The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1877-08-08
speech of w. u. Scott, CCOIored.)
tHonkinsville Democrat. !


A large crowd of colored people,
also several whi,cs, assembled in the
Courthouse on last Monday night 10
hear an address by w. b. Scott, editor
of the Maryville EAST Tennessee) Re
publican. Subject discussed "Egyp-
tian Bondage and American Slavery,
COntrasted."
The speakers design was to show
the parallel between the two, and to
prove that both were Providential,
and that the cOlored people of Ameri-
ca, instead of being Discontinued by n
remembrance of what they had been
and what they had endured, should,
on the contrary, rejoice and give
thanks to God for the wise Providence
that first brought the race from Africa,
and after sufficient tuition in slavery.
emancipated them and made them
freemen and citizens. Many of his
race were disposed, and had been
since the war, to accord their freedom
to the Emancipation Proclamation Of
Mr.. Lincoln, the military genius of
Gen. Grant, or the proves of the
Union army. This was a sad mistake.
The time had come when God would
liberate the colored man in the United
States, and nothing could prevent it,
but on the contrary everything con-
tributed TO this end. Said he, if Mr.,
Lincoln had come to Mr.. Davis and
the people of the South with an offer
of s., 900 a head for their slaves, they
would have said no, we will not sell
them at all, We will keep them. This
was the way Pharoah did, yet God
took advantage Of his perseverance TO
demonstrate to the world that all His
purposes were laid in wisdom, and
that the set time to liberate his people,
Isreal, was then come. But my peo-
pie, said the speaker, have misunder-
stood their freedom. They have been
blinded to their own interests. They
have chung TO party, and voted for
party measures, regardless of the quail
iication or moral fitness of the candi-
dates claiming their suffrages. The
whites have been suspicious of the
blacks and vice versa, and we have
never fully understood aud appreciated
each other. The Jordan that lay be-
tween the Israelites and their Canaan,
is, with us, prejudice. Remove this,
and our Canaan, intelligence and pros
perity will be in our possession in an
eminent degree. The only true friends
of the cOlored man were Southern men.
Colored men lived here, were depend
ent upon the white man, and should,
therefore, affiliate with him. He had
Travelled over twenty-one States, had
visited Massachusetts, and the Carroll
mas, had conversed with w. Lloyd
Garrison and Wade Hampton, and he
was bound TO admit that in the South,
the congenial home of the colored peo-
pie. they were treated more like free
men aud gentlemen than in the North,
even in Boston, itself. Freedom was
not idleness, nor was ignorance COM
patible with liberty. Throw away
your prejudices, my colored friends,
forget the past, viewing it all in the
light of providence, go to work in
earnest, educate yourselves and chill
dren, make the white man your ally,
initiate him in all the developments
and progress of civilization and refine
ment, and it will not be long before
you shall have attained an enviable
position among the races of mankind;
an honor to yourselves and blessing
to your country.
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A man at PASlet, Vermont. lost four.