When a young man, just arrived at majority, leaps beyond parental
control, into the wide world of personal responsibility, it is
true that his immunities are greater, but his cares have increased
also. So the Negro, being clad in the habiliments of freedom, steps
out of the tomb of thralldom into liberty and citizenship. But his
responsibilities are in proportion to his new liberties. He has graver
cares and more arduous duties than when he rose and retired at the
sounding of the overseer's horn. He must look at these duties to
himself, his family, his neighbor, his state and his God, calmly and
in the new light which must accompany freedom in order that it may be
permanent. Freedom is a contradictory term. It is a deceptive word.
There is no absolute freedom in civilized society. Among civilized
people freedom means restraint--restriction. The farther man is removed
from barbarism, the less freedom he has, and the greater the curb and
restraint upon his conduct. Obedience to law and a regard for the
general interests of society are fetters stronger than the chains which
bound Prometheus to the mountain rocks. When a citizen throws off this
restraint, he ceases to be a healthful factor in the state. As long
as the great Mississippi River is held in restraint by its banks, it
floats upon its bosom the commerce of our nation, carrying joy and
comfort into millions of homes. But if the great Father of Waters leaps
beyond the lawful bounds he becomes harmful and destructive; or if we
remove the curbs and permit the water to flow as it will, we could no
longer derive the least benefit from this grandest stream in North
America.
I have spoken as I think the interests of labor demand, without
appealing to the prejudices or caprices of the laborer. I have
endeavored to be candid, as I am sincere. I know that men, generally,
do not like statements which differ from their views, though such
statements be the embodiment of truth and virtue. I know, also, that
the common ear leans to the titillations of flattery, however illogical
and damaging.
The Negro is here to stay. He is a citizen according to forms of law.
He must be, and can be, according to the light of the nineteenth
century civilization. Let the past be as oblivious as the contents of
an ante-deluvian reliquary. Turn the eye and the effort to the living
present, and the rising sun of the future, which shall make his course
across the skies of the nations, to the adjustment of all difficulties
and the guidance of mankind up the broad plains of highest christian
development, and THE NEGRO SHALL BE THRIFTY, INTELLIGENT, HONEST AND
FAITHFUL IN ALL THINGS.
[Illustration: Decoration]