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 ADDRESSES AND CEREMONIES 
 
 AT THE 
 
 NEW YEAR'S FESTIVAL TO THE FREEDMEN, 
 
 ov 
 
 AELn^QTOlSr HEIGHTS; 
 
 AND 
 
 STATISTICS AND STATEMENTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EDUCATIONAL CONDITION OF THE COLORED PEOPLE IN THE SOUTHERN 
 
 STATES, AND OTHER FACTS. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C: 
 
 McOILL A WITHEROW, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS, 
 
 1867. 
 

 
 J^^ 0^<^/A 
 
 
*:< 
 
 ADDRESSES AND CEREMONIES. 
 
 In the midst of the social and family festivities and greetings of the opening of the year 
 1867 at the national capital, the hearts of some benevolent ladies and gentlemen of Wash- 
 ington, D. C, were touched with Christian sympathy for a thousand freedmen on Arling- 
 ton Heights, within sight of the capital, who needed words of sympathy to cheer them 
 and material comforts to gladden tlieir humble homes. 
 
 Remembering the precept of Him" who went about doing good," and who said, "When 
 thou makest a feast, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor thy rich 
 neighbors, but call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed," 
 some friends of humanity, and members of diflferent denominations, resolved to give a New 
 Year's Festival to these lowly children of our common Father, many of whom were the 
 disciples of the Saviour, who, by his own precepts and beautiful examples, taught the 
 fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. 
 
 THE PEEPArvATOEY MEETING FOE THE FESTIVAL 
 
 was held on Wednesday evening, December 28, 1866, at the residence of Hon. George 
 W. McLellan, Second Assistant Postmaster General ; Hon. Sayles J. Bowen, City Post- 
 master, presided, and S. V. Boyd, Esq., acted as secretary. A committee was appointed 
 to make the necessary arrangements, consisting of Byron Sunderland, D. D., J. George 
 Butler, D. D., Charles B. Boynton, D. D., Rev. B. F. Morris, General Charles H. Howard, 
 Brevet Brigadier General James A. Ekin, General S. L. Brown, Hon. George W. McLellan, 
 Hon. Sayles J. Bowen, S. V. Boyd,S. S. Bryant, Mrs. J. C. Lewis, Mrs. C. H. Morse, Mrs. 
 U. H. Hutchins, Mrs. H. D. Cooke, Mrs. S. J. Bowen, Miss Mary E. McLellan, and Miss 
 Nelson. Rev. Dr. Butler and others made appropriate remarks. 
 
 Thursday, P. M., December 27, the committee met at the room of Mr. Bowen, in the 
 City Post Office. Messrs. Morris, Boyd, and Bryant were appointed a committee to procure 
 speakers. Drs. Sunderland and Batler and Rev. Mr. Mon-is a committee to. prepare a^ 
 circular appealing to the public. The Hon. Geo. W. McLellan and Sayles J. Bowen were 
 constituted a committee to receive all contributions and supplies, the same to be left with, 
 them at the Post Office building. 
 
 General S. L. Brown was authorized to make all preparations necessary in tlie procur- 
 ing of buildings and arranging tables, &c., &c. 
 
 David Fisher, Elder of the Fifteenth Presbyterian (colored) church, Mathew Lewis, John 
 A. Greery, and William A. Shorter, of the same church, and Gurdin Snowden, of the 
 Asbury Methodist Episcopal (colored) church, were present, and were appointed to assist 
 in the arrangements for the entertainment. 
 
 Rev. J. J. Marks, D. D., of Meadville, Pennsylvania, who had been a popular and 
 devoted chaplain in the 63d Pennsylvania regiment during the war, and who is the 
 author of an excellent volume entitled the " Peninsular Campaign," being on a visit to the 
 national capital, volunteered to visit Philadelphia to solicit aid ; and for his valuable 
 services he received the thanks of the committee. 
 
 The festival was voted to be held on Saturday, the 5th of January, 1867. t 
 
The following circular was published : 
 
 "APPEAL IN BEHALF OF THE FREEDMEN AT ARLINGTON HEIGHTS. 
 
 " Nearly one thousand freedmen are located at Arlington Heights, within siglit of the 
 capital of our nation. A large proportion are children and aged and infirm men and 
 women, who need, and must have, the charities of the Christian public. Recently from 
 bondage and helpless, they make a strong and touching appeal to the sympathies of the 
 humane. 
 
 " A number of ladies and gentlemen, of various denominations, of Washington, have 
 organized, and are at work, to give these freedmen a New Year's entertainment, on Satur- 
 day, the 5th of January next, and also' to provide for their material comfort during the 
 present winter. 
 
 "An appeal is made, in this form, to the friends of humanity and of the freedmen, for 
 aid in this truly benevolent and praiseworth}^ object. All articles of food, (bread and 
 meats prepared, if possible,) clothing, new or partly worn, coarse fabrics of various kinds, 
 and money, are earnestly solicited. 
 
 " Each pastor and person to whom this circular is'sent, is requested to take up a collec- 
 tion, on Sabbath next, the 30th instant, or make up a box early in the coming week, and 
 direct, through the express or the mails, to the Hon. George W. McLellan, Second 
 Assistant Postmaster General, or Hon. Sayles J. Bowen, City Postmaster, Washington, D. C. 
 
 " It is confidently believed that this appeal will receive prompt and liberal responses, 
 and tlie donors experience the happiness of our Saviour's precept, ' It is more blessed to 
 give than to receive.' 
 
 " Friends of humanity and of our common Christianity ! send a memorial to this noble 
 charity, and make the hearts and humble homes of these lowly and suflfering ones glad 
 and grateful with your New Year's offerings and benedictions. 
 
 "The members of Congress and other distinguished citizens are invited, some of whom 
 will address the colored people and the guests present, on topics of interest to the eman- 
 cipated race and to our common country. 
 
 " Byeon Sunderland, D. D., 
 
 "Pastor of the First Presbyterian CJiurch. 
 "J. Geo. Butler, D. D., 
 
 "Pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church. 
 "B. F. Morris, Resident Minister. 
 "Committee on behalf of a Meeting of the Friends of the Freedmen. 
 
 " Washington, D. C, December 28, 1866." 
 
 This appeal was directed to be sent to' each pastor of the churches in Washington city. 
 It was also sent to churches in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and some 
 neighboring towns, and to a number of benevolent persons abroad. Liberal responses 
 were made to it by benevolent persons and by various churches, especially in Philadelphia, 
 which are acknowledged elsewhere. ' 
 
 invited guests. 
 
 A large number of invited guests were present, among whom were Hon. Portus Baxter, 
 member of Congress from Vermont, and his wife; Hon. Messrs. Moulton and Bromwell, 
 members of Congress from Illinois ; Hon. Mr. Clarke, member of Congress from Ohio, and 
 his wife; Hon. John H. Farquhar, member of Congress from Indiana; Hon. George A. 
 Lincoln and his wife, from Brooklyn, New York ; Hon. Mr. Jewett, of Buffalo, New York ; 
 Colonel U. H. Hutchins and wife, of Ohio ; Mrs. Mary C. Ames, the correspondent of the 
 Independent ; Mrs. S. J. Bowen and sisters ; Mrs. 0. H. Morse ; Mrs. John J. Jolliffe ; the 
 Misses McLellan, Nelson, Spear, and Borden ; Drs. Sunderland and Butler ; Rev. Mr. 
 Morris; Rev. Mr. Turney, and his wife ; Rev. Mr. Johnson ; S. V. Boyd ; General Charles 
 H. Howard, Assistant Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, and others. 
 
 Invitations had been extended to Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, Hon. Henry Wilson, 
 Senator in Congress from Massachusetts ; Hon. Horace Maynard, member of Congress 
 from Tennessee ; Hon. George W. Julian, member of Congress from Indiana ; Hon. Ira 
 
D 
 
 Harris, Senator in Congress from New York; Hon. J. M. Edmunds, xe-Commissioner of 
 the General I/and Office; Hon. James C. "Wetmore, Military State Agent for Ohio ; John 
 R. Elvans, Esq., of Washington city, and other distinguished friends of the colored race, 
 but who were unable to be present. Letters from Bome of these gentlemen were received, 
 which will be found elsewhere. 
 
 ARLINGTON HEIGHTS. 
 
 The beautiful spot where the festival was held has local memories, past and present, 
 of suggestive historic interest. The large landed estate, con<;isting of twelve hundred acre.=, 
 known by this name, was the propertj'- of Washington, who bequeathed it to his foster- 
 son, George Washington Custis, whose daughter is the wife of General Robert E. Lee, the 
 chief of the rebel army during the civil war. His treason forfeited it to tlie Government, 
 and it became, by an order of the Secretary of War, Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, the home 
 of the freedmen. It was for forty years before the rebellion the seat of social, intellectual, 
 and political attractions to eminent public men of the country, especially those from the 
 Southern States, who participated frequently in its elegant hospitalities. The mansion 
 over which now waves the flag of the nation contained many mementoes of the Father of 
 his Country, some of which remained after its owner, General Lee, left it to lead the armies 
 of the rebellion, and which are preserved as interesting trophies of the war. 
 
 THE soldiers' CEMETERY, 
 
 on Arlington Heights, near to the mansion, is a consecrated spot of this memorable and 
 historic estate. It was selected, after the war closed, by the National Government as the 
 final resting-place of many of the brave men who fell in the great battles of the conflict 
 in Virginia, and who died in the hospitals, and who have thus, in their lives and death, 
 consecrated the spot to patriotism and freedom. The serried columns of the graves of ten 
 thousand of our brave soldiers, white and black, buried beneath the green trees of Arling- 
 ton Heights, within sight of the capital of the nation, are still the sentinels of safety to the 
 city and the country, and will be perpetual memorials of the sacrifices made for the free- 
 dom of an enslaved race and the salvation of our republic. 
 
 " So sleep the brave who sink to rest, 
 • With all their country's honors blest." 
 
 ^ freedmen's village, 
 
 located on an elevated part of Arlington Heights, and overlooking the capital, has an 
 instructive history, yin the opening of the war, a large number of fugitive slaves, from 
 Maryland and Virginia, coming within our lines, made Washington their city of refuge. 
 These colored people, then called "contrabands of war," were taken under the care of the 
 Government. Their first home was in the Old Capitol, in which the first Congress that 
 met in Washington city, in 1800, held its sessions, and which was used during the war 
 as a place of confinement for rebel prisoners. Subsequently the quarters of these colored 
 persons were located in " Duff Green's Row," a block of building.s on the same square, east 
 of the pre.sent Capitol. These buildings have memorable associations connected with 
 many of the leading men of the rebellion. John C. Calhoun, the father of secessionism, and 
 the great champion of slavery in Congress, and other leading southerners, enjoyed the 
 intimate hospitalities of the owner, whose name the buildings bear, and in them were held 
 frequent social and political conferences during the reign of slavery. 
 
 In May, 1862, Rev. D. B. Nichols, who furnishes these facts, and a devoted friend to 
 the colored race, came to Washington as missionary from the American Missionary Asso- 
 ciation, to labor among the colored people. He was appointed Superintendent of the 
 
6 
 
 "contrabands" in and around "Washinc^ton by General James Wadsworth, tben Military 
 Governor of the District. In Jnly, 1862, the freedmen, by an order of the Government, 
 were transferred to '' McClollan's Barracks," known afterwards as Camp Barker, in the 
 northwestern part of the city. Owing to the frequent visits from slave owners in Mary- 
 land, liunting for their escaped slaves, in June, 18G3, these colored people were removed 
 to Arlington Heights, one hundred persons forming the colony. 
 
 The present village, under the superintendence of Mr. Nichols, was selected and laid 
 out, and on the 4th of Pecemfcer, 1863, was dedicated by appropriate religious services; 
 and a school-house, used also ns a place of worship, and a hospital for the aged and infirm, 
 were built. A school had been previously organized by Mr. Sperry, of the American 
 Trarit Society, under a raajcstic oak. near to a fine spring of pure water. Under the 
 earnest and faithful labors of the superintendent and other.?, hundreds of children and 
 adults received the rudiments of education, and were instructed in religious knowledge. 
 The village contained at one time fifteen hundred souls, and since its location several 
 thousand have been under its religious and educational influences. A Methodist church 
 was formed, and subsequently one by the Baptists, the latter of which is now in a flour- 
 ishing condition, and under the pastoral care of Rev. Mr. Laws, (colored,) who has re- 
 ceived during the last year ninety persona into church fellowship. A large Sabbath- 
 achool is also in a flourishing condition. 
 
 In May, 1865, the village came under the care of the Freedmen's Bureau, whose Com- 
 missioner is Major Gen 0. 0. Howard, the Christian, hero and philanthropist, who has 
 administered this important branch of the Government with great success and integrity, 
 and labored assiduously and earnestly to protect the rights and elevate and bless the 
 
 colored race. 
 
 The village was visited at different times, in the years of 1863-4-5, by Hon. Hannibal 
 Hamlin, Vice President of the United States; Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State; 
 Hon. Salmon P. Cha^e, Secretary of the Treasury; Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the 
 Navy; Hon. Charles H. Dana, Assistant Secretary of Wiir; Generals Meigs, Auger, and 
 Doubleday ; Lord Lyons, the English Minister, attended by Admiral Milne, of the Royal 
 Navy; the Russian admiral and his suite, and other notables. Secretary Seward had 
 visited the village thirteen times, and his wife and daughter, both deceased, who were 
 distinc'uished for their practical sympathy for the oppressed and the poor, and around 
 whose meroories cling precious recollections, had frequently visited the village, and mani- 
 fested the deepest interest and Christian sympathy in their physical comfort and in their 
 intellectual and religious culture and elevation. 
 
 On Saturday, the 5th of January, 1867, the friends of the freedmen met in the church of 
 the village to engage in the ceremonies of the day. It had been tastefully decorated with 
 evergreens and beautiful banners by the colored people, and over the pulpit was wreathed 
 in letters of evergreen the name of " ABRAHAM LINCOLN." 
 
 THE CEREMONIES 
 
 were commenced by an impressive and fervent prayer by the Rev. Mr. Johnson, of the 
 Unitod Presbyterian church. 
 
 S. V. Boyd, Esq., who had been active and liberal in getting up the first colored regi- 
 ment in the District of Columbia, and is an earnest friend of the colored people, was 
 appointed to preside. He introduced the first speaker as follows : 
 
 On such a happy occasion as the present, it is eminently proper that the first address 
 Bhould be from the distinguished Representative in Congress at large from the State of 
 lUiDois, the home of Abraham Linooln, who i.<«siie.d the immortal Proclamation of Free- 
 
dom to four millions of slaves, and who, in yonder capital, on the 14t.h of April, 1865, fell 
 a martyr to his country and to the freedom of an oppressed race. I have the honor to 
 introduce Hon. S. "W. Moultok, of Illinois. 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. S. 'W. MOULTON, OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 JIy Fellow- Countrymen; I am rejoiced to have the opportunity of meeting with you 
 to-day under theso happy auspices. 
 
 I am an entire stranger to you, living a thou.'^and miles away, in the great State of 
 Illinois, the former home of the groat Lincoln. I am here by accident, not expecting to 
 address 5'ou ; but I esteem it a privilege and pleasure to speak to you a few earnest words 
 of congratulation and encouragement on this to you dee[.ily interesting and happy occa- 
 sion. 
 
 This is the anniversary of your emancipation. It is your jubilee. 
 
 For hundreds of years your race has been kept in chains and slavery of the most 
 revolting and degrading character. All generous impulses, hopes, and ambition were crushed 
 out, and you were simply miichines, operatives, at the will of a tyrant master. Such is 
 your past history. 
 
 But thanks be to an allwise Providence and the disinterested patriotism and humanity 
 of your great friend, the lamented Lincoln, your chains have been broken, slavery forever 
 destroyed within this Union, and all the responsibilities of American citizenship have 
 devolved upon you. 
 
 Mv friends, do you understand fully the import of freedom, liberty, and citizenship? 
 Bv being free, you are not thereby discharged from the obligations of citizens — from 
 responsibilities and from labor to support yourselves and families. With citizenship your 
 responsibilities begin ; you stand erect before the world as men and women. Have you the 
 mental and moral qualities to enable j'ou to take care of yourselves in the race of life, is 
 one of the questions that you alone can solve. 
 
 Your friends believe that you possess the elements to make good citizens and to enable 
 vou to discharge all your obligations to society, if you are permitted to have a fair and 
 equal chance in the world 
 
 All you ast is that the laws of the country shall operate equally upon all, without 
 regard to race or color. With this vou are content to take your chances. This is reason- 
 able and just, and no vote of mine shall ever be given to deprive your race of perfect 
 equality before the law. 
 
 You, as a people, have given the most indisputable evidence of your love of this Union 
 and hatred of treason by watering with your blood an hundred battle-fields. Your black 
 hands have carried aloft triumphantly the old flag, through fields of blood, carnage, and 
 death. In the great struggle through which we have just passed you have helped to keep 
 the jewel of liberty for those who are to come after us. You have been true to every 
 duty, and all you ask now, in return, is equality before the law. 
 
 My friends, this you are entitled to, and this will be guaranteed you by the legislation 
 of the country. 
 
 Already you have been enfranchised in this District, and a bill is now pending before 
 Congrei;s for the establishment of a free-school sj-stem, under which every child will be 
 entitled to a common-school education. This is legislation in the right direction, and 
 indicates progress. p 
 
 But, my friends, if equal and just laws are afforded you, if you are permitted to fully 
 enjoy the fruits of your own labor and to stand upon au equality with all others, this is 
 all you have a right to expect. 
 
8 
 
 You must exert your own energies, you must put forth your own hands and labor ; and 
 unless you do this, freedom and equality will not aid you in the hard struggle of life; you 
 will fail in all the objects of life, and will become a burden to yourselves and society. 
 
 Then your first duty is to seek employment. ■ Don't crowd into the cities ; go into the 
 country, where labor is scarce and in demand. Work honestly and faithfully; acquire 
 homes for yourselves and children ; and show to the world that if you have a chance, you 
 can maintain your relative position in society. This I believe you can and will do. 
 
 You have much to contend vath ; you have prejudices against you to overcome; you 
 have inveterate enemies to conquer ; and, strangely enough at this time, many of those 
 whom you had a right to expect to be your friends, have now become your enemies. They 
 have coldly turned their backs upon you, and would leave you to the tender mercies of 
 your former master. 
 
 But, my friends, you can survive this treachery. 
 
 The good and the true everywhere are your friends. The Thirty-Ninth Congress will 
 do you, I hope, full justice. 
 
 Up to this time you have done better than your friends expected. You have every- 
 where evinced a desire for education, and you have, under the circumstances, made won- 
 derful improvement, developing mental powers of a superior order in the acquisition of 
 elementary education. 
 
 My friends, there is one in the clear, blue, upper sky who looks down upon us here 
 to day and rejoices with us at your happy prospects, and the results of his labors on this 
 earth. 
 
 The great name of the martyred Lincoln you never can forget. lie was your friend, 
 and the friend of humanity. lie always faithfully kept and performed his promises to 
 your race. Your faithful hearts overflow with gratitude towards him. His memory will 
 always be sweet to you. 
 
 Emulate his great qualities : his truth, his simplicity, his honesty, his benevolence, 
 love of freedom, and liberty. 
 
 There are four millions of your race among us ; our destinies, hopes, and aspirations 
 
 are the same. 
 
 We have the same country and flag. Let there be no strife between us. TLet liarmony, 
 fraternity, liberty, and equality everywhere prevail. 
 
 If you, my fellow-countrymen, discharge all your duties as citizens to the extent of 
 your abilities, the expectation and hopes of your friends will be more than realized. 
 Prosperity and h:.ppiness will be yours ; and you can forgot the chains that have so recently 
 bound you in your improved and happier condition. 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. E. W. CLARKE, M. C. FROM OHIO. 
 
