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Show -M ' ' ' " J FREEDOM'S TRIUMPH. A Review by Rev. Thos. H. Maloue. ' (Copyright, 1900, by the Intermountain and Colorado Catholic.) Emancipation day is one of the most 1 glorious in the American calendar. Its celebration is the spontaneous expres- sion of joy that the freedom which was Ions our boast, when the eiviliza-. eiviliza-. ;; " tion of the New World was but a semi-barbarism, may now be spread . abroad without reservation or blush of shame, bearing all of the force and dignity of well established fact. ji iij liuc 11101. 111c xiiyiiiu X'iiiueia and the brave Huguenots found here the freedom they were seeking, and that it is woven in with the earliest as well as all of the subsequent history of the country, but not always, alas, without with-out qualifications and distinctions. The struggle with slavery, until its final vanquishment, was older than the government itself and had tinged its politics from the beginning:. In the days of Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan Bu-chanan it assumed immense proportions propor-tions and with the recognition of Abraham Abra-ham Lincoln became the final issue. It is necessary to briefly review those stormy times, to fully appreciate the cause for all of this rejoicing. The readers of Pilgrim's Progress remember how Christian and Pilgrim were both set free, but they would not bear the fact in mind had they not followed with interest their evil fortunes as they languished in the fetid dungeon keep of the relentless giant. Lovers of myth- lugy dwell upon the deliverance of Prometheus, but it is meaningless to those who do not understand that he was bound to a rock and left to the mercy of vultures. A story is told of a revenue agent in the Tennessee mountains who was restored re-stored to liberty by a young girl. Her father owned a moonshine distillery and, convinced that the stranger was a ' government detective, caused him to be chained in a cave given over wholly to the rattlings and writhings of snakes of which there were thousands. His liberation cost courage, which he appreciated, ap-preciated, and the horrors of his , incarceration in-carceration were recorded in his hair, every thread of which turned, in one night, as white as snow. So the scars of slavery remain and there were times that tried men's souls and women's fortitudes and courage, but they led on to that red letter day, Sept. 22, A. D. 1S62, when the illustrious illus-trious Lincoln, Nature's own nobleman noble-man and the Afro-American's most fearless champion and truest friend, as President of the United States, commander com-mander in chief of the American army, without fear or favor but in the name of justice and humanity, issued his famous fa-mous proclamation declaring the freedom free-dom of all slaves in the states and parts of states then in rebellion. Although he knew that it must be followed by legislation, he made no undue haste. In the winter of 1S63-64 he urged the passage by congress of a constitutional amendment abolishing ; slavery, but all in vain. A year later j he pleaded the cause of the oppressed again, and on Jan. 31, 1865, an amendment amend-ment was proposed to the states that 'neither slavery nor involuntary servitude servi-tude except as a punishment for crime whereof the party should have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to its jurisdiction." Before the end of the year, this, the famous thirteenth amendment had been ratified by the required number, three-fourths of the states of the Union, president's own, the great state of Illinois taking the lead. 1 have heard that there is always something unlucky about the number thirteen that there are people who will v.t sit down to dinner when there are exactly thirteen covers. 1 used to cherish cher-ish a superstition something like that r y.-Sf, but it' was all dispelled by that g,-rious thirteenth amendment. If :h.--re are any who are afraid to Win a piece of work on the thirteenth l.ty ,,f the month, or to live in a house No. is on Thirteenth street, or to buy a baker's dozen of anything, let them i -all this happy incident and the de lusion will vanish. Patience, tact, diplomacy, all of these :s well as coolness and courage had 1 n necessary on the part of the ad-ministration ad-ministration to bring about these mem- j enable events. Men of more ardent tern- j perament but less judgment had en-in en-in ated the president to follow up the proclamation with his recommendation .f such an amendment months before he did so, and as a stroke of policy, on the eve of his second campaign. His answer was truly characteristic: "I Lave never yet done an official act because be-cause of its bearing upon my renomina-tion, renomina-tion, and I don't like to begin now. I can see emancipation coming, whoever will wait for It will also see it, whoever who-ever gets in the way of it fx ill be run over by it." To appreciate all of this we must, as 1 have said, review the troublous times in which it was conceived. We must go back to the years when the blight of bondage marred the beauty of our fair escutcheon, and one-sixth of the j entire population of the United States tvere in chains. The