NO thoughtful man
can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions
and people. It has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and
dissolution. It has added immensely to the moral and industrial
forces of our people. It has liberated the master as well as the
slave from a relation which wronged and enfeebled both. It has
surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more than
5,000,000 people, and has opened to each one of them a career of
freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspiration to the power
of self-help in both races by making labor more honorable to the
one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force
will grow greater and bear richer fruit with the coming years.
No doubt this great change has caused serious disturbance to our
Southern communities. This is to be deplored, though it was
perhaps unavoidable. But those who resisted the change should
remember that under our institutions there was no middle ground
for the negro race between slavery and equal citizenship. There
can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States.
Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the
law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the
pathway of any virtuous citizen.
The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress.
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