The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Disadvantages and Opportunities of the Colored Youth, by R. C. Ransom.

The first four chapters of this booklet comprise a series of Sunday evening lecture sermons delivered in St. John's A. M. E. Church, Cleveland, Ohio, in the month of April, 1894. They are published at the urgent request of scores of persons who heard them delivered. They were delivered extemporaneously, as all my sermons are, and appear here as they were taken down by the stenographers. No revision has been attempted. The intelligent reader will readily detect many imperfections both in matter and style. They were not given with a view to exhaustive treatment or literary excellence, but for the encouragement and inspiration of the young people of my congregation. If, appearing in this form, these lectures reach a larger audience and strengthen the faith of any who are loosing confidence in the future progress of my race, I shall be abundantly repaid for the small labor they have cost me. The last chapter of this book, entitled "The Fifteenth Amendment," was delivered in response to a toast at the Lincoln Banquet, held at Columbus, Ohio, February 14, 1893, under the auspices of The Ohio Republican League. It is given here because it harmonizes with the subject which gives title to this book. We have not sought in these pages to give a solution to the "race problem," for after all attempts at solution it remains the great unsettled question of our times. But we believe that our youth, by "taking advantage of their disadvantages," and improving the opportunities at hand, can do much to overcome the impediments by which our pathway has been so long beset.

Race Soil.

I begin this evening a series of Sunday evening lecture sermons, with a definite purpose in view, which I hope to develop and make more clear, as I shall proceed with their delivery. The subject to-night is "Race Soil." As a basis or foundation upon which to stand, we call your attention to the first epistle of Peter, second chapter and the ninth verse: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light."

The history of races and nations proves that some peoples are especially endowed for the germination and production of certain great ideas. Viewed in this light, do the nations of the past possess historic value and interest to succeeding generations of mankind.

The value of an idea, the truth of a dogma, the greatness of an achievement, do not receive their permanent value by the estimate which the present places upon them. Proud and boastful nations have proclaimed by the trumpet's blast, by columns of marble, by the poet's song and the painter's brush, deeds that they thought to be immortal, but the trumpet's blast has been unable to reach posterity, the poets muse is found to have been uninspired, men smile at the sculptured and painted dreams whose spectered faces look upon a new born time.

Let no man, or race or nation fear that posterity will fail to place the proper estimate upon the greatness and value of their achievements.

The final verdict of history cannot be bought, posterity cannot be bribed, neither predjudice, jealousy nor envy can hide from future ages a truth or an achievement that is worthy to survive; nor can wealth or power or boasting pride give immortality to that which is unable to survive.

The verdict of the ages is the high court from which men and nations cannot appeal; it is also the court to which those who are not time servers, but who act as though conscious that the eternities will review their lives, may confidently appeal.

We have said that the history of races proves that some peoples are especially endowed for the germination and production of certain great ideas. This truth will be more clearly seen by taking a passing glance at the contributions which the historic nations of antiquity have made to the civilization and progress of mankind.

God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees and established him as a foundation upon which to build a nation. He chose him because of all the men then upon the earth, he as an inspired religious thinker was best fitted to restore faith in the world and the worship of the one God, because Abraham possessed within him that soil most congenial to the development and growth of the spiritual idea—Abraham is the spiritual father of the Jews, and they are the spiritual progenitors of all those nations, tribes and peoples who now acknowledge "A personal God, supreme and eternal in the universe which He created." In what does the greatness of the Jew consist? What great and lasting contribution has the Israelitish nation made to the development and progress[Pg 7] of mankind? "The greatness of the Jew does not consist of political ascendancy, not in great attainments in the arts and sciences, nor in cities and fortresses and chariots and horses, nor in that outward splendor which will attract the gaze of the world, and thus provoke conquests and political combination and grand alliances and colonial settlements by which the capitol on Zion's hill would become another Rome or Tyre or Carthage or Athens or Alexandria, but quite another kind of greatness. It was to be moral and spiritual." This was the grand destiny of the Jewish race.

The Greeks gave us culture. God placed them in their little strip of island home, where the sky over head spoke to them both by night and by day of beauty—theirs was a land of widely extended coast line, having islands scattered like seeds in the midst of the Ægean sea, along the shores of which her poets mused while listening to the "multitudinous laughter of the sea." They had a landscape of mountain and valley, of river and sea and numberless bays—some "narrow enough for the butterflies to cross and yet navigable for the largest vessels." Wooed by the beauty of their landscape and clime, the Greeks gave to the world the highest expression of what culture could do for a people.

The Romans developed the idea of law and physical greatness. The world had never before had such masters as the Romans—her genius for government and ruling power has never been surpassed. Even in this new born time the laws that were nurtured are matured "upon the banks of the Tiber" still rule in the affairs of men. "It is for others to work brass into breathing shape. Others may be more eloquent or describe the circling movements of the heavens and tell the rising of the stars. Thy work, O Roman, is to rule[Pg 8] the nations; these be thine acts, to impose the conditions of the world's peace, to show mercy to the fallen and to crush the proud."

Races like individuals are differently endowed—we are accustomed to say that all men are equal, but we know they are not, they never were, nor never will be. No more are all races equal. What is true of individuals in the matter of endowment is also true of races. Some races, as we have seen have large spiritual endowment; some great intellectual endowment while others are great in physical power. While in these respects, there are races of mankind whose endowments seem to be very small. Those of you who have read books touching upon the endowment or capacity of races, will recall that when the races of men noted for capacity have been chronicled, the Negro race has ever been placed at the foot of the column. Indeed the time is not so far distant when our intellectual endowment was considered so small that it was questioned whether the Negro was of one blood with the other races of mankind. We speak of race soil to-night; races like the soil differ in degree of productiveness, some soil you may plough, and sow, and reap, receiving in return very little for your labor and your pains; while others for the toil bestowed yield rich and abundant harvests. There are some races also that are very unproductive, and among them the Negro is not the least. It is not my purpose to cast any reflection upon the Indian, but to me he seems to have a very unproductive soil. Some races seem to be small in natural capacity and power; who from the beginning seem to have produced nothing which was worthy to survive. Of the Negro it will be remembered that Henry Ward Beecher once said, "You could sink the whole continent of Africa into the middle of the Atlantic ocean, and the bubbles that came up would amount to as much as the people that went down." The statement of Mr. Beecher will bear [Pg 9]investigation. John Ruskin in the Stones of Venice, Vol. I, speaking of the contribution the different branches of the human family have made to architecture says; "Ham, the servant of the others furnished the sustaining or bearing member, the shaft: Japheth, the arch: Shem the spiritualization of both." On this authority it transpires that the day the Negro is sunk in mid-ocean, the sustaining or bearing member of architecture goes down with him. As that which the soil will produce is modified by the climate, so that which a race may be capable of producing is modified by the moral, social and intellectual atmosphere which surrounds it. We know that what the soil will produce is modified by the climate; we do not have orange groves along our lake shore, nor do we cultivate the banana here in our Northern gardens; when we desire these fruits, we must go to a more congenial climate; here only the hardy vegetables and fruits can survive. The contribution which the Negro has made to civilization must be viewed in the light of the moral, social and intellectual atmosphere by which he has been surrounded. A race that is surrounded by a heavy, black and poisonous moral atmosphere, can give out but small contributions of moral power. When the moral atmosphere is poisonous it will kill out the production and growth of everything in the moral realm that makes for virtue and healthy growth. Whenever the social atmosphere is depressed and stagnant, it breeds disease and death. It is in the light of these things, our race should be viewed and judged. What has been the moral atmosphere that has surrounded our race in this land for more than two centuries? Not even one of our enemies will maintain that it has been conducive to a healthy moral growth. Our virtue has been outraged by public sentiment, despoiled by law, the canker of slavery has gnawed at its heart, and religion created for it a standard which must not rise higher than the will of a master; whose will set over against the will[Pg 10] of God, declared itself to be its highest law. But these withering blasts, prolonged through the centuries, could not destroy the hardy virtues of our people, and yet the very men who were the perpetrators or aiders or abettors of moral outrage against the Negro, who sought to kill or dwarf his virtues, are the loudest to prate about the immorality of the colored race. It is said that the Negro is very religious, but that his morals are very bad. This comes with bad grace from those who sought for centuries to rid him of his virtue. Even under the changed conditions of the last few years, the moral atmosphere which surrounds the Negro is not congenial to a healthy growth. The moral degradation of the Negro is still threatened in large sections of this country, by every device which wealth, position and legal enactment can command. For the colored boy and girl of America the doors that lead to moral degradation stand open wide; yea: they are even invited to enter. The colored youth finds few, if any, obstacles in the path which leads to degradation, but when he seeks to enter the doors that lead to the exercise of manly strength and virtue, he finds that they are for the most slammed in his face. What has been the social atmosphere that has surrounded us? The social atmosphere has been rendered heavy and oppressive, because freighted with "Jim Crow" legislation, inadequate educational facilities, political and industrial degradation. In any section of this country wherever he may be, I care not, the Negro is a marked man, wherever a colored woman goes she is a marked woman. Our aspiring boys and girls find this to be true to their sorrow and humiliation, when they seek positions above that of a menial in bank or store, in factory or mill. Our self-respecting men and women find it to be true when they seek entertainment or accommodation on railroads and at hotels. Our people up here along the Lake Shore who do not go far from home, have not learned to appreciate the[Pg 11] bitterness of this treatment. Even in the professional life the Negro discovers that he is a marked man; a black man and a white man graduate from the same medical college, from the same class, receive the same degree, but after graduation, the one becomes a doctor and the other a colored doctor. If a Negro have exceptional ability, he is a smart darky or a smart Negro as the case may be. Other men of exceptional ability are smart men. Some go so far as to say that God himself has marked the Negro as an inferior being, but these slanders of God are daily being put to silence by superior men and women of the race who are demonstrating their ability. What has been the intellectual atmosphere that has surrounded our race until within the last 25 or 30 years. It was a crime for us to know letters. Every means at the command of a great and powerful nation was used to keep intellectual darkness around the Negro of this land; but the fountains of the mind, though unfed, were not dried up; on the contrary, the intellectual appetite of the Negro was sharpened and set on edge to enter in and master the whole domain of knowledge as soon as the opportunity arrived.

