fenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but
which, having continued through his appointed time, He now
wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this
terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came,
shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attri-
butes which believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?
Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty
scourge of war may speedily pass away.  Yet, if God wills that
it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hun-
dred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until
every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another
drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so
still it must be said, "The Judgments of the Lord are true and
righteous altogether.'"
  "With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firm-
ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on
to finish the work we are in; to bind up the Nation's wounds,
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his
widow and his orphan-to do all which may achieve and cherish
a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

               Attitude of Political Parties
  The limits of my address forbid my going into the details of
the long struggle for liberty.  The main facts are known to you
all.  But when we discuss the attitude of parties let me recall
to you the position of both parties on the race question since the
advent of the Republican party, in 1856.
  In that year the Republican National Convention held in
Philadelphia declared that it was the imperative duty of Con-
gress to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism-
polygamy and slavery. In the same year the Democratic Na-
tional Convention declared that the Democratic party would resist
all attempts to renew in Congress or out of it the agitation of
the slavery question under whatever form the attempt might be
made.
  In 1860 the Republican Convention at Chicago declared in
favor of freedom as the normal condition of all the territory
of the United States, and that it was the duty of the party to
maintain the provision of the Constitution that no person should
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OHS Archives/Library Pamphlet Collection

Progress of the Negro Race: Address at a Patriotic Race Service, Philadelphia