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[433] were had and the discussions of the members of the council, which was gathered from many Northern Congregational churches, were going on and became animated, the son of the pastor, General Boynton, the newspaper correspondent, naturally sided with his father and his party, and filled his columns with what I deemed biased accounts of the proceedings. The excitement ran high.

One or two incidents will show how remarkable had been our heated debates and how divergent were our views. At a communion service held in a hall on Fifth street, opposite the city square, Dr. Boynton made some preliminary remarks in which he said that according to the teachings of our Lord in Chapter XVIII of Matthew, he was conscious of being ready for this solemn ordinance and implied as much for those who were on his side; but he averred that there were those present who had improper feeling toward him and those who believed as he did. He was sure that they ought not to partake of the communion in such a frame of mind. That was the burden of his address. It was an extraordinary thing for me to do at a communion, but I arose and entered at once upon the defense of myself and my friends so charged. I was claiming for us love to God and our neighbor, when suddenly the pastor asked significantly: “General Howard, do you believe in amalgamation” Instantly it occurred to me that there were two meanings of that word “amalgamation” ; one was the union of whites and blacks in church and school relation; the other the union in marriage. Whichever Dr. Boynton meant, I decided to make answer to the latter. I had never hitherto advocated intermarriage; but a case illustrated my thought on that subject. I said: “A gentleman in Virginia, ”

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