Hy, Phy 
 ; | ae," 
 
 THE 
 
 MISSIC 
 
 OF THE | 
 
 UNITED STATES oe 
 
 “AN “ORATION. - 
 
 DEL LIVERED cts REY. J AMES LYN cH, 
 
 AE Da ; Pie; 
 
 PARADE GROUND, Avausta, Ga, » al an 
 
 JULY 4, 4, 18. a 
 
 PUBLISHED IN ‘COMPLIANCE W | WITH A bilo tior OFFERED 
 BY CAPT. J. E. BRYANT, 
 WHICH WAS UNANBHOVELY PASSED. 
 
 ' AUGUSTA GA. 
 : ani POWER PRESS CHRONICLE & SENTINEL OFFICE, 
 . 1865. 
 
AUGUSTA, JULY 5, 1865. 
 Capt. d. E. Bryant, Assiatant Commissioner of Prov thnen: | 
 
 Dear Srv :—In compliance with a resolution adopted at our celebra- 
 tion of the 4th of July, on Ph ENE I have the an to send you here 
 with « copy of s emari on th ab Occasion. I offer no apology for 
 their. imperfeetio as. be catise they were not intended for publication, and 
 Thi ve not time tomake the revision that would render them worthy 
 of it. I trust, Captain, that you. will celebrate many anniversaries of 
 American Tudependence i in Georgia. You have already ina few weeks 
 contributed to the well being of the colored people to an extent that has 
 enshrined you in their hearts, and str ugg eling amid difficulty they cling to 
 you as the vine te sturdy oak. 
 
 Again let me say, Lobey this. request of my fellow-citizens with re- 
 luctance, for the re easons I’ have “stated. Bat I. trust the occasion may 
 vever be tor votten, but is the augury of a day of redemption from igno- 
 
 we ee thom prejudice mane from degradation. 
 isda hike - i aut V Al'v -since se € over sit ne bin 45 
 
 Missionary of Ns: ational Dinsadinon! 5 aarp Asse ye 
 
 hes 4 THE CELEBRATION. 
 The Giiral On. 
 
 procession which according to the Curexiciz AND Szwrmgn numbered 
 four thousand, headed by Lt, Col. Trowbride_ with a detac'-ment of his 
 
 regiment; (33 d U, 8, we ) ¢ osed of ministers, various societies, per- 
 
 com] 
 sons of the different trades and field laborers, also the children, of the 
 schools. A committee of tastefully dressed ladies presented to the pro- 
 cession as it was about to move three beautiful banners, bearing the fol- 
 lowing inscriptions. ‘Abraham Lincoln the Father of our Liber ties and 
 Savior of his Count we _‘Slavery and Disnnion dead !” “Freedom and 
 2quality i is our mot: Other banners were also borne along the route. 
 
 Brig. Gen. . Wild and ‘the Assistant Commissioner of Freedmen were in 
 the procession. The exercises commenced at the Parade Ground about 
 12 o’clock. . Itis estimated that ten thousand. persons were assembled. 
 
 All of the speeehes were well conceived and had happy etfeet. The 
 speech of Rev. James Lynch, who was chosen to deliver the oration, 
 was by a unanimous vote requested for publication. 
 
 _ The platform was occupied by the citizens Commuiittee, officers of 
 U.S. army and. Freedmen’s Bureau, _and distinguished clergym. en, togeth- 
 er with those who took part in the exercises. 
 
 No disorder or unnecessary tumult marred the oecasion—all passed 
 off quietly, ee deka, J.K. BRYANT, 
 sia uly plas alchemical eit Sub- Commissioner Freedmen. 
 
