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despise us, not less than those who respect us, know that now and here, in
the spirit of liberty, loyalty, and gratitude, we unite in this act of reverent
homage. Let it be known everywhere, and by everybody who takes an inter-
est in human progress and in the amelioration of the condition of mankind,
that, in the presence and with the approval of the members of the American
House of Representatives, reflecting the general sentiment of the country;
that in the presence of that august body, the American Senate, representing
the highest intelligence and the calmest judgment in the country; in the pres-
ence of the Supreme Court and Chief-Justice of the United States, to whose
decisions we all patriotically bow; in the presence and under the steady eye
of the honored and trusted President of the United States, with the members
of his wise and patriotic Cabinet, we, the colored people, newly emanci-
pated and rejoicing in our blood-bought freedom, near the close of the first
century in the life of this Republic, have now and here unveiled, set apart,
and dedicated a monument of enduring granite and bronze, in every line,
feature, and figure of which the men of this generation may read, and those
of after-coming generations may read, something of the exalted character
and great works of Abraham Lincoln, the first martyr President of the
United States.

Fellow citizens, in what we have said and done to-day, and in what we
may say and do hereafter, we disclaim everything like arrogance and
assumption. We claim for ourselves no superior devotion to the character,
history, and memory of the illustrious man whose monument we have here
dedicated to-day. We fully comprehend the relation of Abraham Lincoln both
to ourselves and to the white people of the United States. Truth is proper and
beautiful at all times and in all places, and it is never more proper and beauti-
ful in any case than when speaking of a great public man whose example is
likely to be commended for honor and imitation long after his departure to
the solemn shades,⁠—the silent continents of eternity. It must be admitted,
truth compels me to admit, even here in the presence of the monument we
have erected to his memory, Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense
of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations,
in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man.

He was preëminently the white man's President, entirely devoted to the
welfare of white men. He was ready and willing at any time during the first
years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of
humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people
of this country. In all his education and feeling he was an American of the
Americans. He came into the Presidential chair upon one principle alone,