie and Champlain, when your fleets triumphed
over a foe superior in numbers and engines of death, they
were manned in a large proportion with men of color. And
in this very house, in the fall of 1814, a bill passed, receiving
the approbation of'all branches of your Government, authoriz
ing the Government to accept the services of a corps of 2,000
free people of color. Sir, these were times which tried men's

CITIZENSHIP AND THE BALLOT. 115
souls. In these times it was no sporting matter to bear
arms. These were times when a man shouldered his musket
he did not know but he bared his bosom to receive a death
wound ere he laid it aside; in these times these people were
found as ready and as willing to volunteer in your service as
any other. They were not compelled to go. They were not
drafted. No ! Your pride had placed them beyond your
compulsory power. But there was no necessity for its exer
cise; they were volunteers ; yes, they were volunteers to defend
that country from the inroads and ravages of a ruthless and
vindictive foe, which had treated them with insult, degrada
tion, and slfivery."
The hero of New Orleans, Gen Andrew Jackson, address
ed his colored troops in these complimentary and matchless
words :
"Soldiers! When on the banks of the Mobile I called you
to take up arms, inviting you to partake the perils and glory
of your white feUow citizens, I expected much from you ; for
I was not ignorant that you possessed qualities most formid
able to an invading enemy. I knew with what fortitude you
could endure hungrr and .thirst, and all the fatigues of a
campaign. I knew well how you loved your native country,
and that you as well as ourselves had to defend what man
holds most dear— his parent?, wife, children, and property.
You have donemorethan 1 expected. In addition to the pre
vious qualities I before knew you to possess, I found among
you a noble enthusiasm which leads to the performance of
great things.
"Soldiers ! The President of the United States shall hear
how praiseworthy was your conduct in the hour of danger,
and the representatives of the American people will give you
the praise your exploits entitle you to. Your general anti
cipates them in applauding your noble ardor.
" The enemy approaches, his vessels cover our lakes, our
brave citizens are united and all, contention has ceased
among them. Their only dispute is, who shall win the prize
of valor, or who the most glory, its noblest reward."

116 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
That the blood of loyal fathers courses the veins of loyal
sons is manifest from the fact that the only loyal class in
our population is that furnished by the colored American.
He has conceded to others the monopoly of treason. No
traitor encased in ebony has been found in all the land.
Those who boast of ivory encasings furnish the traitors.
Davis and Stephens, Vallandingham and Pendleton, together
with all the lesser bodies that reflect their treason, claim
any other than a Negro origin. We are glad of it. We lay
no claim to these men. They may be learned, able, and
eloquent, but with hearts surcharged with treason their
learning, ability and eloquence are not to be prized as the
common sense and sound judgment of a loyal man, however
black, whose soul is obedient to the commands of liberty and
patriotism. When, at the commencement of the present
rebellion, we proffered the Government our services, and the
President, the governors of the various States, and the chief
commanders of our army rejected them, informing us that
this was a "white man's war," our ardor and enthusiasm
abated not a single tittle. We were patient. We did not
run to the enemy. We gave him no aid. With us he found
no comfort. At length the time came when our learned
statesmen, our sagacious politicians, and our earnest gen
erals discovered that the rebellion was of such proportions,
its spirit so malignant and obstinate, that " military neces
sity," if not justice, demanded that the colored American
have a place as a soldier in the mighty contest which has
been waged for the maintenance of liberty, free principles,
and democratic institutions. We were then called to the
service ; and that our response has been manful is proved
by the fact that nothwithstanding we were at first denied
equal pay, the usual allowance for clothing, and every oppor
tunity for promotion beyond the rank of a non-commissioned

CITIZENSHIP AND THE BALLOT. 117
officer, we have already given to the service over two hun
dred thousand stalwart, brave, and gallant men. And since
entering tbe service the colored soldier has been truly heroic.
You will seek in vain among the soldiers of any land, ancient
or modern, for exhibitions of greater endurance, more un
daunted courage, and more enthusiastic devotion than hehas
displayed. His behavior at Port Hudson, at Milliken's Bend,
at Nashville, at Petersburg, at Suffolk, at New Market
Heights, at Fort Wagner and Olustee, not to mention many
other places at which the colored soldier played a conspicu
ous part, covers him with imperishable glory. It has been
especially fortunate, too, for this country that the colored
American has been so earnestly patriotic and loyal. For
divided as the country has been, the South arrayed against
the Government, and thousands of disaffected persons in the
North indirectly giving sympathy and aid to the rebellion,
the colored American has been, by reason of his numbers
and Spartan qualities as a soldier, a power aiding greatly in
bringing victory to the arms of the Government.
With regard to our numbers, our strength, and the value
of our loyalty to the Government, the judicious and truthful
statements of Robert Dale Owen in a letter addressed to
the Hon. Salmon P. Chase, on the conditions of lasting
peace, and founded upon the facts and figures of 1860, are
comprehensive and clear. He says :
"By the census of 1860 the number of white males
between the ages of 18 and 45 is, in the loyal States, about
four millions, and in the disloyal States about one million
three hundred thousand; a little upwards of three to one.
The disproportion seems overwhelmingly great. But this
calculation, as a basis of military strength, is wholly falla
cious, for it includes persons of one color only. Out of the
above four millions the North has to provide soldiers and
(with inconsiderable exceptions, not usually extending to

118 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
field labor) laborers also. But of the three millions and a
half of slaves owned in the rebel States, about two millions
may be estimated as laborers. Allow three hundred thou
sand of these as employed in domestic services and other
occupations followed by women among us, and we have
seventeen hundred thousand plantation hands, male and
female, each one of which counts against a Northern labor
er on farm or in workshop. Then of that portion of popu
lation whence soldiers and out-door laborers and mechanics
must chiefly be taken, the Northern States have four mill
ions and the Southern States three millions. Supposing
the Negroes all loyal to their masters, it follows that the
true proportions of strength available in this war — that is,
of all soldiers to fight and laborers to support the nation
while fighting — may fairly enough be taken at three in the
South to four in the North. Under the supposition of a
South united, without regard to color, in an effort for recog
nition, shall we obtain peace by subduing her ? If his-
. tory teach truth we shall not. Never, since the world began,
did nine millions of people band together, resolutely inspired
by the one idea of achieving their independence, yet fail to
obtain it. It is not a century since one-third of the number
successfully defied Great Britain. But let us suppose the
Negroes of the South loyal to the Union instead of to their
masters, how stands the matter then? In that case, it is
not to a united people, but to a Confederacy divided against
itself, that we are opposed ; the masters on one side, the
laborers, exceeding them in number, on the other. Suppose
the services of these laborers transferred to us, what will
then be the proportion on either side of forces available,
directly and indirectly, for military purposes? As about
five and three-fourths to one and one-third; in other words,
nearly as nine to two. Such a wholesale transfer is, of
course, impossible in practice. But in so far as the trans
fer is possible, and shall occur, we approach the above
results." But, indeed, our transfer has been, as a class, a wholesale
one. It has been so all along the past. It is so to-day; if
not in bodily presence, certainly in spirit and aspiration.

CITIZENSHIP AND THE BALLOT. 119
And it is a source of special pride and pleasure that we are
able to announce the fact that this has been so from the
very beginning of the American Government. For if
history be true he who on the second day of October,
1750, was advertised in the Boston Gazette or Weekly Jour
nal as a runaway slave, fell twenty years afterwards in the
Boston massacre, March 5th, 1770, in "the first act ofthe
drama of the American Revolution," a hero and a martyr.
Crispus Attucks, a mulatto slave, was the first American that
fell giving his life and blood in defense of his country. His
bold and daring conduct stirred the hearts and nerved the
arms of his comrades, whom John Adams describes in his
plea in defense ofthe soldiers who shot him, as a "motley-
rabble of saucy boys, Negroes and mulattoes, Irish Teagues
and outlandish jack tars." Be it so. God takes the weak
things of the world to confound the mighty. And Attucks
and Gray, Caldwell, Maverick and Car, were the first offer
ings of the country deemed worthy to be made against " the
¦encroachments of arbitrary power."
As the first hero of the Revolutionary War was a black
man, may we not indulge the hope and prayer that the last
hero of our present struggle may be one of the dark-hued
sons of American toil. And when we rear that monument
in the midst of the Mississippi Valley, which shall perpet
uate the glory of our present victorious achievements, a
monument of grander and loftier proportions than Bunker
Hill monument, may we not inscribe his name upon its
granite sides in golden characters.
We claim the elective franchise in the name of our man
hood, our nativity, and our citizenship, in the name of the
doctrine that taxation, protection, and representation are
naturally inseparable, and in the name of that loyalty under
the promptings of which we have performed for the country

120 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
and the Government, in the army and the navy, such brave
and manly deeds. We claim it, too, because we are intelli
gent men, men of sufficient intelligence to wield it consci
entiously and with good results to the State.
In making our claim in the light of these considerations
we come with no new and unusual theories, in the name of
no false and fanatical conceptions of right and law. Our
claim is based upon principles which, when applied to any
and all other classes of the people, are recognized as just
and democratic.
In addition to these all-sufficient reasons in favor of our
claim we cannot fail to mention a consideration that must
sooner or later result favorably to us from political neces
sity. Our arms are victorious ; the revolted States are now
to be reconstructed in accordance with the fundamental
principles of the Constitution and the anti-slavery policy of
the Government. As the Government has, for the last four
years, needed loyal and earnest men to handle the musket
in war, so it to-day needs men of the same character to wield
the ballot in sustaining its principles. The ballot is no less
potent than has been the musket. From what source can
these loyal and earnest voters be had? The white men of
the seceding States have almost all shown themselves un
faithful to the Government; not more than one-fourth of
them have remained heartily true to the Union. This faith
ful and honorable minority will not be able by its votes to
sustain the policy of the Government. The other part of
the white population has been conquered, it is true, but not
converted. Their submission is only that of restive and
malignant rebels — sullen acquiescence, while they are actu
ated by no other purpose than to hinder and, if possible,
prevent the establishment of the great principles that under
lie our governmental policy. What more could be expected

CITIZENSHIP AND THE BALLOT. 121
of men whose souls have been embittered by their sad ex
periences in the effort to establish their independence, and
who have been educated by the teachings of slavery and the
false social influence it engenders to hate the Government
and despise the free principles it seeks to establish in the
subjugated States. But one course will be left the Govern
ment. It cannot import voters. They must certainly be
residents of the States in which they vote. Its only course
will be to put the ballot in the hands of the Negro, who, in
all the history of the past, has given incontestible evidence
of his devotion to the Union of the States founded on the
Constitution and freedom. Thus, as military necessity
brought us emancipation and arms, political necessity may
yet bring us enfranchisement and the ballot. Touching this
point, one of the ablest and most profound thinkers of our
country utters the following pregnant words on the question :
"Do we need the aid of the Negro as a loyal citizen?
They (all thoughtful men) will admit it to be one of the great
questions of the day, whether (leaving the abstract right or
wrong of the case untouched) we can prudently or safely
for our own sakes withhold from the freedman his political
rights, and thus leave disfranchised, at a critical juncture
in our history, a loyal half of a disaffected population.
They will ask themselves whether, as we have found need
of the Negro as a soldier to aid in quelling the rebellion we
do not require his assistance as pressingly in the character
of a loyal citizen in reconstructing on a permanently peace
ful and orderly basis the insurrectionary States."
This is a fit theme for the consideration and reflection of
our wise men. Upon it we need not dwell at length in this
connection. The future will bring us its golden promise.
The path of duty with regard to us is plain to the Amer
ican people. Justice and magnanimity, expediency and
self-interest indicate but one course. Shall those who are
H

122 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
natives to the soil, who fight the battles of the country, who
pledge to its cause their property and their sacred honor be
longer denied the exercise of the ballot? It ought not, it
cannot be. The great events that are coming to pass in this
nation, the crumbling of slavery and the dissipation of preju
dice, give prophecy of a different result. God and destiny
are on our side, and it becomes the colored American to pre
pare himself at once for the complete investure of legal
equality.

BISHOP RICHARD ALLEN.

THE MONUMENT TO HIS MEMORY — THE FIRST
MONUMENT EVER ERECTED BY THE COLORED
RACE IN AMERICA.

[The following address was reported in the Philadelphia Press of Decem
ber 18, 1876, with these editorial comments by Hon. J. W. Forney, the editor :
Professor John M. Langston, LL.D., pronounced a discourse last evening
at the Bethel African Methodist Church, in this city, printed at length. In the
Press this morning, which will attract and deserves unusual attention . It is
the work of a scholar and a statesman, and, as such, will be read with profit
by thoughtful men. The colored people have made marveUous strides since
they began to be paid for their labor and to vote their opinions. They have
elevated themselves even as they enriched iheir prostrated and lately pau
perized oppressors. As they lifted themselves out of a brutalizing slavery,
they lifted their pardoned persecutors out of hopeless poverty. Such a race
can neither be bought nor safely intimidated. They will rise in defiance <5f
all obstacles. Professor Langston is one proof of the inevitable fulfilment of
thifl prophecy ; and his words last night showed how he means they shall
labor to make it sure. Let them honor such a leader as their apostle, by
steadily raising themselves to the high level of his great gifts, and by emu
lating his own remarkable and exemplary career.
The 22d day of last September had been fixed by those having charge of the
enterprise £.s the time when there should be erected in Fairmount Park a
monument in honor of Bishop Richard Allen. Dr. Daniel A. Payne had been
invited to unveil the monument, and Professor John M. Langston to deliver
the address. Because of an unfortunate railroad accident, in which the
material of the monument was badly broken, the exercises did not take place
in September. But last evening they came off at the Bethel A. M. E Church,
corner of Sixih and Lombaid streets, in this ci.y. The Professor delivered
it to over two thousand persons, by special request. Elder E. E. Wayman,
the pastor, opened the services with appropriate religious exercises, and Dr.
H. M. Turner, publisher of the Christian Recorder of this city, in a few well-
chosen remarks introduced the orator. Professor Langston asked his hearers
to Imagine themselves on the 22d day of last September in Fairmount Park,
in the presence of the monument.]
If one were asked what most peculiarly distinguishes
Anglo-Saxon civilization, he must answer : individual and

124 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
popular achievement as connected with civil and religious
liberty. The Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independ
ence, the Proclamation of Emancipation, are not only muni
ments of our freedom, but in a peculiar sense monuments,
which at once attest and commemorate the struggles, the
sacrifices, and the triumphs made and achieved in its be
half. Many triumphs of free thought as regards the enun
ciation of new theologic and ecclesiastical truth distinguish
the history of the Church. In most instances these have
cost protracted struggle as well as large sacrifice. Asso
ciated with the triumphs of freedom in the Church or State,
there are names of distinguished men who, under Provi
dence, have been permitted to stimulate, direct, define, and
record public feeling and judgment with regard thereto, as
well as to include and enforce lessons of struggle and sac
rifice indispensable to earnest and protracted endeavor.
Not more in the jubilant spirit inspired by the triumphs,
than the docile, earnest one impressed by the teachings of
the struggles and sacrifices indicated, we meet to-day to
honor the name and to perpetuate the memory of a repre
sentative Christian hero in the erection of this monument.
We cannot be unmindful of the great event which renders
this day memorable ; nor may we pass without making spe
cial and definite allusion to it. Fourteen years ago, one
year six months eighteen days after his inauguration as
President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln issued his
preliminary proclamation of emancipation. It contains
among others these words :
" That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and sixty -three, all persons held
as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the
people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United
States, shall be thenceforward and forever free; and the
Executive Government of the United States, including the

BISHOP RICHARD ALLEN. 125
military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no actor
acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts
they may make for their actual freedom.
" That the Executive will, on the first day of January
aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts
of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively,
shall then be in rebellion against the United States ; and the
fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day
be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United
States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a
majority ofthe qualified voters of the State shall have par
ticipated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testi
mony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and
the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the
United States."
One hundred days had elapsed when, on the first day of
January, 1863, the President issued, as promised, his proc
lamation designating the States and parts of States then in
rebellion, and wherein "all slaves were declared tq be free."
In this proclamation occur these famous passages :
"Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as com
mander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States,
in time of actual armed rebellion against the authoritv and
Government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary
war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first
day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty -three, and in accordance witb my purpose
so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hun
dred days from -the day first above mentioned, order and
designate, as the States and parts of States wherein the
people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against
the United States, the following, to wit : Arkansas, Texas,
Louisiana, (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines,
Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, As
sumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, Ste. Marie, St. Martin,
and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans,) Mississippi,

126 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina,
and Virginia, except the forty-eight counties designated as
West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac,
Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Nor
folk, (including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth,) and
which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if
this proclamation were not issued. And by virtue of the
power and for the purposes aforesaid, I do order and declare
that all persons held as slaves within. said designated States
or parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free; and
that the Executive Government of the United States, includ
ing the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize
and maintain the freedom of said persons. And upon this
act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by
the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the con
siderate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of
Almighty $od."
Although two years and a half of sanguinary struggle
intervened before our emancipation as a war measure was
determined by the victory of our loyal army, we very prop
erly regard the 22d day of September, 1862, as the dawn of
that glad day of freedom whose full-orbed sun poured its
^resplendent rays, in noon-tide glory, upon our enfranchised
millions, when the thirteenth amendment of the Constitution
was ratified, and our emancijDation established in the organic
law of the nation. Esto perpetua ! Every consideration of
fitness, whether we have regard to the person whom we
would honor, or the event which marks it, induces us to select
this day before all others of the year for these exercises..
Here we bring, in our thoughts, the emancipator of our race
face to face with one of that race, who, by a bold and fearless
self-assertion, demonstrated its moral power — its fitness for
freedom as shown in independent, manly thought, endeavor,
and achievement. Here we associate the name of Allen with
that of Lincoln, whose'act in striking the shackles from the

BISHOP RICHARD ALLEN. 127
limbs of four millions of slaves is largely justified by the
conduct of one who is indeed a type and representative of
his race.
This day's enterprise, however, is new. For the first time
in its history, certainly for the first time in this country, our
race erects a monument to the memory of one of its own
number. Two hundred and forty -five years of enslavement
ill prepares our people for incurring the outlay connected
with such work, while our leading men have been denied
those opportunities and responsibilities which, developing
character and purpose, make large personal achievement and
personal distinction possible. The erection of monumehtsi
like the purchase of pictures and statuary, implies not only
the cultivation of taste, but the possession of means beyond
the pressure of daily want. It implies more ; thedue appre
ciation of such special achievement, tending to advance the
good of society, in some important and exalted sense, with
which the name of the person, whose services are commemo
rated, is associated and identified.
• We have neither failed in the past ten years of our free
dom to become conversant with our more prominent men, to
admire their moral heroism in many cases, their manly con
duct in the midst of the most discouraging circumstances,
nor to economize our means in such manner as to be able to
make this offering in honor of high personal worth. No
apology may be justly asked of us for what we now do, nor
do we volunteer such. All nations, all races of meh delight
to honor their mighty dead, and we are not, and would not
be, in our feelings or acts an exception to this rule.
Richard Allen was born in Philadelphia, on the 14th day
of February, 1760, sixteen years before the Declaration of
American Independence, In his early childhood he was car
ried to the State of Delaware, where he was held a slave until

12S FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
i
he reached his majority, or thereabout, when at the sugges
tion of his owner he bought himself, paying sixty pounds of
gold and silver. Of his owner he says : " He was what the
world calls a good mas'er. He was more like a father to his
slaves than anything else. He was a very tender, humane
man." Of his own condition as a slave he says: "I had it
often impressed upon my mind that I should one day enjoy
my freedom, for slavery is a bitter pill, notwithstanding we
had a good master. But when we would think that our day's
work was never done, that after our master's death we were
liable to be sold to the highest bidder, as he was much in debt,
my troubles were increased, and I was often brought to weep
between the porch and altar. But I have reason to bless my
dear Lord that a door was opened unexpectedly for me to buy
my time and enjoy my liberty."
Allen, though born to the condition ahd lot of a slay e, was
not insensible to those things which pertain to freedom and
equal rights. Sensitive enough by nature to the claims of
justice and humanity, as he grew in years, enlarging and im
proving his knowledge, his mind and soul were aroused and
moved by the stirring deeds and matchless utterances of the
revolutionary period through which he lived. Under the
influence of the great thoughts, the lofty aspirations, and the
noble purposes, which produced the social commotions of his .
time and made the Declaration of Independence a moral pos
sibility, he pleaded the cause of the enslaved in words which
impressed and moved at once the slave and the slaveholder,
for he addressed each. He opens and concludes his address
to the latter in these truthful and forcible words :
"The judicious. part of mankind will think it unreason
able that a superior good conduct is looked for from our
race by those who stigmatize us as men whose baseness is
incurable, and may, therefore, be held in a state of servi-

BISHOP RICHARD ALLEN. 129
tude that a merciful man would not doom a beast to; yet
you try what you can to prevent our rising from a state of
barbarism you represent us to be in ; but we can tell you
from a degree of experience that a black man, although
reduced to the most abject state human nature is capa
ble of, short of real madness, can think, reflect, and feel
injuries, although it may not be with the same degree of
keen resentment and revenge that you who have been, and
are, our oppressors would manifest if reduced to the piti
able condition of a slave. We believe if you would try the
experiment of taking a few black children, and cultivate
their minds with the same care, and let them have the same
prospect in view as to living in the world as you would wish
for your own children, you would find upon the trial they
were not inferior in mental endowments. I do not wish to
make you angry, but to excite your attention, to consider
how hateful slavery is in the sight of that God who hath
destroyed kings and princes for their oppression of the poor
slaves. Pharaoh and his princes, with the posterity of
King Saul, were destroyed by the Protector and Avenger
of slaves. Would you not suppose the Israelites to be
utterly unfit for freedom, and that it was impossible for
them to obtain any degree of excellence ? Their history
shows how slavery had debased their spirits. Men must
be wilfully blind and extremely partial that cannot see the
contrary effects of liberty and slavery upon the mind of
man; I truly confess the vile habits often acquired in a
state of servitude are not easily thrown off; the example of
the Israelites shows how, with all that Moses could do to re
claim them from it, they still continued in their habits more
or less, and why will you look for better from us ? Why
will you look for grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles ?
It is in our posterity enjoying the same privileges with your
own that you ought to look for better things. When you
are pleaded with, do not you reply as Pharaoh did, ' Where
fore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their work ?
Behold, the people of the land now are many, and you make
them rest from their burdens.' We wish you to consider
that God himself was the first pleader of the slaves."

130 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
Concluding, he says: "Willyou, because you have re
duced us to the unhappy condition our color is in, plead
our incapacity for freedom and our contented condition
under oppression as a sufficient cause for keeping us under
the grievous yoke? I have shown the cause ; I will also show
why they appear contented as they can in your sight, but
the dreadful insurrections they have made when opportunity
afforded are enough to convince a reasonable man that great
uneasiness and not contentment is the inhabitant of their
hearts. God himself hath pleaded their cause. He hath from
time to time raised up instruments for that purpose, some
times mean and' contemptible in your sight. At other times
He hath used such as it hath pleased Him, with whom you
have not thought it beneath your dignity to contend. They
have been convinced of their error, condemned their former
conduct, and become zealous advocates for the cause of those
whom you will not suffer to plead for themselves."
His address to the former (the slave) is full of wise
Christian sentiment and counsel. It is brief, and I present
it in full. He says : " Feeling an engagement of mind for
your welfare, I address you with an affectionate sympathy,
having been a slave and as desirous of freedom as any of you ;
yet the bands of bondage were so strong that no way ap
peared for my release. Yet at times a hope arose in my
heart that a way would open for it ; and when my mind was
mercifully visited with the feeling of the love of God, then
these hopes increased, and a confidence arose that He would
make way for my enlargement ; and as a patient waiting was
necessary, I was sometimes favored with it ; at other times. I
was very impatient. Then the prospect of liberty almost van
ished away, and I was in darkness and perplexity. I mention
my experience to you, that your hearts may not sink at the
discouraging prospects you may have, and that you may

BISHOP RICHARD ALLEN. 131
put your trust in God, who sees your condition ; and as a
merciful father pitieth his children, so doth God pity
them that love Him ; and as your hearts are inclined to
serve God you will feel an affectionate regard toward your
masters and mistresses, so called, and the whole family in
which you live. This will be seen by them, and tend to pro
mote your liberty especially with such as have feeling masters.
And if they are otherwise, you will have the favor and love
of God dwelling iu your hearts, which you will value more
than anything else ; which will be a consolation iu the worst
condition you can be in, and no master can deprive you of it;
and as life is short and uncertain, and the chief end ot our
having a being in this world is to be prepared for a better, I
wish you to think ofthis more than anything else ; then you
will have a view of that freedom which the sons of God en
joy ; and if the troubles of your condition end with your lives
you will be admitted to the freedom which God hath prepared
for those of all colors that love him. Here the power of the
most cruel master ends, and all sorrow and tears are wiped
away. To you who are favored with freedom, let your conduct
manifest your gratitude toward the compassionate masters who
have set you free; and let no rancor or ill-will lodge in your
breast for any bad treatment you may have received from
any. If you do, you transgress against God, who will not
hold you guiltless. He would not suffer it even in his be
loved people Israel, and do you think he will allow it unto
us? Many of the white people 'have been instruments in the
hands of God for our good ; even such as have held us in cap
tivity are now pleading our cause with earnestness and zeal,
and I am sorry to say that too many think more of the evil
than of the good they have received, and instead of taking
the advice of their friends turn from it with indifference.
Much depends upon us for the help of our color — more than

132 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
, many are aware. If we are lazy and idle, the enemies of
freedom plead it as a cause why we ought not to be free, and
say we are better in a state of servitude, and that giving us
our liberty would be an injury to us ; and by such conduct
we strengthen the bonds of oppression, and keep many in
bondage, who are more worthy than ourselves. I entreat you
to consider the obligations we lie under to help forward the
cause of freedom. We who know how bitter the cup is of
which the slave hath to drink, 0 how ought we to feel for
those who yet remain in bondage. Will even our friends
excuse — will God pardon us for the part we act in making
strong the hands of the enemies of our color ?"
His gratitude to those who, by word or deed, sought the
deliverance and elevation of his race is beautifully expressed
in " a short address to the friends of him who hath no helper."
" I feel," he says, " an inexpressible gratitude towards you
who have engaged in the cause of the African race. You
have wrought a deliverance for many from more than Egyptian
bondage ; your labors are unremitted for their complete re
demption from the cruel subjection they are in. You feel
our affliction ; you sympathize with us in our heart-rending
distress, when the husband is separated from the wife and
the parents from the children, who are never more to meet
in this world. The tear of sensibility trickles from your eye
to see the sufferings that keep us from increasing. Your
righteous indignation is aroused at the means taken to supply
the place of the murdered babe. You see our race more
effectually destroyed than was in Pharaoh's power to effect.
upon Israel's sons ; you blow the trumpet against the mighty
evil ; you make the tyrants tremble ; you strive to raise the
slave to the dignity of a man ; you take our children by the
hand to lead them in the path of virtue by your care of our
education ; you are not afraid to call the most abject of our

BISHOP RICHARD ALLEN. 13S
race brethren, children of one Father, who hath made of one
blood all the nations of the earth. You ask for this, nothing
for yourselves, nothing but what is worthy the cause you are
engaged in ; nothing but that we would be friends to our
selves, and not strengthen the bands of oppression by an
evil conduct when led out of the house of bondage. May
He who hath arisen to plead our cause, and engaged you as
volunteers in the service, add to your numbers until the
princes shall come forth from Egypt, and Ethiopia shall
stretch out her hands unto God."
While such utterances show tbe spirit of the man, his
anxiety for the freedom and elevation of his race, his dis
position and purpose to labor to accomplish such end, the
high moral and religious ground upon which he made
his demand, the Christian earnestness which gave life to
his faith and sustained him in his labors and sacrifices, they
distinguish him as an early and prominent laborer in the
cause of our emancipation. In this work indeed he seems
not to have built upon another's foundation, and we do no
man injustice by writing high up towards the very top of
the list, among the names of the early abolition worthies of
the Revolutionary period of our country, the name of Rich
ard Allen. Herein he certainly stands a representative
character. If a sad experience of slave life, a close identification of
oppression and suffering with the slave,' gave edge to Allen's
advocacy of impartial freedom, his treatment by his Chris
tian brethren of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a member
of which he became upon his conversion, must ha-ve inten
sified his purpose, as he left that church to build one where
freedom should find a home and beneath whose fostering
and protecting care free principles should grow and expand
in the full amplitude of their nature. To describe the treat-

134 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
ment which he and his associates received I adopt his own
language. He says : "A number of us usually attended St.
George's Church, in Fourth street, in Philadelphia, and when
the colored people began to get numerous in attending the
church, they moved us from the seats we usually sat on and
placed us around the wall, and one Sabbath morning we
went to church, and the sexton stood at the door and told
us to go in the gallery. He told us to go and we would see
where to sit. We expected to take the seats over the ones
we formerly occupied below, not knowing any better. We
took those seats. Meeting had begun and they were nearly
done singing, and just as we got to the seats the elder said,
' Let us pray.' We had not been long upon our knees be
fore I heard considerable scuffling and low talking. I raised
my head up and saw one of the trustees, H  M  ,
having hold of Rev. Absalom H. Jones, pulling him up off
his knees and saying, ' You must get up ; you must not kneel
here.' Mr. Jones replied, ' Wait until prayer is over.' Mr.
H  M  said, ' No ; you must get up now or I will
call for aid and force you away.' Mr. Jones said, ' Wait
until prayer is over, and I will get up and trouble you no
more.' With that he beckoned to one of the other trustees,
L  S  , to come to his assistance. He came and
went to William White to pull him up. By that time prayer
was over and we all went out of the church in a body, and
they were no more plagued with us in the church. This
raised a great excitement and inquiry among the citizens,
insomuch that I believe they were ashamed of their conduct.
But my dear Lord was with us, and we were filled with fresh
yigor to get a house erected to worship God in."
The conduct of these church officers we condemn with our
whole being. The conduct of Allen and his associates we
applaud as natural, manly, and noble. As we have read

BISHOP RICHARD ALLEN. 135
the history ofthis transaction, it has seemed very much as if
the African Methodist Episcopal Church was, in an impor
tant and special sense, the organized Christian protest of the
colored American against unjust, inhuman, and cruel com-
plexional discriminations, and the illiberal and unchristian
treatment founded thereon, accorded those against whom
such discriminations are made. Certainly the founder of
the church, its foremost minister for many years, and its first
bishop, did not fail to leave posterity the example of wise
Christian demeanor in this matter. In meeting and over
coming the opposition made to the establishment ofthe new
church, its founder acted with great wisdom and sagacity.
Occupying our position, standing at the point where, after
sixty years have elapsed since its organization, we may look
upon the results already accomplished through its agency;
may estimate the value of its property, now reaching millions
of dollars; the number of its members, counted by hundreds
of thousands ; the number of its ministers, found in a thou
sand pulpits and itinerating, every part of the country ; the
number of its bishops, no longer one, but six, distinguished
largely as well for their learning as their piety, may esti
mate in some suitable manner its achievements in behalf of
popular education, virtue and religion. We can, and do,
bear cheerful testimony to the correctness of this statement.
These are all valuable results, and they cannot be too highly
prized. There is another result secured in the establishment of this
church, however, which deserves special mention. At the
time of its organization one great waut, perhaps the greatest
want, of the colored American was opportunity to be himself,
to think his own thought, express his own conviction, make
his own utterance, test his own powers, cultivate self-reliance,
and thus, in the exercise of the faculties of his own soul, trust

