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+ The Negro And The Elective Franchise. A Series Of Papers And A Sermon
+
+         The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 11.
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
+no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+Title: The Negro and the elective franchise. A Series Of Papers And A
+Sermon (The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 11.)
+
+Author: Archibald H. Grimké, Charles C. Cook, John Hope, John L. Love,
+Kelly Miller, and Rev. Frank J. Grimké
+
+Release Date: March 01, 2011 [EBook #35449]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE
+FRANCHISE. (THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY. OCCASIONAL PAPERS, NO. 11.) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+at http://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+                       Occasional Papers, No. 11.
+
+
+
+                      The American Negro Academy.
+
+
+
+                  THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE
+
+
+
+                  *A SERIES OF PAPERS AND A SERMON BY*
+
+
+
+ *Archibald H. Grimké, Charles C. Cook, John Hope, John L. Love, Kelly
+                   Miller and Rev. Frank J. Grimké.*
+
+
+
+                      *PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS.*
+
+
+
+                           WASHINGTON, D. C.
+
+
+
+                       PUBLISHED BY THE ACADEMY.
+
+
+
+                                 1905.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  · The Meaning And Need Of The Movement To Reduce Southern
+    Representation—_ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKÉ_
+  · The Penning of the Negro—_CHARLES CHAUVEAU COOK_
+  · The Negro Vote in the States Whose Constitutions Have Not Been
+    Specifically Revised—_JOHN HOPE_
+  · The Potentiality of the Negro Vote, North and West—_JOHN L. LOVE_
+  · Migration and Distribution of the Negro Population as Affecting the
+    Elective Franchise—_KELLY MILLER_
+  · The Negro and His Citizenship—_FRANCIS J. GRIMKÉ_
+
+
+
+
+The Meaning And Need Of The Movement To Reduce Southern
+Representation—_ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKÉ_
+
+
+In 1787 when the founders of the American Republic were framing the
+Constitution they encountered many difficulties in the work of
+construction, but none greater than the bringing together on terms of
+equality under one general government of the slave-holding and the
+non-slave-holding states. The South was willing to enter the Union
+provided always that its peculiar labor and institutions received
+adequate protection in that instrument. And this the North had finally
+to consent to incorporate into the organic law of the new nation. One of
+these concessions was known as the Slave Representation Clause of the
+Constitution, which gave to the Slave section the right to count five
+slaves as three freemen in the apportionment of representatives. This
+concession did not probably seem at the time like an exorbitant or
+ruinous price for the North to pay for the Union, but subsequent events
+proved it to be both exorbitant and ruinous in the political burden
+which it imposed upon that section, and in the political perils which
+grew naturally out of the situation, and which were produced by it.
+
+Everybody now-a-days seems to forget, or makes believe to have
+forgotten, this lamentable chapter in our history, and its application
+to present day evils—everybody but a few far-seeing Negroes, and a few
+far-seeing white men at the North. It is well not to forget this chapter
+ourselves, or to let the country make believe to have forgotten it, as
+it contains a lesson which it is dangerous to forget.
+
+History repeats itself and will continue to do so just as long as men
+are men, and the passion for power and the struggle for domination lasts
+among them. Such a struggle set in between the two sections almost
+immediately after the adoption of the Constitution. With industrial and
+political ideas, interests, and institutions directly opposed to each
+other, rivalry and strife between them became from the beginning
+unavoidable. Any one not totally blinded by the then emergent needs of
+the moment could not fail to foresee something of the consequences which
+were sure to follow such a union of irreconcilable forces and passions
+under one general government. Each set of antagonistic ideas and
+interests was compelled by the great law of self preservation to try to
+get possession of the government in its battle with the other set. And
+in this conflict of moral and economic forces and ideas the three-fifths
+slave representation clause of the Constitution gave to the South a
+distinct advantage, an advantage which told immediately and powerfully
+in its favor. For the right to count five slaves as three freemen in the
+apportionment of representatives among the several states placed the
+political power of the Southern states in the hands not of all the
+whites but of a small and highly trained and organized minority only,
+namely; the master class. This circumstance solidified the South, and
+gave to its action a unity and energy of purpose which the industrial
+democracy of the North always lacked. As a consequence, Southern men
+obtained speedy possession of the National Government, and shaped
+National Legislation and policy to advance best the peculiar ideas and
+interests of their section. The big end of the National Government lay
+plainly enough well to the south of Mason and Dixon’s line during the
+first twenty-five years of the existence of the Union. The course of
+events during this period revealed this bitter fact to New England. For
+she was outwitted, out-voted and over-matched again and again in
+national legislation and administrative measures by the slave oligarchy,
+which ruled the South and dominated in national affairs.
+
+For instance, New England opposed the embargo and the retaliatory
+measures of Mr. Jefferson’s administration, which destroyed her splendid
+carrying trade, and bore distress to hundreds of thousands of her
+people. She opposed the War of 1812 because it seemed to her inimical to
+her interests, but regardless of protests and cries the embargo was laid
+on her ports and shipping, the War against Great Britain was declared.
+She was forced to dance, volens-nolens, to the rag-time music of her
+Southern rival. She danced in both instances while discontent grew apace
+in her hot, surcharged heart. She did not disguise the ugly fact that
+she was sick of her bargain under the Constitution—was discontented
+almost to disaffection with Southern domination in the Union. Out of
+this widespread discontent and incipient disaffection sprang the
+Hartford Convention to voice this growing Anti-Southern sentiment, and
+to cast about for a remedy for what was rightly deemed bad political
+conditions. The great question with which this celebrated convention
+grappled was, in fact, the undue and disproportionate power wielded by
+the slave oligarchy in national affairs, and how best to impose a check
+upon its further growth. It could think apparently of but one remedial
+measure to relieve the situation, and that was the imposition of a check
+on any further increase in the then existing number of states. But while
+the resolution which embodied this rather doubtful remedy referred to
+states in general, it was intended when read between the lines, to refer
+to slave states in particular.
+
+That was the first blow aimed by the industrial democracy of the North
+at this aristocratic feature of the National Constitution, namely: the
+right to count five slaves as three freemen in the apportionment of
+representatives among the states. It was felt at the time and much more
+strongly and generally afterward, that this three-fifths slave
+representation clause which enabled a small minority of the people of
+the South to wield the political power of that section, and in any
+controverted question between the sections to neutralize the free-will
+of every three freemen by the dummy-will of every five slaves, was an
+unjust and dangerous advantage possessed by the slave oligarchy over its
+sectional rival, the free democracy of the North.
+
+The consciousness of this political wrong and danger was at the bottom
+of the bitter opposition on the part of the North to the admission of
+Missouri as a slave state, to the annexation of Texas, and to the
+Mexican War. It was at the bottom of the fierce cry which rose all over
+that section at the close of that war, "No more slave territory, no more
+slave states." It was the soul of the great movement which beat back the
+slave tide from Kansas and saved that state to freedom. It was, in fact,
+this struggle of the free states to reduce to a minimum the peril to its
+industrial democracy which grew out of the slave representation clause
+of the Constitution, and the resistance of the slave states to such a
+movement, which produced the war between the sections. This war ended in
+the destruction of slavery and as the North supposed and intended, in
+the total destruction of this right of the South to count five slaves as
+three freemen in the apportionment of representatives among the several
+states in the newly restored Union.
+
+But wrong does not die under a single stroke. It has a strange power of
+metamorphosis, i. e. ability to change its form without losing its
+identity. The slave power, which everybody at the North imagined to be
+dead, re-appeared almost at once as the Southern serf power, in
+consequence of legislation enacted in the then lately rebellious states
+by the old slave masters. They had lost their slaves, to be sure, and
+the political power incident under the Constitution to such ownership,
+but they had not lost the political cunning and determination to create
+a similar power out of the social forces and material which lay in
+disorder about them.
+
+The reconstruction of the South by the old slave oligarchy resulted in
+the threatened rise in national affairs of an African serf power more
+formidable to the North than was the old slave power than five is
+greater than three in federal numbers. This threatened rise in national
+politics of an African serf power aroused the North to the danger which
+girt afresh the supremacy of its industrial democracy in the Union. It
+thereupon set about the work of removing this peril forever. In doing
+this work it unfortunately limited itself exclusively to the use of
+political agencies. But there is no doubt that what it did in
+reconstructing the old slave states was meant to be thorough. It meant
+to extirpate root and branch, from the Constitution the right of the
+South to count five slaves as three freemen, or five serfs as five
+freemen in the apportionment of representatives among the states. This
+was the plain purpose of the whole body of congressional legislation
+looking to southern reconstruction. It is the plain purpose likewise of
+the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.
+
+All of these great acts were intended to destroy utterly the basis on
+which rested the old slave power, and on which would rest the new serf
+power, namely: inequality and race subjection. The 13th amendment
+abolished slavery, the 14th raised the former slaves to citizenship, and
+the 15th conferred on them the right to vote. The whole scheme for
+removing forever this evil seemed on paper complete enough, and in
+practice it would undoubtedly have proven effective had not an
+unexpected difficulty arisen when it was put into operation. This
+unexpected difficulty was the attitude of the Supreme Court in
+interpreting the laws made in pursuance thereof. The effect of the
+decisions of this tribunal has almost invariably been against the
+Negro’s claim to equality, and in favor of the Southern contention of
+the existence of two races in the south, one permanently dominant and
+the other permanently servile, and that the maintenance of this state of
+race superiority on the one side, and of race inferiority on the other
+furnished the only working plan of their living in peace together or of
+their making any further progress in civilization. Owing to this
+deplorable attitude the Supreme Court has been a hindrance rather than a
+help in the settlement of this question. No relief need be looked for
+from it, therefore, under the circumstances. Relief, if it comes at all,
+must come from another quarter of the political system under which we
+live. And for such relief fortunately, the 14th amendment has adequately
+provided. All that is necessary to render the provision of this
+amendment, which is applicable to the present situation, effective are
+courage and common sense. But alas, courage and common sense in respect
+to this subject seem to be sadly lacking to-day both at the North and
+among the Negroes as well.
+
+The provision of the 14th amendment just referred to reads as follows:
+"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according
+to their respective numbers counting the whole number of persons in each
+state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any
+election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of
+the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and
+judicial officers of a state, or the members of the Legislature thereof,
+is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one
+years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged
+except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of
+representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the
+number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
+citizens twenty-one years of age in such state."
+
+Every Southern state has virtually by one device or another, since the
+adoption of the 14th and 15th amendments, denied to its colored citizens
+the right to vote. This was first done by the shot-gun method, which
+gave place in time to fraudulent manipulations of electoral returns, and
+this in turn to "grandfather" and "understanding clauses" administered
+by prejudiced registration boards in those states which have revised
+their constitutions. Says Professor Dunning in an article on "The
+Undoing of Reconstruction" in the Atlantic Monthly for October, 1901:
+"With the enactment of these constitutional amendments by the various
+states, the political equality of the Negro is becoming extinct in law
+as it has long been in fact, and the undoing of reconstruction is
+nearing completion." Now this statement is exactly true. The South has
+everywhere nullified in practice the 14th and 15th amendments to the
+Constitution. It denies to black men the right to vote, but it counts at
+the same time those same black men in the apportionment of its
+representatives. The present serf power therefore, enjoys to-day a right
+far greater than that enjoyed by the old slave power, for it counts five
+of its disfranchised black citizens not as three but as five free men.
+It has achieved the extraordinary feat of eating its political cake and
+keeping it at the same time.
+
+In South Carolina, for example, where the blacks outnumber the whites by
+224,326, and in Mississippi where the colored population is in excess of
+the white by 263,640, "the influence of the Negroes in political
+affairs," as put by Prof. Dunning, "is nil." And this is substantially
+true of almost everyone of the old slave states whether they have or
+have not revised their constitutions. Says Prof. DuBois: "To-day the
+black man of the South has almost nothing to say as to how much he shall
+be taxed, or how those taxes shall be expended, as to who shall make the
+laws and how they shall be made. It is pitiable that frantic efforts
+must be made at critical times to get law-makers in some states even to
+listen to the respectful presentation of the black side of a current
+controversy."
+
+Entrenched in the South to-day is an aristocracy based on race. The
+whole tendency of things down there is to de-citizenize the blacks, to
+reduce them to a state of permanent political and industrial
+subordination to the whites. This is aristocratizing the republic with a
+vengeance. For with the right to vote, the right to a voice in making
+the laws, denied to any class of people in an industrial republic like
+ours, such class must go from bad to worse in the struggle for bread,
+for existence, in competition with more favored classes. It does more:
+it reduces the efficiency of such a class as a producer of wealth not
+alone in respect to itself, but in respect to the section in which it
+lives as well. For whatever degrades and wrongs such a class degrades
+and wrongs the community and the country of which it forms a part. And
+there is no help for it, for such is the natural law of retribution
+which no "understanding" and "grandfather clauses" and registration
+boards, however adroitly devised, can in the long run possibly evade or
+nullify. This then is the deplorable economic situation with regard to
+whites and blacks alike in the Southern states, as a direct consequence
+of the undoing of the 14th and the 15th amendments to the Constitution
+by those States. The degradation of their black labor will ultimate in
+the degradation of their white labor also. In fact, the disfranchisement
+of the blacks operates practically everywhere down there as a
+disfranchisement of the great body of the whites likewise. For disuse of
+a power, whether physical or political, begets in time disinclination
+and then incapacity for exercising the same. The right to vote, under
+present political conditions which prevail throughout that section, is,
+as a matter of fact, exercised but by a small minority of the whites
+only. The total vote, for example, cast for representatives in Southern
+congressional districts is surprisingly slight in comparison with that
+cast in Northern congressional districts. The same is true of the vote
+for presidential electors, and for the executive, legislative and
+judicial officers of the various southern states for that matter. A
+handful of ruling whites, and that not of the best class as in
+antebellum times, casts to-day the entire vote of that section as
+represented by all of its black and a large majority of its white
+citizens, at national and state elections.
+
+For instance, the average vote cast for Congressmen by Northern
+congressional districts during the election of 1898 was over 35,000,
+while that cast by Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South
+Carolina, which are operated in effect on the Mississippi plan, was less
+than 5,000. The total vote cast for 37 congressmen by those five
+Southern states was only 184,602, while the total vote polled by the
+state of New York for 34 congressmen was 1,250,000, i. e. 184,602
+electors in those five Mississippi-ized states had actually a larger
+congressional representation by three than had the 1,250,000 voters of
+the Empire state. Again, take the case of Kansas, which though casting
+100,000 more votes at its congressional election in 1898, than were cast
+by these same five Southern states combined, yet Kansas had but seven
+representatives in Congress to guard and promote her peculiar interests
+against the 37 who sat in the House to guard and promote the peculiar
+interests of the ruling oligarchy of those five de-republicanized
+Southern states.
+
+But let us look more closely into this matter. Alabama with a population
+of 1,828,697, and nine representatives in Congress polled at the
+Congressional election, in 1902 a total vote of 90,105 for the nine
+districts, while the new state of Washington with a population of
+518,103 and three representatives polled at the same election a total
+vote of 93,681, i. e., there were 3,000 more votes polled to elect three
+congressmen in Washington than Alabama polled to elect nine. Again,
+Mississippi with a population of 1,531,270 and eight representatives in
+Congress polled at the same election a total vote of 18,058 for the
+eight congressional districts, while little Idaho with a population of
+161,772 and one representative polled at the same time a vote of 57,712,
+which exceeded more than three times the vote polled by Mississippi for
+eight representatives. Or let us take Louisiana with a population of
+1,381,625 and seven representatives in Congress, and her total vote of
+26,265 during the same election for seven districts and contrast these
+figures with those of Rhode Island with a population of 428,556 and two
+representatives. The Rhode Island figures are 56,064, or nearly double
+the vote of Louisiana for seven congressional districts. Or again, let
+us glance in passing at South Carolina with a population of 1,340,316
+and seven representatives in Congress, and New Hampshire with a
+population of 411,588 and two representatives. The first polled in 1902
+at the election of her seven congressmen 32,085 votes, and the second at
+the election of her two representatives polled at the same time 74,833.
+In other words, there were nearly 43,000 less votes polled in South
+Carolina to elect seven Congressmen than were polled in New Hampshire to
+elect two. To sum up: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South
+Carolina with an aggregate population of 6,106,908 and 31
+representatives in Congress cast in 1902 a total vote of 166,576 in 31
+congressional districts, while Idaho, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and
+Washington with an aggregate population of 1,500,000, and eight
+representatives polled at the same general elections a total vote of
+282,294 in their eight congressional districts. The average vote for
+each of the 31 Southern congressional districts was 5,530; while that
+for each of the eight Northern districts was 35,287. Why Massachusetts
+alone with a population of 2,805,346 and 14 representatives rolled up a
+vote to elect these 14 congressmen more than double that which the four
+Southern states with a population of over 6,000,000 polled to elect
+their 31 representatives!
+
+Again: At the presidential election last November the combined vote of
+Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina, for 39 electors was
+less than 200,000 or to be exact was just 186,253, while the vote of
+Massachusetts for 16 electors was 442,732. In other words, the vote of
+Massachusetts for her 16 representatives in the electoral college,
+exceeded that of the four Southern states for their 39 in the same body
+by more than 250,000 polls. Once more: Is it not immensely ominous and
+significant the marked shrinkage in 1904 of the popular vote for
+electors in Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia, states which had but
+recently revised their constitutions, as compared with the popular vote
+of the same states for electors in 1900? There was for example a
+shrinkage of the popular vote in Alabama of nearly 50,000 polls; in
+North Carolina the shrinkage amounted to nearly 85,000, and in Virginia
+it ran up to more than 135,000. These figures are eloquent of great
+wrongs done the Negro. They are not less eloquent of great dangers which
+now threaten to subvert free institutions in the Republic.
+
+Since the elections of 1898 things in the South went rapidly in respect
+to this subject from bad to worse. Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia
+followed the example of Mississippi and revised their constitutions.
+This reactionary movement of the Southern oligarchy has reached as far
+north as Maryland, and the work of aristocratizing her constitution and
+of Jim-Crowing her laws is now nearing completion. Where is this
+movement to stop? Will it halt south of Mason and Dixon’s line unless
+drastic measures are speedily adopted by the National Government to
+arrest it? No, this aristocratic revolution will certainly, unless
+checked, invade the North, attacking and overthrowing first the
+political rights of black men in that section, and later those of other
+classes of citizens industrially and politically feebler than the rest
+until one after another of the states now free shall have succumbed to
+the rule of class and plutocratic power. Then indeed will the undoing of
+the 14th and the 15th amendments, and of democratic institutions in
+America, be complete. Not until then will the movement, which is fast
+aristocratizing the Republic, stop its steady advance. I am no alarmist,
+but am telling the sober truth. Those who have eyes to see, let them
+look around at the ominous signs of this advancing evil. Those who have
+ears to hear, may hear everywhere about them the foreboding sounds of
+this rising flood of wrong and inequality, this growing disregard for
+law, this denial to the people of a voice in government, whether state,
+colonial or national, which characterize the present period of our
+national history.
+
+It will not be impertinent for me to add by way of concluding this
+article, a few words regarding some of the political consequences, which
+would be sure to follow a reduction of Southern representation in
+Congress and the electoral college. It would, in the first place, reduce
+the political strength of the South as a factor in national legislation,
+diminish its relative importance as an element in national politics.
+That section is insolent, exacting and aggressive to-day on the Negro
+question because it has so much numerical strength in Congress and the
+electoral college by reason of its suppressed Negro vote. Reduce that
+strength by a judicious blood-letting to the number of twenty-five or
+thirty-five representatives and there will follow in due time a
+corresponding reduction of its arrogance and aggressiveness on the race
+question. For as it declines in relative strength in Congress and the
+electoral college it will decline in relative importance in management
+and leadership of the democratic party also. It will gradually lose its
+controlling influence over that party, cease ultimately to dominate it
+on the Negro question. The relative decline of the South in Congress and
+the electoral college-means, of course, the relative increase of the
+North in the same branch—means that in time the North will pay less heed
+to the claims of the South, to its threats, and more to the claims, to
+the case of the Negro. It means more. The relative decline of the South
+as a factor in national politics means the relative increase of the
+northern wing of the Democratic party in the control of that party, in
+the shaping for that party of a more liberal policy on the Negro
+question. For as the northern wing of this party gains in relative
+strength, in numerical importance over that of the South, it will be
+tempted more and more to solicit the support of the Negro vote of the
+North. In close elections and in pivotal states the Democrats of the
+North will thereupon make liberal declarations and positive bids in
+order to win this vote from the Republican party.
+
+This consideration brings me to a second consequence, which would follow
+a reduction of southern representation. And that is this: It will put an
+end to the present period of good will and peace between the sections,
+so disastrous to the rights of the Negro. Such a measure will usher in a
+period of bitter difference and strife between the two sections again.
+These differences will not arise merely between the Republicans of the
+North and the white South, but between democrats of the North and
+democrats of the South on the Negro question as well. For the northern
+wing of the Democratic party cannot bid for the colored vote of its
+section without offending the South and therefore sowing seeds of
+alienation and strife between them on the question of the rights and
+wrongs of the Negro, as a citizen. There will follow such differences
+and strife between the sections, a reaction at the North in favor of the
+Negro. Public sentiment for juster treatment of the race will gain
+thereafter steadily in strength. It will influence the Republican party
+to give to the question a more radical treatment than it now gives it,
+to take steps to enforce by appropriate legislation the 15th amendment
+of the Constitution. Such growing public sentiment in favor of according
+the Negro fairer treatment may do more, it may be able to reach even
+that pro-Southern tribunal, the Supreme Court, and put like the bees of
+the Bible honey for the race in its hitherto cold and unresponsive body.
+Even it may be influenced in time to twist the law in favor of human
+liberty, not against it, as now. And lastly, it will give the silent
+South a chance to be heard on the Negro question. It will give it a
+chance to appeal from those states drunk on the race question, to their
+sober second thought, a chance to show them the folly and madness of
+their disfranchisement and consequent degradation of their Negro labor
+as an economic factor in their development and civilization. And so
+liberal sentiment towards the Negro may be awakened in the South and be
+made thus to spread slowly downward as a leavening influence.
+
+And in the third place, reducing Southern representation in Congress and
+the electoral college will not hurt the Negro. It will not take away
+from him any right which he now enjoys down there. The doing so cannot
+in any way change his actual status either in law or in fact. He is now
+disfranchised; Congress will still have power to enforce the 15th
+amendment by appropriate legislation and it will do so whenever it can
+screw its courage to the sticking point. The reduction of Southern
+representation will certainly break up the present apathetic state of
+the country in respect to the Negro. With this breaking up there will
+follow a reaction in favor of freedom, and there will arise in due time
+a public sentiment which will bring legislation to enforce the right of
+the Colored people of the South to the ballot well within the range of
+the possible, yea of the probable, if the South persists after
+reduction,—but it will not long persist,—in its present purpose to
+nullify the 15th amendment, and to reduce its Colored people to a
+condition of a permanently subordinate and servile class, without rights
+as men or as citizens which southern white people are bound to respect.
+Let southern representation in Congress be therefore reduced. The sooner
+the better it will be for the Negro and the Nation.
+
+The law department of the United States Government has at last moved
+effectively against the meat trust. And I see that the Interstate
+Commerce Commission is looking into the charge that certain railroads
+are practicing by a system of rebates discrimination against shippers of
+live stock, and in favor of packing house products and dressed meats.
+But alas, how different has been the attitude of the national government
+toward investigating that greatest of all discriminations in the
+Republic, namely: the wholesale disfranchisement of Negroes in the South
+because they are Negroes. A few years ago one of the bravest and most
+far-seeing of the representatives of Massachusetts in either branch of
+Congress offered a resolution to investigate the subject merely. The
+administration, which was then, and they say is now opposed to meddling
+in this particular manner with the Southern question, was found equal to
+the occasion. When it failed to silence the voice of Congressman Moody
+regarding the matter, it lifted him with masterly state craft from the
+floor of the House, and landed him safely in the Cabinet where he is
+still, and where his silence might the better be secured. Thus passed
+the Moody resolution to dusty death, and the place which knew it once in
+Congress hath known it no more, and will know it no more forever.
+
+But there is another Congressman who for years has watched keenly the
+growth of this threatening evil, the growth of this wrong so subversive
+of the rights of the blacks at the South, and so harmful to the
+interests of our industrial democracy at the North. Five years ago he
+thought it was high time for the general government to address itself to
+that subject, and accordingly proposed from his place in Congress
+suitable measures for that purpose. Unfortunately for Congressman
+Crumpacker’s proposition the presidential election of 1900 was at the
+time approaching and which, in the opinion of the McKinley
+administration, called loudly then for silence and oblivion on this
+vexed question. In obedience to this loud call of the Moloch of party
+success at the polls, Mr. Crumpacker’s bill suffered death by
+asphyxiation in committee.
+
+The matter was, however, revived by Mr. Crumpacker in a subsequent
+Congress in the form of a resolution which provided for the appointment
+by the Speaker of a select committee of thirteen "whose duty it shall
+be, and who shall have full and ample power to investigate and inquire
+into the validity of the election laws of the several states and the
+manner of their enforcement, and whether the right to vote at any
+election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of
+the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and
+judicial officers of any of the states or the members of the legislature
+thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of any of the states,
+being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in
+any way abridged, except for crime." This resolution so reasonable,
+moderate, and just, fell a victim, so it was reported at the time, to a
+shrewd bargain struck between the Southern oligarchy on the one hand and
+the Republican managers of Cuban reciprocity on the other. The
+Crumpacker resolution was put to sleep amidst the dust heaps of old
+congressional documents, where it has slept without waking until the
+present session of Congress, when its profound slumber has been
+disturbed by renewed attempts made in both branches of the National
+legislature to revive the subject, and to do what the Republican
+national platform of 1904 pledged that party to do in the event of its
+triumph at the polls, according to the plain meaning and purpose of the
+following plank in that platform.
+
+"We favor such Congressional action as shall determine whether, by
+special discrimination, the elective franchise in any state has been
+unconstitutionally limited: and if such is the case we demand that
+representation in Congress and in the electoral college shall be
+proportionally reduced as directed by the Constitution of the United
+States."
+
+And while the Republican party hesitates to redeem its solemn pledge
+made to the people before the elections last November, the tide of
+intolerable wrong, of imminent peril:—of intolerable wrong to the blacks
+and of imminent peril to the Republic, is advancing nearer and rising
+higher and higher toward the point where to ignore it much longer will
+mean widespread and far-reaching disaster to our industrial democracy,
+to Republican institutions in America. On its crest I see approaching
+forces strong enough to subvert the Constitution, not only in the South
+but in the North—forces strong enough to uprear on its ruins the vast
+fabric of plutocratic empire and despotism.
+
+The warning is sounding in our ears, it is sounding in the ears of the
+people all over the land. Do we heed it, will they?
+
+
+
+
+The Penning of the Negro—_CHARLES CHAUVEAU COOK_
+
+
+*[The Negro in the States of the Revised Constitutions]*
+
+The following States have revised their constitutions for the purpose of
+excluding colored voters, and in the following order:—
+
+(1) MISSISSIPPI.
+
+Section 241, Article 12, constitution of Mississippi, defining who are
+electors:
+
+    "Every male inhabitant of the state, except idiots, insane
+    persons, and Indians not taxed, who is a citizen of the United
+    States, twenty-one years of age and upwards, who has resided in
+    the state two years, and one year in the election district * * *
+    in which he offers to vote and who is duly registered as
+    provided in this article, and who has never been convicted of
+    bribery, burglary, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under
+    false pretence, perjury, embezzlement, or bigamy, and who has
+    paid on or before the 1st day of February of the year in which
+    he offers to vote, all taxes which may have been legally
+    required of him and who shall produce to the officer holding the
+    election satisfactory evidence that he has paid his taxes."
+
+Section 242 of Article 12, further provides that persons offering to
+register shall take the following oath:
+
+    "I do solemnly swear that I am twenty one years old and that I
+    will have resided in the state two years and (this) election
+    district for one year preceding the ensuing election, and am now
+    in good faith a resident of the same, and that I am not
+    disqualified from voting by reason of having been convicted of
+    any of the crimes mentioned in the constitution of this state as
+    a disqualification to be an elector, that I will truly answer
+    _all questions propounded to me concerning my antecedents so far
+    as they relate to my right to vote_ and also as to _my residence
+    before my citizenship in this district,_ that I will support the
+    constitution of the United States and of the state of
+    Mississippi and will bear true faith and allegiance to the
+    same—so help me God.
+
+    Any willful and corrupt false statement in said affidavit or in
+    answer to any material question propounded as herein authorized
+    shall be perjury."
+
+Section 244, Article 12, constitution of Mississippi, requires that:
+
+    "On and after the first day of January, 1892, every elector in
+    addition to the foregoing qualifications, shall be able to read
+    any section of the constitution of this state; or shall be able
+    to understand the same when read to him, or give a reasonable
+    interpretation thereof."
+
+(2) SOUTH CAROLINA.
+
+    Subdivision (c). "Up to January 1, 1898, all male persons of
+    voting age applying for registration, who can read any section
+    of this constitution submitted to them, _or understand and
+    explain it_ when read to them by the registration officer, shall
+    be entitled to registration and become electors."
+
+    Subdivision (d). "Any person who shall apply for registration
+    after January 1, 1898, if otherwise qualified, shall be
+    registered: _Provided_ that he can both read and write any
+    section of the constitution submitted to him by the registration
+    officer or can show that he owns and has paid taxes collectible
+    during the previous year on property in this state assessed at
+    three hundred dollars ($300) or more."
+
+(3) LOUISIANA.
+
+    Section 3. "He (the voter) shall be able to read and write, and
+    shall demonstrate his ability to do so when he applies for
+    registration, by making, under oath administered by the
+    registration officer or his deputy, written application
+    therefor, in the English language, or his mother tongue, which
+    application shall contain the essential facts necessary to show
+    that he is entitled to register and vote, and shall be entirely
+    written, dated, and signed by him, in the presence of the
+    registration officer or his deputy, without assistance or
+    suggestion from any person or memorandum whatever, except the
+    form of application hereinafter set forth: _Provided, however,_
+    That if the applicant be unable to write his application in the
+    English language, he shall have the right, if he so demands, to
+    write the same in his mother tongue from the dictation of an
+    interpreter; and if the applicant is unable to write his
+    application by reason of physical disability, the same shall be
+    written at his dictation by the registration officer or his
+    deputy, upon his oath of such disability. The application for
+    registration, above provided for, shall be a copy of the
+    following form, with the proper names, dates, and numbers
+    substituted for the blanks appearing therein, to wit:
+
+    "I am a citizen of the State of Louisiana. My name is ——. I was
+    born in the State (or country) of ——, parish (or county) of ——,
+    on the —— day of ——, in the year ——. I am now —— years —— months
+    and —— days of age. I have resided in this State since ——, and
+    am not disfranchised by any provision of the constitution of
+    this State."
+
+    Section 4. "If he be not able to read and write, provided by
+    section 3 of this article, then he shall be entitled to register
+    and vote if he shall, at the time he offers to register, be the
+    bona fide owner of property assessed to him in this State at a
+    valuation of not less than $300 on the assessment roll of the
+    current year, if the roll of the current year shall not then
+    have been completed and filed and on which, if such property be
+    personal only, all taxes due shall have been paid."
+
+    Section 5. "No male person who was on January 1, 1867, or at any
+    date prior thereto, entitled to vote under the constitution or
+    statute of any State of the United States, wherein he then
+    resided, and no son or grandson of any such person not less than
+    21 years of age at the date of the adoption of this
+    constitution, and no male person of foreign birth, who was
+    naturalized prior to the first day of January, 1898, shall be
+    denied the right to register and vote in this State by reason of
+    his failure to possess the educational or property
+    qualifications prescribed by this constitution: _Provided_, He
+    shall have resided in this State for five years next preceding
+    the date at which he shall apply for registration, and shall
+    have registered in accordance with the terms of this article
+    prior to September 1, 1898; and no person shall be entitled to
+    register under this section after said date."
+
+(4) NORTH CAROLINA.
+
+    Section 4. "Every person presenting himself for registration
+    shall be able to read and write any section of the constitution
+    in the English language; and, before he shall be entitled to
+    vote, he shall have paid, on or before the 1st day of May of the
+    year in which he proposes to vote, his poll tax for the previous
+    year as prescribed by Article V, section 1, of the constitution.
+    But no male person who was, on January 1, 1867, or at any time
+    prior thereto, entitled to vote under the laws of any state in
+    the United States wherein he then resided, and no lineal
+    descendant of any such person, shall be denied the right to
+    register and vote at any election in this State by reason of his
+    failure to possess the educational qualification herein
+    prescribed, provided he shall have registered in accordance with
+    the terms of this section prior to December, 1908.
+
+    "The general assembly shall provide for the registration of all
+    persons entitled to vote without the educational qualifications
+    herein prescribed, and shall, on or before November 1, 1908,
+    provide for the making of a permanent record of such
+    registration, and all persons so registered shall forever
+    thereafter have the right to vote in all elections by the people
+    in this State, unless disqualified under section 2 of this
+    article: _Provided_, Such person shall have paid his poll tax as
+    above required."
+
+(5) ALABAMA (in effect Nov. 28th, 1901.) entitled to register:—
+
+These sections of the Alabama constitution were before the Supreme Court
+in the case of _Giles v. Harris_, (189 U. S. 475,) and the general plan
+of voting and registration was summarized by Mr. Justice Holmes,
+delivering the opinion of the court as follows:
+
+    "By section 178 of article 8, to entitle a person to vote he
+    must have resided in the State at least two years, in the county
+    one year and in the precinct or ward three months, immediately
+    preceding the election; have paid his poll tax, and have been
+    duly registered as an elector. By section 182, idiots, insane
+    persons and those convicted of certain crimes are disqualified.
+    Subject to the foregoing, by section 180, before 1903 the
+    following male citizens of the State, who are citizens of the
+    United States, were entitled to register, viz: First. All who
+    had served honorably in the enumerated wars of the United
+    States, including those on either side of the ’war between the
+    States.’ Second. All lawful descendants of persons who served
+    honorably in the enumerated wars or in the war of the
+    Revolution. Third. ’All persons who are of good character and
+    who understand the duties and obligations of citizenship under a
+    republican form of government.’ By section 181 after January 1,
+    1903, only the following persons are entitled to register:
+    First. Those who can read and write any article of the
+    Constitution of the United States in the English language, and
+    who either are physically unable to work or have been regularly
+    engaged in some lawful business for the greater part of the last
+    twelve months, and those who are unable to read and write solely
+    because physically disabled. Second. Owners or husbands of
+    owners of forty acres of land in the State, upon which they
+    reside, and owners or husbands of owners of real or personal
+    estate in the State assessed for taxation at three hundred
+    dollars or more [...] [By section] 183, only persons qualified
+    as electors can take part in any method of party action. By
+    section 184, persons not registered are disqualified from
+    voting. By section 185, an elector whose vote is challenged
+    shall be required to swear that the matter of the challenge is
+    untrue before his vote shall be received. By Section 186, the
+    legislature is to provide for registration after January 1,
+    1903, the qualifications and oaths of the registrars are
+    prescribed, the duties of the registrars before that date are
+    laid down, and an appeal is given to the county court and
+    Supreme Court if registration is denied. There are further
+    executive details in section 187, together with the
+    above-mentioned continuance of the effect of registration before
+    January 1, 1903. By section 188, after the last-mentioned date
+    applicants for registration may be examined under oath as to
+    where they have lived for the last five years, the names by
+    which they have been known, and the names of their employers."
+
+(6) VIRGINIA. (in effect July 10th, 1902.)
+
+    Article II, Section 18. "Every male citizen of the United
+    States, twenty-one years of age, who has been a resident of the
+    State two years, of the county, city or town one year, and of
+    the precinct in which he offers to vote, thirty days, next
+    preceding the election in which he offers to vote, has been
+    registered, and has paid his state poll taxes, as hereinafter
+    required, shall be entitled to vote for members of the General
+    Assembly and all officers elected by the people; but removal
+    from one precinct to another, in the same county, city or town
+    shall not deprive any person of his right to vote in the
+    precinct from which he has moved, until the expiration of thirty
+    days after such removal."
+
+    Section 19. "There shall be general registrations in the
+    counties, cities and towns of the State during the years
+    nineteen hundred and two and nineteen hundred and three at such
+    times and in such manner as may be prescribed by an ordinance of
+    this Convention. At such registrations every male citizen of the
+    United States having the qualifications of age and residence
+    required in Section Eighteen shall be entitled to register, if
+    he be:
+
+    "First. A person who, prior to the adoption of this
+    Constitution, served in time of war in the army or navy of the
+    United States, of the Confederate States, or of any State of the
+    United States or of the Confederate States; or
+
+    "Second. A son of any such person; or
+
+    "Third. A person, who owns property, upon which, for the year
+    next preceding that in which he offers to register, state taxes
+    aggregating at least one dollar, have been paid; or
+
+    "Fourth. A person able to read any section of this Constitution,
+    submitted to him by the officers of registration and to give a
+    reasonable explanation of the same; or, if unable to read such
+    section, able to understand and give a reasonable explanation
+    thereof when read to him by the officers.
+
+    "A roll containing the names of all persons thus registered,
+    sworn to and certified by the officers of registration, shall be
+    filed, for record and preservation, in the clerk’s office of the
+    circuit court of the county, or the clerk’s office of the
+    corporation court of the city, as the case may be. Persons thus
+    enrolled shall not be required to register again, unless they
+    shall have ceased to be residents of the State, or become
+    disqualified by section Twenty-three. Any person denied
+    registration under this section shall have the right of appeal
+    to the circuit court of his county, or the corporation court of
+    his city, or to the judge thereof in vacation."
+
+    Section 20. "After the first day of January, nineteen hundred
+    and four, every male citizen of the United States, having the
+    qualifications of age and residence required in section
+    Eighteen, shall be entitled to register, provided:
+
+    "First. That he has personally paid to the proper officer all
+    state poll taxes assessed or assessable against him, under this
+    or the former Constitution, for the three years next preceding
+    that in which he offers to register;
+
+    "Second. That, unless physically unable, he make application to
+    register in his own hand-writing, without aid, suggestion or
+    memorandum, in the presence of the registration officers,
+    stating therein his name, age, date and place of birth,
+    residence and occupation at the time and for the two years next
+    preceding, and whether he has previously voted, and, if so, the
+    state, county and precinct in which he voted last; and,
+
+    "Third. That he answer on oath any and all questions affecting
+    his qualifications as an elector, submitted to him by the
+    officers of registration, which questions, and his answers
+    thereto, shall be reduced to writing, certified by the said
+    officers, and preserved as a part of their official records."
+
+    Section 21. "Any person registered under either of the last two
+    sections, shall have the right to vote for members of the
+    General Assembly and all officers elective by the people,
+    subject to the following conditions:
+
+    "That he, unless exempted by section Twenty-two, shall, as a
+    prerequisite to the right to vote after the first day of
+    January, nineteen hundred and four, personally pay, at least six
+    months prior to the election, all state poll taxes assessed or
+    assessable against him under this Constitution, during the three
+    years next preceding that in which he offers vote; provided
+    that, if he register after the first day of January, nineteen
+    hundred and four, he shall, unless physically unable, prepare
+    and deposit his ballot without aid, on such printed form as the
+    law may prescribe; but any voter registered prior to that date
+    may be aided in the preparation of his ballot by such officer of
+    election as he himself may designate."
+
+    Section 22. "No person who, during the late war between the
+    States, served in the army or navy of the United States, or the
+    Confederate States, or any State of the United States, or of the
+    Confederate States, shall at any time be required to pay a poll
+    tax as a prerequisite to the right to register or vote."
+
+    Section 23. "The following persons shall be excluded from
+    registering and voting: Idiots, insane persons, and paupers;
+    persons who, prior to the adoption of this Constitution, were
+    disqualified from voting, by conviction of crime, either within
+    or without this State, and whose disabilities shall not have
+    been removed, persons convicted after the adoption of this
+    Constitution, either within or without this State, of treason,
+    or of any felony, bribery, petit larceny, etc."
+
+The intention of these acts needs no showing. They have three points in
+common: (a) Some device enabling all the white voters to evade the force
+of the disfranchising clauses; (b) The limiting clauses themselves which
+deprive a majority of the colored voters of their franchise; (c) The
+reservation of sufficient discretionary power in boards of registrars to
+enable them to give full effect to the acknowledged purpose of the
+framers of the constitutions. I know of no lesson they can teach us,
+except how to do the things we ought not to do. In some cases, by
+knowing the way down, one may, by reversing the steps taken, regain the
+lost height. But it is not so here; our fall, like our rise, has been
+too sudden. We have been thrown from a window, and before we could
+understand our position, legislated out of a back gate. Only by superior
+chicane can we repair the second injury, only by superior force repair
+the first—unless there be justice in the heart of the nation. It
+behooves us then to study carefully the state of public opinion in the
+country, which underlies these laws, and gives them whatever stability
+they possess.
+
+There is, of course, a series of events leading up to this radical
+change in the institutions of the Republic, a history beginning before
+the formation of the Union itself. The first part was African slavery.
+Religious, moral and economic forces had acted upon serfdom, the more
+common sort of slavery in Europe, and aided by the resulting increase of
+vigor among the serfs themselves, had disintegrated it. But these forces
+either did not act upon the trade in Negro slaves, when profits to be
+obtained from that traffic filled the minds of merchants, or were
+helpless to stop it. The New World was not, like the Old, overcrowded,
+but in need of laborers—and the slaves were blacks. Tropical South
+America, the West Indies, and the hot belt of the United States absorbed
+hundreds of thousands of Negro slaves. All the forces above enumerated
+set to work again after a time and slavery once more began to
+disintegrate. In this country it had become firmly rooted in the
+Southern states, where the same American people who had fought in ’76
+for the freedom of two million white men, women and children fought as
+stubbornly to keep in slavery four million black men, women and
+children. But victory was again to crown the cause of freedom, and by
+the will of the victors, forced forward by the unbroken spirit of
+resistance of the conquered, these four millions of slaves were declared
+possessed of freedom, civil rights and political privileges.
+
+Said Lord Shaftesbury to Charles the Second, when called on for his
+resignation as Lord Chancellor, "It is only to lay aside the gown and
+take up the sword." The South, defeated in arms, reversed the process,
+and laying down the musket, put on the gown of the law-maker, and began
+to accomplish by legislation, the reenslavement of the millions set
+free. Hampered in this, for a time by the armies and the northern civil
+officers, who obtained power largely by the suffrage of the colored
+people, and by the colored voters themselves, the Southern men waited
+for the withdrawal of the Union armies—an event hastened by outcry at
+home—and then taking out the side-arms, which the generous terms of
+surrender had permitted them to retain, they rapidly dispersed the
+opposing force, and took the reins of government again into their own
+hands. With musket in one hand to retain political power, and pen in the
+other to undo the Reconstruction legislation, they soon deprived the
+black millions of all their transitory political and civil rights. It is
+hard to see that anything remained to be done. Emancipation laws and
+proclamations to the contrary, the Negro seemed safely penned. But moral
+and economic forces were still at work, and the end was not yet reached.
+
+The South could no longer close its eyes to the want of prosperity. In
+1890, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and
+Louisiana, in spite of their 262,175 square miles and abundant
+resources, had but 8,346,667 people and 288,405,107 dollars worth of
+manufactured products. An equal territory in the States of the North,
+namely; Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
+Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio and
+Illinois with 260,823 square miles had 25,074,143 people and
+6,484,643,842 dollars worth of manufactured products—which is to say,
+the Southern states had but one-third of the population, and
+one-twenty-second of the manufactures of the same area North. The South
+wanting prosperity began to seek ways of obtaining it. This led to the
+consideration of obstacles: and first among these was the large and
+economically inefficient colored population. It must be made, for want
+of other labor, productive, a contributory agent to the new industrial
+prosperity of the South—and not the less, cut off from any sort of
+control, even of the industries, which by its labor must mainly be built
+up. The problem was a difficult one, yet such as the South felt itself
+able to solve. And many in the North stood ready to help.
+
+In 1890, however, came troubles so serious as to require a diversion of
+attention from economical to political problems. The Republican party
+pledge to secure for all citizens ’a free ballot and a fair count’ was
+yet unredeemed; and in that year a debate broke out in Congress over the
+fulfilling of its promise, with an Elections bill as the means.
+Simultaneously, the Populist movement was growing to threatening
+proportions. Before this, the cry had been that the Negro by sheer
+numbers could dominate, if not prevented from doing so. But now there
+presented itself a new and more threatening danger. "In any state where
+the whites divide," said Mr. Tillman in the Senate in 1900, "and they
+have divided in every Southern State except mine and Mississippi—into
+Populists and Democrats—the Negro has been the balance of power." The
+Populist movement died, but this phantasm once evoked, of a black man
+poised at the centre of the party see-saw, continued to hover at the
+beck of its creators until again wanted. The occasion, this time a
+lasting one, has been found in the balance of the Republican and the
+Democratic parties in the "border" states. So in Maryland, for a while,
+a "doubtful" state, where the colored population is but one-fifth of the
+whole, a disfranchising law is justified, apparently, by the danger to
+good government of allowing the Republican party to obtain control.
+Again, in the county and town election contests, even in the Southern
+states where the Democratic party is in entire possession of the State
+government, this compact(?) and mobile(?) army of black voters occupies
+a position of such strategical importance that unless they be dislodged
+by the most radical method their mastery must be forever
+acknowledged(?). Now, to conclude, since a dozen colored voters might
+hold the balance of power in town or county, the bitter irony of the
+situation is overwhelming.¹ The South is simply driven by its own
+irrefutable(?) logic to total disfranchisement of the Negro, there being
+no safe stopping point short of the practical exclusion of the colored
+inhabitants of a dozen or more states from any part in the making or
+administering of the laws, national, state or municipal under which they
+live(!). All this the South, impelled by her honest desire(!) for good
+government, and resolutely turning her back upon past methods of fraud
+and violence,(!) means to accomplish legally—provided Congress and the
+Supreme Court throw over her naked but unalterable will the broad mantle
+of legality.
+
+   ¹ In West Virginia there are, on the Census basis (958,800 = whole
+     population, less 43,499-colored population = 915,301-white
+     population, divided by 3.6 = ratio of white population, generally
+     to white males of voting age.) 254,250 white voters; and (43,499 =
+     colored population, divided by 4.3-ratio of colored population to
+     colored male adults = 10,116 colored voters, of whom 32.3 per cent.
+     are illiterate, = 3267 illiterate colored men,) but 3,267
+     illiterate colored voters, or about one eightieth of the electorate
+     (257,517 divided by 3,267): yet, even though the national ticket
+     threatened to be hurt by it, it was impossible to stifle the cry
+     for disfranchisement of ignorant black voters as the paramount
+     issue of the West Virginia democratic campaign of 1904.
+
+We are reminded of the story of the princess, who wandering in rags,
+came to a palace and begged accommodation there befitting one of royal
+blood. The old queen, not sure that she was a princess, determined to
+test her veracity in this way: She lay a pea upon the floor and piled
+upon it a dozen feather-beds. If she felt the pea, it was plain that she
+was a true princess. Morning came none too soon for the unhappy lady,
+who confessed to the queen having spent a miserable night, something
+hard in her bed having bruised her till she was black and blue. No
+longer could the queen doubt that she was a real princess, for who else
+could have been so delicate. And she was forthwith married to the heir
+apparent to the throne. So the South acts on the belief that if she be
+absolutely intolerant of the slightest degree of political power in the
+hands of colored men, that the North must see in the very violence of
+her antipathy, the hopelessness of any other solution.
+
+This happily settled, the South after fifteen years of uncertainty,
+hopes to be able to turn her attention to material problems. But though
+the Caesars may rob February of days to enrich July and August, the
+seasons remain unchanged. The economic and moral laws of the universe
+remain in operation and give assurance that no solution can be more than
+temporary in which the Negro is dealt with falsely and unjustly.
+
+Meantime what had been the course of the Republican party, which, by its
+own declaration "had reconstructed the Union with freedom instead of
+slavery as its corner-stone?" Listen to the reading of the suffrage
+planks in the platforms of ten presidential campaigns:—
+
+[1868.]
+
+The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the
+South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of
+gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained; while the question of
+suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the people of those
+States.
+
+The recent amendments to the National Constitution should be cordially
+sustained because they are right, not merely tolerated because they are
+law, and should be carried out according to their spirit by appropriate
+legislation, the enforcement of which can safely be entrusted only to
+the party that secured those amendments.
+
+[1872.]
+
+Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all civil,
+political and public rights should be established and effectually
+maintained throughout the Union by efficient and appropriate State and
+Federal legislation. Neither the law nor its administration should admit
+any discrimination in respect of citizens by reason of race, creed,
+color or previous condition of servitude.
+
+[1876.]
+
+The Republican party has preserved these governments to the hundredth
+anniversary of the Nation’s birth, and they are now embodiments of the
+great truth spoken at its cradle—"that all men are created equal; that
+they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among
+which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that for the
+attainment of these ends governments have been instituted among men,
+deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Until
+these truths are cheerfully obeyed, or, if need be, vigorously enforced,
+the work of the Republican party is unfinished.
+
+The permanent pacification of the Southern section of the Union and the
+complete protection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all
+their rights is a duty to which the Republican party stands sacredly
+pledged. The power to provide for the enforcement of the principles
+embodied in the recent Constitutional Amendments is vested by those
+amendments in the Congress of the United States, and we declare it to be
+the solemn obligation of the legislative and executive departments of
+the Government to put into immediate and vigorous exercise all their
+constitutional powers for removing any just causes of discontent on the
+part of any class, and for securing to every American citizen complete
+liberty and exact equality in the exercise of all civil, political and
+public rights. To this end we imperatively demand a Congress and a Chief
+Executive whose courage and fidelity to these duties shall not falter
+until these results are placed beyond dispute or recall.
+
+[1880.]
+
+The dangers of a "Solid South" can only be averted by a faithful
+performance of every promise which the Nation has made to the citizen.
+The execution of the laws, and the punishment of all those who violate
+them, are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be
+secured and genuine prosperity established throughout the South.
+Whatever promises the Nation makes the Nation must perform. A Nation
+cannot with safety relegate this duty to the States. The "Solid South"
+must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all honest
+opinions must there find free expression. To this end the honest voter
+must be protected against terrorism, violence or fraud.
+
+[1884.]
+
+The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon the maintenance of a free
+ballot, an honest count, and correct returns. We denounce the fraud and
+violence practiced by the Democracy in Southern States, by which the
+will of a voter is defeated, as dangerous to the preservation of free
+institutions; and we solemnly arraign the Democratic party as being the
+guilty recipient of fruits of such fraud and violence.
+
+We extend to the Republicans of the South, regardless of their former
+party affiliations, our cordial sympathy, and pledge to them our most
+earnest efforts to promote the passage of such legislation as will
+secure to every citizen, of whatever race and color, the full and
+complete recognition, possession and exercise of all civil and political
+rights.
+
+[1888.]
+
+We reaffirm our unswerving devotion to the national Constitution and to
+the indissoluble union of the States; to the autonomy reserved to the
+States under the Constitution; to the personal rights and liberties of
+citizens in all the States and Territories in the Union, and especially
+to the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or
+poor, native or foreign born, white or black, to cast one free ballot in
+public elections and to have that ballot duly counted. We hold the free
+and honest popular ballot and the just and equal representation of all
+the people to be the foundation of our republican government, and demand
+effective legislation to secure the integrity and purity of elections,
+which are the fountains of all public authority.
+
+[1892.]
+
+We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to
+cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public elections, and that
+such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast; that such laws shall
+be enacted and enforced as will secure to every citizen, be he rich or
+poor, native or foreign born, white or black, this sovereign right
+guaranteed by the Constitution. The free and honest popular ballot, the
+just and equal representation of all the people, as well as their just
+and equal protection under the laws, are the foundation of our
+Republican institutions, and the party will never relent its efforts
+until the integrity of the ballot and the purity of elections shall be
+fully guaranteed and protected in every State.
+
+[1896.]
+
+We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to
+cast one free and unrestricted ballot, and that such ballot to be
+counted and returned as cast.
+
+[1900.]
+
+It was the plain purpose of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution
+to prevent discrimination on account of race or color in regulating the
+elective franchise. Devices of State governments, whether by statutory
+or constitutional enactment, to avoid the purpose of this amendment are
+revolutionary, and should be condemned.
+
+[1904.]
+
+We favor such Congressional action as shall determine whether by special
+discriminations the elective franchise in any State has been
+unconstitutionally limited, and, if such is the case, we demand that
+representation in Congress and in the electoral colleges shall be
+proportionally reduced as directed by the Constitution of the United
+States.
+
+From ’68 till ’96 there was posted on the bill-boards of the party, the
+same declaration in favor of a free and unrestricted ballot, supported
+by the unyielding determination of the party to protect this right. But
+in that year there came a change. Perhaps it was that the mass of
+unredeemed pledges fell of their own weight, and the time seemed
+opportune to substitute a less weighty declaration; perhaps the party
+only sought a more efficient means of accomplishing its unalterable
+purpose. Whatever the cause, there began from this time, a diminuendo
+which has grown fainter until in 1904 the 15th Amendment was heard no
+more. To time, some say, must be left this task, too great for a
+political party to perform. But there is grave danger in leaving to time
+the execution of justice. The evil grows, the power of correcting it
+diminishes. Early in its course injustice may be stopped, later perhaps
+not at all. The future course of the party with regard ’to the supreme
+and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, white or
+black, to cast one free ballot in public elections and to have that
+ballot duly counted,’ is gravely complicated by the rapid and momentous
+changes taking place in American society.
+
+The gulf between the sections, which the Constitution merely bridged
+proved so deep, because it grew out of differences in the social, if not
+the moral natures of the inhabitants of the two parts of the country.
+These types have been compared to those opposed in the English Civil
+War, and hence called Puritan and Cavalier. But whatever the name, the
+differential fact was this: in the North men and women did their own
+work, while in the South others did their work for them. Until this
+great economic and social difference, which made diverging ideals,
+diverging habits, diverging tastes, ceased to be, real sympathy was
+impossible. That gulf, which widened into bitter civil war, is now
+closing; the two types are drawing nearer; the divorce between sections
+is shifting around to a divorce between classes. Therefore it is that in
+a part of the writing and ruling class, we feel that there is a
+gravitating of morals southward.² The North, which spent millions in
+lives and money to destroy Negro slavery in the South, seems engaged in
+making white slaves at home. If the political and social position of the
+white laborer in the North is declining, our chance of obtaining justice
+through active Northern sympathy is greatly lessened. In this issue
+which remains that of the comparative "hideousness" of the slave-holder
+and the slave, every foot added to the social separation of the Northern
+employer and employee is a stroke in the knell of political equality for
+the Negro.
+
+   ² "The Republican party in its work of imposing the sovereignty of
+     the United States upon eight millions of Asiatics, has changed its
+     views in regard to the political relation of races and has at last
+     virtually accepted the ideas of the South upon that subject. The
+     white men of the South need now have no further fear that the
+     Republican party, or Republican administrations, will ever again
+     give themselves over to the vain imagination of the political
+     equality of man."
+
+     —[Burgess—Reconstruction and the Constitution, page 298.]
+
+It is a mistake, therefore, to assume that there is active in the
+country a spirit of freedom strong enough to set us free; a power
+employed in doing justice, strong enough to do justice to us. The
+country is returning to the conditions existing before ’61, even passing
+these and returning to the conditions existing before 1776,—in politics,
+because it is doing the same in _morals_. Moral betterment requires that
+we put a deeper, broader and stronger foundation under the old
+foundation of our lives; and this can only be done by removing each day
+a bit of sand and filling in the space with stone. Days of tremendous
+business activity, or national triumph are not likely to be so spent.
+
+We _must_ not make the mistake of assuming that there is power in the
+nation to do us justice. "Not in a republic," some one may ask? No! Von
+Holst says: "That virtue is the specific vital principle of republics is
+a delusion. The historical course of development, natural circumstances,
+material interests and political and social customs are the elements by
+which, in all states without exception, the form of the state is in the
+first place conditioned." Not after the pledges of the Constitution,
+again it may be asked? No, the Constitution is an ideal, not a real body
+of law. Von Holst wrote: "Polk had once stated that the nature of
+American institutions offered the world ample security that the United
+States would never pursue a policy of aggressive conquest.
+Notwithstanding the commentary that he had himself given on this
+proposition, it contained a kernel of significant truth. The nature of
+their institutions forbade the United States to hold in violent
+subjection, under the iron hand of conquest, a realm of the extent of
+Mexico for any length of time. This would soon have become so perfectly
+clear to the people that they would either have driven the originator
+and guiding spirit of the war in shame and disgrace from his office and
+dignity, and have reduced all these conditions of peace to the utmost
+moderation, or they would have proceeded to a formal and complete
+incorporation of Mexico with the Union." And before 1900, as a result of
+the war with Spain, the impossible, the absolutely forbidden by the
+nature of their institutions had been accomplished. How obscure the
+vision of the historian! The Constitution is not written in the hearts
+of the American people, but in the sky, where it is hidden every cloudy
+day. And yet again, it will be asked: Not in the New World, not in
+America? Justice demands a careful consideration of every case; it
+cannot be machine-made; it cannot be wholesaled. The exact measure of
+justice is hard to find, harder to administer; it cannot be had without
+patient search, calm temper, righteousness, courage. I know not whether
+America has time to seek the intricate path of justice, or patience and
+courage to follow it when found. The cry ’forward’ grows even louder,
+more insistent, more passionate. Can the country safely put down the
+brakes; dare it turn from its rapid way to material prosperity? But a
+little greater momentum is needed and reactionaries will rise only to be
+irresistibly swept aside. Doubts, weariness, exhaustion even will not
+stop the rapidly revolving wheels. Only in the _wake_ of such frenzied
+progress there will follow rest, the rest of death. Study the wreckage
+in the South in the trail of slavery, black, and what is far worse,
+white illiteracy, brutality, wretched sloth. Observe the turning of
+defeat in the struggle into despair, then stagnation upon which forms a
+film, a scum, a crust which becomes strong enough to defy efforts to
+break it. So is brought about the stratification of society called
+caste. Above, the upper world, ever turning to law and punishment to
+crush those who threaten this floor, upon which they stand from beneath,
+ever appealing to the prejudices of their class to persecute into
+submission those whose sense of justice or generosity threatens the
+crust from above. Beneath, the under world, sweating, spawning,
+gathering from its own misery and the dregs of vice and luxury from
+above poison, and shaping from its own eager thousands of ambitious
+men,—yes, and after the boldest men of the class above, fangs, that it
+may become all that revolution is wont to be.
+
+In such a society is born the conqueror, man of destiny, as he seems. In
+mountain, in desert or in slum, he may have his birth. Oftenest he is a
+military, yet sometimes a spiritual conqueror. In the west of Europe,
+two thousand years ago was born Julius Caesar; in the East, Jesus
+Christ. From mountain, wilderness and slum, each drew his followers.
+Caesar gathered the driftwood of the decaying Republic into an army, and
+upon this bridge crossed the Rubicon and established empire. Christ,
+too, gathered up the driftwood of decaying Rome and fashioned out of it
+that noble band which is the inspiration of every true Church in the
+Christian world. The classes you would disfranchise will become the
+makers of a political slum. They are materials for working out the glory
+or the ruin of the nation. Exclude them from the benefits, the
+privileges of other classes and you invite criminality: from outcast to
+outlaw is but one step. Include them, and who can measure the addition
+to the sum of human happiness? In the answer to the question: what
+forces are at work checking the too great increase of a people? what is
+the principle of selection? what sort are disappearing, what sort
+preserved?—may be read the country’s destiny.
+
+Outside of the slave states, equal participation in the government by
+all citizens has been the foundation stone of the Republic. For a brief
+moment slavery was dead, and all men were freemen. But slavery is alive
+again, and if its growth is not resisted, will again be restored in all
+but name. The words of Calhoun deserve to be called a prophecy.
+"_Without political and social equality_," he said, "_to change the
+condition of the African race would be but to change the form of
+slavery."_ The South accepts the alternative and resolves that, whatever
+the cost, political and social equality shall never be. The North must
+yield; _she_ will not. While some are trusting to the finality of the
+13th Amendment, others to industrial opportunity, others still to
+political without social equality, the South with bull-dog tenacity
+sticks to her resolution that there shall be none of these. But a year
+ago Carl Schurz declared: "There will be a movement either in the
+direction of reducing the Negro to a permanent condition of serfdom ...
+or a movement in the direction of recognizing him as a citizen in the
+true sense of the term. One or the other will prevail."
+
+Are there reasons wanting why the nation should keep true to its
+foundation principles? Granting that the pathway to freedom is now
+harder to follow, should the forward movement be abandoned? How else
+than by manfully pressing on to a broad humanity, can the Republic,
+reconstructed with freedom as its corner-stone, remain? As the old cords
+fail to hold together the more distant and divided political and ethnic
+units of population, there must be woven new bonds of sympathy,—at
+least, of toleration, else some must be hung with chains. There are
+many, many reasons, rulers of the commonwealth, why the electorate
+should not be reduced:—
+
+Above all, it is selfish. "The continual and diligent elevation of that
+lower mass which human society everywhere is constantly precipitating,"
+to borrow the words of Cable, is incompatible with the _spirit_ of
+restriction.
+
+It is inequitable. For, again quoting from this author: "There is no
+safe protection but self-protection: poverty needs at least as much
+civil equipment, for self-protection as property needs: the right and
+liberty to acquire intelligence, virtue and wealth are just as precious
+as the right and liberty to maintain them, and need quite as much
+self-protection."
+
+It is subversive of the republican basis of the state,—tending as it
+does to deposit more and more political power in the hands of fewer and
+fewer men. From "all up" to "some down" in the matter of political
+rights is a precipitous leap: but this step once taken, a gentle slope
+succeeds. From many to fewer members of the privileged class, the mind
+advances easily, with no intrusive principle to block the way. If a poll
+tax of one dollar can be made a condition of voting regardless of
+ability to pay it, then why not ten or twenty? If a poll tax, why not a
+property tax, or wealth? If ability to interpret the Constitution, why
+not a college education?
+
+As restriction is practiced in the South, it breeds contempt for the
+law:
+
+And increasing unrest, for like a snowball it swells and gathers fresh
+resistance as it goes:
+
+And dishonesty, for the disfranchising laws are not being lived up to.
+This is inherent, for the acquisition of the required knowledge or
+wealth would defeat the very object of the law. It puts a premium upon
+ignorance, for thereby the desired end of disfranchisement is
+furthered:—And upon thriftlessness, for the same reason;—And upon
+criminality and false charges of crime, since even this price must be
+paid by those determined to work their will.
+
+What evils of universal suffrage are equal to these? Can an appeal be
+made in the name of minority rights by those who would themselves efface
+minorities?³ When slaves were escaping, they demanded that the
+constitutional guarantees be fulfilled to the letter, clamored like
+Shylock for the pound of flesh which the law allowed. Now, too, they
+demand of the amendments as before of the clauses of the instrument
+reserving power to the states, that they be construed by the letter:—but
+with what a change of object,—no longer that the rights of minorities
+may be respected but that they may be utterly suppressed.
+
+   ³ In two states, viz; Mississippi and South Carolina, the colored
+     people are in the majority. In the other four disfranchising
+     states, as well as all other Southern states, they are in the
+     minority. In the group of states disfranchising the colored voters,
+     viz; N. C., S. C., Va., Ala., Miss., and La., the
+
+     white population is
+            5,396,649 = 55 per cent.
+
+     colored " "
+            4,453,253 = 45 per cent.
+
+     total " "
+            9,849,902 = 100 per cent.
+
+     —BY THE 12TH CENSUS (1900.)
+
+And if it be asserted that the superior must be allowed to rule, is
+superiority to be proved by a fiat of brute force? Is mere armed
+lawlessness the index of superior worth? When the nations agreed to fix
+limits to the cruelties of war, did they thereby place a penalty upon
+brains?
+
+Finally, is it claimed that a free ballot signifies unlimited
+corruption? Read the answer in England’s purification of her politics: I
+quote from Sir Thomas Erskine May:—
+
+"Political morality may be elevated by extending liberties: but bribery
+has everywhere been the vice of growing wealth." "The first election of
+George the Third’s reign was signalized by unusual excesses:" A seat in
+Parliament was for sale, like an estate and they bought it without
+hesitation or misgiving. "Nor were they regarded with much favor by the
+leaders of parties; for men who had bought their seats,—and paid dearly
+for them,—owed no allegiance to political patrons. "They sought
+admission to Parliament, not so much with a view to a political career,
+as to serve mere personal ends, to forward commercial speculations, to
+extend their connections and to gratify their social aspirations. But
+their independence and ambition well fitted them for the service of the
+court.... They soon ranged themselves among the king’s friends: and thus
+the court policy,—which was otherwise subversive of freedom became
+associated with parliamentary corruption. "When the return of members
+was left to a small but independent body of electors, their individual
+votes were secured by bribery: and where it rested with proprietors or
+corporations, the seat was purchased outright." Gatton e. g. was sold
+for £75,000. Of the 658 members of the House of Commons 487 were
+returned by nomination ... not more than one third of the House were the
+free choice of the limited bodies of electors then intrusted with the
+franchise.... Representatives holding their seats by a general system of
+corruption could scarcely fail to be themselves corrupt. What they had
+bought, they were but too ready to sell. And how glittering the prizes
+offered as the price of their services! Peerages, baronetcies, patronage
+and court favor for the rich—places, pensions and bribes for the needy.
+All that the government had to bestow they could command.... Another
+instrument of corruption was found in the raising of money for the
+public service. In March 1763, Lord Bute contracted a loan of three
+millions and a half; and having distributed shares among his
+friends,—the scrip immediately rose to a premium of 11 per cent.... Here
+the country sustained a loss of £385,000.... Stock jobbing became the
+fashion; and many members of Parliament were notoriously concerned in
+it. Again in 1781 ... a loan of £12,000,000 was contracted to defray the
+cost of the disastrous American war.... Its terms were so favorable that
+suddenly the scrip rose nearly 11 per cent. It was computed by Mr. Fox
+that a profit of £900,000 would be derived from the loan; and by others
+that half of the loan was subscribed for by members of the House of
+Commons. Lord Rockingham said. "The loan was made merely for the purpose
+of corrupting the Parliament to support a wicked, impolitic and ruinous
+_war_.
+
+Now as to the electorate. "In Scotland in 1831, the total number of
+county voters did not exceed 2500; and the constituencies of the 66
+boroughs amounted to 1440.... The county of Argyll, with a population of
+100,000 had but 115 electors: Caithness with 36,000, contained 47 free
+holders. Edinburgh and Glasgow, the two first cities of Scotland, had
+each a constituency of 33 persons.... A great kingdom, with more than
+two millions of people,—intelligent, instructed, industrious and
+peaceable,—was virtually disfranchised.... According to a statement made
+by the Duke of Richmond in 1780, not more than 6,000 men returned a
+clear majority of the British House of Commons.... It was alleged in the
+petition of the Society of the Friends of the People (presented in
+1793.) that 84 individuals absolutely returned 157 members to Parliament
+... and that a majority of the House were returned by 154 patrons....
+
+"The glaring defects and vices of the representative system which have
+now been exposed,—the restricted and unequal franchise, the bribery of a
+limited electoral body, and the corruption of the representatives
+themselves,—formed the strongest arguments for Parliamentary reform....
+The theory of an equal representation, had in the course of ages, been
+entirely subverted.... The Reform bill of 1832 supplied the cure. "It
+was," says May, "a measure, at once bold, comprehensive, moderate and
+constitutional. Popular: but not democratic:—it extended liberty,
+without hazarding revolution. In 1850 the representation of the country
+was reconstructed on a wider basis. Large classes had been admitted to
+the franchise: and the House of Commons represented more freely the
+interests and political sentiments of the people. The reformed
+Parliament, accordingly, has been more liberal and progressive in its
+policy than the Parliaments of old, more vigorous and active; more
+susceptible to the influence of public opinion: and more secure in the
+confidence of the people."
+
+Here let us leave the history of English political corruption and the
+remedy which was found in a fairer representation of the people. In
+truth, we might well have left it sooner—if not altogether; for it is
+likely to be said that all of this is nothing to the purpose. The South
+has before her the practical problem of dealing with some millions of
+Negroes, to the solution of which, the experience of the English people
+furnishes no aid. Once more, then, we must consider the actual situation
+in this country to-day.
+
+The Negro problem has been stated: What does justice to the Negro
+demand? Approaching our subject from this point of view, we may try to
+conclude:—
+
+1st. What justice _does_ demand; and
+
+2nd. What the Negro must do to get it.
+
+What, to begin with, is the answer of the South to the former? It is
+familiar to us all and would seem to be the nearly unanimous voice of
+the Southern people. The Negro, they say, is ignorant, lazy and vicious.
+Slavery, so far as its effect on the slave is concerned, was a
+beneficent institution, raising him from his previous savagery to a
+plane of humble usefulness. There, however, his incurable inferiority
+destines him forever to remain. This, the South insists she has settled
+in wisdom and kindliness. The North, so runs her speech,
+misunderstanding the South and the Negro, unjustly forced on the Civil
+war, to compel her to change her domestic institutions. But that
+attempt, foredoomed to failure, has resulted in nothing more than the
+abolition of slavery, and a cruel loss of life and property, partly
+compensated for by the consequent revelation of her boundless resources
+of courage, loyalty and united resolve. Slavery, while a Southern
+institution, was not a bond of perfect union; but upon the platform of
+black inferiority and white domination, every Southern man has his foot
+squarely planted. Her answer, therefore, to all criticism is to point
+with pride to the solid South.
+
+How often are we called upon to see with pain and wonder that opinions,
+theories, even the mind itself is shaped by actions. Nature, aiming at
+preservation of life, is quick to heal all possible wounds, to reconcile
+warring impulses, to gloss and beautify deformities, and even to conceal
+dangers and snares. She gives men language to justify their misdeeds,
+teaches them how to embalm their errors in the secretion of their
+intellects, and even preserves the lying epitaphs which they inscribe
+over the remains of their vanity and pride. To change an opinion, it is
+necessary commonly to change a course of action, and until the life of
+the South changes, there seems no reasonable expectation that her
+opinions will change. Disfranchisement is but a symptom of the diseased
+Southern body politic, and who can tell whether the surgeon’s knife will
+not reach the sources of life itself in seeking for a cure.
+
+Sufficient then to herself,—wholly insufficient, false, and cruel to us,
+is this answer. If there were but these two parties to the cause, there
+would be no need to consider it. There remains, however, the still
+hesitating, ever-divided public opinion of the North—now the judge in
+the Freedmen’s case. It is fitting that in her court, our replication
+should be boldly made. There we proclaim that the South is not doing
+justice to colored men.
+
+The Negroes, say Southern men, are ignorant, lazy, vicious,—a perpetual
+menace to the rule and order of white men. Is this believable? Did God
+so make the world that after three thousand years of progressive white
+civilization;—in a country where there are sixty millions of white men,
+entrenched in their possession of armies and navies, wealth, power and
+endless resources of trained intellect;—that nine millions of colored
+people, rich in nothing but their sufferings, threaten to put the bottom
+on top? And if chance rules the world, and ignorance, laziness and vice
+are as likely to prevail as knowledge, industry and virtue, we may as
+well believe that ignorance and laziness and vice underlie white
+civilization and supremacy. No, we may confidently answer: this is not
+believable. Either these nine millions of colored people are not
+ignorant, lazy and vicious, or there are no grounds for the fear that
+they can for an hour put into danger the continuance of white
+domination, even in the blackest portion of the black South.
+
+There is indeed proof obtainable that they are neither ignorant, lazy
+and vicious, nor a menace to rule and order. If they were near neighbors
+of the brutes would the elaborate defensive preparations be necessary
+which the South continues feverishly to make? Do the savages of Africa
+enact disfranchising clauses to keep apes and monkeys out of their
+political affairs? If ignorance so submerges the black man, why does not
+the Massachusetts principle of protecting the ballot prevail in the
+South? Why is it necessary to require the voter to read, yes, and
+_interpret satisfactorily, any_ clause in the state constitution?⁴ If
+sloth curses the Negro with unfruitfulness, why require property to the
+assessed value of $300? If the assessed value be two thirds of the real
+value, this means that nearly $500; if one third, then nearly $1000 is
+fixed as the minimum possession of the black voter. Does this precaution
+point to shiftlessness? If viciousness be indelibly stamped upon his
+nature, why not rely upon his disfranchisement for crime to eliminate
+the colored voters? Are the white juries not to be trusted to condemn
+the accused? Are the leased convicts not worth their cost of keeping? It
+has been more than once said that 90,000 of the 90,000 colored people in
+the District of Columbia are criminals. If the same proportion maintains
+elsewhere, what more is needed to accomplish the desired end?
+
+   ⁴ The requirement that the voter be able to read (or write) _and_
+     interpret satisfactorily, in the Virginia registration requirement
+     before Jan. 1, 1904, is an advance upon the earlier clauses, which
+     left the alternative. I am not sure but that it reappears in the
+     Maryland law not yet in operation. It is an interesting fact that
+     it was _Senator Daniels of Virginia_ who once called the attention
+     of the Senate to the injustice done the South by Senator Spooner’s
+     assertion that voters were, without alternative, required to
+     interpret passages from the Constitutions.
+
+Yet disfranchisement for ignorance, for thriftlessness, and vice all
+together are acknowledged to be insufficient, and resort must be had
+again to manipulation, juggling, and confessed dishonesty. Rev. Edgar
+Gardiner Murphy, Executive Secretary of the Southern Education Board, a
+distinguished witness, testifying against interest, says: "The
+instrument of discrimination has been found in the discretionary powers
+lodged in the board of registrars, by which worthy Negro men, fairly
+meeting every test of suffrage have been excluded from registration."(?)
+Where the fact is so freely admitted, proof seems wasted, yet abundant
+corroboration may easily be had⁵.
+
+   ⁵ The following clipping from the Baltimore American, I cannot
+     refrain from reading:—
+
+     "In the recent election the democratic judges of election in many
+     of the counties proved that they were unable even to count ballots
+     properly marked, and when it came to putting a reasonable
+     interpretation on the intention of a voter they were either wholly
+     ignorant or wholly dishonest. It is perfectly safe to say that not
+     one-third of the democratic judges who served at the Maryland
+     election of last week could themselves give an intelligent
+     interpretation of any section in the Constitution. Many of them do
+     not even know what the Constitution is, and the man who suggested
+     that they would take it to be a new kind of drink did not overshoot
+     the mark. Fine professors of constitutional history these men would
+     make!"
+
+The fact as well as the extent of disfranchisement is revealed by the
+statistical summaries:—
+
+
+                        *STATISTICAL SUMMARIES*
+
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 1
+                ────────────────────────────────────────
+                ADULT MALE OR COLORED VOTING
+                POPULATION, 1900, ESTIMATED AT 1 IN
+                4.3.
+                ────────────────────────────────────────
+                Virginia      660,722 ÷         46,122.
+                              4.3 =
+                ────────────────────────────────────────
+                Nor. Car.     624,469 ÷        127,114.
+                              4.3 =
+                ────────────────────────────────────────
+                South Car.    782,321 ÷        152,860.
+                              4.3 =
+                ────────────────────────────────────────
+                Alabama       827,307 ÷        181,471.
+                              4.3 =
+                ────────────────────────────────────────
+                Mississippi   907,630 ÷        197,936.
+                              4.3 =
+                ────────────────────────────────────────
+                Louisiana     650,804 ÷        147,348.
+                              4.3 =
+                ────────────────────────────────────────
+                Total                        4,453,251.
+                ────────────────────────────────────────
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 2
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         CENSUS OF NEGROES BEFORE PASSAGE OF REVISED
+         CONSTITUTIONS.
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         Virginia      1900              115,865   (T.Al.)
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         Nor. Car.     "                 133,081   "
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         South Car.    1892               13,384   "
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         Alabama       1900               55,512   Pres.
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         Mississippi   1888               30,096
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         Louisiana     1888               30,701
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 3
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         CENSUS OF NEGROES AFTER PASSAGE OF REVISED
+         CONSTITUTIONS.
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         Virginia      1904               47,880   (W. Al.)
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         Nor. Car.     "                  82,442   "
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         So. Car.      1900                3,579   Pres. (T.)
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         So. Car.      1904                2,554   Pres. (W.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         Alabama       1904               22,472   (W. Al.)
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         Miss.         1900                5,753   Pres. (T.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         Miss.         1904                3,189   Pres. (W.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         Louisiana     1900               14,234   Pres. (T.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+         Louisiana     1904                5,205   Pres. (W.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 4
+          ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+          REGISTRATION OF COLORED VOTERS. (Newspaper
+          estimate.)
+          ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+          State                    Literate      _Registered_
+          ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+          Virginia             equal 69,358
+          ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+          North Carolina             59,625       _"Less than
+                                                  6,000"_
+          ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+          South Carolina             69,242
+          ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+          Alabama                    73,474          _"Hardly
+                                                     2,500"_
+          ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+          Mississippi                92,605
+          ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+          Louisiana                  57,086         _"1,147"_
+          ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 5
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  REPUBLICAN VOTE IN THE SIX STATES; VOTE AFTER DISFRANCHISEMENT
+  SCORED. (World Almanac of 1904.)
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  YEAR          VA.     NORTH     SOUTH      ALA.     MISS.       LA.
+                        CAR.      CAR.
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1872       93,468    94,783    72,290    90,272    82,175    59,975
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1876       76,093   108,419    92,081    68,230    52,605    75,315
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1880       83,639   115,874    58,071    56,178    34,854    38,016
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1884      139,356   125,068    21,733    59,144    43,509    46,347
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1888      150,438   134,784    13,736    57,197    30,096    30,701
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1892      113,217   100,846    13,384     9,197     1,406    26,563
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1900      115,865   133,081     3,579    55,512     5,753    14,234
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1904       47,880    82,442     2,554    22,472     3,189     5,205
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+
+    1872, 1876, Va., N.C., S.C., Ala. (Tribune Almanac of 1896.)
+    1872, Louisiana (World Almanac.)
+    1892, Louisiana (Republican and Populists.)
+    1892, N.C.; 1900, 1904 (Due to Populists.)
+
+Every fresh barrier erected in the South simply publishes to the world
+the weakness and inefficiency of those already raised. Each time
+dishonest methods are newly justified, and violent declarations,
+applauded, fresh evidence is given that these Southern men cannot on its
+merits win their case. The policy of white domination is stripped to
+unblushing nakedness, and confident of the fear of those who remained
+for two hundred years enslaved, the South narrows the issue to one of
+physical courage, inviting the Negro to wrest from her the power, which
+stands between him and justice, freedom, happiness. _It is not then in
+the ignorance, laziness, and vice of the Negro, that the white South
+trusts, for the continuance of her policy, but in his defencelessness._
+
+_To these Southern men, we can make but one reply. Unmistakably our
+courage is the issue._ But before considering how best to treat their
+sinister challenge, let us answer to the Republican party the question:
+What does justice to the Negro demand? Our reply is simple,—the
+fulfillment of the promise, which was treasured up in the hearts of four
+million men as they passed through the doors of slavery into the light
+of freedom;—the promise, which they have left to their children as their
+one priceless inheritance: "The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage
+to all loyal men at the South was demanded by every consideration of
+public safety, of gratitude and of justice, and must be maintained"—this
+was the promise of the Republican party in 1868. The freedman appeals to
+the creator of his political rights, as Tennyson to the Creator of his
+being:—
+
+    Thou wilt not leave us in the dust;
+    Thou madest man, he _knows_ not why;
+    He thinks he was not made to die;
+    And Thou hast made him,—Thou art just.
+
+Is it then fair to leave to us the vindication of the Reconstruction
+policy against men of the South, the North and even influential members
+of the party’s own councils? Must we meet the charge that the Republican
+party was moved by revenge and folly, and prove that there was no other
+way to secure the foundation of freedom, which hundreds of thousands had
+died to win? Were those terrible years of death a mere night over the
+gaming table, with two haggard players, ’breaking even’ at dawn? Is it
+left to us to rescue from their own sons the fame of the heroes of the
+war against slavery and restore the honorable inscriptions recorded on
+their tombs? When men talk of ’the greatest error of Reconstruction,’
+has the murder of Lincoln no claim to the place? Does not John Wilkes
+Booth better merit derisive canonizing than "Saint" John Brown? If it
+was irony for the "Reconstruction" legislatures to impose heavy taxes
+upon a people who had just emerged from a ruinous war and by bonded
+indebtedness extend the obligation to future generations, was it not
+also irony to punish and re-enslave by vagrancy laws the men who without
+an acre or a dollar were now _called_ free?
+
+And if it _was_ hate, and revenge, and folly, which brought about the
+'War Amendments,’ can they be honorably withdrawn now? Is there no
+doctrine in law, which forbids one’s renouncing an act after he has
+profited by it? But could the elections have been won and the policies
+maintained without the aid of the colored voter? Is there need of a
+statute of limitations to stop a political party from withdrawing the
+promises upon which it has encouraged millions of trusting people to
+build for forty years? Can it be honestly claimed that three-fourths of
+the States of the Union gave the ballot to the slave just out of the
+slave pen, with the implied condition that if he failed to prove himself
+able from the outset to resist temptation to childish indulgence and
+childish dishonesty, seduced as he was by the Northern men whom
+gratitude bade him trust and follow, he should lose it forever? Is this
+the Eden where we met our "fall?" A sober Anglo-Saxon definition of
+justice is given by Sidgwick: "Justice is realized (1) in the observance
+of law, and contracts, and definite understandings, and in the
+enforcement of such penalties for the violation of these as have been
+legally determined and announced; and (2) in the fulfilment of natural
+and normal expectations." That the nation’s laws will be upheld is the
+first requirement of justice.⁶
+
+   ⁶ Here is an instance of a President’s devotion to existing laws:
+     *With the Confederate government fully installed two weeks
+     before*,—Lincoln said in his inaugural address, that "he had no
+     purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of
+     slavery." Is a manual needed in the United States to tell for what
+     purposes and under what circumstances the law will be enforced?
+
+But yet again are we brought back to the ignorance, shiftlessness and
+criminality of the Negro. Their fathers, so say these wiser Northern
+sons, could not know of these evils, which to them have been revealed.
+No, they could not: had their lives been spared till now there had been
+no such evils to reveal. Under freedom’s blaze ignorance was sucked up
+as the stagnant waters from a pool. With nearly the entire number of
+slaves illiterate, with no schools yet built, and only those large
+hearted teachers to face the enormous educational work whose
+ministrations to the needy were their only pay, more was done in the
+years just after the liberation of the slaves, to remove, their
+ignorance, than twenty-five thousand teachers in hundreds of schools
+have done in the last decade since.⁷ Progress in earning and saving
+corresponded. And there was little increase of crime. A few years more
+of the sunlight and who doubts that these charges could never have been
+brought against us! And by whom are we charged with being criminal?
+Surely not by the South?
+
+   ⁷ Per cent. of illiteracy.
+
+     Colored population in 1860 4,441,830.
+
+     Of this about 9 per cent. (488,070) was free—perhaps ½ of this was
+     literate, i.e., about 5 per cent. of the whole.
+
+         Equal 95 per cent. or higher.
+
+     Colored population above 10 years in 1870 equal whole population,
+     4,880,009, less 28.7 per cent. equals under 10 leaving 3,464,806.
+     Above 10, unable to write, 2,789,689.
+
+         Equal 80 per cent.
+
+     Colored population above 10 years in 1880 4,601,207. Above 10,
+     unable to write, 3,220,878.
+
+         Equal 70 per cent.
+
+     Colored population above 10 years in 1890 5,328,972. Above 10,
+     unable to write, 3,042,668.
+
+         Equal 57.1 per cent.
+
+     Colored population above 10 years in 1900 6,415,581. Above 10,
+     unable to write, 2,853,194.
+
+         Equal 44.5 per cent.
+
+Is it credible that our millions lived under the benign influence of
+slavery, almost without crime and continued even after the Emancipation
+Act to live peacefully and honestly:—and then, upon the passage of the
+14th Amendment dropped suddenly from this moral zenith? Such sudden
+transformations are not natural: either slavery made the criminality of
+the African: or held it in a grip barely strong enough to prevent its
+issue in acts of violence: or, else this record of crime is false. One
+of these three explanations, we cannot choose but accept. The South at
+least, cannot admit the first, for slavery, they declared, even before
+God at His Altar, to be a benign institution; neither can they admit the
+second, for it, too, is inconsistent with the gentleness and benignity
+of slavery. But will they admit the third? "Nine tenths of the illicit
+gains," says James Bryce, speaking of Reconstruction, "went to the
+whites." Into like parts, Woodrow Wilson divides the responsibility and
+the discredit. "Negroes," he writes, constituted the majority of their
+electorates, but political power gave them no advantage of their own.
+Adventurers swarmed out of the North, to cozen, beguile and use them....
+They gained the confidence of the Negroes, obtained for themselves the
+more lucrative offices, and lived upon the public treasury, public
+contracts and their easy control of affairs. For the Negroes there was
+nothing but occasional allotments of abandoned or forfeited land, the
+pay of petty offices, a per-diem allowance as members of the
+conventions, and the state legislatures, which their new masters made
+business for, or the wages of servants in the various offices of
+administration. Their ignorance and credulity made them easy dupes. A
+petty favor, a slender stipend, a trifling perquisite, a bit of poor
+land, a piece of money satisfied, or silenced them." This is the record
+of crime until the quickly passing day of freedom was ended. And if
+crime has increased since, so presently will ignorance increase and
+idleness unless their growth is checked by the restoration of freedom
+and justice and hope. Punishment will fail to stop the growth of
+idleness, vice and crime, as it has always failed, and if brutal
+punishments are next resorted to when milder ones have failed, one
+sickens at the prospect. Can Southern, abetted by Northern men strew the
+earth with the seeds of accursed slavery, bastardy and treason, secret
+conspiracy, callous, sneering fraud and the brutality of the mob, and
+think to stop by lynching the harvest of black duplicity, bred of fear,
+and black criminality, bred of misery and hate,—when they have gathered
+enough of the fruits to make an exhibit of Negro vice? The departure of
+lynching waits for two events: the breeding of the animal out the most
+wretched Negroes until they find greater satisfaction in something
+higher than sensuality and revenge; and the breeding of savage cruelty
+out of the white man until he can find pleasure in something more humane
+than torture by fire. As our counsellors bid us turn our attention to
+the dark side of our life, we bid them turn theirs from it. Your boasted
+civilization on its under side is but a progress from rape to adultery,
+from brute to devil. The savage honors the brute and tortures the devil;
+the civilized man tortures or crushes the brute and honors the devil.
+There is a pitcher plant of California, which is so described: Above a
+funnel shaped stem, it flaunts a crimson banner. The hood of the flower
+is transparent, so that the wary are caught even in their efforts to
+flee. From the mouth downwards the walls exude intoxicating sweets but
+multitudinous hairs, all pointing downward, lower the victim farther
+with every struggle. At its bottom a charnel heap, poisoning the air.
+Such plants flourish amidst civilization, and millions are their
+victims, who debauch their appetites until their intellects shrink to
+the size of their already shrunken consciences, and they are helpless to
+do anything but die. Liberty _is_ perilous, a very ’valley of the shadow
+of death,’ but the history of every nation which has lived and died
+teaches us that the danger of a false step is even greater near the end
+of the journey than at the beginning. Egypt, Assyria, Judea, Greece,
+Rome—the history of every nation is a light-house marking a _reef_ in
+the harbor of humanity.
+
+When Cain had killed Abel, he hid the body, and when God called,
+replied, "Am I my brother’s keeper?" A chill foreboding comes over us
+with these Northern doubts of the wisdom of Reconstruction, and we
+cannot refrain from wondering if the North still retains the sense of
+duty of 61; if the North can do, can even will to do justice. And here
+let us turn from our first question: What does justice to the Negro
+demand? To the second: What can the Negro do to get justice? My end has
+been reached if there is felt more than before the need of answering the
+latter question.
+
+Underlying the civil laws of the nation are certain high ideals. The
+fidelity of the nation to these is measured by the quality and the force
+of public opinion. Just as long therefore as the republic endures, the
+executive, legislative and judicial powers will obey the people’s will.
+To this oracle the rulers have again appealed, and its answer has been
+an expression of renewed and increased confidence in the Republican
+party. The hour of the new administration has almost come, and the
+message may be now on its way to the country that the party pledges are
+to be redeemed. It may be that there are brighter days before us; but
+if, as in the past, we stand on no securer footing than two men
+wrestling on a steep and icy hill-side, where both roll over and over,
+and there is no chance between throwing and being thrown,—then it
+matters not whether we appeal to President, or Congress, or Supreme
+Court; to the 14th or 15th amendment, for the righting of our wrongs.
+
+Congress is empowered to enforce the 14th and 15th amendments by
+appropriate legislation. Such legislation has been enacted and by one
+President, at least, enforced. But, now, it is held that it must be
+shown that the amendments are being violated, and this cannot be done
+until the Supreme Court fully interprets them. What a mockery it has all
+become! Insolently, sneeringly, the violators of the plain intent of the
+law rise from their seats in Congress and demand how far they are going
+to be obliged to walk around these Amendments instead of kicking them
+aside. By law, or by force, colored men are being deprived of the right
+to hold office; by law or by force excluded from the jury; by law or by
+force sent into slavery for crimes of which they were convicted by these
+juries from which they are excluded; by law or by force, they are being
+disfranchised. The alternative is clear. Southern men do not evade it.
+The revised Constitutions stand boldly for disqualification by law.
+Southern Congressmen in debate as boldly proclaim the force. More
+cautiously Mr. Murphy testifies to the same effect, denying that "the
+abuse of discretionary power by the registrars of elections,—an abuse
+which the State permits, but which the State does not necessitate or
+prescribe, brings the State within reach of the penalties of the
+Constitution."
+
+If not by law then the Constitution is nullified by force, and it
+becomes the duty of Congress to maintain it. But is Congress so near the
+performance of this obligation that we can profitably advise as to the
+method? Shall we say that candidates for Congress, by force or fraud
+elected, shall be refused their seats or that an election bill shall be
+passed, guaranteeing just laws; or that the penalty clause of the 14th
+Amendment shall be first enforced? At least, we had better wait until
+the House has reversed the policy outlined by its Committee on
+Elections, whose concluding words in the Dantzler-Lever case follow:—
+
+    "However desirable it may be for a legislative body to retain
+    control of the decision as to the election and qualification of
+    its members, it is quite certain that a legislative body is not
+    the ideal body to pass judicially upon the constitutionality of
+    the enactments of other bodies. We have in this country a proper
+    forum for the decision of constitutional and other judicial
+    questions. If any citizen of South Carolina who was entitled to
+    vote under the constitution of that State in 1868 is now
+    deprived by the provisions of the present constitution, he has
+    the right to tender himself for registration and for voting, and
+    in case his right is denied, to bring suit in a proper court for
+    the purpose of enforcing his right or recovering damages for its
+    denial.
+
+    "That suit can be carried by him, if necessary, to the Supreme
+    Court of the United States. If the United States Supreme Court
+    shall declare in such case that the "fundamental conditions" in
+    the reconstruction acts were valid and constitutional and that
+    the State constitutions are in violation of those acts, and
+    hence invalid and unconstitutional every state will be compelled
+    to immediately bow in submission to the decision. The decision
+    of the Supreme Court would be binding and would be a positive
+    declaration of the law of the land which could not be denied or
+    challenged.
+
+    "On the contrary, the decision of the House of Representatives
+    upon this grave judicial question would not be considered as
+    binding or effective in any case except the one acted upon or as
+    a precedent for future action in the House itself.
+
+    "A majority of the Committee on Elections No. v doubt the
+    propriety in any event of denying these Southern States
+    representation in the House of Representatives pending a final
+    settlement of the whole question in proper proceedings by the
+    Supreme Court of the United States. Some of the members of the
+    committee believe the "fundamental conditions" set forth in the
+    reconstruction acts to be valid and the constitutions and
+    election laws of these States to be in conflict with such
+    conditions, and hence to be invalid.
+
+    "Some of the members of the committee believe the "fundamental
+    conditions" set forth in the reconstruction acts to be invalid
+    and the constitutions and election laws of the States claimed to
+    be in conflict with such conditions to be valid. Some members of
+    the committee have formed no opinion and express no belief upon
+    the subject.
+
+    "Your Committee on Elections No. i therefore respectively
+    recommend the adoption of the following resolution:
+
+    "’_Resolved_. That Alexander D. Dantzler was not elected a
+    member of the Fifty-eighth Congress from the Seventh
+    Congressional district of South Carolina, and is not entitled to
+    a seat therein.’"
+
+If not by force then the Constitution is nullified by law, and the
+Supreme Court must be looked to to maintain its vigor. Turning to the
+Supreme Court, what do we find to be its answer? In the following words,
+the Court concludes in the case of Giles vs Teasley, (the 4th Alabama
+case) decided Feb. 23d, 1904:—(from this decision Justice Harlan
+dissented.)
+
+    "It is apparent that the thing complained of, so far as it
+    involves rights secured under the Federal Constitution, is the
+    action of the State of Alabama in the adoption and enforcing of
+    a constitution with the purpose of excluding from the exercise
+    of the right of suffrage the Negro voters of the State, in
+    violation of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
+    United States. The great difficulty of reaching the political
+    action of a State through remedies afforded in the courts, State
+    or Federal, was suggested by this court in _Giles v. Harris,
+    supra_.
+
+    "In reaching the conclusion that the present writs of error must
+    be dismissed the court is not unmindful of the gravity of the
+    statements of the complainant charging violation of a
+    constitutional amendment which is a part of the supreme law of
+    the land; but the right of this court to review the decisions of
+    the highest court of a State has long been well settled, and is
+    circumscribed by the rules established by law. We are of opinion
+    that plaintiffs in error have not brought the cases within the
+    statute giving to this court the right of review."
+
+Far be it from me to imply that the Supreme Court will never decide the
+State constitutional clauses to be in violation of the national
+constitution; but as Von Holst has said: "The wit of man is not equal to
+the task in the shaping of political life of inventing forms which may
+not be employed as weapons against their own legitimate substance or
+contents." The law, it might be added, without strong-siding conscience,
