nia and New York were John Peck, John B. Vashon
and Peyton Harris and all through the North, each state held colored
men who were anxious to do what they could to elevate the race, and it
seems as if God gave each one a special duty to perform, which
combined, made one mighty stimulus to the young colored youth to do
what he could to build up the Negro race.

Do you ask if the Negro has advanced intellectually, I need only to
refer you to the showing made by the men and women of our race to-day.
The works of Frederick Douglass, John M. Langston, Blanche K. Bruce,
J. C. Price, are living testimonials of what the Negro accomplished a
generation ago.

When we consider the fact that the Negro was of such import that laws
were made making it a misdemeanor to educate the Negro, both before
and after the Civil War; when we consider the Greek text books of
Professor Scarborough of Wilberforce used by one of the oldest
Colleges in America; when we consider the Presidents and Principals of
various Negro schools in our country, such as Livingston, N. C.;
Spellman Seminary, Atlanta, Ga.; Wilberforce, Ohio; Virginia Normal
and Collegiate; Shaw University; when we consider the place that our
honored clergy occupy among the intellectual men of the world; when we
consider the work of Booker T. Washington, we must admit that the love
of knowledge seems to be intuitive. No people ever learned more in so
short a time.

Every year since the Civil War the American Negro has been taking on
better and purer traits of character.

The Negro of to-day is materially different from the Negro of
yesterday. He delights in the education of his children, and from
every section of our Southland come letters asking for competent
colored teachers and educated ministers. The young man and woman who
educate themselves in our Northern colleges and normal schools do not
always have to turn their attention to the far South to seek fields of
labor, but in an honest competition, gain places of honor and trust in
the North.

Think of the scores of young colored women all over our Northern
states teaching the "young idea how to shoot," and not a black face in
the class. We find colored women with large classes of white pupils in
St. Paul, Minn.; Chicago, Ill.; Detroit, Mich.; Cleveland, Ohio;
Buffalo, N. Y.; and other Northern cities. "From the state of
semi-civilization," says Williams, "in which he cared only for the
comforts of the present, his desires