136 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
and achieve. The sense of responsibility is indispensable to
this .end, and where there is no pressure of obligation con
nected with duty and opportunity this end is never reached.
The moral law which binds here is fixed even more unalter
ably than that of the Medes and Persians. The opportu
nity, the responsibility, and the obligation of which I speak,
were the gifts, rare and precious, essential to individual as
well as national development and strength, furnished in this
new ecclesiastical organization. And were defence needed
for Allen's course in leaving one and founding another Meth
odist Church, we find it especially in the consideration here
presented. As the fouuder of this church Allen proved
himself the benefactor of his race.
The life of Richard Allen, as a minister and bishop, is
full of interest, and may be studie'l by the Christian scholar
with large profit. Without scholarly attainment or culture,
relying, as far as learning went, upon the simpler rudiments
of knowledge, he trusted his native sense, illuminated by
the Spirit which never failed him, even in the most trying
hour. The disposition which he cultivated was that of the
genuine Christian. He labored, he preached, he presided in
his conference with that judicious, considerate, and cul
tured demeanor which, while it adds a charm to Christian
character at all times, is the fittest adornment of exalted
and dignified position. He always entertained an intelli
gent appreciation of education, and favored its thorough
and general spread among the people. As the people be
came educated, as they cultivated virtue and religion, he
hoped and believed that the colored American, by display
ing his capabilities and powers, would command the respect
of all fair-minded persons. Possessing solid, rather than
brilliant and dazzling powers of mind, and hence properly
classed among the thinkers of logical, mental bias, Bishop

BISHOP RICHARD ALLEN. 137
Allen was, nevertheless, a pulpit orator, whose style was
marked by a tender and lively sensibility, a vigorous and
vivid imagination, a deep and moving pathos. The power
of his eloquence was demonstrated in the effect produced
upon the multitudes moved and converted through his
preaching before and after his election to the bishopric.
Sometime during the year 1784 he preached for several
weeks in Radnor. His congregation was composed mainly
of white persons ; few colored people lived in the neighbor
hood. In connection with his labors here this beautiful
testimony is borne : " Some said : 'This man must be a man
of God ; we never heard such preaching before.' "
The secret of his power is revealed in the words, "This
man must be a man of God." He was strong in his earnest
and abiding faith in his Heavenly Father, upon whose abil
ity and purpose to fulfill his promises he relied with the
confidence of a child. His sermons, his addresses, all his
writings confirm this opinion.
A thorough and careful study of the character of Bishop
Allen will convince us that he possessed all the qualities of
mind which distinguish real greatness. He was intelligent,
docile, sagacious, judicious, earnest, patient, industrious,
self-reliant and yet self-sacrificing, fearless, humane, con
scientious and just, while he was always tenacious of his
own convictions and opinions. Dr. Daniel A. Payne, hon
ored this day in unveiling his monument, speaking of
Bishop Allen, presents his estimate of him in the following
words :
"Though not learned, he was intelligent ; though not bril
liant, he was solid ; a man of correct judgment, a far-sighted
churchman, he was modest without timidity, and brave
without rashness. A lover of liberty, civil and religious,
he became its hero, and felt himself highly honored and

138 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
sincerely happy in doing and suffering to secure the bless
ings of ecclesiastical liberty for his despised and insulted
race. Black men, the world over, will yet do homage to
his noble character, and white men, too, when they shall have
learned to look upon men * * * from the summit of
Calvary." This day's proceedings make good, in some degree, the
prophecy of these last words. Possessing such qualities of
character, a minister of excellent name and influence, the
founder of a great and growing church, its first bishop, in
augurating and shaping its discipline and government, his
name may be enrolled, without disparagement to any con
cerned, in close association with those of Wesley, the foun
der of the, Methodist Episcopal Church ; Asbury, the first
bishop of that church, and Whitfield, the evangelist, men
whose eloquence and labors mankind can never forget nor
fail to appreciate.
Of the integrity and habits of industry cultivated by
Richard Allen special mention must be made ; otherwise, one
fails to do him justice. He was a man of vigorous native integ
rity, and in his pursuit, even as a slave, of an honorable and
conscientious course of life, he stimulated and strengthened
this noble trait of character. He was careful of his good
name, and was wont to guard it with yigor and decision. In
his " Narrative " of the conduct of the colored people of
Philadelphia, who in 1793 did so much to assist the whites
during a terrible malady which then prevailed, he not only
showed himself able in defending his race against unjust and
false censure, but demonstrated a deep appreciation of his
own uprightness. In this extremity of the people he was
behind no one in arduous and fatiguing labors, nursing the
sick, caring for and burying the dead. And this he did at-
no small pecuniary lo.4S to himself. Of this he makes no com
plaint. He complains only of partial and censorious treatment

k BISHOP RICHARD ALLEN. 139
of the blacks, who were charged with "having taken advan
tage of the distressed situation of the people ;" and in the
most forcible manner, by inevitable inference, presents in a
single question the rule which should govern us in our deal
ings with all classes. Admitting that some of the blacks
may have dealt in an improper way with the sick and dis
tressed, but asserting that many whites were also guilty, he
asks : " Is it a greater crime for a black to pilfer than for a
white to privateer?"
He was an industrious man. His habits of industry had
been contracted in slavery; aud after he had entered upon
the labors of the ministry, but before the African Methodist
Episcopal Church had been organized, his necessities were
frequently such that he had to intermit those labors by other
ofa manual sort to supply hi* necessary wants.
In speaking of his custom in this regard he says: "My
usual method was, when I would get bare of clothes, to stop
traveling and go to work, so that no man could say I was
chargeable to the Connexion. My hands administered to my
necessities." The cultivation of such habits of industry, to
gether with a prudent economy, distinguished his entire life,
and enabled him, after meeting those demands which are in
separable from our domestic relations and educating his chil
dren, to leave to his family a considerable estate. A gener
ous and worthy testimony is borne to Richard Allen as a
husband and a father, and in such relations his life and con
duct furnish valuable and praiseworthy examples.
In concluding, I may congratulate you, my friends, upon
what we here witness. This occurrence is alike honorable to
us and to him whose virtues we celebrate. We are permit
ted, in this centennial year of the nation, on this memorable
day of our emancipation, in this beautiful and consecrated
spot, to inaugurate and dedicate a monument to one whose

140 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
name and deeds we seek to honor and perpetuate. The char
acter of Richard Allen is now historical and representative.
In his deeds, no less than his name and lineage, the colored
American of every class must feel a deep interest, as well
as a special and just pride. His race, his enslavement, his
struggles, endear him to us ; but his deeds, his achievements
excite and command the highest admiration and praise of
our souls. This day we inscribe hie name upon yon marble
shaft, and, while we treasure it in our affections, commit it
to the sacred keeping of posterity.

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW.

THE TREATMENT OF THE AMERICAN MAN OF
COLOR BEFORE AND SINCE THE ADOPTION OF
THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT.*

[The Oberlin Weekly News thus describes the reception of the following
oration: Prof. Langs) on held the unbroken attention of his audience to the
close. He was frequently interrupted by applause, and when he concluded,
the expressions of approval were loud and protracted. Oberlin has long re
garded him with special affection and respect, and has watched his gradual
but steady advancement in position and fame with feelings of pride and sat
isfaction. He has iisen by sheer ability and work to the position he now occu
pies. Standing, as he does, at the head of Howard University, and in the
foremost rank among the orators of the country, he is doing more, perhaps,
than any other man in shaping the character and destiny of the colored race
in the United States. The citizens of Oberlin, many of whom have known
him from boyhood, rejoice in his past success and trust him for the future.
He is now just in the prime of life, and greater things yet maybe reasonably
expected from him.]
Mr. President and Friends : I thank you for the invita
tion which brings me before you at this time, to address you
upon this most interesting occasion. I am not unmindful
of the fact that I stand in the presence of instructors, emi
nently distinguished for the work which they have done in
the cause of truth and humanity. Oberlin was a pioneer
in the labor of abolition. It is foremost in the work of
bringing about equality of the Negro before the law. Thirty
years ago, on the first day of last March, it was my good
fortune, a boy seeking an education, to see Oberlin for the
first time. Here I discovered at once that I breathed a new

•Delivered at Oberlin, May 17, 1874, on the Anniversary of the adoption of
the 15th Amendment of the United States Consiitntion.

142 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
atmosphere. Though poor, and a colored boy, I found no
distinction made against me in your hotel, in your institu
tion of learning, in your family oircle. I come here to-day
with a heart full of gratitude, to say to you, in this public
way, that I not only thank you for what you did for me
individually, but for what you did for the cause whose suc
cess makes this day the colored American a citizen sustained
in all the rights, privileges, and immunities of American
citizenship by law.
As our country advances in civilization, prosperity and
happiness, cultivating things which appertain to literature,
science, and law, may your Oberlin, as in the past, so in all
the future, go forward, cultivating a noble, patriotic, Christian
leadership. In the name of the Negro, so largely blest and
benefitted by your institution, I bid you a hearty God-speed.
Mr. President : Within less than a quarter of a century,
/ within the last fifteen years, the colored American has been
I raised from the condition of four-footed beasts and creeping
,< things to the level of enfranchised manhood. Within this
period the slave oligarchy of the land has been overthrown,
, and the nation itself emancipated from its barbarous rule.
^he compromise measures of 1850, including the Fugitive
Slave law, together with the whole body of law enacted in
the interest of slavery, then accepted as finalities, and the
power of leading political parties pledged to their mainte
nance, have, with those parties, been utterly nullified and
destroyed. In their stead we have a purified constitution
and legislation no longer construed and enforced to sanction
and support inhumanity and crime, but to sustain and per
petuate the freedom and the rights of us all. J
Indeed, two nations have been born in a day. For in the
death of slavery, and through the change indicated, the
colored American has been spoken into the new life of

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. 143
liberty and law ; while new, other and better purposes, aspi
rations and feelings, have possessed and moved the soul of
his fellow-countrymen. The moral atmosphere of the land
is no longer that of slavery and hate; as far as the late
slave, even, is concerned, it is largely that of freedom and
fraternal appreciation.
Not forgetting the struggle and sacrifice of the people,
the matchless courage and endurance of our soldiery, neces
sary to the salvation of the Government and Union, our
freedom and that reconstruction of sentiment and law
essential to their support, it is eminently proper that we all
leave our ordinary callings this day, to join in cordial com
memoration of our emancipation, the triumph of a movement
whose comprehensive results profit and bless without dis
crimination as to color or race.
Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, on the 4th day of July last, in
addressing his fellow-citizens of Massachusetts, at Framing
ham, used the following language, a3 I conceive, with propri
ety and truth:
"But another and, it may not be too much to say, greater
event has arisen within this generation. The rebellion sought
to undo all that '76 had done, and to dissolve the nation then
born, and to set aside the Declaration that all men are
created equal, with certain inalienable rights, among which
are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The war that
ensued in suppressing this treasonable design, demanded so
much greater effort, so much more terrible sacrifice, and has
imprinted itself upon the people with so much more sharp
ness and freshness, that we of the present, and still more they
of the coming generation, almost forgetting '76, will remember
'61 and '65, and the wrongs inflicted upon our fathers by
King George and his ministers will be obliterated by the
remembrance of the Proclamation of Emancipation, the as
sassination of the President, the restoration of the Union, and
the reconstruction of the country in one united, and as we
fondly trust, never to be dissevered nation."

144 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
The laws of a nation are no more tbe indices of its public
sentiment and its civilization, than of its promise of progress
toward the permanent establishment of freedom and equal
rights. The histories of the empires of the past, no less than
the nations of the present, bear testimony to the truthfulness
of this statement. Because this is so, her laws, no less than
her literature and science, constitute the glory of a nation,
and render her influence lasting. This is particularly illus
trated in the case of Rome, immortalized, certainly, not less
by her laws than her letters or her arms. Hence the sages,
the jurists, and the statesmen of all ages, since Justinian, have
dwelt with delight and admiration upon the excellences and
beauties of Roman jurisprudence. Ofthe civil law Chancel
lor Kent eloquently says: "It was created and matured on
the banks of the Tiber, by the successive wisdom of Roman
statesmen, magistrates and sages; and after^governing the
greatest people in the ancient world for the space of thirteen
or fourteen centuries, and undergoing extraordinary vicissi
tudes after the fall of the Western Empire, it was revived,
admired and studied in northern Europe, on account of the
variety and excellence of its general principles. It is now
taught and obeyed not only in France, SpaiD, Germany, Hol
land, and Scotland, but in the islands of the Indian Ocean
and on the banks of the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence. So
true, it seems, are the words of d'Augesseau, that "the grand
destinies of Rome are not yet accomplished ; she rdgns
throughout the world by her reason, after having ceased to
reign by her authority." And the reason through which she
here reigns, is the reason of the law.
It is no more interesting to the patriot than to the philan
thropist to trace the changes which have been made during the
last decade in our legislation and law. Nor is there anything
in these changes to cause regret or fear to the wise and saga-

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. 145
cious lawyer or statesman. This is particularly true since,
in the changes made, we essay no novel experiments in legis
lation and law, but such as are justified by principles drawn
from the fountains of our jurisprudence, the Roman civil
and the common law. It has been truthfully stated that
the common law has made no distinction on account of race
or color. None is now made in England or in any other
Christian country of Europe. Nor is there any such distinction
made, to my knowledge, in the whole body of the Roman
civil law.
Among the changes that have been wrought in the law of
our country, in the order of importance and dignity, I would
mention, first, that slavery abolished, not by State but
national enactment, can never again in the history of our
country be justified or defended on the ground that it is a
municipal institution, the creature of State law. Hence
forth, as our emancipation has been decreed by national
declaration, our freedom is shielded and protected by the
strong arm of national law. Go where we may, now, like
the atmosphere about us, law protects us in our locomotion,
our utterance, and our pursuit of happiness. And to this
leading and fundamental fact of the law the people and the
various States of the Union are adjusting themselves with
grace and wisdom. It would be difficult to find a sane man
in our country who would seriously advocate the abrogation
of the 13th amendment to the Constitution.
In our emancipation it is fixed by law that the place
where we are born is ipso facto our country ; and this gives us
a domicile, a home. As in slavery we had no self ownership,
nor interest in anything external to ourselves, so we were
without country and legal settlement. While slavery ex
isted, even the free colored American was in no better con
dition ; and hence exhortations, prompted in many instances

146 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
by considerations of philanthropy and good-will, were not
infrequently made to him to leave his native land, to seek
residence and home elsewhere, in distant and inhospitable
regions. These exhortations did not always pass unheeded ;
for eventually a national organization was formed, having
for its sole purpose the transportation to Africa of such
colored men as might desire to leave the land of their birth
to find settlement in that country. And through the influence
of the African Colonization Society not a few, even, of our
most energetic, enterprising, industrious and able colored
men, not to mention thousands of the humbler class, have
been carried abroad.
It may be that, in the providence of God,- these persons,
self-expatriated, may have been instrumental in building
up a respectable and promising government in Liberia, and
that those who have supported the Colonization Society have
been philanthropically disposed, both as regards the class
transported and the native African. It is still true, how
ever, that the emancipated American has hitherto been
driven or compelled to consent to expatriation because de
nied legal home and settlement in the land of his nativity.
Expatriation is no longer thus compelled ; for it. is now
settled in the law, with respect to the colored, as well as all
other native-born Americans, that the country of his birth,
even this beautiful and goodly land, is his country. Nothing,
therefore, appertaining to it, its rich and inexhaustible
resources, its industry and commerce, its education and
religion, its law and Government, the glory and perpetuity
of its free institutions and Union, can be without lively and
permanent interest to him, as to all others who, either by
birth or adoption, legitimately claim it as their country.
With emancipation, then, comes also that wjhich is dearer
to the true patriot than life itself : country and home. And

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. 147
this doctrine of the law, in the broad and comprehensive
application explained, is now accepted without serious ob
jection by leading jurists and statesmen.
The law has also forever determined, and to our advan
tage, that nativity, without any regard to nationality or
complexion, settles, absolutely, the question of citizenship.
One can hardly understand how citizenship, predicated upon
birth, could have ever found place among the vexed ques
tions of the law ; certainly American law. We have only
to read, however, the official opinions given by leading and
representative American lawyers, in slaveholding times, to
gain full knowledge to the existence of this fact. According
to these opinions our color, race and degradation, all or
either, rendered the colored American incapable of being
or becoming a citizen of the United States. As early as
November 7th, 1821, during the official term of President
Monroe, the Hon. William Wirt, of Virginia, then acting
as Attorney-General of the United States, in answer to the
question propounded by the Secretary of the Treasury,
" whether free persons of color are, in Virginia, citizens of
the United States within the intent and meaning of the acts
regulating foreign and coasting trade, so as to be qualified
to command vessels," replied, saying among other things :
" Free Negroes and mulattoes can satisfy the requisitions of
age and residence as well as the white man ; and if nativity,
residence and allegiance combined (without the rights and
privileges of a white man) are sufficient to make him a
citizen of the United States, in the sense of the Constitu
tion, then free Negroes and mulattoes are eligible to those
high offices," (of President, Senator or Representative,)
*' and may command the purse and sword of the nation."
After able and elaborate argument to show that nativity in
the case of the colored American does not give citizenship,

148 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
according to the meaning of the Constitution of the United
States, Mr. Wirt concludes his opinion in these words :
" Upon the whole, I am of the opinion that free persons of
color, in Virginia, are not citizens of the United States,
within the intent and meaning of the acts regulating foreign
and coasting trade, so as to be qualified to command ves
sels." This subject was further discussed in 1843, when the Hon.
John C. Spencer, then Secretary of the Treasury, submitted
to Hon. H. S. Legare, Attorney-General of the United States,
in behalf of the Commissioner of the General Land Office,
with request that his opinion be given thereon, "whether a
free man of color, in the case presented, can be admitted to
the privileges of a pre-emptioner under the act of Septem
ber 4, 1841." In answering this question, Mr. Legare held :
"It is not necessary, in my view of the matter, to discuss
the question how far a free man of color may be a citizen
in the highest sense of that word that is, one who enjoys in
the fullest manner all the jura civitatis under the Constitu
tion of the United States. It is the plain meaning of the
act to give the right of pre-emption to all denizens; any
foreigner who had filed his declaration of intention to be
come a citizen is rendered at once capable of holding land."
Continuing, he says ; "Now, free people of color are not
aliens ; they enjoy universally (while there has been no ex
press statutory provision to the contrary) the rights of deni
zens." This opinion of the learned Attorney-General, while it
admits the free man of color to the privileges of a pre-emp
tioner under the act mentioned, places him legally in a non
descript condition, erroneously assuming, as we clearly
undertake to say, that there are degrees and grades of Ameri
can citizenship. These opinions accord well with the dicta

EQUALITY BEFO RE IHE LAW. 149
of the Dred-Soott decision, of which we have lively remem
brance. But a change was wrought in the feeling and conviction
of our country, as indicated in the election of Abraham
Lincoln President of the United States. On the 22d day of
September, 1862, he issued his preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation. On the 29th day of the following November
Salmon P. Chase, then Secretary ofthe Treasury, propounded
to Edward Bates, then Attorney-General, the same question
in substance which had been put in 1821 to William Wirt,
viz. : "Are colored men citizens of the United States, and
therefore competent to command American vessels? " The
reasoning and the conclusion reached by Edward Bates were
entirely ^different from that of his predecessor, William Wirt.
Nor does Edward Bates leave the colored American in the
anomalous condition of a "denizen." In his masterly and
exhaustive opinion, creditable alike to his ability and learn
ing, his patriotism and philanthropy, he maintains that " free
men of color, if born in the United States, are citizens of
the United States; and, if otherwise qualified, are compe
tent, according to the acts of Congress, to be masters of
vessels engaged in the coasting trade. In the course of his
argument he says :
1. " In every civilized country the individual is born to
duties and rights, the duty of allegiance and the right to
protection, and these are correlative obligations, the one the
price of the other, and they constitute the all-sufficient bond
of union between the individual and his country, and the
country he is born in is prima facie his country.
2. "And our Constitution, in speaking of natural-born
citizens, uses no affirmative language to make them such,
but only recognizes and reaffirms the universal principle,
common to all nations and as old as political society, that
the people born in the country do constitute the nation, and,
as individuals, are natural members of the body politic.

1E0 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP- v
3. "In twe United States it is too late to deny the politi
cal rights and obligations conferred and imposed by nativity j
for our laws do not pretend to create or enact them, but do
assume and recognize them as things known to all men, be
cause pre-existent and natural, and, therefore, things of
which the laws must take cognizance.
4. "It is strenuously insisted by some that 'persons of
color,' though born in the country, are not capable of being
citizens of the United States. As far as the Constitution is
concerned, this is a naked assumption, for the Constitution
contains not one word upon the subject.
5. "There are some who, abandoning the untenable objec
tion of color, still contend that no person descended from
Negroes of the African race can be a citizen of the United
States. Here the objection is not color but race only. * *
* * The Constitution certainly does not forbid it, but is
silent about race as it is about color.
6. "But it is said that African Negroes area degraded
race, and that all who are tainted with that degradation are
forever disqualified for the functions of citizenship. I can
hardly comprehend the thought of the absolute incompati
bility of degradation and citizenship; I thought that they
often went together.
7. " Our nationality was created and our political govern
ment exists by written law, and inasmuch as that law does
not exclude persons of that descent, and as its terms are
manifestly broad enough to include them, it follows, inevit
ably, that such persons born in the country must be citizens
unless the fact of African descent be so incompatible with
the fact of citizenship that the two cannot exist together."
When it is recollected that these broad propositions with
regard to citizenship predicated upon nativity, and in the
case of free colored men, were enunciated prior to the firslday
of January, 1863, before emancipation, before even the 13th
amendment of the Constitution was adopted ; when the law
stood precisely as it was, when Wirt and Legare gave their
opinions, it must be conceded that Bates was not only
thoroughly read in the law, but bold and sagacious. For

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. 151
these propositions have all passed, through the 14th amend
ment, into the Constitution of the United States, and are
sustained by a wise and well-defined public judgment.
With freedom decreed by law, citizenship sanctioned and
sustained thereby, the duty of allegiance on the one part,
and the right of protection on the other recognized and en
forced, even if considerations of political necessity had not
intervened, the gift of the ballot to the colored American
could not have long been delayed. The 15th amendment
is the logical and legal consequences of the 13th and 14th
amendments of the Constitution. Considerations of political
necessity, as indicated, no doubt hastened the adoption of
this amendment. But in the progress of legal development
in our country, consequent upon the triumph of the abolition
movement, its coming was inevitable. And, therefore, as its
legal necessity, as well as political, is recognized and admitted,
opposition to it has well-nigh disappeared. Indeed, so far from
there being anything like general and organized opposition to
the exercise of political powers by the enfranchised American,
the people accept it as a fit and natural fact.
Great as the change has been with regard to the legal status
ofthe colored American, in his freedom, his enfranchisement,
and the exercise of political powers, he is not yet given the
full exercise and enjoyment of all the rights which appertain
by law to American citizenship. Such as are still denied
him are withheld on the plea that their recognition would
result in social equality, and his demand for them is met by cod.
siderations derived from individual and domestic opposition.
Such reasoning is no more destitute of logic than law. While
I hold that opinion sound which does not accept mere preju
dice and caprice instead ofthe promptings of nature, guided
by cultivated taste and wise judgment as the true basis of
social recognition ; and believing, loo, that in a Christian com-

152 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
munity, social recognition may justly be pronounced a duty,
I would not deal in this discussion with matters of society.
I would justify the claim ofthe colored American to complete
equality of rights and privileges upon well considered and
accepted principles of law.
As showing the condition and treatment of the colored
citizens of this coud try, anterior to the introduction of the
Civil Rights Bill, so called, into the United States Senate, by
the late Hon. Charles Sumner, I ask your attention to the
following words from a letter written by him :
"I wish a bill carefully drawD, supplementary to the ex-
istiDg Civil Rights Law, by which all citizens shall be pro
tected in equal rights : —
"1. On railroads, steamboats and public conveyances, being
public carriers.
"2. At all houses in the nature of 'inns.'
" 3. All licensed houses of publio amusement.
" 4. At all common schools.
" Can you do this? I would follow as much as possible the
language ofthe existiDg Civil Rights Law, and make the new
bill supplementary."
It will be seen from this very clear and definite statement
of the Senator, that in his judgment, in spite of and contrary
to common law rules applied in the case, certainly of all
others, and recognized as fully settled, the colored citizen
was denied those accommodations, facilities, advantages and
privileges, furnished ordinarily by common carriers, inn.
keepers, at public places of amusement and common schools ;
and which are eo indispensable to rational and useful eDJoy-
meot of life, that without them citizenship itself loses much
of its value, and liberty seems little more than a name.
The judicial axiom, "omnes homines cequales sunt," is said
to have been given the world by the jurisconsults of the An-
tonine era. From the Roman, the French people inherited

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. 153
this legal sentiment; and, through the learning, the wisdom and
patriotism of Thomas Jefferson and his Revolutionary compa
triots, it was made the chief corner-stone of jurisprudence and
politics. In considering the injustice done the colored Amer
ican in denying him common school advantages, on general
and equal terms with all others, impartial treatment in the
conveyances of common carriers, by sea and land, and the
enjoyment of the usual accommodations afforded travelers at
public inns, and in vindicating his claim to the same, it is
well to bear in mind this fundamental and immutable prin
ciple upon which the fathers built, and in the light of which
our law ought to be construed and enforced. This observa
tion has especial significance as regards the obligations and
liabilities of common carriers and inn keepers ; for from the
civil law we have borrowed those principles largely which
have controlling force in respect to these subjects. It is
manifest, in view of this statement, that the law with regard
to these topics is neither novel nor unsettled ; and when the
colored American asks its due enforcement in his behalf, he
makes no unnatural and strange demand.
Denied, generally, equal school advantages, the colored
citizen demands them in the name of that equality of rights
and privileges which is the vital element of American law.
Equal in freedom, sustained by law ; equal in citizenship,
defined and supported by the law ; equal in the exercise of
political powers, regulated and sanctioned by law ; by what
refinement of reasoning, or tenet of law, can the denial of
common school and other educational advantages be justified t
To answer, that so readeth the statute, is only to drive us
back of the letter to the reasonableness, the soul of the law,
in the name of which we would, as we do, demand the repeal
of that enactment which is not only not law, but contrary to
its simplest requirements. It may be true that that which

154 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
ought to be law is not always so written ; but, in this matter,
that only ought to remain upon the statute book, to be en
forced as to citizens and voters, which is law in the truest and
best sense.
Without dwelling upon the advantages of a thorough
common school education, I will content myself by offering
several considerations against the proscriptive, and in favor
of the common school. A common school should be one to
which all citizens may send their children, not by favor, but
by right. It is established and supported by the Government;
.its criterion is a public foundation ; and one citizen has as
rightful claim upon its privileges and advantages as any
other. The money set apart to its organization and support,
whatever the sources whence it is drawn, whether from taxa
tion or appropriation, having been dedicated to the public
use, belongs as much to one as to another citizen ; and no
principle of law can be adduced to justify any arbitrary
classification which excludes the child of any citizen or class
of citizens from equal enjoyment ofthe advantages purchased
by such fund, it being the common property of every citizen
equally, by reason of its public dedication.
Schools which tend to separate the children of the coun
try in their feelings, aspirations and purposes, which foster
and perpetuate sentiments of caste, hatred, and ill-will, which
breed a sense of degradation on the one part and of superi
ority on the other, which beget clannish notions rather than
teach and impress an omnipresent and living principle and
faith that we are all Americans, in no wise realize our
ideal of common schools, while they are contrary to the spirit
of our laws and institutions.
Two separate school systems, tolerating discriminations
in favor of one olass against another, inflating on the one
part, degrading on the other; two separate school systems,

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. 155
I say, tolerating such state of feeling and sentiment on the
part of the classes instructed respectively in accordance
therewith, cannot educate these classes to live harmoniously
together, meeting the responsibilities and discharging the
duties imposed by a common government in the interest of
a common country.
The object of the common school is two-fold. In the first
place it should bring to every child, especially the poor child,
a reasonable degree of elementary education. In the second
place it should furnish a common education, one similar and
equal to all pupils attending it. Thus furnished, our sons
enter upon business or professional walks with an equal start
in life. Such education the Government owes to all classes
of the people.
The obligations and liabilities of the common carrier of
passengers can, in no sense, be made dependent upon the
nationality or color of those with whom he deals. He may
not, according to law, answer his engagements to one class
and justify non-performance or neglect as to another by con
siderations drawn from race. His contract is originally and
fundamentally with the entire community, and with all its
members he is held to equal and impartial obligation. On
this subject the rules of law are definite, clear, and satisfac
tory. These rules may be stated concisely as follows : It is
the duty of the common carrier of passengers to receive all
persons applying and who do not refuse to obey any reason
able regulations imposed, who are not guilty of gross and
vulgar habits of conduct, whose characters are not doubtful,
dissolute or suspicious or unequivocally bad, and whose ob
ject in seeking conveyance is not to interfere with the inter
ests or patronage of the carrier so as to make his business
less lucrative.
And, in the second place, common carriers may not im-

156 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
pose upon passengers oppressive and grossly unreasonable
orders and regulations. Were there doubt in regard to the
obligation of common carriers as indicated, the authorities
are abundant and might be quoted at large. Here, however,
I need not make quotations. The only question which can
arise as between myself and any intelligent lawyer, is as to
whether the regulation made by common carriers of pass
engers generally in this country, by which white passengers
and colored ones are separated on steamboats, railroad cars,
and stage coaches, greatly to the disadvantage, inconveni
ence, and dissatisfaction of the latter class, is reasonable.
As to this question, I leave such lawyer to the books and his
own conscience. We have advanced so far on this subject,
in thought, feeling, and purpose, that the day cannot be dis
tant when there will be found among us no one to justify
such regulations by common carriers, and when they will be
made to adjust themselves, in their orders and regulations
with regard thereto, to the rules of the common law. The
grievance of the citizen in this particular is neither imagi
nary nor sentimental. His experience of sadness and pain
attests its reality, and the awakening sense of the people
generally, as discovered in their expressions, the decisions
of several of our courts, and the recent legislation of a few
States, shows that this particular discrimination, inequitable
as it is illegal, cannot long be tolerated in any section of our
country, The law with regard to inn-keepers is not less explict and
rigid. They are not allowed to accommodate or refuse to ac
commodate wayfaring persons according to their own foolish
prejudices or the senseless and cruel hatred of their guests.
Their duties are defined in the following language, the
very words of the law :
"Inns were allowed for the benefit of travelers, who have

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. 157
certain privileges whilst they are in their journeys, and are
in a more peculiar manner protected by law.
"If one who keeps a common inn refuses to receive a
traveler as a guest into his house, or to find him victuals or
lodging upon his tendering a reasonable price for the same,
the inn-keeper is liable to render damages in an action at
the suit of the party grieved, and may also be indicted and
fined at the suijt of the King.
"An inn-keeper is not, if he has suitable room, at liberty
to refuse to receive a guest who is ready and able to pay
him a suitable compensation. On the contrary, he is bound
to receive him, and if, upon false pretences, he refuses, he
is liable to an action."
These are doctrines as old as the common law itself;
indeed, older, for they come down to us from Gaius and Pa-
pinian. All discriminations made, therefore, by the keepers
of public houses in the nature of inns, to the disadvantage
of the colored citizen, and contrary to the usual treatment
accorded travelers, is not only wrong morally, but utterly
illegal. To this judgment the public mind must soon come.
Had I the time, and were it not too great a trespass upon
your patience, I should be glad to speak of the injustice and
illegality, as well as inhumanity, of our exclusion, in some
localities, from jury, public places of learning and amuse
ment, the church and the cemetery. I will only say, however,
(and in this statement I claim the instincts, not less'than
the well-formed judgment of mankind, in our behalf,) that
such exclusion at least seems remarkable, and is difficult of
defense upon any considerations of humanity, law, or Chris
tianity. Such exclusion is the more remarkable and inde
fensible since we are fellow-citizens, wielding like political
powers, eligible to the same high official positions, respon
sible to the same degree and in the same manner for the
discharge of the duties they impose; interested in the pro
gress and civilization of a common country, and anxious,

158 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
like all others, that its destiny be glorious and matchless.
It is- strange, indeed, that the colored American may find
place in the Senate, but it is denied access and welcome to
the public place of learning, the theatre, the church and the
graveyard, upon terms accorded to all others.
But, Mr. President and friends, it ill becomes us to com
plain ; we may not tarry to find fault. The change in public
sentiment, the reform in our national legislation and juris
prudence, which we this day commemorate, transcendent
and admirable, augurs and guarantees to all American citi
zens complete equality before the law, in the protection and
enjoyment of all those rights and privileges which pertain
to manhood, enfranchised and dignified. To us the 13th
amendment of our Constitution, abolishing slavery and
perpetuating freedom; the 14th amendment establishing
citizenship and prohibiting the enactment of any law which
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the
United States, or which shall deny the equal protection of the
laws to all American citizens; and the 15th amendment,
which declares that the right of citizens of the United States
tp vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States
or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous con
dition of servitude, are national utterances which not only
reedgnize, but sustain and perpetuate our freedom and rights.
To the colored American, more than to all others, the
language of these amendments is not vain. To use the
language of the late Hon. Charles Sumner, "within the
sphere of their influence no person can be created, no person
can be born, with civil or political privileges not enjoyed
equally by all his fellow-citizens ; nor can any institution be
established recognizing distinction of birth. Here is the
great charter of every human being, drawing vital breath
upon this soil, whatever may be his condition and whoever

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. 159
may be his parents. He may be poor, weak, humble or black ;
he may be of Caucasian, Jewish, Indian or Ethiopian race ;
he may be of French, German, English or Irish extraction;
but before the Constitution all these distinctions disappear.
He is not poor, weak, humble or black; nor is he Caucasian,
Jew, Indian or Ethiopian ; nor is he French, German, English
or Irish — he is a man, the equal of all his fellow-men. He
is one of the children of the State, which like an impartial
parent, regards all its offspring with an equal care. To some
it may justly allot higher duties according to higher capaci
ties ; but it welcomes all to its equal hospitable board. The
State, imitating the Divine Justice, is no respecter of per
sons." With freedom established in our own country, and equality
before the law promised in early Federal, if not State legis
lation, we may well consider our duty with regard to the
abolition of slavery, the establishment of freedom and free
institutions upon the American continent, especially in the
island of the seas, where slavery is maintained by despotic
Spanish rule, and where the people declaring slavery abol
ished, and appealing to the civilized world for sympathy and
justification of their course, have staked all upon " the dread
arbitrament of war." There can be no peace on our conti
nent, there can be no harmony among its people till slavery
is everywhere abolished and freedom established and pro
tected by law; the people themselves, making for themselves,
and supporting their own government. Every nation, whether
its home be an island or upon a continent, if oppressed, ought
to have, like our own, a " new birth of freedom," and its
" government of the people, by the people, and for the peo
ple," shall prove at once its strength and support.
Our sympathies especially go out towards the struggling pa-
triotsofCuba. Wewould seethe "Queen of the Antilles" free

/'

160 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
from Spanish rule ; her slaves all freemen, and herself advanc
ing in her freedom, across the way of national greatness and
renown. Or if her million and a half inhabitants, with their
thousands of rich and fertile fields, are unable to support
national independence and unity, let her not look for protec
tion from, or annexation to, a country and government des
potic and oppressive in its policy. By its proximity to our
shores, by the ties of bloqd which connect its population and
ours ; by the examples presented in our Revolutionary con
flict, when France furnished succor and aid to our struggling
but heroic fathers ; by the lessons and examples of interna
tional law and history ; by all the pledges made by our nation
in favor of freedom and equal rights, the oppressed and suf
fering people of Cuba may justly expect, demand our sym
pathies and support in their struggle for freedom and inde
pendence. Especially let the colored American realize that
where battle is made against despotism and oppression, wher
ever humanity struggles for national existence and recogni
tion, there his sympathies should be felt, his word and succor
inspiriting, encouraging and supporting. To-day let us send
our word of sympathy to the struggling thousands of Cuba,
among whom, as well as among the people of Porto Rico, we
hope soon to see slavery, indeed, abolished, free institutions
firmly established, and good order, prosperity and happiness
secured. This accomplished, our continent is dedicated to
freedom and free institutions ; and the nations which com
pose its population will enjoy sure promise of national great
ness and glory. Freedom and free institutions should be
as broad as our continent. Among no nation here should
there be found any enslaved or oppressed. " Compromises
between right and wrong, under pretence of expediency,"
should disappear forever; our house should be no longer
divided against itself; a new corner-stone should be built

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. 161
into the edifice of our national, continental liberty, and those
who " guard and support the structure," should accept, in all
its comprehensiveness, the sentiment that all men are created
equal, and that governments are established among men to
defend and protect their inalienable rights to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.

