lish,
and they skulked home to Jamaica."

The world is acquainted with the treacherous infamy inspired by the
great Napoleon, that inveigled the Black Chieftain and liberator of his
people on shipboard, the voyage to France, and his subsequent
death--STARVED!--in the dungeon of the prison castle of St. Joux.

Whittier, the poet evangelist, whose inspired verse contributed much to
the crystallization of the sentiment and spirit that finally doomed
African slavery in America, thus referred to the heartless tragedy and
the splendid Black who was its victim:

"Sleep calmy in thy dungeon-tomb,
Beneath Besancon's alien sky,
Dark Haytien!--for the time shall come,
Yea, even now is nigh--
When, everywhere, thy name shall be
Redeemed from color's infamy;
And men shall learn to speak of thee,
As one of earth's great spirits, born
In servitude, and nursed in scorn,
Casting aside the weary weight
And fetters of its low estate,
In that strong majesty of soul,
Which knows no color, tongue or clime,
Which still hath spurned the base control
Of tyrants through all time!"

CHAPTER XI.

HOUR OF HIS NATION'S PERIL.

NEGRO'S PARTRIOTIC ATTITUDE--SELECTIVE DRAFT IN EFFECT--FEATURES AND
RESULTS--BOLD RELIANCE ON FAITH IN A PEOPLE--NO COLOR LINE
DRAWN--DISTRIBUTION OF REGISTRANTS BY STATES--NEGRO AND WHITE
REGISTRATIONS COMPARED--NEGRO PERCENTAGES HIGHER--CLAIMED FEWER
EXEMPTIONS--INDUCTIONS BY STATES--BETTER PHYSICALLY THAN WHITES--TABLES,
FACTS AND FIGURES.

As stated in a previous chapter, the Negro's real opportunity to show
his patriotic attitude did not come until the passage of the compulsory
service law; selective draft, was the name attached to it later and by
which it was generally known.

On May 18, 1917, the day the law was enacted by congress, no advocate of
preparedness could with confidence have forecasted the success of it.
There were many who feared the total failure of it. The history of the
United States disclosed a popular adherence to the principle of
voluntary enlistment, if not a repudiation of the principle of selection
or compulsory military service.

It was to be expected that many people would look upon the law as highly
experimental; as an act that, if it did not produce grave disorders in
the country, would fall short of the results for which it was intended.
It was fortunate for the country at thi