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 EMANCIPATION ORATION, 
 
 By De. EZRA R. JOHNSON, 
 
 :i 
 
 POEM, 
 
 Bt JAMES M. WHITFIELD, 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 PLATrS HALL, JAJVUARY 1, 1867, 
 
 IN HONOR OF THE 
 
 FOURTH ANNIYERSARY 
 
 OF 
 
 PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S 
 
 PEOCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 
 
 1864. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO : 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THE ELEVATOR OFFICE. 
 
 1867. 
 
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EMANCIPATION ORATION, 
 
 By Dr. EZRA E. JOHNSON, 
 
 POEM, 
 
 By JAMES M. WHITFIELD, - 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 PLAITS HALL, JAJ^UARY 1, 1867, 
 
 IN HONOR OP THE 
 
 FOUETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OP 
 
 PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S 
 PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 
 
 1864- 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO : 
 PUBLISHED AT THE ELEVATOR OFFICE. 
 
 1867. 
 
whelm us, are fast disappearing. Time, hallowed and gra- 
 cious, now lifts the clouds which oppress us, and we will rise 
 above our calamities. 
 
 We were delighted with the scene on the line of march of. 
 the h)ng and imposing procession. The gorgeous display 
 received encomiums that filled the heart with gladness. It 
 was truly an ovation of which any people might be proud. 
 All have done well. There was a marked feature in the pro- 
 cession that deserves a passing notice. The appearance of a 
 well-drilled military company was a novelty that took the 
 people by surprise. Their soldierly bearing attracted special 
 attention, and received well-deserved praise. Their bronzed 
 faces exhibited unmistakable resemblance of those brave boys 
 in blue who Avent to the war, and during a long, well-fought 
 battle, never took a prisoner. We give them a hearty wel- 
 come, and Ave hope that the}' may be overshadoAved Avith the 
 olive branch during life ; but if our country is imperiled, 
 may they, at the first tap of the drum, be AA^lling and ready 
 to obey the orders of their superior officers. 
 • We are happy to meet you on this joyous occasion. Let 
 us all join to make this Festival of Freedom worthy of the 
 day and hour. The fires of liberty are burning on the altar 
 of every heart. The fiat from the throne of eternal justice 
 has gone forth, and our race, despite the machinations of our 
 enemies, will soon enjoy all the heaven-born rights that a bar- 
 barous and inhuman perversion of justice has so long AAathheld 
 from us. This is our natal day. We offer our congratula- 
 tions on the great blessings Avhich Ave derive from the act of 
 Avhich this day is the anniversary, and the blessings A\^hich ' 
 Heaven has bestowed upon our country and people. Espec- 
 ially have Ave, the proscribed minority, the high priests of 
 freedom, who have been battling for more than fifty years for 
 the destruction of American slavery, the great enemy to the 
 principle inaugurated on the first of January, 1863, the right 
 of self-government, the right of every indiA^dual to life, hb- 
 erty and the pursuit of happiness. NoA^er had Ave occasion 
 to thank God and take courage more heartily than to-day. 
 God has been our leader, and Ave have passed through the 
 Red Sea, and now rejoice tliat Canaan is in vieAv. 
 
 We have met to celebrate the anniversary of the most 
 
beneficent and memorable event in the history of the world — 
 ancient or modern — the emancipation of 4,000,000 bondsmen 
 by Abraham Lincoln, the first President of the FREE United 
 States of America; the consummation of a great act of jus- 
 tice and humanity, the wisdom of which has compelled the 
 civilized world to acknowledge its unparalleled magnitude. 
 
 One year after the immortal Lincoln had promulgated the 
 Proclamation of Freedom, a most remarkable spectacle was 
 seen in the City of Washington. The President's recep- 
 tion on New Year's Day had heretofore been exclusively 
 allotted to meet white citizens in the executive mansion. The 
 appearance of colored persons was an event that surprised 
 and provoked the multitude of negro-haters, who crowd the 
 doors on such an occasion. The people waited until the num- 
 ber of white visitors diminished, then they strengthened their 
 resolution and made bold to enter the hall. Some of them 
 were richly dressed, while others wore the garb of poverty, 
 but alike intent on seeing the man who had set our people 
 free. They pressed forward until they beiield the stately 
 form of the 'President. An eye-witness says : " For nearly 
 two hours Mr. Lincoln had been shaking the hands of the 
 ' sovereigns,' and had become excessively weary, and his grasp 
 became languid ; but here his nerves rallied at the unwonted 
 sight, and he welcomed this motley crowd with a heartiness 
 that made them wild with exceeding joy. They laughed and 
 wept, and wept and laughed, exclaiming through their blind- 
 ing tears, ' God bless you!' ' God bless you, Abraham Lin- 
 coln ! ' ' God bress Massa Linkum ! ' " 
 
 We have not forgotten the sensation caused by the first 
 sound from Sumter, when enthusiasm blazed high and bright ; 
 when bells rang out and flags waved, and the people rose as 
 one man to cheer on the troops. 
 
 It was then the colored people assembled in public meet- 
 ings in various parts of the country, and volunteered their 
 services to aid our government in suppressing the rebellion. 
 What reply did we receive ? We were insultingly and dis- 
 dainfully told that this is the white man's country and the 
 white man's war ; that our aid was not needed, and would not 
 be accepted. We remember the battle of Bull Run, when 
 the rout of our forces became general and complete, and a 
 
retreat of the fragment of our army was determined upon, 
 and the stragglers did push on from the battle-field to Wash- 
 ington without halting. Campaign after campaign followed 
 witli equal disastrous results, and our government began to 
 look with distrust, fearful that the military science of our ene- 
 mies would prove an impregnable barrier to their repeated 
 attacks. The people had been so long governed by those 
 who always ignored the rights of our race that nothing but 
 rivers of blood, acres of maimed, ghastly, dying, and dead 
 men, could convince our rulers that the vitalizing element 
 must be introduced into the army before victory could be 
 achieved. It was not decided that colored men could become 
 an integral portion of the army until 18G3. The initiative 
 of raising colored regiments in the free States was taken by 
 Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, and subsequently other 
 free States sanctioned their enlistment. The enlistment of 
 colored refugees in the rebel States was prosecuted without 
 ranch dilhculty, and soon we had near 200,000 men in the 
 fiehl. Their heroism and loyalty stands unrivalled. They 
 have erected an unperishable monument that should illumin- 
 ate the pages of history, and be read by the coming millions 
 of our race, and be valued as the greatest legacy bequeathed 
 to them through the sublime career of our noble braves. We 
 have the gratification to know that President Lincoln ac- 
 knowledged the value of our troops. He believed that the 
 country could not be saved without their aid. 
 