The intellectual atmosphere, moral and social, surrounding our race, has been so uncongenial that some of our people have been trying to get out of it, and go over to the enemy, and from the ranks of the white race view in silence our moral, intellectual and social woes. I call them hot house Negroes. Let me say to those members of our race who are trying to escape the ills that afflict us by flight, that they cannot escape, you have but to carry your yellow face across the border and they will put you where they put the blackest Negro. As the productiveness of the soil is increased by cultivation, so is the productiveness of races increased by the cultivation of head and heart. By cultivation alone can the productiveness of races be increased. The mind is [Pg 12]strengthened by being continually fed upon the best and noblest thoughts; the ideas thus received become transformed by the subtle alchemy of thought, are ever transformed into new and nobler products. The heart is enriched and strengthened, and the moral nature is feed upon the purest and noblest sentiments. So, however, unproductive we may have been in the past if we will faithfully cultivate head and heart, the historian will soon place us among the productive races of mankind. Good soil will count for nothing unless good seed is sown; the good seed to be sown in the human soil are moral, spiritual and intellectual truths. None of the inferior kind will do, the very best must be sought and from the highest sources. Too many of these kind of seeds cannot be sown. The boy or girl that has moral, spiritual and intellectual truths planted in mind and heart will stand like some mighty tree of the forest, deep rooted, strong against life's storm, wide branching, a shelter, a protection, a cool refreshing shade, high towering, looming up, being forever in the presence of the loftiest thoughts and sentiments of the soul. But good seed cannot have a prosperous growth if weeds are permitted in their midst. They will choke out and forever hinder the healthiest growth.

The weeds of the mind and heart are ignorance, superstition and vice. I appeal to my young friends, let not these rank and poisonous weeds choke and forever destroy the development and growth of the good seed which by parents, preceptors and ministers are being sown in your minds. When considering your future, first resolve to be virtuous, next resolve to be educated, then as to what part you shall play in the world, trust God, and if you persevere, he will open the door. It has been true in the past that races much cultivated have like the overworked soils worn out, at least they have ceased to be productive. The Jew in four thousand years has borne us nothing but the spiritual[Pg 13] idea. Egypt gave us life and like her mummies and pyramads laid down to sleep in the silence of the centuries. Greece gave us culture, but the traveler along the shore of time finds only her immortal literature and the broken remains of those creations which once spoke to the world, "in forms of love and awe." The Rome of the Cæsars has left her throne of power, which form her seven hills once ruled the world; but the plow shear of civilization is just entering the Negro race, it is indeed in the language of Bishop Turner, "the boy race of the world." What, under proper cultivation, this race will produce, the historian of the future must record, but we believe with his natural musical talent, the Negro will cause sweeter harmonies and prettier melodies to vibrate on the air than ever enraptured the human soul. Eloquent of speech, he will plead the cause of God and the welfare of mankind with such tones of power that neither the Rostrum nor the Forum ever heard. His deep emotional nature will be the foe of tyranny and oppression, and as a vehicle of religious truth will carry the triumphs of the King of Kings into the seats of pride and power, and over the dark and barren regions of the globe. The morning stars are paling, because the moral, intellectual, and spiritual night of the Negro is passing away.

"Are We Able to Go Up and Possess the Land?"

To-night I come to you with an interrogation: "Are we able to go up and possess the land?" I have taken a text which you will find in the 22nd verse of the 4th chapter of Deuteronomy: "Ye shall go over and shall possess that good land."

These are the words of the Law-giver of Israel to the people of Israel. We have simply taken this as a foundation or as a basis upon which to stand, while pointing you to the things we have brought for your consideration to-night. While visiting among my people some weeks ago, I found in one of their homes a little picture or series of pictures: in fact, a very beautiful calendar, issued by a medical firm in New York. It was the most interesting thing I had seen for many a day. It interested me because of its beauty, but it interested me more because of the story it told. On that calendar were the pictures of perhaps six or eight beautiful babies, suspended from a beam in old-fashioned scales, with which we used to weigh, and on the beam over the head of each baby some object was placed which was a symbol of what the child was to become. Over one of the babies there was a plug hat and a pair of gloves; I suppose he was to become a minister, because there are some who think that is all it takes to make a minister. Over another was an inkstand and a pen; I suppose this meant to tell me that this baby was to be a literary man, and over another baby's head was a bag with a million dollars written across it. He was[Pg 15] going to be a millionaire. Over the head of another there was a crown; that was to proclaim that this baby was going to be a statesman or a ruler, and betwixt the one with the crown over its head and the one with the million-dollar bag over its head was a BEAUTIFUL LITTLE COLORED BABY, over whose head was a great interrogation-point, What? —?

