Early Black Church Sermons and Addresses

A Speech In Defense Of The Negro Race

A SPEECH IN DEFENSE OF THE NEGRO RACE By George H. White ^

1 want to enter a plea for the colored man, the colored woman, the colored boy, and the colored girl of this country. I would not thus digress from the question at issue and detain the House in a discussion of the interests of this particular people at this time but for the constant and the persistent efforts of certain gentlemen upon this floor to mold and rivet public sentiment against us as a people and to lose no opportunity to hold up the unfortunate few who commit crimes and depredations and lead lives of infamy and shame, as other races do, as fair specimens of representatives of the entire colored race. And at no time, perhaps, during the Fifty- sixth Congress were these charges and countercharges, containing, as they do, slanderous statements, more persistently magnified and pressed upon the attention of the nation than during the considera-

^ Congressional Record, 51st Congress, 2nd Session, pp. 1479-1483.

2 The Honorable George H. White’s speech, Defense of the Negro Race — Charges Answered, was delivered in the House of Representatives, January 29, 1901.

George Henry White of Tarboro, North Carolina, was born at Rosindale, North Caro¬ lina, December 18, 1852. He acquired a good education, practiced law, and entered politics. After serving in several local and State offices, Mr. White was elected to the 55th and reelected to tbe 66th Congress. — Biographical Congressional Directory,

p. 877.

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tion of the recent reapportionment bill, which is now a law. As stated some days ago on this floor by me, I then sought diligently to obtain an opportunity to answer some of the statements made by gentlemen from different States, but the privilege was denied me; and I therefore must embrace this opportunity to say, out of season, perhaps, that which I was not permitted to say in season.

In the catalogue of members of Congress in this House perhaps none has been more persistent in his determination to bring the black man into disrepute and, with a labored effort, to show that he was unworthy of the right of citizenship than my colleague from North Carolina, Mr. Kitchin. During the flrst session of this Congress, while the Constitutional amendment was pending in North Carolina, he labored long and hard to show that the white race was at all times and under all circumstances superior to the Negro by inheritance if not otherwise, and the excuse for his party supporting that amendment, which has since been adopted, was that an illiterate Negro was unflt to participate in making the laws of a sovereign State and the administration and execution of them ; but an illiterate white man living by his side, with no more or perhaps not so much property, with no more exalted character, no higher thoughts of civilization, no more knowledge of the handi¬ craft of government, had by birth, because he was white, inherited some peculiar qualiflcation, clear, I presume, only in the mind of the gentleman who endeavored to impress it upon others, that en¬ titled him to vote, though he knew nothing whatever of letters. It is true, in my opinion, that men brood over things at times which they would have exist until they fool themselves and actually, sometimes honestly, believe that such things do exist.

I would like to call the gentleman’s attention to the fact that the Constitution of the United States forbids the granting of any title of nobility to any citizen thereof, and while it does not in letters forbid the inheritance of this superior caste, I believe in the fertile imagination of the gentleman promulgating it, his position is at least in conflict with the spirit of that organic law of the land. He insists and, I believe, has introduced a resolution in this House for the repeal of the fifteenth amendment to the Consti¬ tution. As an excuse for his peculiar notions about the exercise of the right of franchise by citizens of the United States of different nationality, perhaps it would not be amiss to call the attention of

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this House to a few facts and figures surrounding his birth and rearing. To begin with, he was horn in one of the counties in my district, Halifax, a rather significant name.

I might state as a further general fact that the Democrats of North Carolina got possession of the State and local government since my last election in 1898, and that I bid adieu to these historic walls on the fourth day of next March, and that the brother of Mr. Kitchin will succeed me. Comment is unnecessary. In the town where this young gentleman was born, at the general election last August for the adoption of the constitutional amendment, and the general election for state and county officers, Scotland Neck had a registered white vote of 395, most of whom of course were Democrats, and a registered colored vote of 534, virtually if not all of whom were Republicans, and so voted. When the count was announced, however, there were 831 Democrats to 75 Republicans ; hut in the town of Halifax, the same county, the result was much more pronounced.

In that town the registered Republican vote was 345, and the total registered vote of the township was 539, but when the count was announced it stood 990 Democrats to 41 Republicans, or 492 more Democratic votes counted than were registered votes in the township. Comment here is unnecessary, nor do I think it neces¬ sary for anyone to wonder at the peculiar notion my colleague has with reference to the manner of voting and the method of counting these votes, nor is it to be a wonder that he is a member of this Congress, having been brought up and educated in such wonderful notions of dealing out fair-handed justice to his fellow-man.

It would be unfair, however, for me to leave the inference upon the minds of those who hear me that all of the white people of the State of North Carolina hold views with Mr. Kitchin and think as he does. Thank God, there are many nQble exceptions to the example he sets, that, too, in the Democratic party ; men who have never been afraid that one uneducated, poor, depressed Negro could put to flight and chase into degradation two educated, wealthy, thrifty white men. There never has been, nor ever will be, any Negro domination in that State, and no one knows it any better than the Democratic party. It is a convenient howl, how¬ ever, often resorted to in order to consummate a diabolical purpose by scaring the weak and gullible whites into support of measures

406

NEGRO ORATORS

and men suitable to the demagogue and the ambitious office seeker, whose crave for office overshadows and puts to flight all other con¬ siderations, fair or unfair.

As I stated on a former occasion, this young statesman has ample time to learn better and more useful knowledge than he has ex¬ hibited in many of his speeches upon this floor, and I again plead for him the statute of youth for the wild and spasmodic notions which he has endeavored to rivet upon his colleagues and this country. But I regret that Mr. Kitchin is not alone upon this floor in these peculiar notions advanced.

It is an undisputed fact that the Negro vote in the State of Alabama, as well as most of the other Southern States, has been effectively suppressed, either one way or the other — in some in¬ stances by constitutional amendment and State legislation, in others by cold-blooded fraud and intimidation, but whatever the method pursued, it is not denied, but frankly admitted in the speeches in this House, that the black vote has been eliminated to a large extent. Then, when some of us insist that the plain letter of the Consti¬ tution of the United States, which all of us have sworn to support, should be carried out, as expressed in the second section of the fourteenth amendment thereof, to wit:

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of a legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhab¬ itants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

That section makes the duty of every member of Congress plain, and yet the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Underwood) says that the attempt to enforce this section of the organic law is the throw¬ ing down of flrebrands, and notifies the world that this attempt to

DELIBEEATIVE OEATOEY

407

execute the highest law of the land will be retaliated by the South, and the inference is that the Negro will be even more severely punished than the horrors through which he has already come.

Let me make it plain: The divine law, as well as most of the State laws, says in substance : ‘ ‘ He that sheddeth man ’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” A highwayman commits murder, and when the officers of the law undertake to arrest, try, and punish him commensurate with the enormity of his crime, he straightens himself up to his full height and defiantly says to them : “Let me alone ; I will not be arrested, I will not be tried, I’ll have none of the execution of your laws, and in the event you attempt to execute your laws upon me, I will see to it that many more men, women, or children are murdered.”

Here’s the plain letter of the Constitution, the plain, simple, sworn duty of every member of Congress; yet these gentlemen from the South say, “Yes, we have violated your Constitution of the nation ; we regard it as a local necessity ; and now, if you under¬ take to punish us as the Constitution prescribes, we will see to it that our former deeds of disloyalty to that instrument, our former acts of disfranchisement and opposition to the highest law of the land will be repeated many fold.”

Not content with all that has been done to the black man, not because of any deeds that he has done, Mr. Underwood advances the startling information that these people have been thrust upon the whites of the South, forgetting, perhaps, the horrors of the slave trade, the unspeakable horrors of the transit from the shores of Africa by means of the middle passage to the American clime ; the enforced bondage of the blacks and their descendants for two and a half centuries in the United States, now, for the first time perhaps in the history of our lives, the information comes that these poor, helpless, and in the main inoffensive people were thrust upon our Southern brethren.

Individually, and so far as my race is concerned, I care but little about the reduction of Southern representation, except in so far as it becomes my duty to aid in the proper execution of all the laws of the land in whatever sphere in which I may be placed. Such reduction in representation, it is true, would make more secure the installment of the great Eepublican party in power for many years to come in all its branches, and at the same time enable

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the great party to he able to dispense with the further support of the loyal Negro vote ; and I might here parenthetically state that there are some members of the Eepublican party today — “lily whites, ’ ’ if you please — who, after receiving the unalloyed support of the Negro vote for over thirty years, now feel that they have grown a little too good for association with him politically, and are disposed to dump him overboard. I am glad to observe, however, that this class constitutes a very small percentage of those to whom we have always looked for friendship and protection.

I wish to quote from another Southern gentleman, not so young as my other friends, and who always commands attention in this House by his wit and humor, even though his speeches may not be edifying and instructive. I refer to Mr. Otey, of Virginia, and quote from him in a recent speech on this floor, as follows :

“Justice is merely relative. It can exist between equals. It can exist among homogeneous people — among equals. Among hetero¬ geneous people it never has and, in the very nature of things, it never will obtain. It can exist among lions, but between lions and lambs, never. If justice were absolute, lions must of necessity per¬ ish. Open his ponderous jaws and And the strong teeth which God has made expressly to chew lamb ’s flesh ! When the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shall overcome this diffi¬ culty, men may hope to settle the race question along sentimental lines, not sooner.

These thoughts on the Negro are from the pen, in the main, of one who has studied the Negro question, and it was after I heard the gentleman from North Carolina, and after the introduction of the Crumpacker biU, that they occurred to me peculiarly ap¬ propriate. ’ ’

I am wholly at sea as to just what Mr, Otey had in view in ad¬ vancing the thoughts contained in the above quotation, unless he wished to extend the simile and apply the lion as a white man and the Negro as a lamb. In that case we will gladly accept the com¬ parison, for of all animals known in God’s creation the lamb is the most inoffensive, and has been in all ages held up as a badge of innocence. But what will my good friend of Virginia do with the Bible, for God says, that He created all men of one flesh and blood? Again, we insist on having one race — the lion clothed

DELIBERATIVE ORATORY

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with great strength, vicious, and with destructive propensities, while the other is weak, good natured, inoffensive, and useful — what will he do with all the heterogeneous intermediate animals, ranging all the way from the pure lion to the pure lamb, found on the plantations of every Southern State in the Union ?

I regard his borrowed thoughts, as he admits they are, as very inaptly applied. However, it has perhaps served the purpose of which he intended it — the attempt to show the inferiority of the one and the superiority of the other. I fear I am giving too much time in the consideration of these personal comments of members of Congress, but I trust I will be pardoned for making a passing reference to one more gentleman — Mr. Wilson of South Carolina — who, in the early part of this month, made a speech, some parts of which did great credit to him, showing, as it did, capacity for collating, arranging, and advancing thoughts of others and of mak¬ ing a pretty strong argument out of a very poor case.

If he had stopped there, while not agreeing with him, many of us would have been forced to admit that he had done well. But his purpose was incomplete until he dragged in the reconstruction days and held up to scorn and ridicule the few ignorant, gullible, and perhaps purchasable Negroes who served in the State legis¬ lature of South Carolina over thirty years ago. Not a word did he say about the unscrupulous white men, in the main bummers who followed in the wake of the Federal Army and settled them¬ selves in the Southern States, and preyed upon the ignorant and unskilled minds of the colored people, looted the States of their wealth, brought into lowest disrepute the ignorant colored people, then hied away to their Northern homes for ease and comfort the balance of their lives, or joined the Democratic party to obtain social recognition, and have greatly aided in depressing and fur¬ ther degrading those whom they had used as tools to accomplish a diabolical purpose.

These few ignorant men who chanced at that time to hold office are given as a reason why the black man should not be permitted to participate in the affairs of the Government which he is forced to pay taxes to support. He insists that they, the Southern whites, are the black man’s best friend, and that they are taking him by the hand and trying to lift him up ; that they are educating him. For all that he and all Southern people have done in this regard,

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NEGRO ORATORS

I wish in behalf of the colored people of the South to extend our thanks. We are not ungrateful to friends, but feel that our toil has made our friends able to contribute the stinty pittance which we have received at their hands.

I read in a Democratic paper a few days ago, the Washington Times, an extract taken from a South Carolina paper, which was intended to exhibit the eagerness with which the Negro is grasp¬ ing every opportunity for educating himself. The clipping showed that the money for each white child in the State ranged from three to five times as much per capita as was given to each colored child. This is helping us some, but not to the extent that one would infer from the gentleman’s speech. . . . With all these odds against us, we are forging our way ahead, slowly, perhaps, but surely. You may tie us and then taunt us for a lack of bravery, but one day we will break the bonds. You may use our labor for two and a half centuries and then taunt us for our poverty, but let me remind you we will not always remain poor. You may with¬ hold even the knowledge of how to read God ’s word and learn the way from earth to glory and then taunt us for our ignorance, but we will remind you that there is plenty of room at the top, and we are climbing.

After enforced debauchery, with the many kindred horrors in¬ cident to slavery, it comes with ill grace from the perpetrators of these deeds to hold up the shortcomings of some of our race to ridicule and scorn.

“The new man, the slave who has grown out of the ashes of thirty-five years ago, is inducted into the political and social sys¬ tem, east into the arena of manhood, where he constitutes a new element and becomes a competitor for all its emoluments. He is put upon trial to test his ability to be counted worthy of freedom, worthy of the elective franchise; and after thirty-five years of struggling against almost insurmountable odds, under conditions but little removed from slavery itself, he asks fair and just judg¬ ment, not of those whose prejudice has endeavored to forestall, to frustrate his every forward movement, rather those who have lent a helping hand, that he might demonstrate the truth of the father¬ hood of God and the brotherhood of man. ’ ’ ^

^Congressional Record, 56th Cong., 2nd Session, 1634-1638.

Chapter VIII

CHAPTER VIII

Speeches Of Negro Congressmen Outside Op Congress

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN OUTSIDE OP

CONGRESS

Some few speeches of these Negro Congressmen deliv¬ ered during the epoch outside of Congress hut hearing on the Negro problem, are also worth noting in estimating the eloquence of the men then representing the Negro in poli¬ tics. The following speech of A. J. Ransier and the two of J, M. Langston belong to this class.

Speech Delivered At Charleston, S. C.

SPEECH DELIVERED AT CHARLESTON, S. C., MARCH 9, 1871

By a. j. Ransier^

Gentlemen : It affords me pleasure always to meet my friends, and when under existing circumstances the compliment of this serenade has been paid me, it is an additional evidence of the confidence reposed in me, not only as a public man, but as your immediate representative. This, gentlemen, is not the only occa¬ sion upon which you have indicated an approval of my humble efforts in the field of politics. I remember, in the dark days of 1864, you indicated your confidence when you placed upon me the responsibility of pioneering certain movements looking to results that have been in great part attained. When, in 1865, the first Republican Convention was held in South Carolina, where colored men met and expressed, and without molestation, their opinions as to their condition, you invited me through the delegation to rep¬ resent at Washington their grievances, 'in 1868, when, under the reconstruction Acts of Congress, South Carolina was called upon

received a was a presi he was a d the 42nd

greasional Directory, p. 759.

* Alonzo

born at Charleston, South Carolina, January 3, 1836. He

_ 1 _ Tn Via

411

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NEGEO ORATORS

to frame her Constitution and Government agreeably to those Acts, you tendered me a unanimous nomination as a member of that Convention; and subsequently, in 1870, through your repre¬ sentatives, you gave me a unanimous nomination as a candidate for the office of Lieutenant-Governor of the State of South Caro¬ lina : and at a still later period you again tendered me a unanimous nomination for the position of Congressman for this District, and those are compliments of which any public man may well be proud and for which I am thankful. Gentlemen, I have tried to do my duty, and if at any time I have failed, it was not because I did not care to succeed, or that I was indifferent to your interests. Gen¬ tlemen, though the Republican party, as an organization, has achieved glorious victories in the past, though the majority of us as a race have, through trying ordeals, made marked progress, we are called upon today to pass upon questions in which the entire past and the future are intimately wrapped up and interwoven. Holding the position which I do, gentlemen, and coming amongst you after an absence of nearly four months, at a time, too, when the gravest questions in which is wrapped up the good name of the Republican party, and the interests of all as a people are being discussed, it would seem proper that I should say a word in addi¬ tion to the acknowledgment of the compliment you kindly ten¬ dered me.

All over the country the belief obtains that the situation of affairs in our State is most deplorable. No longer can it be said that these reports are traceable to Democratic sources alone. Rep¬ resentations of this kind have been made by good, bad and in¬ different Republicans as well as Democrats: by those who look at everything through a sort of mental magnifying glass, and by others who are actuated by a variety of motives by which the country has been to some extent deceived. Representations are made against our party in a spirit of recklessness which to me is perfectly astounding. That things are not in a satisfactory con¬ dition in this State is too true ; there are many things of which just complaint might be made. That it is possible, and has been so ever since the Republican party has held the ascendancy in the State to get along with lower rates of taxation by a more judi¬ cious expenditure of the public funds, and that we might have selected better men to fill our most important offices, cannot be

SPEECHES OF NEGEO CONGEESSMEN 413

denied; but neither do exaggerated representations made by our opponents, nor reckless and injudicious public speeches made by Kepublicans against their own party and public men, help the situation. I am no apologist for thieves; for if I were, I do not think I would have occupied for so long a time a place in your confidence. On the contrary, I am in favor of a most thorough investigation of the official conduct of any and every public officer in connection with the discharge of whose duties there is anything like well-grounded suspicion ; and to this effect have I spoken time and again. Nor am I lukewarm on the subject of better govern¬ ment in South Carolina than that which seems to be bearing heavily on all classes and conditions of society today. Still, recognizing that which I believe to be true that such is the determined oppo¬ sition to the Kepublican party and its doctrines by our opponents that no administration of our ‘affairs, however honest, just and economical, would satisfy any considerable portion of the Demo¬ cratic masses in' the State of South Carolina, and satisfied that the principles and policy of the great Kepublican party to which I belong is best adapted for the promotion of good government to all classes of men, our party leaders should be judicious in dealing with the situation. A leading public journal thus forcibly says: “A political leader should not be disingenuous with his own party friends; indeed, he should not ‘run amuck’ against the admin¬ istration he is impliedly supposed to support. If there are causes of weakness or occasions for correction and amendment, these should be administered in the frankness and confidence of private counsel, and not in the wide forum of public debate. This is not the place to expose one’s own weakness or unroll the calendar of defects which may be better corrected in the confidence of the caucus.” In the spirit of this suggestion, I would ask for an ad¬ vised action on the part of the Republicans throughout the State. I would ask you to calmly consider the state of affairs as they are presented to us today, and if you cannot reach those who have brought this ruin upon us through the medium of the Courts in¬ stituted by us as a party, and by the officials whose duty it is to prosecute those who violate the law, then let them be forever dis¬ carded from the party. And, again, when you are called upon in your primary meetings in your county and State nominating con¬ ventions, let each man act as if, by his individual vote, he could

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wipe out the odium resting upon our party, and help to remove the evils that afflict us at present. Let him feel, black or white, that the country holds him responsible for the shortcomings of his party, and that it demands of him the elevation to public positions of men who are above suspicion. Let each man feel that upon him individually rests the work of reform ; let each man feel that he is responsible for every dollar of the public money fraudu¬ lently used ; for every school-house closed against his children ; for every dollar of taxation in excess of the reasonable and legiti¬ mate expenses of the State; in short, let every man feel that society at large will hold him and the party accountable for every misdeed in the administration of government, and will credit him with every honest effort in the interest of the people, and in the interest of good government, whereby the community as a whole is best protected and the equal rights of all guaranteed and made safe. [Applause.] This, gentlemen, is the line of argument which I had hoped to present to you. It is not for us to deny those charges which may be proven to be true, while it is for us to deal in the confidence of a caucus, and by other judicious means, without giving the Democrats weapons with which to beat out our brains [cheers — a voice cried “Good enough”]. For I say tonight, with the full knowledge of the fact that what I may say here tonight will go out to the country, and in view of my responsibilities to my immediate constituents and to society at large, and in view of my responsibilities as a member of Congress, I say that Eepublicanism is best calculated for the welfare of the Democrats as well as Ee- publicans. It is the government of the people made by the people and for the people, and you dare not, as a Eepublican, trample on any right of a Democrat, or trifle with the important interest of the people, while at the same time it is your duty to prevent them from trampling upon any of yours. [Applause.] And the best way to effect this is to keep the power within the party. [Ap¬ plause. A voice — “That’s so.”] We must not think that be¬ cause the colored people are in the majority now that we are privi¬ leged to be indifferent to the interests of others. As a country we have prospered, we have multiplied our vast resources from Maine to California, while we haA^e increased our industries, and added vastly to our capital, and peopled our cities and towns with tenfold their number; we have rescued within the last ten years

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN 415

an entire race from bondage; we have not only emancipated, but we have enfranchised and clothed this race with the habilaments of citizenship.

But we find ourselves today, as a race, passing through a crisis. The colored people in the United States, with all the grand achieve¬ ments of the past ten years, are today passing through the crisis of their political history in this country. We present to the world a noble spectacle, a record unparalleled in the annals of any people similarly situated. No race has been subjected to such a scathing fire of criticism ; no people have had such tremendous disadvantages to labor under. And I feel free to say, no race in a similar posi¬ tion could have acquitted themselves more creditably ; but now, in this trying epoch of our history, we seem to forget much that we should remember, we must not trifle with our responsibilities and let slip our best opportunities to prove our fitness for government. We are charged as giving evidence in some localities of unfitness in this direction ; it is for us in this crisis to deny as best we may those allegations against the colored men as a race as to their ability to manage the affairs of government. The country accepts in a great part the representations made by our opponents as to the situation of affairs in this State. It rests with you to remove every just cause of complaint, remembering that by every un¬ worthy man you elevate to office, by every scoundrel you keep in office, you justify the public opinion in the country adverse to the well-being of the Republican party in this State, and to the fit¬ ness of the colored man for franchise. The Tax-Payers’ Con¬ vention was composed of gentlemen, most of whom, I believe, I am acquainted with. As to politics, it seems we must ever differ. Their representations are founded, however false, to a considerable extent, upon the bad management of the Republican party, and I believe that many Republicans in the State of South Carolina are giving their movements strength and aid, in the hope of accom¬ plishing certain results. They will be deceived, of course. If any Republican thinks that in any possible contingency they as a class are going to support him for office, he will be most wofully de¬ ceived. They are not going to do it. I read the reply to the memorial of the “Tax-Payers’ Convention,” and when the com¬ mittee of distinguished gentlemen reach the national capital and present their memorial, they will find that President Grant has

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already received Mr. Cardozo’s paper, and already understands the situation, and will be able to make up a just judgment. I do not want any one to misunderstand me. That I believe there is a necessity for a correction of abuses in the State I have already stated. I have already said we could have done better; that I believe we have elected some men to position who are corrupt, and who hold offices now to the disgrace of the party and to the injury of the State. We cannot and must not repeat this thing. Every¬ body, perhaps, knows that I am colored, and I am very naturally proud when we do well ; and when we do not, I could wish that I was not one of it. My hopes and aspirations are wrapped up with the race to which I belong. I want to see it live and prosper as I believe God intended that it should. And while the country may hold the colored people in South Carolina responsible for bad gov¬ ernment, I want to say, in the name of that Republicanism to which I belong and which I represent, that the country would be justified in so doing by virtue of the fact that the colored people in South Carolina are in the majority — the white vote being 50,000 and the colored vote 80,000; therefore, the colored people would justly be held responsible for the affairs of the Government; and, to that extent, they ought to feel the necessity of wiping out every stain and of removing every wrong from self-interest, if not from a sense of decency, from the love of good government.

But to return to the subject. There are those who have devoted their lives to the doctrine of civil and political equality, and have given their time and labor to the promotion of the colored men, who are anxiously watching us, and bid us do our duty; who would feel mortification and regret should we trifle with our vast responsibility as citizens. I believe that there is sufficient virtue and common sense, and pride of race, and love of country, in the breasts of the rank and the file of the colored people to secure to us an improved condition of affairs. Let each man in our primary meetings, and in our conventions, feel that his country’s welfare, and his own political salvation depends upon his actions and vote ; and as I have previously exhorted you, act as if by your individual vote you cuuld effect the reform so much needed, so much desired. And now, gentlemen, in conclusion, let me thank you most heartily for this compliment. As long as I am in possession of my senses, I shall try to deserve your confidence and support, and to the ex-

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN 417

tent of my ability to work for your interests and your welfare. And when, in the next campaign you are called upon, as you will be, to select men for our important offices, see to it that they are men whom you can trust, men who will not deceive nor disgrace you. As to myself, I shall go against any man, be he black or white, whose past conduct in or out of office does not give us the assurance of better government, cost me what it may. Again, gentlemen, I thank you for your more than kind and cordial welcome.

The Other Phase Of Reconstruction

THE OTHER PHASE OF RECONSTRUCTION By J. M, Langston^

The thoughtful and patriotic American, animated by other than partisan and sectional considerations and feelings, turns with delight from the contemplation of the belligerent to the pacific phase of reconstruction.

Four years of bloody contest, characterized by all the evils at¬ tendant in the most aggravated form upon a civil strife of gigantic proportions ; and twelve years of effort at reconciliation and read¬ justment, marked by displays of cruel, unrestrained fury, con¬ trolled only by military power, brings us, in all earnestness of soul, to inquire: “Is there no method by which the problem of re¬ construction may be satisfactorily solved in some peaceful manner ? ’ ’

Rising above party considerations, seeming sectional interests, as well as individual aggrandizement, we should study well every lesson of history, every lesson suggested by the precepts of Chris¬ tianity, every lesson taught in sound political philosophy, having reference to this problem, which of all others commands consid¬ eration and intelligent solution.

In this discussion, we have to do with one of the important sec¬ tions of our country; one divided into great States, populated by millions of people, peculiar not less in their present than in their former condition and relations.

^The Daily Union Herald (Columbia, S. C.), March 20, 1874.

*Hon. John M. Langston addressed the people of Jersey City, N. J., on the evening of April 17, 1877, upon ‘‘The Other Phase of Reconstruction.” The audience was large and enthusiastic, and listened earnestly to the words of the eloquent and able defender of the policy which proposes to protect the rights of his people by peaceful rather than by belligerent means.

418

NEGRO ORATORS

Three Classes in the South

Sixteen years ago there were three distinct classes composing 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 lead¬ ers, as the military 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 organize the Southern Confederacy. If any single class may be called the “master class” of the South, occupying commanding 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 numbers considerably reduced by the same cause, its compact and easily moved organization, not a little im¬ paired, disappearing from politics for several years during the earlier period of reconstruction, within the past two or three years it has rallied, 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 ele¬ ments of personal character and statesmanship, surrender to the more commanding political and moral power of this class. Cham¬ berlain gives place to Hampton ! and Packard, it is thought, must surrender to Nicholls !

The Poor Whites, in the days of slavery, cherished no love for the class of which I have spoken, and the latter had even 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,

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN 419

and to love even, that class which furnished the daring and dashing leader, who commanded those forces which went out to do battle gallantly in defense of this common cause. No poor white man of the South fails today to entertain and express high admiration for Lee, “Stonewall” Jackson, Johnston, and Hood. United then 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 as 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. Republican, not only by instinct, but from considerations of self-preservation as well as patriotism, the loftiest words of commendation may be spoken without fear of overstatement in their behalf. Emanci¬ pated, 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 them¬ selves 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 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 everywhere 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 naturally allied himself to the Republican party as the old master class did to the Democratic : and here commenced that gulf of difference which has continued to widen, as Reconstruction has been fixed by constitutional enactment, and endorsed by the public sentiment of the country.

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NEGEO OEATOES

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 immunity 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 en¬ franchised Negro, without becoming political leaders and repre¬ sentative characters in the work of Reconstruction. Their in¬ fluence, 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 whose midst he had lived, been enslaved, and served, to those who came the representatives of freedom and conservators of the Republican party.

It did not improve the feeling of the defeated classes of 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, making him the political equal of his former owner. Objecting not only to the law, but to that practice under it, which to him 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-Klux, ” and “Bull-dozers,” and entered upon that systematic warfare upon Republicans, white and colored, which, resulting in violence, intimidation and murder, has 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, interfering even with legislatures, and disturbing the operations of the Government.

This condition of things has continued from 1865, growing rap¬ idly 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 composing 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 “Scalla-

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN 421

wags”; and, secondly, to a considerable class of white men who going into the rebel army and being defeated in honorable war¬ fare, have accepted 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.

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, hy recognizing, in many instances, the off¬ spring 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 edu¬ cated, 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 unwise.

The classes now described are diverse in origin, unlike in in¬ stinct, and have by no means enjoyed equal educational advan¬ tages ; 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, his social and moral condition was even lower than that of the Negro. And these classes differ widely in political purpose and affiliation, as well as in political understand¬ ing 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, po¬ litical and other, to which reference has been made, and also to establish peace, good order, and consequent prosperity and hap¬ piness, under the Constitution, as the results of Pacific Recon¬ struction ?

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NEGRO ORATORS

Difficulties of Peaceful 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 Democratic party, which promises through 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 to the supremacy of the National Government ; and it today must be held responsible for the blight¬ ing 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.

Estimated in the light of its past record, weighing its purpose and integrity in the light of its recent behavior, one must con¬ clude 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 ground of hope for good to the South. As the Southern leaders lose con¬ fidence 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 advan-

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN 423

tageous affiliations sought and formed. The conduct of prominent leaders, members of the House of Representatives, from the South in the last session of Congress, in connection 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 filibustering Democrats from the North — which thwarted the purpose of such Democratic members, and sustained the action of the Commission. This must he regarded as a step in the direction of just and peace¬ ful 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, heretofore ex¬ isting 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 themselves the owners and mas¬ ters of men, and learning early, and witnessing constantly, the utter dependence of the non-slaveholding whites, living in their midst, upon their power and whim, it was altogether natural, in¬ evitable, that thej^ acquired the habit of command, exacting ready and unquestioning acquiescence. Politically, the course of treat¬ ment pursued by the Government toward the South on all subjects relating to that section, affecting its interests, directly or remotely, really or imaginarily, compromising too often, even at the expense of Freedom and National Honor, has tended greatly, and not un¬ naturally, 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

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NEGRO ORATORS

South, as well as everywhere else, among all people. Is this con¬ dition possible by means of peaceful Reconstruction?

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 ques¬ tion 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 in their midst. If al¬ lowed to remain their influence must tell for good. The little leaven may leaven the whole lump.

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 establish¬ ment of other and better educational organizations, the submission of the political and the religious opinion of the people to a new crucial test, the deposing of many old, and the advancement of. other leaders, the condition of the public mind, now upon inquiry, the best, the most gifted and learned, seeking knowledge, makes this the time preeminently to speak and be heard. The public address, the considerate editorial, the pamphlet or book, in which are discussed, with Avisdom and moderation, the problems 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 performance, and this is the work which should be done for the South. The truth and the 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 Democratic party, they justly fear, and they

SPEECHES OF NEGEO CONGEESSMEN 425

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 and Navy. Such purpose I endorse 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 judgment, 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 he gained is the incomparable and enduring good of the people. The success of the Democratic party does not foUow necessarily the adoption of the policy of pacific Eeconstruction. 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 colored citizen? I believe not. I believe it will prove to him, as to all other residents of the South, an inestimable blessing. 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, per¬ sonal safety, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Reconcilia¬ tion — 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 character, means, and infiuenee where he lives, this he must have. With harmony and good neighborhood existing be¬ tween him and the white classes, his life, under the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments of the Constitution of the United States 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 press¬ ing and absorbing political excitement, he will cultivate industry more thoroughly and advantageously, locate his family, educate his children, accumulate wealth, and improve himself in all those things which pertain to dignified 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, interested in all matters

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NEGRO ORATORS

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 become self-reliant and self-supporting ; no longer a pariah, but a man and citizen in fact. Having passed thus his life in honest indiastry and noble endeavor, winning hon¬ ors, official and other, no distinctions made against him on account of his color — distinctions offensive and harassing — ^he spends his declining years in the midst of a happy family, his children re¬ spected, as they show themselves honest, honorable and worthy. Is this condition possible ? May we justly contemplate this as the promise of Peaceful Reconstruction 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 enfranchised col¬ ored citizen. The intensity and the implacability 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 intelli¬ gent and permanent friendship secured between these classes.

Several important circumstances, now existing facts, must con¬ tribute directly and largely to the accomplishment of this result. The improved condition of the colored people, their advancement in education, property, and social character, 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 knowl¬ edge and appreciation of the beautiful and ennobling lessons of Christian civilization, their value of manhood and the best meth¬ ods of developing and fostering its noblest qualities, their energy, their industry, their thrift, their progress, their love of liberty, equal rights, and free institutions; the influence of the native- Union white man of the South, his brave assertion of loyal senti¬ ments, and his fearless maintenance of the doctrines 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

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN 427

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 conse¬ quent social position and influence. It may be stated with truth that the central and controlling idea of the American Govern¬ ment, tersely and graphically described by Abraham Lincon as — ‘ ‘ The government 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 overshadowing insti¬ tution of slavery existing there for quite two hundred and forty- five years; while under this institution 365,000 slaveholders con¬ stituted the body of property-holders, and the ruling class, to all intents and purposes ! In addition to this political heresy, through the teachings of certain eminent and distinguished Southern states¬ men, the doctrine of State-Rights and Secession prevailed, and was tenaciously held generally.

Besides, the South had not accepted as the basis of political action, prior to the war, those great and fundamental principles which distinguished the American Revolution. The principles of the Declaration, the doctrines of the Constitution, the sentiments of the wisest and best statesmanship of the country, were generally treated as “glittering generalities,” void of practical significance. But now they profess to accept all these ; and no one is found to advocate the re-enslavement of the Negro, or to oppose Universal Suffrage. Freedom and popular government are accepted and established facts. Everybody admits the utter absurdity and im¬ practicability of secession, and yields a cordial and supreme al¬ legiance to the General Government. Indeed, professedly, 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 absurdity 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 civiliza¬ tion of mankind.

More than this. Revolutions always prove moral sources of edu¬ cation to the people. The Revolution of the South will form no exception to this rule. And among the valuable fruits which it

428 NEGEO ORATOES

will brin^ to the people finally, as I believe, is a system of Common Schools, founded and supported by the State, aided, it may be, by the National Government, which will become nurseries no less of liberty and labor, learning and piety, than sentiments of humane consideration and kindly regard of the one class for the other. The humanizing influences of letters, the liberalizing tendencies of knowledge, the purity of purposes and elevation of character pro¬ duced by culture, the new feelings and consequent change of habits and conduct, products of enlightenment, must be treated as posi¬ tive 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 Presidential Cam¬ paign, occurs the following truthful statement : Two hundred

years ago two hostile systems of civilization started on this conti¬ nent. 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, however 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 supe¬ riority of man over man, of the right of one class to dominate 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 the dominant classes at the South are sincere, if they have put away indeed the old things and really accept the new, the task of Recon¬ cilement and Pacification is easy, and, accomplished, our nation moves forward henceforth, cultivating the one idea and the one system, thereby achieving the largest possible results under a com¬ mon, harmonious, Christian civilization.

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN 429

The Republican Plan of Pacific Reconstruction

The Republican party, at its late National Convention, expressed, with clearness and force, its judgment and purpose as to the perma¬ nent 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 significant, 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 enjoy¬ ment 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 States, and we declare it to he the solemn obligation of the Legislative and Executive Departments of the Government to put into immediate and vigorous exercise all their constitutional powers for removing 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 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. ’ ’

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 perma¬ nent pacification of the country, and the complete protection 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 administration 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.

“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 distinctions of race or upon sectional lines, is always unfortunate, and may be disastrous. The

430 NEGEO OEATOES '

welfare of the South, alike with that of every other part of the country, depends upon the attractions it can offer to labor and im¬ migration, 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 Consti¬ tution are sacred, and must he 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 recognition 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 honest and capable local government. If elected, I shall consider 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 organ¬ izing an Administration, it will be one which will regard and cherish their truest interests, the interests of the white and the 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 South 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 paciflcation 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.

“Many of the calamitous effects of the tremendous revolution which has passed over the Southern States still remain. The im¬ measurable 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. Difficult 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

SPEECHES OF NEGEO CONGRESSMEN 431

enjoyed. Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the cause of this condition of things, the fact is clear that, in the progress of events, the time has come when such government is the imperative necessity required hy all the varied interests, public and private, 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 relations to each other have brought upon us the deplorable complications and perplexities which exist in those States, it must be a govern¬ ment 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 nation and the laws of the States themselves — accepting and obeying faithfully the whole Constitution as it is.

“Resting upon this sure and substantial foundation, the super¬ structure of beneficent local governments can he 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 implies, 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 gov¬ ernment, 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 nation is deeply interested, and with respect to which we ought not to he, in a partisan sense, either Republicans or Democrats, but fellow-citizens and fellowmen, to whom the interests of a common country and a common humanity are dear.”

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 occupying conspicuous place among the leaders of the party — teach the threefold lesson: first, that Pacific Reconstruction, if possible, ought to he accomplished; second, that, if accomplished, it is to be done only in the adoption of “such principles and measures as will secure the complete pro¬ tection of all citizens in the free enjoyment of all their constitutional

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NEGEO OEATOES

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 Eepublicanism. The lessons of history, not less than the prepepts of our religion and the fundamental princi¬ ples of wise statesmanship, justify and sustain such treatment of the Southern section of our country. But how shall this peaceful theory of Reconstruction, so beautiful in ideal, whose results are so delightful to contemplate, be reduced to practice without injus¬ tice to any, and with the largest good to all ?

I have designated the various classes composing the population of the South. I have indicated certain difficulties, and in that con¬ nection 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 acceptance and his Inaugural Address, the senti¬ ments of the Republican 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 we shall proceed confronts us.

Peaceful REcoNSTRucTioisr Possible

The importance, the magnitude, and difficulty, as well as the necessity, of Reconstruction by peaceful means will be conceded. And however we may regret it, it will be conceded that the method heretofore pursued proves by no means satisfactory 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 im¬ pecunious 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 — what¬ ever 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

SPEECHES OF NEGEO CONGRESSMEN 433

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 prin¬ ciples and measures, already accepted and fixed in the Constitution and the laws.

The present Administration, in its efforts at pacification in deal¬ ing with States, classes, races and individuals, proposes, as one must believe, to stand on the law, as now written and determined, insist¬ ing upon the cordial recognition of the equal rights of all citizens, the practical guarantee of their protection in such rights, the estab¬ lishment and maintenance of such condition of good order and peace as to encourage immigration, the introduction of capital, and the advancement of labor, as well as the inauguration of such local self-governments as in all their departments and acts shall be har¬ monious with the altered status of the former slave, the new pro¬ visions of the Constitution, and the enactment of the State and General Government passed in accordance therewith. Occupying such position, and insisting upon such conditions as precedent and indispensable, the good omens of its initial efforts promise a happy ' success. The acceptance of these conditions as precedent and in¬ dispensable, constitutes the only correct and sure test of the willing¬ ness and the fitness of the dominant white classes of the South, for properly 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 rela¬ tions, in the solution and determination of those questions, material, educational and political, which more especially affect the newly enfranchised people, we might wisely give ourselves no further anxiety with regard to this subject, resting assured that the general management 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

434 NEGRO ORATORS

from without, and through the instrumentality 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 disposi¬ tion and purpose, with reference to the management of the Southern problem, as to convince all concerned of the sincerity 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 benefi¬ cent purposes. We do not calculate wisely regarding human im¬ pulses, 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 ofBcial positions, are matters of detail, which may be very properly, under the law and the admonitions of public opinion, entrusted to the President. It must be insisted, however, as both wise and just, that, in the distribution of official patronage. Republicans, espe¬ cially native Whites and Blacks of the 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 repellency existing between the classes, will be the more speedily corrected and removed. It must also be insisted, where no such domestic violence as that described in the Constitution exists 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, irri¬ tating, and exasperating cause is removed, and Government and people remitted to the established methods of the law. The expe¬ rience, the habits of thought and feeling of Americans, ill prepare them for tolerating the use of the army in the settlement of political differences ; and in the presence of any such real or supposed con¬ dition of things, permanent peace is impossible in any section of our country.

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN 435

The Contemplation of Reconcilement and Peace Established

The pleasing contemplation of the people of the South, engaging in the wise and profitable cultivation of all the industries, agri¬ cultural and other, peculiar to and remunerative in that section; human life and human rights, without regard to class or color, properly valued and protected; just local self-government estab¬ lished ; the vexed and trying question of reconstruction settled ; the union of our States and the Government no longer endangered by any exciting sectional dispute, but adjusted upon enduring princi¬ ples of justice, law, and liberty, excites in our minds the deepest feelings of hope, the profoundest purpose to do all that is practi¬ cable to secure such consummation, so devoutly to be wished.

This condition of reconcilement and peace secured, in the pros¬ perity and happiness of our country, heretofore “rent by fratri¬ cidal 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 fiow’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 oppos’d Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies:

The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,

No more shall cut his master.”^

^ Langston, Lectures, etc., 209-231.

436

NEGRO ORATORS

equality before the law

By John Mekcer Langston ^

Mr President and Friends ; I thank yon for the invitation which brings me before yon at this time, to address yon upon this most interesting occasion. I am not nnmindfnl of the fact that I stand in the presence of instrnctors, eminently distingnished for the work which they have done in the canse of trnth and hnmanity. Oberlin was a pioneer in the labor of abolition. It is foremost in the work of bringing abont eqnality of the Negro before the law. Thirty years ago, on the first day of last March, it was my good fortnne, a boy seeking an edncation, to see Oberlin for the first time. Here I discovered at once that I breathed a new atmosphere. Thongh poor, and a colored boy, I fonnd no distinction made against me in your hotel, in your institution of learning, in your family circle.

I come here today 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 success 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 happi¬ ness, cultivating things which appertain to literature, science, and law, may your Oberlin, as in the past, so in all the future, go for¬ ward, cultivating a noble, patriotic, Christian leadership. In the name of the Negro, so largely blest and benefited by your insti¬ tution, 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 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. The compromise measures of 1850, in¬ cluding 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 poUtical parties pledged to their main¬ tenance, have, with those parties, been utterly nullified and de¬ stroyed. In their stead we have a purified constitution and legis-

1 Delivered at Oberlin on tbe anniversary of tbe adoption of the Eifteenth Amendment, May 17, 1874.

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN 437

lation no longer construed and enforced to sanction and support inhumanity and crime, but to sustain and perpetuate the freedom and the rights of us all.

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 liberty and law; while new, other and better purposes, aspirations and feelings, have possessed and moved the soul of his fellow-countrymen. The moral atmos¬ phere 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 match¬ less courage and endurance of our soldiery, necessary to the sal¬ vation of the Government and Union, our freedom and that recon¬ struction 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 commemoration of our emancipation, the triumph of a movement whose comprehensive results profit and bless with¬ out discrimination as to color or race.

Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, on the 4th day of July last, in address¬ ing his fellow-citizens of Massachusetts, at Framingham, used the following language, as I conceive, with propriety 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 horn, 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 sharpness 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 assas¬ sination 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.”

The laws of a nation are no more the indices of its public senti-

438 NEGRO ORATORS

ment and its civilization than of its promise of progress toward the permanent establishment of freedom and equal rights. The his¬ tories of the empires of the past, no less than the nations of the present, hear 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 illustrated 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. Of the civil law Chancellor Kent eloquently says: “It was created and matured on the hanks of the Tiber, by the successive wisdom of Roman statesmen, magis¬ trates and sages; and after governing the greatest people in the ancient world for the space of thirteen or fourteen centuries, and undergoing extraordinary vicissitudes 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, Spain, Germany, Holland, 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 reigns 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 philanthropist 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 sagacious lawyer or states¬ man. This is particularly true since, in the changes made, we essay no novel experiments in legislation and law, but such as are justifled by principles drawn from the fountains of our jurispru¬ dence, 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,

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN 439

first, that slavery abolished, not by State but national enactment, can never again in the history of our country be justified or de¬ fended on the ground that it is a municipal institution, the creature of State law. Henceforth, 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 utter¬ ance, and our pursuit of happiness. And to this leading and funda¬ mental 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 any¬ thing external to ourselves, so we were without country and legal settlement. While slavery existed, even the free colored American was in no better condition; and hence exhortations, prompted in many instances 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 respect¬ able and promising government in Liberia, and that those who have supported the Colonization Society have been philanthropically dis¬ posed, both as regards the class transported and the native African. It is still true, however, that the emancipated American has hitherto been driven or compelled to consent to expatriation because denied 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,

440 NEGRO ORATORS

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 ot its free institutions and Union, can be without lively and permanen interest to him, as to all others who, either by birth or adoption,

legitimately claim it as their country, . . , j.

With emancipation, then, comes also that which is dearer to the true patriot than life itself : country and home. And this doctrine of the law, in the broad and comprehensive application explained, is now accepted without serious objection by leading jurists an StO-tBSIHGH*

The law has also forever determined, and to our advantage, 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 questions 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 Constitution, 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 argu¬ ment to show that nativity in the ease of the colored American does not give citizenship, according to the meaning of the Constitution

SPEECHES OF NEGEO CONGEESSMEN 441

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 vessels. ’ ’

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 September 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 ^ura civitaUs under the Constitution 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 become 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 express statutory provision to the contrary) the rights of denizens.”

This opinion of the learned Attorney-General, while it admits the free man of color to the privileges of a pre-emptioner under the act mentioned, places him legally in a nondescript condition, erroneously assuming, as we clearly undertake to say, that there are degrees and grades of American citizenship. These opinions accord well with the dicta of the Dred Scott decision, of which we have lively remembrance.

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 of the 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

442 NEGEO OEATORS

reasoning and the conclusion reached by Edward Bate were en¬ tirely 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 learning, 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 competent, according to the acts of Congress, to be masters of vessels engaged in the coasting trade. In the course

of his argument he says : ^ j ,•

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 indi¬ vidual 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. i • -u.

3 “In the United States it is too late to deny the political rights

and obligations conferred and imposed by nativity; for our laws do not pretend to create or enact them, but do assume and recognize them as things known to all men, because 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. . • r.

5. “There are some who, abandoning the untenable objection of

color, still contend that no person descended from Negroes of the African race can be a citizen of the United States. Here the objec¬ tion 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 are a degraded race, and that all who are tainted with that degradation are forever disquali-

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN 443

fied for the functions of citizenship. I can hardly comprehend the thought of the absolute incompatibility of degradation and citizen¬ ship ; I thought that they often went together.

7. ‘‘Our nationality was created and our political government 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, inevitably, that such persons horn in the country must be citizens unless the fact of African descent he 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 first day 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 he conceded that Bates was not only thoroughly read in the law, hut hold and sagacious. For these propositions have all passed, through the 14th amendment, 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 sus¬ tained thereby, the duty of allegiance on the one part, and the right of protection on the other recognized and enforced, 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. Considera¬ tions of political necessity, as indicated, no doubt hastened the adoption of this amendment. But in the progress of legal develop¬ ment 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 of the colored American, in his freedom, his enfranchisement, and the exercise of political powers, he is not yet given the full exercise

444

NEGEO OEATORS

and enjoyment of all the rights which appertain by law to Amer¬ ican 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 considerations 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 prejudice and caprice instead of the promptings of nature, guided by cultivated taste and wise judgment as the true basis of social recognition; and believing, too, that in a Christian community, social recognition may justly be pronounced a duty, I would not deal in this discussion with matters of society. I would justify the claim of the 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 country, 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 drawn, supplementary to the existing Civil Rights Law, by which all citizens shall be protected in equal rights :

“1. On railroads, steamboats and public conveyances, being pub¬ lic carriers.

“2. At all houses in the nature of ‘inns.’

“3. All licensed houses of public amusement.

“4. At all common schools.

Can you do this ? I would follow as much as possible the lan¬ guage of the existing 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 accommoda¬ tions, facilities, advantages and privileges, furnished ordinarily by common carriers, inn-keepers, at public places of amusement and common schools; and which are so indispensable to rational and useful enjoyment of life, that without them citizenship itself loses much of its value, and liberty seems little more than a crime.

SPEECHES OP NEGEO CONGEESSMEN 445

The judicial axiom, omnes homines (equates sunt, is said to have been given the world by the jurisconsults of the Antonine era. From the Roman, the French people inherited this legal sentiment ; and, through the learning, the wisdom and patriotism of Thomas Jefferson and his Revolutionary compatriots, it was made the chief corner-stone of jurisprudence and polities. In considering the in¬ justice done the colored American 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 principle upon which the fathers built, and in the light of which our law ought to be construed and enforced. This observation has especial signifi¬ cance 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 advan¬ tages be justified ? 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 ought to be law is not always so written ; but, in this matter, that only ought to remain upon the statute book, to be enforced 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 con¬ siderations against the proscriptive, and in favor of the common

446

NEGRO ORATORS

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 founda¬ tion ; 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 taxation 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 classifica¬ tion which excludes the child of any citizen or class of citizens from equal enjoyment of the advantages purchased by such fund, it being the common property of eveiy citizen equally, by reason of its public dedication.

Schools which tend to separate the children of the country in their feelings, aspirations and purposes, which foster and perpetu¬ ate sentiments of caste, hatred, and ill-will, which breed a sense of degradation on the one part and of superiority on the other, which beget clannish notions rather than teach and impress an omnipresent and living principle and faith that we are all Amer¬ icans, 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 class against another, inflating on the one part, degrading on the other; two separate school systems, 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 reason¬ able 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 pas¬ sengers can, in no sense, be made dependent upon the nationality or color of those with whom he deals. He may not, according to

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN 447

law, answer his engagements to one class and justify non-perform¬ ance or neglect as to another by considerations drawn from race. His contract is originally and fundamentally with the entire com¬ munity, and with all its members he is held to equal and impartial obligation. On this subject the rules of law are definite, clear, and satisfactory. 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 reasonable regulations imposed, who are not guilty of gross and vulgar habits of conduct, whose characters are not doubtful, dissolute or sus¬ picious or unequivocally bad, and whose object in seeking con¬ veyance is not to interfere with the interests or patronage of the carrier so as to make his business less lucrative.

And, in the second place, common carriers may not impose upon passengers oppressive and grossly unreasonable orders and regu¬ lations. 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 intelli¬ gent lawyer, is as to whether the regulation made by common carriers of passengers generally in this country, by which white passengers and colored ones are separated on steamboats, railroad cars, and stage coaches, greatly to the disadvantage, inconvenience, 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 distant 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 partieular is neither imaginary 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 explicit and rigid. They are not allowed to accommodate or refuse to accommodate

448

NEGEO OEATOES

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 cer¬ tain 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 suit 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 suit¬ able 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 Papinian. 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 amusement, the church and the cemetery. I vdll 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 remark¬ able, and is difficult of defense upon any considerations of human¬ ity, law, or Christianity. Such exclusion is the more remarkable and indefensible since we are fellow-citizens, wielding like political powers, eligible to the same high official positions, responsible to the same degree and in the same manner for the discharge of the duties they impose; interested in the progress and civilization of a common country, and anxious, 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 is denied access and

SPEECHES OF NEGRO CONGRESSMEN 449

welcome to the public place of learning, the theater, the church and the graveyard, upon terms accorded to all others.

But, Mr. President and friends, it ill becomes us to complain ; we may not tarry to find fault. The change in public sentiment, the reform in our national legislation and jurisprudence, which we this day commemorate, transcendent and admirable, augurs and guarantees to all American citizens 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 citi¬ zenship 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 to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, are national utter¬ ances which not only recognize, 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 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 Ethi¬ opian; 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 ac¬ cording to higher capacities; but it welcomes all to its equal hos-

450 NEGEO OEATOES

pitable board. The State, imitating the Divine Justice, is no re¬ specter of persons.”

With freedom established in our own country, and equality before the law promised in early Federal, if not State legislation, 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 abolished, and appealing to the civilized world for sympathy and justification of their course, have staked all upon “the dread arbitrament of w^ar.” There can be no peace on our continent, 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 “govern¬ ment of the people, by the people, and for the people,” shall prove at once its strength and support.

Our sympathies especially go towards the struggling patriots of Cuba. We would see the “Queen of the Antilles” free from Spanish rule ; her slaves all freemen, and herself advancing 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 protection from, or annexation to, a country and government despotic and oppressive in its policy. By its proximity to our shores, by the ties of blood which connect its population and ours; by the examples presented in our Kevolu- tionary conflict, when France furnished succor and aid to our struggling but heroic fathers; by the lessons and examples of international law and history; by all the pledges made by our nation in favor of freedom and equal rights, the oppressed and suffering people of Cuba may justly expect, demand our sympa¬ thies and support in their struggle for freedom and independence. Especially let the colored American realize that wFere battle is made against despotism and oppression, wherever humanity strug¬ gles for national existence and recognition, there his sympathies should be felt, his word and succor inspiriting, encouraging and

SPEECHES OF NE6B0 CONGRESSMEN 451

supporting. Today let us send our word of sympathy to the struggling thousands of Cuba, among whom, as well as among the people of Porto Eico, we hope soon to see slavery, indeed, aboh ished, free institutions firmly established, and good order, prosper¬ ity and happiness secured. This accomplished, our continent is dedicated to freedom and free institutions ; and the nations which compose 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 cor¬ ner-stone should be built into the edifice of our national, conti¬ nental 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.^

'^Lectures and Addresses of John M. Langston, pp. 141-161.

Chapter IX

CHAPTER IX

Oratory In The Solution Of The Race Problem

Outside of Congress there were Negroes of consequence voicing the sentiment of the rank and file of the race on im¬ portant questions. In fact, with the exception of the speeches of R. B. Elliott, the great orations of that day were not delivered in Congress. While most of the Negroes who served in that body were as a rule abler than the average white member, they were not always equal to the many out¬ standing Negroes so circumstanced as not to have a constitu¬ ency thus to honor them. On questions vitally concerning the race, the Negro usually found comfort in the oratory of Frederick Douglass. This situation obtained for a gen¬ eration after the collapse of reconstruction.

The first great upheaval deeply affecting the Negro throughout the country after the Civil War was the exodus of 1879. It was a turning point in the readjustment of the Negro after freedom. The reconstruction had been un¬ done, and the Negro, during the later seventies, had to re¬ adjust himself so as to accept the situation in the South, or to go to a more hospitable place. The majority of them, in the nature of their circumstances, had to remain where they were, but a few, better circumstanced than others, were moved to migrate to the West. Whether or not this was a wise policy was debated throughout the North and South. Seeing the serious economic loss to that section, the planters endeavored first to persuade the Negroes to remain, but when they failed to do this they brought to bear such force as they could indirectly by handicapping the migrants in securing transportation.

The Negroes were divided on the question for the reason

462

SOLUTION OF THE EACE PROBLEM 453

that many of those interested in politics still hoped that they might regain control in certain parts of the South. Others were disposed to abandon the South altogether with hopes of building on a surer foundation in the Northern or Western States. The speeches of Frederick Douglass and Richard T. Greener, which follow, present these points of view.

THE NEGRO EXODUS FROM THE GULF STATES ^

By Frederick Douglass

The Negro, long deemed to be too indolent and stupid to discover and adopt any rational measure to secure and defend his rights as a man, may now be congratulated upon the telling contradiction which he has recently and strikingly given to this withering dis¬ paragement and reproach. He has discovered and adopted a meas¬ ure which may assist very materially in the solution of some of the vital problems involved in his sudden elevation from slavery to freedom, and from chattelhood to manhood and citizenship. He has shown that Mississippi can originate more than one plan, and that there is a possible plan for the oppressed, as well as for the oppressor. He has not chosen to copy the example of his would-be enslavers. It is to his credit that he has steadily refused to resort to those extreme measures of repression and retaliation to which the cruel wrongs he has suffered might have tempted a less docile and forgiving race. He has not imitated the plan of the oppressed tenant, who sneaks in ambush and shoots his landlord, as in Ire¬ land; nor the example of the Indian, who meets the invader of his hunting-ground with scalping-knife and tomahawk; he has not leaimed his lesson from the freed serfs of Russia, and organized assassination against tyrant princes and nobles ; nor has he copied the example of his own race in Santo Domingo, who taught their French oppressors by fire and sword the danger of goading too far the “energy that slumbers in the black man’s arm.”

On the contrary, he has adopted a simple, lawful and peaceable measure. It is emigration — the quiet withdrawal of his valuable bones and muscles from a condition of things which he considers

‘Read at Saratoga Springs before the American Social Science Association, Sept. 12, 1879 — Journal of Social Science, May, 1880, Vol. 11.

454

NEGRO ORATORS

no longer tolerable. Innocent as this remedy is for the manifold ills, which he has thns far borne with marvellous patience, forti¬ tude, and forbearance, it is none the less significant and effective. Nothing has occurred since the abolition of slavery, which has excited a deeper interest among thoughtful men in all sections of the country, than has this Exodus. In the simple fact that a few thousand freedmen have deliberately laid down the shovel and the hoe, quitted the sugar and cotton fields of Mississippi and Louisiana, and sought homes in Kansas, and that thousands more are seri¬ ously meditating upon following their example, the sober thinking minds of the South have discovered a new and startling peril to the welfare and civilization of that section of our country. Already apprehension and alarm have led to noisy and frantic efforts on the part of the South to arrest and put an end to what it considers a ruinous evil.

It cannot be denied that there is much reason for this appre¬ hension. This Exodus has revealed to southern men the humiliating fact that the prosperity and civilization of the South are at the mercy of the despised and hated Negro. That it is for him, more than for any other, to say what shall be the future of the late Confederate States; that within their ample borders, he alone can stand between the contending powers of savage and civilized life; that the giving or withholding of his labor will bless or blast their beautiful country. Important as manual labor is everywhere, it is nowhere more important than in the more southern of the IJnited States. Machinery may continue to do, as it has done, much of the work of the North, but the work of the South requires bone, sinew and muscle of the strongest and most enduring kind for its performance. Labor in that section must know no pause. Her soil is prolific with life and energy. All the forces of nature within her borders are wonderfully vigorous, persistent and active. Aided by an almost perpetual summer, abundantly supplied with heat and moisture, her soil readily and rapidly covers itself with noxious weeds, dense forests and impenetrable jungles, natural hiding places for devouring wolves and loathsome reptiles. Only a few years of non-tillage would be required to give the sunny and fruitful South to the bats and owls of a desolate wilderness. From this condition, shocking for a southern man to contemplate, it is now seen that nothing less powerful than the naked iron arm of the

SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 455

Negro can save her. For him, as a southern laborer, there is no competitor or substitute. The thought of filling his place by any other variety of the human family ■will be found utterly imprac¬ ticable. Neither Chinaman, German, Norwegian nor Swede can drive him from the sugar and cotton fields of Louisiana and Mis¬ sissippi. They would certainly perish in the black bottoms of those states if they could be induced, which they cannot, to try the ex¬ periment. Nature itself in those states comes to the rescue of the Negro ; fights his battles and enables him to exact conditions from those who would unfairly treat and oppress him. Besides being dependent upon the roughest and flintiest kind of labor, the climate of the South makes such labor uninviting and harshly repulsive to the white man. He dreads it, shrinks from it and refuses it. He shuns the burning sun of the fields, and seeks the shade of the verandas. On the contrary, the Negro walks, labors, or sleeps in the sunlight unharmed. The standing apology for slavery was based upon a knowledge of this fact. It was said that the world must have cotton and sugar, and that only the Negro could supply this want, and that he could be induced to do it only under the “beneficent whip” of some bloodthirsty Legree. The last part of this argument has been happily disproved by the large crops of these productions since emancipation ; but the first part of it stands firm, unassailed and unassailable. It served him well years ago, when in the bitterest extremity of his destitution. But for it he would have perished when he dropped out of slavery. It saved him then and will save him again.

Emancipation came to him surrounded by exceedingly unfriendly circumstances. It was not the choice or consent of the people among whom he lived, but against a death struggle on their part to prevent it. His chains were broken in the tempest and whirl¬ wind of civil war. Without food, without shelter, without land, without money or friends, he, with his children, his sick, his aged and helpless, was turned loose and naked to the open sky. The announcement of his freedom was instantly followed by an order from his old master to quit his old quarters and to seek bread thereafter from the hands of those who had given him his freedom. A desperate extremity was this forced upon him at the outset of his freedom, and the world watched with humane anxiety to see

456 NEGRO ORATORS

what would become of him. His peril was imminent ; starvation stared him in the face.

Even if climate, and other natural causes, did not protect the Negro from all competition in the labor market of the South, inevitable social causes would probably effect the same result. The slave system of that section left behind it, as in the nature of the case it must, manners, customs and conditions, to which free white laboring men will not be in haste to submit themselves and their families. They do not emigrate from the free North, where labor is respected, to a lately enslaved South, where labor has been whipped, chained and degraded for centuries. Naturally enough such emigration follows the lines of latitude in which they who compose it were born. Not from South to North, but from East to West “the course of empire takes its way.” Hence, it is seen that the dependence of the planters, landowners and old master-class of the South upon the Negro, however galling and humiliating to Southern pride and power, is nearly complete and perfect. There is only one mode of escape for them, and that mode they will cer¬ tainly not adopt. It is to take off their own coats, cease to whittle sticks and talk politics at the cross-roads, and go themselves to work in their broad and sunny fields of cotton and sugar. An invitation to do this is about as harsh and distasteful to all their inclinations as would be an invitation to step down into their graves. With the Negro, all this is different. Neither natural, artificial nor tra¬ ditional causes stand in the way of the freedman to such labor in the South. Neither heat, nor the fever demon that lurks in her tangled and oozy swamps, affrights him, and he stands today the admitted author of whatever prosperity, beauty, and civilization are now possessed by the South. He is the arbiter of her destiny.

This, then, is the high vantage ground of the Negro; he has labor, the South wants it, and must have it or perish. Since he is free he can now give it, or withhold it ; use it where he is, or take it elsewhere, as he pleases. His labor made him a slave, and his labor can, if he will, make him free, comfortable and inde¬ pendent. It is more to him than either fire, sword, ballot-boxes, or bayonet. It touches the heart of the South through its pocket.

It will not be soon forgotten that, at the close of a five hours’ speech by the late Senator Sumner, in which he advocated, with unequalled learning and eloquence, the enfranchisement of the

SOLUTION OF THE EACE PEOBLEM 457

freedmen, lie was met in the senate with the argument that legis¬ lation at that point would be utterly superfluous; that the Negro was rapidly dying out and must inevitably and speedily disappear. Inhuman and shocking as was this consignment of millions of human beings to extinction, the extremity of the Negro, at that date, did not contradict but favored the prophecy. The policy of the old master-class, dictated by passion, pride and revenge, was then to make the freedom of the Negro a greater calamity to him, if possible, than had been his slavery. But happily, both for the old master-class, and the recently emancipated, there came, as there will come now, the sober, second thought. The old master-class then found that it had made a great mistake. It had driven away the means of its own support. It had destroyed the hands and left the mouths. It had starved the Negro and starved itself. Not even to gratify its own anger and resentment could it afford to allow its fields to go uncultivated, and its tables to go unsupplied with food. Hence the f reedman, less from humanity than cupidity, less from choice than necessity, was speedily called back to labor and life. But now, after fourteen years of service, and fourteen years of separation from visible presence of slavery, during which he has shown both disposition and ability to supply the labor market of the South, and that he could do so far better as a free¬ man than he ever did as a slave; that more cotton and sugar can be raised by the same hands under the inspiration of liberty and hope than can be raised under the influence of bondage and the whip, — he is again, alas ! in the deepest trouble, — ^without a home ; again out under the open sky, with his wife and his little ones. He lines the sunny banks of the Mississippi, fluttering in rags and wretchedness ; he stands mournfully imploring hard-hearted steam¬ boat captains to take him on board ; while the friends of the emi¬ gration movement are diligently soliciting funds all over the North to help him away from his old home to the modern Canaan of Kansas.

The Cause of It

Several causes have been assigned for this truly desperate and pitiable spectacle. Many of these are, upon their face, superficial, insufficient and ridiculous. Adepts in political trickery and duplic¬ ity, who will never go straight to a point, when they can go crooked,

458 NEGKO ORATORS

explain the Exodus as a cunning scheme to force a certain nomi¬ nation upon the Republican party in 1880. It does not appear how such an effect is to follow such a cause. For, if the Negroes are to leave the South, as the advocates of the Exodus tell us, and settle m the North, where all their rights are protected, the country need not trouble itself about securing a President whose chief recom¬ mendation is supposed to be his will and power to protect the Negro in the South ; and the nomination is thus rendered unnecessary by the success of the measure which made it necessary. Again, we are told that greedy speculators in Kansas have adopted this plan to sell and increase the value of their land. This cannot be, men of this class are usually shrewd. They do not seek to sell land to those who have no money, — and they are too sharp to believe that they can increase the value of their property by inviting to its neighborhood a class of people against whom there is an intense and bitter popular prejudice. Malignant emissaries from the North, it is said, have been circulating among the f reedmen, talking to them and deluding them with promises of the great things which will be done for them if they will only go to Kansas. Plainly enough this theory fails for the want of even the show of probable motive. The North can have no motive to cripple industry at the South, or elsewhere, in this country. If she were malignant enough, which she is not, she is not blind enough to her own interest to do any such thing. She sees and feels that an injury to any part of this country is an injury to the whole of it.

Again, it is said, that this Exodus is all the work of the defeated and disappointed demagogues, white and black, who have been hurled from place and power by the men of property and intelli¬ gence in the South. There may be some truth in this theory. Human nature is capable of resentment. It would not be strange if people who have been degraded and driven from place and power by brute force and by fraud, were to resent the outrage in any way they safely could. But it is still further said that the Exodus is peculiarly the work of Senator Windom. His resolution and speech in the Senate, last winter, are said to have set this black ball in motion, and much wrath has been poured out upon that humane Senator for his part in the movement. It need not be denied that there is truth in this allegation. Senator Windom ’s speech and resolution certainly did serve as a powerful stimulus to this emi-

SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 459

gration. Until he spoke there was no general stampede from the cotton and sugar plantations of Mississippi and Louisiana. There can be no doubt, either, that the freedmen received erroneous notions from some quarter what the Government was likely to do for them in the new country to which they are now going. They may have been told of “forty acres and a mule,” and some of them may have believed and acted upon it. But it is manifest that the real cause of this extraordinary Exodus lies deeper down than any point touched by any of the causes thus far alleged. Political tricksters, land speculators, defeated office seekers. Northern malig- nants, speeches and resolutions in the Senate, unaided by other causes, could not, of themselves, have set such a multitudinous Exodus in motion. The colored race is a remarkably home-loving race. It has done little in the way of voluntary colonization. It shrinks from the untried and unknown. It thinks its own locality the best in the world. Of all the galling conditions to which the Negro was subjected in the days of his bondage, the worst was the liability of separation from home and friends. His love of home and his dread of change made him even partially content in slavery. He could endure the smart of the lash, worked to the utmost of his power, and be content till the thought of being sent away from the scenes of his childhood and youth was thrust upon his heart.

But argument is less needed upon this point than testimony. We have the story of the emigrants themselves, and if any can reveal the true cause of this Exodus they can. They have spoken, and their story is before the country. It is a sad story, disgraceful and scandalous to our age and country. Much of their testimony has been given under the solemnity of an oath. They tell us with great unanimity that they are very badly treated at the South. The land owners, planters, and the old master-class generally, deal unfairly with them, having had their labor for nothing when they were slaves. These men, now they are free, endeavor by various devices to get it for next to nothing ; work as hard, faithfully and constantly as they may, live as plainly and as sparingly as they may, they are no better off at the end of the year than at the begin¬ ning. They say that they are the dupes and victims of cunning and fraud in signing contracts which they cannot read and cannot fully understand ; that they are compelled to trade at stores owned in whole or in part by their employers, and that they are paid with

460 NEGRO ORATORS

orders and not with money. They say that they have to pay double the value of nearly everything they buy ; that they are compelled to pay a rental of ten dollars a year for an acre of ground that will not bring thirty dollars under the hammer ; that land owners are in league to prevent land-owning by Negroes ; that when they work the land on shares they barely make a living; that outside the towns and cities no provision is made for education, and, ground down as they are, they cannot themselves employ teachers to in¬ struct their children; that they are not only the victims of fraud and cunning, but of violence and intimidation; that from their very poverty the temples of justice are not open to them; that the jury box is virtually closed ; that the murder of a black man by a white man is followed by no convietion or punishment. They say further, that a crime for which a white man goes free a black man is severely punished ; that impunity and encouragement are given by the wealthy and respectable classes to men of the baser sort who delight in midnight raids upon the defenceless; that their ignorance of letters has put them at the mercy of men bent upon making their freedom a greater evil to them than was their slavery ; that the law is the refuge of crime rather than of innocence ; that even the old slave driver’s whip has reappeared, and the inhuman and disgusting spectacle of the chain-gang is beginning to be seen ; that the government of every Southern State is now in the hands of the old slave oligarchy, and that both departments of the National Government soon will be in the same hands. They believe that when the Government, State and National, shall be in the control of the old masters of the South, they will find means for reducing the freedmen to a condition analogous to slavery. They despair of any change for the better, declaring that everything is waxing worse for the Negro, and that his only means of safety is to leave the South.

It must be admitted, if this brief statement of complaints be only half true, the explanation of the Exodus and the justification of the persons composing it, are full and ample. The complaints they make against Southern society are such as every man of com¬ mon honesty and humanity must wish ill founded ; unhappily, how¬ ever, there is nothing in the nature of these complaints to make them doubtful or surprising. The unjust conduct charged against the late slaveholders is eminently probable. It is an inheritance

SOLUTION OF THE EACE PEOBLEM 461

from the long exercise of irresponsible power by man over man. It is not a question of the natural inferiority of the Negro, or the color of his skin. Tyranny is the same proud and selfish thing everywhere, and with all races and colors. What the Negro is now suffering at the hands of his former master, the white emancipated serfs of Eussia are now suffering from the lords and nobles by whom they were formerly held as slaves. In form and appearance the emancipation of the latter was upon better terms than in the case of the Negro. The Empire, unlike the Republic, gave the free serfs three acres of land, — a start in the world. But the selection and bestowment of this land was unhappily confided to the care of the lords and nobles, their former masters. Thus the lamb was committed to the care of the wolf ; hence the organized assassination now going on in that country, and it will be well for our Southern States if they escape a like fate. The world is slow to learn that no man can wrong his brother without doing a greater wrong to himself; something may, however, be learned from the lessons of alarm and consternation which are now written all over Russia.

But in contemplating this Exodus, it should be kept in mind that the way of an oppressed people from bondage to freedom is never smooth. There is ever in such transition much to overcome on both sides. Neither the master nor the emancipated slave can at once shake off the habits and manners of a long-established past condition. The form may be abolished, but the spirit survives and lingers about the scenes of its former life. The slave brings into the new relation much of the dependence and servility of slavery, and the master brings much of his pride, selfishness and love of power. The influence of feudalism has not yet disappeared from Europe. Norman pride is still visible in England, though centuries have passed since the Saxon was the slave of the Norman ; and long years must elapse before all traces of slavery shall disappear from our country. Suffering and hardships made the Saxon strong, — and suffering and hardships will make the Anglo-African strong.

The Exodus as a Policy

Very evidently there are to be asked and answered many impor¬ tant questions, before the friends of humanity can be properly called upon to give their support to this emigration movement. A natural and primary inquiry is ; What does it mean ? How much

462 NEGRO ORATORS

ground is it meant to cover? Is the total removal o£ the whole five millions of colored people from the South contemplated? Or is it proposed to remove only a part ? And if only a part, why a part and not the whole? A vindication of the rights of the many can not be less important than the same to the few. If the few are to he removed because of the intolerable oppression which pre¬ vails in the South, why not the many also ? If exodus is good for any, must it not be equally good for all ? Then, if the whole five millions are to leave the South, as a doomed country, — left as Lot left Sodom, or driven out as the Moors were driven out of Spam, there is next a question of ways and means to be considered. Has any definite estimate of the cost of this removal been made ? How shall the one or two hundred millions of dollars which such removal would require be obtained ? Shall it be appropriated by Congress, or voluntarily be contributed by the public? Manifestly, with such a debt upon the nation as the war for the Union has created. Congress is not likely to be in a hurry to make any such appro¬ priation. It would much more willingly and readily enact the necessary legislation to protect the freedmen where they are than appropriate $200,000,000 to help them away to Kansas, or elsewhere in the North. But suppose, as already suggested, the matter shall not be left at all to Congress, but remitted to the voluntary con¬ tributions from the people. Then a swarm of Conways and Tandys must be employed to circulate over the country, hat in hand, solicit¬ ing and collecting these contributions ; representing to the people, everywhere, that the cause of the Negro is lost in the South ; that his only hope and deliverance from a condition of things worse than slavery is, — ^removal to Kansas, or to some country outside the Southern States. Then, would such an arrangement, such an apostleship of despair, be beneficial or prejudicial to the cause of the freedman?

Precisely and plainly, this is a feature of the emigration move¬ ment which is open to serious objection. Voluntary, spontaneous, self -sustained emigration on the part of the freedmen may or may not be commendable. It is a matter with which they alone have to do. The public is not called upon to say or do anything for or against it ; but when the public is called upon to take sides, declare its views, organize emigration societies, appoint and send out agents to make speeches and collect money, — to help the freedmen from

SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 463

the South —it may very properly object. The public may not wish to be responsible for the measure, or for the disheartening^ doctrines by which the measure is supported. Objection may properly be made upon many grounds. It may well enough be said that the Negro question is not so desperate as the advocates of this Exodus would have the public believe ; that there is still hope that the Negro will ultimately have his rights as a man, and be fully protected in the South; that in several of the old slave States his citizenship and his right to vote are already respected and protected ; that the same, in time, will be secured for the Negro in the other States; that the world was not the work of a day ; that even in free New England, all the evils generated by slavery did not disappear in a century after the abolition of the system, if, indeed, they have yet entirely disappeared.

Within the last forty years, a dark and shocking picture might be given of the persecution of the Negro and his friends, even in the now preeminently free State of Massachusetts. It is not more than twenty years ago that Boston supplied a pistol club, if not a rifle club, to break up an abolition meeting; and that one of her most eminent citizens had to be guarded to and from his house (Wendell Phillips) to escape the hand of moboeratic assassins, armed in the interest of slavery. The Negro on the Sound boats between New York and Boston, though a respectable, educated gentleman, was driven forward of the wheels, and must sleep, if he slept at all, upon the naked deck in the open air. Upon no condition except that of a servant or slave could he be permitted to go into a cabin. All the handicrafts of New England were closed to him. The appearance of a black man in any workshop or ship yard, as a mechanic, would have scattered the whole gang of white hands at once. The poor Negro was not admitted into the factories to work, or as an apprentice to any trade. He was barber, waiter, white-washer and wood-sawer. All of what were called respectable employments, by a power superior to legal enactments, were denied him. But none of these things have moved the Negro from New England, and it is well for him that he has remained there. Bad as is the condition of the Negro today at the South, there was a time when it was flagrantly and incomparably worse. A few years ago he had nothing; he did not have himself, his labor and his rights to dispose of as should best suit his own happiness. But he

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'

has now even more. He has a standing in the supreme law of the land, in the Constitution of the United States, not to he changed or affected by any conjunction of circumstances likely to occur in the immediate or remote future. The Fourteenth Amendment makes him a citizen, and the Fifteenth makes him a voter. With power behind him at work for him, and which cannot be taken from him, the Negro of the South may wisely bide his time.

The situation at this moment is exceptional and transient. The permanent powers of the Government are all on his side. What though for the moment the hand of violence strikes down the Negro 's rights in the South ? Those rights will revive, survive and flourish again. They are not the only people who have been in a moment of popular passion maltreated and driven from the polls. The Irish and Dutch have frequently been so treated; Boston, Baltimore and New York have been the scenes of this lawless vio¬ lence; hut those scenes have now disappeared. A Hebrew may even now be rudely repulsed from the door of a hotel ; but he will not on that account get up another Exodus, as he did three thousand years ago, but will quietly “put money in his purse” and bide his time, knowing that the rising tide of civilization will eventually float him, as it floats all other varieties of the human family, to whom floating in any condition is possible. Of one thing we may be certain (and it is a thing which is destined to be made very prominent not long hence), the Negro will either be counted at the polls, or not counted in the basis of representation. The South must let the Negro vote, or surrender its representation in Con¬ gress. The chosen horn of this dilemma will finally be to let the Negro vote, and vote unmolested. Let us have all the indignant and fiery declamation which the warm hearts of our youthful ora¬ tors can pour out against Southern meanness, “White Leagues,” “Bulldozers,” and other “Dark Lantern” organizations, but let us have a little calm, clear reason as well. The latter is a safer guide than the former. On this great occasion we want light rather than heat ; thought, rather than feeling ; a comprehensive view and appreciation of what the Negro has already on his side, as well as the disadvantages against which he has thus far been compelled to struggle, and still has to struggle.

Solution of the eace problem 465

i

/

The Exodus Ill-Timed

Without abating one jot of our horror and indignation at the outrages committed in some parts of the Southern States against the Negro, we cannot but regard the present agitation of an African Exodus from the South as ill-timed, and in some respects hurtful. We stand today at the beginning of a grand and beneficent reaction. There is a growing recognition of the duty and obligation of the American people to guard, protect and defend the personal and political rights of all the people of the States ; to uphold the prin¬ ciples upon which rebellion was suppressed, slavery abolished, and the country saved from dismemberment and ruin. We see and feel today, as we have not seen and felt before, that the time for conciliation, and trusting to the honor of the late rebels and slave¬ holders, has past. The President of the United States, himself, while, still liberal, just and generous towards the South, has yet sounded a halt in that direction, and has bravely, firmly and ably asserted the constitutional authority, to maintain the public peace in every State in the Union, and upon every day in the year ; and has maintained this ground against all the powers of House and Senate. We stand at the gateway of a marked and decided change in the statesmanship of our rulers. Every day brings fresh and increasing evidence that ‘we are, and of right ought to be, a nation ; that Confederate notions of the nature and powers of our Govern¬ ment ought to have perished in the rebellion which they supported ; that they are anachronisms and superstitions, and no longer fit to be above ground. National ideas are springing up all around us ; the oppressor of the Negro is seen to be the enemy of the peace, prosperity and honor of the country. The attempt to nullify the national election laws; to starve the officer where they could not destroy the office; to attack the national credit when they could not prevent successful resumption; to paralyze the Constitution where they could neither prevent nor set it aside, has all worked against the old slaveholding element, and in the interest of the Negro. They have made it evident that the sceptre of political power must soon pass from the party of reaction, revolution, rebel¬ lion and slavery, to the party of constitution, liberty and progress.

At a time like this, so full of hope and courage, it is unfortunate that a cry of despair should be raised in behalf of the colored

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NEGRO ORATORS

people of the South; unfortunate that men are going over the country begging in the name of the poor colored man of the South, and telling the people that the Government has no power to enforce the Constitution and Laws in that section, and that there is no hope for the poor Negro, but to plant him in the new soil of Kansas and Nebraska. These men do the colored people of the South a real damage. They give their enemies an advantage in the argument for their manhood and freedom. They assume the inability of the colored people of the South to take care of them¬ selves. The country will be told of the hundreds who go to Kansas, but not of the thousands who stay in Mississippi and Louisiana. They will be told of the destitute who require material aid, but not of the multitude who are bravely sustaining themselves where they are. In Georgia the Negroes are paying taxes upon six mil¬ lions of dollars; in Louisiana upon forty or fifty millions, and upon unascertained sums elsewhere in the Southern States. Why should a people who have made such progress in the course of a few years now be humiliated and scandalized by Exodus agents, begging money to remove them from their home ; especially at a time when every indication favors the position that the wrongs and hardships which they suffer are soon to be redressed?

It Surrenders a Great Principle

Besides the objections thus stated, it is manifest that the public and noisy advocacy of a general stampede of the colored people from the South to the North, is necessarily an abandonment of the great and paramount principle of protection to person and prop¬ erty in every State of the Union. It is an evasion of a solemn obligation and duty. The business of this nation is to protect its citizens where they are, not to transport them where they will not need protection. The best that can be said of this exodus in this respect is that it is an attempt to climb up some other than the right way; it is an expedient, a half-way measure, and tends to weaken in the public mind a sense of the absolute right, power and duty of the Government, inasmuch as it concedes, by implica¬ tion at least, that on the soil of the South, the law of the land can¬ not command obedience ; the ballot box cannot be kept pure ; peace¬ able elections cannot be held ; the Constitution cannot be enforced ; and the lives and liberties of loyal and peaceable citizens cannot

SOLUTION OP THE RACE PROBLEM 467

be protected. It is a surrender, a premature, disheartening sur¬ render, since it would make freedom and free institutions depend upon migration rather than protection; by flight, rather than by right; by going into a strange land, rather than by staying in one’s own. It leaves the whole question of equal rights on the soil of the South open and still to be settled, with the moral influence of Exodus against us; since it is a confession of the utter imprac¬ ticability of equal rights and equal protection in any State, where those rights may be struck down by violence.

It does not appear that the friends of freedom should spend either time or talent in furtherance of this Exodus as a desirable measure either for the North or the South ; for the blacks of the South or the whites of the North. If the people of this country cannot be protected in every State of this Union, the Government of the United States is shorn of its rightful dignity and power ; the late rebellion has triumphed; the sovereignty of the nation is an empty name, and the power and authority in individual States is greater than the power and authority of the United States.

