%images;]>LCRBMRP-T2615Addresses and ceremonies at the New Year's festival to the freedmen, on Arlington Heights; : and statistics and statements of the educational condition of the colored people in the southern states, and other facts.: a machine-readable transcription. Collection: African-American Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1820-1920; American Memory, Library of Congress. Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.

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12-002990Daniel Murray Pamphlet Collection, 1860-1920, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. Copyright status not determined.
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ADDRESSES AND CEREMONIESAT THENEW YEAR'S FESTIVAL TO THE FREEDMEN,OFARLINGTON HEIGHTS;ANDSTATISTICS AND STATEMENTSOF THEEDUCATIONAL CONDITION OF THE COLORED PEOPLE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES, AND OTHER FACTS.WASHINGTON, D.C.:McGILL & WITHEROW, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS.1867.

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ADDRESSES AND CEREMONIES.

In the midst of social and family festivities and greetings of the opening of the year 1867 at the national capital, the hearts of some benevolent ladies and gentlemen of Washington, D.C., were touched with Christian sympathy for a thousand freedmen of Arlington Heights, within sight of the capital, who needed words of sympathy to cheer them and material comforts to gladden their humble homes.

Remembering the precept of Him "who went about doing good," and who said, "When thou makest a feast, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors, but call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed," some friends of humanity, and members of different denominations, resolved to give a New year's Festival to these lowly children of our common Father, many of whom were the disciples of the Saviour, who, by his own precepts and beautiful examples, taught the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

THE PREPARATORY MEETING FOR THE FESTIVAL was held on Wednesday evening, December 26, 1866, at the residence of Hon. George W. McLellan, Second Assistant Postmaster General; Hon. Sayles J. Bowen, City postmaster, presided, and S. V. Boyd, esq., acted as secretary. A committee was appointed to make the necessary arrangements, consisting of Byron Sunderland, D. D., J. George Butler, D. D., Charles B. Boynton, D. D., Rev. B. F. Morris, General Charles H. Howard, Brevet Brigadier General James A. Ekin, General S. L. Brown, Hon. George W. McLellan, Hon. Sayles J. Bowen, S. V. Boyd, S. S. Bryant, Mrs. J. C. Lewis, Mrs. C. H. Morse, Mrs. U. II. Hutchins, Mrs. II. D. Cooke, Mrs. J. J. Bowen, Miss Mary E. McLellan, and Miss Nelson. Rev. Dr. Butler and others made appropriate remarks.

Thursday, P. M., December 27, the committee met at the room of Mr. Bowen, in the City Post Office. Messrs. Morris, Boyd, and Bryant were appointed a committee to procure speakers. Drs. Sunderland and Butler and Rev. Mr. Morris a committee to prepare a circular appealing to the public. The Hon. Geo. W. McLellan and Sayles J. Bowen were constituted a committee to receive all contributions and supplies, the same to be left with them at the Post Office building.

General S. L. Brown was authorized to make all preparations necessary in the procuring of buildings and arranging tables, &c., &c.

David Fisher, Elder of the Fifteenth Presbyterian (colored) church, Mathew Lewis, John A. Greery, and William A. Shorter, of the same church, and Gurdin Snowden, of the Asbury Methodist Episcopal (colored) church, were present, and were appointed to assist in the arrangement for the entertainment.

Rev. J. J. Marks, D. D., of Meadville, Pennsylvania, who had been a popular and devoted chaplain in the 63d Pennsylvania regiment during the war, and who is the author of an excellent volume entitled the "Peninsular Campaign," being on a visit to the national capital, volunteered to visit Philadelphia to solicit aid; and for his valuable services he received the thanks of the committee.

The festival was voted to be held on Saturday, the 5th of January, 1867.

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The following circular was published:"APPEAL IS BEHALF OF THE FREEDMEN AT ARLINGTON HEIGHTS."Nearly one thousand freedmen are located at Arlington Heights, within sight of the capital of our nation. A large proportion are children and aged and infirm men and women, who need, and must have, the charities of the Christian public. Recently from bondage and helpless, they make a strong and touching appeal to the sympathies of the humane."A number of ladies and gentlemen, of various denominations, of Washington, have organized, and are at work, to give these freedmen a New Year's entertainment, on Saturday, the 5th of January next, and also to provide for their material comfort during the present winter."An appeal is made, in this form, to the friends of humanity and of the freedmen, for aid in this truly benevolent and praiseworthy object. All articles of food, (bread and meats prepared, if possible,) clothing, new or partly worn, coarse fabrics of various kinds, and money, are earnestly solicited."Each pastor and person to whom this circular is sent, is requested to take up a collection, on Sabbath next, the 30th instant, or make up a box early in the coming week, and direct, through the express or the mails, to the Hon. George W. McLellan, Second Assistant Postmaster General, or Hon. Sayles J. Bowen, City Postmaster, Washington, D. C."It is confidently believed that this appeal will receive prompt and liberal responses and the donors experience the happiness of our Saviour's precept, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"Friends of humanity and of our common Christianity! send a memorial to this noble charity, and make the hearts and humble homes of these lowly and suffering ones glad and grateful with your New Year's offerings and benedictions."The members of Congress and other distinguished citizens are invited, some of whom will address the colored people and the guests present, on topics of interest to the emancipated race and to our common country."BYRON SUNDERLAND, D.D., "Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church."J. GEO. BUTLER, D.D.,"Paster of St. Paul's Lutheran Church."B. F. MORRIS, Resident Minister. "Committee on behalf of a Meeting of the Friends of the Freedmen. "WASHINGTON, D.C., December 23, 1866."

This appeal was directed to be sent to each pastor of the churches in Washington city. It was also sent to churches in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and some neighboring towns, and to a number of benevolent persons abroad. Liberal responses were made to it by benevolent persons and by various churches, especially in Philadelphia, which are acknowledged elsewhere.

INVITED GUESTS.

A large number of invited guests were present, among whom were Hon. Portus Bixter, member of Congress from Vermont, and his wife; Hon. Messrs. Moulton and Bromwell, members of Congress from Illinois; Hon. Mr. Clarke, member of Congress from Ohio, and his wife; Hon. John H. Farquhar, member of Congress from Indiana; Hon. George A. Lincoln and his wife, from Brooklyn, New York; Hon. Mr. Jewett, of Buffalo, New York; Colonel U. H. Hutchins and wife, of Ohio; Mrs. Mary C. Ames, the correspondent of the Independent; Mrs. S. J. Bowen and sisters; Mrs. C. H. Morse; Mrs. John J. Jolliffe; the Misses McLellan, Nelson, Spear, and Borden; Drs. Sunderland and Butler; Rev. Mr. Morris; Rev. Mr. Turney, and his wife; Rev. Mr. Johnson; S. V. Boyd; General Charles H. Howard, Assistant Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, and others.

Invitations had been extended to Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, Hon. Henry Wilson, Senator in Congress from Massachusetts; Hon. Horace Maynard, member of Congress from Tennessee; Hon. George W. Julian, member of Congress from Indiana; Hon. Ira 00045Harris, Senator in congress from New York; Hon. J. M. Elmunds, ex- -Commissioner of the General Land Office; Hon. James C. Wetmore, Military State Agent for Ohio; John R. Elvans, East., of Washington city, and other distinguished friends of the colored race, but who were unable to be present. Letters from some of these gentlemen were received, which will be found elsewhere.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS.

The beautiful spot where the festival was held has local memories, past and present, of suggestive historic interest. The large landed estate, consisting of twelve hundred acres, known by this name, was the property of Washington, who bequeathed it to his foster--son, George Washington Custis, whose daughter is the wife of General Robert E. Lee, the chief of the rebel army during the civil war. His treason forfeited it to the Government, and it became, by an order of the Secretary of War, Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, the home of the freedmen. it was for forty years before the rebellion the seat of social, intellectual, and political attractions to eminent public men of the country, especially those from the Southern States, who participated frequently in its elegant hospitalities. The mansion over which now waves the flag of the nation contained many mementoes of the Father of his Country, some of which remained after its owner, General lee, left it to lead the armies of the rebellion, and which are preserved as interesting trophies of the war.

THE SOLDIERS' CEMETERY,

on Arlington Heights, near to the mansion, is a consecrated spot of this memorable and historic estate. It was selected after the war closed, by the national Government as the final resting--place of many of the brave men who fell in the great battle of the conflict in Virginia, and who died int he hospitals, and who have thus, in their lives and death, consecrated the spot to patriotism and freedom. The serried columns of the graves of ten thousand of our brave soldiers, white and black, buried beneath the green trees of Arlington Heights, within sight of the capital of the nation, are still the sentinels of safety to the city and the country, and will be perpetual memorials of the sacrifices made for the freedom of an enslaved race and the salvation of our republic. "So sleep the brave who sink to rest, With all their country's honors blest."

FREEDMEN'S VILLAGE,

located on an elevated part of Arlington heights, and overlooking the capital, has an instructive history. In the opening of the war, a large number of fugitive slaves, from Maryland and Virginia, coming within our lines, made Washington their city of refuge. These colored people, then called "contrabands of war," were taken under the care of the Government. Their first home was in the Old Capitol, in which the first Congress that met in Washington city, in 1800, held its sessions, and which was used during the war as a place of confinement for rebel prisoners. Subsequently the quarters of these colored persons were located in "Duff Green's Row," a block of buildings on the same square, east of the present Capitol. These buildings have memorable associations connected with many of the leading men of the rebellion. John C. Calhoun, the father of secessionism, and the great champion of slavery in Congress, and other leading southerners, enjoyed the intimate hospitalities of the owner, whose name the buildings bear, and in them were held frequent social and political conferences during the reign of slavery.

In May, 1862, Rev. D. B. Nichols, who furnishes these facts, and a devoted friend to the colored race, came to Washington as missionary from the American Missionary Association, to labor among the colored people. he was appointed Superintendent of the 00056"contrabands" in and around Washington by General James Wadsworth, then Military Governor of the District. In July, 1862, the freedmen, by an order of the Government, were transferred to "McClellan's Barracks," known afterwards as Camp Barker, in the northwestern part of the city. Owing to the frequent visits from slave owners in maryland, hunting for their escaped slaves, in June, 1863, these colored people were removed to Arlington Heights, one hundred persons forming the colony.

The present village, under the superintendence of Mr. Nichols, was selected and laid out, and on the 4th of December, 1863, was dedicated by appropriate religious services; and a school--house, used also as a place of worship, and a hospital for the aged and infirm, were built. A school had been previously organized by Mr. Sperry, of the American Tract Society, under a majestic oak, near to a find spring of pure water. Under the earnest and faithful labors of the superintendent and others, hundred of children and adults received the rudiments of education, and were instructed in religious knowledge. The village contained at one time fifteen hundred soldiers, and since its location several thousand have been under its religious and educational influences. A Methodist church was formed, and subsequently one by the Baptists the latter of which is now in a flourishing condition, and under the pastoral care of Rev. Mr. Laws, (colored,) who has received during the last year ninety persons into church fellowship. A large Sabbath--school is also in a flourishing condition.

In May, 1865, the village came under the care of the Freedmen's Bureau, whose Commissioner is Major Gen. O. O. Howard, the Christian, hero and philanthropist, who has administered this important branch of the Government with great success and integrity, and labored assiduously and earnestly to protest the rights and elevate and bless the colored race.

The village was visited at different times, in the years of 1863--4--5, by Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President of the United States; Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State; Hon. Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury; Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy; Hon. Charles H. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War; Generals Meigs, Auger, and Doubleday; Lord Lyons, the English Minister, attended by Admiral Milne, of the Royal Navy; the Russian admiral and his suite, and other notables. Secretary Seward had visited the village thirteen times, and his wife and daughter, both deceased, who were distinguished for their practical sympathy for the oppressed and the poor, and around whose memories cling precious recollections, had frequently visited the village, and manifested the deepest interest and Christian sympathy in their physical comfort and in their intellectual and religious culture and elevation.

On Saturday, the 5th of January, 1867, the friends of the freedmen met in the church of the village to engage in the ceremonies of the day. It had been tastefully decorated with evergreens and beautiful banners by the colored people, and over the pulpit was wreathed in letters of evergreen the name of "ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

THE CEREMONIES

were commenced by an impressive and fervent prayer by the Rev. Mr. Johnson, of the United Presbyterian church.

S. V. Boyd, Esq., who had been active and liberal in getting up the first colored regiment in the District of Columbia, and is an earnest friend of the colored people, was appointed to preside. He introduced the first speaker as follows:

On such a happy occasion as the present, it is eminently proper that the first address should be from the distinguished Representative in Congress at large from the State of Illinois, the home of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, who issued the immortal Proclamation of Freedom 00067to four millions of slaves, and who, in yonder capital, on the 14th of April, 1865, fell a martyr to his country and to the freedom of an oppressed race. I have the honor to introduce Hon. S. W. Moulton, of Illinois.

ADDRESS OF HON. S. W. MOULTON, OF ILLINOIS.

My FELLOW--COUNTRYMEN: I am rejoiced to have the opportunity of meeting with you to--day under these happy auspices.

I am an entire stranger to you, living a thousand miles away, in the great State of Illinois, the former home of the great Lincoln. I am here by accident, not expecting to address you; but I esteem it a privilege and pleasure to speak to you a few earnest words of congratulation and encouragement on this to you deeply interesting and happy occasion.

This is the anniversary of your emancipation. It is your jubilee.

For hundreds of years your race has been kept in chains and slavery of the most revolting and degrading character. All generous impulses, hopes and ambition were crushed out, and you were simply machines, operatives, at the will of a tyrant master. Such is your past history.

But thanks be to an all wise Providence and the disinterested patriotism and humanity of your great friend, the lamented Lincoln, your chains have been broken, slavery forever destroyed within this Union, and all the responsibilities of American citizenship have devolved upon you.

My friends, do you understand fully the import of freedom, liberty, and citizenship? By being free, you are not thereby discharged from the obligations of citizens--from responsibilities and from labor to support yourselves and families. With citizenship your responsibilities begin; you stand erect before the world as men and women. Have you the mental and moral qualities to enable you to take care of yourselves in the race of life, is one of the questions that you alone can solve.

Your friends believe that you possess the elements to make good citizens and to enable you to discharge all your obligations to society, if you are permitted to have a fair and equal chance in the world.

All you ask is that the laws of the country shall operate equally upon all, without regard to race or color. With this you are content to take your chances. This is reasonable and just, and no vote of mine shall ever be given to deprive your race of perfect equality before the law.

You, as a people, have given the most indisputable evidence of your love of this Union and hatred of treason by watering with your blood an hundred battle--fields. Your black hands have carried aloft triumphantly the old flag, through fields of blood, carnage, and death. In the great struggle through which we have just passed you have helped to keep duty, and all you ask now, in return, is equality before the law.

My friends, this you are entitled to, and this will be guaranteed you by the legislation of the country.

Already you have been enfranchised in this District, and a bill is now pending before Congress for the establishment of a free--school system, under which every child will be entitled to a common--school education. This is legislation in the right direction, and indicates progress.

But, my friends, if equal and just laws are afforded you, if you are permitted to fully enjoy the fruits of your own labor and to stand upon an equality with all others, this is all you have a right to expect.

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You must exert your own energies, you must put forth your own hands and labor; and unless you do this, freedom and equality will not aid you in the hard struggle of life; you will fail in all the objects of life, and will becomes a burden to yourselves and society.

Then your first duty is to seek employment. Don't crowd into the cities; go into the country, where labor is scarce and in demand. Work honestly and faithfully; acquire homes for yourselves and children; and show to the world that if you have a chance, you can maintain your relative position in society. This I believe you can and will do. You have much to contend with; you have prejudices against you to overcome; you have inveterate enemies to conquer; and, strangely enough at this time, many of those whom you had a right to expect to be your friends. have now become your enemies. They have coldly turned their backs upon you, and would leave you to the tender mercies of your former master.

But, my friends, you can survive this treachery.

The good and the true everywhere are your friends. The Thirty--Ninth Congress will do you, I hope, full justice.

Up to this time you have done better than your friends expected. you have everywhere evinced a desire for education, and you have, under the circumstances, made wonderful improvement, developing mental powers of a superior order in the acquisition of elementary education.

My friends, there is one in the clear, blue, upper sky who looks down upon us here to day and rejoices with us at your happy prospects, and the results of his labors on this earth.

The great name of the martyred Lincoln you never can forget. He was your friend, and the friend of humanity. he always faithfully kept and performed his promises to your race. Your faithful hearts overflow with gratitude towards him. His memory will always be sweet to you.

Emulate his great qualities: his truth, his simplicity, his honesty, his benevolence, love of freedom, and liberty.

There are four millions of your race among us; our destines, hopes, and aspirations are the same.

We have the same country and flag. Let there be no strife between us. Let harmony, fraternity, liberty, and equality everywhere prevail.

If you, my fellow--countrymen, discharge all your duties as citizens to the extent of your abilities, the expectation and hopes of your friends will be more than realized. Prosperity and happiness will be yours; and you can forgot the chains that have so recently bound you in your improved and happier condition.

ADDRESS OF HON. R. W. CLARKE, M. O. FROM OHIO.