This was the most impressive lecture on the race problem that I ever heard. There was a confession, and a profound one. Here was a boy from the home of a railroad king; that child will be a millionaire. We can predict his course. Another child has a literary career open to him. There was another child born to political honors: if he was not born to them, there are no impediments in his way to prevent him from obtaining them; but this little colored baby, we can't tell about him yet. He might be a millionaire, but questionable; he might be a literary man, but questionable; he might be a statesman, but questionable — — —? If you will take a map of Europe and look upon it, giving your imagination a little play, it would reveal to you nations that have had an illustrious past, a glorious present, and who have now dreams of future glory; great historic people that have figured largely in the destiny and recreation of the world. It would reveal to you the nations that are now managing and carrying on the business of the world, upon the land and upon great waters. That map would reveal to you people who every day and every night have dreams of future glory. But if you were to take a map of Africa and study that part of it which is inhabited by the race from which we are descended, it would reveal to you a people, the greatness of whose past is shrouded in the dim centuries, who in the present play no important part in the affairs of men so far as their individual energies are concerned, what their future destiny will be only one with the inspiration of heaven knows. The map of Central Africa a few[Pg 16] years ago had scarcely any rivers upon it, and few lakes were to be found; of its physical features little was known, but since that time explorers have found lakes and rivers down there, and a country of almost inexhaustible riches, inhabited by people highly susceptible to the influences of civilization. Let the old question come, What will the African become? What will the Negro in America do? What will he become? This is the question which my artist, of whom I have spoken to-night, found too difficult for solution. The nations of the earth, and this country in particular, have placed an interrogation-point upon the Negro in America, in Africa, and in the islands of the sea. What will he do? What will he become? But the question which the hopes and fears of the people have been putting to the destiny and future of the race in Africa, America, and elsewhere, will be answered; and the Negro problem, if problem there be, will be solved: solved by the Negro himself, and all nations will give to his solution their unqualified applause and endorsement. So strong is my confidence in the future of the race. I appreciate it enough to say that if I had had the knowledge that I have to-day, and if such a thing had been possible when I was preparing to burst open the gates of life to make my entrance into this world and an angel had come down from the bosom of God Almighty and said, "I am going to give you your choice; in what variety of the human race shall I incarnate your soul? Here is the old English stock; she has produced her Shakespears, her Cromwells, Miltons and Gladstones, and if it suit you, I will incarnate or graft you to the Anglo-Saxon stock;" or, if the angel had said to me, "The French have produced Racines, Molliers, Hugos and Napoleons, and if you choose, I will make you a Frenchman; or, here is the good German stock; this race has had her Fredericks, Goethes, and her Bismarks; I will incarnate your soul in the German race," after he had finished his[Pg 17] speech, feeling as I do to-night, and as I have felt a thousand times, if he had said to me, "There is yet another people who have been scattered and peeled, hated and despised; these that I have presented to you are great historic nations, prominent in the affairs of the world, and they have written some of the best pages in the history of the world's progress; but there is another people who have yet to enact their part upon the stage of history, to whom all the great fields of human endeavor stand out, unexplored as the American continent did to Columbus, fields of endeavor in agriculture, in philosophy, in business, in the professions, everywhere; they have yet to demonstrate to the world what they will do, and what part they will play, and what is to be contained in the chapters which they will write in the history of the world's progress; choose well; your choice is brief, but endless," I would have said to the angel: "Make me a Negro." The Negro is told that he has no past—at least none worthy of record. You know how you feel when somebody comes to Cleveland who knew you before you soared so high, and says, "I know her; they were poor and lived in an old cabin; why, I remember them when they hardly had corn-bread." That is no disgrace; but the past sometimes makes people's "feathers fall."

But we are told that we have no past. Some of our historians try to make you believe that you have no past that counts for anything, that you never amounted to anything, that your origin was insignificant, and that you never will be anything. But we have a present and a future, and whatever we were in the past, we are here now, clothed with citizenship and in our right mind. Not only are we told that we have no past, but this country especially tries to make us believe that we have no future. I mean as men, and that is the reason I am taking God's precious time to speak these words. I have two boys, and if for them and[Pg 18] our descendants among the people of this planet there is no future, let God blot us out of His book. We are told we have no future as men, and the prophets are trying to make their prophecies come true. Every discrimination and every barrier against you and your boy or your girl is to keep that boy and that girl from having a future. Is it not true? Every "Jim Crow" car says that we shall not have a future, but unjust discrimination can not prevent the race from moving on.

There are some of our people that believe just what some of our enemies are trying to make come true—that the Negro has no future as a man in America or elsewhere. Some of our people have believed this lie, and men have left their race because they do not believe in it. They do not believe in its future, they do not believe in its destiny, they do not believe in its power to come to anything. They have knocked at every door to get out of it, this you know. It is true that some have left it, but they had to take their Negro blood along; they could not get away from themselves.

"O God! if I was only white. O God! if I had just enough white blood in me and my hair was straight so I could leave Cleveland, or leave Virginia and come to Cleveland, and none should suspect that I had a strain of Negro blood in my veins, and then if I could not get back into the white race, I would get a pack of 'Mongrels' and form a 'Blue Vein Society.'" This wail has gone up from many a traitorous heart. But, my friends, there is a land of promise, there is a door of hope, there is a door of entrance to the point of highest vantage. There are some fields before us which we have not conquered, but this or coming generations will. Yea, thousands of boys and girls are in our schools who have sworn that they will enter these fields. I am only going to name a few of them.

The field of literature. What is literature? It is the embalmed treasure of the mind, treasured up and sent down to a life beyond. David and Job, Plato and Shakespeare have come down to us as representatives of historic people, to whom they belong. Every nation that has had literature has drawn for posterity an exact picture of itself. The American people may say what they are, but their literature will tell to posterity how little and how great they were. The history of nations tells what they were. These fields our boys and girls are going to enter. God knows what they will be, for we have some aspirations. The Bible is full of the aspirations of the people that lived in the ages that have been. Three thousand years that have passed away stand in the light a realization of what to David was a dream and to Job was mingled with doubt. So we have aspirations, and not only these, but noble thoughts, and they will yet find expression in what I believe will be among the world's noblest literature. The other people have been busy, and we are waiting for them to get through. This is their hour. You know some people do that; they sit back and wait until the other fellow gets through. But the white boy and girl must not halt or wait: write the very best poems you can; get your histories into shape; form your thoughts along the highest line, for there are about five million black boys and girls coming. If your ears were good enough you could hear them coming down the corridors of time. They will be here by and by. They have some songs to sing, some histories to write, some aspirations and some thoughts to give to the world.

There is another field, the field of business. My friends, let me tell you what you all should know. We have yet to possess that territory, the field of business. Do you not know there is no trouble about a black man getting work just so long as he is not the controlling mind? You are all[Pg 20] right to work until you get to be the director or the controlling mind, and there the trouble begins—right there. Did I not hear no longer than last Summer this wail from a white mechanic: "To think that I should ever come to this, that I should have to work under a 'Nigger' boss!" As long as you are not the controlling mind, there is peace; but of course there are some instances in which we are. There are other fields that must be entered; but we must not forget that while we are seeking other fields, in the fields of business, agriculture, commerce and manufacture, there is room. I tell you, my friends, that in all of these fields of endeavor there is room for us. We have been told that we shall go over and sit down under the tree of life, but I would like some shade-trees down here. Some of us want to go over there where the land is flowing with milk and honey, but I advise you also to get a little place down here and make it flow with milk and honey. Many of you know that in this country they are crowding to the wall and keeping down millions of our people. We must get to the place that we can enter these fields and to some extent control them. Do not ignore the inviting field of commerce. We can trade. You could not get along in this world without trade. This man produces something, that another cannot. I tell you, my friends, that a good way to get into business is to create it? That is what the Jew does; he makes business and sticks to it. When the Italian comes over to this country, all he requires is enough money to buy a bunch of bananas, and he goes out on the street-corner and holloas, "Bana, tena centa doza," and thousands of us march up, pay our money and take the goods. A man has no time to prepare after the opportunity arrives. He must be ready when the opportunity comes. The education of our children must not be one-sided. We want some manufacturers, we want some mechanical draughtsmen. We must[Pg 21] train for business. We have typewriters, stenographers and book-keepers, but we need more. We are entering the field of professional life and filling respectable places there, and that, too, with great acceptance. I think the time is coming when six or eight or ten million people will not be sitting around on benches or in the shade some place, waiting for a white man to come and hire them. These boys that are coming up are not going to do it. You must get ready, boys, by laying a good foundation. And now, friends, a few things more. There is another field of which I wish to speak. There is another land you have yet to enter and possess—that of government and statesmanship. These are the questions the centuries have not answered. Who shall rule? Shall it be a king, an emperor or the people? That has been the question, Who shall rule? The other question has been, How shall we rule and be ruled? These have been the questions that have come down through all the ages, and they are perfectly proper. We have decided in this country that all the people shall rule, and on this side of the sea that they shall rule and be ruled with every man equal under the law. I was talking with a white man recently, who said, "Your people are getting along finely in this country. Look what they have done in so short a time. You are a preacher, and you know the Bible says that if God did create of one blood all nations, that He set the bounds of their habitation, and this is not your country." I thought that argument had been hung up or buried long ago. I have a book, "An Appeal to Pharaoh," written by a prominent man in this country and the great question he discusses is that the Negro is an alien race, and that it is felt everywhere, and God Almighty has marked him with a black skin. He is marked socially, marked politically, marked as he knocks at every door of entrance an alien race. God Almighty has not fixed the bounds of any man's habitation. He is not[Pg 22] that kind of a God. He was not born in Georgia; the bounds of no race's habitation are fixed. The facts prove that the English get along all right in Africa, the Africans get along pretty well in this country, we have kept up with the phases of modern civilization right well. Now I have simply to say that we have just as much right here as anybody. You are a man and a citizen, and, being a man and a citizen you have a right to rule and be ruled. Let any question involving citizenship come up south of Mason and Dixon line and then see what politics has to do with it. They settle it. My friends, especially my younger friends, if it was in my power I would take you up and give you a glimpse of that land that lies beyond. I would show you those fields rich with great rewards. I believe that boys and girls with aspirations and inspirations born within them will come with ready hands to batter down these doors of predjudice and enter those fields, and build up all these avenues making for themselves a place and a name, just as other races have done, I speak with a hope. But we want to be men and women here, with one hand in God's hand and the other one down here, so with one upon the earth and the other one in heaven we will bring heaven down to earth and take the best of earth up to the skies.

