ADDRESSDelivered before the Georgia Industrial College for Colored Youth-by-BISHOP BENJAMIN WILLIAM ARNETT, D. D.His Excellency, the Governor of the State of Georgia, Honorable Chancellor of the State University, Chairman and Commissioners of the Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth:

Accept my hearty and cordial congratulations on the progress of the cause of Christian education as developed in the State and throughout the empire of letters.

President R. R. Wright, Members of the faculty of the pride of Georgia, and the hope of the present and future generations of my race: Allow me to thank you for the honor of your invitation to attend your commencement exercises and to witness the graduation of the class of 1899.

Students are friends, through the partiality of the honored faculty, I am before you to-day, for the first time to say something, to encourage you, in your labor of self-culture, and to assist you in preparing to make yourselves useful and honored citizens, of our great Republic and citizens of the celestial empire.

Young men and my fellow countrymen, I felicitate you on the many opportunities presented for acquiring an education. The State and denominational schools for more than thirty years have done a grand work. The intellectual children of Atlanta University, Morris 00032Brown College, Spellman Seminary, Clark University, Gammon Seminary, Payne Institute and other institutions are like so many lighthouses along the shore of life and so many signal stations on the highways of human knowledge.

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear nor dark, but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night, but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light."

Light and darkness are relative terms, day and night are not synonymns. Prosperity and adversity, ignorance and intelligence, right and wrong are antithesis. We live in a world of antithesis.

The history of men, races and nations are made in the lights and shadows of life. The days of toil and the nights of turmoil and sorrow. The diversities of the life of an intelligent race, and nation, are illustrated by the Mosaics of the path of human progress and human development.

The lives of the distinguished men of the past, the lives of the nations of antiquity, of the age and of the institutions, are all object lessons to the present generation and we should read them with care and profit, and if we read them with care and profit, by the results of the past, we can see the hand of God, in the rise and fall of empires, in the conquest of nations, in the subjugation of one people, and the liberation of other races.

If we read the story of the lives of the distinguished men in sacred or profane history, we will learn a lesson of patience, of labor and of triumph.

All great men have had to go from the valley to the mountain height; they have had difficulties going up one side of the mountain, and they have met difficulties going down the other side of the mountain.

It was so in the case of Joseph, of Moses, of Isaiah and of Daniel. The hand of God can be seen in their strange deliverance, but the joy of deliverance come, after suffering, in prison, in fire and in the dens of lions, but it finally comes.

It has been so with our race. Our history has been one of changes, of hope and despair. In fact we live in a world of changes, a world of succession of events, a world of spring time, summer, autumn and winter, of childhood, youth, manhood and old age, of calms and storms, of light and darkness, of sorrow and joy, of peace 00043and war, of hope day and night, of mystery and knowledge, of right and wrong, of women and men, of time and eternity.

Ours is a restless, intelligent, industrious and inquisitive age, of age of investigation and demonstration. One of interrogation of mind and matter, of nature, providence and revelation. The genius of the age interrogates and waits for a century for an answer. It is a progressive age. Our country's progress has been made by the inventive genius of the age and the mechanical skill of the citizen.

The lights in the intellectual world are to illuminate the pathway of the present generation. Light, heat, magnetism and electricity are not four different forces, but they are manifestations of the same forces. The correlation of the physical forces is a doctrine that needs no argument to maintain.

We have the correlation of the physical forces, the intellectual forces, the moral forces, the religious forces and the educational forces. The manifestation of these forces in the various relationship of human life and human conduct. We need not go to Jerusalem or Athens to get an illustration to satisfy the most skeptical mind. These forces so fixed are one and the same and they are conserved by the universal law of continuity.

The physical forces that to-day hold the matter together and tie the worlds in their orbits, are the same forces that manifested themselves, in the chemical affinity, attraction, adhesion and gravitation. They are the identical forces that God set in motion the morning, that order triumphed over chaos and the laws that regulate the body, mind and soul were enacted-the physical laws to govern the body, the intellectual laws to govern the mind, the spiritual laws to govern the soul.

My Countrymen: We are living in the twilight as a nation. The shadows of the evening of our first century of Constitutional Government is lingering on the mountain tops, while the golden rays of the morning of the second century are illuminating the valleys and driving away the morning mists.

We rejoice that the first century is behind us, with all its sorrows and tears. The morning of the second is on its way to the meridian. The dark clouds of the past, and the brightness of the clouds of the 00054future, form a gray twilight that reveals to us our duties to each other--our duty to self, wife and children, society and country, church and God.

We as a race are living in the evening and in the morning. We are in the evening of our lives and the morning of the day of our freedom. The spring of hopes and summer of opportunities are blossoming on every side. Thank God that our twilight is not the twilight that is swallowed by a night after a day of toil, suffering and tears; but it is the twilight that is the harbinger of the coming day. The answer to the watchman's cry, What of the night? The night is far spent and the day is at hand.

To the race it is one o'clock and a starlight morning. The star of hope is over the home of every citizen. The day of personal liberty, the day of religious freedom, the day of educational advantages, the day of professional opportunities, the day of commercial power, is the heirloom of every child, however poor or however black. The fires are burning under the altars of patriotism and religion. The Bible, the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are our text-books, and the Golden Rule is the standard of human conduct between man and man, family and family, race and race, nation and nation, man and God. The Cross of Calvary and an American flag are the standards of American good citizenship.

The religion or civilization, that is protected on one side by the British lion and the other by the American eagle, and walks beneath the shadow of the cross, is sure of protection and victory.

James Oglethrope was a member of the British Parliament, a soldier and a loyalist. He was a friend to the unfortunate of his country-men. He conceived the idea of opening for the poor and for the prosecuted protestants of all nation as asylum in America, where their former poverty would be no reproach and where all could worship God according to their dictates or their own conscience without the fear of being persecuted for their religious opinions.

The charter was granted to him by the British Government to the country between the Savannah and the Altamaha rivers, and westward to the Pacific Ocean, to establish a colony where religion and political liberty could be enjoyed by every man. 00065

On the 12th of February, 1733, one hundred and twenty emigrants settled in the territory governed by the charter. After the families had arranged their little homes and made preparations to begin their work, Gen. Oglethrope called a council of the neighboring Indians. He desired to have a friendly conference with them. The chiefs of the Creek Nations came and cordially welcomed the new comers and assured them of their hearty co-operation in the work of civilization, and each warrior presented several bundles of skin to the General, saying, "that although the Indians were poor, they gave with a good heart such things as they possessed." The gifts were received, thanking each warrior. One of the chief Indians presented a skin of the buffalo painted on the inside with a head and feathers of an eagle. He said the English are as swift as the eagle and as strong as the buffalo, for they crossed the vast seas and are so powerful that nothing can withstand them. He would remind the General that the feathers of the eagle were soft and signified love, that the skin of the buffalo was warm and signified protection, and therefor he hoped the English would love and protect the little families of the Indians.

I come to you to-day, my fellow citizens, almost on the identical spot where the Indian chief met the founder of your colony. We have no buffalo skin, we have no eagle nor eagle's feathers, but I do come in the same spirit that actuated the General and the Indian chief, I do come to ask that love and protection may be extended to these, that I am identified with, and therefore let us, if we can, bring the skin of the buffalo. We can bring to the altar of patriotism and religion a love for God and a love for man.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, came to this colony in the year 1735 and began his work as a moral and religious teacher. He held, I suppose, one of the first Sunday-schools on the American continent, not as a Sunday-school, but called the Indian, the Anglo--Saxon and the negro-for the negro was here--and they held a conference and heard the word of God preached, read God's word and began the work of moral and religious reform.

John Wesley returned to England, but his followers are now occupying the outpost of Anglo-Saxon civilization. The Creek Indians no more hunt through the Savannahs of Georgia. His children are out in the Indian Territory. A few years ago I had the pleasure of speaking to the chief of the Creeks. His wife and his daughter were members of a congregation. They are far away, but 00076this beautiful land that was dedicated to liberty and to free thought is occupied by the negro and the white man.

On the shield of the State of Georgia are represented three pillars supporting an arch, on which is engraved the word "Constitution" The three pillars which support the constitution are emblematical of the three departments of the state government, the Legislature, the Judicial and the Executive. On the wreath of the pillar on the right, representing the Legislature, is the word "Wisdom." On the second, representing the Judicial, is the word "Justice." On the third, representing the Executive, the word "Moderation." On the right hand side of the last pillar is a man standing with a drawn sword, representing the military power of the state, which is the right arm of the governor and with which he has the power to protect the constitution and constitutional rights, as well as the statutory privileges of every citizen, so that the rich and the poor, the black and the white may enjoy the rights and privileges guaranteed by the constitution. The motto of the state is, Wisdom, Justice and Moderation. With these three emblematized and impressed upon the minds of the boys and girls of this commonwealth there is no reason why, that Georgia, in the future as in the past, may not be the leading commonwealth of our Republic.

I come to you to-day not so much as an instructor, but as a well wisher, one who is interested in the well being of every citizen, white and black, one who loves to see men and brethren live together in unity and in harmony, to speak for those who are speechless, and to defend, if necessary. To plead for, if need be, the rights and privileges of those whom I am identified with.

I bring to-day a star, an anchor and an olive branch, and if I can by any words of mine, hang the star of hope over the pathway of the coming generation, then my mission to you will not be in vain. I come and desire to hang that star out in the vaulted dome of Heaven and make it so conspicuous, that every boy or girl, of every age and condition, can look at the star, to guide them in navigating the sea of hope.

I would have it to settle above the gate of every family and hang it on every lamp post, in every city and town; over every common school, college and university; over the counter of ever bank and chamber of commerce and board of trade. Hang it over the pulpit 00087and on the steeple of every church. Let it rest over the judge's seat the corners of the avenues of the city. Let it be the lamp on the porch of the farm house and let it illuminate the hall of our mansions. The star of hope for American citizenship is next to the star of Bethlehem in its possibilities. Let it be universal and like the North star that always pointed to the land of freedom of thought, speech and action. But, let us follow these stars that our fathers and our mothers have followed, in their upward march, toward the place of prosperity and peace, and not be like "Uncle Ben" on the "Chesapeake Bay" before the war. "Uncle Ben" and his master were on the bay. The master was the pilot and "Uncle Ben" was his assistant. Ben held to the helm and the master gave the directions. One night the master became fatigued on account of his labors and said, "Uncle Ben, I am going to take a rest; I am going to sleep for a few minutes. You see that star on the right; you see that star on the left." "Yes, I see the star," replied Uncle Ben. "Now you run her between those two star and watch out for coming boats," remarked the master. "Yes master, I will do so," replied Uncle Ben. After the master went to sleep "Uncle Ben" became fatigued and he went to sleep, and in pulling the helm during his sleep, the boat was turned around, and when "Uncle Ben" awoke, he continued to hold the helm. The master awoke and said, "Ben, what are you doing; I thought I told you to run the boat between the stars." "Uncle Ben" answered, Why, master, we have done passed deem two stars long ago."

So that is the way with a great many people in life. The stars that are put out as sentinels to guide the American citizenship, they get turned around, they think that they have passed the stars when they are only on the wrong road to prosperity and happiness. Young men! Be certain you don't pass those stars.

The founders of the American Republic built it on a firm and solid foundation. Its Corner Stones are Religion, Morality, Education and Industry. The Man, The Family, The Race or Nation who builds upon these foundations are like unto the man who built his house upon the "Rock:" "When the rains descended and the 00098floods came and the winds blew, the house fell not, because it was upon the Rock." Our Century Crowned Republic has survived the storms, the rains, the winds. She stands to-day stronger than before her foreign and her civil wars. It was said years ago, "Happy are the people whose Lord is God." History, observation and experience confirm the assertion of the Psalmist. Abraham Lincoln, one of the most distinguished statesmen of ancient or modern times, said, when leaving his home on Feb. 11th, 1861, to take upon himself a most responsible duty: "My friends, a duty devolves upon me which is perhaps greater than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington, and 'He never would have succeeded, except by the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all time relied.' I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained HIM, and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support. I cannot succeed alone, but with His aid success is certain." And the multitude all said: "Amen, we will pray for you." Again when the war cloud hung low and dark over the Republic and the Nation seemed to hang in a balance, the Southern Army had invaded Maryland; the Battle of Antietam was fought Sept. 17th; when speaking of issuing the immortal Emancipation Proclamation the following words were used: "I promised my God that I would do it." Mr. Chase said, "Do I understand you correctly Mr. President?" Mr. Lincoln replied: "I have made a solemn vow before God that if General Lee should be driven back from Pennsylvania I would crown the results by the declaration of freedom to the slaves."

