LETTER FROM HON. JOHN G. PALFREY.Boston Post Office, July 3, 1865.

Messrs. Wm. Syphax and John F. Cook, Committee, &c., &c., &c., Washington, D.C.:

Gentlemen: I regret very much that, in consequence of my absence on a journey to Virginia, your highly gratifying invitation did not reach my hands in season to admit of even a timely acknowledgment of it.

I seize the earliest moment to say that, feeling an interest the most profound in the objects of your Association, I extremely regret not to be able to testify my sentiments by being present on the occasion to which you to me the flattering honor of inviting me. May the righteous and good Being who directs all events, and prospers all worthy and generous endeavors, give life and guidance and a successful issue to your counsels for the elevation of your long-suffering, much injured, and meritorious race, and put it into the hearts of our rulers and fellow-citizens of every class to welcome you speedily and cordially to a full possession of the rights of which so deplorably by you have been deprived. The country and humanity owe a great debt to those whom you represent. The sooner we acknowledge and pay it, the sooner shall we secure our self-respect and peace of mind.

With every sentiment of friendly regard, and with hearty thanks for your kind notice, pray believe me, gentlemen,Your earnest well-wisher and obedient servant,JOHN G. PALFREY.

LETTER FROM HON. SALMON P. CHASE, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES.Wakefield, R.I., Aug. 16, 1865.

Gentlemen: Your letter, of the 28th ult, reached me here, after some delay. I did not receive your invitation to the celebration on the 4th, or I should have thanked you for it earliest. I enclose a letter which expresses my sentiments. *

*New Orleans,June 6, 1865.

Gentlemen: I should hardly fell at liberty to decline the invitation you have tendered me in behalf of the loyal colored Americans of New Orleans, to speak to them on the subject of their rights and duties as citizens, it I had not quite recently expressed my views at Charleston, in an address, reported with substantial accuracy, and already published in one of the most widely circulated journals of this city. But it seems superfluous to repeat them before another audience.

It is proper to say, however, that these views, having been formed years since, on much reflection, and confirmed, in a new and broader application, by the events of the civil war now happily ended, are not likely to undergo, hereafter, any material change.

That native freemen, of whatever complexion, are citizens of the United States; that all men held as slaves in the States which joined in rebellion against the United States have become freemen through executive and legislative acts during the war; and that these freemen are now citizens, and consequently entitled to the rights of citizens, are propositions, which, in my judgment, cannot be successfully controverted. And it is both natural and right that colored Americans, entitled to the rights of citizens, should claim their exercise. They should persist in this claim respectfully, but firmly, taking care to bring no discredit upon it by their own action. Its justice is already acknowledged by great numbers of their white fellow citizens, and these numbers constantly increase.

The peculiar conditions, however, under which these rights arise, seems to impose on those who assert them peculiar duties, or rather special obligations to the discharge of common duties. They should strive for distinction by economy, by industry, by sobriety, by patient perseverance in well-doing, by constant improvement in religions instruction, and by the constant practice of Christian virtues. In this way they will surely overcome unjust hostility, and convince even the most prejudiced that the denial to them of any right which citizens may properly exercise, is equally unwise and wrong.

Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad basis of universal suffrage. It has proved, also, that universal suffrage is the surest broad basis of universal guarantee and most powerful stimulus of individual, social, and political progress. May it not prove, moreover, in that work of re-organization which now engages the thoughts of all patriotic men, that universal suffrage is the best reconciler of the most comprehensive lenity with the most perfect public security and the most speedy and certain revival of general prosperity?

Very respectfully, yours, S.P. CHASE. Messrs. J. B. Roudanez, L. Gois, and L. Banks, Committee.

To-morrow morning, I shall be in Washington, if nothing unforseen shall prevent.

Yours turly, S.P. CHASE. Messrs. Williams Syphax and J.F Cook, Committee.

Letter From The Hon. Charles Summer.Boston, Mass, July 16th, 1865.

Gentlemen: Owing to my absence from town, I did not receive your letter in season to answer it, for your celebration; but I am unwilling to leave it unanswered.

You are right in commemorating the memory of the late President and I am glad that you are turning your attention to an institution of education. The idea, alone, is honorable; but I trust you will be able to reduce it to practice.

The time is at hand when your rights will be universally recongnized, and nobody will venture to assert any difference in political privileges, founded on color. You must prepare yourselves for this condition

Meanwhile, I counsel patience, and confidence in the President, who has told you that he will be "Your Moses." The people of the North 000910will be "Your Moses," also; for the people are determined that you shall be protected in that " Equality before the Law," which is one of the promises of the Declaration of Independence. The next Congress cannot fail in this transcendent duty.

Accept my best wishes, fellow-citizens, and believe me, faithfully yours,

CHARLES SUMNER.Messrs. William Syphax and John F. Cook.

ORATION BY WM. HOWARD DAY, M. A.

Mr. Wm. Howard Day, of New York, a young colored man, was the first speaker, and delivered and address, of which we give a curtailed report below, revised by the author.

Mr. Day delivered his address in an easy and unrestrained manner, which lent an additional interest to his subject. While there was apparent the dignity of a man addressing his fellow-men upon vital questions of interest, there was an entire absence of declamation of mere effect. We feel convinced that we shall hear more of this gentleman hereafter. He is a fine specimen of what a colored man can be made by culture and education. He commenced by expressing the natural diffidence he felt in attempting to address an audience composed, as he declared it to be, of gentlemen among the first in the list of honor and fame of America; and in this connection he paid a graceful tribute to some of the gentlemen present; the ladies also received en passant grateful and heartfelt acknowledgment of their devotion and earnestness in behalf of an oppressed and persecuted people, in defiance of the obloquy and scorn which had confronted but not confounded them.

He said they had met to day, inspired by the noble sentiments they had heard enunciated in the glorious Declaration of Independence, viz: "That all men were created free and equal, and with inalienable rights common to all." They were also inspired with the glorious sentiments in that noble motto, that "Right is of sect, truth is of no color, God is the Father of us all." This is what we are here for to-day--to recognize those principles; and (continued he) while we are here united, not to do homage to each other, but to the liberty which, in the providence of God, had been accorded to us after eighty-nine years of travel through the wilderness. We meet under new and ominous circumstances to-day. We come to the National Capital--our Capital--with new hopes, new prospects, new joys, in view of the future and past of the people; and yet with that joy fringed, tinged, permeated by a sorrow unlike any, nationally, we have known. A few weeks since all that was mortal of Abraham Lincoln was 001011laid away to rest. And to-day, after the funeral cortege has passed, weeping thoughts march through our hearts--when the muffled drum has ceased to beat in a procession five hundred, aye, two thousand miles long, the chambers of your souls are still echoing the murmur--and though the coffin has been lowered into its place, "dust to dust," there ever falls across our way the coffin's shadow, and, standing in it, we come to-day to rear a monument to his blessed memory, and again to pledge our untiring resistance to the tyranny by which he fell, whether it be in the iron manacles of the slave, or in the unjust written manacles for the free.