Lions by the Way.

The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin. Nahum 2, 12.

In speaking to you, under the general topic for two weeks past, "The disadvantage and opportunities of the colored youth," my purpose has been to give inspiration and courage. We talked to you first from the topic under this head, "Race Soil." Last Sunday night we spoke to you from the topic, "Shall we be able to go up and possess the land?" To-night we come before you to talk of "Lions by the way." Permit me to say that in all I have said or may say, I have had no purpose and take no pleasure in showing up, or attempting to show the defects, the weakness or shortcomings of my race.

It is true we have been often flattered when the truth would have been more profitable, and, I think it is not improper, that once in a while we should step aside and take a look at ourselves and endeavor to learn the truth concerning us; but while all that is true, I would have my auditors understand that our enemies are always trying to get something against us. It has not been my purpose or desire to stand in this sacred place and furnish ammunition for the enemy. I have spoken because I believe it will be profitable for us to turn our eyes more directly upon ourselves and some of the phases of the unhealthy conditions by which we are environed. I want to speak the truth and nothing but the truth, in speaking from this topic. As I have done before, I shall have to use plain Anglo-Saxon, though I desire to say nothing that would make a blush come to the cheeks[Pg 24] of the most chaste of maidens, nothing that would be out of keeping with this time or sacred house. One thing further my belief about the pulpit is this, that it ought not to be dumb, but vocal and articulate.

Any topic that relates to the welfare of mankind is not out of place here. This has been my endeavor and shall be to the end. I said to my church when I first came to this city that I would speak plain words in this pulpit, and it would be my purpose to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Last Sunday night our topic was "shall we be able to go up and possess the land?" We meant by that, the fields of endeavor that are held from us. And now we come to tell you that there are some lions by the way. By this we mean, the vices that are preying upon and destroying our people, in common with thousands and tens of thousands of others. Let me introduce this further, by saying to our young men and women, that I know what temptation is. Let me say to our boys and girls, let me say to our young men and women, that one thing we can not afford to do, is to imitate the vices and follies of the white boys and girls of this country.

The reason we can not afford to do it is this, the white boys and girls of this country have standing at their backs, centuries of glorious achievements and if they stop to play a little by the way, or if they stray from the way and give themselves to vices and follies, they have a foot hold in the earth that you don't possess. They can afford better than you, secret follies, they have power, you have not, your father has not. As you walk out Euclid avenue and look at the mansions there, or down town and look at the great banks and manufacturing establishments, remember these belong to white men and will descend to white men's sons.

The colored boys of this country, in attempting to get what others possess, have no time to stop by the road to get[Pg 25] drunk, we are far enough behind without that. We have no time to stop on our way to the highest point of vantage, to take a game of cards with some fellow. On the way to business, we have no time to be lured by the siren's song onto the rocks of destruction, while attempting to get a foothold among men. These are reasons and others can be given why we can not afford to stop and imitate the vices and follies of those by whom we are surrounded. In these talks I have so much to say, that I regret, I have to say almost everything so poorly. I know there are a great many of us who desire to be like other people. Some people tell us we should strive to be like other people. Now what people would you desire to be like, if you had your choice. Like the Greeks? Socrates and Plato and Greece have passed away. You don't want to be like Greece—she fell.

Do you want to be like the Romans? Cæsar, Cicero and Rome have passed away. Something was wrong with that nation, she could not stand. Do you want to be like the Jews, scattered far and near? Many know not of the lions in the path of our progress. I place this one first. The lion, you know, is called the king, the strongest of beasts. One of the great roaring and devouring lions in our path is, the lion of intemperance. You know he is devouring our boys and girls. My friends, if time permitted me to-night, I could tell you much as to its terrible ravages, and the inroads it is making among our people. Not only in Cleveland but all over this country, the lion of intemperance is making his way. I never saw but one building I wanted to curse and that was the Y. M. C. A. building in the city of Springfield, O. Some of our people were so foolish as to subscribe five and ten dollars a year to support an institution our boys could not enter. I told them they ought to change it's name and call it the white Y. M. C. A.

There was a door across the street unlike the Y. M. C. A. door. The door of the Y. M. C. A. swung in, but the door across the street pushed both ways, everybody could go in there, it was a saloon.

The fact of the matter is, my friends, if you want to take a header down, the doors are all open and if you want to climb upward, many doors are barred as the Y. M. C. A's. doors were. Intemperance is a demon, it is one of the devouring lions in the way, destroying the progress of our people. Say what you will, the lion of intemperance is making us his prey. I implore you to shun it. I remember a temperance lecture my mother once gave me: "My son beware of the intoxicating cup, it has brought kings down from their thrones; it has brought statesmen down from their seats of power, it has blighted the prospects of the most brilliant men, it has come into the pulpit and dragged down the servant of the living God. Beware!" It has done that and more, of such an end beware. Young men keep out of these places of drink, we can not afford to enter them.

We of all people in this country, can least afford to spend our money for drink. Taken from a financial standpoint. A man spends twenty or thirty cents a day for drinks and in eight or ten years he spends enough to buy a house and lot. From a financial standpoint we can not afford to drink. I think that a man cannot afford to buy a piano for a saloonkeeper's house, and finery for his children. We can not afford to buy these things for saloonkeeper's daughters. You bought his wife a carriage, but your wife and daughter has not one of these things. I am sorry to say that too many of our people are doing this very thing. It matters not what other people are doing in this respect, we can not afford to do it. Any one that has been in Chicago on State street can appreciate what I am talking about. On the corners you can see anywhere from two hundred to three hundred colored[Pg 27] boys, kingly looking fellows throwing themselves away in these saloons and dens. God save the flower of our youth from the lions den! I remember the time when you could not get a colored woman to guzzle beer. And I can not for the life of me understand why mothers send their children after it. This is the destructive part of the business. No matter what excuse you frame for a woman that sends her child to a saloon, I say there is something the matter with the mother-heart in that woman.

These are the destructive things and this is one of the lions that is doing much to destroy us and keep us poor.

In a little town in Kentucky, upon a hill where our people lived and had homes, there was an Irish family who kept a grocery. The man worked and his wife kept grocery. She had a little keg of whiskey under the counter. She knew all the men by name, and would pat them on the back and tell them they could have anything they wanted on credit.

