time have been conscious of the fact that if we had only called this institution “University” or “College” and had given the same course of training that we now give, we would have met with no criticism on account of not giving more academic training. We are thoroughly imbued with the idea that a little training thoroughly given goes farther than to attempt to cover a great deal of ground poorly. Education after all is only valuable in giving mental grasp and culture.

Several times I have been asked what was the most surprising incident in my life. I have no hesitation in saying that it was the following letter from Harvard University, asking me to be present at the commencement at Harvard in June, 1896, for the purpose of having an honorary degree conferred upon me.

Up to the time of receiving this letter I had not the faintest idea that any college, much less the oldest and highest educational institution in the country, was about to or would ever confer upon me any honorary degree. It took me, of course, greatly by surprise.

Commencement day at Harvard, June 24, 1896, was a memorable one, certainly one that I shall never forget. At the appointed hour I met President Eliot and the overseers of the College at the designated place on the grounds for the purpose of being escorted in company with others to Sander’s Theatre, where the commencement exercises were to take place and the degrees to be conferred. In addition to the degree to be conferred on me, among others Major-Gen. Nelson A. Miles, the Commander of the United States Army, Dr. Bell, the inventor of the Bell telephone system, Dr. M. J. Savage of Boston, and others, were invited to be present at commencement for the purpose of receiving degrees. We were assigned places in the line of march immediately behind the President and Overseers. As soon as we were placed in the line the Governor of Massachusetts, escorted by the Lancers, arrived, and was assigned to the head of the line of march by the side of President Eliot. In this order, accompanied by the various officers clad in caps and gowns, we marched to Sander’s Theatre. After the usual commencement exercises the time for the conferring of honorary degrees came. This at Harvard is always the most interesting and exciting feature of commencement, owing largely to the fact that no one knows until commencement day on whom honorary degrees are to be conferred, and as each name is called for an honorary degree the expectation rises to the highest pitch and the individuals receive cheers and applause in proportion as they are popular at the college. When it came my turn I arose and President Eliot conferred upon me the degree of Master of Arts in appropriate language. The whole ceremony for the first time at Harvard was performed in English.

At the close of the commencement exercises I was invited with Gen. Miles and others receiving honorary degrees to lunch with President Eliot. After the lunch at the residence of the President we were formed into line again and were escorted under the guidance of the Marshal of the Day, who in this case happened to be Bishop Lawrence of Massachusetts, through the grounds, in which at different points we were met and cheered by the students, each individual who had received an honorary degree receiving the Harvard yell. The most interesting feature of that day was the Alumni Dinner, which occurred at the close of our march through the grounds. This dinner was served in Memorial Hall, and, I think, was attended by at least a thousand graduates of Harvard from all sections of the country, many of them eminent in affairs of state, religion and the field of letters. Among the speakers at the Alumni Dinner were Governor Roger A. Wolcott, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Gen. Nelson A. Miles, Dr. Savage and others. When I was called upon to speak at the Alumni Dinner I delivered the following address:

“Mr. President and Gentlemen:—

“It would in some measure relieve my embarrassment if I could, even in a slight degree, feel myself worthy of the great honor which you do me to-day. Why you have called me from the Black Belt of the South, from among my humble people, to share in the honors of this occasion, is not for me to explain; and yet it may not be inappropriate for me to suggest that it seems to me that one of the most vital questions that touch our American life, is how to bring the strong, wealthy and learned into helpful touch with the poorest, most ignorant and humblest, and at the same time make the one appreciate the vitalizing, strengthening influence of the other. How shall we make the mansions on yon Beacon street feel and see the need of the spirits in the lowliest cabin in Alabama cotton fields or Louisiana sugar bottoms? This problem Harvard University is solving, not by bringing itself down, but by bringing the masses up.