I know not how better, in your name, I can lay my humble tribute upon his grave--I know not better how I can weave my wreath around his memory, than by dedicating to him what I wrote in England on the death of Prince Albert, the husband of England's Queen. They were each a peer of the other--both princes here, and both, to-day, princes in the Home Eternal.

The Times said: "Quietly and without suffering he continued slowly to sink, so slowly that the wrists were pulseless long before the last hour had arrived, when, at a few minutes before eleven, he ceased to breathe--and all was over. An hour after, and the solemn tones of the great bell of St. Paul's--a bell of evil omen--told all citizens how irreparable has been the loss of their beloved Queen--how great the loss to the country." Toll! toll the solemn bell! The airis heavy with the sighs of death;The spirits of the dead are thereAnd bear a brother spirit whereAmid the heavenly glories rare,It may put on its glory-wreath.Then toll the bell! in answer toThe "Death-Bell" ringing in our ears,Until the spirit which we knewShall enter through the ether blueAnd don its dress for service new,Invisible for earth in tears.Aye, toll the bell! for back they come,With strength renewed and pinions bright,To sing within the earthly homeThe song they caught in heaven's high dome,strains from the old, unwritten tomeOf melody by saints in light. 001112And let us listen to the SONG.The tolling bell its notes will hushIn the world's bustle; and the wrongOf night and day will clamor longFor life, and falsity, its gong,Will sound, the discords, chief among--But o'er all still the sweet song rush.Until the dead bell's soundShall come again re-ringing,And Earth's lost song be found,And she again come singing.

Mr. Day then proceeded to give a succinct account of the introduction of slavery in America, quoting "facts and figures" with a fluency that showed he was perfectly master of the position. In this connection he said:

Two hundred and forty years ago two spectacles were to be seen in this land; one, the advent of a band of freemen, landing upon Plymouth Rock, in New England; the other, the coming of a company of slaves landed at Jamestown, Virginia. Both of these parties had crossed the ocean, the one willing, the other unwilling. One professedly escaping oppression and seeking liberty, the other seized and sold into what was to be to them eternal bondage; so that the shout of the freeman and the wail of the bondman were heard together here, forming a duet, the echoes of which still linger, and which, to-day even, we may hear from certain portions of our land, coming over the waters near us, asking, appealing, beseeching for sympathy. As the prow of the Mayflower, which bore the Pilgrim Fathers over, scraped upon the Rock of Plymouth, we heard from the dock of the vessel a shout of "Freedom to worship God," which comes to us to-day with the gathered strength of two hundred years, as the fore-runner, the John the Baptist of "Freedom for Humanity." And therefore the fitness of that wail coming up from the old prisonhouse, freighted with miseries unutterable, and appealing to us by the humane ties linking us to each, and the golden tie binding us to the heart of God, that we listen to and aid, as we are able.

Nearly three hundred years then, slavery has been in existence upon American soil. A thing of convenience at first, it grew as convenience demanded. In the accidental whirling of this social world, servants became a necessity; these twenty slaves, thus brought, became permanent ones. Habit gave it character. It became honorable to import slaves for sale, so that from 1607, to 1776, the number, twenty, had become five hundred thousand.

It was then that there was sent forth upon the wings of the 001213wind the Declaration of Independence, read to-day; one of the greatest documents the world has ever seen--great, with reference to the occasion which brought it forth--great, with respect to humanity, in all coming time. Not that the doctrine of Liberty of Equality has not been before proclaimed. It had been announced--it had been believed. It had been proclaimed from amidst the unapproachable darkness of Sinai, where the Deity, with his finger dipped in flame, wrote himself Anti-Slavery--"I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me." And the sixteenth verse of the following chapter makes Him, who said--"Whose sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man," also to say--"He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death;" thus making the right to life and the right to liberty paramount and inalienable. Passing to the new Testament Scripture, and spanning the Scripture like a rainbow, Jesus proclaimed it when he said, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." St. Peter thundered it forth upon the ear of the haughty Jew--"Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons;" and Paul attested the love he had for liberty, by saying--"I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds." And thus that voice has been going around the world as on a wave of fire, licking up the despotisms of the world; and yet, as in this land, stooping to whisper to the bleeding bond-man, Thou thyself art also a man--come upon the platform designed for thee by thy Creator.

The Declaration of Independence was not, therefore, a new enunciation Yesterday, the new York World was discussing the Declaration, and attributed it, I understand, to Locke and Bacon, the English philosophers. I reply, Locke and Sydney and Bacon were defenders of the principle, but that principle lived and breathed and burned in the hearts of individuals and nations long before Locke and Sydney and Bacon we were born. They were, therefore, only the voices of the men of their age, who thought. The principle was God-breathed, and was, therefore, merely God's voice, wrought into fundamental law. The same principle thrilled through the heart of many nations before us, and was by some of them pronounced even more decidedly than by us.

Mr. Day then glanced at the struggles for the principles of freedom in the Old World, and presented an interesting epitome of the Anglo-Saxon, Italian, and Swiss history, alluding, incidentally to Martin Luther and the Reformed Church party in England, and returned to the principles of the Pilgrim Fathers, 001314and their effects on the destiny of this country. He showed how, in a republican government, the elective franchise is a necessary outgrowth of this civil liberty.

This religious and civil liberty laid the foundations of this nation.

It was the right of each individual man to worship his God as his conscience might dictate.

It was the right of each native-born, individual man to be included in the nation's interest, except that right had been forfeited by crime.

Up to now our nation, following England's example, has been ploughing with an ox and an ass together. The shout of the freeman and the wail of the bondman have, I repeat, always been heard together, making "harsh discords," Hitherto a damning crime has run riot over the whole land. North and South alike were inoculated with its virus. It has lain like a gangrene upon the national life, until the nation, mortified, broke in twain. The hand of slavery ever moulded the Christianity of the nation, and wrote the national songs. What hand wrote the law of the nation and marked this National District all over with scars? What hand went into the Capitol and half murdered Charles Summer, nature's nobleman? What hand fought our way into the sick chamber and attempted the lingering life of our Secretary of State? What murdered the "dearest friend, the kindest man,"as Presidentr, we ever knew?