Mr. Clarke said: The colored race in our country had suffered long and patiently. Two hundred and fifty years of servitude had laid heavy and bitter burdens upon them, and had borne them down to the very earth; but the day of deliverance had come to them; and although they were poor, uneducated, houseless, and homeless, still they were blessed with one happy attribute of humanity that they had not enjoyed heretofore--the right of personal liberty, the right to assert a claim to humanity, and to ask of the nation the protection it demands. The Government has done a good thing for the colored people of the country; it has moved slowly, indeed, but it has advanced as rapidly as the interests of the oppressed and the prejudices of the people would admit. Many of us have had to combat those prejudices even where slavery never existed; even in free States, where only free people live, there are those who, being free themselves, think it no hardship if all 00089others are slaves, especially if they have a skin darker than their own. with such we have had to contend, and many and bitter the conflicts we have had in maintaining the right of the negro to claim with all men a share in a common humanity. The battle has been fought, well fought, and victory has declared for the right. You are sharers with the white man and all races of men in a common humanity; you are, as all men in this Government are, and of right ought to be, free! To--day our law pronounces you men and women, endowed with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And the boon of freedom once bestowed, is not easily taken away. No force will dare to wrench it from you. Take care that, by your own improvidence, you do not give it back to your masters, who, while there is the faintest hope of recovering their lost estate, will not cease to watch with eager eyes, and seize upon the earliest occasion that may promise them success.

Let me encourage you so to live that you they fully meet public expectation, and justify the efforts that good men have made in our behalf. Be sober, industrious, and moral; educate yourselves as far as practicable; educate your children by all means; do not become idle or profligate, that your enemies may thereby assume to prove your incapacity for the condition of freemen; rely upon your own exertions for a livelihood; do not look to the Freedmen's Bureau or public charities for support, but go forth in the world with freemen's privileges, and like freemen live upon the fruits of your own labor. Do this, and you cannot fail; do this, and you will make a generous return to those who, for long years, have struggled in your behalf, some of whom have given their lives to your cause; do this, and God will follow you with his mercies, and in his own good time and way open to you new views in the future that shall rejoice your hearts, and make you realize that on earth even the down--trodden black man may look up towards Heaven, and smile as he feels its blessings descending upon him.

ADDRESS OF GENERAL C. H. HOWARD, ASS'T COMMISSIONER BUREAU D., F., AND A. L.

FRIENDS AND FELLOW--CITIZENS: I gladly avail myself of this opportunity to greet you early in this meeting and upon this festival day. I do not feel that I am a stranger here; you have probably all heard my voice before, as I have more than once addressed you from this platform. Hitherto I have spoken to you of my official work, so closely connected with your interests; sometimes have said that which to some was not palatable, and am well aware have advocated measures which bore harshly upon some, though intended for the general good. But I come to--day to offer congratulation. It is a fit day of rejoicing for you. this festival celebrates the anniversary of your freedom. Those who were born free can never fully appreciate the deep meaning of your joy on this anniversary. It is a privilege for me to be present, to show that I can rejoice with you when you rejoice. It seems but half--hearted sympathy that merely pities those who are in want and suffering, but turns coldly away when the tears of joy begin to flow.

Arriving in Washington this morning from a brief absence in the North, (where, by--the--way, I met some of you number who have found good homes there, of whom I will endeavor to tell you more, if there is time, as well as of the provision made for others of you who will go.) I saw by the newspapers that you were to have a grand dinner given by your friends and a general day of rejoicing, and I determined that nothing should prevent me from being present.

I have called you fellow--citizens, and this anniversary celebrates the birth of you citizenship. Since that memorable day of 1863, you have had the indisputable right to the name. But no name, no words of mine, can give more than a faint semblance either of the meaning of that day to you, or of the emotions of your hearts as you recollect the 000910boon it brought. I have not failed to see that revered and loved name of Lincoln intertwined there in your decorations of this chapel, as it is indissolubly kind with your fondest affections and most cherished memories.

On the return of this anniversary you will speak of him to one another; you will talk of him to your children, and a cloud will cover for the time the sunshine of your rejoicing. all of our hearts beat in sympathy with yours when we recall our great loss and the sad day of his removal. But among the many, many wholesome lessons of his life was that of a prevailing cheerfulness of spirit. Could he visit you to--day from his bright sphere of glory, would he not bid you be glad and be thankful, and take new courage in remembering what Providence has already wrought out in your behalf.

Yes, the right to call you citizens must, I suppose, date from that day of emancipation. But I claim to be of those who go back of that in deriving for you the right itself; yes, more than that, the full rights of manhood. I find them in the teachings of our divine Lore and Saviour. I long ago learned there that you are more than fellow--citizens; that you are my brethren; and if I refuse to acknowledge and treat you as such, I am recreant to those teachings, and the Spirit of the divine Master is not enthroned in my heart. Some there are who cannot see that this relationship of Christian brotherhood necessitates for you a common citizenship in our land, or that it enjoins upon them the duty of making you equal with themselves before the law. Our Lord has left a test for such: "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."

I congratulate you to--day that in the fullness of time a Chief Magistrate was raised up for us who dared to act in the spirit of these words; that after stern chastisement there are millions now who are willing to apply them in determining what shall be your rights before the law and your political privileges. You have friends here to--day who will, doubtless give you information upon this subject, both as to what has already been done and what are their hopes for you in the future.

I congratulate you upon the great work of education among you, of which Doctor Turney has just been speaking. As an officer of the Freedmen's Bureau, I have endeavored to stand shoulder to shoulder with him and all like him engaged in this important work. You are doubtless aware that the officers of the Bureau meet your teachers on common ground, being enabled by the bounty of the Government to provide school--room often, school furniture, transportation for teachers, and protection. Military protection has been more needed in some other States than in this department, but is by no means an empty sound here, where in a neighboring county one school--house has been burned, and two schools violently broken up within three months. I agree particularly with Dr. Turney in his plan of fitting teachers of your own color to go forth to aid in educating your people. It is a credit to you that so many are aspiring to do this.

To--day is a good day to cultivate independence and self--reliance. I see before me faces lighted up with intelligence, and in many of them I read also a resolute purpose to do and dare in the battle of life before them. I shall have more to say to such (as I have addressed them here before) upon a subject of vital practical moment; but, first, a few words to another class who are represented here. I mean those who have spent their strength and have become old in the service of others, and can no longer work. The profits of their labor has enriched others than themselves. They were not permitted to lay by a competence for old age. It is right and fitting that they should receive their support now, and the Government has made some provision for such at this village. Then otherwise become permanently disabled in that unrequited service. You, too, have a claim to be cared for. All your toil and hardship and suffering in those long years of 001011slavery we had better not dwell upon, though it is proper for us to remember, as we have endeavored to to--day, your just claim to our sympathy. I recall to mind with pain an inmate of one of the neighboring houses, a girl of fifteen, whose very reason was dethroned, as her devoted mother informed me, by the violence of her cruel master. She and all like her deserve ample provision for their maintenance from a Government which permitted such outrages upon the helpless. To all this class rightfully dependent we would bring good cheer to--day, and assure them, from what we know of the American people, that they will continue to be cared for. Those of them at this village arethe direct wards of the Government, acting through the Freedmen's Bureau. Neither law nor appropriation is lacking to meet their necessities. There is no reason why they should suffer for want of proper shelter, food, clothing, fuel, or medical attendance. I may mention, as a gratifying fact, that these dependents are comparatively few. Although brought here from the entire military department of Washington, they number at present only about two hundred persons.

But as I promised, I have a few words in closing for the able--bodied before me--the strong, stalwart, intelligent, independent, ambitious men, and their equally intelligent, active, and hopeful helpmates. Besides the congratulations which I most heartily and truly give to you, I have to offer some considerations which deeply concern your welfare, and of which some of you have heard me speak before.

By actual census, conducted by the Bureau, we ascertained last spring that there were 27,287 colored persons in Washington, and 4,262 in Georgetwon; in all, 31,549. Now, this is many thousands more than can possibly be employed in the District. You disdain assistance in the support of yourselves and your families. With strong arms and brave hearts, you are determined not to become paupers, either upon the bounty of the Govern--and your own livelihood. [Yes, yes.] Well, now, if I could have sufficiently increased ment or the Christian public. [No, no.] You want work, and to earn your own bread the business of this District, the house--building, the shipping, the trade of all kinds, and started manufacturing and farming on so grand a scale as to have given you all work at good wages, I would gladly have done so. But as all this matter of business regulates itself, what was the next best thing to be done for you? Of course, you answer, a part must go away to places where labor can be had. Acting upon this idea, employment--offices were established in Washington, and branch offices in northern cities, to ascertain where remunerative labor could be found, and to induce the people to go to the places when found. One measure was adopted which seemed harsh to some of you, viz: no able bodied persons were allowed to remain at this village unless they had work in the vicinity.

This was done that you might, by going elsewhere, be put upon a footing of real independence and prosperity.

We soon had ample calls for all we could send North. Five thousand freed people of the District have been thus provided for during the past year. But still you would hardly know any had gone. Ten thousand more ought to go.

I seize upon this occasion to impress upon you all the vital importance of this matter. Your people are reluctant to go away, to leave their homes here in the District; and yet it is a benefit to those who go and to those who remain. The benefits seem to me too plain to need enumeration. I have sometimes propounded a question of arithmetic to illustrate this. If you have an acre of land to be planted, for which six dollars will be paid, and there are three of you to do the work, how much will each have? [Answer from several voices, two dollars.] Now, if one of your number is given work elsewhere, leaving the acre for two, how much will you each have? [Answer, three dollars.] Certainly. Now, supposing your other companion gets a plane, and leaves the whole acre to you, how 001112much do you get? [Answer, six dollars] Most certainly; and perhaps each of the men who went away is getting his full six dollars. This seems simple and plain as daylight, and yet it is almost impossible to get your people to act upon this principle. They find a thousand excuses for staying here themselves, though they know some ought to go. Will you not each put the question to yourself, whether you yourself ought not to go? Will you not talk it over with those not here, and show them the great advantages to yourselves, to the community,a nd to your race, in leaving this crowded locality and seeking homes where labor is plenty and wages are good. Take in some of the high motives in this matter. If you go where you can have constant work at proper wages, you can begin to save something, have more of the comforts of life, lay by for old age, educate your children, give more for the church and all benevolent objects. Here is a path opened for your race directly to prosperity;a new path. You knew nothing in times past of economy, of laying by property for any purpose, and least of all for the benefit of your race. I see young men before me who, if they would only take my advice, and go away at once to almost any part of the country, might soon live in their own houses--decent, comfortable houses; not miserable hovels, as they too often inhabit here; and not look forward to ending life in the alms--house, as many must if they stay in Washington. Physical discomfort, suffering, disease, and death, are the direct results; but, more than this, corruption of morals and crime are inevitably engendered by so many being crowded into these narrow, filthy localities. What hope is there for your children brought up in such contact? If a large number would go away, it would leave the better houses for those remaining, and the wretched huts now occupied could be left vacant or destroyed, as they ought to be. Since taking charge as Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau, I have provided several hundred tenements, but they soon were filled, and the number in the most crowded localities was not perceptibly diminished. I have not the time to lay before you the one--hundred part of the fearful evils that come directly from the accumulation of freed--people in this District. Untold suffering and degradation must be the constant result. On the other hand, the advantages of going North could only be mentioned in part. I trust enough has been said to attract your attention to the subject, and your own judgment will lead you not only to contemplate the matter practically for yourselves, but to communicate some of these views to others who are not present.

I must not longer stand in the way of others whom we are all eager to hear.

With no intention of disparagement to those who have preceded me, I conclude with the hope and belief, that thus far you have had the substantial and less palatable part ow what is to be given you here to--day, as will be the order at your dinner; but afterwards come the choice dishes, and finally the dessert.

ADDRESS OF REV. DR. TURNEY.

Rev. E. TURNEY, D.D., President of the Schools of the National Theological Institute, said that the object of this gathering was not merely to bring as offering for the physical comfort of the people residing in the settlement and its vicinity. While this was very important, while it related to what was the first in order in the list of human wants, there was an object, for their benefit, to be obtained, which lay beyond this. It pertained to their higher nature, to their relations to God, to society, and to themselves, in their intellectual and moral and religious interests and responsibilities.

It had been suggested to him that it might be suitable to the occasion, and interesting to the friends assembled, that there should be some statement with regard to the efforts which had been made at the settlement to promote these higher interests by means of educational influence and agencies.

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He should necessarily be restricted, in any such statement, chiefly to the educational work for this purpose which had fallen under his own observation, and with which his own experience had been identified.

The first of his connection with an educational interest at this point was early in March last. There had been previously to this, during the war, an interesting school in operation in the village, under the Tract Society, in charge of Mr. Simmons, for the instruction chiefly, he believed, of the children; and a most excellent work had been done for this portion of the population, and reaching perhaps to some extent to the adult although he was not quite sure that it extended to the latter class.

Be this as it might, at the time to which he referred the great mass of the adult population and many of the children were without the means of education, or, at most, they were not enjoying them. They were living on, in the respect, as when in their slave state.

His first effort was to gather a class of Christian men, most of whom were members of the Baptist church, which had just been organized--men whose talents gave promise that with suitable culture, they would be useful to their people as instructors and educators. He obtained the names of some twenty--five or thirty of this class, and they were organized into a school, to be taught twice during the weak in spelling, in reading, in the common English branches, as well as in the Scriptures; and, as it was impossible for him to make other provision for them, he promised that he would come over from Washington two evenings in the week, and have them under his own instruction. This he continued to do during the greater part of the spring, returning late at night, and generally on foot, and arriving at his lodgings in the city not far from midnight.

And he was thankful to know that this labor had not been in vain. Most precious fruit had sprung from it. he now had on his list of students, as connected with the school which he was daily instructing at Institute Hall, in Washington, with many others, the names of no less than ten of these Arlington brethren.

The next effort was to establish, in connection with the Baptist church at the settlement, a Sabbath--school. Some who were gathered into it had already commenced meeting in classes during some part of the Lord's day;, and reading among themselves portions of the Scriptures. he said to them that, if they would organize a Sabbath--school, he would see that they were supplied with a small library, and would aid them in every way possible to make the effort successful. They readily responded to the proposition, and the school was organized , and he was requested to take the superintendency of it. this he consented to do only until such time as other provision could be made. In a few weeks a Christian brother residing in Washington consented to take the labor off from him. he referred to his friend George F. McLellan, who had since had the school under his efficient superintendency and instruction, assisted by the pastor of the church and the teachers connected with the congregation and a goodly number of ladies and gentlemen who had come over from Washington.

It was not long after the commencement of these efforts before a proposition was made and carried into effect for the establishment of an evening school for the instruction of children and adults who were not otherwise provided for, and very many of whom had never been to school a day in their lives, and he had scarcely the most distant idea of the use of a book. Into this school, as also into the school taught on the Sabbath, were gathered more than three hundred children and adults. The whole number, he believed, was three hundred and seventy--four--old men and old women, young men and young women--persons of all ages. They were here, for the first time in their lives, brought into contact with the contents of a book, taught the alphabet, taught to spell, taught to read, until they had learned, many of them, to read with satisfaction and profit considerable portions 001314of the Word of God. And now, in the changes which had since taken place in the settlement, they had gone forth to the North and the South, to the East and the West, to bless their peoples, and rejoicing in the possession of a prize for themselves which they had once never expected to attain.

But the friends, perhaps, might ask, "How has this evening school been sustained?" Said he, "I will tell you." It had been taught entirely by colored persons. Brother J. S. Laws, the pastor of the church, had walked over to Washington daily and back, that he might receive instruction in the school at Institute Hall. In the evening he had met the school here, and, in addition to such instruction as he could impact to those who were less advanced than himself, he had the assistance of some eight or ten members of his congregation, who had enjoyed some advantages of education. The people were arranged in classes and taught in the manner which had been stated.

The number still belonging to this school, notwithstanding the recent removals, was more than two hundred, most of whom were adults. The number of colored teachers was fourteen, six of whom were under his own daily instruction in Washington. He had endeavored to aid the school as he had been able, and it had been under his general superintendency. It had become to the community at Arlington an institution, and it deserved to be encouraged and sustained as such.

He added, that he might, perhaps, be allowed to remark, that what he had stated with regard to the schools at Arlington was but a specimen of what they were endeavoring to accomplish at many other points. As coming under his superintendency, in addition to the school of the Institute, at Institute Hall, there had been organized in Washington and vicinity alone some eight or ten evening schools, for the instruction of the Christian teachers of the colored people; and with quite a number of these were connected schools of a more general character for the instruction of others, male and female. A great and a good work seems being accomplished, and he did not hesitate to ask for it the aid of the benevolent.

He said that he ought perhaps to add that the school at this point had been aided very essentially by the instruction which had been given in the Sabbath-- school. He wished to make an additional remark about this Sabbath--school. soon after it was started in the manner which had been stated, his friend the chairman of the meeting, learning of the interest, proposed to purchase an ambulance for the purpose of conveying teachers thither from Washington on the Sabbath. This was some time in April. The ambulance was purchased, and since then, with the exception of three of four Sabbaths perhaps, this "missionary coach," as they had learned to call it, had come regularly over from Washington on the Sabbath, filled with Christian ladies and gentlemen to meet their classes in this Sabbath--school, and to give them instruction which they could not have gained from any other source.

He had but one remark more, and that was to ask, "Will our friends aid us in this beneficent and self--denying work? Will they aid us in sustaining our schools at this point? Will they aid us in extending the benefits of this system of education to other points?"

