The entire affair was well and satisfactorily managed, and the various orders of the chief marshal Colonel William U Saunders, carried out by his numerous aids with promptness and precision. At an early hour Police Commissioner Carr and Marshal Gray and Deputy Marshal Frey, mounted, were on Broadway, where the procession was to form with a force of nearly three hundred policemen, and the greatest order prevailed.

Throughout the earlier hours of the morning the various organizations to be embraced in the five divisions into which the grand line would be formed were gathering at their different meeting places and in due time were at the points adjacent to Broadway assigned as their respective rendezvous the sounds of martial music being heard on all sides from the many bands.

In forming the procession on Broadway, the right rested on Baltimore street. As the bodies composing each division arrived on the ground they were conducted to their respective positions by aids the first division being on Wilk street, east of Broadway, right resting on Broadway second division on Bank Street, east of Broad way, right resting on Broadway, third division on Gough street, east at Broadway right resting on Broadway fourth division on Pratt street, east of Broadway right resting on Broadway, fifth division on Lombard street, east of Broad way right resting on Broadway special details on Baltimore street, east of Broadway, right resting on Broadway.

Barouches containing distinguished visitors committees and citizens formed on the west side of Broadway facing south, chariots containing school children formed on Pratt street, west of Broadway, facing east.

The barouches containing the white invited guests were on Baltimore street, between Lloyd and High to take their positions in line as the procession should file out.

The head of the column having moved off, coming up Broadway the rear of the first division reached Bank street. The second division was ready to fall in and in this way there was no delay in getting the large body of men under way when the general order of march was given. Chief Marshal William U. Saunders elicited commendation for the perfect arrangements aided in a great degree by the signal corps, under Daniel K. Jackson, signal officer, and by his numerous aids.

The fine wide avenue, from Baltimore street as far south as Eastern avenue, presented a lively scene during the morning. The various associations dressed to a large extent in brilliant colors as they marched with banners, flags, and in some cases with bright burnished muskets, presented an effective scene. The streets were filled with spectators of all colors both sexes, and all ages whilst the windows of most of the dwellings in the that section were filled with ladies and children.

Double platoon of policemen.

Chariot, drawn by four horses, the chariot being mounted with a large bell, which kept continually sounding, and on a banner, in large letters, were the words "Ring out the old, ring in the new, ring out the false, ring in the true."

Then followed the Knights Templar of Baltimore and Washington, in the rich regalia and trappings of the order, the Philadelphia Cornet Band Capt. Edward Johnson in full uniform, detachments of military, both infantry and cavalry, in uniform and armed and equipped. These were the advance guard to the chief marshal Colonel Saunders with Hiram Watty as right aid and Captain R M Piper as left aid Captain Isadore D Oliver as chief of staff and Daniel K Jackson as signal- officer Dr. H J Brown as master of ceremonies, with J Shadrach Brown and Edwd T Crew as aids. Then came the aids to the chief marshal, some one hundred and fifty strong, the rear ranks bearing the escutcheons of the various States.

The carriages containing the invited guests came next, and were followed by the carters and draymen all well mounted and wearing uniforms, a band of music from Washington city, and the Hook and Ladder Company of the same city drawing a handsomely finished reel, the men wearing firemen's uniforms, red shirts black pants and white fire helmets, and headed by their foreman, a white man.

Then followed the Morning Star Club of the East, with a banner bearing the picture of Senator Revels greeting the Goddess of Liberty on the steps of the capitol - the members wore a neat uniform of blue shirts and black pants, Good Intent Club, Caulkers' and Live Oak Association, carrying the mallets and other instruments of the caulkers' trade, they had a full rigged ship drawn by four horses, the vessel be-ing some twenty feet long and fully manned and beautifully decorated. They were followed by the Brickmakers' Association, with a drum corps, the men dressed in salmon colored shirts, black caps and pants, and carried as a motto, "We are in favor of the single mould principle." Then came the Third Ward Good Will Club, dressed in white shirts and blue trimmings, carrying axes, flags, &c, the Northerner's Look Club, in white shirts and blue and gilt trimmings, carrying axes, clubs, flags, and a large tri- colored ball in a wagon, with the motto "Time from '62 to '70 roll good, roll on – keep the ball rolling."

Following these came the Sailors' Beneficial Association dressed as sailors with oars regalia &c, the Seventh Maryland Band, the Fifth Ward Wilson Club with a banner containing a portrait of the late George A Hackett, and a car representing the Temple of Liberty, with a real colored goddess on the top – on one side a portrait of Lincoln with the words "Our Liberator" on the other a portrait of Grant with the words "The Peacemakers." Sumner and Wilson Club composed of boys in white and blue cambric, chariots of girls in bright colors and wearing wreaths and waving flags. Then came the Order of Good Samaritans composed of Mount Lebanon Lodge Western Chapel Lodge Harmonic Lodge and an open barouche containing the Past Grand Masters of the Order, all in full regalia.

Then came a printing press in a wagon which struck off as it went along a handbill headed "The New Vote Isaac Myers Editor". It contained the Fifteenth Amendment, an advertisement of the Freedmen's Savings Bank and a pledge that every colored vote in Maryland would be cast for the radical ticket. A wagon containing a tin factory and a number of vehicles containing school children and a wagon with a number of colored men labeled "Lumber Inspectors of the Second Ward". As the last named car passed along one of the "inspectors" would hold op a strip of wood and call out its length and quality whilst his "clerk" seemed busily engaged in "chalking it down".

The second division came next, under the marshalship of John C Jordan and headed by Briscoe's Juvenile Cornet Band. The division was composed of the sixth ward C C Fulton Club Seventh Ward Club the Sixth Ward Lovals with banner bearing the motto "Soldiers in War should be Citizens in Peace" the Colored Butchcrs Association in uniform Fairmount Keystone Club, Sixth Ward Fredman's Club, with monument bearing on its four sides portraits of Lincoln Stevens Stanton and Henry W1nter Davis, the Samuel M Evans Club with banner bearing Mr Evans' likeness, and the motto "Owen Lovejoy's Martyr to Liberty and Justice" the men were dressed in white shirts and black pants, Ninth Ward Association, with banner bearing the likeness of Wm Lloyd Garrison and the words "The Voice of the Liberator has at Last been heard," Ninth Ward Invincibles Tenth Ward Wide Awakes, with brass band, Young Men's Christian Association of the tenth ward, Fishermen of Gallilee of the tenth ward with the little Gallileans in furniture wagons, John Brown Club the Torchlight Club Haymakers' BaseBall Club the Eubolt American Club No 2,Tenth Ward Republican Association, in blue shirts and black pants the Colfax Club in white shirts, trimmed with blue, Hookstown Sons of temperance, Zebedee Club of South Baltimore, in blue shirts, King Hezekiah's Pasture, United Order of N Knights of Samaritan.

The third division was under Captain Daniel P Seaton as marshal, headed by a full drum corps. Those composing it were the Boys in Blue of the Third Ward, bearing a banner with the likeness of Thaddeus Stevens, over which was the motto "Ecce Homo, and beneath the words of Stevens, "No government can be free that does not allow all its citizens to participate in the formation and the execution of her laws,” the Social Club of the Royal Maryland Line, they numbered 140 men, and wore blue capes and military caps, the Anacosta Club followed, having 66 members, in complete Indian dress, faces painted a war red with muskets and tomahawks, and with their squaws and pappooses in like costume in wagons they had a fine banner, with representations of an Indian over it, "Organized March 26 1870," and beneath it, "We are the true supporters of the republican party." The Richmond Market Radicals, Locust Club Hannibal Club, Caledonia Club No 1, with a banner bearing the words, "Give us equal rights and we will protect ourselves Glory to God in the Highest the year of jubilee has come," Republican Wide Awakes of the Thirteenth Ward, The Union Star Society of the Rising Generation, vehicles, containing the female school children and male scholars on foot.

"The fourth division was marshaled by John T Griffin, and was headed by Captain Murray’s Cornet Band. It was composed of four companies of the Butler Guard, carrying a banner with a likeness of Benjamin Butler, the Knights of Samaria in full regalia, the Soldiers of Gideon, Draymen's Mounted Guard of Honor of South Baltimore, Dreadnaught Association of South Baltimore Hugh L Bond Club at the eighteenth ward with banner bearing a portrait of the judge Indian Club of the seventeenth ward in Indian garb, Maltby’s Oyster Openers Sheridan Invincibles of the sixteenth ward, Delmonico Club, Nineteenth Ward Lincoln Rangers, Colfax Club Juvenile Club Butler Association, with a banner containing the words "Fred Douglass a man among men," and another, "Philip Hacketon the Platform thirty six years."

