But during all these unhappy years that followed the close of the war there was one thing that did not miscarry, and that was the great march of the emancipated slaves on the road to progress, and everything that tends to elevate and ennoble a nation. The fostering national government, the churches of the North, and all that which was best in this great republic, were straining themselves to the very utmost to lift up the entire redeemed race by affording them the best education that they could possibly bestow. Teachers still flocked down from the North in great numbers, all kinds of schools were opened, and institutes and colleges were set on float for the benefit of the boys and girls, and young men and young women, who wished to attend them. There was no branch of education that was not supplied to the white race that was not also supplied to the colored. And not only did children and youths attend those schools, but even men and women; parents and grandparents in thousands took up their spelling-books and first readers, and went to work with a hearty good will, and learned to read, write and spell with great rapidity. The progress that the emancipated race made in the line of education was perfectly marvelous, and astonished the whole nation. Even old preachers, who had been preaching the gospel for fifty years, went to work and learned how to read the Bible; they learned how to write letters and work arithmetic for the first time in their lives. It had been charged often enough that the colored race were unfitted by nature to learn this, that and other things. The studied policy of the slave-holders was, not to give them a chance, and then to tell a willful falsehood. But now that all were free, they rushed in at once, and showed the whole world that they were as capable of learning as any other race under the sun. Nay, more! They even crossed the oceans, and were recognized by all the nations on the face of the earth!