ADDRESS OF REV. DR. BUTLER.

Rev. Dr. BUTLER, Pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran church, Washington, d.c., remarked: Our worthy chairman introduces me as the known friend of the colored man, and I shall speak the more happily the few works I have to say if I be known as your friend. I am your friend, because I am the friend of man as man, and have never yet been able to see that color of skin defines manhood. There are multitudes of low, unprincipled men, who 001415have a white skin, and there are men and women, good and true, who are not white. In all my intercourse with men I have suffered less from the dishonesty and treachery of colored than of white men.

I am here as the life--long friend of the colored man, having been born and all my life lived south of the line that formerly divided between slavery and freedom. But though southern, I have never been able to convince myself that God ever made any man to be a slave. You are all free men and women to--day.

We, who are your friends, want to help you to become men; to prepare you for the enjoyments and responsibilities which freedom brings. The Emancipation Proclamation cannot make men of you. The Freedmen's Bureau cannot clothe you with the dignity of manhood. God in His wonderful providence has broken the fetters that bound and degraded you. And this great Government means forever to guarantee to you your freedom. The sentiment of this Christian nation will never suffer you to be enslaved again. And is it not wonderful, this change in public sentiment in regard to slavery? You can scarcely find a man throughout the land bold enough to say that he was ever the friend of slavery. The men who made the laws that doomed you to ignorance and servitude and forged the chains that enslaved you; the men who would never tolerate a word, even in the pulpit, against slavery--not one of them but that now is glad (?) that the whole land if free! How sincere these men are is not for me to decide. This I know, that the old Pharaoh spirit pursues the freedmen, and I predict this spirit will meet with a Pharaoh overthrow. The Red sea--it may be a sea of blood--is before, and God is on the side of the freedmen, the friend of the friendless and the oppressed, and against Pharaoh.

If you will help the good people of the land they will make men of you. Constitutions and laws shall be so amended that obnoxious word white shall be obliterated. A great many good people are terribly troubled about this question of social equality. That does not give me any trouble. It is not a question of social equality we are discussing, but of equality before the law --that all men are born equality free, if not free and equal. There are a great many inequalities among white men and women, some wise and some otherwise; some get very high up, and some very far down. If any of these white ladies prefer one of you colored men as a husband, or any of these colored ladies have the bad taste to marry a white husband, that is a matter of taste, and I would think rather bad taste. But these social equalities and inequalities are not regulated by statute law, but by birth and cultures, and success and disaster, and a thousand other considerations.

But in this great Republic we want to make men equal before the law, to obliterate that terrible idea, that because a man is not as white as I am he is only a chattel. If we are jealous of the talent of the African, and fear that he will excel us in agriculture and the mechanic arts, commerce, or the learned professions, the ministry of the Gospel, if you please, we must only be the more industrious and studious, honest and true. I would not stand in the way of any man if he could be more esteemed and useful in the world than I. God forbid that I should retard the growth of his manhood. Let him take the place for which education, worth, and God have fitted him. We white folks have the start by a good many years, and if we suffer the freedmen to outstrip us in the race, give them the palm; they deserve it.

But we cannot make you men unless you help us. On our western frontier, as the good wife of one of the pioneers sat in the cabin door, she saw a bear coming across the plain; and bears, you know, are not very amiable. The cowardly husband ran up the ladder of the cabin loft and drew the ladder after him, leaving his wife alone to battle with the monster; with true courage, she dealt hard blows, and many of them; she 001516killed the bear. when the work was done that cowardly husband came down, and rubbing his hands, overflowing with joy, said," Wife, didn't we do it; didn't we do it, wife!" That is not the kind of help we want rom you.

What, then, are you to do to make men of yourselves? You must get all the knowledge you can, and give your children all possible advantage of education. Many of the noblest men and women of this land are not only furnishing money and books, but are giving themselves to the blessed work of educating and elevating your race. Knowledge --more in this land than anywhere under the sun-- is power; and you must get all of it you can.

You must be industrious, and learn to depend, not upon the Bureau, nor upon year friends, but upon yourselves. I do not wonder that so many of you do not love to work. If white men had lived under the lash and received for their labor coarse food and coarse clothing, as many of you have--not all, perhaps--they would be indolent too. And there are lazy white men not a few. But when you look over all this great land--the cities and factories and farms-- at all its great wealth--and ask where it came from? There is but one answer. It is the reward not of indolence, but of industry. God has written the law of labor not only int he Bible, (for there He says he that will not work shall not eat,) but upon the face of the land; and if you had a microscope of sufficient power, you might see it written upon your very muscles. Labor is necessary to a healthy body, and your race can never become manly except they work industriously.

And then your religious privileges must be improved. Against State laws, probably, some of your Christian masters taught you to read. Slavery was always afraid of the light, and know that knowledge would be death to oppression. But now you may not only learn to read the Bible, but you have the some advantages of schools and churches that we have. The Ten Commandments must govern you and the Gospel of Christ rule in your hearts. Religion must make you not only industrious, but truthful, honest, frugal, prayerful, and loving. You must be Christian men and women. God has gives you freedom, and friends who will protect you in that freedom. God has given you means of education and schools and churches, and if you do not make men of yourselves. you are unworthy the freedom you enjoy. Then be up and doing, that you may be the Lord's freedmen.

ADDRESS OF REV. DR. SUNDERLAND.

Rev. Dr. SUNDERLAND, Pastor of the First Presbyterian church, Washington, D. C., said: My friends, I am glad to see you on this occasion. I congratulate you on the interest which has been felt by good people in your present and future welfare, and on the very fitting and appropriate manner in which that interest is to--day expressed.

The spectacle before me is one on which I look with emotions of no ordinary kind. It causes the whole past history of your race, and especially as it has transpired on this continent and within the territorial domains of our Federal Government, to rise before me. It is a history of the wrongs you have suffered and of the woes that have wasted you. But at length your prayers were heard and the hour of your deliverance drew nigh. The great events of the recent past have told a story to the nations which has thrilled them to the heart. I shall never forget the scenes of the month of January, in 1862, which were witnessed by so many hundreds and thousands on yonder hill across the river, where stands the proud Capitol of this powerful Republic. just to the east of the public grounds, in a range of buildings once devoted to the interests of the slaveocracy which so long ruled our whole country, to its dishonor and almost to its destruction, in the same street and not a hundred yards from the very spot where John C. Calhoun, the great prophet of nullification, breathed his last some sixteen years ago, and, I have been told, in the same 001617room where in 1836 a book called the "Partisan Leader" was published, designed to prepare the southern people for rebellion in the interests of slavery, I saw gathered from day to day the refugees from the land of bondage, of both sexes and all ages, coming from every quarter where it was possible to make their way through the rebel lines, and at that time through our own lines, and collected from all the adjacent States, under the beneficent supervision of self--denying Christian men and women, who were endeavoring to teach them the first lessons alike of the English language and the religion of Jesus Christ. On one occasion I was present at the daily exercise, where some one hundred and fifty of these delivered souls were learning the rudiments of our mother tongue, and after being drilled in their lessons for a time, at my request they began to sing a piece of composition all their own, with which the whole number, young and old, seemed to be perfectly familiar, and their voices, lifted up in one volume of the sweetest and grandest melody, as it seemed to me, rolled out of the closed windows, and resounded far away on the chill and dreary air--for it was as if nature herself was in full sympathy with the social, political, and moral condition of our affairs at that time--and there seemed to me to be a sound in that mighty, measured, solemn cadence like the rising and falling of ocean waves, which filled the whole region of space around with a portentous prescience, a profound mystery of things about to be revealed. It appeared to me as if, when the chorus sounded, the voice of angles, as when in early times they announced the will of God to men, was then speaking to the very heart of this nation, and in that voice the fiat of Jehovah was going forth against the doomed abomination of human slavery within the limits of this great Union. No oratorio that was ever played in any earthly orchestra could, I think, have produced upon my mind a more striking or solemn effect, and the refrain was,"Go down Moses, tell old Phara, let my people go." At length our patriotic Moses that then was--we have since mourned him sleeping in his martyr--grave--heard that voice, and the word of emancipation was sounded forth amid the dismal howlings of all the minions of the slave power and the exultant shouts of all who had been praying and longing for the hour of your deliverance. The great work was formally spoken on the first day of the year 1803; but to prepare for its utterance then cost long years of discussion, ending in violence and bloodshed; and to make good its utterance now, against the whole combination and array of opposition--against the highest official misrule of the country, the obiter dicta of courts, the prejudice of the proud, the machinations of the unscrupulous, the vulgar and low--flung spite of the base and vile, and, what is more astonishing than all, the anti--Christian spirit which yet remains as a deadly poison, so largely diffused among the churches that profess to call themselves after the name of Christ--the momentous struggle is going forward, and we still present a spectacle in this land, before God, angels, and men, in one view of which it is calculated to make the universe mourn in bitterness and tears, and in another view of which all good beings are ready to lift up their heads and sing aloud for joy.

We may thank God to--day that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and his three associates, and all of them from the more southern sections of the country, have, though in a minority of one on a recent decision rendered from that Bench, in a measure, though not altogether, shielded it from the universal disapprobation and censure of the Christian world, which threatens to fall upon it. In this, as in may as not heretofore, we may discover the wisdom of the man who presides in that tribunal. We may thank God to--day for the loyal majority in Congress, a body of men who now stand up as the rest tribunes of the people, and who are now, by the recent decisions of the people, more solemnly pledged than every to see that, in the reconstruction of government in the South, 001718and in affording ample protection to your hitherto down trodden people, no detriment shall fall to the Republic. I hope and pray, for one, that they may stand firm and steady to their great work. I am prepared, in my own mind, to pronounce for the institution of territorial or military forms of government in the South, as the only sure and certain way of building up a lasting empire. It is impossible, I am thoroughly convinced, to do anything with the ex--rebel material--the remnants and fragments of the great conspiracy now scattered over the South, or to use that material in the creation of a homogenous, compact, united, harmonious, and prosperous community. The sword of the Union war has cut the great serpent of secession into a thousand pieces, and left them squirming and wriggling as they may through the dust and blood of the battle-- fields where it perished; but in each particular portion there is the same venom and the same rancor, if not the same vitality. I say, let the Government take up the besom of its rightful power and authority and sweep them all into the gulf of political non--existence.

In the midst of all this, you and your people are suffering on in patience. Having served this nation, and the world through it, for two hundred and fifty years, with unrequited labor, and through unspeakable cruelties; having in the late terrific struggle gone forth to battle for the Union almost two hundred thousand strong; having in many thousand, yea, innumerable ways, given aid and comfort to the Union armies and the Union cause, you have now become the wards of this nation, to whom we owe not only a debt, of gratitude, but of the most severe and rigorous justice. And if we do not pay that debt, so far as lies in our power, we shall be guilty of a baseness and perfidy unparalleled in the history of the world.

We owe you the whole debt of modern Christian civilization; we owe you the facilities of improvement here, and the hopes of happiness hereafter; we owe you food and raiment, shelter and fire, schools, courts of justice, churches; we owe you exact equality between man and man; we owe you the fallot, the free citizen's mightiest weapon, and noblest badge of manhood; we owe you the means and opportunity of labor, and the old inalienable rights of our common humanity, among which, as bestowed by our Creator, and uttered in the Declaration, are "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

We come here to--day to renew our acknowledgment of the debt; and so may God help us we mean to pay it. If you old people who have dragged your life through the horrors of slavery during all your years, and are brought to the brink of the grave, may not live to see this debt wholly discharged; and if we who are also growing old cannot accomplish all the desire of our hearts in our lifetime, we will at least go for mortgaging so much of our public estate as to secure its liquidation, and by our last will and testament enjoin it on our children and children's children to see it paid to the uttermost farthing.

But there is another reason for which I come here to--day. There is a large portion of the community in which we live who call themselves the old residents of Washington and vicinity, and among whom yet lingers the same spirit of contemptuous superiority to the people of your race, and the same supercilious scorn of you which characterizes all communities where the curse and blight of slavery have fastened themselves so long, and which indeed marks the character of every innate despot or petty tyrant in whatsoever community. Having injured and wronged your people with impunity so long, they naturally hate and despise you. They might possibly relieve your necessities if you were to appeal to their better feelings in a case of evident destitution or distress, but it would be on the same principle that they would feel prompted to relieve a suffering animal, a mere brute creature, and not upon the proper Christian ground of a community of nature and the equality you enjoy before the law of Christ.

Now, I wish to show those people a better example, and at least, if no more can be done, 001819I want them by these tokens to understand that they may howl and gnash their teeth to their heart's content; or if not bold or strong enough for that, they may breathe out their demon spirit in craven and cowardly anonymous letter, or in still more suppressed forms of inward breathing rage, and it will be all in vain. The great work of justice and benevolence towards you and your people will roll on just the same, and all opposition will be crushed out and consigned at length to its loathesome and loathed place.

How great the contrast between the conduct and feeling of such a community and the heart--stirring words and actions of the generous and noble of our own and of other lands.

I have here one single specimen of the grand and grateful enthusiasm which, in reference to your condition, has excited so many beating hearts and called forth from the people of foreign countries such affecting expressions of sympathy and such substantial tokens of regard. With your permission, I will take the liberty of giving the translation, as the document is from Paris:

"ASSOCIATION OF FRENCH LADIES IN BEHALF OF THE FREEDMEN. "To the members of the National Freedmen's Association of New York City:"June 14, 1865

"Moved by the recital of the sufferings which our freed brethren are experiencing during this period of transition, full of sympathy for the task of reparation which you have undertaken towards them, we have wished to associate ourselves in your work at least in some small degree, and we send you this first fruit of our efforts.

"We desire to say to you, at the same time, that during the long, sad struggle which has agitated your country, from the midst of our own firesides we have never ceased to follow with an earnest sympathy your anxieties and your vicissitudes. We wish to say to you, that your tears have been our tears and your sorrows our sorrows.

"But if the crisis has been heart--rending, how glorious is the victory! How ought justice avenged and humanity recovered to console and strengthen you. Recollecting the thought of the just man whom you have lost, we would repeat with him, "that the emancipation of four millions of souls, degraded by the most hideous and inhuman form of servitude, cannot be too dearly purchased."

"In this solemn moment, when the eyes of Europe are turned towards you, and when the greatest victory to be admired is not that of the battle field, but that other more difficult, which permits you to preserve your institutions, and at the same time to proclaim an amnesty to the vanquished--at this moment, when you are demonstrating to the world the grandeur of conscience and the omnipotence of liberty, we women of France extend to you a fraternal hand, expressing the hope that your example may incite all people, and that the bonds which have united our two countries in the past may become closer each day in the future."[Here follow the signatures.]

All the members present in Paris signed it.

There is not a true Christian or philanthropic heart in all France, nor among the mountain fastnesses of Switzerland or Scotland, through the Black Forest of Germany, nor dwelling in the Tyrol of long--slumbering but now affrighted and disparaged Austria, nor along the coasts and sunny vales of Italy, drawing high herself to a better realization of liberty and nationality, but would echo those sentiments to--day, and send you greetings of joy in prospect of the great future that is opening up for your posterity.

ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN H. FARQUHAR.

Hon. JOHN H. FARQUHAR, member of Congress from Indiana, being introduced said: My friends I know not for what purpose my old friend the Rev. B. F. Morris invited me here to participate in these festivities, unless it was to humiliate me by contrasts in your presence. After the very able, eloquent, and thrilling address of the distinguished gentleman, (Dr. Sunderland,) whose reputation is as boundless as our continent and deserved as it is soul--inspiring, I should be destitute of proper self--appreciation if I did not feel embarrassment in attempting to entertain you, even but for a few moments. The 001920occasion, therefore, warrants, and will, I trust, admit on my part, without subjecting me to the charge of egotism, some personal allusions and explanations. I was born in the adjoining State of Maryland, but, thank God, under the auspices of Friends, who taught me to hate slavery and love liberty. The broad prairies and fertile valleys of the West, among whose people for thirty--odd years I have lived, have not abated "one jot or tittle" of those early impressions. One of the most pleasing reminiscences of my life is a successful effort, when but a youth, in the very centre of slavery's hot--bed, and within sixty miles of yonder city, the capital of this great nation, I piloted the footsteps of a poor slave girl, fleeing from an inhuman master to one of those "eagle's nests of freedom" so eloquently described by our distinguished guest, Dr. Sunderland. No interest has over induced me to swerve from the early teachings of those explain, sincere, honest, philanthropic ancestors. I have, on all occasions and under all circumstances, been the humble advocate of freedom and denunciator of slavery. The only vote of my life, involving the interests of freedom, to which exception may be taken, was that cast against the District franchise bill of the first session of the Thirty--Ninth Congress. No act of my life was more unselfish or consistent with what I believed to be my solemn duty of the hour. I regarded the measure as right per se, but premature, and its adoption at that time as fatal to the success of the great Union party, on which depended the destiny of the Republic, the cause of the freedmen, and permanent elevation of your race. What was the insignificant privilege of voting for a "mayor and common council" of the city of Washington compared with the permanent success of the men and measures that represent the three hundred thousand martyrs whose bodies moulder and bones bleach on Southern battlefields, and who willingly died that you and I and their posterity might be free? When that measure came up at the present session, I was absent from the House; but when it comes back from the other end of the avenue, with the edict "I forbid," overriding the expressed voice of the people's representatives, God being my helper, my feeble voice and vote shall bear testimony to the right and acknowledgment of your great services in the hour of the nation's extremity.

