Liberty is too priceless a jewel to be committed into such vile hands, such weak hands, hands that would and do barter it away to the highest bidder.
Liberty and Freedom sold for a glass of beer. The right of suffrage, the patent of our American nobility, to be squandered and degraded for a pipeful of tobacco. The idee!
And kneelin’ in churches, sez I, and settin’ apart in their own homes are royal souls, grand, educated lovers of their country and their kind, who would for duty’s sake reach out one hand to take the ballot, and cling with the other to the cross of the Crucified.
Them who have agonized over the woes and wrongs of the world, and tried with anointed vision to find out the true wisdom of life and right livin’—have spent their whole noble lives for the good of poor humanity—
They must kneel on in silence, and stay in seclusion, and see the freedom of their children and the children of humanity bought and sold, and sunk in the dirt, and trailed in the mire by them who have never given a thought to righteousness and right livin’.
The black man would never have been freed from his chains of bondage had not a necessity arisen. God’s great opportunity comes on down the ages; let us be ready for it. He sees wrongs, and woes, and incomparable sufferings plead to Him for redress.
The heavens are very still. The prayin’ ones hear no reply to their tears, their lamentations, their despairin’ cries.
The heavens are very calm, and blue, and fur away.
But at last man’s necessity, God’s great opportunity comes; the oppressors are driven into some corner by their own deeds, till the only way for them to get out in safety is to answer the prayers of centuries and let the oppressed go free.
Man’s necessity has come; they endure plague after plague, and depend on their own strength and keep up their own proud wills, and harden their hearts, and refuse to answer the pleadings of justice.