Thus the Emancipation Proclamation was a contract between Lincoln and God. The people of this country have a strong faith in God. They believe in the Golden Rule if they do not practice it. Their faith is so strong in God that it has been crystallized and stamped upon every silver dollar throughout the land: "In God we trust." It is true we have two classes of citizens, one trusting in God, the other trusting in the dollar. Another source of strength to our Institutions is the system of common schools, which provides that every child of every race, of every condition of life shall receive a common school education. A large majority of the American people believe in building a high wall of protection around our Institutions, with the gate of reciprocity in the East, West, North and South. They believe in a Protection so strong that it will defy the Free Trade winds of the North and Wild Cat money of the West. The honest 00109people of this country will stand by its Institutions and see that no harm comes to them.

One of the beauties of our country is that Executive and Legislative power is limited to person and time, and returns back to the sovereigns in the one case every two years and in the other every four years. Those who have carried out the will of the people are retained, and those who have not are left at home. And as long as the people can give an honest expression to their wishes, the country and the Institutions are safe, and a government of all the people shall continue for many generations.

Next to the hand of the Almighty is the hand of an American citizen. With his hand he holds the ax, the hoe, the plow that turns up the soil, the hand that sows and reaps the grain, that uses the hatchet, the saw and the plane, the hand that uses the pen and the sword, the artist's brush, the sculptor's chisel, the hand that deposits the ballot which makes Judges, Congressmen, U.S. Senators, Governors and Presidents. This is a power exercised by none but an American freeman. This being true, it is one of the reasons why we demand a free ballot and a fair count. Seeing the intimate relations existing between our Institutions, civil, political and religious, it is an absurdity to speak of divorcing the church from the State. The church should be interested in the State, and correspondingly the State should be interested in the church. It is good theory to talk of a State without a king, a church without a Pope, but show me a government that does not recognize a church or protect a church and I will show you one, that is built upon the sands or the passions of men, and is as weak and unstable as water, affording neither protection to person or property, to life nor to reputation; but a government based on a strong, central power is able to protect its own life and those of its own citizens.

The church, the school house, the store and factory are infallible signs of a Christian civilization, and distinguish the habitations of the civilized from the uncivilized; the barbarians from the enlightened and refined.

In the development of our civilization we find that we must have the preacher, the printer, the schoolmaster and the mechanic and 001110farmer. No civilization is complete without them; no Republican form of government can prosper where ignorance rules. The intelligent must rule if we expect to transmit to posterity our Institutions and our Government.

This country will never be what it should be until every Court House in the land is built upon Mount Sinai, and every Judge shall hold in his right hand the word and law of God, and in his left the laws of his country.

Our churches must have their foundations on Cavalry, and their only steeple shall be the Cross of the Crucified One. Our school houses all must be built on Mars Hill, and St. Paul shall be the Preceptor in Philosophy and Christian Ethics. The home of every freeman must be built on Mount Tabor, the Mount of Beatitudes, where the law, human and Divine, the Prophets, the greater and the lesser, meet together, where righteousness and peace kissed each other, where the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man was announced from the clouds, and the faithful of each dispensation and the inhabitants of each Tabernacle heard the voice, "These are my beloved sons in whom I am well pleased."

We have come together to consider the responsibilities of an American citizen, under a government established to secure to every man, woman and child the blessings of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The history of the early struggles of the Fathers of our country is familiar to all; they established this government without a model and without a precedent. They ignored the principle of the Divine right of kings to rule, and laid down the principle that the true form of government was that which recognized the fact that "all men were created equal and were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which were life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

But the possibilities of our government are illustrated in the thirty-six years of the freedom of the negro. Thirty-six years has passed away since Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The question has often been asked: "Has the emancipation of the negro been a success?" "Is the negro any better off now than he was before emancipation?" I am old enough to have some knowledge of the negro before the war, of his condition during the war, and his progress since the war. I have worked by his side; I have dined at his table; I have slept in his bed; I have attended his prayer meetings 001211and his class meetings, where he related his experiences and his hopes; I have conversed with his moral and religious teachers, and have encouraged them in their work; I have spent the evening by his fireside; I have listened to the songs of his children and the conversation of his friends; and my observation is, that he has made wonderful progress religiously, intellectually, and socially, as I shall show before I conclude.Every American is proud of his country and its Institutions. I know of no country in which the responsibilities are so great as in this country, and I know of no country in which the privileges are so many. The masses of this country have a better opportunity for development than any other form of government I know of. The disadvantages of the Old World and the advantages of the New World have had various illustrations. the Old World has been compared to the earth and to the strata of the rock where the relative positions of the upper and the nether strata remains the same, yesterday, to-day, and through the centuries. The man born among the common people remains among the aristocracy remains among the aristocracy. The man born in the Royal Family, with the rights and privileges of the Royal Family, remain in the Royal Family.

Our form of government has been compared to the sea, and the inhabitants to drops of water, the drop of water that is crawling to-day on the bed of the ocean, rises and rises until tomorrow it forms the crests of the white-capped billows, then rises to the cloud and forms the spray that makes the rainbow which spans the pathway of the retreating storm.

This is eminently true in many senses of our government, it is illustrated in the life of very many of our statesmen, jurists. A number have been born in poverty and obscurity, but by their intelligence, industry, courage and endurance they have attained to the heights or highest places of honor, trust and emolument in the gift of the American people.

Henry Wilson was a shoemaker, but he became Vice-President of the Republic. Salmon P. Chase was a ferry boy in Connecticut, but he became Chief Justice of the United States. Peabody was a wood sawyer, but he became a millionaire. Jay Gould was a country clerk, but he became king of railroads. Leland Stanford was a poor 001312country lad, but he gave $20,000,000 to found an institution of learning. Grant, the tanner boy of Brown County, Ohio, became the greatest military leader of the age. As President of the United States he received the golden keys of hospitality to the commonwealth of civilization, circumnavigated the globe and died in great peace on Mt. Gregory, honored by the North for his courage, by the South for his magnanimity; thus showing the possibilities of an American citizen. Another illustrious example of the possibilities of an American boy is seen in the life of a boy born in Kentucky, surrounded by poverty, contending with adversity, and in succession was a rail splitter, county clerk, a flat boatman, a student, a volunteer to fight the Indians and was elected a captain, appointed postmaster, learns and practices surveying, is elected to the Legislature, walked from his home to the Capitol, was elected to Congress, met and vanquished the champion of Squatter Sovereignty, was elected President of the United States, and became the savior of the Union, the emancipator of 3,500,000 human beings, a martyr of a constitutional government, finally a saint in Heaven. Such was the life of the statesman, Abraham Lincoln, the emancipator. Well may we celebrate in honor the birthday of such a man, for during all coming time Lincoln and liberty will be united forever.

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit," was announced twenty centuries ago and startled the spiritual world; but it was true then, it is true to-day. Man is a spiritual and a physical being. The physical is govern by physical laws, the spiritual by spiritual laws. Philosophy teaches us that the last analysis of the existence, physically, is matter, and the intellectual man must be composed of mind. He receives his knowledge through his senses of the objective world.

He receives his intellectual knowledge through observation, tradition and history. He receives his spiritual knowledge by revelation and by faith. His physical horizon depends upon his position upon the earth and the condition of his surroundings. His intellectual horizon depends upon his information, and his spiritual horizon depends upon his faith. But the fact "that which is flesh is flesh, and that which is spirit is spirit," is acknowledged by all intellectual persons.

A man has an anti-natal life; he lives before he is born. A physical life is thus acknowledge by law. A person destroying a child 001413during anti-natal life is subject to punishment, as though the child was born. The intellectual is born, it lives; the elementary functions are in the embryo, but not until the birth, of self-consciousness is the mind fully equipped and born in the spirit, then the intellectual birth is known, to the child, to the ego. It soon learns of the non-ego, and it realizes the me and the not me, the nurse or the mother becomes the first not me, and then the not me's is increased to the members of the family, and the friends that come into the house, to the house in which it lives, and every thing that belongs to the family, the dog, the horse, the cat of the household, and then next to the neighborhood. The not me continues from one object to another geographically and personally; then other methods and means of information are employed; of observation and thought, and reading and studying, it continues to increase the not me until it arrives at the great uncaused not me, which is God. In all the wonderings and in all the various vicissitudes through which the mind passes, there is one thing that is always evident, the right and on the left, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit."

For the methods of information and of procedure differ materially in the case of the flesh and of the spirit. The physical man desires bread and meat and water, the intellectual man desires truth and the spiritual man desires right, so the man physically and spiritually desires bread and power, truth and right and love, and when the possesses these things the man or woman is in a condition to discern between the things that are right and things that are wrong, and things that are good and things that are bad, and is capable of talking about those of duty and the responsibility of their destiny, and recognizes the fact that we cannot change the nature of a man, nor of the race. The laws that governs one race will govern the other race; whatever is required to make the Anglo-Saxon good, great and useful will be required to make the negro good and useful, "for that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit," must be said about both races, for both are subjected to the same laws, both are citizens of the same kingdom and are required to perform the same duties and observe the same laws, therefore they are equal in responsibility and one in destiny.

In acquiring knowledge there is no law that applies to the white boy that does not apply to the black boy. They all have to travel the same road to reach the same end. If they desire to find the source of 001514the true, the beautiful and the good, they will have to go the same road traveled by the intellectual heroes of the past. Each will have to learn the alphabets, of perception and conception, and then apply them with energy, for there is no royal road to knowledge. Each individual must work his way. "There are no deadheads in the pursuit of knowledge." A man that desires to be wise must study, whether he be black or white. The man that wants to become a scholar must pursue the course that maketh scholars, and every boy can start out with the assurance that nature has no respect to color or condition, but he who interrogates nature and studies the instinct of lower life and the intuition of higher life, will learn lessons to encourage his footsteps, on the path leads to the planes of complete knowledge, under the blazing sun of revelation and civilization.

It was Richter, I believe, who said that if God was to give him his choice between truth and search after truth, that would choose search after truth, for he would have the pleasure of searching and the pleasure of finding. The pleasure of searching and finding has been of great benefit to mankind, whether it was seeking or searching for truth fame or riches. The explorer has endangered his life, borne hardships in searching after new countries and for rich mines and for fame. Columbus was impelled and borne up by the inspiration of searching for a new passage to the Old World. He enjoyed the voyage in searching after it, he found a new world, though he was bound in chains afterward. His triumph when he returned to Spain, when he brought a number of the inhabitants of the New World to present them to the king and queen, as a trophy. There was greater pleasure in searching and finding them, than there was after he possessed them.

I would advise the young men and women of this institution to search after the truth, search after knowledge and become, each a man and a Columbus, each one striving to find a new world and new island out in the broad sea of undiscovered truth.

