IN MEMORIAMOF THE LATEREV. ALEX. CRUMMELL, D. D.OF WASHINGTON, D. C.---AN ADDRESSDELIVERED BEFOREThe American Negro Historical SocietyOF PHILADELPHIABY REV. HENRY L. PHILLIPSNOVEMBER, 1898With an Introductory Address by Rev. Matthew AndersonPastor of the Berean Presbyterian Church---Philladelphia The Coleman Printery1703 Lombard Street1899

---BY REV. MATTHEW ANDERSON.---MR PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

My remarks shall simply be prefatory or introductory to him who shall deliver the Memorial Address to the distinguished dead.

The object which has called us together to-night is one which should arouse our highest enthusiasm. It is to extol the virtues and sound the praises of one who did more to defend the manhood of the Negro and give shape and character to his thought than any other man. There were Negroes before his time and contemporaneous with him who were along certain lines: for example, in the pulpit there were Pennington, Beaman, Garnett and Payne; on rostrum Ward, Purvis and Douglass; before the bar, Rock, Elliott and Langston; in medicine, J. McCune Smith, McDonald, Roselle and Augusta, in philosophy and letters, Banneker, Nell, Delaney and Williams, men of superior intellectual ability, and who did much toward lifting the shadows from a struggling race, but transcendently superior to them all, was the Christian scholar and dauntless defender of the Negro against the slurs impatations of his traducers, namely Alexander Crummell, of Washington.

There are men, intellectual giants, who are diminutive in soul, mere glittering icicles or stalactites and who possess no more bowels of pity and compassion than the inert objects which they imitate, Dr.Crummell was a man not only of great intellect, but of great soul, a soul which went out in expressions and acts of love and sympathy toward the whole human family, but especially toward that branch of 00074it which by blood he was personally identified. No one could come Dr. Crummell in want or distress of any kind and not find in him a sympathetic and responsive friend-no matter what might be his race or color. But it was in the defense if the Negro that the greatness of his soul could be most clearly seen and appreciated. No man entered more feelingly into his wrongs and presented stronger and more pungent arguments in his defense than he. His conception of the Negro was not merely that of a humanitarian, namely, that he was a man and therefore entitled to all the rights and immunities of other men, but that he was a man who was endowed with the richest natural gifts and who had before him a glorious destiny.

It was indeed refreshing in those days of sham when the moral atmosphere is resonant with the imprecations, slanders and implications hurled at the Negro that he might appear odious in the eyes of the world as an extenuation of the wrongs and outrages which have been perpetrated against him-in these days of trimming and sickening, apologetic defence of the Negro on the part of his cowardly quasi-friends, days when many who are ambitious to be leaders of the race are unscrupulous mountebanks and charlatans, who are as changeable and unstable in their principles as the chameleon-that there was one Negro who could not be swerved from his position, and who had the ability and the courage to present to the world the most unanswerable and pungent arguments in reply to the charges and sophistry of those who would undermine and unstable the native worth and manhood of the Negro.

When Dr. Crummell raised his voice or wielded his pen he gave no uncertain sound as to where he stood in regard to his race; like every true champion of a noble cause, with his bosom unbared, he rushed fearlessly into the midst of the battle, bearing down to the right and left with his battle- axe the most dangerous if the foe. No mailed knight engaged an antagonist more earnestly than Dr. Crummell the antagonist of his race, and no knight won more glorious and signal victories than he. We can see him now as he came triumphantly from the different fields of battle, gladiatorial combats, which had been fought on the arena of public opinion, where he met, engaged and vanquished the giants of falsehood, slander and color prejudice. No gladiator was ever more conscious of having fought and conquered than he, and no one ever retired from the field of battle with a higher 00085sense of the righteousness of his cause and a loftier feeling of his prowess and the huzzas to which he was entitled from the vast concourse of silent witnesses of the battles.

