Two centuries have elapsed since the first colored man was landed on the shores of Maryland and from then until now there has been no such gala day among the race as this – the celebration of the legis lative enactment which has made them the equal politically, of all men The American has detailed, ' from day to day the preparations which were being made for this grand jubilee of the enfranchised race – how it was to be a celebration in which all might join and unite in public rejoicings over the great changes in their condition. These expectations have been fulfilled to their utmost extent and the colored people yesterday had a ratification celebration not excelled by any other that has taken place elsewhere, and one to which all can look back with pride and pleasure.

Since our war worn veterans came marching home, with the green laurels of victory upon their sun burned brows Baltimore has not witnessed so grand a pageant as yesterday wound its way through our streets. Vast and magnificent in its appointments, gorgeous in its decorations, and noble in its purpose it will long be remembered as an event in the history of the city, an event the mention of which in after years weal) call up none but pleasing recollections.

It was well that Baltimore should be selected as the city in which the enfranchised people of the nation should celebrate the great jubilee of freedom. Other cities have had their processions and rejoicings, but by common concent the task of making the grand demonstration which should give expression to the gratitude and the joy of the whole of the colored people of the whole nation was awarded to Baltimore. Gladly was the high honor accepted and nobly did our people come up to the full measure of expeciation which their fellow countrymen put upon them. It was an undertaking which involved both labor, expense aud responsibility, but the patriotism and liberality of those to whom the duty was entrusted were equal to the demands upon both.

Not less than ten thousand colored people were in the march and ten thousand more lined the sidewalks. Every class and condition was represented-old men worn out by the toil of many years of servitude, young men whose early manhood was saved from degradation by the edicts of Freedom and a great army of boys aud girls in whose lives the auction block will not be a hideous reminiscence. The great deliverance came before they knew or understood anything about the condition from which they were saved. In all this mighty throng there were but few disorderly or drunken persons. On the thousand banners that were borne along there was not one inscription that could would the feelings of friend or foe. The was not even any direct allusion to the injustice and oppressions of the past.

The spacious avenue of Broadway between Baltimore street and Eastern avenue and the side streets debouching on the east and west were the localities selected for the formation of the grand column. Early in the morning the tide of travel turned Broadwaywards, and by ten o'clock there were fully twenty thousand people in that vicinity. The side walks were crowded with spectators, the majority colored person,s but the other race were also out in great numbers. The best of spirit seemed to prevail and there was no bad feeling exhibited.

The various commands and associations commenced to arrive about nine o'clock and form into Divisions according to the programme. They were of all characters in uniforms of a hundred different colors and devices, and bearing banners, transparencies and mottoes in endless number. The scene was lively and inspiring in the highest degree. Bodies of men were marching and countermarching on the broad avenue, blening and changing constantly in a kaleidoscopic panorama over them banners waved in the soft summer air and the rining music of a dozen bands added another inspiring effect. Marshals and Assistant Marshals galloped backward and forward and gradually the heterogeneous mass began to assume order and shape.

The day was all that could be desired. In the morning the sky was overcast but the clouds soon cleared away, and throughout the whole afternoon there was a clear sky and a cool breeze. At an early hour the diferent organizations were in motion marching to the place of forming in the eastern part of the city. The Divisions formed on Broadway and then marched over the route as laid down in the programme.

R Washington, Andrew Jackson, Geo H Groom,
Charles Doreey, Joseph Warren, Wm. H Fisher

At the appointed hour the long train arrived in Monument Square, the organizations were dismissed and the speaking began. From six to ten thousand persons had collected in the Square, representing every color, and shade of color, as well as every class and condition of men. Only a few thousand could ex pect to hear a word that was said, but those who could not get within a hundred yards of the stand stood patiently in the hot sun, and cheered when the rest cheered, and laughed when they saw from the smile on the speaker's face that he was indulging in a joke. There was no lack of applause, it was spontaneous, unaffected and uproarious. The two thousand women present were among the most appreciative listeners.

The speaker's stand in the Square was not a substantial structure. The timbers were light and the frame was not sufficiently traced. Everybody that saw it said that it would go down, and that the Richmond disaster would be repeated on a small scale. At 4 o'clock P.M. the Committee of Arrangements, the speakers, and a few of the invited guests, the whole party numbering about twenty five persons, elbowed their way through the dense crowd and took their places on the stand, where a few representatives of the press had preceded them. They were just about to seat themselves, when there was a sudden crash, and the next instant there was an indiscriminate mingling of races on the paving stones below. The positions assumed were neither graceful nor dignified, in most cases the head being down and the feet up. Mr. Frederick Douglass, who had gone down in the general tumble, was one of the first to recover, and as soon as he found that nobody was hurt, he stepped upon the pile of broken boards and proposed thre e cheers for the Fiftteenth Amendment. This reassured the crowd and prevented a panic. The platform fell about eight feet. Two minutes before it went down, the space underneath was filled with young girls, who had sought shelter there from the sun, and we re sitting on the braces. A policeman, thinking it not a very safe retreat peremptorily ordered them out, and the last one had just left when the floor went down.

After the breaking down of the regular stand which had been provided, the orators, invited guests, and committees proceeded to the Gilmor House and took possession of the balcony on the first floor. Here the immense assemblage -- which covered the spac e of two thirds of the Square and numbered about six thousand persons -- was called to order by Dr. H.J. Brown, who read the following list of officers:

On taking the chair Mr. Myers returned his thanks for the honor done him. He said that they had three things to thank God for -- their celebration, the clear bright day, and the breaking down of the stand. Many of their enemies had rejoiced that the da y would apparently be unfair, that their procession would be deluged with rain. Colored people who had used to pray forgot it last night but this morning they on their knees asked God to give them a favorable day for this grand occasion. The breaking down of the stand should learn them to depend entirely upon themselves not to trust any one else. It had been contracted for to hold one hundred, it had failed to support the weight of twenty five.

When Mr. Myers had finished his remarks he introduced Mr. Wm. E. Matthews, Secretary of the Meeting. Mr. Matthews then read letters from Charles Sumner and Wm. Lloyd Garrison, which were received with tremendous applause. Mr. Garrison's letter was as follows:

BOSTON, MAY 15, 1870.
H.J. Brown -
Dear Sir -- I am very reluctantly obliged to forego the pleasure of participating in the celebration of the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment, by the colored citizens of Maryland, excepting this expression of my feelings as a substitute for my presence. How supreme that pleasure would have been, and, consequently, how great is my disappointment, I have no language to express seeing that it was in Baltimore I began my advocacy for the immediate liberation of all who were then groaning in bondage; and now that all yokes are broken, and citizenship is accorded to the entire colored population of the country it would seen to be peculiarly fitting that I should join in this particular commemoration in the very city in which I dedicated my life to the cause of universal emancipation.

In the month of May 1830, forty years ago, I was lying in the jail in Baltimore for bearing an uncompromising testimony against certain Northern participants in the domestic slave trade. I need not say that my imprisonment, so far from operating as a discouragement, gave powerful impetus to my anti-slavery zeal, and led me still more feelingly to remember those in bonds as being bound with them:-

Eternal spirit of the chainless mind,
Brightest in dungeons Liberty! thou art,
For there thy habitation is the heart,--
The heart which love of thee alone can bind;
And when thy sons to fetters are consigned,--
To fetters and the damp vault's dayless gloom,--
Their country conquers with their martyrdom,
And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind."

From that time to the completion of the anti-slavery struggle through trials and perils which only those who were called to meet them can ever fully realize, I do not remember an hour when my faith in its final triumph wavered. From the depth of my soul I declared, at the start.