Better to Stay Than to Go

While necessity often compels men to migrate ; to leave their old homes and seek new ones ; to sever old ties and create new ones ; to do this the necessity should be obvious and imperative. It should be a last resort and only adopted after carefully considering what is against the measure as well as what is in favor of it. There are prodigal sons everywhere, who are ready to demand the portion of goods that would fall to them and betake themselves to a strange country. Something is ever lost in the process of migration, and much is sacrificed at home for what is gained abroad. A world of wisdom is in the saying of Mr. Emerson, “that those who made Rome worth going to stayed there.” Three moves from house to house are said to be worse than a fire. That a rolling stone gathers no moss has passed into the world’s wisdom. The colored people of the South, just beginning to accumulate a little property, and to lay the foundation of families, should not be in haste to sell that little and be off to the banks of the Mississippi. The habit of roaming from place to place in pursuit of better conditions of existence is by no means a good one. A man should never leave his home for a new one till he has earnestly endeavored to make

468

NEGRO ORATORS

his immediate surroundings accord with his wishes. The time and energy expended in wandering about from place to place, if em¬ ployed in making him comfortable where he is, will, in nine eases out of ten, prove the best investment. No people ever did much for themselves or for the world, without the sense and inspiration of native land; of a fixed home; of familiar neighborhood, and common associations. The fact of being to the manor born has an elevating power upon the mind and heart of a man. It is a more cheerful thing to be able to say, “I was born here and know all the people,” than to say, “I am a stranger here and know none of the people. ’ ’ It cannot be doubted, that in so far as this Exodus tends to promote restlessness in the colored people of the South, to unsettle their feeling of home and to sacrifice positive advan¬ tages where they are, for fancied ones in Kansas or elsewhere, it is an evil. Some have sold their little homes at a sacrifice, their chickens, mules and pigs, to follow the Exodus. Let it be under¬ stood that you are going, and you advertise the fact that your mule has lost half his value — for your staying with him makes half his value. Let the colored people of Georgia offer their six millions worth of property for sale, with the purpose to leave Georgia, and they will not realize half its value. Land is not worth much where there are no people to occupy it, and a mule is not worth much where there is no one to use it.

A Mistake and a Failure

It may safely be asserted that, whether advocated and commended to favor on the ground that it will increase the political power of the Republican party, and thus help to make a solid North against a solid South ; or upon the ground that it will increase the power and influence of the colored people as a political element, and enable them the better to protect their rights, and ensure their moral and social elevation, the Exodus will prove a disappointment, a mistake and a failure; because, as to strengthening the Repub¬ lican party, the emigrants will go only to those States where the Republican party is strong and solid enough already without their votes; and in respect to the other part of the argument, it will fail, because it takes colored voters from a section of the country where they are sufficiently numerous to elect some of their number to places of honor and profit, and places them in a country where

SOLUTION OF THE EACE PROBLEM 469

their proportion to other classes will be so small as not to he recog¬ nized. as a political element, or entitled to he represented hy one of themselves ; and further, because, go where they will, they must, for a time, inevitably carry with them poverty, ignorance and other repulsive incidents inherited from their former conditions as slaves ; a circumstance which is about as likely to make votes for Democrats as for Republicans, and to raise up bitter prejudices against them, as to raise up friends for them. No people can be much respected in this country, where all are eligible to office, that cannot point to any one of their class in an honorable, responsible position. In sending a few men to Congress, the Negroes of the South have done much to dispel prejudice and raise themselves in the esti¬ mation of the country and the world. By staying where they are, they may be able to send abler, better and more effective represen¬ tatives of their race to Congress, than it was possible for them to send at first, because of their want of education, and their recent liberation from bondage. In the South the Negro has at least the possibility of power; in the North he has no such possibility, and it is for him to say how well he can afford to part with this possible power.

But another argument in favor of this emigration is, that having a numerical superiority in Mississippi, Louisiana and South Caro¬ lina, and thereby possessing the ability to choose some of their own number to represent them in the state and nation, they are neces¬ sarily brought into antagonism with the white race, and invite the very political persecution of which they complain. So they are told that the best remedy for this persecution is to surrender the right and advantage given them by the Constitution and the Gov¬ ernment, of electing men of color to office. They are not to over¬ come prejudice and persecution where it is, but to go where it is not ; not to stand where they are, and demand the full constitutional protection which the Government is solemnly bound to give, but to go where the protection of the Government is not needed. Plainly enough this is an evasion of a solemn obligation and duty, an attempt to climb up some other way ; a half-way measure, a make¬ shift, a miserable substitution of expediency for right. For an egg, it gives the Negro a stone. The dissemination of this doctrine Ijy agents of emigration cannot but do the cause of ecjual rights much harm. It lets the public mind down from the high ground

470

NEGEO OEATOES

of a great national duty to a miserable compromise, in which wrong surrenders nothing, and right everything. The South is not to repent its crimes, and submit to the Constitution in common with all other parts of the country, but such repentance and submission is to be conveniently made unnecessary by removing the temptation to commit violations of the Law and the Constitution. Men may be pardoned for refusing their assent to a measure supported upon a principle so unsound, subversive and pernicious. The nation should be held steadily to the high and paramount principle, that allegiance and protection are inseparable; that this Government is solemnly bound to protect and defend the lives and liberties of all its citizens, of whatever race or color, or of whatever political or religious opinion, and to do this in every State and territory within the American Union. Then, again, is there to be no stopping- place for the Negro? Suppose that by-and-by some “Sand Lot Orator” shall arise in Kansas, as in California, and take it into his head to stir up the mob against the Negro, as he stirred up the mob against the Chinese? What then? Must the Negro have another Exodus ? Does not one Exodus invite another, and in advo¬ cating one do we not sustain the demand for another?

Plainly enough, the Exodus is less harmful in itself than are the arguments by which it is supported. The one is the result of a feeling of outrage and despair; but the other comes of cool, selfish calculation. One is the result of honest despair, and appeals powerfully to the sympathies of men ; the other is an appeal to our selfishness, which shrinks from doing right because the way is difficult.

The South the Best Market for the Black Man’s Labor

Not only is the South the best locality for the Negro on the ground of his political powers and possibilities, but it is best for him as a field of labor. He is there, as he is nowhere else, an absolute necessity. He has a monopoly of the labor market. His labor is the only labor which can successfully offer itself for sale in that market. This, with a little wisdom and firmness, will enable him to sell his labor there on terms more favorable to himself than he can elsewhere. As there are no competitors or substitutes, he can demand living prices with the certainty that the demand will be complied with. Exodus would deprive him of this advantage.

SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 471

It would take him from a country where the land owners and planters must have his labor, or allow their fields to go untilled and their purses unsupplied with cash ; to a country where the land owners are able and proud to do their own work, and do not need to hire hands except for limited periods at certain seasons of the year. The effect of this will be to send the Negro to the towns and cities to compete with white labor. With what result, let the past tell. They will be crowded into lanes and alleys, cellars and garrets, poorly provided with the necessaries of life, and will grad¬ ually die out. The Negro, as already intimated, its preeminently a Southern man. He is so both in constitution and habits, in body as well as mind. He will not only take with him to the North, Southern modes of labor, but Southern modes of life. The careless and improvident habits of the South cannot be set aside in a gen¬ eration. If they are adhered to in the North, in the fierce winds and snows of Kansas and Nebraska, the emigration must be large to keep up their numbers. It would appear, therefore, that neither the laws of politics, labor nor climate favor this Exodus. It does not conform to the laws of healthy emigration which proceeds not from South to North, not from heat to cold, but from East to West, and in climates to which the emigrants are more or less adapted and accustomed.

The North Gate of the South Must Be Kept Open

As an assertion of power by a people hitherto held in bitter con¬ tempt; as an emphatic and stinging protest against high-handed, greedy and shameless injustice to the weak and defenceless; as a means of opening the blind eyes of oppressors to their folly and peril, the Exodus has done valuable service. Whether it has accom¬ plished all of which it is capable in this particular direction for the present, is a question which may well be considered. With a mod¬ erate degree of intelligent leadership among the laboring class at the South, properly handling the justice of their cause, and wisely using the Exodus example, they can easily exact better terms for their labor than ever before. Exodus is medicine, not food ; it is for disease, not health ; it is not to be taken from choice, but neces¬ sity. In anything like a normal condition of things the South is the best place for the Negro. Nowhere else is there for him a promise of a happier future. Let him stay there if he can, and

472

NEGRO ORATORS

save both, the South and himself to civilization. While, however, it may he the highest wisdom under the circumstances for the freedmen to stay where they are, no encouragement should be given to any measures of coercion to keep them there. The American people are bound, if they are or can be bound to anything, to keep the North gate of the South open to black and white, and to all the people. The time to assert a right, Webster says, is when it is called in quetsion. If it is attempted by force or fraud to compel the colored people to stay, then they should by all means go; go quickly, and die, if need be, in the attempt. Thus far and to this extent any man may be an emigrationist. In no case must the Negro be “bottled up” or “caged up.” He must be left free, like every other American citizen, to choose his own local habitation, and to go where he shall like. Though it may not be for his interest to leave the South, his right and power to leave it may be his best means of making it possible for him to stay there in peace. Woe to the oppressed and destitute of all countries and races if the rich and powerful are to decide when and where they shall go or stay. The deserving hired man gets his wages increased when he can teU his employer that he can get better wages elsewhere. And when all hope is gone from the hearts of the laboring classes of the old world, they can come across the sea to the new. If they could not do that their crushed hearts would break under increasing burdens. The right to emigrate is one of the most useful and precious of all rights. But not only to the oppressed, to the oppressor also, is the free use of this right necessary. To attempt to keep these freedmen in the South, who are spirited enough to undertake the risks and hardships of emigration, would involve great possible danger to all concerned. Ignorant and cowardly as the Negro may be, he has been known to fight bravely for his liberty. He went down to Harper’s Ferry with John Brown, and fought as bravely and died as nobly as any. There have been Nathaniel Turners and Den¬ mark Yeseys among them in the United States, Joseph Cinques, Madison Washingtons and Tillmans on the sea, and Toussaint L’Ouvertures on land. Even his enemies, during the late war, had to confess that the Negro is a good fighter, when once in a fight. If he runs, it is only as all men will run, when they are whipped.

This is no time to trifle with the rights of men. All Europe today is studded with the material for a wild conflagration. Every

SOLUTION OF THE EACE PROBLEM 473

day brings ns news of plots and conspiracies against oppressive power. An able writer in tbe North American Review for July, himself a Nihilist, in a powerful article defends the extremest measures of his party, and shows that the treatment of the eman¬ cipated peasants by the government and landed aristocracy of Russia is very similar to that now practiced towards the freedmen by the landed aristocracy of the South, Like causes will produce like effects, the world over. It will not be wise for the Southern slaveholders and their successors to shape their policy upon the presumption that the Negro’s cowardice or forbearance has no limit. The fever of freedom is already in the Negro’s blood. He is not just what he was fourteen years ago. To forcibly dam up the stream of emigration would be a measure of extreme madness as well as oppression. It would be exposing the heart of the oppressor to the pistol and dagger, and his home to fire and pillage. The cry of “Land and Liberty,” the watchword of the Nihilistic party in Russia, has a music in it sweet to the ear of all oppressed peoples, and well it shall be for the landholders of the South if they shall learn wisdom in time and adopt such a course of just treatment towards the landless laborers of the South in the future as shall make this popular watchword uncontagious and unknown among their laborers, and further stampede to the North wholly unknown, indescribable and impossible.

The Emigration Op Colored Citizens From The

SOUTHERN STATES^

By R. T. Greener^

The land question is no new one; at the present time there are difficulties in England, Ireland, Scotland, and India with regard to this tenure' of land ; and when we come to study them, we find

1 Read at Saratoga Springs, before the American Social Science Association, September

12, 1874. .

> Richard T. Greener was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but went to Boston to live at five years of age. He there attended the grammar school at Cambridge, and then spent two years preparing for college at Oberlin, Ohio. He finished his prep¬ aration for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. He then entered Harvard where he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor Arts in 1870 at the age of twenty-six, being the first Negro to be thus honored by that Institution. He was immediately made principal of the male department of the Institute for Colored Youth, Philadelphia. Mr. Greener next served as principal of the Sumner High School m Washington, in the Pistrict of Columbia. That same year, he accepted a position m

474

NEGRO ORATORS

many cases analogous to those in America. There are remarkable coincidences and wonderful similarities of conditions, complaints and demands, which show conclusively that injustice and wrong, and disregard of rights and abuses of privilege are not confined to any one counti’y, race or class. As a rule, capital takes advan¬ tage of the needs of labor. Landlords in every country oppress tenants, and sometimes disregard the welfare of the humbler agri¬ cultural laborer. The race in power lords it over the humbler; and if any change takes place from such normal condition, it only comes after a fierce outbreak of pent-up passion, or smouldering fires of wrong; or because some bold champion of the people rises to denounce oppression and demand redress. It has been four¬ teen years since the Confederacy collapsed, and eleven years since reconstruction. The South has now had for three years home rule, “Autonomy”; and yet, instead of the renewed prosperity, harmony of races, and absence of political violence and lawlessness, which we were promised, we find demoralized credit, shameless re¬ pudiation, and organized lawlessness — rendering the condition of the Negro tenant class worse than at any period since slavery. So deplorable and abject indeed is it that expatriation and escape to Liberia, or the West, seems the only hope, as it is the continued dream of the Negroes, old and young, in the six Southern States. We are accustomed to blame the Southern whites for the ultimate and approximate causes of this sad state of affairs. They are deeply responsible. I do not hesitate to place upon their shoul¬ ders all they deserve; but the North is not wholly innocent. We legislate for the interests of four million blacks just freed from bondage, demoralized by four years of war, and for two million

the office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Two months later, he was elected Professor of Metaphysics and Logic in the University of Columbia, South Carolina. This chair he accepted and filled with great credit until 1877 when the University was closed by the Hampton Legislature. When in South Carolina, he took part in revising the course of study for the school system of that State. He also com¬ pleted his law studies which he began in Philadelphia, and was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of that State.

Leaving South Carolina in 1877, he became Instructor in the Law Department in Howard University, and on the death of John H. Cook, in 1879, he was elected Dean. He then accepted a position under the First Controller of the United States Treasury which he held until 1882 when he began the active practice of law. Being active in politics, Mr. Greener figured conspicuously in the organization of his party, and at times delivered addresses and lectured throughout the country. He served as Consul at Bombay, and later at Vladivostok,

SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 475

rebellious whites, landless, hopeless, thankful at that time, even if their lives were spared, and we ignore all the precedents of history— the West Indies, Ireland, Russia and Germany. We threw the Negro without anything, the carpet-bagger with his musket, the ex-Confederate disarmed, pell-mell together, and told them to work out the problem.

After the war it was difficult to purchase land because the old master was not disposed to sell. With the downfall of recon¬ struction a new lease of life was given to Southern barbarity and lawlessness. As usual, the Negro was the principal sufferer. Negro representation went first ; next the educational system, which the carpet-bagger had brought to the South, was crippled by in¬ sufficient appropriations. Majorities were overcome by shot-gun intimidation, or secretly by the tissue ballot. Radical office-holders were forced to resign, robbed of their property by “due process of law, ’ ’ and driven North. The jury-box and representation the Negro was forced to give up ; but after enduring all this, he found himself charged exorbitantly for the most necessary articles of food. His land was rented to him at fabulous prices. His cabin was likely to be raided at any time, whenever capricious lust, or a dreadful thirst for blood was roused. He saw his crop dwindling day by day ; he saw himself growing poorer and getting into debt ; his labor squandered between exacting landlords and rapacious store-keepers. It was then the Negro resolved to give up the fruit¬ less contest so long and hopelessly waged, and try his fortune in the great West, of which he had heard and read so much during the past ten years.

Immediate Causes of the Exodus

To quote from the St. Louis Memorial : “The story is about the same, in each instance; great privation and want from excessive rent exacted for land ; connected with the murder of colored neigh¬ bors and friends, and threats of personal violence to themselves; the tenor of which statement is that of suffering and terror. Elec¬ tion days and Christmas, by the concurrent testimony, seem to have been preferred for killing the ‘smart man,’ while robbery and personal violence, in one form and another, seem to have run the year around. Here they are in multitudes, not often alone, but women and children, old and middle-aged and young, and

476

NEGRO ORATORS

with common consent, leaving their old home for an unnatural climate, and facing storms and unknown dangers to go to northern Kansas. Why ? Among them little is said of hope in the future ; it is all of fear in the past. They are not di'awn by the attrac¬ tions of Kansas, they are driven by the terrors of Mississippi and Louisiana.” The thriftless habits of work, engendered by south¬ ern life ; the utter lack of foresight found in white and black alike, are powerful agents in bringing about the Exodus. The universal credit system is fostered by the planters, and kept up by the wily store-keeper; the insecurity of the holdings (long leases being un¬ known), is such that, if the Negro succeeds in raising a good crop, he has no guaranty that he can keep his patch the next year. The prices charged for the necessaries of life may be noticed. These are copied from the original documents brought by the refugees: $1.50 per lb. for tobacco ; molasses, $1.50 per gallon ; filling out a contract, $2.50 ; meal, per bushel, $2.00, not worth more than $1 ; pork, per barrel, $30.

“Again, the political difference of opinion which exists in the South is another important cause. There, political convictions rank with religious opinions in intensity. The over-production of cotton is another cause, by the low price of that staple. Then the fact that the Negro owns neither land, nor presses, cotton-gin, and implements, but buys mules, rents land, and purchases his pro¬ visions at an advance, often thirty and forty per cent., is sufficient cause for the Exodus. If we add that the landlord has a first claim on the crop, a law which is identical with the Scotch law of hypotheca, we shall see reasons enough for a failure, and for the disposition to seek a happier home elsewhere. It can not be denied that there are instances where the Negroes find themselves hope¬ lessly involved ; and seeing no prospect of any compensation, have at once repudiated their contracts and their country. This, of course, does not apply to those who have mules, carts, implements, and other utensils, which keep them attached closer to the soil. The law protects the landlord, and his claim always has the prece¬ dence. It is a punishable offence to remove any portion of the crop from the plantation before the landlord’s claim is met. Next comes the store-keeper with his bill of six months. If anything were left for the poor Negro when all these demands are satisfied, it would partake of the nature of a genuine miracle,”

SOLUTION OF THE EACE PROBLEM 477

Advantages op the Exodus to the Negro

This emigration will benefit the Negro, who is now too much in¬ clined to stay where he is put. At the South he never knows his own possibilities. Then again, the South is a wretched place for any people to develop in, and this is especially true of the Negro; because, like all subject races, he imitates the life about him. The Negro at the South is in a demoralized condition, and no jury will convict for political offences committed against him. Chief Jus¬ tice Waite, at Charleston, in the case of the Ellerton rioters, could not charge the jury in favor of liberty and protection. District attorneys are appointed at the recommendation of known rebels and sympathizers and assassins. Of course, they will not do their duty; hence, the Negro dares not look for justice in the courts — once proudly called the palladium of English liberty. The use of the military power to enforce any right is repudiated at the North. But I remember it was employed quite efficaciously to return An¬ thony Burns and Simms, fugitive slaves, some years ago. I need not enumerate the demoralizing features of Southern life, the reckless disregard for human life, the lack of thrift, drinking cus¬ toms, gaming, horse-racing, etc. The Negro needs contact with all that is healthful and developing in modern civilization, and by emigration the Negro will learn to love thrift, and unlearn many bad habits and improvident notions acquired from preceding gen¬ erations.

The exclusive devotion of the Negro to the culture of cotton and rice is demoralizing to him. They drag women and children into the field, with no commissioner of labor to look out for out¬ raged childhood and impaired maternity. I do not expect this argument to find favor with those who think the Negro has no other future before him than to cultivate sugar, cotton and rice. On the politico-economic side a partial Exodus will benefit those who remain, by raising the wage fund, increasing the demand, and insuring better treatment to those who are left; the fact of the Exodus being a preventive check, if I may borrow a phrase from Mr. Malthus. It will remove the Negro from the incessant whirl of politics, in which, like all dark races, he is governed more by feeling than selfish interest.

At present the Negro stands in the way of his own advance-

478

NEGRO ORATORS

ment, by reason of political fidelity, and the very excess of popula¬ tion, not diminished since the war, and yet not so systematically diffused and employed. Even Senator Butler, of South Carolina, says: “We have too much cheap Negro labor in the South.” As to wages, the average Negro can earn higher wages and live more comfortably at the North, even if confined to humble employments, than he can at the South. When we add such trifles as protection, school privileges, free suffrage and Christian influences, we transcend the limits of legitimate comparison. That the departure of the few will benefit the many might be abundantly illustrated by the condition of Ireland after the famine of 1848, or England after the Lancashire distress, when Canon Girdlestone, Mr, Froude and Goldwin Smith counseled emigration.

I assume that the predominance of the Negro in politics at the South is gone for a generation at least. The South will not have it and the North has exhibited no very marked disposition to enforce it. If it be ever desirable again, let it come when the children of the present black colonists go back to the mother land, improved in all that makes good citizens by a sojourn in the West.

Objections to the Exodus

There are few opponents of the Exodus. Most of them are only negative objectors. The only class positively objecting is the planting class. At Vicksburg, and in Washington County (Miss.), they objected vehemently and loudly. Foreign labor, they say, would cost money. Not one planter in ten is able to make further outlay. During the change of laborers, even, they would go to rack and ruin. The Negro is the only one who can do their work. To go now will ruin the cotton crop, and, hence, affect the North as well as the South.

No one disputes the right of the Negro to go West, now that he is free. We accord to all men the right to improve their condition by change of residence or employment. Nearly all of the objectors, white and black, have grave doubts as to our ability to stand this severe Northern climate. They fear we may not find work adapted to our limited peculiar powers; may not meet with kind friends and genial sympathy. We must endure privations and meet with ostracism at the North. Mechanics will not work with Negroes. The Negro remembers Slavery, Black Codes, Ku-Klux, Sister Sal-

SOLUTION OF THE EACE PROBLEM 479

lie’s plan, tissue ballots, the murder of Dr. Dostie and Randolph in South Carolina, Caldwell and Dixon in Mississippi, and says: “My relatives and friends who have gone North since the war tell a different story. They have held no offices, but they are free. They sleep in peace at night ; what they earn is paid them, if not, they can appeal to the courts. They vote without fear of the shot-gun, and their children go to school. It is true the Northern people do not love us so well as you did, and hence the intermix¬ ture of races is not so promiscuous there as here. This we shall try to endure, if we go North, with patience and Christian resig¬ nation. We have never heard of the people at the North paying in ten, twenty-five and fifty cent scrip, payable four years hence, nor charging $2.00 a plug for tobacco, and $2.50 for witnessing a contract. While we may not have so much social equality as with you, we shall have more political equality and man to man justice. You charge $15.00 and $25.00 per acre for worn-out land; we can buy better in Kansas and Nebraska at $2.50 an acre. We had rather die free at the North than live as paupers and pariahs here, only nominally free. You thought Kansas not too cold for us in 1854-5 ; we are not afraid to try it now. ’ ’

The most important opponent of the Exodus is Marshal Fred¬ erick Douglass, my distinguished antagonist in this discussion, who, I sincerely regret, is not here to lend to his able and ingenious argument the magic of his presence and the influence of his elo¬ quent voice. The greatest Negro whom America has produced, having suffered all that our race could endure, and having been elevated higher than any other Negro, he cannot lack sympathy with any movement which concerns his race, and hence, any ob¬ jection coming from him challenges attention, and demands to be answered. Age, long service, and a naturally keen and analjdic mind would presume a soundness of view on almost any topic of national importance or race interest. It is, therefore, with the highest regard for the honesty of Mr. Douglass’s views that I ven¬ ture to reply to some of his objections. Mr. Douglass has not been an inactive opponent. He has written elaborate resolutions, made at least six speeches, spoken at the Methodist Conference, and been interviewed on the Exodus. While time has modified his extreme views, and more recent events have blunted the edge of his sarcasm, and while most of his objections are of the negative rather

480

NEGRO ORATORS

than the positive order, against the methods and men who seek to help the movement, rather than against the Exodus itself, still the morale of his influence is in opposition, Mr. Douglass’s argu¬ ments, as I have been able to find them in speeches, resolutions, and the paper just read, are briefly these:

1. Emigration is not the proper nor permanent remedy.

2. The Government ought to protect colored citizens at the South ; to encourage emigration gives the Government a chance to shirk its duty; while the advocates of the measure leave Equal Rights, Protection and Allegiance open questions.

3. The colored race should be warned against a nomadic life and habits of wandering.

4. African emigration and migration to the West are analogous; the failure of the one is prophetic of the other.

5. The Negro now is potentially able to elect some members of his race at the South to Congress ; this is impossible at the North.

6. At the South he has a monopoly of the supply of labor; at the West he would not have it. At the South, land owners must have laborers or starve ; Western land owners are independent.

7. The Exodus does not conform to “the laws of civilizing emi¬ gration,” as the carrying of a language, literature, etc., of a supe¬ rior race to an inferior; nor does it conform to “the law of geog¬ raphy.” These, according to Mr. Douglass, “require for healthy emigration that it proceed from East to West, not from South to North, and not far away from latitudes and climates in which the emigrants were born. ’ ’

To these objections first, it may be said, no favorer of migra¬ tion claims it as the sole, proper or only permanent remedy for the aggravated relation of landlord and tenant at the South. It is approved of as one remedy, thus far the most salutary, in stop¬ ping lawlessness and exactions. The reciprocity of allegiance and protection is granted ; but it is asked, ‘ ‘ How can the United States Government protect its black citizens while the fallacy of State rights and undefinable ‘home rule’ or ‘autonomy,’ prevent inter¬ ference?” The Duke of Argyle believes that “there is no ab¬ stract limit to the right of the State to do anything.” “In the interest of economy,” says he, “it may pass sumptuary laws, or regulate the wages of farm laborers.” This is under a monarchy. With us, neither Government nor courts may interfere with con-

SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 481

tracts, either to enforce the terms or insure justice, when the local sentiment is opposed. The Government does not protect the Negro because it finds itself powerless to do so. As a general rule, the Negro may well be warned against a wandering life; but in the present instance such advice is gratuitous.

The failure of the analogy drawn between African colonization and migration to the West may be stated in this way; the one was worked up by slave-owners in the interest of slavery ; this one springs spontaneously, according to Mr. Douglass’s view, from the class considering itself aggrieved; one led out of the country to a comparative wilderness; the other directs to better land and larger opportunities here at home. The one took the Negro to contend with barbarism. This places him under more civilizing influences than he has ever enjoyed, involving no change of alle¬ giance nor serious differences of climate. If the colored people are “potentially” able to elect one of their own race to Congress, they cannot now make that potentiality possible. Emigration surely cannot lessen the potentiality, since the emigrants will remain citizens. I am inclined to think it will not diminish the proba¬ bility. If I remember correctly, Massachusetts first elected colored men to her General Court ; Ohio has nominated one, and Illinois has a colored representative.

Mr. Douglass is rather misleading and fails again in his analogy, when he infers that the Negro must go West as a civilizer or not go at all. He goes out from the house of bondage up from the land of Egypt, directed, I am inclined to think, by the same mighty hand which pointed out the way to Israel :

“By day, along the astonished land,

The cloudy pillar glided slow;

By night, Arabia’s crimsoned sand,

Returned the fiery column’s glow.”

If by the laws of geography, to which, unfortunately, this new Exodus does not conform, Mr. Douglass means that colonization, migration or civilization proceed best within the isothermal lines, we may concede the law, but all history shows exceptions remark¬ able and instructive.

The Phoenicians sailed West and North; the Greek colonies were

482

NEGEO OEATORS

at all known points; the Dutch and English have not been hin¬ dered by isothermal lines., penetrating far away from the latitudes in which they were born. Magna Graecia, in distinction from Hellas, and Mr. Dilke’s “Greater Britain,” are pertinent illus¬ trations of the unsoundness of this seeming historical statement. If it were even philosophically correct, there is no analogy in the examples; the Southern Negro, if he emigrates to Washington Ter¬ ritory or Arizona, would not be as far from home as the Aryan race now is by its excessive waves of migration from the Black and Caspian Seas. When Mr. Douglass grants in his paper that if the half is true of what the Negro suffers, the Exodus is justified, — he grants all that any advocate of it asks. It is from causes, which he condemns, denounces, deplores and considers disgraceful, that we say, “emigrate, and if you can, better your condition.”

The Exodus is complained of as a “policy.” We might answer, it is a result, not a policy in the ordinary sense, although, as a safe check to certain ulterior causes, we might well commend it to op¬ pressed people anywhere as a measure of policy.

We are told, aphoristically, that the Negro’s labor made him free, and therefore, it can make him “free, comfortable, and inde¬ pendent.” The assumed fact is not exactly clear, and the con¬ clusion is scarcely warranted by the Negro’s statements of his condition, according to Mr. Douglass.

We are called upon to say whether we would remove a part, or all of the colored people from the South. “A part,” we answer, “if that will insure protection and just treatment for the rest; the whole, if they can be protected in no other way. ” “ But where will you get money to remove them?” is the new horn to the di¬ lemma. “Congress cannot give it, because of the public debt,” and yet Congress (what Congress?) would rather spend $200,000,- 000 to protect them where they are.” In short, Mr. Douglass grants the Negro’s misery, but tells him to wait, his present state is “exceptional and transient,” his rights “will revive, survive and flourish”; but the poor frightened, half -starved Negroes, crouching along the Mississippi, fear this will not happen until they have literally passed over. Mr. Douglass is not willing to have Congress nor capitalists help these houseless wanderers, to whom we gave nothing when we freed them. We did better than that by fugitives forty years ago, and I see no good reason why North-

SOLUTION OF THE EACE PEOBLEM 483

era. philanthropy should close its hand and ears now to a cry which is as despairing as that which rang from Ireland in 1848, or from the yellow fever sufferers, a twelvemonth ago. We see capital em¬ ployed to build better houses for the poor, to transport young chil¬ dren to the West; why shall we not try to help those who are try¬ ing as best they may to help themselves? The statement that Massachusetts was once Mississippi, is a favorite one of Mr. Doug¬ lass, and has been reiterated so often as to lead the unwary to be¬ lieve that the Marshal of the District of Columbia thinks it true. I am more inclined to ascribe it to the orator ’s love of antithesis ; so incorrect, so unjust, and for Frederick Douglass, so unkind would such a remark be.

To say to the emigrants, ‘ ‘ Better stay than go, ’ ’ is analogous to saying “Be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give not those things which are needful for the body.” Nor do proverbs add protection to the one argument any more than food and rai¬ ment to the other.

The Exodus may be a failure and a mistake, but whether it is or not, it has no connection with the power of the Republican party, or the retention of political power by the Negro. Both may be benefited, and it may fail ; both may be injured by it, and it may nevertheless succeed. This is a specimen non sequitur, very fa¬ miliar in arguments against the present migration.

We are assured that there will be misery and want resulting from this “ill-timed” movement. Doubtless there will be; every movement having in it the elements of good, has brought some hardship :

“Never morning wore To evening, but some heart did break.”

The crucial test, however, is whether there will be more misery and want by migrating than by remaining; we think not.

Another distinguished gentleman, a financier, a banker, a po¬ litical economist, Ex-Secretary MeCulloh, in his seventh Harvard lecture, thinks the Exodus unfortunate. He also has faith that all will be well. With a refinement of unconscious sarcasm, he quotes Charles Sumner, and says to the Negroes, “stick, fight it out where you are, if it takes not merely the present, but many other summers.” But the Ex-Secretary, less cautious than Mr.

484 NEGRO ORATORS

Douglass, says, if they (the colored people) were forced to go, they should be returned, even with the aid of the Government. Here is much sympathy enclosed in a dubious sentence. We do not know whether financial aid, or bayonet aid is to return these refugees, and nothing is said of their possible condition after they are returned. With such matters of detail the optimist and the doctrinaire have no concern. I shall call on Henry Jackson to answer Mr. Douglass and Mr. McCulloh : “I left the South because I could not make a living. Year before last I made ten bales of cotton, and never got a cent for it. I sued for it but could not get anything ; they wanted me to pawn my horse and begin over again; but I told them I was going to sell my horse and go away.

I would not go back to the South again because I could not live ; cannot live there and give $2 for meal, and $30 for a barrel of pork, $10 an acre for land, $5 for ginning cotton, and then being cheated out of everything after I made it. My wife is along with me. I reckon I have money enough to get to Kansas.”

Best Time to Emigeate

The western lands are waiting for settlers, and are being rap¬ idly filled up by Swedes, Norwegians, Mennonites, Icelanders and Poles, why should not the Negro participate? Six hundred thou¬ sand acres of public land have been taken up since June 30, 1878; 50,000 families have gone westward under the homestead law, exclusive of those who have small sums to invest. Why shall we debar the Negro ? Irish Catholics have raised a fund of $100,000 to assist their poor from the large cities. The Hebrews have also an excellent association for the same purpose. These aid societies hold meetings and solicit funds. No one denounces them or im¬ pugns the motives of their advocates. What will benefit Irish, Hebrew, Swede, and Norwegian, cannot be decidedly injurious to the colored race alone.

How Will They Be Treated in the West?

Governor St. John, of Kansas, is authority on this point. “Up to the present writing, about 3,000 destitute refugees have arrived, the most of whom have been eared for by our committee. We have been very successful in securing for them employment, and thus placed them in a position that they soon became self-sustaining,

SOLUTION OF THE EACE PEOBLEM 485

and no longer required aid. These people seem to be honest, and of good habits ; are certainly industrious and anxious to work, and, so far as they have been tried, have proved to be faithful and excellent laborers. ’ ’ Sir George Campbell ^ says, ‘ ‘ In Kansas City, and still more in the suburbs of Kansas proper, the Negroes are much more numerous than I have yet seen. On the Kansas side, they form quite a large proportion of the population. They are certainly subject to no indignity or ill-usage; * * * Here the Negroes seem to have quite taken to work at trades; I saw them doing building work, both alone and assisting white men, and also painting and other tradesmen ’s work. On the Kansas side, I found a Negro blacksmith, with an establishment of his own; he was an old man and very ‘Negro.’ He grumbled just like a white. * * * He came from Tennessee, after emancipation; had not been back there, and did not want to go. * * * I also saw black women keeping apple stalls and engaged in other such occupations. In these States, which I may call intermediate between black and white countries (States), the blacks evidently have no difficulty.”

What is true of Kansas is true of the Indian Territory. A recent traveller there, writes : ‘ ‘ The cozy homes and promising fields were the property of freedmen; every ploughboy you see has been a slave. All the farms along our route today belong to freedmen, to whom the Creeks accord every right and privilege they enjoy themselves, — annuity lands, offices and honors. * * * Every home gives proof of thrift. New fences, addition to the cabins, new barns and out-houses, catch the eye on every hand, except the school- house and church ; these appear to be going to decay, but it is only in the rude buildings that this is true. Both church and school are prosperous.”

At the South the Negro, under adverse conditions, is not a great land owner, but yet he is not wholly landless. In South Carolina he owns 20,000 acres ; in Georgia pays taxes on $6,000,000, mostly in land; and in Mississippi and Louisiana it is estimated he pays taxes on between $10,000,000 and $20,000,000, the greater portion in land.

Emigration is no new thing, beginning with Senator Windom’s speech. It began in 1840 and has kept up ever since. You may remember some of the old pictures of the emigrant with bundle

* “Black and White in the United States.”

486 NEGRO ORATORS

on his shoulder. He went alone formerly, and was often taken back at the Government’s expense; now he takes his family, and cannot he taken back against his will. In Kansas there are now five or six colonies, some of them established since 1870 ; Baxter Springs, Nicodemus, Morton City, and Singleton. The reports from all are favorable. The people are said to he thrifty, intelli¬ gent and willing to work. All are paying for their land by instal¬ ments, at prices from $1.25 to $6.00 per acre. If, dissatisfied with Kansas, they wish to “move on,” no one interferes with them. Mississippi, in spite of her Constitution, which says, “No citizen shall he prevented from emigrating on any pretence whatever,” attempts to keep them back by libelling the steamboats for carrying excessive numbers. The Negroes are also detained by writs gotten up on spurious charges. In short, the Southern landlord now demands more than the lord paramount in the middle ages; the tenant must be a permanent fixture to the land. Georgia and South Carolina have already revived the law of Edward VI. (Act I, c. 3, 1381), and sell idle vagrants, or farm them out to service in gangs, as their prejudice dictates.

The Political Side op the Exodus

We are told it is a political scheme. To insure success as a political movement, 60,000 colored voters should be distributed in certain States before November, 1879, the end of the period allowed for legal residence. If the Exodus were promoted by politicians, we should find 20,000 Negroes going to Pennsylvania, 20,000 to New Jersey, 10,000 at least to New York, the same number for Indiana, and a spare 5,000 for Connecticut. This could not be done under $2,000,000, even had it begun six months ago. Thus far at the North, not $20,000 has been raised to help the refugees, notwithstanding $100,000,000 would not be idly spent to help the Negro and end this vexed question. It is estimated that 15,000 have gone West within eight months; 150 leave New Orleans each week. All are not going to Kansas. Many are wisely pushing farther North. As a class, they differ from the West India Negroes after their emancipation. The Southern Negro did not relapse into barbarism ; he manifests a disposition and an adaptability to work. That he is industrious is shown by the immense cotton crop, just reported as contributing to the exportable products of the nation, $189,000,000 per annum.

SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 4^7

No view of the movement would be complete which did not notice the relation of the colored people of the country to this flight from oppression. The flrst stage is passed, the appeal to white philan¬ thropists. My notion is the second is here, the appeal to ourselves. We must organize societies, contribute our dimes, and form a net¬ work of communication between the South and every principal point North and West. We should raise $200,000 to form a com¬ pany; we should have a National Executive Committee, and have agents to buy land, procure cheap transportation, disseminate accurate information, and see to it that they are neither deluded nor defrauded. Such an organization, working through our churches and benevolent societies, would do more to develop our race than all the philanthropic measures designed to aid us since the war.

The Exodus Will Go On

The little rill has started on its course toward the great sea of humanity. It moves slowly on by virtue of the eternal law of gravitation, which leads peoples and individuals toward peace, protection and happiness. Today it is a slender thread and makes way with difficulty amid the rocks and tangled growth ; but it has already burst through serious impediments, showing itself pos¬ sessed of a mighty current. It started in Mississippi, but it is even now being rapidly fed by other rills and streams from the territory through which it flows. Believing that it comes from God, and feeling convinced that it bears only blessings in its course for that race so long tossed, so ill-treated, so sadly misunderstood, I greet its tiny line, and almost see in the near future its magnificent broad bosom, bearing proudly onward, until at last, like the travel-worn and battle-scarred Greeks of old, there bursts upon its sight the sea, the broad sea of universal freedom and protection.

This address below is one delivered at various times by the famous orator, J oseph C. Price, who, although he passed away in the prime of life, made the impression, both in this country and abroad, as one of the most eloquent men of any race and of any time. His views as to the plight of the Negro and the remedies for the uplift of the race are set forth in this address.

488

Negro Orators The Race Problem Stated

NEGRO ORATORS

THE RACE PROBLEM STATED By Joseph C. Price ^

Ladies and Gentlemen: I gratefully acknowledge the honor in being permitted to speak in this intelligent and representative presence, upon some phase of the Race Problem. Such a discussion in this metropolitan city is both a measurement of its interest in the satisfactory solution of the race question, and an indication that it is not simply a “race” or “southern,” but a “national” problem, in its origin, nature and results.

The American atmosphere is full of the Race Problem. The lead¬ ing daily papers crowd their columns with it. The more elaborate monthly magazines invite the freest and fullest discussion of it. In the North and in the South alike, men and women are indus¬ triously seeking its solution. The ripest scholarship and most profound learning represented by our brightest intellects, are making generous contributions to this end. Caucasian and Negro are rivaling each other in the endeavor to discover the element that will enter as a peaceful means in the harmonious adjustment of the as yet unadjusted racial relations in the South.

Where so much is being said, pro and eon, I cannot even hope for a moment to say anything new on this all-absorbing American topic : but as I am sometimes taken for a Negro, on account of my slight identity with that race, I will not be considered at all pre-

1 Joseph C. Price was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, February 10 1854 Notwithstanding his father was a slave, his mother was a free woman, and according to the regulation of slavery, the child followed the condition of the mother At the age of nine years he went with his mother to New Bern, North Carolina, where he spent the largest part of his life. He began his serious study at the Lowell Normal School of New Bern. After mastering the fundamentals, he commenced teaching in the public school of Wilson, North Carolina. He then entered Shaw University, but abandoned that institution for Lincoln University. At Lincoln, he distinguished himself as an orator, winning most of the contests which he entered. He was graduated as the vale¬ dictorian of his class in 1879. He remained at the institution, however, to study theology, completing the course in two rather than in three years.

Early in his career he had embraced the faith of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. In recognition of his ability he was selected to speak at the Ecumenical Conference in London where he distinguished himself by perhaps the shortest speech he ever made. In England, he collected a considerable sum of money with which he began the establishment of Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina Gifted as an orator, desired here and there, he popularized his school and secured for it con¬ tributions sufficient to lay the foundation for its present progress. He was cut down in the prime of life before he had time to do a good many things expected of him because of the most promising beginning which he had made.

SOLUTION OF THE EACE PEOBLEM 489

sumptuous in attempting' to humbly represent him by an expression of opinion on the problem of the hour.

I may further add, that I am prompted to this endeavor from the fact that the Negro is so frequently, and almost unpardonably, misrepresented as to his candid and unbiassed position in the race problem discussions. In fact, one of the signs of encouragement in all of the debates as to the relation of the dual races in the South arises from the presence of Negroes in the arena, who are eminently competent to speak for themselves, — and in no uncertain sound.

It is necessary, before the bar of public opinion, as well as in the Civil Courts, to have evidence from both sides. The Negro is gradually waking up to the realization of the responsibility resting on him, and to the necessity of his helping, as best he can, to make plain the situation as it is.

In keeping with this idea, it shall be my purpose, for a short time tonight, to address myself to this subject, — The Race Prob¬ lem Stated.

The widespread concern, and I may add, the growing alarm, over the rapid increase of the Negroes in this country, gives some of us the impression that we are coming to another serious stage in the development of the race question; hence, to many of us, this is not the time for the covert use of language, their delusive charms of glittering generalities, nor the dazzling display of pyrotechnic oratory. There are vital issues at stake. These issues involve cer¬ tain eternal and incontrovertible principles. Upon these principles will be determined the inalienable rights, the liberty, and the pur¬ suit of happiness of a whole race of men ; the prosperity of one of the most fertile sections of our land, — a section whose immeasurable resources have scarcely been touched with the quickening spirit of the age ; and the safety and perpetuity of a country whose beckon¬ ing hand is stretched out to every nation under the sun, and within whose broad and illimitable domain all races of the globe are des¬ tined to feel the impulse of a magnetic Americanism.

With such issues at stake, I cannot be insensible to the gravity and responsibility of the occasion. I have been kindly requested to come here and give you my candid opinion on the race problem.

I would be unworthy of your invitation, lacking in the instincts of true manliness, an enemy to my race, to the South and to the

490

NEGRO ORATORS

country, — did I not speak to you out of my experience, observation and convictions, the truth as I feel and as I know it.

A Race Problem Not Unnatural

The race problem is not of Negro origin. The Negro washes his hands of this responsibility. The Negro Question finds it begin¬ ning in 1620. The present race problem is the last unsettled phase of the slave question. Slavery, it is true, is settled forever, because it was settled right. The principle of freedom so permeates the American consciousness, that all of the standing army and floating navy cannot fasten that wrong, that iniquity, that hydra-headed monster, on this country again. The South, even, would now vote “No” on the impossible question of reenslavement.

But this attitude on the part of the South is a development, — for it is a matter of history that it once fought to make a new republic out of the wreck of the old, whose corner-stone should be human slavery. , In that struggle, freedom triumphed. But the South was more conquered than convinced; it was overpowered rather than fully persuaded. The Confederacy surrendered its sword at Appomattox, but did not there surrender its convictions. It has taken twenty-five years of freedom, with its unparalleled progress and marvelous impulse to southern activities, to convince the South that freedom is more profitable than slavery.

It took a quarter of a century to produce a Henry W. Grady, — so able, so eloquent in expressions of loyalty to the Stars and Stripes; so impassioned in utterances of devotion to the union of states, and so full of fervid admiration of the history, struggles and triumphs of the influences of Plymouth Rock. Just after the war, such a man with such environments and entertaining such sentiments, would have been considered a southern monstrosity, and an enemy to his section and its people; but his declarations in the new light of today made him an idol in the South, and an object of admiring wonder in the North.

Some say,— How changed. I answer, “Yes.” But let us not forget that this change has come only on one phase of the race problem, and that this phase was settled by the bloody arbitrament of arms.

But on all the resultants of slavery and the war, there is nothing

SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 491

like a unanimity of sentiment in the South. It was not so hard to give up the principle of slavery as it was to surrender the prop¬ erty in the slave. And, just here, it is not difficult to discover one of the discordant elements in the race problem of today. The ruling classes in the South had their fortunes scattered and their commercial activities paralyzed by the war. In the Negro centered all the wealth of the South. He was the soul of its industrial machinery. His freedom, therefore, was galling to the body politic in the South, not only because he was free but because, through his freedom, they became poor. This feeling, for a long time, was the source of antipathy against the Negro, — for as he moved among the master-class as a freeman, he was constantly reminding them of their losses.

But I believe that in proportion as the South recovers its lost fortunes, through industrial development, and the Negro becomes more and more an indispensable factor in this development, the intensity of feeling on this account will be mitigated. And it is my observation that such a feeling is not as prevalent now as it was just after the war.

A New Phase of the Race Problem Now Confronts the South

The South has yet to realize that, not only is freedom better than slavery and that free-labor is better than slave-labor (which it now admits) ; it must also face the logical conclusion of its own assertion, that a freeman is better than a slave and has greater powers, and therefore should have wider scope as a man, and as an industrial factor. And such a conclusion will be a long step in the solution of the race problem, and a great advance toward southern prosperity ; for the great need of the South today is industrial power, and the development of this power is imperative, not only for the speedy recovery of lost fortunes and the rapid strengthening of paralyzed energies, but as an unfailing agency in unifying the interests and making common the destiny of both races in the South, and in the nation as well.

Other Elements in the Problem

The emancipation of the slave, and the loss of property in that act, are not the only elements that have made possible the race problem in this country.

492

NEGRO ORATORS

When the property in human form was recognized as a man and brother, by the amendments to the Constitution, it was con¬ sidered an insult added to the injuries already sustained through him. Our friends in the South did not recognize that this step was a necessity, and not an insult; for freedom implies manhood. In fact, there is no true freedom (anything else is a mere mockery of the name) that does not give full recognition and assent to that cardinal principle of humanity,— the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

We remember that under the peculiar institution the slave was a thing, chattel (that is, cattle). The system as such, and the laws of the country protecting it, did not operate on the principle that the Negro was a member of the human family even. The auction- block, painful separations of parents and children, husbands and wives, the ruthless sundering of the tenderest ties of which the human heart is capable, were evidences of this sad truth.

Under the training of such a system for centuries, it is not an anomaly that the South, just after the unpleasantness, was not prepared to welcome the Negro as a bona-fide member of the human brotherhood, or that we now have a race problem.

Some went so far as to argue that the Negro did not have a soul. One man put his assertions in book form on this subject. I do not hesitate to say that there are men living now who have not yet satisfied themselves of the common origin of the Negro. They believe him, not circumstantially, but inherently inferior, and dif¬ ferent from the ordinary family of mankind ; hence the hesitancy, the downright refusal to accord him his place in the one family of which God is the common father.

On this question of the humanity of the Negro, it is encouraging to know that the South does not stand where it stood twenty-five or fifty years ago. The man who tried to prove that the Negro was soulless, if he were living today, could not he persuaded to attempt such a stupendous piece of nonsense ; for now we have men in the South who have grown famous among southerners because of their advocacy of the brotherhood of men. Our hrather in 'black, his freedom and his future, — by Dr. A. B. Haygood of Georgia, is an illustration of this fact.

It will be observed that in the discussion thus far of the race

SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 493

problem, I am something of an optimist ; — ^not absolutely so, however.

If emancipation, loss of propert}’’ in the freedmen, and the hu¬ manity of the Negro, were the only elements of inharmony between the races, it would not take us very long to solve the race problem. In all these phases of the question, it is my observation that great progress has been made; and while the South may not be unani¬ mous in its sentiment even on these phases, still it is evident that its advance has been beyond the expectation of some of the most sanguine of us.

Negro Citizenship the Knotty Element in the Problem

The great discordant element between the races, that which makes the so-called race problem, is Negro Citizenship and its consequent eligibility to office. If there is a race problem, here are its cen¬ tripetal and centrifugal forces. It is, indeed, the great stone of offence, and many think the rock of a great southern and national disaster.

Neither the South nor the country was prepared for the sudden emancipation of the Negro. Yesterday a slave, — today a freeman, — the next day a citizen, and the next an office-holder and ruler, — was a little too much, in the opinion of some. As the dominant sentiment in the South persistently opposed all of the endeavors leading to this crowning point, it is not strange that they should now say, “This final consummation shall not be realized”; for to the sensitive nerve of a southerner this is the most irreconcilable resultant of the war, and the “unkindest cut of all,” the rebounds of their own action. The concession of equal manhood rights to what they call “an alien race” is to them not a necessity, nor a legitimate outcome of freedom, but an added insult to a people already stung with defeat. Some of the southern leaders declare that this part of the law of the land shall not be carried out. “The ballot of the Negro must be suppressed,” they say, “espe¬ cially in states where he is in the majority.” Some have gone so far as to threaten a call to arms before it shall be done.

This defiance, in many parts of the South, to the Constitution and the rights of men is no secret. The Ku-Klux Klan, Winchester Rifles, tissue ballots, the Eight Box System, Red Shirters,— are

494 NEGEO OEATORS

but varying phases of the same great opposition to Negro citizen¬ ship.

The cruel discrimination on lines of public travel, railroad and steamboat, and the lack of eating accommodations on the railroads for respectable colored people, are also reminders of the race issue in the South.

It is an undisguised truth that colored men pay first-class fare on railroads in most of the states of the South without receiving the accommodations for which they pay. This condition of things is not only unjust, but it is ungrateful; for the Negroes not only construct the railroads of the South, but through their labor they contribute largely to their support. It is not a pleasant thing for the Negro to dwell upon when he calls to mind the fact that after he has contributed his indispensable labor to the construction of a road, and after he has been taxed to build new roads, not a member of his race can be accorded a decent ear, or a decent seat in a waiting room. Growing intelligence will not be content with such a condition of affairs.

From Washington to Jacksonville there is not, so far as my expe¬ rience goes, a place for a colored lady or gentleman, however refined or intelligent, however well dressed and behaved, to take a meal, except it be in the kitchen of the railroad eating houses, or at a window, in a bag, at some dining room. I speak out of a bitter experience on this matter. If there is an exception to this statement, it simply proves the rule.

Is it unreasonable, is it unbusinesslike, is it impudence to ask that decent accommodation be accorded colored passengers who are compelled to travel upon our southern roads ? No. Humanity, not to speak of justice, demands it.

Prom what Dr. Haygood said recently through the Atlanta Con¬ stitution on this matter, these discriminations are not to be attrib¬ uted to irresponsible conductors and brakemen on the railroads, but to the bond-holders in Wall Street. This may be true, but it is rather strange, however, that there are no such discriminations between Washington and New York, or between New York and Boston ; and the owners of which can also be traced to Wall Street and to State Street.

Thus far we have been trying to show some of the elements that

SOLUTION OF THE EACE PROBLEM 495

enter into the race problem. But why is the idea of a problem suggested by the situation in the South?

The Problem Stated

The southern question is simply this, — How long can we deny to men their inalienable and constitutional rights, the denial of which they most keenly feel, even when no complaint is made, without a serious conflict involving not only the section and races immediately concerned, but the nation as well ?

It is seriously asked, — * ‘ Can such a condition continue with impunity ? ’ ’ The question is not, whether the races can live side by side in peace, but whether the two races can live together in harmony, with the one denying the natural and constitutional rights of the other. Can the one persist in not recognizing the political and civil privileges,— privileges conceded by the highest tribunal of the land,— of the other, with no ultimate harm to both?

Can this problem be solved? Or, in other words, ^Will the South ever concede to the Negro his unrestricted privileges as a

citizen, and thereby solve this problem?

I believe it will; and so far as the Negro is concerned, he is ready to do his part, to take his step in this direction, even at the sacriflce of the non-essentials involved in its solution.

The South is, providentially, the home of the Negro as a mass in this country, and he is willing and ready to live in peace with his white brethren under any conditions save those which violate the very instinct of his being and imply the surrender of his manhood and God-given rights. For the sake of the progress and prosperity of the South he is ready and willing to make any terms that are reasonable, just and fair ; but a compromise that reverses the Declaration of Independence, nullifies the national constitution, and is contrary to the genius of this republic, ought not be asked of any race living under the stars and stripes ; and if asked, ought never to be granted.

In the face of the Negro’s increasing intelligence and marvelous fecundity, we are asked, — Can a race conflict be avoided? This depends on one or two things; first, the avoidance of the con¬ flict depends upon the ehanged attitude of the South toward the legal status of the Negro. Secondly, the conflict may be avoided

496 NEGRO ORATORS

by the utter disappearance of the Negro, through amalgamation or deportation.

As we have already intimated, present indications are against the latter. The Negroes are not disappearing, or dying out; they are not being lost through amalgamation. From four millions they have grown to eight millions in less than a quarter of a cen¬ tury. And it is worthy of consideration to note that the Negro is not only growing larger in numbers, but more solid in blackness as well.

It is a mere waste of time to speak of expatriation or deportation as a way of escape from giving the Negro his due under the Con¬ stitution. He has been in the South too long; his feet are too deeply imbedded in its soil to be decoyed away as a mass by adroit national appropriations, or wily schemes of “Appeals to Pharaoh.”

More is true. The Negro is so interwoven into the industrial life of the South that if he desired to go and the nation made its appropriation, the whites of the South would oppose it.

But you ask, “Are the Negroes to remain in the South then, and be forever subjected to political persecution, mob violence and a denial of their fights as men and as citizens ? ’ ’

I answer, “No.” We must remember that the Negroes are in a formative period, and that we are but twenty-five years removed from a most degrading slavery. There must be time for the growth of new ideas, and for the dissemination of a humane and patriotic sentiment.

I have faith in the better element in the South which is every day increasing, notwithstanding it is still in the minority. Race prejudices and antipathies, whether between Patricians and Plebeians, Normans and Saxons, or Negroes and southern whites are not to be removed in a day,— especially when these prejudices are the stubborn growth of centuries. As these prejudices have deepened into convictions because of a certain adverse condition of the Negro, they will not be fully removed until the conditions are changed that helped to produce them. The white man of the South has evolved into his present attitude by the environments which logically drove him to it; and he can only be effectuaUy and permanently changed by a correspondent change, not of the position, but of the character of the environment.

SOLUTION OF THE EACE PEOBLEM 497

Will. Additional Law, or Statutory Enactments, Solve

THE Problem?

Wherever there is lawlessness, or disorder, or mob violence of any kind, law is always in order to restrain and punish the law¬ breakers. The law-abiding element in the South is not afraid of law ; for law is only a terror to the evil-doer ; but legislation with¬ out a sentiment to sustain it cannot solve the problem. We have tried it for twenty-five years, and it has been a dead letter.

The Negro does not ask for any new laws for him as a black man ; he seeks no special legislation. He only asks for the enforcement of the law as it is, and not for him as a black man, hut only as it should be exercised for any other American citizen.

Time and patience will be large elements in the solution of the problem : vituperation will avail us nothing. We cannot legislate men out of their prejudices or remove their antipathies by abuse. There must be a gradual growth from within that must remove the convictions from without.

I may he too much of an optimist, hut I confess to more confi¬ dence in the South of the future than even Mr. Grady. He was of the opinion that the South would never concede to the Negro the untrammelled exercise of his franchise or tolerate his influence as a political factor in the South. I try to look at this whole matter in the light of a progressive civilization and the advance of an enlightened Christianity.

In the city of New York less than a quarter of a century ago, there were separate street cars for colored people, and they had to wait until the “Jim-Crow Car” came along before they could ride. Such a thing, so far as street cars are concerned, is unknown anywhere in the South today.

In the memory of men now living, colored people were only allowed to ride on the outside of stages running between Boston and Cambridge. Prudence Crandall, whose house was burned to the ground because she dared, in Connecticut, to teach Negro boys and girls to read and write, died only a few months ago.

Even now, in metropolitan cities like New York, Brooklyn and Washington, colored men are denied a dozen times a day (or as often as they may apply) a decent meal at restaurants and a com¬ fortable bed at hotels, simply because they belong to another race.

498

NEGEO OEATOES

The Assumptions op the South

The South refused to concede to the Negro his constitutional rights, on assumptions; and these assumptions are based on false alarms, filled with fear. First, it is assumed that in denying the Negro free speech and a free ballot is the only way to save that section from misrule and bankruptcy; “for,” they say, “the Negro is seeking the control of the government, and, through this control, the domination of the whites. ’ ’ This is not true. To give the Negro his rights, or to guarantee to him a free ballot does not necessarily argue that the ignorant, poor and vicious will control the intelligent, wealthy and virtuous. If this were so, the poor, ignorant whites, who are in the majority among the whites, would be in control throughout the South. These poor whites have all their constitutional rights, yet they do not hold the offices, nor manage the finances of that section. The Negroes believe in an intelligent administration of government as much as anybody else ; they seriously object to putting the incompetent in places of power and responsibility; they do not desire to be officered by ignorant men.

The Negroes enter their protest, however, to the presumption that all the intelligence or capability is in one party, or one race. There are colored men in the South who compare favorably in intelligence and character with white men in that section, and the only objection urged against them is their race identity.

Mr. Grady said, in his Dallas speech, that “Ignorance may struggle up to intelligence, and out of the corruptible may come the incorruptible; but the white men must rule this country” — implying in that statement that the citizenship of the Negro must not enter as an element in the control of the affairs of the South, even if he is intelligent and possesses unblemished character.

But the Negro is not seeking supremacy through the ballot, he is not after power, but protection, — not control, but rights. He has no desire to rule the whites, but he does insist that the whites shall rule him only on the principle of humanity and justice. The Negro is after friends, more than supremacy. If he does not find them in one set of men, he seeks them in another; if not in one section of the country, he looks to another. But it does not argue that to give the Negro a free ballot where he is in the majority.

SOLUTION OF THE EACE PROBLEM 499

means mismanagement and financial rnin to the county or district in which he resides; for there are counties in the South, in Vir¬ ginia and North Carolina, where the Negro is in the majority and where he has a free ballot, — but the illiterate and vicious do not hold the offices, and the general condition of these counties com¬ pares very favorably with those counties in which the whites have the majority and control.

Secondly: The South assumes that the reconstruction period is coequal with eternity; for this period, especially from a South Carolina point of view, is constantly brought forward to illustrate what would be the state of things in the South if the Negroes were not suppressed. In this matter it is forgotten that the schemes for plunder were not the work of black men wholly ; they are more attributable to bad, vicious and unscrupulous intelligent white men than to ignorant Negroes. If good white men had taken hold of the Negro and made him an ally, many of the southern states would have been saved much of the disgrace of the reconstruction period.

But the assumption that, because the Negro, intoxicated with freedom and blinded by ignorance, was not prepared for the exer¬ cise of his franchise just after the war, is therefore not prepared for it twenty-five years afterwards (and, as some assert, will not be equal to it in a hundred years, if ever), is, to say the least, unreasonable, especially in the light of the rapid progress of the race since that time. It is my opinion that the average colored voter among the masses of the blacks is not far behind the average voter among the masses of the whites in the South ; and as to plun¬ der, a few white state officials have relieved a few southern states of more “boodle” since the war than all the Negroes appropriated during the whole reconstruction period.

That the reconstruction period operated to the detriment of the Negro and the South I will not deny; and yet that period was not without some evidence of intelligent management ; for it is true, as stated by Mr. W. H. Anderson of the Detroit Plaindealer, in writing on this period, “That he (the Negro) established state constitutions that were models of a republican form of government ; he abolished the property qualification, which opened up the ballot- box to the poor whites; he established a system of public schools, which was hitherto unknown in that section ; he abolished the bar¬ barous penal systems, established equality and uniformity of taxa-

500

NEGEO OEATOES

tion ; introduced the township system of self-government ; and, with generous motives, removed the political disabilities of men who had fought to render slavery more secure, and who now rail at his capacity. ’ ’

Thirdly : It is further assumed that the Negro is seeking social equality in demanding his constitutional rights, and that a cession of civil privileges means this.

There never was a greater mistake. The South was never more at sea on an issue. The Negro does not desire and does not seek social equality with the whites. Such an equality does not obtain among the Negroes themselves. A glance at the remarkable variety of shades of complexion among the colored people is evidence beyond doubt that the social equality tendency is not pressed by Negroes. In fact, the Negroes seek to avoid it, but it is forced upon them in a manner that corrupts both blacks and whites. The Negro in his own race has the rare privilege of choosing any color, from the snowy white to the ebony black.

The colored man or woman does not seek a seat in a car free from tobacco smoke and juice, or profanity and obscenity, or ask for a meal in a decent dining room because he desires to be in the society of whites, but because he desires comfort, protection and nourishment.

There are a great many whites whom the Negroes refuse to accept on social equality as quickly and even more quickly than these whites would hesitate to accept them.

There are states in the South where the Negro has a free ballot, and there are railroads in the South where Negroes have first-class accommodations on the cars, when they pay for it; and yet there is no more social equality in these states than in others where this right is denied.

Let me ask, in conclusion, What of the Future?

I repeat, that I have confidence not only in the better element, progressive, humane and patriotic, of the South; but I have also an unswerving faith in the appearance of a better, brighter day in that section, — a day filled with the gladdening light of freedom, prosperity and peace ; for, as the South has seen some of the errors of the past, I believe it will come to discover the aggravating and retarding delusions of the present.

Not to believe in such an era is to doubt the ultimate triumph

SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 501

of truth over error, of right over wrong, and to question the vic¬ tories of the onward sweep and universal conquest of the subduing, humanizing and eternal principles of the enlightened Christian civilization of the nineteenth century. To this end, there is nothing more essential than widespread intelligence, as well as an all-con¬ quering, consistent Christianity.

What can the north do toward hastening this happy consum¬ mation? The North can help by holding tenaciously to its prin¬ ciples of humanity and justice, even under the spell of winsome oratory. Let the North continue to send its capital and its skill into the South to rebuild her waste places and utilize her great natural resources; — for I believe that a dollar carries with it a renjarkable civilizing and humanizing influence. Let our friends in the North persist in pushing, with increased industry and unflag¬ ging ardor, the work of education among the ignorant blacks and whites in that section. Let the North insist that there be national appropriations for the education of the people.

When the North followed in the wake of the army with the spelling-book and the Bible, they then handled the key to the solu¬ tion of this great problem ; and we are satisfied that the work of the last twenty-five years has brought them encouragement and hope for the future. That section from whifeh went the ideas that undermined the foundation and first threatened the fall of slavery, — that section from which marched the armies that saved the union and perpetuated human freedom ; that section from which has gone millions of money to make the freeman an intelligent citizen, and the nation more secure through this intelligence, — cannot now afford to turn its back on those ideas, nor to say, or even to inti¬ mate, to the living or dead heroes of that struggle that they suf¬ fered or died in vain. For the work which those ideas started will never be completed, and the whole duty of the North never fully done until the last vestige of the peculiar institution is destroyed, and the smoking and dying embers of that Are which its hands have kindled shall have been forever extinguished.^

* J. C. Price, The Race Problem Stated, passim.

Chapter X

CHAPTER X

The Panegyric

Another form of oratory, the panegyric, has been fre¬ quently indulged in by spokesmen of all races and especially such groups as the freedmen. Gratitude is natural in man. From the Negro, then, there have been evoked such expres¬ sions of appreciation of the services of their benefactors. Many of these speeches not only reflect the thought of a race, but meet the requirements of the most elaborate orations. The distinguished dead who received such praise from the Negro orators were largely William Lloyd Garrison, the ardent abolitionist; Abraham Lincoln, the great emanci¬ pator; and Charles Sumner, the champion of human rights. These speeches as they appear here require no comment.

Eulogy Of Charles Sumners

EULOGY OF CHARLES SUMNERS By R. B. Elliott

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: The boon of a noble human life cannot be appropriated by any single nation or race. It is: a part of the common wealth of the world ; a treasure, a guide and an inspiration to all men in all lands and through all ages. The earthly activities of this life are circumscribed by time and space; but the divine and essential genius which informs and in¬ spires that life is boundless in the sweep of its influence, and immortal in the energy of its activity. In the great All Hail Hereafter, in that mysterious and glorious Future, which the heart of man, touched, as I firmly believe, by a divine intimation, is ever painting with more or less of conscious fondness, those mighty spirits moving in new majesty and power on their great missions of Truth and Love, will have laid aside the limitations which fet-

Delivered in Boston in Paneuil Hall in 1874.

502

THE PANEGYEIC 503

tered them here and become the apparent and acknowledged leaders and voices of humanity itself.

Charles Sumner, in his mortal limitations, was an American ; more narrowly, he was a Massachusetts man ; more narrowly still, he was a white man : hut today what nation shall claim him, what State shall appropriate him, what race, shall boast him? He was the fair consummate flower of humanity. He was the fruit of the ages. He was the child of the Past and the promise of the Future. The whole world, could it but know its relations, would mourn his departure, and mankind everywhere would join in his honors.

But, fellow-citizens, if any fraction of humanity may claim a peculiar right to do honor to the memory of this great common benefactor of the world, surely it is the colored race in these United States. To other men his services may seem only a vast accession of strength to a cause already moving with steady and assured advance ; to us, to the colored race, he is and ever will be the great leader in political life, whose ponderous and incessant blows battered down the walls of our prison house, and whose strong hand led us forth into the sunlight of Freedom. I do not seek to appropriate him to my race : but I do feel today that my race might almost bid the race to which by blood he belonged to stand aside while we to whose welfare his life was so completely given advance to do grateful honor to him who was our great Benefactor and Friend. “To the illustrious the whole world is a sepulchre.” To Charles Sumner the whole civilized world has paid its honors, and now we meet to give some formal testimony of our profound reverence for the personal gifts and powers, for the measure of unselfish devotion, which he gave to us.

If I could on this occasion frame into articulate words the feel¬ ings of our hearts, if I could but half express the depth and sin¬ cerity of that gratitude which dwells in all our hearts, I might hope to rise to the height of the feelings of this hour. But that may not be.

This is Faneuil Hall. Here, within this venerable shelter, so fitly styled “The Cradle of Liberty,” a little more than twenty- eight years ago the voice of Charles Sumner was first heard in that great warfare to which his after life was so completely devoted. His tones were trumpet-like. Listen to them: “Let Massachusetts, then, be aroused. Let aU her children be summoned to this holy

504

NEGRO ORATORS

cause. There are questions of ordinary politics in which men may remain neutral ; but neurality now is treason to liberty, to human¬ ity, and to the fundamental principles of free institutions. * * * Massachusetts musi continue foremost in the cause of Freedom. ’ ’

Brave, glorious words ! But how few then to echo them ! Twenty- eight years only have passed, and here in that same Faneuil Hall that prostrate race against whose further enslavement Charles Sumner then thundered his protest and warning, have met beneath the protection of the laws not only of Massachusetts, but of the American Republic, to do honor to that splendid career then and there begun, which witnessed the final overthrow of Slavery and the citizenship of its victims throughout the Republic.

From that hour, in this Hall, in November, 1845, Charles Sumner may be said to have entered on his life-work. With what splendid equipments of mind, of heart, of body, did he advance to the con¬ flict! No knightlier figure ever moved forth to ancient jousts. No braver heart ever enlisted in Freedom’s cause. No scholarship more complete and affluent, since Milton, has placed its gifts and graces at the shrine of Justice and public Honor.

He little dreamed, I have ventured to think, of the severity of the sacrifices or the glory of the achievements which lay in the pathway on which he then entered. The mad and remorseless spirit of Slavery which then aroused his courage and drew him to the conflict, moved steadily forward to its purposes. Texas was annexed; the whole North, the entire national domain, was con¬ verted into the hunting ground of slavery ; but Charles Sumner was lifted by Massachusetts into the Senate of the United States. The voice which had awakened the echoes of this historic hall in Novem¬ ber, 1845, was transferred to that central point to rouse the sleeping conscience of the whole nation. With these vows, uttered likewise in this Hall, he entered upon his august duties in the Senate, ‘ ‘ To vindicate Freedom and oppose Slavery, so far as I may consti¬ tutionally — ^with earnestness, and yet, I trust, without personal unkindness on my part — is the object near my heart. Would that my voice, leaving this crowded hall tonight, could traverse the hills and valleys of New England, that it could run along the rivers and lakes of my country, lighting in every heart a beacon-flame to arouse the slumberers throughout the land! Others may become indifferent to these principles, bartering them for political sue-

THE PANEGYRIC

505

cess, vain and short-lived, or forgetting the visions of youth in the dreams of a^e. Whenever I forget them, whenever I become in¬ different to them, whenever I cease to be constant in maintaining them, through good report and evil report, in any future combina¬ tions of party, then may ‘my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, may my right hand forget its cunning.’ ”

From the hour he entered the Senate the combat narrowed and deepened. The dreadful Fugitive-Slave law hung its pall over the whole land. The spirit of Slavery was omnipresent, ruling Courts, Congress, Churches. In all this fierce conflict, above the loudest din, ever sounded his courageous, clarion voice. What cause was ever honored by nobler efforts of research, of argument, of historical illustration, of classical adornments, of strong-hearted, resounding and lofty eloquence? But above all other utterances was the constant and conspicuous enunciation of the highest moral principles as applicable to all political action and duty. Hear him: “Sir, I have never been a politician. The slave of prin¬ ciples, I call no party master. By sentiment, education and con¬ viction a friend of Human Rights in their utmost expansion, I have ever most sincerely embraced the Democratic Idea, — ^not, in¬ deed, as represented or professed by any party, but according to its real significance, as transfigured in the Declaration of Inde¬ pendence and in the injunctions of Christianity. Amidst the vicissitudes of public affairs, I shall hold fast always to this idea, and to any political party that truly embraces it.”

With such sentiments planted and cultivated into full growth and vigor into the very soil of his moral nature, he presented him¬ self to the country and the world in his first Senatorial speech in August, T852, upon the repeal of the Fugitive-Slave law. Read¬ ing that massive and noble argument again in the light of twenty years of subsequent events, how difficult to realize the prodigious moral energy which it at once demanded and displayed! The argument is ample and conclusive : the historical proofs are abundant; the eloquence is noble and affecting; but high above all rises the grandeur of the moral convictions which underlie and inspire all its wealth of argumentation and oratory. With proud and undaunted spirit he thus denounces that wicked en¬ actment : ‘ ‘ Sir, the Slave Act violates the Constitution and shocks

506

Negko Oeators

the Public Conscience. With modesty, and yet with firmness, let me add, sir, it offends against the Divine Law.

“No such enactment is entitled to support. As the throne of God is above every earthly throne, so are his laws and statutes above all the laws and statutes of men. The mandates of an earthly power are to he discussed; those of Heaven must at once be performed; nor can we suffer ourselves to be drawn into any compacts in opposition to God.” Words worthy, are they not, fellow-citizens, of the noblest of the martyrs and confessors of any age? One year before, his faithful friend, Theodore Parker, a name ever sacred in the hearts of those who love Freedom and Truth, had written him, “I hope you will build on the Rock of Ages and look to Eternity for your justification.” How truly did he build on the Rock of Ages ! Yet, while he looked to eter¬ nity, time has brought him his abundant justification !

Upon the lofty arena of the Senate he now struggled incessantly with the intellectual gladiators whom slavery ever had as her champions. The heat and din of the conflict grew greater at every step. Yet there he stood, proud, defiant, uncomplaining, aggressive. How heavy the strain on his great but sensitive na¬ ture, so finely cultured, his words of acknowledgment of the cordial support which Massachusetts ever gave him, wiU attest. Hear him at Worcester: “After months of constant, anxious service in another place, away from Massachusetts, I am permitted to stand among you again, my fellow-citizens, and to draw satisfaction and strength from your generous presence. Life is full of change and contrast. From slave soil I have come to free soil. From the tainted breath of slavery I have passed into the bracing air of Free¬ dom. And the heated antagonism of debate, shooting forth its fiery cinders, is changed into this brimming, overflowing welcome, while I seem to lean on the great heart of our beloved Common¬ wealth, as it palpitates audibly in this crowded assembly.”

A little later. Slavery, in its rapid march, assailed the time- honored barrier which the compromise of a former generation had set up against its advance over our vast Northwestern territories. Mr. Sumner was now at the height of his powers. His age was forty-three; his senatorial experience was such as to confirm his confidence in his o^vn powers, and to concentrate upon him the confidence and admiration of the friends of Freedom. History

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has been to me the delight and study of my life, but I know of no figure in history which commands more of my admiration than that of Charles Sumner in the Senate of the United States, from the hour when Douglas presented his ill-omened measure for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise until the blow of the assassin laid him low. Here was the perfection of moral constancy and daring. Here was sleepless vigilance, unwearying labor, hope¬ fulness bom only of deepest faith, buoyant resolution caring noth¬ ing for human odds, but serenely abiding in the perfect peace which the unselfish service of Truth alone can bring. The issues then before the country awakened his profoundest alarm. The balance seemed to him to be about to pass from Freedom to Slav¬ ery. The American Republic, so solemnly dedicated by the Fathers to Freedom, seemed about to cut loose from all her ancient moorings. The imminence and greatness of the danger oppressed him. Listen to these words, opening that speech which seems to me perhaps the most perfect of his life, in which he first opposed the removal of the Landmark of Freedom : Mr. President, I ap¬

proach this discussion with awe. The mighty question, with un¬ told issues, oppresses me. Like a portentous cloud, surcharged with irresistible storm and ruin, it seems to fill the whole heavens, making me painfully conscious how unequal to the occasion I am, — how unequal, also, is all that I can say to all that I feel. But listen, also, to these words of lofty cheer which fitly close the same speech, in which, rising on the wings of Faith, he looks beyond the storm, raging around him, and contemplates that purer and final “union contemplated at the beginning, against which the storms of faction and the assaults of foreign power shall beat in vain, as upon the Rock of Ages, — and liberty, seeking a firm

foothold, WILL HAVE AT LAST WHEREON TO STAND AND MOVE THE WORLD. ”

To such a man, to a faith so clear-sighted, to a spirit so faithful to God and His Truth, no disaster or defeat, my fellow-citizens, can ever come. Victory sits forever on his trumphant crest.

And in his last final protest against that measureless wrong, see how, from the oppression of temporary defeat, he rises to joyous heights of serene moral confidence: “Sir, more clearly than ever before I now penetrate that great Future when Slavery must dis¬ appear. Proudly I discern the flag of my country, as it ripples

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in every breeze, at last in reality, as in name, the Flag of Freedom, — undoubted, pure, and irresistible. Sorrowfully I bend before the wrong you commit. Joyfully I welcome the promises of the Future. ’ ’

But the sacred Landmark of Freedom for which he pleaded was ruthlessly swept away, and two years later the country was con¬ vulsed by the outrages of the Slave Power on the plains of Kansas. The conflict raged equally in the halls of Congress, where Slavery sought to gather the fruits of this great wrong by the organization of the territory of Kansas as a slave state.

Against this measure Charles Sumner uttered the magniflcent Philippic entitled so aptly “The Crime against Kansas,” thus expressing in a single phrase the moral aspects and character of that whole passage of history.

In that speech he developed new powers of denunciation and invective. Prom the impressive exordium beginning, “Mr. Presi¬ dent, you are now called to redress a great wrong” — on through the ample statement, the exhaustive narrative, the irresistible ar¬ gument, the flery invective, the pathetic appeal, to those last words of the memorable peroration,— “In the name of the Heavenly Father, whose service is perfect Freedom, I make this last appeal, ’ ’

^he spoke with absolute fldelity to the convictions of his own heart and of the aroused conscience of the free North. It was the full discharge, aye, the explosion, of the slumbering volcano of moral indignation which slavery had aroused in thirty years of continuous and intolerable aggressions. It was the voice of the Declaration of Independence calling back the recreant sons to the faith and practice of the fathers. It was, as Whittier said, “a grand and terrible Philippic, worthy of the great occasion; the severe and awful truth which the sharp agony of the national crisis demanded. It was more than a speech, it was an event. It was more than a half battle, it was a battle crowned with glo¬ rious victory. It was a scene and a speech to be compared only with the great triumphs of oratory,— Demosthenes pleading for Athenian liberty, Cicero thundering against the oppressor of Sic¬ ily, Burke arraigning the Scourge of India.

But why do I thus characterize that great utterance? Two days after its delivery it received a demonstration of its quality and power more impressive and startling than any which attended

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the former masterpieces of human speech. Slavery, in the person of a representative in Congress from South Carolina, struck him to the floor and covered him with murderous blows. It was, as another has eloquently said, “our champion beaten to the ground for the noblest word Massachusetts ever spoke in the Senate.”

The effect of this assault upon the fortunes of the two struggling powers — freedom and slavery — ^was significant. Each rushed to the support of its champion. Brooks was hailed throughout the South as the chivalrous exponent of slavery, while Charles Sum¬ ner ceased to be the assailant merely of slavery, and became the champion and martyr of free speech and the sacred right of par¬ liamentary debate.

Alas— -do we not still say alas— that “that noble head,” as Emerson then said, “so comely and so wise, must be the target for a pair of bullies to beat with clubs!” Yet that blood was precious testimony for truth and freedom. In an instant the civi¬ lized world stood by the side of Sumner. What neither moral force, nor finished scholarship, nor commanding eloquence could do, this final brutality achieved; and from that day the hot and furious wrath of every freedom-loving heart fell upon that insti¬ tution whose agent and representative had thus outraged humanity itself. America and Europe rang with a shout of horror. This historic Hall echoed with fitting words of indignant eloquence. “It is,” said one still living, “it is a blow not merely at Massa¬ chusetts, a blow not merely at the name and fame of our common country ; it is a blow at constitutional liberty all the world over ; it is a stab at the cause of universal freedom. It is aimed at all men, everywhere, who are struggling for what we now regard as our great birthright, and which we intend to transmit unimpaired to our latest posterity. * * * Forever, forever and aye, that stain will plead in silence for liberty, wherever man is enslaved, for humanity all over the world, for truth and for justice, now and forever.”

Months and years of bodily suffering followed this outrage, borne, as all his life’s experiences were borne, with unsurpassed fortitude, but with longings inexpressible for a return to the ac¬ tivities and dangers of the conflict in which he was now the central figure. While recalling this devotion of her great Senator, let me not forget to pay a tribute to that generous and true common-

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wealth which he so truly represented. If Charles Sumner was faithful, so was Massachusetts. The proud State felt, and felt truly, that his vacant chair was her truest representative until he to whom it belonged should reoecupy it. While still prostrated and unable to resume his duties, Massachusetts by a vote approach¬ ing unanimity, reelected him as her Senator, — State and Senator, true to each other, worthy of each other.

But while resting among the Alleghanies of our own country, or seeking health on foreign shores, his heart was never absent from the Great Cause. What tributes do his brief utterances bear to the unwavering fidelity of his soul ! Speaking to a sympathiz¬ ing friend, he says, ‘_^Oh, no. My suffering is little, in compari¬ son with daily occurrences. The poorest slave is in danger of worse outrages every moment of his life.” Again, he writes to the young men of Fitchburg, “We have been told that the ‘duties of life are more than life ’ ; and I assure you that the hardest part of my present lot is the enforced absence from public duties, and especially from that seat, where, as a Senator from Massachusetts, it is my right, and also my strong desire at this moment, to be heard. ’ ’

Again he writes, “With sorrow inexpressible I am constrained to all the care and reserve of an invalid. More than four months have passed since you clasped my hand as I lay bleeding in the Senate Chamber. This is hard, very hard, for me to bear, for I long to do something, at this critical moment, for the Cause. What is life worth without action?”

Again, while lingering at Savoy, subjected to daily treatment by fire, he writes, “It is with a pang unspeakable that I find myself thus arrested in the labors of life and in the duties of my position. This is harder to bear than the fire.”

No testimonies of this noble life will be more precious than these longings of this great heart for the duties of his position.

At last, on the 4th of June, 1860, he was permitted to reenter upon those scenes of Senatorial debate from which, four years before, he had been so cruelly withdrawn. Butler and Brooks were both dead. The memories of his outrage and sufferings must have filled his mind, yet see how he puts by all personal considera¬ tions and remembers only the Cause for which he is to speak:

Mr. President, I have no personal griefs to utter, — only a vulgar

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egotism could intrude such 'into this Chamber ; I have no personal wrongs to avenge, — only a brutish nature could attempt to wield that vengeance which belongs to the Lord. The years that have intervened and the tombs that have opened since I spoke, have their voices, which I cannot fail to hear. Besides, w'hat am I, what is any man among the living or among the dead, compared with the question before us?”

With these simple and yet pathetic allusions he commenced that most exhaustive delineation of the spirit, methods, and effects of slavery, which, under its singularly felicitous title, “The Barbar¬ ism of Slavery,” will remain a monument of research, of invective, and of impassioned eloquence.

Prom this time the great drama moved rapidly to its catas¬ trophe. The slave power writhed beneath the effect of this awful arraignment at the bar of the world’s judgment. It saw in se¬ cession from the Union and the establishment of a separate slave- holding Confederacy, its only hope and safety. Abraham Lin¬ coln became President, and in April, 1861, the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor sounded the tocsin of civil war throughout the Mnd. Into that struggle Charles Sumner entered without hesitation and without alarm. His only anxiety had been to keep the North clear of the deadly spirit of compromise. Let justice be done him here. His moral equilibrium and courage were never more conspicuous. Many had joined him in his fierce assaults on slavery who now shrunk back from the gulf of war and disunion which seemed tO' open before them. Compromises were suggested on all sides, — compromises, too, which would have robbed freedom of all her advantage and left the slave to his hope¬ less bondage. Let no Negro forget, — nay, let no American for¬ get, — that Charles Sumner never sullied his lips with degrading compromise.