The fifth division had for its marshal John A. Wagoner. It was headed by martial music, and consisted of Washington County Star Club Lutherville Council, U L A, Twelfth District Council U L A, Frederick City Battalion, Fremont Council, U L A Patapsco Council U L A, Stemmer's Run Radicals. Anne Arundel County Boys in Blue: Towsontown Council, U L A bearing a banner on which was inscribed "The first to vote under the fifteenth amendment," Liberty Council, U L A, Baltimore County and Long Green Beneficial Society, Pikesville Club, Lutherville Liberty Association

A double platoon of police closed the procession.

The procession having arrived in Monument square where had been erected a stand for speakers, the invited guests and orators took their places thereon. But a small portion of the immense crowd could obtain positions to enable them to hear the speakers. The flags and banners carried in the procession were used to decorate the stand. As the meeting was about to be opened the platform of the stand fell to the ground and about twenty five persons who were upon it were thrown down, falling together towards the centre, where it first gave way. Fortunately no person was injured with the exception of a few, who sustained bruises and scratches. Considerable excitement prevailed for a time but as soon as it was announced to the people present that there was no one injured, they responded with a shout. The committees and their guests, the speakers and others present then changed their stand to the balcony of the Gilmor House, on the other side of the square, and the audience had only to turn their faces in that direction.

Dr J H Brown, master of ceremonies called the meeting to order, and proposed the following list of officers, who were elected.

President Isaac Myers Vice president C C Fulton, Judge H L Bond Samuel N Evans H C Hawkins Colonel Thomas H Gardner, John McGarigle, C R Gillingham , Hon John L Thomas, A Ward Handy, Samuel M Shoemaker, George Small, Hon Jno Lee Chapman John A Fernandis Edington Fulton Collins Cruor, Gen A W Denison, Wm McKim, John T Johnson, Wm H Brown Chas Cochrane, Robert Turner, J D Oliver, Dr A Rich G W Perkins and Cyrus N Diggs.

Secretaries – James H Hill, W E Matthews W F Taylor W H Woods, Wesley Howard, Matthew M Leery Cassius Mason, Major R R Petherbridge, Wm Galloway, Thomas Kelso, A K Fulton, James C Wheeden, J B Askew. Robert M Proud Evan Tubman, F Collins Smith, Wm E Hooper, John Henderson Jr, John W Socks, Richard Mason, Samuel Hitchens James Green Col G W Black Wm M Marine Capt V C S Eckert, George W Ban dell and A J Cairnes.

The president of the meeting Mr. Isaac Myers, was then introduced, who said he felt proud to have the honor of presiding over the greatest, grandest and most important gathering of colored men in Maryland or in the whole country. He felt thankful by Divine Providence for three things that. He had favored the occasion with sunshine instead of rain at the prospect of which their enemies had rejoiced, also that He had permitted us to live and see and rejoice in the privileges of this day. He thanked God that the stand did break down, for it taught them an important lesson, never to trust your enemies – That stand was put up by contract, and guaranteed to hold one hundred persons, and it would not hold twenty five men. Never trust a democrat, they will always cheat you. [The fact is the stand was erected by a republican.] He heartily welcomed their distinguished guests who had battled for them in the halls of Congress. When the colored men are called upon to vote, they can always be put down for the republican party.

He then read a letter from Charles Sumner, and also a long response from Wm. Lloyd Garrison, in reply to the invitation of the committee to be present.

Mr Garrison's letter is dated Boston, May 15, and in it he says

"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 a 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 of Liberty thou art,
For there thy habitation is the heart"

"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 hoar when my faith in its final triumph wavered.

After expressing joy that the prohibitions of slavery no longer exist he adds
"Citizenship is yours with political enfranchisement whereby you are to help decide what shall be the laws for the common defense 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 we now, never so prosperous as now, never so united 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."

The following resolutions were adopted
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 today not only freemen but vested with the right of suffrage as equal citizens in the land of our birth.

Resolved: That under God we owe the great result which this day's proceedings celebrate to the republican Congress of the United States to the great re-publican party of the country and to the illustrious soldier and statesman who now occupies the Presidency.

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 tn 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.