With the groceries they bought a little whiskey, and then she got them to put their names to a piece of paper. It was not long before the Irishman owned the house across the street and after a while nearly all the houses on the hill, and they started on a few bars of soap and a keg of whiskey. Scenes similar to this are going on in scores of localities in this country, but we do not want to be engulfed by the lion of drink. Another lion which is preying upon our pathway is the vice of gambling. In destructive power I place it next to intemperance, for it is just as fascinating when it gets a hold on a man. I know gamblers that never touch a drink of whiskey. There are scores of our boys and girls going down to destruction, through the door of the gambling hell. There are some people who profess to think there is no harm in a game of cards.

I can't for the life of me see how any man or woman can apologize for a deck of cards. I do not care whether there is any harm in it or not, when a man is with a deck of cards, he is in bad company.

When you get so you can play and play well, you desire to let somebody know how well you can play, you do not intend to be a gambler. Your friend has a quarter that says he can beat you. That's the way it starts. You have a quarter which says he can not. There are men at present in this city, dragging down their little children and wives in gambling hells of this town. The ravages of this vice are terrible. It has even affected some of our women. So infatuated are they that they will go out and wash all day and take the money to buy lottery tickets. These are some of the devouring lions by the way, that are helping to destroy us, and I say to every young man, don't play a game of cards. I know the temptations of young men and I know some of you have mothers off in distant cities praying for you. A young man goes to work in some hotel, after he waits his meals, he has no home to go to, and is at a loss what to do. Don't spend your money on gambling machines, keep it in your pocket; don't give it to those men down town, for I think when a man spends his money he ought to get value for value. There is another thing of which I wish to speak, that is politics. A great many people think you can make men and women by legislation. You can't put a law on the statute books which will create men and women, they are not made that way. Our dependence on legislation and political parties has been one of the barriers in our way.

But my friends, salvation still comes through the church and that way only, and no political party can bring it otherwise. We are very important on election day. If you stay out on election day so many men will be glad to see you, and when they want you to drink it is to serve certain ends. So[Pg 29] we finally wake up to the fact that our salvation does not depend on any party. What have political parties done to help us. They have done more to destroy us.

I was shown into a saloon on election day, where I saw ten or fifteen colored men (among them an old brother of my church.) They filled them full of whiskey and loaded them into a wagon and voted them like sheep. I do not say that you would do as those men did, but I do say that we can't afford to be governed by these bad principles.

Again, we are assailed by the lion of the white man's lust. I wonder that white women are not afraid to meet a Negro, after reading in the papers every day about "that burly Negro brute." I have no hesitation in saying that the outrages that are alleged to be committed by colored men upon white women, bear no comparison to those which the whites commit with impunity upon colored women.

We had recently an instance in this State of a Negro assaulting a white woman. If he committed that crime, he deserved to die, and die a terrible death, but he did not deserve to die at the hands of a mob. The lions that are coming into the way devouring the life blood and flower of our people, have their lair largely in the chivalric southland, but some of them are abroad in the North. In the first place there is no law for a colored woman south of Mason and Dixon's line. If a white man seduces her under avowal of love or promise of marriage she can not sue him, for it would be a penetentiary offense for him to make her his wife. Therefore she has no law. In many of our States the law gives license to the white man's lust to feed at will, upon the defenceless women of our race. A bishop of the A. M. E. Church is authority for the statement, that there is a school district in Georgia where no colored woman can teach unless she consents to be the kept woman of the county superintendent. Both North and South it is notorious, that indecent[Pg 30] proposals are sometimes made to our mothers, wives and sisters, when they go to the stores to make purchases. You put the white woman in the colored woman's place and give colored men all the money and if they did as white men do I don't expect their girls would be found to possess more moral strength than ours. If when our young ladies go out in the streets, especially in the South, there is a crowd of Southern gentlemen on the corner, they make any kind of remark about them they choose and to resent it would mean to precipitate "a race war."

Our womanhood is being degraded and desecrated, and this is one of the devouring lions. When you touch a man's home you are getting around the heart strings of his life. In the North they don't do it in this way. Here when a woman goes out she is followed. But the Northern villain will not persist if she pursue the even tenor of her way. But there is another side to this, we are saying these words not to injure, but to help. Some of you want me to preach of the land of Beulah, you object when the living present is preached. And while we are up yonder among the clouds, the devouring lions down here are despoiling us of womanhood and virtue. The fault is not altogether with our white brother, for there are women who belong to our race who surreptitiously associate improperly with the opposite side and want to be the first women among our people. I had an illustration of this a few years ago, when I had the honor to respond to a toast at the Lincoln banquet in Columbus, O. In conversation with one of the gentlemen present, a State official, he asked me where I was located, when I told him, he said, "I have a fine little colored girl in that city." He would not have told me that if the wine had not been flowing so freely. He called her name, and I was surprised to find she was high up in society and a leading member of my church. Women of this class do more than any other to[Pg 31] call in question the integrity of the race. Recently a lamentation has gone up from white mothers of the South, because their sons marry so slowly. They prefer their colored concubines to the honorable estate of matrimony. The lion has her whelps in the person of degraded colored men and boys in hotels and elsewhere taking out strangers to seduce and destroy colored girls. Now, my friends, in the light of these statements it would be unjust for me to close without saying that I believe our colored women are among the grandest women under heaven. They have been loyal as mothers and sweethearts, in the darkest night and dreariest days, with every incentive to turn them from their course. As mothers they have been loyal to their children, ever loyal; as wives they have been faithful. Some of our friends say that "the colored people are very religious, but their morals are bad." Read the papers and see whether the colored people have all the bad morals or not. We don't have to go down to Kentucky and run for Congress in order to advertise our morals. Not only have our women been loyal as mothers, but they have been loyal as sweethearts. In the midst of temptations, such as no other women in the land have ever faced, thank God, they have not lost their moral integrity. I preach faith in God. But to-night I preach, let us have faith in each other, faith in ourselves, we can not be too loyal to each other. Loyal in business. A store keeper when asked to give a colored girl a clerk ship in his store said: "I can't put her in here, if I was to put a colored girl in this store I would loose lots of trade among your people. Do you know the reason? Some of your people when they came in and saw her behind the counter would not buy because they would be unwilling for her to know how much they paid for their dresses." That is the reason he would not take her. Frank James, the brother of the notorious Jesse James is clerk in a store where our people spend [Pg 32]thousands of dollars, but could not get the most menial position. From these lessons we are admonished that our safety lies in loyalty to each other. Then let us not turn away from God; we must not lay God down. Why, don't you know some of our people are getting so progressive they actually spit on their mother's graves. My brethren we must hold on to God—our hope. Our mothers and fathers did not know much, but they knew God and they knew Jesus Christ in the dark days that have passed and gone. Through the long hours of the night have they gone and communed with Him, in their cabins, and the wind as it whispered through the chincks in the wall, spoke to them of the dawning of a brighter day. God has overthrown one race and nation after another, if we turn from Him He will overthrow us likewise. But if we hold on to God, He will lift us up. Let us smother pride. Do not turn from God back into darkness from which we are coming. God will lead us out of darkness into light and give us the strength of Samson to slay and overcome the lions that are by the way.

Grapes from the Land of Canaan.

I come to you to-night my friends, to deliver the last of my series of lecture sermons, under the general topic, "The Disadvantages and Opportunities of the Colored Youth." Three of these talks many of you have already heard. During the delivery of these lectures I have said a great many things that have displeased some people, for which I am very thankful, and I have said some things that have pleased others, for which I am more thankful. I have said some things that some of my friends have thought ought to have been left unsaid. That's a difference of judgment. But I have endeavored to speak the truth, which I hope to continue to do. I expect to displease a great many people as my ministry is prolonged. Certainly I shall do so if I speak the truth.

