The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1910-01-13
TO BOOST
BALTIMORE
A.. AS.ENFOSITiON SITE WAS OBJECT
OF MEETING ADDRESSED BY
. EONAPA RTE
REVIEWS SLAVERY,
Which WAS Fast Making us TWO
Peoples Under the Same Rulers"
Resolution Praising Taft Adopted,
Though Opposed.

rouslng mass meeting last night at
the Sharp Street NJ. e. church, Balti-
more was doomed as the best place
=; for holding the proposed exposition in
1913 ..------------..
Tie speakers We're former Attorney
General G.. J. Bonapartc, Rev G. H.
@tepteau, City Councilman Larry S.
Cummings and Dr. Ernest Lyon,
American Minister to Liberia; Mr.
John Henry Smith, president of the
Maryland Progressive League, under
whose auspices the meeting was held
presided.
ATTORNEY w. Ashby Hawkins intro
duced Mr.. Bonaparte. as the first
speaker. Mr. Bonaparte said in part:
IN little more than three years
a half century will have pessed
since the first Of these great public
acts in our country, which converted
'r2veral millions of human beings
from things into persons, from chat
tells into men. We have met to urge
OIL our national government and on
American people the prOprieUy,
might utnloGt- say the necessity, OF {.
fitting commemorative for this me-
IOrGblo event. To this end we need
only remind thinking men Of the i'm
mense changes in all that tends to
cur nations greatness which have
flowed from t!~n Emancipation Proc
lam2tiCn and that several statutes
and three constitutional -amendm entS
which completed the work it began
Military Resources Decreased.
Fist Of ALL emancipation notaDly]
and -dlrecllLinGrease Our lit&Ty
resources. III the instruction sent
hN hn nDo1 ,1,1
land to the delegates from this state
in the Continental Congress, under
date Of April~1S, ,17TT, it's said:
Negroes rather weaken than
.stEGan a&hen the southern states =. Al
that time and so long afterward as
slavery remained among us foreign
invader would have looked, and,
when there were such invaders, did
look, upon our bondmen as his friends
and helpers, as always ready to pur-
chase liberty for themselves by i'll
service to the land which doomed
them to slavery. With emancipation,
Wnat had been a national weakness
became national strength in place
Of millions CT domestic enemies wei
gained millions Cf fellow countrymen |
as ready as any American to give
their toll, their blood their lives for
or OF the nation which had set them
free.
This, however, after all, is butt
little compared to the vast indirect
consequences Of emancipation and
its sequel on our standing as a ma
UOn. When Abraham Lincoln de-
clared ibis country could not remain
half free and half slave because al
house divided against itself must fall,
he pointed out a far graver ~ 4 more
threatening cause of national weak
ness and national danger, from which
his CVer-tONbG-rememb mbered DrOclama-
ton was the first step in our deliver
anCe.
Slavery had made, or was fast
making us, virtually two people un-
der the same rulers, the same laws
and the same flag: only emancipa-
non and the fruits Of emancipation
made it possible that We should be
come a nation AT heart as we'll as in
shape-in fact, as well as in form
know that even now designing or
misguided men among IT'S still seek
to inflame sensational prejudccs
and would mar, go far as they may,
the great salutary work Of national
unlCn; nay, That sucn men at times
seem to find some measure Of local
and transient success for their ef-
forts, but they deceive themselves if
they dream Of any wide or lasting
fruiIg to their mischievous labors.
But it IS not enough to be merely
strong or great in wealth and mate
rial resources; to truly count in the
merited esteem Of mankind, a nation
must deserve to be great, must be
true to it's proclaimed principles,
must mean what it sOiemnly says,
and say what, and only what, it trulr
Aied]S.