The Race Question Solved,

G. W. ELLIS' ORATION.

“What hath this day deserved? What hath it done That it in golden letters should be set Among the high tides in the calendar?”

Thus the poet sang of a day like this. There are two such days in American life. On the one she drew up that famous protest against the tyranny of Great Britain; on the other the protest against the injustice of African slavery. The one triumphed among the merry scenes of Yorktown, when Washington took into his hand the sword of a conquered king; the other at Appomattox, when Grant exchanged for the sword of Lee “the olive branch of peace.”

MUST MEET NEW PROBLEMS. And while our hearts swell with pride on the Fourth of July, on this sacred day we feel additional pride and joy in the thought that the glorious flag made independent at Yorktown, was purged of its greatest stain at Appomattox, and the nation took another step along the highway of social progress. In honor of this splendid achievement, we have met today. As our minds dwell upon its sacred memories, we rejoice in similar triumphs for freedom throughout the world.

“Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet. Lest we forget, lest we forget.”

0002 2

Lest we forget that these days have been consecrated far beyond our power to add or detract. Lest we forget to take inspiration from their lofty example, and addressing ourselves to the problems of the present, to dedicate our lives anew to the cause of human liberty.

THE RACE QUESTION THE GREATEST QUESTION.

As the questions of “Independence” and “Emancipation” were the greatest questions of their day, so the race question is today the greatest question which the American government must face and settle.

In its present form, it is a portentous menace to the stability and permanence of our institutions; it pervades the social, intellectual and moral being of the entire people; it influences their thought and conduct, shapes their lives, and is fixing their destiny. Throughout the world this race question is putting the so-called Anglo-Saxon civilization on trial for its claim to future existence.

And God forbid that the energies of this republic, the greatest in the world, should be detracted from its solution. Can you think of anything more appalling in the light of civilization? Anything more repulsive to the doctrines of the Man of Galilee, than the people of this republic barring ten millions of its loyal subjects from its economic life, violating their rights in every state of the Union, and in fifteen states law is abrogated, life, liberty and property, subject to the passions of lawless mobs? I ask you what guaranty is there that the lawlessness of the South will not 0003 3spread through the North, and thus reduce the republic to anarchy? This condition demands our first attention, our first thought and our greatest effort for the safety of the republic, without regard to our opinion of the Negro.

WHITE MAN's PROBLEM.

We have been taught that this is a Negro problem, and the Negro has been endeavoring to solve it. Under the stimulus of this idea, the negro, in the last quarter of a century, has made unprecedented progress. Surprising his friends, he has disarmed many of his enemies. Indeed, his friends have declared him able to take care of himself. In every walk of life he has challenged all comers and is still a stranger to defeat, the pride of his friends and the dread of his enemies. But with all his advancement, he is no nearer the solution of the problem than when he first began. The gulf between the races grows wider each day, and the struggle for liberty and justice becomes fiercer and more dangerous to the republic. At last we must recognize the truth that the race question in this country is a white man's problem. And when the white man answers rightly, in his conduct, the question, “Shall the Negro have an equal share in American civilization and opportunity?” He has solved the problem now so vexing and difficult.

THE WHITE MAN AS A CITIZEN.

The history of the white man in this country shows him a lover of liberty, a splendid man and citizen. 0004 4He is conscientious and patriotic, law-abiding and religious, and possesses the courage to do what he considers his duty. The Southern white man allowed his early interests to deceive him and to prejudice many others on the race question. The North has been the friend of the Negro for many years; since emancipation the South has deceived the North much on this question. That this deception will continue much longer, is doubtful. The South would destroy anything on earth to keep the Negro in what it considers his place; and this is what makes the white man's problem. The white people have already begun to recognize this fact. Hon. J. W. Gleed made a matchless speech in June before the Ohio State University in which he showed that the constitution was being undermined and the fundamental principles of government perverted by those who oppose what they call the “nigger.” When this is thoroughly understood, the people will not hesitate to assume the responsibility of settling this vexing problem rightly; they have begun to see that the progress of the Negro has shifted the responsibility from his own shoulders for his maltreatment to the shoulders of the white man; they will be encouraged when they understand, as they must ere long, that this question not only imposes on the white man its solution, but puts on trial as well and holds up to the ridicule of the world his intelligence, his morality, his religion, his political institutions; yea, his very civilization. Now is the Negro's time to present his case to the people while they are entering the councils 0005 5of the world and are most concerned about their judgment.

THE NEGRO ENTITLED TO EQUAL OPPORTUNITY.