southern slaveholder upheld the hhUiuUon. -f slav---r and auid his - conscience by claiming the highest authority au-thority for the ownership of the bodies of other men. Abraham was his patron saint, and his standards rested, he claimed, upon the eternal rock of precedent prece-dent and tradition. And in the meantime, O God! children chil-dren were torn from the breasts of their frantic mothers, there was neither tenderness for youth nor respect for age. Men, women and children were driven in herds like beasts, knowing not why or whither. Conservatism combined with political ambitions and the interests of trade to cherish this hvdr;l-heaiieri monster ! All public and private life was affected af-fected by it. It entered into every question of the day and hour, dividing families and drawing lines of caste deeper than those of sectionalism, seeking seek-ing the cover of politics, governing social so-cial ethics and borrowing the cloak of religion. Yet still its iniquity could not be hid. The excitement grew more and more intense, and only organization and leadership were lacking in the north to make its sentiments against "the inhumanity in-humanity of man to man" both heard and felt. Slavery was discussed everywhere, in every public meeting, by every fireside, on the street corners and in the pulpit. Some, forgetting the fact that those in bondage were American born, advanced the theory of transportation to Africa and colonization. Some said that emancipation eman-cipation should be by purchase, and many (how many the war demonstrated) demonstrat-ed) said that it should be by force, and there w ere others Who said that emancipation eman-cipation must come, whether with blood or money, and whatever its cost. I cannot say that the last were wrong. Perhaps they were thinking of what slavery really meant. They might have witnessed, a slave auction some time down in New Orleans, as did a correspondent of the New York Tribune, Trib-une, who saw a young girl placed upon the block, three-fourths at least of the Anglo-Saxon blood, whose hair was tinged with gold and whose cheeks burned crimson with mingled rage and shame. There she stood, in figure, a model for trie Venus de Medici, in features, fea-tures, a living picture of the Madonna. And coarse men thronged around her with rude jests and leering glances, daring even to lay their defiling hands upon her to test the quality and texture tex-ture of her flesh and skin, until she was pronounced sold to the most repulsive of her persecutors, who dragged her away in triumph, heedless of her weeping. weep-ing. Yes. blood or money, or both, I say, emancipation had to come, and both flowed freely. The treasury of the nation na-tion was depleted and homes were left desolate, father and husband, brother and son offering their lives for this great end, and not in vain. If there were any W"ho had ever questioned ques-tioned the courage or fidelity of the Afro-Americans he had soon no room for doubts. Wholly reliable, brave, intrepid, in-trepid, over and over again they proved all of these. Not only did they prove magnificent soldiers, but worthy of the most sacred trust as guardians of the home where the southern masters had left them in charge of the plantation and to protect their loved ones. Here, too, there was many an instance of their devotion and heroism. Shirking no task, toiling early and late, with nothing they could call their own, without with-out hope or promise of reward, they acquitted themselves, not like slaves, buU in the language of St. Paul, "like men." And this, then, was the character char-acter of the race that had been enslaved! en-slaved! What wonder that the question, once openly discussed, the friends of the slave should not long lack leadership, that freedom found its champions, its prophets, its orators, its statesmen and its poets. In the forefront of their ranks were William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips. Henry Wilson, Charles Sumner and John Greenleaf Whittier. ' Said Charles Sumner in congressional debate: "Convictions of the heart cannot can-not be repressed. Utterances of conscience con-science must 'be heard. They break frih with irrepressible might. As well attempt to check the tides of -cean, the currents of the Mississippi, or the rushing waters of Niagara. The discussion dis-cussion of slavery will proceed wherever wher-ever two or three are gathered together, by the fireside, on the highway, at the public meeting and in the church. The movement against slavery is from the Everlasting Arm. Even now, it is gathering gath-ering its forces soon to be felt everywhere. every-where. It may not be felt yet in the j high Places of office and power, but all who can put their ears humbly to the ground will hear and comprehend i its incessant and advancing tread." He spoke with the gift of eloquence, but there was a better quality than this j in his words. It was strong, deep feeling feel-ing and coming from the heart it reached reach-ed the hearts of others. He knew whereof he spoke. Insults, assaults, ; mobs, these were the arguments for j slavery. He had seen William Lloyd Garrison, who, for over a score of years, was president of the Anti-Slavery Society, So-ciety, and