tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56146450850505063272024-03-12T16:51:45.294-07:00The #HMTProject The Digital Archival Project dedicated to the writings and study of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, the 12th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church.rhetoricraceandreligionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08901727765967201526noreply@blogger.comBlogger335125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-22015185337576466662020-12-31T18:10:00.000-08:002018-06-14T07:44:20.345-07:00Welcome<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">by Andre E. Johnson</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Director: The Henry McNeal Turner Project</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I discovered Henry McNeal Turner by accident. While starting a seminar class in rhetorical criticism and trying to hone in on a dissertation topic, I ran across a speech delivered by Turner. He delivered the speech on the floor of the Georgia House of Representatives as the House debated whether African Americans could hold office in the state of Georgia. I remember reading the speech and wondering if anyone had studied Turner’s rhetoric. <br /><br />However, there was a problem. Since Turner lived during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was my belief that texts to study Turner would be difficult to find. Turner, like many of his contemporaries during this time, spoke extemporaneously—not from notes or prepared texts. Moreover, unlike many other speakers during this time, Turner did not travel with a stenographer—or someone who could have written what Turner said for later publication. Going into my project, I only hoped there were enough texts to do a solid dissertation. <br /><br />Imagine my surprise though when I found that Turner was one of the most prolific writers and speakers during his time and that much of his writings were not lost to history. Turner published copious amounts of material for the newspapers, magazines, and journals of his day. Turner lectured throughout the country and wrote extensively on his travels to Africa. In short, many would consider Turner a public intellectual in today’s definition of the term. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sadly, many today have not heard of Turner. Indeed, it is as if Turner has been lost to history. I found myself always explaining to people who Turner was and why I thought, at least, he was so important. This is why this site exists. It is our intent to recover a lost voice within American and African American history. Henry McNeal Turner deserves recognition and it is our fervent hope that this site begins to serve that purpose. </span><br />
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rhetoricraceandreligionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08901727765967201526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-60636503127245382252019-04-16T10:32:00.002-07:002019-05-04T13:43:37.386-07:00Speech at the Republican Convention<iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1anwZogmrbUWVoba_npmySBlpDITcseoc/preview" width="640"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mr.
President and Gentlemen of the Convention: [A voice, louder!] I will be loud
enough directly. When I left my home in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Georgia</st1:place></st1:country-region> I went eastward, and determined,
in passing through several of the states, to ascertain the will of the people.
I knew it would be almost impossible to give <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Georgia</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s electoral vote to any
Republican, notwithstanding the dead have been raised. Everywhere I went,
everywhere I mingled with the people, the name of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Blaine</st1:place></st1:city> seemed to be talismanic. It extorted a
cheer, and the people seemed to be James G. Blaine, of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Maine</st1:place></st1:state>. And in doing this, Mr. President and
gentlemen of the convention, I want it understood that some of the names that
have been mentioned I revere with a reverence that my tongue cannot express.
The name of Morton, the champion of Gov. Pinchback, the defender of the
outraged people of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Louisiana</st1:place></st1:state>!
I would borrow a Raphael’s pen, and dip it in the sunlight of heaven, and write
on Morton’s brow- “Honor, eternal honor.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But, Mr. President, I believe that we
have before us now a name that will arouse the people of this great country in
a remarkable manner that the name of Morton cannot. I have nothing to say
against Mr. Bristow. I listened to the eloquence of the great poet (1) of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>, as he defended
the name of Bristow; and I paid equal deference to that learned son of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Massachusetts</st1:place></st1:state>, our
minister to England (!). But, Mr. President, in the person of James G. Blaine
we have a Republican about whom there is no question. He commenced with the
party, and for twenty-five years he has been in its front, and to-day he stands
the champion of Republican principles, I believe, in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States of America</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
He gave his own stated, --so says an aged and learned doctor of divinity of
Maine—to that party, and forever, I expect, buried Democracy on that sacred
soil. It will never lift its head there again, I trust. He originated the
spirit of the fourteenth amendment. He stood by the immortal <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lincoln</st1:place></st1:city> during the great struggle this
country was passing through for freedom and justice and equality to all mankind
and to chase out of this nation a set of insurgents who lifted impious hands
against that flag that still floats over us, thank God. Mr. President, there is
one thing I like about Mr. Blaine: he is a representative of Young America. He
is no dead fossil. He is not tied on to any old constitutional barriers that
shut out a parcel, a class, of God’s humanity, and tie him to a set of principles
that are antiquated. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One thing more I wish to say of Mr. Blaine, and –I have a
dozen points to make, but will make but now—it is this: But for Mr. Blaine you
would have no Republican party to-day. Wait, and I will show it. When the
Democrats carried this country, at the last election, the Republican party of
those days all over this land was thunderstruck, paralyzed, dead, and bleeding.
It was <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Blaine</st1:place></st1:city>,
standing on the floor of congress, who shook aloft the banner of the Republican
party, united the party, and defied the Democracy of this nation, and breathed
again the spirit of activity and hope into this prostrate Republican party. Who
can deny it?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Citation:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Turner, Henry McNeal. <i>Speech at the Republican Convention. </i>The Henry McNeal Turner Project. (1876, June 14-16th).</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/04/speech-at-republican-convention.html">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/04/speech-at-republican-convention.html</a>. </span></div>
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HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-18455217028610289352019-04-16T10:23:00.000-07:002019-05-04T13:39:52.282-07:00This Year Thou Shalt Die<iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OIVo9BOxpXLaLKbK9XFlNuNS7zo1M0NO/preview" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This Year Thou Shalt Die</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sketch of a Sermon by Rev. H. M. Turner, L. L. D., Delivered in the Tabernacle, SUNDAY, January 2, 1876, 7 1-2 o’clock, P. M.—The New Year. <br /><br />The Colored Tribune: March 4, 1874 </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“This year thou shalt die”—Jeremiah, xxviii: 16. The decree has gone out from God that all men shall die. It may therefore be said, that death is the common lot of man, ad yet, no truism has taxed Almighty wisdom more than this, to force its recognition among the inhabitants of the earth. Everybody gives a bague assent to death, yet how few realize the magnitude of that assent. The great bulk of humanity only entertain dreamy ideas of it. ask a man if he does not know he has to die and he will tell you yes, but its practical effects seldom if ever, enters his mind; he has been accustomed to hearing it said, everybody must die, and he yields a kind of traditional concession without ones in ten thousand times thinking of what he is saying, while at the very moment he is speaking death is undermining his constitutionality and the golden moments of life are flying away in swift succession, for </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And lurks in every flower.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The words of my text is the sentence of God against Hananiah, a false prophet, who, in the days Zedekiah, king of Judah, endeavored to mislead the chosen people of God by lies, and even dared to contend with Jeremiah, the prophet. Hananiah withstood Jeremiah, the prophet, and publicly prophesied in the temple that within two years Jeconiah and all his fellow captives, with the vessels of the Lords house, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon, an indication what treacherous negotiations were already secretly open with Pharaoh--….. He corroborated his prophecy by taking the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah, a yoke he wore by divine command to symbolize the subjection of Judea and the neighboring countries to the Babylonian empire and braking it. But Jeremiah was ordered to tell the prophetic impostor, that for the wooden yoke which he had broken, iron yokes should be made and substituted, so firm was the dominion of Babylon destined to be for seventy years. This rebuke was accompanied by a prediction of Hananiah’s death, which took place in two months after it was made. This galse prophet unconditionally promised prosperity to an abandoned and unrepentant generation, and did not so much as exhort them to a ….. It was just such abominable trash as some men call the pure gospel in this day. All encouragement, promise, privilege, cheer, and hallelujah, without the least warning, discrimination of character, exhortation, or precept. There are preachers in the land by scores, who had rather deliver a fantastic sermon, coined out of an ignorant imagination, and raise a shout, than to utter the sober word of truth and have God’s endorsement—time servers and men pleasers were never made to hear the message of heaven. One “Thus saith the Lord,” is of more value than a thousand whimsical fancies. Man needs truth, stripped of all its caprices, however servers or terrific it may be. <br /><br /> “This year thou shalt die” was the appalling message which froze the heart of the rebellious prophet. And if we could but part the veil of the future and look through a few weeks or months of the near hereafter we might find ourselves in awful agony too. This is the first Sabbath of the new year—the second day of the year—we have started out to contend with 1876, the great centennial year. The whole nation is jubilant, the expectation of millions are high and gleeful. How many anticipations cluster around the future of thousands, yes, tens of thousands, who will never realize them, for God has said: “This year thou shalt die.” It may be me, it may you, but be sure it will be some of us, possibly several of us, for all of us cannot weather the storms of life another twelve months. Rev. Daniel Watts, the celebrated blind preacher, told us this morning from this pulpit, that it would be a wonder to himself should he live to enjoy the first Sabbath in another year—we all might say the same. But for the special care that God takes of us, we might write despair upon our every brow. I believe there are a thousand chances to die where there is one to live. Not that death in itself is natural—death is unnatural, abnormal, man was not made to die but to live; his probation should have terminated with an ……, like Enoch and Elijah; no blighting frost should have withered his brow or horrified his change of worlds. But sin gave birth to death, and death, like a hungry vulture, eventually eats us up. His greed is insatiable, his avarice knows no bounds; in search of his prey he darts swifter than lightning, his circuit is from pole to pole, the world is his slaughter house and the earth his cemetery. Millions and billions have fell beneath his stroke, and still the world of mankind is startled at the dread exclaim, “This year thou shalt die!” What a host of us too, will never see a new years Sabbath again. Let us see if we can adumbrate the multitude that will be gone twelve months from to-day. It is estimated that seventy persons die every minute; then four thousand two hundred die every hour, over a hundred thousand every day, seven thousand every week, three million and twenty four thousand every month; but oh! my God, listen at this, will you? Thirty-six million, seven hundred and forty-two thousand die every year; a multitude too great for the human mind to span. There is not a man on earth who could concieve of what such a concourse of men and women would be. They would reach in single file, twenty one thousand miles, three feet apart—almost around the globe; and at arms length, they would belt the entire world, and the same number could belt it two or three times at speaking distance. Yet such is the number that must die this year. And should we be visited with the ……, or some other fearful epidemic, this number may be greatly augmented; or suppose we should be visited with such earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions, as have swept tens of thousands away in the twinkling of an eye? For these dreadful calamities may happen at any time. Look how ……, Pompeii, and ….. were flooded with burning lava, and destroyed thousands in one fearful blast. <br /><br /> Look how quick two hundred and fifty thousand perished at Antioch in 526. Think of the terrible destruction that came upon ….. in 1755, when in six minutes sixty thousand men and women as good as we are were numbered with the dead. Think of the total destruction of Epuhemia, a city in Calabria, where five thousand were swallowed up in a moment, leaving nothing to mark the place but a dismal lake. Think of the volcanic eruptions at Jorullo(?) in Mexico in 1759, when ten miles of level earth were dashed up five hundred feet, burying everything in its ruins. Think of Skaptar Jokul in ……, which poured forth two streams of burning lava, one sixty miles long and twelve wide, and the other forty miles long and seven wide, and boh forty miles long and seven side, and both averging a hundred feet thick. Again, around a mountain in Java in 1772, forty villages reposed in peace, but the mountain sank, carrying the cities and inhabitants with it, leaving a lake fifteen miles long and six broad. Who that ever read, can forget the …… catastrophe, the greatest on record? The explosions were heard nine hundred and seventy miles one way and seven hundred and twenty the other. So heavy was the fall of ashes at the distance of forty miles, that houses were crushed and destroyed. The darkness at Java three hundred miles from the place was deeper than the blackest night and twelve thousand souls perished. Is there any reason we should not be visited with similar judgments? Are we miserable rebels against God any better than those sinners? May not the same judgment come upon some of our cities?—such as New York, Washington City, and God-defying and heaven-daring Savannah, a large majority of the inhabitants of which seem to think of but little else than pic-nics, ball rooms and blaspheming around grog-shops. <br /><br /> Oh, my friends, pause, pause a moment, the mandate of the eternal is, “This year thou shalt die.” Could we but see the streams of tears death will wring from our eyes this year, or hear the screams, groans and lamentations death will exhort before next new year, we would all exclaim, “woe is me.” But let me tell these husbands, some of you will follow your wives to the grave this year; wives some of you will weep over your coffined husbands and chrilden before next New Year’s day. God only knows who it will be, and well it is for us that God does only know, for if we knew it would paralyze the nations of earth and palsy the energies of the world; ships would stop sailing, railroad cars would stop running, commerce would go down, business would be stagnant, stores would be closed, fields would grow up in grass and weeds, while the early victims of death would become frantic with despair; and a wail unlike any since the world began, would be heard through the land, weeping for ourselves and weeping for one another. But while we may all not die this year, it is our every duty to keep a look out for death and prepare for it—life is uncertain death certain. Take this text home with you, write it upon your mantle-piece, post it upon the walls of your house and keep it, before you. Oh that God may save us, is my prayer. </span><br /><br /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Turner, Henry McNeal. <i>This Year Thou Shalt Die</i>. The Henry McNeal Turner Project. (1876, March 11th). </span><a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/04/this-year-thou-shalt-die.html">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/04/this-year-thou-shalt-die.html</a></div>
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HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-76042037260001168032019-04-16T09:04:00.004-07:002019-05-15T21:07:25.276-07:00A Speech on the Ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment<iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IKUvd2v3lL8_j-skPasXWVD8JBjw2Jjv/preview" width="640"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">RATIFICATION OF THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">INCORPORATION INTO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">delivered at the celebration held in Macon, ga., April 19, 1870, by</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">HON. HENRY M. TURNER.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />—————<br /><br />Published in accordance with the resolution unanimously adopted by nearly 4,000 citizens.<br /><br />—————<br /><br />Our country is cast into another mold, and the gigantic system of the wrong of ages is dashed down forever.—BANCROFT.<br /><br />A country where untarnished truth<br /><br />Shall reach the hearts of age and youth,<br />And move unchained in majesty,<br />A model land of liberty.—DR. ALLEN.<br /><br />————————————<br />Fellow Citizens:<br /><br />I am here to rejoice with you in celebrating one of the grandest events and inestimable blessings that ever crowned a nation’s brow or marked the term of a generation; verily this is an eventful dispensation. The drama of national purity and excellence is fast reaching its zenith and culminating in the climax of fadeless glories; the onward stride is marvelous. The purest elements that ever composed the organic structure of a country have been incorporated in ours. This truly is the age of humanitarianism; the triumph of liberal ideas; the march of fraternal feelings and the dying day of domination and conquest.<br /><br />The devouring lion and the harmless lamb, for the first time, can now repose together under the shades of a republican government. The weakest creature between the shores of the two greatest oceans on earth can slumber peacefully under the benign whispers of that national sovereignty which bids him FEAR NOT.<br /><br />Nearly one hundred years ago the revolutionary sires laid the foundation of these United States by proclaiming the declaration of Independence in the face of the British tyrant, and cemented the stones with the blood of a thousand battles. This foundation was broadly laid and embodied vast proportions.<br /><br />It attracted the astonished gaze of mankind because no such a fabric had seen the light of Heaven since the gloom of the Adamic rebellion had shaded the verdant bowers of Eden. But while it was far in advance of any structure then known to mankind, it was still lamentably defective, and incommensurate to the wants of this progressive era of untrameled intellects and unfettered consciences. Its great arms embraced the sons of every nation, and legalized their heirship, save the darker hued sons of Ham. For what reason they were left out of the category (seemingly for a time by the pleasures of Heaven,) I am not able to explain, unless for the same reason that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart: that he might show the sceptics and rationalists of the nineteenth century that he still held the rein of government on earth, and executed his purposes among the armies of the sky.<br /><br />However that may be, the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, all will concede, is the finish of our national fabric; it is the head stone of the world’s asylum; the crowning event of the nineteenth century; the brightest glare of glory that over hung land or sea. Hereafter, the oppressed children of all countries can find a temple founded up.........titude and religious equity, ample enough to..............ate them all and durable enough to vie with all.........ing time. <br /><br />History informs us that the Assyrian Empire stood against the ravages of time’s corroding tooth for near eighteen hundred years. Prophecy symbolized this kingdom as a head of gold, ... when we compare the elements comprising the structure of ........don with those of our grand Republic, the principles ...... properties entering into ours, so far surpass those of Assyria that analogous reasoning might induce a warm-hearted patriot to believe ours is eternally to exist. I love to read the daring feats and trace the inimitable exploits of heroic Greece and chivalrous Rome. I admire the gallant French and proudly extol the courage which has caused extortionate tyrants to wither in Germany. I laud Fenianism so far as the sons of the Erin Isle are at work to remove the blight of oppression from their sire's graves. I could never tire in reading after such men as Garibaldi, Kossuth, Emmet, Toussaint, L'overture, Washington, and a multiplicity of others. It is with pleasure that I can boast an identity with the grand galaxy of moral and that I can boast an identity with the grand galaxy of moral and scientific reformers who have stood like a plateau of beacon lights along the shores of the world's reformatory revolutions. <br /><br />But when I turn and scan the majestic achievements of the last seven years, and would fain equipoise them iith the ponderous mass of all ages, the preponderance is in favor of the coronary. Events just completed, so far excel them all that I can only define them as overwhelmingly inexpressible. I find nothing corresponding to it in Greece or Rome nor in the days of feudalism. The only event that synchronizes to any approach is the almost instantaneous liberation of the Russian serfs, and their immediate investiture with citizens' immunities. This was the mere edict of a Monarch, however, and not the will of a national Commonwealth.<br /><br />In order to be a little more explicit let us take a glancing view at the history of our own country, and notice a few points which jut out most prominently in her illustrious career. <br /><br />Less than four hundred years ago nothing was known of this continent beyond the visionary dreams of a few geographical speculators. The inexhaustible treasures of the Alleghanies and the rejuvenescent valleys of the Mississippi were slumbering where the foot of the civilized explorer had never trod, awaiting the galvanic shock of enterprise to dismiss their lethargy and whirl them into action. Why providence permitted this country of boundless resources to lie dormant while Asia, Europe and Africa were the world's theaters, I am inadequate to explain, but for the fact that it was destined to be the greatest theater of all, as has been thus far evinced by its grand career. This isolated country, however, at the proper time was aroused from its slumbers by the electric touch of enterprise. Columbus paved the way and ten thousand stranded the procession. Soon the extremities of color—black and white—met on the shores of the new world, and a scramble was inaugurated on the newly-found arena, to last till the Fifteenth Amendment should say "peace be still." The negro race was first introduced into this country by the contingency of avarice in the year 1620, just two hundred and fifty years ago. <br /><br />Jamestown, Virginia, was the place of his disembarkation. Here was a human being to all intents and purposes. A being too, who had to play an important part in the dramatic arena of the newly discovered country. But the low order of his previous culture seemed only to fit him for a place between man and beast. Therefore, the status of the negro was rated and fixed in proportion to his pecuniary adaptation. This naturally consigned him to a degraded condition; and while he gave evidence of a higher sphere of importance in his susceptive and rational powers, these powers were interpreted by his after oppressors and construed through the color of greed and force of cupidity to be special endowments by the Creator to enable him the better to grace the relation of a slave. Public sentiment at first, however, adjudged and accorded him the mild protection of a sentient creature, restricted to minors. But as cotton, rice and sugar rose in value as national commodities, these were even lopped off by gradual incursions, till the negro, as a race, became as a prey to the ravenous wolves of all nations. The evidence of his manhood, as evinced by every reasonable instrumentality known in the catalogue of human exploits, gave no protection, afforded no shield, no relief, no bulwark, against the prowess of insatiable avarice. He demonstrated both his manhood and patriotism in religious zeal, in his moral bearing, on the bloody fields of war, amid the thunders of the navy, and the clanking of ten thousand sabres. Wherever the white man went, whatever he did, said, thought or wrote, was imitated by the negro; even the white man's dreams floated through the negro's brains. These attestations of his intellectuality and moral qualities spoke louder in defence of his rights than Senator Sumner could have done with seven thunders uttering his voice. It seemed to be the will of God, however, that we should be goaded and persecuted till a nobler dispensation should dawn. But the murky gloom and dense fog grew more inense till the thobs of freedom's heart had neraly become inert. Thousands wondered if a just being did really rule and reign supreme, or was the Bible a fable and the story of the Cross a time-blithing myth. When the yawning gulf of endless seritude would present itself in all the vauntedness of seeming defiannce to the powers of earth and heaven. But this was found to be the auspicious time. Verily, the darkest hour is just before day! and what we took to be ill omens, were only the precursors of grand events, big with mercy and ready to break in blessing on our heads. The press had become bitter, sarcastic, wicked and devilish. Politics had become strifish, corrupt and basely prostituted to selfish ends. The Bible was misinterpreted. The pulpit desecrated to a rostrum for the promulgation of wild heresies. God was blasphemously charged with sanctioning human slavery. Sectional broils, personal feuds and local animosities were alienating friends and kindred every day. The halls of legislation were devoted to disgraceful harangues and pugilistic combats. Statesmanship consisted in deceptive pettifoggery—popular topics—in efferbescing the diabolical ire of the ignorant rabble, and in leading them to the perpetration of the most horrific deeds ever charged upon mankind since the revel of the bloody orgies.<br /><br />But, in the curt language of Hon. J. M. Simms, of Savannah, these were but the silver linings and golden fringes of better days. The indivisibility of the States, or an inseparable Union, had long been the theme of popular oratory and stump declaration. <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=w000238" target="_blank">Daniel Webster</a> had consecrated this topic by a protracted devotion of his almost superhuman powers to a constant portrayal of its inestimable blessings, so that thousands recognized it as a creed that embodied every virtue necessary to adorn a man and constitute a patriot. A generation had been born and reared under this training in the North, and so thoroughly had they imbibed the doctrine of States' Unity that many regarded the oneness of the States as not only indispensably unavoidable, but believed it to be equal if not worse than the most perfidious sacrilege, to even dream of their division. Thus the very thought to them was as repulsive as the lambent flare of a cyclops thunder forge all ablaze; because the very reverse had been their teaching till it had become as a second nature.<br /><br />But <a href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_John_Calhoun.htm" target="_blank">John C. Calhoun</a>, of South Carolina, superior to Mr. Webster in intellectual sagacity and political shrewdness, led another wing antipodal to this in the Southern States. Mr. Calhoun maintained the right of secession, and the dogma of States sovereignty; that slavery was an inherent institution, incorporated in the fundamental or organic law of the land, and any infringement upon it, as such, was a sufficient reason why a State might withdraw or secede from the general government. In other words, the United States Constitution was a mere treaty between the States, to be annulled at their respective option.<br /><br />The Southern States embarced this doctrine, and recognized State allegiance as paramount to that a citizen owed to the national compact, and for a generation this doctrine was preached and instilled in the growing youths so constantly and insidiously that they held it as sacredly as they did the Bible. This brought us to about the year 1860, when <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/abraham-lincoln/" target="_blank">Abraham Lincoln</a>, of Illinois, by the grace of God, was elected President of the United States. The policy of Mr. Lincoln had been proclaimed as not favoring the further spread of slavery, but that he would not interfere with its existence in the already slave States. But the slave population was increasing so rapidly that those interested in it were chafed at the idea of the institution being limited to certain bounds, or more extentional confines.<br /><br />Wherefore, this was considered by the Southern States as the auspicious time to test the right of a State to secede, and thus practicalize their theories; and, in the event of success, they would be enabled to establish a slaveocracy upon an endurable basis, and so perpetuate it for all coming time. South Carolina, the little pestiferous State of my birth and raising, true to her historic instincts, called a Convention and issued a declaration of secession and a manifesto of independence, and inaugurated war by attempting to drive the United States garrison from Fort Sumter; for no sooner did her artillery commence to belch out fire and shell at the National forces, than did the telegraphs flash the rebellious tidings all over the country, and every loyal heart heaved at the fearful news and recoiled at the thought of its inevitable sequence. The gauntlet of a severed country on the one hand and the perpetual establishment of slavery on the other, were then thrown down, and it only remained for the friends of liberty and a model government to take it up. The blast of the war trump was echoed by a proclamation from President Lincoln calling to arms seventy-five thousand soldiers, and suspending the mails in the Southern States. All compromises and pacific blandishments had now fled, and nothing but blood could atone for the errors of the past.<br /><br />The North and South shortly afterwards met in two serried lines on the bloody fields of Bull Run and made that unknown place ever historic, in a defeat to the Union forces. But this defeat was indispensable, as it told the North, in unmistakable language, what newspapers and periodicals indicated, with no evidences, however, that could convince them: that this was a gigantic rebellion, and in order to crush it out every means and artifice would have to be resorted to known in the genius of civilized warfare. The warning was corresponindgly heeded, and resulted in a general uprising in the North, while the South, flush with the glories of a brilliant victory, marshalled her forces and marched them to the front as gallantly as Jupiter even hurled a Vulcan-forged thunderbolt at an evil genius. The contest of blood and carnage was now open, which was destined to crimson acres of land with human gore, and cover hundreds of battle fields with putrescent carcasses and bleaching bones. <br /><br />Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true, as all history will attest, that unbridled vengeance, and the rage of the wildest furies generally paves the way for more glorious dispensations; and, as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Ward-Beecher" target="_blank">Rev. Henry Ward Beecher</a> says, the roots of trees require water but the roots of men require blood. The one is made frondiferous by water, the other fructiferous of good results by blood, and as the yawning gulf of Rome refused to inclose itself till one of her most excellent sons plunged into its gaping mouth, so the rented breacher of secession refused to reunite and cure up, till the bravest and noblest sons ever born here or elsewhere, smoked upon the sacrificial altars of their country. <br /><br />A review of that fearful struggle, however, I deem unnecessary, as its details and final result is too well known to thousands who still mourn their departed relatives and friends. Could we but comprehend the significance of many a furrowed cheek, we would see but the channel of rivers and tears which have flowed with saliferous elements down thousands of faces never before saturated from the effects of sorrow or grief. We might read in the gray hairs, hoary heads, wrinkled brows, palid cheeks, broken hearts and untimely graves of thousands, the doleful history of our late war. The end of it finally arrived, however, and lo and behold four million of human beings were found standing in the vale of locomotive freedom, bearing the aspect of creatures who had just been resurrected from the valley of dry bones. A close inspection discovered them to be in a needy condition. True, the negro was free locomotively, but he had none of those indispensable implements of freedom with which to maintain even a povertous existence, he was void of either land, houses, money, education, names or self-sustaining experience. He neither knew how to buy, sell, make, bargain, hire, collect, spend his money, or to tell his name, beyond Dick and Jack, Poll and Sal. I do not enumerate in this account a few city-raised exceptions, but of the negro race through the country and in the aggregate. But there was a need which augmented his indigency and made his condition far more precarious than anything yet mentioned, that was his utter destitution of all civil and political rights.<br /><br />Here was a race of human beings thrown out upon the turbulent ocean of life with neither civil compass nor political sail or rudder; true, he had a kind of automatic liberty, such as would enable him to go to Guinea or pandemonium, and might have answered very well in a country where men are controlled by their instincts, and the bully carries off the palm; but such a condition was by no means adequate to a country where the majesty of civil law is presumed to be the supreme sovereign of the land, and where the issues of life and death are suspended upon the inexorable mandates of that law. Had such remained the case, then slavery was to be preferred to freedom. A man protected by no legal guarantees is an outlaw, and such a divestiture of God’s conferred rights exposes him to death at any times. But some one will say, where that we are not dealing, if we are to chance it out, then let the programme of chance be impartial, and not restricted to the negro alone, particularly if he is an inferior race, as is argued by many.<br /><br />Justice requires that a man have a voice in making the laws that may take the life of himself, his wife and children.<br /><br />Taxation without representation is tyranny—is an axiom familiar to every school boy in the country—a time-honored declaration which finds a response in every honest heart, yet we were exorbitantly taxed, and sternly required to comply with every act on the statute books of the land or suffer the penalties of their violation, while all our previous circumstances had conspired to keep us in utter ignorance of their exactions. But our anomalous condition was soon made known to Congress, and protective measures were speedily devised and inaugurated to shield us from relentless spleen of intolerancy and to secure us a guarantee of existence. <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S001068" target="_blank">Hon. Charles Sumner</a>, whose name alone is immorality, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thaddeus-Stevens" target="_blank">Hon. Thaddeus Stevens</a>, over whose new grave may glory ever hover, and a grand galaxy of other patriots and philanthropists gave the nation no rest day nor night till legal guarantees were thrown like a grand paraphernalia around every man, woman and child in the land, and lawful protection of life and person secured.<br /><br />In the series of movements made to achieve this grand result, all of which were bitterly and stubbornly contested by the fossilerous and proscriptive adherents of the Calhoun wing, the following partial statement will serve as an after programme. Passing by the emancipatory proclamation of President Lincoln on January 1, 1863, as all are familiar with its operations and results, I beg to call your attention to the immediate work of the nation.<br /><br />The first step taken in the erection of the magnificent structure was to amend the United States Constitution, or to change the organic law so as to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude henceforth and forever. This was to serve as the great fulcrum on which to rest all future levers of whatever name or character, that might be employed in prizing this slave-degraded race up to the exalted status of American citizenship. The amendment was finally ratified after a long and acrimonious scramble; and over twenty millions of American sons and daughters vociferated a grateful shout, and all the civilized world echoes the enrapturing blast, while the minstrelsy of the skies reverberated the tidings in transporting notes. But this did not complete the work; still the smoking embers were there through the building was consumed. The wiry twist of the viper was there, though he had been robbed of his poisonous fangs. The hideous monster lay palsied in death though his frightful ghost haunted to the place. Slavery still lingered though under the guise of proscriptive enactment. Its paws were everywhere visible but its weapons were sheathed as in institution. Therefore the contingencies growing out of common life necessitated further legislation; and the sequence was another step—the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill.<br /><br />The history of this organization is so well known, with the dramatic part <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrew-Johnson" target="_blank">Andrew Johnson</a> played in the scene, that I think a review of its wax and wane unnecessary and superfluous. I may say, however, that the most important benefit which accrued from the Freedmen’s Bureau was, that it taught the National Legislature that the rights of one man could not be entrusted to another and be kept unpolluted and inviolate. That doctrine has, and ever will prove itself to be the mere jargon of fanaticism. Man alone is the depository of his own rights and immunities; and for him to delegate them to another is but to consign them to the funeral pile; name it the Freedmen’s Bureau if you chose, or anything else, but it is slavery in the close. The blood of a million of men, as noble as any that ever swayed a sceptre, cried from a thousand battle-fields for the grant of a higher boon than the Freedmen’s Bureau to the negro. I also reckon in this count the Southern white men as dying for freedom too, for they were the negative of the positive result.<br /><br />The next step taken by Congress was the establishment of civil rights, or the adoption of what is known as the Civil Rights Bill. This bill was intended to secure to the negro all the rights known in the range of jurisprudence, and rightly interpreted would have, in my opinion, carried with it every right commonly termed political; but the judiciary construction it received whittled it down to little, if any more than giving evidence in court. And while a regular caravan of petitmaitre Judges through the country, unknown to either fame or legal lore, true to their great prototype, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Roger-B-Taney" target="_blank">Chief Justice Taney</a>, were pronouncing the bill unconstitutional and revolutionary, and the newspapers were gasping and going into death-heaving paroxysms, and their readers falling into appalling convulsions over it, the benefits which actually accrued from it were so worthless that it often reminded me of an old legendary story concerning a mountain being once in great labor merely to give birth to a mouse. The most noisy windmill, strange to say, too, in all the nation against the measure, was Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, who was elected to his exalted position solely upon the assurance of his friendship for the negro. Yet he deserted them and the party which elected him, in a most dastardly and servile manner. But for the treachery of this Tennessee Nero, the public heart would have never been half so poison; and thousands who are dead and sleeping in premature graves would now be living and enjoying the blessings of civil liberty, and augmenting the treasures of our growing Republic.<br /><br />Nevertheless, it seems to be the order of Providence to purge all reformatory schemes by carrying them through the fires of persecutions. Even Heaven itself cannot be entered without great tribulations. Opposition appears to be the counterpoise that secures equilibrity of action, the balance-pole of steadiness and uniformity. The strength of the negative increases the force of the positive. Persecute a man and he is sure to go up, because God comes to his relief. The same holds good with nations and races.<br /><br />The wars of David prepared a tranquil reign for Solomon. The bloody reign of Queen Mary paved the way for the triumph of Protestantism under Queen Elizabeth. The national scathings which all Europe received from the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte caused the establishment of the treaty system, and taught nations to settle their feuds by negotiation. The tyrannical treatment of Great Britain to the Colonies evoked the declaration of Independence, and gave to the world a country before whose glory the brightest government that ever saw the sun would pale. In the manner did the stormy and furious administration of Andrew Johnson prepare a new era for the administration of Gen. Grant. Every artifice of this chief aim of the nation turned in favor of the race whose blood he tried to suck, even to his effort to beguile that great man, John Mercer Langston. Vic bonus semper patrium decus est.<br /><br />The next step taken by Congress was the most spasm-producing of all, viz: permission for all men in the ten revolted States to assist in their readjustment to the National Goverment, by the use of the ballot. But while this measure was the bitterest of all the other pills, the public mind was somewhat in a convalescent state to receive it, owing to previous enactments which had produced such a newspaper cholera-morbus in the land.<br /><br />Nevertheless, the Secretary of Old Nick must have made a new requisition for stationery, if he pretended to keep a record of all the damns disgorged over the Reconstruction Acts. Against reconstruction as a right invested in Congress, there could be no doubt, and the thing itself was indispensable, ex necessitate rei. The rupture of secession had to be healed by the unity of action of some sort, and the rejection of the Johnson policy, subordinate the question to the National Legislature, and every sane man in the land knew it, and had the negro been passed by the work would have gone on without an if, or and, the crossing of a t, or the dotting of an i, would not have been asked for, more or less; but any act tending to incorporate his rights, in the category of those accorded to other American citizens, was a sufficient cause for raising the hue and cry, which almost generated another state of intractableness, that had not found a counterpart since the war closed.<br /><br />Mr. Calhoun in the United States Senate, taking occasion to animadvert upon the Declaration of Independence, audaciously stated, in the face of the enlightenment of his day, that so much of that sacred instrument as declared all men born free and equal, “was the most dangerous doctrine of all political errors.” And from these and kindred remarks from the great proslavery Mogul, originated that frightful buncomb productive of so much mischief in the land, viz: This is a white man’s government! The same parity of reasoning as lead to such conclusion in this country, could, with as much propriety, proclaim this a white man’s world; and yet out of the thirteen hundred millions of human beings living upon the earth not more than three hundred and seventy millions are white, leaving nine hundred and thirty millions composed of other colors; and by the same parity of reasoning, doomed to serfdom and then to devildom. Sed Gloria, Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto, for the falacy of such a dogma. Besides, the logic of events condemns it, as evinced in the history of all nations where caste or race has been the pretext for withholding human rights.<br /><br />I might pause here to adduce extracts and references to prove the justice of Congress and stigmatise its opponents; but they would be too multitudinous for an occasion like this. Suffice it to say that the Reconstruction Acts proved to be all that the most sanguine could have desired. It required an act of Parliament to prevent a set of barbarous men once in Great Britain, from plowing horses by their tails. The act necessitated harness and they were accordingly procured; this allowed the tails to be used as a weapon of defense, in warding off blood-suckers and switching away their tormentors.<br /><br />The reconstruction measures had an analagous bearing on the negro. He was used as the tail of the nation to drag the burdens of taxation and other onerous loads, while fettered by every species of unconscionable restrictions. Had the negro been invested with his sacred and inalienable rights when the almost uncurdled blood of the revolutionary sires were appealing for even-handed justice for all men, and Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and other far-seeing patriots were trembling with fear, at the prospective rupture that slavery was destined to breed in the nation, there would never have been any secession, any Southern Confederacy, any war; nor would the country to-day be groaning under the burdens of taxation, or the oscillations of an unsettled currency. And instead of the country being scarred and disfigured by war arsenals and forts, to-day the rose and magnolia of peace and harmony would be blooming in eternal juviniscents.<br /><br />But I have strayed from the point. The Reconstruction Acts caused such a flutter amongst politicians, and so many technical points, constitutional clauses, legislative acts, and judicial decisions, were hurled at them, that Congress feared, as did thousands, that they might be, after all, a creature of time. Congress also had seen by this time the benificent working of them; that black men loved the government with all its faults; that untrammeled they would vote for its perpetuity and indivisibility; that they were as grateful for favors as any other people, and consequently must be a people and not monkeys. They had also seen that black men could represent a constituency, fill high positions, and in short, that they possessed all the virtues and vices of white men. These things, and the voices of God and reason, induced them to place this boon beyond the reach of the sacrilegious hand that might one day attempt to wring it from him. Besides, there were several Northern States whose constitutions debarred the negro from voting, notwithstanding the negro had rushed to arms when those States were beleagured and sacrificed himself upon their flaming altars in defense of their firesides and the green graves of their sires. Thus step by step the nation strode from January, 1863, when the immortal Lincoln issued his emancipation proclamation, and hades gaped, the ground trembled, Heaven rejoiced, and ten thousand times ten thousand shouts rent the skies. But there was one thing still needful. This grand superstructure, with its gigantic proportions, intended as a temple for humanity, had gradually rose higher and higher, its foundation was laid in the Thirteenth Amendment, and built up with the stone and cement of the Fourteenth, but the crowning capstone was to be found in something purer still. The Fifteenth Amendment was consequently proposed to the Constitution and received the required sanction of both houses of Congress. The ratification of three-fourths of the States then being necessary to make it a part of that instrument, it was accordingly sent to them, and, I am proud to inform you, that the requisite number gave their adhesion to make it the supreme law of the land. Gracias agamus Domino et deo nostro. To-day, all honor to Heaven, and thanks to the American people, we stand before the majesty of the law of the peers of any other class of citizens. America is redeemed. Our rights have been emancipated as well as our bodies and guaranteed by the breath of God’s approval. Our sum is no longer beclounded. Our atmosphere is no longer contaminated by the miasma of proscription. All men, regardless of race, color or previous servitude, can execute their will by the ballot, as lightning does the will of God. Thanks to the American, to the German, to the Irishman, and to every naturalized foreigner who aided in the work. May their lives be happy, may their deaths be precious.<br /><br />There is an old legend which says that St. Patrick, many years ago, blessed the land of Ireland, and since then not a serpent has been known to crawl upon Irish soil, nor can one exist on the Erin Isle. The Fifteenth Amendment is the St. Patrick of this once accursed, but now blessed country. Never will another slave breathe the breath of life where the sovereignty of our country treads. It is the great peace-maker of a nation which for years has been rocked in the cradle of revolution and commotion. Never will there be another war to blast the glory of our country over the civil or political status of a race of people. The civil cruise of oil, and the political barrel of meal, shall never cease to yield a supply. The sun of prosperity, and the waxing moon of our national grandeur stood still, as in the days of Joshua, while our nation was warring with oppression, and battling for liberty. We have gained the prize; so now let them speed their way—the fight is over, and the victory is won. Let comets bear the tidings to distant worlds. And the sun beams transport the elated visage in photographic splendor of a free people to all planets in his vast domain. Tell the news to Mercury, to Venus, to Mars, to the Asteroids. bear it on Jupiter and Saturn. Whisper it in the ears of the Satelites. Celestial bells chime your music. Minstrelsy of the skies raise your notes. And thou, O, great organ of Heaven, lend them harmony. Let dying Saints, tell it to our fathers who prayed for this day but died without the sight, when they enter the portals of glory; speaking of its benefits per amnia seacula seaculorum.<br /><br />I was reading this afternoon an ode on the Amendment, by Prof. Vashon. The following profoundly impressed me:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Enriched by heroes’ blood,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The trees the fathers planted now bear fruit,</span></div>
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The opposing forces to its spread are mute.</div>
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A human brotherhood</div>
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Finds now its sanction in a nation’s law,</div>
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Clothing with consecrated awe</div>
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All of its sons, whatever their race or creed.</div>
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God bless our Congress for its noble deed!</div>
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God bless the ratifying States!</div>
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Whatever of glory yet awaits</div>
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To bless them in the coming days,</div>
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Naught can be theirs to eclipse the praise</div>
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Already due,</div>
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For that they stood</div>
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With gallant hardihood,</div>
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Unto their fathers’ faith and grand profession true.</div>
<br />Where is the heart that can be emotionless and ungrateful while the muses are gushing forth sweeter pæans than ever greeted Apollo’s ears. Slavery left us so indigent that we did not know our names; we had none, except boy and gal, or fellow and wench. But civil liberty brings us not only John Do, but Rev. Mr. Do, Hon. Mr. Do, Dr. Do, Col. Do, and very soon I will trust will give some military hero the title of Gen. Do; while our females are rising, and have risen to the dignity of ladies.<br /><br />This Amendment in as ensign of our citizenship, the prompter of our patriotism, the bandage that is the blind-fold Justice while his sturdy hands holds the scales and weighs out impartial equity to all, regardless of popular favor or censure. It is the ascending ladder for the obscure and ignoble to rise to glory and renown, the well of living water never to run dry, the glaring pillar of fire in the night of public commotion, and the mantling pillar of cloud by day to repel the scorching rays of wicked prejudice. Hereafter the machinery of our government will be run by the consent of the governed, and its symmetrical operations will constitute an axiomatic weapon, for all the oppressed nations on earth to battle with for civil liberty. It is a national guarantee, as fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners. It is the chariot of fire that is to roll us beyond the reach of our persecuting Ahabs and perfidious Jezebels. It is to be the angel in the firey furnace warding off the burning flames. The golden debris from the high bluffs of this most pre-eminent country of all in the world, shall be washed by the currents of our sweet waters to the low lands of tyrant-ridden nations, to enrich their soil by spreading over them a free alluvium. The Fifteenth Amendment is the shining robe covering in immaculate grandeur the nude and exposed parts of our country, which hitherto made her fragile and vulnerable before enemies. It is the star-decked diadem covering her brow; the interjector of royal blood through every vein. It is the towering spire reaching uppermost of all national virtues, and will be like the pole to the needle, attracting men from every plain and every shore.<br /><br />Our government to-day is the school-house of the world; here unborn children will come from distant climes to learn civil law and judicial equity, and will return to shake Kingdoms in the face of despots, and trample in the dust tottering thrones, and beat or grind Imperial maces to powder.<br /><br />The noblest specimens of humanity in all countries were mysteriously planted here, by the husbandman of the Universe, for what purpose remained a mystery for ages. We saw an unparalleled interblending of races and colors here, but its purport was a secret. But having finished our national education and receiving our diploma, in the Fifteenth Amendment, we are now prepared to send blood-kin representatives to all nations, to preach equal rights and commence the work of republicanizing the world. The Englishman can return to England and while he may exclaim Long live Victoria, noble mother, affectionate wife, inestimable lady, a good citizen, generous neighbor, &c., yet he may omit “Queen,” in keeping with the instincts of his adopted country, and proceed to teach his brethren the transcendent advantages of republican institutions also, that equality of rights and parity of rank is the law of God, and ultimately must be the rule of nations.<br /><br />The Irishman, frenchman, Chinaman, Japanese, the Hottentot, if he is here, can all return to their native lands and be to them what Wendell Phillips has been to his native land, “great reformers.” All nations will, sooner or later, have missionaries from here, of their own blood and dialect, preaching manhood equality.<br /><br />The sons of Africa, too, can unfettered, untrammeled and unhindered, go to the homes of our forefathers and preach a free religious, civil and political gospel. I know some colored men chafe when they hear an expression about going to Africa. I am sorry I find no term in the vocabulary that will represent them milder than fool; for they are fools. The only reason why Africa is unpopular and ignored by some colored men is because of its unpopularity among th whites. It is the greatest country in natural resources under heaven. But without reviewing its inexhaustible treasures, and how God is holding them in custody for the civilization of the negro, I merely desire to remark that some of our leading men may blur and slur at Africa till their dooms-day arrives. But God intends for us to carry and spread enlightenment and civilization over that land. They are ours and we are theirs. Religion, morality, economy, policy, utility, expediency, duty and every other consideration makes it our business. We must, we shall, we will, we ought to do it.<br /><br />The most famous King that ever sat upon the throne of Babylon, about twenty-five hundred years ago, had a dream, well known to every Bible reader. The Prophet Daniel was its interpreter. The dream consisted in seeing a huge statue or image, and if my recollection serves me rightly, its configuration was a head of gold; breast and arms silver; belly and thighs brass; legs and feet a mixture of iron and clay. This image symbolized or represented mighty kingdoms and powers, but a stone was cut out by God’s own manipulation which grew to the magnitude of a mountain. it smote the image, ground it to powder, and continued to enlarge till it filled the whole world. The metalic substances are supposed to symbolize Kingdoms, as just stated; but the stone, the miraculous advent, reign and triumph of our Lord Jesus Christ over his enemies, principalities and powers. But I do not believe, nor do I accept, this mystiferous and airified construction. Why secularize one and spiritualize the other? Daniel, the interpreter, emphatically says: “In the days of these Kings, (meaning the toe Kingdoms, growing out of the broken fragments of the old Roman Empire,) shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom,” &c. What can that mean but those petit and strong powers of Europe over which the Roman sceptre was once swayed; and when was the old Roman Empire in a state to represent its toe relation more than when the Declaration of Independence was first promulgated in this country? That stone, in my opinion, is the American Continent, cut out under God by the sleepless vigilance of Columbus’ discovery, had grown to a hill when she gained her independence, and is now a mountain by virtue of the Fifteenth Amendment; and that she will continue to increase till her republican institutions shall dethrone the monarchs of every clime and fill the world with equal rights, and emblazon upon the banners of all nations that truth which has defied despots and made monarchs tremble for near six thousand years: “God of one blood made the people of all nations.” Much has been said during the last ninety years about our Grand Republic, but until now it has been theoretical only. Let us go to work and practicalize our part of its mission, by seeking our own elevation and the elevation of our kindred. Let the Star Spangled Banner flaunt through every breeze and float over hill-top, while we, its sable defenders, shall glory in the principles it represents. Let earth and Heaven now join in the chorus and sing in symphonic strains, “The year of Jubilee is come, return ye ransom children home” to the embrace of a generous government; and then with louder notes swell the anthem, “Sound the loud timbrel over Egypt’s dark sea, Jehovah hath triumphed, his people are free.”<br /><br />As fire and music are incorruptible, so neither can this crowing law of our land ever be polluted to aught but manhood equality and manhood rights; the dream cherished by some that the time will come when this sacred section of our constitution will be nullified and made void, is a wild hallucination that will never be realized; but, to the contrary, every day will weave it more and more dear to the American people, while the rising youths will value it as the ornament to our country; the sons of its bitterest opponents will one day thrill thousands in its laudation. When the green turf shall mantle our graves, the history of this Amendment will be sought and read by millions as the noblest act of justice ever done a people. The posterity of its opposers will sit down with distorted brows and regret their fathers’ folly, and apologize for the crude ideas which influenced their ancestors.<br /><br />Whatever distinction shall clothe the negro through any future day will be attributed to the workings of the Fifteenth Amendment, and he shall be the lily in the valley and as the rose of Sharon, in the high march of our national splendor. If ever Angels congratulated Saints, I fancy that Gabriel, the Arch Seraph, congratulated our heavenly trio, Columbus, Washington and Lincoln, on the day of its ratification, for the grand result of the Fifteenth Amendment and its concomitant blessings.<br /><br />But I must close; to say more, unless better said, about our transcendent victory, would be to tarnish its grandeur. I wish I could congratulate ourselves on having aided, in a greater measure, the noble cause. poor Georgia is in the whirl-pool of commotion yet, we are still licking the file to make sleazy our tongues, in other words, darting straws against the wind, or straining at gnats and swallowing camels, and accomplishing no good under Heaven, saving making ourselves fools and going to hell.<br /><br />Political jealousies and disappointed ambitions have given us more trouble than anything else, yes! more than all our opponents combined; though it has been peculiar to men in all ages to grow intensely bitter over blasted aspirations. Some of our ablest leaders, in other days, have caused a breach to be made in our ranks, which ought to be speedily remedied if such is in the province of human genius. Archimides did demand only a spot on which to stand to move the world, with sea and land, cried the ancients. The Christian on his bended knees is mightier than Archimides, responds the modernists. Is there no one mightier than the sages of reconstruction who can contend with our troubles and bring order out of our confusion and chaos? If there be, would that he could speedily be found; our troubled sea and contentious land-marks must be removed—the sooner the better.<br /><br />In conclusion, let me say, let there be no more hostility between Democrats and Republicans about personal liberty and over human rights; let them bury the bone of contention and shake hands of greeting over the glorious result—a cosmopolitan nation.<br /><br />Honor to the United States Congress!<br /><br />Honor to the friends of Liberty!<br /><br />All honor to the God of Justice!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; letter-spacing: 0.293333px;">Turner, Henry McNeal. </span><span style="background-color: #fafafa; letter-spacing: 0.266667px;">A Speech on the Ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment</span><span style="background-color: #fafafa; letter-spacing: 0.293333px;">. The Henry McNeal Turner Project. (1870, April 19). </span></span><a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/04/a-speech-on-ratification-of-fifteenth.html">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/04/a-speech-on-ratification-of-fifteenth.html</a></span></div>
HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-52813373456062897262019-04-16T08:48:00.001-07:002019-04-16T11:18:03.546-07:00National Colored Convention Speech<iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D9owLLUmVNE4v3r735bMIWXU_W8fK6vY/preview" width="640"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>National Colored Convention Speech</b><br /><br />Macon American Union: January 29, 1869<br /><br />Gentlemen of the National Convention:<br /><br />I do not regard this unexpected honor, so much as a compliment to my personal worth, as a recognition of the constant labors I have endeavored to perform for several years in the cause of equity and justice, and the acknowledgment of the intrinsic worth of my noble constituents in the State of Georgia.<br /><br />No convention of colored men possessing such an army of talent and literary worth, ever met upon the American continent before. In its composition we have the inestimable pleasure of seeing the Minister, the Lawyer, the Doctor, the Statesman, the Artisan, the Farmer, indeed all the professions are represented, from College Presidents down to the commonest occupation.<br /><br />To be ungrateful for such an honor would be an unpardonable crime. I shall endeavor to discharge the high duties of my office, as impartially as my abilities will enable me. You, I hope, will recognize the importance of being orderly, and exhibiting that high sense of characteristic dignity, which should always prevail in an intelligent assembly. Gentlemen will remember they are being watched by Congress, and the Nation. Your words are not merely to float off upon the wavy vibrations of the atmosphere, and thus be swallowed up, and lost in oblivion, but they are to be reiterated by the broad mouth of the public press and weighed in the scales of the public mind.<br /><br />The cause for which we have met is more than noble; our object is divine, and God will crown it with success, sooner or later. Manhood rights is all we want, South, North, East and West. And it will not be long before the fossilized Democrats of this country, will see humanity recognized and clothed with all its God-given rights, kick and brawl as they may. The scepter of equity is but the sword of justice. And every man in America must acknowledge it as the mace of God, and Heaven’s thunder-bolt hurled against oppression.<br /><br />Again thanking you for the honor conferred on me, in being selected to preside over your temporary deliberation, I wish to inquire the further pleasure of the Convention.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; letter-spacing: 0.293333px;">Turner, Henry McNeal. National Colored Convention Speech. The Henry McNeal Turner Project. (1869, January 29). </span></span><a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/04/national-colored-convention-speech.html">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/04/national-colored-convention-speech.html</a></span>HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-25399135661494085862019-04-16T08:44:00.000-07:002019-04-16T11:24:47.564-07:00The Eight Hour Work Day Bill<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Eight Hour Work Day Bill</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Atlanta Constitution: September 9, 1869<br /><br />Editor of the Constitution: The following is a part of a speech I was preparing to deliver before the Legislature, on my eight-hour bill, now pending before the House of Representatives. You will discover it is not more than half completed, several of my strongest points had not been reached. But when I learned that the House intended to override our Constitution, and vote me ineligible, I stopped the further preparation of my eight-hour defense, expecting not to be able to deliver it. But I submit these few thoughts to such as may wish to sustain the bill when it comes up. Though I doubt is either House is far enough advanced to consider this matter as it should be, and act upon it intelligently.<br /><br />Very respectfully,<br /><br />H. M. Turner<br /><br />The Ineligible<br /><br />-- --<br /><br />Mr. Speaker: The bill before this House, which I had the honor of introducing a few days ago, may, from slight attention, appear to some gentlemen on this floor quite amusing, if not ridiculous. But I desire, in paving my way to a practical consideration of the subject, to state an already familiar fact, that this is an age of progress, an age of improvement, an age of great moral and political ideas; yes, may I not in candor say, the vanguard age of the world. For since the day when the umbrageous curtain of moral depravity…..to the appalment of earth and the astonishment of Heaven, man’s dimless intellectual faculties down to the present, no brighter day has ever dawned upon the world’s great drama than the one in which we live. The resources of the mind are contending with the blind fetters of stupidity and human genius clamors in the articulutive (sic) notes of all languages and tongues for releasement from the chains of ignorance. Thus, the crooked is being made straight and the hitherto rough is being made smooth, the wrongs of ages is being righted, and false notions though hoary with years, are hourly crashing to the ground, and vanishing like vapor before the rising sun.<br /><br />The question under consideration may be considered a novel one in this State, if not in most of the Southern States, and yet, I assume that there is not a question now engrossing the attention of our public men of both, or either party, that embraces more truth, more facts, and more good solid reason why it should meet with universal sanction, than this seemingly trite and simple question, viz: “Shall a man work himself to death to live?”<br /><br />I feel a confidence in the ultimate triumph of the measure incorporated in the bill now pending for discussion. Why? Because it is no new question, no utopian dream, no fanciful idea to lull the energies of the toiling masses. It is to-day, a grand national fact, embodied in the statute laws of our present enlightened Congress. In the first place, the passage of this bill is asked for as an experiment in our legislation. It ought, at least, to have a trial. It can do no harm, but may accomplish much good. The working men of the State ask for its passage, not so much as a peremptory rule, as the recognition of a principle. They feel as I know, that the labor of one-third part of a day, (or twenty-four hours, if you chose) ought to be sufficient to give daily bread, and keep the world industrially moving. They believe, fully that the experiment will not only result in their advantage, morally, socially, and intellectually…….but that the interest of capital, as represented by employers will be benefited in the end.<br /><br />A very potent reason for the passage of this bill, is, that there may be a uniform standard through the State governing manual labor, and manufacturing employees. In most of the States, ten hours is regarded as a days work. But I find by consulting Irwin’s Code, that there is no ten-hour rule to apply even to our public works. Section 1873 most positively declares the hours of labor shall be “from sun rise to sunset,” except the time allowed for meals, with the boss may limit to his own discretion. And without impugning the honesty of the motives of the framers of the law, I am forced by every philosophic consideration to pronounce such a statute as brutal and as inimical to freedom and happiness of the laborer, as the worse forms of slavery ever were. Custom, however, in several districts of our State has, by common consent, fixed the hours of a day’s work, ranging respectfully from eleven to twelve, and from sunrise to sunset, and in the winter season from day dawn to night dawn. So adverse are these customs that in cases where a man has been engaged to work for another by the day, without a contract specifying the precise number of hours, he is obliged in the event of a controversy, to place experts on the stand to prove what is the usual practice in the locality where he has been employed. – This bill obviates the most onerous difficulty.<br /><br />The law regulating the interest on money in cases where no specific rate has been agreed upon is in many respects analogous. The term of eight hours has been fixed upon, because while it is the national tenure of laboring hours, it is also the healthful or hygienic limitation of a day’s labor, wherever this rule is habitually violated or exceeded, the man’s life is shortened, and he suffers mentally and morally as well as physically. The demand for the laborer and mechanic not to be required to work more than eight hours each day, is supported by unerring instinct and by the weightiest consideration of expediency, justice and the hitherto premature decadency of humanity. I furthermore find myself sustained by a number of able writers and philosophers of unquestionable ability in this proposition. Cresy’s Encyclopedia of Civil Engineering, chap. ix. “ on Mechanical agents,” page 1087, has the following declaration, to-wit: “ By the term daily labor, is meant the work performed during twenty-four hours, the effective duration of which is only a portion of that time, the remainder being employed in rest and taking meals. Animals of all kinds require that their work should be moderate and regular, and the machine which the drive or put to motion should never call forth more exertion than is natural for them. The limit of this action is indicated by the lassitude which the mover evinces, and which may term the DAILY FATIGUE.”<br /><br />Daniel Bernassali imagined that the degree of fatigue was always proportioned to the action which produced it so that whether the man was employed in walking, carrying a load, drawing or pushing, working at a windglass, or raising a weight, he always produced with the same degree of fatigue, the same quantity of action, and consequently, the same effect, and that the daily labor of a man estimated as raising 1, 72(6/8), 000 pounds one-foot high. This estimate would be equal to 60 pounds raised that height every second when his daily labor was eight hours only.<br /><br />William J. Rankin McQuorne, Professor of Civil Engineering in the University of Glasco, in an able article contributed by him to the Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 14, page 417, says: “The mechanical daily duty of a man or beast is the product of three quantities – the effort, the velocity, the number of units of time per day during which work is continued. It is well known that for each individual man or animal, there is a certain set of valves of these three quantities, which make the product of a daily duty, a maximum, and that any departure from these valves diminishes the daily duty.” The article from which I am quoting, concludes thus: “The past time of working per day for man and all animals, is one third part of a day, or eight hours, a conclusion in accordance with tested experience.” This view is also adopted by a contributor to Appleton’s American Encyclopedia, Article Mechanic’s, vol. II, page 327. “A Man acting by muscular power or weight, and quadrupeds, are animate motors moving powers. The best continued practical working effect of animate motors is obtained when the working hours do not exceed one-third of the twenty-four.”<br /><br />When…..performed by working men of mechanics, the average term of day labor is but eight hours. In demonstration of this assertion I will state that iron moulders in the State of New York, whose work is of this description, make eight hours the rule. In the mines of the Pacific coast, and the Sierras of that region, the mines far distant from physicians, and forced to adopt the best precautionary means for maintaining health, have, by common consent, agreed upon the eight-hour rule.<br /><br />This fact, is warranted by the severest experience, led by the General Assembly of California in February, 1866, to pass the bill defining eight hours to be the period of a legal day’s work. In Australia, also, universal experience has led to the establishment of the same rule. But let us adduce a few examples: Elisha Burritt, the learned blacksmith of Worcester, Mass., assigned for himself the same time for labor, and around who brow clusters grander results for a measure or a habit pursued though a triumphant life. Chevaller Brunsen, of Germany, has also said that eight hours were sufficient for a day’s work.<br /><br />The marching time for armies is also thus limited, from 12 to 17 miles being the distance made day by day; whenever forced marches are had, straining out by a most vigorous effort 40 or 50 miles a day. Long periods for rest and recuperation must ensue, or a large part of the army will be disabled by sickness. The Encyclopedia Britannica makes a similar declaration in respect to the progress made by caravans. It says, (see articles on caravans) from seven to eight hours a day seems to have become a usual day’s journey for caravans, so that, estimating the slow and unwieldy gait of a camel at two and half miles an hour, the average rate of travel would be from 17 to 20 miles a day. Tradition, if I may not call it reliable history, informs us that Solomon, when he was building the Temple of the Most High God, promulgated a decree for the men employed upon that great work to observe, as follows: “Eight hours shall be dedicated to labor, eight hours to rest, recreation, refreshment, and the worship of Jehovah, and eight hours for sleep.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Let us next notice some of the customs in several of the European and Asiatic countries, which I will do as concisely and as pointedly as time will allow me. But before proceeding to this historical review, allow me to state that the framer of our beings never intended that man, under any circumstance, should wear and toil out every moment of his existence for a little bread to eat, and a few garments to cover his nudeness. This is a false idea handed down from one generation to another, by men who chief pride and ambition is to acquire wealth, though it be at the sacrifice of health and of life. If men would think more and work less, he would be bettered in all respects ten times more rapidly than it is. The trouble is, we absorbed the intellectual in the physical, instead of the physical in the intellectual.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; letter-spacing: 0.293333px;">Turner, Henry McNeal. The Eight Hour Work Day Bill. The Henry McNeal Turner Project. (1869, September 9). </span></span><a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/04/the-eight-hour-work-day-bill.html">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/04/the-eight-hour-work-day-bill.html</a></span></div>
HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-21635265503787067992019-04-16T08:34:00.003-07:002019-04-16T11:19:23.165-07:00The Colored Men and the Draft<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Christian Recorder: August 29,1863</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>*Shared by Thomas H.C. Hinton from the Washington National Republican, August 18, 1863, as recorded by a writer called "D."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>I took occasion on Sunday morning to attend the Israel M. E. (colored) church, near the Capital, and hearing a sermon most appropriate to the times, by Rev. H. M. Turner, the pastor. I felt constrained to make a sketch of the same for publication, especially as some of the speaker’s thoughts, with reference to the people of his own color, are peculiarly happy at this time.<br /><br />The speaker selected as a text, the following words: “I will hear what God the Lord will speak; for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints; but let them not turn again to folly.”—85th Psalm, 8th verse.</i><br /><br />These words, said the speaker, were written just after the children of Israel were delivered from the seventy years’ captivity in Babylon. Having felt the judgments of God, that people were now willing to hear what God would speak to them. They had suffered years of captivity with all its degradation, toil, and wo, and they were thus sufficiently humiliated to become willing to listen to God’s voice. In times of trouble we have many advisors. Some will tell you this will relieve you; others, that will relieve you. But no rule of conduct will give such success as God’s rules. None will lead in the right way, save the mighty word of God. We are prone to follow our own devices, but this is mixed with corruption, and leads us astray. Prone to wickedness, we love that which is false and wicked. Thus we waste our lives in this world instead of looking to God, and following his advice. Turn to God and hear what he had to say, and perfect peace will come.<br /><br />God often sends affliction upon us for our good. Our sick beds, the death of our friends, and the affliction of our bodies are all designed to humble our pride and work for our highest good. So with national chastisements. This great and mighty nation has been full of wickedness. We are being punished. Bloodshed and all the horrors and devastations of war are abroad in the land. It is estimated that over 300,000 souls have gone down to dust during the war. Yet we have not reformed. We are not humbled. Our churches, both white and colored, are even more indifferent than ever amid this dire affliction, while thousands are going down so like grave and to eternal death. What is the matter? The voice of God has not been listened to. All our sorrows are the fruit of sin. We must repent. Individuals cannot be saved without repentance. Nations must repent. The high and mighty as well as the poorest must get down in the dust of humility and repentance before God, or they cannot be saved. We are all disposed to find fault with others, and blame them for our troubles. We are constantly pulling the mote our of our brother’s eye.<br /><br />We must love our enemies. There is too much hatred in this land, and God will never deliver us while we cherish such hellish feelings. Look at this nation. We are hating each other. The dominant, or white race, are hating us, and abusing us, every opportunity, heaping upon our heads indignities of every kind, and even murdering in cold blood, as they did in New York. And we, in turn, have the same revengeful feeling toward the white race. Think you, my brethren, we can ever obtain the favor of God, with the blessings of peace as a nation, while he witnesses such murder in our hearts, as many of us now cherish? We have got to put away these abominations. It is the cause of our troubles. We have been cherishing the feeling of hatred, until we have gone to butchering each other by the thousands. We must love our enemies and pray for them which despitefully use and persecute us.<br /><br />But an affliction has come upon us greater than all others. Many of our people are in mourning over the draft. He felt a wish to comfort them in this sorrow. Hearts of mothers, sisters, and friends were bowed in sadness. Has anything served to humble us more than this? We needed this affliction. The war has gone on for nearly three years, and our people have been enjoying it. Many have forgotten the church of God, and gone away to mix in sin, swearing, and breaking God’s holy day. He (Mr. T.) could speak freely of the draft, as he himself had been drafted. We, as colored people, have been praying for the dawn of this very day. We have even been shouting the year of jubilee, when liberty has been proclaimed to the captive. Just as our prayers are being answered, just as victory is dawning, just as God is about to deliver us, we hear the hoarse voice of murmuring and complaint. You are just like the people of Israel, who, though delivered by the wonderful power of God from Egyptian bondage, murmured at God and his servant Moses.<br /><br />Shall we not take the bitter with the sweet? In all parts of this afflicted country families have been broken—fathers, husbands, and sons have been stricken down, and mourning and desolation have gone into thousands of families. But our race has been free from these afflictions. We have been rejoicing while the whole land has been mourning. Thousands of our people have tasted the precious sweets of freedom. The Colored Churches of this city, in all our meetings, have rung with our hallelujahs and our rejoicings over what God has done for our people. But a short time ago we were full of enthusiasm, and the very arches of heaven rang with our loud hurrahs in our war meetings. Now the scene is changed. Some of our people complain because they are compelled to go and help maintain and preserve our country. Some have even blamed your preacher and others, as the cause of your being drafted.<br /><br />Am I the President of the United States! Can I go to the War Department and give orders! Or perhaps I went to Congress and they passed the enrollment act just to please me. I beg of you, my brethren, not to be so foolish. “Let them not turn again to folly.” He had been made sick when he heard his people, some of whom had themselves been made free by it, say they were opposed to the war! Why, Copperhead Seymour could say no more than that! Our people should all be in favor of the war until our race is free, God shall be honored, and the rebellion put down. Don’t grumble; if you do, you insult God and put an everlasting stain on your posterity. God will surely speak peace when His work, which this affliction is designed to produce, is accomplished. Then the millennium will dawn. Our race, that has been afflicted and down-trodden, shall then stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. For our little privations now, remember that thousands of our race will be free and enjoy their God-given rights. God is already doing more for us than we deserve. Instead, then, of fault-finding, go to Him with hearts of humility and gratitude. Praise Him for what He has done, and give your lives to His service.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; letter-spacing: 0.293333px;">Turner, Henry McNeal. The Colored Men and the Draft. The Henry McNeal Turner Project. (1863, August 29). </span></span><a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/04/the-colored-men-and-draft.html">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/04/the-colored-men-and-draft.html</a></span></div>
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HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-82081490822498970342019-03-29T06:23:00.001-07:002019-05-04T13:32:34.771-07:00Memorial Services: Tribute to the Honorable Charles Sumner<iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uBAOVW3p0wuGUSUfM0-DS_rVgEX_7-2b/preview" width="640"></iframe> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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Hon. Charles Sumner, </div>
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HELD IN </div>
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ST. Phillip’s A. M. E. Church,</div>
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SAVANNAH, GEORGIA.</div>
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March 18th, 1874</div>
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SPEECHES BY </div>
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Hon. H. M. Turner, LL. D., </div>
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Hon. J. M. Simms, </div>
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<br /> <br /><br />Address of Dr. Turner.<br /><br />My friends, we meet to-day to commemorate and mourn the loss of one of the greatest Americans ever born and nurtured upon our world-famed soil, our grief at the loss of Hon. <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S001068">Charles Sumner</a> fins no expression in words, no relief in tears, and no comfort in the sighs of millions. <br /><br />A statesman who stood head and shoulders above any of his day and generation. A scholar who had no superior in legal lore or moral ethics. A philanthropist whose capacious affections and great heart encircled the children of every race, clime, and nationality. A citizen whose character was untarnished, a reformer who stood as a watch tower in the van-guard of a revolutionary host. A gentleman who culture, refinement and urbanity blended with an aristocratic demeanor, singularly constituting him a model among equals. An orator whose chaste diction and flowery eloquence will be the emulation of coming generations.<br /><br />A hero whose war weapons were bloodless missiles, but terribly invincible, and fearfully destructive on the field of combat. <br /><br />A philosopher whose analytical acumen comprehended every phase of human character, and sifted the deeds of kingdoms. <br /><br />A beacon whose flambeau lit up the path of progress and civilization. <br /><br />A cosmopolitan who had no bounds to his generosity, and would have rather been the benefactor of a hottentot than the companion of a prince – but to be short, one of the noblest specimens of humanity of any age, in the history of the world, fell in death from the apex of glory when all that was mortal of Chas. Sumner died. <br /><br />About twenty-three years ago, a tall, spare looking man, crowned with a majestic brow, and presenting the aspects of great natural ability and the highest acquirable attainments, walked into the senate of the United States, possibly to the consternation of many, and after taking the oath of office, sat down in the midst of those he was destined to eclipse both in glory and renown in a few years. In close proximity sat <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=c000332">Samuel P. Chase</a> and <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=h000034">John P. Hale</a>. This trio the constituted the only free soil exponents in the Senate. They were the nucleonic forces of those fearful issues which were in a short time to change the land marks of our country, and baptise the nation with freedom. Up to this time the right of petition was partially denied if it involved the subject of human rights, and those in the Sentae who dared to present them were classed among fanatics, agitators, and the most inimical foes the country had. <br /><br />But for one to so far forget his calling as to attack the wrongs of slavery, was to make himself such an unnatural piece of hybrid monstrosity, that no vocabulary could furnish a name with which to entitle him. <br /><br />The reputation of Mr. Sumner, though small at that time, had nevertheless, acquired sufficient celebrity to indicate his future course in the Senate; therefore, to thwart any mischievous designs on his part to the special institution whose advocates were always exceedingly sensitive, the pro-slavery senators resorted to every conceivable parliamentary strategy to prevent him getting the floor; but in due time he obtained it, and from the day he delivered his maiden speech to the day of his death he was the grand master of the Senate Chamber.<br /><br />In a conversation with Chief – Justice Chase in Washington city in 1869, he told me when only three of them were in the Senate (meaning three Abolitionists) they were pointed out and looked at as wild beasts in a cage, but, said he, “Sumner kept them all busy.”<br /><br />For three quarters of a century the Congress of the United States had never had a fearless champion of liberty. True there had been men there who had assumed timid positions favoring free speech, colonization, &c., but there had never been a man there who took bold grounds in favor of a free country. <br /><br />Mr. Sumner came on the stage of political action, just as <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=w000238">Webster</a>, <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=c000482">Clay</a>, and <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=c000044">Calhoun</a> were passing off. I think he came in the same day Mr. Clay went out, never to return. This was a trio of great men who had long been the bulwarks of what was fast becoming an obsolescent era in the history of our country. For over a quarter of a century their expositons [sic] of the Constitution of the United States, ranked equal to a decision from the supreme court of a nation. But the Missouri compromise, admission of Texas, and the Wilmot proviso, blended with the doctrine of squatter-sovereignty, which were to grow out of the Kansas – Nebraska struggle, was destined, under an over-ruling Providence, to embolden the advocates of liberty, and usher in a brighter dispensation, and thus the cause of liberty required a Sumner – a man like Bonaparte with iron nerves, and a will as defiant as the Word of God – a man whose erudition none could gainsay, but whose gigantic intellect towered above them all. God always raises up great heroes when there is great work to be done, for duty and responsibility must correspond. One of the best evidences of human affairs remaining in status quo, at least for a time, is to see little men coming to the surface. God never places third rate officers to man his vessels when a fearful gale and angry billow are just ahead. <br /><br />When Mr. Sumner was called from the ranks of the private citizen to the Senate without having to serve an apprenticeship in the lower house of Congress, or in the executive chair of his State, any one familiar with the history of nations and kingdoms might have known it was portentous of a gathering action. <br /><br />True, the friends of liberty had able representatives in the persons of Mr. Hale and the late Chief Justice of the United States, but they lacked the dash, the vim, the snap, the dare, the popular defiance and sledge hammer and battle axe ability, and power, commensurate to the emergency of battle, though great men as they undoubtedly were. But in Mr. Sumner all these characteristics and qualities happily blended, and made him the match of all the learned sophists, of all the time serving political weather-cooks, of all the blatten mouth braggarts and bombastic blusterers, of all the wiry tongue rhetoricians and pseudo-logicians, that this or any other country could produce, of all the fabricated fiction, or labyrinthine mazes with which the sharpers of tyranny could festoon their theories. Too noble to do wrong, too great to be mean, too wise to make a blunder, too high to countenance a low act, too solid to be a trickster, too pure to be a politician, too just to be partial, too brave to cower before men or devils, too spotless to be slandered in the most calumnious age the world ever witnessed, armed with the helmet of right, and panoplied with a code of principles, as irreversible as the flowing current of the Mississippi river, he stood out as grand and as majestic before the world as thundering Sinai did, when the shuddering hosts of Israel trembled at its base. A vital amazement an intellectual prodigy, a human creature with superhuman traits, such was Sumner, the man of destiny, molded out of the matrix of heaven by the command of God, to front the reformatory measures born in the middle of the nineteenth century, and well did he do the work assigned. What staggered Hale and disheartened Chase, only fired the soul of the great Sumner.<br /><br />The Southern statesman for years had swayed a scepter of political power over this country, till in many respects they regarded themselves as lords of the manor, but in Mr. Sumner they had an antagonist they were unable to cope with in learning or baffle in argument. But South Carolina the pestiferous State of my nativity, was so bent upon silencing his otherwise impregnable batteries, that she resorted to the bludgeon in the hands of <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000885">Preston S. Brooks</a>. The sequence was, that in May 1856, Mr. Sumner was knocked down in the Senate Chamber, drenched in his own blood, and the skull that enclosed the finest brain in the world was fractured for life, but this was only the harbinger of greater results.<a href="file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/Eulogy%20of%20Charles%20Sumner%20-%20Embedded.docx#_ftn1">[1]</a> While Mr. Sumner was for a short time silent from the brutal effects of a cowardly assault upon his person, the silence was counter-balanced by the thunders of a hundred volcanoes, which spit forth angry, smoke, and seething lava in terrible ebullitions to the consternation of every like ruffian, for the whole North was mad, and even the South was mantled in shame and had to censure her own hero. <br /><br />But the blood of the saints are said to be the seed of the Church, and so it was in this case, the blood of Mr. Sumner proved to be the seed of liberty, for although he so far recovered as to be able to resume his seat in that body, when he returned, he went with a feeble constitution, but a stronger will and a greater soul, where both he and the blood he shed so profusely, plead the cause of the oppressed. From that time till the overthrow of slavery, Mr. Sumner spoke to man but his blood spoke to God, Mr. Sumner marshaled the armies of the nation against the institution of slavery, but his blood marshaled the armies of heaven. <br /><br />The trio of so-called fanatics above referred to, Sumner, Chase and Hale, could not have made the impression in years with the most learned and elaborate arguments that was made in a day after Sumner fell by the fatal-aimed blow of a ruffian, and wallowed in his own blood. <br /><br />Mr. Sumner was no politician, he was every whit a statesman; like Webster, he was an orator, but unlike Webster he was inflexible; like <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=e000264">Everit</a> [Everett] he was a philosopher, learned and sagacious; but unlike Everit, he was an impartial philanthropist, with a heart as wide as immensity. Like Clay, he knew what would serve the people as a temporary panacea, but unlike Clay he made no compromises. Like Calhoun he ransacked the dusty records of ages to glean the assembled wisdom of the world; but unlike Calhoun, he used his knowledge to help the poor, needy, and oppressed, and no to perpetuate a vicious aristocracy at the expense of others of the same blood, and none the better by race. Like Bacon, he reasoned on transcendental theories, to aid the cause of justice and refute the wild heresies of his day; but unlike Bacon, he carried a spotless record of the tomb. Like Fox, he was censured for his course by the same power that gave him elevation; but unlike Fox, Massachusetts bowed at his feet and begged pardon. <br /><br />He was too great to be a politician, for he had no policy, he was as far above political wire-pulling and intrigue, as the heavens are above earth. And yet he was the master politician of the age, because his policy was even handed right. Yes, square right between man and man, founded on the golden rule which was manufactured in heaven, “Do unto to others, as ye would them do to you.”<br /><br />Nor would I have you to understand Mr. Sumner to be some later day spawn or plastic fungus, who like a mushroom, sprang up, and under the afflatus of a constituency, adopted a popular course merely for the sake of office; to the contrary, I have the most masterly argument ever delivered in this country; made by him long before he ever thought of the Senate, which he made in favor of mixed schools. It was really he who opened the schools of Massachusetts to the indiscriminate use of the colored, and broke down the walls of distinction. At that time, too, he was in the flush vigor of a young man, and no position assumed could have been more odious and unprospective (sic). Thus showing, beyond doubt, that he never did cater to public sentiment, if that sentiment was vitiated and contrary to the rule of right. <br /><br />And while he was a friend of all men, a world-wide benefactor, a cosmopolitan in the fullest sense of the term, with inclinations and predilections as impartial as the sun-beams, which fall indiscriminately upon all races and climes. He would, nevertheless, seem to be the special friend of the colored race; yet, he was no more our friend than he would have been of the Jew, the Irishman, the German, the Italian, or the Frenchman, had they been in our condition. Jesus said when he was on earth, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” And again he said, the whole need not a physician but that they are sick. Mr. Sumner did not feel that white men needed his help like the poor negro whose mouths were locked and whose hands were tied, yet, his great abilities were not by any means restricted to our race, for when the nation stood in need of one to champion her cause, measure arms with the diplomats of the world, and vindicate her honor with foreign powers, to whom did she look but to Carles [sic] Sumner? the man who could read and translate the languages of all civilized nations on the globe, the man who understood all treaties, all the international laws and the man above all others in America, who was respected by the great men of every civilized nation in the world. <br /><br />The truth is, Mr. Sumner hated slavery, because he thought it was wrong per se, and subversive of the end, for which his country had been released from British tyranny. White slavery or black slavery were equally obnoxious to him, and on the other hand he believed as both revelation and reason teaches, that the negro was the image of God set in ebony, and in a fair race would win distinction as well as other people. He did not believe in crippling a man and condemning him for being lame, therefore he said give the negro fair play and then if he fails condemn him, but not hamstring you and then ridicule your inactivity. <br /><br />Such is an epitome of the creed of that great statesman, however, as he saw the colored race the most needy, he gave us the most assistance, for he was in deed and in truth our hero – our champion. <br /><br />And while we can name a host of true friends – friends who have been tried and found steadfast and immovable, none more so than his colleague for many years, <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=W000585">Vice-President Wilson</a>, I do not know of any who could measure arms with Mr. Sumner. He began at home in Massachusetts, and although he found no actual slaves there when he mounted the arena of manhood; he found the cold hand of discrimination, and fought till he had driven it out. <br /><br />When he went to Washington he found it the abode of slaves and the den of oppression; he mustered the armies of Jehovah and flayed the monster, for like Hercules he held the poison – fanged viper by the neck till the horrid reptile twitched in death. <br /><br />He fired the hearts of the North on the one side, and of the South on the other, and opened a chasm which could never close till the negro passed through it on his way to Canaan. He, in conjunction with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thaddeus-Stevens">Thaddeus Stevens</a>, <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000405">Horace Greely</a> and others, held the rod over the great<a href="https://papersofabrahamlincoln.org/persons/LI00006"> Lincoln</a>, and whipped him step by step and from corner to corner during the late bloody war, till he issued his world-renown proclamation of emancipation. <br /><br />At the end of the war he with Chief Justice Chase and Thaddeus Stevens at his side, led the crusade against the admission of the South to representation, till the negro had his oath in the court house, and was clothed with the ballot. These being obtained, he turned his attention to the district of Columbia, and crushed out all distinctions between races and colors so completely that any one visiting the national capitol to-day, would be astonished to learn that such a hydra-headed monster ever stalked at large in that beautiful city. <br /><br />When <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrew-Johnson">President Johnson</a> sent <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ulysses-S-Grant">General Grant</a>, who was no statesman or politician at the time, through the South on a tour of inspection, and he (General Grant) returned and reported things all quiet and peaceable between the whites and blacks, it was Mr. Sumner who rose up in the Senate and told the country that the report was white-washed, and so counterbalanced or counteracted the effects of the report as to turn the tide of popular sentiment in favor of those who stood in need of the protection of the general Government. But on no subject did Mr. Sumner display the majesty of a statesman, and dwell in such convincing power as he did on giving the negro the ballot. Here he showed the resources of his exhaustless intellect as no other statesman living did or could. He challenged the world – he met our foes from every clime and of every dialect, he rebutted their objections by quotations from the reformers of all nations, he made the moralists, the poets, the theologians, the jurists, the scientialists, and the axiomatics of every age and clime contribute to this object. He could spare blood to wash the Senate of the United States, and brain-force to deluge the world with ideas. True, he never led a party, but he led the nation – he was greater than a party, besides he lived too far in advance of his contemporaries to lead a party, however noble its aims and commendable its cause; but like a pilot boat he found the channel for the ship of State, and dragged her after him with a slow but a sure glide. <br /><br />Mr. Sumner had no personal relations he could not sever when they stood in the way of duty, for he would fight his personal friends as hard when he thought them wrong as he would his bitterest foes. Nor did he couch before either power or popularity, he cared no more for a President than for a peasant, if he thought them wrong, duty first and friendship second was his motto. He pinched President Johnson so during his treacherous administration that on one occasion the President got tight, and named him personally in a drunken carousal from the steps of the White House. He even frightened President Grant so about <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Haitian-Revolution">San Domingo</a> that he was been afraid to mention the name since.<a href="file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/Eulogy%20of%20Charles%20Sumner%20-%20Embedded.docx#_ftn2">[2]</a> <br /><br />Mr. Sumner was not only a man of the finest theories, but he gave practicalization to all his professions. He professed to be a humanitarian, and he carried it out to the very letter, While he lived in the most superb splendor, in a mansion in which there was nothing wanting in the range of human conception, yet that mansion was as free to the blackest negro as to an English lord. <br /><br />While his high polish and great refinement made him an aristocrat in the eyes of the masses, yet he felt as much gratification in taking a black man by the arm and perambulating the streets, as he would to be in the train of royal pomp. A few years ago, when on a visit to Washington with <a href="https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/simms/bio.html">Mr. Simms</a>, from whom you will hear in a few moments, we had an occasion to visit one of the public buildings in company with Mr. Sumner; and to my astonishment the greatest statesman the sun ever shone upon, walked up between us and locked our arms, and proceeded through the streets and buildings as unconcernedly as if had been in company with his senatorial collegues [sic]; he thought no more of asking a black man to dine at his table, than he did of the whitest man on earth. <br /><br />Mr. Sumner did not live for himself either, he lived to be a blessing to the poor and needy. The lst time I saw his majestic brow and stately person was last spring in Washington, at which time I called upon him to pay my respects as I usually did; our conversation soon turned upon the fight, he waged against the President. I told him, that I like thousands of other colored men in the country; loved him, but could not endorse his rabid fight on the president, though I did not doubt, but the President had faults. Well, he said, “that was natural; but if my attack upon the President does no other good, it will drive him to stand by colored people more firmly, to prove that my predictions were false. But said he, a great many of his pap-fed supporters think they have killed me off, but I am perfectly willing to go down, if the colored people can go up, for I am only living for them now; and I can only hope to see the labors of my life crowned with the passage of the civil rights’ bill, then and not till then, can I feel that the cause for which so much blood have been shed is complete.” (Great applause.)<br /><br />How Christ-like these words, how full of righteousness Mr. Sumner felt years ago, that he was to be one of the chief instruments in the hands of God, of crowning this nation with the diadem of justice. In a conversation between him and myself and several others, who called upon him in 1863, he remarked, “that my blood kindled this fire, (meaning the war,) and when it needed recruiting, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Brown-American-abolitionist">John Brown</a> gave his to rekindle it, and it will be utterly impossible now to extinguish it with compromises.” A great many northern papers at that time was advocating the policy of offering some overtures to the South, and ending further destruction of life on the battlefield. But the last humanitarian act, for which the distinguished Senator labored with such indefatigable devotion, as to merit the praise, the love the honor and admiration of our race forever, was in trying to secure the passage of the Civil Rights’ Bill, and thus abolish all distinctions between races, colors and nationalities, as well as to give his country what few, if any, upon the face of the globe can claim, a code of cosmopolitan laws. In this the great senator rises to a grandeur that will enshrine his name in the affections of men of every clime. Generations now sleeping in the womb of the future, will come forth with richer words and swifter pens to fringe his name with glittering gems.<br /><br />When the kings and queens of earth shall be forgotten or remembered in contempt, and the heroes of the battle field shall no longer be admired, the name of Sumner shall still glow upon the pages of history; and the poet-muse shall weave it into song, while the reformers of all nations will quote his remarks as the preachers of the gospel quote from the sacred scriptures. The only shadow that fell over the dying couch of Mr. Sumner, was the black prejudiced, which had stayed the passage of that bill; for this he had labored for years and waited with patience. I have no doubt but his bludgeon-fractured head and worn-out frame would have died a year sooner, had that bill been passed. It made the soul linger in the body and loth [sic] to quit its hold. He would rise up from a bed of prostration and crawl to the Senate Chamber, to watch his Civil Rights’ Bill. The desire of seeing that bill become a law was a greater stimulant to his shattered constitution than all the medical excitives (sic) known to pharmacology, for he was the unquestionable father of civil rights; it was never thought of till he raised the question. He had even then to educate both colors to its importance and worth. Many colored people at first thought such a measure premature and useless, and, I am sorry to say, I was one.<br /><br />For I never could understand the necessity and indispensability of such a measure being enacted, till I read it in Mr. Sumner’s speeches. In this God made him the schoolmaster of the nation. Thus he comprehended the wants of the negro better than thousands of themselves, and the wants of the country better than any statesman, living or dead, nor did this knowledge or desire desert him even in his dying hour; the aim of his life became the charms of his death. There stood <a href="http://coloredconventions.org/exhibits/show/mobilitymigration1855/delegates/george-t--downing-2">George T. Downing</a>, the President of our Civil Rights Associations for the United States, a man, too, of culture, taste and ability, in the name of his race, to minister to the physical wants of our departing hero. Mr. Sumner looked through Mr. Downing as an astronomer does his telescope, and saw behind him five millions of his race suffering under the effects of civil proscription; and the hero of civil rights then cast his dying eyes to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Frisbie-Hoar">Mr. Hoar</a> and said, “Do not let the Civil Rights’ Bill fail.” Again his life sinks down beneath the turbid waters of death, and all seems still and quiet, for his pulse has refused to beat; but once more he surges to the top, and whispers from the very jaws of death, “Do not forget the bill.” And again he sinks, to rise no more forever. <br /><br />And thus ends the career of the greatest statesman living or dead; dead did I say? O heavens can it be, Charles Sumner dead? – how cold that word, -- is the great Sumner gone? – shall we see his majestic form no more? – is his voice hushed forever? – have we lost our best friend, (God excepted?) – who can fill his place? – shall we ever see it filled? – no, no, no, for the world can only produce one Charles Sumner in a dispensation, never, never will we look upon his like again. O God, but for thee, I should despair to-day and say let me fo too, [sensation and weeping, Mr. Simms leaves the stand to weep.] But I trust his mantle will fall on some of his compeers, and that another shall lead the measures he inaugurated to a full and complete consummation. Congress can only honor him by the passage of this bill, any memorial services in Congress that does not involve the passage of his civil rights bill, will be a farce, a fizzle and a dishonor of the sacred name of Charles Sumner. <br /><br />Among the great men of the world, we reckon the names of Cicero, Caesar, Socrates, Charlemagne, Cromwell, Hamden, Tell, Bonaparte, Burke, Pitt, Fox, Washington, Toussaint, Louverture, Webster, Brougham, and a host of other statesmen, reformers, poets, philosophers, scientists, inventors and benefactors. But high above them all we may hang the name of Hon. Charles Sumner, whose spotless life, whose industrious record, whose great abilities, whose triumphant career, and whose heaven-born principles will only be written when the lightening holds the pen and the azure heavens unrolls the scroll of immensity. Farewell thou fallen hero, -- farewell to thy noble heart, -- farewell Charles Sumner. (Weeping and cheering.)<br /> <br /><br /><a href="file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/Eulogy%20of%20Charles%20Sumner%20-%20Embedded.docx#_ftnref1">[1]</a> On May 22, 1856 Preston S. Brooks physically attacked Sumner as a reaction to an anti-slavery speech. More information about this incident can be found at, <a href="https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/South-Carolina-Representative-Preston-Brooks-s-attack-on-Senator-Charles-Sumner-of-Massachusetts/">https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/South-Carolina-Representative-Preston-Brooks-s-attack-on-Senator-Charles-Sumner-of-Massachusetts/</a><br /><br /><a href="file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/Eulogy%20of%20Charles%20Sumner%20-%20Embedded.docx#_ftnref2">[2]</a></span> “San Domingo” refers to the Santo Domingo or Haitian Revolution.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Turner, Henry McNeal. Memorial Services: Tribute to the Honorable Charles Sumner. The Henry McNeal Turner Project. (1874: Savannah, GA.) <a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/tribute-to-honorable-charles-sumner.html">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/tribute-to-honorable-charles-sumner.html</a></span>HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-17749990236664592672019-03-28T20:04:00.001-07:002019-03-29T07:08:08.670-07:00The Civil and Political Status of the State of Georgia and Her Relations to the General Government <iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zMCEUCvPhhbO-HQMwSJPfEqmIB6jOUGJ/preview" width="640"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA, AND</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">HER RELATIONS TO THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT,</span></div>
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Reviewed and Discussed in a Speech Delivered in the House of Representatives of the Georgia Legislature, Aug. 11, 1870,</div>
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By Hon. H M Turner</div>
<br /><br />SPEECH<br /><br />Mr. Speaker: When the question now before the House first began to be agitated, I had determined to cast my vote against extending our term of service. My opinion was that the time for which we had been elected had expired, and for us to perpetuate ourselves in office was a flagrant usurpation of power, and a public outrage upon the rights of our constituents, that could not be atoned for by any plea of emergency or excused by any sense of justice. Another reason why I intended to cast my vote against this measure was, owing to an eager desire to quit the scrambling arena of politics and enter the quiet field of literature and the general education of my race—a work which I regard far more necessary, if not indispensable at this time, especially since the adoption of the XVth Amendment, the glorious Magna Charta of American liberty, and the passage of the Enforcement Act, than the thankless position of a representative.<br /><br />But since giving this subject a thorough and unbiased examination, I find it is one which not only has two sides, but a subject whose merits and importance demand more than a passing notice. And while I intend to consider a few of them, I shall not promise you an analytical essay on the subject, but I propose to give my reason for changing my views, and the position I shall occupy when my vote is cast, and submit them to you for the enormous sum of nothing.<br /><br />I was elected two years ago, by an overwhelming majority, as one of the Representatives of Bibb county, and summoned by <a href="https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Meade_George_Gordon_1815-1872#start_entry">General Meade</a> to appear in Atlanta, the capital, and proceed to take charge of the State, in common with the Senators and Representatives who were elected in the same way and at the same time. I obeyed the order as you did, appeared at the same time and place ; we each took the oath of our respective office, administered by the same judge We all witnessed the inauguration of our Governor, accompanied with the roar of a hundred guns, elected all the State House officers. United States Senators, ratified the XIVth Amendment, and, after what purported to be a thorough investigation, as to the eligibility of members, passed a resolution declaring all the members present eligible to their seats. We saw the Stars and Stripes unfurled at the mast-head of the old ship of State, and proudly float in the breezes of Heaven. She was fully rigged, manned and ready to sail in the harbor of the Union. When, lo'. suddenly, to our surprise, and to the consternation of the country, a mutiny was raised on board of the ship of State, by reason of a portion of the crew conspiring together, and, with a reckless disregard for the resolution and agreement, made attempts to hurl from the deck a part of the crew on the sole ground of their color, and by the prowess of their number and strength, succeeded in heaving them where the dash of billow and the howl of the storm assumes the vengeance of battle. But, after a long and perilous struggle in the boisterous sea, they were finally picked up by the captain of their salvation, and<br /><br />Bright garlands of immortal joy, <br />Bloomed on every head ; <br />But sorrow, sighing and distress, <br />Like shadows, all are lied.<br /><br />Congress took possession of this tempest-tossed craft, and by the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/41st-congress/session-2/c41s2ch3.pdf">Act of December 22, 1869</a>, carried her softly back to July, 1868, at which time she compelled the mutineers to submit to order, and reinstate that portion of the overboard-thrown crew, and commence de novo. Her masts and spars were re-rigged, her decks remanned and her helm was re-piloted.<br /><br />Whatever delay, therefore, there may be in the arrival of the old Ship of State in the Union, the holding over of officers, the long delay of elections, the perpetuation of crimination and recrimination, of which we are all sick, and the so much desired object of the State being in the Union and under the Constitution, so hateful once, but lovely now, is chargeable alone to the bad faith and treachery of the very parties who now are howling and whining so mournfully over the hideous usurpers of .the Legislature.<br /><br />Sir, if there is anything wrong the blame is not at our door, and when you charge me with it, I most indignantly hurl it back, attended with hissing vipers if possible, in the face of your public meetings to overawe my judgment .<br /><br />We are now, after two years of hard labor, toil and trouble, about to get the old Ship of State fully rigged and manned under the last act of Congress. And if no serious disaster happens to her, she will arrive in the harbor of the Union about the first of December next, safe and sound, which will be the final completion of reconstruction and the capstone of civil liberty in Georgia, if fire-eaters will let good enough alone. But if they do not the last state will be worse than the first.<br /><br />I hope the House will pardon the allegoric allusion just made. I now propose to proceed with a statement of the facts, particularly so far as relates to the organization of this House. When we met here in 1868 we neither exacted the test oath nor the enforcement of the provisions of the XIVth amendment, which the supreme law of the land required; Congress nevertheless admitted our representatives in the Lower House, and the Heart of the nation felt a relief so far as Georgia was concerned. But alas, for the lack of discretion and that stern adhesion of principle, in a majority of members, they turned with ruthless hands and carnivorous hearts, and notwithstanding their resolution declaring all eligible to seats, expelled every man from that body whose face had not been chalked by the God of indiscrimination. Then followed a series of evils, culminating in fearful issues. The moment that act was perpetrated this body became defunct and illegal, the American eagle hovered over it no longer, but stretched her wings and soared aloft, giving a frightful scream, while the deceptive fabric went tumbling down beneath. That body lost its legislative character, and by the effects of its own acts, was changed into a pandemonium, and to cap the climax, admitted persons to seats who are no more entitled to them than I am to a seat in the Senate. Yet these same world-famed reformers talk about usurpation, but it is a singular fact that whenever the devil wants to cut a big swell he generally leaves some back door open. Had these constitutional sticklers waited a few more months and then played their programme, they might have troubled us considerably, but like all horses who run too fast at the start, they soon broke down. Now, let us look at this question fairly and squarely, and in the position I shall assume, I challenge refutation in advance.<br /><br />I deny that we have the right or power to disband this body, call it a Legislature, conclave, or whatever you choose, without disobeying the behests of our constituents, the Reconstruction Laws, and the orders of <a href="https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Meade_George_Gordon_1815-1872#start_entry">General Meade</a>, which became of force when the military power was revived. I go further and say, that our oath of office forbids it—we were sent here to comply with the provisions of the supreme law of the land ; that law was inexorable in its demands for the purgation of that body, as per XlVth Amendment. But we failed to obey it, and thereby rendered our right to legislate questionable at least Congress, however, would have winked at that breach of the law, and let us gone on, had we there stopped ; but no, the fires of an effervescible hope had warmed to animation the frozen vipers which were lying in such a harmless looking posture amid the congelation of loyalty. Then, having neither gratitude in their hearts, nor reason in their heads, proceeded to perpetrate the crime of expelling a fourth of the people's Representatives. This revolutionary measure nearly balanced the General Assembly. That is, it about divided those claiming to be legally elected, and those who were usurpers and illegitimates under the law. Now let us look at the results of this procedure. The moment you ejected the colored members you lost your legal guarantee, and became an eating cancer upon the people of Georgia, in extorting pay for your services. And Congress so virtually held, when she refused admission to our Senators, and, may I not say, re-reconstructed you, and placed a General (overseer) here to enforce the mandates of the nation, with the mild scepter of the bayonet.<br /><br />The Act of December 23, 1869, reconvened us. But, mark you, we did not commence where we left off at on September 3, 1868, but were carried back to the original starting point—to July 4, 1868—and, covered with shame and humiliation, ordered to do our first work over again. And lest we should trifle and become too generous to execute the law, <a href="https://connecticuthistory.org/honor-and-duty-the-life-of-alfred-howe-terry/">General Terry</a> was ordered to do it for us, while we were no more than toys in the hands of a boy!<br /><br />This establishes most conclusively, to my mind, that Congress, while not ignoring all her former legislation in relation to admitting Georgia, did set it aside, and fully ignored all former transactions on our part. And I am sorry that <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/rufus-bullock-1834-1907">Governor Bullock</a> did not have the moral stamina in him to repudiate all the legislation done in the absence of the colored members, by not signing a single bill. I believe, and ever shall, that Congress would have sustained him in it. These are potent and incontrovertible facts, well known to everyone in this House.<br /><br />Will some gentleman please tell me where our Constitution was at this time If we were a legal body, why did not the people of Georgia rise up and shake the Constitution in the face of the President and Congress and defy their General to dictate a course of action for them. Why did you not send for <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/robert-toombs-1810-1885">Mr. Toombs</a>, <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/benjamin-hill-1823-1882">Mr. B. H. Hill</a>, <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/herschel-johnson-1812-1880">Herschel V. Johnson</a>, and other such lights, to expound the rights of a commonwealth, and set forth the grandeur of State Sovereignty in all its touch-me-not prerogatives? Sirs, it does not need a philosopher to explain the reasons why.