“If through me, an humble representative, seven millions of my people in the South might be permitted to send a message to Harvard—Harvard that offered up on death’s altar young Shaw, and Russell, and Lowell, and scores of others, that we might have a free and united country—that message would be, ‘Tell them that the sacrifice was not in vain. Tell them that by habits of thrift and economy, by way of the industrial school and college, we are coming. We are crawling up, working up, yea, bursting up. Often through oppression, unjust discrimination and prejudice, but through them all we are coming up, and with proper habits, intelligence and property, there is no power on earth that can permanently stay our progress.’

“If my life in the past has meant anything in the lifting up of my people and the bringing about of better relations between your race and mine, I assure you from this day it will mean doubly more. In the economy of God there is but one standard by which an individual can succeed—there is but one for a race. This country demands that every race shall measure itself by the American standard. By it a race must rise or fall, succeed or fail, and in the last analysis mere sentiment counts for little. During the next half century and more, my race must continue passing through the severe American crucible. We are to be tested in our patience, our forbearance, our perseverence, our power to endure wrong, to withstand temptations, to economize, to acquire and use skill; in our ability to compete, to succeed in commerce, to disregard the superficial for the real, the appearance for the substance, to be great and yet small, learned and yet simple, high and yet the servant of all. This, this is the passport to all that is best in the life of our republic, and the Negro must possess it, or be debarred.

“While we are thus being tested, I beg of you to remember that wherever our life touches yours, we help or hinder. Wherever your life touches ours, you make us stronger or weaker. No member of your race in any part of our country can harm the meanest member of mine without the proudest and bluest blood in Massachusetts being degraded. When Mississippi commits crime, New England commits crime, and in so much, lowers the standard of your civilization. There is no escape—man drags man down, or man lifts man up.

“In working out our destiny, while the main burden and center of activity must be with us, we shall need, in a large measure in the years that are to come as we have in the past, the help, the encouragement, the guidance that the strong can give the weak. Thus helped, we of both races in the South, soon shall throw off the shackles of racial and sectional prejudice and rise, as Harvard University has risen and as we all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness and selfishness, into that atmosphere, that pure sunshine, where it will be our highest ambition to serve man, our brother, regardless of race or previous condition.”

As this was the first time that an honorary degree had ever been conferred upon a Negro by any university in New England, of course it occasioned a great deal of newspaper comment throughout the country. I think I shall not speak further of the occurrence, but will insert a few newspaper clippings that will tell the story perhaps better than I feel like doing it.

Mr. Thos. J. Calloway, who was present on this occasion, wrote as follows to the Colored American:

“First in the history of America a leading American university confers an honorary degree upon a colored man. Harvard has been always to the front in ideas of liberty, freedom and equality. When other colleges of the North are accepting the Negro as a tolerance, Harvard has been awarding him honors, as in the case of Clement G. Morgan of recent date. Her present action, therefore, in placing an honorary crown upon the worthy head of Mr. Washington is but a step further in her magnanimity in recognizing merit under whatever color of skin.

“The mere announcement of this event is a great testimony to the standing of Mr. Washington, but to any black person who, as I did, saw and heard the enthusiasm and applause with which the audience cheered the announcement by President Eliot, the degree itself was insignificant. The Boston Lancers had conducted Gov. Wolcott to Cambridge, and 500 Harvard graduates had double filed the march to Sander’s Theatre. It was a great day. Latin orations, disquisitions, dissertations and essays in English were delivered by selected graduates, clad in stately and classic cap and gown. Bishops, generals, commodores, statesmen, authors, poets, explorers, millionaires and noted men of every calling, sat as earnest listeners. President Eliot had issued 500 diplomas by handing them to representatives of the graduates in bundles of twenty to twenty-five. Then came the awarding of honorary degrees. Thirteen were issued, Bishop Vincent and General Nelson A. Miles, commander of the United States Army, being among the recipients. When the name of Booker T. Washington was called, and he arose to acknowledge and accept, there was such an outburst of applause as greeted no other name except that of the popular soldier patriot, General Miles. The applause was not studied and stiff, sympathetic and condoling; it was enthusiasm and admiration. Every part of the audience from pit to gallery joined in, and a glow covered the cheeks of those around me, proving that sincere appreciation of the rising struggle of an ex-slave and the work he has accomplished for his race.