Duty was his master ; justice ruled him ; and to every suggestion of compromise with slavery he responded, “Get thee behind me, Satan ! ’ ’

His inflexible spirit may be seen in these words to Governor Andrew: “timeo danaos et dona peeentes. Don’t let these words be ever out of your mind, when you think of any proposi¬ tion from the slave masters. They are all essentially false, with treason in their hearts if not on their tongues. How can it be

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otherwise? Slavery is a falsehood, and its supporters are all perverted and changed. Punic in faith, Punic in character, you are to meet all that they do or say with denial or distrust. I know these men and see through their plot. The time has not yet come to touch the chords which I wish to awaken. Bui I see my way clear. 0, God! Let Massachusetts keep true. It is all I ask.”

Again, to the same friend he writes, “More than the loss of forty forts, arsenals, or the national capital, I fear the loss of our principles. * * * Keep firm, and do not listen to any proposition. ”

Fellow-citizens, I am a Negro, — one of the victim race. My heart hows in gratitude to every man who struck a blow for the liberty of my race. But how can I fail to remember that alone, alone, of all the great leaders of our cause at Washington, Charles Sumner kept his faith to Freedom, stern and true. What measure of honor shall we not pay to him whose only prayer, amidst the abounding dangers of that hour, was, “Oh, Godllet Massachusetts keep true”? Lincoln, Seward, Adams, — eulogy even cannot claim such absolute fidelity for either of them. History, I venture to predict, will point to this passage in the life of Charles Sumner as the highest proof of the superior and faultless tone of his moral nature. What a majestic moral figure I Let us bear it in our hearts as the crown¬ ing gift and glory of his life.

But humanity swept onward ; timid compromisers were over¬ whelmed by the logic of events; and at last God held this great nation face to face with its duty. The death-grapple rocked and agonized the land. Released from the Delilah bands of compro¬ mise, the Samson of the North resumed and reasserted his resistless strength. In the van of every effort and policy which sought the overthrow of slavery or the triumph of freedom, was Charles Sum¬ ner: “Emancipation, our best weapon,” is the inspiriting title of a speech bearing so early a date as October 1, 1861. “Welcome to Fugitive Slaves was a Senatorial utterance of December 4, 1861. With tireless industry, working in all directions: in leg¬ islation for the support of our armies ; for maintaining our public credit; in inspiring the President to his full duty; in guarding our relations with other nations ; above all, in saving the nation from the fatal mistake of Mr. Lincoln’s Louisiana scheme of re¬ construction, he sustained, encouraged, vindicated, and ennobled the national cause.

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The tri-amph. of the national arms in the spring of 1865 threw upon the National Government the unparalleled task of reestab¬ lishing civil government in the rebellious States. The work of destruction was ended, and the work of rebuilding must be begun. The ill-advised and ill-starred attempts of Andrew Johnson com¬ plicated the problem already bristling with difficulties, constitu¬ tional and legal, and beset with dangers, political and moral. The moral intrepidity and prescience of Mr. Sumner was earliest to detect the false political theories which then so widely prevailed. With wonted boldness he denounced the Presidential scheme of reconstruction, and summoned Congress and the country to its duty. In a series of Senatorial efforts he proclaimed and em-‘ phasized in the ear of the nation the paramount duty of guarding the results of the war by “irreversible constitutional guarantees.” Especially did he denounce the injustice and wickedness of any settlement which left the colored race of the South under the hands of their former masters. This was an axiom in his argu¬ ments, the postulate of his reasonings. From this starting point he readily reached that conclusion, finally accepted by the country and enacted into our national laws and Constitution, that the col¬ ored race must be made citizens of the United States and voters in their respective States. The Declaration of Independence, with its lofty and immortal truth — “All men are created free and EQUAL,,” — was to him a clear and constant guide. In this grand, germinal truth he saw the only true and final rule of government, and he pressed towards its practical realization with eager and unfaltering steps. He had heard this sacred tenet of the Fathers flouted in the Senate as a “self-evident lie,” but he only bore it the more proudly and conspicuously on his shield until he could gratefully say, “The Declaration of Independence, so lately a dis¬ honored tradition, is now the rubric and faith of the Eepublic.” God be praised! He found at last that “Union, where Liberty, seeking a firm foothold, might have whereon to stand and move the world.”

Once only in all this splendid and faithful career did Charles Sumner part company with the great mass of the friends of Free¬ dom, and on this he needs no silence. Differing, as I could not but differ, from his judgment in the last national campaign, I point

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to it today as one of the highest proofs of his utter devotion to the call of duty. Still was he true, utterly true, to his convictions, to the commanding voice of Conscience. He had been faithful in defeat; could he be faithful in success? Draw no veil of silence over this passage ; but write it high on his monument, — ^that in old age, when the weary frame longed for repose, he could again brace himself for the conflict in which nearly all of the friends of a lifetime stood arrayed against him.

“Nothing is here for tears; nothing to wail Or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt,

Dispraise or blame ; nothing but well and fair. ’ ’

As his life was wholly consecrated to duty, so his death was wanting in no element of moral grandeur. He fell with armor on, with face still inflexibly turned towards present duties, front¬ ing eternity with the simple trust which God gives to his faithful servant. With no vague dread or anxiety concerning the future, he bore his earthly cares and duties to the threshold of eternity, and laid down the burdens of life only at the feet of his Divine Master. “Don’t let my Civil-Rights Bill fail,” was his fitting- adieu to earth and greetings to Heaven.

Fellow-citizens, the life of Charles Sumner needs no interpreter. It is an open, illuminated page. The ends he aimed at were always high; the means he used were always direct. Neither deception nor indirection, neither concealment nor disguise of any kind or degree, had place in his nature or methods. By open means he sought open ends. He walked in the sunlight, and wrote his heart’s inmost purpose on his forehead.

His activity and capacity of intellectual labor was almost un¬ equaled. Confined somewhat by the overshadowing nature of the antislavery cause in the range of his topics, he multiplied his blows and redoubled the energy of his assaults upon that great enemy of his country’s peace. Here his vigor knew no bounds. He laid all ages and lands under contribution. Scholarship in all its walks — history, art, literature, science — all these he made his aids and servitors.

But who does not see that these are not his glory? He was a scholar among scholars ; an orator of consummate power ; a states-

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man familiar with the structure of governments and the social forces of the world. But he was greater and better than one or all of these : he was a man of absolute rectitude of purpose and of life. His personal purity was perfect and unquestioned every¬ where. He carried morals into politics. And this is the greatness of Charles Sumner, — that by the power of his moral enthusiasm he rescued the nation from its shameful subservience to the demands of material and commercial interests, and guided it up to the high plane of justice and right. Above his other great qualities towers that moral greatness to which scholarship, oratory, and statesman¬ ship are but secondary and insignificant. He was just because he loved justice ; he was right because he loved right. Let this be his record and epitaph.

To have lived such a life was glory enough. Success was not needed to perfect its star-bright, immortal beauty. But success came. What amazing contrasts did his life witness ! He heard the hundred guns which Boston fired for the passage of the Fugitive- Slave act ; and he saw Boston sending forth, with honors and blessings, a regiment of fugitive slaves to save that Union which the crime of her Webster had imperiled. He saw Franklin Pierce employing the power of the nation to force back one helpless fugitive to the hell of slavery ; and he saw Abraham Lincoln write the edict of Emancipation. He heard Taney declare that “the black man had no rights which the white man was bound to re¬ spect”; and he welcomed Revels to his seat as a Senator of the United States.

But as defeat could not damp his ardor, so success could not abate his zeal. He fell while bearing aloft the same banner of human rights which, twenty-eight years before, he had unfurled and lifted in this hall.

The blessings of the poor are his laurels. One sacred thought, duty, — presided over his life, inspiring him in youth, guiding him in manhood, strengthening him in age. Be it ours to walk by the light of this pure example. Be it ours to copy this stainless in¬ tegrity, his supreme devotion to humanity, his profound faith in truth, and his unconquerable moral enthusiasm.

Adieu ! great Servant and Apostle of Liberty ! If others forget thee, thy fame shall be guarded by the millions of that emancipated

516 NEGRO ORATORS

race whose gratitude shall be more enduring than monumental marble or brass.

AN ORATION IN MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN ^ By Frederick Douglass Friends and Fellow-citizens:

I warmly congratulate you upon the highly interesting object which has caused you to assemble in such numbers and spirit as you have today. This occasion is in some respects remarkable. Wise and thoughtful men of our race, who shall come after us, and study the lesson of our history in the United States ; who shall survey the long and dreary spaces over which we have traveled; who shall count the links in the great chain of events by which we have reached our present position, will make a note of this occa¬ sion; they will think of it and speak of it with a sense of manly pride and complacency.

I congratulate you, also, upon the very favorable circumstances in which we meet today. They are high, inspiring, and uncom¬ mon. They lend grace, glory, and significance to the object for which we have met. Nowhere else in this great country, with its uncounted towns and cities, unlimited wealth, and immeasurable territory extending from sea to sea, could conditions be found more favorable to the success of this occasion than here.

We stand today at the national center to perform something like a national act — an act which is to go into history ; and we are here where every pulsation of the national heart can be heard, felt, and reciprocated. A thousand wires, fed with thought and winged with lightning, put us in instantaneous communication with the loyal and true men all over this country.

Few facts could better illustrate the vast and wonderful change which has taken place in our condition as a people than the fact of our assembling here for the purpose we have today. Harmless, beautiful, proper, and praiseworthy as this demonstration is, I cannot forget that no such demonstration would have been toler¬ ated here twenty years ago. The spirit of slavery and barbarism,

^ This oration was delivered by Frederick Douglass on the occasion of the unveiling of the Freedmen’s Monument in memory of Abraham Lincoln, in Lincoln Park, Wash¬ ington, D. 0., April 14, 1876.

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which still lingers to blight and destroy in some dark and distant parts of our country, would have made our assembling here the signal and excuse for opening upon us all the flood-gates of wrath and violence. That we are here in peace today is a compliment and a credit to American civilization, and a prophecy of still greater national enlightenment and progress in the future. I refer to the past not in malice, for this is no day for malice ; but simply to place more distinctly in front the gratifying and glorious change which has come both to our white fellow-citizens and ourselves, and to congratulate all upon the contrast between now and then; the new dispensation of freedom with its thousand blessings to both races, and the old dispensation of slavery with its ten thou¬ sand evils to both races — white and black. In view, then, of the past, the present, and the future, with the long and dark history of our bondage behind us, and with liberty, progress, and enlighten¬ ment before us, I again congratulate you upon this auspicious day and hour.

Friends and fellow-citizens, the story of our presence here is soon and easily told. We are here in the District of Columbia, here in the city of Washington, the most luminous point of Amer¬ ican territory ; a city recently transformed and made beautiful in its body and in its spirit; we are here in the place where the ablest and best men of the country are sent to devise the policy, enact the laws, and shape the destiny of the Republic ; we are here, with the stately pillars and majestic dome of the Capitol of the nation looking down upon us; we are here, with the broad earth freshly adorned with the foliage and flowers of spring for our church, and all races, colors, and conditions of men for our con¬ gregation — in a word, we are here to express, as best we may, by appropriate forms and ceremonies, our grateful sense of the vast, high, and preeminent services rendered to ourselves, to our race, to our country, and to the whole world by Abraham Lincoln.

The sentiment that brings us here to-day is one of the noblest that can stir and thrill the human heart. It has crowned and made glorious the high places of all civilized nations with the grandest and most enduring works of art, designed to illustrate the charac¬ ters and perpetuate the memories of great public men. It is the sentiment which from year to year adorns vdth fragrant and beau¬ tiful flowers the graves of our loyal, brave, and patriotic soldiers

518 NEGRO ORATORS

who fell in defence of the Union and liberty. It is the sentiment of gratitude and appreciation, which often, in the presence of many who hear me, has filled yonder heights of Arlington with the elo¬ quence of eulogy and the sublime enthusiasm of poetry and song; a sentiment which can never die while the Republic lives.

For the first time in the history of our people, and in the history of the whole American people, we join in this high worship, and march conspicuously in the line of this time-honored custom. First things are always interesting, and this is one of our first things. It is the first time that, in this form and manner, we have sought to do honor to an American great man, however deserving and illustrious. I commend the fact to notice ; let it be told in every part of the Republic ; let men of all parties and opinions hear it ; let those who despise us, not less than those who respect us, know that now and here, in the spirit of liberty, loyalty, and gratitude, let it be known everywhere, and by everybody who takes an in¬ terest in human progress and in the amelioration of the condition of mankind, that, in the presence and with the approval of the members of the American House of Representatives, reflecting the general sentiment of the country ; that in the presence of that august body, the American Senate, representing the highest intelli¬ gence and the calmest judgment of the country; in the presence of the Supreme Court and Chief-Justice of the United States, to whose decisions we all patriotically bow ; in the presence and under the steady eye of the honored and trusted President of the United States, with the members of his wise and patriotic Cabinet, we, the colored people, newly emancipated and rejoicing in our blood- bought freedom, near the close of the first century in the life of this Republic, have now and here unveiled, set apart, and dedi¬ cated a monument of enduring granite and bronze, in every line feature, and figure of which the men of this generation may read’ and those of after-coming generations may read, something of the exalted character and great works of Abraham Lincoln the first martyr President of the United States.

Fellow-citizens, in what we have said and done today, and in what we may say and do hereafter, we disclaim everything like arrogance and assumption. We claim for ourselves no superior devotion to the character, history, and memory of the* illustrious name whose monument we have here dedicated today. We fully

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comprehend the relation of Abraham Lincoln both to ourselves and to the white people of the United States. Truth is proper and beautiful at all times and in all places, and it is never more proper and beautiful in any case than when speaking of a great public man whose example is likely to be commended for honor and imitation long after his departure to the solemn shades, the silent continents of eternity. It must be admitted, truth compels me to admit, even here in the presence of the monument we have erected to his memory, Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man.

He was preeminently the white man’s President, entirely de¬ voted to the welfare of white men. He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, post¬ pone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people of this country. In all his education and feeling he was an American of the Americans. He came into the Presidential chair upon one principle alone, namely, opposition to the extension of slavery. His arguments in furtherance of this policy had their motive and mainspring in his patriotic devotion to the interests of his own race. To protect, defend, and perpetuate slavery in the states where it existed Abra¬ ham Lincoln was not less ready than any other President to draw the sword of the nation. He was ready to execute all the sup¬ posed guarantees of the United States Constitution in favor of the slave system anywhere inside the slave states. He was willing to pursue, recapture, and send back the fugitive slave to his master, and to suppress a slave rising for liberty, though his guilty master were already in arms against the Government. The race to which we belong were not the special objects of his consideration. Know¬ ing this, I concede to you, my white fellow-citizens, a preeminence in this worship at once full and supreme. First, midst, and last, you and yours were the objects of his deepest affection and his most earnest solicitude. You are the children of Abraham Lin¬ coln. We are at best only his step-children; children by adoption, children by forces of circumstances and necessity. To you it espe¬ cially belongs to sound his praises, to preserve and perpetuate his memory, to multiply his statues, to hang his pictures high upon

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your walls, and commend liis example, for to you lie was a great and glorious friend and benefactor. Instead of supplanting you at his altar, we would exhort you to build high his monuments ; let them be of the most costly material, of the most cunning work¬ manship; let their forms be symmetrical, beautiful, and perfect; let their bases be upon solid rocks, and their summits lean against the unchanging blue, overhanging sky, and let them endure for¬ ever ! But while in the abundance of your wealth, and in the full¬ ness of your just and patriotic devotion, you do all this, we entreat you to despise not the humble offering we this day unveil to view ; for while Abraham Lincoln saved for you a country, he delivered us from a bondage, according to Jefferson, one hour of which was worse than ages of the oppression your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose.

Fellow-citizens, ours is no new-born zeal and devotion — merely a thing of this moment. The name of Abraham Lincon was near and dear to our hearts in the darkest and most perilous hours of the Republic. We were no more ashamed of him when shrouded in clouds of darkness, of doubt, and defeat than when we saw him crowned with victory, honor, and glory. Our faith in him was often taxed and strained to the uttermost, but it never failed. When he tarried long in the mountain ; when he strangely told us that we were the cause of the war ; when he still more strangely told us that we were to leave the land in which we were born ; when he refused to employ our arms in defence of the Union; when, after accepting our services as colored soldiers, he refused to retaliate our murder and torture as colored prisoners ; when he told us he would save the Union if he could with slavery ; when he revoked the Proclamation of Emancipation of General Fremont; when he refused to remove the popular commander of the Army of the Potomac, in the days of its inaction and defeat, who was more zealous in his efforts to protect slavery than to suppress re¬ bellion ; when we saw all this, and more, we were at times grieved, stunned, and greatly bewildered; but our hearts believed while they ached and bled. Nor was this, even at that time, a blind and unreasoning superstition. Despite the mist and haze that sur¬ rounded him ; despite the tumult, the hurry, and confusion of the hour, we were able to take a comprehensive view of Abraham Lincoln, and to make reasonable allowance for the circumstances

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of his position. We saw him, measured him, and estimated him; not by stray utterances to injudicious and tedious delegations, who often tried his patience ; not by isolated facts torn from their con¬ nection; not by any partial and imperfect glimpses, caught at inopportune moments; but by a broad survey, in the light of the stern logic of great events, and in view of that divinity which shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will, we came to the con¬ clusion that the hour and the man of our redemption had somehow met in the person of Abraham Lincoln. It mattered little to us what language he might employ on special occasions; it mattered little to us, when we fully knew him, whether he was swift or slow in his movements ; it was enough for us that Abraham Lincoln was at the head of a great movement, and was in living and earnest sympathy with that movement, which, in the nature of things, must go on until slavery should be utterly and forever abolished in the United States.

When, therefore, it shall be asked what we have to do with the memory of Abraham Lincoln, or what Abraham Lincoln had to do with us, the answer is ready, full, and complete. Though he loved Csisar less than Eome, though the Union was more to him than our freedom or our future, under his wise and beneficent rule we saw ourselves gradually lifted from the depths of slavery to the heights of liberty and manhood; under his wise and beneficent rule, and by measures approved and vigorously pressed by him, we saw that the handwriting of ages, in the form of prejudice and proscription, was rapidly fading away from the face of our whole country ; under his rule, and in due time, about as soon after all as the country could tolerate the strange spectacle, we saw our brave sons and brothers laying off the rags of bondage, and being clothed all over in the blue uniforms of the soldiers of the United States ; under his rule we saw two hundred thousand of our dark and dusky people responding to the call of Abraham Lincoln, and with muskets on their shoulders, and eagles on their buttons, timing their high footsteps to liberty and union under the national flag ; under his rule we saw the independence of the black republic of Hayti, the special object of slaveholding aversion and horror, fully recognized, and her minister, a colored gentleman, duly received here in the city of Washington; under his rule we saw the internal slave-trade, which so long disgraced the nation, abolished, and

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slavery abolished in the District of Columbia; under his rule we saw for the first time the law enforced against the foreign slave- trade, and the first slave-trader hanged like any other pirate or murderer ; under his rule, assisted by the greatest captain of our age, and his inspiration, we saw the Confederate States, based upon the idea that our race must be slaves, and slaves forever, battered to pieces and scattered to the four winds ; under his rule, and in the fullness of time, we saw Abraham Lincoln, after giving the slaveholders three months’ grace in which to save their hateful slave system, penning the immortal paper, which, though special in Its language, was' general in its principles and effect, making slavery forever impossible in the United States. Though we waited long, we saw all this and more.

Can any colored man, or any white man friendly to the freedom of all men, ever forget the night which followed the first day of January, 1863, when the world was to see if Abraham Lincoln would prove to be as good as his word? I shall never forget that memorable night, when in a distant city I waited and watched at a public meeting, with three thousand others not less anxious than myself, for the word of deliverance which we have heard read today.

^ i ^ forget the outburst of joy and thanksgiving that rent the air when the lightning brought to us the emancipation proclamation. In that happy hour we forgot all delay, and forgot all tardiness, forgot that the President had bribed the rebels to lay down their arms by a promise to withhold the bolt which would smite the slave-system with destruction ; and we were thenceforward willing to allow the President all the latitude of time, phraseology and every honorable device that statesmanship might require for the achievement of a great and beneficent measure of liberty and

Fellow-citizens, there is little necessity on this occasion to speak

ength and critically of this great and good man, and of his hio-h mission in the world. That ground has been fully occupied a^d completely covered both here and elsewhere. The whole field of fact and fancy has been gleaned and garnered. Any man can say

Wt W "" of Abraham Lincoln, but no man can say a^y thing that IS new of Abraham Lincoln. His personal traitl and public acts are better known to the American people than are those of any other n.an of hie age. He was a mystery to no ml 21

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saw him and heard him. Though high in position, the humblest could approach him and feel at home in his presence. Though deep, he was transparent; though strong, he was gentle; though decided and pronounced in his convictions, he was tolerant towards those who differed from him, and patient under reproaches. Even those who only knew him through his public utterances obtained a tolerably clear idea of his character and personality. The image of the man went out with his words, and those who read them knew him.

I have said that President Lincoln was a white man, and shared the prejudices common to his countrymen towards the colored race. Looking back to his times and to the condition of his country, we are compelled to admit that this unfriendly feeling on his part may be safely set down as one element of his wonderful success in organizing the loyal American people for the tremendous conflict before them, and bringing them safely through that conflict. His great mission was to accomplish two things : flrst, to save his coun¬ try from dismemberment and ruin ; and, second, to free his country from the great crime of slavery. To do one or the other, or both, he must have the earnest sympathy and the powerful cooperation of his loyal fellow-countrymen. Without this primary and essential condition to success his efforts must have been vain and utterly fruitless. Had he put the abolition of slavery before the salvation of the Union, he would have inevitably driven from him a powerful class of the American people and rendered resistance to rebellion impossible. Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a states¬ man to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined.

Though Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white fellow- countrymen against the Negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery. . . The man who could say, ‘‘Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war shall soon pass away, yet if God wills it continue till all the wealth piled by two hundred years of bondage shall have been wasted, and each drop of blood drawn by the lash shall have been paid for by one drawn by the sword, the

^"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel,” — Letter of Mr. Lincoln to Mr. Hodges, of Kcntuclcy, April 4, 1864.

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judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether,” gives all needed proof of his feeling on the subject of slavery. He vras willing, while the South was loyal, that it should have its pound of flesh, because he thought that it was so nominated in the bond ; but farther than this no earthly power could make him go.

Fellow-citizens, whatever else in this world may be partial, un¬ just, and uncertain, time, time! is impartial, just, and certain in its action. In the realm of mind, as well as in the realm of matter, it is a great worker, and often works wonders. The honest and comprehensive statesman, clearly discerning the needs of his coun¬ try, and earnestly endeavoring to do his whole duty, though covered and blistered with reproaches, may safely leave his course to the silent judgment of time. Few great public men have ever been the victims of fiercer denunciation than Abraham Lincoln was during his administration. He was often wounded in the house of his friends. Keproaches came thick and fast upon him from within and from without, and from opposite quarters. He was assailed by Abolitionists ; he was assailed by slaveholders ; he was assailed by the men who were for peace at any price ; he was assailed by those who were for a more vigorous prosecution of the war ; he was assailed for not making the war an abolition war ; and he was bitterly assailed for making the war an abolition war.

But now behold the change: the judgment of the present hour is, that taking him for all in all, measuring the tremendous magni¬ tude of the work before him, considering the necessary means to ends, and surveying the end from the beginning, infinite wisdom has seldom sent any man into the world better fitted for his mission than Abraham Lincoln. His birth, his training, and his natural endowments, both mental and physical, were strongly in his favor. Bom and reared among the lowly, a stranger to wealth and luxury, compelled to grapple single-handed with the flintiest hardships of life, from tender youth to sturdy manhood, he grew strong in the manly and heroic qualities demanded by the great mission to which he was called by the votes of his countrymen. The hard condition of his early life, which would have depressed and broken down weaker men, only gave greater life, vigor, and buoyancy to the heroic spirit of Abraham Lincoln. He was ready for any kind and any quality of work. What other young men dreaded in the shape of toil, he took hold of with the utmost cheerfulness.

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“A spade, a rake, a hoe,

A pick-axe, or a bill ;

A hook to reap, a scythe to mow,

A flail, or what you will.”

All day long he could split heavy rails in the woods, and half the night long he could study his English Grammar by the uncer¬ tain flare and glare of the light made by a pine-knot. He was at home on the land with his axe, with his maul, with gluts, and his wedges ; and he was equally at home on water, with his oars, with his poles, with his planks, and with his boat-hooks. And whether in his flat-boat on the Mississippi Eiver, or at the fireside of his frontier cabin, he was a man of work. A son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the Republic. This very fact gave him tremendous power vdth the American people, and materially contributed not only to selecting him to the Presidency, but in sustaining his ad¬ ministration of the Government.

Upon his inauguration as President of the United States, an office, even when assumed under the most favorable conditions, fitted to tax and strain the largest abilities, Abraham Lincoln was met by a tremendous crisis. He was called upon not merely to administer the Government, hut to decide, in the face of terrible odds, the fate of the Republic.

A formidable rebellion rose in his path before him; the Union was already practically dissolved; his country was torn and rent asunder at the center. Hostile armies were already organized against the Republic, armed with the munitions of war which the Republic had provided for its own defence. The tremendous question for him to decide was whether his country should survive the crisis and flourish, or be dismembered and perish. His pred¬ ecessor in office had already decided the question in favor of national dismemberment, by denying to it the right of self-defence and self-preservation — a right which belongs to the meanest insect.

Happily for the country, happily for you and for me, the judg¬ ment of James Buchanan, the patrician, was not the judgment of Abraham Lincoln, the plebeian. He brought his strong common sense, sharpened in the school of adversity, to bear upon the ques-

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tion. He did not hesitate, he did not doubt, he did not falter ; but at once resolved that at whatever peril, at whatever cost, the union of the States should be preserved. A patriot himself, his faith was strong and unwavering in the patriotism of his countrymen. Timid men said before Mr. Lincoln’s inauguration, that we had seen the last President of the United States. A voice in influential quarters said, “Let the Union slide.” Some said that a Union maintained by the sword was worthless. Others said a rebellion of 8,000,000 cannot be suppressed; but in the midst of all this tumult and timidity, and against all this, Abraham Lincoln was clear in his duty, and had an oath in heaven. He calmly and bravely heard the voice of doubt and fear all around him ; but he had an oath in heaven, and there was not power enough on earth to make this honest boatman, back-woodsman, and broad-handed splitter of rails evade or violate that sacred oath. He had not been schooled in the ethics of slavery ; his plain life had favored his love of truth. He had not been taught that treason and perjury were the proof of honor and honesty. His moral training was against his saying one thing when he meant another. The trust that Abraham Lincoln had in himself and in the people was surprising and grand, but it was also enlightened and well founded. He knew the American people better than they knew themselves, and his truth was based upon this knowledge.

Fellow-citizens, the fourteenth day of April, 1865, of which this is the eleventh anniversary, is now and will ever remain a mem¬ orable day in the annals of this Republic. It was on the evening of this day, while a fierce and sanguinary rebellion was in the last stages of its desolating power; while its armies were broken and scattered before the invincible armies of Grant and Sherman ; while a great nation, torn and rent by war, was already beginning to raise to the skies loud anthems of joy at the dawn of peace, it was startled, amazed, and overwhelmed by the crowning crime of slavery — the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. It was a new crime, a pure act of malice. No purpose of the rebellion was to be served by it. It was the simple gratification of a hell-black spirit of revenge. But it has done good after all. It has filled the country with a deeper abhorrence of slavery and a deeper love for the great liberator.

Had Abraham Lincoln died from any of the numerous ills to

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which flesh is heir ; had he reached that good old age of which his vigorous constitution and his temperate habits gave promise; had he been permitted to see the end of his great work ; had the solemn curtain of death come down but gradually — ^we should still have been smitten with a heavy grief, and treasured his name lovingly. But dying as he did die, by the red hand of violence, killed, assas¬ sinated, taken off without warning, not because of personal hate — for no man who knew Abraham Lincoln could hate him — but be¬ cause of his fidelity to union and liberty, he is doubly dear to us, and his memory will be precious forever.

Fellow-citizens, I end, as I began, with congratulations. We have done a good work for our race today. In doing honor to the memory of our friend and liberator, we have been doing highest honors to ourselves and those who come after us ; we have been fastening ourselves to a name and fame imperishable and immortal ; we have also been defending ourselves from a blighting scandal. When now it shall be said that the colored man is soulless, that he has no appreciation of benefits or benefactors; when the foul reproach of ingratitude is hurled at us, and it is attempted to scourge us beyond the range of human brotherhood, we may calmly point to the monument we have this day erected to the memory of Abraham Lincoln.

Address Delivered At The Dedication Op The Robert Gould Shaw Monument In Boston

MAY 31, 1897

By Booker T. Washington

Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens: In this presence, and on this sacred and memorable day, in the deeds and death of our hero, we recall the old, old story, ever old, yet ever new, that when it was the will of the Father to lift humanity out of wretchedness and bondage, the precious task was delegated to him who among ten thousand was altogether lovely, and was willing to make him¬ self of no reputation that he might save and lift up others.

If that heart could throb and those lips could speak, what would be the sentiment and words that Robert Gould Shaw would have

528

NEGRO ORATORS

Tis feel and speak at this hour? He would not have us to dwell long on the mistakes, the injustice, the criticisms of the days —

‘^Of storm and cloud, of doubt and fears,

Which across the eternal sky must lower,

Before the glorious noon appears.”

He would have us bind up with his own undying fame and memory and retain by the side of his monument, the name of John A. Andrew, who, with prophetic vision and strong arm, helped to make the existence of the 54th regiment possible; and that of George L. Stearns, who, with hidden generosity and a great, sweet heart, helped to turn the darkest hour into day, and in doing so freely gave service, fortune and life itself to the cause which this day commemorates. Nor would he have us forget those brother officers, living and dead, who, by their baptism in blood and fire, in defense of Union and freedom, gave us an example of the highest and purest patriotism.

To you who fought so valiantly in the ranks, the scarred and scattered remnant of the 54th regiment, who with empty sleeve and wanting leg, have honored this occasion with your presence, to you your commander is not dead. Though Boston erected no monu¬ ment and history recorded no story, in you and the loyal race you represent, Robert Gould Shaw would have a monument which time could not wear away.

But an occasion like this is too great, too sacred for mere indi¬ vidual eulogy. The individual is the instrument, national virtue the end. That which was 300 years being woven into the warp and woof of our democratic institutions could not be effaced by a single battle, as magnificent as was that battle ; that which for three cen¬ turies had bound master and slave, yea. North and South, to a body of death, could not be blotted out by four years of war, could not be atoned for by shot and sword, nor by blood and tears.

Not many days ago, in the heart of the South, in a large gather¬ ing of the people of my race, there were heard from many lips praises and thanksgiving to God for his goodness in setting them free from physical slavery. In the midst of that assembly a Southern white man arose, with gray hair and trembling hands, the former owner of many slaves, and from his quivering lips there

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came the words: “My friends, you forget in your rejoicing that in setting you free, God was also good to me and my race in setting us free.” But there is a higher and deeper sense in which both races must be free than that represented by the bill of sale. The black man who cannot let love and sympathy go out to the white man is but half free. The white man who would close the shop or factory against a black man seeking an honest living is but half free. The white man who retards his own development by opposing a black man is but half free. The full measure of the fruit of Fort Wagner and all this monument stands for will not be realized until every man covered with a black skin shall by patient and natural effort, grow to that height in industry, property, intelli¬ gence and moral responsibility, where no man in all our land will be tempted to degrade himself by withholding from his black brother any opportunity which he himself would possess.

Until that time comes this monument will stand for effort, not victory complete. What these heroic souls of the 54th regiment began we must complete. It must be completed not in malice, not in narrowness ; nor artificial progress, nor in efforts at mere tem¬ porary political gain, nor in abuse of another section or race. Standing as I do today in the home of Garrison and Phillips and Sumner, my heart goes out to those who wore the gray as well as to those clothed in the blue; to those who returned defeated, to destitute homes, to face blasted hopes and a shattered political and industrial system. To them there can be no prouder reward for defeat than by a supreme effort to place the Negro on that footing where he will add material, intellectual and civil strength to every department of the State.

This work must be completed in the public school, industrial school and college. The most of it must be completed in the effort of the Negro himself, in his effort to withstand temptation, to economize, to exercise thrift, to disregard the superficial for the real, the shadow for the substance, to be great and yet small, in his effort to be patient in the laying of a firm foundation, to grow so strong in skill and knowledge that he shall place his service in demand by reason of his intrinsic and superior worth. All this makes the key that unlocks every door of opportunity, and all others fail. In this battle of peace the rich and poor, the black and white may have a part.

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What lessons has this occasion for the future? What of hope, what of encourag^ement, what of caution? “Watchman, tell us of the night; what the signs of promise are.” If through me, an humhle representative, nearly ten millions of my people might he permitted to send a message to Massachusetts, to the survivors of the 54th regiment, to the committee whose untiring energy has made this memorial possible, to the family who gave their only boy that we might have life more abundantly, that message would be, “Tell them that the sacrifice was not in vain, that up from the depth of ignorance and poverty we are coming, and if we come through oppression out of the struggle, we are gaining strength. By the way of the school, the well-cultivated field, the skilled hand, the Christian home, we are coming up ; that we propose to invite all who will to step up and occupy this position with us. Tell them that we are learning that standing ground for a race, as for an individual, must he laid in intelligence, industry, thrift and property, not as an end, but as a means to the highest privi¬ leges ; that we are learning that neither the conqueror ’s bullet nor the fiat of law could make an ignorant voter an intelligent voter, could make a dependent man an independent man, could give one citizen respect for another, a bank account, nor a foot of land, nor an enlightened fireside. Tell them that as grateful as we are to artist and patriotism for placing the figures of Shaw and his comrades in physical form of beauty and magnificence, that, after all, the real monument, the greater monument, is being slowly but safely builded among the lowly in the South, in the struggles and sacrifices of a race to justify all that has been done and suffered for it.

One of the wishes that lay nearest Colonel Shaw’s heart was, that his black troops might be permitted to fight by the side of the white soldiers. Have we not lived to see that wish realized, and will it not be more so in the future? Not at Wagner, not with rifle and bayonet, but on the field of peace, in the battle of industry, in the struggle for good government, in the lifting up of the lowest to the fullest opportunities. In this we shall fight by the side of the white man. North and South. And if this be true, as under God’s guidance it will, that old flag, that emblem of progress and security, which brave Sergeant Carney never permitted to fall to the ground, will still be borne aloft by Southern soldier and North-

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ern soldier, and, in a more potent and higher sense, we shall all realize that —

“The slave’s chain and the master’s alike broken;

The one curse of the race held both in tether ;

They are rising, all are rising —

The black and the white together.”

WILLIAM LLOYD GAERISON : A CENTENNIAL ORATION ^

By Reverdy C. Ransom ^

Friends, Citizens: W^e have assembled here tonight to celebrate the one hundredth birth of William Lloyd Garrison. Not far from this city he was horn. Within the gates of this city, made famous by some of America’s most famous men, he spent more than two- thirds of his long and eventful career, enriching its history and adding to the glory of its renown. This place, of all places, is in keeping with the hour. It is most appropriate that we should meet in Faneuil HaU, the cradle of American liberty, a spot hal¬ lowed and made sacred by the statesmen, soldiers, orators, scholars, and reformers who have given expression to burning truths and found a hearing within these walls. Of all people it is most fitting that the Negro Americans of Boston should be the ones to take the lead in demonstrating to their fellow-citizens, and to the world, that his high character is cherished with affection, and the priceless value of his unselfish labors in their behalf shall forever be guarded as a sacred trust.

Only succeeding generations and centuries can tell the carrying power of a man’s life. Some men, whose contemporaries thought their title to enduring fame secure, have not been judged worthy

1 Delivered in Faneuil Hall, Boston, December 10, 1905.

Bishop Reverdy 0. Ransom early connected himself with the African Methodist Episcopal Church to which he owes most of the honors which he has enjoyed. He was educated at Wilberforce University. After serving in several large cities as pastor of popular churches, he became the editor of the African Methodist Episcopal Review which he ably edited until 1924 when he was chosen and consecrated Bishop of his

denoinination. .

As an orator. Bishop Ransom has few equals. His addresses are not mere outbursts of eloquence, but show the conviction of the man as to the claims of the Negro to rec¬ ognition in this country and the procedure to be followed in reaching this end. He has therefore, taken the advanced position of espousing forward-looking movements securing to the Negro the rights which have been denied him by the reactionaries now in control of the State and Federal governments.

532

NEGEO OEATOES

in a later time to have their names recorded among the makers of history. Some men are noted, some are distinguished, some are famous, — only a few are great.

The men whose deeds are born to live in history do not appear more than once or twice in a century. Of the millions of men who toil and strive, the number is not large whose perceptible influence reaches beyond the generation in which they lived. It does not take long to call the roll of honor of any generation, and when this roll is put to the test of the unprejudiced scrutiny of a century, only a very small and select company have sufficient carrying power to reach into a second century. When the roll of the centuries is called, we may mention almost in a single breath the names which belong to the ages. Abraham and Moses stand out clearly against the horizon of thirty centuries. St. Paid, from his Koman prison, in the days of the Cessars, is still an articulate and authoritative voice ; Savonarola, rising from the ashes of his funeral-pyre in the streets of Florence, still pleads for civic righteousness; the sound of Martin Luther’s hammer nailing his thesis to the door of his Wittenburg church continues to echo around the world ; the battle- cry of Cromweir s Ironsides shouting, ‘ ‘ The Lord of Hosts ! ’ ’ still causes the tyrant and the despot to tremble upon their thrones; out of the fire and blood of the French Revolution, “Liberty and Equality” survive; Abraham Lincoln comes from the backwoods of Kentucky, and the prairies of Illinois, to receive the approval of all succeeding generations of mankind for his Proclamation of Emancipation; John Brown was hung at Harper’s Ferry that his soul might go marching on in the tread of every Northern regiment that fought for the “Union forever”; William Lloyd Garrison, mobbed in the streets of Boston for pleading the cause of the slave, lived to see freedom triumph, and tonight, a century after his birth, his name is cherished, not only in America, hut around the world, wherever men aspire to individual liberty and personal freedom.

William Lloyd Garrison was in earnest. He neither temporized nor compromised with the enemies of human freedom. He gave up all those comforts, honors, and rewards which his unusual talents would easily have won for him in behalf of the cause of freedom which he espoused. He stood for righteousness with all the rugged strength of a prophet. Like some Elijah of the Gilead forests.

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he pleaded with this nation to tnm away from the false gods it had enshrined upon the altars of human liberty. Like some John the Baptist crying in the wilderness, he called upon this nation to repent of its sin of human slavery, and to bring forth the fruits of its repentance in immediate emancipation.

William Lloyd Garrison was born in Newburyport, Mass., Dec. 10, 1805. He came of very poor and obscure parentage. His father, who was a seafaring man, early abandoned the family for causes supposed to relate to his intemperance. The whole career of Garrison was a struggle against poverty. His educational ad¬ vantages were limited. He became a printer s apprentice when quite a lad, and learned the printing trade. When he launched his paper. The Liberator, which was to deal such destructive blows to slavery, the type was set by his own hands. The motto of The Liberator was ‘'Our country is the world, our countrymen man¬ kind. ’ ’

Garrison did not worship the golden calf. His course could not be changed, nor his opinion influenced by threats of violence or the bribe of gold. Money could not persuade him to open his mouth against the truth, or buy his silence from uncompromising denunciation of the wrong. He put manhood above money, hu¬ manity above race, the justice of God above the justices of the Supreme Court, and conscience above the Constitution. Because he took his stand upon New Testament righteousness as taught by Christ, he was regarded as a fanatic in a Christian land. When he declared that “he determined at every hazard to lift up a standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker Hill and in the birthplace of liberty,” he was regarded as a public enemy, in a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to freedom!

Garrison drew his arguments from the Bible and the Declaration of Independence, only to be jeered as a wild enthusiast. He would not retreat a single inch from the straight path of liberty and justice. He refused to purchase peace at the price of freedom. He would not drift with the current of the public opinion of his day. His course was upstream; his battle against the tide. He undertook to create a right public sentiment on the question of freedom ,a task as great as it was difficult. Garrison thundered warnings to arouse the public conscience before the lightnings of

534

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his righteous wrath and the shafts of his invincible logic wounded the defenders of slavery in all the vulnerable joints of their armor. He declared: “Let Southern oppressors tremble — let their secret abettors tremble ; let their Northern apologists tremble ; let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble.” For such utterances as these his name throughout the nation became one of obloquy and reproach.

He was not bound to the slave by the ties of race, but by the bond of common humanity which he considered a stronger tie. In his struggle for freedom there was no hope of personal gain; he deliberately chose the pathway of financial loss and poverty. There were set before his eyes no prospect of honor, no pathways leading to promotion, no voice of popular approval, save that of his con¬ science and his God. His friends and neighbors looked upon him as one who brought a stigma upon the fair name of the city in which he lived. The business interests regarded him as an influ¬ ence which disturbed and injured the relations of commerce and of trade ; the Church opposed him ; the press denounced him ; the State regarded him as an enemy of the established order; the North repudiated him; the South burned him in effigy. Yet, almost single-handed and alone. Garrison continued to fight on, declaring that “his reliance for the deliverance of the oppressed universally is upon the nature of man, the inherent wrongfulness of oppression, the power of truth, and the omnipotence of God.” After the greatest civil war that ever immersed a nation in a bap¬ tism of blood and tears. Garrison, unlike most reformers, lived to see the triumph of the cause for which he fought and every slave not only acknowledged as a free man, but clothed with the dignity and powers of American citizenship. William Lloyd Garrison has passed from us, but the monumental character of his work and the influence of his life shall never perish. While there are wrongs to be righted, despots to be attacked, oppressors to be overthrown, peace to find and advocate, and freedom a voice, the name of William Lloyd Garrison will live.

Those who would honor Garrison and perpetuate his memory and his fame must meet the problems that confront them with the same courage and in the same uncompromising spirit that Garrison met the burning questions of the day. Those who would honor Garrison in one breath, while compromising our manhood and

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advocating the surrender of our political rights in another, not only dishonor his memory, not only trample the flag of our country with violent and unholy feet, but they spit upon the grave which holds the sacred dust of this chiefest of the apostles of freedom.

The status of the Negro in this country was not settled by eman¬ cipation ; the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, which it was confidently believed would clothe him forever with political influ¬ ence and power, is more bitterly opposed today than it was a quarter of a century ago. The place which the Negro is to occupy is still a vital and burning question. The newspaper press and maga¬ zines are full of it ; literature veils its discussion of the theme under the guise of romance; political campaigns are waged with this question as a paramount issue ; it is written into the national platform of great political parties ; it tinges legislation ; it has invaded the domain of dramatic art, until today, it is enacted upon the stage ; philanthropy, scholarship, and religion are, each from their point of view, more industriously engaged in its solution than they have been in any previous generation. If the life and labors of Garrison, and the illustrious men and women who stood with him, have a message for the present, we should seek to inter¬ pret its meaning and lay the lesson to heart.

The scenes have shifted, but the stage is the same ; the leading characters have not changed. We still have with us powerful influ¬ ences trying to keep the Negro down by unjust and humiliating legislation and degrading treatment ; while, on the other hand, the Negro and his friends are still contending for the same privileges and opportunities that are freely accorded to other citizens whose skins do not happen to be black. We, of this nation, are slow to learn the lessons taught by history; the passions which feed on prejudice and tyranny can neither be mollified nor checked by subjection, surrender, or compromise. Self-appointed representa¬ tives of the Negro, his enemies and his would-be friends, are point¬ ing to many diverse paths, each claiming that the one they have marked for his feet is the proper one in which he should walk. There is but one direction in which the Negro should steadfastly look and but one path in which he should firmly plant his feet — that is, toward the realization of complete manhood and equality, and the full justice that belongs to an American citizen clothed with all of his constitutional power.

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This is a crucial hour for the Negro American ; men are seeking today to fix his industrial, political, and social status under free¬ dom as completely as they did under slavery. As this nation con¬ tinued unstable, so long as it rested upon the foundation-stones of slavery so will it remain insecure as long as one-eighth of its citi¬ zens can be openly shorn of political power, while confessedly they are denied “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We have no animosity against the South or against Southern people. We would see the wounds left by the W ar of the Eebellion healed ; but we would have them healed so effectually that they could not be trodden upon and made to bleed afresh by inhuman barbarities and unjust legislation; we would have the wounds of this nation bound up by the hands of those who are friendly to the patient, so that they might not remain a political running sore. We would have the bitter memories of the war effaced, but they cannot fade while the spirit of slavery walks before the nation in a new guise. We, too, would have a reunited country; but we would have the reunion to include not only white men North and South, but a union so endearing, because so just, as to embrace all of our fellow- countrymen, regardless of section or of race.

It is not a man ’s right, it is his duty to support and defend his family and his home; he should therefore resist any influence exerted to prevent him from maintaining his dependents in comfort ; while he should oppose with his life the invader or despoiler of his home. God has created man with a mind capable of infinite development and growth ; it is not, therefore, a man ’s right, it is his duty to improve his mind and to educate his children ; he should not, therefore, submit to conditions which would compel them to grow up in ignorance. Man belongs to society; it is his duty to make his personal contribution of the best that is within him to the common good; he can do this only as he is given opportunity freely to associate with his fellow-man. He should, therefore, seek to overthrow the artificial social barriers which would intervene to separate him from realizing the highest and best there are within him by freedom of association. It is man ’s duty to be loyal to his country and his flag, but when his country becomes a land of oppression and his flag an emblem of injustice and wrong, it be¬ comes as much his duty to attack the enemies within the nation

THE PANEGYRIC 537

as to resist the foreign invader. Tyrants and tyranny everywhere should be attacked and overthrown.

This is a period of transition in the relations of the Negro to this nation. The question which America is trying to answer, and which it must soon definitely settle, is this : What kind of Negroes do the American people want? That they must have the Negro in some relation is no longer a question of serious debate. The Negro is here 10,000,000 strong, and, for weal or woe, he is here to stay — he is here to remain forever. In the government he is a political factor; in education and in wealth he is leaping forward with giant strides; he counts his taxable property by the millions, his educated men and women by the scores of thousands ; in the South he is the backbone of industry; in every phase of American life his presence may be noted ; he is also as thoroughly imbued with American principles and ideals as any class of people beneath our flag. When Garrison started his fight for freedom, it was the prevailing sentiment that the Negro could have no place in this country save that of a slave, but he has proven himself to be more valuable as a free man than as a slave. What kind of Negroes do the American people want? Do they want a voteless Negro in a Republic founded upon universal suffrage? Do they want a Negro who shall not be permitted to participate in the government which he must support with his treasure and defend with his blood? Do they want a Negro who shall consent to be set apart as forming a distinct industrial class, permitted to rise no higher than the level of serfs or peasants? Do they want a Negro who shall accept an inferior social position, not as a degrada¬ tion, but as the just operation of the laws of caste based upon color? Do they want a Negro who will avoid friction between the races by consenting to occupy the place to which white men may choose to assign him ? What kind of a Negro do the American people want ? Do they want a Negro who will accept the doctrine, that however high he may rise in the scale of character, wealth, and education, he may never hope to associate as an equal with white men? • Do white men believe that 10,000,000 blacks, after having imbibed the spirit of American institutions, and having exercised the rights of free men for more than a generation, will ever accept a place of permanent inferiority in the Republic? Taught by the Declaration of Independence, sustained by the Con-

538

NEGRO ORATORS

stitution of the United States, enlightened by the education of our schools, this nation can no more resist the advancing tread of the hosts of the oncoming blacks than it can bind the stars or halt the resistless motion of the tide.

The answer which the American people may give to the question proposed cannot be final. There is another question of greater importance which must be answered by the Negro, and by the Negro alone: What kind of an American does the Negro intend to be ? The answer to this question he must seek and find in every field of human activity and endeavor. First, he must answer it by negation. He does not intend to be an alien in the land of his birth, nor an outcast in the home of his fathers. He will not con¬ sent to his elimination as a political factor ; he will refuse to camp forever on the borders of the industrial world; as an American he will consider that his destiny is united by indissoluble bonds with the destiny of America forever; he will strive less to be a great Negro in this Republic and more to be an influential and useful American. As intelligence is one of the chief safeguards of the Republic, he will educate his children. Knowing that a people whose morals are above reproach cannot perish, he will ally himself on the side of the forces of righteousness ; having been the object of injustice and wrong, he will be the foe of anarchy and the advocate of the supremacy of law. As an American citizen, he will allow no man to protest his title, either at home or abroad. He will insist more and more, not only upon voting, but upon being voted for, to occupy any position within the gift of the nation. As an American whose title to citizenship is without blemish or flaw, he will resist without compromise every law upon the statute- books which is aimed at his degradation as a human being and humiliation as a citizen. He will be no less ambitious and aspiring than his fellow-countrymen ; he will assert himself, not as a Negro, but as a man; he will beat no retreat in the face of his enemies and opposers; his gifted sons and daughters, children of genius who may be born to him, will make their contribution to the prog¬ ress of humanity on these shores, accepting nothing but the honors and rewards that belong to merit. What kind of an American does the Negro intend to be ? He intends to be an American who will never mar the image of God, reproach the dignity of his man¬ hood, or tarnish the fair title of his citizenship, by apologizing to

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THE PANEGYRIC

men or angels for associating as an equal, with, some other Amer¬ ican who does not happen to be black. He will place the love of country above the love of race ; he will consider no task too diffi¬ cult, no sacrifice too great, in his effort to emancipate his country from the un-Christlike feelings of race hatred and the American bondage of prejudice. There is nothing that injustice so much respects, that Americans so much admire, and the world so much applauds, as a man who stands erect like a man, has the courage to speak in the tones of a man, and to act fearlessly a man’s part.

There are two views of the Negro question now at last clearly defined. One is that the Negro should stoop to conquer ; that he should accept in silence the denial of his political rights ; that he should not brave the displeasure of white men by protesting when he is segregated in humiliating ways upon the public carriers and in places of public entertainment ; that he may educate his children, buy land, and save money, but he must not insist upon his children taking their place in the body politic to which their character and intelligence entitle them; he must not insist on ruling the land which he owns or farms; he must have no voice as to how the money he has accumulated is to be expended through taxation and various forms of public improvement. There are others who be¬ lieve that the Negro owes this nation no apology for his presence in the United States; that, being black, he is still no less a man; that he should not yield one syllable of his title to American citi¬ zenship ; that he should refuse to be assigned to an inferior plane by his fellow-countrymen; though foes conspire against him and powerful friends desert him, he should refuse to abdicate his sovereignty as a citizen, and to lay down his honor as a man.

If Americans become surfeited with wealth, haughty with the boasting pride of race superiority, morally corrupt in the high places of honor and of trust, enervated through the pursuit of pleasure, or the political bondmen of some strong man plotting to seize the reins of power, the Negro American will continue his steadfast devotion to the flag, and the unyielding assertion of his constitutional rights, that “this government of the people, for the people, and by the people, may not perish from the earth.”

It is SO' marvelous as to be like a miracle of God, to behold the transformation that has taken place in the position of the Negro in this land since William Lloyd Garrison first saw the light of a

540

NEGRO ORATORS

centnry ago. When the Negro had no voice, Garrison pleaded his cause; tonight the descendants of the slave stand in Faneuil Hall, while from ocean to ocean every foot of American soil is dedicated to freedom. The Negro American has found his voice ; he is able to speak for himself ; he stands upon this famous platform here and thinks it no presumption to declare that he seeks nothing more, and will be satisfied with nothing less than the full measure of American citizenship !

I feel inspired tonight. The spirits of the champions of freedom hover near. High above the stars, Lincoln and Garrison, Sumner and Phillips, Douglass and Lovejoy, look down to behold their prayers answered, their labors rewarded, and their prophecies ful¬ filled. They were patriots; the true saviors of a nation that esteemed them not. They have left us a priceless heritage. Is there to be found among us now one who would so dishonor the memory of these sainted dead ; one so lost to love of country and loyalty to his race, as to offer to sell our birthright for a mess of pottage 1 When we were slaves. Garrison labored to make us free ; when our manhood was denied, he proclaimed it. Shall we in the day of freedom be less loyal to our country and true to ourselves than were the friends who stood for us in our night of woe ? Many victories have been won for us ; there are still greater victories we must win for ourselves. The proclamation of freedom and the bestowal of citizenship were not the ultimate goal we started out to reach, they were but the beginnings of progress. We, of this generation, must so act our part that, a century hence, our children and our children ’s children may honor our memory and be inspired to press on as they receive from us untarnished the banner of freedom, of manhood, and of equality among men.

The Negro went aboard the ship of state when she was first launched upon the uncertain waters of our national existence. He booked as through passenger until she should reach “the utmost sea-mark of her farthest sail.” When those in command treated him with injustice and brutality, he did not mutiny or rebel ; when placed before the mast as a lookout, he did not fall asleep at his post. He has helped to keep her from being wrecked upon the rocks of treachery ; he has imperiled his life by standing manfully to his task while she out-rode the fury of a threatening sea ; when the pirate-craft of rebellion bore down upon her and sought to

THE PANEGYEIC

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place the black flag of disunion at her masthead, he was one of the first to respond when the captain called all hands up on deck. If the enemies of liberty should ever again attempt to wreck our ship of state, the Negro American will stand by the guns ; he will not desert her when she is sinking, but with the principles of the Declaration of Independence nailed to the masthead, with the flag afloat, he would prefer rather to perish with her than to be num¬ bered among those who deserted her when assailed by an over¬ whelming foe. If she weathers the storms that beat upon her, outsails the enemies that pursue her, avoids the rocks that threaten her, and anchors at last in the port of her desired haven, black Americans and white Americans, locked together in brotherly em¬ brace, will pledge each other to remain aboard forever on terms of equality, because they shall have learned by experience that neither one of them can be saved, except they thus abide in the ship.

For the present our strivings are not in vain. The injustice that leans upon the arm of oppression for support must fall ; truth perverted or suppressed gains in momentum while it waits; gen¬ erations may perish, but humanity will survive ; out of the present conflict of opinion and the differences of race and color that divide, once the tides of immigration have ceased to flow to our shores, this nation will evolve a people who shall be one in purpose, one in spirit, one in destiny — a composite American by the commingling of blood.

LINCOLN, THE MAN OF THE HOUR^

By M. C. B. Mason ^

Genius is unanswerable and inexplicable. Who can tell how Shakespeare, the profligate horse tender, in ten years became the world’s greatest poet; how Napoleon, the unknown Corsican, be-

^ Delivered on various occasions by the orator.

* M. 0. B. Mason was born in Houma, Louisiana, in 1859. He entered school at the age of twelve, and became a minister in 1877. He then completed the college course at New Orleans University, and later did some post-graduate work there leading to the degree of Master of Arts. In 1891 he was appointed Field Secretary of the Preedmen’s Aid Society. In 1893 he was elected Assistant Corresponding Secretary of this same society, and in 1896 was chosen Corresponding Secretary of the General Conference, a position which no Negro, up to that time, had held. Retiring from this position in 1912, he served as the National Organizer of the National Association for the Advance¬ ment of Colored People. In all of these efforts, he made the impression of an able scholar, an unusual orator, and a logical lecturer. He died in 1912.

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came the world’s greatest military leader; how Moses, the slave boy of Egypt, became the world’s greatest lawgiver and philan¬ thropist ; how Abraham Lincoln, the rail-splitter, became the world’s greatest statesman and emancipator?

Surely, my friends, genius is always unanswerable and inex¬ plicable, for somehow Lincoln seemed to have combined in himself all the elements of greatness in the men of genius who had preceded him, for he had the wisdom of a Socrates, the statesmanship of a Washington, the diplomacy of a Pericles, the unselfish devotion of a Moses, the lofty vision of a St. Paul, and, in his relation toward his fellow-men, who can doubt but that he had much of the spirit of the Man of Galilee?

Such a man was Abraham Lincoln, the man of the hour, con¬ cerning whom it might have been said as it was said of J ohn, ‘ ‘ He was a man sent from God. ’ ’ And it is inspiring to see this man — this Divinely called man, if you please — standing yonder at Wash¬ ington during those terrible days of the ’60s, holding firmly and steadily and patiently the reins of government. Always conceding, but never receding; constantly giving up nonessentials in order that the one great purpose of his life, namely, the safety of the Union and emancipation of the slave, might be conserved; called incompetent by his cabinet, a weakling by his party, a traitor by the abolitionists, a tyrant by the South, yet he held on firmly, steadily, patiently, “with malice toward none, with charity for all” — ^he held on till the hour of God’s providence came, when, with one stroke of his pen, he saved a nation and emancipated the slave.

Lincoln did not spring into greatness by one bound. His growth was steady and constant. Born in a log cabin, he struggled against poverty and hardships, against difficulties and discouragements, and arose in spite of them all, out of ignorance and obscurity into knowledge and power and influence. Taught his A, B, C’s by his stepmother, he at once began the work of self -culture bj'" the faith¬ ful use of a few standard books. These were the Bible, Bunvan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, ^sop’s Fables, and a short history of the life of Washington. These classics he read and reread until he had fully mastered them, and, as it were, with hooks of steel he fastened the essentials into his very being. Stretched out at full length on the dirt floor of his cabin home, with the light of a pine knot

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for his lamp, book in hand, he kept up the work of preparation. He learned his first lessons in arithmetic on a wooden shovel, wiping it off and scraping it to make more room for new figures when a new lesson was given him. In this manner, with only- three or four months in school, amid poverty and distress, he kept at the work of getting ready, until he had trained and disciplined his mental and moral power beyond that attained by many a college or university graduate.

Here is an evidence of his innate strength and power. He was willing to pay the price, to fight against the most stupendous odds, if only he could prepare himself for a life of highest useful¬ ness. In all these stirring events of his early life, when he was subjecting himself to such systematic and rigid preparation, noth¬ ing is clearer than that his aim was not to further personal ambi¬ tion for office or power, but to make of himself an efficient servant for his country.

It is important here to note that iu this formative period of Lincoln’s life the ethical and moral side of his education was not neglected. He learned to distinguish clearly between the right and the wrong, the good and the evil, and the clearness of his morgj perception was the basis for the declaration of those principles which made him in the truest sense the greatest statesman of his age.

It is the clearness of perception which marks the difference between right and wrong which makes Lincoln an inspiration to every struggling youth of every race to high and lofty service, to be and to do his best. For it was by manly and heroic effort, by constant and rigid self-denial, by strict adherence to the truth, by absolute obedience to conscience and duty, that he lifted himself up out of morbid mediocrity, out of ignorance and self-eonceit, into a broad and refined manhood that immediately won for him the respect and admiration of the civilized world.

Lincoln’s successful fight over environment and inherited igno¬ rance gives us a study in heredity. His mother could not read, and his father was not only ignorant, but was stupid and slothful, and the Kentucky neighborhood in which he was born, and where he spent his early days, was not only without educational advan¬ tages, but was absolutelyidevoid of the educational spirit. Against these great odds, Lincoln began his fight. His native soil was not

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indigenous to the growth of men. A whole generation had not made a single man who could really he called great. Slavery had choked the avenues, poisoned the atmosphere, and greatness seemed impossible. This man, however, was equal to the emergency. He was a green spot in the desert, a root out of dry ground. He made the soil rich by his sweat and tears; he made the cabin a college by his industry and pluck ; and climbed so high an altitude that he found pure air and grew in spite of his environments. Studied side by side with Lincoln, Hugo’s great creation becomes a living reality, and reveals the fact that men, if they would but fight, can overcome heredity and grow out of ignorance and poverty and malice and envy, into intelligence and power and tenderness and love.

Lincoln’s first attempt for political preferment was doomed to failure. In 1832, his father having moved to Illinois, he was ap¬ pointed by the governor of that state captain of a company in the Black Hawk War.. Unlike some of our more fortunate public men, his company did not engage in a single combat, and he came back home with no blazing war record to give him political prestige. His manly qualities, however, had won for him the respect and esteem, not only of his company, but of all who came within his limited acquaintance. Accordingly, he was nominated for the state legislature, but was defeated. The singular incident about the contest which marked Lincoln as the coming man was, that although defeated, he received every vote in his own county, the vote of the other counties in the district, where he was not well known electing his opponent. Defeat, however, neither discouraged nor dismayed him. The two years following he kept up his work of studying men and books, supporting himself in the meantime by keeping a coun¬ try store, and with no better success as a surveyor, until his horse and few rude instruments were sold for debt. These failures, both in political and business life, coming so close together, would have completely soured and discouraged the average man. Not so with Lincoln. His greatness was here manifest, and he went on in the even tenor of his way, with that cheerfulness and good humor that made him the center of admiration by friend and foe alike.

At the next election, when he was twenty-five years old, he triumphed signally, and was elected to the Illinois legislature by a large majority, and wa^ continued in this position for eight con-

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seeutive years. Still anxious to acquire knowledge, he borrowed such books as he could and in this way qualified himself for the bar. As a lawyer he attracted attention far and wide, and his clearness of statement, his rugged honesty, his dogged fearlessness, and his uncompromising fair play made for him a great reputation as a lawyer and political debater, and soon he became the most effective speaker in the entire West.

Lincoln had early begun to hate the institution of slavery. When, as a flat-boatman in New Orleans, he saw the accursed auction block separating husband and wife, mother and child, his righteous soul was stirred to its very depths, and out of his indignation at this terrible spectacle, he declared, “If I ever get a chance at that thing, I will hit it and hit it hard, by the eternal God.”

Here as a member of the Illinois legislature he began the fight against slavery, which was ultimately to end in its entire overthrow and utter annihilation. At the very moment when Garrison was dragged through the streets of Boston for his abolition sentiments, and Lovejoy was slain by a mob for printing a paper against slavery, Lincoln showed the courage of his convictions, with only one man to stand by him, by entering his protest in the Illinois legislature, that the institution of slavery was founded both on injustice and bad policy.

In 1846, Lincoln was elected to Congress, and thus came for the first time in the arena of national politics. He continued his fight against slavery and brought in a bill for gradual emancipation in the District of Columbia, with compensation to the slave owners for their slaves thus emancipated. This concession on Lincoln’s part to pay the slave owners for their slaves who should be set free was characteristic of the honesty and fair play of the man, and made his future position on the slave question absolutely impreg¬ nable, and rallied the nation to his support when he subsequently signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

The slavery question was now one of absorbing interest and rapidly forging to the front as a burning issue in national politics. In order to get the real situation before us, a casual review of the history of slavery in America may be necessary if not interesting. In 1619, one year before the Mayflower landed in Massachusetts, a Dutch ship landed at Jamestown with a carload of slaves. Their importation continued until 1808, when the constitutional prohi-

546

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bition against it took effect. During all these years, from 1619 until 1808, covering 188 years, the number of slaves by importation and birth had vastly increased in the South, and although the traffic had slightly increased in several states of the North, the number of slaves there was not large enough at any time to threaten the peace of the community, or to become of any political signifi¬ cance. Evidently the leading members of the convention at the time of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States did not believe in slavery, and supposed that after 1808, when the further importation would cease, slavery would gradually die out and become entirely extinct. Washington, in his will, freed his slaves and expressed the hope that some plan might be adopted by which slavery could be abolished in this country, and Thomas J efferson, the writer of the Declaration of Independence, speaking of the institution of slavery, at one time said : ‘ U tremble for my country when I think that God is just and that his justice cannot sleep forever.” Other leading men, like Franklin, Adams and Patrick Henry, were all opposed to it.

The invention of the cotton gin in 1792 had made slavery very profitable in the South, and she was determined that the system should be perpetuated. Accordingly, a compromise was secured, by which, first, the time of the prohibition of the importation of slaves should be extended twenty years; second, a provision for the return of runaway slaves ; third, the existence of slavery in the states recognized as a basis of representation in Congress. This compromise was a great victory for the slaveholding states, for it gave a new impetus to the slave trade, made the institution of slavery constitutional, and put the South in the saddle by virtue of the increased representation which she thereby secured. From that very moment, slavery became a political power, and the South, not content with its victory, used every possible means to maintain it where it then existed, and to extend it in other sections of the country.

The conscience of the North was slowly rising against this iniquity, and parties began to organize for its overthrow. The slave olig¬ archy, crazed by its power, threatened even at that early date to leave the Union if their demands were not complied with. To satisfy them and to save the Union, compromise after compromise was made, but all of them were broken by the South and her

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friends. The Missouri Compromise, however, proved to be the measure which finally broke the backbone of slavery. This com¬ promise, as you remember, was made in 1820 on the admission of Missouri as a slave state, with a distinct provision that slavery should never thereafter be admitted in the Northwest Territory. This compromise was ruthlessly overthrown and broken in 1854, and at once the slumbering passion of the North arose with a mighty protest ; slavery was declared to be a public nuisance, and the Republican party was organized with the declaration of prin¬ ciples that slavery be confined where it then existed, and should not be permitted under any circumstances to be extended in the Northwest Territory or in any other section of the Union.

The crisis had now come. The North, for so many years quies¬ cent, was now aggressive. Lincoln again came to the front as one of the leaders and most effective speakers of the new party. Its first campaign was made in 1856, with John C. Fremont as the nominee, and, though defeated, it received a surprisingly large vote and carried several states.

The one event which brought Lincoln into national prominence was his debate with Judge Douglas in 1858. Douglas spoke in favor of the extension of slavery, or “squatter sovereignty,” as it was then called. Lincoln spoke for the restriction of slavery and against its extension in Kansas, which state was then applying for admission into the Union. The debates drew great crowds and became at once of national significance. Judge Douglas was a man of the schools, highly cultured, eloquent, and of commanding appearance; Lincoln was without the preparation of the schools, thoroughly lacking in refinement and the conventionalities of society, but his statements were clear and forcible, his logic irre¬ sistible and his powerful arguments carried conviction everywhere. What now was the essential difference between Lincoln and Doug¬ las? Douglas plead for the Constitution; Lincoln plead for jus¬ tice and fair play. Douglas was on the side of that which was expedient; Lincoln was on the side of that which was just and righteous. Lincoln believed fully in that principle of the Declara¬ tion of Independence, ‘ ‘ that all men are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” On this doctrine of equal rights and fair play he staked his case and ultimately won.

548

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In the very beginning' of the debate Lincoln struck the keynote of the whole question when he said — I quote him verbatim : ‘ ‘ The real issue in this country is the eternal struggle between these two principles, right and wrong, throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time and will ever continue to struggle. One is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says: ‘You work and toil and earn bread and I will eat it. ’ ”

Upon this basis of right against wrong, of freedom against slavery, Lincoln made his fight. He foresaw with the eye of a prophet and a statesman, that union and liberty, freedom and slavery, could not exist together, that one or the other must finally faU. It was upon the enunciation of this great truth that Lincoln gave expression to that immortal sentence that completely over¬ whelmed Douglas and made Lincoln preeminently the man of the hour. “Uhder the operation of the policy of the compromise, the slavery agitation has not only not ceased but has constantly aug¬ mented. In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis has been reached and passed. A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will prevent the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward until it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new. North as well as South.”

This argument struck the deathblow to “squatter sovereignty” and the extension of slavery. Lincoln, as it has been facetiously said, lost the senatorship but gained the presidency. The nation was now stirred to its very depths. At this critical time several events occurred which added fuel to the flames. It seems as if Almighty God with long-suffering patience was at last permitting the slave power to dash itself to pieces and grind itself into powder. The Fugitive Slave Act, by which slaves were dragged through the streets of Boston, shook that ancestral stronghold of freedom to its

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very foundation ; the Bred Scott Decision of the Supreme Court, which declared that a Negro had no rights which a white man should respect, showing that the slave power had at last gotten hold of the Supreme Court, the very foundation of justice ; the attempted murder of Senator Sumner by a Southern slave holder ; the attempt to force slavery into Kansas; the execution of John Brown, and the publication of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” all these events stirred up the sleeping conscience of the North and sounded the death knell of slavery.

At the Chicago convention of 1860, Lincoln was nominated for the presidency. It was a great victory for the man from a log cabin over Chase, and Stanton, and especially Seward, whom everyone supposed would receive the nomination. The Democratic party was hopelessly divided, and, strange to say, the division was made by the masterful work of Lincoln in his debates with Doug¬ las two years before. Accordingly, four parties were in the field, the regular Democratic party, headed by Breckinridge of Ken¬ tucky ; the Popular Sovereignty party, a split from the Democratic party, headed by Douglas of Illinois, Lincoln’s recent antagonist; the Constitutional Union party, headed by John Bell of Tennessee, and the Republican party, headed by Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. After one of the most stirring and bitter campaigns in the history of the country, Lincoln was triumphantly elected, receiving 180 out of 303 electoral votes. The crisis was now on. Lincoln, fearing assassination, journeyed secretly to Washington for the inaugura¬ tion and easily eluded the friends of secession, who threatened to take his life. The scenes at the inauguration were strange and pathetic. Douglas, his famous rival, held his hat; Chief Justice Taney, of Dred Scott fame, gave the oath of office ; Seward, Chase and Stanton, chosen members of his cabinet and former candidates for the presidency, were about him, and with these surroundings he plead for peace before the seceding states should return, and pledged himself to see that the laws were faithfully executed.

No ruler in all the world’s history ever faced such perilous con¬ ditions as confronted Lincoln when he assumed the reins of government. The situation was not only grave, it was, indeed, alarming. South Carolina, the home of nullification, became the mother of secession and opened fire on the nation’s fiag at Port Sumter. South Carolina, it would seem, has a peculiar history,

550

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for, from Calhoun to Tillman, she has been an eyesore and a nuisance in our national life. State after state seceded until all the slave-holding states, with a few exceptions, had gone out of the Union. Jefferson Davis, then United States Senator from Missis¬ sippi, resigned his position to accept the presidency of the rebellious states, and it is a strange coincidence of history that a Negro, in the person of Hiram E. Eevels, was elected to take his place and became the first Negro United States Senator in the history of the republic.

In this hour of severest trial Lincoln’s cabinet was either openly against him or apparently indifferent. Four of them. Chase, Stan¬ ton, Seward, and Cameron, had been recent candidates for the presidency. When Lincoln faced his cabinet for the first time, not a man who sat before him was a personal friend or had any real sympathy for him as an individual. Every man of them thought himself superior to him and did not hesitate to let him know it at every possible opportunity. To add to the gravity of the position trouble arose with England over the forcible seizure of Mason and Slidell. Under these perilous conditions, with his own country torn, disordered, belligerent, with his cabinet suspicious and fault¬ finding, and facing hostilities with a powerful foreign foe, Lincoln assumed the presidency and undertook the stupendous task of saving the nation, and emancipating the slaves. He was, however, equal to the emergency. Calm, patient, diplomatic, with boundless compassion and heroic seK-denial, he worked by day and by night for the closing of hostilities and for the preservation of the nation.

No one will doubt that for this special work God had been for many years preparing him. Day by day he mastered the problems as they came before him. His endurance, his fertility of resources, his courage, his even temper, his tender-heartedness, his compre¬ hensive grasp of the difficult questions of diplomacy — these essen¬ tial evidences of a great ruler surprised his friends, dumbfounded his enemies, and made him complete master of the situation.

Lincoln’s desire to save the Union at all cost and all hazard lost him almost the entire support of the abolition element — indeed, many of them became his bitterest enemies. Unable to see the width and breadth of his statesmanship, they called him a traitor to the cause of the freedom of the slaves and an enemy to his

THE PANEGYRIC 551

country. To Horace Greeley, who was constantly chiding him for not issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, he wrote :

“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it ; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it ; and if I could do it by freeing some and by leaving others, I would also do that.”

Here was statesmanship of an unusual order. Lincoln knew that the one great central idea around which all the patriotism of the North might in the end declare allegiance, was the preservation of the Union. This secured, slavery in the very nature of the ease would be ultimately abolished.

During these critical days when the mighty heart of great Lin¬ coln was bearing such a load, there were two distinguished citizens, among other patriots, who came forward to aid and cheer him. I refer to Henry Ward Beecher and Frederick Douglass. Beecher’s services at this time in England were invaluable. England wanted Southern cotton for her mills and was afraid if slavery was abol¬ ished her interests would suffer. Accordingly, she was about to recognize the Southern Confederacy with Jefferson Davis as presi¬ dent, which in itself would have been a death blow to the Union cause. In a series of addresses in the great cities of the Empire, London, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, at first the audiences hissed and insulted him, but Beecher stood his ground for fair play and noninterference. He secured a complete triumph. England saw the error of her ways and made a complete somersault, the result of which was to weaken and discomfit the Confederacy gradually. Frederick Douglass at home performed a task equally as important. He fired the North with his eloquent pleas for the emancipation of his brethren and the preservation of the Union, and did yeoman service in the organization and equipment of colored soldiers, who fought so bravely for the Union and the over¬ throw of slavery.

In the hour of Lincoln’s greatest need, the churches of the North came to his rescue. In the homes of the people, on the streets, and even on the railway trains, they prayed audibly and openly for the president and for the success of Union arms. An incident is told of the meeting on a railway train of a Quaker woman of the North, who was praying for the Union, and a Confederate woman of the South, who was praying for the success of Jefferson Davis

552

NEGRO ORATORS

and his cause. The Southern woman remonstrated with the North¬ ern woman, saying that she was praying to God for the success of the Confederate army, and how did she expect God to answer her who was praying for the success of the Union army, to which the Quaker woman immediately replied: “The good Lord does not pay any attention to thee, for he thinks thee is joking.”

The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in session at Philadelphia in 1864, sent a delegation to Mr. Lincoln, pledging him their prayers and hearty support. To this delegation, Mr. Lincoln replied :

“In response to your address, allow me to attest the accuracy of its historical statements ; endorse the sentiment it expresses ; and thank you, in the nation ’s name, for the sure promise it gives.

“Nobly sustained as the government has been by all the churches, I would utter nothing which might, in the least, appear invidious against any. Yet, without this, it may fairly be said that the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the rest, is, by its greater numbers, the most important of all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to Heaven than any. God bless the Methodist Church — bless all the churches — and blessed be God, Who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches. ’ ’

As commander in chief of the army, Lincoln’s resources were taxed to the very utmost, but even here in this trying ordeal he was preeminently the man of the hour. Forced to make impor¬ tant changes from time to time, he was, nevertheless, always true to his generals. When he found that Grant was a man that would fight and would ultimately bring the war to a triumphant close, he gave hiro. the right of way and stood by him without reserve. Once when Grant’s critics urged Lincoln to remove him as com¬ mander of the army, charging him with drinking too freely, Lin¬ coln himself replied: “What does Grant drink?” “Whiskey,” said the man. “Well,” said Lincoln, “just find out what par¬ ticular brand he uses and I will send a barrel to my other gen¬ erals. ’ ’

The adroit, diplomatic manner by which he handled the ques¬ tion of emancipation showed the breadth and depth of his splendid statesmanship. An error at that time would have been fatal to the

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preservation of the Union as -well as the freedom of the slave. He waited patiently while both friends and foes slandered and abused him ; waited till the Union was ready ; waited till the psychological moment; waited till the hour of God’s providence came, when he resolutely fulfilled the promise he had made many years before when a humble flat-boatsman in New Orleans. And when the hour had fully come he struck the fatal blow which emancipated the slave and blotted out forever from the face of this Union that iniquity of all iniquities, human slavery.

This act was the great statesman ’s master stroke. By it he dis¬ comfited the Confederacy, rallied the patriotism of the North as nothing else could have done, saved the Union and made eifective the proclamation which he had issued. It came not a moment too soon, for from that moment defeat was turned into victory, and Grant and Sherman kept the rebels on the run till Lee surrendered at Appomattox.

Lincoln’s second inaugural address, like his Gettysburg speech, is a classic. Besides, it reveals the innate strength and courage of the man when face to face with duty. In that remarkable sen¬ tence in which he declares he will push the war to a successful close, Lincoln said: “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away, but if God will that it continue till all the wealth piled up by the bonds¬ man ’s 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and till every drop of blood drawn with a lash shall be paid with another drawn with a sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still must it be said, ‘The judgments of the Lord are triie and righteous alto¬ gether.’ ”

At length the hour came. Lincoln himself knew that it was near. Speaking to Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” he said: “Whichever way it goes, I will not last long.” On the night of April 14, 1865, only forty days after he had been inaugurated, while in Ford’s theater, the assassin’s bullet felled the great man to the earth, and he passed to the Great Be¬ yond the next morning at seven o’clock. His work was done, his course was finished, he had kept the faith, and he went to his eternal reward. For God had let him live long enough to see the close of the war and the adoption of the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution.

554

NEGEO OEATORS

Standing here tonight, my fellow citizens, on this one hundredth anniversary of his birth, what is the lesson he leaves us? To be honest, industrious and true, to be useful and intelligent citizens, to make ourselves absolutely necessary to the life of every com¬ munity in which we live, to acquire property and lands, to keep out of the saloon, out of the police courts, to be sober, industrious, to be patient, to be bold, to endure and to be in our virtuous lives a standing argument for the wisdom of his action by which our liberty was secured.

Lincoln, thou art not dead. The assassin’s bullet did not strike thee; it touched only the hem of thy garment and bruised and shattered the house in which thou didst live. Thou art living still, living in the lives of thy countrymen, yea, in the life of the world, and inspiring now, as thou didst then, to sublime courage and heroic self-denial. Verily, as some one has facetiously said: “Thou art the tallest white angel of a thousand years.”

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND FIFTY YEARS OF FREEDOM ^ By Alexander Walters^

The distinguished person whom we pause to honor was not born great, if to be born great means to be born in a mansion, sur¬ rounded at the start of life with opulence, “dangled on the knee of indulgence and charmed to sleep by the voice of liveried serv¬ ants”; if this is the measure of greatness, then Abraham Lincoln was not born great, — but if to be born great is to be ushered into the world with embryonic qualities of heart, elements calculated to unfold into the making of the stature of a complete man, a manly man, a brave, a God-fearing man — a statesman equal to the great¬ est emergency of a nation, then the little fellow of destiny who

^Delivered on various occasions by Bisbop Walters.

Bishop Alexander Walters was one of the prominent figures of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was doubtless the outstanding bishop of his connection during his time. He rendered his church valuable service as an educator and minister in Kentucky, California and Tennessee. In these efforts he made such a favorable im¬ pression that he easily attained the highest position in his connection.

Differing widely from the conservative element in the race, Bishop Walters advocated the division of the Negro vote, thinking that as long as the race is slavishly attached to one party, it can never hope to figure as a factor in politics. Consequently, he advocated the election of Woodrow Wilson in 1912, and was instrumental in diverting from their former allegiance a considerable number of Negro voters in support of the War President. For this. Bishop Walters was at times severely criticized, but his example was salutary in pointing the way for a new day for the Negro as a full citizen.

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made his initial bow to the goddess of light in Hardin County, Kentucky, February 12, 1809, was born great.

If to achieve greatness is to win the hearts of one’s youthful companions, one’s associates in professional life, and to merit the confidence and genuine love of a nation to the extent of securing its greatest honors and to perform the mightiest work of a een- tury, then Abraham Lincoln achieved greatness.

•

The assertion has been made that President Lincoln was not in favor of universal freedom. I beg to take issue with this view.

A careful study of this sincere, just, and sympathetic man will serve to show that from his earliest years he was against slavery. He declared again and again: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong ; I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel. ’ ’

Back in the thirties this young man clad in homespun was stand¬ ing in the slave-mart of New Orleans, watching husbands and wives being separated forever, and children being doomed never again to look into the faces of their parents. As the hammer of the auctioneer fell, this young flat-boatman, with quivering lips, turned to his companion and said: “If ever I get a chance to hit that thing (slavery), I will hit it hard, by the Eternal God I will.”

In March, 1839, he had placed upon the House Journal of Illi¬ nois a formal protest against pro-slavery resolutions which he could get but one other member beside himself to sign. Long before he was made President, in a speech at Charleston, Illinois, he said: “Yes, we will speak for freedom, and against slavery, as long as the Constitution of our country guarantees free speech, until everywhere on this wide land the sun shall shine, and the rain shall fall, and the winds shall blow upon no man who goes forth to un¬ requited toil.”

While in Congress in 1848 he offered a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. It was his opinion that Congress had control over the institution of slavery in the District of Columbia and the territories, and he evidenced his desire for the freedom of the slaves by offering a bill to abolish it in the District, and he afterwards strenuously advocated the elimination of slavery from the territories.

In 1864, about the time of the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, President Lincoln said to some gentlemen from the West: “There

556 NEGEO ORATORS

have been men base enough to propose to me to return to slavery our black warriors of Port Hudson and Olustee, and thus win the respect of the masters they fought. Should I do so, I should de¬ serve to be damned in time and eternity.”

Through all the mighty struggle of the Civil War when bowed in sorrow, and when it was truly said of him “That he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” he was ever heard to say, “ It is my desire that all men be free. ’ ’

If President Lincoln were not in favor of the freedom of the slaves, why did he write the Emancipation Proclamation without the knowledge of his Cabinet and, when reading it to them, in¬ form them that he did not do so to have them make any changes, but simply to apprise them of its contents? I answer, because he saw the time had come, the opportune time for which he had longed, when he, as President of these United States, could free the slaves. The South was so certain that it was Mr. Lincoln’s intention to liberate the slaves, that, upon his election as President, they seceded from the Union. They felt that the institution which they had struggled so long to maintain was doomed.

His famous letter to Horace Greeley, so diplomatically written, shows him to be in favor of the emancipation of slaves. Said he : “My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves I would do it ; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views as fast as they shall appear to be true views. I have here stated my pur¬ pose according to my views of official duty, and I intend no modi¬ fication of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every¬ where could be free.”

Had President Lincoln not desired the freedom of the slaves would he have written this last sentence?

