General Grosvenor is richly entitled to and received a just meed of praise for the great service he has done by putting this grand array of fact and heroic deed in popular form, and thereby strengthening the Negro appeal for justice and opportunity, while its pages are a noble contribution to a valor that will illumine Negro history for all time. It was most opportune, for the then pressing need to strengthen the weak and recall the recalcitrants who indiscriminately charge the party with being remiss in requiting and acknowledging the Negro's devotion. The well-earned plaudits for his bravery on the battlefield should widen the area of his consciousness, intensify conviction that mediocrity is a drug in every human activity, for whether in the professions, literature, agriculture or trades, it is excellence alone that counts and will bring recognition, despite the frowning battlements of caste. As we become more and more valued factors in the common cause of the general welfare, that the flexibility of American sentiment on conviction of merit will be more apparent we cannot but believe; for conditions seem to have surmounted law and seek their own solution, since the supreme law of the land seems ineffectual and local sentiment the arbiter, when the Negro is plaintiff. In the first section of Article 14 of the Constitution we have: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the several States wherein they reside. No State shall enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." To neutralize this pronounced and unequivocal legislation we have the dictum of the Supreme Court of the United States that this constitutional right, so plainly set forth, can be legally abrogated by a State convention or legislature. While from the premises stated the conclusion may be evident to a jurist, to the layman it is perplexing; and while bowing in obeyance to this court of last resort, he cannot but admire the judicial agility in escaping the problem. He is reminded of a final response touching the character and standing of a church member of whom the inquirer wishes to know. The reply was: "Brother B. is quite prominent and well known here." "Well, what is his standing?" "Oh, very high; he is the elder of our church and superintendent of the Sunday school." "Yes, but as I am thinking of having some business dealings with him, what I want to know is, how does he stand for credit and promptness?" "Well, stranger, if you put it that way, I must say that heavenward Bro. B. is all right, but earthward he is rather twistical." Ordinaryward, the Supreme Court is all right; but Negroward, twistical. [Illustration: JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN, Chief Justice of the United States.