We come to-night to call your attention to the last topic which we announced, which topic is "Grapes from the Land of Canaan," and as a basis or a foundation for my remarks, your attention is invited to the 23rd and 26th verses of the 13th chapter of the Book of Numbers. "And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all[Pg 34] the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land;" the 23rd verse reads as follows: "And they came upon the brook of Eschol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs." The children of Israel were just from Egyptian bondage, from a bondage that had lasted over 400 years. They were now in the wilderness, but in their travels, they had come to the boarders of the Land of Canaan, and while yet in the wilderness, but standing on the boarders of Canaan, they sent spies, chief men in Israel, over into the Land of Canaan to spy out the land, and as we have read to you, these men went as they were sent into the land of Canaan, and they came back and reported that it was a land literally flowing with milk and honey. And in order that the people might believe their report, while they were in Eschol they gathered some grapes, and brought back grapes from the Land of Canaan, and showed them to the camp in Israel, so that the people would be encouraged to go into that goodly land as they should have been, but there were some people in the camp of the Israelites just like there are to-day. They said, "We are told that it is a goodly country and have seen some of the fruits of the land, but the Amelakites are over there and the Jebusites are over there and the Hittites are over there and we are afraid of these, and not only that, but the people over there dwell in walled cities, and we don't believe we are able to take them. But of all things, the thing we most fear, is the children of Anak, they are over there and they are giants, every one of them. A race of left-handed giants, and as we looked at our men, they were as grass-hoppers, we are afraid they will devour us." And as they spake the children of Israel got scared, and said, "We are not able to go and possess it." We, the men of the colored race of America, are just from bondage, out of the[Pg 35] wilderness. We have had representatives enter the rich fields of human endeavor which will be the possession of the entire race, when they have the ability and courage to enter. Some have already gone over to these fields of endeavor, and a great many in our camp are just like the Israelites, they are afraid and crying out we can't go over and possess it. By grapes from the Land of Canaan, I mean the Negro's demonstrated ability. Just as these spies from the camp of Israel went to Canaan and brought back grapes, some of the representative men and women of this race have gone in to the fair fields of human endeavor demonstrating our ability to enter there, and the fruits or grapes of the land that they have entered, is their demonstrated ability in the large fields of human endeavor, of these things I wish to speak to you to-night. The first thing to which I would call your attention is, the Negro as a toiler. Into that realm of human endeavor we have entered and demonstrated our ability as a toiler. The Negro's ability has brought rich fruits into this land, coming into this country shortly after the Anglo-Saxon, the Negro as a toiler has left his mark upon this Hemisphere, wherever he has turned the soil. He has gone out into the wilderness, out into the thickets, out into the back woods, out upon the frontier. He too has felled the forests, he too has drained the swamps, he too has redeemed the marshes and caused the wilderness to blossom as the rose. By the sea, on the plains, in the primeval forests, everywhere, wherever he has gone he has been a faithful toiler and has caused wealth to fall into the lap of the nation. There is always hope for a man that is not afraid to work; you can put that down, and as true as there is hope for a man not afraid to work, there is hope for individuals wherever and whoever that people may be. Wise men may smile at the Negro's ignorance, rich men may mock at his poverty, but no man can call him lazy, because from his industry and toil he has[Pg 36] enriched this country, and has contributed much to cause it to take its rank and place amongst the foremost nations of the earth. This I call "Grapes from the Land of Canaan." This is the age of the common man. There have been ages of kings; there were ages when a king stood for all the world, but that is past. There were ages of aristocracy and nobility, when their word and authority swayed the land, in America, that day has passed. This is the day and age of the workingman, this is the day when the toiler is king. This is the day of the common man, and those of you who read history are told to read the signs of the times. Read them in the light of this declaration: that the common man, the toiler who produces all the wealth of this fair world and is making it bloom and blossom, shall enjoy the fruit of his toil. In this country there is hope. The men who produce the wealth of this country, are no longer content to produce and not enjoy. The men and women producing the wealth of this country from the bosom of the earth and from the fields, are coming to the place where they intend to enjoy the fruits which their industry and toil have produced. Thank God, to-night, the Negro as a toiler has never taken second rank, while in the fields of industry he has always kept a place, he has filled it well. The common people are getting their eyes open. It's time they were beginning to open them. Men are learning that they produce wealth, and have a right to enjoy it. Men are coming to the conclusion that they have no right to toil and the results of their industry pour into the lap of some one man; the day is not far distant when this must cease. Mr. Coxey has got a great many people scared, but I have this to say about revolutions and upheavals; God Almighty through the ages has written His will in blood. After every sabre's flash, every field of carnage and of blood the common people have come to larger liberty. It has been so from the beginning of the world. God has written His[Pg 37] will in the ashes of ecclesiastical and political despotism and He will write it again in the ruins of social despotism. We have demonstrated our ability as fighting men. You know you must prove yourself everywhere, prove yourself in every field of endeavor. Our ability as fighting men has been demonstrated. A man that will not fight for country, honor and home is no man at all. And as a defender of these things which men hold sacred, we have demonstrated our ability in every test that has arisen. You never heard of a Negro soldier running from any body. They don't fight that way. You never heard of a troop of colored soldiers refusing to go forward, no matter if the odds were against them. That kind of blood does not run in their veins. And now that history is being written more truthfully than it was a few years ago, it is seen that our fathers were valorous and brave in the interest of the principles which are the heritage of this great nation.

I speak of this to-night because when I was a little boy I could read nothing to make me know of their bravery. It helps a young man to be true and loyal, to know the blood of brave men is in his veins. When a white man speaks he says, "My father fought for this country and for constitutional liberty." Our fathers fought for it as well, America's glory is ours. When I used to study history in school no honorable mention was made of us there, our boys and girls must write some history. We were only mentioned in that book twice, and then we were mentioned in pictures, one was the picture of a Negro boy butting Gen. Prescott's door down. Then there was a large and pretty illustration of Gen. Perry on Lake Erie, in this they had a Negro crouching in the bow of a boat, while the white men fearlessly faced the enemy's guns. Those of you who have read history know how valorous and brave the black man was in this struggle, and this picture is a printed lie. Every time[Pg 38] I go down street and pass the Soldiers' Monument on the Square I feel about an inch taller, some people don't like the bronze figure of the negro there. It pleases me to see it, and I am glad that the time has come that you cannot build a monument to the soldiers, and tell the truth, without putting the black man there. That is demonstrated ability in another field. Frederick Douglass says there are three boxes the Negro must control: "the knowledge box, the money box and the ballot box." But you need another box in order to take care of the other three, it comes in very handy some times, it is the cartridge box. Another field of endeavor where our ability has been demonstrated is the field of business. We have brought grapes from that domain. We have been busy trying to get a good foothold in business.

One thing I wish to speak of in this connection is prejudice, especially in the south land, it has been a great blessing to our people. For example: as some of you know, there are few southern cities where they will haul your dead body in the hearse that they use for the whites. Not for love nor money would they do it, and the result is, that our people are buying hearses and going into the undertaking business. The money that flowed into the other people's pockets is flowing into ours. Our people are also beginning to keep drug stores, so you can see that prejudice has been a blessing to us, by forcing us to go into business for ourselves. If they had laid aside this prejudice we would not have made this advance, but God has helped us and we are getting along right well.

One of the greatest hindrances to our material advancement is improvidence. We spend too much money for picnics and excursions. When the sun shines we are too prone to forget that the frost will ever fly again. I do not say a man ought never to do anything that he cannot afford, but we ought to be more provident. If I was not afraid I would[Pg 39] make you angry, I would say: We all dress up fine and look just as good as the people of the avenue, the only difference is, we cannot afford it and they can. We have not learned as we should the value of a dollar. I remember one time while I was spending a week with a friend, one morning at the breakfast table his father said to him: "My son, you have been to college and studied Greek, but you have not learned the value of a dollar. I am going to give you a dollar, don't spend it, take it out and look at it every day. Study the possibilities of this dollar. There are horses, farms, factories and railroad stock in this dollar, all that tends to wealth, study the value of it." We can learn this lesson with profit. Another field of endeavor is that of professions. The time has come when we must go out and gather more fruits in this domain. In the line of professions we have been able to take our stand and make a place; we can trust our cases with a colored lawyer just as well as with a white one. We have shown that we are able to make entrance and hold in that realm a place. We have lost enough money on real estate in Ohio and Pennsylvania to make 3 or 4 families rich, because we didn't have proper legal advice. But now with qualified lawyers this cannot occur. We have learned at last that we can trust our lives in the hands of colored physicians as well as in the hands of anyone else, but must learn this more and more, so that our men can take rank and standing among other men in this department. In Europe and in this country we are beginning to take rank and place among the foremost artists of the world.

