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ADDRESS
O P
COL. II. B. CARRINGTON, U. S. A.,
NDiANAPOLiS, INDIANA, JUNE 17, 1869,
IN AID OF THE ERECTION
OF A
N
;
EW (wHUPvCH TZvDIFICE,
METHODIST EPISCOPAL (COLORED) SOCIETY.
/
INDIANAPOLIS:
DOUGLASS & CONNER, PRINTERS,
1869.
/a- 3m
Upon motion, his Excellency, Governor Conrad Baker, wag
called to the chair as presiding officer, and Mr. AVilliam Walden,
(colored) wjis appointed Secretary.
ORDER OF i:XERCISES.
Music— "Tramp, Tramp," by the Indianapolis (colored) Brass Band.
ADDRESS.
KIND WORDS TO COLORED CITIZENS UPON THE RELIGIOUS, EDU-
CATIONAL, SOCIAL AND PERSONAL DUTY OF THEIR RACE.
In accordance with the desire of those colored citizens who
are erecting a new house for Divine worship, and w^ho
believe that a few words of counsel from me will aid the
enterprise and stimulate their aspirations to grow strong, in
all the elements which give value to personal character, I
have so far departed from a settled repugnance to speak pub-
licly upon any subject, since the war, as to consent to this
familiar talk upon themes that press immediately upon your
condition and your prospects for the future.
My profession, as you know, does not occupy, nor aspire to
occupy, the field of party politics or general oratory ; and yet
no calling whatever, can entirely absolve any Christian man
from the ever present obligation to use influence and strength,
at all proper times, in giving impulse and sanction to such
moral and religious agencies as are material to the well-being
and advancement of others.
I can well see that to the colored people of the United
States the present is a transition period of great importance.
It is a period wherein they have much to learn and much to
do. Upon the spirit, courage, ambition and purity of motive
with which they labor, will largely depend the public estimate
of their fitness for enlarged franchises ; and, on the other hand,
it is certain that if they accept national blessings with passive
indifference, they will go backward, instead of forward, in all
essential elements of civilized grov>'th and culture.
There have been recent statements in the public press, that
in some parts of the South, where the restraints of the former
6 Address of
social condition have passed away, there has been a partial
revival of superstitions and usa.£;es which are essentially-
groveling, brutish and heathenish. While you cannot but
regret, with others, any such tendency, it is no less certain that
some such reaction was natural, and that there, is laid upon
you, and upon the whole American people, peculiar obligations
at times like the present. You have, at home, in the midst of
an advanced civilization, the more cause to make your whole
life conform to the highest rules of moral action, in proportion
as you enjoy privileges and mercies which those just freed do
not possess, and can only gradually attain. You know that
the arm is strengthened by exercise, and is weakened by dis-
use. The blacksmith's muscles are hard and tough as his
sinews. The student and the idler — the one from exclusive
brain-work, and the other from no work at all— lare useless for
almost all physical endeavor. So with many of your race.
They need the exercise of the best qualities of manhood, and
they need advice and encouragement from others, in order that
the large number just emerging from the pit of slavery may
find support and countenance from the conduct and good
behavior of their brethren who have enjoyed the blessing of
freedom for years. There are few fields for the missionary
and philanthropist where more good can be done than among
the colored people of the South ; and I have undertaken this
address to-night because I feel that you should not depend
alone upon your own counsels, but seek from those who have
had more learning and experience all possible help in the
improvement of your race. I know that the clergy of this
city, not of your color, are interested in your welfare, and that
you will gain strength, knowledge and wisdom by occasionally
inviting them to your pulpits, and by gradual growth into
their habits of life and thought.
I speak plainly and familiarly, hoping to quicken your desire,
youc industry, and your faith in the dawning future.
I shall not treat of education, (as has been announced,) in
the common acceptation of that term. The word is from the
Latin language, and one part means leader, and was applied
to great Generals or Commanders. The word "education"
Col. H. B. Carrington.
might almost literally be rendered in English, thus : " To lead
oat from ignorance, and establish the life of knowledge, hap-
piness and safety." When you are lead ont from temptation,
you are being educated for a better life. As you are lead out
from ignorance, so you acquire knowledge. Schools and books
are not entirely wiihin brick walls and muslin binding. The
whole world is a school-house; every fact in daily life is
designed as a lesson ; and all Nature is a book of study in
the progress of education.
