uthern representation were to be regarded in the light
of a bargain by which the Fifteenth Amendment was surrendered, then it
might prove fatal to liberty. If it be inflicted as a punishment and a
warning, to be followed by more drastic measures if not sufficient, it
would serve a useful purpose. The Fifteenth Amendment declares that the
right to vote _shall not_ be denied or abridged on account of color; and
any measure adopted by Congress should look to that end. Only as the power
to injure the Negro in Congress is reduced thereby, would a reduction of
representation protect the Negro; without other measures it would still
leave him in the hands of the Southern whites, who could safely be
trusted to make him pay for their humiliation.

Finally, there is, somewhere in the Universe a "Power that works for
righteousness," and that leads men to do justice to one another. To this
power, working upon the hearts and consciences of men, the Negro can
always appeal. He has the right upon his side, and in the end the right
will prevail. The Negro will, in time, attain to full manhood and
citizenship throughout the United States. No better guaranty of this is
needed than a comparison of his present with his past. Toward this he must
do his part, as lies within his power and his opportunity. But it will be,
after all, largely a white man's conflict, fought out in the forum of the
public conscience. The Negro, though eager enough when opportunity
offered, had comparatively little to do with the abolition of slavery,
which was a vastly more formidable task than will be the enforcement of
the Fifteenth Amendment.

_The Negro and the Law_

By WILFORD H. SMITH

The law and how it is dodged by enactments infringing upon the rights
guaranteed to the freedmen by constitutional amendment. A powerful plea
for justice for the Negro.

[Illustration: WILFORD H. SMITH.]

The colored people in the United States are indebted to the beneficent
provisions of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution of
the United States, for the establishment of their freedom and citizenship,
and it is to these mainly they must look for the maintenance of their
liberty and the protection of their civil rights. These amendments
followed close upon the Emancipation Proclamation issued January 1st,
1863, by President Lincoln, and his call for volunteers, which was
answered by more than three hundred thousand negro soldiers, who, durin