THE NEGRO'S NEEDS.
147
great credit upon that city, that State, and this Na¬
tion.
I have now given you the bright side of the pic¬
ture. I have shown you some of the good results of
freedom, and I emphatically say that these results are
in very large measure attributable to the impulse
given to that section of country by Christian educa¬
tion, by the influence of the Bible and the spelling-
book in the hands of that little army of teachers.
But the war has just begun, and there is no time to
cheer. Let us rather catch breath, thank God, and
press on to new conquests. That which has been
done, friends, is but a drop in the bucket compared
with that which must yet be done before you can boast
of a Republic resting upon lasting foundations.
The South has yet many needs. In spite of all
that has been done it is a lamentable, a startling fact,
that illiteracy is increasing in her midst among
both races. Her educational facilities are inadequate
to the demands now made upon her of enlightening
the millions. The South is poor. The South is weak.
She is just now recovering from the sad, the terrible,
the disastrous effects of rebellion. But she is strug¬
gling upward. She is showing signs of new life.
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