The Newtown bee., 1896-07-03
THE NATION IS ONE.

resurreCt in connection Withj the cele- brati0n of Memorial day is this:
 THE NATION IS ONE.
 Another lesson to be resurrected at this time is, the work which the War left us we have just begun todo; I mean we are just beginning to educate the negro. The War did one thing for the negro, it took the shackles from his hands; there is another thing the War did not do, it did not take the shackles from his mind When slavery was intro duced into this country, large slice of the Dark Continent was brought with 1t. When slavery touched these shores, America imported a large part .of heathonism into her borders, fOrsOOth so that all Christians might be induced to l,.bor for foreign missions, even those who say there's enough work to do at home without bothering about the heathen who are over the seas. There is one thing we cannot do for the negro: 4e cannot change the color of his skin, a4d we better stop blaming him for what came with his blood; there is aaother thing we can do, and we ought to get more quickly about it; we can exalt and uplift the negro's mind.
 read in my Congregationalist the other day an extract from the Richmond lNa.l Christian Advocate. It was as follows: "Wise and brave men would nave dealt with the negro as a negro, )ur cOde-rjnllers became infected with
 ne Northern notion of negro, that he
 8 white man with 8 so0ty skin. We
 ave legislated upon the theory that
 egr0, with only two removes from
 lAn-eating beast of the lowest type of
 ltellect, could achieve in a month what
 It Webster species could attain only in
 ges. The African can never in the
 'outh enter in the professions where ed
 lcaCi0n can be of use. The negro is
 without gratitude. This progeny of
 imported cannibals are in our midst, etc. Two removes from a man-eating beast
 f the lowest type of intellect" "Prog-
 ny of imported cannibals, ,''-the negro.
 That is intensely interesting reading, in
 ensel7 interesting because it is SO mon- , trous and absurd. Written in the hristian Advocate The paper.can be an .dvocate of such Satanic principles if it wishes, but it must not call them Christ ian. As 8 Christian minister l utterly iiscIaim any such notion or belief. It j5 unbiblical, it is unchristian, it is un- rue. What would you have thought of such statements, Frederick Douglass, a 4egro, whose advice Lincoln sought in he most trying periods of the War and
 whom Lincoln especially honOred at the lime of his second inauguration? What 10 you think of such statements, Brother Proctor. 8 negro, graduated at Fisk University, taking your theological :Ourse at Yale, recently called to the )astorate of the First Congregational 3hurch of Atlanta? Judge TOurgee well avs; II would not have this country 5ake a backward step; 1 would have it make out of "a subject race a strong one."
 The progress already achieved shows that the negro race can be made strong race. We must plant more schools in the Black Belt, send more spelling books there, put more Northern teachers there to show by the very best way, the way of example, what clean home and 8 pure life mean. The second lesson to be resurrected in connection with this eel ebration of Memorial Day Is that we must go on with the work we have be- gun.
 It is hardly worth while for me to give you a minute description of a cer- tain statue in Washington; for some of you have been there and seen it with your own eyes, and have not. It is the Peace Monument in our capital city. It vania Avenue at the approach to the Capitol grounds. It was built to com memorate the important services of the Navy during the Civil War. It is sur-
 mounted by two figures, History and America. History holds in one hand a tablet, while America stands weeping 1 with head bowed. History tries to com l fort her by pointing out what she has written on her tablet, ''They died that their country might lige.' History
 holds in her hands tablet to-day. She
 is writing the things which you and I
 are doing as citizens of this broad land.
 Is the America of 20 years from now, of
 50 years from now, to weep? If the
 record is to be bright, then let us so
 live, 80 vote, SO speak, that out of our
 example can only grow purer citizen
 ship and higher American life. Let
 us join ourselves to no party which does
 not carry the flag and keep step to the
 music of the Union.