ccomplished
something--indeed, a very great deal--in the field of invention, but it
would be of the first importance to us now to know exactly what he has
done, and the commercial value of his productions. Unfortunately for us,
however, this can never be known in all its completeness.

A very recent experiment in the matter of collecting information on this
subject has disclosed some remarkably striking facts, not the least
interesting of which is the very widespread belief among those who ought
to know better that the colored man has done absolutely nothing of value
in the line of invention. This is but a reflex of the opinions variously
expressed by others at different times on the subject of the capacity of
the colored man for mental work of a high order. Thomas Jefferson's
remark that no colored man could probably be found who was capable of
taking in and comprehending Euclid, and that none had made any
contribution to the civilization of the world through his art, would
perhaps appear somewhat excusable when viewed in the light of the
prevailing conditions in his day, and on which, of course, his judgment
was based; but even at that time Jefferson knew something of the
superior quality of Benjamin Banneker's mental equipment, for it is on
record that they exchanged letters on that subject.

Coming down to a later day, when our race as a whole had shared, to some
extent at least, in the progress of learning, so well informed an
exponent of popular thought as Henry Ward Beecher is said to have
declared that the whole African race in its native land could be
obliterated from the face of the earth without loss to civilization, and
yet Beecher knew, or should have known, of the scholarly Dr. Blyden, of
Liberia, who was at one time president of the college of Liberia at
Monrovia, and minister from his country to the Court of St. James, and
whose contributions to the leading magazines of Europe and America were
eagerly accepted and widely read on both continents.

Less than ten years ago, in a hotly contested campaign in the State of
Maryland, a popular candidate for Congress remarked, in one of his
speeches, that the colored race should be denied the right to vote
because "none of them had ever evinced sufficient capacity to justify
such a privilege," and that "no one of the race had ever yet reached the
dignity of an inventor." Yet, at that very moment, there was in the
Library of Congress in Washington a book of near