 Mr. CLARKE said : The colored race in our country had suffered long and patiently. 
 Two hundred and fifty years of servitude had laid heavy and bitter burdens upon them, 
 and had borne them down to the very earth ; but the day of deliverance had come to 
 them ; and although they were poor, uneducated, houseless, and homeless, still they were 
 blessed with one happy attribute of humanity that they had not enjoyed heretofore— the 
 ri"ht of personal liberty, the right to assert a claim to humanity, and to ask of the nation 
 the protection it demands. The Government has done a good thing for the colored people 
 of the country ; it has moved slowly, indeed, but it has advanced as rapidly as the interests 
 of the oppressed and the prejudices of the people would admit. Many of us have had to 
 combat those prejudices even where slavery never existed ; even in free States, where only 
 free people live, there are those who, being free themselves, think it no hardship if all 
 
 i 
 
others are slaves, especially if they have a slcin darker than their own. With rjuch we 
 have had to contend, and many and bitter the conflicts \v« have had in maintaining the 
 right of the negro to claim with all men a share in a common linmanity. The battle has 
 been fought, well fought, and victory has declared for the right. You are sharers with 
 the white man and all ra^es of men in a common humanity; you are, as all men in this 
 Government are, and of right ought to he, free! To-day our law pronounces you men and 
 women, endowed with certain inalienable rights, among which are l{fe, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness. And the boon of freedom once bestowed, is not easily taken away. 
 No force will dare to wrench it from you. Take care that, by your own improvidence, 
 you do not give it back to your masters, who, while there is the faintest hope of recovering 
 their lost estate, will not cease to watch with eager eyes, and seize upon the earliest occa- 
 sion that may promise them success. 
 
 Let me encourage you so to live that you may fully meet public expectation, and justify 
 the efforts that good men have made in your behalf. Be sober, industrious, and moral ; 
 educate yourselves as far as practicable ; educate your children by all means ; do net 
 become idle or profligate, that your enemies may thereby assume to prove your incapacity 
 for the condition of freemen ; rely upon your own exertions for a livelihood ; do not look 
 to the Freedmen's Bureau or public charities for support, but go forth in the world with 
 freemen's privileges, and like freemen live upon the fruits of your own labor. Do this, 
 and you cannot fail ; do this, and you will make a generous return to those who, for long 
 years, have struggled in your behalf, some of whom have given their lives to your cause ; 
 do this, and God will follow you with his mercies, and in his own good time and way open 
 to you new views in the future that shall rejoice your hearts, and make you realize that 
 on earth even the down-trodden black man may look up towards Heaven, and smile as he 
 feels its blessings descending upon him. 
 
 ADDRESS OF GENERAL C. H. HOWARD, ASS't COMMISSIONER BUREAU U., F., AND A. L. 
 
 Friends and Fellow-Citizens : I gladly avail myself of this opportunity to greet you 
 early in this meeting and upon this festival day. I do not feel that I am a stranger 
 here ; you have probably all heard my voice before, as I have more than once addressed 
 you from this platform. Hitherto I have spoken to you of my official work, so closely 
 connected with your interests ; sometimes have said that which to some was not palatable, 
 and am well aware have advocated measures which bore harshly upon some, though 
 intended for the general good. But I come to-day to offer congratulation. It is a fit day 
 of rejoicing for you. This festival celebrates the anniversary of your freedom. Those 
 who were born free can never fully appreciate the deep meaning of your joy on this anni- 
 versary. It is a privilege for me to be present, to show that I can rejoice with you when 
 you rejoice. It seems but half-hearted sympathy that merely pities those who are in want 
 and suffering, but turns coldly away when tlie tears of joy begin to flow. 
 
 Arriving in Washington this morning from a brief absence in the North, (where, by- 
 the-way, I met some of your number who have found good homes there, of whom I will 
 endeavor to tell you more, if there is time, as well as of the provision made for others of 
 you who will go.) I saw by the newspapers that you were to have a grand dinner given 
 by your friends and a general day of rejoicing, and I determined that nothing should 
 prevent me from being present. 
 
 I have called you fellow -citizens, and this anniversary celebrates the birth of your 
 citizenship. Since that memorable day of 1863, you have had the indisputable right to 
 the name. But no name, no words of mine, can give more than a faint semblance either 
 of the meaning of that daj' to you, or of the emotions of your hearts as you recollect Ihe 
 
10 
 
 boon it brought. I have not failed to see that revered and loved name of Lincoln inter- 
 twined there in your decorations of this chapel, as it is indissolubly knit with your fondest 
 affections and most cherished memories. 
 
 On the return of this anniversary you will speak of him to one another ; you will talk 
 of him to your children, and a cloud will cover for the time the sunshine of your rejoicing. 
 All of our hearts beat in sympathy with yours when we recall our great loss and the sad 
 day of his removal. But among the many, many wholesome lessons of his life was that 
 of a prevailing cheerfulness of spirit. Could he visit you to-day from his bright sphere 
 of glory, would he not bid you be glad and be thankful, and take new courage in re- 
 membering what Providence has already wrought out in your behalf. 
 
 Yes, the right to call you citizens must, I suppose, date from that day of emancipation. 
 But I claim to be of those who go back of that in deriving for you the right itself; yea, 
 more than that, the full rights of manhood. I find them in the teachings of our divine 
 Lord and Saviour. I long ago learned there that you are more than fellow-citizens; that 
 you are my brethren ; and if I refuse to acknowledge and treat you as such, I am recreant 
 to those teachings, and the Spirit of the divine Master is not enthroned in my heart. 
 Some there are who cannot see that this relationship of Christian brotherhood necessi- 
 tates for you a common citizenship in our land, or that it enjoins upon them the duty of 
 making you equal with themselves before the law. Our Lord has left a test for such ; 
 " All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." 
 
 I congratulate you to-day that in the fullness of time a Chief Magistrate was raised up 
 for us who dared to act in the spirit of these words; that after stern chastisement there 
 are millions now who are willing to apply them in determining what shall be your rights 
 before the law and your political privileges. You have friends here to-day who will, 
 doubtless, give you information upon this subject, both as to what has already been done 
 and what are their hopes for you in the future. 
 
 I congratulate you upon the great work of education among you, of which Doctor Tur- 
 ney has just been speaking. As an ofScer of the Freedmen's Bureau, T have endeavored to 
 stand shoulder to shoulder with him and all like him engaged in t.his important work. You 
 are doubtless aware that the officers of the Bureau meet your teachers upon common ground, 
 being enabled by the bou-nty of the Government to provide school-rooms often, school fur- 
 niture, transportation for teachers, and protection. Military protection has been more 
 needed in some other States than in this department, but is by no means an empty sound 
 iiere, where in a neighboring county one school-house has been burned, and two schools 
 violently broken up within three months. I agree particularly with Dr. Turney in his 
 plan of fitting teachers of your own color to go forth to aid in educating your people. It is 
 a credit to you that so many are aspiring to do this. 
 
 To-day is a good day to cultivate independence and self-reliance. I see before me faces 
 lighted up with intelligence, and in many of them I read also a resolute purpose to do 
 and dare in the battle of life before them. I shall have more" to say to such (as I have 
 addressed them here before) upon a subject of vital practical moment ; but, first, a few 
 words to another class who are represented here. I mean those who have spent their . 
 strength and have become old in the service of others, and can no longer work. The 
 profits of their labor has enriched others than themselves. They were not permitted to 
 lay by a competence for old age. It is right and fitting that they should receive their 
 support now, and the Government has made some provision for such at this village. Then 
 there are those not old in years, but who have worn out their physical constitutions or 
 otherwise became permanently disabled in that unrequited service. You, too, have a 
 claim to be cared for. All your toil and hardship and suffering in those long years of 
 
11 
 
 elavery we had better not dwell upon, though it is proper for us to remember, as we have 
 endeavored to to-day, your just claim to our sympathy. I recall to mind with pain an 
 inmate of one of the neighboring houses, a girl of fifteen, whose very reason was 
 dethroned, as her devoted mother informed me, by the violence of her cruel master. She 
 and all like her deserve ample provision for their maintenance from a Government which 
 permitted such outrages upbn the helpless. To all this class rightfully dependent we would 
 bring good cheer to-day, and assure them, from what we know of the American people, 
 that they will continue to be cared for. Those of them at this village are the direct wards 
 of the Government, acting through the Freedmen's Bureau. Neiiher law nor appropria- 
 tion is lacking to meet their necessities. There is no reason why ihey should suffer for 
 want of proper shelter, food, clothing, fuel, or medical attendance. I may mention, as a 
 gratifying fact, that these dependents are comparativelj^ few. Although brought here 
 from the entire military department of Washington, they number at present only about 
 two hundred persons. 
 
 But as I promised, I have a few words in closing for the able-bodied before me — the 
 strong, stalwart, intelligent, independent, ambitious men, and their equally intellif^ent, 
 active, and hopeful helpmates. Besides the congratulations which I most heartily and 
 truly give to you, I have to offer some considerations which deeply concern your welfare, 
 and of which some of you have heard me speak before. 
 
 By actual census, conducted by the Bureau, we ascertained last spring that there were 
 2'7,287 colored persons in Washington, and 4,262 in Georgetown ; in all, 31.549. Now, 
 this is many thousands more than can possibly be employed in the District. You disdain 
 assistance in the support of yourselves and your families. With strong arms and bravo 
 hearts, you are determined not to become paupers, either upon the bounty of the Govern- 
 and your own livelihood. [Yes, yes.] Well, now, if I could have sufficiently increased 
 ment or the Christian public. [No, no.] You want work, and to earn your own bread 
 the business of this District, the house-building, the shipping, the trade of all kinds, and 
 started manufacturing and farming on so grand a scale as to have given you all work 
 at good wages, I would gladly have done so. But as all this matter of business regulates 
 itself, what was the next best thing to be done for you ? Of course, you answer, a part 
 must go away to places where labor can be had. Acting upon this idea, employment- 
 offices were established in Washington, and branch otHces in northern cities, to ascertain 
 where remunerative labor could be found, and to induce the people to go to the places 
 when found. One measure was adopted which seemed harsh to some of you, viz : no able- 
 bodied persons were allowed to remain at this village unless they had work in Uie vicinity. 
 
 This was done that you might, by going elsewhere, be put upon a footing of real inde- 
 pendence and prosperity. 
 
 We soon had ample calls for all we could send North. Five thousand freed people of 
 the District have been thus provided for during the past year. But still you would hardly 
 know any had gone. Ten thousand more ought to go. 
 
 I seize upon this occasion to impress upon you all the vital importance of this matter. 
 Your people are reluctant to go away, to leave their Iiomes here in the District ; and yet it 
 is a benefit to those who go and to those who remain. The benefits seem to me too plain 
 to need enumeration. I have sometimes propounded a question of arithmetic to illustrate 
 this. If you have an acre of land to be planted, for which six dollars will be paid, and 
 there are three of you to do the work, how mucli will each have? [Answer from several 
 voices, two dollars.] Now, if one of your number is given work elsewhere, leaving the 
 acre for two, how much will you each liave'' [Answer, three dollars.] Certainly. Now, 
 Bupposing your other companion gets a place, and leaves the whole acre to you, how 
 
il2 
 
 nnicli do j-ou get? [Answer, six dollars.] Most certainly ; and perhaps each of the men 
 who went away is getting his full six dollars. This seems simple and plain as day- 
 light, and yet it is almost impo-ssible to get your people to act upon this principle. They 
 find a thousand excuses for staying here themselves, though they know some ought to go. 
 Will you n&t each put the question to yourself, whether you yourself ought not to go? 
 Will vou not talk it over with those not here, and show them the great advantages to 
 yourselves, to the community, and to your race, in leaving this crowded locality and 
 seeking homes where labor is plenty and wages are good. Take in some of the high 
 motives in this matter. If you go where you can have constant -work at proper v/ages, 
 you can begin to save something, have more of the comforts of life, lay by for old age, 
 educate your children, gi»e more for the cliurch and all benevolent objects. Here is a 
 path opened for your race directly to prosperity ; a new path. You knew nothing in 
 times past of economy, of laying by property for any purpose, and least of all for the 
 benefit of your race. I see young men before me who, if they would only take my advice, 
 and go away at once to almost any part of the country, might soon live in their own 
 houses — decent, comfortable houses ; not miserable hovels, as they too often inhabit here ; 
 and not look forward to ending life in the alms-house, as many must if they stay in 
 Washington. Physical discomfort, suffering, disease, and death, are the direct results ; but, 
 more than this, corruption of morals and crime are inevitably engendered by so many 
 being crowded into these narrow, filthy localities. What hope is there for j'our children 
 brought up in such contact? If a large number would go away, it would leave the better 
 houses for those remaining, and the wretched huts now occupied could be left vacant or 
 destroyed, as they ought to be. Since taking charge as Assistant Commissioner of the 
 Bureau, I have provided several hundred tenements, but they soon were filled, and the 
 number in the most crowded localities was not perceptibly diminished. I have not the 
 time to lay before you the one-hundredth part of the fearful evils that come directly from 
 the accumulation of freed-people in tliis District. Untold suffering and degradation must 
 be the constant result. On the other hand, the advantages of going North could only be 
 mentioned in part. I trust enough has been said to attract your attention to the subject, 
 and your ov/n judgment will lead you not only to contemplate the matter practically for 
 yourselves, but to communicate some of these views to others who are not present. 
 
 I must not longer stand in the way of others whom we are all eager to hear. 
 
 "\Vith no intention of disparagement to those who have preceded me, I conclude with 
 the hope and belief, that thus far you have had the substantial and less palatable part 
 of what is to be given you here to-day, as will be the order at your dinner ; but afterwards 
 come the choice dishes, and finally the dessert. 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV. DR. TURNEY. 
 
 Rev. E. TURNEY, D. D., President of the Schools of the National Theological Institute, 
 said that the object of this gathering was not merely to bring an offering for the physical 
 comfort of the people residing in the settlement and its vicinity. While this was very 
 important, while it related to what was the first in order in the list of human wants, there 
 was an object, for tlieir benefit, to be obtained, which lay beyond this. It pertained to 
 . their higher nature, to their relations to God, to society, and to themselves, in their intel- 
 lectual and moral and relicdons interests nnfi responsibilities. 
 
 It had been suggested to him that it might be suitable to the occasion, and interesting 
 to the friends assembled, that there should be some statement with regard to the efforts 
 which had been made at the settlement to promote these higher interests by means of 
 educational influences and agencies. 
 
13 
 
 He should necessarily be restricted, in anj- such statement, chiefly to the educational 
 work for this purpose v/hich had fallen under his own observation, and with which his 
 own experience had been identified. 
 
 The first of his connection with an educational interest at this point was early in 
 March last. There had been previously to this, during the war, an interesting school in 
 operation in the village, under the Tract Society, in charge of Mr. Simmons, for the 
 instruction chiefly, he believed, of the children ; and a most excellent work had been done 
 for this portion of the population, and reaching perhaps to some extent to the adults- 
 although he was not quite sure that it extended to the latter class. 
 
 Be this as it might, at the time to which he referred the great mass of the adult popu- 
 lation and many of the children were without the means of education, or, at most, they 
 were not enjoying them. They were living on, in this respect, as when in their slave state, 
 
 His first effort was to gather a class of Christian men, most of whom were members of 
 the Baptist church, which had just been organized— men whose talents gave promise that, 
 with suitable culture, they would be useful to their people as instructors and educators. 
 He obtained the names of some twenty-five or thirty of this class, and they were organ- 
 ized into a school, to be taught twice during the week in spelling, in reading, in the 
 common English branches, as well as in the Scriptures ; and,' as it was impossible for him 
 to make other provision for them, he promised that he would come over from Washington 
 two evenings in the week, and have them under his own instruction. This he continued 
 to do during the greater part of the spring, returning late at night, and generally on foot, 
 and arriving at his lodgings in the city not far from midnight. 
 
 And he Avas thankful to know that this labor had not been in vain. Most precious 
 fruit had sprung from it. He now had on his list of students, as connected with the 
 Bchool which he was daily instructing at Institute Hall, in Washington, with many 
 others, the names of no less than ten of these Arlington brethren. 
 
 The next effort was to establish, in connection with the Baptist church at the settle- 
 ment, a Sabbath-school, Some who were gathered into it had already commenced meeting 
 in classes during some part of the Lord's day, and reading among themselves portions of 
 the Scriptures. He said to them that, if they would organize a Sabbath-school, he would 
 see that they were supplied with a small library, and v/ould aid them in evtjry way 
 possible to make the effort successful. They readily responded to the proposition, and 
 the school was organized, and he was requested to take the superintendency of it. This 
 he consented to do only until such time as other provision could be made. In a few 
 weeks a Christian brother residing in Washington consented to take the labor off from 
 him. He referred to his friend George F. McLellan, who had since had the school under 
 his efficient superintendency and instruction, assisted by the pastor of the church and 
 the teachers connected with the congregation and a goodly number of ladies and gentle- 
 men who had come over from Washington. 
 
 It was not long after the commencement of these efforts before a proposition was made 
 and carried into effect for the establishment of an evenitig school for the instruction of chil- 
 dren and adults' who were not otherwise provided for, and very many of whom had never 
 bceu to school a day in their lives, and ho had scarcely the most distant idea of the use of 
 a book. Into this school, as also into the school taught on the Sabbath, were gathered more 
 than three hundred children and adults. The whole number, he believed, was three 
 hundred and seventy-four — old men and old women, young men and young women — per- 
 sons of all ages. They were here, for the first time in their lives, brought into contact 
 with the contents of a book, taught the alphabet, taught to spell, taught to read, until, 
 thev had learned, many of them, to read with satisfaction and profit considerable portions; 
 
14 
 
 of tlie Word of God. And now, in the change which had since taken place in the settle- 
 ment, they had gone forth to the North and the South, to the East and the West, to bless 
 their people, and rejoicing in the possession of a prize for ^emsolves which they had 
 once never expected to attain. 
 
 But the friends, perhaps, might ask, " How ha,! this evening school been sustained ?" 
 Said he, " I will tell you." It had been taught entirely by colored persons. Brother J. 
 S. Laws, the pastor of the church, had walked over to Washington daily and back, that 
 ho might receive instruction in the school at Institute Hall. In the evening he had met 
 the school here, and, in addition to such instruction a.^ he could impart to those who were 
 less advanced than himself, he had the assistance of some eight or ten members of hia 
 congregation, who had enjoyed some advantages of education. The people were arranged 
 in classes and taught in the manner which had been stated. 
 
 The number still belonging to this school, notwithstanding the recent removals, was 
 more than two hundred, most of whom were adults. The number of colored teachers waa 
 fourteen, six of whom were under his own daily instruction in Washington. He had en- 
 deavored to aid the school as he had been able, and it had been under his general super- 
 intendency. It had become to the community at Arlington an institution, and it de- 
 served to be encouraged and sustained as such. 
 
 He added, that he might, perhaps, be allowed to remark, that what he had stated with 
 regard to the schools at Arlington was but a specimen of what they were endeavoring to 
 accomplish at many other points. As coming under his superintendency, in addition to 
 the school of the Institute, at Institute Hall, there had been organized in Washington and 
 vicinity alone some eight or ten evening schools, for the instruction of the Christian 
 teachers of the colored people ; and with quite a number of these were connected schools 
 of a more general character for the instruction of others, male and female. A great and 
 a good work seems being accomplished, and he did not hesitate to ask for it the aid of the 
 benevolent. 
 
 He said that he ought perhaps to add that the school at this point had been aided very 
 essentially by the instruction which had been given in the Sabbath-school. He wished 
 to make an additional remark about this Sabbath-school. Soon after it was started in 
 the manner which had been stated, his friend the chairman of the meeting, learning of 
 the interest, proposed to purchase an ambulance for the purpose of conveying teachers 
 thither from Washington on the Sabbath. This was some time in April. The ambulanco 
 was purchased, and since then, with the exception of three or four Sabbaths perhaps, this 
 "missionary coach," as they had learned to call it, had come regularly over from Wash- 
 ington on the Sabbath, filled with Christian ladies and gentlemen to meet their classes in 
 this Sabbath-school, and to give them instruction which they could not have gained from 
 any other source. 
 
 He had but one remark more, and that was to ask, " Will our friends aid us in this 
 beneficent and self-denying work? Will they aid us in sustaining our schools at this 
 point? Will they aid us in extending the benefits of this system of education to other 
 points?" 
 
 ADDRESS OF EEV. DR. BUTLER. 
 