 Taare 4th of. July at Augusta, Georgia, iy bie. col-. 
 “ ored citizens, was an occasion of surpassing interest. They formed a 
 
 td 
 
UN ITED STATES, 
 
 GLORY: A N D MISSION, 
 
 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE vary Nee NEN 
 | EPOCH | soars 
 
 ap 
 
 sti 
 
 Ww e moet this hous le eiabiated the Haidetuth! birth- 
 day of the Republic of the United States of America. Our 
 ae fly. pack. bo 2 theyath, of July, 1776, and linger there 
 
 notions of 1 We see the beginning of a 
 new repiet Tn he swoild’ s" “history: promising to bated 
 an estate that the combined wisdom and philosophy of a 
 
 hundred centuries had sought and not obtained. Great 
 pennies are enunciated and laid down for the founda- 
 tion of” gor ‘ érnment, that. give equality before the law, and 
 recogmze wowfavorite. classes in the jewislation of the on 
 tie councils: or Pi the Ladmiinietvation. of Government.— — 
 The exalted wisdom, patriotism and philan trophy that pro- 
 duced the declaration, successtully sustained it—life and 
 fortune were willingly pledged and periled. The strength. 
 of honest conviction gave the highest order of courage, and 
 the belief that the Great Kternal was ‘on the side of right 
 arene mhepe wich smiled at the idea ve defeat. 
 
 we Pi ; 
 GREAT BRYTAIN 8 STRENGTH ON COMMENCING THE WAR. 
 Great Britain’ 8 military prowess had been felt sie he ac- 
 knowledged in every, . arter Obs the globe, until St. 
 Greorge’s cross became. the: sy mbol ‘of inaiangibilityyg Her 
 well disciplined armies, to. whom had. been bequeathed the 
 glory of Cressy and Agineonrt and a thousand we rell fought 
 
 Saga 3h 
 
4. 
 
 fields, were as ready to cross the Atlantic as were Cesar’s 
 eins of old to cross the Rubicon. Her mighty arma- 
 das that seemed to be the favorites of ‘Neptune were as 
 pleased to sail on an errand of invasion and conquest, as 
 they would have been to ride at anchor in a broad English 
 cove, or passa royal review. Her royal coffers were full 
 of goid and the national wealth afforded a revenue a ase to 
 th most gigantic warfare. — 
 
 The few unfortified cities along the extensive seaboard 
 of America—an army of Spain colonists, with a 
 scarcity of war munitions—a commerce that had_ no pro- 
 tection, and was left no alternative but being swept from 
 the seas, combined to give the Brittons the greatest confi 
 dence ot success in the Ran eet 
 
 THE COLONIES UNCONQUERABLE, 
 
 “The sequel, however, proved that the Colonies could 
 not’ be subdued—the infant nation was not to be erushad 
 —the men.of Lexington and Bunker Hill were more than 
 a match for the trained soldiery of England, and Warren 
 and Putnam were ‘‘foemen worthy the steel’ of the most 
 distinguished generals of the mother country, while the 
 Great AV hala gton seemed to be under the egis of a Divine 
 Being who nad willed that he should be the master spirit 
 of the age—the great leader of the American people—the 
 
 executor of a Siviin decree; than whom. to conquer, it 
 were more possible to turn the sun from his. course. 
 
 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE NOT EASILY. WON, CAUSE OF SUCCESS. 
 
 And yet it must not be supposed that American Inde- 
 pendence was easily won. The struggle entailed the loss 
 of the best sons of.the Colonies. Aceldemas reddened 
 the land, and the bones of the slain bleached by the; rains 
 and ithe by the winds of Heayen told of its horrors. 
 Families were. poverty-sticken. and helpless. ‘The wreck 
 of fortune and, the palsied effect on commerce, manufac- 
 
 tures and industry were only borne by a fortitude commen- 
 southern Pamphlets 
 Rare Book Collection 
 UNC-Chapel Hill 
 
RK 
 oO 
 
 surate with the glory of the object sought., An army 
 fought without pay—suflicient food or Entice fighting 
 the harder for every pang of hunger and. every chilling 
 blast that blew upon an unprotected body-—a sacred, cause 
 fired their hearts, every soldier was vit a hero or martyr 
 —if not one of these—both. 
 
 , RESULT OF THE STRUGGLE. 
 
 The tide of invasion was rolled back. The sound ot the 
 . British drum no longer heard; the sunshine of peace arose 
 on the land, and from the smoke of battle ‘and deluge of 
 blood, ities through tears—the fair young HepuBne ap- 
 pattie: Bietand bowed a haughty acknowledgment, but 
 all the nations ofthe earth greeted her with ba: swelling 
 dehght; a chord is struck in the hearts of the oppressed— 
 an ‘activity, given to the republican element of the mon- 
 arehies of the old world, that made the royal palace, the 
 imperial throne, and kin ey erown, and sovereign sceptre no 
 enviable Holts 3: Glorious fetite Pelin obfte in the field now 
 give ‘place to MERE s of statesmanship, and the constitu- 
 tion renders the names of its framers immortal. And the 
 administrations of Washington and Adams display the 
 beautiful working’ of the new as ‘itieal so sa 
 
 Red kee lhe NR! OW 1812. 
 
