perceptible; the intense blue of the sky began to soften; the smaller
stars, like little children, went first to rest; the sister beams of the
Pleiades soon melted together; but the bright constellations of the west
and north remained unchanged. Steadily the wondrous transfiguration went
on. Hands of angels, hidden from mortal eyes, shifted the scenery of the
heavens; the glories of the night dissolved into the glories of the
dawn. The blue sky now turned more softly gray; the great watch-stars
shut up their holy eyes; the east began to kindle. Faint streaks of
purple soon blushed along the sky; the whole celestial concave was
filled with the inflowing tides of the morning light which came pouring
down from above in one great ocean of radiance; till at length, as we
reached the Blue Hills, a flash of purple fire blazed out from above the
horizon, and turned the dewy teardrops of flower and leaf into rubies
and diamonds. In a few seconds, the everlasting gates of the morning
were thrown wide open, and the lord of day, arrayed in glories too
severe for the gaze of man, began his state."
Nothing but the morning itself is more beautiful than this sublime
description.
The best of the day is the morning. The brain is clearer, the nerves
more steady, the physical powers at their best before the sun reaches
its zenith. Weariness waits for noon, and the wise man chooses the
morning as the period for his most exacting toil.
Of all the year, the spring-time is the fairest. Nature wakes from the
restful sleep of winter. Grasses grow, flowers bloom, trees put forth
their leaves, birds build their nests, and he who hopes for harvest lays
the foundations of his future gain. The whole year is lost to him who
sleeps or idles away the seed-time. Late planting will grow, perhaps, if
excessive heat does not kill the seed or wither the shoot; but before it
comes to fruitage the frosts of autumn will blight it, flower and stem
and root. Man cannot alter God's plan. There is a time to sow and a time
to reap.
Life has its seasons also--its spring-time, its winter; morning, noon,
and night. The Scriptures enjoin us to work while it is called day; for
the night cometh when no man can work. In the parable the rich man who
went on a journey appointed each servant a task. To each of us is
entrusted some treasure; each is commanded to work. To labor is man's
appointed lot. This is his supreme mission in the world. He cannot avoid
it. Even the servant who sought to evade his responsibility went and
_digged_ in the earth.
Resisting the forces which tend to destroy life; surmounting the
obstacles to substantial success; breaking down barriers, commercial,
civil, social, political, and becoming a factor in the best life of his
community--the peer of any in mental and moral qualities, a
representative and an advocate of the principles of justice and
equality--this is the work of a man.
Such efforts do not tax the muscles only. They call forth the energies
of the entire being. Foresight, calculation, enterprise, courage,
self-control; fertility in resources; the ability to recognize and
embrace an opportunity, are all required. The inspiration must come from
above. All the powers of mind and body must be enlisted. Flagging
energies, lashed by an indomitable will, must persevere.
"Life is real and life is earnest" wrote the poet. He who does not take
life seriously has woefully failed to comprehend its significance. Toil,
service, sacrifice--these are the words which tell the true story of a
life. Willingly, it should be, but if not so, then reluctantly man must
toil, serve, sacrifice. For noble ends, it should be, but if not so,
then for base ends, he must toil, serve, sacrifice. With buoyant,
hopeful spirit, or with cheerless, heavy heart; toil, service,
sacrifice is the Divine decree, irrevocable, eternal.
* * * * *
It is my privilege to address the members of the Epworth League but my
thought embraces young people everywhere, especially those of my own
race.
You live. A definite responsibility is thereby placed upon you. Not as a
burden to be borne with sadness, but rather as an act of beneficence has
the Creator called you into being and sent you forth upon your mission
in the world. He sends you to a world full of beauty. Sunshine,
fragrance, and melody are about you. Yet you may not be conscious of it.
Blindness or perverted vision may cloud the sky and fill the earth with
shadows. The clamors of selfish interest or lawless passion may change
the harmony into perpetual discord and din. Evil associations, impure
thoughts, and unholy practises create false ideas of life.
"Faults in the life breed errors in the brain,
And these reciprocally those again;
The mind and conduct mutually imprint,
And stamp their image in each other's mint."
