olored people are one and the same; that the
legislation which affects the one will affect the other; that the good
which comes to the one should come to the other, and that, as one
people, the evils which blight the hopes of the one blight the hopes
of the other; I say, I may stand alone among colored men in the belief
that harmony of sentiment between the blacks and whites of the
country, in so far forth as it tends to honest division and healthy
opposition, is natural and necessary, but I speak that which is a
conviction as strong as the Stalwart idea of diversity between Black
and White, which has so crystallized the opinion of the race.

It is not safe in a republican form of government that clannishness
should exist, either by compulsory or voluntary reason; it is not good
for the government, it is not good for the individual. A government
like ours is like unto a household. Difference of opinion on
non-essentials is wholesome and natural, but upon the fundamental idea
incorporated in the Declaration of Independence and re-affirmed in the
Federal Constitution the utmost unanimity should prevail. That all men
are born equal, so far as the benefits of government extend; that each
and every man is justly entitled to the enjoyment of life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness, so long as these benign benefits be not
forfeited by infraction upon the rights of others; that freedom of
thought and unmolested expression of honest conviction and the right
to make these effective through the sacred medium of a fair vote and
an honest count, are God-given and not to be curtailed--these are the
foundations of republican government; these are the foundations of our
institutions; these are the birthright of every American citizen;
these are the guarantees which make men free and independent and
great.

The colored man must rise to a full conception of his citizenship
before he can make his citizenship effective. It is a fatality to
create or foster clannishness in a government like ours. Assimilation
of sentiment must be the property of the German, the Irish, the
English, the Anglo-African, and all other racial elements that
contribute to the formation of the American type of citizen. The
moment you create a caste standard, the moment you recognize the
existence of such, that moment republican government stands beneath
the sword of Damocles, the vitality of its being becomes vitiated and
endangered. If this be true, the Americ