 In 1812 the British lion roars again on the Western 
 shores of the Atlantic; the terrible invasion utters its alarm 
 amidst the enshrouding flames that consume the outer tem- 
 ple of American Titer but the spirit of ’76 still living, 
 seals its fate at Plattsburg, Fort Erie and New Orleans. 
 
 ADVANTAGES PCSSESSED BY THE INFANT REPUBLIC. 
 Never was such a scope given for political power and 
 national developement as that possessed by the New Repub- 
 lic—over four thousand miles of seacoast with the finest har- 
 bors in the world, a vast undulating area with every varie- 
 ty of hill and vale rising ina long narrow chain of cloud- 
 
6 
 
 capped mountains receding into fertile valleys intersected 
 by rivers running from the great lakes to the gulf; and 
 these valleys relieved by yet another great. chain amid 
 whose irregulat peaks lie imbedded mines of precious mi- 
 nerals that ages cannot exhaust. With no rival on this 
 continent,“and the receptacle of the flower of Eurcpean 
 population, these adv antages have been wondefrally improv- 
 ed. 
 | PROGRESS. 
 
 Wealthy and populous cities dot the seaboard; and the 
 highway throu ghout the nation marks the industry of its 
 inhabitants. The soil is verdant with vegetation or shin- 
 ing with the yellow harvest. Cities, towns and villages ap- 
 pear everand anon with agricultural. districts, Qur. ecom- 
 merece whitens every sea i American canvass, the iron 
 network of railway connects all parts of the country to- 
 gether and the magnetic telegraph brings them W ithin con- : 
 versational disvantee Bey every part of che Jand, when the 
 pels ei of the Sabbath morn succeeds the hum of beast _ 
 
 the sound of the church-going bell is heard. 
 houses may be seen whenever ware’ isnecd for the cradle— 
 Acadamies are e almost as numerous as county court hous es 
 —colleges may be counted by scores. and societies for the 
 promotion of science, literature and art rival those of Lon- 
 don, Paris or Berlin. i ee why _ _— abeeseicinitts desire 
 to dissolve’ ‘the’ Union? iN ill 
 
 Sw ae Ne oe pats a a Bug : jo we ee 
 
 Bice om ne OF THE ane Cees 
 
 wees in the early history of nations and Asie cireun- 
 stances under which they are established, like those in the 
 first stages of manhood, are often prophetic indications of 
 their future and final mission. The believer in “MANIFEST 
 DESTINY’ is very’ far from being “utopian or fanciful.” 
 Why was the virgin soil of America left for thousands of 
 years untouched by the ploughshare, and her mighty for- 
 ests unseathed by the woodman’s axe; if it were not that 
 
7 
 
 time's rolling ages should develop aeivilization that would 
 plant it with the seeds of enlightenedadeas that had not, or 
 could not bloom and mature inthe realms of royalty ?, Why 
 did invincibility blaze forth from rusty arms and sabres und 
 depleted ranks, if it were not, that’ a Republic in the West- 
 ern world was divinely appointed to an important part in 
 the world’s drama? - With change of Cowper's poetic 
 strain we say to-day— | “omit 
 
 “America! owith: alltlydaults 1 love thee still.” 
 
 “Do you ask whatis the part of the American Repub- 
 lic in the world’s drama? What is her mission? Read 
 the Declaration of Independence. Tleav, oh hear! “We 
 hold these truths to be self-evident, all men are ereated 
 free, and equal, and. endowed es certain inalienable 
 rights AEng which 1s life, liberty and ale pase of hap- 
 piness.”” Thatis a doctrine 
 
 * Both pure and sound, 
 
 “hat is a gospel. ‘Aaregios’ Ss mission is to preach, it 
 on den statesmen in halls of legislation, by her ministers 
 in the pulpit, by judicial decisions from the bench, by her 
 orators on the platiorin, by her diplomatic agents in foreign 
 climes, by her pri -actical example in legislation, by the nur- 
 ture of public institutions, and to promulgate it. all. over . 
 the globe by the wonderful power of her able press. 
 
