HENRY MCNEAL TURNER

The seeds of freedom ... have now been scattered where despotism and tyranny ranked and ruled, will be watered by the enlivening dews of God's clemency, till the reapers [abolitionists] shall shout the harvest home.

The representative of our government, whom President Harrison has sent here, is an ass, and ought to be moved from here at once. He has not the respect of the rabble, much less the better class. He is an Irish Catholic bigot of the baser sort, and a regular rough besides.

I am a member of this body. Therefore, sir, I shall neither fawn nor cringe before any party, nor stoop to beg . . . I am here to demand my rights, and to hurl thunderbolts at the men who would dare to cross the threshold of my manhood.

Every race of people since time began who have attempted to describe God by words or painting, or by carvings, have conveyed their idea that the God who made them and shaped their destinies was symbolized in themselves. . .

It is astonishing to see how little some of our would-be great and wise white men know about the Negro, his ability, his progress, his books, newspapers, churches, home tastes, etc.

The Fourth of July-memorable in the history of our nation as the great day of independence to its countrymen-had no claim upon our sympathies. They made a flag and threw it to the heavens and bid it float forever; but every star in it was against us.

The general intelligence of the people is far ahead of our people, and no wonder; every night there are lectures upon every subject the mind of man can contemplate—astronomy, geology, botany, natural history, conchology, water, smoke, continents, mountains, valleys, clouds, anatomy, physiology, lice, spiders, whiskey, eatables, shipping, trees and everything. Elder Geda and I heard a Roman Catholic Priest lecture on botany with masterly ability this evening, yet not a cent was charged at the door; all these lectures are free to the public. I have told our young ministers for years, to learn to lecture; that our race will never be anything till they do so I am now satisfied, as never before, that I was right. These lectures are attended, too, not by the finely attired only, but by the laboring people.

The presence of the black man in this country is a curse to both races. It keeps the white man lying, stealing, misrepresenting, and the black man abusing, vilifying, and cursing, and neither white nor black can be Christian. I pray God you will continue in the great work in which you are engaged, and move this country to help the negro to emigrate to the land of his ancestors.

Europe has about eighty steamships hugging the African coast the year round, yet our country cannot find employment for one.

Free tariff or no tariff would close up our manufactories by the scores.

The seeds of freedom ... have now been scattered where despotism and tyranny ranked and ruled, will be watered by the enlivening dews of God's clemency, till the reapers [abolitionists] shall shout the harvest home.

The African ladies who come in hundreds of miles from the bush to the city have to buy white doll-babies. The want black, brown and yellow dolls. If some of our people will engage in their manufacture, they can sell millions of colored dolls. England, France, etc. only make white dolls.

A singular fact is, that anybody, white or colored, from America is welcomed out here in Africa, either on the coast or back in the interior. While Englishmen, French and Germans are mostly hated. The kings hate them, especially about robbing them of their lands. The French are hated as the devil. Americans are looked upon as their guardians…and the friends of blacks, … I do not understand it yet. France is more prejudiced and more intolerant in her claimed possessions than England and seems far less compromising.

The representative of our government, whom President Harrison has sent here, is an ass, and ought to be moved from here at once. He has not the respect of the rabble, much less the better class. He is an Irish Catholic bigot of the baser sort, and a regular rough besides.

Europe has about eighty steamships hugging the African coast the year round, yet our country cannot find employment for one.

Free tariff or no tariff would close up our manufactories by the scores.

The general intelligence of the people is far ahead of our people, and no wonder; every night there are lectures upon every subject the mind of man can contemplate—astronomy, geology, botany, natural history, conchology, water, smoke, continents, mountains, valleys, clouds, anatomy, physiology, lice, spiders, whiskey, eatables, shipping, trees and everything. Elder Geda and I heard a Roman Catholic Priest lecture on botany with masterly ability this evening, yet not a cent was charged at the door; all these lectures are free to the public. I have told our young ministers for years, to learn to lecture; that our race will never be anything till they do so I am now satisfied, as never before, that I was right. These lectures are attended, too, not by the finely attired only, but by the laboring people.

It is astonishing to see how little some of our would-be great and wise white men know about the Negro, his ability, his progress, his books, newspapers, churches, home tastes, etc.

The presence of the black man in this country is a curse to both races. It keeps the white man lying, stealing, misrepresenting, and the black man abusing, vilifying, and cursing, and neither white nor black can be Christian. I pray God you will continue in the great work in which you are engaged, and move this country to help the negro to emigrate to the land of his ancestors.

Every race of people since time began who have attempted to describe God by words or painting, or by carvings, have conveyed their idea that the God who made them and shaped their destinies was symbolized in themselves. . .

I am a member of this body. Therefore, sir, I shall neither fawn nor cringe before any party, nor stoop to beg . . . I am here to demand my rights, and to hurl thunderbolts at the men who would dare to cross the threshold of my manhood.

The Fourth of July-memorable in the history of our nation as the great day of independence to its countrymen-had no claim upon our sympathies. They made a flag and threw it to the heavens and bid it float forever; but every star in it was against us.