, such as Gens.
Lee, Jackson, Sherman, and Grant, have been generous enough to hand
down to us in their private diaries the valuable service rendered the
government by these black soldiers on the bloody field of battle.
Especially in the late war did the government learn to recognize the
Spartanlike heroism of the Negro. He was always ready to charge and
the last man to retreat. He was the first to lift his hand and shed
his blood when the colonies were attacked by the British in Boston;
and Gen. Sherman, in his "History of the War," says that the last man
wounded in the late rebellion was a Negro, and the last man who fired
a gun to close the unfortunate war was a Negro, upon the banks of the
Rio Grande. Hence the Negro has a record that any race might envy.

THE NEGRO AS A CITIZEN.

As a citizen, the Negro is peaceable, unassuming, and friendly toward
all races. He has studied to know his duty as a constituent of the
government, and does all in his power to perform the same. He is
always looking and praying for better times, but he never organizes a
labor union and goes out on a strike to make times better.

He is rapidly gaining wealth and intelligence. He is making every
effort to keep pace with the advancing tide of Christian civilization,
and the census of this country shows that he is making progress on
every line. Remember, too, that the most of these men were born slaves
and started out with nothing, not even good advice, but with all
odds--even their color, their previous condition, and public
sentiment--against them. Remember also that only one Negro out of a
thousand has had as yet an equal chance in the race of life, for
freedom of body, with every avenue leading toward the heights of
unqualified freedom of will and of purpose closed, and he left
standing uncovered and exposed to the worst elements of a superior
race, is worse (if anything can be worse) than slavery. And yet, with
all that, the Negro has proven to be equal to all occasions as a
citizen, and, with superior zeal to any race, he has seized every
opportunity and entered every door of usefulness that opened to him.
Come walk with me through these halls and let us see his higher life
and aims. See the walls bedecked with pictures of Negro homes and
other real estate that would compare very favorably with a majority of
the homes of the white men of this country; and this is not a fair
exhibit of the progress of the race, for not one-thousandt