The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-06
BARBECUE AND BURGOO
A FEATURE OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN
EMANCIPATION CELEBRATION.
Justus c. Adams Speaks of the Negroes
Service in the Revolution of '76-
John l.. Grihiths's Address.

III liz HlOIH1ly ana ldSl6u OilAA iobC a.
night. The great feature of the days pro-
ceedings was the barbecue, in which an OK
and several sheep were roasted whole over
the fire and great kettles Of "burgoo' were
made. There were plenty of people present
to dispose of the good things, and there was
plenty for all to eat. Aside from the bar
becue, the crowd was RECALLED with bicycle
races and other forms of athletic sport.
In the evening a meeting was held in the
open air, and the park was crowded. Bruce
b. Bagby presided and made a neat speech
in opening the meeting. He introduced j.
G. Adams, ex-speaker of the House of Rep
resentatives as the first speaker. Mr..
Adams gave some new and very interesting
upon the part played by the
negro in the revolutionary war. In the
course of his address he said:
The form of a human being in bondage
IS a deseGratlon of the image OF the Al
shackled with the body, the ownership of
man becomes complete and the owner as
sumds the prerOgatives and Wieids the pow
er belonging only TO the mystic RULER OF
the universe.
Our fathers laid the foundations of this
Republic deep and wide, but as time rolled
on the structure was found to have a fatal
weakness and a vital defect. Human slav-
cry was the shadow that came to US a
legacy from the mother country, when mas
hung like a pail over this Republic for
eighty-tve years of its existence, for an
other hand than ours forged the shackles
on the limbs of the negro and brought At
rican slavery to these shores. AT last the
issue was forced on the great body of lib
erty-loVing, God-fearing people of the Ma
ton. The words of Abraham Lincoln that
this government could not exist half free
and half slave mad become an axiom and
God ordained that this continent was the
spot and that time was at hand when the
descendants OF the cavaliers who landed
at jamestown, Va, in 1901, and the de-
scendants of the Puritans, whose ancestors
fought under Gro. well at Marston Moor
and came 10 these shores on the MdyHoWef
and landed on Plymouth rock in 1920, should
submit their distinct types of civilization
TO the arbitrament Of the sword. The issue
of history was fought out on these lines.
After four years Of national sorrow, after
the expenditure of thousands of millions of
treasure, after five hundred thousand men
had gone down into the valley OF death and
one million more had been malmed or
wounded by the bullet or wrecked by dis
ease and exposure the principle set forth
in the agreement signed by the Purltans
in the cabin of the May1ower that there
should be equal and just laws and before
these laws all men should stand equaI at
last prevailed. The foreboding spirit of dis
union came out of the stiiing slave pen
with the lust Of power and the nope OF
empire in her eye and surrendered the
cause of human rights.
This country would nave been obliter-
ated and wiped from the face of the earth
like the city of Legion before making. a
treaty Of peace which left a vestige OF Al
Jl00h ave- I'LL l. - - 49,
gle word in it's statutes which LOCALIZED or
c-ountenanced chattelhood in man.
The negro is free in the ow9aeershiip of of
his services TO whom he may see fit, he is
free and untrammeled in his ability to en-
ter into contracts as his inclination may
lead or his interest may appear, he is free
to acquire property and enjoy its use, he
is free to invoke the aid of the authorities
and call on the strong hand of the law
to protect him in his rights. or to redress
his wrong, he is free to educate himself
act, to think and to speak as the most ia
Vored Caucasian on this continent. ANY
agency, power or prejudice that would de-
prive him of his rights as a citizen. or this
country, or interfere with his enjoyment
of every reasonable privilege Is a legacy
from his former bondage and an echo of
those days in which he gave his unrequlted
services to that master who owned his body
and his soul. Should this government in
blood-bought rights of any. of it's citizens,
it would be false to it's pledges and I'M
worthy of the respect and love Of its peo-
pie; - E 4bo a,+u
of this great Republic to protect its citi-
zens without regard to race, color or prev
ious condition In the full and equal en-
joyment of their rights, as it is equally
the obligations of her citizens to uphold
and support the Nation when its authority
is questioned or its existence imperiled.
This obligation, not only in the war of the
rebellion, but in the earlier wars of the
Republic, has been fully recognized and
fully kept by the negroes of America.
NEGRO IN THE REVOLUTION.
in the city Of Boston, a short distance
from that cradle of American liberty, Fan
ueil Hall, a brass tablet inserted in a
brick wall points to the spot where the
first blood of the American revolution was
shed. The inscription on the tablet tells
us that it was there that Crispus Attacks,
a negro, was shot down in cold blood by
the troops of King George on the 5th of
March, ITO. At Bunker Hill negroes fought
side by side with the white continentals,
and among the heroes who gave up their
lives on that day was Peter Salem, a negro
who was shot in the intrenchmentS while
fighting by Warren's side; 1t is a we'll
known fact that in Massachusetts negroes,
bond and free, were enlisted in the conti-
mental armies, that Connecticut passed
laws encouraging the enlistment of the ne
groes, giving as a reward for such services
freedom to the slave, that Rhode Island
sent a negro regiment which fought under
the eyes of Washington in every battle in
which it took part, with. credit to itself.
that more negroes were in the service or
the e SCION fSn in r1d the he rsgqqigi4}hh ae en fbeed 1 wora
white soldiers from Georgia and South
Carolina, that the legislatures of New
land authorized the enlistment of negroes,
bond and free, with the approval of the
officers of our army.
General Henry LaurenS was sent to
South Carolina and Georgia by Washington
to enlist negroes in the service of the con-
tinental army. This step was taken De-
cause these States had failed to fill their
quotas of troops. That at the battle of
Monmouth, Washington had 755 negroes
under him, that during the last war with
Great Britain in 1872, the United States
government again sought the enlistment of
negroes and one-fourth of Perrys forces
on Lake Erie were negroes, that General
Jackson enlisted them at New Orleans, Of
fering them freedom for their services,
which promise after the defeat of the Brit
ish was faithfully and religiously Kept. In
addition to the action of our government in
former wars, the services of the race in the
war of the rebellion is so recent as to be
a matter of present history; in the camp,
in the hospital, on the dreary march. in
the canebrake and under the pines they
rendered incalculabre service TO the cause
Of the Union. In the thousands of negro
lives that went down in death at Fort Pill
low, Milliken's Bend, Port Hudson and
Fort Wagner, and on many other battle
fields of the great rebellion, you find them
doing their full part as a race to aid the
Union which their masters sought to de-
stroy.'
After eloquently eulogizing Lincoln and
others who helped to obtain the freedom
of the race, he continued: The negro race
as a whole. will never fail to recognize the
debt of gratitude it yves TO such characters
as Abraham Lincoln, Wendell Phillips,
William Lloyd Garrison, o A. Andrew,
ChorlNC G,tVrror JrhN n Whittier and