We have assembled to-day to commemorate that event in American history which brought freedom to the slave; to celebrate a day upon which the negro was lifted from the darkest depths of human servitude to a sphere of liberty and life. How dark must have been the times when no Bibles were read around our family fireside, when few words comforted the sick and no befitting funeral services were observed for the dead. We cannot look to the heights which we as a race represent nor can we rightly consider our place in American life and thought without reflecting upon the depths from which we have come and upon those who assisted in making possible for us such large opportunities. We gladly bow in homage to those noble hearted men and women who sympathized with us and so lavishly poured out their earnings and sacrificed their lives for the dawn of a day whose sun will never set. Blessed be the memory of those who persevered amid prejudice in presenting testimony against prevailing wrongs and in giving us of their deepest convictions.... Paramount to all questions extending almost throughout our extensive domain, is the so-called "negro question." This question has been much discussed and poorly settled. Because in a few years the negro as a whole has not become learned, does not possess streets of magnificent and commodious buildings, has not presidents of railroad corporations and banking interests, because he has not worked his way to the highest office in the gift of his people, it is often said that he cannot embrace American civilization and is entitled to no share in his country's greatness and protection. Some of our own people have been made to believe such contention and have begun to consider our cause a hopeless one. We know that the place demanded is the place to be earned only by diligent application and persistent effort.