It was my good fortune to muster into the United States service the first company of colored recruits organized int he state of Indiana, and I am glad to bear testimony to their gallantry, heroism, and devotion to the cause of freedom and the Union. Under their intrepid leader, the gallant Colonel Charlie Russel, the 28th regiment United States colored troops did noble and invaluable service in the Army of the James. It was at this critical period of the rebellion that you successfully demonstrated, amidst the smoke and carnage of battle, that, as a race, you "had rights that white men were bound to respect." Without the aid of the two hundred thousand strong arms and stalwart forms of colored soldiers, who threw themselves into the breach at the most opportune moment, God alone knows whether we could have assembled thus peaceably here to-- day, under the protecting folds of that old flag, the banner of "beauty and glory," which now "in triumph waves o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave" The distinguished gentleman who preceded me has alluded in very complimentary terms to the Chief Justice of the United States and his associates of the minority of the court, and their opinion in the Milligan treason conspiracy cases from Indiana, my own State. It is not my purpose to pluck one flower from the wreath that adorns the brow of Mr. Chase, or detract in the least from the just merits of that venerated court. But when I see the majority of the court traveling dehors the record before them to fulminate a judicial bull, calculated, if not designed, to bolster up and give character to an abortive effort of a faithless Executive to destroy the great party that made him and saved the nation, it would be criminal in me to seal any lips and smother the emotions that loom up from the perusal of their opinion, when 002021discharging from just punishment men convicted of the highest crime against God and humanity. If the dictum of the court and its logical sequences prevail, I am ready to vote an immediate adjournment of the Thirty Ninth Congress, and temporarily turn over the country and those newly made citizens to the untried mercy of Andrew Johnson and the Supreme Court of the United States, and go again to the sovereign people on the issue joined, confident of a triumph unequalled in the history of the Republic. The opinion to which I refer was delivered by a distinguished member of the court, who was born across the Potomac on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in a densely populated slave district, but has resided for thirty years in the great West, and long enough, we hoped, to throw off the antiquated, fossilized, slavery-- begotten, and God--forbidden notions of State sovereignty. It has, however, become an adage in the West, that a man born in Maryland or Virginia of the "first families" is so imbued with the false theories growing out of and connected with human slavery, that he becomes judicially blind to every principle of modern progression, and utterly unfitted for official position.

While I am not prepared to judge him by that rule, and concede his eminent personal worth, I cannot but deplore the tendency of his judicial mind in those obsolete grooves that are outstripped by the spirit of the age and just demands of a common humanity.

The court (says Justice Davis) "has judicial knowledge that in Indiana the Federal authority was always unopposed and its court open. It needed no bayonets to protect it, and required no military aid to execute its judgments."

When Milligan, Bowles, and Horsey were arrested and held for trial, as having "conspired against the Government, afforded aid and comfort to rebels, and incited the people to insurrection," Grant was pressing Lee within his fortifications at Richmond, and Sherman was driving back the rebel hordes preparatory to his grand march to the sea. Every soldier that could be spared was sent to the front. The hospitals were depopulated, and guns furnished the invalids, to swell the numbers of the grand forward movement on which hung the hopes of the people and the life of the Republic. Thus stripped of all military force, there was scarcely a "corporal's guard," from the Pennsylvania line to the borders of Arkansas, to protect our homes from murderers andguerrillas. At Indianapolis, Chicago, Columbus, and Johnson's Island there were about thirty thousand rebel prisoners, "fat and sleek" from the full army ration dealt out in mercy by the loyal hands of a too lenient but merciful people. "The Knights of the Golden Circle" and "Sons of Liberty" were organized all over Indiana, and said to be armed and equipped for offensive movements. It was a daily occurrence to seize arms and ammunition in transitu from the East to their various posts in Indiana; and at Indianapolis large lots of small--arms were captures, marked "hymn--books and Sabbath--school tracts" for distribution among the initiated. The military arrest of prominent members of these treasonable orders disclosed their designs, and that arms were to be placed in the hands of the rebel prisoners, and on a given day turned loose on the defenseless inhabitants of Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. What would have been the result, in this our defenseless condition, if we had relied on the civil process alone to have arrested and tried these conspirators? Our fathers, brothers, and sons, apprised of the fact that thirty thousand armed rebels were to be turned loose to devastate, lay waste, and destroy their homes and families, no power on earth could have held them, and Grant and Sherman would have been shorn of that strength of numbers which secured their final victories.

It was with a full knowledge of all these facts, and that the "Sons of Liberty" were arming and drilling for the uprising, that our grand and greatest Roman of them all, the distinguished Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, at his headquarters in yonder city, assumed the responsibility, ordered their arrest by the military, and trial by court--martial 002122just in time to prevent the uprising,a nd thereby saved our defenseless people from the horrors of civil war, and the Union from inevitable destruction. All honor and glory to the man who risked everything for our common safety. With all these facts before them, and the smoke of battle removed, the court insists that it "had judicial knowledge that the Federal authority was always unopposed and its courts open; and that it needed no bayonets to protect it and required no military aid to execute its judgments in Indiana."

To my certain knowledge the civil process in Indiana had to be enforced by the military arm. They "whipped the devil around the stump," by procuring military arrests, and then turned the parties over to the civil authorities for trial. If the courts were open in Indiana, it was because Indiana was a military district under martial law, and the courts protected by national bayonets in the strong arms of loyal men.

There was no declaration of war by the Congress of the United States against a foreign power, a State of the union, or people thereof; but, in the absence of power in the civil arm of the Government to enforce its laws, the military were employed to suppress insurrection and crush out rebellion. The Congress authorized the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, not in Virginia and South Carolina alone, but in Indiana and every other State of the Union. The writ was suspended accordingly, and the paramount necessity of saving the threatened life of the nation dictated and justified arrests in both loyal and disloyal States. The great mistake is in recognizing the obsolete and fatal theory of State sovereignty, to the exclusion of our common nationality. It was not a rebellion of States against each other, but of the people who were citizens of certain States against the sovereign power and authority of the National Government, to which they owed superior allegiance. No matter where they resided and what profession they made, if they were "conspiring against the Government, giving aid and comfort to rebels," or "exciting the people to insurrection," they thereby became a part of that insurrection and amenable to the military authorities employed to suppress and destroy it, and subject to the same modes of punishment as if captured, with arms in their hands, in the ranks of the rebel army. No township, county, or State lines could determine the jurisdiction of the military authority to deal with the rebellion; its jurisdiction was coextensive with and encompassed the whole Union. As well might it be urged that a military court could not take jurisdiction of cases in the State of Tennessee because the loyal citizens thereof, east of a given line, maintained open court, while rebellion ruled with bloody hand in every other part. Milligan and his co--conspirators were charged with official connection and co--operation with a secret military organization which was armed, equipped, and drilled to co--operate with a rebel army then in the field, to release and turn loose, int he midst of unarmed loyal people, thirty thousand rebel prisoners, to lay waste our fair fields, and devastate our homes. They were actually in rebellion against the National Government, and subject to its military jurisdiction. But it is said that "there was no war in Indiana, and the civil court needed no bayonets to protect it,and required no military aid to execute its judgments." On the 9th day of July, 1863, the rebel general, John Morgan, crossed the Ohio river below Louisville, Kentucky, into the State of Indiana, with thirty--five hundred mounted rebels, and swept like a besom of destruction over her fair fields, burning her railroad depots, capturing her horses and provisions, robbing her citizens, and shooting them down wherever they resisted his onward march. By authority of the Governor of Indiana and President of the United States, as commander--in--chief of the army and navy, over fifty thousand of the gallant men of the State were organized and mustered into the service to resist the invasion of that rebel horde; and yet we are told that there was no "war in Indiana, or need for bayonets to protect the civil court, nor military aid to execute its judgments." If those venerable--looking gentlemen in their 002223black gowns will go with me to the green hills which overlook the old town of Corydon, the first capital of our State, I will point them to the grave--stones of the gallant men of Indiana who fell in battle defending their and my homes from the ruthless acts of an invading army. Our troops, though extemporized, threw themselves on his front and rear, annoying, but unable to capture him, drove him out of the State into Ohio, and across that noble State to within fifteen miles of the Pennsylvania line, when he was headed and compelled to accept battle, and was captured with his whole army and equipments by the combined troops of Indiana, Ohio, and the United states. For six weeks I followed the track of that invading army, collecting and disposing of its debris, by order of the United States military authorities; and yet this grave court assures the country that it "has judicial knowledge that there was no war in Indiana, and that the court was always open, needing no bayonets to protect it, and no military aid to execute its judgments."

No sane man dares deny that if the military force maintained in Indiana and on her border had been withdrawn, in ten days we would have been overrun by rebel hordes, utterly ignoring all civil courts and their processes; and yet our grave court informs us "that it needed no bayonets to protect it, and required no military aid to execute its judgments in Indiana." The courts were only open by the grace of the military commanders, and while the distinguished justice who delivered the opinion of the court asserts "that the court had judicial knowledge that the Federal authority was always unopposed and its courts open in Indiana," he was doubtless oblivious of the fact that a word from their commander to a file of the "boys in blue" would have changed the judicial status and rendered military courts--martial indispensable to life, liberty, and property within the state of Indiana. If John Morgan, by authority of the rebel "belligerents," made war on the United States within the State of Indiana in July 6, 1863, and we by our strong arms drove him from our borders, and held those rebel "belligerents" at bay continuously until and during the trial and conviction of Milligan and his co--conspirators, there was no cessation of that war, and the military courts had ample and complete jurisdiction to try, convict, and execute the criminals. It is a singular fact, that no case found its way to the Supreme Court in proper form to elicit its opinion during the four long years of bloody rebellion through which we so triumphantly passed;that rebels and their sympathizers were repeatedly tried, convicted, and punished, and the most defiant advocate of our "earring brethren," Clement L. Vallandigham, of Ohio, was tried, convicted, and sentenced by a military commission, and banished by order of the Executive, as commander-- in--chief of the army, from within the national lines, and into the camp of its hostile enemies. Did the thunder of our cannon and tread of the loyal millions warn the courts and people that there was, as there necessarily is, pending such struggles for the life of a great Republic, a power of self--preservation even higher than the written letter of its organic law? I fear that there is wanting with the majority of the court that comprehensive and elevated judicial judgement requisite to the full development of the moral power and grandeur displayed by a people resolved to save their national life at all hazards. The dictum of the majority of the court has swept away all military power to protect and shield you as a race from the ruthless hands of your old oppressors, and soon may follow other decisions, declaring the Freedmen's Bureau, civil rights bill, and the test oath all unconstitutional, null and void, ab initio. As I look over this mixed audience, and contrast this day and occasion with the past history of our country, and congratulate the freedmen before me that they are citizens of this great Republic and equal before the law with all other citizens, I am humiliated that there is imminent danger of abandonment of those great principles 002324securing these joint rights, by the sacrifice of over three hundred thousand of the brave and good men of the Republic. We had confidence in time of war that this our court would not be found wanting in time of peace. In times gone by we said, "Wait a little while, and the wheels of time will purify and make safe this our city of refuge." But how long, oh God, how long yet shall it be until truth and righteousness prevail throughout the land? There is yet hope and promise for you in the fact that God rigns and protects those who love and serve Him. This is a Government of the people, before whose fiat courts and rulers bow in humble submission. With them we intrust your cause--the cause of humanity--confident in the triumph of the right. I exhort you to study the duties of "American citizens" and in the light of the Christian examples which daily surround you practice them. Strive to improve and elevate you race, that in time you and your posterity may say to these kind friends, we have done nothing to humiliate you, who were our friends and patrons in the dark days of our adversity.

SPEECH OF HON. H. P. H. BROMWELL.

MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN: I did not think of speaking here, and should not now, particularly after you have all listened so long to the very interesting addresses of these gentlemen, if it were not that I am urged to do so by those having charge of the proceedings.

Yet I feel sure that you will listen to what I amy say, on account of the great interest you feel in the object of this assembly.

Although I have made a great many speeches, I believe I never before addressed an audience so completely mixed as this. Not knowing what would be most satisfactory to any of you, I shall trust to the proverbial kindness of you colored people, and to the considerate courtesy of the ladies and gentlemen who have invited me here, to permit me to offer such remarks as I may think of most benefit to the colored people of this village.

We, the white citizens, have been always used to public meetings and speeches, and to some of us it is a very common and familiar thing to take part in such proceedings as these; but I am aware that it must be very different with you freedmen, who have during all your lives had no part or lot in public affairs, and have been only taught to serve and obey. You have been used to look upon political matters as subjects entirely beyond your reach; and I know that it must be a strange thing to be suddenly placed in the rank of citizens, and feel that you are called upon to act in the affairs of society. For this reason I know that you listen to us to--day with greater interest than the white people who are accustomed to hearing and acting on such occasions.

I do not intend to speak to you as a teacher, and give you directions as to your conduct; yet I deem it proper to call your attention to some things which your new duties and responsibilities will require of you. I will speak to you as a friend of your race; for I can truly say, that never did I by word or deed aid in or even consent to any human being being made a slave. From my youth I have always desired to see all men free and happy; and especially it has been my wish that throughout the bounds of this great Republic, there should not be one found who could not claim this land as his country, and this Government as his Government; and who could not claim hail this flag as his flag, the emblem of his native land, and the ensign of his own manhood and citizenship. I am glad it is so now, that you whose labors have subdued the frosts and tilled the fields, and whose loyalty has aided in maintaining the Government of the Republic, can henceforth feel that the land in which God has placed you is your country as well as ours, and that you have something to live and hope and act for, both for yourselves and your children.

You should consider that although there is little you can learn of your race and country 002425in the past, it should not be so with your children. There are some things connected with Africa and its numberless tribes of people which many of you can learn, and by which you and others may profit.

When I was a child I read the remarkable story of Abdul Rammahan, and the adventures of Mungo Pack, and the simple verses describing his distress and anger in the wilds of Africa, and his rescue from suffering by the African woman; and I never forgot the concluding words: "Go, white man, go but with thee bear The negro's wish, the negro's prayer; Remembrance of the negro's care!"If there is but little to be known of your race in the past, you can at least strive to leave many good and noble actions on record to which your descendants may look back through many years to your day. There is no reason why the African should not have the chance to take pride in his ancestors, in his native country, and in its government. This country has been the home of your people for two hundred years, and must be for generations to come. Your deportment in this free country as republican citizens will furnish grounds for elevating your race to a like honorable and happy position in all other lands, where they are trodden down now as unfit to be counted as men.

But in order that any class of citizens may obtain and secure the respect of other classes, it is necessary that they show themselves worthy of confidence. The colored people must therefore set up for themselves a standard of character such as becomes a free citizen. The first virtue, in order to command respect, is truth. Let the white citizens see that, besides the kind disposition of the African, he possesses truthfulness, the noblest attribute of a man.

Besides, a man must have ambition to be not only deemed worthy by the people among whom he lives, but to be remembered and esteemed by his posterity. I want all colored people to understand that they should do everything they can to be gratefully remembered by those who will come after them.

As many of you are now old, and all are poor, you cannot expect to make yourselves all that you desire; but the young can be taught much, and can study much, without a teacher, as some of us have done, and thus fit themselves for usefulness in life.

I feel sure that all good people will gladly help you for the sake of humanity; and more than this, you will shortly be placed in this District in such a situation that society will have an interest in you. Our republican government is intended to place all classes on such a footing that each will require favor and friendship from every other.

This is the reason why universal suffrage is necessary in all communities that would secure equal rights to all before the law; for if any class is so placed that the rest of the community have no favors to ask of them, they are soon overlooked and trodden upon by all others; and this corrupts the whole.

You must remember, for your encouragement, that you have many friends. The Congress of the United States is friendly to you, and the people who support Congress are friendly to you also. Consider what a cost of money it has been to the loyal people to sustain this war, and, besides that, how many brave and good men have lost their lives of limbs in a thousand battles against the rebel slave--owners and the men who fought to support them.

All this labor and cost and suffering and death grew out of your race having been enslaved. It was very wrong that you were treated so badly in this free country during so many years, and the white people North and South had a hand in it. But we all see now how unjust and cruel it was, and that of course God would not let things go on in that way always.

002526

As you have shows the white people that it was a great mistake to think, as most of us used to do, that the black people could not be set free at once without their causing disturbances and becoming lazy and worthless, so I hope and believe you will further show the white people that when you become citizens no harm will grow out of it; that you will be as well--disposed then as you have been before, and will be found helping the whole country to prosper in every way.

Your white friends who have always stood by you are glad to see that in all cases you pay so much reverence to Almighty God, and are inclined to train up your children to be moral and religious. If you hold on to these principles, you cannot fail to make useful people of your race, and Heaven will be at no trouble to find them a place in the land where they can be free and happy.

Besides what Congress has done for you, you have a friend whose noble goodness you will never forget, who has charge of the Bureau for Freedmen. I count it a special favor of Providence that such a man was called to take charge of your affairs at such a time, and with him there are many of his officers like those here to--day, who love to do everything to make you happy.

These kind ladies and gentlemen connected with this Bureau and village, who have done so much for you, have come to--day to bring you a feast, to put you in mind of the day of your liberty; and you may be sure they are glad to see you made happy, for they know you can never reward them in this world. You will remember their kindness and try to imitate their virtues, and this is all they ask.