+is a mere magician’s handkerchief, and surely we can no longer think of
+ante-election promises embodied in the Republican party platform as
+binding obligations.
+
+To those who ask: how long shall men wait for justice? I can only
+answer: Wait we must, but we need not idly wait. Our future is largely
+our own to make. Our radius of activity is slowly enlarging. Our daily
+question: what shall we do? settles into a demand for a defined policy.
+A bitter and perplexed,—What shall I do?—we are coming to find "worse
+than worst necessity." Mere agitation, we know will not suffice. The
+country is not floating upon a rising tide of indignation at the
+unjustness of our treatment, as it was fifty years ago. And even if the
+doing of justice hung upon the casting of a die, I do not know why the
+throw should be the higher for violent shaking of the box. Some sort of
+planning of our future and united effort of at least a few to realize
+their plans is indispensable.
+
+Resolved, therefore, that we strive for all happiness whatsoever, which
+may be fairly won. A good name and a level glance from those around us
+are essentials of happiness. If that is social equality, then, resolved
+that we strive for social equality. "This," says Cable, "is a fool’s
+dream." If so let us not shrink along with Christ, to be called fools.
+Once past slavery there is no insuperable barrier between us and
+freedom. Where is this line between civil and private rights? Is not the
+path from one to the other continuous? Workshops and offices, public
+conveyances, the theatre, hotels and restaurants, apartment-houses, the
+boarding table, barber-shops and bath rooms, the public school and
+college, the scientific society, the church, the alumni dinner, the
+church sociable—in city, town and village:—what are these but the way to
+the home?⁸ There is an upward slope from slavery, where a man is a
+thing, to freedom, where a man is a man. Millions, the better part of
+mankind, live and die on the hill-side; but all push on, as long as hope
+and manhood survive. That those above should acknowledge the brotherhood
+of those below and descend to help them is not to be generally expected;
+for that requires such love of their fellows as few possess. It _is
+foolish_ then to _demand_ the concession of social equality; but it is
+quite as _cowardly_ to give up obtaining it, as long as an upward way
+exists. That the path is open is proved by the cry of those who hate us:
+Turn the hill-side into a precipice,—slavery is the only alternative to
+equality; build an unscalable wall of caste founded upon the color of
+the skin, the lowest white man by law and force raised higher than the
+highest black. Yes, the first of all our resolutions must be this one,
+to strive for social equality.
+
+   ⁸ That public conveyances come within the social sphere is asserted
+     by Burgess: Reconstruction and the Constitution pp. 150——
+
+     "During the winter and spring of 1867-8 the work of these
+     conventions went on under the greatest extravagance and
+     incompetence of every kind. (The constitutions which came from them
+     provided for complete equality in civil rights, and *in some cases,
+     in advantages of a social character, such as equal privileges in
+     public conveyances etc."*)
+
+Not only, however, our indomitable instinct, but an urgent reason makes
+this our foremost consideration. National responsibilities, great civic
+or industrial responsibilities we are as yet cut off from. Through
+_private relations then we must educate ourselves to the realization,
+that only through the just performance of duties can true rights be
+won_. As we perform our trust over a few things will we perform our
+trust over many. Already we are reminded that our claims as individuals
+are mixed with those of the mass of our people. In vain we urge our
+greater culture or refinement, we are judged by the average of our race.
+In our own interest then, if not from a higher motive, we must turn to
+the lifting of our fellows. Our solidarity is already great: let us hold
+to it and increase it. Far from being a curse it is a people’s greatest
+blessing. Yet we are losing it; our fellow sympathy and active
+helpfulness are not as great as were our fathers’. This is of crucial
+importance, since our best chance of winning friends among the women and
+poor of the other race is by justice to the women and poor of our own.
+And it is the women and the poor of the other race that we need most to
+win: for it were hard to say which is the greater obstacle to our
+progress, those left behind among the race ahead, or those left behind
+among our own. We must face sex inequality and class inequality among
+ourselves, _lest we bitterly denounce others’ injustice when the same
+spirit of uncharitableness is deep buried in our own natures_.
+
+Why is there such intense emphasis placed upon this issue of social
+equality? Largely because it arouses the jealousy of the white woman and
+the white poor. She, with her heart full of fear and distrust, is the
+first to shut the door upon the stranger. The next step after being a
+slave is wanting one; and she, who has been for untold ages in forced
+servitude to man clings jealously to that social order which provides a
+place for another more to be pitied than she. She, it is who holds the
+keys of the home, and with them, of church, school, restaurant, theatre
+and car.
+
+And with women are joined the poor. _They_ bar our way to industrial
+employment; they stand guard over the polls. Why? Because they have
+learned uncharitableness in the school of bitter experience; because
+they, who have themselves never known aught but inequality, cannot even
+_think_ of an even balance between men. _Of little avail, then, the
+wisdom and bounty of the few enlightened, when the serried ranks of the
+masses bar our upward way_.... As each occasion of hardship or slight
+works upon them,—high prices made by monopoly, failure of strikes, the
+miseries of war, unequal laws, the scorn of the rich and well-born,—they
+turn and empty the full reservoir of their discontent, through the ever
+open vent of race hatred upon any that are weaker than they. And ever
+and again the crafty among the ruling class, discovering this means of
+averting danger to themselves make haste to profit by it. The greater
+our show of progress,—the more active the resentment of these classes of
+those above us becomes. Upon the removal of this antagonism much of the
+welfare of the Republic as well as our own depends, and I know of no
+other way to accomplish it than through fairness to the women and poor
+of our own race. Then those just ahead will see that they have no cause
+to fear that among us are to be found a new set of masters to make fresh
+multitudes of slaves. We cannot, then, afford to go on, confident that
+justice and wisdom will prevail; for the best among ourselves know how
+difficult it is to be just and wise. Let us who know the way to justice
+and can follow it, but strive to do so, and others, and yet others will
+be drawn into the current until its pressure becomes too great to
+resist.
+
+Resolved, secondly, that we will continue to form party ties from
+fundamental principle and not momentary prospect of advantage. Last of
+all classes, can we afford to consider trimming our political sails to
+catch a chance breeze. Before it can even be granted that we hold the
+actual balance of power, this opportunism must have become our settled
+policy,—else we are _not_ the most precarious body of voters. But
+suppose we were able to bargain for our vote, how wise would it be to do
+so? Can our voters afford to indulge in a prospect of profit to be
+obtained from their franchise? No, beyond question, our position is yet
+too insecure to warrant our driving a bargain with the Republican party,
+backed by the threatened withdrawal of our ballots. For not only would
+an artificial value, given to our vote because it was pivotal,—which, to
+repeat, it could only be if it were the most precarious,—double its
+venality, but the likelihood of our being put off with mere promises
+would be increased. Would not the prize be made just tempting enough to
+keep us vainly hoping? Would the rich with all their abundance do more
+than "rub our chains with crumbs?" We have all to fight to keep up our
+faith in the Republican party and its fidelity to the pledges of forty
+years, but all our political funds are invested with it, and unless in
+pursuit of some better principle than gratitude the time has not yet
+come to withdraw them.
+
+Resolved, thirdly, that we will contend for the political and social
+rights we crave, by modern rules of war, using every protective means we
+can, but scorning every dishonorable stratagem. Under the present stress
+a line of division is appearing between those among us who believe in
+open, and those who believe in secret methods of protection. In spite
+however of the merciless fire we are subjected to by the press, which
+makes any one a mark, who so much as strikes a match, we will resolutely
+oppose secret bodies, secret measures, secret policies. Nothing so
+quickly brings out all the cruelty of hatred as fear of secret danger.
+Let not the awful power and unrebuked successes of Ku Klux Klan or white
+caps mislead us. We must be free from the charge of having suggested
+_even_ such means to those whom oppression has made desperate, but for
+whom imitation would spell merciless revenge without even the check of
+Northern censure. And another evil scarce less results: a premium is
+hereby put upon treachery. Temptation is already too great to those
+among us who might be induced to betray.
+
+On the other hand, no reasonable precaution should be left untaken. Our
+position is hardly yet so perilous that we need seek the mountains,
+deserts or swamps for safety. Other protective measures however should
+be sought. First among these, is organization, which, however is only
+worthful when there is real community of interest and feeling. These it
+will be hard to secure without neighborhood and common business
+dealings. By such means too, we shall better come under the protection
+of the common law, with its broad mantle spread over all contractual
+relations. It is hard to get justice wholesale, harder still when one
+cannot offer the market price. The earlier resolutions leading up to the
+15th Amendment forbade restriction of the franchise on account of creed,
+ignorance or poverty. These additions were laid aside before the passage
+of the bill. The Civil Rights bill in its earlier stages required
+equality in the public schools and the jury service. These failed first.
+The best help—this cannot be said too often—is self-help.
+Self-dependence will not only strengthen our own defenses, but it has a
+value yet higher—it strengthens the Republic. Appealing as we now do to
+central authority, embodied in the Republican party, we help
+unconsciously to build up centralized power. This disadvantage of our
+faithful adherence to that party must be confessed. By striving to
+obtain land and independent businesses, and towards municipal political
+privileges, we will increase our responsibilities, our interest in good
+government and our stake in the democracy of America,—and by so doing
+become sturdier defenders of the Republic. To the man _who works_, the
+man who _wants and consumes_, in short to every man belong the common
+benefits and privileges due to his common humanity; but if we mean to
+secure these heights which in the United States only have yet been won,
+we must win firm ground to stand on. The law is not grounded in such
+principles, he who would fight for the rights of men, must be _more_
+than a mere man to get standing in her courts.
+
+By such protective measures we may so shield ourselves from attack, that
+if any should wish to destroy us they must first destroy what they have
+themselves built. This means much: but who so thoughtless as to suppose
+that ownership of land and home, or business interests or even municipal
+or other corporate franchises,—with the knowledge needed to maintain
+them—are of themselves enough! Who so weak as to trust in mere
+segregation, that if we only stay on our side of a high board fence we
+will be let alone! What of Africa? What of China? What so absurd as
+unguarded wealth? The day of high board fences is passing. While
+segregation will supply certain opportunities, which we may profit by,
+if we use them as stepping-stones to higher things, it can only do so,
+if there is courage to defend what has been won. Without courage no man
+can hope to keep anything another covets. _Somewhere in the foreground
+of all our policies,—if we are true men and women,—must be the
+determination to part with them only at a reasonable price._ Let common
+sense, and scorn of dishonesty, or pretence, guide us in moulding them,
+but then let us adhere to them. Let all be done in God’s name, as does
+the man who builds an altar, gathers wood, then cleanses himself from
+all impurity before he approaches it to do sacrifice. When these steps
+have been taken, we may appeal to the God of justice, and with the
+confidence of him who dares ask, and receive an answering sign from
+Heaven, strike for the right.
+
+
+
+
+The Negro Vote in the States Whose Constitutions Have Not Been
+Specifically Revised—_JOHN HOPE_
+
+
+So much has been said about almost every phase of the so-called "Race
+Problem," so many good things and so many bad things, that we are apt to
+believe all has been said that can be said and to wish that if there is
+anything that has not yet been said, it may remain unsaid. Certainly
+little that is new can be said on the franchise until we have some new
+developments. You will get nothing new from me. I am to speak on a
+current topic that is as well known to you as to me. Yet it is sometimes
+helpful to hear your own thoughts expressed by some one else. With this
+possibility of doing a service, I apologize for having consented to
+write on the subject of "Negro Suffrage in the States whose
+Constitutions have not been Specifically Revised." But even here I feel
+unable to speak about all these States and prefer to confine myself to
+my own state, for of this I may speak with the assurance that comes from
+contact.
+
+The State of Georgia probably shows as little revulsion and reversion of
+sentiment and law as any distinctly Southern state, except perhaps
+Texas, since the Reconstruction period. Republican rule was short lived
+and, while it remained, was less aggressive and revolutionary than in
+other states. The population has been fairly evenly divided between the
+two races with a majority always on the white side. The agrarian class
+has been less powerful than in some Southern states and the ignorance of
+both races has been rather mitigated and softened by centres of
+information, towns and cities, less remotely distant from one another
+than is the case in several other Southern states, railroads and
+factories exerting a great influence in this respect. So Georgia may be
+taken as a type of those states in which the best things have happened
+or rather the worst things have not happened for Colored people.
+
+Of course, in Reconstruction times Georgia Democrats did act harshly,
+but my remarks rather have to do with the period after that. For
+instance, more than thirty Colored Republicans were expelled from the
+Georgia legislature and the state had to have a sort of second
+reconstruction before it was finally recognized by the United States
+Government.
+
+Georgia had only one Republican governor, and sent to the National House
+of Representatives at least one Colored Representative. But for many
+years, even this has been a thing of the past. White men have held all
+offices, occasionally having the monotony of complexion broken by a
+Colored representative from Camden, McIntosh or Liberty county in the
+state legislature.
+
+The passing of the Republican party in the state as an aggressive
+elective organization has been due to several causes, but so hidden and
+studied have two of them been, so free from shotguns, leaving out, of
+course, the Ku Klux and Patrollers of the ’60’s and ’70’s, that you
+cannot lay your hands on these causes so easily as in some other states
+where the change has been revolutionary and sudden rather than gradual.
+You will notice that I say Republican party, for when the Colored vote
+was most effective it was organized by the Republican party. One of the
+causes of this passing of the Republican vote was intimidation at the
+polls on election day, threats and intimidation before the day in
+communities of Colored people, and official rascality in the counting of
+ballots actually cast. Probably, as a result of these a third cause
+came—the indifference of the state and municipal Republican
+organizations to making a canvass for the state and city officers.
+
+Then the Colored vote began to divide on Democratic candidates and was
+exceedingly effective, holding the balance of power, as it did, in
+choosing white Democratic governors, congressmen, state legislators,
+city and county officers. This went well for awhile, but white
+office-seekers soon began to fear this Colored balance of power. They
+wanted their certainty of a majority of the white vote to guarantee
+their office; so the Georgia legislature passed a law making it legal to
+have primaries to nominate candidates for office and also throwing such
+safeguards about the management of primaries as aimed to secure lawful
+practices on these occasions. Here was a perfectly harmless movement,
+apparently harmless. The next step was made by the Democratic party
+assembled in State Convention when it decided that candidates for state
+and county officers on the Democratic ticket should be nominated by a
+primary, but leaving the conduct of the primary to the community in
+which it might be held, provided this should not run counter to the
+primary law as passed by the State. Here too, was a perfectly fair and
+harmless provision, apparently fair and apparently harmless. But the way
+was then open for the primary to take on a local coloring. In
+communities where the colored vote was an embarrassment, the Democratic
+party there decided to have a _white_ primary. In one of these
+communities a colored man that I know went to vote at the primary. He
+was a "good Negro" a very good Negro, his goodness dating back to the
+time when the "Yankees" were about to confiscate his master’s cotton and
+he claimed the cotton as his. Even this transaction did not enlarge his
+cranium, and after saving his master thousands of dollars and gradually
+amassing a fortune for himself, he still knew how to approach his former
+master from the kitchen door. Well, this good Negro went to cast his
+ballot. The courteous man at the polls said: "George, this is a
+Democratic primary." "Yes," said George, "but I am a Democrat." "Well,"
+said the courteous gentleman, "but George, this is a _white_ primary."
+This colored man found himself without a Republican for whom he might
+vote, and was informed that the Democratic party was a close corporation
+so far as the Colored man was concerned. This is quite interesting when
+I tell you that white Republicans, avowedly Republicans, have not only
+been permitted but even requested to participate in the primaries of the
+Democratic and Populist parties.
+
+The reason for the elasticity of the primary is quite evident, that is,
+why Colored people are allowed to take part in the primary in one
+community and not in another, or why they are allowed at one time to
+vote and at another time in that same community are not allowed to vote.
+The purpose is to have the Colored voters as a harmless balance of power
+between the Democrats and any other party that may show strength, that
+is, to have the Colored man to settle disputes among white people
+without becoming obstreperous because of this valuable assistance. There
+were some communities where the Populists used the Colored voter to
+defeat Democrats and others where the Democrats used this vote to defeat
+Populists. Of the State as a whole, it may be said that Populism was
+defeated by the Colored voters espousing the Democratic side. And be it
+said to the common sense and good reason of many Democrats that this
+fact is acknowledged and to an extent appreciated by the party now in
+power—to the extent at least of staving off any further disfranchisement
+measures thus far.
+
+But the most flagrant high-handedness and palpable confession of purpose
+on the part of white people with reference to our citizenship rights is
+to be found in a state legislative enactment that looks to the municipal
+management of two Georgia towns where the Colored voters are so
+overwhelmingly in the majority that ordinary subterfuges would not
+fulfill the requirement. Darien and St. Mary’s are two coast towns with
+a large Colored population. The mayor and aldermen are not elected by
+the voters in these towns; but, instead, these towns enjoy the unique
+distinction of being managed by officials appointed by the governor of
+the State. What is more simple; what more high-handed; what more
+un-Democratic and subversive of national principles of government than
+this?
+
+Now let us ask the question: Can the Colored man cast his ballot in
+Georgia?
+
+In the first place, any party of any race may hold a primary.
+
+Second, any man of any party or race may vote in the _general_ election
+for any candidate he may wish.
+
+Let us ask next, whether these ballots will be counted? That depends
+entirely upon whether the need is to count them or destroy them; or
+furthermore, to count them as ballots for some one for whom they were
+not cast. The election boards and the management at the polls are not
+bipartisan and the party in power may do what it chooses.
+
+We raise the question now whether it is for our best interest
+economically to exercise the franchise? Do men vote to help their
+economic interests? Are not taxation and other fiscal policies settled
+by the ballot? May not property be enhanced or lessened in value by
+voters? Colored people have some real estate and securities, but their
+practical capital is their labor; yet they have not the least power, the
+real power, of influencing legislation in reference to a single labor
+measure that may arise, although in Georgia nearly half the population
+is colored and in the laboring class the colored people are in the
+majority. Now suppose, as white union labor in the South grows stronger,
+it should influence such legislation as would eliminate colored labor
+where it came into competition with white labor, the colored laborer
+would be politically powerless to resist this legislation. Now is this a
+mere idle dream when we reflect that within the past few months a Texas
+legislator introduced a bill to confine Colored labor to the farm
+whenever it was found in city and town communities to be competing with
+white labor.
+
+Then there is another side that really has its argument, effective,
+though perhaps not very logical. The fact that we are, as a people,
+laborers and not capitalists, makes us, as any other people similarly
+placed would be, under obligation to the capitalist who, in our case,
+are white. The point is made that to enter politics against the wishes
+of this people would raise such antagonism as to lower our earning
+power. Hence we are told to keep out of politics until we get a better
+money basis. Here we stand between two difficulties, staying out of
+politics might jeopard our earning and entering politics might jeopard
+our earnings. Many honest and thoughtful white and colored men stand on
+both sides of this question.
+
+Now, is it educationally best for us to vote? This question requires
+some amplifying. Do we mean what educational value comes from this
+training in citizenship? If so, then certainly the value is great. There
+was a time when we knew conditions in our state and town, but so little
+influence does a Colored man have in politics now that I do not even
+know the name of the alderman in my ward, although I am a registered
+voter, have paid my poll tax and voted for President Roosevelt. I know
+of nothing more benumbing to us as citizens than this deprivation. Men
+who are philosophic may consider matters that are not of material
+concern, but the average person does not load his mind and spend his
+time with things that, for one reason or another, have no concern for
+him. Any discussion as to the fitness and honesty of municipal and state
+candidates hardly touches me, as I know I cannot lift a finger to
+promote the interests of any one of them. I have no voice.
+
+There is another position from which this question may be viewed and
+that is whether the advantages from schools would be lessened or
+increased from participation in politics. It is quite evident that
+without the ballot any people are suppliant and must beg rather than
+make a manly demand. But, assuming that the lack of the ballot has
+become a condition with us, would a demand or threat about our ballot
+result in a counter threat that if we forced the issue, we should not
+only be denied our ballot, but that for our arrogance the appropriation
+for Colored public schools would be cut down and we should receive only
+what we paid in as our share of the school tax? This too, is no dream;
+but has actually been considered by colored men as a possible reason for
+not causing such antagonism as would arise from Colored men endeavoring
+to enter aggressively into politics again.
+
+What now about fears for disfranchisement such as has been compassed by
+the revised constitutions in many Southern states? Some one may say that
+there is no difference between constitutional disfranchisement and that
+_quasi_ disfranchisement effective for all practical purposes such as we
+have spoken of as now obtaining in Georgia. There is a tremendous
+difference. If a wave of civic righteousness should sweep over those
+states still without constitutional disfranchisement, the primaries
+would be a very slight embarrassment to those willing to do right by all
+races alike; while in the states possessing constitutional
+disfranchisement, the reactionaries would have such means of stopping
+fair play and honest elections free for all, that they could easily
+check the purpose of the fair-minded citizens for a long while.
+
+Now, do we really have to fear disfranchisement? I say disfranchisement
+must at all times be feared and be guarded against as far as it lies
+within our power in an honorable and manly way to hold it off. Just at
+the time North Carolina and Maryland seemed most secure to us we found
+ourselves deprived of our rights; and it may be safely stated that
+whenever on a specific occasion the Colored vote exerts the balance of
+power over any considerable area, there disfranchisement may be feared.
+We need to fear disfranchisement because it is founded upon the spirit
+of injustice and that same spirit fosters it. So palpable is this, that
+the South bewails the fact. Governor Warfield in speaking about the
+repeal of the Fifteenth amendment says: "The privilege to vote could
+then be bestowed without respect to the expedient of unwise
+constitutional amendments that strain the conscience of our best people
+and arouse criticism." Yet the repeal of the Fifteenth amendment would
+not relieve those apostles of disfranchisement of the odium of violating
+the spirit of truly American democracy and of setting at naught that
+mighty decision on human rights that was rendered by the bloody
+arbitrament of war—Disfranchisement of whatever sort, if designed to
+embarrass a citizen because of his race, must always "strain the
+conscience of our best people."
+
+Does Georgia show any signs of the disfranchising spirit? We fear it
+does. The State Legislature now expects some measure of this sort at
+each session, and in recent years has not been disappointed, although
+good sense has thus far triumphed. Then again men in high places,
+congressmen and at least one of our U. S. Senators from Georgia have
+begun to say some things that may easily be construed as an advocacy of
+disfranchisement. It occurs to me that the marked difference between the
+condition in my boyhood and to-day is this: then the opposition was to
+Republicans, to-day it is to Negroes. It is not a party line, but a race
+line.
+
+Now the white primary has not done all that was claimed for it. In the
+first place it has not purified elections. Far from doing away with the
+purchase and sale of votes, it has, by lowering the supply, relatively
+increased the demand and brought up the price to a really fancy figure.
+In the second place it has failed to do that for which it was ostensibly
+introduced especially to do, namely; to put into office those men most
+eminently fitted by ability and character to administer the office to
+which they might be chosen. On the contrary, primary elections have been
+questioned on the ground of fraud; and the mayor of one very prominent
+Georgia city has been arrested for drunkenness. Then why is the primary
+kept? Well, the "fixers" for instance, can more easily fix things. With
+the Colored man’s vote eliminated, the work becomes simplified and even
+though the amount of money spent illegally may now be more than the
+total amount in the days when colored as well as white were in the
+market yet those interested in "fixing" elections can now work with more
+assurance; and promises may more easily be carried out in the matter of
+delivering the goods.
+
+For instance, I know of a city election where the voters in one ward
+were so evenly divided and the candidates had calculated their strength
+so accurately, that one candidate felt safe in buying three white votes
+at the rate of one hundred ten dollars. Large corporations may now
+operate easily in state and city; and some of the most flagrant cases of
+political jobbery that have been charged against Reconstruction rule are
+easily equalled by the bare-faced graft and bribery by which large
+business interests win their way through the assistance of white voters.
+
+What are the possibilities of white aspirants bolting the primary? It is
+my impression that they are fewer than they were twenty years ago. Judge
+Gartrell once ran independently against Alexander Stephens for Governor
+and Judge Emory Speer in his younger days ran on an independent ticket;
+but such a step on the part of a candidate means outlawry for life.
+Speer was read into the Republican party, Thomas Watson into the
+Populist; and since the exile of such giants, the small fry find it easy
+to be good and not to lift their heads in rebellion, no matter what
+rascality has compassed their defeat at the Primary. No. It is my
+impression that the primary is more firmly established to-day than when
+it was first started. White unity has become white slavery; and while
+the yoke galls, the white aspirant prefers the yoke to extermination.
+
+But, suppose there should be a general Democratic "rough house" and the
+colored vote should be called in to quell the disturbance, the Colored
+voter would have no guarantee that such would mean his return to
+political standing. On the contrary, it might, as in several states,
+cause the passage of constitutional disfranchisement that would make his
+last state worse than the former. Our status is truly unenviable, and
+the ground on which we stand is exceedingly uncertain.
+
+I desire now to treat more fully what has already been touched upon: Why
+do the Republicans not nominate candidates for state, county and city
+offices and make a general canvass? There are two classes of Colored
+men, those who think the party should and those who think it should not.
+Unfortunately each of these classes makes severe charges against the
+other with reference to this matter. I much prefer to accept the
+explanations of both as honest. The following are at least some of the
+reasons for not making a canvass: first, it is difficult to get
+desirable men to accept the nomination; second, it would be still more
+difficult to secure sufficient funds to pay the ordinary and perfectly
+legitimate expenses of a campaign; third, the injustice of the party in
+power would make a fair election an impossibility. Hence a candidate
+would be doomed to defeat from the moment of his nomination and the fact
+that he and the party would know this, would make the campaign lifeless,
+futile and perfunctory. Fourth, the prominence of Colored people in
+politics and the extra trouble to which they would put the ascendant
+party might result in still further curtailment of the few rights still
+left to us.
+
+To all of this the side that clamors or appears to clamor for a ticket
+says: You assume too much, you see ghosts. Yet supposing the worst, it
+is far better to keep Colored voters organized for several reasons:
+first, because the organization gives a valuable training in citizenship
+that cannot be gained by standing aloof and waiting for better things;
+second, because if an opening should come suddenly, the Colored people
+would be better able to decide quickly and intelligently where to throw
+their strength solidly on one side or another for their own best
+interests and the interests of the government; thirdly, because a show
+of opposition to existing political injustice and repression would
+relieve us of the charge of indifference to our condition and would
+strengthen the courage of those who might champion our cause—our
+efficient, powerful champions, who have grown doubtful about our real
+manhood. I believe in the honesty of both these classes of colored men;
+and it is exceedingly difficult for a man, living in the midst of these
+conditions and knowing the temperament, attitude and unlimited power of
+the white people, to say which one of these two courses is the more
+rational and helpful to pursue.
+
+What have the Colored people lost through disfranchisement? They have
+lost the privilege of influencing legislation, since the legislator
+feels under no obligation to them. The "Jim Crow" car law, the separate
+tax bill and almost any other bill may be passed so far as pressure from
+Colored people is concerned. A very clear case is the public library in
+Atlanta which is supported by the taxes of all citizens, yet not a
+single Colored person may enter that library to read or borrow a book.
+Some months ago Mr. Carnegie offered the city ten thousand dollars for a
+library for the Colored people on the condition that the city furnish a
+lot and agree to appropriate one thousand dollars _per annum_ for the
+maintenance of the library. The whole matter has been tabled and the
+Colored people have no redress, since their mayor and aldermen were
+elected without the Colored vote. Do you suppose the city of Atlanta
+would have refused so paltry a favor, if its city council were dependent
+upon our vote?
+
+Not only have we lost influence among the law makers but among those who
+interpret the law and administer justice. Neither judge nor jury has to
+consult the Colored man’s wish. This independence of us makes the court
+a place of injustice as frequently as of justice, and policemen may be
+cruel with impunity.
+
+Then too, the chain-gang with its revolting influences on men and women,
+boys and girls; the lack of Negro reformatories in some places where
+they do exist for white boys find much of their meaning in the fact that
+the Colored voter cannot make sentiment and bring things to pass through
+the ballot. We have had the "Jim Crow" law forced upon us, our public
+schools have become poorer in equipment and teaching force, and the
+salary of teachers has been lowered.
+
+In a word, the loss of the franchise has changed our status to such a
+degree that we no longer demand, but beg and supplicate even for those
+fundamental needs, without which education and general improvement would
+be very doubtful.
+
+Now are there some things to be effected that are regarded as of more
+vital interest to Colored people at present than the ballot? In the face
+of what has already been said, this seems almost an unnecessary
+question, since the ballot is no abstract thing, no merely academic
+theory, but a vital agent in the promotion of improvement and happiness.
+Yet as obvious as all this seems, when people have already lost the
+ballot they may ask this question: Are there some things to be effected
+that are of more vital interest to Colored people at present than the
+ballot?
+
+I heard a sweet-spirited Colored man say at the conclusion of his
+remarks one day—he was a college president and is now in Heaven away
+from this turmoil—well I heard him say: "I have come to the conclusion
+that all we can do in this country is to take what the white man gives
+us." An eminent Colored preacher said recently in my hearing: "You can’t
+drive these white folks, you must knuckle to them and you can get
+anything you want." Within the last two months an interesting white
+southern clergyman in his exhortation to Colored people to be good
+Negroes, told them not to get mad about "Jim Crow" cars and to be slow
+to urge their rights. Said he: "You Colored people are undertaking a
+heavy task when you attempt to reform the Anglo-Saxon." Now our present
+needs are numerous and vital, many growing out of the curtailment of
+privileges, a condition made possible through our lack of the ballot.
+Many Colored men believe that we can get these needs supplied most
+quickly and surely by begging and not resorting to a futile ballot;
+many, moreover, think that the voting would retard the granting of these
+much needed privileges. On the other hand, others say our condition
+grows steadily worse and our only redress, our only hope, is in the
+ballot.
+
+Now what do I believe about all this? I believe that we ought to vote,
+and I vote on every public question when the privilege is accorded me. I
+believe that our leaders ought to give us the opportunity to vote and
+let us stand forth as men, whether successful or not, willing to do all
+within our power to be full-fledged citizens. Certainly our attitude
+ought never to allow the white people to say: the Negro cares nothing
+for the franchise and does not exercise it when he does have the
+opportunity. What are we waiting for? Not more education, I hope. And
+here I must remind you that one thing is much over-talked: the
+forwardness of the Colored child and the backwardness of the white child
+in the matter of getting an education. Colored children are not being
+fitted as are white for their responsibilities. A real intellectual
+awakening is going on among the whites of the South—more and better
+school houses, better teachers and longer school terms; and the white
+children are learning with avidity. The Colored children are getting
+poor school houses, poorer teachers, more poorly paid teachers and
+shorter school terms; and we cannot change this disparity by begging the
+state and city. Unless we force better things for ourselves by the
+ballot or go into our own pockets, the next generation of colored voters
+will be relatively less prepared for the educational qualification in
+comparison with the white voter than the Colored voters of to-day. Oh!
+you say: "Pessimist, looking on the dark side." Away with that
+contemptible sentimentality and aversion to ugly facts that make some of
+my people call a man a pessimist every time he lifts a warning voice. I
+know the white country school house and the Colored country school
+house. There is a tremendous difference.
+
+Now I believe in education, but I also believe in manhood; and any
+education bought at the price of manhood is worthless and a mill-stone
+about the neck. I believe in the ballot as a developer of manhood and as
+it procures the right of men. I believe in the ballot in spite of
+threats of disfranchisement, if we use this ballot. I see no difference
+in purpose between the states that have outrightly disfranchised us and
+those states that do it stealthily or by indirection.
+
+I believe that the purpose of all is the same: a hatred for Colored
+people and a determination to have white supremacy at any cost of life
+and honor. I do not think Northern sentiment is a deterring force,
+though I think Northern sentiment _could_ become a deterring force to
+disfranchisement. In the face of all this, why _delay_ voting in the
+hope of better things; better _welcome_ disfranchisement as _men_ than
+_suffer_ from it as _cowards_.
+
+
+
+
+The Potentiality of the Negro Vote, North and West—_JOHN L. LOVE_
+
+
+The potential voting strength of the Negro population in the United
+States is, according to the last census, three times as great as was
+that of the white population in 1775 when the Declaration of
+Independence published to the world the modern, though sound, practical
+and eminently safe political creed that governments derive their just
+powers from the consent of the governed. The number of Negro males of
+voting age is approximately three millions, a number equal to the entire
+white population at the beginning of the war for Independence. The total
+Negro population in the United States in 1900 was three times larger
+than was the total white population which battled against King George
+and the British Parliament for the purpose of securing a voice in the
+choice of those who levy taxes and enact the laws whose weight and
+obligation fall equally upon the whole body of citizens.
+
+In the North Atlantic, the North Central, and the Western census
+divisions of the United States, the potential voting strength of the
+Negroes is more than a quarter million. It is larger than was the
+combined prohibition and socialist vote in 1900 and exceeds by nearly a
+hundred thousand the total combined vote cast for the present governors
+of the four states of Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and
+Alabama. In many sections of the North and West the Negro population is
+sparse and scattering, varying all the way from one in Scott County in
+Indiana to 63,000 in Philadelphia. Yet in many localities where there is
+almost an even balance of the two chief parties, the Negro vote is
+competent to decide the results of election. In the states of Delaware
+Indiana, Ohio, Connecticut, New Jersey, and several districts in New
+York, Massachusetts, and Illinois, a united, coherent Negro vote may
+frequently determine both local and national elections. This is shown by
+the returns in 1902 for Congressional election in four districts in
+Indiana, two in New Jersey, four in Ohio, and two in Massachusetts and
+Connecticut, where the Negro vote was of sufficient size to have thrown
+the election to either party. In state and local elections where party
+fealty is not always so strong as in national elections, owing to
+dissatisfaction with both men and measures, the potentiality of the
+Negro vote can be made very real and effective as well as respectable.
+The municipal wards and legislative districts in the large commercial
+and manufacturing centers of the North and West furnish undoubted
+opportunities for the Negro vote to make itself felt and to win regard
+and respect as far away as the United States Senate.
+
+The foregoing facts and considerations suggest interesting possibilities
+and, in view of the conditions affecting the political, civil, and
+economic well being of the people of color in the United States, they
+create a demand and an obligation with reference to the use of which the
+Negro voter should make of his right of the franchise.
+
+The chief tenet of modern political philosophy is that the participation
+of the people in the government is the only way by which their liberties
+can be guaranteed and their economic and industrial happiness
+safeguarded. Out of this conviction which has taken hold of men almost
+everywhere has resulted in the universal movement towards democracy. The
+democratic triumph which has marked the past hundred years and has been
+accompanied by marvelous achievements of human endeavor—achievements
+which could not have been accomplished except under conditions of
+freedom—has not been won without stupendous struggle and temporary
+defeats and disappointments. At every forward step, the movement has
+encountered unrelenting and seemingly irresistible opposition of
+privilege. Even here in the United States where, barring absurd
+contradictions, the spirit of democracy began so conspicuously to assert
+itself under the fostering genius of Jefferson, skillful and powerful
+resistance has been constant and implacable. Aristocratic privilege,
+intrenched in power, has grudgingly given way to the demands of manhood
+rights, and manhood suffrage, and even to-day, in the attempt to
+rehabilitate itself, it is bold enough to make the ridiculous assertion
+that the right of suffrage, even in a republican form of government, is
+not a natural and inherent right of citizenship, but merely a privilege
+to be granted or withheld at pleasure by a select few for whose assumed
+authority no power on earth or in heaven is responsible.
+
+Whatever opinions may be entertained contrary to the doctrine and
+increasing practice of government by the consent of the governed, the
+fact is undeniable that as man has gained and exercised the right of
+participation in government, special privilege for the few has had to
+give way to the condition of equal opportunity for all. Abuses have been
+swept away and the door of opportunity has been opened for all. Thus has
+the ballot proven to be man’s sure and effective weapon of defense
+against tyranny and proscriptive government.
+
+All classes of our varied population, with possibly one exception, have
+recognized this truth and have acted in accordance with it. German,
+Irish, Jew; artisan, farmer and merchant—all have found the ballot a
+remedy for social, economic, and political ills that have had their
+origin in unjust laws or the partial administration of law. All have
+used it with wonderful effect towards the betterment of their condition.
+Grievances of one group have been allied with those of another group;
+industrial discontent growing out of capitalistic wrongs, political
+distempers due to governmental abuses or the enforcement of
+discriminatory laws; the deep seated consciousness of ethnic injustice
+in the industrial or political scheme—all have combined and arrayed
+themselves for redress which every branch of the political machinery has
+in the end endeavored to grant. The demands of the Slavonic yeomanry of
+the Northwest that a check be placed upon railroad combinations are not
+less effective in securing compliance than those of the merchants and
+shippers of our commercial centers that just and equal rates of
+transportation shall be enforced. The underground toilers of the mining
+regions of Pennsylvania and Illinois know that their grievances will
+receive the same respectful attention and consideration as the mandates
+of the coal barons, and they systematically scrutinize the attitude and
+the actions of public servants and hold them to a strict performance of
+promise and duty in so far as their rights and interests are concerned.
+Thus it is that in the United States as in all representative
+governments the ballot is the surest means of securing a "square deal;"
+and it is incumbent upon the three hundred thousand Negro voters of the
+north and west to recognize its value and to make the same use of it as
+is made by all other aggrieved elements of the body politic.
+
+A catalogue of the wrongs and injuries suffered by the Negro citizens of
+the United States, first on account of discriminatory and proscriptive
+legislation; secondly, on account of the failure to enforce the laws
+designed to uphold and protect their citizenship; and thirdly, on
+account of the most palpable and outrageous violation of the sacred
+rights of life, liberty and property, make the "long train of abuses and
+usurpations" committed, according to the Declaration of Independence, by
+the King of Great Britain against his colonies in America appear as the
+gentle chastisements of a benificent ruler. Of all the complex elements
+of American citizenship, the Negro is the solitary victim of legal,
+social, industrial, and political discrimination. He alone is singled
+out by the law for disparagement which fact encourages and enforces the
+multitude of civil and industrial discriminations and injuries that tend
+to deprive him of the respectability due not only to a citizen but to
+man. To the tax levy, to the obligation to bear arms for the common
+defense as well as to all other mandates of the government, he is
+equally amenable with other citizens; but he is excepted from a full
+share of the benefits of citizenship. In all stations of society and in
+all departments of government, his protests fall upon deaf or
+indifferent ears, and the very sufferings and wrongs which he suffers
+are frequently made the text for sermonizings on his short-comings. If
+the homilies published from the pulpits, in the press, and even
+sometimes from the higher branches of the government are to be believed,
+the Negro is the most unsaintly citizen of the republic, in spite of the
+fact that he seldom commits "the robust crimes of the whites" or has the
+chance to defraud the government, to wreck financial institutions, or
+rob widows and orphans.
+
+The burden of these outrages lies heavily upon the hearts and minds of
+the black men of America, yet the remedy, if they could but realize it,
+lies largely within their power. Throughout the republic, every man
+identified with the Negro race, though he may not be personally or
+locally subjected directly to the humiliations and wrongs which oppress
+and degrade the great mass of his kind, feels their bitter sting and
+resents them. In public assemblies, upon the public highways and common
+carriers, in the drawing room and around the secrecy of the fireside,
+the fact of injustice is the one inevitable and irrepressible theme of
+conversation and reflection; and the perennial and ever present question
+in the minds of all, whether of low or high degree, is _By what means
+can the situation be altered?_ Men of different opinions are endeavoring
+more or less honestly to answer the question, but one of the surest and
+quickest means is at the command of the three hundred thousand Negro
+voters of the north and west, who have it in their power by an
+intelligent, united, and courageous exercise of their high privilege and
+right to demand the same respect and consideration for their interest
+and well being as any other class of men who register their wills at the
+ballot-box.
+
+Thaddeus Stevens once said that control of republics depends upon
+numbers and not upon the quality of the citizens. In the last analysis
+this is true, but in all governments by parties the smaller number is
+often more important than the larger. The strength of the Negro vote in
+the North and West in times of party crises consists not so much in the
+number of that vote as in the use which is made of it. In thirty
+northern and western cities, it can very effectively contribute to the
+improvement of existing conditions. It is wonderfully powerful, if
+intelligently directed, in the cities of Boston, Baltimore, Chicago,
+Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and New York.
+
+The effectiveness of this vote depends more upon the use which is made
+of it in local and state elections than in national elections. The bonds
+which unite the interests of the local, state and national officials and
+politicians are very real and subtle—the weakest point being always the
+local politician. His election and success often turns upon less than a
+score of votes and consequently he is not inclined to disdain a single
+voter. His interests are inseparably connected with the interests and
+ambitions of the men who occupy luxurious berths in Congress and in the
+national or state government. In all matters concerning the interests of
+the Negro, the local politician’s position can be known and his actions
+are open to close view. When his acts do not accord or square with the
+interest of the colored voter, he can be left to find other friends and
+supporters.
+
+In the second place, the effectiveness and potentiality of the Negro
+vote in the North and West depends upon an absolute and courageous
+disregard of traditions. There are times when party fealty may be both
+proper and commendable. There is to be sure a great deal of hypocrisy
+and humbuggery in our political parties, yet back of these they do stand
+for certain great and vital principles. When the latter are put to the
+test our fealty may properly be demanded, but under normal conditions,
+when stress and strife of class and selfish interests, invidious
+discriminations and outrageous injustice prevail, the only safe and
+prudent course for the individual or class of individuals to pursue is
+absolute independence of parties and uncompromising devotion to the
+paramount interest. When we cannot act advantageously, we may act
+punitively, so that the public servant may know that if he ignores or
+hypocritically juggles with our interests, he will be held to a strict
+accountability. If on the eve of an election the party or the individual
+candidate attempts to cajole by a statement of principles or policy
+which is ignored after a successful contest, reprisal should be swift
+and terrible as soon as the opportunity permits.
+
+In the third place, the Negro vote of the North and West needs, if it
+does not at present lack, intelligent, honest, straightforward, and
+unselfish leadership. Until it has this, its potentiality will be _nil_.
+
+To impute dishonesty or insincerity to those who from time to time act
+in the role of leaders of the Negro voters would be unpardonably
+reprehensible. Men generally act according to their light and it is not
+an uncommon observation that the average public man gets his light
+through the medium of a self-interested reflector. Amid the competitions
+and conflicts, the struggle for place and temporary power and emoluments
+which characterize all phases of modern life and especially political
+life in the United States, the calm, clear-eyed, far-seeing man is rare.
+Yet men of unusual foresight, of clear perception of the fundamental and
+vital issues with the tact and ability to gain an advantage and an
+uncompromising determination to hold what has been gained—such is the
+type of men needed to make the Negro vote potent. The leadership which
+boasts of its capacity to keep silent under terrible wrongs is not
+calculated to carry the race far on the road towards real and permanent
+betterment.
+
+Redress of political wrongs is not the fruit of grim and sanctimonious
+silence. Whenever it has come, it has been forced by long, continuous
+and implacable outcry, and Negro leadership must follow the example of
+men in other lands and in other times who fearlessly cried out against
+the wrongs which their people suffered. In "The Making of England," John
+Richard Green states that the Roman conquerors were able to completely
+subjugate and enslave the Britons because they were able to make terms
+with their leaders. The finest skill of the dominant element in
+governments founded upon tyranny has always been employed in making
+terms with the leaders of the oppressed.
+
+Silence has its part in our fight and many times the cause has been lost
+because of failure to observe it, but it is not silence in respect to
+wrongs. Neither upon battlefields nor in the mad clash of passions and
+ambitions that mark the control of states is victory won or success
+achieved by a boisterous parade of the plan of attack. In the subtle
+operation of American political methods, silence is the sphinx that
+baffles the most astute and insinuating politician. The silent vote is a
+greater dread to the party leaders than was the sword to Damocles.
+
+The Negro ballot has almost lost its potency on account of the
+unconcerned cocksureness of one political party that the other side will
+not get the benefit of it. The party managers have no concern about the
+certainty of the Negro vote and therefore spend all of their effort in
+trying to satisfy the demands of the other elements and are never able
+to know whether or not they have succeeded until the vote is counted.
+They fear the silent vote. It is thoughtful, analytic, decisive. It
+scans, records, and registers every dodge, retreat, and juggle which the
+honorable candidate or the party has been guilty of in matters which
+concern it.
+
+In the exercise of the suffrage, the Negro voter has never been
+indifferent to the best and noblest interests of the republic. For more
+than forty years he has voted with the majority of his fellow countrymen
+on all the great questions which have divided the people. This he has
+done out of regard more for what men have considered the welfare of the
+country than for what he has deemed advantageous to himself. There is
+now a need of a change. He must now consider his well-being and safety
+identical with the well-being and safety of the republic and must
+require all men who seek his vote to consider it likewise.
+
+To-day we are on the eve of a great national festival. The peaceful
+succession of government is a boon not enjoyed by all the peoples of the
+world. It is an event which deservedly appeals to the enthusiasm and
+civic pride of the nation. From all corners of the state have come
+delegations of citizens representing all classes, who come not only to
+honor and grace by their presence the event but, I believe, to pay
+honest and manly tribute to a man who is beloved and trusted by the
+whole American people. His battles against civic wrongs and in behalf of
+weaker classes and his policy of "all men up and no men down," not only
+make him the paragon of public officials, but a lovable and trusted man.
+Among the throngs that shall honor him and in turn be honored in the
+escort which will make the Avenue the most splendid pageant which can
+adorn any modern government, none will march more proudly than the brave
+and valiant regiment of black men who, with him whom they honor, risked
+all and won glory on the field of San Juan. Yet by the laws of the land
+and by the policy of the government, their rights and their manhood are
+not on a parity with those of other citizens who with less desert shall
+follow in his train. It is the possibility of such a state of affairs,
+that the Negro vote of the North and West, yea the great body of all
+good citizens must exercise itself to prevent.
+
+
+
+
+Migration and Distribution of the Negro Population as Affecting the
+Elective Franchise—_KELLY MILLER_
+
+
+Population lies at the basis of all human problems. The first command
+given by the Creator to the human race was to multiply and replenish the
+earth. The growth and expansion of the Negro population in the United
+States must be the controlling factor in the many complex problems to
+which his presence gives rise. In order to gain adequate as well as
+accurate knowledge on this subject, it is necessary to take a
+comprehensive view of its progress since its transplantation in America.
+It is well known that the first ship load of African slaves was landed
+at Jamestown, Va. in 1619. This original handful augmented by fresh
+importation and by its own rapid multiplication had swollen to three
+quarters of a million when the first Census was taken in 1790. The
+following table will reveal the essential facts as to the expansion of
+this population.
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 6
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  NEGRO POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  YEAR.           NUMBER OF     DECENNIAL   PER CENT OF   PER CENT OF
+                  NEGROES.      INCREASE.   INCR.         TOTAL
+                                                          POPUL.
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1790              757,208             -             -         19.27
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1800            1,002,037       244,829         32.33         18.18
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1810            1,377,808       375,771         37.50         19.03
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1820            1,771,656       393,848         28.50         18.39
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1830            2,328,642       556,986         31.44         18.10
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1840            2,873,648       545,006         23.44         16.84
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1850            3,683,808       765,169         26.63         15.69
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1860            4,441,830       803,022         14.13         14.13
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1870            4,880,009       438,179          9.87         11.68
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1880            6,580,793     1,700,784         34.85         13.12
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1890            7,470,040       889,247         13.51         11.93
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  1900            8,840,789     1,370,749         18.35         11.57
+  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+
+There are certain noticeable irregularities in this table, due in part
+to known disturbing causes, and in part to imperfections in census
+methods. It is thus seen that the Negro constitutes a rapidly increasing
+element, though a slowly diminishing minority of the total population.
+This relative diminution is due wholly to the influx of white
+immigrants, more than 14,000,000 of whom have come to our shores since
+1860. If the two races should continue to grow at the same relative rate
+of increase as during the last decade, according to the law of
+diminishing ratios, it would require more than one hundred years to
+reduce the Negro to one-tenth of the total population. So far as any
+practical calculation is concerned, we may regard this as an irreducible
+minimum. So long as the Negro constitutes one-tenth of the entire body
+of the American people we may expect to have the race problem, both in
+its general and in its political features.
+
+From the foundation of our government the Negro has constituted a
+serious political problem, mainly because of his unequal geographical
+distribution. If agricultural and economic conditions had been uniform,
+and the slaves had been evenly scattered over the whole area, the
+political phase of the race problem would have been far different from
+what it is and has been throughout our national life. The fact that the
+bulk of this race has been congested in one section has constituted the
+cause of political friction from the foundation of the Constitution till
+the present hour. This population persists in remaining in that section
+where it was most thickly planted by the institution of slavery. The
+center of gravity is still moving slowly towards the gulf of Mexico.
+Ninety-two per cent of the race is still found in the sixteen states
+where slavery prevailed at the outbreak of the civil war. The coastal
+states, from Maryland to Texas, contain three-fourths of the total
+number.
+
+While there has been a steady stream of Negro immigration towards the
+North and West, yet it has not been sufficient to materially affect the
+mass tendency. It would seem, on first view, that the Negro who
+complains so bitterly against political restrictions in the South would
+rush to the freer conditions of the North as a gas from a denser to a
+rarer medium. But political and civil freedom offered by the North are
+more than off-set by industrial restrictions and by the inertia of a
+population devoid of the pioneer spirit. The warm blooded, warm hearted
+child of the tropics is chilled alike by the rigid climate and frigid
+social atmosphere that prevail in the higher latitudes. In all New
+England there are fewer Negroes than are to be found in a single county
+in Tennessee.
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 7
+   ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+   SECTION.            POPULATION.   INCREASE, 1890    RATE OF INCR.
+                                     TO 1900
+   ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+   United States         8,840,789        1,370,749            18.35
+   ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+   Georgia               1,034,813          175,998            20.50
+   ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+   Mississippi             907,630          165,071            22.20
+   ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+   Alabama                 827,307          148,818            21.90
+   ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+   So. Carolina            782,321           93,387            13.60
+   ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+   31 Northern             759,788          181,876            31.50
+   States
+   ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+
+We learn from this table that there are four states in the union, each
+of which contains a larger number of Negroes than all the 31 free states
+combined. While such free states show a much more rapid decennial
+increase than any of the far south states, still the total increment
+scarcely exceeds that of the single state of Georgia. These figures
+reveal no mad hegira to a fairer and better land. The increase in the
+Northern states is due almost wholly to immigration from the South. It
+is entirely probable that the Negro population, left to itself, would
+not be a self sustaining quantity in the higher latitudes. During the
+last decade there was an absolute decline of the Negro population in
+Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada,
+Oregon and California.
+
+The political significance of this Northern movement is out of all
+proportion to its absolute weight. It is only in the North that the
+Negro vote has dynamic power. In several of the border states, this vote
+is at present unhampered, but there is no guarantee of future security.
+In Mississippi there are 197,936 Negro males of voting age, but this
+potential vote does not affect the choice of a single official of that
+state. The black vote of that commonwealth is as completely nullified as
+the last two amendments had never been appended to our national
+constitution. On the other hand the 5,193 adult Negro males in Mich. are
+accounted of considerable consequence in the political equation of that
+state. In the Northern and Western states where men feel free to align
+themselves according to conviction, the two parties are so nearly even
+that the Negro vote constitutes the balance of power. Owing to unusual
+political conditions, which cannot be counted on to continue, the last
+three presidential elections were practically one-sided. The Republican
+party triumphed by a margin that far exceeded the entire Negro
+Contingent. It is only in several of the border states that this vote
+could in any way have affected the fate of presidential electors. The
+Negro vote, however, has been quite effective in state elections, and in
+the choice of congressmen. As the parties gravitate to normal
+conditions, the Negro vote will again become the balance of power in the
+controlling states of the North. At the beginning of every campaign each
+party feels that it has a chance of success. At such times the black
+vote looms up large and significant. In national affairs the colored
+vote usually adheres to the party of Lincoln and Sumner. As the margin
+between the two parties is a shifting and uncertain quantity, the rapid
+increase of the Negro vote in the Northern States becomes a matter of
+great political importance.
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 8
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+             NEGRO MALES OF VOTING AGE IN THE NORTHERN
+             STATES.
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+             STATE.                  1890.           1900.
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+             Pennsylvania           34,873          51,668
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+             New York               24,231          31,425
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+             Illinois               18,200          29,762
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+             Ohio                   25,922          31,235
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+             Indiana                13,079          18,186
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+             New Jersey             14,564          21,474
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+             Massachusetts           7,967          10,456
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+             Rhode Island            2,261           2,765
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+             Connecticut             3,497           4,576
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+             Kansas                 12,543          14,695
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+             Michigan                    -           5,193
+             ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+
+These figures tell their own story when we consider the normal relation
+between the two parties in these several states. It is also interesting
+to note that the Negroes in the North are found very largely in the
+cities. This makes this vote of considerable importance in municipal
+elections. There is, however, a tendency on the part of this vote to
+distribute itself between the two parties in purely municipal and local
+matters, which to a great degree neutralizes its special significance.
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 9
+                    ────────────────────────────────
+                    NEGRO VOTERS IN NORTHERN
+                    CITIES, 1900.
+                    ────────────────────────────────
+                    CITY                 NEGROES OF
+                                         VOTING AGE
+                    ────────────────────────────────
+                    Philadelphia             20,095
+                    ────────────────────────────────
+                    New York                 18,651
+                    ────────────────────────────────
+                    Chicago                  12,424
+                    ────────────────────────────────
+                    Pittsburg                 6,541
+                    ────────────────────────────────
+                    Indianapolis              5,200
+                    ────────────────────────────────
+                    Boston                    4,441
+                    ────────────────────────────────
+                    Cincinnati                4,997
+                    ────────────────────────────────
+                    Detroit                   1,732
+                    ────────────────────────────────
+
+
+The most effective use that the Negro in the North can make of his
+political privilege is to uphold civic righteousness in municipal
+affairs, and to support those men and measures pledged to support the
+integrity of the constitution and its vital amendments.
+
+
+
+
+The Negro and His Citizenship—_FRANCIS J. GRIMKÉ_
+
+
+    ACTS 22:25-29.—_And when they had tied him up with the thongs,
+    Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you
+    to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned? And when the
+    centurion heard it, he went to the chief captain and told him,
+    saying, What art thou about to do? for this man is a Roman. And
+    the chief captain came and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a
+    Roman? And he said, Yea. And the chief captain answered, With a
+    great sum obtained I this citizenship. But Paul said, But I am a
+    Roman born. They then that were about to examine him straightway
+    departed from him: and the chief captain also was afraid when he
+    knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him._
+
+
+In this passage attention is directed to four things: To the fact that
+Paul was a Roman citizen; to the fact that he was about to be treated in
+a way that was forbidden by his citizenship; to the fact that he stood
+up for his rights as a Roman citizen; and to the fact that those who
+were about to infringe upon his rights were restrained, were overawed.
+
+I. Attention is directed to the fact that Paul was a Roman citizen.
+Citizenship was a possession that was very highly esteemed, and that was
+obtained in several ways,—by birth, by purchase, as a reward for
+distinguished military services, and as a favor. Paul’s came to him by
+inheritance; his father before him had been a Roman citizen: how it came
+to the father we do not know. At one time the price paid for it was very
+great. The chief captain, in the narrative of which our text is a part,
+tells us that he obtained his with a great sum; and therefore he seemed
+surprised to think that a man in Paul’s circumstances should have it. At
+first he seemed a little incredulous, but it was only for a moment. The
+penalty for falsely claiming to be a Roman citizen was death; this fact
+together with the whole bearing of the apostle finally left no doubt in
+his mind: he accepted his statement.
+
+It was not only a great honor to be a Roman citizen, but it carried with
+it many rights and privileges that were not enjoyed by others. These
+rights were either private or public,—_Jus Quiritium_, and _Jus
+Civitatis_. Among Private Rights, was the Right of Liberty. This secured
+him against imprisonment without trial; exemption from all degrading
+punishments, such as scourging and crucifixion; the right of appeal to
+the emperor after sentence by an inferior magistrate or tribunal, in any
+part of the empire; and also the right to be sent to Rome for trial
+before the emperor, if charged with a capital offence.
+
+Among Public Rights belonging to Roman citizens the following may be
+mentioned: (1) The right of being enrolled in the censor’s book, called,
+_Jus Census_. (2) The right of serving in the army, called, _Jus
+Militiae_. At first only citizens of the empire were permitted to engage
+in military operations, to bear arms and fight in its behalf. (3) The
+right to vote in the different assemblies of the people, called, _Jus
+Suffragii_. This has always been and is to-day one of the most important
+functions of citizenship, and one that should be highly prized and
+sacredly guarded. (4) The right of bearing public offices in the state.
+
+There were many other rights enjoyed by Roman citizens, but I will not
+take the time to enumerate them: these are sufficient to show us the
+value, the importance of Roman citizenship; and this citizenship the
+apostle Paul was invested with, with all the rights and privileges which
+were involved in it. On one occasion he said, "I am a citizen of no mean
+city," referring to Tarsus, which was one of the free cities of Asia
+Minor; but more than that, as he tells us here, he was a citizen of the
+empire.
+
+II. Attention is called to the fact that Paul was about to be treated in
+a way that was forbidden by his citizenship; that was contrary to Roman
+law. He had gone up to Jerusalem to attend the feast of Pentecost. After
+meeting the brethren and rehearsing to them the wonderful things which
+God had wrought through his ministry among the Gentiles, they
+congratulated him upon his success, but said to him: "Thou seest,
+brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of them that have
+believed; and they are all zealous for the law: and they have been
+informed concerning thee, that thou teachest all the Jews who are among
+the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their
+children neither to walk after the customs. What is it therefore? they
+will certainly hear that thou art come. Do therefore this that we say to
+thee: We have four men that have a vow on them; these take, and purify
+thyself with them, and be at charges for them, that they may shave their
+heads: and all shall know that there is no truth in the things whereof
+they have been informed concerning thee but that thou thyself walkest
+orderly, keeping the law." It was in compliance with this request, that
+Paul went into the temple to do as he was asked to do: and while there
+was seen by certain Jews of Asia, i. e., the province of Asia, who at
+once stirred up the multitude and laid hands on him, crying out, "Men of
+Israel, help: This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against
+the people, and the law, and this place; and moreover he brought Greeks
+also into the temple and hath defiled this holy place." It was like
+touching a match to a powder magazine. The people were aroused.
+Instantly there was a response to the call; and dragging the apostle out
+of the temple they were in the act of beating him to death, when the
+chief captain, learning of the tumult, rushed down with a squad of
+soldiers and rescuing him, brought him into the castle. The next day
+with a view of ascertaining what the trouble was, the real ground of
+complaint against the apostle, the chief captain proposed to examine him
+by scourging, and issued orders to that effect. In obedience to this
+order the apostle was stripped and actually tied up. The process of
+examination proposed was very severe. The culprit was stripped and tied
+in a bending posture to a pillar, or stretched on a frame, and the
+punishment was inflicted with a scourge made of leathern thongs weighted
+with sharp pieces of bone or lead, the object being to extort from the
+sufferer a confession of his guilt or the information desired.
+
+If the chief captain had understood the Hebrew language, and could have
+followed the address of the apostle which was delivered on the steps of
+the palace, he would have understood what the trouble was, without
+attempting to resort to this brutal method of finding out; but evidently
+he did not. Everything indicated, however, that it was something very
+serious, judging from their treatment of him, and from the intense
+excitement which his words produced upon them, and hence, he was all the
+more anxious to find out. If the apostle was guilty of any offence
+against the law, it was the duty of the chief captain to take cognizance
+of it, and to punish him accordingly, but if he was innocent, if he had
+in no way transgressed the law, it was his duty to release him. The law
+also provided how the guilt or innocence of an accused person was to be
+ascertained; and it was the duty of the chief captain to have followed
+the course prescribed by the law; but it is clear from the narrative
+that he had determined upon another course: the prisoner is ordered to
+be scourged, instead of calling upon those who had assaulted him to make
+their charges, and to substantiate them, and then giving the apostle an
+opportunity of defending himself.
+
+III. Attention is directed in the text to the fact, that the apostle
+stood up manfully for his rights. After they had tied him up, as if
+waiting to see just how far they would go, and just as the process of
+scourging was about to begin, he challenged their right to proceed: he
+said to the centurion, who was standing by, and who was there as the
+representative of the chief captain, to see that the scourging was
+properly done, and to make note of what he confessed,—he said to this
+man: "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and
+uncondemned?" The law expressly forbade the scourging of Roman citizens;
+it was an indignity to which no Roman citizen was to be subjected. This
+was what was known as the Porcian law, and took its name from Porcius,
+the Tribune through whose influence its adoption was secured. And this
+is the law to which the apostle here appeals, whose protection he
+invokes. Paul, as a Roman citizen, not only knew what his rights were,
+but he stood up for his rights. He insists here upon being treated, as
+he was entitled to be treated, as a citizen of the empire. They are
+about to scourge him, contrary to law, and he says to them, Stop; you
+have no right to treat me in this way, intimating and they evidently
+understood it, that if they did not desist, they would hear from him; he
+would bring the matter to the attention of the emperor.
+
+This is not the only place where Paul falls back upon his rights as a
+Roman citizen. He did the same thing a little later on. He was removed
+from Jerusalem to Caesarea, as you will remember, where he remained a
+prisoner for two years. During that time he was frequently placed on
+trial before various officials,—before Felix, before Festus, before
+Agrippa. It was during one of these hearings, that Festus the governor,
+in order to curry favor with the Jews, intimated that he might be sent
+back to Jerusalem to be tried: and doubtless this was his intention,
+having entered into a secret arrangement with the enemies of the
+apostle, who had resolved to kill him at the first opportunity. This
+they felt that they would have a better chance of doing if they could
+only induce the governor to return him to Jerusalem. The apostle, of
+course, knew all this; he knew how intensely they hated him, and what
+their plans and purposes were, and he was determined not to be entrapped
+in this way. The record is: "Paul said in his defence, ’Neither against
+the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I
+sinned at all.’ But Festus, desiring to gain favor with the Jews,
+answered Paul and said, ’Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be
+judged of these things before me?’ But Paul said, ’I am standing before
+Caesar’s judgment-seat, where I ought to be judged: to the Jews have I
+done no wrong, as thou also very well knowest. If then I am a wrong
+doer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die;
+but if none of these things is true whereof these accuse me, no man can
+give me up to them. I appeal unto Caesar.’ Then Festus, when he had
+conferred with the council, answered, ’Thou hast appealed unto Caesar,
+unto Caesar thou shalt go.’"
+
+One of the great privileges of a Roman citizen was the right of appeal;
+the right of being heard directly by the emperor, of taking his case out
+of the hands of all inferior judicatories, up to the highest: and this
+is the right which the apostle here avails himself of. It was the only
+thing that saved him from being turned over by a corrupt official into
+the hands of his enemies; and it forcibly illustrates the importance of
+citizenship. Had he not been a Roman citizen clothed with the sacred
+right of appeal he would have been basely sacrificed to the malice of
+his enemies; or, though he had been a Roman citizen, if he had cowardly
+surrendered his right, if he had failed to exercise it, he would have
+equally perished; but the apostle stood upon his right, and so succeeded
+in thwarting the purposes of his enemies.
+
+IV. Attention is directed in the text to the fact, that those who were
+about to scourge this man, were restrained by the knowledge of the fact
+that he was a Roman citizen. The moment they became aware of this fact;
+at the mere mention of that sacred name, citizen, everything came to a
+stand still; the uplifted hand, ready to smite, is arrested, and we find
+the centurion running off, in great excitement in search of the chief
+captain, and saying to him, "What are you about? Do you know that this
+man is a Roman?" and we see the chief captain coming in great haste and
+saying to the apostle, "What? can it be possible! Are you really a
+Roman?" "Yes," said the apostle, "I am; and my father before me was."
+The chief captain is astonished; yea, more, fear takes hold of him; he
+becomes suddenly alarmed.
+
+There are two things in this incident that are worthy of note: first,
+this indignity that was offered to the apostle was through ignorance. It
+was not known that he was a Roman citizen. The law was violated, but it
+was not purposely done. It was not the intention of the chief captain to
+ignore the rights involved in citizenship; for he himself was a Roman
+citizen, and was interested in maintaining those rights. And, second, to
+trample upon the rights of a Roman citizen was a very grave offense, a
+very serious matter; and it became a serious matter because back of this
+citizenship was the whole power of the empire. These rights were
+carefully guarded, were rigidly enforced, so that the term, Roman
+citizen, was everywhere respected. No one could infringe those rights
+with impunity: hence you will notice what is said here, "The chief
+captain was afraid when he knew that he was a Roman because he had bound
+him." He recognized at once the gravity of the offense. That was old
+pagan Rome; but under its rule citizenship meant something; it was a
+sacred thing; back of it stood the strong arm of the Government to give
+efficacy, power to it. This man was afraid when he realized what he had
+done; and that is the feeling which outraged citizenship ought
+everywhere to inspire. It ought to mean something; and there ought to be
+power somewhere to enforce its meaning.
+
+But it is not of Roman citizenship that I desire to speak at this time,
+but rather of American citizenship, and of that citizenship as it
+pertains to ourselves. In the providence of God we are citizens of this
+great Republic. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution declares:
+"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to
+the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the
+State wherein they reside." Under this provision of the Constitution we
+are all citizens; and we have earned the right to be citizens. We have
+lived here as long as any other class in the Republic; we have worked as
+hard as any other class to develop the country; and we have fought as
+bravely as any other class in the defense of the Republic. If length of
+residence, if unstinted toil, if great sacrifices of blood, if the
+laying of one’s self on the country’s altar in the hour of peril, of
+danger, give any claim to citizenship, then our claim is beyond dispute;
+for all these things are true of us.
+
+We are _citizens_ of this great Republic: and citizenship is a sacred
+thing: I hope we realize it. It is a thing to be prized; to be highly
+esteemed. It has come to us after 250 years of slavery, of unrequited
+toil; it has come to us after a sanguinary conflict, in which billions
+of treasure and rivers of blood were poured out; it has come to us as a
+boon from the nation at a time when it had reached its loftiest moral
+development; when its moral sense was quickened as it had never been
+before, and when it stood as it had never stood before upon the great
+principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, not as
+glittering generalities, but as great realities: it was at that sublime
+period in our history, when the national conscience was at work; when
+the men who were in charge of affairs were men who stood for
+righteousness; when the great issues before the country were moral
+issues, issues involving human rights,—that the nation saw fit to
+abolish slavery and to decree the citizenship of all men, black and
+white alike. When we think of what this citizenship has cost, in blood
+and treasure; of the noble men through whose influence it was brought
+about; and of the fact that it came to us from the Nation when it was at
+its best, when it was living up to its highest light, and to its noblest
+conceptions of right and duty,—we ought to prize it, to set a high value
+upon it.
+
+And we ought to show our appreciation of it: (1). By being good
+citizens; by doing everything in our power to develop ourselves along
+right lines, intellectually, morally, spiritually, and also materially:
+and to do everything in our power to promote the general good;
+everything that will help to make for municipal, state, and national
+righteousness. We are to remember that we are part of a great whole, and
+that the whole will be affected by our conduct, either for good or bad.
+If we live right, if we fear God and keep his commandments, and train
+our children to do the same, we ennoble our citizenship; we become a
+part of the great conservative force of society, a positive blessing to
+the community, the state, the nation. It is especially important for us,
+in view of the strong prejudice against us, the disposition to view us
+with a critical eye, to hold up and magnify our short-comings, that we
+be particularly concerned to be constantly manifesting, evidencing our
+good citizenship by allying ourselves only with the things that are
+true, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report. We ought not
+to lose sight of the fact that the strongest fight that is being made
+against us to-day is by those who are doing most to discredit us, to
+array public sentiment against us,—those who are parading our
+short-comings and imperfections, who are giving the greatest publicity,
+the widest circulation to them. There are persons in this country, who
+are determined, and who never lose an opportunity to blacken our good
+name. Dr. DuBois, in that splendid document of his, "Credo," said among
+other things, "I believe in the Devil and his angels, who wantonly work
+to narrow the opportunity of struggling human beings, especially if they
+be black; who spit in the faces of the fallen, strike them that cannot
+strike again, believe the worst and work to prove it, hating the image
+which their Maker stamped on a brother’s soul." And this is one of the
+conditions that confront us in this country, and that we must not lose
+sight of. The fact that there is this determination on the part of our
+enemies to prove that we are utterly unworthy of this great boon of
+citizenship, should have the effect of creating within us a counter
+determination to show that we are worthy,—to do our level best in every
+sphere of life. Now I do not mean by this to say that we are not proving
+ourselves to be good citizens; for we are: a great many of us are; but I
+have called attention to it because I feel that it ought to be
+emphasized; that we need to feel more keenly and more widely than is
+felt, the meaning of this great boon and the demand which it makes upon
+us. It is a challenge to every man to live a straightforward, upright,
+worthy life. And what is needed is, not only that _we_, who have had
+exceptional opportunities, should feel this way, but that the great mass
+of our people should be educated to feel the same, to be animated by the
+same spirit. And _we_ are to be their educators; it is through _us_ that
+this spirit is to descend upon them, and take possession of them. If
+this citizenship means anything, it means that we should be concerned
+about everything which makes for law, for order, for good government,
+for individual, municipal, state, and national purity and righteousness;
+it means that each one of us ought to be a living example of the best
+type of what a citizen ought to be.
+
+But this is not all: if we value our citizenship we will not only seek
+to make the most of ourselves, to live on the highest plane but we will
+also stand up manfully for our rights under that citizenship. I have no
+patience with those who preach civil and political self-effacement. I
+never have believed in that pernicious doctrine, and never will. When
+you have effaced a man, civilly and politically, in a government like
+our own, what is he? What does he amount to? Who cares for him? What
+rights has he which any other class is bound to respect? He is a mere
+nonentity, entitled to no consideration, and with no refuge to which he
+can fly in the hour of his need. To be civilly and politically effaced
+is to be civilly and politically dead; and to be civilly and politically
+dead is to be at the mercy of any and every political party or
+organization, and to be under the iron heel of the worst elements in the
+community without any means of redress.
+
+We are _citizens_ of this Republic: and I want to direct attention to
+this fact for a moment; and I am glad of the opportunity of doing it at
+this time, when we are in the midst of celebrating the inauguration of
+our President. I thank God for the man at the White House; for his
+courage; for his high sense of righteousness; for the many splendid
+things which he has said; and for the noble stand which he has taken on
+human rights; on equality of opportunity; on the open door for every man
+in the Republic irrespective of race or color. I rejoice in the fact
+that we have such a President. I commend him heartily for what he has
+done. I hope he will do more; I hope there are yet larger things in
+store for this race through him. But whether he does more or not; or
+whatever may be his future policy, or the future policy of the leaders
+of either of the great political parties, or the rank and file of those
+parties, it cannot, it will not affect in the least, our attitude in
+regard to our rights under the Constitution. We are citizens, clothed
+with citizenship rights; and, there is no thought or intention on our
+part of ever surrendering a single one of them. Whatever others may
+think of it, or desire in regard to it, we do not propose to retreat a
+single inch, to give up for one moment the struggle. I say, _we_ and in
+this, I believe I speak for those who represent the sentiment that is
+taking more and more firmly hold of the heart of this race. I belong to
+what may be called the radical wing of the race, on the race question: I
+do not believe in compromises; in surrendering, or acquiescing, even
+temporarily, in the deprivation of a single right, out of deference to
+an unrighteous public sentiment. I believe with Lowell,
+
+    "They enslave their children’s children,
+    Who make compromise with sin."
+
+And this, I believe, at heart, is the sentiment of the race; at least,
+it is the sentiment of some of us. There is where we have taken our
+stand and there is where we propose to stand to the end. What belongs to
+us as citizens we want; and we are not going to be satisfied with
+anything less. We are in this country, and we are here to stay. There is
+no prospect of our ever leaving it. This is our home, as it has been the
+home of our ancestors for generations, and will be the home of our
+children, and of our children’s children, for all time. It is of the
+greatest importance to us, therefore, that our status in it, as it is
+permanently fixed, should be, not that of a proscribed class, but that
+of full citizenship with every right, civil and political, accorded to
+us that is accorded to other citizens of the Republic. This is the thing
+that we are to insist upon; this is the evil against which we are to
+guard.
+
+What our enemies are seeking to effect is to make this a white man’s
+government; to fix permanently our status in it, as one of civil and
+political inferiority. The issue is sharply drawn; and it is for us to
+say whether we will be thus reduced, whether such shall be our permanent
+status or not. One thing we may be assured of: such will surely be our
+fate unless we clearly comprehend the issue, and set ourselves earnestly
+to work to counteract the movement, by resisting in every legitimate way
+its consummation, and by using our influence to create a counter public
+sentiment.
+
+What are some of these citizenship rights for which we should earnestly
+contend?
+
+(1) The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In one
+section of this country, at least, and the area is growing, and is fast
+including others, the life of a Negro isn’t worth as much as that of a
+dog. He may be shot down, murdered, strung up to a tree, burnt to death,
+by any white ruffian, or band of lawbreakers and murderers with
+impunity. The color of his skin gives any white man liberty to maltreat
+him, to trample upon him. He has no rights which white men are bound to
+respect. If he goes to law, there is no redress; his appeals avail
+nothing with judge and jury. That is a condition of things that we ought
+not to rest satisfied under. As long as the life of a black man is not
+just as sacred as that of a white man, in every section of the Republic;
+as long as wrongs perpetrated upon him are treated with greater leniency
+than wrongs perpetrated upon white men, his status is not the same as
+that of the white man; and as long as it is not the same an injustice is
+done him, which he ought to resist; against which he ought to protest,
+and continue to protest.
+
+(2) Another citizenship right is that of receiving equal accommodations
+on all common carriers and in all hostelries; on railroads, steamboats,
+in hotels, restaurants, and in all public places. When we travel,
+whatever we are able to pay for we are entitled to, just as other
+citizens are. To-day this is largely denied us. The hotels are not open
+to us; the restaurants are not open to us, even the little ten cent
+lunch counters, in this the capital city of the nation, are not open to
+us: we are shut out from all such places, and shut out because of the
+color of our skin. If we attempt to travel, and turn our faces
+southward, we must ride in Jim Crow cars; we must be segregated, shut up
+in a little compartment by ourselves. The privilege which we once
+enjoyed without stint of taking a sleeper or Pullman car, even that now
+is being taken from us. One state has even gone so far as to make it
+unlawful to sell a ticket to a person of color on a sleeper. That is the
+state of Georgia; a State that has in it Atlanta University, and Clark
+University, and the Atlanta Baptist College, and Spelman Seminary, and
+the Gammon Theological Seminary, and Haines Institute, and many other
+schools of learning; a State that has within its borders some of the
+very best type of Negroes in this country. The meaning of all this,
+don’t let us misunderstand: it is a part of the general policy, which is
+being vigorously pushed by our enemies, to fix our status as one of
+inferiority, by shutting us out from certain privileges. The whole thing
+is wrong. Such invidious distinctions ought not to be permitted in a
+republic. It is inconsistent with citizenship. Everything ought to be
+open to all citizens alike:—railroad cars, hotels, restaurants,
+steamboats, the schools and colleges of the land: our public schools
+ought to be open to all the children alike. There ought not be separate
+schools for the whites, and separate schools for blacks: all the
+children of the Republic ought to be educated together; and sooner or
+later it is bound to come to that. Some one has said, "It isn’t so much
+the Jim Crow car, as it is the Jim Crow Negro in the car." The fallacy
+of this statement, and its attempted mitigation or justification of the
+Jim Crow car, lies in the fact that the Jim Crow car has nothing
+whatever to do with the Jim Crow Negro. It was not instituted for him,
+but for all Negroes, whether Jim Crow or not: in fact, it was designed,
+particularly, not for the Jim Crow Negro, but for the intelligent,
+progressive, self-respecting Negro. If there are Jim Crow Negroes among
+us we owe them a duty; we ought to seek to improve them, to lift them to
+higher levels; but while we are doing this, don’t let us forget that
+there is a Jim Crow car, and what it stands for. It stands for a hostile
+public sentiment; it is a part of a concerted plan which seeks to
+degrade us, to rob us of our rights, to deprive us of privileges enjoyed
+by other citizens, because of the color of our skin. If there were no
+Jim Crow Negroes, we would have the Jim Crow car all the same. We should
+fight the Jim Crow cars, therefore, not only because of the personal
+discomfort to which we are subjected in travelling, but also because of
+the general system of which it is a part,—a system which seeks to
+establish a double citizenship in the Republic, based upon race and
+color; the one superior to the other, and carrying with it privileges
+which are denied to the other.
+
+(3) Another citizenship right is that of serving in the Army and Navy;
+the right to take up arms and to fight in behalf of the country. This is
+our right, and we have exercised it, and are still exercising it. We
+have fought in all the wars of the Republic; and are represented to-day
+in both Army and Navy. We have made a glorious record for ourselves in
+this respect. There is no better soldier in the Army of the Republic,
+than the black soldier. This right has not been denied us, but let us,
+nevertheless, keep our eyes on it. There are some things even here that
+need to be looked into. It has been many years since we have had a
+representative in the great Naval or Military school of the country; and
+there have been some rumors about limiting the aspirations of Negroes in
+the Army, of not permitting them to advance beyond a certain point. If
+there is such a thought or intention on the part of those in authority,
+it must be resisted. The Negro must be free—in the Army, in the Navy,—in
+every part of the Army and Navy,—as other citizens are free; to advance
+according to his merit. His color must not be allowed to operate against
+him.
+
+(4) Another citizen right is that of suffrage, the right of the ballot;
+the right to have part in the government; to say who shall make the laws
+and who shall execute them; and what the laws shall be; the right to
+have an opinion, and to have that opinion counted in determining what
+shall be and what shall not be. This is one of the greatest of rights.
+In a republic citizenship means very little without it. It is this which
+marks the difference between a representative government, a government
+of the people, by the people, and for the people, and a despotism, an
+absolute monarchy. The glory of the age in which we live is the triumph
+of democracy; and what is the triumph of democracy but the right of the
+_people_ to say who shall rule; and how is the will of the people
+expressed? Through the ballot; at the polls. The ballot therefore is the
+symbol of the sovereignty of the people. If we are to be sovereign
+citizens of the Republic therefore, this right to vote must be
+preserved. The old despotic idea of government was, that some people
+were born to rule, and that others were born to be ruled; and the idea
+that exists in the minds of some people in this country, in democratic
+America, in face of the affirmation of the Declaration of Independence,
+that all men are born free and equal, is that in this country, there are
+some people who are born to rule, and others who are born to be ruled;
+and that the people who are born to rule are the whites, and those who
+are born to be ruled are the blacks: hence the effort that is being made
+to divest us of this symbol of sovereignty,—the ballot. Let us not be
+deceived; let us give no heed to any teaching, never mind from what
+source it may come, which seeks to minimize the importance of the
+ballot. What difference does it make whether we vote or not? I have
+heard some weak-kneed, time-serving representatives of our own race say;
+and the thought has been caught up by the men in the south who have been
+seeking to rob us of our rights, and by those in the North who have been
+playing into their hands; and they have said, Yes, What difference does
+it make? Are you not just as well off without it? What difference does
+it make? It makes all the difference in the world: the difference
+between a sovereign citizen of the Republic, and one who has been
+stripped of his sovereignty; between one who has a say in what is going
+on, and one who has not; between one who is ruled with his consent, and
+one who is ruled without it. If we are just as well off without the
+ballot, how is it that the white man is not just as well off without it?
+And if he is unwilling to give it up, why should he ask us to give it
+up? Why should we give it up? If he needs it in order to protect
+himself, much more do we, for we are weaker than he is, and need all the
+more the power which comes from the ballot.
+
+(5) Another citizenship right is, that of holding office, the right to
+be voted for, and of being appointed to positions of honor and trust by
+the executive power. This is also a right that belongs to us, and that
+we must contend for. It is one of our rights that is now being
+especially contested in the South. The Negro must not be appointed to
+any office, is the demand of Southern white sentiment. I am glad that
+the President has not yielded wholly to that sentiment. The fight which
+he made in the Crum case was a notable one, and clearly indicated that
+he was not willing to shut that door of opportunity to the Negro; that
+he was not willing to take the position that a man was to be debarred
+from public office simply because of the color of his skin. That was the
+right position for him to take, and the only one that was consistent
+with his oath of office, and his position as President of _all_ the
+people. I hope that he will continue to act upon that principle; and
+that he will do more than he has done. There is room for improvement in
+this direction. A few more appointments of colored men in the North, as
+well as in the South, would be a good thing. It ought to be done. The
+right of colored men to receive appointments ought to be clearly and
+distinctly emphasized by multiplying those appointments. There is
+nothing like an object lesson in impressing the truth. I hope that the
+President will give us many such object lessons during the next four
+years.
+
+The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; the right to
+receive equal accommodation on railroads, steamboats, in hotels,
+restaurants, and in all public places of amusement; the right to be
+represented in the Army and Navy; the right to vote; the right to hold
+office: these are some of our citizenship rights, for which we should
+earnestly contend. Sometimes, we are told, that it would be better to
+say less about our rights, and more about our duties. No one feels more
+the importance of emphasizing our duties than I do,—I think I have done
+about as much of it as anybody,—but among the duties that I have always
+emphasized, and still emphasize, is the duty of standing up squarely and
+uncompromisingly for our rights. When we are contending for the truth;
+when we are resisting the encroachments of those who are seeking to
+despoil us of our birth-right as citizens; when we are keeping up the
+agitation for equal civil and political privileges in this country, are
+we not in the line of duty? If not, where is the line? Duties? Yes. Let
+us have our duties preached to us,—line upon line, and precept upon
+precept, here a little and there a little; but at the same time don’t
+let us forget that we have also _rights_ under the Constitution, and to
+see to it that we stand up for them; that we resist to the very last
+ditch those who would rob us of them. And in doing this, let us remember
+that we are called to it by the stern voice of Duty, which is the voice
+of God; and that we need not apologize for our action.
+
+And now in conclusion but a word more and then I am done. The fight
+before us is a long one. You will not live, nor will I live to see the
+triumph of the principles for which we are contending; let us not become
+discouraged however. Things look pretty dark at times, but it isn’t all
+dark. Now and then there are gleams of light, which indicate the coming
+of a better day. There are forces working _for_ us, as well as against
+us; and with what we can do for ourselves, we need not despair.
+
+    "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
+    He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes
+    of wrath are stored!
+    He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;
+    His truth is marching on.
+
+    He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
+    He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat;
+    O, be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet!
+    While God is marching on."
+
+Let us take courage; let us gird up our loins; let us stand at our post;
+let us be true to duty; let us hold ourselves to the highest; let us
+have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of darkness; let us be
+temperate, industrious, thrifty; let us do with our might what our hands
+find to do; let us trust in God, and do the right: and then, whether the
+struggle be long or short, there can be no doubt as to the final issue.
+We shall come out victorious; we shall be accorded every right belonging
+to us under the Constitution, and every avenue of opportunity will be
+opened to us, as to other citizens of the Republic. The future is
+largely in our own hands. If we allow ourselves to be permanently
+despoiled of our rights; to be reduced to a position of civil and
+political inferiority, the fault will be, not "in our stars," as
+Shakespeare has expressed it, "but in ourselves." Others can help us;
+others will help us, as they have already done; but the final outcome
+will depend mainly upon what we do _for_ ourselves, and _with_
+ourselves. If we are to grow in the elements that make for a strong,
+intelligent, virtuous manhood and womanhood, _we_ have got to see to it,
+to be concerned about it; to be more deeply concerned about it than
+anybody else. And so, if the agitation for equality of rights and
+opportunities in this country is to be kept up, and it ought to be kept
+up, _we_ are the ones to see to it. As long as there are wrongs to be
+redressed, from which we are suffering, we ought not to be silent, ought
+not for our sake as well as for the sake of the nation at large.
+Whatever can be done to develop ourselves; whatever can be done to
+create a healthy and righteous public sentiment in our behalf; whatever
+can be done to check the encroachments of our enemies upon our rights,
+_we_ must do it, whether others do or not. May God help us all to
+realize this, and to address ourselves earnestly to the work that lies
+before us.
+
+    "Be strong!
+    We are not here to play, to dream, to drift.
+    We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.
+    Shun not the struggle; face it. Tis God’s gift."
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s Note
+
+
+This is one group of papers from a series of papers presented to the
+American Negro Academy. Founded by Alexander Crummell in March 1897,
+with 40 of the leading black scholars and writers of the day, the
+Academy’s purpose was to promote literature, science and art, foster
+higher education and high culture, and to defend the Negro aginst racist
+attacks. The Academy was active until 1924.
+
+This project was scanned from a facsimile reprint included in a
+collection of all 22 Occasional Papers of the American Negro Academy.
+
+Original spelling varieties have been maintained; tables and footnotes
+were renumbered.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE
+FRANCHISE. (THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY. OCCASIONAL PAPERS, NO. 11.) ***
+
+
+
+
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+ The Negro And The Elective Franchise. A Series Of Papers And A Sermon
+
+         The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 11.
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
+no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+Title: The Negro and the elective franchise. A Series Of Papers And A
+Sermon (The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 11.)
+
+Author: Archibald H. Grimk�, Charles C. Cook, John Hope, John L. Love,
+Kelly Miller, and Rev. Frank J. Grimk�
+
+Release Date: March 01, 2011 [EBook #35449]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE
+FRANCHISE. (THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY. OCCASIONAL PAPERS, NO. 11.) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+at http://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+                       Occasional Papers, No. 11.
+
+
+
+                      The American Negro Academy.
+
+
+
+                  THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE
+
+
+
+                  *A SERIES OF PAPERS AND A SERMON BY*
+
+
+
+ *Archibald H. Grimk�, Charles C. Cook, John Hope, John L. Love, Kelly
+                   Miller and Rev. Frank J. Grimk�.*
+
+
+
+                      *PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS.*
+
+
+
+                           WASHINGTON, D. C.
+
+
+
+                       PUBLISHED BY THE ACADEMY.
+
+
+
+                                 1905.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  - The Meaning And Need Of The Movement To Reduce Southern
+    Representation--_ARCHIBALD H. GRIMK�_
+  - The Penning of the Negro--_CHARLES CHAUVEAU COOK_
+  - The Negro Vote in the States Whose Constitutions Have Not Been
+    Specifically Revised--_JOHN HOPE_
+  - The Potentiality of the Negro Vote, North and West--_JOHN L. LOVE_
+  - Migration and Distribution of the Negro Population as Affecting the
+    Elective Franchise--_KELLY MILLER_
+  - The Negro and His Citizenship--_FRANCIS J. GRIMK�_
+
+
+
+
+The Meaning And Need Of The Movement To Reduce Southern
+Representation--_ARCHIBALD H. GRIMK�_
+
+
+In 1787 when the founders of the American Republic were framing the
+Constitution they encountered many difficulties in the work of
+construction, but none greater than the bringing together on terms of
+equality under one general government of the slave-holding and the
+non-slave-holding states. The South was willing to enter the Union
+provided always that its peculiar labor and institutions received
+adequate protection in that instrument. And this the North had finally
+to consent to incorporate into the organic law of the new nation. One of
+these concessions was known as the Slave Representation Clause of the
+Constitution, which gave to the Slave section the right to count five
+slaves as three freemen in the apportionment of representatives. This
+concession did not probably seem at the time like an exorbitant or
+ruinous price for the North to pay for the Union, but subsequent events
+proved it to be both exorbitant and ruinous in the political burden
+which it imposed upon that section, and in the political perils which
+grew naturally out of the situation, and which were produced by it.
+
+Everybody now-a-days seems to forget, or makes believe to have
+forgotten, this lamentable chapter in our history, and its application
+to present day evils--everybody but a few far-seeing Negroes, and a few
+far-seeing white men at the North. It is well not to forget this chapter
+ourselves, or to let the country make believe to have forgotten it, as
+it contains a lesson which it is dangerous to forget.
+
+History repeats itself and will continue to do so just as long as men
+are men, and the passion for power and the struggle for domination lasts
+among them. Such a struggle set in between the two sections almost
+immediately after the adoption of the Constitution. With industrial and
+political ideas, interests, and institutions directly opposed to each
+other, rivalry and strife between them became from the beginning
+unavoidable. Any one not totally blinded by the then emergent needs of
+the moment could not fail to foresee something of the consequences which
+were sure to follow such a union of irreconcilable forces and passions
+under one general government. Each set of antagonistic ideas and
+interests was compelled by the great law of self preservation to try to
+get possession of the government in its battle with the other set. And
+in this conflict of moral and economic forces and ideas the three-fifths
+slave representation clause of the Constitution gave to the South a
+distinct advantage, an advantage which told immediately and powerfully
+in its favor. For the right to count five slaves as three freemen in the
+apportionment of representatives among the several states placed the
+political power of the Southern states in the hands not of all the
+whites but of a small and highly trained and organized minority only,
+namely; the master class. This circumstance solidified the South, and
+gave to its action a unity and energy of purpose which the industrial
+democracy of the North always lacked. As a consequence, Southern men
+obtained speedy possession of the National Government, and shaped
+National Legislation and policy to advance best the peculiar ideas and
+interests of their section. The big end of the National Government lay
+plainly enough well to the south of Mason and Dixon's line during the
+first twenty-five years of the existence of the Union. The course of
+events during this period revealed this bitter fact to New England. For
+she was outwitted, out-voted and over-matched again and again in
+national legislation and administrative measures by the slave oligarchy,
+which ruled the South and dominated in national affairs.
+
+For instance, New England opposed the embargo and the retaliatory
+measures of Mr. Jefferson's administration, which destroyed her splendid
+carrying trade, and bore distress to hundreds of thousands of her
+people. She opposed the War of 1812 because it seemed to her inimical to
+her interests, but regardless of protests and cries the embargo was laid
+on her ports and shipping, the War against Great Britain was declared.
+She was forced to dance, volens-nolens, to the rag-time music of her
+Southern rival. She danced in both instances while discontent grew apace
+in her hot, surcharged heart. She did not disguise the ugly fact that
+she was sick of her bargain under the Constitution--was discontented
+almost to disaffection with Southern domination in the Union. Out of
+this widespread discontent and incipient disaffection sprang the
+Hartford Convention to voice this growing Anti-Southern sentiment, and
+to cast about for a remedy for what was rightly deemed bad political
+conditions. The great question with which this celebrated convention
+grappled was, in fact, the undue and disproportionate power wielded by
+the slave oligarchy in national affairs, and how best to impose a check
+upon its further growth. It could think apparently of but one remedial
+measure to relieve the situation, and that was the imposition of a check
+on any further increase in the then existing number of states. But while
+the resolution which embodied this rather doubtful remedy referred to
+states in general, it was intended when read between the lines, to refer
+to slave states in particular.
+
+That was the first blow aimed by the industrial democracy of the North
+at this aristocratic feature of the National Constitution, namely: the
+right to count five slaves as three freemen in the apportionment of
+representatives among the states. It was felt at the time and much more
+strongly and generally afterward, that this three-fifths slave
+representation clause which enabled a small minority of the people of
+the South to wield the political power of that section, and in any
+controverted question between the sections to neutralize the free-will
+of every three freemen by the dummy-will of every five slaves, was an
+unjust and dangerous advantage possessed by the slave oligarchy over its
+sectional rival, the free democracy of the North.
+
+The consciousness of this political wrong and danger was at the bottom
+of the bitter opposition on the part of the North to the admission of
+Missouri as a slave state, to the annexation of Texas, and to the
+Mexican War. It was at the bottom of the fierce cry which rose all over
+that section at the close of that war, "No more slave territory, no more
+slave states." It was the soul of the great movement which beat back the
+slave tide from Kansas and saved that state to freedom. It was, in fact,
+this struggle of the free states to reduce to a minimum the peril to its
+industrial democracy which grew out of the slave representation clause
+of the Constitution, and the resistance of the slave states to such a
+movement, which produced the war between the sections. This war ended in
+the destruction of slavery and as the North supposed and intended, in
+the total destruction of this right of the South to count five slaves as
+three freemen in the apportionment of representatives among the several
+states in the newly restored Union.
+
+But wrong does not die under a single stroke. It has a strange power of
+metamorphosis, i. e. ability to change its form without losing its
+identity. The slave power, which everybody at the North imagined to be
+dead, re-appeared almost at once as the Southern serf power, in
+consequence of legislation enacted in the then lately rebellious states
+by the old slave masters. They had lost their slaves, to be sure, and
+the political power incident under the Constitution to such ownership,
+but they had not lost the political cunning and determination to create
+a similar power out of the social forces and material which lay in
+disorder about them.
+
+The reconstruction of the South by the old slave oligarchy resulted in
+the threatened rise in national affairs of an African serf power more
+formidable to the North than was the old slave power than five is
+greater than three in federal numbers. This threatened rise in national
+politics of an African serf power aroused the North to the danger which
+girt afresh the supremacy of its industrial democracy in the Union. It
+thereupon set about the work of removing this peril forever. In doing
+this work it unfortunately limited itself exclusively to the use of
+political agencies. But there is no doubt that what it did in
+reconstructing the old slave states was meant to be thorough. It meant