 Rev. Br. BUTLER, Pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran church, Washington, D. C, remarked : 
 Our worthy chairman introduces me as the known friend of the colored man, and I shall 
 speak the more happily the few words I have to say if I be known as your friend. I am 
 your friend, because I am the friend of man as man, and have never yet been able to sea 
 that color oi skin defines manhood. There are multitudes of low, unprincipled men, who 
 
15 
 
 have a white skin, and there are men and women, good and true, who are not white. In 
 all my intercourse with men I have suffered less from the dishonesty and treachery oi 
 colored than of white men. 
 
 I am here as the life-long friend of the colored man, having been born and all ray lifu 
 lived south of the line that formerly divided between slavery and freedom. But though 
 southern, I have never been able to convince myself that God ever made any man to be 
 a slave. You are all free men and women to-day. 
 
 We, who are your friends, want to help you to become men; to prepare you for the 
 enjoyments and responsibilities which freedom brings. The Emancipation Proclamation 
 cannot make men of you. The Freedmen's Bureau cannot clothe you with the dignity 
 of manhood. God in His wonderful providence has broken the fetters that bound and 
 degraded you. And this great Government means forever to guarantee to you your free- 
 dom. The sentiment of this Christian nation will never suffer you to be enslaved again. 
 And is it not wonderful, this change in public sentiment in regard to slavery ? You can 
 scarcely find a man throughout the land bold enough to say that he was ever the friend 
 of slavery. The men who made the laws that doomed you to ignorance and servitude 
 and forged the chains that enslaved you ; the men who would never tolerate a word, even 
 in the pulpit, against slavery — not one of them but that now is glad (?) that the whole land 
 is free! How sincere these men are is not for me to decide. This I know, that the old Pha- 
 raoh spirit pursues the freedmen, and I predict this spirit will meet with a Pharaoh over- 
 throw. The Red sea — it may be a sea of blood — is before, and God is on the side of 
 the freedmen, the friend of the friendless and the oppressed, and against Pharaoh. 
 
 If you will help the good people of the land they will make men of you. Constitu- 
 tions and laws shall be so amended that that obnoxious word white shall be obliterated. 
 A great many good people are terribly troubled about this question of social equality. 
 That does not give me any trouble. It is not a question of social equality we are dis- 
 cussing, but of equality before the law — that all men are born equally free, if not free and 
 equal. There are a great many inequalities among white men and women, some wise 
 and some otherwise ; some get very high up, and some very far down. If any of these 
 white ladies prefer one of you colored men as a husband, or any of these colored ladies 
 have the bad taste to marry a white husband, that is a matter of taste, and I would think 
 rather bad taste. But these social equalities and inequalities are not regulated by statute 
 law, but by birth and culture, and success and disaster, and a thousand other consider- 
 ations. 
 
 But in this great Republic we want to make men equal before the law, to obliterate that 
 terrible idea, that because a man is not as white as I am he is only a chattel. If we are 
 jealous of the talent of the African, and fear that he will excel us in agriculture and the 
 mechanic arts, commerce, or the learned professions, the ministry of the Gospel, if you 
 please, we must only be the more industrious and studious, honest and true. I would 
 not stand in the way of any man if he could be more esteemed and useful in the world 
 than I. God forbid that I should retard the growth of his manhood. Let him take the 
 place for which education, worth, and God have fitted him. We white folks have the 
 start by a good many years, and if we suffer the freedmen to outstrip us in the race, give 
 them the palm ; they deserve it. 
 
 But we cannot make you men unless you help us. On our western frontier, as the 
 good wife of one of the pioneers sat in the cabin door, she saw a bear coming across the 
 plain ; and bears, you know, are not very amiable. The cowardly husband ran up the 
 ladder of the cabin loft and drew the ladder after him, leaving his wife alone to battle 
 vrith the monster ; with true courage, she dealt hard blows, and many of them ; sha 
 
16 
 
 killed the bear. When the work was done that cowardly husband came down, and rubbing 
 his hands, overflowing with joy, said, " Wife, didn't we do it ; didn't we do it, wife !" That 
 is not the kind of help we want from you. 
 
 What, then, are you to do to make men of yourselves ? You must get all the knowledge 
 yon can, and give your children all possible advantages of education. Many of the 
 noblest men and women of this land are not only furnishing monej^ and books, but are 
 giving themselves to the blessed work of educating and elevating your race. Knowledge — 
 more in this land than anywhere \inder the sun — is power ; and you must get all of it 
 you can. 
 
 You must be industrious, and learn to depend, not upon the Bureau, nor upon your 
 friends, but upon yourselves. I do not wonder that so many of you do not love to work. 
 If white men had lived under the lash and received for their labor coarse food and coarse 
 clothing, as many of you have — not all, perhaps — they would be indolent too. And there 
 are lazy white men not a few. But when you look over all this great land — the cities 
 and factories and farms — at all its great wealth — and ask where it came from? there is but 
 one answer. It is the reward not of indolence, but of industry. God has written the 
 law of labor not only in the Bible, (for there He says he that will not work shall not 
 eat,) but upon the face of the land ; and if you had a microscope of sufficient power, yon 
 might see it written lapon your very muscles. Labor is necessary to a healthy body, and 
 your race can never become manly except they work industriously. 
 
 And then your religious privileges must be improved. Against State laws, probablyj 
 some of your Christian masters taught you to read. Slavery was always afraid of the 
 light, and know that knowledge would be death to oppression. But now you may not 
 only learn to read the Bible, but you have the same advantages of schools and churches 
 that we have. The Ten Commandments must govern you and the Gospel of Christ rule 
 in your hearts. Religion must make you not only industrious, but truthful, honest, 
 frugal, prayerful, and loving. You must be Christian men and women. God has given 
 you freedom, and friends who will protect you in that freedom. God has given you means 
 of education and schools and churches, and if you do not make men of yourselves, you 
 are unworthy the freedom you enjoy. Then be up and doing, that you may be the Lord's 
 freed men. 
 
 ADDEESS OF REV. DE. SUNDERLAND. 
 
 Eev. Dr. SUNDERLAND, Pastor of the First Presbyterian church, Washington, D. 
 C, said : My friends, I am glad to see you on this occasion. I congratulate you on the 
 interest which has been felt by good people in your present and future welfare, and on 
 the very fitting and appropriate manner in which that interest is to-day expressed. 
 
 The spectacle before me is one on which I look with emotions of no ordinary kind. It 
 causes the whole past history of your race, and especially as it has transpired on this con- 
 tinent and within the territorial domains of our Federal Government, to rise before me. 
 It is a history of the wrongs you have suffered and of the woes that have wasted you. But 
 at length your prayers were heard and the hour of your deliverance drew nigh. The great 
 events of the recent past have told a story to the nations which has thrilled them to the 
 heart. I shall never forget the scenes of the month of Januarj', in 1862, which were wit- 
 nessed by so many hundreds and thousands on yonder hill across the river, where stands 
 the proud Capitol of this powerful Republic. Just to the east of the public grounds, in a 
 range of buildings once devoted to the interests of the slaveocracy which so long ruled 
 our whole country, to its dishonor and almost to its destruction, in the same street and 
 not a hundred yards from the very spot where John C. Calhoun, the great prophet of nul- 
 lification, breathed his last some sixteen years ago, and, I have been told, in the same 
 
17 
 
 room where in 1836 a book called the " Partisan Leader" was published, d<^signfid to 
 prepare the southern people for rebellion in the interests of slavery, I saw gathered from 
 day to day the refugees from the land of bondage, of both sexes and all ages, coming 
 from every quarter where it was possible to make their way thi-ough the rebel lines, and 
 at that time through our own lines, and collected from all the adjacent States, under 
 the beneficent supervision of self-denj'ing Christian men and women, who wore endeavor- 
 ing to teach them the first lessons alike of the English language and the religion of Joans 
 Christ. On one occasion I was present at the daily exercise, where some one hundred and 
 fifty of these delivered souls were learning the rudiments of our mother tongue, and after 
 being drilled in their lessons for a time, at my request they began to sing a piece of com- 
 position all their own, with which the whole number, young and old, seemed to be per- 
 fectly familiar, and their voices, lifted up in one volume of the sweetest and grandest 
 melody, as it seemed to me, rolled out of the closed windows, and resounded far 
 away on the chill and dreary air — for it was as if nature herself was in full sympathy 
 with the social, political, and moral condition of our affairs at that time — and there seemed 
 to me to be a sound in that mighty, measured, solemn cadence like the rising and falling 
 of oce9.n waves, which filled the whole region of space around with a portentous pre- 
 science, a profound mystery of things about to be revealed. It appeared to me as if, 
 when the chorus sounded, the voice of angels, as when in early times they announced the 
 will of God to men, was then speaking to the very heart of this nation, and in that voice 
 the fiat of Jehovah was going forth against the doomed abomination of human slavery 
 within the limits of this great Union. No oratorio that was ever played in any earthly 
 orchestra could, I think, have produced upon my mind a more striking or solemn effect, 
 and the refrain was, 
 
 " Go down Moses, tell old Pharao, let my people go." 
 
 At length our patriotic Moses that then was — we have since mourned him sleeping in 
 his martyr-grave — heard that voice, and the word of emancipation was sounded forth 
 amid the dismal bowlings of all the minions of the slave power and the exultant shouts 
 of all who had been praying and longing for the hour of your deliverance. The great 
 word was formally spoken on the first day of the year 1863 ; but to prepare for its utter- 
 ance then cost long years of discussion, ending in violence and bloodshed ; and to make 
 good its utterance now, against the whole combination and array of opposition— against 
 the highest official misrule of the country, the obiter dicta of courts, the prejudice of the 
 proud, the machinations of the unscrupulous, the vulgar and low-flung spite of the base 
 and vile, and, what is more astonishing than all, the anti-Christian spirit which yet 
 remains as a deadly poison, so largely diffused among the churches that profess to call 
 themselves after the name of Christ — the momentous struggle is going forward, and we 
 still present a spectacle in this land, before God, angels, and men, in one view of which it 
 is cakulated to make the universe mourn in bitterness and tears, and in another view of 
 which all good beings are ready to lift up their heads and sing aloud for joy. 
 
 We may thank God to-day that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and his three 
 associates, and all of them from the more southern sections of the country, have, though 
 in a minority of one on a recent decision rendered from that Bench, in a measure, though 
 not altogether, shielded it from the universal disapprobation and censure of the Christian 
 world, which threatens to fall upon it. In this, as in many an act heretofore, we may 
 discover the wisdom of the man who presides in that tribunal. We may thank God 
 to-day for the loyal majority in Congress, a body of men who now stand up as the real 
 tribunes of the people, and who are now, by the recent decisions of the people, moro sol- 
 emnly pledged than ever to see that, in the reconstruction of government in the Southt 
 2 
 
18 
 
 and in affording ample protection to your hitherto down trodden people, no detriment 
 ehall fall to the Republic. I hope and pray, for one, that they may stand firm and steady 
 to their great work. I am prepared, in my own mind, to pronounce for the institution of 
 territorial or military forms of government in the South, as the only sure and certain way of 
 building up a lasting empire. It is impossible, I am thorougly convinced, to do anything 
 with the ex-rebel material — the remnants and fragments of the great conspiracy now 
 Bcattered over the South, or to use that material in the creation of a homogenou'=^, com- 
 pact, united, harmonious, and prosperous community. The sword of the Union war has 
 cut the great serpent of secession into a thousand pieces, and left them squirming and 
 wriggling as they may through the dust and blood of the battle-fields where it perished; 
 but in each particular portion there is the same venom and the same rancor, if not the 
 Bame vitality. I say, let the Government take up the besom of its rightful power and 
 authority and sweep them all into the gulf of political non-existence. 
 
 In the midst of all this, you and your people are suffering on in patience. Having 
 served this nation, and the world through it, lor two hundred and fifty years, with unre- 
 quited labor, and through unspeakable cruelties; having in the late terrific struggle gone 
 forth to battle for the Union almost two hundred thousand strong ; having in many thous- 
 and, yea, innumerable ways, given aid and comfort to the Union armies and the Union 
 cause, you have now become the wards of this nation, to whom we owe not only a debt 
 of gratitude, but of the most severe and rigorous justice. And if we do not pay that debt, 
 BO far as lies in our power, we shall be guilty of a baseness and perfidy unparalleled in the 
 history of the world. 
 
 We owe you the whole debt of modern Christian civilization ; we owe you the facilities of 
 improvement here, and the hopes of happiness hereafter; we owe you food and raiment, 
 shelter and fire, schools, courts of justice, churches; we owe you exact equality between 
 man and man; we owe you the ballot, the free citizen's mightiest weapon, and noblest 
 badge of manhood ; we owe you the means and opportunity of labor, and the old 
 inalienable rights of our common humanity, among which, as bestowed by our Creator, 
 and uttered in the Declaration, are " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 
 
 We come here to-day to renew our acknowledgment of the debt ; and so may God help 
 ns we mean to pay it. If you old people who have dragged your life through the horrors 
 of slavery during all your years, and are brought to the brink of the grave, may not live 
 to see this debt wholly discharged; and if we who are also growing old cannot accom- 
 plish all the desire of our hearts in our lifetime, we will at least go for mortgaging so 
 much of our public estate as to secure its liquidation, and by our last will and testament 
 enjoin it on our children and children's children to see it paid to the uttermost farthing. 
 But there is another reason for which I come here to-day. There is a large portion of 
 the community in which welive who call themselves the old residents of Washington and 
 vicinity, and among whom yet lingers the same spirit of contemptuous superiority to the 
 people of your race, and the same supercilious scorn of you which characterizes all com- 
 munities where the curse and blight of slavery have fastened themselves so long, and 
 which indeed marks the character of every innate despot or petty tyrant in whatsoever 
 community. Having injured and wronged your people with impunity so long, they 
 naturally hate and despise you. They might possibly relieve your necessities if you 
 were to appeal to their better feelings in a case of evident destitution or distress, but it 
 would be on the same principle that they would feel prompted to relieve a suffering animal, 
 a mere brute creature, and not upon the proper Christian ground of a community oi 
 nature and the equality you enjoy before the law of Christ. 
 
 Now, I wish to show those people a better example, and at least, if no more can be done,' 
 
19 
 
 I want them by thrse tokens to understand tliat tliey may howl and gnash their teeth to 
 their heart's content ; or if not bold or strong enough for that, they may breathe out their 
 demon spirit in craven tind cowardlj^ anonymous letters, or in still more supfiressed forms 
 of inward breathing rage, and it will be all in vain. The great work of justice and 
 benevolence towards you aild your people will roll on just the same, and all opposi- 
 tion will be crushed oat and consigned at length to its loathesome-and loathed place. 
 
 How great the contrast between the conduct and feeling of such a community and the 
 heart stirring words and actions of the generous and noble of our own and of other lands. 
 
 I have here one single specimen of the grand and grateful enthusiasm which, in reference 
 to your condition, has excited so many beating hearts and called forth from tlie jieople of 
 foreign countries such affecting expressions of sympatliy and such substantial tokens of 
 regard. With your permission, I will take the liberty of giving the translation, as the 
 document is from Paris : 
 
 "ASSOCIATION OF FRENCH LADIES IV BEHALF OF THE FREEDMEN. 
 
 " To the members of the National Freedmen's Association of New York City : 
 
 " June 14, 1865. 
 
 " l\Ioved by the recital of the sufferings which our freed brethren are experiencing during 
 this period of transition, full of sj'mpath)' for the task of reparation wliich you have 
 undertaken towards them, we have wLshed to associate ourselves in your worli at least in 
 some small degree, and we send j'ou this first fruit of our efforts. 
 
 " We desire to say to you, at the same time, that during the long, sad struggle which has 
 agitated 3-our cgun try, from the midst of our own firesides we have never ceased to 
 follow with an earnest sympathj- your anxieties and your vicissitudes. We wish to say 
 to you, that your tears have been our tears and your sorrows our sorrows. 
 
 " But if the crisis has been heart-rending, how glorious is the victory ! How ought 
 justice avenged and humanity recovered to console and strengthen you. Recollecting the 
 thought of the just man whom you have lost, we would repeat witli him, "that the 
 emancipation of four millions of souls, degraded by the most hideous and inhuman form of 
 servitude, cannot be too dearly purchased " 
 
 " In this solemn moment, when the eyes of Europe are turned towards you, and whea 
 the greatest victory to be admired is not that of the battle field, but that other more diffi- 
 cult, which permits you to preserve j'our institutions, and at the same time to proclaim 
 an amne-ty to the vanqu:shed — at this moment, when you are demonstrating to the world 
 the grandeur of conscience and the omnipotence of liberty, we women of France exj,eud 
 to you a fraternal hand, expressing the hope that 3'our example may incite all people, and 
 that tlie bonds which have united our two countries in the past may become closer each 
 day in the future." 
 
 [Here follow the signatures.) 
 
 All the members present in Paris signed it. 
 
 There is not a true Christian or philanthropic heart in all France, nor among the moun- 
 tain fastnesses of Switzerland or Scotland, 'througli the Black Forest of German3\ nor 
 dwelling in the Tyrol of long-slumbering but now affrighted and disparaged Austria, 
 nor along the coasts and sunny vales of Italy, drawing nigh herself to a better realiza- 
 tion of liberty and nationality, but would echo those sentiments to-day, and send you 
 greetings of joy in prospect of the great future that is opening up for your posterity. 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN H. FAEQUHAR. 
 
 Hon. JOHN n. FARQUHAR, member of Congress from Indiana, being introduoeJ, 
 said: ^ly friends, I know not for what purpose my old friend the Rev. B. F. Morris in- 
 vited me here to participate in these festivities, unless it was to humiliate me by couiraste 
 in your presenee. After the very 'Me, eloquent, and thrilling address of the distinguished 
 gentleman, (Dr. Sunderland,) whose reputation is as boundless as our continent and do- 
 Berved as it is soul- inspiring, I should be destitute of proper self-appreciation if I did not 
 feel embarrassment in attemjjting to entertain you, even but for a few momouts. Ih* 
 
20 
 
 occasion, therefore, warrants, and will, I trust, admit on my part, without subjecting me 
 to the charge of egotism, some personal allusions and explanations. I was born in the 
 adjoining State of Maryland, but, thank God, under the auspices of Friends, who taught 
 me to hate slavery and love liberty. The broad prairies and fertile valleys of the West, 
 among whose people for thirty-odd years I have lived, have not abated " one jot or tittle" 
 of those early impressions. One of the most pleasing reminiscences of my life is a success- 
 ful effort, when but a youth, in the very centre of slavery's hot-bed, and within sixty 
 miles of yonder city, the capital of this great nation, I piloted the footsteps of a poor 
 slave girl, fleeing from an inhuman master to one of those " eagle's nests of freedom" so 
 eloquently described by your distinguished guest. Dr. Sunderland. No interest has ever 
 induced me to swerve from the early teachings of those plain, sincere, honest, philan- 
 thropic ancestors. I have, on all occasions and under all circumstances, been the humble 
 advocate of freedom and denunciator of slavery. The only vote of my life, involving the 
 interests of freedmen, to which exception may be taken, was that cast against the District 
 franchise bill of the first session of the Thiry-Ninth Congress. No act of my life was more 
 unselfish or consistent with what I believed to be my solemn duty of the hour. I regarded 
 the measure as right per se, but premature, and its adoption at that time as fatal to the 
 snccess of the great Union party, on which depended the destiny of the Republic, the 
 cause of the freedmen, and permanent elevation of your race. What was the insignificant 
 privilege of voting for a " mayor and common council" of the city of Washington com- 
 pared with the permanent success of the men and measures that represent the three 
 hundred thousand martyrs whose bodies moulder and bones bleach on Southern battle- 
 fields, and who willingly died that you and I and their posterity might be free ? When 
 that measure came up at the present session, I was absent from the House; but when it 
 comes back from the other end of the avenue, with the edict " I forbid," overriding the 
 expressed voice of the people's representatives, God being my helper, my feeble voice and 
 vote shall bear testimony to the right and acknowledgment of your great services in the 
 hour of the nation's extremity. 
 
