ssed the various motives actuating persons to enter this field,
showing that in most cases these were propagandists and for that
reason a non-partisan and unbiased history of the Negro has not yet
been written. He then discussed the possibility of producing
interesting, comprehensive and valuable works by the proper use of the
various materials. These materials, however, contended he, would have
to be given scientific treatment that the whole truth might be
extracted therefrom. He then showed the possibility of error in
accepting as evidence the opinions of the proslavery element about the
antislavery element, the opinions of the abolitionists about the
colonizationists and vice versa. These will have to be scientifically
examined and after all the actual facts of Negro history must be
determined from such sources as letters, diaries, books of travel, and
unconscious evidence in the current publications of the times.

At the conclusion of the address remarks were made by Mr. A. H.
Grimke, Mr. T. C. Williams, Mr. G. C. Wilkinson, Mr. A. C. Newman,
Professor A. H. Locke, Professor Walter Dyson, and Professor William
L. Hansberry. Professor Hansberry discussed for a few minutes the
value of the sources in African history making his talk very
illuminating and instructive.

The afternoon was devoted to a meeting of the Executive Council to
which the public was not invited but in the evening a large number of
members and friends of the cause attended the session, at the John
Wesley A. M. E. Z. Church. The speakers of the occasion were Mr.
Charles E. Russell of Washington, D. C., and Professor Albert Bushnell
Hart of Harvard University. Mr. Russell discussed the _Negro's Right
to Justice_ taking the record of the Negro as a worthy one and the
fallacy of discrimination against him in the midst of the struggle for
democracy. The address was both illuminating and convincing. Then
followed the address of Professor Hart on _Free Men by Choice_. He
endeavored to show that no person is actually free. That all elements
of the population and all classes are more or less restricted. This
discussion was both legal and historical, presenting in its various
ramifications the social order in the country and the legislation
underlying the same. He finally brought out the important fact that
although the institution of slavery imprisoned the body of the
Negroes, it could not control their minds.

THE JOURNAL

OF

NEGRO HISTORY