| Summary: | Tichenor describes the postwar situation for the freed slaves from a paternalistic viewpoint: "Four millions of human beings, under the influence of a misguided philanthropy, have been rendered destitute of homes, protection, and comfort, and have been thrown, as paupers, upon the country, in order to procure them the imaginary blessings of a freedom....I feel the profoundest pity for the unfortunate race." He urges the members of the Alabama Baptist Association to grant membership to the freedmen in their congregations, and he warns that outsiders will reach out to the African Americans if the Southern churches do not accept them: "It will be the narrow-minded, bigoted, fanatical, to whose tender mercies will be committed the eternal interests of these millions around you." The speech was printed in the REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE ALABAMA ASSOCIATION UPON THE RELATION OF THE COLORED MEMBERS TO THE CHURCHES, published in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1865.
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