Then a^Now
HARRIET TUBMAN
Scout in U. S. Army in the Civil \\ ar
The Soldier Spirit of
Harriet Tubman
By
Rev. Jas. E. Mason D.D.
Secretary Livingston College
Salisbury, N. C.
Address by
REV. JAMES E. MASON D. D.
Secretary of Livingston College
Salisbury, N. C.
at the
Harriet Tubman Home Coming
Held at Auburn, N. Y.
October 14, 1920
Published by request
THEN AND NOW
or
The Soldier Spirit of
Harriet Tubman
by
REV. JAMES E. MASON D. D.
It is most agreeable to contrast great
results and to look back to small begin¬
nings. The individual of mature years
whose career has been remarkably suc¬
cessful delights to go back to the days
of his youth—the old broken fence, the
cabin or mansion, the rickety bridge,
and stream across which he could jump,
yet to him the largest in all the world.
How often are seas traversed, and oceans
crossed, to visit historic, sacred spots, or
tombs of the immortals! Tens of thou¬
sands visit the monuments of Wesley,
Knox, Luther, Calvin, Cromwell, Wash¬
ington, Grant, Roosevelt, Susan }>. An¬
thony and others annually. What mem¬
ories are awakened and what inspiration
imparted !
We are gathered here to-day to do
honor to the memory of one of the
greatest heroines of all time. When
Harriet Tubman, the Moses of her
people, came upon the stage of action,
slavery as a divine institution, sanc¬
tioned by Biblical authority, extended
over a wide area of this country. The
blighting effects of the peculiar institu¬
tion were manifest abroad as well as at
home.
The crack of the slaveholder's lash,
and the baying of bloodhounds pursu¬
ing fugitive victims, were audible every-
where. What marvelous changes, evo¬
lutions, and transformations, religious¬
ly, educationally and materially, have
transpired within a century! Our color,
once the badge of shame and humilia¬
tion, is now suggestive of superior loy¬
alty, and the highest American citizen¬
ship.
Harriet Tubman was a patriot and
soldier, and early in the irrepressible
conflict was commissioned by President
Lincoln as a spy in the Union Army.
The spirit of liberty and equality—the
glowing fires of a holy patriotism—im¬
pelled her onward. Upon the organiza¬
tion of the world renowned colored 54th
Massachusetts Regiment, she was, as
the Maid of Saragossa; in the hospital,
like the heroine of Scutari. She was an
angel of mercy in a hundred terrible
situations. Of her resourcefulness in
the execution of plans, fidelity in dan¬
ger, and courage in the face of death,
we have abundant evidence. She cooked
the last meal of Colonel Shaw ere the
gray dawn of the morning when he
later—leading the dauntless battalions
—made the wild charge over fire-swept
parapets "into the mouth of hell, all the
world wondered."
Right in the van
On the red ramparts' slippery swell,
With heart that beat a charge, Shaw fell
Forward as fits a man;
Rut the high soul burns on to light men's feet,
Where death for noble ends makes dying sweet.
Out of the baptism of fire with shat¬
tered ''Old Glory" waving o'er them,
resounded the voice of the intrepid Ser¬
geant William A. Kearney: "The old
flag never touched the ground, boys."
Here the valorous 54th "with bay¬
onets pricked the name of their Colonel
into the roll of immortal honor."
This same heroic spirit, the spirit of
Harriet Tubman, is possessed by Afro-
Americans to-day. In response to the
nation's call, hundreds of our young
men are enlisting to fill the decimated
ranks of the famous Tenth Cavalry.
The daring, hopeful, irrepressible, all-
conquering spirit of our modern Ama¬
zon is bequeathed to them.
The spirit of this wonderful prophet¬
ess is interwoven into the lives of the
brave colored soldiers, whose public ac¬
tivities have been inseparably associ¬
ated with the hopes and aspirations of
the Western Republic.
It seems only as yesterday when the
chivalrous troopers at Carrizal were sa¬
luted by death and kissed by immor¬
tality. The gallant Tenth Cavalry
stands in some respects without parallel
in the perfection of its organization, de¬
votion and loyalty to American ideals.
Organized in the sixties, at the close
of the war, consisting of picked men,
with white officers, whatever the cir-
cum stances, they have always com¬
manded the highest praise and com¬
mendation. It has proven equal to
every test. Whether responding to the
bugle call amid the cactus growths of
Mexico, the sage brush of Arizona, the
chapparal of Cuba or the waving palms
of the Philippines, it has indelibly im¬
pressed itself upon American military
history.
In the existing crisis—the American
Punitive Expedition—it was but natu¬
ral that they should be called into ac¬
tion. Well trained, accustomed to
various hardships, seasoned to tropical
climatic conditions, they were fully
qualified to take first place in their
country's defense. Forgetful of official
limitations, ever mindful that the na¬
tion expects every true soldier to do his
duty, their breasts heaving with loy¬
alty, they faced their country's foe. En¬
tering Mexico, unexpectedly an emer¬
gency arises, and about one hundred
are commissioned to a special task. On¬
ward they go! Treacherously am¬
bushed, outnumbered five to one—
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs but to do and die.
And "boldly they rode and well." What
other soldiery, representing our het¬
erogeneous nationality, has been so
continuously inspired by the unfurled
flag of the free, the starry banner of
our chosen land?
