Historical Romance of the American Negro Part 20

The whole American nation was undergoing changes, and so were we! The children and I longed with all our hearts to see husband and father once more. He was not yet well enough to travel to Buffalo; indeed, the military authorities forbade it, and so we three determined to tear up stakes at Buffalo for a time, and make a sudden and unexpected march on the city of New Orleans. This was not my first visit to the Crescent City of the Sunny South. As my dear reader is already well aware, I went there about the year 1856, and rescued my dear mother from slavery, which I consider one of the very best things that ever I did in this world! This journey to New Orleans was a most glorious experience, for the girls in particular, and they are even talking of it now. When we were in the Lower Mississippi, we had a good time to look about us and see what a mighty work the sword of the North had already done for that section of the Union. The colored people were all free, and thousands were flocking to schools just newly set up, and learning as people had never learned before. The rebels, and all those that sympathized with them, used to say that if the slaves were set free, they would turn in and ma.s.sacre their former owners, and become regular heathens and savages. This was, of course, nothing but a silly parrot-cry that n.o.body seriously believed, as no colored man had any other intention than to become a peaceable citizen. But during our delightful residence in the Sunny South we saw those who had been slaves in that section all working away upon the lands, and in the towns and cities, in perfect freedom, and their lives were both orderly and exemplary. But what surprised us most was to see them going to work with first readers, spelling books, slates and pencils, and all the other appliances of education, and gathering knowledge like the sands of the sea. This, indeed, augured well for the future-to see people even seventy and eighty years of age learning to read, write and figure like the rest! Here was a field of bright promise for the near future. Here was a race of people, just set free, grasping at the lowermost round of the ladder of education, and ambitious to mount higher every day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _TOWER OF LONDON._]

Behold, indeed, the mighty changes that the Lord has brought about in this dear land of ours! We have already lived long enough not only to see all the captives set free, but a second generation, fifty per cent.

of whom are armed, from head to foot, so to speak, with education. We have already brilliant men and women competent to s.h.i.+ne like stars, in all the different walks and departments of life, which my two girls and I saw such abundant promise when we went to Louisiana. In due course of time Tom was p.r.o.nounced completely cured, was discharged from the hospital, and our two precious children and we took our homeward journey by way of the Gulf of Mexico, the city of Havana, in Cuba, West Indies and the Atlantic Ocean to New York, after which we took the train for Buffalo, where we all arrived safe and sound in due time, and had such a welcome home as is still green in our memories. This sea voyage and land journey were delightful experiences in the young lives of our two daughters, and showed them what a great, varied, and beautiful world the great Creator had made. We thanked Him with full and grateful hearts for having laid our lines in such pleasant places, and giving us this sweet home of ours at Buffalo, where we have resided in peace, pleasure and plenty. Lo! these many years! and we are at Buffalo, still. It is a great comfort to our hearts and minds to think that the entire colored race are no longer compelled to reside, to dwell, and sleep where they are bidden, as in the bad old times of slavery; but that here again a mighty change for the better has come over all our people, inasmuch as many of them nowadays have comfortable and pleasant homes of their own, where beautiful furniture and musical instruments can be seen-yes, even fine pianos, along which the supple fingers of the rising generation can fly with the best! I bless and praise the goodness of the Lord for all these changes for the better. Instead of operating on the fiddle and the banjo, our clever musical sons and daughters can sing lovely accompaniments to the piano and the organ. The race is full of music, and their fame has reached the ends of the earth. Our churches and other inst.i.tutions have a great name for sacred music and song, and I have heard good judges among the white population declare that there are no such singers as the colored race in the United States. We may at least congratulate ourselves that the entire press of the United States and the British Isles have completely endorsed the above sentiments of my own, and therefore I do not think that any conscientious man will dispute them. It is an old and a true saying that variety is the spice of life, and the beauties of the different races of people appear to the greatest advantage where their separate traits of character most differ from one another. Music and song, indeed, are quite a distinguished feature in the colored race, and there again we have seen mighty changes wrought out through and by our freedom, and again I thank the goodness of the Lord for even such changes as these.

And yet we are only at the beginning of our improvements, a.s.sociated as we also are with the white race of the United States-one of the most talented and ingenious peoples that the world has ever seen! It is well for us in a way that we are so a.s.sociated, because our progress in these past years, and at the present time, is all the greater on that account.