<br /><br />Premising from the above, if this is not the first legal session of the Legislature, why and where is it to be found? It certainly was not in the sessions of 1868-69, otherwise Congress is composed of a banditti of men non compos mentis, for the act of December 22, 1869, says, to-wit:<br /><br />Be it enacted, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Governor of the State of Georgia be and he is hereby authorized and directed, forthwith, by proclamation, to summon all persons elected to the General Assembly of said State, as appears by the proclamation of George G. Meade, the General commanding the Military District including the State of Georgia, dated June twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, to appear on some day certain, to be named in said proclamation, at Atlanta, in said State; and thereupon the said General Assembly of said State shall proceed to perfect its organization, in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the United States, according to the provisions of this act.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Note the phraseology here, if you please: '' The General Assembly shall proceed to perfect its organization in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the United States, according to like provisions of this act:" not, and according, etc., but according etc. You see there is no new exactions whatever required, but a simple conformity to those previously existing. This, says Congress, in a negative declaration, has not been done; so, go now and do it, you obstreperous and disobedient fellows, for you are not free yet. I am still watching you, and hold you in my grasp, and if you don't obey my injunctions, I will make you do it, with powder and lead.<br /><br />This, in so many simple words, is the language of Uncle Sam. And you may weave around it legal technicalities till doomsday, but you can't change the glaring facts. You might invoke the shades of Erskine, Coke, Bacon, Marshall and Kent, and they could find no other construction than the one I have given.<br /><br />If this is not the first legal session of the Legislature, where are we colored members to find one in which to represent our constituents and proceed to make laws for their protection and security? Do you want us to go to South Carolina or Alabama to find it? As one, I shall not go.<br /><br />I do not deny there have been sessions of a conclave, but where was its legality? Show it to me and I will show you a railroad running to the moon. I offered some bills at our so-called session in 1868, but (wh)ere they came up for final action I had to leave.<br /><br />But, you say, didn't we pay you colored members for your back time, and thereby acknowledge your legal right? Yes; you did. So has many a man been buried in a fine coffin, too, after he was hung, but he was dead, nevertheless. What do my constituents care about your paying me? They sent me here to make laws for their welfare, not to be turned out and paid off as a hush fee.<br /><br />I beg to ask another question here. Have you paid my constituents for the losses they have sustained? Have you paid them for keeping them off the jury for nearly three years, and for the hundreds you have convicted through white juries, poisoned with prejudice, and sent to the Penitentiary, in perfect caravans, or hung for the most trivial charges and false allegations? Have you paid the damages done to the rising youths of our State for not enacting a school bill, as the Constitution peremptorily required, at the first session of the Legislature, and as I hope we will do? Have you paid for that abominable decision which the Supreme Court made under your afflatus, which allows white men to generate their species with colored women, and, however much they may love each other, (for love one another they will,) force them to live a life of adulterous conjugality, and thereby bastard their children and criminate themselves where the purest affections exist ?<br /><br />Have you paid for murdering my bill, offered in 1868, after expelling me, providing <br /><br />a regulation to govern common carriers, thereby compelling colored passengers to pay as much as the whites, then to be thrust into Jim-Crow cars, for white men to insult their wives, blackguard our daughters, and smoke them to death ?<br /><br />Have you paid for not legislating upon that provision of our Constitution which gives the laborer a lien on the property of the employer, subjecting him to being driven away at the end of the year utterly penniless, (as I have seen many,) while the fundamental law lies dead for the want of the breath of legislation?<br /><br />Have you paid for inflaming the public mind, as you did when you expelled the colored members, and for arousing the worst passions that were ever touched by the batteries of hell itself, thereby disarming the negro of his civil and political rights, in the face of the Civil Rights bill and the XIVth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States?<br /><br />Have you paid back the money into the State Treasury which you ruthlessly wrung from the tax-payers of Georgia to pay the pseudo legislators who were called in to fill up the gap made by expelling the colored members?<br /><br />Have you paid back the enormous sums expended in Washington by men whose wives and children were suffering at home, for lobbying there and representing the condition of things here, brought on by the revolutionary measures that I have just enumerated?<br /><br />Have you paid for the lies and abuse which have been told and published by an action which has caused five men to be knocking at the door of the United States Senate from our State, instead of two?<br /><br />I say again, have you paid these things ? If not, never use that argument any more.<br /><br />That is not all. Do you suppose you can, by force, drive out and absolve the people's Representatives from allegiance to their official functions and then pay them off as a commutation for the time arbitrarily wrenched from their hands, while they are invested with the destiny of thousands, and then they be satisfied? Sir, such an analogy is not found in the historic records of the world, and the Representative who would be so mean and sordid as to accept such a panacea deserves the brand of eternal infamy. Against such a hobgoblin the indignant heavens would roll a frown, and shuddering hell would murmur a sullen curse. Yes; even masquerading specters from the depths of perdition would loathe such a name, and refuse his company. Why not pay him for his time as soon as elected, and not bother him with the trouble of being expelled at all? What right has he, as a free man and public functionary, living where a slave dare not show his face, to sell himself for a trivial bribe?<br /><br />What great things has he done, that the people should hazard every comfort and peril of life to elect him to a position, merely to be paid off and quit and go home without doing something? How would I look going to Bibb county and saying to my constituents, well, I am here again. What have you done for us, would be very naturally asked. Well, nothing particularly; only that I was well paid out of your taxes, and then I voted to quit and come home for fear that the Democrats and a few political aspirants would not like it. Sir, if they did not flail me all over the streets of Macon they are undeserving the boon of liberty. And were I to vote this Legislature out of existence as soon as it assumed a standard of legality, without an effort to accomplish something for my people, I would be found by them derelict to duty, false to my oath, and untrue to those who have thus honored me. And every white Republican who votes for it will be equally criminal, for, in our absence, he was only a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.<br /><br />But I know where the secret of this opposition lies. It is not so much whether this is a legal Legislature or not, as it is to form the basis of a criterion by which to test the question of our Senatorial rivalry. In other words, whether Mr. Hill or Mr. Farrow, Mr. Miller or Mr. Whiteley, shall take seats in the United States Senate, and how the eternal Mr. Blodgett shall be kept out; which, and who among them, would take up the cause of the negro and recommend him for positions in Washington. Well, it so happens that I am on friendly terms with all these gentlemen, and, while I do not know what any of them would do in that respect, nor do I care a fig, it is so insignificantly worthless, compared to the bloodshed which men are trying to bring about over it, that I shall not consent to allow that question to be thrown in the scales of my judgment . Let these gentlemen fight it out before the door of the United States Senate. It will have to be done anyhow, if we have a thousand elections this Fall, for they all have certificates from the Governor and the Senate has been styled the white man's heaven anyway, so let them rip and dance out their jig of competition in Washington. But neither political aspirants nor their friends, shall grind my constituents to powder through their wiry intrigues if I can prevent it. I stand here to-day to guard their rights and keep sacred the threshold of their liberties, and will do it; so help me God. And I know of no duty which I could perform so serviceable to my people, as staying the bloody hands of the assassin, which would be unloosed if we have an election this Fall.<br /><br />Were you up to the so-called citizens' meeting the other night; did you hear the members of the Legislature called devils, rascals, villains, hell-hounds, and the powers of the government defied by the greatest lights, too, in the State ; is this the kind of language gentlemen are ranting to overturn the laws, to get on the stump with ; if so, God forbid we should ever have another election. Ah, but someone says that was only a word; what does that amount to? That was a small thing, not worthy of notice. So was the gnat small by which Pope Adrian lost his life; so was the hair small by which a Roman counselor came to his death; so was the grape-seed small that sent Anacreon, the famous Greek poet to his grave; so was the mushroom small that deprived the Emperor Charles the Sixth of his life; so was the grain of sand small that cut the optic nerve of the great Assyrian General's eye, and caused a defeat, which bestrewed the ground with dying men and flowing blood; one infinitesimal particle of small pox, whose smallness would defy the detection of a microscope that magnifies a million times, has again and again inflamed the body of the most stalwart man, and impregnated the atmosphere with its deadly virus, till continents hove been plowed by the shafts of death. A word has changed the destinies of nations, and turned the tide of civilization: sunk men to infamy, and raised others to fame and immortality; yet men talk about such language as was used the other night as nothing. I can tell what it is, it is the entering wedge to a useless effusion of blood this Fall, that it is neither required by the laws of the land, nor dictated by any stroke of policy.<br /><br />Again, if this is not the first legal session of the Legislature, why did we, under the Act of Congress approved December 22, 1869, go to work on our reassembling and elect all the officers over again? It is well known we met here in 1870 as completely unorganized as we did 1868. And not a man on either side of the House dared to question the fact or raise his voice against the propriety of reorganizing as per Acts of Congress. If this is the same General Assembly—in new attire, if you please—that exploded September 3, 1868, by ejecting the colored members, why did you select a new Speaker, a new clerk, a new messenger, a new door-keeper, and appoint new secretaries? "Why were all the standing committees reappointed and why do gentlemen so fastidiously scrupulous about the legal technicalities bearing on that case, serve on these committees, and condescend to elect new committee clerks? While the gentleman from Richmond (Col. Bryant) for whom I cherish warm considerations for his great labors in the past, and for his unswervable devotion to all questions involving the direct interest of my race, appears to feel so outraged at the idea of this body commencing its legal status from the Act of Congress approved July 15, 1870, I beg him to remember that he was, nevertheless, a very formidable candidate for the Speakership of this House, when we met here last January, which, I think, was a broad-face committal, both of himself and all who voted for him, to the fact of this being the first and only legal session of the General Assembly. Other than that (we) would be putting' new wine in old bottles, which Jesus Christ says would cause an explosion.<br /><br />And if I understand the purport of the Act of Congress approved July 15, 1870, it is analogous to that passed by the same body for Mississippi, Texas and Virginia, which contemplates no election this fall, and made it one of the fundamental conditions to their admission that the XVth Amendment should be ratified. Now, if I have stated the facts correctly, this is another lambent test, settling to a mathematical demonstration the time this body unquestionably assumed a legal relation to the General Government. For all are satisfied that there were no XVth Amendment known or heard of in 1868—not prior to June 25, anyhow—and Congress never expected us to ratify what did not really exist, nor to comply with any prospective conditions as a fundamentality. Now, this being conclusive as a natural sequence, the very fact, then, of the ratification of the XVth Amendment being required as a previous condition to our admission to representation, proves beyond a doubt that the General Assembly began db initio when such action was performed. And neither has, the President or Congress ever recognized any ratification except that done by this body after it was purged as required by the provisions of the XVth Amendment.<br /><br />And do you know that the vote of Georgia was not counted in the last Presidential election in a manner to affect the result? I believe it was nominally enumerated in the count merely to cheer up old man Seymour, and keep him from despairing entirely at the idea of Grant's overwhelming victory.<br /><br />Let us next see what the State Constitutional Convention thought about this matter. That Convention, by an ordinance adopted March 10, 1868, which was vitalized by the election order of <a href="https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Meade_George_Gordon_1815-1872#start_entry">General Meade</a>, issued from his headquarters March 14, 1868, ordained that an election should be held in April following for the State and General Government officers. The preamble of that ordinance sets out as follows:<br /><br />WHEREAS, All civil officers of the State are only provisional until the State is represented in Congress; and whereas, the interest of Georgia requires that all civil offices should be filled by loyal citizens, according to the provisions of the Constitution.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Then follows the provision of the said ordinance. Thus you see that the Convention thoroughly comprehended the situation, and took the only view of our status as a State that was rational under the circumstances, and which accorded with the laws of Congress. And though the same Convention does fix a limitation as to the time our State machinery shall commence to run, yet we must remember that the Convention never contemplated that its Constitution would be either vitiated by a false construction or that the General Assembly would break the laws of the General Government before it became capacitated to enact a solitary law of its own. This is the way, gentlemen, you have got to look at this question, not weave your desires into law, not act upon the impulse of like or dislike, but on the broad platform of common sense. When the head dies the body rots. So, when you, the head of our State, broke the initiatory conditions precedent to an admission in the Federal Union, in their very incipiency, the chain was severed and the connection broken.<br /><br />It is well known that I am no pet of <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/rufus-bullock-1834-1907">Governor Bullock</a>. I wrote and spoke for him when he was a candidate for the Governor's position, because he was the choice of my party. I never asked a personal favor of him in my life as I recollect, nor do I ever expect to.<br /><br />But I believe that the manifest anxiety for an election this fall is owing to an eagerness to get a Legislature that will impeach the Governor and throw him out of office. Men may present whatever subterfuge they like, but that is the object and purpose of all this foolish jargon.<br /><br />And what is it all for? Has he done anything worthy of such a death? Has he not stood the test of all your investigations, both in Washington and here? Has he not just been honorably exonerated by a committee composed of some of the hottest Democrats in both branches of the General Assembly? Has he not pardoned every Democrat that he was asked to? Has he not, in the generousness of his noble nature appointed some of the meanest men to office that ever lived, to please you? Has he not actually ignored his own friends to make room for you in several instances, to see if he could not harm you by acts of kindness and induce you to behave yourselves and act like high-toned citizens, and not keep up an eternal bedlam in Georgia. There is not another Republican in Georgia, or in the nation, who would have taken the pains <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/rufus-bullock-1834-1907">Governor Bullock</a> has to appease and conciliate his stern and bitter enemies. If he is not a Christian, he has certainly obeyed Christ in one thing, he has done good for evil.<br /><br />I am not astonished at a gentleman remarking that he had rather go to hell than to be the Governor of Georgia. Then it seems to be a natural characteristic of the people to keep up an eternal whine. It was war all the time General Tillson was in command of the bureau; the same with Generals <a href="https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Pope_John_1822-1892">Pope</a> and <a href="https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Meade_George_Gordon_1815-1872#start_entry">Meade</a>; and now they fight <a href="https://connecticuthistory.org/honor-and-duty-the-life-of-alfred-howe-terry/">General Terry</a>, through <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/rufus-bullock-1834-1907">Governor Bullock</a>. Why, if we don't stop, people abroad will not believe us. We have now got such a bad name, that respectable colored people traveling from the North, actually refuse to come through Georgia; they have got the idea that they would be killed. One of the most prominent colored men in the nation passed through here some six weeks ago, and he informed a certain gentleman, that he would not have told his name for anything. The man actually thought he was going through hell.<br /><br />How much impetus the defeat of Mr. Blodgett for a seat in the United States Senate gives to this measure, I am unable to say, but I do not think it a sufficient reason to plunge the State into another anarchy, for the fuss-breeders to take no part in it, for it is well known, that the men who get up the war are always far in the rear when the death missiles begin to fly.<br /><br />I have admitted all through this argument that the act of July 15, 1870, had revived our legal status as a State in the Union. But when the question is really brought down to a nice point, that is very doubtful, though I have partially admitted it, and I will give you my reasons. The reconstruction acts, approved March 2, 1867, section 6, says:<br /><br />"That until the people of mid rebel States shall be, by law, admitted to representation In the Congress of the United States, any civil government which may exist therein shall be deemed provisional only, and In all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United States," &c.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Now, has Georgia been, by law, admitted to representation? Not a bit of it. But let us see if she has. The act approved July 15, 1870, says:<br /><br />"SECTION 1. **** It is hereby declared that the State of Georgia Is entitled to in the Congress of the United States."<br /><br />Not that her representatives are admitted, or that the State is admitted, but are entitled to it, &c., when we get ready to give it to her. It requires another act yet to get Georgia in the Union, and until said act is passed Georgia is a provisional government only. I do not deny, however, the power of each branch of Congress, tinder this last act, to finish reconstruction in Georgia by a resolution in their respective houses. But I deny that this has been done, and, until it is we are as chaff before the wind in the hands of the General Government. She can abolish us, modify us, or hang us, and our Constitution would not be worth blank paper as a preventive. Our Constitutional Convention, while providing for Senators and Representatives, in accordance with the Constitution framed, could not limit the term of their service only on the presumption that they were to assume at once a legal status, for Congress could keep this Legislature in power for the next twenty years, and no elections could be held without she gave us an act authorizing it. And all this balderdash about the Constitution of our State fixing the length of term for provisional Senators and Representatives is simply nonsense. It could assume no such power. Congress alone has that question to determine. While the State Constitution requires Representatives to be elected biennially, it has no reference to the term of members as a provisional Legislature. So that if we were to remain provisional for fifty years, at the end of that time we would be entitled to two more years under the State Constitution. It cannot be denied that the members of this House, though elected in 1868, had two legal characters that of Provisional Representatives to do certain things by authority of the General Government, and that of State Representatives to do legislation under the State Constitution when we lost our provisional character from under the General Government. So it matters not when the election was held the principle is the same. And just at this point I beg to refer you to an extract containing the opinion of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Of08AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA52#v=onepage&q&f=false">Judge Lawrence</a>, of Ohio, but now a member of Congress, as to the proper time we are to hold an election, and this will make more lucid, as well as greatly strengthen, the argument I have been making. Says he:<br /><br />“Now when does the next ejection take place?" The Constitution answers this question."<br /><br />The Constitution of Georgia is here referred to.<br /><br />‘The election for members of the General Assembly shall begin on Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every second year.' That is, an election must be held in November of every second year after July 15,1870, for members of the House and for twenty-two Senators in the odd numbered districts. By the Constitution the Governor holds his office for four years after July 15,1870, and until a successor shall be chosen and qualified, and a successor may be elected in November, 1874.<br /><br /> <br /><br />I am aware of the rule of law which makes the Act of July 15, 1870, by the doctrine of relation, as it is called in the law books, relate back and validate the ratification by the lawful provisional Legislature of the Constitutional Amendment. But this does not change positive provisions fixing the time of future elections."<br /><br /> <br /><br />What future elections? The elections required by the State Constitution after the Legislature leaves its provisional character. Then and then alone does the State Constitution provide for and regulate the character of the General Assembly. Now, gentlemen, if I have not made this question as transparent as a crystal itself, then there is no such a thing as transparency in the English language.<br /><br />There is another feature in this question to which I earnestly invite attention. It is this: I really believe that, owing to the fact that the Act of July 15, 1870, containing no fundamental principles for the negro to hold office in the future, there is a kind of philosophic hope, still flickering in the breast of many, that, through some strategic move of the political checker-board, the time and opportunity will again come when the negro will be hurled out of office as successfully and as arbitrarily as he was in September 3, 1868. It has been said to me that the XVth Amendment does not confer the right to hold office on the negro, and all that is necessary is to repeal the Act known as the Enforcement Act, approved May 21, 1870, and this question, so far as Georgia is concerned, would revert right back to where it was in 1868. This is the opinion of men standing high on the platform of legal lore, or, at least, have that reputation in Georgia.<br /><br />Now, to what extent this foolish idea is cherished, I neither know nor care; but, judging from the general tone of the Georgia press, and the sly hints occasionally thrown out about what we hope to see, &c., I am inclined to believe it is pretty general—and, in all probability, has much to do with the great anxiety manifested for an election this fall.<br /><br />Another thing: Have gentlemen considered the fact that we are yet under the command of <a href="https://connecticuthistory.org/honor-and-duty-the-life-of-alfred-howe-terry/">General Terry</a>—that he could disband this body by the stroke of his pen, and no man dare to say, "what doest thou?"—that he could remove our Governor, our Secretary of State, our Treasurer, our Comptroller General, and any other officer or functionary in the State? If not, why is he here?—who don't he leave our sacred soil, and make room for greater men than a military autocrat could dare presume to be? Have we not plenty of chivalry in Georgia?—scores of F. F. G.'s from the mountains to the seaboards ?<br /><br />The reason, obvious it is, because we are under the Reconstruction Acts of Congress. And mark my prediction to-day; you attempt to bring on an election this fall and he will stop you.<br /><br />I discover there is a class of gentlemen who are continually harping on the implacability of what they call a legal construction of the last bill enacted in relation to Georgia. God knows I respect law, and always try to yield it a hearty obedience. And if I have never done so in the past, I should feel under a thousand obligations to reverence any law enacted by the present Congress, for eternity alone will afford time sufficient to enumerate the blessings that have accrued to my race through the legislation of that august body of inimitable patriots. I could hardly indulge a conscientious scruple about an act emanating from it, even if it bore on its face a glaring absurdity. But what is the great legal technicality around which cluster so many doubts that tend to paralyze the loyalty of such a mass of left-handed jurists? Here it is:<br /><br />And nothing in this or any other set of Congress shall be construed to affect the terms to which any officer has been appointed or any member or the General Assembly elected as prescribed by the State of Georgia.<br /><br />The question is, What does that clause mean? Sirs, it means nothing more nor less than that <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/rufus-bullock-1834-1907">Governor Bullock</a> should not rip up the machinery of the State as it was reported in Washington he intended to do. We are all cognizant of the fact that it was rumored in Washington and circulated by the Georgia press that the Governor intended, as soon as the State was admitted, to remove every official in the State who did not indorse his policy; in other words, that he intended to cut off the heads of Treasurer Angier, Chief Justice Brown, Judge Warner, and a score of others. And if such was the intention of the Governor, Congress meant to neutralize his power and say, “Now, see here, you fellows have been quarreling long enough, and we need you all in the Republican party, and you shan't hurt one another. So, hand over that sword, Bullock; and all you boys dry up. This, I contend, is the purport of that provision in the act of July 15th. And how any sane man can give it any other construction in the face of all the surrounding contingencies, I am unable to see.<br /><br />This position is sustained by the course pursued by the Government at Washington, for no party or faction of Republicans have been ignored by the national administration. All have received appointments, and all have wielded a potent influence with the first Republicans in the nation, which go to prove that Congress nor the President intends to notice our local schisms in Georgia, but rather protect and encourage all factions.<br /><br />But there is another reason an election is so much desired this fall. Negro haters know well that if we have an election in November, that the Democrats will sweep the State; that the next Legislature will not have a dozen Republicans in it; that we have not time to organize and rally the colored voters; that the State once in their possession will remain so for years to come. This may be a good reason for some who know nothing about the organization of the party in Georgia arid neither care which beats or wins. But to a man like myself, who has made thousands of speeches and had published thousands of documents for the triumph of Republican ideas, it is a matter of great concern, for in hard work I challenge an equal.<br /><br />But for all, what have we got in Georgia, simply the right to vote and sit in the General Assembly after being elected twice, once by the people and then by the United States Congress. Not a colored juror or a colored police in all the State. Two colored magistrates, one colored clerk of court, and one or two colored bailiffs, make up the complement for Georgia, the Empire State of the South. If we get on the cars we have to pay first-class fare, and, to two exceptions, go into any old dirty box they choose to put you, and from such an outrage there is no redress. If a colored man even picks up the filthiest white wench in the streets, and attempts to relieve her necessities by marriage, he is sent to the Penitentiary for twenty years. But, on the other hand, Great God, what a tale I could tell. We are forced to pay taxes to keep up schools and municipalities, and not a dollar is ever expended for the benefit of colored children. We are tried and condemned by the courts, with laws enacted thirty years ago. Our statute books are as proscriptive now as they were in slave time, to the exception of whipping and selling, yet some are crazy to have an election to keep these evils from being remedied.<br /><br />But mark my word to-day—you had just as well remedy or correct these things one time as another; destiny has determined it, and neither men nor devils can prevent it; I am positively ashamed to tell it, but heaven knows it is the truth, that not a single law has ever been passed by the Georgia Legislature or by any city municipality in the whole State, that was intended, or even contemplated, the bettering of the colored man's situation. I challenge any member of this House to name one; or any mayor or alderman in the State to point to a solitary ordinance they have adopted —everything we have received has been given by Congress. And because there is a faint probability of something now being done in that direction, the hue and cry is, break up the Legislature. But take care, gentlemen, you do not break yourselves. I told you in 1868, that your course was foolish; I repeat the same warning to-day; I again call upon you in the pregnant words of the poet:<br /><br />“Stop, poor sinner, stop and think."<br /><br />But I appeal especially to colored members to stand firm in defense of your suffering constituents; let us, to the best of our ability, stay the flow of blood which is sure to follow an election this Fall.<br /><br />The position of Colonel Farrow, Senator elect, has frequently been hurled into<br /><br />my face because he, being a prominent Republican, favors an election this Fall. I have no disposition to collide with Colonel Farrow arrow at all, for he is a gentleman I have always admired, and believed to be a good Republican. But I must confess that he assumes one of the most inconsistent positions I have ever known or heard of for a statesman. He claims to be the Senator elect, for the same term claimed by Mr. Joshua Hill, a position which is either absurd or transcends the ingenuity of man to reconcile with reason, for, according to his own theory, the same Legislature, occupying the same status which elected him, elected Mr. Hill. And, if it is true, leave it to the judgment of any idiot in the State, if Colonel Farrow, in trying to rob Mr. Hill of his seat, is not one of the most arrogant and presumptuous of living men, unless he wants the United States Senate to make him a complimentary member, to which I should certainly not object. But I contend that, that is the only ground on which he can base a claim, if his position is correct. And if the United States Senate, under such a decision, did not seat Messrs. Hill and Miller, then I should pronounce that grave body as imbecile in consistency as I do the anomalous position of Colonel Farrow. I make this criticism with the kindest feelings toward our Attorney General, but they are, nevertheless, sterling facts, which no sophistry can refute, for he can no more enter the United States Senate, if we decide this to be the last session of the Legislature, than a fiend can enter the kingdom of heaven.<br /><br />Why the very idea of two sovereign powers ruling on one territory is so extremely preposterous that language fails to depict it. Such an instance never has been nor never can be. It is not only contrary to the spirit and genius of our Government, to all Republican institutions, to even monarchal despotisms, but is antagonistic to either sense or reason. It is a glaring impossibility, a self-contradiction, an irrational fancy, impracticable and incongruous with anything ever attempted in the pagan world.<br /><br />Think of two independent commonwealths exercising sovereign power at one time over one and the same people. There is not a lunatic in the asylum at Milledgeville who would not laugh to scorn such unpardonable folly.<br /><br />To sum the whole question up in a nut-shell: The Constitution of Georgia had no more to do with us than the Constitution of New York or Wisconsin, while we were under the reconstruction acts. That instrument says an election shall be held every two years, I admit; but when? Not while we are under the reconstruction laws and the United States Constitution; but common sense teaches us that it means after we come under its jurisdiction; and then, and not till then, can our Constitution presume to order the General Assembly. You might just as well say that a colonel can command an army at the same time that a general is commanding it . But, after Congress releases us, our State Constitution becomes of force. Our duty, then, is to take up the State Constitution, and find out its requirements and obey them. Congress did not release us, as I believe, ‘till July 15, 1870. Now, what is our duty? Two Novembers from that time hold an election for State and county officers. And to attempt to hold an election sooner is a violation of the Constitution and a willful perversion of the laws of our State. An election in November next would be unconstitutional, illegal, and a public nuisance. <br /><br />I have no hesitancy in saying here to-day that I stand in my place, not only to vindicate the right and the spirit and intent of the laws, but as a blue Republican, I plead for the salvation of our party. I know, God knows, and, not speaking sacrilegiously, the devil knows, that the defeat of this measure sounds the death-knell of the Republican party in Georgia. And if the Democratic party does not change their programme or policy, where is the poor negro to look; we who have been immolated by hundreds and have smoked upon sacrificial altars from one side of the State to the other; we whose blood has rolled in crimson tides till the land has been drenched in human gore, do you expect us to join in and coalesce with the Democracy. If so, I am now prepared to send a colored delegation to the Democratic Convention, soon to meet in this city, and try to capitulate terms for a union, and ask that they so change their policy, or so plank their platform, that we can take part in their party.<br /><br />True, I make these remarks with trembling nerves, but the Scriptures' advice, under certain contingencies, that it is best to make friends with the mammon of unrighteousness. I fear that day has come for the negro in Georgia, when wisdom and personal security dictates the utility of his going to his old master and saying, "here boss, you used to rule over and control my body, now command my vote." One thing is sure, if we have an election this Fall, I shall advise the colored people to stay away from the polls, and any man in Georgia who can control more colored votes than I can I would like for him to show his face. I am now getting letters from all parts of the State asking what to do, and I tell you my race shall not die in Georgia for nothing, as they have in the past. Hereafter the negro shall either die for something, or because he has lived out his days.<br /><br />It requires blood to sustain a Republican party in Georgia, and we can sustain it if we will; but if we will not when we can, I will stop the blood on our part as far as I can wield an influence.<br /><br />But if we are to be forced to have an election, I ask, in the name of God and humanity, that it be deferred till we can make a few just and righteous laws, and have time to stump the State and instruct the colored portion what to do and how to act in the premises.<br /><br />But I must come to a close. I know I have taxed your time and wearied your patience during the delivery of my wild and disjointed harangue, but while we are out at sea, however,<br /><br />" Wrestling with the tide of fate,<br /><br />Ever drifting, drifting, drifting,<br /><br />On the shifting<br /><br />Currents of the restless main."<br /><br /><br />Both wisdom and prudence would suggest the propriety of being respectful to those who differ with us in opinion and policy. I claim as much individuality for others as I do for myself. Therefore, think for yourself and act accordingly, and when we have done that for our State, believing we have acted for the best, then, in the name of Him who arbitrates for man, and rules the destinies of nations,<br /><br />“Spread all her canvass to the breeze, <br />Set every threadbare sail; <br />And give her to the God of storm, <br />The lightning and the gale."<br /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Turner, Henry McNeal. The Civil and Political Status of the State of Georgia and Her Relations to the General Government. The Henry McNeal Turner Project. (1870: Atlanta, GA.) </span><a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/the-civil-and-political-status-of-state_28.html"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/the-civil-and-political-status-of-state_28.html</span></a>HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-31298097681998039922019-03-28T12:43:00.002-07:002019-03-29T07:08:27.126-07:00Emigration of the Colored People of the United States<iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1329VI567lYnv0aohyN8ZAwVE3PkDJ7JA/preview" width="640"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Emigration of the Colored People of the United States</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is it expedient? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If so where to?<br /><br />Prepared by request for the Colored National Conference to meet in Nashville, Tenn., May 6th, 1879.<br /><br /> <br />By Rev. H. M. Turner, LL. D. <br /><br /> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">N.B. – Only three hundred copies of this letter were printed and sent to the Nashville Conference, as the auther could not attend it in person. But such has been the deman for it in different parts of the country, some offering $5.00 for a copy, that I concluded to print a thousand more, and sell them for 10 cents each.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">May 20th, 1879.<br /><br />To the National Conference of Colored Men,<br /><br />To be held at Nashville, Tenn., May 6th, 1879. <br /><br /><br />Gentlemen:<br /><br />I very gratefully accept the tender made me, through a member of your Committee of Arrangements, *(Rev. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=62YsDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=J.C.+Embry+kansas+AME&source=bl&ots=dtK0e7bMF3&sig=ACfU3U3Aak1iMZuf9nnw4l-8a5hQqCUKng&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjKvNGby6XhAhVL_IMKHb0_CJ0Q6AEwAHoECF8QAQ#v=onepage&q=J.C.%20Embry%20kansas%20AME&f=false" target="_blank">J.C. Embry, Kansas</a>) to prepare a paper upon the propriety, utility and wisdom of emigration to Africa. I trust you will pardon my brevity, for while the subject is inexhaustive, by virtue its inherent merits, I shall not be able to adumbrate so much of them as might be in the sphere of a hasty consideration, my time being so engrossed with official duties. <br /><br />Colonization, Emigration, Immigration and Migration, are terms so very nearly synonymous, that I shall not consume time to define their shades of distinction.<br /><br />They all imply the voluntary transition of a people from one continent, country, or locality, to another. A method which, under certain contingencies, has at times been recognized by all nations, as a means of progress and relief from local annoyances, even from the day that God himself inaugurated the measure, at the foor of Babel’s cloud-piercing tower, by sending Japheth into Europe, Shem into Asia, and Ham into Africa. <br /><br />To emigration, empires, kingdoms, nations and communities owe their birth, their maturity, their greatness, majesty, and their immortality. It has been the primal motor in all ages, among all nations, of all languages, whose people stamped the epochs, eras, and decades of centuries with the evidences of their progress, and mental, moral, social and political elevation. <br /><br />The voice of history, coming up through hoary millenials, speaking in behalf of extinct nations, and hundreds, which live to-day by reason of embracing the measures of emigration, proclaims the wisdom of its promoters, and the folly of its opposers. The health of the body requires motion; the health of a people requires locomotion. Man, as a mass, needs in process of time new scenes, new air, new vegetation, new springs, and more than all, new blood. Deny him these indispensabilities, and retrogression is the sequel. The Arabs – the only people, possibly, since the Noahican flood, that have never emigrated or encouraged immigration, and who are the same to-day as three thousand years ago would have doubtless been far worse off than they are had it not been for their predatory expeditions or caravans, which made their pillagery in some respects answer for what they lost in non-emigration. <br /><br />Emigration, or colonization, however, has not always been prompted by a sense of its higher results; various motives have at different periods led to the formation of colonies. Sometimes, as in the case of most of the ancient Greek colonies, they were formed by citizens driven out of their native country by political persecution, such as the colored race here are the unfortunate recipients of. While Rome colonized to extend her territory, and hold in check her subjugated provinces, as England has done with India. The Greek colonies were almost invariably born in political and civil outrage. Their history, however, needs no rehearsal. The mighty men, generals, statesmen, orators, philosophers, bards and sages, that were given to the world from Grecian colonies, are before us, and their immortal names will remain for us for ever. <br /><br />The Phoenicians, possibly the first maritime nation that recognized colonization in any form, were actuated by commercial considerations. They settled Cyprus, Crete, Sicily, and several islands along the Mediterranean, and on the southwestern coast of Spain. Much the most important of their colonies was Carthage, which, in turn, sent forth other colonies, till five hundred years before Christ. <br /><br />Prior to the birth of the Roman Empire, the aborigines of Italy had a system of colonization. At certain annual festivals, the surplus young men were set apart b religious service and great ceremony, to leave their natal soil and seek fortunes elsewhere. By so doing they became the owners of models for their mother country; especially did it serve to make the young men self-reliant, and implant within them the spirit of independence. You will find one idea running through all the ancient world, that is – independent subsistence; in other words, that every man must make his living by being his own master. To be a contingent laborer, dependent upon the mere whim of another man, was to the ancients very detestable, unless the person was a slave; and for a free person to be such a menial was to subject himself to the status of a slave, therefore they sought the outlets which colonization offered, and found the manhood which a free citizen felt to be his normal inheritance.<br /><br />Among the Romans homesteads were held in such high esteem that even those conquered by was only lost one-eighth of their landed estates. This was taken by confiscation, yet, where the owner had less than a certain amount, his inheritance, or rather the inheritance of his children, was not disturbed. Even the slave set free for military bravery, or through the generosity of the human master, had to be provided with sufficient soil to produce the necessaries of life, otherwise his liberty was not regarded legitimate. <br /><br />How unlike the treatment of the colored people of the South! – turned out to die, for all the General Government cared, or the ruling masses of any State of the Union. No provision whatever made for our subsistence, and no facilities allowed for subsisting ourselves, except what was scorned by the heathen world, to be perpetual servants. <br /><br />We have seen from the foregoing remarks, 1st. That colonization has the sanction of heaven, and has been the theory, as well as a cardinal practice, of all nations and in all ages; the Arabians being the single exception among the nations of antiquity. 2d. That it is an indispensable pre-requisite to the material, social and intellectual growth of a people, and, as such, is not disgraceful, humiliating, destructive to society, or in contravention to the best means or ends of mankind. 3d. That history affords abundant evidence that a people subjected to ill treatment, persecution, proscription, outrage, and other forms of injustice, though it be in simple manhood recognition, can change localities honorably. <br /><br />Much has been said in contravention to the colonization or emigration of the colored people from the United States, not only to Africa, but to any place whatever, except to the horse stable or cook kitchen of the white man. The theory of the maligners of this measure has invariably been that the colored people are to the manor bown, and, as such, are citizens of the United States; and any one proposing a change of locality has been censured in immeasurable terms. Strange as it may appear, too, these denunciators have rarely presented an argument in opposition to colonization to which you could apply one rule of the most distorted logic. As a rule they do not want either reason, analogy, precedent, example, or a scintilla of probability. They simply want the carp of the cynic, and the billingsgate of the profane. I so judge because they have rarely employed anything else in support of their opposition. <br /><br />The main object against which the contemners of colonization, however, have leveled their shafts of vengeance, has been the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/American-Colonization-Society">American Colonization Society</a>. The traducers of the measure have uniformly screened themselves behind the antecedents of a few rabid slaveholders, who had done some ugly thing, or made some fanatical remark, yet were supporters of this society. <br /><br />I shall not attempt to defend the American Colonization Society; I am trying to support a principle much higher than any single Society. But grant that the American Colonization Society has had a few bad men in its ranks, what would that argue? Nothing more than that they were himan; and that imposters, corrupt and vicious men have crept into every organization since the beginning of time began – even into the disciplehood of our Lord Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Let us, however, look into a few of the men and motives which formed the substratum of this Society; for they are both analyzable, for a cadaver that will not bear the sharpest knife in its anatomization, is a dangerous piece of putrescence, and needs to be shunned.<br /><br />This Society appears to have had its origin in the efforts of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-Hopkins">Rev. Samuel Hopkins</a>, D.D., of Newport, R.I., for the prevention of the Slave trade, and the abolition of Slavery in that State. Dr. Hopkins was before<a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Wilberforce"> Wilberforce</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Clarkson">Clarkson,</a> and shares the glory with the younger Chatham in his mighty battle with the slave trade. It was he, too, who first at his own expense, educated several young colored men for the ministry to carry the Gospel to Africa, and called upon the Legislatures of New England to support a colony upon the western coast of Africa that would inaugurate a scheme for the civilization of that continent. It was he who sent the two first missionaries across the waters to our fatherland, namely: Salmar, Nubia, and Newport Gardener. I ask, does this look like the work of a bad man?<br /><br />Also let us note the character of such men as Rev. Dr. Stiles, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Thornton">Dr. William Thornton</a>, his coadjutors in this laudable scheme, men and Christians above reproach or the tongue of defamation. <br /><br />But it is scarcely necessary that we even descant upon the virtues of such persons as <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/mills-samuel-j">Samuel J. Mills</a>, Ann Mifflin, <a href="https://www.history.pcusa.org/collections/research-tools/guides-archival-collections/rg-368">Rev. Dr. Finley</a>, Elias B. Caldwell, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Scott-Key">Francis S. Key</a>, <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M000642">Charles F. Mercer</a>, Ebenezer Burgess, and others, whose names and motives none can mention without respect, if not admiration. These names are chief among the promoters of that thought which gave birth to the American Colonization Society; and may I not ask if it would not sound like madness to hear one at this late day charge these sacred characters with vicious intent? For they were the founders of free thought, free speech, and a free literature; and if the leaders of the old abolition party so much lauded, had any virtues at all, they were born in the hearts of the colonization promoters. <br /><br />Another important character who did as much, possibly, as any man in the already mentioned list, was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Cuffe">Capt. Paul Cuffee</a>, a colored gentleman of New Bedford, who, in 1815, carried in his own ship thirty-eight emigrants to Africa. It is said he spent over four thousand dollars to consummate his object. This set it said to have given a favorable impulse to colonization, that secured to the measure able and lasting friends. <br /><br /><a href="https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Cary_Lott_ca_1780-1828">Rev. Lott Cary</a>, an eloquent Baptist minister in Richmond, Va., organized an African Missionary Society also in 1815. A band of praying men in the cellar basement of the old African Church, raised by toil and self-denial hundreds of dollars to send the Gospel to the land of their fathers. This was previous to the birth of the Colonization Society. Said Cary formed a small church, and sailed for Africa in 1821. Guided by God the church was planted on the heights of Mount Serrado, where the slave trader had for ages torn away the victims of his cruelty, to become slaves in distant lands. That little church has grown into more than twenty churches, shining in common with other Christian denominations like so many stars in the midnight sky.<br /><br />But without being fastidiously nice in this narrative, permit me to say that one move evolved another amid the agitation and battle strife which the slave trade provoked, running from 1770 to 1817 – about 50 years – till it terminated in giving birth to the American Colonization Society, which took place Jan. 1st, 1817. As Providence knew that day would ultimately be the great anniversary of American emancipation, it seemed to have been prearranged for a double consecration -0 a day destined to be kept sacred in the annals of the future, and mark an epoch in the history of the colored race never to be effaced.<br /><br />No one could say that this society has been divested of men with questionable proclivities, and in some instances with predilections and prejudices not sustained by any code of moral ethics – men who were proslavery in principle, and cherished abhorent ideas of caste, and wished to make the society a vehicle to rid a condition that served as a charm upon him, and excited his desire for similar opportunities and privileges, and in that ratio begot his discontent. But does that fact vitiate the purity of its founders; motives or eliminate the good it has achieved, and can any man say good has not resulted from it? Certainly no man could so far forget himself, if he had any reputation for intelligence to risk. <br /><br />With the parity of reasoning, the slave might have scorned his freedom and refused the results of the war, though it brought the boon of his life, because some of the most poison-hearted anti-negro soldiers went and fought to actualize <a href="https://papersofabrahamlincoln.org/persons/LI00006">President Lincoln’s</a> proclamation of freedom.<a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Downloads/Emigration%20of%20the%20Colored%20People-Embedded%20.docx#_ftn1">[1]</a> Some of the Union soldiers were the worst villains that ever trod the coil, which cannot be said of the poorest member of the Colonization Society, as they have been mainly the first men of the nation, politically and religiously. Yet what colored person ever denounced his liberty, or who ever stigmatized the liberated, because of the rabble who took part in the late war, and helped to consummate its results? The aphorism “that God sent it, if the devil brought it” has been universally accepted, and will always be. <br /><br />It is not essential to the purpose in view, however, that I should exhaust the time allotted me in an argumentive defense of the Colonization Society. Its record is before us, and sober reflection will ultimately tell its own story infinitely better than any analysis I may be able to give the subject in a few brief moments. I repeat that my purpose is higher than a mere defense of any one society or corporate organization. <br /><br />This question at issue is, Should the colored people of this country give any support, countenance or sanctions to African emigration? Despite its contemners and host of animadverters, I affirm they should; that it is a grave and an honorable question, meriting the highest considerations as well as the most favorable investigation, viewed from any aspect whatever. I do no propose to present any arguments, based upon logical deductions, to establish their right of emigration there: their freedom presupposes that right. But the question is, Is it right or even expedient? Are there any features about it commendable? I so believe, and to that point I now propose for a few moments to address myself. <br /><br />1st. We are the descendants of Africa, and as such have no more cause to abhor the land of our fathers than other races have had. And yet I challenge an instance, since, the dawn of creation, where a people have ridiculed the land of their fathers to the same extent as the American negro. He has a detestation to Africa, too, not from choice or a knowledge of any of its objectionable features, but from a prejudical white rabble, who knew no more about its resources, its wealth and its sanitary advantages than idiots. They contemned the negro in all other respects – his color, his hair, his mouth, nose, leps, heel, language, manner and laugh, and to coronate their scorn and obloquy, they contemn his country.<br /><br />And we, in our folly, have united with this vicious and garbage-box cavalcade, whereas, if our father land was a desert plain, it ill became us to join in with its defamers; I have heard colored men absolutely charge God with such folly, in their ignorant representations of Africa, that to me it sounded like blasphemy. If it was as hideous as they describe it, no sane man could conlude other than that God was a monster for creating such a place, yet these profaners in some instances knew no more of geography than a man in the moon; they were merely trying to amplify the utterances of some venomous hearted and ignorant headed white maniacs, who were either ventilating their negro-heating spleen, or trying to subserve the purposes of slavery. <br /><br />Africa has been the domicile of billions, for periods running through the millenniums of years. It is possibly the first spot that kissed the sun, when God said: “Let the dry land appear,” and was the theatre of vegetable and animal life when the western world was sleeping beneath the turbid waters of antiquitous ages. And two hundred millions of our kindred are there still, awaiting the return of her better informed children, who have been in this land at school, to bring them the fruits of our civilization, and a knowledge of our better virtues; they are eager to embrace them as is attested in the invitations for missionaries from every African king and ruler. And can any man say we are not in duty bound to answer this call? But we will answer it, and answer it to the honor of the Prince of Life. The Mayflower brought one church to this country in 1620, and was afterwards converted into a slaver. But it was my privilege in 1878, in Charleston harbor, to stand on the deck of the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/files/atlanta/finding-aids/barque-azor.pdf">Azor</a> (the Mayflower of the negro) when <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8829292/bishop_j_m_brown_the_tennessean/">Bishop J. M. Brown</a>, D.D., D.C.L., by solemn prayer dedicated that ship to the work of the civilization and evangelization of the first continent upon the face of the globe. The Mayflower brought one church to the shores of America, but the Azor carried two churches in one voyage, to Africa – a Baptist and an African M. E. Church. <br /><br />2d. Many object to Africa upon the plea of its rumored fatality, that everybody going there prematurely dies. I chall not attempt to refute this falsehood by statistical arguments; it would consume too much time. I will reply by saying the mortality in no part of Africa, neither in Liberia or elsewhere, has ever been anything like that which attended the early settlers at Plymouth Rock, Jamestown, Annapolis, Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans and even Louisville, Ky. Says Dr. Leonard Bacon in his Genesis of New England: “Of the one hundred and two pilgrims who came over in the Mayflower in 1620, forty-four died in four months, half in six months, and several more before a year had expired.” Such mortality has never prevailed among the emigrants going to Africa.<br /><br />Says <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Bancroft-American-historian">Bancroft</a>, the great American historian: “Of the one hundred settlers or emigrants who came to Jamestown, Va., in 1607, about thirty-eight say the end of the year,” showing a loss of 62 in that short time.<br /><br />Another instance more appalling than either of the above, is related by the same historian: which is, that not one of the emigrants that first landed at Annapolis survived till the ship could return from the mother country, to augment their numbers, and being a fresh supply of provision.<br /><br />But it is needless to continue this striking record of facts, as it would run in startling statistics through the early settlements of this entire country; and if applied to India and Australia, the tale would freeze the clood of some of our never duying race; for we raise more excitement over a little dying than any people under heaven’s broad canopy. Suffice it to say, there is no instance in modern times where the health-scale has run so high in the settlement of colonies by imported emigrants, as it has in Africa; this is true with the colonists of both England and America. <br /><br />Even the African fever, about which such fatal stories have been told, and which is only indigenous to the western coast, is no more deathly, if so much ,than the country fever, common along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia yet; and was regarded by the early settlers of those States as a plague.<br /><br />Liberia to-day is no sicklier than the suburbs of some of our own cities, and has never been heir to such dreadful epidemis and iniexplicable plagues as have prevailed in several southern cities in the United States; and all reports to the contrary are false alarms.<br /><br />But let Liberia be ever so sickly. Liberia is not Africa. Liberia is but a speck upon the face of that unexplored continent. Africa is vastly larger than North America, or North and South America together, and the negro can there rear a nation that shall have a wider territory and a larger population by far. From New York to San Francisco is three thousand miles, but from Liberia across the continent is over four thousand. <br /><br />3d. The right of a people to emigrate to any country is vested in the inducements offered. Now does emigration to Africa offer any? I assert it does.<br /><br />In this country, although it is our unquestionable home, we are prescribed from Maine to California; but we are too familiar with that fact and its disagreeable sequences to rehearse them here: to catalogue them, would call for the pen of infamy and the ink of hemlock and bitter gall.<br /><br />But I contend that this proscription is not the result of color so much as of our poverty, and the absence of a respectable Government at our back, manned by our own race, to give us the prestige of power.<br /><br />With a country of 500,000 men and women, situated upon the continent of Africa, of medium culture, possessing the elements of greatness by virtue of its civilization, agricultural, mechanical, and commercial prosperity, we could change our social and civil status in a week. The transition would be marvelous. Such a country or community would effect good situated elsewhere; but to my understanding, Africa is the most inviting field for such a project. Such an experiment would not require, either, the removal of one-fourth of the colored people from the United States, for a comparatively few would effect the object. This is the most minified view we could take of the pending question, yet it would be ample to consummate for those who remain a far higher status than we have at present.