“But the event of the day was the Alumni Dinner, when speeches formed the most enjoyable bill of fare. Two hundred Harvard alumni and their invited guests partook of their annual dinner. Four or five speeches were made, among them one from Mr. Washington.

“At the close of the speaking, notwithstanding Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Dr. Minot J. Savage and others had spoken, President Eliot warmly grasped Mr. Washington by the hand and told him that his was the best speech of the day.”

Anent the conferring of the degree and the toast, the papers were unusual in favorable comment. Says the Boston Post:

“In conferring the honorary degree of Master of Arts upon the principal of Tuskegee Institute, Harvard University has honored itself as well as the object of this distinction. The work which Prof. Booker T. Washington has accomplished for the education, good citizenship and popular enlightenment in his chosen field of labor in the South, entitles him to rank with our national benefactors. The university which can claim him on its list of sons, whether in regular course or honoris causa, may be proud.

“It has been mentioned that Mr. Washington is the first of his race to receive an honorary degree from a New England University. This, in itself, is a distinction. But the degree was not conferred because Mr. Washington is a colored man, or because he was born in slavery, but because he has shown, by his work for the elevation of the people of the Black Belt of the South, a genius and a broad humanity which count for greatness in any man, whether his skin be white or black.”

The Boston Globe said: “It is Harvard which, first among New England colleges, confers an honorary degree upon a black man. No one who has followed the history of Tuskegee and its work, can fail to admire the courage, persistence and splendid common sense of Booker T. Washington. Well may Harvard honor the ex-slave, the value of whose services, alike to his race and country, only the future can estimate.”

The correspondent of the New York Times wrote: “All the speeches were enthusiastically received, but the colored man carried off the oratorical honors, and the applause which broke out when he had finished, was vociferous and long continued.”

In July of the same year I delivered one of the addresses before the National Christian Endeavor Convention which met in Washington. This meeting of the Christian Endeavor Society was attended by thousands of people from all sections of the country and some from foreign countries. I remember that in order to be present in time to speak at this meeting, I had to make a long and tiresome trip from Spirit Lake, Iowa, to Washington, and reached Washington rather late in the evening. In fact, when I got to the church where I was to speak, I found President F. E. Clark and the audience rather nervous about my appearance. I found it a difficult matter to get into the room, owing to the fact that every seat was taken and the aisles were full and the people on the outside of the church were clamoring for entrance. My address was finished about 10 o’clock that evening. At 11 o’clock I took a train for Buffalo, New York, where I was to speak the next night before the National Educational Association, where 20,000 teachers were present. As I now recall the incident, I think these two meetings caused me perhaps as great mental strain and anxiety as I have ever experienced. I had to prepare special and set addresses for each meeting, and coming, as they did, so near together, any one who has had experience in public speaking can easily imagine the difficulty with which I had to contend. I will give one or two short newspaper extracts that may convey an idea of the effect of these two addresses.

The Buffalo Express gave expression in part as follows:

“It was a great close. It began with music and it ended with music. Not a false note was struck. Every tone rang true, and when the gavel rose for the final fall, the audience rose with it, and with one mighty voice sang ‘America.’ All credit is due to Booker T. Washington for the keying up of the spirit that dominated the vast audience. His address was magnificent. There was nothing of speculation, nothing of theory, nothing of supposition in his speech. It was a truthful, convincing statement of the condition of the Negro and the remedy for his wrongs. It teemed with humor and was arrayed in a splendid cloak of eloquence. The audience was larger than at any of the other sessions. An overflow meeting was held in Concert Hall, at which the addresses of the closing session were repeated. The overflow meeting overflowed, and over 2,000 people were turned away. A thousand lingered outside until the convention ended.”

