Alexander Crummell

“ There is a significant meaning in that new word just introduced into our language, that is, the "solidarity of nations:" for a nation is a collection of men; not of angels, not of demi-gods, not of indescribable celestials; but of men—men of flesh, and blood, and bone, and muscle; men "of the earth, earthy;" men of the same make, and nature, and appetencies, and destiny, as ourselves, and the men of all other nations; and, therefore, a nation is but a section of the great commonwealth of humanity, a phase of the common type of being, and no more. ”

“ Our religion is the Christian religion,—Protestant, God be praised, in its main characteristics; and it is harmonious, in all its utterances, as the music of the sphere's. Our civilization, in its elements, is that of the world's Christendom; and it springs upward, in all its legitimate tendencies, unerringly as the rustling pinions of a returning angel to the skies. Our language is that of the foremost men of all the earth ”

“ Let law and religion, learning and scholarship, pure speech, noble ideas, and sacred principles—the order and moral dignity of the family—man's moral strength, woman's winning beauty, her stainless purity, her exalted excellence and piety,—and the simplicity of youth,—let these be the agencies we use in forming and compacting the main and master instrument for the fulfilment of a nation's mission—its mind and manhood! ”

“ The strong, active, energetic Roman rises before its with a fabulous origin, strangely contrasting with the real, actual life and bearing, which mark his strong hand and his iron sway for centuries. But though Roman history is the story of the mastery of might over right, of the abeyance of individual freedom, of the crushing out of national life, of splendid, but barbaric brute force; yet Rome has transmitted the legacy of two valuable principles to man—invincible energy, and that of law and government. ”

“ But, as for the world's history in general, alas! how few know any thing about training and fashioning men! Among the vast millions of human beings on earth, and of all its divers nations, what a minimum of men! Vast hordes of male inhabitants there are, in this country and in that; but that largeness of soul—that quick, glad recognition of noble principles—that love of and reverence for fixed and eternal truth—that eager desire for the work of life, which mark and characterize men—true men,—in how many of the human frame and form, in any land, can you discover them? ”

“ These are the materials Providence has placed within our reach. Now, what we have to do is to show a quick, keen brain, and strong practicalness. We should throw ourselves, under God, upon our own powers and our own abilities. No other people are to come here and work for us; we have got to work for ourselves. And it is only by clearly, wisely, seeing this, that we shall be able to secure to ourselves the appliances of high culture, the fruits of hardy effort, the gifts of science and of art, the happiness of superior men, the respect and confidence of mankind, and the Divine benignity. ”

“ Are they ever to hold the spirit, and the brain, and the healthful instincts of cultivated and civilized humanity, in this day of the world's high advancement,—hold them ever in check and close restraint? Must we, in order to be a nation, imitate all the crudities and blunders which statesmanship has gravely handed down in history as rule and authority? I trust not; for no thoughtful man can look into the history of states without perceiving many national forms and established customs which even now have mastery, but which are nothing more nor less than empty gewgaws. ”

“ Men talk of our having been in training for freedom! that slavery has schooled us for free government! We submit to the severe providences of God, and recognize his wisdom therein; but they are nought but vain babblers, who speak as though this were natural sequence, or legitimate result, or effect, which should follow its parent cause—that death should be the prime and proper originator of life—that filth and pollution should generate purity—that sin should be the direct author and agent of salvation—that Satan should be the sure guide to godliness and heaven! ”

“ The moral principle is the life of communities." Under no moral code can the individual eschew truth and justice. Neither can the nation throw them aside, and perform its functions, treating right, and truth, and principle as matters of indifference: for the magistrate and the lawgiver meet the august presence of Truth alike in all the details of administrative law, and in the commonest minutiae of civil regulation.
We cannot, indeed, speak of the conscience of a nation; for conscience is so personal a quality, that it is only by a strong figure of speech that we can apply it to nations. ”

“ And yet you can easily sec the radical necessity, in this respect, in two ways. For, first it is only men who can make a country. You may have rich, productive fields, vast mines of silver, of gold, and of diamonds; a genial clime; noble rivers, capacious harbors, nay, even large masses of inhabitants; and yet you may fail as a nation. That requires citizens with large, expanded minds, a fine culture, with natural or acquired manners, and a constant delicate honor; giving strength and solidity at home, and fair fame, respect, and character abroad. ”

“ The world needs a higher type of true nationality than it now has: why should not we furnish it? I know the wont to regard precedent in fashioning and compacting the fabric of government. And it is, to a great degree, a wise tendency; for it is a perilous sea on which to embark,—that of nationality; and all along its course one sees strewn, everywhere, the wrecks of nations. ”

“ How proud a thing for this young nation, if, from the start, she sends out the reputation that eschews all this; that the simple instincts of morality, the plain dictates of honesty and honor, should be the rule of our governmental polity at home and abroad, and God our Governor!
For this the people are chiefly responsible; for, in a representative government, the moral purity of the masses produces its reflex in their rulers ”

“ Nor yet is it Europe only that feels the tread of their feet and the might of their presence and their influence. They have gone out in commerce, in trades, in corporations, and in missions;—streaming along the banks of both sides of the North American continent, and leaving, as their footprints, on those mighty shores, cities, and states, and commonwealths, and empires; filling the archipelagoes of both the eastern and western hemispheres with their offspring, their laws, their letters, and religion ”

