--becomes
apparent. The old enslaved Negro was destitute of true moral training;
and very much of what was offered to him as such was nothing more than
"sounding brass," and he knew it and could not profit by it.

2. And while the old Negro did not have true moral training, he did
have positive training in the opposite direction. For the very system
under which he lived was a training in evil. His ancestors had been
stolen; he himself was stolen; his civil liberty was stolen. Could he
form any adequate conception of property rights? And is it now a
matter of surprise to us that the old man sometimes did a little
stealing himself in order to relieve a hungry stomach? He was not
taught the sacredness of the married life. Indeed, he was not taught
to marry at all. He was, as a rule, simply told to live with a woman
whom he might _call_ his wife, and when the good pleasure or the
necessities of his master demanded that she should be sold away, to
take another woman and live with her and call her wife, also. He was
not allowed to develop the idea of fatherhood toward his children, for
they were not his, but rather mere chattel, to be sold at the pleasure
of his master. The two great vices charged against the Negro race are
theft and adultery. Whatever truth there is in this charge is due to
the long training slavery gave. Indeed, slavery was largely a training
in moral evil. Antecedently, therefore, we expect the old Negro to be
worse than his son.

But, now, what are the positive arguments to prove that the young
Negro is an improvement morally on his father?

1. Slavery has been abolished, and the young Negro has not felt it. He
has, therefore, missed its direct evil training. It is not denied that
he is damaged because he was trained by a father who was brought up in
slavery; but it is claimed that he has not received from his father,
and cannot receive, as much injury as his father received from the
system of slavery.

2. The young Negro now has the gospel. The many thousands who came to
Christ in the days of slavery, and are now at rest from their earthly
toils and sufferings, are not forgotten. That they were saved is due
to the fact that, owing to God's infinite goodness and mercy, a little
knowledge and a little faith can save a sinner; and God pitied our
fathers. But the young Negro now has the gospel in its fullness. He
gets it from the pulpit, from the Sunday-school, and daily in scores
of our highest literar