May I quote at this place one other paragraph from the words of Dr. Leonard Bacon? It is at the close of a letter dated “New Haven, October 22, 1875,” and is in these words: “May I be allowed to say one word concerning the future of this society? That word is conciliation—conciliation by meekness, by love, by patient continuance in well-doing. The field is wide open for schools and for the preaching of the Gospel, two great forces operating as one for fundamental reconstruction. In both these lines of effort the work of the society must be more and more a work of conciliation—conciliation of the South to the North and to the restored and beneficent Union; conciliation of races to each other, white to black and black to white; conciliation of contending sects oppressed with traditional bigotries to the simplicity of the truth as it is in Jesus.” Thomas Jefferson was not a prophet: Leonard Bacon was. And, thank God! so much has been done by this Association to incarnate the truth that was in his great thoughts and to fulfill his hopes and predictions as to its own future. But this work of “fundamental reconstruction” is a slow process, suggests the impatient one. That is true; character-building, whether in a man or in a nation or in a race, is always a slow process. And it must be slower in a nation or in a race than in a man. There was never any great work done in the uplifting or training of a race in a day or in a year. It takes generations. How slowly our own race has risen out of its original savagery; how unfit we still are to fulfill our mission to the world. We have small cause for boasting when white men’s votes—sometimes enough of them to turn the scale in great elections—can be bought cheap in the open streets. Lifting up a nation or a race is a slow process; wherefore the greatest necessity for zeal, for wisdom, and for patience in our work. Whenever a great and necessary work that requires a long time and much labor is to be done, we should begin at once and do our best. You find more sympathy and more of the spirit of co-operation among Southern people than you found ten years ago. I rejoice in this change of feeling in the South, and it is easy to understand it. Time, the healer, has done his blessed work. Grace has overcome, and the grave has buried much of bitter feeling on both sides. You have learned your work better, and we have learned more perfectly its value. A good deal of your work I have seen; I believe it is good. I have looked into your school methods; they are yielding happy results. I have considered “examination papers” from some of your schools; they would have done credit to any school for any race. I have listened to speeches and essays from colored youth at your commencements; there was the evidence of sound culture and true religion in them. When I heard them I “thanked God and took courage.”