+to extirpate root and branch, from the Constitution the right of the
+South to count five slaves as three freemen, or five serfs as five
+freemen in the apportionment of representatives among the states. This
+was the plain purpose of the whole body of congressional legislation
+looking to southern reconstruction. It is the plain purpose likewise of
+the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.
+
+All of these great acts were intended to destroy utterly the basis on
+which rested the old slave power, and on which would rest the new serf
+power, namely: inequality and race subjection. The 13th amendment
+abolished slavery, the 14th raised the former slaves to citizenship, and
+the 15th conferred on them the right to vote. The whole scheme for
+removing forever this evil seemed on paper complete enough, and in
+practice it would undoubtedly have proven effective had not an
+unexpected difficulty arisen when it was put into operation. This
+unexpected difficulty was the attitude of the Supreme Court in
+interpreting the laws made in pursuance thereof. The effect of the
+decisions of this tribunal has almost invariably been against the
+Negro's claim to equality, and in favor of the Southern contention of
+the existence of two races in the south, one permanently dominant and
+the other permanently servile, and that the maintenance of this state of
+race superiority on the one side, and of race inferiority on the other
+furnished the only working plan of their living in peace together or of
+their making any further progress in civilization. Owing to this
+deplorable attitude the Supreme Court has been a hindrance rather than a
+help in the settlement of this question. No relief need be looked for
+from it, therefore, under the circumstances. Relief, if it comes at all,
+must come from another quarter of the political system under which we
+live. And for such relief fortunately, the 14th amendment has adequately
+provided. All that is necessary to render the provision of this
+amendment, which is applicable to the present situation, effective are
+courage and common sense. But alas, courage and common sense in respect
+to this subject seem to be sadly lacking to-day both at the North and
+among the Negroes as well.
+
+The provision of the 14th amendment just referred to reads as follows:
+"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according
+to their respective numbers counting the whole number of persons in each
+state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any
+election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of
+the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and
+judicial officers of a state, or the members of the Legislature thereof,
+is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one
+years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged
+except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of
+representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the
+number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
+citizens twenty-one years of age in such state."
+
+Every Southern state has virtually by one device or another, since the
+adoption of the 14th and 15th amendments, denied to its colored citizens
+the right to vote. This was first done by the shot-gun method, which
+gave place in time to fraudulent manipulations of electoral returns, and
+this in turn to "grandfather" and "understanding clauses" administered
+by prejudiced registration boards in those states which have revised
+their constitutions. Says Professor Dunning in an article on "The
+Undoing of Reconstruction" in the Atlantic Monthly for October, 1901:
+"With the enactment of these constitutional amendments by the various
+states, the political equality of the Negro is becoming extinct in law
+as it has long been in fact, and the undoing of reconstruction is
+nearing completion." Now this statement is exactly true. The South has
+everywhere nullified in practice the 14th and 15th amendments to the
+Constitution. It denies to black men the right to vote, but it counts at
+the same time those same black men in the apportionment of its
+representatives. The present serf power therefore, enjoys to-day a right
+far greater than that enjoyed by the old slave power, for it counts five
+of its disfranchised black citizens not as three but as five free men.
+It has achieved the extraordinary feat of eating its political cake and
+keeping it at the same time.
+
+In South Carolina, for example, where the blacks outnumber the whites by
+224,326, and in Mississippi where the colored population is in excess of
+the white by 263,640, "the influence of the Negroes in political
+affairs," as put by Prof. Dunning, "is nil." And this is substantially
+true of almost everyone of the old slave states whether they have or
+have not revised their constitutions. Says Prof. DuBois: "To-day the
+black man of the South has almost nothing to say as to how much he shall
+be taxed, or how those taxes shall be expended, as to who shall make the
+laws and how they shall be made. It is pitiable that frantic efforts
+must be made at critical times to get law-makers in some states even to
+listen to the respectful presentation of the black side of a current
+controversy."
+
+Entrenched in the South to-day is an aristocracy based on race. The
+whole tendency of things down there is to de-citizenize the blacks, to
+reduce them to a state of permanent political and industrial
+subordination to the whites. This is aristocratizing the republic with a
+vengeance. For with the right to vote, the right to a voice in making
+the laws, denied to any class of people in an industrial republic like
+ours, such class must go from bad to worse in the struggle for bread,
+for existence, in competition with more favored classes. It does more:
+it reduces the efficiency of such a class as a producer of wealth not
+alone in respect to itself, but in respect to the section in which it
+lives as well. For whatever degrades and wrongs such a class degrades
+and wrongs the community and the country of which it forms a part. And
+there is no help for it, for such is the natural law of retribution
+which no "understanding" and "grandfather clauses" and registration
+boards, however adroitly devised, can in the long run possibly evade or
+nullify. This then is the deplorable economic situation with regard to
+whites and blacks alike in the Southern states, as a direct consequence
+of the undoing of the 14th and the 15th amendments to the Constitution
+by those States. The degradation of their black labor will ultimate in
+the degradation of their white labor also. In fact, the disfranchisement
+of the blacks operates practically everywhere down there as a
+disfranchisement of the great body of the whites likewise. For disuse of
+a power, whether physical or political, begets in time disinclination
+and then incapacity for exercising the same. The right to vote, under
+present political conditions which prevail throughout that section, is,
+as a matter of fact, exercised but by a small minority of the whites
+only. The total vote, for example, cast for representatives in Southern
+congressional districts is surprisingly slight in comparison with that
+cast in Northern congressional districts. The same is true of the vote
+for presidential electors, and for the executive, legislative and
+judicial officers of the various southern states for that matter. A
+handful of ruling whites, and that not of the best class as in
+antebellum times, casts to-day the entire vote of that section as
+represented by all of its black and a large majority of its white
+citizens, at national and state elections.
+
+For instance, the average vote cast for Congressmen by Northern
+congressional districts during the election of 1898 was over 35,000,
+while that cast by Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South
+Carolina, which are operated in effect on the Mississippi plan, was less
+than 5,000. The total vote cast for 37 congressmen by those five
+Southern states was only 184,602, while the total vote polled by the
+state of New York for 34 congressmen was 1,250,000, i. e. 184,602
+electors in those five Mississippi-ized states had actually a larger
+congressional representation by three than had the 1,250,000 voters of
+the Empire state. Again, take the case of Kansas, which though casting
+100,000 more votes at its congressional election in 1898, than were cast
+by these same five Southern states combined, yet Kansas had but seven
+representatives in Congress to guard and promote her peculiar interests
+against the 37 who sat in the House to guard and promote the peculiar
+interests of the ruling oligarchy of those five de-republicanized
+Southern states.
+
+But let us look more closely into this matter. Alabama with a population
+of 1,828,697, and nine representatives in Congress polled at the
+Congressional election, in 1902 a total vote of 90,105 for the nine
+districts, while the new state of Washington with a population of
+518,103 and three representatives polled at the same election a total
+vote of 93,681, i. e., there were 3,000 more votes polled to elect three
+congressmen in Washington than Alabama polled to elect nine. Again,
+Mississippi with a population of 1,531,270 and eight representatives in
+Congress polled at the same election a total vote of 18,058 for the
+eight congressional districts, while little Idaho with a population of
+161,772 and one representative polled at the same time a vote of 57,712,
+which exceeded more than three times the vote polled by Mississippi for
+eight representatives. Or let us take Louisiana with a population of
+1,381,625 and seven representatives in Congress, and her total vote of
+26,265 during the same election for seven districts and contrast these
+figures with those of Rhode Island with a population of 428,556 and two
+representatives. The Rhode Island figures are 56,064, or nearly double
+the vote of Louisiana for seven congressional districts. Or again, let
+us glance in passing at South Carolina with a population of 1,340,316
+and seven representatives in Congress, and New Hampshire with a
+population of 411,588 and two representatives. The first polled in 1902
+at the election of her seven congressmen 32,085 votes, and the second at
+the election of her two representatives polled at the same time 74,833.
+In other words, there were nearly 43,000 less votes polled in South
+Carolina to elect seven Congressmen than were polled in New Hampshire to
+elect two. To sum up: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South
+Carolina with an aggregate population of 6,106,908 and 31
+representatives in Congress cast in 1902 a total vote of 166,576 in 31
+congressional districts, while Idaho, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and
+Washington with an aggregate population of 1,500,000, and eight
+representatives polled at the same general elections a total vote of
+282,294 in their eight congressional districts. The average vote for
+each of the 31 Southern congressional districts was 5,530; while that
+for each of the eight Northern districts was 35,287. Why Massachusetts
+alone with a population of 2,805,346 and 14 representatives rolled up a
+vote to elect these 14 congressmen more than double that which the four
+Southern states with a population of over 6,000,000 polled to elect
+their 31 representatives!
+
+Again: At the presidential election last November the combined vote of
+Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina, for 39 electors was
+less than 200,000 or to be exact was just 186,253, while the vote of
+Massachusetts for 16 electors was 442,732. In other words, the vote of
+Massachusetts for her 16 representatives in the electoral college,
+exceeded that of the four Southern states for their 39 in the same body
+by more than 250,000 polls. Once more: Is it not immensely ominous and
+significant the marked shrinkage in 1904 of the popular vote for
+electors in Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia, states which had but
+recently revised their constitutions, as compared with the popular vote
+of the same states for electors in 1900? There was for example a
+shrinkage of the popular vote in Alabama of nearly 50,000 polls; in
+North Carolina the shrinkage amounted to nearly 85,000, and in Virginia
+it ran up to more than 135,000. These figures are eloquent of great
+wrongs done the Negro. They are not less eloquent of great dangers which
+now threaten to subvert free institutions in the Republic.
+
+Since the elections of 1898 things in the South went rapidly in respect
+to this subject from bad to worse. Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia
+followed the example of Mississippi and revised their constitutions.
+This reactionary movement of the Southern oligarchy has reached as far
+north as Maryland, and the work of aristocratizing her constitution and
+of Jim-Crowing her laws is now nearing completion. Where is this
+movement to stop? Will it halt south of Mason and Dixon's line unless
+drastic measures are speedily adopted by the National Government to
+arrest it? No, this aristocratic revolution will certainly, unless
+checked, invade the North, attacking and overthrowing first the
+political rights of black men in that section, and later those of other
+classes of citizens industrially and politically feebler than the rest
+until one after another of the states now free shall have succumbed to
+the rule of class and plutocratic power. Then indeed will the undoing of
+the 14th and the 15th amendments, and of democratic institutions in
+America, be complete. Not until then will the movement, which is fast
+aristocratizing the Republic, stop its steady advance. I am no alarmist,
+but am telling the sober truth. Those who have eyes to see, let them
+look around at the ominous signs of this advancing evil. Those who have
+ears to hear, may hear everywhere about them the foreboding sounds of
+this rising flood of wrong and inequality, this growing disregard for
+law, this denial to the people of a voice in government, whether state,
+colonial or national, which characterize the present period of our
+national history.
+
+It will not be impertinent for me to add by way of concluding this
+article, a few words regarding some of the political consequences, which
+would be sure to follow a reduction of Southern representation in
+Congress and the electoral college. It would, in the first place, reduce
+the political strength of the South as a factor in national legislation,
+diminish its relative importance as an element in national politics.
+That section is insolent, exacting and aggressive to-day on the Negro
+question because it has so much numerical strength in Congress and the
+electoral college by reason of its suppressed Negro vote. Reduce that
+strength by a judicious blood-letting to the number of twenty-five or
+thirty-five representatives and there will follow in due time a
+corresponding reduction of its arrogance and aggressiveness on the race
+question. For as it declines in relative strength in Congress and the
+electoral college it will decline in relative importance in management
+and leadership of the democratic party also. It will gradually lose its
+controlling influence over that party, cease ultimately to dominate it
+on the Negro question. The relative decline of the South in Congress and
+the electoral college-means, of course, the relative increase of the
+North in the same branch--means that in time the North will pay less
+heed to the claims of the South, to its threats, and more to the claims,
+to the case of the Negro. It means more. The relative decline of the
+South as a factor in national politics means the relative increase of
+the northern wing of the Democratic party in the control of that party,
+in the shaping for that party of a more liberal policy on the Negro
+question. For as the northern wing of this party gains in relative
+strength, in numerical importance over that of the South, it will be
+tempted more and more to solicit the support of the Negro vote of the
+North. In close elections and in pivotal states the Democrats of the
+North will thereupon make liberal declarations and positive bids in
+order to win this vote from the Republican party.
+
+This consideration brings me to a second consequence, which would follow
+a reduction of southern representation. And that is this: It will put an
+end to the present period of good will and peace between the sections,
+so disastrous to the rights of the Negro. Such a measure will usher in a
+period of bitter difference and strife between the two sections again.
+These differences will not arise merely between the Republicans of the
+North and the white South, but between democrats of the North and
+democrats of the South on the Negro question as well. For the northern
+wing of the Democratic party cannot bid for the colored vote of its
+section without offending the South and therefore sowing seeds of
+alienation and strife between them on the question of the rights and
+wrongs of the Negro, as a citizen. There will follow such differences
+and strife between the sections, a reaction at the North in favor of the
+Negro. Public sentiment for juster treatment of the race will gain
+thereafter steadily in strength. It will influence the Republican party
+to give to the question a more radical treatment than it now gives it,
+to take steps to enforce by appropriate legislation the 15th amendment
+of the Constitution. Such growing public sentiment in favor of according
+the Negro fairer treatment may do more, it may be able to reach even
+that pro-Southern tribunal, the Supreme Court, and put like the bees of
+the Bible honey for the race in its hitherto cold and unresponsive body.
+Even it may be influenced in time to twist the law in favor of human
+liberty, not against it, as now. And lastly, it will give the silent
+South a chance to be heard on the Negro question. It will give it a
+chance to appeal from those states drunk on the race question, to their
+sober second thought, a chance to show them the folly and madness of
+their disfranchisement and consequent degradation of their Negro labor
+as an economic factor in their development and civilization. And so
+liberal sentiment towards the Negro may be awakened in the South and be
+made thus to spread slowly downward as a leavening influence.
+
+And in the third place, reducing Southern representation in Congress and
+the electoral college will not hurt the Negro. It will not take away
+from him any right which he now enjoys down there. The doing so cannot
+in any way change his actual status either in law or in fact. He is now
+disfranchised; Congress will still have power to enforce the 15th
+amendment by appropriate legislation and it will do so whenever it can
+screw its courage to the sticking point. The reduction of Southern
+representation will certainly break up the present apathetic state of
+the country in respect to the Negro. With this breaking up there will
+follow a reaction in favor of freedom, and there will arise in due time
+a public sentiment which will bring legislation to enforce the right of
+the Colored people of the South to the ballot well within the range of
+the possible, yea of the probable, if the South persists after
+reduction,--but it will not long persist,--in its present purpose to
+nullify the 15th amendment, and to reduce its Colored people to a
+condition of a permanently subordinate and servile class, without rights
+as men or as citizens which southern white people are bound to respect.
+Let southern representation in Congress be therefore reduced. The sooner
+the better it will be for the Negro and the Nation.
+
+The law department of the United States Government has at last moved
+effectively against the meat trust. And I see that the Interstate
+Commerce Commission is looking into the charge that certain railroads
+are practicing by a system of rebates discrimination against shippers of
+live stock, and in favor of packing house products and dressed meats.
+But alas, how different has been the attitude of the national government
+toward investigating that greatest of all discriminations in the
+Republic, namely: the wholesale disfranchisement of Negroes in the South
+because they are Negroes. A few years ago one of the bravest and most
+far-seeing of the representatives of Massachusetts in either branch of
+Congress offered a resolution to investigate the subject merely. The
+administration, which was then, and they say is now opposed to meddling
+in this particular manner with the Southern question, was found equal to
+the occasion. When it failed to silence the voice of Congressman Moody
+regarding the matter, it lifted him with masterly state craft from the
+floor of the House, and landed him safely in the Cabinet where he is
+still, and where his silence might the better be secured. Thus passed
+the Moody resolution to dusty death, and the place which knew it once in
+Congress hath known it no more, and will know it no more forever.
+
+But there is another Congressman who for years has watched keenly the
+growth of this threatening evil, the growth of this wrong so subversive
+of the rights of the blacks at the South, and so harmful to the
+interests of our industrial democracy at the North. Five years ago he
+thought it was high time for the general government to address itself to
+that subject, and accordingly proposed from his place in Congress
+suitable measures for that purpose. Unfortunately for Congressman
+Crumpacker's proposition the presidential election of 1900 was at the
+time approaching and which, in the opinion of the McKinley
+administration, called loudly then for silence and oblivion on this
+vexed question. In obedience to this loud call of the Moloch of party
+success at the polls, Mr. Crumpacker's bill suffered death by
+asphyxiation in committee.
+
+The matter was, however, revived by Mr. Crumpacker in a subsequent
+Congress in the form of a resolution which provided for the appointment
+by the Speaker of a select committee of thirteen "whose duty it shall
+be, and who shall have full and ample power to investigate and inquire
+into the validity of the election laws of the several states and the
+manner of their enforcement, and whether the right to vote at any
+election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of
+the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and
+judicial officers of any of the states or the members of the legislature
+thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of any of the states,
+being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in
+any way abridged, except for crime." This resolution so reasonable,
+moderate, and just, fell a victim, so it was reported at the time, to a
+shrewd bargain struck between the Southern oligarchy on the one hand and
+the Republican managers of Cuban reciprocity on the other. The
+Crumpacker resolution was put to sleep amidst the dust heaps of old
+congressional documents, where it has slept without waking until the
+present session of Congress, when its profound slumber has been
+disturbed by renewed attempts made in both branches of the National
+legislature to revive the subject, and to do what the Republican
+national platform of 1904 pledged that party to do in the event of its
+triumph at the polls, according to the plain meaning and purpose of the
+following plank in that platform.
+
+"We favor such Congressional action as shall determine whether, by
+special discrimination, the elective franchise in any state has been
+unconstitutionally limited: and if such is the case we demand that
+representation in Congress and in the electoral college shall be
+proportionally reduced as directed by the Constitution of the United
+States."
+
+And while the Republican party hesitates to redeem its solemn pledge
+made to the people before the elections last November, the tide of
+intolerable wrong, of imminent peril:--of intolerable wrong to the
+blacks and of imminent peril to the Republic, is advancing nearer and
+rising higher and higher toward the point where to ignore it much longer
+will mean widespread and far-reaching disaster to our industrial
+democracy, to Republican institutions in America. On its crest I see
+approaching forces strong enough to subvert the Constitution, not only
+in the South but in the North--forces strong enough to uprear on its
+ruins the vast fabric of plutocratic empire and despotism.
+
+The warning is sounding in our ears, it is sounding in the ears of the
+people all over the land. Do we heed it, will they?
+
+
+
+
+The Penning of the Negro--_CHARLES CHAUVEAU COOK_
+
+
+*[The Negro in the States of the Revised Constitutions]*
+
+The following States have revised their constitutions for the purpose of
+excluding colored voters, and in the following order:--
+
+(1) MISSISSIPPI.
+
+Section 241, Article 12, constitution of Mississippi, defining who are
+electors:
+
+    "Every male inhabitant of the state, except idiots, insane
+    persons, and Indians not taxed, who is a citizen of the United
+    States, twenty-one years of age and upwards, who has resided in
+    the state two years, and one year in the election district * * *
+    in which he offers to vote and who is duly registered as
+    provided in this article, and who has never been convicted of
+    bribery, burglary, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under
+    false pretence, perjury, embezzlement, or bigamy, and who has
+    paid on or before the 1st day of February of the year in which
+    he offers to vote, all taxes which may have been legally
+    required of him and who shall produce to the officer holding the
+    election satisfactory evidence that he has paid his taxes."
+
+Section 242 of Article 12, further provides that persons offering to
+register shall take the following oath:
+
+    "I do solemnly swear that I am twenty one years old and that I
+    will have resided in the state two years and (this) election
+    district for one year preceding the ensuing election, and am now
+    in good faith a resident of the same, and that I am not
+    disqualified from voting by reason of having been convicted of
+    any of the crimes mentioned in the constitution of this state as
+    a disqualification to be an elector, that I will truly answer
+    _all questions propounded to me concerning my antecedents so far
+    as they relate to my right to vote_ and also as to _my residence
+    before my citizenship in this district,_ that I will support the
+    constitution of the United States and of the state of
+    Mississippi and will bear true faith and allegiance to the
+    same--so help me God.
+
+    Any willful and corrupt false statement in said affidavit or in
+    answer to any material question propounded as herein authorized
+    shall be perjury."
+
+Section 244, Article 12, constitution of Mississippi, requires that:
+
+    "On and after the first day of January, 1892, every elector in
+    addition to the foregoing qualifications, shall be able to read
+    any section of the constitution of this state; or shall be able
+    to understand the same when read to him, or give a reasonable
+    interpretation thereof."
+
+(2) SOUTH CAROLINA.
+
+    Subdivision (c). "Up to January 1, 1898, all male persons of
+    voting age applying for registration, who can read any section
+    of this constitution submitted to them, _or understand and
+    explain it_ when read to them by the registration officer, shall
+    be entitled to registration and become electors."
+
+    Subdivision (d). "Any person who shall apply for registration
+    after January 1, 1898, if otherwise qualified, shall be
+    registered: _Provided_ that he can both read and write any
+    section of the constitution submitted to him by the registration
+    officer or can show that he owns and has paid taxes collectible
+    during the previous year on property in this state assessed at
+    three hundred dollars ($300) or more."
+
+(3) LOUISIANA.
+
+    Section 3. "He (the voter) shall be able to read and write, and
+    shall demonstrate his ability to do so when he applies for
+    registration, by making, under oath administered by the
+    registration officer or his deputy, written application
+    therefor, in the English language, or his mother tongue, which
+    application shall contain the essential facts necessary to show
+    that he is entitled to register and vote, and shall be entirely
+    written, dated, and signed by him, in the presence of the
+    registration officer or his deputy, without assistance or
+    suggestion from any person or memorandum whatever, except the
+    form of application hereinafter set forth: _Provided, however,_
+    That if the applicant be unable to write his application in the
+    English language, he shall have the right, if he so demands, to
+    write the same in his mother tongue from the dictation of an
+    interpreter; and if the applicant is unable to write his
+    application by reason of physical disability, the same shall be
+    written at his dictation by the registration officer or his
+    deputy, upon his oath of such disability. The application for
+    registration, above provided for, shall be a copy of the
+    following form, with the proper names, dates, and numbers
+    substituted for the blanks appearing therein, to wit:
+
+    "I am a citizen of the State of Louisiana. My name is ----. I
+    was born in the State (or country) of ----, parish (or county)
+    of ----, on the ---- day of ----, in the year ----. I am now
+    ---- years ---- months and ---- days of age. I have resided in
+    this State since ----, and am not disfranchised by any provision
+    of the constitution of this State."
+
+    Section 4. "If he be not able to read and write, provided by
+    section 3 of this article, then he shall be entitled to register
+    and vote if he shall, at the time he offers to register, be the
+    bona fide owner of property assessed to him in this State at a
+    valuation of not less than $300 on the assessment roll of the
+    current year, if the roll of the current year shall not then
+    have been completed and filed and on which, if such property be
+    personal only, all taxes due shall have been paid."
+
+    Section 5. "No male person who was on January 1, 1867, or at any
+    date prior thereto, entitled to vote under the constitution or
+    statute of any State of the United States, wherein he then
+    resided, and no son or grandson of any such person not less than
+    21 years of age at the date of the adoption of this
+    constitution, and no male person of foreign birth, who was
+    naturalized prior to the first day of January, 1898, shall be
+    denied the right to register and vote in this State by reason of
+    his failure to possess the educational or property
+    qualifications prescribed by this constitution: _Provided_, He
+    shall have resided in this State for five years next preceding
+    the date at which he shall apply for registration, and shall
+    have registered in accordance with the terms of this article
+    prior to September 1, 1898; and no person shall be entitled to
+    register under this section after said date."
+
+(4) NORTH CAROLINA.
+
+    Section 4. "Every person presenting himself for registration
+    shall be able to read and write any section of the constitution
+    in the English language; and, before he shall be entitled to
+    vote, he shall have paid, on or before the 1st day of May of the
+    year in which he proposes to vote, his poll tax for the previous
+    year as prescribed by Article V, section 1, of the constitution.
+    But no male person who was, on January 1, 1867, or at any time
+    prior thereto, entitled to vote under the laws of any state in
+    the United States wherein he then resided, and no lineal
+    descendant of any such person, shall be denied the right to
+    register and vote at any election in this State by reason of his
+    failure to possess the educational qualification herein
+    prescribed, provided he shall have registered in accordance with
+    the terms of this section prior to December, 1908.
+
+    "The general assembly shall provide for the registration of all
+    persons entitled to vote without the educational qualifications
+    herein prescribed, and shall, on or before November 1, 1908,
+    provide for the making of a permanent record of such
+    registration, and all persons so registered shall forever
+    thereafter have the right to vote in all elections by the people
+    in this State, unless disqualified under section 2 of this
+    article: _Provided_, Such person shall have paid his poll tax as
+    above required."
+
+(5) ALABAMA (in effect Nov. 28th, 1901.) entitled to register:--
+
+These sections of the Alabama constitution were before the Supreme Court
+in the case of _Giles v. Harris_, (189 U. S. 475,) and the general plan
+of voting and registration was summarized by Mr. Justice Holmes,
+delivering the opinion of the court as follows:
+
+    "By section 178 of article 8, to entitle a person to vote he
+    must have resided in the State at least two years, in the county
+    one year and in the precinct or ward three months, immediately
+    preceding the election; have paid his poll tax, and have been
+    duly registered as an elector. By section 182, idiots, insane
+    persons and those convicted of certain crimes are disqualified.
+    Subject to the foregoing, by section 180, before 1903 the
+    following male citizens of the State, who are citizens of the
+    United States, were entitled to register, viz: First. All who
+    had served honorably in the enumerated wars of the United
+    States, including those on either side of the 'war between the
+    States.' Second. All lawful descendants of persons who served
+    honorably in the enumerated wars or in the war of the
+    Revolution. Third. 'All persons who are of good character and
+    who understand the duties and obligations of citizenship under a
+    republican form of government.' By section 181 after January 1,
+    1903, only the following persons are entitled to register:
+    First. Those who can read and write any article of the
+    Constitution of the United States in the English language, and
+    who either are physically unable to work or have been regularly
+    engaged in some lawful business for the greater part of the last
+    twelve months, and those who are unable to read and write solely
+    because physically disabled. Second. Owners or husbands of
+    owners of forty acres of land in the State, upon which they
+    reside, and owners or husbands of owners of real or personal
+    estate in the State assessed for taxation at three hundred
+    dollars or more [...] [By section] 183, only persons qualified
+    as electors can take part in any method of party action. By
+    section 184, persons not registered are disqualified from
+    voting. By section 185, an elector whose vote is challenged
+    shall be required to swear that the matter of the challenge is
+    untrue before his vote shall be received. By Section 186, the
+    legislature is to provide for registration after January 1,
+    1903, the qualifications and oaths of the registrars are
+    prescribed, the duties of the registrars before that date are
+    laid down, and an appeal is given to the county court and
+    Supreme Court if registration is denied. There are further
+    executive details in section 187, together with the
+    above-mentioned continuance of the effect of registration before
+    January 1, 1903. By section 188, after the last-mentioned date
+    applicants for registration may be examined under oath as to
+    where they have lived for the last five years, the names by
+    which they have been known, and the names of their employers."
+
+(6) VIRGINIA. (in effect July 10th, 1902.)
+
+    Article II, Section 18. "Every male citizen of the United
+    States, twenty-one years of age, who has been a resident of the
+    State two years, of the county, city or town one year, and of
+    the precinct in which he offers to vote, thirty days, next
+    preceding the election in which he offers to vote, has been
+    registered, and has paid his state poll taxes, as hereinafter
+    required, shall be entitled to vote for members of the General
+    Assembly and all officers elected by the people; but removal
+    from one precinct to another, in the same county, city or town
+    shall not deprive any person of his right to vote in the
+    precinct from which he has moved, until the expiration of thirty
+    days after such removal."
+
+    Section 19. "There shall be general registrations in the
+    counties, cities and towns of the State during the years
+    nineteen hundred and two and nineteen hundred and three at such
+    times and in such manner as may be prescribed by an ordinance of
+    this Convention. At such registrations every male citizen of the
+    United States having the qualifications of age and residence
+    required in Section Eighteen shall be entitled to register, if
+    he be:
+
+    "First. A person who, prior to the adoption of this
+    Constitution, served in time of war in the army or navy of the
+    United States, of the Confederate States, or of any State of the
+    United States or of the Confederate States; or
+
+    "Second. A son of any such person; or
+
+    "Third. A person, who owns property, upon which, for the year
+    next preceding that in which he offers to register, state taxes
+    aggregating at least one dollar, have been paid; or
+
+    "Fourth. A person able to read any section of this Constitution,
+    submitted to him by the officers of registration and to give a
+    reasonable explanation of the same; or, if unable to read such
+    section, able to understand and give a reasonable explanation
+    thereof when read to him by the officers.
+
+    "A roll containing the names of all persons thus registered,
+    sworn to and certified by the officers of registration, shall be
+    filed, for record and preservation, in the clerk's office of the
+    circuit court of the county, or the clerk's office of the
+    corporation court of the city, as the case may be. Persons thus
+    enrolled shall not be required to register again, unless they
+    shall have ceased to be residents of the State, or become
+    disqualified by section Twenty-three. Any person denied
+    registration under this section shall have the right of appeal
+    to the circuit court of his county, or the corporation court of
+    his city, or to the judge thereof in vacation."
+
+    Section 20. "After the first day of January, nineteen hundred
+    and four, every male citizen of the United States, having the
+    qualifications of age and residence required in section
+    Eighteen, shall be entitled to register, provided:
+
+    "First. That he has personally paid to the proper officer all
+    state poll taxes assessed or assessable against him, under this
+    or the former Constitution, for the three years next preceding
+    that in which he offers to register;
+
+    "Second. That, unless physically unable, he make application to
+    register in his own hand-writing, without aid, suggestion or
+    memorandum, in the presence of the registration officers,
+    stating therein his name, age, date and place of birth,
+    residence and occupation at the time and for the two years next
+    preceding, and whether he has previously voted, and, if so, the
+    state, county and precinct in which he voted last; and,
+
+    "Third. That he answer on oath any and all questions affecting
+    his qualifications as an elector, submitted to him by the
+    officers of registration, which questions, and his answers
+    thereto, shall be reduced to writing, certified by the said
+    officers, and preserved as a part of their official records."
+
+    Section 21. "Any person registered under either of the last two
+    sections, shall have the right to vote for members of the
+    General Assembly and all officers elective by the people,
+    subject to the following conditions:
+
+    "That he, unless exempted by section Twenty-two, shall, as a
+    prerequisite to the right to vote after the first day of
+    January, nineteen hundred and four, personally pay, at least six
+    months prior to the election, all state poll taxes assessed or
+    assessable against him under this Constitution, during the three
+    years next preceding that in which he offers vote; provided
+    that, if he register after the first day of January, nineteen
+    hundred and four, he shall, unless physically unable, prepare
+    and deposit his ballot without aid, on such printed form as the
+    law may prescribe; but any voter registered prior to that date
+    may be aided in the preparation of his ballot by such officer of
+    election as he himself may designate."
+
+    Section 22. "No person who, during the late war between the
+    States, served in the army or navy of the United States, or the
+    Confederate States, or any State of the United States, or of the
+    Confederate States, shall at any time be required to pay a poll
+    tax as a prerequisite to the right to register or vote."
+
+    Section 23. "The following persons shall be excluded from
+    registering and voting: Idiots, insane persons, and paupers;
+    persons who, prior to the adoption of this Constitution, were
+    disqualified from voting, by conviction of crime, either within
+    or without this State, and whose disabilities shall not have
+    been removed, persons convicted after the adoption of this
+    Constitution, either within or without this State, of treason,
+    or of any felony, bribery, petit larceny, etc."
+
+The intention of these acts needs no showing. They have three points in
+common: (a) Some device enabling all the white voters to evade the force
+of the disfranchising clauses; (b) The limiting clauses themselves which
+deprive a majority of the colored voters of their franchise; (c) The
+reservation of sufficient discretionary power in boards of registrars to
+enable them to give full effect to the acknowledged purpose of the
+framers of the constitutions. I know of no lesson they can teach us,
+except how to do the things we ought not to do. In some cases, by
+knowing the way down, one may, by reversing the steps taken, regain the
+lost height. But it is not so here; our fall, like our rise, has been
+too sudden. We have been thrown from a window, and before we could
+understand our position, legislated out of a back gate. Only by superior
+chicane can we repair the second injury, only by superior force repair
+the first--unless there be justice in the heart of the nation. It
+behooves us then to study carefully the state of public opinion in the
+country, which underlies these laws, and gives them whatever stability
+they possess.
+
+There is, of course, a series of events leading up to this radical
+change in the institutions of the Republic, a history beginning before
+the formation of the Union itself. The first part was African slavery.
+Religious, moral and economic forces had acted upon serfdom, the more
+common sort of slavery in Europe, and aided by the resulting increase of
+vigor among the serfs themselves, had disintegrated it. But these forces
+either did not act upon the trade in Negro slaves, when profits to be
+obtained from that traffic filled the minds of merchants, or were
+helpless to stop it. The New World was not, like the Old, overcrowded,
+but in need of laborers--and the slaves were blacks. Tropical South
+America, the West Indies, and the hot belt of the United States absorbed
+hundreds of thousands of Negro slaves. All the forces above enumerated
+set to work again after a time and slavery once more began to
+disintegrate. In this country it had become firmly rooted in the
+Southern states, where the same American people who had fought in '76
+for the freedom of two million white men, women and children fought as
+stubbornly to keep in slavery four million black men, women and
+children. But victory was again to crown the cause of freedom, and by
+the will of the victors, forced forward by the unbroken spirit of
+resistance of the conquered, these four millions of slaves were declared
+possessed of freedom, civil rights and political privileges.
+
+Said Lord Shaftesbury to Charles the Second, when called on for his
+resignation as Lord Chancellor, "It is only to lay aside the gown and
+take up the sword." The South, defeated in arms, reversed the process,
+and laying down the musket, put on the gown of the law-maker, and began
+to accomplish by legislation, the reenslavement of the millions set
+free. Hampered in this, for a time by the armies and the northern civil
+officers, who obtained power largely by the suffrage of the colored
+people, and by the colored voters themselves, the Southern men waited
+for the withdrawal of the Union armies--an event hastened by outcry at
+home--and then taking out the side-arms, which the generous terms of
+surrender had permitted them to retain, they rapidly dispersed the
+opposing force, and took the reins of government again into their own
+hands. With musket in one hand to retain political power, and pen in the
+other to undo the Reconstruction legislation, they soon deprived the
+black millions of all their transitory political and civil rights. It is
+hard to see that anything remained to be done. Emancipation laws and
+proclamations to the contrary, the Negro seemed safely penned. But moral
+and economic forces were still at work, and the end was not yet reached.
+
+The South could no longer close its eyes to the want of prosperity. In
+1890, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and
+Louisiana, in spite of their 262,175 square miles and abundant
+resources, had but 8,346,667 people and 288,405,107 dollars worth of
+manufactured products. An equal territory in the States of the North,
+namely; Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
+Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio and
+Illinois with 260,823 square miles had 25,074,143 people and
+6,484,643,842 dollars worth of manufactured products--which is to say,
+the Southern states had but one-third of the population, and
+one-twenty-second of the manufactures of the same area North. The South
+wanting prosperity began to seek ways of obtaining it. This led to the
+consideration of obstacles: and first among these was the large and
+economically inefficient colored population. It must be made, for want
+of other labor, productive, a contributory agent to the new industrial
+prosperity of the South--and not the less, cut off from any sort of
+control, even of the industries, which by its labor must mainly be built
+up. The problem was a difficult one, yet such as the South felt itself
+able to solve. And many in the North stood ready to help.
+
+In 1890, however, came troubles so serious as to require a diversion of
+attention from economical to political problems. The Republican party
+pledge to secure for all citizens 'a free ballot and a fair count' was
+yet unredeemed; and in that year a debate broke out in Congress over the
+fulfilling of its promise, with an Elections bill as the means.
+Simultaneously, the Populist movement was growing to threatening
+proportions. Before this, the cry had been that the Negro by sheer
+numbers could dominate, if not prevented from doing so. But now there
+presented itself a new and more threatening danger. "In any state where
+the whites divide," said Mr. Tillman in the Senate in 1900, "and they
+have divided in every Southern State except mine and Mississippi--into
+Populists and Democrats--the Negro has been the balance of power." The
+Populist movement died, but this phantasm once evoked, of a black man
+poised at the centre of the party see-saw, continued to hover at the
+beck of its creators until again wanted. The occasion, this time a
+lasting one, has been found in the balance of the Republican and the
+Democratic parties in the "border" states. So in Maryland, for a while,
+a "doubtful" state, where the colored population is but one-fifth of the
+whole, a disfranchising law is justified, apparently, by the danger to
+good government of allowing the Republican party to obtain control.
+Again, in the county and town election contests, even in the Southern
+states where the Democratic party is in entire possession of the State
+government, this compact(?) and mobile(?) army of black voters occupies
+a position of such strategical importance that unless they be dislodged
+by the most radical method their mastery must be forever
+acknowledged(?). Now, to conclude, since a dozen colored voters might
+hold the balance of power in town or county, the bitter irony of the
+situation is overwhelming.[1] The South is simply driven by its own
+irrefutable(?) logic to total disfranchisement of the Negro, there being
+no safe stopping point short of the practical exclusion of the colored
+inhabitants of a dozen or more states from any part in the making or
+administering of the laws, national, state or municipal under which they
+live(!). All this the South, impelled by her honest desire(!) for good
+government, and resolutely turning her back upon past methods of fraud
+and violence,(!) means to accomplish legally--provided Congress and the
+Supreme Court throw over her naked but unalterable will the broad mantle
+of legality.
+
+ [1] In West Virginia there are, on the Census basis (958,800 = whole
+     population, less 43,499-colored population = 915,301-white
+     population, divided by 3.6 = ratio of white population, generally
+     to white males of voting age.) 254,250 white voters; and (43,499 =
+     colored population, divided by 4.3-ratio of colored population to
+     colored male adults = 10,116 colored voters, of whom 32.3 per cent.
+     are illiterate, = 3267 illiterate colored men,) but 3,267
+     illiterate colored voters, or about one eightieth of the electorate
+     (257,517 divided by 3,267): yet, even though the national ticket
+     threatened to be hurt by it, it was impossible to stifle the cry
+     for disfranchisement of ignorant black voters as the paramount
+     issue of the West Virginia democratic campaign of 1904.
+
+We are reminded of the story of the princess, who wandering in rags,
+came to a palace and begged accommodation there befitting one of royal
+blood. The old queen, not sure that she was a princess, determined to
+test her veracity in this way: She lay a pea upon the floor and piled
+upon it a dozen feather-beds. If she felt the pea, it was plain that she
+was a true princess. Morning came none too soon for the unhappy lady,
+who confessed to the queen having spent a miserable night, something
+hard in her bed having bruised her till she was black and blue. No
+longer could the queen doubt that she was a real princess, for who else
+could have been so delicate. And she was forthwith married to the heir
+apparent to the throne. So the South acts on the belief that if she be
+absolutely intolerant of the slightest degree of political power in the
+hands of colored men, that the North must see in the very violence of
+her antipathy, the hopelessness of any other solution.
+
+This happily settled, the South after fifteen years of uncertainty,
+hopes to be able to turn her attention to material problems. But though
+the Caesars may rob February of days to enrich July and August, the
+seasons remain unchanged. The economic and moral laws of the universe
+remain in operation and give assurance that no solution can be more than
+temporary in which the Negro is dealt with falsely and unjustly.
+
+Meantime what had been the course of the Republican party, which, by its
+own declaration "had reconstructed the Union with freedom instead of
+slavery as its corner-stone?" Listen to the reading of the suffrage
+planks in the platforms of ten presidential campaigns:--
+
+[1868.]
+
+The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the
+South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of
+gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained; while the question of
+suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the people of those
+States.
+
+The recent amendments to the National Constitution should be cordially
+sustained because they are right, not merely tolerated because they are
+law, and should be carried out according to their spirit by appropriate
+legislation, the enforcement of which can safely be entrusted only to
+the party that secured those amendments.
+
+[1872.]
+
+Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all civil,
+political and public rights should be established and effectually
+maintained throughout the Union by efficient and appropriate State and
+Federal legislation. Neither the law nor its administration should admit
+any discrimination in respect of citizens by reason of race, creed,
+color or previous condition of servitude.
+
+[1876.]
+
+The Republican party has preserved these governments to the hundredth
+anniversary of the Nation's birth, and they are now embodiments of the
+great truth spoken at its cradle--"that all men are created equal; that
+they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among
+which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that for the
+attainment of these ends governments have been instituted among men,
+deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Until
+these truths are cheerfully obeyed, or, if need be, vigorously enforced,
+the work of the Republican party is unfinished.
+
+The permanent pacification of the Southern section of the Union and the
+complete protection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all
+their rights is a duty to which the Republican party stands sacredly
+pledged. The power to provide for the enforcement of the principles
+embodied in the recent Constitutional Amendments is vested by those
+amendments in the Congress of the United States, and we declare it to be
+the solemn obligation of the legislative and executive departments of
+the Government to put into immediate and vigorous exercise all their
+constitutional powers for removing any just causes of discontent on the
+part of any class, and for securing to every American citizen complete
+liberty and exact equality in the exercise of all civil, political and
+public rights. To this end we imperatively demand a Congress and a Chief
+Executive whose courage and fidelity to these duties shall not falter
+until these results are placed beyond dispute or recall.
+
+[1880.]
+
+The dangers of a "Solid South" can only be averted by a faithful
+performance of every promise which the Nation has made to the citizen.
+The execution of the laws, and the punishment of all those who violate
+them, are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be
+secured and genuine prosperity established throughout the South.
+Whatever promises the Nation makes the Nation must perform. A Nation
+cannot with safety relegate this duty to the States. The "Solid South"
+must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all honest
+opinions must there find free expression. To this end the honest voter
+must be protected against terrorism, violence or fraud.
+
+[1884.]
+
+The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon the maintenance of a free
+ballot, an honest count, and correct returns. We denounce the fraud and
+violence practiced by the Democracy in Southern States, by which the
+will of a voter is defeated, as dangerous to the preservation of free
+institutions; and we solemnly arraign the Democratic party as being the
+guilty recipient of fruits of such fraud and violence.
+
+We extend to the Republicans of the South, regardless of their former
+party affiliations, our cordial sympathy, and pledge to them our most
+earnest efforts to promote the passage of such legislation as will
+secure to every citizen, of whatever race and color, the full and
+complete recognition, possession and exercise of all civil and political
+rights.
+
+[1888.]
+
+We reaffirm our unswerving devotion to the national Constitution and to
+the indissoluble union of the States; to the autonomy reserved to the
+States under the Constitution; to the personal rights and liberties of
+citizens in all the States and Territories in the Union, and especially
+to the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or
+poor, native or foreign born, white or black, to cast one free ballot in
+public elections and to have that ballot duly counted. We hold the free
+and honest popular ballot and the just and equal representation of all
+the people to be the foundation of our republican government, and demand
+effective legislation to secure the integrity and purity of elections,
+which are the fountains of all public authority.
+
+[1892.]
+
+We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to
+cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public elections, and that
+such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast; that such laws shall
+be enacted and enforced as will secure to every citizen, be he rich or
+poor, native or foreign born, white or black, this sovereign right
+guaranteed by the Constitution. The free and honest popular ballot, the
+just and equal representation of all the people, as well as their just
+and equal protection under the laws, are the foundation of our
+Republican institutions, and the party will never relent its efforts
+until the integrity of the ballot and the purity of elections shall be
+fully guaranteed and protected in every State.
+
+[1896.]
+
+We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to
+cast one free and unrestricted ballot, and that such ballot to be
+counted and returned as cast.
+
+[1900.]
+
+It was the plain purpose of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution
+to prevent discrimination on account of race or color in regulating the
+elective franchise. Devices of State governments, whether by statutory
+or constitutional enactment, to avoid the purpose of this amendment are
+revolutionary, and should be condemned.
+
+[1904.]
+
+We favor such Congressional action as shall determine whether by special
+discriminations the elective franchise in any State has been
+unconstitutionally limited, and, if such is the case, we demand that
+representation in Congress and in the electoral colleges shall be
+proportionally reduced as directed by the Constitution of the United
+States.
+
+From '68 till '96 there was posted on the bill-boards of the party, the
+same declaration in favor of a free and unrestricted ballot, supported
+by the unyielding determination of the party to protect this right. But
+in that year there came a change. Perhaps it was that the mass of
+unredeemed pledges fell of their own weight, and the time seemed
+opportune to substitute a less weighty declaration; perhaps the party
+only sought a more efficient means of accomplishing its unalterable
+purpose. Whatever the cause, there began from this time, a diminuendo
+which has grown fainter until in 1904 the 15th Amendment was heard no
+more. To time, some say, must be left this task, too great for a
+political party to perform. But there is grave danger in leaving to time
+the execution of justice. The evil grows, the power of correcting it
+diminishes. Early in its course injustice may be stopped, later perhaps
+not at all. The future course of the party with regard 'to the supreme
+and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, white or
+black, to cast one free ballot in public elections and to have that
+ballot duly counted,' is gravely complicated by the rapid and momentous
+changes taking place in American society.
+
+The gulf between the sections, which the Constitution merely bridged
+proved so deep, because it grew out of differences in the social, if not
+the moral natures of the inhabitants of the two parts of the country.
+These types have been compared to those opposed in the English Civil
+War, and hence called Puritan and Cavalier. But whatever the name, the
+differential fact was this: in the North men and women did their own
+work, while in the South others did their work for them. Until this
+great economic and social difference, which made diverging ideals,
+diverging habits, diverging tastes, ceased to be, real sympathy was
+impossible. That gulf, which widened into bitter civil war, is now
+closing; the two types are drawing nearer; the divorce between sections
+is shifting around to a divorce between classes. Therefore it is that in
+a part of the writing and ruling class, we feel that there is a
+gravitating of morals southward.[2] The North, which spent millions in
+lives and money to destroy Negro slavery in the South, seems engaged in
+making white slaves at home. If the political and social position of the
+white laborer in the North is declining, our chance of obtaining justice
+through active Northern sympathy is greatly lessened. In this issue
+which remains that of the comparative "hideousness" of the slave-holder
+and the slave, every foot added to the social separation of the Northern
+employer and employee is a stroke in the knell of political equality for
+the Negro.
+
+ [2] "The Republican party in its work of imposing the sovereignty of
+     the United States upon eight millions of Asiatics, has changed its
+     views in regard to the political relation of races and has at last
+     virtually accepted the ideas of the South upon that subject. The
+     white men of the South need now have no further fear that the
+     Republican party, or Republican administrations, will ever again
+     give themselves over to the vain imagination of the political
+     equality of man."
+
+     --[Burgess--Reconstruction and the Constitution, page 298.]
+
+It is a mistake, therefore, to assume that there is active in the
+country a spirit of freedom strong enough to set us free; a power
+employed in doing justice, strong enough to do justice to us. The
+country is returning to the conditions existing before '61, even passing
+these and returning to the conditions existing before 1776,--in
+politics, because it is doing the same in _morals_. Moral betterment
+requires that we put a deeper, broader and stronger foundation under the
+old foundation of our lives; and this can only be done by removing each
+day a bit of sand and filling in the space with stone. Days of
+tremendous business activity, or national triumph are not likely to be
+so spent.
+
+We _must_ not make the mistake of assuming that there is power in the
+nation to do us justice. "Not in a republic," some one may ask? No! Von
+Holst says: "That virtue is the specific vital principle of republics is
+a delusion. The historical course of development, natural circumstances,
+material interests and political and social customs are the elements by
+which, in all states without exception, the form of the state is in the
+first place conditioned." Not after the pledges of the Constitution,
+again it may be asked? No, the Constitution is an ideal, not a real body
+of law. Von Holst wrote: "Polk had once stated that the nature of
+American institutions offered the world ample security that the United
+States would never pursue a policy of aggressive conquest.
+Notwithstanding the commentary that he had himself given on this
+proposition, it contained a kernel of significant truth. The nature of
+their institutions forbade the United States to hold in violent
+subjection, under the iron hand of conquest, a realm of the extent of
+Mexico for any length of time. This would soon have become so perfectly
+clear to the people that they would either have driven the originator
+and guiding spirit of the war in shame and disgrace from his office and
+dignity, and have reduced all these conditions of peace to the utmost
+moderation, or they would have proceeded to a formal and complete
+incorporation of Mexico with the Union." And before 1900, as a result of
+the war with Spain, the impossible, the absolutely forbidden by the
+nature of their institutions had been accomplished. How obscure the
+vision of the historian! The Constitution is not written in the hearts
+of the American people, but in the sky, where it is hidden every cloudy
+day. And yet again, it will be asked: Not in the New World, not in
+America? Justice demands a careful consideration of every case; it
+cannot be machine-made; it cannot be wholesaled. The exact measure of
+justice is hard to find, harder to administer; it cannot be had without
+patient search, calm temper, righteousness, courage. I know not whether
+America has time to seek the intricate path of justice, or patience and
+courage to follow it when found. The cry 'forward' grows even louder,
+more insistent, more passionate. Can the country safely put down the
+brakes; dare it turn from its rapid way to material prosperity? But a
+little greater momentum is needed and reactionaries will rise only to be
+irresistibly swept aside. Doubts, weariness, exhaustion even will not
+stop the rapidly revolving wheels. Only in the _wake_ of such frenzied
+progress there will follow rest, the rest of death. Study the wreckage
+in the South in the trail of slavery, black, and what is far worse,
+white illiteracy, brutality, wretched sloth. Observe the turning of
+defeat in the struggle into despair, then stagnation upon which forms a
+film, a scum, a crust which becomes strong enough to defy efforts to
+break it. So is brought about the stratification of society called
+caste. Above, the upper world, ever turning to law and punishment to
+crush those who threaten this floor, upon which they stand from beneath,
+ever appealing to the prejudices of their class to persecute into
+submission those whose sense of justice or generosity threatens the
+crust from above. Beneath, the under world, sweating, spawning,
+gathering from its own misery and the dregs of vice and luxury from
+above poison, and shaping from its own eager thousands of ambitious
+men,--yes, and after the boldest men of the class above, fangs, that it
+may become all that revolution is wont to be.
+
+In such a society is born the conqueror, man of destiny, as he seems. In
+mountain, in desert or in slum, he may have his birth. Oftenest he is a
+military, yet sometimes a spiritual conqueror. In the west of Europe,
+two thousand years ago was born Julius Caesar; in the East, Jesus
+Christ. From mountain, wilderness and slum, each drew his followers.
+Caesar gathered the driftwood of the decaying Republic into an army, and
+upon this bridge crossed the Rubicon and established empire. Christ,
+too, gathered up the driftwood of decaying Rome and fashioned out of it
+that noble band which is the inspiration of every true Church in the
+Christian world. The classes you would disfranchise will become the
+makers of a political slum. They are materials for working out the glory
+or the ruin of the nation. Exclude them from the benefits, the
+privileges of other classes and you invite criminality: from outcast to
+outlaw is but one step. Include them, and who can measure the addition
+to the sum of human happiness? In the answer to the question: what
+forces are at work checking the too great increase of a people? what is
+the principle of selection? what sort are disappearing, what sort
+preserved?--may be read the country's destiny.
+
+Outside of the slave states, equal participation in the government by
+all citizens has been the foundation stone of the Republic. For a brief
+moment slavery was dead, and all men were freemen. But slavery is alive
+again, and if its growth is not resisted, will again be restored in all
+but name. The words of Calhoun deserve to be called a prophecy.
+"_Without political and social equality_," he said, "_to change the
+condition of the African race would be but to change the form of
+slavery."_ The South accepts the alternative and resolves that, whatever
+the cost, political and social equality shall never be. The North must
+yield; _she_ will not. While some are trusting to the finality of the
+13th Amendment, others to industrial opportunity, others still to
+political without social equality, the South with bull-dog tenacity
+sticks to her resolution that there shall be none of these. But a year
+ago Carl Schurz declared: "There will be a movement either in the
+direction of reducing the Negro to a permanent condition of serfdom ...
+or a movement in the direction of recognizing him as a citizen in the
+true sense of the term. One or the other will prevail."
+
+Are there reasons wanting why the nation should keep true to its
+foundation principles? Granting that the pathway to freedom is now
+harder to follow, should the forward movement be abandoned? How else
+than by manfully pressing on to a broad humanity, can the Republic,
+reconstructed with freedom as its corner-stone, remain? As the old cords
+fail to hold together the more distant and divided political and ethnic
+units of population, there must be woven new bonds of sympathy,--at
+least, of toleration, else some must be hung with chains. There are
+many, many reasons, rulers of the commonwealth, why the electorate
+should not be reduced:--
+
+Above all, it is selfish. "The continual and diligent elevation of that
+lower mass which human society everywhere is constantly precipitating,"
+to borrow the words of Cable, is incompatible with the _spirit_ of
+restriction.
+
+It is inequitable. For, again quoting from this author: "There is no
+safe protection but self-protection: poverty needs at least as much
+civil equipment, for self-protection as property needs: the right and
+liberty to acquire intelligence, virtue and wealth are just as precious
+as the right and liberty to maintain them, and need quite as much
+self-protection."
+
+It is subversive of the republican basis of the state,--tending as it
+does to deposit more and more political power in the hands of fewer and
+fewer men. From "all up" to "some down" in the matter of political
+rights is a precipitous leap: but this step once taken, a gentle slope
+succeeds. From many to fewer members of the privileged class, the mind
+advances easily, with no intrusive principle to block the way. If a poll
+tax of one dollar can be made a condition of voting regardless of
+ability to pay it, then why not ten or twenty? If a poll tax, why not a
+property tax, or wealth? If ability to interpret the Constitution, why
+not a college education?
+
+As restriction is practiced in the South, it breeds contempt for the
+law:
+
+And increasing unrest, for like a snowball it swells and gathers fresh
+resistance as it goes:
+
+And dishonesty, for the disfranchising laws are not being lived up to.
+This is inherent, for the acquisition of the required knowledge or
+wealth would defeat the very object of the law. It puts a premium upon
+ignorance, for thereby the desired end of disfranchisement is
+furthered:--And upon thriftlessness, for the same reason;--And upon
+criminality and false charges of crime, since even this price must be
+paid by those determined to work their will.
+
+What evils of universal suffrage are equal to these? Can an appeal be
+made in the name of minority rights by those who would themselves efface
+minorities?[3] When slaves were escaping, they demanded that the
+constitutional guarantees be fulfilled to the letter, clamored like
+Shylock for the pound of flesh which the law allowed. Now, too, they
+demand of the amendments as before of the clauses of the instrument
+reserving power to the states, that they be construed by the
+letter:--but with what a change of object,--no longer that the rights of
+minorities may be respected but that they may be utterly suppressed.
+
+ [3] In two states, viz; Mississippi and South Carolina, the colored
+     people are in the majority. In the other four disfranchising
+     states, as well as all other Southern states, they are in the
+     minority. In the group of states disfranchising the colored voters,
+     viz; N. C., S. C., Va., Ala., Miss., and La., the
+
+     white population is
+            5,396,649 = 55 per cent.
+
+     colored " "
+            4,453,253 = 45 per cent.
+
+     total " "
+            9,849,902 = 100 per cent.
+
+     --BY THE 12TH CENSUS (1900.)
+
+And if it be asserted that the superior must be allowed to rule, is
+superiority to be proved by a fiat of brute force? Is mere armed
+lawlessness the index of superior worth? When the nations agreed to fix
+limits to the cruelties of war, did they thereby place a penalty upon
+brains?
+
+Finally, is it claimed that a free ballot signifies unlimited
+corruption? Read the answer in England's purification of her politics: I
+quote from Sir Thomas Erskine May:--
+
+"Political morality may be elevated by extending liberties: but bribery
+has everywhere been the vice of growing wealth." "The first election of
+George the Third's reign was signalized by unusual excesses:" A seat in
+Parliament was for sale, like an estate and they bought it without
+hesitation or misgiving. "Nor were they regarded with much favor by the
+leaders of parties; for men who had bought their seats,--and paid dearly
+for them,--owed no allegiance to political patrons. "They sought
+admission to Parliament, not so much with a view to a political career,
+as to serve mere personal ends, to forward commercial speculations, to
+extend their connections and to gratify their social aspirations. But
+their independence and ambition well fitted them for the service of the
+court.... They soon ranged themselves among the king's friends: and thus
+the court policy,--which was otherwise subversive of freedom became
+associated with parliamentary corruption. "When the return of members
+was left to a small but independent body of electors, their individual
+votes were secured by bribery: and where it rested with proprietors or
+corporations, the seat was purchased outright." Gatton e. g. was sold
+for �75,000. Of the 658 members of the House of Commons 487 were
+returned by nomination ... not more than one third of the House were the
+free choice of the limited bodies of electors then intrusted with the
+franchise.... Representatives holding their seats by a general system of
+corruption could scarcely fail to be themselves corrupt. What they had
+bought, they were but too ready to sell. And how glittering the prizes
+offered as the price of their services! Peerages, baronetcies, patronage
+and court favor for the rich--places, pensions and bribes for the needy.
+All that the government had to bestow they could command.... Another
+instrument of corruption was found in the raising of money for the
+public service. In March 1763, Lord Bute contracted a loan of three
+millions and a half; and having distributed shares among his
+friends,--the scrip immediately rose to a premium of 11 per cent....
+Here the country sustained a loss of �385,000.... Stock jobbing became
+the fashion; and many members of Parliament were notoriously concerned
+in it. Again in 1781 ... a loan of �12,000,000 was contracted to defray
+the cost of the disastrous American war.... Its terms were so favorable
+that suddenly the scrip rose nearly 11 per cent. It was computed by Mr.
+Fox that a profit of �900,000 would be derived from the loan; and by
+others that half of the loan was subscribed for by members of the House
+of Commons. Lord Rockingham said. "The loan was made merely for the
+purpose of corrupting the Parliament to support a wicked, impolitic and
+ruinous _war_.
+
+Now as to the electorate. "In Scotland in 1831, the total number of
+county voters did not exceed 2500; and the constituencies of the 66
+boroughs amounted to 1440.... The county of Argyll, with a population of
+100,000 had but 115 electors: Caithness with 36,000, contained 47 free
+holders. Edinburgh and Glasgow, the two first cities of Scotland, had
+each a constituency of 33 persons.... A great kingdom, with more than
+two millions of people,--intelligent, instructed, industrious and
+peaceable,--was virtually disfranchised.... According to a statement
+made by the Duke of Richmond in 1780, not more than 6,000 men returned a
+clear majority of the British House of Commons.... It was alleged in the
+petition of the Society of the Friends of the People (presented in
+1793.) that 84 individuals absolutely returned 157 members to Parliament
+... and that a majority of the House were returned by 154 patrons....
+
+"The glaring defects and vices of the representative system which have
+now been exposed,--the restricted and unequal franchise, the bribery of
+a limited electoral body, and the corruption of the representatives
+themselves,--formed the strongest arguments for Parliamentary reform....
+The theory of an equal representation, had in the course of ages, been
+entirely subverted.... The Reform bill of 1832 supplied the cure. "It
+was," says May, "a measure, at once bold, comprehensive, moderate and
+constitutional. Popular: but not democratic:--it extended liberty,
+without hazarding revolution. In 1850 the representation of the country
+was reconstructed on a wider basis. Large classes had been admitted to
+the franchise: and the House of Commons represented more freely the
+interests and political sentiments of the people. The reformed
+Parliament, accordingly, has been more liberal and progressive in its
+policy than the Parliaments of old, more vigorous and active; more
+susceptible to the influence of public opinion: and more secure in the
+confidence of the people."
+
+Here let us leave the history of English political corruption and the
+remedy which was found in a fairer representation of the people. In
+truth, we might well have left it sooner--if not altogether; for it is
+likely to be said that all of this is nothing to the purpose. The South
+has before her the practical problem of dealing with some millions of
+Negroes, to the solution of which, the experience of the English people
+furnishes no aid. Once more, then, we must consider the actual situation
+in this country to-day.
+
+The Negro problem has been stated: What does justice to the Negro
+demand? Approaching our subject from this point of view, we may try to
+conclude:--
+
+1st. What justice _does_ demand; and
+
+2nd. What the Negro must do to get it.
+
+What, to begin with, is the answer of the South to the former? It is
+familiar to us all and would seem to be the nearly unanimous voice of
+the Southern people. The Negro, they say, is ignorant, lazy and vicious.
+Slavery, so far as its effect on the slave is concerned, was a
+beneficent institution, raising him from his previous savagery to a
+plane of humble usefulness. There, however, his incurable inferiority
+destines him forever to remain. This, the South insists she has settled
+in wisdom and kindliness. The North, so runs her speech,
+misunderstanding the South and the Negro, unjustly forced on the Civil
+war, to compel her to change her domestic institutions. But that
+attempt, foredoomed to failure, has resulted in nothing more than the
+abolition of slavery, and a cruel loss of life and property, partly
+compensated for by the consequent revelation of her boundless resources
+of courage, loyalty and united resolve. Slavery, while a Southern
+institution, was not a bond of perfect union; but upon the platform of
+black inferiority and white domination, every Southern man has his foot
+squarely planted. Her answer, therefore, to all criticism is to point
+with pride to the solid South.
+
+How often are we called upon to see with pain and wonder that opinions,
+theories, even the mind itself is shaped by actions. Nature, aiming at
+preservation of life, is quick to heal all possible wounds, to reconcile
+warring impulses, to gloss and beautify deformities, and even to conceal
+dangers and snares. She gives men language to justify their misdeeds,
+teaches them how to embalm their errors in the secretion of their
+intellects, and even preserves the lying epitaphs which they inscribe
+over the remains of their vanity and pride. To change an opinion, it is
+necessary commonly to change a course of action, and until the life of
+the South changes, there seems no reasonable expectation that her
+opinions will change. Disfranchisement is but a symptom of the diseased
+Southern body politic, and who can tell whether the surgeon's knife will
+not reach the sources of life itself in seeking for a cure.
+
+Sufficient then to herself,--wholly insufficient, false, and cruel to
+us, is this answer. If there were but these two parties to the cause,
+there would be no need to consider it. There remains, however, the still
+hesitating, ever-divided public opinion of the North--now the judge in
+the Freedmen's case. It is fitting that in her court, our replication
+should be boldly made. There we proclaim that the South is not doing
+justice to colored men.
+
+The Negroes, say Southern men, are ignorant, lazy, vicious,--a perpetual
+menace to the rule and order of white men. Is this believable? Did God
+so make the world that after three thousand years of progressive white
+civilization;--in a country where there are sixty millions of white men,
+entrenched in their possession of armies and navies, wealth, power and
+endless resources of trained intellect;--that nine millions of colored
+people, rich in nothing but their sufferings, threaten to put the bottom
+on top? And if chance rules the world, and ignorance, laziness and vice
+are as likely to prevail as knowledge, industry and virtue, we may as
+well believe that ignorance and laziness and vice underlie white
+civilization and supremacy. No, we may confidently answer: this is not
+believable. Either these nine millions of colored people are not
+ignorant, lazy and vicious, or there are no grounds for the fear that
+they can for an hour put into danger the continuance of white
+domination, even in the blackest portion of the black South.
+
+There is indeed proof obtainable that they are neither ignorant, lazy
+and vicious, nor a menace to rule and order. If they were near neighbors
+of the brutes would the elaborate defensive preparations be necessary
+which the South continues feverishly to make? Do the savages of Africa
+enact disfranchising clauses to keep apes and monkeys out of their
+political affairs? If ignorance so submerges the black man, why does not
+the Massachusetts principle of protecting the ballot prevail in the
+South? Why is it necessary to require the voter to read, yes, and
+_interpret satisfactorily, any_ clause in the state constitution?[4] If
+sloth curses the Negro with unfruitfulness, why require property to the
+assessed value of $300? If the assessed value be two thirds of the real
+value, this means that nearly $500; if one third, then nearly $1000 is
+fixed as the minimum possession of the black voter. Does this precaution
+point to shiftlessness? If viciousness be indelibly stamped upon his
+nature, why not rely upon his disfranchisement for crime to eliminate
+the colored voters? Are the white juries not to be trusted to condemn
+the accused? Are the leased convicts not worth their cost of keeping? It
+has been more than once said that 90,000 of the 90,000 colored people in
+the District of Columbia are criminals. If the same proportion maintains
+elsewhere, what more is needed to accomplish the desired end?
+
+ [4] The requirement that the voter be able to read (or write) _and_
+     interpret satisfactorily, in the Virginia registration requirement
+     before Jan. 1, 1904, is an advance upon the earlier clauses, which
+     left the alternative. I am not sure but that it reappears in the
+     Maryland law not yet in operation. It is an interesting fact that
+     it was _Senator Daniels of Virginia_ who once called the attention
+     of the Senate to the injustice done the South by Senator Spooner's
+     assertion that voters were, without alternative, required to
+     interpret passages from the Constitutions.
+
+Yet disfranchisement for ignorance, for thriftlessness, and vice all
+together are acknowledged to be insufficient, and resort must be had
+again to manipulation, juggling, and confessed dishonesty. Rev. Edgar
+Gardiner Murphy, Executive Secretary of the Southern Education Board, a
+distinguished witness, testifying against interest, says: "The
+instrument of discrimination has been found in the discretionary powers
+lodged in the board of registrars, by which worthy Negro men, fairly
+meeting every test of suffrage have been excluded from registration."(?)
+Where the fact is so freely admitted, proof seems wasted, yet abundant
+corroboration may easily be had[5].
+
+ [5] The following clipping from the Baltimore American, I cannot
+     refrain from reading:--
+
+     "In the recent election the democratic judges of election in many
+     of the counties proved that they were unable even to count ballots
+     properly marked, and when it came to putting a reasonable
+     interpretation on the intention of a voter they were either wholly
+     ignorant or wholly dishonest. It is perfectly safe to say that not
+     one-third of the democratic judges who served at the Maryland
+     election of last week could themselves give an intelligent
+     interpretation of any section in the Constitution. Many of them do
+     not even know what the Constitution is, and the man who suggested
+     that they would take it to be a new kind of drink did not overshoot
+     the mark. Fine professors of constitutional history these men would
+     make!"
+
+The fact as well as the extent of disfranchisement is revealed by the
+statistical summaries:--
+
+
+                        *STATISTICAL SUMMARIES*
+
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 1
+                ----------------------------------------
+                ADULT MALE OR COLORED VOTING
+                POPULATION, 1900, ESTIMATED AT 1 IN
+                4.3.
+                ----------------------------------------
+                Virginia      660,722 �         46,122.
+                              4.3 =
+                ----------------------------------------
+                Nor. Car.     624,469 �        127,114.
+                              4.3 =
+                ----------------------------------------
+                South Car.    782,321 �        152,860.
+                              4.3 =
+                ----------------------------------------
+                Alabama       827,307 �        181,471.
+                              4.3 =
+                ----------------------------------------
+                Mississippi   907,630 �        197,936.
+                              4.3 =
+                ----------------------------------------
+                Louisiana     650,804 �        147,348.
+                              4.3 =
+                ----------------------------------------
+                Total                        4,453,251.
+                ----------------------------------------
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 2
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         CENSUS OF NEGROES BEFORE PASSAGE OF REVISED
+         CONSTITUTIONS.
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Virginia      1900              115,865   (T.Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Nor. Car.     "                 133,081   "
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         South Car.    1892               13,384   "
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Alabama       1900               55,512   Pres.
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Mississippi   1888               30,096
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Louisiana     1888               30,701
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 3
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         CENSUS OF NEGROES AFTER PASSAGE OF REVISED
+         CONSTITUTIONS.
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Virginia      1904               47,880   (W. Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Nor. Car.     "                  82,442   "
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         So. Car.      1900                3,579   Pres. (T.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         So. Car.      1904                2,554   Pres. (W.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Alabama       1904               22,472   (W. Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Miss.         1900                5,753   Pres. (T.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Miss.         1904                3,189   Pres. (W.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Louisiana     1900               14,234   Pres. (T.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Louisiana     1904                5,205   Pres. (W.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 4
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          REGISTRATION OF COLORED VOTERS. (Newspaper
+          estimate.)
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          State                    Literate      _Registered_
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          Virginia             equal 69,358
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          North Carolina             59,625       _"Less than
+                                                  6,000"_
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          South Carolina             69,242
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          Alabama                    73,474          _"Hardly
+                                                     2,500"_
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          Mississippi                92,605
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          Louisiana                  57,086         _"1,147"_
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 5
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  REPUBLICAN VOTE IN THE SIX STATES; VOTE AFTER DISFRANCHISEMENT
+  SCORED. (World Almanac of 1904.)
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  YEAR          VA.     NORTH     SOUTH      ALA.     MISS.       LA.
+                        CAR.      CAR.
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1872       93,468    94,783    72,290    90,272    82,175    59,975
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1876       76,093   108,419    92,081    68,230    52,605    75,315
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1880       83,639   115,874    58,071    56,178    34,854    38,016
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1884      139,356   125,068    21,733    59,144    43,509    46,347
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1888      150,438   134,784    13,736    57,197    30,096    30,701
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1892      113,217   100,846    13,384     9,197     1,406    26,563
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1900      115,865   133,081     3,579    55,512     5,753    14,234
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1904       47,880    82,442     2,554    22,472     3,189     5,205
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+    1872, 1876, Va., N.C., S.C., Ala. (Tribune Almanac of 1896.)
+    1872, Louisiana (World Almanac.)
+    1892, Louisiana (Republican and Populists.)
+    1892, N.C.; 1900, 1904 (Due to Populists.)
+
+Every fresh barrier erected in the South simply publishes to the world
+the weakness and inefficiency of those already raised. Each time
+dishonest methods are newly justified, and violent declarations,
+applauded, fresh evidence is given that these Southern men cannot on its
+merits win their case. The policy of white domination is stripped to
+unblushing nakedness, and confident of the fear of those who remained
+for two hundred years enslaved, the South narrows the issue to one of
+physical courage, inviting the Negro to wrest from her the power, which
+stands between him and justice, freedom, happiness. _It is not then in
+the ignorance, laziness, and vice of the Negro, that the white South
+trusts, for the continuance of her policy, but in his defencelessness._
+
+_To these Southern men, we can make but one reply. Unmistakably our
+courage is the issue._ But before considering how best to treat their
+sinister challenge, let us answer to the Republican party the question:
+What does justice to the Negro demand? Our reply is simple,--the
+fulfillment of the promise, which was treasured up in the hearts of four
+million men as they passed through the doors of slavery into the light
+of freedom;--the promise, which they have left to their children as
+their one priceless inheritance: "The guarantee by Congress of equal
+suffrage to all loyal men at the South was demanded by every
+consideration of public safety, of gratitude and of justice, and must be
+maintained"--this was the promise of the Republican party in 1868. The
+freedman appeals to the creator of his political rights, as Tennyson to
+the Creator of his being:--
+
+    Thou wilt not leave us in the dust;
+    Thou madest man, he _knows_ not why;
+    He thinks he was not made to die;
+    And Thou hast made him,--Thou art just.
+
+Is it then fair to leave to us the vindication of the Reconstruction
+policy against men of the South, the North and even influential members
+of the party's own councils? Must we meet the charge that the Republican
+party was moved by revenge and folly, and prove that there was no other
+way to secure the foundation of freedom, which hundreds of thousands had
+died to win? Were those terrible years of death a mere night over the
+gaming table, with two haggard players, 'breaking even' at dawn? Is it
+left to us to rescue from their own sons the fame of the heroes of the
+war against slavery and restore the honorable inscriptions recorded on
+their tombs? When men talk of 'the greatest error of Reconstruction,'
+has the murder of Lincoln no claim to the place? Does not John Wilkes
+Booth better merit derisive canonizing than "Saint" John Brown? If it
+was irony for the "Reconstruction" legislatures to impose heavy taxes
+upon a people who had just emerged from a ruinous war and by bonded
+indebtedness extend the obligation to future generations, was it not
+also irony to punish and re-enslave by vagrancy laws the men who without
+an acre or a dollar were now _called_ free?
+
+And if it _was_ hate, and revenge, and folly, which brought about the
+'War Amendments,' can they be honorably withdrawn now? Is there no
+doctrine in law, which forbids one's renouncing an act after he has
+profited by it? But could the elections have been won and the policies
+maintained without the aid of the colored voter? Is there need of a
+statute of limitations to stop a political party from withdrawing the
+promises upon which it has encouraged millions of trusting people to
+build for forty years? Can it be honestly claimed that three-fourths of
+the States of the Union gave the ballot to the slave just out of the
+slave pen, with the implied condition that if he failed to prove himself
+able from the outset to resist temptation to childish indulgence and
+childish dishonesty, seduced as he was by the Northern men whom
+gratitude bade him trust and follow, he should lose it forever? Is this
+the Eden where we met our "fall?" A sober Anglo-Saxon definition of
+justice is given by Sidgwick: "Justice is realized (1) in the observance
+of law, and contracts, and definite understandings, and in the
+enforcement of such penalties for the violation of these as have been
+legally determined and announced; and (2) in the fulfilment of natural
+and normal expectations." That the nation's laws will be upheld is the
+first requirement of justice.[6]
+
+ [6] Here is an instance of a President's devotion to existing laws:
+     *With the Confederate government fully installed two weeks
+     before*,--Lincoln said in his inaugural address, that "he had no
+     purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of
+     slavery." Is a manual needed in the United States to tell for what
+     purposes and under what circumstances the law will be enforced?
+
+But yet again are we brought back to the ignorance, shiftlessness and
+criminality of the Negro. Their fathers, so say these wiser Northern
+sons, could not know of these evils, which to them have been revealed.
+No, they could not: had their lives been spared till now there had been
+no such evils to reveal. Under freedom's blaze ignorance was sucked up
+as the stagnant waters from a pool. With nearly the entire number of
+slaves illiterate, with no schools yet built, and only those large
+hearted teachers to face the enormous educational work whose
+ministrations to the needy were their only pay, more was done in the
+years just after the liberation of the slaves, to remove, their
+ignorance, than twenty-five thousand teachers in hundreds of schools
+have done in the last decade since.[7] Progress in earning and saving
+corresponded. And there was little increase of crime. A few years more
+of the sunlight and who doubts that these charges could never have been
+brought against us! And by whom are we charged with being criminal?
+Surely not by the South?
+
+ [7] Per cent. of illiteracy.
+
+     Colored population in 1860 4,441,830.
+
+     Of this about 9 per cent. (488,070) was free--perhaps � of this was
+     literate, i.e., about 5 per cent. of the whole.
+
+         Equal 95 per cent. or higher.
+
+     Colored population above 10 years in 1870 equal whole population,
+     4,880,009, less 28.7 per cent. equals under 10 leaving 3,464,806.
+     Above 10, unable to write, 2,789,689.
+
+         Equal 80 per cent.
+
+     Colored population above 10 years in 1880 4,601,207. Above 10,
+     unable to write, 3,220,878.
+
+         Equal 70 per cent.
+
+     Colored population above 10 years in 1890 5,328,972. Above 10,
+     unable to write, 3,042,668.
+
+         Equal 57.1 per cent.
+
+     Colored population above 10 years in 1900 6,415,581. Above 10,
+     unable to write, 2,853,194.
+
+         Equal 44.5 per cent.
+
+Is it credible that our millions lived under the benign influence of
+slavery, almost without crime and continued even after the Emancipation
+Act to live peacefully and honestly:--and then, upon the passage of the
+14th Amendment dropped suddenly from this moral zenith? Such sudden
+transformations are not natural: either slavery made the criminality of
+the African: or held it in a grip barely strong enough to prevent its
+issue in acts of violence: or, else this record of crime is false. One
+of these three explanations, we cannot choose but accept. The South at
+least, cannot admit the first, for slavery, they declared, even before
+God at His Altar, to be a benign institution; neither can they admit the
+second, for it, too, is inconsistent with the gentleness and benignity
+of slavery. But will they admit the third? "Nine tenths of the illicit
+gains," says James Bryce, speaking of Reconstruction, "went to the
+whites." Into like parts, Woodrow Wilson divides the responsibility and
+the discredit. "Negroes," he writes, constituted the majority of their
+electorates, but political power gave them no advantage of their own.
+Adventurers swarmed out of the North, to cozen, beguile and use them....
+They gained the confidence of the Negroes, obtained for themselves the
+more lucrative offices, and lived upon the public treasury, public
+contracts and their easy control of affairs. For the Negroes there was
+nothing but occasional allotments of abandoned or forfeited land, the
+pay of petty offices, a per-diem allowance as members of the
+conventions, and the state legislatures, which their new masters made
+business for, or the wages of servants in the various offices of
+administration. Their ignorance and credulity made them easy dupes. A
+petty favor, a slender stipend, a trifling perquisite, a bit of poor
+land, a piece of money satisfied, or silenced them." This is the record
+of crime until the quickly passing day of freedom was ended. And if
+crime has increased since, so presently will ignorance increase and
+idleness unless their growth is checked by the restoration of freedom
+and justice and hope. Punishment will fail to stop the growth of
+idleness, vice and crime, as it has always failed, and if brutal
+punishments are next resorted to when milder ones have failed, one
+sickens at the prospect. Can Southern, abetted by Northern men strew the
+earth with the seeds of accursed slavery, bastardy and treason, secret
+conspiracy, callous, sneering fraud and the brutality of the mob, and
+think to stop by lynching the harvest of black duplicity, bred of fear,
+and black criminality, bred of misery and hate,--when they have gathered
+enough of the fruits to make an exhibit of Negro vice? The departure of
+lynching waits for two events: the breeding of the animal out the most
+wretched Negroes until they find greater satisfaction in something
+higher than sensuality and revenge; and the breeding of savage cruelty
+out of the white man until he can find pleasure in something more humane
+than torture by fire. As our counsellors bid us turn our attention to
+the dark side of our life, we bid them turn theirs from it. Your boasted
+civilization on its under side is but a progress from rape to adultery,
+from brute to devil. The savage honors the brute and tortures the devil;
+the civilized man tortures or crushes the brute and honors the devil.
+There is a pitcher plant of California, which is so described: Above a
+funnel shaped stem, it flaunts a crimson banner. The hood of the flower
+is transparent, so that the wary are caught even in their efforts to
+flee. From the mouth downwards the walls exude intoxicating sweets but
+multitudinous hairs, all pointing downward, lower the victim farther
+with every struggle. At its bottom a charnel heap, poisoning the air.
+Such plants flourish amidst civilization, and millions are their
+victims, who debauch their appetites until their intellects shrink to
+the size of their already shrunken consciences, and they are helpless to
+do anything but die. Liberty _is_ perilous, a very 'valley of the shadow
+of death,' but the history of every nation which has lived and died
+teaches us that the danger of a false step is even greater near the end
+of the journey than at the beginning. Egypt, Assyria, Judea, Greece,
+Rome--the history of every nation is a light-house marking a _reef_ in
+the harbor of humanity.
+
+When Cain had killed Abel, he hid the body, and when God called,
+replied, "Am I my brother's keeper?" A chill foreboding comes over us
+with these Northern doubts of the wisdom of Reconstruction, and we
+cannot refrain from wondering if the North still retains the sense of
+duty of 61; if the North can do, can even will to do justice. And here
+let us turn from our first question: What does justice to the Negro
+demand? To the second: What can the Negro do to get justice? My end has
+been reached if there is felt more than before the need of answering the
+latter question.
+
+Underlying the civil laws of the nation are certain high ideals. The
+fidelity of the nation to these is measured by the quality and the force
+of public opinion. Just as long therefore as the republic endures, the
+executive, legislative and judicial powers will obey the people's will.
+To this oracle the rulers have again appealed, and its answer has been
+an expression of renewed and increased confidence in the Republican
+party. The hour of the new administration has almost come, and the
+message may be now on its way to the country that the party pledges are
+to be redeemed. It may be that there are brighter days before us; but
+if, as in the past, we stand on no securer footing than two men
+wrestling on a steep and icy hill-side, where both roll over and over,
+and there is no chance between throwing and being thrown,--then it
+matters not whether we appeal to President, or Congress, or Supreme
+Court; to the 14th or 15th amendment, for the righting of our wrongs.
+
+Congress is empowered to enforce the 14th and 15th amendments by
+appropriate legislation. Such legislation has been enacted and by one
+President, at least, enforced. But, now, it is held that it must be
+shown that the amendments are being violated, and this cannot be done
+until the Supreme Court fully interprets them. What a mockery it has all
+become! Insolently, sneeringly, the violators of the plain intent of the
+law rise from their seats in Congress and demand how far they are going
+to be obliged to walk around these Amendments instead of kicking them
+aside. By law, or by force, colored men are being deprived of the right
+to hold office; by law or by force excluded from the jury; by law or by
+force sent into slavery for crimes of which they were convicted by these
+juries from which they are excluded; by law or by force, they are being
+disfranchised. The alternative is clear. Southern men do not evade it.
+The revised Constitutions stand boldly for disqualification by law.
+Southern Congressmen in debate as boldly proclaim the force. More
+cautiously Mr. Murphy testifies to the same effect, denying that "the
+abuse of discretionary power by the registrars of elections,--an abuse
+which the State permits, but which the State does not necessitate or
+prescribe, brings the State within reach of the penalties of the
+Constitution."
+
+If not by law then the Constitution is nullified by force, and it
+becomes the duty of Congress to maintain it. But is Congress so near the
+performance of this obligation that we can profitably advise as to the
+method? Shall we say that candidates for Congress, by force or fraud
+elected, shall be refused their seats or that an election bill shall be
+passed, guaranteeing just laws; or that the penalty clause of the 14th
+Amendment shall be first enforced? At least, we had better wait until
+the House has reversed the policy outlined by its Committee on
+Elections, whose concluding words in the Dantzler-Lever case follow:--
+
+    "However desirable it may be for a legislative body to retain
+    control of the decision as to the election and qualification of
+    its members, it is quite certain that a legislative body is not
+    the ideal body to pass judicially upon the constitutionality of
+    the enactments of other bodies. We have in this country a proper
+    forum for the decision of constitutional and other judicial
+    questions. If any citizen of South Carolina who was entitled to
+    vote under the constitution of that State in 1868 is now
+    deprived by the provisions of the present constitution, he has
+    the right to tender himself for registration and for voting, and
+    in case his right is denied, to bring suit in a proper court for
+    the purpose of enforcing his right or recovering damages for its
+    denial.
+
+    "That suit can be carried by him, if necessary, to the Supreme
+    Court of the United States. If the United States Supreme Court
+    shall declare in such case that the "fundamental conditions" in
+    the reconstruction acts were valid and constitutional and that
+    the State constitutions are in violation of those acts, and
+    hence invalid and unconstitutional every state will be compelled
+    to immediately bow in submission to the decision. The decision
+    of the Supreme Court would be binding and would be a positive
+    declaration of the law of the land which could not be denied or
+    challenged.
+
+    "On the contrary, the decision of the House of Representatives
+    upon this grave judicial question would not be considered as
+    binding or effective in any case except the one acted upon or as
+    a precedent for future action in the House itself.
+
+    "A majority of the Committee on Elections No. v doubt the
+    propriety in any event of denying these Southern States
+    representation in the House of Representatives pending a final
+    settlement of the whole question in proper proceedings by the
+    Supreme Court of the United States. Some of the members of the
+    committee believe the "fundamental conditions" set forth in the
+    reconstruction acts to be valid and the constitutions and
+    election laws of these States to be in conflict with such
+    conditions, and hence to be invalid.
+
+    "Some of the members of the committee believe the "fundamental
+    conditions" set forth in the reconstruction acts to be invalid
+    and the constitutions and election laws of the States claimed to
+    be in conflict with such conditions to be valid. Some members of
+    the committee have formed no opinion and express no belief upon
+    the subject.
+
+    "Your Committee on Elections No. i therefore respectively
+    recommend the adoption of the following resolution:
+
+    "'_Resolved_. That Alexander D. Dantzler was not elected a
+    member of the Fifty-eighth Congress from the Seventh
+    Congressional district of South Carolina, and is not entitled to
+    a seat therein.'"
+
+If not by force then the Constitution is nullified by law, and the
+Supreme Court must be looked to to maintain its vigor. Turning to the
+Supreme Court, what do we find to be its answer? In the following words,
+the Court concludes in the case of Giles vs Teasley, (the 4th Alabama
+case) decided Feb. 23d, 1904:--(from this decision Justice Harlan
+dissented.)
+
+    "It is apparent that the thing complained of, so far as it
+    involves rights secured under the Federal Constitution, is the
+    action of the State of Alabama in the adoption and enforcing of
+    a constitution with the purpose of excluding from the exercise
+    of the right of suffrage the Negro voters of the State, in
+    violation of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
+    United States. The great difficulty of reaching the political
+    action of a State through remedies afforded in the courts, State
+    or Federal, was suggested by this court in _Giles v. Harris,
+    supra_.
+
+    "In reaching the conclusion that the present writs of error must
+    be dismissed the court is not unmindful of the gravity of the
+    statements of the complainant charging violation of a
+    constitutional amendment which is a part of the supreme law of
+    the land; but the right of this court to review the decisions of
+    the highest court of a State has long been well settled, and is
+    circumscribed by the rules established by law. We are of opinion
+    that plaintiffs in error have not brought the cases within the
+    statute giving to this court the right of review."
+
+Far be it from me to imply that the Supreme Court will never decide the
+State constitutional clauses to be in violation of the national
+constitution; but as Von Holst has said: "The wit of man is not equal to
+the task in the shaping of political life of inventing forms which may
+not be employed as weapons against their own legitimate substance or
+contents." The law, it might be added, without strong-siding conscience,
+is a mere magician's handkerchief, and surely we can no longer think of
+ante-election promises embodied in the Republican party platform as
+binding obligations.
+
+To those who ask: how long shall men wait for justice? I can only
+answer: Wait we must, but we need not idly wait. Our future is largely
+our own to make. Our radius of activity is slowly enlarging. Our daily
+question: what shall we do? settles into a demand for a defined policy.
+A bitter and perplexed,--What shall I do?--we are coming to find "worse
+than worst necessity." Mere agitation, we know will not suffice. The
+country is not floating upon a rising tide of indignation at the
+unjustness of our treatment, as it was fifty years ago. And even if the
+doing of justice hung upon the casting of a die, I do not know why the
+throw should be the higher for violent shaking of the box. Some sort of
+planning of our future and united effort of at least a few to realize
+their plans is indispensable.
+
+Resolved, therefore, that we strive for all happiness whatsoever, which
+may be fairly won. A good name and a level glance from those around us
+are essentials of happiness. If that is social equality, then, resolved
+that we strive for social equality. "This," says Cable, "is a fool's
+dream." If so let us not shrink along with Christ, to be called fools.
+Once past slavery there is no insuperable barrier between us and
+freedom. Where is this line between civil and private rights? Is not the
+path from one to the other continuous? Workshops and offices, public
+conveyances, the theatre, hotels and restaurants, apartment-houses, the
+boarding table, barber-shops and bath rooms, the public school and
+college, the scientific society, the church, the alumni dinner, the
+church sociable--in city, town and village:--what are these but the way
+to the home?[8] There is an upward slope from slavery, where a man is a
+thing, to freedom, where a man is a man. Millions, the better part of
+mankind, live and die on the hill-side; but all push on, as long as hope
+and manhood survive. That those above should acknowledge the brotherhood
+of those below and descend to help them is not to be generally expected;
+for that requires such love of their fellows as few possess. It _is
+foolish_ then to _demand_ the concession of social equality; but it is
+quite as _cowardly_ to give up obtaining it, as long as an upward way
+exists. That the path is open is proved by the cry of those who hate us:
+Turn the hill-side into a precipice,--slavery is the only alternative to
+equality; build an unscalable wall of caste founded upon the color of
+the skin, the lowest white man by law and force raised higher than the
+highest black. Yes, the first of all our resolutions must be this one,
+to strive for social equality.
+
+ [8] That public conveyances come within the social sphere is asserted
+     by Burgess: Reconstruction and the Constitution pp. 150----
+
+     "During the winter and spring of 1867-8 the work of these
+     conventions went on under the greatest extravagance and
+     incompetence of every kind. (The constitutions which came from them
+     provided for complete equality in civil rights, and *in some cases,
+     in advantages of a social character, such as equal privileges in
+     public conveyances etc."*)
+
+Not only, however, our indomitable instinct, but an urgent reason makes
+this our foremost consideration. National responsibilities, great civic
+or industrial responsibilities we are as yet cut off from. Through
+_private relations then we must educate ourselves to the realization,
+that only through the just performance of duties can true rights be
+won_. As we perform our trust over a few things will we perform our
+trust over many. Already we are reminded that our claims as individuals
+are mixed with those of the mass of our people. In vain we urge our
+greater culture or refinement, we are judged by the average of our race.
+In our own interest then, if not from a higher motive, we must turn to
+the lifting of our fellows. Our solidarity is already great: let us hold
+to it and increase it. Far from being a curse it is a people's greatest
+blessing. Yet we are losing it; our fellow sympathy and active
+helpfulness are not as great as were our fathers'. This is of crucial
+importance, since our best chance of winning friends among the women and
+poor of the other race is by justice to the women and poor of our own.
+And it is the women and the poor of the other race that we need most to
+win: for it were hard to say which is the greater obstacle to our
+progress, those left behind among the race ahead, or those left behind
+among our own. We must face sex inequality and class inequality among
+ourselves, _lest we bitterly denounce others' injustice when the same
+spirit of uncharitableness is deep buried in our own natures_.
+
+Why is there such intense emphasis placed upon this issue of social
+equality? Largely because it arouses the jealousy of the white woman and
+the white poor. She, with her heart full of fear and distrust, is the
+first to shut the door upon the stranger. The next step after being a
+slave is wanting one; and she, who has been for untold ages in forced
+servitude to man clings jealously to that social order which provides a
+place for another more to be pitied than she. She, it is who holds the
+keys of the home, and with them, of church, school, restaurant, theatre
+and car.
+
+And with women are joined the poor. _They_ bar our way to industrial
+employment; they stand guard over the polls. Why? Because they have
+learned uncharitableness in the school of bitter experience; because
+they, who have themselves never known aught but inequality, cannot even
+_think_ of an even balance between men. _Of little avail, then, the
+wisdom and bounty of the few enlightened, when the serried ranks of the
+masses bar our upward way_.... As each occasion of hardship or slight
+works upon them,--high prices made by monopoly, failure of strikes, the
+miseries of war, unequal laws, the scorn of the rich and
+well-born,--they turn and empty the full reservoir of their discontent,
+through the ever open vent of race hatred upon any that are weaker than
+they. And ever and again the crafty among the ruling class, discovering
+this means of averting danger to themselves make haste to profit by it.
+The greater our show of progress,--the more active the resentment of
+these classes of those above us becomes. Upon the removal of this
+antagonism much of the welfare of the Republic as well as our own
+depends, and I know of no other way to accomplish it than through
+fairness to the women and poor of our own race. Then those just ahead
+will see that they have no cause to fear that among us are to be found a
+new set of masters to make fresh multitudes of slaves. We cannot, then,
+afford to go on, confident that justice and wisdom will prevail; for the
+best among ourselves know how difficult it is to be just and wise. Let
+us who know the way to justice and can follow it, but strive to do so,
+and others, and yet others will be drawn into the current until its
+pressure becomes too great to resist.
+
+Resolved, secondly, that we will continue to form party ties from
+fundamental principle and not momentary prospect of advantage. Last of
+all classes, can we afford to consider trimming our political sails to
+catch a chance breeze. Before it can even be granted that we hold the
+actual balance of power, this opportunism must have become our settled
+policy,--else we are _not_ the most precarious body of voters. But
+suppose we were able to bargain for our vote, how wise would it be to do
+so? Can our voters afford to indulge in a prospect of profit to be
+obtained from their franchise? No, beyond question, our position is yet
+too insecure to warrant our driving a bargain with the Republican party,
+backed by the threatened withdrawal of our ballots. For not only would
+an artificial value, given to our vote because it was pivotal,--which,
+to repeat, it could only be if it were the most precarious,--double its
+venality, but the likelihood of our being put off with mere promises
+would be increased. Would not the prize be made just tempting enough to
+keep us vainly hoping? Would the rich with all their abundance do more
+than "rub our chains with crumbs?" We have all to fight to keep up our
+faith in the Republican party and its fidelity to the pledges of forty
+years, but all our political funds are invested with it, and unless in
+pursuit of some better principle than gratitude the time has not yet
+come to withdraw them.
+
+Resolved, thirdly, that we will contend for the political and social
+rights we crave, by modern rules of war, using every protective means we
+can, but scorning every dishonorable stratagem. Under the present stress
+a line of division is appearing between those among us who believe in
+open, and those who believe in secret methods of protection. In spite
+however of the merciless fire we are subjected to by the press, which
+makes any one a mark, who so much as strikes a match, we will resolutely
+oppose secret bodies, secret measures, secret policies. Nothing so
+quickly brings out all the cruelty of hatred as fear of secret danger.
+Let not the awful power and unrebuked successes of Ku Klux Klan or white
+caps mislead us. We must be free from the charge of having suggested
+_even_ such means to those whom oppression has made desperate, but for
+whom imitation would spell merciless revenge without even the check of
+Northern censure. And another evil scarce less results: a premium is
+hereby put upon treachery. Temptation is already too great to those
+among us who might be induced to betray.
+
+On the other hand, no reasonable precaution should be left untaken. Our
+position is hardly yet so perilous that we need seek the mountains,
+deserts or swamps for safety. Other protective measures however should
+be sought. First among these, is organization, which, however is only
+worthful when there is real community of interest and feeling. These it
+will be hard to secure without neighborhood and common business
+dealings. By such means too, we shall better come under the protection
+of the common law, with its broad mantle spread over all contractual
+relations. It is hard to get justice wholesale, harder still when one
+cannot offer the market price. The earlier resolutions leading up to the
+15th Amendment forbade restriction of the franchise on account of creed,
+ignorance or poverty. These additions were laid aside before the passage
+of the bill. The Civil Rights bill in its earlier stages required
+equality in the public schools and the jury service. These failed first.
+The best help--this cannot be said too often--is self-help.
+Self-dependence will not only strengthen our own defenses, but it has a
