Those who associate the movement for the freedom of the Negro only with the northern section of our country forget that in Tennessee the first anti-slavery paper was published, and that in the early years of the nineteenth century it was far safer to deliver a speech against slavery in East Tennessee than in any part of the North. In Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Mason and George Wythe, all Virginians, the cause of freedom found uncompromising advocates. It was through the influence of these men that the first Congress of the colonies in 1774 adopted unanimously a covenant against slavery. Thomas Jefferson wrote that portion of the ordinance before the Continental Congress in 1784 which declared for the freedom of the Negro in all territory to be ceded to the new Union by the original states. Unfortunately this section of the resolution was lost, because a delegate from the state of New Jersey, who was in favor of it, was not in his place in Congress when the vote was taken. Those of us who have studied the passing and conflicting scenes and the bitter partisan struggles in our country for the last century, all growing out of slavery and the awful impress which the system left upon our civilization, can realize what tremendous results may hang upon the vote of a single individual. History relates that as the British ships at Trafalgar started into battle Lord Nelson, the great commander, signaled from the flag-ship this immortal message—“England expects every man to his duty.” It may have been the inspiration of these words that brought victory to the British forces that day. If this one delegate had been present when that all important vote was taken on what is now known as the ordinance of 1784, this country would have been spared the bloody drama of the Civil War and the Negro race a half century of a cruel, degrading slavery. A wonderful lesson there is for us all in the failure of this one man to do his duty. In this hour, I may say, of our peril, when the whole Christian world has its eyes upon him, when all of his faults are magnified and all his virtues depreciated, it becomes necessary for the humblest one among us to do his duty; to live a life that will be above suspicion and that will command the respect of all men.