Every student present will agree that some of the most pleasant moments in their lives was, when they were pondering over some problem, when they were searching to find some historical truth, when they were connecting biographical links around the common altar and forming a geographical chain to bind the present to the past. It is pleasant for us to-day to stand at the base of Mt. Sinai and see Moses ascending with Aaron and Hur, until they are lost to sight, then to wait and see the mountain burning and trembling and hear 001615the thunder; but it is more pleasant to think of Moses, as a child in the bull-rushes of the Nile, to follow him with his sister and to witness her training him in the Egyptian Court; then to follow the man with the army, to see him fighting for his country and to hear his voice amid the shout of victory; to see the surrender of the Ethiopian king, then to see the king give his daughter to the conquering hero; to witness the ceremony of marriage of the General of the Egyptian army and the daughter of the Ethiopian king, to hear the shouts of the triumphant army. But, hark, we hear a discord. Aaron and Mirian raised a disturbance in the camp when they met the returning hero, because he had married the daughter of the Ethiopian king. Let us pause and look at the fight of the Hebrew and the Egyptian--the fight of Moses to the mountain; Jethro's sheep in the wilderness; Moses sees the burning bush; they cross the country and go to Egypt; he stands at the court of Pharoh; the plagues fighting the battle of the Hebrews; the pass-over; the flight to the Read Sea; the song of triumph; the hunger of the multitudes; bread comes from heaven, meat from the wilderness, water from the desert; the giving of the law, the ascension to Pisgah; the unknown burial of the servants of God. But he returns and meets Jesus on Mt. Tabor, thus searching after, first, its pleasures and its joys.

I would advise young men in this institution, in order that they may become broad and wise, to study history, the history of the nations and of the earth. Study biography, study it in detail. History is one of the connecting links of the biography of men of different ages, nations and times. More than sixty centuries has passed away, at least one hundred and eighty generations of men and women and children have come upon the stage of human activity; each has performed his part and has gone to return no more.

If I had the time and the power, I would invite this audience, with the faculty and the students, to go with me and let us study for a moment or two the history of the past and see if there was not something in the deeds and work of the past, to give us inspiration and hope to perform the duties of the hour.

In looking o'er the history of the past it is like unto a man standing on some mountain height, below him he sees the planes, but far beyond he sees mountain ranges, rivers, lakes, houses, cities' and 001716towns are before him, and all form a grand scene of activity. In looking over the history of the past, generations and generations rise up before us, and as we go back we find that the horizon on the right and the horizon at the left appear to converge and meet together in the distance. On the one side is represented the secular history, on the other is represented the sacred history, and the mountains on the either side are high and exalted; above the planes here and there may be seen a mountain peak rising, the heights unseen and unmeasured, but if we examine through a telescope the history on the right, the first peak in the mountain of sacred biography, we see that of Abel, at its base is an altar and smoke rising, but as we stop at the base, behold the mountain at our feet is sprinkled with blood and dead men and the altar of fires are extinguished and the smouldering ruins are there. Coming on down we behold the mountain of Enoch, the man that walked with God for three hundred years, a man whose mind ran parallel with the Divine mind, a man whose life was so correct that when death came--the valley of death his footsteps never trod--he went to heaven on the wings of faith, for Enoch walked with God. On the mountain of the biographical peak were Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob and Moses, and Joshua and Caleb before us. Daniel in Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walking in the fires and were not consumed. Jeremiah weeping for his people and calling on the watchman and crying loud. "Spare not." Isaiah, the evangelist and prophet lifts the curtain of the future and sees the coming Messiah to the deliverance of his people. Zechariah and Hagai, and Zephaniah, the negro prophet, concludes the old testament, and John the Baptist, who lived in both dispensions, comes as the fore-runner of the Light of the World. Young men! study biography, study history. Study the history of your country, study the history of the father of your country, study the history of Washington, the father of our country, who was "first in peace and first in war, first in the hearts of his countrymen." Study Jefferson, the father of the Declaration of Independence, the man that penned the immortal words that will live as long as man's language defies the knowing teeth of time or resists the weight of rolling years. Study Madison, the father of the Constitution of our country. Study the men who participated in the Continental Congress and on the 4th of July declared this an independent nation and gave to the world "a government of the people, for the people and by the people." Study the men who supported 001817the action of the soldiers of their day and time. Study not alone the political condition, but study religion, the moral and educational forces with the work during the period of the revolutionary struggle; study the foundations of our educational institutions and let us examine and see how wisely our fathers built and how grandly their children have executed the plans laid down by the fathers. Study the history of your own race and learn the facts of the noble achievements of our pilgrim fathers. The ancient negroes had a wonderful history. They were the leaders of human thought, they were among the greatest warriors of the time, they founded empires and kingdoms, ruled the nations and governed the world of letters. The acquisition of knowledge is a very pleasant and profitable occupation. There is nothing that produces so great a profit as human knowledge. Man is so constituted that he is subject to the laws that are without him and within him; he is the center of multiform activities. He is the manifestation of the Divine will, and "only when we see dust standing erect in the person of a man can we understand the object of the Divine government," for no man has seen the connection of the physical and the spiritual. He is the acme of the Divine thought of the world; he stands on two feet, breathes the air, eats bread, drinks water, lives a mysterious life, dies a mysterious death, and is buried in a mysterious grave, goes to meet a mysterious God. He is surrounded with knowledge and mystery, and as his vision of knowledge widens the horizon of his mysteries increase. A man ascending a mountain can see farther as he ascends; his horizon widens with every step he takes upward; new beauties are brought before him as he increases the range of his vision, so it is with the man who increases his knowledge of the physical and intellectual world; for everything that he knows there is something about it that he does not know; so the man that knows but little has few mysteries to contend with, consequently a fool will go where angels will not tread, much less a wise man.

Man must increase his knowledge through five methods. First, observation; second, thought; third, reading history, biography, philosophy and obituary; fourth, by listening to lectures and the experiences of others; fifth, by imparting knowledge that he has obtained and he will gain knowledge by imparting that which he possesses.

There are two classes of knowledge: sense knowledge and self knowledge; objective knowledge and subjective knowledge.

When the Son of God was on earth he went about doing good, he was on the mission of love and mercy, he had a mission to the poor, to the rich, to the wise and unwise, to the Jew and to the Gentile, to the bond and to the free; he came to open the eyes of the blind and to unstop the ear of the deaf, to cut loose the stammering tongues, to raise the dead to life, to give joy and comfort in the home, to open the pathway from the city of the living to the city of the dead, and to hang the lamp of immortality on the gateway to the future.

During His mission the Pharisee inquired of him, "Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar," or in other words they wanted to know whether their duty to God conflicted with their duty to man. He taught them a lesson and made a division between human and the Divine government, and separated the church from the state, the, from the priest, and on that foundation our government, our great Republic has been built and now flourishes.

The question they asked, "Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, the representative of the Roman Government?" a government that is oppressing the children of God, taxing them without representation, denying them a place in the Legislative Department, in the Judicial and Executive Department of the Roman Government.

The Master asked them, "Whose image was upon the tribute money?" They answered that the tribute money bore the image of Caesar, the image and type of the representative of the civil government. His answer was, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's."That same question has been asked the Negro of this country. The same question must be answered to-day, for in some parts of the country the status of the Negro corresponds to the status of the Jews under the Roman Government, but the question is, "Whose image does it bear?" and if it is Caesar's money give it to him, and whatever "belongs to God give it to him." We have a duty that we owe to God and a duty that we owe to our civilization.

You will find on the American dollar, if you have a silver dollar in your pocket, on one side the American eagle, representing the emblem of the independence of our government, just above the eagle you will find the words, "In God We Trust." On the opposite side of the dollar you will find the head of the Goddess of Liberty. You 002019will find that above and around the dollar the words, "E Pluribus Unum"-one in many-and above the forehead of the Goddess the word "Liberty" is engraved. On the one side is represented our duty to God and on the other side our duty to man.

Now the environments of the man does not always change his duty; it may change his power in carrying out his duty. He may be prevented from exercising his rights, his privileges and in laboring for the best interests of himself and his family, but it does not change his duty any more than a man's rights are not lost because he can not exercise them and the duty of an American citizen is to obey the law of his country, the national law, whatever it is. It may be objectionable, but if it is law he must obey that law and labor to have it repealed. He must obey his state law whatever that law is. That is his duty, he is under obligation to do it, and then it is his duty to see that men are selected to go to the Legislature to change that law and to have his will and those who think with him crystallized into just laws, laws that will come back rolling down like dew drops in the morning, giving freshness to all and like the sun, giving life and health to the vegetable world.

It is not only his duty to obey the national law and state law, but municipal law, the regulations of the city and municipality; good citizens will not violate the law. They must feel the burden and may groan and pray that the burden may be lifted and the wrong may be changed and the right may triumph. My advice is, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's" and when I say that I mean this: First find out what your duty is to yourself, to your body, to your mind, to your soul, then find out what your duty is to your family, to your wife, to your children. If you are taught that your duty to your wife is to furnish food and shelter and raiment, and education for your children, render to them that which belongs to them, and if you find you owe your neighbor your co-operation in bearing his burdens, of society, in visiting the sick, in caring for the orphans, in feeding the poor and in relieving the distressed, then "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." Whatever you find you owe to society, pay it, your taxes and your interests in temperance, in tearing down saloons and in building up churches and schools. "Render to Caesar things that are Caesar's," and while you are rendering to Caesar it is necessary that you do not neglect your wife and children and your home that you 002120may attend the societies and lodges that meet week after week. It is not necessary for you to take money that ought to put shoes on the feet of your children and put in some society, that you may have a brass band and a big funeral when you die. Better spend your money by putting it where it will give comfort and happiness to your family than to provide for a funeral when you are dead. Thus "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's."

I would advise you to take your money and put it in a Building and Loan Association, buy land and houses, furnish them for your family, make them comfortable rather than put it in societies and lay it up for coffins. One of the greatest troubles to-day with our race is that they have more coffin money than they have house money. They are more anxious to have a large funeral than to have a happy home and a happy family. They are more anxious to have a brass band when they die than they are to have their wife and children happy. "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's," and I say fewer coffins and more houses. Let us take the bank book and study it, change the financial cards for bank books and strive to learn how to live. If you learn how to live well you will die well, if you die well the people will bury you; no trouble about burying you, somebody will bury you, if the country has to "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." Do your duty as a citizen, elevate the race, not only the race, but all races, feel an interest in everything that brings prosperity to the community, become as salt, alike to every city in which you live and to look to the Master and say, "Ye are the salt of the earth;" enjoy the salt, moral salt, spiritual salt, "All ye are the salt."

If you bear the image of a man, perform the duties of a man; if you bear the image of an American citizen, then perform the duties of an American citizen; if you bear the image of a Christian gentleman, then perform the duties of a Christian gentleman; if you bear the image of the child of God, then act in such a manner that your father will own his children. It is possible for each man and woman here to so bear upon them the image of their Master and Maker that every man, woman and child in the community will say, "That is a child of God, because he talks and acts like his Father."

Every man and woman is like a coin; they pass in the community for the their face value, or commercial value. Sometimes commercial paper is worth more than its face; it bears a premium and people will take it at a premium and pay for it. So it is with men and 002221women in a community. Their words sometimes goes at a premium. Other men so live in a community that their word is discounted. There are some, if they say a thing is so, everyone will say, "That is all right, if he said so it is all right." Other men will make a statement and people will inquire, "Who said so, we will take it at seventy-five per cent.," and another will say, "Cut it half in two"; another will say, "Who else said so?," that is, they will not take it at all. It must be borne up by testimony before it will will say, "He bears the image of a dishonest man"; "of a liar"; "bears the image of a drunkard"; "bears the image of a man whose word will not be taken in the community"; yet, every man may bear the image of an honest man, a good man and a bright citizen. "Whose image does he bear?" "What is his value?" "What is his value in the church?" "What is his value at home?" "How much will the children give for him?" "Is he at par," or "Is he at discount?" "Whose image does he bear?" "What is his circulating value?" "How much will your neighbour give for you?"