EULOGY ON CHARLES SUMNER.

THE GREAT CHAMPION OF EQUAL RIGHTS FOR
THE COLORED AMERICAN— HIS CHARACTER AS
SCHOLAR AND ORATOR, AUTHOR AND LAWYER,
REFORMER, STATESMAN AND MAN.*

Mb. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of Howard
University Senate: I am not insensible of, nor do I fail to
appreciate, the honor you have done me by your invitation
to pronounce a eulogy on the late Hon. Charles Sumner.
Nor am I insensible of the responsibility which I assume in
undertaking this task. Impelled, however, by sentiments of
gratitude to, and admiration for, the subject of my address,
and supported by the assurance of your sympathy, I go for
ward, I trust, with wise and reasonable confidence.
When Charles Sumner died a great man passed through
the gateway of death to his place in history. Henceforth his
name is to be associated in the minds of men with the great
and illustrious of mankind — with the names of Wilberforce,
O'ConneU, Washington, Chase, and Lincoln. Nor is the
place to be assigned him, even in this galaxy of the departed
worthies, any other than one prominent and conspicuous.
His achievements mark and distinguish the present as the
most memorable epoch of our national history ; and as these
achievements are recalled and considered, in their moral sig
nificance, in the ages to come, the grandeur and glory of his

* Delivered in Howard University, Washington 'D. C, on Friday, April 24,
1874.

EULOGY ON CHARLES SUMNER. 163
name and services must ever increase. Indeed, he has passed
from life, its struggles, its sacrifices, its defeats, to immortality)
its reward, its crown.
Many-sided is the person upon whose character we now
dwell ; so distinguished for variety of brilliant and command
ing qualities, that one may not hope, in a brief address, to do
more than refer to a few of his more prominent and distin
guishing characteristics. It shall be my purpose to speak
of him as soholar aud orator, author and lawyer, reformer,
statesman and man.
In addition to his native ability, there were three things
which contributed to make Mr. Sumner a profound and com
plete scholar: his early domestic advantages, his location
within the reach of the best schools and institutions of learn
ing of his country, and the rare privilege of association with
the best scholars and professional men of his own and other
countries, from the earliest young manhood through life. He
neither failed to appreciate nor cultivate these opportunities.
It is impossible to estimate the effect of such influences upon
the scholarship, the achievements, and the eminence of Lord
Bacon. It is equally impossible to measure, adequately,
their effect upon the character of Charles Sumner. Whilehe
was not especially distinguished in mathematical study, nor
the natural sciences, he was profoundly read in the classics,
ancient and modern, of his own and foreign tongues; and
cultivating, as he did, a linguistic knowledge, he was led by
a natural and easy route to the study and mastery of meta
physical, moral, theological and legal science. His efforts
demonstrate his profound learning in all these particulars
and show him the master of large, various, and complete
culture. The fame of his scholarship is not confined to his own
country, nor to the people who cultivate with us the English

164 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
tongue ; for his writings are translated into the German, the
French, and other modern languages ; and wherever read, his
reputation as a scholar is established. Abroad he is regarded.
above all others as the scholar of our country. Certainly,
no one among our prominent public men is comparable with
him in this respect.
There is much in the character of Charles Sumner as a
scholar that makes it proper to class him with the great
scholars of England — Bacon and Burke. Like both, he was
distinguished for untiring industry, variety of acquirement,
and efficient use of knowledge with pen and tongue. His
learning may not have been as profound and scientifij as that
of Bacon; it was like that of Burke, comprehensive and
various. Without the selfish ambition of Bacon, he cultivated
largely the virtue to which the broad fields of literature and
learning supply abundant and healthful nourishment ; and,
like Burke, goes down to posterity distinguished for solid,
scholarly integrity.
The great orators ofour own and other countries are divided
into two classes. The one is distinguished both f r matter
and manner of delivery, while the other is more especially
distinguished for the matter presented. The one class culti
vate more particularly the extemporaneous habit of address ;
the other make the most thorough preparation, writing and
even delivering their addresses from manuscript or memory.
Of the first class, as well as the second, our country has pro
duced rare and eminent representatives. To the first class
belonged Clay and Webster; to the second, Seward and Sum
ner. As an orator, Charles Sumner was distinguished for his
scholarly habit of thought and expression. While he culti
vated in composition and style the chief graces of the rhetori
cian, he by no means neglected the weighty and effective
qualities of the logician. His addresses abound in learning

EULOGY ON CHARLES SUMNER. 165
of a moral, metaphysical, theological, legal, historical, and
classical character. The more elaborate ones are indeed
orations, read with the interest and profit with which one reads
profound and learned dissertations. They are models ; and
the time may come when, like the great speeches of the great
Greek orator, his will be treated and studied as the best pro
ductions of their class in literature.
In ardor, imagination, occasional and exceptional power,
Mr. Sumner was by no means as distinguished as Chatham,
Burke and Henry. In his palmy days, however, with his
noble presence, manly and dignified bearing, his delivery was
commanding and impressive. Few persons in any age or
country have had such opportunity to make display of rhetor
ical power as Mr. Sumner. The subject upon which he made
his great speeches was one challenging at once the sympathy,
admiration and acceptance of the hearer, whether he ad
dressed senates or popular assemblies. It was peculiarly his
privilege to champion and defend the cause of an enslaved
and outraged people, at a time and in a manner which made
him a marked man at home and abroad, aroused against him the
fury of the mob and the blood-thirsty purpose of those who
defended the slave oligarchy in Congress, and gave him not
only the Senate and his own countrymen as auditors, but the
civilized world. This fact is not to be omitted in estimating
his power as an orator. Here he was not only sustained, but
strengthened and developed. His audience was such as no
orator had ever before. Herein he will have no successor.
The writings of Mr. Sumner, distinguished as well for
¦ their rich and attractive style, their perspicuous and fluent
diction, their learned and historic illustratipn, their beautiful
and striking antithesis, their natural and lucid method as
the principles, the sentiments, the maxims, explained and
enforced in appropriate and impressive manner, must, like

166 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
those of Webster, take high rank in the classics of our lit
erature. In the classification of his writings, they are
placed with those of the great masters, Bacon and Burke,
and with the prose writings of Milton. The ability and
learning of Milton, Bacon and Burke are no more impressed
upon their writings than those of Sumner upon his ; nor are
the subjects considered by them treated with greater skill,
power, and effect. The writings of each largely reflect the
advanced thought, public conviction, and the moral, religious
and political wants of his time, and they are, therefore, in
teresting and valuable historically, as well as because of their
intrinsic merit. Historically, the writings of Sumner will
prove to be of the largest value : for it will not be denied
that his elaborate addresses, which have to do with the anti-
slavery movement, while they contain accurate and generous
sentiments with regard to justice, freedom, and law — being
emphatic, too, even as the writings of the Hebrew masters,
as to the change and reformation to take place in popular
judgment and purpose — mark, as no other writings, the suc
cessive eras of the progress of this movement toward con
summation. With his writings in this regard, no book as yet
written, no history of the American anti-slavery movement,
is comparable. For this, if for no other consideration, lit
erary or moral, these addresses are invaluable, and will
always be studied with the liveliest interest. Our interest
in this movement, its trials, its sacrifices, martyrdoms, de
feats, but final glorious triumphs, can never fail ; and so long
as it animates our hearts, the words of its most gifted advo
cate will be read with undiminished pleasure. His writings,
though mainly, are by no means entirely confined to anti-
slavery subjects. Moral and political topios, those of law,
municipal and international finance, and literature, are
treated by him with learning and grace. His works are vol-

EULOGY ON CHARLES SUMNER. 16T
uminous and comprehensive, though as yet unfinished. They
are no more distinguished for the variety of their subject-
matter, however, than the ability, learning, and wisdom dis
played in the treatment.
As a writer, Mr. Sumner is remarkable rather for talent
than genius ; for industry discovered in mastering learning
than originality in invention ; a scholarly and fearless pre
sentation and vindication of self-evident and fundamental
principles and truths. His writings, speeches, letters and
addresses, preserved and published according to his original
plan, in ten beautiful volumes, will always be read, studied
and admired by the student and scholar of this and other
lands, as rich and valuable contributions to literature.
In native ability, in training and general accomplishment,
if confined to the court and juridical labors, 'Mr. Sumner
would have made one of our most eminent and successful law
yers. Called early, however, from the court to the cultivation
of letters, and thence to the duties of Senator and political
leader, his reading and thoughts were given necessarily to
those broader and more inviting branches of the law, which
have to do with national and international interests. His
reputation, therefore, is not that of a technical lawyer; and,
yet he has been both an efficient teacher and practitioner.
He is rather distinguished for his comprehensive and accu
rate knowledge of the fundamental principles and rules of
constitutional and international law, and in connection with
his duties as a Senator and in his addresses to the people,
he furnishes evidence of his commanding ability in this
regard. Where the technical lawyer is ordinarily weak, halting,
hesitating, doubting, because he finds no rule or precedent,
he was bold, fearless and aggressive, feeling assured that
his advocacy of a particular measure or line of policy would

168 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
be at last accepted by the Government and people, because
sanctioned by reason and the spirit of the law. Hence he
always occupied advanced positions upon subjects of na
tional concernment ; and while he aroused, he informed and
directed public conviction. As to our present reconstruction
upon the basis of equal freedom, in defence of all those
principles of law and morals which constitute its foundation
and justification, he not only demonstrated large ability, but
large understanding of constitutional law and its applica
tion. I may not pass, unnoticed, in this connection, Mr. Sum
ner's celebrated argument before the Supreme Court of Mas
sachusetts, in the case of Sarah J. Roberts. While this ar
gument, like all of his speeches, is full of generous and just
sentiments, replete with learning, it is chiefly remarkable for
its clear enunciation, for the first time in our judicial legis
lative history, of the doctrine of "Equality before the
law," and for its bold advocacy of equal and impartial
common-school privileges for colored children. Speaking of
this argument, he once said : " Upon it I am willing to go
down to posterity." His admirers »and friends have noth
ing to fear as to the verdict of posterity with regard to the
merits and conclusion of this argument.
To one conversant with the writings of Mr. Sumner, or who,
enjoying personal acquaintanceship with him, has listened
to his matchless words upon the various topics of the law,
the universality and exhaustiveness of his attainments seem
remarkable. The ethics of the law he understood and cul
tivated with sincerity and wisdom. He was profoundly read
in its biography, and entertained the liveliest appreciation of,
and admiration for, the eminent members and ornaments of
the bar.
Mr. Sumner entertained for Judge Story especially the

EULOGY ON CHARLES SUMNER. '169
first writer on American constitutional law, his friend and
instructor, the highest respect and admiration ; and we may
quote his own words here as not only expressive of this
respect and admiration, but as confirmatory of the opinion
attributed to him with regard to the eminent members of his
profession. He says, speaking of Judge Story : " In genius
for the law, in the exceeding usefulness of his career, in the
blended character of judge and author, he cannot yield to
our time-honored master, Lord Coke ; in suavity of manner
and silver-tongued eloquence, he may compare with Lord
Mansfield, while in depth, accuracy, and variety of judicial
learning, he surpassed him far ; if he yields to Lord Stowell
in elegance of diction, he exceeds even his excellence in
curious explorations of the foundations of that jurisdiction
which they administered in common, and in the develop
ment of those great principles of public law, whose just
determination helps to preserve the peace of nations ; and
even in the peculiar field illustrated by the long career of
Eldon, we find him a familiar worker, with Eldon's profusion
of learning, and without the perplexity of his doubts. There
are many who regard the judicial character of the late Chief-
Justice Marshall as unapproachable. I revere his name, and
have read his judgments, which seem like ' pure reason,' with
admiration and gratitude,but I cannot disguise that even these
noble memorials must yield in juridical character, learning,
acuteness, fervor, variety of topics, as they are far inferior
in amount to those of our friend. There is still spared to
us a renowned judge, at this moment the unquestioned living
head of American jurisprudence, with no rival near the throne
— Chancello- Kent — whose judgments and works always in
spired the warmest eulogy of the departed, and whose char
acter as a juri'st furnishes the fittest parallel to his own in
the annals of our law."
K

170 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
The name of Charles Sumner deserves a conspicuous place
among the illustrious names of the American bar. There
we enroll it. By his learning, varied and profound, his
achievements (if not at the bar, in the line of the profes-
«ion,) lasting and valuable, his devotion to the profession,
earnest and manly, he establishes his claim to such distinc
tion. His education, his learning, his associations, as well as
his magnificent native endowment, fitted him for the arduous
and trying labors to which he was called in the United States
Senate. Here he was to accept and perform the double
duty of reformer and statesman. His senatorial record testi
fied how well and bravely, even to martyrdom, he discharged
the duty thus imposed ; and a grateful and free nation holds
in lasting remembrance his noble deeds. In his own words :
"Law-givers are among the greatest and most God-like
characters. They are reformers of nations ; they are build
ers of human society."
Whether we call to mind his efforts at the Boston bar in
behalf of the colored youth ; his earnest testimony in favor
of equal rights, borne in his refusal to deliver a lecture be
fore a lyceum of New Bedford, because distinction was
made against colored persons on account of their complexion ;
his clear and manly utterances against slavery, from 1845
to the time he took his seat in the Senate ; or his numerous
able and eloquent speeches made in the Senate and before
the people, from this time till Kansas was saved to freedom,
the Fugitive-Slave Law repealed, the rebellion suppressed,
slavery abolished, the Southern States reconstructed, the
'Constitution amended, the ballot given to the colored Ameri
can, his protection in the enjoyment of civil rights estab
lished, and the proposition made to enact a supplementary
Civil Rights Bill, to secure full equality before the law, we

EULOGY ON CHARLES SUMNER. 171
can but conclude that he has shown himself the reformer
of the nation, the builder of American society upon a better
and a firmer foundation of justice and freedom. In his dis
interestedness, courage, labors, devotion, energy, sufferings
without complaint, and success without inflation, resentment
or abatement of purpose and zeal, he has certainly shown
himself even God-like.
As a reformer and statesman, his mighty powers were
confluent; and his life in this double character was as
majestic, beautiful, and irresistible as the stream. Here
he found the amplest opportunity to make conspicuous and
commanding display of his peculiar qualities of character ;
his native and acquired abilities, his conscientiousness, his
moral courage, his devotion, his enthusiasm, and his deter
mination to compromise in no manner or form with the
iniquity and curse of despotism. What though it cost cruel
censure and abuse by opponents, sometimes even the sting
ing criticism instead of the commendation of friends; con
scious of rectitude, keenly appreciating his duty to the
enslaved and his country, settled in his purpose to discharge
this duty, there was no struggle too great, no labor too ardu
ous for him ; like Paul, he was ready and willing to die daily
for the truth.
His character as a reformer was in no sense narrow. Like
his character as a statesman, it was formed after the pattern
of the broadest and most beautiful characters of history.
Before he entered upon public life, before he came even to
the bar, he had read with enthusiastic admiration the writ
ings of the noble men whose triumphs in reform make glori
ous the history of the race, and whose lives are justly
reckoned benefactions. But more than this, Mr. Sumner had
enjoyed intimate association with the able and ardent reform
ers of his own and other countries, and by such association he

172 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
had been inspired and largely fitted for the struggles which
awaited him in life. To a noble nature, an intellect of supe
rior power, reason, conscience, imagination, sensibility and
will, thoroughly educated, alive and reliable ; to these mas
culine and vigorous powers of his soul he had added that
wisdom and ardor, courage and devotion, which such con
tact would naturally inspire and support. From these
sources were poured into the esteem of his great soul waters
clear and pure, which, while they increased its volume and
current, bore up his purpose and courage, as the Tiber the
noble Horatius ; while he through trial, struggle and suffer
ing, passed to victory and applause.
Entering the Senate with the slave oligarchy the master
of the land, American liberty itself tottering upon the brink
of its ruin ; free thought, free speech, freedom of locomotion
well-nigh gone ; with the executive, legislative and judicial
departments of the Government under its control; our State
legislation and policy largely inspired and directed in its
interest ; our most learned and influential men in pulpit and
congressional place, engaging themselves, not in the stern
and valorous work of meeting and overpowering this common
enemy, but in devising plans of compromise and reconcilia
tion, he engaged with the nerve and spirit of a gladiator in
what proved to him personally, and to the nation, more than
a moral conflict, whose weapons are logic, truth and law. He,
the flower and glory of our younger Senators, as if to teach
that American liberty itself must die, was made, in open day,
and in the Senate, the victim and martyr of slaveholding
madness and hate. Subsequently the nation was made to
pour out its treasure, and make its costliest offering — its
bravest and most beautiful and loving sons — to save,
through blood and struggle, its priceless inheritance of
union, government and liberty. From this baptism of blood

, EULOGY ON CHARLES SUMNER. 173
gTateful to Mr. Sumner, our leader in the beginning, and the
last of our great Senators permitted to remain in the Senate
to perfect the work of our national reconstruction, our nation
goes forth upon its mission of civilization and freedom, not
unmindful of him to whom so much is due, and to whom she
gives, in the affections of her great heart, the chief place
among the worthies whose names and deeds adorn — cover
with the brightest glory, our reconstruction in freedom.
Macaulay, in dwelling upon the labors of Milton, says :
" His public conduct was such as was to be expected from a
man of a spirit so high and an intellect so powerful. He lived
at one of the most memorable eras in the history of mankind,
at the very crisis of the great conflict between Oromasdes
and Arimanes : liberty and despotism, reason and prejudice.
That great battle was fought for no single generation, for
no single land. The destinies of the human race were staked
on the same cast with the freedom of the English people.
Then were first proclaimed those mighty principles, which
have since worked their way into the depths of the Ameri
can forests, which have roused Greece from the slavery and
degradation of two thous'and years, and which from one end
of Europe to the other have kindled unquenchable fire in
the hearts of the oppressed, and loosed the knees of the op
pressors with a strange and unwonted fear. Of these prin
ciples, then struggling for their infant existence, Milton
was the most devoted and eloquent literary champion."
When these principles, struggling not for their " infant ex
istence," not against kingly power, but for more matured life
and broader and more far-reaching influence, against slave-
holding insolence and usurpation ; under other circumstan
ces, at a different time, in the midst of more advanced
civilization ; when the "American forests*' had been changed
into the homes of intelligent millions; when America itself.

174 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
in its government and law, its name and power, had become
to enthralled and struggling nations the promise and shield of
liberty and Christian progress, Charles Sumner, with indus
try and wisdom, by pen and tongue, proved himself not only
a bold and daring, but sagacious and successful champion
of the cause of emancipation; the cause not only of the
slave, and of his countrymen, but of civilization itself. Nor
will the civilized world find it either disagreeable or difficult
to express suitably, and perpetuate its gratitude and appre
ciation of his arduous and effective labors. His words, ad
dressed to Webster in his appeal to him to be true to free
dom, mankind will now apply to Mr. Sumner himself; for
he was true and fearless, where Webster, faltering and fail
ing,' lost the high encomium proffered him.
" The aged shall bear witness of you," said Mr. Sumner.
" The young shall kindle with rapture as they repeat the
name of Webster, and the large company of the ransomed
shall teach their children, and children's children to the latest
generation to call you blessed, while all shall award you
another title, not to be forgotten in earth or heaven — ' De
fender of Humanity.' "
As a statesman, simply, without regard to his character
of reformer, Mr. Sumner, by reason of his display of large
learning, wisdom, and ability, in connection with the affairs
of State, must always occupy a prominent and conspicuous
place in the estimation of mankind. In intellectual quali
ties and accomplishments, the peer of Webster and Clay, he
was, in fixedness and elevation of purpose, conscientious
ness and integrity, their superior. The master of the stand
ard works on constitutional and international law; by taste
and choice the student of that branch of history and biog
raphy which furnishes and illustrates the soundest philoso
phy of statesmanship ; conversant not more with the lives

EULOGY ON CHARLES SUMNER. 175
and teachings of the statesmen of America than those of
Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and the countries of more
different antiquity, he entered upon official life with prepara
tion for service such as no other of his countrymen ever
possessed. His public career, covering a period of twenty-
three years in the United States Senate, considered and
estimated in the light of and according to the usual and
ordinary tests of statesmanship, shows him the prince of
our Senators.
But history will accord him a higher honor, even, than!
this. In his case the reformer is linked and intertwined with
the statesman ; and while he shall be known as the Ameri
can Senator, chiefly honored by his associates of the august
body of which he was a member, as well as by his country
men, he was yet not heedless of the sufferings of his fellow-
men, nor insensible to the duty enjoined by justice ; and,
henceforth the world accords him the title — " Defender of
Humanity." It is to be regretted, as well for personal as other reasons,
that the last and crowning measure proposed and advocated
by Mr. Sumner did not receive legislative sanction and
popular acceptance before his death. We may wisely
enough congratulate ourselves and fellow-citizens, however,.
that he was spared to bring forward and explain, with such
fulness of statement and force of argument, his " Supple
mentary Civil Rights Bill ; " and now there does not remain
the least doubt as to its passage. It is surprising that a
measure so accordant with justice and the fundamental
teachings of the common law, so harmonious with the prin
ciples of our Constitution, and so justified and supported
by considerations of sound public policy, was not at once
incorporated into our municipal code.
His last day in the Senate was made memorable by the

176 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
announcement, through his distinguished colleague, that his
native State, the commonwealth which he loved so dearly,
and whose faithful and laborious representative he had been
so long, had reconsidered and revoked the resolution of cen
sure two years before passed upon him. This was the last
business to which he gave attention in the Senate ; and all
certainly rejoice that his eyes were not closed till after this
action of his State had relieved and gladdened his heart.
Of magnificent bodily proportions, commanding appear
ance, imperial bearing, and imposing presence, Mr. Sumner
excited and attracted the admiration of all who saw him.
He possessed the most vigorous and powerful qualities of in
tellect, the sternest constitutional integrity, and the largest
endurance. From no selfish ambition did he strive to secure
the fullest development and culture of his large capacities
and powers ; but in the free and unstinted bestowal of his
services to advance the welfare of society, discovered the most
exalted spirit of benevolence. In what he refused to do, no
less than in what he did, in private life not less than in pub
lic, in the less formal addresses which he delivered to com
mittees and others waiting upon him in his beautiful home,
no less than in his addresses in the Senate or before the
people, his opinions, convictions, and counsel were supported
by what he deemed reasonable and proper. There is no fact
connected with his private life which more fully illustrates
his keen sense of propriety and purity of character than his
refusal to do the least thing, to make any effort whatever
to secure either the nomination or election to the United
States Senate. To the same purpose is the fact that he
never expended a single cent, directly or indirectly, to se
cure political advancement. His preferment, like his great
ness, depended upon nothing adventitious; upon no chica
nery, intrigue, or corruption. He was promoted upon his

EULOGY ON CHARLES SUMNER. 177
ability and fitness ; and when he came to the Senate, as the
successor of the foremost of New England's statesmen, it
was found that Massachusetts had lost nothing in his elec
tion, either in dignity or ability.
His conscientiousness and integrity, like his powers of
mind, grew more resplendent as his labors became more ar
duous and trying, even up to the end of his life. And now
that he is gone, we are reminded of a striking parallel in
Jewish history. The Hebrew prophet and judge, after an
ointing Saul king, justified his own integrity before Israel
in these words : " Behold here I am ; witness against me be
fore the Lord, and before His anointed; whose ox have I
taken; or whose ass have I taken ; or whom have I defrauded;
whom have I oppressed ; or of whose hand have I received
any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith, and I will restore it
you." And they said : " Thou hast not defrauded us, nor
oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught of any man's
hand." Such testimony and commendation, beautiful and emphatic,
the American people bear to the integrity and purity of the
departed Senator. He had no sordid view of public duty or
official life. His native sense of honor, his purity and eleva
tion of character, were, in connection with the public ser
vice, exemplified in the most pleasing and admirable manner.
Whether Mr. Sumner conversed with Emerson or advised
some humble colored youth where and how to educate himself,
related his own experience or dwelt upon that of others,
discussed in his own, or a foreign tongue, matters of national
or international interest, he displayed neither vanity nor
ostentation ; his conduct was marked always in private by
sobriety and dignity of demeanor, simplicity and humility.
To those who needed and sought his counsel, he was by no
means inaccessible. And the number of young colored per
sons who have had their wavering purposes and sinking

178 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
spirits strengthened and fired for duty and struggle by his
tender, encouraging, and eloquent words, is not small. His
services to the colored race, great in other, have not been by
any means insignificant in this direction. The very last
service of this kind done by him was in behalf of a young
colored gentleman, now a student of the law department of
Howard University.
It is proper to state, too, that from no other single indi
vidual, unconnected with the faculty of that department,
has it received more valuable service than from Mr. Sumner.
Through his influence Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered to
the students ofthe law department an address which carried
the name of Howard University far around the world. He
himself, before that time, had delivered the first address ever
presented to a class of young colored lawyers in our country,
at the first commencement connected with the department.
In this address he uses these memorable words, pregnant
with wisdom and sound counsel : " I do not doubt that every
denial of equal rights, whether in the school-room, the jury-
box, the public hotel, the steamboat, or the public conveyance,
by land or water, is contrary to the fundamental principles
of republican government, and therefore to the Constitution
itself, which should be corrected by the courts, if not by Con
gress. See to it that this is done. The Constitution does
not contain the word ' white ; ' who can insert it in the law ?
Insist than the common school, where the child is prepared
for the duties of manhood, shall know no discrimination un
known to the Constitution. Insist, also, that the public con
veyances and public hotels, owing their existence to law,
shall know no discrimination unknown to the Constitution,
so that the Senator and the Representative in Congress, who is
the peer of all at the national capital, shall not be insulted
and degraded on the way to his public duties. Insist upon
equal rights everywhere; make others insist upon them.

EULOGY ON CHARLES SUMNER. 179
Insist that our institutions shall be brought into perfect har
mony with the promises of the Declaration of Independence,
which is grand for its universality. I hold you to this alle
giance : first, by the race from which you are sprung ; and
secondly, by the profession which you now espouse."
The mistakes of Senator Sumner, if such he made, were
such as only a great man would make. His faults, as well
as his virtues, demonstrate the strength of his character.
His faults, however, pale in the brightness and glory of the
many virtues which distinguish his private and public con
duct. No bigot in religion, he was poised and fixed in his
religious moorings, by faith in Christian truth, so that, in
his last hour, in the midst of intensest pain, without anxiety
or perturbation, he could assure his attendants, " I will soon
be at rest." To his rest he has gone, bearing with him the
richest and rarest honors and distinctions, as scholar and
orator, author and lawyer, reformer, statesman and man.
His purposes, plans and labors, were commensurate with the
limits of his country, the wants and highest good of the
people, the requirements and behests of truth. If he es
poused especially the cause and claims of the colored Amer
ican, to liberty and equality before the law, it was not that he
might serve a class simply. He pleaded the Negro's cause,
not more in the interest of the Negro than in that of the
whole people. He would elevate, purify, and sustain in the
whole people the best conviction and the wisest purpose,
that their highest and lasting good might be attained and
preserved. We are all, therefore, his debtors ; and his name
and fame, like his words and deeds, are left to the keeping
of no particular class — not even to his countrymen. Man
kind will claim him as a benefactor and ornament of the
race, and the monument which perpetuates his name, in grand
proportions, beauty of design and grace, shall be built upon
enduring, historical foundations.