Professor Pickens, of Talladega College, says: “He was a patriot statesman ; although he abhorred slavery in his own inclina¬ tion, he was wise enough to see that the question of slavery was subordinate to the immediate object of saving the Union. If ■slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong ; he declared as his private opinion ; but it was his public duty and his oath to save the Union,

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regardless of slavery. His logic and clear seizure of the main point stood him in good stead against the over-zealous Abolition¬ ists on the one hand, while on the other hand, as soon as the inter¬ ests of Negro freedom and the interests of the Union coincided, the same unchanged and consistent logic answered those who assailed him on constitutional grounds.”

Mr. Lincoln believed that the Constitution protected slavery in the States wherein it existed, and his aim was to let it alone where it had a constitutional right to exist. - Not because he thought slav¬ ery right, but because of his respect for the law.

His original position was that, since slavery was protected by the law, the friends of freedom would have to abide their time and continue to create sentiment sufficient to change the law and thus overthrow the iniquitous institution. This is the only interpre¬ tation that can be put upon his doctrine. “The house divided against itself.”

Is it reasonable to think that a man so thoughtful and sincere as was Mr. Lincoln could give a life to the advocacy of the freedom of the slaves, and in his heart not be in favor of their liberation ? Mr. Lincoln often expressed ideas on the emancipation calculated to jeopardize his political future, which he would not have done but for the fact that in his heart of hearts he was committed to the cause of freedom.

The slaves hailed him as their savior, which he proved to be by emancipating 4,000,000 of them, and he will be held in loving re¬ membrance by Afro-Americans as long as the world shall stand.

It is fitting that we assemble ourselves together on the anni¬ versary of his birth to honor his memory, and tell of his noble deeds to the rising generation.

President Lincoln was truly a great man; a giant in intellect, a peerless diplomat, a fearless advocate of the rights of humanity and a wise ruler. In council he stood head and shoulders above the members of his Cabinet and other advisers, notwithstanding he was surrounded by some of the greatest scholars and statesmen of his time.

Allow me to apply to Lincoln the words of Wendell Phillips in his address “Touissant L ’Ouverture ” :

“Lincoln was greater than Caesar; Caesar fought to further his ambition and to extend a great empire. Lincoln was an advocate

558 NEGEO ORATOES

of prineiplo, justico, and fair play. He was greater than Alex¬ ander; Alexander fought for glory — ^to conquer all the world, all at the sacrifice of happy homes and the desolation and ruin of countries. Lincoln sacrificed comfort and ease to save a nation and liberate an enslaved people. He was greater than Napoleon ; Napoleon made wives to be widows, and children to he fatherless and homeless, and drenched Europe and Egypt in blood for fame and the desire to found a greater empire than the Roman dynasty ; but Lincoln perished because he dared to defend an oppressed people. ’ ’

When the last scarred veteran shall gather around the last camp¬ fire and shall rehearse stories of valor, he will close his tale of sorrow with the name of Lincoln.

When the last poet shall compose his last poem on America’s great struggle, — yea, of the victories of Vicksburg, Fort Donelson, Lookout Mountain, Gettysburg, Appomattox, Petersburg, and the fall of Richmond, he will close it by paying a tribute to the mem¬ ory of the sainted Lincoln.

When the last statesman of the world shall pronounce a fare¬ well anathema upon the world’s oppression, when he shall write the names of those foremost in the work of emancipation, after he shall have written the name of Moses, — long ere he reaches the name of Wilberforce or Clarkson, he shall have written high on the scroll of fame the name of Lincoln.

When the last flag bearing the “Stars and Stripes” shall wave over this great commonwealth, telling of its glory and tremendous influence, on the wings of the eagle upon the staff of that flag will be written for her to bear away on the eternal breezes the name of the immortal Lincoln, — the savior of his country, the Emanci¬ pator of its people.

• •••••••

The dying legacy bequeathed to the American nation by the mar¬ tyred Lincoln was a united country and a free people. It gave us a nation which today stands first in the galaxy of the nations of the world — in character, thought, wealth, and all the qualities which make for the highest civilizations — a glorious country, whose natural resources stand unsurpassed.

All honor to Mr. Lincoln, the nation’s Chieftain, the giant of the conflict, the statesman of the age, the immortal Emancipator;

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and all honor to the men who wore the blue, both white and black ; and all honor to the men and women who gave their sons to the cause and furnished the sinews of war; and all praise he to the God of Heaven who was behind the conflict controlling all.

If we would properly honor this great and good man we must finish the work which he so nobly began, — the lifting up of the Negro race to the highest point of civilization. This can be accom¬ plished: first, by being good and loyal citizens ourselves, and by teaching our children to be the same.

The ground work of our material advancement is industry. As a race we are generally industrious, but we need to become more skillfully so. Unskilled labor cannot compete with skilled labor, neither North nor South. In the past you gave us certain posi¬ tions as the result of sympathy, not because we could perform the work as skillfully as others.

The sentiment which actuated you to help us was a noble one, but that kind of sentiment is a thing of the past; now we are re¬ quired to stand or fall according to our merits. When goods are to be manufactured, machines constructed, houses and bridges built, clothing fashioned, or any sort of work performed, none but skilled workmen are considered; there are a great number of employers that care but little about the color of the workmen ; with them the question is, can he do the work?

We must continue the struggle for our civil and political rights. I have no sympathy with that class of leaders who are advising the Negro to eschew politics in deference to color prejudice.

Does it make for permanent peace to deny to millions of citizens their political rights when they are equal to the average electorate in intelligence and character? Fitness, and not color or previ¬ ous condition of servitude, should be the standard of recognition in political matters. Indeed the Negro should not be denied any civil or political right on account of his color, and to the extent this is done there is bound to be disquietude in the nation.

We have already seen that temporizing with slavery at the forma¬ tion of the Union resulted in a hundred years of strife and bitter¬ ness, and finally brought on devastation and death. And may we not profit by this bitter experience? The enlightened American conscience will not tolerate injustice forever. The same spirit of liberty and fair play which enveloped the nation in the days of

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Mr. Lincoln and that was recognized by his astute mind, clear to his mental vision and so profoundly appreciated by his keen sense of justice and which he had the courage to foster against all oppo¬ sition, is abroad in our land today, will ultimately triumph.

Mr. Lincoln was the first to suggest to his party the enfranchise¬ ment of the Negro. He wrote Governor Hahn, of Louisiana, ad¬ vising that the ballot should be given to the colored man ; said he, “Let in, as for instance, the very intelligent and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help in some trying time in the future to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom. ’ ’

It seems to me right and proper on this memorable day, when the nation has stopped to consider the work of the man above all others who started the Negro on his upward way, that we should appeal to the enlightened conscience of the nation, to unloose fur¬ ther the fetters which bind the black man, especially the industrial bands placed upon him in the North. I appeal to the white people of the South, the sentiment-makers of that section, to create senti¬ ment in favor of law and order, and that they demand a cessation of lynehings. I appeal to the legislature of the South to allow the civil and political door of hope to remain open to my people, and in all things which make for quietness and permanent peace, let us be brethren.

The Negro should no longer be considered a serf, but a citizen of this glorious Republic which both white and black alike have done so much to develop.

Mr. Edwin D. Mead, in the New York Independent of Janu¬ ary 21, 1909, says, “Has the country been faithful to Lincoln’s memory and task ? Has the evolution of emancipation been pushed with proper persistence and earnestness ? Are we ceasing our dis¬ crimination against men because they are black ? It is not a ques¬ tion put by North to South. It is a question put to Springfield, Illinois, the old home of Lincoln himself, as directly as to men in Maryland busy with their pitiful disfranchising chicanery.” To the still lingering cry of “black men down” this salutary Com¬ memoration rings back, the ‘ ‘ all men up, ’ ’ whose echoes after forty years were growing faint in too many American hearts.

Had they not grown faint in many, the recent words of Justice Harlan, so like Lincoln’s own, upon the Berea College decision

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confirming the Kentucky law that, however they themselves de¬ sired it, and even in private institutions, a black boy and white boy may not study together the rule of three or the law of gravitation, the Golden Rule, or the Emancipation Proclamation, — would have aroused a vastly profounder and louder response.

“If the views of the highest court of Kentucky be sound, that commonwealth may, without infringing on the Constitution of the United States, forbid the association in the same private school of pupils of the Anglo-Saxon and Latin races respectively, or pupils of Christian and Jewish faith respectively. Have we become so inoculated with prejudice of race that any American government professedly based on the principles of freedom and charged with the protection of all citizens alike can make distinctions between such citizens in the manner of their voluntary meeting for inno¬ cent purposes, simply because of their respective races? If the court be right, then the State may make it a crime for white and colored persons to frequent the same market-places at the same time or to appear in an assemblage of citizens convened to consider questions of a public or political nature, in which all citizens with¬ out regard to race are equally interested; and other illustrations would show the mischievous, not to say cruel, character of the statute in question, and how inconsistent such legislation is with the principle of the equality of citizens before the law.”

Mr. Mead further says that Abraham Lincoln was called upon to make his memorable and mighty protest with reference to a sin¬ gle race. In our time the problem becomes vastly more complex and pressing.

But, however complex, there is but one way of solving it — the simple, Christian, fraternal way. It is well for us that the Lin¬ coln centennial comes to say this to us persuasively and com- mandingly.’^

“Walters, Abraham Lincoln and Fifty Tears of Freedom.

562

NEGRO ORATORS

ADDRESS OP WILLIAM H. LEWIS, ASSISTANT ATTOR¬

Ney-General Op The United States, Bbpore

NEY-GENERAL OP THE UNITED STATES, BBPORE THE MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE OP REPRESENTA¬ TIVES, PEB. 12, 1913 ^

Mr. Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives :

The power of the House to summon forthwith any citizen of the Commonwealth has never been resisted ; and so by designation of the Honorable Speaker, in accordance with the order of the House, I am here in answer to your summons. You have invited me as a member of the liberated race, to address you upon this Lincoln’s Birthday in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Words would be futile to ex¬ press my deep appreciation of this high honor, however unworthily bestowed. Twice before have I met this honorable House. I came first as an humble petitioner seeking redress against discrimina¬ tion on account of color. You then granted my prayer. Some years later, I came as a member of this House, the last representa¬ tive of my race to sit in this body. You treated me then as a man and an equal. And now the honors of an invited guest I shall cherish as long as memory lasts.

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the preserver of the Union, the liberator of a race. “The mystic chords of memory,” stretching from heart to heart of millions of Americans at this hour, “swell the chorus of thanksgiving” to the Almighty for the life, character and service of the great President.

Pour brief crucial years he represented the soul of the Union

^ William H. Lewis was born in Berkeley, Virginia, in 1868. He attended school at an early age, and by peddling matches and doing odd jobs, he managed to make his way through the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. He then attended Amherst College where he was graduated in 1892. At Amherst he distinguished himself as captain of the college football team, as an orator, and as a debater. He won the prizes in two of the most important contests, and was finally chosen by his class at graduation to deliver the class day oration.

He next studied law at Harvard University where he continued as a football player with a national reputation. After completing the course in law, Mr. Lewis settled in Cambridge and practiced in Boston. Entering politics about the same time, he was elected City Councilman of Cambridge in 1899, 1900 and 1901. In 1902 he was elected to the State Legislature. In 1903 he was appointed by President Koosevelt to the position of Third Assistant United States District Attorney with headquarters in Boston. He was promoted to Second Assistant United States District Attorney in 1904. and was made head of the Naturalization Bureau from 1903 to 1909. In 1911 he was appointed by President Taft to the position of Assistant Attorney General of the United States.

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struggling for immortality — for p^petuity; in him was the spirit of liberty struggling for a new birth among the children of men.

“Slavery must die,” he said, “that the Union may live.”

We have a Union today because we have Emancipation; we have Emancipation because we have a united country. Though nearly 50 years have elapsed since his martyr death and we see his images everywhere, yet Lincoln is no mere legendary figure of an heroic age done in colors, cast in bronze, or sculptured in marble; he is a living, vital force in American politics and statecraft. The peo¬ ple repeat his wise sayings ; politicians invoke his principles ; men of many political stripes profess to be following in his footsteps. We of this generation can almost see him in the flesh and blood and hear falling from his lips the sublime words of Gettysburg, the divine music of the Second Inaugural and the immortal Proclama¬ tion of Emancipation. We see this man of mighty thews and sinews, his feet firmly planted in mother earth, his head towering in the heavens. He lived among men but he walked with God. He was himself intensely human, but his sense of right, of justice, seemed to surpass the wisdom of men. A true child of nature, he beheld the races of men in the raw without the artificial trappings of civilization and the adventitious circumstances of birth or wealth or place, and could see no difference in their natural rights.

“The Negro is a man,” said he, “my ancient faith tells me that all men are created equal.”

As a man he was brave yet gentle, strong yet tender and sym¬ pathetic, with the intellect of a philosopher, yet with the heart of a little child. As a statesman he was prudent, wise, sagacious, far seeing and true. As President he was firm, magnanimous, merci¬ ful and just. As a liberator and benefactor of mankind, he has no peer in all human history.

As Lowell said in his famous commemoration ode, it still must be said:

“Great captains, with their guns and drums.

Disturb our judgment for the hour,

But at last silence comes ;

These are all gone, and, standing like a tower,

Our children shall behold his fame.

The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man,

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NEGRO ORATORS

Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame,

New birth of our new soil, the first American.”

There are only three great charters of freedom among Anglo- Saxon peoples, the Magna Charta which the barons wrung from King John at Runnymede, the Declaration of Independence which a few colonials threw at the head of an obstinate king, the Eman¬ cipation Proclamation which Lincoln cast into the balance for the Union. The Magna Charta gave freedom to the nobility ; the Dec¬ laration of Independence brought freedom down to the plain peo¬ ple ; the Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln set free the under man and proclaimed liberty to the slave and the serf throughout the world.

Massachusetts had no small part in the second great charter of liberty. This is attested not only by the signatures of Hancock, the Adamses, Paine and Gerry, to that great document, but here is Boston, Concord, Lexington and Bunker Hill, and a thousand memorials of the revolution besides. Great indeed as was the part that Massachusetts played in achieving independence, greater still was her share in the Emancipation of the slave. Lincoln himself said that Boston had done more to bring on the war than any other city; and when Emancipation had been achieved he generously credited the result “to the logic and moral power of Garrison and the anti-slavery people.”

This day, therefore, belongs to Massachusetts. It is a part of her glorious history. Emancipation was but the triumph of Puri¬ tan principle — the right of each individual to eat his bread out of the sweat of his own brow or not at all. The history of the abolition of slavery in America could not be written with Massa¬ chusetts left out; the history of Massachusetts herself, since the revolution, would be but a dreary, barren waste without the chap¬ ter of her part in the Emancipation.

The House does well to pause in its deliberations to commemo¬ rate this anniversary. In 1837 your predecessors threw open the old Hall of Representatives to the first meeting of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. A year later, the legislature adopted reso¬ lutions against the slave trade, for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and the prohibition of slavery in the ter¬ ritories

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The fathers early enacted that there should he neither bond slaves nor villenage amongst us except captives taken in just wars and those condemned judicially to serve. When it was attempted to land the first cargo of slaves upon her soil, the people seized them and sent them back to their own country and clime. In spite of the prayers and resolutions and acts of the early fathers, a form of slavery grew up here, but it was milder than the English villenage : it resembled apprenticeship except in the duration. The slave had many of the rights of free men ; the right to marry and the right to testify in court. Either with the decision of Somerset’s case in England or the adoption of the first Constitution of the Com¬ monwealth, during the revolution, that institution passed away for¬ ever. The voices of freedom were first raised here. Whittiei’, Lowell and Longfellow sang the songs of Emancipation. Garrison, Phillips and Parker were the prophets and disciples of Lincoln. In the darkest days of slavery, John Quincy Adams held aloft the torch of liberty and fed its fiame with his own intrepid spirit. Sumner was the scourge of God, the conscience of the state in¬ carnate.

The people of Massachusetts were not only idealists, dreamers, and moulders of public opinion, but when 30 years of agitation had reached its culmination in the Civil War, Massachusetts sent 150,000 of her sons to sustain upon the battlefields of the republic the ideals which she had advocated in the Halls of Congress, in the forum and the market place. The people of Massachusetts, true to their history and traditions, have abolished here, so far as laws can do so, every discrimination between race and color, and every

inequality between man and man.

I have recalled these things for no vainglorious purpose. We should remind ourselves constantly that we have a history behind us, that we have a character to sustain. Are we of this generation worthy descendants of tea spillers and abolitionists? Are we liv¬ ing up to the traditions of the Commonwealth, to the principles of the fathers in relation to the treatment of citizens of color? I have observed with aching heart and agonizing spirit during the last 20 years not only the growing coldness and indifference on the part of our people to the fate of the Negro elsewhere ; but here in our own city the breaking up of the old ties of friendship that once existed between people of color and all classes of citizens, just

566

NEGRO ORATORS

after Emancipation, the gradual falling away of that sympathy and support upon which we could always confidently rely in every crisis. I have watched the spirit of race prejudice raise its sinister shape in the labor market, in the business house, the real estate exchange, in public places, and even in our schools, colleges and churches.

I say all this with pain and sorrow. I would be the last to “soil my own nest” or to utter one word that would reflect in the slight¬ est degree upon Massachusetts or her people. I love inexpressibly every foot of Massachusetts soil, from the Berkshires to Essex, from the Cape to the islands off our southern coast. I have stud¬ ied her history ; I know her people, and when I have played out the little game with destiny, I want to rest upon some Massachusetts hillside.

I can never forget the emotions that filled my breast when first I set foot in Boston just a quarter of a century ago, a Negro lad in search of education, freedom, and opportunity. As I walked these sacred streets I lived over the revolution, I saw them peopled with the mighty men of the past. I hastened to make my obeisance first to the spot where Attueks fell, the first martyr of the revo¬ lution. I next looked out upon Bunker Hill where Peter Salem stood guard over the fallen Warren. I said to myself, “Here at last no black man need be ashamed of his race, here he has made history.” And then to scenes of still another period I turned my gaze. I looked upon the narrow streets where Garrison was mobbed for my sake. I viewed the place where a few brave men gave Shadrach to freedom and to fame. The pictured walls of the old “cradle of liberty” seemed to still echo to the silvery tones of Phillips. The moulded face of Governor Andrew spoke a bene¬ diction: “I know not what record of sins awaits me in that other life, but this I do know, I never despised any man because he was ignorant, because he was poor or because he was black.”

I felt that here at last was liberty, and here I would make my home.

You say to me, “certainly you can find no fault.” I gratefully acknowledge the debt which I owe the people of Massachusetts, but I cannot forget my brethren here. I cannot forget my chil¬ dren, too, who were born here and by the blessings of God and

567

THE PANEGYEIC

your help I will leave to them and their children a freer and better Massachusetts even than I have found her.

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

I want upon this day to remind Massachusetts of her old ideals of liberty, justice, equality for all beneath her pure white flag. Laws, customs, institutions are nothing unless behind them stands a vital, living, throbbing public sentiment in favor of their en¬ forcement in the spirit as well as in the letter. My friends, unless we can stay the rising tide of prejudice ; unless we can hark back to our old ideals and old faiths, our very statues and memorials will some day mock us and cry shame upon us.

National Emancipation was the culmination of a moral revo¬ lution, such as the world has never seen. It was not as Garrison intended, a peaceful revolution, the unanimous verdict of an awak¬ ened national conscience. Thirty years of fierce agitation and fiercer politics made an appeal to arms absolutely certain. A con¬ flict of arms brought on by a conflict of opinion was hound to be followed by a conflict of opinion, whichever side won. So for fifty years since Emancipation, there has been more or less conflict over the Negro and his place in the Eepublic. The results of that conflict have in many instances been oppressive and even disastrous to his freedom. Many things incidental to Emancipation and vital to complete freedom are unfortunately still in the controversial stages. The right of the Negro to cast a ballot on the same quali¬ fications as his other, fellow citizens is not yet conceded every¬ where. Public sentiment has not yet caught up with the Consti¬ tution, nor is it in accord with the principles of true democracy. The right of the Negro to free access to all public places and to exact similar treatment therein is not universal in this country. He is segregated by law in some sections ; he is segregated by cus¬ tom in others. He is subjected to many petty annoyances and injustices and ofttimes deep humiliation solely on account of his color.

The explanation of this reactionary tendency sometimes given is that the Negro is only a generation from slavery. It should not be forgotten that individuals of every other race in history have at some time been held slaves. The bondage of Israel is today

568

NEGEO OEATOES

only an epic poem. The Greek Slave adorns simply a niche in some palace of art. The Servi of Rome instructed the masters of the world. The Anglo-Saxon has not only worn the Roman and Norman collars, but individuals of that race were sold as slaves in the West Indies as late as the seventeenth century. White men have enslaved white men, black men have enslaved black men. The place of human slavery in the divine economy I do not under¬ stand, nor do I defend it; I am glad that the human race has long since passed that stage in its development. No race has a right to lord it over another or seek to degrade it because of a history of servitude ; all have passed through this cruel experience ; the history of the black race is a little more recent, that is all. The fact of slavery, therefore, should not impose the slightest limi¬ tation upon the liberty of the Negro or restriction upon his rights as a man and citizen.

The one great phase of the race question agitating’ the country today is that of intermarriage and miscegenation. It is a serious question; it is a vital question. No one will deny the right of any man to protect his family stock, or the right of a group to pre¬ serve its racial integrity. The facts show, however, that laws, however stringent, will not accomplish it. I submit for the serious consideration of the American people that the only danger of in¬ fusion from the Negro side is simply one thing, and that is summed up in one word “injustice.” Why is it that thousands of colored men and women go over to the other side, “pass,” as we say? It is for no other purpose than to escape the social ostracism and civic disabilities of the Negro. Why is it that we see so many pathetic attempts to be white? It is simply to escape injustice. In a country where every opportunity is open to the white, in business, in society, in government, and the door shut against or reluctantly opened to the black, the natural unconscious effort of the black is to get white. Where black is a badge of an inferior caste position in society, the natural effort of the black is to find some method of escape. I do not advocate intermarriage ; I do not defend mis¬ cegenation. The same thing is true today as it was true in the time of Lincoln. In his debates with Douglas in 1858, he noted “that among the free states, those which make the colored man the nearest equal to the white have proportionally the fewest mulat- toes, the least amalgamation.”

THE PANEGYEIC

569

I submit therefore, that the only sure way to put an end to this tendency or desire, so far as the Negro is concerned, is to accord him all his public and political rights and to treat each individual upon his merits as a man and citizen, according to him such recog¬ nition as his talents, his genius, his services to the community or the state entitles him. Make black, brown, yellow the “open sesame” to the same privileges and the same opportunities as the white, and no one will care to become white.

Upon this day which commemorates the Emancipation of the black and the larger freedom of the white race, the redemption of the state and the birth of a new nation, I would bring to you a message not of blackness and despair but of hope — hope tri¬ umphant, hope, that Watts has pictured as blind with one string to her lyre, sees not the star just ahead, but sits supreme at the top of the world.

Emancipation redeemed the precious promises of the Declaration of Independence. It rid the Eepublic of its one great inconsistency, a government of the people resting upon despotism ; it rescued the ship of state from the rocks of slavery and sectionalism, and set her with sails full and chart and compass true once more upon the broad ocean of humanity to lead the world to the haven of true human brotherhood. We have encountered storms and tempests at times; the waves of race antipathy have run high, and the political exigencies of the hour seem to overcast the heavens with clouds of darkness and despair, yet I have never lost faith, because the fathers set her course, and God, the Master Mariner, has ever been at the helm. “In giving freedom to the slave we insured freedom to the free. ” In a country where all men were free none could be slaves. Emancipation raised labor to its true dignity and gave a new impetus to industry, commerce and civilization. Under free labor men of many climes have come here to help de¬ velop the natural resources of the country, and the nation has en¬ tered upon a period of progress such as the world has never before witnessed in any time or place.

What of the Negro himself? Has he justified Emancipation? The statistics of his physical, intellectual and material progress are known to all. He has increased his numbers nearly threefold. The Negro population is today nearly three times that of the whole country at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. It is

570

NEGRO ORATORS

nearly three times that of New England in 1860. He has reduced his illiteracy to 30 per cent. He owns nearly $700,000,000 worth of property including nearly one million homes. He has shown that his tutelage in American civilization has not been vain ; that he could live under the most trying and oppressive conditions.

Three milestones in his progress have been reached and passed :

First : The North and South agree that the abolition of slavery was right and just.

Second : The people of the North and South agree that every industrial opportunity shall be given to the Negro.

Third: The right of the Negro to be educated and the duty of the state to see to it that he has every opportunity for education are established. Public opinion has settled forever the right of the Negro to be free to labor and to educate. These three things constitute no slight advance; they are the fundamental rights of civilization.

The prophecy of Lincoln has been fulfilled, that Emancipation would be An Act which the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.” Moreover, it should not be forgotten, as Ban¬ croft the historian has said, that “it is in part to the aid of the Negro in freedom that the country owes its success, in its movement of regeneration that the world of mankind owes the continuance of the United States as an example of a republic.” The American Negro in freedom has brought new prestige and glory to his coun¬ try in many ways. Tanner, a Georgia boy, is no longer a Negro artist, but an American artist whose works adorn the galleries of the world. Paul Laurence Dunbar, an American poet, who sing¬ ing songs of his race, voicing its sorrows and griefs with unrivaled lyric sweetness and purity, has caught the ear of the world. The matchless story of Booker Washington, the American Educator IS told in many tongues and in many lands.

The history of the world has no such chapter as the Negro ’s fifty years of freedom. The duty of the hour is to unshackle him and make him wholly free. When the Negro is free from the vexatious annoyances of color and has only the same problems of life as any other men, his contribution to the general welfare of his country will be greater than ever before.

Whatever be his present disadvantages and inequalities, one thing IS absolutely certain, that nowhere else in the world does so

571

The Panegyeio

large a number of people of African descent enjoy so many rights and privileges as here in America. God has not placed these 10,000,000 here upon the American Continent in the American Eepublic for naught. There must be some work for them to do. He has given to each race some particular part to play in our great national drama. I predict that within the next 50 years all these discriminations, disfranchisements, and segregation will pass away. Antipathy to color is not natural, and the fear of ten by eighty million of people is only a spook of politics, a ghost sum¬ moned to the banquet to frighten the timid and foolish.

I care nothing for the past; I look beyond the present; I see a great country with her territories stretching from the rising to the setting sun, with a climate as varied as a tropical day and an Arctic night, with a soil blessed by the fruits of the earth and nourished by the waters under it ; I see a great country tenanted by untold millions of happy, healthy human beings ; men of every race that God has made out of one blood to inherit the earth, a great human family, governed by righteousness and justice, not by greed and fear — in which peace and happiness shall reign

supreme.

Men more and more are beginning to realize that the common origin and destiny of the human race give to each species the right to occupy the earth in peace, prosperity, and plenty, and that the duty of each race is to promote the happiness of all. The move¬ ments for social and industrial justice and the right of the people to rule are world wide.

The American people are fast losing their provincial character. They are today a great world power with interests and possessions upon every part of the globe. Their horizon is the world ; they are thinking in terms of the universe, and speaking in the tongues of all men.

With the widening of men’s visions they must realize that the basis of true democracy and human brotherhood is the common origin and destiny of the human race ; that we are all bom alike, live alike, and die alike, that the laws of man’s existence make abso¬ lutely no distinction.

I wandered recently into Westminster Abbey. I beheld all around me the images and effigies of the illustrious and the great, _ kings, rulers, statesmen, poets, patriots, explorers and scientists;

572

NEGRO ORATORS

I trampled upon the graves of some ; I stood before the tombs of kings, some dead twelve centuries; there the wisest and merriest of monarchs and the most pious and dissolute of kings slept side by side. As illustrating the vanity of triumphs of personal glory, on one side of the Chapel of Henry VII, rests Mary, Queen of Scots and almost directly opposite, all that remains of Elizabeth, her executioner. I stood before the tomb of the great Napoleon; I wandered through his palaces at Versailles and Fontainebleau with all of their magnificence and splendor, and I recalled the period of his power and glory among men, and yet, he too died. Then I passed a potter’s field and I looked upon the graves of the unknown, graves of the pauper, and the pleb, and I realized that they were at last equal, those who slept in Valhalla and those who slept in the common burying ground, and that they would each and all hear the first or the second trump of the resurrection “ac¬ cording to the deeds done in the body and the flesh, according to whether they were good or evil.” In the democracy of death all are equal. Then men, my brothers, our duty is to make life in human society the same great democracy of equality of rights, of privileges, of opportunities, for all the children of men. There is nothing else worth while.

God grant to the American people this larger view of humanity, this greater conception of human duty. In a movement for de¬ mocracy, for social and industrial justice, for the complete Eman¬ cipation of the Negro from the. disabilities of color, Massachusetts must now, as in the past, point the way. If we fail here, with traditions and history such as are ours behind us, can we succeed elsewhere ? The Great Emancipator speaks to us at this hour and furnishes the solution for all our race problems. “Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man, this race and the other race, and the other race being inferior and therefore must be placed in an inferior position. Let us discard all these things and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that ‘all men are created equal’.”

God grant that the American people, year by year, may grow more like Lincoln in charity, justice, and righteousness to the end that “the goverament of the people, for the people, by the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

THE PANEGYRIC

573

THE NEGRO’S DEBT TO LINCOLN "

By Robert Russa Moton ^

When the Pilgrim Fathers set foot npon the shores of America, in 1620, they laid the foundations of our national existence upon the bed-rock of liberty. Prom that day to this, liberty has been the common bond of our united people. In 1776 the altars of a new nation were set up in the name of liberty, and the flag of freedom unfurled before the nations of the earth. In 1812, in the name of liberty, we bared our youthful might and struck for the freedom of the seas. Again, in ’61, when the charter of the na¬ tion’s birth was assailed, the sons of liberty declared anew the principles of their fathers and liberty became co-extensive with the Union. In ’98 the call once more was heard and freedom be¬ came co-extensive with the hemisphere. And as we stand in solemn silence here today, there still comes rumbling out of the East the slowly dying echoes of the last great struggle to make freedom co¬ extensive with the seven seas. Freedom is the life-blood of the nation. Freedom is the heritage bequeathed to all her sons. For all who reflect upon the glory of our Republic, freedom is the underlying philosophy of our national existence.

Conflict of Two Great Forces

But at the same time another influence was working within the nation. While the Mayflower was riding at anchor preparing for her voyage from Plymouth, another ship had already arrived at Jamestown. The first was to bear the pioneers of freedom — free¬ dom of thought and freedom of conscience ; the latter had already borne the pioneers of bondage, a bondage repressive alike to body, mind, and spirit. Here, then, upon American soil, met, within a year, the two great forces that were to shape the destiny of the

^Delivered at the dedication of the Lincoln Monument in Washington, D. C., on May 30, 1922.

“Robert Russa Moton was horn in Amelia County, Virginia, August 26, 1867. His beginnings were obscure. An opportunity came, however, when he reached Hampton where he was educated under the influence of General Samuel Chapman Armstrong. He later became attached to the staff, and was the Commandant of the Hampton cadets. In this position he served acceptably until the death of Booker T. Washington when he was chosen as his successor. Since then, the services rendered by Dr. Moton have been largely educational, but at the same time, so far-reaching as to touch the life of the Negro in aU of its ramifications.

574

NEGRO ORATORS

nation. They developed side by side. Freedom was the great compelling force that dominated all, and, like a great and shining light, beckoned the oppressed of every nation to the hospitality of these shores. But slavery, like a brittle thread, was woven year by year into the fabric of the nation’s life. They who for them¬ selves sought liberty and paid the price thereof in precious blood and priceless treasure, somehow still found it possible, while de¬ fending its eternal principles for themselves, to withhold that same precious boon from others.

And how shall we account for it, except it be that in the provi¬ dence of God the black race in America was thrust across the path of the onward-marching white race to demonstrate, not only for America, but for the world, whether the principles of freedom are of universal application, and ultimately to extend its blessings to all mankind.

In the process of time, as was inevitable, these great forces — the forces of liberty and the forces of bondage — met in open con¬ flict upon the field of battle. And how strange it is, through the same over-ruling providence, that children of those who bought and sold their fellows into bondage should be among those who east aside ties of language, of race, of religion, and even of kin¬ ship, in order that a people, not of their own race nor of their own creed or color but sharing a common humanity, should have the same measure of liberty and freedom which they themselves en¬ joyed.

Freedom’s Costly Sacrifice

What a costly sacrifice upon the altar of freedom ! How costly the world can never know nor justly estimate. The flower of the nation’s manhood and the accumulated treasure of two hundred and fifty years of unremitting toil were offered up ; and at length, when the bitter strife was over, when the marshaled hosts on both sides had turned again to broken, desolated firesides, a cruel fate, unsatisfied wtih the awful toll of four long years of carnage, struck at the nation s head and brought to the dust the already wearied frame of him whose patient fortitude, whose unembittered charity, whose never-failing trust in the guiding hand of God had brought the nation, weltering through a sea of blood, yet one and indivis¬ ible, to quietude and peace. On that day, Abraham Lincoln laid

THE PANEGYEIC 575

dcnvn his life for America, the last and costliest sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Today, in this inspiring presence, we raise a symbol of gratitude for all who are blest by that sacrifice. But in all this vast assem¬ blage there are none more grateful, none more reverent, than the twelve million black Americans, who, with their fellow-citizens of every race, pay devout homage to him who was for them, more truly than for any other group, the author of their freedom. There is no question that Abraham Lincoln died to save the Union. It is equally true that to the last extremity he defended the rights of the States. But, when the last veteran has stacked his arms on fame’s eternal camping ground; when only the memory of high courage and deep devotion remains to inspire the noble sons of valiant fathers ; at such a time, the united voice of grateful pos¬ terity will say: The claim of greatness for Abraham Lincoln lies in this, that amid doubt and distrust, against the counsel of chosen advisers, in the hour of the nation ’s utter peril, he put his trust in God and spoke the word that gave freedom to a race, and vindi¬ cated the honor of a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Has the Sacrifice Been Justified?

But sc*me one will ask : Has such a sacrifice been justified ? Has such martyrdom produced its worthy fruits? I speak for the Negro race. Upon us, more perhaps than upon any other group of the nation, rests the immediate obligation to justify so dear a price for our emancipation. In answer let me review the Negro’s past upon American soil. No group has been more loyal. Whether bond or free, the Negro has served alike his country’s need. Let it never be omitted from the nation’s annals that the blood of a black man — Crispus Attucks — was the first to be shed for this na¬ tion’s freedom. So again, when the world was threatened with disaster and the deciding hand of America was lifted to stay the peril, her black soldiers were among the first to cross the treacher¬ ous sea and the last to leave the trenches. No one is more sensible than the Negro himself of his incongruous position in the great American Kepublic. But be it recorded, to his everlasting credit, that no failure to reap the full reward of his sacrifices has ever

576 NEGRO ORATORS

in the least degree qualified his loyalty or cooled his patriotic fervor.

In like manner has he served his country in the pursuits of peace. From the first blows that won the virgin soil from the wil¬ derness to the sudden marvelous expansion of our industry that went so far to win the late war, the Negro has been the nation’s greatest single asset in the development of its resources. Espe¬ cially is this true in the South where his uncomplaining toil sus¬ tained the splendors of that life which gave to the nation a Wash¬ ington and a Jefferson, a Jackson and a Lee. And afterwards, when devastating war had leveled this fair structure with the ground, the labor of the freedmen restored it to its present pro¬ portions, more substantial and more beautiful than before.

While all this was going on, in spite of limitations within and restrictions without, he still found the way, through industry, in¬ tegrity, and thrift, to acquire 22,000,000 acres of land, 600,000 homes, and 45,000 churches. After less than sixty years of freedom Negroes operate 78 banks, 100 insurance companies, and 50,000 other business enterprises with a combined capital of more than $150,000,000, Besides all this, there are within the race 60,000 professional men, 44,000 school teachers, and 400 newspapers and magazines ; while its general illiteracy has been reduced to twenty- six per cent. Still the Negro race is but at the beginning of its development ; so that if anything in its history could justify the sacrifice that has been made, it is this : that a race possessing such remarkable capacity for advancement has taken full advantage of its freedom to develop its latent powers for itself and for the nation. A race that has produced a Frederick Douglass in the midst of slavery, and a Booker Washington in the aftermath of reconstruction, has gone far to justify its emancipation. And the nation where such achievement is possible is fully worthy of such heroic sacrifice.

But Lincoln did not die for the Negro alone. He freed a nation as well as a race. Those conflicting forces planted two hundred and fifty years before had slowly divided the nation in spirit, in ideals, and in policy. Passing suddenly beyond the bitterness of controversy, his death served more than war itself to emphasize the enormity of the breach that had developed between the sec¬ tions. Not until then was there a full realization of the deep sig-

THE PANEGYRIC 577

nificanee of his prophetic words: “This nation cannot endure haK slave and half free.”

That tragic event shocked the conscience of the nation and stirred a great resolve to establish forever the priceless heritage so dearly- bought. From that day the noblest minds and hearts, both North and South, were bent on healing the breach and restoring the Union. With a devotion that counted neither personal loss nor gain, Abraham Lincoln held steadfastly to an ideal for the Re¬ public that measured at full value the worth of each race and section, cherishing at the same time the hope that under God all should share alike in the blessings of freedom. Now we rejoice in the far-seeing vision and the unswerving faith that held firmly to its single purpose, even in the midst of reproach, and preserved for all posterity the integrity of the nation.

Lincoln has not died in vain. Slowly through the years that noble spirit has been permeating every section of our land and country. Sixty years ago he stood in lonely grandeur above a tom and bleeding nation, a towering figure of patient righteous¬ ness. Today his spirit animates the breasts of millions of his countrymen who unite with us to pay tribute to his lofty character and his immortal deeds.

An Experiment in Human Relationships

And now the whole world turns with anxious hearts and eager eyes toward America. In the providence of God there has been started on these shores the great experiment of the ages — an ex¬ periment in human relationships where men and women of every nation, of every race and creed, are thrown together in daily con¬ tact. Here we are engaged, consciously or unconsciously, in the great problem of determining how different races can not only live together in peace, but cooperate in working out a higher and better civilization than has yet been achieved. At the extremes the white and black races face each other. Here in America these two races are charged under God with the responsibility of show¬ ing the world how individuals, as well as races, may differ most widely in color and inheritance and at the same time make them¬ selves helpful and even indispensable to each other’s progress and prosperity. This is especially true in the South where the black man is found in greatest numbers and where the two races are

578 NEGRO ORATORS

thrown into closest contact. And there today are found black men and white men who are working together in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln to establish in fact what his death established in principle: that a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, can endure.

As we gather on this consecrated spot his spirit must rejoice that sectional rancours and racial antagonisms are softening more and more into mutual understanding and effective cooperation. And I like to think that here today, while we dedicate this symbol of our gratitude, the nation is dedicated anew by its own deter¬ mined will to fulfill to the last letter the task imposed upon it by the martyred dead : that here it highly resolves that the humblest citizen, of whatever color or creed, shall enjoy that equal oppor¬ tunity and unhampered freedom for which the immortal Lincoln gave the last full measure of devotion.

And the progress of events confirms this view. Step by step has the nation been making its way forward in the spirit of the great Emancipator. And nowhere is this more true than in that section which sixty years ago seemed least in accord with his spirit and purpose, yet at this hour, in many things, is vying with the rest of the nation toward the fulfillment of his hopes.

Twelve million black Americans share in the rejoicing of this hour. As yet, no other name so warms the heart or stirs the depths of their gratitude as that of Abraham Lincoln. To him above all others we owe the privilege of sharing as fellow-citizens in the consecration of this spot and the dedication of this shrine. In the name of Lincoln twelve million black Americans pledge to the nation their continued loyalty and their unreserved cooperation in every effort to realize in deeds the lofty principles established by his martyrdom. “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right,” may we, one and all, black and white. North and South, strive on to finish the work which he so nobly began; to make America an example for all the world of equal justice and equal opportunity for all,

Chapter XI

CHAPTER XI

Optimistic Oratory

Immediately following the reconstruction, there devel¬ oped the polemic orator. As the etfort to elevate the Negro to citizenship in the South had failed upon the withdrawal of the Federal troops from that section, persons still in¬ terested in the race hoped that, by building upon the mere foundation of their physical freedom, they might devise some scheme for their elevation to the status of the whites.

At first, the emphasis was upon religion, with education as a preparation for a larger enjoyment of things spiritual. A generation after the days of reconstruction, however, Booker T. Washington came forward with the idea of em¬ phasizing industrial training for economic efficiency to se¬ cure the recognition of the whites. Coming at a time when so much had been done to elevate the Negro by applying the means which had hitherto been instrumental in the uplift of the whites, his policy was militantly attacked by persons who would not accept this program as a finality.

This optimistic doctrine, however, was most eloquently and successfully set forth by this new leader in one of the greatest speeches of modern times at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895. Reading this discourse, which diverges so much from the procedure of others then toiling for the mental development of the Negro, one can readily observe how much confusion in the ranks of such workers would in¬ evitably result.

579

580

Negeo Oeatoes An Address Delivered At The Opening Of The

NEGEO OEATOES

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE COTTON STATES’ EXPOSITION IN ATLANTA, GEOR¬ GIA, SEPTEMBER, 1895.

By Booker T. Washington

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and Citizens : One-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest success. I but convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, the sentiment of the masses of my race when I say that in no way have the value and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously recognized than by the managers of this magnificent Exposition at every stage of its progress. It is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of freedom.

Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress. Ignorant and inexperi¬ enced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead of at the bottom ; that a seat in Congress or the State Legislature was more sought than real estate or indus¬ trial skill; that the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy farm or truck garden.

A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. Prom the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal : “Water, water; we die of thirst!” The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back : ‘ ‘ Cast down your bucket where you are. ’ ’ A second time the signal, “Water, water; send us water!” ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race who depend upon bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is his next door neighbor, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are” — cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded.

Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic

Optimistic Oratoey

581

service, and in the professions. And in this connection it is well to bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may he called to hear, when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the Negro is given a man’s chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is this Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our greatest danger is, that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labor, and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life ; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful. No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to over¬ shadow our opportunities.

To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Cast it down among the 8,000,000 Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidel¬ ity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treach¬ erous meant the ruin of your firesides. Cast down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labor wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the prog¬ ress of the South. Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and, with education of head, hand and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your factories. While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and un- resentful people that the world has seen. As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past, in nursing your children, watching by the sick bed of your mothers and fathers, and often following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in the future, in our hum-

582

NEGRO ORATORS

ble way, we shall stand by you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in defense of yours, interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil, and religious life with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both races one. In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.

There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence and development of all. If anywhere there are efforts tending to curtail the fullest growth of the Negro, let these efforts be turned into stimulating, encouraging, and making him the most useful and intelligent citizen. Effort or means so invested will pay a thousand per cent interest. These efforts will be twice blessed — blessing him that gives and him that takes.

There is no escape through law of man or God from the inevi¬ table :

“The laws of changeless justice bind Oppressor with oppressed ;

And close as sin and suffering joined We march to fate abreast.”

Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load upwards, or they will pull against you the load downwards. We shall constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the South, or one-third its intelligence and progress ; we shall con¬ tribute one-third to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding every effort to advance the body politic.

Gentlemen of the Exposition, as we present to you our humble effort at an exhibition of our progress, you must not expect over¬ much. Starting thirty years ago with ownership here and there in a few quilts and pumpkins and chickens (gathered from miscel¬ laneous sources), remember the path that has led from these to the invention and production of agricultural implements, buggies, steam engines, newspapers, books, statuary, carving, paintings, the management of drug stores and banks has not been trodden without contact with thorns and thistles. While we take pride in what we exhibit as a result of our independent efforts, we do not for a

Optimistic Oeatory

583

moment forget that our part in this exhibition would fall far short of your expectations but for the constant help that has come to our educational life, not only from the Southern States, but espe¬ cially from Northern philanthropists, who have made their gifts a constant stream of blessing and encouragement.

The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of ques¬ tions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized. It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of those privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house.

In conclusion, may I repeat that nothing in thirty years has given us more hope and encouragement, and drawn us so near to you of the white race, as this opportunity offered by the Exposi¬ tion; and here bending, as it were, over the altar that represents the results of the struggles of your race and mine, both starting practically empty-handed three decades ago, I pledge that, in your effort to work out the great and intricate problem which God has laid at the doors of the South, you shall have at all times the patient, sympathetic help of my race ; only let this be constantly in mind that, while from representations in these buildings of the products of field, of forest, of mine, of factory, letters, and art, much good will come, yet far above and beyond material benefits will be the higher good, that let us pray God will come, in a blotting out of sectional differences and racial animosities and suspicions, in a determination to administer absolute justice, in a willing obedience among all classes to the mandates of law. This, coupled with our material prosperity, will bring into our beloved South a new heaven and a new earth.

584

Negro Orators Address Delivered At The Harvard Alumni

NEGRO ORATORS

ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE HARVARD ALUMNI

DINNER IN 1896

By Booker T. Washington ^

Mr. President and Gentlemen : It would in some measure relieve my embarrassment if I could, even in a slight degree, feel myself worthy of the great honor which you do me today. Why you have called me from the Black Belt of the South, from among my humble people, to share in the honors of this occasion, is not for me to explain; and yet it may not be inappropriate for me to suggest that it seems to me that one of the most vital questions that touch our American life is how to bring the strong, wealthy and learned into helpful touch with the poorest, most ignorant and humblest, and at the same time make the one appreciate the vitalizing, strengthening influence of the other. How shall we make the man¬ sions on yon Beacon Street feel and see the need of the spirits in the lowliest cabin in Alabama cotton flelds or Louisiana sugar bottoms? This problem Harvard University is solving, not by bringing itself down, but by bringing the masses up.

If through me, an humble representative, seven millions of my people in the South might be permitted to send a message to Har¬ vard-Harvard that offered up on death’s altar young Shaw, and Russell, and Lowell, and scores of others, that we might have a free and united country — that message would be, “Tell them that the sacriflce was not in vain. Tell them that by habits of thrift and economy, by way of the industrial school and college, we are coming. We are crawling up, working up, yea, bursting up. Often through oppression, unjust discrimination and prejudice, but through them all we are coming up, and with proper habits, intelli¬ gence and property, there is no power on earth that can perma¬ nently stay our progress. ’ ’

If my life in the past has meant anything in the lifting up of my people and the bringing about of better relations between your race and mine, I assure you from this day it will mean doubly more. In the economy of God there is but one standard by which an individual can succeed — there is but one for a race. This country demands that every race shall measure itself by the Amer-

^In 1896 Harvard University honored Mr. Washington by conferring upon him the degree of Master of Arts. This was the first time that a New England college had conferred an honorary degree upon a Negro.

Optimistic Oeatoey

585

lean standard. By it a race must rise or fall, succeed or fail, and in the last analysis mere sentiment counts for little. During the next half century and more, my race must continue passing through the severe American crucible. We are to be tested in our patience, our forbearance, our perseverance, our power to endure wrong, to withstand temptations, to economize, to acquire and use skill; in our ability to compete, to succeed in commerce, to disregard the superficial for the real, the appearance for the substance, to be great and yet small, learned and yet simple, high and yet the servant of all. This, this is the passport to all that is best in the life of our Eepublic, and the Negro must possess it, or be debarred.

While we are thus being tested, I beg of you to remember that wherever our life touches yours, we help or hinder. Wherever your life touches ours, you make us stronger or weaker. No mem¬ ber of your race in any part of our country can harm the meanest member of mine without the proudest and bluest blood in Massa¬ chusetts being degraded. When Mississippi commits crime. New England commits crime, and in so much, lowers the standard of your civilization. There is no escape — man drags man down, or man lifts man up.

In working out our destiny, while the main center of activity must be with us, we shall need, in a large measure in the years that are to come as we have in the past, the help, the encourage¬ ment, the guidance that the strong can give the weak. Thus helped, we of both races in the South soon shall throw off the shackles of racial and sectional prejudice and rise, as Harvard University has risen and as we all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness and selfishness, into that atmosphere, that pure sun¬ shine, where it will be our highest ambition to serve man, our brother, regardless of race or previous condition.

FREEDOM THROUGH EDUCATION^

By Roscoe Conkling Bruce ^

We gather to commemorate the resolute and faithful men who fought and fell in the Civil War for nationality and free institu-

* An address delivered by Roscoe Conkling Bruce in Sanders Theater, Memorial Hall, Cambridge, Massachusetts, before the Memorial Society of Harvard University on Memorial Day, 1905.

^Roscoe Conkling Bruce was born in Washington at the time his father, Senator

586

NEGRO ORATORS

tions. Now and then it is urged that the North fought to free the slave; hut, looking back over the years, can we say that was all that the men whose names are written upon these walls — Shaw, and Lowell, and Pickering— died for? It was not merely the Sorrow Songs of plantation and swamp, the anguished cry of fugitive slave, the burning eloquence of Frederick Douglass — it was not so much pity as nationality and Anglo-Saxon ideals and institutions that impelled your heroes to strike the fetters from the toiling slave. Your soldiers recognized the fact that funda¬ mental Americanism demands the free play of each individual’s best powers in the service of the community. In the interest of social justice, national economy, free institutions, human nature itself, your heroes fought to set my people free.

In camps and fields many a New England soldier with the blue- back spelling book on his knees, had clumsily taught black soldiers and contrabands the first hard lessons in the great mystery of letters. Hard on the heels of the soldiers, when the air was not yet purged of the horrid smell of powder and blood, the sehoolma’m ventured. She came to liberate; but, she came with benediction and grace, her power was over the heart and conscience of the people. It was the teacher’s service to grant the slave that moral freedom which emancipation of the body made possible; that is the teacher’s service at this hour. The free play of each indi¬ vidual’s best powers can be secured only through education.

It must be remembered that in slavery Massachusetts and Mis¬ sissippi, Georgia and Vermont sinned together. Slavery was recog¬ nized by statute in 1641 by Massachusetts, in 1650 by Connecticut, in 1661 by Virginia, and later by the other colonies. If emanci¬ pation was compassed or in progress throughout the North before 1800, who shall say it was not economic rather than moral reasons that vouchsafed the North this preeminence in public righteous¬ ness? Who, then, shall cast the first stone? Slavery was the

Blanch K. Bruce of Mississippi, was serving as United States Senator. He attended the Howard University Academy for a short while, but completed the preparation for college at Phillips Exeter Academy. He then entered Harvard University where he distinguished himself as a debater, as is evidenced by his being chosen class orator. Leaving Harvard, Mr. Bruce became head of the academic department at Tuskegee Institute. From that position, he came to the District of Columbia to serve as Assistant Superintendent in charge of the colored schools. After holding this position fifteen years he resigned to go into business.

OPTIMISTIC OEATORY 587

nation’s sin; freedom through education is the nation’s oppor¬ tunity, the nation’s duty to itself.

The fact that in Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Mississippi, and Virginia over one-half the Negro males of voting age are illiterate, today shows that the nation’s duty is not done. Although the total Negro enrollment in the common schools of the South has almost trebled in twenty-six years, it is true that in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas the number of Negro illiterates today exceeds the aggre¬ gate Negro population of similar age in 1860 ; the enlargement of school facilities has lagged far behind the sheer increase in popu¬ lation. Only about one-half the Negro children of school age are enrolled in school and less than one-third of those enrolled attend six months or more. The fundamental principle of the American common school, I mean the impartial disposal of public funds to educate all the children of all the people, — despite substantial improvement in public sentiment, that principle is very far indeed from recognition in Southern practice. Black Americans in the South cast no ballots. And so, not more than one-fifth of the school income, the United States Commissioner of Education very cautiously estimates, goes at present to the support of Negro schools. Says Mr. Carl Holliday, a southern white college professor, in the South Atlantic Quarterly (Oetober, 1904), with unusual candor,

‘ ‘ In Alabama where the number of children of school age is almost equally divided between the whites and the blacks, the Negro ob¬ tains scarcely more than fifteen per cent of the income for public education. Under such conditions the mental development of the Negro is a matter not of years but of ages.”

Of the nine million Negroes in the United States, seven millions live in country districts ; the primary problem is that of the peas¬ ant. By an automatic process whose current causes are social, the Negro farming population tends to segregate in rather sharply defined areas. For example, in Alabama, there are twelve counties, which form a continuous belt across the state largely coinciding with the cotton soils of the Central Prairie, in each of which the Negroes comprise over seventy per cent of the population. The aggregate population of these counties is nearly half a million, of which eighty-five per cent is Negro ; in 1880 the blacks outnumbered the whites by thirty-six to ten, and in 1900 by fifty-five to ten.

588

NEGRO ORATORS

Now, the white county Negro seems to occupy a higher level of life and certainly displays a higher industrial efficiency than his black county brother. Comparing twelve white counties in northern Alabama with the twelve black counties, I find that in 1900 fifty- one per cent of the Negroes were illiterate in the white counties as against sixty-seven per cent in the black. In the white counties the Negroes were in charge of less than three thousand agricultural holdings but owned thirty -seven per cent; in the black counties they were in charge of fifty thousand holdings and owned only eight per cent. The white belt produces from one-fourth to one- half bale of cotton to the acre on poor land — the same product that the black belt produces on next to the best land in the South. To no small extent the whites use selected seed, plant an increasing variety of crops, rotate their crops, use fertilizers with intelligence, plow diligently to avert the effects of drouth, readily take to new implements and machinery, stick to their tasks with constancy, and practice many minute economies in production and in consumption. These things are full of instruction and stimulus to the black farmer; but example and stimulus are absent in the black belt. The industrial condition and efficiency and the moral quality of the black farmer in the Alabama black belt have, I believe, improved substantially, but at a snail’s pace. The black belt folk are not stolid and stunned; they are good-hearted, hopeful despite the serfmaking proclivities of the crop lien, eager to learn. On the whole, however, the general efficiency of the white county Negro is higher than that of his brother in the black belt and this is largely due to the presence in the one case and the absence in the other of examples of intelligence, jthrift, and energy.

You must remember that, in the’tjnited States, whereas nineteen per cent of the Negroes engaged in gainful pursuits are grouped as farmers, planters, and overseers, thirty-four per cent are agricul¬ tural laborers. Idle a large part of the year, burdened with no particular responsibility, a member of no particular community with position and reputation to make or to sustain, without a home or even a fixed abode, accessible to few of the incentives to probity and thrift and progress that wholesome family life exerts, exposed to the myriad temptations of careless roving— the black farm hand presents a. very grave problem.

Is it not abundantly clear that, unless extraordinary effort is

OPTIMISTIC OEATOEY

589

put forth, the Negro masses herding in black belts in the way I have suggested, will indefinitely remain below what ought to be our national minimum ? — that some of the richest agricultural resources in America will remain undeveloped ? — ^that a vast supply of labor will remain inefficient ? — that these slumbering masses of black men and women and children will remain in their helplessness a tempta¬ tion to unscrupulous shrewdness and a menace to the spirit and practice of Anglo-Saxon institutions ? Education is a vast resource ; yet the public schools are wretchedly housed, wretchedly furnished, wretchedly taught. Their effort does not vitally connect itself with the actual life and need of these people; if the school arts be ill taught, agriculture and the household arts are hardly taught at all. Now, the moral and industrial regeneration of Negro life in the Black Belt must come from within; the job must be done by teachers, preachers, mechanics, farmers, housewives educated and trained in Negro schools and inspired to help their people. Insti¬ tutions seeking to contribute to this far-reaching service should educate their students to ideals and train them in habits and arts that they may spread among the masses intelligent methods in farm and garden and household work ; patient thrift and sustained industry; clear foresight and prompt initiative; rugged honesty and steady self-control; moral courage, chastity; public spirit and racial confidence and pride. In a school community like Tuskegee all the elements of real life are adequately represented. The students participate to the fullest extent in the whole circle of activities; they gain experience and a reasonable confidence in their own powers and a sense of responsibility. Such school com¬ munities, resting upon agriculture as the basic industry, should be established at the center of each of the greater black belts ; they should, as President Eliot has recently suggested, receive the na¬ tion ’s aid. Such institutions secure the free play of the best powers of men and women of unusual quality. In a deeper and truer sense than your conquering armies were, a Tuskegee is an instru¬ ment of emancipation. I voice today not the prayer of pity, but the august demand of a vast national responsibility.

“The country Negro,” says Professor Kelly Miller, “is em¬ balmed ... in a state of nature, where he will be preserved . . , until his opportunity comes. With the city Negro, on the other hand, it is immediate rescue or destruction.” For better schools.

590

NEGRO ORATORS

better police protection, greater variety of interest, greater per¬ sonal independence, the Negro flees crop lien, plantation store, and overseer, for the city. Today there are 700,000 Negroes in our large cities. The large number of persons concerned, their steady and rapid increase, their unpreparedness for the new and merciless life, their practical exclusion from the trades, and their congestion in black wards challenge attention. The urban Negro dwells in sullen poverty, his death rate is alarming, he commits excessive crime. ‘ ‘ The rich man ’s wealth is his strong city ; the destruction of the poor is their poverty. ’ ’ The starved body, the starved mind, the starved soul predisposed to crime; and poverty starves body, mind, and soul. I cannot forget that behind the marshaled statis¬ tics of poverty and crime and death stand suffering, withered hopes, desolate homes, distorted human nature. To me Marlowe’s noble art does not more vividly present the eternal tragedy between human aspiration and human power than these dreary statistics portray the awful contrast between the open-hearted buoyancy of the plantation Negro lured to the city’s breathless life and the degradation in which he and his children and his children’s chil¬ dren find themselves enmeshed. Fundamentally, this situation is due to the fact that the Negro peasant is wholly unprepared for the complications, the composition, the moral stress of city life; and little or no provision is made to train him in the arts and industries by which he might sustain himself. Memphis, Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and New York, — in which the Negro population varies from two per cent of the total in New York to forty-nine per cent in Memphis, and from 36,000 in St. Louis to 87,000 in Washington — contain a total black popu¬ lation of over half a million souls ; and in not one of these cities does there exist a Trade School for Negroes even remotely com¬ parable to the Baron de Hirsch School in New York City for immi¬ grant Jews. It is certainly to the interest of the cities to place within reach of their Negro populations not only the usual facilities of good grammar schools and good high schools, but also adequate training directly for economic independence. It is rather more far-seeing to train than to imprison ; it costs less in moral liability and in dollars. As to the matter of death rates and some other matters, a modern city is like an ocean liner ; yellow fever in the steerage does not stay there. As domestic servant and unskilled

OPTIMISTIC OEATORY

591

laborer, the urban Negro does not offer the city his best powers as an instrument of production. Embittered by an industrial boycott to which he cannot in sufficient numbers oppose high efficiency, at his wit’s end for a crust of bread and a couch, his vote is the prompt resource of scamp and scoundrel. For the education and training that shall liberate the black citizen’s best powers in the service of the community, it is not pity that pleads — it is social justice and free institutions and the common welfare and the national respon¬ sibility.

Dominant opinion North and South is at one in conviction and insistence that the development of the Negro people in America is essential to the progressive well-being of the nation, to the integrity of free institutions in this land ; and that this development shall be in a very definite sense separate. Perhaps the most significant fact in recent Negro history is the rapid growth in this rising people, under stress of differential treatment, of self-consciousness and race pride. If this self-consciousness degenerates on occasion into hypersensitiveness and insolence, you must remember that the prejudice often flouts all the equities of democratic life and occa¬ sionally revels in excesses which in Jamaica and in Egypt English administration and good sense sternly repress. The rose, I beg you to remember, does not flourish under a millstone; the cactus may.

Discrimination at the soda fountain has been capitalized by the black druggist and is everywhere in the South yielding him “hand¬ some returns”! To the Negro physician race prejudice and dif¬ ferential treatment are in some of their effects a positive asset and bounty. He does not insist in his very salutation upon defining his patient’s social inferiority; he is not dreaded as a callous stranger with a terrible knife. The Negro physician’s service is largely that of spreading among his people in the multifarious contacts of social life an appreciation of the importance of personal hygiene and good sanitation. It is he who, not only in the sick¬ room but in all the assemblies of the people, has aroused Negroes to the infectious character of tubercular diseases and the means for cheeking the advance of the great White Plague. The successful careers of hundreds of Negro physicians and pharmacists in the Lower South is the clearest possible evidence of the opportimities awaiting trained men.

592

NEGEO OEATOES

And who can preach the Word of God to black men but a Negro — be he Crummell, with his Oxford education, or the Eight Eev- erend John Jasper, with his “sun-do-move” theology? In country districts, the churches are the centers of organization in Negro life, in potency of influence the preacher overshadovs teacher and landholder ; but too often the whole weight of the untrained and ignorant preacher ’s influence is thrown sheer against both material and moral progress. In cities the control of the church over the Negro’s life needs strengthening if only for restraint of crime. Everywhere the elaborate ecclesiastical organization should be directed and represented by men of high character and keen intelli¬ gence. The divergence in views and sentiments between the older and younger generations of Negroes expresses itself very pointedly in religious matters. The church must remain the House of God, but at the same time the preacher must enrich the formalities of religion not only with the sweet spirit of sociability but also with the serious interests of daily life. The church, as well as the school, must be a social center rich in interest if it is to exercise a reason¬ able control over the more vigorous elements in the community. The preacher faces a situation in which the utmost tact and intelligence and breadth of appreciation and power of leader¬ ship are requisite. Without unduly shocking the ingrained beliefs of the fathers, he must attach the religious sentiment to the moralities of common life. He must preach honesty, chastity, fidelity to contract, home-getting — the religion of character and thrift. How can such service be rendered by an illiterate? — a weakling ?

Here and there, particularly in private institutions like Spelman Seminary and Hampton Institute and in Universities like Atlanta and Fisk and Shaw, white teachers — most from the North but some from the South — of the finest culture and the noblest devotion will always, I pray and believe, continue to teach Negro youth in the heart of the South. For this service, the Negro people will always feel as they have always felt — profoundly grateful. But, schools — industrial and normal, elementary and secondary, great and small — even colleges and professional schools, — such separate institutions for Negro students will more and more seek teachers and executive officers in men and women of Negro blood. In point of fact, the teachers of Negroes are today in the vast majority of cases black,

Optimistic Opatoey

593

and neither South nor North questions for a moment the com¬ petency of black men and women for such service or the wholesome eifects of such an arrangement upon the spirit and attitude of the students and upon the whole present social situation. The quicken¬ ing of Negro life must come more and more from within, the up¬ lifting forces in Negro life must be more and more in the hands of Negroes. Now, the fundamental problem of any school is not land and buildings but personnel — the personnel of the teaching body. It is a grievous error to suppose that a good heart and some ability to read and write adequately equip a teacher of the common branches ; or that sobriety and some knack with saw and plane and hammer, make a teacher of carpentry. One of the most serious problems that a great institution like Tuskegee, for example, has to face is the dearth of men and women of liberal education, specific training in teaching, and professional spirit and ideals. Negro public schools are everywhere gravely embarrassed by lack of prin¬ cipals and teachers with a sound and thorough education. This issue is now upon us ; the demand for well-equipped Negro teachers for all classes of Negro schools is at this moment very far in excess of the supply. The Negro teacher of the best education and the best training is never out of a job; the field of his influence and service is almost limitless.

Where, then, can the teachers, the preachers, the physicians for the Negro people be educated and trained unless the South has colleges and professional schools for selected Negro youth? Now, the truth is that the superior education and training has suffered from popular distrust of the educational value of Greek and Latin in the teaching of Negro youth. A black boy can get education, it has been felt, out of making a horse-shoe or building a wagon ; but how out of reading De Senectute? But, the effects of education are really to be sought in the mind and character and growing power of the student ; the process is, in any ease, essentially intan¬ gible, and to estimate the thoroughness of the process and its value for life in terms of the ponderable character of the apparatus is a fundamental error. Anything is practical that is of service to the community. Clear thinking and an insight into human nature certainly have as many practical uses as deftness with hammer and tongs; ordinarily, a teacher influences more people in more important ways than does a blacksmith. In so far as the popular

594

NEGEO OEATOES

distrust assumes Negro nature to be as unlike human nature as chalk is unlike cheese, I may be permitted to hope the distrust blinks the facts. But, it is unquestionably true that the curriculum of the New England college which New England teachers planted in the South is not adequately adjusted to the life of white youth in New England today, much less to the life of black youth in the lower South. The misfortune is that, while in New England that curriculum has since the sixties been brought into vital rela¬ tions with present-day conditions, in the South it retains much of the old-time rigor and narrowness and there is much worship of the fetich. The Negro college in the South should admit students who have never studied Latin or Greek, and should enrich its cur¬ riculum by the addition of thorough courses in natural science with its applications to trade and industry; in history and social science with special attention to the traditions and progress of Negro peoples in Africa and in America, and tO’ the sociological problems in which Negro life in America is enmeshed today. The Negro college should render its curriculum flexible and more widely serviceable through the introduction of an elective system by the provisions of which the dead languages might give way to the living languages and history and social science, and advanced mathematics to psychology and ethics and the principles and prac¬ tice of education. And, Anally, the Negro university should organ¬ ize well-equipped schools of education, of engineering, of agricul¬ ture alongside of the school of medicine. Some of these reforms have already been compassed or are in progress, I am glad to say, in the best Negro colleges and universities of the South.

It is essential, says President Eliot, “that the teachers, preachers, physicians, lawyers, engineers, and superior mechanics, the leaders of industry throughout the Negro communities of the South, should be trained in superior institutions. If any expect that the Negro teachers of the South can be adequately educated in primary schools or grammar schools or industrial schools pure and simple, I can only say in reply that that is more than we can do in the North with the white race. The only way to have good primary schools and grammar schools in Massachusetts is to have high and normal schools and colleges in which the higher teachers are trained. It must be so throughout the South, the Negro race needs absolutely these higher facilities for education.” And yet, for example, after

OPTIMISTIC ORATOEY

595

nearly four decades of splendid service, with over a thousand graduates, many of whom are in positions of high trust and re¬ sponsibility, and with a present enrollment of nearly nine hundred selected Negro youth, the total endowment of Atlanta and Fisk Universities taken together is only $125,000!

When the black soldiers of the sixty-second and sixty-fifth regi¬ ments of United States colored infantry were discharged, they contributed a fund of over $6,000 to establish in Missouri a school where their children might enjoy the blessings of a useful educa¬ tion. Those Negro soldiers gave their savings to the same cause for which they had gladly offered their lives — the cause of freedom. The Harvard men who fell in the Civil War gave their lives for social justice, national economy, free institutions, human nature itself. When I stand before the memorial to Robert Gould Shaw, representing in bronze, as your chairman (Professor George Her¬ bert Palmer) has said, “a subject race moving toward freedom, gaining that freedom through its own exertions, yet under the guidance of a people more developed than itself,” I am glad to know that a memorial glorified if not by the same art, yet by an equal motive, will be erected to William H. Baldwin, who sought under peace to vouchsafe black Americans opportunity to win a larger freedom. The Baldwin memorial will be erected not on Boston Common but in the heart of the South on soil once tilled by Negro slaves but now consecrated to the education of the children of those slaves under Negro teachers. Baldwin advanced the edu¬ cation and training of selected Negro youth in whose hands may more and more be entrusted the great uplifting forces in Negro life. These two sons of Harvard whose names I would link today, the soldier and the citizen, chiefly served free institutions in America.

Until the fetters fall from the minds and hearts and energies of nine million black Americans, the blood of your heroic soldiers cries aloud from the battle-field and the nation’s duty is not done.

596

NEGRO ORATORS

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON— A LOVER OF HIS FELLOW-MEN^

By William H. Lewis

It is fitting that the Urban League, for the improvement of the conditions of the colored population right at your own doors, should join with Hampton and Tuskegee in this Memorial to Dr. Booker T. Washington, because the objects of the League, of which Dr. Washington was at one time a Director, providing for better sanitary housing, better social conditions, greater industrial opportunities for the thousands of his race in New York, were ever dear to his heart. It is fitting also because the League stands for the principle of cooperation between the races, which begets sympathy and under¬ standing. It recognizes the fact that the colored population will become either a great asset or a dreadful liability to the City, according to whether they are given a fair opportunity to find a place in your social and industrial life, or neglected and treated as strangers within your gates.

It is not of ourselves we have come to speak at this time. We have come to pay our humble tribute of respect to the fallen leader, whose ideas of the economic and social welfare of the race constitute our creed and our program.

That voice, the most eloquent of his day, which once pleaded in this hall for humanity and justice, is hushed forever. The mag¬ netic personality, that so often stood here, the representative of the social, educational, and industrial aspirations of his race, has passed to the silent sepulchre of the dust. No more shall we behold that sturdy, familiar figure. Never more shall we hear that persuasive voice pleading for educational opportunities for the great masses of his people. But the character and influence of Washington still survive. He lives in this magnificent audience gathered here, representing the wealth, the splendor, the intelligence, and public spirit of the great metropolis that he loved so well, upon which he cast a last fond, lingering glance that November afternoon as,

* A Memorial Meeting in honor of Dr. Booker T. Washington was held in Carnegie Hall, New York City, on the evening of February 11, 1916. The meeting was held under the auspices of Hampton Institute, Tuskegee Institute, and the National League on Urban Conditions. Hon. Seth Low, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee Institute, presided, and addresses were made by Dr. H. B. Prissell, Hon. W. H. Lewis, Hon. William G. Willcox, Dr. James H. Dillard, and Major R. R, Moton.

OPTIMISTIC OEATORY

597

sadly but courageously, he began his last journey to Tuskegee and beyond. He lives in millions of homes built by hands of thrift and love, in millions of hopeful, purposeful lives inspired by his teach¬ ings. He lives in the thousands of young men and women whom he has sent forth from Tuskegee to teach their fellows how to live healthy, happy, wholesome, human lives. Above all, he lives in that “higher good” which, at Atlanta twenty years ago, he prayed God might come “in blotting out sectional differences and racial animosities and suspicions, ’ ’ If today, in our country, sectionalism happily is on the wane, it is because this slave, with broken chains dangling from his wrists, stretching forth one hand to the North and one to the South to brothers once estranged, said: “You must help each other the other’s burden to bear.” If today there is a better understanding between the races, a growing feeling of respect for the rights of each other, a spirit of mutual helpfulness and understanding between them, it is because Washington spent his life in cultivating friendships that lay close to his door.

I pledge you here and now, for those of us who knew and loved Dr. Washington, that we will ever pray and strive for that “higher good ’ ’ ; for by this pathway alone can we climb to the summit of complete equality of rights and opportunities in the great American Democracy.

The name and character of Washington will live for years to come, as an example of the heights to which the humblest of any race may attain through service of his fellows. Whether his influ¬ ence is to be a permanent and abiding force in American life depends upon the future of the institution he founded. In his lifetime he carried Tuskegee upon his heart ; in his death Tuskegee rests upon his ashes. That noble institution will either crumble and perish or stand as his enduring monument accordingly as the American people give to it that endowment to which it is entitled because .of the inestimable service which it has rendered and is rendering in the solution of the greatest of our problems. His was a practical mind, keen for the essential and fundamental things of life. If he could speak to us at this hour he would ask no memorial of bronze or marble ; he would prefer to live in the oppor¬ tunity given to millions of his race, through Tuskegee, to climb upward slowly but surely through industry and character to com¬ plete American citizenship.

598

NEGEO OEATORS

The outlines of this marvelous career are known to all because its active period was passed during the lifetime of men not yet old. Born a slave without a name, laid upon a bundle of dirty rags upon the dirt floor of a log cabin, with hardly more thought given to his birth than that of a domestic animal, he had the spark of genius in him ; he died a freedman, a citizen of the world. An unlettered slave at the age of seven, he was a Master of Arts at thirty-seven ; at forty-two a Doctor of Laws, an American Educator of first rank — the first man of color in the world. So great had been his achievements in uplifting his race in America that Lord Grey invited him to undertake the enormous task of formulating an edu¬ cational system for the blacks of South Africa.

Surely if ever Abraham Lincoln, upon the eve of whose birthday we stand, needed justification for emancipation it is found in the life, character, and achievements of Booker T. Washington. Wash¬ ington’s life showed that a man could rise from being property himself to inherit the earth; to win, through sacrifice and service to his fellows, immortal fame.

When the shackles fell from his limbs they also fell from his mind, his heart, and soul. No doubt the terrible social and political and industrial conditions in which he found his race after the reconstruction weighed heavily upon him, but he never allowed himself to become discouraged, disheartened, soured, or embittered. He rose superior to race injustice and race prejudice. He so often said that no man could make him hate another; that he would never allow himself to be dragged down by hating any man because of his race or even of his prejudices. He loved the South, its people, and understood them and their sorrow, the terrible experi¬ ence which had been theirs through the passing of slavery. He sought to assuage her grief, to help bind up her wounds, and to carry the friendly relations which frequently existed between mas¬ ter and slave over into the new life of the freedman. As has been so often said, he became the interpreter of one race to another. He understood both because he was of both. In loving and working for his own race it was easy for him to love and work for all men, so that the man “farthest down,” whether in London, Galicia, or Sicily, became the object of his affections and his prayers. In his sympathies for the cause of man he touched the universal. He was a lover of his fellow-men. This is the secret of the greatness

OPTIMISTIC ORATOEY

599

of Washington. His was a great soul, in which no bitterness or littleness could even find a lurking place. His was the great heart of Lincoln, “with malice toward none and charity for all.” He loved all men, and all men loved him.

When Washington came upon the stage he beheld an emancipated race chained to the soil by the mortgage crop system and other devices; he said to his people: “You must own your own lands, you must own your own farms,” and forthwith there was a second emancipation. He beheld the industrial trade and skilled labor passing into other hands ; he said : ‘ ‘ The hand, as well as the head, must be educated, ’ ’ and forthwith the educational system of Amer¬ ica was revolutionized. He saw the black, toiling masses spending all they earned ; he said : ‘ ‘ Thrift, save ; get a bank account. This is the only way. ’ ’ He saw that the political superstructure of our freedom could not last without a solid economic basis laid in thrift, independence, skilled labor, good homes, and good schools, and all the institutions necessary to permanent success. He reared anew the foundations of freedom upon an economic basis. He cemented the friendships of the two races as an essential to permanent prog¬ ress. He compromised no principle of human rights. In his own way, simple and diplomatic, he advanced the interests and rights of all. He was a statesman, as well as a leader of his race. He was an American orator, educator, and publicist of highest rank and authority.

Washington grew, as Tuskegee grew, in richness, prestige, power, and influence. Tuskegee typifies the man and his achievements. That great institution stands, above all things else, for what Wash¬ ington intended it should stand, as convincing, ample proof that the colored race has initiative, real constructive ability.

Washington was endowed with great executive and administrative ability, shrewd common sense, and a practical knowledge of men and affairs. His knowledge of human nature was instinctive, in¬ tuitive, and sometimes uncanny. He knew the Southern white man better than the Southern white man knew himself, and knew the sure road to his head and heart.

He had a keen sense of humor, characteristic of the race. He could tell a story to enforce or illustrate a point in his argument with teUing effect. Strangely enough, this gifted man could make men serious or convulse an audience with laughter, but he was

600

NEGEO OEATOES

without the gift of pathos, and had few emotions. I have never known him to make an audience weep, unless they were crying with laughter. He had little use for tears because he was an optimist, a strong-hearted, courageous man, whom nothing could discourage. He was a builder, a constructive worker among men. He said an ounce of construction is better than a ton of destruction. His mission was serious. He was in earnest. He was modest in his bearing, with a charming reserve of manner, a simple dignity, per¬ fect poise, and straightforward, sincere, and direct in all his deal¬ ings with men.

You, of this generation, who beheld Booker Washington, the idol of his race, the favorite of those in high places — educators, publishers, kings, presidents, philanthropists — must not overlook the humble beginning, privations and sacrifices of his early career. I saw him as a young man, grim, resolute, pursuing the objects of his heart, begging almost from door to door, facing fierce criticism of his own race, including myself, the indifference and unsym¬ pathetic ear of others. I saw him again in the full flush of the pride of achievement, the recognized leader of his race, confldant of presidents, everywhere courted and admired. The paths he trod were not all roses ; there were thorns and stones, sharp and rough, that beset his way. He wore himself out in the service of his fellows and humanity. He reached the summit, turned a moment, looked back with satisfaction upon the distance he had come, and just before him, all too soon, there fell upon his fading gaze the sunrise of the eternal morning.

And now, my friends, I trust that you will pardon a personal word. For seven years, after leaving college, I belonged to the Boston Radicals, who opposed the policies and program of Booker T. Washington for improving the condition of the masses. It was because I had not risen to the point where I could appreciate or understand the loftiness of his character or the far-reaching influ¬ ence of his mission. I thought, as a young man, that Latin con¬ quered everything. Washington read it right, labor conquers all. I saw the form. He saw the substance. No power on earth could change his convictions. He was right. I shall never fail to thank the Almighty for the day and the hour when I flrst saw the truth and became a friend and follower of Booker Washington. For fifteen years I tried to make amends for the injustice I had done.

OPTIMISTIC OEATOEY

601

In all our acquaintanceship he never referred, by word or action, to the many bitter things I had said about him. And now he is gone.

I saw my friend for the last time in August ; I think it was the evening of August 22d, when he was turning his step southward. He was worn and tired, his figure emaciated; the light of another day seemed even then upon his countenance, but there was a look of calmness and resignation about him his friends could not fail to note. We realized that the great change was at hand. The clasp of that friendly hand as he said “Good-bye,” the hand now cold in death, I shall never forget. I believe that somehow, some¬ where, I shall clasp that hand again, meet his full, frank, honest gaze of sympathy and perfect understanding. I am glad to say that he was my friend and I his. To me he is not dead. His sweet and gentle spirit keeps company with me everywhere. His voice comes to me in the silent watches of the night, inspiring and en¬ couraging. I shall never lose faith in man as long as I recall the memory of Booker Washington. Every man, woman, and child of darker skin must feel a greater pride of race, a firmer faith in God, because of the life and character of Booker Washington.

He is dead in his prime, yet he had realized the ambitions and ideals of his youth, something done to advance the Kingdom of God, the cause of his race and his country. As Bernard Shaw said of himself, it might be said of Washington, “he held his life as a flaming torch; he wanted to be thoroughly worn out and burned out when he died.” Booker Washington simply burned himself out in the service of his fellows. My humble prayer is that his torch has lighted another among the darker millions of America to lead his race onward and upward.

In the peace of the quiet Sabbath morning, when the harvest season was over, the great soul of Booker Washington passed to his Maker, taking with him his garnered sheaves. The sunrise upon the distant shores greeted a soul as sweet and beautiful as this poor world has ever known, and

‘ ‘ How well he fell asleep !

Like some proud river, widening Toward the sea;

Calmly and grandly, silently and deep,

Life joined Eternity.”

602

NEGEO OEATOES

A LIFE OF ACHIEVEMENT ^

By Egbert E. Moton

It is entirely fitting that on the eve of the birthday of the great Emancipator we should gather here to reverently pay our respects to the memory of the one who stands so preeminently as the most unique product of Emancipation. Booker T. Washington’s life and work would have alone justified Abraham Lincoln’s ideas and

actions regarding Emancipation.

The remarks which I shall make this evening are in no sense intended as a eulogy, for that would be absolutely out of harmony with the life and teachings, and, I believe, with the wish of our great leader. My hope' is rather to call attention, inadequately, of course, to a few of the great principles which controlled and guided his life, enabling him to perform so great and so beautiful a service for the Negro and for the nation, with the desire that we may therefrom learn lessons and gain inspiration that may help and encourage us for the great work which he left to us all to carry on.

Dr. Washington found a mass of unorganized, unconnected peo¬ ple ; untrained in self-direction, with little knowledge of self- support and citizenship ; as yet more or less ignorant and poverty stricken, but with a strong desire for education and the possession of property ; more or less demoralized and discouraged ; as sus¬ picious and distrustful of their own race as of the white race ; and, in the main, following no especially constructive leadership ; with the relations between the races, to all appearance, growing daily less cordial and friendly, and more cold and businesslike. He found his people, like their more progressive white exemplars, looking with grave suspicion upon any system of education not in accordance with what had previously been in vogue, having the feeling that a farm, or a shop, or a kitchen should have no place in a well-regulated institution, and believing that the pupil should he adjusted to the school, not the school to the pupil.

Few men in the world’s history have been able to accomplish in so short a period for so large a mass of people what Dr. Wash¬ ington was able to accomplish. He organized and enheartened a race, giving them a new idea of education and of life, teaching the

1 Delivered at a memorial meeting in honor of Booker T. Washington, held in New York City, February 11, 1916.

OPTIMISTIC ORATORY 603

dignity, grandeur, beauty, and absolute necessity of industry and morality as fundamental things in the development of any people, leading them to a belief in and a respect for their own race, deepen¬ ing their race pride, their race consciousness, and their race in¬ tegrity — giving the Negro a definite place in the thought and life of the times. It was a difficult, embarrassing, foreboding race problem which he found; he left a clear, definite, hopeful race program, the letter and spirit of which, if wisely and unselfishly followed, will, without doubt, bring, in the long run, a happy, wholesome, and satisfactory solution, and an adjustment mutually acceptable to all vitally concerned.

He often said; “No man, either white or black, from North or from South, shall drag me down so low as to make me hate him.” This, my friends, was his life motto, and yet few men were more sensitive to unfairness or injustice. Misunderstanding and preju¬ dice are apt to affect most people strongly, especially those who are keenly stung, but with Dr. Washington the underlying cause of prejudice and unfairness was of far more interest, and he set himself with all energy and with all patience to dispel ignorance, poverty, inefficiency, and immorality wherever found, not by force and violence of words or of conduct, but by an affectionate, though persistent, courageous, and indomitable common sense, or, rather, uncommon sense.

The press and the platform have emphasized, and justly so. Dr. Washington’s great wisdom, his rare tact, his remarkable poise, diplomacy, and self-control. The world has known few men with greater poise and self-control than he possessed. These were very important elements in his character.