On July 12th the Buffalo Courier contained the following:

“Booker T. Washington, the foremost educator among the colored people of the world, was a very busy man from the time he arrived in the city the other night from the West, and registered at the Iroquois. He had hardly removed the stains of travel when it was time to partake of supper. Then he held a public levee in the parlors of the Iroquois until 8 o’clock. During that time he was greeted by over 200 eminent teachers and educators from all parts of the

United States. Shortly after 8 o’clock, he was driven in a carriage to Music Hall, and in one hour and a half he made two ringing addresses, to as many as 5,000 people, on Negro education. Then Mr. Washington was taken in charge by a delegation of colored citizens, headed by the Rev. Mr. Watkins, and hustled off to a small, informal reception, arranged in honor of the visitor, by the people of his race.”

Both in Washington at the Christian Endeavor meeting and in Buffalo at the National Educational Association meeting I was surprised as well as gratified at the large number of Southern gentlemen and ladies belonging to the white race who pressed forward to shake my hand at the close of these addresses. I have rarely spoken anywhere in the North that a number of Southern white people did not come forward and most earnestly thank me for my position and words.

A Southern man writing to the Charleston News and Courier concerning my address at Buffalo expressed himself as follows:

“Notwithstanding the fact that the gentlemen speaking were of great ability, the audience showed signs of impatience; they wanted Mr. Washington, and no one else would do. At last he came. He is quiet looking, a little nervous but determined. His face indicates that he has above all qualities, patience and self-control. His address to the second audience was very much the same as that delivered before the first. He was a little freer; told several amusing instances and from the start carried the crowd as no one else has done during this meeting.”

It has been my privilege to be invited to address the national gathering of both the Christian Endeavor Society and the National Educational Association at almost every session that these organizations have held, and I have been very glad to accept the invitation as often as I could find time to do so.

The following September I delivered the opening address before the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in Brooklyn, N. Y., and in October of the same year while in Durham, N. C., for the purpose of speaking at the Agricultural and Mechanical Fair held at that place by the colored people, I was invited by the President of Trinity College, located in Durham, to deliver an address before the students of that college. This was the first time that I had ever received an invitation to address a white college in the South. I accepted the invitation and was treated with every possible courtesy both by the officers and students of the college. After my address, as I was preparing to leave the grounds in company with a number of colored friends who had been kind enough to call with me, the students assembled in the front yard and gave me their usual college yell in a hearty manner.

I have often wondered if there is a white institution in this country whose students would have welcomed the incoming of more than a hundred companions of another race in the cordial way that the black students at Hampton welcomed the red ones. How often have I wanted to say to white students that they lift themselves up in proportion as they help to lift others, and that the more unfortunate the race and the lower in the scale of civilization, the more does one raise one’s self by giving the assistance.

This reminds me of a conversation which I once had with the Hon. Frederick Douglass. At one time Mr. Douglass was traveling in the state of Pennsylvania, and was forced, on account of his color, to ride in the baggage-car, in spite of the fact that he had paid the same fare as the other passengers. When some of the white passengers went to the baggage-car to console Mr. Douglass, and one of them said to him, “I am sorry, Mr. Douglass, that you have been degraded in this manner,” Mr. Douglass straightened himself up on the box upon which he was sitting, and replied: “They cannot degrade Frederick Douglass. The soul that is within me no man can degrade. I am not the one that is being degraded on account of this treatment, but those who are inflicting it upon me.”

My experience has been, that the time to test a true gentleman is to observe him when he is in contact with individuals of a race that is less fortunate than his own. This is illustrated in no better way than by observing the conduct of the old-school type of Southern gentleman when he is in contact with his former slaves or their descendants.

An example of what I mean is shown in a story told of George Washington, who, meeting a colored man in the road once, who politely lifted his hat, lifted his own in return. Some of his white friends who saw the incident, criticised Washington for his action. In reply to their criticism, George Washington said: “Do you suppose that I am going to permit a poor, ignorant colored man to be more polite than I am?”

CHAPTER XIII.