And yet when we consider that it is only yesterday, as it were, that all our people were set free, that our unbroken progress is still going on along the whole line, and that our progress will continue to be more marked in the future as the years gone by, who can tell to what glorious heights of elevation our people shall attain, even within the next twenty or twenty-five years? Because in our own day and generation, all the arts and sciences seem to be coming to the front; learning, education and inventions are farther and farther advanced day by day, and every kind of improvement grows and flourishes like the green bay-tree. Progress indeed must be made; things will not go backwards, but must go forward, onward and upward. Such is the inevitable fate of the colored race. With so very much accomplished already; with fifty per cent. of our entire people throughout the whole Union who can read and write and work arithmetic, we may well wonder at the advancement still in store for our race, when education shall cover the whole land, as the waters cover the sea; when the remaining fifty per cent., who are still dest.i.tute of education, are brought into the fold, as it were, and an ignorant colored man or woman will be difficult to find in our nation.

The unparalleled progress that we have made reminds me of the progress of a great river. Take for example the Mississippi. How small it is when it issues from Lake Itasca, away up at its headwaters in Minnesota. It is of truth very small indeed, when it begins its journey to the sea.

But the river advances boldly upon its long way, and keeps on and on, and still on, while every now and then a branch comes flowing in, now on the right hand, now on the left, sometimes nothing but a small rivulet, then a large and swelling stream. Thus the Mississippi still keeps advancing on mile after mile on its journey, till the great Ohio swells its waters, and then the greater Missouri comes rolling down from the Rocky Mountains, and now the Mississippi is growing large, indeed-yes, very large. And here comes the Arkansas and the Red River, with many smaller streams from the east, and thus the mighty Mississippi, that began so small in Lake Itasca, has now reached the Crescent City, and whole fleets of s.h.i.+ps can float upon its bosom before its great and swelling waters reach the Gulf of Mexico. And thus it is with the advancement that has already been made by the colored race along the whole line. We began, indeed, very small in the year 1865, when the war closed, and the appliances of education and improvement were put into our hands. But here is the year 1902, and, like the Mississippi river, we have advanced far, very far upon our way; and yet we have by no means attained the goal of our expectations, by any means, but great changes are under way, and we are still advancing.

Many travelers have left it on record how they turned round upon the ever-ascending mountain way to mark progress, and see how far they had come. Then with fresh resolution they again turned their faces to the road that still lay before and above them, and that with renewed interest and courage. I don't know how it may be with anybody else, but as I am now about sixty years of age, I am at times given to look back, and to muse not only over all the way the Lord has led me, but also how He has led the entire race in my own days. The rising generation knows little of the thoughts and feelings, and the sufferings of their fathers and mothers on their way to freedom, and the present happy condition of things. But I am like that mountain traveller of whom I have just spoken, and I sit at times and muse and muse upon the tremendous excitement all over the North on the slavery question, and how the Abolitionists demanded freedom, and the South would not listen to any such thing. Then my mind runs back to Fred. Dougla.s.s, Henry Ward Beecher, and all those heroes and heroines who fought the good cause of liberty, and were faithful unto the end. We were in for a great and stirring time.

Little does the present generation know of the times we went through in the years immediately before the war, when I used to travel over the States of the North, a.s.sisting in the lecturing and agitation against slavery. It is a very great gratification to me nowadays to look back and think of all the wonders of that most wonderful and lengthened campaign when William Lloyd Garrison, and all the other "big guns" were thundering away, and the discharge of their mighty artillery shook all the land, even to the Gulf of Mexico! I am not so strong and supple in body now as I was in those glorious, Halcyon days; but I praise and bless the Lord that I was then endowed with health, and strength, and vigorous life to lay on the axe of liberty, and to help bring down that foul and deadly upas tree called "Slavery," that was the curse of the whole land-the public disgrace of the United States. Since then I have contributed many articles to the papers and magazines of the day to help my own people to rise up and start upon their feet; but there is nothing that I ever did that left so much pleasure upon my memory as the campaign wherein I played, sang and lectured against slavery in the South. Well, to be sure, how the surging crowds did come! It was a wonderful time that we had. The excitement was also most exhilarating.

But above all, those mighty changes were on the road, that we see around us to-day. The Lord has done great things for us already, and still we can say that there is a good time coming!