A young colored man recently painted a picture which has been accepted by the Art Academy of Paris. They did not ask if the artist was colored, but is he an artist of genius. In the domain of art color is no bar. If you can equal or excel the masters the world will give you a place in the temple of fame.

We have been called a musical people. But thus far the talent has remained crude and undeveloped. Talent without cultivation yields poor results. A young friend of mine who had a good voice, had the right kind of stuff in him. He had a good voice and he knew it, he did not let success turn his head, he got all he could at home, went to New York and spent a year there, then went to Boston, studied a year there, now he is going to Italy. In all the higher fields we have so much to learn that we can not be too studious.

There is another realm in which we are gathering some fruits, and that is the realm of literature. Here is a place, my friends, where your color is no barrier to you. If you can write a poem equal to Shakespeare's immortal Hamlet, or Dante's Inferno, or Milton's Paradise Lost, they will give you the same place among the world's immortals. When our opportunities are considered, our achievements in the domain of letters can not be equalled by any other race.

Aside from building and maintaining schools and colleges, our boys and girls have repeatedly won the honors in all the departments of higher education. A few years ago there was a colored boy who won the honors at an eastern college, the people said he was an exception to his race, and they tried to find out if he did not have white blood in his veins. But be it remembered that the men whom he excelled were picked men from the best families of the land. And a picked man from the colored race excelled the picked men of the white race assembled there, that is all.

To the young men and women of the race I say go forward along whatever line your talent may lead. Many doors will be slammed in your face, but if you continue to knock and are qualified you will find an entrance. I would sooner help a man with a hungry brain than one with a hungry stomach. In God's fair world there is enough food[Pg 41] to satisfy every growing and enquiring mind. Go forth and be filled. Giving back in return to the world new and richer contributions to the world's knowledge. Rich indeed are the fruits we have gathered from the fields of human endeavor. Let us not fear to go forth and gather still richer fruits. "Go forth to meet the future with a brave and manly heart."

The Fifteenth Amendment.

I must have liberty, withal as large a charter as the wind, to blow on whom I please.—As You Like It.

Three great sea voyages have had greater influence upon the history and progress of the human race than any event which has happened since the birth of Christ. The history of these voyages and their consequences is the history of our country. Columbus, the inspired mariner of Genoa, with a sublime courage almost without a parallel in history, set sail; himself sailing into immortality, his caravels opening a pathway through the unknown seas, until guided by propitious stars and favoring winds they anchored at the gateway of the greatest continent of the earth. A country compared to which, "the promised land flowing with milk and honey," is but a beggar's pittance. A country upon whose shores the tides of two great oceans ebb and flow; a country whose mountains are filled with silver and gold, with coal and with iron, and whose fertile valleys are threaded by the grandest network of navigable rivers on the globe; a country with almost every variety of climate, of fruit and of flower; this is the gem which Columbus snatched from the sea.

But a country reserved for the representatives of every variety of the human race. Old superstitions, old tyrannies and old despotisms perished with the nations that they could not save. What though for a few centuries the ghosts[Pg 43] of these departing spirits did haunt our shores, they could not stand before that advancing host of freemen, every one of whom bore a scepter and wore a crown.

But the best that the heart felt and the mind conceived in those civilizations which flourished on the banks of the Euphrates and the Nile, the shores of the Mediterranean, at Athens, and on the banks of the Tiber, was embalmed and transmitted through the centuries to find here the only soil in which it could have development and growth.

Again the horizon is whitened by a sail. Not the caravels of Columbus, but the Mayflower, bearing the Pilgrim Fathers and the germs of our Republican institutions. Fleeing from oppression beyond the sea, coming to dwell in the wilderness, with old Plymouth Rock for their cathedral, their music the restless murmur of the sea, while the scene is lighted by the lamps of heaven, the Pilgrim Fathers married Civil and Religious Liberty to our country forever.

This continent is the great family mansion which God has built and furnished with unlimited supplies for the purpose of reassembling the scattered members of the human family, to enjoy together the fruits of liberty, fraternity and prosperity. The Indian was already here, but he was not permitted to level the forests, navigate the rivers, till away the fertility of the soil, or to rob the mountains of their wealth of gold, silver, iron and stone, until the other members of the family arrived. When the roll was called, the Englishman, the German, the Frenchman, the Spaniard, the Indian, each answered to his name. When the Negro's name was called there was silence, each looked at the other. The Negro was not here. He had no ship. He could not come. In which condition of affairs his white brother rigged out a vessel and brought him over. Our third great voyage is ended, bearing momentous issues, another ship[Pg 44] comes in from the sea. It is the old Dutch man-of-war with her cargo of twenty Negroes, which landed at Jamestown, Va., in 1619. Ever since the landing of this vessel the Negro has answered "present" whenever his country called. When called upon to drain the swamps and till the fair plantations of the South, though beaten, cursed and robbed, rewarded with the severance of the tenderest ties of affection, he answered, "present," every day for two hundred and fifty years. American Independence, like every good gift, has been bought with blood. And the first blood shed in its behalf was that of the Negro patriot, Crispus Attucks. When the Revolutionary heroes were being overcome by the British at the battle of Bunker's Hill, it was Peter Salem, a Negro, who shot Major Pitcairn and turned the tide of battle there.

The others came of their own accord, he had a pressing invitation to be present here. But since the world began did ever guest cause so much commotion in a national household? The other members of the family have been fighting and contending about him ever since he arrived.

"Who is he?" As to his origin and identity scientists disagree, and modern history is either silent or incoherent.

This question has divided churches and religious denominations; it has sundered the fraternal ties of secret societies; it has perplexed statesmen; it has divided parties; it has appealed to the highest tribunal in the land for settlement, only to be more complicated by the learned decisions of the courts; it has marshalled armies and nearly caused "the government of the people by the people and for the people to perish from the earth."

This question, "What shall we do with the Negro?" presented itself for solution when the foundations of our government were laid. One of our statesmen has observed that, "The compromises on the Slavery question, inserted in the Constitution, were among the essential conditions upon which the federal government was organized. If the African slave trade had not been permitted to continue for twenty years, if it had not been conceded that three-fifths of the slaves should be counted in the apportionment of representatives in congress, if it had not been agreed that fugitives from service should be returned to their owners, the thirteen States would not have been able in 1787 'to form a more perfect union.'"

Thus we see that the Negro has been in politics ever since the adoption of the Constitution.

But, throughout the long night of bondage, for three quarters of a century, not a single act designed for the betterment or advantage of the Negro can be found upon the statute books of any Southern State. Even as late as '62 the Democratic State convention of Pennsylvania said: "This government was established exclusively for the white race." In every State the Negro was denied those primary rights which centuries before had been wrested from King John at Runnymede and recorded in Magna Charta. The immortal principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence loosed not the fetters of a slave. The South were let alone until they caused eleven stars to fall from our glorious flag, and it took a million bayonets to pin them back to the place from which they had wandered, there to remain as long as the Republic shall endure. When secession and rebellion threatened the overthrow of the constitution and the peril of our national life, it was

the party of the most illustrious names, the party of the most immortal deeds that adorn the pages of our history—this party it was that joined battle with rebellion, willing, in the language of Mr. Lincoln, if God so willed, "to continue the war until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil should be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash should be paid with another drawn by the sword."

Amid the cannon's roar the Republican party heard the voice of God, and above the smoke of battle four million fetters towered like a monument to heaven. To our country purged by fire and purified with blood, yea, even with the blood of the slain and against the will of a united Democracy the Republican party gave not only emancipation, but also the highest dignity—a race clothed with the sacred right of elective franchise.

