t to say that I represent the great party that has
given you your freedom. That fact constitutes my credentials."

"Bless God!" exclaimed the Rev. Jeremiah, piously. He rolled the word
"credentials" under his tongue, and resolved to remember it and bring it
out in one of his sermons. The stranger had a very smooth and pleasing
delivery. There was a sort of Sunday-school cadence to his voice well
calculated to impress his audience. The language he employed was far
above the heads of those to whom he spoke, but his persuasive tone, and
his engaging manner carried conviction. The great majority of the
negroes present were ready to believe what he said whether they
understood it or not.

"My name," he went on, "is Gilbert Hotchkiss, and I belong to a family
that has been striving for more than a generation to bring about the
emancipation of the negroes. My father worked until the day of his death
for the abolition of slavery; and now that slavery has been abolished,
I, with thousands of devoted women and men whom you have never seen and
doubtless never will see, have begun the work of uplifting the coloured
people in order that they may be placed in a position to appreciate the
benefits that have been conferred on them, and enable them to enjoy the
fruits of freedom. It is a great work, a grand work, and all we ask is
the active co-operation and assistance of the coloured people
themselves."

These were the words of Mr. Hotchkiss, the philanthropist; but now Mr.
Hotchkiss, the politician, took his place, and there was an indefinable
change in the tone of his voice.

"There is no need to ask," he said, "why we do not, in this great work
of uplifting the coloured race, ask the assistance of those who were
lately in rebellion against the best and the greatest Government on
which the sun ever shone. It would be foolish and unreasonable to expect
their assistance. They fought to destroy the Union, and they were
defeated; they fought to perpetuate slavery, and they failed. More than
that, there is every reason to believe that they will refuse to abide
by the results of the war. They are very quiet now, but they are merely
waiting their opportunity. With our troops withdrawn, and with the
Republican Party weakened by opposition, what is to prevent your late
masters from placing you back in slavery? Could we expect anything less
from those who have been brought up to believe that slavery is a divine
institution?"

"You hear d