OUR PATRIOT DEAD.

THE NOBLE SPIRITS WHO DIED TO SAVE THE
UNION AND PERPETUATE THE FREEDOM OF
THE REPUBLIC*

Comrades : This day our nation does honor to her noble
dead. Turning aside from our ordinary employments, it
is fit that our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters,
the young man and maiden, the white and the black, should
gather in the cemeteries where our dead heroes slumber,
there to express sorrow and gratitude, while we honor their
memory and magnify their heroism.
In the war of the Rebellion — a war so costly to our nation
in treasure and precious blood — no discrimination was made
finally as to those who were called and rushed with life to
the defence of our country and its Union, with regard to na
tionality or complexion. Nor did age excuse itself. The
hoary-headed father and the tender youth heard alike and
heeded, in thousands of instances, the bugle call to arms.
Nor did woman excuse herself, for if not clad in the uniform
of the soldier, and performing the rougher and more danger
ous toils of field life, she made herself " The Good Angel of
the Hospital," and was not less interested in the defeats or
victories that distinguished the cause of the Government
than her sterner brother. J
In our National Cemeteries commingle the ashes of all

* An oration delivered at the National Cemetery, Hampton, Virginia, May
SO, 1873.

OUR PATRIOT DEAD. 181
the noble men who dared and died in our late war, sacrific
ing life in a manly and honorable discharge of duty — dying
in answer to the demands of intelligent patriotism ; and now
from the battlements of their heavenly abodes they witness
and approve our humble efforts to express our profound
gratitude, our deep sorrow as well as our cordial admiration
and lasting remembrance of those who thus died for the
honor, the liberty of the country and the perpetuity of the
Government. With no regard, therefore, to nationality, without consid
eration of age or sex, only glorying in the fact of our citi
zenship, let the spirit of this occasion enthuse and possess
our hearts and souls ; and going hence let it be with a new
devotion to our free institutions, our liberty and our religion,
determined, as our dead brothers have done, to consecrate
all, even life itself, to their conservation and maintenance.
Gathered in this sacred place, in the midst of these tender
and hallowed associations, before many of the class once own
ers, before many of the class once slaves, in the presence of
many persons formerly residents of the North, in thepresence
of fellow Americans lately engaged in a deadly conflict, on
the one part struggling to maintain the Government, on the
other to overthrow it, and upon its ruins to establish another,
I am admonished, now, in the days of our victory and the
assurance of long life — indeed immortality to the Govern
ment — -that we can and ought to inculcate and practice not
less the faith and hope than the charity so beautifully de
scribed in the words of St. Paul, " Charity suffereth long,
and is kind; charity envieth not ; charity vaunteth not itself,
is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not
her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

182 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
In the words I utter this day such charity I would cultivate.
F .r though at the cost even of our noblest and truest men,
having been victorious, as noble victors always do, we can
well afford to cultivate the largest magnanimity, and while
we do not alienate, draw and attach to the Government, in
the strongest and most lasting affection, those who but yester
day we met upon the field of bloodiest conflict. But it is
only as this charitable disposition and conduct are earnestly
and intelligently reciprocated that such desirable result can
be wisely expected. It is to be hoped that such reciprocation
will be thoroughly and generally shown by all classes of the
people. In order to appreciate duly the blessings wrought through
the death of our fallen heroes we may be permitted to par
ticularize somewhat.
And first, through the victories which their struggles, their
sufferings, their self-denial and their death brought to the
country, we enjoy and hope to perpetuate national unity.
Before the war of the Rebellion our nation was divided in
its great overshadowing purpose, its judgment, and affection.
The people of the North, under the influence of free princi
ples and their devotion to the sentiment of liberty and
equality, emancipated their slaves, and sought to establish
through the State and the Federal Government, as far as the
same could be done constitutionally, free institutions. Hence
they opposed the spread of slavery ; they denied its legal ex
istence in the Territories. To all this the people of the South
were opposed ; and here we find the source ofour division —
a division not superficial, but fundamental, affecting law, poli
tics, religion, education, industry, commerce — indeed, every
interest, State and national, adversely. Divided thus in our
purpose, our judgment, and affection, it was not strange that
eventually our differences culminated in a sectional, deadly

OUR PATRIOT DEAD. 183
war. We have now only to rejoice that coming out of this
war with victory crowning the endeavors of the Government,
and with slavery, the cause of this division, utterly over
thrown, we are one people, not only in nationality, in terri
tory and Government, but in purpose, as we trust, in j udgment
and affection.
To-day the forty millions of our population are united in
the purpose to conserve and maintain American liberty. All
accept without difference of opinion the doctrine that freedom
and the exercise of political power legally belong to every
American, and our hearts are aglow with the single sentiment
of earnest and abiding love foi* such liberty and freedom. In
the progress ofour national existence and institutions we have
reached that period when we may confidently and wisely
adopt the words of our eloquent Webster :
"While the Union lasts, we have high, excit'ng, gratifying
prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Be
yond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that
in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise ! God grant
that on my vision never may be opened what lies beyond 1
When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time,
the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken
and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union ; on States
dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on a land rent by civil
feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their
last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous
ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout
the earth, still full high advanced, its armies and trophies
streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or
polluted, not a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no
such miserable interrogatory as ' What is all this worth ? '
nor those other words of delusion and folly, ' Liberty first
and Union afterwards ;' but everywhere, spread all over, in
characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds as
they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind
under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every
true American heart : ' Liberty and Union, now and forever,
one and inseparable ! ' "

184 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
Our orator had not rightly estimated the influence of slav
ery, the unyielding purpose. of the friends of freedom against
its encroachments, when he gave utterances to those match
less words. But the struggle has come ; the legions of free
dom and slavery have met; the desperate fight is over;
freedom has again won a glorious victory, and henceforth in
our regenerated country there can be no national strife;
Americans will not again imbue their hands in each other's
blood, in a treasonable attempt to oyerthrow the Government
and dismember the Union.
I am not unmindful of considerations of a material char
acter, commercial and otherwise, which might be urg^d in
favor of the importance and permanence of our Union.
These, however, now as well as those of a moral and politi
cal character, the latter especially, conspire to make our
Union lasting.
Our Union is assured mainly, however, in the unity ofour
national convictions our patriotic sentiments.
But national unity would not only be impossible, it would
be largely valueless without national freedom ; for, as the
poet has said, " 'Tis liberty that gives to life its lustre and
perfume." Our freedom does not mean simple emancipation, mere re
lease of body, self-ownership or freedom of locomotion. It
is all of these, but far more beside. It is the enjoyment of
free thought, free speech, citizenship, the ballot ; but above
all the opportunity to rise and achieve, thereby becoming
great and influential among our countrymen, to cultivate all
those things which pertain to dignified life, and the highest
interest of our country. That we may rightly estimate this
great blessing that the noble men whose graves we would this
iay cover with the sweetest flowers died to bring to our coun
trymen, we must recollect that just anterior to the war there

OUR PATRIOT DEAD. 185
was no freedom, no free thought, no free speech, no freedom
of locomotion enjoyed in full measure by the American p«o-
ple. Indeed American liberty itself had well-nigh* gone,
"glimmering through the dream of things that were, a school
boy's tale, the wonder of an hour." But to-day the sun in
the heavens is not more bright and glorious, its light and
heat more lovely and life-giving than the sun of liberty in
our moral sky, which, shining with a new heat and a new
lustre, is to us the source of our civil and political life and
happiness, in which we delight ourselves and fear no molesta
tion. Liberty, however, is nothing more than license, a thing of
capriea, without present or permanent value, without Law
as its shield and protection ; and we should emphasize the
important and valuable blessing brought us through the war,
in which so many of our sons, brothers, and fathers fell — the
equal aud all protecting law, beyond whose care we cannot
go, however di3tant, or devious, or hidden our route.
Where the brave men slumber and sleep, who dying pur
chased for us libarty regulated and defended by law —
" 'Tis holy ground.
This spot where, in their graves,
We place our country's braves,
Who fell in freedom's holy cause,
Fighting for liberties and laws ;
Let tears abound."
But more than national unity, freedom and law regulating
it, was given the nation through the bloody struggles of the
rebellion. We were given a free Christianity, an unmuzzled
and fearless clergy, and now we may hope that the day is
not distaut when such reform will have taken place in the
country as to insure the practice of sound morality among
all classes of the people and in all branches and depart
ments ofthe Government. Thus the highest interests ofthe

186 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
people will be conserved, good order maintained, and civili
zation advanced. Indeed already we are realizing these
pleasing and beneficial results. Accepting these benefits,
brought us in the providence of our Heavenly Father, through
the suffering and the death of those whom we this day honor,
it is our duty to prove ourselves wise and faithful custodians
thereof, and as far as possible make them of the largest ad
vantage to ourselves and posterity. Indeed —
" Such graves as these are hallowed shrines,
Shrines to no code or creed confined ;
The Delphian vales, the Palestines,
The Meccas of the mind."
If what has already been said and indicated be true the
dead whose memories we revere, and whose patriotic and
heroic deeds we would celebrate, fought and fell to save and
perpetuate our Government and free institutions, to save and
reconsecrate and sanctify the doctrines of our Declaration
and Constitution, to emancipate and introduce into the body-
politic, as citizens and voters, office holders and equals, per
sons formerly held as slaves in our country. Therefore, to
day we are one nation, possessing a common country. eDJoy-
ing our freedom, our liberty, and rights under the protection
of a Government whose destiny we believe is high and glwi-
ous. But the life of our Government is only assured as the
sentiment and purpose which brings us here to-day animate
our souls, and stimulate and sustain our devotion to liberal
principles. The history of our country is distinguished for three lead
ing wars, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the
war of the late Rebellion. We would honor the dead of all
these wars, for they were all waged in the interest of our
country, to secure its independence, to maintain its interests
and its liberties, the union and the majesty of the law. We

0 UR PA TRIO T DEAD. 187
would honor the memory of Washington ; we would suitably
appreciate the achievements of Jackson ; we would not fail to
hold in constant remembrance, and cherish with grateful
hearts the masterly and noble efforts of the great leaders
who gave victory to our arms in the fearful struggle of the
Rebellion. Standing, as we do this day, in this cemetery, in
the presence of more than five thousand graves, calling to
mind, too, the thousands of other graves in the presence of
which this day the American people assemble themselves to
honor the dead, recollecting what sacrifices, what sufferings,
what courage and Spartan heroism these noble dead endured
and displayed, one would erect to their memory a monument,
whose base should be broader than this vast cemetery, whose
summit should pierce the very stars, and all over whose sides
should be written, in characters never to be effaced, the his
tory of their achievements, their valor, their fidelity and their
patriotic devotion.
If such monument may not be erected, let our ceme
teries, in which the patriotic dead of the war of the Rebel
lion slumber, be indeed national gardens, in which are grown
from the ashes of the fallen those sentiments of patriotism,
liberty, law and union, which should fire the heart and
energize and nerve the purpose of the faithful and earnest
American. The words of the poet are apt :
"Here let them rest ;
And summer's heat and winter's cold
Shall glow and freeze above the mold —
A thousand years shall pass away—
A nation still shall mourn this clay,
Which now is blest. "

OUR POLITICAL PARTIES.

THE REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES
COMPARED IN THEIR ADMINISTRATIONS OP THE
GOVERNMENT.*

Fellow-Citizens : The political parties of the country
have held their conventions, defined their positions, and
made and announced their nominations. The voters of the
country are now called upon to make their choice. Choice
here, is -fxeej aiid voters are only bound and restricted by
those considerations of sound policy and patriotism which
justly define and limit their obligation and duty. Perhaps
never in the history of our country, a history distinguished
in its more memorable parts for the establishment of free
institutions, was there a time when the duty of the Ameri
can voter, to consider well and wisely what vote to cast, what
party to bring and support in power, was so imperative as in
this centennial year of our national independence.
The earlier days of the Republic are distinguished for
noble and heroic deeds, for self-denial and sacrifices made
and performed in its behalf. Then our foe was a foreign and
open one. Within the past fifteen years a domestic foe has
with organized forces met the Government in deadly conflict,
upon a bloody field ; and vanquished, has, in fact, brought
forth " works meet for repentance " as evidence of cordial
acceptance of the new condition of affairs. This domestic

* A speech delivered in Saratoga, N. V., April 1, 1878.

OUR POLITICAL PARTIES. 189
foe when defeated made its threat, relying upon one of the
great political parties of the country for its support in'carry-
ing it out, that though whipped__in_the field, it would yet
prove itself 'Victor in politics. Shall the sacrifices of these
latter days go for naught ? Have our brave men died in
vain ? Are the burdens of the nation to prove no warning
for our good ? Are the monuments of devastation and ruin
casting their dark shadows over one section of our country
to teach us no useful lessons of admonition? These questions
are answered in the affirmative or negative, wisely or fool
ishly, as we sustain by our vote the one or the other party.
But in considering and determining our duty as voters, we
ought to rise above mere partisan devotion. We ought to
remember that party is but a means, an instrument used to
gain some special or general political end. The end sought,
the results to be accomplished must be fully considered in
determining the character of the party and our duty to sup
port, or refuse to support it. The language of its declaration
of principles, the past character of Its nominees and their
protestations of loyalty to past records, will not always suf
fice to satisfy us of its and their trustworthiness. We are
required often to seek after the reputation of the party, and
the probable associations, and party and individual obliga
tions of the candidates after their election. And in dis
charging our duty in this regard, while we are fearless we
should be impartial and just. Let us not make haste to
condemn unduly, nor to accept without wise discrimination,
the claim of any candidate or party.
With such feelings as I indicate, with a lively sense of our
responsibility as American citizens and voters, where does
duty lead us in the exercise of our suffrages, to the Demo
cratic or the. Republican party ?
In discussing this question there are two thiDgs we cannot

190 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
separate in our minds. Indeed we ought not to separate
them. We cannot separate the party and its candidate ; and
we cannot deny that the party being the larger and more im
portant moral force, gives character and aim to its candidates,
and not the candidates to the party. The party is the prin
cipal, the candidate the agents ; the latter the servants, the
former the masters. These considerations should be empha
sized, since the representatives and advocates of one of our
political parties, conceding the bad eminence of their party,
invite, with some degree of earnestness and eloquence, the at
tention of the people to the towering ability and good name
of their chief candidate. They even call him "reformer ;"
forgetting that when elected he can only accomplish, in his
administration of the Government, those results, however able
and excellent he may be, which his party and its leaders will
allow. We have in our political history an interesting chap
ter, which illustrates with special force this subject and the
judgment of the people with regard thereto. You will recol
lect that only so far back as 1872, in our last presidential
campaign, the Democratic party, despairing of being able to
find a candidate among its own leaders, though many of them
were distinguished for learning and personal integrity, nom
inated an old, earnest abolitionist, a man distinguished &_
able, great and good, whose life is brilliant and beautiful
in its triumphs, as their candidate for the Presidency. But
Horace Greeley, supported by the intellectual giants of the
Republic, Sumner and Schurz, in a strange and unnatural
alliance with the Liberal Republican movement, was unable to
impart to the Democratic party such good name and influ.
ence as to induce the people to give it their confidence and
support. Protracted and aggravated recreancy to principle,
the obligations of patriotism and loyalty, the influence and
warnings of party experiences in our own and other coun-

OUR POLITICAL PARTIES. 191
tries, are not soon forgotten nor easily forgiven. Nor do
individual names, pouring by contrast floods of light upon
party shortcomings, "sins of omission and commission," serve
to eclipse and obscure them. . No intelligent and honest
American, in the light of Greeley's example, the elaborate
and able addresses of Sumner, the learned and thrilling de
nunciations of Schurz, could in 1872 consent to vote the
Democratic tickst. This party has made no change in doc
trine or purpose as we are advised, and if we are to judge of
its future by its past, of its probable course from the charac
ter of its chief men, North and South, from the character of
the section of the country whence come its members and
sympathy mainly, its principles as enunciated and expounded
iu the addresses of its orators, the significant insinuations and
allusions to its past dignity and acts, we can hyf conclude that
this party still stands super vias antiquas. /Every American
citizen, every individual intent upon justice and fair-dealing,
intelligent and impartial in his judgment, will recognize the
justness of the criterion here implied. Whatever the names
of its candidates, whatever their past political relations, what.
ever their social position or their reputation as honorable,
sincere, and upright men, the party, in principle, in purpose,
and aim, is the same. What it has been and what it is, and
what spirit animates it, we can determine from its opposition
to those measures of reform — reform in the true and best sense,
progress and advancement in all those things which pertain
to national goodness and greatness — inaugurated and sus.
tained by the Republican party'nvhose nominations we meet
to ratify.
On the 4th day of March, 1861, Abraham Lincoln, the
first chief magistrate elected by the suffrages ofjthe Repub.
lican voters of the country, took the oath of office'prescribed
by the Constitution and entered upon the administration of

192 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
the Government. Quite sixteen years have elapsed since
that time, and our country and Government have passed an
ordeal of trial, our institutions a test and strain, such as the
history of the world cannot parallel. During this entire
period the Republican party has been in power and held
justly responsible for the judicious and efficient conduct of
the Government. During this period the achievements of the
party have been in their character and scope magnificent
and marvelous. These achievements very naturally group
themselves under distinct designations.
First. Those which are in a moral and legal sense reform
atory in their character. And here we may hang, as it were
upon a chain of gold in glowing beauty, all those which
pertain to the abolition of slavery, the reconstruction of the
seceded States, and the protection therein against rebel hate
and violence, of all loyal classes, white and black.
Secondly. Those acts which are war-like, having to do
with that bloody and costly contest between the slave oli
garchy and the Government, in which the former, after years
of aggression and encroachment upon the rights of the peo
ple, was forever overthrown and the authority of the latter
established, and is now honored in all sections of the coun
try. Thirdly. Our immense fiscal transactions, including the
finances, the currency and the banking system of the
Government. Fourthly. Those which concern our internal improve
ments, the protection of immigrants, the encouragement of
labor, and the advancement of education and science. The
single great work of building the Pacific Railroad, the iron
band which unites in a cordial and perpetual embrace the
East and the West, must ever command the admiration and
challenge the gratitude ofthe people.

OUR POLITICAL PARTIES. 193
Fifthly. Those efforts of the Government which concern
our relations with foreign powers, especially the establish
ment of the peaceful method of arbitration for the settle
ment of international differences.
If we consider the obstructions, the hindrances overcome
by the Government in seeking the accomplishment of such
results, it will be fonnd that,, difficult as the task itself was,
the chief source of difficulty was found in the persistent and
sometimes cruel opposition pf the Democratic party and its
leaders. Their severe and exaggerating criticisms, their
inimical comments, show the depth of their opposition and
its pertinacity.
If the financial, the legal, the moral, the material and the
industrial reforms of the Republican party are of value and
deserve to be maintained, the Democratic party, if our judg
ment be correct, must not be brought as yet in power ; for
its success is their overthrow, and their overthrow a lasting
damage to the country.
The country may be very justly felicitated upon the abil
ity and efficiency with which the affairs of the Government
generally have been administered by the party now in
power; but we find cause of special congratulation in the
fact that marked wisdom, integrity and success have char
acterized the collection and disbursement of the public
funds. One has only to become conversant with the im
mense receipts and expenditures of the Government, made
necessary largely by the suppression of the late rebellion,
uaint himself with the thoroughness and promptness
generally with which the revenues of all sorts are collected
and the comparatively small loss connected with the ex
penditure thereof, to appreciate the statement just made.
In illustration and enforcement of it, I adduce two facts, one
showing how and to what extent the public debt has been

194 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
reduced to the date named, and the other the loss upon the
expenditures of the Government for the time mentioned.
And first, the public debt had reached its highest figure
June 30, 1866, when it amounted to $2,773,236,173.69.
Since then the revenues of the nation have exceeded the
expenditures, leaving a balance each year for the redemp
tion of the public d«bt. From June 30, 1866, to June 30,
1875, the public debt has been reduced $599,711,641.74.
This reduction has taken place in the face of reduced taxa
tion. Under the acts of Congress dated July 13, 1866,
March 2, 1867, February 3, 1868, March 1 and July 20,
1868, July 14, 1870, May 1 and June 6, 1872, the internal
revenue taxation has been reduced from its highest point in
1866, $309,226,813.42, to $110,007,493.58, June 30, 1875.
In this reduction of the public debt, and this descending
seale of taxation, we have at a single glance the policy of
the administration to maintain the public credit, and at the
same time lighten the burdens of the people.
In a statement showing the receipts and disbursements of
the Government from January 1, 1834, to June 30, 1875, ex
hibiting also the amount of defalcations and the ratio of
losses per $1,000 to the aggregate received and disbursed,
arranged in periods, as nearly as practicable, of four years
each, and also in the periods prior and subsequent to June
30, 1861, prepared under the direction of the Secretary of
the Treasury, it is shown that from July 1, 1861, to June 30,
1875, the gross total of receipts being $12,709,645,059.91,
and the gross total of losses being $4,348,098.10, the loss on
$1,000 was 34 cents, while the gross total of disbursements,
exclusive of the post-office, being from July 1, 1861, to June
30, 1875, $12,566,892,569.53, and the gross total of losses
19,905,205.37, the loss on $1,000 was 78 cents.
From January 1, 1834, to June 30, 1861, the gross total

OUR POLITICAL PARTIES. 195
of receipts being $1,390,986,145.18, and the gross total of
losses being $2,907,527.31, the loss on $1,000 was $2.09,
while the gross total of disbursements, exclusive of the post-
office, being from January 1, 1834, to June 30, 1861, $1,369,-
977,502.52, and the gross total of losses being $12,361,722.91,
the loss on $1,000 was $9.02.
Senator Anthony, on the 28th of last June, in remarks
made by him to the Senate, makes this statement : " The
losses on the $1,000 of disbursements were, in the adminis
tration of Jackson, $10.55; Van Buren, $21.15; Harrison,
$10.37; Polk, $8.34; Taylor and Fillmore, $7.64; Pierce
$5.86; Buchanan, nearly $6.98; Lincoln, $1.41; Johnson
48 cents ; Grant, the first four years, 40 cents ; the second
four years, 26 cents — showing a constant decline, which is
owing in a large degree to the improved manner of keeping
the accounts ; and this is due very largely to the committees
on finance and appropriations, who have introduced legisla
tion which has compelled much greater accuracy and respon
sibility. The average percentage of losses during this whole
period on the disbursements is $1.59 on the thousand. I do
not believe that the aggregate of any class of corporate or
private business, banking, commercial, or any other kind, can
show so small a percentage of loss as this, and it is gratifying
that the percentage of loss is continually decreasing, coming
down from $21.15 in the administration of Van Buren, to an
average of twenty-three cents on the thousand dollars, or
only about one-sixtieth as much under the present adminis
tration. This is exclusive of the post-office, which adminis
ters its own revenue. In the post-office the loss has gone
down from $11.18 on tbe $1,000, in Jackson's administration,
and $26.19 in Van Buren's, to $1.59 for the first term of
Grant, and $1.01 for the second, with an average of $3.51
for the whole period."

196 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
As expressive of my own feelings and opinions on this sub
ject, I adopt the apt and forcible words of a writer, who says :
" We have endeavored to show, by the statements submitted,
the magnitude of the financial operations of the Government
during fifteen years of Republican rule. They may be safely
held up as being without a parallel in our history, if not in
the history of nations. To carry on these operations through
a long series of years, without infringing upon the constitu.
tional rights of a single citizen, or without oppressing the
industrial interests of the country, has required the highest
degree of administrative and legislative talent, and the highest
order of executive integrity. It should be borne in mind
that these heavy financial responsibilities were forced upon
the country by tieasonable Democracy and that the part per
formed by the Republican party was simply the execution of
an imperative duty which it owed to the Union, to freedom,
to humanity and to the world's civilization. With these
figures before us, with a clear remembrance of those terrible
years of sacrifice and suffering, when the hopes of the nation
centered in the courage and patriotism of the Republican
party, with at least $150,000,000 of yearly expenditures to
remind us of a party that betrayed the nation, and with a
burdensome public debt, which a loyal people are nobly bear.
ing, who that loves his country or wishes to see it continue
in the paths of peace and prosperity can give his vote or influ
ence to the support of a party that stands to-day as responsi
ble for the Rebellion, as it did when its recognized head,
James Buchanan, folded his arms and gave it the sanction of
his official encouragement, by the admission that he had no
power to,coerce.
The executive, legislative and administrative ability, sa
gacity and efficiency of the Republican party are no more
demonstrated in the wise conduct of our financial affairs than

OUR POLITICAL PARTIES. 197
in the establishment of a national currency reliable, if fluc
tuating, abundant and of universal and uniform value
throughout the country. Founded upon the integrity and
credit of the nation our currency may be regarded as ab
solutely safe. And according to recent and reliable estimate
its circulation per capita amounts to $18.33. It only remains
to provide for the redemption in coin or its equivalent and
our system of currency will be as wise and safe as auy the
ingenuity of man has devised. To the accomplishment of
this result without shock or damage to our business interests,
the Republican party is pledged as against Democratic infla
tion. The charge that business stagnation in the country, the
seeming paralysis of our great industries, is attributable to
the character of our currency as unreliable and scarce finds
no foundation in fact. Money was never so abundant and
it is a thousand times more reliable than under the old State-
bank system. According to reports made to the Comptroller
of the Currency, May 12, 1876, the aggregate resources of
2,089 national banks amount to $1,793,306,002.78. And
as we all understand, no matter how poorly a national bank
may be managed, it may even fail, but no holder of its notes
loses a single dollar, for its issues are secured by a deposit
of United States bonds.
Our business depression must be accounted for upon some
other hypothesis. It is largely, if not mainly, clue to the
two-fold cause : first the persistent and violent criticisms of
many ofthe leaders ofthe Democratic party; and secondly ?
the fear that that party may come into power, and if so that
it would upturn and revolutionize our sys*tem of currency.
Such considerations, however absurb and baseless the criti
cisms may be, and however improbable it may be that the
Democratic party will be given soon the control of * the

198 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
Government, have the most disastrous effects upon business
enterprises. How can this cause of evil be removed ? Not
by putting in power the party responsible for its existence.
Only by sustaining that party which has established this
system, and now promises to improve it by making our cur
rency redeemable in coin or its equivalent and at a day
fixed and not distant.
Imperfect as any description of the achievements and
triumphs of the Republican party may be, enough has been
said to demonstrate its claim upon public sympathy and
support. Its maintenance ofthe national credit, its defence
and support of the national honor and the national integrity,
entitle it specially to gratitude and the admiration of the
country. This party has countenanced no executive, con
gressional or offlcial acts which tarnish the good name of
the nation.
The guaranty, therefore, that the promises and pledges
of the Republican party will be kept and redeemed, if con
tinued and sustained in power, is written in the plainest
and boldest manner in the record of its past accomplish
ments. But how about the Democratic party? It has a record,
and its promises and pledges as presented in the St. Louis
platform are manifold, being embodied in language which
sounds much like the sonorous periods of a Fourth of July
oration. After the use of the word " reform " some fifteen times in
the platform as applied to the administration of the Federal
Government, the Union eleven years ago happily rescued
from the danger of a corrupt centralism, a sound currency,
the sum and mode of Federal taxation, the profligate waste
of public lands, the omissions of the Republican Congress,
and the errors of our treaties and our diplomacy, reform as

OUR POLITICAL PARTIES. 199
a controlling issue of the election necessary in the Givil, the
higher grades of public service, and the declaration that the
abuses, wrongs and crimes described — the product of six
teen years' ascendancy of the Republican party — create a
necessity for reform, and that this can only be had by a
peaceful revolution, the platform closes in these words : "We
demand a change of system, a change of administration, a
change of parties, that we may have a change of members
and of men."
It becomes us to inquire and to know what such words
mean before giving our support to the party using them.
Their meaning is partially discovered in the opposition
offered to the measure brought forward and adopted by the
Republican party. It is more fully and clearly discovered
in the light of past declarations of the party and one of its
chief and more prominent leaders of former days:
On the 4th day'of March, 1829, Andrew Jackson was
inaugurated President of the United States, and in his inau
gural address presented his purposes as to reform in these
words : " The recent demonstration of the public sentiment
inscribe on the list of executive duties, in characters too
legible to be overlooked, the task of reform; which will
require, particularly, the correction of those abuses that
have brought the patronage of the Federal Government into
conflict with the freedom of elections, and the counteraction
of those causes which have disturbed the rightful course of
appointment, and have placed or continued power in un
faithful or incompetent hands."
His removal from office for political reasons simply, may
be characterized as wholesale with him — "To the victors
belong the spoils " — and upon this principle he distributed
official patronage. Hitherto the number of persons removed
from office by his predecessors was small. Washington

200 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
removed in eight years 9, one a defaulter; John Adams in
four years 10, one a defaulter; Jefferson in eight years 39;
Madison in eight years 9, of which 6 were for cause ; John
Quincy Adams in four years 2, both for cause.
Reform, then, in the light of Jackson's example, as far as
it is applied by Democrats to the civil service, means, it is
to be feared, wholesale removal and appointment for mere
political reasons.
Admitting that the party in power is responsible for the
proper management of the Government, that it is wise and
safe as a general rule to make selections for positions in the
civil as well as the higher grades of public service when
needed from its supporters, that such supporters have the
first and more imperative claim to its official patronage,
other things being equal, it must, nevertheless, be conceded
that respect should be had always to the capacity, fidelity
and honesty of the applicant or appointee. Party zeal,
party services, party advancement should not be allowed to
outweigh the more important considerations of qualification
and fitness for the proper performa,nce of public duty.
But a change of system, a change of parties, that we may
have a change of men and members, is demanded. This de
mand is certainly fundamental; it is radical; and what it
means is a matter of concern to every voter. Does it mean
retrocession — that we are to go back to our national position
and condition in 1861 when the Democratic party went out
of power? Does it mean that new men and new members,
with anti-republican views and purposes, according to other
systems of political, financial, legal, economic and social
philosophy, are to pronounce the works of the Republican
party for the past sixteen years a failure, and attempt some
thing new? Does it mean that Democratic as opposed to
Republican reconstruction is to be tried? What else can

OUR POLITICAL PARTIES. 201
be its meaning? The Democratic party would write across
the sixteen years of Republican abministration of the Gov
ernment the appalling word, Failure ! How futile ! How
insane the attempt! The work of the party is vital; its
results are too deeply appreciated by the people for such
attempt to succeed.
On reading the Democratic platform you will find what,
under the circumstances, is a most remarkable omission.
No protection is promised to the loyal citizens, white and
black, ofthe South. "The rapacity of carpet-bag'tyrannics,"
as many other things, is denounced ; no guaranty, however,
of protection to the loyal, even though not carpet-baggers,
can be found in their platform. Though this be considered
natural in the Democratic party, it is, while 'it pretends to
accept the Constitution with the amendments as a final set
tlement of the controversies which engendered civil war, very
remarkable. I think it may be deemed significant. Doe3
it not mean that as far as the party is concerned, if given
power, the loyal people of the South will be compelled to
look thereafter for protection to the several State govern
ments under which they live?
As bearing on this subject the language of the platform
is full of meaning :
"Reform is necessary to rebuild and establish in the
hearts of the whole people the Union eleven years ago hap-
pily rescued from the danger of a corrupt centralism, which,
after inflicting upon ten States the rapacity of carpet-bag
tyrannies, has honeycombed the offices of the Federal Gov
ernment itself with incapacity, waste and fraud."
No party is worthy of our support whose record is not
clear, whose voice is not positive as to the matter'of protec
tion to every American citizen at home and abroad ; espe
cially at home; for, if there is any place where the citizen
should realize that he is safe, free from fear of disturbance,
M

