Now, since Adam and Eve walked hand in hand on the enchanting grounds of Paradise, I would like to know where the people can be found who ever came out of such Cimmerian darkness, who ever progressed at such a rate as this? The present march of education among the colored race far surpasses the march of the whites since freedom came, and it still keeps ahead of them at the present time of writing. Indeed, in some parts of the fair and Sunny South, we are in lead our white brethren; and it is quite superfluous for me to say that whoever are in the lead in education are the more intelligent of the two, be they black or white. Behold the stupid-looking and ignorant hordes of Italians, Poles, Bohemians, Chinese and others who are dumped down in shiploads upon our shores! Even at home in their own lands they are very little more than dumb-driven cattle! How much more, then, must their stupidity appear in full blaze of daylight in a highly-intelligent nation like this! It is like comparing the feeble light of midnight under the stars alone with the full blaze of a day when the sun is shining at twelve at noon. Shall we of the colored race, who may now safely count on fifty per cent. of the entire population who can read and write compare ourselves with the immigrants like these, or even with Spaniard or Portuguese, Turks or Greeks, who have had the opportunities of acquiring education for hundreds of years, while we, who were set free only thirty-two years ago, have produced men and women who have stood in honor before presidents and kings, and proved that we are able to climb to the topmost rounds of the ladder that Almighty God Himself has set up? No, indeed. Men and brethren, we are not going to come down and compare ourselves with any such persons! That won’t do at all!