It did not grow strong all at once, but grew with the nation's growth, and then attempted the nation's life.

Why was this? To crush your manhood. To belie the doctrine which we meet to-day to celebrate, namely: that "Man is man, and no man is more."

My friend, the President of the Association, (the Rev. Mr. Garnet,) and I, have met in the Old World, in the presence of tyrannies; and, in our humble spheres, we there did what we could to lessen their power. Especially did we invite the oppressed there to follow the star of empire we westward, to the lands which God keeps for the poor, and which stretch away and away "to the distant West," even to the threshold of the golden gates which close upon the footsteps of the god of day. But even then, though they came by thousands, thousands still remained, the surface of society constantly upheaveds by the beatings of the hearts beneath it. Our hearts were saddened, for tyranny there was a power. But we returned to our own land, this home of freedom, to find a despotism, in one sense, worse than any other we had met. No other despotism that, by sturdy blows, was 001415ever made to slough its unctuous skin, was ever so vigorous, ever so extended, or even so vigorously mean and malignant. Its toadies, like a pestilence, skipped all over the land. Its ministers, like their prototype in the garden of Eden, crawled up into the sacred desk and left slime all over the blessed Bible and its pages. Honorable exceptions were there of men who always spoke forth for truth and justice--for God and humanity. The result of such a union in meanness was felt like the lice of Egypt, everywhere--in the sugar sweetened our coffee--in the edibles indigenous South--in the cotton thread which seamed our clothing--in the inner and out outer garments to protect from the cold--in the tobacco weed of the tobacco worm--everywhere they met us, these products of a system which cooly calculated how long it would take to work up the flesh, the sinews, the bones, the blood, the mind, the soul of man; that stripped off Manhood, and left standing, the trembling naked hulk of THINGHOOD. That was despotism; that was American despotism.

Four years ago this power drove you to seek protection of monarchy. This power forbade you a safe resting-place anywhere within the borders of this broad land. To-day you stand erect, and the system which oppressed you has, by the providence of God and the hand of war, been sent reeling to its grave. The wave of blood, which for two hundred years has been sweeping over you and your interests has, in the providence of God, been set backward, and for four years past it has been sweeping through the hearts and homes of the nation. Out of half a million hearts and homes those bloody waves swept the brightest jewels God ever gave to poor human beings, swept and buried them out of sight forever, until He shall come to take them up and make them His jewels. On these successive waves of blood, rising higher and higher, year by year, the colored man has been borne on and up to freedom, and must be borne still, to full enfranchisement.

We have heard (said Mr. Day) a great deal recently of the gallant bravery displayed by the colored man; but, continued the speaker, the present time is not the first in which the process of the black man has been evinceed. It was displayed in the Revolutionary war, in 1812 and 1815, on many memorable occasions, and he has ever been earnest and faithful to the country. My father, on the waters of lake Champlain, mingled his blood in the mountain wave that has burst upon our coast on behalf of American liberty, and upon which our ship of state is being tossed to-day, but which, in the providence of God, I do not doubt its riding safety through. Even the slave-masters of the South were not backward in acknowledging the bravery of the " negro boys " in 001516the war of 1812. "You know," he remarked humorously, "slavery has no eyes wherewith to recognize manhood in a slave."

The orator referred to the efforts of American slaves to be free, showing, he said, that the idea of liberty was constantly nursed by them. That however we might regard the efforts to be free, the men had evinced that love of liberty which had made heroes in every age. Coming to the country at the same time with the Pilgrims of Liberty, it was fitting that the colored man should unite with the Pilgrims, in the war of the Revolution, the war of 1812-15, and the late war, in order to rescue this land from the dominion of bondage. It is fitting and proper that they should meet here and march forward to freedom, for, as yet, the Pilgrim Fathers' idea is not on its feet. The Declaration of Independence is not yet fairly carried out, nor will it be, until, in every corner of the land, the black man, as well as the white, is permitted to enjoy all the franchises pertaining to citizens of the United States of American.

When Nathaniel Turner arose, the whole South trembled. When the Camden insurrection took place, the slaveholders, though armed and prepared were surprised by the plans, and afterwards awed by the bearing of the despised, overborne black men--slaves. [Mr. Day detailed the circumstances, related to him by a slaveholder.] And the slaveholders thought they had quenched all the ideas of liberty, because they mangled the bodies and took the lives of these struggling men. Nay, nay! Liberty, continued he, is not flesh and blood. As Bulwer says of Opinion, so of this. Anything else the they may destroy. They may conquer wind, water, nature itself, but to the progress of his secret, subtle element their imagination can devise, their strength accomplish, no bar. Chains cannot bind it, for it is immaterial-- nor dungeons enclose it, for it is universal. All the heroes of all the ages, bond and free, have labored to secure for us the right we rejoice in to day. To the white and colored soldiers of this war, led on as they were by our noble President and other officers, in the presence of some of whom I rejoice to-day, are we indebted, in the providence of God, for our present position. For want of time, I pass by any more detailed mention of the noble men and their noble deeds. Together they noble labored--together they threw themselves into the breach which rebellion had made across the land, and thus closed up that breach forever. And now, in their presence, living and dead, as over the prostrate form of out leader, Abraham Lincoln--by the edge of blood-red waves, still surging, we pledge our resistance to tyranny, (I repeat,) whether in the iron manacles of the slaves, or in the unjust written manacles of the free.

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How best can we evince our gratitude, and make good our pledge? By acquirements in knowledge. We remember the aphorism of a great writer, in the play of King Henry VI: "Ignorance is the curse of God--Knowledge the wing whereby we fly to Heaven."

Knowledge, religious, intellectual, social. This Lincoln Monumental Institute is a fitting memorial. It will be an colored man's industry, of the colored man's executive ability, of the colored man's brains, of the colored man's fitness for every duty and every privilege.

