The banner-enterprise., 1884-01-26

which resulted in the independence
Of the colonies--and the massacre,
had in Boston on the 5th of March,
l770, may be regarded as the ini-
tiatory step
The first to attempt to battle the
then undisputed sway of the Brit
ish lion, were FIVE Negroes: Crispus
Attacks, Samuel Gray and Jonas
Caldwell, who were killed on the
spot, and Samuel Maverick and
Patrick Carr, who were MORALLY
wounded.
Ignorant and unsophisticated,
they led the rabble-and uncon-
scious Of the magnitude of their
rash onset upon the British sol
diery-they were alike unaware
that they were to be sacrificed;
that they were to form the four
corners Of a magnificent monument
which should be erected to freedom
and American Independence.
The event efthe death and burial
of these colored heroes was pub
licly commemorated in Boston un-
til the Declaration of independence
was issued, when the Fourth of
July was substituted therefor
Well, the poet has said:
"Long as in freedoms cause the wise contend.
Dear to your country shall your fame extend;
While to the world the lettered stone shall tell,
Where Codwel, Attacks. Gray and Maverick fell"
And we are told by the historian
Bancroft, that in the army at Cam
bridge the colored people were well
represented. "They took their
places, not in separate corps, but
in ranks with the white man; and
their names may be read on the
pension rolls of the country, side
by side with those of other soldiers
Of the revolution"
Moore, in his "Diary of tine Rev:
olution,' says: "The valor of the
blacks at the battles of Red Bank
and Rhode Island, in August 177S,
entitle them to perpetual honor"
And Arnold, in his history Of
Rhode Island does not forget to
mention that "The newly raised
black regiment under Col. Green,
distinguished itselfby deeds of DIES
perate valor."
In the war of 1912, the Negro
was again called upon to take up
arms to defend and preserve the
country and independence which
he had fought SO bravely to achieve.
General jackson speaks in the
highest terms of their fortitude
and courage. And the New Orb
cans Pscayane IN 1851, among 9TH
er things says: eff, in that hazards
GUS hour, when our homes were
menaced with the horrors of war,
we did not disdain to call upon the
colored population to assist in re-
polling the invading horde, we
shouldn not, when the danger is past,
refuse to permit them to unite with
us in celebrating the glorious event
which they helped to make so
memorable an epoch in our histo-
ry. We were not too exalted to
mingle with them in the affray;
they were not too humble to join
in our rejoicings.'
After having done so much to-
ward achieving American lnde.
pendence in the revolutionary war;
after having done so much for the
preservation of that independence
in the American French war, it
would have been a just and de-
servedly high appreciation of our
services to have liberated the whole
race. But the timo was not yet
ripe.
And we witness, even in the So
called free States, from 1834-7,
mob law rampant. In many of the
Northern States we we're subjected
to almost every species of cruelty
and i%nhumanity.
But let us pass on briefly and
take a retrospective view Of that
period Immediately preceding the
late war, the ulttmatum of which
enables us to celebrate the first day
o, January.
The Fugitive Slave Law" the
missouri Compromise" and other
laws and policies of minor import
ance, were but the ~outgrowth of an
unholy system Of slavery-the en-
tering wedge to the dismember.
ment of the national compact
and while it was the purpose of
those in control of the Federal
government to save the Union of
the States and slavery too, God
had doomed the institution, and,
like LacJfer, it fell, to rise no