Upon the whole my life has been a happy one-at least, as happy as could be expected in this shady world of ours, where ever-changing clouds and suns.h.i.+ne chase each other all through our pilgrim journey to our home in heaven. I have tried to make the best of things, and to consign myself to the Lord's will as nearly as my infirmities will let me. Mercy and goodness have followed me all the days of my life, and I have been most abundantly blessed by the Lord above all that I could either ask or think. My dear reader will no doubt think that I am in a very contemplative frame of mind at the present time, thus looking back and musing upon the active years of my past life. No doubt the greater part of life's long day has gone by, and the evening and night are coming on.

But in my time I have learned to trust in G.o.d, to lay hold upon eternal life, to keep hope alive in my heart for all times for myself and all my people, not only my immediate family, but the entire colored race.

I am therefore able to look forward with calmness, and even joy, to the time when the great Lord will take me home to Himself. But still, as the evening and shadows of life are coming on, I will converse with my own family and friends upon the stirring events of the past years, and keep musing upon them, also. If variety is the spice of life, I am sure I have had plenty of it for my own part. I can never complain of the want of variety. And it has been a downright blessing to me, too; for it has added to my knowledge and blessing in every way. My travels and varied experiences have brought me into contact with strange and interesting peoples, and countless individuals, worth far more than their weight in gold. My many delightful journeys to the dearly beloved friends in Canada, and their return visits to me, have been like glorious rainbows that spanned the heavens of my happiness on earth. Then there is the permanent love and friends.h.i.+p of the many brave and true hearts that have thrown light and pleasure upon my path all along the line-good and faithful friends who a.s.sisted in pulling down the powers of slavery, and who now rejoice, in common with myself, that the mighty work was done at last, and that all our grand destiny is still before us. Thank G.o.d for this splendid prospect before us! It has been the joy of my life to see the improvements introduced into the American Const.i.tution in our favor, and the celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment all over the land, including the one we took a part in at Louisville, Kentucky, was a series of brilliant events that can never be forgotten.

As I am by nature a great lover of the ocean, I have made two voyages from New Orleans to New York, and have even crossed the great Atlantic, and visited the British Isles upon the happy occasion when my daughters were married. But above all things, I have had the pleasure of seeing the entire colored race set free; have seen them make incredible advances in every walk and department of life, and the promise is held out that they will still go on in the path of progress. We must still trust in G.o.d and ourselves, and march forward!

And now, my dear reader, wis.h.i.+ng for you all that is good, health and prosperity, I am

Yours most sincerely,

BEULAH LINCOLN.

[Ill.u.s.tration: __FINIS.__]

THE AMERICAN-SPANISH WAR-I.

Indulgent reader, I had grown accustomed to think that I should now live and die, and never see any more war, either foreign or domestic, on the part of the United States. All things were running smoothly on the part of our nation, and there hardly appeared the most distant cloud in our peaceful-looking skies. But, as Robert Burns, the famous Scotch poet, most truthfully says, "The best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft aglee, and leave us nought but grief and pain for promised joy." In the month of February, 1895, the oppressed and robbed people of Cuba once more raised the standard of rebellion against Spain, and entered upon another struggle with the mother country. The tyrant Spain had broken all the promises she had made at the close of the Ten Years' Cuban War, in 1878, and thus it came to pa.s.s, after an useless truce of seventeen years, that the Cuban leaders once more decided to raise the standard of rebellion against the tyrant, considering it better to die in a war for freedom than to sit down any longer in a state of endless oppression.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _GEN. ANTONIO MACEO._]

As our own nation had had a fearful war with England, in the days of George Was.h.i.+ngton-a war that lasted over seven years-all citizens of the United States felt a great deal of sympathy for the Cuban leaders, and for all the Cuban people-"a people who now devoted their lives unto death on the high places of the field"-and myself, my own family, and all my beloved race, felt very, very deeply for them.

And not only did the people of the United States, but all lovers of freedom throughout the world felt the greatest sympathy for the Cubans.

Thus long, weary months came and went, and poor, proud, decrepit old Spain, in her antiquated way, continued to borrow many millions of money at home and abroad, till at last "Pobre Espagna" (poor Spain) was hardly able to pay the mere interest upon the money she had borrowed, let alone the princ.i.p.al. The patriotic Cubans fought long, well and n.o.bly; so did the Spaniards, but no real advantage was ever gained upon either side, because the Cubans had neither seaport nor fleet, and were never able to get the Spaniards out of their ancient and powerful fortifications, whilst the Spaniards were never able to beat the Cubans off the field, get them out of their strongholds among the mountains, and their inaccessible retreats amidst their grand, primeval forests.

