been written, to take hold of the mass of my ignorant people of the South-docile, tractable, easily moulded and easily guided-and mould them, and make a mighty people out of them. Once upon a time I used to be disturbed when it was said that the negro came from the monkey, the baboon, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla of Africa. I can remember attending a white Sunday-school where the superintendent, an old shouting Methodist, once made my boyish teeth chatter and my knees smite each other by saying, "Boys, I don't know where you came from; it is said you came from the monkeys of Africa." And I can remember how I trembled. To this day, with certain people, if you want to throw a wet blanket over the meeting, mention monkeys. Now it does not trouble me one whit. If any man can show by history, Bible, logic, or fact that I am a descendant from the baboon of Africa, I will prove that a baboon can have a respectable son. I don't care for a past. I ask to-day, "Where are you going?" "What are you?" not "Where did you come from?" I don't care whether I had any grandfathers or not. I don't want to be an angel; I want to be a man-not a black man, but a man though black.

In this mighty country we have a Republic that is based, not upon the color of the skin but upon a national idea. Nationalism makes a Republic, and not blood or color. In the ancient days of Greece and in the present days of Italy, China, and Japan, blood makes a nation. Blood may make a race or an ancient nation, but blood does not make a Democracy; it does not make a nation in the broadest sense of the term. In this country we have all races, all types of mankind to make the American Republic. You sang here this evening "The Star-Spangled Banner." You doubtless have sung already to-day or will sing, "My country, 'Tis of Thee." That spirit of sentiment makes a citizen of a Republic the sentiment of loyalty to the flag, to the Constitution, and to the institutions of the land. But you must understand that the conditions of life favor you in the battle and in the struggle for existence. We must struggle for the preservation of the nation, the building up of one

homogeneous nation; not homogeneous in its blood but homogeneous in its Nationalism. I want to say I have no fears as to the twaddle and superficial talk about the destruction of the bloods of mankind, for down underneath all of this frothy discussion there is but one race and it is homogeneous in its divine endowments.

It is not my place to discuss a theory of the library, but to face the facts of life; namely, just as you are, just where you are, in the station of life you are in, you must fight the battle of life. And it is a fight in which superiority will manifest itself in the ultimate development of character.

Finally, the character of the individual, in his mind power, his heart power, his hand power, and in the production of those elements that are the best, constitutes the superiority of man. In this development and in this tremendous struggle we have a part and lot. Starting with very little to unlearn, with everything to learn, with all the benefits of a western civilization within hand-reach, the American negro, in the face of untoward circumstances has made tremendous strides towards victory. I grant that there are obstacles, and I don't weep over obstacles. Though he is crowded back at times, I am not discouraged.

I come from a section where, if a black man gets anything, he gets it upon sheer merit. He has to struggle in the face of opposition; and yet, after all, he is winning his way in the accumulation of property, in the estimation of good men and good women; he is making character, and we believe down in Georgia-down there where occasionally we string a man up-we believe, we black men and white men, that down there in Georgia, we will fight this battle out and win it. All around us representative white men rise up and say to us: "Stand your ground, we will stand with you." Some of the best men are fighting with us and are standing at our side.

This celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the birthday of the great, martyred War President is observed all over the country, and we believe that ultimately we shall have a nation in this country that is united in its faith, in its

zeal, in its absolute equality of political prerogatives, in its great purpose to make this the proudest nation on the face of the earth.

Just one other thought and then I am through. You must remember that in the City of Chicago, in the great State of Illinois, you have your part to do in this great battle. You have greater privileges than we have in the black belt of Alabama. Every door is open to you. You have yet to show in the years to come that you can wring out of your privileges the large good that we have wrung out of our disadvantages. In university life, in trades, in the accumulation of wealth, in the building of an honest character, in the making of men in face of difficulty without being discouraged, in meeting opposition without taking to the woods, you have yet to show that you can surpass your brethren on the plains of Texas.

I believe that we shall ultimately conquer in this great battle of life. We have great problems before us-great questions are under discussion. The negro should become a participant in the discussions and contribute to the life of the nation. I am glad of this privilege to bring this word of encouragement to you from the far South, from the land where you think it is extremely hard. Yes, it is hard, in some places. You have opportunities here that I sometimes covet, but I would prefer to ride in a box car in the South as a man doing something, fighting a battle, to riding in a palace car up here and generally doing nothing else.

You must liberate yourselves; you must not have anything more done for you. Legislation cannot make men, it can only prepare the way for the development of men. Law never makes one man equal to another man; there is no such thing as equality of manhood, and the American nation does not believe in this figment. You cannot make me believe that a certain black man is equal to a certain white man; and you would have a hard job to persuade me that a certain white man is equal to a certain black man.

Races differ, like individuals. They differ in their aptitudes, in their intellectual capacity. The mighty German

race is philosophic in its temper; the versatile Frenchman is mathematical in his make-up; the unconquered Anglo-Saxon is the scientist and the moralist of the world; and the negro is the musician of the world.

I believe that a man must himself make himself superior. You must make yourselves, you must liberate yourselves. Brain, cultivated brain, educated brain, skilled hands, a divine heart, a noble purpose, lofty ideals, the vision that reaches to the White Throne, make men-nothing else. You must not measure the man by the color of his skin. Great as Abraham Lincoln was, he was not great because he was white. He was great because he had a great soul in him.

The man of backbone has heart and will and courage and skill. The race is yours. Enter the battle. Don't ask to be given a chance. Don't plead for a chance. Enter the race. Make a chance. Take a chance. Fight the battle of life, and the time will come when the gray morn shall usher in that beautiful day when we shall be able to say, "It is daybreak everywhere."

IT

LINCOLN: THE FRIEND OF ALL MEN

NATHAN WILLIAM MAC CHESNEY

T is peculiarly fitting that in the celebration of the Centenary of Lincoln you should have a conspicuous part.

Surely no one has a larger interest in Abraham Lincoln, his life and his services. As a boy I was brought up with a veneration for him second only to that for the great Master himself. My father had the privilege of knowing him intimately, and I have, therefore, in connection with this celebration, felt, in addition to the great interest in Lincoln which every American citizen must have, a little of that personal interest which one may sometimes feel because of his father's friendship for the man himself.

Lincoln stood, as no other man has ever stood, for the ideals of the entire nation. He was the embodiment of Americanism. It is seldom that a man can be looked to as Lincoln was by all classes of society, by all sections, by all nationalities. Yet it has been the privilege of Lincoln within a single generation to come to the position where tribute to him knows no sectional lines-no North, no South; no East, no West; no rich, no poor; no 'Jew, no Gentile; no white, no black; all turn to him in homage.

He looms as large, angle of approach.

It matters not from what direction we view Lincoln, he appears equally great. Most men, as you look at them, seem to have a narrow side. Not so with him. in our estimate of him, regardless of the He stood for the equal rights of man, for equal opportunities for all men. He stood for freedom of labor and an opportunity on the part of every man to earn an honest living, uninterrupted by economic conditions or political restrictions.

* An address delivered before the Eighth Infantry (Colored), and the Colored Citizens' Committee.