who, as able journalist and brilliant lecturer, contributed so much to the cause of freedom, dragged I through the streets. c4. Boston with a halter around his neck by a mob of southern sympathizers. Later in the Quaker city the City of Brotherly Love the building in which the "Pennsylvania Freeman" was edited ed-ited by John Greenleaf Whittier wras i sacked, looted and burned. The valuable library and many cherished personal belongings of "Freedom's Poet" were I destroyed. Yet hardly was the issue of the paper delayed a single hour. Whittier had many personal friends among the oppressed race. At the memorable dedication of Pennsylvania Hall, among other distinguished speakers speak-ers was Angelina Grimpke of South j Carolina. Of African blood, she repre-j repre-j sented what education and culture j might do for her people. She was a teacher in the schools of the south, and herself and family were well known to Whittier. Often she was his informal and welcome guest. He frequently wrote her letters which were full of an unaffected friendship. In 1864 he wrote her: "There is a glorious prospect opening, my dear friend, for long oppressed op-pressed people of color. The old, accursed ac-cursed prejudice is dying but. It is great to live in such times."' He lived to see his brightest nro- phecies for the people whom he loved fulfilled, and to reap the honors which he. had sown in unassuming deeds of kindness, in thoughts of broad humanity, human-ity, clothed in words of beauty, and imagery. The stirring note of war running run-ning through his patriotic verse caught the popular ear and hastened the day of emancipation. Let me give you but the key note It thrills with martial music: "Wherever freedom's vanguard goes. Where stand or fall her friends or foes, 1 know the place that should be mine. "Oh brothers blest by partial fate With powers to match the will and deed, To him your summons comes too late Who sinks beneath his armor's weight And has no answer but God-speed. " Before the day of Emancipation education edu-cation for the children of the Afro-American Afro-American was a crime. While the - .sentinels w ho guard the royal palaces of Russia continue con-tinue their ceaseless tread there is another march as endless and more significant than theirs. It is that of the political prisoners to their living death in the Siberian mines. In the darkness of that benighted benight-ed land the principle in uxtaposition to law was born and cradled. What a model for Christian civilization! The birthplace of anarchy! A nation that construes as crime the expression of honest convictions and yearly sends into exile thousands of her most loyal subjects. Well may the ruler of such a State tremble hourly in fear of his life. Having furnished the weapons he knows his fate. v s It is the duty of the State to recognize recog-nize all of its people as upon an equal footing, and to afford them the benefits bene-fits of a moral atmosphere and the advantages ad-vantages of education. In the fulfillment fulfill-ment of these obligations it is laying up for itself treasure that has no equivalent in silver or gold. It is building build-ing on a foundation its own glory and perpetuity. Let no one think that the Afro-American had gathered no knowledge of his wrongs by the government that should have been his protection. Poor and unlettered as he was, his mentality was strong and keenly alert to the inequalities inequal-ities of birth and position. There have been in all ages and climes schools besides those of learning and culture, schools of crime, of sad experience and adversity. Of the first of these he knew nothing. Of the others oth-ers he was a post-graduate. His instincts in-stincts were all good. He came of an agricultural race that' for generations had lived very close to the heart of Nature. He loved the fronded palms of the beautiful South, its birds of gay notes and plumage, the balm of its breezes, the fragrance of its orange groves, the snows of its cotton fields. His life had been spent with these, and it was a life far removed fromv the promptings of hatred, and the plot-tings plot-tings of crime. Yet he was not always the smiling, happy, unthoughtful creature crea-ture he seemed. Even a prominent citizen citi-zen partakes somethings of his surroundings sur-roundings in the eyes of strangers. bo the deep, inner consciousness conscious-ness of the slave was left unrecognized, for the foreground presented pre-sented only a scene of squalor and improvidence im-providence at the best, the middle mid-dle distance was , a monotonous continuation of wretchedness fading fad-ing into seemingly impenetrable impene-trable shades of ignorance.