 “This great Republic was raised, up,to) elevate, humani- 
 ty and to oppose the despotism: of the univ erse—to seatter 
 light where tyranny casts the blackest shades and to whis- 
 per the promise ofa brighter future in the earof him: who 
 only hears the ela anking of his chains. Filled with the 
 spirit of this mission, her future eareer—unchecked—shall 
 be like a rolling ball of, fire illuminating the horizon with 
 its. glory. The. genius of her laws andinstitutions shall be 
 engraited on the , inhabitants, of the, sworld, while North and 
 South America from where, the ocean stands i in frozen s0- 
 lidity to wheveske rolls her. wave, around the South Pole 
 shore, shall be under the protection of the flag of the free. 
 
8 
 
 “THE CAUSE OF OUR CIVIL WAR. 6 
 - Continued disobedience to the spirit of this mission is to in- 
 vite and await the fate of republics that exist only on the me- 
 lancholy pages of history that chronicle their decline. This Re- 
 public was disobedient to the spirit of its mission, when from her 
 awful throne of justice—the United States Supreme Court—it 
 wos proclaimed that ‘The black. man had no rights which the 
 
 white. man was bound to respect.” Bloody scenes in Kansas 
 
 blackened the national character—license was given to political 
 heresy—-and the spirit of oppression, the greed for power, selfish- 
 nessjand disloyalty swept over the bulwarks of a patriotism which 
 had said “Hitherto thou shalt go and no further,” plunged into 
 the yortex the great Alexander H. Stephens and others, and laid 
 siege to the national life. Neither the hallowed associations of 
 the past, baptized with the blood of revolutionary sires, nor the 
 utterances of the mighty dead at Mt. Vernon, Marshfield or Mon- 
 ticello, lulled the storm; the beguiling eloquence of Seward and 
 and the terrific thunder of Andy Johnson were alike unheard 
 
 Amid its still more powerful mutterings, the Peace, Congress” 
 
 and the resolutions of the “Committee of thirty-three” were but 
 . chips on the foaming crest of angrily plunging billows. Mad- 
 ness ruled the. hour. The South buckled on the sword, hauled 
 down the starry standard of the Union, gave to the breeze the 
 
 emblem of revolted States, threw down the gauntlet in Charles- 
 
 ton harbor and challeng ed the nation for battle on the memora- 
 ble plains of Manassas. “The nation accepted the challenge but 
 but after vainly struggling to drive back the foe, her banner 
 trailed in the dust, and her army, disordered, defeated, wounded, 
 bleeding and humiliated, made precipitate flight to her Capital. 
 But even this did not make the nation realize her missior, 
 and for nearly two years she sent her tens of thousands to South- 
 
 ern battle fields until the terrible carnage apparently fruitless in — 
 
 its results, spread apathy throughout the North, and many des- 
 paired of the union of all the States. 
 
 WHAT GAVE UNION VICTORY, 
 But hel the nation issued by the mouth of Abraham Lin- 
 coln, an edict of freedom to the slaves and commenced legislating 
 in behalf of an oppressed race, when she realized that Divine 
 
 Providence had united the destiny of both races and God had 
 
9 
 
 made the deliverance of the slave from bondage the sine 
 qna non of the deliverance of the nation from the consuming 
 fires of rebellion; then was. foreign sympathy with treason 
 rebuked and the chances of foreign aid for rebellion curtailed ; 
 then did Grant loom up in glory, and. with your Shermans direct 
 armies clothed with invincibility. And to-day from. ocean to 
 ocean, from the lakes to the gulf the old flag proudly flaunts in 
 the summers breeze, the emblem of Freedom, Justice and Hope. 
 