Opposition and abuse, and slander and prejudice, and judicial tyrrany are like oil to the flame of my enthusiasm. I am not dismayed, I am not disheartened but bolder and more confident than ever. Let the courts condemn me to fine and imprisonment for denouncing oppression, am I to be frightened by dungeons and chains? Can they humble my spirit? Do I not remember that I am an American freeman? and as such and what is more, a being accountable to God. I will not hold my peace while a single slave remains to be set free." This was not said in a boastful spirit, for it was by the help fo God that I was enabled to stand in the evil day, and by that same Divine strength and trust were the great body of Abolitionists sustained in every emergency. "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us when they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gove over our soul.'

O ye ransomed millions! rejoice and give glory to God that not a slave remains in the house of bondage: that there is to be no more buying and selling of human flesh on the auction block, no more hunting of fugitive slaves, no more rending asunder husbands and wives and parents and children, no more forcing to unpaid toil under the lash of a driver, no more abrogating the marriage institution, no more punishment for attempting to learn the alphabet.' Freedom is yours to enjoy and maintain yours by natural right and the grace of God as well as by the decree of the nation constitutionally secured, yours with all its responsibilities and duties, its manifold blessings and sublime possibilities, yours without bloodshed, or violence or any disorder whatever or any desire for retaliation, yours to advance in wisdom and knowledge in skill and enterprise, in wealth and prosperity.

Citizenship is yours, with political enfranchisement whereby you are to help decide what shall be the laws for the common defence and the general welfare, and ultimately to obtain a fair share of the honors and emoluments of public life. In this hour of jubilation I will not pause to give you any counsel as to your future course. I have no misgiving on that score. You have been the best behaved people in the past under the most terrible provocations, and why should any doubt as to your behavior hereafter, under all the favorable conditions of freedom and equality.' I believe you are destined to rise high in the scale of civilization and to take a prominent part in our national affairs. Indeed in view of your liberated and enfranchised condition it may be truly affirmed that since the Declaration of Independence was published to the world, never has our country been so powerful as now, never so reputable and influential as now in the eyes of the world. Hence, we have all reason to be glad as to the present, and hopeful as to the future, for the interests of the North are as the interests of the South, and the institutions of one section of the country essentially like those of every other.

I rejoice that the South will now have unlimited means for growth in population, in education, in enterprise, in invention, in literature, in the arts and sciences, in material prosperity. Henceforth may every blessing be vouchsafed to her through the removal of slavery so that as her depression has been deplorable her exaltation shall be glorious! Such has ever been the desire of my heart and the aim of all my labors. Yours, rejoicingly,
WM. LLOYD GARRISON.

The President then introduced as the orator of the day Mr. John M. Langston, Dean and Professor of Law in the Howard University of Washington.

Mr. Langston was greeted with great applause, and in a loud clear voice that reached even to the outskirts of the assemblage, spoke as follows:

Fellow Citizens -- In the presence of this occasion and the fact it honors, eloquence itself stands abashed. We celebrate today the triumph of the genuine democracy, that democracy which asks nothing but what it demands destructive of despotism it is the sole conservator of liberty, labor and property. It is the law of nature pervading the law of the land. [Applause.]

We celebrate the triumph of that democracy which was affirmed by the founders of our Government in the words "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these ends Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

We celebrate the triumph of that democracy which was subsequently defined and declared in the language of the preamble and body of the United States Constitution. "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justic, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." "No person shall be deprived of life liberty or property without the due process of law." And "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the citizens of the several States." [Applause.]

We celebrate the triumph of that democracy which, forgetful of nationality, unmindful of birth place, oblivious of complectional peculiarities or fomer condition of servitude sees in every son of humanity a child of God, and imposes by a stern decree, with solemn sanctions tthe obligation and the duty of recognizing and respecting this sonship and fatherhood. [Applause.]

We celebrate the triumph of that democracy whose surest protection and support are found in free thought, free speech, and a free press whose truest and sublimest expression and definition are found in the workings and results of self-government. [Applause.] In a single word we celebrate in the demonstrations of this magnificent occasion the triumph of that democracy the comprehensive and far reaching definition of which is given in the terse and matchless words of the New Testament, 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them.' [Applause.]

Standing in the presence of this triumph and regaling ourselves upon the future glories promised in the yet grander triumphs of our untrammeled and vigorous democracy we are able to answer negatively in the full assurance of an intelligent faith the questions propounded by the silver tongued orator of New England when he asked, "Is liberty to die in this country? Has God Almightly scooped out the Mississippi Velley for its grave? Has He lifted up the Rocky Mountains for its monument? And has He set Niagara to hymn is requiem?' Nay, verily, The Mississippi Valley is to be the theatre of the highest achievements of our freedom and democracy -- the Rocky Mountains the monuments upon which are engraved the records of these achievements, and Niagara is set to hymn not the death dirge but to swell the chorus of their song of victory [Applause.] Moses, the great Jewish leader, and Miriam, the prophetess, sang a song unto the Lord upon the deliverance of the children of Israel. If they could sing a song saying "Sing ye to the Lord for he hath triumphsed gloriously," when three millions of their countrymen were delivered, how shall we shout for joy and gladness making utterance of the liveliest and most profound sentiments of gratitude and thanksgivings when we remember that forty millions of our countrymen have been emancipated and our whole country disenthralled! The word so the Psalmist befit our lips, "O sing unto the Lord a new song, for He hath done marvellous things, His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory." [Applause.]

First. We meet to celebrate at once the abolition of slavery and the enfranchisement of the colored men of our country. [Applause.]

Second. In order to appreciate suitably these two great facts, so full of significance and interest, so pregnant of national moment and far reaching consequences, we must, at least, briefly consider what slavery was, the interests destroyed by it, the utter shipwreck it made of American liberty itself. [Applause.]

Third. It is necessary, too, would we rejoice intelligently, in view of our better dispensation of freedom that we consider well the promise made in the good Proviodence which has wrought so grandly and gloriously in our behalf. [Applause.]

Fourth. And because slavery, while it chattelized the negro, stripped the white American of freedom of though, freedom of speech, freedom of locomotion, this showing itself the enemy of all, it is well for us, forgetting now our complexion, our former condition, and our nationality, to join in the celebration of a triumph upon the field of battle as well as in the field of politics and morals, which presages and promises us all a free home and a Government which is, indeed, a democracy, and rejoice together as citizens of a common country, to whose welfare and destiny we make a cordial pledge of "our lives, our property, and our sacred honor." [Applause.]

Fifth. As showing the condition of American liberty in the days of slavery and fugitive slave laws, there are facts connected with our history and to be written yet in the biographies of three Americans who justly claim a pure Anglo American lineage. [Applause.]

And allusion here is made to no obscure and insignificant men, but to men of large and unusual ability, by means of which they have been lifted into high places in the country and State from which they have gained wide reputation and extended influence, indeed two of them have made for themselves a reputation and influence as wide as the world and as enduring as the principles of liberty and equality which they have so ably and fearlessly advocated.

And first of Hoar and South Carolina second, of Charles Sumner, bleeding on the floor of the Senate, theird of Wm. Lloyd Garrison, forbidden to visit the Capital city of his native country. These cases are but specimens and indicate the condition of the dominant class in our country -- the class representing the intelligence, the wealth and power under the regimen of slavery.

