Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/503

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sincere to embarrass its progress by provoking anew the old sectional spleen against it—and he tacitly compelled in his own case a recognition, which any citizen might envy. Standing in a high official trust, and yet in a dark skin, he rebuked with quiet, inoffensive emphasis, the miserable heresy that a man is more or less a worthy citizen because of his color.

As a speaker, Mr. Dunn was not what the world would call "eloquent," but what he said was always listened to with the greatest interest and respect. All classes held him in high esteem, and with his own color his power was unlimited. Attacked by a sudden and sure malady, death swept him away while in the zenith of his influence, on the twenty-first of November, 1871.


JOHN R. LYNCH.

The late rebellion has not produced a more remarkable instance of a self-made man than is seen in the career of John R. Lynch, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Mississippi. He was born in Louisiana, just opposite Natchez, in the year 1847, of a slave mother, then the property of a Mr. Lapiche, and is now in his twenty-fifth year. His father, being a man of wealth and character, made the necessary arrangements when Mr. Lynch was yet a child, to have him and his mother set free, but by his sudden and unexpected death, and treachery on the part of those who had entered into the agreement with him, the plan was not carried out, and both remained slaves until emancipated by the result of the war.