The end of American slavery has brought upon your race
which so long suffered under its fearful oppression, new
responsibilities and duties. That rescue has been so recent,
that you hardly realize the fact, and do not yet understand
fully how to turn to the best advantage the freedom attained.
Many here present can remember years of struggle, during
v/hich the best of Christian ministers endangered life by
advocating emancipation, and when the only channel through
which benevolence could liberate the black man from slavery
was to secure his exportation to Africa, there to begin life
anew. I remember very well that thirty years ago the Rev.
Noah Porter, at Farmington, Connecticut, had the windows
of his lecture-room stoned, because of prayer for the slaves
captured on the Armistead, who were being cared for on a
farm near the village. And in 1849, when Frederick Douglass
attempted to speak at the Ohio State House, fire engines were
brought to the ground, to drown out the audience. And yet
times changed so rapidly, that in 1861 I had the pleasure of
delivering a flag to Mx. Langston, for the 58th Massachusetts
Regiment, (perhaps the first flag so presented,) from the terrace
of the new State House, near where Mr. Douglass had been
mobbed.
The cowardice of State and Church had alike protracted
the torture of the black race, multiplied the horrors of the
dungeon, the lash and the halter, and trained up a blood-hound
class of leaders as merciless as the trained dogs of the South-
ern planters.
Year by year the nation increased its debt to justice and
humanity, until God, in His mercy, instead of sending fire
8 Address of
from heaven, as he did to consume Sodom and Gomorrah,
only sent the greatest war of human history, and in the blood
of a million of men, in the wasting of half a nation, in the
tears and groans of countless widows and orphans, wiped out
that generation. of slave owners and redeemed a race to liberty.
If ever a curse came home to plague its inventors, it was
slavery. The inventor of the guillotine is said to have had
his own head cut oft" by his own ingenious machine. So,
blazing cities, burning mansions, prostrate industry, and des-
olated plantations, felt the wrath of God through the march
of the once despised Abolitionist. As if to make the justice
more signal, exquisite and complete, the " colored troops fought
bravely," and, with arms in their hands, marched side by side
with their co-deliverers to the enfranchisement of their people
and the rescue of the imperiled Republic.
The boasted liberty which had taken refuge from the tyranny
of Great Britain, and embarking on the Mayflower, had
landed in New England, thence to overrun a continent and
become the light of the world, had fattened itself upon human
blood and become the agent of the vilest outrages upon man.
It was righteous and just, that, in the sequel. Northern blood
should also be spilled; for Northern timidity, avarice, and^
forgetfulness of the God who had delivered them from their
oppression through the war of the Revolution, had hardened
their hearts, and they refused to let the people go free.
As if to assimilate to the example of the children of Israel
who, when they were hurried out of bondage, took the jewels
and treasurers of their task masters, so houses and lands, and
all the supplies of the Freedmans Bureau that were taken
from the oppressors, were converted into blessings to aid and
comfort the ransomed. The scourge of human slavery had
so long sounded in the land, that the Hand of High Heaven
turned it upon North and South alike, and the wail over the
death of the first-born, was heard in every house, as years before
it appealed in vain from the cabin and negro quarters. Serf-
dom had ceased, though Slavery lingered. England and
France had advanced in the right direction ; but America
Col. H. B. Carring-ton.
kicked against the pricks, and would not hear the voice of
Providence, or the groan of the sufferer?.
Before the fall of Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, in words to
the people of Ohio, and before blood was shed, I was im-
pelled to declare this sentiment:
" We are at war. It is our existence that is at stake. The
shedding of blood is a mere contigency in the contest, neither
commencing nor ending the struggle. We shall not lail; for
the age, which is an age of struggle, will find America rooted
to the cause of Freedom. We shall not abuse our trust.