No man was ever truer to his fellow-man than was Dr. Crummell, and to the Negro, and no man understood more thoroughly the mode of thought, the cast of mind, the aspirations and the inward longings and signs, than did he, and no man had greater love and admiration for his people, or greater confidence in their future than ho. Hence, whatever he did, whether it were preaching from the sacred desk, lecturing upon the rostrum, writing for the daily press, or the leading magazines of the land, he did it always in representative capacity, so that whatever honor or benefit might accrue therefrom, it would be accredited to and shared by the race rather than by himself. The man cannot be found who was more unselfish and blindly devoted to his race than he, yet Dr. Crummell was not blind to the faults of his people. For no man exposed and denounced more unsparingly the faults of the Negro than he and no man demanded a higher moral standard, for his people, for he argued that while the native worth of the Negro is not inferior to any but superior to some people, yet, inasmuch as there are many who think him inferior, while others out of hatred and revenge are heaping contempt and ignominy upon him, that aside from the scriptural injunction on the subject, the Negro cannot afford to engage in anything that would impair his morals, for just so far as his moral fabric is impaired so far will he assist in bringing about the predictions of his enemies and the fears of many of his friends. For if the white man could afford to be indolent, extravagant, intemperate and licentious, the Negro could not afford it if for no other than prudential reasons, namely, his own self-preservation, looking at it simply from a natural standpoint.

Dr. Crummell set no higher standard for his people than he set for himself, nor required more rigid discipline. His eating and sleeping, recreation and labor, both mental and physical, were all submitted to the most rigid discipline, so that it can therefore be readily understood what is meant by one who stood very near him when he describes him as having been a Christian athlete.

My acquaintance with Dr. Crummell embraced a period of more than twenty-five years, which acquaintance before his before his death had ripened into the most profound esteem and admiration for him as a man 00096and scholar. It seems but yesterday when, in company with several students, I met on the street on Oberlin, a very erect and dignified Negro, who stopped to inquire of us something concerning the town and the College. There was something about his appearance which was most striking, and which made us instinctively ask ourselves who could he be, whence he came, his occupation, and the object of his visit to Oberlin? I can see him now, as I saw him then, tall, erect, dignified, highly cultured, black and the quintessence of neatness. It had never been my good fortune to see a Negro so highly polished, and I therefore most naturally concluded that he did belong to this country. It was not long, however, before it was learned that the object of so much astonishment was Rev. Alexander Crummell of New York City, an Episcopal clergyman, and a returned missionary from the West Coast of Africa, who had brought his children to Oberlin to be educated. From that time to his death I have followed with profound interest the career of Dr. Crummell.

Dr. Crummell, as a writer, had no superior in this country. His style was scholarly, clear and pointed, and riveted the attention from the beginning to the end. His treatment of a subject was always from a standpoint of fact rather than theory: hence his arguments carried with them the most convincing evidence and forced the acceptance of his conclusions even on the part of his bitterest antagonists. No general ever marshalled his forces more skillfully against the strategic points of an enemy than did Dr. Crummell marshall his army of facts against the strategic points in the arguments of the traducers of the Negroes, and no general was more successful in seizing the points than he as may be seen in his defense of the "Black Woman of the South" and the "Defense of the Negro Race in America."

In his social relations, Dr. Crummell was most congenial. I had the honor of being very near to him socially during the latter part of his lite, having had him a number of times as a guest at my house, as well as being a guest at his. No man could have been more agreeable than he, humor, wit, repartee and even playfulness gushed from his exuberant spirit as water from a perennial spring, and this kept all within the circle of his home in a most happy frame of mind. This disposition made him a most acceptable guest. His last days were peaceful and rational to the end. Being a guest at Berea Cottage, Point Pleasant, N. J., the last month of his life, I was privileged to 00107see him every day, especially during the last two week. On my return from Philadelphia, two weeks before his death, I found that he had taken to his bed; on inquiry concerning his health, he replied: "Anderson, I think this is death," and then after expressing his wishes concerning his funeral and making me promise to assist his wife in carrying them out, he at once seemed to be forgetful of all further thought of self, but to be concerned principally about the welfare of his race.

The condition, trials and persecutions of the Negro seemed to have absorbed his attention to the end. Never was his mind clearer than it was during these last two weeks. All the great topics of the day, social, political, moral, religious and racial-especially racial-occupied his thought, and he conversed upon them as clearly and with as much interest as he had done when in health. But it was the Negro in America which concerned him most. "Friend Anderson," he said a week before he died, "I have no fear of the future of the American Negro, for he belongs to a prolific, hardy and imitative race and there is a glorious future before him: but I do dread his leaders, because most of them are ambitious, unscrupulous and ungodly men, who care nothing for the race but to use it simply to secure their own selfish and ungodly ends. When told, a few days before his death, that Khartoum had fallen, he raised his lands and exclaimed, "Thank God! That marks the downfall af slavery in Central Africa," and when asked, an hour before the end, how he was, he replied that he was feeling much better-that he hoped soon to get up, at the same time expressing the interest he had taken in the morning devotior, remarking that he had joined in the singing and praying.

