p. 184 | A Scene at Washington by Editor

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 9, 1865

A Scene at Washington.

By Editor

ONE of the most significant events of these eventful times, is the following account of a sermon preached by a colored man, the son of a slave, in the Hall of Representatives in the capitol at Washington, D. C. It is worthy to be chronicled along side of the fact that a colored lawyer has been admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, which a few years since, under the inhuman Taney, decided that a colored man had no rights which a white one was bound to respect. What we give below we extract from a communication to the American Missionary, by J. P. Thompson, D. D.

"It was my good fortune to be in Washington on Sabbath Feb. 12th, and to witness the quiet, but sublime inauguration of a Christian Humanity in the Capitol. The simple announcement in the city journals, that Rev. H. Highland Garnet would preach in the Hall of Representatives, told the whole story of these four bloody years. Within the very building where the Fugitive-Slave-Law was passed, where a Senator was stricken down by a ruffian slaveholder, a negro of unmixed blood, born of a Maryland slave, could preach upon the Political Pharisees,' who 'binds heavy burdens upon other men's shoulders, but touches them not with his own finger.'

"I knew that Mr. Garnet would acquit himself well. He had stood in my own pulpit, with a quiet, manly bearing, set off with most immaculate linen. He is a good sensible preacher, and a true gentleman, having no affection of high-flown rhetoric, and no extravagance of manners. His sermon at the capitol was creditable to his intelligence, and was quite effective for his purpose. Two points were worthy of special note. First his demand that since emancipation had come by necessity, enfranchisement should come by justice. That was exceedingly well put, and the great audience felt it. The other point was, that the sooner the negro should cease to be the subject of special legislation, the better for him and for the country. Give him his rights, give him a fair chance, and leave him to make his own way in the world, without tutelary legislation. Amen to that. Mr. Garnet could here teach even Senators wisdom."