But the Southerner pleads strongly against recognizing the _political_ equality of the races. He says, The negro is not my equal in intelligence, property or character. Why should he cast a ballot he cannot read, elect men to make laws which they themselves cannot read, to impose taxes of which he pays almost nothing, and to squander the money for the benefit of demagogues? A most estimable Christian gentleman from South Carolina said to me not long since: “On one point the people of our State are agreed. We will not again be ruled by the negroes. We have tried it and we will not permit it to be repeated.” To all this the ready answer is: It was one thing for ignorant, degraded and unscrupulous negroes at that time to rule—nay, I may say, ruin—the State, and another and very different thing, to permit negroes that are educated, possessed of property and of established character to take their proper share in the administration of the affairs of the State; and this brings me to my final point. 3. It is the duty of the hour and of all concerned to unite in aiding the negro to acquire knowledge, property and character. In the Revolutionary struggle, the two White Brothers stood shoulder to shoulder for one object; in the last sad conflict they fought against each other to the bitter end. It is time that the enmity of the last struggle should be laid aside and the amity of the first should be imitated. Let the two White Brothers unite in directing the general government to make ample provisions on terms satisfactory to both to promote popular education in the South; let the State governments in the South vote means to second the effort. Let the North, as individuals and churches, multiply greatly its generous offerings and increase the number of its consecrated men and women to carry forward the work, and let the South respond in its measure in personal contributions and labors, and especially let its people welcome these Northern teachers, not with suspicion and ostracism, but with co-operation and the respect due to their Christian characters. Let the large religious denominations bury dead issues and unite in lifting up the negro. On what nobler or more Christian platform could they stand? Let them come to him not as the priest and the Levite, but as the Samaritan; and let the Black Brother show more alacrity than ever in responding to these efforts in his behalf. When all this is done, there will be realized the great mission of these Three Brothers in America—the founding of a great empire, the establishing of civil and religious liberty, the granting of personal freedom to all, and last and greatest of all, the crowning glory of illustrating the Brotherhood of Man! * * * * * NEED OF INTELLIGENCE IN BENEVOLENCE. BY SECRETARY POWELL. _What should be done to increase the number of those who intelligently contribute to the support of the American Missionary Association?_