+value yet higher--it strengthens the Republic. Appealing as we now do to
+central authority, embodied in the Republican party, we help
+unconsciously to build up centralized power. This disadvantage of our
+faithful adherence to that party must be confessed. By striving to
+obtain land and independent businesses, and towards municipal political
+privileges, we will increase our responsibilities, our interest in good
+government and our stake in the democracy of America,--and by so doing
+become sturdier defenders of the Republic. To the man _who works_, the
+man who _wants and consumes_, in short to every man belong the common
+benefits and privileges due to his common humanity; but if we mean to
+secure these heights which in the United States only have yet been won,
+we must win firm ground to stand on. The law is not grounded in such
+principles, he who would fight for the rights of men, must be _more_
+than a mere man to get standing in her courts.
+
+By such protective measures we may so shield ourselves from attack, that
+if any should wish to destroy us they must first destroy what they have
+themselves built. This means much: but who so thoughtless as to suppose
+that ownership of land and home, or business interests or even municipal
+or other corporate franchises,--with the knowledge needed to maintain
+them--are of themselves enough! Who so weak as to trust in mere
+segregation, that if we only stay on our side of a high board fence we
+will be let alone! What of Africa? What of China? What so absurd as
+unguarded wealth? The day of high board fences is passing. While
+segregation will supply certain opportunities, which we may profit by,
+if we use them as stepping-stones to higher things, it can only do so,
+if there is courage to defend what has been won. Without courage no man
+can hope to keep anything another covets. _Somewhere in the foreground
+of all our policies,--if we are true men and women,--must be the
+determination to part with them only at a reasonable price._ Let common
+sense, and scorn of dishonesty, or pretence, guide us in moulding them,
+but then let us adhere to them. Let all be done in God's name, as does
+the man who builds an altar, gathers wood, then cleanses himself from
+all impurity before he approaches it to do sacrifice. When these steps
+have been taken, we may appeal to the God of justice, and with the
+confidence of him who dares ask, and receive an answering sign from
+Heaven, strike for the right.
+
+
+
+
+The Negro Vote in the States Whose Constitutions Have Not Been
+Specifically Revised--_JOHN HOPE_
+
+
+So much has been said about almost every phase of the so-called "Race
+Problem," so many good things and so many bad things, that we are apt to
+believe all has been said that can be said and to wish that if there is
+anything that has not yet been said, it may remain unsaid. Certainly
+little that is new can be said on the franchise until we have some new
+developments. You will get nothing new from me. I am to speak on a
+current topic that is as well known to you as to me. Yet it is sometimes
+helpful to hear your own thoughts expressed by some one else. With this
+possibility of doing a service, I apologize for having consented to
+write on the subject of "Negro Suffrage in the States whose
+Constitutions have not been Specifically Revised." But even here I feel
+unable to speak about all these States and prefer to confine myself to
+my own state, for of this I may speak with the assurance that comes from
+contact.
+
+The State of Georgia probably shows as little revulsion and reversion of
+sentiment and law as any distinctly Southern state, except perhaps
+Texas, since the Reconstruction period. Republican rule was short lived
+and, while it remained, was less aggressive and revolutionary than in
+other states. The population has been fairly evenly divided between the
+two races with a majority always on the white side. The agrarian class
+has been less powerful than in some Southern states and the ignorance of
+both races has been rather mitigated and softened by centres of
+information, towns and cities, less remotely distant from one another
+than is the case in several other Southern states, railroads and
+factories exerting a great influence in this respect. So Georgia may be
+taken as a type of those states in which the best things have happened
+or rather the worst things have not happened for Colored people.
+
+Of course, in Reconstruction times Georgia Democrats did act harshly,
+but my remarks rather have to do with the period after that. For
+instance, more than thirty Colored Republicans were expelled from the
+Georgia legislature and the state had to have a sort of second
+reconstruction before it was finally recognized by the United States
+Government.
+
+Georgia had only one Republican governor, and sent to the National House
+of Representatives at least one Colored Representative. But for many
+years, even this has been a thing of the past. White men have held all
+offices, occasionally having the monotony of complexion broken by a
+Colored representative from Camden, McIntosh or Liberty county in the
+state legislature.
+
+The passing of the Republican party in the state as an aggressive
+elective organization has been due to several causes, but so hidden and
+studied have two of them been, so free from shotguns, leaving out, of
+course, the Ku Klux and Patrollers of the '60's and '70's, that you
+cannot lay your hands on these causes so easily as in some other states
+where the change has been revolutionary and sudden rather than gradual.
+You will notice that I say Republican party, for when the Colored vote
+was most effective it was organized by the Republican party. One of the
+causes of this passing of the Republican vote was intimidation at the
+polls on election day, threats and intimidation before the day in
+communities of Colored people, and official rascality in the counting of
+ballots actually cast. Probably, as a result of these a third cause
+came--the indifference of the state and municipal Republican
+organizations to making a canvass for the state and city officers.
+
+Then the Colored vote began to divide on Democratic candidates and was
+exceedingly effective, holding the balance of power, as it did, in
+choosing white Democratic governors, congressmen, state legislators,
+city and county officers. This went well for awhile, but white
+office-seekers soon began to fear this Colored balance of power. They
+wanted their certainty of a majority of the white vote to guarantee
+their office; so the Georgia legislature passed a law making it legal to
+have primaries to nominate candidates for office and also throwing such
+safeguards about the management of primaries as aimed to secure lawful
+practices on these occasions. Here was a perfectly harmless movement,
+apparently harmless. The next step was made by the Democratic party
+assembled in State Convention when it decided that candidates for state
+and county officers on the Democratic ticket should be nominated by a
+primary, but leaving the conduct of the primary to the community in
+which it might be held, provided this should not run counter to the
+primary law as passed by the State. Here too, was a perfectly fair and
+harmless provision, apparently fair and apparently harmless. But the way
+was then open for the primary to take on a local coloring. In
+communities where the colored vote was an embarrassment, the Democratic
+party there decided to have a _white_ primary. In one of these
+communities a colored man that I know went to vote at the primary. He
+was a "good Negro" a very good Negro, his goodness dating back to the
+time when the "Yankees" were about to confiscate his master's cotton and
+he claimed the cotton as his. Even this transaction did not enlarge his
+cranium, and after saving his master thousands of dollars and gradually
+amassing a fortune for himself, he still knew how to approach his former
+master from the kitchen door. Well, this good Negro went to cast his
+ballot. The courteous man at the polls said: "George, this is a
+Democratic primary." "Yes," said George, "but I am a Democrat." "Well,"
+said the courteous gentleman, "but George, this is a _white_ primary."
+This colored man found himself without a Republican for whom he might
+vote, and was informed that the Democratic party was a close corporation
+so far as the Colored man was concerned. This is quite interesting when
+I tell you that white Republicans, avowedly Republicans, have not only
+been permitted but even requested to participate in the primaries of the
+Democratic and Populist parties.
+
+The reason for the elasticity of the primary is quite evident, that is,
+why Colored people are allowed to take part in the primary in one
+community and not in another, or why they are allowed at one time to
+vote and at another time in that same community are not allowed to vote.
+The purpose is to have the Colored voters as a harmless balance of power
+between the Democrats and any other party that may show strength, that
+is, to have the Colored man to settle disputes among white people
+without becoming obstreperous because of this valuable assistance. There
+were some communities where the Populists used the Colored voter to
+defeat Democrats and others where the Democrats used this vote to defeat
+Populists. Of the State as a whole, it may be said that Populism was
+defeated by the Colored voters espousing the Democratic side. And be it
+said to the common sense and good reason of many Democrats that this
+fact is acknowledged and to an extent appreciated by the party now in
+power--to the extent at least of staving off any further
+disfranchisement measures thus far.
+
+But the most flagrant high-handedness and palpable confession of purpose
+on the part of white people with reference to our citizenship rights is
+to be found in a state legislative enactment that looks to the municipal
+management of two Georgia towns where the Colored voters are so
+overwhelmingly in the majority that ordinary subterfuges would not
+fulfill the requirement. Darien and St. Mary's are two coast towns with
+a large Colored population. The mayor and aldermen are not elected by
+the voters in these towns; but, instead, these towns enjoy the unique
+distinction of being managed by officials appointed by the governor of
+the State. What is more simple; what more high-handed; what more
+un-Democratic and subversive of national principles of government than
+this?
+
+Now let us ask the question: Can the Colored man cast his ballot in
+Georgia?
+
+In the first place, any party of any race may hold a primary.
+
+Second, any man of any party or race may vote in the _general_ election
+for any candidate he may wish.
+
+Let us ask next, whether these ballots will be counted? That depends
+entirely upon whether the need is to count them or destroy them; or
+furthermore, to count them as ballots for some one for whom they were
+not cast. The election boards and the management at the polls are not
+bipartisan and the party in power may do what it chooses.
+
+We raise the question now whether it is for our best interest
+economically to exercise the franchise? Do men vote to help their
+economic interests? Are not taxation and other fiscal policies settled
+by the ballot? May not property be enhanced or lessened in value by
+voters? Colored people have some real estate and securities, but their
+practical capital is their labor; yet they have not the least power, the
+real power, of influencing legislation in reference to a single labor
+measure that may arise, although in Georgia nearly half the population
+is colored and in the laboring class the colored people are in the
+majority. Now suppose, as white union labor in the South grows stronger,
+it should influence such legislation as would eliminate colored labor
+where it came into competition with white labor, the colored laborer
+would be politically powerless to resist this legislation. Now is this a
+mere idle dream when we reflect that within the past few months a Texas
+legislator introduced a bill to confine Colored labor to the farm
+whenever it was found in city and town communities to be competing with
+white labor.
+
+Then there is another side that really has its argument, effective,
+though perhaps not very logical. The fact that we are, as a people,
+laborers and not capitalists, makes us, as any other people similarly
+placed would be, under obligation to the capitalist who, in our case,
+are white. The point is made that to enter politics against the wishes
+of this people would raise such antagonism as to lower our earning
+power. Hence we are told to keep out of politics until we get a better
+money basis. Here we stand between two difficulties, staying out of
+politics might jeopard our earning and entering politics might jeopard
+our earnings. Many honest and thoughtful white and colored men stand on
+both sides of this question.
+
+Now, is it educationally best for us to vote? This question requires
+some amplifying. Do we mean what educational value comes from this
+training in citizenship? If so, then certainly the value is great. There
+was a time when we knew conditions in our state and town, but so little
+influence does a Colored man have in politics now that I do not even
+know the name of the alderman in my ward, although I am a registered
+voter, have paid my poll tax and voted for President Roosevelt. I know
+of nothing more benumbing to us as citizens than this deprivation. Men
+who are philosophic may consider matters that are not of material
+concern, but the average person does not load his mind and spend his
+time with things that, for one reason or another, have no concern for
+him. Any discussion as to the fitness and honesty of municipal and state
+candidates hardly touches me, as I know I cannot lift a finger to
+promote the interests of any one of them. I have no voice.
+
+There is another position from which this question may be viewed and
+that is whether the advantages from schools would be lessened or
+increased from participation in politics. It is quite evident that
+without the ballot any people are suppliant and must beg rather than
+make a manly demand. But, assuming that the lack of the ballot has
+become a condition with us, would a demand or threat about our ballot
+result in a counter threat that if we forced the issue, we should not
+only be denied our ballot, but that for our arrogance the appropriation
+for Colored public schools would be cut down and we should receive only
+what we paid in as our share of the school tax? This too, is no dream;
+but has actually been considered by colored men as a possible reason for
+not causing such antagonism as would arise from Colored men endeavoring
+to enter aggressively into politics again.
+
+What now about fears for disfranchisement such as has been compassed by
+the revised constitutions in many Southern states? Some one may say that
+there is no difference between constitutional disfranchisement and that
+_quasi_ disfranchisement effective for all practical purposes such as we
+have spoken of as now obtaining in Georgia. There is a tremendous
+difference. If a wave of civic righteousness should sweep over those
+states still without constitutional disfranchisement, the primaries
+would be a very slight embarrassment to those willing to do right by all
+races alike; while in the states possessing constitutional
+disfranchisement, the reactionaries would have such means of stopping
+fair play and honest elections free for all, that they could easily
+check the purpose of the fair-minded citizens for a long while.
+
+Now, do we really have to fear disfranchisement? I say disfranchisement
+must at all times be feared and be guarded against as far as it lies
+within our power in an honorable and manly way to hold it off. Just at
+the time North Carolina and Maryland seemed most secure to us we found
+ourselves deprived of our rights; and it may be safely stated that
+whenever on a specific occasion the Colored vote exerts the balance of
+power over any considerable area, there disfranchisement may be feared.
+We need to fear disfranchisement because it is founded upon the spirit
+of injustice and that same spirit fosters it. So palpable is this, that
+the South bewails the fact. Governor Warfield in speaking about the
+repeal of the Fifteenth amendment says: "The privilege to vote could
+then be bestowed without respect to the expedient of unwise
+constitutional amendments that strain the conscience of our best people
+and arouse criticism." Yet the repeal of the Fifteenth amendment would
+not relieve those apostles of disfranchisement of the odium of violating
+the spirit of truly American democracy and of setting at naught that
+mighty decision on human rights that was rendered by the bloody
+arbitrament of war--Disfranchisement of whatever sort, if designed to
+embarrass a citizen because of his race, must always "strain the
+conscience of our best people."
+
+Does Georgia show any signs of the disfranchising spirit? We fear it
+does. The State Legislature now expects some measure of this sort at
+each session, and in recent years has not been disappointed, although
+good sense has thus far triumphed. Then again men in high places,
+congressmen and at least one of our U. S. Senators from Georgia have
+begun to say some things that may easily be construed as an advocacy of
+disfranchisement. It occurs to me that the marked difference between the
+condition in my boyhood and to-day is this: then the opposition was to
+Republicans, to-day it is to Negroes. It is not a party line, but a race
+line.
+
+Now the white primary has not done all that was claimed for it. In the
+first place it has not purified elections. Far from doing away with the
+purchase and sale of votes, it has, by lowering the supply, relatively
+increased the demand and brought up the price to a really fancy figure.
+In the second place it has failed to do that for which it was ostensibly
+introduced especially to do, namely; to put into office those men most
+eminently fitted by ability and character to administer the office to
+which they might be chosen. On the contrary, primary elections have been
+questioned on the ground of fraud; and the mayor of one very prominent
+Georgia city has been arrested for drunkenness. Then why is the primary
+kept? Well, the "fixers" for instance, can more easily fix things. With
+the Colored man's vote eliminated, the work becomes simplified and even
+though the amount of money spent illegally may now be more than the
+total amount in the days when colored as well as white were in the
+market yet those interested in "fixing" elections can now work with more
+assurance; and promises may more easily be carried out in the matter of
+delivering the goods.
+
+For instance, I know of a city election where the voters in one ward
+were so evenly divided and the candidates had calculated their strength
+so accurately, that one candidate felt safe in buying three white votes
+at the rate of one hundred ten dollars. Large corporations may now
+operate easily in state and city; and some of the most flagrant cases of
+political jobbery that have been charged against Reconstruction rule are
+easily equalled by the bare-faced graft and bribery by which large
+business interests win their way through the assistance of white voters.
+
+What are the possibilities of white aspirants bolting the primary? It is
+my impression that they are fewer than they were twenty years ago. Judge
+Gartrell once ran independently against Alexander Stephens for Governor
+and Judge Emory Speer in his younger days ran on an independent ticket;
+but such a step on the part of a candidate means outlawry for life.
+Speer was read into the Republican party, Thomas Watson into the
+Populist; and since the exile of such giants, the small fry find it easy
+to be good and not to lift their heads in rebellion, no matter what
+rascality has compassed their defeat at the Primary. No. It is my
+impression that the primary is more firmly established to-day than when
+it was first started. White unity has become white slavery; and while
+the yoke galls, the white aspirant prefers the yoke to extermination.
+
+But, suppose there should be a general Democratic "rough house" and the
+colored vote should be called in to quell the disturbance, the Colored
+voter would have no guarantee that such would mean his return to
+political standing. On the contrary, it might, as in several states,
+cause the passage of constitutional disfranchisement that would make his
+last state worse than the former. Our status is truly unenviable, and
+the ground on which we stand is exceedingly uncertain.
+
+I desire now to treat more fully what has already been touched upon: Why
+do the Republicans not nominate candidates for state, county and city
+offices and make a general canvass? There are two classes of Colored
+men, those who think the party should and those who think it should not.
+Unfortunately each of these classes makes severe charges against the
+other with reference to this matter. I much prefer to accept the
+explanations of both as honest. The following are at least some of the
+reasons for not making a canvass: first, it is difficult to get
+desirable men to accept the nomination; second, it would be still more
+difficult to secure sufficient funds to pay the ordinary and perfectly
+legitimate expenses of a campaign; third, the injustice of the party in
+power would make a fair election an impossibility. Hence a candidate
+would be doomed to defeat from the moment of his nomination and the fact
+that he and the party would know this, would make the campaign lifeless,
+futile and perfunctory. Fourth, the prominence of Colored people in
+politics and the extra trouble to which they would put the ascendant
+party might result in still further curtailment of the few rights still
+left to us.
+
+To all of this the side that clamors or appears to clamor for a ticket
+says: You assume too much, you see ghosts. Yet supposing the worst, it
+is far better to keep Colored voters organized for several reasons:
+first, because the organization gives a valuable training in citizenship
+that cannot be gained by standing aloof and waiting for better things;
+second, because if an opening should come suddenly, the Colored people
+would be better able to decide quickly and intelligently where to throw
+their strength solidly on one side or another for their own best
+interests and the interests of the government; thirdly, because a show
+of opposition to existing political injustice and repression would
+relieve us of the charge of indifference to our condition and would
+strengthen the courage of those who might champion our cause--our
+efficient, powerful champions, who have grown doubtful about our real
+manhood. I believe in the honesty of both these classes of colored men;
+and it is exceedingly difficult for a man, living in the midst of these
+conditions and knowing the temperament, attitude and unlimited power of
+the white people, to say which one of these two courses is the more
+rational and helpful to pursue.
+
+What have the Colored people lost through disfranchisement? They have
+lost the privilege of influencing legislation, since the legislator
+feels under no obligation to them. The "Jim Crow" car law, the separate
+tax bill and almost any other bill may be passed so far as pressure from
+Colored people is concerned. A very clear case is the public library in
+Atlanta which is supported by the taxes of all citizens, yet not a
+single Colored person may enter that library to read or borrow a book.
+Some months ago Mr. Carnegie offered the city ten thousand dollars for a
+library for the Colored people on the condition that the city furnish a
+lot and agree to appropriate one thousand dollars _per annum_ for the
+maintenance of the library. The whole matter has been tabled and the
+Colored people have no redress, since their mayor and aldermen were
+elected without the Colored vote. Do you suppose the city of Atlanta
+would have refused so paltry a favor, if its city council were dependent
+upon our vote?
+
+Not only have we lost influence among the law makers but among those who
+interpret the law and administer justice. Neither judge nor jury has to
+consult the Colored man's wish. This independence of us makes the court
+a place of injustice as frequently as of justice, and policemen may be
+cruel with impunity.
+
+Then too, the chain-gang with its revolting influences on men and women,
+boys and girls; the lack of Negro reformatories in some places where
+they do exist for white boys find much of their meaning in the fact that
+the Colored voter cannot make sentiment and bring things to pass through
+the ballot. We have had the "Jim Crow" law forced upon us, our public
+schools have become poorer in equipment and teaching force, and the
+salary of teachers has been lowered.
+
+In a word, the loss of the franchise has changed our status to such a
+degree that we no longer demand, but beg and supplicate even for those
+fundamental needs, without which education and general improvement would
+be very doubtful.
+
+Now are there some things to be effected that are regarded as of more
+vital interest to Colored people at present than the ballot? In the face
+of what has already been said, this seems almost an unnecessary
+question, since the ballot is no abstract thing, no merely academic
+theory, but a vital agent in the promotion of improvement and happiness.
+Yet as obvious as all this seems, when people have already lost the
+ballot they may ask this question: Are there some things to be effected
+that are of more vital interest to Colored people at present than the
+ballot?
+
+I heard a sweet-spirited Colored man say at the conclusion of his
+remarks one day--he was a college president and is now in Heaven away
+from this turmoil--well I heard him say: "I have come to the conclusion
+that all we can do in this country is to take what the white man gives
+us." An eminent Colored preacher said recently in my hearing: "You can't
+drive these white folks, you must knuckle to them and you can get
+anything you want." Within the last two months an interesting white
+southern clergyman in his exhortation to Colored people to be good
+Negroes, told them not to get mad about "Jim Crow" cars and to be slow
+to urge their rights. Said he: "You Colored people are undertaking a
+heavy task when you attempt to reform the Anglo-Saxon." Now our present
+needs are numerous and vital, many growing out of the curtailment of
+privileges, a condition made possible through our lack of the ballot.
+Many Colored men believe that we can get these needs supplied most
+quickly and surely by begging and not resorting to a futile ballot;
+many, moreover, think that the voting would retard the granting of these
+much needed privileges. On the other hand, others say our condition
+grows steadily worse and our only redress, our only hope, is in the
+ballot.
+
+Now what do I believe about all this? I believe that we ought to vote,
+and I vote on every public question when the privilege is accorded me. I
+believe that our leaders ought to give us the opportunity to vote and
+let us stand forth as men, whether successful or not, willing to do all
+within our power to be full-fledged citizens. Certainly our attitude
+ought never to allow the white people to say: the Negro cares nothing
+for the franchise and does not exercise it when he does have the
+opportunity. What are we waiting for? Not more education, I hope. And
+here I must remind you that one thing is much over-talked: the
+forwardness of the Colored child and the backwardness of the white child
+in the matter of getting an education. Colored children are not being
+fitted as are white for their responsibilities. A real intellectual
+awakening is going on among the whites of the South--more and better
+school houses, better teachers and longer school terms; and the white
+children are learning with avidity. The Colored children are getting
+poor school houses, poorer teachers, more poorly paid teachers and
+shorter school terms; and we cannot change this disparity by begging the
+state and city. Unless we force better things for ourselves by the
+ballot or go into our own pockets, the next generation of colored voters
+will be relatively less prepared for the educational qualification in
+comparison with the white voter than the Colored voters of to-day. Oh!
+you say: "Pessimist, looking on the dark side." Away with that
+contemptible sentimentality and aversion to ugly facts that make some of
+my people call a man a pessimist every time he lifts a warning voice. I
+know the white country school house and the Colored country school
+house. There is a tremendous difference.
+
+Now I believe in education, but I also believe in manhood; and any
+education bought at the price of manhood is worthless and a mill-stone
+about the neck. I believe in the ballot as a developer of manhood and as
+it procures the right of men. I believe in the ballot in spite of
+threats of disfranchisement, if we use this ballot. I see no difference
+in purpose between the states that have outrightly disfranchised us and
+those states that do it stealthily or by indirection.
+
+I believe that the purpose of all is the same: a hatred for Colored
+people and a determination to have white supremacy at any cost of life
+and honor. I do not think Northern sentiment is a deterring force,
+though I think Northern sentiment _could_ become a deterring force to
+disfranchisement. In the face of all this, why _delay_ voting in the
+hope of better things; better _welcome_ disfranchisement as _men_ than
+_suffer_ from it as _cowards_.
+
+
+
+
+The Potentiality of the Negro Vote, North and West--_JOHN L. LOVE_
+
+
+The potential voting strength of the Negro population in the United
+States is, according to the last census, three times as great as was
+that of the white population in 1775 when the Declaration of
+Independence published to the world the modern, though sound, practical
+and eminently safe political creed that governments derive their just
+powers from the consent of the governed. The number of Negro males of
+voting age is approximately three millions, a number equal to the entire
+white population at the beginning of the war for Independence. The total
+Negro population in the United States in 1900 was three times larger
+than was the total white population which battled against King George
+and the British Parliament for the purpose of securing a voice in the
+choice of those who levy taxes and enact the laws whose weight and
+obligation fall equally upon the whole body of citizens.
+
+In the North Atlantic, the North Central, and the Western census
+divisions of the United States, the potential voting strength of the
+Negroes is more than a quarter million. It is larger than was the
+combined prohibition and socialist vote in 1900 and exceeds by nearly a
+hundred thousand the total combined vote cast for the present governors
+of the four states of Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and
+Alabama. In many sections of the North and West the Negro population is
+sparse and scattering, varying all the way from one in Scott County in
+Indiana to 63,000 in Philadelphia. Yet in many localities where there is
+almost an even balance of the two chief parties, the Negro vote is
+competent to decide the results of election. In the states of Delaware
+Indiana, Ohio, Connecticut, New Jersey, and several districts in New
+York, Massachusetts, and Illinois, a united, coherent Negro vote may
+frequently determine both local and national elections. This is shown by
+the returns in 1902 for Congressional election in four districts in
+Indiana, two in New Jersey, four in Ohio, and two in Massachusetts and
+Connecticut, where the Negro vote was of sufficient size to have thrown
+the election to either party. In state and local elections where party
+fealty is not always so strong as in national elections, owing to
+dissatisfaction with both men and measures, the potentiality of the
+Negro vote can be made very real and effective as well as respectable.
+The municipal wards and legislative districts in the large commercial
+and manufacturing centers of the North and West furnish undoubted
+opportunities for the Negro vote to make itself felt and to win regard
+and respect as far away as the United States Senate.
+
+The foregoing facts and considerations suggest interesting possibilities
+and, in view of the conditions affecting the political, civil, and
+economic well being of the people of color in the United States, they
+create a demand and an obligation with reference to the use of which the
+Negro voter should make of his right of the franchise.
+
+The chief tenet of modern political philosophy is that the participation
+of the people in the government is the only way by which their liberties
+can be guaranteed and their economic and industrial happiness
+safeguarded. Out of this conviction which has taken hold of men almost
+everywhere has resulted in the universal movement towards democracy. The
+democratic triumph which has marked the past hundred years and has been
+accompanied by marvelous achievements of human endeavor--achievements
+which could not have been accomplished except under conditions of
+freedom--has not been won without stupendous struggle and temporary
+defeats and disappointments. At every forward step, the movement has
+encountered unrelenting and seemingly irresistible opposition of
+privilege. Even here in the United States where, barring absurd
+contradictions, the spirit of democracy began so conspicuously to assert
+itself under the fostering genius of Jefferson, skillful and powerful
+resistance has been constant and implacable. Aristocratic privilege,
+intrenched in power, has grudgingly given way to the demands of manhood
+rights, and manhood suffrage, and even to-day, in the attempt to
+rehabilitate itself, it is bold enough to make the ridiculous assertion
+that the right of suffrage, even in a republican form of government, is
+not a natural and inherent right of citizenship, but merely a privilege
+to be granted or withheld at pleasure by a select few for whose assumed
+authority no power on earth or in heaven is responsible.
+
+Whatever opinions may be entertained contrary to the doctrine and
+increasing practice of government by the consent of the governed, the
+fact is undeniable that as man has gained and exercised the right of
+participation in government, special privilege for the few has had to
+give way to the condition of equal opportunity for all. Abuses have been
+swept away and the door of opportunity has been opened for all. Thus has
+the ballot proven to be man's sure and effective weapon of defense
+against tyranny and proscriptive government.
+
+All classes of our varied population, with possibly one exception, have
+recognized this truth and have acted in accordance with it. German,
+Irish, Jew; artisan, farmer and merchant--all have found the ballot a
+remedy for social, economic, and political ills that have had their
+origin in unjust laws or the partial administration of law. All have
+used it with wonderful effect towards the betterment of their condition.
+Grievances of one group have been allied with those of another group;
+industrial discontent growing out of capitalistic wrongs, political
+distempers due to governmental abuses or the enforcement of
+discriminatory laws; the deep seated consciousness of ethnic injustice
+in the industrial or political scheme--all have combined and arrayed
+themselves for redress which every branch of the political machinery has
+in the end endeavored to grant. The demands of the Slavonic yeomanry of
+the Northwest that a check be placed upon railroad combinations are not
+less effective in securing compliance than those of the merchants and
+shippers of our commercial centers that just and equal rates of
+transportation shall be enforced. The underground toilers of the mining
+regions of Pennsylvania and Illinois know that their grievances will
+receive the same respectful attention and consideration as the mandates
+of the coal barons, and they systematically scrutinize the attitude and
+the actions of public servants and hold them to a strict performance of
+promise and duty in so far as their rights and interests are concerned.
+Thus it is that in the United States as in all representative
+governments the ballot is the surest means of securing a "square deal;"
+and it is incumbent upon the three hundred thousand Negro voters of the
+north and west to recognize its value and to make the same use of it as
+is made by all other aggrieved elements of the body politic.
+
+A catalogue of the wrongs and injuries suffered by the Negro citizens of
+the United States, first on account of discriminatory and proscriptive
+legislation; secondly, on account of the failure to enforce the laws
+designed to uphold and protect their citizenship; and thirdly, on
+account of the most palpable and outrageous violation of the sacred
+rights of life, liberty and property, make the "long train of abuses and
+usurpations" committed, according to the Declaration of Independence, by
+the King of Great Britain against his colonies in America appear as the
+gentle chastisements of a benificent ruler. Of all the complex elements
+of American citizenship, the Negro is the solitary victim of legal,
+social, industrial, and political discrimination. He alone is singled
+out by the law for disparagement which fact encourages and enforces the
+multitude of civil and industrial discriminations and injuries that tend
+to deprive him of the respectability due not only to a citizen but to
+man. To the tax levy, to the obligation to bear arms for the common
+defense as well as to all other mandates of the government, he is
+equally amenable with other citizens; but he is excepted from a full
+share of the benefits of citizenship. In all stations of society and in
+all departments of government, his protests fall upon deaf or
+indifferent ears, and the very sufferings and wrongs which he suffers
+are frequently made the text for sermonizings on his short-comings. If
+the homilies published from the pulpits, in the press, and even
+sometimes from the higher branches of the government are to be believed,
+the Negro is the most unsaintly citizen of the republic, in spite of the
+fact that he seldom commits "the robust crimes of the whites" or has the
+chance to defraud the government, to wreck financial institutions, or
+rob widows and orphans.
+
+The burden of these outrages lies heavily upon the hearts and minds of
+the black men of America, yet the remedy, if they could but realize it,
+lies largely within their power. Throughout the republic, every man
+identified with the Negro race, though he may not be personally or
+locally subjected directly to the humiliations and wrongs which oppress
+and degrade the great mass of his kind, feels their bitter sting and
+resents them. In public assemblies, upon the public highways and common
+carriers, in the drawing room and around the secrecy of the fireside,
+the fact of injustice is the one inevitable and irrepressible theme of
+conversation and reflection; and the perennial and ever present question
+in the minds of all, whether of low or high degree, is _By what means
+can the situation be altered?_ Men of different opinions are endeavoring
+more or less honestly to answer the question, but one of the surest and
+quickest means is at the command of the three hundred thousand Negro
+voters of the north and west, who have it in their power by an
+intelligent, united, and courageous exercise of their high privilege and
+right to demand the same respect and consideration for their interest
+and well being as any other class of men who register their wills at the
+ballot-box.
+
+Thaddeus Stevens once said that control of republics depends upon
+numbers and not upon the quality of the citizens. In the last analysis
+this is true, but in all governments by parties the smaller number is
+often more important than the larger. The strength of the Negro vote in
+the North and West in times of party crises consists not so much in the
+number of that vote as in the use which is made of it. In thirty
+northern and western cities, it can very effectively contribute to the
+improvement of existing conditions. It is wonderfully powerful, if
+intelligently directed, in the cities of Boston, Baltimore, Chicago,
+Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and New York.
+
+The effectiveness of this vote depends more upon the use which is made
+of it in local and state elections than in national elections. The bonds
+which unite the interests of the local, state and national officials and
+politicians are very real and subtle--the weakest point being always the
+local politician. His election and success often turns upon less than a
+score of votes and consequently he is not inclined to disdain a single
+voter. His interests are inseparably connected with the interests and
+ambitions of the men who occupy luxurious berths in Congress and in the
+national or state government. In all matters concerning the interests of
+the Negro, the local politician's position can be known and his actions
+are open to close view. When his acts do not accord or square with the
+interest of the colored voter, he can be left to find other friends and
+supporters.
+
+In the second place, the effectiveness and potentiality of the Negro
+vote in the North and West depends upon an absolute and courageous
+disregard of traditions. There are times when party fealty may be both
+proper and commendable. There is to be sure a great deal of hypocrisy
+and humbuggery in our political parties, yet back of these they do stand
+for certain great and vital principles. When the latter are put to the
+test our fealty may properly be demanded, but under normal conditions,
+when stress and strife of class and selfish interests, invidious
+discriminations and outrageous injustice prevail, the only safe and
+prudent course for the individual or class of individuals to pursue is
+absolute independence of parties and uncompromising devotion to the
+paramount interest. When we cannot act advantageously, we may act
+punitively, so that the public servant may know that if he ignores or
+hypocritically juggles with our interests, he will be held to a strict
+accountability. If on the eve of an election the party or the individual
+candidate attempts to cajole by a statement of principles or policy
+which is ignored after a successful contest, reprisal should be swift
+and terrible as soon as the opportunity permits.
+
+In the third place, the Negro vote of the North and West needs, if it
+does not at present lack, intelligent, honest, straightforward, and
+unselfish leadership. Until it has this, its potentiality will be _nil_.
+
+To impute dishonesty or insincerity to those who from time to time act
+in the role of leaders of the Negro voters would be unpardonably
+reprehensible. Men generally act according to their light and it is not
+an uncommon observation that the average public man gets his light
+through the medium of a self-interested reflector. Amid the competitions
+and conflicts, the struggle for place and temporary power and emoluments
+which characterize all phases of modern life and especially political
+life in the United States, the calm, clear-eyed, far-seeing man is rare.
+Yet men of unusual foresight, of clear perception of the fundamental and
+vital issues with the tact and ability to gain an advantage and an
+uncompromising determination to hold what has been gained--such is the
+type of men needed to make the Negro vote potent. The leadership which
+boasts of its capacity to keep silent under terrible wrongs is not
+calculated to carry the race far on the road towards real and permanent
+betterment.
+
+Redress of political wrongs is not the fruit of grim and sanctimonious
+silence. Whenever it has come, it has been forced by long, continuous
+and implacable outcry, and Negro leadership must follow the example of
+men in other lands and in other times who fearlessly cried out against
+the wrongs which their people suffered. In "The Making of England," John
+Richard Green states that the Roman conquerors were able to completely
+subjugate and enslave the Britons because they were able to make terms
+with their leaders. The finest skill of the dominant element in
+governments founded upon tyranny has always been employed in making
+terms with the leaders of the oppressed.
+
+Silence has its part in our fight and many times the cause has been lost
+because of failure to observe it, but it is not silence in respect to
+wrongs. Neither upon battlefields nor in the mad clash of passions and
+ambitions that mark the control of states is victory won or success
+achieved by a boisterous parade of the plan of attack. In the subtle
+operation of American political methods, silence is the sphinx that
+baffles the most astute and insinuating politician. The silent vote is a
+greater dread to the party leaders than was the sword to Damocles.
+
+The Negro ballot has almost lost its potency on account of the
+unconcerned cocksureness of one political party that the other side will
+not get the benefit of it. The party managers have no concern about the
+certainty of the Negro vote and therefore spend all of their effort in
+trying to satisfy the demands of the other elements and are never able
+to know whether or not they have succeeded until the vote is counted.
+They fear the silent vote. It is thoughtful, analytic, decisive. It
+scans, records, and registers every dodge, retreat, and juggle which the
+honorable candidate or the party has been guilty of in matters which
+concern it.
+
+In the exercise of the suffrage, the Negro voter has never been
+indifferent to the best and noblest interests of the republic. For more
+than forty years he has voted with the majority of his fellow countrymen
+on all the great questions which have divided the people. This he has
+done out of regard more for what men have considered the welfare of the
+country than for what he has deemed advantageous to himself. There is
+now a need of a change. He must now consider his well-being and safety
+identical with the well-being and safety of the republic and must
+require all men who seek his vote to consider it likewise.
+
+To-day we are on the eve of a great national festival. The peaceful
+succession of government is a boon not enjoyed by all the peoples of the
+world. It is an event which deservedly appeals to the enthusiasm and
+civic pride of the nation. From all corners of the state have come
+delegations of citizens representing all classes, who come not only to
+honor and grace by their presence the event but, I believe, to pay
+honest and manly tribute to a man who is beloved and trusted by the
+whole American people. His battles against civic wrongs and in behalf of
+weaker classes and his policy of "all men up and no men down," not only
+make him the paragon of public officials, but a lovable and trusted man.
+Among the throngs that shall honor him and in turn be honored in the
+escort which will make the Avenue the most splendid pageant which can
+adorn any modern government, none will march more proudly than the brave
+and valiant regiment of black men who, with him whom they honor, risked
+all and won glory on the field of San Juan. Yet by the laws of the land
+and by the policy of the government, their rights and their manhood are
+not on a parity with those of other citizens who with less desert shall
+follow in his train. It is the possibility of such a state of affairs,
+that the Negro vote of the North and West, yea the great body of all
+good citizens must exercise itself to prevent.
+
+
+
+
+Migration and Distribution of the Negro Population as Affecting the
+Elective Franchise--_KELLY MILLER_
+
+
+Population lies at the basis of all human problems. The first command
+given by the Creator to the human race was to multiply and replenish the
+earth. The growth and expansion of the Negro population in the United
+States must be the controlling factor in the many complex problems to
+which his presence gives rise. In order to gain adequate as well as
+accurate knowledge on this subject, it is necessary to take a
+comprehensive view of its progress since its transplantation in America.
+It is well known that the first ship load of African slaves was landed
+at Jamestown, Va. in 1619. This original handful augmented by fresh
+importation and by its own rapid multiplication had swollen to three
+quarters of a million when the first Census was taken in 1790. The
+following table will reveal the essential facts as to the expansion of
+this population.
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 6
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  NEGRO POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  YEAR.           NUMBER OF     DECENNIAL   PER CENT OF   PER CENT OF
+                  NEGROES.      INCREASE.   INCR.         TOTAL
+                                                          POPUL.
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1790              757,208             -             -         19.27
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1800            1,002,037       244,829         32.33         18.18
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1810            1,377,808       375,771         37.50         19.03
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1820            1,771,656       393,848         28.50         18.39
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1830            2,328,642       556,986         31.44         18.10
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1840            2,873,648       545,006         23.44         16.84
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1850            3,683,808       765,169         26.63         15.69
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1860            4,441,830       803,022         14.13         14.13
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1870            4,880,009       438,179          9.87         11.68
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1880            6,580,793     1,700,784         34.85         13.12
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1890            7,470,040       889,247         13.51         11.93
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1900            8,840,789     1,370,749         18.35         11.57
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+There are certain noticeable irregularities in this table, due in part
+to known disturbing causes, and in part to imperfections in census
+methods. It is thus seen that the Negro constitutes a rapidly increasing
+element, though a slowly diminishing minority of the total population.
+This relative diminution is due wholly to the influx of white
+immigrants, more than 14,000,000 of whom have come to our shores since
+1860. If the two races should continue to grow at the same relative rate
+of increase as during the last decade, according to the law of
+diminishing ratios, it would require more than one hundred years to
+reduce the Negro to one-tenth of the total population. So far as any
+practical calculation is concerned, we may regard this as an irreducible
+minimum. So long as the Negro constitutes one-tenth of the entire body
+of the American people we may expect to have the race problem, both in
+its general and in its political features.
+
+From the foundation of our government the Negro has constituted a
+serious political problem, mainly because of his unequal geographical
+distribution. If agricultural and economic conditions had been uniform,
+and the slaves had been evenly scattered over the whole area, the
+political phase of the race problem would have been far different from
+what it is and has been throughout our national life. The fact that the
+bulk of this race has been congested in one section has constituted the
+cause of political friction from the foundation of the Constitution till
+the present hour. This population persists in remaining in that section
+where it was most thickly planted by the institution of slavery. The
+center of gravity is still moving slowly towards the gulf of Mexico.
+Ninety-two per cent of the race is still found in the sixteen states
+where slavery prevailed at the outbreak of the civil war. The coastal
+states, from Maryland to Texas, contain three-fourths of the total
+number.
+
+While there has been a steady stream of Negro immigration towards the
+North and West, yet it has not been sufficient to materially affect the
+mass tendency. It would seem, on first view, that the Negro who
+complains so bitterly against political restrictions in the South would
+rush to the freer conditions of the North as a gas from a denser to a
+rarer medium. But political and civil freedom offered by the North are
+more than off-set by industrial restrictions and by the inertia of a
+population devoid of the pioneer spirit. The warm blooded, warm hearted
+child of the tropics is chilled alike by the rigid climate and frigid
+social atmosphere that prevail in the higher latitudes. In all New
+England there are fewer Negroes than are to be found in a single county
+in Tennessee.
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 7
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   SECTION.            POPULATION.   INCREASE, 1890    RATE OF INCR.
+                                     TO 1900
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   United States         8,840,789        1,370,749            18.35
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   Georgia               1,034,813          175,998            20.50
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   Mississippi             907,630          165,071            22.20
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   Alabama                 827,307          148,818            21.90
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   So. Carolina            782,321           93,387            13.60
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   31 Northern             759,788          181,876            31.50
+   States
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+We learn from this table that there are four states in the union, each
+of which contains a larger number of Negroes than all the 31 free states
+combined. While such free states show a much more rapid decennial
+increase than any of the far south states, still the total increment
+scarcely exceeds that of the single state of Georgia. These figures
+reveal no mad hegira to a fairer and better land. The increase in the
+Northern states is due almost wholly to immigration from the South. It
+is entirely probable that the Negro population, left to itself, would
+not be a self sustaining quantity in the higher latitudes. During the
+last decade there was an absolute decline of the Negro population in
+Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada,
+Oregon and California.
+
+The political significance of this Northern movement is out of all
+proportion to its absolute weight. It is only in the North that the
+Negro vote has dynamic power. In several of the border states, this vote
+is at present unhampered, but there is no guarantee of future security.
+In Mississippi there are 197,936 Negro males of voting age, but this
+potential vote does not affect the choice of a single official of that
+state. The black vote of that commonwealth is as completely nullified as
+the last two amendments had never been appended to our national
+constitution. On the other hand the 5,193 adult Negro males in Mich. are
+accounted of considerable consequence in the political equation of that
+state. In the Northern and Western states where men feel free to align
+themselves according to conviction, the two parties are so nearly even
+that the Negro vote constitutes the balance of power. Owing to unusual
+political conditions, which cannot be counted on to continue, the last
+three presidential elections were practically one-sided. The Republican
+party triumphed by a margin that far exceeded the entire Negro
+Contingent. It is only in several of the border states that this vote
+could in any way have affected the fate of presidential electors. The
+Negro vote, however, has been quite effective in state elections, and in
+the choice of congressmen. As the parties gravitate to normal
+conditions, the Negro vote will again become the balance of power in the
+controlling states of the North. At the beginning of every campaign each
+party feels that it has a chance of success. At such times the black
+vote looms up large and significant. In national affairs the colored
+vote usually adheres to the party of Lincoln and Sumner. As the margin
+between the two parties is a shifting and uncertain quantity, the rapid
+increase of the Negro vote in the Northern States becomes a matter of
+great political importance.
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 8
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             NEGRO MALES OF VOTING AGE IN THE NORTHERN
+             STATES.
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             STATE.                  1890.           1900.
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Pennsylvania           34,873          51,668
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             New York               24,231          31,425
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Illinois               18,200          29,762
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Ohio                   25,922          31,235
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Indiana                13,079          18,186
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             New Jersey             14,564          21,474
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Massachusetts           7,967          10,456
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Rhode Island            2,261           2,765
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Connecticut             3,497           4,576
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Kansas                 12,543          14,695
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Michigan                    -           5,193
+             ----------------------------------------------
+
+
+These figures tell their own story when we consider the normal relation
+between the two parties in these several states. It is also interesting
+to note that the Negroes in the North are found very largely in the
+cities. This makes this vote of considerable importance in municipal
+elections. There is, however, a tendency on the part of this vote to
+distribute itself between the two parties in purely municipal and local
+matters, which to a great degree neutralizes its special significance.
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 9
+                    --------------------------------
+                    NEGRO VOTERS IN NORTHERN
+                    CITIES, 1900.
+                    --------------------------------
+                    CITY                 NEGROES OF
+                                         VOTING AGE
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Philadelphia             20,095
+                    --------------------------------
+                    New York                 18,651
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Chicago                  12,424
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Pittsburg                 6,541
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Indianapolis              5,200
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Boston                    4,441
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Cincinnati                4,997
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Detroit                   1,732
+                    --------------------------------
+
+
+The most effective use that the Negro in the North can make of his
+political privilege is to uphold civic righteousness in municipal
+affairs, and to support those men and measures pledged to support the
+integrity of the constitution and its vital amendments.
+
+
+
+
+The Negro and His Citizenship--_FRANCIS J. GRIMK�_
+
+
+    ACTS 22:25-29.--_And when they had tied him up with the thongs,
+    Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you
+    to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned? And when the
+    centurion heard it, he went to the chief captain and told him,
+    saying, What art thou about to do? for this man is a Roman. And
+    the chief captain came and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a
+    Roman? And he said, Yea. And the chief captain answered, With a
+    great sum obtained I this citizenship. But Paul said, But I am a
+    Roman born. They then that were about to examine him straightway
+    departed from him: and the chief captain also was afraid when he
+    knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him._
+
+
+In this passage attention is directed to four things: To the fact that
+Paul was a Roman citizen; to the fact that he was about to be treated in
+a way that was forbidden by his citizenship; to the fact that he stood
+up for his rights as a Roman citizen; and to the fact that those who
+were about to infringe upon his rights were restrained, were overawed.
+
+I. Attention is directed to the fact that Paul was a Roman citizen.
+Citizenship was a possession that was very highly esteemed, and that was
+obtained in several ways,--by birth, by purchase, as a reward for
+distinguished military services, and as a favor. Paul's came to him by
+inheritance; his father before him had been a Roman citizen: how it came
+to the father we do not know. At one time the price paid for it was very
+great. The chief captain, in the narrative of which our text is a part,
+tells us that he obtained his with a great sum; and therefore he seemed
+surprised to think that a man in Paul's circumstances should have it. At
+first he seemed a little incredulous, but it was only for a moment. The
+penalty for falsely claiming to be a Roman citizen was death; this fact
+together with the whole bearing of the apostle finally left no doubt in
+his mind: he accepted his statement.
+
+It was not only a great honor to be a Roman citizen, but it carried with
+it many rights and privileges that were not enjoyed by others. These
+rights were either private or public,--_Jus Quiritium_, and _Jus
+Civitatis_. Among Private Rights, was the Right of Liberty. This secured
+him against imprisonment without trial; exemption from all degrading
+punishments, such as scourging and crucifixion; the right of appeal to
+the emperor after sentence by an inferior magistrate or tribunal, in any
+part of the empire; and also the right to be sent to Rome for trial
+before the emperor, if charged with a capital offence.
+
+Among Public Rights belonging to Roman citizens the following may be
+mentioned: (1) The right of being enrolled in the censor's book, called,
+_Jus Census_. (2) The right of serving in the army, called, _Jus
+Militiae_. At first only citizens of the empire were permitted to engage
+in military operations, to bear arms and fight in its behalf. (3) The
+right to vote in the different assemblies of the people, called, _Jus
+Suffragii_. This has always been and is to-day one of the most important
+functions of citizenship, and one that should be highly prized and
+sacredly guarded. (4) The right of bearing public offices in the state.
+
+There were many other rights enjoyed by Roman citizens, but I will not
+take the time to enumerate them: these are sufficient to show us the
+value, the importance of Roman citizenship; and this citizenship the
+apostle Paul was invested with, with all the rights and privileges which
+were involved in it. On one occasion he said, "I am a citizen of no mean
+city," referring to Tarsus, which was one of the free cities of Asia
+Minor; but more than that, as he tells us here, he was a citizen of the
+empire.
+
+II. Attention is called to the fact that Paul was about to be treated in
+a way that was forbidden by his citizenship; that was contrary to Roman
+law. He had gone up to Jerusalem to attend the feast of Pentecost. After
+meeting the brethren and rehearsing to them the wonderful things which
+God had wrought through his ministry among the Gentiles, they
+congratulated him upon his success, but said to him: "Thou seest,
+brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of them that have
+believed; and they are all zealous for the law: and they have been
+informed concerning thee, that thou teachest all the Jews who are among
+the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their
+children neither to walk after the customs. What is it therefore? they
+will certainly hear that thou art come. Do therefore this that we say to
+thee: We have four men that have a vow on them; these take, and purify
+thyself with them, and be at charges for them, that they may shave their
+heads: and all shall know that there is no truth in the things whereof
+they have been informed concerning thee but that thou thyself walkest
+orderly, keeping the law." It was in compliance with this request, that
+Paul went into the temple to do as he was asked to do: and while there
+was seen by certain Jews of Asia, i. e., the province of Asia, who at
+once stirred up the multitude and laid hands on him, crying out, "Men of
+Israel, help: This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against
+the people, and the law, and this place; and moreover he brought Greeks
+also into the temple and hath defiled this holy place." It was like
+touching a match to a powder magazine. The people were aroused.
+Instantly there was a response to the call; and dragging the apostle out
+of the temple they were in the act of beating him to death, when the
+chief captain, learning of the tumult, rushed down with a squad of
+soldiers and rescuing him, brought him into the castle. The next day
+with a view of ascertaining what the trouble was, the real ground of
+complaint against the apostle, the chief captain proposed to examine him
+by scourging, and issued orders to that effect. In obedience to this
+order the apostle was stripped and actually tied up. The process of
+examination proposed was very severe. The culprit was stripped and tied
+in a bending posture to a pillar, or stretched on a frame, and the
+punishment was inflicted with a scourge made of leathern thongs weighted
+with sharp pieces of bone or lead, the object being to extort from the
+sufferer a confession of his guilt or the information desired.
+
+If the chief captain had understood the Hebrew language, and could have
+followed the address of the apostle which was delivered on the steps of
+the palace, he would have understood what the trouble was, without
+attempting to resort to this brutal method of finding out; but evidently
+he did not. Everything indicated, however, that it was something very
+serious, judging from their treatment of him, and from the intense
+excitement which his words produced upon them, and hence, he was all the
+more anxious to find out. If the apostle was guilty of any offence
+against the law, it was the duty of the chief captain to take cognizance
+of it, and to punish him accordingly, but if he was innocent, if he had
+in no way transgressed the law, it was his duty to release him. The law
+also provided how the guilt or innocence of an accused person was to be
+ascertained; and it was the duty of the chief captain to have followed
+the course prescribed by the law; but it is clear from the narrative
+that he had determined upon another course: the prisoner is ordered to
+be scourged, instead of calling upon those who had assaulted him to make
+their charges, and to substantiate them, and then giving the apostle an
+opportunity of defending himself.
+
+III. Attention is directed in the text to the fact, that the apostle
+stood up manfully for his rights. After they had tied him up, as if
+waiting to see just how far they would go, and just as the process of
+scourging was about to begin, he challenged their right to proceed: he
+said to the centurion, who was standing by, and who was there as the
+representative of the chief captain, to see that the scourging was
+properly done, and to make note of what he confessed,--he said to this
+man: "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and
+uncondemned?" The law expressly forbade the scourging of Roman citizens;
+it was an indignity to which no Roman citizen was to be subjected. This
+was what was known as the Porcian law, and took its name from Porcius,
+the Tribune through whose influence its adoption was secured. And this
+is the law to which the apostle here appeals, whose protection he
+invokes. Paul, as a Roman citizen, not only knew what his rights were,
+but he stood up for his rights. He insists here upon being treated, as
+he was entitled to be treated, as a citizen of the empire. They are
+about to scourge him, contrary to law, and he says to them, Stop; you
+have no right to treat me in this way, intimating and they evidently
+understood it, that if they did not desist, they would hear from him; he
+would bring the matter to the attention of the emperor.
+
+This is not the only place where Paul falls back upon his rights as a
+Roman citizen. He did the same thing a little later on. He was removed
+from Jerusalem to Caesarea, as you will remember, where he remained a
+prisoner for two years. During that time he was frequently placed on
+trial before various officials,--before Felix, before Festus, before
+Agrippa. It was during one of these hearings, that Festus the governor,
+in order to curry favor with the Jews, intimated that he might be sent
+back to Jerusalem to be tried: and doubtless this was his intention,
+having entered into a secret arrangement with the enemies of the
+apostle, who had resolved to kill him at the first opportunity. This
+they felt that they would have a better chance of doing if they could
+only induce the governor to return him to Jerusalem. The apostle, of
+course, knew all this; he knew how intensely they hated him, and what
+their plans and purposes were, and he was determined not to be entrapped
+in this way. The record is: "Paul said in his defence, 'Neither against
+the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I
+sinned at all.' But Festus, desiring to gain favor with the Jews,
+answered Paul and said, 'Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be
+judged of these things before me?' But Paul said, 'I am standing before
+Caesar's judgment-seat, where I ought to be judged: to the Jews have I
+done no wrong, as thou also very well knowest. If then I am a wrong
+doer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die;
+but if none of these things is true whereof these accuse me, no man can
+give me up to them. I appeal unto Caesar.' Then Festus, when he had
+conferred with the council, answered, 'Thou hast appealed unto Caesar,
+unto Caesar thou shalt go.'"
+
+One of the great privileges of a Roman citizen was the right of appeal;
+the right of being heard directly by the emperor, of taking his case out
+of the hands of all inferior judicatories, up to the highest: and this
+is the right which the apostle here avails himself of. It was the only
+thing that saved him from being turned over by a corrupt official into
+the hands of his enemies; and it forcibly illustrates the importance of
+citizenship. Had he not been a Roman citizen clothed with the sacred
+right of appeal he would have been basely sacrificed to the malice of
+his enemies; or, though he had been a Roman citizen, if he had cowardly
+surrendered his right, if he had failed to exercise it, he would have
+equally perished; but the apostle stood upon his right, and so succeeded
+in thwarting the purposes of his enemies.
+
+IV. Attention is directed in the text to the fact, that those who were
+about to scourge this man, were restrained by the knowledge of the fact
+that he was a Roman citizen. The moment they became aware of this fact;
+at the mere mention of that sacred name, citizen, everything came to a
+stand still; the uplifted hand, ready to smite, is arrested, and we find
+the centurion running off, in great excitement in search of the chief
+captain, and saying to him, "What are you about? Do you know that this
+man is a Roman?" and we see the chief captain coming in great haste and
+saying to the apostle, "What? can it be possible! Are you really a
+Roman?" "Yes," said the apostle, "I am; and my father before me was."
+The chief captain is astonished; yea, more, fear takes hold of him; he
+becomes suddenly alarmed.
+
+There are two things in this incident that are worthy of note: first,
+this indignity that was offered to the apostle was through ignorance. It
+was not known that he was a Roman citizen. The law was violated, but it
+was not purposely done. It was not the intention of the chief captain to
+ignore the rights involved in citizenship; for he himself was a Roman
+citizen, and was interested in maintaining those rights. And, second, to
+trample upon the rights of a Roman citizen was a very grave offense, a
+very serious matter; and it became a serious matter because back of this
+citizenship was the whole power of the empire. These rights were
+carefully guarded, were rigidly enforced, so that the term, Roman
+citizen, was everywhere respected. No one could infringe those rights
+with impunity: hence you will notice what is said here, "The chief
+captain was afraid when he knew that he was a Roman because he had bound
+him." He recognized at once the gravity of the offense. That was old
+pagan Rome; but under its rule citizenship meant something; it was a
+sacred thing; back of it stood the strong arm of the Government to give
+efficacy, power to it. This man was afraid when he realized what he had
+done; and that is the feeling which outraged citizenship ought
+everywhere to inspire. It ought to mean something; and there ought to be
+power somewhere to enforce its meaning.
+
+But it is not of Roman citizenship that I desire to speak at this time,
+but rather of American citizenship, and of that citizenship as it
+pertains to ourselves. In the providence of God we are citizens of this
+great Republic. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution declares:
+"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to
+the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the
+State wherein they reside." Under this provision of the Constitution we
+are all citizens; and we have earned the right to be citizens. We have
+lived here as long as any other class in the Republic; we have worked as
+hard as any other class to develop the country; and we have fought as
+bravely as any other class in the defense of the Republic. If length of
+residence, if unstinted toil, if great sacrifices of blood, if the
+laying of one's self on the country's altar in the hour of peril, of
+danger, give any claim to citizenship, then our claim is beyond dispute;
+for all these things are true of us.
+
+We are _citizens_ of this great Republic: and citizenship is a sacred
+thing: I hope we realize it. It is a thing to be prized; to be highly
+esteemed. It has come to us after 250 years of slavery, of unrequited
+toil; it has come to us after a sanguinary conflict, in which billions
+of treasure and rivers of blood were poured out; it has come to us as a
+boon from the nation at a time when it had reached its loftiest moral
+development; when its moral sense was quickened as it had never been
+before, and when it stood as it had never stood before upon the great
+principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, not as
+glittering generalities, but as great realities: it was at that sublime
+period in our history, when the national conscience was at work; when
+the men who were in charge of affairs were men who stood for
+righteousness; when the great issues before the country were moral
+issues, issues involving human rights,--that the nation saw fit to
+abolish slavery and to decree the citizenship of all men, black and
+white alike. When we think of what this citizenship has cost, in blood
+and treasure; of the noble men through whose influence it was brought
+about; and of the fact that it came to us from the Nation when it was at
+its best, when it was living up to its highest light, and to its noblest
+conceptions of right and duty,--we ought to prize it, to set a high
+value upon it.
+
+And we ought to show our appreciation of it: (1). By being good
+citizens; by doing everything in our power to develop ourselves along
+right lines, intellectually, morally, spiritually, and also materially:
+and to do everything in our power to promote the general good;
+everything that will help to make for municipal, state, and national
+righteousness. We are to remember that we are part of a great whole, and
+that the whole will be affected by our conduct, either for good or bad.
+If we live right, if we fear God and keep his commandments, and train
+our children to do the same, we ennoble our citizenship; we become a
+part of the great conservative force of society, a positive blessing to
+the community, the state, the nation. It is especially important for us,
+in view of the strong prejudice against us, the disposition to view us
+with a critical eye, to hold up and magnify our short-comings, that we
+be particularly concerned to be constantly manifesting, evidencing our
+good citizenship by allying ourselves only with the things that are
+true, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report. We ought not
+to lose sight of the fact that the strongest fight that is being made
+against us to-day is by those who are doing most to discredit us, to
+array public sentiment against us,--those who are parading our
+short-comings and imperfections, who are giving the greatest publicity,
+the widest circulation to them. There are persons in this country, who
+are determined, and who never lose an opportunity to blacken our good
+name. Dr. DuBois, in that splendid document of his, "Credo," said among
+other things, "I believe in the Devil and his angels, who wantonly work
+to narrow the opportunity of struggling human beings, especially if they
+be black; who spit in the faces of the fallen, strike them that cannot
+strike again, believe the worst and work to prove it, hating the image
+which their Maker stamped on a brother's soul." And this is one of the
+conditions that confront us in this country, and that we must not lose
+sight of. The fact that there is this determination on the part of our
+enemies to prove that we are utterly unworthy of this great boon of
+citizenship, should have the effect of creating within us a counter
+determination to show that we are worthy,--to do our level best in every
+sphere of life. Now I do not mean by this to say that we are not proving
+ourselves to be good citizens; for we are: a great many of us are; but I
+have called attention to it because I feel that it ought to be
+emphasized; that we need to feel more keenly and more widely than is
+felt, the meaning of this great boon and the demand which it makes upon
+us. It is a challenge to every man to live a straightforward, upright,
+worthy life. And what is needed is, not only that _we_, who have had
+exceptional opportunities, should feel this way, but that the great mass
+of our people should be educated to feel the same, to be animated by the
+same spirit. And _we_ are to be their educators; it is through _us_ that
+this spirit is to descend upon them, and take possession of them. If
+this citizenship means anything, it means that we should be concerned
+about everything which makes for law, for order, for good government,
+for individual, municipal, state, and national purity and righteousness;
+it means that each one of us ought to be a living example of the best
+type of what a citizen ought to be.
+
+But this is not all: if we value our citizenship we will not only seek
+to make the most of ourselves, to live on the highest plane but we will
+also stand up manfully for our rights under that citizenship. I have no
+patience with those who preach civil and political self-effacement. I
+never have believed in that pernicious doctrine, and never will. When
+you have effaced a man, civilly and politically, in a government like
+our own, what is he? What does he amount to? Who cares for him? What
+rights has he which any other class is bound to respect? He is a mere
+nonentity, entitled to no consideration, and with no refuge to which he
+can fly in the hour of his need. To be civilly and politically effaced
+is to be civilly and politically dead; and to be civilly and politically
+dead is to be at the mercy of any and every political party or
+organization, and to be under the iron heel of the worst elements in the
+community without any means of redress.
+
+We are _citizens_ of this Republic: and I want to direct attention to
+this fact for a moment; and I am glad of the opportunity of doing it at
+this time, when we are in the midst of celebrating the inauguration of
+our President. I thank God for the man at the White House; for his
+courage; for his high sense of righteousness; for the many splendid
+things which he has said; and for the noble stand which he has taken on
+human rights; on equality of opportunity; on the open door for every man
+in the Republic irrespective of race or color. I rejoice in the fact
+that we have such a President. I commend him heartily for what he has
+done. I hope he will do more; I hope there are yet larger things in
+store for this race through him. But whether he does more or not; or
+whatever may be his future policy, or the future policy of the leaders
+of either of the great political parties, or the rank and file of those
+parties, it cannot, it will not affect in the least, our attitude in
+regard to our rights under the Constitution. We are citizens, clothed
+with citizenship rights; and, there is no thought or intention on our
+part of ever surrendering a single one of them. Whatever others may
+think of it, or desire in regard to it, we do not propose to retreat a
+single inch, to give up for one moment the struggle. I say, _we_ and in
+this, I believe I speak for those who represent the sentiment that is
+taking more and more firmly hold of the heart of this race. I belong to
+what may be called the radical wing of the race, on the race question: I
+do not believe in compromises; in surrendering, or acquiescing, even
+temporarily, in the deprivation of a single right, out of deference to
+an unrighteous public sentiment. I believe with Lowell,
+
+    "They enslave their children's children,
+    Who make compromise with sin."
+
+And this, I believe, at heart, is the sentiment of the race; at least,
+it is the sentiment of some of us. There is where we have taken our
+stand and there is where we propose to stand to the end. What belongs to
+us as citizens we want; and we are not going to be satisfied with
+anything less. We are in this country, and we are here to stay. There is
+no prospect of our ever leaving it. This is our home, as it has been the
+home of our ancestors for generations, and will be the home of our
+children, and of our children's children, for all time. It is of the
+greatest importance to us, therefore, that our status in it, as it is
+permanently fixed, should be, not that of a proscribed class, but that
+of full citizenship with every right, civil and political, accorded to
+us that is accorded to other citizens of the Republic. This is the thing
+that we are to insist upon; this is the evil against which we are to
+guard.
+
+What our enemies are seeking to effect is to make this a white man's
+government; to fix permanently our status in it, as one of civil and
+political inferiority. The issue is sharply drawn; and it is for us to
+say whether we will be thus reduced, whether such shall be our permanent
+status or not. One thing we may be assured of: such will surely be our
+fate unless we clearly comprehend the issue, and set ourselves earnestly
+to work to counteract the movement, by resisting in every legitimate way
+its consummation, and by using our influence to create a counter public
+sentiment.
+
+What are some of these citizenship rights for which we should earnestly
+contend?
+
+(1) The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In one
+section of this country, at least, and the area is growing, and is fast
+including others, the life of a Negro isn't worth as much as that of a
+dog. He may be shot down, murdered, strung up to a tree, burnt to death,
+by any white ruffian, or band of lawbreakers and murderers with
+impunity. The color of his skin gives any white man liberty to maltreat
+him, to trample upon him. He has no rights which white men are bound to
+respect. If he goes to law, there is no redress; his appeals avail
+nothing with judge and jury. That is a condition of things that we ought
+not to rest satisfied under. As long as the life of a black man is not
+just as sacred as that of a white man, in every section of the Republic;
+as long as wrongs perpetrated upon him are treated with greater leniency
+than wrongs perpetrated upon white men, his status is not the same as
+that of the white man; and as long as it is not the same an injustice is
+done him, which he ought to resist; against which he ought to protest,
+and continue to protest.
+
+(2) Another citizenship right is that of receiving equal accommodations
+on all common carriers and in all hostelries; on railroads, steamboats,
+in hotels, restaurants, and in all public places. When we travel,
+whatever we are able to pay for we are entitled to, just as other
+citizens are. To-day this is largely denied us. The hotels are not open
+to us; the restaurants are not open to us, even the little ten cent
+lunch counters, in this the capital city of the nation, are not open to
+us: we are shut out from all such places, and shut out because of the
+color of our skin. If we attempt to travel, and turn our faces
+southward, we must ride in Jim Crow cars; we must be segregated, shut up
+in a little compartment by ourselves. The privilege which we once
+enjoyed without stint of taking a sleeper or Pullman car, even that now
+is being taken from us. One state has even gone so far as to make it
+unlawful to sell a ticket to a person of color on a sleeper. That is the
+state of Georgia; a State that has in it Atlanta University, and Clark
+University, and the Atlanta Baptist College, and Spelman Seminary, and
+the Gammon Theological Seminary, and Haines Institute, and many other
+schools of learning; a State that has within its borders some of the
+very best type of Negroes in this country. The meaning of all this,
+don't let us misunderstand: it is a part of the general policy, which is
+being vigorously pushed by our enemies, to fix our status as one of
+inferiority, by shutting us out from certain privileges. The whole thing
+is wrong. Such invidious distinctions ought not to be permitted in a
+republic. It is inconsistent with citizenship. Everything ought to be
+open to all citizens alike:--railroad cars, hotels, restaurants,
+steamboats, the schools and colleges of the land: our public schools
+ought to be open to all the children alike. There ought not be separate
+schools for the whites, and separate schools for blacks: all the
+children of the Republic ought to be educated together; and sooner or
+later it is bound to come to that. Some one has said, "It isn't so much
+the Jim Crow car, as it is the Jim Crow Negro in the car." The fallacy
+of this statement, and its attempted mitigation or justification of the
+Jim Crow car, lies in the fact that the Jim Crow car has nothing
+whatever to do with the Jim Crow Negro. It was not instituted for him,
+but for all Negroes, whether Jim Crow or not: in fact, it was designed,
+particularly, not for the Jim Crow Negro, but for the intelligent,
+progressive, self-respecting Negro. If there are Jim Crow Negroes among
+us we owe them a duty; we ought to seek to improve them, to lift them to
+higher levels; but while we are doing this, don't let us forget that
+there is a Jim Crow car, and what it stands for. It stands for a hostile
+public sentiment; it is a part of a concerted plan which seeks to
+degrade us, to rob us of our rights, to deprive us of privileges enjoyed
+by other citizens, because of the color of our skin. If there were no
+Jim Crow Negroes, we would have the Jim Crow car all the same. We should
+fight the Jim Crow cars, therefore, not only because of the personal
+discomfort to which we are subjected in travelling, but also because of
+the general system of which it is a part,--a system which seeks to
+establish a double citizenship in the Republic, based upon race and
+color; the one superior to the other, and carrying with it privileges
+which are denied to the other.
+
+(3) Another citizenship right is that of serving in the Army and Navy;
+the right to take up arms and to fight in behalf of the country. This is
+our right, and we have exercised it, and are still exercising it. We
+have fought in all the wars of the Republic; and are represented to-day
+in both Army and Navy. We have made a glorious record for ourselves in
+this respect. There is no better soldier in the Army of the Republic,
+than the black soldier. This right has not been denied us, but let us,
+nevertheless, keep our eyes on it. There are some things even here that
+need to be looked into. It has been many years since we have had a
+representative in the great Naval or Military school of the country; and
+there have been some rumors about limiting the aspirations of Negroes in
+the Army, of not permitting them to advance beyond a certain point. If
+there is such a thought or intention on the part of those in authority,
+it must be resisted. The Negro must be free--in the Army, in the
+Navy,--in every part of the Army and Navy,--as other citizens are free;
+to advance according to his merit. His color must not be allowed to
+operate against him.
+
+(4) Another citizen right is that of suffrage, the right of the ballot;
+the right to have part in the government; to say who shall make the laws
+and who shall execute them; and what the laws shall be; the right to
+have an opinion, and to have that opinion counted in determining what
+shall be and what shall not be. This is one of the greatest of rights.
+In a republic citizenship means very little without it. It is this which
+marks the difference between a representative government, a government
+of the people, by the people, and for the people, and a despotism, an
+absolute monarchy. The glory of the age in which we live is the triumph
+of democracy; and what is the triumph of democracy but the right of the
+_people_ to say who shall rule; and how is the will of the people
+expressed? Through the ballot; at the polls. The ballot therefore is the
+symbol of the sovereignty of the people. If we are to be sovereign
+citizens of the Republic therefore, this right to vote must be
+preserved. The old despotic idea of government was, that some people
+were born to rule, and that others were born to be ruled; and the idea
+that exists in the minds of some people in this country, in democratic
+America, in face of the affirmation of the Declaration of Independence,
+that all men are born free and equal, is that in this country, there are
+some people who are born to rule, and others who are born to be ruled;
+and that the people who are born to rule are the whites, and those who
+are born to be ruled are the blacks: hence the effort that is being made
+to divest us of this symbol of sovereignty,--the ballot. Let us not be
+deceived; let us give no heed to any teaching, never mind from what
+source it may come, which seeks to minimize the importance of the
+ballot. What difference does it make whether we vote or not? I have
+heard some weak-kneed, time-serving representatives of our own race say;
+and the thought has been caught up by the men in the south who have been
+seeking to rob us of our rights, and by those in the North who have been
+playing into their hands; and they have said, Yes, What difference does
+it make? Are you not just as well off without it? What difference does
+it make? It makes all the difference in the world: the difference
+between a sovereign citizen of the Republic, and one who has been
+stripped of his sovereignty; between one who has a say in what is going
+on, and one who has not; between one who is ruled with his consent, and
+one who is ruled without it. If we are just as well off without the
+ballot, how is it that the white man is not just as well off without it?
+And if he is unwilling to give it up, why should he ask us to give it
+up? Why should we give it up? If he needs it in order to protect
+himself, much more do we, for we are weaker than he is, and need all the
+more the power which comes from the ballot.
+
+(5) Another citizenship right is, that of holding office, the right to
+be voted for, and of being appointed to positions of honor and trust by
+the executive power. This is also a right that belongs to us, and that
+we must contend for. It is one of our rights that is now being
+especially contested in the South. The Negro must not be appointed to
+any office, is the demand of Southern white sentiment. I am glad that
+the President has not yielded wholly to that sentiment. The fight which
+he made in the Crum case was a notable one, and clearly indicated that
+he was not willing to shut that door of opportunity to the Negro; that
+he was not willing to take the position that a man was to be debarred
+from public office simply because of the color of his skin. That was the
+right position for him to take, and the only one that was consistent
+with his oath of office, and his position as President of _all_ the
+people. I hope that he will continue to act upon that principle; and
+that he will do more than he has done. There is room for improvement in
+this direction. A few more appointments of colored men in the North, as
+well as in the South, would be a good thing. It ought to be done. The
+right of colored men to receive appointments ought to be clearly and
+distinctly emphasized by multiplying those appointments. There is
+nothing like an object lesson in impressing the truth. I hope that the
+President will give us many such object lessons during the next four
+years.
+
+The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; the right to
+receive equal accommodation on railroads, steamboats, in hotels,
+restaurants, and in all public places of amusement; the right to be
+represented in the Army and Navy; the right to vote; the right to hold
+office: these are some of our citizenship rights, for which we should
+earnestly contend. Sometimes, we are told, that it would be better to
+say less about our rights, and more about our duties. No one feels more
+the importance of emphasizing our duties than I do,--I think I have done
+about as much of it as anybody,--but among the duties that I have always
+emphasized, and still emphasize, is the duty of standing up squarely and
+uncompromisingly for our rights. When we are contending for the truth;
+when we are resisting the encroachments of those who are seeking to
+despoil us of our birth-right as citizens; when we are keeping up the
+agitation for equal civil and political privileges in this country, are
+we not in the line of duty? If not, where is the line? Duties? Yes. Let
+us have our duties preached to us,--line upon line, and precept upon
+precept, here a little and there a little; but at the same time don't
+let us forget that we have also _rights_ under the Constitution, and to
+see to it that we stand up for them; that we resist to the very last
+ditch those who would rob us of them. And in doing this, let us remember
+that we are called to it by the stern voice of Duty, which is the voice
+of God; and that we need not apologize for our action.
+
+And now in conclusion but a word more and then I am done. The fight
+before us is a long one. You will not live, nor will I live to see the
+triumph of the principles for which we are contending; let us not become
+discouraged however. Things look pretty dark at times, but it isn't all
+dark. Now and then there are gleams of light, which indicate the coming
+of a better day. There are forces working _for_ us, as well as against
+us; and with what we can do for ourselves, we need not despair.
+
+    "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
+    He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes
+    of wrath are stored!
+    He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;
+    His truth is marching on.
+
+    He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
+    He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat;
+    O, be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet!
+    While God is marching on."
+
+Let us take courage; let us gird up our loins; let us stand at our post;
+let us be true to duty; let us hold ourselves to the highest; let us
+have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of darkness; let us be
+temperate, industrious, thrifty; let us do with our might what our hands
+find to do; let us trust in God, and do the right: and then, whether the
+struggle be long or short, there can be no doubt as to the final issue.
+We shall come out victorious; we shall be accorded every right belonging
+to us under the Constitution, and every avenue of opportunity will be
+opened to us, as to other citizens of the Republic. The future is
+largely in our own hands. If we allow ourselves to be permanently
+despoiled of our rights; to be reduced to a position of civil and
+political inferiority, the fault will be, not "in our stars," as
+Shakespeare has expressed it, "but in ourselves." Others can help us;
+others will help us, as they have already done; but the final outcome
+will depend mainly upon what we do _for_ ourselves, and _with_
+ourselves. If we are to grow in the elements that make for a strong,
+intelligent, virtuous manhood and womanhood, _we_ have got to see to it,
+to be concerned about it; to be more deeply concerned about it than
+anybody else. And so, if the agitation for equality of rights and
+opportunities in this country is to be kept up, and it ought to be kept
+up, _we_ are the ones to see to it. As long as there are wrongs to be
+redressed, from which we are suffering, we ought not to be silent, ought
+not for our sake as well as for the sake of the nation at large.
+Whatever can be done to develop ourselves; whatever can be done to
+create a healthy and righteous public sentiment in our behalf; whatever
+can be done to check the encroachments of our enemies upon our rights,
+_we_ must do it, whether others do or not. May God help us all to
+realize this, and to address ourselves earnestly to the work that lies
+before us.
+
+    "Be strong!
+    We are not here to play, to dream, to drift.
+    We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.
+    Shun not the struggle; face it. Tis God's gift."
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+
+This is one group of papers from a series of papers presented to the
+American Negro Academy. Founded by Alexander Crummell in March 1897,
+with 40 of the leading black scholars and writers of the day, the
+Academy's purpose was to promote literature, science and art, foster
+higher education and high culture, and to defend the Negro aginst racist
+attacks. The Academy was active until 1924.
+
+This project was scanned from a facsimile reprint included in a
+collection of all 22 Occasional Papers of the American Negro Academy.
+
+Original spelling varieties have been maintained; tables and footnotes
+were renumbered.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE
+FRANCHISE. (THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY. OCCASIONAL PAPERS, NO. 11.) ***
+
+
+
+
+A Word from Project Gutenberg
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+<h1 class="document-title level-1 pfirst title with-subtitle">The Negro And The Elective Franchise. A Series Of Papers And A Sermon</h1>
+<p class="document-subtitle level-1 pfirst subtitle" id="the-american-negro-academy-occasional-papers-no-11">
+The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 11.</p>
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+<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
+<div class="class container pgheader" id="pg-header">
+<p class="noindent pfirst">This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the <a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#project-gutenberg-license">Project Gutenberg License</a>
+included with this eBook or online at
+<a class="reference external" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a>.</p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
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+<div class="container" id="pg-machine-header">
+<p class="noindent pfirst">Title: The Negro and the elective franchise. A Series Of Papers And A Sermon (The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 11.)</p>
+<p class="noindent pnext">Author: Archibald H. Grimké, Charles C. Cook, John Hope, John L. Love, Kelly Miller, and Rev. Frank J. Grimké</p>
+<p class="noindent pnext">Release Date: March 01, 2011 [EBook #35449]</p>
+<p class="noindent pnext">Language: English</p>
+<p class="noindent pnext">Character set encoding: UTF-8</p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
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+<p class="noindent pnext" id="pg-start-line">*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. (THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY. OCCASIONAL PAPERS, NO. 11.) ***</p>
+</div>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<div class="container" id="pg-produced-by">
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+<p class="center larger pfirst">Occasional Papers, No. 11.</p>
+<p class="center larger pnext">The American Negro Academy.</p>
+<p class="center larger pnext">THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE</p>
+<p class="center pnext"><strong class="bold">A SERIES OF PAPERS AND A SERMON BY</strong></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><strong class="bold">Archibald H. Grimké, Charles C. Cook, John Hope,
+John L. Love, Kelly Miller and Rev. Frank J. Grimké.</strong></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><strong class="bold">PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS.</strong></p>
+<p class="center pnext smaller">WASHINGTON, D. C.</p>
+<p class="center pnext smaller">PUBLISHED BY THE ACADEMY.</p>
+<p class="center pnext smaller">1905.</p>
+<div class="contents level-2 section" id="id1">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title">CONTENTS</h2>
+<ul class="simple toc-list">
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#the-meaning-and-need-of-the-movement-to-reduce-southern-representationarchibald-h-grimke" id="id18">The Meaning And Need Of The Movement To Reduce Southern Representation—<em class="italics">ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKÉ</em></a></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#the-penning-of-the-negrocharles-chauveau-cook" id="id19">The Penning of the Negro—<em class="italics">CHARLES CHAUVEAU COOK</em></a></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#the-negro-vote-in-the-states-whose-constitutions-have-not-been-specifically-revisedjohn-hope" id="id20">The Negro Vote in the States Whose Constitutions Have Not Been Specifically Revised—<em class="italics">JOHN HOPE</em></a></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#the-potentiality-of-the-negro-vote-north-and-westjohn-l-love" id="id21">The Potentiality of the Negro Vote, North and West—<em class="italics">JOHN L. LOVE</em></a></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#migration-and-distribution-of-the-negro-population-as-affecting-the-elective-franchisekelly-miller" id="id22">Migration and Distribution of the Negro Population as Affecting the Elective Franchise—<em class="italics">KELLY MILLER</em></a></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#the-negro-and-his-citizenshipfrancis-j-grimke" id="id23">The Negro and His Citizenship—<em class="italics">FRANCIS J. GRIMKÉ</em></a></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="the-meaning-and-need-of-the-movement-to-reduce-southern-representationarchibald-h-grimke">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id18">The Meaning And Need Of The Movement To Reduce Southern Representation—<em class="italics">ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKÉ</em></a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">In 1787 when the founders of the American Republic were framing the
+Constitution they encountered many difficulties in the work of
+construction, but none greater than the bringing together on terms of
+equality under one general government of the slave-holding and the
+non-slave-holding states. The South was willing to enter the Union
+provided always that its peculiar labor and institutions received
+adequate protection in that instrument. And this the North had finally
+to consent to incorporate into the organic law of the new nation. One
+of these concessions was known as the Slave Representation Clause of the
+Constitution, which gave to the Slave section the right to count five
+slaves as three freemen in the apportionment of representatives. This
+concession did not probably seem at the time like an exorbitant or
+ruinous price for the North to pay for the Union, but subsequent events
+proved it to be both exorbitant and ruinous in the political burden
+which it imposed upon that section, and in the political perils which
+grew naturally out of the situation, and which were produced by it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Everybody now-a-days seems to forget, or makes believe to have
+forgotten, this lamentable chapter in our history, and its application
+to present day evils—everybody but a few far-seeing Negroes, and a few
+far-seeing white men at the North. It is well not to forget this chapter
+ourselves, or to let the country make believe to have forgotten it, as
+it contains a lesson which it is dangerous to forget.</p>
+<p class="pnext">History repeats itself and will continue to do so just as long as men
+are men, and the passion for power and the struggle for domination lasts
+among them. Such a struggle set in between the two sections almost
+immediately after the adoption of the Constitution. With industrial and
+political ideas, interests, and institutions directly opposed to each
+other, rivalry and strife between them became from the beginning
+unavoidable. Any one not totally blinded by the then emergent needs of
+the moment could not fail to foresee something of the consequences which
+were sure to follow such a union of irreconcilable forces and passions
+under one general government. Each set of antagonistic ideas and
+interests was compelled by the great law of self preservation to try to
+get possession of the government in its battle with the other set. And
+in this conflict of moral and economic forces and ideas the three-fifths
+slave representation clause of the Constitution gave to the South a
+distinct advantage, an advantage which told immediately and powerfully
+in its favor. For the right to count five slaves as three freemen in the
+apportionment of representatives among the several states placed the
+political power of the Southern states in the hands not of all the
+whites but of a small and highly trained and organized minority only,
+namely; the master class. This circumstance solidified the South, and
+gave to its action a unity and energy of purpose which the industrial
+democracy of the North always lacked. As a consequence, Southern men
+obtained speedy possession of the National Government, and shaped
+National Legislation and policy to advance best the peculiar ideas and
+interests of their section. The big end of the National Government lay
+plainly enough well to the south of Mason and Dixon's line during the
+first twenty-five years of the existence of the Union. The course of
+events during this period revealed this bitter fact to New England. For
+she was outwitted, out-voted and over-matched again and again in
+national legislation and administrative measures by the slave oligarchy,
+which ruled the South and dominated in national affairs.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For instance, New England opposed the embargo and the retaliatory
+measures of Mr. Jefferson's administration, which destroyed her splendid
+carrying trade, and bore distress to hundreds of thousands of her
+people. She opposed the War of 1812 because it seemed to her inimical to
+her interests, but regardless of protests and cries the embargo was laid
+on her ports and shipping, the War against Great Britain was declared.
+She was forced to dance, volens-nolens, to the rag-time music of her
+Southern rival. She danced in both instances while discontent grew apace
+in her hot, surcharged heart. She did not disguise the ugly fact that
+she was sick of her bargain under the Constitution—was discontented
+almost to disaffection with Southern domination in the Union. Out of
+this widespread discontent and incipient disaffection sprang the
+Hartford Convention to voice this growing Anti-Southern sentiment, and
+to cast about for a remedy for what was rightly deemed bad political
+conditions. The great question with which this celebrated convention
+grappled was, in fact, the undue and disproportionate power wielded by
+the slave oligarchy in national affairs, and how best to impose a check
+upon its further growth. It could think apparently of but one remedial
+measure to relieve the situation, and that was the imposition of a check
+on any further increase in the then existing number of states. But while
+the resolution which embodied this rather doubtful remedy referred to
+states in general, it was intended when read between the lines, to refer
+to slave states in particular.</p>
+<p class="pnext">That was the first blow aimed by the industrial democracy of the North
+at this aristocratic feature of the National Constitution, namely: the
+right to count five slaves as three freemen in the apportionment of
+representatives among the states. It was felt at the time and much more
+strongly and generally afterward, that this three-fifths slave
+representation clause which enabled a small minority of the people of
+the South to wield the political power of that section, and in any
+controverted question between the sections to neutralize the free-will
+of every three freemen by the dummy-will of every five slaves, was an
+unjust and dangerous advantage possessed by the slave oligarchy over its
+sectional rival, the free democracy of the North.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The consciousness of this political wrong and danger was at the bottom
+of the bitter opposition on the part of the North to the admission of
+Missouri as a slave state, to the annexation of Texas, and to the
+Mexican War. It was at the bottom of the fierce cry which rose all over
+that section at the close of that war, "No more slave territory, no more
+slave states." It was the soul of the great movement which beat back the
+slave tide from Kansas and saved that state to freedom. It was, in fact,
+this struggle of the free states to reduce to a minimum the peril to its
+industrial democracy which grew out of the slave representation clause
+of the Constitution, and the resistance of the slave states to such a
+movement, which produced the war between the sections. This war ended in
+the destruction of slavery and as the North supposed and intended, in
+the total destruction of this right of the South to count five slaves as
+three freemen in the apportionment of representatives among the several
+states in the newly restored Union.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But wrong does not die under a single stroke. It has a strange power of
+metamorphosis, i. e. ability to change its form without losing its
+identity. The slave power, which everybody at the North imagined to be
+dead, re-appeared almost at once as the Southern serf power, in
+consequence of legislation enacted in the then lately rebellious states
+by the old slave masters. They had lost their slaves, to be sure, and
+the political power incident under the Constitution to such ownership,
+but they had not lost the political cunning and determination to create
+a similar power out of the social forces and material which lay in
+disorder about them.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The reconstruction of the South by the old slave oligarchy resulted in
+the threatened rise in national affairs of an African serf power more
+formidable to the North than was the old slave power than five is
+greater than three in federal numbers. This threatened rise in national
+politics of an African serf power aroused the North to the danger which
+girt afresh the supremacy of its industrial democracy in the Union. It
+thereupon set about the work of removing this peril forever. In doing
+this work it unfortunately limited itself exclusively to the use of
+political agencies. But there is no doubt that what it did in
+reconstructing the old slave states was meant to be thorough. It meant
+to extirpate root and branch, from the Constitution the right of the
+South to count five slaves as three freemen, or five serfs as five
+freemen in the apportionment of representatives among the states. This
+was the plain purpose of the whole body of congressional legislation
+looking to southern reconstruction. It is the plain purpose likewise of
+the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.</p>
+<p class="pnext">All of these great acts were intended to destroy utterly the basis on
+which rested the old slave power, and on which would rest the new serf
+power, namely: inequality and race subjection. The 13th amendment
+abolished slavery, the 14th raised the former slaves to citizenship, and
+the 15th conferred on them the right to vote. The whole scheme for
+removing forever this evil seemed on paper complete enough, and in
+practice it would undoubtedly have proven effective had not an
+unexpected difficulty arisen when it was put into operation. This
+unexpected difficulty was the attitude of the Supreme Court in
+interpreting the laws made in pursuance thereof. The effect of the
+decisions of this tribunal has almost invariably been against the
+Negro's claim to equality, and in favor of the Southern contention of
+the existence of two races in the south, one permanently dominant and
+the other permanently servile, and that the maintenance of this state of
+race superiority on the one side, and of race inferiority on the other
+furnished the only working plan of their living in peace together or of
+their making any further progress in civilization. Owing to this
+deplorable attitude the Supreme Court has been a hindrance rather than a
+help in the settlement of this question. No relief need be looked for
+from it, therefore, under the circumstances. Relief, if it comes at all,
+must come from another quarter of the political system under which we
+live. And for such relief fortunately, the 14th amendment has adequately
+provided. All that is necessary to render the provision of this
+amendment, which is applicable to the present situation, effective are
+courage and common sense. But alas, courage and common sense in respect
+to this subject seem to be sadly lacking to-day both at the North and
+among the Negroes as well.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The provision of the 14th amendment just referred to reads as follows:
+"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according
+to their respective numbers counting the whole number of persons in each
+state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any
+election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of
+the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and
+judicial officers of a state, or the members of the Legislature thereof,
+is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one
+years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged
+except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of
+representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the
+number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
+citizens twenty-one years of age in such state."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Every Southern state has virtually by one device or another, since the
+adoption of the 14th and 15th amendments, denied to its colored citizens
+the right to vote. This was first done by the shot-gun method, which
+gave place in time to fraudulent manipulations of electoral returns, and
+this in turn to "grandfather" and "understanding clauses" administered
+by prejudiced registration boards in those states which have revised
+their constitutions. Says Professor Dunning in an article on "The
+Undoing of Reconstruction" in the Atlantic Monthly for October, 1901:
+"With the enactment of these constitutional amendments by the various
+states, the political equality of the Negro is becoming extinct in law
+as it has long been in fact, and the undoing of reconstruction is
+nearing completion." Now this statement is exactly true. The South has
+everywhere nullified in practice the 14th and 15th amendments to the
+Constitution. It denies to black men the right to vote, but it counts at
+the same time those same black men in the apportionment of its
+representatives. The present serf power therefore, enjoys to-day a right
+far greater than that enjoyed by the old slave power, for it counts five
+of its disfranchised black citizens not as three but as five free men.
+It has achieved the extraordinary feat of eating its political cake and
+keeping it at the same time.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In South Carolina, for example, where the blacks outnumber the whites by
+224,326, and in Mississippi where the colored population is in excess of
+the white by 263,640, "the influence of the Negroes in political
+affairs," as put by Prof. Dunning, "is nil." And this is substantially
+true of almost everyone of the old slave states whether they have or
+have not revised their constitutions. Says Prof. DuBois: "To-day the
+black man of the South has almost nothing to say as to how much he shall
+be taxed, or how those taxes shall be expended, as to who shall make the
+laws and how they shall be made. It is pitiable that frantic efforts
+must be made at critical times to get law-makers in some states even to
+listen to the respectful presentation of the black side of a current
+controversy."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Entrenched in the South to-day is an aristocracy based on race. The
+whole tendency of things down there is to de-citizenize the blacks, to
+reduce them to a state of permanent political and industrial
+subordination to the whites. This is aristocratizing the republic with a
+vengeance. For with the right to vote, the right to a voice in making
+the laws, denied to any class of people in an industrial republic like
+ours, such class must go from bad to worse in the struggle for bread,
+for existence, in competition with more favored classes. It does more:
+it reduces the efficiency of such a class as a producer of wealth not
+alone in respect to itself, but in respect to the section in which it
+lives as well. For whatever degrades and wrongs such a class degrades
+and wrongs the community and the country of which it forms a part. And
+there is no help for it, for such is the natural law of retribution
+which no "understanding" and "grandfather clauses" and registration
+boards, however adroitly devised, can in the long run possibly evade or
+nullify. This then is the deplorable economic situation with regard to
+whites and blacks alike in the Southern states, as a direct consequence
+of the undoing of the 14th and the 15th amendments to the Constitution
+by those States. The degradation of their black labor will ultimate in
+the degradation of their white labor also. In fact, the disfranchisement
+of the blacks operates practically everywhere down there as a
+disfranchisement of the great body of the whites likewise. For disuse of
+a power, whether physical or political, begets in time disinclination
+and then incapacity for exercising the same. The right to vote, under
+present political conditions which prevail throughout that section, is,
+as a matter of fact, exercised but by a small minority of the whites
+only. The total vote, for example, cast for representatives in Southern
+congressional districts is surprisingly slight in comparison with that
+cast in Northern congressional districts. The same is true of the vote
+for presidential electors, and for the executive, legislative and
+judicial officers of the various southern states for that matter. A
+handful of ruling whites, and that not of the best class as in
+antebellum times, casts to-day the entire vote of that section as
+represented by all of its black and a large majority of its white
+citizens, at national and state elections.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For instance, the average vote cast for Congressmen by Northern
+congressional districts during the election of 1898 was over 35,000,
+while that cast by Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South