 The abohtion of slavery in the District of Columbia, the 
 recognition of Hayti and Liberia, the repeal of the fugitive 
 slave law, and the employment of colored men in the army> 
 gave serious offense to the pro-slavery party of the country. 
 Wlien tlie President met some prominent western men in 
 18G4, he asked them if the black men who then assisted the 
 Union prisoners to escape were to be converted into our en- 
 emies, in the vain hope to gain the good will of their masters ; 
 if so, said he, we sliall have to fight two nations instead of 
 one. Mr. Lincoln was unwilling to conciliate the South by 
 Huch moans, and lie considered their success inevitable, pro- 
 vi<led the labor of four millions of black men were placed 
 into their sid(> of the scale. He said, if they should abandon 
 all the forts, then garrisoned by black men, and take two 
 
hundred thousand men from their side, and put them in the 
 battle field or corn field against them, they would have been 
 compelled to abandon the war in three weeks. There were 
 men base enough to propose to the President the policy to 
 return to slavery the black warriors of Port Hudson and 
 Olustee, and then win the respect of the masters they fought. 
 Should I do so, said Mr. Lincoln, I should deserve to be 
 damned in time and eternity. Come what will, he added, I 
 will keep my faith with friend and foe ; but no human power 
 can subdue this rebellion without the use of the emancipation 
 policy, and every other policy calculated to weaken the mor- 
 al and physical forces of the rebellion, and he rejoiced that 
 freedom had given him 200,000 men raised on southern soil. 
 
 When the appeal to the noble men of our race was made 
 to defend the nation's cause, its honor, and our firesides, we 
 felt that very great sacrifices were required of them. The 
 rebels had threatened immediate death to our men if taken 
 prisoners. It needed strong minds and willing hearts to face 
 that terrible issue. The wife was asked to give her hus- 
 band, the mother her darling boy, the tearful youth his father, 
 and all their loved ones. As they went forth we bid them 
 God speed, and hasten the day when the country would be at 
 rest. 
 
 Our hearts were filled with sorrow and sympathy for our 
 brave men who fell on the battle-field. We did watch their 
 course with intense and peculiar interest, for we believed 
 their character abounded in those noble and excellent quali- 
 ties of which the country and the times stood so much in 
 need ; and when they were ordered to some very dangerous 
 post, we feared that they would be cut off in the morning of 
 their useful life. What heroic devotion, and how sublime the 
 spectacle of these patriotic men offering their lives with such 
 cheerful bravery, to achieve the freedom of our cruelly op- 
 pressed race. 
 
 When distinguished officers from the higher walks of life 
 consented to enter upon the perilous duties and lead our 
 forces, the military horizon seemed dark and lowery. These 
 brave men, who were dearly beloved by their relatives and 
 friends, and endeared for their gentle, refined, and conscien- 
 tious natures, were willing to suffer, die, and be buried with 
 
God's despised poor. It was then the timid, time-serving 
 politicians of the North, and the secession sympathizers and 
 negrt)-haters of the West, put forth their indignant protest 
 against the pohcy to arm black men. Their reasoning was 
 contradictory and absurd. They first declared that they 
 would never countenance such an atrocity as to look on quiet- 
 ly and allow black Union men to shoot down white rebels. 
 They said their feigned courage would ooze out before the 
 glistening bayonets of the defiant enemy, and their very ap- 
 pearance on the battle-field would demoralize the whole army, 
 as white men would never consent to fight side by side with 
 those untutored sons of toil and oppression. They finally de- 
 cided that the negro would not fight, that the project would 
 prove a complete failure, and end in ruin and disgrace. They 
 however did soon prove our persecutors to be false prophets 
 and blind guides. Never in the history of the world can 
 there be found a record of nobler achievements than was dis- 
 played by our Spartan heroes ; and the historian will fail to 
 find in the catalogue of our valorous defenders, a more pure 
 and heroic soul than Col. Shaw of the 54th Massachusetts 
 Regiment. There Avas a peculiar tie that bound him to life, 
 for he had been married but a few weeks before he accepted 
 the position assigned him. He arose above the nefarious cus- 
 tom of the times when he declared that it was his purpose to 
 treat all gentlemen the same, whatever their complexion 
 might be. 
 
 It may be remembered, on that memorable night Col. 
 Shaw had command of the first storming column at the assault 
 on Fort Wagner, and led the regiment in person, while the 
 enemy opened upon them with shot, shell, and canister, which 
 wounded many of their best officers and men ; they faltered 
 not, but cheered and shouted as they advanced — Col. Shaw 
 springing to the front and waving his sword, shouted " For- 
 ward, my brave boys I " — and they were soon engaged in a 
 hand in hand confiict with the enemy. He was one of the 
 first to scale the walls. He stood erect to urge forward his 
 men, and whih) shouting for them to press on, he was shot 
 dead, and full in front of the fort with twenty of his men 
 lying dead around him. 
 
 " Ills giilhintf^oul liiid iiussod iiwuy, his brave, young life was spent.-' 
 
A colored citizen of Boston has generously contributed 
 five hundred dollars to assist in the erection of an equestrian 
 statue to his memory. Posterity will revere his name. 
 
 The color-bearer deserves a passing notice. Sergeant 
 John Wall, of Company G, carried the jflag in the First Bat- 
 talion, and when near the fort, fell into a ditch. The guard 
 could not stop for him, but Sergeant William H. Carney, of 
 Campany C, caught the colors, carried them forward, and was 
 the first man to plant the stars and stripes upon Fort Wag- 
 ner. He saw the men falling back ; himself severely wound- 
 ed in the breast ; he brought the colors off, creeping on his 
 knees, pressing his wounds with one hand, and with the other 
 holding up the emblem of freedom. The moment he was 
 seen crawling into the hospital with the flags still in his pos- 
 session, his wounded companions, both black and white, rose 
 from the straw upon which they were lying, and cheering 
 him until exhausted, they could shout no longer. In response 
 to this reception, the brave and Abounded standard-bearer 
 said: "I but did my duty ; the dear old flag never touched 
 the ground." That veteran and battle-scarred hero now fills 
 an important office in the municipality of New Bedford, Mas- 
 sachusetts. 
 
 The 54th Massachusetts Regiment deserve much praise 
 for their manliness in refusing the pittance of seven dollars a 
 month that was off"ered to them by the government, and also 
 the balance of their dues appropriated by the State of Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
 They did not heed the advice of friends or the threat of 
 enemies, notwithstanding many of them had families to sup- 
 port, while their money had been withheld for more than six 
 months. They voted not to accept a dollar until the justice 
 of their claim was acknowledged by the Secretary of War, 
 and sanctioned by Congress. The end of justice was at- 
 tained, and they, together with all the colored volunteers, 
 received the same compensation that was given to the white 
 soldiers. 
 
 In the thunder storm and sharp" crash of terrible battle, 
 mid blood, carnage and death, a vision of childhood, of the 
 sweet heaven-time of life, came over our colored heroes. 
 They hoped it was death, coming as no king of terrors, but a^ 
 
10 
 
 a IjL'iuitiful llower-crowncd cliild, lidding them welcome to 
 the great halls of the laurel-wreathed dead — those Avho died 
 for their country. 
 