The exalted privilege of leading the nations will not lapse
from our control. Be not deceived. The people, born to
peace, and dreading the inroad of red war more than pesti.
lence and famine, are coining with calm and deliberate minds
to that sublime but solemn conclusion, that they will offer
their lives and fortunes as a free will offering, upon the altar
of Country, Liberty and Independence. I hear the shackles
of party clang as they are dashed to the earth. 1 i^ee the
bonds part that bind the devotees of self and mammon. I
see treasure offered without stint or limit to purchase back
the rights imperiiled. I see the presage of a tempest. It
will gather volume, and roll from the East, and North, and
West, until you shall rejoice in every sacrifice of treasure,
and glory in ev>-ry drop of blood expended for the public
weal, for the whole continent shall be free, and the nations of
the world shall pay you homage."
Fort Sumter fell I The rest you know. Had I declared a
dream? The countless thousands of fresh blossoms that so
lately exhaled their grateful odors from tens of thousands of
honored graves, are fresh testimony that I did not then, as
one never can, over-estimate the grandeur, the scope, the sac-
rifices and the issues of that struggle.
The vv^ar came, was prosecuted and ended, and with it
came the end of human slavery. Slowly but surely the bad
blood that remains is being purified by the application of be-
neficent laws and the persuasion of the necessary constraint,
so that no long period will elapse before reconstructed States
10 Address of
shall involve regenerated hearts, and the whole nation shall
prosper and flower in the luxuriance of a better life.
Neither have I recalled the past and brought back bitter
memories, with the purpose of stirring your passions, or un-
worthily triumphing over misguided countrymen, enemies
in arms, but again to be brethren at heart.
The South is rescued from her worst enemy. Capital, and
manufactures, and emigration are to build up her bulwarks as
never could have been realized in that former unnatural life.
Weights are cast off, and she runs with the North an even
race of peaceful industry, in which each section shall njoice
and glory in the triumphs of the other, and find in the other
the complement of itself, together, to make the "unit," our
common country.
The colored people of the United States should look upon
the past as the rescued mariner re-lives the sufferings he expe.
rienced when floating helpless upon a sea of unknown peril,
that he may find new and more abundant cause for gratitude
to the Giver of all mercv, and be better fitted for the realities
of life.
The white man should often look back upon his career of
power and its wrongful uses, to learn how much he owes to a
race that so long suffered at his hands.
Hear what I have now to say, with at earnest purpose to
so live that you will convince the world that you are worthy
of freedom, and worthy of a country which not long hence
will know no limit to human privilege but the perpetual obli-
gation to do right and deserve God's blessing.
You have different capacities, tastes and employments. You
have many chambers in your brain, like the rooms of a house.
All should be occupied by the right tenants. Hate must be
expelled, and Loce must be admitted. All must work in har-
mony, so as to secure the best results in every phase of daily
life. '
YOUR llKhlGIOUS LIFE.
This is fundamental and will shape all life. Not alone in
the free Northern states, but while chained to the wheels of
Southern capital and power, it has been a peculiarity of your
Col. H. B. Car ring-ton. 11
race, that respect for some religion has been ahnost instinct
and constant. If, for want of other friends, a sense of depend-
ence upon the Creator drove any to that love of religious wor-
ship which became so characteristic, it was certainly very
natural ; but behind that was another fact, accepted as true
by most African travelers, and the best writers upon the charac-
ter of the race. The African, even when heathen, is enthu-
siastic in his devotion to some Supreme Being whom he
accepts as the source of life and blessing. His thoroughly
innate capacity for music finds the highest themes for jubilant
praise and melodious chorus in worship. However restricted
in sentiment, or novel in execution, there is an overflow of
zeal and genuine gladness which indicates some melody of
soul. The Mississippi steamer, the plantation, the cabin and
the forest have resounded with his songs, when all that he
seemed to possess to give thanks for, was mere life and the
chance of its continuance. Whether trudging to the cotton
fields, grinding the cane, or driving his team, the ever jubilant
refrain told of his capacity for happiness, and how keen were
his susceptibilities to enjoy.
Few scenes were more full of wild and thrilling interest
than a visit to some colored church at the South on the Sab-
bath, when a great assembly, relieved from the pressure of
week-day duty, made the very walls tremble with the volume
of their song, and when a strange delight and deliriatn of
gladness in the worship of the Great Master, seemed almost to
separate soul from body, and take the spirit into the presence
of the Invisible. This religious feeling has not abated with
the rescue of the race, but, with the increased latitude for its
indulgence, there must be a wise direction given to its fervor,
in order that it may prove a genuine element in elevating and
purifying life. It must be refined, methodized and instructed,
through intelligence and wise counsels. Other conditions of
life, preeminently that of systematic labor, must be allied with
it, and this is to be accomplished only through your own
improvemeut and corresponding effort to improve others.
