I have stated in a former chapter that the Colored people, notwithstanding the many adverse circumstances surrounding them, did succeed in obtaining a living and avoided becoming a great public charge, which fact, I think, will be universally admitted. But we can go further and show that they not only accomplished this, but other things, equally as great during the period from 1865 to the present. Many white people believed, when these people were freed that they were incapable of taking education, and therefore could not safely attain to citizenship, all of which has long since been shown to be erroneous, and at this present time the men holding such views cannot be found.

The Colored people have fully demonstrated their ability to take education, not only in the common, but in the higher branches as well, and as rapidly and as thoroughly as the white student. They have also shown their ability to master any of the learned professions, so that the men who have heretofore prated so loudly about the incapacity of the colored man, have been driven successfully from each stand they have taken, until the last ditch is reached; they now admit the Colored man’s ability to cope with them in the professions, but say he is unreliable. But he will soon drive them from that position also.

We are now classed as a “Negro” race. Webster says the word “Negro” applies to black men of southern Africa, or their descendents. While there are a few pure black men among the Colored people of the United States, at the most, not over one-fifth, the other four-fifths are mixed, in a lesser or greater degree, with the white race, and this process of mixing has been going on for over two hundred years. Children take their nationality from their mothers and not their fathers; so that every child whose mother is a white or a Colored American, is an American to all intents and purposes, and cannot be otherwise. These mixed bloods married, and begat children, who were Americans. Though they were deprived of their liberty by American law, they could not be called Africans any more than the white Americans could be called Europeans, and this forces me to state that there is no such a thing as a Negro race in this country. We are Colored Americans and this, I think is the proper name for us.

One thing is pretty clearly seen, and that is, we are not a race with sufficient race pride and affinity, which are the special prerequisites of all races of men in the great struggle for race supremacy. We have not and cannot have race pride, because we know nothing of a mother country; nothing of a united people; nothing of the different nations in Africa, from which some of our ancestors were purchased or stolen. We are here by the will of God, and He will in His own time and in His own way shape our destiny. For the present, in my opinion, we are here to show the sin and wickedness of the American people, and we are here to stay. This is our country; our coming here being co-existent with that of our white brother, we know no other; we have contributed our full share to make it what it is; we have defended it in all its wars, before and since the Declaration of Independence, and we will defend it against all nations. We are Americans as truly as any others in this land; this is our home, and its flag is our flag.

I have been unable to find a case in history, ancient or modern, where a people had been held in subjugation and ignorance so long, and reduced to such a state of immorality, that they had not the slightest conception of, or respect for the marital relations, and especially the moral law. This was the condition of the Colored people at the close of the war. It is unnecessary for me to ask, who was responsible for this crying shame, or whether it was the fault of the Colored people. In my opinion it was and is the sin of the American people, who had gone to Africa and stolen little children from their virtuous homes and parents, brought them here, reared them as they reared their cattle, and regardless of the rights of humanity, the laws of morality and Christianity itself, reduced them to slavery, and robbed them of all conceptions of chastity and virtue. I have said this crime was committed by the American people, and I say this, because nearly every one of the original thirteen States, which formed the United States, July 4, 1776, held slaves or recognized property in them. But the most absurd of all absurdities, is to hear white people prating about the immoral conduct of Colored people when, as a matter of fact, they are responsible for whatever they see in us to condemn, for we are what they made us. I say Colored people, because we would have been pure black, were it not that immoral white men have, by force, injected their blood into our veins, to such an extent, that we now represent all colors, from pure black to pure white, and almost entirely as the result of the licentiousness of white men, and not of marriage or by the cohabitation of Colored men with white women.

The fact is this, that we had to take ourselves as we found ourselves, regardless of the many different shades of colors among us, and start then, for the first time in our history, to build our own characters and homes, with a very limited knowledge as to the way to proceed. Upon being emancipated we commenced the practice of morality and virtue by going to the church and the courts, and being legally married, and by raising our children up in the care of the church and the Sabbath schools. So that in a very short time after our freedom, nearly all those who had been living as man and wife, by order or consent of their masters, had been lawfully married. Then and not till then, did we commence to build our own homes and to perpetuate a name. Of course the name could be only that of our masters, as we had none and were compelled to adopt that of our last master or some other, as the names that were borne in Africa, by our stolen ancestors, were entirely lost, after nearly two centuries in slavery.

It should not be expected that a people with so many disadvantages and drawbacks could attain to the degree of morality and virtue of a people, who had the benefit and experience of a thousand years’ training, but I think we compare very favorably with that class of whites, who can command no more capital than we. Our people have not added to the increasing number of tramps, infesting nearly every State in the Union, committing crime wherever they go, and causing the women to be in mortal fear in the absence of their male protectors. The Colored people are, as a rule, content and faithful workers wherever employed, a fact which contractors who have given them work will confirm. They have never been known to organize a strike, or to be in any way connected with one, unless it be to accept work where white strikers had refused, and that at the solicitation of owners or contractors. So that it may be stated without the fear of successful contradiction, that the Colored laborers are the most reliable class of workers the country possesses to-day, less riotous, less turbulent and more tractable than any other class, and can and do perform as full a day’s service.

