American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-11-01

! Have you in your libraries an Ameri-
can edition of GlampbelPs poems, publish
ed since 1851 If, in purchasing it,
you inquired of the bookseller whether
1t was complete edition, you were prob
ably told that it was, that it contained all
his poems, including the fugitive and
minor pieces everything that Campbell
ever wrote. Yet in no recent American
edition Of the works Of that poet can you
find these lines Is3 si99taJuai'.
Z s Limited states your banner wears iW
Two 'eniblems-one of fame;
". Alasl the other that II bers Et .+ulAf4
Reminds us Of your shame ,
'Your standards constellation types
H4 White freedom by its stars A 4
But what's the meaning of the stripesi
2 They meat your negroes scars
Now it is quite as well for the Alneri-
can purchasers of CampbelPs poems to
know how we were sneered at by the
writer of some Of the best poems in our
language for our want Of fidelity to our
professed principles The insertion Of
these verses in our American publica-
tions could have done the citizens or coun-
try no harm, but it might have affected
the Southern sale Of the book. There
fore, although the South would not buy
one copy to our fifty, we Northern peo-
pie were cheated. The South was our
master and must be respected.
But again, are you an Episcopalian +!
If so, have you copy Of the prayer book,
embellishedwith that pious fraud, the
beautiful frontispiece Have you ever
seen AIRY Schefer's picture, entitled
Chrfstus Consolator | have stood be-
fore it by the hour, and been penetrated
and inspired by the great lesson of the
Christian artist He knew that Christ's
love embraced and that his spirit could
exalt the humblest member of the race
He came to redeem. The central figure
of the picture is the sublime fern Of the
Uonsoler, His eountenance radiant with
his divinity, and before him the humble
people who were consoled by His presence
and His nfluence-whose sorrow and
agonies, physical and mental, he lifted
from their poor souls and among them
was the negro.
But when an American artist prepared
that picture for an American publishers
cd ton of the prayer book, it was found
that, in reducing the size, all the figures
could not he included, and 50 they cut
out the poor 'darkcy~ daughter and
applause) dl
Now, am tqld anl laccept the state
meat as true, that this was not done in
tentiunally in the direction that imply;
but what ] mean to say is, that if there
ad been ms prejudice at the North
against the legro, and if the five mil
lions OF American citizens of African
desceut had Been in the enjoyment of
their rights, and in the habit OF reading
aud attending public schools, and fair
share Of them the Episcopal church, they
too would have been purchasers of pray
er books; and it is probable that the ar
tist might have found that he could take
out one Of the white figures, leaving the
sole colored man there to testify that the
Church recognizes Christ's power to i'm
part consolation and immortal hope even
to the hundreds of millions of the chill
dren of Africa.
My friends, we have been enslaved
with the blacks of the South We stand
degraded in the eyes of nations and OF
history. We can now redeem ourselves.
1t is given to our generation, as it has
been given to none since that which
founded our Government, to be remem-
bered in the long hereafter as generation
| that blessed the world forever 1t is
given to us to harmonic the practical
workings of our institutions with the
sublime truths that underlie them. 1t is
given to us to establish in popular seuti-
ment and the usages of the American
people the practice of perfect Justice
To do it, we have but to be II ue to our
own highest and best and most Christian
instlncts-to be true to the great princi-
piles which our fathers strove to inculcate;
and meanwhile, by mercy, by the use of
those wonderful agencies of this era
the Church, in popular hands; the Miss
sionary Society the Sunday School Union
with its afiluence of literature prepared
for undisoiplined or immature intellect
the Bible Society, the Tract Society, the
temperance lecturer, the ten thousand
moral agencies known only to the people
of the North-to be firm and persistent
in Qua allegiance to the right, and gener-
our in the application of these good in-
fuences, as We have been in pouring out
our treasure and our blood during the
war; and, with our generation. the dan-
gers that threaten us will have passed,
and our country will be in realitya refuge
for the oppressed of all lands--a bright
light by night and a towering column by
day, that shall lead the nations onward
till perfect freedom dwells upon the globe.
Vehement andiong continued applause,