Your Sabbath schools vie with any in their outward pros-
perity, and ,the generation which is now coming to maturity,
12 Address of
untrammeled by the sneers, the contumely and abuse of other
races, can look up and around, and as you address the Creator
of all things as your God, so you can shout and sing,
My Country, "tis of thee,
Sweet land of Liberty,
Of thee 1 sing.
Well was it for your race while in bondage, that, instead of
simply grovelling like the cowed brute under the lash of
oppression, there was music in your nature that buoyed up
your soul and gave you access to the Throne. To be an
African was to be at least a natural musician, and but for that
ever present agency, the power to sing, how could the race
have been saved from blindness and degredation too deep and
utter to have been rescued for generations.
Wisely do you cultivate that faculty. It is hard to find a
spontaneous^ cheerful singer, who is either ivholly rogue or
brute. Where song flows as the stream, from a constant
fountain, there is almost always affection, fraternity and rever-
ence. It has been the outlet for the joy of worshippers
through all ages, and it is the glory of countless angels and
archangels about the great White Throne. It is the happiest
outflowing demonstration of purity of heart, and it rises like
grateful incense to the Author of all that blesses man, upward,
to that God who has given to the rustling leaves, as well as to
the birds, a share in the ceaseless song of Nature, and whose
entire universe is full of melody in sweet accord with his
matchless love.
The stoniest heart is reached by music. Cultivate it for
yourselves and your families, and when the hour shall come
in which to dedicate your new sanctuary to the service of
Almighty God, let not praise alone abound, but make it a
sacred temple, from which with a truly consecrated life, you
may go forth into the world, and as men see your good works
they shall know and testify that you walk with God.
Shouting and singing are not all of religion, but when your
music flows from the joy of a peaceful spirit and a consistent,
pure and useful life, you may rejoice that you can sing, and
may well sing as you rejoice.
Col. H. B. Carringlon. 13
INTELLECTUAL LIFE.
Next, and handmaid to religion, and essential to an intelli-
gent view of religious obligation and duty, in the peculiar posi-
tion of your race is the acquisition of knowledge. There are
old and gray headed men and women among you, and some of
them may not live to see the completion of your new church
edifice. How painfully have the slow years dragged, as they
waited for the Year of Jubilee ! How has faith wavered, and
how has it seemed as if the right hand of Jehovah was short-
ened, that it could not save, until, when deliverance comes as
on the wings of the morning, they can almost say with Holy
Simei, of old, " Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace,
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation ! "
They were youth, when to strive to read, was to suffer.
You, their children and grandchildren, no longer a despised
race, but maturing in the work and franchise of freemen, have
great inducement to bring every child and youth into the
speediest and best cultivation of the head as well as the heart.
Lead out every good faculty you possess. Help educate
yourselves. France has repeatedly given the honors of her
National Academy to the colored man. The President of the
United States has acted in the spirit of the American people,
by introducing worthy men of your color into places of trust
and honor. The ship yards and printing offices of the United
States no longer make complexion a test of fitness. Moral
progress is ever onward and upward. There is no back-track
for a revolution against iniquity. They who do not see the
advance of Right, are the greatest sufferers, whatever their
profession, trade or calling. To be deemed worthy as any,
you must deserve as well as any. It matters not what may
be your occupation, so that it be honest and useful ; but it does
concern you that you acquire knowledge, that you read the
history of your country, that you read of its past so thor-
oughly as to understand the demands of the future, and that
every child shall be early taught the principles involved in a
fair common school education, and thus be able intelligently
and successfully to keep an even way with those who for gen-
erations have been in your advance. Thus, and thus only,
14 Address of
through this constant effort at self-improvement, will your field
of influence enlarge, so that your people will command respect,
and you will be able, in turn, to assist in the development and
improvement of those hundreds of thousands at the South,
who have not had the privileges which you enjoy.
Thus will you lay the foundation for filling your pulpits
with well-read and successful preachers of the gospel. It will
not answer that they have simply the fervor of warm hearts?