Let it rise as our wing of the new temple of freedom. At its alter let genius minister. There let benisons be pronounced from the heart of a rising race. There let the riches of learning be brought, ready to be laid on the knee and in the lap of every colored child in the land. Let solid floors echo the patterings of a thousand feet, all going up, up, up through the dawn to a brighter morning. Let the inches in your gallery here be filled with the white figures of Lincoln, and Stanton, and Wendell Phillips and Garrison, and Gerrit Smith, and John Brown, and Chase, and Seward, and, many, many, others; but let them also glisten with those of "God's image cut in ebony." I repeat, let the Institute rise on our wing of the new temple of freedom. The old temple was the temple of despotism. its height insultingly rose to heaven; its huge windows, shrouded in blackness, made visible the ghosts of even Christian priests at the alter; while before that alter was waving the smoking blood of innocent human victims. Its tapestry were the sinews of a crushed humanity. Its inner walls were stuccoed with the bones of the millions. Its angels, glistening in the sunbeam, were bedewed with diamonds of the first water, the crystal tears of the worse than widow and the more than orphan; while, drop by drop, the blood had made the rill, the rill the river, the river the sea, until, drop by drop its flood, instinct with life, rose up and demanded repentance and justice, or retribution. Retribution came in the hand of God.

It is related in the diary of one of the writers of old that when the slave trade was at its height, a certain vessel loaded with its human freight started under the frown of God and came over the billows of the ocean. Defying God and man alike, in the open daylight, the slave was brought up from the hold and chained to the foot of the mast. The eye of the Omnipotent saw it, and bye and bye the thunders muttered and the lightnings played over the devoted vessel. At length the lightning leaped upon the mast and shivered it, and, as it did this, also melted the fetter 001718which fastened the black slave to it; and he arising unhurt, for the first time walked the deck a free man.

Our ship of state, the Union, has for eighty year gone careering over the billows; our slave has been chained to our mast in the open daylight, and in the focal blaze of the eighteen centuries gone by; and we have hurried on in our crime regardless alike of the muttering of the thunder and the flashes of the lightning, until in one devoted hour the thunderbolt was sped from the hand of God. The mast was shivered; the ship was saved; but, thank God, the slave was free. The monument we rear, therefore, to Abraham Lincoln is a monument to liberty. Here will it stand on the edge of fathomless waters, a beacon forever. Bising up against the dark sky behind, its burning light will cheer many a home desolate; and, reflected a across the dark waste around us, will be crystalized by hearts there into solid joy. Thus we shall gather in the youth, and thus, copying this Institution's effective example, we may each do duty for a race. We may not be a life-boat to go out upon the billows to save, but, in the language of my Scotch friend, Rev. Dr. Guthrie, we may each be a bell-rock tower, standing erect amid the stromy waters where, during the day, the bell rung, where during the night the fire was kindled, so that men are not saved from the wreck, but saved from being wrecked at all, and "Your name and praise,Which, in these slavish days,So many vainly dream are soon to perish,As in the coming ageThey shine on history's page,The proud shall entry and the good shall cherish."

At the conclusion of the oration, which was received with frequent bursts of applause, the venerable John Pierpont, whose name is so dear to every intelligent household in America, rose and delivered, with great, the following spirited poem, abounding with rare gems of thought, and with racy humor.

LET THERE BE LIGHT.

From the beginning the Eternal CauseHath wrought according to external laws--Laws on Himself imposed; and His almightGives and obeys his law--"Let there be light!"His great antagonist, the Evil One,Says, as his first command, "Put out the sun!"001819As poor Othello, jealous of his wife,Loving, let goaded on to take her life,Steals in, his hand upon his dagger's handle--But finds himself unable while the candleIts beautifying beams upon her throws,Showing such loveliness in such repose,Steps back, o'erpowered, as would most other man--And, shaking, says, "Put out the light," and then--"I cannot kill her when I see my work mark;But I can do it if the room is dark!"So is it with all servants of the devil:They shun the light because their deeds are evil.'Twas thus with Booth. The murderer came by night,Skulked up unseen, though all around was light,And, when the deed was done--the warm blood split--Plunged into darkness, friendly to his guilt.Thus hath it been since man first slew his brother:Darkness and wrong courted one another.The courtship ends in wedlock; then beginsThe large and fertile family of sins.The lazy loafer, when nought else is left,Must "stay his stomach upon fraud or theft;"The swindler will, of course, the fraud deny;And every theft is pregnant with a lie;Then lie kills lie whene'er by a sharper fraud.The burglar cuts his brother burglar's throat,And picks his pocket of a spurious note,Which he palms off to pay a gambling bet,Or bilks his butcher of an honest debt.

To such expedients knaves resort, to shirkGod's first commandment--"Thou, to live, must work."Thanks for God's word to Adam when He said,"Thou with a sweating face, shalt eat thy bread."Many there are who deem this word a curse,Thinking, than labor there is nothing worse,A blessed curse, if curse we can it call,That in this sentence, followed "Adam's fall."Yet man, short-sighted man, has madly strivenTo avert this blessing of benignant Heaven.Has sought the pleasures and the power of wealth,By crafty artifice, by fraud, or stealth,To get his bread by some ingenious plan,Or by the sweating face of some more honest man.

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The stronger savage, aye, his task will shirk,And make the weaker woman do his work.The conquering soldier came, in time, to yieldPart of his trophies of the battle-field;Money, not mercy, prompted him to saveHis captive's life, and sell him as a slave!Hence feuds were fanned to flame, and wars were waged,Hosts rushed to conflict and the battle raged,Not that each chief his foreman's blood might spill;His aim to capture, rather than to kill.The victor spared the foe he might have slain,Tied him with thongs or bound him with a chain,And kept him toiling in his field or fold,Or to another gave him up for gold. Thus Slavery came, by God and man abhorred,Its ugly parents--avarice and the sword.Its only office, that hard work he shun,Whereby all glory, all true wealth are won.To real greatness man is never born.Nor yet do idle hands fill Plenty's horn.The leaky craft, just on destruction's brink,Says to the seaman, "Work your pump or sink!"The frozen field, beneath whose surface lieUndug potatoes, says, "Root hog, or die!"And the first law by God imposed on manWhich, we have seen, in Paradise began,Imposed to shield the race from want and vice,And which, obeyed, makes earth a paradise,Is clearly stated by the Apostle Paul,In terms that must be understood by all;And which, in one line we will here repeat:"Who will not labor, neither let him eat."Slavery, reversing this divine command,Lifts to insulted heaven her lily hand,Waving her sword or brandishing her dirk,And swears that she will neither starve nor work; And hence has striven this ordinance to fix,For all the last four thousand of the sixOf our bright planet's periods round the sun,Since man on earth his race began to run,Namely: "Regardless of the right or wrong,The weak shall labor to support the strong.Who labors not shall live on finest wheat,Who labors not shall feast on fattest meat.002021"Who fats and kills the ox, his bones may gnaw;Who sows and reaps the wheat, may eat the straw;The idlest hands shall stuff the busiest jaws;These are my fixed, my fundamental laws."

