Our First Great Men and Women—New Lights to the Front—Our Own Humble Beginning in 1865—Cleanliness and Industry—Music and Song—Immense Progress in Education, and a Mighty Advance Along the Whole Line—The Rapid Increase of Wealth—The Crime of Lynching—The Church and Sunday-School—The Colored Man's Right to Vote, and to Rule the Nation.

Though I have only sketched the lives of two most eminent members of color, and two famous women of the same race, I must confess that I feel greatly tempted to go on with the subject, and speak of many others, some of whom have gone to their reward, and others remain alive unto the present day. At first sight the general reader might imagine that those first bright stars that shone in our intellectual firmament were brighter than the talented men and women whom we can see at this day and hour, walking up and down our streets, and shining like suns in their different professions, doing splendid service in elevating the colored race in America. We had Fred. Douglass, Bishop Payne, Mrs. Frances Ellen Harper, and some other bright, particular stars, who shone with apparently unusual brilliancy some fifty or sixty years ago, and they have been set down for the seven wonders of the world (Fred. Douglass, at least, was a genuine wonder for all time). But while we are inclined to look upon these worthies as towering geniuses, and most extraordinary lights in the heavens in but recently bye-gone days, we forget that the thick darkness that surrounded them went a long way in making their brilliance and splendor appear far brighter than they really were. This is quite true of all races, and is no detraction whatever from the real merits that were justly their own. I am safe in saying that 10,000 clever colored men and women, representing all the different arts and professions, could be picked out at this day, who would have passed for stars of the first magnitude, had they made their appearance upon the stage of time some fifty or sixty years ago. To shine to the same extent of brilliancy and glory nowadays would indeed be a very difficult matter, when the whole United States is flooded with a great tide of knowledge that was never known before.

In these happy days of ours knowledge covers the land, as the waters cover the seas. It is perfectly laughable for me now to look back and remember the taunting expressions that were flung upon our dear people, saying that we had no originality, and that we could never rise above being mere imitators of the white man! In those days our people were in slavery, and had no opportunities of showing what they were capable of doing. But now we are free, and we can all go to school, and education can polish us like other races, in the same way as we polish the block of marble, and cut out the precious jewels of all descriptions. If we leave a diamond in its rude, rough state, like the colored race in the dark days of slavery, that diamond will continue to be rude and rough still; but place the precious stone in the hand of the jeweler, and we shall soon behold a bright and shining precious stone, indeed. It was not only cruel, but it was cowardly to taunt a whole race of people with incapacity and lack of talent, when our enemies had our hands tied, and were unwilling to give us a chance. But by the grace of God, and the blood of the Americans, both white and black, we are now all free, and thousands upon thousands of our dear people have acquired splendid educations, in all the different professions and walks of life, and they have proved to the whole world, both men and women, that there is talent and genius among our sons and daughters who have forged to the front, who are self-made men and women, indeed—men and women who have risen from the ranks, just the same as officers and commanders start up from the ranks in the time of war.

My dear reader, we are often told that poverty is no disgrace, but that it is very inconvenient. Which is all true, indeed, too true; and what is still worse, it often cannot be helped. In days not so long since gone by, we used to be taunted with poverty, but if we had no possessions of our own in the days of slavery, we at least, like the apostle Paul, made others rich, and it was our oppressed people who built up the Sunny South—the richest section of the United States before the war. If we had had all the wealth that was thus stolen away from us and given to those who led on the great rebellion, we would never had been turned loose with nothing in our hands in 1865, and to begin life anew at the lowermost round of the ladder of prosperity. It is very true that even in the days of slavery there were colored men scattered over all the free States of the Union, many of whom had amassed vast sums of money, and who were invariably treated with great respect and honor by white people because they were rich. So long as they had plenty of money it was all right, and there was nothing either thought or said about the color of their skin. But if the whole race of colored people in the South were turned loose with nothing in 1865, they have at least made in the aggregate immense sums of money since then, and devoted it all to those noble purposes whereby the entire race has been raised up and elevated in the scale of nations. Above all other causes, religion and education have been thus spread all over the land, the money being supplied by a willing people, whose good natural inclination to give has never been surpassed, and very seldom equalled by any race under the sun. Immense sums of money have been put away in savings banks, and property in land is a noble feature of the wisdom of our people in the South.

Take the more than 8,000,000 colored people all over the Union, and behold what a vast number own their own houses, and have money to their credit stored up in banks against a rainy day. And then see the comfort, cleanliness and order to be observed everywhere in an untold number of dwellings. The colored race are unusually fond of cleanliness and order in their nice and cosy snug homes, when they can get them; and take the United Stages all over to-day, it is most astonishing to behold such a number of beautiful and comfortable homes as there are. I think, dear reader, that our own people taken as a whole, have been both industrious and thrifty since the close of the war, and, as the Bible tells us, they have succeeded in building up the walls of Jerusalem, because they have had a mind to work. Wherever there is a will there is a way. It is all very true that some among us are extravagant, lazy, shiftless, but that is quite true of the white race, too, only I think more so, and we never condemn a whole race for the faults of a few.

