ing
and supporting the helpless, defenceless ones intrusted to his care.

When, during our war with Spain, the safety and honour of the Republic
were threatened by a foreign foe, when the wail and anguish of the
oppressed from a distant isle reached our ears, we find the Negro
forgetting his own wrongs, forgetting the laws and customs that
discriminate against him in his own country, and again choosing the
better part. And, if any one would know how he acquitted himself in
the field at Santiago, let him apply for answer to Shafter and
Roosevelt and Wheeler. Let them tell how the Negro faced death and
laid down his life in defence of honour and humanity. When the full
story of the heroic conduct of the Negro in the Spanish-American War
has been heard from the lips of Northern soldier and Southern soldier,
from ex-abolitionist and ex-master, then shall the country decide
whether a race that is thus willing to die for its country should not
be given the highest opportunity to live for its country.

In the midst of all the complaints of suffering in the camp and field
during the Spanish-American War, suffering from fever and hunger,
where is the official or citizen that has heard a word of complaint
from the lips of a black soldier? The only request that came from the
Negro soldier was that he might be permitted to replace the white
soldier when heat and malaria began to decimate the ranks of the white
regiments, and to occupy at the same time the post of greater danger.

But, when all this is said, it remains true that the efforts on the
part of his friends and the part of himself to share actively in the
control of State and local government in America have not been a
success in all sections. What are the causes of this partial failure,
and what lessons has it taught that we may use in regard to the future
treatment of the Negro in America?

In my mind there is no doubt but that we made a mistake at the
beginning of our freedom of putting the emphasis on the wrong end.
Politics and the holding of office were too largely emphasised,
almost to the exclusion of every other interest.

I believe the past and present teach but one lesson,--to the Negro's
friends and to the Negro himself,--that there is but one way out, that
there is but one hope of solution; and that is for the Negro in every
part of America to resolve from henceforth that he will throw aside
every non-essential and cling only to essential,--that his pilla