irresistibly for the defense of the rights of their Southern brethren.

In the meantime the Northern colored men have the right of free speech,
and they should never cease to demand their rights, to clamor for them, to
guard them jealously, and insistently to invoke law and public sentiment
to maintain them. He who would be free must learn to protect his freedom.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. He who would be respected must
respect himself. The best friend of the Negro is he who would rather see,
within the borders of this republic one million free citizens of that
race, equal before the law, than ten million cringing serfs existing by a
contemptuous sufferance. A race that is willing to survive upon any other
terms is scarcely worthy of consideration.

The direct remedy for the disfranchisement of the Negro lies through
political action. One scarcely sees the philosophy of distinguishing
between a civil and a political right. But the Supreme Court has
recognized this distinction and has designated Congress as the power to
right a political wrong. The Fifteenth Amendment gives Congress power to
enforce its provisions. The power would seem to be inherent in government
itself; but anticipating that the enforcement of the Amendment might
involve difficulty, they made the superorogatory declaration. Moreover,
they went further, and passed laws by which they provided for such
enforcement. These the Supreme Court has so far declared insufficient. It
is for Congress to make more laws. It is for colored men and for white men
who are not content to see the blood-bought results of the Civil War
nullified, to urge and direct public opinion to the point where it will
demand stringent legislation to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments. This demand will rest in law, in morals and in true
statesmanship; no difficulties attending it could be worse than the
present ignoble attitude of the Nation toward its own laws and its own