 WHAT THE NATION HAS DONE IN. FOUR) YEARS FOR THE COLORED MAN. 
 What has the nation done for the colored man during the 
 past four years?) It has abolished slavery in the District of 
 Columbia, acknowledged the governments of Hayti and Liberia 
 and entertained a colored ambassador ; it has admitted into 
 the army and navy over two hundred and fifty thousand colored 
 men as soldiers and sailors; it has commissioned colored men as 
 field, line and staff officers; it has admitted to the bar of the Su. 
 preme Court a colored lawyer’ it has. repealed proscriptive laws 
 that did not allow colored men to carry the mails or testify in U. 
 S. courts of justice; it has by constitutional amendment abolish- 
 ed slavery in all of its vast domain; it has acknowledged the cit- 
 izenship of the colored man, and wherever the United States has 
 exclusive jurisdisdiction the colored man has equal r ri ights with the 
 white. It has instituted a guardianship over his interests in the 
 transition state, by the establishment of the Freedmen’ s Bureau 
 with that ereat oreneral and good man, 0. O. Howard, at its head’ 3 
 who is laboring with all the zeal that char acterized him when lead. 
 ing the centre column of Gen. Sherman’ 8 army, ‘The importance 
 of this bureau may be estimated by the service which Capt. J. i 
 Bryant, Assistant ( Commissioner, renders i in this city and vicinity 
 to the freed people. Seventy-fiy e thousand colored childr en in the 
 Southern States are being educated i in schools sustained by Nor th 
 ern charity and taught by highly qualified teachers, The bravery, 
 fidelity and capacity of the colored race has received national 
 commendation and is supported by the highest official testimony. 
 The freedom of the colored race is as unalterable as were the laws 
 of the Medes and. Persians. _ The iron pen of Divine Providence 
 has. written out the title in letters of Ametiea? s best blood. Earth 
 and Hell may conspire, bat will be ag Xerxes lashing the waves © 
 of the Hellespont with chains to make them placid. 
 
10 
 
 NEGRO SLAVERY WITHOUT WARRANT. ‘ 
 
 The colored man’s original right to freedom is found in the 
 first chapter of the book of. Ged cain: We find there that God 
 has made an inventory of whatever should be property, but the 
 colored man does not happen to be an item in the inventory 
 Now a lawyer would allow inference that he could not according 
 to Divine law be considered properiy, and must be one of those 
 to have “dominion over the fowl,” &c.. 
 
 _ANDREW JOHNSON AND NEGRO. SUFFRAGE. 
 
 The Uhief Executive feels that he has no power to influence 
 the States of the South to give colored. citizens political rights or 
 privileges in common with the other citizens of these States. | 
 have no doubt that this decision meets with hearty APE royal in 
 many quarters, yet there are differences of opiion r¢ specting 
 the power of the President in. this matter .wh: ich may find ex 
 pression in the subsequent elections aut, the Nor th and “even at 
 the next. Congress. Sufficient argument can be produced. to show 
 that it is quite as constitntionai to. dy, seine things: as ib A to. do 
 some ebhetsuu: jg@e iy) ; gil peat: ice 
 
 me believe resident, pve al eases God bless hima! desires 
 the happiness « of my race, ‘The sublime period of his life, when, 
 from the steps, of the ‘Tennessean Capitol he pr oclaimed liberty { for 
 the black man in his own native State, and promised | before God 
 to be his . Moses,” ig still, fresh j im our memories, causing. us. to 
 linger. about. the Wy hite ‘House j in fond affection and brightest 
 hope. | ! ’ Sift om 
 ' At ig ur eed fata the eg te man is : too ignorant. to vote, It 
 was urged that he was too ignor ant to fi ght, but the highest mili- 
 tary authority, (Ww est Point inclusive ,) tells us _ that he fights as 
 well as the white man. Ignorance i ig to be deplor ed always, but 
 it is not. fra ght with the greatest danger, to ‘this, republic, for 
 that is foun in wickedness itt disloyalty. A sham Presidential 
 election was held in Beanfort on the 8th of November last, the 
 plantation people throughout the region came in and voted, ‘they 
 thought the election was real, but not one of them voted for Me- 
 Clellan. The colored man’s. ate will always be on the side of 
 Union; and on other questions phir be controlled by the politi- 
 cal hen dans: and party managers. What then ean ‘there be i in his 
 
