Year: 1867

|


that Union of force, which you have all just
said you wish to terminate.


Ny colored friends, one Of your speakers
has said that you are three generations be-
hind the world, and urged !ou to work hard
to catch up. think we white people OF
the South are Just ONE generation behind
We are how on the slavery question, just
about where we were in 1885. We are both,
white and black, in the rear OF the great
army, that is ever marching onward and up
ward. Let us have charity for each other
and give each other all the help in our pow
er. We are learning every day, and so are
you. Our interests, are the same. Let our
rivalry be to see who can make the most
useful and law-abiding citizens. North Car
olinians are famed for obedience to law
Obedience to law is the glory and strength
of a free people. Our race will be apt to
think itself superior to yours in natural en-
dowments. You will naturally think we are
mistaken. We have greatly the start of you.
Time alone can solve the question. We will
never quarrel about it; but leave it to be
decided by that sure and incorruptible judge
called, Time. aa FtG


Our people will soon learn that they have
nothing to fear from you, even IT you were
disposed to do them harm, which you are
not In the United States You are 100000
and the whites are 30,000,000. In North
Carolina you are $780, 600 in number and we
are $50, 900. In Johnston County you are
5000 and we are 10000 in number. True
some of us are disfranchised, but not enough
to seriously affect the white vote-and you,
my colored friends, know would be glad
to see that disfranchisement removed as
soon as is consistent with safety. The
growth of true Republican sentiment will en-
sure its removal sooner than any other
governments free governments never
safe, while large class of its people are
denied any rights that are enjoyed by any
other class. @-.'


Fellow citizens, what jubilee it will be
when the time comes that there is no dis
tinction, no difference in the rights of citi-
zens of this great Republic, under the law;
when the genius of free America will offer
equal inspirations, in her service and in that
of mankind, to the rich and the poor, the
white and the black, the Union man and the
rebel-repentant and .torgiesn;; when that
| day comes, if live to see it, I want to teach
my children to repeat the proud boast of
Curran, proudcr for America than for En-
| gland, because more strictly truthful II
speak in the spirit of American law, which
makes liberty commensurate with, INSOFAR
able from, American soil-which proclaims
even to the stranger and the sojourner, the
moment he sets his foot upon American
earth, that the ground on which he treads
is holy and consecrated by the genius of
universal emancipation No matter in what
language his doom may have been pro-
nounced no matter what complexion, in
compatible with freedom, an Indian or an
African sun may have burned upon him no
matter in what disastrous battle the helm of
his liberty may have been cloven down; no
matter with what solemnities he may have
been devoted upon the altar of slavery,
the moment he touches the sacred soil of
America, the altar and the god sink togeth-
er in the dust, his soul walks abroad in its
own majesty; his body swells beyond the
measure of his chains which burst from
around him, and he stands redeemed, re-
generated and disenthralled by the irresisti-
BILE genius of Universal Emancipation"