Mr. President, monuments are usually erected by friends or by the public long after men are dead. Never, so far as I know, has there been erected a monument to the memory of a public man during his lifetime! But I who (barring accidents) have fifteen or twenty years of fighting material in me yet, find myself at this moment confronted with what President Young and your Bishop are pleased to call my monument, and you appear by your approval to recognize the claim which each has made. I certainly recognize the fact, that in compiling and publishing this volume, the American negro has builded me a monument more enduring than any which my family or my friends can erect, after I shall have quit this mortal life; a monument more appropriate and welcome than the one which your Bishop says was foreshadowed in the quotation which he made a few moments ago from one of my addresses in this volume, an utterance which he affirms is a prophecy now fulfilled, and certainly, if he claims that his interpretation is authoritative, I shall not, on an occasion like this, undertake to question it. [Laughter and applause.]

But whether authoritative or not, I can truthfully and with propriety say, that this "Souvenir " is to me a more desirable monument than any other which my colored friends could have designed or presented to me, for I recognize that it was conceived by generous and grateful hearts, and built with honest hands. I accept it as the black man's tribute and testimony. It is a monument which the maligner cannot misinterpret, nor vandals deface, nor the hired assassin destroy, for I am told you are to duplicate it by thousands!

And now, what shall I say to my friends of the "AfroAmerican League of Tennessee," and to the gentlemen of the Publication Committee, who from the public records and from the voluminous yet fragmentary material placed in their hands, have with such care and fidelity compiled this volume, in which is reflected so faithfully from my lips and pen the views held by me and the measures which I advocated, prior to and during the war of the rebellion, and since.

The truth is, that I do not know what to say! To make fitting answer I should have need of golden-voweled words, the poet's prophetic vision and the thoughts of a philosopher.

As I have them not, I simply say I thank you. Again and again, out of a full heart, I thank both the "Afro-American League of Tennessee," and your able and painstaking Publication Committee. The declaration of your Bishop, "that your Publication Committee found no word or thought or vote of mine, which they or any black man, could wish to change or blot"- gives me a satisfaction so pure and unalloyed that no words at my command can fittingly express the emotions that stir my heart. Certainly, when these speeches and orations were delivered, I did not expect to have this priceless testimony come to me. [Applause.]

Mr. President, as I interpret this occasion and this testimony it also means much for the negro. It means, a testimony of his fidelity and gratitude! It means, that however poor or however black, "A man's a man for a' that." It means, that everywhere beneath that flag crime and wrong against your race must cease. It means, a recognition of the Fatherhood of God — and the brotherhood of man.

It means that your long dark night of sorrow will soon be over, that the day is dawning and that the hour now draweth nigh, in which the children of Ethiopia may stretch forth their glad hands to their Creator and to ours, and with confidence claim fulfillment of the Divine promise delivered to the world by His Apostles and Prophets.

"O, clear-eyed Faith, and Patience, thou

So calm and strong!

Lend strength to weakness; teach us how
The sleepless eyes of God look through
This night of wrong."

["Amen" and "amen" and applause.]

At the conclusion of this masterly address the whole audience rose to their feet with cheers, and united in singing Mrs. Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic.

This hymn may be found in full on page 262 of this volume.

Bishop Arnett called Rev. O. P. Ross, of Vicksburg, Mississippi, who presented a duplicate volume of the Souvenir to Rev. John Henry Barrows, D. D., President of the Parliament of Religions of the World, and also presented one to the Hon. C. C. Bonny, President of the Columbian Auxiliary Congresses, in the name of the Afro-American League of Tennessee, and the lovers of human liberty throughout the world.