o overthrow the artificial social barriers which would
intervene to separate him from realizing the highest and best there are
within him by freedom of association. It is a man's duty to be loyal to
his country and his flag, but when his country becomes a land of
oppression and his flag an emblem of injustice and wrong, it becomes as
much his duty to attack the enemies within the nation as to resist the
foreign invader. Tyrants and tyranny everywhere should be attacked and
overthrown.

This is a period of transition in the relations of the Negro to this
nation. The question which America is trying to answer, and which is
must soon definitely settle, is this: _What kind of Negroes do the
American people want?_ That they must have the Negro in some relation
is no longer a question of serious debate. The Negro is here 10,000,000
strong, and, for weal or woe, he is here to stay--he is here to remain
forever. In the government he is a political factor; in education and in
wealth he is leaping forward with giant strides; he counts his taxable
property by the millions, his educated men and women by the scores of
thousands; in the South he is the backbone of industry; in every phase
of American life his presence may be noted; he is also as thoroughly
imbued with American principles and ideals as any class of people
beneath our flag. When Garrison started his fight for freedom, it was
the prevailing sentiment that the Negro could have no place in this
country save that of a slave, but he has proven himself to be more
valuable as a free man than as a slave. What kind of Negroes do the
American people want? Do they want a voteless Negro in a Republic
founded upon universal suffrage? Do they want a Negro who shall not be
permitted to participate in the government which he must support with
his treasure and defend with his blood? Do they want a Negro who shall
consent to be set apart as forming a distinct industrial class,
permitted to rise no higher than the level of serfs or peasants? Do they
want a Negro who shall accept an inferior social position, not as a
degradation, but as the just operation of the laws of caste based upon
color? Do they want a Negro who will avoid friction between the races by
consenting to occupy the place to which white men may choose to assign
him? What kind of a Negro do the American people want? Do they want a
Negro who will accept the doctrine, that however high he may rise in the
scale of character,