evel conditions, while he is equally ready
to assume his share of the dangers consequent on the maintenance of
the existing order of affairs.

PATRIOTISM OF THE RACE.

Another marked characteristic of race strength is love of country. The
only race in this country which has more than a shadow of excuse to be
indifferent to the nation's welfare is the Negro. Not unlike the dog
in the fable whose devotion to his master's interest was recognized
only after the sacrifice of life in that master's service, the Negro's
love for his country in the civil service, on the tented field, and
wherever sincere devotion should command the highest commendation, is
commonly rewarded with cold indifference, or at least with damnable
praise, and yet when driven, as it were, with brutal kicks and cuffs
from the service and defense of his country's honor, he hangs on to
the outer folds of its flag with a grim determination to maintain its
glory as though that duty had been specially entrusted him by heaven.
And herein again he shows the instinct of self-preservation, as people
who would seek to become an appreciable power in the public affairs of
their country, must be alive to every vital interest pertaining to it.
To become rooted it must maintain an unyielding grasp. That the Negro
is to-day only a passive member in the affairs of government, does not
argue that his unflagging patriotism will not finally gain its reward.
That he is quietly working now at long range to prepare himself for
citizenship, means that he will in due time enter into that rich
inheritance. The foaming stream is not the water carrying most matter
into the ocean; the deep current which gives no evidence on its
surface is the hydraulic force which forms the Delta. And so it is
with the latent influence of Negro patriotism. In every essential
matter pertaining to national welfare, however keen his grievance,
fancied or real, his regard for the honor of the government and the
maintenance of its power, induces him to throw his head-gear in air,
out-yell the lustiest lung in the crowd and attest his enthusiasm by
demoniac courage on the field of battle.

The chief magistrate of the nation is stricken down in the vigor of
manhood and in the fullness of power. In the exercise of his great
office morally and otherwise, without going out of his way, he might
have benefited the race. But although he had no special claim to the
Negro's regard, yet his untimely taking off