ascertain and report all facts of organized but
unlawful violence to the person, with the attendant facts and
circumstances, which have been inflicted upon accused persons alleged to
have been guilty of crimes punishable by due process of law which have
taken place in any part of the country within the ten years last
preceding the passage of this resolution. Such investigation shall be
made by the usual methods and agencies of the Department of Labor, and
report made to Congress as soon as the work can be satisfactorily done,
and the sum of $25,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is
hereby appropriated to pay the expenses out of any money in the treasury
not otherwise appropriated.

The belief has been constantly expressed in England that in the United
States, which has produced Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Henry Ward Beecher, James
Russell Lowell, John G. Whittier and Abraham Lincoln there must be those
of their descendants who would take hold of the work of inaugurating an
era of law and order. The colored people of this country who have been
loyal to the flag believe the same, and strong in that belief have begun
this crusade. To those who still feel they have no obligation in the
matter, we commend the following lines of Lowell on "Freedom."

Men! whose boast it is that ye
Come of fathers brave and free,
If there breathe on earth a slave
Are ye truly free and brave?
If ye do not feel the chain,
When it works a brother's pain,
Are ye not base slaves indeed,
Slaves unworthy to be freed?

Women! who shall one day bear
Sons to breathe New England air,
If ye hear without a blush,
Deeds to make the roused blood rush
Like red lava through your veins,
For your sisters now in chains,--
Answer! are ye fit to be
Mothers of the brave and free?

Is true freedom but to break
Fetters for our own dear sake,
And, with leathern hearts, forget
That we owe mankind a debt?
No! true freedom is to share
All the chains our brothers wear,
And, with heart and hand, to be
Earnest to make others free!

There are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.

A FIELD FOR PRAC