Let us then judge fairly, and award to the colored race what belongs to them by right. As in the days of slavery, so at the present day it is the colored man who still extracts the wealth from the soil of the South, partly for himself, and partly for the white man. He can stand the heat of the sun far better than the white tiller of the soil, and it seems that the rich white man would rather have him than the other. In the days of slavery we had to do the best we could. We had no Vanderbilt palaces to live in then. But now we have at least lots of comforts—nice furniture, carpets, pictures hanging from our walls, whole libraries on our book-shelves, and hundreds of other things too numerous to mention.

Music and song are more or less bound up with the history of every nation of which we have ever heard or read. Away back in the dark night of slavery in America, the slaves in the field used to sing their mournful, plaintive, yet musical ditties to lighten their heavy labors, and cheer up their hearts. These ditties were songs and prayers at one and the same time. In the day of his distress, the African never forgot the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, and we know quite well that many of our own people confidently expected that day of happy deliverance that came at last to all. Therefore they sang praises unto the Lord, God of Israel, and, like the Psalmist, they prayed and sang at the same time; and we have it plainly on record that they had powerful lungs and most wonderfully rich voices, showing in advance what great and famous singers they would become if their musical talents were only fully developed like others. I have already spoken of the "Jubilee Minstrels," who were mostly born in slavery, many of whom indeed "came up by the rough side of the mountain," and yet who possessed such a wealth of music and song within themselves that they surprised the whole country, and even crossed the North Atlantic, and rendered themselves illustrious for all coming time by performing and singing before Queen Victoria, the grandees and general population of the British Isles, and some of the royal families, and magnates and peoples of continental Europe. This was honor, indeed, with a vengeance! Old England and all the rest cared nothing for the color of the skin. They all at once set their seals upon the wonderful talents of the colored race in the musical line, and there was rejoicing among Freedom's friends over all the earth.

The time would fail to mention the names of all those eminent singers who have made themselves illustrious in these latter years in this country, and not in this country alone, but they have crossed the wide oceans in ships, and sung before the admiring audiences of many a foreign land. But among all these great singers of our race who have thus distinguished themselves, I will simply mention the name of Miss Flora Batson, who has justly been called the "Jenny Lind of America," and she can sing, indeed, before any audience in this nation—a veritable nightingale and queen of song. But leaving her and a whole host of other warblers on one side, there is a grandeur in singing of our church members and congregations on the Sabbath-day that has become the standing wonder of the country; and it is my own deliberate opinion, and the openly-confessed opinion of many of the white race, that for music and song, at least, we have no equals in the United States.

I think we may safely claim that not only can we play and sing, but we can play and sing well, there arising from the great congregation a grand volume of music and song that reminds me of the "voice of many waters," mentioned in the Revelations—a volume of song rising from powerful lungs, and helped on by the warm feelings and enthusiasm of the race. And as our oppressed forefathers whiled away the long hours in the field, and lightened their labors by singing, so our people nowadays bring home the latest new hymn or fine anthem of praise, and sing them at home to brighten up their domestic cares, and find a vent for that joyous nature and devotional enthusiasm for which the colored race are famed over all the earth.

The greatest blot at the present time upon the fair fame and name of the internal and domestic doings of the United States, as it appears to me, is lynching. And this lynching is not confined to any particular race, or any particular crime, but we find, to a greater or less degree, all over the land, from the Lakes to the Gulf, a mob spirit among the people to take the law into their own hands, whenever any flagrant breach of law occurs, and hang their victim on the nearest tree. The mob is unwilling to leave the matter in the hands of the regularly constituted authorities, and proceeds to murder the supposed criminal in its own way. I say supposed criminal, because the man they are hunting after is often not the right man at all; an innocent man is put to death, and the guilty man escapes. It has also been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt, because we have "all seen the records of the same in the public papers at the time, that white men have been in the habit of blackening their faces when about to commit some heinous offence, and thus try to produce the impression that the guilty party was a colored man, and not a white man at all! Cases have thus occurred where innocent colored men have been lynched, and the real criminals made their escape by simply discoloring their faces. There is hardly a week passes but we find the hurrying mobs themselves discovering their own mistakes, sometimes in time to prevent the execution, but at other times too late. It is very true that on many occasions the really guilty party is taken, confesses his crime, and is duly executed by the wild and unruly mob of lynchers.