Yet for him who hath eyes to see, the world is full of beauty. Nor
beauty only; but design is everywhere manifested, revealing the presence
of a supreme Intelligence and immeasurable love in fitting out for man a
perfect habitation. Whatever of wretchedness the world holds is
man-made. It is proof positive of a purpose to make man happy that so
many instruments of pleasure are placed at his hand. Each sense and
organ has its objects of exercise and enjoyment. Every natural
instinct, desire, and appetite is recognized, and its proper, legitimate
indulgence provided for. Blessed are they who find life joyous and who
choose it, not from a fear of death, but for what there is in life--who
can say: "I find death perfectly desirable, but I find life perfectly
beautiful."
You have life and you have youth. You live in life's morn; the
spring-time of your existence is upon you. Quick perceptions, swift and
keen intelligence, strong limbs, rich, pure blood, and a hope that
"springs eternal," are a portion of the heritage of youth. With
faculties unimpaired by age or excesses, you awake to an existence which
shall never end, and begin a destiny which shall be whatever you, by the
use or abuse of those faculties, shall determine.
Hereditary influences count for something. Environment has much to do
with the shaping of a life. Yet a responsibility without evasion rests
upon each individual soul. Not one is saved or lost without his own
voluntary contribution toward that end. It is an awful responsibility,
commensurate with the rewards offered to integrity and fidelity. The
thought that you must stand at the judgment-seat and answer for this
life should impress the most thoughtless with the importance of
seed-time.
Young people are the life-blood of the nation, the pillars of the state.
The future of the world is wrapped up in the lives of its youth. As
these unfold, the pages of history will tell the story of deeds noble
and base. Characters resplendent with jewels and ornaments of virtue
will be held up for the admiration of the world and the emulation of
generations not yet born. Others, thoughtlessly or wilfully ignoring the
plain path of duty, dwarfed, blighted, rejected of God and man, will be
sign-posts marking the road to ruin.
Think not that moderation will escape notice; you cannot slip by with
the crowd. Exceptional instances of vice or virtue attract more
temporary notice; but the thought, tone, and general sentiment of a
community give the inspiration and the impulse to those who outstrip the
masses in the race for the goal of honor or of shame. None so humble but
he has his share in moulding the destiny of the race. At the last, a
just balance will determine your share of praise or blame.
Young people should recognize their own worth and resolve to act a noble
part. "Let no man despise thy youth," says the Word. Despise not thou
thy youth. Fully appreciating your high privilege and your rich estate,
go forth into the world's broad field of battle, determined to make no
misuse of your day of opportunity. Be bold, vigilant, and strong. Be
true to the noblest instincts of your nature and have strong faith in
God.
"Call up thy noble spirit;
Rouse all the generous energies of virtue,
And, with the strength of Heaven-endued man,
Repel the hideous foe."
"Manhood, like gold, is tested in the furnace:
A fire that purifies is fierce and strong;
Rare statues gain art's ideal of perfection,
By skilful strokes of chisel, wielded long."
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF
MASSACHUSETTS[46]
BY WILLIAM H. LEWIS
_Assistant Attorney-General of the United States_
[Note 46: Boston, Massachusetts, Wednesday, February 12, 1913.]
_Mr. Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives:_
The power of the House to summons forthwith any citizen of the
Commonwealth has never been resisted; and so by designation of the
Honorable Speaker, in accordance with the order of the House, I am here
in answer to your summons. You have invited me, as a member of the
liberated race, to address you upon this Lincoln's Birthday in
commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Words would be futile to express my deep appreciation of this high
honor, however unworthily bestowed. Twice before have I met this
honorable House. I came first as an humble petitioner seeking redress
against discrimination on account of color. You then granted my prayer.
Some years later, I came as a member of this House, the last
representative of my race to sit in this body. You treated me then as a
man and an equal. And now the honors of an invited guest I shall cherish
as long as memory lasts.