- But the slave was something different from I what he seemed, and every now and I then communities were started bv the knowledge which he manifested. He was not half asleep as he seemed when he lagged at his work and appeared oblivious of his surroundings until recalled re-called by the crack and sting of the driver's whip. He had heard that far to the north, across many ( turbulent streams, through many dark forests and by the way of innumerable cities there was another country, whose laws were just and equable, where even the black man might be free, and he was resolved that come life or death he would find that country. j I have thought in some quiet hour, i of the world's great heroes, who liave risen superior to all physical fear in the presence of danger which they fully grasped; thus Nelson at. the battle bat-tle of Trafalgar, Marschal Ney as he calmly waited his doom; Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley at the stake, but to my vision of the triumph of mind above matter, of the spirit over the flesh, there looms no nobler example than that of Frederic Douglas, the fugitive slave, as he made his way penniless, hungry, hunted, all of the weary thousands thou-sands of miles that stretched from palms to pines, from fields of cotton to wastes of snow, from friends and familiar surroundings to strangers in an unknown land. It was a leap in the dark, immeasurable, impenetrable, but it- was not taken in vain. In spite of the barabarous "Fugitive Slave Law," all of the way from Cincinnati Cin-cinnati to Maine there were harbors of safety for escaping slaves. Yet those j who thus gained their freedom were the exceptional few, those who had j thought out the problem for themselves ! to its hard and perilous solution. The I rest waited the call to arms and later j received their freedom, half dazed with j the wonder and joy of it. I would not be construed so prejudiced preju-diced as : to deny the fact that there were some kind masters. As Ingalla says of the good men in the Democratic party, there was now and then one. But the one, like the- St. Clair of Uncle Tom's Cabin, was inclined to an easy generosity that often retarded rather than advanced the interests of the slave. Left almost to his own way in the false security of little to do and plenty to get, he was but ill prepared for the change that might come at any moment, and was certain to be for the worse, or to wage the battle of life for himself when the freedom came of which he had vaguely dreamed. But I deny that there were any who i at this supreme moment or at any later time would have voluntarily gone back to the old life of bondage, simply because be-cause they believed they were better : off, ,out of sheer laziness and irresponsibility. irrespon-sibility. I have heard it stated that there were such, but I am positive posi-tive no living example was ever found. There may have been rare instances in the world's history of criminals who, having served their terms in prison and being liberated, have begged to remain, but there was no stigma attached to (Continued on Page 4.) freedom's Criuntpf) (Continued From ' Page 1.) the character of the ex-slave. He could bear the light of day. He could look any man in the face. The world was before him. I have met people who would like to be adopted, I know of none who would like to be owned. The fact that the Afro-American had not been trained to self-support makes it all the more to-his credit that he managed to accomplish it, nor could he have done so but for the strength of mind and spirit he gathered from the impetus of freedom. To the always free, the obstacles in his way would have been insurmountable, but to the freeman they were as mists in the summer sun. He was free! He could not grasp the idea all at once. Who could? But when he realized that he was in truth his own master, subject to the will and mandates of no man, he quickly cast about to improve his condition. It was slow work from far off standpoints but it was marvelously rapid from a nearer view. Remember, there was everything to be done and .even every method to be acquired or wrought out. Such was his condition in 1862, the year of. his- emancipation. Only a.brief eight years later and the full rights of citizenship were thrust upon him when the fifteenth amendment was added to the constitution. There could be no mistaking these words: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be abridged by the United States "or by 'any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Like the proclamation' of emancipation, emancipa-tion, it necessarily found him unprepared. unpre-pared. He had had no training in citizenship. cit-izenship. He had not dreamed of attaining at-taining it, yet here it was, his very own. Honors came, so thick and fast, what wonder if he were bewildered and at first became an easy tool in the hands of intrigueing. politicians? It was a new experience to be sought, consulted and deferred to, by those who had before passed him by unnoticed. unno-ticed. It seemed a small return to let the ballot go as they advised. But with the recurring elections something was learned. The eyes of the new citizen citi-zen were opened and he began to approbate ap-probate and jealously guard the right of suffrage, to learn its highest uses and avoid the pitfalls set for the feet of the unwary. To the true-hearted, patriotic citizen citi-zen war is an emergency that may arise, and it will find him ready, but there are every-day duties requiring no exaltation of spirit,- that because of their seeming unimportance he may thoughtlessly overlook. The very principles prin-ciples that enter into the foundation and fabric of a free government must be woven into the woof of his life. i |