 We gave twenty thousand precious lives of our race to 
 save the life of the nation. We now demand of the govern- 
 ment a fulfillment of its pledge. We will labor incessantly 
 until we obtain all the rights and privileges that are enjoyed 
 by the Caucassian race. We are prepared to solve the great 
 problem that will establish our social rights. Equality be- 
 fore the law will unshaft the calumnious darts of our enemies. 
 The ballot is soon to become our pedestal. The four corner- 
 stones of our new edifice, upon which civil society is to be 
 built, are the church, the school-house, the press, and the bal- 
 lot. Then our career of usefulness will emit a vivid light. 
 We will raise our standard high, and labor to become the 
 peers of the dominant race. 
 
 If we read ancient history aright, there has been a period 
 in the history of our race when they equalled, if not excelled, 
 the other existing nations of the globe. How presumptions 
 in any other to declare our race intellectually inferior to any 
 other portion of mankind. We need only look back a few 
 liuudred years to see in what a humble condition the Saxon 
 race was placed. They have not much to boast of, for the 
 time was when the proud Norman claimed him as a slave, 
 and the name of Saxon dog, and his brass collar, are still to 
 be found on the pages of English history. 
 
 Tell us not that we are intellectually inferior, when we 
 belong to a race to whose ancestors a Solon, a Plato, a Pyth- 
 agoras, were sent for instruction. Tell us not that we cannot 
 inculcate knowledge because we wear the hue and hair of 
 St. Augustine, of Syphaeum, of Cyren, of Origen, of Ter- 
 tullcanus, those early fethers of the Christian Church, who 
 Avero reverenced as the most venerable of men, and whose 
 writings are laboriously pondered by our learned divines. 
 Tell us not that our intellectual capacity is so limited that we 
 are not qualified to cast an intelligent ballot, when Greece 
 and Rome drew directly, and all modern Europeans and their 
 descendants, indirectly, the sum total of their knowledge and 
 literature from oui- race. 
 
11 
 
 The employment of those assumed physiological and psy- 
 chological expounders will soon expire by limitation, and the 
 theoretical dogma of negro inferiority will become so unpop- 
 ular that its advocates will be compelled to hold their peace, 
 or mantle their faces in shame and confusion, under the ge- 
 nial rays of an enlightened public opinion. Free speech is 
 the germ of our history, and the corner-stone of our power. 
 
 An event, showing the spirit of the times, deserves special 
 noticfe. J. Milton Turner, of St. Louis, Missouri, a colored 
 orator and fearless champion, has been canvassing the South- 
 ern States for " Equality before the law." He passed through 
 several of these States like a blazing meteor. Upon his ar- 
 rival at Little Rock, Arkansas, Governor Murphy ordered the 
 firing of eleven guns, and went out to meet him in person. 
 By invitation of the Governor, Mr. Turner addressed an au- 
 dience of near two thousand in the rotunda of the Court 
 House. His subject was " Equality before the law." He 
 spoke for two hours and a half, amid the vociferous cheering 
 of his audience. The report says, one would have thought, 
 to see that ebony negro speaker on the stand with Governor 
 Murphy and other dignitaries of the State, with a large ma- 
 jority of rebels in his audience, fearlessly demanding of Ar- 
 kansas rebels the equality of all men before the law, that 
 Little Rock had changed its geographical locality, and was 
 now situated some where in Massachusetts. 
 
 It is now seventy years since the renowned navigator and 
 eminent merchant, Capt. Paul Cuffee, of Westport, Massa- 
 chusetts, felt aggrieved by being shorn of his right to vote. 
 He was one of the wealthiest men in that town, and he was 
 highly respected by the Society of Friends, of which he was 
 a prominent minister. Capt. Cuffee offered his vote at a 
 town meeting, and it was rejected. Believing that taxation 
 should depend on representation, he refused to pay his tax. 
 The town commenced a suit against him, and lost the case ; 
 an appeal was made to the Supreme Court of the State, and 
 the Court decided in Capt. Cuffee's favor, and placed the 
 great seal of approval upon the legal right of colored men to 
 enjoy equal political privileges. Similar cases are now pend- 
 ing in New Jersey, and we feel sanguine that the Supreme 
 Court of the United States will interpret the law, based upon 
 
12 
 
 the civil riylits bill, so as to secure to colored men equal po- 
 litical rip:hts in every State and Territory in the Union, 
 
 Twentv-five years ago your speaker Avas one of the regu- 
 larly nominated candidates of the Liberty Party from Bristol 
 County, Massachusetts, for a seat in the Senate of that State. 
 Our ticket was supported by afullyote, but we failed to elect. 
 The friends of freedom and equal rights did not despair. 
 They frequently placed the names of colored men on their 
 ticket, with like results ; and now, after a long and well-fought 
 battle with the ballot, we have gained a glorious victory. We 
 rejoice with our friends in the east who have unfurled their 
 banner, which may be seen floating high in the air, on which 
 is inscribed in letters of light — " Equal and exact justice to 
 all men." 
 
 They have set an example that will ere long be followed 
 by the progressive party until every city and town will send 
 forth their most intelligent and worthy men as legislators, re- 
 gardless of creed or color. 
 
 Our enemies are wrathy, and they use epithets unsparing- 
 ly on the devoted heads of our friends in Boston (the Athens 
 of America) because the most aristocratic ward — containing 
 the greatest amount of wealth and cultivated intellect — have 
 elected a colored man to represent their interest in the Legis- 
 lature ; and because Charlestownhas sent Edward G. Walker, 
 a colored lawyer, to the same place. 
 
 Lieutenant Charles H. Mitchell, he who " led the men to 
 battle in a wild and desperate fight," is an industrious and in- 
 telligent printer, and a veteran soldier of the late war, Avho 
 has won his epaulets by gallant service, and lost a leg in an 
 engagement with the rebels before Richmond. He doubt- 
 less is a man of ability. No colored man could occupy a place 
 of trust and emolument unless he possessed superior qualifica- 
 tions. We do assure our enemies that this act of wisdom and 
 justice is only a drop before a copious shower. They must 
 conquer their prejudices and become resigned to the action 
 of the great progressive party, whose purpose it is to elevate 
 the whole human race. Our ambition is not special, but geo- 
 gr!i]>hic:d. Wo intend to struggle with all the power that 
 iiiiiid and matter can ])ro(lnce, to fit ourselves for the higher 
 duties of life. We are not content to remain supinely be- 
 
13 
 
 cause a colored man has been admitted to practice in the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States, and colored jurymen to sit 
 in courts of justice in the North. We expect to see the day 
 when a colored man will occupy a seat as Associate Judge in 
 the Superior Court, and an equally worthy white man as Chief 
 Justice in the same tribunal. 
 
 The advanced step will be taken whenever a majority of 
 voters become convinced that their interests will be best pro- 
 moted by electing legislators selected from our people. There 
 are persons present who will live to see colored men occu- 
 pying seats as Representatives in Congress, and also fillign 
 other places of honor in the gift of the people. It is the pur- 
 pose of God to elevate all mankind. The cause of liberty 
 will go forward until our race are brought to enjoy equal 
 rights in all the land. 
 