They must, with you, and more than you, cultivate the head''
as well as the heart. Thus also will lawyers and physicians
spring from your midst, who will honor noble professions.
Thus will you rise to the platform of true manhood, and the
finger of scorn will only rest upon the ignorant and unworthy,
whether black or white.
POLITICAL LIFE.
The embers that now and then flash in the extinguishment
of the rebellion will soon be as dead as the ashes about tliem^
Sooner or later you will go to the polls, and as you now pay
taxes, so will you take part in selecting the men who collect
and disburse those taxes. As there were those who denied in
1860 and in the Spring ol 1861 that a war was coming; as
there were men who had no faith in its success and the has-
tening end of slavery, so there may possibly be those who
will not see the position you are to occupy as men.
Temporary opposition and the discussion of its prudence or
safety cannot long delay the consummation, if you are faithful
to manhood, and be careful to deserve that which the nation
tenders. Prepare yourselves for the coming duty. Nearly
every institution of vice in the land retains life, only because
honest, patriotic and christian voters do not unite for the best
men and the best cause. Your votes will be wanted by
everybody. You will find before long that you are thought
a great deal of, and will be surprised how suddenly the idea
came to ligiit. Become fully Amercanized ; that is, identify
yourselves with the welfare of the entire people. Inspired by
religion, endowed by education with the discrimination you
require,- come squarely up to the standard of earnest, honest,
Col. H. B. Carring-ton. 15
and independent freemen, and your country shall have cause
to be proud of you, as you will be proud of your conntry.
.Already you have your color in the army. No American
officer need feel nshained to own himself "an officer of a
colored regiment." Colored regiments meet their duty on
the plains, or elsewhere, with credit to themselves and the
nation. Clad in the panoply of right, till up the measure of
recurring daily duty, so that when you vote for the first time,
and have a country in fact, you may feel like shouting, as I
trust you may, when you exchange an earthly home for the
heavenly, " home at last I "
I am no politician, and seek none of its notoriety or honors.
I assume a fact which I know to be assured; and, as a fellow
man, I give you counsel upon principles of life and conduct,
which being those of christian manhood, predicated upon the
laws of God, govern us all, whatever our calling or color;
and I speak under the conviction, that had I declined to meet
you in the spirit of your assurance that my work would do
you good, I would be unworthy my profession and my citi-
zenship.
YOUR PKHSONAL AND SOCIAL LIFP],
It is possible, my friends, for a freeman* to be an educated,
christian man, and still to lack many qualities of person, or
habitudes of life, that impart completeness to character, and
distinguish an eminently useful life.
Good manners, neatness, and the outward refinement of
the gentleman are by no means to be dispised or neglected.
As a people you have some natural aptitudes for other social
qualities besides that comprehended in taste for music. The
white man has, in fact, made money from crowded houses
for years, by calling many most pathetic, joyous or spirited
airs, ^'■Ethiopian Melodies,^'' and has complimented you therfeby.
If he borrows or imitates your music, see to it, that in your
imitations from him, you select only that which is refined in
manners and inures to your radical and permanent improve-
ment.
A clean, tidy cabin, however humble, if suited to your
16 Address of
means, can be a home that will speak to every jrassing
stranger, of thrift, taste and happiness.
You have abundant social feeling, and no people are more
addicted to those neighborly reunions which develop the
impulse of mutual support in affliction no less than that of
sympathy in ail rational and substantial pleasures.
Home is the first place to make happy. Let the gambling den,
and all indulgence that wastes time, energy or money, with-
out imparting support or happiness to your family, or benefit
to your head or heart, be shunned as you would shun a viper.
Slavery of the body and soul to vicious indulgence is worse
than the slavery from which your race has been redeemed by
blood. It is the immediate curse of this nation, and a heav-
ier burden to bear than the national debt, that physical indul-
gence and extravagance generally are dulling moral percep-
tion, and running the people after that which satisfieth not.
But, my friends, the best personal and social li e involves
labor. Work is the law of our being. All work will not be
alike in worldly dignity or income. Life, in every sphere-
has its methods and values ; but the obligation of labor is
ever present. Nature gives her examples. From the bursting
seed, ambitious to come out to the air and breathe life with
us, to the forest tree which by slow struggle has attained a
power to resist the tornado and put to fault all human resist-
ance, there is still found this law of patient, earnest work.