The last moments were devoted to prayer, conducted according to the rules of his church by his faithful spiritual adviser, Father Wood. When at 10:30 o'clock A. M., on the tenth day of September, 1898, he breathed his last with his hand held by his faithful wife, and surrounded by his friends, there passed away one of the greatest of American Negroes, a man who had a stronger grip upon the intelligent thought of the country than any other Negro, and who did more to give character, dignity and unity to the race than any other man, Among his last acts was the establishment on the 5th of March, 1897, of the American Negro Academy which has for its object 00118the promotion of Literature, Science and Art, and the culture of a from of intellectual taste, the fostering of higher education, the publication of scholarly works and defenses of the Negro against vicious assaults, which meets annually at the National Capital. No Negro was more widely known and there is no one whose loss is more deeply felt by all classes in this country.

Nothing could have been more fitting, therefore, than that the Negro Historical Society of Philadelphia, should hold a memorial to Dr. Crummell, a Society which has for its object the gathering of books, papers, magazines and everything of interest to the Negro. It is fitting, I say, that this Society should hold sacred and keep alive the memory of one who has done as much if not more to give to the race a history than any other man. But as I said before, my remarks have been simply prefatory or introductory to the memorial address which is to be delivered by one who is eminently qualified to deliver it, a gentleman who holds a most unique position in this city because of his wide influence here, and because of the respect and esteem in which he is held by all classes; a gentleman who knew Dr. Crummell intimately not only as a man, and his work as a public benefactor, but also as a churchman, of which I am comparatively ignorant.

It gives me, therefore, great pleasure to present to this audience the Rev. Henry L. Phillips, rector of the Church of the Crucifixion, who will now deliver the Memorial Address to Rev. Alexander Crummell D. D.

IN MEMORIAM.---BY REV. HENRY L. PHILLIPS.---

He believed with Epictetus- "You will do the greatest service to the State if you should raise, not the roof of the house, but the souls of its citizins; for it is better that great souls should dwell in small houses, than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses." ---

These are the words of one young man bewailing the death of another young man to whom he was passionately attached. Yonder, on Mt. Gilboa, is young Jonathan, the heir apparent to the throne of Israel, fighting bravely and manfully against the Philistines. He is smitten to the ground and dies, together with his father and brothers. David, the friend of Jonathan, who has already been anointed to be king over Israel, forgets that honor, and in the sorrow of his heart exclaims, "How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished."

When, on the 10th day of September, death claimed for his own Rev. Alex. Crummell, Doctor in Divinity, a mighty man fell, and the weapons of war, so far as his eloquent tongue and trenchant pen were concerned, perished. He was a man of wonderful qualities. He had a commanding presence. He was a striking and convincing 001310writer, an eloquent speaker, a fearless champion of his race and a delightful conversationalist.

Alex. Crummell was born in New York, March 1819. He was the son of an African Prince, stolen when a boy and brought to this country. His grandfather was king of Timanee, W. A., a country adjoining Sierra Leone. His mother was a freewoman born in New York State. In the days of his youth, there not a single college or seminary in the United States that would admit a black boy. They were days of deep darkness and tribulation for Negroes in this land. Pro-slavery and caste spirit dominated the country. Chief Justice Paney's statement that "The Negro had no rights which white men were bound to respect," was but the common sentment of the nation.

At an early age, Crummell was taught reading and writing, and was sent to the Mulberry Street School, New York, taught by Qyakers. Subsequently, in common with his sisters and brothers, he received further instruction from white teachers employed by his father in 1831, a High School was established by the Rev. Peter Williams, Mr. Crummell's pastor, aided bu his father, Mr. Thomas Downing, and other leading colored men, who employed a white teacher to give instruction in Latin and Greek. This school sharpened Crummell's appetite for larger facilities of training and culture. But alas! where could he and the youth of like mind, such as Garnet and Sidney and Downing and Lawrence, look? Not a ray of hope was discenible on the intellectual horizon of the country. "Fortunately, however, just at this time, in the year 1835, the abolitionists, of New Hampshire, disgusted with the Negro harted of the schools and mortified at the intellectual disabilities of the black race, opened a school at Canaan, N. H. Youth of all races and sexes were to be received into it."