 The colored people of the South highly prize divine wor- 
 ship, and they are not backward in their ecclesiastical rela- 
 tions. They will soon support their own schools. Their 
 ability to acquire knowledge is conceded, and their faculty 
 of discerning and distinguishing ideas is not surpassed by the 
 whites. They will ere long be admitted to all the privileges 
 of citizens, and they will need the ability to defend them- 
 selves. Every man's house is his castle, and every man should 
 have a musket, because every man will be a soldier and a 
 voter in this Republic. 
 
 There is no tenable theory of impartial suffrage which 
 does not recognize the arming of every man in defense of the 
 State. One of the most important amendments now neces- 
 sary to our system is the universal omission of the word 
 " white " in the clause regulating the militia. The colored 
 man has shown, in the war, that he has the courage and the 
 intelligence to fight ; and in future we shall not hear of so 
 many cowardly murders of freedmen by their old masters' 
 daughters, when it is known that in every cabin there is a 
 fowling-piece or a rifle, to keep hawks, or bears, or other 
 beasts of prey from the door. 
 
 During the existence of legalized slavery, the opinion was 
 stereotyped that the bondman, if liberated, would not work, as 
 he possessed a constitutional love for ease, and an insuperable 
 aversion to toil. The same objections were urged against the 
 
14 
 
 Eiuancipiition Proclaiuatiun by the rebel Commissioners at the 
 famous interview on board the River Queen at Hampton 
 Roads. They said that slaves, having always been accus- 
 tomed to an overseer, and to work upon compulsion, if they 
 should be suddenly freed, the act would precipitate not only 
 themselves, but the entire Southern society into irremediable 
 ruin ; as no work would be done, nothing would be cultivated, 
 and both blacks and whites would starve. Mr. Lincoln re- 
 plied : " He admitted that they ought to know a great deal 
 better about the matter than he did, for they had always 
 lived under the slave system." The quaint and characteristic 
 episode about the Illinois drover and his swine, was both 
 amusing and unanswerable. The rebels changed the conver- 
 sation ; doubtless they were convinced that the President 
 possessed firmness in the " right, as God gave him to see the 
 right," even if they failed to endorse the righteous conclu- 
 sions of that great and good man. 
 
 We have an abundance of overwhelming testimony that 
 utterly demolishes the sophism of our enemies. Colored men 
 are now engaged from the Potomac to the Rio Grande in ag- 
 ricultural interests, and in rebuilding many thousand houses. 
 Without their mechanical skill and industry the waste places 
 would not soon be filled as they now are with beautiful and 
 substantial edifices, such as are being erected by our skillful 
 artizans. 
 
 A fact in su[)p()rt of our statement is given by a gentle- 
 man in New Haven, Connecticut, who recently visited Rich- 
 mond, Virginia. He says : " My ramble was upon the capi- 
 tal square. Here I met a few loungers of various grades ; 
 they were all white — native, Irish, and German. The white 
 laborers complained of no work. 'What! no work, when 
 lialfof Richmond is being rebuilt?' ' Yes, no work ; for a 
 white man has no chance here ; they will hire a dozen old 
 slaves to one white man. Yes, sir ; there is no chance for a 
 poor white man here.' " 
 
 Ml-. Noyes had noticed, while viewing the new stores and 
 wareliouses going up in the midst of acres of ruins, that the 
 laliorers were nearly all black, and no part of the building 
 was erected without their aid — stone-cutters, layers of stone 
 and brick, carpi-nturs, workers up(jn iron fronts, caps and cor- 
 
15 
 
 nices, tinners, layers of slate, &c., &c., and that acres of 
 buildings of the latest New York styles are now being erected 
 over the burnt district, and a large majority of the laborers 
 and artisans are black. 
 
 The acquisition of knowledge should be our great aim. 
 Let us strive to equal and excel our brethren in the South. 
 We need more mechanics and tradesmen among our people. 
 Parents should not neglect to do their duty to their children. 
 They must be willing to make many sacrifices to complete 
 this design. We should not be content for our sons and 
 daughters to walk in our footsteps, and engage in precarious 
 employment, such as we have been compelled to pursue. 
 We should give our children a liberal education, then a trade 
 suited to their physical and mental capacity. These are two 
 powerful incentives to action, and when acquired, they will 
 lay a foundation for future usefulness. They will then pos- 
 sess a lever that will assist them to batter down the strong 
 walls of pride and prejudice, that have stood so many years 
 between us and our advancement. Their mechanical skill 
 and intellectual qualities will possess intrinsic value, and open 
 the highway to respectability, influence, and wealth. Then 
 they will shed upon our community and people a scientific 
 grandeur that is imperishable by time, and it will drown in 
 oblivion's cup our moral impotency. 
 
 " Watchman, what of the night ? " There is a significance 
 in the recent verdict rendered by the people at the j^olls. 
 With an aggregate majority of three hundred and seventy- 
 five thousand votes, they have declared the great fact, that in 
 future our government will be united in its policy, great in its 
 strength, and no longer intimidated or impeded by the selfish 
 arrogance of a petty planterdom. We have come to ah era of 
 great ideas and great creeds, such as rarely overtake nations 
 in history. We have elected a radical Congress, that will 
 crush the tyrannical rule of the conquered but unyielding ar- 
 istocracy of the South, and raise to the topmost pinnacle of 
 manhood every loyal subject that will seek protection under 
 the defensive armor of our giant Republic. The great Union 
 Party of Freedom remind one of Samson's wife. Havnig dis- 
 covered the secret of President Johnson's strength, they have 
 shorn him of his locks. The political knife and the tourni- 
 
16 
 
 quct liave maimed liim for life. His apostacy, petty expedi- 
 ency, and small politics, will no longer be regarded as posses- 
 sing any inilucnce aside from the one-man power which his 
 accidency has been clothed with. The evils against us that 
 he has propagated, by encouraging cruelty, hatred, ignorance, 
 and depravity among unconverted rebels, will measurably 
 disappear before the superior intelligence, industry, and hu- 
 manity of our Congressional doctors, who can not be excelled 
 in the knowledge of their profession. They will cauterize 
 before they heal. The great principles of free labor, scien- 
 tific reforms and culture, the enlargement of capital, the 
 feeding and teaching the poor, w^ill become a deep seated 
 duty of the friends of progress, and they w^ill labor to pro- 
 mote this great and holy end, which is, in reality, the shield 
 of the poor, and the practical side of Christianity. Hence- 
 forth the Radical Union Party must rule. Must is a hard 
 nut, but southern teeth must crack it, whether they wish to 
 or not. They may shuffle and quibble, but to the decree of 
 fate they must yield. Delay will render it more certain. 
 The industrious freeman who now owns a little farm, and has 
 realized one or two thousand dollars the past year, will soon 
 need a plantation. The rural nobility will give place to higher 
 nobility. Social culture, based on mud-sills, must make way 
 for mud-sills themselves ; for lo ! the sills w^iich they buried 
 are not dead timber, neither do they sleep or rot ; they were 
 fresh saplings, and with the reviving breath of spring, and 
 at the gleam of the sun of freedom, they will shoot up into 
 brave, strong life. 
 