If you look for a man whom you would trust, it is not the
corner loafer ; but it is that man who, day by day, has some-
thing honest to do, and does it perseveringly, and, therefore,
does it well. Women work ; and in the sphere of home they
toil with a faithfulness and devotion that does not alone im-
part to the life of man its solace aud consolation, but when
the care and culture of children have had their due attention,
woman by her intuitive perception comes in with her counsels
to strengthen and fortify man for duty, just as her gentleness,
trust and love make of home a heaven in contrast with the
turmoil of out-door life.
L^/e, as a rule, is all ivork. Pleasure is but a style of rest
to body or brain, and is the balm which soothes the strain of
Col. H. B. Carrki^ion. 1 >
labor, iiiul not onlv rcrrcshes the worker, but. gives new
zest to ihe work itself. Tlieretbre, nmii niid woman, rejoice
in your ability 1o work. The (hone of a liive iiinst die. 80
the idle man or woman starves, and no willinjt; companion is
fonnd to give refreshment, earned by the loil of others. The
old proverb, that "man is the arehitect of his own fori lines,"
is a good one. Buiklings do not grow, as does the mushroom,
in the night, to be given io man in Ihe morning, without
labor. Even the mushroom worked ; though man did not
help it grow, and though he slejit while it labored. The
problem is simple, and the humblest have their appropriate
field of labor. The whole law t)f human progress is embod-
ied in the question of personal respectability and individual
duty.
A symmetrical life is not one which has placidly and evenly
developed, undisturbed by, or inditl'erenr to its surroundings,
but one that has surmounted obstacles, and has realized com-
pleteness through struggle add victory.
I have seen plaster casts that at first seemed true to the
original marble statue which they were designed to imitate.
How ditferently were they fashioned! The copy could have
been made by any common worker, without the expenditure
of much brains or genius. The original has been cut from
the stone itself, oy countless thousands of strokes, and when
the earnest worker underwent well nigh iiibniie anxiety lest
in delicacy of touch, perfection of outline, or development of
expression, contour or feature, he should so fail, that the fail-
ure would be signal and complete.
Thus a well developed, perfect life has felt the chisel and
the hammer, and has attained completeness not by the pas-
sive acceptance of a compress into some (established mould,
which was only mechanical and without the t^therial spirit to
o-ive to the result the highest success ; hut has been the
sequel to struggle and blows.
In a small attic rot)m, under a sky-light window, surrounded
by all the circumstances that indicated indigence, isolation and
struggle, there was heard the click of the hammer upon a fine
2
[X Address of
chisel, as it took from the marble block such delicate fragments
that they fell as dust before the worker. The eye and face of
the sculptor were almost those of an insane man. The sus-
pended breath was followed by sighs of relief, only as now
and then some partial success seemed to bring a single feature
into harmony with the ideal of the brain.
Hours passed, and the man worked on. In the next garret,
a cobbler pegged away at his honest work, wondering how a
man could thus be bothered, day by day and week upon week,
siinplfi to nil (I s/otir to shape. The sculptor died, and few
followed him to his humble resting place. His statue, the
aehievemeni of a life of struggle, lived on, and gave to his
memory the savor of an honored name, and it became the
model for copyists and worshippijig admirers so long as time
shall render tribute to ;irt. Such is the memory of a faithful
life and in ihai devotion to work is epitomized the law for
your struggle and mine. As the river, that bears great ships,
and is tributary 1o the commerce of the world, is the aggregate
of unnumbered minor streams, so its history is peculiar. Tt
was not always the perfect, majestic moving agent of com-
merce. Some of its feeding tributaries gained birth in little
springs, whose fountains had barely life enough to overllow
their basins, or trickli> from the tnountain side, to strengthen
drop l)y (lri>p. ilie nearest little brook. Sands absorbed and
suns dried ont niiu-li ol ilieir iirst e\j)enditnre of moisture.
Summer showers, or the einlv meltings of the winter snow,
rendered timely contributions, so that at last, all com!)ined
with other streams, alike of Inunble birth, to m;)ke that river.
\\ oik. progress, and t lie combination of small agencies toward
;i common end. seenreil the result.