I was talking to an old man in South Carolina, and he said: "Bishop, there is one thing that I will never do, either for your race or for any of the members of my race; I will not take a nickel man for a dollar. One of the troubles of the times in which we live is, that almost all politicians are nickel men and they want to go in the community for a dollar man. Well, I don't propose to take any nickel man for a dollar. I will take every man, black or white, for what he is worth. If he is worth a nickel, I will pass him for a nickel; if he is worth a dime, we will pass him for a dime; if he is worth fifty cents, he shall go, and if you have a dollar man I will take him." What we want to do is, "to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar`s," and if a negro comes, if he is worth a nickel, pass him for a nickel; if a white man comes, pass him for a nickel; if one comes for a quarter, take him, and if one for fifty cents, take him for what he is worth. Educational, religious, moral and commercial, let him pass for what he is worth. All we ask of the white people of this country to do is, when we come to them let them examine us and find out whose image we bear. If we bear the image of an American citizen, pass us for an American citizen; if a white man comes to the

front and has the image of an American citizen, pass him; but what we object to is, to pass a nickel white man and then reject dollar negro men. All we ask is to find out whose image we bear. If we bear the image of Hero, pass us; of crime, pass us by. Let us stand in our own strength or fall in our weakness, and let us "render the things that are Caesar's unto Caesar, and to God, the things that are God's." Give the negro what belongs to him. Give him education for his head, religion for his heart. Give him an opportunity for money for his pocket; with these he will form a combination, and he will turn and "render to God the things that are God's," and the state and the nation shall rejoice and everywhere it shall be said, "render to the negro the things that are his." He is a man, give him a man's chance. He is a citizen, give him a citizen's chance. He is a Christian, give him a Christian's chance. If he is a man, give him a man's place. If he is an American citizen, give him the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If he is a Christian, give him the right to work our his salvation and prepare to meet him in heaven. "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's," and if they will do this, then Caesar will have that which belongs to him and God that which belongs to him.

What we want to do as a race is to pass no man for more than he is worth!by the golden standard of the races. If he is intellectually, morally and financially only a nickel, let him pass for that. If he is a twenty cent man, then let him pass for that.

We must stop introducing nickel men into our families. Fathers, give no more dollar daughters to these nickel dudes. Mothers, oppose any more nickel weddings, where the man borrows the money to pay for the license and asks the preacher to trust him for performing the ceremony. Let nickels marry nickels, dimes marry dimes, half dollars marry half dollars, and dollar men marry dollar women; then we will have happy homes. Let the universal standard be goodness, intelligence and usefulness, and he who cannot stand the test let him fall. The time has come when we want no more nickel schools. No more nickel school teachers. No more nickel preachers. No more nickel collections to support the church and the poor.THE WHITE MAN WILL NOT LOSE ANYTHING.The negro's advancement will not take anything away from the white man. If you educate the negro, the white man will not become 002423ignorant. If you treat the negro right, he will not mistreat the white man. The question here is not one alone of morality and ethics, but it is a matter of right and wrong, justice and injustice, liberty and oppression; and the duty of the teachers in our schools is to teach the young and rising generation to "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar`s, and to God the things that are God`s." It is the duty of our four hundred thousand school teachers to say to every child in the school, to render to the negro the things that belong to the man and give him that which he deserves. It is the duty of the Sunday-school teachers in their classes to render to the negro the things that are his. It is the duty of our judges on their benches, wherever their court houses are situated, holding in the right hand the word of God and in their left hand the constitution of their country, their duty is to see and render to the negro the things that are the negro`s, and let the one hundred and forty thousand ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ in this land, utter from their pulpits as though their pulpits were built on the Mountain of the Beatitudes: "Render to the negro the things that are the negro`s." Let the twenty-five million Christians, as they rise in the morning and sing their morning song, "Lord, in the morning thou shall hear my prayer ascending high to thee, while I lift up my eye to thee I send up my prayer"; let them pray, "Give us this day our daily bread"; let them remember to pray for the negro`s bread, and when the hands of the poor are out for bread let them pass not the negro`s hand because it is black. The officers of the city, if they see a black boy doing a wrong, and only doing as a white boy, should render to the negro boy the things that belong to him; and our judges and officers of the law, and our pulpits and our schools and our college presidents, all that teach the doctrine of the Son of God, when the question is asked, "is it right to do good to the negro, a son of God," let them ask: "Whose image does he bear." If he bears the image of the one for whom Jesus shed his blood to redeem, if he bears the image of the one that left the throne and everything good on high, then I say, "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar`s, and when from the White House in Washington there goes forth the proclamation, "to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar`s, and to the negro the things that are the negro`s, and when the Governors of our states in their executive power will "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar`s, and to God the things that are God`s, then will the time come spoken of by the 002524Prophet, when the hills shall leap for joy and the mountains clap their hands and the people will rejoice.

The Honorable President of the United States issued his proclamation to the inhabitants throughout our great Republic to "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's." He said by precept and example, "Render to the Anglo-Saxon what belongs to the Anglo-Saxon," and "Render to the negro what belongs to the negro." In church, in city, in commerce, in trade, in peace, in war, at Savannah, at Alcona, at Washington or at Santiago, "Render to the black soldiers what belongs to them, and to the white soldiers what belongs to them."

The Governor of the State of Georgia has said, that justice and moderation shall be the guide of his administration of the law, and that he would "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's"; that he would "Render to the Anglo-Saxon that which belonged to him, and to the negro that which belonged to him." Thus, peace shall reign in the heart, in the home, in the church, in the state, and the genius of universal peace shall sit on the throne of the universal empire; and Jesus Christ shall reign from sea to sea, and there shall be peace and good will between man and man, between family and family, between race and race, between nation and nation and between God and man.

I know that some one will say that all negroes do not bear the same image. I will admit that; neither do all white men bear the same image. We have good men and bad men. We have wise men and unwise men. We have useful men and men that are no account to themselves or anybody else. I know that there is a distinction. I know there is a race distinction and there is distinction within the race.

There are men in the race, who, if they were not in it, the race would be better off; but inasmuch as they are in they will have to stay; we will have to take care of them. The time has arrived in the history of our country and our race, as part of the American people, when we must take care of each other, because the doctrine of the solidarity of nations is just as true to-day as it was when Kossuth went from one end of our land to the other pleading for his own native country.

Then the idea of the solidarity of man is the essence of the teachings of the Nazarene, the end of the Gospel of peace and the gospel of good will. The gospel in its message is to the head, to the heart, 002625to the home, and to the state. It is our business as teachers and leaders to proclaim peace between man and man, peace and good will between family and family, peace and good will between state and state, peace and good will between country and country, peace and good will between man and his God; and in rending to Caesar the things that are his, we must distinguish between good and bad, between the intelligent and the ignorant whether of the one race or the other race; and the duty of the educators of the youth of the country is to break down the partition walls that are between race and race, country and country.

Before Christianity assumed the reign of government, and before our civilization caught the notes of the angel on Bethlehem plain, the world was divided by walls. Lines were drawn by walls, cities were walled and and had gates of iron to protect them from the country, but Christianity has broken down every partition walls between nation and nation. No longer are the lines of nationality drawn and built up by walls, but every man becomes a wall unto himself, every individuals has his own gate, every one becomes a soldier and defending his own frontier, he defends the frontier of his neighbor. In protecting his own household he protects his neighbor's, so inter-dependence of man upon man is taught everywhere and our duty is to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God'.

The money of our country circulates. The standards are gold, sliver and paper currency, but the ultimate standard is gold, the next standard is silver and the next is paper; paper is the representative of gold and silver it is not the standard itself. So you will find men and women throughout the land that are representatives of the standard. They have the image on them, but the material is not fine. They have the alloy in them; they have more alloy in them than they have pure metal. So it is American citizenship, some receive protection of our government but are not willing to give to others. They receive the benefits of our country and are not willing to defend or pay for it, but the American citizen is willing, not only to support his government in time of peace, but in time of war. He is willing to give his means and to do his duty. Therefore, when you find a negro and he is a counterfeit, don't you pass him and don't take him because he is a negro and think he is good, for we have good counterfeit negros. We have counterfeit women and counterfeit boys and girls. They are counterfeit in their religion; their religion Sunday clothes 002726always go together; they take them both off Sunday night and leave them home until next Sunday morning and carry them to church with them; they are both for Sunday use.

What we want to impress upon these young men and young women is, that we want character that is pure, as pure as the gold that will pass every day in the week, that will pass every night in the week, one that will stand the test, one that will take its face value, one with a character that will not only stand the test at home but abroad. A character that will stand the test, stand up, and as Paul declared, "let us stand after having done all, to stand."

I remember when I was a boy, if you went in a store and purchased anything and handed out your money, a man would go to Kennedy's Bank Review, he would look and see how much your money was worth, he knew what it said on the face and sometimes he would hand your money back. I remember on one occasion I received some money at Pittsburg, Pa., for a dollar. I went to Cincinnati, it was worth 75 cents; I went to St. Louis, it was worth 50 cents; I went to St. Paul , it was worth 25 cents; I came down to a little place below St. Paul and it was worth nothing. That note was good where it was known, but they did not know the president nor the cashier, they did not know what was behind it; therefore it depreciated the farther it went from home.

But, young man, it is possible for you to so build your character that will be like the notes of the United States of America; it will be like the gold that comes from the mint. The gold dollar coined in our mint, with the image of our national authorities upon it and the stamp of our national government, represents the pledge of seventy million men and women and children. Wherever that gold dollar goes, having the image of our civilization and government upon it, it will pass for its face value. If you go to China, that dollar is a dollar; if you go to Japan, that dollar is a dollar; if you go to Manila, that dollar is a dollar; if you go to San Francisco, that dollar is a dollar; if you go to Central America, that dollar is a dollar, or wherever the nations come together it will be a dollar. So with the young men here. They may be so stamped in this institution, so impressed with the instructions, with the lives and character of the president and faculty of this institution, that when they go from this place with their diplomas in their hands, they will be like a gold dollar that comes out of the mint, whether they go to the country to teach school, whether they 002827go to the city, they will pass for a dollar in the church, in the city, in the community. The people will want their company, and they will be a blessing to mankind.

The only question is, build a character out of the rock of ages, build it as directed by the fathers, cut it out of the granite of our Christian civilization and cap it with hope of our revelation.THE RELIGIOUS FORCES.Let us examine the religious development. When the Negro was emancipated there were only a few distinct Negro organizations, and they were confined to the North and not to the South; but as the army pushed on towards the South the missionaries of the African Methodist Church and others followed the flag and organized the moral and religious forces.

The distinctive Negro organizations make the following magnificent showing:

There are Regular Baptists, Union A. M. E. Church, A. M. Church, American Union Methodist, A. M. E. Zion, Congregational Methodist, C. M. E. Church, Zion Union Apostolic, Evangelical Missionary and Cumberland Presbyterian. These have 19,859 organizations, 20,007 church edifices, with a seating capacity of 5,802,314, valued at $22,626,434, with a membership of 2,581,129, adherents and members 5,650,228.

These organizations are controlled and supported wholly by the negro himself, and is a legitimate result of three decades of freedom.

The following organizations are colored organizations in other denominations. They are controlled by white people but are composed of colored people.

