a low, vacillating, and uncertain moral ideal may, for a time, be able
to stem the tide of outraged virtue, but this is merely transitory.
Ultimate destruction and ruin follow absolutely in the wake of moral
degeneracy; this, all history shows;--this, experience teaches. God
visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third
and fourth generations. "The judgments of the Lord are true and
righteous all together."
Not long ago I stood in the city of Rome amid its ruined fountains,
crumbling walls, falling aqueducts, ancient palaces, and amphitheatres,
to-day mere relics of ancient history. One is struck with wonder and
amazement at the magnificent civilization which that people was able to
evolve. It does not seem possible that the Roman people, who could so
perfect society in its organic and civic relations and leave to the
world the organic principles which must always lie at the base of all
subsequent social development,--it does not seem possible that such a
people should so decay as to leave hardly a vestige of its original
stock, and that such cities as the Romans erected should so fall as to
leave scarcely one stone upon another. Neither does it seem credible
that a people who could so work out in its philosophical aspect man's
relation to the eternal mystery, and come as near a perfect solution as
is perhaps possible for the human mind to reach, that a people who could
give to the world such literature, such art, such ideals of physical and
intellectual beauty, as did the Greeks, could so utterly perish from
the face of the earth; yet this is the case not only with Rome and
Greece, but with a score or more of nations which were once masters of
the world. The Greeks, Romans, Persians, Egyptians, and even God's
chosen people, allowed corruption and vice to so dwarf their moral sense
that there was, according to the universal law of civilization, nothing
left for them but death and destruction.
It is no reproach to the Negro to say that his history and environment
in this country have well-nigh placed him at the bottom of the moral
scale. This must be remedied, if the Negro is ever to reach his full
status of civilized manhood and womanhood. It must come through the
united efforts of the educated among us. We must be united to stop the
ravages of disease among our people; united to keep black boys from
idleness, vice, gambling, and crime; united to guard the purity of black
womanhood and, I might add, black manhood also. It is not enough to
simply protest that ninety-five out of every hundred Negroes are orderly
and law-abiding. The ninety-five must be banded together to restrain and
suppress the vicious five.
The people must be impressed with the idea that a high moral character
is absolutely essential to the highest development of every race, white
quite as much as black. There is no creature so low and contemptible as
he who does not seek first the approval of his own conscience and his
God; for, after all, how poor is human recognition when you and your God
are aware of your inward integrity of soul! If the Negro will keep
clean hands and a pure heart, he can stand up before all the world and
say, "Doubtless Thou, O Lord, art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant
of us and Israel acknowledge us not."
Thirdly, and lastly, _the Negro needs intelligent industry_.
Slavery taught the Negro many things for which he should be profoundly
thankful--the Christian religion, the English language, and, in a
measure, civilization, which in many aspects may be crude in form, but
these have placed him a thousand years ahead of his African ancestors.
Slavery taught the Negro to work by rule and rote but not by principle
and method. It did not and, perhaps, could not teach him to love and
respect labor, but left him, on the contrary, with the idea that manual
industry was a thing to be despised and gotten rid of, if possible; that
to work with one's hands was a badge of inferiority. A tropical climate
is not conducive to the development of practical energy. Add to the
Negro's natural tendency his unfortunate heritage from slavery, and we
see at once that the race needs especially to be rooted and grounded in
the underlying scientific principles of concrete things. The time when
the world bowed before merely abstract, impractical knowledge has
well-nigh passed; the demand of this age and hour is not so much what a
man knows,--though the world respects and reveres knowledge and always
will, I hope,--what the world wants to know is what a man can do and how
well he can do it.
We must not be misled by high-sounding phrases as to the kind of
education the race should receive, but we should remember that the
education of a people should be conditioned upon their capacity, social
environment, and the probable life which they will lead in the immediate
future. We fully realize that the ignorant must be taught, the poor must
have the gospel, and the vicious must be restrained, but we also realize
that these do not strike the "bed-rock" of a permanent, lasting
citizenship.