Thus began the struggle to achieve freedom for your race,
and that noble man. ( "lii< f .Instice CuAsr;. who adorns the
seat ol' ( liiel' .lu-lice 1\[\ usn \ i.i,. wtlained his place, by earnest
work, and iibove all. that enrnest work that endures forever —
consistent, constant work, for Tiibertv and Right.
()nr indi\^i(lual lile. from its bci^'inninir. has been ;i slrn<'"»le.
We ciime into the world erving. wailing ird'ants, as if con-
scious of life'.- triiils vet to come. The first strngi;:le for a
Col H. B. Carringion. . 19
I'.air of bt)ots, lor niarbles;, top?;, or other bov-iirne toy?;, or
aiiiusrineiitf^. was representaliv<^ o\' the Jat-l that all acqiiirc-
iiienr was to be ^aiiifd ihrovii^li disire, labor and struggle.
'riic uinltilK)!! and competition, the (piarrels and jealousies
ol" boyhood, vonlh and inanlit)()d, v/lietlier in study, an:) ii«e-
inent or irork. \\\\\v all had their jiaTm'.d place in this sphere
of sirniiijle. There irave been historic periods, characters and
einerijencies, when The distinctness, boldness and results of
struggle have given names To dynasties, characters or issues,
which for a time have retained their prestige as memorable
examples for the information, warning, or encouragement of
other generations.
But, as a general law, as with the river, so it is with States
and races. 'LMie ij;eneral result is regarded by tht: world with-
out regard to the individual elements that secured the result,
until Time's Avenger, the .Judge of all the earth, shall declare,
before the assembled Universe, the exact uieasurc of lionor
due even to the humblest of all his creatures. Individuals
are smothered in the rubbish of the past, but the Onniiscient
Father lias in keeping the record of every thought or deed
that has advaticed his glory.
If the Islands of the Pacitic, delivered from the bowels of
the earth by mighty upheavals of the volcano or earthquake,
have been fertilized and planted through the visits of the birds
of the air, and from seeds borne across the ocean by the winds
of heaven, how much more certainly are the small matters of
daily duty to be traced forward and shaped by well-timed es-
timate of their value, so that they may intelligently work to
the perfection of character and the blessing of life.
, One thought more, just here.
The great victories of the battlelield have almost always
turned upon something so slight that any other contingency
would have lost the issue. Hoiv did tlie spade and pick-ax of
plain Jionest farmers, tdneli/'lhree years ago, this reri/ day, give
to Bunker Hill its gion/ ! How uncertain were the waiting
hours, that with Blucher's arrival, gave to England her Wa-
terloo I How, above all strange, was that madness of passion
which evoked the American rebellion, and out of its suppres-
20 Address of
sion perfected American liberty, and gave to tin- world, at last,
the exanriple of one free Republic. That vast expenditure of
blood and Treasure was made up t)t individnal struggle, most
of it unheralded and unhonored bi/ man, but in and through
that struggle, there sprang forth in fresh beauty and glory, the
secret of success for all individual or national endeavor, ^Devo-
tion to Dutjf.'"
To your young ujen, 1 say, that you are all sculptors, chip-
ping out your fortunes. No man of any spirit, whether black
or white, and having any just idea of his capacity and des-
tiny, will be passively cast by others, from any mould, nor
will he accept, as satisfactory to liiinself, any result for his
life, that lacks the endurance of the real marble.
You are all, likewise, contributing your share to the mo-
mentum and volume of that great current of lite, which rep-
resents the Republic, and which, tiowing out over both oceans,
bathes the shores and receives the out-tiowing streams from
other lands and people. You light the battle t)f life and share
a part in the great warfare ihat must culminate in victory for
every faithful heart, and will realize its complete glory in an
enfranchised w oriel.
Take my well intended eoimsels to your homes and to your
daily work. You will get some impressions from what 1 say.
You will have new responsibilities because of this interview.
You can not walk a rod and breathe the air you live in with-
out receiving some impression upon your health and physical
being. Not a drink of water passes your lips that has not its
humble place in the economy of your active life. Yet, a
thankless soul, regards neither, with any proper regard for the
Author of daily mercies, just as those who live on That belt of
our earth beneath which the molten lava sways and surges,
rebuild their frail habitations jitsi so soon as the foundations
cease to tremble from the earthquake, or the lav;) fr. in the
volcano has cooled sufficiently for their work.