Regular Baptist North, Regular Baptist South, Free Will Baptist, Primitive Baptist, Old Two-Seed Baptist, Roman Catholic, Christian Connection, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Methodist Protestant, Methodist Episcopal, Lutheran S. C, Lutheran U. S. South, Independent Methodist, Presbyterian North, Presbyterian South, Reform Prebyterians, Protestant Episcopal, Reform Episcopal. Total denominations 19, organizations 4,713, church edifices 4,139, seating capacity 1,008,651, valuation $6,236,734, membership 307,826, total adherents and members 775,652. 002928RECAPITULATION.Denominations...29 Organizations.... 24,572 Church Edifices.. 21,146 Seating Capacity.6,810,965 Valuation... $28,863,168 Members3,589,780 Members and Adherents.6,325,880Independent Sunday Schools Controlled by Negroes.Name of Church.No. ofTotalNo. ofOfficersNo. ofOfficers,Sundayand Scholars. TeachersSchools. Teachers.& Scholars. A.M.E. Church.... 4,57545,958375,000420,958 A.M.E. Zion Church.... 3,30030,560300,000330,660 C.M.E. Church.... 2,1618,731125,475134,206 U.M.E. Church....1201,550 10,20011,750 M.E. Church. 3,62323,462210,213233,675 A.U.M.E. Protestant Church.2590 12,25011,340 A.U.M.E. Church..60 750 5,000 5,750 Congregational Methodist Church.840150190 M.E. Protestant Church40 200 1,100 1,300 Independent Methodist Church....2157590______________________________ Total Methodist Churches.13,914111,3561,028,4631,139,819 Baptist Church.10,48544,141545,849589,993____________________________ Total Independent Sunday Schools 24,399155,5001,574,3121,729,812 Semi-Independent Negro Sunday Schools.Presbyterian Church..45 210 12,55012,760 Congregational Church1551,550 27,03228,582 Episcopal Church1501,000 12,55713,617 Zion U. Apostolic Church..2695 1,150 1,245 Evangelical Mission Church 840425465 Cumberland Presbyterian Church.175 750 8,750 9,500 Christian Church50 175 3,200 3,375 Disciples of Christ Church2501,077 8,500 9,577 Lutheran Church. 945175230 Reformed Episcopal Church..30 140 1,550 1,690 ________ ____________ Total.8985,142 75,88981,031 Catholic Church.31 125 10,50010,625 Recapitulation.Independent Negro Church.. 24,399155,5001,574,3121,729,812 Semi-Independent Negro Church.8985,142 75,88981,031 Roman Catholic Church31 125 10,50010,625_______________________________ Grand Total 25,328160,7671,660,7011,821,468 003029The work of educating the head, heart and hands of the negro race applies to those who live in other lands than our own beloved America.WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR.Who is my neighbor? The man that gives employment, the man that gives me bread when I am hungry or clothes when I am naked. He is my neighbor and brother.

The man that answers the fire bell when my house is in flames, the man that helps me keep the wolf from the door and saves my family from want, the man that is the closest in personal family relations; he is the man that I must depend upon in sickness and death or in trouble. Therefore it is the part of wisdom to love your neighbor.

The negro and white man have been neighbors since 1619, for 277 years last August, for the white man and the negro were neighbors in the South at Jamestown before the white man and Indian at Plymouth Rock.

They have lived so long side by side that it would take some time for either of them to pack up and move. They have collected so many old traps and so many memoirs. What is needed in the South to-day is the practical demonstration of the doctrine of reciprocity between man and man, family and family, race and race, state and state.

The duty of the hour is to increase the cordiality between whites and blacks. Let the better class of both races come together and recognize the solidarity of man with white or black.

The French taught the solidarity of families, Kosuth of Hungary, the solidarity of nations, but Jesus Christ taught the solidarity of man and man.

Let the better class announce to the world one standard of man-hood and womanhood, to be intelligence, goodness, industry and usefulness, and whoever bears these images stamp him a man and let him pass for whatever he is worth to the country in which he lives and to his fellow men.

The distinguished representatives of the governments of civilization were present at the coronation of Nicholas II as Czar of all the Russias. In the church of the Living God he was crowned and became the earthly ruler of millions of his fellow men. The citizens of all conditions of life were present, and the inhabitants joined in the 003130celebration and hailed with delight the new made king.The coronation of the Twentieth Century will be more impressive than the coronation of the Russian ruler, and the influence of the reign of the coming century will be more extended and universal. Its domain will be co-extensive with the time, co-exordinate with duration and as permanent as eternity.

The races and nations are preparing their contributions and gifts for the coming century. The great Republic is collecting the achievements of her sons and daughters, and will present the skill and handicraft of her children to the future.

The traditions of mankind have been transmitted by maternal affection from generation to generation; at the fireside, around the hearth, mothers have taught their children to lisp the name of their illustrious ancestors, to repeat and commit the poems that tell the story of the heroes who fought for home and native land, so that the past and the present of family, race or nation is joined to the present, and thus bound, the events become one chain of transactions and the generations are forever inspired and are bound to the altar of their country and race. The courage of the heroes are transmitted from father to son, and from generation to generation. In recounting the suffering of the soldiers of the revolution, of 1812 and the war between the states, the price of liberty is computed and final, for the fire of patriotism is collected and copies for the coming generation are thrown on the blackboard in the school of human duty.

THESE ARE MY JEWELS.If the German mother was asked to name a great man she would name some German warrior, statesman, poet or musician,-Luther, Bismarck, Handel, Bethoven and Des Cartes, or King William. The Spanish mother would call the roll, beginning with Ferdinand and Isabella and ending with Sagasta. The Italian would tell the story of Angola, Garibaldi and others. The French, of Lafayette, Gambetta, Thiers, Dumas and a long line of distinguished men and women. The American, with delight, would tell of George Washington, the Father of his country; Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence; James Madison, the father of the constitution; Andrew Jackson, the hero of New Orleans; Gen. Robert E. Lee, the leader of the Confederate forces; Stonewall Jackson, the man of prayer; Abraham Lincoln, the emancipator of the race, and 003231Gens. Sherman and Sheridan. But what has the negro mother to say to her children? Whom can she point out as a type of manhood?

BACKBONE.One of the most important parts of an animal is his backbone. What a keel is to a vessel the backbone is to the man. Without a keel it is a difficult matter to fasten the ribs of a vessel and to build a hull in such a manner as to resist the storm upon the ocean. The same is true of a man; a man without a backbone, a man with weak ankles are two of the most helpless creatures in the world.

If you remember when Peter and John in their days started to the temple in the morning to attend prayer meeting, there was a man lying by the wayside who had weak ankles. He had been afflicted for many years, so much so that his friends had to carry him to the gate of the temple in order that he might receive alms to supply his wants and necessities. It was his custom to beg the people for money, for alms, in order to supply his wants and necessities. Every person that passed by he asked alms of them. But Peter and John, the disciples of the new dispensation, came along and looked at the man. They took pity on him and they said to him, "Look on us." They called his attention from the passing throng. He looked on them and expected to receive alms from them, but after Peter had drawn his attention Peter said to him, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."

The man had never stood up, he didn't know how to stand up, and then that wasn't what he wanted of Peter. He wanted Peter to give him alms and let him alone to pursue the same course the balance of his life and supply his needs by begging his fellow men. He wanted alms, but that wasn't what he needed. He needed strength in his ankle bones that he might rise up and walk like other men, and walking like other men he could work like other men, and if he worked like other men he would be rewarded like other men, and his reward for his toil would be sufficient to supply the wants and needs of his body.Peter, after directing him what to do, took him by the hand and showed him how to get up, and immediately he arose, stood on his feet for the first time, and as Peter bade him walk he held fast to Peter and was afraid to let him go for fear he would fall, but Peter 003332held to him, bid him walk and he started and followed the example of Peter. He walked and stood up among the people, and after he found he could walk he rejoiced with Peter and was happy. Peter, John and the man went to the temple rejoicing together. Peter rejoiced that he had assisted the man to get up and the man rejoiced because Peter taught him how to get up. So they all three rejoiced together, and the multitude knowing the man, having passed him for years, were astonished to see him standing and hear him talking, to see him walking and to see him leaping for joy, for he was not ashamed to shout because of the restoration of his strength.

Such is the condition and such was the condition of our race a few years ago. We were weak in the ankles; we were intelligently weak; we were morally weak; we were socially weak; we are financially weak now, and it will not do to give us what we want always, but give us what we need. We need not alone the right to govern the people as much as we need the chance to earn a living for our family, for our wife, for our children; we want our privilege, but what we most need is education for the head, religion for the heart and money for our pockets, and with these three things our ankles will become strong, and we will stand up in the dignity of an American citizen and rejoice with the Frenchman, with the German, with the Irishman and with all other people. We can rejoice in our strength and will be able to stand in the strength and power of our manhood or we will fall by our own weakness.

I remember when I was a boy that my mother on Saturday evening would get a little basket and send me down to Mr. Rodgers' store to buy backbones I would come back with my basket full. It is true sometimes I had calf brains, sometimes I had beef brains; and she use to feed us children on backbones and brains and we grew and became fat on backbones and brains.

At other times I would go to the slaughter house where they were killing sheep and there I would get sheep brains, sheep brains that gives us power to butt. We received the backbones of hogs and spare ribs, and when I was a boy backbones, spare ribs, liver and brains were generally given to the poor while the rich took the other portions of the animal, but the poor boy would buy the backbones and boil them and make soup. They could not eat the bones; they got the essence and eat that as meat. It was good food and no one whoever 003433had a meal of backbones and corn bread and buttermilk will ever forget the pleasure that they possessed.

Now, let me talk to my colored friends. I am not going to talk all to the white people. I am going to give each one his meat in due season and I want to set the table and furnish the backbones and brains for my people.

Now, my friends, what we need most, to-day, is brains and backbones. If I had my way I would give every preacher and every teacher of my race a basket and I would have them visit every house and I would have them see the people, examine the boys and girls, and I would furnish them with samples of backbone and samples of brain. We men of character, men of intelligence, men of standing, men with strong ankles, strong in what they know, strong in faith. Our people are getting weak in the ankles, losing confidence in the God of the Bible; losing confidence in our country and our country's institutions, and they go limping along half believing and half doubting, making a perfect failure of life. We want to impress upon you that they need backbone, they need strong ankles.

Now, we have weak ankled Christians, we have weak ankled citizens. Some citizens are always weak when it comes to performing their duty to themselves, to their wives, to their children, to society, to their country and to their God. Let the cry go out, "More brains and backbones in the school house. More brains and backbones in the pulpit." We want more good citizens, more men with backbones, more Christians with backbones, more wives with backbones. We want brains, brains in your head, brains in your hands, brains in your feet, brains in your walk, men of brains, women and children with brains. We live in an age of brains; brains everywhere. A man or woman that has neither backbone nor brains, stands a poor chance in this world.

There is just as much difference in the walk of a man who has backbone and brains as there is between an animal and a man. If you find a man who has very little brain, he shuffles along; if he has backbone he walks like a soldier, and every step he takes you can hear his heels touch on the pavement to the music of backbone and brains, brains and backbone, brains, and backbone.

Therefore, young men and fellow citizens, let us leave this place with the determination to increase the brain power: Not in quantity but 003534in quality. We want a cultivated brain, we want a sanctified brain, we want brain that is educated to love the Christian religion, Christian temperance, Christian morality and our Christian civilization.

Another thing we need, and that is pride of person. There is a sentiment abroad among a large number of our people that I am nothing, my mother was nothing, my father was nothing, I am nothing and the negro is nothing. The point we want to cultivate in our boys and girls is personal pride in their manhood and womanhood. Let them feel that they can be as much as any other individual. Let the people feel that the color is no bar to intelligence and usefulness, nor to goodness. Your color may prevent you from entering the church or railroad car, but your color is no bar to the temple of biography, of astronomy nor of botany. It is no bar to the broad field of human knowledge and human investigation. Nature makes no invidious distinctions between persons. Whoever speaks to her intelligently she will answer; if not one way she will another. Let everybody study nature and science. Each one of you may become an interpreter to the races and to the ages to come. Strive to fit yourselves for the responsible duties that await every citizen, for the duties and responsibilities of American citizenship differ from the duties and responsibilities of the citizenship of all other countries; and yet there is no country where the privileges are so universal and so general as the citizenship and responsibilities of America.

It is true sometimes we grumble and complain about the difficulties that we have to overcome as a race. It is true that we have a great many things to contend with, but when we read our duties, responsibilities and obstructions in the light of history, our burdens become lighter and our yoke becomes more easy; our burdens appear lighter, as we look at them in the light of the condition of men and women in like positions under different governments, different laws and customs.