The Cubans of the United States, a.s.sisted by many of our own people, gathered money, and loaded filibustering vessels that ran the feeble Spanish blockade off the island, and safely landed an untold number of cargoes of arms and ammunition for the struggling patriots, while our own national feeling against Spain still increased as the days went by.

It is very true that the Government of the United States did all that it was able to preserve neutrality, and to keep the peace with Spain-nay, more than that-we were at last obliged even to police the seas around the Southern States to prevent those blockade-runners from slipping away from our parts with their loads of arms and ammunition for that devoted island, and we were hardly able to stop them when we had done our best.

Thus we were put to endless trouble to watch the seas for a foreign and cruel country, and that country was always laying complaints at our doors because we could watch no better!

[Ill.u.s.tration: _THE DEFENSE OF SANTIAGO._]

When Campos was Captain-General of Cuba, the war for independence in that unhappy island was conducted with some regard to decency and civilized ways; but the Spanish arms made no progress, and the mother country sent over the cruel General Weyler, usually called "The Butcher," and gave him a free hand in putting down the islanders in any way he saw fit. The mind of this bad man seems to have been imbued with all the old Spanish cruelties of the dark ages, and all that tiger-like love for cruelty and bloodshed for which Spain and the Spaniards have always been so notorious. The readers of the public press are no doubt well aware already of the treacherous acts, cruelties and medieval deeds of barbarism to which that monster and his soldiers resorted for the purpose of suppressing the Cuban rebellion. The worst of them all was his gathering the country people into seacoast towns and cities-mainly women, children and old men-where they subsequently died by tens of thousands; and thus the poor, oppressed Cuban nation was weakened at last to the number of at least 200,000, if not more; and by such cold-blooded deeds, and others on a smaller scale, quite as cruel, did that black-hearted Spanish butcher wear down the population of Cuba. He made war upon nature, and shocked the moral sense of the whole world.

And yet, this Weyler had the entire approval of the mother country while he thus caused the non-combatant part of the Cubans to perish, when they had the unblus.h.i.+ng impudence to carry on the barbarities of the dark ages all over the Island of Cuba, and right before our front door! The false and wilfully-lying messages that even this butcher sent home to Spain from day to day about victories that he had gained over the insurgents were usually contradicted by the American, and other foreign presses next day. Weyler excelled in nothing but writing false dispatches, while the hatred against him increased, both in Congress, and all over the United States. So great, indeed, was the outcry against the Spaniards, that the proud and scornful Dons kept sending more and more soldiers over the Atlantic, to give us to understand by that, that if we Americans dared to interfere between her and what she called "The Ever-Faithful Isle," she would there fight Uncle Sam to the death, and never surrender Cuba!

Captain-General Weyler's want of success, his cruelties and countless false reports were at last so revolting to the feelings of Uncle Sam that Spain decided to withdraw her faithful butcher, and send another Captain-General over, and his name was General Blanco. He was admonished to bring the Cuban leaders and the Cubans to terms by wiles, bribes and flattery; but the patriotic Cubans refused to swallow any such baits, and war went on the same as before-all our trade with Cuba being now destroyed, almost the whole island being reduced to the condition of a wilderness, while the silence of the grave seemed supreme everywhere.

Spain continued to make more and more fresh promises from month to month, both to ourselves and to the Cubans-promises made in deceit and craft, which she never meant to fulfill.

It is calculated that at one time there were two hundred thousand Spanish soldiers in Cuba, when the Cuban troops became so numerous that they even threatened Havana, and whipped the Spanish outposts in the suburbs of the stronghold. Affairs at last became so unsafe and threatening for the numerous American colonists in Havana, and throughout Cuba, that the United States battles.h.i.+p "Maine" was sent to the island, by way of protection, and she was duly anch.o.r.ed by the direction of the port authorities, in a certain specified position within the harbor of Havana.