You may go away to-night, and forget, for the present, all
I have said. Some w ho have noi fully understood all, will
neglect to ask of others, who did. The time will come when
you will remember every wasted o|)porumily and every slight-
Col H. B. Carrhiirfo,,. 21
(^d counsel. It will be ijow faulr. one and all. if you do not go
away with soirte thonghl. aonie new purpose, some fresh re-
solve to be better and iiK)ie uselii I, planted deep down in vonr
breast. You are responsible for the improvement of good ad-
vice, just as much as for the |)ro))er use of hands, that are
given you for labor, and for obedience to that conscience
which is e.-tabiished in vour hearts lo declare the right and
reject the wrong. Many of you, I know, will treat this hour
as a social occasion, quite |)leasant as it passes, forgetful that
every hour has its lesson and its duties, and that there is no
escape from responsibility for the improvement of every occa-
sion in which to oain fresh incentive to become stronger,
purer and better.
Remember that von are bound to take part in tiailv strug-
gle whether you do or do not wish to do so. The \\ inds of
heaven are ever in motion. \Vh<'n you think all is silence,
far above you, there are ceaseless currents that affect your be-
ing, and nothing in the Universe of God is at rest.
When men do not praise Him. the bursting seed, the lift-
ing grain, the s|>eeding waters, tlie forming chrystals, the ab-
sorbing leaves which live on dew and air, and those |mst gen-
erations of shells and vegetation which have Ijeen so long ma-
turing into limestone or coal, for the use of man, are all lively
at work, and unceasingly join in giad tribute to the Great
Creator for His wisdom, goodness, power and love.
Thus, you must work and struggle, if you would attain
any good thing. To be sure, it will not always be easy thus
to work. There is no struggle, and nothing gained, when
there is no opposition or resistance. Hence reward is held
out to entice labor forward. There is no pursuit of an object,
in hand. There is no climbing of a mountain after the sum-
mit is reached. But, you have not reached the end of life's
pursuit, and every hour wasted is loss irreparable. There-
fore work on. Every passit)n, purpose or desire of man only
works toward its object through struggle. It is f(^r each one
of you, for me, and for every human soul to determine on
what to ex|)end etidrt ; and to each soul is left the more sol-
22 Address of
eimi rt'spoiisibilit V to src to it that lie dot's not spend his
slreiiii'tli fnr l);inl)li'-' ili;il hiirsl in llic i.'r;is|).
1 linvc li;ill complete the duty
which called me here, and 1 shall certainly never meet you all
again, it is my earne-i hope that He. whose temple you l)uild,
Col. II B. Carmiiitoii. 23
may meet yon '<^^ y^^'i fi^'^t assemble \\ ilhiii its walls. Build
it with open hands and willing hearts. (Jiving to God will
enrich and not impoverish. When eornplcted, let it be con-
secrated with the best gifts yovi can render, the gift of hearts.
So shall your life, when ended, go not ont like some fading
taper, but, catching radiance from the Heavens, opened to re-
ceive you, the spirit shall quickly pass ihe skies, to sjiine afresh
and forever, in 1he transcendent effulgence of the Sun of
Righteousness. Your franchise' there, will be the liberty with
which Christ shall set his people free. Your country there^
will be a Heavenly country. Your home there^ will be that
prepared lor you. from the foundations of the world. The
Temple wherein your oflerings of |:)raise and thanksgiving
shall be rendered, there, will be a temple not built with hands,
but tliat which fadeth not away, eternal in th ? Heavens. So
may yon struggh'. So may you : so may n'e all, a'i'i'\i\ I
At the close of the address, after the band had played
"Had Cohuubia,"' Governor Baker and Hon. .John Coburn,
M. C, made shorr addresses in response to the demand of
the audience, and earnestly urged upon all present, the prac-
tical and daily application of the advice of the address. Ow-
ing to th*e lateness of the hour. General Veatch, who was
called Uj)on, tieeliued to sjieak. Senator Morton, who had
intended to be j^resent, was iuia\oidably absent.
Publishcfl in accordance with a resolution adopted at the
close of the meeting.
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LiORARY BIMSIMG
ST. AUGUSTINE
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