And where, then, was the slave and the negro nominally freed? The former was a chattel numbered with beasts and creeping things, while the latter led a miserable life in disappointed expectation of that freedom denied him under the black laws of the country. But through the dread arbitrament of way, sanctioned and sanctified in the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution we enjoy while we celebrate our emancipation, which is truly national. [Applause.]

But more still, we rejoice today in that enfranchisement under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, which signifies the possession of all civil rights and the enjoyment of all political powers. [Applause.]

Thus endowed, under the law of our country, God and humanity, as well as duty to both, bid us go forward in life, meeting all its responsibilities in the spirit of true men and patriotic citizens, cultivating among us all those things which are made for the peace and prosperity of our countrymen and the glory and perpetuity of our Union, and the free institutions which, under the fostering folds of our National flag and in the sunlight of our national freedom, are of natural and abundant growth. [Applause.]

General Howard's efforts to educate the negro, not to speak of the work first accomplished in feeding, clothing, and protecting the emancipated millions. Four millions negroes children and adults are to be educated and fitted to live under democratic institutions, the destiny of which, to a great extent, is controlled by each individual citizen. The means by which the work can be done is by furnishing the primary grammar and high school and college, by establishing normal schools to supply the immense demand for teachers by affording the freedmen, as far as possible, the same advantages offered by a Massachusetts school system of common schools for one class to all the poeple of the South. The work was begun in Government barracks, furnished by the Bureau, as fast as the Union forces vacated them and retired from the South.

Fortunate has it been for the negroes of the country that we have had a man with views broad enough to comprehend the present and future educational wants of our brethren of the South and who dared to spend the funds in his hands in furnishing permanent educational facilities. Unfortunate only that the Government (which has performed the great act of justice calling us together today) had not entrusted to this brave and good man fifty millions to be expended in rendering us justice educationally. The nation will yet thank him for the small investment that he has made. The negroes of the South will always be grateful to him, and they will not hesitate to denounce any who may oppose his efforts in their behalf.

Do you know the President of the United States? He is the only man who gave to the negro the vote and official position under the Government! [Three cheers for Grant.] Do you know the Postmaster General of the United States? He is the only man who seconded the proposition of the President, and gave the negro official place in his Department! [Cheers for Creswell] When I forget the flaxen hair of these men I sometimes find myself wondering if they are purely white -- if they have not some portion of negro blood in their composition. [Laughter.] Let the colored race ever go forward with the motto Perpetua inscribed on their banners. [Great applause.]

After the performance of Hail Columbia by the East Liberty Cornet Band, the President introduced Hon. John A.J. Creswell Postmaster General, who was welcomed with tremendous applause. Mr. Creswell said,

Fellow Citizens--This imposing demonstration commemorates the emancipation and enfranchisement of four millions of the human race. [Applause.] We here announce that Justice has reclaimed her own and that all men stand equal before the law, as they ever have done in the sight of God. We here proclaim that freedom has clothed her children with all the rights and priveleges of citizenship, and armed them for their defence with the irresistible weapon of the ballot. In the name of all good men of all races, we rejoice this day over our restored and glorified Union over our amended Constitution [applause] and over our expurgated code of laws. We rejoice that we can now maintain in the face of all the world that our Government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed and that the starry symbol of our nationality is indeed the emblem of universal freedom. [Cheers.] A few years ago the poet Campbell addressed our Country in these bitter words,

"United States! your banner wears
Two emblems -- one of fame
Alas! The other that it bears
Reminds us of your shame

Your standard's constellation types
White freedom by its stars
But what's the meaning of the stripes?
They mean your negroes' scars!"

The achievements of the last ten years have extracted the sting from the poet's verses. Our stripes no longer typify our negroes' scars. Henceforth our stars will mean freedom for all of every color and race and our stripes will wave as a perpetual warning against every attempt to deprive a freeman of his rights. [Applause.]

It is meet that the men of all races should unite today in celebrating the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution. It has raised the black race from the depths of slavery and prejudice to full citizenship in the foremost nation of the age. On this occasion we expect to see Afric's sable sons radiant with joy, full of gratitude to the noble men who have labored so faithfully for their advancement and giving evidence by every means at their command that they appreciate the new position to which they have been elevate. It is no surprise to us that we hear today acclamations of gladness bursting from the lips of the colored men of Maryland, and that as they march in the full enjoyment of their long sought liberty, we see their persons decked with the insignia of victory, and their

"Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreathed."

The white men of Maryland should also join in these rejoicings. Recent events have extricated us from the errors into which we had fallen. We had abandoned the inspired doctrines of our fathers. The principles of the Revolution, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, had ceased to be guiding lights for our rulers. In the administration of our affairs the equality of men was pronounced a heresy, and the right of the governed to participate in the Government an to adjust their own burdens was ignored. Whatever others may say it will not do for Maryland men standing on Maryland soil to assert that the Declaration of Independence was compounded only of theories -- [applause] -- which were never intended to be reduced to pratice.

Maryland was one of the Old Thirteen, and her first Bill of Rights and Constitution were made in the very heat and fervor of the Revolution, aye upon the very heel of the Declaration of Independence itself. The men who heard that glorious instrument read at the old State House in Philadelphia posted home to assemble their State Convention and to organize their State Government. Influenced by the same feelings and purposes that venture all in the effort to assert their liberties they proclaimed to the world what they believed to be the genuine principles of republican Government. The Convention met at Annapolis on the 14th of August 1776; many of the best men in the State were there. Dent Mackall Bowie, Hammond, Worthington, Ridgely, Stevenson, Archer Tilghman Chase, Paca and Charles Carroll of Carrollton held seats in that body. A Convention so constituted and animated might well be expected to organize a State Government upon a correct basis. What said they in regard to the right of suffrage? The Bill of Rights adopted November 3d, 1776, declared in its fifth section:

"That right of the people to participate in teh Legistlature is the best security of liberty and the foundation of all free government. For this purpose elections ought to be free and frequent and every man having property in, a common interest with and an attachment to the community ought to have a right of suffrage." [Repeated cheers.]

Mark you, "every man," not white men only but "every man," [applause] and that God made men of diverse colors they well knew because at that time th African had been held in bondage in Maryland for more than a century.

The same Convention in the body of the Constitution, adopted on the 8th November, 1776, inserted the provision following.

"All freemen above twenty one years of age having a freehold of fifty acres of land in the county in which they offer to vote and residing therein and all freemen having property in this State above the value of thirty pounds current money and having resided in the county in which they offer to vote one whole year next preceding the election shall have a right of suffrage in the election, of delegates for such county."

Men still live who have heard their fathers say that they have seen negro men under these provisions vote side by side with white men without a question being raised or a doubt expressed.

The law of Maryland continued unchanged down to the year 1810, when the Constitution was amended so as to confine the suffrage to white men. At the same time it was enacted that from and after the year 1810 no man should be deprived of the right to vote, or should be prevented from holding any office, for want of a property qualification -- thus declaring, so far as white people were concerned, in favor of manhood suffrage. This was a departure from the fathers in one respect toward freedom, in another toward slavery. The legislators of 1810 enfranchised the white man and at the same time riveted more tightly the shackles of the black man. Here was a palpable and unjust inconsistency, perpetuated by power at the dictation of avarice. It was believed that cotton had become king. The inventions of Whitney and others had enabled the cotton growers to manipulate their product so successfully as to make it, with slave labor, the most profitable staple of the continent, and thenceforth negro culture became as much a business as cotton culture. Even Maryland and Virginia changed ground from their former condition of determined hostility, as evinced by the sentiments of their representatives in the Convention of 1787, which formed the Constitution of the United States, and became from that day forth the active propagandists of slavery. The men who controlled our State in 1810 decided that slavery rather than freedom was to be preserved, and in support of that decision, the excluded the black man, whether free ot slave, from the ballot box.