For this school, Henry Highland Garnet, Thomas S. Sidney and Alex. Crummell statrted with the greatest possible delight. At last a little silver lining was seen behind the dark cloud. Apparently daydawn was coming after the long, dark night. Tough, Garnet was a cripple, weak, sickly, feeble, these three boys had to travel on a steamboat from New York to Providence, where no cabin passage was allowed colored persons, and so they were exposed all night, bedless and foodless, to the cold and storm. From Providence to Boston; 001411from Boston to Concord; from Concord to Hanover, and from Hanover to Canaan, Crummell and his companions-one a cripple-were forced to ride, night and day on the top of the coach. It was a journey of about four hundred miles and rarely would an inn or a hotel give them food, and nowhere could they get shelter. And this in a Christian country! This among a people who had sought these shores to secure religious liberty!

Here Dr. Crummell himself-"Sidney and myself were his (Garnet's) companions during the whole journey, and I can never forget his sufferings- sufferings from pain and exposure, sufferings from thirst and hunger, sufferings from taunt and insult at every village and town, and ofttimes at every farmhouse as we rode, mounted upon the top of the coach, all through the long journey. It seems hardly conceivable that Christian people could thus treat human beings traveling through a land of ministers and churches! The sight of three black youths in gentlemanly garb, traveling through New England, was, in those days a most unusual sight; started not only surprise, but brought out universal sneers and ridicule. We met a cordial reception at Canaan from two-score white students, and began, with highest hopes, our studies. But our stay was the briefest. The Democracy of the State could not endure what they called a "nigger school" on the soil of New Hampshire, and so the word went forth, especially from the politicians of Concord that the school must be broken up. Fourteen black boys with books in their hands set the entire Granite State crazy. On the fourth of July, with wonderful taste and felicity, the farmers, from a wide region around, assembled at Canaan and resolved to remove the Academy as public nuisance. On the 10th of August they gathered from the neighboring towns, seized the building, and with ninety yoke of oxen, carried it off into a swamp about a half mile from its site. They were two days in accomplishing their miserable work."

The house in which Crummell and the other boys were, was attached that same night and fired upon, but as Garnet replied with a discharge from a double barrelled shotgun, the cowardly ruffians did not stay. They were ordered however to quit the State within a fortnight. As resistance would have proved futile, Crummell and his companions left Canaan and returned to their homes. Shortly after, 001512information was received that Oneida Institute at Whitesboro, a Manual Labor Seminary, had opened its doors to colored boys. Thither young Crummell repaired and spent three years under the excellent instruction of Rev. Beriah Green. Mr. Crummell, having decided to enter the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, determined to endeavor to get the best training possible, and yet at the same time he purposed never to submit to the degrading conditions under which Revs. Absalom Jones, Peter Willia,s and Wm. Levington had entered it, viz: "That they would never apply for admission to the conventions in the diocese in which they lived." He became a candidate for orders in 1837, and at once, under the direction of the rector, the Rev. Mr. Peter Williams, of St. Phillips Church, New York, applied for admission to the General Theological Seminary in New York.

