us found in this native music, and to contribute
money for the cause represented by these delightful musicians.

But I must not give only my own opinion of these singers, as I am
supposed to be a partial witness. Many, many others, among whom are
the most talented and cultured of this country and England, have
spoken of them in terms the most laudatory. Some of these shall now
more than confirm my words of praise.

The Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler of Brooklyn, writing in January, 1872, to
"The New-York Tribune," thus spoke of them:--

"When the Rev. Mr. Chalmers (the younger) visited this
country as the delegate of the Scotch Presbyterian General
Assembly, he went home and reported to his countrymen that
he had 'found the ideal church in America: it was made up of
Methodist praying, Presbyterian preaching, and Southern
negro-singing.' The Scotchman would have been confirmed in
his opinion if he had been in Lafayette-avenue Church last
night, and heard the Jubilee Singers,--a company of colored
students, male and female, from Fisk University of Freedmen,
Nashville, Tenn. In Mr. Beecher's church they delighted a
vast throng of auditors, and another equally packed audience
greeted them last evening.

"I never saw a cultivated Brooklyn assemblage so moved and
melted under the magnetism of music before. The wild
melodies of these emancipated slaves touched the fount of
tears, and gray-haired men wept like children....

"The harmony of these children of nature, and their musical
execution, were beyond the reach of art. Their wonderful
skill was put to the severest test when they attempted
'Home, Sweet Home,' before auditors who had heard these same
household words from the lips of Jenny Lind and Parepa; yet
these emancipated bondwomen, now that they knew what the
word 'home' signifies, rendered that dear old song with a
power and pathos never surpassed.

"Allow me to bespeak through your journal ... a universal
welcome through the North for these living representatives
of the only true native school of American music. We have
long enough had its coarse caricature in corked faces: our
people can now listen to the genuine soul-music of the
slave-cabins before the Lord led his 'children out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.'"

The welcome thus eloquently