What is the good wherewith this code is fraught?What are the blessings slavery hath brought?Ay, where, in the wide field that she has trod,And o'er it plied her shackles and her rod,Hath not this fiend left traces of her hand,Diffused her blight, and pressed her burning brandWhere hath she brought a single blessing? WhereA sweeter flower, or a more balmy air?More richly robed the earth in golden corn, )Sung holier hymns to heaven at even or morn,)Or with more fruits filled Amalthea's horn?

Ancient Dominion, where the bondman's tread,First on our shores was felt, lift up thy head!Thy loving arms were first around him thrown,In thine embrace he loosed thy virgin zone.Closest and longest to thy bosom prest,Thou'st held the laboring bondman to thy breast,Lift up thy head--once proud,--and show thy raceWhat are the fruits of that long, close embrace!What did the bondman find thee when ye met?What hath he left--he hath not left thee yet.

He found thee fairest of the sister train:Thy broad deep rivers rolling to the main;From the wood-crowned Blue Ridges, that divideOhio's waters from the ocean tide;Thy valleys, fertile as the fields, that smile,In green and gold, along the ancient Nile.Thy hill sides, dark with naval oaks and pines,And teeming with their coal, and iron mines;Thy waterfalls, echoing among those hills,And clamorous for employment on thy mills,That from the thundering car and groaning wain,Would take thy sacks, bursting with golden grain,And, with their arms unwearied, fill with breadEach lordly mansion and each humble shed,That its blue wreath of smoke would ever sendUp to the genial skies, that o'er thee bend;While, in thine inland sea, their sails unfurled,Might ride secure the navies of the world.

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Such was thy beauty, such thy dower,Couched, as a queen beneath thy leafy bower,In thy rich robes of flowers and foliage dressed,By balmy breezes lovingly caress'd,Thou fairest, richest, proudest of the States,When, to the slave, thou openedst first thy gates.

What hath been wrought upon thee by his hand?Thy wasted forests, thine exhausted land,Thy fields unfenced, thy cattle few and lean,Thine ancient mansions fall'n, thy new ones mean,Thy broad-leaved, poisonous plant that shades thy soil,And makes the laborer languish at his toil,The withering flowers that deck thy faded face,Lazy unthrift, and labor in disgrace,These show the world,--and they may read who run--The work that thy blind slaves, and lords more blind, have done.

Ancient Dominion, have I done thee wrongSay'st thou my colors are laid on too strong?Then will I gladly lay my pencil down,And trust thou wilt not blast me with thy frownIf I exhibit of thy blighted land,Thy portrait painted by a friendly hand.The great Missourian's picture thou shalt see;Thou knew'st him well, and well did he know thee.

Missouri's Senator, well known to Fame,Whom some "the Old Roman," some "Old Bullion" name,Thus paints thy land along Potomac's side,Near where Virginia's and the Nation's pride,Thrice honored lived and long-lamented, died.

"Throughout this region, long slavery cursed,Behold man's progress upon earth reversed.Backwards and downwards everything goes on:Houses delapidated, tenants gone.Where once were crowds there now is ample room;Fields, fertile once, are now grown up with broom.No crops, no fences now the plains adorn;Grass and pine saplings take the place of corn.As men grow scarce, wild beasts more frequent prowl,The fox grows bolder, oftener hoots the owl,And hungry wolves are heard more savagely to howl.The tenant's lot, who here puts in his seed,Is hopeless, is deplorable indeed;In vain does he solicit, day by day,Gravel and grit and still more heartless clay.002223The corn and oats, that man and horse demand,He brings not from these fields of pine and sand.Not long ago, I passed this region o'er,My journey lay along Potomac's shore,As the broad-bosomed river gently sweeps,Near where the Father of his Country sleeps.Riding along the rough highway, and thinking,I know not what--as Horace says--* a clinking I heard among the stones, on the hillside.I checked my horse, and, looking up, espiedSome negro laborers hoeing with their hoes,Digging small holes, in equidistant rows,And burying something in them. So I criedWhat are you doing there?' A slave replied--We're planting corn, sir, in these gravel beds.'What plant ye with it? Answer, 'Herring heads.'Why plant ye herring heads with corn?' said I.To make the corn come up,' was the reply.Again I asked, 'How many heads do youPlant, to each grain of corn?' He answered, 'Two.'Well, how high grows it, thus manured, I beg?'About so high,' measuring upon his leg!'Mother of Presidents, once haughty land,Behold thy portrait by a master's hand!

One artist more depicts thy state forlorn;Native is he, and "to the manner born."His handiwork may fascinate thine eyes;High-born is he, and nominally Wise.Stumping the State its highest chair to gain,And, history tells, us, stumping not in vain,This limner, true to nature, thus bewailsHis mother's fate: "Commerce her fickle sailsLong since has spread and sailed from you away;Plowing no more the bosom of your bay;Your coal mines, richer than are mines of gold,Remain undug, till your own hearths are cold.Your iron foundries wait impatient forTrip-hammer, such as Vulcan wields, or Thor.Nor of your coarsest cotton, do you spinEnough to hide your negroes' naked skin.Of commerce, manufactures, arts, bereft,Nought, but the culture of your ground, is left.002324And such a culture! He that owns the feeLeases his land, and skins the poor lessee;The poor lessee, by his unskilful toil,Takes his revenge, and skins, in turn, the soil.Instead of farms, where each his acres tills,Then cattle feeding upon clovered hills,We see the landlord's hireling overseer,His hunger whetted to its keenest edge,For a tough steak, chasing, his stump-tailed steer,Through swamps undrained, and patches rank with sedge."Such was Virginia, stripped of all disguises,As painted by the wisest of her Wises.

*Nescio quid meditans.-- Hor.

To that low point had slavery brought downProud old Virginia ere she hanged John Brown;And the same cause, that wrought Virginia's fall,Was, like the cholera, sweeping over all,That sat in darkness, on the plains that spreadTwixt Rio Grande's and Potomac's bed,Where Abel tilled the ground and Cain eat up the bread.)Brown saw Virginia as she, languid stood,In her slave shambles selling her own blood,And would have freed her laborer from his chains,And clothed with verdure her old naked plains;But she would still on her destroyer doat,And hug the vampyre closer to her throat,Till, as her pulses faint and fainter throb,Finding that she must either die or rob,She bargains with her sisters, who combine,Such as fair Flora and warm Caroline,To lay their hands on all that they can getTo eat at leisure and not pay the sweat.