202 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
as to life, property or freedom, it is within the limits of his
own country and under the government to which he owes
and pays his allegiance. Should the State fail to give such
protection, it is the duty of the General Government to give
it. If this be centralism — the centralism denounced by the
Democratic platform — I denounce their denunciation of it,
and proclaim it sound law.
If the Democratic party mean to accept heartily the
amendments of the Constitution and the reconstruction of
the seceded States in accordance therewith, it will, it must
recognize the obligation of the Government to protect de
fenceless and inoffensive citizens against violence and abuse,
certainly when the maltreatment becomes murder and the
State government is either impotent, or in the hands of those
who will not wield its power, to protect its citizens. The
language of the amendments implies this obligation of the
Federal Government ; and if the reconstruction of the States
is to be sustained, in its integrity, the pledge of such pro
tection and its practical redemption are indispensable.
On this matter there can be no theorizing. It is one of
immediate and pressing importance. It is feared that the
canvass upon which we are now entering cannot be conduct
ed to its close peaceably, and the loyal citizens of the South
permitted to exercise fully their political powers. Shall
such citizens be protected against threats and intimidations,
bloodshed and murder? Our hearts sicken even now at the
horrid disorders, crimes and murders so lately reported as
occurring in Hamburg, South Carolina.
The utterance of the Republican party with regard to pro
tection is clear and comprehensive. The third section of
its platform reads as follows :
" The permanent pacification of the Southern section of
the Union, the complete protection of all its citizens in the

OUR POLITICAL PARTIES. 203
free enjoyment of all their rights, are duties to which the
Republican party is sacredly pledged. The power to provide
for the enforcement of the principles embodied in the recent
constitutional amendments is vested by those amendments in
the Congress of the United Stites,and we declare it to be the
solemn obligation of the legislative and executive depart
ments ofthe Government to put into immediate aud vigorous
exercise all their constitutional powers for removing any
just causes of discontent on the part of any class, and securing
to every American citizen complete liberty and exact equal
ity in the exercise of all civil, political and public rights.
To this end we imperatively demand a Congress and Chief
Executive whose courage and fidelity to these duties shall not
falter until these results are placed beyond dispute or recall."
As one reads the platform of the Democratic party, calling
to mind its declarations of sentiments in 1852, and since
that time, both by the things said, the peculiar language
employed, and by the things omitted and the apparent reason
for the omission, he can but conclude that the charge made
by the Republican against the Democratic party when it uses
the following words, is just:
"We charge the Democratic party as being the same in
character and spirit as when it sympathized with treason,
and with making its control of the House of Representatives
the triumph and opportunity of the nation's recent foes ; with
reasserting and applauding in the national capitol the senti
ments of unrepented rebellion; with sending Union soldiers
to the rear; with deliberately proposing to repudiate the
plighted faith of the Government; with being equally false
and imbecile upon the overshadowing financial question; with
thwarting the ends of justice by its partisan mismanagement
and obstruction of investigation ; with proving itself through
the period of its ascendancy in the lower House of Congress
utterly incompetent to administer the Government. We warn
the country against trusting a party thus alike unworthy, re
creant and incapable."
If what has been said of the Democratic party, what is

204 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
inferred from its present utterances in the light of its past,
from suspicious omissions noticed in connection with the
platform be true, it is hardly worth while to spend much time
in considering the character of its candidates. Having de
termined the character of the party it is an easy matter to
decide what the candidates must be, and what they must do.
Whether Governor Tilden is a good man or a bad one, able
or weak, of large general and executive talent, of broad and
varied official experience, his term of executive control as the
Governor of New York marked by efficiency and success, are
all matters of small account as compared with the questions
what his party is and what it would do were it in power.
I would not disparage, I would not even speak lightly, cer
tainly not disrespectfully of the Governor of our Empire
State. I preftr to concede his ability and sincerity. He is
therefore the more, dangerous as the representative of the
Democratic party in power. A man of less ability, of less
skill and purpose, would do far less injury. Here I assume
that the party controls its servants, commanding and com
pelling their obedience. Every consideration of candor and
propriety leads us to believe also that the principles and
policy of the Democratic party are fully and earnestly ac
cepted by its candidates, and if elected such candidates will
spare no reasonable effort to give effect to those principles —
to have the policy of the party adopted in obedience to its
desire and command.
All this is equally true of the candidates of the Republican
party ; and because the principles and the/policy of this party
are, as I believe, true and correct, and the highest interests
of the country will be subserved by their adoption, I rejoice,
as you must rejoice, that the party has put in nomination for
President and Vice-President two able and good men. These
men have not been slow in accepting their nominations and

OUR POLITICAL PARTIES. 205
in announcing their views in their letters of acceptance.
They are men well known, of large experience in public af
fairs, and perfectly conversant with all those things which
pertain to the wise, economical and efficient administration
ofthe National Government. In their letters of acceptance
their indorsement of the principles of the party is natural
and cordial; and their discussion respecting them, so compre
hensive and masterly, displaying such familiarity with the
necessity of their application that no one can question their
conscientious approval of them. Indeed Governor Hayes, in
his letter, in brief, terse, yet elaborate terms, dwells with such
force and clearness upon the reform in the civil service, com
batting the sentiment "to the victors belong the spoils," and
commending the rule that " honesty, capacity, and fidelity
constitute the only qualifications for office" — upon the re
sumption of specie payments, maintaining that " uncertainty,
inseparable from an irredeemable paper currency," can be
ended only by such resumption upon a constitutional amend
ment; "which shall place beyond all danger of sectarian con
trol or, interference " our public school system, claiming that
" the Republican party is pledged to secure such amendment ;"
upon the condition of the South, asserting that what, it
"most .needs is 'peace,' and peace depends upon the supremacy
of law," and that the first necessity of the people there " is
an intelligent and honest administration of the Government
which will protect all classes of citizens in all their political
and private rights " — that no one can mistake his judgment
and purpose, and no one, not even an opponent, can fail to
appreciate and commend his earn;stness and candor. If
elected we cannot doubt the course which he will pursue.
His record as a brave and gallant soldier and officer of
the Union army, as a Republican tried in the walks of con
gressional life, and as Governor of Ohio, to the last position

206 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
having been elected three times, and each time against the
most formidable opposition; as a lawyer and scholar of con
siderable experience and honorable name, demonstrates his
capacity, his fidelity and his honesty. Did we need ad
ditional evidence of his self-reliance, moral courage and de
termination, his purpose to discharge fully and wisely the
promises and obligations of the party against all opposition,
and his ability to conduct the administration of the Govern
ment with efficiency and success in the interest, in fact, of
all the people and every section of the country, we have it
in his letter. But if we study well his speeches, his
messages written during his different administrations as
governor of one of the greatest and most thrifty States of
our Union, the principles accepted and advocated by him
before the people in his several campaigns, and subsequent
ly enforced as elements of sound State policy, we shall dis
cover the secret of that power which, wielded by a master,
showed its possessor more then a match for Pendleton,
Thurman and Allen. In well-informed circles these are
called great men. Why not, in the view of all he has done
and is, call Hayes a great man? I will; and the people in
their vote will very soon announce their judgment on this
subject. No charge of corruption is made against our can
didates. No man, however blinded by partisan feeling and
prejudice, questions their integrity, Their public, like their
private character, is free from stain or tarnish. They need,
in this regard, no defence.
Attack, however, is made upon the present administration
of the party. It is charged that it is inefficient, wasteful, cor
rupt, and oppressive. The fact that a prominent official
connected therewith has been found perpetrating acts of
malfeasance in office — others of lesser prominence have been
tried, convicted, sentenced and are now undergoing the

OUR POLITICAL PARTIES. 207
punishment of the law—while the charge of fraudulent
pratices has been made against certain leading Republican
Members of Congress, and others holding no official posi
tions, or such as are altogether subordinate, are adduced as
proof positive and sufficient that this statement is true-
And, then, the conclusion is reached per saltum, that the
Republican party should be driven from power and the
Democratic party installed. But admitting that these state
ments and charges are true, are we prepared to say that
the administration of the National Government should be
given to the Democratic party? In view of what this party
is and what it has been ; in view of what it proposes to do,
as well as what it proposes to leave undone, our answer
must be no. Reforms needed in the administration, in
the various branches of the Government, are much more
likely to be made by the Republican party, without violence
or damage to the country, in its financial, commercial,
industrial, political, and general interests, in obedience to
a healthy public sentiment, than through the opposing politi
cal organization ; for the very evils against which we
would guard were introduced, fostered and sustained by that
party. It is due the present administration to state that it has,
in no instance, when just complaint has been made, failed
to take vigorous and positive steps against offenders — those
breaking law or neglecting or violating official obligations.
And this the administration has done in obedience to the
comprehensive and poignant order of its chief, "Let no
guilty person escape."
But the administration of President Grant is not legiti
mately on trial before the people; for he is not the nominee
of the Republican party. If it were, it would need no special
and laborious defense. Its record in the main compares

208 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
i
favorably with any administration which has preceded it;
while, in many respects, it is peculiar and matchless. It
will soon take its place in the history of the country, and an
impartial posterity will render it that award of commenda
tion, on the whole, to which its merits entitle it.
Already I have trespassed too greatly upon your patience,
and I must conclude my remarks. In doing so I would re
mind you that the contest upon which we are entering is not
one of personal or party success merely. It is one of deep
er, broader, more far-reaching, important and dignified char
acter. Treating individuals and parties now as of small
consequence, excepting as they are used as means and instru
mentalities to accomplish great ends of private and public
goods, we are called upon as intelligent and earnest, patriotic
and devoted citizens, to determine, each for himself, how
votes, given for the Democratic or Republican party, will
tend to sustain the Democratic or Republican party, will
tend to sustain the dignity and power of the Government,
conserve our free institutions, under the Constitution, within
the Union. Each of us is held responsible to his own con
science, posterity and God for the wisdom, or folly, display
ed in exercising our suffrage ; the most sacred as it is the
most valuable right which we posssss on American soil. In
such spirit I present and here I leave this subject.

PACIFIC RECONSTRUCTION.

THE OTHER PHASE OF RECONSTRUCTION-PACIFI
CATION THE TRUE POLICY.*

Fellow Citizens : The thoughtful and patriotic American,
animated by other than partisan and sectional considerations
and feelings, turns with delight from the contemplation ofthe
belligerent to the pacific phase of reconstruction.
Four years of bloody contest, characterized by all the evils '
attendant in the most aggravated form upon a civil strife of
gigantic proportions, and twelve years of effort at reconcil
iation and readjustment, marked by displays of cruel, unre
strained fury, controlled only by military power, bring us, in
all earnestness of soul, to inquire : "Is there no method by
which the problem of reconstruction may be satisfactorily
solved in some peaceful manner?"
Rising above party considerations, seeming sectional inter
ests, as well as individual aggrandizement, we should study
well every lesson of history, every lesson suggested by the
precepts of Christianity, every lesson taught in sound politi
cal philosophy, having reference to this problem, which of all
others commands consideration and intelligent solution.
In this discussion we have to do with one of the important
sections of our country ; one divided into great States, popu
lated by millions of people, peculiar not less in their present
than in their former condition and relations.

?Speech dellverfd at Congregational Tabernacle, Jersey City, N J., April
17, 1877.

210 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
Sixteen years ago there were three distinct classes compos
ing the population of the South ; the first, the slaveholding
class, the lords of the land and the lash ; the next, the class
known as the " poor whites," the under grade of Southern
society ; and thirdly, the Negroes, slaves, chattels personal.
The first class were not only the owners of the wealth, but
they possessed the education and the intelligence, the social
and political influence of their various communities. From
this class came, as well the old political leaders, as the mili
tary chieftains, who led the rank and file of the Southern
army in the late rebellion. From this class, too, came the
purpose and the energy which at once originated and sustained
the revolt against the Government, and the attempt to or
ganize the Southern Confederacy. If any single class may
be called the "master class" of the South, occupying com
manding place, and wielding controlling influence in the
politics of that section, that class is the one of which I now
speak. Deprived by the war largely of its property, its num
bers considerably reduced by the same cause, its compact and
easily moved organization not a little impaired, disappearing
from politics for several years during the earlier period of
reconstruction, within the past two or three years it has ral
lied, reorganized, assumed again political control, and once
more promises to dominate the entire section. Louisiana
and South Carolina seem just now passing from Republican
control to that of this particular class. The latest Republican
Governors, more learned, more efficient, more distinguished
for exalted elements of personal character and statesmanship,
surrender to the more commanding political and moral power
of this class. Chamberlain gives place to Hampton, and
Packard, it is thought, must surrender to Nichols !
The poor whites, in the days of slavery, cherished no love
for the class of which I have spoken, and the latter had even

PACIFIC RECONSTRUCTION. 211
greater affection for the slave than for the poor white. But
things have changed. The poor white, called to the army
as a common soldier, was taught that the white men of the
South, rich and poor, had a common cause, for which they
were called to struggle, to suffer, and to die, if need were,
against the encroachments of a usurping and tyrannical
Federal Government. He was taught to admire, and to love
even, that class which furnished the daring and dashing
leader, who commanded those forces which went out to do
battle gallantly iu defence of this common cause. No poor
white man of the South fails to-day to entertain and express
high admiration for Lee, "Stonewall " Jackson, Johnston, and
Hood. United, theD, in admiration of their leaders, political
and military, and devoted to a common cause, which they
hold, if one may judge by their words and deeds, as dear as
life, there is a bond of sympathy and union existing between
them which is as firm and abiding is the cause which they
love and would conserve. Thus far, neither the offers of
peaceful reconstruction nor the menace of armed efforts at
readjustment have, as yet, reached and subdued these classes,
united in such common sympathy and purpose.
Of the Negroes, formerly slaves, loyal to the Government
at all times and under the most trying circumstances, Repub
lican, not only by instinct, but from considerations of self-
preservation as well as patriotism, the loftiest words of com
mendation may be spoken without fear of overstatement in
their behalf. Emancipated, made citizens, given civil rights
and political powers, and the opportunity to rise officially to
the highest place in the gift of any Republican majority, they
have, in the main, shown themselves moderate and manly in
their behavior. It was natural for them not to follow the
leadership of the white classes referred to ; while it was, on
the other hand, natural for them to follow the leadership of

212 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
that other class, the new-comer from the North, added to the
Southern population by the war, contemptuously called " The
Carpet-Bagger ;" for this class came as the representative of
that sentiment and power which made them free and promised
their enfranchisement and protection ; bringing them schools
and books; to their more needy, food and clothing; and every
where showing himself the friend of that power, so ill defined
to the Negro intellect, which had brought the goodly things
of freedom and equal rights to him who was formerly a
slave. Following the leadership of this class the Negro as natural
ly allied himself to the Republican party as the old master
class did to the Democratic ; and here commenced that gulf
of difference wliich has continued to widen, as reconstruc
tion has been fixed by constitutional enactment and indorsed
by the public sentiment of the country.
Of course the Republican immigrant, American by birth
and education, reared in the midst of free institutions, and
taught to value manhood, freedom and equal rights, obedient
to law, and yet tenacious of every right, privilege, and im
munity belonging to him, conceding nothing but what he
demanded, and demanding nothing but what he conceded,
— I say it was impossible for such class to locate in the
South, surrounded by the newly-emancipated and enfran
chised Negro, without becoming political leaders and repre
sentative characters in the work of reconstruction. Their
influence, of course, while it tended to enlighten the Negro
and establish him in his freedom, tended to draw him away
from the control of the classes in the midst of whom he had
lived, been enslaved, and served, to those who came as the
representatives of freedom and conservators of the Republi
can party.
It did not improve the feeling of the defeated classes of

PACIFIC RECONSTRUCTION. 213
the South to contemplate, at first, the amendments of the
Constitution of the United States, which not only established
the freedom of the slave, but established his citizenship
beyond question, and putting into his hands the ballot made
him the politica equal of his former owner. Objecting not
only to the law, but to that practice und
made it intolerable, the former master class became greatly
exasperated, and resolving, if possible, to overcome this
-condition of things, organized bands of "White-liners," "Ku,j
Klux," and "Bull-dozers," and entered upon that systematic
warfare upon Republicans, white and colored, which, result
ing in violence, intimidation and murder, ha's necessitated
the use of the army to maintain the peace, and protect the
loyal people of the South against that domestic violence,
which at times seemed to threaten utter destruction, inter
fering even with legislatures, and disturbing the operations
of the Government.
This condition of things has continued from 1865, grow
ing rapidly worse, up to and through the last presidential
canvass, and seemingly, culminating in the massacres of
South Carolina and Louisiana during the summer and fall
of last year.
Were I to tarry here in my description of classes compos
ing the population of the South, I should do great injustice
to two other classes, of whom I make mention with special
pleasure. I refer, first, to the very respectable class of white
men found in the South, known as original Union men,
latterly sneeringly called " Scallawags ;" and, secondly, to
a, considerable class of white men who, going into the rebel
army and being defeated in honorable warfare, have accept
ed the situation in good faith, and yield a cordial obedience
to the law. These, too, have also been sneeringly desig
nated by the same appellation.

214 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
If I might be permitted to particularize still further I
would mention, for the purpose of bringing to your attention,
with due emphasis, all the peculiar classes with which we
have to deal in settling the Southern problem — a class of
white men peculiarly and intimately related to the colored
class by ties of blood and kinship. I refer to a class of
white men who have not hesitated to establish the relations
named, by recognizing, in many instances, the offspring of
their slave women as their own children ; not infrequently
providing for their education, and otherwise manifesting a
fatherly interest and affection for such children. How far
such offspring, the children of white men by colored women,
in many cases educated, as intimated, by their fathers, are
to aid in bridging the social and political differences between
the classes of the South, white and colored, Providence only
knows and will determine. The prediction that this class
will play, in the future, an important part in this work may
not prove wholly untrue.
The classes now described are diverse in origin, unlike in
instinct, and have by no means enjoyed equal educational
advantages ; in fact, the Negro and the poor white were
wholly without educational opportunities during the days of
slavery. One great class were formerly the slave-masters ;
another, their slaves ; a third, the poor whites, during the
existence of slavery, were almost as destitute of civil and
political rights and privileges as the slaves themselves; and
in fact, their social and moral condition was even lower than
that of the Negro. And these classes differ widely in polit.
ical purpose and affiliation, as well as in political under
standing and aspiration. Is it possible to bring these
classes to such agreement with regard to their common
welfare, the material and moral good of their section, and
thus remove the differences, political and other, to which

PACIFIC RECONSTRUCTION. 215
reference has been made, and also to establish peace, good
order, and consequent prosperity and happiness, under the
Constitution, as the results of pacific reconstruction?
The proposition of peaceful reconstruction is surrounded
with serious difficulties, awaiting solution.
The first of these is found in the fact that the dominant
classes of the South, united in purpose, and animated by
common feelings, forming a compact social and political
organization, easily and effectively wielded, as necessity
required, has hitherto formed a firm alliance with the Dem
ocratic party, which promises, though its influence, direct
and indirect, success to their sectional plans and measures.
This party, always false in the presence of high moral and
patriotic requirement, stands ready to promise all things in
return for any support which brings it success and power.
Its leaders act as if it had been organized, and were still
maintained, rather to achieve mere party success and party
ends, than the enduring good of all sections of the country,
the lasting welfare of all the people. This party taught,
first of all, the false doctrine of State sovereignty as opposed
lo the supremacy of the National Government ; and it to-day
must be held responsible for the blighting consequences
which have followed therefrom. It is responsible, too, in no-
insignificant sense, for the late Rebellion, in connection with
which there is no feature of its conduct, as a party, as far
as the South is concerned, or the Government, which reflects
upon it special credit, Having promised to aid the South
in its attempts to make practical the lessons of political
philosophy, which it had taught, in the hour of trial it proved
itself cowardly, and ever after as unworthy of confidence^
If, as a. party, it affected to give the Government support,
its acts proved insincere and pretentious.

216 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
Estimated in the light of its past record, weighing its pur
pose and integrity in the light of its recent behavior, one
must conclude that the sagacious and earnest leaders of the
South, always requiring, in those with whom they deal,
decision, courage and truth, cannot longer confide in such
party, nor trust the destiny of their section to its control.
The character and behavior of the Democratic party, so
inconsistent and unreliable, furnish no ground of hope for
good to the South. As the Southern leaders lose confidence
In this party, its teachings and its policy, its disposition and
ability to discharge its promises, the alliance mentioned will
be weakened, sooner or later annulled, and other and more
advantageous affiliations sought and formed. The conduct
of prominent leaders, members of the House of Representa
tives from the South in the last session of Congress, in con
nection with certain decisions of the Electoral Commission,
bears with peculiar force upon this particular point. It is
admitted on all sides that it was the vote of Southern men
— men who were expected to vote with fillibustering Demo
crats from the North — which thwarted the purpose of such
Democratic members, and sustained the action of the Com
mission. This must be regarded as a step in the direction
of just and peaceful reconstruction. With this beginning
we may reasonably hope for an ending as beneficent as it is
wise. A second difficulty is found in the indisposition, hereto
fore existing on the part of the dominant class of the South,
to brook opposition of opinion and judgment in matters of
politics. Taught from their cradles, by the influences of their
peculiar institution, as it formerly existed, to believe them
selves the owners and masters of men, and learning early,
and witnessing constantly, the utter dependence of the non-
slaveholding whites, living among them, upon their power

PACIFIC RECONSTRUCTION. 217
and whim, it wa3 altogether natural, inevitable, that they
acquired the habit of command, exacting ready and unques
tioning acquiescence. Politically, the course of treatment
pursued by the Government toward the South on all subjects
relating to that section, affecting its interests, directly] or
remotely, really or imaginary, compromising too often,
even at the expense of freedom and national honor, has
tended greatly, and not unnaturally, to create and foster the
feeling to which reference has been made.
The experience of the past sixteen years, the lessons of
law and ethics, freedom and equal rights, free thought and
free speech, the right of every individual, without denial
and unchallenged, to form and express his own judgment,
being amenable, according to law only, for the abuse of this
privilege, have done much to correct this state of mind, and
to beget and sustain largely a spirit of honest difference of
sentiment, even on political subjects. The progress made
in this direction, though far from being all we could wish,
is of great value and promises well.
Free thought, free discussion, earnest and honest agitation
are the indispensable conditions of reformation and progress
in the South, as well as everywhere else, among all people.
Is this condition possible by means of peaceful reconstruc
tion? A third difficulty following close upon the one just named,
although distinct from it, is found in the inaccessibility of
the masses, as well as leaders, now, as heretofore, dominant
in the South. Will they hear? Can they be reached? The
first question is partially answered in what has already been
said. It may be added that : " The old wall of partition
has been broken down," and the teacher and the agitator are
now among them. If allowed to remain their influence
must tell for good. The little leaven may leaven the whole
lump. N

218 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
Following the revolution which has just been wrought in
the South, breaking up institutions, changing the system of
labor, necessitating the remodeling of law and legislation,
the establishment of other and better educational organiza
tions, the submission of the political and the religious opin
ions of the people to a new crucial test, the deposing of
many old, and the advancement of other leaders, the condi
tion of the public mind, now upon inquiry, the best, the
most gifted and learned seeking knowledge, makes this the
time pre-eminently to speak and be heard. The public
address, the considerate editorial, the pamphlet or book, in
which are discussed, with wisdom and moderation, the prob
lems of reconcilement and pacification, the material and
moral welfare of the South, its just local self-government,
will be read, and their sentiments considered and diffused
to the good of all the people. This is the hour for its per
formance, and this is the work which should be done for the
South. The truth and tbe light should be given the .people
of this section.
A fourth difficulty connected with peaceful reconstruction
is discoverable in the fear of many that efforts in that behalf
tend to jeopardize the rights of the colored people, through
the probable success of the Democratic party.
If what has already been said be true there can be no
well-founded fear that peaceful reconstruction in the South
would result in the success of the Democratic party, and in
jeopardizing the liberty and rights of the emancipated class.
Many good men, earnest and tried friends of the colored
people, find it difficult to give their consent to the new policy
of pacification, for the reasons here indicated. The Demo
cratic party they justly fear; and they would keep it out of
power at all hazards. The liberty and rights of the colored
American they would sustain, even by the use of the army

PACIFIC RECONSTRUCTION. 219
and navy. Such purpose I indorse and shall sustain, whenever
needful, as far as possible, without violating the rights of
others, and doing violence and damage to the interests of
all concerned, the black as well as the white man.
In the first place, mere party success is not, in my judg
ment, indispensable to the greater good we should seek to
accomplish, nor in any sense comparable with it. Party, I
hold as a means. The end to be gained is the incomparable
and enduring good of the people. The success of the Dem
ocratic party does not follow necessarily the adoption of the
policy of pacific reconstruction. On the other hand, I fear
the continuance of the use of the army in the South will
hasten such result in the defeat of the Republican party.
Let us not, in our anxiety as to Democratic success, fail to
secure the continued success of the party of freedom.
But will pacific reconstruction prove injurious to the col
ored citizen ? I believe not. I believe it will prove to him,
as to all other residents of the South, an inestimable bless
ing. Of all others thus located, he is most ill prepared for
a continuance of political strife, so costly of time, industry,
the fruits of toil, personal safety, life, liberty, and the pur
suit of happiness. Reconciliation — the peace, the rest, the
opportunity and blessings which come of this, he needs.
And if he is to gain positive footing as a citizen of char
acter, means, and influence where he lives, this he must have.
With harmony and good neighborhood existing between him
and the white classes, his life, under the 13th, 14th and 15th
amendments of the Constitution of the United Staties and
the laws passed in pursuance thereof, with his liberty and
rights duly protected, as emergency may require, by the
State or Federal Government, will prove, it may be, at times
rugged and hard, but on the whole, successful and profitable.
Relieved from too pressing and absorbing political excite-

220 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
ment, he will cultivate industry more thoroughly and advan
tageously, locate his family, educate his children, accumu
late wealth, and improve himself in all those things which
pertain to worthy life.
He will become, in this way, a valuable and influential
member of society, respected and honored, it may be, by his
neighbors and fellow-citizens. He will become, indeed, in
terested in all matters which concern the State in which he
lives, and like his fellow-citizens, by voice and vote, advance
and conserve the welfare of the community. He will be
come self-reliant and self-supporting ; no longer a pariah,
but a man and citizen in fact. Having passed thus his life
in honest industry and noble endeavor, winning honors, offl
cial and other, no distinctions made against him on account
of his color — distinctions offensive and harassing — he will
spend his declining years in the midst of a happy family,
his children respected, as they show themselves honest, hon
orable, and worthy. Is this condition possible? May we
justly contemplate this as the promise of peaceful recon
struction to the former slave? God grant that it may be so !
I will not pass, I will not treat as a thing of small account,
the hatred, intense and seemingly implacable, exhibited since
the war by the dominant class of the South against the en
franchized colored citizen. The intensity and the implaca
bility of this feeling cannot be denied, and this fact we
must not fail to appreciate. In an amicable readjustment,
however, and under the milder sway of truth and justice,
law and liberty, it is to be hoped that the condition of things
indicated will be established, and an intelligent and perma
nent friendship secured between these classes.
Several important circumstances, now existing facts, must
contribute directly and largely to the accomplishment of
this result. The improved condition of the colored people,

PACMFIC RECONSTRUCTION. 221
their advancement in education, property, and social char
acter, in their knowledge of their rights as well as their
courage to assert earnestly their claim thereto ; the presence
and residence of many Northern white men in the South,
with their broad and liberal education, their knowledge and
appreciation of the beautiful and ennobling lessons of Chris
tian civilization, their value of manhood and the best methods
of developing and fostering its noblest qualities, their energy,
their industrjr, their thrift, their progress, their love of liberty,
equal rights, and free institutions; the influence ofthe na
tive-Union white man of the South, his brave assertion of
loyal sentiments, and his fearless maintenance of the doc
trines of our amended Constitution and the equal rights of
all, as therein enunciated, must all aid in producing and
sustaining such state of society.
The last and crowning difficulty which I shall mention, is
the wrong political education of the white classes of the
South. The tendency of political thought in the South has
always been towards aristocracy and feudal institutions —
the right of the few to govern, that right being founded upon
wealth, landed estates, and consequent social position and
influence. It may be stated with truth that the central and
controlling idea of the American Government, tersely and
graphically described by Abraham Lincoln as " the Gov
ernment of the people, by the people, and for the people,"
has never been incorporated in the political judgment or
policy of the South. How else could it be, with the over
shadowing institution of slavery existing there for quite two
hundred and forty-five years, while under this institution
365,000 slave-holders constituted the body of property-hold
ers, and the ruling class, to all intents and purposes ? In
addition to the political heresy, through the teachings of
oertain eminent and distinguished Southern statesmen, the

222 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
doctrine of State -rights and secession prevailed, and was
tenaciously held generally.
Besides, the South had not accepted as the basis of polit
ical action, prior to the war, those great and fundamental
principles which distinguish the American Revolution. The
principles ofthe Declaration, the doctrines ofthe Constitu
tion, the sentiments of the wisest and best statesmen of the
country were generally treated as " glittering generalities,"
void of practical significance. But now they profess to ac
cept all these; and no one is found to advocate the re-en
slavement of the Negro, or to oppose universal suffrage.
Freedom and popular government are accepted and estab
lished facts. Everybody admits the utter absurdity and
impracticability of secession, and yields a cordial and su
preme allegiance to the General Government. Indeed, pro.
fessedly, all the results of the war are accepted, including
the amendments of the Constitution and the reconstruction
acts, so-called. Taught, in a baptism of blood, the utter ab
surdity and futility of their former political training, its
unreasonableness and want of foundation in truth, it is to
be hoped that, like wise men, the Southern statesmen will
build anew upon sounder principles of philosophy and law,
as illustrated in the history of the best and most exalted
civilization of mankind.
More than this. Revolutions always prove moral sources
of education to the people. The revolution of the South
will form no exception to this rule. And among the valua
ble fruits which it will bring to the people finally, as I
believe, is a system of common schools, founded and sup
ported by the State, aided, it may be, by the National Gov
ernment, which will become nurseries no less of liberty and
labor, learning and piety, than sentiments of humane consid
eration and kindly regard of the one class for the other.

PACIFIC RECONSTRUCTION. 223
The humanizing influences of letters, the .liberalizing ten
dencies of knowledge, the purity of purpose and elevation
of character produced by culture, the new feelings and con
sequent change of habits and conduct, products of enlight
enment, must be treated as positive moral agencies, having
to do with the problem which we are now considering.
In a carefully prepared address, delivered by the Hon.
Roscoe Conkling, at Utica, New York, during the late presi
dential campaign, occurs the following truthful statement :
"Two hundred years ago two hostile systems of civilization
started on this continent. They came from other lands. One
was the idea of free thought and action, of equal rights for
all; of dignity of labor — the idea that every man was his
own master and peer of any other man before the law, how
ever poor and humble his calling, however hard his lot. This
idea, and the system it founded, were planted at the North.
The other was the idea of aristocracy and caste, of lawful su
periority of man over man, of the right of one class to dom
inate another and appropriate its labor, and to enjoy class
immunity and privilege. This idea, with the system it
founded, was planted in the South."
. Our late war was, indeed, nothing other than the last
bloody contest of these two ideas and systems in mighty and
desperate appeal to arms for the mastery. The result of the
contest has been chronicled; and the mastery — the eternal
mastery of the Northern idea and system, matchless in the
glory of its triumph, promising, in peace, prosperity, and
happiness, such priceless blessings to the entire country —
must, shall be maintained ! If the professions of dominant
classes at the South are sincere, if they have put away in
deed the old things and really accept the new, -the task of
reconcilement and pacification is easy; and, accomplished,
our nation moves forward, henceforth cultivating the one
idea and the one system, thereby achieving the largest pos
sible results under a common, harmonious, Christian civili
zation.

