Page:A Memorial of John Boyle O'Reilly from the City of Boston.djvu/57

Rh join with those that met to honor the memory of him who, by his noble deeds, had won their love and respect.

I come here to-night because John Boyle O'Reilly was the friend of my race, and for the purpose of joining with those who are present for the accomplishment of something that will tend to perpetuate his memory.

Some of us in America will never forget those who contended for the right when our people were being harassed by the use of the lash, the chain, the blood-hound, and the auction-block.

Still, on the day when we were relieved from the forced acknowledgment that there was no law in this nation that forbade the doing of acts as vile as those I have just mentioned, we were immediately confronted by another ugly side of the thing, that had pursued us during all the time of our existence here. First to be noticed was the desperation that took possession of the former slaveholders when they realized they had lost the complete control of those who had too long and too quietly permitted themselves to be their bondmen. Next, we had to face the meanness of those in the country who were always ready and anxious to sustain and support the holding in slavery of the American black man. Then, again, there were the timid, those who did not believe in chattel slavery; but they lacked the courage needed for its destruction, and the removal