Also, it renders sincere thanks to the writers of the different papers, and to the Committees and speakers who have given time and thought, and so greatly aided in the power and success of the meeting. A response was made by Rev. Dr. Blake, of the Committee of Arrangements. The closing prayer was offered by Rev. A. H. Plumb, of Boston. The Doxology was sung, and, with the Benediction by Rev. Dr. Hartranft, the Association adjourned. * * * * * ADDRESS OF REV. SYLVANUS HEYWOOD. MR. PRESIDENT AND CHRISTIAN FRIENDS: I do not feel that I can stand here to give any instruction, nor scarcely any stimulus, in the work you are engaged in. Your presence is enough for that. But there are four or five points which seem to need special emphasis at this time--points upon which there appears to be some doubt in the minds of the people of the North. First, is there absolute necessity of a higher education for the Freedmen in the United States? I do not say of a common-school education, for all admit the necessity of that. But I apprehend that there are many people who doubt the policy of founding universities at the South. I have a suspicion that thousands of dollars have been withheld from this Association for that very reason. This seems to me a most important work. I think upon it depends the vital principle of equal rights for all. You may enact laws, and hedge them about with penalties for securing the rights of the blacks, but law alone will prove a failure. But give to them the highest Christian culture, and they will not only demand, but command, their rights. Give them a common-school education, and it will be a blessing to them; but with nothing more, they will remain but hewers of wood and drawers of water. They will be _in_ society, but not _of_ it. But give them the highest culture among cultured men, and the case will be far different. It is too late in the day to raise the question whether they are capable of this. This Association has demonstrated that, day by day. I have spent ten years as a teacher among the whites, and two among the blacks; and I must say that I accomplished more in those two years than in the ten--more in the way of giving instruction. I say it is too late to raise that question at all. It is already demonstrated. Let them be educated with broad culture. Let them have the training that will put them in possession of practical skill, such as shall win success. Let them have their own lawyers, well trained in legal lore, so that they shall be able--in that natural eloquence in which they excel--to carry conviction to dignified courts. Let them have clergymen, not only earnest and sanctified, but able to cope with the deep things of science and theology--men able to stand before the most learned bodies. Let them have statesmen, well grounded in philosophy,