(2.) The second step—the securing of personal freedom for all—was plainly demanded by the taking of the first. The elements of the new contest were embodied in the Declaration of Independence on the one hand and Negro slavery on the other—a great principle and a great fact at war with the principle. The antagonism was seen from the outset. Expediency shut men’s eyes to it, but God and conscience opened them. How skillful for a time were the devices to escape the dilemma. It was said that the Declaration of Independence was only for white men; that it was a mere glittering generality; that the North had nothing to do with slavery, and finally that slavery was right, justified both by law and the Bible. But all in vain. God and conscience would not be silent.
Again a contest was imminent. The South could settle it peacefully, if righteously; if not, in blood. The South would not abolish slavery, and hence the Civil War and the overthrow of slavery. The second step was taken.
(3.) The third step is to exemplify the Brotherhood of Man. This in like manner is demanded by the results of the one preceding—by the two great and opposing facts: Emancipation, and the Negro as he is. On the one hand, every slave was emancipated; in the zeal of the hour he was made a citizen, enfranchised and guaranteed “the equal protection of law.” On the other hand, twenty years have shown that these guarantees are in form and not in fact.
In other respects, too, his condition is seen to be deplorable, full of discouragement to himself and of danger to the nation.
Let me point out some of the facts in regard to his condition:
(1.) He does not enjoy his guaranteed rights.
I wish to give due credit to the extent and to the localities in which he does enjoy these rights, but speaking broadly they are largely denied to him. He was deprived of the ballot at one time by violence, and is now by fraud; in all cases where his vote would be decisive in State or National politics, it is not counted—in other words, the race is practically disfranchised. In the courts he seldom finds a standing as a lawyer or a juror; in the chain-gang only does he enjoy a monopoly. In the church, the school, the shop, he does not, as a rule, have equal rights; he cannot join any church he pleases, cannot choose the school to which he will send his children, cannot enter the shop to learn a trade or to work as a journeyman. He cannot, everywhere, ride in the street car, on the railroad or steamboat with the white man, though he may buy the same first-class ticket; he cannot, in many places, attend the theatre, concert or lecture with the white man, nor with him eat a lunch at the restaurant, nor lodge in the hotel. He is confronted, hindered and insulted at every step he takes towards enjoyment or improvement—a flaming sword guards the avenues of knowledge, industry and virtue against him. His guarantees of equal rights are a mockery.
2. He is left in ignorance and vice.
Here again I wish not only to admit but to rejoice in the progress made. More than a million of the colored people, of ten years old and upward, can write; but, alas! more than three millions cannot! It is these that awaken our fears, for they are in danger themselves and are a danger to the nation. Owing to their illiteracy they cannot keep the accounts of their earnings in the lowest kinds of employment; they cannot enter upon the higher and more profitable avocations; and they cannot rise to the intellectual dignity of a true manhood. Then, too, they are in bondage to their vices. When they escaped from slavery, many of them did not escape from lying, stealing and licentiousness; when they entered freedom many were captured by idleness, improvidence and intemperance. These are the victims of designing men who take advantage of their ignorance to defraud them, and of their vices to enrich themselves or to gratify their lusts. The danger to the nation is from the contagion of vice which spreads beyond race or locality, and from the schemes of political demagogues who can sway to their own ends the millions of these ignorant voters, who have no property to be taxed and no character to maintain.
3. He is under the ban of caste prejudice.