Alas, alas! we little knew what we were doing! And yet, for the very life of me, I cannot but see that the hand of Providence was in some way or other connected with the anchoring of the Maine in the harbor of Havana. It is true that we might at some time or other have interfered in the Island, and there put an end to the medieval and murderous practices of "Old Spain," carried on at our front door here in the end of the nineteenth century; but war, in its best state, is a serious business, and Spain might have succeeded for a long time in gulling us with fair-faced promises she never meant to fulfill. In the pride of her heart she regarded the poor Cuban patriots as nothing but a gang of rebels, who, had they laid down their arms at her request, would have been treated as so many footb.a.l.l.s-as deserving less consideration than mere dogs and cats. Thus it appears to me very doubtful whether we would have embarked upon a war with that proud, haughty and impoverished nation, that loves to talk of her former grandeur, four hundred years ago. But the Spaniards viewed the coming of the Maine to Havana with hatred and disgust. Whispers in high places in the Cuban capital declared that she should be destroyed, and so in fact she was, for on Tuesday night, the 15th of February, 1898, the Spaniards blew her up with torpedoes planted underneath her in the water.

This destruction of a splendid American battles.h.i.+p, with the accompanying loss of 266 lives, brought much comfort and joy to the cruel Spanish heart; for the head gentlemen of Spain at Havana were known to laugh and be jolly, and to drink champagne wine over the destruction of our devoted vessel! But with us it was otherwise. We were overwhelmed with the most profound sorrow and grief. Every man, woman and child in all Uncle Sam's far-spreading Union was bowed down under this sudden blow that supplied so much comfort to the heart of the Spaniard. He looked upon us as his enemy because of our own sympathy for the Cubans; and so that s.h.i.+p was another "enemy" out of his way. His mirth did not prevent our national grief over the sudden murder of our 266 men, and the loss of the poor s.h.i.+p, so we sat down and cried real, sincere tears, while the naval commission were in session at Key West over the cause of the destruction of the unfortunate vessel. The finding of the court of inquiry was that the vessel was not blown up from within (as the Spaniards pretended), but was blown up from without, and that by the hands of the Spaniards, and done on purpose by them.

Then we wiped our tears away, and every man, woman and understanding child, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Lakes to the Gulf, arose and took an oath that that cruel and b.l.o.o.d.y nation of Spaniards should leave this hemisphere, bag and baggage, and that we should make them! Then the shout, "Remember the Maine!" was heard all over the land.

Congress demanded Spain's withdrawal from American waters; or else that war should be levied on her forthwith. Now did the regent mother country send letters to all the magnates of Europe, begging them to intercede, and make peace between the Americans and Spaniards. But from all quarters came the same reply, "You and the Americans help yourselves; this is not our war. Hold the Ever-faithful Isle-if you are able!"

While the war clouds were gathering the Spaniards still ran around Europe, praying and screeching for help. Uncle Sam went swiftly to work laid down fifty million dollars instantly, and quickly bought up a number of newly-built and powerful men-of-war from foreign nations-bought and hired swift and powerful merchant vessels, and swiftly clad them round their sides and all over their decks with steel-mail, so that they might boldly plough the waves, and do as useful service as the very best of iron-clads of effete Old Spain. Uncle Sam made two swift calls for troops, and almost every white and colored man replied, "We come, we come!" So terrible, indeed, was the impression produced by the loss of our poor s.h.i.+p, and the murder of 266 men at Havana, that almost every colored and white man in this nation seemed even to sigh and thirst to go and fight with Spain! Women by thousands and tens of thousands offered themselves as nurses, and to be used in any way that the Government pleased. Our colored men, once slaves, or the children of slaves, but now loyal freemen, came forward almost to a man, and with quite as much patriotism as their white brethren, at least, offered themselves as ready, quite ready to march to the war.

Uncle Sam's great difficulty lay in his having too many offers on his hands, so he picked and chose, and did his best. The fleet, of course, encountered a little more difficulty in filling up; but the flower of our youth-even the sons of millionaires among the rest-came trooping on in thousands, and our fleet was manned splendidly. Men were sent South by thousands and tens of thousands; the trains carried them down every day, accompanied with immense loads of ammunition, and all the appliances of war. Our new and old war vessels were gathered about Key West, etc., and others were placed near our great harbors, which harbors were defended by torpedoes and other means of offense and defense. By this time our demand upon Spain to get out of the West Indies had been received by the proud Dons, and had been refused by them, as we expected. So we moved on with the war, and our own four regiments of regular colored United States troops, the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, and the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry, which had been brought from the far West to Chickamauga Park, were brought down to Key West, in order to be at hand to sail over to Cuba along with their white brothers when the "Ever-Faithful Isle-Fair Cuba, the Queen of the Antilles,"

should be invaded by all the boys in blue.

