4. Another benefit resulting from the emancipation of the slave is the moral elevation of the people. Ah! we know too well the vices that sheltered themselves under that most accursed of all traffics. The slave was but a chattel; his level was the ox; he was like any other beast of burden, and his morals were not above his position. Great complaint is now made of the moral condition of the colored man. But low as it may be, every intelligent observer can perceive a vast improvement over the condition before the war. The wonder is that one virtuous, or truthful, or honest person could come out of 250 years of moral degradation like that of American slavery. But these dark days are gone. Now there is incentive enough for us to rise. The opportunity is before us to show to the world that the vices of the past are due to our education, and not to the inherent nature of the black man. We have only to recover a lost manhood. We want faith in one another. We must believe in the possibilities that are before us as a people, and aid each other to reach them, and God will give us the victory.
In closing, the speaker referred to some mistakes the colored man has made. One was too much confidence in the white man. Confidence begets dependence. Dependence is not good for those who would rise in the world. We must learn to trust God and our own exertions. We have always been dependent, and it is not strange that we have leaned upon our friends in the early days of our freedom; but now it is time for us to begin to act and think for ourselves. There is a destiny before us which we must achieve. Let us arise and work. Another mistake is the scheme of emigrating to some other land. This is our home as much as it is the white man's. It is our native land. The country and people that have witnessed our degradation should also witness our exaltation. After years of servitude shall we turn our backs upon glorious privileges that are now within our reach? No, my friends, we shall make a grand mistake if we follow to any extent the wild scheme of defeated politicians, projected in this African exodus. Let us be content to wait until we have redeemed ourselves from the evils of 250 years of servitude by the improvement of the advantages that God has so graciously brought to our door, before we venture into that dark continent from which our fathers were torn, to be ground under the iron heel of the slave-master. Until then, Africa will be no better for us, and we will be no better for Africa. We must learn to respect ourselves before we can command the respect of others. May God hasten the day when the colored man shall recognize in his brother the character which he would have all men recognize in himself.
I do not give this as a verbatim report, but the thoughts as nearly as I can recall them from a few notes taken at the time. Coming from a colored man, they show the sentiment of the more intelligent leaders among them. The address fits so exactly into the line of our work that I cannot refrain from giving this brief report.
T. C.
CHILDREN'S PAGE.
LAME JOE.
MISS M. WATERBURY, POLO, ILL.
We were teaching a Freedman's school in Mississippi, and boarding with a Northern family on a plantation, where a few years before were four hundred slaves. One Sabbath morning we were sitting on the back piazza, sorting Sunday-school papers for the school, which was that day to begin, when Joe made his appearance from the kitchen, coming along by the porch with a limping, shuffling gait; his only garments a shirt much too large for him and minus one sleeve, and a pair of pants hanging in tatters, the cast-off rags of an older brother. "Can you read, Joe?" said the teacher, passing him a paper full of pictures. "Not yit, ma'am; but brother Ben can read right smart, and he's gwine to teach me a heap o' larnin', and I reckon I'se goin' to read dis yere some time shore." Joe took his first lesson in learning by means of the word method, and limped off spelling the word "so," and picking out all the so's in his paper.
In a few days we took occasion to interview his mother and broach the subject of his going to school; but we soon found that the chances were against him; for being the youngest of ten children, there were so many to feed and clothe, as his mother expressed it, she "couldn't get to him," and he had to tote wood and water for her, while she cooked at the big house. After repeated attempts to get Joe started in his education, the Yankee school ma'am set about clothing her protégé, but was soon put to her wits' end to find a pattern for boys' pants; and as tailoring was not her forte, there were several obstacles to be overcome. Happily, a plan was hit upon, and Joe pulled off his dilapidated pants and went to bed, while his new clothes were cut by the use of the old ones for a pattern, and very soon the happiest boy of the Ethiopian race was a daily attendant at the school. A week or two of study passed, when the gentleman who had provided Joe with hat and book accosted him with, "How do you get on, Joe?" "Mighty well, Colonel; done got past the picture o' de ox; have shore done got past him!"