f Mr. Lincoln and that was recognized
by his astute mind, clear to his mental vision and so profoundly
appreciated by his keen sense of justice and which he had the courage to
foster against all opposition is abroad in our land to-day, will
ultimately triumph.

Mr. Lincoln was the first to suggest to his party the enfranchisement of
the Negro. He wrote Governor Hahn, of Louisiana, advising that the
ballot should be given to the colored man; said he, "Let in, as for
instance, the very intelligent and especially those who have fought
gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help in some trying time in
the future to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom."

It seems to me right and proper on this memorable day, when the nation
has stopped to consider the work of the man above all others who started
the Negro on his upward way, that we should appeal to the enlightened
conscience of the nation, to unloose further the fetters which bind the
black man, especially the industrial bands placed upon him in the North.
I appeal to the white people of the South, the sentiment-makers of that
section, to create sentiment in favor of law and order, and that they
demand a cessation of lynchings. I appeal to the legislature of the
South to allow the civil and political door of hope to remain open to my
people, and in all things which make for quietness and permanent peace,
let us be brethren.

The Negro should no longer be considered a serf, but a citizen of this
glorious Republic which both white and black alike have done so much to
develop.

Mr. Edwin D. Mead, in the _New York Independent_ of January 21, 1909,
says, "Has the country been faithful to Lincoln's memory and task? Has
the evolution of emancipation been pushed with proper persistence and
earnestness? Are we ceasing our discrimination against men because they
are black? It is not a question put by North to South. It is a question
put to Springfield, Illinois, the old home of Lincoln himself, as
directly as to men in Maryland busy with their pitiful disfranchising
chicanery." To the still lingering cry of "black men down" this salutary
Commemoration rings back, the "all men up," whose echoes after forty
years were growing faint in too many American hearts.

Had they not grown faint in many, the recent words of Justice Harlan, so
like Lincoln's own, upon the Berea College decision confirming the
Kentucky law that, however, they themselves desired it, and even