Friday evening witnessed the graduation of sixteen young people; eight from the Latin and eight from the English course. The essay, orations and recitals were pronounced good by those not immediately concerned. The house was crowded, scores were obliged to stand during the entire period, yet there was the utmost attention and perfect quiet. This is what most impresses the workers who have longest been here, the increased good conduct and attention of the audience. Ten years ago an attempt at a night entertainment was almost perilous, because of the tumult and disorder of the audience, but now no more decorous listeners could be asked for anywhere.
There was sadness also with the joy on this, our last night, for it marked the close of the work of our loved and efficient colleague, Miss Sarah Stimpson, who leaves America for Central Africa, to work far in the interior in a new field, under the American Board. She has given many beautiful lessons to her young pupils. May God ever keep her instructions green and fresh in their minds and hearts!
THE NEGRO'S PLACE IN AMERICAN LIFE.
BY M. H. NEAL (STUDENT.)
The Students of Fisk University arranged a meeting for last Emancipation day in which they should discuss among themselves their condition and their hopes. Among the speeches was an address, some parts of which are given below. The Secretary of the Association, who happened to be present, was greatly interested both in the sentiments and in the way in which they were put, and he thinks our readers will be likewise interested.
We have assembled to-day to commemorate that event in American history which brought freedom to the slave; to celebrate a day upon which the negro was lifted from the darkest depths of human servitude to a sphere of liberty and life. How dark must have been the times when no Bibles were read around our family fireside, when few words comforted the sick and no befitting funeral services were observed for the dead. We cannot look to the heights which we as a race represent nor can we rightly consider our place in American life and thought without reflecting upon the depths from which we have come and upon those who assisted in making possible for us such large opportunities. We gladly bow in homage to those noble hearted men and women who sympathized with us and so lavishly poured out their earnings and sacrificed their lives for the dawn of a day whose sun will never set. Blessed be the memory of those who persevered amid prejudice in presenting testimony against prevailing wrongs and in giving us of their deepest convictions....
Paramount to all questions extending almost throughout our extensive domain, is the so-called "negro question." This question has been much discussed and poorly settled. Because in a few years the negro as a whole has not become learned, does not possess streets of magnificent and commodious buildings, has not presidents of railroad corporations and banking interests, because he has not worked his way to the highest office in the gift of his people, it is often said that he cannot embrace American civilization and is entitled to no share in his country's greatness and protection. Some of our own people have been made to believe such contention and have begun to consider our cause a hopeless one.
We know that the place demanded is the place to be earned only by diligent application and persistent effort.
That we have been true to our country and loyal to its interests is indisputable. We may point with pride to Attucks, a full blooded negro, who stepped upon Boston Common and became one of the first martyrs to die to maintain against British tyranny the patriotic attitude of the American colonies. In the second war with Great Britain the colored people were no less loyal; we figured conspicuously in the bloody struggles of New Orleans. When the majority of the American people denounced slavery as petty and tyrannical, when through secession the Confederacy of the Southern States was formed, when the South took up arms to overthrow the Union, the Negro was again ready to answer his country's call. He was present with Sherman when he made his famous march "from Atlanta to the Sea." And even these fields which overlook our lovely city upon which he dropped his sweat, were sprinkled with his blood when the time was ripe for military action. He fought well at Gettysburg. Out of old Nashville, too, with her slave system has come new Nashville with her splendid schools. Thus in every contest of our country for existence and independence, none have labored more incessantly and given their lives more freely for the maintenance and perpetuity of our institutions.