<br /><br />Men respect power; they may admire education, virtue, beauty, food manners and social embellishments, but till you show people power, they place a poor estimate upon you. As we are the most impotent and uninfluential of any member in the family of the United States, and in that ratio, less potential for good or evil, is it not out duty to put in operation such forces, experiments and expediencies as we find have been adopted by other races and oppressed people, to wring recognition from mankind in general? As I see it, we must either rebel at home or seek fortunes elsewhere. We can never acquire power sitting here quietly as menials. “Fight or run, if you will be free,” is a maxim hoary with age. If the colored people of this country do not intend to fight the outrages to which they have been subjected, then, if they want to be free men, they must run for it.<br /><br />There is no precedent among nations for being quiet. Be still, while you are goaded on every side on every side , is the jargon of fools and poltroons. The language of manhood is, “Give me liberty, ot give me death.” A country built up in Africa to repectable proportions would be to us power in front, and respect in the rear. Besides, such a country would be an outlet for our coming young men. It would open a great commercial mart for the products of that, the richest of all divisions of the globe. It would be a theatre for colored officials, merchants, inventors, artisans, as well as the place where our meritorious men and women could have their names wove into prose and song, and from that centre, radiate to earth’s remotest bounds. <br /><br />4th. We boast of our citizenship, our civil and political rights, and legal claim to a share of the honors and glories of this country; but what does our boast amount to? Nothing but dry bombast. We are ignored by every party , and in every department of the nation. There are at least 75,000 Government officers in the United States, and out of that number, less than one hundred are colored; wherras our pro-rata share would give us over 9000 officers. Such men as <a href="https://www.nga.org/governor/pinckney-benton-stewart-pinchback/">Gov. Pinchback</a>, <a href="http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/gleaves-richard-howell/">Gov. Gleaves,</a> <a href="https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/E/ELLIOTT,-Robert-Brown-(E000128)/">Hons. R. B. Elliott</a>, <a href="https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/17115">J. F. Long</a>, and scores of others, some of whom are able, learned, and fitted for any position, if it was for the Presidency itself, ought to have first-class positions in every department of the Government; but instead, I do no know of ten first-class colored men who are holding positions under the Goverment. We are as justly entitled to a cabinet position as those who fought to tear down the nation. <br /><br />The fact is, the colored people need expect nothing in this country expect what they get themselves, or through themselves. Of all the colored men who have been elected to offices in this country, viz., to Congress, great statesman Senator Blaine, whose speech in Philadelphia might freeze the blood of a fiend if it had any, in his narrartive of southern horrors. Would any one say that the one hundredth part of these persons would have been dead had they gone to any part of Africa? Why, gentlemen, to me it looks cruel, wicked, inexcuseably foolish, to tell our people to stay in this “mock of a country, this sham of a nation, this botch of a government.? ( I use the language of a Democratic Congressman, as he ought to know.) Compare, if you choose, the reign of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-I">Bloody Queen Mary,</a> who put to death some three hundred Protectants, and the administrations of either Andrew Johnson or General Grant, under whose executive terms tens of thousands were killed simply for their political opinions, and Queen Mary’s reign bleaches into snow. <br /><br />I assert and defy contradictions that in this country the negro is an outlaw. He has no rights which white men need respect, or do respect. He is tried before white juries of the meaner sort, sentenced in most instances by unjust judges to the torture of hell itself, for the most trivial crimes, and ofttimes for no crime at all. His right to vote is a farce. They will kill a negro at the polls, and arrest forty others, and send half to prison to cover up their infamy by charging insurrection upon them. In several States we are thrust into dirty, filthy cares, while we pay equal with the whites, where our wives and daughters are blackguarded and insulted by the meanest whit roughs in creation. But why attempt to enumerate the infinite ills that beset us at every step? We had as well try to count the stars, or number the sands of the sea-shore. <br /><br />6th. Many object to African emigration upon the ground of our poverty; they say we are too poor. Yes, but are we any poorer than the majority of whites were, who first settled in this country? Not by any means. We are told by history that thousands landed here without a cent, with wives and children, too, dependent upon them. All new countries have been settled and built up by poor people. Rich men may invest in its commerce, mines, products, etc., but the settlers are invariably poor. The same way rich men have incested in the probable wealth of other countries, they would in the prospects of African wealth. Indeed, thousands have done it already, and thousands more would be glad to do the same, if a chance was opened. <br /><br />But grant we are poor, let us do as the Israelites did when leaving Egypt: ask for assistance or means from the people whom we have been serving for two hundred and forty-six years, and as they did, so will we obtain jewels of silver, jewels of gold and precious valuables. <br /><br />This nation owes us enough to start us in life, even as a nation, if we will but ask for it; and it will come in some way inkown to us at present. Be that way of State aid, national, legislation, but come it will. Scientists tell us that the positive and negative forces in nature are perpetually moving all things in search of an equilibrium. Theologians tell us that the justice of God is this propelling force in human affairs. Now take either aspects of the question, and we are led to believe that we shall, sooner or later, be remunerated for our toil and labors in this country, though we were slaves in the eyes of men.<br /><br />This involves the question of what does the nation owe us? Let us give a minimum answer – an answer to which no reasonable person can object. The first negroes were brought to this country in 1620. They remained here in a state of slavery, until 1866, making a term of unrequited servitude of two hundred and forty-six years. At the time of their liberation they numbered four million six hundred thousand. Let us now cut off the forty-six years, and limit our servitude to two hundred years only, and to equipoise the numerical strength of our population, we will also cut off two million six hundred thousand, and suppose there were two million six hundred thousand, and suppose there were two million of us here in slavery for a term of two hundred years. And to give to each of us , the lowest possible value, which, to be in bounds, we will put at the annual hire of women, in anti-bellum days, each of whom averaged about one hundred dollars per year. This is to my certain knowledge. And at this minimum calculation, this country owes us forty billions of dollars – an amount that is amazing to think of, I confess. Yet, unless the Justice of God goes into that sum in one way or another, upon the very race it has so long been holding in subjection.<br /><br />I contend we have a right to demand so much of that forty billion as will start us in a national life. Better that the country pay it to us than pay it out for us in some way that will incolce its reputation; for there will be no peace in this land until the manhood claim of the negro is recognized, or he leaves the bondage.<br /><br />Had I the ear of the whites of this country, I would tell them that the sooner they opeed the treasury of the nation and aid those who desire to leave, the sooner will peace, prosperity and harmony precail in all section of the land. One of three thinds has to come, either a wholesale intermarriage of whites and blacks, and the abolition of all caste prejudices, and a general social relation established, or they must help us to go to ourselves; for we will not remain here forever as foot-balls and spittoon-lickers. Some of our people may do it; but those of us who have grit wand backbone will not. If that is not done, they had as well make up their minds to kill us out; for our children will die before they will ever endure what we have; and, as one, I hope they will. I think it my duty to so instruct my children, and shall not fail to do it. <br /><br />7th. No people need expect justice in a country where all the law officers are of a different race. White people would not get it where the executive, legislative and judicial officials were all black; nor will we get it, as we too well know, where they are all white. Nor do the whites intend we shall ever have justice, otherwise they would not in nearly every state in the union resort to the vilest means of to prevent us from being jurors. This is done as strenuously where the cause of action is solely with the colored as when it involves an issue between both races; showing conclusively that they do not mean right under any circumstances whatever; for it they did, why not reverse this rule sometimes, and let a colored jury determine a few white cases?<br /><br />But such a thing has never been heard of in this country, otherwise a howl would been raised all over this land, and such a revolution as it would have produced has never been heard of in this country, and who could blame them? They have a right to be tried by a jury composed in aprt, at least, not only of their own peers, but their own race. And, if we would do right – yes , is we were the men we ought to be – we would either have a race representative upon the juries that try us for our lives and all that is dear to man – his liberty – or set fire to every court house that dares open its doors, to put our people through the farce of a trial. There is no justice for us where we have no representative, except in the court of the God of the universe. And will you tell me to sit still and wait for better times, trust God, and pray? Such language is the wildest jargon. God would help us inifinitely more by leaving such a country, than by preaching up endurance. The truth is, there is no virtue in such submission. It is just to the reverse. It is unpardonable, inexcusable, and debasing cowardice – the very thing God and nature abhors. There is not an instance in the history of men where a people ever overcame the ills that fettered them, unless they fought or emigrated to another locality. And, I repeat, that African emigration is the surest, quickest, most peaceable, most dignified, and most religious way out of our troubles.<br /><br />8th. According to the newspaper reports, there is quite an exodus to the West. Thousands of our people are flying to Kansas, and to other Western States; many, too, without the means of subsistence for even a limited time. Let them go, and bid them God speed, all honor to their manhood. They are flying from injustice and wrong in every form – they are seeking the means of life, the liberties of freemen, the rights of citizens, the comforts of home, the boon of independence, the paths of elevation, the road to distinction, and, above all, a place where they can school their children and serve God in peace. Foolish and wicked men may say what they please; but they had as well tell me that the planets are tired of their orbits as to tell me our people are tired of the South. They love the South better than gold or precious gems. Born and raised in South Carolina, as I was, and living in Georgia, as I do, I know the feelings of my race; and they would never leave the South if they saw any hope for them; but they see none, and thus the exodus. Nevertheless it will only give temporary relief. The whites will crowd us out there ultimately, or subject us to the same evils, in a measure at least, that we are now trying get rid of. And these same people, in less than fifty years, will be in search of Africa. They will, however, be far more able to go than at the present.<br /><br />But let them go anywhere, rather than die in dastardly, cowardly and pusillanimous degradation. It is a very easy thing for some of our colored dignitaries, who are either in a state of fossilation or wish to pander to a class of whites, to stand away from danger and advise the colored people of the South to be still, disapprove of emigration, and hurl their bitter adjectives at the movement. But it is another thing to ho in their midst, be one of them, bear, suffer, andure and die with them. They are the men the Southern negro will listen to, and they are the men he ought to listen to. I thank no man to stand on the moon and song psalms to me, while I am contending with a cyclone or an earthquake. <br /><br />9th. Lastly, I do not generally deal in imaginary fancies, or draw dark pictures for pastime. But there are terrible times ahead; another internecine was is bound to come, and that speedily. The aspect of public affairs indicate it to precision. Besides. The history of the world shows that one rebellion always succeeds another, if the first was a failure. I challenge an instance to the contrary. The threatening signs are now everywhere bicker-skirmishing before us; there is no help for it. The instability of our Government will evolve it, the innocent blood that has been shed demands it, the justice of God requires it, the pented ire of insulted heaven will urge it, and the speechless though not lifeless counterbalancing forces of nature will drive it. Yes, it will come! It will come! But in the next revolution the negro will not be a neutral spectator. He will have to suffer too, in this upheaval and rocking reign of terror, fight and die possibly, to aid in his firther degradation, and for all we know to rivet upon him the gyves of his perpetual debasement. I ask if it would not be infinitely more wise to emigrate to Africa or anywhere, if you choose, than to remain here in the face of such impending and fearful hazards?<br /><br />This is but a sketch of what I would like to say, but it must suffice.<br /><br />Hoping you may have a pleasant meeting, and that much good may result from your deliberations,<br /><br />I am, with high esteem,<br /><br />H. M. Turner,<br /><br />May 3d, 1879. Of Georgia.<br /><br /><a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Downloads/Emigration%20of%20the%20Colored%20People-Embedded%20.docx#_ftnref1">[1]</a> Emancipation Proclamation, see https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=34</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Citation:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Turner, Henry McNeal. Emigration of the Colored People of the United States. The Henry McNeal Turner Project. (1879, May 6). </span><a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/emigration-of-colored-people-of-united.html">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/emigration-of-colored-people-of-united.html</a></span><br />
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HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-30988389806929668462019-03-28T11:57:00.000-07:002019-03-29T07:08:53.419-07:00Celebration of the First Anniversary of Freedom<iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1--uOmPTzvbEEOKeq-NMVC4Vm7Tr2UhBd/preview" width="640"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Synopsis: On January 1st, 1866, Henry McNeal Turner was the keynote speaker at the Emancipation Day Celebration in August, Georgia. The coordinators of this event promoted it as the “First day of Freedom” and honored it by celebrating the end of the Civil War and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment that abolished slavery. The excitement of day attracted many people both black and white, exhibiting a readiness to begin the strenuous process of building the South through Reconstruction efforts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Celebration of the First Anniversary of Freedom</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Held in Springfield Baptist Church</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">January 1, 1866</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Containing an Outline of an oration Delivered on the occasion </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Chaplain Henry M. Turner</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Gentlemen and Ladies, or Fellow Citizens, I should have said, we have assembled to-day under circumstances, unlike those of any other day in the history of our lives. We have met for the purpose of celebrating this, the first day of the New Year, not because it is the first New Years day we ever saw, but because it is the first one we ever enjoyed. O! how different this day from similar days of the past. The first day of January hitherto, was one of gloom and fearful suspense. The foundation of our social comforts hung upon the scales of apprehension, and fate with its decisions of weal or woe looked every one of us in the face, and dread forebodings kept in dubious agitation, every fleeting moment that passed. But today we stand upon no such sandy foundation. Uncertainty is no more the basis of our existence; we have for our fulcrum the eternal principles of right and equity.<a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Downloads/Emancipation%20Day%20Speech%20(Oration)%20January%201,%201866%20(1).docx#_ftn1">[1]</a><br /><br />Associated with the first day of January are peculiar interests, which in their accommodation to the world of colored men, will hereafter enshrine it in their affections with a deathless sacredness, forever and ever. This day which hitherto separated so many families, and tear-wet so many faces; heaved so many hearts, and filled the air with so many groans and sighs; this of all others the most bitter day of the year to out poor miserable race, shall henceforth and forever be filled with acclamations of the wildest joy, and expressions of ecstasy too numerous for angelic pens to note. Before this day, all other days will dwindle into insignificance with us, and the glory that shall environ it, will, compared with which, make hazy in appearance all other days God’s day accepted. It has been the custom of men in all ages to celebrate certain days in commemoration of certain achievements or national transactions. A few out of the many which are observed in some manner, are days which hold universal claim upon the observance of all men, and among them we may mention the Sabbath, and Christmas. True, the observance of those two heaven consecrated days, follow only in the wake of religious civilization, while all nations civilized or pagans, have their regular anniversaries, be the cause of the observance fictitious or real. But reverting to the customs of civilized nations, we will only name a few. The Sabbath day demands our attention first of all, in noticing those reckoned in the sacred catalogue. This day was hallowed and set apart by God himself, to be observed by all the inhabitants of the earth as a day of rest and of gratitude to God for the marvelous act which his Almighty flat performed, in standing out upon the unfathomable abyss of an eternal nonentity, and decorating the dismal caverns of old chaos with burning solars and rolling worlds. This act of Almighty greatness and wisdom, at first called forth the undying praises of the skies, and God perpetuated its sanctity on earth by hallowing the day of its final completion. That day remained sacred in the hearts of mankind for four thousand years. At the end of which time, God clothed his Son,-- the brightest jewel that glittered in the courts of Heaven—in the garb of humanity, and He left that throne for a while, which had not been vacated since the morn of eternity, and came to earth with his eternal attributes circumbounded by flesh and blood, endured a miserable life; died an ignominious death; robed death, hell, and the grave of their visionary trophies; and on the first day of the week rose from the dead to the joy of earth and ecstasy of Heaven, and changed the sanctity of the day, by virtue of the greater feat performed, from the seventh to the first day of the week, and for over eighteen hundred years, Christians of every tongue and every clime have kept it as a day of gratitude to Heaven for the triumphs of Emmanuel. This day above all others, holds the first claim upon all men irrespective of class or condition, a day upon which is stamped fadeless perpetuity. <br /><br />2d. The next day which was important in the history of the civilized world was the first day of the year of Jubilee. Theologians have differed it is true, as to whether the claims of the jubilee were national or universal, whether its special bearings contemplated only the house of Israel, or religious humanity at large. However, on the day of its arrival, the blast of the trumpet and the blow of the rams horn, sent a thrill of universal joy among all the people, which was peculiarly intensified by the shouts of the bondman and the insolvent, because it was the day of the release of the former, and restoration of the property of the latter. <br /><br />3d. Christmas, the day on which the birth of Christ is celebrated and his nativity recognized, has also been observed for many centuries, since the reign of Diocletian up to the present, if not before. Christian people and Christian nations everywhere have made it a day of special honor, nevertheless, thousands regard it as a day of desecration and festive revelry, while others run wild with drunkenness, and honor it with bacchanalian retorts. They treat the birth of Jesus with solemn contempt, and hundreds of church members regard it as a day to shake hands with sin, and compromise with crime. <br /><br />4th. For the sake of brevity, we will only notice one or more days which have been honored for certain events that have changed the order of things in the nation’s history. For ages Catholicism had been the prevailing religion in England, but in consequence of some small opposition in the executive circles of the Government, <a href="http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/catesby.htm">Catesby</a> and some other disappointed and desperate hearted Catholics, planned a scheme known as <a href="http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/gunpowderplot.htm">the ‘gunpowder plot,</a>’ for the murder of the king and the destruction of both houses of parliament. It was resolved that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Guy-Fawkes">Guy Fawkes</a>, one of the number should set fire to a train of powder which they had prepared; they were all ready, and the 5th, of November 1605, was at hand, the day to which parliament was prorogued. But God averted the horrid catastrophe by its timely discovery, and gave Catholicism its death blow, and crowned the protestant faith with eternal honors which ever since has gathered strength with increasing years, till its mighty volume of sacred truths have spanned the broad Atlantic and dashed against American shores—not broken, but divided into religious orders of different faiths—and have swelled our valleys with notes of joy, and dotted our hills with rebounding praises. Thus, the 5th, of November, will ever stand prominent among the days of English commemoration. <br /><br />5th. The 4th of July is especially familiar to every school boy in this our once cursed, but now blessed country. The white people have made it a day of gratitude and general rejoicing ever since 1776, consequently guns are fired; bells are rung; flags are raised; speeches are delivered, and every mode to express their feelings of pleasure is resorted to, because on that day they threw off the British Yoke, and trampled underfoot the scepter of despotic tyranny. They raised the standard of independence on that ever memorable day, and every man rallied to its support by the Declaration of Independence. An aged sire stood in the steeple of Independence Hall in the city of Philadelphia for hours with the iron tongue of a bell in his hand, shaking his head the while at the assembled multitude, when questioned upon matters relating to his mission. As soon as every name of that August assembly convened within was appended to that mighty document, which has ever since defied the world, a little boy shouted out ‘ring! ring!’ and with all the power of a freeman, he struck that bell one hundred blows, (the same number of days it took Abraham Lincoln to smelt out the ball of liberty, <a href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals_iv/sections/transcript_preliminary_emancipation.html">from September, 22nd, 1862, to January 1st, 1863</a>,) and the bell in response chimed out the irons words engraved upon its rim, ‘Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, and to the inhabitants thereof’ and thus the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, as seen by the ancient king, made its first revolution towards filling the whole world, as was then predicted, for I hold that America and her Democratic principles and institutions is the great stone which is spoken of by <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3630049/jewish/Daniel-the-Prophet-of-the-Bible-His-Life-and-Accomplishments.htm">the prophet Daniel</a>. I know that Theologians have interpreted that scripture to mean Messiah’s kingdom on earth. But consistency must be the rule of all true interpretation, prophetic or otherwise. Therefore if the image will not admit of spiritual interpretation, the stone that pulverized it will not. The first, second and third, Kingdoms represented by that Symbolic image have unquestionable passed away. And the fourth or the Roman empire now stands severed and disintegrated, making up the primary and petty kingdoms of Europe, and America blessed by the prayers of the Puritans; hallowed by the lives and influences of the pioneers of American civilization and consecrated by the blood of the revolutionary sires; founded upon free principles and recognizing equality in all men by the Declaration of Independence, is destined in the event of things to dethrone the proud monarchs of the old world, and snatch the mace of oppression from the now nervous grip of every despot in Europe, and then to teach the world that royal blood flows unobstructed through the veins of all men. This great Continent slept in the cradle of undisturbed for thousands of years. God seemed to have held it back for some important purpose, while Asia, Africa and Europe were the world’s theatres, and men of all sizes, colors and languages were playing out the drama of life. While nations were rising on the one hand and crumbling on the other, America laid quietly beneath her green bowers and blooming foliage. Her minerals, her exhaustless resources, rested in their beds of silence, and for ages they slept in peace from the hand of enterprise. <br /><br /> <a href="https://u3adorchesterhistorygroup.blogspot.com/2018/11/northmen-and-normans.html">The Northmen,</a> those mercenary adventurers from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, came over here five hundred years before the time, but God thwarted their designs, and sent them back, till America should get ripe. The Indian and the roving beasts, true, lived in herds and petty dynasties from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, but they only fed the soil, preparatory to the introduction of enterprise. No gospel messengers went forth to herald the claims of the world’s Redeemer, not summons men to a sense of reason. At length Columbus came, and in his wake ten thousand followed. God removed the obstructions on the one side, and human genius clamored for the world on the other. Settlement and colony succeeded each other, as they ran from the land of fettered conscience, many claiming also a desire to Christianize the Indians, <a href="http://www.aboriginalheritage.org/history/history/">the aborigines</a>, of this country. <a href="http://www.ourgeorgiahistory.com/people/oglethorpe.html">James Oglethorpe</a>, one hundred and thirty years ago, came over with 120 immigrants—his leading idea being to teach the Indian—to this now blood stained State of Georgia. But he was only a drop in the bucket to the multitudes that came to other parts. God say this spirit in them and was pleased. The pilgrims to, long before that, had moored the May Flower to the edge of Plymouth Rock, and with knees bent and uplifted hands had consecrated this land to God, and to just and holy ends. The same year—two hundred and forty six years ago—avaricious greed had stolen twenty Negroes or sable children from Africa, and a Dutch ship entered the mouth of James river, and landed them at Jamestown in old bone-bleached Virginia, that State where hoarded guilt and hellish crime lie piled to mountain height; that State, like the mother of harlots, who has poisoned by her slave mart (Richmond, the blackest spot on God’s earth) all the other States of the South, and finally plunged them into an inextricable vortex, where unbridled vengeance stalked in gigantic strides, and wrote death upon all their institutions of injustice. However, resuming the subject again, this was <a href="http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/campaignforabolition/abolitionbackground/abolitionintro.html">the introduction of the slave trade</a> and for many years it was kept up, meeting with the approbation of the most prominent men of the world. The early settlers of this country had run from outrage themselves, and had manifested a desire to civilize the heathen, and to build up an asylum for the oppressed of all nations, and to enact laws which would contemplate justice to all men. Therefore, God seeing the African stood in need of civilization, sanctioned for a while the slave trade—not that it was in harmony with his fundamental laws for one man to rule another, not did God ever contemplate that the Negro was to reduced to the status of a vassal, but as a subject for moral and intellectual culture. So God winked, or lidded eyeballs at the institution of slavery as a test of the white man’s obedience, and his obedience, and elevation of the Negro. The extremities of two colors, white and black, were now to meet, and embrace each other, and work out a great problem by the sanction of Heaven for the good of mankind. The African was, I have no doubt, committed to the care of the white man as a trust from God. That he should clear up the land, and pioneer the march of civilization, by agricultural labor and domestic pursuits is a fact about which I have no hesitancy in admitting. That the white man should have made him work and exacted so much daily toil as was commensurate with the necessities of life and the developments of the nation’s resources, was all in keeping with order and sense, for he was by virtue of his superior advantages, thereby, his superior in intellect, and the guardian of the Negro. But that the white man should bar all the avenues of improvement, and hold the Black as he would a horse or a cow; deface the image of God by ignorance, which the black man was the representative of was the crime which offended Heaven. We gave the white man our labor, yes! Every drop of sweat which oozed from our face he claimed as his own. In return, he should have educated us, taught us to read and write at least, and to have seen that Africa was well supplied with missionaries. Their Doctors of Divinity should have told them, that we had rights, and the people must respect them. Had ministers exhausted half the learning and study in showing the white people their duty to the Negro as a trust from God, that they have in trying to prove the divine right of slavery, Africa would have been two-thirds civilized today, and the nation twice as wealthy, and the bones of a million of our country men would not now lie bleaching over every Southern State. <br /><br /> <a href="https://www.military.com/independence-day/history-of-independence-day.html">The Fourth of July</a>—memorable in the history of our nation as the great day of independence to its countrymen—had no claims upon our sympathies. They made a flag and threw it to the heavens, and bid it float forever; but every star in it was against us; every stripe against us; the red, white and blue was against us; the nation’s constitution was against us; yes! Every State constitution; every State code; every decision from the supreme court down to the petty magistrate; and worse than all every church was against us; prayer and preaching was against us—enough to make us fall out with God himself. And why was it? We had always been loyal. The first blood spilt in the revolution for the nation’s freedom, was that of <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/crispus-attucks-9191864">Crispus Attacks</a>, a full blooded Negro. A Negro, then, was the pioneer of that liberty which the American people hold so dear. England tried all through the revolutionary war to make us traitors to our country, but failed; we stood firm then and are firm still. Was it then because we were not really human that we have not been recognized as a member of the nation’s family? Are we not made as other men? Have we not all the bones, muscles, nerves, veins, organs and functions that other men have? Are there any difference in our women? White men can answer that question better than us. And so far as intellect is concerned, are we not as susceptible of improvement as they are? Cannot we learn anything they can? If we cannot, why make it a crime to be found teaching a Negro? for it was a penitentiary act in this State, though it was not unlawful to teach a horse to read and write. But the whites not only refuses to teach us themselves, but refuses to let us learn at all if they could prevent it; at least law was against it, which was argument enough. They seem to have forgotten that they were shutting up in darkness, by refusing intellectual development, that immortal spirit; that undying principle; that spark of Deity which was created with exhaustless resources, with a mind, though minute at present, will one day swallow down, or comprehend the mysteries of the universe. Oh! Slavery, thou horrid monster! Thy days are numbered! Thou wast a curse to this nation; but far in the distance I hear the last sounds of thy rumbling departure, saying, gone! Gone! Forever, gone!” Had the white people treated slavery as trust from God, it would never have ended in a terrible war. It would have gone on until it became a social burden. It would have passed away so imperceptibly that not one would have felt the shock; more like a weary man going to sleep. But the way it was treated, and the ends to which it was appropriated, was an insult to God. And nothing less than floods of his burning fire and the thunders of his scathing judgment, poured out upon the guilty heads of the violators of this law, and crimsoned acres of ground with the heart’s gore of tens of thousands, could satisfy divine justice, and make slavery despicable in the eyes of a country which had loved it so dearly and nurtured it so long. Men, yes—men of every rank and position—had become darkened to the true status of manhood, because worldly gain lay at the bottom of all his moral considerations. <br /><br />Those that should have taught the people equity, have exhausted life in ransacking history to prove that <a href="http://ldolphin.org/canaan.html">the curse of Noah</a>, pronounced upon <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/canaan/">Canaan</a>, was a legitimate assignment of the colored race to perpetual servitude. And when history failed to support that abominable theory—for we are not of the posterity of Canaan, if the curse was worth anything at all (which I emphatically deny) ---it does not affect us as a people, because we came through <a href="http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/nation02.htm">the lineage of Cush</a>, and we have no more to do with Noah’s malediction upon the posterity of Canaan, than we have with Isaac’s blessing upon the posterity Jacob—when all these visionary theories were blown to the wind, they then resorted to the customs of the dark and crude ages of the world. They built air kingdoms of slavery from the servants of Abraham, not knowing that Abraham was a king or commanding patriarch, and these ‘so called’ servants were his subjects, and obedience to the orders of the chieftain was the rule of that age, as it was for centuries afterwards. Others would eternally anathematize Ham and his whole posterity, and assign them a place among chattels; but let it be remembered, henceforth and forever that they were the first great men of the world. They founded the first cities and formed the first empires; they were the greatest generals, and the greatest mechanics; they carried the alphabet first to proud Greece; and the mathematical problems of Euclid still puzzle the world; besides, we count three hundred black bishops in the Primitive Church.<br /><br />But it is useless to prowl through ancient history to prove our manhood; go to the bloody fields that have been reddened by gallons of the richest blood that ever coursed its way through the veins of man. Ask those bleaching bones which lie strewn around Petersburg and Richmond of my own brave regiment; then visit Port Hudson, Fort Wagoner, and a hundred other scenes of carnage, where black troops fought, bled and died, why are you here? And the answer will come loud as thunder, <a href="https://www.history.com/news/patrick-henrys-liberty-or-death-speech-240-years-ago">‘Give me Liberty or give me Death</a>,’ That was all they wanted, and it is all we want. Unlike the white man—we have no desire to enslave them or deprive them of their oath, disfranchise them, or to expatriate them. All we want is our rights in common with other men, and let them have theirs’. When the nation first called upon the colored men to rally to its flag, a howl and a whine was raised North and South that, ‘If you arm the Negroes, you can never discipline them; they will be cannibals, kill all the women and children and eat them into the bargain.’ But at length the Negroes were armed, and Ethiopia stretched for her hands in faith to God with a musket in them. Twelve hundred of us were placed on a bend of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/4153729054?ytcheck=1&new_session=1">the James River, known as Wilson’s Landing</a>. Shortly afterwards, <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/fitzhugh-lee">Gen. FitzHugh Lee</a> came down upon us with twenty-five men. As soon as he drove in our pickets, a flag of truce was sent in to demand a surrender of the place or he would take it, and death should be the penalty of our refusal. We however defied his army, so he opened the contest, which raged in fearful suspense for the space of four hours. He charged us three times, and finally left, leaving three hundred dead and wounded on the field. These Negro cannibals (for I was one) went out, took up his wounded, carried them to our hospital and treated them kindly. White man, show a better heart. <br /><br />The fact is, we have a better heart than the white people. We want them free and invested with all their rights. We want to treat them kindly and live in friendship; yet, I must say, as I believe, that as soon as old things can be forgotten, or all things become common, that the Southern people will take us by the hand and welcome us to their respect and regard. I look forward to the day when the white people of the South will not exhibit one half the prejudice they do North, for they know us, and we know them; but at present they are peevish, because they think themselves subjugated, while the poorer class never did like us at best. It was also said that the colored people contemplated a cold blooded insurrection during the Christmas holidays, and several of our white friends, I learn, had grave apprehensions about its possibility. I knew then, as I know now, that it was all a piece of nonsensical fudge. What have we to insurrect for? Are we not free and eternally free, and do we not know it? Away with such a hallucination! We never insurrected when we had something to insurrect for. <br /><br />It was also said, and Southern fanatics rode that hobby everywhere, ‘That if you free the Negro he will want to marry our daughters and sisters,’ that was another foolish dream. What do we want with their daughters and sisters? We have as much beauty as they? Look at our ladies, do you want more beauty than that?<br /><br />All we ask of the white man is to let our ladies alone, and they need not fear us. The difficulty has heretofore been our ladies were not always at our own disposal. <br /><br />But we have met today for the purpose of mingling our congratulation, and tendering our gratitude to the Great Disposer of events, that we, to, have a day reckoned in the catalogue of anniversaries, in which we can assemble, rejoice and feel our manhood. Previous to this, every day belonged to those who claimed our bodies; but now as freemen, we meet to celebrate the day of our great deliverance. Three years ago, Abraham Lincoln—a name dear to the black man—stood in the might of God’s approval, and hurled with the force of omnipotence itself the ball of liberty against the fabric of slavery, and it vanished, leaving only a vestige of its wreck which has been lately swept away by the constitutional amendment. Slavery is now dead and buried, leaving its millions of bruised and mangled victims to tread the face of God’s earth to the music freedom. Today, we celebrate the dawn of liberty, and dance for joy at the pledge of its security. Unborn millions will rise to swell the notes of emancipation, and tune its melody by the chants of the redeemed. The oppressed of every nation will join the chorus, and Heaven’s great organ will lend it harmony. The gray headed sires who died in its faith, will spread through immensity the glories of its triumphs, and lavish its trains with fadeless laurels. The heroes of the Union, whose blood was spilt for liberty, shall have fragrant names, and precious memories, and their noble examples will stand as a monument of honor, to inspire the just till the world shall end. <br /><br />This is a day of special gratitude to heaven for many blessings which follow in the exit of slavery.<br /><br />1st. This is a day of gratitude for the privilege of meeting as other people. Heretofore, we could not meet without being under the supervision of some white man. We were watched, feared and suspicioned. Three colored men could make a threat, and five hundred white men would rush to arms. The whites should thank God with us, for now they can rest quietly, they have no fears of being murdered, nor have they to sit up all night to watch us; no patrol duty to perform; not fears of us running away. They ought to thank God that they are relieved of that burden, and we of our fears—neither party having watch the other, but all can attend to their own business. <br /><br />2d. This is a day of gratitude for the general destruction of slavery; for slavery was a reactionary curse. It rebounded back upon the white man, while it degraded the status of the black. This trafficking in human blood, buying and selling, separating man and wife, parents and children, hardened the hearts and numbed the conscience of the whites and made them cruel and wicked. It petrified their sympathies and deadened their fine sense of justice and made their moral ideas a blank scroll. The result was, they were not near so benevolent in charitable acts as they should have been; consequently, thousands of white children grew up in their midst without any education for the want of free schools. On the other hand, it tended to make us thievish because we regarded it right to filch what we should have had as the reward of our labor. It also tended to make us untruthful, telling lies to escape punishment, or to deceive our owners for some personal comfort which our best men would regard as a necessary prerequisite. <br /><br />3d. This is a day of gratitude for the freedom of schools. Heretofore, law and rule closed against us books of every description. The Bible, God’s eternal will and requirements was a sealed book. His pledge, his sacred truth, and all the guarantees of his grace were bared and belted against us by the law of the land. Education the handmaid of religion, God’s great articulative organ of communication, hung palsied in the scales of prejudice, or was looked up by the greed of worldy gain. But now the channels of learning are free to all; we only have to launch our vessel and sail in its current to the port of distinction: Our big men, heretofore, were Barbers, Tailors, Bootmakers and Carriage drivers. If we saw John driving our ‘Massa and Missus,’ O! how we coveted his big position. But now our big men can be Lawyers, Doctors, Editors, Astronomers, Chemists &c. <br /><br />4th. This is a day of gratitude for the freedom of mind. Heretofore our immeasurable intellects were also enslaved—that is the most damning feature of slavery. But now with a mind, mighty in its resources, though, at present undeveloped we can prowl through Heaven, earth and hell, and claim their extensions as domain of its play. Problems will be made plain, and mysteries will lay bare their long entombed wonders. <br /><br />5th. This is a day of gratitude for the freedom of matrimony. Formerly there was not security for domestic happiness. Our ladies were insulted and degraded with or without their consent. Our wives were sold, and husbands bought, children were begotten and enslaved by their fathers, we therefore were polygamists by virtue of our condition. But now we can marry and live together till we die, and raise our children and teach them to fear God, O! black age of dissipation, thy days are nearly numbered. <br /><br />6th. This is a day of gratitude for the freedom of the Gospel. Formerly the Southern ministers were chained or curbed in proclaiming the mandates of Heaven. If one felt disposed to preach the full meaning of the text ‘to do to all men as you would have them to do to you,’ he trembled, feared, and flayed. The learned men of the world were shut out from the South. You could not preach the pure gospel, nor any one else. God’s word had to be frittered smeared and smattered to please the politics of slavery. The key of the Gospel was held by the hand of slavery, but now as slavery is dead and its dungeon opened by Abraham Lincoln the Hercules of freedom, the angel of the cross can fly forever with a free Gospel to all men. <br /><br />7th This is a day of gratitude for the freedom of labor. Heretofore our chief study was how to do the least work possible and escape punishment. Labor was not sweetened by reward—it was forced from us. We believed that no man had a right to build fine houses, and revel in pomp and splendor on the sweat of our face, while we dragged out an existence in tattered want and destitution. But now we can work with all the muscle of a freeman. Will you not do it? I believe you will, and now as labor is popular, and it being man’s normal position, let us show the world we can perform it <br /><br />8th. This is a day of gratitude for the pledge of the nation to the eternal security of all the blessings, and others that I have not time to mention. The nation’s great emblem is no longer against us, for we claim the protection of the Stars and Stripes. The glories of its fadeless escutcheon will ever bid us go free. Its mighty forts, guns, and magazines, have Liberty engraved upon their thundering music. The constitution has covenanted with us for mutual protection, it says, ‘save me should a foul hand attempt to desecrate my folds, and I will save you from the iron heel of oppression.’<br /><br />The superstructure known as Might, which lifted its <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-does-hydra-headed-evils-mean-and-from-where-does-it-originate">hydra-heads</a> to the very clouds, and spit venom in the face of every black man, was struck on the 1st, day of January 1863, by the thunder bolt of emancipation hurled from the Juno hands of Abraham Lincoln, and America trembled under the shock of the dread stroke, and all the world wondered, nevertheless right long crushed, enslaved, and outraged, rose from the ruins of its terrific fall, grasping the mace of Independence, and the helmet of Justice, brandished it with a gleaming flourish, and the nations of earth stood palsied at the scene. Greece may boast of her Solon, Rome of her Brutus, England of her Crowell, France of her Bonaparte, and America of her Washington. But the name of Lincoln, lettered in gold, pictured in silver, engraved in the diamond, and fringed by the tints of the sunbeam with the pencil of Raphael, then hung out in the azure concave of with the fadeless brand of freedom for its base, will be glory enough to inflame our souls and swell the joys of the Negro race forever and ever, world without end.<br /><br />But I must stop, and before doing so, let me say that I have not referred to the cruelty of slavery to incite your passions against the white people. I have done so in order to tell you for what we had reason to thank God and hold this day in special remembrance. To the contrary let us love the whites, and let bygones be bygones, neither taunt nor insult them for past grievances, respect them; honor them; work for them; but still let us be men. Let us show them we can be a people, respectable, virtuous, honest, and industrious, and soon their prejudice will melt away, and with God for our father, we will all be brothers. <br /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <br /><br /><a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Downloads/Emancipation%20Day%20Speech%20(Oration)%20January%201,%201866%20(1).docx#_ftnref1">[1]</a> In the American South, on “Slaves’ New Year”/“Hiring Day,” slaves were hired out on January 1st for an entire year. It was when the sales and hiring traditionally took place. The next day, usually on January 2nd, the enslaved were delivered to their new place of work until the following Christmas Eve. Obviously, January 1st would be a day filled with anxiety and dread for the enslaved. The waiting to find out if they or their loved one had been hired out for the year-and by whom-would be a time of great concern.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Citation:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Turner, Henry McNeal. Celebration of the First Anniversary of Freedom. The Henry McNeal Turner Project. (1866, January 1). </span><a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/synopsis-on-january-1st-1866-henry.html">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/synopsis-on-january-1st-1866-henry.html</a></span><br />
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HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-74182124273381450132019-03-28T10:52:00.001-07:002019-04-16T11:21:55.391-07:00Speech on the Eligibility of Colored Members to Seats in the Georgia Legislature<iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1of5u3EjyUDy_jk7yT17JdoXWlztVuGcz/preview" width="640"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Synopsis: After the Civil War, Bishop Henry McNeal Turner emerged as one of the most outspoken advocate and activist for the rights, freedom, justice, and democracy for African Americans. Turner was also in the first group of Reconstruction-era African Americans to be elected to the Georgia State Legislature (two senators and twenty-five African American Republican state representatives). In July 1868, the recently elected African American officials faced imminent expulsion from the Georgia State Legislature because of their race. On September 3, 1868, in his speech, “I Claim the Rights of a Man,” Turner stood before the assemble representatives and voiced his moral outrage and condemnation of the legislators who refused to seat the African American senators and representatives. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/5dfso3jhxvxat2e/on%20the%20eligibility.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank">SPEECH</a></span></div>
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ELIGIBILITY OF COLORED MEMBERS</div>
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To Seats</div>
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IN THE GEORGIA LEGISLATURE</div>
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By Hon. H. M. Turner,</div>
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Delivered before that Body September 3d, 1868.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">from: Christler, Ethel Maude. <a href="http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1208&context=dissertations">Participation of Negroes in the Government of Georgia, 1867-1870</a>. MA Thesis. Atlanta University, 1932</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <br /><br />Mr. Speaker:<br /><br />Before proceeding to argue this question upon its intrinsic merits, I wish the Members of this House to understand the position that I take. I hold that I am a member of this body. Therefore, sir, I shall neither fawn nor cringe before any party, nor stoop to bag them for my rights. Some of my colored fellow-members, in the course of their remarks, took occasion to appeal to the sympathies of Members on the opposite side, and to eulogize their character for magnanimity. It reminds me very much, sir, of slaves begging under the lash. I am here to demand my rights, and to hurl thunderbolts at the men who would dare to cross the threshold of my manhood. <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2017/september/henry-mcneal-turner-church-planter-politician-and-public-th.html">There is an old aphorism which says, “Fight the Devil with fire,” and if I should observe the rule in this instance, I wish gentlemen to understand that it is but fighting them with their own weapons.</a><br /><br />The scene presented in this House, today, is one unparalleled in the history of the world. From this day, back to the day when God breathed the breath of life into Adam, no analogy for it can be found. Never, in the history of the world, has a man been arraigned before a body clothed with legislative, judicial or executive functions, charged with the offence of being of a darker hue than his fellowmen. I know that questions have been before the Courts of this country, and of other countries, involving topics not altogether dissimilar to that which is being discussed here today. But, sir, never, in all the history of the great nations of this world-never before- has a man been arraigned, charged with an offence committed by the God of Heaven Himself. Cases may be found where men have been deprived of their rights for crimes and misdemeanors; but it has remained for the State of Georgia, in the very heart of the nineteenth century, to call a man before the bar, and there charge him with an act for which he is no more responsible than for the head which he carries upon his shoulders. The Anglo-Saxon race, sir, is a most surprising one. No man has ever been more deceived in that race than I have been for the last three weeks. I was not aware that there was in the character of that race so much cowardice, or so much pusillanimity. The treachery which has been exhibited in it by gentlemen belonging to that race has shaken my confidence in it more than anything that has come under my observation from the day of my birth. What is the question at issue? Why, sir, this Assembly, today, is discussing and deliberating on a matter upon which Angels would tremble to sit in judgment; there is not <a href="https://whyangels.com/seraphim_cherubim_creatures.html">a Cherubim that sits around God’s Eternal Throne</a>, today, that would not tremble – even were an order issued by the Supreme God himself – to come down here and sit in judgment on my manhood. Gentlemen may look at this question in whatever light they choose, and with just as much indifference as they may think proper to assume, but I tell you, sir, that this is a question which will not die today. This event shall be remembered by posterity for ages yet to come, and while the sun shall continue to climb the hills of heaven.<br /><br />Whose Legislature is this? Is it a white man’s Legislature, or is it a black man’s Legislature? Who voted for a Constitutional Convention, in obedience to the mandate of the Congress of the United States? Who first rallied around the standard of Reconstruction? Who set the ball of loyalty rolling in the State of Georgia? And whose voice was heard on the hills and in the valleys of this State? It was the voice of the brawny-armed Negro, with the few humanitarian-hearted white men who came to our assistance. I claim the honor, sir, of having been the instrument of convincing hundreds – yea, thousands – of white men, that to reconstruct under the measures of the United States Congress was the safest and the best course for the interest of the State.<br /><br />Let us look at some facts in connection with this matter. Did half the white men of Georgia vote for this Legislature? Did not the great bulk of them fight, with all their strength, the Constitution under which we are acting? And did they not fight against the organization of this Legislature? And further, sir, did they not vote against it? Yes, sir! And there are persons in this Legislature, today, who are ready to spit their poison in my face, while they themselves opposed, with all their power, the ratification of this Constitution. They question my right to a seat in this body, to represent the people whose legal votes elected me. This objection, sir, is an unheard of monopoly of power. No analogy can be found for it, except it be the case of a man who should go into my house, take possession of my wife and children and then tell me to walk out. I stand very much in the position of a criminal before your bar, because I dare to be the exponent of the views of those who sent me here. Or, in other words, we are told that if black men want to speak, they must speak through white trumpets; if black men want their sentiments expressed, they must be adulterated and sent through white messengers, who will quibble, and equivocate, and evade, as rapidly as the pendulum of a clock. If this be not done, then the black men have committed an outrage, and their Representatives must be denied the right to represent their constituents.<br /><br />The great question, sir, is this: Am I a man? If I am such, I claim the rights of a man. Am I not a man, because I happen to be of a darker hue than honorable gentlemen around me? Let me see whether I am or not. I want to convince the House, today, that I am entitled to my seat here. A certain gentleman has argued that the negro was a mere development similar to the orangutan or chimpanzee, but it so happens that, when a Negro is examined, physiologically, phrenologically and anatomically, and, I may say, physiognomically, he is found to be the same as person of different color. I would like to ask any gentleman on this floor, where is the analogy? Do you find me a quadruped, or do you find me a man? Do you find three bones less in my back than in that of the white man? Do you find les organs in the brain? If you know nothing of this, I do; for I have helped to dissect fifty men, black and white, and I assert that by the time you take of the mucous pigment – the color of the skin – you cannot, to save your life, distinguish between the black man and the white. Am I a man? Have I a soul to save, as you have? Am I susceptible of eternal development, as you are? Can I learn all the arts and sciences that you can – has it ever been demonstrated in the history of the world? Have black men ever exhibited bravery, as white men have done? Have they ever been in the professions! Have they not as good articulative organs as you? Some people argue that there is a very close similarity between the larynx of the Negro and that of the orangutan. Why, sir, there is not so much similarity between them as there is between the larynx of the man and that of the dog, and this fact I dare any Member of this House to dispute. God saw fit to vary everything in Nature. There are no two men alike – no two voices alike – no two trees alike. God has weaved and issued variety and versatility throughout the boundless space of His creation. – Because God saw fit to make some red, and some white, and some black, and some brown, are we to sit here in judgment upon what God has seen fit to do? As well might one play with the thunderbolts of heaven as with that creature that bears God’s image – God’s photograph.<br /><br />The question is asked: “What is it that the Negro race has done?” Well, Mr. Speaker, all I have to say upon the subject is this: that if we are the class of people that we are generally represented to be, I hold that we are a very great people. It is generally considered that we are the Children of Canaan, and that the curse of a father rests upon our heads, and has rested, all through history. Sir, I deny that the curse of Noah has anything to do with the Negro. We are not the Children of Canaan; and if we were, sir, where should we stand? Let us look a little into history. <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/melchizedek-priest-of-god-most-high-701172">Melchisodech</a> was a <a href="https://www.gotquestions.org/Canaanites.html">Canaanite</a>; all <a href="https://www.timemaps.com/civilizations/phoenicians/">the Phoenicians</a> – all those inventors of the arts and sciences – were the posterity of Canaan; but, sir the Negro is not. We are the children of Cush, and Canaan’s curse has nothing whatever to do with the Negro. If we belong to that race, Ham belonged to it, under whose instructions <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/napoleon-bonaparte-biography-1221106">Napoleon Bonaparte</a> studied military tactics. If we belong to that race, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Augustine">St. Augustine</a> belonged to it. Who was it that laid the foundation of the great Reformation? <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-9389283">Martin Luther</a>, who lit the light of Gospel Truth – a light that will never go out until the sun shall rise to sit no more; and, longer then, Democratic principles will have found their level in the regions of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/">Plato</a> and of <a href="https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/proserpine-20131">Proserpine.</a><br /><br />The Negro is here charge with holding office. Why, sir, the Negro never wanted office. I recollect that when we wanted candidates for the Constitutional Convention, we went from door to door in the “Negro belt,” and begged white men to run. Some promised to do so; and yet, on the very day of election, many of them first made known their determination not to comply with their promises. They told black men, everywhere, that they would rather see them run; and it was this encouragement of the white men that induced the colored man to place his name upon the ticket as a candidate for the Convention. In many instances, these white men voted for us. We did not want them, nor ask them, to do it. All we wanted them to do was, to stand still and allow us to walk up to the polls and deposit our ballots. They would not come here themselves, but would insist upon sending us. <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/benjamin-hill-1823-1882">Ben Hill</a> told them it was a nigger affair, and advised them to stay away from the polls – a piece of advice which they took very liberal advantage of. If the “niggers” had “office on the brain,” it was the white man that put it there – not carpet-baggers, either nor Yankees, nor scalawags, but the high-bred and dignified Democracy of the South. And if anyone is to blame for having Negroes in these Legislative Halls – if blame attaches to it at all – it is the Democratic Party. Now, however, a change has come over the spirit of their dream. They want to turn the “nigger” out; and, to support their argument, they say that the black man is debarred from holding office by the Reconstruction measures of congress. Let me tell them one thing for their information. Black men have held office, and are now holding under the United States Government. <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/andrew-johnson/">Andrew Johnson</a>, President of the United States, in 1865, commissioned me as United States Chaplain, and I would have been Chaplain today, had I not resigned – not desiring to hold office any longer. Let the Democratic Party, then go to Mr. Johnson, and ask him why he commissioned a Negro to that position? And if they inquire further, they will ascertain that at black men have been commissioned as Lieutenants, Captains, Majors, brevet Colonels, Surgeons, and other offices of trust and responsibility, under the United States Government. Black men, today, in Washington City, hold positions as Clerks, and the only reason why Mr. Langston is not at this time a Consul Diplomat of Minister Plenipotentiary in some foreign country, is because he would not be corrupted by President Johnson and made to subscribe to his wicked designs. Is not that an office, and is it not a great deal better office than any seat held in this body?