I am not aware that even the most rabid misanthrope in the United States believed in his heart that there was one colored man who was not willing to go to the war, and also able to do yeoman service in knocking down the Spaniards, if he were allowed to get at them. It is true that charges were made against some of us, but charges were also made in the same way against the whites. It is true that some of our men made their marching to war conditional on their now having their own colored officers; but that demand was right, and they only asked their own.

Our hereditary enemies are not all dead by any means, yet! Either they are less formidable, or we ourselves are growing more independent. The small pettifogging journalist tried to make the usual capital out of our men holding out for his most undoubted rights, for what would a white regiment, indeed, think, if the law was that none but colored officers should be placed over white men? And yet, that was the very thing that certain men-white men-in our nation demanded, namely, that none but white officers should be placed in command of colored soldiers!

[Ill.u.s.tration: _BATTLE OF SAN JUAN HILL._]

It is very true there were a few colored officers in the ranks, and colored chaplains; but, like angels' visits, they were few and far between. But the Spanish war was on, and colored men had to go or stay.

Some demanded officers of their own race, seeing they were competent to fill such positions as the whitest of men. It was only the dregs of slavery in the bottom of the cup that were left. It was only the difference between a dark skin and a light one, don't you know. Well, quite a number of the governors granted the colored regiments their pet.i.tions; gave them all the officers of their own race, from Colonel down, and it has been proven that they have acted and succeeded as well as white officers could ever have possibly done. Other governors hesitated about granting their just demands, and claimed that white officers ought to be placed over colored men.

But, as I said before, the war was now under way, and as too much time could not be lost in wrangling in this unseemly manner over a matter, after all, no greater than the color of the skin, our brave fellows in some of the States said they were willing to give way, and go and fight the Spaniards under command of white officers. In some States there was no dispute. It is a well-known fact that colored men have often been greatly attached to their white officers, and in like manner, these officers have been greatly attached to their own soldiers, and thus they have got along harmoniously together at all times. At the same time, this knotty point has been settled once for all in many a State, and the men-colored men, I mean-have been allowed to have the officers of their own choice. No doubt the time will come when all these "trumpery distinctions" will be done away! The dregs of slavery washed out of the cup! The time will come in the United States when white men will be led by colored officers, and colored men will be led by white officers. Life is really too short for such foolishness as squabbling over small trifles like these. One thing I know, the Bible tells us that G.o.d has made of one blood all the races that dwell upon earth.

The readings in the public papers about the enthusiasm of colored men for the war against the Spaniards was most refres.h.i.+ng. Taken as a whole, white men of every walk in life, awarded them the very highest possible praise for their love of drilling-for their great willingness to be drilled, and for the great progress they made in drilling. Some of them, indeed, seemed to be drilling both in season and out of season, because even after their officers had given them all their needful drilling for the pa.s.sing day, they would themselves get together and drill themselves for a whole hour, or for an hour and a half at a time. I must not forget a most unusually lively letter I saw from Key West at the time that our four regiments of regulars (United States) were lying there in readiness to sail over to Cuba. This letter stated that they were regiments of grand men; tall, powerful, splendid fellows; full of life, humor and enthusiasm, and that they looked as if they would be able to lick three or four Spaniards apiece! No doubt our glorious fellows were far more than a match for the Spaniards, who only weighed about 130 pounds apiece, stood five feet, six inches in height, and few of them seem able to shoot straight; while our men stand six feet, are powerful, and can hit the mark almost every time.

Thus time pa.s.sed on, while the entire colored race all over the land took the deepest interest in the war, calling upon the war department, or sending to the President, whenever there was occasion for the same. A Conference of the Zion A. M. E. Church, at the commencement of the war, sat in Baltimore, at which time a notice was sent forth throughout the nation that ten new cadets, for some military reason or other, were to be brought forward. The Conference here stepped forward, and did the right thing. They drew up a most respectful and patriotic address upon the subject to the President, and asked that three cadets out of those ten should be men of color. The address was then sealed up, and sent to McKinley. At Baltimore, also, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Dr. Bryant, a regiment of colored men was organized and drilled in good earnest. At first many of these young volunteers were awkward enough, but we are all awkward in the beginning. So they persevered, and in the course of time became quite proficient; and I have no doubt, had the war lasted, and they had gone to the front, and met the Spaniards in the open field, that they would have whipped them hip and thigh, as other colored troops did later on. The spirit of all our people was most excellent; we were determined to see ourselves righted, and there were none but a few old soreheads that stood in our way.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _COLORED SOLDIERS AND MUSICIANS_]