To-day is the anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the preserver
of the Union, the liberator of a race. "The mystic chords of memory,"
stretching from heart to heart of millions of Americans at this hour,
"swell the chorus of thanksgiving" to the Almighty for the life,
character, and service of the great President.
Four brief, crucial years he represented the soul of the Union
struggling for immortality--for perpetuity; in him was the spirit of
liberty struggling for a new birth among the children of men.
"Slavery must die," he said, "that the Union may live."
We have a Union to-day because we have Emancipation; we have
Emancipation because we have a united country. Though nearly fifty years
have elapsed since his martyr death and we see his images everywhere,
yet Lincoln is no mere legendary figure of an heroic age done in colors,
cast in bronze, or sculptured in marble; he is a living, vital force in
American politics and statecraft. The people repeat his wise sayings;
politicians invoke his principles; men of many political stripes profess
to be following in his footsteps. We of this generation can almost see
him in the flesh and blood and hear falling from his lips the sublime
words of Gettysburg, the divine music of the second inaugural and the
immortal Proclamation of Emancipation. We see this man of mighty thews
and sinews, his feet firmly planted in mother earth, his head towering
in the heavens. He lived among men but he walked with God. He was
himself intensely human, but his sense of right, of justice, seemed to
surpass the wisdom of men. A true child of nature, he beheld the races
of men in the raw without the artificial trappings of civilization and
the adventitious circumstances of birth or wealth or place, and could
see no difference in their natural rights.
"The Negro is a man," said he, "my ancient faith tells me that all men
are created equal."
As a man he was brave yet gentle, strong yet tender and sympathetic,
with the intellect of a philosopher, yet with the heart of a little
child. As a statesman he was prudent, wise, sagacious, far-seeing and
true. As President he was firm, magnanimous, merciful, and just. As a
liberator and benefactor of mankind, he has no peer in all human
history.
As Lowell said in his famous commemoration ode, it still must be said:
"Great captains, with their guns and drums,
Disturb our judgment for the hour,
But at last silence comes;
These are all gone, and, standing like a tower,
Our children shall behold his fame,
The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man,
Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame,
New birth of our new soil, the first American."
There are only three great charters of freedom among Anglo-Saxon
peoples: the Magna Charta, which the barons wrung from King John at
Runnymede; the Declaration of Independence, which a few colonials threw
at the head of an obstinate king; the Emancipation Proclamation, which
Lincoln cast into the balance for the Union. The Magna Charta gave
freedom to the nobility; the Declaration of Independence brought freedom
down to the plain people; the Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln set free
the under-man, and proclaimed liberty to the slave and the serf
throughout the world.
Massachusetts had no small part in the second great charter of liberty.
This is attested not only by the signatures of Hancock, the Adams's,
Paine, and Gerry to that great document, but here are Boston, Concord,
Lexington, and Bunker Hill, and a thousand memorials of the Revolution
besides. Great indeed as was the part that Massachusetts played in
achieving independence, greater still was her share in the Emancipation
of the slave. Lincoln himself said that Boston had done more to bring on
the war than any other city; and when Emancipation had been achieved he
generously credited the result "to the logic and moral power of Garrison
and the anti-slavery people."
This day, therefore, belongs to Massachusetts. It is a part of her
glorious history. Emancipation was but the triumph of Puritan
principle--the right of each individual to eat his bread out of the
sweat of his own brow or not at all. The history of the abolition of
slavery in America could not be written with Massachusetts left out; the
history of Massachusetts herself, since the Revolution, would be but a
dreary, barren waste without the chapter of her part in the
Emancipation.
The House does well to pause in its deliberations to commemorate this
anniversary. In 1837 your predecessors threw open the old Hall of
Representatives to the first meeting of the New England Anti-Slavery
Society. A year later, the legislature adopted resolutions against the
slave-trade, for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia,
and the prohibition of slavery in the territories.