The boldest backwoods hunter justly fearsThe hungry wolf, he holds but by the ears.Seeing his hold's so weak, the brute so strong,That, without help, he cannot hold him long,And fearing that, if he lets go, his grimAnd wide-mouthed game will soon make game of him,Calls on his fellow-huntsmen for their help,In keeping down and mastering the whelp;And if his neighbors come not at his call,He grows profane, and swears he'll whip them all;So our man-hunters, grappling with a foe,They scarce can hold, and dare not let him go,Call, in their terror, upon Northern smithsAnd woodmen, for new fetters and green withes,002425To bind their shaggy Sampson in his mill,To help them hold, and keep him grinding still,Now him alone, his children must they bind,Build them more mills wherein his boys may grind,Purchase new acres at their proper cost,Get new Virginias for them to exhaust,Throw up new dykes 'gainst Freedom's overflowAnd to her surges say "No father go!"And now, forsooth, because those neighbors stand,Look calmly on, and lend no helping hand,To their demand for aid, make no reply,Or, coolly say "We've our own fish to fry;Good friends, we're weary of this thankless task,We've given you more than you've a right to ask;'Till now, we've helped you in your time of need,Conceded till we can no more concede,Done for you all that should or will be done,So hold your wolf yourselves, or--let him run"--Our Nimrods--mighty hunters--grow profane,Break Three commandments , take God's name in vain, Steal from their neighbors, till they've stolen their fill, And then, proceed to bully and to kill.

And that is War! But War, that burns and blights,God makes his minister, and clothes with rights:The right a bond-man's fetters to unclasp,To wrest the sceptre from a rebel's grasp,And say, "Lay down your cow-skin and your dirk,"And take your choice, sir, starve, or go to work!"

This said the men, raised up and sent, through grace,To be "a prince and savior" of a race;A race long doomed to servitude and scorn;But through this Prince's word, to freedom born.The man to whom the bloody hand of warBrought the commission, so long waited for,"Deliverance to the captives" to proclaim,Like him whose name "is above every name."For him a Nation's eyes with tears are dim:He slavery slew, then slavery, murdered him.But, in a race redeemed, he made his markOn History's page. But that race, O how dark--When darkness covered all the cloud-wrapped land,And the Oppressor laid his heaviest hand,Upon its eye-balls, to "put out the light"Of hope and science from both soul and sight--002526Must it now be, when from its "long despair,"Brought out to feel the sun, and breathe the upper air!

Father of lights! for these, thy children, longHeld in the dark, by robbery and wrong,Held, groping on in more than Egypt's night,Hear we not now thy word "Let there be light?"For them did'st Thou a great Deliverer raise,For him we all now offer Thee our praise;And, that his name may never be forgot,Would his redeemed ones, near the holy spot,Where his great word went forth, and where he fell,Build up a monument, the world to tell,The gratitude, that all, who now are free,Should feel, and do feel both to him and Thee.Not such a monument as Egypt's kingsBuilt for their bones; but such a one as bringsOut, from the hidings of oblivion's veil,The hallowed name of Harvard or of Yale;Within whose shadow, thirsty youths, who think,With Solomon, that "light is sweet," may drink,From the sweet fountain Thou hast made o'erflowFrom all thy works, above, around, belowFountain of Knowledge, that, like thine own grace, Debars no color, and excludes no race,Where every child may see that, every hourHe's gaining knowledge, he is gaining power;The power to labor for the common weal;To soothe some grief, some malady to heal;And, by example, to make all men see,That it is best for all, that all men should be free.

Our Lincoln Monument of One shall speak,Like Moses faithful, and like Moses meek;Who led thy people through a redder seaThan Israel passed, to light and liberty.Of him, who, humbly trusting in the Lord,Moved by thy Holy Spirit, spake thy word;And, as that word was plainly, firmly, spoken,The bond-man's chains fell off, the tyrant's rod was broken.

The Honorable Henry Wilson, United States Senator from Massachusetts, was then introduced to the audience as the author of the bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and also of the bill to abolish the black laws in the District of Columbia. The eloquent words of this distinguished Senator seemed to send 002627an electric thrill through the vast crowd; and their joy, as he gave utterance to assurances the most cheering, seemed at times to know no bounds. He spoke as follows:

Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens of the United States: When I left my home in Massachusetts, I intended to spend this hallowed day among the graves of the brave men who fell at Gettysburg, in aiding to consecrate a monument to the heroes of the "grand old Army of the Potomac," who there fronted the legions of the rebellion, and there broke the power of treason forever in America. (Cheers.) Business--not yet completed--forced me to spend the day in the National Capital, and I came here to meet free men, and listen to the words of humanity, of justice, and of liberty. I have listened to an orator of your own race, and I say to you, that within the broad limits of the North American Republic, there will be few speeches uttered, to-day, superior to the one he addressed to you. I have listened, too, to the voice of one, that for more than thirty years in my own Massachusetts, I have been accustomed to listen to and admire. I can hardly hope, after you have listened to such utterances, to say anything that will add to the joy of the grand occasion; but as you have asked me to say a word, I will not shrink from saying it. (Applause.) Here, to-day, in the capital of my country, surrounded by this throng of my fellow citizens, black and white, I say--and if my voice could reach to the Rio Grande, I would utter it--that slavery is dead and buried forever. ("Thank God!" Applause) and I say further--and I want you to remember and carry it to your homes, to-night, and tell it to your neighbors, and let it go from neighbor to neighbor across the continent--that the freedmen of the United States shall be protected in all their rights. (Immense cheering.) Slavery has robbed your cradles; it shall rob them no more. (Applause.) Slavery has sold your children; it shall sell them no more. (Cheers) Slavery had its auction blocks; they are gone forever. Slavery had its bloodhounds; they shall bay on the track of your race no more. (Loud and continued cheering.)