URGED FOR A CABINET POSITION.

“There is one problem which Mr. McKinley, if he be a just and grateful man—as we think he is—will have to consider, and consider very seriously. We have in mind the problem of what the Republican party proposes to do by way of recognizing its obligations to the colored voter. That party has owed much to the loyal and unselfish devotion of the race in times gone by, but never so much as in the campaign which it has conducted to a triumphant conclusion. What, now, will Mr. McKinley do to testify his gratitude?

“At every stage of his personal fight Mr. McKinley has been indebted to the Negro. It was the Negro contingent at St. Louis that made his nomination certain. It was the Negro’s firm stand for gold that forced the sound money issue upon the convention. It was the Negro’s vote in such States as Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Delaware and Indiana that made his victory possible. We all know now that McKinley would have had next to no chance at all had not the St. Louis convention declared emphatically and unequivocally for the gold standard. As between a simple declaration for tariff revision on the one hand and for free silver coinage without tariff disturbances on the other, the great Eastern and Middle States would have had but a languid choice. It was the solid sound money front presented by the colored delegates that compelled the adoption of the gold clause in the platform, and furnished Mr. McKinley with the issue upon which he rallied to his banner the merchants, the manufacturers, and the moneyed corporations throughout the land. Mr. McKinley could not have been elected but by the course pursued by the Negroes before, during, and after the assembling of the St. Louis convention. Now, in what fashion does he intend to recognize and reward their service?

“It seems to us that at least one cabinet position should be given to the race. Let us say the portfolio of Agriculture, for example. There are many colored men of notable attainments, of large experience in public life, and of the highest personal character, eminently qualified to discharge the duties of this office with credit to the administration and honor to themselves. We might name such men as Hon. B. K. Bruce and Prof. Booker T. Washington. Mr. Bruce has been a Senator of the United States, and it may be truly said of him that in that capacity he won the respect and esteem of all his colleagues and served his country with distinction. He also served a term as Register of the Treasury and another as Recorder of Deeds under the District government, always with notable ability. Prof. Washington is universally recognized as one of the foremost educators in the country. The institute over which he presides, at Tuskegee, Ala., has become conspicuous under his management, and is to-day ranked with the most useful and admirable of our seats of learning. The appointment of either of these gentlemen to the control of one of the executive departments would be a graceful acknowledgment of the obligations which the Republican party has incurred, and which we should think it would be anxious to discharge. We do not limit Mr. McKinley to these two. There are many other colored men abundantly fitted for a Cabinet position. It happens simply that ex-Senator Bruce and Prof. Washington occurred to us first in running over the list of eligibles.

“Returning to the abstract proposition, however, it is clear to us that Mr. McKinley owes his election, first to the fidelity and wise foresight of the colored delegates at St. Louis, and secondly to the loyal support of the colored voters in half a dozen states necessary to his election, which could not possibly have been carried for him without their aid. He is under obligations, which, as a man of feeling, he cannot well ignore and which he could most felicitously acknowledge by asking some truly representative Negro to enter his official family.”

The Canton (Ohio) Repository, after discussing in a long article a number of men, white and black, suitable for cabinet material, concluded as follows:

“Another able man is Prof. Booker T. Washington, the head of the Tuskegee Normal School, of Alabama. Mr. Washington has been spoken of for Secretary of Agriculture under the new administration, and is one of the foremost leaders of the colored race in this country and a pioneer in the industrial and educational development of his people. He is one of the younger leaders of the colored people and fully understands their needs and hopes. His address at the opening of the Atlanta Exposition has been favorably commented upon by all classes of people. He is the originator of the Normal college and is doing a great work in the South.”

There were other articles of similar character in other papers at the time, and still others of course that opposed vigorously the idea of placing a Negro in the Cabinet of the President of the United States.

In a speech delivered to the colored citizens of Boston, Mass., soon after this discussion began, I openly declared that under no circumstances would I accept a political appointment that would result in my turning aside from the work which I had begun at Tuskegee.