But the underlying, fundamental, dominating, controlling prin¬ ciple and characteristic of Dr. Washington’s life, that which en¬ abled him to render such a great service to this nation, was his belief in and his love for mankind. All his other qualities, impor¬ tant as they were, were secondary to the great principle which always guided him. He believed in and respected and loved humanity, and this faith was not circumscribed by race, or limited by section, or bounded by color lines. North and South, black and white, were on his heart and in his program. Where ignorance and poverty were greatest, where a human need was most apparent, there his interest was deepest, his words strongest, his great elo-

604

NEGRO ORATORS

quenee most convincing, and his energy and force most deeply vitalized and spiritualized. Because he believed in, respected, and loved the Southern white man, he interpreted to his own people with wisdom, with patience, and with kindness the feelings and sentiments of the white South.

Because of Dr. Washington’s absolute faith in the possibilities of his own race, because of his pride in his race, because he loved his race, he analyzed and frankly interpreted the Negro to himself, telling him his shortcomings and failings in unvarnished fashion, teaching him what right education means and what it should do for the individual and the race, working out in concrete form in Tuskegee Institute, as well as outside of the institution, his ideas of education. Both in the North and in the South he linked edu¬ cation in a very definite, practical, and necessary way to life, not as life ought to be — the ideal life — but as life really is, in the cabin, on the farm, in the church, in the school, in the alley, in disease, in crime; he taught men that education, whether professional, academic, technical, or industrial, should touch and influence the common, everyday vocations by which men live and move and have their existence.

He interpreted, with kindness and patience and wisdom, the North to the South, the South to the North, the Negro to both, and both to the Negro. He helped tremendously in making peace between races and between sections. He used every opportunity to allay factional strife and bickerings between groups of Negroes. He was truly a peacemaker. He caused the lion and the lamb to lie down together, and a little child — an honest and simple and unselfish Negro—was leading them to real peace on earth and that good-will which the great Nazarene came to bring among men of all races and all nations.

General Armstrong, through Hampton Institute, responded as best he could — and he was a wise, far-seeing man — to the earnest, urgent appeal of this untrained, poverty-stricken, black boy for a chance. He gave him, not money, not even charity as such, but he did give Booker Washington what every American, in the last analysis, believes, deep down in his heart, that every human being should have, an opportunity to make the most of himself— a chance equal to that of any other man. Booker Washington used this chance in developing in every possible way opportunities, chances,

OPTIMISTIC ORATORY

605

for other people, whether in Alabama and the South, the Isles of the Sea, or Africa. He struggled that men might have a chance through the great Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute which he founded, for which he labored and sacrificed, and for which he gave his life. He struggled that they might have a chance, not only through Tuskegee Institute, but through other educational institutions of a different character as well. He pleaded for them with rare eloquence, as well as rare earnestness and devotion, in the North and in the South, in city and in country, through the press, from the platform, and through the National Negro Business League. In season and out of season, often in much discomfort, and frequently against the advice of his best friends and his physician, he pleaded for his people, than whom there is no more loyal group of American citizens, loyal to the flag and all for which it stands. And they, my friends, would die for that flag if necessary.

I hope I may be forgiven if I say a few words more directly to my own people, inasmuch as they form so large a part of the audience. I hope no one will believe that I, for a moment, think I can fill Dr. Washington’s place. I am earnestly and humbly aware that this is impossible. It would require the combined energy and effort of all the Negroes in America, and, in addition, the cooperation and backing of all the white people, to carry on Dr. Washington’s work, and I doubt whether, even then, it would be done as effectively as he did it.

If any of us, because of weaknesses and failings within our race, or because of unfairness, injustice, and inconvenience without, or because of the color of our faces and the texture of our hair, have been hitherto lacking in appreciation of our race, or have been afraid to be unmistakably identified with the Negro race, let us, in the name of the God who made us, forever dispel any such foolish, childish, disastrous notions. Let us remember, once and for always, that no race that is ashamed of itself, no race that despises itself, that tries to get away from itself, no race that does not respect, honor, and love itself, can gain the confidence and respect of other races, or will ever be truly great and useful.

Let us remember, also, that we are not an accursed people ; that races with whiter faces have, and are still going through, difficulties infinitely more trying and embarrassing than much that faces us ; that we have in this country vast opportunities for growth and

606

NEGRO ORATORS

development, as well as for usefulness and service. We are crea¬ tures of God ’s most perfect handiwork, and any lack of appreciation on our part is a reflection on the great Creator. Though we Negroes are black, and though we are living under hampering difficulties and inconveniences, God meant that we should be just as honest, just as industrious, just as skillful, just as pure, just as intelligent, just as Godlike, as any human beings that walk on the face of God ’s earth.

I hope and I believe that because of the life that has so recently gone out from among us, we, as a people, will henceforward, as never before, unselfishly work together, not always thinking, feeling, or acting alike, but always in perfect harmony and mutual help¬ fulness for a great cause, for a great need, for a great race, and for a great nation. This is the most important lesson we can learn from the life and teachings of our great leader and benefactor.

At the very simple but impressive funeral service at Tuskegee, in November, more than eight thousand people — rich and poor, from city and country, educated and uneducated, from North and South, black and white — gathered to pay reverently their last tribute of respect and devotion to the man they loved. The beauti¬ ful city of Tuskegee, by special request of its honored Mayor, ceased all business during the funeral hour. Practically every white business house and organization, together with hundreds of individuals in Tuskegee and Macon County, as well as throughout the great State of Alabama (to say nothing about the colored people), sent floral offerings, and to a Negro, mind you ! And this, my friends, was in the shadow, almost, of the old Confederate eapitol in Montgomery, Alabama and the South loved Booker Washington; Booker Washington loved Alabama and the South, where he lived, labored, and died, and where he wanted to be buried.

The Principal of Hampton Institute, Dr. Hollis B. Frissell, a lifelong friend of Dr. Washington, and his teacher at Hampton (as well as mine), began a very beautiful and impressive prayer at the funeral service at Tuskegee with these fltting words from the Apostle Paul : ‘ ‘ Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory. ’ ’ Booker Washington’s life, Booker Washington’s work, Booker Washington’s death, were truly victories — a victory in unselflsh- ness, a victory in patience, a victory in simplicity, a victory in faith,

OPTIMISTIC OEATOEY 607

a victory in a love that suffered long and was kind, was not puffed up, and rejoiced in truth and in service.

I congratulate the Negro race most heartily and earnestly, I congratulate myself, and I congratulate the nation, too, for we are all prouder, richer, happier, and better because this man lived and labored. Though he died a poor man, as far as this world’s goods are concerned, he died rich in achievement and in service. As I said before, he found a most trying, embarrassing, discouraging race problem, and left us a clear, definite, hopeful, unselfish race program. Whether this program is being worked out through Edwards at Snow Hill, or Cornelia Bowen at Mount Meigs, Ala., through Long at Christiansburg, Va., through Holtzclaw at Utica, Miss., through a J eanes School or a Rosenwald School, through Baldwin Farms or the Negro Business League, or through the lives and characters and earnest work of thousands of unnamed graduates and former students of Tuskegee Institute, it matters little. It is the same vitalizing, courageous, unselfish spirit of Booker T. Washington, in the same wise, unselfish program, work¬ ing earnestly for the good of men and to the glory of God.

I believe, my friends, that you who are heirs of the opportunities, the culture, and the wealth of the ages, you who love humanity and justice, you who love our glorious country, I truly believe that you will see to it that the great institution through which Booker Washington worked, and for which he died, will be maintained and operated to its full capacity, and with the greatest possible efficiency. I believe that you will see to it that these black boys and girls, sometimes called despised' and rejected children, may continue to have a chance — a chance to be trained, a chance to be educated, a chance to be efficient, a chance to be useful to their race and country, a chance to be decent, h chance to serve.

MEMORIAL ADDRESS ^

By Emmett J. Scott ^

Not by invitation, but by command of the First Vice-President and the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National

> Delivered at the Seventeenth Annual Session of the National Negro Business League, Convention Hall, Kansas City, Missouri, Wednesday evening, August 16, 1916.

^ Emmett J. Scott, for twenty-two years Secretary to Booker T. Washington, and of

608

NEGRO ORATORS

Negro Business League, I stand here tonight to pay homage to the memory of the man who was not only the founder of our great organization, but the leader of his people in America, and one of the foremost thinkers of the world, irrespective of race, creed or color.

It is altogether sweet and beautiful that this great organization should halt its proceedings to commemorate the purposeful life of him who, on this first evening of our annual meetings, always encouraged us with a word of good cheer, sounded a vibrant note of optimism, and cordially expressed to us, and through us to the Negro people of the United States, his warmest congratulations upon the achievements of the twelve months before. Oh, how we miss him tonight!

You who knew him as man and as friend know what Kipling meant when he said :

“There is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face tho’ they come from the ends of the Earth!”

He gripped men to him with hooks of steel. He loved and was loved of men.

If in my eiforts to speak worthily of him, I fail to pay adequate tribute to his great and useful life, I know I shall have your for¬ bearance, for it is only before an audience, such as this, composed of those who knew him, and loved him, and trusted him, and mourn his passing, that I could bring myself to speak of him at all.

These are days of preparedness. The world welters in an orgy of blood. Across the broad Atlantic, we hear martial strains call¬ ing men to duty, to defense of country, and to death. Our own country all but reels and rocks. There are on every side search¬ ings of heart, admonitions, uncertainties. We know not what a day may bring forth. The military hero is the man of the hour.

The man whose name and fame we tonight celebrate, the glory

the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, was born at Houston, Texas, February 13 1873. He was educated at Wiley University, Marshall, Texas. He was appointed a member of the American Commission to Liberia in 1909 by President William Howard Taft, was Secretary of the National Conference on the Negro held in 1912, served as Secretary of the National Negro Business League from date of its organization func¬ tioned as Special Assistant to the Secretary of War during the World War, and became Secretary-Treasurer of the Howard University, Washington, in 1919.

OPTIMISTIC ORATOEY 609

of whose life we share, fought in no wars, carried upon his breast no Iron Cross, nor medal of the Legion of Honor, and yet he could have, like Heine, exclaimed: “When I die, I wish a sword placed upon my coffin, for I have been a soldier in the war for the libera¬ tion of humanity ! ’ ’ Our friend was indeed ‘ ‘ a soldier in the war for the liberation of humanity!”

His Woek Was Monumental

When the world’s tokens of affection and respect were laid upon his bier nine months ago the outstanding tribute was that this man had spent himself for his fellows. W^ell did Henry W atterson. Southerner of Southerners, say: “The death of Booker Washing¬ ton is a national misfortune, for his life was a national benefaction. His towering figure for more than a generation was a pillar of fire to lead his people out of the darkness of ignorance, indolence and error. He was the Negro’s wisest and bravest teacher and leader. He devoted his life, every day of it, every energy of it, to bringing the Negro real freedom and to respected and self-re¬ specting citizenship. His work, great in its purpose, great in its results, was monumental. ’ ’

Fit complement of this expression from Henry Watterson was that of the Sage of Sagamore Hill, the militant, incarnate evangel of the Square Deal, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, who, when in¬ formed of the death of his friend, said: “He was one of the dis¬ tinguished citizens of the United States, a man who rendered greater service to his own race than had ever been rendered by any one else, and who in doing so also rendered great service to the whole country. I mourn his loss and feel that one of the most useful citizens of our land has gone.”

My friends, it is worth while to have lived and to have deserved such encomiums as these, one from a Southern man of lineage and distinction, the other from a Northern man of birth and breeding. Notable indeed was it when this Northern white man and a com¬ pany of men of great prominence, journeyed a thousand miles, to the heart of the South, to testify by their presence and their speech their appreciation of the life so beautifully and sweetly lived by our leader and friend.

610

NEGEO OEATOES

He Walked Humbly with His God

I trust you will bear with me if I quote once again from Colonel Roosevelt. At the memorial exercises held at Tuskegee, Alabama, December 12, 1915, he said :

“If I were obliged to choose one sentence out of all the sentences that have ever been written in which to sum up what seems to me to be the deepest religious spirit, I should take a phrase from the prophet Micah, which says: ‘What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God?’ And Booker Washington did justice, and he loved mercy, and he walked humbly with his God. He spent his life in service, in serving the people of his own race, and in serving^ the people of my race just as much. He did justice to every man, and no injustice done him could swerve him from the path of justice to others ; and he not only loved mercy, but he lived the love he felt for mercy; and finally, he walked humbly with his God. There was not in him a touch of the servile spirit ; there was not in him a touch of unworthy abasement, but there was the genuine humility of spirit that made him eager and anxious to walk humbly and work humbly with his God for the welfare of his race, and there is not one of you here, not one of you tonight, black man or white, who does not know that every word I am speaking is the exact truth. ’ ’

There have been those who have sought to read into Mr. Wash¬ ington s life a spirit contrary to Colonel Roosevelt’s estimate. That is why I have ventured to bring to your attention this just evaluation of the spirit which characterized his life and his work. Humility is not servility.

Let us, my friends, remember him as Guide, Philosopher, Friend, unspoiled by the great honors which came to him, for there was in him no room for personal vanity, or weakness. He was the type of leader who saw fundamentals clearly. Despite criticism and reviling, he was not ashamed to hold that each individual must acquire his own basic character, those qualities and fundamental virtues which make him a useful member of society through prac¬ tical, purposeful work. Industry and thrift were the gospel which our great leader preached and practiced with a vigor that could

OPTIMISTIC ORATOEY

611

not fail to win. Year after year lie thundered from the platform of the National Negro Business League that it is only through industry and thrift that the Negro is to win his way permanently. His message fell on eager ears, and he lived to see a race stirring with hope, throbbing with ambition, stepping forth and demanding a “place in the sun,” producing results, triumphing over diffi¬ culties.

Do you not recall those thrilling words at Boston last year — Boston that had reviled him, and which now rose to acclaim him when he stood on the platform of Symphony Hall this night one year ago ? At that time he said :

“With our race, as it has been and always will he with all races, without economic and business foundation it is hardly possible to have educational and religious growth and political freedom. . . . An ounce of application is worth a ton of abstraction. We must not he afraid to pay the price for success — the price of sleepless nights, the price of toil when others rest, the price of planning today for tomorrow, this year for next year. If someone else en¬ dures the hardships, does the thinking, and pays the salaries, someone else will reap the harvest and enjoy the reward.

“To accomplish what I have indicated, we must have a united race, men who are big enough and broad enough to forget and overlook personal and local differences and each willing to place upon the altar all that he holds for the benefit of the race and our country. . . .

“No matter how poor you are, how black you are, or how obscure your present work and position, I want each one to remember that there is a chance for him, and the more difficulties he has to over¬ come, the greater will be his success.”

In these words are to be found the touchstone of success, and it is to the credit of our race that it has been willing to listen and to follow his wise teachings, the advice of this man who always spoke for truth and justice; “who knew wisdom and valued not justice less; who knew justice and valued not wisdom less.”

He Was a Man of Vision

Our friend was a man of vision. His life was a life of triumph, a real triumph, if you will permit me to say so, of democracy itself.

612

NEGRO ORATORS

The picture of the newly-freed slave sleeping under a wooden pave¬ ment in Richmond, Virginia ; a waif keeping body and soul together as best he could, with a burning thirst for education and a desire to get ahead in the world, together with the achievements of his lifetime and the triumphs of his marvelous career, prove that in truth his life was a triumph of democracy. The story of his rise from slavery reads like some stirring romance. He drank to its very lees all that poverty and servitude, with their discouraging handicaps, could offer. We may bemoan the fate which condemns a Lincoln, a Garfield, a Douglass, to penury and to struggle, and yet, as a great orator has said, “Poverty is a hard but oftentimes a loving nurse. If fortune denies the luxuries of wealth, she makes greater compensation in that greater love which they alone can ever know who have faced privations together. The child may shiver in the fury of the blast which no maternal tenderness can shield him from, but he may feel a helpless tear drop upon his cheek which will keep him warm till the snows of time have cov¬ ered his hair. It is not wealth that counts in the making of the world, but character. And character is best formed amid those surroundings where every waking hour is filled with struggle, where no flag of truce is ever sent, and only darkness stays the conflict. ’ ’

Thank God that this is true. Who knows but that this precious life of service and achievement might have been lost to us if he had not met and vanquished discouragement after discouragement in the grim struggle with poverty; if he had not gone on unfal¬ teringly, with serene courage, toward the goal which must have seemed but a dim mirage at the beginning.

The secret of Mr. Washington’s success in life — if indeed there were any secret about it at all — was his unfailing optimism, his dogged determination, his resolve to permit no obstacle to daunt him, and his proof on numerous occasions that he was absolutely above insult or humiliation. No disappointment could discourage him.

If it were necessary, or time permitted, examples all too numer¬ ous could be cited in proof of this statement. If the young men and women of his race everywhere could but catch some portion of his sweet spirit, his high courage, his rich optimism ! For us, in every part of this country, there would dawn that new and better

OPTIMISTIC ORATOEY 613

day for which our fathers and our fathers’ fathers have worked and sung and prayed.

He Had Faith in His Race

Mr. Washington had faith in his race. He looked on every Negro home, however humble, in which dwelt industry, honesty and the domestic virtues, as a center of hope and safety for the race. It was his good fortune to live long enough to see thou¬ sands of homes founded by the men and women for whose schooling and manhood and womanhood he labored. And this great respon¬ sibility he has passed on to us, so that it is now our task to work as earnestly as did he for the establishment of more and better Negro homes, for more and better Negro schools, for more and better Negro business enterprises, for a higher level of civilization among our people.

I must not fail to speak of that large and important service ren¬ dered by him to both races in seeking to blot out sectional animosi¬ ties, of interpreting one race to the other. He was the foremost missionary of our race. He sought to overcome racial misunder¬ standings, racial injustices, racial prejudices. Nothing could em¬ bitter him. It was his proud boast that no man could drag him down so low as to make him hate that man. He labored with divine patience, for racial cooperation and racial good will. He came to he the one beacon light of hope to men of both sections, of both races, who had been groping in a world of uncertainty and doubt. The most impressive thing, in my opinion, about Mr. Washington, was his intense earnestness in seeking to have white men understand black men, and to have black men understand white men. And I thank God that as his sense of things faded he had the deserved privilege of knowing that his labors had not been in vain ; that largely through his efforts during the past twenty years there exists in our country today a better understanding between the races, a growing feeling of respect for the rights of each other, a finer spirit of mutual helpfulness.

He Loved the Southland

Booker Washington loved his native Southland. When the light of the eternal morning gilded his brow and bathed his sturdy form in its radiance, courageously he prepared for the long journey

614

NEGRO ORATORS

■which, was to bring to an end his earthly career. He wished to bear out his oft-repeated statement that he had been born in the South ; had lived and labored in the South ; and wished to die and be buried in the South. It could be said of him, as it was said of Abraham Lincoln: “Whether he rose or fell; whether he stood in that giant-like repose that distinguished him among his fellow- men, or exercised those unequaled powers which made him a fore¬ most figure of the world, he always felt the tender and invisible chord that chained him to his native rock. In whatever field he stood he felt the benign and sobering influence of his early recol¬ lections. They were the rock to which he clung in storms, the anchor which kept his head to the wind, the balm which sustained him in defeat, and ennobled him in the hour of triumph.”

He Loved His Race

Mr. Washington loved his race. He preached, in season and out of season, that self-help, self-discipline, self -salvation, are the only factors in the history of races or individuals that permanently count, or endure. Though his voice might sometimes chasten, it most often was heard pleading at the bar of public opinion for his race, for “fair play,” for a “square deal.” It was for this purpose, and in this spirit, that he stood at Atlanta ; that he stood at the unveiling of Shaw’s deathless monument on Boston Com¬ mon ; that he stood in the Chicago Auditorium before President and Cabinet and the mighty of the land at the close of the Spanish- American War; that he stood within the classic shades of old Harvard to receive the first honorary degree conferred by that institution upon one of his race. And so he stood upon an hun¬ dred, yea, a thousand platforms, throughout the country as the tribune of his race, pleading for humanity and justice, giving voice to the inarticulate educational, industrial and moral aspirations of a race.

He Was a Religious Man

Mr. Washington was a deeply religious man. He believed in, trusted, lived by the precepts of the Bible. He was not too great, and never too busy to turn to the thumb-worn copy of Holy Writ which was his invariable, comforting companion. Have you not

OPTIMISTIC ORATOEY 615

heard him, with face aglow and faith-revealing expression, quote his two favorite passages of Scripture?

“Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are just, what¬ soever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

And that other one :

“But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

He had the vision to see that if he could only prevail upon his race to “think on these things,” no law, or laws, could prevail against them.

And now, finally, my friends, are we here simply to mourn his loss, to chronicle the details of his busy, overburdened life, to recite his splendid achievements, and the many high honors which came to him, and through him, to us? Or are we here to seek to draw some lessons from his inspiring, triumphant life?

His Self-Sacrifice, His Self-Denial, His Self-Forgetfulness

Our hearts do indeed sorrow with that brave companion who labored by his side, smoothing his pathway, relieving his life as best she could of daily fret and care. We do sorrow with the bereft children of his household who miss the joy of his presence, the tonic of his fatherly voice. We all miss him, here and everywhere. My own heart has felt its overpowering sense of loneliness, its crav¬ ing for his presence. I loved him as the son loves the father in whom he sees the embodied glory of high ideals, garnered wisdom and experience. He taught me by his daily life that it is worth while to live loyally with and for one’s higher self. I owe him much. I shall never cease to recall his sweet, tranquil spirit, his charm of manner, his youthful zest in the joy of work, his love for, and faith in his fellow-man. I shall never forget his self- sacrifice, his self-denial, his self-forgetfulness.

But he is gone. The lighted torch he carried now passes to our

616

NEdEO OEATOES

hands. The work he did was work for the nation. He was not an unprofitable servant. He gave to his race and to his country all of physical and mental vigor; he could give no more. The best, the most fruitful years of his life were spent in behalf of his fellows. His life will shine with steady radiance as the years come and go. Let us hearken to the call he sounded for brave, patriotic service; let us press forward, strong and unafraid, with patience and firm resolve, with the lessons of his devoted life ever before us, to advance the cause for which he was willing to live, for which he was willing to work, and finally, for which he was willing to die.

Chapter XII

CHAPTER XII

Occasional Oratory

The Negro advocate of race rights, with no constructive program for the attainment of the things necessary to com¬ pel the recognition of his claims, lost his hold on the public during the period of trying out the optimistic program of industrial education as a means to economic efficiency. When such men had a hearing, it was usually in a seques¬ tered sphere where they could not reach the persons they hoped to convert to their way of thinking. The majority of the white people in this country, many of whom were kindly disposed to the aspirations of the Negro, abandoned the idea of sustaining him in his claims for civic and political equality. The audience of the progressive Negro statesmen, therefore, was so reduced as to render their ap¬ peals hopelessly inetfective, except so far as moving here and there a person who might hear them as a voice crying

from afar.

Negro oratory, then, passed through a transition period of inaction or reconstruction. The white man could no longer he expected to hear the story of the oppressed, and the Negroes who might thereby be moved, had, within them¬ selves, no power to redress their own grievances. During this interlude, therefore, the Negro orator, except so far as he combated the reactionary tendencies in his own group, had little opportunity for the enunciation of a great thought, before a great audience or upon a great occasion. The most forceful expression of the plight of the race dur¬ ing this period came, not from the orators, but from its pamphleteers and essayists like Kelly Miller and W. E. B.

618 NEGRO ORATORS

Du Bois, whose expression of advanced thought have the ring of the lamentations of a people carried away captive. Occasionally, however, there were delivered addresses of significance like these below.

“A PLEA FOR A SUSPENSION OF JUDGMENT” ^

By Bishop W. T. Vernon ^

It is a long way from the back woods of Missouri, where I was bom, to a speaker’s place at a Kansas Day Club banquet ; and were I to use all the time allotted me in efforts to express my gratitude for the opportunity given me by President Valentine and the officers and members of this club, I still could not utter my pro¬ found appreciation for this encouragement to my people, with whom my destiny is linked forever.

This is no personal honor ; but rather the expression of cheer and helpfulness to a struggling race, a faithful part of the great party represented by this great gathering tonight. I would not separate myselE from my race. I am content to suffer affliction with them. Placed for a spell by His Almighty hand within this tenement of possibly less favored clay — the deathless soul which speaks through lips ofttimes derided shall not lament its presence there. The cause of my people is my cause, their struggles my struggles.

Why are we here ? A destiny unseen brought the Mayflower with freedom to the western wild, cavalier to the Old Dominion and the slaver s ship to the Southland, all to people these new shores, from which admixture by devious ways, through tortuous paths, fate

‘An address delivered before the Kansas Day Club in 1905.

® Bishop William T. Verson was born in Lebanon, Missouri, July 11, 1871. In his fifteenth year he entered Lincoln University at Jefferson City, Missouri, and was graduated therefrom in June 1890, as the valedictorian of his class. He taught in the public schools in the state, at Bonne Terre, and Lebanon, his birthplace. In 1896 he felt the call to the ministry and joined the Missouri Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in session at Springfield, Missouri. He was assigned to the Presidency of Western University, a struggling school of this denomination located at Quindaro, Kansas. It rapidly developed under his direction. He served as Reg¬ ister of the United States Treasury under President Theodore Roosevelt. He then went south and became the president of Campbell College, another church institution at Jackson, Mississippi. After pastoring several churches he was elected bishop at the quadrennial session of the general conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church held at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1920, and was assigned to Africa. He is now stationed

Occasional Oeatory

619

has decreed the glorious state we call our common country. It is the way of destiny. Children of Him are we all.

The legacy of duty to the world is left with those who have opportunities ; and none can sit idly by and see in vogue the law of strongest beak and sharpest claw, for truly,

“The laws of changeless justice bind Oppressor with oppressed.

And close as sin and suffered joined We march to fate abreast.”

To wail over unfortunate conditions or bemoan what at times seems an untoward fate is to display neither manhood nor gratitude toward friends. We have just cause for hopefulness.

Remembering the sacrifice of benefactors whose memory is em¬ balmed in history’s urn, we mark the vast step from savagery of ancestor to the product of the school today. From chattering jargon and fetish adoration on native heath four centuries ago, we rung by rung have come to poets, painters, scholars of assthetic tastes and a reverence for the Christian’s God.

We, too, have heard the voice of duty, and feel a higher Provi¬ dence calling us onward. We see other personalities than our own, having rights we must respect if we would in turn have ours respected, and thus do deeds that lift man up tO' loftier heights. We realize that every idle hand, every vicious thought, every depraved soul, every breach of law, every desire to have the shadow rather than the real, mean ignoble failure and inharmony with the divine economy of creation.

As the schools do their work we awake to obligations that bind us all and recognize responsibility to self, humanity and God.

Though at times seen and unseen foes interpose, friends in a greater degree beckon and lead us on ; and if at times we stumble, fail and fall, as in the past, despairing not, we rise to progress.

We are resolved to put aside regrets for doubting, failing yes¬ terdays, and seeing these only as warnings against future mistakes, each day essay a nobler task.

If we need examples of unconquerable courage we have but to trace your glorious career. You, too, have had your struggles.

When England, proud, victorious mistress of the seas, sought to

620

NEGRO ORATORS

undo that at which your ancestors for nearly two centuries wrought, | England failed. And why? Your bravery and love for God and home and native land, inspired by the spirit your race always knew to know no masters, made you free. Then by your side on Boston Commons our Attucks died, at Bunker Hill was Salem, at York- town, when to Washington was handed the sword of Cornwallis, Negro slaves, too, stood at parade rest, believing that in some far- off day their children’s children would know the freedom which that day came to you and yours.

With Perry at Lake Erie, with Jackson at New Orleans my people died. And why? In them was stuff that heroes makes, | and they were led by heroes.

From American soil a spirit sprang which quickened all it touched. It swept the air even in cane brake, cotton patch and rice swamp. It made of slaves men who knew no fear if duty called.

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Wagner, Petersburg, and of our work on sea and land from ’61 to ’65, when we ceased to fight as serfs, but, fighting as only free men can, proved that the Providence which sent us here had for its purpose the preserving of a nation’s life as well as the giving of a higher life to us.

In peace the same devotion gave we to those whom we served. We delved in earth, we tunneled mountains, we diked and stayed the wave-dashed sea carrying all of nature’s power, we felled the trees in forests primeval, we changed the course of winding river, we leveled hills and tilled the fields, we gathered stores in barn and bin, we wrought in mine and drew the load, the burden bearers we were. If aborigine or wild beast attack were threatened, we watched at day or night, and still if wanted at toil men had but to look at spreading fields, at either dawn or fading twilight, and we were there. We broke no faith ; we betrayed no trust.

And since that earlier day men said, “This bondage must not be — the bondman must know freedom.” And despite Fugitive Slave law, Dred Scott Decision, ’mid persecution, revilings, scourg- ings, yea, death, some of your race risked all, that black men might be free.

Then came the Birneys, Lovejoys, Fremonts, Beechers, Lundys, Garrisons, Phillips, Sumners, and others, the earth-born saviors

Occasional Oratoey

621

of mankind, who from out the hushed past still utter forth the sentiments that baptize souls in the holy fire of martyr-like resolve ; these men were God’s anointed for this task.

But what of John Brown, old Osawatomie, him of Kansas whom they hanged? ’Twas then a hero slept, a martyr whose blood became the seed of the church of human liberty and freedom. He died, but dying won, for he gave impetus to the Kansas spirit and the things for which the Kansas Day Club stands. But there is still another — one standing to himself — who like his Christ, died for a race, who toiled up his Golgotha at times almost alone, whose life can be explained as being but one of the ways of an inscrutable Providence to do His work — Abraham Lincoln.

At his call a million men went south. In hedges, highways, swamp and bog they found us lost. Many of them still sleep there. They were your fathers, brothers and friends and you felt and feel the sacrifice today, and my poor feeble words can never tell you how grateful we are.

But way down there where wrong still is, where peonage, scourg- ings, burnings yet go on, there are black lips mute with suffering, anguished souls with outstretched arms appealing, grateful for what the past has been and praying relief from burdens that still oppress. We again look to the Republican party for relief, and I do not believe we look in vain. I know no other party, nor should my people, for through it justice will finally be ours.

When for us skies show ominous we turn with confidence to the Republican party and to Kansas. All honor to both. They stand inseparable in what for us, at least, must forever remain time’s greatest drama.

With backward glance, above the smoke of battle, our eyes for¬ ever behold the gleaming sword whose upward swing preserved Kansas, and whose downward stroke freed the world from the stain of human slavery. Though veiled by battle smoke we know what hand is at the hilt. Through its mighty leader, Lincoln, it said, “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong,” and the auction block, slave pen and rattle of chains were all no more.

This party enfranchised us, and though as yet illy prepared for so vast a step, of two evils this was by far the less. For until the leaders of the Republican party legislated otherwise, the ex-masters

622

NEGEO ORATOES

were passing laws making onr condition more intolerable tban that of slavery.

Your party would not leave the Negro, who at all times had been faithful to his country, to the mercy of his oppressors who con¬ spired to destroy the nation in peace and fought to destroy it in war. In this the Republican party was right. The contention that the Negro, no matter how intelligent or worthy, shall not vote, but must be counted and therefore represented in Congress by political opponents, is a political heresy which the Republican party, if loyal to the lofty principles which gave it birth, can never tolerate.

We have not all succeeded, many have failed as must necessarily obtain in the case of a once enslaved race, but there are many who have striven and successfully so.

The Emancipation Proclamation could not suddenly rid us of all that centuries of slavery and barbarism had left. Ours must be a growth. And by patient toil and continued effort on our part, with your sympathy and aid, this country will finally see a rightful solution of the difficulties which confront us.

Moved by enlightened self interest, laboring for country’s weal, realizing the duty of man to man, the best of your race will not sit idly by and leave this task to those who care not whether that which is righteous or unrighteous shall prevail ; and Kansas, as before, is prepared to lead out for that “Righteousness which exalteth a nation.”

To you, our friends, I promise as a race we will not fail to respond to every ennobling call, every uplighting appeal that you may make. This problem is the problem of our whole country since the citizenship of all sections determines our national character.

We have no chiding for critics who having eyes see only our worst ; who having ears hear only of our ignoble deeds ; who having hearts never feel that sympathy which man should feel for fellow man. Conditions, over which the present generation had no control, gave birth to feelings, the outgrowth of ancestral days. Nor do we cherish resentment for those who harm or strive to harm us now. Omniscience alone may dare to visit the mistakes of buried sires on breathing sons or adjust accounts between the living and the dead. Time, public sentiment and God will finally reward this patient courage and make all things right. When censured and

OCCASIONAL ORATOEY 623

inisiiiiderstood in senate, fornm or Chautauqua debate, or criticised in public press, as the weaknesses of our weakest ones are heralded abroad, we remember that these are bad because they are human rather than because they are Negroes, and though disappointed we do not despair. But to those of our critics who would forget justice I would say, forget not that each upward struggling soul, stumbling though it may, goes clinging to the skirts of the invisible God, and for your own sakes I adjure you not to cast obstacles before His face in the way of a weaker though upward struggling race.

But this is no apology for our worst elements or an upholding of the vicious. Yes ; we have them in numbers far too great for their good or racial weal. They are the weights upon us, but they are ours. We will tell them of their faults and teach them that by honest labor, thrift, energy, education and by amassing realty holdings worth the name are we to rise.

Our souls are awakening, we see the light. You have indexed the way, we grow as we behold and travel it. This growth means progress, and herein is the law of the life of a race.

With education symmetrical and true, we will take the dead mass buried by slavery’s hand and touch them into life. This beauteous angel which has always done its work for those of earth will roll away the stone from the tomb where is buried a race, and my people will come forth to their glory and to the amazement of the world. And you men of Kansas will welcome this.

The day this thing is done will be to your children a holy day, for they will see accomplished that for which their Kansas forbears

wrought and for which many died.

Opposition spurs us onward, you pointed the way and led in the darker days, and undaunted and determined, even with torn hands, bleeding feet and anguished souls, to the heights we are going.

For nearly three hundred years we’ve sung the sorrow songs. We shall yet sing the songs of rejoicing and triumph. As the Danes destroyed the hearing of their war horses that they might not be affrighted in battle, so will we turn a deaf ear to all that would discourage us. In the darkest hours we hear the voice of the best of that which makes American life glorious, saying, ‘‘Onward, f reedmen ! Onward ! Onward, struggling race, we are with you ! ’ ^

624

NEGEO OEATOES

And with braver hearts and firmer tread we gird ourselves for the journey and press on our way.

We realize that honest labor, whether in the lowly walks or in the higher ways of life; duty done every day, everywhere, can have but one result — sure and lasting success. Though weighted with the frailties as a necessary consequence of the past, though far from what we desire, we point to some things accomplished since freedom.

From nothing we could call our own, in forty years we own eight hundred and fifty thousand farms, nine banks, two street railways, and pay taxes on seven hundred million dollars in property.

With education for our watchword, in this same time we have reduced our illiteracy to fifty-four per cent. Thirty-seven thousand Negro teachers are training our youth, and twenty-three Negro college presidents join with many other educational leaders in striving heroically to lift the load. And our youth are going forth to attain proficiency along all the lines of true education. While this was being accomplished we had your help. You paid millions of dollars in taxes, and your philanthropists gave millions with bountiful hand, realizing that in a free country intelligent citizen¬ ship, which is guaranteed rights and which in turn gives to its country duty, patriotism, uplifting character and progressive de¬ velopment is best for all, whether viewed from the standpoint of self-interest or from that broader altruistic spirit, the guiding star of the preservers of the rights and liberties of mankind.

And today the wisest and best argue, and rightfully so, that he who denies education to any class of citizens, in such measure inveighs against public safety, gives us a dangerous element, places a millstone around the neck of all, and jeopardizes the welfare of our common country. True, there is race prejudice. To say that none exists is to deny the truth before our eyes; but God’s justice is of loftier rank than man’s prejudice. To give work to those of us who are worthy, to allow us to rise in business, trades and pro¬ fessions, to protect us before the law, in jury box, and courts, to allow us comforts in public places if we are decent and honorable, is justice— and is nearer God’s design than any prejudice claiming God’s sanction. The eternal principles of justice, whereof the Kepublican party is the visible utterance and expression, pertain

OCCASIONAL ORATORY 625

to a realm wliicli knows no color line. And justice will settle the problem though all else should fail.

We aspire, as do you. The loftier things of soul, the upward stress which has upborne the Aryan race to the place it so proudly holds among the people of the earth, we also feel.

Wound us and we bleed ; fatally so and we die ; crush our spirits, and our hearts ache and with anguished souls we suifer on. We are not strangers to natural affection. It is not as mere imitators that we also stand for a tearful interval where earth opes briefly that it may close forever above the forms of those we love. We, as do you, with anxious eyes and straining ears look and list toward the awesome mystery which lies beyond, and as do you, claim sonship with God and brotherhood with the Saviour of man¬ kind. And with such evidence of good cheer and helpfulness before me I dare to claim for Af ric ’s sons the loftiest destiny which anywhere waits other souls.

Finally may I say — I have more faith in the American people than ever before. I know that on this soil right will Anally triumph.

Among other great principles at issue in the campaign of 1904 was this one — not by any means the least — demanding a suspension of judgment in the case of these people who have had but forty years in which to do their work. Centuries must pass before the world can decide the right of a race to live and enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Your mighty civilization, the product of your versatility, genius, endurance and heroic endeavor which no words can describe, is the product of a thousand years. And you stand unrivaled, alone, like a city set on a hill which cannot be hid. As a race we have been asking that the views of our enemies be not accepted ; as well as that any of us guilty of vain¬ glorious boasting, be not believed, but we ask for time in which to show the mettle in us.

And you men fought out the issue when your opponents threw down the gauntlet in the last campaign. And, as in the past, God gave us a leader. As were Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln born to hasten the fruition of Runnymede, that liberty and justice might some day come to all men regardless of color or creed, so was this man born to carry out the true American idea, the Re¬ publican party idea, the Kansas Day Club idea of fair play to all American citizens.

626

NEGEO OEATOES

Men who forty years ago fought for the freedom of the black men, and their sons who fought that Cuba might be free, men, even of other parties who believe in right, followed the lead of this man of mighty purpose, mighty heart and mighty brain, whose Christ-like doctrine is not black men down and white men up, but rather no man down and all men up, and who closes the door of hope in the face of no man, and would have all rise. This man, scholar, reformer, writer, soldier, diplomat, statesman, leader of men, just, humane, best of his kind, the property of the oppressed' of earth, the hope of the future, the one dreamed of by those who; have died in a martyr cause, invincible because right, invulnerable’ because sent of God, the latter day Savior of my people for whom\ black heroes died in Cuba that he might live and save their race, : this man — Theodore Roosevelt — spoke out, and America, indorsing Roosevelt, this organization and our party, says to the world, “We will suspend judgment and give these people time.” And this was and is all we ask. And I pledge you we will not disappoint you.. In the flight of years we will be vindicators of a race and part; burden bearers of a world.

The tide has turned. The nobler sons of America have said to: the waves of persecution and racial strife: “Thus far and no' farther. ” ' i

Humanity, returning to flrst principles where man will be just J to fellowman, at the altar of truth will bow, the sajble son of earthi will be called brother, and the story of how he arose to higher estate will be the theme of dreamers and of all those who write; the truths that undo fiction by their strangeness. j

J

WHENCE AND WHITHER^ j

By Bishop R. A. Carter ^ |

I presume the reason I have been invited to come back to Paine] College and talk to you today, after thirty years of fighting and]

^ This was the Commencement Address delivered at Paine College, Augusta, Ga., May 30 | 1923. ’I

^Bishop Randall Albert Carter was born at Port Valley, Georgia, Jan. 1, 1867. He^ was educated at Allen University , Columbia, South Carolina and at Paine College, | Augusta, Georgia. He was fraternal delegate to the General Conference of the M. E. j Church, 1900; member of the C. M. E. delegation to the Ecumenical Conference on 5 Methodism, London, England, 1901; elected Bishop C. M. E. Church, 1914, in St. \ Louis, Missouri. ;

OCCASIONAL ORATORY 627

climbing, until I have gained some laurels and reached the top of my calling, is that you may have the privilege of reading some pages out of my book of experience. As I stand here today in this beautiful chapel I can scarcely realize that more than three decades have passed since I walked, with others, from the old re¬ modeled horse stables, which, in those days, served as dormitories and classrooms on this campus, down to old Trinity to the com¬ mencement exercise, and dreamed great dreams as I received^ my diploma from the hands of the lovable, lamented George Williams Walker. I little knew then to what I was going, when I stepped forth that day, eager, happy and hopeful, into the great world to make a name for myself. If I had known what awaited me per¬ haps I would have shrunk back aghast. However, I can say with all modesty, I have fought bravely, I have kept the faith fairly well, and I have weathered the many storms and fierce gales of the wide sea over which I have journeyed without losing too many spars and sails. And, today I have returned to the home port, like some grizzled and weather-beaten captain, to tell you something of the hardships and dangers of the voyage which you are about to begin. I warn you that this is truly the commencement of life for you. Those years you have spent here have been merely years of training for the real battles that are now before you. So I am asking you two vital questions, whence and whither? I myself shall try to answer my question whence? but I cannot answer the question whither? I can only give you some direc¬ tions, which may help you on the way, while the passing years shall give answer to that question, whither?

Whence ?

To every thoughtful and aspiring young Negro man and woman, whence are we as a race? is an all-important question; for you must understand the whence of your race in order to know clearly whither you may carry it, as you journey onward.

In the beginning, let me emphasize the fact that there are many embarrassments and annoyances, but no disgrace in being a Negro. As Negroes, we may be as proud of our origin as any other race. For many years Africa, the country whence the Negro came, has been called the “dark continent,” because the white world knew little or nothing of it. But it has been recently discovered that Africa is a land as rich in its ancient civilization and culture as it

628

NEGEO OEATOES

is in its present wealth of minerals, forests and fertile fields. It is becoming well-known that Africa had evolved and developed a culture and civilization of its own which compares favorably with the famous civilizations of ancient Asia and Europe.

Professor George Reisner of Harvard University has been con¬ ducting researches in the Sudan. He states that his researches have established that the culture of Ethiopia stood as an outpost of Egyptian civilization in middle Africa, that in the art of the Ethiopian a Greek influence obtained, and, that the invention of a script of their own was evidence that the Ethiopians were a peo¬ ple of genius. The glory and grandeur that was Egypt’s more than three thousand years ago was disclosed recently when the tomb of King Tut-Ankh-Amen was located and opened in the Valley of the Kings’ Tombs.

Since the discoveries of the former greatness of the ancient Egyptians and Ethiopians, it has suddenly been discovered that they were not Negroes. The same professor Reisner says : ‘ ‘ The

Ethiopians are not and were not African Negroes.” He describes them as “dark races in which brown prevailed.” I fear the learned professor would have a hard time convincing his own people that the “dark, colored races in which brown prevails” in this country are not Negroes. Happily, you cannot sponge out ethnological facts with the bitter waters of race prejudice. The Negro has been called “Sons of Ham,” “African,” and “Ethi¬ opian” in scornful derision for all these years, and now it is too late to try to make him something else when it is discovered that these designations link him with the greatest civilizations of the past. As Negroes, therefore, we claim kinship with the ancient Ethiopians and Egyptians, and all colored races, and share the greatness and glory of their achievements and history.

I was looking recently at some drawings of Egyptian kings and queens. Any unprejudiced observer would decide from those drawings that they were at least Negroid ; for they have the lips, noses and hair which are characteristic of the Negro. Then, King Tut-Ankh-Amen claimed Amenhotep III as his father. Dr. Alex¬ ander Francis Chamberlain of Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, shows that this king had a strain of Negro blood. In his book, “The Contribution of the Negro to Human Civiliza¬ tion,” we read: “The contributions of the Negro to human

OCCASIONAL OEATORY

629

civilization are innumerable and immemorial. Let us first get some glimpses of him, chiefly as an individual, in contact with the hosts of other cultures than his own. Ancient Egypt knew him, both bond and free, and his blood flowed in the veins of not a few of the mighty Pharaohs. Nefertari, the famous queen of Aahmes, the King of Egypt, who drove the Hyksos from the land and founded the Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1700 B.C.), was a Negress of great beauty, strong personality and remarkable administrative ability. She was for years associated in the government with her son, Amenhotep I, who succeeded his father. Queen Nefertari was highly venerated, and many monuments were erected in her honor ; she was venerated as ‘ ancestress and founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty’ and styled ‘the wife of the God Ammon,’ etc. Another strain of Negro blood came into the line of the Pharaohs with Mut-em-ua, wife of Thothmes IV, whose son, Amenhotep III, had a Negroid physiognomy.” So the evidence is conclusive that we are kin to the planners and builders of the great palaces of Baalbec, Karnak, Luxor, ancient Memphis, the pyramids, and the Sphinx.

The question has often been asked why the Negro can so easily adapt himself to present day civilization, and can compete on terms of equality with other races in every walk of life. The answer is what scientists call atavism, which is defined as intermittent hered¬ ity, reversion to an ancestral type or trait. Atavism explains why the Negro race has produced a Coleridge-Taylor and a Harry Burleigh in music, a Pushkin, Dumas, Dunbar and DuBois in lit¬ erature, a Frederick Douglass and Robert Brown Elliott in states- craft, a Booker T. Washington and Lucy Laney in education, a Price, Holsey and Turner in oratory, a Ned Gourdin, Harry West and Jack Johnson in athletics. It is a harking back of the race to the centuries of civilization and culture of its great ancestors. Atavism explains why the race in this country has made a progress which, as President Harding wrote a great convention of Negroes the other day: “has been one of the wonders of civilization’s ad¬ vance.” It gives the reason why the Negro race has acquired, in the short space of the sixty years since its emancipation in this country, twenty-two millions of acres of land, six hundred thou¬ sand homes, forty-five thousand churches, and operates seventy- eight banks, a hundred insurance companies, besides seventy thou-

630 NEGRO ORATORS

sand other business enterprises, with a capital of one hundred and fifty million dollars.

This is the answer that history and learning give to the question of the whence? of the Negro race. We are justly proud.

But whither?

I say to you today that our past obligates us to high endeavor for the future. We, you and I, must “carry on” for the race, until we have shown to our critics that we are worthy descendants of ancient great sires. Professor Kamerer, a Viennese biologist, makes the statement that “the skill, mental and physical, acquired by men and animals during their lives can be handed down to pos¬ terity. ’ ’ If this statement is true, and if the demonstration offered by this Austrian student is accepted by the scientists of Cambridge University, England, then we have as a heritage all the culture and skill and civilization of all the past ages of our ancestors of Egypt and Ethiopia. This points us to the whither of the race. But I warn you that the race will go only as far as its individual members go. Therefore, the future of the race is in the keeping of such as you who hear me today.

Your coming to this institution, and spending years of toilsome study and privation preparing for your future activities, may be taken as indicative of your determination to help lift the race up to and beyond the heights which it once attained. I wish to men¬ tion a few of the qualities which are necessary for you in this great mission of racial renaissance.

First, you must have the God consciousness. I mean, you must realize that there is a God, and that he governs and guides you, directs, leads and protects you, in all of your ways. A constant study of the lives of men and women who have lived worthily, and have lifted the human race, convinces me that young men and women cannot accomplish much which will add to the sum total of human and racial betterment without a deep consciousness of the fact that God is with them. The stories of the lives of youth¬ ful Joseph in Egypt, and the early struggles of David, the poet- king of Israel, are gripping and instructive because of the con¬ stant emphasis laid upon the God consciousness. I cannot lay too much stress upon the thought that you cannot get along without God, and do anything of permanent value in the great world into which you are going.

OCCASIONAL ORATORY 631

I was reading recently a story of the life of Henry Ford, the automobile manufacturer, written by William L. Stidger, who knows him well. He tells of the simple faith of this great captain of industry. He believes in God and reads his Bible daily. Mr. Stidger says, when he asked Mr. Ford what part of the teachings of Jesus he liked best and thought most applicable to life, he re¬ plied, “The Sermon on the Mount.” When he asked him, Do you try to run your industry by the Sermon on the Mount?” he replied, “I do. It is our constitution. And it works.” He was reminded during the interview, that Bishop Quayle had said of the late John Burroughs, the famous naturalist, and the intimate friend of Ford, “He knew the garden but never found the Gar¬ dener,” he replied, “Yes. That was too bad. It doesn’t seem possible that one could fail to find the Gardener, with all of these beautiful things and all of these great things about us. It is too bad that Burroughs never found the Gardener.”

In the beginning of your journey in search of the whither in the world, God’s great garden, I pray you be sure to find the Gardener first. It will simplify greatly your search, and lighten

the burdens of the way.

Then, you must have thorough preparation.

You have finished a specified course of study here under the direction of teachers, but you have merely been learning how to make thorough preparation for real life. You have merely gotten the rudiments, but you have been trained to think clearly and sys¬ tematically. If you are wise, you will be adding daily to your little store through all the coming years, by constant reading, and pondering, and storing the shelves of memory against the time of need. Do’ not get the idea that you are thoroughly prepared for the fierce conflicts which await you by what you have learned here. I recall this incident which happened some years ago at a General Conference of our church. During a sharp parliamentary battle over a question of procedure, a delegate was busily hunting up the mooted point in his parliamentary manual. The late Dr. Bonner laughingly said to him : “You haven ’t time to learn it now, son. You should have known it. ’ ’ That is the thought I am trying to impress. You must be thoroughly prepared when the time comes, by knowing the thing which you are called upon suddenly to say or do. Although I have been away from this institution

632

NEGEO OEATOES

more than thirty years, I read and stndy more now than I did Avhile I was a student here. Unceasing acquisition of information and knowledge is the only sure path to the whither of wealth, or honor, or service. Do not be envious of those who excel you in ability or attainments or knowledge. Keep after them.

Also, you must have undaunted courage.

When I speak of courage I mean that “quality of mind which meets danger or opposition with intrepidity, calmness and firmness. Courage is of the intellect and will, and may be possessed in the highest degree by those who are constitutionally timid.” Courage is stoutness of heart, self-reliance, red-bloodedness of spirit.

As you go forward in life you will meet with ostracism on account of your race and color. You will encounter envy on account of your mental and material possessions. You will have to grapple with the green-eyed monster, jealousy, because of your achievements and popularity. You will meet ingratitude, that meanest of all sins, from those for whom you have done most and suffered most. You will be slandered by open and secret foes. There will be many hours of deep despondency, when you will debate whether it is worth while to continue to struggle and sacrifice for others. It is then you will need unfaltering courage to nerve your arm and strengthen your soul to march onward. But remem¬ ber only those of hearts of oak ever accomplish anything worth while. Some one has well said: “Everywhere and at all times, the men who have had definite convictions upon the great issues, and have courageously chosen righteousness, are the men who have directed the course of nations.”

Also, you must have the ability to go the route morally.

When I say “the route,” I am using a phrase used by baseball writers, meaning the ability to last through the entire game. One of the greatest assets which a young man or woman can possess on leaving school is a high moral standard — an acute sense of moral values. And this equipment must be able to stand the wear and tear of ever-changing circumstances and conditions. You must not think that you can select the Commandments which you will keep and reject those which you do not like. The moral code of man¬ kind, crystallized into the Ten Commandments by Moses, is the result of the reasoned experience of men who lived ages before Moses. Observation and experience convinced thoughtful men long

OCCASIONAL OEATORY

633

ages ago that it is harmful to the individual, as well as to the community, to lie, to steal, to kill, and to commit adultery. I wish to emphasize that it is just as immoral to steal the good name of folks whom you do not like as it is to steal their goods. It is just as immoral to destroy the reputation and hinder the progress of those whom you envy as it is to take their lives.

I have in mind some brilliant men, whose great intellects gave promise, through their young manhood, of lives of usefulness and eminence, hut they could not go the route morally, and today they are wrecks along the shore, and are hut sad memories to their friends. Whatever the temptation to weaken morally as the years pass, and you reach places of authority and power, resolve to play the game through without faltering. My observation is that an immoral man or woman in a position of responsibility and power and, perhaps, possessed of wealth, and the influence which wealth carries with it, is a curse to every young person with whom they come in contact. Such persons contaminate the moral atmosphere and lower the moral temperature wherever they go.

Take along with you also as you go from here a great loyalty to some high vision and for some true friendship. You go out to a race poor, despised and ostracised. Get the vision of service. Resolve to live for them, not for yourself. “In a very deep and true sense it is what a man sees that either raakes or unmakes him. The effect of vision upon character and service is transforming. It elevates or debases, according to its qualities. Whether a man grovels or soars, whether he remains in the realm of animalism or rises into the spiritual, and lives in the high places of the Sons of God, is determined by his seeing.” The red-haired, dreamy-eyed shepherd boy, David, became Israel’s hero-king because he was pos¬ sessed of such a loyalty to his vision and friendship. One can not read of the bonds which bound him to his royal-souled friend, Jonathan, and of his sublime loyalty to his vision of service to his race, without being mightily impressed with the beauty of such a nature. You can do nothing worth while in this great world unless you are a dreamer of great dreams. You will never amount to much unless you are loyal to your dreams. When I speak of loyalty to friends I do not mean partners in crime, nor associates in ques¬ tionable transactions, I mean loyalty to some true, high-thinking person whom you have discovered during your school days here.

634

NEGEO OEATORS

You will not mean much to aspiring young men and women as you rise in the world unless they find you loyal to your friends. The man or woman who uses friends as stepping stones on which to rise, or as tools with which to attain some purpose or desired end, and then throws them aside like a worn-out garment after the thing sought has been obtained, will reap an abundant harvest of hate and contempt as people learn of the baseness of their natures, and will die with none so poor to do them reverence.

Take with you reverence for law and authority.

Do not get the idea that you are above all authority and may break laws or disobey rules and regulations, however high you may climb in the world. Remember the man in authority who advises others to break laws or to disrespect others in authority is undermining his own authority. Only those who reverence law and authority have any business ruling over others. Only such persons can successfully rule men and women. People may fear the law¬ less, but will never love nor respect them. It matters not what you may think of the law or what may be your estimate of those placed over you, I counsel you to revere the law and bow to authority.

Further, let me urge you to be economical and thrifty. Do not spend every cent you lay your hands upon. If you know you are loose-fingered, tie your hands or tie your money in some way. Edison, the great electric wizard, had to do that. Recently, he told the story of taking a perfected carbon transmitter to Philadelphia in the hope of selling it for $5,000, which would just about pay his debts. The directors asked him if $100,000 would buy the trans¬ mitter. He was so astonished that he remained silent for a moment, and they inquired if they had offered enough. “The price is all right,” said Edison, “yes, that’s all right. But on condition that you pay me it at the rate of $7,500 a year. If you paid it to me all at once I’d probably put it into some fool invention and lose every cent of it.” Take Edison’s tip. Do not lose “every cent of it.” Store some of your wages or salary where you can not squander them. Savings banks or real estate are safe places for money.

And now a last word about race prejudice. You will meet it at every turn and everywhere you go. Sad to say, it is growing steadily. Your color will be against you in almost every field of activity. Do not deceive yourselves into believing that anywhere

OCCASIONAL ORATORY 635

in this country yon will escape this curse of the age. Often it will he veiled and stealthy. Frequently, it will walk openly and un¬ afraid, but it will be the same illogical and unreasoning thing. Learn to expect it, and face it, and conquer it. You may console yourselves, however, with the fact that the Negro race is not the only race which sutfers from race prejudice. Deport yourselves in such a gentle and quiet and confident and unassuming manner that you will make those ashamed who practice it. Wherever you go, let people learn that a colored skin can cover just as much culture and refinement and decency as any other kind of skin. Also, I exhort you, try to make friends with and command the respect of those with whom you live. Do not depend upon friends who are far away. Whatever the color of the people with whom you deal daily, they will respect refinement, modesty, integrity,

scrupulous honesty, industry, and money.

If you equip yourselves with the qualities which I have outlined in this talk, you will surely reach the whither you seek in the great world into which you are going and you will take the race with you. Some of you will aspire to climb the mountain of fame and honor and responsibility, you may succeed in doing so. Listen to the expression of the thoughts of one who has climbed to the top of that mountain, Lloyd George, perhaps the most noted English¬ man of today. Speaking in the Methodist church of his boyhood home, he said: “Mr. Davies has told you that I have climbed the mountain of fame, responsibility, and honor, and in a sense that is true ; but, dear friends, let me assure you that the mountain is not an ideal place for any of us. There isn’t much peace there, no real rest and comfort. The higher you climb, the colder it becomes. How exposed and bleak it is! You are at the mercy of the storm and the tempest. The wind makes sport of you. On the mountain a man feels lonely. Often thick mists envelop him, and he misses his way : he can hardly see a yard ahead. ^ What is the good of a telescope in the mist? When a person thinks he is on the right path, suddenly he comes to a part where he can go nO' farther, and a deep chasm opens before him. He retraces his steps and makes an effort to regain the path from which he strayed. Yes, that is the lot of the man who attempts to climb the mountain.”

His experience is the experience of all of us who have climbed the mountain. Still youth will aspire to climb the mountain, and

636

Negbo Orators

it is well that it should be thus. Else what would mankind do for leaders ? Whether you are to essay climbing the mountain, or plan to serve the race in the quiet paths which lie at the base of the mountain, always bear in mind :

“ Wherever ’s a will there’s a way, my lad.

If the will have the strength to serve;

But the goal is not reached in a day, my lad.

And the winning takes patience and nerve.

It ’s a long, long way and a hard, hard road,

And a lifetime is hardly enough;

But you’ll win if you stick To the roadway you pick And your heart is the right kind of stuff.

“Oh, a bit of a song will help, my lad.

And a grin will ease many a pain.

The coward goes down with a yelp, my lad,

Get up and go at them again.

It ’s a long, long way and a hard, hard road To the thing that you ’re longing to do.

And the key to the game Is to stick to your aim.

And the courage will carry you through.

“Aye, many a path leads out, my lad,

From the road to the thing you want.

And they’re pleasant to travel, no doubt, my lad.

And it’s hard to know that you can’t.

It’s a long, long way and a hard, hard road And you haven’t the time to rest.

So pick up your load And stick to your road ;

You will win, if you give it your best.”*^

*E. A. Carter, Feeding Among the Lilies, 272-288.

OCCASIONAL ORATORY

637

BOARDS FOR LIFE’S BUILDING ^

By Bishop George Clinton Clement ^

When a building is to be erected certain considerations are to be observed. The architectural design, the material to be used, the proportions and appointments, the service expected, and the cost of all. Such a building designed, completed, and occupied is first in the mind of the architect. Every detail is minutely worked out, every stone and board, every proportion and adjustment finds its position definitely determined before the pick and shovel, the saw and hammer, the trowel and plumb are lifted. A completed build¬ ing is the expression of an ideal. The fears and hopes of nations, even the joys and longings of individuals, have found utterance in brick and mortar in all ages. The rock-walled abode of primitive man was meant to shield from ruthless wife-snatcher and ravenous beasts. The woven thatch and the airy awning ’neath bower and grove where eastern suns pour down their scorching rays are but echoes of the dreamy, care-free spirit of their builders. Greek art in poetry and song finds consonance with chiselled column and rejoices amid gilded dome and marbled arch. What vast expanse, what national aspiration and achievement are marked by the dis¬ tance from Abram’s crude sacrificial altar to Solomon’s resplendent temple on Mt. Moriah ! All the passion and the progress of the Hebrew people are embraced in this encycle.

The rough stone set up by the ancient Druid impersonated no less accurately the latent native force of Briton and was as pro¬ phetic of a coming race of conquerors as the matchless Westminster Abbey, the accumulative glory of England’s Victorian era.

A worshipping people, devout. God-fearing, and spiritual, builds temples, their upward inspiration calling aloud from towering spire and beckoning from gilded dome. Certain it is that as temple spires

* This was an address delivered at the dedication of the new auditorium, Livingstone College, Salisbury, North Carolina, May, 1921.

2 Bishop George Clinton Clement was born at Mocksville, North Carolina, December 23, 1871. He was educated at Livingstone College where he made the impression of being a thorough student and an earnest worker. He early became connected with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, serving as a minister in the year 1888. He then became the Editor of the Star of Zion, a position which he held from 1904 until 1916, when he was elected and consecrated bishop.

638

NEGEO OEATORS

have lowered or disappeared altogether, earth vision and sordid materialism have gripped the minds and hearts of the people.

The love of freedom, the rule of the populace piled high the Parthenon and the Coliseum as truly as did inordinate ambition and misguided effort contribute toward the rise and fall of Babel. The long black night of mental eclipse and moral lethargy we call the dark ages is typified in the insignificance and dearth of archi¬ tectural endeavor. Just as surely did the succeeding period when learning and literature flourished bring the charming temples of the great Renaissance. India, golden bordered and dazzling with precious stones, bound her national character with jewelled chains to superstitious mosques.

World-renowned St. Peter’s for Italy and the cold imposing Kremlin for Russia bear witness to the traits of two greatly dis¬ similar nations.

Oh! wonderful monuments of century-buried civilization away yonder in the valley of the Nile. What secret is held by you, mystic Sphinx, and what notes are those that burst from thy wind¬ swept throat, ancient Memnon f Whatever the answer, ’tis but an indication of what once thrilled and moved the great Afric race.

A ruling, politically minded people builds palaces, arsenals, and forts. A commercially minded people builds warehouses and mar¬ kets and factories. A liberty loving people builds forums and halls and amphitheatres. Romulus and Solomon of old and Michael Angelo and Wren of later days expressed the thought and life of their times and peoples.

Today as we gather within these spacious walls and look around to determine the height and length and breadth of this building, we can but mark its plan, its material composition and its purpose. After congratulating all who have contributed to the erection of this splendid temple, may we not consider other features that are inseparable from this place and occasion — thoughts and impulses that crowd upon us ?

I wish now to call your attention to a few Boards for our Life Building. These are not of fragile clay or glass, nor of perishable wood and stone, but real, living — may I suggest, eternal — ^timbers.

First of all, here is laid the bright and promising timber we call OPPORTUNITY. This is only another term for youth. Whatever else presses upon us for consideration, turn whither we may, we con-

Occasional Onatoey

639

front young and sparkling eyes, all forward-looking, anxious, and expectant. Schools are built for youth, for students, rather than for teachers. A school is the expression of a people’s interest in their offspring and an augury of their future. The greatest asset of a nation is not its plains and mountains, its rivers and harbors, nor its precious metals beneath nor its glad harvest above the sur¬ face, nor its flocks and herds, nor its mansions and shops. The greatest asset of a nation is its childhood. Though poor in all else, rich is that people whose houses are filled with youth. The most Vital question is not the development and conservation of forest and mine and water. The most vital question is the training and perfecting of the physical, mental, and moral life of the children. All that can he seen about us is meant for the hoys and girls, the young men and young women who come upon these consecrated grounds. They hold the future of their kind within their tender grasp. Who would hinder them in any laudable enterprise ? Open wide the door and bid them enter.

Comradeship

Whoever has marked the student life, especially life in a board¬ ing school, has been impressed with the intimate personal relation¬ ships existing between students. No matter from whence they come, he it from farm or shop, crowded urban street or rural quietude, whether rich or poor, high or low in social scale, the school is to them a veritable melting pot. Differences of birth, of creed, and of class are forgotten and are eventually obliterated by the daily contact of classroom and dormitory. F arm and drawing-room go arm in arm, each eagerly learning the one from the other the fascinating story of life. If the public school is the nursery of good citizenship, then the hoarding school is the garden of true democracy. Nowhere is the bane of conceit so speedily knocked from selfish heads and nowhere is respect for the opinion of others so soon manifest as in the boarding school. A comradeship which approaches nigh to that of blood ties is here developed. Upon this platform in honorable contest, when mind meets mind and fierce battles of bloodless wars are waged, crude egotism gets its death blow, and unselfish brotherhood wins the victor’s crown.

640

NEGRO ORATORS

Free Speech

The right to make known the promptings of the heart can be catalogued as inalienable and inherent. Freedom of speech based upon freedom of thought can scarcely be denied. By this is not meant license to misrepresent and vilify, nor the carping of mal¬ contents and the frothings of recalcitrants, who have no respect for authority and no reverence for ancient landmarks. Honest conviction and sincere purpose must be heard. On this platform as the years come and go there should be the widest range of dis¬ cussion, the sharpest criticism and the bravest defense in all fields of educational endeavor. The right of petition and protest is as old as human frailty and as limitless as human ambition. Freedom of speech is predicated upon loyalty to truth ; and in all the annals of forensic effort there exists no brighter page than the one dedi¬ cated to this principle. The immortal Cicero uncovering the treach¬ erous schemes of Catiline, the intrepid Paul making the knees of Felix to smite together, the matchless Burke demolishing the citadel of Hastings, the golden-mouthed Chrysostom, Luther the daring, Savonarola the invincible, Wesley the peerless, with Massillon and Knox, Emmett and Webster, Beecher and Phillips, Douglass and Price — who can estimate the tremendous power, the almost omnip¬ otent infiuence, of the forum. May its foundations forever rest on truth and may its voice fail not to be heard.

Patriotism

No building such as we have in mind can be quite so strong and grand as we desire without somewhere in its foundation rests another timber, visible and solid. We speak of love of country — patriotism it is called. The winds that blow, the rains that fall, the sunshine and the snow, the skies that smile or frown in turn, forest and field, beach, brook, or dale, paved street or grassy sod, whatever there may be, where the eyes of infancy first open to the light, that place called home is the dearest spot in all the world. Rocks and surfs, jungle and desert, ice cliff and burning sand may defy us, but we rejoice to contend with them. Inequalities and injustices may trammel us, but we tear them asunder; prejudice and discrimination may confront us, we may be cast down but

OCCASIONAL OEATORY 641

never overwhelmed. So the native son goes forth to fight without fear of favor, unitedly with him who says:

‘ ‘ Breathes there a man with soul so dead Who never to himself has said This is my own, my native land :

Whose heart has ne ’er within him burned When homeward he his footsteps turned From wandering on a foreign strand?

If such there be, go mark him well.

For him no minstrel raptures swell.

And the wretched, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile depth from whence he sprung.

Unwept, unhonored and unsung.”

Let us examine the walls of our building. Here are the marks of

Sacrificiaii Service

Youth should dream dreams and see visions, but to stop there is but to fail miserably. There is nothing wrong in building castles in the air if you have cords strong enough to bring them to the ground and to tie them there. In Athens there was a temple called Honor, built of polished marble, wide and high and noble. The floor was mirrored, the dome resplendent with gold, the whole an inspiration and a song. Every Athenian youth desired to enter this wonderful edifice, but there was but one entrance and that through another temple called Virtue. Unlike the temple of Honor, the temple Virtue was low and narrow. Whoever would enjoy the beauties and glories of honor must undergo the hardships of virtue. The lesson is plain. There is no royal road to success, although success itself is royal. The lone missionary ministering to the pitiable leper colony of the South Sea Islands, the watchful sentinel pacing his icy beat ’mid Alpine frost, the brave and weather-beaten lifeguard off death-famed Hatteras and wreck- strewn Biscay, the faithful and zealous physician pressing his way through the dark and black night to save the life of an humble peasant, alike with others in every walk of life who forget self and suffering for humanity’s sake are shining examples of the truest and noblest service. Not for gold nor sounding brass, not for

642

NEGEO OEATOES

purple nor glittering tinsel, not for praise nor hollow flattery ; but for the sake of him who so loved us that he gave his life for us, while we were yet his enemies, are we constrained to make the supreme sacrifice. Some have failed because they feared to die. Life with cowardice and compromise is to be despised, while the death of the martyr for truth and righteousness has been the dream and goal of the world’s immortals.

But let us leave the dome, sun crowned and beautiful as it is, and examine that timber which is the very foundation of the build¬ ing. We would liken it to the roots that hold up the cedars of Lebanon, the towering Con Con of Surinam, whose lofty head looks down upon all tropical forests, the stately palm of Africa’s plain, princely and majestic. But none of these bespeak its fullest and grandest note. We have reference to

Faith in the Divine

Very recently a great man fell in death. He had sat in the councils of the wise and stood before the rulers of earth; he was counted among the foremost sociological and economic authorities of our nation, yet throughout his busy life he had no vision of God. When there came over the wires the news of his death and that strange request for his ashes to be cast from the summit of Pike’s Peak to the four winds, to be blown toward a hopeless eternity, a distinct shock was felt throughout the land. Even the wife of his bosom refused to carry out the wish and declared that she deemed it a sacrilege.

How heartening it is to go back to the land of the ancient East and hear the voice of one declaring that “though he slay me yet will I trust him, for I know that my Redeemer liveth and in the latter day he shall stand upon the earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God.” What¬ ever of science, of fact in philosophy or literature, whatever mas¬ tery of things real or speculative we may acquire, all is vain unless they rest upon faith in the Eternal. A spiritless. Godless culture is dangerous to man and nation. The never-to-be-forgotten lesson of such culture evidenced in the World War is too recently learned to need emphasis here. Leave out Faith and this building will be a worthless shell and a constant menace. Faith binds, faith en¬ nobles, faith makes enduring and perpetuates.

OCCASIONAL ORATOEY

643

At Plymoutli Rock last fall we saw the marvelous statue erected by sons of the Pilgrim Fathers and dedicated by them to Faith. The statue is crowned with a virgin, her face turned toward the rough Atlantic, her eyes searching the threatening waters and her hands outstretched to hasten the oppressed and truth seeking from over the seas. One cannot gaze long at this statue without feeling the throbbing of that faith which John Robinson preached unto the dauntless voyagers who set out on the great adventure.

Here and now may I ask that we lay this solid plank of Faith in the very foundation of our building. We must fasten it with spikes of truth and cement it around with the tears and prayers of our fathers. Here may it rest secure; to be looked upon, rev¬ erenced, and utilized until rocks to dust have crumbled and all the skies in vaporous smoke have flown, and only God himself stands out in the eternal to welcome and reward.

A Knowledge Of History Conducive To

A KNOWLEDGE OF HISTORY CONDUCIVE TO RACIAL SOLIDARITY 1

By C. V. Roman ^

What consolation, then, does the Muse of History offer the troubled souls of black folks? The references in Holy Writ are sufficient to show that the Ethiopians were a people of great wealth and military power in ancient times. Simon, the African, assisting Christ to bear the Cross ; the high treasurer of Candace, Queen of Ethiopians, reading the Scriptures and reaching the conclusions, under Philip’s guidance, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God; and David’s exuberant declaration that “Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God,”

* Delivered on several occasions by Dr. Roman.

“ Charles Victor Roman was born at Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He was brought up in Ontario, Canada, Brant and Wentworth Counties. He belongs to the class of so-called self-made men. He taught in the public schools of Kentucky and Tennessee while studying medicine, but entered immediately upon the active practice of medicine after graduation, locating in Clarksville, Tennessee. He later practiced in Dallas, Texas, until called to Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee.

He has been president of the National Medical Association and was for ten years Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the National Medical Association and is now an Asso¬ ciate Editor.

He was official medical lecturer to the colored troops during the World War, and has thus appeared before numerous groups in this country. Most of his important addresses thus delivered have been published in his volume entitled Xhe American Civilization and the Negro.

644 NEGRO ORATORS

are luminous rays from the torch of Sacred history that fall athwart the black man ’s troubled path ; Profane history seems to have reached us as the one-sided chronicles of Aryan prejudice. In reading' such history as is now available to us, one is reminded of an incident of current Texas history reported by the Success Magazine.

Senator Bailey was making a political speech when two unlet¬ tered sons of Ham approached the outer rim of the crowd and listened for a while ; then the following conversation took place :

“Who am dat, Sam?”

“I dunno what his name am,” Sam replied, “but he certainly do recommen hisself mos’ highly.’’

The white man has written the history of the world as we now have it, and he has had no scruples about “recommending hisself.” Hence the claim of sensational modern magazine writers that the Negro has made no history needs to be taken with a grain of salt, since the white man has written the history that fails to reflect any glory upon the Negro. ‘ ‘ Only individuals immune to the teach¬ ings of evolution could imagine that a race, millenniums old, and numbering today, after centuries of more or less brutal contact with the whites, more than 150,000,000 could have existed or could continue to exist without in the slightest influencing the currents of human thought and action. It is with eyes blind to the results of the most recent investigation of the origin and the development of Negro culture in Africa, and to the achievements of the race in other parts of the globe that such people content themselves with repeating words of ^ prejudiced origin, which have long since lost

significance, and with seeing in the Negro only a beast or a half man. ’ ’

^ Two incidents in recent times will illustrate how history is made bias: “A certain Lieutenant Colonel was at San Juan Hill— other men did the fighting — but he wrote an account of it — and did not fail to recommen hisself mos’ highly,’ and as a result honors and emoluments of ofiice have been showered upon the historian, and not upon the soldiers that did the fighting.”

The other illustrates the process from another viewpoint. Prior to the war between Russia and Japan, it was a well-attested fact t at only a white nation could defeat a white nation in battle, he Abyssinians and Japanese have presented some pretty strong

OCCASIONAL OEATORY

645

counter testimony ; but the ethnologists have rushed to the relief of the historians and have proven the Japs white folks, to the satis¬ faction of everybody but the people on the Pacific coast. The case of the Abyssinians is still under advisement, the investigator having progressed only far enough to show that they are not Negroes, for Negroes have made no history. Q. E. D, The Negro and history are like success and treason :

“Treason never succeeds. What’s the reason?

If it succeed, no one dare call it treason.”

The Negro never made any history, because if anybody ever made any history he was not a Negro. Thus by circular reasoning they make their position logically invincible.

Accurate historical knowledge is one of the great needs of our leaders of today. They need it to give them that breadth of under¬ standing and prescient optimism which alone can make leaders of sufiicient intellectual procerity to command the confidence of the multitude, and bring about racial solidarity among the colored people of America.

The one great need of our race today is an intelligent, conserva¬ tive leadership that can command the confidence and loyalty of the masses. I hope that the observances of these memorial days in Negro colleges may herald the dawning of a new day for Negro scholarship, — a scholarship broad enough in its sympathies to com¬ prehend justice and fraternity; profound enough in its erudition to harmonize the different phases of human culture, from the study of Greek to the picking of cotton; accurate enough in its wisdom to discover and remedy the chromatic aberrations of the historical lenses which have shown civilization to be solidly white; strong enough in its reasoning to convince men that fitness and not race is the real test for citizenship. In other words, we need a scholar¬ ship that will give us pride of race and inspire us with a reasonable hope of final triumph and historical vindication, yea, the positive assurance of a respectable seat in the hierarchy of civilization as a distinct phyletic entity, and not as the tolerated contamination of some nobler race. Racial solidarity and not amalgamation is the desired and desirable goal of the American Negro. Phyletic triumph through racial solidarity, rather than phyletic oblivion in

646

NEGRO ORATORS

the Lethean waters of miscegenation, will be the teaching of that scholarship. A knowledge of history will bring this about in one of two ways.

If civilization was actually cradled in Africa and learning did originate in the Dark Continent — if the ancestors of the present Europeans were dark-skinned inhabitants of Asia and Africa and some of the famous characters of history did have Negro blood in their veins, why a verification of these facts will stimulate race pride and promote racial solidarity sufficiently to enable us to spurn as poor relations those unfortunate members of our race who are ashamed of their lineage. This is a type of Negro that is an ethno¬ logical curiosity. In contemplation of him in relation to the race, I always think of Charles Lamb ’s description of a poor relation ;

“A poor relation is the most irrelevant thing in nature, a piece of impertinent correspondency — an odious approximation, — a haunting conscience, a preposterous shadow, lengthening in the noontide of our prosperty, an unwelcome remembrancer, a per¬ petually recurring mortification, a drain on your purse, a more intolerable dun upon your pride, a draw-back upon your success, a rebuke to your rising, a stain in your blood, a blot on your escutcheon, a rent in your garment, a death’s head at your banquet, Agathocles pot, a Mordeeai in your gate, a Lazarus at your door, a hon in your path, a frog in your chamber, a fly in your ointment, a mote in your eye, a triumph to your enemy, an apology to your friends, the one thing not needful, the hail in harvest, the ounce of sour in the pound of sweet.”

Such is the Negro who does not wish to attend a Negro church, buy from a Negro merchant, consult a Negro lawyer or doctor, deposit in a Negro bank, or live in a Negro neighborhood, or send his children to a Negro school. I do not speak of those who have not these opportunities, but of those who spurn them.

But suppose we have no historical antecedents, what then ? Does this give certitude to Huxley’s “Assuredly,” uttered in 1865? Conceding relationship but not fraternity, he says of the American f reedman : ‘ ‘ The highest places in the hierarchy of civilization wiU assuredly not be within reach of our dusky cousins, though it is by no means necessary that they should be restricted to the lowest. ’ ’

OCCASIONAL ORATORY

647

Let us see. If the Negro has never made any history he has certainly been in the white man’s history from the beginning of that history. He has won the right to the earth by long residence if by no other right. He has been here so long that in the words of Uncle Remus, “ ’Twel time has quit runnin agin him.” This is sufficient answer to Ingall’s lugubrious prophecy: “Destruction is Nature’s final decree in equity for the black man.”

As black contains by absorption all the colors of the rainbow, though it does not reflect them, so the Negro has in him all the elements of civilization and may yet reflect them as brilliantly as any of the sons of men. It is a beautiful metaphor that likens civilization to light. “The light of civilization” is a phrase as suggestive as beautiful. The similitude is apt. So let us study the action of light closely. If all the light falling upon an object pass through it, the object is transparent and invisible. Imperfect transparency indicates the reflection or absorption of some of the incident rays. Color arises the same way. If all the rays are reflected, the object is opaque and white; if all the rays are ab¬ sorbed, the object is opaque and black. So really the white man has no more light than the black man, though he is more luminous. He knows no more of his origin and Nature’s ultimatum for him than does the black man.

“Who in the darkness of the finite can turn over the mystic pages and read the cryptograms of the Book of Destiny?”

Light needs to strike against something to become manifest. Take a cylinder six inches long and painted black within. Have a hole in the side equi-distant from each end. Darken the room until only a single beam of light is permitted to enter. Now place the cylinder in the path of this beam of light in such a way that the beam of light will traverse the cavity of the cylinder. Look through the hole in the side, and notwithstanding the evident fact that the light is passing through this cavity, it is completely dark. No trace of the light is visible. Now introduce a pencil so as to obstruct the pathway of the beam and a ball of light will at once appear. Obstruction has made the light manifest. The American white man may be the necessary obstruction to make the Negro reflect the light of civilization.

648

NEGRO ORATORS

But whatever general history, ancient or modem, may have to say of the Negro, American history cannot be truthfully written without giving the Negro some creditable roles. Fidelity, docility, good-nature, thoughtlessness, improvidence, patience, physical vigor, etc., in fact, all the slave virtues have been freely conceded us ; but the virtues of freedom have been persistently ignored and denied. What we need is an historical knowledge that will paint us as we are. “Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice.” We want a literature of truth and inspiration that will embalm the deeds of our heroes and encourage the lives of our children. “My ear is pained and my heart is sick” when I contemplate the babbling sciolism that is parading itself as scholarship, and declar¬ ing with the fatuous egotism of nescience that “History holds nothing to the credit of the Negro.”

The American Negro is sui generis. His condition is unique in the history of races. He is now passing through a period of adjust¬ ment — racial moving, as it were — -from bondage to freedom. The freedman is becoming a free man. Losses always attend a moving. As we get settled in the house of freedom we will surround our¬ selves with more of the virtues and less of the vices of that con¬ dition. There are distinctive slave virtues that are not virtues in freedom. All observers see that the Negro is throwing off the former ; only those associated with the best of the Negro race know that he is putting on a glorious substitute, the virtues of the free man. Slowly but surely the freedman is becoming in reality a free man.

Oh! for a Negro pen to record the lives of our great men and women! I would not circumscribe the fields of learning nor rob the white children of their pride of lineage ; but I would teach Negro children the glorious deeds of Negro men and Negro women

FIRST.

The story of Abram Grant from the ox-cart (where he was born) and the slave pen, to the bishopric is of more educative value to a colored youth than the story of James A. Garfield from the tow- path to the presidency. The Negro boy should know both. The lives of the founders of this school — Payne, Shorter, and Mitchell — are full of deeds that would inspire our young people. Bishop Payne was a hero of education and freedom. You cannot read his life without a thrill of admiration for the frail little body that

OCCASIONAL OEATORY

649

held such a master mind. Nor is he alone ; the dignitaries of our church and of all the Negro churches furnish us with many char¬ acters of light and leading, worthy of emulation and fit to inspire. But they by no means exhaust the list. From every walk in life they come. Why, doAvn on the banks of the Cumberland river, at Nashville, Tennessee, dwells an humble fireman who has risked his life a score of times for others, and has rescued a dozen people from the clammy clutch of engulfing waters. A Negro woman cross¬ ing a mad and swollen river on fioating pieces of ice, barefooted and with a child in her arms, that she might find liberty for her¬ self and child, presents a picture of magnificent heroism, fit for song and story.

I am not preaching ethnic antagonism nor endeavoring to give a racial tinge to the facts of history, but I do wish to widen suffi¬ ciently the fields of taught history to include the Negroes who justly belong there. Negroes,

“Who broke their lives from day to day,

To pour a fragrance down the years. ’ ’

A history of Methodism is as incomplete without Richard Allen as without John Wesley. A history of the American stage should include Williams and Walker as well as Booth and Jefferson; Cole and Johnson, as well as Fields and Dockstader. How could a history of stage mimicry be written without the name of Billy Kersands ? The history of music would be incomplete without the Jubilee Songs and the matchless Fisk Quartette; while Sissieretta Jones and Flora Batson are names that should not be forgotten. How could the story of the adaptation of popular education to the needs of the people be told without the name of Washington; or the history of polemic protest against caste prejudice be written with¬ out mentioning Du Bois! It is a long way from a log cabin in Kentucky to the Presidency of these United States, but from the slave-pens of Maryland to the marshalship of the District of Colum¬ bia is further. While we justly honor Lincoln for the first, we should remember Douglass made the second.