Dr. Whittingham, afterwards Bishop of Maryland was then Dean of the faculty. He received the candidate most gracefully and said to him: "You have just as much right to admission here as any other man. If it were left to me, you should have immediate admission to this Seminary, but the matter has been taken out of my hands in De Garasse's case, and I am very sorry to say that I cannot admit you." (De Garasse-colored-had applied two or three years before and had been refused.) Mr. crummell then drew up a petition to the Trustee of the seminary asking for admission. It fell like a bombshell into the midst of that august body, causing the most intense consternation and exasperation. The Rt. Rev. George W. Doane, of New Jersey, was the only one who championed the cause of Mr. Crummell. The petition was rejected. Dr. Crummell himself says of this occasion: "Immediayely, i.e., during the session of the Trustees, Bishop Onderdonk sent for me, and then and there, in his study, set upon me with a violence and grossness that I never encountered save in one instance in Africa. Mr. Crummell now found himself in almost a hopeless condition. His name was stricken from the list of candidates. The entrance to the ministry seemed absolutelt barred. He became a marked man. He was looked upon as a disturber of the peace. On every side, there was universal anger against him. And what had he done? Which of the commandments of God or man had he broken? And were there others beside Bishop Doane who had the nobility to champion the cause of humanity? Yes! The honorable 001613William Jay and John Jay Esq., son and grandson of the illustrious John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States, Chase. King Esq., editor of the New York American, and the Rev. Manton Eastburn D.D., Rector of the Ascension, protested most vigorously against the action of the Trustees and the conduct of the Bishop. These gentlemen advised Mr. Crummell to go to Boston. They gave him letters to their friends. One introduced him to Rev. Wm. Crosswell, Rector of the Church of the Advent. Rev. Mr. Crosswell was not a Divine, but s aweet poet deeply interest in the negro race. While he could not personally do much for Mr. Crummell, he directed him to go to Rev. Dr. Vinton and the Rev. Mr. Clark. Rev. Thomas M. Clark, now the venerable and aged Bishop of rhode Island, was then a young priest, swaying by his inspiring eloquence and empyreal charecter, the crowds of worshippers who flocked to hear him.

Dr. Vinton, Rev. Mr. Clark and Rev. Mr. Crosswell became the friends and patrons of Mr. Crummell. Through their influence, he was introduced to the venerable Bishop Griswold. The Bishop received him with fatherly interest and cordiality, and concluded his conversation with him by saying, "I wish there were twenty more of your race applying for orders. I should be more than glad to receive them as candidates for the ministry in this diocese." Dr. Crummell says of this period: "My removal from New York to Bosyon seemed a transition from the darkness of midnight to the golden light of a summer morning, and it filled me with transport and inspiration. Never before, I judge, had a Negro youth in this land had such a golden experience. Just think of a simple black boy, in 1840, being received in the very Mecca of American culuture, refinement and piety with courtesy, with manly recognition, with Christian fraternalism! All honor to New England! Land, indeed, of sterile soil and black mountains! Land of chilling winds and wintry frosts, yet notwithstanding these physical frawbacks, the land of noble hearts, of Christian brotherhood, of gernerous sympathy, and of large philanthropy."

In Boston he became a candidate for orders, and two years afterwards, May 1842, he was ordained to the Deaconate in Saint Paul's Church, in that city. In 1844, Bishop Lee, of Maryland, ordained him to the Priesthood. The Rev. Mr. Crummell began his ministerial 001714labors at Providence, R.I., but there he could not get a support From Providence he came to Philadelphia. The Boshop of the diocese at that time was Rt. Rev. H. U. Onderdonk, brother of the New York Onderdonk. At the request of Mr. Crummell to labor here, the Bishop madethe following reply: "I cannot receive you into this diocese unless you will promise that you will never apply for a seat in the convention for yourself or for any church you may raise in this city." Those who knew Dr. Crummell can well imagine what his answer to this iniquitous demand was: "That, sir, I shall never do." That ended the interview, but as he was leaving the study, the Bishop called him back, and said: "You may wait a few days, and I will communicate with you." The Pennsylvania Diocesan Convention met as its annual session a few days after this interview. The Bishop in his address suggested that possibly some other African church might spring up in the diocese (St. Thomas was the only one then) and advised that in such an event it would be well to prepare a canon that no such church or minister should be admitted to the convention. The convention was all in the dark as to Mr. Crummell's application, but the horror caused by the idea of having a black face in their midst was quite enough. The canon was passed quickly, without question or debate, as though a calamity or pestilence was to be avoided.

Within forty-eight hours afterward, the Bishop sent word that he had accepted Mr. Crummell's "Letter Dimissory." But while Mr. Crummell was waiting for the Bishop's answer, he went to Burlington New Jersey, for counsel and advice from Bishop Doane. Says Dr. Crummell: "I did not know the Bishop, but I had heard of his energetic protest against my non-admission to the General Theological Seminary. I can never forget that interview; never forget the grand man who received me. He was standing with some parting friends on the banks of the Delaware, on the beautiful sward, before his Episcopal residence. His two boys, one now Bishop of Albany, were with him. At a moment of leisure [approached and introduced myself. I then told him the demand of Bishop Onderdonk, and stated my deepest perplexity. Those who remeber him, will remember his strong, stalwat voice and utcerance: Don't you do it! Don't you give him any such promise! Bishop Onderdonk is a strong personal friend of mine, but he has no right to demand any such promise from 001815you. You have the same rights in the church of God as any other man, and don't you give way to any such demands."

