The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-03-09
PROF. WILLIAM HOWARD DAY,
Delivered Last Evening, at Concert
Hall, Before the Social, Civil,
and Statistical Association
Of the CoIored People
or Pennsylvania" ..gr
l. I1 Q II u II H


Thee,n with excellent taste and effect.
The President of the Association announced
that on Thursday, the 9th inst, the Hon. VIII.
liam D. Kelley would lecture on the subject Of
the "Dutes and Dangers of the Times" Profess
sor Day was then introduced and spoke substan.
TALLY as lollows:-
Mr.. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:-The
song which was sung by the sweet singer for us
lew moments ago was q fair expression OF the
teel g of every Freuchman towards his native
land, and Just as the Frenchman bursts forth
with song towards his native aBd-towards the
land of his birth, OF his educauon-just so
would we, this beng our native land, declare
our love tor our country, our home our native
soil; and We can say for the land which bore us,
though in which we have been oppressed, SO
oppressed by the law OF the land =
"ls there q man with SOU so dead,
VINO never TO himself hath said,
This IS my own, my native land !"
That feeling is not only In us, but is universal
and Just, because we are part Of the COM
mon family-we feel to wards our native land,
the same sentiments Of love in which we
would revere her, in lite as in the wars of the
country we served her in death to save. Gap
plause.) Mr.. Chairman, q friend whom met in
the Old World said in one OF his speechec:-Tne
OLD age OF chivalry Is gone. Let it go, said he,
fol nobler and better chivary is begun, and
Bacon and Newton began 1t for science, and
HeTschell, and Davie, and Watt, and others have
succeeded them with the new lists of the knight
hood Of civilization. Said he, We may be all
warring, against; wrong and for free opinion,
hating the moral sycophaHt of persuasion, dis
playing the courtesy OF true tOlerants.
Gentlemen Of the Association:-The war of
skill, add, is over; the war OF ideas will never
cease until man shall be regarded for his merit,
and not Tor any accident OF cline, color, or con.
dition. Peace at such time as this would be
1he prelude to war, and silence at such o time
as this would be to us the relaxing, persuasive
sirocCo-death OF the Arabian desert. To the
nation it would be the siren song, when Cappria
should sing so sweetly to the passers-by, and
cause them in ecstasy to forget their country.
know, sir, some OF the difficulties lying in
our way in considering the question" Equality
before the law" l know that it is exceedingly
dlfhcult for men to say 81 have sinned )" but lar
more SO for the nation to admit it. But in ap-
preaching such subject | have to ask you to
lay aside prejudices to put behind you precon-
celved adverse opinions, and place yourself
alongside OF those tonight who are thrown out
by the inequality in the law, and then as a iury
10 give us your decision.
Law, sir, is defined by Noah Webster, in his
grand commentary, to be a rule of order, the
conduct established by authority, condHct OF
the ruler or governor, fixed regulation, an ex-
pl essed command, a decree, an order.
Secondly. That the appointed rules of commu-
nifty or state have the control OF it, is in obedi-
ence to order. Unwritten law is the common
law OF England. This reference to the unwrtten
law, as you know, is comprised in the Magma
Charta, wrested from the un willing king in 1915
and by the grant to the people of the habeas
corpus and trial by Jury OF ones peers.
And the people in the early days demanded
that taxation should be passed upon by the peo-
pie or their proper representatives. The whole
oil this effort thus far has been made to secure
one point only namely, the recognition of the
South and political rights to each individual
man, and not merely the Justification of the
assumption of power by classes. Glasses existed,
and exist there to-day, and classes in some form,
practically, will exist when this earth shall
have seen another ard another six thousand
years, until they have crumbled into decay.
''The poor" said the poor mans Friend, "ye
have always with yOu," and Will, until all classes
are alike before the law of the land.
know that make a statement which some
Will be ready TO controvert; but | think, in
studying the workings of English law, you Will
be compelled to admit, that between man
and man more Justice is generally done. | don't
mean this as proof that the law is perfectly
right. l don't mean that large masses of people
are not unsuited to the exercise of their elec-
tive franchise. l don't believe the relation of
landlord and tenant, for instance, to be steady
one, but know OF no individuals OF a whole
class excluded from the rights and privileges to
which that class is admitted. The high Unequal.
ity in this the elective iranchise-tor II any man
pay fiO rental, OF $50, as house hire be he
noble or ignoble, he may vote there, along
side OF the proudest peer Of the realm.
If WAGES be denied for honestlabor performed,
the courts decree that his wages shall be paid,
and let there be law for che hirer and the
hired, Ill II respects alike; and if man de-
prives poor man of his wages, there lies the
remedy in the courts of law. Whether it be
from the mines of Cornwall to Newcastle, that
poor man can shake bis fist in the face OF the
rich man, and tell him, as l heard poor man
tell a lord in the north of England, II am no
slave, sir, and defy you." 1t was his power,
because the law rallied around HIM, and gave
him rampant against class oppression.
Equality before the law implies, therefore, the
exclusion of any one class OF natiVe-born citi-
zens, and suppresses rights and privileges to
which ether classes are admitted, except the
exclusion for crime not supposed, but proven;
just so we feel that every man in the nation
should here be guarsnteed equal civil aad pol-
tical privileges before the law; that in re-
public we cannot afford to be behind the age.
Sir, we have had too liCte of the unwrItten and
too much of the common law; most of the deci
sions for us have been strangely uncommon,
violating, as we think, the fundamental law of
The land, the palladium Of nations liberties So
much has this been the case, that Punch, on
the other side of the water, says "This is not
the land of liberty, but Of berries with persons
property, Of our family, and with all that man
holds dear" All must admit this slur upon the
nation. People are speaking OF the colored man
as a being to be legislated tor instead of being
to be legl lated with or against, for 1t is either
for or against,
Ina late meeting held in New York, which
became national in importance because the
Secretary OF State of the United States and
the Postmaster General Of the onion addressed
the nation, an address was presented and
adopted, from which. the following are tew
sentences:-"The element OF disturbance, as
we think, the only one is the political condi-
ton OF the freedmen, the old slaves whom we
have emanclpated by the great Constitutional
amendment. There is no substantial disagree
ment among loyal men respecting their civil
rights their rights to property, to SELL and
to testify. In. short they must have equality
before the law, and whether they shall have