n divorcing itself from sound political
and moral principles.

* * * * *

In the scheme of citizenship of our country for years following the
close of the war the Negro had no part; and he had no part because he
was looked upon as an inferior. "Subordination to the superior race is
declared to be his natural and moral condition." His inferiority was
asserted to be a "great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."

And this is exactly the Southern view to-day; and is exactly the
programme to which it is committed. Its whole attitude to-day is in
harmony with the great principle upon which the Southern Confederacy was
founded--the non-recognition of the Negro as an equal in any
respect--socially, civilly, politically. The South holds to this view
just as tenaciously to-day as it did when Mr. Stephens made his Great
Cornerstone Speech in 1861. The Ku Klux Klan, the White Caps, the Red
Shirt Brigade, tissue ballots, the revised constitutions with their
grandfather clauses, Jim Crow Car legislation, the persistent effort of
the South to disfranchise the Negro--all these things have grown out of
the idea that the rightful place of the Negro is that of subordination
to the white man, that he has no rightful place in the body politic.

* * * * *

But I cannot believe that the nation is always going to leave its loyal
black citizens to be despoiled of their civil and political rights by
the men who sought to destroy the Union. A better day is coming, and
coming soon, I trust.

While we are waiting, however, for the nation to come to its
senses--waiting for a revival of the spirit of justice and of true
democracy in the land--it is important for us to remember that much,
very much, will depend upon ourselves. In the passage of Scripture read
in our hearing at the beginning of this discourse, three things we are
exhorted to do, and must do, if we are ever to secure our rights in this
land: We are exhorted to be watchful. "Watch ye," is the exhortation. We
are to be on our guard. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
There are enemies ever about us and are ever plotting our ruin--enemies
within the race and without it. We have got to live in the consciousness
of this fact. If we assume that all is well, that there is nothing to
fear, and so relax our vigilance, so cease to be watchful, we need not
be surprised if our enemies get the better of us, if we are worsted in
the conflict.

(2) We are exhorted to stand fas