On March 2, 1867, Congress overrode President Andrew Johnsons vetoes and passed a series of Reconstruction acts which would, among other things, establish new governments in the ex-Confederate states based for the first time on universal male suffrage. The first step in this process involved the electing of white and black male delegates to conventions that would write new state constitutions establishing the legal basis for these governments. Sensing this unprecedented political opportunity, African Americans gathered in mass meetings throughout the South to support Congress’s action and to plan their own agenda. One of the earliest of these meetings took place in Charleston, South Carolina on March 19, 1867. At the conclusion of the meeting Rev. E. J. Adams, a leader of the Charleston black community gave the address below. in Charleston, called for the adoption of the report and delivered the address below.

Fellow Citizens: These are revolutionary times. For many years a contest, terrible in its nature, has been waged between despotism and republican principles, between freedom and slavery, until finally we behold the genius of republican liberty bearing its escutcheon upon the threshold of the capitol of every nation, waving its banner in triumph over every continent, sea and ocean. The sacred fire pent up in the bosom of the Italian nation, like the fires of Vesuvius, hath recently burst forth in all its sublimity, scattering its enemies and unshackling itself from that despotism which trampled it under its feet for nearly two centuries. Russia hath given freedom to over thirty millions of serfs, and Germany hath recently extricated itself from the despotism of Europe. We find today Canada struggling for liberty, and Ireland too is endeavoring to grasp the flag of liberty. So, too, with regard to our nation. The little leaven that was planted in this country when the government was founded has succeeded in permeating itself through every fiber of this great body politic, and now the flag that once floated