“ ‘Make way for Liberty,’ he cried;

Made way for liberty and died, ’ ’

650

NEGRO ORATORS

is as true of Crispus Attacks’ rush upon the British bayonets at Boston, as of Arnold von Winkelreid’s plunge upon the Austrian pikes at Sempach. Toussaint L’Ouverture is as worthy a place in the history of war as Napoleon Bonaparte. Of those turbulent and erratic souls that sacrifice themselves for the righting of others ’ wrongs, Nat Turner is as worthy of remembrance as John Brown. When the roll is called of great and good women whose spiritualized lives have blessed their generation. Sojourner Truth is as worthy a place as Frances E. Willard; nor should our own Frances Harper be forgotten when the singers for temperance are assembled.

When the history of American Eloquence is taught and the lan¬ guage of heroic souls is being transmitted to posterity, give Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty, or give me death” a high place, but in the same chapter record these words of Major Delaney :

“All the ideas I have of liberty and independence I obtained from reading the History of the Revolutionary Fathers. From them I learned a man has a right to defend his castle, even to the taking of life. My cottage is my castle ; my wife and children are its inmates. If any man enter that castle to look for a fugitive slave — I care not if it be he who signed his name to that ignomin¬ ious law ; if he come with the Declaration of Independence flying in the air as a banner, and the Constitution of the United States upon his bosom as a breast-plate — if he enter my house to search for a fugitive slave, and I do not strike him down dead, may the grave refuse my body a resting place, and righteous heaven deny ray spirit admission.”

Thus spoke a black man with a knowledge of history.

A diffusion of such knowledge among the masses of our people will stimulate race pride, strengthen their consciousness of kind without lessening their patriotism, and furnish an atmosphere of mutual cooperation and helpfulness that will change the winter of our discontent into the glorious summer of racial solidarity, that magic alembic in which most of our racial difficulties will disappear.

There is an heroic race of men who are the doers of the world, the flower of their kind. They stood in the Pass of Thermopylae, and made a hundred spears deadlier than a million. They held the

OCCASIONAL OEATORY

651

Alpine Highways against the covetons Austrian hordes. They for¬ got arithmetic at Balaklava and transmuted four hundred Sheffield sabers into magic falchions. They lighted the torch of learning while the battle for freedom was raging and opened the Halls of Knowledge to manumitted slaves. They sped the triremes at Salamis, and redeemed a race at Fort Wagner. They lashed the sails of Drake and manned the cannon of Perry. They crawled across the Arctic ice. They cut their way through the tangles of mid- Africa. Pew of their names are known and few of their graves are marked, but the glory of their courage is imperishable — a heritage for all tomorrows — a spark to heat the blood and fire the future generations with inspiration.

They are of no particular sect, nor caste, nor race. They are horn alike from the loins of peasant and of peer. Their fraternity is not of breed, nor brain, nor brawn, but of truth. Duty is their mission and its fulfillment their ultimate hope.

“They wage for the ages, and not for the wages.”

Like the number that John saw, they have come up through great tribulations, from every kindred and tongue and people. Who knows but this audience may furnish some ? But we will not judge.

Let us close by a look to Nature for analogy and instruction and hope. Down in the sunless retreats of the ocean — way down, down, where the sunlight never penetrates and eternal night holds sway, — in this cheerless region may we find a useful and inspiring lesson. The multitudinous inhabitants of this inhospitable place may be divided into two general classes, — sedentary and migratory; the former have no eyes, — beautiful adaptation of organism to environ¬ ment — Nature’s economy. What use are eyes in a region of per¬ petual darkness ? The migratory ones, however, not only have eyes, but have the power of making a light. They thus supply by their own phosphorescent energy that luminosity denied them by the sun, because of the intervening waters. It is my hope that Negro scholarship will become self-luminous with a brilliancy that will give our race correct historical perspective, and lead us to that ethnological respectability and racial solidarity which the floods of prejudice have so persistently washed beyond our grasp. In that

652

NEGEO OEATOES

hope let us labor earnestly, and patiently await the triumph of justice, and

“Let us pray, that come it may.

As come it will for a’ that —

That truth and worth o’er a’ the earth Shall bear the gree and a ’ that. ’ ’

Chaptee Xiii Progressive Oratory

Although the white people refused to listen to the Negro orator of old, and thereby contributed to his oppression by depriving him of an audience, the case of the Negro was not hopeless, for the race was developing from within. The accumulation of wealth, the progress of education, and the development of the press among Negroes made them such a force in this country, that the whites, who had formerly ignored them, had to give their case some consideration. The conservatives were all but alarmed at the increasing number of Negroes, who during the first generation of the twentieth century, had begun to bear grievously the burden resulting from the social, economic, and political inequalities of v/hich they had not been recently complain¬ ing. Whether the other people in the community wanted to hear the complaints of the Negroes or not, they had to give the case some consideration, for the stronger influence of the Negroes as a result of their general progress, made them a force with which the community had to reckon. In other words, the Negro of this generation began to force a large body of citizens here and there to give some attention to the appeals made by their spokesmen. Ida B. Wells- Barnett was driven from the South, but she made herself a great factor in presenting the case of the Negro to the whites in Chicago ; William Monroe Trotter gave unusual impetus to the movement by his fiery oratory which he forced upon an unwilling public ; William Pickens developed into such a protagonist of the forward movement, that he had to abandon teaching to devote all of his time to propa¬ ganda ^ James "Weldon J ohnson, at first a poet, easily drifted

653

654

NEGRO ORATORS

into the agitation for the enlargement of the domain of the liberty of the Negro ; and numerous thinkers, influenced by the Socialist movement since the World War, have stirred the country with their radical appeal for the alignment of the Negro with the forces now desirous of reconstructing our social, economic, and political system.

THE KIND OP DEMOCRACY THE NEGRO RACE EXPECTS "

By William Pickens^

Democracy is the most used term in the world today. But some of its uses are abuses. Everybody says ‘ ‘ Democracy ’ ’ ! But every¬ body has bis own definition. By the extraordinary weight of the presidency of the United States many undemocratic people have had this word forced upon their lips but have not yet had the right ideal forced upon their hearts. I have heard of one woman who wondered with alarm whether “ democracj'- ” would mean that colored women would have the right to take any vacant seat or space on a street car, even if they had paid for it. That such a question should be asked, shows how many different meanings men may attach to the one word democracy. This woman doubtless believes in a democracy of me-and-my-kind, which is no democracy. The most autocratic and the worst caste systems could call them¬ selves democratic by that definition. Even the Prussian junker believes in that type of democracy: he has no doubt that he and the other junkers should be free and equal in rights and privileges.

Many have accepted the word democracy merely as the current

‘ Delivered at various times and places by Mr. Pickens.

» William Pickens was born in Pendleton, Anderson County, South Carolina, January 15, 1881. At an early age he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he attended high school. He began his education seriously at Talladega College. He then went to Yale where he distinguished himself by winning prizes in essay and oratorical contests. He was graduated there with high honor. He began teaching at Talladega, and served that institution for a number of years. He then became a professor at Wiley College, Marshall, Texas. Prom that position he was called to be dean of Morgan College. Leaving Morgan College, he entered upon the work of Field Secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a position which he still holds.

During his varying career, Mr. Pickens has given a large portion of his time to lectures and addresses delivered here and there throughout the United States. As a speaker, he is forceful and logical, and at the same time, enthusiastic and entertaining. In this role, he can be better described as swi generis, for as a writer and a speaker, he fol¬ lows no particular models and it would be difficult for others to imitate him. His oratory is a bold defense of the Negro in the face of social proscription and terror with which the race is now afflicted.

Progressive Oratory

655

password to respectability in political thinking. The spirit of the times is demanding democracy; it is the tune of the age; it is the song to sing. But some are like that man who belonged to one of our greater political parties: after hearing convincing arguments by the stump-speaker of the opposite party, he exclaimed: “Wa-al, that fellow has convinced my judgment, but I ’ll be d — d if he can

CHANGE MY VOTE ! ’ ’

It is in order, therefore, for the Negro to state clearly what he means by democracy and what he is fighting for.

First. Democracy in Education. This is fundamental. No other democracy is practicable unless all of the people have equal right and opportunity to develop according to their individual en¬ dowments. There can be no real democracy between two natural groups, if one represents the extreme of ignorance and the other the best intelligence. The common public school and the state uni¬ versity should be the foundation stones of democracy. If men are artificially differentiated at the beginning, if we try to educate a “working class” and a “ruling class,” forcing different race groups into different lines without regard to individual fitness, how can we ever hope for democracy in the other relations of these groups? Individuals will differ, but in democracy of education peoples living on the same soil should not be widely diverged in their training on mere racial lines. This would be illogical, since they are to be measured by the same standards of life. Of course, a group that is to live in Florida should be differently trained from a group that is to live in Alaska ; but that is geography and gen¬ eral environment, and not color or caste. — The Negro believes in democracy of education as first and fundamental: that the dis¬ tinction should be made between individual talents and not be¬ tween colors and castes.

Second. Democracy in Industry. The right to work in any line for which the individual is best prepared, and to be paid the standard wage. This is also fundamental. In the last analysis there could be very little democracy between multi-millionaires and the abject poor. There must be a more just and fair distribution of wealth in a democracy. And certainly this is not possible unless men work at the occupations for which they are endowed and best prepared. There should be no “colored” wages and no “white” wages ; no “ man ’s ’ ’ wage and no ‘ ‘ woman ’s ’ ’ wage. W ages should

656

NEGEO ORATORS

be paid for the work done, measured as much as possible by its productiveness. No door of opportunity should be closed to a man on any other ground than that of his individual unfitness. The cruelest and most undemocratic thing in the world is to require of the individual man that his whole race be fit before he can be regarded as fit for a certain privilege or responsibility. That rule, strictly applied, would exclude any man of any race from any position. For every man to serve where he is most able to serve is public economy and is to the best interest of the state. This lamentable war that was forced upon us should make that plain to the dullest of us. Suppose that, when this war broke out, our whole country had been like Mississippi (and I refer to geog¬ raphy uninvidiously), — suppose our whole country had been like Mississippi, where a caste system was holding the majority of the population in the triple chains of ignorance, semi-serfdom and poverty. Our nation would be now either the unwilling prey or the golden goose for the Prussian. The long-headed thing for any state is to let every man do his best all of the time. But some people are so short-sighted that they only see what is thrust against their noses. The Negro asks American labor in the name of de¬ mocracy to get rid of its color caste and industrial junkerism.

Thied. Democracy in State. A political democracy in which all are equal before the laws ; where there is one standard of justice, written and unwritten ; where all men and women may be citizens by the same qualifications, agreed upon, and specified. We believe in this as much for South Africa as for South Carolina, and we hope that our American nation will not agree with any govern¬ ment, ally or enemy, that is willing to make a peace that will bind the African Negro to political slavery and exploitation.

Many other evils grow out of political inequality. Discriminat¬ ing laws are the mother of the mob spirit. The political philoso¬ pher in Washington, after publishing his opinion that a Negro by the fault of being a Negro is unfit to be a member of Congress, cannot expect an ignorant white man in Tennessee to believe that the same Negro is, nevertheless, fit to have a fair and impartial trial in a Tennessee court. Ignorance is too logical for that. I disagree with the premises but I agree with the reasoning of the Tennesseean: that if being a Negro unfits a man for holding a government office for which he is otherwise fit, it unfits the same

Peogressive Oeatoey

657

man for claiming a “white man’s” chance in the courts. The first move therefore against mob violence and injustice in the petty courts is to wipe out discriminating laws and practices in the higher circles of government. The ignorant man in Tennessee will not rise in ideal above the intelligent man in Washington.

Fourth. Democracy without Sex-preferment. The Negro can¬ not consistently oppose color discrimination and support sex dis¬ crimination in democratic government. This happened to he the opinion also of the First Man of the Negro race in America, — Frederick Douglass. The handicap is nothing more nor less than a presumption in the mind of the physically dominant element of the universal inferiority of the weaker or subject element. It is so easy to prove that the man who is down and under, deserves to be down and under. In the first place, he is down there, isn’t he? And that is three-fourths of the argument to the ordinary mind; for the ordinary mind does not seek ultimate causes. The argu¬ ment against the participation of colored men and of women in self-government is practically one argument. Somebody spoke to the Creator about both of these classes and learned that they were “created” for inferior roles. Enfranchisement would spoil a good field-hand, — or a good cook. Black men were once ignorant,— women were once ignorant. Negroes had no political experience, — women had no such experience. The argument forgets that peo¬ ple do not get experience on the outside. But the American Negro expects a democracy that will accord the right to vote to a sensible industrious woman rather than to a male tramp.

Fifth. Democracy in Church. The preachings and the prac¬ tices of Jesus of Nazareth are perhaps the greatest infiuenee in the production of modern democratic ideas. The Christian church is, therefore, no place for the caste spirit or for snobs. And the col¬ ored races the world over will have even more doubt in the future than they have had in the past of the real Christianity of any church which holds out to them the prospect of being united in heaven after being separated on earth.

Finally. The great colored races will in the future not be kinder to a sham democracy than to a “scrap-of -paper” autocracy. The private home, private right and private opinion must remain inviolate ; but the commonwealth, the public places and public property must not be appropriated to the better use of any group

658

NEGRO ORATORS

by “ Jim-Crowing” and segregating any other group. By the en¬ dowments of God and nature there are individual “spheres”; but there are no such widely different racial “spheres.” Jesus’ esti¬ mate of the individual soul is the taproot of democracy, and any system which discourages the men of any race from individual achievement, is no democracy. To fix the status of a human soul on earth according to the physical group in which it was born, is the gang spirit of the savage which protects its own members and outlaws all others.

For real democracy the American Negro will live and die. His loyalty is always above suspicion, but his extraordinary spirit in the present war is born of his faith that on the side of his country and her allies is the best hope for such democracy. And he wel¬ comes, too, the opportunity to lift the “Negro question” out of the narrow confines of the Southern United States and make it a world question. Like many other questions our domestic race question, instead of being settled by Mississippi and South Carolina, will now seek its settlement largely on the battlefields of Europe.

THE FAITH OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO ^

By Mordecai Wyatt Johnson ^

Since their emancipation from slavery the masses of American Negroes have lived by the strength of a simple but deeply moving faith. They have believed in the love and providence of a just and holy God; they have believed in the principles of democracy and in the righteous purpose of the Federal Government ; and they

> An address delivered as one of the three Commencement parts at Harvard University Commencement, June 22, 1922.

* Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, son of the Reverend Wyatt Johnson and Caroline Freeman Johnson; born at Paris, Tennessee, January 12, 1890. Educated in the public grade school of Paris, Tennessee, the academies of Roger Williams University, Nashville, Tennessee, of Howe Institute, Memphis, Tennessee, and of Atlanta Baptist College, Atlanta, Georgia; A.B., Morehouse College, 1911; A.B., University of Chicago, 1913; B.D., Rochester Theological Seminary, 1920; S.T.M., Harvard University, 1922;

D.D., Howard University, 1923. Commencement speaker at Morehouse College, 1911. Commencement speaker Rochester Theological Seminary, Rochester, New York, 1916. Commencement part at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1922. 1911-12,

Professor of English at Morehouse College. 1912-13, Professor of the Social Sciences at Morehouse College. 1916-17, Secretary, Student Department of the International Committee of Young Men’s Christian Associations. 1917-23, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Charleston, West Virginia.

Progeessive Oratory

659

have believed in the disposition of the American people as a whole and in the long run to be fair in all their dealings.

In spite of disfranchisement and peonage, mob violence and public contempt, they have kept this faith and have allowed them¬ selves to hope with the optimism of Booker T. Washington that in proportion as they grew in intelligence, wealth, and self-respect they should win the confidence and esteem of their fellow white Americans, and should gradually acquire the responsibilities and privileges of full American citizenship.

In recent years, and especially since the Great War, this simple faith has suffered a widespread disintegration. When the United States Government set forth its war aims, called upon Negro sol¬ diers to stand by the colors and Negro civilians, men, women, and children, to devote their labor and earnings to the cause, and when the war shortage of labor permitted a quarter million Negroes to leave the former slave States for the better conditions of the North, the entire Negro people experienced a profound sense of spiritual release. For the first time since emancipation they found them¬ selves comparatively free to sell their labor on the open market for a living wage, found themselves launched on a great world enter¬ prise with a chance to vote in a real and decisive way, and, best of all, in the heat of the struggle they found themselves bound with other Americans in the spiritual fellowship of a common cause.

When they stood on the height of this exalted experience and looked down on their pre-war poverty, impotence, and spiritual isolation, they realized as never before the depth of the harm they had suffered, and there arose in them a mighty hope that in some way the war would work a change in their situation. For a time indeed it seemed that their hope would be realized. For when the former slave States saw their labor leaving for the North, they began to reflect upon the treatment they had been accustomed to give the Negro, and they decided that it was radically wrong. Newspapers and public orators everywhere expressed this change of sentiment, set forth the wrongs in detail, and urged immediate improvement. And immediate improvement came. Better educa¬ tional facilities were provided here and there, words of appreciation for the worth and spirit of the Negro as a citizen began to be uttered, and public committees arose to inquire into his grievances and to lay out programs for setting these grievances right. The

660

NEGEO OEATOES

colored people in these States had never experienced such collec¬ tive good-will, and many of them were so grateful and happy that they actually prayed for the prolongation of the war.

At the close of the war, however, the Negro’s hopes were sud¬ denly dashed to the ground. Southern newspapers began at once to tell the Negro soldiers that the war was over and the sooner they forgot it the better. “Pull off your uniform,” they said, “find the place you had before the war, and stay in it.” “Act like a Negro should act,” said one newspaper, “work like a Negro should work, talk like a Negro should talk, study like a N^ro should study. Dismiss all ideas of independency or of being lifted up to the plane of the white man. Understand the necessity of keeping a Negro’s place.” In connection with such admonitions there came the great collective attacks on Negro life and property in Washington, Chicago, Omaha, Elaine, and Tulsa. There came also the increasing boldness of lynchers who advertised their pur¬ poses in advance and had their photographs taken around the burning bodies of their victims. There came vain appeals by the colored people to the President of the United States and to the houses of Congress. And finally there came the reorganization and rapid growth of the Ku Klux Klan.

The swift succession and frank brutality of all this was more than the Negro people could bear. Their simple faith and hope broke down. Multitudes took weapons in their hands and fought back violence with bloody resistance. ‘ ‘ If we must die, ’ ’ they said, “it is well that we die fighting.” And the Negro American world, looking on their deed with no light of hope to see by, said : “ It is self-defense ; it is the law of nature, of man, and of God ; and it is well. ’ ’

From those terrible days until this day the Negro ’s faith in the righteous purpose of the Federal Government has sagged. Some have laid the blame on the parties in power. Some have laid it elsewhere. But all the colored people, in every section of the United States, believe that there is something wrong, and not acci¬ dentally wrong, at the very heart of the Government.

Some of our young men are giving up the Christian religion, thinking that their fathers were fools to have believed it so long. One group among us repudiates entirely the simple faith of former days. It would put no trust in God, no trust in democracy, and

PEOGEESSIVE OEATOEY 661

would entertain no hope for betterment under the present form of government. It believes that the United States Government is through and through controlled by selfish capitalists who have no fundamental good-will for Negroes or for any sort of laborers what¬ ever. In their publications and on the platform the members of this group urge the colored man to seek his salvation by alliance with the revolutionary labor movement of America and the world.

Another and larger group among us believes in religion and be¬ lieves in the principles of democracy, but not in the white man’s religion and not in the white man’s democracy. It believes that the creed of the former slave States is the tacit creed of the whole nation, and that the Negro may never expect to acquire economic, political, and spiritual liberty in America. This group has held congresses with representatives from the entire Negro world, to lay the foundations of a black empire, a black religion, and a black culture; it has organized the provisional Eepublie of Africa, set going a multitude of economic enterprises, instituted branches of its organization wherever Negroes are to be found, and binds them together with a newspaper ably edited in two languages.

Whatever one may think of these radical movements and their destiny, one thing is certain : they are home-grown fruits, with roots deep sprung in a world of black American suffering. Their power lies in the appeal which they make to the Negro to find a way out of his trouble by new and self-reliant paths. The larger masses of the colored people do not belong to these more radical movements. They retain their belief in the Christian God, they love their country, and hope to work out their salvation within its bounds. But they are completely disillusioned. They see them¬ selves surrounded on every hand by a sentiment of antagonism which does not intend to be fair. They see themselves partly re¬ duced to peonage, shut out from labor unions, forced to an inferior status before the courts, made subjects of public contempt, lynched , and mobbed with impunity, and deprived of the ballot, their only means of social defense. They see this antagonistic sentiment con¬ solidated in the places of power in the former slave States and growing by leaps and bounds in the North and West. They know that it is gradually reducing them to an economic, political, and social caste. And they are now no longer able to believe with Dr. Booker T. Washington, or with any other man, that their own efforts

662

NEGRO ORATORS

after intelligence, wealth, and self-respect can in any wise avail to deliver them from these conditions unless they have the protection of a just and beneficent public policy in keeping with American ideals. With one voice, therefore, from pulpit and from press, and from the humblest walks of life, they are sending up a cry of pain and petition such as is heard today among the citizens of no other civilized nation in the world. They are asking for the pro¬ tection of life, for the security of property, for the liberation of their peons, for the freedom to sell their labor on the open market, for a human being’s chance in the courts, for a better system of public education, and for the boon of the ballot. They ask, in short, for public equality under the protection of the Federal Gbvernment.

Their request is sustained by every sentiment of humanity and by every holy ideal for which this nation stands. The time has come when the elemental justice called for in this petition should be embodied in a public policy initiated by the Federal Govern¬ ment and continuously supervised by a commission of that Gov¬ ernment representing the faith and will of the whole Ameriean people.

The Negro people of Ameriea have been with us here for three hundred years. They have cut our forests, tilled our fields, built our railroads, fought our battles, and in all of their trials until now they have manifested a simple faith, a grateful heart, a cheerful spirit, and an undivided loyalty to the nation that has been a thing of beauty to behold. Now they have come to the place where their faith can no longer feed on the bread of repression and violence. They ask for the bread of liberty, of public equality, and public responsibility. It must not be denied them.

We are now. sufficiently far removed from the Civil War and its animosities to see that such elemental justice may be given to the Negro with entire good-will and helpfulness toward the former slave States. We have already had one long attempt to build a wealth and culture on the baeks of slaves. We found that it was a costly experiment, paid for at last with the blood of our best sons. There are some among our citizens who would turn their backs on history and repeat that experiment, and to their terrible heresy they would convert our entire great community. By every sacred bond of love for them we must not yield, and we must no

PROGRESSIVE ORATORY

663

longer leave them alone with their experiment. The faith of our whole nation must be brought to their support until such time as it is clear to them that their former slaves can be made both fully free and yet their faithful friends.

Across the seas the darker peoples of the earth are rising from their long sleep and are searching this Western world for light. Our Christian missionaries are among them. They are asking these missionaries : Can the Christian religion bind this multi-col¬ ored world in bonds of brotherhood? We of all nations are best prepared to answer that question, and to be their moral inspiration and their friend. For we have the world’s problem of race rela¬ tionships here in crucible, and by strength of our American faith we have made some encouraging progress in its solution. If the fires of this faith are kept burning around that crucible, what comes out of it is able to place these United States in the spiritual leadership of all humanity. When the Negro cries with pain from his deep hurt and lays his petition for elemental justice before the nation, he is calling upon the American people to kindle anew about the crucible of race relationships the fires of American faith.^

OUR DEMOCRACY AND THE BALLOT ^

By James Weldon Johnson®

Ladies and Gentlemen :

For some time since I have had growing apprehensions about any subject — especially the subject of a speech — that contained the word “democracy.” The word “democracy” carries so many awe-inspiring implications. As the key-word of the subject of an address it may be the presage of an outpour of altitudinous and

^ Nation, July 19, 1922.

® This address was delivered at a dinner to Congressman P. H. LaOuardia at the Hotel Pennsylvania, New York City, March 10, 1923.

^ James Weldon Johnson was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1871. He was edu¬ cated at Atlanta and Columbia Universities. After distinguishing himself somewhat in the field of letters, he served the United States Government as consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua. Returning to this country, he further distinguished himself in letters as attested by such works as Fifty Years, and other poems, and such sonnets as Mother Night.

During recent years, Mr. Johnson has been engaged in the movement for the better¬ ment of the Negro through the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He has served this organization as Field Secretary and as Secretary for a number of years. In this position, he has become widely known as an honest and fearless leader qualified to present intelligently the case of the Negro at court. His addresses in this field have attracted nation-wide attention and are considered some of the most eloquent utterances of the day.

664

NEGEO OEATOES

platitudinous expressions regarding' “the most free and glorious government of the most free and glorious people that the world has ever seen.” On the other hand, it may hold up its sleeve, if you will permit such a figure, a display of abstruse and recondite theorizations or hypotheses of democracy as a system of govern¬ ment. In choosing between either of these evils it is difficult to decide which is the lesser.

Indeed, the wording of my subject gave me somewhat more con¬ cern than the speech. I am not sure that' it contains the slightest idea of what I shall attempt to say ; but if the wording of my sub¬ ject is loose it only places upon me greater reason for being more specific and definite in what I shall say. This I shall endeavor to do; at the same time, however, without being so confident or so cocksure as an old preacher I used to* listen to on sundry Sundays when I taught school dtie* summer down in the backwoods of Geor¬ gia, sometimes to* my edification and often to my amazement.

On one particular Sunday, after taking a rather cryptic text, he took off his spectacles and laid them on the pulpit, closed the Bible with a bang, and said, “Brothers and sisters, this morning I intend to explain the inexplainable, to find out the- indefinable, to ponder over the imponderable, and to unscrew the inscrutable.”

Our Democracy and the Ballot

It is one of the commonplaces of American thought that we have a democracy based upon the free will of the governed. The popu¬ lar idea of the strength of this democracy is that it is founded upon the fact that every American citizen, through the ballot, is a ruler in his own right ; that every citizen of age and outside of jail or the insane asylum has the undisputed right to determine through his vote by what laws he shall be governed and by whom these laws shall be enforced.

I could be cynical or flippant and illustrate in how many ways this popular idea is a fiction, but it is not my purpose to deal in cleverisms. I wish to bring to your attention seriously a situation, a condition, which not only runs counter to the popular conception of democracy in America but which runs counter to the funda¬ mental law upon which that democracy rests and which, in addi¬ tion, is a negation of our principles of government and a menace to our institutions.

PEOGEESSIVE OEATOEY 665

Without any waste of words, I come directly to a condition which exists in that section of our country which we call “the South,” where millions of American citizens are denied both the right to vote and the privilege of qualifying themselves to vote. I refer to the wholesale disfranchisement of Negro citizens. There is no need at this time of going minutely into the methods employed to bring about this condition or into the reasons given as justification for those methods. Neither am I called upon to give proof of my general statement that millions of Negro citizens in the South are disfranchised. It is no secret. There are the published records of state constitutional conventions in which the whole subject is set forth with brutal frankness. The purpose of these state con¬ stitutional conventions is stated over and over again, that purpose being to exclude from the right of franchise the Negro, however literate, and to include the white man, however illiterate.

The press of the South, public men in public utterances, and representatives of those states in Congress, have not only admitted these facts but have boasted of them. And so we have it as an admitted and undisputed fact that there are upwards of four million Negroes in the South who are denied the right to vote but who in any of the great northern, mid-western or western states would be allowed to vote or would at least have the privilege of qualifying themselves to. vote.

Now, nothing is further from me than the intention to discuss this question either from an anti-South point of view or from a pro-Negro point of view. It is my intention to put it before you purely as an American question, a question in which is involved the political life of the whole country.

Let us first co.nsider this situation as a violation, not merely a violation but a defiance, of the Constitution of the United States. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution taken together express so plainly that a grammar school boy can understand it that the Negro is created a citizen of the United States and that as such he is entitled to all the rights of every other citizen and that those rights, specifically among them the right to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state. This is the expressed meaning of these amend¬ ments in spite of all the sophistry and fallacious pretense which have been invoked by the courts to overcome it.

666

NEGRO ORATORS

There are some, perhaps even here, who feel that it is no more serious a matter to violate or defy one amendment to the consti¬ tution than another. Such persons will have in mind the Eigh¬ teenth Amendment. This is true in a strictly legal sense, hut any sort of analysis will show that violation of the two Civil War Amendments strikes deeper. As important as the Eighteenth Amendment may be, it is not fundamental; it contains no grant of rights to the citizen nor any requirement of service from him. It is rather a sort of welfare regulation for his personal conduct and for his general moral uplift.

But the two Civil War Amendments are grants of citizenship rights and a guarantee of protection in those rights, and therefore their observation is fundamental and vital not only to the citizen but to the integrity of the government.

We may next consider it as a question of political franchise equality between the states. We need not here go into a list of figures. A few examples will strike the difference:

In the elections of 1920 it took 82,492 votes in Mississippi to elect two senators and eight representatives. In Kansas it took 570,220 votes to elect exactly the same representation. Another illustration from the statistics of the same election shows that one vote in Louisiana has fifteen times the political power of one vote in Kansas.

In the Congressional elections of 1918 the total vote for the ten representatives from the State of Alabama was 62,345, while the total vote for ten representatives in Congress from Minnesota was 299,127, and the total vote in Iowa, which has ten representatives, was 316,377.

In the Presidential election of 1916 the states of Alabama, Ar¬ kansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia cast a total vote for the Presidential candidates of 1,870,209. In Congress these states have a total of 104 representatives and 126 votes in the electoral college. The State of New York alone cast a total vote for Presidential candidates of 1,706,354, a vote within 170,000 of all the votes cast by the above states, and yet New York has only 43 representatives and 45 votes in the electoral college.

What becomes of our democracy when such conditions of in-

PROGRESSIVE ORATORY 667

equality as these can be brought about through chicanery, the open violation of the law and defiance of the Constitution ?

But the question naturally arises, What if there is violation of certain clauses of the Constitution j what if there is an inequality of political power among the states ? All this may be justified by necessity.

In fact, the justification is constantly offered. The justification goes hack and makes a long story. It is grounded in memories of the Reconstruction period. Although most of those who were actors during that period have long since died, and although there is a new South and a new Negro, the argument is still made that the Negro is ignorant, the Negro is illiterate, the Negro is venal, the Negro is inferior ; and, therefore, for the preservation of civi¬ lized government in the South, he must be debarred from the polls. This argument does not take into account the fact that the restric¬ tions are not against ignorance, illiteracy and venality, because by the very practices by which intelligent, decent Negroes are de¬ barred, ignorant and illiterate white men are included.

Is this pronounced desire on the part of the South for an en¬ lightened franchise sincere, and what has been the result of these practices during the past forty years? What has been the effect socially, intellectually and politically, on the South? In all three of these vital phases of life the South is, of all sections of the coun¬ try, at the bottom. Socially, it is that section of the country where public opinion allows it to remain the only spot in the civilized world — ^no, more than that, we may count in the blackest spots of Africa and the most unfrequented islands of the sea — it is a section where public opinion allows it to remain the only spot on the earth where a human being may be publicly burned at the stake.

And what about its intellectual and political life? As to in¬ tellectual life I can do nothing better than quote from Mr. H. L. Mencken, himself a Southerner. In speaking of the intellectual life of the South, Mr. Mencken says :

“It is, indeed, amazing to contemplate so vast a vacuity. One thinks of the interstellar spaces, of the colossal reaches of the now mythical ether. One could throw into the South France, Germany and Italy, and still have room for the British Isles. And yet, for all its size and all its wealth and all the ‘progress’ it babbles of.

668

NEGEO ORATOES

it is almost as sterile, artistically, intellectually, culturally, as the Sahara Desert. ... If the whole of the late Confederacy were to be engulfed by a tidal wave tomorrow, the effect on the civilized minority of men in the world would be biit little greater than that of a flood on the Yang-tse-kiang. It would be impossible in all his¬ tory to match so complete a drying-up of a civilization. In all that section there is not a single poet, not a serious historian, not a creditable composer, not a critic good or bad, not a dramatist dead or alive.”

In a word, it may be said that this whole section where, at the cost of the defiance of the Constitution, the perversion of law, the stultification of men’s consciousness, injustice and violence upon a weaker group, the “purity” of the ballot has been preserved and the right to vote restricted to only lineal survivors of Lothrop Stoddard’s mystical Nordic supermen — that intellectually it is dead and politically it is rotten.

If this experiment in super-democracy had resulted in one one- hundredth of what was promised, there might be justification for it, but the result has been to make the South a section not only in which Negroes are denied the right to vote, but one in which white men dare not express their honest political opinions. Talk about political corruption through the buying of votes, here is political corruption which makes a white man fear to express a divergent political opinion. The actual and total result of this practice has been not only the disfranchisement of the Negro but the disfran¬ chisement of the white man. The figures which I quoted a few moments ago prove that not only Negroes are denied the right to vote but that white men fail to exercise it ; and the latter condition is directly dependent upon the former.

The whole condition is intolerable and should be abolished. It has failed to justify itself even upon the grounds which it is claimed made it necessary. Its results and its tendencies make it more dangerous and more damaging than anything which might result from an ignorant and illiterate electorate. How this iniquity might be abolished is, however, another story.

I said that I did not intend to present this subject either as anti-South or pro-Negro, and I repeat that I have not wished to speak with anything that approached bitterness toward the South.

PEOGEESSIVE OEATOEY 669

Indeed, I consider the condition of the South unfortunate, more than unfortunate. The South is in a state of superstition which makes it see ghosts and bogymen, ghosts which are the creation of its own mental processes.

With a free vote in the South the specter of Negro domination would vanish into thin air. There would naturally follow a break¬ ing up of the South into two parties. There would he political light, political discussion, the right to differences of opinion, and the Negro vote would naturally divide itself. No other procedure would be probable. The idea of a solid party, a minority party at that, is inconceivable.

But perhaps the South will not see the light. Then, I believe, in the interest of the whole country, steps should be taken to com¬ pel compliance with the Constitution, and that should be done through the enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment, which calls for a reduction in representation in proportion to the number of citizens in any state denied the right to vote.

And now I cannot sit down after all without saying one word for the group of which I am a member.

The Negro in the matter of the ballot demands only that he should be given the right as an American citizen to vote under the identical qualifications required of other citizens. He cares not how high those qualifications are made— whether they include the ability to read and write, or the possession of five hundred dollars, or a knowledge of the Einstein Theory — just so long as these qualifications are impartially demanded of white men and black men.

In this controversy over which have been waged battles of words and battles of blood, where does the Negro himself stand ?

The Negro in the matter of the ballot demands only that he be given his right as an American citizen. He is justified in making this demand because of his undoubted Americanism, ani American¬ ism which began when he first set foot on the shores of this country more than three hundred years ago, antedating even the Pilgrim Fathers ; an Americanism which has woven him into the woof and warp of the country and which has impelled him to play his part in every war in which the country has been engaged, from the Revolution down to the late World War.

Through his whole history in this country he has worked with

670

NEGRO ORATORS

patience, and in spite of discouragement he has never turned his back on the light. Whatever may be his shortcomings, however slow may have been his progress, however disappointing may have been his achievements, he has never consciously sought the back¬ ward path. He has always kept his face to the light and continued to struggle forward and upward in spite of obstacles, making his humble contributions to the common prosperity and glory of our land. And it is his land. With conscious pride the Negro can say:

“This land is ours by right of birth.

This land is ours by right of toil ;

We helped to turn its virgin earth.

Our sweat is in its friiitful soil.

“Where once the tangled forest stood, —

Where flourished once rank weed and thorn, —

Behold the path-traced, peaceful wood.

The cotton white, the yellow corn.

“To gain these fruits that have been earned.

To hold these flelds that have been won,

Our arms have strained, our backs have burned Bent bare beneath a ruthless sun.

“That banner which is now the type Of victory on fleld and flood —

Remember, its first crimson stripe Was dyed by Attucks’ willing blood.

“And never yet has come the cry — •

When that fair flag has been assailed —

For men to do, for men to die.

That we have faltered or have failed.”

The Negro stands as the supreme test of the civilization, the Christianity and the common decency of the American people. It is upon the answer demanded of America today by the Negro that there depends the fulfillment or the failure of democracy in Amer-

PROGRESSIVE ORATORY

671

ica. I believe that that answer will be the right and jnst answer. I believe that the spirit in which American democracy was founded, though often turned aside and often thwarted, can never be de¬ feated or destroyed but that ultimately it will triumph.

• If American democracy cannot stand the test of giving to any citizen who measures up to the qualifications required of others the full rights and privileges of American citizenship, then we had just as well abandon that democracy in name as in deed. If the Constitution of the United States cannot extend the arm of pro¬ tection around the weakest and humblest of American citizens as around the strongest and proudest, then it is not worth the paper it is written on.

THE SHAME OF AMERICA, OR THE NEGRO’S CASE AGAINST THE REPUBLIC ^

By Archibald Geimk^ ^

The author of the Declaration of Independence said once that he trembled for his country when he remembered that God was just. And he did well to do so. But while he was about it he might have quaked a little for himself. For he was certainly guilty of the same crime against humanity, which had aroused in his philo¬ sophic and patriotic mind such lively sensations of anxiety and alarm in respect to the Nation. Said Jefferson on paper: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happi¬ ness, ’ ’ while on his plantation he was holding some men as slaves, and continued to hold them as such for fifty years thereafter, and died at the end of a long and brilliant life, a Virginia slaveholder.

^ Delivered on various occasions by Mr. Grimke.

^Archibald H. Grimke was born in South Carolina in 1849. Like his brother, he found his way north after the Civil War when he was seeking an education. At Lincoln University, where he received his first systematic training, he made an honorable record. He then studied law at Harvard University. He entered upon the practice of his profession and also participated in politics. Differing from most Negro leaders, however, he voted independently, endeavoring to support the man rather than the party. He served for some years as Consul in Haiti. The recent years of his life he has spent in Washington, largely advocating the rights of the Negro as championed by the Na¬ tional Association for the Advancement of Colored People. As the President of the local branch of this organization, he has rendered valuable service in snatching many a Negro from the hand of the oppressor, and in forcefully presenting the case of the race to a prejudiced world.

672

NEGRO ORATORS

And yet Thomas Jefferson was sincere, or fancied that he was, when he uttered those sublime sentiments about the rights of man, and when he deelared that he trembled for his country when he remembered that God was just. This inconsistency between the man’s magnificence in profession and his smallness in practice, between the grandeur of what he promised and the meanness of what he performed, taken in conjunction with his cool unconscious¬ ness of the discrepancy, is essentially and emphatically an Amer¬ ican trait, a national idiosyncrasy. For it has appeared during the last one hundred and forty-four years with singular boldness and continuity in the social, political, and religious life of the American people and their leaders. I do not recall in all history such another example of a nation appearing so well in its written words regarding human rights, and so badly when it comes to translating those fine words into corresponding action, as this Re¬ public has uniformly exhibited from its foundation, wherever the Negro has been concerned.

Look at its conduct in the War of the Revolution, which it began with the high sounding sentiments of the Declaration of Independ¬ ence. The American colonists rose in arms because they were taxed by England without their consent, a species of tyranny which bore no sort of comparison to the slavery which they themselves were imposing on the Negro. But with such inconsistency of con¬ duct the men of the Revolution bothered not their heads for a simple, and to them, a sufficient reason. They were white and the Negro was black and was their property. Since they were fighting for a political principle in order the better to protect their pockets, they were not disposed to give up their property rights in anything’ not even in human beings. They were contending for the sacred right of loosening their own purse strings, not for the sacred privi¬ lege of loosening the bonds of their slaves. Not at all. Millions they were willing to spend in defense of the former, but not a cent to effect the latter, their loud talk in the Declaration of Independ¬ ence to the contrary, notwithstanding.

Their subsequent conduct in respect to the Negro was of a piece with this characteristic beginning. First they accepted the services of the blacks, both bond and free, as soldiers, and then they de¬ bated the expediency and justice of their action, not from the point of view of the slaves but from that of the masters, and later

PROGRESSIVE ORATORY

673

decided upon a policy of exclusion of the slaves from the Conti¬ nental army. With the adoption of such a policy the chattel rights of masters in those poor men would he better conserved. Hence the policy of exclusion. But when the British evinced a disposition to enlist the slaves as soldiers, a change passed quickly over the leaders of the Revolution, with Washington at their head. The danger to the master of a policy of inclusion was overriden readily enough in the greater danger to the cause of one of exclusion. Without a thought for the slave, he was put on the military chess¬ board, withdrawn, then put back in response to purely selfish con¬ siderations and needs.

Thus it happened that black men fought in that war shoulder to shoulder with white men for American Independence. In every colony from Massachusetts to Georgia, they were found faithful among the faithless, and brave as the bravest during those long and bitter years, fighting and dying with incomparable devotion and valor, by the side of Warren at Bunker Hill, and of. Pulaski at Savannah.

The voluntary surrender of life for country has been justly held by all ages to be an act of supreme virtue. It is in the power of any man to give less ; it is in the power of none, however exalted in station, to give more. For to lay down one ’s life at the call of Duty is to lay down one’s all. And this all of the general weighs no more than the all of a common soldier. Weighed in the scales of truth this supreme gift of the beggar on foot balances exactly that of the prince on horseback. When prince or beggar, master or slave, has given his life to a cause, he has given his utmost. Beyond that absolute measure of devotion neither can add one jot or tittle to the value of his gift. Thank God there is no color line in acts of heroism and self-sacrifice, save the royal one of their blood-tinted humanity. Such was the priceless contribution which the poor, oppressed Negro made to American Independence.

What was his guerdon ? In the hour of their triumph did the patriot fathers call to mind such supreme service to reward it? In the freedom which they had won by the aid of their enslaved countrymen, did they bethink them of lightening the yoke of those miserable men? History answers, no! Truth answers, no! The descendants of those black heroes answer, no ! What then ? What did such bright, such blazing beacons of liberty, the Washingtons,

674

NEGRO ORATORS

Hamiltons, Madisons and Franklins, tke Rnfus Kings, Roger Sher¬ mans, and Robert Morrises ? They founded the Republic on slavery, rested one end of its stately arch on the prostrate neck of the Negro. They constructed a national Constitution which safe¬ guarded the property of man in man, introducing into it for that purpose its three-fifths slave representation provision, its fugitive slave clause, and an agreement by which the African slave trade was legalized for nineteen years after the adoption of that instru¬ ment. That was the reward which the founders of the Republic meted out with one accord to a race which had shed freely its blood to make that Republic a reality among the nations of the earth. Instead of loosening and lifting his heavy yoke of oppression, they strengthened and tightened it afresh on the loyal and long suffering neck of the Negro. Notwithstanding this shameful fact, the found¬ ers of the Republic were either so coolly unconscious of its moral enormity or else so indifferent to the amazing contradiction be¬ tween what they said and what they did, as to write over the gate¬ way of the new Constitution this sonorous preamble: “We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com¬ mon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

“We the people!” From the standpoint of the Negro, what grim irony ; ‘ ‘ establish justice ’ ’ ! What exquisitely cruel mockery ; “to insure domestic tranquillity”! What height and breadth and depth of political duplicity; “to provide for the common defense”! What cunning paltering with words in a double sense; “to pro¬ mote the general welfare”! What studied ignoring of an ugly fact; “and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and pos¬ terity ’ ’ ! What masterly abuse of noble words to mask an equivocal meaning, to throw over a great national transgression an air of virtue, so subtle and illusive as to deceive the framers themselves into believing in their own sincerity. You may ransack the libraries of the world, and turn over all the documents of recorded time to match that Preamble of the Constitution as a piece of con¬ summate political dissimulation and mental reservation, as an ex¬ ample of how men juggle deliberately and successfully with their moral sense, how they raise above themselves huge fabrics of false-

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675

hood, and go willingly to live and die in a make-helieve world of lies. The muse of history, dipping her iron pen in the generous blood of the Negro, has written large across the page of that Pre¬ amble, and the face of the Declaration of Independence, the words, “sham, hypocrisy.”

It is the rage now to sing the praises of the fathers of the Republic as a generation of singularly liberty-loving men. They were so, indeed, if judged by their fine words alone. But they were, in reality, by no means superior to their sons in this respect, if we judge them by their acts, which somehow speak louder, more convincingly to us than their words, albeit those words proceed out of the Declaration of Independence, and the Preamble of the Con¬ stitution, If the children’s teeth today are set on edge on the Negro question, it is because the fathers ate the sour grapes of race-wrong, ate those miserable grapes during their whole life, and, dying, transmitted their taste for oppression, as a bitter in¬ heritance to their children, and children ’s ehildren, for God knows how many black years to come.

Take the case of Washington as an example. He was rated an abolitionist by his contemporaries. And so he was if mere words could have made him one. On paper he was one person, but on his plantation quite another. And as far as I know his history, he never made any effectual attempt to bring this second self of his into actual accord with the first. In theory he favored eman¬ cipation, while in practice he was one of the biggest, if not the biggest slaveholder in the country, who enriched himself and his family out of the unpaid toil of more than two hundred slaves. The father of his country did not manumit them during his life¬ time, or of that of his wife. Not until his death, not until the death of his widow, did he, as a matter of fact, release his hold upon the labor of those people, did they escape from his dead hands. As first President, moreover, he signed the first fugitive slave law and was not ashamed to avail himself of its hateful provisions for the reclamation of one of his runaway slave- women. And yet Wash¬ ington, and Jefferson also, are the two bright, particular stars of our American democracy. They had very fine words for liberty, no two men ever had finer, but when it came to translating them into action, into churning them into butter for the poor Negro’s

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NEGEO OEATOES

parsnips, no atom of butter did they yield, or will ever yield, churn them ever so long. Ex pede Herculem.

Naturally enough under the circumstances of its origin and ante¬ cedents, American democracy has never cared a fig in practice for the fine sentiments of its Declaration of Independence, or for the high sounding ones of the Preamble to its Constitution, wherever and whenever the Negro has been concerned. It used him to fight the battles for its independent political existence, and rewarded his blood and bravery with fresh stripes and heavier chains.

History repeats itself. In America, on the Negro question, it I has been a series of shameful repetitions of itself. The Negro’s ! history in the first war with England was repeated exactly in the second. In this conflict no more loyal and daring hearts bled and broke for the country than were those of its colored soldiers and s^ior^ On land and water in that war the Negro died as he fought, ahlong th6 most faithful and heroic defenders of the Amer- iean catise. But to praise him is to condemn the country, which in this instance I will leave to no less an American than General JaeksoTU Out of his mouth shall this condemnation be spoken. Said Jackson three weeks before the battle of New Orleans to the black soldiers who had rallied at his summons to repel a formidable invasion of our national domain by a powerful foreign enemy :

“From the shores of Mobile I called you to arms. I invited you to share in the perils and divide the glory of your white coun¬ trymen. I expected much from you, for I was not uninformed of those qualities which must render you so formidable to an in¬ vading foe. I knew you could endure hunger and thirst, and all the hardships of war. I knew that you loved the land of your nativity, and that, like ourselves, you had to defend all that is most dear to men. But you surpass my hopes. I have found in you, united to those qualities, that noble enthusiasm that impels to great deeds.

“Soldiers: The President of the United States shall be in¬ formed of your conduct on the present occasion, and the voice of the representatives of the American nation shall applaud your valor, as your General now praises your ardor. The enemy is near. His sails cover the lakes, but the brave are united, and if

PROGEESSIVE ORATORY 677

he finds us contending among ourselves, it will be for the prize of valor, and fame its noblest reward. ’ ’

Jackson’s black troops proved themselves in the actions of Mo¬ bile Bay and New Orleans entitled to every mouthful of the ringing applause which Old Hickory gave them without stint. They got fair enough words as long as the enemy was in sight and his navy covered the waters of the country. But as soon as the peril had passed those fair words were succeeded by the foulest ingratitude. On every hand Colorphobia reared its cursed head, and struck its cruel fangs into those brave breasts which had just received the swords and the bullets of a foreign foe. They were legislated against everywhere, proscribed by atrocious laws everywhere. They had given the nation in its dire need, blood and life, and measureless love, and had received as reward black codes, an un¬ relenting race prejudice, and bondage bitterer than death.

Strange irony of fate which reserved to Andrew Jackson, whose mouth overfiowed with praise in 1814 for his black soldiers and with fair promises of what he intended to do for them — strange irony of fate, I say, which reserved to that man, as President in 1836, the elevation of Roger B. Taney to the Chief -Justiceship of the United States, of Taney, the infamous slave Judge who wrote the Dred Scott Decision, which argued that black men had no rights in America which white men were bound to respect. The down¬ right brutality of that opinion was extremely shocking to some sensitive Americans, but it was no more so than was the downright brutality of the facts, which it reflected with brutal accuracy. The fell apparition of American inhumanity, which those words con¬ jured up from the depths of an abominable past and from that of a no less abominable present, was indeed black, but it was no blacker than the truth. The dark soul of the nation was embodied in them, all of its savage selfishness, greed and iniquity. There they glared, large and lifelike, a devil’s face among the nations, seamed and intersected with the sinister lines of a century of cruelty and race hatred and oppression. Of course the fair idealism of the Declaration of Independence was wanting in the photographic naturalism of the picture, and so was the Active beauty of the Pre¬ amble of the Constitution, because they were wanting in the ter¬ rible original, in the malignant, merciless, and murderous spirit of

678 NEGRO ORATORS

a democracy which the dark words of the dark judge had limned to the life.

God has made iniquitous power ultimately self -destructive. Into every combination of evil He puts the seed of division and strife. Without this effective check wickedness would conquer and per¬ manently possess the earth. The law of the brute would rule it forever. Where today are the empires of might and wrong, which men reared in their pride and strength, on the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates, on the Tiber, the Bosporus, and the Mediter¬ ranean? They flourished for a season and seasons, and spread themselves like green bay trees. But behold they are gone, per¬ ished, burnt up by the fires of evil passions, by the evil power which consumed them to ashes. Centuries have flown over their graves, and the places once cursed by their violence, and crushed by their oppressions, shall know them and their vulture laws and trampling armies.no more forever.

So it happened in the cas'e of the American people when in order “to form a more perfect union,” they ordained and established their Constitution. Within the “more perfect union” was en¬ folded a fruitful germ of division and discord. No bigger at first than the smallest of seeds, the germ grew apace with the growth of the new nation, drawing abundant nourishment from the dark underworld of the slave. Slender sapling in 1815, it was a fast growing tree in 1820, bearing even then its bitter apples of Gomorrah. Where its bit^r fruit fell, there fell also on the spirit of the people mutual distrust, and incipient sectional hate. And no wonder, for when the North clasped hands with her Southern sister in “a more perfect union,” she did so the better to conserve a set of interests and institutions peculiar to herself and inherently hostile to those of the South, and vice versa with respect to the action of the latter in the premises. The “more perfect union” had, thank God, effected a conjunction, under a single political system, of two sets of mutually invasive and destructive social ideas and industrial forces. Differences presently sprang up between the partisans of each set, and discontent, and wide-spreading fear and contention. National legislation which oxidized and enriched the blood of the North, not only impoverished but actually poisoned that of the South. And so it came to pass that the compromise Constitution which was designed **to form a more perfect union,”

Peogressive Oratory

679

failed of its purpose, because with human slavery at the core of it, it brought face to face two warring social systems, whose unap¬ peasable strife it had not the secret or the strength to subdue.

As in Egypt more than three thousand years ago, the Eternal spoke to the master-race at divers times and with divers signs, say¬ ing, “let my people go,” so he spoke to the master-race in this land through divers omens and events, saying likewise, “let my people go.” Those with ears to hear might have heard that divine voice in the Hartford Convention and the causes which led to its call ; in the successive sectional conflicts over Missouri, the Tariff, and Texas ; in the storm winds of the Mexican- war, as in the wild up¬ roar which followed the annexation of new national territory at its close ; in the political rage and explosions of 1850 and 1854, and in the fierce patter of blood-drops over Kansas. They might have surely heard that, commanding voice from the anointed lips of holy men and prophets, from the mouths of Garrison and Sumner, and Phillips, and Douglass, from the sacred gallows where John Brown heard and repeated it while his soul went marching on from city to city, and State to State, over mountain and river, across a continent, and from the Lakes to the Gulf with rising accent say¬ ing, “let my people go.” Alas! the nation hearkened not to the voice of justice, but continued to. harden its heart, until thunder- like that voice broke in the deep boom of Civil War.

When masters fall out a way oftentimes opens for the escape of their slaves. In the death grapple of the sections for political supremacy, the dead weight of two centuries of oppression lifted from the neck of the Negro. The people and their leaders of both sections despised him to such a degree that neither would in the beginning enlist his aid against the other. “We the people” of the glorious union of 1789 had quarrelled like two bloody scoun¬ drels over their ill-gotten gains, and had come to murderous blows. Yet in spite- of their deadly hatred of each other, they said in their mad race-pride and prejudice, the North to the South, and the South to the North, “go to, shall we not settle our differences without the aid of him who is our slave ? Shall not we white men fight our duel to a finish ; shall either of us appeal for help to that miserable being who by our laws, written and unwritten, has never possessed any rights among us which we have ever respected?” They chose to forget how in two wars this faithful man had for

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their sates, received into his sad but brave breast the swords and the bullets of a foreign enemy, and all unmindful of self had helped them to achieve and maintain their liberty and independence. And thus choosing to forget his past services and to remember only their bitter race-prejudice against him, they fought on with deadly malice and violence, the one side against the other, rending their dear Union with fraternal strife, and drenching it with fraternal blood.

Perceiving the unlimited capacity of mankind for all sorts of folly, no wonder Puck exclaimed, “What fools these mortals be!” Yes, what fools, but of all the fools who have crawled to dusty death the most stupendous and bedeviled lot are those who strut their fools’ feet and toss their fools’ heads across their little stage of life, thanking their fools’ selves that God made them different from other men — superior to other men — to rule over other men. Puffed up with their stupid race-pride and prejudice, inflated to" the bursting point with their high and mighty notions, and noli me tangere airs, the North and the South went on for nearly two years goring and tearing each other like two infuriated bulls of nearly equal strength, before either would call on the Negro for assistance. Not until bleeding at every pore, sickened at the loss of its sordid dollar, and in despair at the threatened destruc¬ tion of that to which it ascribed, as to the Almighty, all of its sectional progress, prosperity and power, viz. : the dear Uuion, did the North turn for help to the Negro, whom it had despised and wronged, and whom it even then, in its heart of hearts, despised and intended, upon occasion, to wrong anew.

Think of the incredible folly and selfishness of a people fighting for existence and yet begrudging freedom to an enslaved race, whom it had called upon to help defend that existence ; doling out to its faithful black allies, with miserly meanness, its blood-money and its boasted democratic equality and fair play ; denying to its colored soldiers equal pay and promotion with its white ones, albeit many of those white ones were mercenary aliens from Europe. Nevertheless, of such bottomless depths of folly and meanness was the National Government certainly guilty. The Fifty-fourth and the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts regiments enlisted to fight the battles of the country, with the understanding that there would be no discrimination against them on account of their

PEOGRESSIVE ORATORY 681

color. Yet the government violated its understood pledge, and proceeded to pay, or tried to pay those men ten dollars a month where it was paying other men, because they were white, thirteen dollars a month for the same service. All honor to Massachusetts for objecting to this shameful act, and for offering to make up to her colored regiments the three dollars out of which the National government was endeavoring to cheat them. Three times three cheers for the brave and true men who had the sagacity, and the courage, and the self-respect, to resist the injustice of the govern¬ ment, and to refuse firmly to compromise by a cent their right to equality of pay in the army.

Take another instance of the meanness of the government’s con¬ duct toward its colored defenders. In January of 1864, Henry Wilson embodied, in a bill to promote enlistments, a clause which provided that when “any man or boy of African descent, in service or labor in any State under its laws, should be mustered into the military or naval service of the United States, he and his mother, wife and children, shall be forever free.” Now will you believe that this just and moderate measure took thirteen long months before its friends could get Congress to enact it into law? “Future generations, exclaimed Charles Sumner in closing his remarks on the subject, “future generations will read with amazement, that a great people when national life was assailed, hesitated to exercise a power so simple and benefieient; and this amazement will know no bounds, as they learn that Congress higgled for months on a question, whether the wives and children of our col¬ ored soldiers should be admitted to freedom.”

Need I repeat in this presence the old, grand story, how in num¬ bers nearly two hundred thousand strong our colored boys in blue, left their blood and their bones in every State from Virginia to Louisiana ? How, like heroes, they fought and died for the Union at Port Hudson, and Port Wagner, and Petersburg, and Honey Hill, and Olustee, and Milliken ’s Bend ? How in winter and sum¬ mer, in cold and heat, in valley and on hilltop, on horse and on foot, over rivers and swamps, through woods and brakes, they rushed to meet the foe? How leaving behind them fields strown thick with their dead and wounded, they mounted the blazing sides of grim fortresses, climbing on great deeds and self-sacrifices

682 NEGRO ORATORS

through storms of shot and shell, to death and a place among the stars ?

No, no, it is not required of me on this occasion to read afresh that glorious record. Sufficient then this: The Northern army, reinforced by the strength which it drew from that of the Negro, broke in time the back of the Rebellion, and saved the Union, so that in 1865 the flag of the nation floated again over an undivided country, and the Republic, strong and great beneath that flag, launched anew to meet the years, and to reach her fair ideals of liberty and equality which were flashing like beacon lights upon her way.

Amid widespread rejoicing on the return of peace and the restoration of the Union, the Negro rejoiced among the gladdest, for his slave fetters were broken, he was no longer a chattel. He imagined in his simple heart, in his ignorance and poverty, that he had not only won freedom, but the lasting affection and grati¬ tude of the powerful people for whom he had entered hell to quench for them its raging fires with his blood. Yes, although black and despised, he, the slave, the hated one, had risen above his centuries of wrongs, above their bitter memories and bitterer sufferings to the love of enemies, to the forgiveness of those who had despitefully used him, ay, to those moral heights where heroes are throned and martyrs crowned. Surely, surely, he, who had been so unmindful of self in the service of country, would not be left by that country at the mercy of those who hated him then with the most terrible hatred for that very cause. He who had been mighty to save others would surely, now in his need, be saved by those whom he had saved. “Oh! Justice, thou has fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their gratitude.”

I would gladly seal forever the dark chapter of our history, which followed the close of the war. Gladly would I forget that record of national shame and selflshness. But as it is better to turn on light than to shut it off, I will, with your forbearance, turn it on for our illumination and guidance, in the lowering present.

The chapter opened with an introductoin of characteristic indif¬ ference on the part of the country in respect to the fate of the Negro. With his shackles lying close beside him, he was left in the hands of his old master who, seizing the opportunity, proceeded

PEOGRESSIVE ORATORY

683

straightway to refit them on the disenthralled limbs of the former slave. State after State did so with such promptitude and to such effect that within a few months a formidable system of Negro- serfdom had actually been constructed, and cunningly substituted in place of the system of Negro slavery, which the war had de¬ stroyed. An African serf-power, Phoenix-like, was rising out of the ashes of the old slave power into national politics. At sight of this truly appalling apparition, the apparition of a returning slave power in thin disguise, all the old sectional fear and hatred which had existed against it in the free States before the Rebellion, awoke suddenly and hotly in the breast of the North. Thinking mainly, if not wholly of its own safety in the emergency which confronted it, and how best to avert the fresh perils which impended in consequence over its ascendency, the* North prepared to make, and did in fact make, for the time being, short shrift of this boldly retroactive scheme of the South to recover within the Union all that it had lost by its defeated attempt to land itself outside of the Union.

Having tested to its entire satisfaction the Negro’s value as a soldier in its war for the preservation of the Union, the North determined at this juncture to enlist his aid as a citizen in its further conflicts with the South, for the preservation of its sectional domination in the newly restored Uiiion. To this end the Four¬ teenth and the Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution were, in the progress of events, incorporated into that instrument. By these two great acts, the North had secured itself against the danger of an immediate return of the South to anything like political equality with it in the Republic. Between its supremacy and the attacks of its old rival, it had erected a solid wall of Negro votes. But immensely important as was the ballot to its black contingent, it was not enough to meet all of his tremendous needs. Neverthe¬ less, as the North was considering mainly its own and not the Negro’s necessities at this crisis, and as the elective franchise in his hands was deemed by it adequate to satisfj'’ its own pressing needs, it gave the peculiar wants of the Negro beyond that of the ballot but scant attention.

Homeless, landless, illiterate, just emerging from the blackness of two centuries of slavery, this simple and faithful folk had surely other sacred claims on the North and the National Government

684

NEGRO ORATORS

than this right to the ballot. They had in truth a strong claim to unselfish friendship and statesmanship, to unfaltering care and guardianship, during the whole of their transition from slavery to citizenship. They needed the organized hands, the wise heads, the warm hearts, the piled-up wealth, the sleepless eyes, the faith, hope, and charity of a Christian people and a Christian govern¬ ment to teach them to walk and to save them from industrial exploitation by their old masters, as well as to vote. Did they receive from the Republic what the Republic owed them by every consideration of justice, gratitude and humanity, as of enlightened self-interest? Alas? not a tithe of this immense debt has the Republic ever undertaken to pay to those who should have been, under all circumstances, its sacredly preferred creditors. On the contrary they were left to themselves by the government in the outer darkness of that social state which had been their sad lot for more than two centuries. They were left in that darkest night of moral and civil anarchy to fight not alone their own terrible battle with poverty, ignorance, and untutored appetites and pas¬ sions, but also the unequal, the cruel battle for the preservation of Northern political domination in the IJnion. For ten awful years they fought that battle for the North, for the Republican party, in the face of persecutions and oppressions, terrors and atrocities, at the glare of which the country and the civilized world shrank aghast.

Aghast shrank the North, but not for the poor Negro, faithful unto death to it. For itself rather it shrank from the threatening shadows which such a carnival of horrors was casting athwart its vast and spreading network of trade and production. The clamor of all its million-wheeled industry and prosperity was for peace. “Let us have peace,” said Grant, and “let us have peace” blew forthwith and in deafening unison, all the big and little whistles of all the big and little factories and locomotives, and steamships from Maine to California. Every pen of merchant and editor scratched paper to the same mad tune. The pulpit and the plat¬ form of the land cooed their Cuckoo-song in honor of those piping times of peace. The loud noise of chinking coin pouring into vaults like coal into bins, drowned the agonized cry of the forgotten and long-suffering Negro. Deserting him in 1876, the North, stretching across the bloody chasm its two greedy, commercial

PROGRESSIVE ORATORY

685

hands, grasped the ensanguined ones of the South, and repeated, “let ns have peace.” Little did the Northern people and the government reck then or now that at the bottom of that bloody chasm lay their faithful black friends. Little did they care that the blood on those Southern hands had been wrung drop by drop from the loyal heart of the Negro. But enough.

Years of struggle and oppression follow and we come to another chapter of American history; namely, the Spanish- American War. In the Spanish- American War the Negro attracted the attention of the world by his dashing valor. He attracted the attention of his country also. His fighting quality was of the highest, unsur¬ passed, and perhaps unequalled in brilliancy by the rest of the American army that invaded Cuba. He elicited applause and grudging justice from his countrymen, dashed with envy and race prejudice. Still it seemed for a brief time that his conspicuous service had given his case against the Republic a little better stand¬ ing in Court — a little better chance for a fair hearing at the Bar of Public Opinion. But our characteristic national emotionalism was too shallow and insincere to last. In fact, it died aborning. The national habit of a century and a half reasserted itself. There was no attempt made to square national profession and national practice, national promise and national performance. The Negro again had given his all to his country and had got in return at the hands of that country wrong and injustice. Southern propa¬ ganda presently renewed all of its vicious and relentless activity against the Negro. He was different, he was alien, he was unas- similable, he was inferior, and he must be kept so, and in the scheme of things he must be made forever subordinate to the white race. In this scheme of things white domination could best be preserved by the establishment of a caste system based on race and color. And so following the Spanish- American War the North and the South put their heads together to complete their caste system. Everywhere throughout the Republic race prejudice, color pro¬ scription grew apace. One by one rights and privileges which the Negroes had enjoyed for a brief space were withdrawn and the wall of caste rose higher and higher. He was slowly and surely being shut out from all the things which white men enjoyed by virtue of their citizenship, and shut within narrowing limits of freedom. Everywhere within his prison house he read in large and

686

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sinister letters, ‘ ‘ Thus far and no farther. ’ ’ He was trapped, and about to be caged. In spite of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Three War Amendments he found that white men were becoming bolder in ignoring or violating his freedom and citizen¬ ship under them. The walls of the new bondage were closing about his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in this boasted Land of the Free and Christian Home of Democratic Hypocrisy and Cruelty.

Then Mr. Taft appeared upon the scene and became famous or infamous as a builder on the walls of the Temple of the New American Jerusalem, where profession is High Priest to the God of Broken Promises. He proved himself a master workman in following the lines of caste, in putting into place a new stone in the edifice when he announced as his policy at the beginning of his administration that he would not appoint any colored man to office in the South whei’e the whites objected. Caste had won ’and the Negro’s status was fixed, as far as this bourgeois apostle of American Democracy was able to fix it. His adds but another illustrious name to the long list of those architects of national dishonor who sought to build the Temple of American Liberty upon a basis of caste.

Then in the fullness of time came Woodrow Wilson, the ripe, consummate fruit of all this national contradiction between pro¬ fession and practice, promise and performance. He can give Messrs. Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and Company odds and beat them in the subtle art of saying sonorously, grandiosely, what in action he does not hesitate to flout and spurn. When seeking the Negro’s'' vote in 1912 he was the most profuse and generous in eloquent profession, in iridescent promises, but when he was elected he forgot straightway those fair professions and promises and began within a week after he entered the White House to put into office men filled with colorphobia, the better to finish the work of undoing in the government the citizenship of the Negro, to whom he had promised not grudging justice but the highly S5anpathetie article, heaping up and running over. Mr. Taft had established the principle that no Negro was to be appointed to office in the South where the whites objected — Mr. Wilson carried the principle logically one step farther, namely, no Negro was to be put to work in any department of the Government with white

PROGRESSIVE ORATORY

687

men and women if these white men and women objected to his presence. Segregation along the color line in Federal employment became forthwith the fixed policy of the Wilson administration.

There sprang up under the malign influence of this false prophet of the New Freedom all sorts of movements in the District of Columbia and in the Federal Government hostile to the Negro — movements to exclude him from all positions under the Civil Service above that of laborer and messenger and charwoman, to jim-crow him on the street cars, to prohibit him from intermarrying with the whites, to establish for him a residential pale in the District; in short, to fix forever his status as a permanently inferior caste in the land for which he had toiled in peace and bled and died in war. The evil influence of this false apostle of freedom spread far and wide and spurred the enemies of the Negro to unwonted activity. The movement of residential segregation and for rural segregation grew in volume and momentum in widely separated parts of the country until it was finally checked by the decision of the Supreme Court in 1917.

The condition of the Negro was at its worst and his outlook in America at its darkest when the Government declared war against Germany. Then was revived the Republic’s program of false promises and hypocritical professions in order to bring this black man with his brawn and brains, with his horny hands and lion heart, with his unquenchable loyalty and enthusiasm to its aid. No class of its citizens surpassed him in the swiftness and self- forgetfulness of his response to the call of country. What he had to give he brought to the altar and laid it there — labor and wealth, wounds and death, with unsurpassed devotion and patrio¬ tism. But what he received in return was the same old treatment, evil for his good, ingratitude and treachery for his loyalty and service. He was discriminated against everywhere — was used and abused, shut out from equal recognition and promotion with white men and women. Then when he went overseas he found American colorphobia more deadly than the gun and poison gas of the Ger¬ mans. In the American army there was operated a ceaseless propa¬ ganda of meanness and malice, of jealousy and detraction against him. If our Expeditionary Force had given itself with a tithe of the zeal and industry to fighting the Germans, which a large section of it devoted to fighting the black soldier, it would have come out

688 NEGEO OEATORS

of the war with more honor and credit, and left behind in France a keener sense of gratitude and regard than exists for them in that country today. But, alas, thousands of them were more inter¬ ested in watching the Negro and his reception by the French, in concocting villainous plots to degrade him in the eyes of that people, in segregating him from all social contact with them, and in keep¬ ing him in his place, within the hard and fast lines of caste which they had laid for him in America.

But the Negro went and saw — saw the incredible meanness and malice of his own country by the side of the immense genius for Liberty and Brotherhood of France. There he found himself a man and brother regardless of his race and color. But if he has seen these things in France he has also conquered certain other things in himself, and has come back not as he went but a New Negro. He has come back to challenge injustice in his own land and to fight wrong with a courage that will not fail him in the bitter and perhaps bloody years to come. For he knows now as he has never known before that he is an American citizen with the title deeds of his citizenship written in a century and a half of labor and suffering and blood. From his brave black lips I hear the ringing challenge, “This is my right and by the Eternal I have come back to claim all that belongs to me of industrial and political equality and liberty.” And let us answer his high resolve with a courage and will to match his own, and so help to redeem our country from its shame of a century and a half of broken promises and dishonored ideals.

But be not deceived, friends. Let us, like brave men and women face the stern reality of our situation. We are where we are’ We are in the midst of a bitter and hitherto an invincible race- prejudice, which beats down into the dust all of our rights, all of our attainments, all of our aspirations after freedom and excel¬ lence. The North and the South are in substantial accord in respect to us and in respect to the position which we are to occupy in this land. We are to be forever exploited, forever treated as an alien race, allowed to live here in strict subordination and subjection to the white race. We are to hew for it wood, draw for it water, till for it the earth, drive for it coaches, wait for it at tables, black for it boots, run for it errands, receive from it crumbs and kicks, to be for it, in short, social mudsills on which

PEOGRESSIVE ORATORY 689

shall rest the foundations of the vast fabric of its industrial democracy and civilization.

No one can save us from such a fate but God, hut ourselves. You think, I know, that the North is more friendly to you than the South, that the Republican party does more for the solution of this problem than the Democratic. Friends, you are mistaken. A white man is a white man on this question, whether he lives in the North or in the South. Of course, there are splendid excep¬ tions. Scratch the skin of Republican or Democrat, of Northern white men or Southern white men, and you will find close to the surface race prejudice, American colorphobia. The difference, did you but know it, is not even epidermal, is not skin-deep. The hair IS Democratic Esau’s, and the voice is Republican Jacob’s. That is all. Make no mistake here, for a true understanding of our actual position at this point is vital.

On Boston Commons stands a masterpiece in bronze, erected to commemorate the heroism and patriotism of Col. Robert Gould Shaw and his black regiment. There day and night, through summer and winter, storm and shine, are tO' march forever those brave men by the side of their valiant young leader. Into the unknown they are hurrying to front and to fight their enemies and the enemies of their country. They are not afraid. A high courage looks from their faces, lives in the martial motion of their bodies, flashes from the barrels of their guns. On and yet ever on they are marching, grim bolts of war, across the Commons, through State Street, past the old State House, over ground consecrated by the martyr’s blood of Crispus Attacks, and the martyr’s feet of William Lloyd Garrison. Farther and farther they are pressing forward into the unknown, into the South, to W^agner and immortal deeds, to death and an immortal crown.

Friends, we too are marching through a living and lowering present into the unknown, through an enemy’s land, at the sum¬ mons of duty. We are to face great labors, great dangers, to fight like men our passions and American caste-prejudice and oppres¬ sion, and God helping us, to conquer them.’^

1 Grimke, The Shame of America, or the Negro’s Case Against the BepuUie.

690

Negro Orators Victory For The Allies And The United States

NEGRO ORATORS

VICTORY FOR THE ALLIES AND THE UNITED STATES A GROUND OF REJOICING, OF THANKSGIVING ^

By Rev. Francis J. Grimk^^

O Clap your hands, all ye peoples; Shout unto God with

the voice of Triumph.

At this time, there are many reasons why we should rejoice :

(1) At last this bloody war, the most frightful, the most devas¬ tating and widespread that has ever occurred, involving practically all the nations of the world, has come to an end. I wonder if we fully realize what that means ? It means that no longer the deadly submarine will be sinking merchant and other vessels in mid- ocean; it means that no longer airships will be showering down explosive bombs on cities, killing innocent women and children ; it means the end of trench life, with its almost intolerable conditions ; it means that no longer great armies will be pitted against each other in deadly conflict with thousands of dead and dying men following in their train; it means that no longer there shall be hospital ships and hospital trains bringing day by day from the battleflelds thousands of shattered, wounded, mutilated men to be eared for and to go down life ’s way maimed ; it means the end of the anxiety of the fathers and mothers as they scan the casualty lists as they are published from time to time ; it means the end of all the awful things that have been happening during the last four years, as the result of this conflict.

Some time ago, I read a little volume entitled, “The Challenge of the Present Crisis,” by Harry Emerson Fosdick, and was par¬ ticularly impressed with the ghastly, hideous, awful aspect of war as he there sets it forth. Here is what he says :

> Delivered at the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, Washington D C December 24, 1918.

=> Francis J. Grimke was born a slave in Charleston, South Carolina, November 4, 1850. At the close of the War, he went north to be educated. After some difficulties' in finding such an opportunity, he entered Lincoln University in Chester County, Penn¬ sylvania. There he took high rank as a student and was graduated in 1870. He then studied law there and served the institution as Financial Agent. Directing his attention then to theology, he entered Princeton Theological Seminary from which he was graduated in 1878. He immediately went to Washington, D. C„ to take charge of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church. Since then, he has distinguished himself, not only as a scholarly and influential minister, but as an outspoken defender of the rights of the Negro.

PEOGRESSIVE ORATORY 691

“One who knows what really is happening on European battle¬ fields today and calls war glorious is morally unsound. Says an eye-witness: ‘Last night, at an officers’ mess, there was great laughter at the story of one of our men who had spent his last cartridge in defending an attack. “Hand me down your spade, Mike,” he said; and, as six Germans came one by one ’round the end of a traverse, he split each man’s skull open with a deadly blow. That is war. Says a Young Men’s Christian Association secretary: ‘Many times these fingers have reached through the skulls of wounded men and felt their throbbing brains.’ That is war. An officer’s letter from the front reads:

“ ‘An enemy mine exploded here a few daj^s ago and buried our brigade. Many of the men were killed, but some were not much hurt ; so we dug them out and used them over again. ’

“Sons of God and brothers of Jesus Christ — ‘dug them out and used them over again’! That is war. Said a group of German prisoners, as they bared their gashed forearms, ‘We were dying with thirst — we had our choice of doing what some men do in such a case — drink the blood of an enemy or else drink our own blood. We are Christians; so we cut our own arms to get drink.’ That is war. War is not the gay color, the rhythmic movement, the thrilling music of the military parade. War is not even killing gallantly as the knights of old once did, matched evenly in armor and in steed and fighting by the rules of chivalry. War now is dropping bombs from aeroplanes and killing women and children in their beds ; it is shooting, by telephonic orders, at an unseen place miles away and slaughtering invisible men ; it is murdering innocent travellers on merchant ships with torpedoes from unknown submarines; it is launching clouds of poison gas and slaying men with their own breath. War means lying days and nights wounded and alone in No-Man’s Land; it means men with jaws gone, eyes gone, limbs gone, minds gone; it means countless bodies of boys tossed into the incinerators that follow in the train of every 'battle ; it means untended wounds and gangrene and the long time it takes to die ; it means mothers who look for letters they will never see and wives who wait for voices they will never hear, and children who listen for footsteps that will never come. That is war— ‘Its heroisms are but the glancing sunlight on a sea of blood and tears.’ And through all these physical horrors runs a horror more appalling still, the

692

NEGEO OEATOES

persistent debauching and brutalizing of flaen’s souls. One who uses his knowledge and his imagination to perceive in its abomi¬ nations what war really is, while he might never dream of using Walt Whitman’s language, finds it hard to be sorry that the lan¬ guage has been used. ‘Wars,’ he said, ‘are hellish business — all wars. Any honest man says so — hates war, fighting, blood-letting. I was in the midst of it all — saw war where war was worst — ^not in the battlefields, no — in the hospitals; there war is worst; there I mixed with it, and now I say God damn the wars — all wars ; God damn every war ; God damn ’em ! God damn ’em ! ’ ”

t

These are the words of a man who knows what wars are, not from hearsay, but from actual experience. And his language is not too strong. It is justified by the facts.

All wars are terrible, are detestable, but there has been no such war in its barbarity and naked brutality in all the history of the world, as the one through which we have just passed. Within the short space of a little over four years, just 1,556 days, millions of men have been slaughtered in battle, millions have been wounded, thousands upon thousands have been permanently disabled, millions of others have perished, leaving behind millions of widows and orphans. A conservative estimate places the number of soldiers and civilians who have been killed, wounded, disabled, or affected seriously in other ways, at between forty and fifty millions. We can’t begin, as yet, to realize fully what a terrible, awful tragedy of blood, of suffering, of sorrow and woe, through which the world has been passing within the past quadrennium ! And now, at last, the whole horrible business is over, and over, we trust, never again to be repeated until time shall be no more. One such war is enough for all the generations that are to come. Thank God, it is over; and it is meet and proper that we should rejoice, as we have been doing. On the afternoon and evening of the day when the an¬ nouncement was officially made by the President to both houses of Congress, what a note of gladness ran all through the city. In every possible way the people sought to express their joy — white and black, rich and poor, high and low — all classes, conditions, races, colors, had a part in the jubilation. For once there was no division or separation, but all seemed to be moved by one common sentiment, as all ought to be, in all matters of public interest.

PROGRESSIVE ORATORY 693

We are all American citizens, and have an equal interest in the closing of this bloody conflict.

(2) Another reason why we should be glad, should be grateful to God, is because this bloody conflict has ended in victory for the Allies and the United States of America. In making this a ground of rejoicing, it is not because I think that the skirts of the Allies and of the United States are clean ; for they are not. These Allied nations of Europe have all of them been oppressors, have all of them been taking advantage of the darker and weaker races, ex¬ ploiting them for their own selfish interest. They have all of them, for centuries, in their dealings with darker and weaker races, been acting on the principle of might instead of right. They have all of them been a unit in their purpose and determination to keep the world safe for white supremacy. They have all looked with disfavor upon any attempt on the part of any race, not embraced within their peculiar circle of affiliated races, to advance, to go forward, to assert itself, to demand for itself proper recognition and respect. This is why they look askance at Japan; why they are jealous of her ; why they would hamper her more than they do, if they dared to.

So far as making the world safe for white supremacy, there is no difference, or very little, between the Central Powers and the Allies. And this war would never have been brought on had Ger¬ many been content with the status quo — with the supremacy of the white races over all the darker and weaker race. But Germany got into her head the idea of a super-man, and of a super-nation and the super-man and -nation, the military caste in Germany, felt itself to be the German nation ; and, that it was the prerogative, the divinely appointed prerogative, of this nation of super-men not only to be supreme over all darker and weaker races, but also over all the other white races as well. A.nd there is where the rub came where the trouble began, and that is why the war came on. The other white races, while perfectly willing to join Germany in keep¬ ing the world safe for white supremacy, were not willing to keep it safe for German supremacy — were not willing themselves to come under the German yoke. And so the war began ; and so it has been fought out. And the thing that has been settled by it definitely is that Germany is not to be supreme over the other white races. That much has certainly been definitely settled. No one white race

694

NEGEO OEATOES

or nation is to be supreme over all other white races and nations. Though there is no objection, there certainly was not up to four years ago, to the white races holding together to keep down all the darker races.

In the treatment of weaker and darker races, there was no dif¬ ference, I said, between the Central Powers and the Allies. Nor is there any difference between the Central Powers and the United States of America in this regard. In our rejoicings that victory, in this great conflict, is on the side on which the United States has been fighting, doesn’t mean that we believe that its skirts are clean, that it is all that it ought to be in its appreciation of, and respect for, the rights of man ; for it is not ; its skirts are far from being clean.

I am well aware of the fact that we would like to get the credit for being greatly interested in democratic institutions — in making the world safe for democracy. But the simple fact is we feel no interest whatever in the reign of true democracy, which recognizes the right of every man, of whatever race or color, to have a part, and an equal part, in the government under which he lives. Lin¬ coln had the right idea of what it meant, when he spoke of ‘ ‘ Gov¬ ernment of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”; the framers of the great war amendments to the Constitution had the right idea when they wrote into the Fourteenth Amendment the words, “All persons born or natural¬ ized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. . . . Nor shall any State make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” And also into the Fifteenth Amendment, the words, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

That is not the idea of democracy, however, that is entertained by the Democratic party in this country, especially by the southern wing of it. Their idea of democracy, and it is the idea of the Administration, takes in only white men, only their rights are to

PROGRESSIVE ORATORY

695

be considered ; only their rights are to be respected, are to be held sacred, inviolate. Men of darker hue have no rights which white men are bound to respect. And it is this narrow, contracted, con¬ temptible, undemocratic idea of democracy that we have been fight¬ ing to make the world safe for, if we have been fighting to make it safe for democracy at all. We certainly have not been fighting to make it safe for true democracy — for democracy in any adequate or worthy sense of the term. How could we be fighting to make the world safe for democracy, except in pretense, with conditions existing as they are within our own borders, and with no desire or effort to remedy them? How could we, except in pretense, be fighting to make the world safe for democracy, and at the same time give ourselves no concern about safeguarding it at home? How can we, with any degree of honesty, of sincerity, claim to be fighting to make the world safe for democracy, when we are tram¬ pling upon the sacred, God-given, and constitutional rights of twelve millions of colored American citizens within our borders ? Are the discriminations, the mean, contemptible, unworthy, and debasing discriminations that are practiced even in the departments of the government itself, and with the sanction of the Chief Executive of the Nation, who acclaims himself as the great champion of world- democracy, consistent with true democratic ideas and ideals — with the kind of democracy that is likely to be a blessing to the world ? Are Jim Crow cars, insecurity of life and property, the most flagrant violations of the simplest principles of right, of justice, of humanity, and the brutal lynchings that go on, month after month, year after year — lynchings that are unsurpassed in sheer, cold-blooded, wanton cruelty by the worst atrocities of the Ger¬ mans, consistent with true democratic ideas and ideals ? The very men who are responsible for these outrages, who allow them to go on without any effort to remedy them, know that they are not. And yet we expect people on the other side of the water, who know conditions here, to believe that we are so tremendously interested in the fate of democracy throughout the world, that we are willing to lay our all upon the altar of sacrifice in its defense. On the face of it, it is nothing but sheer hypocrisy.

