to their importance, they were all copied after "the pattern shown them in the mount." In this world of short memories, we cannot too often review the record which constitutes the claim of this Association to signal affection and honor. The fact of splendid accomplishment in the past is freely and generally admitted, but within recent years the question has been frequently raised whether the Association has not fulfilled its mission, and whether the logic of events does not justify the cessation of its special work? That is a fair question and has a right to an intelligent and definite answer. It might be a sufficient reply to say that the collateral work of the Society among the other alien races on the continent is of sufficient importance to demand the continuance of the organization and constitute a claim for generous support, but we may leave that out of account and consider that line of effort in which it is best known and with which it will always be specially identified in the common thought, and narrow the inquiry down to the question whether the condition and prospects of the Freedmen of the South are such that the discontinuance of this work could be safely allowed or result in anything but lamentable disaster. And in answering that question emphatically in the negative, there is not necessarily any imputation cast upon the honest intentions of the white population of the South. But they labor under special difficulties. Trained for generations to regard the African as a servile and inferior race, it is not easy for them to rid themselves of the traditions and beliefs of centuries. In the nature of things they cannot all at once rise to the level of enthusiasm in the matter of the education and elevation of their former serfs. With their old conviction, not yet wholly changed, of the divine right of slavery, every freedman in the streets represents so much property of which they have been despoiled by governmental authority. Unfamiliar with the adjustments of labor and capital in a free State, it is hard to suit themselves to the new order of things. Even the better class in society have a secret feeling that somehow they have been wronged, and that better class is fringed with a large and lawless class who vent their bitterness in outrage and violence, and so keep alive old animosities. Under all the circumstances, simple justice on the part of the people of the South means more than large generosity on the part of the people of the North, and simple justice is far from being a universal thing. The African must demonstrate his right to manhood and civil equality before either will be allowed him, except under the compulsion of the law, and allowance of that limited and enforced nature counts for but very little. There never was a time when not righteousness alone, but the prosperity of the nation as well, demanded more earnest, persistent, well-considered endeavor for the instruction and uplifting and complete