 It was my good fortune to muster into the United States service the first company of 
 colored recruits organized in the State of Indiana, and I am glad to bear testimony to their 
 gallantry, heroism, and devotion to the cause of freedom and the Union. Under their 
 intrepid leader, the gallant Colonel Charlie Russel, the 28th regiment United States 
 colored troops did noble and invaluable service in the Army of the James. It was at this 
 critical period of the rebellion that you successfully demonstrated, amidst the smoke and 
 carnage of battle, that, as a race, j-^ou " had rights that white men were bound to respect." 
 Without the aid of the two hundred thousand strong arms and stalwart forms of colored 
 Boldiers, who threw themselves into the breach at the most opportune moment, God alone 
 knows whether we could have assembled thus peaceably here to-day, under the protecting 
 folds of that old flag, the banner of " beauty and glory," which now " in triumph waves 
 o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." The distinguished gentleman who 
 preceded me has alluded in very complimentary terms to the Chief Justice of the United 
 States and his associates of the minority of the court, and their opinion in the Milligan 
 treason conspiracy cases from Indiana, my own State. It is cot my purpose to pluck one 
 flower from the wreath that adorns the brow of Mr. Chase, or detract in the least from 
 the just merits of that venerated court. But when I see the majority of the court travel- 
 ing dehors the record before them to fulminate a judioial bull, calculated, if not designed, 
 to bolster up and give character to an abortive effort of a faithless Executive to destroy 
 the great party that made him and saved the nation, it would be criminal in me to seal 
 axj lips and smother the emotions that loom up from the perusal of their opinion, when 
 
21 
 
 discharging from just punishment men convicted of the highest crime against God and 
 humanity. If the dictum of the court and its logical sequences prevail, I ain ready to vote 
 an immediate adjournment of the Thirty- Ninth Congress, and temporarily turn over the 
 country and those newly made citizens to the untried mercy of Andrew Johnson and the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, and go again to the sovereign people on the issue joined, 
 confident of a triumph unequalled in the history of the Republic. The opinion to which 
 I refer was delivered by a distinguished member of the court, who was born across the 
 Potomac on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in a densely populated slave district, but hae 
 resided for tldrty years in the great West, and long enough, we hoped, to throw off the 
 antiquated, fossilized, slavery-begotten, and God-forbidden notions of State sovereignty. 
 It has, however, become an adage in the West, that a man born in Maryland or Virginia 
 of the " first families" is so imbued with the false theories growing out of and connected 
 with human slavery, that he becomes judicially blind to every principle of modern pro- 
 gression, and utterly unfitted for official position. 
 
 While I am not prepared to judge him by that rule, and concede his eminent personal 
 worth, I cannot but deplore the tendency of his judicial mind in those obsolete grooves 
 that are outstripped by the spirit of the age and just demands of a common humanity. 
 
 The court (says Justice Davis) "has judicial knowledge' that in Indiana the Federal 
 authority was always unopposed and its courts open. It needed no bayonets to protect it, 
 and required no military aid to execute its judgments." 
 
 When Milligan, Bowles, and Horsey were arrested and held for trial, as having " con- 
 spired against the Government, afforded aid and comfort to rebels, and incited the people 
 to insurrection," Grant was pressing Lee within his fortifications at Richmond, and Sher- 
 man was driving hack the rebel hordes preparatory to liis grand march to the sea. Every 
 soldier that could be spared was sent to the front. The hospitals were depopulated, and 
 guns furnished the invalids, to swell the numbers of the grand forward movement on whiob 
 hung the hopes of the people and the life of the Republic. Thus stripped of all military 
 force, there was scarcely a "corporal's guard," from the Pennsylvania line to the borders 
 of Arkansas, to protect our homes from murderers and guerrillas. At Indianapolis, Chicago, 
 Columbus, and Johnson's Island there were about thirty thousand rebel prisoners, " fat 
 and sleek" from the full army ration dealt out in mercy by the loyal hands of a too lenient 
 but merciful people. " The Knights of the Golden Circle" and "Sons of Liberty" were 
 organized all over Indiana, and said to be armed and equipped for ofi'ensive movements. 
 It was a daily occurrence to seize arms and ammunition in transitu from the East to their 
 various posts in Indiana; and at Indianapolis large lots of small-arms were captured, 
 marked " hymn-books and Sabbath-school tracts," for distribution among the initiated. 
 The military arrest of prominent members of these treasonable orders disclosed their designs, 
 and that arms were to be placed^ in the hands of the rebel prisoners, and on a given day 
 turned loose on the defenceless inhabitants of Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. What would 
 have been the result, in this our defenceless condition, if we had relied on the civil process 
 alone to have arrested and tried these conspirators? Our fathers, brothers, and sons, 
 apprised of the fact that thirty thousand armed rebels were to be turned loose to devastate, 
 lay waste, and destroy their homes and families, no power on earth could have held them, 
 and Grant and Sherman would have been shorn of that strength of numbers which secured 
 their final victories. 
 
 It was with a full knowledge of all these facts, and that the " Sons of Liberty" were 
 arming and drilling for the uprising, that our grand and greatest Roman of them all, the 
 distinguished Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, at his headquarters in yonder city, 
 assumed the responsibility, ordered their arrest by the military, and trial by court-martial 
 
22 
 
 just in time to prevent the uprising, and thereby saved our defenceless people from the 
 horrors of civil ^var, and the Union from inevitable destruction. All honor and glory to 
 the man who risked everything for our common safety. With all these facts before them, 
 and the smoke of battle removed, the court insists that it "had judicial knowledge that 
 the Federal authority was always unopposed and its courts open ; and that it needed no 
 bayonets to protect it and required no military aid to execute its judgments in Indiana." 
 
 To my certain knowledge the civil process in Indiana had to be enforced by the military 
 arm. They " whipped the devil around the stump," by procuring military arrests, and 
 then turned the parties over to the civil authorities for trial. If ihe courts were open in 
 Indiana, it was because Indiana was a military district under martial law, and the courts 
 prutected by national bayonets in the strong arms of loyal men. 
 
 There was no declaration of war by the Congress of the United States against a foreign 
 power, a State of the Union, or people thereof; but, in the absence of power in the civil 
 arm of the Government to enforce its laws, the military were employed to suppress insur- 
 rection and crush out rebellion. The Congress -authorized the President to suspend the 
 writ of habeas orpus, not in Virginia and South Carolina alone, but in Indiana and every 
 other State of the Union. The writ was suspended accordingly, and the paramount 
 necessity of saving the threatened life of the nation dictated and justified arrests in both 
 loyal and disloyal States. The great mistake is in recognizing the obsolete and fatal theory 
 of State sovereignty, to the exclusion of our common nationality. It was not a rebellion 
 of States against each other, but of the people who were ciiizens of certain States against 
 the sovereign power and autliority of the National Government, to which they owed 
 superior allegiance. No matter wiiere they resided and what profession they made, if 
 they were " conspiring against the Government, giving aid and comfort to reliels," or 
 " exciting the people to insurrection," they thereby became a part of that insurrection and 
 amenable to the military authorities employed' to suppress and destroy it, and suliject to 
 the same modes of punishment as if cajitured, with arras in their hands, in the ranks of 
 the rebel army. No township, county, or State lines could determine the jurisdiction of 
 the military authority to deal witli the rebellion ; its jurisdiction was coextensive with 
 and encompassed the whole Union. As well might it l^e urged that a niilitar}' court could 
 not take jurisdiction of cases in the State of Tennessee hecanse the loyal citizens thereof, 
 east of a given line, maintained open court, wh.ile rebellion ruled with bloody liand in 
 every other part. ' Milligan and his co-conspirators were charged with official connection 
 and co-operation with a secret military organization which was armed, equi[>ped, and 
 drilled to co-operate with a rebel army then in the field, to release and turn loose, in the 
 midst of unarmed loyal people, thirty thousand rebel prisoners, to lay waste our fair fields, 
 and devastate our homes. They were actually in rebellion against the National Govern- 
 ment, and subje'ct to its military jurisdiction. But it is said that " there was no war in 
 Indiana, and the civil court needed no bayonets to protect it, and required no military aid 
 to execute its judgments " On the 9th day of July, 1863, the rebel general, John Morgan, 
 crossed the Ohio river below Louisville, Kentucky, into the State of Indiana, with thirty- 
 five hundred mounted rebels, and swejit like a besom of destruction over her fair fields, 
 burning her railroad depots, capturing her horses and provisions, robbing her citizens, and 
 Bhooting ihwm down wliercver tlii-y resisted his onward march. By authority of the 
 Governor of Indi.^na and rrt-siileal of the United States, as cominaiider-in-cliief of the 
 ami" and navy, over fifiy iliiMis.uid of tlif g:illa,nt men of the'State were organized and 
 niu'^l'jred inio ibe «r-rvi.'e to re^^i-l the inva-ion nf that rebel horde: ;vnd yet we are told 
 tliat t'lero wns mi " v.-ar in Iridintia. or nc d t'>r I'ayonets to ]>r(itert the civil court, nor 
 niiut'iry aid to e.'^fcuie it-i jtidgnenU." If those venerabie-lodking gentlemen in their 
 
_23 
 
 black gowns will go with me to the green hills which overlook the old town of Corydon, 
 the first capital of our State, I will point tliem to the grave-stones of the gallant men of 
 Indiana who fell in battle defending their and my homes from the ruthless acts of aa 
 invading army. Our troops, though extemporized, threw themselves on liis front and 
 rear, annoying, but unable to capture him, drove him out of the State into Ohio, and 
 across that noble State to within fifteen miles of the Pennsylvania line, when he was 
 headed and compelled to accept battle, and was captured with his whole army and equip- 
 ments bj- the combined troops of Indiana, Ohio, and the United States. For six weeks I 
 followed the track of that invading army, collecting and disposing of its debris, by order 
 of the United States military authorities; and yet this grave court assures tiie country 
 that it " has judicial knowledge that there was no war in Indiana, and that the court was 
 always open, needing no bayonets to protect it, and no military aid to execute its judg- 
 ments." 
 
 Ko sane man dares deny that if the military force maintained in Indiana and on her 
 border had been withdrawn, in ten days we would have been overrun by rebel hordes, 
 utterly ignoring all civil courts and their processes; and yet our grave court informs us 
 "that it needed no bayonets to protect it, and required no military aid to execute its 
 judgments in Indiana." The courts were only open by tlie grace of the military com- 
 mantlers, and while the distinguished justice wlio delivered the opinion of the court as- 
 serts "that the court had judicial knowledge that the Federal authority was always 
 unopposeil and its courts open in Indiana," he was doubtless oblivious of the fact that a 
 word from their commander to a file of the " boys in blue" would have changed tlie ju- 
 dicial status and rendered military courts-martial indispensable to life, liberty, and prop- 
 erty- within the State of Indiana. If John Morgan, by authority of the rebel " belliger- 
 ents," made war on the United States within the State of Indiana in July, 1863, and we 
 by our strong arms drove him from our borders, and held those rebel "belligerents" at 
 bay continuously until and during the trial and conviction of Milligan and liis co-conspir- 
 ators, there was no cessation of that war, and the military courts had ample and com- 
 plete jurisdiction to try, convict, and execute the criminals. It is a singular fact, that no 
 case found its way to the Supreme Court in proper form to elicit its opinion during tho 
 four long years of bloody rebellion through wiiich we so triumphantly passed ; that reb- 
 els and tlieir sympathizers were repeatedly tried, convicted, and punished, and the most 
 defiant advocate of our "erring brethren," Clement L. Vallandigham, of Ohio, was tried, 
 convicted, and sentenced by a military commission, and banished by order of the 
 Executive, as commander-in-chief of the army, from within the national lines, and 
 into the camp of its liostile enemies. Did the thunder of our cannon and tread of the 
 loyal millions warn the courts and people that there was, as there necessarily is, pend- 
 ing such struggles for the life of a great Eejiublic, a power of self-preservation even 
 higher than the written letter of its organic law ? I fear that there is wanting with 
 the majority of the court that comprehensive and elevated judicial judgment requisite 
 to the full development of the moral power and grandeur displayed by a people re- 
 solved to save their national life at all hazards. The dictum of the majority of the 
 court has swept away all military power to protect and shield you as a race from ihe 
 ruthless hands of your old ojipressors, an>l soon may follow other decisions, declaring 
 the Freedmcu's Bureau, civil rujhis hill, and the test oath all unconstitutional, null and 
 void, 'h initio. Aa I look over this iiii.>:ed audience, ami contrast this day aiid ocra- 
 sion wiili LJif past history of our couniiy, and <()ngratulate the lVee<lmen licforft me iluit 
 the)' arc ciiizcn.s of this great Repuidic and equal befun- the law with all oiiior t.'ni/.or.fi^ 
 I am liuiniliaud that there is imminent danger of abandonmeuL of those groat prin-'iples 
 
Bocuring these joint rigMs, by the sacrifice of over three hundred thousand of the brave 
 and good men of the Republic. We had confidence in time of war that this our court 
 would not be found wanting in time of peace. In times gone by we said, " Wait a little 
 while, and the wheels of time will purify and make safe this our city of refuge." But 
 how long, oh God, how long yet shall it be until truth and righteousness prevail through- 
 out the land? There is yet hope and promise for you in the fact that God rigns and 
 protects those who love and serve Him. This is a Government of the people, before 
 whose fiat courts and rulers bow in humble submission. With them we intrust your 
 cause— the cause of humanity— confident in the triumph of the right. I exhort you to 
 study the duties of "American citizens," and in the light of the Christian examples 
 which daily surround you practice them. Strive to improve and elevate your race, 
 that in time you and your posterity may say to these kind friends, we have done nothing 
 to humiliate you, who were our friends and patrons in the dark days of our adversity. 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. H. P. H. EEOMWELL. ,, ^ 
 
 Me. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen : I did not think of speaking here, and should 
 not now, particullrly after you have all listened so long to the very interesting addresses 
 of these 'gentlemen, if it were not that I am urged to do so by those having charge of the 
 
 proceedings. 
 
 Yet I feel sure that you will listen to what I may say, on account of the great interest 
 you feel in the object of this assembly. 
 
 Although I have made a great many speeches, I believe I never before addressed an 
 audience so completely mixed as this. Not knowing what would be most satisfactory to 
 any of you, I shall trust to the proverbial kindness of you colored people, and to the con- 
 siderate courtesy of the ladies and gentlemen who have invited me here, to permit me to 
 offer such remarks as I may, think of most benefit to the colored people of this village. 
 
 We the white citizens, have been always used to public meetings and speeches, and to 
 some of us it is a very common and familiar thing to take part in such proceedings as 
 these ; but I am aware that it must be very diS'erent with you freedmen, who have during 
 all your lives had no part or lot in public afiairs, and have been only taught to serve and 
 obey. You have been used to look upon political matters as subjects entirely beyond 
 your' reach; and I know that it must be a strange thing to be suddenly placed in the 
 rank of citizens, and feel that you are called upon to act in the afi"airs of society. For 
 this reason I know that you listen to us to-day with greater interest than the white people 
 who are accustomed to hearing and acting on such occasions. 
 
 I do not intend to speak to you as a teacher, and give you directions as to your con- 
 ■ duct; yet I deem it proper to call your attention to some things which your new duties 
 and responsibilities will require of you. I will speak to you as a friend of your race ; for 
 I can truly say, that never did I by word or deed aid in or even consent to any human 
 being being made a slave. From my youth I have always desired to see all men free and 
 happy ; and especially it has been my wish that throughout the bounds of this great 
 Republic, there should not be one found who could not claim this land as his country, and 
 this Government as his Government ; and who could not hail this flag as his flag, the 
 emblem of his native land, and the ensign of his own manhood and citizenship. I am 
 glad it is so now, that you whose labors have subdued the frosts and tilled the fields, and 
 whose loyalty has aided in maintaining the Government of the Republic, can henceforth 
 feel that the land in which God has placed you is your country as well as ours, and that 
 you have something to live and hope and act for, both for yourselves and your children. 
 You Bhould consider that although there is little you can learn of your race and coun- 
 
25 
 
 try in the past, it should not be so with your children. There are some things connected 
 with Africa and its numberless tribes of people which many of you can learn, and by 
 which you and others may profit. 
 
 When I was a child I read the remarkable story of Abdul Rammahan, anothe adven- 
 tures of Mungo Pack, and the simple verses describing his distress and danger in the 
 wilds of Africa, and his rescue from suffering by the African woman ; and I never forgot 
 the concluding words: 
 
 "Go, white man, go I but Tcith theo bear 
 The negro's wish, the nejrro's prayer; 
 Remembrance of the negro's care ! " 
 
 If there is but little to be known of your race in the past, you can at least strive to 
 leave many good and noble actions on record to which your descendants may look back 
 through many years to your day. There is no reason why the African should not have 
 the chance to take pride in his ancestors, in his native country, and in its government. 
 This country has been the home of your people for two hundred years, and must be for 
 generations to come. Your deportment in this free country as republican citizens will 
 furnish grounds for elevating your race to a like honorable and happy position in all 
 other lands, where they are trodden down now as unfit to be counted as men. 
 
 But in order that any class of citizens may obtain and secure the respect of other 
 classes, it is necessary that they show themselves worthy of confidence. The colored 
 people must therefore set up for themselves a standard of character such as becomes a free 
 citizen. The first virtue, in order to command respect, is truth. Let the white citizens 
 Bee that, besides the kind disposition of the African, he possesses truthfulness, the noblest 
 attribute of a man. 
 
 Besides, a man must have ambition to be not only deemed worthy by the people among 
 whom he lives, but to be remembered and esteemed by his posterity. I want all colored 
 people to understand that they should do everj^thing they can to be gratefully remembered 
 by those who will come after them. 
 
 As many of you are now old, and all are poor, you cannot expect to make yourselves 
 all that you desire ; but the young can be taught much, and can study much, without a 
 teacher, as some of us have done, and thus fit them.selves for usefulness in life. 
 
 I feel sure that all good people will gladly help you for the sake of humanity ; and 
 more than this, you will shortly be placed in this District in such a situation that society 
 will have an interest in you. Our republican government is intended to place all classes 
 on such a footing that each will require favor and friendship from every other. 
 
 This is the reason why universal sufiVage is necessary in all communities that would 
 secure equal rights to all before the law ; for if any class is so placed that the rest of the 
 community have no favors to ask of them, they are soon overlooked and trodden upon by 
 all others ; and this corrupts the whole. 
 
 You must remember, for your encouragement, that you have many friends. The Con- 
 gress of the United States is friendly to you, and the people who support Congress are 
 friendly to you also. Consider what a cost of money it has been to the loyal people to 
 sustain this war, and, besides that, how many brave and good men have lost their lives 
 or limbs in a thousand battles against the rebel slave-owners and the men who fought to 
 support them. 
 
 All this labor and cost and suffering and death grew out of your race having been en-* 
 slaved. It was very wrong that you were treated so badly in this free country during 
 80 many years, and the white people North and South had a hand in it. But we all rcq 
 now how unjust and cruel it was, and that of course God would not let things go on in 
 that way always. 
 
;26 
 
 As you liave shown the white people that it was a great mistake to think, as most of 
 us used to do, that the black people could not be set free at once without thf?ir causing 
 disturb mces and becoming la/.y and worthless, so I hope and believe you will further 
 show the white people that when you become citizens no liarm will grow out of it; that 
 you will be as well-dis[iosed then as you have been before, and will be found helping the 
 whole country to prosjier in every way. 
 
 Your white friends who liave always stood by you are glad to see that m all cases you 
 pay so much reverence to Almighty God, and are inclined to train up your children to be 
 moral and religious. If you hold on to these principles, you cannot fail to make useful 
 people of your race, and Heaven will be at no trouble to find them a place in the land 
 where the}- can be free and happy. 
 
 BesiJes what Congress has done for you, you have a friend whose nolde goodness you 
 will never forget, who has charge of tlie Bureau for Freedrnen. I count it a special favor 
 of Providence that such a man was called to take charge of your affairs at such a time, 
 and with him there are many of his officers like those here to-day, who love to do every- 
 thing to make you happy. 
 
 These ki»d ladies and gentlemen connected with this Bureau and village, who have 
 done so much fov you, have come to-day to bring you a feast, to put you in mind, of the 
 day of your liberty ; and you may be sure they are glad to see you made happy, for they 
 know vou can never reward them, in this world. You will remember their kindness and 
 try to imitate their virtues, and this is all they ask. 
 