Two things I feel perfectly sure of in my own mind:

(1) That, as a Nation, we have little or no interest in true democracy — in the rights of man as man. We have not yet de-

696

NEGRO ORATORS

veloped sufficiently along moral and spiritual lines to an apprecia¬ tion of the dignity of man, of the true worth of man as man, created in the image of God; we are still blinded by our narrow racial prejudice; we are still so contemptibly little in our moral ideas and ideals that the color of a man’s skin is to us of more value, of more importance than anything else in determining the kind of treatment that shall he accorded to him. Mr. Vardaman once said in the United States Senate, or, in an interview which someone had with him over the appointment of a colored man as Register of the Treasury, that the race question was paramount to all other issues — greater than the currency, greater than the tariff or any¬ thing else. And the fact that it is paramount, in the estimation of such a large proportion of white Americans, shows what kind of democracy is represented in this country, what kind of democ¬ racy we stand for — a democracy that counts for nothing among decent, self-respecting, right-thinking, liberty-loving men the world over. We are interested in democracy, yes, but not in true democ¬ racy — democracy that is color-blind, that rests upon the brother¬ hood of man, and the sacredness of the rights of all men, as men.

(2) I feel perfectly sure of another thing, our entrance into the war was not from any disinterested motive, it was from purely selfish considerations. We did not enter it as a matter of fact, until it seemed that the Central Powers were likely to be victorious; then it was that we stepped into the breach. Why, then, and not before? Because we knew perfectly well, from our knowledge of the German character and of the aim of the Kaiser for world empire, that as soon as the Allies were conquered, that our turn would come next, and, therefore, unless we joined with them before it was too late, there was no possible escape for us from the same fate. And this, I believe, notwithstanding our pretended interest in making the world safe for democracy, was the reason that took us into the war. It was in self-defense ; it was in order to keep from off our own neck the yoke of German military despotism. It was all right, of course, in entering, as we did to save ourselves ; and in so doing we have helped also to save the Allied nations, and to save the world from the heel of the oppressor. And for that, we deserve credit, and will receive credit; but we should receive credit only for what we are justly entitled to. We ought not to want credit for what we are not entitled to — to have ascribed to

Peogeessive Oeatoey

697

Tis motives which did not actuate us, or, if they did at all, only in a minor or secondary way. We did not go into the war from any real interest in democracy. If Ave did, we would have long since brought forth fruits meet for repentance — we would he treat¬ ing our twelve million colored citizens better than we are. And, while we are rejoicing that victory has crowned our efforts in con¬ junction with the Allies, we are not insensible, and ought not to he, of how far short as a Nation we come when measured by the ideals of true democracy, and the great eternal principles of right and brotherhood.

(3) There is another reason why we should be glad. It is be¬ cause with the end of this war there has come the end of autocratic government throughout the world — ^the end of the one-man power to determine the destiny of a people or nation; the end of the arrogant assumption of the divine right to rule regardless of the will of the people. There are to be no more kaisers ; no more czars ; no more emperors with autocratic powers. The reign of the people has come — the reign of the common people. It is wonderful when you think of it! Four years ago, autocracy seemed never more firmly entrenched in the world than then. There was Eussia, that great despotism, with a system of espionage that ramified through¬ out the whole empire ; with its prisons filled with political offenders, and its Siberia of horrors, with thousands and thousands of inno¬ cent men and women torn from their homes, from their friends and relatives, sent there to die in want and misery, simply because they dared to think for themselves. Where is the Eussian Empire today ? Gone. Where is the despot who sat upon the throne ? In his grave, murdered, and other members of his family also lying in dishonored graves. Where is the empire of Austria-Hungary — where is it? Gone. Where is the proud house of the Hapsburgs, that for hundreds of years sat upon the throne? Gone. The old Emperor Joseph, who was on the throne when the war began, died from old age, and of a broken heart, and the man who succeeded him, where is he ? A fugitive now in Switzerland. And last of all, there was Germany, proud Germany, with a man at the head who never would admit, who spurned the idea of getting his right to rule from the people, who proclaimed himself ruler by divine right, and who held himself responsible to God only, and not to the people ;

698

NEGEO OEATORS

a man who, inflated with pride, felt that his mailed flst could bring the whole world to his feet.

Where is the German Empire today? Gone — a thing of the past. Where is the man who aspired to universal dominion, who shot defiance at the whole world? Where is he? Gone. No longer on his throne — forced by the very people whom he affected to ignore, to renounce his throne, and is now away from his home and his country seeking hospitality from a little kingdom, one of the smallest in Europe, stripped of all power. How wonderful it all seems, and all within the short space of four years. Lowell in his “Ode to France,” describing the effect of the French Revolution, wrote these words:

“0 Broker King, is this thy wisdom’s fruit?

A dynasty plucked out as ’t were a weed Grown rankly in a night, that leaves no seed !

Could eighteen years strike down no deeper root ?

But now thy vulture eye was turned on Spain —

A shout from Paris, and thy crown falls off.

Thy race has ceased to reign.

And thou become a fugitive and scoff ;

Slippery the feet that mount by stairs of gold,

And weakest of all fences one of steel ;

Go and keep school again like him of old.

The Syracusan tyrant — thou mayest feel Royal amid a birch-swayed commonweal !

“Not long can he be ruler who allows

His time to run before him ; thou wast naught Soon as the strip of gold about thy brows Was no more emblem of the People’s thought;

Vain were thy bayonets against the foe Thou hadst to cope with ; thou didst wage War not with Frenchmen merely — no.

Thy strife was with the Spirit of the Age,

The invisible Spirit whose first breath divine Scattered thy frail endeavor.

And, like poor last year ’s leaves, whirled thee and thine Into the dark forever ! ’ ’

PEOGEESSIVE OEATOEY

699

How striking is the language, and how accurately it describes the fate of the great autocracies that existed four years ago. Yes, “Like poor last year’s leaves,” they have been “whirled into the dark forever.”

It is a ground of rejoicing, of thanksgiving, I say, that such governments no longer exist to curse the world. And the reason why the destruction of such governments becomes a ground for rejoicing is because all such governments rest upon the idea of might instead of right — rest upon the will of the one or the few instead of the will of the many. Whether that will be right or wrong, if there is power to enforce it, it is enforced. The issue between might and right has been clearly drawn during this con¬ flict and fought out on a broad, world-wide arena. The issue has been in the thought of all the peoples of the earth as never before. The attempt on the part of Germany to accomplish by might what it had no right to attempt to do, has been brought home to the other nations and brought home to them in a way that they can never forget. All the blood that has been spilt, the lives that have been sacrificed, the billions of treasures that have been poured out, and all the wretchedness and misery that have grown out of this war, might have been avoided if the principle of right had been followed instead of might. The nations of the earth know now as they have never known before the evil of acting on the principle of might instead of right.

After these four years of unparalleled suffering there is every reason to believe that there is going to be a great change in the policy of nations toward each other. In their relations, one with the other, the principle of right, instead of might, is going to have a larger place than it has ever had before. The nations, in their relations with each other, will come, more and more, to realize, that even as a matter of policy, if not of principle, it is always better to follow the lead of right instead of might. And when that principle has been accepted, has firmly rooted itself in the con¬ sciousness of the nations of the earth as the course to be followed in their dealing with each other, then we may expect another thing to follow, another thing that must follow, that will inevitably follow, each nation within its own limits will come to feel that the same principles must govern. If right and not might is to determine the course to be pursued between nations in their dealings and

700

NEGRO ORATORS

relations with each other; then right and not might ought also to determine what goes on in their internal management as well. In this great world contest that has just closed, might as the great determining principle between nations has been driven to the wall. And, although there is no longer the boom of cannon, the roar of musketry, the battle will still go on, in each nation, until the same great principle triumphs within as well as without. A nation can¬ not consistently insist upon the principle of right in its dealings with other nations, and in the dealings of other nations with it, and permit the opposite principle to prevail in the management of its internal affairs. Right must prevail within as well as with¬ out. And until it does, there must he and will he constant agita¬ tion ; the war for the triumph of right must go steadily on. And it will go on. And this is why the overthrow of the great autoc¬ racies or despotisms of the world, as the result of the war, becomes a ground of thanksgiving, of rejoicing. It is a step forward in the overthrow, ultimately, of the doctrine, which has so long domi¬ nated the world, that might makes right. This war, in its results, is going to make it easier to fight that pernicious principle as it shows itself in social and political injustice and oppression within nations as well as without.

The overthrow of the great autocracies in Europe, and the asser¬ tion of the right of the people to rule, as has been most emphat¬ ically done during these four bloody years, is going to make it easier for us as a people in this country to achieve what we have been contending for for years, and will go on contending for, our rights — our full rights as American citizens. We are not going to be satisfied; and, we have greater reasons now than ever before for not being satisfied. The air everywhere is filled now as never before with the thought of the rights of man. Liberty is in the

air today as it has never been before in all the world’s history _

never before on so wide a scale. And, in addition to this, we have had a part in this world-wide contest; we have made sacrifices, we have shed our blood, we have given of our treasures ; thousands of our boys are on the other side of the water, and have done their part in bringing about the great result. And when these boys get back, having sniffed the free, invigorating, liberty-loving air of France, that knows no man by the color of his skin, but makes all men of all races and complexions equally welcome, there has got

PEOGRESSIVE ORATORY

701

to be a change here. These boys will bring back that spirit with them, and it will have to be reckoned with. They know now what it is to be a man, and to be treated as a man. And that spirit will remain with them. It cannot be quenched. It will rather be sure to communicate itself to others. They will not be satisfied, nor will we be satisfied, until segregation in these departments is done away with; until the men and women of our race are no longer discriminated against, but are accorded the same consideration as white men and women are accorded. They are not going to be satisfied, nor will we be, until Jim Crow cars are no more, until the men and women of our race are allowed to travel in decency, and to find equal accommodations in hotels, restaurants, and in places of amusement. The war over there is over ; but the war over here for our manhood and eitizenship rights is not over; and will not be over until they are all accorded to us as to other citizens of the Republic. So that while we are rejoicing here today, and we have good reasons to rejoice — the war is over; victory is on the side of the Allies and the United States ; the great autocracies of the world have been destroyed; and might, as between nations, at least, instead of right has been struck a death blow — at the same time, we must not lose sight of the fact that victory over there does not necessarily mean victory over here ; that the stagger¬ ing blow that has been struck to might over there, doesn’t neces¬ sarily mean that it will be felt equally over here; that here it is going to be any less insistent. So far as we are concerned, that old enemy, might, is still strongly entrenched. Why are we dis¬ criminated against in the departments? Why are we shut out of West Point ? Out of Annapolis ? Why are we not allowed to vote in the South ? Why are we forced into Jim Crow cars ? Why are we unjustly treated in the courts? Why are we brutally lynched? Is it because it is right? No, the right is all on our side— it is simply because they have the power. If right were allowed to come in, and control, all these evils would be remedied at once. So that, while we are rejoicing, as I said, let us see to it that we do not allow the advantages that have accrued to us, as the result of this war, to be lost. Instead of abating our efforts, lessening our endeavors, we should be more insistent than ever — more deter¬ mined than ever to press the advantages that we have gained.

There are some members of our race, unfortunately, who have

702

NEGRO ORATORS

been foolish enough to talk about letting up for a little while, as if our enemies ever let up, as if our enemies ever allow to pass a single opportunity of humiliating us, of forcing upon us conditions which are intended to impress upon us their view of us as inferiors. Should we be less insistent, less persistent, less determined, less alive, wide awake to the things that pertain to our rights, than the people who are sleeplessly vigilant in their efforts and deter¬ mination to filch them from us to keep us in, what they call, our proper place, as if the proper place for any rational, responsible being is to be determined by anything except his character, efficiency, capability ? It is astounding, almost incredible, that any colored man, even to the stupidest of them, should be led into such utter folly as to counsel the cessation of the struggle for our rights, even for a moment, when nothing is ever accomplished except by struggle, by earnest, persistent effort. The colored man, if he has an ounce of brains in his head, will have but one policy in regard to his rights, and that is the policy of being always on the job. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, and unless we are willing to pay the price, unless we are eternally vigilant, we will never get it. Let us hear no more of this nonsense, never mind from whom it comes, about letting up for a season. Not less activity, but more activity; not less agitation, but more agitation; not less plain speaking, but more plain speaking.

In an article which I wrote to the editor of the “Cleveland Advocate,” these words occur: “I am writing to express my very great satisfaction at reading the two editorials in your issue of August 24th, entitled, ‘Grave and Weighty,’ and ‘Riot of Op¬ pression.’ I was greatly delighted with them. They both have the right ring — ^the only kind of ring that ought ever to be heard from colored Americans — from intelligent, seK-respecting colored Americans. This is no time for shilly-shallying, but for plain speak¬ ing, for a straightforward, manly presentation of our wrongs, made all the more flagrant in view of the tremendous sacrifices which we are now being called upon to make and which we are willingly making. These outrageous, damnable discriminations that are being made against us in the departments here and elsewhere all over the country, call for loud, persistent, unceasing protest. We ought not to be satisfied as long as they continue; and the time to voice our dissatisfaction is now while the war is going on ; while we are

PEOGRESSIVE ORATORY 703

going across the sea to lay our lives down in order to make the world safe for democracy. From every Negro newspaper in the country, from every city, town and hamlet, from all kinds of Negro organizations, there should be coming up to Washington a word of solemn and emphatic protest. The fight that you are making, the stand which you are taking on the race issue at this time is the one that ought to be taken, is the fight that ought to be made not only by you, but by every intelligent, right-thinking, self-respecting colored American.”

In the August 21st issue of the Outlooh, these lines occur :

We are on the march ! How long shall we be marching ?

Until the roads of east and west are free ;

Until beneath the four winds of the world

Freedom is possible for all mankind ;

Until we reach the end of the long journey ;

Until time brings the fulness of the years.

A faith in arms is marching to the future ;

Its flags are consecrated to the dawn.”

And we, colored men and women in this country, if I sense aright the sentiment of our hearts, are on the march for our rights, and we will not stop until “we reach the end of the long journey.” The war that we are waging here, while our brothers are fighting on the other side, will help to hasten the dawn. That is what I wrote some three months ago; and that is the way I feel today; and is the way we all ought to feel, and must feel, if we are to hasten the dawn of better things for ourselves, and for our children.

(4) There is still another ground for thanksgiving and rejoicing, as the result of victory for the Allies and for the United States' but which I will have time simply to mention without stopping to dwell upon. As the result of this great struggle, through which we have been passing, I believe, it is going to be better for all the darker and weaker races of the world. It is going to be better for them because in the dominant nations a higher sense of justice, of right, of fair play, is going to be developed; better for them because I believe there is going to be developed a higher type of Christianity than at present prevails — than the miserable apology that now goes under that name. Things are as they are today in

704 NEGEO OEATOES

these great nations of the world, and it has fared with these weaker and darker races and nations as it has, because the so-called Church of God has been recreant to its high trust ; has been dominated by such a cowardly and worldly spirit that it has always been willing to listen to the voice of man instead of the voice of God _ domi¬

nated by such a cowardly and worldly spirit that it has surrendered the most sacred principles of the holy religion of Jesus Christ, at the behest of the powers that be— at the bidding of wealth, social prestige and a debased public sentiment.

Look at Germany, during this terrible world-struggle through which we have been passing, and see the character of the Christian¬ ity represented there. Back of this bloody war, started by the Emperor of Germany and his military staff in sheer, wanton lust of power, and prosecuted with the utmost brutality, has been the Christian church of Germany— the men in the pews— the men in the sacred desk — the men in the chairs of theology in the great universities— the spiritual leaders of the nation — all, with rare exceptions, justified this atrocious war and threw the weight of their influence in support of the monster who sat on the throne, in his efforts to carry out his nefarious schemes of conquest and aggrandizement.

Look at the church in this country, forty millions strong! and yet, think of the awful conditions that exist here — of the injustices, and oppressions, and discriminations that go on unchecked, and no effort made to cheek them, to improve conditions. The very men who are back of these oppressions, injustices, discriminations, are, in many cases, not only professing Christians, but occupying’ high places in the church- ministers, elders, deacons, Sunday-school teachers, class leaders. These abominable conditions have sprung up, still exist, and are steadily growing worse in the midst of forty millions of Christians. Strange as it may seem, while the member¬ ship of these so-called Christian churches is increasing by the millions, race prejudice, with all the evils that grow out of it is also steadily on the increase. In this city of Washington, the capital city of the nation, with scores of churches, representing all the great denominations, with services going on every Sunday and during the week in them all, where the Bible is supposed to be taught, and the noble and beautiful spirit of Christ, the spirit of meekness, of gentleness, of brotherly kindness, of self-sacrificing

PROGRESSIVE ORATORY

705

love, inculcated, in this Christian city, presided over by Commis¬ sioners, members of Christian churches — where the President of the United States and his Cabinet, the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and the Judges of the Supreme Court, and of the lesser courts are domiciled — all of whom, or nearly all of whom are members of Christian churches — in this city where Christianity has back of it so much respectability, so much official dignity and power — a colored man, if he were down on Pennsylvania Avenue, never mind how hungry he might be, couldn ’t find a restaurant in which he could get a cup of tea, or a sandwich and a glass of milk; or however tired he might be, is there a rest room into which he could go and be received, and simply because of the color of his skin, because of his race identity ! That condition of things exists, has existed, and continues to exist, not against the protest of the Christian church, but with its sanc¬ tion. A Christianity that allows such a condition of things to exist without throwing the weight of its great influence against it, is a spurious Christianity, is a disgrace to the holy and sacred name of Christ.

Out of this awful baptism of blood that has deluged the earth, I can’t help feeling that God is getting ready for some great spiritual awakening — that He is getting ready to shake himself loose from this miserable semblance of Christianity that exists, and to set up in the earth a type of religion that will truly repre¬ sent the spirit and teachings of Jesus Christ, a type of religion that will be as the inspired penman conceived it,

“Fair as the moon.

Clear as the sun.

Terrible as an army with banners.”

It is because I believe a better type of Christianity is to appear, and appear speedily, and that under its banner the world is to be conquered for Christ, and, in that conquest all the nations of the earth are to be blessed, that there is ground for thanksgiving, for rejoicing. Whether we realize it or not, God is on the throne; and, sooner or later. He will make even the wrath of man to praise Him. “The heathen may rage; the people imagine a vain thing;

706

NEGEO OEATOES

the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed.” Yet, the declaration is, “I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” “I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter¬ most part of the earth for thy possession.” And again, “He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.” So that there is bound to be, sooner or later, the triumph of right, of justice ; there is bound to be, under the domi¬ nating influence of the spirit of Jesus Christ, under the develop¬ ment of a better type of Christianity, the establishment of better conditions throughout the whole world, for all the races of man¬ kind. The whole plane of life is going to be lifted. There is going to be a new earth. Old things are going to pass away. Tenny¬ son’s dream is going to be realized. Certain things are to be rung in, and certain things rung out.

* * * * *

“Ring out the false, ring in the true.

*****

Ring out the feud of rich and poor,

Ring in redress for all mankind.

“Ring out a slowly dying cause.

And ancient forms of party strife ;

Ring in the nobler modes of life.

With sweeter manners, purer laws.

“Ring out the want, the care, the sin.

The faithless coldness of the times ;

Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes.

But bring the fuller minstrel in.

“Ring out false pride in place and blood.

The civic slander and the spite;

Ring in the love of truth and right.

Ring in the common love of good.

“Ring out old shapes of foul disease.

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold ;

Ring out the thousand wars of old.

Ring in the thousand years of peace.

PROGEESSIVE ORATORY

707

“Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart, the kindlier hand;

Ring out the darkness of the land.

Ring in the Christ that is to he.”

* * * * *

The super-man of the future is not to be of the German type, nor of the contemptible little type that we find here in America, assuming and acting upon the theory that under a white skin only is to be found anything worthy of respect ; hut of the Christ-type —

“The valiant man and free.

The larger heart, the kindlier hand.”

The super-nation of the future is not to be the German nation, nor any of the existing nations, hut the Commonwealth of Israel — the Church of the living God, purified, cleansed. Spirit-filled, God- centered, meek and lowly, girded with strength, and arrayed in beautiful garments of righteousness.

The close of this bloody war is the beginning, I believe, of the realization of this vision of better things which Tennyson saw, and which the prophets of old foresaw, and which I believe some day is going to be realized in the actual life of the world. And, it is going to be realized' as the poet indicates, and, in no other way, by ringing Christ in — into our hearts — into our homes — into our churches, into our pulpits — into our colleges and universities — into our courts — into our halls of legislation — into our executive man¬ sions — ^into our marts of commerce and places of business. The ringing in of Jesus Christ holds the solution of all our problems, racial or otherwise. The only cheering outlook for humanity — for the individual — ^for races — for nations in their internal manage¬ ment, as well as in their relations to each other, is to be found in accepting, and in honestly and courageously living out the prin¬ ciples and the spirit of Jesus Christ. And, this war has helped us, as, perhaps, nothing else has ever done in the history of the world, to realize that no mere culture, no amount of mere brain power, no advancement in science, in philosophy, in scholarship, in the accumulation of knowledge, however great, can lay the basis for lasting peace and happiness; can weld men together in one

708

NEGRO ORATORS

great brotherhood in which each will be interested in the well-being of the other — into a brotherhood that will be proof against the assaults of selfishness, and pride, and all the other debasing ele¬ ments that are ever at work to set men against each other. Some¬ thing more is needed — a new force or power of a spiritual nature must come in. And such a power or force we have in the person¬ ality of Jesus Christ. It is through him that all the families of the earth are to be blessed ; it is through him that order is to come out of these conflicting passions and desires that tear men apart and keep them apart; that make them brutes instead of human beings. And, because this war, in showing the utter futility of all human devices in bringing peace to a troubled world, is driving us back to Jesus Christ — ^back to Christian principles and ideals, we rejoice — rejoice — ^we lift up our hearts in praise and gratitude to God.

“0 clasp your hands all ye peoples;

Shout unto God with the voice of triumph.”

Index A

INDEX

A

Abolition, 56-76, 86-92, 119-123, 127- 131, 131-142, 150-157, 158-191, 193- 196, 197-222, 223-227, 228-241 Antislavery cause, the progress of, 86- 92

“Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens Threatened with Disfranchisement,” 96-103

Aristotle, definition from, 3 Atlanta Exposition of 1895, Booker T. Washington’s speech at, 580-583

B

Beecher, H. W., quotation on oratory, from, 1

Boileau, quotation from, 6, 7 Bryant, W. C., definition of oratory from, 1

Bruce, B. K., sketch of, 267 ; address of, in behalf of admitting P. B. S. Pinchback as senator, 267*270; speech of, delivered on election prac¬ tices in Mississippi, 270-272 Bruce, R. C., sketch of, 685-586; speech of, in Memorial Hall, Har¬ vard University, 585-595 Burke, Edmund, reference io oratory of, 4

C

♦

Cain, R. H., sketch of, 328 ; speech of, on the Civil Rights Bill, 328-338 Carlyle, opinion of, as to oratory, 7 Carter, Bishop R. A., sketch of, 618- 619; “Whence and Whither,” by, 626-636

Christianity and oratory, 9, 10, 11 Cicero, definition of oratory by, 3;

quotation from, 7 Civil Rights of Negroes, 309-378 Classification of orations, 6-12 Clement, Bishop G. C., sketch of, 628; “Boards of Life’s Building,” by, 628-634

Colonization, 62-54, 77-86

Colton, quotation on oratory from, 1

Congressmen, Negro, 262-263 ; speeches of, 263-410

Contested Elections of Negroes, 263- 270, 273-285

Coriolanus, quotation from, 2

D

De Large, R. C., sketch of, 295; speech of, on the enforcement of the Four¬ teenth Amendment, 295-298

Democracy and the Negro, 653-657, 662-670, 670-689

Demosthenes, reference to oratory of, 2, 3, 4

Disfranchisement, 96-103

Disraeli, quotation from, 6

Douglass, Frederick, oratory of, 5, 6; sketch of, 126-128; reception speech at Moorfields, England, 158-170; speech of, at Glasgow, Scotland, 170-178; speech of, in Faneuil Hall, 178-191; speech of, at Rochester, 197-223; “The Slavery Party,” by, 223-228; “A Union Speech,” by, 247- 253; “Men of Color to Arms,” by, 253-255; speech of, on the exodus, 466; oration of, in memory of Lin¬ coln, 516-527

E

Education, speech on, by J. H. Rainey, 380-387; speech on, by R. C. Bruce, 585-595

Elliott, R. B., sketch of, 309; speech of, on the Civil Rights Bill, 309- 328; speech of, eulogizing Charles Sumner, 502-515

Emerson, R. W., remark of, as to elo¬ quence, 7

F

Forten, James, sketch of, 41-42; pro¬ test of, against a bill before the Pennsylvania Legislature, 42-50 ; address of, to humane and benevo¬ lent inhabitants, 52-55

Free Negro, a, “Slavery,” by, 25-30

710

Index G

INDEX

G

Garnett, Henry Highland, sketch of, 149; “An Address to the Slaves of the United States,” by, 150-157

Garrison, William Lloyd, eulogy of, 531-541

Georgia Bill, speech of Hiram Revels on, 286

Goethe, quotation from, 2, 6

Greener, R. T., sketch of, 453; speech of, on the emigration of colored citizens, 453-466

Grimke, A. H., sketch of, 670; address of, on the “Shame of America,” 670- 688

Grimk4, Francis J., sketch of, 689; speech of, on “Victory for the Allies,” 689-707

H

Harvard Alumni Dinner Address of Booker T. Washington, 584-585 Hastings, Warren, quotation from, 4 Hayti, the rule of the Negroes in, 242- 246

Henry, Patrick, oratory of, classified, 5

Hoar, Senator, quotation from, 4 Holly, James Theodore, “The Auspi¬ cious Dawn of Negro Rule,” by, 242-246

J

Johnson, James W., sketch of, 662; speech of, on “Democracy and the Ballot,” 662-670

Johnson, Mordecai W., sketch of, 657 ; speech of, on the faith of the Ameri¬ can Negro, 657-662

L

La Bruyere, quotation from, 1 La Rochefoucauld, quotation from, 3 Langston, J. M., sketch of, 387 ; speech of, laudatory of the Negro, 387-403; speech of, on the other phase of reconstruction, 417-435; speech of, on equality before the law, 436-451 Law, equality before the, 436-451 Lewis, William H., sketch of, 562; speech of, on Lincoln, 562-573; speech of, on Booker T. Washing¬ ton, 596-601

Lincoln, Abraham, eulogies of, 516-

627, 541-554, 554-561, 562-572, 573- 578

Long, Jefferson F., sketch of, 285; speech of, on disorders in the South, 294-295

Lynch, John R., sketch of, 273; speech of, in case of his contested election, 273-285; speech of, on the Civil Rights Bill, 357-378

M

Macaulay, definition from, 3 Marlowe, remark of, as to oratory, 7 Martin, J. Sella, sketch of, 265-266; speech of, before the Paris Anti¬ slavery Conference, 256-261 Mason, M. C. B., sketch of, 541; ora¬ tion of, on Lincoln, 541-554 Menard, John Willis, sketch of, 263- 265; speech of, in Congress, 263-267 Migration of Negroes, 42-50, 453-487 Moton, Robert R., sketch of, 573; speech of, on Lincoln, 573-578; speech of, on Booker T. Washing¬ ton, 602-607

N

Negro, praise of, 387-403; defense of, 403-410; speeches on rights of, 263- 410

Negro history, a knowledge of, neces¬ sary, 634-643

Negroes in Congress, 262-263 ; speeches of, 263-410; defense of, 403-410

0

Oratory, a discussion of, 1-12

“Othello,” “Negro Slavery,” by, 13-25

P

Parker, E. G., definition by, 3 Paris Conference, Negro discussion at, 256-261

Pascal, quotation on oratory, from,

Paul, N., address of, on the abolition of slavery, 64-77

Perrott, Russell, address of, 52-55

Pickens, William, eketch of, 653; speech of, on democracy, 653-667

Pinchback, P. B. S., contested election of, 267-270

Pitt, William, the younger, quotation from, 3

INDEX

Plato, remark of, as to eloquence, 7 Pliny the Younger, quotation from, 2 Prejudice against the Negro, 92-95, 142-149

Price, J. C., sketch of, 488; speech of, on race problem, 488-501 Pulpit oratory, 9, 10 Purvis, Kobert, “Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens Threatened with Disfranchisement,” by, 96-103

Q

Quintilian, idea of, as to oratory, 3

R

Race problem, discussion of, 488-501 Rainey, Joseph H., sketch of, 300; speech of, on the Southern situa¬ tion, 300-308; defense of the Negro state legislators of South Carolina, by, 378-380; speech of, on educa¬ tion, 380-385

Ransier, A. J., sketch of, 411; speech of, delivered at Charleston, S. C., in 1871, 411-417

Ransom, R. C., sketch of, 531; oration of, on William Lloyd Garrison, 531- 541

Rapier, James T., sketch of, 338; speech of, on the Civil Rights Bill, 338-356

Reconstruction, 417-435 Remond, Charles Lenox, sketch of, 125-128; “Slavery as It Concerns the British,” by, 127-130; “Slavery and the Irish,” by, 131-143; “The Rights of Colored Citizens in Trav¬ eling,” by, 144; “Speech before the New England Antislavery Conven¬ tion,” by, 229-237; “An Anti¬ slavery Discourse,” by, 237-241 Revels, Hiram, sketch of, 285; speech of, on the Georgia Bill, 286-293 Ringwalt, R. C., quotation from, 2 Roman, C. V., sketch of, 635; speech of, on history, 635-643

S

Saunders, Prince, address of, on the abolition of slavery, 56-62 Scott, Emmett J., sketch of, 607-608; speech of, on Booker T. Washington, 607-616

711

Shaw, Robert Gould, eulogy of, 527- 531

Slave trade, 13-32, 32-41, 127

Slavery, 13-32, 127-142, 150-157, 158- 191, 193-196, 197-226, 227-241

Smith, Dr. James McCune, sketch of, 118-119; “The Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade,” by, 119-124

South, disorders in, 294-308, 378-380, 411-417

Sumner, Charles, eulogies of, 503-516 T

Tacitus, definition of oratory, by, 1 U

Union speech by Frederick Douglass, 247-255

V

Vernon, W. T., sketch of, 643; “A Plea for a Suspension of Judg¬ ment,” by, 643-651

W

Walters, Bishop Alexander, sketch of, 554; speech of, on Lincoln, 554-561

Ward, Samuel R., sketch of, 193; speech of, on the Fugitive Slave Bill, 193-196

Washington, Booker T., oratory of, 5, 6 ; speech of, at the dedication of the Shaw Monument in Boston, 527- 531; speech of, at the Atlanta Ex¬ position, 580-583 ; address of, at the Harvard Alumni Dinner, 584-585; praised by admirers, 596-616

Whipper, William, sketch of, 104; “Non-Resistance to Offensive Op¬ pression,” by, 104-118

White, George H., sketch of, 403; speech of, in defense of the Negro, 403-410

Williams, Peter, sketch of, 32; ora¬ tion of, on the abolition of the slave trade, 32-41; “Slavery and Coloni¬ zation,” by, 77-85

World War, the, and the Negro, 689- 707

Wright, Theodore S., sketch of, 85-86; “The Progress of the Antislavery Cause,” by, 86-92; “Prejudice against the Colored Man,” by, 92-95

THE ENT)

Date Due

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MflRVGROUE COLLEGE LIBRARY

Negro orators and their orations 325.28 U86ne

3 n57 DDlDDBaS 1

325.26 W86ne Woodson, C. G.

Negro orators and their orations

The Greatness of Christ and Other Sermons (Alexander Crummell, 1882)

# The Greatness of Christ and Other Sermons (Alexander Crummell, 1882)

The Greatness Of Christ

THE

GREATNESS OF CHRIST

m\ ©liter Sermons

By Alex. Crummell

BY

ALEX. CRUMMELL

RECTOR 01' ST. LUKE'S CHURCH, WASHINGTON, D. C. Author of the "Future of Africa"

New York Thomas Whittaker

2 and 3 Bible House 1882

Copyright, T8S2, BY ALEXAKJJliK C'KUMMELU

To the

HONOURABLE JOHN JAY,

MV FRIEND AND RENEFACTOR;

THE LIFE-LONG FRIEND AND A! VOCAT OF MY RACE.

In Church And In State, This Volume Is Inscribed

IN CHURCH AND IN STATE,

THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED

Vilis IKE LASTING GRATITUDE, ['HE SINCERE YDM1RAIION

And Thf. Dei Pest Respect Of

Tilt AUTHOR.

Introduction By

INTRODUCTION

BY

The Right Rev. Thomas M. Clark, D.D., LL.D ,

Bishop Of Rhode Island

It is a rare thing, amid the multitude of sermons with* which the world is flooded, to have a volume offered to us by a Clergyman of African descent. So far as I am informed, the only man of that race who has preceded Dr. Crummell in this work is the Rev. William Douglass, formerly Rector of St. Thomas's church in the city of Philadelphia; a most worthy and exemplary pastor, but who never enjoyed the literary advantages with which the writer of the present col- lection of sermons has been favored.

About forty years ago, I was appointed with the late Rev. Dr. William Croswell, by Bishop Griswold, to examine young Crummell, when he applied for Deacon's Orders in the Diocese of Massachusetts ; and I remember that Dr. Croswell after- ward remarked to me, that no candidate for the ministry had ever passed through his hands who had given him more entire satisfaction. Alexander Crummell was born in the city of New York, his mother and her ancestors for several generations never having been subjected to servitude, while his father early in life, although he came of a royal family, was made a slave. He was a native of Timanee, West Africa, a countrv adjoining Sierra Leone, and here he lived until he

vi Introduction.

was thirteen years of age. Dr. Crummell's grandfather was king of Timanee, and the incidents of his early life appear to have impressed then selves very strongly upcn his son's memory. He was fond of describing the travels that he took with his father's caravans in the interior of Africa, and of the royal receptions given to them by the various kings, and appears to have made himself familiar with many of the geographical facts which have been brought to light by more recent explorers. How it happened that he was reduced to slaver}', and found his way to this country, I am not informed.

At an early age, the author of these sermons was taught reading and writing, and was sent to the Mulberry street school, provided by the Quakers ; afterwards, in common with his brothers and sisters, receiving further and better instruction from white tutors, employed by his father. In those days the advantages of colored children were very scanty, and such a provision as this for their benefit must have been a novelty.

In 183 1 a high school was established by the Rev. Peter Williams, Mr. CrummeH's pastor, aided by his father, Thomas Downing, and other leading colored men, who employed a white teacher to give instruction in Greek and Latin.

In 1835, for the first time in the history of the country, an Academy for the education of youth, irrespective of sex or color, was opened at Canaan, New Hampshire. With his friend Dr. Highland Garnet, the late Minister to Liberia, ?nd others, Crummell became connected with this institution. The black youth had not been there over three months, when the farmers of the neighborhood assembled together and declared that the school must be broken up. Shortly afterward they brought some ninety yoke of oxen, carrying the academy building off and depositing it in a swamp; and then forced the scholars, on a given day. to quit the town. As the boys drove away, they received a parting salute from a field-piece, which the free-born citizens of the region fired at them.

Introduction. vH

The next year, 1836, Oneida Institute was opened to colored youth, and the young exiles from Canaan took up their abode there, where they studied for three years, working at farming, in order to pay their way.

In 1839, Crummell became a candidate for Holy Orders, under the direction of the Rev. Peter Williams, Rector of St. Philips Church, with which Mr. Crummell was connected. At the same time he applied for admission as a student in the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, and was refused 5 not because of any defect in his moral or intellectual qualifications, but solely on account of the extra- ordinary prejudice which prevailed against the race to which he belonged. He was then received as a candidate in the Diocese of Massachusetts, and in due time was ordained to the Diaconate by Bishop Griswold. After prosecuting his theo- logical studies with the Rev. Dr. A. H. Vinton in Providence, R. I., he was admitted to Priest's Orders, in Philadelphia, by Bishop Lee of Delaware. The opportunity was now offered for him to avail himself of the great advantage of still further pursuing his studies in the University of Cambridge, in Eng- land, where he was kindly received, and enabled to fit himself more thoroughly for the important work which afterwards devolved upon him ; when he determined to cast in his lot with his brethren, who had sought a home and a country in Liberia, where he remained for many years, taking the double duty of the Rectorship of a parish, and a Professorship in the College.

While a citizen of this new Republic, he was frequently called upon, on great public occasions, to officiate as orator of the day ; and the addresses which he delivered were marked by great breadth of vision and foresight, a clear comprehen- sion of the duties and dangers of the new nation, and pro- found historical research, as well as decided rhetorical power. The communications which from time to time have appeared

viii Introduction.

from his pen in the columns of " The African Repository " are distinguished by the same characteristics, and are among the most valuable papers which have appeared in that periodical. If Dr. Crummell had not been called to the work of the Christian Ministry, he might have become eminent as a statesman.

After passing the bloom of his days in Liberia, our friend returned to the United States, and has since been employed at the Capitol of the nation, in labors among his own country- men ; and now, in his more advanced years, he has ventured to give to the general public this volume of sermons, hoping that he may thus reach a larger congregation than could be gathered within sound of his living voice, and also add some- thing to his not over-generous income. I think that I mav assure the reader that he will find something in these Dis- courses that is fresh and original. The topics considered are varied and interesting, the counsel which the preacher gives to his people is sound and practical, and the sermons are pervaded by the life and light and unction of the Gospel. I hope that they will meet with a cordial reception from the public, and that their extensive sale may bring comfort and relief to our good brother, who has been called to suffer many things in the course of his earthly pilgrimage.

Prefatory Note

These sermons are published at the request of many parishioners and other friends, made from time to time, during many years and in divers quarters, both at home and abroad; and, likewise, in fulfilment of repeated promises to comply with those requests.

They are now given to the public, after well nigh forty years service in the ministry, as a memorial of a pastorate to several congregations, both in Africa and the United States ; and with the hope that they may add somewhat to the Glory of Christ.

CONTENTS.

i. The Greatness of Christ i

2. The Family 20

3. Marriage 37

4. The Lamb of God 55

5. Rising with Christ 71

6. Glorifying God 86

7. Unbelieving Nazareth 100

8. The Rejection of Christ 116

9. The Motives to Discipleship 134

10. The Agencies to Saintly Sanctification . .153

11. Affluence and Receptivity 165

12. Christ Receiving and Eating with Sinners . 181

13. The Discipline of Human Powers .... 197 if. Joseph .216

15. Influence 233

16. Building men . . . . . . . . 250

17. Christian Conversation 267

18. The Social Principle among a People. A Thanks-

giving Sermon, 1875 285

19. The Assassination of President Garfield . .312

20. The Destined Superiority of the Negro. A

Thanksgiving Sermon, 1877 . • • • • 332

Sermon I

{Christmas.)

The Greatness Of Christ. St. Matthew Ii, Ii

THE GREATNESS OF CHRIST.

ST. MATTHEW II, II.

4nd when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell dozu?r, and worshipped him : and 7vhen they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts ; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

It was a little child, nay, a feeble, helpless infant, to Whom all this reverence and devotionweregiven. And it is, by imagination, the same little babe that all Chris- tendom to-day turns back to and approaches with joy, and salutations, and profoundest worship. The point of interest in this little child is not simply that its body was small and weak, but that Kis person, diminutive as it was, was the germ of wondrous power, was the fountain-head of a world-wide ocean, was the root of prodigious reality which reaches from time over into deepest eternity.

It is one of the wide, general facts of nature, that the things of magnitude throughout the universe spring from small and minute causes. It is so with plants, and trees, and forests : tiny seeds are the parents of vast and formidable wildernesses ; so with beasts, and birds, and fishes ; so with the stars of heaven, whose brilliant

2 The Greatness of Christ.

bodies derive from the impalpable nebulae of the spheres ; so with the nations of the earth, with families and individuals. All the great things, all the great men we see, hear, or read of, passed from littleness up to magnitude and importance. It is, then, strictly in accordance with the analogy of all the things of God, that He, whose Advent we celebrate to-day, began His wondrous life in the feebleness of infancy. But our joy springs from the miracle of His life, which was divine, and the majesty of His mission, which was princely) beneficent, and godlike in all the minutiae of His work.

Nothing but this greatness of Christ could cause, from year to year, from century to century, this world- wide anniversary. Nothing but majesty, most august and profound, repressing the pride of reason and its sceptic doubts, could thus kindle the imaginations of men, start their united affections, and, on one day in the year, sinking their separate nationalities into obliv- ion, join their common sentiment into united adoration before the manger of Bethlehem !

I wish to speak to-day of the greatness of Christ. It is a greatness which has constantly manifested itself through the ages by a gracious but irresistible revolu- tion, which has never, at any time, known a moment of cessation. We talk of the influence of Christianity; and men ofttimes seem happy when they can thus drop

The Greatness of Christ. 3

or deny a personality and make a catch-word of a system. But it is best, at all times, to speak the real facts of a case. No system, of itself, produces results. It is, in its results, the work of either devils, or of angels, or of men, or of God. There is a personality behind every organized institution, behind every bank, behind every insurance company, every mercantile house, every man- ufactory. So, too, of Christianity. It does not work itself. It is not the work of men and ministers. It is a result, in all nations, societies, families, and persons, — a result that is produced by Jesus Christ, present in this world by the power and energy of the Holy Ghost.

Let me point out a few things which the Lord Jesus has done, and which never would have been done if He had not come into this world, and which He alone, of all the intelligences, had the power to do.

First, see the great change our blessed Lord has made in the domain of thought. I refer to this special point at the first, not because I would exaggerate the intellect, as superior to the moral nature ; for I do not. I speak first of our Lord's work in the realm of thought because the life of man and the life of society is determined chiefly by the convictions which are reached by the intellect. As a man "thinketh in his heart, so he is." According to the ruling ideas of an age or a nation, so is it.

Now the power of every being, in the sphere of mind,

4 The Greatness of Clirist.

may be seen in three special respects, viz. : (i) In the ability to stimulate thought ; (2) in the specific weight or quality of the thought expressed ; (3) in the practical or active nature of the thought put into human souls. In these several respects, you can see how unique, and how exalted, has been the force of the Lord Jesus, in all human history.

You will remember that always and everywhere the mind of man has been active ; for activity is a native quality of mind. It was active at the period of our Lord's Nativity ; active in its show of greed ; active in philosophy; active in war and conquest; active in the ambitions and dominancy of great men and great- nations. It was an era of great luxury; it was an age of prying and abstruse philosophies; it was a period of subjugation of provinces and empires. The mind of men, at the time of the Saviour's birth, was seething, burning, with large and important problems and gigan- tic undertakings.

But previous to the time of Christ, notwithstanding all the activity of the human mind, there was a whole class of subjects, subjects of vast importance to the human soul, from which the mind of man was univer- sally divorced. Religion was the possession and the practice of all peoples. But those noble features of religion which flow in lofty truths and sacred precepts from the lips of Jesus had never before circled the

The Greatness of Christ. 5;

brains, nor agitated the hearts, nor stimulated the sen- sibilities. I read the histories of men, pick out the annals of the noblest Pagan nations, select the writings of the most elevated of their sages, but search in vain, in the most abstruse and most elaborate of their trea- tises, for the grand divine conceptions which Jesus of Nazareth has put into the minds of men and of nations, and which have awakened them to life and energy,

I turn to the Scriptures, and find there the grandest ideas and principles which ever entered the mind of man ; which did not come from the human mind, and which could only be of divine origin. The grand thought of Christ may be analyzed and presented somewhat under these three aspects : (a) That of His sovereignty and rule. He tells us of a divine and eternal govern- ment set up in this world, founded upon righteousness, sustained by heavenly affections, generated in our sinful nature by divine influences. " I establish a kingdom." says our Lord ; and the Church, "the Kingdom of Heaven" on earth, the "Body of Christ," springs into existence; higher in authority than all the kingdoms of this world, mastering governments and dominions ; and never has it failed; "and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (b) Another phase of this truth of Christ is that of a reconstructed and spiritualized, humanity, produced by the operations of the Holy Ghost in the kingdom of Christ. Our Lord promises

6 The Greatness of Christ.

a righteousness put into our being, of which man had never before conceived. He guarantees us the reality of a regenerated humanity. He shows us, in His own life and excellence, the possibility of disinterested vir- tue as the possession of exalted men here on earth. He encourages us with the idea of a benignity and brotherhood among men, which shall destroy everywhere the spirit of revenge, national enmity, and fiery war, and usher in the reign of universal peace. And (c) He crowns these teachings and instructions with a phase of His truth which is at once celestial and transporting. He holds up to view a future state, where the everlasting craving of the soul shall be for the treasures which are incorruptible, and the riches which are eternal. That state is a state of eternal well-being in another sphere, in which men shall company forever with angels and archangels, and eternally enjoy the presence and glory of God!

These are the grand thoughts, yet only partial^ pre- sented, which Christ has put into the minds of men : earthly in one aspect, working out philanthropies and enterprise in human society ; heavenly in another and higher view, because reaching onward to eternal issues. See the wonderful revolutions they have produced among men ! See the grand impulses they have started in all the lines of human action ! See the great mas- tery they have given to select peoples, whom they have

The Greatness of Christ, j

elevated and invigorated! Note, above all, how, that, having once entered the soul of man, they have taken to themselves the law of heredity, and come down not only in the polity, in the governments, in the liberties, in the letters and literature, and in the laws, but actually in the blood of mighty nations, from age to age ! Gen- erations come and go, but these great thoughts of our Lord abide and reproduce themselves. Aye, and they are destined to stay here till the crack of doom ! Per- secutions like those of the Caesars could not destroy them! Revolutions like that of France in 1792 could not crush them out! These thoughts are thoroughly vitalized with the life of God Himself. They are the thoughts of eternity, and have become so incorporated with our humanity in its very best conditions that they will work, quicken, and animate the masses of men, until, by and by, they get the ascendency over all the thought, reasoning, and reflection of mankind.

Brethren, Jesus Christ is the most powerful thought, this day, in the intellect of man. The person, the claims, the idea of Jesus Christ, are producing more thinking, more philosophizing, as well in the infidel and pagan as in the Christian world, than all the science and politics of the nations. More thought, more speech, more works and treatises are inspired by the one single n me of Christ, than by all the statesmen and kings of the entire world. One great personality has entered

8 The Greatness of Christ.

this earth and thoroughly mastered its intellect, and thrown utterly into the shade all its other thought, rea- soning, and speculation, in all the ages.

Second, I turn to another evidence of the greatness of Christ. I refer to that broad transformation of man's civilization which He has wrought. We have only to go back into the past histories of nations, and we shall see the nature of this achievement.

We all know somewhat the cultivation of Egypt, Babylonia, Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome. We know how various were the forms of this cultivation in these several peoples ; but we find one broad generalization that may be made of them all, that is, that they were saturated with the spirit of brutality, lust, and murder. When one goes into the museumsof Paris or London, and looks at the monuments of ancient art, dug up after centuries of dark repose from the ruins and debris of Nineveh, or Cyprus, or Greece, or Rome, it is difficult to say which form of astonishment is the greater, the astonishment at the exquisite perfection of the art, or the astonishment at the moral debasement they discover. The same contrast and disparity constantly come to mind, in reading the poetry and the histories of pagan writers. The paintings and the sculpture are too often vile and infamous. The condition of woman among them was degrading. Their family-life was barbarous, and not seldom shameless. Their social state presented

The' Greatness of Christ. 9

the varied aspect of great luxury,- dazzling splendor, allied to gross license and unrestrained indulgence.

While it is difficult to define with exactness the term Civilization, the several items thus referred to may be taken as representing its prominent elements ; and it is evident that the civilization of man, at the time of Christ's Advent and previous thereto, was not a power for good and elevation in the world.

See now the great work which has been done by our Lord in changing the moral complexion of human civil- ization. This revolution began in the family. It destroyed, first of all, the pagan status of womanly life. The Gospel law was a proclamation of equality to woman. In the Church of God she found at once, and for the first time, her place as man's equal and his com- panion. The elevation of woman in the Church was, at the same time, the reconstruction of the family. The household, thus sanctified and elevated, was a "Church in the House" ; and it became an organic unit for wider, nobler uses beyond itself. As Christian house- holds increased, the whole structure of social and domes- tic life became changed and purified. The saints, in heathen communities, carried the divine principle into their traffic, business, trades, professions, civil rela- tions, and service ; and so, gradually, the old, impure, pagan elements of society were everywhere antagonized by the Cross, and beaten down from supremacy. The

IO The Greatness of Christ,

leaven of Christianity spread into every section of soci- ety; it seized upon every occupation; it entered every relation of life ; it penetrated the army, the civil courts, the senate ; and at last it reached the seat of Imperial Caesar. "We are a people of yesterday," says Tertul- lian in his Apology; "and yet we have filled everyplace belonging to you, — cities, islands, castles, towns, assem- blies, your very camp, your tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum ! We leave you your temples only. We can count your armies ; our numbers in a single prov- ince will be greater." And about the middle of the second century, says Justin Martyr: "There is no peo- ple, Greek or barbarian, or of any other race, by what- soever appellation or manners they may be distin- guished, however ignorant of arts or agriculture, whether they dwell in tents or wander about in covered wagons, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered in the name of the crucified Jesus to the Father and creator of all things."

When the Gospel had done its work in the Roman Empire, it stretched out for new conquests in the other states of Europe. Nay, the Roman Empire was God's instrument and agency for the spread of this newly- created Christian civilization. The empire conquered tribe after tribe, province after province, one barbarous nation after another, and subjected them to Roman law and authority. And then the Church seized, in Christ's

The Greatness of Christ. 1 1

Name, upon the Empire, and made it her agent, whereby a chastened Christian civilization was spread throughout Europe. And this day every one sees the grand out- come of the whole process. Christianity, at this moment, is the masterful power in every European state, and through their laws, colonies, and commerce, wields the sceptre of the globe.

Let us pause, just here, for a moment, and make a reckoning of our Master's great work this nineteen hun7 dred years, in the renovation of the world's civilization. You will recall what I suggested as the elements of civ- ilization— the family, the status of woman, dress, cul- ture, manners, social life, art. Art, however, may be taken as the crowning point, the criterion of civilization. See, then, herein, the wonderful change Christ has made in this regard. I will speak of but two or three of the chief of the arts, — painting, sculpture, and music.

In 185 1, in the first world's " Great Exhibition," I stood up in the Crystal Palace in London, amid groups of statuary. -I walked through long avenues of painting gathered from all the great galleries of Europe ; and there was not a picture, not a statue there, which the most innocent maiden might not look at, with as much peace and purity as she would at the midday skies. At the Advent of Christ, if such an exhibition had been held, almost everything would have been smirched ! If you go this day to Pompeii, and ask for the gallery which

12 The Greatness of Christ.

contains the pictures recovered from the lava of Vesu- vius, no decent man, I am told, would dare to ask his wife or sister to gaze upon those pictures ! To this may be added the other telling fact, namely, that no woman is permitted to see the art treasures of antiquity, in the Vatican, at Rome !

See now the change. The Lord Jesus Christ has been laying His Cross upon art, as well as upon law, the family, and social life ; and wondrous transformations have taken place in all the elements of the world's civ- ilization. Nothing has escaped the influence of our divine Lord, nothing evaded His miraculous touch. Invisible, indeed, to sight, He has been passing through the centuries amid the choicest, most delicate craft wrought out by human genius, and touched them, and by this touch driven out the vile possession of paganism, and put into them the life and beauty of heaven; and so all art has been more and more sanctified to most sacred purposes. The churches and cathedrals of the world, are grander in their structure and their style, than the palaces of kings and emperors ; and they are erected for the glory of Christ. The very finest paintings in the royal galleries of kingdoms tell, in magnificent col- orings, the story of Bethlehem ; the temple scene among the Doctors; the agony in the Garden; Christ, as Da Vinci- represents Him, at the Holy Table; the Cross of Calvary ; and Christ amid the clouds of glory ascending

The Greatness of Christ. 13

into heaven. The pencil of the artist has no such touches, his brush no such hues as those lavished upon the Crucified! So, too, that other art, which through the ear stirs the soul with deepest sensibilities,- — that, also, has been chastened and sanctified by the touch of the Cross! The highest, noblest, holiest raptures of the harp, the organ, and the human voice, have been evoked by the life, the sufferings, and the glories of Christ! All along this Christian era the saints of God have been pouring forth their praises in the loftiest strains, and the tenderest love to the Lamb, in " psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," "singing and making melody in their hearts," out-rivalling therein the grandest secnlarities of human song. Yes, music rolls forth its deepest tones, sends out its sweetest melodies in the grand Te Deum, the plaintive Miserere, and the majes- tic Magnificat. Everything beautiful in earth has been more beautified by the Cross. For, as Keble sings :

The base earth, since Christ has died, Ennobled is and sanctified.

Third, your notice is called to one other striking evi- dence of the greatness of Christ, — the humanizing influence He has put into, and diffused throughout the world.

We mourn, day by day, at the brutal acts which are chronicled in our newspapers. We are horror-struck at the fearful murders which are constantly committed.

14 The Greatness of Christ.

Our souls sink when we read or think of the ravages and slaughter of the battlefield, which still disgrace this Christian era.

Bad as all this is, contrast it with the state of the world before and at the coming of Christ, when war was the trade of nations ; when nothing but extermina- tion was the end and issue of their fierce and intermin- able conflicts ; when one nation would lift up with hoarse, univocal, brutal tones against another, " Carthago delencla est"; when such a thing as arbitration was never known nor even thought of by the noblest pagan thinkers ; when the Temple of Mars at Rome was kept almost perpet- ually open ; when " fire, famine, and the sword "devastated vast empires and swept colossal nationalities so com- pletely out of existence, that even their foundations are now undiscoverable !

My contention, be it noticed, is not that Christianity has abolished war. Christianity, in its best results, is not an extemporaneous affair. God, in His providence, moves with majesty, and not in a flash. To use the words of Guizot, "He hurries not himself to display to-day the consequences of the principle that He yester- day laid down; He will draw it out in the lapse of ages, when the hour is come." Christianity has not yet entirely abolished war. But the greatness of Christ is seen in the fact that He has been abolishing war all the centuries through, by the humanization which He has

The Greatness of Christ. 15

introduced into the policy of nations. All along the Christian era His faith has been lessening the frequency of wars ; diminishing the cruel, pagan slaughter of war ; extinguishing the brutish, heathen love of war ; and, above all, counteracting and extirpating the idea of war as a motive of national and personal action. So that now, in the nineteenth century, we have reached this state of the case, namely : that nations are hesitant about entering upon war ; when war does take place, it is under the most urgent, absolute necessity ; while it is carrying on, everything possible is done to alleviate its horrors ; and especially that, when a Minister of State, in any land, proclaims in any way to the world that the trade of war is a prime policy of his country, the Christian world rises up in indignation, and by the voice of a Burke, or a Channing, or a Gladstone, blasts that statesman to utter ruin, and drives him to disgrace and confusion. Added to all this is the notable fact that, in our own day the principle of arbitration has become a part of international law, as a preventive of the slaughter of men, and for the promotion of national peace, equity, and justice!

See, too, the humanizing influence of Christianity in the suppression of the slave trade, in the destruction of piracy, in the abolition of slavery, in the reformation of prisons, in the progress of the temperance cause, in the improvement of tenement houses, in the increase of

1 6 The Greatness of Christ,

hospitals and infirmaries ; in the care of the blind, the deaf, and the dumb ; in the godly efforts to prevent the ravages of licentiousness ; and in the merciful endeavours to save the victims of prostitution ! In all these gene- rous, gracious ventures which one sees throughout all Christendom, we recognize the working of that quality of mercy, the special attribute of Christ,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath :

This spirit has been working its way nigh two thou- sand years, against the deep depravity of mankind ; but only in this age has it succeeded, to any large degree, in the exercise of its fullest power. We have now, at last, reached the age of missions and noblest charities. In these times we are permitted to see, not only in Christian lands, but in the pagan quarters of the globe, whither the Church of God is speeding, all the fair humanities, the large philanthropies, the saving appli- ances which are fitted to restore, uplift, and regenerate the most degraded of the human species. Never before in the history of man has the thoughtful mind been so alert and active as now, in ingenious effort for human gocd. The beneficence of man is instinct with curi- osity. The spirit of benevolence, and even of evangeli- zation, is no longer confined to the Church of God. It is the spirit of the age. Our Lord Christ has put this spirit into insurance companies, and mercantile

The Greatness of Christ. \y

ventures. It stimulates adventure. It prompts geo- graphical research. It vitalizes science. It gives color- ing and tone to literature. Just take this single, simple fact, and ponder on it. The poetry of the ancients has come down to our day with a finish and a glow, which holds for centuries, the admiration of the schools, and which has given them the title of "classic." And yet you may sweep the entire field of Grecian and Roman poetry in vain, to find a poem of such genial human sentiment, of such real hope and brotherly aspiration for man, as the simple song,

There's a gude time coming,

or the fine stanzas of Burns which give us the noble

refrain, —

A man's a man for a' that.

I have thus given you a few tokens of the greatness of Christ, in words that may seem somewhat as though a man should take a single ray from the burning lustre of the midday sky, and hold it up as a specimen of sun- light. The evidences of our Lord's greatness and ma- jesty crowd the eye, and overcome both mind and mem- ory. It seems impossible but that they should impress us all with the deepest sensibility and the greatest rev- erence. Here is a Being who comes into the world in precisely the same manner as every one of us has entered it. He was born of woman. His infancy was

helpless and feeble. But all His after-life was unique, 2

1 8 The Greatness of Christ.

separate in its influence and power, from every other being that ever lived on earth. He lived some thirty- three years, a life of blessedness, labor, suffering, and insult, and at last died an ignominious death ! And yet His divine face, the odor of His sanctity, the glories of His nature, and the mystical power of His resurrection come streaming down the centuries, neutralizing the might, majesty, and splendor of kings, statesmen, and warriors, and, casting them all in the shade, attracting to Himself the homage of the centuries ! Mine is not the task to-day to produce evidences of the truth of Christi- anity. It is no purpose of mine to vindicate the Deity of my Master; but I submit, that this singular fact in human history, the greatness of Christ, is unaccountable, if it be not divine ! There is no room in the mind of any devout believer for misgiving*. All will admit that the instinct which looks to Christ as a Saviour, as the world's regenerator, must be an universal one. We go to Bethlehem to-day; we approach Him with the rever- ent homage of the Magi, as the fontal source of all this majestic power of the Christian era, to see God manifest in the flesh, to see the first manifestation of that interference which God graciously effected for our rescue and deliverance. We have no gold, frankin- cense, and myrrh to offer the infant Jesus; but we would fain present Him that which is far more accept- able, the best devotions of the heart, the lavish outpour-

The Greatness of Christ, 19

ing of the affections. We go to Bethlehem, and remem- bering all the wonderful works of Jesus, by apostles and martyrs, by holy men and women, by missionaries and evangelists, by philanthropists and churches,, by gifts, and charities, and offerings ; we acknowledge Him as the originator of all the blessedness of the Christian faith, and hail Him "Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace 1"

Sermon II

SERMON II.

The Family

{The First Sunday after the Epiphany.")

St. Luke II, 46-52.

And it came to pass, that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them ques- tions. And all that heard Him zvere astonished at His tinderstanding and answers. And when they saw Him they were amazed : and His mother said unto Him, Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us ? Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought Me ? Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business ? And they understood not the saying which He spake unto them. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them : bid His mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

The Gospel for this Sunday presents to our sight those three remarkable persons, Joseph, the Virgin Mary, and the child Jesus, whose names and history hold such distinguished position in the beginning of the Gospel of Christ. First of all, there stands in the background St. Joseph, the espoused husband of the blessed Virgin. Still more prominent to view appears the person of the holy mother, the ever blessed Virgin, that

Lily of Eden's fragrant shade,

(20)

The Family. 21

the loftiest woman of the race of men. But the light of this holy circle is the divine person of the Holy Child Jesus standing in the center, illuminating, by His supernatural wisdom, the astonished minds of the doctors of the law. As we are privileged to regard these personages as indi- viduals, especially the Holy Child, in His Epiphany in the temple, so, likewise, the Church presents them to our sight and contemplation as the Holy family of Naz- areth. And the charm of this presentation has attracted the gaze of more than nineteen centuries and subdued the hearts of multitudes. Art, in its several depart- ments, has lavished its choicest gifts upon this scene. Poetry has delighted to sing its beauty and its glory ; sculpture has plied its most delicate and cunning touch to mould and fashion into exquisite and subduing fig- ures the ideal forms of this Holy group ; and painting has laid her brightest and sweetest colors upon the can- vas to idealize the calm beauty of Mary Madonna, the retiring meekness of Joseph, and the celestial glory of the boy Christ.

I gladly seize upon this scene, to-day, to present to your consideration the topic, Religion in the Family,

And, first of all, if I am asked the obligation of fam- ily religion, I base it upon the fact that the family is one of those organic relations, or institutions, which was established by the Almighty for His own use, honor, and glory. It is, observe, an organic body, not

22 The Family.

an artificial state, such as a bank or an insurance com- pany. These are artificial arrangements, which are not absolutely necessary to the existence of society. They may or may not exist; and either way society remains intact, and humanity makes progress. But the family is one of those structural bodies which are essential to the very being and continuance of the race. It is the very first organism ever created on earth. The family is the primal society of human beings, instituted in Paradise as the very base and foundation of all the other societies of men. It is evident, alike from nature and revelation, that the Almighty has created certain rela- tions or unities which are designed to absorb the per- sonal, and to mingle multitudinous units into general organic wholes. The most apparent of these are, the family, the Church, the state or nation. It was the remark "of a distinguished scholar," "that there are five essential and indissoluble corporations in human society : the Family, the State, the Church, the Guild (that is, every species of traffic, industry, etc.), and the School." These corporations, or unities, are of Divine origin. They were established cotemporaneously with the crea- tion of man. Hence they are not mere human expe- dients or adjustments, found necessary by man in the development of the race or the progress of society. They are natural subsistences, deeply bedded in man's original constitution, planted by the Maker in the frame-

The Family. 23

Work of our nature ; and without which we could not be.

The family, then, as an institution, belongs to God. It is His own possession. And as He made man, with the chief end of his existence the glory of God, so, like- wise, it follows that the organism of the family, which is rooted in the prime elements of our humanity, exists primarily as a divine agency for the glory of God.

Here, then, is the basis of this obligation of religion in the family. The family is an instrument of the Almighty, organized for the specific end that it should show forth the honor and glory of the Maker.

Second, we turn now to the elements of family reli- gion. What are these elements ?

(a.) First of all, as one of the very first constituent principles of family religion, is authority. The family is a government. It is the rudimental government, out of which spring all the organizations of society, whether they be nations, or empires, or schools, or associations. All of them, traced back to their original source, find their root in that simple company, the family.

Of this government, the father and the mother are the joint heads, commissioned, both by nature and rev- elation, to exercise rule, authority, and guidance. But in this united authority, the man by the sanction of nature and revelation, by law and custom, by reason and instinct, has the precedency. Man, that is, the

24 The Family.

male, there can be no doubt, is made, in all the organic relations of life, the head of this lower creation. He is placed, officially, in the position of largest responsi- bility and power. In the family the father is the head. The wife stands immediately at his side, not behind him, his co-mate, authorized to exercise rule and lordship in the little kingdom of the household.

What is the nature of this family-rule, that is, in its essence and highest quality? It is, without doubt, a divine and sacred rule. The head of the family stands in the place of God, and as representing to his house- hold the divine Father. The family government is a divine government, just as much so, in its essential quality, as the Church is a divine government. Indeed, all legitimate government on earth is divine. It is God's government everywhere; and men are God's agents to carry it on. So in the family, the parents are the authorities of the Almighty, to impose divine laws, in their application to the bodies, minds, and spirits of the household, the children, which God has given them.

As thus characterized, the family is no place for mere will, or caprice, or selfish gratification. Parents have no right to govern their households in this manner. There is a higher law present in their circle. The pri- mary reference, in the exercise of rule, is the will and law of God. Fatherhood, divine fatherhood, is the root principle of all family rule. And families, so far as rule

The Family. 25

and governance are concerned, are to be a reflex of that high and august government which is carried on in the heavens. It is God's, not mere man's will, which is to permeate all its transactions, of which will the parents are the administrators.

Now if these principles with respect to family gov- ernment are correct, you can easily see how large an ele- ment is religion in all true family government; for it places God first in all of its legitimate rule and author- ity. And you can see likewise, in the light of these principles, how vast must be the misgovernment in many families. For, alas, how numerous are the fami- lies which spring up, through marriage, where there is no God! How many the households where God's will is never referred to ! How large the number of dwell- ings where there is no rule or government at all, but nothing but misrule and unrestrained license ! Who of you here does not know of families where the parents are nothing but tyrants ? Of other families where the parents are but as slaves, beneath the feet of shameless, selfish sons and daughters ? Of homes where even lit- tle children rule with a rod of iron, and would fain lord it over masters and mistresses in the public schools?

I have the impression that there is no country in the world where there is so much loose family government as in America. The democratic sentiment has invaded our households. It has expelled, very largely, the divine

26 The Family.

element from its inclosure. It would be ludicrous, if it were not so solemn a matter, to hear the constant talk in our day concerning the rights of children, in imme- diate connection with the most glaring misrule, childish license and violence, and utter family anarchy.

And these evils spring from this notable fact, that men too generally have lost sight of God as the great, grand factor in all household arrangements, in all family government. If you will not have God as governor, you cannot have the blessings of rule and order in your houses. This is the beginning of everything gracious and beneficent in your circles. If you do not begin here, with God, you have made no beginning! Hear what the Almighty said of Abraham: "I know him that he will command his children and his household after him ; and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." How many of you who are parents command your children and households to walk in the ways of truth and righteousness ? How many of you use and exercise your parental authority for the right and the godly in your houses ? How many of you say to your children, " No, that shall not be done in my house, for it dishonors God" ? How many of you catechise your children in the truths and principles of our holy reli- gion, teaching them their duty to God and their neigh- bor ? How many of you have the courage to stand up for Christ, — godly women in the face of Christless men,

The Family. 2j

pious men in the face of indifferent and godless women ? How many of you maintain holy worship in your house- holds ? "My house is a temple of God!" was the utter- ance of a clergyman to a worthless son; "and you shall not defile this house with your depravity." There was the setting forth of a true idea. God was ruler in that house. The father was only the steward, agent, instru- ment of God therein, for guidance and direction. The government of the house was to be a divine govern- ment; and he, its earthly head, stood there the sen- tinel, to guard and sustain the lawful authority of God in the family, which is His !

But I turn to another important element of family religion, and that is love. It is more important as a quality than is government ; but its place is, neverthe- less, secondary. The very first element in all society is order, or government. "Order is heaven's first law." The principle of government, as providing the ruling power and assigning the relative positions of subjects, has priority of observance ; and then, authority secured, we have place for the free play of all the other senti- ments which are necessary to the full realization of fam- ily life and religion. Love stands the highest of all these sentiments ; for it is, first of all, a principal acces- sory to rule and authority; it is the parent of obedience; it is the basis of unity in the household. Alas, how often is this forgotten, even in so-called Christian house-

2$ The Family.

holds ! Affection, without doubt, is often retained between husband and wife. It is manifested, too, by parents to beloved children. But the point is this, that this family- love is not chastened, deepened, and inflamed by the love of God. Natural love may and doubtless does fre- quently exist ; but it is not vitalized, sanctified, and fed invisibly and constantly by the fires and the sacred breathings of God the Holy Ghost. Now it is because of the fact that natural powers and faculties are impaired by the Fall, that supernatural forces have been intro- duced into this wretched world. There is a lack of suf- ficiency in unassisted human nature for the right dis- charge of any of the duties of life. Sin has introduced an element of weakness and imbecility into every endowment of man. Our very best members are unhinged and disjointed by it. As a consequence, we need, in every province of our being, help, strength, sustenance. This is as true, in the domain of the affec- tions and sympathies, as with regard to bodily power or intellectual acuteness. It is the lack of this supernatu- ral element in the love of Christian families which is the cause of so many family failures. The link of affec- tion which joins husband and wife in the marriage bond needs to be lifted up above mere instinct, elevated beyond mere human fondness and sensibility, and fast- ened on to the throne of God. And the affection which both craves the gift of children, and which rejoices in

The Family. 29

the prattling of infancy, the buddings of youthful capac- ities, and the full blossomings of maidenhood and early manhood) — that affection, if ever matured into fullest ripeness, must needs be baptized with the spirit of God. Nothing can take the place of the love of God. Love is the fulfilling of the law. It is the grand element of completeness in all things. It is the one only quality which can give to things roundness, symmetry, whole- ness. Do not be satisfied, therefore, in having this divine element only in the Church; make it the presid- ing influence in your families. Let the mutual love of husbands and wives rise up to spiritual solicitude for each other's souls and for their growth in grace; and then there will be no danger of youthful, unmarried love, dying out after the ties of marriage have been fastened. It is, indeed, only the sanctity of grace which will serve to preserve all the gallantry of youth to men for old age, and to retain in women the graceful charms and the tender assiduities of girlhood to their late decline.

And so likewise for children. They are sure to see, in every well-regulated family, prudence, forecast, econ- omy, acquisitiveness, aspiration after refinement. But these are only worldly expedients. And if they see nothing but these, how can they escape the mastery of these mere earthly motives ? How can they, when age comes upon them, help exclaiming, as the result of the bitter experiences you have given them, " Man is

30 The Family.

of the earth, earthy." "Vanity of vanities," saith the preacher, "vanity of vanities; all is vanity." For if you rise in your families no higher than these temporal regards, wise and skilful! as you may be, the end can be none other than chaff and nothingness. No, your children need a supernatural element intermingled with all the duties, relations, and processes of family life. It is always the case, in all the relations of human life ;-—

;-. He builds too low who builds below the skies.

If you would save your offspring from disaster here and ruin hereafter, you must both raise your family up to the skies, and strive, by the power of the Holy Ghost, to bring down the skies into your households. The only agency by which this can be done is the Cross. The motives and the stimulants which are divine come only from the love of Christ acting upon human breasts. Seek this power for your homes and households. It is capable of producing the loftiest transformations. The love of God, as the spring of family life and conduct, will give supernatural ideas and motives to your chil- dren's minds. It will make even authority fall into the background, to be swallowed up in the divine affec- tions. It will raise your entire households above the gross and carnal. It will give unearthly light to your eyes, and keener blood in your veins for duty and godly service. "Not till we call down the spirit of God Him- self/' says Martineau, " can we find the consummate

The Family. 31

fruit of love, and joy, and peace. There is an affection higher than we have named, a divine love directed first upon God Himself, and thence drawn into the likeness of His own love, and going forth upon other natures, in proportion to their worth and claims. This is the crowning and culminating term of all prior affections, presupposing them and lifting them up from clashing and unrest to harmony and peace."

Third, to secure this grand and gracious influence in your households, let me, in conclusion, press the obliga- tion, as the third element of family religion, — the duty and privilege of worship. Every Christian man's body is a temple of the Holy Ghost. Every Christian man's . dwelling is God's house; for, as he himself belongs to Godr so, likewise, everything he possesses is God's prop- erty, for glory and honor. Even the heathen acknowl- edge this principle. The ancient Greeks and Romans dedicated a portion of their mansions to the service of their household gods. The simplest heathen in our own clay associate invisible presences and supernatural powers with the simplest details of domestic life. Indeed, it is an instinct of humanity everywhere on earth to associate the religious sentiment with outward symbols, with locality, with designated spots and places, with consecrated sites, and with both humble and ma- jestic buildings. The idea itself finds its clearest expres- sion in the poet's utterance :

The groves were God's first temples,

32 The Family,

says Bryant. Their o'erhanging arches gave the sem- blance, to both eye and imagination, of lofty cathedrals, for the service of the Maker ; and in them, not on bar- ren plains, men in crowds were wont to assemble, as though they were houses, for their rites and ceremonies. Then, as civilization advances, grand, lofty edifices were constructed for God's glory.

At the beginning of the Christian religion, the Chris- tians were poor, and could not build churches. They were despised, and hence could not use the temples of their countrymen. The house became the place of assembly. When a family became disciples, that house became at once a consecrated building, for religious wor- ship. And hence the frequent expression in Epistles, "the Church in the house." But, observe, it was every- where assumed that the Christian man, by baptism, became a priest of God, and his house at once was con- secrated into a temple. Consider here the two princi- ples of priesthood. The first of these is worship as an obligation and a duty. In Scripture, the patriarchs, which means fathers, were both rulers and priests. A part of their authority was to secure the observance of religious rites, and to offer up sacrifices. Hence, among the Jews, and, indeed, in all nations, they were the unconsecrated persons, who presided at the tribal or national altars, and led in all the sacred observances of religion.

The Family. 33

But instruction was another function of the priestly office. It is their duty to train the people, intrusted to their care, in all the dogmas and precepts, the principles and duties of their religion. More especially is this an obligation pertaining to the young. Childhood and youth are the special periods of receptivity, in all spirit- ual enlightenment, and in the inculcation of moral pre- cepts. These, then, are the special functions of parents, as the priests in the household.

The busy, thoughtless, Christless world may live for- getful of this duty. Worldly, carnal-minded people may shut out God from all 'their mind, and close the door upon His entrance in their households ; but you, who are Christian men and women, how can you delib- erately thrust the Christ from the centre of your cir- cles ? And yet, alas, how numerous are the men and women who profess and call themselves Christians, where the voice of family worship is never heard ? They have, perchance, religion in the heart, profess religion in the Church, but have no place for it in the family ! I do not pause an instant to point out the incongruity of this state of things, nor its deviation from godly rec- titude. But I beg and exhort you, my brethren, to undertake an immediate revolution of your family hab- its in this respect. First of all, set God before you and your households, as king and governor. Put Him in the first place, and make all other things secondary. Deter-

34 The Family.

mine that God's honor and glory shall be the primary principle of your family life; and then, next, give expression to this purpose. Bring it out from the hid- den, unseen recesses of mind and will, into living real- ity. Tell it out to every ear in your homes and houses, fiat Christ is king, and join with angels and archan- gels in setting forth His praise. Do not let the religion of your heart be a sequestered and a hidden thing, secluded from the sight, inaudible to the ears of men. Give expression to the sacred intents, the holy purposes of your hearts. Erect the family altar. Invoke the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit of Christ, as an abiding reality in your households. " Let your prayers be set forth as the incense, the lifting up of your hands as a sacrifice." Accustom the boys and girls, the maidens, the youth, and the prattling infants of your family, to lift up holy hands, asking daily the presence and the blessing of heaven, and sending up to the skies the accordant thanksgiving of joyful, grateful hearts.

I have called your attention, this morning, to the beautiful picture, in the Gospel for the day, of the most perfect and exalted family that ever breathed the com- mon air, or walked beneath the skies. And with it I have joined a consideration of the duty of family reli- gion. For this picture, which stands so brightly before us to-day, is no legend ; it is no splendid fiction ; it is no

The Family. 35

picture of the imagination, drawn by some grand artist. It is solemn, solid, glorious fact. There has been one human, earthly family this side of Paradise, with all the mellowing hues of purity and simplicity, of excellence and holiness, of grace and sanctity. And the charm of this picture comes not from the outshining of genius, from the hoarded treasures of earthly wealth, from the pomp and pageantry of earthly pride and magnificence. No ! the family of Nazareth was one of the humblest and most retiring. All the power and impress of this Gos- pel for the day, comes streaming down to us through all the centuries of the Christ, to this Church, this morn- ing, from the simple power of serene, exalted, and divinest holiness. That holiness, my friends, that fam- ily holiness is your example. It is given in the Scrip- tures of God for your imitation. Do not interpose the cold misgiving that that family -holiness is so remote, so far separated from us, that we can never reach it. Do not plead that these holy persons, in their sanctity were unearthly, in their goodness superhuman ! Joseph and Mary were beings exactly after the fashion of our sinful nature. It was because Jesus was there that that was the holy family of Nazareth. And so Jesus will be really present with you, every one of you, to sanctify your families. He did sanctify the person of the Virgin in her conception, and so has sanctified all birth in the world. He has sanctified childhood, youth, manhood,

2,6 The Family.

marriage, the family of Nazareth! And so, if you will only open your hearts and your doors, He will come into your every household, and sanctify your lying down and your rising up ; sanctify your breaking bread and eating meats ; sanctify your family altars and your domestic worship ; sanctify your going out and your coming in ; sanctify your sons and daughters ; sanctify your busi- ness and your bartering, — yea, make you in very deed holy families, like that of Nazareth ; sweet and beautiful in your lives, and in your deaths and immortality- undivided.

Sermon III

{The Second Sunday after the Epiphanyl^

Marriage St. John Ii, I

MARRIAGE

ST. JOHN II, I.

And the third day there -was a marriage in Cana of Galile?:, and tfu mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus was called, and His disciples, to the marriage.

This passage is a portion of the Gospel for the day. It presents to us the fact, that our blessed Saviour gave His gracious presence at a marriage feast ; and it affords the significant inference that, by His presence thereat, we may learn the sanctity of marriage itself. On this occasion, moreover, He performed the first of His mar- velous and multitudinous miracles; which throws a halo of sanctity around this bright occurrence ; thus illustrat- ing the language of the English marriage service "that He adorned and beautified the marriage rite with His presence and first miracle which He wrought."

As I wish, this morning, to address you upon the ordi- nance of marriage, may I ask you to pause just here, for a moment, to consider the fact that marriage is one of the two original ordinances, which God established at the very foundation of human life and society, in the

(37)

38 Marriage.

Garden of Eden; and that, as an institution, it 13 co- equal with the human race; that its obligation was unfailingly maintained two thousand years and more before the Mosaic covenant, by patriarchal observance ; that it received fresh and divine adornment, by solemn rites and ceremonies in the Jewish Ritual; that our Lord Jesus Christ renewed its sacred authority, and shed benignant lustre upon it, by both His presence and His miraculous power, at the marriage feast of Cana ; that His Apostles, under the inspiration of His blessed Spirit, declare, that " marriage is honourable in all men and the bed imdefiled;" and lastly, so sacred a union is it that Holy Scripture holds it up, as typical of the union between Christ and His Church, and as foreshad- owing the "heavenly union between Christ and His redeemed, the marriage of the Lamb and His wife."

An institution which comes to us with such sanctions deserves most careful, not to say most solemn consider- ation; and while I ask your thoughtful attention this morning, I invoke the assistance and the blessing of the Holy Spirit, that I may speak with plainness and with honesty, upon a subject which touches so tenderly upon every thing in life, and whose influences are undy- ing and eternal.

I. What is the root of this ordinance? My answer is— Love. There are two special factors in marriage, and love is the primal and most prominent. Marriage,

Marriagt. 59

you will observe, is, in its fundamental aspect, the union cf spirits and hearts. This is its prime factor. This wanting, the alliance is so far forth vitiated. It is not indeed annulled. We dare not say that this revokes the contract ; but it is evident that this element lacking, the value of the ordinance is lessened, and its dignity obscured.

Love, then, is the basis, the vital element, in this most important transaction.

But love, be it remembered, is a spiritual principle, most distinct in its nature, and incapable of being inter- changed for any kindred quality. If love be lacking, there is no other sentiment, in kind, which can take its place. In material matters you can substitute one thing for another. You may dispense with bricks, and supply their place by stone. You may exchange money for land. But love, as an element of the marriage con- tract, is a single, unique, fixed, and invariable quality, which allows, in no case, commutation. Love, then, is the essential, vitalizing sentiment of wedlock. Love is the very core and kernel of marriage. Such being the case, we see most clearly the baseness and degradation, when, instead of love, as the primary element, some other lower sentiment is introduced, and the alliance is based upon an inferior motive. Too often people marry for ease; for self-satisfaction; for mere worldly advant- age ; for luxury ; for position ; for power and for pelf.

40 Marriage.

Fathers and mothers have been known to barter their daughters for gold, for jewels, for lands and possessions. Parents not unfrequently interfere, and crush out gen- uine love ; in order to secure for their children the tem- porary advantages of wealth. Both men and women deliberately, and with supremest caution, make a trade of marriage, and seek the companionships of life on the principle of gain. Nay, even young girls, at times, un- hesitatingly avow the purpose to marry only where there is the certainty of money and property.

Now I beg to say that not greed, not houses, not money, not land, not ease and luxury, are the basis of matrimony; but love. The very first element in this grand matter is the affections. The putting this pri- mary quality aside for any other, as a chief end or object, is one of the grossest things conceivable.

I am speaking, observe, of primary ends, the cardinal purposes of marriage. And these first secured always allow the consideration of secondary objects. And doubtless there is full propriety in thinking over and weighing well those other objects, if love be only placed first, in the category of matrimonial motives. That first maintained, it is perfectly proper to inquire into those other conditions. No man, no woman ought ever to enter into this state; no parents ought to give their consent to any alliance, without paying proper attention to the temporal accidents which pertain to matrimony.

Marriage. 41

Our existence in this world is full of temporal necessi- ties. Sickness and casualties occur; care and burdens daily accumulate; hence, nothing can be more im- prudent, than to enter the married state, without care- fil and prudent consideration of all the questions, which relate to the support of a family; the means of living, the prospect of getting on in life, the likelihood of at least comfort, and eventually the procuring a home. What I contend for is that these are not the first con- sideration. That, I insist upon it, is love. I maintain most decidedly that, far above house, and food, and clothes, and good living, the grand principle of marriage is the living affections. The primary factor in the mar- riage life is the union of hearts and spirits.