For the present I shall follow this subject no further. I desire only to show that manhood suffrage and suffrage for the negro are not untried doctrines in Maryland. The right of all freemen to vote was known, recognized, and established in the first Bill of Rights and Constitution of our noble old State, and that too by the sages, who had conferred to gether and settled upon the inalienable rights of man. When about to appeal to the God of battles to vindicate their sincerity, the truth would assert itself. At such a time they dared not claaim free government for themselves and deny it to others. Slavery as it then existed was the great and irreconcilable foe of their system. They were compelled to accept it temporarily to prevent a division of the colonies, and having once admitted it into their code, they were obliged to receive all its maxims, including that which declared that the slave is not a man but a chattel. From this maxim the conclusion was inevitable that slaves could not vote.

But slavery has been extirpated and cast out. It has been torn away from the vitals of the Union at the cost of great rivers of precious blood. The nation has survived its terrible laceration, and has gathered new strength day by day, until at last it has become powerful enough to enforce the righteous will of the people. Slavery no longer pollutes our [unreadable] or vitiates our logic. Those who were lately slaves are now freemen and citizens, as well of the United States as of the several States wherein they reside and being charged with the duties and burdens of citizenship, it is but fair that they should enjoy its privileges. This is the application of the principles of even handed justice as embodied in the golden rule. Therefore, I repeat let us rejoice that we have returned to the purer creed of the Revolutionary fathers and that after sixty years of schism and heresy we have renounced our sins and been again received into the fold of the primitive political church.

In accomplishing these important results men have been but the instruments of God. The Almighty has so guided the current of events, that we have been borne onward by superior power to the safe harbor wherein we now repose. The destruction of slavery and the enfranchisement of the African race have been compelled by necessity as well as enjoined by duty. To prove this you need not invoke the aid of history. Your memories will supply every essential fact.

In the beginning of the decade just closed the protracted struglle between freedom and slavery was approaching its culmination. The people, appalled by the grim visage of imminent war, began to cry out for compromise in all parts of the land, and Congress would have yielded to any reasonable demands the partisans of slavery could have made. But no compromise could appease them. They would not be content with any guaranty, however solemn, of slavery in the States where it then existed. They defiantly insisted upon disunion, and proceeded to wage war against the United States for the avowed purpose of establishing an independent Gorvernment, the cornerstone of which should be slavery. Still the country hesitated to accept the issue, and patiently talked of concession and conciliation. Under the counsels of which then prevailed, the people actually took up arms and fought bloody battles, protesting all the while that they would not assail the institutions of the South. When Fremont attempted military emancipation his orders were revoked, when Cameron recommended the arming of the blacks his advice was rejected, and when, still later, Hunter renewed the attempt at military emancipation, it was a second time forbidden. Mr. Lincoln himself in his celebrated letter to Horace Greeley, dated August 22nd, 1862 said, "My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery." On the contrary, many military officers had been using their soldiers to return fugitive slaves to their owners, and continued the practice until Congress, by act approved 3d March, 1862, made a new article of war, expressly prohibiting it. All this moderation availed only to strengthen the rebellion and to weaken the cause of the Union. AT length it becoming apparent that slavery was the real foe of the nation's peace [applause], and that the rebellion was finding shelter behind it [applause], Congress, by act approved 27th July 1862, enacted that the slaves of all persons thereafter engaged in rebellion should be forever free and should not be delivered up. A prepopsition previously made by message dated March 6th of the same year, for compensated emancipation by the Border States had been rejected with so much unaminity by the representatives of those States, as precluded all hope of its acceptance. Meantime the great mill of God's providence was grinding on. Defeats and disasters pursued the Union forces. Our armies were beaten in front of Richmond and afterwards more signally in front of Washington, and the Rebels were permitted again to advance and plant their standards in sight of the National Capitol. Growing still more aggressive, the hosts of rebellion were rallied in force, and finished with victory they crossed the Potomac and threatened the very heart of the loyal North. After a drawn battle on the field of Antietam it was determined, all other efforts having failed, that a preliminary proclamation of emancipation should be issued. [Applause.] It came on the 22d of September, 1862 cautiously almost timidly, expressed, preceded, and followed by a golden pill in the shape of promised compensation. It declared that after the 1st of January then next all slaves held in the Rebel States should be forever free. [Cheers.] One hundred days elapsed. On one side not a Rebel had laid down his arms, but on the other the loyal nation having been brought face to face with the crucial question of the war, had slowly cleared its mental vision and had recognized the necessity for emancipation. When the 1st of January came our army had recovered its courage and spirit the people were hopeful and earnest and brightening prospects cheered the heart of our anxious President. [Applause.] Full of confidence, he issued his final proclamation and its stirring words and exalted sentiments rang like a trumpet peal throughout the land, announcing to the poeople the grandest jubilee of all the ages. [Cheers.] So clear had he become in the exercise of this unprecedented power that he closed this ever memorable paper with these words, "And upon this act sincerely believed to be an act of Justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God." The proclamation announced a great principle upon which a controlling public sentiment was soon organized and with a voice of authority that public sentiment demanded that emancipation should be freed from all legal doubts and made universal in its application by constitutional provision. [Cheers.] In pursuance thereof the Thirteenth Amendment was adopted by Congress on the 31st of January 1865, and I proudly boast that my name may be recorded in its favor at every stage of its progress. In due season it was ratified by the requisite number of States, and thus became a part of the fundamental law. [Applause.]

I do not err in my estimate of the agencies which brought about the adoption of this measure. Mr. Lincoln told the whole story in his letter to Colonel Hodges, of April 4th, 1864 when he said, "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle the nation's condition is not what either party or any man devised or expected. God alone can claim it. [Cries of yes! yes!] Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wong impartial history will find therein new causes to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God."

Not less instructive and wonderful is the history of manhood suffrage. When the active hostilities closed in April, 1865, the slavery question was virtually settled but there then loomed up another question quite as difficult. It remained for us to ascertain what consideration was to be given to the four millions of the African race whose lot had been cast amongst us. All idea of an extensive plan of involuntary colonization had been abandoned. It was conceded that these people were to remain here and become a permanent portion of our population, but the problem was to determine what position they were to occupy and what functions they were to discharge in our political system. To the solution of this enigma the best minds of the country were steadily addressed. Difficulties apparently insurmountable presented themselves on every hand. Life-long prejudices stood ready to strangle every effort to award even a limited citizenship to manumitted slaves, and cried out with unfeigned horror at the bare mention of a design to confer upon them the right to vote. But observe how these obstacles, so formidable in the distance, were leveled to the plain as we approached them, and how the way was cleared when the time came for the nation to make its second grand advance in the application of liberal principles.

Among the first to grapple with the question of reconstruction was Henry Winter Davis, who with his remarkable prescience fully appreciated its transcendent importance long before the rebellion had been overthrown. [Applause.] It was on his motion that a committee was in the Thirty eighth Congress to consider and report upon the recommendations of the President's Message touching that subject. The bill which the committee was passed by Congress and fialed only to become a law because Mr. Lincoln refused to give it his approval. This bill, be it remembered however right on other points confined suffrage to the white male citizens of the Rebel States duly enrolled. The Republican majorities in Congress which adopted it as containing their plan of reconstruction were not then prepared to entrust the negro with the ballot. Mr. Lincoln in his proclamation giving his reasons for refusing to sign the bill made no point whatever in favor of negro suffrage. Nor did he make any such point in the plan which he presented to the country in his annual message of 1863. On the contrary Mr. Lincoln recommended that only those should be alllowed to vote who were qualified voters 'by the election law of the State existing immediately before the so-called act of scession.' He even declared himself satisfied with the plan of the Davis bill as 'one very proper plan' but justified his failure to approve it on the ground that he did not wish to be 'inflexibly committed to any single plan of restoration.' Thus it is clear that as late as August 1864, neither a Republican President nor a Republican Congress was prepared to proffer the ballot to the colored man. The plans of both were equally inconsistent with universal suffrage and a difference of opinion upon non-essential points prevented the adoption of either.