 We may revive our minds to the pleasant contemplation 
 of the Radical Party ruling over a perfectly free continent, 
 and we see in the future such a picture of national greatness 
 as the world never before realized. The South will be willing 
 and eager to engage the labor of our people, for there will 
 be no cause in future for them to shun the southern clime. 
 The native Americans, as ever directing the enterprise, one 
 grand government, spreading from ocean to ocean, tlie whole 
 every year growing more and more united through the con- 
 fitant increase of industrial interests and mutual needs. This, 
 indeed, is a bright future to look forward to — and it is no idle 
 droam. It will be something to be a colored American citi- 
 
17 
 
 zen, when we can count seven million united freemen, and 
 one hundred million in substantial wealth. Then this new 
 generation of southerners will consider us something else than 
 poverty-stricken, ignorant, and degraded serfs ; they will 
 learn that social merit is not conferred by being born white, 
 on this or that piece of " sacred " dirt, but by a full develop- 
 ment and exercise of the talents with which God has gifted 
 us. 
 
 We are not unmindful of the debt of gratitude we owe 
 the world long tried and true hearted friends of the oppressed. 
 Our Wilberforce of America stands foremost in rank. This 
 great philanthropist has given the labor of a long and event- 
 ful life in a warfare against the sum of all villianies ; rising 
 above any hope of gain or profit commensurate with the sac- 
 rifices he made in combatting such a stupendous wrong. 
 We admire his glorious motto : " Our country is the world, 
 and our countrymen are all mankind." The southern Legis- 
 latures offered rewards for his head amounting to fifty thou- 
 sand dollars. The slave holders of Baltimore incarcerated 
 him in a dungeon. Gentlemen of property and standing in 
 Boston, upon collecting an infuriated mob, they broke up a 
 female anti-slavery meeting, then they seized him, placed a 
 halter around his neck, and dragged him through the streets ;. 
 they threatened him with instant death, and his life was only 
 saved by being cast into prison. For forty years he has beert 
 an able, uncompromising champion of the oppressed. Wa 
 venerate the name of our liberator, Wm. Lloyd Garrison. 
 He was faithfully and ably supported by a gentleman who 
 has no superior in learning. He is a living encyclopedia of 
 facts relating to the issues that have agitated the public mind 
 during our long struggle. He has refused political prefer- 
 ment, such as his splended talents might command. He has 
 devoted his time and contributed generously to aid our cause. 
 He is a true beacon light, warning the people to avert danger 
 ahead. With flashing eyes, and a voice like notes of a golden 
 trumpet, he peals forth mastery arguments in behalf of our 
 race. Long live Wendell Phillips, Esq. 
 
 In proximity we find the immaculate, the most profound 
 and conscientious statesman of our time. He was stricken 
 
 down in the Senate chamber by a cowardlv assassin for advo- 
 2 
 
18 
 
 eating the cause of the shive. He has ever been as inflexible 
 as the sturdy oak, and as true to the cause of humanity as the 
 needle to the pole. We refer to nature's nobleman, Hon, 
 Charles Sumner. 
 
 Another intrepid and incorruptible guardian of our rights 
 may be seen leading the rank and file that belong to our 
 forces, and are now engaged in defending the citadel of free- 
 dom. They may be surrounded with hostile troops, but the 
 brave old commander will never capitulate. Although bend- 
 ing under the weight of three score and ten years, he has 
 strength sufficient to beard traitors in their dens and shave 
 A. Johnson in the hall. 
 
 '■ Where could tliey find another foiin so fit 
 To poise with solid sense a sprightly wit " 
 
 as the Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania. 
 
 We will introduce you to an officer that has no superior 
 in rank. He belongs to the vanguard who led the anti-slavery 
 army, and who unfurled to the breeze a flag on which was 
 inscribed in letters of light — " Immediate and unconditional 
 emancipation — no protection to tyrants." From the pre-em- 
 inent position that this gentleman occupies, we hope he will 
 Chase a thousand traiters from their hiding-place, and put 
 ten thousand secession pettifoggers to flight, should they de- 
 anand admission to the tribunal over which he presides, with- 
 out taking the test oath of allegiance. 
 
 During the war there was one officer that had the cour- 
 age to hang a rebel who dared to insult our flag. He also 
 refused to return the slaves that had escaped from their mas- 
 ters. He very justly and wisely decided that this kind of 
 property, if used for carrying on the war, should become con- 
 traband. By this decision he established a system that saved 
 many thousand bondmen from torture and death. This offi- 
 cer charged upon and captured a rebel breastwork, before 
 Petersburg, that was led by a colored division, wlio suffered 
 a l()ss of five hundred and forty-six dead and wounded sol- 
 (hers. As they lay before Iiim, he swore an oath to himself 
 that his right hand miglit forgot its cunning, and his tongue 
 might cleave to tlio roof of his mouth, if ever he refrained 
 claiming justice for these men who had laid down their fives 
 for their country — which to them had been a country of sla- 
 
19 
 
 very — in the immortal hope that they might thereby bring 
 freedom to their race. That commanding Major-General was 
 the gallant Benjamin F. Butler. 
 
 Our portraiture would appear unfinished if we omit to 
 notice the worthy martyrs who laid down their lives in attes- 
 tation of their love for God's poor — one of which was " wil- 
 ling to have all the wealth that was acquired by the bonds- 
 man's unrequieted toil of two hundred and fifty years, sunk 
 in the depths of the ocean, and every drop of blood that was 
 drawn with the lash to be paid with another by the SAVord ; 
 with malice towards none, and charity to all," he built for 
 himself the first place in the affections of our race in this 
 country. His memory and deeds are engraven on our hearts, 
 and coming generations will chant with joy and gladness the 
 song of thanksgiving and praise. Peace be to the ashes of 
 the immortal Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 We all remember the great fright that twenty-one men 
 caused throuhout our country. The whole army of regulars 
 and volunteers were on the alert. The forces were mar- 
 shaled and sent to the scene of action. The invincible army 
 that was entrenched in the fortress at Harper's Ferry, (which 
 they held for twenty-four hours,) were overpowered and com- 
 pelled by superior numbers to surrender at discretion. The 
 conduct of those noble and heroic men, under the most se- 
 vere trial, fully developed their pure devotion to the cause of 
 Imman liberty and equal rights. They struck a blow that 
 has since proved to be the death wound to the hydra-headed 
 monster. The leader of the expedition was a bold man in 
 doing right. He had a higher communion with his God than 
 is the lot of men in this age and country. The tortures and 
 cruelties that tyrants used, had no terrors for him. The 
 shattered arm and cruel sabre-cut on his forehead reminded 
 him that death would soon raise the veil of the glorious fu- 
 ture. He believed that God's wrath would soon pervade the 
 South, and undo every burden, break every yoke, and let 
 the oppressed go free. The prophecy has been fulfilled to 
 the letter. The late terrible war did verify the prediction 
 in words of fire, blood, and carnage. 
 