If the Negro will add his proportionate contribution to the economic
aspect of the world's civilization, it must be done through intelligent,
well-directed, conscientious, skilled industry. Indeed, the feasible
forms of civilization are nothing but the concrete actualization of
intelligent thought applied to what are sometimes called common things.
The primary sources of wealth are agriculture, mining, manufacturing,
and commerce. These are the lines along which the thoughtful energy of
the black race must be directed. I mean by agriculture, _farming_--the
raising of corn, cotton, peas, and potatoes, pigs, chickens, horses, and
cows.
Land may be bought practically anywhere in the South almost at our own
price. Twenty years hence, with the rapidly developing Southern country
and the strenuous efforts to fill it up with foreign immigrants, it will
be difficult, if not impossible, for us to buy land. God gave the
children of Israel the "Land of Canaan" but, Oh, what a life and death
struggle they had to take possession of it and hold on to it. God has
given to the Negro here in this Southern country two of the most
fundamental necessities in his development--_land_ and _labor_. If you
don't possess this land and hold this labor, God will tell you as He has
often told other races--"to move on."
The Creator never meant that this beautiful land should be forever kept
as a great hunting-ground for the Indian to roam in savage bliss, but he
intended that it should be used. The Indian, having for scores of
generations failed to develop this land, God asked the Anglo-Saxon to
take possession and dig out the treasures of wheat, corn, cotton, gold
and silver, coal and iron, and the poor Indian was told "to move on."
The Negro in Africa sits listlessly in the sunshine of barbarous
idleness while the same progressive, indomitable, persevering, white man
is taking possession; the same edict has gone forth to the native
African--he is being told "to move on."
The same God will tell the white man in America and in Africa, if he
does not mete out absolute justice and absolute fairness to his weaker
and less-advantaged brother, black or red or brown, if he cannot do
justly and love mercy, just as he told the patricians of Rome, he will
tell the white man "to move on."
Whatever question there may be about the white man's part in this
situation, there is no doubt about ours. Don't let us delude ourselves
but keep in mind the fact that the man who owns his home and cultivates
his land and lives a decent, self-respecting, useful, and helpful life
is no problem anywhere. We talk about the "color line," but you know
and I know that the blackest Negro in Alabama or Mississippi or Africa
or anywhere else who puts the same amount of skill and energy into his
farming gets as large returns for his labor as the whitest Anglo-Saxon.
The earth yields up her increase as willingly to the skill and
persuasions of the black as of the white husbandman. Wind, wave, heat,
stream, and electricity are absolutely blind forces and see no race
distinction and draw no "color line." The world's market does not care
and it asks no question about the shade of the hand that produces the
commodity, but it does insist that it shall be up to the world's
requirements.
I thank God for the excellent chance to work that my race had in this
Southern country; the Negro in America has a real, good, healthy job,
and I hope he may always keep it. I am not particular what he does or
where he does it, so he is engaged in honest, useful work. Remember
always that building a house is quite as important as building a poem;
that the science of cooking is as useful to humanity as the science of
music; that the thing most to be desired is a harmonious and helpful
adaptation of all the arts and sciences to the glory of God and the good
of humanity; that whether we labor with muscle or with brain, both need
divine inspiration. Let us consecrate our brain and muscle to the
highest and noblest service, to God, and humanity.
* * * * *
There is no reason why any Negro should become discouraged or morbid. We
believe in God; His providence is mysterious and inscrutible; but his
ways are just and righteous altogether. Suffering and disappointment
have always found their place in divine economy. It took four hundred
years of slavery in Egypt and a sifting process of forty years in the
"Wilderness" to teach Israel to respect their race and to fit them for
entrance into the "Promised Land." The black man has not as yet
thoroughly learned to have the respect for his race that is so necessary
to the making of a great people. I believe the woes that God has sent
him are but the fiery furnace through which he is passing, that is
separating the dross from the pure gold, and is welding the Negroes
together as a great people for a great purpose.
