"I will not, my colored friends, talk to you of the past. You understand that all too well. I turn to the hopeful future; not to flatter you for the deeds you have done during the last four years, but to remind you that, though you no longer have earthly masters, there is a Ruler in heaven whom you are bound to obey,—that Great Being who strengthened and guided your eminent friend William Lloyd Garrison, who trained Abraham Lincoln for his great work, in honest poverty and simple-mindedness; that good God whose stars shine the same over the slaves' huts and the masters' palaces. His laws you must obey. You must worship Him not only at the altar, but in every act of your daily life. It will not be enough to observe the Sabbath, to go to Him with your sorrows, and remember Him in your joys. You must remember that He has said to man, 'In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread.' Labor is the law of all. Your friends in the North appeal to you to help them in the great work they undertook to do for you. We want you to work with us. We want you to do it by working here in South Carolina, earning wages, taking care of your money, and making profit out of that money. Work on the plantation, if that is all you can do. If you can work in the workshop, do it, and work well. He who does a day's work not so well as he might have done it, cheats himself. Strive that your work on Monday shall be better done than it was on Saturday; and when Saturday comes round again, you will be able to do a still more skilful day's work. We at the North sometimes learn three or four trades. If any one of you feels sure that he can do better for himself and his family by changing his pursuit, he had better change it."
"I like to look at the women assembled here. Remember, my friends, that you are to be mothers and wives in the homes of free men. You must try to make those homes respectable and happy. You are to be the mothers of American citizens. You must give them the best education you can. You must strive to make them intelligent, educated, moral, patriotic, and religious men. Many of you cannot read, but you are not too old yet to learn. A mother who knows how to read can half educate her own child by helping him with his lessons; and the mother who has but little learning will get a great deal more by trying to hear the child's lessons; and so it is with the father.
"You need no longer live in slave huts, now that you are to have your own earnings. I charge you, men, to make your homes comfortable, and you, women, to make them happy. Work industriously. Be faithful to each other; be true and honest with all men. If you respect yourselves, others will respect you. There are Northerners who are prejudiced against you; but you can find the way to their hearts and consciences through their pockets. When they find that there are colored tradesmen who have money to spend, and colored farmers who want to buy goods of them, they will no longer call you Jack and Joe; they will begin to think that you are Mr. John Black and Mr. Joseph Brown." [Great laughter.]
BLACK TOM.
BY A YANKEE SOLDIER.
Hunted by his Rebel master
Over many a hill and glade,
Black Tom, with his wife and children,
Found his way to our brigade.
Tom had sense and truth and courage,
Often tried where danger rose:
Once our flag his strong arm rescued
From the grasp of Rebel foes.
One day, Tom was marching with us
Through the forest as our guide,
When a ball from traitor's rifle
Broke his arm and pierced his side.
On a litter white men bore him
Through the forest drear and damp,
Laid him, dying, where our banners
Brightly fluttered o'er our camp.