for a
moment to enter into the party contests of the day. The unanimity
with which the colored voters act with a party is not referable
to any race prejudice on their part. On the contrary, they invite
the political cooperation of their white brethren, and vote as a
unit because proscribed as such. They deprecate the establishment
of the color line by the opposition, not only because the act is
unwise, but because it isolates them from the white men of the
South and forces them, in sheer self-protection, and against
their inclination, to act seemingly upon the basis of a race
prejudice that they neither respect nor entertain. They not only
recognize the equality of citizenship and the right of every man
to hold without proscription any position of honor and trust to
which the confidence of the people may elevate him; but owing
nothing to race, birth, or surroundings, they above all other
classes, in the community, are interested to see prejudices drop
out of both politics and the business of the country, and success
in life proceed upon the integrity and merit of the man who seeks
it.... But withal, as they progress in intelligence and
appreciation of the dignity of their prerogatives as citizens,
they as an evidence of growth begin to realize the significance
of the proverb, "When thou doest well for thyself, men shall
praise thee"; and are disposed to exact the same protection and
concession of rights that are conferred upon other citizens by
the Constitution, and that too without humiliation involved in
the enforced abandonment of their political convictions.

The speech closes with an enthusiastic expression of confidence in
American institutions and in the American Negro:

I have confidence, not only in my country and her institutions,
but in the endurance, capacity and destiny of my people. We will,
as opportunity offers and ability serves, seek our places,
sometimes in the field of letters, arts, science and the
professions. More frequently mechanical pursuits will attract and
elicit our efforts; more still of my people will find employment
and livelihood as the cultivators of the soil. The bulk of this
people--by surroundings, habits, adaptation, and choice will
continue to find their homes in the South and constitute the
masses of its ye