But let me charge you that whatever you may do that is wrong, and whomsoever you may forget; never forget, while you live, your "Father Abraham," that noble champion of his country and of human rights, who has passed from his toils to his reward. His proclamation shattered all your shackles, and so broke the force of your masters that you could not be longer withheld from freedom. Not only so, but his heart was always for you and for all the oppressed; and because he was such a man, he fell by the blow of rebel assassins. But the people will take up the work and carry it on, and future generations will yet see all this broad land filled with free, orderly, and enlightened people, living in homes fit for freemen, and upholding liberty, religion, and law.

It may be long before all of you find comfortable homes; but you must remember that great things come to pass slowly. Only think how much more has now been done than you dreamed of ten years ago. You must also remember that this country is very large, and there are thousand of places where you can go. There are all the broad Territories spreading to the Pacific ocean. All these are given for homesteads to the industrious people; and all over the land, from west to east, all diligent and honest people are wanted now, and will be so hereafter.

But to be an American freeman, and have part in this glorious country, a man must be a man in dignity and self-respect. I do not mean that any of you are in the least to assume proud or unbecoming airs; but you must, for all that, begin to feel that you are men and women. You must begin to think, and must feel, that you have a right to do so, and that your thoughts and actions should be worth taking notice of. That your race also should have a history, and fill some part in the great moving world; that you should have schools and scholars, learned men, inventors, brave soldiers, intrepid travelers, discoverers, historians, orators, and thinkers, as the more favored races.

Time will develop all these things, and God and good men will help those who help themselves.

Pardon my tendering you so much advice, and accept, instead of any more, my wishes for your welfare; and to these gentlemen of such courteous kindness, let me as well as to 002627you return my thanks for such cheerful attention and evident approval. I feel that it is for the sentiments I utter you all regard with interest my otherwise indifferent remarks. With the hope that you may all, without distinction of race or color, well enjoy and long remember this pleasant jubilee, I give place to others, hoping that you will listen to their words with greater pleasure than to my own.

When Mr. Bromwell alluded to major General Howard, Rev. Mr. Morris rose and proposed three cheers for that distinguished friend of the colored races, which were given by the great audience with the heartiest enthusiasm.

ADDRESS OF REV. MR. MORRIS.

FRIENDS AND BRETHREN: In the scenes of to--day we have "swung around the circle" grandly and beautifully. Every part and point of it has flowed with sentiments of Christian sympathy and with the happiest and fullest recognition of our common humanity. We have in these ceremonies a beautiful and practical illustration of the father hood of God and the brotherhood of man.

"I am a man, and whatever relates to the interests and elevation of humanity I am personally and deeply interested in," was a sentiment uttered by a Roman slave, whose genius was inspired by poetry, and whose eloquent utterance was received with plaudits by a Roman audience, as it must be by all generous and noble--minded hearts in every age and clime. The Christian religion is in perfect harmony with the sentiment, and He who "went about doing good," and who said, " ye are all brethren," in His own perfect and beautiful example, has consecrated it as a sacred sentiment in the heart of humanity.

To our colored brethren these scenes are full of deep interest and meaning. They are expressive and significant symbols of sympathy for your race; of the recognition of your rights and manhood; of the feelings of the Christian and patriotic people of this great country towards you, and of the all-- comprehending benevolence and genius of our common Christianity. These banners of "beauty and glory," emblems of our preserved nationality and of your freedom; these evergreens which adorn these walls and so tastefully arranged with your own hands; these smiling faces of your white brethren, reflecting the benedictions and sympathies of a Christian public; the eloquent and heart-- spoken addresses to which you have listened with such eager attention, are all significant and impressive lessons to you and your race of the sentiments which inspire and animate the hearts of the American people towards your race, and beautiful and expressive illustrations of the nature and aims of Christianity and of the Government to lift you up, to bless you, and place you as equal members in the great family of American freemen.

Our nation owes you a debt that has been accumulating for more than two hundred years. In the impartial and righteous retribution of a just God, and in the awful and stern necessities created by treason and rebellion, this heavy debt due the colored race of our country has had to be cancelled by the most costly sacrifices ever made for the atonement of wrong, and for the divine and violated rights of human nature. This debt is now receiving payment. The acts of Congress and of most of the States, securing the rights of the colored race, soon to give them the elective franchise, and protecting them in all the privileges of American citizenship, as well as the public sentiment of the country, are evidences of the practical spirit and purpose to pay, to the fullest extent, the debt due the colored race.

What is the voice and lesson of the late autumn elections in the loyal States? They were the sublime expressions of the solemn purpose of the American people to do ample justice to the colored race, and to atone or the past by restoring to them their manhood and their rights as American citizens. Never, in the history of this country, was there 002728so grand and important a political and moral victory as that achieved by the American people at the ballot box in the autumn of 1866.

Henry Clay, the impassioned orator and popular statesman, in the halls of Congress, once said: "I am no friend to slavery. The Searcher of hearts knows that every pulsation of my heart beats high and strong for civil liberty. If I could be the instrument in eradicating this deepest stain upon the character of our country; of effacing this foul blot from that State ( Virginia ) which gave me birth, or that not less beloved State ( Kentucky ) which kindly adopted me as her son, I would not exchange the proud satisfaction which I should enjoy for all the triumphs ever decreed to the most successful conqueror;" and, said he, "You must blow out all the moral lights around us before you can perpetuate slavery and repress all sympathies and all humane and benevolent effort among freemen in behalf of the unhappy portion of our race who are doomed to bondage." This idol of a once great party, this great orator of the tribune and of the American Congress, was once crossing the mountains from his western home to his post of duty at the capital of our country. Reaching the summit of the loftiest ridge that divides the West and the East, Mr. Clay got out of the coach, (it was before the day of railroads,) and took a position where his eye surveyed, as in one view, the great West, which lay outstretched in vision before him. Wrap in silent thought at the future grandeur of his country, a traveling friend stepped by his side, and said: "Mr. Clay, what are you thinking about in the midst of these grand and surrounding scenes of nature?" "I am listening, said Mr. Clay, to the tread of the coming millions who are to inhabit the great western empire, as free, intelligent, and independent citizens." That was what some of us in the national capital were doing during the progress of the late elections. We were listening to the sublime voices of those millions of voters, seen in the vision of the great statesman from the top of the Allegheny Mountains, and which, at the late elections, solemnly expressed the will of the American people that full justice should be done to four millions of colored people, and that no reconstruction of the States should ever take place which did not settle the Government and policy of the United States upon the basis of eternal justice, of universal freedom, of equality before the law, and of equal political privileges. Those elections were the salvation of the Republic and certain assurances to the colored race that all their rights as American citizens should be bestowed and secured to them and their posterity.

This duty was made doubly sure of fulfillment by the new debt of gratitude due to the colored race for their heroic and sacrificing services in the late trying time of our Republic. In the recent stupendous conflict, which imperilled the life of the nation, the colored race nobly vindicated their manhood and their loyal fidelity to the country and its institutions. Forgetting the wrongs of two centuries, they rallied two hundred thousand strong around the old flag of the Republic, and on the bloody battle--fields, of the war tens of thousands of their sons, brothers, and fathers fell martyrs to freedom and to the cause of our country. Through their assistance the final victory over the hosts of rebellion was won, and their blood, mingling with that of their heroic and immortal white companions in arms, has baptized and consecrated anew the continent to freedom, and cemented, in a more enduring form and in new beauty, the glorious temple of American freedom.

The conduct of the colored race during the most stupendous civil war and social convulsion the world ever witnessed forms a memorable and a noble chapter in their history. The four millions of slaves not only waited patiently for their coming day of deliverance, but their quietness, industry, fidelity, order, and good behavior, challenged the admiration and gratitude of their task-- masters and owners, and of the entire country. More 002829than this: they were true and trusty to our own suffering heroes, who, in the fortunes of the war, were thrown into the dreary prisons, hospitals, and camps of the South; and who, in escaping, as many did, from these horrible places, committed themselves to the confidence and care of the slaves of the South, to be fed and piloted, homeward bound, through the swamps and forests, over creeks and rivers, until they reached our army lines. God bless those enfranchised men and women who, at the risk of torture and death, took our suffering heroes into their lowly cabins, carried them bread and bacon by night to the swamps where they were concealed, and with a "God bless you," guided them on their homeward journey.

You and your race, my colored brethren, by your conduct and fidelity to your country, as well as from convictions of right and duty, have secured from the American people, after long and weary years of waiting and suffering, your rights and privileges as citizens of the American nation. I have the fullest faith that your race will wear well and worthily this proud distinction, and use for the highest good of your country your precious and blood--bought privileges. The universal interest you feel in education, your efforts for schools and churches, and for all the institutes and means of intellectual and Christian culture, are delightful evidences that you understand the duties and responsibilities of your new condition, and that you will realize all the just expectations of your friends, and fulfill the auspicious destiny which Providence and the American people have opened before you and your children; and, in the future of our now free and great Republic, the colored race will be one of the firmest and safest pillars to strengthen and adorn the fabric of our free institutions.

In helping you to this high and happy destiny, you and your children, to the latest generation, will remember with gratitude the friends who stood by you, in Church and State, and who, to give you your freedom and rights, suffered persecutions, and some of them a martyr's death. Many of the first champions of our colored race sleep in honored graves whilst a "great cloud" of them still live to rejoice in this new era which has dawned so brightly upon them and our country. The great and good men who founded our free institutions have all passed away, but the lessons of liberty which inspired them and fell from their lips, and so sublimely illustrated in their acts, are still freshly living in the hearts of millions of their descendants, who have reproduced them in these latter days for the freedom of an enslaved race, and for the life and perpetuity of our Republic.

My esteemed friend from Indiana, Hon. Mr. FARQUHAR, alluded, happily, to his QUAKER descent, and his early education among that excellent people. From them, he says, he received those inspirations and lessons of liberty which I know he has nobly proclaimed before the people of his State and defended in the halls of our national legislature. I fully respond to his tribute to the unfaltering fidelity of his Quaker "friends" to freedom, and say, with Patrick Henry, whose matchless oratory once fired the heart of Virginia with freedom, " Believe me, I honor the Quakers for their noble efforts to abolish slavery." But others, also, share in this noble Christian work.

An allusion to my own paternal ancestors, I hope, may be pardoned. My old grandmother died at the age of ninety--four years, and her bones are now moldering in the State of West Virginia, redeemed from slavery before the act of general emancipation. She was the wife of a Baptist preacher, who sounded the trumpet of Gospel liberty for sixty--five years on the mountains and in the valleys of the western part of the "Ancient Dominion." At the death of her father (Henton) she and her husband were notified that her portion of the estate was four slaves, and was requested by the executor to receive her dowry. The proposition was rejected as an outrage on their sense of justice, and they both declared they would do no act that would in any form recognize the right of one 002930man to hold human beings, made in the image of God, and immortal, as "CHATTEL PROPERTY," and that they would not, and did not receive the inherited slaves. Around her knew, attending to her daily duties in her log cabin, with no books but a Bible, a hymn--book, and a spelling--book, she taught all her children to read before they were four years old, and instilled into them the lessons of liberty taught in the Bible. In the march of empire westward, one of her numerous sons in his youth found his home, in 1795, in a part of the vast unorganized territory which had been consecrated to freedom by the memorable ordinance of 1787, and now the great and populous State of Ohio, on whose bosom blossom the arts, elegancies, comforts, and teeming blessings of freedom and a true Christian civilization. This son, after many years of service in the Legislature of his adopted State, was called to a seat, 1833, as Senator from Ohio in the Congress of the United States. The great political and moral battle between freedom and slavery was at that time beginning to be renewed, and which continued earnestly and fiercely among all classes until it terminated gloriously for our country and the colored race in the late fearful struggles on the field of battle and in the halls of Congress. As an American Senator that son, the late Hon. Thomas Morris, my immediate ancestor, stood alone for six years in that august body battling for freedom and the right of petition on the subject of slavery, and in combating the pro--slavery doctrines and political and moral heresies of Calhoun, Buchanan, and other distinguished Senators. In closing his senatorial and official life, he made an elaborate speech against the slave--power and for the freedom of the colored race, closing in the following words: " On returning to my home and my friends in Ohio, I shall join them again in rekindling the beacon--fires of liberty on every hill--top in our State, until their broad glare shall enlighten every valley, and the song of triumph will soon be heard, for the hearts of our people are in the hands of a just and holy Being, who can look upon oppression but with abhorrence, and He can turn them whithersoever He will, as the rivers of waters are turned. * * That all may be safe, I conclude that the negro will yet be set free."

In writing from the Senate Chamber, December 11, 1838, to the organ, at the capital of Ohio, of the then great Democratic party, which refused to re--elect him Senator, because of his true democratic faith and practice in opposing slavery and fearlessly advocating the freedom of the slaves, he said: "I feel devoutly thankful to my Maker, and grateful to my State, for the situation I occupy, where my humble name appears upon the highest records of my country in opposition to slavery, and among the friends of the poor, trodden-- down, and broken--hearted slave. And when the hand of time shall point to the last hour of my existence, my fervent prayer shall be that the Almighty, in his good time, will deliver the negro race from that cruel slavery under which they are now groaning, and that the liberties and happiness of my country may be perpetual. The same sentiments of freedom so practically carried out by those aged ancestors are inherited by most of their numerous descendants, now numbering about four hundred persons. What important results flow from parental teachings and example. Another, and an older son of my grandmother, schooled in the same sentiments, died in his eighty--fifth year. As he was sinking day by day into his grave, his earnest prayer to God was, that he might live long enough to cast his vote for Hon. SALMON P. CHASE as Governor of Ohio, whom he called "the foremost statesman of his age," whom the country honors, and we all know, as the early champion of liberty and human rights, the accomplished and able lawyer, the upright and eminent Governor, a Senator in Congress from financial condition of the Government form the chaos in which treason left it, and sustained the financial credit and character of the country with unequalled sagacity and 003031judgment, who now adorns the seat of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and who has, in every official and public position, ever been the distinguished and fearless friend of the freedom, and all the rights, civil and political, of the colored race, whether slave or free. Whoever may prove false to freedom, to the colored race, or the country, we can all confide in this eminent jurist, who will, in his judicial office, see that " black men HAVE RIGHTS which white men are bound to respect."

In the cemetery of the rural village near Cincinnati, the Queen City of the West, sleep the mortal remains of these two sons of my grandmother, and those of the venerable parents of my friend the Hon. Mr. CLARKE, who has addressed you, the true and able Representative in Congress from our native county, with whom my boyhood days were spent, and whom I am happy to hail as a Radical champion of freedom in the halls of Congress. In the deed of conveyance by the proprietor of our native village BETHEL-- House of God --a member of the Baptist denomination, this anti--slavery record is found:

"I give two lots, in said town, Nos. 80 and 180, for the use of the regular Baptist church, who do not hold slaves, nor commune with those who do practice such tyranny over their fellow--men, fellow--creatures, for to build a house for the worship of Almighty God, and to bury the dead, and for no other use."

This Ohio village, thus connected, was the boyhood home, as its county (Clermont) is the nativity, of our victorious and invincible hero, General ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, to whom General Lee, once the lordly proprietor of numerous slaves and of this large estate on which we are holding our festival, surrendered, on the 9th of April, 1865, his rebel army, and thus destroyed the last hope of the southern leaders and people of building up a Government and a nation whose corner=stones were to rest on the perpetual bondage of untold millions of the colored race. Our noble chieftain now occupies the military position once graced by the Father of his Country, the head of the Army of the United States; and, like Washington, received the impress of his character and his love of country and of freedom from a Christian mother. She still lives, as his Christian father, to witness the honors paid to their illustrious son.

Such incidents have important moral lessons. They teach us that the seeds of freedom have been sown in years gone by, and in the homes and hearts of many now dead, the harvest of which our colored brethren, and our country, are now reaping in rich and plenteous abundance. " They who sow in tears shall reap in joy; and he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." On this happy day we can all, as equal citizens of our great Republic, shout the "harvest home" of freedom, and see its sheaves standing thick in every field and part of our country.

But these and similar incidents teach another important lesson, which I earnestly desire to impress upon my colored brethren especially the fathers and mothers of the colored people everywhere. The best of the blessings, after all, which freedom has brought you and your race, is that now you can have a home and family. During the reign of slavery, four million of slaves had no homes, in the Christian meaning of that word. Slavery blotted out and destroyed the family institution which God had established for all races and colors, to bless them with the richest and sweetest of blessings. There was not a black man, woman, or child in all the slave States that could say, " I have a home and family." You all know how precious is home, "sweet home," and that "there is no place like home;" "be it every so humble," "there is no place like home."

Now, what slavery destroyed and robbed the colored race of, freedom and a free and pure Christianity have restored. Your wives, you husbands, your children, your families, your homes, are now your own. Henceforth no master, no cruel slave--dealer, can invade 003132your happy homes and break up your families, and break your hearts by selling into slavery your children or parents, and thus tearing you away from those you love. In the future of the South and of my country there is no vision so beautiful and bright to me as the unnumbered happy homes, filled with educated Christian families, which will dot and beautify the sunny regions of the South, and enrich and ornament our whole land--homes created by the colored people of the South. It makes us all grateful and glad to see, in anticipation, the reality of which is already being seen, this lovely picture.