<br /><br />The honorable gentleman from Whitfield (Mr. Shumate), when arguing this question, a day or two ago, put forth the proposition that to be a Representative was not to be an officer – “it was a privilege that citizens had a right to enjoy.” These are his words. It was not an office; it was a “privilege.” Every gentleman here knows that he denied that to be a representative was to be an officer. Now, he is recognized as a leader of the Democratic party in this House, and generally cooks victuals for them to eat; makes that remarkable declaration, and how are you, gentlemen on the other side of the House, because I am an officer, when one of your great lights says that I am not an officer? If you deny my right – the right of my constituents to have representation here – because it is a “privilege,” then, sir, I will show you that I have as many privileges as the whitest man on this floor. If I am not permitted to occupy a seat here, for the purpose of representing my constituents, I want to know how white men can be permitted to do so. How can a white man represent a colored constituency, if “I” a colored man cannot do it? The great argument is: “Oh, we have inherited” this, that and the other. Now, I want gentlemen to come down to cool, common sense. Is the created greater than the Creator? Is man greater than God? It is very strange, if a white man can occupy on this floor a seat created by colored votes, and a black man cannot do it. Why, gentleman, it is the most short-sighted reasoning in the world. A man can see better than that with half an eye; and even if he had no eye at all, he could forge one, as the Cyclops did, or punch one with his finger, which would enable him to see through that.<br /><br />It is said that Congress never gave us the right to hold office. I want to know, sir, if the Reconstruction measures did not base their action on the ground that no distinction should be made on account of race, color, or previous condition! Was not that the grand fulcrum on which they rested? And did not every reconstructed State have to reconstruct on the idea that no discrimination, in any sense of the term, should be made? There is not a man here who will dare say, “No.” If Congress has simply given me merely sufficient civil and political rights to make me a mere political slave for Democrats, or anybody else—giving them the opportunity of jumping on my back, in order to leap into political power – I do not thank Congress for it. Never, so help me, God, shall I be a political slave. I am not now speaking for those colored men who sit with me in this House, nor do I say that they endorse my sentiments (cries from the colored Members, “We Do!”), but assisting Mr. Lincoln to take me out of servile slavery, did not intend to put me and my race into political slavery. If they did, let them take away my ballot – I do not want it, and shall not have it. (Several colored Members: “Nor we!”) I don’t want to be a mere tool of that sort. I have been a slave long enough already.<br /><br />I tell you what I would be willing to do: I am willing that the question should be submitted to Congress for an explanation as to what was meant in the passage of their Reconstruction measures, and of the Constitutional Amendment. Let the Democratic Party in this House pass a Resolution giving this subject that direction, and I shall be content. I dare you, gentlemen, to do it. Come up to the question openly, whether it meant that the negro might hold office, or whether it meant that he should merely have the right to vote. If you are honest men, you will do it. If, however, you will not do that, I would make another proposition: Call together, again, the Convention that framed the Constitution under which we are acting; let them take a vote upon the subject, and I am willing to abide their decision.<br /><br />In the course of this discussion, a good deal of reference has been made to the Constitution. I am as much a man as anybody else. I hold that that document is neither proscripted, or has it ever, in the first instance, sanctioned slavery.<br /><br />The Constitution says that any person escaping from service in one State, and going to another, shall, on demand, be given up. That has been the clause under which the Democratic fire-eaters have maintained that that document sanctioned slavery in man. I shall show you that it meant no such thing. It was placed there, according to Mr. Madison, altogether for a different purpose. In the Convention that drafted the Constitution,<br /><br />Mr. Madison declared, he “thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in man.” On motion of Mr. Randolph, the word “SERVITUDE” was struck out, and “service” unanimously inserted – the former being though to express the condition of SLAVES, and the latter the obligation of free person. (3d Mad. Pap. 1429 and 1569).<br /><br />Now, if you can, make anything out of that that you find in it. It comes from one of the fathers of the Constitution. Sir, I want the gentleman to know that the Constitution, as <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/alexander-h-stephens">Mr. Alexander H. Stephens</a> said, I think, in 1854, so far as slavery is concerned, is neutral. He said, that if slavery existed in Georgia, it existed under the Constitution and by the authority of the Constitution; that if slavery did not exist in Pennsylvania, or in New York, it was equally under the Constitution.<br /><br />That is a distinct avowal that the constitution was neutral, and it is the opinion of a man who is acknowledged to be a man of great mind and large acquaintance with political affairs. Again: the Constitution of the United States has the following clause: <br /><br />“This Constitution, and all laws made in pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme law of the land.”<br /><br />Every law, therefore, which is passed under the Constitution of the United States, is a portion of the supreme law of the land, and you are bound to obey it.<br /><br />But gentlemen say that the Democrats did not pass the Reconstruction measures. I know they did not. Such Democrats as we are having in this State come pretty well under the description given of the Bourbons by Napoleon Bonaparte, who said that they never originated new idea, nor ever forget an old one. They certainly never would pass such measures. Did the Revolutionary Fathers intend the perpetuate slavery? Many say they did; I say they did not. What was meant by the clause which states that no bill of attainder of ex-post facto law shall be passed? I will tell you what I believe the Revolutionary fathers meant: I believe it was intended to put a clause there which should eventually work out the emancipation of the slaves. It was not intended that because the father had served in slavery the curse should descend. <br /><br />One of the strongest objections to the negro holding office is based upon the fact that he has been a slave, and had no rights; but the Fathers of this country framed a Constitution and Laws, whose spirit and letter condemn this everlasting proscription of the negro.<br /><br />Let us take, for example, an extract from a memorial sent to Congress in 1794. It was written by a Committee of which Dr. Rush was Chairman, and is signed by such men as <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/samuel-adams">Samuel Adams</a>, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/john-adams/">John Adams</a>, Isaac Law, <a href="http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/hopkins.html">Stephen Hopkins</a>, and a host of other prominent gentlemen. <br /><br />This memorial says:<br /><br />“Many reasons concur in persuading us to abolish slavery in our country. It is inconsistent with the safety of the liberties of the United States. Freedom and slavery cannot long exist together.”<br /><br />Let it be remembered that some of the gentlemen who signed this memorial had been Presidents of the United States. It is also well known that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Washington">General Washington</a>, in his will, earnestly expresses a desire that all his slaves should receive their freedom upon the death of his wife. He says:<br /><br />“Upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and desire that all the slaves held by me in my own right should receive their freedom. And I do most pointedly and solemnly enjoin on my Executors to see that the clause regarding my slaves, and every part thereof, be religiously fulfilled.”<br /><br />Did he intend to perpetuate slavery or Negro proscription? What says he, when writing to <a href="http://www.ushistory.org/Valleyforge/served/lafayette.html">General Lafayette</a>? – <br /><br />“There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery, but there is only one plan by which it can be accomplished. That is by legislative authority, and this, so far as my suffrage will go, shall not be wanting.”<br /><br />General Lafayette once said:<br /><br />“I never thought, when I was fighting for America that I was fighting to perpetuate slavery. I never should have drawn my sword in her defense, if I suspected such a thing.”<br /><br />Jefferson says:<br /><br />“And can the liberties of the nation be thought secure, when we have removed the only firm basis – the conviction of the minds of the people that liberty is the gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just, and that injustice cannot last forever.”<br /><br />I could quote from such men for days and weeks together, to show the spirit that was in them upon this subject, if I thought it necessary to my cause.<br /><br />We are told that we have no right to hold office, because it was never conferred upon us by “specific enactment.” Were we ever made slaves by specific enactment? I hold, sir, that there never was a law passed in this country, from its foundation to the Emancipation, which enacted us slaves. Even the great Mr. Calhoun said: “I doubt whether there is a single State in the South that ever enacted them slaves.” If, then, you have no laws enacting me a salve, how can you question my right to my freedom? <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/joseph-henry-lumpkin-1799-1867">Judge Lumpkin</a>, one of the ablest jurists that Georgia ever had, said that there never was any positive law in the State of Georgia that forbade Negroes from testifying in Courts; “and they are,” said he, “only debarred by their ignorance and ignoble status.” Neither did Queen Elizabeth, when she gave to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Hawkins-English-naval-commander">Sir John Hawkins</a> a charter to bring Negroes to this country, give him that right with any other understanding than that no violence or force should be used therefore; and she never intended that they should be anything more than apprentices. <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/james-madison-9394965">Mr. Madison</a>, in speaking upon the subject of jury-trials for Negroes, says; “Proof would have to be brought forward that slavery was established by preexisting laws;” “and”, said he, “it will be impossible to comply with such a request, for no such law could be produced.” Why, then, do gentlemen clamor for proof of our being free “by virtue of specific enactment?” show me any specific law of Georgia, or of the United States, that enacted black men to be slaves, and I will then tell you that, before we can enjoy our rights as free men, such law must be repealed.<br /><br />I stand here today, sir, pleading for ninety thousand black men – voters – of Georgia; and I shall stand and plead the cause of my race until God, in His providence, shall see proper to take me hence. I trust that He will give me strength to stand, and power to accomplish the simple justice that I see for them.<br /><br />Why did your forefathers come to this country? Did they not flee from oppression? They came to free themselves from the chains of tyranny, and to escape from under the heel of the Autocrat. Why, sir, in England, for centuries together, men – and white men at that – wore metal collars around their necks, bearing, in graven characters, the names by which they were known. Your great and noble race were sold in the slave-marts of Rome. The Irish, also, held many white slaves until 1172; and even Queen Elizabeth, in her day, had to send a deputation to inquire into the condition of such white slaves as had been born in England. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-king-of-Wessex">King Alfred the Great</a>, in his time, provided that for seven years’ work the slave should be set free. And, going back to more ancient and more valuable authority, did not God himself, when he had brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt, say unto them: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt?” I say to you, white men, today, that the great deliverance of the recent past is not altogether dissimilar to the great deliverance of ancient times, Your Democratic party may be aptly said to represent Pharaoh; the North to represent one of the walls, and the South the other. Between these two great walls the black man passes out to freedom, while your Democratic Party – the Pharaoh of today – follows us with hasty strides and lowering visage.<br /><br />The gentleman from Floyd (Mr. Scott) went down amid the chambers of the dead, and waked up the musty decision of <a href="http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1826-1850/dred-scott-case/chief-justice-taney.php">Judge Taney in the Dred Scott case</a>. Why, the very right on which he denied citizenship to <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2932.html">Dred Scott</a>, was, that if he were a citizen, he would be a free man, and invested with all rights of citizenship. The Constitution says that<br /><br />“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and resident in this State, are hereby declared citizens of this State; and no law shall be made or enforced that shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United Sates, or of this States, or deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws.”<br /><br />For what purpose was this clause inserted in that Constitution? It was placed there, sir, to protect the rights of every man – the Heaven-granted, inalienable, unrestricted rights of mind, and of my race. Great God, if I had the voice of seven thunders, today, I would make the ends of the earth to hear me. The Code of Laws known as Irwin’s Code of Georgia, clearly states the rights of citizens.<br /><br />“Among the rights of citizens are the enjoyment of personal security, of personal liberty, private property and the disposition thereof, the elective franchise, the right to hold office, to appeal to the Courts, to testify as a witness, to perform any civil function, and to keep and bear arms.”<br /><br />Section 1649 of the same Code says:<br /><br />“All citizens are entitled to the exercise of their right as such, unless specially prohibited by law.”<br /><br />I would like to ascertain, Mr. Speaker, what prohibition has been put upon me, or upon my race, and what can be put upon it,, under the provision of the constitution, which would deprive us of holding office. The Constitution of Georgia, Article 2, Section 2, says that,<br /><br />“Every male person who has been born or naturalized, or who has legally declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, twenty years old or upward, who shall have resided in this State six months preceding the election,, and shall have resided thirty days in the county in which he offers to vote, and shall have paid all taxes which may have been required of him, and which he may have had an opportunity of paying, agreeably to law, for the year next preceding election (except as hereinafter provided). Shall be declared an elector; and every male citizen of the United States, of the aforesaid (except as hereinafter provided), who may be a resident of the State at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be deemed an elector, and shall have all the rights of an elector as aforesaid.”<br /><br />Now let me read to you the meaning of the word “citizen,” as given by <a href="https://www.lawfulpath.com/ref/bouvier/bouvier1.shtml">Mr. Bouvier in his Law Dictionary:</a><br /><br />“In American law, one who, under the Constitution and Laws of the United States, has a right to vote for Representatives in Congress and other public officers, and who is qualified to fill offices in the gift of the people. Any white person born in the United States or naturalized person born out of the same, who has not lost his right as such.”<br /><br />Now, sir, I claim to be a citizen, I claim to be an elector, and I claim to be entitled to hold office.<br /><br />We have heard a good deal said about Greece and Rome, and the great nations of antiquity, and of such great men as <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/">Socrates</a>, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/seneca/">Seneca,</a> <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/aristotle">Aristotle</a>, Plato, <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/herodotus/">Herodotus</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Horace-Roman-poet">Horace</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Homer-Greek-poet">Homer.</a> Well, I make a reference or two to these times and nations. <a href="https://biblehub.com/topical/f/freedman.htm">A freeman among the Romans</a> was nothing more than, in the time of slavery in this country, a free Negro would be. He could not come in contact with the citizen upon equal footing, but when the Empire came under the sway of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Constantine-I-Roman-emperor">Constantine</a>, he provided that all slavers who were made free upon account of meritorious conduct should be enfranchised. Go back, then, Georgians, to the days of Constantine, and learn from him a lesson of wisdom. In the days of Justinian, too, provision was made that every slave who was made free should be enfranchised and made a full citizen of Rome. The celebrated Roman writer, Horace, boasted that he was the son of a freedman, and I would remind you, also, that one of the Emperors and rulers of Rome had a slave mother. Another provision of those times was, that a slave could become free and a citizen by the consent of six thousand other citizens. Now, sir, even following the example of Rome, am I not a citizen? Have not more than six thousand white citizens voted me my rights as such? And have not forty thousand white citizens voted for the Constitution which grants me my rights as such?<br /><br />We learn some peculiar points in regard to slavery from many of the writers of ancient times. <a href="https://www.livius.org/articles/person/tacitus/">Tacitus</a>, for instance, tells us that, amongst the ancient Germans, if, in gaming, the slave should win, the master became his property and slave, while he became master. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad">Mohammed</a> gave political rights to all slaves who defended his religion; and so, indeed, in general, did <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/mayweb-only/52.0.html">the Crusaders</a>; and the Popes of Rome used to teach their flocks that all men were the Lord’s freemen. <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/st-jerome-9354254">St. Jerome</a> once remarked that a man’s right to enfranchisement existed in his knowledge of the truth. I might quote for hours from such authorities as these upon the rights which rested in, and were acquired by, the slaves of old, but I deem it unnecessary to do so at this time.<br /><br />These colored men, who are unable to express themselves with all the clearness, and dignity, and force of rhetorical eloquence, are laughed at in derision by the Democracy of the country. It reminds me very much of the man who looked at himself in a mirror, and, imagining that he was addressing another person, exclaimed: “My God, how ugly you are!” These gentlemen do not consider for a moment the dreadful hardships which these people have endured, and especially those who in any way endeavored to acquire an education. For myself, sir, I was raised in the cotton fields of South Carolina, and, in order to prepare myself for usefulness, as well to myself as to my race, I determined to devote my spare hours to study. When the overseer retired at night to his comfortable couch, I sat and read, and thought, and studied, until I heard him blow his horn in the morning. He frequently told me, with an oath, that if he discovered me attempting to learn, that he would whip me to death, and I have no doubt he would have done so, if he had found an opportunity. I prayed to Almighty God to assist me, and He did, and I thank Him with my whole heart and soul.<br /><br />Personally, I have the highest regard for the gentleman from Floyd (Mr. Scott), but I need scarcely say that I heartily despise the political sentiments which he holds. I would pledge myself to do this, however: To take the Holy Bible and read it in as many different languages as he will. If he reads it in English, I will do it; if he reads it in Latin, I will do the same; if in Greek, I will read it in that language, too; and if in Hebrew, I will meet him, also, there. It can scarcely, then, be upon the plea of ignorance that he would debar me from the exercise of political rights.<br /><br />I must now direct your attention to a point which shows the intention of the framers of the Constitution of Georgia, which you have sworn to support. In the “Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention,” which framed this Constitution, I find, under date of March 3d, 1868, that, on motion of Mr. Akerman, the report of the Judiciary Committee on the subject of the qualifications of person for membership to the first General Assembly, after the ratification and adoption of the Constitution, was taken up, and without amendment, adopted. That report is as follows:<br /><br />“Be it ordained by the people of Georgia, in Convention assembled, That the persons eligible as members of the General Assembly, at the first election held under the Constitution framed by this Convention, shall be citizens of the United States who shall have been inhabitants of this state for six months, and of the district or county for which they shall be elected for three months next preceding such election, and who, in the case of Senators, shall have attained the age of twenty-five years, and , in the case of Representatives, the age of twenty-one years, at the time of such election.”<br /><br />Gentlemen will observe the word “inhabitant” in that Ordinance and it was put there especially, in order that no question could and so as to who were eligible to fill the position of Senator and Representative.<br /><br />So far as I am personally concerned, no man in Georgia has been more conservative than I. “Anything to please the white folks” has been my motto; and so closely have I adhered to that course, that many among my own party have classed me as a Democrat. One of the leaders of the Republican Party in Georgia has not been at all favorable to me for some time back, because he believed that I was too “conservative” for a Republican. I can assure you, however, Mr. Speaker, that I have had quite enough, and to spare, of such “conservatism.”<br /><br />The “conservative” element has pursued a somewhat erratic course in the reconstruction of Georgia. In several instances – as, for instance, in Houston County – they placed negroes on their tickets for county offices, and elected them, too, and they are holding office to-day. And this policy is perfectly consistent with the doctrine taught, in public and in private, by the great lights of Democracy….. They objected to the Constitution, “because”, said they, “it confers upon niggers the right to hold office.” Even <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/alexander-h-stephens">Mr. Alexander H. Stephens</a> – one of the greatest men, if not the greatest man, in the South, today, and one from whom I have the utmost, respect in a conversation that I had with him before the Legislature convened (<a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/joseph-e-brown-1821-1894">Governor Brown’s Marietta speech</a> being one of the topics under consideration very generally throughout the State at that time), said” “Governor Brown says that the black man cannot hold office under that Constitution, but he knows that he can.”<br /><br />But, Mr. Speaker, I do not regard this movement as a thrust at me. It is a thrust at the Bible – a thrust at the God of the Universe for making a man and not finishing him; it is simply calling the Great Jehovah a fool. Why, sir, though we are not white, we have accomplished much. We have pioneered civilization here; we have built up your country, we have worked in your fields, and garnered your harvests, for two hundred and fifty years! And what do we ask of you in return? Do we ask you for compensation for the sweat our fathers bore for you – for the tears you have caused, and the hearts you have broken, and the lives you have curtailed, and the blood you have spilled? Do we ask retaliation? We ask it not. We are willing to let the dead past bury its dead; but we ask you, now for our RIGHTS. You have all the elements of superiority upon your side you have our money and your own; you have our education and your own; and you have our land and your own, too. We, who number hundreds of thousands in Georgia, including our wives and families, with not a foot of land to call our own – strangers in the land of our birth; without money, without education, without aid, without a roof to cover us while we live, nor sufficient clay to cover us when we die: It is extraordinary that a race such as yours, professing gallantry, and chivalry, and education, and superiority, living in a land where ringing chimes call child and sire to the church of God—a land where Bibles are read and Gospels truths are spoken, and whose courts of justice are presumed to exist; it is extraordinary, I say, that, with all these advantages on your side, you can make war upon the poor defenseless black man. You know we have no money, no railroads, no telegraphs, no advantages of any sort, and yet all manner of injustice is placed upon us. You know that the black people of this country acknowledge you as their superiors, by virtue of your education and advantages.<br /><br />There was a Resolution passed here at the early part of this session stating that all persons who were in their seats were eligible thereto. What are gentlemen going to do, with that Resolution staring them in the face? Your children and my children will read that Resolution, and they will be astonished that person, claiming to be men, with souls and consciences, should, contrary to the express provision of that Resolution, turn the colored man out of his seat in this Hall. Another Resolution came before this House, a short time ago, praying Congress to remove all political disabilities from the white people of Georgia. I stood up in my place here, sir, and advocated that Resolution, and advised all colored Members to do the same; and almost every one of them voted for it. We were willing to give the white man every right which he ever rightfully possessed, and, were there forty negroes in this country to one white man, I would have precisely the same feeling, and act precisely the same way. The action of the House reminds me very much of a couple of lines of verse which we occasionally read:<br /><br />“When the Devil was sick, the Devil a saint would be;<br /><br />When the Devil was well, the Devil a saint was he.”<br /><br />When this House was “sick” with fear for the safety of the seats of ineligible Democrats, they were all very gracious and polite. But, when the Resolution was passed, declaring, in the face of facts, that all who were in their seats were eligible, then the foot was raised which was to trample on the poor negro, and that, too, by those who claim bravery and chivalry.<br /><br />You may expel us, gentlemen, but I firmly believe that you will some day repent it. The black man cannot protect a country, if the country doesn’t protect him; and if, tomorrow, a war should arise, I would not raise a musket to defend a country where my manhood is denied. The fashionable way in Georgia, when hard work is to be done, is, for the white man to sit at his ease, while the black man does the work; but, sir, I will say this much to the colored men of Georgia, as if I should be killed in this campaign, I may have no opportunity of telling them at any other time: Never lift a finger nor raise a hand in defense of Georgia, unless Georgia acknowledges that you are men, and invests you with the rights pertaining to manhood. Pay your taxes, however, obey all orders from your employers, take good counsel from friends, work faithfully, earn an honest living, and show, by your conduct, that you can be good citizens.<br /><br />I want to take your memories back to 1862. In that year, the Emperor of Russia, with one stroke of his pen, freed twenty-two millions of serfs. What did Russia do, then? Did she draw lines of distinction between those who had been serfs and her other citizens? No! That noble Prince, upon whose realm the sun never sets, after having freed these serfs, invested them with all the political rights enjoyed by his other subjects. America boasts of being the most enlightened, intelligent and enterprising nation in the world, and many people look upon Russia as not altogether perfectly civilized. But, look at what Russia has done for her slaves; there were twenty-two millions of them, while there are but four millions of us in the whole South, and only half a million in Georgia. If the action is taken in this House that is contemplated today, I will call a colored Convention, and I will say to my friends: Let us send North for carpet-baggers and Yankees, and let us send to Europe and all over the world for immigrants, and when they come here, we will give them every vote we have, and send them to the Legislature, in preference to sending a Georgian there.<br /><br />Go on with your oppressions. Babylon fell. Where is Greece? Where is Nineveh? and where is Rome, the mistress Empire of the world? Why is it that she stands, today, in broken fragments throughout Europe? Because oppression killed her. Every act that we commit is like a bounding ball. If you curse a man, that curse rebounds upon you; and when you bless a man, the blessing returns to you; and when you oppress a man, the oppression, also will rebound. Where have you ever heard of four millions of freemen being governed by laws, and yet have no hand in their making? Search the records of the world, and you will find no example. “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.” How dare you to make laws by which to try me and my wife and children, and deny me a voice in the making of these laws? I know you can establish a monarchy, an autocracy, an oligarchy, or any other kind of an “ocracy” that you please; and that you can declare whom you please to be sovereign; but tell me, sir, how you can clothe me with more power than another, where all are sovereigns alike? How can you say you have a Republican form of Government, when you make such distinction and enact such proscriptive laws?<br /><br />Gentlemen talk a good deal about the Negroes “building no monuments. I can tell the gentlemen one thing; that is, that we could have built monuments of fire while the war was in progress. We could have fired your woods, your barns and fences, and called you home. Did we do it? No, sir! And God grant that the negro may never do it, or do anything else that would destroy the good opinion of his friends. No epithet is sufficiently opprobrious for us now. I say, sir that we have built a monument of docility, of obedience, of respect, and of self-control, that will endure longer than the Pyramids of Egypt.<br /><br />We are a persecuted people. Luther was persecuted; Galileo was persecuted; good men in all nations have been persecuted; but the persecutors have been handed down to posterity with shame and ignominy. <br /><br />If you pass this Bill, you will never get Congress to pardon or enfranchise another rebel in your lives. You are going to fix an everlasting disfranchisement upon Mr. Toombs and the other leading men of Georgia. You may think you are doing yourselves honor by expelling us from this House; but when we go, we will do as Wickliffe and as Latimer did. We will light a torch of truth that will never be extinguished – the impression that will run through the county, as people picture in their mind’s eye these poor black men, in all parts of this Southern country, pleading for their rights. When you expel us, you make us forever your political foes, and you will never find a black man to vote a Democratic ticket again; for, so help me, God, I will go through all the length and breadth of the land, where a man of my race is to be found, and advise him to beware of the Democratic party. Justice is the great doctrine taught in the Bible. God’s Eternal Justice is founded upon Truth, and the man who steps from Justice steps down from Truth, and cannot make his principles to prevail.<br /><br />I have now, Mr. Speaker, said all that my physical condition will allow me to say. Weak and ill, though I am, I could not is passively here and see the sacred rights of my race destroyed at one blow. We are in a position somewhat similar to that of the famous “Light Brigade,” of which <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Lord-Tennyson">Tennyson</a> says, they had<br /><br />“Cannon to right of them,<br /><br />Cannon to left of them,<br /><br />Cannon in front of them,<br /><br />Volleyed and thundered.”<br /><br />I hope our poor, down-trodden race may act well and wisely through this period of trial, and that they will exercise patience and discretion under all circumstances.<br /><br />You may expel us, gentlemen, by your votes, today; but, while you do it, remember that there is a just God in Heaven, whose All-Seeing Eye beholds alike the acts of the oppressor and the oppressed, and who, despite the machinations of the wicked, never fails to vindicate the cause of Justice, and the sanctity of His own handiwork.<br /><br />This pamphlet was obtained from Bishop J.S. Flipper of Atlanta, Georgia.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Citation:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Turner, Henry McNeal. Speech on the Eligibility of Colored Members to Seats in the Georgia Legislature. The Henry McNeal Turner Project (1868, September 3). </span><a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/speech-on-eligibility-of-colored.html">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/speech-on-eligibility-of-colored.html</a></span><br />
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HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-5150830517239860302019-03-28T10:42:00.000-07:002019-03-29T07:09:43.693-07:00A Speech on the Present Duties and Future Destiny of the Negro Race<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A SPEECH on the PRESENT DUTIES AND FUTURE DESTINY OF THE NEGRO RACE</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">REV. H. M. TURNER, LL.D</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 2, 1872</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Published by the Lyceum for the benefit of the young colored men who are laboring to make themselves intelligent and useful. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Gentlemen of the Lyceum and fellow Citizens<br /><br />Notwithstanding the combination of forces, impediments and organized obstructions which have been marshaled for the purpose of clogging the wheels of progress, and paralyzing the enlightened ideas, liberal and advancing agencies of the age.<br /><br />We meet to-night under the most happy congratulations and friendly greetings ever prompted by the triumphant victories of a civil conquest. It is said that after Galileo had signed the bill of recantation through the coercion of the Roman Inquisition, retracting the truism that the world, planets and their satellites revolved around a solar centre, that he threw his pen on the floor, and stamped with his feet, exclaiming at the same time, “It moves, nevertheless”. But later investigations through the aid of the telescope and mathematics, have demonstrated that the world does move, and that at a marvelous speed, but her axial whirl has never been more rapid, than has the strides of her moral and civil progress within the last few years in this country, where liberty, equality and simple justice has lifted to heaven their banner flags, amid the sweet cadences of a happier dispensation, heralded, as it were, by the strains of an orchestral melody, more enchanting than Apollo’s choir, or the celestial dreams of the Muses.<br /><br />Here, alone, despotism has had to bite the dust, and shrink before the ascending glories of a brighter era, while equal rights and civil rectitude despite the cunning and strategy of men, have gathered strength at every stride. Though, as Hayes said: With tardy step Celestial Justice comes, that step is sure, unerring in her bolt, but where it falls, eternal will the ruin be.<br /><br />Had a seraph from some distant region visited our portion of this mundane sphere, about ten years ago, noted our institutions, read our laws and marked the prescriptive provisions of our statutes, and were he now to return for a similar inspection, he would either fail to recognize the locality, or in surprise, exclaim: “God of grandeur what a change.” <br /><br />He would see no slaves thronging the jungles and fields of our verdant South, or human chattels bartered and sold, he would see no auction blocks suspending between heaven and earth, the image of God, and the horrific hammer of the crier, down, to knock it off to the highest bidder. He would see no heaving hearts and streaming eyes, nor would he hear the anguished groans of the life-separated slave, augmented by the sorrows of unrequited toil; neither would he see a country of inexhaustible resources and incalculable blessings, staggering beneath a burden of organized crime over which heaven’s displeasure was bickering with a lurid flare, and the stentorian voice of immutable justice clamoring for revolution and reform. But, instead, he would see a nation, whose bulwarks and safe guards were the symmetrical notes of the restless chants of a jubilee welcome, where all races, tongues, and people, can in mingled unity claim a common interest and boast a common destiny. He would see the previous vassals of this country, luxuriating in the glories of liberty, free of fetters, stepping with bold tread in aspiring paths, tending upward, moving onward, and marching forward to honor, fame and immortality.<br /><br />The black skin of the Negro heretofore at great discount, when thrown in the scales of manhood equality, would be seen reposing securely under the shades of a floating banner, which recognizes no distinction between colors or races, nor proscribes a man for either his religious or political creed.<br /><br />Our country would present the aspects of a redeemed land, and our people a nebulous galaxy of living grandeur, frescoing as it were with surpassing beauty, the interminable arches of an expanded temple, which have been reared by more than transcendental skill, and are supported by the flaming columns of omnipotent sanction.<br /><br />We are moved as by the genius of undefinable forces, whirled as by the might of that invisible, yet incomprehensible power, which permeates all space, holds the universe in its grasp; and executes His purposes through the domain of innumerable realms; the weight of evidence supporting such an hypothecation even to authenticity, is abundant and indubitable, whether we examine it internally, externally or collaterally, the conviction of its truth penetrates the understanding, and disbands every feature of supposition, through the projective glare of those convergent rays that stream from the combination of a thousand providences. This is manifest in the redemption of our country, the liberation of the oppressed, the purgation of our laws, and the indiscriminate distribution of human rights, thus that precious boon, has again been restored---<br /><br />“Which lights our gloom—which soothes our care,<br /><br />Which bids our fears depart,<br /><br />Transmutes to gems each grief fraught tear,<br /><br />And binds the broken heart.”<br /><br />In addressing you tonight, you will pardon me if I should fail to speak in the usual exulting tone, that is so common among our public declaimers. I think that the grave and ponderous responsibilities growing out of the recently developed results, demand more thought and practicalization (sic), than are commonly given them. I am also cognizant of the fact, that a man gains far more popularity by pandering to public vanity, than he does in exacting duty. But I believe that the people of Georgia have accorded me the privilege of saying, whatever I chose, whether they like it or not, and I shall therefore say just what I please, without essaying to measure the amount of popularity my words may carry, so I shall not dwell so much in strains of triumph over writhing opponents prostrated in the dust, as I shall of the duties which lie at the threshold of our very existence. And yet I am aware that for the last six years, nearly every address delivered to our people have been a heterogeneous string of self-constituted advices, neither concordant in principles nor euphonious in sound.<br /><br />The prevailing impression that have become current through misrepresentation, is that the Negro is either the basest of all creatures, or is so insurmountably ignorant that any train of thought involving argument or reason, or comprehending any of the natural sciences or demonstrable truisms of philosophy, could not possibly find interest space within the sphere of his intellect; in other words, that his mind is so dwarfed and circumvented by the stultifying effects of his previous condition, that any subject which involved an association of ideas, or had to be adduced from abstract principles, or presented by a series of logical inductions, could not be appreciated by him, regardless of the extent of the simplification. Wherefore, profundity of thought and nicety of perception have measurably been claimed as the exclusive province of the white man, while moral principles brought down to an alphabetical or artless simplicity, has been regarded as the specialty of the Negro. This fact I have always, however, thought presaged glorious things for the colored race: for he is admitted by all to be a religious phenomena and he that puts his trust in the Most High will never be confounded. Let man ridicule that idea as they may, but all history will attest its truthfulness, the theory of skeptics, rationalists, and sentimentalists to the contrary notwithstanding.<br /><br />As we are called upon tonight to address you on vital issues, and as the young men are the only hope of our race, I beg the privilege of digressing from the already stagnant speculations which so frequently evoke applause, and shall ask permission to blaze out a new, though to some a novel rout, which I hope, however, to make sufficiently clear, to convince others that both expediency and utility demand their consideration. They will be directed in the main to the coming men of my own race. I shall endeavor to convince all present that the prospectus of the Negro lies in his own intellectual cabinet. The sweetness of a kiss depends upon the admiration we have for the kissed; the greatness of a people depends upon the admiration they cherish for greatness. It is a quality that is either innate or eternally wanting; it can be excited, aroused, and put in motion, but never substituted. I mean that the Negro must climb his own ladder, if he ever scales the mount of distinction.<br /><br />I think I hazard nothing in the assertion that notwithstanding the superficial friendship feigned by many for the Negro, when some political object as in contemplation where his aid is sought, that the majority of the whites, so far as our state is concerned, have failed to prove themselves the intrinsic and disinterested friend of the Negro.<br /><br />Bombastic gas, grandiloquent words, and flippant tongue sophistry, during a political campaign, is no evidence of genuine friendship. We want facts, attested and sustained by such indubitable attestations as will admit of no doubt, and square, right, practically demonstrated and unconditional philanthropy must constitute the motor nerve in this matter. But without reviewing this subject in detail, as there is none more sensitive, I pass on, with the hope of witnessing an early reformation. I would not have you either to understand that I am speaking of those allied with the Democratic Party, absolutely, for I include in this catalogue a regular caravan of doughface Republicans, who have stuck like blood-sucking leeches to the black man in times of political excitement, but scorn him in times of peace and quiet.<br /><br />Their treachery to the Negro has nearly ruined this state. Some of them have done more to damn the principles of progress than they could undo in a thousand years. But there are noble exceptions in their ranks, among whom we might enumerate grand great names who have expended their talents and strength in the advocacy of the principles which have been incorporated in the organic law of the land. God has seen this exhibition of perfidy, however, much clearer than we have, and in his own good time his negative, will foil the acutest ingenuity of evil designing men. Had Governor <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/rufus-bullock-1834-1907">Bullock</a> been true to the Negro as the Negro was to him, he would have been still in the Executive chair, respected, honored and admired. Had we sent a negro to the United States Senate in 1870, as I labored so hard to secure, and the Democrats offered to assist us in doing the State today would not only have been a glittering star in the national galaxy, but every house would have been enshrined in the bosom of protection, and blood’s crimson flow would have never stained the verdant soil of our great State – instead thereof the Olive Branch of peace, the Lilly of the Valley, and the Rose of Sharon, would have been blooming in the glow of eternal fragrance.<br /><br />I have said enough. I trust to present vividly to your minds, the importance of the colored race, observing the morale of an old adage, vulgarly expressed. “Root hog or die,” for these sentiments must be our shibboleth before we can realize what Providence has in reservation for us, and it is high time the negro had found out that fact.<br /><br />But I tell you today, that so long as we accept the pack horse position, and thus allow ourselves to be saddled up by every political trickster, we will be valued only as political asses to gallop the ingrates of the world into power and respectability, who will reciprocate the compliment by throttling you on the first opportunity.<br /><br />It is customary to ask, “Is that the kind of gratitude you colored people have?” I would, in reply say; the colored people owe no gratitude to such a herd of cattle. I would rather thank the mosquito that sings Cousin to my car one moment, and goes for my blood the next.<br /><br />I honor the sons and daughters of liberty. Yes, I could be tempted to thank them for services rendered, were I to meet them in pandemonium. Why, I fancy, I could walk up to the gates of perdition and tender Hon. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thaddeus-Stevens">Thaddeus Stevens</a> my heart-felt gratitude, if I could believe he was among the lost. So with President Lincoln, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Wilberforce">Wilberforce</a> and a host of lesser lights.<br /><br />But for a man, be white or black, to assume a false position, merely to deceive the unsuspecting and credulous Negro, is to merit my most bitter detestation.<br /><br />But, gentlemen, the signs of the times, the contingencies of events, the ingenuities of necessity, yes, Heaven and earth calls upon the Negro, (to) rise and shine. But if this is ever done, it must be the work of his own efforts, and the path will be found leading through the thick maze of repeated disappointments, and attended by Herculean labor to accomplish which a series of struggles will be necessary, as I have already remarked; and I now propose to make some glancing remarks at a few of them, in doing which I beg your indulgent attention.<br /><br />The primary duty which lies at the threshold of all other considerations by virtue of it being first in importance, is that of acquiring a liberal education. I do not mean such a superficial knowledge of the letter as will barely enable you to read and write and cipher a little, or a dreamy knowledge of Geography and History, for they are merely the alphabets to an education. But I mean a thorough and practical acquaintance with all the branches of English literature, and the classic inclusive. Profound thought and polished diction can only be acquired by rigid training, and perfection in them must be obtained by laying the foundation in youth. You will at once perceive that this is the work of our young men, as those among us of advanced years, are too busily engaged with domestic duties to devote to study the time required, if they were ever so susceptible of impressions which education is wont to fix upon its tablet, so that the pupil should either be above or below the daily concerns of his bread and meat, by having someone to provide for by wealth. It is well known that our ministry is terribly paralyzed, and accomplishes but little for the want of that early intellectual training and moral discipline by which alone they can prepare the community to distinguish falsehood from truth; to comprehend the theological tenets of the day; to receive higher and broader views of duty, and to apply general principles to the diversified details of life, which, too, would no longer leave the domestic and practical duties of life the subject of accidental impulse.<br /><br />A finished education form the basis of all future success, and the deeper we dive in the limpid truths of reason and philosophy the higher we can rise when we engage our minds in the busy pursuits of life. By this, also, language becomes chaste, perception clear, judgment balanced, and imagination plumes her lofty wings for appalling flights. Our pulpits today groan beneath an ignorant ministry, and polished oratory is comparatively a stranger, while professional pursuits are barren among our people. The late revolution left us free, and the 15th amendment has guaranteed the right of citizenship, but we are lamentably wanting in the sphere of professional men, a necessity too fraught with fearful evils to any people.<br /><br />Five thousand colored physicians, four or five thousand colored lawyers, and ten thousand educated colored ministers could find ready employment in the Southern States today, and still there would be a vacuum left, besides the great demand for politicians, public lecturers and stump orators. I do not mean Satis eloquentae Sapientiae parum, but those of fecundity of thought and profundity of judgment; and I wish it understood, I have not enumerated in this catalogue such public men as bailiffs, constables, policemen and other executors of the law. Thus you see a field of usefulness, rife for the harvest, almost startling, and in the nature of things should give a double impetus to every colored young man in the country. But these do not include all spheres of usefulness and positions of wealth and honor. I am anxious to see Railroad conductors on the highways, engineers, civil and practical, giving counsel, orders and direction, the same as we now see among the white.<br /><br />Another obligation we are under now not hitherto required of us, which demands special fitness to enable us to discharge with credit to ourselves, and with honor to our country, I mean to serve as Jurors. Here every faculty of the most acute mind is brought into requisition, and the closest discrimination is necessary to judge accurately on the finest sprung threads of law.<br /><br />Even the Judge himself is often in doubt as to what is right or just in the premises. And he will give a prolix charge, or a doubtful analysis of what he is inadequate to thoroughly comprehend, which not unfrequently muddles your brains more than they were before, and sends you in the anti-room with your mind all in eclipse to bring forth a verdict, that would have puzzled Lord Erskine with all his legal lore to make up.<br /><br />Farming is better understood by our people than any other kind of occupation, and, yet, their knowledge of that is but meager. The system of farming in the South has always been defective. The all absorbing idea has heretofore been, how so much land can be planted, plowed and hoed. In other words, by what means can so and so much work land can be planted, plowed and hoed. In other words, by what means can so and so much work be extorted from the bone and muscle of the laborer, regardless of the weather, with but little attention to the seasons or the adaptability of the soil, to the product planted and cultivated.<br /><br />There must be a speedy revolution in this department, and I know of no people whose condition require it so much as ours. The abolition of slavery and the indiscrimination of human rights, now happily secured, is destined to flood our genial clime with millions of inhabitants, which will eventually necessitate the cutting of these large farms into small homesteads, and in order for such homesteads to yield a living support for our families, it will be necessary for us to understand the science, or art of agriculture: and more than a theoretical knowledge at that will be required for us to make such a practical use of it, as will answer the purpose of life. A good farmer should be able when inspecting his lands, to take up some of the soil in his hand, rub it in his fingers and tell whether or not it possesses the chemical elements or properties to produce cotton, corn, wheat, potatoes, or any other vegetable he may wish to raise. The world is composed of some sixty-four chemical elements, or properties, and they enter into everything on the earth more or less.<br /><br />Yet to tell some people that, would tempt them to call you a fool, or elicit a refutation based upon the theory, or say so, of what some old grand papa, use to do or say, which would be sufficient evidence that you were either crazy or was a fanatic. But I tell you in defiance of all the bunkum of such timberheads, that such is the truth in the case, and the sooner we learn it, the better for our future.<br /><br />Another thing deserves more than a passing notice in this connection, that is the want of colored writers. I know of nothing that has worked so much to our disadvantage as our carelessness in this respect. I have been asked a thousand times, why we had no history, and I have both gaped and sighed in giving a reply, so as to make time to fumble with the fingers of my mind, amid the dusty records of the past, trying to scratch up a little, which when collected was too frequently doubtful as to its authenticity. There is no doubt but what we have been too derelict in all ages, about noting events connected with our history.<br /><br />While we ethnologically claim in our ranks the immortal names of Hannibal, Euclid, St. Augustine, Athanasius and others of like fame, yet we have to dispute with the white race as to their lineage and genealogy. You are aware that many pretend to deny that these persons were actual Negroes, though born and reared in Africa, but they hold them to have been Asiatic.<br /><br />Had we kept a record of the daring feats performed by the colored race during the war for national independence, when Washington and his compatriots were struggling for liberty, how much more potent would have been the arguments in our favor, during the recent struggle in behalf of our freedom and equality of rights; or, suppose some compiler, who was an expert in the profession, had gleaned the newspapers for specimens of colored ability, even in slave times, what a monument of negro genius would have been erected, and what a wreath of glory it would have woven around his brow, though his brain was fettered by ignorance, and his hands and feet by the shackles of oppression. Our trouble has been a tendency to a superabundance of the crude and material, and a lack of the fine and sensitive. There is too much of the gross sensibilities, which is seldom awakened except by the animal passions. This trait however, is special to any people whose condition has been like ours in the past; and there is no doubt but what years of freedom will eradicate all these defects.<br /><br />History informs us that when Julius Ceasar went over to England, he found the old Britons living in holes and caves, and eating roots. But the blood of these crude sons of the Jungles have grown so rich since, that long before our day, nations have paled and sought refuge by flight, when stirred by the fear of their superior greatness. Give us time and we will make the world yet fear us: but the point I am trying to make is, that it is now time to commence the work, time to start.<br /><br />I have often thought of a story my grand mama used to tell when I was a boy. She said when God first made the different races, he concluded to try three kinds first as an experiment, the white man, Indian, and Negro. So he told the boys they would have to work for a living, and he would give them three kinds of tools, plow and hoe; bow and arrow, pen and ink, and laying the down in their front, he said, now make your choice. Mr. Negro made haste and leaped for the plow and hoe, and the Indian grabbed as the next largest the bow and arrow, so the white man moved off slowly and picked up the pen and ink, and said, “Well, I will try you anyhow,” and left the negro in the field, the Indian in the woods, and he went on to his finely carpeted office, and there he remains, molding intellectual thunderbolts for all nations, while he proves to a mathematical demonstration, that not only the tools of a negro and the land of the Indian are his, but that the records of his office clearly establishes the fact that the negro is his by a unalterable law, determined upon by the mighty God five hundred billions of years ago. This calculation being rather too perplexing for the Negro, as he generally counts one by one, he desires to know how you make that. The white man sits down, crosses his legs, puffs his segar (sic), takes up his pen, writes a few lines, scratches a few figures, quotes a little ancient history, adduces some fallacious theories and calls it law, makes some ex parte quotations from the Bible, Zoroaster, or the Alcoran (Koran), epitomizes on some branch of anthropological obscurities, arrives at a false conclusion; but ere he winds up two or more white men come in and swear by their Alpha and Omega that every word is true. So Mr. Negro goes under, as a natural consequence, and rises no more. Thus you see the pen is mightier than the sword. We all know that, from time immemorial, the white race has been shoving the pen, and have emblazoned immortality on their brow by so doing.<br /><br />If we ever intend to make the world feel and respect us, we must do the same. There is no reason why we should continue this dereliction of duty, because we have been slow in moving in the past. The world is in its infancy yet, the human family have not half reached the zenith of their glory, and he that comes in at the eleventh hour is as sure of his penny, as the one who bears the heat and burden of the day. We have but recently been set at liberty, and the prospects of our career looms up in grandeur, every move on the checker board prognosticates glorious things for the negro race—no man can even surmise what our destiny is to be in the future. This world may stand a million or two year yet, and the Negro race is certainly in their infancy as to the development of their immeasurable facilities. So you see very plainly that we have time enough to make history yet. One of our necessities, therefore, are historians, who will note and date every transpiring event worthy of attention.<br /><br />This is the only legacy for a generation or two that we will be able to transmit to our children, nor do I know of anything they would prize more than sketches of the heroes of our late war, and the mighty struggles our people has had in changing our relation from slavery to freedom. Another item of history that would be appreciated by unborn millions, would be our fearful contests while passing through the ordeal of reconstruction. How our newly enfranchised orators mounted the platform, destitute of experience and education, and made the woods, old fields, churches, barns, horse stables and constitutional conventions ring with the music of their burning eloquence, while clamoring for equal rights before the law; yes, some grandson of what is commonly called a dirty, black, ignorant negro will, through the aid of such a historian, tune his lyre to the music praise, and hang a bow of glory over the tomb of his grand sire that shall never fade while the sun shines or stars dance.<br /><br />Do you suppose that such men as Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Everet, Sumner, Chase, Seward and Phillips, were to be found among the signers of the declaration of independence, or the convention that drafted the constitution of the United States. No, such men were not there. Thos. Jefferson, notwithstanding, but for the principles that inspired then, the object sought, and the triumph obtained. Listen, oh muses lend your ear, orchestra of heaven be silent while the statesman, the poet, and the orator, dwells with enchanting strains on their bright memories, and lifts them by the breath of their melody, and trenchant perorations, till they weave around their memories wreaths of fadeless honors. Why will our posterity not desire to do the same for such men as Simms, Campbell, Bradley, Harrison, Belcher, Moore, Long, and Smith, of Columbus, who hid in the marshes of Stewart county three days, to save his life-for advocating his rights; and others in the State, whose labors have been legion, not to mention the black heroes of other states, whose services could hardly be penned on the heavens if they were a scroll, such as the immortal <a href="https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass/bio.html">Douglass</a>, and that great and learned man, Prof. John M. <a href="https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/L/LANGSTON,-John-Mercer-(L000074)/">Langston</a>, whose abilities the nation admires.