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Today in History:

1793 - Pres Washington lays cornerstone of Capitol building

1810 - Chile declares independence from Spain (National Day)

1850 - Congress passes Fugitive Slave Law as part of Compromise of 1850

1895 - Booker T Washington delivers "Atlanta Compromise" address

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All the great things are simple, and many can be expres

sed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
-Winston Churchill

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Lessons from the Greats

 

Atlanta Compromise, 1895

A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal,“Water, water; we die of thirst!” The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time the signal, “Water, water; send us water!” ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” And a third and fourth signal for water was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are”— cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. -Booker T. Washington

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/39/

 

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