There is every reason for optimism, hopefulness. The Negro never had
more the respect and confidence of his neighbors, black and white, than
he has to-day. Neither has he because of his real worth deserved that
respect more than he does to-day. Could anybody, amid the inspiration of
these grounds and buildings, be discouraged about the future of the
Negro? The race problem in this country, I repeat, is simply a part of
the problem of life. It is the adjustment of man's relation to his
brother, and this adjustment began when Cain slew Abel. Race prejudice
is as much a fact as the law of gravitation, and it is as foolish to
ignore the operation of one as of the other. Mournful complaint and
arrogant criticism are as useless as the crying of a baby against the
fury of a great wind. The path of moral progress, remember, has never
taken a straight line, but I believe that, unless democracy is a failure
and Christianity a mockery, it is entirely feasible and practicable for
the black and white races of America to develop side by side, in peace,
in harmony, and in mutual helpfulness each toward the other; living
together as "brothers in Christ without being brothers-in-law," each
making its contributions to the wealth and culture of our beloved
country.
* * * * *
I close with these lines, from an anonymous poet, on "The Water Lily":
"O star on the breast of the river,
O marvel of bloom and grace,
Did you fall straight down from heaven,
Out of the sweetest place?
You are white as the thought of the angel,
Your heart is steeped in the sun;
Did you grow in the golden city,
My pure and radiant one?
"Nay, nay, I fell not out of heaven;
None gave me my saintly white;
It slowly grew in the blackness,
Down in the dreary night,
From the ooze of the silent river
I won my glory and grace;
While souls fall not, O my poet,
They _rise_ to the sweetest place."
THE TWO SEALS[43]
BY PROFESSOR GEORGE WILLIAM COOK
_Secretary of Howard University_
[Note 43: An address delivered at a banquet given in his honor, May
21, 1912.]
_Mr. Toastmaster and Friends:_
Let me first thank the Committee and you all for your generosity in
tendering me this evidence of good wishes and good will. It is stated in
your invitation, "In honor of George William Cook, Secretary of Howard
University"--a double compliment, at once personal and official. Surely
it is an honor to find so many men of varied occupations and duties
turning aside to spend time and money to express appreciation of one's
character. Dull indeed must the creature be who cannot find gratitude
enough to return thanks; for grateful minds always return thanks. To be
direct I deeply feel the personal and non-official side of the
compliment you pay me, but will you pardon me, gentlemen, if I confess
that to compliment me as Secretary of Howard University touches me in a
tender and vulnerable spot. "I love old Howard," and always have been
and am now anxious to be in the team to tug at the administrative phase
of Howard's movements. Accept then, my sincere thanks.
Now let us then turn aside in sweet communion as brothers to talk about
our alma mater. Let us trace her from foundation to present eminence;
re-affirm our family pledges and form resolutions new. Howard men will
spring up with both money and spirit, not far in the future, when the
mother's cry in want will be met with a generous hand from her sons and
daughters. A little more time for preparation and accumulation; then
will be the time when endowment will precede request for preferment.
When black philanthropists can turn desert spots into oases of learning
and build halls of culture, then will Howard be reaping the reward in
her own harvest and justify her being in the great family of
Universities.
Though I wax warm in sentiment, I crave your indulgence but for a short
while, for I pledge you my honor, and I say it seriously, that there is
an affection underlying my words that makes Howard but second in love to
my wife and child. She has been a gracious mother to me, supplying my
necessities and defending me in my adversities, for which I have ever
sought with might and main to return loyalty and service. When I am
referred to as a Howard man, I have an uplift in the consciousness of
relationship and fealty to an institution which to honor is but to be
honored.