 Bat let me charge you that whatever you may do that is wrong, and whomsoever you may 
 forget; never forg6:t, while you live, your "Faiher Abraham," that noble champion of his 
 country and of human rights, who has passed from his toils to his reward. His proclama- 
 tion shattered all your shackles, and so broke the force of your masters that you could not 
 be longer withhold from freedom. Not only so, but his heart was always for you and for 
 all the'oppressed ; and because he was such a man, he fell by the blow of rebel assassins. 
 But the people will take up the work and carry it on, and future generations will yet sea 
 all this broad land filled with free, orderly, and enlightened people, living in homes fit for 
 freemen and upholding liberty, religion, and law. 
 
 It may be long before all of you find comfortable homes ; but you must remember that 
 great things come to pass slowly. Only think how much more has now been done than 
 you dreamed of ten years ago. You must also remember that this country is very large, 
 and there are thousands of places where you can go. There are all the broad Territories 
 spreading to the Pacific ocean. All these are given for homesteads to the industrious 
 people ; and all over the land, from west to east, all diligent and honest people are wanted 
 now, and will be so hereafter. 
 
 But to be an American freeman, and have part in this glorious country, a man must be 
 a man in dignity and self-respect. I do not mean that any of you are in the least to 
 assume proud or unbecoming airs ; tut you must, for all that, begin to feel that you are 
 me?i and uwmen. You must begin to think, and must feel, that you have a right to do so, 
 and that your thoughts and actions should be worth taking notice of. That your race 
 also should have a history, and fill some part in the great moving world ; that you should 
 have schools and scholars, learned men, inventors, brave soldiers, intrepid travelers, dis- 
 coverers, historians, orators, and thinkers, as the more favored races. 
 
 Time will develop all these things, and God and good men will help those who help 
 themselves. 
 
 Pardon my tendering you so much advice, and accept, instead of any more, my wishes 
 for your welfare; and to these gentlemen of such courteous kindness, let me as well as to 
 
27 
 
 you return my thanks for such cheerful attention and evident approval. I feel that it is 
 for the sentiments I utter you all regard with interest my otherwise indifferent reuiarks. 
 With the liope that you may all, without distinction of race or color, well enjoy and long 
 remember this pleasant jubilee, I give place to others, hoping that you will listen to their 
 words with greater jileasure than to my own. 
 
 When Mr. Bromwell alluded to Major General Howard, Rev. Mr. Morris rose and 
 proposed three cheers for that distinguished friend of the colored race, which were given 
 by the great audience with the heartiest enthusiasm. 
 
 ADDRESS OF EEV. MR. MORRIS. 
 
 Friends and Brethren : In the scenes of to-day we have " swung around the circle" 
 grandly and beautifully. Every part and point of it has glowed with sentiments of Chris- 
 tian sympathy and with the happiest and fullest recognition of our common humanity. 
 We have in these ceremonies a beautiful and practical illustration of the fatherhood of 
 God and the brotherhood of man. 
 
 " I am a man, and whatever relates to the interests and elevation of humanity I am per- 
 sonally and deeply interested in," was a sentiment uttered by a Roman slave, whose genius 
 was inspired by poetry, and whose eloquent utterance was received with plaudits by a 
 Roman audience, as it must be by all generous and noble-minded hearts in every age 
 and clime. The Christian religion is in perfect harmony with the sentiment, and He who 
 "went about doing good," and who said, "ye are all brethren," in His own perfect and 
 beautiful example, has consecrated it as a sacred sentiment in the heart of humanitv. 
 
 To our colored brethren these scenes are full of deep interest and meaning. They 
 are expressive and significant symbols of sympathy for your race; of the recogni- 
 tion of your rights and manhood ; of the feelings of the Christian and patriotic people of 
 this great country towards you, and of the all-comprehending benevolence and genius of 
 our common Christianity. These banners of " beauty and glory," emblems of our pre- 
 served naionality and of yowr freedom ; these evergreens which adorn these walls and 
 so tastefully arranged with your own hands ; these smiling faces of your white brethren, 
 reflecting the benedictions and Pf-mpathies of a Christian public; the eloquent and heart- 
 spoken addresses to which you have listened with such eager attention, are all significank 
 and impressive lessons to you and your race of the sentiments which inspire and animate 
 the hearts of the American people towards your race, and beautiful and expressive 
 illustrations of the nature and aims of Christianity and of the Government to lift you up, 
 to bless you, and place you as equal members in the great family of American freemen. 
 
 Our nation owes you a debt that has been accumulating for more than two- hundred 
 years. In the impartial and righteous retributions of a just God, and in the awful and 
 stern necessities created by treason and rebellion, this heavy debt due the colored race 
 of our country has had to be cancelled by the most costly sacrifices ever made for the 
 atonement of wrong, and for the divine and violated rights of human nature. This debt 
 is now receiving payment. The acts of Congress and of most of the States, securing the 
 rights of the colored race, soon to give them the elective franchise, and protecting them in 
 all the privileges of American citizenship, as well as the public sentiment of the country, 
 are evidences of the practical spirit and purpose to pay, to the fullest extent, the debt due 
 the colored race. 
 
 What is the voice and lesson of the late autumn elections in the loyal States ? They 
 were the sublime expressions of the solemn purpose of the American peoplo to do ample 
 justice to the colored race, and to atone for the past by restoring to them their manhood 
 and their rights as American citizens. Never, in the history of this country, was there 
 
60 grand and important a political and moral victory as that achieved by the American 
 people at the ballot-box in the autumn of 1866. 
 
 Henry Clay, the impassioned orator and popular statesman, in the halls of Congress, 
 once said : " I am no friend to slavery. The Searcher of hearts knows that every 
 pulsation of my heart beats high and strong for civil liberty. If I could be the instru- 
 ment in eradicating this deepest stain upon the character of our country ; of effacing this 
 foul blot from that State ( Virgijiia) which gave me birth, or that not less beloved State 
 (Kentuchj) which kindly adopted me as her son, I would not exchange the proud satisfac- 
 tion which I should enjoy for all the triumphs ever decreed to the most successful con- 
 queror ;" and, said he, " You must blow out all the moral lights around us before you can 
 perpetuate slavery and repress all sympathies and all humane and benevolent effort amon<' 
 freemen in behalf of the unhappy portion of our race who are doomed to bondage." This 
 idol of a once great party, this great orator of the tribune and of the American Congress, 
 ■was once crossing the mountains from his western home to his post of duty at the 
 capital of our country. Reaching the summit of the loftiest ridge that divides the "West 
 and the East, Mr. Clay got out of the coach, (it was before the day of railroads,) and 
 took a position where his eye surveyed, as in one view, the great West, which lav out- 
 stretched in vision before him. Wrapt in silent thought at the future grandeur of his coun- 
 try, a traveling friend stepped by his side, and said: " Mr. Clay, what are you thinkin" 
 about in the midst of these grand and surrounding scenes of nature?" " I am listeniu", 
 said Mrj Clay, to the tread of the coming millions who are to inhabit the great western 
 empire, as free, intelligent, and independent citizens." That was what some of us in 
 the national capital were doing during the progress of the late elections. We were 
 listening to the sublime voices of those millions of voters, seen in the vision of the great 
 statesman from the top of the Allegheny Mountains, and which, at the late elections, 
 solemnly expressed the will of the American people that full justice should be done to 
 four millions of colored people, and that no reconstruction of the States should ever 
 take place v.-hich did not settle the Government and policy of the United States upon the 
 basis of eternal justice, of universal freedom, of equality before the law, and of equal 
 political privileges. Those elections were the salvation of the Republic and certain 
 assurances to the colored race that all their rights as American citizens should be bestowed 
 and secured to them and their posterity. 
 
 This duty was made doubly sure of fuiaUment by the new debt of gratitude due to the 
 colored race for their heroic and sacrificing services in the late trying time of our 
 Republic. In the recent stupendous conflict, which imperilled the life of the nation, the 
 colored race nobly vindicated their manhood and their loyal fidelity to the country and 
 its institutions. Forgetting the wrongs of two centuries, they rallied two hundred thou- 
 sand strong around the old flag of the Republic, and on the bloody battle-fields of the 
 war tens of thousands of their sons, brothers, and fathers fell martyrs to freedom and to 
 the cause of our country. Through their assistance the final victory over the hosts of 
 rebellion was won, and their blood, mingling with that of their heroic and immortal 
 white companions in arms, has baptized and consecrated anew the continent to freedom 
 and cemented, in a more enduring form and in new beauty, the glorious temple of 
 American freedom. 
 
 The conduct of the colored rp.ce during the most stupendous civil war and social convul- 
 sion the world ever witnessed forms a memorable and a noble chapter in their history. 
 The four millions of slaves not only waited patiently for their coming day of deliveranco, 
 but their quietness, industry, fidelity, order, and good behavior, challenged the admira- 
 tion and gratitude of their task-masters and owners, and of the entire country. More 
 
29 
 
 than this: they wero true and trusty to our own suffering heroes, who, in the fortunes 
 of the war, were thrown into the dreary prisons, hospitals, and camps of the South ; 
 and who, in escaping, as many did, from these horrible places, committed themselves to 
 the confidence and care of the slaves of the South, to bo fed and piloted, homeward bound, 
 through the swamps and forests, over creeks and rivers, until they reached our army 
 lines. God bless those enfranchised men and women who, at the risk of torture and 
 death, took our suffering heroes into their lowly cabins, carried them bread and bacon 
 by night to the swamps where they were concealed, and with a "God bleas you," guided 
 them on their homeward journey. 
 
 You and your race, my colored brethren, by your conduct and fidelity to your country, 
 as well as from convictions of right and duty, have secured from the American people, 
 after long and weary years of waiting and suffering, your rights and privileges as citizens 
 of the American nation. I have the fullest faith that your race will wear well and 
 worthily this proud distinction, and use for the highest good of your country j-our precioua 
 and blood-bought privileges. The universal interest you feel in education, your efforts 
 for schools and churches, and for all the institutes and means of intellectual and Christian 
 culture, are delightful evidences that you understand the duties and responsibilities of 
 your new condition, and that you will realize all the just expectations of your friends, 
 and fulfill the auspicious destiny which Providence and the American people have opened 
 before you and your children ; and, in the future of our noxu free and great Republic, tho 
 colored race will be one of the firmest and safest pillars to strengthen and adorn the fabric 
 of our free institutions. 
 
 In helping you to this high and happy destiny, you and your children, to tho latest 
 generation, will remember with gratitude the friends who stood by you, in Church and 
 State, and who, to give you your freedom and rights, suffered persecutions, and some of 
 them a martyr's death. Many of the first champions of our colored race sleep in honored 
 graves, whilst a " great cloud" of them still live to rejoice in this new era wliich has 
 dawned so brightly upon them and our country. The great and good men who founded 
 our free institutions have all passed away, but the lessons of liberty which inspired them 
 and fell from their lips, and so sublimely illustrated in their acts, are still freshly living 
 in the hearts of millions of their descendants, who have reproduced them in these latter 
 days for the freedom of an enslaved race, and for the life and perpetuity of our Republic. 
 
 My esteemed friend from Indiana, Hon. Mr. Farquhab, alluded, happily, to hisQuAKr.B 
 descent, and his early education among that excellent people. From them, he says, he 
 received those inspirations and lessons of liberty which I know he has nobly proclaimed be. 
 fore the people of his State and defended in the halls of our national legislature. I fully 
 respond to his tribute to the unfaltering fidelity of his Quaker "friends" to freedom, and 
 say, with Patrick Henry, whose matchless oratory once fired the heart of Virginia with 
 freedom, " Believe me, I honor the Quakers for their nohle efforts to abolish slavery." But 
 others, also, share in this noble Christian work. ^ 
 
 An allusion to my own paternal ancestors, I hope, may be pardoned. My old grand- 
 mother died at the age of ninety-four years, and her bones are now mouldering in the 
 State of West Virginia, redeemed from slavery before the act of general emancipation. 
 She was the wife of a Baptist preacher, who sounded the trumpet of Gospel liberty for 
 sixty-five years on the mountains and in the valleys of the western part of the "Ancient 
 Dominion." At the death of her father (Henton) .she and her husband were notified that 
 her portion of the estate was /our slaves, and was requested by the executor to receive 
 her dowry. The proposition was rejected as an outrage on their sense of justice, and they 
 both declared they would do no act that would in any form recognize the right of one 
 
30 
 
 s 
 
 man to hold human beings, made in the image of God, and immortal, as " chattel prop- 
 EETY," and that they lyowZcZ ?ioi, and did not receive the inherited slaves. Around her 
 knees, attending to her daily duties in her log cabin, with no books but a Bible, a hymn- 
 book, and a spelling-book, she taught all her children to read before they were four years 
 old, and instilled into them the lessons of liberty taught in the Bible. In the march of 
 empire westward, one of her numerous sons in his youth found his home, in 1705, in a 
 part of the vast unorganized territory which had been consecrated to freedom by the 
 memorable ordinance of 1787, and now the great and populous State of Ohio, on whose 
 bosom blossom the arts, elegancies, comforts, and teeming blessings of freedom and a 
 true Christian civilization. This son, after many years of service in the Legislature of 
 his adopted State, was called to a seat, 1833, as Senator from Ohio in the Congress of the 
 JQnited States. The great political and moral battle between freedom and slavery was at 
 that time beginning to be renewed, and which continued earnestly and fiercely among all 
 classes until it terminated gloriously for our country and the colored race in the late fear- 
 ful struggles on the field of battle and in the halls of Congress. As an American Senator 
 that son, the late Hon. Thomas Morris, my immediate ancestor, stood alone for six years 
 in that august body battling for freedom and the right of petition on the subject of sla- 
 very, and in combating the pro-slavery doctrines and political and moral heresies of Cal- 
 houn, Buchanan, and other distinguished Senators. In closing his senatorial and official 
 life, he made an elaborate speech against the slave-power and for the freedom of the col- 
 ored race, closing in the following words : " On returning to my home and my friends in 
 Ohio, I shall join them again in rekindling the beacon-fires of liberty on every hill-top in 
 our State, until their broad glare sJtall enlighten every valley, and the song of triumph will 
 soon be heard, for the hearts of our people are in the hands of a just and holy Being, who 
 can look upon oppression but with abhorrence, and He can turn them whithersoever He will, 
 as the rivers of waters are turned. * * That all may be safe, 1 conclude that the negro 
 will yet be set free^ 
 
 In writing from the Senate Chamber, December 11, 1S38, to the organ, at the capital of 
 Ohio, of the then great Democratic party, which refused to re-elect him Senator, because 
 of his true democratic faith and practice in opposing slavery and fearlessly advocating 
 the freedom of the slaves, he said: " I feel devoutly thankful to my Maker, and grateful 
 to my State, for the situation I occupy, where my humble name appears upon the highest 
 records of my country in opposition to slavery, and among the friends of the poor, trodden- 
 down, and broken-hearted slave. And when the hand of time shall point to the last hour 
 of my existence, my fervent prayer sliall be that the Almighty, in his good time, will deliver 
 the negro race from that cruel slavery under which they are now groaning, and that the 
 liberties and happiness of my country may be perpetual.*" The same sentiments of freedom 
 so practically carried out by those aged ancestors are inherited by most of their numerous 
 descendants, now numbering about four hundred persons. What important results flow 
 from parental teachings and example. 
 
 Another, and an older son of my grandmother, schooled in the same sentiments, died in 
 his eighty-fifth year. As he was sinking day by day into his grave, his earnest prayer to 
 God was, that he might live long enough to cast his vote for Hon. Salmon P. Chase as 
 Governor of Ohio, whom he called " the foremost statesman of his age," whom the country 
 honors, and we all know, as the early champion of liberty and human rights, the accom- 
 plished and able lawyer, the upright and eminent Governor, a Senator in Congress from 
 Ohio of pre-eminent abilities and power, a Secretary of the Treasury who retrieved the 
 financial condition of the Government from the chaos in which treason left it, and sus- 
 tained the financial credit and character of the country with unequalled sagacity and 
 
SI 
 
 judgment, who now adorns the seat of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, and who has, in every official and public position, ever been the distin- 
 guished and fearless friend of the freedom, and all the rights, civil and political, of the 
 colored race, whether slave or free. Whoever may prove false to freedom, to the colored 
 race, or the country, we can all confide in this eminent jurist, who will, in his judicial 
 ofSce, see that " black men have eights ivhich white men are bound to respect. " 
 
 In the cemetery of the rural village near Cincinnati, the Queen City of the West, sleep 
 the mortal remains of these two sons of my grandmother, and those of the venerable 
 parents of my friend the Hon Mr. Clarke, who has addressed you, the true aud able 
 Eepresentative in Congress from our native county, with whom my boyhood days were 
 spent, and wliom I am happy to hail as a Radical champion of freedom in the halls of 
 Congress. In the deed of conveyance by the proprietor of our native village BetiIel — 
 House of Ood — a member of the Baptist denomination, this anti slavery record is found: 
 
 "I give two lots, in said town, Nos. 80 and 180, for the use of the regular Baptist 
 church, who do not hold slaves, nor commune with those who do practice such tyranny over 
 their fellow-men, fellow -creatures, for to build a house for the worship of Almighty God, 
 and to bury the dead, and for no other use." 
 
 This Ohio village, thus connected, was the boyhood home, as its county (Clermont) is 
 the nativity, of our victorious and invincible hero. General Ulysses Simpson Grant, to 
 ■whom General Lee, once the lordly proprietor of numerous slaves and of thi.s large estate 
 on which we are holding our festival, surrendered, on the 9th of April, 1865, his rebel 
 army, and thus destroyed the last hope of the southern leaders and people of building up 
 a Government and a nation whose corner-stones were to rest on the perpetual bondage of 
 untold millions of the colored race Our noble chieftain now occupies the military posi- 
 tion once graced by the Father of his Country, the head of the Army of the United 
 States; and, like Washington, received the impress of his character and his love of 
 country and of freedom from a Christian mother. She still lives, as his Christian father, 
 to witness the honors paid to their illustrious son. 
 
 Such incidents have important moral lessons They teach us that the seeds of freedom 
 have been sown in years gone by, and in the homes and hearts of many now dead, the 
 harvest of which our colored brethren, and our country, are now reaping in rich and 
 plenteous abundance. " They who sow in tears shall reap in joy ; and he that goelh forth 
 and weepeih, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his 
 sheaves with him." On this happy day we can all, as equal citizens of our great Republic, 
 shout the " harvest home" of freedom, and see its sheaves standing thick in every field 
 and part of our country. 
 
 But these and similar incidents teach another important lesson, which I earnestly desire 
 to impress upon my colored brethren, especially the fathers and mothers of the colored 
 people everywhere. The best of the blessings, after all, which freedom has brouglit you 
 and your race, is that now you can have a home a.nd family. During the reign of slavery 
 four million of slaves had no homes, in the Christian meaning of that word. Slavery 
 blotted out and destroyed the family institution which God had established for all 
 races and colors, to bless them with the richest and sweetest of blessings. There was not 
 a black man, woman, or child in all the slave States that could say, " / have a home and 
 family." You all know how precious is home, "sweet home," and that "there is no 
 place like home ;" " be it ever so humble," " there is no place like home." 
 
 Now, what slavery destroyed and robbed the colored race of, freedom and a free and 
 pure Christianity have restored. Your wives, your husbands, your children, your families 
 your homes, are now your own. Henceforth no master, no cruel slave-dealer, can invado 
 
32 
 
 your happy homes and break up your families, and break your heartt by selling into 
 slavery your children or parents, and thus tearing you away from those you love. In 
 the future of the South and of my country there is no vision so beautiful and bright to me 
 as the unnumbered happy homes, filled with educated Christian families, which will dot 
 and beautify the sunny regions of the South, and enrich and ornament our wbole land — 
 homes created by the colored people of the South. It makes us all grateful and glad to 
 see, in anticipation, the reality of which is already being seen, this lovely picture. 
 
