XVI. Be a Good Citizen.
What is the object of life? It is to make society better, and thereby honor and glorify the great Maker. How can you benefit society? By making of yourself a man, as God intends you to be—a good citizen, as the laws require you to be. It is not necessary, in order to be a good citizen, that genealogy shall play a part. It is of little consequence whether the Negro came from Adam, or whether he was evolved by the Darwinian theory. It does not matter whether his ancestors were the pyramid builders of Egypt, or the compatriots of Hannibal or Scipio, or whether they were the fetich worshippers of African jungles. It is not a question of comparison of the Caucasian and Negro intellectual abilities, capacities or attainments. It is not important to decide which race can dig deepest and soar highest in the sciences. These questions may be considered by anthropologists and scientists, but, for the laboring man, the main question is how to win bread—how to be a citizen. Whatever may have been your ancestry, whatever may have been their condition, is of little value to you. In this age of electricity and steam, men no longer are run on the pedigrees of their foreparents, regardless of merit. A lawyer whose only recommendation is the illustrious name of a dead progenitor, will never have clients. The physician, who pleads the excellence of a line of noble blood reaching into the far receding centuries, will find poor sale for his pills. The merchant who expects to get his inferior goods off his shelves on the credit of family name, will soon find the sheriff at his door. What would you think of a man, totally ignorant of carpentry, or masonry, or agriculture, proposing to work for you upon the worthiness of some dead relative? Be meritorious. Be a citizen of whom the State may be proud, and your ancestry will care for itself. I do not undervalue an honorable family record. It is diamond. But you must be worthy yourself.
In addition to all that I have said concerning your duties, I wish to add that no workman, no laboring man, can afford to violate the laws of the land. If laws are oppressive, you have your remedy at the ballot box, and not in evasion or violation. Government is ordained of God, and is necessary to the happiness and protection of man. No man has a right to disobey the laws of the land. Disobedience creates disorder. Disorder leads to anarchy and riot. Then who is safe? Whose property at any moment may not be destroyed? As stated above, it is not a question of the origin of the races, or a comparison of capacities, but can the Negro make a good citizen? This is the problem in this connection. The answer which the Negro is giving, must be gratifying to all good men.
"Honor and shame from no condition rise,
Act well your part—there all the honor lies."
"Victory and defeat.
Joy and grief—
'Tis these that make the warp
And woof of human life. But
Be faithful to right and duty,
And you will have done
Something to make the whole world better."