 The crowning act of this Christian Patriot was performed 
 when he stepped forth with a firm step and a steady eye, 
 
20 
 
 evincing no signs of quaking, and he only stopped on the 
 wu}- to the scaffold a moment to kiss a negro child. It was 
 the hero of Osawattamie, Captain John Brown. 
 
 A host of faithful, self-sacrificing friends have assisted us 
 in our struggle for life and liberty. They have rendered a 
 just account of their stewardship. Their acts are indelibly 
 impressed on our hearts, and the good they have done for our 
 race has been penned by the Recording Angel in that book 
 whose leaves are sealed till the great day of judgment. 
 
 Watchman, behold the morning star ! We have observed 
 the firmament as it glows with living sapphires, and have 
 gazed as silent worshippers in the great Temple of Creation, 
 while the night of our expectation was transparent and the 
 moon was absent. We now rejoce and are made glad, be- 
 cause we have a glimpse into the interior of the Temple of 
 Freedom, and we can form some slight idea of its grandeur 
 and its glory. It is our promised hope. The Sun of Justice 
 will soon appear, and its refulgent rays will warm our hearts, 
 invigorate our minds, and enable us to enjoy the heaven-born 
 rights that were so long withheld from us. 
 
 We have the key and we will unlock the doors of Old 
 Harvard. Our children who may be prepared to enter that 
 ancient institution of learning, and other colleges and seminar- 
 ies, invite them to come and commune with its classic authors. 
 They may drink freely from the fountain of knowledge, from 
 whence their trickles softly draw a gentle crystal stream. We 
 have no fear ot the future. We are soon to occupy promi- 
 nent places in the world of letters. We will be able to fur- 
 nish men of erudition, such are qualified to present the flow- 
 ers of rhetoric, the embellishment of fancy, [and the refine- 
 ment of literature. Already the "Atlantic Monthly," which 
 is acknowledged to be the most popular magazine in the 
 United States, and who employ the deepest thinkers and 
 ablest writers, find it profitable to engage colored persons as 
 contributors to adorn its pages. 
 
 Colored men are now invited to lecture before the popu- 
 lar lyceum in the east. They draw full houses; winning com- 
 pliments from the critics, and pleasing the most fastidious and 
 Kcliolarly listener ; for they possess the voice, the manner, the 
 comniaud of speech, thought, and the imagination ; and they 
 
21 
 
 draw tTie attention of the auditors, as particles of steel are 
 attracted by the magnet. 
 
 The world moves, and it moves fast, too. We send greet- 
 ing; our sincere and heartfelt thanks to those liberty-loving 
 members of Congress who have, by their votes, caused to be 
 enacted a law that does remove the proscriptive barrier be- 
 tween colored citizens and the ballot. They have expunged 
 from the statute a relict of barbarism, and the District of 
 Columbia stands disinthralled, redeemed, and regenerated. 
 The march of enfranchisement will go on, until every State 
 and Territory have indorsed this principle of justice; thereby 
 granting to colored men equal political privileges. Then tax- 
 ation will go hand in hand with representation, and a united 
 people will rejoice, that they live in " the land of the free and 
 the home of the brave," whose fundamental laws are une- 
 qualled by any other government in the civilized world. All 
 kail, the patriotic statesmen of the thirty-ninth Congress ! 
 
 Venerable sires, aged matrons, young men, and blooming 
 maidens., we hope that you have caught the inspiration ; " an 
 hour lost is an opportunity for disater," said the great Napo- 
 leon. We entreat of you to renew your vows, and dedicate 
 your lives to the well-begun work, that must be finished. 
 We rely on the justice of our cause. In legal parlance, we 
 have summed up our case, and submit it to the candid and 
 indiscriminate consideration of the American people. They 
 will assuredly render a verdict that will sustain us in our 
 conclusion. We are Americans in every sense of the word — 
 Americans by birth,, genius, habits, and language. We are 
 dependent upon American climate, American element, Amer- 
 ican government, and American manners, to sustain our 
 American bodies and minds. We expect to enjoy all the 
 rights and privileges of Americans — governmental, ecclesi- 
 astical, civil, social, or elemental- The claims we set up are 
 claims of Americans, founded on "an original agreement of 
 the contracting parties, and there is nothing to show that 
 color is a consideration of the agreement. 
 
 Our cause is sacred and divine, 
 With labor and genius combine, 
 We plant in hnman heart the seeds 
 That shall grow to noble deeds ; 
 Onr manhood ever more shall be, 
 For God has set our nation free. 
 
To P, A. BELL, Esq., 
 
 A PIONEER IN THE INTELLECTOAL ELEVATION OF HIS RACE, 
 
 THESE LINES ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 A POEM 
 
 WrUten for the Celebration of the Fourth Anniversary of President 
 Iiincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. 
 
 BY J. M. WHITFIELD. 
 
 More than two centuries have passed 
 Since, holding on their stormy way, 
 Before the furious wintry blast, 
 
 Upon a dark December day, 
 Two sails, with diiferent intent, 
 
 Approached the Western Continent. 
 One vessel bore as rich a freight 
 
 As ever yet has crossed the wave ; 
 The living germs to form a State 
 
 That knows no master, owns no slave. 
 She bore the pilgrims to that strand 
 
 Which since is rendered classic soil, 
 Where all the honors of the land 
 
 May reach the hardy sons of toil. 
 The other bore the baleful seeds 
 
 Of future fratricidal strife, 
 The germ of dark and bloody deeds, 
 
 Which prey upon a nation's life. 
 The trafficker in human souls 
 
 Had gathered up and chained his prey, 
 And stood prepared to call the rolls, 
 
 AVhen, anchored in Virginia's Bay — 
 
 His captives landed on her soil, 
 
24 
 
 Doomed -witHout recompense to toil, 
 
 Should spread abroad such deadly blight, 
 
 That the deep gloom of mental night 
 
 Spreading its darkness o'er the land, 
 
 And paralizing every hand 
 
 Raised in defence of Liberty, 
 
 Should throw the chains of slavery 
 
 O'er thought and limb, and mind and soul, 
 
 And bend them all to its control. 
 
 Nevr England's cold and sterile land 
 
 Gave shelter to the pilgrim band ; 
 
 Virginia's rich and fertile soil 
 
 Received the dusky sons of toil. 
 The one bore men whose lives were passed 
 
 In fierce contests for liberty — 
 Men who had struggled to the last 
 
 'Gainst every form of tyranny. 
 Vanquished in many a bloody fight, 
 
 Yet still in spirit unsubdued ; 
 Though crushed by overwhelming might, 
 
 "With love of freedom still imbued, 
 They bore unto their Western home, 
 
 The same ideas which drove them forth, 
 As houseless fugitives to roam 
 
 In endless exile o'er the earth. 
 And, on New England's sterile shore, 
 
 Those few and feeble germs took root. 
 To after generations bore 
 
 Abundance of the glorious fruit — 
 
 Freedom of thought, and of the pen. 
 
 Free schools, free speech, free soil, free men. 
 
 Thus in that world beyond the seas, 
 
 Found by the daring Genoese, 
 
 More than two centuries ago 
 
 A sower wandered forth to sow. 
 He planted deep the grains of wheat, 
 
 That generations yet unborn. 
 When e'er they came to reap and eat. 
 
 Might bless the hand that gave the corn ; 
 
 And find it yield that priceless bread 
 
 With which the starving soul is fed ; 
 
 The food which fills the hungry mind, 
 
 Gives mental growth to human kind. 
 
 And nerves the sinews of the free 
 
 To strike for Truth and Liberty. 
 
25 
 
 Yet, planted at the self-samo time 
 
 Was other seed by different hands, 
 To propagate the deadliest crime 
 That ever swept o'er guilty lands— 
 The crime of human slavery, 
 With all its want and misery — 
 The harrowing scenes of woe and pain. 
 Which follow in its ghastly train. 
 The same old feud that cursed the earth 
 
 Through all the ages of the past, 
 In this new world obtained new birth, 
 
 And built again its walls of caste, 
 More high and deep, more broad and strong, 
 
 On ancient prejudice and wrong. 
 The same old strife of every age, 
 
 Inherited by son from sire, 
 Which darkens each historic page, 
 
 And sends a discord through the lyre 
 Of every bard, who frames hift song 
 
 In praise of Freedom, Truth, and Right, 
 Rebukes the gathered hosts of wrong. 
 And spreads the rays of Freedom's light — 
 That strife, long fought in Eastern lauds, 
 Was transferred to the Western strand. 
 The same old seeds of endless strife, 
 Deep in the Nation's inmost life 
 Were sown, to yield in after years 
 A plenteous crop of blood and tears. 
 'Twas here the dragon's teeth were sown, 
 
 And crops of armed men sprang up ; 
 Here the Republic, mighty grown, 
 
 Drank deep rebellion's bitter cup ; 
 Here, where her founders sowed the wind. 
 
 They reaped the whirlwind's furious blast — 
 Proudly refusing to rescind 
 
 The deadly errors of the past, 
 They drew the sword, by deed and word 
 
 To rivet slavery's bloody chain. 
 And, slaughtered by th' avenging sword. 
 Their bones strew many a battle plain. 
 The strife of aristocracy 
 In conflict with democracy. 
 Was here renewed, with greater zeal. 
 And danger to the common weal. 
 One century and a half had flown 
 
 When Freedom gained the first great fight ; 
 
26 
 
 Defied the power of the throne, 
 
 And bravely proved the people's might, 
 
 When banded in a righteous cause, 
 
 To overthrow oppressive laws. 
 'Twas th^:i, when struggling at its birth, 
 
 To take its proper place beside 
 The other Nations of the earth, 
 The rule of justice was applied ; 
 And all mankind declared to be 
 Inheritors of Liberty ; 
 With right to make their freedom known, 
 By choosing rulers of their own. 
 But when it came t' enforce the right, 
 
 Gained on the well-contested field, 
 Slavery's dark intrigues won the fight, 
 And made victorious Freedom yield; 
 Giving each place of power and trust, 
 To those who, groveling in the dust, 
 Seek to extend the giant crime 
 Of Slavery through all coming time. 
 The victory won at fearful cost. 
 Over a mighty monarch's host, 
 By which oppression's power seem'd foiled 
 
 On the Atlantic's western shore, 
 And those who through long years had toiled, 
 
 The burden of the battle bore, 
 In order that this land might be 
 A home and refuge for the free, 
 Were doomed to see their labor lost — 
 Their victory won at fearful cost. 
 Over oppression's mighty power. 
 Surrendered in the trying hour ; 
 And made to strengthen slavery's hand, 
 Ruling with iron rod the land. 
 The power the warrior's hand had lost, 
 
 The politician's skill restored ; 
 And slavery's votaries could boast 
 
 Intrigue was miglitier than the sword. 
 But fraud and force in vain combined 
 To check the progress of the mind ; 
 And every effort proved in vain 
 T' enslave the cultivated brain. 
 The same ideas the pilgrim's brought 
 
 When first they crossed the wintry wave. 
 Spreading throughout the land were fraught 
 
 With liftlit and freedom to the slave : 
 
27 
 
 And hence where slavery bore the rule, 
 It labored to suppress the school, 
 Muzzle the tongue, the press, the pen, 
 As means by which the rights of men 
 Might be discussed, and Freedom's light 
 Break up the gloom of slavery's night. 
 Efforts which, in a better cause 
 
 Had brought their authors deathless fame. 
 Were made to frame oppressive laws, 
 
 And to arouse, excite, inflame, 
 The vilest passions of the throng, 
 
 And stir that bitter prejudice 
 Which makes men blind to right and wrong. 
 
 And opens wide that deep abyss 
 Where pride of rank, and caste, and race, 
 
 Have left such marks of bitter hate, 
 As noiigiit but time can e'er efface, 
 To foment discord in the State. 
 But vain their efforts to control 
 The aspirations of the soul ; 
 For still a faithful few were found 
 
 Who would not bend the servile knee, 
 But in each conflict stood their ground, 
 
 And boldly struck for Liberty. 
 From year to year the contest grew, 
 
 Till slavery, glorying in her strength. 
 Again war's bloody falchion drew, 
 
 And sluggish freedom, roused at length. 
 Waked from her stupor, seized the shield, 
 And called her followers to the field. 
 And at that call they thronging came. 
 With arms of strength, and hearts on flame ; 
 Answering the nation's call to arms. 
 The northern hive poured forth its swarms ; 
 The lumbermen of Maine threw down 
 
 The axe, and seized the bayonet ; 
 The Bay State's sons from every town. 
 Left loom and anvil, forge and net ; 
 The Granite State sent forth its sons. 
 
 With hearts as steadfast as her rocks ; 
 The stern Vermonters took their guns, 
 And left to others' care their flocks ; 
 Rhode Island and Connecticut 
 
 Helped to fill up New England's roll, 
 And showed the pilgrim spirit yet 
 Could animate the Yankee soul. 
 
28 
 
 The Empire State sent forth a host, 
 
 Such as mif^ht seal an empire's fate ; 
 Even New Jersey held her post, 
 
 And proved herself a Union State. 
 The Key-Stone of the Union arch 
 Sent forth an army true and tried ; 
 Ohio joined the Union march, 
 And added to the Nation's side 
 A force three hundred thousand strong, 
 While Michigan took up the song ; 
 "Wisconsin also, like the lakes, 
 When the autumnal gale awakes, 
 And rolls its surges on the shore, 
 Poured forth its sons to battle's roar. 
 The gallant State of Illinois 
 Sent forth in swarms its warlike boys. 
 On Indiana's teeming plain, 
 Thick as the sheaves of ripened grain, 
 Were soldiers hurrying to the wars 
 To battle for the Stripes and Stars. 
 From Iowa fresh numbers came. 
 