And now, what I want to say earnestly, and to say it so that all you colored parents will remember it, is, that in your homes the teachings and example of parents are to bless or to curse your children, to bless or to curse the happy country which the colored race can now say is ours. As fathers, you must set a christian example before your children; as mothers, you must teach your children lessons of virtue and religion; and laying your hands upon their heads, pray down God's blessing upon them and on all your household. If you do these things, you will have, indeed, happy homes on earth and a far happier home in heaven; you will then bless yourselves, your families, your country, and the Church of Christ, and raise up a generation of colored people who shall be among the best and most virtuous citizens of the Republic.

In these happy ceremonies, the speakers have frequently alluded to ABRAHAM LINCOLN, and what he had done for your race and his country. You nor your children, till the last hour of time, will never forget the name or the great deeds of that good and great man. You have to--day, on these church walls, written his "NAME" in large evergreen letters, a symbol of his immortality and the green and grateful place be holds in your hearts and memories, and will hold in all those of your race who will come after you. But, my colored brethren, who made ABRAHAM LINCOLN? Under God, his Christian mother. She was very poor, like most of our colored friends, lived in a log--cabin in the West, and she and her husband and "ABe," their son, worked hard to make an honest and frugal living. Yet, notwithstanding all this, they had a happy Christian home, and is that home, the mother of "Abe" taught him to be a good boy, to be obedient to his parents, to love his humble home, to be honest, to be industrious, to be moral, to read the Bible, to pray, and to be religious. She said: " I would rather Abe would learn to read the Bible, and own one, than to own a farm, if he can't have but one." When they were perplexed about how the family should get along, or in any sorrow, his mother would say: " We mustn't borrow too much trouble, we must have faith in God." And these and similar religious lessons, accompanied with prayer, ABRAHAM LINCOLN received from his pious, good mother in their log--cabin. He grew up a good boy, was a virtuous youth, an honest and a noble man, and God and the people made him President, in order to free your race and save his country form slavery and rebellion. In the "White House," where for more than four years he carried your sorrows and the burdens of the nation upon his great and loving heart, he said, as he stood around the coffin of his little son "Willie:" " I will go to God in my sorrow, for I remember my mother's prayers; all that I am I owe to my angel mother; blessing upon her memory." Yes, my colored brethren, was it that, through a Christian mother, God raised up the great emancipator of your race, your best and truest friend, and a wise, and good, and great ruler for our nation. Bless his name! Revere his memory! Copy his example! Visit his grave and wet it with your tears! Reproduce in your humble homes his virtues and those of his mother, and then, as he was accustomed to say, "all will be well."

But, above all, remember that God alone wrought the deliverance of your race. All the great and good men and women of the nation, who have labored so faithfully, so patiently, and so long were but instruments of Providence. God inspired them, fired 003233and filled their souls with freedom and truth, made them heroic and persevering in faith and works for the freedom of the colored race, and led them on, from one conquest to another, and another, until the final victory came to them and our country with a triumphant and universal shout of praise from more than twenty millions of loyal hearts in our land. As God led the hosts of Israel, under their great leader Moses, from the land of bondage, in Egypt, across the Red Sea, and through the wilderness into the land flowing with mild and honey, where they could sit under their own vine and fig tree to worship God and enjoy the blessings of freedom and of home, so has God in a most wonderful and signal manner made bare his Almighty arm for the deliverance of four millions of your race, thrown the hosts of rebellion, their horses and riders, their armies and their oppressive government that was to be, their leader and people, into the Red Sea and watery deep of destruction, blasting all their hopes, and led you and your race into the happy Canaan of freedom and complete redemption. While you will always honor those who have so nobly worked and prayed, lived and died, for the emancipation of your race, for the restoration and securement of all your civil and political rights, to give you your homes and families, you are still to ascribe all to God, and to praise and serve Him for His mighty and glorious deliverance which He has wrought out for the colored race of the present generation, and for all who are to come after them.

In view of all these great blessings which God has bestowed upon your race and our country, now dearer to us all than ever, and in closing the happy scenes and ceremonies of this festive day--a glad and good day to you--we can all respond with grateful and rejoicing hearts to that sublime song, sung so often after our great victories in the assemblies of Christians and patriots: "Praise God, from whom all blessings for;Praise Him, all creatures here below;Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."The benediction was pronounced at the close of the ceremonies in the church by Rev. Mr. LAWS, pastor of the church in Freedmen's Village.

The addresses were all received with great demonstrations of delight by the audience, and the sentiments uttered were greeted with round after round of the heartiest applause. A thousand hearts were made happy by the scenes and ceremonies of the day, and many thousands more of the colored people, and others in all parts of the land, as they may read the account of the New year's festival given to the freedmen on Arlington Heights, will thank God and take courage.

LETTERS.HON. MR. MAYNARD'S LETTER.

WASHINGTON,January 5, 1867Rev. B. F. MORRIS, S. V. BOYD, and S. S. BRYANT.

GENTLEMEN: I cannot be present at the celebration to--day; my duties forbid it. The pleasure of witnessing your efforts in behalf of the freedmen must be postponed.

Emancipation has given us some most interesting an difficult problems for solution. Foremost of them is the future of the freedmen themselves. There is little danger that enough will not be done for them. The point of solicitude is, what will they do for themselves? Will they be self--sustaining, self-- dependent, self--respecting? Well they practice industry, economy, frugality, and prudence, the honesty and unconspicuous virtues by which people generally thrive? Will they aspire to the more intelligent and remunerative forms of labor, in which skill imparts the chief value to muscular power? Will they 003334venture upon trade, and acquire some of the princely fortunes, the capital prizes of that great lottery, commerce? Will they strive to become rich, and thus secure the many friends proverbial to the rich? Will they give their first efforts to organize families and provide comfortable homes? I fear this may be thought an humble view of the matter. It is certainly a very unimaginative and practical one, at the same time very necessary. If unattended to, no acquirements, however showy, no more book instruction will amount to much.

Were I permitted a suggestion, it would be to furnish for those untaught people a compilation of the aphorisms of Franklin, Noah Webster, and other early writers of everyday wisdom. A new edition of a little book of domestic proverbs, familiar to our fathers and mothers, called the Prompter, would be an excellent thing; for by the observance of these homely precepts it is that we have grown in security two generations, from obscure penury into wealth and cultivation and honor. These humble beginners in life will succeed, if they succeed at all, by observing the same precepts. Teach them not to despise the day of small things.

Hoping for you an auspicious day and a pleasant company, I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant.HORACE MAYNARD.

REV. CHAS. B. BOYNTON'S LETTER.

WASHINGTON, January 4, 1867Rev. B. F. MORRIS.DEAR SIR: I have received and read with interest the letter of invitation to attend a celebration at Arlington Heights, the object of which is to provide a holiday dinner for the freedmen of that vicinity, and also to supply the needy among them with clothing and other necessaries which may aid them to bear the inclemency of the season without needless suffering.

It is not convenient for me to be present, but desire to express my sympathy with and approval of this movement in behalf of the suffering poor, and especially of those who have fewer friends than all others.

It seems a timely thought to attempt in this way to meet temporarily their need, and thus encourage their hearts.Very Truly, your obedient,CHAS, B. BOYNTON,Chaplain U. S. H. R.

JOHN R. ELVANS'S LETTER.

WASHINGTON, D. C., January 4, 1867.Rev. B. F. MORRIS.MY DEAR SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your kind invitation, on behalf of the committee, to participate in the ceremonies at the New Year's festival to the freedmen at Arlington Heights.

It is a matter of sincere regret that business engagements will prevent active co--operation with the benevolent ladies and gentlemen who have inaugurated the noble enterprise. I trust it may be unnecessary to say to you that my sympathies are heartily with every object having in view the amelioration and advancement of the colored race.

It has been my lot to have been born and raised in a slave community, and to have witnessed in youth, in the capital of a so--called free country, the revolting scenes of human bondage--chains, the driver's lash, the auction-- block, the negro--pen, the sundering of ties of family and of affection, for no other cause than that black skins, containing white hearts, were a source of profit to white men whose souls were black.003435I have watched the course--I was about to say of human events; I should say of God's justice--and am forcibly reminded to--day of the vast stride toward the will of Heaven on the part of the nation, as I read the "Appeal in behalf of the Freedmen at Arlington Heights." Six years ago these men and women to whom you and your co--laborers are now carrying the blessings of liberty, education, morality, and self--reliance, were the victims of slavery, ignorance, debauchery, and abject submission to the will and power of masters. Made in the image of a common Creator, they possessed, in the minds of their persecutors, on God, no souls, no affections, no rights. That no startling a change should be established in so short a time can be attributed only to Him by whom the powers that be are ordained, and who has proclaimed that in the divine dispensation He is no "respecter of persons."

While firmly believing that Providence has, in a remarkable and self-- apparent manner, controlled and directed the affairs of our land from the formation of the Government to the present hour, and that He will, in His own good time, firmly establish it upon a basis of equal and exact justice to all, my position as a business--man and merchant causes me to rejoice in the unfolding of free institutions and free thought and free speech in southern localities, and particularly in and around the city of Washington.

The natural tendency to sluggishness to be found in every southern community, together with the unpopularity of labor and the false standard of social position, has heretofore retarded enterprise, tied up industry, and prevented interchange of ideas. The honest mechanic, with brain to plan and execute, has been deemed little better than a chattel, and has been driven to a more congenial latitude, which he has helped to enrich by his energy. All this is now being changed. The dignity of labor is at last beginning to be appreciated. Men are no longer rated by the number of human beings which they may have bought or sold, and it needs but the recognition of impartial manhood (a fixed fact in my own section) to cause the federal capital to assume the position to which nature and population entitle it.

Your care for and attention to the elevation of the colored people at Arlington Heights is a means to the end so desirable for the future of Washington. A large proportion of these people will become citizens with us, alike interested in our commercial and moral prosperity. As a native--born southerner, I will welcome them to our midst as intelligent men, and I have no fear that they will prove other than an element of strength in the future, in all that concerns the best interests of the community in which they may settle.

I have had barely time, in acknowledging your note, to respond to your kind invitation in a very hasty and disconnected manner.

God speed you in your noble work, and may you soon rejoice in the full fruition of your labors. I am, dear sir, yours, very truly, JOHN R. ELEVANS.

GENERAL EKIN'S LETTER.

QUARTERMASTER GENERAL'S OFFICE,WASHINGTON, D. C.,January 30, 1867.Rev. B. F. MORRIS, Washington, D. C.

REV. AND DEAR SIR: I am in receipt of your kind letter of the 1st inst, inviting me to address the meeting at Arlington this afternoon.

I regret that pressing official duties will prevent me from being present on the interesting occasion.

The charitable purpose of the meeting has my warmest sympathies; and surely if there ever was a time when the generous feeling of a common humanity should be manifested 003536in works of benevolence towards the suffering freedmen, it is now at this inclement season--one of unusual length and severity--when on every side is heard the piteous cry of distress, borne on the cheerless voices of the wintry winds.

Trusting that the meeting may be abundantly successful, I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

MR. WETMORE'S LETTER.

STATE OF OHIO MILITARY AGENCY,WASHINGTON,January 5, 1867.Rev. B. F. Morris and others:GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your kind invitation to join in the entertainment to be given to the "freedmen" collected at "the village" on Arlington Heights.

I regret exceedingly that I shall be prevented by official duties from being present.

I never think of "our neighbors," the colored people, but what I feel how unjust we, as a nation, have been to them. The world, in all its history, has never seen such continued outrages committed upon an inoffensive race.

How like true servants of our divine Master they conducted themselves during the wicked rebellion. While the country was in turmoil and every class in their particular section setting law and justice at defiance, they were meekly and humbly going about their daily unrequited labors, trusting in the Lord to make everything to work together for good to them that fear him. Loyal and true they were, without hardly an exception.

We owe them not only " equal rights," but a debt of gratitude which we, as a country, will never be able to pay. It behoeves us, therefore, to save) if for nothing more) God's judgments upon us, to see that they are educated to a higher moral and intellectual status, and are given the Bible, which has been so long and cruelly withheld from them.

Wishing that your benevolent efforts may be crowned with success,

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES C. WETMORE.HON. HENRY WILSON, SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS.This determined and fearless friend of the colored race was invited to be present at the festival, but a great sorrow, in the death of his gallant and noble son, who died in Texas, in December, 1866, in the service of his country, prevented his attendance. His son, henry Hamilton Wilson, soon after the enlistment of colored soldiers, received the appointment in a regiment of colored troops of first lieutenant, and was soon promoted to a captaincy, and afterwards to be lieutenant colonel. He led his gallant regiment of colored soldiers through the fearful conflict until the war was ended. The major of the regiment, (Delany,) his brother officer, was a black man, of great courage and military genius, and was the only commissioned colored officer in the army, and who is now promoting the interests of his race in South Carolina. Lieut. Col. Wilson died in the regular army, universally lamented, and left a bright example of heroic devotion to his country, and to the doctrine of the manhood of the colored race. His distinguished father, in the Senate and before the public, has been greatly interested in the deliverance of the colored race from bondage, and in promoting their political, educational, and moral interests. The following extracts from a speech he made before the colored people of Washington, on the Fourth of July, 1865, met int he presidential grounds to commemorate their National Educational 003637Monument Association, in honor of their great emancipator Abraham Lincoln, will be read with interest and profit. they are strong and truthful words: "I have an undeviating faith in these men; they have been tried at all times and in every form, but they have marched steadily onward, achieving victory after victory, and they will not shrink from any contest tat may come up in the great work of consummating freedom for all men in America. (Applause.) I say to you colored men here to--day, that ninety--five of every hundred of the men who, in November last, voted for Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, are standing now shoulder to shoulder for the emancipation and protection of your race, by just, humane, and equal laws. (Cheers) They believe, with Andrew Johnson, that ' all men should have a fair start and an equal chance in the race of life, and that merit should be rewarded without regard to color.' In their memories will linger forever the immortal words of the martyred Lincoln:' The ballot of the black man in some trying time to come may keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom.'"At home and in Congress I have ever labored to secure to the colored men of my country equality of rights before the law. I would give to all men, white and black, equal, just, and humane laws--the same that I ask for myself and kindred. Having ever battled for your rights, I hope you will allow me to offer on this occasion a few words of advice and admonition. ('We will.') It is said by your enemies that the black man will not work without a lash upon his back. I don't believe it. (A voice"'I know it ain't so.') I want you to prove by deeds that your enemies have misjudged you. Deeds, not words, must silence your enemies, vindicate the confidence of your friends. Never be idle. Cultivate the brain and the hand. Engage in the various industries demanding the trained head and skillful hand. Be temperate, frugal, economical. Get homes. Though they be ever so humble, they will be dear to you, for the laws of your country will make them sacred. Educate your children, so that their future may be brighter than your past or present. Follow not the example of men who sat in the shade and punished poor whiskey while you were driven to unpaid toil under a burning sun; but imitate the industry, thrift, and economy of the hardy sons of toil, who till the fields and fill the workshops where labor is honored and laboring men respected. god made you,a s he made the rest of us, to gain your bread by the sweat of your faces, not to force or steal it from other men. Slave masters must now learn this hard lesson."Advance high your standard of rights, duties, and responsibilities. Call none master but God. Walk with your forehead to the skies. Don't insult any man, nor allow any man to insult you. Don't strike any man, nor allow yourselves to be struck. Let it henceforth and forever be understood by friend and foe, anywhere and everywhere, that you are free--as free to think, speak, and act as any men that breath God's air or walk his green earth. (Cheers.) Let the late slave masters, from the Potomac to the Mexican line, fully understand that you are amenable to the same laws as themselves, that you are to be tried for their violation in the same manner, and punished in the same degree. (Cheers.) Let them know that henceforth you will utter your own thoughts, make your own bargains, enjoy the fruits of your own labor, go where you please throughout the bounds of the Republic, and none have the right to molest or make you afraid. (Applause.) If my voice to--day could penetrate the ear of the colored men of my country, I would say to them that the intelligence, character, and wealth of the nation imperatively demand their freedom, protection, and the recognition of their rights. I would say to them: 'Prove your selves, by patience, endurance, industry, conduct, and character, worthy of all that the millions of Christian men and women have done and are doing to make for you--that Declaration of Independence read here to--day--the living faith of united America."

DESCRIPTION OF THE FESTIVAL, BY A LADY PRESENT.

The following graphic and interesting description of that memorable festival day and its scenes was written by Mrs. MARY C. AMES, the lady Washington correspondent of The Independent: WASHINGTON, D. C., January, 1867.

Several day shave passed since the festival of the freed people of Arlington; but, as it was an occasion which could hardly fail to interest the readers of The Independent, I go back to it.

A special interest attaches itself to the colored people upon this estate. One sees more than poetic justice in the fact that its rich land, so long the domain of the great general of the rebellion, now afford labor and support to hundreds of enfranchised slaves. On the gentlest of winter mornings we took our way toward the festival, by the grounds of the 003738Smithsonian, its trees and shrubbery all ermined and edged with pearl, across the Long Bridge and the frozen Potomac, over wintry fields and undulating hills, to the Freedmen's Village. Arlington is a lovely spot. Virginia, with all its vaunting, can hardly boast of a fairer domain. From its slopes you look down upon the valley of the Potomac; beyond the lordly river, Washington stretches away to its crowning Capitol. The great dome glitters through the crystal--blue air, and high above it the Goddess of Liberty holds tutelary guard over the newly consecrated land. This is the picture--flecked here and there with breezy fields, and open woods, and softly swelling hills--which we see from Arlington.