So with a lighter heart he returned to Philadelphia, but with a more fixed purpose never to submit to any ungracious and degrading conditions which heretofore hand been imposed upon colored clergyman. "Just God!-and these are theyWho minister at Thine Altar, God of Right!On Israel's Ark of Light!Is not Thy Hand stretched forthVisibly in the heavens to awe and smite?Shall not the living God of all the earthAnd heaven above, do right?Woe, then, to all who grindTheir brethren of a common father down!To all who plunder from the immortal MindIts bright and glorious crown.O speed the moment onWhen wrong shall cease and Liberty and LoveAnd Truth and Right throughout the earth be knownAs in their home above."

With but few exceptions. as in Providence, so in Philadelphia, the clergy would not support or recognize the Rev. Mr. Crummell He was looked upon as a disturber of the peace and must be punished by neglect. Not seldom reverend divines were rude and insulting toward him. The result was poverty, want, sickness. He says of this period: "On one occasion I was in a state of starvation."

Forced to give up his work here, he went to New York. What awaited him there? A repetition of the misfortunes of Providence and Philiadelphia. the clergy, with one grand exception, stood aloof from him as they would from a leper. The exception was the hero, orator and philanthropist, Dr. Stephen H. Ting, then rector of St.George's church. His whole soul rose in hatred of slavery and caste. "If it had not been for him," says Dr. Crummell, "and the constant and unfailing generosity of my great patron, Hon. John Jay, I think I must have died: poverty, want and sickness had well nigh broken me up." But there are heroes that neglect, distress, opposition, cannot suppress. Like the mighty oak that lifts its high up into the sky, they simply defy the storm that rages and threatens destruction to all around. It was at this period of difficulty and darkness, 001916when not enough colored people could be gathered together to build and support a church, that friends of Rev. Mr. Crummell suggested that he should go to England and appeal for funds to erect such a building. He reached England, January, 1847, broken in health, but at the same time, full of earnest purpose and brightest hopes. The letters which he carried soon brought him in contact with eminent persons both in the political and ecclesistical worlds. Everywhere he was received with favor and courtesy. His manliness and natural ability were soon seen and appreciated. His appeal for funds was kindly responded to. He preached in London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Bath, Gloucester and many other cities and towns.

His work was, however, often interrupted by severe fits of illness. Through the influence of a clerical friend, he fell into the hands of the eminent Sir Benjamin Brodie. Meanwhile, unsolicited, nay, unthought of by himself, such a personal interest sprang up in his behalf, that the request came to him that he should retire, for a season, from overwork, and become a student in the University of Cambridge. In 1851, he entered Queen's College, from which he graduated, taking his degree of B.A., in '53. During his terms, he was often in the hands of the doctors. He became despondent on account of his health. His studies were often interrupted. At last came the earnest counsel of his medical adviser that he must seek a warm climate. It was this advice that led him to Africa. The abandoment of his work in New York, gave offense to some of his friends, but he felt that his poor health required him to follow the advice of his physician.

His five years stay in England was a period of grand oppertunities and richest privileges. Of this period Dr. Crummell says:-"My letters carried me, first of all, to the hospitable board of one of England's most majestic characters, Sir Robert Harry Ingles-great as a stateman, philanthropist and a pillar of the church. Soon one and then another, and then another of the prelates of the Church of England gave me a cordial recognition. Among these were Wilberforce, the great Bishop of Oxford, Bishop Bloomfield, of London, Dr. Stanley, the Lord Bishop of Norwich, Bishop Sands, who at a later day, licensed me, for six months, to a curacy in Ipswich. Once I had the privilege of spending a morning with the Dean of St. Paul's, Dr. Thirwell, Bishop of Landraff, the most learned Bishop of 002017the English Church, and was charmed, and left, wondering at the great simplicity of his character, married as it was to his great weight of learing. Now and then I had the privilege of entrance into the circle of noted families-the Froudes, the Thackerays, the Pitmores, the Caswells and others of literary note; the Sturges, the Croppers, the Kinnairds, the Laboucheres, the Noels and the Thorntons of the philanthropic world. It was at the latter place I listened, for two or three hours to that brilliant avalanche of history and biography, of poetry and criticism which rushed from the brains and lips of Thomas Babington Macauley. Numbers of the clergy gave me hospitality, in some cases lasting friendship, which abides to the present('95) save where death has interposed. I cannot do otherwise than mention the names of the great Biblieal writers, Rev. Thomas Hartwell Horne, Rev. Henry Venn, the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, Rev. Henry Caswell, Dean Close and Rev. Daniel Wilson. Two of my freatest friends must receive special mention:-Wm. T. Blair, Esq., once Mayor of Bath, and Mrs. Clarkson, widow of the great Thomas Clarkson, the abolitionist."