Let the late slave-masters understand this. Let every rebel in the country, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, understand it, that their power, their authority over the black man of this continent, has passed away forever. (Cheers.) I want them to understand, in the language of the New York Herald, of yesterday, that "Slavery is destroyed, and with its death, the compromises of the Federal Constitution, the laws of Congress, the black laws of the late slave States, and of the free States, and all the political dogmas and ideas upon which this system of slavery depended, 002728must be numbered among the things of the past. The Dred Scott interpretation of the Constitution from the Supreme Court, under which the negro has no political rights which a white man is bound to respect, goes, with all this other rubbish, into the dumping-ground of slavery" (Immense applause) And I serve a notice here, to-day, upon them, that I am preparing a bill that I intend to introduce on the first day of the next Congress, for the personal liberty of every freedman of the Republic. (Applause.) I want them to understand, further, that I belong to a body of men that are accustomed to sleep on the field of victory (cheers;) a class of men that accept the doctrines of the New Testament; that accept as the living faith of the North American Republic, the Declaration of Independence; a class of men that present the principles of liberty, humanity, and justice; and a class of men that never were, and never can be defeated (Applause.) If any doubt it, let them look back for the last thirty years, and they will doubt no longer.

When I came here, a young man, twenty-nine years ago last May, I didn't know anybody in Washington, and nobody had any reason to know me. I went across to the Island, saw the infamous Williams' slave pen; saw the poor people manacled and marched down to the river-side, and shipped off to the "far South." I went up to the Capitol--to the House of Representatives --and saw the slave-masters "laying on the table" the petitions of the Christian men and women of this country against this abominable traffic in human bodies. In the pride of their power they thought they could crush out the spirit of the people. I went back to Massachusetts, filled with pity for the hapless bondman, and with defiance to his oppressor. I found noble men and Christian women devoting all they had and all they hoped to be, to the cause of the oppressed, and I linked my name with theirs; and, for these thirty years, I have acted with anti-slavery men, who have put up parties and put down parties, and can do it again. Immense cheering.)

I saw a grand old party, led by Clay and Webster, and other men of eminent talent and character, yield to the tempter, bow humbly at the feet of the slave power--and then I saw it die. (Applause.)

I saw an "American" organization spring up; they spoke for liberty and voted for liberty, but they were seduced by the slave oligarchy, and I stood by their grave soon after. (Applause.)

I saw the old "Democratic" party--a party that could commit more offences against humanity, while professing to be its champion, than any other party that has ever existed, ingloriously defeated--its leaders beaten. I have seen State after State--under its acknowledged influence--plunge into the vortex of revolution 002829and civil war; and, after four years of bloody struggle, have seen it overwhelmed and overthrown, from Canada to Mexico. (Applause.)

Casting aside the mere obligations of partisanship, standing on the eternal principle of right, anti-slavery men have broken the powerful political organizations and smitten down the leaders that have been recreant to liberty. They have sworn upon the altar of patriotism, to stand erect, in vindication of the rights of man in America; and so long as there is a right not secured or a swrong undressed, they are ready to act with, to build up or pull down political organizations, and public men.

I have an undeviating faith in these men; they have been tried at all times and in every form, but they have marched steadily onward, achieving victory after victory, and they will not shrink from any contest that may come up in the great work of consummating freedom for all men in America. (Applause.) I say to you colored men, here to-day, that ninety-five of every hundred of the men who, in November last, voted for Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, are standing now shoulder to shoulder for the emancipation and the protection of your race, by just, humane, and equal laws. (Cheers.) They believe, with Andrew Johnson, that " all men should have a fair start and an equal chance in the race of life, and that merit should be rewarded without regard to color." In their memories will linger for ever the immortal words of the martyred Lincoln: "The ballot of the black man, in some trying time to come, may keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom."

You were kind enough, Mr. Chairman, to refer to the fact that I had introduced the bill, which passed, abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, and also to the measure annulling the black laws, and making the colored man liable only for the same offences and triable and punishable for the same offences in the same measure as white men. That bill which, with some amendments, became the law, under which three thousand men, women, and children were emancipated, and the National Capital made for ever free, was drawn, at my request, by the ready and accurate pen of Col. Key, of Ohio, then with me on the staff of General McClellan. When that bill was pending, we were assured that if it became the law, if we struck the manacles from your hands, that the poor houses would be thronged, the prisons crowded, that riots and bloodshed and civil war would come. The bill passed--you thronged the churches of the living God to utter thanks and gratitude. Three years have passed away, and here you are, more intelligent, stronger, truer than ever to yourselves and your country. ("That's so--every one." Cheers.)

They told us your brothers in the South would obey their masters; 002930that they would fight for their rebel leaders, and against us. Is there a man here, to-day, that has seen a rebel black man in this contest? Go from here to the Rio Grande, and you will find no one who has ever seen a rebel black man. They have been God-fearing and law abiding. In the whole history of this country there is nothing more sublime than the record of the black man in this struggle. They have endured indignity and death; they have stood by our brave soldiers and sailors in the thickest fights; they have guided them against the enemy; they have aided our suffering men in escaping from starving prisons, and given them food and shelter. To-day, there are tens of thousands of them who can look upon the shining arms in their hands and feel the proud satisfaction of having rendered efficient service to their country. They stood by their country in the hour of peril, and their country will stand by them in its hour of victory. (Good, good," and great cheering.) Should there be any one in the country who doubts this, I charge him to "possess his soul with patience;" his doubts will be solved within the next twelve months.

Men, whose prophetic utterances have ever been falsified by facts, tell us that the loyal black men, who have been true to this country when their homes were in possession of armed legions, when slave-masters dominated and controlled vast regions, would, if they possessed the ballot, vote as their now defeated masters should dictate--not as God and their country should bid them. They who trusted in their God and remained ever loyal to their country and its defenders, when the power of the slave-masters was unbroken, are to be false to their country, to freedom, and themselves, when the power of their old masters is broken and their pride humbled! If there ever was an utterance that had not the remotest semblance of reason in it, it is that utterance.

We are told that the power to confer or withhold the right of suffrage rests with the States. I declare to you, to-day, that if the Government of the United States had said to the rebels after their surrender, after they had been humbled into nothingness, after treason had murdered President Lincoln: "We shall hold your rebellious States with the military power of the nation till you are ready to renew your practical relations, ('that's the doctrine;')--we do not intend that the cause of this rebellion, which has cost us three hundred and twenty-five thousand lives, and three thousand millions of dollars, shall, in any form, make another revolution; we have no revenges; we will spare your forfeited lives and property, but you must accept the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery; you must amend your constitutions, making it forever impossible to hold property in man; you must repeal your humiliating and degrading black codes, and give suffrage to the loyal men of the country without distinction 003031of color;"--every rebel State, South Carolina included, would have, within a hundred days, accepted these conditions. The rebel States would have accepted these conditions with alacrity, and every farseeing Union man, of the loyal States, would have approved the placing of the weapon of self-protection into the hands of the enfranchised freemen. I am not here to find fault with the Government, however, though I fear that the golden moment to secure justice, and base our peace on the eternal principle of right, was not taken. I have faith in the motives and purposes of the administration, and shall keep my faith, unless it shall be broken by future deeds. I have faith in the motives and purposes of President Johnson, who told the colored men in the capital of his own Tennessee, that he would be their Moses. Andrew Johnson will, I am sure, be to you what Abraham Lincoln would have been, had he been spared to complete the great work of emancipation and enfranchisement.