The Colored American is most loyal to his government as a citizen and as a soldier, a fact which will be generally admitted by even his worst enemies. He is not to be classed among the anarchists, or any other class of men who plot against the laws of the land. His loyalty and bravery as a soldier have been shown, not only in the late war, but since as an enlisted man in the regular army, a fact which the Seventh United States Cavalry will admit willingly, because it was the Colored troops that came in the nick of time to their aid at the Wounded Knee fight, and turned defeat into victory. And speaking of their loyalty, I feel safe in making the assertion, that they would be among the first to enlist to defend the old flag, in case of an invasion by a foreign enemy, even though he landed his forces in the extreme South.

Having no mother country with which to divide his sympathies, the old flag would receive the Colored soldier’s loyal support. Can this be truthfully said of any other distinct class of adopted citizens? I think not. Suppose this country was forced to declare war against Germany or Italy, could we expect the undivided support of the German Americans or the naturalized Italians? Not at all. We would be at the mercy of either of these great powers, because they could have their spies and emissaries in our rear at every movement. This would not be the case with the Colored Americans, who know only America, and whose allegiance need not be questioned. The Colored American will be found fighting in the ranks of the loyalists to sustain our present system of government intact when the great conflict shall come, which now seems threatening, and which came near being inaugurated at Chicago in the spring of 1894, between those who are loyal to our present economic system of government, and the extreme socialists, who are mostly of foreign birth, and therefore less in sympathy with our institutions and established mode of government.

The Colored American will always be found voting and fighting on the side of the white American aristocratic classes, the classes that have made our common country what it is to-day—the best government on the face of the globe, and who are striving to keep it in the lead of all other civilized governments.

There are several questions of great magnitude agitating the minds of the American people to-day, questions which have been before them for the last few years; and which will have to be met and settled, in my opinion, at no very distant day, and in that final settlement, whether in a war of ballots or bullets, the Colored Americans will wield an important power, and will have an opportunity to make themselves masters of the situation.

When the social question, or the struggle between labor and capital, between law and order, between American and encroaching foreign ideas, shall present themselves for settlement, the Colored Americans, being most loyal to everything that is American, and especially to those things which conduce to law and order and good government, can and will always be found battling against the anarchist and the revolutionist of any character. On account of their unwavering loyalty to America and its established institutions, the Colored Americans will in such struggles, in all probability, hold the key to the situation, or the casting influence, and if rightly and wisely used, they will hold the balance of power in this country.

I have tried to show that the typical poor whites and their allies, the foreigners, seeking to control the labor work of the country, are no friends of the Colored people, and have never been, and that the Colored people cannot support any measure they may advocate. So then it will be seen that it is the duty of the Colored people to support the principles of the better classes of white people, North and South, for the aristocratic classes are our real friends, and are also the friends of good government for Americans.

I cannot see how a Christian nation can so far forget its duties as to allow a loyal, industrious class of its citizens to suffer injustice and wrongs at its hands, a class of people who only ask a fair chance in common with its other citizens. One great injustice the Colored people are forced to suffer, without the means of redress, is at the hands of the press, especially the periodicals, which allow any writer who may wish to attack the Colored people, space to vent his spleen, and when he has given his story about them, whether true or false, the publishers will not allow the Colored writer space to reply. Strange as it may seem, these publishers will promptly refuse to publish articles reflecting upon the moral habits and character of any other distinct class of people in this country. Then why treat the Colored people differently? Fair play and a fair show are all they ask, and this they will ever ask, and as Americans this they have a right to ask.

Great injustice has been inflicted upon the Colored people of this country by men engaged in business enterprises, such as manufacturers, mill and mine owners, in their refusal to give them employment. These great captains of industry have persistently discriminated against the sober, industrious, faithful Colored American citizen, and given preference to foreigners, who, neither understanding nor feeling the slightest interest in our institutions, have, at times, by strikes and boycotts, caused great loss to the employer and the employed, and unnecessary inconvenience to the general public.

I make no complaint against that class of men, who, leaving the old world and coming to the new, and assuming the responsibilities of American citizenship in good faith, adopt the broad American doctrine of equal rights to all. I refer to that irresponsible class, who, leaving their country for their country’s good, have contributed little or nothing to the peace, order and prosperity of the United States; they are the inciters of strikes, riots and general disorder in nearly all of our great centres of population.

The situation in this respect is becoming more and more a matter of anxiety and alarm on the part of patriotic Americans, and the question now confronting us is, “What shall we do about it?” Many things can be done, some of which must be done speedily. Restrict immigration to the industrious, sober, law-abiding classes, enforce the law rigorously against rioters, anarchists, and the like, make education compulsory, and teach English in all the public schools, and admit to the factories, the mills, the mines, and other works, the worthy American worker, both white and Colored, upon terms of perfect equality.

It is a burning shame, a disgrace to the country, that our own citizens should be denied the opportunity of earning a livelihood at the suggestion of a herd of ignorant and lawless foreigners.

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