Later, the same evening, the Harrison League of Indianapolis, numbering three hundred colored men, assembled on the lawn and congratulated the Republican nominee through its spokesman, Mr. Ben D. Bagby. General Harrison’s response was as follows:
Mr. Bagby and Gentlemen of the Harrison Club—I assure you that I have a sincere respect for, and a very deep interest in, the colored people of the United States. My memory, as a boy, goes back to the time when slavery existed in the Southern States. I was born upon the Ohio River, which was the boundary between the free State of Ohio and the slave State of Kentucky. Some of my earliest recollections relate to the stirring and dramatic interest which was now and then excited by the pursuit of an escaping slave for the hope of offered rewards.
I remember, as a boy, wandering once through my grandfather’s orchard at North Bend, and in pressing through an alder thicket that grew on its margin I saw sitting in its midst a colored man with the frightened look of a fugitive in his eye, and attempting to satisfy his hunger with some walnuts he had gathered. He noticed my approach with a fierce, startled look, to see whether I was likely to betray him; I was frightened myself and left him in some trepidation, but I kept his secret. [Cries of “Good!” “Good!”] I have seen the progress which has been made in the legislation relating to your race, and the progress that the race itself has made since that day. When I came to Indiana to reside the unfriendly black code was in force. My memory goes back to the time when colored witnesses were first allowed to appear in court in this State to testify in cases where white men were par[34]ties. Prior to that time, as you know, you had been excluded from the right to tell in court, under oath, your side of the story in any legal controversy with white men. [Cries of “I know that!”] The laws prevented your coming here. In every way you were at a disadvantage, even in the free States. I have lived to see this unfriendly legislation removed from our statute-books and the unfriendly section of our State Constitution repealed. I have lived not only to see that, but to see the race emancipated and slavery extinct. [Cries of “Amen to that!”]
Nothing gives me more pleasure among the results of the war than this. History will give a prominent place in the story of this great war to the fact that it resulted in making all men free, and gave to you equal civil rights. The imagination and art of the poet, the tongue of the orator, the skill of the artist will be brought under contribution to tell this story of the emancipation of the souls of men. [Applause and cries of “Amen!”]
Nothing gives me so much gratification as a Republican as to feel that in all the steps that led to this great result the Republican party sympathized with you, pioneered for you in legislation, and was the architect of those great measures of relief which have so much ameliorated your condition. [Applause.]
I know nowhere in this country of a monument that I behold with so much interest, that touches my heart so deeply, as that monument at Washington representing the Proclamation of Emancipation by President Lincoln, the kneeling black man at the feet of the martyred President, with the shackles falling from his limbs.
I remember your faithfulness during the time of the war. I remember your faithful service to the army as we were advancing through an unknown country. We could always depend upon the faithfulness of the black man. [Cries of “Right you are!”] He might be mistaken, but he was never false. Many a time in the darkness of night have those faithful men crept to our lines and given us information of the approach of the enemy. I shall never forget a scene that I saw when Sherman’s army marched through a portion of North Carolina, between Raleigh and Richmond, where our troops had never before been. The colored people had not seen our flag since the banner of treason had been set up in its stead. As we were passing through a village the colored people flocked out to see once more the starry banner of freedom, the emblem, promise, and security of their emancipation. I remember an aged woman, over whom nearly a century of slavery must have passed, pressed forward to see the welcome banner that told[35] her that her soul would go over into the presence of her God. I remember her exultation of spirit as she danced in the dusty road before our moving column, and, like Miriam of old, called upon her soul to rejoice in the deliverance which God had wrought by the coming of those who stood for and made secure the Proclamation of Emancipation. [Applause.]
I rejoice in all that you have accomplished since you have been free. I recall no scene more pathetic than that which I have often seen about our camp-fires. An aged man, a fugitive from slavery, had found freedom in our camp. After a day of hard work, when taps had sounded and the lights in the tents were out, I have seen him with the spelling-book that the chaplain had given him, lying prone upon the ground taxing his old eyes, and pointing with his hardened finger to the letters of the alphabet, as he endeavored to open to his clouded brain the avenues of information and light.
I am glad to know that that same desire to increase and enlarge your information possesses the race to-day. It is the open way for the race to that perfect emancipation which will remove remaining prejudices and secure to you in all parts of the land an equal and just participation in the government of this country. It cannot much longer be withholden from you.
Again I thank you for your presence here to-night and will be glad to take by the hand any of you who desire to see me. [Great applause.]
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