Pardoned rebels and rebels yet unpardoned flippantly tell us that they hold in their hands, yet red with loyal blood, the rights of loyal colored men, of the heroes scarred and maimed beneath the dear old flag. I tell these repentant and unrepentant but conquered and subdued rebels, that while they hold the suffrage of the loyal black men in their hands, we the loyal men of America, hold in our hands their lost privilege to hold office in the civil service, army or navy. The Congress of the United States has placed upon the statute-book a law forever prohibiting any one who has borne arms against the country, or given aid, comfort, and countenance to the rebellion, from holding any office of honor, profit, or emolument in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States. "Gentlemen of the rebel States, you loved office in the past; you deemed yourselves specially ordained to fill them; there is not one of you who can have one of those offices until this matter is settled. You hold the rights of the loyal black man in your hand; I hold your lost privilege to hold office under the Federal Government in mine. I am generally opposed to compromises, but I may be inclined to agree to this compromise with you. When you allow the black man to vote, we, the loyal men of the country, may consent to allow you, repentant and pardoned rebels, to hold office under the Constitution. (Applause.) Remember that Executive pardons don't give you the privilege of holding office or putting your empty hands into the Treasury. Congress and a loyal people hold you in their power; and they will exact justice before they grant privileges." (Cheers.)

You, sir, invited Mayor Wallach to be here to-day, but I don't see him. I have a sort of dim idea that if you held the right of suffrage, Mayor Wallach and perhaps the whole city government 003132would be here. (Cheers.) To insure the attendance of the Mayor of Washington next year, I would suggest that you early send your petitions to Congress asking for the ballot. ("We will.") I am Yankee and have the right to guess, and I guess you will get it. (Great applause.)

At home and in Congress I have ever labored to secure to the colored men of my country equality of rights before the law. I would give to all men, white and black, equal, just, and humane laws--the same that I ask for myself and kindred. Having ever battled for your rights, I hope you will allow me to offer on this occasion a few words of advice and admonition. ("We will.") It is said by our enemies that the black man will not work without a lash upon his back. I don't believe it. (A voice: "I know it ain't so.") I want you to prove by deeds that your enemies have misjudged you. Deeds, not words, must silence your enemies, vindicate the confidence of your friends. Never be idle. Cultivate the brain and the hand. Engage in the varied industries demanding the trained head and the skillful hand. Be temperate, frugal, economical. Get homes. Though they be ever so humble, they will be dear to you, for the laws of your country will make them sacred. Educate your children, so that their future may be brighter than your past or present. Follow not the example of men who sat in the shade and punished poor whisky while you were driven to unpaid toil under a burning sun; but imitate the industry, thrift, and economy of the hardy sons of toil, who till the fields and fill the workshops where labor is honored and laboring men respected. God made you as he made the rest of us, to gain your bread by the sweat of your faces, not to force or steal it from other men. Slave masters must now learn this hard lesson. They went into civil war to get the right to carry slaves into the territories, and they come out of it without the right to hold slaves in the States. (Great applause.) Those slave-holders who except to pass laws to oppress or punish you for your loyalty will find themselves mistaken. We don't intend to have any such laws, and if they pass them we will annul them in the Congress of the United States. I want them to understand that. (Cheers.)

Advance high your standard of rights duties, and responsibilities. Call none master but God. Walk with your forehead to the skies. Don't insult any man, nor allow any man to insult you. Don't strike any man, nor allow yourselves to be struck. Let it henceforth and forever be understood by friend and foe, anywhere and everywhere, that you are free-as free to think, speak, and act as any men that breathe God's air or walk his green earth. (Cheers.) Let the slave masters, from the Potomac to the Mexican line, fully understand that you are amendable to the same laws as themselves, that you are to be tried for their violation in 003233the same manner and punished in the same degree. (Cheers.) Let them know that henceforth you will utter your own thoughts, make your own bargains, enjoy the fruits of your own labor, go where you please throughout the bounds of the Republic, and none have the right to molest or make you afraid. (Applause.) If my voice to-day could penetrate the ear of the colored men of my country, I would say to them that the intelligence, character, and wealth of the nation imperatively demands their freedom, protection, and the recognition of their rights. I would say to them: "Prove yourselves by patience, endurance, industry, conduct, and character worthy of all that the millions of Christian men and women have done and are doing to make for you-that Declaration of Independence, read here to-day--the living faith of United America." (Loud and prolonged cheering.)

Following the speech of Senator Wilson, interesting remarks were made by Senator Hahn, of Louisiana, and by Gen. Gregory, after which the assembly quietly dispersed.

OFFICERSOF THENational Lincoln Monument Association.

PRESIDENT.Rev. HENRY H. GARNET.VICE PRESIDENT.JAMES WORMLEY.TREASURER.STEPHEN SMITH, Philadelphia, Pa.ASST. TREASURER.WALKER LEWIS, Washington D. C.RECORDING SECRETARY.LOUIS A. BELL.CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.WILLIAM J. WILSON.RESIDENT BOARD OF DIRECTORS.CARTER A. STEWART.Gordon Snowden. Samuel J. Datcher Samuel H. WilliamsJohn F. Cook Thos. E. Greene.William SyphaxSampson Nutter.

APPEALTO THE FRIENDS OF PROGRESS EVERYWHERE.

The Directors of the Association earnestly appeal to the American public to aid them in the great enterprise in which they are engaged, viz: the erection of a Colored People's Educational Monument to the memory of Abraham Lincoln.

It is to be established on the broadest principles, and designed to benefit all, of whatever race, class, or condition, who may seek admission within its walls.

Education is the corner-stone of the advancement of all men, social and political. They ask for aid in spreading abroad the great lights of knowledge and truth, for in taking this step they feel that they are but carrying out a principle dear to the great heart of that illustrious man whose name the monument is designed to perpetuate.

All contributions sent to the Assistant Treasurer, Walker Lewis, at the Office of the Association, 201 G st., Washington, D.C., will be promptly acknowledged.