+Carolina, which are operated in effect on the Mississippi plan, was less
+than 5,000. The total vote cast for 37 congressmen by those five
+Southern states was only 184,602, while the total vote polled by the
+state of New York for 34 congressmen was 1,250,000, i. e. 184,602
+electors in those five Mississippi-ized states had actually a larger
+congressional representation by three than had the 1,250,000 voters of
+the Empire state. Again, take the case of Kansas, which though casting
+100,000 more votes at its congressional election in 1898, than were cast
+by these same five Southern states combined, yet Kansas had but seven
+representatives in Congress to guard and promote her peculiar interests
+against the 37 who sat in the House to guard and promote the peculiar
+interests of the ruling oligarchy of those five de-republicanized
+Southern states.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But let us look more closely into this matter. Alabama with a population
+of 1,828,697, and nine representatives in Congress polled at the
+Congressional election, in 1902 a total vote of 90,105 for the nine
+districts, while the new state of Washington with a population of
+518,103 and three representatives polled at the same election a total
+vote of 93,681, i. e., there were 3,000 more votes polled to elect three
+congressmen in Washington than Alabama polled to elect nine. Again,
+Mississippi with a population of 1,531,270 and eight representatives in
+Congress polled at the same election a total vote of 18,058 for the
+eight congressional districts, while little Idaho with a population of
+161,772 and one representative polled at the same time a vote of 57,712,
+which exceeded more than three times the vote polled by Mississippi for
+eight representatives. Or let us take Louisiana with a population of
+1,381,625 and seven representatives in Congress, and her total vote of
+26,265 during the same election for seven districts and contrast these
+figures with those of Rhode Island with a population of 428,556 and two
+representatives. The Rhode Island figures are 56,064, or nearly double
+the vote of Louisiana for seven congressional districts. Or again, let
+us glance in passing at South Carolina with a population of 1,340,316
+and seven representatives in Congress, and New Hampshire with a
+population of 411,588 and two representatives. The first polled in 1902
+at the election of her seven congressmen 32,085 votes, and the second at
+the election of her two representatives polled at the same time 74,833.
+In other words, there were nearly 43,000 less votes polled in South
+Carolina to elect seven Congressmen than were polled in New Hampshire to
+elect two. To sum up: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South
+Carolina with an aggregate population of 6,106,908 and 31
+representatives in Congress cast in 1902 a total vote of 166,576 in 31
+congressional districts, while Idaho, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and
+Washington with an aggregate population of 1,500,000, and eight
+representatives polled at the same general elections a total vote of
+282,294 in their eight congressional districts. The average vote for
+each of the 31 Southern congressional districts was 5,530; while that
+for each of the eight Northern districts was 35,287. Why Massachusetts
+alone with a population of 2,805,346 and 14 representatives rolled up a
+vote to elect these 14 congressmen more than double that which the four
+Southern states with a population of over 6,000,000 polled to elect
+their 31 representatives!</p>
+<p class="pnext">Again: At the presidential election last November the combined vote
+of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina, for 39 electors
+was less than 200,000 or to be exact was just 186,253, while the
+vote of Massachusetts for 16 electors was 442,732. In other words,
+the vote of Massachusetts for her 16 representatives in the electoral
+college, exceeded that of the four Southern states for their 39 in
+the same body by more than 250,000 polls. Once more: Is it not
+immensely ominous and significant the marked shrinkage in 1904 of the
+popular vote for electors in Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia,
+states which had but recently revised their constitutions, as compared
+with the popular vote of the same states for electors in 1900? There was
+for example a shrinkage of the popular vote in Alabama of nearly 50,000
+polls; in North Carolina the shrinkage amounted to nearly 85,000, and in
+Virginia it ran up to more than 135,000. These figures are eloquent of
+great wrongs done the Negro. They are not less eloquent of great dangers
+which now threaten to subvert free institutions in the Republic.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Since the elections of 1898 things in the South went rapidly in respect
+to this subject from bad to worse. Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia
+followed the example of Mississippi and revised their constitutions.
+This reactionary movement of the Southern oligarchy has reached as far
+north as Maryland, and the work of aristocratizing her constitution and
+of Jim-Crowing her laws is now nearing completion. Where is this
+movement to stop? Will it halt south of Mason and Dixon's line unless
+drastic measures are speedily adopted by the National Government to
+arrest it? No, this aristocratic revolution will certainly, unless
+checked, invade the North, attacking and overthrowing first the
+political rights of black men in that section, and later those of other
+classes of citizens industrially and politically feebler than the rest
+until one after another of the states now free shall have succumbed to
+the rule of class and plutocratic power. Then indeed will the undoing of
+the 14th and the 15th amendments, and of democratic institutions in
+America, be complete. Not until then will the movement, which is fast
+aristocratizing the Republic, stop its steady advance. I am no alarmist,
+but am telling the sober truth. Those who have eyes to see, let them
+look around at the ominous signs of this advancing evil. Those who have
+ears to hear, may hear everywhere about them the foreboding sounds of
+this rising flood of wrong and inequality, this growing disregard for
+law, this denial to the people of a voice in government, whether state,
+colonial or national, which characterize the present period of our
+national history.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It will not be impertinent for me to add by way of concluding this
+article, a few words regarding some of the political consequences, which
+would be sure to follow a reduction of Southern representation in
+Congress and the electoral college. It would, in the first place, reduce
+the political strength of the South as a factor in national legislation,
+diminish its relative importance as an element in national politics.
+That section is insolent, exacting and aggressive to-day on the Negro
+question because it has so much numerical strength in Congress and the
+electoral college by reason of its suppressed Negro vote. Reduce that
+strength by a judicious blood-letting to the number of twenty-five or
+thirty-five representatives and there will follow in due time a
+corresponding reduction of its arrogance and aggressiveness on the race
+question. For as it declines in relative strength in Congress and the
+electoral college it will decline in relative importance in management
+and leadership of the democratic party also. It will gradually lose its
+controlling influence over that party, cease ultimately to dominate it
+on the Negro question. The relative decline of the South in Congress and
+the electoral college-means, of course, the relative increase of the
+North in the same branch—means that in time the North will pay less
+heed to the claims of the South, to its threats, and more to the claims,
+to the case of the Negro. It means more. The relative decline of the
+South as a factor in national politics means the relative increase of
+the northern wing of the Democratic party in the control of that party,
+in the shaping for that party of a more liberal policy on the Negro
+question. For as the northern wing of this party gains in relative
+strength, in numerical importance over that of the South, it will be
+tempted more and more to solicit the support of the Negro vote of the
+North. In close elections and in pivotal states the Democrats of the
+North will thereupon make liberal declarations and positive bids in
+order to win this vote from the Republican party.</p>
+<p class="pnext">This consideration brings me to a second consequence, which would follow
+a reduction of southern representation. And that is this: It will put an
+end to the present period of good will and peace between the sections,
+so disastrous to the rights of the Negro. Such a measure will usher in a
+period of bitter difference and strife between the two sections again.
+These differences will not arise merely between the Republicans of the
+North and the white South, but between democrats of the North and
+democrats of the South on the Negro question as well. For the northern
+wing of the Democratic party cannot bid for the colored vote of its
+section without offending the South and therefore sowing seeds of
+alienation and strife between them on the question of the rights and
+wrongs of the Negro, as a citizen. There will follow such differences
+and strife between the sections, a reaction at the North in favor of the
+Negro. Public sentiment for juster treatment of the race will gain
+thereafter steadily in strength. It will influence the Republican party
+to give to the question a more radical treatment than it now gives it,
+to take steps to enforce by appropriate legislation the 15th amendment
+of the Constitution. Such growing public sentiment in favor of according
+the Negro fairer treatment may do more, it may be able to reach even
+that pro-Southern tribunal, the Supreme Court, and put like the bees of
+the Bible honey for the race in its hitherto cold and unresponsive body.
+Even it may be influenced in time to twist the law in favor of human
+liberty, not against it, as now. And lastly, it will give the silent
+South a chance to be heard on the Negro question. It will give it a
+chance to appeal from those states drunk on the race question, to their
+sober second thought, a chance to show them the folly and madness of
+their disfranchisement and consequent degradation of their Negro labor
+as an economic factor in their development and civilization. And so
+liberal sentiment towards the Negro may be awakened in the South and be
+made thus to spread slowly downward as a leavening influence.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And in the third place, reducing Southern representation in Congress and
+the electoral college will not hurt the Negro. It will not take away
+from him any right which he now enjoys down there. The doing so cannot
+in any way change his actual status either in law or in fact. He is now
+disfranchised; Congress will still have power to enforce the 15th
+amendment by appropriate legislation and it will do so whenever it can
+screw its courage to the sticking point. The reduction of Southern
+representation will certainly break up the present apathetic state of
+the country in respect to the Negro. With this breaking up there will
+follow a reaction in favor of freedom, and there will arise in due time
+a public sentiment which will bring legislation to enforce the right of
+the Colored people of the South to the ballot well within the range of
+the possible, yea of the probable, if the South persists after
+reduction,—but it will not long persist,—in its present purpose to
+nullify the 15th amendment, and to reduce its Colored people to a
+condition of a permanently subordinate and servile class, without rights
+as men or as citizens which southern white people are bound to respect.
+Let southern representation in Congress be therefore reduced. The sooner
+the better it will be for the Negro and the Nation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The law department of the United States Government has at last moved
+effectively against the meat trust. And I see that the Interstate
+Commerce Commission is looking into the charge that certain railroads
+are practicing by a system of rebates discrimination against shippers
+of live stock, and in favor of packing house products and dressed meats.
+But alas, how different has been the attitude of the national government
+toward investigating that greatest of all discriminations in the
+Republic, namely: the wholesale disfranchisement of Negroes in the South
+because they are Negroes. A few years ago one of the bravest and most
+far-seeing of the representatives of Massachusetts in either branch of
+Congress offered a resolution to investigate the subject merely. The
+administration, which was then, and they say is now opposed to meddling
+in this particular manner with the Southern question, was found equal to
+the occasion. When it failed to silence the voice of Congressman Moody
+regarding the matter, it lifted him with masterly state craft from the
+floor of the House, and landed him safely in the Cabinet where he is
+still, and where his silence might the better be secured. Thus passed
+the Moody resolution to dusty death, and the place which knew it once in
+Congress hath known it no more, and will know it no more forever.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But there is another Congressman who for years has watched keenly the
+growth of this threatening evil, the growth of this wrong so subversive
+of the rights of the blacks at the South, and so harmful to the
+interests of our industrial democracy at the North. Five years ago he
+thought it was high time for the general government to address itself to
+that subject, and accordingly proposed from his place in Congress
+suitable measures for that purpose. Unfortunately for Congressman
+Crumpacker's proposition the presidential election of 1900 was at the
+time approaching and which, in the opinion of the McKinley
+administration, called loudly then for silence and oblivion on this
+vexed question. In obedience to this loud call of the Moloch of party
+success at the polls, Mr. Crumpacker's bill suffered death by
+asphyxiation in committee.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The matter was, however, revived by Mr. Crumpacker in a subsequent
+Congress in the form of a resolution which provided for the appointment
+by the Speaker of a select committee of thirteen "whose duty it shall
+be, and who shall have full and ample power to investigate and inquire
+into the validity of the election laws of the several states and the
+manner of their enforcement, and whether the right to vote at any
+election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of
+the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and
+judicial officers of any of the states or the members of the legislature
+thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of any of the states,
+being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in
+any way abridged, except for crime." This resolution so reasonable,
+moderate, and just, fell a victim, so it was reported at the time, to a
+shrewd bargain struck between the Southern oligarchy on the one hand and
+the Republican managers of Cuban reciprocity on the other. The
+Crumpacker resolution was put to sleep amidst the dust heaps of old
+congressional documents, where it has slept without waking until the
+present session of Congress, when its profound slumber has been
+disturbed by renewed attempts made in both branches of the National
+legislature to revive the subject, and to do what the Republican
+national platform of 1904 pledged that party to do in the event of its
+triumph at the polls, according to the plain meaning and purpose of the
+following plank in that platform.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We favor such Congressional action as shall determine whether, by
+special discrimination, the elective franchise in any state has been
+unconstitutionally limited: and if such is the case we demand that
+representation in Congress and in the electoral college shall be
+proportionally reduced as directed by the Constitution of the United
+States."</p>
+<p class="pnext">And while the Republican party hesitates to redeem its solemn pledge
+made to the people before the elections last November, the tide of
+intolerable wrong, of imminent peril:—of intolerable wrong to the
+blacks and of imminent peril to the Republic, is advancing nearer and
+rising higher and higher toward the point where to ignore it much longer
+will mean widespread and far-reaching disaster to our industrial
+democracy, to Republican institutions in America. On its crest I see
+approaching forces strong enough to subvert the Constitution, not only
+in the South but in the North—forces strong enough to uprear on its
+ruins the vast fabric of plutocratic empire and despotism.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The warning is sounding in our ears, it is sounding in the ears of the
+people all over the land. Do we heed it, will they?</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="the-penning-of-the-negrocharles-chauveau-cook">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id19">The Penning of the Negro—<em class="italics">CHARLES CHAUVEAU COOK</em></a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst"><strong class="bold">[The Negro in the States of the Revised Constitutions]</strong></p>
+<p class="pnext">The following States have revised their constitutions for the purpose of
+excluding colored voters, and in the following order:—</p>
+<p class="pnext">(1) MISSISSIPPI.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Section 241, Article 12, constitution of Mississippi, defining who are
+electors:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">"Every male inhabitant of the state, except idiots, insane
+persons, and Indians not taxed, who is a citizen of the United
+States, twenty-one years of age and upwards, who has resided
+in the state two years, and one year in the election district
+* * * in which he offers to vote and who is duly registered
+as provided in this article, and who has never been convicted
+of bribery, burglary, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods
+under false pretence, perjury, embezzlement, or bigamy, and
+who has paid on or before the 1st day of February of the year
+in which he offers to vote, all taxes which may have been
+legally required of him and who shall produce to the officer
+holding the election satisfactory evidence that he has paid
+his taxes."</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">Section 242 of Article 12, further provides that persons offering to
+register shall take the following oath:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">"I do solemnly swear that I am twenty one years old and that I
+will have resided in the state two years and (this) election
+district for one year preceding the ensuing election, and am
+now in good faith a resident of the same, and that I am not
+disqualified from voting by reason of having been convicted of
+any of the crimes mentioned in the constitution of this state
+as a disqualification to be an elector, that I will truly
+answer <em class="italics">all questions propounded to me concerning my
+antecedents so far as they relate to my right to vote</em> and
+also as to <em class="italics">my residence before my citizenship in this
+district,</em> that I will support the constitution of the United
+States and of the state of Mississippi and will bear true
+faith and allegiance to the same—so help me God.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Any willful and corrupt false statement in said affidavit or
+in answer to any material question propounded as herein
+authorized shall be perjury."</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">Section 244, Article 12, constitution of Mississippi, requires
+that:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">"On and after the first day of January, 1892, every elector
+in addition to the foregoing qualifications, shall be able to
+read any section of the constitution of this state; or shall
+be able to understand the same when read to him, or give a
+reasonable interpretation thereof."</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">(2) SOUTH CAROLINA.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">Subdivision (c). "Up to January 1, 1898, all male persons of
+voting age applying for registration, who can read any section
+of this constitution submitted to them, <em class="italics">or understand and
+explain it</em> when read to them by the registration officer,
+shall be entitled to registration and become electors."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Subdivision (d). "Any person who shall apply for registration
+after January 1, 1898, if otherwise qualified, shall be
+registered: <em class="italics">Provided</em> that he can both read and write any
+section of the constitution submitted to him by the
+registration officer or can show that he owns and has paid
+taxes collectible during the previous year on property in this
+state assessed at three hundred dollars ($300) or more."</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">(3) LOUISIANA.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">Section 3. "He (the voter) shall be able to read and write,
+and shall demonstrate his ability to do so when he applies for
+registration, by making, under oath administered by the
+registration officer or his deputy, written application
+therefor, in the English language, or his mother tongue, which
+application shall contain the essential facts necessary to
+show that he is entitled to register and vote, and shall be
+entirely written, dated, and signed by him, in the presence of
+the registration officer or his deputy, without assistance or
+suggestion from any person or memorandum whatever, except the
+form of application hereinafter set forth: <em class="italics">Provided,
+however,</em> That if the applicant be unable to write his
+application in the English language, he shall have the right,
+if he so demands, to write the same in his mother tongue from
+the dictation of an interpreter; and if the applicant is
+unable to write his application by reason of physical
+disability, the same shall be written at his dictation by the
+registration officer or his deputy, upon his oath of such
+disability. The application for registration, above provided
+for, shall be a copy of the following form, with the proper
+names, dates, and numbers substituted for the blanks appearing
+therein, to wit:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I am a citizen of the State of Louisiana. My name is ——. I
+was born in the State (or country) of ——, parish (or county)
+of ——, on the —— day of ——, in the year ——. I am now ——
+years —— months and —— days of age. I have resided in this
+State since ——, and am not disfranchised by any provision
+of the constitution of this State."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Section 4. "If he be not able to read and write, provided by
+section 3 of this article, then he shall be entitled to
+register and vote if he shall, at the time he offers to
+register, be the bona fide owner of property assessed to him
+in this State at a valuation of not less than $300 on the
+assessment roll of the current year, if the roll of the
+current year shall not then have been completed and filed and
+on which, if such property be personal only, all taxes due
+shall have been paid."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Section 5. "No male person who was on January 1, 1867, or at
+any date prior thereto, entitled to vote under the
+constitution or statute of any State of the United States,
+wherein he then resided, and no son or grandson of any such
+person not less than 21 years of age at the date of the
+adoption of this constitution, and no male person of foreign
+birth, who was naturalized prior to the first day of January,
+1898, shall be denied the right to register and vote in this
+State by reason of his failure to possess the educational or
+property qualifications prescribed by this constitution:
+<em class="italics">Provided</em>, He shall have resided in this State for five years
+next preceding the date at which he shall apply for
+registration, and shall have registered in accordance with the
+terms of this article prior to September 1, 1898; and no
+person shall be entitled to register under this section after
+said date."</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">(4) NORTH CAROLINA.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">Section 4. "Every person presenting himself for registration
+shall be able to read and write any section of the
+constitution in the English language; and, before he shall be
+entitled to vote, he shall have paid, on or before the 1st day
+of May of the year in which he proposes to vote, his poll tax
+for the previous year as prescribed by Article V, section 1,
+of the constitution. But no male person who was, on January 1,
+1867, or at any time prior thereto, entitled to vote under the
+laws of any state in the United States wherein he then
+resided, and no lineal descendant of any such person, shall be
+denied the right to register and vote at any election in this
+State by reason of his failure to possess the educational
+qualification herein prescribed, provided he shall have
+registered in accordance with the terms of this section prior
+to December, 1908.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"The general assembly shall provide for the registration of
+all persons entitled to vote without the educational
+qualifications herein prescribed, and shall, on or before
+November 1, 1908, provide for the making of a permanent record
+of such registration, and all persons so registered shall
+forever thereafter have the right to vote in all elections by
+the people in this State, unless disqualified under section 2
+of this article: <em class="italics">Provided</em>, Such person shall have paid his
+poll tax as above required."</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">(5) ALABAMA (in effect Nov. 28th, 1901.) entitled to register:—</p>
+<p class="pnext">These sections of the Alabama constitution were before the Supreme
+Court in the case of <em class="italics">Giles v. Harris</em>, (189 U. S. 475,) and
+the general plan of voting and registration was summarized by
+Mr. Justice Holmes, delivering the opinion of the court as follows:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">"By section 178 of article 8, to entitle a person to vote he
+must have resided in the State at least two years, in the
+county one year and in the precinct or ward three months,
+immediately preceding the election; have paid his poll tax,
+and have been duly registered as an elector. By section 182,
+idiots, insane persons and those convicted of certain crimes
+are disqualified. Subject to the foregoing, by section 180,
+before 1903 the following male citizens of the State, who are
+citizens of the United States, were entitled to register, viz:
+First. All who had served honorably in the enumerated wars of
+the United States, including those on either side of the 'war
+between the States.' Second. All lawful descendants of persons
+who served honorably in the enumerated wars or in the war of
+the Revolution. Third. 'All persons who are of good character
+and who understand the duties and obligations of citizenship
+under a republican form of government.' By section 181 after
+January 1, 1903, only the following persons are entitled to
+register: First. Those who can read and write any article of
+the Constitution of the United States in the English language,
+and who either are physically unable to work or have been
+regularly engaged in some lawful business for the greater part
+of the last twelve months, and those who are unable to read
+and write solely because physically disabled. Second. Owners
+or husbands of owners of forty acres of land in the State,
+upon which they reside, and owners or husbands of owners of
+real or personal estate in the State assessed for taxation at
+three hundred dollars or more [...] [By section] 183, only
+persons qualified as electors can take part in any method of
+party action. By section 184, persons not registered are
+disqualified from voting. By section 185, an elector whose
+vote is challenged shall be required to swear that the matter
+of the challenge is untrue before his vote shall be received.
+By Section 186, the legislature is to provide for registration
+after January 1, 1903, the qualifications and oaths of the
+registrars are prescribed, the duties of the registrars before
+that date are laid down, and an appeal is given to the county
+court and Supreme Court if registration is denied. There are
+further executive details in section 187, together with the
+above-mentioned continuance of the effect of registration
+before January 1, 1903. By section 188, after the
+last-mentioned date applicants for registration may be
+examined under oath as to where they have lived for the last
+five years, the names by which they have been known, and the
+names of their employers."</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">(6) VIRGINIA. (in effect July 10th, 1902.)</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">Article II, Section 18. "Every male citizen of the United
+States, twenty-one years of age, who has been a resident of
+the State two years, of the county, city or town one year, and
+of the precinct in which he offers to vote, thirty days, next
+preceding the election in which he offers to vote, has been
+registered, and has paid his state poll taxes, as hereinafter
+required, shall be entitled to vote for members of the General
+Assembly and all officers elected by the people; but removal
+from one precinct to another, in the same county, city or town
+shall not deprive any person of his right to vote in the
+precinct from which he has moved, until the expiration of
+thirty days after such removal."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Section 19. "There shall be general registrations in the
+counties, cities and towns of the State during the years
+nineteen hundred and two and nineteen hundred and three at
+such times and in such manner as may be prescribed by an
+ordinance of this Convention. At such registrations every male
+citizen of the United States having the qualifications of age
+and residence required in Section Eighteen shall be entitled
+to register, if he be:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"First. A person who, prior to the adoption of this
+Constitution, served in time of war in the army or navy of the
+United States, of the Confederate States, or of any State of
+the United States or of the Confederate States; or</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Second. A son of any such person; or</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Third. A person, who owns property, upon which, for the year
+next preceding that in which he offers to register, state
+taxes aggregating at least one dollar, have been paid; or</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Fourth. A person able to read any section of this
+Constitution, submitted to him by the officers of registration
+and to give a reasonable explanation of the same; or, if
+unable to read such section, able to understand and give a
+reasonable explanation thereof when read to him by the
+officers.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"A roll containing the names of all persons thus registered,
+sworn to and certified by the officers of registration, shall
+be filed, for record and preservation, in the clerk's office
+of the circuit court of the county, or the clerk's office of
+the corporation court of the city, as the case may be. Persons
+thus enrolled shall not be required to register again, unless
+they shall have ceased to be residents of the State, or become
+disqualified by section Twenty-three. Any person denied
+registration under this section shall have the right of appeal
+to the circuit court of his county, or the corporation court
+of his city, or to the judge thereof in vacation."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Section 20. "After the first day of January, nineteen hundred
+and four, every male citizen of the United States, having the
+qualifications of age and residence required in section
+Eighteen, shall be entitled to register, provided:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"First. That he has personally paid to the proper officer all
+state poll taxes assessed or assessable against him, under
+this or the former Constitution, for the three years next
+preceding that in which he offers to register;</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Second. That, unless physically unable, he make application
+to register in his own hand-writing, without aid, suggestion
+or memorandum, in the presence of the registration officers,
+stating therein his name, age, date and place of birth,
+residence and occupation at the time and for the two years
+next preceding, and whether he has previously voted, and, if
+so, the state, county and precinct in which he voted last;
+and,</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Third. That he answer on oath any and all questions affecting
+his qualifications as an elector, submitted to him by the
+officers of registration, which questions, and his answers
+thereto, shall be reduced to writing, certified by the said
+officers, and preserved as a part of their official records."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Section 21. "Any person registered under either of the last
+two sections, shall have the right to vote for members of the
+General Assembly and all officers elective by the people,
+subject to the following conditions:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That he, unless exempted by section Twenty-two, shall, as a
+prerequisite to the right to vote after the first day of
+January, nineteen hundred and four, personally pay, at least
+six months prior to the election, all state poll taxes
+assessed or assessable against him under this Constitution,
+during the three years next preceding that in which he offers
+vote; provided that, if he register after the first day of
+January, nineteen hundred and four, he shall, unless
+physically unable, prepare and deposit his ballot without aid,
+on such printed form as the law may prescribe; but any voter
+registered prior to that date may be aided in the preparation
+of his ballot by such officer of election as he himself may
+designate."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Section 22. "No person who, during the late war between the
+States, served in the army or navy of the United States, or
+the Confederate States, or any State of the United States, or
+of the Confederate States, shall at any time be required to
+pay a poll tax as a prerequisite to the right to register or
+vote."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Section 23. "The following persons shall be excluded from
+registering and voting: Idiots, insane persons, and paupers;
+persons who, prior to the adoption of this Constitution, were
+disqualified from voting, by conviction of crime, either
+within or without this State, and whose disabilities shall
+not have been removed, persons convicted after the adoption of
+this Constitution, either within or without this State, of
+treason, or of any felony, bribery, petit larceny, etc."</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">The intention of these acts needs no showing. They have three points in
+common: (a) Some device enabling all the white voters to evade the force
+of the disfranchising clauses; (b) The limiting clauses themselves which
+deprive a majority of the colored voters of their franchise; (c) The
+reservation of sufficient discretionary power in boards of registrars to
+enable them to give full effect to the acknowledged purpose of the
+framers of the constitutions. I know of no lesson they can teach us,
+except how to do the things we ought not to do. In some cases, by
+knowing the way down, one may, by reversing the steps taken, regain the
+lost height. But it is not so here; our fall, like our rise, has been
+too sudden. We have been thrown from a window, and before we could
+understand our position, legislated out of a back gate. Only by superior
+chicane can we repair the second injury, only by superior force repair
+the first—unless there be justice in the heart of the nation. It
+behooves us then to study carefully the state of public opinion in the
+country, which underlies these laws, and gives them whatever stability
+they possess.</p>
+<p class="pnext">There is, of course, a series of events leading up to this radical
+change in the institutions of the Republic, a history beginning before
+the formation of the Union itself. The first part was African slavery.
+Religious, moral and economic forces had acted upon serfdom, the more
+common sort of slavery in Europe, and aided by the resulting increase of
+vigor among the serfs themselves, had disintegrated it. But these forces
+either did not act upon the trade in Negro slaves, when profits to be
+obtained from that traffic filled the minds of merchants, or were
+helpless to stop it. The New World was not, like the Old, overcrowded,
+but in need of laborers—and the slaves were blacks. Tropical South
+America, the West Indies, and the hot belt of the United States absorbed
+hundreds of thousands of Negro slaves. All the forces above enumerated
+set to work again after a time and slavery once more began to
+disintegrate. In this country it had become firmly rooted in the
+Southern states, where the same American people who had fought in '76
+for the freedom of two million white men, women and children fought as
+stubbornly to keep in slavery four million black men, women and
+children. But victory was again to crown the cause of freedom, and by
+the will of the victors, forced forward by the unbroken spirit of
+resistance of the conquered, these four millions of slaves were declared
+possessed of freedom, civil rights and political privileges.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Said Lord Shaftesbury to Charles the Second, when called on for his
+resignation as Lord Chancellor, "It is only to lay aside the gown and
+take up the sword." The South, defeated in arms, reversed the process,
+and laying down the musket, put on the gown of the law-maker, and began
+to accomplish by legislation, the reenslavement of the millions set
+free. Hampered in this, for a time by the armies and the northern civil
+officers, who obtained power largely by the suffrage of the colored
+people, and by the colored voters themselves, the Southern men waited
+for the withdrawal of the Union armies—an event hastened by outcry at
+home—and then taking out the side-arms, which the generous terms of
+surrender had permitted them to retain, they rapidly dispersed the
+opposing force, and took the reins of government again into their own
+hands. With musket in one hand to retain political power, and pen in the
+other to undo the Reconstruction legislation, they soon deprived the
+black millions of all their transitory political and civil rights. It is
+hard to see that anything remained to be done. Emancipation laws and
+proclamations to the contrary, the Negro seemed safely penned. But moral
+and economic forces were still at work, and the end was not yet reached.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The South could no longer close its eyes to the want of prosperity. In
+1890, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and
+Louisiana, in spite of their 262,175 square miles and abundant
+resources, had but 8,346,667 people and 288,405,107 dollars worth of
+manufactured products. An equal territory in the States of the North,
+namely; Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
+Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio and
+Illinois with 260,823 square miles had 25,074,143 people and
+6,484,643,842 dollars worth of manufactured products—which is to say,
+the Southern states had but one-third of the population, and
+one-twenty-second of the manufactures of the same area North. The South
+wanting prosperity began to seek ways of obtaining it. This led to the
+consideration of obstacles: and first among these was the large and
+economically inefficient colored population. It must be made, for want
+of other labor, productive, a contributory agent to the new industrial
+prosperity of the South—and not the less, cut off from any sort of
+control, even of the industries, which by its labor must mainly be built
+up. The problem was a difficult one, yet such as the South felt itself
+able to solve. And many in the North stood ready to help.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In 1890, however, came troubles so serious as to require a diversion of
+attention from economical to political problems. The Republican party
+pledge to secure for all citizens 'a free ballot and a fair count' was
+yet unredeemed; and in that year a debate broke out in Congress over the
+fulfilling of its promise, with an Elections bill as the means.
+Simultaneously, the Populist movement was growing to threatening
+proportions. Before this, the cry had been that the Negro by sheer
+numbers could dominate, if not prevented from doing so. But now there
+presented itself a new and more threatening danger. "In any state where
+the whites divide," said Mr. Tillman in the Senate in 1900, "and they
+have divided in every Southern State except mine and Mississippi—into
+Populists and Democrats—the Negro has been the balance of power." The
+Populist movement died, but this phantasm once evoked, of a black man
+poised at the centre of the party see-saw, continued to hover at the
+beck of its creators until again wanted. The occasion, this time a
+lasting one, has been found in the balance of the Republican and the
+Democratic parties in the "border" states. So in Maryland, for a while,
+a "doubtful" state, where the colored population is but one-fifth of the
+whole, a disfranchising law is justified, apparently, by the danger to
+good government of allowing the Republican party to obtain control.
+Again, in the county and town election contests, even in the Southern
+states where the Democratic party is in entire possession of the State
+government, this compact(?) and mobile(?) army of black voters occupies
+a position of such strategical importance that unless they be dislodged
+by the most radical method their mastery must be forever
+acknowledged(?). Now, to conclude, since a dozen colored voters might
+hold the balance of power in town or county, the bitter irony of the
+situation is overwhelming.<a class="footnote-reference pginternal" href="#id3" id="id2"><sup>1</sup></a> The South is simply driven by its own
+irrefutable(?) logic to total disfranchisement of the Negro, there being
+no safe stopping point short of the practical exclusion of the colored
+inhabitants of a dozen or more states from any part in the making or
+administering of the laws, national, state or municipal under which they
+live(!). All this the South, impelled by her honest desire(!) for good
+government, and resolutely turning her back upon past methods of fraud
+and violence,(!) means to accomplish legally—provided Congress and the
+Supreme Court throw over her naked but unalterable will the broad mantle
+of legality.</p>
+<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" rules="none" id="id3">
+<colgroup><col class="label"/><col/></colgroup>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref pginternal" href="#id2">[1]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">In West Virginia there are, on the Census basis (958,800 =
+whole population, less 43,499-colored population = 915,301-white
+population, divided by 3.6 = ratio of white population, generally to
+white males of voting age.) 254,250 white voters; and (43,499 =
+colored population, divided by 4.3-ratio of colored population to
+colored male adults = 10,116 colored voters, of whom 32.3 per cent.
+are illiterate, = 3267 illiterate colored men,) but 3,267 illiterate
+colored voters, or about one eightieth of the electorate (257,517
+divided by 3,267): yet, even though the national ticket threatened
+to be hurt by it, it was impossible to stifle the cry for
+disfranchisement of ignorant black voters as the paramount issue of
+the West Virginia democratic campaign of 1904.</p>
+</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p class="pnext">We are reminded of the story of the princess, who wandering in rags,
+came to a palace and begged accommodation there befitting one of royal
+blood. The old queen, not sure that she was a princess, determined to
+test her veracity in this way: She lay a pea upon the floor and piled
+upon it a dozen feather-beds. If she felt the pea, it was plain that she
+was a true princess. Morning came none too soon for the unhappy lady,
+who confessed to the queen having spent a miserable night, something
+hard in her bed having bruised her till she was black and blue. No
+longer could the queen doubt that she was a real princess, for who else
+could have been so delicate. And she was forthwith married to the heir
+apparent to the throne. So the South acts on the belief that if she be
+absolutely intolerant of the slightest degree of political power in the
+hands of colored men, that the North must see in the very violence of
+her antipathy, the hopelessness of any other solution.</p>
+<p class="pnext">This happily settled, the South after fifteen years of uncertainty,
+hopes to be able to turn her attention to material problems. But though
+the Caesars may rob February of days to enrich July and August, the
+seasons remain unchanged. The economic and moral laws of the universe
+remain in operation and give assurance that no solution can be more than
+temporary in which the Negro is dealt with falsely and unjustly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Meantime what had been the course of the Republican party, which, by its
+own declaration "had reconstructed the Union with freedom instead of
+slavery as its corner-stone?" Listen to the reading of the suffrage
+planks in the platforms of ten presidential campaigns:—</p>
+<p class="pnext">[1868.]</p>
+<p class="pnext">The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the
+South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of
+gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained; while the question of
+suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the people of those
+States.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The recent amendments to the National Constitution should be cordially
+sustained because they are right, not merely tolerated because they are
+law, and should be carried out according to their spirit by appropriate
+legislation, the enforcement of which can safely be entrusted only to
+the party that secured those amendments.</p>
+<p class="pnext">[1872.]</p>
+<p class="pnext">Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all civil,
+political and public rights should be established and effectually
+maintained throughout the Union by efficient and appropriate State and
+Federal legislation. Neither the law nor its administration should admit
+any discrimination in respect of citizens by reason of race, creed,
+color or previous condition of servitude.</p>
+<p class="pnext">[1876.]</p>
+<p class="pnext">The Republican party has preserved these governments to the hundredth
+anniversary of the Nation's birth, and they are now embodiments of the
+great truth spoken at its cradle—"that all men are created equal; that
+they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among
+which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that for the
+attainment of these ends governments have been instituted among men,
+deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Until
+these truths are cheerfully obeyed, or, if need be, vigorously enforced,
+the work of the Republican party is unfinished.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The permanent pacification of the Southern section of the Union and the
+complete protection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all
+their rights is a duty to which the Republican party stands sacredly
+pledged. The power to provide for the enforcement of the principles
+embodied in the recent Constitutional Amendments is vested by those
+amendments in the Congress of the United States, and we declare it to be
+the solemn obligation of the legislative and executive departments of
+the Government to put into immediate and vigorous exercise all their
+constitutional powers for removing any just causes of discontent on the
+part of any class, and for securing to every American citizen complete
+liberty and exact equality in the exercise of all civil, political and
+public rights. To this end we imperatively demand a Congress and a Chief
+Executive whose courage and fidelity to these duties shall not falter
+until these results are placed beyond dispute or recall.</p>
+<p class="pnext">[1880.]</p>
+<p class="pnext">The dangers of a "Solid South" can only be averted by a faithful
+performance of every promise which the Nation has made to the citizen.
+The execution of the laws, and the punishment of all those who violate
+them, are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be
+secured and genuine prosperity established throughout the South.
+Whatever promises the Nation makes the Nation must perform. A Nation
+cannot with safety relegate this duty to the States. The "Solid South"
+must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all honest
+opinions must there find free expression. To this end the honest voter
+must be protected against terrorism, violence or fraud.</p>
+<p class="pnext">[1884.]</p>
+<p class="pnext">The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon the maintenance of a free
+ballot, an honest count, and correct returns. We denounce the fraud and
+violence practiced by the Democracy in Southern States, by which the
+will of a voter is defeated, as dangerous to the preservation of free
+institutions; and we solemnly arraign the Democratic party as being the
+guilty recipient of fruits of such fraud and violence.</p>
+<p class="pnext">We extend to the Republicans of the South, regardless of their former
+party affiliations, our cordial sympathy, and pledge to them our most
+earnest efforts to promote the passage of such legislation as will
+secure to every citizen, of whatever race and color, the full and
+complete recognition, possession and exercise of all civil and political
+rights.</p>
+<p class="pnext">[1888.]</p>
+<p class="pnext">We reaffirm our unswerving devotion to the national Constitution and to
+the indissoluble union of the States; to the autonomy reserved to the
+States under the Constitution; to the personal rights and liberties of
+citizens in all the States and Territories in the Union, and especially
+to the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or
+poor, native or foreign born, white or black, to cast one free ballot in
+public elections and to have that ballot duly counted. We hold the free
+and honest popular ballot and the just and equal representation of all
+the people to be the foundation of our republican government, and demand
+effective legislation to secure the integrity and purity of elections,
+which are the fountains of all public authority.</p>
+<p class="pnext">[1892.]</p>
+<p class="pnext">We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to
+cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public elections, and that
+such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast; that such laws shall
+be enacted and enforced as will secure to every citizen, be he rich or
+poor, native or foreign born, white or black, this sovereign right
+guaranteed by the Constitution. The free and honest popular ballot, the
+just and equal representation of all the people, as well as their just
+and equal protection under the laws, are the foundation of our
+Republican institutions, and the party will never relent its efforts
+until the integrity of the ballot and the purity of elections shall be
+fully guaranteed and protected in every State.</p>
+<p class="pnext">[1896.]</p>
+<p class="pnext">We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to
+cast one free and unrestricted ballot, and that such ballot to be
+counted and returned as cast.</p>
+<p class="pnext">[1900.]</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was the plain purpose of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution
+to prevent discrimination on account of race or color in regulating the
+elective franchise. Devices of State governments, whether by statutory
+or constitutional enactment, to avoid the purpose of this amendment are
+revolutionary, and should be condemned.</p>
+<p class="pnext">[1904.]</p>
+<p class="pnext">We favor such Congressional action as shall determine whether by special
+discriminations the elective franchise in any State has been
+unconstitutionally limited, and, if such is the case, we demand that
+representation in Congress and in the electoral colleges shall be
+proportionally reduced as directed by the Constitution of the United
+States.</p>
+<p class="pnext">From '68 till '96 there was posted on the bill-boards of the party, the
+same declaration in favor of a free and unrestricted ballot, supported
+by the unyielding determination of the party to protect this right. But
+in that year there came a change. Perhaps it was that the mass of
+unredeemed pledges fell of their own weight, and the time seemed
+opportune to substitute a less weighty declaration; perhaps the party
+only sought a more efficient means of accomplishing its unalterable
+purpose. Whatever the cause, there began from this time, a diminuendo
+which has grown fainter until in 1904 the 15th Amendment was heard no
+more. To time, some say, must be left this task, too great for a
+political party to perform. But there is grave danger in leaving to time
+the execution of justice. The evil grows, the power of correcting it
+diminishes. Early in its course injustice may be stopped, later perhaps
+not at all. The future course of the party with regard 'to the supreme
+and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, white or
+black, to cast one free ballot in public elections and to have that
+ballot duly counted,' is gravely complicated by the rapid and momentous
+changes taking place in American society.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The gulf between the sections, which the Constitution merely bridged
+proved so deep, because it grew out of differences in the social, if not
+the moral natures of the inhabitants of the two parts of the country.
+These types have been compared to those opposed in the English Civil
+War, and hence called Puritan and Cavalier. But whatever the name, the
+differential fact was this: in the North men and women did their own
+work, while in the South others did their work for them. Until this
+great economic and social difference, which made diverging ideals,
+diverging habits, diverging tastes, ceased to be, real sympathy was
+impossible. That gulf, which widened into bitter civil war, is now
+closing; the two types are drawing nearer; the divorce between sections
+is shifting around to a divorce between classes. Therefore it is that in
+a part of the writing and ruling class, we feel that there is a
+gravitating of morals southward.<a class="footnote-reference pginternal" href="#id5" id="id4"><sup>2</sup></a> The North, which spent millions in
+lives and money to destroy Negro slavery in the South, seems engaged in
+making white slaves at home. If the political and social position of the
+white laborer in the North is declining, our chance of obtaining justice
+through active Northern sympathy is greatly lessened. In this issue
+which remains that of the comparative "hideousness" of the slave-holder
+and the slave, every foot added to the social separation of the Northern
+employer and employee is a stroke in the knell of political equality for
+the Negro.</p>
+<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" rules="none" id="id5">
+<colgroup><col class="label"/><col/></colgroup>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref pginternal" href="#id4">[2]</a></td><td><p class="first pfirst">"The Republican party in its work of imposing the
+sovereignty of the United States upon eight millions of Asiatics, has
+changed its views in regard to the political relation of races and
+has at last virtually accepted the ideas of the South upon that
+subject. The white men of the South need now have no further fear
+that the Republican party, or Republican administrations, will ever
+again give themselves over to the vain imagination of the political
+equality of man."</p>
+<p class="last pnext">—[Burgess—Reconstruction and the Constitution, page 298.]</p>
+</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p class="pnext">It is a mistake, therefore, to assume that there is active in the
+country a spirit of freedom strong enough to set us free; a power
+employed in doing justice, strong enough to do justice to us. The
+country is returning to the conditions existing before '61, even passing
+these and returning to the conditions existing before 1776,—in
+politics, because it is doing the same in <em class="italics">morals</em>. Moral betterment
+requires that we put a deeper, broader and stronger foundation under the
+old foundation of our lives; and this can only be done by removing each
+day a bit of sand and filling in the space with stone. Days of
+tremendous business activity, or national triumph are not likely to be
+so spent.</p>
+<p class="pnext">We <em class="italics">must</em> not make the mistake of assuming that there is power in the
+nation to do us justice. "Not in a republic," some one may ask? No! Von
+Holst says: "That virtue is the specific vital principle of republics is
+a delusion. The historical course of development, natural circumstances,
+material interests and political and social customs are the elements by
+which, in all states without exception, the form of the state is in the
+first place conditioned." Not after the pledges of the Constitution,
+again it may be asked? No, the Constitution is an ideal, not a real body
+of law. Von Holst wrote: "Polk had once stated that the nature of
+American institutions offered the world ample security that the United
+States would never pursue a policy of aggressive conquest.
+Notwithstanding the commentary that he had himself given on this
+proposition, it contained a kernel of significant truth. The nature of
+their institutions forbade the United States to hold in violent
+subjection, under the iron hand of conquest, a realm of the extent of
+Mexico for any length of time. This would soon have become so perfectly
+clear to the people that they would either have driven the originator
+and guiding spirit of the war in shame and disgrace from his office and
+dignity, and have reduced all these conditions of peace to the utmost
+moderation, or they would have proceeded to a formal and complete
+incorporation of Mexico with the Union." And before 1900, as a result of
+the war with Spain, the impossible, the absolutely forbidden by the
+nature of their institutions had been accomplished. How obscure the
+vision of the historian! The Constitution is not written in the hearts
+of the American people, but in the sky, where it is hidden every cloudy
+day. And yet again, it will be asked: Not in the New World, not in
+America? Justice demands a careful consideration of every case; it
+cannot be machine-made; it cannot be wholesaled. The exact measure of
+justice is hard to find, harder to administer; it cannot be had without
+patient search, calm temper, righteousness, courage. I know not whether
+America has time to seek the intricate path of justice, or patience and
+courage to follow it when found. The cry 'forward' grows even louder,
+more insistent, more passionate. Can the country safely put down the
+brakes; dare it turn from its rapid way to material prosperity? But a
+little greater momentum is needed and reactionaries will rise only to be
+irresistibly swept aside. Doubts, weariness, exhaustion even will not
+stop the rapidly revolving wheels. Only in the <em class="italics">wake</em> of such frenzied
+progress there will follow rest, the rest of death. Study the wreckage
+in the South in the trail of slavery, black, and what is far worse,
+white illiteracy, brutality, wretched sloth. Observe the turning of
+defeat in the struggle into despair, then stagnation upon which forms a
+film, a scum, a crust which becomes strong enough to defy efforts to
+break it. So is brought about the stratification of society called
+caste. Above, the upper world, ever turning to law and punishment to
+crush those who threaten this floor, upon which they stand from beneath,
+ever appealing to the prejudices of their class to persecute into
+submission those whose sense of justice or generosity threatens the
+crust from above. Beneath, the under world, sweating, spawning,
+gathering from its own misery and the dregs of vice and luxury from
+above poison, and shaping from its own eager thousands of ambitious
+men,—yes, and after the boldest men of the class above, fangs, that it
+may become all that revolution is wont to be.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In such a society is born the conqueror, man of destiny, as he seems. In
+mountain, in desert or in slum, he may have his birth. Oftenest he is a
+military, yet sometimes a spiritual conqueror. In the west of Europe,
+two thousand years ago was born Julius Caesar; in the East, Jesus
+Christ. From mountain, wilderness and slum, each drew his followers.
+Caesar gathered the driftwood of the decaying Republic into an army, and
+upon this bridge crossed the Rubicon and established empire. Christ,
+too, gathered up the driftwood of decaying Rome and fashioned out of it
+that noble band which is the inspiration of every true Church in the
+Christian world. The classes you would disfranchise will become the
+makers of a political slum. They are materials for working out the glory
+or the ruin of the nation. Exclude them from the benefits, the
+privileges of other classes and you invite criminality: from outcast to
+outlaw is but one step. Include them, and who can measure the addition
+to the sum of human happiness? In the answer to the question: what
+forces are at work checking the too great increase of a people? what is
+the principle of selection? what sort are disappearing, what sort
+preserved?—may be read the country's destiny.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Outside of the slave states, equal participation in the government by
+all citizens has been the foundation stone of the Republic. For a brief
+moment slavery was dead, and all men were freemen. But slavery is alive
+again, and if its growth is not resisted, will again be restored in all
+but name. The words of Calhoun deserve to be called a prophecy.
+"<em class="italics">Without political and social equality</em>," he said, "<em class="italics">to change the
+condition of the African race would be but to change the form of
+slavery."</em> The South accepts the alternative and resolves that, whatever
+the cost, political and social equality shall never be. The North must
+yield; <em class="italics">she</em> will not. While some are trusting to the finality of the
+13th Amendment, others to industrial opportunity, others still to
+political without social equality, the South with bull-dog tenacity
+sticks to her resolution that there shall be none of these. But a year
+ago Carl Schurz declared: "There will be a movement either in the
+direction of reducing the Negro to a permanent condition of serfdom ...
+or a movement in the direction of recognizing him as a citizen in the
+true sense of the term. One or the other will prevail."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Are there reasons wanting why the nation should keep true to its
+foundation principles? Granting that the pathway to freedom is now
+harder to follow, should the forward movement be abandoned? How else
+than by manfully pressing on to a broad humanity, can the Republic,
+reconstructed with freedom as its corner-stone, remain? As the old cords
+fail to hold together the more distant and divided political and ethnic
+units of population, there must be woven new bonds of sympathy,—at
+least, of toleration, else some must be hung with chains. There are
+many, many reasons, rulers of the commonwealth, why the electorate
+should not be reduced:—</p>
+<p class="pnext">Above all, it is selfish. "The continual and diligent elevation of that
+lower mass which human society everywhere is constantly precipitating,"
+to borrow the words of Cable, is incompatible with the <em class="italics">spirit</em> of
+restriction.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It is inequitable. For, again quoting from this author: "There is no
+safe protection but self-protection: poverty needs at least as much
+civil equipment, for self-protection as property needs: the right and
+liberty to acquire intelligence, virtue and wealth are just as precious
+as the right and liberty to maintain them, and need quite as much
+self-protection."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It is subversive of the republican basis of the state,—tending
+as it does to deposit more and more political power in the hands
+of fewer and fewer men. From "all up" to "some down" in the
+matter of political rights is a precipitous leap: but this step once
+taken, a gentle slope succeeds. From many to fewer members of
+the privileged class, the mind advances easily, with no intrusive
+principle to block the way. If a poll tax of one dollar can be
+made a condition of voting regardless of ability to pay it, then
+why not ten or twenty? If a poll tax, why not a property tax,
+or wealth? If ability to interpret the Constitution, why not a
+college education?</p>
+<p class="pnext">As restriction is practiced in the South, it breeds contempt for the
+law:</p>
+<p class="pnext">And increasing unrest, for like a snowball it swells and gathers fresh
+resistance as it goes:</p>
+<p class="pnext">And dishonesty, for the disfranchising laws are not being lived up to.
+This is inherent, for the acquisition of the required knowledge or
+wealth would defeat the very object of the law. It puts a premium upon
+ignorance, for thereby the desired end of disfranchisement is
+furthered:—And upon thriftlessness, for the same reason;—And upon
+criminality and false charges of crime, since even this price must be
+paid by those determined to work their will.</p>
+<p class="pnext">What evils of universal suffrage are equal to these? Can an appeal be
+made in the name of minority rights by those who would themselves efface
+minorities?<a class="footnote-reference pginternal" href="#id7" id="id6"><sup>3</sup></a> When slaves were escaping, they demanded that the
+constitutional guarantees be fulfilled to the letter, clamored like
+Shylock for the pound of flesh which the law allowed. Now, too, they
+demand of the amendments as before of the clauses of the instrument
+reserving power to the states, that they be construed by the
+letter:—but with what a change of object,—no longer that the rights of
+minorities may be respected but that they may be utterly suppressed.</p>
+<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" rules="none" id="id7">
+<colgroup><col class="label"/><col/></colgroup>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref pginternal" href="#id6">[3]</a></td><td><p class="first pfirst">In two states, viz; Mississippi and South Carolina, the
+colored people are in the majority. In the other four disfranchising
+states, as well as all other Southern states, they are in the
+minority. In the group of states disfranchising the colored voters,
+viz; N. C., S. C., Va., Ala., Miss., and La., the</p>
+<dl class="docutils">
+<dt>white population is</dt>
+<dd><p class="first last pfirst">5,396,649 = 55 per cent.</p>
+</dd>
+<dt>colored " "</dt>
+<dd><p class="first last pfirst">4,453,253 = 45 per cent.</p>
+</dd>
+<dt>total " "</dt>
+<dd><p class="first last pfirst">9,849,902 = 100 per cent.</p>
+</dd>
+</dl>
+<p class="last pfirst">—BY THE 12TH CENSUS (1900.)</p>
+</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p class="pnext">And if it be asserted that the superior must be allowed to rule, is
+superiority to be proved by a fiat of brute force? Is mere armed
+lawlessness the index of superior worth? When the nations agreed to fix
+limits to the cruelties of war, did they thereby place a penalty upon
+brains?</p>
+<p class="pnext">Finally, is it claimed that a free ballot signifies unlimited
+corruption? Read the answer in England's purification of her politics: I
+quote from Sir Thomas Erskine May:—</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Political morality may be elevated by extending liberties: but bribery
+has everywhere been the vice of growing wealth." "The first election of
+George the Third's reign was signalized by unusual excesses:" A seat in
+Parliament was for sale, like an estate and they bought it without
+hesitation or misgiving. "Nor were they regarded with much favor by the
+leaders of parties; for men who had bought their seats,—and paid
+dearly for them,—owed no allegiance to political patrons. "They sought
+admission to Parliament, not so much with a view to a political career,
+as to serve mere personal ends, to forward commercial speculations, to
+extend their connections and to gratify their social aspirations. But
+their independence and ambition well fitted them for the service of the
+court.... They soon ranged themselves among the king's friends: and thus
+the court policy,—which was otherwise subversive of freedom became
+associated with parliamentary corruption. "When the return of members
+was left to a small but independent body of electors, their individual
+votes were secured by bribery: and where it rested with proprietors or
+corporations, the seat was purchased outright." Gatton e. g. was sold
+for £75,000. Of the 658 members of the House of Commons 487 were
+returned by nomination ... not more than one third of the House were the
+free choice of the limited bodies of electors then intrusted with the
+franchise.... Representatives holding their seats by a general system of
+corruption could scarcely fail to be themselves corrupt. What they had
+bought, they were but too ready to sell. And how glittering the prizes
+offered as the price of their services! Peerages, baronetcies, patronage
+and court favor for the rich—places, pensions and bribes for the needy.
+All that the government had to bestow they could command.... Another
+instrument of corruption was found in the raising of money for the
+public service. In March 1763, Lord Bute contracted a loan of three
+millions and a half; and having distributed shares among his
+friends,—the scrip immediately rose to a premium of 11 per cent....
+Here the country sustained a loss of £385,000.... Stock jobbing became
+the fashion; and many members of Parliament were notoriously concerned
+in it. Again in 1781 ... a loan of £12,000,000 was contracted to defray
+the cost of the disastrous American war.... Its terms were so favorable
+that suddenly the scrip rose nearly 11 per cent. It was computed by Mr.
+Fox that a profit of £900,000 would be derived from the loan; and by
+others that half of the loan was subscribed for by members of the House
+of Commons. Lord Rockingham said. "The loan was made merely for the
+purpose of corrupting the Parliament to support a wicked, impolitic and
+ruinous <em class="italics">war</em>.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Now as to the electorate. "In Scotland in 1831, the total number of
+county voters did not exceed 2500; and the constituencies of the 66
+boroughs amounted to 1440.... The county of Argyll, with a population of
+100,000 had but 115 electors: Caithness with 36,000, contained 47 free
+holders. Edinburgh and Glasgow, the two first cities of Scotland, had
+each a constituency of 33 persons.... A great kingdom, with more than
+two millions of people,—intelligent, instructed, industrious and
+peaceable,—was virtually disfranchised.... According to a statement
+made by the Duke of Richmond in 1780, not more than 6,000 men returned a
+clear majority of the British House of Commons.... It was alleged in the
+petition of the Society of the Friends of the People (presented in
+1793.) that 84 individuals absolutely returned 157 members to Parliament
+... and that a majority of the House were returned by 154 patrons....</p>
+<p class="pnext">"The glaring defects and vices of the representative system which have
+now been exposed,—the restricted and unequal franchise, the bribery of
+a limited electoral body, and the corruption of the representatives
+themselves,—formed the strongest arguments for Parliamentary reform....
+The theory of an equal representation, had in the course of ages, been
+entirely subverted.... The Reform bill of 1832 supplied the cure. "It
+was," says May, "a measure, at once bold, comprehensive, moderate and
+constitutional. Popular: but not democratic:—it extended liberty,
+without hazarding revolution. In 1850 the representation of the country
+was reconstructed on a wider basis. Large classes had been admitted to
+the franchise: and the House of Commons represented more freely the
+interests and political sentiments of the people. The reformed
+Parliament, accordingly, has been more liberal and progressive in its
+policy than the Parliaments of old, more vigorous and active; more
+susceptible to the influence of public opinion: and more secure in the
+confidence of the people."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Here let us leave the history of English political corruption and the
+remedy which was found in a fairer representation of the people. In
+truth, we might well have left it sooner—if not altogether; for it is
+likely to be said that all of this is nothing to the purpose. The South
+has before her the practical problem of dealing with some millions of
+Negroes, to the solution of which, the experience of the English people
+furnishes no aid. Once more, then, we must consider the actual situation
+in this country to-day.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The Negro problem has been stated: What does justice to the Negro
+demand? Approaching our subject from this point of view, we may try to
+conclude:—</p>
+<p class="pnext">1st. What justice <em class="italics">does</em> demand; and</p>
+<p class="pnext">2nd. What the Negro must do to get it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">What, to begin with, is the answer of the South to the former? It is
+familiar to us all and would seem to be the nearly unanimous voice of
+the Southern people. The Negro, they say, is ignorant, lazy and vicious.
+Slavery, so far as its effect on the slave is concerned, was a
+beneficent institution, raising him from his previous savagery to a
+plane of humble usefulness. There, however, his incurable inferiority
+destines him forever to remain. This, the South insists she has settled
+in wisdom and kindliness. The North, so runs her speech,
+misunderstanding the South and the Negro, unjustly forced on the Civil
+war, to compel her to change her domestic institutions. But that
+attempt, foredoomed to failure, has resulted in nothing more than the
+abolition of slavery, and a cruel loss of life and property, partly
+compensated for by the consequent revelation of her boundless resources
+of courage, loyalty and united resolve. Slavery, while a Southern
+institution, was not a bond of perfect union; but upon the platform of
+black inferiority and white domination, every Southern man has his foot
+squarely planted. Her answer, therefore, to all criticism is to point
+with pride to the solid South.</p>
+<p class="pnext">How often are we called upon to see with pain and wonder that opinions,
+theories, even the mind itself is shaped by actions. Nature, aiming at
+preservation of life, is quick to heal all possible wounds, to reconcile
+warring impulses, to gloss and beautify deformities, and even to conceal
+dangers and snares. She gives men language to justify their misdeeds,
+teaches them how to embalm their errors in the secretion of their
+intellects, and even preserves the lying epitaphs which they inscribe
+over the remains of their vanity and pride. To change an opinion, it is
+necessary commonly to change a course of action, and until the life of
+the South changes, there seems no reasonable expectation that her
+opinions will change. Disfranchisement is but a symptom of the diseased
+Southern body politic, and who can tell whether the surgeon's knife will
+not reach the sources of life itself in seeking for a cure.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Sufficient then to herself,—wholly insufficient, false, and cruel to
+us, is this answer. If there were but these two parties to the cause,
+there would be no need to consider it. There remains, however, the still
+hesitating, ever-divided public opinion of the North—now the judge in
+the Freedmen's case. It is fitting that in her court, our replication
+should be boldly made. There we proclaim that the South is not doing
+justice to colored men.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The Negroes, say Southern men, are ignorant, lazy, vicious,—a perpetual
+menace to the rule and order of white men. Is this believable? Did God
+so make the world that after three thousand years of progressive white
+civilization;—in a country where there are sixty millions of white men,
+entrenched in their possession of armies and navies, wealth, power and
+endless resources of trained intellect;—that nine millions of colored
+people, rich in nothing but their sufferings, threaten to put the bottom
+on top? And if chance rules the world, and ignorance, laziness and vice
+are as likely to prevail as knowledge, industry and virtue, we may as
+well believe that ignorance and laziness and vice underlie white
+civilization and supremacy. No, we may confidently answer: this is not
+believable. Either these nine millions of colored people are not
+ignorant, lazy and vicious, or there are no grounds for the fear that
+they can for an hour put into danger the continuance of white
+domination, even in the blackest portion of the black South.</p>
+<p class="pnext">There is indeed proof obtainable that they are neither ignorant, lazy
+and vicious, nor a menace to rule and order. If they were near neighbors
+of the brutes would the elaborate defensive preparations be necessary
+which the South continues feverishly to make? Do the savages of Africa
+enact disfranchising clauses to keep apes and monkeys out of their
+political affairs? If ignorance so submerges the black man, why does not
+the Massachusetts principle of protecting the ballot prevail in the
+South? Why is it necessary to require the voter to read, yes, and
+<em class="italics">interpret satisfactorily, any</em> clause in the state constitution?<a class="footnote-reference pginternal" href="#id9" id="id8"><sup>4</sup></a>
+If sloth curses the Negro with unfruitfulness, why require property to
+the assessed value of $300? If the assessed value be two thirds of the
+real value, this means that nearly $500; if one third, then nearly $1000
+is fixed as the minimum possession of the black voter. Does this
+precaution point to shiftlessness? If viciousness be indelibly stamped
+upon his nature, why not rely upon his disfranchisement for crime to
+eliminate the colored voters? Are the white juries not to be trusted to
+condemn the accused? Are the leased convicts not worth their cost of
+keeping? It has been more than once said that 90,000 of the 90,000
+colored people in the District of Columbia are criminals. If the same
+proportion maintains elsewhere, what more is needed to accomplish the
+desired end?</p>
+<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" rules="none" id="id9">
+<colgroup><col class="label"/><col/></colgroup>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref pginternal" href="#id8">[4]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">The requirement that the voter be able to read (or write)
+<em class="italics">and</em> interpret satisfactorily, in the Virginia registration
+requirement before Jan. 1, 1904, is an advance upon the earlier
+clauses, which left the alternative. I am not sure but that it
+reappears in the Maryland law not yet in operation. It is an
+interesting fact that it was <em class="italics">Senator Daniels of Virginia</em> who
+once called the attention of the Senate to the injustice done
+the South by Senator Spooner's assertion that voters were, without
+alternative, required to interpret passages from the
+Constitutions.</p>
+</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p class="pnext">Yet disfranchisement for ignorance, for thriftlessness, and vice all
+together are acknowledged to be insufficient, and resort must be had
+again to manipulation, juggling, and confessed dishonesty. Rev. Edgar
+Gardiner Murphy, Executive Secretary of the Southern Education Board, a
+distinguished witness, testifying against interest, says: "The
+instrument of discrimination has been found in the discretionary powers
+lodged in the board of registrars, by which worthy Negro men, fairly
+meeting every test of suffrage have been excluded from registration."(?)
+Where the fact is so freely admitted, proof seems wasted, yet abundant
+corroboration may easily be had<a class="footnote-reference pginternal" href="#id11" id="id10"><sup>5</sup></a>.</p>
+<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" rules="none" id="id11">
+<colgroup><col class="label"/><col/></colgroup>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref pginternal" href="#id10">[5]</a></td><td><p class="first pfirst">The following clipping from the Baltimore American, I
+cannot refrain from reading:—</p>
+<p class="last pnext">"In the recent election the democratic judges of election in many of
+the counties proved that they were unable even to count ballots
+properly marked, and when it came to putting a reasonable
+interpretation on the intention of a voter they were either wholly
+ignorant or wholly dishonest. It is perfectly safe to say that not
+one-third of the democratic judges who served at the Maryland
+election of last week could themselves give an intelligent
+interpretation of any section in the Constitution. Many of them do
+not even know what the Constitution is, and the man who suggested
+that they would take it to be a new kind of drink did not overshoot
+the mark. Fine professors of constitutional history these men would
+make!"</p>
+</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p class="pnext">The fact as well as the extent of disfranchisement is revealed
+by the statistical summaries:—</p>
+<p class="center pnext"><strong class="bold">STATISTICAL SUMMARIES</strong></p>
+<table class="align-center table" style="margin-left: 20%; width: 60%" summary="1900 voting population data." id="table-1">
+<caption class="level-2 pfirst table-title title">
+<em class="italics">TABLE</em> 1</caption>
+<colgroup>
+<col width="33%"/>
+<col width="33%"/>
+<col width="33%"/>
+</colgroup>
+<thead valign="bottom">
+<tr class="first last"><th class="head" colspan="3"><p class="first last pfirst">ADULT MALE OR COLORED VOTING POPULATION,
+1900, ESTIMATED AT 1 IN 4.3.</p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+</thead>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr class="first"><td><p class="first last pfirst">Virginia</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">660,722 ÷ 4.3 =</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">46,122.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Nor. Car.</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">624,469 ÷ 4.3 =</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">127,114.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">South Car.</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">782,321 ÷ 4.3 =</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">152,860.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Alabama</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">827,307 ÷ 4.3 =</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">181,471.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Mississippi</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">907,630 ÷ 4.3 =</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">197,936.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Louisiana</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">650,804 ÷ 4.3 =</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">147,348.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><td><p class="first last pfirst">Total</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"> </td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">4,453,251.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<table class="align-center table" style="margin-left: 10%; width: 80%" summary="1888-1900 census data." id="table-2">
+<caption class="level-2 pfirst table-title title">
+<em class="italics">TABLE</em> 2</caption>
+<colgroup>
+<col width="25%"/>
+<col width="25%"/>
+<col width="25%"/>
+<col width="25%"/>
+</colgroup>
+<thead valign="bottom">
+<tr class="first last"><th class="head" colspan="4"><p class="first last pfirst">CENSUS OF NEGROES BEFORE PASSAGE OF
+REVISED CONSTITUTIONS.</p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+</thead>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr class="first"><td><p class="first last pfirst">Virginia</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">1900</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">115,865</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">(T.Al.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Nor. Car.</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">"</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">133,081</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">"</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">South Car.</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">1892</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">13,384</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">"</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Alabama</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">1900</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">55,512</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">Pres.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Mississippi</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">1888</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">30,096</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"> </td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><td><p class="first last pfirst">Louisiana</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">1888</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">30,701</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"> </td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<table class="align-center table" style="margin-left: 10%; width: 80%" summary="1900-1904 census data." id="table-3">
+<caption class="level-2 pfirst table-title title">
+<em class="italics">TABLE</em> 3</caption>
+<colgroup>
+<col width="25%"/>
+<col width="25%"/>
+<col width="25%"/>
+<col width="25%"/>
+</colgroup>
+<thead valign="bottom">
+<tr class="first last"><th class="head" colspan="4"><p class="first last pfirst">CENSUS OF NEGROES AFTER PASSAGE OF
+REVISED CONSTITUTIONS.</p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+</thead>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr class="first"><td><p class="first last pfirst">Virginia</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">1904</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">47,880</p>
+</td>
+<td><p class="first last pfirst">(W. Al.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Nor. Car.</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">"</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">82,442</p>
+</td>
+<td><p class="first last pfirst">"</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">So. Car.</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">1900</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">3,579</p>
+</td>
+<td><p class="first last pfirst">Pres. (T.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">So. Car.</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">1904</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">2,554</p>
+</td>
+<td><p class="first last pfirst">Pres. (W. Al.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Alabama</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">1904</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">22,472</p>
+</td>
+<td><p class="first last pfirst">(W. Al.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Miss.</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">1900</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">5,753</p>
+</td>
+<td><p class="first last pfirst">Pres. (T. Al.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Miss.</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">1904</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">3,189</p>
+</td>
+<td><p class="first last pfirst">Pres. (W. Al.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Louisiana</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">1900</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">14,234</p>
+</td>
+<td><p class="first last pfirst">Pres. (T. Al.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><td><p class="first last pfirst">Louisiana</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: justify"><p class="first last pfirst">1904</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">5,205</p>
+</td>
+<td><p class="first last pfirst">Pres. (W. Al.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<table class="align-center table" style="margin-left: 10%; width: 80%" summary="Registration of colored voters." id="table-4">
+<caption class="level-2 pfirst table-title title">
+<em class="italics">TABLE</em> 4</caption>
+<colgroup>
+<col width="33%"/>
+<col width="33%"/>
+<col width="33%"/>
+</colgroup>
+<thead valign="bottom">
+<tr class="first"><th class="head" colspan="3"><p class="first last pfirst">REGISTRATION OF COLORED VOTERS. (Newspaper estimate.)</p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><th class="head"><p class="first last pfirst">State</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">Literate</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst"><em class="italics">Registered</em></p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+</thead>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr class="first"><td><p class="first last pfirst">Virginia</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">equal 69,358</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"> </td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">North Carolina</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">59,625</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst"><em class="italics">"Less than 6,000"</em></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">South Carolina</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">69,242</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"> </td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Alabama</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">73,474</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst"><em class="italics">"Hardly 2,500"</em></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Mississippi</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">92,605</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"> </td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><td><p class="first last pfirst">Louisiana</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">57,086</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst"><em class="italics">"1,147"</em></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<table class="align-center table" style="margin-left: 0%; width: 100%" summary="1872-1904 Republican vote in the six states." id="table-5">
+<caption class="level-2 pfirst table-title title">
+<em class="italics">TABLE</em> 5</caption>
+<colgroup>
+<col width="14%"/>
+<col width="14%"/>
+<col width="14%"/>
+<col width="14%"/>
+<col width="14%"/>
+<col width="14%"/>
+<col width="14%"/>
+</colgroup>
+<thead valign="bottom">
+<tr class="first"><th class="head" colspan="7"><p class="first last pfirst">REPUBLICAN VOTE IN THE SIX STATES; VOTE AFTER
+DISFRANCHISEMENT SCORED. (World Almanac of 1904.)</p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><th class="head"><p class="first last pfirst">YEAR</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">VA.</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">NORTH
+CAR.</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">SOUTH
+CAR.</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">ALA.</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">MISS.</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">LA.</p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+</thead>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr class="first"><td><p class="first last pfirst">1872</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">93,468</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">94,783</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">72,290</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">90,272</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">82,175</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">59,975</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1876</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">76,093</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">108,419</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">92,081</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">68,230</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">52,605</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">75,315</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1880</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">83,639</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">115,874</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">58,071</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">56,178</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">34,854</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">38,016</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1884</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">139,356</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">125,068</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">21,733</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">59,144</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">43,509</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">46,347</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1888</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">150,438</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">134,784</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">13,736</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">57,197</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">30,096</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">30,701</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1892</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">113,217</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">100,846</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">13,384</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">9,197</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">1,406</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">26,563</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1900</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">115,865</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">133,081</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">3,579</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">55,512</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">5,753</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">14,234</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><td><p class="first last pfirst">1904</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">47,880</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">82,442</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">2,554</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">22,472</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">3,189</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">5,205</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block smaller">
+<div class="line">
+1872, 1876, Va., N.C., S.C., Ala. (Tribune Almanac of 1896.)</div>
+<div class="line">
+1872, Louisiana (World Almanac.)</div>
+<div class="line">
+1892, Louisiana (Republican and Populists.)</div>
+<div class="line">
+1892, N.C.; 1900, 1904 (Due to Populists.)</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">Every fresh barrier erected in the South simply publishes to the world
+the weakness and inefficiency of those already raised. Each time
+dishonest methods are newly justified, and violent declarations,
+applauded, fresh evidence is given that these Southern men cannot on its
+merits win their case. The policy of white domination is stripped to
+unblushing nakedness, and confident of the fear of those who remained
+for two hundred years enslaved, the South narrows the issue to one of
+physical courage, inviting the Negro to wrest from her the power, which
+stands between him and justice, freedom, happiness. <em class="italics">It is not then in
+the ignorance, laziness, and vice of the Negro, that the white South
+trusts, for the continuance of her policy, but in his defencelessness.</em></p>
+<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">To these Southern men, we can make but one reply. Unmistakably our
+courage is the issue.</em> But before considering how best to treat their
+sinister challenge, let us answer to the Republican party the question:
+What does justice to the Negro demand? Our reply is simple,—the
+fulfillment of the promise, which was treasured up in the hearts of four
+million men as they passed through the doors of slavery into the light
+of freedom;—the promise, which they have left to their children as
+their one priceless inheritance: "The guarantee by Congress of equal
+suffrage to all loyal men at the South was demanded by every
+consideration of public safety, of gratitude and of justice, and must be
+maintained"—this was the promise of the Republican party in 1868. The
+freedman appeals to the creator of his political rights, as Tennyson to
+the Creator of his being:—</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">
+Thou wilt not leave us in the dust;</div>
+<div class="line">
+Thou madest man, he <em class="italics">knows</em> not why;</div>
+<div class="line">
+He thinks he was not made to die;</div>
+<div class="line">
+And Thou hast made him,—Thou art just.</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">Is it then fair to leave to us the vindication of the Reconstruction
+policy against men of the South, the North and even influential members
+of the party's own councils? Must we meet the charge that the Republican
+party was moved by revenge and folly, and prove that there was no other
+way to secure the foundation of freedom, which hundreds of thousands had
+died to win? Were those terrible years of death a mere night over the
+gaming table, with two haggard players, 'breaking even' at dawn? Is it
+left to us to rescue from their own sons the fame of the heroes of the
+war against slavery and restore the honorable inscriptions recorded on
+their tombs? When men talk of 'the greatest error of Reconstruction,'
+has the murder of Lincoln no claim to the place? Does not John Wilkes
+Booth better merit derisive canonizing than "Saint" John Brown? If it
+was irony for the "Reconstruction" legislatures to impose heavy taxes
+upon a people who had just emerged from a ruinous war and by bonded
+indebtedness extend the obligation to future generations, was it not
+also irony to punish and re-enslave by vagrancy laws the men who without
+an acre or a dollar were now <em class="italics">called</em> free?</p>
+<p class="pnext">And if it <em class="italics">was</em> hate, and revenge, and folly, which brought about the
+'War Amendments,' can they be honorably withdrawn now? Is there no
+doctrine in law, which forbids one's renouncing an act after he has
+profited by it? But could the elections have been won and the policies
+maintained without the aid of the colored voter? Is there need of a
+statute of limitations to stop a political party from withdrawing the
+promises upon which it has encouraged millions of trusting people to
+build for forty years? Can it be honestly claimed that three-fourths of
+the States of the Union gave the ballot to the slave just out of the
+slave pen, with the implied condition that if he failed to prove himself
+able from the outset to resist temptation to childish indulgence and
+childish dishonesty, seduced as he was by the Northern men whom
+gratitude bade him trust and follow, he should lose it forever? Is this
+the Eden where we met our "fall?" A sober Anglo-Saxon definition of
+justice is given by Sidgwick: "Justice is realized (1) in the observance
+of law, and contracts, and definite understandings, and in the
+enforcement of such penalties for the violation of these as have been
+legally determined and announced; and (2) in the fulfilment of natural
+and normal expectations." That the nation's laws will be upheld is the
+first requirement of justice.<a class="footnote-reference pginternal" href="#id13" id="id12"><sup>6</sup></a></p>
+<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" rules="none" id="id13">
+<colgroup><col class="label"/><col/></colgroup>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref pginternal" href="#id12">[6]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Here is an instance of a President's devotion to existing
+laws: <strong class="bold">With the Confederate government fully installed two weeks
+before</strong>,—Lincoln said in his inaugural address, that "he had no
+purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution
+of slavery." Is a manual needed in the United States to tell for
+what purposes and under what circumstances the law will be enforced?</p>
+</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p class="pnext">But yet again are we brought back to the ignorance, shiftlessness and
+criminality of the Negro. Their fathers, so say these wiser Northern
+sons, could not know of these evils, which to them have been revealed.
+No, they could not: had their lives been spared till now there had been
+no such evils to reveal. Under freedom's blaze ignorance was sucked up
+as the stagnant waters from a pool. With nearly the entire number of
+slaves illiterate, with no schools yet built, and only those large
+hearted teachers to face the enormous educational work whose
+ministrations to the needy were their only pay, more was done in the
+years just after the liberation of the slaves, to remove, their
+ignorance, than twenty-five thousand teachers in hundreds of schools
+have done in the last decade since.<a class="footnote-reference pginternal" href="#id15" id="id14"><sup>7</sup></a> Progress in earning and saving
+corresponded. And there was little increase of crime. A few years more
+of the sunlight and who doubts that these charges could never have been
+brought against us! And by whom are we charged with being criminal?
+Surely not by the South?</p>
+<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" rules="none" id="id15">
+<colgroup><col class="label"/><col/></colgroup>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref pginternal" href="#id14">[7]</a></td><td><p class="first pfirst">Per cent. of illiteracy.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Colored population in 1860 4,441,830.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Of this about 9 per cent. (488,070) was free—perhaps ½ of this
+was literate, i.e., about 5 per cent. of the whole.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">Equal 95 per cent. or higher.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">Colored population above 10 years in 1870 equal whole
+population, 4,880,009, less 28.7 per cent. equals under 10
+leaving 3,464,806. Above 10, unable to write, 2,789,689.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">Equal 80 per cent.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">Colored population above 10 years in 1880 4,601,207. Above 10,
+unable to write, 3,220,878.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">Equal 70 per cent.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">Colored population above 10 years in 1890 5,328,972. Above 10,
+unable to write, 3,042,668.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">Equal 57.1 per cent.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">Colored population above 10 years in 1900 6,415,581. Above 10,
+unable to write, 2,853,194.</p>
+<blockquote class="last"><div>
+<p class="pfirst">Equal 44.5 per cent.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p class="pnext">Is it credible that our millions lived under the benign influence of
+slavery, almost without crime and continued even after the Emancipation
+Act to live peacefully and honestly:—and then, upon the passage of the
+14th Amendment dropped suddenly from this moral zenith? Such sudden
+transformations are not natural: either slavery made the criminality of
+the African: or held it in a grip barely strong enough to prevent its
+issue in acts of violence: or, else this record of crime is false. One
+of these three explanations, we cannot choose but accept. The South at
+least, cannot admit the first, for slavery, they declared, even before
+God at His Altar, to be a benign institution; neither can they admit the
+second, for it, too, is inconsistent with the gentleness and benignity
+of slavery. But will they admit the third? "Nine tenths of the illicit
+gains," says James Bryce, speaking of Reconstruction, "went to the
+whites." Into like parts, Woodrow Wilson divides the responsibility and
+the discredit. "Negroes," he writes, constituted the majority of their
+electorates, but political power gave them no advantage of their own.
+Adventurers swarmed out of the North, to cozen, beguile and use them....
+They gained the confidence of the Negroes, obtained for themselves the
+more lucrative offices, and lived upon the public treasury, public
+contracts and their easy control of affairs. For the Negroes there was
+nothing but occasional allotments of abandoned or forfeited land, the
+pay of petty offices, a per-diem allowance as members of the
+conventions, and the state legislatures, which their new masters made
+business for, or the wages of servants in the various offices of
+administration. Their ignorance and credulity made them easy dupes. A
+petty favor, a slender stipend, a trifling perquisite, a bit of poor
+land, a piece of money satisfied, or silenced them." This is the record
+of crime until the quickly passing day of freedom was ended. And if
+crime has increased since, so presently will ignorance increase and
+idleness unless their growth is checked by the restoration of freedom
+and justice and hope. Punishment will fail to stop the growth of
+idleness, vice and crime, as it has always failed, and if brutal
+punishments are next resorted to when milder ones have failed, one
+sickens at the prospect. Can Southern, abetted by Northern men strew the
+earth with the seeds of accursed slavery, bastardy and treason, secret
+conspiracy, callous, sneering fraud and the brutality of the mob, and
+think to stop by lynching the harvest of black duplicity, bred of fear,
+and black criminality, bred of misery and hate,—when they have gathered
+enough of the fruits to make an exhibit of Negro vice? The departure of
+lynching waits for two events: the breeding of the animal out the most
+wretched Negroes until they find greater satisfaction in something
+higher than sensuality and revenge; and the breeding of savage cruelty
+out of the white man until he can find pleasure in something more humane
+than torture by fire. As our counsellors bid us turn our attention to
+the dark side of our life, we bid them turn theirs from it. Your boasted
+civilization on its under side is but a progress from rape to adultery,
+from brute to devil. The savage honors the brute and tortures the devil;
+the civilized man tortures or crushes the brute and honors the devil.
+There is a pitcher plant of California, which is so described: Above a
+funnel shaped stem, it flaunts a crimson banner. The hood of the flower
+is transparent, so that the wary are caught even in their efforts to
+flee. From the mouth downwards the walls exude intoxicating sweets but
+multitudinous hairs, all pointing downward, lower the victim farther
+with every struggle. At its bottom a charnel heap, poisoning the air.
+Such plants flourish amidst civilization, and millions are their
+victims, who debauch their appetites until their intellects shrink to
+the size of their already shrunken consciences, and they are helpless to
+do anything but die. Liberty <em class="italics">is</em> perilous, a very 'valley of the shadow
+of death,' but the history of every nation which has lived and died
+teaches us that the danger of a false step is even greater near the end
+of the journey than at the beginning. Egypt, Assyria, Judea, Greece,
+Rome—the history of every nation is a light-house marking a <em class="italics">reef</em> in
+the harbor of humanity.</p>
+<p class="pnext">When Cain had killed Abel, he hid the body, and when God called,
+replied, "Am I my brother's keeper?" A chill foreboding comes over us
+with these Northern doubts of the wisdom of Reconstruction, and we
+cannot refrain from wondering if the North still retains the sense of
+duty of 61; if the North can do, can even will to do justice. And here
+let us turn from our first question: What does justice to the Negro
+demand? To the second: What can the Negro do to get justice? My end has
+been reached if there is felt more than before the need of answering the
+latter question.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Underlying the civil laws of the nation are certain high ideals. The
+fidelity of the nation to these is measured by the quality and the force
+of public opinion. Just as long therefore as the republic endures, the
+executive, legislative and judicial powers will obey the people's will.
+To this oracle the rulers have again appealed, and its answer has been
+an expression of renewed and increased confidence in the Republican
+party. The hour of the new administration has almost come, and the
+message may be now on its way to the country that the party pledges are
+to be redeemed. It may be that there are brighter days before us; but
+if, as in the past, we stand on no securer footing than two men
+wrestling on a steep and icy hill-side, where both roll over and over,
+and there is no chance between throwing and being thrown,—then it
+matters not whether we appeal to President, or Congress, or Supreme
+Court; to the 14th or 15th amendment, for the righting of our wrongs.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Congress is empowered to enforce the 14th and 15th amendments by
+appropriate legislation. Such legislation has been enacted and by one
+President, at least, enforced. But, now, it is held that it must be
+shown that the amendments are being violated, and this cannot be done
+until the Supreme Court fully interprets them. What a mockery it has all
+become! Insolently, sneeringly, the violators of the plain intent of the
+law rise from their seats in Congress and demand how far they are going
+to be obliged to walk around these Amendments instead of kicking them
+aside. By law, or by force, colored men are being deprived of the right
+to hold office; by law or by force excluded from the jury; by law or by
+force sent into slavery for crimes of which they were convicted by these
+juries from which they are excluded; by law or by force, they are being
+disfranchised. The alternative is clear. Southern men do not evade it.
+The revised Constitutions stand boldly for disqualification by law.
+Southern Congressmen in debate as boldly proclaim the force. More
+cautiously Mr. Murphy testifies to the same effect, denying that "the
+abuse of discretionary power by the registrars of elections,—an abuse
+which the State permits, but which the State does not necessitate or
+prescribe, brings the State within reach of the penalties of the
+Constitution."</p>
+<p class="pnext">If not by law then the Constitution is nullified by force, and it
+becomes the duty of Congress to maintain it. But is Congress so near the
+performance of this obligation that we can profitably advise as to the
+method? Shall we say that candidates for Congress, by force or fraud
+elected, shall be refused their seats or that an election bill shall be
+passed, guaranteeing just laws; or that the penalty clause of the 14th
+Amendment shall be first enforced? At least, we had better wait until
+the House has reversed the policy outlined by its Committee on
+Elections, whose concluding words in the Dantzler-Lever case
+follow:—</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">"However desirable it may be for a legislative body to retain
+control of the decision as to the election and qualification
+of its members, it is quite certain that a legislative body is
+not the ideal body to pass judicially upon the
+constitutionality of the enactments of other bodies. We have
+in this country a proper forum for the decision of
+constitutional and other judicial questions. If any citizen of
+South Carolina who was entitled to vote under the constitution
+of that State in 1868 is now deprived by the provisions of the
+present constitution, he has the right to tender himself for
+registration and for voting, and in case his right is denied,
+to bring suit in a proper court for the purpose of enforcing
+his right or recovering damages for its denial.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That suit can be carried by him, if necessary, to the Supreme
+Court of the United States. If the United States Supreme Court
+shall declare in such case that the "fundamental conditions"
+in the reconstruction acts were valid and constitutional and
+that the State constitutions are in violation of those acts,
+and hence invalid and unconstitutional every state will be
+compelled to immediately bow in submission to the decision.
+The decision of the Supreme Court would be binding and would
+be a positive declaration of the law of the land which could
+not be denied or challenged.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"On the contrary, the decision of the House of
+Representatives upon this grave judicial question would not
+be considered as binding or effective in any case except the
+one acted upon or as a precedent for future action in the
+House itself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"A majority of the Committee on Elections No. v doubt the
+propriety in any event of denying these Southern States
+representation in the House of Representatives pending a final
+settlement of the whole question in proper proceedings by the
+Supreme Court of the United States. Some of the members of the
+committee believe the "fundamental conditions" set forth in
+the reconstruction acts to be valid and the constitutions and
+election laws of these States to be in conflict with such
+conditions, and hence to be invalid.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Some of the members of the committee believe the "fundamental
+conditions" set forth in the reconstruction acts to be invalid
+and the constitutions and election laws of the States claimed
+to be in conflict with such conditions to be valid. Some
+members of the committee have formed no opinion and express no
+belief upon the subject.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Your Committee on Elections No. i therefore respectively
+recommend the adoption of the following resolution:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"'<em class="italics">Resolved</em>. That Alexander D. Dantzler was not elected a
+member of the Fifty-eighth Congress from the Seventh
+Congressional district of South Carolina, and is not entitled
+to a seat therein.'"</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">If not by force then the Constitution is nullified by law, and the
+Supreme Court must be looked to to maintain its vigor. Turning to the
+Supreme Court, what do we find to be its answer? In the following words,
+the Court concludes in the case of Giles vs Teasley, (the 4th Alabama
+case) decided Feb. 23d, 1904:—(from this decision Justice Harlan
+dissented.)</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">"It is apparent that the thing complained of, so far as it
+involves rights secured under the Federal Constitution, is the
+action of the State of Alabama in the adoption and enforcing
+of a constitution with the purpose of excluding from the
+exercise of the right of suffrage the Negro voters of the
+State, in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment to the
+Constitution of the United States. The great difficulty of
+reaching the political action of a State through remedies
+afforded in the courts, State or Federal, was suggested by
+this court in <em class="italics">Giles v. Harris, supra</em>.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"In reaching the conclusion that the present writs of error
+must be dismissed the court is not unmindful of the gravity of
+the statements of the complainant charging violation of a
+constitutional amendment which is a part of the supreme law of
+the land; but the right of this court to review the decisions
+of the highest court of a State has long been well settled,
+and is circumscribed by the rules established by law. We are
+of opinion that plaintiffs in error have not brought the
+cases within the statute giving to this court the right of
+review."</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">Far be it from me to imply that the Supreme Court will never decide the
+State constitutional clauses to be in violation of the national
+constitution; but as Von Holst has said: "The wit of man is not equal to
+the task in the shaping of political life of inventing forms which may
+not be employed as weapons against their own legitimate substance or
+contents." The law, it might be added, without strong-siding conscience,
+is a mere magician's handkerchief, and surely we can no longer think of
+ante-election promises embodied in the Republican party platform as
+binding obligations.</p>
+<p class="pnext">To those who ask: how long shall men wait for justice? I can only
+answer: Wait we must, but we need not idly wait. Our future is largely
+our own to make. Our radius of activity is slowly enlarging. Our daily
+question: what shall we do? settles into a demand for a defined policy.
+A bitter and perplexed,—What shall I do?—we are coming to find "worse
+than worst necessity." Mere agitation, we know will not suffice. The
+country is not floating upon a rising tide of indignation at the
+unjustness of our treatment, as it was fifty years ago. And even if the
+doing of justice hung upon the casting of a die, I do not know why the
+throw should be the higher for violent shaking of the box. Some sort of
+planning of our future and united effort of at least a few to realize
+their plans is indispensable.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Resolved, therefore, that we strive for all happiness whatsoever, which
+may be fairly won. A good name and a level glance from those around us
+are essentials of happiness. If that is social equality, then, resolved
+that we strive for social equality. "This," says Cable, "is a fool's
+dream." If so let us not shrink along with Christ, to be called fools.
+Once past slavery there is no insuperable barrier between us and
+freedom. Where is this line between civil and private rights? Is not the
+path from one to the other continuous? Workshops and offices, public
+conveyances, the theatre, hotels and restaurants, apartment-houses, the
+boarding table, barber-shops and bath rooms, the public school and
+college, the scientific society, the church, the alumni dinner, the
+church sociable—in city, town and village:—what are these but the way
+to the home?<a class="footnote-reference pginternal" href="#id17" id="id16"><sup>8</sup></a> There is an upward slope from slavery, where a man is
+a thing, to freedom, where a man is a man. Millions, the better part of
+mankind, live and die on the hill-side; but all push on, as long as hope
+and manhood survive. That those above should acknowledge the brotherhood
+of those below and descend to help them is not to be generally expected;
+for that requires such love of their fellows as few possess. It <em class="italics">is