224 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
The Republican party, at its late national convention,
expressed, with clearness and force, its judgment and pur
pose as to the permanent pacification of the South, and the
complete protection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment
of all their rights. Its expression on the subject is signifi
cant, and is alluded to here as wise and true. The third
section of the platform reads :
" The permanent pacification of the Southern section of
the Union, the complete protection of all its citizens in the
free enjoyment of all their rights, are duties to which the Re
publican party is sacredly pledged. The power to provide
for the enforcement of the principles embodied in the recent
Constitutional amendments is vested by those amendments
in the Congress of the United States, and we declare it to
be the solemn . obligation of the legislative and executive
departments of the Government to put into immediate and
vigorous exercise all their constitutional powers for remov
ing any just cause of discontent on the part of any class,
and securing to every American citizen complete liberty and
exact equality in the exercise of all civil, political and pub
lic rights. To this end we imperatively demand a Congress
and Chief Executive whose courage and fidelity to these
duties shall not falter until these results are placed beyond
dispute or recall."
Commenting upon this portion of the platform, President
Hayes, in his letter of acceptance, says :
" The resolution of the convention on the subject of the
permanent pacification of the country, and the complete pro
tection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all their
constitutional rights, is timely and of great importance. The
condition of the Southern States attracts the attention and
commands the sympathy of the people of the whole Union
in their progressive recovery from the effects of the war.
Their first necessity is an intelligent and honest administra
tion of Government, which will protect all classes of citizens
in all their political and private rights. What the South most
needs is peace, and peace depends upon the supremacy of
law.

PACIFIC RECONSTRUCTION. 225
" There can be no enduring peace if the constitutional
rights of any portion of the people are habitually disregarded.
A division of political parties, resting merely upon distinc
tions of race or upon sectional lines, is always unfortunate,
and may be disastrous. The welfare of the South, alike
with that of every other part of this country, depends upon
the attractions it can offer to labor and immigration, and to
capital. But laborers will not go, and capital will not be
ventured, where the Constitution and laws are set at defiance,
and distraction, apprehension and alarm take the place of
peace-loving and law-abiding social life. All parts of the
Constitution are sacred, and must be sacredly observed — the
parts that are new, no less than the parts that are old. The
moral and material prosperity of the Southern States can be
most effectively advanced by a hearty and generous recogni
tion of the rights of all by all, a recognition without reserve-
or exception. With such a recognition fully accorded, it will
be practicable to promote, by the influence of all legitimate
agencies of the General Government, the effort of the people
of these States to obtain for themselves the blessings of hon
est and capable local government. If elected, I shall con
sider it not only my duty, but it will be my ardent desire to
labor for the attainment of this end. Let me assure my
countrymen of the Southern States that, if I shall be charged
with the duty of organizing an administration, it will be one
which will regard and cherish their truest interests, the in
terests of the white and colored people, both and equally, and
which will put forth its best efforts in behalf of a civil policy
which will wipe out forever the distinction between the North
and the Sou;h in our common country."
True to this declaration, faithful to the promise it contains,
President Hayes, in his inaugural address, elaborates and
enforces the same sentiments in the following words :
" The permanent pacification of the country upon such
principles and by such measures as will secure the complete
protection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all their
constitutional rights, is now the one subject in all our public
affairs which all thoughtful and patriotic citizens regard as
of supreme importance.

326 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
"Many of the calamitous effects of the tremendous revo
lution which has passed over the Southern States still remain.
The immeasurable benefits which will surely follow, sooner
or later, the hearty and generous acceptance of the legitimate
results of that revolution have not yet been realized. Diffi
cult and embarrassing questions meet us at the threshold of
this subject. The people of those States are still impoverished,
and the inestimable blessing of wise, honest, and peaceful
local self-government is not fully enjoyed. Whatever differ
ence of opinion may exist as to the cause ofthis condition of
these things, the fact is clear that, in the progress of events,
the time has come when such government is the imperative
necessity required by all the varied interests, public and pri
vate, of those States. But it must not be forgotten that only
a local government which recognizes and maintains inviolate
the rights of all is a true self-government.
" With respect to the two distinct races whose peculiar re
lations to each other have brought upon us the deplorable
complications and perplexities which exist in those States, it
must be a government which guards the interests of both
races carefully and equally. It must be a government which
submits loyally and heartily to the Constitution and the laws
— the laws of the natiou and the laws of the States them
selves — accepting and obeying faithfully the whole Constitu
tion as it is.
"Resting upon this sure and substantial foundation, the
superstructure of beneficent local governments can \e built
up and not otherwise. In furtherance of such obedience to
the letter and the spirit of the Constitution, and in behalf of
all that its attainment applies, all so-called party interests
lose their apparent importance, and party lines may well be
permitted to fade into insignificance. The question we have
to consider for the immediate welfare of those States of the
Union is the question of government or no government, of
social order and all the peaceful industries and the happiness
that belong to it, or a return to barbarism.
"It is a question in which every citizen of the natiou is deeply
interested, and with respect to which we ought not to be, in
a partisan sense, either Republicans or Democrats, but fel
low-citizens and fellow-men to whom the interests of a com
mon country and a common humanity are dear."

PACIFIC RECONSTRUCTION. 227
These utterances — the one, that of the great national party,
which is responsible for the conduct of our Federal and State
affairs beyond question for the past sixteen years ; the other
the utterances of a sagacious and judicious statesman occu
pying conspicuous place among the leaders of the party —
teach the threefold lesson: first, that pacific reconstruction,
if possible, ought to be accomplished; second, that if ac
complished it is to be done only in the adoption of "such
principles and measures as will secure the complete protec
tion of all citizens in the free enjoyment of all their consti
tutional rights ;" and third, that such attempts at pacification
are not only not inconsistent, but are in perfect accord with
the principles and doctrines of genuine Republicanism. The
lessons of history, not less than the precepts of our religion
and the fundamental principles of wise statesmanship, justify
and sustain such treatment of the Southern section of our
country. But how shall this peaceful theory of reconstruc
tion, so beautiful in ideal, whose results are so delightful to
contemplate, be reduced to practice without injustice to any,
and with the largest good to all ?
I have designated the various classes composing the popu
lation of the South. I have indicated certain difficulties,
and in that connection dwelt upon changes of institutions,
and feelings of the people, which, as I suppose, have taken
place ; and I have presented in the language of the platform
lately adopted, and in the language of his letter of accept
ance and his inaugural address, the sentiments of the Repub
lican party and the President of the United States, with
regard to this subject. And now, with the field before us,
the difficulties of its cultivation presented, the practical, all-
important question of how shall we proceed confronts us.
The importance, the magnitude, and difficulty, as well as
the necessity, of reconstruction by peaceful means will be

228 FBEEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
conceded. And however we may regret it, it will be conceded
that the method heretofore pursued proves by no means sat
isfactory in its results. Whether this failure is owing to the
unhandsome and obnoxious conduct of political adventurers ;
the unnecessary and too constant political excitement and
agitation of the people, the injudicious and oppressive acts
of Republican legislatures and officials, the former composed,
frequently, largely of ignorant, unqualified, and impecunious
persons, white and black, and the latter frequently not only
incompetent, but offensive and exasperating in their conduct;
the too frequent interference by the National Government in
State affairs with the army, seemingly for party purposes ;
the general bad temper and purpose of the native dominant
white class — whatever the cause, as to the failure of the
former method, there is but one opinion. The failure is a
fact, and some new and, if possible, better method must be
tried, This the welfare of those immediately concerned, as
well as the general good of the country in all its material
and moral interests, requires.
We must remember, however, in dealing with this subject,
that there is to be no compromise, no surrender of principle,
no betrayal of plighted faith. And there need not be ; for
with us it is not a question of new principles and measures ;
it is simply a matter of administration or policy, involving
the mode of applying the principles aud measures already
accepted and fixed in the Constitution and the laws.
The present administration, in its efforts at pacification, in
dealing with States, classes, races and individuals, proposes,
as one must believe, to stand on the law, as now written and
determined, insisting upon the cordial recognition of the
equal rights of all citizens, the practical guarantee of their
protection in such rights, the establishment and maintenance
of such condition of good order and peace as to encourage

PACIFIC RECONSTRUCTION. 329
immigration, the introduction of capital, and the advance
ment of labor, as well as the inauguration of such local self-
governments as in all their departments and acts shall be
harmonious with the altered status of the former slave, the
new provisions of the Constitution and the enactments of the
State and General Government passed in accordance there
with. Occupying such position, and insisting upon such
conditions as precedent and indispensable, the good omens of
its initials efforts promise a happy success. The acceptance
of these condititions as precedent and indispensable consti
tutes the only correct and sure test of the willingness and the
fitness of the dominant white classes of the South, for prop
erly considering and appreciating efforts for the permanent
pacification of that section. Did such condition of public
feeling exist, discoverable in the acts and utterances of the
leading and influential men of the South, in their treatment
of the classes and persons differing with them in political
sentiments and party relations, in the solution and determina
tion of those questions, material, educational and political,
which more especially affect the newly-enfranchised people,
we might wisely give ourselves no further anxiety with re
gard to this subject, resting assured that the general manage
ment of it by the Government would improve and sustain it.
Our anxieties, our fears come of the fact, that too little
such public feeling is now discernible ; and that it is to be
created and fostered largely by agencies and influences
brought to bear mainly, from without and through the in
strumentality of the Government, upon those who are to be
reconciled and made obedient, law-abiding subjects of the
State. The thing to be done, then, is to manifest in bold
and decisive manner such impartial and patriotic disposition
and purpose, with reference to the management of the
Southern problem, as to convince all concerned of the sin-

230 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
cerity and wisdom of the pacific yet positive intentions of
the Government and country with regard to their case. In
this way win their confidence, if possible, and secure an
earnest and hearty response to such beneficent purposes.
We do not calculate wisely regarding human impulses, nor
.the power of kindness over the hearts of men, if the result
does not prove satisfactory.
The acts, expressive of such disposition and purpose —
whether by the appointment of a distinguished former rebel
to the Cabinet, and prominent Southern men of the same
class to conspicuous official positions, are matters of detail,.
which may be very properly, under the law and the admoni
tions of public opinion, entrusted to the President. It must
be insisted, however, as both wise and just, that, in the dis
tribution of official patronage, Republicans, especially na
tive whites and blacks ofthe South, shall not be neglected,
and that the recognition accorded them shall be of equal
dignity and responsibility with that accorded the other class.
For in this way the aristocratic feeling already mentioned,
the hatred of the Negro, and the political repellancy exist
ing between the classes, will be the more speedily corrected
and removed. It must also be insisted, where no such do
mestic violence as that described in the Constitution exist*
in a State, although there exist therein dispute as to the
fact and legality of one of two governments, that the Federal
army shall not be used to interfere therewith ; but decision
as to the dispute shall be made under the law in accordance
with the mode and methods provided thereby. Thus an
exciting, irritating, and exasperating cause is removed, and
Government and people remitted to the established methods-
of the law. The experience, the habits of thought and
feeling of Americans, ill prepare them for tolerating the
use of the army in the settlement of political differences ;,

PACIFIC RECONSTRUCTION. 21iT
and in the presence of any such real or supposed condition
of things, permanent peace is impossible in any section of
our country.
The pleasing contemplation of the people of the South,
engaging in the wise and profitable cultivation of all the
industries, agricultural and other, peculiar to and remuner
ative in that section ; human life and human rights, without
regard to class or color, properly valued and protected ;
Just local self-government established ; the vexed and try
ing question of reconstruction settled ; the union of our
States and the Government no longer endangered by any
exciting sectional dispute, but adjusted upon enduring
principles of justice, law and liberty, excites in our minds
the deepest feelings of hope, the profoundest purpose to do
all that is practicable to secure such consummation, so de
voutly to be wished.
This- condition of reconcilement and peace secured, In
the prosperity and happiness of our country, heretofore
" rent by fratricidal strife," we shall realize the picture so
strikingly drawn by the Bard of Avon when dwelling upon
the restoration of peace at the close of civil war :
"No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil
Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood ;
No more shall trenching war channel her fields,
Nor bruise her flow'rets with the armed hoofs
Of hostile paces ; those opposed eyes,
Which— like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
All of one nature, of one substance bred —
Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close of civil butchery,
Shall now, in mutual, well-beseeming ranks
March all one way, and be no more opposU,
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies ;
The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
No more shall cut his master."

THE EXODUS.

THE CAUSES WHICH LED THE COLORED PEOPLE
OF THE SOUTH TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES-THE
LESSON OF THE EXODUS.

Office of the Emigbant Aid Society,
Washington, D. C, September 16, 1879.
Hon John M. Langston.
Dbab^Sir : You are aware that duringyonr absence from the United States
there has been a movement initiated on the part of the colored people of the
South which, owing to its magnitude and the peculiar combination of causes
by which it was brought about, is necessarily fraught with much interest to
the entire country. This movement, which as yet is apparently seen only in
its incipiency, promises to result in transferring large numbers of the colored
people from that section of our country in which they were recently held In
bondage, and in linking their destiny for weal or woe with that of the young
and thrifty States of ihe great Northwest. Involving, as it does, consequences
which are destined to have an important bearing upon the future material
and intellectual development of the race, this modern exodus has called forth
serious thought and utterance from many distinguished statesmen and friends
of the colored people. "While by many regarded as really the most practical
or available solution of one of the most vexed political problems which has
thus far menaced the Republic, it is by all conceded to be at least a manly
and dignified step in the already eventful career of the colored race of
America. In view of your identification with this race, and in recognition of your
distinguished ability and sagacity as a leader, we are authorized by the Emi
grant Aid Society of this city to solicit from you a public address, upon the
subject of Emigration, in Lincoln Hall, at such time as shall suit your con
venience. Assuring you of a generally expressed desire on the part of the
public to hear your views upon the subject named, we trust itmay meet your
convenience and pleasure to accept the society's invitation at an early day.
Very respectfully, O. S. B. "Wall, President.
J. M. Adams, Secretary. Washington City, September 20, 1879.
Gentlemen : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your kind
favor of the 16th instant, in which you present, in the most flattering manner,
in the name of the Emigrant Aid Society of the District of Columbia, an invita-

THE EXODUS. 238
tion to me to deliver, at Lincoln Hall, a public address -upon Emigration. In
accepting your invitation I beg to tender therefor my grateful thanks, and to
name Tuesday evening, October 7, as the time when it will suit my conve
nience to speak on the subject mentioned,
"With sentiments of high consideration, I am, Johst Merceb Langston.
Messrs. 0. S. B. Wall, President.
J. M Adams, Secretary.
Seventeen years ago, on the 22d day of September, Abra
ham Lincoln published his preliminary Proclamation of
Emancipation, and one hundred days thereafter, on' the Lit
day of January, 1863, he issued the proclamation in which
he designated the States and parts of. States in which the
abolition of slavery, as a war measure, was declared. The
abolition of slavery in the border States soon followed ; and
those persons who, prior to this action, had been held- and
designated as things, chattels personal, sustaining in the eye
of the law only the status of four-footed beasts and creeping
things, were given emancipation, and, as supposed, all those
dignities which are implied in self-ownership and manhood.
The measure of emancipation, however, was not granted
as the consequence of a healthy, moral, public sentiment per
vading the country ; not upon political considerations advan
ced, elucidated, and enforced by our leading statesmen ; not
in answer to appeals of abolition reformers and philanthro
pists, but as a military necessity at the time felt by the Gov
ernment and the loyal North engaged in a struggle with and
against the slave oligarchy of the South. Had emancipation
rested upon moral and political bases, as the result of agi
tation and debate, the condition of the emancipated class
might have been considerably changed. Some distinct gov
ernmental provision might have been taken for its due set
tlement, even upon lands appropriatedjspecially for this pry-
pose; and some system of education provided whereby it
inight have, in an earlier and more thorough manner, mastered
lump. o

234 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
and more fully appreciated the lessons taught and impressed
in freedom and by civil responsibility. But emancipation
as a war measure, was instant and speedy ; and its consum
mation, characterized by no prior consideration and debate
as to the subsequent situation of the freedman, left him in
simple ownership of his person — otherwise destitute in the
extreme. Hence the Negro, yesterday a slave, finds himself to-day, as
emancipated, in the enjoyment of the simplest and merest
self-ownership. Without property on the one side, and destitute
of educational and moral appliances for his elevation on the
other, he can look only to the philanthropic, the Christian, the
benevolent public even for food, clothing, and those simpler
elementary matters of instruction which tend to confirm him
in the consciousness of the sel&ownership which had just been
conferred. All honor to the philanthropic, the. Christian and
benevolent public of this and other lands for the liberal and
generous manner in which responses were made to the wants
of the emancipated colored American. Many noble families
of the North gave their best son and their best daughter to
educate and to elevate, as far as practicable, the newly-made
freedman ; others their money, by thousands to advance his
material and educational interests. It wa3 a sight worthy of
the civilized, Christian country in which we live to witness
how the noble sons and daughters of such heroic, devoted
families attempted this work ; with what earnestness, vigor,
and matchless moral heroism. And the little good we find
to-day already accomplished among the freed people of the
South is more largely due to the efforts and offerings here
referred to than to any Government assistance, State or na
tional, which has been given.
With regard to the emancipation of the American slave,
there have existed from the foundation of our Government

THE EXODUS. 235
two opinions, the one favoring and the other opposing it; and
as slavery itself grew hoary-headed, the institution becoming
more and more deep-seated, hedged about and defended by
State action and national recognition, public sentiment against
its abolition became more general and fixed. So much was
this the case that we have not to travel far back in the history
of our country to find when the two great poliiical parties,
the Whig and Democratic, pledged themselves to its mainte
nance and Eupport as a* positive, moral, legal, and political
finality. Every one of us recollects with the most vivid dis
tinctness the action had by these parties with regard to the
compromise measures of 1850; and the American Chureh, in
several of its important branches, as if it would not be outdone
by the great political organizations of the day, was rot slow
in making solemn and positive utterances founded, as was
claimed, upon the philosophy and logic, the theology and
teachings of the Old and New Testaments, favoring this in
stitution, which made and sustained property in the bodies
and souls of men created in the image of our Heavenly
Father. It is also within our memory, that memory running
back not beyond a quarter of a century of our past, that the
leading doctors of divinity, the conspicuous pulpit orators of
our country argued, with an ardor befitting a better cause,
with an eloquence frequently to the common mind irresistible
and overwhelming, that slavery was a divine institution,
sanctioned and sanctified by the teachings of Moses and Paul.
It was out of this state of things, a state of things implied
in the declarations which I have just made in regard to the
national parties and the church, that the great Republican
party, organized in 1854, avowing its purpose to stay the
extension of slavery, had its origin, and entered upon that glo
rious national career which is so distinguished by its triumphs
in favor of freedom, equal rights, the support of free institu-

236 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
tions, the maintenance of the Government, and the perpetu
ation of the Union of the States. It was upon the vote of
this party finally that Abraham Lincoln was made Presi
dent of the United States ; it was the triumph of this party
that gave occasion to the slave oligarchy to move in the
establishment of a Southern Confederacy, and the severance
from the uuion of those States in which this new government
was to take control. And as the old Democratic party
passed outof power, James Buchanan retiring to the eternal
shades of night, forever disgraced by the action which he
had taken, or failed to take, (for his sin is at once one of
commission and omission,) the great slave-power received
that death-blow, under which, staggering, it fell, dying in the
midst of the thunders of the great guns, whose echoes, last
ing through the ages, are a warning to those who would break
our Union and sunder our Government ; while they are glad
music, the perpetual song of joy to those who, accepting the
sentiments of our Declaration and the doctrines of our Con
stitution, hold life, property and sacred honor in pledge to
the maintenance of all those institutions which protect, de
fend and eternize American freedom with its sacred blessings.
But in the discussions had with regard to the non-exten
sion of slavery, the distinctive principles of the Eepublican
party and its purposes should it come into power, nothing
had been said really, with reference to the immediate aboli
tion of slavery in the several States where it existed, and no
well-defined position had been taken, no measures suggested
for ameliorating the condition of tbe slave in such States,
should he be emancipated. Indeed, the one great purpose,
the sole object which the most advanced leader of the Re
publican party advocated, and expected to realize, was the
prevention of the spread of slavery into territory then free.
But it was discovered in the midst of our war against the

THE EXODUS. 23T
rebellion, that the abolition of slavery, as just indicated, was
a fitting and necessary war measure; and the brave and true
Lincoln, with one mighty stroke of his pen, decreed the
emancipation of the Negro, who went out from his prison-
house of enslavement, but in the poverty bequeathed by
centuries of hard and cruel oppression. He was landless ;
he was homeless. Destitute mainly of -those things which
distinguish the humblest life, he has been battliDg for the
past seventeen years of his freedom, in a material sense, for
the merest, simplest necessaries of a lowly condition. In fact,
the merest emancipation of person and body has been prac
tically the only thing, up to this hour, which has been guaran
teed him. In this connection it is our duty to discriminate
between simple emancipation, accompanied by a destitution
characteristic of slave existence, and practical freedom, in
which such destitution does not ordinarily exist ; for if pro
vision is not made for the newly emancipated by State or
national regulation, opportunity, with fair wages, ought to
be given for regular and remunerative labor, with intelligent
investment of its proceeds in those things which are indispen
sable to well-ordered and prosperous life.
This brings me directly to the consideration of the condi
tion of the American ex -slave as we find him to-day, strug
gling for life, with its common, usual rewards, in the South.
This condition ought to be considered in its several relations of
protection, industry, and politics. In dwelling on this branch
of the subject we are not to forget that our national Consti
tution has been amended so as to guarantee freedom, civil
rights, and the ballot to the freedman ; that Congress has legis
lated in support of any rights, immunities, and privileges
claimed by this class of our citizens ; and that it is true that
generally in the States of the South laws have been enacted
the purpose and object of which seem to be the protection

2S8 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
and conservation of the rights, civil and other, which belong
to the s-tme class. In a word, as far as mere legislation hi
concerned, the condition of the freedman seems to be alto
gether tolerable — indeed good. In a material and industrial
point of view, however, as well as political, the difficulty in
his case seems to be even more deep-rooted and hard of man
agement. His real condition is described and duly appreciat
ed only when we recollect that although emancipated and
legislation has been had in this case, as stated, still he has
not been given practical independence of the old slave-holding
class, constituting the land-proprietors and employers in the
section where he lives and labors for daily support. And
besides this, he is left to seek existence in the midst of those
classes who of all others are most interested in demonstrating
that emancipation is a failure ; that the freedman is incapa
ble of cultivating those things that pertain to dignified,
honorable life; and that slavery is his natural and normal
condition. Not only holding the lands, the old slave-holding
class control the wealth and intelligence, as well as the
social and governmental appliances of that section. They
are masters in the church, masters in the courts, masters in
the schools, masters in politics, masters at the polls, and
masters of the legislatures, as well as the plantations, directing
and controlling according, to their caprices, their interests,
their prejudices, and their predilections. The non-landhold-
ing white of the South must do their bidding; and the non-
landholding Negro, also, occupies a subservient position to
them. Depending, then, for labor, food, clothing and shelter
upon his former master — the property holder — who is his
abusive, tyrannical employer, making even harder exactions
than he was wont to make of him when a slave, the condition
of the freedman is certainly sad.
If what is here stated with regard to the condition of the

THE EXODUS.
freedman be true, reasoning a priori, to say the least, one
might naturally conclude that the measure of protection ac
corded him would be limited and inadequate; that his indus
trial situation and prospects would be anything other than
prosperous and promising ; and that his exercise of political
powers would be circumscribed and obstructed — as far as pos
sible entirely hindered.
Mere philosophying, however, finds no place in this con
nection. The facts that bear upon this point are clear, pos
itive, and undeniable. The freedman is without protection.
His condition as a laborer, whether he work for wages, as a
share-farmer, or renter, is not favorable; indeed, it is lament
able; while as a voter, it is well known that he cannot safely
cast a free ballot according to the dictates of a wise and
patriotic judgment. The "bull-dozing" record of the South
is well understood, and the knowledge ofthe bloody deeds of
its instigators and supporters is widespread and fully ap
preciated by the people of our country. Nor do his appeals
to the courts of justice for redress of wrong meet with any suc
cess. If he make an appeal on law and fact to a jury of his
fellow-citizens, who should, even from their own interest, if
from bo other and higher consideration, do him justice, what
is the result ? Even if the facts be plain and the law clear
in support of his claim, the jury disagree ordinarily, and the
judicial remedy wliich would naturally work him justice is de
feated in its operation. This is true in civil as well as crimi
nal proceedings, especially where the interests of the landed
class as against the freedman are involved. In this regard
the black man seems to have no rights which the white man
is bound to respect.
After seventeen years of emancipation, in a condition of
life even worse than that of serfage, in struggles against
want and hardship, taxing his utmost endurance, the freed-

240 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
man has at last discovered his real situation and necessities,
and has resolved, if possible, to relieve himself by escaping
thence. What more natu»al than his effort in this regard,
what more manly, what more worthy of him ? What effort
is better calculated to relieve him of his servile dependence?
This movement is a declaration of the purpose of the freed
man to assert and maintain that independence in his own
behalf, without which no individual and no people can rise
to the level of dignified and honorable manhood . His exodus,
if justified on no other ground, is justified thoroughly and
entirely by the fact that it is, on his part, an effort to relieve
himself of his present condition of utter dependence upon
the old slave-holding class which he has served so faithfully
in the past, and thus secure to himself the fact as well as
the consciousness of real freedom.
The history of the emancipated classes of the world,
whether they have been serfs or slaves, abundantly sustains
the assertion that in most cases in which emancipation has
occurred, and the emancipated class has been left under the
control of the former master class, in the midst of the old
associations of its slavery, upon the plantations or estates
where it was wont to labor, such class thus situated and thus
controlled does not and cannot rise until it has by some
means freed itself from the dependence connected with
such"condition. It remains, in fact, in a servile position,
without self-control, self-reliance, or independent character;
without the purpose to make earnest, courageous effort "to
accomplish .those things which are worthy of manhood.
It is not astonishing that centuries of enslavement imbed
in the very soul of' the enslaved the spirit of servility and
dependence ; nor is it astonishing that this feeling once mas
tering the soul of man, holds it enchained to those things
which work degradation and ruin to freedom. The soul of

THE EXODUS. 241
man is only relieved of this feeling as it becomes conscious
of its own power in the assertion and maintenance of its
own purposes in the struggles and achievements of life. And
until the soul is emancipated from this feeling, man does
not enjoy real, substantial freedom. While one man leans
against another, or in his soul fears him, he is subservient ;
and in his subserviency loses his freedom as he does the
real dignity of his manhood. And this is especially true of
a class once enslaved.
To really comprehend the condition of tlie freed class, it
is necessary to understand and appreciate that on the part
of the ex-master class there still exists the feeling of supe
riority; the feeling of the right to rule, direct, and, in fact,
to own, if not the body and soul, certainly the services of
its former slaves ; while on the part of the dependent and
serving class, there exists, from long habit connected with
its slave condition, the sense of inferiority, of subserviency
— a disposition to go and come as commanded. Either the
relations of the two classes must be changed entirely, and
the change thoroughly recognized and admitted by both, or
the former masters will attempt the continuance of their old
conduct and ways of mastership ; while the other class, not
conscious of its freedom, will continue to serve as formerly
from fear and force of habit, their freedom being only rec
ognized as something ideal, without the practical benefits
which it should bring.
If there be any doubts in the mind of any intelligent per
son in regard to this matter, he has only to read carefully
the history of the emancipation of the serf of Russia and
consider his present condition ; the history of the West
India bondman and consider his situation, to be entirely-
convinced that the statement is true. Wallace, in dwelling
upon the emancipation of the serfs in Russia and in con-

242 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
sidering the question as to how their condition may be im
proved, states, in addition to other considerations offered,
that " it would be well to organize an extensive system of
emigration by which a portion of the peasantry would be
transferred from the barren soil of the North and West to
the rich fertile lands of the Eastern provinces."
It may be claimed that in this case the only reason why
emigration is recommended is that the emancipation law
did not confer upon the peasants of Russia as much land
as they required, and consequently the peasant, who has
merely his legal portion, has neither enough work nor enough
revenue. But to one who considers the case of the Russian
serf dispassionately and with care, it will be apparent that
the real difficulty in his case is that although provision has
been made for him, as far as land is, concerned, he has been
left practically in a state of dependence, if not upon the
land proprietors, upon the Commune ; and up to this time
has not been able — discovering his real condition-r-to assert
his independence of surroundings which tend to hold him
in servile position. It will be remembered that the three
fundamental principles of the law of emancipation in Rus
sia were, as stated by Wallace, first, that the serf should at
once receive the civil rights of the free rural class and that
the authority of the proprietor should be replaced by Com
munal self-government; second, that the rural Communes
should, as far as possible, retain the land they actually held,
and should in return pay to the proprietor certain yearly
dues in money and labor ; third, that the government should,
by means of credit, assist the Communes to redeem these
dues, or, in other words, to purchase the lands ceded to them
in usufruct. These conditions constitute the substantial
features of the emancipation law of Russia. Upon close
examination of these provisions, it will be discovered that

THE EXODUS. 243
although the emancipated serf is given, through the Com
mune, an interest in the soil, he is not relieved of a depend
ence which, in fact, keeps him in a servile condition; and
until he has that freedom, which is indispensable to the
cultivation of the highest possibilities of honorable man
hood, he will be restless and his condition unsatisfactory, as
it is unfortunate and unhappy. Let him but change his
condition, emigrating from the old places so familiar to him,
where his oppression and his real condition can never be for
gotten, and settling in our own new and free country, where
the blessings of liberty are guaranteed to every son and
daughter of any and all nationalities, without money and
without price, without stint, and without limit other than
legal, and he enters upon new life, with new prosperity and
new joy. It is emigration with its new conditions that
gives to him and his posterity, the blessings of real free
dom, which are more precious than rubies, more to be de
sired than any other human possession.
But that we may understand this subject from the slave-
holding standpoint rather than that of serfage, and as con
nected with our own rather than the Eastern continent, it
may be well to consider for a moment the condition of the
emancipated bondman />f the West India Islands. Here
reference need only be made to the Islands of Barbados and
Trinidad. In an excellent little work, entitled "The Ordeal
of Free Labor in the West Indies," written by William G.
Sewell, it is stated, in speaking of the condition of the labor
ers in the former island, that : "Under the new practice, still
in force, a laborer has a house and land-allotment on an
estate for which he pays a stipulated rent ; but he is under an
engagement besides, as a condition of renting, to give to
the estate a certain number of days' labor at certain stipu-
wages, varying from one-sixth to one-third less than

244 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
the market price. The rate of wages in Barbados is about
twenty-four cents per day ; but the laborer, fettered by the
system of tenancy-at-will, is compelled to work for his land
lord at twenty cents per day. He is, therefore, virtually a
slave; for if he resists the condition of his bond he is
ejected by summary process, and loses the profit he hoped
to reap upon his little stock. This remnant of coercion must
be abolished wherever it exists — and it prevails, with some
exceptions, in all the West India colonies — before it can be
said that emancipation has been thoroughly tested." After
making this statement the author gives account of the
organization of an association in Barbados for the improve
ment of the social and moral condition of the laboring pop
ulation, stating that in the preamble to the resolutions
adopted at the first meeting thereof, it was declared that
" one of the main barriers to social progress " in the island
" arose from a want of confidence between" the employer
and the employed." He regrets the fact that the proprietor-
body set their faces at once against this movement, and he
says : " The planters, tenacious of their privileges and like
aristocracies all the world over, anxious to retain their power
over the masses, met to counteract the new movement,
denounced the society for attempting to arouse unjust sus
picions in the minds of the ignorant touching their rights,
viewing with alarm and as a political movement the demand
for a more liberal tenure, and as an effort to jeopardize the
successful system of plantation management" as adopted.
They maintained that the best of feeling existed between
them and their tenants; and, finally, they declared their
inherent right to adopt such measures as they might think
fit for the good government, safety, and well-doing of their
properties. Here is the master class asserting its right to
be masters, and in effect believing it to be the duty of the