Mr. Lincoln in his speech made on the 11th of April 1865 (the last he ever made) expressed a preference that the elective franchise should be conferred on very intelligent colored men [applause] and on thsoe who had served as soldiers in the Union army [applause] but argued in the same speech in favor of the recognition of the State Government of Louisiana, which had been organized under his plan. In this condition stood the Reconstruction problem when Andrew Johnson succeeeded to the Presidency.

In all the Reconstruction proclamations which he issued he made the law in existence prior to the rebellion the test of qualifications and threw all the weight and power of his great office into the contest in support of his views. The result was a notable failure. Instead of restoring the Union he restored the rebellion. A result so unexpected and alarming roused the loyal people of the country to a sense of their danger, and they at once declared against Mr. Johnson and his policy. [Cheers.] They became satisifed that nothing short of positive, unalterable guarantees could protect them from a repetition of the devastating and ruinous treason from which they had shortly before been delivered, and hence they demanded that the terms of adjustment should be incorporated into the Constitution. [Applause.] They further demanded that the tests of loyalty should be specifically prescribed, and that every Rebel should be made to conform to them before taking any part in the reorganization or administration of any State Government. In response to these demands, Congress submitted to the States the Fourteenth Amendment which was readily accepted and ratified. [Applause.]

Very valuable provisions were thereby secured, but no direct attempt was made to utilize the votes of the loyal colored men of the South. Up to this time reconstruction and manhood suffrage were treated as matters entirely distinct. All were anxious for the restoration of the Union but very few were willing to confer the ballot upon black men to have it accomplished. The people were now about to be taught another lesson. The State of Tennessee not only accepted the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, but moving in advance of them declared all loyal men of every race and complexion to be entitled to vote and upon that broad platform she was restored to her relations to the Union by act approved July 24, 1866. With this single exception the Rebel States stood out against all overtures, and Congress, at the opening of the session in December 1866, was obliged to address itself anew to its Sisyphean task. I well remember how assiduously the Joint Committee on Reconstruction canvassed the whole field of possibilities, and how at last it was completted to acknowledge its inability to meet the case by reporting a mere military government for the remaining recalcitrant States. This was pronounced an impotent conclusion to so laborious an investigation. It was insisted that some plan of permanent adjustment should accompany the Military bill and that the terms on which the Rebel States could secure civil government should also be stated therein. [Applause.] To establish civil governments it was necessary to say in advance who should vote. Ingenuity had exhausted itself in the effort to make loyal States out of a disloyal white population. Loyal States were possible in only one way, and that was by giving suffrage to the loyal blacks. [Long continued cheering.] This was conceded at once so far as the preliminary conventions were concerned, but when it was urged that the Constitutions of the States should provide that the elective franchies should be enjoyed by "the male citizens of said States twenty one years old and upward, of whatever race, color or previous condition, a spirited contest arose which was finally terminated by the adoption of the provision in the caucus of the Republican Senators by a majority of only one vote -- and I was one of that majority. [Cheers.] The bill as thus amended and passed was vetoed by Mr. Johnson, but notwithstanding the veto it became a law on March 2d, 1867 by a two thirds vote of both Houses. [Cheers.] Thus manhood suffrage became the potent agent in the reconstruction. [Cheers.] All other laws since passed on the subject have simply sustained and fortified it. Military power has availed only in so far as it has protected it. Without it we should be no farther advanced to-day in the reclamation of the Rebel States than we were after Mr. Johnson's unfortunate attempts. [Applause.] Without it, the national flag could not be kept floating in any of those States unless protected by a military force. With it seven hundred thousand votes are secured to the Union and to freedom, and all but one of the Rebel States are now enjoying their constitutional relations in the Union. [Applause.] Much remains to be done, it is true, but no man can deny that much has already been done, and mainly done by means of negro suffrage. [Applause.]

The imperfect sketch I have given of the history of emancipation and manhood suffrage shows conclusively that these great measures have not been adopted in any spirit of unkindness towards that section of the country wherein the great body of the colored vote is found. They were employed by the Republican party after years of trial cautiously -- I might almost say reluctantly -- not as the means of retaining its ascendancy but as mighty political forces for putting down the rebellion and restoring the Union. Seven hundred thousand voters, who, if need be, can become soldiers, constitute a power not to be despised. [Applause.]

To sum it all up -- the black won his freedom by his bravery, and his suffrage by his loyalty. [Cheers.] Nearly five years ago his freedom was confirmed irrevocably by constitutional guaranty. Shall he ever be deprived of his right to the ballot? [Cries of "No! No!"] The American people, speaking through two thirds of both Houses of Congress and the Legislatures of twenty nine States, have said that "The rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude," and the record whereon those words are written will endure as long as men shall continue to love liberty or preserve their faith in God. [Applause.]

It was not permitted that Lincoln should survive to see this glorious consummation, but the great Captain [cheers] in whom he trusted implicitly [cheers], and to whom in his last speech he attributed all the honor of leadership in the stupendous military operations which closed the war, now by authority of the people occupies the Presidential Chair. [Applause.] In his inaugural address he expressed a desire for the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment [applause], and he has ever since shown his sincerity by his unceasing labors to accomplish that result. [Cheers.] His [sincerity] may be gathered from the language of his recent proclamation, where he declares the ratification to be "the most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life." To him more than to any other living man is its final success attributable. [Long continued cheering.] The leading part which he has taken in dedicating the colored race to freedom and to the service of our common country has crowned his career with the most admirable triumph of his life, and has fully established the truth of that saying, once applied to Cromwell, but which Cromwell lived to verify only in part --

"Peace hath her victories
No less renown'd than war." [Applause]

I know not how the account between the races will stand after another generation shall have passed away. Henceforth the destinies of the African race will be for the most part in their own keeping. I have no fears of what the future has in store for them. [Applause.] Their patient forbearance and their sturdy fortitude in the past was well as the unexampled zeal they are everywhere exhibiting in the education of their children assure me that they will not fail for want of manly effort. [Applause.] It is the duty of the white race to protect and sustain their African fellow citizens rather than to seek to hinder and overthrow them. [Applause.] How that duty will be discharged the Maker of all men will judge impartially.

But whatever may be the fate of races or of individuals, it is sure that the pillars of the Republic have been strengthened and planted deeper in the everlasting hills. [Cheers.] We have fully paid the dreadful penalty demanded of us as a reparation for our national sin. The reign of blood an violence has past, and the gentle spirit of Peace has returned with healing in her wings and a song of kindness on her lips. [Applause.] Listen, oh fellow citizens! to her heaven inspired teachings. [Cheers.] Let us banish all bitterness and rancor from our hearts and moved afresh by the love of our country and our fellow men, let us join hands and hopefully go forth to meet and discharge the manifold obligations of the future. [Applause.] This is all that is required of us to fulfill the prophetic words of Milton -- "Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks, methinks I see her as an eagle muing her mighty youth and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam, purging and unscaling her long abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance."