+foolish</em> then to <em class="italics">demand</em> the concession of social equality; but it
+is quite as <em class="italics">cowardly</em> to give up obtaining it, as long as an upward way
+exists. That the path is open is proved by the cry of those who hate us:
+Turn the hill-side into a precipice,—slavery is the only alternative to
+equality; build an unscalable wall of caste founded upon the color of
+the skin, the lowest white man by law and force raised higher than the
+highest black. Yes, the first of all our resolutions must be this one,
+to strive for social equality.</p>
+<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" rules="none" id="id17">
+<colgroup><col class="label"/><col/></colgroup>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref pginternal" href="#id16">[8]</a></td><td><p class="first pfirst">That public conveyances come within the social sphere is
+asserted by Burgess: Reconstruction and the Constitution pp. 150——</p>
+<p class="last pnext">"During the winter and spring of 1867-8 the work of these
+conventions went on under the greatest extravagance and
+incompetence of every kind. (The constitutions which came from
+them provided for complete equality in civil rights, and <strong class="bold">in
+some cases, in advantages of a social character, such as equal
+privileges in public conveyances etc."</strong>)</p>
+</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p class="pnext">Not only, however, our indomitable instinct, but an urgent reason makes
+this our foremost consideration. National responsibilities, great civic
+or industrial responsibilities we are as yet cut off from. Through
+<em class="italics">private relations then we must educate ourselves to the realization,
+that only through the just performance of duties can true rights be
+won</em>. As we perform our trust over a few things will we perform our
+trust over many. Already we are reminded that our claims as individuals
+are mixed with those of the mass of our people. In vain we urge our
+greater culture or refinement, we are judged by the average of our race.
+In our own interest then, if not from a higher motive, we must turn to
+the lifting of our fellows. Our solidarity is already great: let us hold
+to it and increase it. Far from being a curse it is a people's greatest
+blessing. Yet we are losing it; our fellow sympathy and active
+helpfulness are not as great as were our fathers'. This is of crucial
+importance, since our best chance of winning friends among the women and
+poor of the other race is by justice to the women and poor of our own.
+And it is the women and the poor of the other race that we need most to
+win: for it were hard to say which is the greater obstacle to our
+progress, those left behind among the race ahead, or those left behind
+among our own. We must face sex inequality and class inequality among
+ourselves, <em class="italics">lest we bitterly denounce others' injustice when the same
+spirit of uncharitableness is deep buried in our own natures</em>.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Why is there such intense emphasis placed upon this issue of social
+equality? Largely because it arouses the jealousy of the white woman and
+the white poor. She, with her heart full of fear and distrust, is the
+first to shut the door upon the stranger. The next step after being a
+slave is wanting one; and she, who has been for untold ages in forced
+servitude to man clings jealously to that social order which provides a
+place for another more to be pitied than she. She, it is who holds the
+keys of the home, and with them, of church, school, restaurant, theatre
+and car.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And with women are joined the poor. <em class="italics">They</em> bar our way to industrial
+employment; they stand guard over the polls. Why? Because they have
+learned uncharitableness in the school of bitter experience; because
+they, who have themselves never known aught but inequality, cannot even
+<em class="italics">think</em> of an even balance between men. <em class="italics">Of little avail, then, the
+wisdom and bounty of the few enlightened, when the serried ranks of the
+masses bar our upward way</em>.... As each occasion of hardship or slight
+works upon them,—high prices made by monopoly, failure of strikes, the
+miseries of war, unequal laws, the scorn of the rich and
+well-born,—they turn and empty the full reservoir of their discontent,
+through the ever open vent of race hatred upon any that are weaker than
+they. And ever and again the crafty among the ruling class, discovering
+this means of averting danger to themselves make haste to profit by it.
+The greater our show of progress,—the more active the resentment of
+these classes of those above us becomes. Upon the removal of this
+antagonism much of the welfare of the Republic as well as our own
+depends, and I know of no other way to accomplish it than through
+fairness to the women and poor of our own race. Then those just ahead
+will see that they have no cause to fear that among us are to be found a
+new set of masters to make fresh multitudes of slaves. We cannot, then,
+afford to go on, confident that justice and wisdom will prevail; for the
+best among ourselves know how difficult it is to be just and wise. Let
+us who know the way to justice and can follow it, but strive to do so,
+and others, and yet others will be drawn into the current until its
+pressure becomes too great to resist.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Resolved, secondly, that we will continue to form party ties from
+fundamental principle and not momentary prospect of advantage. Last of
+all classes, can we afford to consider trimming our political sails to
+catch a chance breeze. Before it can even be granted that we hold the
+actual balance of power, this opportunism must have become our settled
+policy,—else we are <em class="italics">not</em> the most precarious body of voters. But
+suppose we were able to bargain for our vote, how wise would it be to do
+so? Can our voters afford to indulge in a prospect of profit to be
+obtained from their franchise? No, beyond question, our position is yet
+too insecure to warrant our driving a bargain with the Republican party,
+backed by the threatened withdrawal of our ballots. For not only would
+an artificial value, given to our vote because it was pivotal,—which,
+to repeat, it could only be if it were the most precarious,—double its
+venality, but the likelihood of our being put off with mere promises
+would be increased. Would not the prize be made just tempting enough to
+keep us vainly hoping? Would the rich with all their abundance do more
+than "rub our chains with crumbs?" We have all to fight to keep up our
+faith in the Republican party and its fidelity to the pledges of forty
+years, but all our political funds are invested with it, and unless in
+pursuit of some better principle than gratitude the time has not yet
+come to withdraw them.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Resolved, thirdly, that we will contend for the political and social
+rights we crave, by modern rules of war, using every protective means we
+can, but scorning every dishonorable stratagem. Under the present stress
+a line of division is appearing between those among us who believe in
+open, and those who believe in secret methods of protection. In spite
+however of the merciless fire we are subjected to by the press, which
+makes any one a mark, who so much as strikes a match, we will resolutely
+oppose secret bodies, secret measures, secret policies. Nothing so
+quickly brings out all the cruelty of hatred as fear of secret danger.
+Let not the awful power and unrebuked successes of Ku Klux Klan or white
+caps mislead us. We must be free from the charge of having suggested
+<em class="italics">even</em> such means to those whom oppression has made desperate, but for
+whom imitation would spell merciless revenge without even the check of
+Northern censure. And another evil scarce less results: a premium is
+hereby put upon treachery. Temptation is already too great to those
+among us who might be induced to betray.</p>
+<p class="pnext">On the other hand, no reasonable precaution should be left untaken. Our
+position is hardly yet so perilous that we need seek the mountains,
+deserts or swamps for safety. Other protective measures however should
+be sought. First among these, is organization, which, however is only
+worthful when there is real community of interest and feeling. These it
+will be hard to secure without neighborhood and common business
+dealings. By such means too, we shall better come under the protection
+of the common law, with its broad mantle spread over all contractual
+relations. It is hard to get justice wholesale, harder still when one
+cannot offer the market price. The earlier resolutions leading up to the
+15th Amendment forbade restriction of the franchise on account of creed,
+ignorance or poverty. These additions were laid aside before the passage
+of the bill. The Civil Rights bill in its earlier stages required
+equality in the public schools and the jury service. These failed first.
+The best help—this cannot be said too often—is self-help.
+Self-dependence will not only strengthen our own defenses, but it has a
+value yet higher—it strengthens the Republic. Appealing as we now do to
+central authority, embodied in the Republican party, we help
+unconsciously to build up centralized power. This disadvantage of our
+faithful adherence to that party must be confessed. By striving to
+obtain land and independent businesses, and towards municipal political
+privileges, we will increase our responsibilities, our interest in good
+government and our stake in the democracy of America,—and by so doing
+become sturdier defenders of the Republic. To the man <em class="italics">who works</em>, the
+man who <em class="italics">wants and consumes</em>, in short to every man belong the common
+benefits and privileges due to his common humanity; but if we mean to
+secure these heights which in the United States only have yet been won,
+we must win firm ground to stand on. The law is not grounded in such
+principles, he who would fight for the rights of men, must be <em class="italics">more</em>
+than a mere man to get standing in her courts.</p>
+<p class="pnext">By such protective measures we may so shield ourselves from attack, that
+if any should wish to destroy us they must first destroy what they have
+themselves built. This means much: but who so thoughtless as to suppose
+that ownership of land and home, or business interests or even municipal
+or other corporate franchises,—with the knowledge needed to maintain
+them—are of themselves enough! Who so weak as to trust in mere
+segregation, that if we only stay on our side of a high board fence we
+will be let alone! What of Africa? What of China? What so absurd as
+unguarded wealth? The day of high board fences is passing. While
+segregation will supply certain opportunities, which we may profit by,
+if we use them as stepping-stones to higher things, it can only do so,
+if there is courage to defend what has been won. Without courage no man
+can hope to keep anything another covets. <em class="italics">Somewhere in the foreground
+of all our policies,—if we are true men and women,—must be the
+determination to part with them only at a reasonable price.</em> Let common
+sense, and scorn of dishonesty, or pretence, guide us in moulding them,
+but then let us adhere to them. Let all be done in God's name, as does
+the man who builds an altar, gathers wood, then cleanses himself from
+all impurity before he approaches it to do sacrifice. When these steps
+have been taken, we may appeal to the God of justice, and with the
+confidence of him who dares ask, and receive an answering sign from
+Heaven, strike for the right.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="the-negro-vote-in-the-states-whose-constitutions-have-not-been-specifically-revisedjohn-hope">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id20">The Negro Vote in the States Whose Constitutions Have Not Been Specifically Revised—<em class="italics">JOHN HOPE</em></a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">So much has been said about almost every phase of the so-called "Race
+Problem," so many good things and so many bad things, that we are apt to
+believe all has been said that can be said and to wish that if there is
+anything that has not yet been said, it may remain unsaid. Certainly
+little that is new can be said on the franchise until we have some new
+developments. You will get nothing new from me. I am to speak on a
+current topic that is as well known to you as to me. Yet it is sometimes
+helpful to hear your own thoughts expressed by some one else. With this
+possibility of doing a service, I apologize for having consented to
+write on the subject of "Negro Suffrage in the States whose
+Constitutions have not been Specifically Revised." But even here I feel
+unable to speak about all these States and prefer to confine myself to
+my own state, for of this I may speak with the assurance that comes from
+contact.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The State of Georgia probably shows as little revulsion and reversion of
+sentiment and law as any distinctly Southern state, except perhaps
+Texas, since the Reconstruction period. Republican rule was short lived
+and, while it remained, was less aggressive and revolutionary than in
+other states. The population has been fairly evenly divided between the
+two races with a majority always on the white side. The agrarian class
+has been less powerful than in some Southern states and the ignorance of
+both races has been rather mitigated and softened by centres of
+information, towns and cities, less remotely distant from one another
+than is the case in several other Southern states, railroads and
+factories exerting a great influence in this respect. So Georgia may be
+taken as a type of those states in which the best things have happened
+or rather the worst things have not happened for Colored people.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Of course, in Reconstruction times Georgia Democrats did act harshly,
+but my remarks rather have to do with the period after that. For
+instance, more than thirty Colored Republicans were expelled from the
+Georgia legislature and the state had to have a sort of second
+reconstruction before it was finally recognized by the United States
+Government.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Georgia had only one Republican governor, and sent to the National House
+of Representatives at least one Colored Representative. But for many
+years, even this has been a thing of the past. White men have held all
+offices, occasionally having the monotony of complexion broken by a
+Colored representative from Camden, McIntosh or Liberty county in the
+state legislature.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The passing of the Republican party in the state as an aggressive
+elective organization has been due to several causes, but so hidden and
+studied have two of them been, so free from shotguns, leaving out, of
+course, the Ku Klux and Patrollers of the '60's and '70's, that you
+cannot lay your hands on these causes so easily as in some other states
+where the change has been revolutionary and sudden rather than gradual.
+You will notice that I say Republican party, for when the Colored vote
+was most effective it was organized by the Republican party. One of the
+causes of this passing of the Republican vote was intimidation at the
+polls on election day, threats and intimidation before the day in
+communities of Colored people, and official rascality in the counting of
+ballots actually cast. Probably, as a result of these a third cause
+came—the indifference of the state and municipal Republican
+organizations to making a canvass for the state and city officers.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Then the Colored vote began to divide on Democratic candidates and was
+exceedingly effective, holding the balance of power, as it did, in
+choosing white Democratic governors, congressmen, state legislators,
+city and county officers. This went well for awhile, but white
+office-seekers soon began to fear this Colored balance of power. They
+wanted their certainty of a majority of the white vote to guarantee
+their office; so the Georgia legislature passed a law making it legal to
+have primaries to nominate candidates for office and also throwing such
+safeguards about the management of primaries as aimed to secure lawful
+practices on these occasions. Here was a perfectly harmless movement,
+apparently harmless. The next step was made by the Democratic party
+assembled in State Convention when it decided that candidates for state
+and county officers on the Democratic ticket should be nominated by a
+primary, but leaving the conduct of the primary to the community in
+which it might be held, provided this should not run counter to the
+primary law as passed by the State. Here too, was a perfectly fair and
+harmless provision, apparently fair and apparently harmless. But the way
+was then open for the primary to take on a local coloring. In
+communities where the colored vote was an embarrassment, the Democratic
+party there decided to have a <em class="italics">white</em> primary. In one of these
+communities a colored man that I know went to vote at the primary. He
+was a "good Negro" a very good Negro, his goodness dating back to the
+time when the "Yankees" were about to confiscate his master's cotton and
+he claimed the cotton as his. Even this transaction did not enlarge his
+cranium, and after saving his master thousands of dollars and gradually
+amassing a fortune for himself, he still knew how to approach his former
+master from the kitchen door. Well, this good Negro went to cast his
+ballot. The courteous man at the polls said: "George, this is a
+Democratic primary." "Yes," said George, "but I am a Democrat." "Well,"
+said the courteous gentleman, "but George, this is a <em class="italics">white</em> primary."
+This colored man found himself without a Republican for whom he might
+vote, and was informed that the Democratic party was a close corporation
+so far as the Colored man was concerned. This is quite interesting when
+I tell you that white Republicans, avowedly Republicans, have not only
+been permitted but even requested to participate in the primaries of the
+Democratic and Populist parties.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The reason for the elasticity of the primary is quite evident, that is,
+why Colored people are allowed to take part in the primary in one
+community and not in another, or why they are allowed at one time to
+vote and at another time in that same community are not allowed to vote.
+The purpose is to have the Colored voters as a harmless balance of power
+between the Democrats and any other party that may show strength, that
+is, to have the Colored man to settle disputes among white people
+without becoming obstreperous because of this valuable assistance. There
+were some communities where the Populists used the Colored voter to
+defeat Democrats and others where the Democrats used this vote to defeat
+Populists. Of the State as a whole, it may be said that Populism was
+defeated by the Colored voters espousing the Democratic side. And be it
+said to the common sense and good reason of many Democrats that this
+fact is acknowledged and to an extent appreciated by the party now in
+power—to the extent at least of staving off any further
+disfranchisement measures thus far.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But the most flagrant high-handedness and palpable confession of purpose
+on the part of white people with reference to our citizenship rights is
+to be found in a state legislative enactment that looks to the municipal
+management of two Georgia towns where the Colored voters are so
+overwhelmingly in the majority that ordinary subterfuges would not
+fulfill the requirement. Darien and St. Mary's are two coast towns with
+a large Colored population. The mayor and aldermen are not elected by
+the voters in these towns; but, instead, these towns enjoy the unique
+distinction of being managed by officials appointed by the governor of
+the State. What is more simple; what more high-handed; what more
+un-Democratic and subversive of national principles of government than
+this?</p>
+<p class="pnext">Now let us ask the question: Can the Colored man cast his ballot in
+Georgia?</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the first place, any party of any race may hold a primary.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Second, any man of any party or race may vote in the <em class="italics">general</em> election
+for any candidate he may wish.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Let us ask next, whether these ballots will be counted? That depends
+entirely upon whether the need is to count them or destroy them; or
+furthermore, to count them as ballots for some one for whom they were
+not cast. The election boards and the management at the polls are not
+bipartisan and the party in power may do what it chooses.</p>
+<p class="pnext">We raise the question now whether it is for our best interest
+economically to exercise the franchise? Do men vote to help their
+economic interests? Are not taxation and other fiscal policies settled
+by the ballot? May not property be enhanced or lessened in value by
+voters? Colored people have some real estate and securities, but their
+practical capital is their labor; yet they have not the least power, the
+real power, of influencing legislation in reference to a single labor
+measure that may arise, although in Georgia nearly half the population
+is colored and in the laboring class the colored people are in the
+majority. Now suppose, as white union labor in the South grows stronger,
+it should influence such legislation as would eliminate colored labor
+where it came into competition with white labor, the colored laborer
+would be politically powerless to resist this legislation. Now is this a
+mere idle dream when we reflect that within the past few months a Texas
+legislator introduced a bill to confine Colored labor to the farm
+whenever it was found in city and town communities to be competing with
+white labor.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Then there is another side that really has its argument, effective,
+though perhaps not very logical. The fact that we are, as a people,
+laborers and not capitalists, makes us, as any other people similarly
+placed would be, under obligation to the capitalist who, in our case,
+are white. The point is made that to enter politics against the wishes
+of this people would raise such antagonism as to lower our earning
+power. Hence we are told to keep out of politics until we get a better
+money basis. Here we stand between two difficulties, staying out of
+politics might jeopard our earning and entering politics might jeopard
+our earnings. Many honest and thoughtful white and colored men stand on
+both sides of this question.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Now, is it educationally best for us to vote? This question requires
+some amplifying. Do we mean what educational value comes from this
+training in citizenship? If so, then certainly the value is great. There
+was a time when we knew conditions in our state and town, but so little
+influence does a Colored man have in politics now that I do not even
+know the name of the alderman in my ward, although I am a registered
+voter, have paid my poll tax and voted for President Roosevelt. I know
+of nothing more benumbing to us as citizens than this deprivation. Men
+who are philosophic may consider matters that are not of material
+concern, but the average person does not load his mind and spend his
+time with things that, for one reason or another, have no concern for
+him. Any discussion as to the fitness and honesty of municipal and state
+candidates hardly touches me, as I know I cannot lift a finger to
+promote the interests of any one of them. I have no voice.</p>
+<p class="pnext">There is another position from which this question may be viewed and
+that is whether the advantages from schools would be lessened or
+increased from participation in politics. It is quite evident that
+without the ballot any people are suppliant and must beg rather than
+make a manly demand. But, assuming that the lack of the ballot has
+become a condition with us, would a demand or threat about our ballot
+result in a counter threat that if we forced the issue, we should not
+only be denied our ballot, but that for our arrogance the appropriation
+for Colored public schools would be cut down and we should receive only
+what we paid in as our share of the school tax? This too, is no dream;
+but has actually been considered by colored men as a possible reason for
+not causing such antagonism as would arise from Colored men endeavoring
+to enter aggressively into politics again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">What now about fears for disfranchisement such as has been compassed by
+the revised constitutions in many Southern states? Some one may say that
+there is no difference between constitutional disfranchisement and that
+<em class="italics">quasi</em> disfranchisement effective for all practical purposes such as we
+have spoken of as now obtaining in Georgia. There is a tremendous
+difference. If a wave of civic righteousness should sweep over those
+states still without constitutional disfranchisement, the primaries
+would be a very slight embarrassment to those willing to do right by all
+races alike; while in the states possessing constitutional
+disfranchisement, the reactionaries would have such means of stopping
+fair play and honest elections free for all, that they could easily
+check the purpose of the fair-minded citizens for a long while.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Now, do we really have to fear disfranchisement? I say disfranchisement
+must at all times be feared and be guarded against as far as it lies
+within our power in an honorable and manly way to hold it off. Just at
+the time North Carolina and Maryland seemed most secure to us we found
+ourselves deprived of our rights; and it may be safely stated that
+whenever on a specific occasion the Colored vote exerts the balance of
+power over any considerable area, there disfranchisement may be feared.
+We need to fear disfranchisement because it is founded upon the spirit
+of injustice and that same spirit fosters it. So palpable is this, that
+the South bewails the fact. Governor Warfield in speaking about the
+repeal of the Fifteenth amendment says: "The privilege to vote could
+then be bestowed without respect to the expedient of unwise
+constitutional amendments that strain the conscience of our best people
+and arouse criticism." Yet the repeal of the Fifteenth amendment would
+not relieve those apostles of disfranchisement of the odium of violating
+the spirit of truly American democracy and of setting at naught that
+mighty decision on human rights that was rendered by the bloody
+arbitrament of war—Disfranchisement of whatever sort, if designed to
+embarrass a citizen because of his race, must always "strain the
+conscience of our best people."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Does Georgia show any signs of the disfranchising spirit? We fear it
+does. The State Legislature now expects some measure of this sort at
+each session, and in recent years has not been disappointed, although
+good sense has thus far triumphed. Then again men in high places,
+congressmen and at least one of our U. S. Senators from Georgia have
+begun to say some things that may easily be construed as an advocacy of
+disfranchisement. It occurs to me that the marked difference between the
+condition in my boyhood and to-day is this: then the opposition was to
+Republicans, to-day it is to Negroes. It is not a party line, but a race
+line.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Now the white primary has not done all that was claimed for it. In the
+first place it has not purified elections. Far from doing away with the
+purchase and sale of votes, it has, by lowering the supply, relatively
+increased the demand and brought up the price to a really fancy figure.
+In the second place it has failed to do that for which it was ostensibly
+introduced especially to do, namely; to put into office those men most
+eminently fitted by ability and character to administer the office to
+which they might be chosen. On the contrary, primary elections have been
+questioned on the ground of fraud; and the mayor of one very prominent
+Georgia city has been arrested for drunkenness. Then why is the primary
+kept? Well, the "fixers" for instance, can more easily fix things. With
+the Colored man's vote eliminated, the work becomes simplified and even
+though the amount of money spent illegally may now be more than the
+total amount in the days when colored as well as white were in the
+market yet those interested in "fixing" elections can now work with more
+assurance; and promises may more easily be carried out in the matter of
+delivering the goods.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For instance, I know of a city election where the voters in one ward
+were so evenly divided and the candidates had calculated their strength
+so accurately, that one candidate felt safe in buying three white votes
+at the rate of one hundred ten dollars. Large corporations may now
+operate easily in state and city; and some of the most flagrant cases of
+political jobbery that have been charged against Reconstruction rule are
+easily equalled by the bare-faced graft and bribery by which large
+business interests win their way through the assistance of white voters.</p>
+<p class="pnext">What are the possibilities of white aspirants bolting the primary? It is
+my impression that they are fewer than they were twenty years ago. Judge
+Gartrell once ran independently against Alexander Stephens for Governor
+and Judge Emory Speer in his younger days ran on an independent ticket;
+but such a step on the part of a candidate means outlawry for life.
+Speer was read into the Republican party, Thomas Watson into the
+Populist; and since the exile of such giants, the small fry find it easy
+to be good and not to lift their heads in rebellion, no matter what
+rascality has compassed their defeat at the Primary. No. It is my
+impression that the primary is more firmly established to-day than when
+it was first started. White unity has become white slavery; and while
+the yoke galls, the white aspirant prefers the yoke to extermination.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But, suppose there should be a general Democratic "rough house" and the
+colored vote should be called in to quell the disturbance, the Colored
+voter would have no guarantee that such would mean his return to
+political standing. On the contrary, it might, as in several states,
+cause the passage of constitutional disfranchisement that would make his
+last state worse than the former. Our status is truly unenviable, and
+the ground on which we stand is exceedingly uncertain.</p>
+<p class="pnext">I desire now to treat more fully what has already been touched upon: Why
+do the Republicans not nominate candidates for state, county and city
+offices and make a general canvass? There are two classes of Colored
+men, those who think the party should and those who think it should not.
+Unfortunately each of these classes makes severe charges against the
+other with reference to this matter. I much prefer to accept the
+explanations of both as honest. The following are at least some of the
+reasons for not making a canvass: first, it is difficult to get
+desirable men to accept the nomination; second, it would be still more
+difficult to secure sufficient funds to pay the ordinary and perfectly
+legitimate expenses of a campaign; third, the injustice of the party in
+power would make a fair election an impossibility. Hence a candidate
+would be doomed to defeat from the moment of his nomination and the fact
+that he and the party would know this, would make the campaign lifeless,
+futile and perfunctory. Fourth, the prominence of Colored people in
+politics and the extra trouble to which they would put the ascendant
+party might result in still further curtailment of the few rights still
+left to us.</p>
+<p class="pnext">To all of this the side that clamors or appears to clamor for a ticket
+says: You assume too much, you see ghosts. Yet supposing the worst, it
+is far better to keep Colored voters organized for several reasons:
+first, because the organization gives a valuable training in citizenship
+that cannot be gained by standing aloof and waiting for better things;
+second, because if an opening should come suddenly, the Colored people
+would be better able to decide quickly and intelligently where to throw
+their strength solidly on one side or another for their own best
+interests and the interests of the government; thirdly, because a show
+of opposition to existing political injustice and repression would
+relieve us of the charge of indifference to our condition and would
+strengthen the courage of those who might champion our cause—our
+efficient, powerful champions, who have grown doubtful about our real
+manhood. I believe in the honesty of both these classes of colored men;
+and it is exceedingly difficult for a man, living in the midst of these
+conditions and knowing the temperament, attitude and unlimited power of
+the white people, to say which one of these two courses is the more
+rational and helpful to pursue.</p>
+<p class="pnext">What have the Colored people lost through disfranchisement? They have
+lost the privilege of influencing legislation, since the legislator
+feels under no obligation to them. The "Jim Crow" car law, the separate
+tax bill and almost any other bill may be passed so far as pressure from
+Colored people is concerned. A very clear case is the public library in
+Atlanta which is supported by the taxes of all citizens, yet not a
+single Colored person may enter that library to read or borrow a book.
+Some months ago Mr. Carnegie offered the city ten thousand dollars for a
+library for the Colored people on the condition that the city furnish a
+lot and agree to appropriate one thousand dollars <em class="italics">per annum</em> for the
+maintenance of the library. The whole matter has been tabled and the
+Colored people have no redress, since their mayor and aldermen were
+elected without the Colored vote. Do you suppose the city of Atlanta
+would have refused so paltry a favor, if its city council were dependent
+upon our vote?</p>
+<p class="pnext">Not only have we lost influence among the law makers but among those who
+interpret the law and administer justice. Neither judge nor jury has
+to consult the Colored man's wish. This independence of us makes the
+court a place of injustice as frequently as of justice, and policemen
+may be cruel with impunity.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Then too, the chain-gang with its revolting influences on men and women,
+boys and girls; the lack of Negro reformatories in some places where
+they do exist for white boys find much of their meaning in the fact that
+the Colored voter cannot make sentiment and bring things to pass through
+the ballot. We have had the "Jim Crow" law forced upon us, our public
+schools have become poorer in equipment and teaching force, and the
+salary of teachers has been lowered.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In a word, the loss of the franchise has changed our status to such a
+degree that we no longer demand, but beg and supplicate even for those
+fundamental needs, without which education and general improvement would
+be very doubtful.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Now are there some things to be effected that are regarded as of more
+vital interest to Colored people at present than the ballot? In the face
+of what has already been said, this seems almost an unnecessary
+question, since the ballot is no abstract thing, no merely academic
+theory, but a vital agent in the promotion of improvement and happiness.
+Yet as obvious as all this seems, when people have already lost the
+ballot they may ask this question: Are there some things to be effected
+that are of more vital interest to Colored people at present than the
+ballot?</p>
+<p class="pnext">I heard a sweet-spirited Colored man say at the conclusion of his
+remarks one day—he was a college president and is now in Heaven away
+from this turmoil—well I heard him say: "I have come to the conclusion
+that all we can do in this country is to take what the white man gives
+us." An eminent Colored preacher said recently in my hearing: "You can't
+drive these white folks, you must knuckle to them and you can get
+anything you want." Within the last two months an interesting white
+southern clergyman in his exhortation to Colored people to be good
+Negroes, told them not to get mad about "Jim Crow" cars and to be slow
+to urge their rights. Said he: "You Colored people are undertaking a
+heavy task when you attempt to reform the Anglo-Saxon." Now our present
+needs are numerous and vital, many growing out of the curtailment of
+privileges, a condition made possible through our lack of the ballot.
+Many Colored men believe that we can get these needs supplied most
+quickly and surely by begging and not resorting to a futile ballot;
+many, moreover, think that the voting would retard the granting of these
+much needed privileges. On the other hand, others say our condition
+grows steadily worse and our only redress, our only hope, is in the
+ballot.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Now what do I believe about all this? I believe that we ought to vote,
+and I vote on every public question when the privilege is accorded me. I
+believe that our leaders ought to give us the opportunity to vote and
+let us stand forth as men, whether successful or not, willing to do all
+within our power to be full-fledged citizens. Certainly our attitude
+ought never to allow the white people to say: the Negro cares nothing
+for the franchise and does not exercise it when he does have the
+opportunity. What are we waiting for? Not more education, I hope. And
+here I must remind you that one thing is much over-talked: the
+forwardness of the Colored child and the backwardness of the white child
+in the matter of getting an education. Colored children are not being
+fitted as are white for their responsibilities. A real intellectual
+awakening is going on among the whites of the South—more and better
+school houses, better teachers and longer school terms; and the white
+children are learning with avidity. The Colored children are getting
+poor school houses, poorer teachers, more poorly paid teachers and
+shorter school terms; and we cannot change this disparity by begging the
+state and city. Unless we force better things for ourselves by the
+ballot or go into our own pockets, the next generation of colored voters
+will be relatively less prepared for the educational qualification in
+comparison with the white voter than the Colored voters of to-day. Oh!
+you say: "Pessimist, looking on the dark side." Away with that
+contemptible sentimentality and aversion to ugly facts that make some of
+my people call a man a pessimist every time he lifts a warning voice. I
+know the white country school house and the Colored country school
+house. There is a tremendous difference.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Now I believe in education, but I also believe in manhood; and any
+education bought at the price of manhood is worthless and a mill-stone
+about the neck. I believe in the ballot as a developer of manhood and as
+it procures the right of men. I believe in the ballot in spite of
+threats of disfranchisement, if we use this ballot. I see no difference
+in purpose between the states that have outrightly disfranchised us and
+those states that do it stealthily or by indirection.</p>
+<p class="pnext">I believe that the purpose of all is the same: a hatred for Colored
+people and a determination to have white supremacy at any cost of life
+and honor. I do not think Northern sentiment is a deterring force,
+though I think Northern sentiment <em class="italics">could</em> become a deterring force to
+disfranchisement. In the face of all this, why <em class="italics">delay</em> voting in the
+hope of better things; better <em class="italics">welcome</em> disfranchisement as <em class="italics">men</em> than
+<em class="italics">suffer</em> from it as <em class="italics">cowards</em>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="the-potentiality-of-the-negro-vote-north-and-westjohn-l-love">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id21">The Potentiality of the Negro Vote, North and West—<em class="italics">JOHN L. LOVE</em></a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">The potential voting strength of the Negro population in the United
+States is, according to the last census, three times as great as was
+that of the white population in 1775 when the Declaration of
+Independence published to the world the modern, though sound, practical
+and eminently safe political creed that governments derive their just
+powers from the consent of the governed. The number of Negro males of
+voting age is approximately three millions, a number equal to the entire
+white population at the beginning of the war for Independence. The total
+Negro population in the United States in 1900 was three times larger
+than was the total white population which battled against King George
+and the British Parliament for the purpose of securing a voice in the
+choice of those who levy taxes and enact the laws whose weight and
+obligation fall equally upon the whole body of citizens.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the North Atlantic, the North Central, and the Western census
+divisions of the United States, the potential voting strength of the
+Negroes is more than a quarter million. It is larger than was the
+combined prohibition and socialist vote in 1900 and exceeds by nearly a
+hundred thousand the total combined vote cast for the present governors
+of the four states of Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and
+Alabama. In many sections of the North and West the Negro population is
+sparse and scattering, varying all the way from one in Scott County in
+Indiana to 63,000 in Philadelphia. Yet in many localities where there is
+almost an even balance of the two chief parties, the Negro vote is
+competent to decide the results of election. In the states of Delaware
+Indiana, Ohio, Connecticut, New Jersey, and several districts in New
+York, Massachusetts, and Illinois, a united, coherent Negro vote may
+frequently determine both local and national elections. This is shown by
+the returns in 1902 for Congressional election in four districts in
+Indiana, two in New Jersey, four in Ohio, and two in Massachusetts and
+Connecticut, where the Negro vote was of sufficient size to have thrown
+the election to either party. In state and local elections where party
+fealty is not always so strong as in national elections, owing to
+dissatisfaction with both men and measures, the potentiality of the
+Negro vote can be made very real and effective as well as respectable.
+The municipal wards and legislative districts in the large commercial
+and manufacturing centers of the North and West furnish undoubted
+opportunities for the Negro vote to make itself felt and to win regard
+and respect as far away as the United States Senate.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The foregoing facts and considerations suggest interesting possibilities
+and, in view of the conditions affecting the political, civil, and
+economic well being of the people of color in the United States, they
+create a demand and an obligation with reference to the use of which the
+Negro voter should make of his right of the franchise.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The chief tenet of modern political philosophy is that the participation
+of the people in the government is the only way by which their liberties
+can be guaranteed and their economic and industrial happiness
+safeguarded. Out of this conviction which has taken hold of men almost
+everywhere has resulted in the universal movement towards democracy. The
+democratic triumph which has marked the past hundred years and has been
+accompanied by marvelous achievements of human endeavor—achievements
+which could not have been accomplished except under conditions of
+freedom—has not been won without stupendous struggle and temporary
+defeats and disappointments. At every forward step, the movement has
+encountered unrelenting and seemingly irresistible opposition of
+privilege. Even here in the United States where, barring absurd
+contradictions, the spirit of democracy began so conspicuously to assert
+itself under the fostering genius of Jefferson, skillful and powerful
+resistance has been constant and implacable. Aristocratic privilege,
+intrenched in power, has grudgingly given way to the demands of manhood
+rights, and manhood suffrage, and even to-day, in the attempt to
+rehabilitate itself, it is bold enough to make the ridiculous assertion
+that the right of suffrage, even in a republican form of government, is
+not a natural and inherent right of citizenship, but merely a privilege
+to be granted or withheld at pleasure by a select few for whose assumed
+authority no power on earth or in heaven is responsible.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Whatever opinions may be entertained contrary to the doctrine and
+increasing practice of government by the consent of the governed, the
+fact is undeniable that as man has gained and exercised the right of
+participation in government, special privilege for the few has had to
+give way to the condition of equal opportunity for all. Abuses have been
+swept away and the door of opportunity has been opened for all. Thus has
+the ballot proven to be man's sure and effective weapon of defense
+against tyranny and proscriptive government.</p>
+<p class="pnext">All classes of our varied population, with possibly one exception, have
+recognized this truth and have acted in accordance with it. German,
+Irish, Jew; artisan, farmer and merchant—all have found the ballot a
+remedy for social, economic, and political ills that have had their
+origin in unjust laws or the partial administration of law. All have
+used it with wonderful effect towards the betterment of their condition.
+Grievances of one group have been allied with those of another group;
+industrial discontent growing out of capitalistic wrongs, political
+distempers due to governmental abuses or the enforcement of
+discriminatory laws; the deep seated consciousness of ethnic injustice
+in the industrial or political scheme—all have combined and arrayed
+themselves for redress which every branch of the political machinery has
+in the end endeavored to grant. The demands of the Slavonic yeomanry of
+the Northwest that a check be placed upon railroad combinations are not
+less effective in securing compliance than those of the merchants and
+shippers of our commercial centers that just and equal rates of
+transportation shall be enforced. The underground toilers of the mining
+regions of Pennsylvania and Illinois know that their grievances will
+receive the same respectful attention and consideration as the mandates
+of the coal barons, and they systematically scrutinize the attitude and
+the actions of public servants and hold them to a strict performance of
+promise and duty in so far as their rights and interests are concerned.
+Thus it is that in the United States as in all representative
+governments the ballot is the surest means of securing a "square deal;"
+and it is incumbent upon the three hundred thousand Negro voters of the
+north and west to recognize its value and to make the same use of it as
+is made by all other aggrieved elements of the body politic.</p>
+<p class="pnext">A catalogue of the wrongs and injuries suffered by the Negro citizens of
+the United States, first on account of discriminatory and proscriptive
+legislation; secondly, on account of the failure to enforce the laws
+designed to uphold and protect their citizenship; and thirdly, on
+account of the most palpable and outrageous violation of the sacred
+rights of life, liberty and property, make the "long train of abuses and
+usurpations" committed, according to the Declaration of Independence, by
+the King of Great Britain against his colonies in America appear as the
+gentle chastisements of a benificent ruler. Of all the complex elements
+of American citizenship, the Negro is the solitary victim of legal,
+social, industrial, and political discrimination. He alone is singled
+out by the law for disparagement which fact encourages and enforces the
+multitude of civil and industrial discriminations and injuries that tend
+to deprive him of the respectability due not only to a citizen but to
+man. To the tax levy, to the obligation to bear arms for the common
+defense as well as to all other mandates of the government, he is
+equally amenable with other citizens; but he is excepted from a full
+share of the benefits of citizenship. In all stations of society and in
+all departments of government, his protests fall upon deaf or
+indifferent ears, and the very sufferings and wrongs which he suffers
+are frequently made the text for sermonizings on his short-comings. If
+the homilies published from the pulpits, in the press, and even
+sometimes from the higher branches of the government are to be believed,
+the Negro is the most unsaintly citizen of the republic, in spite of the
+fact that he seldom commits "the robust crimes of the whites" or has the
+chance to defraud the government, to wreck financial institutions, or
+rob widows and orphans.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The burden of these outrages lies heavily upon the hearts and minds of
+the black men of America, yet the remedy, if they could but realize it,
+lies largely within their power. Throughout the republic, every man
+identified with the Negro race, though he may not be personally or
+locally subjected directly to the humiliations and wrongs which oppress
+and degrade the great mass of his kind, feels their bitter sting and
+resents them. In public assemblies, upon the public highways and common
+carriers, in the drawing room and around the secrecy of the fireside,
+the fact of injustice is the one inevitable and irrepressible theme of
+conversation and reflection; and the perennial and ever present question
+in the minds of all, whether of low or high degree, is <em class="italics">By what means
+can the situation be altered?</em> Men of different opinions are endeavoring
+more or less honestly to answer the question, but one of the surest and
+quickest means is at the command of the three hundred thousand Negro
+voters of the north and west, who have it in their power by an
+intelligent, united, and courageous exercise of their high privilege and
+right to demand the same respect and consideration for their interest
+and well being as any other class of men who register their wills at the
+ballot-box.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Thaddeus Stevens once said that control of republics depends upon
+numbers and not upon the quality of the citizens. In the last analysis
+this is true, but in all governments by parties the smaller number is
+often more important than the larger. The strength of the Negro vote in
+the North and West in times of party crises consists not so much in the
+number of that vote as in the use which is made of it. In thirty
+northern and western cities, it can very effectively contribute to the
+improvement of existing conditions. It is wonderfully powerful, if
+intelligently directed, in the cities of Boston, Baltimore, Chicago,
+Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and New York.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The effectiveness of this vote depends more upon the use which is made
+of it in local and state elections than in national elections. The bonds
+which unite the interests of the local, state and national officials
+and politicians are very real and subtle—the weakest point being always
+the local politician. His election and success often turns upon less
+than a score of votes and consequently he is not inclined to disdain a
+single voter. His interests are inseparably connected with the interests
+and ambitions of the men who occupy luxurious berths in Congress and in
+the national or state government. In all matters concerning the
+interests of the Negro, the local politician's position can be known and
+his actions are open to close view. When his acts do not accord or
+square with the interest of the colored voter, he can be left to find
+other friends and supporters.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the second place, the effectiveness and potentiality of the Negro
+vote in the North and West depends upon an absolute and courageous
+disregard of traditions. There are times when party fealty may be both
+proper and commendable. There is to be sure a great deal of hypocrisy
+and humbuggery in our political parties, yet back of these they do stand
+for certain great and vital principles. When the latter are put to the
+test our fealty may properly be demanded, but under normal conditions,
+when stress and strife of class and selfish interests, invidious
+discriminations and outrageous injustice prevail, the only safe and
+prudent course for the individual or class of individuals to pursue is
+absolute independence of parties and uncompromising devotion to the
+paramount interest. When we cannot act advantageously, we may act
+punitively, so that the public servant may know that if he ignores or
+hypocritically juggles with our interests, he will be held to a strict
+accountability. If on the eve of an election the party or the individual
+candidate attempts to cajole by a statement of principles or policy
+which is ignored after a successful contest, reprisal should be swift
+and terrible as soon as the opportunity permits.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the third place, the Negro vote of the North and West needs, if it
+does not at present lack, intelligent, honest, straightforward, and
+unselfish leadership. Until it has this, its potentiality will be <em class="italics">nil</em>.</p>
+<p class="pnext">To impute dishonesty or insincerity to those who from time to time act
+in the role of leaders of the Negro voters would be unpardonably
+reprehensible. Men generally act according to their light and it is not
+an uncommon observation that the average public man gets his light
+through the medium of a self-interested reflector. Amid the competitions
+and conflicts, the struggle for place and temporary power and emoluments
+which characterize all phases of modern life and especially political
+life in the United States, the calm, clear-eyed, far-seeing man is rare.
+Yet men of unusual foresight, of clear perception of the fundamental and
+vital issues with the tact and ability to gain an advantage and an
+uncompromising determination to hold what has been gained—such is the
+type of men needed to make the Negro vote potent. The leadership which
+boasts of its capacity to keep silent under terrible wrongs is not
+calculated to carry the race far on the road towards real and permanent
+betterment.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Redress of political wrongs is not the fruit of grim and sanctimonious
+silence. Whenever it has come, it has been forced by long, continuous
+and implacable outcry, and Negro leadership must follow the example of
+men in other lands and in other times who fearlessly cried out against
+the wrongs which their people suffered. In "The Making of England," John
+Richard Green states that the Roman conquerors were able to completely
+subjugate and enslave the Britons because they were able to make terms
+with their leaders. The finest skill of the dominant element in
+governments founded upon tyranny has always been employed in making
+terms with the leaders of the oppressed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Silence has its part in our fight and many times the cause has been lost
+because of failure to observe it, but it is not silence in respect to
+wrongs. Neither upon battlefields nor in the mad clash of passions and
+ambitions that mark the control of states is victory won or success
+achieved by a boisterous parade of the plan of attack. In the subtle
+operation of American political methods, silence is the sphinx that
+baffles the most astute and insinuating politician. The silent vote is a
+greater dread to the party leaders than was the sword to Damocles.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The Negro ballot has almost lost its potency on account of the
+unconcerned cocksureness of one political party that the other
+side will not get the benefit of it. The party managers have no
+concern about the certainty of the Negro vote and therefore
+spend all of their effort in trying to satisfy the demands of the
+other elements and are never able to know whether or not they
+have succeeded until the vote is counted. They fear the silent
+vote. It is thoughtful, analytic, decisive. It scans, records, and
+registers every dodge, retreat, and juggle which the honorable
+candidate or the party has been guilty of in matters which concern
+it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the exercise of the suffrage, the Negro voter has never been
+indifferent to the best and noblest interests of the republic. For more
+than forty years he has voted with the majority of his fellow countrymen
+on all the great questions which have divided the people. This he has
+done out of regard more for what men have considered the welfare of the
+country than for what he has deemed advantageous to himself. There is
+now a need of a change. He must now consider his well-being and safety
+identical with the well-being and safety of the republic and must
+require all men who seek his vote to consider it likewise.</p>
+<p class="pnext">To-day we are on the eve of a great national festival. The peaceful
+succession of government is a boon not enjoyed by all the peoples of the
+world. It is an event which deservedly appeals to the enthusiasm and
+civic pride of the nation. From all corners of the state have come
+delegations of citizens representing all classes, who come not only to
+honor and grace by their presence the event but, I believe, to pay
+honest and manly tribute to a man who is beloved and trusted by the
+whole American people. His battles against civic wrongs and in behalf of
+weaker classes and his policy of "all men up and no men down," not only
+make him the paragon of public officials, but a lovable and trusted man.
+Among the throngs that shall honor him and in turn be honored in the
+escort which will make the Avenue the most splendid pageant which can
+adorn any modern government, none will march more proudly than the brave
+and valiant regiment of black men who, with him whom they honor, risked
+all and won glory on the field of San Juan. Yet by the laws of the land
+and by the policy of the government, their rights and their manhood are
+not on a parity with those of other citizens who with less desert shall
+follow in his train. It is the possibility of such a state of affairs,
+that the Negro vote of the North and West, yea the great body of all
+good citizens must exercise itself to prevent.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="migration-and-distribution-of-the-negro-population-as-affecting-the-elective-franchisekelly-miller">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id22">Migration and Distribution of the Negro Population as Affecting the Elective Franchise—<em class="italics">KELLY MILLER</em></a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">Population lies at the basis of all human problems. The first command
+given by the Creator to the human race was to multiply and replenish the
+earth. The growth and expansion of the Negro population in the United
+States must be the controlling factor in the many complex problems to
+which his presence gives rise. In order to gain adequate as well as
+accurate knowledge on this subject, it is necessary to take a
+comprehensive view of its progress since its transplantation in America.
+It is well known that the first ship load of African slaves was landed
+at Jamestown, Va. in 1619. This original handful augmented by fresh
+importation and by its own rapid multiplication had swollen to three
+quarters of a million when the first Census was taken in 1790. The
+following table will reveal the essential facts as to the expansion of
+this population.</p>
+<table class="align-center table" style="margin-left: 0%; width: 100%" summary="1790-1900 U. S. population data." id="table-6">
+<caption class="level-2 pfirst table-title title">
+<em class="italics">TABLE</em> 6</caption>
+<colgroup>
+<col width="20%"/>
+<col width="20%"/>
+<col width="20%"/>
+<col width="20%"/>
+<col width="20%"/>
+</colgroup>
+<thead valign="bottom">
+<tr class="first"><th class="head" colspan="5"><p class="first last pfirst">NEGRO POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.</p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><th class="head"><p class="first last pfirst">YEAR.</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">NUMBER
+OF
+NEGROES.</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">DECENNIAL
+INCREASE.</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">PER
+CENT
+OF
+INCR.</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">PER
+CENT
+OF
+TOTAL
+POPUL.</p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+</thead>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr class="first"><td><p class="first last pfirst">1790</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">757,208</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">-</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">-</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">19.27</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1800</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">1,002,037</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">244,829</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">32.33</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">18.18</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1810</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">1,377,808</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">375,771</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">37.50</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">19.03</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1820</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">1,771,656</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">393,848</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">28.50</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">18.39</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1830</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">2,328,642</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">556,986</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">31.44</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">18.10</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1840</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">2,873,648</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">545,006</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">23.44</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">16.84</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1850</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">3,683,808</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">765,169</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">26.63</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">15.69</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1860</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">4,441,830</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">803,022</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">14.13</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">14.13</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1870</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">4,880,009</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">438,179</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">9.87</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">11.68</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1880</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">6,580,793</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">1,700,784</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">34.85</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">13.12</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">1890</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">7,470,040</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">889,247</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">13.51</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">11.93</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><td><p class="first last pfirst">1900</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">8,840,789</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">1,370,749</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">18.35</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">11.57</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p class="pfirst">There are certain noticeable irregularities in this table, due in part
+to known disturbing causes, and in part to imperfections in census
+methods. It is thus seen that the Negro constitutes a rapidly increasing
+element, though a slowly diminishing minority of the total population.
+This relative diminution is due wholly to the influx of white
+immigrants, more than 14,000,000 of whom have come to our shores since
+1860. If the two races should continue to grow at the same relative rate
+of increase as during the last decade, according to the law of
+diminishing ratios, it would require more than one hundred years to
+reduce the Negro to one-tenth of the total population. So far as
+any practical calculation is concerned, we may regard this as an
+irreducible minimum. So long as the Negro constitutes one-tenth of the
+entire body of the American people we may expect to have the race
+problem, both in its general and in its political features.</p>
+<p class="pnext">From the foundation of our government the Negro has constituted a
+serious political problem, mainly because of his unequal geographical
+distribution. If agricultural and economic conditions had been uniform,
+and the slaves had been evenly scattered over the whole area, the
+political phase of the race problem would have been far different from
+what it is and has been throughout our national life. The fact that the
+bulk of this race has been congested in one section has constituted the
+cause of political friction from the foundation of the Constitution till
+the present hour. This population persists in remaining in that section
+where it was most thickly planted by the institution of slavery. The
+center of gravity is still moving slowly towards the gulf of Mexico.
+Ninety-two per cent of the race is still found in the sixteen states
+where slavery prevailed at the outbreak of the civil war. The coastal
+states, from Maryland to Texas, contain three-fourths of the total
+number.</p>
+<p class="pnext">While there has been a steady stream of Negro immigration towards the
+North and West, yet it has not been sufficient to materially affect the
+mass tendency. It would seem, on first view, that the Negro who
+complains so bitterly against political restrictions in the South would
+rush to the freer conditions of the North as a gas from a denser to a
+rarer medium. But political and civil freedom offered by the North are
+more than off-set by industrial restrictions and by the inertia of a
+population devoid of the pioneer spirit. The warm blooded, warm hearted
+child of the tropics is chilled alike by the rigid climate and frigid
+social atmosphere that prevail in the higher latitudes. In all New
+England there are fewer Negroes than are to be found in a single county
+in Tennessee.</p>
+<table class="align-center table" style="margin-left: 0%; width: 100%" summary="North/South U.S. population data." id="table-7">
+<caption class="level-2 pfirst table-title title">
+<em class="italics">TABLE</em> 7</caption>
+<colgroup>
+<col width="25%"/>
+<col width="25%"/>
+<col width="25%"/>
+<col width="25%"/>
+</colgroup>
+<thead valign="bottom">
+<tr class="first last"><th class="head"><p class="first last pfirst">SECTION.</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">POPULATION.</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">INCREASE,
+1890 TO
+1900</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">RATE
+OF
+INCR.</p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+</thead>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr class="first"><td><p class="first last pfirst">United States</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">8,840,789</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">1,370,749</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">18.35</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Georgia</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">1,034,813</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">175,998</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">20.50</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Mississippi</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">907,630</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">165,071</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">22.20</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Alabama</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">827,307</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">148,818</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">21.90</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">So. Carolina</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">782,321</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">93,387</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">13.60</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><td><p class="first last pfirst">31 Northern
+States</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">759,788</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">181,876</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">31.50</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p class="pfirst">We learn from this table that there are four states in the union, each
+of which contains a larger number of Negroes than all the 31 free states
+combined. While such free states show a much more rapid decennial
+increase than any of the far south states, still the total increment
+scarcely exceeds that of the single state of Georgia. These figures
+reveal no mad hegira to a fairer and better land. The increase in the
+Northern states is due almost wholly to immigration from the South. It
+is entirely probable that the Negro population, left to itself, would
+not be a self sustaining quantity in the higher latitudes. During the
+last decade there was an absolute decline of the Negro population in
+Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada,
+Oregon and California.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The political significance of this Northern movement is out of all
+proportion to its absolute weight. It is only in the North that the
+Negro vote has dynamic power. In several of the border states, this vote
+is at present unhampered, but there is no guarantee of future security.
+In Mississippi there are 197,936 Negro males of voting age, but this
+potential vote does not affect the choice of a single official of that
+state. The black vote of that commonwealth is as completely nullified as
+the last two amendments had never been appended to our national
+constitution. On the other hand the 5,193 adult Negro males in Mich. are
+accounted of considerable consequence in the political equation of that
+state. In the Northern and Western states where men feel free to align
+themselves according to conviction, the two parties are so nearly even
+that the Negro vote constitutes the balance of power. Owing to unusual
+political conditions, which cannot be counted on to continue, the last
+three presidential elections were practically one-sided. The Republican
+party triumphed by a margin that far exceeded the entire Negro
+Contingent. It is only in several of the border states that this vote
+could in any way have affected the fate of presidential electors. The
+Negro vote, however, has been quite effective in state elections, and in
+the choice of congressmen. As the parties gravitate to normal
+conditions, the Negro vote will again become the balance of power in the
+controlling states of the North. At the beginning of every campaign each
+party feels that it has a chance of success. At such times the black
+vote looms up large and significant. In national affairs the colored
+vote usually adheres to the party of Lincoln and Sumner. As the margin
+between the two parties is a shifting and uncertain quantity, the rapid
+increase of the Negro vote in the Northern States becomes a matter of
+great political importance.</p>
+<table class="align-center table" style="margin-left: 15%; width: 70%" summary="1890-1900 voting age males." id="table-8">
+<caption class="level-2 pfirst table-title title">
+<em class="italics">TABLE</em> 8</caption>
+<colgroup>
+<col width="33%"/>
+<col width="33%"/>
+<col width="33%"/>
+</colgroup>
+<thead valign="bottom">
+<tr class="first"><th class="head" colspan="3"><p class="first last pfirst">NEGRO MALES OF VOTING AGE
+IN THE NORTHERN STATES.</p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><th class="head"><p class="first last pfirst">STATE.</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">1890.</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">1900.</p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+</thead>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr class="first"><td><p class="first last pfirst">Pennsylvania</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">34,873</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">51,668</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">New York</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">24,231</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">31,425</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Illinois</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">18,200</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">29,762</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Ohio</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">25,922</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">31,235</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Indiana</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">13,079</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">18,186</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">New Jersey</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">14,564</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">21,474</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Massachusetts</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">7,967</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">10,456</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Rhode Island</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">2,261</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">2,765</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Connecticut</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">3,497</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">4,576</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Kansas</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">12,543</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">14,695</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><td><p class="first last pfirst">Michigan</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">-</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">5,193</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p class="pfirst">These figures tell their own story when we consider the normal relation
+between the two parties in these several states. It is also interesting
+to note that the Negroes in the North are found very largely in the
+cities. This makes this vote of considerable importance in municipal
+elections. There is, however, a tendency on the part of this vote to
+distribute itself between the two parties in purely municipal and local
+matters, which to a great degree neutralizes its special significance.</p>
+<table class="align-center table" style="margin-left: 25%; width: 50%" summary="Voters in Northern Cities." id="table-9">
+<caption class="level-2 pfirst table-title title">
+<em class="italics">TABLE</em> 9</caption>
+<colgroup>
+<col width="50%"/>
+<col width="50%"/>
+</colgroup>
+<thead valign="bottom">
+<tr class="first"><th class="head" colspan="2"><p class="first last pfirst">NEGRO VOTERS IN NORTHERN
+CITIES, 1900.</p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><th class="head"><p class="first last pfirst">CITY</p>
+</th>
+<th class="head" style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">NEGROES
+OF
+VOTING AGE</p>
+</th>
+</tr>
+</thead>
+<tbody valign="top">
+<tr class="first"><td><p class="first last pfirst">Philadelphia</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">20,095</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">New York</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">18,651</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Chicago</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">12,424</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Pittsburg</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">6,541</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Indianapolis</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">5,200</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Boston</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">4,441</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td><p class="first last pfirst">Cincinnati</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">4,997</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="last"><td><p class="first last pfirst">Detroit</p>
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: right"><p class="first last pfirst">1,732</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p class="pfirst">The most effective use that the Negro in the North can make of his
+political privilege is to uphold civic righteousness in municipal
+affairs, and to support those men and measures pledged to support the
+integrity of the constitution and its vital amendments.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="the-negro-and-his-citizenshipfrancis-j-grimke">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id23">The Negro and His Citizenship—<em class="italics">FRANCIS J. GRIMKÉ</em></a></h2>
+<blockquote class="epigraph"><div>
+<p class="pfirst">ACTS 22:25-29.—<em class="italics">And when they had tied him up with the thongs, Paul
+said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to
+scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned? And when the centurion
+heard it, he went to the chief captain and told him, saying, What art
+thou about to do? for this man is a Roman. And the chief captain came
+and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? And he said, Yea. And
+the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this
+citizenship. But Paul said, But I am a Roman born. They then that
+were about to examine him straightway departed from him: and the
+chief captain also was afraid when he knew that he was a Roman,
+and because he had bound him.</em></p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">In this passage attention is directed to four things: To the fact that
+Paul was a Roman citizen; to the fact that he was about to be treated in
+a way that was forbidden by his citizenship; to the fact that he stood
+up for his rights as a Roman citizen; and to the fact that those who
+were about to infringe upon his rights were restrained, were overawed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">I. Attention is directed to the fact that Paul was a Roman citizen.
+Citizenship was a possession that was very highly esteemed, and that was
+obtained in several ways,—by birth, by purchase, as a reward for
+distinguished military services, and as a favor. Paul's came to him by
+inheritance; his father before him had been a Roman citizen: how it came
+to the father we do not know. At one time the price paid for it was very
+great. The chief captain, in the narrative of which our text is a part,
+tells us that he obtained his with a great sum; and therefore he seemed
+surprised to think that a man in Paul's circumstances should have it. At
+first he seemed a little incredulous, but it was only for a moment. The
+penalty for falsely claiming to be a Roman citizen was death; this fact
+together with the whole bearing of the apostle finally left no doubt in
+his mind: he accepted his statement.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was not only a great honor to be a Roman citizen, but it carried with
+it many rights and privileges that were not enjoyed by others. These
+rights were either private or public,—<em class="italics">Jus Quiritium</em>, and <em class="italics">Jus
+Civitatis</em>. Among Private Rights, was the Right of Liberty. This secured
+him against imprisonment without trial; exemption from all degrading
+punishments, such as scourging and crucifixion; the right of appeal to
+the emperor after sentence by an inferior magistrate or tribunal, in any
+part of the empire; and also the right to be sent to Rome for trial
+before the emperor, if charged with a capital offence.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Among Public Rights belonging to Roman citizens the following may be
+mentioned: (1) The right of being enrolled in the censor's book, called,
+<em class="italics">Jus Census</em>. (2) The right of serving in the army, called, <em class="italics">Jus
+Militiae</em>. At first only citizens of the empire were permitted to engage
+in military operations, to bear arms and fight in its behalf. (3) The
+right to vote in the different assemblies of the people, called, <em class="italics">Jus
+Suffragii</em>. This has always been and is to-day one of the most important
+functions of citizenship, and one that should be highly prized and
+sacredly guarded. (4) The right of bearing public offices in the state.</p>
+<p class="pnext">There were many other rights enjoyed by Roman citizens, but I will not
+take the time to enumerate them: these are sufficient to show us the
+value, the importance of Roman citizenship; and this citizenship the
+apostle Paul was invested with, with all the rights and privileges which
+were involved in it. On one occasion he said, "I am a citizen of no mean
+city," referring to Tarsus, which was one of the free cities of Asia
+Minor; but more than that, as he tells us here, he was a citizen of the
+empire.</p>
+<p class="pnext">II. Attention is called to the fact that Paul was about to be treated in
+a way that was forbidden by his citizenship; that was contrary to Roman
+law. He had gone up to Jerusalem to attend the feast of Pentecost. After
+meeting the brethren and rehearsing to them the wonderful things which
+God had wrought through his ministry among the Gentiles, they
+congratulated him upon his success, but said to him: "Thou seest,
+brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of them that have
+believed; and they are all zealous for the law: and they have been
+informed concerning thee, that thou teachest all the Jews who are among
+the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their
+children neither to walk after the customs. What is it therefore? they
+will certainly hear that thou art come. Do therefore this that we say to
+thee: We have four men that have a vow on them; these take, and purify
+thyself with them, and be at charges for them, that they may shave their
+heads: and all shall know that there is no truth in the things whereof
+they have been informed concerning thee but that thou thyself walkest
+orderly, keeping the law." It was in compliance with this request, that
+Paul went into the temple to do as he was asked to do: and while there
+was seen by certain Jews of Asia, i. e., the province of Asia, who at
+once stirred up the multitude and laid hands on him, crying out, "Men of
+Israel, help: This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against
+the people, and the law, and this place; and moreover he brought Greeks
+also into the temple and hath defiled this holy place." It was like
+touching a match to a powder magazine. The people were aroused.
+Instantly there was a response to the call; and dragging the apostle out
+of the temple they were in the act of beating him to death, when the
+chief captain, learning of the tumult, rushed down with a squad of
+soldiers and rescuing him, brought him into the castle. The next day
+with a view of ascertaining what the trouble was, the real ground of
+complaint against the apostle, the chief captain proposed to examine him
+by scourging, and issued orders to that effect. In obedience to this
+order the apostle was stripped and actually tied up. The process of
+examination proposed was very severe. The culprit was stripped and tied
+in a bending posture to a pillar, or stretched on a frame, and the
+punishment was inflicted with a scourge made of leathern thongs weighted
+with sharp pieces of bone or lead, the object being to extort from the
+sufferer a confession of his guilt or the information desired.</p>
+<p class="pnext">If the chief captain had understood the Hebrew language, and could have
+followed the address of the apostle which was delivered on the steps of
+the palace, he would have understood what the trouble was, without
+attempting to resort to this brutal method of finding out; but evidently
+he did not. Everything indicated, however, that it was something very
+serious, judging from their treatment of him, and from the intense
+excitement which his words produced upon them, and hence, he was all the
+more anxious to find out. If the apostle was guilty of any offence
+against the law, it was the duty of the chief captain to take cognizance
+of it, and to punish him accordingly, but if he was innocent, if he had
+in no way transgressed the law, it was his duty to release him. The law
+also provided how the guilt or innocence of an accused person was to be
+ascertained; and it was the duty of the chief captain to have followed
+the course prescribed by the law; but it is clear from the narrative
+that he had determined upon another course: the prisoner is ordered to
+be scourged, instead of calling upon those who had assaulted him to make
+their charges, and to substantiate them, and then giving the apostle an
+opportunity of defending himself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">III. Attention is directed in the text to the fact, that the apostle
+stood up manfully for his rights. After they had tied him up, as if
+waiting to see just how far they would go, and just as the process of
+scourging was about to begin, he challenged their right to proceed: he
+said to the centurion, who was standing by, and who was there as the
+representative of the chief captain, to see that the scourging was
+properly done, and to make note of what he confessed,—he said to this
+man: "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and
+uncondemned?" The law expressly forbade the scourging of Roman
+citizens; it was an indignity to which no Roman citizen was to be
+subjected. This was what was known as the Porcian law, and took its name
+from Porcius, the Tribune through whose influence its adoption was
+secured. And this is the law to which the apostle here appeals, whose
+protection he invokes. Paul, as a Roman citizen, not only knew what his
+rights were, but he stood up for his rights. He insists here upon being
+treated, as he was entitled to be treated, as a citizen of the empire.
+They are about to scourge him, contrary to law, and he says to them,
+Stop; you have no right to treat me in this way, intimating and they
+evidently understood it, that if they did not desist, they would hear
+from him; he would bring the matter to the attention of the emperor.</p>
+<p class="pnext">This is not the only place where Paul falls back upon his rights as a
+Roman citizen. He did the same thing a little later on. He was removed
+from Jerusalem to Caesarea, as you will remember, where he remained a
+prisoner for two years. During that time he was frequently placed on
+trial before various officials,—before Felix, before Festus, before
+Agrippa. It was during one of these hearings, that Festus the governor,
+in order to curry favor with the Jews, intimated that he might be sent
+back to Jerusalem to be tried: and doubtless this was his intention,
+having entered into a secret arrangement with the enemies of the
+apostle, who had resolved to kill him at the first opportunity. This
+they felt that they would have a better chance of doing if they could
+only induce the governor to return him to Jerusalem. The apostle, of
+course, knew all this; he knew how intensely they hated him, and what
+their plans and purposes were, and he was determined not to be entrapped
+in this way. The record is: "Paul said in his defence, 'Neither against
+the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I
+sinned at all.' But Festus, desiring to gain favor with the Jews,
+answered Paul and said, 'Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be
+judged of these things before me?' But Paul said, 'I am standing before
+Caesar's judgment-seat, where I ought to be judged: to the Jews have I
+done no wrong, as thou also very well knowest. If then I am a wrong
+doer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die;
+but if none of these things is true whereof these accuse me, no man can
+give me up to them. I appeal unto Caesar.' Then Festus, when he had
+conferred with the council, answered, 'Thou hast appealed unto Caesar,
+unto Caesar thou shalt go.'"</p>
+<p class="pnext">One of the great privileges of a Roman citizen was the right of appeal;
+the right of being heard directly by the emperor, of taking his case out
+of the hands of all inferior judicatories, up to the highest: and this
+is the right which the apostle here avails himself of. It was the only
+thing that saved him from being turned over by a corrupt official into
+the hands of his enemies; and it forcibly illustrates the importance of
+citizenship. Had he not been a Roman citizen clothed with the sacred
+right of appeal he would have been basely sacrificed to the malice of
+his enemies; or, though he had been a Roman citizen, if he had cowardly
+surrendered his right, if he had failed to exercise it, he would have
+equally perished; but the apostle stood upon his right, and so succeeded
+in thwarting the purposes of his enemies.</p>
+<p class="pnext">IV. Attention is directed in the text to the fact, that those who were
+about to scourge this man, were restrained by the knowledge of the fact
+that he was a Roman citizen. The moment they became aware of this fact;
+at the mere mention of that sacred name, citizen, everything came to a
+stand still; the uplifted hand, ready to smite, is arrested, and we find
+the centurion running off, in great excitement in search of the chief
+captain, and saying to him, "What are you about? Do you know that this
+man is a Roman?" and we see the chief captain coming in great haste and
+saying to the apostle, "What? can it be possible! Are you really a
+Roman?" "Yes," said the apostle, "I am; and my father before me was."
+The chief captain is astonished; yea, more, fear takes hold of him; he
+becomes suddenly alarmed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">There are two things in this incident that are worthy of note: first,
+this indignity that was offered to the apostle was through ignorance. It
+was not known that he was a Roman citizen. The law was violated, but it
+was not purposely done. It was not the intention of the chief captain to
+ignore the rights involved in citizenship; for he himself was a Roman
+citizen, and was interested in maintaining those rights. And, second, to
+trample upon the rights of a Roman citizen was a very grave offense, a
+very serious matter; and it became a serious matter because back of this
+citizenship was the whole power of the empire. These rights were
+carefully guarded, were rigidly enforced, so that the term, Roman
+citizen, was everywhere respected. No one could infringe those rights
+with impunity: hence you will notice what is said here, "The chief
+captain was afraid when he knew that he was a Roman because he had bound
+him." He recognized at once the gravity of the offense. That was old
+pagan Rome; but under its rule citizenship meant something; it was a
+sacred thing; back of it stood the strong arm of the Government to give
+efficacy, power to it. This man was afraid when he realized what he had
+done; and that is the feeling which outraged citizenship ought
+everywhere to inspire. It ought to mean something; and there ought to be
+power somewhere to enforce its meaning.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But it is not of Roman citizenship that I desire to speak at this time,
+but rather of American citizenship, and of that citizenship as it
+pertains to ourselves. In the providence of God we are citizens of this
+great Republic. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution declares:
+"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to
+the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the
+State wherein they reside." Under this provision of the Constitution we
+are all citizens; and we have earned the right to be citizens. We have
+lived here as long as any other class in the Republic; we have worked as
+hard as any other class to develop the country; and we have fought as
+bravely as any other class in the defense of the Republic. If length of
+residence, if unstinted toil, if great sacrifices of blood, if the
+laying of one's self on the country's altar in the hour of peril, of
+danger, give any claim to citizenship, then our claim is beyond dispute;
+for all these things are true of us.</p>
+<p class="pnext">We are <em class="italics">citizens</em> of this great Republic: and citizenship is a sacred
+thing: I hope we realize it. It is a thing to be prized; to be highly
+esteemed. It has come to us after 250 years of slavery, of unrequited
+toil; it has come to us after a sanguinary conflict, in which billions
+of treasure and rivers of blood were poured out; it has come to us as a
+boon from the nation at a time when it had reached its loftiest moral
+development; when its moral sense was quickened as it had never been
+before, and when it stood as it had never stood before upon the great
+principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, not as
+glittering generalities, but as great realities: it was at that sublime
+period in our history, when the national conscience was at work; when
+the men who were in charge of affairs were men who stood for
+righteousness; when the great issues before the country were moral
+issues, issues involving human rights,—that the nation saw fit to
+abolish slavery and to decree the citizenship of all men, black and
+white alike. When we think of what this citizenship has cost, in blood
+and treasure; of the noble men through whose influence it was brought
+about; and of the fact that it came to us from the Nation when it was at
+its best, when it was living up to its highest light, and to its noblest
+conceptions of right and duty,—we ought to prize it, to set a high
+value upon it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And we ought to show our appreciation of it: (1). By being good
+citizens; by doing everything in our power to develop ourselves along
+right lines, intellectually, morally, spiritually, and also materially:
+and to do everything in our power to promote the general good;
+everything that will help to make for municipal, state, and national
+righteousness. We are to remember that we are part of a great whole, and
+that the whole will be affected by our conduct, either for good or bad.
+If we live right, if we fear God and keep his commandments, and train
+our children to do the same, we ennoble our citizenship; we become a
+part of the great conservative force of society, a positive blessing to
+the community, the state, the nation. It is especially important for us,
+in view of the strong prejudice against us, the disposition to view us
+with a critical eye, to hold up and magnify our short-comings, that we
+be particularly concerned to be constantly manifesting, evidencing our
+good citizenship by allying ourselves only with the things that are
+true, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report. We ought not
+to lose sight of the fact that the strongest fight that is being made
+against us to-day is by those who are doing most to discredit us, to
+array public sentiment against us,—those who are parading our
+short-comings and imperfections, who are giving the greatest publicity,
+the widest circulation to them. There are persons in this country, who
+are determined, and who never lose an opportunity to blacken our good
+name. Dr. DuBois, in that splendid document of his, "Credo," said among
+other things, "I believe in the Devil and his angels, who wantonly work
+to narrow the opportunity of struggling human beings, especially if they
+be black; who spit in the faces of the fallen, strike them that cannot
+strike again, believe the worst and work to prove it, hating the image
+which their Maker stamped on a brother's soul." And this is one of the
+conditions that confront us in this country, and that we must not lose
+sight of. The fact that there is this determination on the part of our
+enemies to prove that we are utterly unworthy of this great boon of
+citizenship, should have the effect of creating within us a counter
+determination to show that we are worthy,—to do our level best in every
+sphere of life. Now I do not mean by this to say that we are not proving
+ourselves to be good citizens; for we are: a great many of us are; but I
+have called attention to it because I feel that it ought to be
+emphasized; that we need to feel more keenly and more widely than is
+felt, the meaning of this great boon and the demand which it makes upon
+us. It is a challenge to every man to live a straightforward, upright,
+worthy life. And what is needed is, not only that <em class="italics">we</em>, who have had
+exceptional opportunities, should feel this way, but that the great mass
+of our people should be educated to feel the same, to be animated by the
+same spirit. And <em class="italics">we</em> are to be their educators; it is through <em class="italics">us</em> that
+this spirit is to descend upon them, and take possession of them. If
+this citizenship means anything, it means that we should be concerned
+about everything which makes for law, for order, for good government,
+for individual, municipal, state, and national purity and righteousness;
+it means that each one of us ought to be a living example of the best
+type of what a citizen ought to be.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But this is not all: if we value our citizenship we will not only seek
+to make the most of ourselves, to live on the highest plane but we will
+also stand up manfully for our rights under that citizenship. I have no
+patience with those who preach civil and political self-effacement. I
+never have believed in that pernicious doctrine, and never will. When
+you have effaced a man, civilly and politically, in a government like
+our own, what is he? What does he amount to? Who cares for him? What
+rights has he which any other class is bound to respect? He is a mere
+nonentity, entitled to no consideration, and with no refuge to which he
+can fly in the hour of his need. To be civilly and politically effaced
+is to be civilly and politically dead; and to be civilly and politically
+dead is to be at the mercy of any and every political party or
+organization, and to be under the iron heel of the worst elements in the
+community without any means of redress.</p>
+<p class="pnext">We are <em class="italics">citizens</em> of this Republic: and I want to direct attention to
+this fact for a moment; and I am glad of the opportunity of doing it at
+this time, when we are in the midst of celebrating the inauguration of
+our President. I thank God for the man at the White House; for his
+courage; for his high sense of righteousness; for the many splendid
+things which he has said; and for the noble stand which he has taken on
+human rights; on equality of opportunity; on the open door for every man
+in the Republic irrespective of race or color. I rejoice in the fact
+that we have such a President. I commend him heartily for what he has
+done. I hope he will do more; I hope there are yet larger things in
+store for this race through him. But whether he does more or not; or
+whatever may be his future policy, or the future policy of the leaders
+of either of the great political parties, or the rank and file of those
+parties, it cannot, it will not affect in the least, our attitude in
+regard to our rights under the Constitution. We are citizens, clothed
+with citizenship rights; and, there is no thought or intention on our
+part of ever surrendering a single one of them. Whatever others may
+think of it, or desire in regard to it, we do not propose to retreat a
+single inch, to give up for one moment the struggle. I say, <em class="italics">we</em> and in
+this, I believe I speak for those who represent the sentiment that is
+taking more and more firmly hold of the heart of this race. I belong to
+what may be called the radical wing of the race, on the race question: I
+do not believe in compromises; in surrendering, or acquiescing, even
+temporarily, in the deprivation of a single right, out of deference to
+an unrighteous public sentiment. I believe with Lowell,</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">
+"They enslave their children's children,</div>
+<div class="line">
+Who make compromise with sin."</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">And this, I believe, at heart, is the sentiment of the race; at least,
+it is the sentiment of some of us. There is where we have taken our
+stand and there is where we propose to stand to the end. What belongs to
+us as citizens we want; and we are not going to be satisfied with
+anything less. We are in this country, and we are here to stay. There is
+no prospect of our ever leaving it. This is our home, as it has been the
+home of our ancestors for generations, and will be the home of our
+children, and of our children's children, for all time. It is of the
+greatest importance to us, therefore, that our status in it, as it is
+permanently fixed, should be, not that of a proscribed class, but that
+of full citizenship with every right, civil and political, accorded to
+us that is accorded to other citizens of the Republic. This is the thing
+that we are to insist upon; this is the evil against which we are to
+guard.</p>
+<p class="pnext">What our enemies are seeking to effect is to make this a white man's
+government; to fix permanently our status in it, as one of civil and
+political inferiority. The issue is sharply drawn; and it is for us to
+say whether we will be thus reduced, whether such shall be our permanent
+status or not. One thing we may be assured of: such will surely be our
+fate unless we clearly comprehend the issue, and set ourselves earnestly
+to work to counteract the movement, by resisting in every legitimate way
+its consummation, and by using our influence to create a counter public
+sentiment.</p>
+<p class="pnext">What are some of these citizenship rights for which we should earnestly
+contend?</p>
+<p class="pnext">(1) The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In one
+section of this country, at least, and the area is growing, and is fast
+including others, the life of a Negro isn't worth as much as that of a
+dog. He may be shot down, murdered, strung up to a tree, burnt to death,
+by any white ruffian, or band of lawbreakers and murderers with
+impunity. The color of his skin gives any white man liberty to maltreat
+him, to trample upon him. He has no rights which white men are bound to
+respect. If he goes to law, there is no redress; his appeals avail
+nothing with judge and jury. That is a condition of things that we ought
+not to rest satisfied under. As long as the life of a black man is not
+just as sacred as that of a white man, in every section of the Republic;
+as long as wrongs perpetrated upon him are treated with greater leniency
+than wrongs perpetrated upon white men, his status is not the same as
+that of the white man; and as long as it is not the same an injustice is
+done him, which he ought to resist; against which he ought to protest,
+and continue to protest.</p>
+<p class="pnext">(2) Another citizenship right is that of receiving equal accommodations
+on all common carriers and in all hostelries; on railroads, steamboats,
+in hotels, restaurants, and in all public places. When we travel,
+whatever we are able to pay for we are entitled to, just as other
+citizens are. To-day this is largely denied us. The hotels are not open
+to us; the restaurants are not open to us, even the little ten cent
+lunch counters, in this the capital city of the nation, are not open to
+us: we are shut out from all such places, and shut out because of the
+color of our skin. If we attempt to travel, and turn our faces
+southward, we must ride in Jim Crow cars; we must be segregated, shut up
+in a little compartment by ourselves. The privilege which we once
+enjoyed without stint of taking a sleeper or Pullman car, even that now
+is being taken from us. One state has even gone so far as to make it
+unlawful to sell a ticket to a person of color on a sleeper. That is the
+state of Georgia; a State that has in it Atlanta University, and Clark
+University, and the Atlanta Baptist College, and Spelman Seminary, and
+the Gammon Theological Seminary, and Haines Institute, and many other
+schools of learning; a State that has within its borders some of the
+very best type of Negroes in this country. The meaning of all this,
+don't let us misunderstand: it is a part of the general policy, which is
+being vigorously pushed by our enemies, to fix our status as one of
+inferiority, by shutting us out from certain privileges. The whole thing
+is wrong. Such invidious distinctions ought not to be permitted in a
+republic. It is inconsistent with citizenship. Everything ought to be
+open to all citizens alike:—railroad cars, hotels, restaurants,
+steamboats, the schools and colleges of the land: our public schools
+ought to be open to all the children alike. There ought not be separate
+schools for the whites, and separate schools for blacks: all the
+children of the Republic ought to be educated together; and sooner or
+later it is bound to come to that. Some one has said, "It isn't so much
+the Jim Crow car, as it is the Jim Crow Negro in the car." The fallacy
+of this statement, and its attempted mitigation or justification of the
+Jim Crow car, lies in the fact that the Jim Crow car has nothing
+whatever to do with the Jim Crow Negro. It was not instituted for him,
+but for all Negroes, whether Jim Crow or not: in fact, it was designed,
+particularly, not for the Jim Crow Negro, but for the intelligent,
+progressive, self-respecting Negro. If there are Jim Crow Negroes among
+us we owe them a duty; we ought to seek to improve them, to lift them to
+higher levels; but while we are doing this, don't let us forget that
+there is a Jim Crow car, and what it stands for. It stands for a
+hostile public sentiment; it is a part of a concerted plan which seeks
+to degrade us, to rob us of our rights, to deprive us of privileges
+enjoyed by other citizens, because of the color of our skin. If there
+were no Jim Crow Negroes, we would have the Jim Crow car all the same.
+We should fight the Jim Crow cars, therefore, not only because of the
+personal discomfort to which we are subjected in travelling, but also
+because of the general system of which it is a part,—a system which
+seeks to establish a double citizenship in the Republic, based upon race
+and color; the one superior to the other, and carrying with it
+privileges which are denied to the other.</p>
+<p class="pnext">(3) Another citizenship right is that of serving in the Army and Navy;
+the right to take up arms and to fight in behalf of the country. This is
+our right, and we have exercised it, and are still exercising it. We
+have fought in all the wars of the Republic; and are represented to-day
+in both Army and Navy. We have made a glorious record for ourselves in
+this respect. There is no better soldier in the Army of the Republic,
+than the black soldier. This right has not been denied us, but let us,
+nevertheless, keep our eyes on it. There are some things even here that
+need to be looked into. It has been many years since we have had a
+representative in the great Naval or Military school of the country; and
+there have been some rumors about limiting the aspirations of Negroes in
+the Army, of not permitting them to advance beyond a certain point. If
+there is such a thought or intention on the part of those in authority,
+it must be resisted. The Negro must be free—in the Army, in the
+Navy,—in every part of the Army and Navy,—as other citizens are free;
+to advance according to his merit. His color must not be allowed to
+operate against him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">(4) Another citizen right is that of suffrage, the right of the ballot;
+the right to have part in the government; to say who shall make the laws
+and who shall execute them; and what the laws shall be; the right to
+have an opinion, and to have that opinion counted in determining what
+shall be and what shall not be. This is one of the greatest of rights.
+In a republic citizenship means very little without it. It is this which
+marks the difference between a representative government, a government
+of the people, by the people, and for the people, and a despotism, an
+absolute monarchy. The glory of the age in which we live is the triumph
+of democracy; and what is the triumph of democracy but the right of the
+<em class="italics">people</em> to say who shall rule; and how is the will of the people
+expressed? Through the ballot; at the polls. The ballot therefore is the
+symbol of the sovereignty of the people. If we are to be sovereign
+citizens of the Republic therefore, this right to vote must be
+preserved. The old despotic idea of government was, that some people
+were born to rule, and that others were born to be ruled; and the idea
+that exists in the minds of some people in this country, in democratic
+America, in face of the affirmation of the Declaration of Independence,
+that all men are born free and equal, is that in this country, there are
+some people who are born to rule, and others who are born to be ruled;
+and that the people who are born to rule are the whites, and those who
+are born to be ruled are the blacks: hence the effort that is being made
+to divest us of this symbol of sovereignty,—the ballot. Let us not be
+deceived; let us give no heed to any teaching, never mind from what
+source it may come, which seeks to minimize the importance of the
+ballot. What difference does it make whether we vote or not? I have
+heard some weak-kneed, time-serving representatives of our own race say;
+and the thought has been caught up by the men in the south who have been
+seeking to rob us of our rights, and by those in the North who have been
+playing into their hands; and they have said, Yes, What difference does
+it make? Are you not just as well off without it? What difference does
+it make? It makes all the difference in the world: the difference
+between a sovereign citizen of the Republic, and one who has been
+stripped of his sovereignty; between one who has a say in what is going
+on, and one who has not; between one who is ruled with his consent, and
+one who is ruled without it. If we are just as well off without the
+ballot, how is it that the white man is not just as well off without it?
+And if he is unwilling to give it up, why should he ask us to give it
+up? Why should we give it up? If he needs it in order to protect
+himself, much more do we, for we are weaker than he is, and need all the
+more the power which comes from the ballot.</p>
+<p class="pnext">(5) Another citizenship right is, that of holding office, the right to
+be voted for, and of being appointed to positions of honor and trust by
+the executive power. This is also a right that belongs to us, and that
+we must contend for. It is one of our rights that is now being
+especially contested in the South. The Negro must not be appointed to
+any office, is the demand of Southern white sentiment. I am glad that
+the President has not yielded wholly to that sentiment. The fight which
+he made in the Crum case was a notable one, and clearly indicated that
+he was not willing to shut that door of opportunity to the Negro; that
+he was not willing to take the position that a man was to be debarred
+from public office simply because of the color of his skin. That was the
+right position for him to take, and the only one that was consistent
+with his oath of office, and his position as President of <em class="italics">all</em> the
+people. I hope that he will continue to act upon that principle; and
+that he will do more than he has done. There is room for improvement in
+this direction. A few more appointments of colored men in the North, as
+well as in the South, would be a good thing. It ought to be done. The
+right of colored men to receive appointments ought to be clearly and
+distinctly emphasized by multiplying those appointments. There is
+nothing like an object lesson in impressing the truth. I hope that the
+President will give us many such object lessons during the next four
+years.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; the right to
+receive equal accommodation on railroads, steamboats, in hotels,
+restaurants, and in all public places of amusement; the right to be
+represented in the Army and Navy; the right to vote; the right to hold
+office: these are some of our citizenship rights, for which we should
+earnestly contend. Sometimes, we are told, that it would be better to
+say less about our rights, and more about our duties. No one feels more
+the importance of emphasizing our duties than I do,—I think I have done
+about as much of it as anybody,—but among the duties that I have always
+emphasized, and still emphasize, is the duty of standing up squarely and
+uncompromisingly for our rights. When we are contending for the truth;
+when we are resisting the encroachments of those who are seeking to
+despoil us of our birth-right as citizens; when we are keeping up the
+agitation for equal civil and political privileges in this country, are
+we not in the line of duty? If not, where is the line? Duties? Yes. Let
+us have our duties preached to us,—line upon line, and precept upon
+precept, here a little and there a little; but at the same time don't
+let us forget that we have also <em class="italics">rights</em> under the Constitution, and to
+see to it that we stand up for them; that we resist to the very last
+ditch those who would rob us of them. And in doing this, let us remember
+that we are called to it by the stern voice of Duty, which is the voice
+of God; and that we need not apologize for our action.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And now in conclusion but a word more and then I am done. The fight
+before us is a long one. You will not live, nor will I live to see the
+triumph of the principles for which we are contending; let us not become
+discouraged however. Things look pretty dark at times, but it isn't all
+dark. Now and then there are gleams of light, which indicate the coming
+of a better day. There are forces working <em class="italics">for</em> us, as well as against
+us; and with what we can do for ourselves, we need not despair.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">
+"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;</div>
+<div class="line">
+He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes</div>
+<div class="line">
+of wrath are stored!</div>
+<div class="line">
+He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;</div>
+<div class="line">
+His truth is marching on.</div>
+<div class="line">
+ </div>
+<div class="line">
+He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;</div>
+<div class="line">
+He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat;</div>
+<div class="line">
+O, be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet!</div>
+<div class="line">
+While God is marching on."</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">Let us take courage; let us gird up our loins; let us stand at our post;
+let us be true to duty; let us hold ourselves to the highest; let us
+have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of darkness; let us be
+temperate, industrious, thrifty; let us do with our might what our hands
+find to do; let us trust in God, and do the right: and then, whether the
+struggle be long or short, there can be no doubt as to the final issue.
+We shall come out victorious; we shall be accorded every right belonging
+to us under the Constitution, and every avenue of opportunity will be
+opened to us, as to other citizens of the Republic. The future is
+largely in our own hands. If we allow ourselves to be permanently
+despoiled of our rights; to be reduced to a position of civil and
+political inferiority, the fault will be, not "in our stars," as
+Shakespeare has expressed it, "but in ourselves." Others can help us;
+others will help us, as they have already done; but the final outcome
+will depend mainly upon what we do <em class="italics">for</em> ourselves, and <em class="italics">with</em>
+ourselves. If we are to grow in the elements that make for a strong,
+intelligent, virtuous manhood and womanhood, <em class="italics">we</em> have got to see to it,
+to be concerned about it; to be more deeply concerned about it than
+anybody else. And so, if the agitation for equality of rights and
+opportunities in this country is to be kept up, and it ought to be kept
+up, <em class="italics">we</em> are the ones to see to it. As long as there are wrongs to be
+redressed, from which we are suffering, we ought not to be silent, ought
+not for our sake as well as for the sake of the nation at large.
+Whatever can be done to develop ourselves; whatever can be done to
+create a healthy and righteous public sentiment in our behalf; whatever
+can be done to check the encroachments of our enemies upon our rights,
+<em class="italics">we</em> must do it, whether others do or not. May God help us all to
+realize this, and to address ourselves earnestly to the work that lies
+before us.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">
+"Be strong!</div>
+<div class="line">
+We are not here to play, to dream, to drift.</div>
+<div class="line">
+We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.</div>
+<div class="line">
+Shun not the struggle; face it. Tis God's gift."</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<div class="topic">
+<p class="level-2 pfirst title topic-title topic-title first">Transcriber's Note</p>
+<p class="pfirst">This is one group of papers from a series of papers presented
+to the American Negro Academy. Founded by Alexander Crummell
+in March 1897, with 40 of the leading black scholars and
+writers of the day, the Academy's purpose was to promote
+literature, science and art, foster higher education and high
+culture, and to defend the Negro aginst racist attacks. The
+Academy was active until 1924.</p>
+<p class="pnext">This project was scanned from a facsimile reprint included in
+a collection of all 22 Occasional Papers of the American Negro
+Academy.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Original spelling varieties have been maintained; tables and
+footnotes were renumbered.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 5em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst" id="pg-end-line">*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. (THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY. OCCASIONAL PAPERS, NO. 11.) ***</p>
+<div class="backmatter">
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="a-word-from-project-gutenberg">
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+   :PG.Id: 35449

