When a young man, just arrived at majority, leaps beyond parental control, into the wide world of personal responsibility, it is true that his immunities are greater, but his cares have increased also. So the Negro, being clad in the habiliments of freedom, steps out of the tomb of thralldom into liberty and citizenship. But his responsibilities are in proportion to his new liberties. He has graver cares and more arduous duties than when he rose and retired at the sounding of the overseer's horn. He must look at these duties to himself, his family, his neighbor, his state and his God, calmly and in the new light which must accompany freedom in order that it may be permanent. Freedom is a contradictory term. It is a deceptive word. There is no absolute freedom in civilized society. Among civilized people freedom means restraint—restriction. The farther man is removed from barbarism, the less freedom he has, and the greater the curb and restraint upon his conduct. Obedience to law and a regard for the general interests of society are fetters stronger than the chains which bound Prometheus to the mountain rocks. When a citizen throws off this restraint, he ceases to be a healthful factor in the state. As long as the great Mississippi River is held in restraint by its banks, it floats upon its bosom the commerce of our nation, carrying joy and comfort into millions of homes. But if the great Father of Waters leaps beyond the lawful bounds he becomes harmful and destructive; or if we remove the curbs and permit the water to flow as it will, we could no longer derive the least benefit from this grandest stream in North America.

I have spoken as I think the interests of labor demand, without appealing to the prejudices or caprices of the laborer. I have endeavored to be candid, as I am sincere. I know that men, generally, do not like statements which differ from their views, though such statements be the embodiment of truth and virtue. I know, also, that the common ear leans to the titillations of flattery, however illogical and damaging.

The Negro is here to stay. He is a citizen according to forms of law. He must be, and can be, according to the light of the nineteenth century civilization. Let the past be as oblivious as the contents of an ante-deluvian reliquary. Turn the eye and the effort to the living present, and the rising sun of the future, which shall make his course across the skies of the nations, to the adjustment of all difficulties and the guidance of mankind up the broad plains of highest christian development, and the Negro shall be thrifty, intelligent, honest and faithful in all things.