“All men are the workmanship of the same Almighty Father. God made of one blood all nations to dwell on the face of the earth. All are alike subjected to sin and infirmity; all are responsible beings, and all alike are hastening to an eternity of righteous retribution. All men are members of the same social family. No man, therefore, can injure his fellowman without injuring himself. We build up ourselves and increase our happiness in proportion as we labor for the welfare of others. With the Golden Rule as an individual motto, will come the recognition of the Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man; and when this doctrine of the unity of the human family shall be believed and accepted by each individual, then man’s inhumanity to man will cease; there will no longer be that monstrous indifference, when the question is asked, ‘Where is Abel thy brother?’ that replies, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ Yes, we are our brother’s keeper, and this motto will not only connect man with his Creator, but will also connect man with man.
“This motto will include justice and fair play. Many of the courts of our land known as temples of justice are misnamed; they are but temples of injustice. Justice should hold an even balance. Justice should make no inquiry as to racial identity. Justice should have no kin people. With this motto adopted by every individual, each man will have an equal chance in the race of life; equal and exact justice will be given to all; a healthy public sentiment will be created in favor of law and order; law itself is weak and helpless unless upheld and supported by public sentiment.
“We should adopt the Golden Rule as an individual motto, for it will produce an era of peace and good-will among men; it will become the prophetic music of the ages. The Golden Rule will cause us to see humanity not only as it is, but humanity as it shall be. Not Lazarus, the beggar at the rich man’s gate, full of sores—a mass of corruption and putrifying sores; but Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom; humanity redeemed; humanity regenerated, reorganized, reanimated, reconstructed and relighted with heavenly glory. This motto will prepare us for the grand reunion of the human family in the last day. The sons of Noah who separated in the Plain of Shinar will one day hold a reunion. I believe in the theory of the unity of the human family, and that it is the order of divine Providence that these long separated brethren must meet again. Shem went into Asia, Japhet into Europe, and Ham into Africa. At the reunion, Shem will be represented in the person of the despised Chinaman and Japanese; Japhet in the person of the proud and cultured Caucasian, and Ham in the person of the despised, rejected and oppressed Negro. And I promise you that the sons of Ham will make a creditable showing when the reunion takes place.”
At Carnegie Hall, New York City, on Sunday evening, May 27th, 1900, Dr. Walker shook the country by an able and patriotic address on the so-called Race Question. The hall was packed from pit to dome by an audience of fully 8,000 souls, white and black. The speech, which he called “An Appeal to Cæsar,” was a review of the Conference on the Race Question held a short time before that at Montgomery, Ala., and in which such men as Bourke Cochran, John Temple Graves, Dr. H. B. Frissell, Governor MacCorkel and others participated, and was also a reply to some strictures heaped upon the race in Carnegie Lyceum the Sunday before by A. Rev. Henry Frank. The newspapers in the metropolis and throughout the country published extracts from Dr. Walker’s address, and the speech won the orator much fame, as well as the title, “the defender of his race.” Following are extracts from
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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