Mr. Creswell's speech, which was repeatedly cheered, was followed by music from the band. Frederick Douglass Esq, was then introduced by Dr. Brown, who spoke of him as a son of Maryland who should now be working among us, and he believed he soon would be.

Mr. Douglass said that during the last thirty years he had often appeared before the people as a slave, sometimes as a fugitive slave, but always in behalf of the slave. But to-day he was permitted to appear before them as an American citizen. How grea t the change. Thirty five years ago he was working as a slave in Talbot county, and looked forward even then that there would some time come a day when not a fetter should clank or a whip crack over the backs of his fellow men. That day has come at last. When we remember how slavery was interlinked with all our institutions, it is amazing that today we witness this demonstration. When toiling on the plantation we slaves desired to talk of emancipation, but there stood the overseer and a word would ensure a flogging. To talk about emancipation without being discovered we invented a vocabulary, and when the over seer thought we were talking of the most simple thing we were really speaking of emancipation, but in a way that was Greek to them. [Laughter and a pplause.] The negro has now got the three belongings of American freedom. First the cartridge box, for when he got the eagle on his button and the musket on his shoulder he was free. Next came the ballot box, some of its most earnest advocates now hardly saw it three years ago, but we'll forgive them now. Next we want the jury box. [Applause.] While the negro-hating element sits in the jury box the colored man's welfare is insecure and we demand that he be represented in the halls of justice. Nobody will be injured by justice. The Fifteenth Amendment means that hereafter the black man is to have no excuse for ignorance, poverty or destitution. Our excuse for such in the past is swept away from us by the Fifteenth Amendment. We are to stand up and be resp onsible for our own existence, we must be independent men and citizens - we are to know our friends and equally to know our enemies and take none in trust. When a friend performs a good act or an enemy a malicious act towards us are we not to remember the m? [Cries of "Yes!"] I love my friends and remember my enemies. I remember that party that for forty years has been endeavoring to enslave us and crush us and I want you to remember that party at the ballot box. [Applause.] What party is that? [Cries of " Democratic!"] Do you remember the party that, when the Democrats endeavored to overthrow the Government, stepped between the Government and its blows? Then let us give three cheers for the Republican party! [Enthusiastic Cheers.] I see you are all right h ere, and I am not afraid to have election day come around. [Applause.] I loved everything of Maryland except slavery -- it was that I ran away from thirty two years ago. I felt a little mean however, and only did not stop to tell them goodbye because I wa s afraid they would not let me go. I found that God never began to hear my prayers for liberty until I began to run. Then you ought to have seen the dust rise behind me in answer to prayer. [Applause.]

Forty years ago I sat on Kennard's wharf, at the foot of Philpot street and I saw men and women chained and put on ship to go to New Orleans. I then resolved that whatever power I had should be devoted to the freeing of my race. For thirty years in the midst of all opposition, I have endeavored to fulfil my pledge. I am here today to pledge myself that whatever remains to me of life shall go in the same direction. Possibly I ought to be in Maryland, but the time has come when the black man owes nothing to States. You are not indebted to Maryland for the fra nchise. The old ideas of State sovereignty have been abolished by the war. We have now a common country and a common legislature - there are no States but the United States. All that any man can ask of another is that he do his best for the whole country. Will you be as good masters to yourselves as your masters were to you? [Cries of better!] Will you work as hard for yourselves as you did for your masters? [Cries of yes!] Will you be as sober and temperate now as you were before? [Renewed cries of yes!] I believe you but some affect not to. They believe that you will die out like the Indian, that you cannot exist in competition with the white men. Well if two centuries and a half of slavery, the whip, prisons, and the abolition of the marriage relation could not kill you then liberty will not. [Applause.] Educate your sons and daughters, send them to school and show that besides the cartridge box, the ballot box, and the jury box, you have also the knowledge box. Build on for those who come after you. I am no orator. The orators who are to come up in the hereafter from the colored race will throw me and Langston far into the background. We have a future, everything is possible to us. Get education and get money in your pocket, and save it, for without it you will never be an independent voter.

Hon. Hugh L. Bond was introduced and his appearance was the signal for several rounds of cheers. He remarked that he had but little to say. He rejoiced with them over their freedom, not alone theirs, but also of the white race. This demonstration means peace, the opening of avenues of trade to and with you and the taking away of all impediments in the march of life. [Applause.] It will allow some of the scientific gentlemen of Baltimore to return to their studies. The philosophers of Maryland, who have been measuring heels to find out whether a man is a man or not, can now settle this question by observing his conduct. [Laughter and applause.] Judge Bond concluded by introducing Hon. Horace Maynard, of Tennessee, as one who, in 1868, had taken part in the memorable campaign in this State, by the side of the lamented Henry Winter Davis.

Mr. Maynard said they were assembled as American citizens to celebrate a great historic event in the affairs of our country. He then read to them the Fifteenth Amendment as the cause which had brought them together today. It means that you shall hence forth and forevermore aid in selecting men to make the laws and in the laws themselves. It means that the silent and invisible action of the law shall surround like an atmosphere every citizen in the country. It means that wealth shall be protected in its enjoyment, and that labor also shall have its rights. It means government for the citizens and by the citizens, and it is this which has given us so much enjoyment. This power must be exercised with prudence and discretion, else it is better that we never had it. The great question you now have to decide is how you shall use it for your own well being and that of your children. You will find men that will deal out promises but performances are better than promises. Men do not gather fruits of thistles. I wish you God speed and that the blessing of heaven may be upon you. [Applause.]

Hon. F.A. Sawyer, United States Senator from South Carolina, was next introduced, and spoke as follows.

The State in which I live having been one of the most zealous in the cause of African slavery, her citizens and her statesmen having been for more than a generation prior to the late war the special advocates of a theory of government which made the nationality of the United States impossible, her people having been the first to commit the supendous blunder, not to say the great crime, of secession, their faith in what I regard as the strongest, wisest, best form of government -- namely a thoroughly democratic republic -- having been weaker than that of any other American people, her power and prestige, once great in the nation, having been by the fortunes of the war she invoked, brought to a point so low that there was none so poor to do her reverence, her old aristocratic minority having been made to yield up their absolute control over her domestic affairs to an overwhelming majority composed of their former slaves and what they called "poor white trash," her government given over to a party whose political faith is that of her old rival Massachusetts, and now thanks to God, of the nation, her fortunes reviving with magic rapidity under the administration of a government of the people [applause], by the people, and for the poeple, a future looming up for her whose brightness bids fair to outshine all her former glories -- it is fitting that one of her representatives, who sympathized throughout with the mighty change should join with the citizens of Maryland in congratulations over the consummation of so grand an event as the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution -- an Amendment securing to all men equality before the law, equality in possession of political power, equality in the enjoyment of human rights. [Applause.] It is fitting that one who knew her in the days of the darkness of slavery, who knew her in her struggle to rivet anew the chains which bound four sevenths of her people and who knows her in her present condition of democratic, republican freedom who believes that the providence of God has overruled the folly of her old leaders for His own glory and for the welfare of her whole people should speak for her on this occasion. [Cheers.] Would that this work had fallen to one of her native sons, from whose eyes had fallen the seals of political blindness and whose mind had been illuminated by the events of the past, rather than to one whose early manhood was spent on other soil and whose connection with her policy and her politics has been forced on him by the necessities of his position. But I feel that I truly speak the sentiments of a large majority of her people when I greet the lately enfranchised citizens of Maryland with a joyful welccome into the brotherhood of men civilly and politically free and equal. [Cheers.] A minority of her citizens still as perhaps a larger minority in your State are worshipping the fallen images of their old political religion. The rapidly succeeding and wonderful events of the last ten years have stunned, but not taught them and in many cases they will not live long enough to recover their senses and looking around them see their true situation. [Laughter.] They blindly grope in the darkness of old errors and feel about for means wherewith to regain power they do not recognize as irrecoverably lost. Only the light of another world will completely awaken them and show them the clear course which the nation is now treading. Let us be charitable to the errors which they drew in as naturally as the air they breathed in their youth and which have grown with their growth and strengthened in their strength. [Applause.] But in that charity we must not forget the tremendous importance of fighting now and fighting forever the battle of human rights. We must not forget that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, and that liberty can only be saved by the watchful devotion of those who would be free. [Cheers.]

