HISTORY OF NEGRO CITIZENSHIP.           689




      HISTORY OF NEGRO CITIZENSHIP.


                 IF WE should affirm that the Procla-
                   mation of Emancipation is second
                   only in importance to the Declara-
                   tion of Independence, and that the
                   two are the pivotal events in our
                   national   history,  there  would
                   doubtless be more or less dissent
                   according to one's  conception of
America's true destiny.    The lapse of years, however,
is gradually educating the people to a truer view of the
relation of these two great events and to a profounder
sense of their significance. They are the great national
landmarks. The Declaration of Independence was a
declaration of liberty. Independence for the sake of
liberty; and the Proclamation of Emancipation was a
declaration of liberty.
  Lincoln finished the good work which Jefferson had
begun. The Nation was born July 4, 1776; it was born
again January 1, 1863. Lincoln distinctly conceived it
to be his mission to see that this Nation, under God,
should have a new birth of freedom. Liberty is, there-
fore, the soul of American nationality, and its evolution
and expansion constitute the chief interest of our his-
tory. 
  In his affirmation that liberty is an inalienable birth-
right, and its conservatism the supreme end of govern-
ment, Jefferson stated America's true destiny, and set
before her the loftiest political ideal since the beginning
of human government. Jefferson set forth the political
aspect of a great religious truth.   Christianity shows
that universal liberty can only be realized through uni-




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 15, Num. 3

History of Negro Citizenship

W.

Volume:  15
Issue Number:  03
Page Number:  689
Date:  01/1899