henry highland garnett, from the state of new york. mr. garnett is a very vibrant, fiery speaker, who has long been an advocate of the liberia movement, the back-to-africa movement as a means to attain emancipation and freedom. garnett actually after the war becomes one of our first ambassadors to liberia and dies over there. but that was his life-long mission. so garnett was an ally of menard's throughout the 1860s during the civil war. another event happens in 1863, and that's the british government arrives and enters into this negotiation with the u.s. government to establish belize as a future colonization site. right here i have a picture, this actually came from belize itself. founded in the belize national archives a couple of weeks ago. this is a copy of the agreement signed between abraham lincoln and the manager of the british honduras company that was to administer this agreement. this is signed on june 13th, 1863, at the white house. menard is aware of this agreement through mitchell, who was the other negotiator and the other

in february of 1865, house chaplain william channing invited the black creature, henry highland garnett, to commemorate the house's approval of the 13th amendment banning slavery to deliver a sermon in the house chamber. and that was a unique moment in its own right because african-americans had been banned from the house chamber, as far as we know, going back to the 1820s. but garnett wasn't speaking in the house while it was in legislative session, and he certainly wasn't making his case to be seated as a representative. and indeed, menard's brief speech -- and this is an image made from a matthew brady photograph. this is menard on the floor. his brief 15-minute speech on february 27th, 1869, delivered from a desk on the republican side of the chamber, potently symbolized the age. in one stroke it evoked the victory of african-american civil rights and enfranchisement after the civil war, while also suggesting some of the continuities which would animate the careers of the 20 black men who would shortly follow him onto the house floor as full-fledged representatives between 1870 and