The fathers early enacted that there should be neither bond slaves nor
villeinage amongst us except captives taken in just wars and those
condemned judicially to serve. When it was attempted to land the first
cargo of slaves upon her soil, the people seized them and sent them back
to their own country and clime. In spite of the prayers and resolutions
and acts of the early fathers, a form of slavery grew up here, but it
was milder than the English villeinage: it resembled apprenticeship
except in the duration. The slave had many of the rights of free men;
the right to marry and the right to testify in court. Either with the
decision of Somerset's case in England or the adoption of the first
Constitution of the Commonwealth, during the Revolution, that
institution passed away forever. The voices of freedom were first raised
here. Whittier, Lowell, and Longfellow sang the songs of Emancipation.
Garrison, Phillips, and Parker were the prophets and disciples of
Lincoln. In the darkest days of slavery, John Quincy Adams held aloft
the torch of liberty and fed its flame with his own intrepid spirit.
Sumner was the scourge of God, the conscience of the state incarnate.
The people of Massachusetts were not only idealists, dreamers, and
molders of public opinion, but when thirty years of agitation had
reached its culmination in the Civil War, Massachusetts sent 150,000 of
her sons to sustain upon the battle-fields of the Republic the ideals
which she had advocated in the Halls of Congress, in the forum and the
market-place. The people of Massachusetts, true to their history and
traditions, have abolished here, so far as laws can do so, every
discrimination between race and color, and every inequality between man
and man.
I have recalled these things for no vainglorious purpose. We should
remind ourselves constantly that we have a history behind us, that we
have a character to sustain. Are we of this generation worthy
descendants of tea spillers and abolitionists? Are we living up to the
traditions of the Commonwealth, to the principles of the fathers in
relation to the treatment of citizens of color? I have observed with
aching heart and agonizing spirit during the last twenty years not only
the growing coldness and indifference on the part of our people to the
fate of the Negro elsewhere; but here in our own city the breaking up of
the old ties of friendship that once existed between people of color and
all classes of citizens, just after Emancipation; the gradual falling
away of that sympathy and support upon which we could always confidently
rely in every crisis. I have watched the spirit of race prejudice raise
its sinister shape in the labor market, in the business house, the
real-estate exchange, in public places, and even in our schools,
colleges, and churches.
I say all this with pain and sorrow. I would be the last to "soil my own
nest" or to utter one word that would reflect in the slightest degree
upon Massachusetts or her people. I love inexpressibly every foot of
Massachusetts soil, from the Berkshires to Essex, from the Capes to the
islands off our southern coast. I have studied her history; I know her
people, and when I have played out the little game with destiny, I want
to rest upon some Massachusetts hillside.
I can never forget the emotions that filled my breast when first I set
foot in Boston just a quarter of a century ago, a Negro lad in search of
education, freedom, and opportunity. As I walked these sacred streets I
lived over the Revolution, I saw them peopled with the mighty men of the
past. I hastened to make my obeisance first to the spot where Attucks
fell, the first martyr of the Revolution. I next looked out upon Bunker
Hill where Peter Salem stood guard over the fallen Warren. I said to
myself "here at last no black man need be ashamed of his race, here he
has made history." And then to scenes of still another period I turned
my gaze. I looked upon the narrow streets where Garrison was mobbed for
my sake. I viewed the place where a few brave men gave Shadrach to
freedom and to fame. The pictured walls of the old "cradle of liberty"
seemed still to echo to the silvery tones of Phillips. The molded face
of Governor Andrew spoke a benediction: "I know not what record of sins
awaits me in that other life, but this I do know, I never despised any
man because he was ignorant, because he was poor or because he was
black."
I felt that here at last was liberty, and here I would make my home.
You say to me, "certainly you can find no fault." I gratefully
acknowledge the debt which I owe the people of Massachusetts, but I
cannot forget my brethren here. I cannot forget my children too, who
were born here and by the blessings of God and your help I will leave to
them and their children a freer and better Massachusetts even than I
have found her.
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
I want upon this day to remind Massachusetts of her old ideals of
liberty, justice, equality for all beneath her pure white flag. Laws,
customs, institutions are nothing unless behind them stands a vital,
living, throbbing public sentiment in favor of their enforcement in the
spirit as well as in the letter. My friends, unless we can stay the
rising tide of prejudice; unless we can hark back to our old ideals and
old faiths, our very statues and memorials will some day mock us and cry
shame upon us.