In every country there are two classes of individuals, the majority and minority. Whether it is right or wrong men divide themselves into parties and policies, the men of the minority can only get what is given them by the majority. The fathers of this country undertook to solve that problem and form a government where there should be no majority, no minority, but they failed. While they did not draw a line on conditions they did draw a line on the color. 003635

In the world the line was drawn on conditions between the poor and wealthy, between intelligence and ignorance and between aristocracy and peasantry, so that the children of the peasantry were doomed to be peasants all their lives. The children of the aristocracy have the privileges of aristocracy during their lives, and the family of royalty destined to rule whether competent or incompetent. But in our country it was intended that we should form a government where the laws should be made by the consent of all the people, so we would have, as was said by a distinguished man, "a country for the people, by the people," but we have had in the past a government for some of the people and by some of the people. And that is the trouble to-day with one class of American citizens, they think they have the divine right to govern another class of citizens, and that right is divided on the color line.WHAT IS THE NEGRO PAYING FOR HIS EDUCATION.It has often been asked. "What are the colored men doing to-ward the education of their children." Some have said that they are doing nothing, and that the white man is paying for the education of the race. The last is only partially true. It is true the white man owns most of the land and possesses the largest share of the commercial wealth of the country, consequently he pays more taxes than do the colored men of the Southland; but it is also true, that if the negro had his equitable share of the land paid for and the wealth accumulated he would be called upon to pay a larger taxation to support the government than he does, but while the negro does not pay so much taxes as some think he ought to pay, yet he furnishes a larger portion of the money necessary to carry on our school system than he gets credit for.

It is an important item to pay the teachers and running expenses of the buildings, but it is a greater burden to furnish the children who attend the schools than it is to pay the teachers salaries, etc. According to the last report of W. T. Harris, Commissioner of Education, we find the following facts in relation to education.

The estimated number of persons from 5 to 18 years of age in the sixteen Southern States and the District of Columbia for the scholastic year 1895-96 was 8,562,970. Of this number 5,768,680 were white and 2,794,290 were colored. The total enrollment in the public schools in the South was 5,291,013, the enrollment in the white schools being 3,861,300, 003736or 66.93 per cent of the white children of school age, and the enrollment in the colored schools 1,429,713, or 51.16 per cent of the colored children of school age. While the colored children constitute 32.63 per cent of the school population of the South, they make but 27 per cent of the school enrollment. In the District of Columbia and in Kentucky the per cent of colored children enrolled is higher than for the white children. In Alabama and South Carolina the per cent of attendance is higher for the colored than for white children. For the entire South the average daily attendance was 66.28 per cent of the enrollment for the white children and 62.04 per cent of the enrollment for the colored children. These statistics for each of the sixteen Southern States and the District of Columbia are given.

The total expenditure for public schools in the South for 1895-96 was $30,729,819. In only one or two states are separate accounts kept of the expenditure of money for the colored schools, but at a low estimation the cost of public schools for the colored race for 1895-96 was not less than $6,500,000. Table II shows that from 1870 to 1896 the cost of public schools in the South was $483,777,467. Between $90,000,000 and $95,000,000 of this sum must have been expended for the education of the colored children. The same table shows the enrollment in the white and colored schools for each year, and also the total expenditure for each year from 1870-71 to 1895-96.TABLE 2.--Sixteen former Slave States and the District of Columbia. Year.Common School enrollment. Expenditures (both races)White. Colored.1870-71..$10 385 4641871-72..11 623 2381872-73..11 176 0481873-74..11 823 7751874-75..13 021 5141875-76..12 033 8651876-77 1 827 139571 506 11 231 0731877-78 2 034 946675 150 12 093 0911878-79 2 013 684685 942 12 174 1411879-80 2 215 674784 709 12 678 6851880-81 2 234 877802 374 13 656 8141881-82 2 249 263802 982 15 241 7401882-83 2 370 110817 240 16 363 4711883-84 2 546 4481 002 313 17 884 5581884-85 2 676 9111 030 463 19 253 8741885-86 2 773 1451 048 659$20 208 1131886-87 2 975 7731 118 556 20 821 9691887-88 3 110 6061 140 405 21 810 1581888-89 3 197 8301 213 092 23 171 8781889-90 3 402 4201 296 959 24 880 1071890-91 3 570 6241 329 549 26 690 3101891-92 3 607 5491 354 316 27 691 4881892-93 3 697 8991 367 515 28 535 7381893-94 3 835 5931 424 995 29 223 5461894-95 3 845 4141 441 282 29 372 9901895-96 3 861 3001 429 713 30 729 8191896-97 3 937 9921 460 084 31 144 801______________________________________Total....$514 922 268

We find 1,460,804 children enrolled 1896-97. Now these children must be supported, they must be fed and clothed, books furnished, etc. Now to give each child three meals per day, we have to furnish them 4,382,412 meals. Now suppose these meals were worth on an average 00383710 cents per meal, that gives us $438,241.20 per day, or $3,087,688.40 per week; per month, $12,340,763.60; for scholastic year, $123,407,636.00, or for a calendar year, $148,089,163.26.

Now having fed the children, perhaps you say we have fed them too high. We will make another calculation and take the same children and feed them for one dollar per month; that would cost $1,460,088.00 per month; for ten months, or a school year, it would cost $14,600,840.00 for the school year, or for the calendar year $17,521,008.00. But these children have to be housed, they must have places to stay; to allow five children to a family is very large, but if we do allow five children to each family it will require 292,016 houses to hold the children, and to allow a woman to care for them it will take 292,016 women to care for the children, and one man to a house will require another 292,016, or a total to care for the children and yet them ready to go to school will take 584,032 persons to get the children ready to answer the bell in the morning. Then another element of cost comes in. These houses must be paid for or rented. If we average the houses at $100.00 each that gives us $29,216,000, and if we allow for each house or cabin, or each home throughout the land $200.00, it will require $58,403,200.00 just to pay for the homes. There is not a man or woman here who does not know the average is too low according to the facts as seen throughout the Southland, especially if we count the houses in the cities where the average cost is from $500 to $1,000, but we find this is only a partial cost of the maintenance of the army that attend our public schools. The children must have shoes, allowing them one dollar a year each for shoes give us $1,460,084.00. For clothes, for old and young, $5 a year each, gives $7,300,420.00. For school expenses, $5 each, including all grades, gives us another $7,300,420.00. Counting the transportation, books and incidental expenses for each, at home and abroad, at $2.50 each, we have $3,650,210.00. Then the books and other expenses necessary will average at least a dollar per scholar, therefore, we have another $1,460,084.00, the total support expense of $216,171,158.00; and then there are people who will say that the negro is doing nothing towards the education of his children. Counting the home expenses and the supporting expenses we have $38,692,166.00 at the lowest calculation. So at a reasonable calculation we have $168,247,175.00. But if you are not satisfied with the calculation that I have given you, cut the thing half in two and you see that we have $84,123,587. 003938

Then not alone are the expenses expended in money, but the care, anxiety and trouble always attending those that care for the children that attend the schools. The parents of the negro children of the Southland deserve great praise for the sacrifices that they have made in order to cultivate their children for the usefulness in this life and fit them to enjoy the blessings of Heaven. They have denied themselves, not alone the comforts of life, but the necessities of life. They have toiled day by day, they have worked by night, they have washed and ironed until they stood almost speechless about their work in order that their children might pursue a course of training and cultivate themselves for American citizenship. With all these sacrifices how very often have their children been ungrateful and unthankful to their parents for their suffering, and in how many cases has the efforts of parents been thrown away. Children that have received the blessings of education have turned out to be a disgrace to themselves and a burden to society; but that does not relieve the parents of their responsibilities to the society and to the country. It is their duty, as well as a privilege, to see that the children receive the education and cultivation and it is the children's fault if they do not embrace it and use it well.

It is a fact, and no one will deny it, that the freedmen of the South in the past thirty-five years have laid more money on the altar of Christian education than any set of freedmen have during the history of the age, and no set of children have made more progress with a greater rapidity than have the children of the former bondmen of the South, and while it is a source of gratification to think of the sacrifices and suffering that the people have borne to remove the dark cloud of ignorance from them, it is also a source of gratification and thanksgiving to God to know that the former masters of the South have acted in such a manner that history furnishes no parallel to their generosity and their magnanimity since the free school system of the South has been established. More than five hundred and forty million dollars has been expended to train the young and rising generation to cultivate them for citizenship, and least one hundred million dollars has been expended for the education of the children of the ex-slaves by the ex-masters. History furnishes no parallel, and nowhere can you find such generous action except in our great Republic and under the influence of Christian civilization. All honor to the men who are carrying on the educational work of the South; all honor to the 004039men who have stood like a bulwark against the foes of the common school education for the masses. The common schools of our country are the citadels of American liberty. In them the future citizen is trained; in them the future men and women receive instruction; in them the lessons of patriotism are impressed upon the minds of the coming generation to such an extent that the future men and women of our country will be willing to lay their lives, if need be, upon the altar of patriotism and liberty.THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN.The Cincinnati Times-Star, in the month of March, 1899, had a cartoon representing the white man's burden, or Uncle Sam's burden. Uncle Sam was standing with his arms akimbo, looking at his children, or those he had the care of. Close by his side the white man, next to him the American negro, next to him was the American Indian, the fourth was the Cuban, the fifth was the Puerto Rican, the sixth was the Manilan, and the seventh was the Chinaman. All of these were represented by different heights.

The highest in the line was the white man, dressed in modern style, a real typical man. Next to the white man stood the negro, only a semi-typical negro. He had a negro's features, but he had on clothes that represented a servant. There was one thing in this picture that gave me hope and joy, that was the acknowledgment of the cartoonist that the negro was next to the white man in intelligence, in refinement and culture, all that belongs to our Christian civilization. That is true. While we are not the greatest in numbers yet the burden of the white man is the burden of the negro. It is a joint burden, whether it is in labor, agriculture, war, legislation, education. All of these are jointly borne by the negro and the white man. Therefore, I took hope as I saw the picture and read the inscription.There never was a time in the history of this country nor in the history of our race when there were more hopeful signs than at this time. The American people are recognizing as never before that the two great forces in the country are the negro and the white man, for in every relationship of life the two principal persons engaged are the negro and the white man. If the white man arrived in 1492, the negro arrived in the West Indies in 1503, and from that day until now they have continued to live as neighbors, in many places they have lived as friend with friend, or as master and slave, their relations 004140have been intimate in many cases; and now we are living side by side as citizens of the great republic. The wise men of both races recognize that we own a common heritage, citizens of the common country with all the rights and privileges, immunities equally distributed by lwa, if not by sentiment and practice. To illustrate what I mean: In every war of this country the battles have been fought and won by the united courage and valor of the negro and white man. Chrispus Attuck was the first to give up his life for American Independence, Peter Salem decided the battle of Bunker Hill, the battle of Lake Erie was fought by white and negro sailors, the battle of New Orleans was fought by the citizens free and the slaves under Gen. Jackson, and the war of the States. I only refer to the battlesof Fort Wagoner, where the gallant Col. Shaw and the 54th and 55th Massachusetts immortalized American arms. The battle of Oluste, Fla., was fought by both races, and Petersburg, Richmond, Nashville, Fort Fisher and Port Hudson stand as monuments to the valor and courage of the black soldiers. But the war between our country and Spain has revealed the true manhood of the negro race. The National Government and a number of the states have made provisions whereby the negro soldiers were given an opportunity to show their love of country and to demonstrate their patriotism.

Governor Bushnell, of Ohio, commissioned the 9th Battalion with Major Charles Young at its head. Gov. Lease, of Kansas, commissioned two battalions and gave a lieutenant colonel and major. The governor of North Carolina organized a regiment with Col. Young in command. In the South a number of southern governors refused to furnish colored troops, but the governor of Virginia stood true and firm and gave a regiment of immunes, but it was left for Illinois, the home of Lincoln, the state of the immortal Logan, the home of Palmer, of Yates and Oglesbee, and the heroes of the leading friends of humanity and liberty to cap the climax of all efforts at recognizing the citizenship and the manhood of the negro race by commissioning the 8th Illinois Regiment, and giving the regiment its own officers from colonel to the lowest officer in the regiment. All honor to Governor Tanner, the man who faced the prejudice of his day, of his generation, and raised to the magnificent height in performing his duty to his fellow citizens without regard to race or color. His name is written on the imperishable pages of history and will stand among the moral heroes of this wonderful century. Our men have fought well. The volunteers 004241have fought and the four regiments of Immunes were waiting to go to the front and show their love of country by guarding that which had been won and conquered by the precious blood of our citizen soldiers. My soul leaped within me when Gen. Shafter telegraphed to the President of the United States that the soldiers were fighting nobly and had gained the victory, and were singing "The Star Spangled Banner" and "There is going to be a hot time in the old town to-night." And that while the white soldiers were singing the "Star Spangled Banner" the negro soldiers were singing, "We are going to have a hot time in the old town to-night." So it ever will be. We will give a hot time to any man who lifts his hand against the honor and dignity of our country or strikes at our flag, whether the hand will be from without or within, be assured that our boys of the present generation will give him a hot time, and like Gen. Dix, "if anyone undertakes to haul down the American flag we will shoot him on the spot."