“ Ruthless brute force, unreasoning domination, no longer decide the fate of inferior nations. Moral considerations have now a decided influence in regulating national intercourse. So strong is this influence, that "international law; ' has become a distinctive branch, commanding the life-long attention of distinguished minds. So pure, humane, and genial is its spirit, that one great authority declares its purpose to be, "to insure the obseryance of justice and good faith in that intercourse which must frequently occur between two or more nations." ”

“ But the cultivation of the manhood of a nation comes from all sources in the commonwealth, and flows in upon the souls of its citizens from all its streams of influence:—from the Executive, the prime representative of authority, repressing passion, giving its wonted authority to cool, calm reason, illustrating in his life the quietness, the order, the patriotism, and the character, which it is his duty to promote ”

“ It may be that such a one as I,—a man more busied with books, and papers, and sermons, than with ledgers, accounts, and prices current,—should not venture to speak upon these matters. But I must say, nevertheless, that I should like to see some of these great bouses here; and to recognize, as some of these princely merchants, the merchants of our own town and country, citizens of this Republic! I am not satisfied,—I tell yon the truth,—that the wealth of this, our Africa, should make other men wealthy and not ourselves. ”

“ I have endeavored to show that Ave, as a nation, ought to render our contribution of good and blessing to mankind; and I have aimed to point out some of the means by which we may meet this duty. Two things, I think, may be seen through all this subject with clearness and distinctness,—that is, that energy and self-reliance are two prime, most important agencies in working out and fulfilling a nation's work and mission. For it is with the nation as with the man: when the materials are at hand, the individual must employ his own hands and use them. ”

“ In the days previous to the use of the magnet and the successful adventures of Columbus, when non-intercourse seemed the rule of the world, and heavy tariffs kept nations apart, then national strife almost universally prevailed, and the common tie of humanity seemed completely severed. Gradually, during the succeeding centuries, ships have multiplied, tariffs and imposts have been relaxed, and now we have just commenced a new era in the world's history; and "Free Trade" seems about inaugurating, under the Divine Providence, a new evangel to men. ”

“ I could not stand here, and, with self-respect, tell this audience that the great powers of the earth wait, with deep concern and breathless expectation, our offerings and our gifts. Bombast such as this tends to the mortification of great minds at home, to our disadvantage abroad, and to that inertness and lack of enterprise which all false ideas are prone to create. We are but a small nation, as yet hardly productive, certainly not self-supporting ”

“ Your true scholar is not such. His learning is his instrument; his knowledge is designed for good and useful ends, not for ornament and display; and whether it be his treasures are from the languages, or the rich revealings of history, or skill in the sciences, or the beautiful creations of art; in all he sees the great and plastic power of man for human well-being and human progress. ”

“ This vast and wild Africa, to indefinite depths, seems now yearning to throw off the forest, the jungle, and the bush, and to open a pathway for the spade, the hoe, the plough, and the scythe; so that all the world, ere the coming of its last days, may delight itself with its prolific fulness and its vast and inexhaustible riches. ”

“ If God gives us strength, we will employ the great aids and the noble availabilities granted us, for a larger development of manhood, a fine expression of rule and government, and for the Divine glory. And then, with the Divine benignity resting upon us, with high aims and pure intents prompting our life and being, we shall be enabled to manifest here human duty, the loftiest ways of manhood, worthy character and true Christian excellence,—all mingled with, and controlled by, law and noble government. ”

“ I have already shown the obligation of nations to contribute to the world's well-being. As an humble member of the great sisterhood of nations, this obligation rests upon us. How shall we meet this obligation and answer the call of this duty?
Now, I have no doubt that while speaking of blessing and benefiting mankind nationally, some here have thought of the material agencies, of trade and commerce, as the means to be pointed out, inasmuch as they seem the chief instrumentalities by which one nation comes in contact with and influences others ”

“ With all this mental culture, let it be also remembered, that man has a body, is of a composite nature, has a physical existence, as well as a mind. Forgetfulness of this fact has greatly injured the cause of learning. Men have idly supposed that to cultivate manhood was to cultivate the brain merely. True, cultivation of men is the bringing out, harmoniously, all their powers—mental, moral, and physical: hence we shall fail in our attempted cultivation of manhood here, if we do not raise up and train useful, practical men. Our youth must be trained to be active, and useful, and enterprising. ”

“ We reject and scorn all such empty verbosity as this—so disgraceful to the cause of freedom, and so dishonoring to the name of liberty; for I doubt whether there can be found an eminent man in tins country who is not haunted by the gloomy spectre of past thraldom, and -who -would not give thousands of pounds if the whole matter could be blotted out forever, as history and as a remembrance, and become a blank! ”

“ But in exhibiting the main modes and measures whereby we may fulfil our national obligation to the human race, I would urge and insist, primarily, and as of the vastest importance, that we must cultivate to the highest bent, to the nicest coloring of honor,—we must cultivate men! ”

“ And thus, simply by the world's mercantile polity, we can see that
"To be weak is to be miserable."
I do not blame the Christian world,—I merely point out the significance of a fact. For the truth thus revealed is, that nothing but earnestness, reality, and vigorous manly effort, can gain for us respect, consideration, and the available resources of a thriving nation. The world, in these our days, can waste no thought upon mendicity, nor ragged, imbecile beggarism. ”

“ If, therefore, we would more and more approach ideal governmental superiority,—while, indeed, studying our rights, jealously Avatching the safeguards of liberty, in a free state like this,—we should always maintain a manly forbearance, and that generous balance of thought and inclination which eschews the blustering demagogueism, whose tendency is to make rulers insecure in their high places, and cause weak minds in authority to cater to public prejudice and passion. ”