 And now, what I want to say earnestly, and to say it so that all you colored parents 
 will remember it, is, that in your homes the teachings and example of parents are to 
 bless or to curse your children, to bless or to curse the happy country which the colored 
 race can now say is ours. As fathers, you must set a Christian example before your chil- 
 dreq^; as mothers, you must teach your children lessons of virtue and religion; and laying 
 your hands upon their heads, pray down God"s blessing upon them and on all your house- 
 hold. If you do these things, you will have, indeed, happy homes on earth and a far 
 happier home in heaven ; you will then bless yourselves, your families, your country, 
 and the Church of Christ, and raise up a generation of colored people who shall be among 
 the best and most virtuous citizens of the Republic. 
 
 In these happy ceremonies, the speakers have frequently alluded to Abraham Lincoln, 
 and what he had done for your race and his country. You nor your children, till the 
 last hour of time, will never forget the name or the great deeds of that good and great 
 man. You have to-day, on these church walls, written his "name" in large evergreen 
 letters, a symbol of his immortality and the green and grateful place beholds in your hearts 
 and memories, and will hold in all those of your race who will come after you. But, my 
 colored brethren, who made Abraham Lincoln? Under God, his Christian mother. She 
 was very poor, like most of our colored friends, lived in a log- cabin in the West, and she 
 and her husband and "Abe," their son, worked hard to make an honest and frugal 
 living. Yet, notwithstanding all this, they had a happy Christian home, and in that 
 home, the mother of " Abe" taught him to be a good boy, to be obedient to his parents, to 
 love his humble home, to be honest, to be industrious, to be moral, to read the Bible, to 
 pray, and to be religious. She said: " I would rather Abe would learn to read the Bible, 
 and own one, than to own a farm, if he can't have but one." When they were perplexed 
 about how the family should get along, or in any sorrow, his mother would say : " We 
 musnH borrow too much trouble, we must have faith in God." And these and similar reli- 
 gious lessons, accompanied with prayer, Abraham Lincoln received from his pious, good 
 mother in their log-cabin. He grew up a good boy, was a virtuous youth, an honest 
 and a noble man, and God and the people made him President, in order to free your race 
 and save his country from slavery and rebellion. In the " White House," where for 
 more than four years he carried your sorrows and the burdens of the nation upon his 
 great and loving heart, he said, as he stood around the coffin of his little son "Willie:" 
 " I will go to God in my sorrow, for I remember my mother's prayers ; all that I am I owe 
 io my angel mother; blessings upon her memory." Yes, my colored brethren, was it that, 
 through a Christian mother, God raised up the great emancipator of your race, your best 
 and truest friend, and a wise, and good, and great ruler for our nation. Bless his name ! 
 Eevere his memory ! Copy his example ! Visit his grave and wet it with your tears ! 
 Reproduce in your humble homes his virtues and those of his mother, and then, as ho 
 was accustomed to say, " all will be well." 
 
 But, above all, remember that God alone wrought the deliverance of your race. All 
 the great and good men and women of the nation, who have labored so faithfully, so 
 patiently, and so lo»g, were but instruments of Providence. God inspired them, fired 
 
• 33 
 
 and filled their souls with freedom and truth, made them heroic and persevering in faith 
 and works for the freedom of the colored race, and led them on, from one conquest to 
 another, and another, until the final victory came to them and our country with a trium- 
 phant and universal shout of praise from more than twenty millions of loyal hearts in our 
 land. As God led the hosts of Israel, under their great leader Moses, from the land of 
 bondage, in Egypt, across the Red Sea, and through the wilderness into the land flowing 
 with milk and honey, where they could sit under their own vine and fig tree to worship 
 God and enjoy the blessings of freedom and of home, so has God in a most wonderful 
 and signal manner made bare his Almighty arm for the deliverance of four millions of 
 your race, thrown the hosts of rebellion, their horses and ri'ders, their armies and their 
 oppressive government that was to be, their leader and people, into the Red Sea and 
 watery deep of destruction, blasting all their hopes, and led you and your race into the 
 happy Canaan of freedom and complete redemption. While you will always honor 
 those who have so nobly worked and prayed, lived and died, for the emancipation of your 
 race, for the restoration and securement of all your civil and political rights, to give you 
 your homes and families, you are still to ascribe all to God, and to praise and serve 
 Him for His mighty and glorious deliverance which He has v/rought out for the colored 
 race of the present generation, and for all who are to come after them. 
 
 In view of all these great blessings which God has bestowed upon j'our race and our 
 country, now dearer to us all than ever, and in closing the happy scenes and ceremonies 
 of this festive day — a glad and good day to you — we can all respond Vith grateful and re- 
 joicing hearts to that sublime song, sung so often after our great victories in the assemblies 
 of Christians and patriots : 
 
 "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; 
 Praise Him, all creatures here below; 
 Praise Ilini abovo, ye heavenly host, 
 Praiso Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." 
 
 The benediction was pronounced at the close of the ceremonies in the church by Rev. 
 Mr. Laws, pastor of the church in Freedmen's Village. 
 
 The addresses were all received with great demonstrations of delight by the audience, 
 and the sentiments uttered were greeted with round after round of the heartiest applause. 
 A thousand hearts were made happy by the scenes and ceremonies of the day, and many 
 thousands more of the colored people, and others in all parts of the land, as they may 
 read the account of the New Year's festival given to the freedmen on Arlington Heights, 
 will tha.nk God and take courage. 
 
 LETTERS. 
 
 HON. MR. MATNARD'S LETTER. ■ ''.'T.T'- 
 
 Washington, January 5, 1867. 
 Rev. B. F. Morris, S. V. Boyd, and S. S. Bryant. 
 
 Gentlemen : I cannot be present at the celebratic^n to-day ; my duties forbid it. The 
 pleasure of witnessing j^our efforts in behalf of the freedmen must be postponed. 
 
 Emancipation has given us some -most interesting and difficult problems for solution. 
 Foremost of them is the future of the freedmen themselves. There is little danger that 
 enough will not be done for them. The point of solicitude is, what will they do for them- 
 selves? Will they be self-sustaining, self-dependent, self-respecting? Will they practice 
 industry, economy, frugality, and prudence, the honesty and unconspicuous virtues by 
 which people generally thrive? Will they aspire to the more intelligent and remunera- 
 iive forms of labor, in which skill imparts the chief value to muscular power? Will they 
 3 
 
34 • 
 
 venture upon trade, and acquire some of the princely fortunes, the capital prizes of that 
 great lottery, commerce ? "Will they strive to become rich, and thus secure the many 
 friends proverbial to the rich? Will they give their first efforts to organize families and 
 provide comfortable homes? I fear this may be thought an humble view of the matter. 
 It is certainly a very unimaginative and practical one, at the same time very necessary. 
 If unattended to, no acquirements, however showy, no more book instruction will amount 
 to much. 
 
 Were I permitted a suggestion, it would be to furnish for those untaught people a 
 compilation of the aphorismr|,of Franklin, K'oah Webster, and other earlj^ writers of every- 
 day wisdom. A new edition of a little book of domestic proverbs, familiar to our fathers 
 and mothers, called the Prompter, would be an excellent thing ; for by the observance 
 of these homely precepts it is that we have grown in security two generations, from 
 obscure penury into wealth and cultivation and honor. These humble beginners in life 
 will succeed, if they succeed at all, by observing the same precepts. Teach them not to 
 despise the day of small things. 
 
 Hoping for you an auspicious day and a pleasant company, I have the honor to be, 
 
 very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 HORACE MAYNARD. 
 
 BEV. CHAS. B. BOTNTON's LETTEE. 
 
 WAsniiTGTON, January 4, 1867. 
 Rev. B. F. MoEEis. 
 
 Dear Sie: I have received and read with interest the letter of invitation to attend a 
 celebration at Arlington Heights, the object of which is to provide a holiday dinner for 
 the freedmen of that vicinity, and also to supply the needy among them with clothing 
 and other necessaries which may aid them to bear the inclemency of the season without 
 needless suffering. 
 
 It is not convenient for me to be present, but desire to express my sympathy with and 
 approval of this movement in behalf of the suffering poor, and especially of those who 
 have fewer friends than all others. 
 
 It seems a timely thought to attempt in this way to meet temporarily their need, and 
 thus encourage their hearts. 
 
 Very truly, your obedient, 
 
 CHAS. B. BOYNTON, 
 
 Chaplain U. 8. E. R. 
 
 JOHN E. ELVANS'S LETTEE. 
 
 Washington, D. C, January 4, 1867. 
 Rev. B. F. MoEEis. 
 
 My Deae Sie: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your kind invitation, on 
 behalf of the committee, to participate in the ceremonies at the New Year's festival to the 
 freedmen at Arlington Heights. 
 
 It is a matter of sincere regret that business engagements will prevent active co-opera- 
 tion with the benevolent ladies and gentlemen who have inaugurated the noble enterprise. 
 I trust it may be unnecessary to say to you that my sympathies are heartily with every 
 object having in view the amelioration and advancement of the colored race. 
 
 It has been my lot to have been born and raised in a slave community, and to have 
 witnessed in youth, in the capital of a so-called free country, the revolting scenes of human 
 bondage — chains, the driver's lash, the auction-block, the negro-pen, the sundering of ties 
 of family and of affection, for no other cause than that black skins, containing white 
 hearts, were a source of profit to white men whose souls were black. 
 
35 
 
 I have watched the course — I was about to say of human events ; I should say of God's 
 justice — and am forcibly reminded to-day of the vast stride toward the will of Heaven 
 on the part of the nation, as I read the " Appeal in behalf of the Freedmen at Arlington 
 Heights." Six years ago these men and women to whom you and your co-laborers are 
 now carrying the blessings of liberty, education, morality, and self-reliance, were the 
 victims of slavery, ignorance, debauchery, and abject submission to the will and power of 
 maiters. Made in the image of a common Creator, they possessed, in the mindn of their 
 persecutors, no God, no souls, no affections, no rights. That so startling a change should 
 be established in so short a time can be attributed only to Him by whom the powers that 
 be are ordained, and who has proclaimed that in the divine dispensation He is no " respecter 
 of persons." 
 
 While firmly believing that Providence has, in a remarkable and self-apparent manner, 
 controlled and directed the affairs of our land from the formation of the Government to 
 the present hour, and that He will, in His own good time, firmly establish it upon a basis 
 of equal and exact justice to all, my position as a business-man and merchant causes me 
 to rejoice in the unfolding of free institutions and free thought and free speech in southern 
 localities, and particularly in and around the city of Washington. 
 
 The natural tendency to sluggishness to be found in every southern community, together 
 with the unpopularity of labor and the false standard of serial position, has heretofore 
 retarded enterprise, tied up industry, and prevented interchange of ideas. The honest 
 mechanic, with brain to plan and execute, has been deemed little better than a chattel, 
 and has been driven* to a more congenial latitude, which ho has helped to enrich by his 
 energy. All this is now being changed. The dignity of labor is at last beginning to be 
 appreciated. Men are no longer rated by the number of human beings which they may 
 have bought or sold, and it needs but the recognition of impartial manhood (a fixed fact 
 in my own section) to cause the federal capital to assume the position to which nature and 
 population entitle it. 
 
 Your care for and attention to the elevation of the colored people at Arlington Heights 
 is a means to the end so desirable for the future of Washington. A large proportion of 
 these people will become citizens with us, alike interested in our commercial and moral 
 prosperity. As a native-born southerner, I will welcome them to our midst as intelligent 
 men, and I have no fear that they will prove other than an element of strength in the 
 future, in all that concerns the best interests of the community i'n which they may settle. 
 
 I have had barely time, in acknowledging your note, to respond to your kind invitation 
 in a very hasty and disconnected manner. 
 
 God speed you in your noble work, and may you soon rejoice in the full fruition of 
 
 your labors. 
 
 I am, dear sir, yours, very truly, 
 
 JOHN R. ELVANS. 
 
 GENEEAL EKIN's LETTER. 
 
 QUAETEKMASTEB GeNEEAL'S OfFICE, 
 
 Washington, D. C., January 30, 1867. 
 Eev. B. F. MoEEis, Washington, D. 0. 
 
 Rev. and Dear Sie : I am in receipt of your kind letter of the 1st inst., inviting me 
 to address the meeting at Arlington this afternoon. 
 
 I regret that pressing official duties will prevent me from being present on the interest- 
 ing occasion. 
 
 The charitable purpose of the meeting has my warmest sympathies ; and surely if there 
 ever was a time when the generous feeling of a common humanity should be manifested 
 
in works of benevolence towards tlie suffering freedmen, it is now at tins inclement 
 
 season — one of unusual length and severity — when on every side is heard the piteous cry 
 
 of distress, borne on the cheerless voices of the wintry winds. 
 
 Trusting that the meeting may be abundantly successful, 
 
 I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 JAMES A. EKIN, 
 
 Deputy Q. M. O., Bvt. Brig. Oen. U. 8. A. 
 
 ME. WETMORE's letter. 
 
 State of Ohio MiLiTAr.Y Agenct, 
 
 Washington, January 5, 1867. 
 Eev. B. F. Morris and others: 
 
 ' Gentlemen: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your kind invitation to join 
 
 in the entertainment to be given to the "freedmen" collected at "the village" on 
 
 Arlington Heights. 
 
 I regret exceedingly that I shall be prevented by official duties from being present. 
 
 I never think of "our neighbors," the colored people, but what I feel how unjust we, as 
 a nation, have been to them. The world, in all its history, has never seen such continued 
 outrages committed upon an inoffensive race. 
 
 How like true servants of our divine ilaster they conducted themselves during the 
 wicked rebellion. While the country was in turmoil and every class in their particular 
 section setting law and justice at defiance, they were meekly and humbly going about 
 their daily unrequited labors, trusting in the Lord to make everything to work together 
 for good to them that fear him. Loyal and true they were, without hardly an exception. 
 
 We owe them not only " equal rights," but a debt of gratitude which we, as a country, 
 will never be able to pay It behooves us, therefore, to save) if for nothing more) God's 
 judgments upon us, to see that they are educated to a higher moral and intellectual 
 status, and are given the Bible, which has been so long and cruelly withheld from them. 
 
 Wishing that your benevolent efforts may be crowned with success, 
 I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 JAMES C. WETMORE. 
 
 HON. HENRT WILSOIC, SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 This determined and fearless friend of the colored race was invited to be present at the 
 festival, but a great sorrow, in the death of his gallant and noble son, who died in Texas, 
 in December, 1S66, in the service of his country, pjrevented his attendance. His son, 
 Henry Hamilton Wilson, soon after the enlistment of colored soldiers, received the appoint- 
 ment in a regiment of colored troops of first lieutenant, and was soon promoted to a cap- 
 taincy, and afterwards to be lieutenant colonel. He led his gallant regiment of colored 
 soldiers through the fearful conflict until the war was ended. The major of the regiment, 
 (Delany,) his brother officer, was a black man, of great courage and military genius, and 
 was the only commissioned colored officer in the army, and who is now promoting the 
 interests of his race in South Carolina. Lieut. Col, ^yilson died in the regular army, uni- 
 versally lamented, and left a bright example of heroic devotion to his country, and to the 
 doctrine of the manhood of the colored race. His distinguished father, in the Senate and 
 before the public, has been greatly interested in the deliverance of the colored race from 
 bondage, and in promoting their political, educational, and moral interests. The follow- 
 ing extracts from a speech he made before the colored people of Washington, on the Fourth 
 of July, 1865, met in the presidential grounds to commemorate their ISational Educationa 
 
 / 
 
37 
 
 Monument Association, in honor of their great emancipator Abraham Lincoln, will ba 
 read with interest and profit. They are strong and truthful words : 
 
 " I have an undeviating faith in these men ; they have been tried at all times and in 
 every form, but they have marched steadily onward, achieving victory after victory, and 
 they will not shrink from any contest that may come up in the great worlc of consummat- 
 ing freedom for all men in America. (Applause.) I say to you colored men here to-day, 
 that ninety-five of every hundred of the men who, in November last, voted for Abraham 
 Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, are standing now shoulder to shoulder for the emancipation 
 and protection of your race, by just, humane, and equal laws. (Cheers ) They believe, 
 with Andrew Johnson, that ' all men should have a fair start and an equal chance in the 
 race cf life, and that merit should be rewarded without regard to color. In their memo- 
 ries will linger forever the immortal words of the martyred Lincoln: 'The ballot of the 
 black man in some trying time to come may keep the jewel of liberty in the family of free- 
 dom.' ***** 
 
 " At home and in Congress I have ever labored to secure to the colored men of my coun- 
 try equality of rights before the law. I would give to all men, white and black, equal, 
 just, and humane laws — the same that I ask for myself and kindred. Having ever bat- 
 tled for your rights, I hope you wrll allow me to offer on this occasion a few words of 
 advice and admonition. (' We will.') It is said by your enemies that the black man will 
 not work without a lash upon his back. I don't believe it. (A voice : ' I know it ain't 
 so.') I want you to prove by deeds that your enemies have mi.-judged you. Deeds, not 
 words, must silence your enemies, vindicate the confidence of your friends. Never be 
 idle. Cultivate the brain and the hand. Engage in the various industries demanding 
 the trained head and skillful hand. Be temperate, frugal, economical. Get homes. Though 
 they be ever so humble, they will be dear to you, for the laws of your country will make 
 them sacred. Educate your children, so that their future may be brighter than your past 
 or present. Follow not the example of men who sat in the shade and punished poor 
 whisky while you were driven to unpaid toil under a burning sun ; but imitate the indus- 
 try, thrift, and economy of the hardy sons of toil, who till the fields and fill the work- 
 shops where labor is honored and laboring men respected. God made you, as be made tho 
 rest of us, to gain your bread by the sweat of your faces, not to force or steal it from other 
 men. Slave masters must now learn this hard lesson. 
 
 "Advance high your standard of rights, duties, and responsibilities. Call none master 
 but God. Walk with your forehead to the skies. Don't insult any man, nor allow any 
 man to insult you. Don't strike any man, nor allow yourselves to be struck. Let it 
 henceforth an^ forever be understood by friend and foe, anywhere and everywhere, that 
 you are free — as free to think, speak, and act as any men that breathe God's air or walk 
 his green earth. (Cheers.) Let the late slave masters, from the Potomac to the Mexican 
 line, fully understand that you are amenable to the same laws as themselves, that you are 
 to be tried for their violation in the same manner, and punished in the same degree. 
 (Cheers.) Let them know that henceforth you will utter your own thoughts, make your own 
 bargains, enjoy the fruits of your own labor, go where you please throughout the bounds of 
 the Republic, and none have the right to molest or make you afraid. (Applause.) If my voice 
 to-day could penetrate the ear of the colored men of my country, I would say to them 
 that the intelligence, character, and wealth of the nation imperatively demand their free- 
 dom, protection, and the recognition of their rights. I would say to them : ' Prove your- 
 selves, by patience, endurance, industry, conduct, and character, worthy of all that the 
 millions "of Christian men and women have done and are doing to make for you — that 
 Declaration of Independence read here to-day — the living faith of united America." 
 
 DESCEIPTIOK OF THE FESTIVAL, BY A LADY PRESENT. 
 
 The following graphic and interesting description of that memorable festival day and 
 
 its scenes was written by Mrs. Mary C. Ames, the lady Washington correspondent of 
 
 The IndependeM: 
 
 Washingtost, D. C, January, 1867. 
 
 Several days have passed since the festival of the freed people of Arlington ; but, as it 
 was an occasion which could hardly fail to interest the readers of The Independent, I go 
 back to it. 
 
 A spechal interest attaches itself to the colored people upon this estate. One sees mora 
 than poetic justice in the fact that its rich lands, so long the domain of the great general 
 of the rebellion, now afford labor and support to hundred.s of enfranchised slaves. On the 
 gentlest of winter mornings we took our way toward the festival, by the grounds of the 
 
38 
 
 Smithsonian, its trees and shrubbery all ermined and edged with pearl, across the Long 
 Bridge and the frozen Potomac, over wintry fields and undulating hills, to the Fresdmen's 
 Village. Arlington is a lovely spot. Virginia, with all its vaunting, can hardly boast of 
 a fairer domain. From its slopes you look down upon the valley of the Potomac ; beyond 
 the lordly river, Washington stretches away to its crowning Capitol. The great domo 
 glitters through the crystal-blue air, and high above it the Goddess of Liberty holds tutel- 
 ary guard over the newly consecrated land. This is the picture — flecked here and there 
 with breezy fields, and open woods, and softly swelling hills — which we see from Arlington. 
 