National Emancipation was the culmination of a moral revolution, such as
the world has never seen. It was not as Garrison intended, a peaceful
revolution, the unanimous verdict of an awakened national conscience.
Thirty years of fierce agitation and fiercer politics made an appeal to
arms absolutely certain. A conflict of arms brought on by a conflict of
opinion was bound to be followed by a conflict of opinion, whichever
side won. So for fifty years since Emancipation, there has been more or
less conflict over the Negro and his place in the Republic. The results
of that conflict have in many instances been oppressive and even
disastrous to his freedom. Many things incidental to Emancipation and
vital to complete freedom are unfortunately still in the controversial
stages. The right of the Negro to cast a ballot on the same
qualifications as his other fellow citizens is not yet conceded
everywhere. Public sentiment has not yet caught up with the
Constitution, nor is it in accord with the principles of true democracy.
The right of the Negro to free access to all public places and to exact
similar treatment therein is not universal in this country. He is
segregated by law in some sections; he is segregated by custom in
others. He is subjected to many petty annoyances and injustices and
ofttimes deep humiliation solely on account of his color.
The explanation of this reactionary tendency sometimes given is that the
Negro is only a generation from slavery. It should not be forgotten that
individuals of every other race in history have at some time been held
slaves. The bondage of Israel is to-day only an epic poem. The Greek
Slave adorns simply a niche in some palace of art. The Servii of Rome
instructed the masters of the world. The Anglo-Saxon has not only worn
the Roman and Norman collars, but individuals of that race were sold as
slaves in the West Indies as late as the seventeenth century. White men
have enslaved white men, black men have enslaved black men. The place of
human slavery in the divine economy I do not understand, nor do I defend
it; I am glad that the human race has long since passed that stage in
its development. No race has a right to lord it over another or seek to
degrade it because of a history of servitude; all have passed through
this cruel experience; the history of the black race is a little more
recent, that is all. The fact of slavery, therefore, should not impose
the slightest limitation upon the liberty of the Negro or restriction
upon his rights as a man and citizen.
The one great phase of the race question agitating the country to-day is
that of intermarriage and miscegenation. It is a serious question; it is
a vital question. No one will deny the right of any man to protect his
family stock, or the right of a group to preserve its racial integrity.
The facts show, however, that laws, however stringent, will not
accomplish it. I submit for the serious consideration of the American
people that the only danger of infusion from the Negro side is simply
one thing, and that is summed up in one word "injustice." Why is it that
thousands of colored men and women go over to the other side, "pass" as
we say? It is for no other purpose than to escape the social ostracism
and civic disabilities of the Negro. Why is it that we see so many
pathetic attempts to be white? It is simply to escape injustice. In a
country where every opportunity is open to the white, in business, in
society, in government, and the door shut against or reluctantly opened
to the black, the natural unconscious effort of the black is to get
white. Where black is a badge of an inferior caste position in society,
the natural effort of the black is to find some method of escape. I do
not advocate intermarriage; I do not defend miscegenation. The same
thing is true to-day as it was true in the time of Lincoln. In his
debates with Douglass in 1858, he noted "that among the free States,
those which make the colored man the nearest equal to the white have
proportionally the fewest mulattoes, the least amalgamation."
I submit therefore, that the only sure way to put an end to this
tendency or desire, so far as the Negro is concerned, is to accord him
all his public and political rights and to treat each individual upon
his merits as a man and citizen, according to him such recognition as
his talents, his genius, his services to the community or the state
entitles him. Make black, brown, yellow, the "open sesame" to the same
privileges and the same opportunities as the white, and no one will care
to become white.
Upon this day which commemorates the emancipation of the black and the
larger freedom of the white race, the redemption of the state and the
birth of a new nation, I would bring to you a message not of blackness
and despair but of hope--hope triumphant, hope, that Watts has pictured
as blind with one string to her lyre, that sees not the star just ahead,
but sits supreme at the top of the world.