ANNUAL ADDRESS.
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DELIVERED BEFORE THE LAW GRADUATES OF ALLEN UNIVERSITY, BY REV. R.E. WALL.

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Mr. President, ladies, gentlemen and young gentlemen graduates: - I can scarcely express in appropriate language the high appreciation I feel for this distinguished honor. When your invitation penetrated my humble abode, desiring I should address a few parting words to you upon this auspicious occasion, prudence whispered, decline, while every impulse of my better nature leaped forth and vociferated, go bid those young men God speed in their manly struggle o'er life's stormy sea.

Having had some practical experience in the profession which you have selected, I shall not attempt to deal in any metaphysical or theoretical language, but in a few plain, practical words endeavor to make myself perfectly understood by you.

Language fails me when I attempt to describe the obstacles surmounted, the prejudices overcome, the sacrifices endured, the zeal, determination and patience exhibited by both your Dean and yourselves in this manly effort for a recognition of Africo-American brain and intellect in the well trodden fields of professional life.

No compliment that I can pay you would be undeserved; no encomiums that I can bestow would be unmerited by him who has so successfully led you through all the dry labyrinths of Blackstone, Coke, Chitty and others, to the ultimatum, the Supreme Court of your native State, where I am proud to say you have acquitted yourselves with honor. I need not stop here, gentlemen, to recite to you, however brief the synopsis might be, the disadvantages, discouragements and anticipated failure connected with the establishment of the law department of Allen University. Suffice it to say, it was conceived in a brain pregnant with celestial fire, ably seconded by one no less sanguine of its ultimate success; that the intellect of the sons of Ham could be tutored in the labyrinthine mazes of legal lore, though it had been frequently asserted that he was incapable of grasping and analyzing the intricate of grasping and analyzing the intricate and multifarious technicalities of legal jurisprudence.
Nothing daunted, your Dean entered upon the discharge of the duties incumbent upon him with a heroic determination born of a strong desire for the elevation and emulation of his race, stimulated by the ardent, earnest labors of you, gentlemen, till again the second time in the history of an institution, young though she may be, has assumed such prominence in the intellectual world that it is to be hoped that her life may be prolonged, and that in long years to come she will still be giving forth to the world men of culture, genius and refinement.
Now that you are about to embark in the field of your chosen profession, you may expect to meet difficulties attending your pathway; opposition and prejudice stalking side by side with your bread-wining efforts. It has been the experience of all and “you will indeed be one of the petted children of the fickle dame if it is not yours,” that success does not crown every effort; disappointments and discouragements more frequently are the result of your labor. Almost despondent and sick at heart, the lines of Longfellow's poem recur to you:

“Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any taste:

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.”

There is no royal road to success. The path lies through trouble and discouragement; it lies through fields of patient, earnest labor. There never was a time in the world's history when success in any profession demanded harder or more earnest labor than the presents and he who would succeed must make perseverance his pole star, the Bible is book and hope his guarding genius. Have you ever thought of what success consisted? It does not consist in amazing a fortune - some of the most unsuccessful men have done that. Remember, too, that success and fame are net synonymous terms. We cannot all be famous as lawyers or divines; you may or may not accumulate a fortune. It is true that wealth, position and fame are the accidents of success; that success may or may not be accompanied by them; that it is something above and beyond them. In this sense of the word you only are to blame if you fail.
It is in your power to live a life of integrity and honor; you can speak a word of cheer to the down-hearted, a kindly word of caution to the erring one; you can help remove some obstacle from the path of the weak; you can incite in the minds of those around you a desire to live a straightforward, virtuous life; you can bid those who are almost overwhelmed by the billows and waves of sorrow look up and see the sun shining through the rifts in the dark cloud passing over them. All this you an do, and a grand success will be your reward.
Failing in this you stultify your very best endeavors, blunt your finer sensibilities, fall far short of those ennobling qualities that characterize the true man and drift into the trickster and pettifogger of the profession, whose contact is as deadly as the coils of the cobra. Carry into your profession with you dignity, integrity and honor, with a determination to succeed, and, to use a rather common expression, “hold your ground and push ahead.” Be patient, work hard, watch opportunities, be rigidly honest, hope for the best, trust in God, and if you do not reach the top-most round in the ladder of fame you will have the consciousness of knowing you have done your best, receiving the plaudits of your fellow-men, as

“The man of life upright, whose guiltless heart is free
From all dishonest deeds and thoughts of vanity.”