+   :PG.Title: The Negro and the elective franchise. (The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 11.)

+   :PG.Released: 2011-03-01

+   :PG.Rights: Public Domain

+   :PG.Producer: Suzanne Shell

+   :PG.Producer: the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

+   :DC.Creator: Archibald H. Grimké

+   :DC.Creator: Charles C. Cook

+   :DC.Creator: John Hope

+   :DC.Creator: John L. Love

+   :DC.Creator: Kelly Miller

+   :DC.Creator: Rev. Frank J. Grimké

+   :DC.Title: The Negro and the elective franchise. A Series Of Papers And A Sermon (The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 11.)

+   :DC.Language: en

+   :DC.Created: 1905

+

+=====================================================================

+The Negro And The Elective Franchise. A Series Of Papers And A Sermon

+=====================================================================

+

+------------------------------------------------------

+The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 11.

+------------------------------------------------------

+

+.. _pg-header:

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+   This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

+   almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

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+

+      Title: The Negro and the elective franchise. A Series Of Papers And A Sermon (The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 11.)

+      

+      Author: Archibald H. Grimké, Charles C. Cook, John Hope, John L. Love, Kelly Miller, and Rev. Frank J. Grimké

+      

+      Release Date: March 01, 2011 [EBook #35449]

+      

+      Language: English

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+      .. _pg-start-line:

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+      \*\*\* START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. (THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY. OCCASIONAL PAPERS, NO. 11.) \*\*\*

+

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+      Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net.

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+.. class:: center larger

+

+   Occasional Papers, No. 11.

+

+   The American Negro Academy.

+

+   THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE

+

+.. class:: center

+

+   **A SERIES OF PAPERS AND A SERMON BY**

+

+   **Archibald H. Grimké, Charles C. Cook, John Hope,

+   John L. Love, Kelly Miller and Rev. Frank J. Grimké.**

+

+   **PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS.**

+

+.. class:: center smaller

+

+   WASHINGTON, D. C.

+

+   PUBLISHED BY THE ACADEMY.

+

+   \1905.

+

+.. contents:: CONTENTS

+    :backlinks: entry

+    :depth: 1

+

+The Meaning And Need Of The Movement To Reduce Southern Representation—*ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKÉ*

+=============================================================================================

+

+In 1787 when the founders of the American Republic were framing the

+Constitution they encountered many difficulties in the work of

+construction, but none greater than the bringing together on terms of

+equality under one general government of the slave-holding and the

+non-slave-holding states. The South was willing to enter the Union

+provided always that its peculiar labor and institutions received

+adequate protection in that instrument. And this the North had finally

+to consent to incorporate into the organic law of the new nation. One

+of these concessions was known as the Slave Representation Clause of the

+Constitution, which gave to the Slave section the right to count five

+slaves as three freemen in the apportionment of representatives. This

+concession did not probably seem at the time like an exorbitant or

+ruinous price for the North to pay for the Union, but subsequent events

+proved it to be both exorbitant and ruinous in the political burden

+which it imposed upon that section, and in the political perils which

+grew naturally out of the situation, and which were produced by it.

+

+Everybody now-a-days seems to forget, or makes believe to have

+forgotten, this lamentable chapter in our history, and its application

+to present day evils—everybody but a few far-seeing Negroes, and a few

+far-seeing white men at the North. It is well not to forget this chapter

+ourselves, or to let the country make believe to have forgotten it, as

+it contains a lesson which it is dangerous to forget.

+

+History repeats itself and will continue to do so just as long as men

+are men, and the passion for power and the struggle for domination lasts

+among them. Such a struggle set in between the two sections almost

+immediately after the adoption of the Constitution. With industrial and

+political ideas, interests, and institutions directly opposed to each

+other, rivalry and strife between them became from the beginning

+unavoidable. Any one not totally blinded by the then emergent needs of

+the moment could not fail to foresee something of the consequences which

+were sure to follow such a union of irreconcilable forces and passions

+under one general government. Each set of antagonistic ideas and

+interests was compelled by the great law of self preservation to try to

+get possession of the government in its battle with the other set. And

+in this conflict of moral and economic forces and ideas the three-fifths

+slave representation clause of the Constitution gave to the South a

+distinct advantage, an advantage which told immediately and powerfully

+in its favor. For the right to count five slaves as three freemen in the

+apportionment of representatives among the several states placed the

+political power of the Southern states in the hands not of all the

+whites but of a small and highly trained and organized minority only,

+namely; the master class. This circumstance solidified the South, and

+gave to its action a unity and energy of purpose which the industrial

+democracy of the North always lacked. As a consequence, Southern men

+obtained speedy possession of the National Government, and shaped

+National Legislation and policy to advance best the peculiar ideas and

+interests of their section. The big end of the National Government lay

+plainly enough well to the south of Mason and Dixon's line during the

+first twenty-five years of the existence of the Union. The course of

+events during this period revealed this bitter fact to New England. For

+she was outwitted, out-voted and over-matched again and again in

+national legislation and administrative measures by the slave oligarchy,

+which ruled the South and dominated in national affairs.

+

+For instance, New England opposed the embargo and the retaliatory

+measures of Mr. Jefferson's administration, which destroyed her splendid

+carrying trade, and bore distress to hundreds of thousands of her

+people. She opposed the War of 1812 because it seemed to her inimical to

+her interests, but regardless of protests and cries the embargo was laid

+on her ports and shipping, the War against Great Britain was declared.

+She was forced to dance, volens-nolens, to the rag-time music of her

+Southern rival. She danced in both instances while discontent grew apace

+in her hot, surcharged heart. She did not disguise the ugly fact that

+she was sick of her bargain under the Constitution—was discontented

+almost to disaffection with Southern domination in the Union. Out of

+this widespread discontent and incipient disaffection sprang the

+Hartford Convention to voice this growing Anti-Southern sentiment, and

+to cast about for a remedy for what was rightly deemed bad political

+conditions. The great question with which this celebrated convention

+grappled was, in fact, the undue and disproportionate power wielded by

+the slave oligarchy in national affairs, and how best to impose a check

+upon its further growth. It could think apparently of but one remedial

+measure to relieve the situation, and that was the imposition of a check

+on any further increase in the then existing number of states. But while

+the resolution which embodied this rather doubtful remedy referred to

+states in general, it was intended when read between the lines, to refer

+to slave states in particular.

+

+That was the first blow aimed by the industrial democracy of the North

+at this aristocratic feature of the National Constitution, namely: the

+right to count five slaves as three freemen in the apportionment of

+representatives among the states. It was felt at the time and much more

+strongly and generally afterward, that this three-fifths slave

+representation clause which enabled a small minority of the people of

+the South to wield the political power of that section, and in any

+controverted question between the sections to neutralize the free-will

+of every three freemen by the dummy-will of every five slaves, was an

+unjust and dangerous advantage possessed by the slave oligarchy over its

+sectional rival, the free democracy of the North.

+

+The consciousness of this political wrong and danger was at the bottom

+of the bitter opposition on the part of the North to the admission of

+Missouri as a slave state, to the annexation of Texas, and to the

+Mexican War. It was at the bottom of the fierce cry which rose all over

+that section at the close of that war, "No more slave territory, no more

+slave states." It was the soul of the great movement which beat back the

+slave tide from Kansas and saved that state to freedom. It was, in fact,

+this struggle of the free states to reduce to a minimum the peril to its

+industrial democracy which grew out of the slave representation clause

+of the Constitution, and the resistance of the slave states to such a

+movement, which produced the war between the sections. This war ended in

+the destruction of slavery and as the North supposed and intended, in

+the total destruction of this right of the South to count five slaves as

+three freemen in the apportionment of representatives among the several

+states in the newly restored Union.

+

+But wrong does not die under a single stroke. It has a strange power of

+metamorphosis, i. e. ability to change its form without losing its

+identity. The slave power, which everybody at the North imagined to be

+dead, re-appeared almost at once as the Southern serf power, in

+consequence of legislation enacted in the then lately rebellious states

+by the old slave masters. They had lost their slaves, to be sure, and

+the political power incident under the Constitution to such ownership,

+but they had not lost the political cunning and determination to create

+a similar power out of the social forces and material which lay in

+disorder about them.

+

+The reconstruction of the South by the old slave oligarchy resulted in

+the threatened rise in national affairs of an African serf power more

+formidable to the North than was the old slave power than five is

+greater than three in federal numbers. This threatened rise in national

+politics of an African serf power aroused the North to the danger which

+girt afresh the supremacy of its industrial democracy in the Union. It

+thereupon set about the work of removing this peril forever. In doing

+this work it unfortunately limited itself exclusively to the use of

+political agencies. But there is no doubt that what it did in

+reconstructing the old slave states was meant to be thorough. It meant

+to extirpate root and branch, from the Constitution the right of the

+South to count five slaves as three freemen, or five serfs as five

+freemen in the apportionment of representatives among the states. This

+was the plain purpose of the whole body of congressional legislation

+looking to southern reconstruction. It is the plain purpose likewise of

+the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.

+

+All of these great acts were intended to destroy utterly the basis on

+which rested the old slave power, and on which would rest the new serf

+power, namely: inequality and race subjection. The 13th amendment

+abolished slavery, the 14th raised the former slaves to citizenship, and

+the 15th conferred on them the right to vote. The whole scheme for

+removing forever this evil seemed on paper complete enough, and in

+practice it would undoubtedly have proven effective had not an

+unexpected difficulty arisen when it was put into operation. This

+unexpected difficulty was the attitude of the Supreme Court in

+interpreting the laws made in pursuance thereof. The effect of the

+decisions of this tribunal has almost invariably been against the

+Negro's claim to equality, and in favor of the Southern contention of

+the existence of two races in the south, one permanently dominant and

+the other permanently servile, and that the maintenance of this state of

+race superiority on the one side, and of race inferiority on the other

+furnished the only working plan of their living in peace together or of

+their making any further progress in civilization. Owing to this

+deplorable attitude the Supreme Court has been a hindrance rather than a

+help in the settlement of this question. No relief need be looked for

+from it, therefore, under the circumstances. Relief, if it comes at all,

+must come from another quarter of the political system under which we

+live. And for such relief fortunately, the 14th amendment has adequately

+provided. All that is necessary to render the provision of this

+amendment, which is applicable to the present situation, effective are

+courage and common sense. But alas, courage and common sense in respect

+to this subject seem to be sadly lacking to-day both at the North and

+among the Negroes as well.

+

+The provision of the 14th amendment just referred to reads as follows:

+"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according

+to their respective numbers counting the whole number of persons in each

+state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any

+election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of

+the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and

+judicial officers of a state, or the members of the Legislature thereof,

+is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one

+years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged

+except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of

+representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the

+number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male

+citizens twenty-one years of age in such state."

+

+Every Southern state has virtually by one device or another, since the

+adoption of the 14th and 15th amendments, denied to its colored citizens

+the right to vote. This was first done by the shot-gun method, which

+gave place in time to fraudulent manipulations of electoral returns, and

+this in turn to "grandfather" and "understanding clauses" administered

+by prejudiced registration boards in those states which have revised

+their constitutions. Says Professor Dunning in an article on "The

+Undoing of Reconstruction" in the Atlantic Monthly for October, 1901:

+"With the enactment of these constitutional amendments by the various

+states, the political equality of the Negro is becoming extinct in law

+as it has long been in fact, and the undoing of reconstruction is

+nearing completion." Now this statement is exactly true. The South has

+everywhere nullified in practice the 14th and 15th amendments to the

+Constitution. It denies to black men the right to vote, but it counts at

+the same time those same black men in the apportionment of its

+representatives. The present serf power therefore, enjoys to-day a right

+far greater than that enjoyed by the old slave power, for it counts five

+of its disfranchised black citizens not as three but as five free men.

+It has achieved the extraordinary feat of eating its political cake and

+keeping it at the same time.

+

+In South Carolina, for example, where the blacks outnumber the whites by

+224,326, and in Mississippi where the colored population is in excess of

+the white by 263,640, "the influence of the Negroes in political

+affairs," as put by Prof. Dunning, "is nil." And this is substantially

+true of almost everyone of the old slave states whether they have or

+have not revised their constitutions. Says Prof. DuBois: "To-day the

+black man of the South has almost nothing to say as to how much he shall

+be taxed, or how those taxes shall be expended, as to who shall make the

+laws and how they shall be made. It is pitiable that frantic efforts

+must be made at critical times to get law-makers in some states even to

+listen to the respectful presentation of the black side of a current

+controversy."

+

+Entrenched in the South to-day is an aristocracy based on race. The

+whole tendency of things down there is to de-citizenize the blacks, to

+reduce them to a state of permanent political and industrial

+subordination to the whites. This is aristocratizing the republic with a

+vengeance. For with the right to vote, the right to a voice in making

+the laws, denied to any class of people in an industrial republic like

+ours, such class must go from bad to worse in the struggle for bread,

+for existence, in competition with more favored classes. It does more:

+it reduces the efficiency of such a class as a producer of wealth not

+alone in respect to itself, but in respect to the section in which it

+lives as well. For whatever degrades and wrongs such a class degrades

+and wrongs the community and the country of which it forms a part. And

+there is no help for it, for such is the natural law of retribution

+which no "understanding" and "grandfather clauses" and registration

+boards, however adroitly devised, can in the long run possibly evade or

+nullify. This then is the deplorable economic situation with regard to

+whites and blacks alike in the Southern states, as a direct consequence

+of the undoing of the 14th and the 15th amendments to the Constitution

+by those States. The degradation of their black labor will ultimate in

+the degradation of their white labor also. In fact, the disfranchisement

+of the blacks operates practically everywhere down there as a

+disfranchisement of the great body of the whites likewise. For disuse of

+a power, whether physical or political, begets in time disinclination

+and then incapacity for exercising the same. The right to vote, under

+present political conditions which prevail throughout that section, is,

+as a matter of fact, exercised but by a small minority of the whites

+only. The total vote, for example, cast for representatives in Southern

+congressional districts is surprisingly slight in comparison with that

+cast in Northern congressional districts. The same is true of the vote

+for presidential electors, and for the executive, legislative and

+judicial officers of the various southern states for that matter. A

+handful of ruling whites, and that not of the best class as in

+antebellum times, casts to-day the entire vote of that section as

+represented by all of its black and a large majority of its white

+citizens, at national and state elections.

+

+For instance, the average vote cast for Congressmen by Northern

+congressional districts during the election of 1898 was over 35,000,

+while that cast by Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South

+Carolina, which are operated in effect on the Mississippi plan, was less

+than 5,000. The total vote cast for 37 congressmen by those five

+Southern states was only 184,602, while the total vote polled by the

+state of New York for 34 congressmen was 1,250,000, i. e. 184,602

+electors in those five Mississippi-ized states had actually a larger

+congressional representation by three than had the 1,250,000 voters of

+the Empire state. Again, take the case of Kansas, which though casting

+100,000 more votes at its congressional election in 1898, than were cast

+by these same five Southern states combined, yet Kansas had but seven

+representatives in Congress to guard and promote her peculiar interests

+against the 37 who sat in the House to guard and promote the peculiar

+interests of the ruling oligarchy of those five de-republicanized

+Southern states.

+

+But let us look more closely into this matter. Alabama with a population

+of 1,828,697, and nine representatives in Congress polled at the

+Congressional election, in 1902 a total vote of 90,105 for the nine

+districts, while the new state of Washington with a population of

+518,103 and three representatives polled at the same election a total

+vote of 93,681, i. e., there were 3,000 more votes polled to elect three

+congressmen in Washington than Alabama polled to elect nine. Again,

+Mississippi with a population of 1,531,270 and eight representatives in

+Congress polled at the same election a total vote of 18,058 for the

+eight congressional districts, while little Idaho with a population of

+161,772 and one representative polled at the same time a vote of 57,712,

+which exceeded more than three times the vote polled by Mississippi for

+eight representatives. Or let us take Louisiana with a population of

+1,381,625 and seven representatives in Congress, and her total vote of

+26,265 during the same election for seven districts and contrast these

+figures with those of Rhode Island with a population of 428,556 and two

+representatives. The Rhode Island figures are 56,064, or nearly double

+the vote of Louisiana for seven congressional districts. Or again, let

+us glance in passing at South Carolina with a population of 1,340,316

+and seven representatives in Congress, and New Hampshire with a

+population of 411,588 and two representatives. The first polled in 1902

+at the election of her seven congressmen 32,085 votes, and the second at

+the election of her two representatives polled at the same time 74,833.

+In other words, there were nearly 43,000 less votes polled in South

+Carolina to elect seven Congressmen than were polled in New Hampshire to

+elect two. To sum up: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South

+Carolina with an aggregate population of 6,106,908 and 31

+representatives in Congress cast in 1902 a total vote of 166,576 in 31

+congressional districts, while Idaho, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and

+Washington with an aggregate population of 1,500,000, and eight

+representatives polled at the same general elections a total vote of

+282,294 in their eight congressional districts. The average vote for

+each of the 31 Southern congressional districts was 5,530; while that

+for each of the eight Northern districts was 35,287. Why Massachusetts

+alone with a population of 2,805,346 and 14 representatives rolled up a

+vote to elect these 14 congressmen more than double that which the four

+Southern states with a population of over 6,000,000 polled to elect

+their 31 representatives!

+

+Again: At the presidential election last November the combined vote

+of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina, for 39 electors

+was less than 200,000 or to be exact was just 186,253, while the

+vote of Massachusetts for 16 electors was 442,732. In other words,

+the vote of Massachusetts for her 16 representatives in the electoral

+college, exceeded that of the four Southern states for their 39 in

+the same body by more than 250,000 polls. Once more: Is it not

+immensely ominous and significant the marked shrinkage in 1904 of the

+popular vote for electors in Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia,

+states which had but recently revised their constitutions, as compared

+with the popular vote of the same states for electors in 1900? There was

+for example a shrinkage of the popular vote in Alabama of nearly 50,000

+polls; in North Carolina the shrinkage amounted to nearly 85,000, and in

+Virginia it ran up to more than 135,000. These figures are eloquent of

+great wrongs done the Negro. They are not less eloquent of great dangers

+which now threaten to subvert free institutions in the Republic.

+

+Since the elections of 1898 things in the South went rapidly in respect

+to this subject from bad to worse. Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia

+followed the example of Mississippi and revised their constitutions.

+This reactionary movement of the Southern oligarchy has reached as far

+north as Maryland, and the work of aristocratizing her constitution and

+of Jim-Crowing her laws is now nearing completion. Where is this

+movement to stop? Will it halt south of Mason and Dixon's line unless

+drastic measures are speedily adopted by the National Government to

+arrest it? No, this aristocratic revolution will certainly, unless

+checked, invade the North, attacking and overthrowing first the

+political rights of black men in that section, and later those of other

+classes of citizens industrially and politically feebler than the rest

+until one after another of the states now free shall have succumbed to

+the rule of class and plutocratic power. Then indeed will the undoing of

+the 14th and the 15th amendments, and of democratic institutions in

+America, be complete. Not until then will the movement, which is fast

+aristocratizing the Republic, stop its steady advance. I am no alarmist,

+but am telling the sober truth. Those who have eyes to see, let them

+look around at the ominous signs of this advancing evil. Those who have

+ears to hear, may hear everywhere about them the foreboding sounds of

+this rising flood of wrong and inequality, this growing disregard for

+law, this denial to the people of a voice in government, whether state,

+colonial or national, which characterize the present period of our

+national history.

+

+It will not be impertinent for me to add by way of concluding this

+article, a few words regarding some of the political consequences, which

+would be sure to follow a reduction of Southern representation in

+Congress and the electoral college. It would, in the first place, reduce

+the political strength of the South as a factor in national legislation,

+diminish its relative importance as an element in national politics.

+That section is insolent, exacting and aggressive to-day on the Negro

+question because it has so much numerical strength in Congress and the

+electoral college by reason of its suppressed Negro vote. Reduce that

+strength by a judicious blood-letting to the number of twenty-five or

+thirty-five representatives and there will follow in due time a

+corresponding reduction of its arrogance and aggressiveness on the race

+question. For as it declines in relative strength in Congress and the

+electoral college it will decline in relative importance in management

+and leadership of the democratic party also. It will gradually lose its

+controlling influence over that party, cease ultimately to dominate it

+on the Negro question. The relative decline of the South in Congress and

+the electoral college-means, of course, the relative increase of the

+North in the same branch—means that in time the North will pay less

+heed to the claims of the South, to its threats, and more to the claims,

+to the case of the Negro. It means more. The relative decline of the

+South as a factor in national politics means the relative increase of

+the northern wing of the Democratic party in the control of that party,

+in the shaping for that party of a more liberal policy on the Negro

+question. For as the northern wing of this party gains in relative

+strength, in numerical importance over that of the South, it will be

+tempted more and more to solicit the support of the Negro vote of the

+North. In close elections and in pivotal states the Democrats of the

+North will thereupon make liberal declarations and positive bids in

+order to win this vote from the Republican party.

+

+This consideration brings me to a second consequence, which would follow

+a reduction of southern representation. And that is this: It will put an

+end to the present period of good will and peace between the sections,

+so disastrous to the rights of the Negro. Such a measure will usher in a

+period of bitter difference and strife between the two sections again.

+These differences will not arise merely between the Republicans of the

+North and the white South, but between democrats of the North and

+democrats of the South on the Negro question as well. For the northern

+wing of the Democratic party cannot bid for the colored vote of its

+section without offending the South and therefore sowing seeds of

+alienation and strife between them on the question of the rights and

+wrongs of the Negro, as a citizen. There will follow such differences

+and strife between the sections, a reaction at the North in favor of the

+Negro. Public sentiment for juster treatment of the race will gain

+thereafter steadily in strength. It will influence the Republican party

+to give to the question a more radical treatment than it now gives it,

+to take steps to enforce by appropriate legislation the 15th amendment

+of the Constitution. Such growing public sentiment in favor of according

+the Negro fairer treatment may do more, it may be able to reach even

+that pro-Southern tribunal, the Supreme Court, and put like the bees of

+the Bible honey for the race in its hitherto cold and unresponsive body.

+Even it may be influenced in time to twist the law in favor of human

+liberty, not against it, as now. And lastly, it will give the silent

+South a chance to be heard on the Negro question. It will give it a

+chance to appeal from those states drunk on the race question, to their

+sober second thought, a chance to show them the folly and madness of

+their disfranchisement and consequent degradation of their Negro labor

+as an economic factor in their development and civilization. And so

+liberal sentiment towards the Negro may be awakened in the South and be

+made thus to spread slowly downward as a leavening influence.

+

+And in the third place, reducing Southern representation in Congress and

+the electoral college will not hurt the Negro. It will not take away

+from him any right which he now enjoys down there. The doing so cannot

+in any way change his actual status either in law or in fact. He is now

+disfranchised; Congress will still have power to enforce the 15th

+amendment by appropriate legislation and it will do so whenever it can

+screw its courage to the sticking point. The reduction of Southern

+representation will certainly break up the present apathetic state of

+the country in respect to the Negro. With this breaking up there will

+follow a reaction in favor of freedom, and there will arise in due time

+a public sentiment which will bring legislation to enforce the right of

+the Colored people of the South to the ballot well within the range of

+the possible, yea of the probable, if the South persists after

+reduction,—but it will not long persist,—in its present purpose to

+nullify the 15th amendment, and to reduce its Colored people to a

+condition of a permanently subordinate and servile class, without rights

+as men or as citizens which southern white people are bound to respect.

+Let southern representation in Congress be therefore reduced. The sooner

+the better it will be for the Negro and the Nation.

+

+The law department of the United States Government has at last moved

+effectively against the meat trust. And I see that the Interstate

+Commerce Commission is looking into the charge that certain railroads

+are practicing by a system of rebates discrimination against shippers

+of live stock, and in favor of packing house products and dressed meats.

+But alas, how different has been the attitude of the national government

+toward investigating that greatest of all discriminations in the

+Republic, namely: the wholesale disfranchisement of Negroes in the South

+because they are Negroes. A few years ago one of the bravest and most

+far-seeing of the representatives of Massachusetts in either branch of

+Congress offered a resolution to investigate the subject merely. The

+administration, which was then, and they say is now opposed to meddling

+in this particular manner with the Southern question, was found equal to

+the occasion. When it failed to silence the voice of Congressman Moody

+regarding the matter, it lifted him with masterly state craft from the

+floor of the House, and landed him safely in the Cabinet where he is

+still, and where his silence might the better be secured. Thus passed

+the Moody resolution to dusty death, and the place which knew it once in

+Congress hath known it no more, and will know it no more forever.

+

+But there is another Congressman who for years has watched keenly the

+growth of this threatening evil, the growth of this wrong so subversive

+of the rights of the blacks at the South, and so harmful to the

+interests of our industrial democracy at the North. Five years ago he

+thought it was high time for the general government to address itself to

+that subject, and accordingly proposed from his place in Congress

+suitable measures for that purpose. Unfortunately for Congressman

+Crumpacker's proposition the presidential election of 1900 was at the

+time approaching and which, in the opinion of the McKinley

+administration, called loudly then for silence and oblivion on this

+vexed question. In obedience to this loud call of the Moloch of party

+success at the polls, Mr. Crumpacker's bill suffered death by

+asphyxiation in committee.

+

+The matter was, however, revived by Mr. Crumpacker in a subsequent

+Congress in the form of a resolution which provided for the appointment

+by the Speaker of a select committee of thirteen "whose duty it shall

+be, and who shall have full and ample power to investigate and inquire

+into the validity of the election laws of the several states and the

+manner of their enforcement, and whether the right to vote at any

+election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of

+the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and

+judicial officers of any of the states or the members of the legislature

+thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of any of the states,

+being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in

+any way abridged, except for crime." This resolution so reasonable,

+moderate, and just, fell a victim, so it was reported at the time, to a

+shrewd bargain struck between the Southern oligarchy on the one hand and

+the Republican managers of Cuban reciprocity on the other. The

+Crumpacker resolution was put to sleep amidst the dust heaps of old

+congressional documents, where it has slept without waking until the

+present session of Congress, when its profound slumber has been

+disturbed by renewed attempts made in both branches of the National

+legislature to revive the subject, and to do what the Republican

+national platform of 1904 pledged that party to do in the event of its

+triumph at the polls, according to the plain meaning and purpose of the

+following plank in that platform.

+

+"We favor such Congressional action as shall determine whether, by

+special discrimination, the elective franchise in any state has been

+unconstitutionally limited: and if such is the case we demand that

+representation in Congress and in the electoral college shall be

+proportionally reduced as directed by the Constitution of the United

+States."

+

+And while the Republican party hesitates to redeem its solemn pledge

+made to the people before the elections last November, the tide of

+intolerable wrong, of imminent peril:—of intolerable wrong to the

+blacks and of imminent peril to the Republic, is advancing nearer and

+rising higher and higher toward the point where to ignore it much longer

+will mean widespread and far-reaching disaster to our industrial

+democracy, to Republican institutions in America. On its crest I see

+approaching forces strong enough to subvert the Constitution, not only

+in the South but in the North—forces strong enough to uprear on its

+ruins the vast fabric of plutocratic empire and despotism.

+

+The warning is sounding in our ears, it is sounding in the ears of the

+people all over the land. Do we heed it, will they?

+

+The Penning of the Negro—*CHARLES CHAUVEAU COOK*

+=================================================

+

+**[The Negro in the States of the Revised Constitutions]**

+

+The following States have revised their constitutions for the purpose of

+excluding colored voters, and in the following order:—

+

+\(1) MISSISSIPPI.

+

+Section 241, Article 12, constitution of Mississippi, defining who are

+electors:

+

+   "Every male inhabitant of the state, except idiots, insane

+   persons, and Indians not taxed, who is a citizen of the United

+   States, twenty-one years of age and upwards, who has resided

+   in the state two years, and one year in the election district

+   \* * * in which he offers to vote and who is duly registered

+   as provided in this article, and who has never been convicted

+   of bribery, burglary, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods

+   under false pretence, perjury, embezzlement, or bigamy, and

+   who has paid on or before the 1st day of February of the year

+   in which he offers to vote, all taxes which may have been

+   legally required of him and who shall produce to the officer

+   holding the election satisfactory evidence that he has paid

+   his taxes."

+

+Section 242 of Article 12, further provides that persons offering to

+register shall take the following oath:

+

+   "I do solemnly swear that I am twenty one years old and that I

+   will have resided in the state two years and (this) election

+   district for one year preceding the ensuing election, and am

+   now in good faith a resident of the same, and that I am not

+   disqualified from voting by reason of having been convicted of

+   any of the crimes mentioned in the constitution of this state

+   as a disqualification to be an elector, that I will truly

+   answer *all questions propounded to me concerning my

+   antecedents so far as they relate to my right to vote* and

+   also as to *my residence before my citizenship in this

+   district,* that I will support the constitution of the United

+   States and of the state of Mississippi and will bear true

+   faith and allegiance to the same—so help me God.

+

+   Any willful and corrupt false statement in said affidavit or

+   in answer to any material question propounded as herein

+   authorized shall be perjury."

+

+Section 244, Article 12, constitution of Mississippi, requires

+that:

+

+   "On and after the first day of January, 1892, every elector

+   in addition to the foregoing qualifications, shall be able to

+   read any section of the constitution of this state; or shall

+   be able to understand the same when read to him, or give a

+   reasonable interpretation thereof."

+

+\(2) SOUTH CAROLINA.

+

+   Subdivision (c). "Up to January 1, 1898, all male persons of

+   voting age applying for registration, who can read any section

+   of this constitution submitted to them, *or understand and

+   explain it* when read to them by the registration officer,

+   shall be entitled to registration and become electors."

+

+   Subdivision (d). "Any person who shall apply for registration

+   after January 1, 1898, if otherwise qualified, shall be

+   registered: *Provided* that he can both read and write any

+   section of the constitution submitted to him by the

+   registration officer or can show that he owns and has paid

+   taxes collectible during the previous year on property in this

+   state assessed at three hundred dollars ($300) or more."

+

+\(3) LOUISIANA.

+

+   Section 3. "He (the voter) shall be able to read and write,

+   and shall demonstrate his ability to do so when he applies for

+   registration, by making, under oath administered by the

+   registration officer or his deputy, written application

+   therefor, in the English language, or his mother tongue, which

+   application shall contain the essential facts necessary to

+   show that he is entitled to register and vote, and shall be

+   entirely written, dated, and signed by him, in the presence of

+   the registration officer or his deputy, without assistance or

+   suggestion from any person or memorandum whatever, except the

+   form of application hereinafter set forth: *Provided,

+   however,* That if the applicant be unable to write his

+   application in the English language, he shall have the right,

+   if he so demands, to write the same in his mother tongue from

+   the dictation of an interpreter; and if the applicant is

+   unable to write his application by reason of physical

+   disability, the same shall be written at his dictation by the

+   registration officer or his deputy, upon his oath of such

+   disability. The application for registration, above provided

+   for, shall be a copy of the following form, with the proper

+   names, dates, and numbers substituted for the blanks appearing

+   therein, to wit:

+

+   "I am a citizen of the State of Louisiana. My name is ——. I

+   was born in the State (or country) of ——, parish (or county)

+   of ——, on the —— day of ——, in the year ——. I am now ——

+   years —— months and —— days of age. I have resided in this

+   State since ——, and am not disfranchised by any provision

+   of the constitution of this State."

+

+   Section 4. "If he be not able to read and write, provided by

+   section 3 of this article, then he shall be entitled to

+   register and vote if he shall, at the time he offers to

+   register, be the bona fide owner of property assessed to him

+   in this State at a valuation of not less than $300 on the

+   assessment roll of the current year, if the roll of the

+   current year shall not then have been completed and filed and

+   on which, if such property be personal only, all taxes due

+   shall have been paid."

+

+   Section 5. "No male person who was on January 1, 1867, or at

+   any date prior thereto, entitled to vote under the

+   constitution or statute of any State of the United States,

+   wherein he then resided, and no son or grandson of any such

+   person not less than 21 years of age at the date of the

+   adoption of this constitution, and no male person of foreign

+   birth, who was naturalized prior to the first day of January,

+   1898, shall be denied the right to register and vote in this

+   State by reason of his failure to possess the educational or

+   property qualifications prescribed by this constitution:

+   *Provided*, He shall have resided in this State for five years

+   next preceding the date at which he shall apply for

+   registration, and shall have registered in accordance with the

+   terms of this article prior to September 1, 1898; and no

+   person shall be entitled to register under this section after

+   said date."

+

+\(4) NORTH CAROLINA.

+

+   Section 4. "Every person presenting himself for registration

+   shall be able to read and write any section of the

+   constitution in the English language; and, before he shall be

+   entitled to vote, he shall have paid, on or before the 1st day

+   of May of the year in which he proposes to vote, his poll tax

+   for the previous year as prescribed by Article V, section 1,

+   of the constitution. But no male person who was, on January 1,

+   1867, or at any time prior thereto, entitled to vote under the

+   laws of any state in the United States wherein he then

+   resided, and no lineal descendant of any such person, shall be

+   denied the right to register and vote at any election in this

+   State by reason of his failure to possess the educational

+   qualification herein prescribed, provided he shall have

+   registered in accordance with the terms of this section prior

+   to December, 1908.

+

+   "The general assembly shall provide for the registration of

+   all persons entitled to vote without the educational

+   qualifications herein prescribed, and shall, on or before

+   November 1, 1908, provide for the making of a permanent record

+   of such registration, and all persons so registered shall

+   forever thereafter have the right to vote in all elections by

+   the people in this State, unless disqualified under section 2

+   of this article: *Provided*, Such person shall have paid his

+   poll tax as above required."

+

+\(5) ALABAMA (in effect Nov. 28th, 1901.) entitled to register:—

+

+These sections of the Alabama constitution were before the Supreme

+Court in the case of *Giles v. Harris*, (189 U. S. 475,) and

+the general plan of voting and registration was summarized by

+Mr. Justice Holmes, delivering the opinion of the court as follows:

+

+   "By section 178 of article 8, to entitle a person to vote he

+   must have resided in the State at least two years, in the

+   county one year and in the precinct or ward three months,

+   immediately preceding the election; have paid his poll tax,

+   and have been duly registered as an elector. By section 182,

+   idiots, insane persons and those convicted of certain crimes

+   are disqualified. Subject to the foregoing, by section 180,

+   before 1903 the following male citizens of the State, who are

+   citizens of the United States, were entitled to register, viz:

+   First. All who had served honorably in the enumerated wars of

+   the United States, including those on either side of the 'war

+   between the States.' Second. All lawful descendants of persons

+   who served honorably in the enumerated wars or in the war of

+   the Revolution. Third. 'All persons who are of good character

+   and who understand the duties and obligations of citizenship

+   under a republican form of government.' By section 181 after

+   January 1, 1903, only the following persons are entitled to

+   register: First. Those who can read and write any article of

+   the Constitution of the United States in the English language,

+   and who either are physically unable to work or have been

+   regularly engaged in some lawful business for the greater part

+   of the last twelve months, and those who are unable to read

+   and write solely because physically disabled. Second. Owners

+   or husbands of owners of forty acres of land in the State,

+   upon which they reside, and owners or husbands of owners of

+   real or personal estate in the State assessed for taxation at

+   three hundred dollars or more [...] [By section] 183, only

+   persons qualified as electors can take part in any method of

+   party action. By section 184, persons not registered are

+   disqualified from voting. By section 185, an elector whose

+   vote is challenged shall be required to swear that the matter

+   of the challenge is untrue before his vote shall be received.

+   By Section 186, the legislature is to provide for registration

+   after January 1, 1903, the qualifications and oaths of the

+   registrars are prescribed, the duties of the registrars before

+   that date are laid down, and an appeal is given to the county

+   court and Supreme Court if registration is denied. There are

+   further executive details in section 187, together with the

+   above-mentioned continuance of the effect of registration

+   before January 1, 1903. By section 188, after the

+   last-mentioned date applicants for registration may be

+   examined under oath as to where they have lived for the last

+   five years, the names by which they have been known, and the

+   names of their employers."

+

+\(6) VIRGINIA. (in effect July 10th, 1902.)

+

+   Article II, Section 18. "Every male citizen of the United

+   States, twenty-one years of age, who has been a resident of

+   the State two years, of the county, city or town one year, and

+   of the precinct in which he offers to vote, thirty days, next

+   preceding the election in which he offers to vote, has been

+   registered, and has paid his state poll taxes, as hereinafter

+   required, shall be entitled to vote for members of the General

+   Assembly and all officers elected by the people; but removal

+   from one precinct to another, in the same county, city or town

+   shall not deprive any person of his right to vote in the

+   precinct from which he has moved, until the expiration of

+   thirty days after such removal."

+

+   Section 19. "There shall be general registrations in the

+   counties, cities and towns of the State during the years

+   nineteen hundred and two and nineteen hundred and three at

+   such times and in such manner as may be prescribed by an

+   ordinance of this Convention. At such registrations every male

+   citizen of the United States having the qualifications of age

+   and residence required in Section Eighteen shall be entitled

+   to register, if he be:

+

+   "First. A person who, prior to the adoption of this

+   Constitution, served in time of war in the army or navy of the

+   United States, of the Confederate States, or of any State of

+   the United States or of the Confederate States; or

+

+   "Second. A son of any such person; or

+

+   "Third. A person, who owns property, upon which, for the year

+   next preceding that in which he offers to register, state

+   taxes aggregating at least one dollar, have been paid; or

+

+   "Fourth. A person able to read any section of this

+   Constitution, submitted to him by the officers of registration

+   and to give a reasonable explanation of the same; or, if

+   unable to read such section, able to understand and give a

+   reasonable explanation thereof when read to him by the

+   officers.

+

+   "A roll containing the names of all persons thus registered,

+   sworn to and certified by the officers of registration, shall

+   be filed, for record and preservation, in the clerk's office

+   of the circuit court of the county, or the clerk's office of

+   the corporation court of the city, as the case may be. Persons

+   thus enrolled shall not be required to register again, unless

+   they shall have ceased to be residents of the State, or become

+   disqualified by section Twenty-three. Any person denied

+   registration under this section shall have the right of appeal

+   to the circuit court of his county, or the corporation court

+   of his city, or to the judge thereof in vacation."

+

+   Section 20. "After the first day of January, nineteen hundred

+   and four, every male citizen of the United States, having the

+   qualifications of age and residence required in section

+   Eighteen, shall be entitled to register, provided:

+

+   "First. That he has personally paid to the proper officer all

+   state poll taxes assessed or assessable against him, under

+   this or the former Constitution, for the three years next

+   preceding that in which he offers to register;

+

+   "Second. That, unless physically unable, he make application

+   to register in his own hand-writing, without aid, suggestion

+   or memorandum, in the presence of the registration officers,

+   stating therein his name, age, date and place of birth,

+   residence and occupation at the time and for the two years

+   next preceding, and whether he has previously voted, and, if

+   so, the state, county and precinct in which he voted last;

+   and,

+

+   "Third. That he answer on oath any and all questions affecting

+   his qualifications as an elector, submitted to him by the

+   officers of registration, which questions, and his answers

+   thereto, shall be reduced to writing, certified by the said

+   officers, and preserved as a part of their official records."

+

+   Section 21. "Any person registered under either of the last

+   two sections, shall have the right to vote for members of the

+   General Assembly and all officers elective by the people,

+   subject to the following conditions:

+

+   "That he, unless exempted by section Twenty-two, shall, as a

+   prerequisite to the right to vote after the first day of

+   January, nineteen hundred and four, personally pay, at least

+   six months prior to the election, all state poll taxes

+   assessed or assessable against him under this Constitution,

+   during the three years next preceding that in which he offers

+   vote; provided that, if he register after the first day of

+   January, nineteen hundred and four, he shall, unless

+   physically unable, prepare and deposit his ballot without aid,

+   on such printed form as the law may prescribe; but any voter

+   registered prior to that date may be aided in the preparation

+   of his ballot by such officer of election as he himself may

+   designate."

+

+   Section 22. "No person who, during the late war between the

+   States, served in the army or navy of the United States, or

+   the Confederate States, or any State of the United States, or

+   of the Confederate States, shall at any time be required to

+   pay a poll tax as a prerequisite to the right to register or

+   vote."

+

+   Section 23. "The following persons shall be excluded from

+   registering and voting: Idiots, insane persons, and paupers;

+   persons who, prior to the adoption of this Constitution, were

+   disqualified from voting, by conviction of crime, either

+   within or without this State, and whose disabilities shall

+   not have been removed, persons convicted after the adoption of

+   this Constitution, either within or without this State, of

+   treason, or of any felony, bribery, petit larceny, etc."

+

+The intention of these acts needs no showing. They have three points in

+common: (a) Some device enabling all the white voters to evade the force

+of the disfranchising clauses; (b) The limiting clauses themselves which

+deprive a majority of the colored voters of their franchise; (c) The

+reservation of sufficient discretionary power in boards of registrars to

+enable them to give full effect to the acknowledged purpose of the

+framers of the constitutions. I know of no lesson they can teach us,

+except how to do the things we ought not to do. In some cases, by

+knowing the way down, one may, by reversing the steps taken, regain the

+lost height. But it is not so here; our fall, like our rise, has been

+too sudden. We have been thrown from a window, and before we could

+understand our position, legislated out of a back gate. Only by superior

+chicane can we repair the second injury, only by superior force repair

+the first—unless there be justice in the heart of the nation. It

+behooves us then to study carefully the state of public opinion in the

+country, which underlies these laws, and gives them whatever stability

+they possess.

+

+There is, of course, a series of events leading up to this radical

+change in the institutions of the Republic, a history beginning before

+the formation of the Union itself. The first part was African slavery.

+Religious, moral and economic forces had acted upon serfdom, the more

+common sort of slavery in Europe, and aided by the resulting increase of

+vigor among the serfs themselves, had disintegrated it. But these forces

+either did not act upon the trade in Negro slaves, when profits to be

+obtained from that traffic filled the minds of merchants, or were

+helpless to stop it. The New World was not, like the Old, overcrowded,

+but in need of laborers—and the slaves were blacks. Tropical South

+America, the West Indies, and the hot belt of the United States absorbed

+hundreds of thousands of Negro slaves. All the forces above enumerated

+set to work again after a time and slavery once more began to

+disintegrate. In this country it had become firmly rooted in the

+Southern states, where the same American people who had fought in '76

+for the freedom of two million white men, women and children fought as

+stubbornly to keep in slavery four million black men, women and

+children. But victory was again to crown the cause of freedom, and by

+the will of the victors, forced forward by the unbroken spirit of

+resistance of the conquered, these four millions of slaves were declared

+possessed of freedom, civil rights and political privileges.

+

+Said Lord Shaftesbury to Charles the Second, when called on for his

+resignation as Lord Chancellor, "It is only to lay aside the gown and

+take up the sword." The South, defeated in arms, reversed the process,

+and laying down the musket, put on the gown of the law-maker, and began

+to accomplish by legislation, the reenslavement of the millions set

+free. Hampered in this, for a time by the armies and the northern civil

+officers, who obtained power largely by the suffrage of the colored

+people, and by the colored voters themselves, the Southern men waited

+for the withdrawal of the Union armies—an event hastened by outcry at

+home—and then taking out the side-arms, which the generous terms of

+surrender had permitted them to retain, they rapidly dispersed the

+opposing force, and took the reins of government again into their own

+hands. With musket in one hand to retain political power, and pen in the

+other to undo the Reconstruction legislation, they soon deprived the

+black millions of all their transitory political and civil rights. It is

+hard to see that anything remained to be done. Emancipation laws and

+proclamations to the contrary, the Negro seemed safely penned. But moral

+and economic forces were still at work, and the end was not yet reached.

+

+The South could no longer close its eyes to the want of prosperity. In

+1890, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and

+Louisiana, in spite of their 262,175 square miles and abundant

+resources, had but 8,346,667 people and 288,405,107 dollars worth of

+manufactured products. An equal territory in the States of the North,

+namely; Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,

+Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio and

+Illinois with 260,823 square miles had 25,074,143 people and

+6,484,643,842 dollars worth of manufactured products—which is to say,

+the Southern states had but one-third of the population, and

+one-twenty-second of the manufactures of the same area North. The South

+wanting prosperity began to seek ways of obtaining it. This led to the

+consideration of obstacles: and first among these was the large and

+economically inefficient colored population. It must be made, for want

+of other labor, productive, a contributory agent to the new industrial

+prosperity of the South—and not the less, cut off from any sort of

+control, even of the industries, which by its labor must mainly be built

+up. The problem was a difficult one, yet such as the South felt itself

+able to solve. And many in the North stood ready to help.

+

+In 1890, however, came troubles so serious as to require a diversion of

+attention from economical to political problems. The Republican party

+pledge to secure for all citizens 'a free ballot and a fair count' was

+yet unredeemed; and in that year a debate broke out in Congress over the

+fulfilling of its promise, with an Elections bill as the means.

+Simultaneously, the Populist movement was growing to threatening

+proportions. Before this, the cry had been that the Negro by sheer

+numbers could dominate, if not prevented from doing so. But now there

+presented itself a new and more threatening danger. "In any state where

+the whites divide," said Mr. Tillman in the Senate in 1900, "and they

+have divided in every Southern State except mine and Mississippi—into

+Populists and Democrats—the Negro has been the balance of power." The

+Populist movement died, but this phantasm once evoked, of a black man

+poised at the centre of the party see-saw, continued to hover at the

+beck of its creators until again wanted. The occasion, this time a

+lasting one, has been found in the balance of the Republican and the

+Democratic parties in the "border" states. So in Maryland, for a while,

+a "doubtful" state, where the colored population is but one-fifth of the

+whole, a disfranchising law is justified, apparently, by the danger to

+good government of allowing the Republican party to obtain control.

+Again, in the county and town election contests, even in the Southern

+states where the Democratic party is in entire possession of the State

+government, this compact(?) and mobile(?) army of black voters occupies

+a position of such strategical importance that unless they be dislodged

+by the most radical method their mastery must be forever

+acknowledged(?). Now, to conclude, since a dozen colored voters might

+hold the balance of power in town or county, the bitter irony of the

+situation is overwhelming. [1]_ The South is simply driven by its own

+irrefutable(?) logic to total disfranchisement of the Negro, there being

+no safe stopping point short of the practical exclusion of the colored

+inhabitants of a dozen or more states from any part in the making or

+administering of the laws, national, state or municipal under which they

+live(!). All this the South, impelled by her honest desire(!) for good

+government, and resolutely turning her back upon past methods of fraud

+and violence,(!) means to accomplish legally—provided Congress and the

+Supreme Court throw over her naked but unalterable will the broad mantle

+of legality.

+

+.. [1] In West Virginia there are, on the Census basis (958,800 =

+   whole population, less 43,499-colored population = 915,301-white

+   population, divided by 3.6 = ratio of white population, generally to

+   white males of voting age.) 254,250 white voters; and (43,499 =

+   colored population, divided by 4.3-ratio of colored population to

+   colored male adults = 10,116 colored voters, of whom 32.3 per cent.

+   are illiterate, = 3267 illiterate colored men,) but 3,267 illiterate

+   colored voters, or about one eightieth of the electorate (257,517

+   divided by 3,267): yet, even though the national ticket threatened

+   to be hurt by it, it was impossible to stifle the cry for

+   disfranchisement of ignorant black voters as the paramount issue of

+   the West Virginia democratic campaign of 1904.

+

+We are reminded of the story of the princess, who wandering in rags,

+came to a palace and begged accommodation there befitting one of royal

+blood. The old queen, not sure that she was a princess, determined to

+test her veracity in this way: She lay a pea upon the floor and piled

+upon it a dozen feather-beds. If she felt the pea, it was plain that she

+was a true princess. Morning came none too soon for the unhappy lady,

+who confessed to the queen having spent a miserable night, something

+hard in her bed having bruised her till she was black and blue. No

+longer could the queen doubt that she was a real princess, for who else

+could have been so delicate. And she was forthwith married to the heir

+apparent to the throne. So the South acts on the belief that if she be

+absolutely intolerant of the slightest degree of political power in the

+hands of colored men, that the North must see in the very violence of

+her antipathy, the hopelessness of any other solution.

+

+This happily settled, the South after fifteen years of uncertainty,

+hopes to be able to turn her attention to material problems. But though

+the Caesars may rob February of days to enrich July and August, the

+seasons remain unchanged. The economic and moral laws of the universe

+remain in operation and give assurance that no solution can be more than

+temporary in which the Negro is dealt with falsely and unjustly.

+

+Meantime what had been the course of the Republican party, which, by its

+own declaration "had reconstructed the Union with freedom instead of

+slavery as its corner-stone?" Listen to the reading of the suffrage

+planks in the platforms of ten presidential campaigns:—

+

+[1868.]

+

+The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the

+South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of

+gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained; while the question of

+suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the people of those

+States.

+

+The recent amendments to the National Constitution should be cordially

+sustained because they are right, not merely tolerated because they are

+law, and should be carried out according to their spirit by appropriate

+legislation, the enforcement of which can safely be entrusted only to

+the party that secured those amendments.

+

+[1872.]

+

+Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all civil,

+political and public rights should be established and effectually

+maintained throughout the Union by efficient and appropriate State and

+Federal legislation. Neither the law nor its administration should admit

+any discrimination in respect of citizens by reason of race, creed,

+color or previous condition of servitude.

+

+[1876.]

+

+The Republican party has preserved these governments to the hundredth

+anniversary of the Nation's birth, and they are now embodiments of the

+great truth spoken at its cradle—"that all men are created equal; that

+they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among

+which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that for the

+attainment of these ends governments have been instituted among men,

+deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Until

+these truths are cheerfully obeyed, or, if need be, vigorously enforced,

+the work of the Republican party is unfinished.

+

+The permanent pacification of the Southern section of the Union and the

+complete protection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all

+their rights is a duty to which the Republican party stands sacredly

+pledged. The power to provide for the enforcement of the principles

+embodied in the recent Constitutional Amendments is vested by those

+amendments in the Congress of the United States, and we declare it to be

+the solemn obligation of the legislative and executive departments of

+the Government to put into immediate and vigorous exercise all their

+constitutional powers for removing any just causes of discontent on the

+part of any class, and for securing to every American citizen complete

+liberty and exact equality in the exercise of all civil, political and

+public rights. To this end we imperatively demand a Congress and a Chief

+Executive whose courage and fidelity to these duties shall not falter

+until these results are placed beyond dispute or recall.

+

+[1880.]

+

+The dangers of a "Solid South" can only be averted by a faithful

+performance of every promise which the Nation has made to the citizen.

+The execution of the laws, and the punishment of all those who violate

+them, are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be

+secured and genuine prosperity established throughout the South.

+Whatever promises the Nation makes the Nation must perform. A Nation

+cannot with safety relegate this duty to the States. The "Solid South"

+must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all honest

+opinions must there find free expression. To this end the honest voter

+must be protected against terrorism, violence or fraud.

+

+[1884.]

+

+The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon the maintenance of a free

+ballot, an honest count, and correct returns. We denounce the fraud and

+violence practiced by the Democracy in Southern States, by which the

+will of a voter is defeated, as dangerous to the preservation of free

+institutions; and we solemnly arraign the Democratic party as being the

+guilty recipient of fruits of such fraud and violence.

+

+We extend to the Republicans of the South, regardless of their former

+party affiliations, our cordial sympathy, and pledge to them our most

+earnest efforts to promote the passage of such legislation as will

+secure to every citizen, of whatever race and color, the full and

+complete recognition, possession and exercise of all civil and political

+rights.

+

+[1888.]

+

+We reaffirm our unswerving devotion to the national Constitution and to

+the indissoluble union of the States; to the autonomy reserved to the

+States under the Constitution; to the personal rights and liberties of

+citizens in all the States and Territories in the Union, and especially

+to the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or

+poor, native or foreign born, white or black, to cast one free ballot in

+public elections and to have that ballot duly counted. We hold the free

+and honest popular ballot and the just and equal representation of all

+the people to be the foundation of our republican government, and demand

+effective legislation to secure the integrity and purity of elections,

+which are the fountains of all public authority.

+

+[1892.]

+

+We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to

+cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public elections, and that

+such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast; that such laws shall

+be enacted and enforced as will secure to every citizen, be he rich or

+poor, native or foreign born, white or black, this sovereign right

+guaranteed by the Constitution. The free and honest popular ballot, the

+just and equal representation of all the people, as well as their just

+and equal protection under the laws, are the foundation of our

+Republican institutions, and the party will never relent its efforts

+until the integrity of the ballot and the purity of elections shall be

+fully guaranteed and protected in every State.

+

+[1896.]

+

+We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to

+cast one free and unrestricted ballot, and that such ballot to be

+counted and returned as cast.

