ree and sovereign had been stubbornly fought for
and reluctantly conceded; when the bloody memories of Yorktown and New
Orleans had passed into glorious history, the black man, who had
assisted by his courage to establish the free and independent States
of America, was doomed to sweat and groan that others might revel in
idleness and luxury. Allured, in each instance, into the conflict for
National independence by the hope held out of generous reward and an
honest consideration of his manhood rights, he received as his portion
chains and contempt. The spirit of injustice, inborn in the Caucasian
nature, asserted itself in each instance. Selfishness and greed rode
roughshod over the promptings of a generous, humane, Christian nature,
as they have always done in this country, not only in the case of the
African but of the Indian as well, each of whom has in turn felt the
pernicious influence of that heartless greed which overleaps honesty
and fair play, in the unmanly grasp after perishable gain.

The books which have been written in this country--the books which
have molded and controlled intelligent public opinion--during the
past one hundred and fifty years have been written by white men, in
justification of the white man's domineering selfishness, cruelty and
tyranny. Beginning with Thomas Jefferson's _Notes on Virginia_, down
to the present time, the same key has been struck, the same song as
been sung, with here and there a rare exception--as in the case of
Mrs. Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, Judge Tourgee's _A Fool's Errand_,
Dr. Haygood's _Our Brother in Black_, and some others of less note.
The white man's story has been told over and over again, until the
reader actually tires of the monotonous repetition, so like the
ten-cent novels in which the white hunter always triumphs over the red
man. The honest reader has longed in vain for a glimpse at the other
side of the picture so studiously turned to the wall.

Even in books written expressly to picture the black man's side of the
story, the author has been compelled to palliate, by interjecting
extenuating, often irrelevant circumstances, the ferocity and
insatiate lust of greed of his race. He has been unable to tell the
story as it was, because his nature, his love of race, his inborn,
prejudices and narrowness made him a lurking coward.

And so it has been with the newspapers, which have ever been the
obsequious reflex of distempered public opinion, siding alw