8 



It was done, too', in the midst of war, and after war had again 

 demonstrated the great superiority of an educated over an ignorant 

 soldiery. 



If this action were wise and patriotic then and under these cir- 

 cumstances, in what terms should we express our appreciation of 

 such action now, when to the voices of wisdom and patriotism are 

 added the earnest appeals of humanity and the stern demands of 

 duty ? 



The war resulted in the emancipation of the negro ; but no 

 sooner had the sword been sheathed than the strife was transferred 

 to the forum, and days and months aye, even years were spent in 

 efforts to clothe the frcedman with rights he could not understand, 

 and load him with responsibilities which he was unable to compre- 

 hend. Statute after statute was enacted, and the fundamental law 

 of the nation itself repeatedly amended to establish the civil and 

 political rights of the negro; but where, in the long catalogue of 

 legislation, can be found any provision for his education and eleva- 

 tion even to a partial comprehension of the duties and responsibilities 

 which these rights impose ? Why did not the mental and moral ne- 

 cessities of these " wards of the nation " excite the same paternal 

 solicitude as did their political condition? I shall not pause here, 

 nor is it germain to my present purpose, to answer this very natural 

 enquiry. The facts with which we have alone to deal at the present 

 moment are that, although the negro was emancipated from physical 

 slavery, he was left bound in the more terrible chains of universal 

 ignorance; and that while the nation invested him with the glorious 

 rights and privileges of American citizenship, it not only failed to 

 make any provision for investing him with a knowledge of the high 

 duties and responsibilities which that citizenship imposes, but left 

 him in the depths of poverty and ignorance, to be educated, if 

 educated at all, by the white people of those States whom the war 

 had so utterly impoverished that they were unable to educate even 

 themselves. 



That this was unwise, unjust and impolitic, needs no words from 

 me to demonstrate. In my opinion, the government should not only 

 have provided the means for the education of these new suffragans, 

 but it should have gone farther and aided the people of the South 

 to fulfill this high and holy duty to themselves. 



If it be true that one portion of the body politic cannot suffer in 

 its mental, moral or physical condition without injury, more or less, 

 to the whole, and if intelligence and virtue be necessary and desi- 

 rable in the individual citizen of a republic, then the education of 



