From the days of Washington to the days of Grant there was scarcely a decisive battle fought upon American soil in which the Negro did not participate in the defense of the stars and stripes. Though much of his heroism has been forgotten because it was not published and commented upon in American history, yet a few great men, such as Gens. Lee, Jackson, Sherman, and Grant, have been generous enough to hand down to us in their private diaries the valuable service rendered the government by these black soldiers on the bloody field of battle. Especially in the late war did the government learn to recognize the Spartanlike heroism of the Negro. He was always ready to charge and the last man to retreat. He was the first to lift his hand and shed his blood when the colonies were attacked by the British in Boston; and Gen. Sherman, in his "History of the War," says that the last man wounded in the late rebellion was a Negro, and the last man who fired a gun to close the unfortunate war was a Negro, upon the banks of the Rio Grande. Hence the Negro has a record that any race might envy. THE NEGRO AS A CITIZEN. As a citizen, the Negro is peaceable, unassuming, and friendly toward all races. He has studied to know his duty as a constituent of the government, and does all in his power to perform the same. He is always looking and praying for better times, but he never organizes a labor union and goes out on a strike to make times better. He is rapidly gaining wealth and intelligence. He is making every effort to keep pace with the advancing tide of Christian civilization, and the census of this country shows that he is making progress on every line. Remember, too, that the most of these men were born slaves and started out with nothing, not even good advice, but with all odds--even their color, their previous condition, and public sentiment--against them. Remember also that only one Negro out of a thousand has had as yet an equal chance in the race of life, for freedom of body, with every avenue leading toward the heights of unqualified freedom of will and of purpose closed, and he left standing uncovered and exposed to the worst elements of a superior race, is worse (if anything can be worse) than slavery. And yet, with all that, the Negro has proven to be equal to all occasions as a citizen, and, with superior zeal to any race, he has seized every opportunity and entered every door of usefulness that opened to him. Come walk with me through these halls and let us see his higher life and aims. See the walls bedecked with pictures of Negro homes and other real estate that would compare very favorably with a majority of the homes of the white men of this country; and this is not a fair exhibit of the progress of the race, for not one-thousandth part of the Negro wealth is on exhibition here. You find him an inventor, a painter, a sculptor, and no mean artist. He can make tools, invent machinery, and knows how to use them.