In the spring of 1897 I was invited by Dr. Francis J. Grimke, pastor of the 15th St. Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C., to deliver an address in his church. My subject on this occasion was “The Things in Hand.” It was just after President McKinley had been inaugurated as President. Washington was full of people from all over the country and among them not a few colored people seeking office. At this meeting I urged as strongly as I could that the colored people should cease depending so much on office, and give more attention to industrial or business enterprises. This created a wide discussion among the colored people, especially among those who were in Washington seeking office. I have always held that the Negro has the same right to aspire to political or appointive offices as the white man has, but in our present condition we will be more sure of laying a foundation that will result in permanent political recognition in the future by giving attention at the present time in a very large measure to education, business and industry, than merely by seeking political office. I favor that the Negro give up no right guaranteed to him by the Constitution of the United States, but I am also convinced that the way for him to secure the opportunity to exercise his rights guaranteed to him by the Constitution is to make himself the most useful and independent citizen in his community.

In certain quarters, for a number of years, a certain element of our people have opposed my plan for the elevation of the Negroes, on the ground that they have felt that I was not in favor of the Negro receiving a college education. This is an error. I do not oppose college education for our people, but I do urge that a larger percentage of our young men and women, whether educated in college or not, give the strength of their education in the direction of commercial or industrial development, just the same as the white man does. I have tried to show my approval of college education by giving as many college men as possible employment, and have on our pay roll at Tuskegee, constantly, from fifteen to twenty men and women who have been educated at the leading colleges throughout the country. The best way to approve of college education is to give those educated at college something to do. The great need for the next fifty or one hundred years among our people will be the sending out among them of men and women thoroughly equipped with academic and religious training, together with industrial or hand training, so that they can lead the masses to a betterment of their present industrial and material condition. The young white man who graduates at college, in nine cases out of ten, finds a business waiting for him that he can enter into as soon as he gets his college diploma. This business has been created by his father, grandfather or great-grandfather years before, but the black boy graduating from college finds no business waiting for him; he must start a business for himself; therefore, it is important, in our present condition, that the Negro be so educated along technical and industrial lines that he can found a business for himself. In the matter of technical or industrial education the blacks are not keeping up with the whites. Every state has technical schools for white boys and girls, and we can not expect to retain our hold on the industries of the South, unless we give special attention to preparing ourselves for doing the best work. In too many cases the Negro carpenter, the Negro blacksmith, the Negro contractor, and laundry woman are being replaced by white people who have come into the South from the North. We can only retain our hold upon the industries of the South by putting into the field men and women of the highest intelligence and skill. We must learn to do the tasks about our door in a thorough manner; to do a common thing in an uncommon manner; to be sure that nobody else can improve on our work.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SHAW MONUMENT SPEECH, THE VISIT OF SECRETARY JAMES WILSON, AND THE LETTER TO THE LOUISIANA CONVENTION.

The meeting in connection with the dedicatory exercises was held in Music Hall, Boston, which was packed from bottom to top with perhaps one of the most distinguished audiences that has ever assembled in Boston. In fact, there was a larger number of the old anti-slavery element present than will perhaps ever assemble again in this country. Hon. Roger Wolcott, Governor of Massachusetts, was the presiding officer. On the platform were the Mayor of Boston, the Lieutenant Governor, members of the Governor’s Council and of the city government of Boston, besides hundreds of other distinguished persons.

As to the impression made by this address I shall let an editorial which appeared in the Boston Transcript the next day, together with a few other newspaper accounts, tell the story.

I spoke as follows:—

“Mr. Chairman and fellow citizens:—

“In this presence, and on this sacred and memorable day, in the deeds and death of our hero, we recall the old, old story, ever old, yet ever new, that when it was the will of the Father to lift humanity out of wretchedness and bondage, the precious task was delegated to him who among ten thousand was altogether lovely, and was willing to make himself of no reputation that he might save and lift up others.