Visible manifestations of thought and idea have ever marked the purposes
of man. Monuments and cities but express precurrent mental objects. God,
in His message to Moses, directed that a tabernacle be built and that it
should be the sign of his pleasure and approbation, a veritable
indwelling of the spirit of God. Living thought can be said to have
habitation. Greek and Roman art, Egyptian architecture, Catholic
grandeur, or Quaker simplicity, all speak some great and noble
soul-moving and world-moving power. Within the temple area was centered
the devotion of the Jew, both political and religious. The Hebrew
theocratic system of government made it so. St. Peter's at Rome, no more
nor less than St. Paul's at London, speaks of God and the mission of His
son. The Mosque of Omar, Saint Sophia at Constantinople, point that
Allah is God and Mohammed is His Prophet; the Taj-Mahal is at once the
emblem and creation of love; the Sistine Chapel teaches the glories and
joys of maternity and God incarnate in man. The Pan-American Building at
Washington, the Carnegie Peace Building at The Hague, teach unity of
mankind, and but heighten the angelic chorus of "Peace and good will to
men."
From yon Virginia hill, a galaxy of institutions may be discerned,
bringing lessons to a listening world. As one may stand on Arlington's
sacred heights, looking about him, he will find the indices in the
graves and monuments there of sacrifice for a national union
"indissoluble and forever"; and as his eyes sweep the horizon, scanning
through mist and sunshine, the emblem and insignia of thought and policy
will block the view. He will see the gold-tipped dome of the Library of
Congress glinting in the light, and know its scintillations but herald
the purpose to keep the light of learning and knowledge bright. Yon
stately Capitol dome interrupts his line of vision but to remind him
that it covers the chancel of legislation, and that representative
government is a fixed and permanent fact. That single towering shaft on
yon Potomac bed speaks of individual and unselfish devotion to a
nation--Washingtonian patriotism, unique in history--and at the same
time reflects the appreciation of a grateful and worshipful people. Hast
thou seen it in its lonely grandeur on a moonlight night? It is well
worth a trip across the ocean to read its message. Sweeping westward,
the eye sees planted on a hill-top Georgetown College, the outward
symbol of tenet and propaganda. Raising the visual angle and dropping
back to the northwest, the white marble walls of the American University
come to view, planted that Methodism with justification by faith might
preach the Gospel for the redemption of man. Turning to the northeast,
the great Catholic University presents itself as a repository and, at
the same time, a vehicle of Catholic love of learning; and in
juxtaposition towers high in alabastine whiteness the Spanish
architecture of the Soldiers Home; though standing mute in immaculate
marble, expressing to the defenders of a country an appreciation of
their patriotism and sacrifice; the _ensemble_ preaching to an active
world. Then, the line of vision is obtruded upon by the stately main
building of Howard University, of her structures the noblest. Observed
from the high palisades or the low bed of the Potomac, that ever-present
object of view from any point of the District is veritably "a city on a
hill that cannot be hid,"--symbolic and typical of her mission. And then
the inquiry comes as to her significance. Why standeth thou there
absorbing space?
Vying in sunshine and moonshine with the Capitol in conspicuous aspect,
the two stand as twin sentinels on opposite ramparts of the Potomac
Valley, overlooking in midnight vigil the slumbering city, each
challenging the attention of the wayfarer. What art thou to justify
thyself to man? What mission hast thou to excuse thy being? What road of
profit? What principle of uplift hast thou to send forth? Thy halls
resound to the murmur of what message from the Divine? What, we ask, is
thy mission? The answer is echoed from the archives: "Consult her
founders; learn of them if thou wouldst know." Therefore, friends, we
turn to the records of Howard University and the declaration of her
founders--her founders, men fresh from the fortunes of war,
battle-scarred and blood-stained, desiring further to perpetuate the
object of their militant victories by the forces of peace and
brotherhood; men who failed to die at Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, and
Lookout Mountain, and continued the fight on this hill; men who, not
satisfied with loosening the shackles of bondage, turned their powers to
driving darkness from human souls, though encased in ebony; men who
wrought under God's hand, and dying dissatisfied that the full fruition
of their labors were not yet come to pass, leaving to survivors and
posterity an unmistaken task and warfare.