This is the man who in America was scarcely acknowledged to be human. There probably has lived no other Negro who has been honored by personal contact and friendship with such a galaxy of stars of the first magnitude. And Dr. Crummell showed in his whole bearing not only the marks of the graduate of Queen's College, Cambridge, but the marks of a man who had come in contact with the world's best and greatest. Having decided, on account of the condition of his health, to go to Africa, he landed in Liberia in 1853, and at once threw himself into the work of that young republic. To make an impression upon the crude material that he found there was no easy work. He found his life was hedged up and crushed out by the malignant and caste spirit, in the Bishop and many of the missionaries (white men of course) which they carried from America and which married their own labors there. He spent twenty years in Africa. Under tropical sun, he became vigorous and elastic. He threw himself vigorously into the work that was before him. That work was beset everywhere with supreme difficulties. There was the mistrust and ignorance of the colonists, and the prejudices of the white missionaries to contend with. He succeeded, however in doing a healthful and elevating work.

During his residence in Africa, he was Pastor, Master of the High School, Professor in Liberia College, School Farmer and Missionary. Though not mingling with the politics of the country, he was always ready to give advice and counsel in public speech. On various occasions he was called on to deliver addresses. Many of them have been published. They are models of pure English and cogent reasoning. Dr. Crummell believed and believed rightly that all peoples on their first passage from slavery to freedom need moral rigidity. Having experienced the galling discpline of slavery, they need as a correction to license, the "sober discipline of freedom." This is prescisely what a new people cannot readily understand, and hence they are always ready to oppose those who such principles, especially as there will always be found demagogues, who for personal profit are ready to say thins that are pleasing although not helpful. Dr. Crummell was a teacher of morals. He stood on a high plane and shared the common fate of all moral reformers-sometimes misunderstood; sometimes hated; sometimes persecuted. In this respect he belonged to that class of men to which Moses and Isaish and Jeremiah and the Lord Jesus and Paul and Luther and Savonarola belonged. They belonged to the martyr class.

After living in Africa nearly twenty years, he returned to the United States in 1873 and began work in the city of Washington, D.C. He founded St. Luke's church of which he remained Rector, until he had accomplished fifty years of ministerial work. He resigned in 1855, and for awhile was Rector Emeritus. He was the founder and president of the American Negro Academy. He was also president of the Colored Ministers' Union.

Dr. Crummell was buried from Saint Phillip's church, New York, where his father was a vestryman; where he was a Sunday school scholar; where, under the influence of Rev. Peter Williams, he had his mind turned toward the sacred ministry. He was an incessant writer for magazines, newspapers and other periodicals, besides being the author of several tracts. Whatever he was eagerly read. His published volumes are "The Future of Africa," "The Greatness of Christ," "Africa and America." He was a thoroughly educated man. As a thinker; he had no superiors among the colored men of this country and very few among the whites. He was always 002219stronger, clear and logical. Whoever studies his writings will drink deep from the well of English undefield. He had strength and clearness of vision to a remarkable degree. He saw clearly the dangers of the present, out of which the future always, and he had the strength and courge to urge a healthier and better way of living. His was indeed the pen of a ready writer. Says Lowell: "No man is born into the world whose work is not born with him." Dr. Crummell's was not only born with him, but he did it well. He stood forth for the rights of the Negro because he is a man. What could be more noble, e. g.; than his eulogy on his friend, Henry Highland Garnet? His eulogy on Clarkson is as grand a piece of wirting as any one can wish to read.