As we tuned into the old Alexandria road, I thought of something that I saw not very long ago--a letter, the last one written by Mary Custis from Arlington to Robert E. Lee, before she became his wife. the letter of a happy girl to the man beloved and chosen to be the husband of her heart and the ruler of her life- -her eventful fate has given go it a touching significance. It referred solely to their approaching marriage and future life, and was full of love and hope and religious faith. The young officer, stationed for the time at Old Point Comfort, seemed to be in possession of only narrow quarters. yet the heiress of Arlington saw nothing formidable in this, and counted it o sacrifice to leave the wide halls of her home for the scanty conveniences of a military fortress. "When mother came, why, they could make a bed in the sitting room for her; and as for a maid, if there was no room Mary Custis could do without one!" Race self--abnegation for a Virginia heiress. Then came pleasant gossips about the bridesmaids and groomsmen already at Arlington,a nd maidenly fears as to how she would acquit herself through the trying ceremony; followed and finished with that exquisite humility of love which always sees in the beloved one the finer good, the diviner beauty, both of body and of spirit, which, humble--hearted, it misses in itself, only to recognize and worship in that other self who is now the counterpart and crown of all true existence. She was unworthy of such great happiness; but, because he deserved it all, the blessing of God would descend upon their union. Indeed, she felt that they could claim that benediction of Heaven promised to those who honored and obeyed their parents, and sought to do the will of their heavenly Father. On a certain day she would ride from Arlington on horseback and meet him at Alexandria. Over this very road came the happy lovers. far and fair on every side stretched the sunny lands which were their proud inheritance. Arlington House opened wide its doors to these beloved children. Its patriarchal trees waved their summer welcomes. Slaves came thronging from their cottages to greet their "dear Miss Mary" and her handsome young husband.

What a summer day for these joyous hearts! Ineffable as its sunshine shone the promise of their future. It was well for Mary Custis that to her was given no "second sight" to divine the sorrow of a far--off morning. Well that those soft eyes, looking on, did not see these gay old gardens and violet slopes sown thick with human bones and turfed with ten thousand human graves? When she wrote this letter, in the sweet fullness of her heart, it was well she could not know that when her hair was white, and her heart old with many sorrows, a soldier would find this letter amid the treasures left in the home from which she was banished--banished because the husband for whose sake she dreamed all gracious fortune was to come was an armed traitor, fighting against the Government which had covered him with honor. She was innocent and lovely; but the innocence and loveliness of one could not avert the inevitable punishment of generations of wrong. This letter, full of all girlish gentleness and love, draws us in sympathy toward her who wrote it; yet we look on the graves of our dead, beneath the protecting trees of Arlington, and say: Woe to the day when to Mary Custis or to her children shall be given back the home of her fathers!

Well, I commenced to tell you of the festival; and, although I have loitered so long on the road, strange to say, we did reach the chapel in season, and the carriage did not slip backward down the hill, although Polly was sure it would.

The chapel, a large, unplastered building, whose adornment had been left entirely to the colored people, bore witness to an unusual simplicity of taste. Its sides were hung with evergreen. The only motto (that placed above the speaker's stand) was the name of Lincoln, while across the room was suspended the flag!--the flag which at last means all to the black man that it does to the white, and which to--day means more to us all than it ever could before. As it floats on the air, or falls above our heads, do we feel that it means only free government, the peoples' will? Is it not the synonym of all high sacrifice, of all holy heroism, of all sacred triumph? Through all loss and pain, through dismal nights and saddest mornings, it went before us. It has fallen at our defeat, risen at our victory; it enfolds our slain. Baptized with our blood, consecrated by our tears, we love it dearer for its cost. Beneath it and beyond it I saw a sight grievous to my eyes: a row of men all waiting: "to speak!" I have no objection to one speaker, provided he is interesting and 003839don't talk too long. But several "distinguished speakers," one after the other, are usually more than I can hear with equanimity. My horror is a public meeting addressed by "numerous distinguished gentlemen," each one perpetrating a speech long enough for the whole. You know, you men accuse us women of doing most of the talking. Well, you won't let us "speak in meeting," because you want to do it all yourselves; then is it any wonder that we chatter, and sometimes tire you out at home? And is it any wonder that you, ventilating your fancies at every corner, declaring your opinions in ten thousand caucuses and public halls, get through at last, and, coming home wearied out, are ready to be as dumb as Quakers? But it strikes me that in public nothing is more delightful to a man than the sound of his own voice, and the longer he hears it the more delightful it is. Thus the trouble with most of you is, that by the time you have finished one excellent speech you are enamored of it, and so begin again, and repeat and repeat; and precious few of you know just where to stop. When you do stop, everybody is tired half to death, and so out of patience that they won't give the first half of your sayings the praise which they deserve.

So I said to mere, in great perturbation of spirit, "Are all those men going to make speeches? I thought, we had come to a festival. I am not going to listen." But I did. Thus, forgivingIndependent, I make my humble confession. I was very unamiable to these unoffending gentlemen--said, "We did not come to hear you; we don't want to hear you; when we do, we can listen to you at plenty of other places. We want to hear the freed--people sing and talk, and see them eat their goodies." I did not want to listen, did not mean to listen, tried not to listen; yet I did.

What was there in those dusky faces, few full of child--like enthusiasm, and unquestioning faith, and loving devoting which made every speaker simple and natural, and, therefore, eloquent? Each one spoke directly from his heart to the hearts of others; thus it was not only easy, but most delightful to hear. With instinctive perversity I inwardly rebelled against every "next speaker" as he rose, fearing he would destroy the effect of what had last been spoken. But he did not. The wine of the feast grew better to the end. We all laughed and cried and had a good time together.

Every seat and aisle and corner was filled. In the contrasting hues of hundreds of eager faces could be traced the history, the possibility, the future of this struggling and rising race. Here were infants and bright children. Here were the old "uncle" and "aunty" of the plantation, leaning on their canes; the plantation belle, black and buxom, apparently warm and happy, arrayed in her summer finery. there were tawny cheeks, under which roses trembled; and satiny hair, which could not crinkle; and thoughtful eyes, wide and deep with intelligence. Their interest was most infectious. One could not speak to them, or even look at them, much less listen to them, without feeling this contagious sympathy. Their cheers and ejaculations were witness beyond a doubt that they understood all that was spoken. when General Charles Howard said to them, "What many of you need is the opportunity to be self--supporting," many voices cried out, "Yes, that is what we want. Give us ground to work on, and we will take care of ourselves and our families." The gentlemen who addressed them were all their friends, and they knew it. Among the first was Rev. Mr. Turney, at the head of the Theological Institute of this city, who has now under his instruction several young colored men studying for the Christian ministry among their own people; a pale, spiritual--faced man, who looked as if his life had been spent for the souls of others. As he told simply of the work done, and still being done; of his walks back and forth from the city to teach these people, in sun and storm, one could only say, "Behold, what manner of love is this!"

General C. H. Howard, who with his brother has been so long identified with this people, seemed to be a great favorite. the "hip--hip" cheer went up for him more than once. A graceful and genial man, with the gentleness of manner which marks the Christian gentleman, his face showed him worthy of their confidence. His address to them was as kindly as it was practical. Among other statements, he said that within the past five years the Freedmen's Bureau had sent from the District of Columbia five thousand colored persons, where they can enjoy the results of their labor, and where their children can attend school.

The congressional speakers were Hon. Mr. Moulton, of Illinois; Hon. Mr. Farquhar, of Indiana; Hon. Mr. Bromwell, of Illinois; each one of which gentlemen delighted the audience. They were followed by Rev. Dr. Butler, Rev. Dr. Sunderland, and Rev. Dr. Morris, in words sympathetic, earnest, and eloquent enough to move any heart not made of copper. Dr. Sunderland read a circular from an association of ladies in France to the National Freedmen's Association of New York, full of womanly sympathy with their work. After the address, several little colored boys and girls, with neat dresses and 003940bright faces, under the supervision of the colored pastor. Re. Mr. laws, came upon the platform and recited chapters of the Scriptures in clear voices, without once faltering.

It was 4 o'clock p. m. when the freed--people turned from their speeches to their feast, provided by benevolent people of this and other cities, under special supervision (i believe) of Mr. S. J. Bowen, postmaster of Washington. Tables were spread for the children in one building, and for the middle--aged in another, and for the aged in the old people's home. It is impossible to imagine a more bountiful feast. I will not enumerate edibles. Think of almost everything good to the palate--it was there; and what is better, enough of it. Many of the tables were under the charge of young colored women from Washington. Many of them were very lade--like in appearance, all neatly dressed, all wearing on their breasts, with a white flower, the picture of Lincoln.

There was something touching in the old people's feast. How many of them had never sat down to its like before. No finer banquet had ever been spread at "the House" when they thirsted and hungered in the days of their captivity. Yet few of them were so hungry as to forget to be genial.

"How is ye, honey?" asked an old aunty, pausing over a very interesting piece of turkey to give me her horny hand. And an old uncle suspended an attack upon a large body of oysters to extend his hard--boned palm, and exclaim, "A purty day, Mis', a purty day! We's havin' a very good time."

Going back over Long Bridge we saw the sun set behind the Heights of Arlington in pure primrose light, all fringed with violet. Thus in its passing away it set its gold and purple seal upon the day of the Freed Slaves' Festival, leaving it in our memory beautiful forever.

EDUCATIONAL CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE ENFRANCHISED COLORED PEOPLE.

The following statistics and statements, relative to the educational condition and prospects of the freedmen, are taken from the Annual Report, 1866, of Major General O. O. HOWARD, Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, made to the President of the United States.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.The report of Rev. John Kimball, superintendent of colored schools, for the month of January, 1867, has been made to General O. O. Howard, showing that in Washington there are fifty--five day and five night schools, with 1,737 male and 1,450 female pupils, with sixty--two white and four colored teachers; 443 of the pupils are over sixteen years of age; 261 are int eh alphabet. There are five Sabbath--schools, with 712 pupils. In Georgetown there are seven day schools, with 129 male and 164 female pupils, under five white and two colored teachers, sixteen of the pupils only being over sixteen years of age. In Alexandria there are fifteen day and one night schools, under eighteen teachers, with 603 male and 543 female pupils, 116 of whom are over sixteen years of age, and 122 are in the alphabet; six Sabbath--schools, with 493 pupils. In Annapolis, Muirkirk, Bladensburg, and Montgomery county, Maryland, there are five day and one night schools, with three white and three colored teachers, 160 male and 106 female pupils, fifty--six of whom are over sixteen years of age, and nineteen are in the alphabet, making the whole number of schools under Mr. Kimball 105, with one hundred white and ten colored teachers, 3,027 male and 2,559 female pupils. Twenty--three schools, with 1,227 pupils, are not included in the above report. There are three industrial schools, with 234 pupils, in which such work as sewing, knitting, and straw--braiding is carried on During the month 871 books were drawn from the free library.

VIRGINIA.The whole field of education in Virginia has been gradually enlarged, and schools are demanded in new localities. The better class of white citizens favor the elevation of the 004041negro, and a considerable number of earnest calls have been made by them for teachers and books. Much has been done by northern benevolent associations. The freedmen show an appreciation of the educational advantages that are now extended to them. One hundred and twenty-- three(123) schools, two hundred (200) teachers, and eleven thousand seven hundred and eighty--four (11,784) pupils, with an average attendance of eight thousand nine hundred and fifty--one (8,951) are reported.

NORTH CAROLINA.Prior to the number vacation, there were in successful operation in the State one hundred and twenty--nine (129) schools, embracing one hundred and fifty (150) teachers, and attended by more than the thousand (10,000) pupils. They are mainly under the patronage of northern benevolent societies, and in a fair way of being permanently established, the title to the ground upon which they stand having been obtained in numerous instances.

SOUTH CAROLINA.In South Carolina, on the 1st of June, there were in successful operation seventy--five (75) schools, numbering one hundred and forty--eight (148) teachers and nine thousand and seventeen (9017) pupils; and, besides these, plantation and private schools, usually taught by colored persons, to the number of thirty--eight (38) or more, including forty (40) teachers and three thousand (3,000) pupils; making an aggregate of twelve thousand (12,000) pupils regularly instructed; an increase of two thousand (2,000) within six months.

In the schools regularly reported, six thousand two hundred and fifty--six (6,256) pupils are pure blacks, three thousand and forty--nine (3,049) of mixed blood, and only eight hundred (800) were free before the war. Of the fifty-- eight (58) native southern who are teachers, fifty (50) are colored persons.

The foregoing statements are noticeable on account of the fact that the state of society in South Carolina has been greatly unsettled, and the demands for laborers incessant. In consequence of this many of the schools, even in cities, in January lost their most advanced pupils, who were replaced by children fresh from he fields, knowing absolutely nothing of letters.

For the year's support of the seventy--five (75) schools regularly reporting, there has been expended $72,000, contributed mainly by northern associations, showing a cost of about eight (8) dollars for each pupil.

The intense desire of the freed people of this State for education is clearly apparent. They are making strenuous endeavors to secure for their schools permanent sites and buildings, have already erected five houses, and are in process of erecting others, chiefly by means of their own money and labor, and upon land secured to them by legal title.

Among the white residents there is a growing conviction in favor of the education of freedmen, although very few are yet willing openly to co--operate to this end with northern people. The presence of turbulent and inconsiderate men in many portions of the State has occasioned a very prevalent apprehension that, in proportion as the federal power is withdrawn, will public opinion and the government of the State prove ineffectual to protect the schools from the violence of evil--minded persons.

GEORGIA.During the six months immediately preceding the summer vacation the schools of Georgia more than doubled the number of their pupils, and, under a vigorous superintendence, are now in a very satisfactory condition. Thirteen (13) schools were recently opened at points where none existed before. Although educational expenses in this State are defrayed mainly by charitable societies, the freedmen take a deep interest in schools, and by 004142their own contributions are making effectual and commendable efforts to secure the education of their children. Seventy--nine (79) schools regularly reporting include one hundred and thirteen (113) teachers, and are attended by nearly eight thousand (8,000) pupils, three thousand (3,000) of whom, it is estimated, are now able to read, who, six months ago were unacquainted with the alphabet.

The white inhabitants of the State who have been opposed to the education of the colored people have occasionally resorted to threats and violence, and thereby effected the breaking up of schools in several instances.

FLORIDA.The schools have been encouraged by State action. A law was passed appointing a general superintendent, with assistants, whose duty it is to establish colored schools in all the counties. A tax was levied upon the colored people to support this system, and the organization of schools begun. Twenty--five day schools and sixty Sabbath--schools are already in operation. This is a move in the right direction, and should be followed by every southern State. the following shows the general result of educational effort:Whole number of schools under benevolent association and Statesupervision...38 Whole number of teachers...51 Whole number of pupils 2,663

Necessity has compelled the support of an orphan asylum and hospital by the Bureau. It has been impossible to obtain assistance for the poor from local authorities. The crops are reported good this year, and but little destitution among the colored people on plantations.

ALABAMA.Eight (8) schools, thirty--one (31) teachers, and one thousand three hundred and thirty eight (1,338) scholars are reported in this State. The education of the freedmen is progressing favorably, and in some parts of the State considerable interest is manifested by the better class of whites. The district officers report very decided progress in every feature of this work. There has been great and unabated zeal on the part of the pupils, and a corresponding progress in the acquirement of knowledge. Their success has favorably affected the minds of the whites towards them in the interests of eduction.

LOUISIANA.Circumstances beyond the control of the Bureau have greatly injured the once prosperous schools of this State. Enemies of the Bureau and its officers have made a general attack upon the school administration. General Baird, being without money, was obliged to suspend all the public schools, promising that as soon as possible they should commence again. The colored people, seeing their public schools closed, did not abandon the education of their children but opened a large number of private schools. A tax system was devised by which people were to support their own education. For many reasons this tax became oppressive, and was never popular. The schools rapidly decreased, and a chaotic state ensued from which it took time to recover.

General Sheridan reports, under date of September 30, a great increase of interest, and the prospect of flourishing schools this autumn and winter. The present number of schools in 73; teachers, 90; scholars, 3,389.

The number of irregular and private schools cannot at present be ascertained, but they are numerous.

MISSISSIPPI.The reports on schools in this state show fifty schools, eighty teachers, and five thousand four hundred and seven pupils. In addition to this number of schools, Rev. Jos. Warren,004243the State superintendent, says: " I have informal reports from ten plantations where there are schools; some of these are regular day--schools for the children, with efforts made in the evening and on the Sabbath to aid the adults in learning. Poor accommodations have been furnished for the school houses. The character of the teachers has been assailed, and in some instances in such a way as to injure their usefulness. Much opposition is still met in this State, while a few persons have been in favor of having the colored people taught."

TENNESSEE.In this State there are forty--two (42) schools, on hundred and twenty-- five (125) teachers, and nine thousand one hundred and fourteen (9,114) pupils. The accounts of the progress of education are of the most cheering nature, showing an increased interest in the schools on the part of the freedmen. Excepting at Memphis, the schools have not been interrupted during the last year. The bloody riot in May last caused a suspension of schools in this place. Immediate steps were taken to rebuild the school--houses burned, and resume the schools.