 ‘enfranchisement to alarm the patriotic citizen ?” 7 
 
 oe | 
 
W 
 NEGRO HATE AND PREJUDICE, 
 
 The Democratic party has always. had the ignorant in if.— 
 That party seems to like ignorant voters, and yet they start 
 when the proposition is made to exfr anchise colored men, Now 
 this is not honest. It is not because they are solicitous for the 
 welfare of the country, it is not because they fear ‘the effect of 
 ignorance; it Is prejudice—that hatred of the colored. man-—that 
 oniseattont to his progress—a fear of his dev clopment—all oF 
 which is without reason or apology. Why hate the colored race? 
 They have tilled your lands and made them bring forth the great 
 staples that have enriched you, affording Juxurious eet 
 
 they have nursed your children in infancy cand, toiled for ea 
 while at the school and college ; ; they have’ ever ‘rejoiced when 
 you rejoiced, sorrowed when you sorrowed; | -ineckly ¢ and submis- 
 sively have they borne your restrictions, punishments and cruel- 
 ties; they have followed the armies of Beaureg ard, Wade Hamp- 
 ton apt Lee and others, and borne your sons from the gory field 
 “ a place of safety and staunched their bleeding wounds. 
 “Hyen now nider the changed state of affairs they harbor no 
 feclings of malice for their former masters. Why hate the color- 
 ed man ? God made hin—Jesus died for him—Heaven is prepar- 
 ed for him; for him the sun shines, the rains descend, the fiel hs 
 produce v ouotatton: and Jehovah rules the universe as well as 
 fur you. Why hate him because his skin is of a darker hue ? 
 Why hate him because he is not, educated? The laws of your 
 State have made it felony for teacher to teach and. scholor to 
 learn. Haye not the laws of the Southern States shut out the 
 light from him and chained his mind by grievious oppression ? 
 Oh white man—favored of the earth, you cannot, you will not, 
 you are too great not to be ood. Slavery i is the cause of “preju- 
 dice, its virus has poisoned the feclings you have toward the col 
 ored race. Where slavery has not existed and its influence has 
 
 exist. rt) he ¢ 
 
 not been provatling, this prejudice does not. 
 cherish it, must be taught i , 
 
 Tell x me not tthat papiamae is S eatubetl 
 
 wit willbe. willingly folded in the arms of aman of ebeng es 
 he be his body: servant, and ‘yet shrink from him as though his 
 
12 
 
 body exhaled contagion if he be an educated man—a highly 
 respectable man and a boarder at a hotel or passenger in a rail- 
 road car er stage coach. When I can believe that nature ha 
 journeymen that makes men, then can I believe prejudice is natu- 
 ral and not before. Why does not the color of the Japanese, of 
 the Chinaman or of the Indian excite asimilar prejucice; or if 
 their color be not so dark as the average of the colored race of 
 the United States why is their nota proportionate prejudice : 
 There is no such prejudice in the Old World as in this country. 
 Alexander Dumas the great dramatist and novelist, a colored 
 man, is the guest of the princes of Europe. His father, a color- 
 ed man, was arenowned general in Napoleon’s time: his son 
 lately married the widow Princess Narishkin. Count Pushkin the 
 great Russian poet was a colored man, so was Baron Feutchter- 
 sleben under Secretary of public instruction in Austria The first 
 Duke of Tuscany, Alexsandro Medici, who reigned from 1580 to 
 1537, was a mulatto, the Emperor Charles V, gave his daughter 
 to the colored Duke, his portrait with wooly hair and thick lips is_ 
 still seen in the public gallery of Florence | among the Dukes of. 
 Tuseany. | The black Soloque ex-Emperor of Hiya is a , welcome 
 guest at the greatest fetes of the ueunialaiass OF a8) visitor of the 
 highest nobility in France. | “4 . . 
 
 _ Prejudice against the pales race is On, saunas of. sami con- 
 dition which is a consequence of slavery. Slavery to protect it- 
 self, has taught that. the colored man belon gs to an inferior order 
 of creation. Slavery is nomore.. The colored man enters into a 
 “new life and beholds a brighter destiny. _ 
 
 WHAT THE COLORED MAN ASKS. 
 
