AN APPEAL TO CÆSAR.
“It is my desire to speak to you on this occasion concerning a race of people greatly misrepresented, despised, oppressed and hated; a race peculiarly situated and everywhere spoken against. I appear in behalf of a people born in tribulation and disciplined in the hard school of slavery; opposed and persecuted, as it has been, by some of the brightest minds that ever spoke or wielded a pen, and yet defended by some of the ablest, purest and noblest men and women the earth has ever known; among the latter may be mentioned Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Henry Ward Beecher, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dr. Nathan Bishop, Mrs. Benedict and a host of others.
“From this great hall on last Sunday the news went out to the world that one Henry Frank, in preaching the gospel of the Lowly Nazarene, stated in the prelude to his discourse that the Negro should again be reduced to the slavery of ante-bellum days.
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“I have now given you a hasty survey of Mr. Frank’s utterances and also some of the unfavorable criticisms of the gentlemen who were among the participants at the recent Montgomery Conference. Now let me give you the colored man’s side. First, the Negro is an American citizen; he is a member of the body politic; he has been in this country almost as long as anybody else. The amendment to the constitution did not make us men. God made us men before man made us citizens. The amendment was only a recognition of the God-given rights of the colored man. Second, the emancipation of the colored race was the overruling providence of God. Slavery was wrong, and the time had come in the Providence of the mighty God that the battalions of the righteous army of God should march against the giant walls of slavery, and slavery fell like Dagon before the ark. Although Mr. Lincoln wrote the immortal proclamation liberating 4,000,000 human beings, which was the central act of his administration and the most glorious event of the nineteenth century, yet the hand that wrote the proclamation was guided by the bruised and pierced hand of the incarnate Christ. The 15th amendment to the Constitution of the United States, under which the colored man acquired the right to vote, was placed there after the nation had been baptized in blood, and it will require a second baptism of blood to remove it. Third, the colored man’s right to citizenship cannot be denied on any ground—human or divine. Citizenship is due the Negro as a reward for his meritorious service on the battlefield. As early as 1770, Crispus Attucks, during the Boston massacre, led in the bloody drama which opened up a new and thrilling chapter in American history. He attacked the main guard of the ministerial army and went down in his own blood before the terrible fire, the first man to give his life for American independence. He is known in history as a soldier, patriot and martyr. And from that day down to the records of yesterday, the Negro has fought, bled and died for this country, and his bones have been left to bleach on a thousand battlefields. What has the Negro done to be maligned, maliciously assailed and inhumanly persecuted as he is?
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“The Negro only asks for simple justice—that is all. He would have an equal chance in the race of life. He wants better opportunities. He wants to be admitted to the industrial and mechanical trades. He wants a chance to earn a living. He is striving to be honest, industrious, intelligent, economical and self-reliant. He wants his manhood recognized and encouraged rather than choked and stifled. He wants his white brother to dethrone prejudice and enthrone reason; remove hatred and place love in its stead.”
The following extract is from a lecture by Dr. Walker delivered in many cities during the past year. The subject of the lecture was: