privates in the battles of human progress, with all
the more devotion and fidelity because their names will never be known.
Whenever a man earns the respect of the community in which he resides,
some part of that respect, some breath of that fragrance is reflected
upon the race of which he is a member.

As a race, we have done much, but we must not forget how much more there
is still to do. We have already demonstrated the possession of powers,
but we must now bring forth the fruits of sustained racial achievement.
To some extent we have been given opportunity, but we must not cease to
remember that no race can be given relative rank--it must win equality
of rating for itself. Hence, we must not only acquire education, but
character as well. It is not only necessary that we should speak well,
but it is more necessary that we should speak the truth. We must not
only acquire that culture which is the golden key that unlocks all doors
and unbars all gates, but we must cultivate that straightforwardness of
purpose and unconquerable determination which enables a people to face
conditions "without fear and without reproach."

And so the last suggestion comes which the hour presents. In the work of
race advancement, we need the service and assistance of all true men and
women. We must have the co-operation of all sections and all conditions.
The cotton-fields of Alabama, the sugar-plantations of Louisiana, and
the coal-mines of Tennessee; the great lakes of the North which winter
roofs with ice, and from which drips refreshing coolness through the hot
summer months, from the fisheries and the factories, from wheat-fields
and pine forests, from meadows billowed with golden grain and orchards
bending beneath their burdens of golden fruit, this advance movement
must receive support. The humble laborer following his plow afield must
do his part; the blacksmith at his forge, the lawyer at the bar, the
fisherman on the banks, the man of science putting nature to the
question, all, without distinction and without exception, must
contribute, according to his station and his opportunity, to the
hastening of the day when the Negro shall take his place by the side of
the other great race of men and form that grand spectacle which Tennyson
had in mind when he spoke of "the parliament of man, the federation of
the world."

THE PARTY OF FREEDOM AND THE FREEDMEN--A RECIPROCAL DUTY[25]

BY WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH, D.D., LL.D