Page images
PDF
EPUB

Shaw would have us feel and speak at this hour? He would not have us dwell long on the mistakes, the injustice, the criticisms of the days—

“Of storm and cloud, of doubt and fears,

Across the eternal sky must lower,
Before the glorious noon appears."

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 make the existence of the Fifty-fourth 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 so doing so freely gave service, fortune, and life itself to the cause which this day commemo

rates.

Nor would he have us forget those brother officers, living and dead, who, by their baptism in blood and fire, in defence 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 shattered remnant of the Fifty-fourth 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 which 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 three hundred 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.

No 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 forgot in your rejoicing that in setting you free God was also good to me and my race in setting us free."

The

But there is a higher and deeper sense in which both races must be free than that represented by the bill of sale. black man who cannot let love and sympathy go out to the white man is but half free. The white man who could 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 oppressing 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 by a black skin shall, by patience 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 this 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 narrowness, nor artificial progress, nor in efforts

at mere temporary political gain, nor in abuse of another sec

tion 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 grey as well as to those clothed in 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 state. This work must be completed in public school, industrial school, and college. The most of all 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 so grow in skill and knowledge that he shall place his services in demand by reason of his intrinsic and superior worth. This, this is 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 lesson 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 of nearly ten millions of my people might be permitted to send a message of gratitude to Massachusetts, 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 depths of ign ence and poverty we are coming, and if we come through oppression out of the struggle we are gaining strength.

"By way of the school, the well-cultivated field, the skilled hand, the Christian home, we are coming up: that we propose to take our place upon the high and undisputed ground of usefulness, generosity, and honesty, and 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 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, a foot of land, or 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, 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 to Colonel Shaw's heart was that his black troops might be permitted to fight by the side of 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 white men 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 Carny 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

"The slave's chain and the master's alike are broken,

The one curse of the races held both in tether.

They are rising, all are rising.

The black and the white together."

THE NEGRO'S LOYALTY TO THE STARS AND STRIPES

DELIVERED AT THE THANKSGIVING PEACE JUBILEE EXERCISES, CHICAGO, OCTOBER 16, 1898

MR.

R. CHAIRMAN, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN,— On an important occasion in the life of the Master, when it fell to him to pronounce judgment on two courses of action, these memorable words fell from his lips: "And Mary hath chosen the better part." This was the supreme test in the case of an individual. It is the highest test in the case of a race or nation. Let us apply this test to the American negro.

In the life of our republic, when he has had the oppor tunity to choose, has it been the better or worse part? When, in the childhood of this nation, the negro was asked to submit to slavery or choose death and extinction, as did the abo rigines, he chose the better part, that which perpetuated the

race.

When, in 1776, the negro was asked to decide between British oppression and American independence, we find him choosing the better part, and Crispus Attucks, a negro, was the first to shed his blood on State Street, Boston, that the

« PreviousContinue »