t was indeed an
awful sin for the Anglo-Saxon to enslave the negro. But in judging a
people we must judge them according to the age in which they lived,
and the influence that surrounded them.

"If David were on earth alive to-day and the ruler of an enlightened
kingdom, he would be impeached forthwith, fined for adultery,
imprisoned for bigamy, and hanged for murder. Yet while not measuring
up to the standard of morality of to-day, he was the man after God's
own heart in his day and generation.

"If Abraham were here to-day he would be expelled from any church
that had any regard for decency; and yet, he was the father of the
faithful, for he walked according to the little light that struggled
through the clouds and reached him.

"When slavery was introduced into America, it was the universal
practice of mankind to enslave. Knowing how quick we all are to heed
the universal voice of mankind, we should be lenient toward others who
are thus tempted and fall.

"It has appeared strange to some that the Americans could fight for
their own freedom from England and yet not think of those whom they
then held in slavery. It should be remembered that the two kinds of
slavery were by no means identical. The Americans fought for a theory
and abstract principle. The negro did not even discern the points at
issue; and the Anglo-Saxon naturally did not concern himself at that
time with any one so gross as not to know anything of a principle for
which he, (the Anglo-Saxon) was ready to offer up his life.

"Our President alluded to the fact that the negro was unpaid for all
his years of toil. It is true that he was not paid in coin, but he
received that from the Anglo-Saxons which far outweighs in value
all the gold coin on earth. He received instruction in the arts of
civilization, a knowledge of the English language, and a conception of
the one true God and his Christ.

"While all of the other races of men were behind the ball of progress
rolling it up the steep hill of time, the negro was asleep in the
jungles of Africa. Newton dug for the law of gravitation; Herschel
swept the starry sky in search of other worlds; Columbus stood upon
the prow of the ship and braved the waves of the ocean and the fiercer
ridicule of men; Martin Luther, single handed and alone, fought the
Pope, the religious guide of the world; and all of this was done while
the negro slept. After others had toiled so hard to give the bright
light of civiliza