 While Minnesota joined the tide, 
 And Kansas helped to spread the flame, 
 And carry o'er the border side 
 The torch the rufi&ans once applied 
 When fiercely, but in vain, they tried 
 The people of their rights to spoil. 
 And fasten slavery on her soil. 
 From East unto remotest West, 
 
 From every portion of the North, 
 The true, the bravest, and the best, 
 Forsook their homes and sallied forth ; 
 And men from every foreign land 
 Were also reckoned in that band. 
 The Scandinavians swelled the train, 
 The brave Norwegian, Swede, and Dane, 
 And struck as though Thor rained his blows 
 Upon the heads of haughty foes ; 
 Or Odin's self had sought the field 
 To make all opposition yield. 
 Italia's sons, who once had cried 
 
 Loud for united Italy, 
 And struck by Garibaldi's side 
 For union and equality — 
 
29 
 
 Obtained another chance to fight 
 
 For nationality and right. 
 The Germans came, a sturdy throng, 
 
 And to the bleeding country brought 
 Friends of the right, foes of the wrong, 
 
 Heroes in action as in thought, 
 Sigel, and Schurz, and many others, 
 
 Whose names shall live among the brave, 
 Till all men are acknowledged brothers, 
 
 Without a master or a slave. 
 Ireland's sons, as usual, came 
 
 To battle strife with shouts of joy. 
 With Meagher and Corcoran won such fame 
 
 As well might rival Fontenoy. 
 Briton and Frank, for centuries foes, 
 
 Forgot their struggles, veiled their scars, 
 To deal on slavery's head their blows, 
 
 Fighting beneath the Stripes and Stars. 
 From the Atlantic's stormy coast. 
 
 Unto the broad Pacific's strand, 
 Came pouring forth a martial host , 
 
 From every portion of the land. 
 They came, as flocking sea birds swarm, 
 
 Whene'er the cloud-king mounts his throne 
 And calls the warriors of the storm 
 
 To sweep the earth from zone to zone. 
 They came as come the rushing waves 
 
 When o'er the sea the tempest raves. 
 
 They came as storm clouds quickly fly 
 
 When lightnings flash along the sky, 
 
 And on the Southern plains afar 
 
 Soon burst the thunderbolts of war. 
 
 In quick and fierce succession fell 
 
 The furious showers of shot and shell. 
 Though East, and West, and North combined, 
 
 And foreigners from every land 
 With all that art and skill could find, 
 
 They could not crush the rebel band. 
 They clung unto th' accursed thing, 
 
 That which they knew accursed of God, 
 Nor strength, nor skill could victory bring 
 
 With that accursed thing abroad. 
 When Abraham, the poor man's friend. 
 
 Assumed the power to break the chain. 
 
30 
 
 Obey the Lord, and put an end 
 
 To slavery's dark and bloody reign, 
 To make the nation shiekl from harm 
 
 Its loyal sons of every hue, 
 In its defence receive and arm 
 
 All those who to its flag were true, 
 He found the touchstone of success, 
 For then Jehovah deigned to bless, 
 And smile upon the nation's arms, 
 And give it rest from war's alarms. 
 Tlius men of every land and tongue, 
 
 Of every station, every hue. 
 Were found the Union hosts among. 
 
 Enlisted with the boys in blue ; 
 And all mankind should freely draw 
 
 The prize for which their lives were given ; 
 " Equality before the law," 
 
 To every person under heaven. 
 As storms and tempests pass away. 
 
 And leave the sun's enlivening light. 
 Oar war-cloud brought the opening day 
 
 To slavery's long and gloomy night. 
 As storms and thunder help to clear 
 And purify the atmosphere, 
 E'en so the thunders of the war, 
 Driving malaria afar, 
 Have purged the moral atmosphere, 
 A nd made the dawn of freedom clear. 
 From swamps and marshes left undrained 
 
 Malarious vapors will arise, 
 From human passions, unrestrained. 
 Rise fogs to cloud our moral skies : 
 So now, from portions of the land 
 
 Where lately slavery reigned supreme, 
 Its conquered chiefs together baud. 
 
 Concocting many an artful scheme, 
 By which Oppression's tottering throne 
 
 May be restored to pristine power, 
 And those who now its rule disown 
 Be made submissive to its power. 
 The self-styled Moses brings the aid 
 
 Of power and place to help them through, 
 To crush the race by him betrayed, 
 And every man who, loyal, true. 
 And faithlul to tiis country's laws- 
 Declines to aid the tyrants cause. 
 
31 
 
 Our real Moses, strctcliod hia rod 
 
 Four yoars ago across the sea, 
 Aud through its blood-dyed waves we trod 
 
 The path that leads to Liberty. 
 His was the fiery columm's light, 
 
 That through the desert showed the way, 
 Out of oppression's gloomy night, 
 
 Toward the light of Freedom's day ; 
 And, like his prototype of old, 
 
 Who used his power, as Heaven had told, 
 
 To God and to the people true. 
 
 Died with the promised land in view. 
 And we may well deplore his loss, 
 
 For never was a ruler given. 
 More free from taint of sinful dross. 
 
 To any Nation under Heaven. 
 And ever while the earth remains. 
 
 His name among the first shall stand 
 Who freed four million slaves from chains, 
 
 And saved thereby bis native land. 
 Though Achans rise within the camp, 
 
 And covet slavery's cursed spoil. 
 Invent oppressive laws, to cramp 
 
 The energies of men who toil 
 Through hardship, danger, sickness, health, 
 To add unto the Nation's wealth — 
 Some Joshua shall yet arise. 
 
 Whose hand shall extirpate the seeds 
 Sown by this worst of tyrannies, 
 
 Which ripen into bloody deeds 
 Such fiendish murders as of late 
 
 Occur in every rebel State. 
 While Freedom falters, once again 
 
 The fogs and mists begin to rise. 
 And cast their shadows o'er the plain, 
 
 Vailing the issue from our eyes, 
 On which the nation yet must stand, — 
 Impartial freedom through the laud. 
 Yet once again our moral air 
 
 Is tainted by that poisonous breath, 
 Which Freedom's lungs can never bear, 
 
 Which surely ends in moral death. 
 Then let the people in their might 
 
 Arise, and send the iiat forth. 
 That every man shall have the right 
 
 To rank according to his v.'orth ; 
 That north and south, and west and east. 
 All, from the greatest to the least, 
 Who rally to the nation's cause. 
 
32 
 
 Shall have the shield of equal laws. 
 
 Wipe out the errors of the past, 
 
 Nursed by the barbarous pride of caste, 
 
 And o'er the nation's wide domain, 
 
 Where once was heard the clanking chain, 
 
 And timorous bondmen crouched in fear, 
 
 Before the brutal overseer. 
 
 Proclaim the truth that equal laws 
 
 Can best sustain the righteous cause ; • M 
 
 And let this nation henceforth be h 
 
 In truth the country of ihe free. 
 
 [During the delivery of the Oration and Poem the speak- 
 ers were frequently interrupted by loud bursts of applause.] 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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