"AN OPEN PATH FOR TALENT."
Napoleon said this was the meaning of the French Revolution. He gave promotion in the army not for what a man's ancestry had been, but for what the man himself could do. Who else ever had such efficient subordinates? Opportunities became open generally in France, according to each one's personal ability. The excesses of the revolutionary period were transitory. The enlargement of the nation's power, by removing the fetters of prescription, has been permanent. The recuperative energy displayed by France in the last twenty years is a marvelous example of the strength imparted by liberty.
The educational work of the American Missionary Association in the South makes no revolutionary disturbance. It quietly opens a path for talent whose existence had been before unnoticed or denied. It has been already instrumental in bringing forward many men and women to positions of influence. Beginning with the lowest branches of education, it trained the first colored teachers for the State school systems. Its schools for higher education have as yet come far short of supplying the demand for advanced teachers and for educated ministers and other educated professional and business men.
We cannot make talent, but opening the door for talent to find development and activity adds rich gifts to the Nation's life.