The chief fault, as it appears to my mind, is a lack of firmness on the part of the States, and I might also add of the central government at Washington. It is a perfect scandal to a duly constituted government to say that they are not able to carry out the law, or let the law take its course. Who would believe for a moment that England or Russia would allow any and every wild mob to take their victims out of the hands of the police, and, in fact, administer the law for them? Such a test of home authority would never run on for twenty-four hours in any foreign civilized land. If the Governors and the authorities would show a proper amount of firmness, and the central government at Washington would tighten up the screws a little all these lynchings would come to an end, and such a thing would be heard of no more. With regard to the Southern States, at least, where lynchings have been more common, the taunting question has been asked by foreign nations, "Are the Southern States fit for civilization, and ought they to be depended on to govern themselves?" Well, I think they are fit for self-government, but the screws ought to be tightened up considerably, and I think the sooner the better. If I had any power to advise the Houses at Washington, I would advise them to take the scandal of lynching by the wild mobs into their own hands, and put a stop to it in their own way. And let Congress see that all races and crimes are treated alike, and let the duly constituted authorities of the States administer the laws for which they are appointed and paid. Lynching is not only a breach of the law, but it is murder itself, and a horrible system of crime and public disorder that have brought this most shameful nation into great disrepute. Let us hope and pray that something may be done very soon to bring this national scandal to an end; and let public murder by infuriated mobs come to an end, and be heard of no more.

In the books which Fred. Douglass wrote of his life and times he always mentions the miserable and doleful processions of slaves who were driven, during the darkness of the night, from the pens into which they had been gathered in Baltimore to the vessels which were to sail with them to Georgia and other scenes of toil and exhaustion in the far-distant South. Alas, alas! The Sunny South had no joys for them, and as they passed through the streets of Baltimore, during the night, they wailed and lamented their hard fate. This leads me on to reflect, my dear reader, upon the gloriously-altered state of affairs that freedom has brought around, and which we can see all around about us at the present day. One of the grandest sights that delights our eyes now is the great array of Sunday-Schools in every State and county of the United States. I have always called the Sunday-School "the children's church," and it is the children's church, indeed, and a glorious church at that, too. Far and wide, spread over all this broad land, running all along the way from the wild Atlantic to the mild Pacific, and from the Lakes to the Gulf, young, well-dressed boys and girls in thousands and tens of thousands may be seen wending their happy way to their own dearly beloved "Children's Church"—I mean their Sunday-School. The great and powerful wide-spread Methodist, Baptist and other grand churches, organized and carried on by the colored race to the utmost limits of the American Union, deserve the utmost praise for pains and labors they have been at to make such splendid provision for the rising generation of boys and girls, who thus go forth upon the Sabbath-day to worship the Lord in their own youthful, sweet and attractive way, well taught by devoted men and women, who rear their tender vines, and watch over them, and tend them well, as the careful and skilful gardener tends and ripens his precious plants in the hot-house.

What a glorious change for the better, my dear reader, has come over this Federal Union of ours in our own day! Well did the Jubilee Minstrels sing before the royal family of England, "No more Auction Blocks for Me!" For at the present day, instead of auction blocks and wronged and oppressed slaves being conveyed (in a fugitive way, under cover of the darkness of the night) from their pens to the ships, wailing and lamenting their sad fate, in the self-same city of Baltimore, at the present time thousands and tens of thousands of children, and men and women, wend their peaceful way to Sunday-school and church, walking the streets of the city in love and peace, on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the city of the Great King. And yet if anybody had told the slave-holder only fifty years ago that his darling "peculiar institution" was on its last legs, he would probably there and then have caused us to be lynched for our rashness of speech! As I have mentioned already in this book, preachers in the South in those days had even the audacity to preach sermons in the defence of slavery, and they were so bold as to select for their text: "This" (meaning slavery) "is the Lord's doings; and it is wonderful in our eyes." Very wonderful, indeed, I should say. And the war for the extinction of slavery was the Lord's doing, too, I suppose! And it also was wonderful in our eyes, indeed! If those miserable slave-traders were to rise from their graves to-day; were to hear colored minstrels singing in the courts of Europe, "No More Auction Blocks for Me!" and then were to see millions of colored children, youths and maidens wending their way to the happy Sunday-schools on the day of rest—even they also would be compelled to admire the great changes for the better, and to exclaim in a different sense, "Truly these are the Lord's doings, and they are wonderful in our eyes!"

It has always been a matter of personal interest and importance for men to take a hand in voting and the ruling of their native State. Universal history shows us plainly that this has always been the case, unless, indeed, the nation was a monarchy, and therefore subject to the unlimited will and pleasure of one man as despot in chief, and those who served under him, and did as they were commanded. But in those lands where freedom ruled in the days of old, and all countries to-day where constitutional government prevails, men have always voted in one form or another, and they still lend a hand at elections, and this without regard to race, color or any such thing. Neither has there ever been any friction or trouble in legislative assemblies, and there is none now in foreign nations, where men of different races, colors, and even creeds, take their seats side by side, and proceed to work together for the good of all the citizens. We all know how it was in the South in the early years of Reconstruction after the close of the war, when the State legislatures were composed of white and colored men, who ruled the States together. We thought at the time that this thing would go on and that all parties had settled down in peace and harmony, for every man to vote as he pleased, and to send such men, black or white, to represent them in their legislatures, as were returned by the largest number of voters at the elections, conducted according to the constitution of the nation. But the white man of the South had almost always been accustomed to his own selfish, despotic way and sway in the days of slavery. The South had not only the rule of colored men, but even over white men in the halls of Congress! Unless that section of the Union could have her own dictatorial way there was no peace whatever in the House!

The North therefore felt herself often obliged to give way, which encouraged the South to take a mile the next time when we gave her an ell.

I have shown the reader of these pages how the Ku-Klux-Klan arose; how the new shot-gun policy brought the Republican governments of Secessia to an end, and how the very amendments to the Constitution, including the bare privilege of casting one's own vote, were all brought to an end—nay, more than that—the reader knows by this time how an immense number of colored men, women and children tore up stakes, and left the States of the South where they were born, and sought new homes in Northern and Western States, where the shot-gun policy of the late rebels did not prevail!

But where are representatives in Congress to-day, and where are the colored Senators and others in the legislative halls of the Southern States? For the present they have been wiped out, and so far Uncle Sam has given way, and backed down once more to the violent South for the sake of keeping peace in the house. It may be argued that coming but recently out of slavery, as we did, we were unfitted for the full privilege of freemen and voters. Perhaps there is some reason in that view of the question. As a nation we certainly could not be expected to be college-bred in 1865. But that is over thirty years ago, and both we ourselves and our children have been to almost all the schools, seminaries and colleges in the land since then. If we were ignorant in 1865, sure we cannot as a race be called ignorant now. In my own opinion, I think it is about time that the last three amendments to the Constitution were now carried out to the fullest extent, and that we should be no longer contented merely to vote for the white man, but vote for colored men, too, who run for office.

As the South has been so violent over the matter of ruling her own States to the exclusion of the colored man, the grand hue and cry among some of our own people has been raised, "Let politics alone, and attend to your own business, and let the white man rule!" So far as I can see there is neither sense nor justice in such a cry as that. If the white man has a right to vote, so has the colored man. To stuff the ballot-boxes with manufactured votes, or to throw out those that colored men have voted, is simply breaking the law, and the central government should punish it as such. If an ambitious young colored man desires to represent his country in the field of politics, it stands neither in law nor reason for any white man to presume to stop him. If he be a man of great talent, like Frederick Douglass, or John M. Langston, or Blanche K. Bruce, that is just so much more the reason why he should go to Congress, or represent his own country and State at home. The colored man must receive every fair play at the elections: his vote must not be tampered with any more than the white man's vote. By all means let him have his vote, for he will never be satisfied with anything less. Let every infringement of the law be pushed to the utmost extent; let a few examples be made, and tampering with other men's votes will come to an end. For the very life of me I can see no reason why colored men should abstain from politics any more than white men. There is no reason why they should do so if they wish to enter into political life. We can also attend to other business at home, like the rest of the population. To discharge our duties at the polls, indeed, is one of the very first duties of every citizen, and we have a perfect right to vote under the law of the land.

Every now and then some surviving rebel in South Carolina, or some other of the late seceded States, takes upon himself to raise the old parrot-cry, "This is a white man's government! Colored men shall not rule with us!" If the national government did its full duty, it would arrest such a man as this for trying to teach the rising generation falsehoods, and for disturbing the minds of the lieges. This is not a white man's country, nor a black man's country, nor a red man's country—but it belongs to all alike. We have only to go back four hundred years, when this country belonged to the Indians, and if it belongs by right to anybody at all, it belongs to them. But Spaniards, Frenchmen, Englishmen and others came over the sea, they murdered or drove back the Indians, and stole away their lands. Then the self-same Europeans went to Africa, and killed and kidnapped the nations, and by physical force brought our ancestors here—and here we are at the present day. The war of revolution came; the colonists secured their own freedom, but they did not set their own slaves free. They complained that they were in subjection under the king of England, but they winked at the thraldom of our ancestors, and left us to languish in chains and slavery till the Lord sent the Civil War, and made us all free, while the three amendments to the Constitution put us on the self-same footing with white citizens, and here we are in our own country, part and parcel of the entire American population. This country, then, either belongs to the Lord from heaven, or it is the property of the North American Indian, or else it has become, in some way or other, the property of the whole of us. We had better not examine into our rights too closely, for we cannot go back more than four hundred years to establish our claims, and four hundred years will not go for much, especially with the owner—the Lord of Heaven.