Year: 1865

we have come at last TO place where the claim is
to be most solemnly tested. This question of race
il put before US as stone of stumbling, rock
of exatation 1t is for the rising the falling of
our Israel. We have goriOu Us call to the per-
formance of the true mission of Christian state.
Do We feel that gloryl Have we any true sense
of honor that God is putting upon US in appointing
US to such trial, such a nission-morc distinctly
announced To Us than ever before 10 any nation
nnier heavonl Over and again, in every
form but orc, have we set forth the principle of
human equality before the law. We have boast
Cd of our land as the free home of ali races. We
have insulted other nations in the yehemence of
our defamation. And now are we brought face
to face with question that will test all. We are
reluctant to conccde TO the African what we boast
of giving to Others-what almost force upon
others presenting no higher claims. apparently, of
intellectual or moral worth.


Why this odious distinction as against one race !
1t is because the lOathsOme trail of slavery has
passed over rs, leaving its foul slime upon its i'm
mediate victims and producing everywhere a mis-
giving as to their proper humanity. Ii has taint-
cd the national mind The doubt is openly avow-
ed by somei it lies rs an unsatisfed query in the
minds of Others; il fingers unconsciously, or semi
consciously, with many whose philanthropy po-
litical consistency holds them back from confess
ing II even to themselves; i: haunts the soul as
ghostly prejudice. even when philosophy and re-
hson have made us reject it as dogma. We do
not fully and heartily believe that the negro is a
man. We could not act as we do unless
this were the case. Our moral world is not fully
persuaded OF it, notwithstanding the wreck of all
true morality that must result from the belief, once
thoroughly popularized, that men, or any that have
seemingly the physical ard ethical characteristics
OF men, are really animals of distinct and graded
species Our religious world is held back from its
hearty practical acknowledgment, nots Outstanding
tla har axrli oh hot nj Ill,
us the contrary opinion, when it has once settled
down into the common mind, must make in our
Bible and Christian theology.


Were it not for this We could not treat the col
ored man do in our social and religious re-
latOns; We could not bear the moral and political
inconsistency; We could no. face either the world
or our own convictions; we should have to shut our
Bibles; We could not read, or bear tc reud, our
Declaration of Independence. Thus are We com
PEELED in seldefence to dehumanze the negro
1t Is demanded as an opiate to conscience. II he
Is truly man, as We are men, then we so
greatly guilty. Even the yilcst party discipline
would have to yield to the claim of acknowledged
manhood. There is party among us that has
reached the minimum of Gttlcness and the maxi
mnm oil lOathsomenoSs, in making the scOrn and de-
basement of crushed race the sole foundation of
their political edifce. Its column aas no other
base than the bruised head Of a negro IL is n
party that has squaudered everything else that ev
er had the semhlancc of principle, and now this
CT. of"nigger" is the only capital remaining to it.
let even this party, low and hard as it has be
come, could not keep together it's own ignorant
! followers against clear and settled recognition
OF the humanity of those whom they would thus
treat outcasts from the political and social poll
ty. Even the Copperhead Democrat would be-
come ashamed OF himself; lie could not face the
questions that would arise if stripped of his vile
plea (whetler believed Oy himself or not of the
Africans want of proper manhood. So true it is
that false feeling outside OF this party is the all


mcnt that gives it all its poisonous vitality.


Is the negro Il man? Say what they will, this is
the real issue in the controversy respecting him
Ii underlies all others Ii affects our reasoning in
respect to all other aspects of the debate it colors
our speech, it gives hue thought, it weakens
our best arguments, it gives strength 10 worst
| ial'aces. We say ii boldly, and appeal to the
/ public consciousness. 1t is everywhere, and most
truly was il said by General Howard, that "noth-
ing but the spirit of Christ overcome it,
STANCE that such declaration should have been
left to be made by one of our ajor generals only
to be denounced by republican pres. as canting
aud sectarian,


| We must meet this issue fairly and settle it once
and forever, before we can deal with others that
are collateral to it. We do not sufficiently think
how vital and fundam entail this question is. We
are eyading it. Some do this consciously, many
uncoDsciousy, and without any distinct idea OF the
nature and results of their reasoning. We talk
humancly, or affect 10 do so, without seeming to
be aware that the stvle we adopt, the arguments
we employ, though seemingly in his favor, re-
ally dehumanizing the subject to which they are
applied. We do not speak write thus concern
ing any other classe. among US, however low we
may think them IN the outward social scale
Even when advocate the cause OF the African,
we 90 it in manner that would be thought insult
! ing and utterly unlcmOcratic in any other ccse.-
We use the language of masters and owners


The style of our ordinary questions betray this. 1t
is not what is due 10 them, Us men equally with our


selves coming uLder the reciprocal obligation Of
the Golden Rule. but "what shall do with
them,' what shall IRE give conccde, or what
shall oe withhold. Who would thus defend Irish
citizenship. the admission of Irshmen to our
railroad cars, or to our communion tables? The
way in which we speak 10 the colored man, and OF
the colorcd man, shows an unconscious yielding to
| the anti-christisn prejudice we are striving 10
overcome. Frederick Douglass said that Mr..
Lincoln the only man he knew that could talk
to n coloscd person without some appearance of
condescension. The fact reveals one of the no.
blest traits in the noble character OF our martyred
| President. But the general observation of the
,hrewd and intelligent Douglass Was undoubt-
cdly true. There is a timidity. an apologetic
pleading, that we would think of adopting if
We "CiS NV au'VSaIic liSHt rlOuiuSu Ou lhc
clear conscious acknowledgment that those who
are thus defended are really men, and have the
same rights which our religious code, no less than
our Declaration Of Independence, challenges for
all men.


We might dwell here, or we may dwell at some
other time, Oh some of the fearful consequences
that have been barely alluded to, of the effect
which the leaving this issue unsettled, or settled
wrong, would have upon the most important as
poets of human belief--its debasement of our
politics. its degradation of our psychology, the
ruin it would make in our theology, its undermin-
ing of Christian belief, its tendency TO darken
even natural religion, with all the proofs it is sup
posed to offer Of human dignity and human inn
mortality-al gone the moment we begin to make
essential distinctions in humanity, or to treat it
all as mere matter of degree, to take one step
downwards on that Stygian ladder tina; shall connect
our human. through successive gradations with all
the brutal animality that lies below. The degra


dation OF one part is the degradation of all. and
hence the thought we would labor to impress, that
every has both selfish and fraterna inter
est ntEe elevation of every other man.