Ohio History Journal

REMARKS OF REV. B. W. ARNETT, D.D.

 

MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: There are

times in the history and in the life of individuals when

language fails to express the throbbings and longings as well

as the aspirations of the heart; and I find myself, sir, this

evening without words to express my sentiments to you and

to this intelligent audience, the representatives of this great

Commonwealth of ours.

But your call to me to say a word¹ was a command which

I could not disobey, without feeling that which a man

feels when he fails to do the duty he owes to himself, to his

wife, to his children, to his race, to his church, to his country,

to his God.

For while you have been discussing the blessings, the

joy that the Ordinance of 1787 brought to you, and when

the distance traveled by the speakers to be present with

you on this occasion was referred to-I looked back at the

distance traveled the first century by myself and by my

race, to reach you on this platform. And I concluded that

I have traveled further than my distinguished friend, the

eloquent Senator from Massachusetts; I feel that I have come

further than the distinguished gentleman from the Old

Dominion. I feel that I have traveled further than a gentle-

man I met on the corner who had traveled from San

Francisco here.

But, one hundred years ago where was my father, where

was my mother, in relation to their condition when this

President Eaton introduced Dr. Arnett as follows: "My friends,

we have had a wonderful feast; we have heard much about liberty; we

have heard much about the good things that have come out of the

Ordinance of '87; we have had one with us representing a different race

from the Anglo-Saxon, who has been listening with peculiar feelings

to these developments of this country and the providence which it has

brought to us, and he has been asked to say a word this evening. I

refer to Rev. Dr. Arnett, who has earned for himself by his faithful

scholarly service a distinguished place in Wilberforce University."

 

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Ordinance of 1787 by Virginia and the thirteen States was

hung out, like a bow of hope, over the darkened pathway

of the coming years? Where were they as that was hung out

o'er Ohio?

Then, my friends, there was no star of hope to guide

them in the darkness of the night. 0, sir, that "love of

liberty,"-the expression of that great and noble son of Vir-

ginia when he declared that "all men are created equal, and

endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights,

among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"-

all this we saw in the Ordinance of 1787.

Thank God we have lived to see the day, to enjoy the

blessings of that empire that your fathers founded; that

was to bring to mankind, and to be to mankind, an em-

pire of freedom of thought and of action, an empire of

morality, an empire of knowledge, an empire where men

and women should live together, having no masters, save

God in Heaven, and their own free will. That govern-

ment we have lived to see; and to-day I rejoice with you that

the coming century is not as the past, as I look on the dark-

ness of the past, and then to-day look on the prospect of

the future. In the past no schools; to-day, friends and

citizens, we have in our midst, as your chairman, the man

who collected the broken fragments of the moral and religious

forces of my race, and brought them together and started

them on a grander career. A power that shall elevate man-

kind, and bless the nation, has sustained its grand depart-

ments of education.

A half century ago there were no schools East or West,

North or South, for my race; but to-day even in South

Carolina, in Georgia, and at Richmond the citizens of Vir-

ginia have contributed of their means, and they have

established an institution of learning whose spires, point-

ing to the sky, and whose bells, pealing, bid my son and

my daughter come and drink of the living water of life and

knowledge, and fit themselves to be citizens, to bring the

light to mankind. Oh! it is wonderful! With, sir, in this

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Remarks of Rev. B. W. Arnett.            143

 

new century thousands of children in schools spread all

over this land; with 11,500 of our teachers that have

passed examinations to teach our own children; with 6,500

of our sons who have graduated in colleges and who now are

prepared to go forth, to lift up the race and to teach them

their duty to themselves, to their government, and to their

God.

And, sir, I congratulate the citizens of Ohio, for it was

in Ohio, on Ohio soil, that the first experiment of race

education began. Oberlin, standing in the pathway, threw a

beacon light into the darkness of the night, bidding our sons

to come and walk in the way of life; and to-day, thank God,

Oberlin is all over the land! Oberlin is established in Florida!

Oberlin is everywhere; and men of this race are bid to drink

of the life waters.

Is it wonderful that I feel full of rejoicing? that I have no

language to tell you what I feel? And, sir, in conclusion,

I say to you, Mr. Chairman, and to these others, that in the

future, as in the past, we will ever try to be true to the

best interest of our country. We, sir, will strive, by the

grace of the God that bore us out of the darkness of the

night, to stand and sustain our Constitution, and the institu-

tions of learning.

And, while you were hearing of the honorable men and

women of Massachusetts, I thought how in Washington,

the other day, I went out to Lincoln Park to see the great

monument to Abraham Lincoln, in bronze, standing, point-

ing his finger to the sky; at his foot the freedman with

broken shackles; on one side of the monument the freed-

man's memorial to Abraham Lincoln; and on the other side

the inscription that the first money contributed for this monu-

ment was $5, by Charlotte Scott, of Marietta, Ohio. Lincoln

and Charlotte Scott, of Marietta, will go down through the

centuries side by side.

And then sir, we will not forget Charlotte Scott. And

the Methodists must not forget John Stewart the pioneer

missionary to the Indians of this land.   Down at the

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church here in Marietta where Marcus Lindsay was preach-

ing in 1814, John Stewart stood outside and heard the

gospel. It found way to his soul and he was converted;

and in the night he heard a voice which said to him,

"Preach my word to the unknown."    He paid his debts

and started, going to the Delaware Indians and from there

to the Wyandottes. There a colored boy, whom the In-

dians had brought from Virginia, heard him, and was

converted under the preaching of John Stewart of Marietta.

He preached the first sermon to the Wyandotte Indians,

and many were converted. He returned to Marietta, and

J. B. Finley the great missionary to the Wyandotte village

came after.

So, while you are celebrating this great event, and while

distinguished men have come to represent their States, I have

come commissioned by no State; but I am here to represent

Charlotte Scott and John Stewart.

May God bless you in the future, my friends, and may we

continue in this grand work until our Nation from ocean

to ocean and sea to sea shall unite in the full intent of the

Ordinance of 1787.

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