We have not only fought the battles of our country, but in all the legislation of the country there have only been two to participate in the legislation in the halls of congress, and they are the negro and the white man. In all of the wars the principal persons engaged in them is the negro and the white man. Since our emancipation, thirty-six years ago, we have furnished men and women in all walks of life. We have filled every office politically in the government from a ward constable to the vice-president's chair of the nation. We have founded associations and successfully maintained them. We have organized societies and developed them. We have built churches to supply the needs of the soul and school houses to train the mind. We have tilled the soil of the south and received the reward of industry and diligence, and to-day there never was so bright a future before the race, as is lingering above the horizon. We are cultivating race pride, self-help, self-culture and self-reliance. We are teaching our boys and girls if they would win in the race of life they must learn to paddle their own canoe. There is a wonderful contrast in the history of the negroes in this country at the close of the 19th century and the close of the 18th century. At the close of the 18th century our fathers looked out of their prison and could only see the clouds of sorrow and suffering, no star appeared above the horizon to gladden their hearts, or to bid them hope for universal liberty in the firmament of history. Only now and then could a single life or person of the race 004342be found that would give hope and comfort for the future. It is true there were a few whose names gave hope and joy to the struggling millions of the West Indies; the name of Touissant Louverture in the political firmament appeared, Phillis Wheatley who wrote the poem of congratulation to George Washington and received an autograph letter in reply. Benjamin Bannaker, the astronomer, received the commendation of Thomas Jefferson, the father of the Declaration of Independence. Richard Allen in the religious firmament appears and lays the foundation of the magnificent church, one that has made its influence felt throughout the American Continent and has set in motion forces which promise great results in the West Indies and Africa, but we to-day are standing on the heights of our elevation, looking at our sky in every direction, and see the firmament illuminated by stars of different magnitude, stars which guide our footsteps and their blended radiance forms a milky way for the hope of the future and joy of the present.

The educational work among the race is like the silent forces of nature, many are unseen and unfelt but they are performing their mission to the head, to the heart, to the home and society.THE SILENT FORCES.Have you ever thought of what is going on in the school rooms of the land? There are numerous natural and silent forces at work which in the end will bring the negro and his children to enjoy the blessings that God intended that they should enjoy. If every negro boy or girl who attends school will only see one thing, smell one thing, hear one thing, taste one thing, feel one thing, read one thing and think one thought every day, they will accumulate 49 per day, 343 every week, 1,372 every month, 13,720 thoughts for each child for ten months' school. Or, if the child thinks every day in the year, then it will be 17,885 thoughts to each child in school. We have in the common schools 1,460,804 pupils, which would give us the aggregate of 26,126,479,540 thoughts, all within one year.

We can readily see what the thoughts will bring them to in a few years. They will be like the corals in the depths of the ocean. The enemies of the race will wake up some morning and see a mighty Island of Intelligence in its Great Republic.

One of the most hopeful signs of the times is seen in the growth and progress of the moral and religious forces of the negro race. The 004443churches have grown during the past thirty-six years more than two-hundred fold.THE ANALYSIS OF A.M.E. CHURCH CONFERENCES,1899.NUMBER OF CONFERENCES IN UNITED STATES.1st District, 4 Annual Conferences, Bishop A. Grant2d"4 ""Bishop J.A. Handy.3d"3 ""Bishop Benjamin F. Lee. 4th "4 ""Bishop Benjamin W. Arnett. 5th "4 ""Bishop Benjamin T. Tanner. 6th "7 ""Bishop Henry M. Turner. 7th "6 ""Bishop J.C. Embry, (dec'd) 8th "6 ""Bishop W. B. Derrick.9th "4 ""Bishop M.B. Salters.10th "6 ""Bishop Josiah Armstrong, (dec'd) 11th "4 ""Bishop W.J. Gaines.__Total 52FOREIGN CONFERENCES.Africa.. 4West Indies, 3British America,.. 3Total No. of Conferences,...10Number of Conferences in United States,....52Number of Foreign Conferences,...10Total No. of Conferences,...62PRESIDING ELDER DISTRICTS.Annual Meetings. Quadrennial Meetings America,....232868South Africa,.9.36West Africa,..4.36West Indies,..4.16British America,...3.12___Total Conferences per quarter, 242 Quadrennial___Meetings... 968

Bishops,9Stewards,....24,727 General Officers,....9Stewardess,..27,624 Conference Roll,.4,825Class Leaders,....24,421 Presiding Elders,..222Trustees,....23,255 Presiding Elders, foreign....20 ____________Total,.100,027 Total,.. 5,085Trustee Boards,....4,850 Local Preachers,.3,409Sextons,.5,172 Exhorters,..5,250Probationers,...57,835Members,..556,289_______Grand Total,...632,869CHURCHES AND MEMBERS.No. of Churches,..5,172 Valuation,...$6,150,175 No. of Personages,1,750 Valuation,$624,423 Indebtedness,..$752,964 No. of Schools,.41 Valuation,$756,475 Teachers,.165 Students,....5,257 Graduates,660 Annual Income,.$115,560SUNDAY SCHOOLS.Sunday Schools,...3,447 Officers,...21,514 Teachers,...37,914 Pupils,....362,421 Volumes,...263,538ANALYSIS OF THE MINISTERIAL SUPPORT OF THEA. M. E. CHURCH, MAY 1st, 1897, TO MAY, 1st, 1898.9 Bishops at $2,000 per annum,.. 18,000 9 General Officers at $1,350 per annum,... 12,150 222 Presiding Elders at an average per year, $637.70.141,570 0046453856 Pastors and Missionaries at an average of $190.26 per yr.735,403 Pastors' and Presiding Elders' Traveling Expenses, 26,421_______ Total Ministerial Support,$931,544THE AVERAGE AMOUNT EXPENDED BY THE A.M.E. CHURCH, GENERAL EXPENSES. For the year, $1,570,329.04 By the Month,130,860.75 By the Day, 4,360.02 By the Hour181.75 By the Minute, 30.28 By the Second,.50

Bishop H. M. Turner organized the A. M. E. Church in South Africa, March 23, 1898. He formed two Annual Conferences, the Transvaal with a membership of.7,175 South Africa Conference with a membership of.3,625 The Bishop ordained Elders,...31 The Bishop ordained Deacons...29

The Rev. James Dwane was selected to superintend the work.

Rev. H. C. C Astwood was appointed to superintend the missions in Cuba. He organized the A. M. E. Church in Santiago, Cuba, August, 1898. The first Protestant Church organized on the Island.

It has been said by many that the negro will not pay for his education, or wants it as a free gift, but the following facts will show the amount contributed by our people, for they laid the following amounts on the altar of christian education for their children:WHAT DOES THE NEGRO PAY FOR HIGHER EDUCATION.We find enrolled 1,460,804 pupils in the common schools; allowing the books to cost an average of $2.00 each, we have $2,921,608; to cloth and feed their children it will cost at least $12 per year or 25 cents per week; giving us the sum of $17,529,648; or a total for the common schools of $20,450,256. This is what we put in the altar of education annually.

We have 160 schools for higher education with 32,835 pupils; the cost of boarding and books will be about $125 each, or $4,104,375; 004746the transportation to and from the institution will average not less than $10 each, or $328,350; then the clothes and incidental expenses at $10 each will give another $328,350, or a grand total for higher education of $4,761,075.RECAPITULATION.For Common School Education $18,949,930 For Higher Education4,761,075__________ Grand total$23,711,005

What race has ever shown such a good record in the short space of one generation?

The educational facilities have increased a thousand fold in the Southland, and to-day on the 36th anniversary of the issuing of the proclamation by the immortal Lincoln we present the following facts in relation to the educational work among the negroes of the South:

In the United States there are 2,702,410 persons between the ages of five and eighteen years, or 32.85 per cent, of the negro race. Of these 1,424,995 are enrolled in the common schools of the country, but this is only 52.72 per cent. of the youth of the race. There are 47.28 per cent. that are not found in the halls of learning. They are not preparing themselves to make good citizens on earth or in heaven, through it is very gratifying to know that the average daily attendance is 60.07 per cent. of the enrollment of pupils.

The total number of teachers that are training our own youth in our common schools from 1893 to 1894 is 26,570. We have 160 institutions other than our common schools, with 1,350 teachers, 18,994 pupils in the elementary studies, 13.175 pupils in the secondary studies, 1,161 in the college studies, and a grand total of 32,835. Of these 5,940 are studying to be teachers, 95 to be trained nurses, 1,067 to be learned professors, and 8,050 are in the industrial department.SOME MODEL MEN.Among the ripe fruits of freedom in the Southland, those who were found ready to assume the responsibility of American citizenship and to enjoy the right of liberty and the pursuit of happiness was Wesley John Gaines of Georgia.

He was born a slave in the Tombs family. In 1863 he was in the cotton patch, he was trained in the Methodist Episcopal Church 004847South and joined the A. M. E. Church in 1866. He advanced step by step until he was elected to fill the Episcopal chair in 1888. His work, since his elevation has shown the wisdom of his election. He has borne the standard of manhood christianity from the Gulf to the Puget Sound and stood at the Golden Gate and pointed men to the cross of Calvary.

He is one of the most distinguished men that Georgia has produced in the past century. If he, with few advantages in his day, has accomplished so much for humanity, what ought the boys of this institution to do with the State and the National government behind them, with a trained faculty to train them, and noble men for examples.

Another, Abraham Grant, who was born in Florida, a slave, emancipated by the war, converted and joined the A. M. E. Church in 1869, ordained Deacon and Elder by Bishop Ward in Florida and was elected and ordained Bishop by the same hand. He has proven himself to be a man of noble parts. He has planted the standard of the church in Oregon, Washington, Montana, England and Africa, always singing, "Where He leads me, I will follow."

Bishop B. T. Tanner, born free in Pennsylvania, converted in 1856, licensed to preach the same year that he was converted, trained in Avery College, twenty years editor of the Christian Recorder, four years editor of the A. M. E. Review, elected Bishop in 1888, had been holding up the banner in the Dominion of Canada Haiti, Bermuda Island and the great west.

Bishop Ward, the hero of the gold coast, was our first Missionary to California. His first trip he went around by Cape Horn. His second he crossed the Isthmus and slept out on the plains. He traveled in Nevada and as far eastward as Denver, Colorado, there he met the pioneer itinerant Jno. W. Wilkerson pressing his way to the Rocky Mountains, and African Methodism from the east joined hands with African Methodism from the west, united never to be separated, but to continue one and indissoluble now and forever.

Bishop H. M. Turner was the giant in the days of reconstruction. He, gathered together the broken fragments of our rights and privileges, and taught the new born freeman the first lesson of his responsibilities of American citizenship. He has borne aloft the banner of our civilization on the dark continent of Africa; and bid her sons and daughters to believe, hope, work and pray, for the day of their redemption is drawing nigh. 004948Time would fail me to tell you of the host of noble men and women of the state of Georgia, who have written their names on the tablets of fame, and who have won a place in the temple of immortality. Young men, read, study and think, then you will be able to fill the foot-steps of the illustrious sons and daughters of the state of Georgia. You cannot all be Judson Lyons or R. R. Wrights, but you can be as bold as a lion, and you can be always right, if you do your duty to your neighbor, to your country and to your God.