 He ie to stay in the land of his birth, to. till the soil and 
 labor. in the workshop, and to fill positions of usefulness under 
 ese | skies that s smiled on his infancy. He. asks and de- 
 mands protection in the enjoyment ‘of his liberty, which is only 
 secured by equality before the law, Social equality possesses 
 not his most airy dreams. While he toils for the © white man; 
 while he contributes his share to the development, of the resources 
 of this’ great State’, he asks the white man who is blessed with 
 oe eo aii and sap 2 od beh him year ng 
 
 iby 
 
 hing 
 
 att 
 
18 
 
 THE NATIVE INTELLECT OF THE COLORED RACE. 
 
 The colored race is susceptible of the highest stage of devel- 
 opment. Although we have been. hindered by proscription and 
 have had “wind and tide” against us, yet we have worthy repre- 
 sentatives in the pulpit, at the bar, in the medical profession and 
 in the professor’s chair. In art they have given evidences of 
 genius; Bannister and Chaplain and Bowers make life and na- 
 ture glow upor the canvass, and the records of the Patent Office 
 in Washington prove their skill in mechanism. The fervid elo- 
 quence and Baconian logic of Vouglas and Langston, of Garnet 
 and Remond has oft thrilled the nation and borne down like a 
 mighty torrent upon oppression, silencing the silly pratings 
 about natural inferiority. And asto how well they have fought 
 in the great war just ended, [pointing to Gen. Wild, who led a 
 division of colored troops] let that one armed hero and soldier 
 upon whose brow the laurels of martial victory are yet fresh, tell 
 —lam unequal to the task. Of their capacity to take care of them 
 
 Selves—to be satisfied—is only to look at the assessors books in 
 the “North and. to visit those regions in the. South where: uy 
 have been blessed with freedom for a year or more. 
 
 They tell us we are, the: descendants of Pens ihe rida eabty 
 son of Noah. ‘Then our race first gave science, art and learning. 
 tothe world. Egyptian civilization has been transmitted to every 
 succeeding nation on the face of the globe. The sons of Ham 
 founded Egypt. Do you doubt it ? Then you doubt the word of 
 God. Inthe 105th psalm, at the 28d verse, we read as follows : 
 “Israel also came into the land of Egypt. and Jacob sojourned 
 in the Jand of Ham.” ¥ | . 
 
 THE SOUTHERN GRATES! 74, RY GeO es 
 
 ‘There is ets. patriotism and religion in the South, anda as 
 the rising sun of peace and prosperity drives away the darkness 
 of the past, it will be seen standing out upon the foreground 
 amid the wreck of civil war, fresher and brighter than ever be- 
 fore. The people of the North are resposible, to some extent, for 
 this fratricidal war which has cost so much blood. and treasure. 
 They have enriched themselves off the profits of slave | labor, and 
 encouraged the system among you, and when the slave system 
 threatened the creation of a power destructive to their vital in- 
 
14 
 
 terests, they set their faces against it.. No, wonder the South 
 looked upon them as “Satan correcting sin.” _ 
 
 Slavery has been the basis of Southern wealth—it has gone 
 down in the str uggle, the Southern people will accept the Pecate 
 and will construct upon the basis of free labor, rearing a super- 
 structure berate which the past pales in insignificance. 
 
 THE SOUTH NOT DEGRADED BY THE RESULT OF THE CIVIL WAR. 
 
 The Sozth need not be stung by defeat. Her contest with 
 the North has exhibited tnsurpassed military skill and heroism, 
 rivaling Marathon, Thermopyle, Austerlitz and Lexington. She 
 need not feel humiliated because her ideashave been changed 
 and policy altered, for the North has had to change hers on the 
 slavery question. If the North has conquered the South, it is 
 because God conquered the North. If the South bows to the 
 North, it is because the North bowed to God. 
 
 Now that the thunderings of artillery are no longer heard, 
 the flash of musketry no more seen, the groans of the dying lost 
 in the stillness of death, the shedding of blood ceased: and the 
 constitutional amendment stands like a rainbow. in. the national — 
 shy) let en and South,” white and black shake hands—join 
 ird up their loins and with a patriotism 
 x auaftdd as the tidal grandeur, a love of justice and merey 
 like that which is Divine, and ahope as high as the objects of 
 yromise, go on in the pursuit of further development. 
 
 Happiness depends as nature shows, 
 
 Less on exterior things than most suppose: 
 Vigilant over all that hehias made, He 
 Kind Providence attends with gracious ‘aid, 
 Bids equity throughout his works prevail, 
 And weighs the nations i in an even 1 scale.) 
 