 As we turned into the old Alexandria road, I thought of something that I savv not very 
 long ago — -a letter, the last one written by Mary Cusiis from Arlington to Robert E. Lee, 
 before she became his wife. The letter of a happy girl to the man beloved and chosen to 
 be the husband of her heart and the ruler of her life — her eventful fate has given to it a 
 touching significance. It referred solely to their approaching marriage and future life, 
 and was full of love and hope and religious faith. The young officer, stationed for the 
 time at Old Point Comfort, seemed to be in possession of only narrow quarters. Yet the 
 heiress of Arlington saw nothing formidable in this, and counted it no sacrifice to leave 
 the wide halls of her home for the scanty conveniences of a military fortress. " When 
 mother came, why, they could make a bed in the sitting-room for her ; and as for a maid, 
 if there was no room, Mary Custis could do without one!" Eare self-abnegation for a 
 Virginia heiress. Then came pleasant gossips about the bridesmaids and groomsmen al- 
 ready at Arlington, and maidenly fears as to how she should acquit herself through the 
 trying ceremony; followed and finished with that exquisite humility of love which always 
 sees in the beloved one the finer good, the diviner beauty, both of body and of spirit, 
 which, humble-hearted, it misses in itself, only to recognize and worship in that other self 
 who is now the counterpart and crown of all true existence. She was unworthy of such 
 great happiness; but, because he deserved it all, the blessing of God would descend upon 
 their union. Indeed, she felt that they could claim that benediction of Heaven promised to 
 those who honored and obeyed their parents, and sought to do the will of their heavenly 
 Father. On a certain day she would ride from Arlington on horseback and meet him at Alex- 
 andria. Over this very road came the happy lovers. Far and fair on every side stretched 
 the sunny lands which were their proud inheritance. Arlington House opened wide its 
 doors to these beloved children. Its patriarchal trees waved their summer welcomes. 
 Slaves came thronging from their cottages to greet their " dear Miss Mary" and her hand- 
 some young husband. 
 
 What a summer day for these joyous hearts ! Ineffable as its sunshine shone the promise 
 of their future. It was well for Mary Custis that to her was given no "second sight" to 
 divine the sorrow of a far-off morning. Well that those soft eyes, looking on, did not see 
 these gay old gardens and violet slopes sown thick with human bones and turfed with ten 
 thousand human graves? When she wrote this letter, in the sweet fullness of her heart, 
 it was well she could not know that when her hair was white, and her heart old with 
 many sorrows, a soldier would find this letter amid the treasures left in the home from 
 which she was banished — banished because the husband for whose sake she dreamed all 
 
 fracious fortune was to come was an armed traitor, fighting against the Government which 
 ad covered him with honor. She was innocent and lovely ; but the innocence and love- 
 liness of one could not avert the inevitable punishment of generations of wrong. This 
 letter, full of all girlish gentleness and love, draws us in sympathy toward her who wrote 
 it; yet we look on the graves of our dead, beneath the protecting trees of Arlington, and 
 say : Woe to the day when to Mary Custis or to her children shall be given back the 
 home of her fathers ! 
 
 Well, I commenced to tell you of the festival ; and, although I have loitered so long on 
 the road, strange to say, we did reach the chapel in season, and the carriage did not slip 
 backward down the hill, although Polly was sure it would. 
 
 The chapel, a large, unplastered building, whose adornment had been left entirely to the 
 colored people, bore witness to an unusual simplicity of taste. Its sides were hung with 
 evergreen. The only motto (that placed above the speaker's stand) was the name of Lin- 
 coln, while across the room was suspended the flagl — the flag which at last means all to 
 the black man that it does to the white, and which to-day means more to us all than it 
 ever could before. As it floats on the air, or falls above our heads, do we feel that it means 
 only free government, the people's will ? Is it not the synonym of all high sacrifice, of 
 all holy heroism, of all sacred triumph? Through all loss and pain, through dismal nights 
 and saddest mornings, it went before us. It has fallen at our defeat, risen at our victory ; 
 it enfolds our slain. Baptized with our blood, consecrated by our tears, we love it dearer 
 for its cost. Eeneath it and beyond it I saw a sight grievous to my eyes: a rov/ of men all 
 •waiting " to speak!" I have no objection to one speaker, provided he is interesting and 
 
39 " 
 
 don't talk too long. But several "distinguished speakers," one after the other, are usu- 
 ally more than I can hpir with equanimit}--. My horror is a public meeting addressed by 
 "numerous distinguished gentlemen," eacli one perpetrating a speech long enough for the 
 whole. You know, you men accuse us women of doing most of the talking. Well, you 
 won't let us "speak in meeting," because you want to do it all yourselves ; then is it any 
 wonder that we chatter, and sometimes tire you out at home? And is it any wonder that 
 you, ventilating your fancies at every corner, declaring your opinions in ten thousand 
 caucuses and public hallg, get through at last, and, coming home wearied out, are ready 
 to be as dumb as Quakers ? But it strikes me that in public nothing is more delightful to 
 a man than the sound of his own voice, and the long-r he hears it the more delightful it 
 is. Thus the trouble with most of you is, that by the time you have finished one excellent 
 speech you are enamored of it, and so begin again, and repeat and repeat; and precious 
 few of you know just where to stop. When you do stop, everybody is tired half to death, 
 and so out of patience that they won't give the first half of your sayings the praise which 
 
 ttlGV QGSGrVG. 
 
 So I said to mere, in great perturbation of spirit, "Are all those men going to make 
 speeches ? I thought we had come to a festival. I am not going to listen." But I did. 
 Thus, forgiving Independent, I make my humble confession. I was very uuaraiable to 
 these' unoliending gentlemen— said, "We did not come to hear you; we don't want to 
 hear you ; when we do, we can listen to you at plenty of other pbces. We want to hear 
 the freed-'people sing and talk, and see them eat their goodies." I did not want to listen, 
 did not mean to listen, tried not to listen ; yet I did. 
 
 What was there in those dusky faces, so full of child-like enthusiasm, and unquestion- 
 ing faith, and loving devotion which made every speaker simple and natural, ami, there- 
 fore, eloquent? Each one spoke directly from his heart to the hearts of others; thus it 
 was'not only easy, but most delightful to hear. With instinctive perversity I inwardly 
 rebelled against every " next speaker" as he rose, fearing he would destroy the effect of 
 what had last been spoken. But he did not. The wine of the feast grew better to the 
 end. We all laughed and cried and had a good time together. 
 
 Every seat and aisle and corner was filled. In the contrasting hues of hundreds of 
 eager faces could be traced the history, the possibility, the future of this struggling and 
 rising race. Here were infants and bright children. Here were the old "uncle" and 
 " aunty" of the plantation, leaning on their canes ; the plantation belle, black and buxom, 
 apparently warm and happy, arrayed in her summer finery. There were tawny cheeks, 
 tinder which roses trembled ; and satiny hair, which could not crinkle; and thoughtful 
 eyes, wide and deep with intelligence. Their interest was most infectious. One could 
 not speak to them, or even look at them, much less listen to them, without feeling this 
 contagious sympathy. Their cheers and ejaculations were witness beyond a doubt that 
 they understood all that was snoken. When General Charles Howard said to them, 
 "What many of you need is the opportunity to be self-supporting," many voices cried 
 out, " Yes, that is what we want. Give us ground to work on, and we will take care of 
 ourselves and our families." The gentlemen who addressed them were all their friends, 
 and they knew it. Among the first^was Rev. Mr. Turney, at the head of the Theological 
 Institute of this city, who has now under his instruction several young colored men 
 studying for the Christian ministry among their own people; a pale, spiritual-faced 
 man, who looked as if his life had been spent for the souls of others. As he told 
 simply of the work done, and still being done; of his walks back and forth from the 
 city to teach these people, in sun and storm, one could only say, "Behold, what manner 
 of love is this!" • , , • 
 
 General C. H. Howard, who with his brother has been so long identified with this peo- 
 ple, seemed to be a great favorite. The " hip-hip" cheer went up for him more than once. 
 A graceful and genial man, with the gentleness of manner which marks the Christian gen- 
 tleman, his face showed him worthy of their confidence. His address to them was as 
 kindly as it was practical. Aftiong other statements, he said that within the past five 
 years the Freedmen's -Bureau had sent from the District of Columbia five thousand col- 
 ored persons, where they can enjoy the results of their labor, and where their children 
 can attend school. 
 
 The congressional speakers were Hon. Mr. Moulton, of Illinois ; Hon. Mr. Farquhar, 
 of Indiana; Hon. Mr. Bromwell, of Illinois; each one of which gentlemen delighted the 
 audience. They were followed by Rev. Dr. Butler, Rev. Dr. Sunderland, and Rev. Dr. 
 Morris, in words sympathetic, earnest, and eloquent enough to move any heart not made 
 of copper. Dr. Sunderland read a circular from an association of ladies in France to the 
 National Freedmen's Association of New York, full of womanly sympathy with their 
 work. After the addresses, several little colored boys and girls, with neat dresses and 
 
40 
 
 bright faces, under the supervision of the colored pastor, Hev. Mr. Laws, came upon the 
 platform and recited chapters of the Scriptures in clear voices,^ without once faltering. 
 It was 4 o'clock p. m. when the freed-people turned from their speeches to their feast, 
 
 f)rovided by benevolent people of this and other cities, under special supervision (I be- 
 ieve) of Mr. S. J. Bowen, postmaster of Washington. Tables were spread for the chil- 
 dren in one building, and for the middle-aged in another, and for the aged in the old peo- 
 ple's home. It is impossible to imagine a more bountiful feast. I will not enumerate 
 edibles. Think of almost everything good to the palate— it was there ; and what is bet- 
 ter, enough of it. Many of tiie tables were under the charge of young colored women 
 from Washington. Many of them were very lady-like in appearance, all neatly dressed, 
 all wearing on their breasts, with a white flower, the picture of Lincoln. 
 
 There was something touching in the old people's feast. How many of them had never 
 sat down to its like before. No finer banquet had ever been spread at " the House" when 
 they thirsted and hungered in the days of their captivity. Yet few of them were so hun- 
 gry as to forget to be genial. 
 
 " How is ye, honey?" asked an old aunty, pausing over a very interesting piece of tur- 
 key to give me her horny hand. And an old uncle suspended an atta-;k upon a large 
 body of oysters to extend his hard-boned palm, and exclaim, "A purty day, Mis', a purty 
 day ! We's havin' a very good time." 
 
 Going back over Long Bridge we saw the sun set behind the Heights of Arlington in 
 pure primrose light, all fringed with violet. Thus in its passing away it set its gold and 
 purple seal upon the day of the Freed Slaves' Festival, leaving it in our memory Jseauti- 
 ful forever. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE ENFRANCHISED 
 
 COLORED PEOPLE. 
 
 The following statistics and statements, relative to the educational condition and pros- 
 pects of the freedmen, are taken from the Annual Report, 1866, of Major General 0. 0. 
 HowAED, Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, made to the President of the United 
 States. 
 
 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
 
 The report of Rev. John Kimball, superintendent of colored schools, for the month of 
 January, 1867, has been made to General 0. 0. Howard, showing that in Washington 
 there are fifty-five day and five night schools, with 1,737 male and 1,450 female pupils, 
 with sixty- two white and four colored teachers; 443 of the pupils are over sixteen years 
 of age; 261 are in the alphabet. There are five Sabbath-schools, with 712 pupils. In 
 Georgetown there are seven day schools, with 129 male and 164 female pupils, under five 
 white and two colored teachers, sixteen of the pupils only being over sixteen years of 
 age. In Alexandria there are fifteen day and one night schools, under eighteen teachers, 
 ■with 603 male and 543 female pupils, 116 of whom are over sixteen years of age, and 122 
 are in the alphabet; six Sabbath-schools, with 493 pupils. In Annapolis, Muirkirk, 
 Bladen-shurg, and Montgomery county, Maryland, there are five day and one night 
 schools, with three white and three colored teachers, 160 male and 106 female pupils, 
 fifty-six of whom are over sixteen years of age, and nineteen are in the alphabet, making 
 the whole number of schools under Mr. Kimball 105, with one hundred white and ten 
 colored teachers, 3,027 male and 2,559 female pupils. Twenty-three schools, with 1,227 
 pupils, are not included in the above report. There are three industrial schools, v/ith 
 234 pupils, in which such work as sewing, knitting, and straw-braiding is carried on 
 During the month 871 books were drawn from the free library. 
 
 VIRGINIA. 
 
 The whole field of education in Virginia has been gradually enlarged, and schools are 
 demanded in new localities. The better class of white citizens favor the elevation of the 
 
41 
 
 negro, and a considerable number of earnest calls have been made by them for teachers 
 and books. Much has been done by northern benevolent associations. The freedmcn 
 show an appreciation of the educational advantages that are now extended to them. One 
 hundred and twenty-three (123) schools, two hundred (200) teachers, and eleven thousand 
 seven hundred and eighty-four (11,784) pupils, with an average attendance of eight thou- 
 sand nine hundred and fifty-one (8,951) are reported. 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA. 
 i 
 
 Prior to the summer vacation, there were in successful operation in the State one hundred 
 and twenty-nine (129) schools, embracing one hundred and fifty (150) teachers, and 
 attended by more than ten thousand (10,000) pupils. They are mainly under the patron- 
 age of northern benevolent societies, and in a fair way of being permanently established, 
 the title to the ground upon which they stand having been obtained in numerous instances. 
 
 SOUTH CAEOLINA. 
 
 In South Carolina, on the 1st of June, there were in successful operation seventy-five 
 (75) schools, numbering one hundred and forty-eight (1^8) teachers and nine thousand and 
 seventeen (9,017) pupils ; and, besides these, plantation and private schools, usually taught 
 by colored persons, to the number of thirty-eight (38) or more, including forty (40) 
 teachers and three thousand (3,000) pupils; making an aggregate of twelve thousand 
 (12,000) pupils regularly instructed ; un increase oi two thousand (2,000) within six 
 months. 
 
 In the schools regularly reported, six thousand two hundred and fifty-six (6,256) pupils 
 are pure blacks, three thousand and forty-nine (3,049) of mixed blood, and only eight 
 hundred (800) were free before the war. Of the fifty-eight (58) native southerners who 
 are teachers, fifty (50) are colored persons. 
 
 The foregoing statements are noticeable on account of the fact that the state of society 
 in South Carolina has been greatly unsettled, and the demands for laborers incessant. In 
 consequence of this many of the schools, even in cities, in January lost their most 
 advanced pupils, who were replaced by children fresh from the fields, knowing absolutely 
 nothing of letters. 
 
 For the year's support of the seventy-five (75) schools regularly reporting, there has 
 been expended $72,000, contributed mainly by northern associations, showing a cost of 
 about eight (8) dollars for each pupil. 
 
 The intense desire of the freed people of this State for education is clearly apparent. 
 They are making strenuous endeavors to secure for their schools permanent sites and 
 buildings, have already erected five houses, and are in process of erecting others, chiefly 
 by means of their own money and labor, and upon land secured to them by legal title. 
 . Among the white residents there is a growing conviction in favor of the education of 
 freedmen, although very few are yet willing openly to co-operate to this end with northern 
 people. The presence of turbulent and inconsiderate men in many portions of the State 
 has occasioned a very prevalent apprehension that, in proportion as the federal power is 
 withdrawn, will public opinion and the government of the State prove ineffectual to pro- 
 tect the schools from the violence of evil-minded persons. 
 
 GEORGIA. 
 
 During the six months immediately preceding the summer vacation the schools of Geor- 
 gia more than doubled the number of their pupils, and, under a vigorous superintendence, 
 are now in a very satisfactory condition. Thirteen (13) schools were^ recently opened at 
 points where none existed before. Although educational expenses in this State are de- 
 frayed mainly by charitable societies, the freedmen take a deep interest in schools, and by 
 
42 
 
 their own contributions are making effectual and commendable efforts to secure the edi- 
 cation of their children. Seventy-nine (79) schools regularly reporting include one hun- 
 dred and thirteen (113) teachers, and are attended by nearly eight thousand (8,000) pupils, 
 three thousand (3,000) of whom, it is estimated, are now able to read, who six months ago 
 were unacquainted with the alphabet. 
 
 The white inhabitants of the State who have been opposed to the education of the col- 
 ored people have occasionally resorted to threats and violence, and thereby effected ^the 
 breaking up of schools in several instances. 
 
 FLOEIDA. 
 
 The schools have been encouraged by State action. A law was passed appointing a 
 general superintendent, with assistants, whose duty it is to establish colored schools in all 
 the counties. A tax was levied upon the colored people to support this system, and the 
 organization of schools begun. Twenty-five day schools and sixty Sabbath-schools are 
 already in operation. This is a move in the right direction, and should be followed by 
 every southern State. The following shows the general result of educational effort: 
 Whole number of schools under benevolent associations and State 
 
 supervision 38 
 
 Whole number of teachers 51 
 
 Whole number of pupils 2,663 
 
 Necessity has compelled the support of an orphan asylum and hospital by the Bureau. 
 It has been impossible to obtain assistance for the poor from local authorities. The crops 
 are reported good this year, and but little destitution among the colored people on plan- 
 tations. 
 
 ALABAMA. 
 
 Eight (8) schools, thirty-one (31) teachers, and one thousand three hundred and thirty- 
 eight (1,338) scholars are reported in this State. The education of the freedmen is pro- 
 gressing favorably, and in some parts of the State considerable interest is manifested by 
 the better class of whites. The district of&cers report very decided progress in every fea- 
 ture of this work. There has been great and unabated zeal on the part of the pupils, and 
 a corresponding progress in the acquirement of knowledge. Their success has favorably 
 affected the minds of the whites towards them in the interests of education. 
 
 LOUISIANA. 
 
 Circumstances beyond the control of the Bureau have greatly injured the once prosper- 
 ous schools of this State. Enemies of the Bureau and its officers have made a general 
 attack upon the school administration. General Baird, being without money, was obliged 
 to suspend all the public schools, promising that as soon as possible they should commence 
 again. The colored people, seeing their public schools closed, did not abandon the educa- 
 tion of their children, but opened a large number of private schools. A tax system was 
 devised by which people were to support their own education. For many reasons this 
 tax became oppressive, and was never popular. The schools rapidly decreased, and a 
 chaotic state ensued from which it took time to recover. 
 
 General Sheridan reports, under date of September 30, a great increase of interest, and 
 the prospect of flourishing schools this autumn and winter. The present number of schools 
 is 73 ; teachers, 90 ; scholars, 3,389. 
 
 The number of irregular and private schools cannot at present be ascertained, but they 
 
 are numerous. Mississippi. 
 
 The reports on schools in this State show fifty schools, eighty teachers, and five thousand 
 four hundred and seven pupils. In addition to this number of schools, Rev. Jos. Warren, 
 
43 
 
 the State superintendent, says : "I have informal reports from ton plantations whero 
 there are schools ; some o<f' these are regular day-schools for the children, -witli efforta made 
 in the evening and on the Sabbath to aid the adults in learning. Poor aocommodaliona 
 have been furnished for the school-houses. The character of the teachers has been assailed, 
 and in some instances in such a way as to injure their usefulness. Much opposition is 
 still met in this^ State, while a few persons have been in favor of having the colored people 
 taught." 
 
 TENNESSEE. 
 
 In this State there are forty-two (42) schools, one hundred and twenty-five (125) teach- 
 ers, and nine thousand one hundred and fourteen (f,114) pupils. The accounts of the 
 progress of education arc of the most cheering nature, showing an increased interest in 
 the schools on the part of the freedmen. Excepting at Memphis, the schools have not 
 been interrupted during the last year. The bloody riot in May last caused a suspension 
 of schools in this place. Immediate steps were taken to rebuild the school-houses burned, 
 
 and resume the schools. 
 
 KENTUCKY. 
 
 Thirty-five (35) schools, fifty-eight (5S) teachers, and four thousand one hundred and 
 twenty-two (4,122) pupils are reported. Most of the schools are taught by colored men 
 and supported by subscriptions of the freed-people. Their progress has been slow, as but 
 little assistance has been extended by the benevolent societies of the north. 
 
