The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-15
AT LAST.

Despite the opposition Of the Board of Di-
rectors of the Academy of Music, Senator Revels
of Mississippi, has been allowed to deliver q
lecture in our city. horticultural Hall last
night presented ON audience and scene that
would have gladdened the heart of the most
eloquent Caucasian. AS early as z o'clock
crowds commenced pouring into the handsome
edihce, and long before the eloquent son of the
once despised race appeared 1t was filed to
excess. AT precisely quarter before o'clock
Senator Revels was introduced by Robert Pur-
Wis, ESQ, in few eulogistic remarks.
After the applause had somewhat subsidized
the lecturer started at once on his theme,
HThc Press"
/ have ALWAYS borne to the land of Penn a
peculiar affection. The good old Quaker stock
of its citizens always excited my admiration.
They have always been the champions of equal
rights. In the days gone by the black men
always knew who their friends were. The de-
scendants of Penn were always ready to aid
them when III cost something to extend such
aid A quarter of century has hardly passed
since DR.. McClintock was arragned at the bar
of justice for defending their rights. / have
always had a high respect for him; and when
the news of his death reached me in Washing
ton felt that abolitionism had lost one of its
ablest defenders Every Quakeress is a lily,
and when they come up to their yearly con-
ferences they show like troops of the shining
ones. 1t requires nothing to convince us of the
purity of William Penn's character. History
speaks for him. He treated with the Indians as
they have never been treated with since the
foundation of our Government.
When requested to address the citizens of
Philadelphia, in casting about me for theme
on which to say few words tonight, was
bewildered by the multiplicity of subjects pre-
sented to my notice. My own people were
pressing their claims upon me, and not only
them, but the cause of freedom throughout the
world. The solution of the great problems of
lanI If fhn taot tvorn I
forget for the nonce the realms of thought that
would lead me into the land of poetry The
questions agitatng the country called for my
attention. Just coming into the public notice
l. of course, did not entirely appreciate all that
might be required of me as the representative
of my race. But 1 did fully realize that the
action of the Senate would he of immeasurable
importance to the colored people, and their
future place in American legislation. To gain
the recreation which l needed, and give play to
high strung mental tension, employed the
hours of the early stage of my residence in the
capital in surveying the objects OF curiosity
which attract the stranger.
Here the speaker gave at some length de-
scription of what he saw in the various depart
ments at Washington, and continued:-I re-
| served as the most interesting point to me, the
of other matters noticed the old printing press
| of Benjamin Franklin, the "Boston Printer and
| the Philadelphia Philosopher" The words of
| Elliott came into my mind and here l received
the suggestions that eventually settled upon the
| 'Press' as the subject of my remarks.
l propose, therefore, my friends, to follow
| here tonight a train of thought which the old
| printing press of Franklin and the words of
| Elliott suggested to my mind. 1t seems almost
| miraculous that the three greatest inventions
should have been made during the same epoch,
discovery of the New World-the application of
| gunpowder and the magnetic needle to practical
use, and the invention of movable types, for the
purposes of printing, by Faust, and Schaeffer,
| and Gutenberg. 1t is of the last that have
chiefly to do. don't intend to attempt to prove
that the principles of printing were known to
| every nation of antiquity by whom coins and
medals were madeAT AThe fact itself carries with it
| its own argument Nor do design to present
in any detail the history of the art; but shall
merely dwell upon printing as an element of
| modern progress and the uses and abuses
accompanying it In our times. Therefore, in
| the words "The Press'-or, if you please, the
newspaper-is found the theme on which 1
| propose to speak tonight.
In our generation and land it is impossible to
form any conception of the slowness of gather
| ing news in former times. The use of steam
and electricity has revolutioned the entire busi-
ness of the age. The slow-moving stage coach
is superseded by the railway car. The mounted
carrier who travelled from point to point is sup
planted by the telegram, and tonight the tired
settler of the Western country reads not only
the news of his own country, but that of Lon
don and Pekin. Compare the advantages for
the conveyance of news with those of medieval
times no member of that indefatigable and
worthy body known as the reportorial corps
would, in the guise of priest steal their secrets;
but now the business of to-day is published in
the papers of the following morning all over the
world. When we ponder over the beauties OF
Homer and Livy we forget that it is only four
hundred years since those works were only in
manuscript.
The unlettered freedman in the savannas of
the South has more educational advantages now
than the king upon his throne in the time of the
Middle Ages. Fulton proved to the croakers of
his age the practicablity of steam. Morse has
improved largely on Franklns idea in regard to
the management and use of electricity. Daguerre
has snatched from the face of the sun the art OF
transferring the lineaments of the human face
divine to paper, thus transmitting them from
father to son, and the candid mind must acanow-
ledge that much that has been accomplished in
the past has been due to the influence of the
press. The progress of this country in intellec-
tual and material things is largely due to the
newspapers. The time is not long gone by
when the present unlicensed freedom of the
press would not be tolerated, and yet in this
country it is part and parcel of the organic
statute that Congress shall not pass law abridg
ing the liberty of speech nor the freedom Of
the press
, Tie speaker quoted from Hume's History of
, England" to show the laws that had beer
, passed IN former times abridging this freedom
of the press, and referred TO statutes thus in
terfering, that had been ordained by Queer
Elizabeth and King James.
) lie also quoted from 'Blackstones Commen-
taries,' giving the law of Great Britain, subject
to the amendments of Parliament and resumed
The abuse of free will-Of the liberty of the
, press-is the proper subject otlegal punishment
The first colonial settlement OF this country was
the first to make enactments in regard to the
freedom of the press, licensing only those whom
. | lpUislatnra annOintph The lanOunTp