 THE oe RACE DEMANDS JUSTICE OF THR WHITE MAN. 
 
 All that my race asks of the white man is justice. Give him 
 that, and exact what you please, it will be freely accorded. The 
 white man may refuse usjustice. God forbid! But. it cannot be 
 withheld long ; for there will be an army marshalled in the Heav- 
 ens for our protection, and events will transpire: by which the 
 hand of Divine Providence will wring from you in wrath, that 
 which shonld pane: been given in love. 
 
4S 
 
 “The Sunof Justice may withdraw his beams 
 Awhile from eartly kin, and sit concealed 
 in dark recess, pavilioned round with clouds: 
 Yet let not. guilt presumptuous rear her crest. 
 Nor virtue droop despondent: svon these clouds, 
 Seeming eclipse, willbrighten into day, 
 And in Majestic splendor He will rise, 
 With héaling and with terror on His wings.” 
 
 I stand here to-day beseeching the white man to remember 
 that his God is the black man’s God also. How wonderful is the 
 power of God. His presence is shown everywhere in the works of 
 His creation. Go to the North Pole where the seas freeze—roam 
 over earth’s varied surface; now gazing upon the boundless for- 
 est arrayed in living green and waving majestic branches as if 
 im huinble adoration of their Maker; and then the towering moun- 
 tain chain gilt with the mellow sunlight, .or bathed in the sullen 
 cloud; the unmeasured plain, or the wide sloping vale ; the mur- 
 muring rivulet monotonously basing the vocal music of the sing- 
 ing birds, or the long rapid river hurrying to the mighty deep ; 
 ridempon the ereat waters where swelling billows heave their 
 
 “bosoms to the clouds and toss upon 4 foaming crest huge 
 *vessels ag feathers upon the whirlwind. Look at the storm with 
 its rolling thunders, its forked lightnings and heaven-gushing 
 torrents; the hurricane that with destructive blasts uproots the 
 oak of centuries and laughs at the strength of art. Turn up 
 
 thine eye and see the heavens spread out likea curtain beneath 
 His feet, lit up by the dazzling orb by day, or by night by the 
 sparkling stars that shine in silver clusters. Look beyond to his 
 abiding place, and with the telescope of the Revelator see 
 his throne in the highest of Heavens, from which issues a 
 dazzling light of - elory, too great for mortal vision, but envelop- 
 ing uillions of spiritual inhabitants who in an unceasing ecstacy 
 of joy sing and shout the praises of the Eternal. He spake, and 
 all this came forth with the readiness of the edict which anthor- 
 ized its.nlle made man o “little lower than the angels,” ” and “ AG ave 
 him dominion over the fowl and the brute.” ae 
 He covered his creation with the waters. of the ode 
 washed from the vast earth allthat dwelt thereon, and rode upon — 
 those heaven-towering waters of destruction, an ark with his 
 
 chosen, who for forty days and forty nights looked out upon My 
 
 oceanic solitude, and the howling storm and fiery lightuing as 
 
16°: 
 they enjoy a the eaekiar of a babe, siiing onits moter 8 bleoin 
 N ations rise up nourishing arts and sciences until the winds — 
 of men drift through God’s universe and measures a bur ning 
 world, or go down into the bowels of the earth and anylize its 
 elements and treasures, extending their: conquest to. distant seas, 
 boasting: of mighty cities and temples of art, marshaling armies 
 whose tread - shake the earth, but loving not justice. Their mon: 
 ~arehs drop. their sceptres—their cities become smouldering ruins; 
 and graveyard silence reigns where hummed the noise of moving 
 
 * 
 
 millions. 
 “All hath impress of a Maker's frown.” 3 
 
 THE LOYAL PEOPLE OF THE REPUCLIC: WILL VOW TO-DAY. 
 
 Auspicious are the enthusiastic ‘and unequaled celebrations 
 of this day all over our broad land. The national escutcheon noi: 
 longer stained by slavery, patriotism strikes a higher note and 
 joy takes a mightier swell. The: structure of this Democratic 
 Republic haying stood the shock of civil war, Hope si saz 
 on the. frontlets, of the note, : FAB 
 
 W ial. and