 Several schools have been broken up by bands of outlaws. In some instances the 
 assistant commissioner has been compelled to send small detachments of troops to protect 
 them. 
 
 ARKANSAS. 
 
 The report of the superintendent of education for Arkansas gives a very favorable 
 account of the progress .made. The freedmen labor under disadvantages of poverty and 
 the ^ck of proper builnings in which to hold schools. The northern aid societies have 
 been fortunate in securing the confidence of freedmen and their employers. Everywhere 
 there is eagerness to learn. More schools should be established, not only elementary, bnt 
 those of higher grades, such as will suit the ambition of the pupils. 
 
 Number of schools in the State 30 
 
 Number of teachers in the State 28 
 
 Number of pupils in the State 1,584 
 
 The State authorities have taken no action with reference to the support of paupers of 
 either color. 
 
 Two orphan asylums for colored children are supported by the Society of Friends. 
 This Society is spoken of in terms of highest praise by General Sprague. 
 
 The schools in Kansas are reported to the assistant commissioner of Arkansas. At this 
 time there are fifteen (15) schools, twenty-four (24) teachers, and fifteen hundred (1,500) 
 pupils. Great interest is manifested in these schools by the citizens of Kansas. They 
 are prosperous, and to a good degree self-supporting. Some of them receive aid 'from the 
 Freedmen's Aid Commission. 
 
 MISSOUEI. 
 
 In Missouri the State authorities propose to educate the freedmen, and the probability 
 is that they will enter upon the work quite extensively during the coming season. The 
 returns give thirty-eight (38) schools, forty-six (46) teachers, and two thousand six 
 hundred and ninety-eight (2,698) pupils. 
 
 MARYLAND. 
 
 During the y^ar 1866 $2,'750 87 were expended for the salaries of school superintendenta, 
 and $5 647 for repairs and rents of school-houses and asylums. 
 
44 
 
 COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 « 
 
 OBEKLIN COLLEGE. 
 
 Oberlin College is located at Oberlin, Lorain county, Ohio, and was established in 
 1832. Students, without distinction of sex, color, or race, have always been admitted to 
 its privileges. Several thousand young men and women have been educated at this 
 institution, among whom have been some of the ablest and most active of colored citizens, 
 who occupy positions of influence in the professions of the ministry, the law, medicine, 
 and of teaching. 
 
 WILBUR UKIVEESITT. 
 
 This educational institution is located within two miles of Xenia, Greene county, Ohio, 
 and was established, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1845. Its 
 president and professors are colored men, as are all its students. It has educated a large 
 number of students, and promises to do much for the cause of education among the colored 
 people of the West and of the country. 
 
 LINCOLN UNIVEESITT. 
 
 This institution was founded in 1845, in Oxford, Chester county, Pennsylvania. Its 
 charter has the corporate privileges of a university, and it has been started under favor- 
 able auspices for permanent success. It is designed to educate colored young men, but 
 every class of students is admitted to its privileges. 
 
 NATIONAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINAET. 
 
 This institution was established in the year 1866, by Rev. E. M. Turney, D. D., 
 foi-merly professor in the Fairmount Theological Seminary, (B%itist,) near Cincinnati, 
 Ohio. The seminary was established under the voluntary association of a number of the 
 members of the Baptist Calvary church, of Washington, D. C, and is designed to prepare 
 colored young men for the ministry. For a number of months of the years 1866-7 the 
 seminary has been in successful operation, in a rented building on Indiana avenue, and 
 has had some twenty-five students under its care. Rev. Dr. Turney is the president. A 
 charter was obtained from Congress, in February, 1867, consisting of the following per- 
 sons : Abram D. Gillette, Edgar H. Gray, Edmund Turney, Zalmon Richards, Robert J. 
 Powell, William T. Johnson, Henry Beard, Charles H. Morse, Joseph C. Lewis, John S. 
 Poler, David Rees, D. W. Anderson, Daniel C. Eddy, Leonard A. Grimes, Justin D. Fulton, 
 William R. Williams, Isaac Westcott, Howard Malcom, Joseph H. Kennard, J. Newton 
 Brown, T. D. Miller. 
 
 HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Howard University is located in Washington, D. C, the capital of the United States, 
 and was established in December, 1866, and is under the auspices of the pastor and some 
 of the members of the First Congregational church and society of that city. Its title is 
 in honor of Major General 0. 0. Howard, Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freed- 
 men, and Abandoned Lands, and the Christian hero of the war, and the earnest and 
 distinguished friend of the colored race. 
 
 The tiniversity was incorporated by Congress in February, 1867, and its charter desig- 
 nated it as " a university for the education of youth in the liberal arts and sciences." It 
 is designed to educate young men for all the professions and pursuits of life, especially 
 ministers and teachers for the four millions of colored people in the southern States. The 
 several departments of the University, the charter says, " shall consist of, first, normal; 
 second, collegiate; third, tiieological ; fourth, law; fifth, medicine; sixth, agriculture." 
 
45 
 
 The normal, theological, and medical departments have already their corps of professors, 
 and the University will be opened for students during the spring of 1867. A Jot of land, 
 consisting of three acres, with commodious buildings upon it, has been purchased, at the 
 northern termination of Seventh street, for the present purposes of the University 
 
 The corporators of the University consist of the following gentlemen, viz: Samuel C. 
 Pomeroy, Senator from Kansas ; Charles B. Boynton, Pastor of the Congregational church 
 of Washington, D. C, and Chaplain of the House of Representatives ; Oliver 0. Howard, 
 Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, &c. ; Charles H. Howard, Assistant Commis- 
 sioner; James B. Hutchinson, banker in Washington; Henry A. Brewster, Benjamin F. 
 Morris, Danforth B. Nichols, William G. Finney. Roswell H. Stevens, E. M. Cushman, 
 Hiram Barton, E. M. Robinson, M. F. Bascom, J. B. Johnson, and Silas J. Loomis. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Boynton is President of the University and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, 
 and E. M. Cushman, Secretary. 
 
 The University is open to all classes of students, without distinction of sex, race, or color. 
 
 LEGISLATION BY CONGRESS. 
 
 COKGRESSIONAL ACTS OF EMANCIPATION. 
 
 After more than eighty years of national life and progress, the American people, through 
 President Lincoln and the Congress of the United States, completed the work of political 
 and moral enfranchisement of the colored race in the following acts : 
 
 1. The act of emancipation in the District of Columbia, introduced by Hon. Henry 
 Wilson, Senator in Congress from Massachusetts, into the Senate, December 16, 1861, 
 passed the Senate April 3, 1862; it passed the House of Representatives April 11, and 
 was approved by President Lincoln on the 16th of April, 1862. 
 
 "The enfranchised bondmen," says Senator Wilson, in his work on the anti-slavery 
 measures of Congress, " grateful for this beneficent act of national legislation, assembled 
 m their churches, and offered up the homage and gratitude of their hearts to God for the 
 boon of personal freedom." 
 
 2. A joint resolution passed Congress, and was approved by the President on the 10th 
 of April, 1882, in which it was declared ''That the United States ought to co-operate ivith 
 any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to the State such neces- 
 sary aid, to be used hy such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconvenience, public 
 and private, by such change of system." 
 
 EEPEAL OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 
 
 In 1793 Congress passed a law requiring that persons held to service in one State, escap- 
 ing into another State, should be delivered up and returned when claimed. This law, having 
 special reference to slaves, was, by the compromise measures of 1850, made far more 
 stringent. It required every citizen to aid in catching and returning fugitive slaves, and 
 punished with a fine of $1,000 and six months' imprisonment any person who sliould 
 " attempt to aid a slave, directly or indirectly, to escape." 
 
 In the House of Representatives, a bill was reported repealing this fugitive law, which 
 passed the House on the 13th of June, 1861, the Senate on the 23d of June, and was 
 approved by President Lincoln on the 28th of June, 1861. 
 
 AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION PROHIBITING SLAVERY PASSED. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 31st of January, 1865, the House of Representatives passed a bill, 
 which had previously passed the Senate, proposing to the difi'erent States an amendment 
 to the Constitution forever prohibiting slavery in any part of the United States, The 
 
 i, 
 
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46 
 
 amendment was adopted by the Legislatures of all the States except Delaware and Ken- 
 tucky, including the southern States, and is now an organic part of the Constitution. 
 This great act was received with outbursts of acclamation and joy on the floor of the 
 House when it passed, in the crowded galleries, and throughout the loyal States. 
 
 THE CIVIL EIGHTS BILL. 
 
 This great measure became the supreme law of the land, over the President's veto, on 
 the 9th of April, 1866. It made four millions of slaves ci'iizens, and entitled them to full 
 and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is 
 enjoyed by white citizens." 
 
 Hon. Schuyler Colfax, on being re-elected, on the 4th of March, 1867, as Speaker to 
 the Fortieth Congress, in his address before a vast audience said: — " There is a jmthway 
 of duty, luminous with light, and by that light should we loalk. It is to guide. our steps by 
 the justice of Ood and the rights of man." Referring to the Thirty-ninth Congress just 
 closed, he said : " Its key-note of policy ^uas protection to f he down-trodden. It lifted the 
 slave whom the nation had made free up to the full measure of manhood. It placed on our 
 statute-booh the Civil Rights bill as our Na''ional M^G^'A Charta, grander than all 
 the enactments that honor the American code." And in all the regions where civil govern- 
 ments had been destroyed by a vanquished rebellion, it declared as a guarantee of defence to 
 the weakest, that the freeman's hand should wield the freeman's ballot, and that none but 
 loyal men should govern a land which loyal sacrifice had saved." 
 
 The Freedme^t's Bureau bill became a law, approved by President Lincoln, on the 
 3d of March, 1865. On the 16th of July, 1868, Kie bill was amended and passed over the 
 veto of acting President Johnson. The bill enabled the freedmen as speedily as practica- 
 ble to become self-supporting citizens, and aided them in making their freedom available 
 to themselves and beneficial to the Republic. 
 
 THE ELECTIVE PEANCHISE GEANTED TO COLORED CITIZEN'S BY CONGRESS IN THE RECOH- 
 
 6TRUCTI0N OF THE REBEL STATES. 
 
 A memorable act, entitled "An act to provide for the more eEBcient government of the 
 rebel States," was passed by the Congress of the United States on the 20th day of Feb- 
 ruary,. 1867. The preamble states that, 
 
 "No legal State governments or adequate protection for life or property now exist in 
 the rebel States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Ala- 
 bama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas ; and whereas it is necessary that peace and 
 good order should be enforced in said States until loyal and republican State governmentc 
 can be legally established. 
 
 The following sections of the act contain the great principles which lie at the basis of 
 
 our system of republican government — the right of all the people to vote in the formation 
 
 and administration of their political and civil institutions : 
 
 "Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That when the people of any one of said rebel States 
 shall have formed a constitution of government in conformity with the Constitution of 
 the United States in all respects, framed by a convent»;oa of delegates elected by the male 
 citizens of said State twenty-one years old and upward, of whatever race, color, or pre- 
 vious condition, who have been resident in said State one year previous to the day of such 
 election, except such as may be disfranchised for participation in the rebellion or for felony 
 at common law, and when such constitution shall provide that the elective franchise shall 
 be enjoyed by all such persons as have the qualifications lierein slated for election of del- 
 egates, and when such constitution shall be ratified by a majority of the persons voting 
 on the question of ratification, who are qualified as electors lor delegates, and when such 
 constitution sliall have been submitted to Congress for examiaation and approval, and 
 Congress shall have approved the same, and when said State, by a vote of its Legislature 
 elected under said constitution, shall have adopted the amendment to the Constitution of 
 
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47 
 
 the United States proposed by the Thirty-Ninth Congress, and known as article fourteen, 
 and when said article shall have become a part of the Constitution of the United States, 
 said State shall be declared entitled to representation in Congress, and Senators and Rep- 
 resentatives shall be admitted therefrom on their taking the oath prescribed by law, and 
 then and thereafter the preceding sections of this bill sliall be inoperative in said State ; 
 Provided, That no person excluded from the privilege of holding office by said proposed 
 amendment to the Constitution of the United States shall be eligible to election as a mem- 
 ber of the convention to frame a constitution for any of said rebel States, nor shall any 
 such person vote for members of said convention. 
 
 "Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That until the people of said rebel States shall be 
 by law admitted to representation in the Congress of the United States, any civil govern- 
 ments which may exist therein shall be deemed provisional only, and in all respects sub- 
 ject to the paramount authority of the United States at any time to abolish, modify, con- 
 trol, or supersede the same ; and in all elections to any office under such provisional ' 
 governments all persons shall bo entitled to vote, and none other, who are entitled to vote 
 under the provisions of the fifth section of this act; and no person shall be eligible to any 
 office under any such provisional governments who would be disqualified from holding 
 office under the provisions of the third article of said constitutional amendment." 
 
 UNIVERSAL SXJFFBAGE THE FUTURE POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Public sentiment iu all the States indicates the speedy adoption of universal suffrage as 
 the future policy of the country. Massachusetts always granted the elective franchise to 
 her colored citizens, and in 1866 elected two colored men to her Legislature. In the other 
 New England States, at the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, colored 
 citizens exercised the right of suffrage, which, with one or two exceptions of those States, 
 has been their policy since that period. New York, since 1836, has permitted colored citi- 
 zens to vote who had a property qualification of $250. Ohio many years since, by a 
 decision of the supreme court of the State, " established the rule that all persons jiearer 
 while than one half are white within the meaning of the constitution and laws, and en- 
 titled to all the privileges of white citizens; " and this class in Ohio are voters. A propo- 
 sition to erase the word "white" befCre "citizens" in the constitution of the State was 
 before the Legislature of Ohio in 1866-7, but was not carried. Indiana, in adopting her 
 present constitution in 1852, inserted a proviso, which was carried by 90,000 majority, that 
 no colored person under any pretence should ever thereafter come into the State ; which 
 proviso, by a recent decision of the supreme court of that State, has been pronounced uncon- 
 stitutional and void. Missouri, by an act of the Legislature, has submitted to the people 
 of that State a proposition to expunge the word " white " from her constitution. Nebraska, 
 by an act of Congress, was required, as a condition of her admission into the Union, to allow 
 all her male citizens, without distinction of color, to vote ; which was agreed to by her Leg- 
 islature. The same condition was required of Colorado before admission into the Union. 
 In the other western States public sentiment is rapidly changing in favor of universal suf- 
 frage, as well as in the States of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In Maryland, a very 
 large convention of her loyal citizens, in February, 1867, resolved that universal suffrage 
 should be as soon as possible the future policy of the State. Tennessee has already, by 
 an act of the Legislature, pronounced in favor of universal suffrage, and hereafter all col- 
 ored citizens are to vote as white citizens. In the more southern former slave States, some 
 of the leading men favor negro suffrage on the basis of intelligence. 
 
 The wisdom and safety of universal suffrage were demonstrated in the city of George- 
 town, District of Columbia, on the 25th of February, 1867, where one thousand colored 
 citizens voted at the charter election of said city. A loyal and patriotic association of 
 'Washington city (some of the members of which are natives of the District of Columbia) 
 declared by resolution, after the election in Georgetown, " that the colored peoj'^le of 
 Georgetown, by their orderly and correct deportment, their unswerving devotion to prin- 
 ciple, and their independence of action at said election, have won for themselves the regard 
 and confidence of the liberal people of the entire community." 
 
 The adoption of universal suffrage as the certain future policy of all the States will 
 vindicate the principles which underlie all our free and popular institutions of govern- 
 ment, and fulfill the declarations made by Hon. Salmon P. Chase, the present Chief Jus- 
 tice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who, in 1845, in receiving a beautiful 
 testimonial from the colored citizens of Cincinnati, Ohio, for his noble defence of the 
 rights of the colored people before the courts of that city and elsewhere, said, in the 
 address he made in accepting the testimonial, that " True democracy makes no inquiry 
 about the color of the skin, or the place of nativity, or any other similar circumstance of 
 condition. Wherever it sees a man, it recognizes a being endowed by his Creator with 
 
48 
 
 original inalienable rights. In communities of men it recognizes no distinctions founded 
 on mere arbitrary will. I regard, therefore, the exclusion of the colored people as a body 
 from the elective franchise as incompatible with true democratic principles." 
 
 PRESIDENT Lincoln's views, 
 
 on the subject of colored citizens exercising the right of voting, are expressed in a letter 
 he wrote to General James Wadsworth just before that eminent patriot and accomplished 
 officer fell in the great battle of the Wilderness, in Virginia. The statements of the Pres- 
 ident are as follows : 
 
 " How to better the cond'ition of the colored race has been a study which has attracted 
 my serious and careful attention ; hence I think I am clear and decided as to what course 
 I shall pursue in the premises, regarding it a religious duty, as the nation's guardian of 
 these people, who have so heroically vindicated their manhood on the battle-field, where, 
 in assisting to save the life of the Republic, they have demonstrated in blood their right 
 to the ballot, which is but the humane protection of the flag they have so fearlessly 
 defended." 
 
 His letter written to the Governor of Louisiana (Hon. Michael Hahn) March 13, 1864, 
 illustrates the same point. He says : 
 
 " Now, as you are about to have a convention, which, among other things, will probably 
 define the elective franchise, I barely suggest for your private consideration whether some 
 of the colored people may not be let in ; as, for instance, the very intelligent, and espe- 
 cially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help in some 
 trying time to come to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom." 
 
 The Attorney General (Edward Bates, of Missouri) under President Lincoln's Adminis- 
 tration, in an official opinion, declared all free colored persons of the United States citi- 
 zens, and to be protected at home or in foreign countries in. all their rights as such. 
 
 admission of coloeed lawyers to practice in the supreme court of the united 
 
 STATES. 
 
 In the Supreme Court of the United States, oi% the 1st day of February, 1865, on mo- 
 tion of Charles Sumner, a member of the bar and a Senator in Congress from Massachu- 
 setts, John S. Rock, Esq., of Boston, Massachusetts, was admitted to practice law in that 
 Court. When the motion was made. Chief Justice Chase said promptly, " Let the motion 
 be granted," and Mr. Rock was sworn in. 
 
 In the same Court, January 17, 1867, on the motion of Hon. James Garfield, a member 
 of the bar and a Representative in Congress from Ohio, John M. Langston, Esq., of Ober- 
 lin, Ohio, was admitted as an attorney at law. 
 
 In the winter of 1863 an act of Congress was passed which declared that no witness 
 should be excluded from the courts of the District of Columbia on account of color. 
 
 appointment of colored men as clerks in departments. 
 
 In February, 1867, Hugh McCuUoch, Secretary of the Treasury, appointed Solomon 
 Johnson, of Columbus, Ohio, (colored,) a clerk in his department of the Government. Ho 
 is proving to be one of the most accomplished clerks in any of the departments. 
 
 General Charles H. Howard, Assistant Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, has 
 also one or two colored clerks, who perform their duties with fidelity and skill. 
 
 A colored minister officiates in the house of representatives. 
 
 During the winter of 1864, Rev. William H. Channing, Pastor of the Unitarian church 
 in Washington, D. C, and then Chaplain of the House of Representatives, invited Rev. 
 Henry Highland Garnett, D. D., a colored minister of fine intellectual accomplishments 
 and an eloquent pulpit orator and Pastor of the Fifteenth street Presbyterian church, of 
 Washington, D. 0., to officiate on the Sabbath in the Hall of the House of Representa- 
 tives, where he preached to a large audience, composed of members of Congress and citi- 
 zens from all parts of the country. 
 
 THE national FREEDMEN's RELIEF ASSOCIATION OP WASHINGTON, D. C, 
 
 was founded in 1863, for the purpose of relieving the physical wants of the freedmen, 
 for elevating the colored people by means of education and moral teachings, and provid- 
 ing homes and compensating labor for such as could be induced to remove into the north- 
 ern, eastern, and western States. Three thousand colored persons have been sent under 
 the auspices of this association into the various States, who have found good homes and 
 are doing well. 
 
 The efficient President of the Nati*nal Association is Hon. Sayles J. Bowen, the city 
 postmaster of Washington. D. C. and a devoted and fearless friend of the colored people. 
 
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