John M. Langston, Esq. (colored) of Ohio, was then introduced by Dr. Brown as a distinguished member of the bar of that State &c. Mr. Langston said they met to celebrate the triumph of universal democracy as affirmed by the fathers of the Revolution in the Declaration of Independence, and subsequently defined in an amendment to the constitution of the United States – a democracy protected and support by free thought free speech and a free press – It is not four millions of persons who have been emancipated but forty millions – every negro and every white man within the vortex of slavery has been emancipated - the poor white man as well as the poor negro. He then referred to three prominent facts in the history of emancipation. The visit of Mr. Hear, of Massachusetts to South Carolina, many years ago whose citizens compelled him to leave that State, and whose son now represents a district in Congress, to the eminent scholar, philosopher and statesman Hon Charles Sumner, and to Wm. Lloyd Garrison, who once could not pass with safety through this city. Let them remember these men whose great efforts have culminated in their freedom and the glory and perpetuity of the Union. Let them remember the men who led on the army to glory and victory in the cause of liberty, also remember the men who battled in Congress to give the ballot to every man in the country – Let them remember the national administration, which gave the negro the ballot and official position. When he remembered the efforts in their behalf, the instincts{question} and love which prompted the officers of government, including Mr. Creswell to do justice to the negro, he only wondered if their skins were purely white. He thanked God that this is our country, our government, and that all men are our fellow citizens, that our country is grandest in the whole world – Let them write upon its shield "Este perpetua," let it stand forever.

The Hon J A J Creswell, of Maryland Postmaster General, was next introduced as one of the most eminent men of the day, and the truest friend of the colored race. He said this great demonstration celebrated the grandest event in the history of the country. The hand of Omnipotence has been stretched out to redeem this people whose representatives are now before him. They do well to celebrate the day with joy and gladness and display the glorious insignia of victory and their dusky faces with white silken turbans wreathed.

The white race has also cause for rejoicing that the position assumed by the fathers of the revolution has been worked out. No man could charge him with infidelity to American principles when he voted to give the ballot to colored men. The same Marylanders who subscribed to the Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia met in Assembly at Annapolis, no member of which dared to propose to confine the ballot to simply white men. They provided in the State constitution that all men having an interest in the State should have the privilege of the ballot. The black men voted side by side with the white men without a question. In 1810 at the instigation of slaveholders the General Assembly extended the privilege of the white men but took it away from the black men, in order to sustain slavery. The men of Maryland and Virginia in those days protested that the institution of slavery was the blackest injustice –We have now dedicated our soil to freedom. We want not men of wealth but men of industry and intelligence and those who will stand by our hearths and defend them with their muskets. Mr. Creswell then reviewed the successive steps by which President Lincoln and the republican party were brought to pronounce the overthrow of slavery and decree emancipation and after every expedient had been tried to reconstruct the Southern States without giving suffrage to colored men before it was determined upon. He repudiated every attempt to govern by the sword when a government by ballot was practicable. For loyalty you should look in the hearts of men and not in their faces. The colored men are somewhat indebted to themselves for their emancipation. It was necessary to have friends in the colored race, and they were found –Lincoln did not live to see emancipation but his great captain, who sits in the presidential chair, has lived to fulfill it. The efforts you have made to educate yourselves and your children show that you will succeed in fulfilling the expectations of those who have achieved you emancipation. By the grand act of enfranchisement the republic has been made immortal. In the great work before them the colored men shall work side by side with us.

Frederick Douglass was introduced by Dr. Brown as the champion of liberty the first of American Orators and a son of Maryland. He is a resident of New York but he ought to be with them and work with them and they intended to have him back with them.

