Why Be Loyal.
I pass on to some positive considerations. Why we should be loyal
in this crisis? I do not, however, take stock in some of the reasons
advanced.
We do not need to fight at this time to show that we are brave;
that has been demonstrated. That monument on Boston common erected
in honor of the first martyrs in the Revolutionary war, the noble
words of Andrew Jackson to the colored men who formed the breastworks
at New Orleans, the record of the two hundred thousand black soldiers
in the civil war--these tell the world of the black man's bravery.
You remember the incident at Fort Wagner. Colonel Shaw made a
brilliant charge against great odds. The color bearer fell, but
another caught the flag and carried it to the top of the fort.
Tho wounded as he stood before the rain of bullets he held to
the flag until retreat, and when they brought Sergeant Carney
to the hospital amid cheers of his wounded comrades he said: "Boys,
the old flag never touched the ground." Such men have established
our claim to bravery.
We do not need to fight to show our loyalty. We have not only
showed our loyalty in time of war, but at a time when it is more
difficult to do so. I refer to times of peace. What portion of
our complex citizenry today is more loyal than the black? At the
belated call of their country they came two hundred thousand strong,
and in the days of subsequent peace they showed the genuineness
of their loyalty by settling down to hard work. If our loyalty
has not been demonstrated in the past, we must despair of doing
so now.
The Real Reason.
The real reason why the duty of the hour demands our loyalty
is in this. Our country is engaged in a righteous war. It is war
for larger liberty. The freedom of manhood, the purity of womanhood,
the future of childhood--these are in the womb of this struggle.
It is an appeal to the highest sentiments. Our country is responding
to the call. We are a real part of this country, and nothing that
concerns her is without interest to us. We are not Afro-Americans,
but Americans to the manor born. There should be no hyphen in
American citizenship.
If we do not co-operate with our country in this humanitarian
movement will it not indicate that we have not caught the American
spirit? Will it not show that those finer feelings and nobler
instincts that move others, that are moving this whole nation,
do not appeal to us? I know there are no people richer in feeling
and finer in instincts than the cultured of the race I speak to
tonight. The remembrance of our sad past and the Mighty Hand that
delivered us but adds to our natural fitness to sympathize with
the people of Cuba in their struggle to throw off the yoke that
galls and dash in pieces the cup that is bitter.
Full
text (Library of Congress/African-American Perspectives: Pamphlets
from the Daniel A.P.Murray Collection, 1818-1907)
