chers as a class. I make bold to lay down the
proposition that wherever God has ordained intellect that intellect is
capable of the highest development; for mental ability is a divine
endowment. The intellect may be the possession of an Indian, a
Mongolian, an Arab, a Negro, a Hindoo or a Caucasian. Textures may
differ, but all mental organisms are the same in color, fiber, and
mode of operation and development. It must then follow that the proper
training of the intellect must produce the same results upon all races
when properly applied. That training which has made the Mongolian, or
the German, or the Caucasian race great and powerful will of
necessity, under similar conditions, produce like results in the Negro
race. Let us now see what the facts show. It is largely through the
instrumentality of our schools that Negroes have been taught to place
a higher and a proper valuation upon their citizenship, and the
importance of the ballot when it is wielded for the maintenance and
perpetuation of good government. As a class of citizens Negroes are
peaceable and law-abiding, and must not be reckoned with the migratory
hordes of anarchists, nihilists, and the wreckers of law and order
that infest our Eastern and Western shores. In our schools, too,
Negroes have learned that it is theirs to petition respectfully for
the enjoyment of their rights, and the redress of grievances so often
unjustly imposed upon them. In the last two decades the influence of
the schools, colleges and industrial institutions and seminaries of
all kinds has wrought wonderful changes in the home life of the Negro
race. Purer homes now abound; intemperance is giving way to sobriety
and economy; love and order have driven out hate and confusion; the
golden rule and the Bible are taken as the measurement of conduct;
and, where-ever Negro communities are found, cozy little cottages, and
often palatial homes with thoughtful and convenient appointments, have
taken the place of the very many little one-room huts in which all the
whole range of domestic life was wont to be performed. In these new
homes a better and more intelligent class of children is being reared
to fit in the scheme of our advancing civilization. These are very
hopeful signs of a better generation and a brighter day for the
American Negro.

Our Negro teachers and leaders have instilled into the race a desire
for the accumulation of property and wealth, and the keeping of bank
accounts.