“If that heart could throb and those lips could speak, what would be the sentiment and words that Robert Gould Shaw would have us feel and speak at this hour? He would not have us to dwell long on the mistakes, the injustice, the criticisms of the days—

“He would have us bind up with his own undying fame and memory and retain by the side of his monument, the name of John A. Andrew, who, with prophetic vision and strong arm, helped to make the existence of the 54th regiment possible; and that of George L. Stearns, who, with hidden generosity and a great, sweet heart, helped to turn the darkest hour into day, and in doing so freely gave service, fortune and life itself to the cause which this day commemorates. Nor would he have us forget those brother officers, living and dead, who, by their baptism in blood and fire, in defense of Union and freedom, gave us an example of the highest and purest patriotism.

“To you who fought so valiantly in the ranks, the scarred and scattered remnant of the 54th regiment, who with empty sleeve and wanting leg, have honored this occasion with your presence, to you your commander is not dead. Though Boston erected no monument and history recorded no story, in you and the loyal race you represent, Robert Gould Shaw would have a monument which time could not wear away.

“But an occasion like this is too great, too sacred, for mere individual eulogy. The individual is the instrument, national virtue the end. That which was 300 years being woven into the warp and woof of our democratic institutions could not be effaced by a single battle, as magnificent as was that battle; that which for three centuries had bound master and slave, yea, North and South, to a body of death, could not be blotted out by four years of war, could not be atoned for by shot and sword, nor by blood and tears.

“Not many days ago, in the heart of the South, in a large gathering of the people of my race, there were heard from many lips praises and thanksgiving to God for his goodness in setting them free from physical slavery. In the midst of that assembly a Southern white man arose, with gray hair and trembling hands, the former owner of many slaves, and from his quivering lips there came the words: “My friends, you forget in your rejoicing that in setting you free, God was also good to me and my race in setting us free.” But there is a higher and deeper sense in which both races must be free than that represented by the bill of sale. The black man who cannot let love and sympathy go out to the white man is but half free. The white man who would close the shop or factory against a black man seeking an opportunity to earn an honest living is but half free. The white man who retards his own development by opposing a black man is but half free. The full measure of the fruit of Fort Wagner and all that this monument stands for will not be realized until every man covered with a black skin shall by patient and natural effort, grow to that height in industry, property, intelligence and moral responsibility, where no man in all our land will be tempted to degrade himself by withholding from his black brother any opportunity which he himself would possess.

“Until that time comes this monument will stand for effort, not victory complete. What these heroic souls of the 54th regiment began we must complete. It must be completed not in malice, not in narrowness; nor artificial progress, nor in efforts at mere temporary political gain, nor in abuse of another section or race. Standing as I do to-day in the home of Garrison and Phillips and Sumner, my heart goes out to those who wore the gray as well as to those clothed in the blue; to those who returned defeated, to destitute homes, to face blasted hopes and a shattered political and industrial system. To them there can be no prouder reward for defeat than by a supreme effort to place the Negro on that footing where he will add material, intellectual and civil strength to every department of the State.

“This work must be completed in the public school, industrial school and college. The most of it must be completed in the effort of the Negro himself, in his effort to withstand temptation, to economize, to exercise thrift, to disregard the superficial for the real, the shadow for the substance, to be great and yet small, in his effort to be patient in the laying of a firm foundation, to grow so strong in skill and knowledge that he shall place his service in demand by reason of his intrinsic and superior worth. All this makes the key that unlocks every door of opportunity, and all others fail. In this battle of peace the rich and poor, the black and white may have a part.