In the bloody drama of the Revolu¬
tionary struggle that opened the most
eventful and thrilling chapter of Amer¬
ican history, he was a leading partici¬
pant. Through the aggressive daring
of a Negro soldier, Crispus Attucks, the
first resistance was made against the
oppressive acts of Britain and the in¬
dignities of her hired minions. The
fires of a holy patriotism consumed him
and lighted his pathway to martyrdom
and to glory.
The Negro soldiers marched with the
Americans up the crimson slopes of
Bunker Hill, and the rifle of the black
man rang out against the troops of the
British crown in the darkest days of the
American Revolution. Without cit¬
izenship and without a country, they
united with their masters against the
aggression of foreign oppressors.
Counted as mere chattels, they mingled
their blood with that of the Anglo-
Saxon for the equality and rights of all
men. No other race has laid such an
offering upon the altar of American lib¬
erty. He was present with General
Jackson at New Orleans, with Perry
on Lake Erie, and with the Father of
His Country, his bleeding feet, crim¬
soning the snow at Valley Forge and
Yorktown.
And who can describe his activities
in the World War and during the in¬
ternecine conflict of the sixties? Faith¬
ful to his master, yet loyal to the Union,
he played a dual part that has rarely
been equaled and never surpassed.
Upon over two hundred battlefields,
his heroism and deeds of imperishable
glory, rival the immortal Spartan band
at the Pass of Thermoplyae, and the
famous Six Hundred at Balaklava.
What is the lesson of the hour? To
us as individuals, and to us as a race,
these fallen troopers seem to say: "Be
faithful and loyal to duty, whatever
your vocation. Stand in your lot and
place and do your work well in the so¬
lution of the great American problem."
Seated on his horse at the base of the
great pyramids, within whose shadows
sleep young eaglets in the sunset's
golden twilight, to his victorious
legions Napoleon said:
"Forty centuries look down upon
you." My hearers, the great and good
of the past, though invisible, are gazing
down upon us in life's arena. Our
friends who have passed beyond the
veil are not dead—Lincoln, Garrison,
Su inner, Phillips, Seward, Douglass,
John Brown, Beecher, Lovejoy, Harriet
Beecher Stowe, Price, Washington,
Walters and others, who, with hearts of
fire and tongues of flame, toiled for our
well being, have not ceased to be. True,
their dust long since has been gathered
in earth's golden urn, but they still live.
Absent in the body, they are with us
in spirit. Thoughts know no separa¬
tion. Hearts are inseparable. It is but
the flesh that separates. The mind is
larger than this world, and there are no
distances in loving, thinking and feel-
ing.
From some lookout in the Mount of
Vision, through the swaying branches
of the tree of life, moved by the breath
by heaven, they speak to us. Through
the startled air the echo comes, "the
morning breaketh."
On Arlington Heights, within whose
bosom rests many distinguished sol¬
diers, our fallen troopers were laid to
rest. Millions of Americans visit this
historic pantheon of glory annually.
But no spot hereafter will be invested
with deeper interest than where the
forms of the Tenth Cavalry troopers
mingle with their mother earth.
Sleep on, brave hearts, sleep on. You
have played well your part for your
race, for your country, and for human¬
ity. Bravest of the brave, sleep on. No
bugle call, tap of drum, tw of mus¬
ketry or of artillery will ever
again disturb thy peaceful repose.
Springtime will come with its wealth
of blossoms, summer will cast its
golden sheaves at the feet of the hus¬
bandman, autumn with biting blasts
will scatter myriad leaves of varied
hues, winter's icy fingers will change
the face of nature, but careless alike of
sunshine or storm, thou art gone, and
gone forever. Bravest of the brave, for
you rest has come at last.
Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead,
Dear as the blood ye gave;
No impious footsteps here shall tread
The herbage of your grave.
Nor shall your glory be forgot
While fame her record keeps,
Or honor points the hallowed spot
Where valor proudly sleeps.
Yon marble minstrels voiceless some
In deathless song shall tell,
When many a vanished age hath flown,
The story how ye fell.
Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blast,
Nor Time's remorseless doom,,
Shall dim one ray of glorious light,
That gilds your deathless tomb.
This first Tubman home-coming", be¬
neath a sky serene and fair, is a day of
triumph—a day of dedication. Much
that Aunt Harriet saw in vision has not
been realized. We are yet in the dawn¬
ing of that glorious future. The heirs
of her prayers and sacrifices, her toil-
ings upward in the night, are dwelling
apart in this their native land. "O,
strang-e New World!"
Victims of unjust legislation and dis¬
crimination, lynched, oppressed, de¬
frauded, disfranchised, they are press¬
ing" on the upward way—
Taught by Faith to know Jehovah's plan.
That man's devices can't unmake a man.
Remembering our precious legacy,
with praise and thanksgiving" we turn
our faces toward the brighter era, the
widening Christian civilization.
As beneficiaries of the noble dead, we
consecrate ourselves to the principles
for which they gave the fullest measure
of patriotic devotion. With their rare
bravery and courage, unitedly let us
strive for our civil, religious and politi¬
cal liberty. True to God, true to our¬
selves, the grandest of all republics,
washed by the waves of either ocean,
and on its dome the stars, will be our
home and glorious heritage forever.