THE EXODUS. 245
laborer, even when emancipated, to consent to remain in
a servile and slavish attitude.
If we turn from Barbados to Trinidad, it will be found
that the people in the latter island, having left the estates
upon which they were slaves, and thus exchanged a condition
of servitude for one of independence, " as a natural con
sequence are more enlightened, better educated, and more
wealthy than their brethren in Barbados " Herein, claims
Mr. Sewell, we discover the distinction that should be made
between the Negroes in Trinidad and in the other islands
where they have been able to leave the esta'tes and work for
themselves, and those in Barbados, where, by force of cir
cumstances, they have been compelled to remain on the es
tates and work for others.
While it is true that in Barbados the ex -slave has shown
himself a valuable and persistent laborer, to such a degree
and extent that that island is said to be in its culture a beauti
ful garden, unnatural, unjust distinctions, on account of color,
exist to this day, against the black and mulatto classes, and
it may be said that the real condition of such classes is that
of the free Negro where his social and civil rights are not
recognized and respected.
' Under the title of " Social Distinctions in Barbados," the
author to whom I refer states that " the distinctions of caste
are more strikingly observed in Barbados than in any other
British West India colony. No person, male or female, with
the slightest taint of African blood is admitted to white so
ciety. No matter what the standing of a father, his influence
cannot secure for his colored offspring the social status that
he himself occupies ; and the rule is more rigidly carried out
among women than it is among the men." ,
Dwelling still on this subject, Mr. Sewell says : "But
when he (the Barbadian planter) and all the other white in-

246 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
habitants of the island make a difference of color their only
line of distinction, and parade their reasons in an offensive
and obnoxious way — when white planters refuse to associate
with colored planters, white merchants with colored mer
chants, and white mechanics with colored mechanics — simply
because they are colored, the question ceases to be a purely
social one and assumes a dangerous political complexion.
As long as the colored people were slaves, their heart-burn
ings and jealousies might be disregarded with impunity or
contemptuously ignored. But freedom has opened to them
the way to progress and power, and if their present progress
and present power have proved, as they have proved, that
color is no insuperable barrier to social, intellectual devel
opment and refinement, it is but wise to make it no longer
an insuperable barrier to social advancement."
But such social discriminations are apt to continue, fos
tered always and everywhere by the master class against
the laborer, especially if the latter has been a slave, and, on
his being emancipated, is left thereafter in the conditions
and under the control which were connected with his en
slavement. Such distinctions will last until, by some manly-
utterance or courageous deed, he demonstrates his indepen
dence of the old servile condition, and his capacity to dare
and achieve upon his self-reliance, as a fearless, indepen
dent man. It is in recognition of the principle here elabo
rated that Cassagnac, in his " History of the Working and
Burgher Classes," in speaking of the mode of emancipation
in France and the allotments of land allowed upon leases
made with regard thereto, especially the contracts made for
long terms, removing thereby the emancipated far from the
influence and control of the former master class, says : "This
kind of contract had this advantage, that when they were
for a long term, as, for example, for three generations, a cent-

THE EXODUS. 347
ury passed, during which the action of the master upon the-
slave was restrained and weakened ; while the slave, almost
free in fact, acquired the manners and customs ofthe father
of a family, became industrious, economical, settled, prudent,
accumulated small profits and left them to his children. At
the end of a century, when three generations had passed
away, the master was much less a master, the slave was
much less a slave. Both had forgotten whence they camo
by only seeing where they stood."
.^The inference to be drawn from the facts adduced is this :
In proportion as the emancipated class is relieved of the
presence and control of the class formerly owners and mas
ters, from ,the conditions of its former enslavement, the
spirit of servility is removed and that of self-assertion, self-
reliance, and independence is cultivated, while steady, solid-
progress is made in the accumulation of the valuable fruits
of industry.
The feeling too generally entertained by the old master
toward his former slave, and by the latter toward the former,
after emancipation, is strikingly illustrated in the story told
by Herodotus with respect to the Scythian, who advised his
comrades as to the manner in which they should meet and
resist the army of their slaves, who, having taken possession
of their households, their wives, and the management of pub
lic affairs, resisted them on their return from a protacted
military expedition. He counselled his comrades to throw
away their weapons, their arrows and their darts, and meet
their opponents without any means of defence save the whips-
which they used upon their horses. Said he : " Whilst they
see us with arms, they think themselves our equals in birth
and importance ; but as soon as they shall see us with whips
in our hands, they will be impressed with a sense of their
servile condition, and resist no longer." The historian re-

248 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
ports that the plan suggested was adopted, and proved to be
entirely successful.
How shall the American ex-slave, who has served for two
hundred and forty-five years under the influence of which I
speak, be relieved of the presence and control of a class here
tofore his masters ? The history of the world offers but one
solution of this question, and that solution is found in his
exodus. Let him go forth; and where sympathy and the
recognition of liberty and equal rights are accorded him ;
where labor is to be performed ; where struggle is to be made ;
where the stern realities of life are to be met, there let him
demonstrate his courage, his self-reliance, his manly inde
pendence. Under such new conditions his capacities, his
powers and his efforts will win the crown which befits the
brow of noble manhood.
The exodus of the colored American is intimately con
nected with and inseparable from the continued existence of
the old order of things in the South. Up to this time there
seems to have been in this regard practically little, if any,
change. It is very true that a few plantations, compara
tively speaking, have changed hands ; a few even of the
former slave class have here and there possessed themselves
of small homes, have bought small pieces of land, and erected
thereon small houses; but "the great house" has not dis
appeared, nor has the Negro quarter ; and in some of the
Southern States the old whipping-post, with its proverbial
thirty-nine lashes, is still recognized as a judicial institution.
Nor have the modps of industry, or the crops grown in that
section, been materially changed. Cotton and sugar are the
chief products of the South to-day, as they were a half cent
ury ago. Nor has there been any change, certainly no gen
eral and fundamental change, in the feelings and purposes of
the old slave-holding class as to their right to work, drive,

THE EXODUS. 249
and scourge the Negro laborer. Having been his master once,
their conduct would indicate that they believe, even in spite
of the action of the General Government and theresults of
our great war, that their mastership is to continue forever.
Nor has the feeling of the non-slaveholding class of the
South undergone any material change with respect to the
freedman. Indeed, it seems to be true that this class hates
the colored man more now than when he was a slave ; and
stands ready at the command of the aristocratic class to doits
bidding, even to the shedding of his^blood. As showing that
this condition of affairs is true and that little advancement
has been made, one has only to pronounce in your hearing
certain terrible words coined in connection with the barbar
ous, cruel treatment that has been meted out to the emanci
pated class of Mississippi, Louisiana, and other States form
erly slaveholding. What is the meaning of the frightful
words, "Klu-Klux," "Bull-dozers;" and the terrible ex
pression, " the shot-gun or Mississippi policy ?'' The meaning
is clear. It is that neither the old slaveholding spirit, nor
the old slaveholding purpose or control is dead in the South ;
that plantocracy, wi^h its fearful power and influences, has
not passed away ; that the colored American under it is in a
condition of practical enslavement, trodden down and out
raged by those who exercise control over him. Such things
will continue so long as the spirit of slavery exists in the
South ; so long as the old master class is in power ; so long
as the freedman consents to remain in a condition more terri
ble than any serfage of which history gives account. How
ean this condition of things be broken up ? How can the
planter-rule be changed ? How can the master class be made
to realize that it is no longer, slaveholding, and that the slave
has been set free? And how can the freedman be made to
feel and realize that having been emancipated, practical lib-
p

250 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
erty is within his reach, and that it is his duty to accept and
enjoy it in its richest fruits ; fearing neither the responsibili
ties of enfranchised manhood, nor trembling as a coward in
the presence of trials and dangers ?
To the intelligent and sagacious inquirer, who, without
feeling, without passion, but philosophically and in a states
man-like manner considers this matter, there can be, as it
seems to me, but a single answer. It is this : Let the freed
man of the South, as far as practicable, take from the old
plantocracy, by his exodus, the strong arms, broad shoulders,
stalwart bodies, which, by compulsion, have been made to
prop and sustain such system too long already in this day of
freedom. Let him stand from beneath and the fabric will
fall, and a new and necessary reconstruction will follow.
But is it possible to transfer all the freedmen from the
Southern part of the country ? Perhaps not. It is, however,
possible and practicable to so reduce the colored laborers of
the South by emigration to the various States of the North
and West, as to compel the land-holders — the planters — to
make and to observe reasonable contracts with those who re
main ; to compel all white classes there to act in good faith ;
and address themselves to the necessary labor upon the plan
tation, as well as elsewhere ; obeying the law and respecting
the rights of their neighbors.
Thus the old order of things would be speedily changed,
and the industrial interests of that section greatly advanced ;
while the civil and political rights of all would be, through
necessity, respected and sustained. Even the exodus move
ment just commenced, small as it is, insignificant as it appears
to be, has produced in this regard a state of feeling in the
South which justifies entirely the opinion here expressed.
It is well to recollect that in the South we find a barren,
effete civilization — a civilization the natural product of sla-

THE EXODUS. 251
very and slave-holding institutions. The school, the college,
the institution of learning, publicly or privately established
by the State or in connection with the church, has not taken
deep root there, bearing fruit in natural abundance. The
masses of the freed people are illiterate. How could it be
otherwise ? But a large portion of the whites are also illit
erate. The existence of slavery accounts for the condition of
both these classes in this respect. All those things which ap
pertain to an advancing civilization — healthful, vigorous and
manly — seem to be wanting in the Southern section of our
country. Let the freedman come to the North, let him go to the
West, and his contact with new men, new things, a new order
of life, new moral and educational influences will advance
him in the scale of being in an incomparably short time, even
beyond the expectations of the most _sanguine. In his new
home he will cultivate personal independence and free thought
acquiring in the meantime experience, knowledge and wisdom,
which will enlarge his mind, ennoble his soul, and fit him for
those higher walks of life, as merchant, mechanic, lawyer,
doctor, minister, scientist or scholar. In other words still,
the same benefits, the same blessings enjoyed by the new
comer from Ireland, England, and other foreign countries,
tendiDg so largely to elevate the thought, the purposes of
such person, will be given to the ex-slave, and operate with
equal power in the improvement of his mind and condition.
But as things are at present constituted in the South, the
old methods of slavery and slave labor still prevailing, there
is a large excess of laborers in that section. It is to be re
membered that in slavery seven men, at least, were required
to do the work of a single man in freedom. The exodus works
at once the salvation of such surplus laborers by furnishing

252 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
them a field for their muscle and labor in the unimproved
acres of the West and North, thus not only benefiting them,
but aiding in the development of the sections where they
may locate. This consideration the people of the West and
North appreciate, and their invitation to the poor freedman
comes from them cordially and heartily. Cassagnac, in his
work heretofore referred to—" The History of the Working
and Burgher Classes" — in dwelling upon the Proletariat,
says that it embraces : First, working men ; second, mendi
cants ; third, thieves ; and fourth, women of the town. In ex
plaining what he means by these several designations, he
states that a working man is a proletary who works and gains
wages for a living ; a mendicant is a proletary who will not
or cannot work, and who begs for a living; a thief is a pro-
letiffy who will neither work nor beg, and who steals for a
living ; a woman of the town is a proletary who will neither
work nor beg nor steal, and who prostitutes herself for a liv
ing. As the friend of the freedman, as one who would see
him other and better than either of the classes here named
composing the Proletariat of Cassagnac ; who would see him
more than the ordinary working man in the sense explained ;
who would see him a landholder and owner ; who would see
him master, as he is father, of his own household, rearing his
family and his children in the fear and the admonition of his
Heavenly Father ; growing sons, indeed, to the State, with
shoulders broad and Atlantean, fit to bear the responsibilities
of earnest, dignified, manly life, I do not fear but approve
and advocate his emigration.
Where shall he go? It has already been indicated that
the North and the West furnish the localities open for the
freedman, and to which he should go. It certainly would not
be wise for him in large numbers to settle in any one State of
the Union; but even in thousands he would be received and

THE EXODUS. 253
welcomed to kind, hospitable homes in the various States of
the sections named, where labor, educational advantages, and
the opportunity to rise as a man, a citizen and a voter would
be furnished him.
But to his emigration there are objections :
First. It is claimed that the Negro should remain in the
South, and demand of the Government protection from the
wrongs which are perpetrated against him, it being asserted that
for him to emigrate at this time therefrom is to surrender the
fundamental principle of protection which is guaranteed him,
as well as every other citizen of the Republic, by the Consti
tution of the United States. Here -it must be remembered
that in emigrating from the South to the North the freedman
is simply moving from one section of our common country to
another, simply exercising his individual right to go when
and where it suits his convenience and his advantage. In the
next place, it is the exercise of such constitutional right that
he leaves a section of the country where slavery has created
a barbarous and oppressive public sentiment, the source of all
the abuses which ,he suffers, and which it is impossible, cer
tainly impracticable, to reach and eradicate by any legisla
tive enactment had by the General Government, or by any
legal fiat ; and which, in fact, can only be changed and im
proved by educational and moral appliances brought to bear
upon the masses of the people of the S>uth for an indefinite
period. This objection is urged, too, in disregard both ofthe
considerations just now suggested, in reply thereto, and in
disregard of the fact that the freedman emigrating to the
North or West puts himself in far better condition than he
is in the South, in every sense ; while he makes himself use
ful upon a larger and better scale to the country generally.
But it may be claimed, and doubtless is, that if the freed
man leaves the South under the oppressions which are heaped

254 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
upon him, he yields to an unconstitutional proceeding on the
part of the dominant classes, and thus weakens, if he does
not surrender, the right to demand protection generally. In
answer to this opinion it may be justly replied, that the
freedman has a right to protection, and it ought to be granted
to him at once, if possible ; but it can hardly be required of
the freedman who desires to leave the South to remain in his
present condition and sacrifice himself, make himself a martyr
in such manner.
Secondly. It is claimed that the freedman cannot endure
a northern and western climate. It is said that the winters
of these sections are too severe for him ; that in their chill
ing winds, (heir biting frosts, their deep, freezing snows, he
will find himself sickening and speedily dying. Upon what
facts and data this opinion is presented and sustained it is
difficult to imagine. It is true, as justified by observation,
and as facts and figures would show, could they be secured,
that the colored man as he goes north into colder regions
adapts himself with ease to the climate. While it is true
that in no part of our country does the colored man show
more robust health, finer physical development and endur
ance, and consequent longevity, than in the northern and
western portions of our country. In fact so much is this the
case that latterly it has become a thing of general observa
tion and remark. It is where the zymotic and malarial dis
orders prevail that the Negro sickens and dies ; and this is
abundantly shown in the fearful death rate that is given by
sanitarians as connected with the warm and tropical regions
of our own and other countries.*

*Tt_e following statements will show the difference in death rate in several
of the Southern cities as compared with alike number of Northern cities for
the year 1878:
The death rate per 1,000 of population during that year ran as follows ¦
New York city, 24 93 ; New Orleans, (exclusive of deaths from yellow fever,)

THE EXODUS. 255
In the third place it is objected that if there is any con
siderable emigration from the South the freedmen who are
left behind will be forgotten — their case ignored. But if
the views already presented be correct, if emigration will
work the results which are claimed, then this objection is
fully and completely met. The old plantocracy is abolished ;
the slave system is entirely overthrown and the industrial
systems of the South reconstructed ; all oppressions and
abuses are removed ; protection and fair wages with the pros
pect of general agricultural improvement and the enjoyment
of all civil and political rights are guaranteed ; and thus the
vexatious Southern problem is solved.
Again it is urged thatthe freedman is too poor to emigrate.
Those who urge this objection ought to remember that it
is the poor and oppressed in all ages and in all countries
who have emigrated. One never emigrates only as he seeks
to improve his condition, to relieve himself and family of
want, to escape oppression and abuse, to gain such position
as that, while he enjoys his freedom and rights, it is possible
for him to cultivate as to himself and his children those cir
cumstances of property, wealth, and intellectual, and moral,
and religious culture, which distinguish desirable, wise, hu
man existence.
Is it wise for the poor, starving, oppressed Irishman to
quit the country of his nativity to seek a new home in our
goodly land, where opportunities of culture, the accumula-

30.02; Philadelphia. 17 96 ; Savannah, 30 25: Cincinnati, 17.23; Mobile, 23. 02 ;
Chicago, 16.50; Nashville, 23.11 ; Cleveland, 16.72 ; Jacksonville, 21 10 ; Mil
waukee, 14.35 ; Augusta, 18 S3 ; Boston, 21.53 ; Charleston, S. C, 28 98.
In the city of Charleston, South Carulina, the death rate of the white pop
ulation was 20.95, while that of the colored was 35 14. In the District of Co
lumbia, the death rates of whites was 16.37 ; while the colored was 32 24. In
all the Southern cities where the death rate is given comparatively, that of
the colored race far exceeds the whites, and the very large number of deaths
among the colored people resulting from what is known as the zymotic or pre
ventable diseases is especially noticed.

256 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
tion of wealth, advancement and success await his endeavors?
From whom comes the negative response ? Then let no
man either despise or oppose the exodus of the freedman,
who now, realizing his real condition, emigrates from the
old plantation and Negro quarter, from the scenes of his
former enslavement, from the hateful and oppressive con
trol of a stupid and tyrannical landed aristocracy, from pov
erty, from ignorance, from degradation to a home among
those who value freedom, free institutions, educational and
material, moral and Christian worth, individual effort and
achievement — to a home among those who, loyal to God and
man, never fail to give sympathy, succor and hospitable
welcome to the needy son of Ireland, or the yet more needy
son of Mississippi, who comes seeking not only liberty, but
the opportunity to labor, to live, and achieve in their
midst. Our own national experience furnishes a valuable lesson
upon the subject under consideration; and pondering such
lesson wisely, the freedman and his family will do well to
act in its light. This lesson is presented in the two-fold
character of individual and family emigration, and the suc
cess and prosperity gained in connection therewith.
The family of a New England farmer is numerous. His
sons are not needed at home ; and there is no remunerative
labor, manual or other, to be had in the community where
this family lives. What is done ? What has always been
done in such families under such circumstances ? Let the
well-ordered and worthy household, the beautiful, fertile and
productive farm, the substantial and enduring success, the
political, the official, or the professional distinction which
have been gained, and which now belong to the eldest son
of such family, who, leaving home, settled fifty years ago in

IHE EXODUS. 257
one of our nearer or more remote Western States, give the
answer. But the community is overcrowded. Whole fam
ilies are without work and pinching want seems to be near
the door. What has been, and what is done in such cases?
We know full well ; for the populous, rich, prosperous, grow
ing, vigorous, matchless West, with its thousands of free,
Christian homes, noble sons, intelligent, heroic daughters,
makes the answer in full, clear, positive, eloquent manner-
Then, too, in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, not to mention
other States in connection with which the same thingis true,
the colored American has moved heretofore from the South,
and establishing settlements in the States named, has proved
by his complete success the benefit and advantages of emi
gration. His rich and prosperous settlements in Pike county,
Ohio, and in Cass county, Michigan, deserve in this connec
tion special mention. But why dwell on these facts ? For
the colored man is seen now in all parts of the North; and
wherever he is, earnest, sober, and industrious, he makes
reasonable advancement, commendable progress, in the hon
est ways of life.
In view, then ofthe considerations presented ; to secure the
highest good of all the parties concerned by the overthrow
of the plantocracy of the South and the reconstruction of
the industrial system of that section, on the basis of free
labor, justice, and fair dealing ; to relieve the ex-slave from
his dependent and practical slavery, and while giving him
the fact and consciousness of his freedom and independence,
furnish him the opportunity to cultivate, not only ordinary
labor, but to build up his present interests, industrial, mate
rial, educational, and moral, with reference to that future of
which his past conduct, his capabilities and powers, his
loyal and Christian devotion, give such reasonable promise,

258 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
I do most reverently and heartily accept the lesson contained
in the words —
" I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are
in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their task
masters ; for I know their sorrows ; and I am come down to
deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring
them up out of that land into a good land, and large, a land
flowing with milk and honey."

FUTURE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN.

HIS CIVIL RIGHTS AND EQUAL PRIVILEGES-MEN
TAL AND PHYSICAL QUALITIES— ADAPTATION
TO SKILLED LABOK

Baltimore, October 31, 1876.
Professor John M, Langston:
Dear Sib: At the regular monthly meeting of the Progressive Union and
Co-operative Association, held in September, the following resolution was
adopted :
Resolved., That Professor John. M. Ijfmgston be specially invited to lec
ture in Baltimore, in behalf of tbis Association, on Thanksgiving evening,
November 25,1875, upon the following subject: " The Duties of the Hour aa
they Pertain to the Colored American Citizen ;'" and that he be furnished
with a copy of the declaration of objects of the Association.
"Whereas., it isMi undeniable fact that a strong and powerfully organized
opposition exist-s in this country to the colored man's full and complete enjoy
ment of all the rights and privileges of American citizenship; and
Whereas, we believe thatthe full enjoyment of said rights ia-to be obtained
and preserved only by combination, organization and perseverance by colored
men; therefore
Resolved, That we organize for the fo lowing objpcts under t^e name of the
*' Colored Men's- Progressive and Co operative Union:"
1. To secure equal advantages in schools of all grades, from the primary
school to the university.
2. To secure a full and complete recognition of our civil rights, and to defend
by all proper means any abridgment of tho same.
3. To use all jus'ifiable means to obtain forour children admission into the
¦workshops of our country, that they may obtain a practical knowledge of all
mechanical branches of business.
4. To labor for the moral and social elevation of our people.
I hope you will discuss at length the right of the colored boys' admission
Into the workshops and the unjustifiableness of their exclusion. This is the
second letter written to you on this matter. I did not know it until yesterday.
I saw Mr. Isaac Myers and he told me that you had not received my first
letter. If you have suggestions to make with refer nee to the lecture Iwill
be happy to receive them. Respectfully, George Myers.
Mr. President : I am not insensible of the distinguished
honor shown me in the invitation which brings me before you
on this occasion. I experience and express to you and the

260 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
" Progressive Union and Co-operative Association " the live
liest feelings of gratitude. As I value tbe honor you do me,
through your invitation, I trust I in some proper sense ap
preciate the dignity and importance of the task it imposes,
as well as the difficult and perplexing character of its wise
and conscientious performance.
I despair of my ability to perform the duty, self-imposed
by the acceptance of your invitation, in such manner as to
interest and edify you and promote the welfare of that large
class of our population described in the phrase, " colored
American citizen." With no large confidence in my ability,
and with no purpose to cultivate oratorical art or display in
its discussion, I bring to the consideration of the subject
which you have named as the theme of my address the deep
est and most abiding loyalty to those on whose behalf you
have organized your association. And, like you, I would
discover not only the excellent qualities of character, the
commendable facts of conduct, and the more important and
valuable achievements which render memorable the history
of the colored American, but, exploring the hiding places of
his weakness, the secret haunts of his insidious foes, the
destroyers of his physical, industrial, educational, moral,
social and civil greatness, I would induce him to erect and
sustain the strongest defenses against these enemies.
I may, I ought, to congratulate you and our fellow-citizens,
especially our colored fellow-citizens, upon the organization
of an association whose purposes, generous and philanthropic,
are so clearly and tersely set forth in its declaration of objects,
in the following words :
Whereas it is an undeniable fact that a strong and power
fully organized opposition exists in this country to the col
ored man's full and complete enjoyment of all the rights and
privileges of American citizenship ; and whereas we believe
that the full enjoyment of said rights and privileges is to be

FUTURE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN. 261
obtained and preserved only by combination, organization
and perseverance by colored men ; therefore
Resolved, That we organize for the following objects under
the name of the "Colored Men's Progressive and Co-opera
tive Union : "
1. To secure equal advantages in schools of all grades,
from the primary school to the university.
2. To secure a full and complete recognition of our civil
rights and privileges, and to defend them hy all proper means
against any abridgment.
3. To use all justifiable means to obtain for our children
admission into the workshops of our country, that they may
gain a practical knowledge of all mechanical branches of
business. 4. To labor for the moral and social elevation of our
people. Upon the organization of such association and its public
inauguration, on this Thanksgiving evening.under auspices so
favorable to its extended usefulness, I do indeed congratu
late you. Its success is assured in the disinterested and
earnest devotion of its projectors and members ; the humane
and Christian purposes which it seeks to accomplish.
According to a resolution unanimously adopted by the
association I have been invited to speak on this subject :
" The duties of the hour as they pertain to the colored Amer
ican citizen."
I infer from the statement of my subject and your decla
ration of objects that Ido not travel beyond legitimate and
proper limits if, in dwelling upon this theme, I speak of cer
tain duties which we are bound to perform in our own behalf
as well as those which our white fellow-citizens ought to ac
knowledge and respect as binding upon them. At this hour
in our history I consider the former of not less importance
and their performance not less imperative than the latter ;
and as I progress, if we do not agree now, I feel assured
that we will ere I conclude.

262 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
Since our emancipation a great deal has been said with
regard to our " dying out." Within a few days a gentleman
put into my hands a Democratic weekly journal containing
what he called a well-considered and philosophical article;,
in which I found these words :
" The decree of emancipation was a sentence of death to
the Negro race upon this continent; none the less inexorable
because it is self-executing. If to that sentence there is any
alternative, it is barbarism — the loss of all that three cen
turies have gained — and a lapse into the old and normal
character and condition. This, in the face of multiplied
efforts to overcome and to avert it, is what experience show
to be inevitable. In the tropical and semi-tropical countries
pf the Western hemisphere it is possible that the Negro, left
to his own guidance, will survive ; but his survival will be
upon the terms of his own native instincts and propensities-
— the permanent elements of his character. In the temper
ate regions he will go out, slowly or rapidly, in proportion
as the climatic influences are more or less adverse to his
constitution." Continuing, the writer says :
" Admitting that the climate is, other things being equal,
such as to allow of the continuance of the Negro upon this
continent, the fact of his survival depends upon another
condition — that he shall become industrial. No race of peo
ple, not spontaneously industrial, can maintain a permanent
existence in a temperate climate. Slavery made the Negro
involuntarily industrial ; perhaps, in the process of time, it
would have made him voluntarily so. In order to elevate
the Negro, and fit him for his material environment, and in
sure his survival in it, it is proposed to school him; give
him what is called an education. The effect of schooling
upon the white is to make him, as an individual, non-indus
trial. The rationale of the matter is something like this :
A race of men in order to survive must be industrial. The
blacks, as a race, are not industrial ; the whites are. School
ing makes the individual .white non-industrial. Therefore,
iu order to make the individual black industrial, he must be

FUTURE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN. 263
schooled. And this is no more feeble than the rest of the
educatio-philanthropic systems of ideas."
Again, he says :
" Death or — so far as the relations ofthe race are concerned
— its equivalent was the doom pronounced upon the African
by the decree of emancipation. The Negro in the United
States is dying out. Whether or not he is elevated is, there
fore, either to himself or the white, matter of small, and, at
the most, temporary concernment. In the race between
education and extinction it matters little which comes out
ahead when the latter is inevitable. But, admitting the pos
sibility, under favorable circumstances, of educating the Afri
can into the equivalent of a European, there is one condition of
race advancement which is absolute, and with which the Negro
cannot comply. A race of people which, through the cir
cumstances of their environment, or through defects in their
own constitution or disposition, or through both of these com
bined, do not keep good their own numbers, cannot progress ;
can only deteriorate. The stamina or the character or the
constancy essential to the one is an inflexible condition to the
other. Multiplication and advancement, and dimunition and
retrogradation are things co-ordinate and inseparable. The
history of the world does not furnish an example of a people
who were fallen off numerically and advancing spiritually at
one and the same time. Such are the relations between the
physical and the psychical in humanity that the thing is im
possible. Stamina and robustitude in the one is stamina and
robustitude in the other, and there is no instance in which a
diminution or reproductive capacity and consequent diminu
tion in numbers has not been found associated with reduced
intellectual audacity and moral constancy. This law is so
absolute that each ratio of increase and diminution has its
corresponding mode and degree of intellectual and moral
manifestations." If we carefully and critically examine the words I quote
we shall find that the writer makes these three assertions :
1, That the decree of emancipation is a sentence of death
to the Negro race.

264 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
2. That in the temperate regions the Negro will go out
slowly or rapidly in proportion as the climatic influences are
more or less adverse to his constitution.
3. That no race of people not spontaneously industrious
can maintain a permanent existence in a temperate climate.
The Negro is not spontaneously industrious. Education will
not make him such. Therefore the Negro in the United
States is dying out.
He does not quite believe his first assertion himself; for
after speaking of the sentence of death as " none the less
inexorable because it is self-executing," he declares that if
"there is any alternative "¦ — insinuating that there may be
such — it is " barbarism." Neither logic nor the presentation
of facts in support of his conclusions are offered ; and that,
too, when the history of the world, as regards all oppressed
and outcast races, in all regions and all periods, all complex
ions and nationalities, shows that emancipation, freedom, with
its blessings, its infusion of manly aspiration and ennobling
purposes, has always proved the best, the most valuable and
•dearly prized of human benefits ; never a curse, always a
blessing ; never death, always life, precious indeed.
There is nothing in his second assertion to assist him. For
'his statement finds an irresistible and perpetual answer in our
daily observation of the colored man living in our climate
<to a like age, in many cases to a greater, with his white fel
low-countrymen. And this after an enforced service of cent
auries in slavery; fed and clothed in a manner and in the use
of articles the effect of which upon the body could not have
been specially life-giving.
Nor is his third assertion particularly fortunate. I know
of no "spontaneously industrial race." I do know that,
according to my observation, there is about as much spon-
itaniety in the industry of the Negro as in that of the white

FUTURE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN. 265
man. It seems to me that both races work as they must, they
following the law written in our nature by our Creator, from
which no race may plead freedom, but in obedience to which
every race reaches its highest industrial eminence. It is the
sense of want that leads to industrial endeavor. It is this
sense, the love of gain, the laudable ambition to promote the
special good of those who are nearly related to us, or the gen
eral good of our race, countrymen, or mankind, or that selfish
ambition which seeks to perpetuate one's own name and deeds,
that prompt, sustain, and make valuable' industrial enter
prise. Want makes us all work. As we rise above want,
lose our interest in the welfare of mankind, and cease to
value endeavor in that behalf, or the selfish purpose sur
renders its control of our minds, any of us, all of us, show
ourselves anything other than " spontaneously industrial."
Taste we may cultivate ; we may even find ourselves endowed
by nature, with feelings and inclinations leading us in peciT
liar ways of industry; then habits of industry, like other
habits, may so fasten themselves upon us that we seem to long
for work as the drunkard does for drink or the libertine for
lustful gratification. All that can be said of any other of
the human races in';this regard can be said with equal truth
aud force of the Negro. And so I can but believe the writer,
whose statements I combat, must really admit, since he uses
this rather remarkable language : "Slavery made the Negro
involuntarily industrious, perhaps in process of time it would
have made him voluntarily so." It cannot be that slavery
could have added to the powers or elements of our souls.
This cannot be claimed.
All, surely, that can be meant is that enforced service
might have produced the result indicated. This result would
certainly be more easily attained under the influence of free
and intelligent labor, even in the case of the Negro. I use
Q

266 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
the word intelligent. I mean thus to deny the absurd sen
timent that " schooling makes the individual white non-in
dustrial." A false education may lead a white man, as it
may a colored one, to shun and despise labor. But a sound
education, one which imparts that knowledge of life and the
dignity of labor, as a means of happiness and civilization,
essential to all real wisdom, begets a different, a nobler feel
ing and determination, and, therefore, where education has
bsen cultivated labor has been dignified and industrial
enterprises of private and public character have been
inaugurated and perfected. Otherwise education and labor
would be inimical, and we should find the grandest in
dustrial achievements among the most illiterate and intel
lectually degraded. No one other than a person who has the
vulgar and mistaken conception of labor and laborers, the
equally false and pernicious opinion of the master class,
engendered and fostered by slavery, would advance and
pretend to support by positive asseveration such unjust and
unfounded declarations.
Underlying the statements of the writer upon whose words
I dwell are these two glaring absurdities. First, that in pro
portion as we educate a people they become non-industrial,
and being non-industrial, die. If this be true, then deaths
among the white people of our country should be largely in
excess even of a like number of Negroes, since the whites
are much more^generally educated, and the number of idle
and worthless fpersons among the whites should greatly
exceed the number of the same class among the blacks.
Can this writer make such admissions ?
In the second place, it may be true that education takes
many persons from the merely manual occupations of life
to literary, artistic, scientific and professional ; but that the
interests of human society may be conserved these latter

FUTURE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN. 26?
callings must be cultivated. And fortunately for the poor
white, even the poor black boy, in our country and under
our law, no aristocratic class may fix limits to the callings to
which malice or cultivated taste, interest or consideration of
humanity, patriotism or religion lead us.
I do not feel any alarm, in view of these and such state
ments, as to our dying out. There are, however, certain facts
connected with our physical condition which we as wise men
will do well to consider. As showing what I mean, and as
showing a condition of things which must be improved, I
beg to submit the following facts and figures as respects our
death rate in the cities of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Rich
mond, and the District of Columbia.
The entire population of Philadelphia is 800,000 — the
white 775,000, the colored 25,000. The total number of
deaths for twelve months ending September 30, 1875, is 17,702
— 16,714 white, and 988 colored persons. Percentage of
deaths, 2,15 of white and 2.45 of colored persons. Deaths
per 1,000 inhabitants, 21.57 white and 24.50 colored persons.
Here is a showing greatly against us.
The entire population of Baltimore is 350,000 — the white
being 305,000 and the colored 45,000 The total number of
deaths for the twelve months ending September 30, 1875, is
7,585 — 6,036 white and 1,549 colored persons. Percentage
of deaths, 1.98 white and 3.44 colored persons. Deaths per
1,000 inhabitants, 19.80 white and 35.40 colored persons.
Here, again, is a showing against us.
The entire population of Bichmond is 72,5000 — the white
41,400 and the colored 31^100. The total number of deaths for
twelve months ending September 30,1875,is 1,632 — 701 white
and 931 colored persons. Percentage of deaths, 1.69 white
and 2.99 colored persons. Deaths per 1,000 inhabitants,
16.93 white and 29.94 colored persons. And here is a show
ing adverse to us.