The white man will be also influenced and encouraged by the splendid record of the Negro in war and peace, in science, literature, economic and general culture. The Negro, emancipated without a dollar, in a quarter of a century, has accumulated over 250 million dollars. In education two and one-half million pupils, led by over 25 thousand Negro teachers, are daily marching to a higher and nobler life. In every contest for the flag, from the time Attucks fell in the streets of Boston until the black boys made that famous charge up El Caney and San Juan Hill, protecting with their lives the “Rough Riders,” until the flag was triumphantly placed over Santiago's lofty heights, the Negro has evinced a patriotism that is the marvel of the world and for a country that denied him equal freedom and opportunity.

THE NEGRO IN LITERATURE.

The Negro is mastering the higher forms of literature and thought. “The history of American poetry,” says one eminent literary critic, can no longer be written without the name of a Negro.” He not only is writing poetry, but he sings with Homer, of the Fall of Troy, and of Odyssey sighing in his wanderings for the peace of home. He is borne with Milton upon the wings of imagination, amid the choirs of angels, discoursing 0006 6upon the destiny and the mighty themes of the human soul. And he is charmed by the matchless allegory of Dante, describing amid the scenes of Florence, the march of a soul from sin to perfection. He shudders with Macbeth at the commission of murder, lured to the dreadful field of Dunsinane, by the glittering prizes of ambition. He falls with Lear upon the heights of Dover and feels with Hamlet the fierce tumult of the storm, which beat again the throne of Elsinore.

THE NEGRO EDIFIED BY NATURE.

The Negro's culture has increased his civic and social function; and added to his pleasure. He is edified as he walks along mountain sides whose summits are lost amid thunder's sullen roar; as he stands by the flower-fringed banks of winding rivers that flow to sunless seas. He appreciates the beauty of evenings clad in all the glory of glittering stars and the splendor of rising and setting suns which paint the stars and the splendor of rising and setting suns which paint the landscapes and gilt the mountains with gold. In his imagination he views the crystal cities of the skies and rides on lighting's fiery steeds, which drag the muttering thunder athwart the sky. His aesthetic nature rejoices in contemplation of bespangled plains and verdant meads, where summer's sun sifts through interlacing bows, where soft and sombre zephyrs sigh and music-throated birds enchant the listening air. Such a people ought and will have protection.

0007 7

THE NEGRO ENCOURAGED.

The more the Negro progresses, the more he is resisted and persecuted. “The darkest hour is just before the dawn.” He knows that every step taken by civilization, from Marathon to Santiago, has been taken over the final and bitter opposition of the dying past. In harmony with civilization, in obedience to the laws of progress, sustained by the wisdom of the past, he will continue to battle for the dawning of the better day. He may be retarded for a time, as was humanity, but the American people can no more arrest permanently his future progress to equality, than they can afford to resist the laws of gravitation or defy the onward sweep of time. The Negro is encouraged by the efforts of the barons of England, when upon the field of Runnymede, they wrung from the hands of King John the bulwark of English and American liberty, by the success of the English people for greater liberty, when Cromwell led Charles I. like a lamb to the slaughter, and by the victory of the French peasant who rose up against “sceptered hands and crowned heads,” in the turbulent time of revolution, and made red with royal blood the sunny hills of France.

Sir, the Negro is doubly inspired by the lofty example of Kossuth—the champion of Hungarian liberty—by the example of Cavour and Massini surrounded by the classic memories of Greece and Rome, and by the intrepid leadership of Luther nailing his thesis upon the door at Wittenberg, the sound of whose hammer 0008 8was heard around the world; by the vote of o'Connel pleading for downtrodden Ireland; of Cobden and Bright and Calvin sermonizing beside the placid waters of Geneva; by the heroic examples of Hancock and Adams, Otis and Henry and Jefferson,—Washington, the father of His Country, and that immortal saint upon whose brow all nature did seem to fix her seal of immortality, the foremost of American diplomats and statesmen, that “Prince of American citizens"—Abraham Lincoln. The Negro will continue to battle for liberty, for justice, his country, until all the people sing in one great chorus: “Ring out ye bells of freedom, ring long and ring loud, The lighting has pierced the dark and threating clouds; It has lighted up the stars on Old Glory unfurled, which speaks like God to a wondering world. The toiling millions who daily bend to their yoke, Whose sweat-drops are prayers though a word be not spoke, Have swelled the chorus which sweeps to the sea: “Liberty and Justice, our motto must ever be.”