The Washington bee., 1897-02-27
OUR FLAG.
THE HIGH SCHOOL CADETS HoNoRED

| CEPTS THEM-A GREAT CRO"D fKEo-
ENT-scHooL TRUSTEES CRITICIZED
MUSIC AND DANCING.
One of the largest and, no doubt,
most enthusiastic audiences, assembled
in the Centre Market House Hall on
last Friday evening to witness the nag
presentation to the High School Ia
diets by the Soldiers and Sailors Ma
tional Beneficial Union Association.
After the rendition of the "Hlgh
School Cadet March," by the Monu-
mental Orchestra, President James w:
Butcher OF the Soldiers and Sailors
Union, called the assemblage to order
The invocation was offered by Kew.
Robert Johnson, pastor OF Metropoli-
tan Baptist Church, following which
the hymn "AmeriCa" was sung by the
audience.
capt Alexander Oglesby read pre-
amble and series of resolutions which
were adopted at meeting of the Sol
diers' and Sailors Beneficial Union
Octobes S, 1896, in pursuance of which
the flag was secured and presented to
the battalion.
Major {. B. Fisher delivered the in
troductory remarks, and among other
things, he took an occasion to pay his
respects to the colored trustees, who
tailed to put in their appearance DIR.
and he didn't arrive until after tie ex-
erC;SeS were over. His excuse was
that he had a medical lecture to at
tend.
Some were bold enough to say that
he would have excused himself from
the medical lecture if the other side
had invited him.
AT the conclusion of theTemarks OF
Major Fisher, the gallant Major {. A.
Fleetwood was introduced, and spoke
as follows:
"There are some superSenSitlve per-
sons who hold to the idea that the
rising generation should not be re-
minded of former days. | have no
patience with such fnlcality. Rather
would | stand with the grandest Negro
that ever trod Gods footstool-Fred'
eriCk Douglass-when he said, Meas
ure me not by the heights TO which
have attained, but by the depths from
which | came. And thus, on this oc.
casion, SO big with subjects for
thoughtful minds, feel inclined first
TO glance rapidly over things as they
were when | and my comrades were in
years what you and yours are now. In
those wears the laws of the South for
bade, with heavy penalties, the teach
ing of Negroes to read and write. They
could not assemble, even in their own
homes, for a wedding or a christening
without a permit from the chief of po-
ice and the presence of a white man
They could not be on the streets after
Q or 10 O'Clock at night without pass
from some white citizen without having
their bare backs introduced to a cow
| hide or the cato '-nine-tailS in the
morning, bond or free. Here and in
my own home of Baltimore few small
schools existed, by SufferanCe simply,
IN which we could acquire the three
Rs, but we generally graduated at The
single rule OF three, as 1t was then
called, and | can never forget how a
good old mana doctor from sturdy
New Hampshire, God bless him-had
me come after nightfall to his residence,
and, after locking and barring the
doors, took me into the back part of
,he house, and SO, night after night,
prepared me to enter what is now called
Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania.
81 need not reCapitulate the advan-
tages you have now" said he, address,
my the cadets. "You know them, and
can contrast them with those days.
But few, if any of you, stop to think that
It IS to the brave men who come here
tonight and their comrades you owe in
greatest measure these inestimable
privileges Illiterate as they mostly
were, they could feel in their true,
brave hearts, that who would be
free himself must strike the blow and
bravely went forth to battle for the
freedom of a race. You probably do
not know, though you should, that
I7S,o75 black men enlisted in the armies
OF the United States, and that 36,S47 OF
them laid down their lives for you and
for the flag. There was a time when
this flag was for us, as grand old Ben
Butler said, only a flag of stripes in
which no glory shone, but thanks be
to the God of battles, and to our brave
comrades who followed that flag by
land and sea, through cold and heat,
sunshine and tempest, through storm
of shot and shell and rain of bullets
that day has passed forever.
IF NECESSARY.
"While we do not bring you this flag
with the idea that you will ever need
to bear it to battle, stranger things
have happened, and some day you may
be called upon to march forth under
its folds to protect the capital Of the
nation from foes without or foes within,
and, should that day come, you will
not be found wanting. We read much
in these days OF arbitration, 'univer-
sal peace and all that sor: of thing,
but there is a more enduring peace
where there is good gun and good
man behind it who knows how and is
not afraid to use it, than in thousand
Bibles in these days. People send ir
long petitions against training young
men for war, but so long as blood is
thicker than water, so long will ocCa
sionS arse when the deep, strong
heart of nation will demand and vii
have the arbitrament Cf the sword anc
the cleansing by blood, and then the
readieSt man will win. Tonight we
come to place in your hand old Glory
and tell you why we call it SO. Mos
of you know that when the war which
ended in freedom first began it was
purely for the preservation of the
Union, and was so proclaimed by the
highest authority in the land, and thus
il was that the misguided slaves who