<br /><br />I would like to state another thing….I have grave doubts about this being the ultimate home of the colored race any way. I do not believe we are ever to be expatriated from this country; but I am of the opinion that our people will one day turn their attention to Africa and go to it. I fear we cannot, for a great while, hold our own against the whites, with the numerical strength on the one hand their fearful competition on the other. Besides the land and the money are theirs, and we are not going to be satisfied always in the capacity of water-carriers and wood hewers. We must have railroads, stock in telegraph companies, insurance companies, factories, etc. This is essential to our growth, up building, and material advancement. How are we to acquire it? Either by going to Africa or out West and settling on new territory. It is utterly impossible for menial laborers to ever acquire wealth; one here and one there may overcome the obstacles and rise up a little, but the masses will go from bad to worse. I think the Dutch and Irish are setting us good examples if we would but see and heed it. They land in New York today, poor and degraded, but tomorrow they are on the cars going out West, there they squat on a piece of land, which does not cost one cent per acre; they work all day and fish and hunt at night for their meat. In a few years they are off to New York again to lay in $15,000 or $30,000 worth of goods. You ask what’s up now? Well, I will tell you: he is a wealthy merchant; he lives in great style; one son is gone to Congress, one is a lawyer, the other a doctor, and the old man himself is being talked of for the next Governor. Had this Irishman remained in New York and drove a cart, carried a hod or blacked boots, he would have always been at the point of starvation, his sons drunkards or gamblers, and his daughters night strollers, with his wife in the grave.<br /><br />Africa holds out the greatest inducements to the colored man of any other spot on God’s green earth; her resources are boundless; her climate unsurpassed; her minerals incomprehensible; her productive resources amply sufficient to feed the world ten thousand years, and her temporary ample enough to give every human being a homestead on the face of the globe, whose value would defy dollars and cents.<br /><br />Can any sane man presume for a moment that Providence will allow these garnered treasures to lie in the bowels of the earth forever? The idea is preposterous in the extreme. No sir; the time will come when the negro race will thirst for those climes as the hart does for the water brook and omniscient skill will provide the means for his importation. Mr. McQueen, when speaking of the superstition which infested that country, made the following remark: “It is in Africa this evil must be rooted out – by African hands and African exertions chiefly that it can be destroyed.” Wm. Pitt, the great English statesman, in a gust of patriotic eloquence, uses the following language: “We may live to behold the nations of Africa engaged in the calm occupations of industry, and in the pursuits of a just and legitimate commerce; we may behold the beams of science and philosophy breaking in upon their land, which at some happier period, in still later times, may blaze with full luster, and joining their influence to that of pure religion, may illuminate and invigorate the most distant extremities of that immense continent. <br /><br />Mr. Pitt speaks as if touched by the same finger of prophetic inspiration which was hovering over David, when he, by a higher claim to infallibility, stood gazing in the future and exclaimed “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God; Sing, ye kingdoms of the earth, sing praises to the Lord; for they shall drink at noon the palm’s rich nectar, and lie down at eve in the green pastures of remembered days, and walk to wonder and weep no more on Congo’s mountain coast, or Guinea’s golden shore.”<br /><br />Africa will rise as sure as ere a nation rose through transverses and inexplicabilties the path may lie. But as Wadsworth says, while soaring on the wings of the muses: “In the unreasoning progress of the world—<br /><br />A wiser spirit is at work,<br /><br />A better eye than ours sees.”<br /><br /><br />I once read an ode, said to have been written by some Rev. Dr. Croswell. I have often repeated it, and if I can I will do so now; and let that suffice for what I have to say about Africa. And why our young men should be compiling a history for future generations on the present condition of our people, the tie is not far distant when millions of redeemed and refined Africans will devour every item of our history in this country, and still thirst for more.<br /><br />Joy to thy savage realm, O, Africa.<br /><br />A sign is on thee that the Great I AM<br /><br />Shall work new wonders in the land of Ham;<br /><br />And while he tarries for the glorious day<br /><br />To bring again his people, there shall be<br /><br />A remnant left from Cushan to the sea.<br /><br />And though the Ethiopia cannot change his skin,<br /><br />Or bleach the outward stain, he yet shall roll<br /><br />The darkness off that overshades the soul,<br /><br />And wash the deeper dyes of sin,<br /><br />Princes submissive to the Gospel sway<br /><br />Shall come from Egypt and the Morian land,<br /><br />In holy transport stretch to God its hand<br /><br />Joy to thy savage realm, O, Africa!<br /><br /><br />I am also anxious to see the negro perambulating with masterly strides the arena of art and science. In this country alone there are four thousand one hundred and twenty-six telegraph offices, one hundred and twenty-five thousand five hundred and sixty-four miles of wire, which transits annually twelve millions nine hundred and four thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven telegrams; and not a solitary negro, that I know of, plays his nimble fingers on the batteries which performs this marvelous task. I am not charging my people to a fault on account of this thing, I am stating a fact to beget in the young men an aspiration.<br /><br />But the electric telegraph and its operations is only a drop in the bucket compared to what claims our attention. I might speak of air engines, steam navigation, gas lighting, bridge building, ballooning, and several other things which we should not only have a hand in, but improve on. For there is no invention or discovery that has been made which has been brought to perfection; they are all in their infancy yet, leaving ample room for the genius of the negro to increase their utility, and add to the catalogue of inventions and discoveries a thousand blessings yet unknown and undreamed of. Men have been experimenting on air balloons for several years, and up to this time they are unable to control the air or guide their flying monsters. The time must come when these experiments will be reduced to a practical system, and railroads and steamships will give place to trackless paths through the atmosphere, where millions of people will go to and fro in the discharge of their daily avocations. God never intends for the sparrow to walk and ride where men cannot.<br /><br />But before this great achievement is made some Herculean intellect must grapple with unconquered forces, subdue their eludements (sic), and bring them in subserviency(sic) to the will of man.<br /><br />The discoveries which have been made are incessantly passing through the ordeals of improvement by virtue of being subjected to the test of more enlightened scrutiny. What Pythagoras, Aristotle, Archimedes, Copernicus, Kepfer, Galileo, and even Bacon, read in hieroglyphics and saw stamped upon every molecule in the infinitesimal realm of nature, could not be solved till the mind of Newton found the key and deciphered the laws of gravitation. Is it a matter of impossibility for some negro to come forth in the consciousness of his ability and make bare a thousand mysteries and unfold a thousand truths never touched by the whirl or dash of imagination or the of imagination, or the finest spun threads of thought? Our highest ambition is too much confined to a mere imitation of the white man; we are not enough disposed to blaze out new routes and cut down fresh timbers. But the time has come in God’s Providence when this will do more to attest our manhood than anything else we could possibly perform. And as Kossuth said to the Irishman: “Wherever there is a will there is a way.” Or as the school book says, “try, try, and try again.” It is time for colored people, especially our young men, to quit saying I can’t, I can, I will, I shall, I must, are the words for these times. We are too poor and ignorant yet to use the words, I can’t, about anything. I never repeated the following poem without becoming electrified; I have to say, huzah for the bee, whether I will to or not. If you will lend me your attention I will repeat it:<br /><br />With vicious threat, and finger fine,<br /><br />The spider spun his filmy line,<br /><br />The extremes with stronger cordage tied,<br /><br />And wrought the web from side to side.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Beneath the casement’s pendant roof<br /><br />He hung aloft the shadowy woof;<br /><br />There in the midst compressed he lies,<br /><br />And patient waits the expected prize.<br /><br />When, lo! On sounding pinions strong,<br /><br />A bee, uncautious, rushed along;<br /><br />Nor of the gauzy net aware<br /><br />Till all entangled in the snare<br /><br /> <br /><br />Enraged, he flies, his buzzing wings<br /><br />His far resounding war-song sing;<br /><br />Tears all that would his course control,<br /><br />And threatens ruin to the whole.<br /><br /> <br /><br />With dread, with gladness, with surprise,<br /><br />The spider saw the dangerous prize;<br /><br />Then rushed relentless on his foe,<br /><br />Intent to give the deadly blow.<br /><br /> <br /><br />But as the spider came in view,<br /><br />The bee his poisoned dagger drew;<br /><br />Back at the sight the spider ran,<br /><br />And now hiw crazy work began.<br /><br /> <br /><br />With lengthened came in view,<br /><br />The bee his poisoned dagger drew;<br /><br />Back at the sight the spider ran,<br /><br />And now his crafty work began.<br /><br /> <br /><br />With lengthened arms the snares he plied,<br /><br />He turned the bee from side to side;<br /><br />His legs lie tied, his wings he bound,<br /><br />And whirled his victim round and round.<br /><br /> <br /><br />And now with cautious steps and slow,<br /><br />He came to give the fatal blow,<br /><br />When frightened at the trenchant blade,<br /><br />The bee one desperate effort made.<br /><br /> <br /><br />The fabric breaks, the cords give way,<br /><br />His wings resume their wonted play;<br /><br />Far off on gladsome plume he flies,<br /><br />And drags the spider through the skies.<br /><br /> <br /><br />I could wish myself that bee. He did not kill the spider, but he winged him aloft and carried him captive at his will.<br /><br />Dr. Adam Clarke once remarked: It’s the soul that makes the man. And so it is. I had rather have one man with a soul, or a will, than ten thousand with none. And, gentlemen, permit me to tell you there is enough for you to do in the field of science and in every other department.<br /><br />Since the world began the lightning has played harmlessly upon the fringes of distant clouds, or around the mountain, kissing brow-bounds, shooting its thrice bolted artillery from the magazines of the skies in appalling vollies through the rolling embrasures of the ireful storm, till a fatal thunder bolt darted from the seat of Franklin’s brain which out flew the electric spark, and collared the wild steed that had for ages expended his strength in gamboling in the region of space. It pierced the subtle elements and laid the foundation of those discoveries which ties towns, States, and even continents together. Still this imponderable substance has never been analyzed—not even by the masterminds of the world. But some intellectual genius now sleeping in the womb of the future, in due time will, rise and turn this ethereal agent into the test of his laboratory as easily as the chemist now does the most crude material. Why should not this noble achievement be made by a Negro?<br /><br />Before it was in the province of man to breathe, the magnetic fairies of the North Pole had lived beneath its flickering aurora, enthroned by heaven’s command, yet, unobserved amid the inscrutable oscillations of nature. But, oh! Divine to contemplate, genius steps forth from the rough and hardy exterior of an uncouth and ill-bred rambler, and points a trembling finger toward the north; the needle looks to the pole amid raging billows and fearful storms, and guides the weary mariner through the gloom of night or the howl of the simoom. But the body of this power still lies in the Arcanum of the unexplored bosom of the icebergs of the artic region; some clear massive mind will one day mount the chariot that will defy the long obstructions of by gone ages, and tell the admiring millions of earth how he solved the problem, and will lay bare the mystery of centuries. Why, I ask again, should not this be a Negro?<br /><br />There is another thought I would like to refer to just here, that is, the general tendency of all things to exposition. Scientifically speaking there are no secrets in nature, every act, however clandestinely executed, effects the universe and the whole intelligent creation, and is read by countless myriads, and are winged in the scales of infinitude. But I will neither stop to philosophize or speculate upon that intricate question at present; the point I wish to touch is this, all motion has legible aspects, and conveys corresponding ideas, whether that be in locomotion, manipulation, or expression. Up to this time the world has to depend upon the atmospheric vibration, or the sound of words, to catch the meaning of the speaker; no regard is had to the motion of the mouth or the quiver of the lips. But this is destined at no distant day to become a practical science; indeed it is now attracting attention, and in less than a century the intelligent classes will likely read a whisper if they can see the motion of the lips, as easily as we can now read print. And more than that, allow me to tell you, our whole physiognomy if full of impressions pregnant with expressive characteristics. The time will come when Judges and juries will be selected who can read these motions and features—impressions, absolutely and alone. The proper and unmistakable delineation of human character will depend upon it, in the court room and everywhere else. Why, I ask, gentlemen, may not the champion of this science be a Negro?<br /><br />We might follow this train of thought through the various arts and professions of life—to painting, to sculpturing, to engraving, to architecting, to unraveling the wondrous mazes of the heavens, or reading the imprints of geological strata. These scientific branches are simply referred to as an evidence of the spheres of usefulness that we can operate in.<br /><br />Any man who but scans the signs of the times must be blind not to see that the world is tending to higher and nobler developments. What will be the brightness of our world, when the sun of progress shall rest in its zenith, the most chimerical cannot surmise. But we are satisfied that the overthrow of slavery in America, the present struggles for liberty throughout the world, and uneasiness of the Pope of Rome; the general uniting of the Christian churches; the unprecedented efforts being put forth in the missionary department; the missions of bibles annually published and distributed through charitable contributions; the cessation the civilized world is having from wars and bloodshed; the billions of papers and periodicals teeming from the press, scattering ideas and throwing broad cast facts hitherto reserved in the chambers of the few; the interest manifested in humanity from Congresses and Parliaments down to sanitary commissions, and a score of other indications, are only the precursors of grand results.<br /><br />Sometime since I had the pleasure of witnessing the examination of the children at the Atlanta University, under the tutelage of that eminent philanthropist and educator, Mr. Ware<a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Downloads/Present%20Duties-Embedded%20(4).docx#_ftn1">[1]</a>, where I was struck with the evidences of progress made by the pupils, while those black boys and girls were passing through their examination and displaying such an admirable fund of literary knowledge. I could not help, in the revelry of my cogitations, from feeling a malicious sensation toward those who had deprived me of the same privilege when I was young. I thought to myself, O, what a man I would have been today, had I been blessed with an early education; had the functions of that spiritual essence by which man differs from the perishing brutes; cultured and turned loose to stand out in colossal grandeur, it might have been sunk in the rocks of ages, to trace the periods of their petrifaction and the early career of the trilobites and fish-lizards of the hoary past, or buried in the celestial vaults, gazing upon the majesty of countless suns—shooting its perceptive glance up to peerless glories and down the gorgeous drapery of eternal space—feeling by its sweep the rustling groves of Newton, defying mysteries, and leaving a clear field for my children, and children’s children. But, alas! Alas! Too late now; a frosty hair here and there peeps from the covering of my brow and tells me my dial of life is cast, get ready for the grave; but as you go down to the tomb point your race to the 15th Amendment as the ensign of liberty, and march rapidly.<br /><br />When multitudes of virtues pass along,<br /><br />Each pressing foremost in the might throng,<br /><br />Ambitious for the prize, then make room,<br /><br />For greater multitudes, that wills lo come.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Before concluding these remarks I wish to refer to one example of colored genius, which I found in the Atlanta Daily New Era, of July 13th, 1870:<br /><br />“Jacob Smith, a Negro boy, publishes at Princess Anne, Md., a paper printed with a pen, on ordinary foolscap paper. It is sent to subscribers for $1.00 a year in advance. The printing is well done, the letters being more of the Italian than the Roman style. The paper is made up of original and selected matter, the original being entirely furnished by Smith. He gets out a copy every week, printing with a pen even the advertisements.”<br /><br />Here is nimbleness of muscular accuracy, combined with a superb intellectuality. If cultivated by encouragement will rival the most expert literati of the world; besides, it is an unbeaten path—a new road to fame and immortality.<br /><br />This is the class of men we want in our ranks. There is no more abolition hobbies to ride; no more proscriptive laws to complain of; no wailings to make over Governmental ignoring. We can no longer charge the white race with obstructing the avenues of knowledge, and bolting up the word of God; or filtering the Gospel through the sieve of their prejudices, or cauterizing the qualities of virtue. The nation’s decayed tooth has been extracted, and there’s no more grim features to distort the countenance. Physical fury have expended itself upon the carcass of slavery and all its concomitant evils, and the huge monster lies paralyzed in death, and the voice of God and reason now thunders from on high in the pregnant words of the immortal <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Milton">Milton</a>.<br /><br />Awake! Arise! Or be forever fallen.<a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Downloads/Present%20Duties-Embedded%20(4).docx#_ftn2">[2]</a><br /><br />Our orators must now tune their harps for another chant. The words that moved a nation’s heart but yesterday will fall dead upon the auditory organ of today. The line that divided the South and the North into sectional parties have been washed away by the flood-tides of liberty; the shafts of heaven’s vengeance that once plowed the nation, have been entombed by the sons of freedom; and we in common with other American citizens are shielded by the edges of the law. And if there is anything that may well bestir our pride and evoke mutual congratulations, it is the fact that as a race we, the colored people, are law abiding citizens. You never have nor ever will hear of a Negro renting his house for election purposes, and then driving the managers away for the purpose of breaking up an election for a Justice of the Peace, (as was done here last Saturday.) And just here allow me to say, all honor to the Daily Republican and Advertiser for their manly condemnation of the act. When our newspapers shall condemn the guilty, denounce the wrong, and hurl thunderbolts at public crimes, be the perpetrators white, black, Republicans or Democrats, a new era will dawn upon us. Heretofore Negroes were always guilty, white men always innocent; but the time is coming when merit and demerit will be considered, be the person white or black.<br /><br />By observing these suggestions, gentlemen of the lyceum, what do we next behold but a grand and glorious future. As I look down through the rolling embrasures of the coming hereafter, I see the Negro raising higher and higher; with manly stride and gallant tread he climbs the hill of fame; he writes his name on the scroll of honor, and dignities his black skin; he stamps his deeds in legible characters on the rock that was smitten by the rod of liberty; he vindicates his manhood by intellectual achievements, and snatches the honor of his sires from under the tongue of defamation. Educated, polished, wealthy, and refined, he stands in the blaze of future ages, and pours forth his burning eloquence at the bar, while the earth trembles beneath his feet. His flat nose, his kinky hair, his thick lips, and his long heel, will be admired, while from beneath this rude exterior shall shoot for the incontestable traits of moral purity, and yet grander evidences of an intellectuality that the world cannot and dare not question. The wild gesticulations and the risible idiosyncrasies that now make the Negro the funniest creature on earth, whose peculiar habits and mirthful temperament affords amusement for the world, one day will be sobered down and brought under the most sensitive control. White men then will not be driven to the necessity of blacking their faces, reddening their lips, and wigging their heads with the kinks of some dead Negro’s hair, to furnish laughter for the stage and theatre. But if they are not careful he will spell-bind and trance-chain them as completely when he shall thunder from the rostrum and forum as he does now when he dances and cracks jokes on the comedian stage.<br /><br />Dr. Knot, <a href="https://classic.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_south_carolina/col2-content/main-content-list/title_perry_benjamin.default.html">Gov. Perry,</a> and even the great <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-Agassiz">Agassiz</a>, have tried to prove that the Negro race did not spring from Adam and Eve. God grant that they may succeed in demonstrating their theories. Just as soon as they prove that we did not originate in the loins of Adam, we, the Negroes, will prove that we are a better race than the white people, because they cannot prove our Adam fell; but we can then prove that we labor under no curse, and are not in danger of their hell-fire when we die, neither have we anything to do with bringing Jesus Christ out of heaven to die for us; and that will be another argument in favor of our grand and glorious future for we are God’s innocent pets. And on this parity of reasoning we, the Negro race, may adjudge ourselves the jewels of the earth and the gem of all nations; for us chiefly the orb of the day climbs the hill of heaven and the stars stud the dome of the skies; the watch fires of ages throughout the grand hereafter will light up our path and blaze down the drapery of time.<br /><br />Be encouraged ye black sons of America, for there is a better day coming. Already the beacon lights dot the golden shore, and the day-star sheds is meridian splendors. The chrysalis have been rent by the breath of God, and the caterpillar is throwing off the rugged bull in which hull in which he crawled and toiled, it now only remains for him to make a few more struggles, and transmuted into the lovely butterfly he will spread his wings upon the breeze ad drink nectar from the sweetest flowers, as he shall bask and luxuriate in the dimless glare of unclouded splendor. His deeds shall be the subject of praise, and his heroism shall be the subject of praise, and his heroism shall be the theme of the poet; the electric spark shall dart from shore to shore, and whisper his massive thoughts and thundering words, while kings shall tremble and empires quake. The future historian shall dip his pen in the azure heavens when he shall sit down to record his history, and dream, for words to sown his exploits. As Bishop Ward most eloquently remarked: “With a brow bathed in the golden glories of the sun of progress the winds shall sweep, and the forked lightning leap from mountain cave to valley low, and thunder drums mingle their terrific sounds to teach him the ire of God’s wrath; and he shall be humble when he hears God’s thunder-horn summoning his armies to battle. The sun-lit and star-paved sky, and the green clad earth shall be his Alma Mater; and his library shall be the sweeping river, the opening rose bud, the babbling brooklet, the brilliant apple bloom, the thunder-riven oak, the russet peach, the flaming stars, the sparkling limpid spring, the whispering zephyrs, the warbling of heaven’s feathered harpers, the frost bloom of winter, the June bud of summer, and the hoary rocks. From these he shall draw inspiration and learn to honor Him who rewards His followers with a sun bright day, a cloudless noon, and ever-opening morn. And may heaven grant us a part in the mighty host when the race of life is run.”<br /><br />But I have said enough for one lecture; but before concluding allow me to say, gentlemen, that these thoughts may be regarded rather fanciful if not visionary, but do not be deceived, these results will surely be realized, “for God is able out of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.<br /><br />Let the songsters of the skies sing,<br /><br />And the heavenly arches ring.<br /><br />Young men arm yourselves with unconquerable weapons, equip yourselves with invulnerable shields—education, refinement, and manly bearing—be<br /><br />Men, yes high minded men,<br /><br />With powers as far above dull brutes imbued,<br /><br />In forest, brake or den,<br /><br />As beast excel cold rocks and bramble rude.”<br /><br /><br /><a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Downloads/Present%20Duties-Embedded%20(4).docx#_ftnref1">[1]</a>Edmund Asa Ware was a philanthropist and educator who served as the first president of Atlanta University from 1869 until his death in 1885. Yale Obituary Record, page 324 http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1885-86.pdf <br /> <br /><br /><a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Downloads/Present%20Duties-Embedded%20(4).docx#_ftnref2">[2]</a> Paradise Lost by English poet, John Milton.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Citation:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Turner, Henry McNeal. A Speech on the Present Duties and Future Destiny of the Negro Race. The Henry McNeal Turner Project. (1872, September 2) </span><a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/a-speech-on-present-duties-and-future.html">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/a-speech-on-present-duties-and-future.html</a></span><br />
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HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-60429237596288921732019-03-28T10:28:00.000-07:002019-05-04T13:23:01.024-07:00Retirement from the Presiding Eldership and Superintendent of Missions from the State of Georgia<iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vhVM04uEWgtenyY4UqYFD3nK-rYzvaz2/preview" width="640"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">*Synopsis: In 1871, Turner resigned from his post as Elder and Superintendent of Missions from the State of Georgia. Turner wanted to pursue his efforts on growing the A.M.E. Church in the South. His primary goal was to increase membership and plant/build churches. Turner stepped down to pastor a church in Savannah, Georgia. In this speech, Turner testifies before an A.M.E. congregation on his demanding workload and how the strenuous workload began to affect him physically. For Turner, it was an arduous task, made even harder by the racial discrimination and violence of white confederates inflicted upon black people after 1865. It exposed him to unreasonable demands of his time and overexerted his energy. <br /><br /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Retirement from the Presiding Eldership and Superintendent of Missions from the State of Georgia</span></div>
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From the Quarto-Centennial of Bishop Henry M. Turner, Philadelphia, 1905, pp. 113-18 printed in the Life and Times of Henry M. Turner, by M.M. Ponton</div>
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<br /><br />Dear Brethren: I have the honor to ask that I no longer be retained in the arduous duties of <a href="http://www.bu.edu/missiology/missionary-biography/t-u-v/turner-henry-mcneal-1834-1915/">Presiding Elder</a>. I am aware that since I have signified a desire to retire from the responsible duties the office involves, grave objections have been made by the brethren to my taking such a step. I hope, however, that these objections will be reconsidered and that I may be allowed to assume a relation to our Conference less arduous and responsible. <br /><br />Nine years ago, when our country was in <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/brief-overview-american-civil-war">the whirl of revolution and battle strife</a>, and the immortal principles of freedom were in doubtful suspense, I left the pulpit and went to the scene of carnage to throw the weight of my influence and physical power on the side of God and a free country. In this capacity I served both my church and my government to the best of my ability, with what success I will leave to other tongues to tell. I will say, however, I endeavored at all times to discharge my whole duty. <br /><br />At the end of the rebellion it was thought by <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/andrew-johnson-9355722">the Chief Executive</a> of the nation, that my service were further needed in the South, in assisting to elevate my recently delivered race; and being mustered out of service, as a United States Chaplain, with my brave and gallant regiment, I was again reappointed a <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Henry%20McNeal%20Turner&item_type=topic">Chaplain</a> in the regular army, and sent by <a href="https://www.andrewjohnson.com/11BiographiesKeyIndividuals/EdwinMStanton.htm">Secretary Stanton</a> to Georgia, to labor in <a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/federal/freedmen%E2%80%99s-bureau/">the Freedman’s Bureau</a>.<a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Dropbox/HMT%20Project/Kim%20Travers/1-5-72-Retirement%20from%20Presiding%20Elder.doc#_ftn1">[1]</a> Here I landed in the fall of 1865; but shortly after my arrival, I resigned this lucrative position, in consequence of some disrespect shown me on account of my color, on the one hand, and the better to serve my church on the other. <br /><br />I immediately entered upon the general organization of the <a href="https://www.ame-church.com/our-church/our-history/">A. M. E. Church</a> in this State. At that time we had only one Church and congregation in Georgia, which was under the pastoral charge of <a href="https://georgiahistory.com/ghmi_marker_updated/saint-phillips-monumental-ame-church/">Rev. A.L. Standford, St. Philip’s Savannah, Ga</a>. And this is the congregation to which I have reference. Brother Standford was necessarily confined to this special locality; in view of the discordant elements which had to be watched with a vigilant eye-thus leaving almost the entire Empire State of the South<a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Dropbox/HMT%20Project/Kim%20Travers/1-5-72-Retirement%20from%20Presiding%20Elder.doc#_ftn2">[2]</a> to my care and supervision. But the field was ripe for the harvest, though it was large and cumbersome, and without a dollar to start with, I shouldered the responsibilities and trusting in God for help, went willingly to work. <br /><br />To recount my labors would necessitate the writing of a volume, which I may do at some future day; but for the present it must suffice to say that I have had to pass through blood and fire. No man can imagine what I have had to endure but one who has through it. And no man could have passed through it unless he had, as I have, an iron constitution. I started out with the determination of raising up the grandest Negro Conference in America, but I think we have the largest in the world—certainly America cannot boast of an equal, for we have 189 appointments and 226 members. And as for Church Government, we have no superiors for our time and chance. I made it a rule to teach and instill the highest system of Church Government known to our Connection, from the commencement of our organization in the state. This rigid training, as many of you here well remember, caused me often to keep you up all night, till day would drive us out of Church next morning; you know it was nothing unusual for me to have you studying, praying and sighing for whole nights in Quarterly Conferences, trying to teach both preachers and their officiary, what the law of our Church required, even to the minutest point. And you need not be reminded of my pulpit labors, you certainly have not forgotten how I had to preach three times every Sabbath and every night in the week, for month after month, and then come out of the pulpit and explain the history, character, purpose and object of our Church, for hours to satisfy the colored and whites, who would often look at me as if I was a bear or a lion—sometimes just commencing the organization of the Church about twelve or one at night. But why attempt to enter upon a detailed review, why, in one year alone I traveled over 15,000 miles in this state, organizing and planting churches and superintending the work together, and preached and spoke over 500 times. I have also been accused of recklessly licensing preachers by the cargo, etc., because I had to license such a number. I admit that I did on several occasions exercise rather extraordinary powers in this respect, but in no instance where the emergency of the case would not justify such action. I was for a long time Elder, Superintendent and everything else and sometimes had to make preachers of raw material at a moment’s notice. I have licensed preachers while riding on the cars, but I always put you through an examination; [I] sometimes would examine you for three or four hours. And while it is not only gratifying to me to know that some of these arbitrarily licensed preachers are not among our most useful and intelligent Presiding Elders; but what is more gratifying is that not one of them has been expelled or silenced for any crime whatever. Indeed, my hastily made preachers have been among the most useful. <a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Dropbox/HMT%20Project/Kim%20Travers/1-5-72-Retirement%20from%20Presiding%20Elder.doc#_ftn3">[3]</a><br /><br />And my labors have not stopped in the religious sphere, but it is well known to everyone that I have done more work in the political field than any five men in the state, if you will take out <a href="https://www.historynet.com/union-officer-julian-bryant-a-voice-for-black-soldiers.htm">Col. Bryant</a>. I first organized <a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/religious/turner-henry-mcneal/">the Republican Party in this State</a>, and have worked for its maintenance and perpetuity as no other man in the State has. I have put more men in the field, made more speeches, organized more Union Leagues, Political Associations, Clubs, and have written more campaign documents that received larger circulation than any other man in the state. Why, one campaign document I wrote alone was so acceptable that it took 4,000,000 copies to satisfy the public. And as you are well aware, these labors have not been performed amid sunshine and prosperity. I have been the constant target of Democratic abuse and venom, and white Republican jealousy.<a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Dropbox/HMT%20Project/Kim%20Travers/1-5-72-Retirement%20from%20Presiding%20Elder.doc#_ftn4">[4]</a> The newspapers have teemed with all kinds of slander, accusing me of every crime in the catalogue of villainy. I have even been arrested and tried on some of the wildest charges, and most groundless accusations ever distilled from the laboratory of hell.<a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Dropbox/HMT%20Project/Kim%20Travers/1-5-72-Retirement%20from%20Presiding%20Elder.doc#_ftn5">[5]</a> Witnesses have been paid as high as four thousand dollars to swear me in the penitentiary; white preachers have sworn that I tried to get up insurrection, etc., a crime punishable with death, and all such deviltry has been resorted to for the purpose of breaking me down—and with it all they have not hurt a hair of my head, nor even bothered my brain longer than we were going through the farce of an adjudication. I neither replied to their slanders nor sought revenge when it hung upon my option; nor did I even bandy words with the most inveterate and calumnious enemies I had; I invariably let them say their say, and do their do; while they were studying against me I was studying for the interest of the Church, and working for the success of my party, and they would expose their own treachery and lies and leave me to attend to my business as usual. So that up to this time my trials have been a succession of triumphs. I have enemies, as is natural, but at this time their tongues are silent, and their missiles are as chaff, while my friends can be counted by hundreds of thousands. And, I can boast of being one of the fathers of the Mammoth Conference—an honor I would not exchange for a royal diadem. Thus, having reached the goal of my ambition, I only ask not to be retired from the weighty duties of the past, and given the more humble and more circumscribed sphere of preacher in charge. I am perfectly willing, if the Bishop will consent, to let some of my sons in the Gospel be my Presiding Elder, and I trust I shall be able to honor them as highly as they have honored me, for I can say I have yet to be resisted or questioned by a single preacher. And while I shall try to rest more regularly and comfortably in my retired relation, and enjoy life more pleasantly than I have in the last nine years, I shall nevertheless endeavor to be equally as useful to the Church in the literary department; for I purpose to give my future days to the literary work of our grand and growing Connection. Since I have been trying to preach the Gospel I have had the inestimable pleasure of receiving into the Church on probation, fourteen thousand three hundred and eighteen persons which I can account for, besides some three or four thousand, I cannot give any definite account of. And I would guess, for I am not certain that I have received during and since the war, about sixteen or seventeen thousand full members in the A.M.E. Church by change of Church relation—making in all nearly forty thousand souls that I have in some manner been instrumental in bringing to religious liberty. And yet I am not quite thirty-nine years old. Hundreds of these persons have in all probability fainted by the way, and gone back to the world; but I am, on the other hand, happy to inform you that hundreds have since died in triumph and gone to heaven, while thousands are today pressing their way to a better land, scores among whom are preaching the Gospel. I make no reference to these statistics to have you suppose that I am better than other men, who have not been thus successful, for I am only a poor, worthless creature, and may yet be a castaway. I only mention these facts to express my profound gratitude to God, for His abundant favors which have been bestowed upon one so undeserving. If <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/payne-daniel-alexander-1811-1893/">Bishop Payne</a> and <a href="https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/wayman/bio.html">Wayman</a> were here, I would take great pleasure in laying my gratitude at their feet for the support they gave me in the early establishment of this conference; but, as they are not, I trust <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Brown">Bishop Brown</a> will allow me to tender him my heartfelt thanks for the continued manifestations of respect shown me under his administration, he who so ably presided over our Conference for the last four years, and done so much to advance and elevate the members of this Conference.<br /><br />I would say also to the brethren of the Conference: You are now Deacons, Elders, Presiding Elders, and many of you are pulpit orators, as now you must bear your own responsibilities, and look, in addition to your Bible, Discipline, and Bishop, to our Father who art in Heaven, for direction and counsel; you are welcome to the benefits of my experience at any time you may wish them; but I trust it will not be in my province to exercise any further control over a single member of the Conference. With these remarks, Bishop and Conference, I again pray to be relieved of my heavy, taxing responsibilities. May the God of grace keep you, is my prayed. <br /><br /> <br /><br />The Quarto-Centennial of Bishop Henry<br /><br />M. Turner, Philadelphia, 1905, pp. 113-18<br /> <br /><br /><a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Dropbox/HMT%20Project/Kim%20Travers/1-5-72-Retirement%20from%20Presiding%20Elder.doc#_ftnref1">[1]</a> During the American Civil War Turner was appointed a Chaplain to one of the first Federal regiments of black troops (Company B of the First United States Colored Troops). Turner was the first of only 14 black Chaplains to be appointed during the Civil War. This appointment came directly from President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. He was also appointed by President Andrew Johnson to work with the Freedman's Bureau in Georgia during Reconstruction. <br /> <br /><br /><a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Dropbox/HMT%20Project/Kim%20Travers/1-5-72-Retirement%20from%20Presiding%20Elder.doc#_ftnref2">[2]</a> “The Empire State of the South” is one of the nicknames for the state of Georgia. It had this nickname since before 1800, in reference to Georgia’s industrialization, wealth, and variety of resources following the Civil War. <br /> <br /><br /><a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Dropbox/HMT%20Project/Kim%20Travers/1-5-72-Retirement%20from%20Presiding%20Elder.doc#_ftnref3">[3]</a> Stephen Ward Angell notes in his book, Bishop Henry McNeal Turner and African-American Religion in the South (pgs. 72-80) that due to the shortage of available black pastors, Turner made one of the most controversial decisions of his career by changing the system of admitting pastors on trial backed by many A.M.E. pastors in Georgia. The rule change allowed him to license his preachers (emergency ordinations) just about anywhere: street corners and on railroad trains. The prerequisites for admission to the itinerancy were also waved. Turner did not require the preachers he licensed in 1866 and 1867 to be literate or have a thorough acquaintance with the Bible. <br /> <br /><br /><a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Dropbox/HMT%20Project/Kim%20Travers/1-5-72-Retirement%20from%20Presiding%20Elder.doc#_ftnref4">[4]</a>As head of the AME’s new mission in Georgia, Turner proved himself a tireless organizer, dispatching AME ministers to the remotest corners of the state, taking on the burdens of administration, and defending the AME and himself from the hostility of whites resentful of this new source of black independence. In the tense atmosphere of the postwar South, Turner’s aggressive manner earned him the hatred of many whites, but under his direction the AME flourished as never before. <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/us-history-biographies/henry-mcneal-turner">https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/us-history-biographies/henry-mcneal-turner</a>. <br /> <br /><br /><a href="file:///C:/Users/ajohnsn6/Dropbox/HMT%20Project/Kim%20Travers/1-5-72-Retirement%20from%20Presiding%20Elder.doc#_ftnref5">[5]</a> Turner endured many politically charged scandals. The Georgian Democratic Party did everything in their power to discredit his leadership and character. He was accused and charged with fraud-carrying counterfeit money (MACON SCANDAL). Eventually, the charges were thrown out in federal court, but even more damaging were the accusations of extramarital affairs. The scandal destroyed his friendship with Bishop David Payne and damaged his reputation, particularly among women in the A.M.E. Church, who formed the bedrock of the organization. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/people/henry_mcneal_turner.html">https://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/people/henry_mcneal_turner.html</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Turner, Henry McNeal. Retirement from the Presiding Eldership and Superintendent of Missions from the State of Georgia. The Henry McNeal Turner Project. (1872, January 5). </span><a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/retirement-from-presiding-eldership-and.html">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/retirement-from-presiding-eldership-and.html</a></span></div>
HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-7030194068518007332019-03-28T10:16:00.002-07:002019-05-04T13:30:31.094-07:00The Negro in All Ages<iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oAR36qUIMxIgBxCRbrzjT0x8hJPWs_5M/preview" width="640"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Synopsis: On April 18, 1873, Henry McNeal Turner delivered the lecture, The Negro in All Ages, at the Second Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia. This lecture was publicized as an “examination into several abominable, anti-scriptural, and pseudo-philosophical theories” that was “designed as degradation to humanity.” This lecture explores how Turner maneuvered through the intersections of race and religion, as well as, how Turner challenges and questions the systematic implications of the science of the day (theology, science, art, history, philosophy, etc.) that was detrimental to African Americans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">THE NEGRO IN ALL AGES</span></div>
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DELIVERED IN THE</div>
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REV. H. M. TURNER, D. D., L. L. D.,</div>
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APRIL 8th, 1873,</div>
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<br />Being an examination into several abominable, anti-scriptural, and pseudo-philosophical theories, designed as a degradation to humanity, by a few malevolent vampires of the age, reviewed and discussed, ethnologically, scientifically and historically.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Savannah:<br /><br />D. G. Patton, Steam Printer, 97 & 99 Bay St.<br /><br />1873<br /><br /> <br /> <br /><br />RESOLUTION<br /><br />—————<br /><br />Whereas, The admirable Lecture delivered this evening by Hon. H. M. Turner L. L. D., entitled “The Negro in all Ages” has in our opinion, exploded the theory of those enemies of God and the human family who have vainly endeavored to establish the natural inferiority of the colored race, and<br /><br />Whereas, the people should become more familiar with the incontestable truths therein enunciated, believing they would do much in removing the false impressions which have been indoctrinated into the masses by evil designing individuals, no less vicious than ignorant.<br /><br />Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to procure from Dr. Turner a copy of his able address for publication.<br /><br />The above resolution was offered by <a href="https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn82016225/">John H. Deveaux</a>, Esquire, and was unanimously adopted by one of the most intelligent colored assemblages which ever met in the City of Savannah.<br /><br />—————<br /><br />Hon. Edwin Belshire, Macon, Ga.<br /><br />My Dear Sir—Having been associated with you for several years in the legislature of our State, in State and county conventions, in political speech making, in devising measures for the education of our race, and in trying to work out a common destiny for the people of our State. And having on several occasions met and discussed with you a large number of moral, religious, scientific and historic questions.<br /><br />And having among other things given the colored race with them merits and demerits a large share of our consideration.<br /><br />And I having always found your views intelligent, your conclusions logically arrived at, your scholarships expensive, and your store of knowledge wide. And having found your fidelity to justice and right unquestionable, I have thought it fit and even becoming to dedicate this address with all its defects to you; you will favor me by accepting the good, and rejecting the bed.<br /><br />I am, &c, <br /><br />H. M. T.<br /><br /><br />Ladies and Gentlemen,<br /><br />We live in an age of investigation, scrutiny, and moral and intellectual enlightenment. Every question bred in human imagination with all their natural of assumed phases, are passing through the ordeal of the most searching analysis. This might be justly entitled the Laboratory age; for there is nothing in the infinite realm of man, from the most crude and grotesque material, to the most attenuated film or subtilized <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/monad">monad</a> which connect mind and matter, indeed the most <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethereal">etherealize</a> fancies, as well as the cogitative reverie, are made the themes of criticism, and are reduced to the status of <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/speculative%20philosophy">speculative philosophy</a>.<br /><br />The elementary principles of matter, the most intricate and mazy <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/law-of-nature">laws of nature</a>, the <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fossiliferous">fossiliferous</a> inscriptive bearing tablets of the hoary past, which have slept in quiet solitude for countless ages, have of late been aroused by the hand of genius, and whirled into marching lime by the battle gong of thought.<br /><br />Theology, science, art, and history, have all received an impulse from the estuary state of the mind. The <a href="https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/Stygian">Stygian</a> river with its seven old curls, have been crossed, and the blooming flowers of knowledge are now being plucked. Inquiry seeks a path through the dense forest of an unexplored wilderness, but is foiled in the effort; because the sole of an intellectual foot has never strode this way, but a thousand more enter the arena, with glittering <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythe">scythes</a>, and level the sward, an highway is thrown up—an avenue extends from the centre to circumference, and the mysteries of ages are brought down to the comprehension of the schoolboy, while they scintillate the grandeur of nature and the glory of nature’s God.<br /><br />What the wise <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/savant">savants</a> and bards of old, read in the fickle scintillations of their heated imaginations, have been established and incorporated in the principles of philosophical science, and now course investigation, and defies criticism, the theories of the past, the <a href="https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/labyrinthine">labyrinthine</a> mysteries of the mythological world, the dread and horror of superstitious fancies, the groundless opinions and wild conjectures that awed the ignorant and engrossed the minds of philosophers and poets, have been illumined by the sun beams of a brighter era, and stripped of their capricious whims; while truth stands out in bold relief and throws down the gauntlet to her enemies and laughs to scorn her foes. <br /><br />It confronts alike the superstitious venerable with the undated antiquity gorgeous with all that refinement and art can do to give them the polish of exquisite perfection, and weave around them illusive charms and magic craft, she assails the vices of the motley rabble in spite of their rancor or numbers, and binds in fetters the sneering <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epicurus/">Epicureans</a>. The stubborn stoic, the <a href="https://temperaments.fighunter.com/?page=phlegmatic">phlegmatic</a> <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/academician">Academician</a>, the ...logomachical babbler, the pragmatic figure head, and the political time serving weather cock. Truth regards not the opinions of illustrious authorities, nor does she pity the mistaken dupes of false theories, however honest to their conviction the devotees may be. Armed with truth, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+17%3A22-31&version=NASB">Paul stood on Mars hill</a>, and thundered at the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Areopagus-Greek-council">Areopagus</a>, and challenged the isms of the age, with determinativeness that neither <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/socrates">Socrates</a> nor <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Plato">Plato</a> ever dreamed. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther">Martin Luther</a> stood in quiet serenity amid a storm of error, because he wore the mail coat of truth, and shook Germany so severely, that the throne of papacy trembled, and the dark haze of <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/middle-ages">the Middle Ages</a> rolled away, as if touched by the wand of <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/omnipote/">Omnipotence</a>.<br /><br />Truth, however, has had to fight its way, inch by inch, and foot by foot, for the forces of error have been large, vigilant, alterative, and unutterably presumptuous, encouraged by innumerable votaries, error with shameless voracity strode in every direction, and with an insatiable greed sought to destroy the last vestige of truth. But like the serpent that licked the file, she only realized her danger when the mouth was tongue less. And strange as it may appear, the struggle has not been confined to mere technicalities, but to self-evident truisms. The forces of error have been marshaled against the most palpable teachings of nature, as ferociously as against the simple revelations of <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/holy%20writ">Holy Writ</a>. Led on by that isle foe of earth and heaven who assaulted Omnipotence upon his throne, and who served hell as an attorney when the humanity of the son of God staggered beneath a forty days fast, it is not a source of surprise that error should be so defiant and blushless, even in the grand blaze of an illuminated age.<br /><br />The subject of this lecture is, The Negro in all Ages. My reason for choosing this theme grows out of a conversation which took place between a white gentleman and a white fool some time since on <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Central-Pacific-Railroad">the Central Rail Road</a>, in my hearing, which you will better understand by the following statement:<br /><br />After passing Millen, the dinner house on that road, two white men came in the car where I was sitting to take a smoke, they occupied the seat in my rear, I heard one whisper to the other: That’s the notorious Turner, who says, the other, the Negro Mogul? Yes; was the reply, said the other, I have read his speeches repeatedly, but never saw him before. Well, said one, how do you so count for his ability, intelligence or smartness, or whatever you may call it? For I never can believe that a Negro has a soul, he certainly does not belong to the human family, &c. The other gentleman after making a lengthy and able argument in defense of the Negro’s having a soul, concluded by saying, but you must remember that Turner is not a Negro; for he is mixed blooded. <br /><br />Here I could no longer keep silence, speak I must or die; and whirling my head around as though a ball had struck me on one side, I said, yes, but <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Highland_Garnet">Dr. Garnett</a> of New York is not mixed, neither is <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/martin-robison-delany-9270228">Major Delaney</a> of S. C., mixed, nor is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_B._Elliott">congressman Elliott</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_H._Cain">Cain</a> of that State mixed; and Turner or you either might sit at any of their feet and learn instructive lessons. Bishop Ward of this State is not mixed; and a man of more natural eloquence and enchanting oratory, does not walk the soil of Georgia. These distinguished gentlemen said I, are all so black that a white man would be regarded as a fool; who would attempt to claim kin with any of them. But at this juncture, the learned ass that started the conversation, picked up his carcass and conveyed it to another car, and left the other gentleman and me to laugh at his stupidity. But said the remaining gentleman, do you know there are a number of white people in this country who talk in the same way?<br /><br />Ladies and gentlemen, it will not be my aim this evening, to try to prove that the negro has a soul, but if all white men were as ignorant as the one just referred to, it might be necessary to prove that the whites have one; I shall not question either or attempt to defend the souls of either. A denial of a soul to either race, would be to advertise my own ignorance and insult heaven; and to admit it as a self-evident act, as it is, would be a useless expenditure of time. The questions I propose to deal with is the Negro like other people, and are other people like the Negro? Does he belong to the same stock, or in other words, is he an emanation of the same source? I shall assume that he does.<br /><br />When in the impenetrable past, man came on the stage of action, is a problem of difficult solution, for there is no reliable data to be gathered either from the Bible or science. The chronological calculations, the best recognized authority is open to numerous attacks, because our chronology is not a part of inspiration at all; and cannot by any means be received as an infallible item. Supposition has to connect the links all along in the chain of data, and wherever you have to employ this doubtful agent once, the concatenation is broken and loses its hold on popular credence. Science is also at a loss in designating the time when he first began to exist. <br /><br />Several learned savants contend that he has been an inhabitant of earth ever since the glacial period, which must have ended about a hundred and fifty thousand years ago. This would make him much older than our present chronological data allows; though his position does not as some assume, contradict the Bible, but it does overthrow the theory commonly received in the religious world. Now let us grant that such has been man’s career on earth, and that in the early stages of his existence, for the want of mental culture and experience he was of an enormous size, so as to maintain an existence among the carnivorous animals of those days, and to protect his <a href="https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/progeny">progeny</a> from destruction; and that those gigantic skeletons which have frequently been exhumed from the earth, ten, fifteen, twenty and even twenty-five feet high, were fair specimens of the sizes of the early inhabitants of the world; when in the language of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edouard-Armand-Isidore-Hippolyte-Lartet">Prof. Lartet</a>, he was “wasting out his cave-bear epoch.” And this all would not assail a solitary item concerning man, as set forth by the Bible. The Mosaic Record as it has been handed down to us, would still be unharmed, and even unassailed.<br /><br />For none of these theories interfere in the least with the existence of Adam or Eve, or that they were the starting source of all living humanity. And indeed if we could adduce satisfactory evidence to prove that man has been an inhabitant of this earth ever since the glacial period, it would account for a great many things now wrapt in mystery; especially in regard to the Indian, <a href="https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Esquimaux">Esquimaux</a> and several aboriginal Islanders; whose local existences have not been satisfactorily explained by the most renowned ethnologists of the world. For the Bible nowhere pretends to treat upon the age of man or the earth; the distant past and the distant future are alike veiled from observation, only as we decipher their scintillations by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Nature">the book of Nature</a> on the one hand and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Revelation">the book of Revelation</a> on the other. And it is no unreasonable presumption to suppose that the same designs of providence which would perpetuate the lives of the early inhabitants to so great an age would also giantize them in corresponding sizes; for age and bulk have always had similar proportions when bearing upon specific classes among the animal tribes. When a man therefore attacks the Mosaic Record, upon the plea that the age of man as set forth in Revelation, does not synchronize with the interpretations of science, he exposes his own ignorance and brands his name with ridicule. It matters not, however, how long or how short the time since man began to be, the question is, do the varieties that exist among the human families of earth constitute any aboriginal difference, and if so, does the primitive difference converge or diverge in the scale of development. The principles of these topics we propose to discuss as best we can.<br /><br />I assume upon the authority of Holy Writ, that all men sprang from one original source. This is most explicitedly set forth in the following declarations of the Bible. “God that made the world and all things therein, hath made of one blood all nations of men; for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their inhabitation.” These words were uttered by Paul to a haughty race, in the face of the theory then prevailing among the Greeks; that they sprang from the sacred soil of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attica">Attica</a>. The oneness of the source from which the race of man came, found its proper counter-part in the oneness of that race itself, and that the ethnological distribution of that race was not a mere matter of random-chance, but of divine appointment. Here you see Christianity encounters human philosophy, invades its hoary maxims, and asserts one of its cardinal doctrines to be the emanation of all men from a single source; having a unity of blood-relationship, which implies an oneness of origin. The geographical localities as have been assigned the various nations, as well as the epoch of their history; are not merely the work of blind contingency, but of arrangements super induced by divine appointment. <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Paul_the_Apostle/">The great Apostle to the gentiles</a> regarded the unity of the human race as much an adjunct to Christianity, as the unity of the God-head; showing their correlative bearing and relation to the fundamental principles of the Christian system. <br /><br />This great doctrine of race unity is peculiarly asserted in the fifth chapter of Paul to the Romans, where the parallel is drawn between the fall of the race in Adam and its redemption in Christ. “By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men.” Again<br /><br />“As by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous.” Again<br /><br />“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ—shall all be made alive again.” Again<br /><br />“The first man—Adam was made a living soul, the last—Adam was made a quickening spirit.” Again, and this is the clincher. A thousand other quotations would not strengthen the argument. Listen,<br /><br />“The first man is out of the earth—earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven.”