The heavens are full of constellations and systems of worlds of lights. The upper heavens are waiting for some bold astronomer to visit their borders and to explore the fields of truth that lie between us and the throne of God. Fields that never have been measured, mountains that have never been ascended, and valleys that have never been explored.

Can we have this day any volunteers from the class that is to go out and enter the field of mental labor? Who will step to the front? Who will pledge himself to start on an expedition to find a new world in the stellar heavens? Who will build his life, honor, and talent to assist in the elevation of the masses of our race? Who will join in the crusade against the rum power? Who will join the ranks of the reformers in the homes of the poor? Who will go to the slums in the city and pour light and joy into the hearts and life of the lowly? Who will join the army of the redeemers and go from highway to highway to find the lost sheep of the House of Israel?

Young men, you all cannot succeed as professional men. All of you cannot become great astronomers or botanists, but all of you can study the astronomy of the heavens as well as the astronomy of humanity. Let each member of the class resolve that he will become a Columbus, and go out in the unexplored fields and find some great island of truth; name it after some member of the race and return to his alma mater to receive the honors due for his labors.STAR OF HOPE.Prof. H. O. Tanner is one of the products of the race. He went to Paris, France, to pursue his studies as an Artist. He met with a warm reception, and was accorded his place in the class. The school was divided so that the twelve best pictures were to have the medal. Henry was one of the twelve, whose picture was among the meritorious. Then on another occasion, from the twelve four were to be 005049selected. He was one of the four. Then in the contest between the four, he received the first prize in the school.

He has in France a painting which was admitted to the Salon: "The First Lesson," representing an old man with his banjo, giving his little son his first lesson on the banjo. It is a fine piece of work.

Prof. Tanner is one of the best artist in this country. When I was in Philadelphia, 1894, I met him at his home; he is as modest as a girl and as gentle as a child. He will make his mark in this country. There was one picture of his on exhibition that Mr. Ogden and Mr. Jno. Wannamaker started with a $50.00 subscription to present it to Hampton Institution. It was worth $1,000.00.The following are some of his finest paintings:-No. 1. "The Bagpipe Lesson," (Brittinay.)No. 2. "Young Orange Trees," (Florida.)No. 3. "Study of Head,-Italian Woman."No. 4. "Spring Morning," (Chester Co., Pa.)No. 5. "Scrub Pine Land," (near Enterprise, Fla.)No. 6. "Rocks at Concarneau," (Brittinay.)No. 7. "Evening Near Port Aven," (Brittinay.)No. 8. "Return of Fishing Boats," (Concarneau.)No. 9. "Bois d'Amour," (near Port Aven.)No. 10. "A Sudden Squall."No. 11. "Evening," (near Port Aven.)No. 12. "Orange Grove," (Altamonte Springs, Fla.)No. 13. "Lake Monroe," (Florida.)No. 14. "Evening on St Johns," (near Enterprise, Fla.)No. 15. "October," (near The Dairy.)No. 16. "The Foster Mother," (Brittinay.)No. 17. "The Thankful Poor."

Hon. H. P. Cheatham, the Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, holds one of the most important offices in the district. His office records all of the legal transactions of the nation's capital. Every piece of land, every legal paper or document, that is of any value is in the custody of this department, and every paper brought to this office and recorded is compared and authenticated by one of Ohio's sons. This is one of the most important offices in the gift of the President, but filled with one of our race.

The Hon. John P. Green is superintendent of the Stamp Division of the Post Office Department. All of the stamps used by the 005150American people are under the supervision of one of our own sons. Think of it, I can look back to the time it was a penitentiary offense for a negro to touch a mail bag or to carry the mail, but now we have charge of that part of the department that brings the revenue in to run the postal system of the greatest nation on the earth. This office was never held before by one of our race and it is the gift of the present administration.

George B. Hamlet, of Urbana, Ohio, is the chief of the Detective Bureau of the Post Office Department of the United States. For a number of years he lived in Maryland, but now is head of one of the important departments. This office was never held by one of the race until this administration.

President McKinley appointed B. K. Bruce, Register of the Treasury. He held the office for a few months and in March last passed away, but was succeeded by Judson W. Lyons, of Georgia, a lawyer of reputation and a good business man. The position he occupies in Treasury Department is one of the most important. His department has charge of the bonds and the currency. All monies of every description are registered in his department. He vitalizes the currency of the country by his signature. There is something peculiar about this department, the person that destroys the money after it has traveled through its commercial life is a colored man, so that the vitalizing forces and the death power are both in the hands of the race.

This department has fifty-four regular employees, and when the new bonds were issued during the present year there were eighty-three temporary clerks, one messenger and two assistant messengers, all under the control of this department.

All of the interest paid by the United States on its bonds and otherwise is computed in this office. The interest of the Vanderbuilts alone is $3.66 every minute, all others who hold the bonds of the nation depend upon the calculating power of this department, presided over by a member of the race.

I have not said very much in my address so far about the education in the States of Georgia. Not because I am not interested in the educational work in the Empire States of the South, but I have tried to present other phases of general education, so that the young men who are to leave this school to-day might find something to encourage them in their work towards uplifting our oppressed race. 005251

The forces that are at work here are of two fold, the internal and external forces. The external forces are those who are in the hands of the friends of the race as individuals, denomination and State aid; the internal forces are those who are maned and controlled by the leaders of the race, in schools, where our teachers occupy the place of authority, where our own boys and girls give inspiration to the pupil as no other person can do.

I believe that in many places, the best thing for our schools is to have a teacher belonging to the race, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, one that is in sympathy and in accord with the children and knows something of their suffering, of their persecution and their disadvantages, and will use all their powers to straighten the path and smooth the highway, so that the young mind can find the least resistance towards its final goal.

It is a pleasure for me to know the progress made in the State of Georgia and to give you a number of historical facts that in perusing the address, that I present you to-day, you may find something to feed upon in the future, to help you to be strong men and strong women, and that will encourage your fathers and mothers to pursue the course they have pursued in the past, in making their sacrifices in order to educate their children.

In speaking of the education of the negroes in the State of Georgia, President R. R. Wright gives the following excellent account of the origin of the common schools since the war and of the schools that were taught by individuals before the war. He has given a valuable contribution to the nation, not only of his race, but to all friends of Christian education.FIRST COLORED SCHOOL IN GEORGIA.The starting point for colored schools in Georgia was Savannah. They had a romantic beginning. During the latter part of December, 1864, in the splendid old mansion of Mr. Green, a British subject, the magnificent residence now owned by Maj. P. W. Meldrim, the efficient Chairman of the Commission for the Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youths (the first state institution established for colored youths in Georgia), was held the first conference of white and colored men ever convened in Georgia to consult and devise as to the ways and means of educating the negro. It was a distinguished and notable gathering and should ever be held memorable. Secretary of 005352War Stanton was the leading figure of that gathering. Gen. Wm. T. Sherman and several of his generals and aides were present; the colored committee consisted of eight or ten leading colored ministers of Savannah. I repeat, it was a notable gathering. For the first time in the history of The commonwealth, colored men, as freemen, met with white men to plan unmolested for the intellectual development of their race. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, was astonished at the wisdom and tact of those untutored black sages. Rev. Garrison Frasier made the presentation. He was a splendid specimen of humanity. His speech was a marvelous piece of untrained eloquence. At this distance of nearly thirty years, the few survivors who heard it declare that it has not been surpassed for tact, wisdom, good sense and eloquence. It carried the day. Secretary Stanton observed that the men's replies to his questions were so shrewd, so wise, so comprehensive, that he believed that they understood and could state the principles discussed as well as any member of the Cabinet.

That was a great day (or night, for it was at night) in Georgia. Almost exactly a hundred years before in this same city were enacted laws which made it a penal offense to teach the negro to read or write. Now these laws were to be annulled and the doors of the school houses and places of learning were to be thrown open forever. No marvel that the negroes could be eloquent at such a time and on such a theme. Fortunately for history they were the right men. They were the picked men of the race in Georgia. Garrison Frasier, Alexander Harris, Charles Bradwell, John Cox and William J. Campbell were venerable men of great native ability and would have attracted attention in any assembly. All except one of the leading white men of that conferance have long since been gathered to their fathers, and only three of the colored men survive at this writing: the Rev. Alexander Harris, the venerable leader of the movement, Rev. Charles Bradwell and Rev. Arthur Vardell.

Those venerable fathers accomplished their purpose. It was decided to have the schools opened at once for all colored people who should apply. The time was set for examination of such as felt competent to teach. A number of colored men and women applied. (The colored citizens of Savannah were greatly encouraged and assisted in their effort to establish these first schools by Rev. James Lynch, of the A.M.E. Church, an educated colored man who afterward became Secretary of State for Mississippi.) This was during the latter days of 005453December, 1864. Early in January, 1865, (the following week) came to their aid Rev. J.W. Alvord, Secretary of the American Tract Society, Boston. Mr. Alvord had done business in Savannah a number of years before, and was somewhat familiar with the surroundings. He and Rev. James Lynch examined the teachers. It was the first time in the history of the state that a colored man and a white man had examined teachers with reference to their ability to teach. Ten colored persons were found competent. It was very difficult to find buildings in which to locate the schools. Strange to say, one of the most available places obtained was the "old Bryan Slave Mart," which had recently served as the pen from which, perhaps, the relatives of many of these same people had been sold. Only the bars which marked the slave stalls were knocked down so that there might be more space for the improvised seating. To this and other places secured for school purposes there flocked the freed people of every age and color eager for that book learning, the deprivation of which, as they thought, made the negro so dependent, and the possession of which made the white man so independent and so powerful. The scene was picturesque. To some it was as pathetic as it was picturesque. There was the emancipated negro, an ignorant people, as it were, like a poor blind Samson, in quest of sight. Such was the beginning of colored schools in the new era of Georgia.CLANDESTINE SCHOOLS BEFORE THE WAR.Perhaps, it may be well to call attention to and explain the astonishing fact that there could be found a few, or rather, for that early period, so many colored men and women capable of beginning the school work even at the A B C point. This was due to many influences, open and secret. Among the favoring influences, first, was the fact that many humane masters taught their slaves, and others winked at the violation of the law which forbade the teaching of slaves and permitted their children to instruct a favorite slave to read and sometimes to write. Men, now high in authority in educational matters, taught their slaves to read and write, thus rendering themselves liable to be punished as violators of the law on the statute book. The Christian instruction of the slaves was encouraged and directed by many Christian bodies.

The following is the account of the population of school age in Georgia for the years indicated in the following table. It shows a continued 005554advancement of the school attendance, first, as to number; second, as to percentage of enrollment and average attendance as increased to a pleasing degree.

The Hon. J. S. Hook, Commissioner of Education, of Georgia says that the following showing the advancement of the school attendance since the year 1870 is gratifying to every intelligent citizen of Georgia.Table showing the enrollment in our public schools, and increase in enrollment, the average attendance and increase in average attendance from the year 1871 to the year 1887, inclusive.ENROLLMENT.YearWhite.Colored.Total.Increase over Average at- Increase overproceed'g year tendance.preceed'g year 187142 9146 66449 578.... 1872*. 187362 92219 75583 67734 099.. 187493 16742 374135 541 51 86485 839. 1875105 99050 385156 375 20 83498 029 12 190 1876121 41857 987179 405 23 039108 64610 617 1877128 29662 330190 626 11 221119 16010 514 1878137 21772 655209 872 19 246130 60511 445 1879147 19279 435226 627 16 755130 565t* 1880150 13486 399236 5339 906145 19014 625 1881153 15691 041244 1797 646149 908 4 718 1882161 37795 055256 432 12 253164 18014 272 1883175 668111 743287 411 30 979188 37124 191 1884181 355110 150291 5054 094195 035 6 664 1885190 346119 248309 594 18 079209 18414 149 1886196 852122 872319 724 10 130226 40717 223 1887208 865133 429342 294 22 570226 290 +

The following is the account of the population of school age in Georgia for the years indicated in the following table. It shows a continued advancement, first, as to members; second, as to percentage of enrollment and average attendance as increased to a pleasing degree.