The great strides of civilization have all been taken in bloody paths, and through the blood and fire of the late war, your deliverance from one of the worst forms of barbarism has been achieved, the sacrifices by which it has come have been incalculable. No form of heroism has been wanting in the terrible ordeal through which the nation has passed to get to this day of triumph. [Applause.] And I bid my colored hearers to remember that those sacrifices, that heroism, have been mainly endured by those whose interest in the result was not by any means entirely a personal one but an interest in right and eternal justice. [Applause.] I would not underrate the noble aid given to the cause of the nation and the cause of liberty by those gallant colored soldiers who when opportunity offered rushed to the defence of the national banner. I would give to the memories of the colored heroes who gave up their lives so freely in the war the honors of the brave and patriotic. I would join in the praises so richly merited by those gallant colored men who have survived the fields of their glory. [Applause.]

But I cannot forget nor will those who by the war have become freemen forget that the blood shed, the treasure expended, the sacrifices endured for the great cause of human liberty have been shed, expended and endured, in large part, by those whose rights as men were not in peril. [Cheers.] In other times and in other lands, oppressed people have by their own efforts, their own struggles, their own agonies, won their way up to political power. It was reserved to America to witness a race already dominant waging a fierce and bloody war on a scale almost unparalleled in the history of the ages, to bring up to their own level a race of slaves. It was reserved to America to give to a subject race first personal freedom, then equal civil rights, then the ballot to protect those rights. [Applause.]

Less than ten years ago the streets of your city witnessed an attack made by some of your citizens upon the first volunteers to defend the cause of the integrity of the nation against the assaults of those who held four millions of their fellow beings in bondage. Less than seven years ago the colored man had undre what was recognized as the law of the United States, no rights which a white man was bound to respect. Today that man stands up politically the peer of his former master. Then, to teach a colored man the alphabet was a crime in many of the States of this Union. Today education walks hand in hand with liberty, and school houses and churches everywhere urge him on the road to learning and virtue. [Applause.] Then the wife of his bosom and the children of his loins were but the chattels which might at any day be sold to pay his master's debts, today they are the precious and inviolable members of the most sacred of associations, the family. [Applause.] Then the labor of his hands, the sweat of his brow went to fill hands which seldom knew toil to adorn brows which knew no sweat. Now that labor is hallowed and sweetened by the thought that it is for the present and future needs of the loved ones at home. [Applause.] Then his highest hope was to rest on the humblest of pallets after the hard toil exacted by the taskmaster. Now he can hope not only for comfort and competence, but to be one of the instruments honored by God in the advancement of the interests of his race and his nation. [Applause.]

A mighty revolution indeed! Well may the colored people meet to celebrate the ratification of that Amendment which is the capstone of this grand structure of the Constitution and of human liberty. [Applause] Well may the white men join them in exultation at the thought that they have been permitted by the Providence of God to be instrumental in such a work. [Applause.]

But the business of the hour is not only exultation over the good that has been achieved. It is also reflection on the good that remains to be done. To give a man the opportunity for development, to admit him to the race of life free and untrammelled, to open up to him an avenue of usefulness and honor to break down the barriers which keep him away from a man's work. ALl this is grand and noble. [Applause.] But it must be remembered by all those who have had this done that the great work is only just begun for them. It remains for them to show that, the opportunity given, they will embrace it, the race open they will run it, the avenue clear, they will pursue it, to the end that, as free men, they will also become true men, loyal men, and good citizens [cheers], that instead of having simply a numerical addition to the nation, they will become a tower of strength to it, that they will add to the nation's wealth, to the nation's virtue, to the nation's glory. [Applause.] This can only be done by the determination to become industrious, honest, faithful, educated citizens, men observant of the laws, tenderly respectful of the rights of others and careful of their own rights. [Applause.] The white man's power lies in his knowledge and in his virtue. The colored man can obtain power only by obtaining knowledge and virtue. The ballot can only be valuable to him when he uses it in the interest of the true, the just, the right. [Applause.] It can only be valuable to society when so used. And it behooves the colored man now enfranchised to so use the power placed in his hands as to justify the nation in the sacrifices it has made to give him that power. [Applause.] Let it not be said by the future historian that after all this great struggle, after all this lavish espense of treasure, after all this shedding of blood, after all the wails and moans of widows and orphans, the race which has been by them raised to citizenship has proved unworthy the trust imposed upon them.

I have no fears on this point. [Applause.] My experience justifies me in saying that the strides in culture made by the colored people of this country in the last few years are proof that they will make a class of citizens of whom a nation may be justly proud. [Applause.] That they may be instrumental in redeeming this old State from the rule of a party which rules it in the interest of the few rather than in that of the many, I sincerely hope and believe. [Cheers.]

Mr. J. Sella Martin was next introduced. He considered this an hour of humanity and reconciliation because the Fifteenth Amendment had made it unnecessary for white men to hate colored people any longer. When the war first broke out and it was actually waged to perpetuate the Union with slavery, he felt no interest in it and actually rejoiced when the Federal troops were defeated at Bull Run. But when the abolition of slavery was declared the colored man could shoulder a musket and help the Government. There is no longer any hatred of color, we can weep over the death of a white man as readily as we can over that of one of our own race. He had looked with pity upon the white man who had felt compelled to give him a whole seat in a car and rejoiced that the Fifteenth Amendment had put an end to his sufferings. Now that you have the ballot the white man must set down beside you to ask for it [laughter] and soon all these prescriptive seats will be done away with. Speaking of the emotional character of the negro, his love of religion and music and poetry, he said that as the negro could not love man he must love God, and it naturally followed that his affections went to music and poetry.

You may pick up any hundred colored men in the South and you can't get them to go against the Republican party, their sense of gratitude is too strong. If you could find them, the other ninety would be ready to lynch them. If the white men will only stand by their party and principles as we will, the South will be regenerated and blossom as the rose.

General H.H. Heath, of New Mexico, was the next speaker. He spoke of the feeling of pride and patriotism that must thirll each heart today. He did not believe that freedom was the result only of political action, it resulted also from the expenditure o f blood, bullets, and muscle. He did not regret the war which had made them free. The war was political. On the part of the North, he believed that it was conducted for the abolition of slavery. We have reciprocal duties to perform, and one of them belong ing to the colored race was to vote for the men who secured them their liberty. [Applause.] You cannot trust your enemies, although you need not hate them. The war of the ballot box is not yet over, and that battle must be fought by you now. Sustain your principles by sustaining the men you mad you free.

It was now after seven o'clock, and the Secretary proceeded to read the resolutions as follows.

Whereas This mass meeting is assembled to celebrate the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, therefore

Resolved That we offer our united thanksgiving to Almighty God that by His wonderful Providence we stand to-day not only freemen, but vested with the right of suffrage as equal citizens in the land of our birth.

