RUTH, AND THE DEFENDER OF HUMANITY: DURING THE DARK DAYS OF
SLAVERY, PLEADING THE CAUSE OF THE BONDMEN OF THE LAND; DURING
THE WAR, URGING THE EQUALITY OF NEGROES AS SOLDIERS, DURING
RECONSTRUCTION, ENCOURAGING THE FREEDMEN TO NOBLE LIVES
THROUGH THE AGENCY OF THE CHURCH AND THE SCHOOL, AND
EVERMORE THE ENEMY OF ANY DISTINCTION BASED UPON
RACE, COLOR, OR PREVIOUS CONDITION OF SERVITUDE.

To the Distinguished Statesman:

WHO, ENDUED WITH THE GENIUS OF COMMON SENSE, TOO EXALTED TO BE
INFLAMED BY TEMPORARY PARTY OR FACTIONAL STRIFE, AND WHO,
AS CONGRESSMAN AND GOVERNOR, IN STATE AND NATIONAL
POLITICS, HAS PROVEN HIMSELF CAPABLE OF

SACRIFICING PERSONAL INTEREST TO PUBLIC WELFARE;

WHO, IN DEALING WITH THE NEGRO PROBLEM, HAS ASSERTED A NEW DOCTRINE IN
IGNORING THE CLAIMS OF RACES: AND WHO, AS THE FIRST NORTHERN GOVERNOR
TO APPOINT A COLORED MAN TO A POSITION OF PUBLIC TRUST,
HAS THEREBY DECLARED THAT NEITHER NATIONALITY NOR
COMPLEXION SHOULD ENHANCE OR IMPAIR THE CLAIMS
OF MEN TO POSITIONS WITHIN THE GIFT OF
THE EXECUTIVE.

TO THESE NOBLE MEN THIS WORK IS DEDICATED,

WITH SENTIMENTS OF HIGH ESTEEM AND PERSONAL REGARD, BY THEIR
FRIEND AND HUMBLE SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

I was requested to deliver an oration on the Fourth of July, 1876, at
Avondale, O. It being the one-hundredth birthday of the American
Republic, I determined to prepare an oration on the _American Negro_.
I at once began an investigation of the records of the nation to
secure material for the oration. I was surprised and delighted to find
that the historical memorials of the Negro were so abundant, and so
creditable to him. I pronounced my oration on the Fourth of July,
1876; and the warm and generous manner in which it was received, both
by those who listened to it and by others who subsequently read it in
pamphlet form, encouraged me to devote what leisure time I might have
to a further study of the subject.

I found that the library of the Historical and Philosophical Society
of Ohio, and the great _Americana_ of Mr. Robert Clarke containing
about eight thousand titles, both in Cincinnati, offered peculiar
advantages to a student of American history. For