d them into his office with a look of unmistakable
superiority.

It was a strange meeting--this facing for the first time between the
supreme representative of the dominant race of the new era and the freed
black men whose very existence the President held to be an eternal
menace against the Nation's future. It is remarkable that the first
words Abraham Lincoln ever addressed as President to an assemblage of
negroes should have been the words which fell from his lips.

The ebony faces, their cream-colored teeth showing with smiles and their
wide rolling eyes roaming the room made a striking and dramatic contrast
to the rugged face and frame of the man who addressed them.

"Your race is suffering," he began with distinct, clean cut emphasis,
"in my judgment the greatest wrong inflicted on any people. But even
when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed
on an equality with the white race. On this broad continent not a
single man of your race is made the equal of a single man of ours. Go
where you are treated best and the ban is still upon you. I cannot alter
it if I would.

"It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated. One of the
principal difficulties in the way of colonization is that the free
colored man cannot see that his comfort would be advanced by it. For the
sake of your race you should sacrifice something of your present
comfort. In the American Revolution sacrifices were made by the men
engaged in it. They were cheered by the future.

"The Colony of Liberia is an old one, is in a sense a success and it is
open to you. I am arranging to open another in Central America. It is
nearer than Liberia--within seven days by steamer. You are intelligent
and know that success does not so much depend on external help as on
self-reliance. Much depends on yourself. If you will engage in the
enterprise, I will spend some of the money intrusted to me. This is the
practical part of my wish to see you. I ask you then to consider it
seriously, not for yourselves merely, _nor for your race and ours for
the present time, but for the good of mankind_."

He dismissed his negro hearers and sent again for the representatives of
the Border Slave States. Here his plan must be set in motion. He
proposed to pay for the slaves set free and arrange for their
colonization.

He spoke with deep emotion. His soul throbbed with passionate tenderness
in every word.

"You are patriots and statesmen," he