Resolved That to President Grant we tender our warm acknowledgments that his first words in office were for the Fifteenth Amendment, and that his wise and patriotic policy has so essentially contributed to its ratification that he has the merit and the glory which no American has had since Washington, of consummating in peace as President what he won in war as the leader of the armies of his country.

Resolved That we pledge the newly enfranchised vote in Maryland to the Republican party and that we look forward with confidence and satisfaction to the day -- not long to be waited for -- when we shall aid in placing our beloved State in line with the Republican States of the Union.

Resolved That education is not so much the qualification for suffrage, as a right secured by suffrage, and that we claim the right of education for all the children of the State, and exhort all our people to avail themselves of every opportunity to educate themselves and their children.

Resolved That we cherish the strongest interest in the prosperity of all the interests of this State and of all its people and that we pledge ourselves that there shall be no cause to regret that a new body of citizens and voters are now, with fresh hopes and free hands and a bright outlook into the future to take their places in the contest of life as equal competitors, able to promote the welfare of the State and of the country as they never did or could do as serfs or slaves.

The Secretary then read the following additional resolutions which were adopted with loud acclaim.

Resolved That knowing our rights we dare demand them. That in the decision recently made by a United States Judge in relation to the admission of colored persons to the city cars we recognize a flagrant outrage upon law and insult to advancing Christian civilization, and a sad compromise with wrong.

Resolved That recognizing in Frederick Douglass the foremost man of color in the times in which we live, and proud to claim him as "one to the manner born," we do here most respectfully yet earnestly request him to return to us and by the power of his own magnificent manhood help us to a higher, broader, and nobler manhood.

Immense and long continued cheering followed the reading of the resolutions and the Chair then announced that the meeting was at an end. The thousands of persons present about one third of whom were whites, then dispersed, having remained listening to the speeches for more than two hours with scarcely a break in their ranks.

Among the numerous letters received by Dr. Brown relative to the celebration was the following from Col. W.R. Leeds, Collector of the Internal Revenue in Philadelphia.

PHILADELPHIA, PA., May 18, 1870
Dear H.J. Brown
Dear Sir-- It is with great regret I find myself unable to accept your kind invitation to participate in your celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment in Baltimore on the 19th inst I have so long labored for and loved the great cause that I would love to join your true Maryland Republicans in their patriotic demonstration. I am with you in spirit, and hope nothing may occur to mar the pleasure of so joyous an occasion.

Wishing you God speed, I am, sincerely yours,

Wm. R. Leeds

At various points along the route of the procession men and women were stationed with buckets filled with ice water and sandwiches and which were given to the processionists with an unsparing hand. This forethought proved to be a welcome visitor to the men in line as when they reached South Baltimore large numbers of them had become very thirsty and hungry from their long tramp.

The display yesterday of the National Ensign and mottoes suitable to the occasion were very profuse and elaborate in those streets through which the procession passed. East and Chestnut streets were a sea of national colors, it appearing as if every window in those streets was flaunting the gay colors.

At the corner of Bond and Baltimore streets the Association known as the Rawlins Republican Club embellished the upper portion of the second story of the building fronting on Baltimore street with a large frame containing the Emancipation Proclamation, the Declaration of Independence, and portraits of the late President Lincoln, and other distinguished living and deceased Republican statesmen. The Club also stretched a large national flag across the street in front of their headquarters. M.B. Trotten is President of the Club.

Samuel M. Evans, Esq., Collector of Internal Revenue for the Second District, with the aid of his clerks, rendered his headquarters, on Baltimore street a short distance west of Lloyd conspicuous by its elaborate display of national flags. The balcony at the lower story and the upper windows of the house were filled with ladies who waved handkerchiefs and bestowed numerous bouquets to the men in the line of procession. On the front of the building there were displayed portraits of President Grant, Vice President Colfax, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Winter Davis, and General Denison.

The headquarters of Dittman Post No 1 Grand Army of the Republic, at the corner of Gay and Baltimore streets, was also profusely decked with the national colors. The windows of the meeting room were filled with ladies and gentlemen, who clapped their hands and cheered the men as they passed by. This acknowledgement of friendly feeling was appropriately responded to by the men below.

At the residence of the Archbishop of the Cathedral, on Charles street, several ladies who occupied positions behind the railing cheered the men of the procession on their march, by the waving of small silk national flags. This compliment was also duly acknowledged.

On Orchard street, the colored people were almost wild in their enthusiasm. They threw to the breeze hundreds of flags, and in various other ways evinced their happiness at the successful birth of the Fifteenth Amendment.

The same state of things occurred in South Baltimore, with the exception that the demonstration in the shape of bunting was on a more extended scale.

Thousands of colored persons, who resided in remote parts of the city, in order to enjoy the entire day's proceedings, provided themselves with lunch, and towards two o'clock a free lunch system seemed to pervade the streets along the line of march, cellar doors and stoops were converted into banquet tables, and the lunchers appeared to relish their cold bits accordingly.

Perhaps no other race of persons in the world become so affected with music as does the colored. Give them a shriek of the fife, a bugle blast or the rub-a-dub of the drum, and man, woman and child will follow for miles, entranced beyond all other thinking. This was specially the case yesterday. Young girls clutched the arms of their male companions, and boys and girls ran pell mell into the muddy streets and at times in peril of a steed trampling them down for the pleasure of being near the musicians. On they tramped and never ceased their pilgrimage until after the procession had been dismissed at Monument Square.

After the line had been dismissed in Monument Square, the different associations and visitors repaired to their respective headquarters and by six o'clock the city with the exception of Monument Square had resumed its usual routine of business. At night many convivial meetings were held in various parts of the city and the festivities were kept up until a late hour, the newly enfranchised being determined to make the day a new Fourth of July, applicable to the colored people of Maryland.

Several streets in South Baltimore were brilliantly illuminated last night in honor of the day celebrated, but the crowning feature of the illumination was had on Orchard street between Druid Hill and Pennsylvania avenues. Every house on Orchard street was illuminated and many of them on a scale of magnificence candles being ignored the illuminating process being achieved by means of glass vessels of almost every hue filled with burning tapers steeped in oil. Chinese lanterns in great profusion blazed along the entire street and several of the houses were decorated with transparencies and evergreens. In Old Town and on Fell's Point, the illumination was also indulged in.

Mr. E.R. Petherbridge and James T. Caulk were placed in charge of the reception rooms at the Eutaw House and refreshed the invited guests in a most excellent style.

Yesterday morning Company A of the Boys in Blue Captain John C. Fortie was presented with a beautiful silk burgee, on which were the letters, "Boys in Blue," by the ladies of the Fourteenth ward. The presentation took place at the residence of Mr. John H. Lee No. 33 Vine street, by Miss Cephus who made the following address to which Captain Fortie on behalf of the company, appropriately responded.

Gentlemen -- The ladies of the Fifteenth ward are here to testify how highly they appreciate you as colored American citizens. Almighty God in His great goodness has been pleased to make the grand armies of the Union His instruments and agents in crushing out the rebellion and exterminating the hateful institution of human slavery. The Fifteenth Amendment which enfranchises our race was proposed by Congress and submitted to the several States for their ratification, and it has been ratified by a majority of the States, and has been officially proclaimed by the President and Secretary of State and now is the law of the land, and we celebrate this day in honor of that glorious event. And now gentlemen I present you thi banner in behalf of the ladies of the ward and hope that you will ever cherish it as the symbol of freedom.