and injustice, and on the other of our cupidity and cruelty. The
troubles that come to us through our Eastern and Western ports, are
drawn to us by the attractive influence of our free institutions and our
material prosperity.

What are we to do with these alien elements? Do as Rome did. When Rome
heard of a hostile nation on her borders, she conquered it, attached it
to the Empire, and made it a new pillar of imperial power. So are we to
conquer every element of darkness and attach it to the kingdom of light,
making it an element of strength in our American civilization and our
American Christianity. The difference in the method is the difference
between paganism and Christianity, for while Rome conquered with a sword
of steel, we conquer with the sword of the Spirit. We conquer by giving
gifts unto men, the four gifts of law, land, letters and religion. We
have given law to the African and the European with citizenship and the
ballot; we have given land to the African and the European, and, thanks
to Christian statesmanship, we will soon give it to the Indian in
severalty; and to all will we give letters and religion.

It is the peculiar glory of this Association that it deals more directly
than any other agency with the gravest and most urgent of these
problems, the education of the colored race, so that while the
Government gives the Negro citizenship, and permits him to own land,
this society undertakes the work of fitting him for the ownership of
land and for the responsibility of citizenship. And it is doing this in
the genuine way, through the gospel of Christ, and education as the
handmaid and helper of the gospel--that helper without which
Christianity would be falsely conceived, and erroneously applied, and
without which a failure would result in the ethical training of the
colored race. The Association, by its educational work, is thus