Belton gazed fondly on the handsome features of his noble friend and sighed to think that only the coloring of his skin prevented him from being enrolled upon the scroll containing the names of the very noblest sons of earth.  Arousing himself as from a reverie he drew near to Bernard and said:  “I must begin.  Another government, complete in every detail, exercising the sovereign right of life and death over its subjects, has been organized and maintained within the United States for many years.  This government has a population of seven million two hundred and fifty thousand.”

“Do you mean all that you say, Belton?” asked Bernard eagerly.

“I shall in a short time submit to you positive proofs of my assertion.  You shall find that I have not overstated anything.”

“But, Belton, how in the world can such a thing be when I, who am thoroughly conversant with every movement of any consequence, have not even dreamed of such a thing.”

“All of that shall be made perfectly clear to you in the course of the narrative which I shall now relate.”

Bernard leaned forward, anxious to hear what purported to be one of the most remarkable and at the same time one of the most important things connected with modern civilization.

Belton began:  “You will remember, Bernard, that there lived, in the early days of the American Republic, a negro scientist who won an international reputation by his skill and erudition.  In our school days, we spoke of him often.  Because of his learning and consequent usefulness, this negro enjoyed the association of the moving spirits of the revolutionary period.  By the publication of a book of science which outranked any other book of the day that treated of the same subject, this negro became a very wealthy man.  Of course the book is now obsolete, science having made such great strides since his day.  This wealthy negro secretly gathered other free negroes together and organized a society that had a two-fold object.  The first object was to endeavor to secure for the free negroes all the rights and privileges of men, according to the teachings of Thomas Jefferson.  Its other object was to secure the freedom of the enslaved negroes the world over.  All work was done by this organization with the sole stipulation that it should be used for the furtherance of the two above named objects of the society, and for those objects alone.

“During slavery this organization confined its membership principally to free negroes, as those who were yet in physical bondage were supposed to have aspirations for nothing higher than being released from chains, and were, therefore, not prepared to eagerly aspire to the enjoyment of the highest privileges of freedom.  When the War of Secession was over and all negroes were free, the society began to cautiously spread its membership among the emancipated.  They conducted a campaign of education, which in every case preceded an attempt at securing members.