Excerpt from Address of Col. H. B. Carrington, U. S. An, , At Indianapolis, Indiana, June 17, 1869: In Aid of the Erection of a New Church Edifice, for the Methodist Episcopal (Colored) Society

Kind words to colored citizens upon the religious, educational, social and personal duty of their race.

In accordance with the desire of those colored citizens who are erecting a new house for Divine worship, and who believe that a few words of counsel from me will aid the enterprise and stimulate their aspirations to grow strong, in all the elements which give value to personal character, I have so far departed from a settled repugnance to speak publicly upon any subject, since the war, as to consent to this familiar talk upon themes that press immediately upon your condition and your prospects for the future.

My profession, as you know, does not occupy, nor aspire to occupy, the field of party politics or general oratory, and yet no calling whatever, can entirely absolve any Christian man from the ever present obligation to use influence and strength, at all proper times, in giving impulse and sanction to such moral and religious agencies as are material to the well-being and advancement of others.

I can well see that to the colored people of the United States the present is a transition period of great importance. It is a period wherein they have much to learn and much to do. Upon the spirit, courage, ambition and purity of motive with which they labor, will largely depend the public estimate of their fitness for enlarged franchises, and, on the other hand, it is certain that if they accept national blessings with passive indifference, they will go backward, instead of forward, in all essential elements of civilized growth and culture.

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