I Fifty Years of Freedom 3 FIFTY YEARS OF FREEDOM. On the twenty-second of September, 1862, President Lincoln issued his Preliminary Proclamation, which was in the nature of a notice to the states in rebellion, that unless they returned to their allegiance within a specified time the slaves within their borders would be declared free. The time expired without accomplishing the desired result. Accordingly on January 1, 1863, the President issued his Supplemental Proclamation manumitting the slaves within the rebellious states. This did not, of course, set them free. They were still slaves and continued to be as long as the war lasted. Freedom did not come, as a matter of fact, until the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Courthouse April 9, 1865. The effectiveness of the Proclamation depended upon crushing the rebellion. It was the victorious army of the North, under the leadership of General Grant, that gave efficacy to the Proclamation. For all practical purposes, however, we may assume that fifty years have elapsed since freedom came to us as a race. Fifty years is a long time in the history of an individual, but not very long in that of a race. It is sufficiently long, however, to make it worth while for us to stop and think a little about what these fifty years have meant to us, and to see if there are any lessons in them that may be helpful to us as we enter upon the second half of a century of freedom. At the end of these fifty years we find: I. That we have made considerable progress. We are not now where we were fifty years ago. We are not as poor; we are not as ignorant; we are not as morally debased. The plane upon which we stand now is higher. This progress, in some respects, has been unparalleled. It is not necessary for me to speak in detail of what has been accomplished along educational lines. The record is before the whole country. No one can read the last report of the Commissioner of Education of the National Government without realizing that very marvelous changes for the better have taken place in the condition of the colored people. The facts as presented there, touching the number of public schools and public school teachers ministering to the intellectual wants of this race, as well as the large number of higher educational institutions having the same end in view, show conclusively that conditions now are very different and very much superior to what they were fifty years ago. The large number of teachers, lawyers, doctors, ministers, now to be
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