Mr. Douglass said he had often appeared before the American people as a slave and sometimes as a fugitive slave, but always as an advocate for the slave. To him this day was the day of all days. He was permitted to appear before them in the more dignified, the more elevated character of an American citizen. Thirty five years ago it was his lot to be a slave in Talbot county working side by side with slaves on a plantation. He remembered that he always looked forward with yearning to the time when Maryland should not contain a slave. Uneducated as he was he knew enough of logic of events, of the sense right and wrong that the day would come when not a chain should clank nor fetter gall, nor whip crack over a slave. The change is amazing, when he remembers how slavery was interwoven with everything civil, political social and ecclesiastical in this State. He remembers that he and his fellow slaves desired to talk about emancipation, but were prevented by the presence of the overseer. They invented a vocabulary of their own so that they would not be understood as saying anything but the most harmless things. They were talking of liberty, in fact they were the original abolitionists. The old aunty would ask a slave, "Sonny do you see anything of the pig's foot coming?" That was the way we talked about emancipation To-day we have but two of three chief things. The first thing the negro got was the cartridge box, next was the ballot-box. Some of our friends who now advocate it hardly saw it three years ago, but at last they were convinced. The next box, without which the cartridge-box and ballot-box is insufficient, is the jury box. We are in a country which, while the negro hating element sits in the jury box the negro is not protected. We want the jury box for ourselves and our white follow-citizens, for no one is hurt by justice. He then explained the purport of the fifteenth amendment, and said that here- after the black man will have no excuse, as formerly, for ignorance, or poverty or destitution. The fifteenth amendment has deprived them of all the apologies and excuses which formerly existed. We must stand up and be responsible to our fellow-citizens as independent men. We are to instruct ourselves as to men and measures and take nobody or thing on trust. Mr. Douglass asked them if they remembered which party emancipated them? [There were responses of "The republican party," and several persons responded "The democratic," which occasioned some amusement.] Mr. Douglass continued. The democratic party is the old party that for forty years stood between themselves and liberty.

He pleaded guilty to the charge of running away from Maryland but it was not from Maryland he ran away. He loved Maryland, its waters, its fertile fields in Talbot county its fishing grounds and everything in it except slavery. It was slavery he ran away from He felt a little mean about it to go away with out bidding them good bye. The truth was he was afraid aid to bid them good bye for fear they would not let him go. He had some religious scruples also. He used to pray that God would release him from slavery but God did not begin to hear his prayers until he began to run.

Forty years ago he saw Austin Woolfolk on horseback, with about forty negroes he was going to ship to the South. That made him hate slavery. When he went North he resolved that any power he possessed should be devoted to the abolition of slavery and the enfranchisement of his race, and he has endeavored to perform faith fully his pledge, and whatever that remains to him of life shall go in the same direction. They were not indebted to Maryland for their liberty, but to the United States. Will you be as good masters to yourselves as your old masters were? Will you get up as early in the morning? Will you work as hard for yourselves as you did for your masters? Will you dream as well and be as sober and as temperate?

Some people say the negroes will die out. He replies to them that if two hundred and fifty years of slavery could not kill them, liberty can not. It is argued against us that we are incapable of educating our minds. We have got the cartridge box and the ballot box but the knowledge box is wanting. Are you going to educate your sons and daughters? We want our children to do better than we do and have done. The Baltimore that he knew fifty years ago was a two-story Baltimore, now it is a five story Baltimore. We want our children to add a story to their height every generation.

Mr. Douglass said he was no orator or great champion of liberty as announced. It was only because it was unusual to hear a black man talk that they called him so. No one knew better than he that it was not so. But he did not "let on." He don't mind telling them so now. The orators that are to come after us in this country will do great things. We have now a future and everything is possible - now we have a future. You will never, any of you, be an independent voter in your life, until you get some money in your pocket. A colored man was once advised to "vote where he could get his potatoes." Colored men like other men are apt to be grateful and men will court you on the score of interest.

Judge Bond was next introduced. He said this demonstration to us means peace. All the white men of Maryland who have pictured you in false lights will have ample opportunity hereafter to devote themselves to the quiet pursuits of literature, &c. His object was not to address them at this time but to introduce to them the Hon. Horace Maynard of Tennessee.

Mr. Maynard said they had assembled as American citizens to celebrate a great historic event, which was without parallel to the history of the world. To show there the importance of it he read the fifteenth amendment and commented upon it, explaining its force and effect.

The Hon. Frederick A. Sawyer, Senator from South Carolina, made a brief address as also Gen. Heath, of Washington city, after which the meeting at about 7 o clock quietly adjourned and soon the square relapsed into its usual condition.

At night a ball was held at the Douglass Institute which was largely attended, some few white persons being present. The dancing was kept up until a late hour, a supper being provided in the lower saloon about midnight. Several streets in South Baltimore and Orchard street, from Madison street to Pennsylvania avenue mainly occupied by colored persons were brilliantly illuminated and wreaths, flags &c, suspended from windows and in several instances across the streets.

The request of the police board that the drinking houses should be closed was as a general thing complied with and as a consequence cases of drunken men being seen on the street were of rare occurrence. Last night more than the usual number of persons both white and colored were to be seen on the streets, which were lively but orderly.