* * * * *

In addressing myself to a consideration of the subject:  “The colored man as an Independent Force in our Politics,” I come at once to one of the vital principles underlying American citizenship of the colored man in a peculiar manner.  Upon this question hang all the conditions of man as a free moral agent, as an intelligent reasoning being; as a man thoughtful for the best interests of his country, of his individual interests, and of the interests of those who must take up the work of republican government when the present generation has passed away.  When I say that this question is of a most complex and perplexing nature, I only assert what is known of all men.

I would not forget that the arguments for and against independent action on our part are based upon two parties or sets of principles.  Principles are inherent in government by the people, and parties are engines created by the people through which to voice the principles they espouse.  Parties have divided on one line in this country from the beginning of our national existence to the present time.  All other issues merge into two distinct ones—­the question of a strong Federal Government, as enunciated by Alexander Hamilton, and maintained by the present Republican party, and the question of the rights and powers of the States, as enunciated by Thomas Jefferson, and as maintained by the present Democratic party,—­called the “party of the people,” but in fact the party of oligarchy, bloodshed, violence and oppression.  The Republican party won its first great victory on the inherent weakness of the Democratic party on the question of Human Rights and the right of the Federal Government to protect itself from the assumption, the aggression, the attempted usurpation, of the States, and it has maintained its supremacy for so long a time as to lead to the supposition that it will rule until such time as it shall fall to pieces of itself because of internal decay and exterior cancers.  There does not appear to exist sufficient vitality outside of the Republican party to keep its members loyal to the people or honest to the government.  The loyal legislation which would be occasioned by dread of loss of power, and the administration of the government in the most economical form, are wanting, because of the absence of an honest, healthy opposing party.

But it is not my purpose to dwell upon the mechanism of parties, but rather to show why colored Americans should be independent voters, independent citizens, independent men.  To this end I am led to lay it down:  (1.) That an independent voter must be intelligent, must comprehend the science of government, and be versed in the history of governments and of men; (2.) That an independent voter must be not only a citizen versed in government, but one loyal to his country, and generous and forbearing with his fellow-citizens, not looking always to the word and the act, but looking sometimes to the undercurrent which actuates these—­to the presence of immediate interest, which is always strong in human nature, to the love of race, and to the love of section, which comes next to the love of country.