Howard has had two seals. The first reading "Equal rights and knowledge
for all"; the second, "For God and the Republic"; the former breathing
the spirit of the Civil War period and the Pauline doctrine declared
before the Areopagus, announced in the preaching and work of Christ and
emphasized by the Declaration of Independence; the latter pregnant with
reverence, piety, and patriotism; the twain compassing man's duty higher
than which human conception is lost. Privileged indeed is one to live
under the aegis of such twin declarations. Fortunate indeed to have the
authorization of official acts blessed by the benediction of such
battle-cries.
The preamble to the charter explains comprehensively, though not in
detail, the great purpose of Howard University:
"Section 1. That there be established, and is hereby established in the
District of Columbia, a university for the education of youth in the
liberal arts and sciences, under the name, seal, and title of Howard
University," stated as simple and plain as the decalogue itself.
I glean from the Fourth Annual Report on Schools for Freedmen for July
1, 1867, by J. W. Alvord, then General Superintendent of Schools, Bureau
for Refugees and Abandoned Lands, what I conceive to be the first
catalogue of Howard University, and, if you will bear with me, I will
read the entire catalogue.
"Howard University. A charter has been granted by Congress for the
Howard University, which is to be open to all of both sexes without
discrimination of color. This institution bids fair to do great good.
Its beautiful site, so opportunely and wisely secured, is an earnest of
success. Large and commodious buildings are soon to be erected thereon.
The normal and preparatory departments of the university were opened on
the first of May, under the instruction of Rev. E. F. Williams, an
accomplished scholar and a thorough teacher. At the close of the month
the school numbered thirty-one scholars; it has now increased to about
sixty. Miss Lord, so long a popular teacher of this city, has been
appointed assistant. The grade of this school is low for its name, but
the students are making good advancement."
It may be thought by casual consideration, as was said by eminent men,
that the name was the largest thing about it, but I prefer to disagree
and to say that the purpose as set forth in the charter is the greatest
thing about it. These are the words:
"We urge all friends of the freedmen to increasing confidence and to
look forward with assured expectation to greater things than these. This
people are to be prepared for what is being prepared for them. They are
to become a 'people which in time past were not a people'; and there is
increasing evidence that 'God hath made of one blood all the nations of
men.' Equal endowments substantially, with equal culture, will produce
that equality common to all mankind."
In them we get the quintescence, we get the crystallization, we get the
high purpose, we get the spiritual foundation, of Howard University.
Conceived in prayer, born of the faith and convictions as embodied in
its original seal which reads, "Equal rights and knowledge for all," an
offspring of Plymouth Rock, Howard University is set before you--a cross
between religious fervor and prophetic educational enthusiasm. She is,
then, the essence filtrating from the declaration of Paul at Athens,
that "of one blood hath God created all men to dwell upon earth."
For forty-five years, Howard has been living her life. She has been more
or less doing her work as circumstances allowed and dictated, but now we
ask of you "Watchman, what of the night?" How far has this work been
progressing along the line of basal principles that we find embodied in
all these authoritative extracts? Unfortunate I think it is that the
discussions in the early meetings of the Board of Trustees were not
preserved in stenographic report, for the time will come when the
spiritual history of Howard University must be written as well as its
material history, and then the historian will be at a loss to find the
true afflatus that gave birth to our alma mater, unless we keep it in
evidence.
The imagination has oft painted Howard University as a temple--a temple
of knowledge,--a temple for the teaching of justice; a temple for the
upbuild of mankind. Let us then hold its form to our imagination, pearly
white as the palaces of the South, straight in its construction as
rectitude, and let us present it to an admiring world, not only for
aesthetic culture but ethical grandeur, religious progress, and political
righteousness; and let us say to all, be he high or low, "who touches a
stone in yon God-given edifice" is guilty of vandalism, is an iconoclast
not at any time to be tolerated. He is tampering with the rights and
privileges of a worthy people and deserves to have visited upon him the
excoriation of a fiery indignation. Howard was created to meet the dire
needs of a meritorious class, and insensible indeed must the man be who
for sentimental or personal reasons or for profit, swerves one degree
from the line of the highest form of education in administration or
instruction. There should be launched upon him the anathema of an
outraged people.