“What lessons has this occasion for the future? What of hope, what of encouragement, what of caution? ‘Watchman, tell us of the night; what the signs of promise are.’ If through me, an humble representative, nearly ten millions of my people might be permitted to send a message to Massachusetts, to the survivors of the 54th regiment, to the committee whose untiring energy has made this memorial possible, to the family who gave their only boy that we might have life more abundantly, that message would be, ‘Tell them that the sacrifice was not in vain, that up from the depth of ignorance and poverty we are coming, and if we come through oppression out of the struggle, we are gaining strength. By the way of the school, the well cultivated field, the skilled hand, the Christian home, we are coming up; that we propose to invite all who will to step up and occupy this position with us. Tell them that we are learning that standing ground for a race, as for an individual, must be laid in intelligence, industry, thrift and property, not as an end, but as a means to the highest privileges; that we are learning that neither the conqueror’s bullet nor the fiat of law could make an ignorant voter an intelligent voter, could make a dependent man an independent man, could give one citizen respect for another, a bank account, nor a foot of land, nor an enlightened fireside. Tell them that as grateful as we are to artist and patriotism for placing the figures of Shaw and his comrades in physical form of beauty and magnificence, that after all, the real monument, the greater monument, is being slowly but safely builded among the lowly in the South, in the struggles and sacrifices of a race to justify all that has been done and suffered for it.’

“One of the wishes that lay nearest Colonel Shaw’s heart was, that his black troops might be permitted to fight by the side of the white soldiers. Have we not lived to see that wish realized, and will it not be more so in the future? Not at Wagner, not with rifle and bayonet, but on the field of peace, in the battle of industry, in the struggle for good government, in the lifting up of the lowest to the fullest opportunities. In this we shall fight by the side of the white man, North and South. And if this be true, as under God’s guidance it will, that old flag, that emblem of progress and security, which brave Sergeant Carney never permitted to fall upon the ground, will still be borne aloft by Southern soldier and Northern soldier, and, in a more potent and higher sense, we shall all realize that—

From the Boston Evening Transcript of June 1st, the following is taken:

“The core and kernel of yesterday’s great noon meeting in honor of the Brotherhood of Man in Music Hall, was the superb address of the Negro President of Tuskegee. Booker T. Washington received his Harvard A. M. last June, the first of his race, said Governor Wolcott, to receive an honorary degree from the oldest university in this country, and this for the wise leadership of his people. And when Mr. Washington rose up in the flag-filled, enthusiasm-warmed, patriotic and glowing atmosphere of Music Hall, people felt keenly that here was the civic justification of the old abolition spirit of Massachusetts, in his person the proof of her ancient and indomitable faith; in his strong thought and rich oratory, the crown and glory of the old war days of suffering and strife. The scene was full of historic beauty and a deep significance. ‘Cold’ Boston was alive with the fire that is always hot in her heart for righteousness and truth. Rows and rows of people who are seldom seen at any public function, whole families of those who are certain to be out of town on a holiday, crowded the place to overflowing. The city was at her birthright fete in the persons of hundreds of her best citizens, men and women whose lives and names stand for the virtues that make for honorable civic pride.

“Battle music had filled the air. Ovation after ovation, applause warm and prolonged had greeted the officers and friends of Colonel Shaw, the sculptor, St. Gaudens, the memorial committee, the Governor and his staff, and the Negro soldiers of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts as they came upon the platform or entered the hall. Chief Marshal Appleton and Mr. Chaplain Hall had performed their duties. Colonel Henry Lee, of Governor Andrew’s old staff, had made the noble, simple presentation speech for the committee, paying tribute to the chairman, Mr. John M. Forbes, in whose stead he served. Governor Wolcott had made his short memorable speech, saying, ‘Fort Wagner marked an epoch in history of a race and called it into manhood.’ Mayor Quincy had received the monument for the city of Boston in eloquent words. Professor James, brother of Adjutant James, who fell at Fort Wagner, wounded but not killed, had told the story of Colonel Shaw and his black regiment in gallant words. He got at the soul of the day’s meaning when he said that the battle-instinct is strong enough in the race, bred in our bone and blood, but what is needed is ‘that lonely kind of valor, civic courage we call it in time of peace;’ which blesses a nation with a continued saying, and whose ‘inner mystery’ the precious virtue of civil genius is preserved in perfect good temper and in power of righteous wrath. And then after the singing of