ts, to sue, be parties, and give
evidence, to inherit, purchase, sell, hold, and convey real and
personal property, and to full and equal benefit of all laws and
proceedings for the security of person and property, and shall be
subject to like punishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other.

"We know, and the whole world knows, that when in the hour of our
extremity we called upon the black race to did us, we promised them
not liberty only, but all that that word liberty implies. All remember
how unwilling we were to do any thing which would inure to the benefit
of the negro. I recall with shame the fact that when, five years ago,
the so-called Democracy--now Egyptians--were here in this capital, in
the White House, in the Senate, and on this floor, plotting the
destruction of the Government, and we were asked to appease them by
sacrificing the negro, two-thirds of both houses voted to rivet his
chains upon him so long as the republic should endure. A widening
chasm yawned between the free and slave States, and we looked wildly
around for that wherewith it might be closed. In our extremity we
seized upon the negro, bound and helpless, and tried to cast him in.
But an overruling Providence heard the cries of the oppressed, and
hurled his oppressors into that chasm by hundreds of thousands, until
the whole land was filled with mourning, yet still the chasm yawned.
In our anguish and terror, we felt that the whole nation would be
speedily ingulfed in one common ruin. It was then that the great
emancipator and savior of his country, Abraham Lincoln, saw the danger
and the remedy, and seizing four million bloody shackles, he wrenched
them from their victims, and standing with these broken manacles in
his hands upraised toward heaven, he invoked the blessing of the God
of the oppressed, and cast them into the fiery chasm. That offering
was accepted, and the chasm closed.

"When the reports from Port Hudson and Fort Wagner thrilled all loyal
hearts by the recital of the heroic deeds of the black soldier, we
were not reminded that if the negro were permitted to enjoy the same
rights under the Government his valor helped to save that are
possessed by the perjured traitors who sought its destruction, it
would 'lead to a war of races.' O no! Then we were in peril, and felt
grateful even to the negro, who stood between us and our enemies. Then
our only hope of safety was in the brave hearts and strong arms of the
soldier at