any
change in the Constitution. As long as the Fifteenth Amendment stands, the
_rights_ of colored citizens are ultimately secure. There were would-be
despots in England after the granting of Magna Charta; but it outlived
them all, and the liberties of the English people are secure. There was
slavery in this land after the Declaration of Independence, yet the faces
of those who love liberty have ever turned to that immortal document. So
will the Constitution and its principles outlive the prejudices which
would seek to overthrow it.

What colored men of the South can do to secure their citizenship to-day,
or in the immediate future, is not very clear. Their utterances on
political questions, unless they be to concede away the political rights
of their race, or to soothe the consciences of white men by suggesting
that the problem is insoluble except by some slow remedial process which
will become effectual only in the distant future, are received with scant
respect--could scarcely, indeed, be otherwise received, without a voting
constituency to back them up,--and must be cautiously made, lest they meet
an actively hostile reception. But there are many colored men at the
North, where their civil and political rights in the main are respected.
There every honest man has a vote, which he may freely cast, and which is
reasonably sure to be fairly counted. When this race develops a sufficient
power of combination, under adequate leadership,--and there are signs
already that this time is near at hand,--the Northern vote can be wielded
irresistibly for the defense of the rights of their Southern brethren.

In the meantime the Northern colored men have the right of free speech,
and they should never cease to demand their rights, to clamor for them, to
guard them jealously, and insistently to invoke law and public sentiment
to maintain them. He who would be free must learn to protect his freedom.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. He who would be respected must
respect himself. The best friend of the Negro is he who would rather see,
within the borders of this republic one million free citizens of that
race, equal before the law, than ten million cringing serfs existing by a
contemptuous sufferance. A race that is willing to survive upon any other
terms is scarcely worthy of consideration.

The direct remedy for the disfranchisement of the Negro lies through
political action. One scarcely sees the philosophy of distingu