KENTUCKY.Thirty--five (35) schools, fifty--eight (58) teachers, and four thousand one hundred and twenty--two (4,122) pupils are reported. Most of the schools are taught by colored men and supported by subscriptions of the freed--people. Their progress has been slow, as but little assistance has been extended by the benevolent societies of the north.

Several schools have been broken up by hands of outlaws. In some instances the assistant commissioner has been compelled to send small detachments of troops to protect them.

ARKANSAS.The report of the superintendent of education for Arkansas given a very favorable account of the progress made. The freedmen labor under disadvantages of poverty and the lack of proper buildings in which to hold schools. The northern aid societies have been fortunate in securing the confidence of freedmen and their employers. Everywhere there is eagerness to learn. More schools should be established, not only elementary, but those of higher grades, such as will suit the ambition of the pupils.Number of schools in the State30 Number of teachers in the State23 Number of pupils in the State 1,584

The State authorities have taken no action with reference to the support of paupers of either color.

Two orphan asylums for colored children are supported by the Society of Friends. This Society is spoken of in terms of highest praise by General Sprague.

The schools in Kansas are reported to the assistant commissioner of Arkansas. At this time there are fifteen (15) schools, twenty--four (24) teachers, and fifteen hundred (1,500) pupils. Great interest is manifested in these schools by the citizens of Kansas. They are prosperous, and to a good degree self--supporting. Some of them receive aid from the Freedmen's Aid Commission.

MISSOURI.In Missouri the State authorities propose to educate the freedmen, and the probability is that they will enter upon the work quite extensively during the coming season. The returns give thirty--eight (38) schools, forty--six (46) teachers, and two thousand six hundred and ninety--eight (2,698) pupils.

MARYLAND.During the year 1866 $2,750 87 were expended for the salaries of school superintendents, and $5,647 for repairs and rents of school--houses and asylums.

004344
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.

OBERLIN COLLEGE.Oberlin College is located at Oberlin, Lorain county, Ohio, and was established in 1832. Students, without distinction of sex, color, or race, have always been admitted to its privileges. Several thousand young men and women have been educated at this institution, among whom have been some of the ablest and most active of colored citizens, who occupy positions of influence in the professions of the ministry, the law, medicine, and of teaching.

WILBUR UNIVERSITY.The educational institution is located within two miles of Xenia, Greene county, Ohio, and was established, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1845. Its president and professors are colored men, as are all its students. It has educated a large number of students, and promises to do much for the cause of education among the colored people of the West and of the country.

LINCOLN UNIVERSITY.This institution was founded in 1845, in Oxford, Chester county, Pennsylvania. Its charter has the corporate privileges of a university, and it has been started under favorable auspices for permanent success. It is designed to educate colored young men, but every class of students is admitted to its privileges.

NATIONAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.This institution was established in the year 1866, by Rev. E. M. Turney, D. D., formerly professor in the Fairmount Theological Seminary, (Baptist,) near Cincinnati, Ohio. The seminary was established under the voluntary association of a number of the members of the Baptist Calvary church, of Washington, D. C., and is designed to prepare colored young men for the ministry. For a number of months of the years 1866--7 the seminary has been in successful operation, in a rented building on Indiana avenue, and has had some twenty--five students under its care. Rev. Dr. Turney is the president. A charter was obtained from Congress, in February, 1867, consisting of the following persons: Abram D. Gillette, Edgar H. Gray, Edmund Turney, Zalmon Richards, Robert J. Powell, William T. Johonson, Henry Beard, Charles H. Morse, Joseph C. Lewis, John S. Poler, David Ress, D. W. Anderson, Daniel C. Eddy, Leonard A. Grimes, Justin D. Fulton, William R. Williams, Isaac Westcott, Howard Malcom, Joseph H. Kennard, J. Newton Brown, T. D. Miller.

HOWARD UNIVERSITY.Howard University is located in Washington, D. C., the capital of the United States, and was established in December, 1866, and is under the auspices of the pastor and some of the members of the First Congregational church and society of that city. Its title is in honor of Major General O. O. Howard, Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, and the Christian hero of the war, and the earnest and distinguished friend of the colored race.

The University was incorporated by Congress in February, 1867, and its charter designated it as "a university for the education of youth in the liberal arts and sciences." It is designed to educate young men for all the professions and pursuits of life, especially ministers and teachers for the four millions of colored people in the southern States. The several departments of the University, the charter says, "shall consist of, first, normal; second, collegiate; third, theological; fourth, law; fifth, medicine; sixth, agriculture." 004445The normal, theological, and medical departments have already their corps of professors, and the University will be opened for students during the spring of 1867. A lot of land, consisting of three acres, with commodious buildings upon it, has been purchased, at the northern termination of Seventh street, for the present purposes of the University.

The corporators of the University consist of the following gentlemen, viz: Samuel C. Pomeroy, Senator from Kansas; Charles B. Boynton, pastor of the Congregational church of Washington, D. C., and Chaplain of the House of Representatives; Oliver O. Howard, Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, &c.; Charles H. Howard, Assistant Commissioner; James B. Hutchinson, banker in Washington; Henry A. Brewster, Benjamin F. Morris, Dauforth B. Nichols, William G. Finney, Roswell H. Stevens, E. M. Cushman, Hiram Barton, E. M. Robinson, M. F. Bascom, J. B. Johnson, and Silas J. Loomis.

Rev. Dr. Boynton is President of the University and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and E. M. Cushman, Secretary.

The University is open to all classes of students, without distinction of sex, race, or color.

LEGISLATION BY CONGRESS.

CONGRESSIONAL ACTS OF EMANCIPATION.After more than eighty years of national life and progress, the American people, through President Lincoln and the Congress of the United States, completed the work of political and moral enfranchisement of the colored race in the following acts:

1. The act of emancipation in the District of Columbia, introduced by Hon. Henry Wilson, Senator in Congress from Massachusetts, into the Senate, December 16, 1861, passed the Senate April 3, 1862; it passed the House of Representatives April 11, and was approved by President Lincoln on the 16th of April, 1862.

"The enfranchised bondmen," says Senator Wilson, in his work on the anti-- slavery measures of Congress, "grateful for this beneficent act of national legislation, assembled in their churches, and offered up the homage and gratitude of their hearts to God for the boon of personal freedom."

2. A joint resolution passed Congress, and was approved by the President on the 10th of April, 1862, in which it was declared " That the United States ought to co--operate with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to the State such necessary aid, to be used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconvenience, public and private, by such change of system."

REPEAL OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.In 1793 Congress passed a law requiring that persons held to service in one State, escaping into another State, should be delivered up and returned when claimed. This las, having special reference to slaves, was, by the compromise measures of 1850, made far more stringent. It required every citizen to aid in catching and returning fugitive slaves, and punished with a fine of $1,000 and six months' imprisonment any person who should "attempt to aid a slave, directly or indirectly, to escape."

In the House of Representatives, a bill was reported repealing this fugitive law, which passed the House on the 13th of June, 1864, the Senate on the 23d of June, and was approved by President Lincoln on the 28th of june, 1864.

AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION PROHIBITING SLAVERY PASSED. On Tuesday, the 31st of January, 1865, the House of Representative passed a bill, which had previously passed the Senate, proposing to the different States an amendment to the Constitution forever prohibiting slavery in any part of the United States. The 004546amendment was adopted by the Legislatures of all the States except Delaware and kentucky, including the southern States, and is now an organic part of the Constitution. This great act was receive with outbursts of acclamation and joy ont he floor of the House when it passed, in the crowded galleries, and throughout the loyal States.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL.This great measure became the supreme law of the land, over the President's veto, on the 9th of April, 1866. It made four millions of slaves citizens, and entitled them to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens."

HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, on being re--elected, on the 4th of March, 1867, as Speaker to the Fortieth Congress, in his address before a vast audience said: --" There is a pathway of duty, luminous with light, and by that light should we walk. It is to guide our steps by the justice of God and the rights of man." Referring to the Thirty--ninth Congress just closed, he said: " Its key--note of policy was protection to the down--trodden. It lifted the slave whom the nation had made free up to the full measure of manhood. It placed on our statute--book the CIVIL RIGHTS bill as our NATIONAL MAGNA CHARTA, grander than all the enactments that honor the American code." And in all the regions where civil governments had been destroyed by a vanquished rebellion, it declared as a guarantee of defence to the weakest, that the freeman's hand should wield the freeman' ballot, and that none but loyal men should govern a land which loyal sacrifice had saved."

THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU bill became a law, approved by President Lincoln, on the 3d of March, 1865. On the 16th of July, 1866, the bill was amended and passed over the veto of acting President Johnson. The bill enabled the freedmen as speedily as practicable to become self--supporting citizens, and aided them in making their freedom available to themselves and beneficial to the Republic.

THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE GRANTED TO COLORED CITIZENS BY CONGRESS IN THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE REBEL STATES.A memorable act, entitled "An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel states," was passed by the Congress of the United States on the 20th day of February, 1867. The preamble states that,

"No legal State governments or adequate protection for life or property now exist in the rebel States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas; and whereas it is necessary that peace and good order should be enforced in said States until loyal and republican State government can be legally established.

The following sections of the act contain the great principles which lie at the basis of our system of republican government--the right of all the people to vote in the formation and administration of their political and civil institutions:

"SEC 5. And be it further enacted, That when the people of any one of said rebel States shall have formed a constitution of government in conformity with the Constitution of the United States in all respects, framed by a convention of delegates elected by the male citizens of said State twenty-- one years old and upward, of whatever race, color, or previous condition, who have been resident in said State one year previous to the day of such election, except such as may be disfranchised for participation in the rebellion or for felony at common law, and when such constitution shall provide that the elective franchise shall be enjoyed by all such persons as have the qualifications herein stated for election of delegates,a nd when such constitution shall be ratified by a majority of the persons voting on the question of ratification, who are qualified as electors for delegates, and when such constitution shall have been submitted to Congress for examination and approval, and Congress shall have approved the same, and when said State, by a vote of its Legislature elected under said constitution, shall have adopted the amendment to the Constitution of 004647the United States proposed by the Thirty--Ninth Congress, and known as article fourteen, and when said article shall have become a part of the Constitution of the United States, said State shall be declared entitled to representation in Congress, and Senators and Representatives shall be admitted therefrom on their taking the oath prescribed by law, and then and thereafter the preceding sections of this bill shall be inoperative in said State; Provided, That no person excluded from the privilege of holding office by said proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States shall be eligible to election as a member of the convention to frame a constitution for any of said rebel States, nor shall any such person vote for members of said convention.

"SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That until the people of said rebel States shall be by law admitted to representation in the Congress of the United States, any civil governments which may exist therein shall be deemed provisional only, and in all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United States at any time to abolish, modify, control, or supersede the same; and in all elections to any office under such provisional governments all persons shall be entitled to vote, and none other, who are entitled to vote under the provisions of the fifth section of this act; and no person shall be eligible to any office under any such provisional governments who would be disqualified from holding office under the provisions of the third article of said constitutional amendment."UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE THE FUTURE POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. Public sentiment in all the States indicates the speedy adoption of universal suffrage as the future policy of the country. Massachusetts always granted the elective franchise to her colored citizens, and in 1866 elected two colored men to her Legislature. In the other New England States, at the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, colored citizens exercised the right of suffrage, which, with one or two exceptions of those States, has been their policy since that period. New York, since 1836, has permitted colored citizens to vote who had a property qualification of $250. Ohio many years since, by a decision of the supreme court of the State, 'established the rule that all persons nearer white than one half are white within the meaning of the constitution and laws, and entitled to all the privileges of white citizens;" and this class in Ohio are voters. A proposition to erase the work "white" before "citizens" in the constitution of the State was before the Legislature of Ohio in 1866--7, but was not carried. Indiana, in adopting her present constitution in 1852, inserted a proviso, which was carried by 90,000 majority, that no colored person under any pretence should ever thereafter come into the State; which proviso, by a recent decision of the supreme court of that State, has been pronounced unconstitutional and void. Missouri, by an act of the Legislature, has submitted to the people of that State a proposition to expunge the word "white" from her constitution. Nebraska, by an act of Congress, was required, as a condition of her admission into the Union, to allow all her male citizens, without distinction of color, to vote; which was agreed to by her Legislature. The same condition was required of Colorado before admission into the Union. In the other western States public sentiment is rapidly changing in favor of universal suffrage, as well as in the States of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In Maryland, a very large convention of her loyal citizens, in February, 1867, resolved that universal suffrage should be as soon as possible the future policy of the State. Tennessee has already, by an act of the Legislature, pronounced in favor of universal suffrage, and hereafter all colored citizens are to vote as white citizens. In the more southern former slave States, some of the leading men favor negro suffrage on the basis of intelligence.

The wisdom and safety of universal suffrage were demonstrated in the city of Georgetown, District of Columbia, on the 25th of February, 1867, where one thousand colored citizens voted at the charter election of said city. A loyal and patriotic association of Washington city (some of the members of which are natives of the District of Columbia) declared by resolution, after the election in Georgetwon, "that the colored people of Georgetown, by their orderly and correct deportment, their unswerving devotion to principle, and their independence of action at said election, have won for themselves the regard and confidence of the liberal people of the entire community."

The adoption of universal suffrage as the certain future policy of all the States will vindicate the principles which underlie all our free and popular institutions of government, and fulfill the declarations made by Hon. Salmon P. Chase, the present Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who, in 1845, in receiving a beautiful testimonial from the colored citizens of Cincinnati, Ohio, for his noble defence of the rights of the colored people before the courts of that city and elsewhere, said, in the address he made in accepting the testimonial, that " True democracy makes no inquiry about the color of the skin, or the place of nativity, or any other similar circumstance of condition. Wherever it sees a man, it recognize a being endowed by his Creator with 004748original inalienable rights. In communities of men it recognizes no distinctions founded on more arbitrary will. I regard, therefore, the exclusion of the colored people as a body from the elective franchise as incompatible with true democratic principles."

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S VIEW,on the subject of colored citizens exercising the right of voting are expressed in letter he wrote to General James Wadsworth just before that eminent patriot and accomplished officer fell in the great battle of the Wilderness, in Virginia. The statements of the President are as follows: "How to better the condition of the colored race has been a study which has attracted my serious and careful attention; hence I think I am clear and decided as to what course I shall pursue in the premises, regarding it a religious duty, as the nation's guardian of these people, who have so heroically vindicated their manhood on the battle--field, where, in assisting to save the life of the Republic, they have demonstrated in blood their right to the ballot, which is but the humane protection of the flag they have so fearlessly defended."His letter written to the Governor of Louisiana (Hon. Michael Hahn) March 13, 1864, illustrates the same point. he says: "Now, as you are about to have a convention, which, among other things, will probably define the elective franchise, I barely suggest for your private consideration whether some of the colored people may not be let in; as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. they would probably help in some trying time to come to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom."The Attorney General (Edward Bates, of Missouri) under President Lincoln's Administration, in an official opinion, declared all free colored persons of the United States citizens, and to be protected at home or in foreign countries in all their rights as such.

ADMISSION OF COLORED LAWYERS TO PRACTICE IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.In the Supreme Court of the United States, on the 1st day of February, 1865, on motion of Charles Sumner, a member of the bar and a Senator in Congress from Massachusetts, John S. Rock, Esq., of Boston, Massachusetts, was admitted to practice law in that Court. When the motion was made, Chief Justice Chase said promptly, "Let the motion be granted," and Mr. Rock was sworn in.

In the same Court, January 17, 1867, on the motion of Hon. James Garfield, a member of the bar and a Representative in Congress from Ohio, John M. Langston, Esq., of Oberlin, Ohio, was admitted as an attorney at law.

In the winter of 1863 an act of Congress was passed which declared that no witness should be excluded from the courts of the district of Columbia on account of color.

APPOINTMENT OF COLORED MEN AS CLERKS IN DEPARTMENT.In February, 1867, Hugh McCulloch, Secretary of the Treasure, appointed Solomon Johnson, of Columbus, Ohio, (colored,) a clerk in his department of the Government. He is proving to be one of the most accomplished clerks in any of the departments.

General Charles H. Howard, Assistant Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, has also one or two colored clerks, who perform their duties with fidelity and skill.A COLORED MINISTER OFFICIATES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. During the winter of 1864, Rev. William H. Channing, Pastor of the Unitarian church in Washington, D. C., and then Chaplain of the House of Representatives, invited Rev. Henry Highland Garnett, D. D., a colored minister of fine intellectual accomplishments and an eloquent pulpit orator and Pastor of the Fifteenth street presbyterian church, of Washington, D. C., to officiate on the Sabbath in the Hall of the House of Representatives, where he preached to a large audience, composed of members of Congress and citizens from all parts of the country.THE NATIONAL FREEDMEN'S BELIEF ASSOCIATION OF WASHINGTON, D. C., was founded in 1863, for the purpose of relieving the physical wants of the freedmen, for elevating the colored people by means of education and moral teachings, and providing homes and compensating labor for such as could be induced to remove into the northern, eastern, and western States. Three thousand colored persons have been sent under the auspices of this association into the various States, who have found good homes and are doing well.

The efficient President of the National Association is Hon. Sayles J. Bowen, the city postmaster of Washington, D. C., and a devoted and fearless friend of the colored people.