New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-04-12

in response to q serenade in Washington.
The report OF the speech ia pretaced by the
following remarks by that journal:
The colored men of Washington and
CeoroetoWp. friends Of the Hon i. Rush
Plumly, member OF the Texas Leglsia'
Sure, now on visit to WASHINGTON on ON
ciai business, rendered him on trlaay hl'hs
I2s6 a complimentary serelade. iheetl
was held at Union Lehgue han, anu q con-
Williams, Pohert Cornell and John L.
Ferguson was appointed 10 invite MAJOR
.3lumly to the hall, the inciemenCy OF the
the Metropolitan YsS1iug the Serenade at
tended.
Accordingly the committee proceeded with
the Columbia band TO Major Pumiy'5 quar-
Sers, and escorted him to Union League
Hall, where the meeting was called to order
G3y Mi. Isaiah Lemon, who introduced
Major Plumly with lew complimentary
remarks.
In response to the compliment, Major
Plumly said:
MIR. President and Gen3emen-I thank
you heartily for this manifestation OF your
confidence and good will. All the more l
thank you, because | realize that you mean
by this public demonstration to express
your recognition Of my long advocacy OF the
principle OF impartial freedon-a principle
that, now triumphant, enables you thus
allows me TO hear.
When, in 1868, our army was moving
through Louisiana, 1t halted one night at
Opelousas In the morning the General
boots could not be found. An orderly IN
search OF them discovered them in posses
sion of an old white-headed black man, who
was sitting on a log, rocking backward and
forward, singing TO himself and rubbing
the boots with great tervor.
'.Give me them boots, old mig" said the
orderly. The old man still rocked and sang
and brushed. slight push upset him.
Gathering himself up and still clinSing to
the boots, he said as if speaking to some
unseen presence: HE. he! black 'em
black 'eml He. he. dis chile jis been
awaitin to black DIS Generals boots cher
since 1882" Qaughter.)
My friends, that is much our case. 1t was
not exactly to black the boots. but not TO
black them by compulsion that we have
been waiting. The sublime faith of that old
slave of Louisiana brought to him, at last,
che boots that covered the feet that made
him free.
Our faith, and labor, and patience and
long suffering have brought to US this hour
Of triumph.
Sir, it is an suspicious hour. The
proclamation of the President on the nj.
qseenth amendment is being read, not only
by our own people, but throughout the
civilized world. A proclamation OF meas
NTc, WHICH, III Llc vi tuO ! IC3iuCl4t
himself, lis of grander importance than any
other one act of the kind from the tounda-
ton of our free government to the present
time"
Then let US rejoice together. Tonight we
may rejoice over the co mpletiOn OF our
work. No more bondage. No more caste.
All are free. All are men.
The abolition of American slavery lioer-
ated me, as it liberated you. The fifteenth
amendment is for me as it is for you. 1t
opens to the colored man and to his white
friends the right to travel ali over our
country. It gives the tight to think, TO
speak and to act; to share not only the bur-
dens. but the responsibilities and the honoIs
of the government. But above all lndlVld-
ual or narrow considerations Is the one
majestic fact, that to-day our consistency as
nation exceeds that OF the best individual,
for as q nation our theories ana our practices
agree. Truly we may become an example
10 all peoples.
Mr.. President, 1 belong to that class of
men hitherto called fanatics. As fanatic,
Imsy have believed that at some remote
time men might arise in the capital OF our
country, and truly and proudly announce
that the profession of this nation mad
become its practice, that freedom vas the
law of the national life, that the declaration
of &" equal rights to all men ~" was no longer
a 81 glittering generality" but solemn fact.
But, sir, never III the moment of my highest
hope of the future, cid even dream that 1t
would be my privilege, here, IN this city,
once the Bastiia of bondage, TO see that Bas-
tile become the citadel OF human freedom,
and the bondmen thereof its tree keepers.
Sir. had L ever any such vision, 1 should
have PRAYED with Abohu Ben Addem, write
down my NAME" let me be there to see.
Possibly did SO pray, for lo here am.
Mr. President, when recently l had the
honor to speak in the joint meeting OF the
r ar;c ell Of Tnvas I tDDk g.
casion to say, and l may here repeat, that
it is seldom that men live to see the opin-
ions which they espoused in weakness so
advanced in power as TO become the con.
iiction of a whole generation, the policy OF
government, maintained by mllilons OF
bayonets aud by the intelligence and vast
resources of an Industrial and martial
people, especially when such opinions were
leading to revolution, to a civil CONFUSION
without precedent wherein the socletary
substratum has become the superstrstum.
The slave has become the master, the trans
formed chattle is pushed to the topmost
round Of citizenship.
Sir, whirled ourselves with these mighty
evolutions, we do not realize how stu
pendous they are, any more than, standing
as we do on the earths surface, we are not
conscious Of the majesty and the velocity OF
its motion.
When the grand events of which we are 9
mart shall have receded into history, or We
ourselves shall have been removed to an
other sphere, for better observation, we
may then comprehend the grandeur OF this
time.
In the Koran there appears frequently the
single word ''assuredly," as if the fulness OF
che occasion had suspended in the Prophet
fhe movers of utteralce. Dir. President, we
NAV cav sassureily." The place and the
circumstances revive in my mind some re-
,niniscences of this CITY and Of it's men.
Among them is one OF that time, a quarter
OF q century ago, when petitions We're pre-
sented, through the Hon. J1hr quincy
Adams, Tor the abolition OF slavery ~ thl'
District You remember the late or lhost
netitions. Mr.. Adams was then our oniy
friend in Congress. Regels was not tnen IN
che Senate, although South Carolina was
efficiently preparing the nation to send nm
there. Another memory is of the time whei
the brave and noble DR.. Bailey, driven IRON
Cincinnati by the ollgarchy virus Whlci
then poisoned the warm red veins OF ONO
came here and established the National Fra
and gave to us, IN spite OF Inc peru W 90 In
property and life, d journal Tor freeuoh
By his side stood the courageous and hohes
.(3iddinps. of Ohio, Senator Hale. Preston
King. and, towering above all IL maJesti'
PROPORTIONS and in vast powers, the hon
Salmon z. Chase.
Here also, at that early day was Whittier
singing songs that were moulds LOT paiiets
And here was the authoress Grace Greeh
good. alive with genius and heart, deyotnt
her Young powers 10 freedom, ana eXelnpii
fying her faith by leaving the CHING taD y,
Of a Western steamboat because freoerici
Douglass was driven from IL, saying s1'
you'd take her fare Win the opPiesssou y
SrcJ, an act was hard to do at that day
a. 20, M civil RIGHTS bill then. Down