The life of such a man becomes repeated in the lives and actions of others. He is just and upright in his business dealings and in his public actions. He will be honest in all things, in his works and in his words. He will be generous and merciful to the oppressed, to those who are weaker as well as those who are stronger than himself.
It is impossible to think of a truly great character and not think of one imbued with a spirit of kindness, generosity and love.
Earnestness is one of the essential elements of success. There are so many men today repining under discouragements who have expended energy sufficient to have attained the highest success, but they have failed because they have not sought counsel from the lips of wisdom. The truly zealous, energetic, earnest man unconsciously carries others along with him. His example is contagious and compels imitation. He exercises a sort of electric power which seeds a thrill through every fibre, flows into the nature of those about him and makes them throw out sparks of power. His earnestness becomes a badge of his nobility, and as the crowds intuitively make room for one who seems determined to force his way through it, so mankind everywhere open their ranks to that one who rushes valiantly toward some object lying beyond them.
There is no inspiration so potent for good as the inspiration of earnestness. Paul was an earnest man when he reasoned of righteousness, temperance and the judgment to come, so that a shrewd man of the world cried out, “Thou art beside thyself; thy much learning hath made thee mad.” Lord Brougham was earnest when he thundered and lightened in the House of Parliament so that the speaker cowered behind the desk and the sleepy members started from their chairs as if the last trumpet had sounded in their ears. It is persevering, untiring earnestness that carries us to the goal of our ambition. He who only floats down life's turgid stream and never grapples with the emergencies of life knows not what power lies in the soul to repel the rude shocks of time and destiny, nor is he conscious of how much he is.

“Blest with a kindly faculty to blunt
The edge of adverse circumstances.”

The earnest man ascends the hill of success and fame, reaps its golden fruit, electrifies the world by the indomitable will and energy displayed in its accomplishment, while the laggard sits at the base of the hill, bemoans his sad lot and envies the plaudits of his more fortunate brother.

“The busy world shoves angrily aside
The man who stands with arms akimbo set
Until occasion tells him what to do;
And he who waits to have his task marked out,
Shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled.”

