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16 events for those which are to appear. We don't even know the evil or the good that may be in store for us. Twenty-five years ago the system of slavery seemed firm. Cotton was king, and the civilized world acknowledged his amplitude. Twenty-five years ago no man could have anticipated that in less than ten years from that time, no master would wield a lash, and no slave would clank a chain in the United States. Who at that time dreamed that Negroes would ever be seen as we have seen them to-day marching through the streets of this superb city, the Capital of this great Nation, with eagles on their buttons, muskets on their shoulders and swords by their sides, timing their high footsteps to the Star Spangled Banner and the Red, White and Blue? Who at that time dreamed that colored men would ever sit in the House of Representatives and in the Senate of the United States? With a knowledge of the events of the last score of years, with a knowledge of the sudden and startling changes which have already come to pass, I am not prepared to say what the future will be. But I will say that I do not look for colonization either in or out of the United States. Africa is too far off, even if we desired to go there, which we do not. The navy of all the world would not be sufficient to remove our natural increase to that-far off country. Removal to any of the territories is out of the question. We have no business to put ourselves before the bayonets of the white race. We have seen the fate of the Indian. As to extinction, the prospect in that direction has been greatly clouded by the census just taken,m in which it is seen that our increase is ten per cent. greater than that of the white people of the South. There is but one destiny, it seems to me, left for us, and that is to make ourselves and be made by others a part of the American people in every sense of the word. Assimilation and not isolation is our true policy and our natural destiny. Unification for us is life : separation is death. We cannot afford to set up for ourselves a separate political party, or adopt for ourselves a political creed apart from the rest of our fellow citizens. Out own interests will be subserved by a generous care for the interests of the Nation at large. All the political, social and literary forced around us tend to unification. I am the more inclined to accept this solution because I have seen the steps already taken in that direction. The American people have their prejudices, but they have other qualities as well. They easily adapt themselves to inevitable conditions and all their tendency is to progress, enlightenment and to the universal. "It's comin' yet for a' that, That man to man the warld o'er Shall brothers be for a' that."