<br /><br />As Adam is the actual head of all that transgressed, all who die, and all who feel the curse; so Christ is the spiritual head of all that are saved from sin and the sting of death. The universal headship of the other, thus, the path to Eden is the same to all so far as we can glean from biblical authority.<br /><br />But in order to evade the Negro claim to Adamic priority, certain so-called <a href="https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/naturalist">naturalists</a>, have attempted to divide the human family into the historic and non-historic races, and the Negro they say was non-historic; yet, they pretend to endorse the Mosaic Record. That <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Moses/">Moses</a> knew of the existence of the colored races is evident from the pictures on the tombs in Egypt, dating back, as it is alleged, beyond his time, and distinctly portraying the races with black skin and kinky hair, as we now find them. Still he tells us, that Eve was the mother of all living, that the Ethiopic and Egyptian races were <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+10&version=NRSV">the descendents of Noah</a>, through <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cush_(Bible)">Cush</a> and <a href="https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/mizraim/">Mizraim</a>, and, that the diversified nations of earth are all children of Adam. And that the physical characteristics of the <a href="http://www.galaxie.com/article/bsac153-612-02">Cushites</a> or Negroes, were what they now are, is evidenced in the axiomatic allusions to their black skin. This tenet is endorsed by Christ when he stamps his disapproval upon the custom of divorcing a wife, by original unity of the race in Adam and Eve. And when he commands his disciples to go into the entire world and preach His Gospel to every creature. And we cannot pass by the fact, that <a href="https://www.chabad.org/theJewishWoman/article_cdo/aid/2346085/jewish/The-Cushite-Woman.htm">the wife of Moses was an Ethiopian</a>, possibly black. Another significant fact is, that the man, who was chosen to aid our Lord in bearing his cross to the crimsoned hill, was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_of_Cyrene">Simon of Cyrene</a>, an African; and also, that one of the primitive converts to Christianity was a black <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunuch">eunuch</a> of the majestic court of <a href="https://margmowczko.com/queen-candace-of-the-ethiopians/">Candace</a>, queen of the Ethiopians. Now let us grant that the Negro belongs to the non-historic race (which is false however,) yet the very recognition of his claims to salvation through Jesus Christ, puts an eternal quietus to the matter; for I challenge the right of men or angels to offer salvation through Christ, to any creature not a descendent of Adam any more to brutes on the one hand, and devils on the other. For salvation is restricted to the sons of Adam; and who ever proves himself a son of Adam, proves his title to salvation, and who ever proves his right to salvation by the operations of the Holy Spirit, proves that he is a son of Adam. The Negro proved himself as we shall show more fully in the Lecture. I pronounce the question settled, and brand every wretch a liar or a fool who dares to dispute it.<br /><br />Let us in the next place, examine into what constitutes man, and see if the Negro can stand the test. Man ranks alone in the position assigned him by all naturalists. Differing widely however in physical conformation from all other animated beings; distinguished by his reason and power of speech, and wonderfully constructed by his reason and power of speech, and wonderfully constructed, he appears to be the bond of union between <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter">matter</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deity">Deity</a>, possessed of great mental powers he rises far above the status of all animated creation, and reaches out an unseen hand into the infinite, he looks forward into futurity, and realizes a dependence upon the great cause of all things. Contrary to the nature of other animals, he combines the past, the present, and the future in his calculations of happiness; he counts the cycles of eternity as the time of his existence, in spite of his efforts to materialize his mental powers. However, rude and low he stands in the scale of intelligence, he worships either a true or a false God; and pays homage at the throne of some acknowledge superior power. While articulate speech and artificial language, places an infinite chasm between him and all other living creatures upon the face of the globe. Thus stands man distinct, distinguished, single and alone in every clime, with every color of skin, and every texture of hair. The white Caucasians, the brown Mongolian, the red American, the tawny colored Malayan and the black Ethiopian, or kinky headed Negro and no ridicule, abuse, or condemnation can disrobe him of the dignity, with which he was clothed by his creator when he received the image of his maker.<br /><br />It has been charged that the Negro has anatomical and physiological conformations so divergent from the white man; that he cannot be a part of the original stock. That there are facial and other constructive differences; I grant, but not greater between the white man and Negro, than between the Indian and white man, and certainly not as great as between the white man and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A1mi_people">Laplanders</a>. For three years I visited a medical university, and assisted from two or three evenings every week in dissecting the dead; where we had bodies of every grade before us, and one of the special subjects I always kept in view, was to see what constructive difference there were between the Negro and other races, for we dissected all sizes, colors and sex. And to the exception of some shape differences, I have yet to see any actual variation, that deserves mention. I found the same number of bones, muscles, veins, arteries. The heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, and the whole machinery were the same in all respects. And more, I found the same chemical properties in every part of the system, in the same ratio or preponderance as the case may be, regardless of any exterior or contour difference whatever.<br /><br />Physicians say, there is no difference in the application of medicines, in the effects of poison, in the pulsation of the heart under similar circumstances, in the time of pregnancy, in the gestational arrangement, in the effects of peculiar diets, in the action of diseases, in the similarity of diseases, in the years they live, in the instrumentalities that hasten gray hairs and bald heads, in the time eye glasses are needed, and in the concavity or convexity of the eye glasses used, in the years of infancy, childhood and immaturity, in the passions of lust, in the necessary restraints of chastity, in the mode and manner of sex indulgence, in the quality of strength of jealousy. And all that is peculiar to one man is peculiar to another.<br /><br />The School Teachers say, there is no difference in the mode and time of mastering a lesson, in learning any particular branch of education, in committing any thing to memory, that where one excel in judgment, the other excel in imitative genius, that children of all colors and nationalities have their idlers, sleepy heads, numskulls, block heads and tale bearers. While on the other hand, they have their promising youths, obedient, mannerly, peaceful and studious. While some die young, others live on and grow old; so that man is but man everywhere, and in every sphere of national identity.<br /><br />The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology">Phrenologist</a> say there is no difference in the organs, or congeries of cranium protuberances, which indicate the caliber of the brain. Neither <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Joseph_Gall">Gall,</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Spurzheim">Spurzheim</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Combe">Comb</a>, nor the two <a href="https://collections.countway.harvard.edu/onview/exhibits/show/talking-heads/the-fowler-brothers">Fowlers</a>’, who are the admitted pioneers and masters of this science have ever so much as raised or mooted the question. They arrange, classify and interpret them the same in the head of the Negro, as in the head of the white, and their interpretation are received by one as satisfactorily as by the other. They find the organs of the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propensity">propensities</a>, the organs of the sentiment, the organs of intellect, and the organs of reflections the same in ratio, the same in quantum, and the same locus in quo as in the whites, in short, <a href="https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/amativeness">amativeness</a>, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/philoprogenitive">philoprogenitiveness</a>, <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/alimentiveness">alimentiveness</a>, veneration, imitation, time, and all express the same powers, motives, characteristics and inclinations in one as in the other.<br /><br />The same textual indications are manifest in the hair, in the rete mucosum, and in the whole organic composition.<br /><br />And the same passions are awakened by the same causes, and burns in hate, torments in jealousy, fears in danger, sinks in despair, hoards in avarice, cheers up in hope, and leaps in joy. Besides the religion of the one, is the religion of the other; at least so far as we can judge by its operations and ultimate results.<br /><br />During the last decade and a half, a parcel of self-constituted <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropologist">Anthropologists</a> have sprung up with great flourish, and have tried to shake heaven and earth with new tidings from the scientific arena. Their theory is that man is the culmination of the ape, monkey, orangutan, or some other baboon species. That by some process he lost his hairy hide and long tail, and have thus by a series of upward graduations rose to the status of man and womanhood. This monstrous theory is not only at variance with the Mosaic Record, but is infinitely worse than the opinions which prevailed in Greece, and was a fundamental tenet in <a href="https://academyofideas.com/2014/03/stoicism-vs-epicureanism/">the Epicurean and Stoic schools</a>, for they both held, that man sprung from the prolific soil which were anciently far more powerful in its generative strength, than it is now that the earth and vegetable matter, produced myriads of small wombs that rose like mole hills on the ground, and were transformed for his nourishment into an infinite number of glandular and lactiferous bulbs, so as to form a substitute for the breast of the mother. And thus,<br /><br />“Earth fed the nursling, the warm other clothed,<br /><br />And the soft downy grass his couch composed.”<br /><br />This and that other frightful dogma held by the philosophers of Rome, which made man the child of an eternal series of self-existence, are neither so horrible and shocking to our sense of dignity and moral grandeur, as the assumption that he emanated from a dirty stinking baboon. Again, where these great and world renowned Anthropologists, can find authority to reduce the <a href="https://www.thefreedictionary.com/bimanous">Bimanous</a> creation, to the level of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrumana">quadrumana,</a> or show such a connecting specimen as would lead to the conclusion, that one is the offspring of the other, I have been unable to see. For in the language of Dr. Good, who is unquestionable authority, “Both the orangutan and pongo, (and chimpanzee) which of all the monkey tribes, make the nearest approach to the structure of the human skeleton, have three vertebrae less than man. They have a peculiar membranous pouch connected with the larynx or organ of the voice, which belong to no division of man whatever, white or black. The larynx itself, is, in consequence of this, so peculiarly constructed as to render it less capable even of articulate sounds than that of almost any other quadruped. And lastly they have no proper feet, for what are so-called feet, for what are so-called feet, are in reality as directly hands as the terminal organs of the arms; the great toe in man, and that which chiefly enables him to walk in an erect position, being a perfect thumb in the orangutan, whence this animal is naturally formed for climbing, and its natural position in walking and the position it always assumes, except when under discipline, is that of all-fours, the body being supported on four hands instead of on four feet as in quadrupeds. And it is owing to this wide and essential difference that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Cuvier">M. Cuvier</a> and other <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoology">zoologists</a>, thought it expedient to invent a new name by which the monkey and <a href="https://pictures.royalsociety.org/image-rs-9969">maucauco</a> tribe might be distinguished from all the rest and, instead of <a href="https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/quadruped">quadrupeds</a>, have called them quadrumana, or <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/quadrumanous">quadrumanuals</a>, by which they are at the same time equally distinguished from every tribe of the human race, which are informally, alone, Bimanual. <br /><br />Here are impassable barriers set forth in the anatomical structure, which nothing but the fist of Almighty God could harmonize, and convert either nature into the machinery of the other. But a greater barrier than any mentioned yet, are in the way; I mean the moral and intellectual natures. There never has been an instance since the world began, when a monkey, baboon, ape, chimpanzee, orangutan, or pongo, have been demonstrated to possess any more intellect than the horse or the dog, and far less than the beaver. Indeed, I have seen rats under more rule and discipline than I ever saw either tribe of the monkey species.<br /><br />But then, where is the zoologist, or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/comparative-anatomy">comparative anatomist</a>, who has ever seen a specimen or fossiliferous relic, of the transition or change that was turning a monkey into a man? We have seen the tad-pole turn to a frog, we have seen the caterpillar turn to a butterfly, and a thousand other transitions take place, but who has ever seen a monkey in an intermediate state, with one side monkey and the other side man, or with one end man and the other end monkey? Again, those wise timber heads who trace man’s origin to the monkey tribe invariably identify the Negro race with him especially. Well, let us see how the position will stand the test. The Negro, they say, sprung from the monkey, or in other words, is an elevated monkey, a higher order of monkey. He is a monkey, but he has simply thrown off some of the characteristics of the wild monkey, and through domestication has imbibed moral and mental habits, and partakes of the physical conformations peculiar to the bimanual races. Now let us compare the Negro and orangutan, one of the highest orders of the monkey tribe. The Negro has like the white man two hundred and forty-five bones in his body; the orangutan has two hundred and twenty-eight. The Negro has thirty-two teeth in his mouth; the orangutan has twenty-four. The Negro has two hands and two feet, the orangutan has four hands and no feet. The Negro walks erect or upright; the orangutan walks on his all fours. The Negro has short frizzled hair on his head; the orangutan has hair frequently six inches long and it is straight, covering his whole body. The Negro has black skin, the orangutan has gray, bluish, pale, and sometimes white skin, but never black. They say the Negro has a long heel; the orangutan has no heel at all. The Negro when erect is from five to six and a half feet high; the orangutan is from three to four feet high. The Negro brings forth their young after a gestation of nine months; the orangutan bring for their young after a gestation of five months. The Negro whips their children when they do wrong; the orangutan bit their children when they act rudely.<br /><br />The Negro is considered old when he arrives at seventy and eighty years of age. The orangutan is considered old when he arrives at twenty and twenty-five. The hair of the Negro is naturally black; the hair of the orangutan is of a brownish red color. The lips of the Negro are generally thick; the lips of the orangutan are so thin, that when his mouth is shut, it looks like a coarse seam. The legs of the Negro are the longest; the arms of the orangutan are the longest. The Negro retires to bed very late as a general rule; the orangutan retires at sun set, and rises at sun rise invariably. The Negro has some shame, and politeness; the orangutan has none; for the blushes at no act. The Negro laughs and talks in his most savage state; the orangutan does neither. And thus we might continue to show their dissimilarity, in a hundred other instances, but what would be the use? I have adduced enough already to show that it would be more trouble for God to transform the orangutan into a man, than it would be to make the man at once. And more, enough has been adduced to prove that those who advocate that abominable heresy are either fools or villains.<br /><br />But the next question is why the Negro is black? I might with equal propriety ask why are the Caucasians white? They are both mysteries to me; for while I believe we all sprang from Adam. I do not believe Adam was either white or black. For those familiar with the Hebrew language will bear me witness that the word we translate Adam, is so often used in the Hebrew literature as an adjective, to convey the following colors: red, reddish, crimson and brown. And I think it is <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Stuart,_Moses">Prof. Stuart</a>, who states, that according to the <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/etymological">etymological</a> significance of the term, and its general application among the Israelites, we are forced to the conclusion, that Adam was either yellow, re, or of a cornelian color. This much we do know that by far the largest number of the world’s inhabitant’s to-day is of that color. And if you will allow me to speak plainly on that point, I have my doubts about either white or black being natural colors. Indeed they are not colors; they are both the extreme of colors. And if it is a matter of astonishment why a man should be black; it is equally wonderful why a man should be white. Particularly so, when we find that out of thirteen hundred millions of people living on the globe, not more than three hundred and seventy millions are white, this leaving nine hundred and thirty millions belonging to the darker hue. Now, if white is the natural color of man, why are they so far in the minority? But if there is any natural color, I believe the Indian or the Japanese have it, and not the black or the white man.<br /><br />Some however, who were possessed with more zeal than knowledge, have labored hard to prove that black was an execrable or an accursed mark that the negro sprang from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cain-biblical-figure">Cain</a>, that Cain was cursed, and that curse and black are inseparable correlatives; that each possess a reciprocity of force, which necessitates the other. Well, let us grant it all, and apply the test. If <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_and_mark_of_Cain">the curse of Cain</a> turned him black, and everybody else in the world was white, then Cain must have married a white woman, and his children of necessity would have been mulattoes. Now suppose they were not guilty of incest, and that Cain’s mulatto children married other white people; the next generation would have all been quadroons, or three-quarters white, and <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/quintroon">quintroons,</a> &c., till in a few generations the black skin would have been bleached as white as ever. But suppose his wife through some terrible paroxysm, had caught this black leprosy, and bore father Cain a few black babies, off there in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_Nod">the land of Nod</a>, (or in the land wandering as the Hebrew word means.) And they had intermarried and raised up a black community. What became of them at Noah’s flood? Don’t you see this damnable heresy cannot stand the torch of analysis, any more than a feather can stand the fires of a furnace? Away with your nonsense, for it is only the wild jargon of a fool.<br /><br />But let us see, if science on the one hand, or analogical reasoning on the other, can account for the character of the pigmentum.... of the black race; for really that constitutes all the difference between him and the white or Caucasian races. <br /><br />I am no adept in the science <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatology">climatology</a> and shall therefore depend mainly upon illustrious authorities for the views I may advance. Professor Moore, in an able treatise on ethnology says: “It is impossible for us, in the present state of our physiological knowledge to explain the precise mode by which changes are produced in the physical constitution, by a change of geographical location, but the fact is, that there is in the constitution of man a tendency such as we saw in the lower tribes, to put on certain changes of color, hair, form, etc., when removed from one climate and locality to another, or when subjected to any great change of social habits.” Whether the external condition of these changes be the chemical solar rays, the altitude or depression of the general level, the difference of geological formations, the varying agencies of magnetism and electricity, atmospheric peculiarities, miasmatic exhalations from vegetable or mineral matter, difference of soils, proximity to the ocean, variety of food, habits of life and exposure—all of which perhaps at times, come in play, or other causes more occult—there can be no question about the fact that such causes are at work. The fact is, that when other physical conditions are the same, tribes living nearest the equator and level of the sea are marked with the blackest skin and crispest hair, thus we make a gradual ascent from the jetty black negro of the time to the olive colored Arab, the brown Moor, the swarthy Italian, the dusky Spaniard, the dark skin Frenchman, the ruddy Englishman, and the pallid Scandinavian. When the white races are transferred to a tropical clime, there is a gradual darkening of the complexion, and a crisping of the hair. The change is not so perceptible, however, in the removal of the dark races to a cooler climate, because, as Professor Moore says: “The deposition of the coloring pigment in the rete mucosum, or mucous web, is a positive peculiarity, and the law of varieties, as we have ascertained it, is, that these peculiarities once produced become tenacious and permanent, even though the original condition of their production should be changed. The white races are more immediately affected, because their color is a negative peculiarity, and hence more readily affected by the action of positive agencies.”<br /><br />Dough may be readily changed into brae, by subjecting it to heat, but bread cannot so readily be changed into dough by reversing the process or subjecting it to cold or water—yet no man would from this fact affirm that a lump of dough and a loaf of bread may not have the same origin. But even on these races a bleaching effect is seen after the process of a considerable time. The colored people this country even where the race has not been mixed, are lighter in color than our race in Africa. And <a href="https://sfbayview.com/2013/09/african-americans-and-the-gypsies-a-cultural-relationship-formed-through-hardships/">the Gypsies</a>, in spite of their exposure and nomadic habits, have gradually assumed a lighter tint in the cooler parts of Europe, so in the opposite direction. Bishop Heber declares that three hundred years residence in India, have made the Portuguese nearly as black as <a href="https://findwords.info/term/caffre">the Caffres</a>.<br /><br />The learned <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Watson_(Methodist)">Richard Watson</a> speaks also of a Jewish settlement in tropical India, where a colony emanating from the same source, that the white Jews of this country did, have in the lapse of few centuries become as black as the negroes. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_George_Morton">Dr. Morton</a> says, “The children of Abraham are found of every hue; from the ruddy tints of the Polish and German, through the dusky hue of the Moorish and Syrian, to the jetty melanism of the black Jews of India.” Again,<br /><br />He says, "The Hindoos themselves present every variety of complexions from the fair skinned <a href="https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Rajpoot">Rajpoot</a>, whose cheek is tanned by the cool breezes of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Himalayas">Himalayas</a>, to the swart Coolies, and the cold black fishermen, who swarm on the burning banks of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooghly_River">Hooghly</a>."<br /><br />Prof. Lichtenstein says, "That the Caffres in many instances, are as light-colored as the Portuguese;" other races have been found in the tropical climes, where the hair is crisped, but the faces are merely tawny. And still others, with the physiognomy of the Caucasian and the black-color of the Negro. And thus we might go on adducing evidences of climatological changes till they would become burdensome. But if you ask me what it is in the climate that so operates as to work these varieties in the human species, I have but to say, I cannot tell; nor can I tell what it is in the climate of Africa, that has made white hogs turn black, that strips the sheep of its wool, and clothes it with black hair; that causes the dog to lose his hair, and leaves him with a black oily skin; that changes the feathers of several gallinaceous fowls from lively colors to black; too little is known of the chemical workings of nature's mysterious laboratory to solve the problem yet, for chemistry is the hands of god, it’s working in the heavens, in the atmosphere, in the sweeping rivers, in the ocean, in dew drops, in the earth, in the rocks, in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, and in man, bird, and beast.<br /><br />The most philosophical exegesis I have found on this subject, however, is the following which I copy verbatim from the learned Dr. Good: "The immediate matter of color is the mucous pigment, which forms the middle layer of the general integument of the skin, and upon this the sun, in hot climates appears to act in a two-fold manner; first, by the direct affinity of its colorific rays with the oxygen of the animal surface, in consequence of which the oxygen is detached, and flies off, and carbon and hydrogen being at liberty, form a more or less perfect charcoal, according to the nature of their union, and next, by the direct influence which its colorific rays, like many other stimulants, produce upon the liver by exciting it to a secretion of more abundant bile, and of a deeper hue. And that this second or coloring layer of the general integument of the skin differs (as indeed all the layers of the skin do) in its thickness, not only in the different kinds of animals, but very frequently in the different species, varieties, and even individuals, and we find the hair is effected in the same ratio of the mucous pigment."<br /><br />But why should this subject be one of so much speculation and doubt, when the very rudiments of psychological experience will teach us the mode of transforming one race into another, by application of such means as heaven has placed at our disposal, in from three to four generations? When you can take two sisters of the same stock, and surround their progeny with dissimilar influences and circumstances, and work a complete change in their physical contour in so short a time. But why follow this line of argument further? When we have arrived at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q.E.D.">Quod erat demonstrandum.</a><br /><br />The next great bugbear that has agitated Christendom, and desecrated even the pulpits of this country, has arisen from the so-called curse of old father Noah. And here I feel the need of an admirable work on that subject which was published a few years ago, from under the powerful pen of that learned and eminent divine <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/tanner-benjamin-tucker-1835-1923/">Rev. B. T. Tanner</a>, D. D., of Philadelphia, but having mislaid it, I will be unable to give you the benefit of his masterly views and arguments.<br /><br />Happily, however, for the occasion, I have before me a similar line of argument from another eminent colored divine of Liberia. <a href="https://episcopalarchives.org/church-awakens/exhibits/show/leadership/clergy/crummell">Rev. Alex Crummell</a>, B. A., a graduate of Queen's College, Cambridge, whose clear masterly mind deals with that subject as few are able. <br /><br />Mr. Crummell, after proving by both sacred and profane history,, that the malediction or curse of Noah, never effected any of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_(son_of_Noah)">Ham's children</a>, except Canaan, and that the curse was exhausted in the extermination of the Canaanites by the children of Israel, after their introduction into the promised land, proceeds to say, "that Africa was originally settled by the descendents of Ham, excepting his son Canaan. Ham himself is supposed to have immigrated to Egypt, and Egypt in scripture is called the "land of Ham." There he attained to state and eminence, and after his death, it is said, was deified by his descendents. The supreme deity Am of the Egyptians, it is stated, signifies his name, e.g. Ham, and <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Ammon_(Deity)/">the Jupiter Ammon</a>, in honor of whom a temple was erected, is supposed to indicate Ham.<br /><br />Africa was peopled by Ham in the line of his three sons, Cush, Mizraim and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Put_(biblical_figure)">Phut</a>.<br /><br />1st. Cush, the eldest, and undoubtedly the most distinguished of all the sons of Ham, appears to have been the great progenitor of the Negro race. His name is also associated, with distinction, with Asia. The records of these early periods of the world's history are by no means clear and distinct; but Cush appears to have gone at first, into Arabia, between the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphrates">Euphrates</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigris">Tigris</a>; the country sometimes called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaldea">Chaldea</a>, and in scripture, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiraz">Shiraz</a>. Thence his descendents spread themselves abroad through the beautiful and luxuriant region of "Araby, the blest," and eastward, by the Persian Gulf to the Orient. Here, in the first place, Cush and his children distinguished themselves. Here, Nimrod, his son became the first of kings, and reared the mighty city of Babylon, and founded Nineveh. In the course of time, some of the descendents of Cush crossed the straits of Rabelmandel turned their steps southward toward the sources of the Nile and settled in the land south of the mountains of the Moon, and from them the negro race has sprung, although the Cushites were undoubtedly, greatly mingled in blood with the children of Mizraim and Phut. <br /><br />2nd. Mizraim was the father of the Egyptians. Wherever, in our version, we find the name Egypt, in the original it is Mizraim. <br /><br />3rd. Of Phut, the third son of Ham, we have but little more than conjecture. It is the generally received opinion that his descendants settled on the northern Atlantic coast of Africa—Libya, and the adjacent parts, the country of the Moors." So you see there is no connection with Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, and the Negro race.<br /><br />Mr. Crummell, in another place, says:<br /><br />"It appears then, from the evidence adduced; that the curse in its locality and significance is altogether Asiatic and not African. Asia was the field on which the Canaanites moved, and whence their history is derived. <a href="https://www.livescience.com/56016-canaanites.html">The Canaanites</a> of old were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiatic">Asiatic</a>, that is, so far as residence is concerned, and that the mass of their descendants, if existing anywhere, are the modern Syrians."<br /><br />Mr. Watson says:<br /><br />"The Cushites extended westward their migration into the heart of the African continent, where only in the woolly headed negro the genuine Cushites is to be found."<br /><br />Herodotus, the Father of history, says: "That Xerxes had in the army prepared for the Grecian expedition, both Orientals and African Ethiopians, and those from Africa had kinky hair, which, says Dr. Pritchard, 'must have been caused by the tropical effects of their specific locality.'"<br /><br />Dr. Hales says: "That the Cushites were allotted to the hot regions of Africa."<br /><br />Mr. Rollin says: "That Cushites, with a mixture of Mizraim and Phut, settled Africa, and were the progenitors of the Negro race."<br /><br />Mr. Watson again says: "The only probable account which can be given of the negro tribes, is, that, as Africa was peopled, through Egypt by three of the descendants of Ham, they are the offspring of Cush, Mizraim and Phut."<br /><br />Dr. Bascom says: "The descendents of Cush first settled between the Euphrates and Tigris, and the region was styled the Country of Cushdim, or Chaddea, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinar">the land of Shinar</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod">Nimrod</a>, a son of Cush erected there the first kingdom on earth."<br /><br />The Cushites are without doubt the origin and stand in history as the face of the great Negro world, says the same author. And again, Ethiopia proper, lying on the South of Egypt, in Africa, was also settled by a colony of Cushites, together with an admixture of the descendents of Mizraim, and to these we must trace the present Ethiopian race. And again,<br /><br />The Canaanites, to whom the curse of Noah was limited, never entered Africa, except a few on the coast of Barbary, which never belonged to the land of the Negroes, and where they soon became extinct. Of course the curse did not affect Africa, but had its consummation in the destruction to the seven Canaanite nations.<br /><br />These illustrious authorities, I think are sufficient to settle the origin of the Negro race and prove those falsifiers who would brand him with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Ham">the curse of Canaan</a>.<br /><br />The unity of the human family is also unquestionably demonstrated in the power of the different races to amalgamate, or inter-propagate their offspring; a power which by no means prevails among the animal tribes.<br /><br />Had the all-wise Creator not limited the extent of propagation in the animal creation the earth might have become a scene of organic confusion, for they might have commingled <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_infinitum">ad infintum</a>, and thus bred into a strange and nondescript monstrosity; impassable barriers were therefore necessitated, and were provided in the genius and species, which now, and have always existed. It is this fact (or law) that establishes the conditions of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybridity">hybridity</a>, and ends the intermixture. A hybrid may be produced between two different species, but never a hybrid species, for the hybrid is barren and cannot perpetuate its kind. And as evidence that this is a trespass upon the order of nature, hybrids are rarely, if ever produced among animals in a wild state, they are almost invariably the result of domestic force or manipulation. The law of heaven is that each kind shall beget its own kind. And if we find the power of reproduction existing between any two classes, we know that they are merely varieties, and belong to the same species. <br /><br />And if they belong to the same species, we know they had the same origin; for we have seen that the production of new species is impossible through any process of hybridity. A mule is a hybrid, and was never known to give birth to a colt. The products of a buffalo and cow and the China and common goose, possibly have feebly bred to the second generation, and then became extinct; but then it was doubtful if they were not only a variety. Dr. Morton to appease his prejudices against the Negro, has most elaborately discussed this subject, and labored hard to prove out hybrid races. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bachman">Dr. Bachman</a>, a far more able naturalist, has taken up his arguments seriatim, and utterly demolished them.<br /><br />Now let us apply this rule to man, and what a wide contrast we behold. The different races everywhere not only <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amalgamate">amalgamate</a>, but reproduce their amalgamated offspring forever, and by it establish varieties, generate different nationalities, transform complexions, and what is far more, raise up new races, larger in size, more robust, stalwart, and invariably more beautiful. And at the same time prove beyond cavil by the immutable laws of nature, the common origin of the human family, so, if one man came from a Adam—all did; for we were all of one species.<br /><br />Do you want ocular proof of this? If you do, look at the mulattoes, quadroons, quintroons, and octoroons, who swarm the country. And as evidence, they are no hybrids, and procreate their kind. I knew a mulatto woman who was the mother of twenty-nine children, and twenty-six were living four years ago. And as though nature intended to satisfy the world on that subject, by making her the standard-test. Some of these children were by white men, and some by black men. I also knew a beautiful mulatto woman in Abbeville District, S. C., who gave birth to twins, and one was nearly white with straight hair, and the other was nearly black with kinky hair; thus showing a white and black father. And if you want any more races interblending than that, to prove the oneness or homogeneousness of human nature, I cannot see what it is for.<br /><br />On the other hand, I have to learn truthfully of a solitary instance since the world began, of a man breeding with any of the animal creation: monkey, baboon, chimpanzee, orangutan, gorilla, or ape not accepted. This so clearly establishes the unity of the origin of man, that we need no biblical authority. I wish I could however, trace my race to some other source, than the fallen and unfortunate Adam; I wish I could give both him and mother Eve to our white friends if they desire it, but I can't; he is my daddy too. <br /><br />It has been said, however, that a few instances have occurred, where women have bred for dogs, and that a she bear in Mexico once bread for a man.<br /><br />But if such a revolting episode to all human sensibility ever did occur, we are sure no such specimen of human and brute monstrosity has ever been able to perpetuate its kind; and we dismiss the subject in disgust. <br /><br />Having proved both by science and the ablest historical authorities in the world, that the Negro emanated from the sole source, and is a part of the same species, and is one and inseparable with the rest of the human family. Let us now trace him through expired ages, let us look at him as he stands out in colossal grandeur, ranking high in civilization, in art, in science, in literature, in military genius and bravery, in manipulating kingdoms, in shaping the destinies of nations, in establishing navies and paving navigation for future ages. From the time that Asia was a land of tents and shepherds, Greece a waste wilderness, Rome a desert and America unknown in song and history, and the African races rose as the proud mother of nations and centre of civilization and social refinement.<br /><br />And where shall we begin? And how shall we find language to express ourselves? For noble specimens meet our gaze at every period and every decade. In summing up the career of the Negro race, however, I shall include the descendents of Cush, Mizraim and Phut, because I have proved beyond question, that the children of these three sons of Noah have inter-blended and inter-mixed to an inseparable degree. But that the posterity of Canaan have become extinct, or as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Paley">Paley</a> says destroyed.<br /><br />The Negro or African races however, can boast an ancestry as bright and as famous as any people who ever breathed. Compared with whom, the Goths and <a href="https://www.livescience.com/46150-vandals.html">Vandals of Europe</a>, from which our white friends descended, are no more to be compared, than I am to be compared with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isaac-Newton">Isaac Newton</a>. As Mr. Watson says: "We affirm that the contemned race of Africa, as to intellect and genius, can exhibit a brighter ancestry than our own—wild and untrained (at present) it is true, but still the offshoot of a stem which was once proudly luxuriant of the fruits of learning and taste, while that from which <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goths">the Goths</a>, their calumniators have sprung remained hard, knotted and barren." There is not a kingdom found upon the map of nations that can lay such an antique claim to art and science, and upon whose lofty brow have been emblazoned more glittering and immoral ornamentations than upon hers. It is thought by some historians that the Cushites were the only branch of Ham's posterity who were ever black, and from the language of Jeremiah the prophet, we know they were black as now twenty-five centuries ago, and from one or two remarks by <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/herodotus/">Herodotus</a> the great historian, we should judge that they were black thirty-three or four centuries ago. Yet, for a thousand years the Cushites except in the simple adjunct of religion, were the most distinguished nation on earth. They instituted the first national police. They formed the priesthood and literati of Egypt and Chaldea. They originated the worship of departed heroes. They were the authors of all that complicated machinery of gods and goddesses, which have been handed down in classic history. For a thousand years they held aloft the blazing torch of science to a darkened world, while philosophy strode, and nations learned the wisdom of temples, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obelisk">obelisks</a> and pyramids. Their everlasting architecture has resisted alike the corroding tooth of time, and the ravages of barbarism, and to-day monument the greatness of their eclipsed genius. Their ruins are still the wonders of the world, and have been three of its seven wonders for four thousand years. And in the words of one witness the pyramids of Egypt, the ruins of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thebes,_Egypt">Thebes</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermopolis">Hermopolis</a>, of Alexandria and Jupiter Ammon Look at the palace of the Ptolemaic, the catacombs of Sycopolis, the ancient capital of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Empire">Abyssinia</a>, where forty pillars and one hundred and thirty pedestals of granite are still standing in gloomy magnificence to tell you what Africa once was. <br /><br />Eighteen Ethiopians were at separate times monarchs of Egypt. And Abyssinia at one time brought a hundred thousand horsemen and the same number of camels in the field of battle.<br /><br />And though Ethiopians swayed the scepter over Egypt, yet, there repaired <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato">Plato</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon">Solon</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras">Pythagoras</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycurgus_of_Sparta">Lycurgus</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus">Herodotus</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strabo">Strabo</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus">Tacitus</a>, to learn the laws and principles of science, statesmanship and religion. While <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/france/napoleon">Napoleon Bonaparte</a>, forty centuries after, stood in awe at the base of her monuments, and melted into insignificance before the majesty of her ruins.<br /><br />Ethiopia in the days of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_of_Israel_and_Judah">King Asia of Israel</a>, mustered a million of men for the battle field. We read of twenty thousand African cities existing at one time. Two of the Romish Popes, if not three, were Cushites or Negroes. Africans taught the arts in the tongue of the Pharaohs, and originated the hieroglyphic symbols. From them mythology received her birth, astronomy attention, the zodiac a system, and the constellations notation. They paved the way for the future greatness of <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/homer/">Homer</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles">Achilles</a>. Their heroes stood the conquest of nations. The mighty <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishak">Shishak</a>, the great <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesostris">Sestostris</a>, the conquering Hannibal, at whose martial tread the majesty of Rome trembled and quaked upon her alpine embrasures. The renowned Queen of Sheba was also an African. Also Queen Candace of Ethiopia. The Princess of Meroe who swayed the scepter of Ethiopia, and once dictated terms of peace to <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/emperor-augustus">Augustus Caesar</a>, was an African. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra">Cleopatra</a>, before whose beauty rival Kings knelt in infatuated madness, was a daughter of African Egypt. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprian">St. Cyprian</a>, Augustine, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tertullian">Tertullian</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence">Terrence</a> of classic poetry, had African mothers. So was the mother of Hannibal, who blazed out a path over the Alps, and thus laid out a system of tactics for the guidance of Napoleon Bonaparte, fifteen hundred years before he was an invader of Italy—Yes, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal">Hannibal</a>, whose fame will glow upon the pages of history, and also his armies, which hung like the cyclones of the desert upon the declivities of the towering <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Alps">Alps</a>.<br /><br />Africa has given her fathers, her prelates of every grade to the church of God; her bishops rank first in the order of apostolic succession if any such a fact be in history seven hundred bishops met to deliberate upon the destinies of the church in Africa, and adopted <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/dogma">dogmas</a>, and decreed religious <a href="https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/tenet">tenets</a>, that still constitute the foundation of religious faith throughout the civilized world. Her martyrs have been burnt at the stake, and the flaming fagots have consumed them, while they shouted glory to God.<br /><br />We need not refer you to the granite chiseled head of <a href="https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Memnon/memnon.html">Memnon</a>, to find <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physiognomy">physgionomical</a> expressions carved in rock, that will indicate the negro's past genius, their generals, physicians, philosophers, linguists poets, merchants, mathematicians from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclid">Euclid</a> down, all dot the golden shore of their departed glory. And though reason and despair have sat down for ages together on the throne of their intellects, we know from history, it once blazed in glorious grandeur, and the day approaches rapidly when it will repeat the story of its conquest. The celebrated <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Friedrich_Blumenbach">Blumenbach</a>, the great German naturalist, had a library exclusively of Negro works or productions, and fearlessly boasted that there was no branch of science or literature in which they had not excelled. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Aglipay">Bishop Gregoria</a> had a book case filled with works by Negro authors, to which he would point with pride; as a refutation of all that could be said against the mental powers of that race. And heaven seems to have rise up examples of Negro capacity, in Freidig of Germany, Hannibal of Russia, <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/lislet-geoffroy-jean-baptiste-k-geoffroy-l-islet-1755-1836/">Lislet of the French Academy</a>, Dr. Arno of Württemberg University with Vasa and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_Sancho">Ignatius Sancho</a> whose taste and genius have enriched the polite literature of civilization. And thus through history, the negro holds the magic wand, and the world looks on with wonder and admiration, from Nimrod, the sons of Cush, and the founder of kingdoms; to <a href="https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass/bio.html">Frederick Douglass</a>, whose massive brain and fiery tongue have pelted this nation for thirty years, with logical missiles more fearful in their effects than all the thunderbolts that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(mythology)">Vulcan</a> ever forged for Jupiter; yes, Douglass, whose hot breath hung like the tempest of heaven, and battalions of flying cherubim over the horizon of his country, till the hands of those who oppressed his race withered and died; yes, Douglass, whose burning words and flaming eloquence sent an incandescent glare over the gloomy regions of his slave-darkened country, and the torch of liberty blazed like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_Bethlehem">the star of Bethlehem</a>.<br /><br />But we must not desert poor Canaan. He too was a child of Ham; we are bound to him by the consanguineous law of nature. He is our brother with all his faults and misfortunes, and a noble brother too. The Canaanites can boast a long line of illustrious personages.<br /><br />Whether the Noachian curse was intended to be an hereditary affliction, fastened on to that race by the God of nature, to ultimately result in their degradation and extermination, or whether it was a mere prophetic indication of what should over take them for their sins, is a question that would require too much elaboration for this occasion.<br /><br />This much we glean from history; however, they were never black; so the curse did not change their complexion. And it is strange that an accursed race should be allotted a land that flowed with milk and honey. True, I do not endorse the language of the Hon. Garrett Smith, with all his virtues, "that the curse and all connected with it, is a myth, and is entitled to no consideration;" but I do assume there is a great paradox or inconsistency somewhere, if the popular construction given to the curse is entitled to credit. For though the Canaanites appear to have been cursed, yet history only accounts for the posterity of five sons out of eleven who ever settled in Canaan, and of course ever received the effects of the curse. They were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heth_(Bible)">Heth</a>, <a href="https://christiananswers.net/dictionary/jebus.html">Jebus</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorites">Amor</a>, Girrgashi and Hivi, and their father Canaan; leaving six sons with their posterity to whom the curse never extended, nor did the edict of heaven contemplate the destruction of any besides those who were actually in the land of Canaan. Suppose however they were cursed, that the ire of heaven rested upon them, that the frown of God followed them, till they became lecherous in the sight of men and angels. Was it the effects of Noah's drunken curse, or a just and righteous retribution for the sins they had committed. The answer to me is plain and easy. For there is no reference made to the curse of Noah in the catalogue of crimes charged either by God or Moses. But they were charged with sacrificing men, burning their own children on hellish altars, to appease the wrath of Moloch, and in morals, they were charged with adultery, bestiality, incest, profanity, and all kinds of uncleanness, even down to sodomy. But you say, were not these crimes, the natural sequence of the curse. Why no; for the reason that four hundred and fifty years before that time, the Canaanites had of their own race, one of the most pious and holy men as their priest, and king known to the ancient world. <br /><br />I mean <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Melchizedek">Melchisodeck</a>, King of Salem and priest of the most high God, to whom Abraham when returning from the Assyrian slaughter gave a tenth of his spoils, and thus set the world an example of Christian benevolence that has brought millions into the lap of the church of God, and will forever. Could any person other than a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_compos_mentis">non compos mentis</a> presume for a moment that Melchisodeck wore the badge of a curse? The man whom Abraham the father of the faithful, and friend of God bowed his holy knee. Gentlemen I can't see it in that light. <br /><br />Again, with all their faults and with the curse too, if you please; these people were so bright and full of military genius, bravery and strategy, that they withstood <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua">Joshua</a> six years, before he got possession of their territory, with the infinite *CAPS*FIAT of heaven at his back, and all Israel at his bid. For the Canaanites were an active and intellectual people, as much, if not more so than any of the ancients. They originate maritime adventures, established commerce with the then known world. They passed out the straits of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar">Gibraltar</a>, visited Britain and Ireland, planted colonies in both Spain and Ireland. And I believe the whole Irish race and a part of the English and they are the descendents of Canaan.<br /><br />I mean no personal reflection upon my Irish fellow-citizens. But they know they cannot trace their own history to any head. Besides, their works of art and genius, they cannot account for, though standing in their own territory—look at their towers and old castles! Their builders are wrapt in the gloom of undated history. And long before the Scandinavians turned their adventurous bowsprits toward the North, the Canaanites had planted their banners on the soil of the Erin Isle; and the same restive genius that then fired their souls, and made them peculiarly a locomotive and migratory people, are seen aglow in the Irish to-day. We are authorized by history also to say, that though the Canaanites were destroyed, and became extinct as to their nationality; yet, there were hundreds who escaped to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia">Phoenicia</a>, a Syrian colony; and there built up the cities of Sidon, <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Tyre/">Tyre</a>, Sarepta, Biblos, Tripoli, Aradus, &c. And let us see what these Noah cursed people did. They made Phoenicia, the cradle of letters and arts. They carried the letters to Greece, through Cadmus, in which Homer wrote his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad">Iliad</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacreon">Anacreon</a> his lyrics. They build the world renowned <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon%27s_Temple">temple of Solomon</a>, whose magnificence and grandeur has baffled the genius of earth and will forever. They navigated the ships that transported his cedar, his stone, his silver, and his gold. They piloted vessels to distant shores, long before any other race dared to leave the sight of land. Gentlemen, I am afraid to tell you any more about this accursed people, I am afraid you will go off and get drunk because you were not cursed too. Ladies, now don't go home and quarrel with old father Noah because he did not curse you. For the Lord's sake let old Pa rest. <br /><br />I think, however, I have shown conclusively, that the Noachian malediction neither effected their complexion, their intellects, their morals, their religion, their industry, their ingenuity, nor their size, for in the days of Moses and Joshua, there were giants in their midst. And though I said poor Canaan a while ago, and was about to express sympathy. I now imagine a responsive voice comes, saying: Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children.<br /><br />Now I ask in conclusion, is there one here, who does not believe that white gentlemen (God forgive me for calling him a gentleman), was either a fool or a knave, when he questioned the soul of the Negro, and disputed his very humanity? When at the same time, if the facts were known, the hot blood of Canaan were then coursing through his veins, and by virtue of that, is first cousin to the blackest Negro in Guinea.<br /><br />Men for ages have been trying to contemn and ignore the Negro race; but in the language of Mr. Crummell, there is hope for Africa yet. And on this point I would like to spread my literary wings, and quote from the Bible and distinguished divines and philanthropists for hundreds of years. And such statesmen as <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/activists/william-wilberforce.html">Wilberforce</a>, Clarkson, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pitt,_1st_Earl_of_Chatham">Lord Chatham</a>, McQueen in the old world; and Everet, Madison, Jefferson, Clay, and that blazing Comet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sumner">Charles Sumner</a>, Stevens, Wilson, Greely, and a convoy of others; not to mention the philanthropists from Phillips, down. Men, whose names will glitter on the scroll of fame and whose words are the richest jewels of earth. And prove by them, that the flambeau of hope still lights up the Negroes path, and lifts an arch of seven-fold colors, which spans his darkened brow. A few weeks since, Hon. Frederick Douglass animadverted through his organ severely; upon a paragraph, he saw in one of my speeches in regard to Africa. Wherein I stated, that I did not believe this country would be the ultimate home of the negro race, that I believed our race would one day turn their attention to Africa, and go to it. Mr. Douglass accused me of clandestinely aiding the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam002.html">Colonization Society</a>, and hurled his ohillipics at me in a most frightful manner. Since then, I have given the Colonization scheme some attention; I have read one or two works, which has opened my eyes, and enlarged my store of information, and has enabled me to form an opinion.<br /><br />And with all the admiration I cherish for that great champion of human rights, I think him wrong in his obstinate and irreconcilable repugnance to that institution; I believe the Colonization Society has done good, is doing good, and will ultimately be adored by unborn millions. Through this very Colonization Society some of the posterity of Mr. Douglass may yet sway a scepter in that now darkened and despised country, but then enlightened and civilized notion, that will rank their names beside such men as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great">Alexander</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne">Charlemagne</a>, with posterity who are now sleeping in the womb of the future. But for the Colonization Society there would be no communication between here and our Fatherland, and there would be no medium through which to convey the waters of life to that famishing people. Why should we despise Africa because the whites do? Let them despise their own fatherland. Whenever I hear the Irish ridiculing Ireland, the English England, the French France, the Germans Germany, the Italians Italy, and the Spanish Spain, then will I as a descendent of Africa consider the propriety of ridiculing Africa? I do not wish it understood that I am advocating African emigration, but I believe it is our duty to civilize our fatherland, and the only way to civilize a people is to move into their midst and live among them.<br /><br />This must not be done <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/en%20masse">en masse</a> however, otherwise the object sought would be defeated, it must be the work of slow and gradual operation. Just about as slow as the Colonization Society has been since its organization. This will leave here enough of the colored race still to give us that black Emperor, and a snow-white Princess eighty years from now; to which Mr. Douglass referred in his masterly speech at Philadelphia. But then, it is alleged by some, that the prime movers in the Colonization scheme were not, noted friends of the negro race; well grant it, and what would it argue? It would only be another evidence that Providence over-rules evil for good. How many thousands in the late war fought, bled and died for the freedom of the Negro; who hated him, as the devil hates holy water; but is freedom to be despised by us because their motives were impure. The old woman said "she thanked God for the bread, if the devil did bring it;" and I commend her good sense.<br /><br />O! Africa there is hope for you yet, there are better things in store for thee! These are the days of your small things, "but they are not to be despised;" for in the pregnant words of the poet:<br /><br />"There is a light in the window for thee, brother,<br /><br />There is a light in the window for thee."<br /><br />I must dismiss this phase of the subject, however, and come to a conclusion. I think we have weighed the Negro pretty well, and found him not wanting. We have subjected him to quite a thorough analysis, and he has held his own. We bet on him, and he has won the race. We have found that some good thing could come out of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazareth">Nazareth.</a><br /><br />All along the shores of time we see the Negro figuring high, and making his mark on time's resisting tablets, outrage, abuse, execration, persecution, condemnation, and even death has not paralyzed his energies, nor dampened his courage. He is a man after two hundred and fifty years servitude. Everywhere you see the Negro. He is at every ball, every funeral, every church, every theatre, or has his representatives there; for when he cannot attend in person, he makes white men black their faces and represent him. He is in Congress, in the State Legislature, in the diplomatic corps. Prof. Langston, the polished shaft and master of jurisprudence, is turning out Negroes for the forum.<br /><br />Bishop Payne, the great scholar and model Christian, who stands at the head of negro prelates, throughout Christendom, is preparing his race for the pulpit.<br /><br />Hunter, Tanner, Burch, Nelson, Ruby and others, are excelling in journalism, and dictating terms to the nation, men, before whose frown and mighty pens politicians of every shade tremble.<br /><br />Dr. Garnet, black as jet, but as bright as the sunbeams, looks across the high seas, and views on a distant shore, some of his race still in fetters; he roars like a Bengal lion, his hot breath sweeps over the region, as the ..... Sweeps the Arabian Desert; saying Cuba must be free.<br /><br />G. T. Downing takes up the constitution of his country, discusses and unravels it with such eminent skill; displaying at the same time such a caliber of statesmanship, that we spot him, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Webster">Daniel Webster</a> of his race. <br /><br /><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benjamin-Banneker">Benji Banneker</a> of precious memory, peeped in the skies, and the many heavens stood still; he almanaced their days, weeks, months, years, changes, eclipses, risings and sittings, as Pythagoras and Socrates never dreamed and startled <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Jefferson">Thomas Jefferson</a>, then President of the United States. <br /><br /><a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/the-black-governor-who-was-almost-a-senator/">Governor Pinchback</a> of Louisiana, sees the party that freed him and his race, betrayed by a knave it had trusted; one man alone out of a hundred thousand had the brain and the courage to attack this hydra-headed monster, and save his race from degradation and ruin—he met him in mortal combat, and like David snatched the lamb from his voracious jaw—that man was Pinchback himself.<br /><br />Shall I speak of <a href="https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/R/RAINEY,-Joseph-Hayne-(R000016)/">Congressman Rainy</a>, Elliott, Walls, Cath, and <a href="https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/20161">Rapier</a>? Shall I refer you to Belcher, Quarles, Gibbs, Daveaux, White, Pearce, and a host of other leading politicians?<br /><br />Need I mention the black prelates, The Rt. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Ajayi_Crowther">Rev. Samuel E. Crowther</a>, Lord Bishop of the Niger in Western Africa, who, when he was consecrated, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the chief primate of all England, locked arms with—and led to the sacred Altar, in respect to his great ability? And in this country, the powerful Bishop Campbell, the logical Bishop Brown, the flowery Bishop Ward, the sweet-tongued <a href="https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/waymancyc/wayman.html">Bishop Wayman</a>, The learned though haughty Dr. Thompson, the polished Love, with a host of others, who stud the fair dome of the Christian church, and blaze like the watch fires of ages. Need I mention the name of <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/loverture-toussaint-1742-1803/">Toussaint L’Ouverture</a>, compared with whom the glorious fame of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington">Gen. Washington</a> might wither, and the brave sons of the Negro race, whose bleaching bones on every field of battle, tell the story of liberty in this country as the poet muse never dreamed? <br /><br />Need I mention the unwavering loyalty of the negro, during the fearful ordeal of reconstruction in the South, when he braved starvation, bands of assassins, and death itself for the redemption of his country, and was ever as true to his flag as the needle is to the pole.<br /><br />I think I hear the voice of God and reason say: Hold! Hold!! Hold your peace, enough has been said! The Negro is a human being, the Negro has capacities susceptible of eternal evolutions—he too, is a man bearing the undoubted impress of his maker. And to those monomaniacs, who would rob him of manhood—seek to defame his name—and eclipse his glory I now leave to the wormwood and the gall, and hell must chant their dreadful requeim, and finish the sad story, for I have no organ that can give utterance to the rest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Turner, Henry McNeal. The Negro in All Ages. The Henry McNeal Turner Project. (1863, April 8th). <a href="http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/the-negro-in-all-ages.html">http://www.thehenrymcnealturnerproject.org/2019/03/the-negro-in-all-ages.html</a></span></div>
HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-53139316968767233892019-02-06T19:52:00.003-08:002019-02-06T20:16:26.399-08:00Regina Clarke<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Regina Clarke is currently the Director of Retention & Student Success </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and Adjunct Instructor at <a href="https://mcuts.org/" target="_blank">Memphis College of Urban and Theological Studies (MCUTS @ LBC)</a>. S</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">he earned a Bachelor of Theology from Washington Baptist Theological Seminary where she was elected the first female Student Government President. Following graduation, she continued her studies at <a href="https://www.vuu.edu/theology" target="_blank">The Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology</a> at <a href="https://www.vuu.edu/" target="_blank">Virginia Union University</a> where she simultaneously earned a Masters of Christian Education and Master of Divinity with an emphasis in Ethics and Social/Restorative Justice. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in <a href="https://www.memphis.edu/communication/index.php" target="_blank">Communication</a> focusing on rhetoric, ethics, and social justice. </span></div>
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HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-14787764909607453472019-02-06T18:59:00.000-08:002019-04-10T11:45:48.741-07:00StaLynn Davis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">StaLynn Davis is a current Ph.D. student at the University of Memphis in the <a href="https://www.memphis.edu/history/" target="_blank">History department</a>. Her research centers on women and religion in the nineteenth-century United States, particularly enslaved women, with the hope of incorporating digital humanities into her research. <br /><br />Professionally, StaLynn has worked in higher education as an adjunct instructor and in academic advising, student services, and residence life. She has a passion for helping students reach their highest potential both in and out of the classroom. <br /><br />StaLynn earned her M.A. in History with a Public History concentration from the University of Illinois-Springfield where she served a two-year appointment as a graduate assistant for the <a href="https://papersofabrahamlincoln.org/" target="_blank">Papers of Abraham Lincoln</a>. StaLynn was also awarded the Outstanding Master’s Thesis for History in 2015. She received her B.A. in History from Quincy University. </span> </span><br />
<br />HMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03255560129677983237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-72940792514877494652019-02-06T11:02:00.001-08:002019-02-07T09:44:18.855-08:00Test postTest post
<iframe height="700" src="https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSGllzz-M9lc4JTk7LG42fxihrSW_cLKZvpCzVL_1fnU7q1UsO4TX6htGUQLFjHXOW7uLgXEmumm05k/pub?embedded=true" width="100%"></iframe>Amandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10331292104011078749noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-1008834743042177412018-09-25T10:54:00.001-07:002019-04-17T12:38:51.288-07:00Bishop Turner for Bryan: September 11, 1900<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Bishop Turner for Bryan </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>New York Times: September 11, 1900 </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">SAVANNAH, Ga., Sept. 10 – Bishop H. M. Turner of the African Methodist Church denies the report that he will take the stump in favor of the election of Mr. Bryan. In an interview to-day he says:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> “I am not a Democrat, never have been one, and never expect to be, and I have no intention of stumping the country for Mr. Bryan. I dislike Mr. McKinley and the attitude which he has assumed toward the negro, and I intend to vote for Mr. Bryan in the belief that any change is better than none. This is no new change of heart with me. For sixteen years I have been cooling toward the Republican Party, ever since the decision of the Supreme Court which practically held that a negro had no civil rights From that date to this the decisions of the Supreme Court have been against the negro where a question of his political or civil rights was involved. I have heard of one instance where the Supreme Court held in the case of a negro from Texas that he was entitled to trial by jury of his peers, that is, one composed at least partly of negroes, but I have not verified this. The Supreme Court has practically decitizenized the negro and has nullified the amendments to the Constitution. I don’t know what Mr. Bryan’s views are on these questions which affect the negro race, but I believe that he is a man of sufficient honesty to use his influence in behalf of right and justice. Mr. McKinley has done nothing for the negro except to appoint a few of them to office.” </span><br />
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HMTurner Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15858249998482184903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-75800166719633661142018-09-25T10:54:00.000-07:002019-04-17T12:37:35.316-07:00From “Must the Negro Go?,” by William Henry Thorne in A New Review of World-Literature, Society Religion Art and Politics. Decker Building, New York, 1899 <span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>From “Must the Negro Go?,” by William Henry Thorne in A New Review of World-Literature, Society Religion Art and Politics. Decker Building, New York, 1899 </b><br /><br />"There can be no question that the future of the negro race lies in Africa, the richest country on the face of the globe and the natural home of the negro. It has simply come down to extermination or emigration. <br /><br />"Why? Simply from the fact that statistics show that the negro race is dying out. The several causes for this would make interesting reading were I at liberty to name them, but this I cannot do at this time. <br /><br />"The negro race is not, in this country, growing healthier, wealthier, happier, wiser, or anything else which goes to make life worth living. <br /><br />"God, in His infinite goodness and wisdom, made Africa for the negro and the negro for Africa. I believe this just as much as I do that the sun shines. <br /><br />"Africa proffers the greatest possibilities on earth for the negro to emigrate to, that is if he has any idea of being anything this side of the day of general account giving. <br /><br />"Even nature is invoking the American negro to return to his God-given home. The trade winds which once blew from three to four hundred miles out to sea, from the west coast of Africa, have mysteriously changed their course, and are now fanning the shores, moderating the equatorial climate, diminishing the heat and humidity, and driving away the death-dealing fevers and malaria. <br /><br />"I believe this is simply God preparing Africa for the reception of her children who are suffering in this country, and who must return sooner or later. <br /><br />"The colored race can never be more than hewers of wood and drawers of water in this country, the master race, the white race, will always reign supreme. <br /><br />"John Temple Graves, a gentleman for whom I have the highest regard, said in one of his speeches that the negro would never be allowed to control in this country, even where he had a majority. He also said that the price of his peace was his subordination, and that never would the negro be recognized as a social or political equal. This being true, how can the negro ever hope in this country to attain the full stature of a citizen or a man?" <br /><br />"Has the African emigration scheme met the approval of a majority of the negro race?" was asked. <br /><br />"No indeed; but, on the contrary, a lot of ignorant negroes have opposed it from its very inception. They prate about the sickness of Africa and many other things of which they know nothing. <br /><br />"The thoughtful and intelligent of the white race indorse the emigration policy, and it will yet prove a success and of untold blessing to the negro race. It will be remembered that not more than one-third of the children of Israel ever came out of Egypt. The other two-thirds were exterminated. This will be the final outcome of the American negro if he remains here." </span><br />
<br />HMTurner Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15858249998482184903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-1470182268001272572018-09-25T10:53:00.000-07:002019-04-17T12:35:46.655-07:00Negro Emigration to Africa: From The Independent Vol. LI, January-December 1899<span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;"><b>Negro Emigration to Africa </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;"><i>From The Independent Vol. LI, January-December 1899, pgs.2430-2432 </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial new" , "arial" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial new" , "arial" , monospace;">To the Editor of the Independent: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial new" , "arial" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial new" , "arial" , monospace;">In your editorial mention of the propositions of Bishop Turner and Bishop L.H. Holsey, D. D., I am represented as favoring the deportation of the American negroes to Africa. If you mean by deportation the compulsive exodus of my race to Africa en masse, I most respectfully beg to plead “not guilty.” I would be a fit subject for the insane asylum if my mind was so far out of equipoise. But that I am as an African emigrationist is lamentably true. I say lamentably, because nothing confronts the negro race in this country but emigration or extermination. The African race in this country can no more hope to stand up under the present pressure than a man could hope to shoulder and walk off with the Rocky Mountains. And any white man who thinks so has only to blacken his face and travel a few days through the country, and he will be surprised that any negro or African, who has good common sense, and is not a scullion by birth or environments during his childhood and youth, should ever dream of making himself and his posterity contented under the decisions of the United States Supreme Court, and a thousand subordinate judges and the endless quantity of legislative enactments and state constitutional amendments that have been passed to degrade and tie him and his posterity to the wheel that rolls in degradation. And lest you should be ignorant of some of these decisions and enactments, I forward you a few decreed by the United States Supreme Court, the most barbarous and inhuman that have emanated from any court of the last resort since man came into being. I have been reading history for forty-eight years, and I challenge any man living to produce the like in the chronicles of the world. You say the scheme is futile. I realize its futility without national help, which God will surely demand as its hand sooner or later. The negro has been too faithful to this country, its integrity, unity, perpetuity and its every interest, to be kicked aside without some remuneration. History records our fidelity to the white race in colonial times, during the Revolutionary War and in every struggle for existence from its birth to the present. And if it cannot accord us manhood existence. Like the Egyptians of old, it must lend us of its precious jewels to enable the better element of the race to go to themselves. I do not mean for all to go. All of the children of Israel did not go out of Egypt; according to the best authorities, possibly half of them remained and were lost, wither by extermination or were swallowed up in the waters of mankind. So it will be with the colored people of this country; all will never leave; but millions will, and millions are ready now if they had the facility. I know the sentiment of the colored people on the subject of emigration as no other man upon the American continent. I have barrels and barrels of letters upon that subject, while I have destroyed stacks and barrels of others that I had no convenient place to keep. If this country had ships plying between here and Africa, as England, France and Germany have, and we could go as cheaply, thousands would be leaving yearly. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial new" , "arial" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial new" , "arial" , monospace;">During the last thirty years six millions of immigrants have come to this country and but few have paid over fifteen dollars each. The general price including children would average twelve dollars each. If we had such conveniences between here and Africa the emigration would be immense; not only from the South, but from the Northern and Western States. I know whereof I speak. Much absurdity has been attributed to the one hundred millions of dollars that we proposed to ask Congress for, to enable the better element of the colored race to leave the country. I see no reason for making it the subject of so much ridicule and laughter. According to one of your own New York papers, nine hundred millions of dollars have already been spent in bothering with Spain and her possessions; and billions will yet be spent before the question is settled. Had Congress appropriated on hundred and five millions of colored people money, seven millions of colored people could return to Africa at an average of fifteen dollars each; and soon hundreds of ships would be trading with the United States, and in two generations the hundred and five millions would be returned to the national treasury with a reasonable interest besides. I verily believe that a hundred millions of dollars invested in helping the better element of the negro race to establish a nation would be more profitable to this country than a billion spent on Spanish islands. It is only two hundred and fifty miles further from Savannah, Ga., or Charleston, S. C., to Liberia, Africa, than from New York to Liverpool, the way the ships run; and I believe when a direct line shall have been determined upon by the navigators, the distance will be almost equal. And if millions of immigrants can come from the Old World at an average of twelve dollars each, fifteen dollars should be amply sufficient to convey emigrants to Africa. And I believe at least a million are ready to pay that price now, if the ships were provided, either by Government aid or commercial intercourse. Much has been said and published about the negro not desiring to return to Africa, but let those who entertain such views start a line of steamers and offer emigrant rates to those who desire to return and they will see that every ship is crowded. Europe has over five hundred steamships plying between the United States and Europe, daily, the year round, and not one between the United States and Africa; so that all who desire to emigrate there have to go by Liverpool or Southampton, England, and pay passenger rates, which will cost one individual as much as it should cost the members of a large family. I have also read a number of scurrilous criticisms by the public press upon African emigration, because some of the colored people who have gone there in the past have returned and berated the country and magnified its fevers and other fatal diseases; but no one will attach any importance to such misrepresentations who has read the history of the early settlements of this country, Australia and South American States. But I conclude by saying: African emigration is the only remedy for disturbed condition of things in this country. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial new" , "arial" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial new" , "arial" , monospace;">Atlanta, Ga.</span></span>
HMTurner Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15858249998482184903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-52903813117999691662018-09-25T10:52:00.000-07:002019-04-17T12:26:29.231-07:00Blames McKinley: July 6, 1899<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Blames McKinley </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The Topeka State Journal: July 6, 1899 </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">New York, July 6.-The Sun says: A meeting of the foreign mission board of the African Methodist Episcopal church was held in Brooklyn on Friday. The board is composed of bishops of the church. Bishop H. N. Turner, of Georgia, discussed the race question, and in the course of an address he referred to President McKinley thus; “If we only had a man of strong force and purpose in the President McKinley chair, a man who had the courage to independently stand by his convictions; if we had some man like the president of France, our condition would have been ameliorated in the south. Much of the recent agitation would have been allayed.” </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was applauded by the bishops present. Yesterday afternoon the Brooklyn Eagle quoted Bishop Turner as saying before he left for his home in Georgia: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“In regard to what I said against President McKinley, I have nothing to hide. President McKinley is a fine man. He has many friends. I believe that he has as many friends among the Democrats of the South as among the Republicans, but he is a man lacking in force. He has not been true to our people when he might have been. By speaking a few words, by merely raising his hand, or in some way taking notice of us, he might have given recognition to the wrongs which we have been forced to endure. This he has not done. He has remained silent and passive. He has allowed the most awful crimes to be perpetrated against our race, when in some way he might have interfered. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“There have been great misrepresentations of this race question,” continued the bishop, speaking in his characteristic crisp way, clearing his throat between each sentence. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I do not believe the people of the north understand the relationship that exists down south. It’s the bad element of both races which is responsible for most of the trouble. Between the best elements there is the closest tie of relationship. I recently preached in a white church, in which the white people took the gallery and tendered me and my people the church proper. Between the broad elements of both races there is no question. It is the vicious class which stirs strife. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I do not believe in lynching in any form. I am eternally opposed to it. For the crime which prompts it I believe due punishment would come if the guilty ones were subjected immediately to a surgical operation. The case of mistaken identity is too frequent for lynching to be continued. Suppose at Cedartown, Ga., just two weeks ago, the more conservative element had not controlled, an innocent man who was afterward tried and acquitted. This surgical operation which I speak of would be just as effective as the rope.” </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Is the president's passivity on this lynching question the only grievance you people have against him," was asked.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“No, sir, it is not,” replied the bishop promptly. “We believe that the Negro should have been rewarded more for his services performed during the war with Spain. The colored man did splendid fighting. He proved himself valorous. In return some of my people wanted commissions. They claim that they have distributed a number of second lieutenancies among the Negroes. But is this so? Several colored regiments were organized toward the close of the war, but these have been all disbanded. Those who were given offices have been reduced to corporals and sergeants. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“We have had no recognition by the administration. Just now one of our regular colored regiments is leaving for the Philippines. Why does not the president give us enough officers to correspond to the fighting force of black men which represents this country? This is another great grievance which my people have against Mr. McKinley and the administration. I will say that this feeling of discontent is general among the blacks of all sections. It is a pity, too, for I believe President McKinley personally is a fine man, but he seems to have no force.” </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bishop Turner is a representative man of his race. He is the father of the colonization scheme that contemplates the ultimate return of the Negroes to Africa.</span></span>HMTurner Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15858249998482184903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-4074989275793894652018-09-25T10:51:00.000-07:002019-04-17T12:19:31.133-07:00Bishop Turner's Ringing Letter: January 19, 1899<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Bishop Turner’s Ringing Letter</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Christian Recorder: January 19, 1899</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ATLANTA, Ga., December 26th, 1898.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ministers and Members of the Sixth Episcopal District, comprehending the four annual conferences in Georgia and the three in Alabama.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dear Brethren, the birthday anniversary of Bishop Richard Allen, the first Episcopate of the A.M.E. Church, has been observed for a number of years as a day consecrated to the relief and assistance of our Publishing Department. You are hereby most respectfully requested to collect and tender a free-will offering to the sustentation of the same. Our chief literary institution should be free of debt and unembarrassed. Dr. Henderson, our great publisher, has been more generous with the ministry of our Church than any other General Manager in the history of the Connection. He has put all of our publications, including the Course of Study, within the reach of the poorest preacher, and Hymn Books and Disciplines within the reach of the poorest member. Any preacher who now fails to procure his Course of Study or purchase books that will enable him to preach God’s Word is a hypocritical tramp and was never made to pastor a church. A preacher who has the will can pick up old horseshoes, scraps of iron and brass and old bones, stray bottles and cow hoofs and sell to junk dealers and get money enough now to purchase his books. But Dr. Henderson can only offer these low rates upon the presumption that ALLEN’S DAY is to be made a success. As one of the Bishops, we have determined to admit no more men into conference who have not procured the requisite books and given them some attention; hence, we received no man on admission this year out of the six conferences we have held, nor do we intend to appoint any presiding elder who will not act as an agent in getting books for the ministry under him, but the men must supply him with the money to purchase their books.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, if the Sixth Episcopal District will be generous on Allen’s Day, Dr. Henderson will be liberal towards our candidates for admission, deacons’ and elders’ orders, for the preaching grade of our ministry, must be raised and ignorance will never do it; books procured and well studied alone will do it, and the cheapness of books, quarterlies and papers depend upon your action on Allen Day. February 14th is the day, but Sunday, February the 12th, will be observed. Let every pastor send something to Dr. T. W. Henderson, 631 Pine Street, Philadelphia.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">H. M. Turner</span></span><br />
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HMTurner Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15858249998482184903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-78589592212556614392018-09-25T10:50:00.000-07:002019-04-17T12:16:38.216-07:00Bishop Turner Opposes Fifth Year Term in the AME Church: September 22, 1898<span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Bishop Turner Opposes Fifth Year Term in the AME Church</b></span><i style="font-family: arial, "arial", serif;"><br /></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Christian Recorder: September 22, 1898</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">DEAR BRETHREN—Prompted by a sense of duty and propelled by the consciousness that silence would be a crime when the Church has placed us upon its watch-towers to give needed alarms, is our only excuse for addressing you this epistle.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">Our last General Conference did more discreet legislation than possibility any two General Conferences in the history of the Church, Indeed it did more actual business, including the good and the bad, than any other General Conference ever approached. How much credit is due to the ruling of the Bishops, for this result, we leave for others to determine; but without any reflection upon the sainted Episcopal fathers, who have fallen asleep, we venture to say there never was a time when the Episcopal bench was so united upon measures which they believed to be for the interest of the church and so determined to exercise the controlling powers vested in them, for the good repute of the Church and race, as at the last General Conference. Every Bishop appeared to comprehend his prerogative under the law and dared to maintain them. Bishop Payne and Bishop John M. Brown were the only two Bishops, in our recollection, who had the courage and manhood to defy the General Conference when the fundamental law was encroached upon.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">We are told, however, that Bishop Nazrey had the valor to face the General Conference and tell it that he was the guardian of the Constitution of the Church, at the General Conference, as much as he was the curator of the legislative laws at the Annual Conferences. This we cannot personally vouch for, as we never met Bishop Nazrey in but one General Conference, where we could only spend a few days, witnessing its deliberations, as we were a chaplain the United States Army and had to return to our post of duty. But at the last General Conference, for the first time in our recollection, every Bishop, without a single exception, realized the duty, the power and the responsibility of the Episcopacy, and neither hesitated, doubted or faltered in the discharge of what devolved upon his honest conviction. For just as there is no church without a minister, there cannot be a Conference without a Bishop, be that Conference General, Annual, District or Quarterly. While the Bishops, however, are not always present at the District and Quarterly Conferences, by reason of the vast multitude of responsibilities and demands upon their time and attention, yet they are present in the Presiding Elders, who are sub or Vicar Bishops, without Episcopal ordinations, as ordinations are not usually in demand at District and Quarterly Conferences. So, for example, when Bishop Tanner, Handy or Arnett is not at a District or Quarterly Conference, the Presiding Elder is there with power to preside, keep order, interpret law, give directions, try cases, license or suspend preachers, assign ministers to preach and do such things as a regular Bishop would do if present, for the Bishop is present in power. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">At our last General Conference a resolution appears to have been adopted, or the report of the committee, which extended the term of a Presiding Elder or Pastor to five years in one district or to one church, unless the Bishop wishes to “lay violent hand upon him” and change him sooner, to use the language of a very prominent D.D. in our church. Listen, will you “Lay violent hands upon him.” Or in the language of others, “I have the right to remain five years in one charge.” See where this five year is leading to, will you? “I have the right to remain five years.”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">According to that sentence, any removal, change, or invasion made by any Bishop, upon the five-year term, would, sure enough, make the hands of a Bishop, who would write another appointment “violent hands” and the Bishop a “violent” man, when the minister did not want to be moved.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">We would not dare to question the authenticity or geniuses of the records of the last General Conference, for Dr. Reynolds was possibly the ablest secretary in every particular, that any of our General Conferences have had in forty years, and we doubt not in the history of the church. But when this five-year term came up in the House of Bishops, not one had any recollection or knowledge of when the five-year law passed the General Conference, including Bishop Armstrong and Emory, now deceased, Bishop Tanner was the only one absent. It is very likely, however, that it was slipped through the General Conference on the last day, when forty and fifty men at times were standing on the floor, clamoring for recognition in stentorian tones, scarcely exceed by peals of thunder, for the two last days of our General Conference session was pandemonium, if clangor, hubbub, whoops and lung roar can produce it. When the House of Bishops met to pass upon the Discipline, before it went to press, we tried to persuade them to overrule it, as they did some other things of far minor importance, and which they had the right to do, under the genius of our Ecclesiastical Polity, and a special act which passed the General Conference in 1872. And if we must be frank, which they did do, and left the four-year law still existing. But after they had adjourned, a majority of them wrote to Bishop Lee; the editor of the New Discipline, to let the five-year term go in and let the General Conference take the responsibility, and thus it appears in our present book of Discipline. We, however, were not one of the Bishops who so wrote to Bishop Lee, for we were not willing to take such a risk, as we knew then, and as we know now, it is destined to stagnate and seriously injure our church…..Much is being said about the unrest, the discontent and unsettled condition of our ministry, which we are very sorry to say is too true. We are bold to admit that there are more grumbling and croaking among the preachers than at any previous period since we had an existence. It began in 1860, when the General Conference at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, passed a law extending the old two two-year term so as to allow a Bishop to return a minister the third year when he was building a new church or remodeling an old one. But a certain brother who was made a compiler of the book of Discipline some years afterward, left out the provision of the building condition and made the law read three years, without any additional legislation on the part of the General Conference authorizing him to do so. No one raised any opposition, however, and in 1880 the General Conference modified the three year provision, which never was the law, and allowed the Bishops to return a pastor the fourth year, upon the condition only, that he was building a new church, and his building a new church, and his return should be adjudged indispensable.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">But when the Discipline came out in print, though some strange manipulation or transmogrification, the four-year term was found the same, minus conditions. Of course no one is to blame, we presume it just happened so, possibility it was a typographical error, but we assert, upon whatever reputation we have for veracity, that neither the three years or four year term for a minister to remain the Pastor of one church ever passed, at any General Conference, without the modification referred to. We mean, that in both instances, the obligation of the minister in connection with the building was the proviso, upon which he might remain for a longer time. Now, by some mysterious legerdemain, some political jugglery the fifth year for Pastors and Presiding Elders both, becomes a right, for every Presiding Elder and Pastor in the A.M.E. Church the world over. And for a Bishop to make any change under that time is to “lay on violent hands.” The A.M.E. Church is quadrennialized to all intents and purposes. Bishops four years, publishers four years, editors four years, Secretaries of our Missionary, Sabbath school, education, church extension, and indeed all the general officers of our respective departments, as well as our financial systems are all limited to four years. But when we reach the exalted status, of Pastors and Presiding Elders they must not be touched under five years, for they have certain “rights” that “violent hands” must not cross or invade.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">A Bishop is appointed by the General Conference to an Episcopal District, and may find Presiding Elders and Pastors, all settled in their districts, stations, and circuits; and he remains there four years, and goes up to the next General Conference, and the General Conference sends him elsewhere, and leaves the Presiding Elders and Pastors right where he found them four years ago, unless some of the congregations, should accidentally, make it too hot for some of them to remain. For, if the Bishop attempts to change any of them, who do not wish to be changed, he is “laying violent hands upon them.” Bishops and General Officers are, therefore, of secondary consideration. True, Bishop Salter and, we believe, some others, interpret this new law to mean when a Presiding Elder serves a district five consecutive years he cannot be reappointed Presiding Elder anywhere till he has pastored a church for a length of time. And we are further told that the meaning of the new law is that when a new Pastor has served a large city for five years, he must go out in the woods and take charge of a mission or a small circuit. We believe that is right; that is really Methodism. The great Dr. Punshon, before whom all England, Scotland, Wales and America bowed, and nobility and even royalty itself hung upon his jeweled lips with wonder and amazement, left the great Mammothian churches of London and took appointments to circuits, and rode them without a sigh, and drew thousands and tens of thousands wherever he preached, and ended his earthly career as a circuit rider. Bishop Ward took us from a church of fifteen hundred members and sent us to a mission, where there was only one member, and in seven months we had a spacious new church up, with three hundred and fifty members, while it is now one of the finest brick churches in the connection; with over a thousand in attendance.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">But this law does not so read, and if the Bishops were to proceed on that line there would be a flood of confusion in the church, sure enough, for our big preachers would kick like donkeys, and the howl of “violent hands” and an evil heart combined would be vociferated with double intensity. Moreover, how many preachers are there in the A.M.E. church who are able to give their congregations a new sermon twice every Sabbath, to say nothing of afternoons, which is required in many churches, and should be required by all; and on Wednesday or Thursday nights, when every pastor, who is not too lazy, will deliver a short sermon or religious lecture to his people? Rev. Dr. Hinton, one of the ablest white ministers in the country says, “That most of the white pastors preach out all they know in one year.” And all we know that many of our ministers preach out all they know in six months, and some, we apprehend, can get through in three months, for different texts do not imply a different sermon, in scores of instances, as we all know. So that after six months, or a year at most, the preaching of hundreds are more repetitions or rehashes. Our people are so constituted that at the end of two years they are generally tired of one man, whatever may be his pulpit ability. There are exceptions, we grant. A few may last three years when they have congregations who will be satisfied with the preacher’s imaginations and fancy, and the story of the long white robe, golden slippers, and starry crowns. But we ask in all fairness and candor, is that preaching the gospel? Does that elevate and enlighten the people? Does not our intellectual status demand instructive sermons? Sermons that take in every phase and duty of life, comprehending hygienic instruction and the whole circle of pantology. We grant that religious sauce is very enjoyable, especially when it comes from an honest and conscientious illiterate preacher, and in some instances an ignorant preacher. But how long do we enjoy it from a man of reputed learning? Everybody knows that the marvelous growth of Methodism had been due to a rapid change of pastors. In the language of Bishop McTyeire of the M.E. Church South, “Stationary Pastors have blighted the growth of their denominations.” According to the five-year term, it will take twenty years for a minister to get to four churches, and to change him often is to “Lay violent hands upon him.” When the two year term was the law of our Church, the ministries who were on country circuits, missions and small charges could hope to get to the cities at an early date, and they would study as hard if they had work in the woods as anywhere else, because there was a prospect of larger appointments. But now, since they see that a few bug men can monopolize all the first-class appointments and remain at one church a quarter of a lifetime, when we have so few first-class appointments, compared to the number of our intelligent ministers here is but little incentive for the “common preacher” to try to be anything. And it will kill the aspiration and hope of the men on smaller charges. This five year term means the aggrandizement of a few and the degradation of the many (stultification to say the least) and we wish to say to what is called the mediocre preacher, if you love your church and have a concern for yourself, your wife and children, you will not vote for any man to go as a delegate to the next General Conference who will not openly pledge himself to vote to limit the time to two years, three years, at most. There may be pressing contingencies when the fourth year might appear to be an indispensable necessity, but where that necessity for the fourth year is in demand once, an earlier change will be in demand fifty times, if not a hundred times. Moreover, should it happen that the fifth year term is so indispensable now and then, that the connection would suffer by a change of Pastors, let the entire House of Bishops be required by law to give their unanimous consent, then every minister will believe that such a necessity was absolute?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">We know that the advocates of the fifth year term are ever ready to proclaim that no one has attempted to limit or curtail the appointing powers of the Bishops, their godly judgment is still implacable and inexorable, they can change the ministers every year if they wish, and other like expressions. And thus they try to pimp and pander to the vanity of the Bishops on the one hand, and beguile and deceive, through an oily tongue sophistry, the “common preacher” and the laity upon the other, when they know such an argument is a species of selfish hypocrisy, so glaringly deceptive that they giggle over it in private among themselves. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">Bishops are nothing but men, they were once laymen then local preachers, then Deacons, and then Elders, and finally they were ordained Bishops by other Bishops of like pedigree and lineage; because they got votes enough to elect them, and are no more personally, than other Christian gentlemen, while they are sacerdotal, we believe, and in many instances yield to what their better judgment disapproves of, for the sake of temporary peace and quiet, when bored and beleaguered by contumacious preachers and enthusiastic devotees, when the whole thing is a masquerade of self and any man who has entered the Christian Ministry to serve self, and not God and his church, is certainly out of his place. A few years ago, after a minister in our District had served a wealthy church for three years, we sent him to another very excellent charge and appointed his predecessor Pastor of that church, and when the former came to us to enter his protest against being thus appointed, he gave as a chief reason that he could not live here. We told him in reply that the other brother had lived there with his wife and six times as many children as he had. He replied by saying, “Yes, but it does not take as much money to run him as it does me, he is a commoner and I am a gentleman, and I need twice as much to live on as he does.” This is a fine conception of the Christian Ministry, which calls for perpetual sacrifices and self-denials. Does anyone believe that this brother was ever called by God to preach? We do not, and he will have doubt about it himself, before he reads this article, for he will read all we are writing now. Distinction in our ministerial circles does not consist largely of being great preachers, able lecturers, learned authors, reputable poets, profundity in history or familiarity with science and philosophy, but distinction among us, usually means to get to be the Pastor of a large church or to be appointed a Presiding Elder or get some ecclesiastical office by a majority vote, and this, according to our latter-day conception, entitles us to exalted rank the balance of life. And in many instances if a Bishop takes what he presumes to be a strong man, and sends him to a weak charge, to give strength to that weakness and double and quadruple the membership, the Bishop is to be saluted with insulting letters all the year, while the question propounded to every passerby will be, “Do you know what the Bishop has got against me?” “Have you any idea why I have been so miserably treated?” “Can you tell why the Bishop is trying to starve me to death?” when possibly the very minister had been getting large salaries for several years, and if he fails to save a little for a rainy day, it was his own folly, for the itinerant ministry itself implies change of locality and mutation in support. We will not speak for the other Bishops, but we do say for yourself, that nearly every time we take a man from what is called a good appointment (a misnomer) and send him where he can draw the people, build up a church and make other good appointments, we are charged with having something personal against him; such as the ungodly and wicked spirit of selfishness, that has taken possession of our latter-day ministry.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">If the Bishop had the courage when a strong minister has served three and four years in a first-class appointment, to send him a few years to build up weak points, and give chance, we would have more first-class appointments and more strong ministers. But the policy that has prevailed in our church for the last twenty years, especially since the four-year term has come into existence, is building up ministerial aristocracy on the one hand, and ministerial scullionism on the other. The genius of the Methodist church is, that we are all equals, but our practice for many years has just been the reverse, and the only way for the so-called little men to get to the front, is for the big men to die or get killed. And if the little men are going to send delegates to the General Conference that will perpetuate the five year term, they must expect to remain little, and as one of the Bishops we protest against being bothered and besieged about firstclass appointments, pleading as a reason that you are graduates, or have had school advantages, that you are the equals and superiors to this big man and that big man, who are forever kept in large appointments; that you have built one, and would never build one if he lived a hundred years; and all that other big man ever did was to ruin churches and plunge them into debt thousands of dollars and never paid a cent, while you swept this debt off and that debt off, etc. etc. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">If the common ministers or the average preachers are going to vote delegates to the next General Conference who will legislate against them, they must take the consequences and grumble at themselves, and not be grumbling at us, as one of the Bishops. A number of ministers will read this letter, know what impudent and scurrilous letters they have written to us, both in this District and others, because we could not give them a larger charge who we had none to give. If changing the big men is to be regarded as “laying violent hands upon them,” or degrading them through personal animosity, if we dare to send them to smaller appointments, for the purpose of building up more large appointments, then we need old Methodist legislation.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">All this unrest, discontent, grumbling and fault is due to the long terms, which for a Bishop to interfere with (unless a riot breaks out in the church) is to class him as a personal enemy. And no Bishop wishes to be placed in that category if he can avoid it. And as we said before, Bishops are only men and are as susceptible of prejudices pro and con as the Elders are, and may desire at times to show extra favors to a brother, as much as Elders, and as the voters are lawmaking powers they should have sense enough to protect themselves by the law, even against the prejudices of a Bishop, and if they do not, when the power is in their hands, they should stop grumbling and fault finding. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">Furthermore, if the five-year term must stand, then decency, respect, common courtesy and reason, require that you send delegates to the next General Conference that will extend the term of a Bishop over the same district for ten years. We mean to give him twice five years, so he can exercise a little judgement, once or twice, while he is in charge of a district without being reproached, otherwise, we are bold to say, we can do all we can to induce the House of Bishops to take the assignments away from the General Conference, which the Bishops can do it at any moment they are ready and will be foolish if they fail to do it. The General Conference has no power to make out the appointments for the Bishops anyway, and those who are dead knew it, and everyone living knows it; they submitted to it, because most of them thought it was a good expedient and rather liked it. We favored it before we were a Bishop, and have favored it ever since, and will continue to favor it, unless we are to be made the inglorious victims of humiliation, on account of selfish ambition.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">The five-year advocates present the plea that the A.M.E. Church recently enacted a law which permits a Bishop to return a pastor in six years. They forget that the A.M.E. Church and the M.E. Church are dissimilar in a variety of respects. Their Bishops alternate and a different Bishop goes to annual Conference each consecutive year, and this in the language of one of the M.E. Bishops to us: “Is an antidote to the evil of such legislation,” for the M.E. Bishops, or a majority of them, are as much opposed to that provision as the writer is, so one told us, and have an understanding not to respect it. Unless it interferes with some great revival or wonderful ingathering of souls, an idea that never floated through the brains of the authors of the fifth year law, which was slipped, if not stolen, through our last General Conference. Besides, the conditions of our ministry greatly differ, and on this point, we could say more than we will risk, as we shall not furnish fuel to burn our own toes. We will simply say, the analogy is so variant that a comparison would be ridiculous. But the M.E. Church has Bishops who come around every few years, and break up all these long terms, and in many instances take the big city preachers and send them out on circuits, and very often on missions, so that the aristocratic minister in the M.E. Church is a man, whose wonderful powers as a preacher, author, and worker bring him into great demand, and the preacher himself is not the judge, as they have got to be in our Church.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">The Bishops pass in judgement upon them, when they meet in council, and determine upon what shall be done with those of extraordinary gifts and learning, possibly to an extent that we do not; while the Bishops of the A.M.E. Church are searching in their deliberations, and we are pleased to say, endeavor to take in every want, every need and project, every measure that will enlarge our Zion.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">We grant that the old Bishops were practically compelled to keep the few scholarly, eloquent and successful ministers they had in the large churches most all the time, because men of learning were so scarce, and thus they were compelled to send them from one large church to another, to satisfy the demands of the large and intelligent congregations and hold our members, from running around to other churches where, in many instances, they could possibly find scholarly preachers, but such a necessity no longer exists, as we have educated men and doctors of divinity in great abundances some of our ablest pulpit powers are on circuits and missions. Men, in many instances, who can preach some of our aristocratic ministers blind, and take more members in the church in one year than many of our “stuck-ups” can in four years. And when you come down to talk about rights, we assert that these men who are to be kept in small charges by reason of the five-year term, have a right to expect a large charge a few times during life, to say the least, and as some of our brethren wish to appeal to the white Methodists for examples, we appeal to them for examples also. Everyone who knows anything about the white Conferences, know that they are regularly taking their ministers from large churches and sending them out on small circuits and missions. We saw Bishop Galloway less than a year ago make one of the big ministers of Arial cry and beg ten thousand pardons upon his knees in open Conference for neglecting to stay upon a poor mission, upon the plea that he could not support his wife and children as they had been customarily supported, and even then, had Bishop Galloway not plead for him, the Conference would have expelled him, for the ordinary ministers of the Conference appeared to be anxious to vote him out; for some said that he had as much right to be sent to a small charge as they had. Moreover, how under heaven is the Bishop to give all of his aristocratic ministers' large appointments forever and give others who have studied for years and equipped themselves with any responsibility, large appointments too? No Bishop can do it. Christ himself could not do it. Hence the discontent, the grumble, the fault finding, and in some instances the rebellion. We expelled thirteen of the Conference members in the Sixth Episcopal District last fall or rebellion and rebellious attempts. For as long as we are a Bishop, rebels against the A.M.E. Church must be, and will be expelled, nor will they ever re-enter the ministry under us, and no other A.M.E. Bishop if we can prevent it. For in our opinion it is the gravest crime in creation. If we understand the scriptures there would have been no devil but for “rebellion” and rebellionism and devilism is one and the same in heaven, earth or hell. All the wars, carnage, death and eternal damnation is the product of rebellion, and while we should justly hate rebellion for its curses and blight, we should not legislate laws that will make rebellion a temptation. And the fifth-year term will certainly do it as our stage of development. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">We judge that a large number of ministers and lay delegates who were members of the last General Conference will say, Bishop Turner, is fighting our possible re-election to the next General Conference. We deny it, unless you are going to support the fifth year term and tie that rule upon our Church to please a few dignitaries, and degrade the thirty ministers who vote for every delegate but if you are going to tie chains and forge fetters to prevent the other brethren from rising to the top, unless the Bishops do it in defiance of your wrath, criticism, abuse, and calumniation, then we are bold to say we are against you, and, if we had our way, we would tell your constituents to leave you at home until the blast of the resurrection trump. We love our Church better than we do any layman, any minister and any Bishop in it, or will ever be in it, and, discovering that wire-pulling has already set in by certain Presiding Elders and prominent ministers, we write this communication at this early date, before too many of the voters commit themselves before God and man, as delegates, they will vote to do away with that fifth year provision.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">Before the two-year law was abolished, petitions to the Annual Conferences were few and rare, but every time the term limit is extended for Pastors, petitions on the one hand and protestations on the other, have been increased.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">Till now, not a barrel in the country will hold the communications sent to the Bishop at some of the Annual Conferences some commending the Pastor in the highest terms, and others painting him in colors so stigmatic that anyone would wonder why he was not in the penitentiary. These communications, if preserved as they should be, will make the future historian of our church stand against at the generosity of our day, and tempt them to believe that we were all participants in the crimes charged, when in fact nine-tenths of the allegations are false. We are just as proud of our big ministers as any man on earth, we love the ground they walk upon, but when it involves a monopoly of the leading churches, to the exclusion of the aggregate quantum, then we are for the underdog. However, if the voters are satisfied, and are willing to retard the growth of our great Church, they can go on, we will soon be dead and then you can wrangle it out among yourselves, but we deprecate the selfish spirit, that would hectocotylize our ministry, and degrade the appointment system by making it a grab game, which is sure to result in the Lions getting the first choice and the jackals getting what is left.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">Just as we were about to close this epistle, if we may so call it; the following letter was brought from the office. This brother, to say the least, merits favorable consideration, and thousands belong to the same class if they do have to beg for recognition. We will not give his name at present, but the letter is here for inspection;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">RT, REV, BISHOP TURNER, DD.;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">My Dear Father—I have been in the Conference twenty years and have built twelve churches and have bought two for the A. M. E. Church, which makes fourteen churches I have added to the connection. Not a link in my ministerial life has been broken. I have always obeyed the laws of the church and no Bishop will say I ever grumbled about an appointment, poor as most of them have been. Now I want to ask you at our next Conference please give me an appointment among the good class of churches. In twenty years I have never asked for an appointment before. Should you make me a Presiding Elder I will see and help to build churches which most of our Presiding Elders give no thought to. I have built a good church on my circuit this year. Please, Bishop, consider my request. Your son in ministry. P.C.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">It is to give this class of minister among other things even-handed justice, that makes us condemn the five-year term with such virulence. We notice that it is ‘no uncommon thing to hear the A.M.E. Church called of late, the Apostolic Church. All right, we endorse the name for we believe our church is that to all intents and purposes. But if we are going to be apostolic we must emulate the apostles in deed as well as in word. The apostles fired the world by a change of location, they remained nowhere long enough to become rusty, stagnant, common and useless. And the reason Methodism has outgrown all other churches since apostolic times is because it pursued the same evangelic policy. Paul remained at no point over two years, nor does history record an instance in our recollection where any Apostle, Prophet, see or evangelist ever did.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">In conclusion, if the time limit were brought back to two years, there would not be one-fifth part of the suspicion and scandal that our Church has been afflicted with in recent years. Hundreds of men cannot behave themselves and command the respect and confidence of the people over two years. The third and fourth year is stagnation, retrogression and a blighting apathy is a sequence.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">The sooner such men, and there is a host of them, deliver their message and pass on, the better for our name, our church and for our God.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">While this appeal to the voters for delegates is long and has no systematic arrangement, we will conclude it nevertheless, as we shall have much more to say on the same subject.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "arial" , serif;">H. M. Turner.</span><br /><br /> <br /> </span>
HMTurner Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15858249998482184903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5614645085050506327.post-92200229907210072242018-09-25T10:49:00.001-07:002019-04-17T12:14:04.372-07:00Negro Race Dying Out Here: October 10, 1898<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Negro Race Dying Out Here </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>New York Sun: October 10, 1898 </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Africa is the negroes fatherland, and the sooner he goes there the better for him. Statistics show that the negro race is dying out, and it certainly is not growing healthier, wealthier, happier, wiser, or anything else which goes to make life worth living. Africa proffers the greatest possibilities on earth for the negro to emigrate to, that is, if he has any idea of being anything this side of the day of general account giving. Even nature is evoking the negro to return to his God-given home. The trade winds which once blew from three to four hundred miles out at sea from the west coast of Africa have mysteriously changed their course, and are now fanning the shores, moderating the equatorial climate, diminishing the heat and humidity and driven away the death dealing fevers and malaria. I believe this is the work of God preparing Africa for the reception of her children, who are suffering in this country and who must return sooner or later. If I had 5,000,000 I would invest every cent in ships and would see that every negro who wish to go to Africa got there. I believe I am needed here, but any moment I can get fifty or one hundred thousand negroes to go with me I am off like a quarter horse, and I will think it the best day’s work I ever accomplished." </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Q: “Has the African emigration movement met with the approval of a majority of the race?” </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"No, indeed: but, on the contrary, a lot of ignorant negroes have opposed it from its very inception. The prate about the sickness of Africa and many other things of which they are in dense ignorance. The thoughtful and intelligent of the white race indorse the emigration policy, and it will yet prove a success and of untold blessing to the negro race." </span></span>HMTurner Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15858249998482184903noreply@blogger.com