268 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
The population of the District of Columbia, white and col
ored, is 160,000—115,000 white and 45,000 colored persons.
The total number of deaths for twelve months ending Sep
tember 30, 1875, is 4,352—2,210 white and 2,142 colored
persons. Percentage of deaths, 1 92 white and 4.76 colored
persons. Deaths per 1,000 inhabitants, 19.20 white and
47.60 colored persons. Still the showing is against us.
If we extend our examination we shall find that the num
ber of births reported for .the time named, white and colored,
in the District of Columbia, is, of the first class, 2,518, and
of the second, 1,397; total, 3,915. The percentage of births
is, of the white 2.19, of the colored 3.10. Births per 1,000
inhabitants are, white 21.89, and colored 31.04. There is
an increase of white births over deaths per 1,000 inhabitants
of 2.69 ; but a decrease of colored births over deaths per
1,000 inhabitants of 16.56. As we extend our examination
facts and figures seem to stand against us.
As confirmatory of the statements made in reference to
the District of Columbia, and as indicating the cause of our
very great death rate, and the remedy therefor, in the fewest
possible words, I offer the following letter from Dr. D. W.
Bliss, one of the most skillful physicians, and, at the same
time, one of the most earnest and laborious sanitarians of
our country, a friend of our race of many years' standing,
and of devotion and tried character. He is at present a
member of the board of health of the District of Columbia,
and registrar of vital statistics of the same board. His let
ter, addressed to me, reads as follows :
Washington, November 16, 1875.
Prof. John M. Langston, Washington, D. C. :
Sie : In reply to your letter of the 13th instant, request
ing certain information from the records of this office, I have
the honor to submit the following, viz :
The colored population of the District of Columbia is
estimated at 45,000.

FUTUBE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN. 269
The number of colored births reported during the twelve
months ending September 30, 1875, was 1,397, of which
number 733 were males and 664 were females.
The number of deaths of the same class during the same
period was 2,142 — 2,141 native and 1 foreign. Of the
whole number 1,029 were males and 1,113 were females.
The mortality of the same class was at the rate of 47.60
per 1,000 per annum, while the mortality of the white popula
tion was at the rate of 19.21 per 1,000 per annum, showing
that the death rate of the colored population lacks but
twenty-three one-thousandths of one per cent, of being one
and one half times greater than the mortality of the white;
in other words, the deaths were at the rate of 247 colored
to 100 white.
In reply to your interrogatory, as to the " diseases with
which this class seems specially afflicted," I respectfully
refer you to the accompanying table, which contains thirty-
one of* the most prominent of a total of 212 causes of death,
affecting this class for the same period.
The number of marriages reported of this class for the
same time was 321.
The number of illegitimate colored births reported dur
ing the same period was 250, or 18.61 per cent, of the entire
colored births reported.
The number of colored still-births reported for the same
period was 223, of which number 123 were males and 100
females. In reply to the question asking my opinion as to the
cause of the large death rate of the colored population in
this District, I would respectfully refer you to my opinion ¦
on this subject, expressed in my annual reports to the board
of health for 1873 and 1874. It is not surprising that the
mortality of the colored population is so very great, if we
consider the great influx of this class into the District dur
ing and since the late war, bringing with them the filthy and
careless habits of the plantation, occupying, from necessity,
unsuitable habitations, located in tbe alleys, in the lowest
and most unhealthy portions of the city, subjected to all the
unwholesome influences of overcrowding and poverty, com
bined with absolute ignorance of the laws of health.
These, the most patent causes affecting the sanitary con-

270

FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.

dition of this class of inhabitants of the District, operate in
a very great degree to produce the result shown in our sta
tistical tables.
|^. The data for the present year will afford me additional
evidence as to the cause of the great mortality of this class,
which I shall present to the board of health in my next
annual report, now in course of preparation.
Very respectfully, D. W. Bliss, M. D.,
Registrar Vital Statistics.
Table showing thirty-one of the most prominent-, of a total of two hundred
L. and twelve causes of dfeaths, of the colored population of the District of
Columbia during the year ending September 30, 1875.

Diseases.

¦s* t« VJ
s _s

_,
h,o
o
O

2
3
is

3 o
H

334118
133296 61
71
303 33
199 33 61
20
10(1 20283377
110 892849
33
.96
621 84
13
294
153 66
204

13
16 7
62
116 2428
119 13
7813
24 8
39 8
1116
304336 11
1915
272243 33 5
155 6022
79

6
10 1
24
164 20
40 78 9
6219141661 61
IS 11
364S47141916
307 187 44 5
5617
4545

19

26 8

76

Chjolera infantum 

270

44
68
197
22
130
32
38
23
100
100
29
2666
91
8225
38
31
579440
Premature .birth 
77
10
Tabes mesenterica and morasmus  
171 77
"Valvular disease of the heart 
67
124
1,666
1,434
3,000
•The white population is 2.5-9 more than the colored. If the colored pop
ulation was the same in numbers as the white the figures in this column
would indicate the number of deaths from each cause.
FUTURE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN. 271.
On examining the table referred to by Dr. Bliss, and
which is presented with his letter, it will be found that the
diseases with which the colored residents of the District of
Columbia have chiefly died are zymotic and preventable, or
such as, though constitutional, are no more peculiar to per
sons of the African race than to others in similar circum
stances and of similar habits.
Dr. Bliss does not so state in his letter, but it is a fact
that the records of his office will show that a large propor
tion of the deaths of colored persons is of children dying
under five years of age. This fact, showing that too large
a number of our babes and infants are unable to survive the
trying circumstances into which they are so often born, is
significant. Nor does the Doctor state that the number of
births given is simply those that are reported, while we very
well know that many children are born in the District among
persons of all classes, which are not reported, as required
by law. It is, perhaps, true that thirty per cent, of the
births in the District are not reported; the percentage of
births not reported of the colored people being probably
even larger than those of the whites.
I have not been able to get any reliable information with
regard to births of either white or colored people in the cities
named. However, I am of the opinion that were we able to
secure the facts, the result would not materially vary the
condition of things, as shown in the city of Washington and
the District of Columbia.
The facts and figures adduced admonish us that we should
at once enter upon the work of improving our physical con
dition. The Negro, naturally tenacious of life, even under the
oppressive and life-exhausting conditions of slavery, over
worked, ill-fed and poorly sheltered, lived, multiplied his

272 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
numbers and[largely.by"natural increase became numerically
a great people in this land.
Like other^classes of the human family, however, he can
not live and multiply his numbers in conditions where pure
¦air and the essentials of sound bodily health are denied him.
In ill-constructed, cold, leaky, damp, filthy and foul shanties
and structures, overcrowded and poorly and insufficiently
ventilated, located in alleys, narrow and unimproved streets,
and back places where noisome odors and noxious gases,
generated in filth of every conceivable name and kind, death-
breeding, poison and destroy, he must die. The number~of
our people finding their homes in such places, in such mis
erable substitutes for dwellings is altogether too large, and
our mortality must grow yet more alarming if we continue
in them. Where pnre air, the life indeed of the body, is
denied admission ; where there exists a condition of things
which constitutes a perpetual injunction against its presence,
the Negro cannot live — no human being can live. All sicken
and die, for we violate the law of our being which God him
self has made, whose penalty is death.
As bearing upon the general subject already so fully con
sidered, and as indicating our future situation as to health
and life, should we improve our physical condition, I intro
duce an extract from a letter written by Dr. Verdi, a member
of the board of health of the District of Columbia, a gen
tleman occupying eminent place in the medical profession
and as a sanitarian, in answer to a question propounded by
me with regard to tha mortality of our race. The question
was : " Is the cause of the great mortality of the colored peo
ple of our country, as indicated by statistics within your
knowledge, in your opinion a permanent one ?" To this he
says :
" I answer, temporary ; probably mainly confined to the

FUTURE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN. 5.273.
present and the next generation. In his contest with the
white — for his position is a contest — he must learn that the
strongest wins, and then learn how to make himself strong.
Legislation cannot do it. He must learn to improve his own
condition, by keeping his dwelling free from the filth that
poisons its atmosphere ; he must know that dry and well-
ventilated houses are conducive to health ; he must learn
that healthy food preserves his life and makes his children
strong; he must learn that constant labor only will give him
the means to provide healthy food ; he must learn economy,
and save when he is well and at work, so as not to be in want
when sick or without employment; he must learn that pork,
although cheap as an article of diet, will only perpetuate hia
liability to disease, which he will transmit to his child. All
this he will learn in his contest with other races ; hence, the
mortality of the present generation will lessen in the next,
and so on until he can stand abreast of the white contending
for supremacy in industry, art and labor. Many will die in
this period of probation, but those that are left will be stal
wart men, and statistics will not threaten him with the
extinction of his race."
I have considered the matter of our physical condition ,
adducing and commenting upon the facts and figures pre
sented, not for the sake of combatting what I conceive to
be false theories with regard to our mortality, not for the
purpose of exciting undue alarm or unnecessary feeling of
any kind as to this subject, but for the purpose of inducing,
if possible, as far as may be practicable, such improvement
as may insure sound health and long life to the colored people
ofour country. The improvement which I urge is one which
each family must make for itself ; and the obligation to
make it is imperative and absolute. It is a dictate of pa
ternal as well as patriotic duty; and to urge its religious
observance is justified by considerations of the highest good
of all concerned. Our first duty, towering above all others
in importance, whose performance is indispensable to our

274 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
permanent welfare, is the one of which I speak. It. may be
well to care for our dead, to commit their remains " decently
and in order," to the earth; it is far more important that we
care for our living, making the largest sacrifice, foregoing all
indulgence of appetite and mere pleasurable gratifications,
husbanding every resource, that we may be able to improve
our residence, making our homes, in all the essentials con
ducive to sound bodily condition, in structure and cleanli
ness, models.
As to our industrial condition. It is no part of my purpose
to say that we do not work, and work hard and perseveringly.
It is altogether true that we, as a class, are industrious and
laborious. The well-worked fields of the South, luxuriant
and beautiful with that rich plant once called king, attest
our devotion in slavery or freedom to work. Driven as beasts
of burden in our former condition of servitude, we never
rebelled against labor. Emancipated and sent empty-handed
to seek our living or die, we have demonstrated our accept
ance of the ancient law, that in the sweat of man's brow
shall he gain his bread. However otherwise we are vulner
able to charges derogatory and degrading, no one can, with
any degree of justice, pronounce us as a class idle. Indi
viduals of our number are idle; individuals of all classes
are ; but, as a class, we compare favorably with the very best
as to habits of industry.
As the laboring class, however, of a large and important
section of our country, our position is subordinate and me
nial. Not one word is to be said against any necessary and
honorable labor. In no sentiment of opposition thereto could
I expect you to agree with me or any other. But I have no
such word of opposition to utter. Nor do I advise you to
abandon those humbler walks of industry, along which you
have, for so many years, by diligence and perseverance, hon-

FUTURE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN. 275
esty and obedience, gathered the means of an honorable and
happy, though humble, living.
What I advise is that we grow our children, especially our
sons, to those occupations — mechanical, artistic and other —
whose cultivation not only brings wealth and independence,
but desirable and influential social position. It is the duty
of the father, as far as practicable, to lift his son from the
lowly condition which he occupies. It is the duty of the son
to improve upon that condition as far as possible. With
the father acting under a due sense of his obligation, and
the son appreciating his duty and the purpose of his parents,
much can be done to accomplish the result proposed, even
where workshops are closed against us and our children de
nied a knowledge of those trades and callings without which
industrial enterprises of every character must fail.
Considerations of justice and patriotism, one would feel,
must induce the mechanics of the country, upon reflection,
to open their shops to our sons. If, however, they do not
relent, but continue to deny to them the knowledge and skill
desired, let us combine to sustain those white workmen, and
establish and support such colored ones, as will give our
children the instruction and labor which they need.
If we cannot, as individuals, accomplish this object, let
us organize ourselves into associations and aggregate our
small sums of surplus funds to sustain those workmen who
will deal justly with our sons.
If we cannot find situations for them in the cities, towns
or country places where we live, let us send them to distant
places, where men are found who will instruct them. Then,
when their apprenticeship has been served, have them return
to establish and conduct business among those who deny
them opportunity to learn and labor.
Were you to read the history of the outcast races of Spain

276 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
and France you would, in the course of your reading, find a
peculiar and despised class, called the Cagots. Why they
were despised no man knows, any more than he does whence
they came or how or where they get their name. As a class
possessing a lobeless ear and afflicted with goitre, aggravated
by burden-bearing, they were hated and maltreated without
the least humanity or mercy shown them — as if they had
been cursed by God and branded as the objects of His hot
displeasure. This statement you will believe when you are told that
if they entered a church they did so by a special door, being
compelled to occupy a special part of the church by them
selves. The priest refused them confession, and they were
compelled to take holy water from a separate and special
vessel. The consolations and benefits of religion were prac
tically denied them. They were refused civil rights and
political privileges. When witnesses were needed the testi- ¦
mony of several of their own class was required to contra
dict that of a single witness of ordinary character. They
were compelled to wear shoes lest the touch of their naked
feet soil the pathways. That they might the more readily
be recognized they were compelled to wear, attached to their
clothing, a piece of red cloth, cut after the pattern of the
goose or duck's foot. All social intercourse was denied
them, and they were compelled to live in the outskirts of
the towns and cities of Spain and France, an outcast race.
When it is added that they were for many centuries slaves,
ignorant and degraded, forbidden intermarriage with any
other than their own class, and having born to them children
condemned like themselves to slavery and misery, you will
exclaim, "How strikingly their condition resembles our
own ! " And yet the Cagot was a mechanic. He was per
mitted, in spite of the inveterate prejudice which existed

FUTURE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN. 277
against him, to become a sawyer and a carpenter. His tools
were esteemed by him his most valuable property, and they
were the only weapons which he was allowed to possess.
When we were slaves the selfish interest of our owners
in many cases led them to put us to trades of various kinds.
Many free colored persons, even in slave States, also fol
lowed different kinds of mechanical occupations. We are
not, therefore, wholly without good workmen, though the
number be small — too small in all parts of our country
where colored men reside. These workmen, denied oppor
tunity to labor in the shops generally, and with white me
chanics upon the larger and finer edifices and structures,
public and private, have steadily pursued the humbler and
less profitable walks of their calling, displaying frequently
taste, skill and workmanship of the best order. Such per
sons deserve special commendation. Whenever it is prac
ticable they should be given our patronage, for their course
is at once honorable to them and creditable to us.
In many places, and among many of our first-class white
mechanics, the prejudice which has heretofore existed
against us is giving place to a better and more humane feel
ing. Colored mechanics in such localities, and as engaged
by this class of white employers, are steadily advancing to
the most desirable and renumerative positions in their call
ings. This fact is prophetic of large and permanent good
to us.
Among our sons many are found who desire to leave
menial occupations, to learn and pursue mechanical and com
mercial callings. Let us foster, encourage and sustain this
feelinc till it becomes a settled purpose, as discovered in
efforts to master the occupation to which their inclinations
lead them. In pursuing such course we will resist and over
come as we ought, the tendency connected with our former

278 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
and our present condition, toward a permanent state of
slavish dependence, which is menial and degrading. Against
labor, even the humblest, I repeat, I do not say a single
word. For in my thoughts, when man shall have reached
his best earthly estate, labor and learning stand perpetually
conjoined, conspiring to elevate his thoughts, purify and
ennoble his feelings, sustain his aspirations, direct and sup
port his purposes, softening his humanity, conserving his
highest interest, promoting his most lasting good.
We often feel, very erroneously, however, that through
what are termed the learned professions, the legal, the med
ical and theological, alone do we, or can we, rise to dis
tinction. In obscure and humble industrial pursuits not
unfrequently do the youthful, aspiring subjects of future
greatness catch that spirit which sustains and bears them
forward in those more conspicuous and influential paths
of reform, legislation and politics.
To-day we mourn tbe loss of a Senator and statesman,
whose name, associated in our memories with those of Gid
dings, Lincoln, Hale, Stevens, Lovejoy, Birney, Chase, Henry
Winter Davis, Gerrit Smith, and Charles Sumner, lives in
immortal freshness and beauty, lovely and precious, through
all the ages to come. We pause to drop a tear of the pro
foundest sorrow over the death of Henry Wilson. In all his
relations in life, domestic, social, and official, he did not —
his friends could — forget that he rose from humble, dignified
labor to high public station. Let no man despise the early,
lowly condition of real greatness !
Dr, Edward Young, in his excellent special report on
"Labor in Europe and America," just published, in dwelling
npon the condition of the feudal period in Eagland, says:
" In the former period two-thirds of the people are said to
have been either slaves, or in a state of bondage approaching

FUTURE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN. 279
slavery, to the remaining one-third. They might be put in
bonds and whipped ; they might be branded, and on one oc
casion are spoken of as if actually yoked. Cattle and slaves,
in fact, formed a common measure of value under the denom
ination of live money, and were a medium of exchange in
which the prices of commodities were computed.
" The operatives and handicraftsmen of this period, as well
as the agricultural laborers, were mostly slaves. The clergy
and nobility employed as domestic servants persons of this
class who were qualified to supply them with such things as
were then considered the necessaries of life.
" Hence in monasteries we find smiths, carpenters, millers,
illuminators, architects, agriculturists and fishermen. Smiths
and carpenters were the most numerous and important as
ministering to the chief secular pursuits of the time, both in
war and husbandry.
" Great as were the politic d effects of the Norman invasion
it did not materially alter the condition of the masses of the
people. Their services were as necessary to the new masters
as to the old, and the terms on which these were rendered
could hardly have been made more onerous than they had
been. In order to maintain more firmly the ascendancy of
the invaders the feudal relations were enforced with some
what greater strictness than before, but no changes were
made in the chain of subordination which had already been
established. " Hence for a long time after the conquest the Saxon sub
divisions of society were maintained, and the inhabitants of
the country continued to be divided into the two great classes
of freemen and serfs or slaves. Except the baronial proprie
tors of land and their vassals, the free tenants and socmen,
the country people were depressed in servitude, which was
uniform in this respect, that no one who had either been born
in or had fallen into bondage could acquire any absolute
right to property. Aside from this, however, there were dis
tinctions in the degrees of servitude. One class of villeins, or
villagers, though bound to the most servile offices of rural in--.
dustry, were permitted to occupy small portions of land to sus
tain themselves and families.
" Olher ranks of men, equally servile, are noticed in the

280 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
ancient records, particularly the bordars and cottars. The
former, in consideration of being allowed a small cottage, were
required to provide poultry, eggs and other articles of diet
for the lord's table ; and the latter were employed in the
trades of smiths, carpenter and other handicraft arts, in which
they had been instructed at the charge of their masters. In
ferior to these were the thralls or servi, principally employed
in menial services about the mansion.
" Their lives were professedly protected by law, and with
the consent of their owners they were allow' d in some cases
to purchase their freedom ; but, in other respects, they wer.e
in the lowest degradation, so much as to be considered mere
chattels and regular articles of commerce."
From this condition, so strikingly descriptive of our own,
in many respects, as slaves, and even now as freedmen, as the
centuries have passed, these classes and their descendants
have advanced in intelligence, industry and civilization, till
their achievements in all those things which distinguish
national greatness command the admiration of the world.
Industrial effort inspired and sustained intellectual and moral
endeavor, and those reacting upon each other not only led
the people to value, assert and maintain their freedom and
independence, but to make the progress and accomplish the
results which their history records.
Our industrial future — the future of industrial triumph, is
still before us. Properly appreciating the future, while we
labor to open avenues of honorable and dignified industry to
our children, we may justly feel that in this way largely we
shall gain wealth and its blessings, elevate ourselves and our
posterity from our present low moral and social condition,
while we demonstrate the possession of that industrial capacity
and power which signalize individual and national vigor and
purpose. Let us remember that the ancient and mediaeval nations
and races are no more distinguished for moral and intellectual
than industrial accomplishments.

FUTURE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN. 281
The immortal pyramids of Egypt, frowning upon the ages
attest the industrial triumphs ofthe once proud people ofthe
Pharaohs. And the monuments of Greek and Koman great
ness are seen and admired not less in their industrial than
in their intellectual achievements. This is true of all the
nations and all the races of the past which have won renown
and gained eminence and influence in the world's history.
As having relation to our general educational condition, I
would present the following letter of Hon. John Eaton, Com
missioner of Education of the United States :
Department of the Interior,
Bureau of Education,
Washington, D. C, November 16, 1875.
Dear Sir : Your request that I should furnish you with
" the number of schools organized among the colored people
since their emancipation, giving the number of pupils and the
progress that has been made by them," is received. In reply,
I would respectfully say that on these points full statistics
cannot be given, because they are not received by us.
In the State reports on education from the old non-slave
holding States there is rarely ever any separation of schools
for colored children, with their pupils, from the others ; and in
many of those from the States in which slavery existed there
is no such such separation — none, for example, in the reports
from Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi or
Texas. And even in the States which do make returns on
this point there is considerable difference as to the character
of the returns. Such as we have, we give :
For instance, from Delaware we have, from the secretary
of a society which has thus far attended to this work, a re
port of 1,125 colored pupils in 28 schools, under 28 teachers;
from Virginia a report of 37,267 colored pupils enrolled in
669 schools, number of teachers not given; from South
Carolina a report of 56,294 such pupils under 814 colored
teachers, number of schools not given ; from North Caro
lina, in 1873, a report of 40,824 pupils in 746 schools, num
ber of teachers not'given ; from Virginia a report of 994

282 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
schools, with an enrollment of 52,086 (out ofa colored pop
ulation of 177,317,) under 490 colored teachers; from Ten
nessee a report of 103,856 colored school population, with
923 schools, 921 colored teachers, and in 1873 a colored at
tendance of 23,446; from Missouri a report of 282 schools,
for a colored population of 38,243, attendance not given; and
from West Virginia a report of 2,461 colored children (out
of 5,540) in 63 schools.
Of the other slave States, Alabama appropriated $163,-
469 for schools among acolored school population of 172,506;
Arkansas had no public schools to report in 1874. Louisi
ana, by law, gives all her children access to the schools with
out distinction of race or color, and perhaps one-half out of
her school population of 280,387 may be colored, with per
haps a like proportion out of 74,309 enrolled in schools.
Maryland seems to have given to her colored schools $68,-
506, these schools numbering 245, with 269 teachers, and an
enrollment of 8,756 pupils. In Kentucky a system of schools
for colored children was commenced in 1874, and there is
yet no report from it. Out of the 152,785 enrolled in schools
in Mississippi, and the 98,308 in Texas, you may form your
own estimate of the number of colored pupils. We suppose
that it may be about one-third.
Of the former free States California reports 694 colored
children in public and private schools ; Indiana, a colored
school population of 9,470; Ohio, 5,950 in colored schools;
Illinois, an attendance of colored children with the whites
in a large majority of the counties, while in ten counties
they attended separate schools; number of colored pupils
not given.
The above refers throughout to elementary schools. Be
yond these we find 15 graded schools, sustained by the
American Missionary Association in five Southern States,
and several of kindred character sustained by the Protes
tant Episjsopal Church. The former had, at the time of the
last report, 66 teachers and 4,654 pupils. The statistics of
the latter are not in our hands.
Then the State of Alabama sustains, or helps to sustain,
as a part of her public school system, two normal schools, at

FUTURE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN. 283
Huntsville and Marion, for the training of colored teachers,
with about 200 pupils in them. Maryland has one, at Balti
more, with about 250 pupils, and New York city one, with
18 to 20 pupils. One is sustained by the colored people
themselves at Jefferson City, Mo., and others for them at
Lincoln University, Oxford, Pa.; Wilberforce University,
Xenia, Ohio; Fish University and Nashville Normal and
Theological Institute, Nashville, Tenn., with one at Mary
ville, in the same State ; at Tongaloo University, Mi ss. ; at
Straight University and New Orleans University, New Or
leans, La.; at Talladega College, Talladega, Ala.; at Atlanta
University, Atlanta, Ga.; at Shaw University, Raleigh,
N. C; at St. Augustine's school in the same place. In Pe
tersburg, Va., the Rev. G. Cook, a colored minister of the
Protestant Episcopal Church, sustains one, with about 70
pupils, while at Hampton, Va., is a large and important one,
and at Howard University one, as you know. The number
of colored pupils in most of these cannot be determined by
us, as they are not separated in the statistics from the whites
who may also be attendant.
In all the above universities and colleges, too, the colored
people have admission to the advantages of both superior
and professional instructions ; as also at Berea College, Be-
rea, Ky.; at Central Tennessee College, Nashville, Tenn.;
at Alcorn University, Rodney, Miss.; at Leland University,
New Orleans, La., and at the University of South Carolina,
Columbia. Oberlin College, Ohio, is open to them. Yale and
Trinity, Conn.: Harvard, in Mass ; Dartmouth, in N. H.,
have admitted colored students, and few, if any, would ex
clude them now. At most of the theological schools in the
Northern States, too, colored pupils are believed to find a
welcome. How far this is the case at law and medical schools,
your own researches have probably determined.
As to the progress made by colored pupils in the various
kinds of institutions thus organized for them or opened to
them, no absolute general statement can be made. In the
effort to secure equal advantages to pupils of every color,
there has been less and less showing of the different races
in statistics. It is, however, certain that, in many instances
which come clearly beneath our observation, the colored chil-

284 FEEEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
dren in the schools and colored youths in colleges have
advanced as fast and as far as white ones with the same ad
vantages. Trusting that this information may serve your purpose, I
am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
John Eaton,
Commissioner of Education.
Prof. John M. Langston, Washington, D. C.
In colored schools managed by boards of trustees or com
missioners having charge of the white schools as well, in
which uniform regulations as to text books, the employment
and control of teachers, the examination and conduct of
pupils are enforced, though the schools be separate, in many
instances, the progress of the scholars has been marked and
commendable. In schools where the children attend without
reference to complexional peculiarities their progress has been
greater, and the intellectual and moral condition ofthe scholar
more thoroughly improved. In such schools no inconvenience
or injury is experienced by either class, white or colored,
while their contact improves both in feeling and friendly
Tegard for each other. The schools only will bring perfect
reconciliation to the races. Such colleges as Oberlin and
the schools of New England furnish proof of the correctness
of this opinion. And the trustees and officers of such colleges
and schools deserve the grateful commendation of all classes.
They but pursue that path of national reform essential to the
highest good of the colored, and conducive to the permanent
welfare of the white American. And success in this regard
will win for the philanthropic Christian educator the golden
crown of the nation's noblest reformer.
As to this subject, I need not weary your patience with
protracted remarks. Upon the dignity, importance and
necessity of education, our minds are fully settled. We have

FUTURE OF THE COLORED AMERICAN. 285
only to give ourselves anxiety and care as to the thoroughness
and skill with which the children and wards are educated.
We are justly solicitous as to the wholesome character of food
eaten by our families. Nothing poisonous and deleterious
is knowingly suffered to be brought into our houses. And
were we convinced that our cook, or any other, had given
such article of food to our child, our indignation and wrath
would be kindled and burn at highest heat. Were the object
of our anger by his act brought within the meshes of the law,
no delay would be made in bringing him to justice. Man
kind would applaud our conduct in this case. Let us be
solicitous! It is well. But, if we care thus for the body,
should we not be even more careful of the soul, with regard
to the food upon which our minds are fed ? Articles of one
flort strengthen and invigorate; those of another debilitate
and destroy. Mental robustness, strength and vigor of soul
we need no less than bodily health and endurance.
Here I bring to your consideration two facts : First, in
many schools and colleges, established and conducted in the
interest of the colored youth of our country, scholars and
students are taught, as they are generally treated, as if they
were of, and destined to live and labor only among, a peculiar
caste or class. They are frequently told that they are colored,
and that when they complete their course of study they are
to find occupation among colored people. In the second place
they are impressed, by teaching and conduct, too, generally,
that an imperfeet mastery of the various branches of studyi
even the commonest, will answer all purposes for them. Their
study, therefore, often is of that loose and unreliable sort
which in no sense strengthens, but confuses and weakens the
understanding. The same mastery of learning and science, the
same careful discipline and culture of the mental powers, the
same consciousness of power developed and sustained by such

286 FREEDOM AND CITIZENSHIP.
mastery, discipline and culture, are needed in the case of the
colored American youth as in that of any and all others. In
our country, famous for its composite nationality, the equality
of all its citizens before the law, with the avenues of the State,
the Church, the school, open to all alike, with the largest
rewards awaiting his endeavors who brings into requisition,
in labors of literature, science, art or reform, the largest
powers of heart and brain, no child, the children of no class
of our people, should be taught, or in any wise impressed, that
anything less than the most perfect educational accomplish
ment will suffice. ,
If we would grow sons strong in intellect, rising in feeling
and purpose to the moral plane of the truly educated, ac
complishing those results in life which distinguish earnest
and true men, let them forget that they are of, and must live
and labor for and among, a particular class. Let them see
to it that they are prepared for service in behalf of any em
ployer, and in any direction promising the largest harvest of
blessing to mankind.
With regard to our moral, social and civil condition I had
intended to speak at this time. Upon each of these topics
much remains to be said, and much remains to be done, to
improve our condition. I may not, however, detain you
longer. Your association, this night entering upon its mission of
benevolence and reform, will find much along the path over
which I have conducted your minds by my remarks for re
flection and effort. In the name of those whose advancement
you seek, I bespeak for it the most cordial and generous
support.
the end.

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