It is not safe in a republican form of government that clannishness should exist, either by compulsory or voluntary reason; it is not good for the government, it is not good for the individual.  A government like ours is like unto a household.  Difference of opinion on non-essentials is wholesome and natural, but upon the fundamental idea incorporated in the Declaration of Independence and re-affirmed in the Federal Constitution the utmost unanimity should prevail.  That all men are born equal, so far as the benefits of government extend; that each and every man is justly entitled to the enjoyment of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, so long as these benign benefits be not forfeited by infraction upon the rights of others; that freedom of thought and unmolested expression of honest conviction and the right to make these effective through the sacred medium of a fair vote and an honest count, are God-given and not to be curtailed—­these are the foundations of republican government; these are the foundations of our institutions; these are the birthright of every American citizen; these are the guarantees which make men free and independent and great.

The colored man must rise to a full conception of his citizenship before he can make his citizenship effective.  It is a fatality to create or foster clannishness in a government like ours.  Assimilation of sentiment must be the property of the German, the Irish, the English, the Anglo-African, and all other racial elements that contribute to the formation of the American type of citizen.  The moment you create a caste standard, the moment you recognize the existence of such, that moment republican government stands beneath the sword of Damocles, the vitality of its being becomes vitiated and endangered.  If this be true, the American people have grave cause for apprehension.  The Anglo-African element of our population is classed off by popular sentiment, and kept so.  It is for the thoughtful, the honest, the calm but resolute men of the race to mould the sentiment of the masses, lift them up into the broad sunlight of freedom.  Ignorance, superstition, prejudice, and intolerance are elements in our nature born of the malign institution of servitude.  No fiat of government can eradicate these.  As they were the slow growth, the gradual development of long years of inhuman conditions, so they must be eliminated by the slow growth of years of favorable conditions.  Let us recognize these facts as facts, and labor honestly to supplant them with more wholesome, more cheering realities.  The Independent colored man, like the Independent white man, is an American citizen who does his own thinking.  When some one else thinks for him he ceases to be an intelligent citizen and becomes a dangerous dupe—­dangerous to himself, dangerous to the State.