Note the life of Lord Mansfield, who arose from a life of comparative obscurity and poverty to the high position of Chief Justice of the King's Bench. Also that of Lord Eldon, the son of a houstman of Newcastle and the grandson of a yeoman of Sandgate, who by hard study and unspared faculty, rose to the highest honors and obtained the highest reward, that of Lord Chancellor, and held the great seal with a short interval till 1827. What man had accomplished, men are still capable of accomplishing. Patient application leads to great results. No one should be discouraged because he does not get on rapidly in his calling from the start. In your profession, gentlemen, it should be remembered that a solid character is no the growth of a day, that the mental facilities are not matured except by long and laborious culture. It is wonderful to see what miracles patient perseverance will accomplish; obstacles will melt as snow before a summer sun, and the most formidable barriers will be brushed aside as easily as a lion breaks through a spider's web. There is no limit as to what you may accomplish if you make all your energies contribute to the fulfilling of some great purpose in life, which you are determined to persevere in till success crowns your efforts.
Another element of success in your particular profession is confidence. It is jocosely said of lawyers that they admit nothing, deny everything and demand the proof. It is a pleasing picture to look upon a strong, self-reliant young man, determined to hew out a way in the world; and though obstacles, discouragements, disappointments and adversity strew his pathway like autumnal leaves when touched by the icy blasts of winter, still pressing onward over every difficulty till the very summit is reached; when, garlanded with the trophies of his well earned laurels, he pauses for a moment to gather new energy ere he pushes forward to fields of more brilliant intellectual achievements.
It has been said that God never intended that strong, independent beings should be reared by clinging to others, like the ivy to the oak, for support. The difficulties, hardships and trials of life, the obstacles one encounters on the road to fortune, are positive blessings. Peril is the very element in which power is developed. Rely upon the good name made by your own exertions and know that better than the best friend you can have is unconquerable determination of spirit, united with decision of character. Help yourself and God will help you should be the motto of every man who would make himself useful in this world and carve his way to fortune and to honor. He who has lost confidence can lose nothing more. The man who dares not follow his own independent judgment, but runs perpetually to others for advice, becomes at last a moral weakling and an intellectual dwarf. Some of the most scholarly men of the day are those who have risen from the ranks. Our immortal Lincoln was a rail-splitter, Johnson was a tailor, Garfield was born in a log cabin. The very nobility of Christian literature has sprung from the lowest ranks in life. Whitfield, the Demosthenes of the pulpit, was a boot black at the University of Oxford, Bunyon was a tinker, Luther from a miner's cottage, Douglass from the slave mart, Lee was a stable boy at Wilberforce, and there are a host of others worthy of your emulation, among whom I may name << Robert Brown Elliott>> , - Requiescat in pace. Though his native element covers his inanimate body, and long ere now crawling worms have consumed his flesh, yet his burning eloquence and legal acumen sit live in the minds of many, and they are compelled to acknowledge though his skin was bronzed by nature's pencil, yet he was a man. Homo sum humani estararre est alenium puto. It is not the men who have been reared in affluence who have left the most enduring traces in the world; it is not the sheltered garden or hot-house, but on the rugged Aline cliffs, where the storms beat most violently, that the brightest plants are reared. “Perseverance is a Roman virtue that wins each god-like act and plucks success e'en from the spear-proof crest of rugged danger.”
Another element of success is concentration. The man who would succeed must singe out his specialty and into that must pour the whole stream of his activity, all the energies of his hand, eye, tongue, heart and brain. The great me of every age who have had the arduous task of shaping human destiny have been men of one idea, impelled by resolute dazzling talents, but if they are scattered upon many objects he will accomplish nothing. A rolling stone gathers no moss, while it may assume some polish. Young gentlemen graduates, stick to your profession. The highest ability accomplishes but little if scattered on a multiplicity of objects. On the other hand, if one has but a thimbleful of brains and concentrates them upon the object he has in hand, he will achieve miracles. The time spent by many in desultory, profitless reading would, if concentrated upon one single line of study, make them masters of an entire branch of literature or of science. Distraction of pursuits is the rock upon which most unsuccessful persons split in early life. In law, as in all other vocations, the successful men, the eminent jurists, are those who have tenaciously stuck to their profession.
To strive for high personal position and yet expect the delights of leisure; to labor for distinction and riches and yet be free from anxiety and care; to live for self and yet look for the joys that spring from a virtuous and self-denying life is to ask for impossibilities. Success demands that you bring to your profession patient industry, persevering earnestness and, above all, that singleness of purpose which is willing to devote the energies of a lifetime to its accomplishment. It is of the highest importance to be sure you start right in the race for distinction. Let each one take care, first of all, to be a man, cultivating and developing as far as possible all his powers on a symmetrical plan, and then let him expend his chief labors on the one faculty which nature, by making it prominent, has given him a hint should be especially cultivated.
Lastly, do nor forget, my friends, that while these elements I have enumerated are essential to your future success, there is one superior to them all, to which I now invite your careful consideration - and that is religion. It is said by some eminent writer that religion is the moral link that binds man closely to his God. The spiritual Elysium, where the creature walks and holds sweet converse with his Maker; that delightful state where Creator and creature meet on terms of social equality, and as “iron sharpeneth iron” so does the intercourse and association of God with man raise him to a higher intellectual and spiritual sphere. It gives the finishing touch to your character, the sweetest charm to your life and opens up to you a realization of all the exalted beauties of the soul. Without religion you are a wandering star, a voiceless bird, a motionless star, a voiceless bird, a motionless brook; the streams of your heart are not in tune with the chord that the Infinite hand sweeps as he evolves the music of the universe. Your being does not respond to the touch of Providence, and if beauty and truth and goodness came down to you like angels out of heaven and sing you their sweetest songs, you would not see their wings nor recognize their home nor parentage. All who have been great and good without Christianity would have been better with it. While the difficulties of life teach us wisdom, its vain glories, humility; its calmness, piety; its hopes, resignation; its sufferings; charity; its afflictions, fortitude; its necessities, prudence; its brevity, the value of time, and its dangers and uncertainties, the constant dependence upon a higher and all-protecting power, religion teaches us the placing our souls in harmony with God and his laws. It also discloses to us the beauty and dignity of common and private life; its makes it valuable, not for the cares from which it frees us, but for the constant duties through which we may train the soul to perfect sympathy with the designs of the Creator. It shows the humblest lot possesses opportunities which require the energies of the most exalted virtues to met and satisfy. It impresses upon us the solemn truth that life itself, however humble its condition; is always holy; that every moment has its duty, its responsibility, which Christian strength alone, the crown of power, can do and bear. It teaches that the simplest experience may become radiant with a heavenly beauty when hallowed by a spirit of constant love to God and man. It bids us to attain perfection, not strong to do dazzling deeds, but by making our experience divine. The Christian hero will ennoble the humblest field of labor; nothing is mean that can be performed as a duty; and in the discharge of that duty, religion, like the touch of Midas, converts the humblest call of duty into spiritual gold.
How truly the words Counsellor at Law will bear a significant interpretation, not only at the courts of common law, would your names be inscribed in its records, but in that greater record of the courts Divine, there would be emblazoned, awaiting the final day, when all shall be rewarded, many acts of kindness, some for which no remittance had been received, no doubt many angelic faces, beaming with recognition, that had been counseled in the good and right way. To the weak and oppressed you would indeed be a tower of strength in which they could safely entrust their most sacred treasures, while, on the other hand, your name would be a terror to evil-doers.
To you, my friend, the Dean, I pray God's choicest blessings upon your labors; may the silken chord of life be spun out to such a length that you may be permitted to see these young gentlemen, for whom and with whom you have so assiduously labored, taking their places along side the eminent jurists of our day, and writing their names in characters of living fire high up on the scroll of fame.