New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-05-11
8e1, Orleans RepnbIaests.
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE UNITED STATES.
efFirssL JOURNAL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
@PEEC@ OF GENERAL HUGH j
CAEzP&ELL..
Un the Celebration of the Fiffeenth
Amer dmsnt. DeiiVered at Straight
EniVcrsltN, 3 prll 80, 1870.

Amer dmsnr, DeiiVered at Straight
Universlty, q pril so. $40.
F'Speak unto the children Of Israel to go
forward" che Lord shall fight for you ana
We shall hold your peace" This was said to
fugitive slaves four thousand years ago.
Before them WIS the Red sea, behind them
the terrible hosts OF their pursuing masters,
and on either side rose unscalable noun
tains. The night black and gloomy. covered
them with its raven wings, ana filed tAe.I
hearts with its spectral teIrOrs.
That might they ~albcG o DaJh no rEN feS
ever walked before or since, hewu through
floods that stood upright and ~ hesp,
and through depths couGeaieG IL me mont
of the sea.n In the morning there was no
slaye.master nor any slave in ali the land Of
Egypt. That proud peoples chosen cha
riots and hyrsemep," and all "the hosts OF
pharoah.n were drowned in the sea and
dead upon the sea shore" On the other
side stood free nation. The voices OF
GOO, 900 people swelled across the waves Of
the Red See, in that chorus which, to the
end of time, will be the inspiration aud song
OF hope TO al oppressed men. 1.-THE Lord
hath triumphed glor,Ouly; the horse and
his rider hath he thrown into the sea-" On
this day you stand on the shores by another
Red Sea.
For ten years has the same mighty hand
that led the children OF Israel iour thous-
and years ago. upon Cry land in the midst
of the sea-" led you through bloody sea Of
war. civil strife, riot, massacre and blood
shed, safe to the other side. And to-day
Eve millions Of colored people lead the
chorus Of forty millions of the other portion
of the people of this country in that same
sublime song Of triumph. THE Lord hath
triumphed goriously; thou in thy mercy
hast led forth the people which thou hast re-
deemed"
With the passage of the fifteenth amend
ment, the last step Of your march from bon
dage to freedom has been taken. The waters
through which you have passed.. which
"were wall on the right and the left
have returned, and now stretch out broad
quiet, but impassabie barrier between you
aud oppression, in the form of the eternal
guarantees of the consti ution of thirty
seven States and OF forty millions Of peo-
pie.
From henceforth and forever, no power
can stretch forth its arm across that guif to
rob you OF single liberty, single right, a
single privilege or single power which
belongs to the proud name Of an American
citizen aud sovereign.
FREE FOREvER-YOUR CHILDREN FREE.
Your children's children and all their gen.
eratons free forever. You and they en-
titled now and hereafter to keep step side by
side, and on perfect equality, with all the
proud and glorious races of the free peoples
OF the eETLu. W HE grass grows anu
water runs,' while the morning comes and
the night follows around the globe, you are
. part of the free and sovereign people OF
the United States.
1t is right that the day of such an event
should be kept solennly aud gloriously, with
all costly magrifcence and pomp that the
heart Of man can conceive or the hand OF
man execute.
miracle like this does not happen but
once in several thousand years, and but
once in the life OF any people. The miracle
that freed the colOrcd people OF America is
equal to the miracle that delivered Israel.
On such day it would be out OF p lace to
prefer advice or to sermoniZe. Songs and
mi til aud praise suit better the occasion
than long speeches. TO you il is joyful that.
now and forevermore, you ana all who come
after you OF your race, IN this country, are |
freemen and the equals Of all other men. |
HencefOrth, this is your country; its gov |
eminent is your government; Its lag Is your |
flag; its Union Is your Union, rs well as |
mine; its cause is Jour cause; It's enemies, |
be they foreign or domestic, be they from |
strange lands or be they right here in our |
midst, are your enemies; its prosperity Is |
your prosperity; its honor ana glory are |
yours.
When you walk by the roadside; when |
you toll in the|shop; when you till IL the |
fields it's broad arm is near and over you, |
y
When you travel in foreign countries, by |
land or by sea, It's proud flag goes over you, |
and no power dare modest you Wrongnlly. |
We can now repeat the proud song of Eng
lands great poet with reference 10 that |
country and apply it to ours.
Slaves can not breathe in America; if their |
lungs receive our air, that moment hey are |
free-they touch our country and their
shackles fall.
More than this. We, the white people of
this country, are now for the first time free.
The whip of the slave driver was q very
long whip. Its lash fell not alone upon the
slave in the cotton field. 1t cracked over
the heads of every poor white man in the /,
South. Not only that it snapped around
the ears of the people of every State in the
North, and for years and years it made them
go down on their knees and swear that
wrong was right and right was wrong. They
are n ow free.
Emancipation has freed the slave owners
themselves-freed them from the evil in
fluences of slavery upon their laws, their
customs, their families and themselves
Let us now read the text of this famous
amendment, fifty characterized by that
great man, the President of the United
States, "as q measure Of grander Importance
than any other one act of the kind from the
foundation of our free government to the
present time 1t reads thus
AhIlCl4E Az. |
SECTION l. The right OF citizens of the
United States TO vote shall not be abridged
by the United States or by any Stale, On
account OF race, color Or previous condition
Of servitude.
SEC 2. The Congress shall have power to
enforce this article by appropriate legis-
lation.
This is the Magma Charta of your rights
wrung from the hands OF this sovereign
people by the sore judgments of Almighty
God. Let its commenorat0n be sacred to
You and your Chi dren in all the days that 7
come after this. Let lis memory enOble,
purify and consecrate your hearts and &C
tions.
In all this let us not forget the three great
names, which are insepara0ly linked with
this era of your history, and which, rs the
world grows older, will rise higher and
higher in the annals OF its illustrious men.
First--The prophet and martyr, john
Brown, who, While your millions yet wore
the chains OF slavery; while the constitution
and the laws, and the mighty power OF tue
Union yet upheld it. stood on the scatt1ld
before Robert +. Lee and StoneWali Jack
son and said: TO free the slave Is right,
rot wrong. / for this you think it neces-
sary that l should die SO let it be DONE
And in those words adjudged the laws and
the constitution, and the men who sup
ported slavery as criminals, and signed their
death sentence, and stood the foremost !
figure in what is yet to be the great hlstori-
Cal picture Of America.
"Second, the man Abraham Lincoln,
laden by Almighty God with the execution {
of the fearful Judgment Of the late war. who
when at last he was by disasters and defeats
forced in agony upon his kneesto swear that {