He will live and continue to be a blessing to mankind through his writings. His "Africa will increase in poqularity and usefulness as the years roll by. He saw clearly that which comparatively few have seen or can understand. The so-called leaders of the race have been urging upon them to get money and education or both as a sine qua non. Dr. Crummell never hesitated to protect in his own vigorous way against such teaching. Money is good. Education is good. Both are neseccary. But they are not the first things to be sought by a new and rising people. CHARACTER, he insists, is THE thing of prime importance. The manly virtues-proper home training, purity, chasity, love of the beautiful, which will not stop until it finds God, the all beautiful, and love Him for Himself with such a love as will draw the character Godward-these are the things that can lift up and preserve a people; those are the things that Dr. Crummell insisted on as of the first importance. Education and money not married to virtue will prove a curse and not a blessing-will prove to be but the stepping stones to destruction.

Such was the burden of his teaching. The following is from the Petersburg Herald in 1893 going to show Dr. Crummell's influence for good through his writings: "Some of your readers have possessed themselves with Dr. Crummell's last book, "Africa and America," and they may remember that the third article in that books is "The Black Woman of the South." This article was prepared at the request of Rev. Rust, Secretaru of the Methodist Episcopal church, and delivered at a crowded meeting of the members of that church, at Asbury Park, Aug. 15th, 1883. The address attracted attention, and was at once put into print. The M. E. Missionary Society has printed 002320and published four editions of 10,000 copies thus making 40,000 copies in all. Dr. Crummell himself published a large edition. "The True Reformers" of Richmond have recently published and circulated a large edition. Somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 copies have been put in circulation.One of the signal results of its publication, as stated by Mrs. Rust to the author, is the fact that over One Million Dollars ($1,000,000) have been received by the Missionary Society for the purposes outlined by Dr. Crummell in his address; and a large number of "Industrial Svhools" for colored girls have been established and put into operation by the Methodist Church in the South.This is certainly a high compliment to Dr. Crummell; and he will go down to prosperity as a real benefactor of the race. No man among us has a higher regard for the Black Woman of the South, or has said more and better things in their defense when their honor has benn assailed, than has this reverend black gentleman and scholar of the race."

As the prophets and great men of old are still speaking to us and influencing us through their writings, so will Dr. Crummell continue to do. It was a pleasure to hear him speak: He had a brilliant imagination. The eloquence of his diction, the felicity of style with which he expressed himself, the wide range of knowledge, the power to command that knowledge whenever wanted, showed the well educated man and made him the center of attraction wherever he happened to be. Blood will tell. Dr. Crummell was the grandson of a king. He was a born ruler and could not brook opposition. This he showed in his whole manner and conversation. Dealing with a people who have not yet learned to submit gracefully to authority when exerted by one of their own race, this trait of character, in Dr. Crummell often militated against his immediate usefulners. But it was that which made him such a fearless champion of his race. He was no trimmer; he could not cringe; he would never bow to the storm, hoping that way he would escape its fury; he would not accept work in any diocese under degrading conditions. Hence whether it be in answer to insulting conditions under which Bishop Onderdonk offered him work in Pennsylvania, or in his contention that the Negro is not under a curse, or his answer to Rev. Dr. J. L. Tucker in his assaults and charges against the Negro in America, he was always a fearless champion of the rights of the black man as MAN. He was a knight of which any race might well be proud. In the providence of God, he was raised up to do a mighty work, especially through the use of his pen, at a time when the Calhouns and others of that ilk were declaring that the Negro is not a man or that if he could 002421grapple successfully with the Greek verb, they would believe in this manhood.

The life, the hardships, the struggles of a man like Dr. Crummell should be known and studied by all the youth of the country. The difficulties that this man overcame in seeking an education, in entering the misnistry, in fighting the caste spirit, in battling with sickness were as great as, if not greater than, those which a Napoleon had to overcome in crossing the Alps in midwinter. We are the habit of reading of the one with bated breath while we pass silently over the lives of men like Dr. Alexander Crummell. Why? Because we have not yet learned to believe that moral courge is superior to physical. "Lives of great men all remind usWe can make our lives sublime,And, departing, leave behind usFootprints on the sands of time.Footprints that perhaps another,Sailing o'er life's soleman main,A forlorn and shipwreeked brother,Seeing, shall take heart again.Let then be up and doing,With a heart for any fate;Still achieving still pursuing,Learn to labor, and to wait."