Failing to defeat the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, the Democratic party have attempted to nullify it by murder, incineration, intimidation and fraud. The political power which the Democratic party lost on the battle-field they have sought to regain by committing a rape on the ballot box more infamous than those widely published crimes which that proverbial "burly negro fiend" is said at times to attempt upon the purity of Southern homes. The South invests the Negro with the stripes of the flag it failed to destroy, but denies to him both the promise and protection of its stars.

The Afro-American has voted the Republican ticket because the Democratic party has willfully, continually and maliciously opposed every law designed to secure his freedom, his franchise and his enjoyment of the blessings of liberty; while all such laws in his behalf have been passed[Pg 47] by Republican votes and signed by Republican presidents. The Democratic party, which thirty years ago sought the Nation's life through the dissolution of the Union, is to-day in rebellion against the Constitution of the United States through its open and flagrant violation of the Fifteenth Amendment. There has not been a fair election in any Southern State for more than seventeen years. If slavery had not been destroyed it would have destroyed the Union. Even so, if we do not put an end to

Nullification will put an end to our government as it now exists. This subversion of the Fifteenth amendment by the Democratic party in the "new South" is undermining the very foundation of the Republic. The Negro is not the only nor perhaps the greatest sufferer by this violence. It breeds disrespect for the fundamental principles of our government on the part of those who silently permit this outrage to proceed, as well as on the part of those guilty of its commission. This violation is sowing the seed of anarchy. It substitutes for the rule of the majority the rule of an unscrupulous minority. Under the old regime, in the apportionment of representatives to Congress, three-fifths of the Negroes were counted. Now all the Negroes are counted, but in no Southern State is their vote counted for the party or the candidate of their choice. Districts overwhelmingly Republican send Democratic representatives to Congress. These men who ride into the National Capitol over the bones of murdered men or by means of intimidation and fraud, actually have three times the political power of a man who has been honestly elected in Ohio, Pennsylvania or New York.

In States overwhelmingly Republican the electoral vote is openly given to the candidate of the opposing party.[Pg 48] Thus a president of the United States may be made to take his seat athwart the graves of murdered citizens, and to seize the reins of government in defiance to the will of the lawfully constituted majority. The person who attacks or rebukes this high-handed treason is accused of "waving the bloody shirt" and of "seeking to stir up sectional hatred." The South comes forward with its old cry, "Let us alone; we can settle all our own difficulties;" which they have done, the shot-gun and the Winchester rifle coming in for a large share of the glory.

The Republican press, Republican statesmen and Republican orators have been too long silent. We have too easily abandoned the Southern Republican to his fate on the grounds that the subversion of the constitution cannot be stopped. But it is my deliberate judgment and solemn belief that if Negroes were surrounding the ballot boxes with shot-guns and keeping white men from the polls, we would find a way to stop it. If Negroes were fraudulently seizing the representation in scores of congressional districts and the electoral vote in a dozen States, we would find a way to stop it.

We are told that if the Negro were given the free exercise of his political powers he would ruin the industries of the South, that Northern capital invested there would be sunk, and finally, that the wealth and intelligence of the South will not submit to Negro rule. Too many have been found ready to listen to this cunning apology for crime. It is true that the Negro has registered no oath of allegiance to the Democratic party, but to the best interests of his country his heart is as true as the needle to the pole. Wise men may smile at his ignorance, the rich may mock his poverty, fools[Pg 49] may despise the color of his skin; but an ignorant man, a poor man, a black man who is thoroughly loyal, is a better and a safer voter than a rich man, an educated man, and a white man who in his heart is disloyal to the Union and who openly violates the Constitution and defies the laws. It is true that conditions have changed and new issues have arisen, but the principles of our government have not changed, nor have the rights guaranteed to citizens by the Constitution been repealed. To the exclusion of almost every other issue we have taken up

And I rejoice in the blessings which, through the wise legislation of the Republican party, this policy has brought to the Nation. But what does a man care about the tariff whose birthright has been taken away. The question as to how the revenue for the support of the government shall be raised should be considered a secondary issue while the constitutional rights of citizens are being denied by the Democratic party in more than a dozen States. The protection of American industries, of American workmen and American homes against the competition of the cheap labor of other countries is not worthy of our undivided attention until that other American industry—the lynching of Republicans for the constitutional assertion of their Republicanism—is stopped; until it is as safe for a Republican to vote in Mississippi or South Carolina as it is for a Democrat to vote in Pennsylvania or Ohio.

The Democrats claim that one of the chief causes contributing to their overwhelming victory during the late unpleasantness, was the fact that they kept prominent what they call

Issue." And by this they mean that, in the South at least, the Negro shall not be allowed to vote and have it honestly[Pg 50] returned. In other words, they appealed for votes on the ground that, if intrusted with power, the nullification of the Fifteenth Amendment should be made perpetual.

The issue should be squarely met. The Republican party stood for the enfranchisement of the Negro when his cause was unpopular, when it cost tens of thousands of votes to do it.

Perhaps it would cost tens of thousands now, but it would also call to our ranks hundreds of thousands of liberty-loving, patriotic men. For the American people have a conscience, and when it is properly appealed to and thoroughly aroused, though they may seem slow in the formation of their judgments, of this let all parties take note—in the end the American people will do right.

If this amendment cannot be enforced it should be repealed. But it would be still better if the law were so amended that whenever a State excludes the Negro from the right of suffrage, the Nation should have power to exclude him from the basis of apportionment. For, as it is, the Democrats have between forty and fifty congressmen and as many electoral votes, fraudulently obtained, with which to start, and with such a lead as this, it is difficult as parties are now divided for us to win. But the Republican party has never taken a step backward. Her history is the history of the most glorious days of the Republic. This question may be often set aside and obscured by other issues from time to time, but it will continue to come up and plead for settlement, as throughout the Nation it breeds injustice in a thousand forms, it will plead until its pleadings are heard. The American people are slow to anger, and for this reason their indignation when aroused is all the more terrible.

The spirit which resisted George III., which put down rebellion and treason and which gave citizenship to the slave, as well as that other spirit which, with a magnanimity [Pg 51]unparalleled, threw the protecting mantle of the flag of the Republic about those who sought its destruction; this spirit, I say, is still abroad in the land. The old cry of

And "Negro rule" is a false alarm. History does not record a single instance in which the Negro has attempted unlawfully or by force to dominate this country or any section thereof. He has never plotted or perpetrated treason against the Constitution or the laws. He has never given his vote in support of any measure against the best interests of his country and his countrymen. He has a keen appreciation of his condition and his needs. The Church has more charms for him than Congress; he is more anxious to go to school than to the Senate; and now, thank God, under the changed conditions of these latter days, he is striving with more diligence to provide a home for his wife and children than he is to obtain a mansion in the skies. But, while this is true, he is striving more zealously to wear a crown in the kingdom of heaven than for the uncertainty of being a ruler in the kingdoms of men. When the party of his choice has rewarded his devotion by appointing him to an humble office, with the promise of better things to come, he has been satisfied and remained as faithful as the old woman who shouted every time she went to church. One day her pastor asked her if she was happy every time she shouted. "Why, no, I'm not happy every time I shout," she said. "Then why do you shout?" he inquired, and she replied, "Why when I'm not happy I just shout off the promises." Like her, the Negro is Republican in season and out of season. Whatever others may do there are no factional quarrels among the colored citizens. They are as incorruptible as any class of citizens in the State. They do not sulk in their tents on election day, nor at the polls do they conceal a razor in the Australian[Pg 52] blanket in order to cut any member on the ticket from the head to the foot. Despite outrage and desertion and wrong, despite passion and prejudice, as long as the banner of Republicanism bears upon it such illustrious names as Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Garfield, Blaine, McKinley and Foraker with the principles which these names suggest, as long as gratitude is kindled by the memories of the past, and while the achievements of the present can give confidence to patriotic hearts, as long as the star of hope sheds its rays upon the pathway of the party of progress, bearing inspiring prophecies of victories to come, the colored citizens of the United States will be among the last to desert its standards or to let its sacred folds trail in the dust of dishonor or defeat.

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