I cannot quit this part of my subject without calling your attention to the nature of this primary motive in marriage; and this I have declared to be love. But this word is not self-determined. Back of it lies the further question as to its meaning and significance. Now, when I speak of love, I mean, indeed, that deep and ardent affection, far above friendship, far more glowing than regard, which the one sex entertains for the other. But I mean nothing whimsical, flighty, and unreasonable; not a violent flame blazing up in the soul, fed only by passion, and uncontrolled by sense or reason. This is the mistake young people often make, and, in making, they do rude violence to the judgment,

42 Marriage.

and rush into irremediable ruin. Love, like our other passions, is placed under our control, and we are respon- sible for its exercise. The love I speak of, this morn- ing, as the primal element of marriage, is that sentiment which subordinates itself to reason, judgment, and pru- dence; which subjects itself to advice; which runs par- allel with parental regard and mature discretion.

Now, if these principles be correct, love as a senti- ment, gives no justification for the several wrong things we often see in families, such as the wild rejection of parental advice, the setting aside common prudence with regard to temporal arrangements, mis-mating with diseased persons, and mis-alliances, thereby contracting social degradation. True love, I say, like our other affections, is under our control, and can never justify any such perverse, unreasonable, and lawless acts. I have thus set before you the primary and more promi- nent factor in marriage, which is love.

2. I turn now to a considdration of the second- ary factor in this institution. This I would define in this manner, viz., that marriage is a* union of persons. The former, that is, the prime factor, was the spiritual, viz., love. This collateral element is, by contrast, the carnal or material consideration. I say that, subordi- nate to the primal motive, marriage is, secondarily, a union of persons; and by this I mean that it is the join- ing together, in corporate union, of two living, corporal beings.

Marriage. 43

And this aids us in ascertaining the meaning of the words of Scripture: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh." The spiritual factor, love, produces a unity of hearts and affections. This present aspect of the matter joins them into one flesh, and has relation to. sex and the bodily and physical relations. So that the union of a man and a woman, in the holy estate of matrimony is, in a manner, a joining, equiva- lent to that of one member to another in the natural body. Hence, in a sense, a man in marrying adds to himself the physical powers and properties of the woman; and the woman, likewise, joins on to her body, the entire bodily members and functions of the man. The result of this junction of persons is a duality, entitled man and wife, which is, in effect, a new organ- ism, which we call the family.

Out of this union of animate persons, distinct in sex, but one in substance, springs the special function of marriage ; which is to produce children, and to perpet- uate the human race. The Almighty laid upon them both, the man and the woman, this cardinal injunction, " Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it." The idea seems to have entered most thor- oughly into the instincts, the convictions, and the moral sense of mankind, everywhere. Run down the line of patriarchal life, and see how this great function of con-

44 Marriage,

jugal life is everywhere insisted upon, in all simplicity, and with deep moral sensibility. "I will make thee exceedingly fruitful," is the divine promise to Abraham, "and I will make nations of thee." When the familv of Laban was on the eve of sending forth their sister Mebekah, to become the wife of Isaac, this was the bless- ing pronounced upon her, "Thou art our sister; be thou the mother of thousands of millions." The Jewish women, from the days of Jacob, coveted the increase of their households, and prayed to God for the gift of chil- dren. This was the supplication of Rebekah. This, too, was the entreaty of Hannah. And when you look through the Psalms of David, and read his frequent thanksgivings for a numerous offspring, the utterance, for instance, of Psalm cxxvii, " Lo, children are an heri- tage of the Lord. . . . Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them : they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with their enemies in the gate" ; or the joyous song in Psalm cxxviii, "Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord ; that walketh in his ways. . . . Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house : thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord:" — when you see this exultation for the gift of children, you should remember that David's rejoicing was but the expression of the delight of uni- versal Jewish womanhood for the privilege and the bless- ing of fruitfulness and maternity.

Marriage, 45

Why did God put this reproductive desire in the nature of man? Why, in all lands, do men desire the responsibility of fatherhood? Why is there in woman, even from girlhood, the anxiousness for maternity? I have already pointed out two of the ultimate ends of this instinct, viz., the generation of children, the perpe- tuity of the race. But I am referring now to the orig^ inal and primary causes for this fashioning of our nature. And I can only say, that we have no clear revelation upon this point, only hints and gleamings, here and there in Scripture; and hence cannot speak with the cer- tainty of the inspired word. With these hints and gleamings there are some natural suggestions which seem to me conclusive.

The existence of spiritual beings, whether men or angels, is but a recent, not an eternal fact. Through interminable ages, the Almighty dwelt alone in the luminous grandeur of the Godhead; but at a given point, which marks the commencement of time, He saw fit to eschew His solitude of being; and by a grand creative act He peopled, at once, the heavens above with angels and archangels, and the earth below with men and women. The angels above have no productive powers ; but man is made a fertile creature, and is pos- sessed with the gift of fecundity. And, in this one fea- ture of his constitution, he is superior to the angels. For I take it that the capacity by which any beings are

46 Marriage.

enabled to generate spiritual creatures, to bring them into existence, to train them up to the services of life, to fit them for the noble cares and responsibilities of the Family, the State, and the Church, for the callings of statesmanship and science, for law and divinity, for grand perils and heroic duties ; and which has scattered all along the line of history the bright names which adorn humanity, — such a capacity is, I say, secondary to the creative power of God. Such is the faculty of human generation. No other spiritual beings besides man possess it. There are, it is said, seven orders of angels. But they each stand up unfertile in individual loneliness of being. Man is endowed with the powers of reproduction, which is somewhat akin to creative power. And, it is a faculty, which not only stretches out in its influences, through time, but it reaches over to eternity; for, as "the Church on earth is replenished by the children of Christian parents, and as from the visible, will be selected the invisible church of the redeemed, so human marriage is instrumental in adding to the family of heaven."

And thus we see what a noble gift is the generative power of man, and how exalted are the functions of marriage. At the same time it should be noticed, that woman's place in this transaction is the grandest. She is the mother. She is the main agent in the office of generation. In her person centre the greater, higher

Marriage. 47

elements of birthdom. She is the grand instrument in the process of begetting living and immortal beings, who shall never die! This is the grand prerogative of womanhood, and its special moral superiority!

And what a rebuke is not this aspect of this subject to those gross principles and practices which have crept into society, upon this whole subject of child-bearing and the increase of family. Never before in the history of the church has such a spectacle been witnessed by the angels above, as the aversion which is boldly avowed, by a large class of Christian women, to the function of maternity. But added to this, there can be no doubt, is the wide-spread endeavor, by unnatural mothers, to resist the commands of nature, and to turn their own bodies into the graves of their unborn infants.

Infanticide has been, we know, the practice of heathen mothers from immemorial times ; but always, be it remem- bered, through ignorance, or superstition, or the de- mands of a false religion. But it has been left to our times, for Christian women, through the demands of fashion or the love of ease, to turn back the tide of nature ; to choose death in the place of life ; and by deliberate murder to deny themselves the tender offices of the breast, and to deafen their ears to the sweet prat- tlings of infancy.

No argument is needed to prove that all this is cruel and unnatural. No epithets are too severe for this

48 Marriage.

great and crying crime. Nothing can palliate it Every woman who arrives at maturity, and enters the holy estate of matrimony, knows its duties, demands, and requirements. And with this knowledge comes, not only the privilege, but the duty of choice. If women are unwilling to meet the obligations of marriage, they have no right to assume its vows and promises, and to claim its rights. Nothing, next to the love and service of God, is more solemn and more obligatory than the covenant of marriage. It is the grand fountain of homes and families ; of States and commonwealths ; of churches and heavenly societies. What can be more gross, what more destructive, than to undertake its responsibilities, regardless of the two great factors which God Himself has laid down as the basis of this institution — love and maternity ? And hence it is that our Church, with a solemnity, deep as that at a funeral, bids every man and woman to remember "that this estate is not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly ; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God."

3. I cannot close my subject, this morning, without offering a few remarks upon the preparations which become, and which are befitting, matrimony. I use the word preparations purposely ; for I think that the mar- riage of children, and especially of daughters, is not a matter which should be left to chance, or hap-hazard, or

Marriage. 49

girlish caprice. Marriage is the normal state of human- ity ; and therefore all parents should carefully bring up their children, sons and daughters alike, with an eye to the probability that they will go out of their homes to form new ones, and to establish other households. And therefore (a.) I would enjoin upon all parents the careful moral training of their children, as an absolute necessity to comfort and concord, when they assume conjugal ties. When I speak of moral training I include the idea of mental discipline ; for such is the action and reaction of the brain and the spirit, such the regulative power of the intellect in regard to principles, habits, and the will, that there can be no lofty moral training, unless there be, with it, the cultivation of the mind. Train your daughters and your sons "in the way they should go.'' Accustom them to right principles upon life and duty. Cultivate in them the sentiments of honor, truth, and virtue. Instil in your sons such strong veracity that they will never tell a lie. Graft such thorough purity in the minds of your girls that chastity will become an instinctive tendency. Crown all with the love and fear of God in Christ.

Such youth is sure to make beautiful wives and noble husbands; and, if blessed with children, to trans- mit the virtues of their own parents to children's chil- dren. But this, be it remembered, is no hap-hazard and fortuitous thing. It is the work of parents in the

50 Marriage,

family ; not of divided counsels, either, — one parent for God, and the other stout for the devil ; but of the united counsels of father and mother, anxious for the glory of God, and the transmission, through a godly seed, of godliness and virtue, to distant generations,

(b.) Added to this duty of training is the deep obliga- tion of industry, as a part of the preparatory education of children. I would fain enjoin this as a human obli- gation, irrespective of sex. I do not insist upon it because we are a poor people, but because it is a duty for all, whether rich or poor. There can be no health, no greatness, no prosperity, no superiority of brain or body, of the individual or the family, without willing, active industry. It must be willing. It must be spon- taneous. A girl brought up in laziness cannot suddenly be changed into a neat wife and a tidy housekeeper. A boy accustomed to habitual laziness can not be turned, in a moment, into a thrifty, prudent, painstaking husband. Marriage works no such miracles as these. And therefore if you would have your sons stirring, active, saving, self-dependent husbands, and your daughters faithful, economical wives, fix the habits of industry in them from early youth, and teach them to regard all labor as honorable. No matter what may be your possessions, teach them that work is the heritage, work is the calling and the duty of all of God's crea- tures; the only solid foundation for success and prcs-

Marriage. 5 1

perity. Give your children these habits, and then we shall hear no more the foolish demand that young men must be rich before they can marry ; no more will indo- lent women be money-seekers in the matrimonial mar- ket ; no longer shall we have to regret the infrequency of marriages in society ; no longer shall we behold, in our large cities, hosts of refined, virtuous, and cultivated women unsolicited in marriage, growing old in maidenly loneliness ; but our young people, everywhere, prompted by love, trusting to faithful industry, practising plain living, and holding on to simple habits, will form the alliances to which nature prompts them ; and beautiful households will spring up on every side.

Closely allied to industry, as a preparation for married life, (c.) is the necessity of self-restraint. Think of the fact that fully one-third of human life is the state of nonage. Why has the Almighty made our minority so long? What is the reason that God holds us back for so long a time ? Evidently because human beings must serve an apprenticeship, before they are fit for respon- sible duty. Youth — that is, boyhood and girlhood — is the season of discipline ; the period of restraint and subjection wherein we learn to control ourselves, to keep the body under, in preparation for manhood and womanhood. How many persons use the youth of their children to this end? Why, in a majority of families, children dress as they please, go where they please,

5 2 Marriage.

eat and drink what they please. Instead of curb and guidance, there is independence and license. And the whole tendency of this lawless latitude is to unfit them for married life when they reach their majority. With- out doubt, this is one leading cause why so many young men and women remain unmarried. In the case of men it is discoverable in the fact that parents suffer them, as boys, to contract habits of indolence, dandy- ism, self-indulgence, and drinking ; so that thinking young women and prudent mothers conclude that these beggarly spendthrifts, with luxurious habits but with no pockets, will never be able to support a family, but will more likely bring a woman to ruin or the grave. So, on the other hand, even girls in families are brought up to ease and luxury by over-fond mothers and fool- ish fathers ; taught dancing and music at the expense of hard-working parents, but not taught to work; dress- ing at the height of fashion and to the verge of propri- ety ; running the round of winter amusements without care or responsibility ; until young men conclude that such simple, doubtful creatures will never make domes- ticated wives, and that they are utterly unfit, morally and physically, to become mothers. Or, on the other hand, if a decent, responsible man does marry such a thriftless and immodest woman, there is no possibility of living with a wasteful, prodigal, self-willed and law- less companion.

And so, too, if a virtuous, higrwninded, ambitious

Marriage. $ 3

woman does marry such a worthless coxcomb as I have described, she has to take the place of both man and woman, and, as is too often the case, bear, for a few years, a crushing burden, which lays her down in a pre- mature grave. My own observation leads me to the conclusion that this latter is more frequently the case. Trifling, showy girls frequently sober into painstaking and faithful wives ; but your wild, rakish husband keeps on in the line of continuity, and begets children in his own likeness, and puts them on his own crooked and ruinous tracks ! The root of this disease is to be found in the unrestraint and license given to boys and girls during their minority. Ungoverned girlhood, unruly boyhood are pretty sure to crop out into careless womanhood and brutal manhood. If you would raise up for the future, good wives and husbands, teach your children while young to want little, to keep their bodies under, to restrain their passions, to practise economy, to dress plainly, to avoid the stimulants which produce premature passions, to place themselves under the con- trol of reason, to practise the principles of virtue, to live according to the dictates of piety and religion. Such a life, and only such a life, will afford the founda- tion on which they will be able to build a mature, a sober, and a godly manhood.

I make no apology for the train of thought which I have presented to your consideration, nor for the plain* ness of speech I have used. "To the pure all things

1)4 Marriage.

are pure;" and "what God hath cleansed," that no man has the right to regard as common or unclean. I am aware that the subject of marriage is but seldom spoken of from the pulpit, and that still more seldom do minis- ters speak of the functions of marriage, and the duty of maternity. But the Church speaks very clearly and pointedly upon the subject, and I am but an obedient servant, to-day, in uttering her voice. I .regret that there are so few marriages that take place in society. I believe it to be the duty of parents to see to the mar- riage of their daughters. I think it is their duty, in simplicity of living, and by social life and entertainment, to encourage the marriage of their children. Marriage, I beg to say here, is a duty. I think young women, even by the eccentricity of plainness of appearance and sweetness of character, should strive to remove some of the obstacles which hinder men from marriage. And I think young men should have the boldness and manliness to enter upon married life in a simple, una- dorned, and quiet manner, mindless of style and the requirements of fashion, relying upon the loving hearts, the trustful faith, and the willing industry of scores of beautiful women, who, both by character and intellect, would adorn the homes of princes. I speak all this in the interest of society, of virtue, of chastity, of pure and undefiled religion; and may God bless it to the young of both sexes, to your families, to this Church, and to His own glory.

Sermon IV

{Passion Sunday?)

ST. JOHN, T, 29.

THE LAMB OF GOD.

The next day John seeth Jesus coming untc him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

These are wonderful words, my brethren, and they fell from the lips of John the Baptist. But it is a matter of prime importance that you should notice that they were spoken to Jewish people ; for, otherwise, it would be quite difficult to understand their deep and marvellous import. The region where these words were spoken was on the western side of Jordan, in a district of rivu- lets and streams, where hills lifted up their heads on every side, and a wide wilderness lay stretched out over a large district of country.

All through this neighborhood the tribes of Ephraim and Benjamin lived for centuries, built their towns and cities, and multiplied into a large and crowded pop- ulation. But amid much material prosperity, the Israel- itish people had declined in national spirit and religious purity and simplicity. At this time the Almighty

(55)

56 The Lamb of God.

raised up a prophet among them of a force, authority, and power unlike and superior to any that had appeared among them for centuries. Casting aside as superfluous the luxurious habits of the age, he lived in the wilder- ness a life of the most rigid simplicity and the severest abstinence. He went everywhere, calling the people to repentance, and warning them of the threatened wrath of God. His voice was like a trumpet, and his words were words of fire, as he preached in the ears of men, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Such an extraordinary preacher as this broke up the stillness of dull, ordinary life, and disturbed the stag- nancy of customary guilt and depravity. The popula- tion of the whole neighborhood poured out to see and hear this wondrous prophet. Multitudes confessed their sins, and besought of him "the baptism of repentance" in the waters of Jordan.

It was in a scene of this kind, — the crowds of anxious Jews surrounding him, eager inquiries put to him by repentant men and women, sinners standing around with baptismal waters still dripping from their brows, that the fact occurred which is spoken of in the text. A pause takes place in the busy life of the Baptist ; and his attention is called away to a majestic and shining presence coming toward him. Then he sees approach- ing him that "flower of perfect humanity," that one only specimen of ineffable purity, the man Christ Jesus,

The Lamb of God. 57

Immediately all duty and service come to an end. Struck with awe and admiration, the Baptist himself is transformed. The hard, rough words of his tongue vanish in an instant; and with mingled wonder and rev- erence he points out to the multitude the grand godly personage who draws nigh to him, in these words of transcendent beauty and significance, " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world ! "

Now observe that the Baptist was speaking to a peo- ple addicted, through all their generations, to the practice of sacrifice. For more than a thousand years, under the Mosaic covenant, under which they were then living, the offering up of lambs and other animals, had been an unfailing custom. The custom in their blood and kindred had been older than this. It had come down 2,000 years before the time of Moses, from their Father Abraham. Nay, the Jews could trace it still further back, in their line and lineage, even than to Abraham's day. Sacrifice was the custom of their ancestors in the line of Seth, clear up to the days of Noah ; and we all know that it anticipated the Noachic covenant, that it came down to that patriarch from Father Adam, from the very outer gates of Eden.

When, then, John the Baptist pointed out the Messiah to the Jews as "the Lamb of God," they well understood the import of his words. His speech was indeed a very brief one ; but it included large histories, and the expec-

58 The Lamb of God.

tations of centuries, the hopes of generations, the cus- tom of a long line of patriarchs and fathers, and the strongest religious instinct and demand of wide human- ity. It was in effect just this meaning and teaching. — - " You are looking for the Messiah ; you are daily offer- ing up your sacrifices of lambs and goats as a token of the great expected sacrifice, which is to give freedom and salvation to Israel. Lo! here is the hope of the ages. " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world ! "

The subject suggested by the text divides itself into two sections : — The first, the person presented to our notice and regard, and second, the duty which apper- tains to Him.

I. "Behold the Lamb of God." It is a specific ob- ject, you will observe, (a) the Lamb of God; the one offering, separate from every other which had ever been laid upon an altar to propitiate an offended Deity. And (b) that one only sacrifice as able to "take away the sin of the world."

And this statement traced to its final issue, is the affirmation made for centuries by rite, ceremony, and sacrifices to the Jews especially, but to all the tribes of men by less vivid, but equally certain instincts and relig- ious customs; the affirmation, namely, that "without shedding of blood there is no remission " of sins.

This is the idea which fills the Baptist's mind in

The Lamb of God. 59

pointing out the Messiah. To the Jewish mind his words implied a contrast between their sacrifices, only symbolical, and the one true only sacrifice then standing in their midst — the Saviour of sinners.

In just this way John the Baptist speaks to us this day. To our sight he points out the Lamb of God. Into our ears, into the depths of our consciousness he pours the truth of the universe, that " without the shedding of blood there is no remission " of sins.

Let us ponder over this vital principle. Let us endeavor to*see if this same Saviour is not our greatest and most pressing need.

The question of sin, i. e.t of the reality of it, we will not discuss. Every man knows its existence, knows too that it is not an original tendency ; not a primitive and natural state in the constitution of man. For every man knows that confusion is not a first principle in God's economy ; that disorder is not a primitive element. And sin we know is both disorder and confusion. Sin is an abnormal and degenerate state. How then are we to be saved from sin ?

There is but one alternative. We must either save ourselves from the taint and penalty of sin, or else we must be saved by a Being both fit and able to save us.

We cannot save ourselves. Human inability to the salvation of the soul is the confession of the whole world. Every one knows the insufficiency of man even

60 The Lamb of God.

for the care and preservation of the lower, animal life, God has given us. We come into life weak, helpless little babes ; and our life is in the tender care of others. All through life we are kept from ruin, from starvation, from dangers, disease, and death, by the intervention and the self-sacrifice of our fellow creatures. The prin- ciple of mediation, in its lower sense, mingles with our whole life from the cradle to the grave. No man stands up altogether by himself, sufficient for himself in all things, anywhere on earth. . Some one, nay, many persons all through our life, have to interpose good offices that we may not want, and suffer, and die. Our mothers suffer for us, that we may come into life ; our parents undergo pains and trial that we may reach manhood and secure success; our teachers and our friends have to bear and endure to the end, that we may be built up and achieve prosperity and position in life.

Thus we see that no man can save himself, even with regard to our lower, physical life in this world. We are saved very largely by others.

But if this be true in regard to this lower life of ours, how overwhelmingly so is it with respect to that inner life which pertains to the soul ? Who of the sons of men ever had the power to break the iron fetters of sin ? To cast off the thraldom of guilt ? To secure the glori- ous freedom of innocence and purity ?

Take up the history of man, and what do we find the

The Lamb of God, 61

master question in all the nationalities of men but the one grand query, " What can we do with sin ? " Every- where on earth, whether it be in the classic nations of Greece and Rome, or among the luxurious people of the East, or the savage tribes of Africa, or the wild inhabitants of the islands of the seas ; sacrifices of beasts and birds, aye, even of men, women, and children, attest the troubled heart of humanity under the harass- ing burden of sin, and the agonizing but vain attempt to get rid of its troubles and its tortures. Sacrifices are always confessions, not infrequently expressions of contrition.

The revelation of the Scriptures turns us from the fruitless efforts of man, for salvation, to the power and the victory of the Son of man, " the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." It tells us that while the power of man is useless, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus is all powerful and effective.

Just here we are met by a school of thought, cool, heady, and dogmatic, which denies the need and efficacy of blood to propitiate sin; and which claims, moreover, that by the aid of reason alone it can attain virtue below the skies. This school sets itself against all the tradi- tions, all the histories, all the expiatory customs of the world, and refuses to allow them any abiding religious significance. If Theodore Parker were living to-day he would reject the sacrificial customs of the Jews as

62 The Lamb of God.

superstition. And to your appeal this morning to the Lamb of God, that " by His agony and bloody sweat, His cross and passion, His precious death and burial, He would deliver us," the pious and gentle Channing would turn away with horror, and tell you that the "very idea was appalling ! "

But neither sentiment nor speculation can subvert a fact, nor weaken the ideas which underlie that fact. The fact, next to the idea of God, is as large a one as ever presented itself in the realm of thought and in the province of experience. Its proportions are indeed prodigious. It is so immense a fact that no one single line of thought could ever distinctly express it. It comes to us in divergent lines of testimony.

1. Look at it first historically. The whole history of man from the creation shows the deep conviction of hu- manity, everywhere, that "without shedding of blood there is no remission " of sin. The idea of expiation is inextricably intermingled with all the history, poetry, religious worship and priestly offices of all the tribes and nations of men. The mangled bodies of sacrifices, the blood of victims, are a constant and a ghastly spec- tacle in the annals of our race. The sacrificial idea is as old as humanity, and as wide and far-reaching as the history of man.

2. Turn to the providential expression of the same idea, See how the Almighty Himself has put this prin-

The Lamb of God. 63

ciple of expiation into the very histories of men, into the policies and currents of national life ; so that men may not possibly escape its teachings. We see the fact in all the providential events of human being. It is God's finger in all human story. The instances are almost innumerable; but a few conspicuous cases stand out in bold relief, and speak with telling utterance.

When, in the early history of man, the world had corrupted its way in the earth, and all virtue had fled, the blood of man was exacted in expiation, and Noah and his family alone escaped.

The abominations of Egyptian bondage, for more than two hundred years, became so enormous that it could only go out with a judgment that brought death to every household and woe to every heart therein.

For centuries the nobles and kings of France set at nought every principle of duty and obligation, and rioted in profligacy and corruption, until at last every thing declined, and the end had come. And how did it come? It came in the earthquake and the hurricane, in the hail- storm, and in the shivering, blasting lightning of revo- lution ; and the nobility and gentry of France were swept away as with the besom of destruction, and the blood of kings and queens and gentle princes flowed like water.

For more than two hundred years the people of this land maintained the most grinding tyranny that ever

64 The Lamb of God.

existed beneath the sun, determined to the last to up- hold it, by law and interest, by philosophy and power, and, added thereto, by the authority of Scripture. But at last the time of its end came, and everything was done to close it up, if it were possible, without suffering or disaster. But neither reason nor philosophy, law nor statesmanship, compromise nor policy, could avail. The time had come ! " Without shedding of blood there is no remission " of sin. The sin of the land called for blood, and blood had to flow for the wiping out its deadly stains. On the battle fields of the South the best and choicest blood of every section drenched, for years, the very sod which, for centuries, had been moistened by the black man's blood, and crimsoned its streams and rivers. And so sore and terrible was the disaster that there was a great cry in all the land. "For there was not a house where there was not one dead ; " and mourning was in every household. And so the sin of this country went out in agony and blood ! And then God closed up the book of national expiation by the most terrible tragedy known in all its history. In the very moment of victory, at the first breathing-time in a four-years' stretch of misery and bloodshed, the Chief Magistrate of the country was hurried into eter- nity by the pistol-shot of defeated but frenzied and demoniac slavery ! And so God taught the people that blood must flow for sin. And so the sin of the nation vanished forever !

The Lamb of God, 65

3. The word of God is most distinct in its setting forth the idea of sacrifice. The practice itself began in the very infancy of the race, and there can be no doubt that it was by divine command. It was the religion of Abel, of Noah, and of Abraham. It was the practice of all the patriarchs, under divine direction. It was enforced again upon the Jewish people, upon their first setting up their religion, as a national institution, in the wilderness. It comes out with organic distinctness in the Mosaic Ritual, under the explicit command of Jeho- vah, and perpetuated, moreover, in a priestly line to the time of Christ. The principle and the duty are declared with burning vividness in the prophetical writings, which glow with the reflex lustre which comes from the cross of Christ, seen in the distance, and from which they derived their grand significance. All through the Old Testament this principle of sacrifice accompanied with commands, injunctions, regulations, and systematic observances ; daily, weekly, monthly, and annually, declares or sets forth the sacredness of a divine principle and the authorization of the Deity Himself.

And now, my friends, I am unable to see how any tender sensibility, any force of reasoning, can possibly break down these deep convictions of humanity and this most manifest law of nature's God. Here we have the concurrent testimony of universal human conviction, the religious instinct of the entire race of man, and the

5

66 The Lai7ib of God.

undoubted will of God that guilt demands the expiation of blood. It is not only a law of natural religion, not only the teaching of Providence, but the positive declar- ation of the revealed will of God.

And I stand upon these convictions, and maintain these teachings. Nor can I suffer any mere specu- lation to relax my hold upon them. I grant, indeed, that I am not able to point out the specific relation of blood to the principle of atonement. That is a mystery which the Almighty has not seen fit to set forth, in its entirety, to human comprehension. But the mystery which is wound up in a fact cannot destroy that fact, because it is a mystery. Here is a principle that lies imbedded in the deepest regions of our nature, showing itself in all periods of time, allied to all the religions of men, and running" parallel with the most positive fea- tures of God's rule in this world, and the plainest teach- ings of His Holy Word; and we are called upon to renounce it because of its seeming divergence from the philosophy or the civilization of the age. But I must hold on to a universal religious instinct, which is testi- fied by all the world ; for, if in no other way, its univer- sality is a proof of its verity and its integrity. And I regard of far more value the teachings of the threefold witnesses — the human conscience, the Divine Provi- dence, and the Holy Word — than all the speculations of philosophers.

The Lamb of God. 6j

We turn once more to the scriptural aspects of the subject. They show us everywhere the rigidity of law coming down from the throne of the universe, refusing all compromise with iniquity, demanding retribution for sin. "The soul that sinneth5 it shall die!" "God will by no means clear the guilty."

It reveals to us another aspect of the Divine govern- ment. God's- rule of the world is as much a rule of mercy as it is of justice and of law. He knew not only man's inability to obedience, but also his incapabil* ity of atoning for sin. Therefore He sent His only Son u a propitiation for our sins." Read the book of Leviticus. Read the prophets. Read the Gospels. Read the Epistles of St. Paul ; and see everywhere the one single predominant principle of expiation, from Genesis to Revelation. See how, for thousands of years, at first darkly and by signs, until the "fulness of the ;:imes," but, in the latter ages of the world, in the clearest and most distinct manner, God has set forth Jesus Christ, His only Son, born of a Virgin, the one great sacrifice for sins. John the Baptist declared the whole doctrine of sacrifice in that remarkable passage in the third chapter of St. John, a passage which remains for aye the wonder of the Church ; his knowledge of the atonement seeming as distinct and luminous as that of St. Paul. The Lord Jesus announced it constantly during His ministry, not merely with pro-

6& The Lamb of God.

phetic, but pre-eminently with divine emphasis and authority, up to the very tragedy of Calvary. " And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so shall the Son of Man be lifted up." "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." And then, after our Lord's Ascension, His apostles preached everywhere the same living and abiding truth to people of every clime and name, as the one grand condition of salvation : "Christ died for sinners." "God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth from all sin." "Christ also hath- once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust."

2. And now that the Lamb of God is pointed out to our sight and held up to our view, what are we to do with respect to Him ?

There is but one requirement in the text, and that declares the grand spiritual requirement of the soul. "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." Yes, plain, simple, trivial as it seems, yet all man has to do is to look and to see. Surely, you can understand this. Is it not clear and certain that the Divine Father would have us look no longer any- where else in the universe save to His blessed Son? And is it not true that the eye of man's soul does wan- der, the world over, for safety, save to the Son of Man ?

But now the invitation comes to every soul, "Be- hold the Lamb of God." Summon all the scattered,

The Lamb of God, 69

wasted powers of your heart, and fasten them upon the Christ. He is able and willing to save every man from himself and from his sins, in time and for eternity.

You ask, perchance, have we nothing to do but to look ? And what is there in looking that can serve to change the heart or save the soul?

Why, don't you see that if you sit and gaze upon the Lamb of God, look with all your heart, and mind, and soul, look with all your sorrow and desires, look with all your tears and all your longings upon your Saviour, that this is believing in Him and accepting Him as your Master and your all ?

Salvation comes by looking. Sight is the most vivid and most transforming of all our senses, the soul's mightiest organ for apprehension. " The very first lesson of Agassiz, the naturalist, to a student, was, 'Take that fish and look at it' And the whole work of that stu- dent for three days was to look at it. Artists and paint- ers who wish to get the true insight from a picture sit, day after day, and look at it." So the Bible teaches us that by beholding a thing we become like unto it. Thus, beholding the Lamb of God saves men. If you want salvation, look to Jesus.

What else, I ask, can faith be but this absorbing, looking, fastening of the soul upon its Lord and King, undisturbed and undistracted by anything else, lost in the crucified One ? Is it not thus in all our loves and friendships and our faith, with men, with women, and

JO The Lamb of God.

children? How comes the man to love the maiden and to trust her? He looks, and looks, and looks, and her image enters his soul, and love sits master in his being. What is the first desire of the mother with her new- born babe but to see it ? And then she looks and looks, until its innocent face enters the core of her heart, and she is swept away with the floods of maternal love.

Thus, too, with the Lamb of God, our Saviour; but with the stronger currents of our souls and the peni- tential sorrows of our hearts.

"Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world?" Have you sins? Have you guilt? Have you wretchedness ? Have you sorrows, soul-sick- ness and despair ? Look to Jesus and be saved ! Don't look to the world ! Don't look to yourself ! Don't look at your sins ! Get away, and at once, to the "Lamb of God." He alone can save you. Behold the Lamb of God ! Put your heart in your eyes. Put your eyes upon your Lord. Keep Him ever in your sight. And thus looking, gazing, lost in the sight and contemplation of your Redeemer, the whole vision, power, and pre- ciousness of the Lord shall enter into your being. His beauty shall ravish you. His love shall subdue you. All your guilt and depravity shall depart. His look shall drive them away. All your sorrows and your cares, your miseries and anguish shall vanish. " Behold the Lamb of God," for "He taketh away the sin of the world!"

SERMON V.

Easter.

RISING WITH CHRIST.

COL. Ill : I.

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

The term Easter, which is the title of the Festival which we are now celebrating, is derived from Eostre, the name of the old goddess of light and illumination among the early British people. In the early ages of Chris- •ianity, even pagan customs, if they were innocent, were •Howed observance by Christians. And so the Resur- rection, coinciding, that is, in time, with the ancient British festival, eventually displaced it ; put aside en- tirely the heathen notions associated with it ; introduced at the same time the lofty Christian idea of this season, but carrying off the old name, and putting it to a noble Christian use. The appropriation thus made is an hon- oring one. Easter is indeed the festival of light and illumination. All things divine and heavenly, all the ideas which are bright and celestial are associated with it. It is the spring by which, as by a sudden bound,

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/2 Rising with CJirist

&

mankind is privileged to rise from the earthly and car nal, to the ethereal, the invisible, the eternal. It is the triumph of the supernatural over the temporal. By the Resurrection of our Lord, we are advanced in fact, in idea, and in prerogative, from the dominion of earth and sense, to that vast, wider world of perfect men and holy angels ; of God eternal and ineffable ; of holy truth and everlasting light and glory. And hence it is that the poet sings :

The day of resurrection !

Earth, tell it out abroad I The Passover of gladness,

The Passover of God ! From death to life eternal,

From this world to the sky, Our Christ hath brought us over,

With hymns of victory.

It is with such vivid, glowing ideas of our Lord's ris- ing that the apostle gives us the exhortation of the text. " If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." The assumption of the apostle is, that we have risen with Christ ; the inference he draws from it is, that, by virtue of our union and communion with Him, we must keep up our connection with the upper world of light and glory, by faith. " Christ," he says, "is advanced to the highest dignity and honor in Heaven. That is the spot where our hearts and affections are to be centred ;

Rising with Christ. 73

from whence, even here on earth, we are to draw all the power of our existence, all the stimulants to activity, all the light and glory of our spiritual being."

In considering the Apostle's words, let us go back a little, and think upon the need of the charge given us in the text. That charge is to rise. Is there any need for it ? Do we not all know this deep necessity of human being ? Are we not all low ? Is not debasement the saddest element of our every being ? Is not degene- racy the common universal taint of our humanity ? The need for man to rise, discovers itself, first of all, by a general view of human kind. We see indeed, every where on earth, the signs of human superiority. We see civilization, enlightenment, letters, and government. And we see very often the tokens of self-satisfaction and self-sufficiency, in the possession of them, and in their bright show. But, after all, nothing can hide the fact of man's discontent amid the very best earthly circumstances ; and for the very reason that there abides with him always the conviction that he is down, that in- feriority taints every fibre of his nature ; that obliquity discovers itself in every joint and sinew of his constitu- tion. He strives indeed after somewhat more elevating and superior, because he is the image of God, tarnished and effaced though it be ; but yet his struggles are hin- dered by the clogs, the weights, and the grossness of hi*5 sinful nature; just as Milton represents—

74 Rising with Christ.

The tawny lion, pawing to get free His hinder parts.

half animal, and half earth, So earth, and an earth- bound nature, clearly set forth to every one of us the sinful abjectness of man.

The general fact is also the individual personal expe- rience. That man does not know a single section, of his heart who has not discovered his own special degene- racy. All the laws of civil society, all the statutes of states and nations, all the treaties between nationalities, imply, in their very structure, a state of human depravity which is to be guarded against, warded off or punished. All the histories of men, with their dark pages, and their saddening tales and memoirs, are so many biographies of a fallen, sin-burdened being. Every man that ever lived, if you could get at his life, would reveal to you his confession of moral defectiveness. Even where there is pretence to superiority, as in the case of the Caesars and the Napoleons, you will not have to wait long before you see not only the personal depravity, but you will also hear, if even unguardedly, the acknowledgement of un- soundness or moral weakness. And when there is no open avowal, we get the tacit assent to the lowness of sinful man in their subterfuge ; in the attempt to hide their guilt ; in their hypocrisies ; in their guile and their deceit. The testimony is an universal personal one, that man has made a most calamitous descent from original righteousness, to sinful degradation.

Rising with Christ. J$

Again we see the necessity of man to rise, by the very defeats he meets with, in all his endeavors after excellence. For the corrupt and carnal man has, not seldom, aspirations after truth and goodness. He sees the right, and often pines, and sighs, and struggles for it. And here we make a discovery which shows itself at every period of life and among all peoples, that is, the attempted flight of the soul after things unearthly and celestial, with the failure to reach them and the despair that follows. Little children striving to be truthful, girls and boys endeavoring to be honest and virtuous, men and women aiming after rectitude and uprightness, and yet lapsing, stumbling, falling away into vice and depravity, and oftentimes exclaiming in utter hopelessness, " Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ! " Just as I saw, last spring, a little bird escaped from its cage, flying about in La Fayette Park. It was unused to long ventures of flight, and one wing was broken ; so that, every time it attempted an upward rise, it was beaten back by the strong currents of the breeze ; and the lit- tle thing would fall upon the grass, and pant and moan with its unusual exertions, and at last settled down on the earth to die.

2. We have need then to rise. There is a constitu- tional paralysis, from which it becomes us, as moral agents, to escape ; and, on the other hand, there is a

76 Rising with Christ.

divine integrity, to which it is every way our duty and our advantage to reach forward. Consider, for a few moments, the somewhat and the whither to which we

. should endeavor, as disciples, to rise. My answer is, to things divine and heavenly. " Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." " Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." He explains his own meaning. " For ye are dead," he says. Dead ! Dead to what ? Dead, that is, to things present. Dead to earthly things. Every Christian is crucified unto the world, and the world crucified unto him. This is both our profession and our obligation. By putting on Christ in baptism we have declared ourselves members of a heavenly soci- ety, under the control of supernatural ideas and princi- ples, reaching forth to realities beyond the range of time and sense. If the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit, has done anything effectual in our souls, then, by the power of His resurrection, He has raised us to a higher plane of being than that we had by nature.

I And that is the very object of Christianity. Its pur- pose is to put the kingdom of heaven within us. Its especial significance is a personal divine and spiritual reality within us. And when you consider how low and abject we were by sin, you can judge the elevation we needed to bring us consciously into the realities of the kingdom of God's grace. Look at what is implied in this spiritual elevation of our nature.

Rising ivith Christ, ??

(a) First of all, it signifies our reaching after and grasping divine principles and convictions. Plere is the radical defect of our disorganized nature ; and here, too, is the very first start of our nature to spiritual superior- ity. The depravity of man is noted in disregard or indif- ference to divine truth. His fall, at the start, was his falling away from the glorious principles which center in the Godhead and stream from the person of the Deity. And the sin of man continues in just this same obliq- uity, namely, an aversion to divine principles and con- victions.

Men are influenced and governed by inclination, by selfishness, by desire, by passion, and not by truth. Appetite and lust are the main stimulants of their being, not the divine law. Motives that are carnal and sen- sual sway their being, but not the divine command- ments ; not the celestial ideas which come from the throne of God.

And as in the past, so everlastingly, man must remain low and grovelling, until, by some divine influence, he reaches forth to an actual reception of the truth. This is the very first movement of our being toward superiority. It is thus in all things. Even in temporal matters there can be no possible advance without the grasp of fundar mental ideas. Your children cannot reach attainments in the simplest elements of education until they come to some acquaintance with first principles, whether in

78 Rising with Christ,

arithmetic, or grammar, or geography. This is a law of our nature in all its departments. Excellence is first rooted in truths. Preeminence springs from ideas. Elevation is the product and outgrowth of convictions. This principle reaches its highest expression in religion. To rise from sin, to get away from grossness and degra- dation, demands, as a primary condition, that we receive into our bosoms the strength and the assurance of divine convictions. Somewhat of the heavenly must become incorporated with our nature before we can reach to the place where Christ sitteth on His eternal throne. It is only by this grasping of divine principles and convic- tions, with the rejection of mere earthly motives, that man can thus be lifted up to the heavens. This recep- tion of God's truth is, indeed, our entrance into the kingdom of heaven, and the entrance of the kingdom of heaven into us.

For, observe, (i) supernatural truth comes from God; and (2) it is put into us by a divine operation, that is. through the agency of the Holy Ghost. Thus, sever- ally, the personality of God is a divine principle ; and it comes from God. It cannot be derived from any other source. The moral responsibility of man is a divine principle. The fact of its reality, its force and persist- ency come from God. The doctrine and the experience of divine grace is a principle, is a fact which includes both the Atonement of the Cross and the gift of the Holy

Rising zvitli Christ. 79

Ghost, and it springs everlastingly from the heart of God. And the principle of ever-lasting life originates, as from its fontal source, in that supreme existence, of Whom St. John tells us, " In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."

But note that these divine principles not only come to us, but, when received by the spirit, that they lift us up. I care not how grovelling a man may have been, how sensual, or how beastly. If you once get the ideas of God, responsibility, heavenly grace, and a future life gladly and joyously to absorb his attention and to circle his brain, is not that man raised to heaven ? When John Bunyan pictures to us the man absorbed in a worth- less muck-rake, and an angel standing beside him offer- ing a golden Crown, what is it that we then see but the carnal, godless man lost in sin and depravity ? But reverse the picture. See the man, like Bunyan himself, cast away the muck-rake, and then madly and with a whole heart strive to gain the crown of heaven. Do you not see that heaven itself has transformed that man into something celestial and divine ? There is no need of a change in such a man's locality. He may stand on the same spot on which he was born into this world ; he may have the same surroundings ; he may have the same poverty ; he may live in the same body, and that body poor, weak, miserable, and dying; but immediately he receives the grand truths of God's revelation, he

So Rising with Christ,

z>

undergoes that marvelous transformation by which he is changed from darkness to light; a transformation whereby he is cut off from the society of the perverse and lawless, and becomes " a fellow citizen of the saints and of the household of God." It is this seizure upon divine truth, this apprehension of heavenly ideas, which has brought out of the world this whole grand kingdom of God, made up of pure and godly men and women, of every clime and nation in all the ages ; part of whom are in Paradise, and part still militant on earth ; " born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," and so by truth uplifted to heavenly things in Christ.

(b) But besides the reception of divine principles, another section of our nature must needs be touched, in order to our spiritual uplifting. To rise with Christ ve need the sanctification of our feelings and aspirations. We have a whole apparatus of senses and sensibilities, which more or less influence even the saints of God. With the world they assert supremacy. The masses of men who live without God and without hope deliver themselves up to desire. What the carnal nature craves for, it gets. Partial restraint upon nature is yielded by a sense of respectability, or from pride and ambition. But take the world as it comes and goes, and men are satisfied to be governed by sense, to be swayed by feel- ing, to reach forth after the things which minister to

Rising witli Christ, 81

delight and selfish gratification. Among the rude and vulgar the agencies used for satisfaction are, like them- selves, rude and vulgar. Among the refined and culti- vated the instrumentalities employed for delight are of a different and a higher nature. But, alien from God, men of high degree and men of low degree are content to give themselves up to desire, to stretch forth the hands of the soul for the objects which minister enjoy- ment and felicity.

The Christian requirement demands a revolution in this regard. It does not, indeed, command a destruc- tion of our natural taste. What it aims after and effects is the gift and the production within us of a supernat- ural taste, subordinating natural desire to its own place, \nd giving to our inward consciousness a divine appe- tite and a heavenly yearning for spiritual things. This sanctification of the feelings, the affections, and the desires, is a possibility to every soul.

First of all, it is a command of the divine word. " Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth."

But second, this sanctification of our emotional nature is set before us as an example in the divine life of the model man, the Lord Jesus Christ. For He came into the world to give us the reality of the highest manhood In Him we see the enthusiasm of our human nature for supremest excellence. His meat and His drink was tc

82 Rising- with Christ.

do the will of His Father. There was in Him a crav- ing, yearning appetite for all things high, pure, noble, lovely, and beautiful. What were the natural instincts, the bodily appetites, to Him ? I will not say contempt- ible, but they were in very deed inferior and trivial. The spiritual appetites, on the other hand, were warm, glowing, ardent, rapturous. And, as expressed in Him, we see the type and model of just that spiritual desire, that affectional impulse which is to stimulate our being, as participants in the power of Jesus' resurrection.

Hence, thirdly, it must be noted that successful imita- tions of the emotional life of the Lord have been seen in the lives and characters of godly men in the flesh. Look at such a man as St. Paul, ardent, fiery, impulsive ; pushing his own nature through sensible things, into such a state of ecstacy that he knew not whether he was in the flesh or out of it ! Look at St. John the Di- vine ; now full of the spirit of love, and reposing upon the bosom of Him who was Love ; and now soaring away as an eagle, with unfailing eye, to the highest heaven, and gazing upon the Son of Man in his glory !

Let us see now, in conclusion, what we can learn from the train of thought presented this morning. And the first teaching given us is a caution. To rise with Christ, to seek the things above, is not to die and go to heaven. Many people there are who think that to attain sanotifkation is to get out of the flesh, and to

Rising with Christ. 83

depart to Paradise. There is a young disciple in this city who is grievously vexed with the troubles, disturb- ances, and angry strife of the world and the Church of God. But she is so anxious for rest and quietude that she wants to get away from earth, and to escape all its trials and disturbances. But remember that endurance of trial is a duty, and it is through tribulation we shall gain the rest that is eternal.

Do not forget that to rise with Christ and to set our affections on things above is not a matter of locality. It is a spiritual condition. It is a divine temper. It is an unearthly sentiment, just as obligatory on the saints in earth, as upon the dwellers in Paradise, or the citizens of heaven. As disciples of Christ we are to live in the world, but to live above it ! We are to reach a plane that is raised above the tastes, the appetites, the yearn- ings, and, above all, the atrocious principles, of a world which hates the truth as it is in Jesus.

Next to this we learn that this uplifting of the soul to heavenly places in Christ is not a thing which comes to the soul passively. All elevations in this world, all the ascents of man to superiority, challenge effort, energy, nay, at times, painful agonies. This is espe- cially the necessity in religion. Every birth requires a travail of pain, whether it be a natural birth into this world, or a birth into the spiritual world by conversion, or a birth into the eternal world by the convulsive dis-

84 Rising with Christ,

location of soul and spirit. The birth of the soul into heavenly exaltation is unattainable, save by suffering, self-sacrifice, and painful endeavor. When you look into the New Testament, and gaze with wondrous ad- miration at that exalted life, that unapproachable excel- lence which blinds by its excessive brightness, which -we see in the Lord of life and glory Who died for us, it is well to remember that before He made a show of His perfectness to men, He went into the wilderness, and suffered pain, and hunger, and weariness, and temptation, and the bitter thrusts of the devil. If it was so with Christ, so must it be with you and me. Would you have ease and satisfaction, then you may not rise to the place where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. You must suffer with Him if you will be buried with Him, and rise again to His high place in glory. See how these things are allied in this religion of Jesus : spiritual activity, godly zeal, severe and painful effort, and heavenly glory, all closely connected; never separate and apart. " That I may know Him," says St. Paul, " and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conform- able unto His death." See the thorough mingling of all these elements : and remember,

Lastly, the human dignity and the high honor which are implied in the exhortation of the text. Seek the things which are above ! This call to superiority is

Rising with Christ. 85

not one that is addressed to worms or reptiles ! It is not a call made to brutish animals ! There is no quality of fitness in them for the lofty place and the grand pre- rogatives of the kingdom of heaven. No, the Apostle Paul speaks this morning to the spirits of immortal creatures, made in the image of God. He speaks to beings whose rank in the scale of creation is but "a little lower than the angels ;" and he tells them that low and degraded as they have been brought by sad disaster, heavenly superiority is their rightful prerogative.

Creature all grandeur, son of truth and light, Up from the dust, the last great day is bright !

Glory and honor and immortality are the franchises of faithful and devoted souls, in this world as well as in the next. " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." In the Resurrection of Christ we have the promise of everything transcendent and eternal for the living spirits of men. The Resurrection of our Lord is an invitation to rise up to and to avail ourselves of all the priceless privileges of His glorious kingdom. " If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, and not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory !

SERMON VI.

GLORIFYING GOD.

The fifth Sunday after the Epiphany.

I COR. VI : 20.

Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

The motive to the duty set before us in this pas- sage, is the most solemn in the whole sum of human thought. " Ye are bought with a price," says the apostle ; "therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." What more touching appeal could be addressed to any man than this, which we have already carried up to the throne of grace, to lead us to honor and glorify our Maker ? For have we not this morning, and many times over, cried with loud voices to our cruci- fied Lord — " By thine agony and bloody sweat, by thy Cross and passion ?" For that is the price St. Paul re- fers to, when he exhorts us in the text to "glorify God in our body and in our spirit."

We will bear this in mind then, all this morning, while we attempt to show how we are to set forth the glory of our Saviour Lord : — We have been purchased by the blood of the Lamb : it is therefore a reasonable service

(86)

Glorifying God. $7

and return that we should glorify God, in our body and our spirit, which are His.

But how are we to fulfill this duty ? Let this query be the subject of consideration this morning.

1. To glorify God is to think of God. It is evident that all human actions commence in the mind of men. The mind, under some impulse or motive moves, and then the man moves. For every act is, at first, a thought. From thence come the various actions of men pertaining to their fellows ; and the other actions also which refer to God. We often say that some men do not think, but it is evident that if they did not think they would not act. The remark is, without doubt, a figure of speech, meaning simply that they think in a loose, careless manner. But everybody does think. Men think about life and society, about dress and manners, about literature and science, about history and politics. But the great fault of man is, that the range of his thought is temporal and carnal. He has but the fewest flights toward the heavens. His mind is of the earth, earthy. The grand indictment against humanity is, that they " have not God in all their thoughts." And this is a great sin. Noth- ing can be more evident than the guilt of shutting out from the mind, the grandest Being and the noblest idea which can reach the intellect : — thought of the Infinite and Eternal One. Its sinfulness shows itself by a lower but similar transgression. What would you think of a

88 Glorifying God.

child who lived day by day under the blessedness and the loving care of a devoted parent, and yet from design and purpose, passed by that parent, day by day, year by year, and determinedly shut him out from all thought and consideration? How much more abominable is it for you or me to pass long years of our life, the re- cipient, every moment, of blessings and mercies, of gifts and benefactions and graces, from the Father of lights ; and yet, by deliberate act, and the fixed will declare to Him — " Depart from me, for we desire not the knowl- edge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve Him?"

But yet this is one of the commonest sins of man. To ignore the God of heaven, to put aside the Almighty and the things which pertain to Him, is an every day affair, — is a life-long habit of masses of men.

First observe that a large portion of our fellow crea- tures drop God from their thought, passively, through neglect, without intention, withr no set and formal pur- pose to dishonor Him, but carelessly and indifferently. Dress, fashion, pleasure, politics, literature, or lust, per- chance, have become so magnified in their idea, that without reflection they thrust the small notions they have of God out of their minds, and then these other things rise up into big and overmastering magnitude.

But another class of men set God aside, purposely and deliberately. They will not have the idea of God pres<

Glorifying God. 89

ent in their minds. They will not let the things of God circle their brains, stimulate their lives, or influence their conduct. With some it is the flippant negation of the Divine existence, as a disturbance or a superfluity. With others it is something graver, aye, and more atro- cious. It is the godless execration of Christ, and the awful declaration that they want nothing to do with this accursed religion.

But, my friends, to think carelessly of God is neglect ; to think reluctantly of Him, is vicious ; to think angrily and repulsively of Him, is monstrous, and amounts to abomination and ruin. To glorify God, then, implies as the very first thing, that we think of Him. We are to begin by opening the mind, and craving the entrance therein of the thoughts of the eternal. Think, dear friends, of the fact that there is a God — a grand personal, self-existent Being, the Maker and Sovereign of the uni- verse. How many of you here have ever stopped and paused in life, and taken this great fact into thought and contemplation ? How many of you have ever sat down and meditated on the existence of the Deity? How many of you "in a season of calm weather," have with- drawn yourselves from this world of eye, and ear, and sense, and entered for a brief period into that other in- visible world, which is all around us, and in us, and which stretches out into the infinitudes ; and thought on the essence, and the substance of that awful Being who fills all things?

90 Glorifying God.

Plow many of you, on a clear silvery night, have lifted up your eyes to the glorious heavens, and striven to pierce the depths, gazing and wondering — the mind aching under the burden and the vastness of immensity ; — how many of you have then thought of the mighty God, "that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers ; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth it out as a tent to dwell in ?"

I have no thought of imputing to any one of you the gross mental wickedness of Atheism. It cannot be that there is a single man here this morning, who says — " There is no God !" One who ruthlessly would thrust the great God of the universe out of existence, as a thing of nought ! One who, like a poor blind poet of the last century, would write upon the sands of the sea- shore— " Atheos ! " denying the Maker of all things ! I do not believe this of any man among you here this morning. It would have been better, if it were so, that you had never been born ! Better you had never suck- led at your mother's breast ! Better you had never felt the warm kisses of her love upon your lips and brows ! No ! I will not believe this of any of you. Annihilation is better than godlessness !

I believe that you had, at least, real mental belief, this morning, when you stood up here and confessed the faith in the creed. I believe there was a measure

Glorifying God. 9 1

of conviction in every such utterance. But this alone is not to think in sincerity and soberness of God.

To think of God aright, is to take Him, formally and solemnly, and put Him before the mind, and then to contemplate Him before and behind, in the depths and in the heights, in His attributes, in His decrees, in His covenants, in the great salvation of His Son, with rev- erence, with awe, with humility.

This it is to think of God. This is the root idea of glorifying God. But this is not enough ; it is only the beginning.

2. To glorify God is to take the convictions which come from right-thinking and to turn them into aspira- tions. This is the next step toward honoring the Maker. We must not suffer thought to become bed- ridden in the soul. Few things are more injurious to the mind than that passive contemplation, which fails to run out into active desires or stimulated hope. The habit of thinking, divorced from emotion, turning over ideas or principles in the mind, but with no con- nection with the will or affections, is as poisonous to the soul as to make blood by healthy feeding, and then to let it go to stagnation in the veins by laziness. It will do no good for us to think about God, if such thought is not used as a means to an end, but it will do us harm. It will make us insensible. It will make us irreverent. The insensibility will be the direct

92 Glorifying God.

result of handling an awful and majestic idea without a spiritual purpose. The irreverence will come from tak- ing liberties with the divine Name, perchance, for mere speculation. When men approach God's Holy Name, if even it be for thought and contemplation, they should remember the command to Moses, " Take off thy shoes, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."

Thought concerning God, then, is legitimate when it tends to the elevation of the soul to a higher plane of being. To think, merely to think, would be somewhat as for a river to flow from its source, and then to flow back again to its original spring. It may be assumed as a principle of our being, that all our acts, internal or external, are only then healthy and genuine, when they reach forward to something beyond and nobler than themselves. We see this in nature. The illumination of the sun is not self-exhausted. It comes down to earth with vivifying fructification, diffusing life, and health, and joyous animation in all things and in all creatures. And that is its beneficence and its glory. The Mississippi starts up far away in the highlands of Minnesota as its fountain head ; but when its golden waters start therefrom, they start on their course never to return again. And then the noble river, set free from fetters and restraints, runs on singing at every "winding bout,"

For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever.

Glorifying God. 93

And away she goes, glad and free, broadening and deep- ening, carrying riches and opulence and glory to states and empires, three thousand miles on her course ; the noble mother of towns and villages and cities and magnificent acreages of wheat and corn and sugar- cane ; her beauteous bosom kissed by the keels'of multi- tudinous crafts ; hastening with gifts and blessings to distant lands and foreign populations. And so she flows, glorious in herself, but more glorious in the affluence she bounteously bestows beyond herself.

The analogy is most exact with regard to the soul. Thinking about God is not the end of God-thinking. Thinking of God is the most glorious of all means to a nobler end, that is, the glory of God. When it is mere thinking — albeit God is the object of thought — it is, nevertheless, mere speculation on God. And mere speculation, as such, concerning God has no more value than speculation concerning a mountain or a mine. No, my brethren, right thinking is a thing which rises up to God, and strives to apprehend Him in all the noble aspects of His glorious being. Let the thought of God but truly and healthily stir and agitate the mind of man, and then, of necessity, it will kindle hope, and strong desire, and spiritual aspiration.

Thus was it with that eminent character in Old Test- ament history whose noble songs, chanted perpetually, from age to age, in the house of God, have been ever

94 Glorifying God.

fitted to every phase of spiritual character, have always served to start the finest springs and move the noblest currents of sanctified souls ; and have also given ecstacy to millions of saints on the eve of their departure to Paradise. Never, perhaps, in the history of God's church was there a man who thought so much, so deeply, so continually of God as David did. It was the occupation of his life. It began in his boyhood ; and the boys and girls here this morning should begin their early life, as David did, in thinking much of God. If you think of God while you are young, that habit of thought will become the seed of your life, and will bring a godly fruitage to early manhood and woman- hood, and to old age. Hear the words of David : "Thou,

0 Lord God, art the thing that I long for ; thou art my hope, even from my youth." " Thou, O God, hast taught me from my youth up until now; therefore will

1 tell of thy wondrous works." This thinking of God, then, began in David's youth. And see, " the child was father of the man." Thinking of God became a rooted habit of his soul through life. For, if you will run through the book of Psalms, you will find it full of such expressions as these : " I remember thine everlast- ing judgments." "I will never forget thy command- ments." " Thy testimonies have I claimed as mine her- itage forever." "My soul hath kept thy testimonies, and loved them exceedingly."

Glorifying God. 95

What was the result of this habit ? What fruit sprung from this constant meditation concerning God ? One single paragraph from the writings of David will show you. It produced that very spirit of godly aspira- tion which I am endeavoring to press upon your atten- tion. " Like as the hart desireth the water brooks, so longeth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God."

And here I return directly to the point from which I have slightly departed. Take the convictions which come from right thinking, and turn them, as David did, into heavenly aspirations. Meditate constantly on the character of God. Bring His loving and majestic attri- butes vividly before you. By an effort of will you can do almost anything, and then the thing repeated becomes a habit of the soul. You see, for instance, that God is good. Take, then, the fact, that is, the good- ness of God out of^ the domain of thought, and make it an aspiration of your soul. Strive after goodness — God's goodness, as a personal possession, and run along the lines of excellence and moral beauty for the fashioning of your inner and your outer life. Take the purity of God as an object of admiration. Bring it down from the sphere of speculation, and then send it up to the throne of God — a living flame of desire for your own personal purity in body, mind, and spirit. Think of the righteousness of God ! Hear the

g6 Glorifying God.

demand for it in the breezes of Paradise ! Hear it in the stern accents of Mount Sinai, in the thunders of the Law ! Hear it in the expiatory plaints of sacrificed animals ; see it in their flowing blood ! Hear it in the moans of Gethsemane ! Hear it in the agonies of the Cross ! What topic, I ask, has ever been so canvassed and debated as the righteousness of God ? " How He could be just, and yet the justifier of them which believe in Jesus." But you, my brethren, step aside from every controversial aspect of this question, and let your souls go out hungering and thirsting for the appre- hension of the Lord Jesus Christ, repudiating any and all righteousness of your own as filthy rags, and taking Him with ardor and satisfaction as your " wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." Take the love of God. You can if you choose look at it as a distant object of thought and contemplation. But I exhort you to covet the spirit of love as your own personal possession. Send up to the heavens the strong cries of your soul for the entrance of the divine love into your heart of hearts, starting all the springs of love within you to flow back again with reverence and humility to the foot of the cross. ■

Indeed, my friends, there is not a phase of the divine existence, not an attribute of God, not a decree, not a commandment, however abstract it may be, but that, with the aid of the Spirit, may be fused with heat and

Glorifying God. 97

fire from above, and become changed in our pure souls into burning desires and heavenly aspirations.

3. One more point, and I will close : To glorify God is to realize the aspirations of the soul into the activities of life. This is practical religion ; it answers the requirements of our blessed Lord that we do His commandments. And there can be no true religion with- out this habit of outward obedience. Mere conviction of the brain, or mere spiritual aspiration, separate from conduct, are each, or both together, insufficient. We must do God's holy will. Just this test is laid down by our blessed Saviour : " If ye love me keep my com- mandments." " He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." And St. John, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, speaks with wonderful luminousness : " For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and His com- mandments are not grievous.' '

Now let us pause just here for a moment, and strive to get at the full significance of these words of our Lord and the beloved Apostle. There are no great difficulties in arriving at this significance. For, if I mistake not, we are taught by them the duty of reach- ing forth in our religious life to reality. Not mere feeling, not mere knowledge, not mere sentiment, not 7

98 Glorifying God.

mere conviction, not mere emotion, not mere desire and aspiration, make good and establish actual and sub- stantial Christian character. To talk of how we feel, or what we think concerning Christ, is an idle tale.

No, my brethren, what our Lord desires is something which has passed out and beyond mere human conceit into actual living reality. Did you ever think of that word reality ? of its full meaning, of its mighty import, of its wide scope and bearing ? Reality ! that is relig- ion made personal in the Christian life, act, word, con- duct, and bearing of living disciples. Righteousness exemplified in living flesh and blood ; no mere abstrac- tion of the brain, no glittering ideality, but a thing that may be seen and felt amid human associations, in loving families, in the business activities of common life. It is the faith of Abraham ; it is the civic energy and the magisterial force of Moses ; it is the purity of Joseph ; it is the heroic valor of Joshua ; it is the chastity of Ruth ; it is the constancy of David ; it is the zeal of Elijah ; it is the incomparable statesmanship of Daniel and his crystal saintliness ; it is the rigidity of the Bap- tist, the loveliness of St. John, the fiery flames of holy Paul, the large benevolences of St. Barnabas ; it is the impetuous enthusiasm of St. Peter, and the martyr energy of Stephen. Nor need we' confine our search for these realized aspirations of the soul to sacred writ. They come streaming down the track of the Christian ages

Glorifying God. 99

in bright and glowing colors, seen in the lives, the business, the trading, the adventurous navigations, the mercantile zeal, and the large philanthropies of holy men and women ; who not only prayed, and wished, and aspired after godliness, but lived it in the daily walk of life.

Let me briefly gather the threads of thought, this morning, and draw to a conclusion. I have endeavored to show that in order to glorify God we must begin with right thinking concerning the Almighty ; and then, from the convictions which result from such thinking, rise to the fit aspirations which it is adapted to give us ; and then at last to turn our spiritual aspira- tions into living obedience and active reality.

I beg to commend the Apostle's injunction to your earnest consideration. The master end of existence, whether in angel or in man, is the glory of God. Any- thing below this end is a ruinous and insulting prosti- tution of powers. You have gifts, you have powers, you have talents and endowments, but all their activi- ties are but partial and abnormal so long as, in their uses, we are alien from the grand objects of divine regard. We can only secure the rectitude of our being by union with God. And to be in union with God, to be "partakers of the divine nature," is to participate in that everlasting outshining of beauty and excellence which is the affluence of saints and holy angels, and the everlasting glory of the Godhead.

SERMON VII.

UNBELIEVING NAZARETH.

Quinquagesima Sunday.

mark vi : 5, 6.

And He could there do no mighty work, save that He laid His hands

upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And He marvelled

because of their unbelief.

The inability here spoken of was not absolute, but only relative and conditional in its nature. For we cannot suppose for an instant, with our conviction of the Lord's essential Deity, that His infinite power was a chance, a fitful, an occasional quality. This ina- bility is here spoken of in the manner of common human speech ; in order to impress upon us the awful and effectual bar. this people of Nazareth had put be- tween themselves and their divine visitor, by blind and obstinate unbelief. The case is one of the saddest ! Here were healing and restoration ; here were blessed- ness and illumination, right at their door, close as pos- sible to their persons, very nigh to their souls. But, by the acts of a perverse and godless will, they shut it all out from their souls and robbed themselves of priceless blessings, never again to be offered to them.

(ioo)

Unbelieving Nazareth. ioi

Observe, it was their own act ; — not the will, not the impotence of the Lord Jesus. They themselves checked the overflow of gifts and graces upon their own souls. They it was, who shut the gates of mercy on their own spirits. All the powers needed for the restoration of sinners were present in the person of the Lord. Alas ! there was no faculty of spiritual receptivity in this peo- ple ; but rather that malignant perversity which makes men, at times, turn their backs upon the very gates of Heaven.

We know full well, that the celestial voice which stilled the raging of tempests, which had overcome the virulence of fiery fevers, which corrected the insanity of maddened brains, which had beaten down the malignant force of devils, — that voice, we know, if it had so pleased Him, could have wrought any mighty works He might have chosen to do. The people of Nazareth would not have it so! They jeered at our Lord, although they knew Him well. They asked contemptuous questions concerning Him. They affected scorn of His humble origin, and His lowly occupation. In the sight of facul- ties most transcendent, of powers most manifestly divine, they were offended at Him. It is then no dero- gation of our Lord's omnipotence, the record that "He could do no mighty works there." The secret of this reluctance of His supernatural forces to show them- selves, lies somewhere else. The mystery of this reser-

102 Unbelieving Nazareth,

<i>

vation of His sacred powers requires some other solu- tion. We will search for other causes, if perchance we may ascertain the nature of this alleged inability spoken of in the text.

One of the prominent facts which stands out distinctly in all nature, is this, viz.: that the Almighty has estab- lished certain definite modes of operation, to which He Himself is pleased to conform, and conformity to which He imposes upon all creatures and all creation. In this conformity resides all the harmony of the universe, all the blessedness of rational creatures. We look abroad in nature and observe regularity, order, exactness, in all the spheres. We see the daily rising and setting of the sun. We see the punctual return of the seasons. We see rotation " in seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night."

We look abroad in the ranks of human beings, and we see in nations, societies, and families, certain universal results, in enterprise and business activities, all related, and without disorder, to certain most definite modes of operation. Where these modes of operation are fallen upon in any quarter of the globe, men succeed; where they are rejected, men fail; whether it be in health, or trade, or mercantile adventure.

We look still higher, and we see by revelation a nobler sphere of beings, revelling in perfect bliss ; and we observe the same conformity to definite laws, which prove the spring of their bliss and glory.

Unbelieving Nazareth, 103

Now the secret of these facts seems to be, that the Almighty has laid down for the rule of life, certain laws which He makes the conditions of success and happi- ness. Compliance with these, in the realm of nature, produces the harmony of the spheres ; and among men yields the health, well-being, the prosperity and the joy- ousness of God's creatures.

It is precisely the same in the spiritual world, as in the physical ; i. e.} that results are conditioned on cer- tain definite principles, which the Almighty has estab- lished in His spiritual kingdom. All the operations of this kingdom are regulated by specific laws, and thus made to proceed in distinct processes, which are pleas- ing to the divine mind. Possibly God could have ordered the arrangement of the spiritual universe otherwise than he has : I say possibly, from the fact that I do not know anything about it. But one thing may be taken for granted, viz.: that God's present sys- tem is the wisest and best. At any rate, God chooses thus to carry on His system. If we seek any higher reason than this, namely, than His wisdom and judg- ment for the peculiarities of His system, we are lost in confusion. If we ask why it is that He regulates His system in this, and not in that way, all we can say is, "even so Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight." Any thing beyond this lands us in darkness and confu- sion. " For the things which are revealed belong to us

104 Unbelieving Nazareth.

and our children," but "the secret things belong to our God."

These observations shed some light upon the singular statement of the text. We are told in it that our Lord " could do no mighty work " at Nazareth. Why was this ? It was not that His omnipotent arm was withered there. Not that the Almightiness of the Son of God vanished all of a sudden. By no manner of means. All the full, miraculous power of Jesus was still garnered up in His divine person. All the majesty of the God- head still centred in His mysterious and awful Being.

But, you will observe, that during our Lord's sojourn upon earth, although His miracles must have been almost myriad-like in number, yet they were not scattered abroad in wild and indiscriminate confusion. There is, most certainly, a regulating principle which underlies all the acts of His most holy life. In the communication of all His gifts of mercy, one falls quite easily upon a principle of law. The life of Jesus was, in one sense, an economy of mercy. We may regard it in another, as a dispensation of miraculous gifts.

See for yourselves the evidence of system and regula- tion in the working of His miracles. First of all notice that, in cases of infirmity, it was the Lord's wont to require faith in him who was to be helped. The chal- lenge almost everywhere was, "Believest thou?" "If thou hast faith." Or if the question was not asked,

Unbelieving Nazareth. 105

then the penetrative eye of the Master, having made the discovery, He was satisfied ; the miracle was wrought, and the sufferer relieved. Mercy evidently was nowhere forced upon unwilling souls. Manifestly there must be, in this new kingdom, the agree- ment and a blending of both the human and the divine wills. It was agreeable to the designs of the Redeemer that those who rejected belief should have no mighty saving works done among them. On the other hand, whenever our Lord discovered the deep conviction in sufferers that the Messiah would relieve them, then the channels of loving pity were at once loosened ; then the gates of Jesus' mercy were immedi- ately opened ; then life, power, and healing flowed from their exhaustless fountains ; and virtue went forth from, the wondrous person of the Lord to the blind, the deaf, the leper, or the demoniac.

In to-day's Gospel we have presented to us a most striking instance of the fact and theory.* You have seen a poor blind man sitting by the way-side, in Jericho, begging. They tell him that Jesus of Naz- areth passeth by. Instantly the startled air is filled with his ringing, pleading cry, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me ! " The people, vexed at the disturbance, rebuke the poor fellow. But the deep con- viction that the Deliverer is at hand possesses him, and

*The blind man at Jericho, Luke xviii. 38-40; the Gospel for the day*

io6 Unbelieving Nazareth.

&

once and again he lifts up the piercing, importunate Litany, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me." That cry wafts his own conviction to the mind of Jesus. The Lord draws nigh to him and asks, " What wilt thou have me to do unto thee?" and he says, "That I may receive my sight." He knows that Jesus is the sight- .giver ; that the Lord opens the eyes both of body and soul. And as his faith, so his reward. Jesus says unto him, " Receive thy sight ; thy faith hath saved thee."

Contrast this transaction with the facts at Nazareth. It was the home of our Lord's youth and boyhood. Its people knew well His miraculous birth, His wondrous childhood, and were well acquainted with His extraor- dinary life. And yet mark the haughty coldness with which they received Him. " From whence," is the cynical question, "hath this man these things?" See, too, the contemptuous sneer at his humble origin ; " Is not this the carpenter's son ? " Do you wonder that the mighty flow of love is chilled in His sacred bosom? Are you surprised when you read that " He could do there no mighty work ? "

Notice here, first of all, that it is a principle of the kingdom of heaven, a principle laid down by our Lord Himself, that there is to be no useless, idle waste of divine privileges upon the vulgar and profane. r "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine." Nazareth presented an

Unbelieving Nazareth. 107

occasion in which our Lord could illustrate this prin- ciple which He Himself, but a short time before, had taught His disciples ; and He acted on it in that spirit of reserve which husbands gifts and treasures for faith and virtue, but which will not waste them upon rude scepticism and vulgar unbelief. And, next, observe that our Lord notices the absence of the conditions which regulate the dispensation of His mercies and His gifts. Here that prime provision was utterly wanting. There was no faith among this people. Not a single rootlet of belief was discoverable among them. The soil of their nature had been thickly sown with the seeds of unfaith and falsehood ; so thickly sown that the whole surface of their nature was choked with the tares of moral resistance ; the whole soil of their being- was filled with the strongest aptitudes for things monstrous, defiance of God, and spiritual perverseness. And note here, my brethren, that unfaith, unfaith like that at Nazareth, blind, unreasoning, persistent unfaith, is alienation from God ;' is infidelity to divine truth ; and, in its ultimate tendency, is atheism. The legitimate results of unbelief in the supernatural is not only to cause us to deny the things supernatural, but also to surcharge our whole moral nature with hatred to all things pure, true, just, and lovely. And such a state as this is sure to bring upon us the divine disap- probation ; hedging up our way in life, and blinding us with confusion through all eternity."

io8 Unbelieving Nazareth.

£>

And here we may learn a few lessons which bear most powerfully, as well upon our personal, as our Church life ; for we can make no greater mistake than to suppose that the transaction in the text has no bear- ings upon our relations in life, has no teachings which pertain to our characters ; we learn, I say, that all our works are vain and empty unless they spring from, and are governed by faith in God.

Doubtless every faithful disciple of the Lord here is living with some certain definite purposes of life before him ; is aiming after certain things of magnitude for himself, for the Church, for God's glory.

(a) Look for a moment at your personal aspirations. We are all of us conscious of them. They are proper and legitimate seekings of the nature the divine Father has given us. They are, however, most vivid in the breasts of the young. Sometimes they are almost a consuming flame : desires and ambitions for a beautiful home in the future, for distinction, for place and posi- tion, for riches with their delights and comforts, for professional renown, for general applause.

Such, my younger brethren, are the bright lights seen in distant vistas, which beckon you on in the course of life, and stir your zeal.

But I beg to remind you that it is not by mere self- assertion, not by the sheer force of your own talents, that you can do any thing in life. No matter what may

Unbelieving Nazareth. 1 09

be the scope of your capacity, if you will rely upon your own right arm for success, and not upon God, you are sure to fail. You need a strength for the work of life, which springs from a higher source than the fountains of your own being. Man, even in his best estate, is but weakness and littleness. How true are the words of the poet : —

Unless above himself, he can erect himself, How poor a thing is man !

No matter what may be your calling, nor how bril- liant its prospects, if the divine element is lacking there- in, then frustration and defeat is a certainty. The only way to bring the aims of life into their true relation to God, is by faith. By inward trust, and by reliance upon Him who is invisible, we secure the adjustments of our whole inner being to the eternal throne, and so chime in at once with the harmonies of the universe.

Then the Lord Jesus will do mighty things in you, because faith has become the master principle of your being. Abide in Him. It is sweet to abide in Him. It is profitable to abide in Him. To use His own words — "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." For then all your powers, all your parts and aptitudes, will be sanctified by His own personal influence operating on you ; your life and labors shall tend to the highest and noblest ends; for Jesus of Nazareth will do mighty works in you through faith,

HO Unbelieving Nazareth.

and fill you with the largest eapacities for good to others, all your life.

(b) Passing from the sphere of personal desires, look at some of the larger aims which influence our life. Here, just now, we are all aiming at the erection of a temple for the worship of Almighty God.* How are we to achieve success ? You may bring to this work, zeal, self-sacrifice, large gifts, great activity. But these of themselves, cannot yield that success. They are but the human element in this work. We need the Son of man working with us, for without Him we can do noth- ing. The lavish outpouring of gold, separate from His wondrous powers, would be but as "the chaff which the wind scattereth away from the face of the earth." But with His presence and blessing upon our labors, all weakness, poverty, and emptiness, as they may seem to outward sight, shall prove the greatest opulence and the vastest wealth. Only let us carry with us the simple trust that this is God's work; that He only can work it out to fullest completion ; and then, according to our faith shall be our reward. Jesus of Nazareth will do mighty things for us ; the silver and the gold shall flow into our treasury ; and all the outward fashioning of our desired temple shall grow up before us, into beautiful proportions. Only believe. Have faith as a grain of mustard seed, and you shall remove mountains.

* This sermon was preached in St. Mary's chapel, Washington, D. C.

Unbelieving Nazareth. Ill

(c) And yet there is a higher end than these other objects, which should stimulate our souls. Our grandest ambition, as disciples of Christ, should doubtless be for the upbuilding and compacting of that spiritual temple, which the Holy Ghost, ever since the day of Pentecost, has been fashioning out of saved and sancti- fied souls, to the glory of Christ.

The recurrence of the season of Lent makes easy the application of the theme and thought. We are called upon at this time to think especially of our sins, to think more absorbingly of the things of Christ, and to stimulate other souls to do the same. How desirable is it, then, that holy men and women in our flock should seek the deepening of their own personal piety, by thor- ough self-abasement, and the reaching forth for larger gifts of grace; that the younger members of this church should renew their vows, make a more thorough self-con- secration of themselves to Christ, walk more soberly, and: live more faithfully; that now that "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by," the careless, the carnal, and the godless who come within these walls, may be led to think of their souls; may come and "sit by the wayside;" may/ be led to cry out with a sense of deepest need — "Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us." What favors, what gifts could be granted to us, comparable with such a result ; if indeed the Holy Ghost should move among us, convicting men "of sin, of righteousness, and of a

112 Unbelieving Nazareth.

judgment to come ; " " taking the things of Jesus and showing them," to their souls, to their conversion and enlightenment.

But surely there can be no need to tell the simplest child here, that such grand spiritual results are not the fruit of mere human care and effort. No mere human energy, no mere voice of human persuasion, can wrench these men away from deadly sins, can turn careless women from sinful love of display. No mechanical pro- cesses, no mere religious feeling, however regular or sol- emn can induce the unholy mind among us to break loose from the fetters of guilt, and to give itself up to deep repentance; and then a solemn dedication of the whole being to Christ in Holy Confirmation.

No ! we cannot do this work. Jesus of Nazareth must needs visit us this Lent, and the mighty works which He could not do in His own country through un- belief, must needs be done here, by faith, if God's work is revived among us, if more souls are to be converted, if we are to rejoice in the great salvation.

But, brethren, you know the conditions for the dis- pensation of God's gifts and graces. "He can do no mighty works among us," if unfaith pervades the minds of this people ; if this church is carnal and unspiritual in its tone ; if this people cannot discern the invisible and the eternal. But, if on the other hand, you walk by faith and not by sight ; if your constant gaze is set upon

Unbelieving Nazareth. 1 1 3

the things which are not seen, but which are real and eternal ; if holy men and women walk with Jesus, if they constantly commune with Him, if they are wont to open their mouth wide, and to expect great things of Him ; then you may be assured that Jesus of Nazareth when He passeth by this Lent, will not close His gracious hand, nor shut up His merciful heart. There will be no marvelling at your unbelief, no withholding His wonder- ful gifts;* but great and wondrous things, yea " mighty works" shall be done among you ; in your hearts and in your households ; in your children, in your brothers and in your sisters; in Christless parents; and He will come among you, and He will lay His hands, not "upon a few sick folk," as He did in unbelieving Nazareth, but upon many of you, and He will heal you.

And, therefore, I say in conclusion, cling to the Cross of our dear Lord with a most unyielding faith. He is the only one to hold on to, if you seek blessedness and life. Be not discouraged at your small faith, at your great weaknesses ! Hold on to Jesus. All other things around us fail ; but He is the Rock ! Change and decay meet us in all visible things. Nothing that meets the sense abides. What is there below the skies which can suffice the soul ? What that can answer all the heart's vast and craving needs ? Everything in nature and in man is fading 1

1 1 4- Unbelieving ?a,3 retlu

— From their spheres Ti.e stars of human glory are cast down; Perish the roses and the flowers of kings 1

— The vast frame Of social nature changes evermore Her organs and her members, with decay Res I less —

All earthly things decline. "Even we ourselves groan within ourselves," staggered at the inevitable dissolu- tion that awaits all temporal, all mortal events ! Whither, then, shall we turn ? Upon what shall we fasten our- selves, unless to Him, the eternal Word? — Him "Who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks," and Who speaks to us from the eternal heavens, " Fear not : I am the first and the last : I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore. Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death."

Blessed Lord, we believe Thy word, and we trust in Thee. , " Help Thou our unbelief ! " It is no vain rep- etition of our lips when we stand up with the saints and confess the Faith. We do verily believe all the articles of the Christian faith. " WTe believe," in very deed, " that for us men and for our salvation, Thou didst come down from heaven, and wast incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary ; and wast made man, and wast crucified for us." "Thou art the king of glory, O Christ. Thou art the everlasting son of the Father." We beseech Thee, this morning, to remember Thine

Unbelieving Nazareth. r r 5

own promises to those who believe. Let it be unto us according to our faith. Increase our faith, O Lord ; and come among us, and do mighty works here, in our hearts, in our families, for our Church ; and all the glory shall be Thine, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, — ■ three persons, one God, now and evermore. Amen i

SERMON VIII.

THE REJECTION' OF CHRIST*

ST. MATTHEW VIII. 29.

And behold they cried out, What have ice to do with Thee, Jesus, thou S-n of God?

The devils who held two miserable men under their thraldom put this question to our blessed Lord. Thev vrere coming out of the tombs, exceeding tierce, and met the Redeemer as He was entering into the country of the Gergesenes. You know the fate thev met with. They besought Him that thev might enter the herd of swine that was feeding nigh ; and their request was granted. They came out of the unfortunate and afflicted men. and entered into the swine. And the whole herd now. overcome bv the evil spirits, ran violently down a steep place into the sea. and perished in the waters.

To vindicate the teaching of Holy Scripture, and strive to prove that there are evil spirits in the world, that thev ofttimes get the upperhand of men. subject- insf them to sore and intolerable evils, is not mv present purpose. Be well assured that there are such beings as

♦Preached in the chapel of Howard University, Washington. D. C.

(116)

The Rejection of Christ. 1 1 7

the devil and his angels, just as we know that there arc bad men in the world, utterly estranged from everything good, and devoting themselves to everything monstrous and cruel. So, too, there is an unseen and malicious spirit of mighty power, whose aim is the ruin of souls. It is an awful fact, although frequently forgotten, that we are liable to the deadliest hurt if this truth is not kept constantly in mind, and at all times in our mem- ory.

This, however, is not the topic to be chiefly consid- ered now. Your attention is specially called to these scornful and contemptuous words, " What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, thou son of God ? "

They are the words of the devils, but, unhappily, not confined to .them. Alas, they have been taken up, over and over again, by sinful men, all through the world's history. They are the utterance of our fellow creatures daily, in every walk of life, in their rejection of the Blessed Master.

These words, then, are important, chiefly, inasmuch as they are the key-note of the world's utterance for nearly two thousand years, concerning the Office and the Pre- rogatives of our blessed Lord. The devils in the narra- tive knew well of Whom they were speaking. It was no ambiguous question concerning an unknown or sup- posititious person. Neither was it an expression of doubt as to the power of Him of whom they questioned,