+

+[1900.]

+

+It was the plain purpose of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution

+to prevent discrimination on account of race or color in regulating the

+elective franchise. Devices of State governments, whether by statutory

+or constitutional enactment, to avoid the purpose of this amendment are

+revolutionary, and should be condemned.

+

+[1904.]

+

+We favor such Congressional action as shall determine whether by special

+discriminations the elective franchise in any State has been

+unconstitutionally limited, and, if such is the case, we demand that

+representation in Congress and in the electoral colleges shall be

+proportionally reduced as directed by the Constitution of the United

+States.

+

+From '68 till '96 there was posted on the bill-boards of the party, the

+same declaration in favor of a free and unrestricted ballot, supported

+by the unyielding determination of the party to protect this right. But

+in that year there came a change. Perhaps it was that the mass of

+unredeemed pledges fell of their own weight, and the time seemed

+opportune to substitute a less weighty declaration; perhaps the party

+only sought a more efficient means of accomplishing its unalterable

+purpose. Whatever the cause, there began from this time, a diminuendo

+which has grown fainter until in 1904 the 15th Amendment was heard no

+more. To time, some say, must be left this task, too great for a

+political party to perform. But there is grave danger in leaving to time

+the execution of justice. The evil grows, the power of correcting it

+diminishes. Early in its course injustice may be stopped, later perhaps

+not at all. The future course of the party with regard 'to the supreme

+and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, white or

+black, to cast one free ballot in public elections and to have that

+ballot duly counted,' is gravely complicated by the rapid and momentous

+changes taking place in American society.

+

+The gulf between the sections, which the Constitution merely bridged

+proved so deep, because it grew out of differences in the social, if not

+the moral natures of the inhabitants of the two parts of the country.

+These types have been compared to those opposed in the English Civil

+War, and hence called Puritan and Cavalier. But whatever the name, the

+differential fact was this: in the North men and women did their own

+work, while in the South others did their work for them. Until this

+great economic and social difference, which made diverging ideals,

+diverging habits, diverging tastes, ceased to be, real sympathy was

+impossible. That gulf, which widened into bitter civil war, is now

+closing; the two types are drawing nearer; the divorce between sections

+is shifting around to a divorce between classes. Therefore it is that in

+a part of the writing and ruling class, we feel that there is a

+gravitating of morals southward. [2]_ The North, which spent millions in

+lives and money to destroy Negro slavery in the South, seems engaged in

+making white slaves at home. If the political and social position of the

+white laborer in the North is declining, our chance of obtaining justice

+through active Northern sympathy is greatly lessened. In this issue

+which remains that of the comparative "hideousness" of the slave-holder

+and the slave, every foot added to the social separation of the Northern

+employer and employee is a stroke in the knell of political equality for

+the Negro.

+

+.. [2] "The Republican party in its work of imposing the

+   sovereignty of the United States upon eight millions of Asiatics, has

+   changed its views in regard to the political relation of races and

+   has at last virtually accepted the ideas of the South upon that

+   subject. The white men of the South need now have no further fear

+   that the Republican party, or Republican administrations, will ever

+   again give themselves over to the vain imagination of the political

+   equality of man."

+

+   —[Burgess—Reconstruction and the Constitution, page 298.]

+

+It is a mistake, therefore, to assume that there is active in the

+country a spirit of freedom strong enough to set us free; a power

+employed in doing justice, strong enough to do justice to us. The

+country is returning to the conditions existing before '61, even passing

+these and returning to the conditions existing before 1776,—in

+politics, because it is doing the same in *morals*. Moral betterment

+requires that we put a deeper, broader and stronger foundation under the

+old foundation of our lives; and this can only be done by removing each

+day a bit of sand and filling in the space with stone. Days of

+tremendous business activity, or national triumph are not likely to be

+so spent.

+

+We *must* not make the mistake of assuming that there is power in the

+nation to do us justice. "Not in a republic," some one may ask? No! Von

+Holst says: "That virtue is the specific vital principle of republics is

+a delusion. The historical course of development, natural circumstances,

+material interests and political and social customs are the elements by

+which, in all states without exception, the form of the state is in the

+first place conditioned." Not after the pledges of the Constitution,

+again it may be asked? No, the Constitution is an ideal, not a real body

+of law. Von Holst wrote: "Polk had once stated that the nature of

+American institutions offered the world ample security that the United

+States would never pursue a policy of aggressive conquest.

+Notwithstanding the commentary that he had himself given on this

+proposition, it contained a kernel of significant truth. The nature of

+their institutions forbade the United States to hold in violent

+subjection, under the iron hand of conquest, a realm of the extent of

+Mexico for any length of time. This would soon have become so perfectly

+clear to the people that they would either have driven the originator

+and guiding spirit of the war in shame and disgrace from his office and

+dignity, and have reduced all these conditions of peace to the utmost

+moderation, or they would have proceeded to a formal and complete

+incorporation of Mexico with the Union." And before 1900, as a result of

+the war with Spain, the impossible, the absolutely forbidden by the

+nature of their institutions had been accomplished. How obscure the

+vision of the historian! The Constitution is not written in the hearts

+of the American people, but in the sky, where it is hidden every cloudy

+day. And yet again, it will be asked: Not in the New World, not in

+America? Justice demands a careful consideration of every case; it

+cannot be machine-made; it cannot be wholesaled. The exact measure of

+justice is hard to find, harder to administer; it cannot be had without

+patient search, calm temper, righteousness, courage. I know not whether

+America has time to seek the intricate path of justice, or patience and

+courage to follow it when found. The cry 'forward' grows even louder,

+more insistent, more passionate. Can the country safely put down the

+brakes; dare it turn from its rapid way to material prosperity? But a

+little greater momentum is needed and reactionaries will rise only to be

+irresistibly swept aside. Doubts, weariness, exhaustion even will not

+stop the rapidly revolving wheels. Only in the *wake* of such frenzied

+progress there will follow rest, the rest of death. Study the wreckage

+in the South in the trail of slavery, black, and what is far worse,

+white illiteracy, brutality, wretched sloth. Observe the turning of

+defeat in the struggle into despair, then stagnation upon which forms a

+film, a scum, a crust which becomes strong enough to defy efforts to

+break it. So is brought about the stratification of society called

+caste. Above, the upper world, ever turning to law and punishment to

+crush those who threaten this floor, upon which they stand from beneath,

+ever appealing to the prejudices of their class to persecute into

+submission those whose sense of justice or generosity threatens the

+crust from above. Beneath, the under world, sweating, spawning,

+gathering from its own misery and the dregs of vice and luxury from

+above poison, and shaping from its own eager thousands of ambitious

+men,—yes, and after the boldest men of the class above, fangs, that it

+may become all that revolution is wont to be.

+

+In such a society is born the conqueror, man of destiny, as he seems. In

+mountain, in desert or in slum, he may have his birth. Oftenest he is a

+military, yet sometimes a spiritual conqueror. In the west of Europe,

+two thousand years ago was born Julius Caesar; in the East, Jesus

+Christ. From mountain, wilderness and slum, each drew his followers.

+Caesar gathered the driftwood of the decaying Republic into an army, and

+upon this bridge crossed the Rubicon and established empire. Christ,

+too, gathered up the driftwood of decaying Rome and fashioned out of it

+that noble band which is the inspiration of every true Church in the

+Christian world. The classes you would disfranchise will become the

+makers of a political slum. They are materials for working out the glory

+or the ruin of the nation. Exclude them from the benefits, the

+privileges of other classes and you invite criminality: from outcast to

+outlaw is but one step. Include them, and who can measure the addition

+to the sum of human happiness? In the answer to the question: what

+forces are at work checking the too great increase of a people? what is

+the principle of selection? what sort are disappearing, what sort

+preserved?—may be read the country's destiny.

+

+Outside of the slave states, equal participation in the government by

+all citizens has been the foundation stone of the Republic. For a brief

+moment slavery was dead, and all men were freemen. But slavery is alive

+again, and if its growth is not resisted, will again be restored in all

+but name. The words of Calhoun deserve to be called a prophecy.

+"*Without political and social equality*," he said, "*to change the

+condition of the African race would be but to change the form of

+slavery."* The South accepts the alternative and resolves that, whatever

+the cost, political and social equality shall never be. The North must

+yield; *she* will not. While some are trusting to the finality of the

+13th Amendment, others to industrial opportunity, others still to

+political without social equality, the South with bull-dog tenacity

+sticks to her resolution that there shall be none of these. But a year

+ago Carl Schurz declared: "There will be a movement either in the

+direction of reducing the Negro to a permanent condition of serfdom ...

+or a movement in the direction of recognizing him as a citizen in the

+true sense of the term. One or the other will prevail."

+

+Are there reasons wanting why the nation should keep true to its

+foundation principles? Granting that the pathway to freedom is now

+harder to follow, should the forward movement be abandoned? How else

+than by manfully pressing on to a broad humanity, can the Republic,

+reconstructed with freedom as its corner-stone, remain? As the old cords

+fail to hold together the more distant and divided political and ethnic

+units of population, there must be woven new bonds of sympathy,—at

+least, of toleration, else some must be hung with chains. There are

+many, many reasons, rulers of the commonwealth, why the electorate

+should not be reduced:—

+

+Above all, it is selfish. "The continual and diligent elevation of that

+lower mass which human society everywhere is constantly precipitating,"

+to borrow the words of Cable, is incompatible with the *spirit* of

+restriction.

+

+It is inequitable. For, again quoting from this author: "There is no

+safe protection but self-protection: poverty needs at least as much

+civil equipment, for self-protection as property needs: the right and

+liberty to acquire intelligence, virtue and wealth are just as precious

+as the right and liberty to maintain them, and need quite as much

+self-protection."

+

+It is subversive of the republican basis of the state,—tending

+as it does to deposit more and more political power in the hands

+of fewer and fewer men. From "all up" to "some down" in the

+matter of political rights is a precipitous leap: but this step once

+taken, a gentle slope succeeds. From many to fewer members of

+the privileged class, the mind advances easily, with no intrusive

+principle to block the way. If a poll tax of one dollar can be

+made a condition of voting regardless of ability to pay it, then

+why not ten or twenty? If a poll tax, why not a property tax,

+or wealth? If ability to interpret the Constitution, why not a

+college education?

+

+As restriction is practiced in the South, it breeds contempt for the

+law:

+

+And increasing unrest, for like a snowball it swells and gathers fresh

+resistance as it goes:

+

+And dishonesty, for the disfranchising laws are not being lived up to.

+This is inherent, for the acquisition of the required knowledge or

+wealth would defeat the very object of the law. It puts a premium upon

+ignorance, for thereby the desired end of disfranchisement is

+furthered:—And upon thriftlessness, for the same reason;—And upon

+criminality and false charges of crime, since even this price must be

+paid by those determined to work their will.

+

+What evils of universal suffrage are equal to these? Can an appeal be

+made in the name of minority rights by those who would themselves efface

+minorities? [3]_ When slaves were escaping, they demanded that the

+constitutional guarantees be fulfilled to the letter, clamored like

+Shylock for the pound of flesh which the law allowed. Now, too, they

+demand of the amendments as before of the clauses of the instrument

+reserving power to the states, that they be construed by the

+letter:—but with what a change of object,—no longer that the rights of

+minorities may be respected but that they may be utterly suppressed.

+

+.. [3] In two states, viz; Mississippi and South Carolina, the

+   colored people are in the majority. In the other four disfranchising

+   states, as well as all other Southern states, they are in the

+   minority. In the group of states disfranchising the colored voters,

+   viz; N. C., S. C., Va., Ala., Miss., and La., the

+

+   white population is

+     5,396,649 = 55 per cent.

+

+   colored " "

+     4,453,253 = 45 per cent.

+

+   total " "

+     9,849,902 = 100 per cent.

+

+   —BY THE 12TH CENSUS (1900.)

+

+And if it be asserted that the superior must be allowed to rule, is

+superiority to be proved by a fiat of brute force? Is mere armed

+lawlessness the index of superior worth? When the nations agreed to fix

+limits to the cruelties of war, did they thereby place a penalty upon

+brains?

+

+Finally, is it claimed that a free ballot signifies unlimited

+corruption? Read the answer in England's purification of her politics: I

+quote from Sir Thomas Erskine May:—

+

+"Political morality may be elevated by extending liberties: but bribery

+has everywhere been the vice of growing wealth." "The first election of

+George the Third's reign was signalized by unusual excesses:" A seat in

+Parliament was for sale, like an estate and they bought it without

+hesitation or misgiving. "Nor were they regarded with much favor by the

+leaders of parties; for men who had bought their seats,—and paid

+dearly for them,—owed no allegiance to political patrons. "They sought

+admission to Parliament, not so much with a view to a political career,

+as to serve mere personal ends, to forward commercial speculations, to

+extend their connections and to gratify their social aspirations. But

+their independence and ambition well fitted them for the service of the

+court.... They soon ranged themselves among the king's friends: and thus

+the court policy,—which was otherwise subversive of freedom became

+associated with parliamentary corruption. "When the return of members

+was left to a small but independent body of electors, their individual

+votes were secured by bribery: and where it rested with proprietors or

+corporations, the seat was purchased outright." Gatton e. g. was sold

+for £75,000. Of the 658 members of the House of Commons 487 were

+returned by nomination ... not more than one third of the House were the

+free choice of the limited bodies of electors then intrusted with the

+franchise.... Representatives holding their seats by a general system of

+corruption could scarcely fail to be themselves corrupt. What they had

+bought, they were but too ready to sell. And how glittering the prizes

+offered as the price of their services! Peerages, baronetcies, patronage

+and court favor for the rich—places, pensions and bribes for the needy.

+All that the government had to bestow they could command.... Another

+instrument of corruption was found in the raising of money for the

+public service. In March 1763, Lord Bute contracted a loan of three

+millions and a half; and having distributed shares among his

+friends,—the scrip immediately rose to a premium of 11 per cent....

+Here the country sustained a loss of £385,000.... Stock jobbing became

+the fashion; and many members of Parliament were notoriously concerned

+in it. Again in 1781 ... a loan of £12,000,000 was contracted to defray

+the cost of the disastrous American war.... Its terms were so favorable

+that suddenly the scrip rose nearly 11 per cent. It was computed by Mr.

+Fox that a profit of £900,000 would be derived from the loan; and by

+others that half of the loan was subscribed for by members of the House

+of Commons. Lord Rockingham said. "The loan was made merely for the

+purpose of corrupting the Parliament to support a wicked, impolitic and

+ruinous *war*.

+

+Now as to the electorate. "In Scotland in 1831, the total number of

+county voters did not exceed 2500; and the constituencies of the 66

+boroughs amounted to 1440.... The county of Argyll, with a population of

+100,000 had but 115 electors: Caithness with 36,000, contained 47 free

+holders. Edinburgh and Glasgow, the two first cities of Scotland, had

+each a constituency of 33 persons.... A great kingdom, with more than

+two millions of people,—intelligent, instructed, industrious and

+peaceable,—was virtually disfranchised.... According to a statement

+made by the Duke of Richmond in 1780, not more than 6,000 men returned a

+clear majority of the British House of Commons.... It was alleged in the

+petition of the Society of the Friends of the People (presented in

+1793.) that 84 individuals absolutely returned 157 members to Parliament

+... and that a majority of the House were returned by 154 patrons....

+

+"The glaring defects and vices of the representative system which have

+now been exposed,—the restricted and unequal franchise, the bribery of

+a limited electoral body, and the corruption of the representatives

+themselves,—formed the strongest arguments for Parliamentary reform....

+The theory of an equal representation, had in the course of ages, been

+entirely subverted.... The Reform bill of 1832 supplied the cure. "It

+was," says May, "a measure, at once bold, comprehensive, moderate and

+constitutional. Popular: but not democratic:—it extended liberty,

+without hazarding revolution. In 1850 the representation of the country

+was reconstructed on a wider basis. Large classes had been admitted to

+the franchise: and the House of Commons represented more freely the

+interests and political sentiments of the people. The reformed

+Parliament, accordingly, has been more liberal and progressive in its

+policy than the Parliaments of old, more vigorous and active; more

+susceptible to the influence of public opinion: and more secure in the

+confidence of the people."

+

+Here let us leave the history of English political corruption and the

+remedy which was found in a fairer representation of the people. In

+truth, we might well have left it sooner—if not altogether; for it is

+likely to be said that all of this is nothing to the purpose. The South

+has before her the practical problem of dealing with some millions of

+Negroes, to the solution of which, the experience of the English people

+furnishes no aid. Once more, then, we must consider the actual situation

+in this country to-day.

+

+The Negro problem has been stated: What does justice to the Negro

+demand? Approaching our subject from this point of view, we may try to

+conclude:—

+

+1st. What justice *does* demand; and

+

+2nd. What the Negro must do to get it.

+

+What, to begin with, is the answer of the South to the former? It is

+familiar to us all and would seem to be the nearly unanimous voice of

+the Southern people. The Negro, they say, is ignorant, lazy and vicious.

+Slavery, so far as its effect on the slave is concerned, was a

+beneficent institution, raising him from his previous savagery to a

+plane of humble usefulness. There, however, his incurable inferiority

+destines him forever to remain. This, the South insists she has settled

+in wisdom and kindliness. The North, so runs her speech,

+misunderstanding the South and the Negro, unjustly forced on the Civil

+war, to compel her to change her domestic institutions. But that

+attempt, foredoomed to failure, has resulted in nothing more than the

+abolition of slavery, and a cruel loss of life and property, partly

+compensated for by the consequent revelation of her boundless resources

+of courage, loyalty and united resolve. Slavery, while a Southern

+institution, was not a bond of perfect union; but upon the platform of

+black inferiority and white domination, every Southern man has his foot

+squarely planted. Her answer, therefore, to all criticism is to point

+with pride to the solid South.

+

+How often are we called upon to see with pain and wonder that opinions,

+theories, even the mind itself is shaped by actions. Nature, aiming at

+preservation of life, is quick to heal all possible wounds, to reconcile

+warring impulses, to gloss and beautify deformities, and even to conceal

+dangers and snares. She gives men language to justify their misdeeds,

+teaches them how to embalm their errors in the secretion of their

+intellects, and even preserves the lying epitaphs which they inscribe

+over the remains of their vanity and pride. To change an opinion, it is

+necessary commonly to change a course of action, and until the life of

+the South changes, there seems no reasonable expectation that her

+opinions will change. Disfranchisement is but a symptom of the diseased

+Southern body politic, and who can tell whether the surgeon's knife will

+not reach the sources of life itself in seeking for a cure.

+

+Sufficient then to herself,—wholly insufficient, false, and cruel to

+us, is this answer. If there were but these two parties to the cause,

+there would be no need to consider it. There remains, however, the still

+hesitating, ever-divided public opinion of the North—now the judge in

+the Freedmen's case. It is fitting that in her court, our replication

+should be boldly made. There we proclaim that the South is not doing

+justice to colored men.

+

+The Negroes, say Southern men, are ignorant, lazy, vicious,—a perpetual

+menace to the rule and order of white men. Is this believable? Did God

+so make the world that after three thousand years of progressive white

+civilization;—in a country where there are sixty millions of white men,

+entrenched in their possession of armies and navies, wealth, power and

+endless resources of trained intellect;—that nine millions of colored

+people, rich in nothing but their sufferings, threaten to put the bottom

+on top? And if chance rules the world, and ignorance, laziness and vice

+are as likely to prevail as knowledge, industry and virtue, we may as

+well believe that ignorance and laziness and vice underlie white

+civilization and supremacy. No, we may confidently answer: this is not

+believable. Either these nine millions of colored people are not

+ignorant, lazy and vicious, or there are no grounds for the fear that

+they can for an hour put into danger the continuance of white

+domination, even in the blackest portion of the black South.

+

+There is indeed proof obtainable that they are neither ignorant, lazy

+and vicious, nor a menace to rule and order. If they were near neighbors

+of the brutes would the elaborate defensive preparations be necessary

+which the South continues feverishly to make? Do the savages of Africa

+enact disfranchising clauses to keep apes and monkeys out of their

+political affairs? If ignorance so submerges the black man, why does not

+the Massachusetts principle of protecting the ballot prevail in the

+South? Why is it necessary to require the voter to read, yes, and

+*interpret satisfactorily, any* clause in the state constitution? [4]_

+If sloth curses the Negro with unfruitfulness, why require property to

+the assessed value of $300? If the assessed value be two thirds of the

+real value, this means that nearly $500; if one third, then nearly $1000

+is fixed as the minimum possession of the black voter. Does this

+precaution point to shiftlessness? If viciousness be indelibly stamped

+upon his nature, why not rely upon his disfranchisement for crime to

+eliminate the colored voters? Are the white juries not to be trusted to

+condemn the accused? Are the leased convicts not worth their cost of

+keeping? It has been more than once said that 90,000 of the 90,000

+colored people in the District of Columbia are criminals. If the same

+proportion maintains elsewhere, what more is needed to accomplish the

+desired end?

+

+.. [4] The requirement that the voter be able to read (or write)

+   *and* interpret satisfactorily, in the Virginia registration

+   requirement before Jan. 1, 1904, is an advance upon the earlier

+   clauses, which left the alternative. I am not sure but that it

+   reappears in the Maryland law not yet in operation. It is an

+   interesting fact that it was *Senator Daniels of Virginia* who

+   once called the attention of the Senate to the injustice done

+   the South by Senator Spooner's assertion that voters were, without

+   alternative, required to interpret passages from the

+   Constitutions.

+

+Yet disfranchisement for ignorance, for thriftlessness, and vice all

+together are acknowledged to be insufficient, and resort must be had

+again to manipulation, juggling, and confessed dishonesty. Rev. Edgar

+Gardiner Murphy, Executive Secretary of the Southern Education Board, a

+distinguished witness, testifying against interest, says: "The

+instrument of discrimination has been found in the discretionary powers

+lodged in the board of registrars, by which worthy Negro men, fairly

+meeting every test of suffrage have been excluded from registration."(?)

+Where the fact is so freely admitted, proof seems wasted, yet abundant

+corroboration may easily be had [5]_.

+

+.. [5] The following clipping from the Baltimore American, I

+   cannot refrain from reading:—

+

+   "In the recent election the democratic judges of election in many of

+   the counties proved that they were unable even to count ballots

+   properly marked, and when it came to putting a reasonable

+   interpretation on the intention of a voter they were either wholly

+   ignorant or wholly dishonest. It is perfectly safe to say that not

+   one-third of the democratic judges who served at the Maryland

+   election of last week could themselves give an intelligent

+   interpretation of any section in the Constitution. Many of them do

+   not even know what the Constitution is, and the man who suggested

+   that they would take it to be a new kind of drink did not overshoot

+   the mark. Fine professors of constitutional history these men would

+   make!"

+

+The fact as well as the extent of disfranchisement is revealed

+by the statistical summaries:—

+

+.. class:: center

+

+   **STATISTICAL SUMMARIES**

+

+.. table:: *TABLE* \1

+   :width: 60%

+   :align: center

+   :aligns: left justify right

+   :summary: 1900 voting population data.

+

+   +-------------+-----------------+------------+

+   |  ADULT MALE OR COLORED VOTING POPULATION,  |

+   |  \1900, ESTIMATED \AT \1 IN \4.3.          |

+   +=============+=================+============+

+   | Virginia    | 660,722 ÷ 4.3 = |    46,122. |

+   +-------------+-----------------+------------+

+   | Nor. Car.   | 624,469 ÷ 4.3 = |   127,114. |

+   +-------------+-----------------+------------+

+   | South Car.  | 782,321 ÷ 4.3 = |   152,860. |

+   +-------------+-----------------+------------+

+   | Alabama     | 827,307 ÷ 4.3 = |   181,471. |

+   +-------------+-----------------+------------+

+   | Mississippi | 907,630 ÷ 4.3 = |   197,936. |

+   +-------------+-----------------+------------+

+   | Louisiana   | 650,804 ÷ 4.3 = |   147,348. |

+   +-------------+-----------------+------------+

+   | Total       |                 | 4,453,251. |

+   +-------------+-----------------+------------+

+

+

+.. table:: *TABLE* \2

+   :width: 80%

+   :align: center

+   :aligns: left justify right justify

+   :summary: 1888-1900 census data.

+

+   +-------------+------+---------+---------+

+   |  CENSUS OF NEGROES BEFORE PASSAGE OF   |

+   |  REVISED CONSTITUTIONS.                |

+   +=============+======+=========+=========+

+   | Virginia    | 1900 | 115,865 | (T.Al.) |

+   +-------------+------+---------+---------+

+   | Nor. Car.   |   "  | 133,081 |   "     |

+   +-------------+------+---------+---------+

+   | South Car.  | 1892 |  13,384 |   "     |

+   +-------------+------+---------+---------+

+   | Alabama     | 1900 |  55,512 | Pres.   |

+   +-------------+------+---------+---------+

+   | Mississippi | 1888 |  30,096 |         |

+   +-------------+------+---------+---------+

+   | Louisiana   | 1888 |  30,701 |         |

+   +-------------+------+---------+---------+

+

+

+.. table:: *TABLE* \3

+   :width: 80%

+   :align: center

+   :aligns: left justify right left

+   :summary: 1900-1904 census data.

+

+   +-----------+------+--------+----------------+

+   |   CENSUS OF NEGROES AFTER PASSAGE OF       |

+   |   REVISED CONSTITUTIONS.                   |

+   +===========+======+========+================+

+   | Virginia  | 1904 | 47,880 | (W. Al.)       |

+   +-----------+------+--------+----------------+

+   | Nor. Car. |   "  | 82,442 |    "           |

+   +-----------+------+--------+----------------+

+   | So. Car.  | 1900 |  3,579 | Pres. (T.)     |

+   +-----------+------+--------+----------------+

+   | So. Car.  | 1904 |  2,554 | Pres. (W. Al.) |

+   +-----------+------+--------+----------------+

+   | Alabama   | 1904 | 22,472 | (W. Al.)       |

+   +-----------+------+--------+----------------+

+   | Miss.     | 1900 |  5,753 | Pres. (T. Al.) |

+   +-----------+------+--------+----------------+

+   | Miss.     | 1904 |  3,189 | Pres. (W. Al.) |

+   +-----------+------+--------+----------------+

+   | Louisiana | 1900 | 14,234 | Pres. (T. Al.) |

+   +-----------+------+--------+----------------+

+   | Louisiana | 1904 |  5,205 | Pres. (W. Al.) |

+   +-----------+------+--------+----------------+

+

+

+.. table:: *TABLE* \4

+   :width: 80%

+   :align: center

+   :aligns: left right right

+   :summary: Registration of colored voters.

+

+   +----------------+----------------+---------------------+

+   | REGISTRATION OF COLORED VOTERS. (Newspaper estimate.) |

+   +----------------+----------------+---------------------+

+   | State          | Literate       |        *Registered* |

+   +================+================+=====================+

+   | Virginia       | equal 69,358   |                     |

+   +----------------+----------------+---------------------+

+   | North Carolina |       59,625   | *"Less than 6,000"* |

+   +----------------+----------------+---------------------+

+   | South Carolina |       69,242   |                     |

+   +----------------+----------------+---------------------+

+   | Alabama        |       73,474   |    *"Hardly 2,500"* |

+   +----------------+----------------+---------------------+

+   | Mississippi    |       92,605   |                     |

+   +----------------+----------------+---------------------+

+   | Louisiana      |       57,086   |           *"1,147"* |

+   +----------------+----------------+---------------------+

+

+

+.. table:: *TABLE* \5

+   :width: 100%

+   :align: center

+   :aligns: left right right right right right right

+   :summary: 1872-1904 Republican vote in the six states.

+

+   +-------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

+   | REPUBLICAN VOTE IN THE SIX STATES; VOTE AFTER                 |

+   | DISFRANCHISEMENT SCORED. (World Almanac of 1904.)             |

+   +-------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

+   | YEAR  | VA.     | NORTH   | SOUTH  | ALA.   | MISS.  | LA.    |

+   |       |         | CAR.    | CAR.   |        |        |        |

+   +=======+=========+=========+========+========+========+========+

+   | \1872 |  93,468 |  94,783 | 72,290 | 90,272 | 82,175 | 59,975 |

+   +-------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

+   | \1876 |  76,093 | 108,419 | 92,081 | 68,230 | 52,605 | 75,315 |

+   +-------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

+   | \1880 |  83,639 | 115,874 | 58,071 | 56,178 | 34,854 | 38,016 |

+   +-------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

+   | \1884 | 139,356 | 125,068 | 21,733 | 59,144 | 43,509 | 46,347 |

+   +-------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

+   | \1888 | 150,438 | 134,784 | 13,736 | 57,197 | 30,096 | 30,701 |

+   +-------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

+   | \1892 | 113,217 | 100,846 | 13,384 |  9,197 |  1,406 | 26,563 |

+   +-------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

+   | \1900 | 115,865 | 133,081 |  3,579 | 55,512 |  5,753 | 14,234 |

+   +-------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

+   | \1904 |  47,880 |  82,442 |  2,554 | 22,472 |  3,189 |  5,205 |

+   +-------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

+

+

+..

+

+   .. class:: smaller

+

+      | 1872, 1876, Va., N.C., S.C., Ala. (Tribune Almanac of 1896.)

+      | 1872, Louisiana (World Almanac.)

+      | 1892, Louisiana (Republican and Populists.)

+      | 1892, N.C.; 1900, 1904 (Due to Populists.)

+

+Every fresh barrier erected in the South simply publishes to the world

+the weakness and inefficiency of those already raised. Each time

+dishonest methods are newly justified, and violent declarations,

+applauded, fresh evidence is given that these Southern men cannot on its

+merits win their case. The policy of white domination is stripped to

+unblushing nakedness, and confident of the fear of those who remained

+for two hundred years enslaved, the South narrows the issue to one of

+physical courage, inviting the Negro to wrest from her the power, which

+stands between him and justice, freedom, happiness. *It is not then in

+the ignorance, laziness, and vice of the Negro, that the white South

+trusts, for the continuance of her policy, but in his defencelessness.*

+

+*To these Southern men, we can make but one reply. Unmistakably our

+courage is the issue.* But before considering how best to treat their

+sinister challenge, let us answer to the Republican party the question:

+What does justice to the Negro demand? Our reply is simple,—the

+fulfillment of the promise, which was treasured up in the hearts of four

+million men as they passed through the doors of slavery into the light

+of freedom;—the promise, which they have left to their children as

+their one priceless inheritance: "The guarantee by Congress of equal

+suffrage to all loyal men at the South was demanded by every

+consideration of public safety, of gratitude and of justice, and must be

+maintained"—this was the promise of the Republican party in 1868. The

+freedman appeals to the creator of his political rights, as Tennyson to

+the Creator of his being:—

+

+   | Thou wilt not leave us in the dust;

+   | Thou madest man, he *knows* not why;

+   | He thinks he was not made to die;

+   | And Thou hast made him,—Thou art just.

+

+Is it then fair to leave to us the vindication of the Reconstruction

+policy against men of the South, the North and even influential members

+of the party's own councils? Must we meet the charge that the Republican

+party was moved by revenge and folly, and prove that there was no other

+way to secure the foundation of freedom, which hundreds of thousands had

+died to win? Were those terrible years of death a mere night over the

+gaming table, with two haggard players, 'breaking even' at dawn? Is it

+left to us to rescue from their own sons the fame of the heroes of the

+war against slavery and restore the honorable inscriptions recorded on

+their tombs? When men talk of 'the greatest error of Reconstruction,'

+has the murder of Lincoln no claim to the place? Does not John Wilkes

+Booth better merit derisive canonizing than "Saint" John Brown? If it

+was irony for the "Reconstruction" legislatures to impose heavy taxes

+upon a people who had just emerged from a ruinous war and by bonded

+indebtedness extend the obligation to future generations, was it not

+also irony to punish and re-enslave by vagrancy laws the men who without

+an acre or a dollar were now *called* free?

+

+And if it *was* hate, and revenge, and folly, which brought about the

+'War Amendments,' can they be honorably withdrawn now? Is there no

+doctrine in law, which forbids one's renouncing an act after he has

+profited by it? But could the elections have been won and the policies

+maintained without the aid of the colored voter? Is there need of a

+statute of limitations to stop a political party from withdrawing the

+promises upon which it has encouraged millions of trusting people to

+build for forty years? Can it be honestly claimed that three-fourths of

+the States of the Union gave the ballot to the slave just out of the

+slave pen, with the implied condition that if he failed to prove himself

+able from the outset to resist temptation to childish indulgence and

+childish dishonesty, seduced as he was by the Northern men whom

+gratitude bade him trust and follow, he should lose it forever? Is this

+the Eden where we met our "fall?" A sober Anglo-Saxon definition of

+justice is given by Sidgwick: "Justice is realized (1) in the observance

+of law, and contracts, and definite understandings, and in the

+enforcement of such penalties for the violation of these as have been

+legally determined and announced; and (2) in the fulfilment of natural

+and normal expectations." That the nation's laws will be upheld is the

+first requirement of justice. [6]_

+

+.. [6] Here is an instance of a President's devotion to existing

+   laws: **With the Confederate government fully installed two weeks

+   before**,—Lincoln said in his inaugural address, that "he had no

+   purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution

+   of slavery." Is a manual needed in the United States to tell for

+   what purposes and under what circumstances the law will be enforced?

+

+But yet again are we brought back to the ignorance, shiftlessness and

+criminality of the Negro. Their fathers, so say these wiser Northern

+sons, could not know of these evils, which to them have been revealed.

+No, they could not: had their lives been spared till now there had been

+no such evils to reveal. Under freedom's blaze ignorance was sucked up

+as the stagnant waters from a pool. With nearly the entire number of

+slaves illiterate, with no schools yet built, and only those large

+hearted teachers to face the enormous educational work whose

+ministrations to the needy were their only pay, more was done in the

+years just after the liberation of the slaves, to remove, their

+ignorance, than twenty-five thousand teachers in hundreds of schools

+have done in the last decade since. [7]_ Progress in earning and saving

+corresponded. And there was little increase of crime. A few years more

+of the sunlight and who doubts that these charges could never have been

+brought against us! And by whom are we charged with being criminal?

+Surely not by the South?

+

+.. [7] Per cent. of illiteracy.

+

+   Colored population in 1860 4,441,830.

+

+   Of this about 9 per cent. (488,070) was free—perhaps ½ of this

+   was literate, i.e., about 5 per cent. of the whole.

+

+           Equal 95 per cent. or higher.

+

+   Colored population above 10 years in 1870 equal whole

+   population, 4,880,009, less 28.7 per cent. equals under 10

+   leaving 3,464,806. Above 10, unable to write, 2,789,689.

+

+           Equal 80 per cent.

+

+   Colored population above 10 years in 1880 4,601,207. Above 10,

+   unable to write, 3,220,878.

+

+           Equal 70 per cent.

+

+   Colored population above 10 years in 1890 5,328,972. Above 10,

+   unable to write, 3,042,668.

+

+           Equal 57.1 per cent.

+

+   Colored population above 10 years in 1900 6,415,581. Above 10,

+   unable to write, 2,853,194.

+

+           Equal 44.5 per cent.

+

+Is it credible that our millions lived under the benign influence of

+slavery, almost without crime and continued even after the Emancipation

+Act to live peacefully and honestly:—and then, upon the passage of the

+14th Amendment dropped suddenly from this moral zenith? Such sudden

+transformations are not natural: either slavery made the criminality of

+the African: or held it in a grip barely strong enough to prevent its

+issue in acts of violence: or, else this record of crime is false. One

+of these three explanations, we cannot choose but accept. The South at

+least, cannot admit the first, for slavery, they declared, even before

+God at His Altar, to be a benign institution; neither can they admit the

+second, for it, too, is inconsistent with the gentleness and benignity

+of slavery. But will they admit the third? "Nine tenths of the illicit

+gains," says James Bryce, speaking of Reconstruction, "went to the

+whites." Into like parts, Woodrow Wilson divides the responsibility and

+the discredit. "Negroes," he writes, constituted the majority of their

+electorates, but political power gave them no advantage of their own.

+Adventurers swarmed out of the North, to cozen, beguile and use them....

+They gained the confidence of the Negroes, obtained for themselves the

+more lucrative offices, and lived upon the public treasury, public

+contracts and their easy control of affairs. For the Negroes there was

+nothing but occasional allotments of abandoned or forfeited land, the

+pay of petty offices, a per-diem allowance as members of the

+conventions, and the state legislatures, which their new masters made

+business for, or the wages of servants in the various offices of

+administration. Their ignorance and credulity made them easy dupes. A

+petty favor, a slender stipend, a trifling perquisite, a bit of poor

+land, a piece of money satisfied, or silenced them." This is the record

+of crime until the quickly passing day of freedom was ended. And if

+crime has increased since, so presently will ignorance increase and

+idleness unless their growth is checked by the restoration of freedom

+and justice and hope. Punishment will fail to stop the growth of

+idleness, vice and crime, as it has always failed, and if brutal

+punishments are next resorted to when milder ones have failed, one

+sickens at the prospect. Can Southern, abetted by Northern men strew the

+earth with the seeds of accursed slavery, bastardy and treason, secret

+conspiracy, callous, sneering fraud and the brutality of the mob, and

+think to stop by lynching the harvest of black duplicity, bred of fear,

+and black criminality, bred of misery and hate,—when they have gathered

+enough of the fruits to make an exhibit of Negro vice? The departure of

+lynching waits for two events: the breeding of the animal out the most

+wretched Negroes until they find greater satisfaction in something

+higher than sensuality and revenge; and the breeding of savage cruelty

+out of the white man until he can find pleasure in something more humane

+than torture by fire. As our counsellors bid us turn our attention to

+the dark side of our life, we bid them turn theirs from it. Your boasted

+civilization on its under side is but a progress from rape to adultery,

+from brute to devil. The savage honors the brute and tortures the devil;

+the civilized man tortures or crushes the brute and honors the devil.

+There is a pitcher plant of California, which is so described: Above a

+funnel shaped stem, it flaunts a crimson banner. The hood of the flower

+is transparent, so that the wary are caught even in their efforts to

+flee. From the mouth downwards the walls exude intoxicating sweets but

+multitudinous hairs, all pointing downward, lower the victim farther

+with every struggle. At its bottom a charnel heap, poisoning the air.

+Such plants flourish amidst civilization, and millions are their

+victims, who debauch their appetites until their intellects shrink to

+the size of their already shrunken consciences, and they are helpless to

+do anything but die. Liberty *is* perilous, a very 'valley of the shadow

+of death,' but the history of every nation which has lived and died

+teaches us that the danger of a false step is even greater near the end

+of the journey than at the beginning. Egypt, Assyria, Judea, Greece,

+Rome—the history of every nation is a light-house marking a *reef* in

+the harbor of humanity.

+

+When Cain had killed Abel, he hid the body, and when God called,

+replied, "Am I my brother's keeper?" A chill foreboding comes over us

+with these Northern doubts of the wisdom of Reconstruction, and we

+cannot refrain from wondering if the North still retains the sense of

+duty of 61; if the North can do, can even will to do justice. And here

+let us turn from our first question: What does justice to the Negro

+demand? To the second: What can the Negro do to get justice? My end has

+been reached if there is felt more than before the need of answering the

+latter question.

+

+Underlying the civil laws of the nation are certain high ideals. The

+fidelity of the nation to these is measured by the quality and the force

+of public opinion. Just as long therefore as the republic endures, the

+executive, legislative and judicial powers will obey the people's will.

+To this oracle the rulers have again appealed, and its answer has been

+an expression of renewed and increased confidence in the Republican

+party. The hour of the new administration has almost come, and the

+message may be now on its way to the country that the party pledges are

+to be redeemed. It may be that there are brighter days before us; but

+if, as in the past, we stand on no securer footing than two men

+wrestling on a steep and icy hill-side, where both roll over and over,

+and there is no chance between throwing and being thrown,—then it

+matters not whether we appeal to President, or Congress, or Supreme

+Court; to the 14th or 15th amendment, for the righting of our wrongs.

+

+Congress is empowered to enforce the 14th and 15th amendments by

+appropriate legislation. Such legislation has been enacted and by one

+President, at least, enforced. But, now, it is held that it must be

+shown that the amendments are being violated, and this cannot be done

+until the Supreme Court fully interprets them. What a mockery it has all

+become! Insolently, sneeringly, the violators of the plain intent of the

+law rise from their seats in Congress and demand how far they are going

+to be obliged to walk around these Amendments instead of kicking them

+aside. By law, or by force, colored men are being deprived of the right

+to hold office; by law or by force excluded from the jury; by law or by

+force sent into slavery for crimes of which they were convicted by these

+juries from which they are excluded; by law or by force, they are being

+disfranchised. The alternative is clear. Southern men do not evade it.

+The revised Constitutions stand boldly for disqualification by law.

+Southern Congressmen in debate as boldly proclaim the force. More

+cautiously Mr. Murphy testifies to the same effect, denying that "the

+abuse of discretionary power by the registrars of elections,—an abuse

+which the State permits, but which the State does not necessitate or

+prescribe, brings the State within reach of the penalties of the

+Constitution."

+

+If not by law then the Constitution is nullified by force, and it

+becomes the duty of Congress to maintain it. But is Congress so near the

+performance of this obligation that we can profitably advise as to the

+method? Shall we say that candidates for Congress, by force or fraud

+elected, shall be refused their seats or that an election bill shall be

+passed, guaranteeing just laws; or that the penalty clause of the 14th

+Amendment shall be first enforced? At least, we had better wait until

+the House has reversed the policy outlined by its Committee on

+Elections, whose concluding words in the Dantzler-Lever case

+follow:—

+

+   "However desirable it may be for a legislative body to retain

+   control of the decision as to the election and qualification

+   of its members, it is quite certain that a legislative body is

+   not the ideal body to pass judicially upon the

+   constitutionality of the enactments of other bodies. We have

+   in this country a proper forum for the decision of

+   constitutional and other judicial questions. If any citizen of

+   South Carolina who was entitled to vote under the constitution

+   of that State in 1868 is now deprived by the provisions of the

+   present constitution, he has the right to tender himself for

+   registration and for voting, and in case his right is denied,

+   to bring suit in a proper court for the purpose of enforcing

+   his right or recovering damages for its denial.

+

+   "That suit can be carried by him, if necessary, to the Supreme

+   Court of the United States. If the United States Supreme Court

+   shall declare in such case that the "fundamental conditions"

+   in the reconstruction acts were valid and constitutional and

+   that the State constitutions are in violation of those acts,

+   and hence invalid and unconstitutional every state will be

+   compelled to immediately bow in submission to the decision.

+   The decision of the Supreme Court would be binding and would

+   be a positive declaration of the law of the land which could

+   not be denied or challenged.

+

+   "On the contrary, the decision of the House of

+   Representatives upon this grave judicial question would not

+   be considered as binding or effective in any case except the

+   one acted upon or as a precedent for future action in the

+   House itself.

+

+   "A majority of the Committee on Elections No. v doubt the

+   propriety in any event of denying these Southern States

+   representation in the House of Representatives pending a final

+   settlement of the whole question in proper proceedings by the

+   Supreme Court of the United States. Some of the members of the

+   committee believe the "fundamental conditions" set forth in

+   the reconstruction acts to be valid and the constitutions and

+   election laws of these States to be in conflict with such

+   conditions, and hence to be invalid.

+

+   "Some of the members of the committee believe the "fundamental

+   conditions" set forth in the reconstruction acts to be invalid

+   and the constitutions and election laws of the States claimed

+   to be in conflict with such conditions to be valid. Some

+   members of the committee have formed no opinion and express no

+   belief upon the subject.

+

+   "Your Committee on Elections No. i therefore respectively

+   recommend the adoption of the following resolution:

+

+   "'*Resolved*. That Alexander D. Dantzler was not elected a

+   member of the Fifty-eighth Congress from the Seventh

+   Congressional district of South Carolina, and is not entitled

+   to a seat therein.'"

+

+If not by force then the Constitution is nullified by law, and the

+Supreme Court must be looked to to maintain its vigor. Turning to the

+Supreme Court, what do we find to be its answer? In the following words,

+the Court concludes in the case of Giles vs Teasley, (the 4th Alabama

+case) decided Feb. 23d, 1904:—(from this decision Justice Harlan

+dissented.)

+

+   "It is apparent that the thing complained of, so far as it

+   involves rights secured under the Federal Constitution, is the

+   action of the State of Alabama in the adoption and enforcing

+   of a constitution with the purpose of excluding from the

+   exercise of the right of suffrage the Negro voters of the

+   State, in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment to the

+   Constitution of the United States. The great difficulty of

+   reaching the political action of a State through remedies

+   afforded in the courts, State or Federal, was suggested by

+   this court in *Giles v. Harris, supra*.

+

+   "In reaching the conclusion that the present writs of error

+   must be dismissed the court is not unmindful of the gravity of

+   the statements of the complainant charging violation of a

+   constitutional amendment which is a part of the supreme law of

+   the land; but the right of this court to review the decisions

+   of the highest court of a State has long been well settled,

+   and is circumscribed by the rules established by law. We are

+   of opinion that plaintiffs in error have not brought the

+   cases within the statute giving to this court the right of

+   review."

+

+Far be it from me to imply that the Supreme Court will never decide the

+State constitutional clauses to be in violation of the national

+constitution; but as Von Holst has said: "The wit of man is not equal to

+the task in the shaping of political life of inventing forms which may

+not be employed as weapons against their own legitimate substance or

+contents." The law, it might be added, without strong-siding conscience,

+is a mere magician's handkerchief, and surely we can no longer think of

+ante-election promises embodied in the Republican party platform as

+binding obligations.

+

+To those who ask: how long shall men wait for justice? I can only

+answer: Wait we must, but we need not idly wait. Our future is largely

+our own to make. Our radius of activity is slowly enlarging. Our daily

+question: what shall we do? settles into a demand for a defined policy.

+A bitter and perplexed,—What shall I do?—we are coming to find "worse

+than worst necessity." Mere agitation, we know will not suffice. The

+country is not floating upon a rising tide of indignation at the

+unjustness of our treatment, as it was fifty years ago. And even if the

+doing of justice hung upon the casting of a die, I do not know why the

+throw should be the higher for violent shaking of the box. Some sort of

+planning of our future and united effort of at least a few to realize

+their plans is indispensable.

+

+Resolved, therefore, that we strive for all happiness whatsoever, which

+may be fairly won. A good name and a level glance from those around us

+are essentials of happiness. If that is social equality, then, resolved

+that we strive for social equality. "This," says Cable, "is a fool's

+dream." If so let us not shrink along with Christ, to be called fools.

+Once past slavery there is no insuperable barrier between us and

+freedom. Where is this line between civil and private rights? Is not the

+path from one to the other continuous? Workshops and offices, public

+conveyances, the theatre, hotels and restaurants, apartment-houses, the

+boarding table, barber-shops and bath rooms, the public school and

+college, the scientific society, the church, the alumni dinner, the

+church sociable—in city, town and village:—what are these but the way

+to the home? [8]_ There is an upward slope from slavery, where a man is

+a thing, to freedom, where a man is a man. Millions, the better part of

+mankind, live and die on the hill-side; but all push on, as long as hope

+and manhood survive. That those above should acknowledge the brotherhood

+of those below and descend to help them is not to be generally expected;

+for that requires such love of their fellows as few possess. It *is

+foolish* then to *demand* the concession of social equality; but it

+is quite as *cowardly* to give up obtaining it, as long as an upward way

+exists. That the path is open is proved by the cry of those who hate us:

+Turn the hill-side into a precipice,—slavery is the only alternative to

+equality; build an unscalable wall of caste founded upon the color of

+the skin, the lowest white man by law and force raised higher than the

+highest black. Yes, the first of all our resolutions must be this one,

+to strive for social equality.

+

+.. [8] That public conveyances come within the social sphere is

+   asserted by Burgess: Reconstruction and the Constitution pp. 150——

+

+   "During the winter and spring of 1867-8 the work of these

+   conventions went on under the greatest extravagance and

+   incompetence of every kind. (The constitutions which came from

+   them provided for complete equality in civil rights, and **in

+   some cases, in advantages of a social character, such as equal

+   privileges in public conveyances etc."**)

+

+Not only, however, our indomitable instinct, but an urgent reason makes

+this our foremost consideration. National responsibilities, great civic

+or industrial responsibilities we are as yet cut off from. Through

+*private relations then we must educate ourselves to the realization,

+that only through the just performance of duties can true rights be

+won*. As we perform our trust over a few things will we perform our

+trust over many. Already we are reminded that our claims as individuals

+are mixed with those of the mass of our people. In vain we urge our

+greater culture or refinement, we are judged by the average of our race.

+In our own interest then, if not from a higher motive, we must turn to

+the lifting of our fellows. Our solidarity is already great: let us hold

+to it and increase it. Far from being a curse it is a people's greatest

+blessing. Yet we are losing it; our fellow sympathy and active

+helpfulness are not as great as were our fathers'. This is of crucial

+importance, since our best chance of winning friends among the women and

+poor of the other race is by justice to the women and poor of our own.

+And it is the women and the poor of the other race that we need most to

+win: for it were hard to say which is the greater obstacle to our

+progress, those left behind among the race ahead, or those left behind

+among our own. We must face sex inequality and class inequality among

+ourselves, *lest we bitterly denounce others' injustice when the same

+spirit of uncharitableness is deep buried in our own natures*.

+

+Why is there such intense emphasis placed upon this issue of social

+equality? Largely because it arouses the jealousy of the white woman and

+the white poor. She, with her heart full of fear and distrust, is the

+first to shut the door upon the stranger. The next step after being a

+slave is wanting one; and she, who has been for untold ages in forced

+servitude to man clings jealously to that social order which provides a

+place for another more to be pitied than she. She, it is who holds the

+keys of the home, and with them, of church, school, restaurant, theatre

+and car.

+

+And with women are joined the poor. *They* bar our way to industrial

+employment; they stand guard over the polls. Why? Because they have

+learned uncharitableness in the school of bitter experience; because

+they, who have themselves never known aught but inequality, cannot even

+*think* of an even balance between men. *Of little avail, then, the

+wisdom and bounty of the few enlightened, when the serried ranks of the

+masses bar our upward way*.... As each occasion of hardship or slight

+works upon them,—high prices made by monopoly, failure of strikes, the

+miseries of war, unequal laws, the scorn of the rich and

+well-born,—they turn and empty the full reservoir of their discontent,

+through the ever open vent of race hatred upon any that are weaker than

+they. And ever and again the crafty among the ruling class, discovering

+this means of averting danger to themselves make haste to profit by it.

+The greater our show of progress,—the more active the resentment of

+these classes of those above us becomes. Upon the removal of this

+antagonism much of the welfare of the Republic as well as our own

+depends, and I know of no other way to accomplish it than through

+fairness to the women and poor of our own race. Then those just ahead

+will see that they have no cause to fear that among us are to be found a

+new set of masters to make fresh multitudes of slaves. We cannot, then,

+afford to go on, confident that justice and wisdom will prevail; for the

+best among ourselves know how difficult it is to be just and wise. Let

+us who know the way to justice and can follow it, but strive to do so,

+and others, and yet others will be drawn into the current until its

+pressure becomes too great to resist.

+

+Resolved, secondly, that we will continue to form party ties from

+fundamental principle and not momentary prospect of advantage. Last of

+all classes, can we afford to consider trimming our political sails to

+catch a chance breeze. Before it can even be granted that we hold the

+actual balance of power, this opportunism must have become our settled

+policy,—else we are *not* the most precarious body of voters. But

+suppose we were able to bargain for our vote, how wise would it be to do

+so? Can our voters afford to indulge in a prospect of profit to be

+obtained from their franchise? No, beyond question, our position is yet

+too insecure to warrant our driving a bargain with the Republican party,

+backed by the threatened withdrawal of our ballots. For not only would

+an artificial value, given to our vote because it was pivotal,—which,

+to repeat, it could only be if it were the most precarious,—double its

+venality, but the likelihood of our being put off with mere promises

+would be increased. Would not the prize be made just tempting enough to

+keep us vainly hoping? Would the rich with all their abundance do more

+than "rub our chains with crumbs?" We have all to fight to keep up our

+faith in the Republican party and its fidelity to the pledges of forty

+years, but all our political funds are invested with it, and unless in

+pursuit of some better principle than gratitude the time has not yet

+come to withdraw them.

+

+Resolved, thirdly, that we will contend for the political and social

+rights we crave, by modern rules of war, using every protective means we

+can, but scorning every dishonorable stratagem. Under the present stress

+a line of division is appearing between those among us who believe in

+open, and those who believe in secret methods of protection. In spite

+however of the merciless fire we are subjected to by the press, which

+makes any one a mark, who so much as strikes a match, we will resolutely

+oppose secret bodies, secret measures, secret policies. Nothing so

+quickly brings out all the cruelty of hatred as fear of secret danger.

+Let not the awful power and unrebuked successes of Ku Klux Klan or white

+caps mislead us. We must be free from the charge of having suggested

+*even* such means to those whom oppression has made desperate, but for

+whom imitation would spell merciless revenge without even the check of

+Northern censure. And another evil scarce less results: a premium is

+hereby put upon treachery. Temptation is already too great to those

+among us who might be induced to betray.

+

+On the other hand, no reasonable precaution should be left untaken. Our

+position is hardly yet so perilous that we need seek the mountains,

+deserts or swamps for safety. Other protective measures however should

+be sought. First among these, is organization, which, however is only

+worthful when there is real community of interest and feeling. These it

+will be hard to secure without neighborhood and common business

+dealings. By such means too, we shall better come under the protection

+of the common law, with its broad mantle spread over all contractual

+relations. It is hard to get justice wholesale, harder still when one

+cannot offer the market price. The earlier resolutions leading up to the

+15th Amendment forbade restriction of the franchise on account of creed,

+ignorance or poverty. These additions were laid aside before the passage

+of the bill. The Civil Rights bill in its earlier stages required

+equality in the public schools and the jury service. These failed first.

+The best help—this cannot be said too often—is self-help.

+Self-dependence will not only strengthen our own defenses, but it has a

+value yet higher—it strengthens the Republic. Appealing as we now do to

+central authority, embodied in the Republican party, we help

+unconsciously to build up centralized power. This disadvantage of our

+faithful adherence to that party must be confessed. By striving to

+obtain land and independent businesses, and towards municipal political

+privileges, we will increase our responsibilities, our interest in good

+government and our stake in the democracy of America,—and by so doing

+become sturdier defenders of the Republic. To the man *who works*, the

+man who *wants and consumes*, in short to every man belong the common

+benefits and privileges due to his common humanity; but if we mean to

+secure these heights which in the United States only have yet been won,

+we must win firm ground to stand on. The law is not grounded in such

+principles, he who would fight for the rights of men, must be *more*

+than a mere man to get standing in her courts.

+

+By such protective measures we may so shield ourselves from attack, that

+if any should wish to destroy us they must first destroy what they have

+themselves built. This means much: but who so thoughtless as to suppose

+that ownership of land and home, or business interests or even municipal

+or other corporate franchises,—with the knowledge needed to maintain

+them—are of themselves enough! Who so weak as to trust in mere

+segregation, that if we only stay on our side of a high board fence we

+will be let alone! What of Africa? What of China? What so absurd as

+unguarded wealth? The day of high board fences is passing. While

+segregation will supply certain opportunities, which we may profit by,

+if we use them as stepping-stones to higher things, it can only do so,

+if there is courage to defend what has been won. Without courage no man

+can hope to keep anything another covets. *Somewhere in the foreground

+of all our policies,—if we are true men and women,—must be the

+determination to part with them only at a reasonable price.* Let common

+sense, and scorn of dishonesty, or pretence, guide us in moulding them,

+but then let us adhere to them. Let all be done in God's name, as does

+the man who builds an altar, gathers wood, then cleanses himself from

+all impurity before he approaches it to do sacrifice. When these steps

+have been taken, we may appeal to the God of justice, and with the

+confidence of him who dares ask, and receive an answering sign from

+Heaven, strike for the right.

+

+The Negro Vote in the States Whose Constitutions Have Not Been Specifically Revised—*JOHN HOPE*

+================================================================================================

+

+So much has been said about almost every phase of the so-called "Race

+Problem," so many good things and so many bad things, that we are apt to

+believe all has been said that can be said and to wish that if there is

+anything that has not yet been said, it may remain unsaid. Certainly

+little that is new can be said on the franchise until we have some new

+developments. You will get nothing new from me. I am to speak on a

+current topic that is as well known to you as to me. Yet it is sometimes

+helpful to hear your own thoughts expressed by some one else. With this

+possibility of doing a service, I apologize for having consented to

+write on the subject of "Negro Suffrage in the States whose

+Constitutions have not been Specifically Revised." But even here I feel

+unable to speak about all these States and prefer to confine myself to

+my own state, for of this I may speak with the assurance that comes from

+contact.

+

+The State of Georgia probably shows as little revulsion and reversion of

+sentiment and law as any distinctly Southern state, except perhaps

+Texas, since the Reconstruction period. Republican rule was short lived

+and, while it remained, was less aggressive and revolutionary than in

+other states. The population has been fairly evenly divided between the

+two races with a majority always on the white side. The agrarian class

+has been less powerful than in some Southern states and the ignorance of

+both races has been rather mitigated and softened by centres of

+information, towns and cities, less remotely distant from one another

+than is the case in several other Southern states, railroads and

+factories exerting a great influence in this respect. So Georgia may be

+taken as a type of those states in which the best things have happened

+or rather the worst things have not happened for Colored people.

+

+Of course, in Reconstruction times Georgia Democrats did act harshly,

+but my remarks rather have to do with the period after that. For

+instance, more than thirty Colored Republicans were expelled from the

+Georgia legislature and the state had to have a sort of second

+reconstruction before it was finally recognized by the United States

+Government.

+

+Georgia had only one Republican governor, and sent to the National House

+of Representatives at least one Colored Representative. But for many

+years, even this has been a thing of the past. White men have held all

+offices, occasionally having the monotony of complexion broken by a

+Colored representative from Camden, McIntosh or Liberty county in the

+state legislature.

+

+The passing of the Republican party in the state as an aggressive

+elective organization has been due to several causes, but so hidden and

+studied have two of them been, so free from shotguns, leaving out, of

+course, the Ku Klux and Patrollers of the '60's and '70's, that you

+cannot lay your hands on these causes so easily as in some other states

+where the change has been revolutionary and sudden rather than gradual.

+You will notice that I say Republican party, for when the Colored vote

+was most effective it was organized by the Republican party. One of the

+causes of this passing of the Republican vote was intimidation at the

+polls on election day, threats and intimidation before the day in

+communities of Colored people, and official rascality in the counting of

+ballots actually cast. Probably, as a result of these a third cause

+came—the indifference of the state and municipal Republican

+organizations to making a canvass for the state and city officers.

+

+Then the Colored vote began to divide on Democratic candidates and was

+exceedingly effective, holding the balance of power, as it did, in

+choosing white Democratic governors, congressmen, state legislators,

+city and county officers. This went well for awhile, but white

+office-seekers soon began to fear this Colored balance of power. They

+wanted their certainty of a majority of the white vote to guarantee

+their office; so the Georgia legislature passed a law making it legal to

+have primaries to nominate candidates for office and also throwing such

+safeguards about the management of primaries as aimed to secure lawful

+practices on these occasions. Here was a perfectly harmless movement,

+apparently harmless. The next step was made by the Democratic party

+assembled in State Convention when it decided that candidates for state

+and county officers on the Democratic ticket should be nominated by a

+primary, but leaving the conduct of the primary to the community in

+which it might be held, provided this should not run counter to the

+primary law as passed by the State. Here too, was a perfectly fair and

+harmless provision, apparently fair and apparently harmless. But the way

+was then open for the primary to take on a local coloring. In

+communities where the colored vote was an embarrassment, the Democratic

+party there decided to have a *white* primary. In one of these

+communities a colored man that I know went to vote at the primary. He

+was a "good Negro" a very good Negro, his goodness dating back to the

+time when the "Yankees" were about to confiscate his master's cotton and

+he claimed the cotton as his. Even this transaction did not enlarge his

+cranium, and after saving his master thousands of dollars and gradually

+amassing a fortune for himself, he still knew how to approach his former

+master from the kitchen door. Well, this good Negro went to cast his

+ballot. The courteous man at the polls said: "George, this is a

+Democratic primary." "Yes," said George, "but I am a Democrat." "Well,"

+said the courteous gentleman, "but George, this is a *white* primary."

+This colored man found himself without a Republican for whom he might

+vote, and was informed that the Democratic party was a close corporation

+so far as the Colored man was concerned. This is quite interesting when

+I tell you that white Republicans, avowedly Republicans, have not only

+been permitted but even requested to participate in the primaries of the

+Democratic and Populist parties.

+

+The reason for the elasticity of the primary is quite evident, that is,

+why Colored people are allowed to take part in the primary in one

+community and not in another, or why they are allowed at one time to

+vote and at another time in that same community are not allowed to vote.

+The purpose is to have the Colored voters as a harmless balance of power

+between the Democrats and any other party that may show strength, that

+is, to have the Colored man to settle disputes among white people

+without becoming obstreperous because of this valuable assistance. There

+were some communities where the Populists used the Colored voter to

+defeat Democrats and others where the Democrats used this vote to defeat

+Populists. Of the State as a whole, it may be said that Populism was

+defeated by the Colored voters espousing the Democratic side. And be it

+said to the common sense and good reason of many Democrats that this

+fact is acknowledged and to an extent appreciated by the party now in

+power—to the extent at least of staving off any further

+disfranchisement measures thus far.

+

+But the most flagrant high-handedness and palpable confession of purpose

+on the part of white people with reference to our citizenship rights is

+to be found in a state legislative enactment that looks to the municipal

+management of two Georgia towns where the Colored voters are so

+overwhelmingly in the majority that ordinary subterfuges would not

+fulfill the requirement. Darien and St. Mary's are two coast towns with

+a large Colored population. The mayor and aldermen are not elected by

+the voters in these towns; but, instead, these towns enjoy the unique

+distinction of being managed by officials appointed by the governor of

+the State. What is more simple; what more high-handed; what more

+un-Democratic and subversive of national principles of government than

+this?

+

+Now let us ask the question: Can the Colored man cast his ballot in

+Georgia?

+

+In the first place, any party of any race may hold a primary.

+

+Second, any man of any party or race may vote in the *general* election

+for any candidate he may wish.

+

+Let us ask next, whether these ballots will be counted? That depends

+entirely upon whether the need is to count them or destroy them; or

+furthermore, to count them as ballots for some one for whom they were

+not cast. The election boards and the management at the polls are not

+bipartisan and the party in power may do what it chooses.

+

+We raise the question now whether it is for our best interest

+economically to exercise the franchise? Do men vote to help their

+economic interests? Are not taxation and other fiscal policies settled

+by the ballot? May not property be enhanced or lessened in value by

+voters? Colored people have some real estate and securities, but their

+practical capital is their labor; yet they have not the least power, the

+real power, of influencing legislation in reference to a single labor

+measure that may arise, although in Georgia nearly half the population

+is colored and in the laboring class the colored people are in the

+majority. Now suppose, as white union labor in the South grows stronger,

+it should influence such legislation as would eliminate colored labor

+where it came into competition with white labor, the colored laborer

+would be politically powerless to resist this legislation. Now is this a

+mere idle dream when we reflect that within the past few months a Texas

+legislator introduced a bill to confine Colored labor to the farm

+whenever it was found in city and town communities to be competing with

+white labor.

+

+Then there is another side that really has its argument, effective,

+though perhaps not very logical. The fact that we are, as a people,

+laborers and not capitalists, makes us, as any other people similarly

+placed would be, under obligation to the capitalist who, in our case,

+are white. The point is made that to enter politics against the wishes

+of this people would raise such antagonism as to lower our earning

+power. Hence we are told to keep out of politics until we get a better

+money basis. Here we stand between two difficulties, staying out of

+politics might jeopard our earning and entering politics might jeopard

+our earnings. Many honest and thoughtful white and colored men stand on

+both sides of this question.

+

+Now, is it educationally best for us to vote? This question requires

+some amplifying. Do we mean what educational value comes from this

+training in citizenship? If so, then certainly the value is great. There

+was a time when we knew conditions in our state and town, but so little

+influence does a Colored man have in politics now that I do not even

+know the name of the alderman in my ward, although I am a registered

+voter, have paid my poll tax and voted for President Roosevelt. I know

+of nothing more benumbing to us as citizens than this deprivation. Men

+who are philosophic may consider matters that are not of material

+concern, but the average person does not load his mind and spend his

+time with things that, for one reason or another, have no concern for

+him. Any discussion as to the fitness and honesty of municipal and state

+candidates hardly touches me, as I know I cannot lift a finger to

+promote the interests of any one of them. I have no voice.

+

+There is another position from which this question may be viewed and

+that is whether the advantages from schools would be lessened or

+increased from participation in politics. It is quite evident that

+without the ballot any people are suppliant and must beg rather than

+make a manly demand. But, assuming that the lack of the ballot has

+become a condition with us, would a demand or threat about our ballot

+result in a counter threat that if we forced the issue, we should not

+only be denied our ballot, but that for our arrogance the appropriation

+for Colored public schools would be cut down and we should receive only

+what we paid in as our share of the school tax? This too, is no dream;

+but has actually been considered by colored men as a possible reason for

+not causing such antagonism as would arise from Colored men endeavoring

+to enter aggressively into politics again.

+

+What now about fears for disfranchisement such as has been compassed by

+the revised constitutions in many Southern states? Some one may say that

+there is no difference between constitutional disfranchisement and that

+*quasi* disfranchisement effective for all practical purposes such as we

+have spoken of as now obtaining in Georgia. There is a tremendous

+difference. If a wave of civic righteousness should sweep over those

+states still without constitutional disfranchisement, the primaries

+would be a very slight embarrassment to those willing to do right by all

+races alike; while in the states possessing constitutional

+disfranchisement, the reactionaries would have such means of stopping

+fair play and honest elections free for all, that they could easily

+check the purpose of the fair-minded citizens for a long while.

+

+Now, do we really have to fear disfranchisement? I say disfranchisement

+must at all times be feared and be guarded against as far as it lies

+within our power in an honorable and manly way to hold it off. Just at

+the time North Carolina and Maryland seemed most secure to us we found

+ourselves deprived of our rights; and it may be safely stated that

+whenever on a specific occasion the Colored vote exerts the balance of

+power over any considerable area, there disfranchisement may be feared.

+We need to fear disfranchisement because it is founded upon the spirit

+of injustice and that same spirit fosters it. So palpable is this, that

+the South bewails the fact. Governor Warfield in speaking about the

+repeal of the Fifteenth amendment says: "The privilege to vote could

+then be bestowed without respect to the expedient of unwise

+constitutional amendments that strain the conscience of our best people

+and arouse criticism." Yet the repeal of the Fifteenth amendment would

+not relieve those apostles of disfranchisement of the odium of violating

+the spirit of truly American democracy and of setting at naught that

+mighty decision on human rights that was rendered by the bloody

+arbitrament of war—Disfranchisement of whatever sort, if designed to

+embarrass a citizen because of his race, must always "strain the

+conscience of our best people."

+

+Does Georgia show any signs of the disfranchising spirit? We fear it

+does. The State Legislature now expects some measure of this sort at

+each session, and in recent years has not been disappointed, although

+good sense has thus far triumphed. Then again men in high places,

+congressmen and at least one of our U. S. Senators from Georgia have

+begun to say some things that may easily be construed as an advocacy of

+disfranchisement. It occurs to me that the marked difference between the

+condition in my boyhood and to-day is this: then the opposition was to

+Republicans, to-day it is to Negroes. It is not a party line, but a race

+line.

+

+Now the white primary has not done all that was claimed for it. In the

+first place it has not purified elections. Far from doing away with the

+purchase and sale of votes, it has, by lowering the supply, relatively

+increased the demand and brought up the price to a really fancy figure.

+In the second place it has failed to do that for which it was ostensibly

+introduced especially to do, namely; to put into office those men most

+eminently fitted by ability and character to administer the office to

+which they might be chosen. On the contrary, primary elections have been

+questioned on the ground of fraud; and the mayor of one very prominent

+Georgia city has been arrested for drunkenness. Then why is the primary

+kept? Well, the "fixers" for instance, can more easily fix things. With

+the Colored man's vote eliminated, the work becomes simplified and even

+though the amount of money spent illegally may now be more than the

+total amount in the days when colored as well as white were in the

+market yet those interested in "fixing" elections can now work with more

+assurance; and promises may more easily be carried out in the matter of

+delivering the goods.

+

+For instance, I know of a city election where the voters in one ward

+were so evenly divided and the candidates had calculated their strength

+so accurately, that one candidate felt safe in buying three white votes

+at the rate of one hundred ten dollars. Large corporations may now

+operate easily in state and city; and some of the most flagrant cases of

+political jobbery that have been charged against Reconstruction rule are

+easily equalled by the bare-faced graft and bribery by which large

+business interests win their way through the assistance of white voters.

+

+What are the possibilities of white aspirants bolting the primary? It is

+my impression that they are fewer than they were twenty years ago. Judge

+Gartrell once ran independently against Alexander Stephens for Governor

+and Judge Emory Speer in his younger days ran on an independent ticket;

+but such a step on the part of a candidate means outlawry for life.

+Speer was read into the Republican party, Thomas Watson into the

+Populist; and since the exile of such giants, the small fry find it easy

+to be good and not to lift their heads in rebellion, no matter what

+rascality has compassed their defeat at the Primary. No. It is my

+impression that the primary is more firmly established to-day than when

+it was first started. White unity has become white slavery; and while

+the yoke galls, the white aspirant prefers the yoke to extermination.

+

+But, suppose there should be a general Democratic "rough house" and the

+colored vote should be called in to quell the disturbance, the Colored

+voter would have no guarantee that such would mean his return to

+political standing. On the contrary, it might, as in several states,

+cause the passage of constitutional disfranchisement that would make his

+last state worse than the former. Our status is truly unenviable, and

+the ground on which we stand is exceedingly uncertain.

+

+I desire now to treat more fully what has already been touched upon: Why

+do the Republicans not nominate candidates for state, county and city

+offices and make a general canvass? There are two classes of Colored

+men, those who think the party should and those who think it should not.

+Unfortunately each of these classes makes severe charges against the

+other with reference to this matter. I much prefer to accept the

+explanations of both as honest. The following are at least some of the

+reasons for not making a canvass: first, it is difficult to get

+desirable men to accept the nomination; second, it would be still more

+difficult to secure sufficient funds to pay the ordinary and perfectly

+legitimate expenses of a campaign; third, the injustice of the party in

+power would make a fair election an impossibility. Hence a candidate

+would be doomed to defeat from the moment of his nomination and the fact

+that he and the party would know this, would make the campaign lifeless,

+futile and perfunctory. Fourth, the prominence of Colored people in

+politics and the extra trouble to which they would put the ascendant

+party might result in still further curtailment of the few rights still

+left to us.

+

+To all of this the side that clamors or appears to clamor for a ticket

+says: You assume too much, you see ghosts. Yet supposing the worst, it

+is far better to keep Colored voters organized for several reasons:

+first, because the organization gives a valuable training in citizenship

+that cannot be gained by standing aloof and waiting for better things;

+second, because if an opening should come suddenly, the Colored people

+would be better able to decide quickly and intelligently where to throw

+their strength solidly on one side or another for their own best

+interests and the interests of the government; thirdly, because a show

+of opposition to existing political injustice and repression would

+relieve us of the charge of indifference to our condition and would

+strengthen the courage of those who might champion our cause—our

+efficient, powerful champions, who have grown doubtful about our real

+manhood. I believe in the honesty of both these classes of colored men;

+and it is exceedingly difficult for a man, living in the midst of these

+conditions and knowing the temperament, attitude and unlimited power of

+the white people, to say which one of these two courses is the more

+rational and helpful to pursue.

+

+What have the Colored people lost through disfranchisement? They have

+lost the privilege of influencing legislation, since the legislator

+feels under no obligation to them. The "Jim Crow" car law, the separate

+tax bill and almost any other bill may be passed so far as pressure from

+Colored people is concerned. A very clear case is the public library in

+Atlanta which is supported by the taxes of all citizens, yet not a

+single Colored person may enter that library to read or borrow a book.

+Some months ago Mr. Carnegie offered the city ten thousand dollars for a

+library for the Colored people on the condition that the city furnish a

+lot and agree to appropriate one thousand dollars *per annum* for the

+maintenance of the library. The whole matter has been tabled and the

+Colored people have no redress, since their mayor and aldermen were

+elected without the Colored vote. Do you suppose the city of Atlanta

+would have refused so paltry a favor, if its city council were dependent

+upon our vote?

+

+Not only have we lost influence among the law makers but among those who

+interpret the law and administer justice. Neither judge nor jury has

+to consult the Colored man's wish. This independence of us makes the

+court a place of injustice as frequently as of justice, and policemen

+may be cruel with impunity.

+

+Then too, the chain-gang with its revolting influences on men and women,

+boys and girls; the lack of Negro reformatories in some places where

+they do exist for white boys find much of their meaning in the fact that

+the Colored voter cannot make sentiment and bring things to pass through

+the ballot. We have had the "Jim Crow" law forced upon us, our public

+schools have become poorer in equipment and teaching force, and the

+salary of teachers has been lowered.

+

+In a word, the loss of the franchise has changed our status to such a

+degree that we no longer demand, but beg and supplicate even for those

+fundamental needs, without which education and general improvement would

+be very doubtful.

+

+Now are there some things to be effected that are regarded as of more

+vital interest to Colored people at present than the ballot? In the face

+of what has already been said, this seems almost an unnecessary

+question, since the ballot is no abstract thing, no merely academic

+theory, but a vital agent in the promotion of improvement and happiness.

+Yet as obvious as all this seems, when people have already lost the

+ballot they may ask this question: Are there some things to be effected

+that are of more vital interest to Colored people at present than the

+ballot?

+

+I heard a sweet-spirited Colored man say at the conclusion of his

+remarks one day—he was a college president and is now in Heaven away

+from this turmoil—well I heard him say: "I have come to the conclusion

+that all we can do in this country is to take what the white man gives

+us." An eminent Colored preacher said recently in my hearing: "You can't

+drive these white folks, you must knuckle to them and you can get

+anything you want." Within the last two months an interesting white

+southern clergyman in his exhortation to Colored people to be good

+Negroes, told them not to get mad about "Jim Crow" cars and to be slow

+to urge their rights. Said he: "You Colored people are undertaking a

+heavy task when you attempt to reform the Anglo-Saxon." Now our present

+needs are numerous and vital, many growing out of the curtailment of

+privileges, a condition made possible through our lack of the ballot.

+Many Colored men believe that we can get these needs supplied most

+quickly and surely by begging and not resorting to a futile ballot;

+many, moreover, think that the voting would retard the granting of these

+much needed privileges. On the other hand, others say our condition

+grows steadily worse and our only redress, our only hope, is in the

+ballot.

+

+Now what do I believe about all this? I believe that we ought to vote,

+and I vote on every public question when the privilege is accorded me. I

+believe that our leaders ought to give us the opportunity to vote and

+let us stand forth as men, whether successful or not, willing to do all

+within our power to be full-fledged citizens. Certainly our attitude

+ought never to allow the white people to say: the Negro cares nothing

+for the franchise and does not exercise it when he does have the

+opportunity. What are we waiting for? Not more education, I hope. And

+here I must remind you that one thing is much over-talked: the

+forwardness of the Colored child and the backwardness of the white child

+in the matter of getting an education. Colored children are not being

+fitted as are white for their responsibilities. A real intellectual

+awakening is going on among the whites of the South—more and better

+school houses, better teachers and longer school terms; and the white

+children are learning with avidity. The Colored children are getting

+poor school houses, poorer teachers, more poorly paid teachers and

+shorter school terms; and we cannot change this disparity by begging the

+state and city. Unless we force better things for ourselves by the

+ballot or go into our own pockets, the next generation of colored voters

+will be relatively less prepared for the educational qualification in

+comparison with the white voter than the Colored voters of to-day. Oh!

+you say: "Pessimist, looking on the dark side." Away with that

+contemptible sentimentality and aversion to ugly facts that make some of

+my people call a man a pessimist every time he lifts a warning voice. I

+know the white country school house and the Colored country school

+house. There is a tremendous difference.

+

+Now I believe in education, but I also believe in manhood; and any

+education bought at the price of manhood is worthless and a mill-stone

+about the neck. I believe in the ballot as a developer of manhood and as

+it procures the right of men. I believe in the ballot in spite of

+threats of disfranchisement, if we use this ballot. I see no difference

+in purpose between the states that have outrightly disfranchised us and

+those states that do it stealthily or by indirection.

+

+I believe that the purpose of all is the same: a hatred for Colored

+people and a determination to have white supremacy at any cost of life

+and honor. I do not think Northern sentiment is a deterring force,

+though I think Northern sentiment *could* become a deterring force to

+disfranchisement. In the face of all this, why *delay* voting in the

+hope of better things; better *welcome* disfranchisement as *men* than

+*suffer* from it as *cowards*.

+

+The Potentiality of the Negro Vote, North and West—*JOHN L. LOVE*

+==================================================================

+

+The potential voting strength of the Negro population in the United

+States is, according to the last census, three times as great as was

+that of the white population in 1775 when the Declaration of

+Independence published to the world the modern, though sound, practical

+and eminently safe political creed that governments derive their just

+powers from the consent of the governed. The number of Negro males of

+voting age is approximately three millions, a number equal to the entire

+white population at the beginning of the war for Independence. The total

+Negro population in the United States in 1900 was three times larger

+than was the total white population which battled against King George

+and the British Parliament for the purpose of securing a voice in the

+choice of those who levy taxes and enact the laws whose weight and

+obligation fall equally upon the whole body of citizens.

+

+In the North Atlantic, the North Central, and the Western census

+divisions of the United States, the potential voting strength of the

+Negroes is more than a quarter million. It is larger than was the

+combined prohibition and socialist vote in 1900 and exceeds by nearly a

+hundred thousand the total combined vote cast for the present governors

+of the four states of Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and

+Alabama. In many sections of the North and West the Negro population is

+sparse and scattering, varying all the way from one in Scott County in

+Indiana to 63,000 in Philadelphia. Yet in many localities where there is

+almost an even balance of the two chief parties, the Negro vote is

+competent to decide the results of election. In the states of Delaware

+Indiana, Ohio, Connecticut, New Jersey, and several districts in New

+York, Massachusetts, and Illinois, a united, coherent Negro vote may

+frequently determine both local and national elections. This is shown by

+the returns in 1902 for Congressional election in four districts in

+Indiana, two in New Jersey, four in Ohio, and two in Massachusetts and

+Connecticut, where the Negro vote was of sufficient size to have thrown

+the election to either party. In state and local elections where party

+fealty is not always so strong as in national elections, owing to

+dissatisfaction with both men and measures, the potentiality of the

+Negro vote can be made very real and effective as well as respectable.

+The municipal wards and legislative districts in the large commercial

+and manufacturing centers of the North and West furnish undoubted

+opportunities for the Negro vote to make itself felt and to win regard

+and respect as far away as the United States Senate.

+

+The foregoing facts and considerations suggest interesting possibilities

+and, in view of the conditions affecting the political, civil, and

+economic well being of the people of color in the United States, they

+create a demand and an obligation with reference to the use of which the

+Negro voter should make of his right of the franchise.

+

+The chief tenet of modern political philosophy is that the participation

+of the people in the government is the only way by which their liberties

+can be guaranteed and their economic and industrial happiness

+safeguarded. Out of this conviction which has taken hold of men almost

+everywhere has resulted in the universal movement towards democracy. The

+democratic triumph which has marked the past hundred years and has been

+accompanied by marvelous achievements of human endeavor—achievements

+which could not have been accomplished except under conditions of

+freedom—has not been won without stupendous struggle and temporary

+defeats and disappointments. At every forward step, the movement has

+encountered unrelenting and seemingly irresistible opposition of

+privilege. Even here in the United States where, barring absurd

+contradictions, the spirit of democracy began so conspicuously to assert

+itself under the fostering genius of Jefferson, skillful and powerful

+resistance has been constant and implacable. Aristocratic privilege,

+intrenched in power, has grudgingly given way to the demands of manhood

+rights, and manhood suffrage, and even to-day, in the attempt to

+rehabilitate itself, it is bold enough to make the ridiculous assertion

+that the right of suffrage, even in a republican form of government, is

+not a natural and inherent right of citizenship, but merely a privilege

+to be granted or withheld at pleasure by a select few for whose assumed

+authority no power on earth or in heaven is responsible.

+

+Whatever opinions may be entertained contrary to the doctrine and

+increasing practice of government by the consent of the governed, the

+fact is undeniable that as man has gained and exercised the right of

+participation in government, special privilege for the few has had to

+give way to the condition of equal opportunity for all. Abuses have been

+swept away and the door of opportunity has been opened for all. Thus has

+the ballot proven to be man's sure and effective weapon of defense

+against tyranny and proscriptive government.

+

+All classes of our varied population, with possibly one exception, have

+recognized this truth and have acted in accordance with it. German,

+Irish, Jew; artisan, farmer and merchant—all have found the ballot a

+remedy for social, economic, and political ills that have had their

+origin in unjust laws or the partial administration of law. All have

+used it with wonderful effect towards the betterment of their condition.

+Grievances of one group have been allied with those of another group;

+industrial discontent growing out of capitalistic wrongs, political

+distempers due to governmental abuses or the enforcement of

+discriminatory laws; the deep seated consciousness of ethnic injustice

+in the industrial or political scheme—all have combined and arrayed

+themselves for redress which every branch of the political machinery has

+in the end endeavored to grant. The demands of the Slavonic yeomanry of

+the Northwest that a check be placed upon railroad combinations are not

+less effective in securing compliance than those of the merchants and

+shippers of our commercial centers that just and equal rates of

+transportation shall be enforced. The underground toilers of the mining

+regions of Pennsylvania and Illinois know that their grievances will

+receive the same respectful attention and consideration as the mandates

+of the coal barons, and they systematically scrutinize the attitude and

+the actions of public servants and hold them to a strict performance of

+promise and duty in so far as their rights and interests are concerned.

+Thus it is that in the United States as in all representative

+governments the ballot is the surest means of securing a "square deal;"

+and it is incumbent upon the three hundred thousand Negro voters of the

+north and west to recognize its value and to make the same use of it as

+is made by all other aggrieved elements of the body politic.

+

+A catalogue of the wrongs and injuries suffered by the Negro citizens of

+the United States, first on account of discriminatory and proscriptive

+legislation; secondly, on account of the failure to enforce the laws

+designed to uphold and protect their citizenship; and thirdly, on

+account of the most palpable and outrageous violation of the sacred

+rights of life, liberty and property, make the "long train of abuses and

+usurpations" committed, according to the Declaration of Independence, by

+the King of Great Britain against his colonies in America appear as the

+gentle chastisements of a benificent ruler. Of all the complex elements

+of American citizenship, the Negro is the solitary victim of legal,

+social, industrial, and political discrimination. He alone is singled

+out by the law for disparagement which fact encourages and enforces the

+multitude of civil and industrial discriminations and injuries that tend

+to deprive him of the respectability due not only to a citizen but to

+man. To the tax levy, to the obligation to bear arms for the common

+defense as well as to all other mandates of the government, he is

+equally amenable with other citizens; but he is excepted from a full

+share of the benefits of citizenship. In all stations of society and in

+all departments of government, his protests fall upon deaf or

+indifferent ears, and the very sufferings and wrongs which he suffers

+are frequently made the text for sermonizings on his short-comings. If

+the homilies published from the pulpits, in the press, and even

+sometimes from the higher branches of the government are to be believed,

+the Negro is the most unsaintly citizen of the republic, in spite of the

+fact that he seldom commits "the robust crimes of the whites" or has the

+chance to defraud the government, to wreck financial institutions, or

+rob widows and orphans.

+

+The burden of these outrages lies heavily upon the hearts and minds of

+the black men of America, yet the remedy, if they could but realize it,

+lies largely within their power. Throughout the republic, every man

+identified with the Negro race, though he may not be personally or

+locally subjected directly to the humiliations and wrongs which oppress

+and degrade the great mass of his kind, feels their bitter sting and

+resents them. In public assemblies, upon the public highways and common

+carriers, in the drawing room and around the secrecy of the fireside,

+the fact of injustice is the one inevitable and irrepressible theme of

+conversation and reflection; and the perennial and ever present question

+in the minds of all, whether of low or high degree, is *By what means

+can the situation be altered?* Men of different opinions are endeavoring

+more or less honestly to answer the question, but one of the surest and

+quickest means is at the command of the three hundred thousand Negro

+voters of the north and west, who have it in their power by an

+intelligent, united, and courageous exercise of their high privilege and

+right to demand the same respect and consideration for their interest

+and well being as any other class of men who register their wills at the

+ballot-box.

+

+Thaddeus Stevens once said that control of republics depends upon

+numbers and not upon the quality of the citizens. In the last analysis

+this is true, but in all governments by parties the smaller number is

+often more important than the larger. The strength of the Negro vote in

+the North and West in times of party crises consists not so much in the

+number of that vote as in the use which is made of it. In thirty

+northern and western cities, it can very effectively contribute to the

+improvement of existing conditions. It is wonderfully powerful, if

+intelligently directed, in the cities of Boston, Baltimore, Chicago,

+Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and New York.

+

+The effectiveness of this vote depends more upon the use which is made

+of it in local and state elections than in national elections. The bonds

+which unite the interests of the local, state and national officials

+and politicians are very real and subtle—the weakest point being always

+the local politician. His election and success often turns upon less

+than a score of votes and consequently he is not inclined to disdain a

+single voter. His interests are inseparably connected with the interests

+and ambitions of the men who occupy luxurious berths in Congress and in

+the national or state government. In all matters concerning the

+interests of the Negro, the local politician's position can be known and

+his actions are open to close view. When his acts do not accord or

+square with the interest of the colored voter, he can be left to find

+other friends and supporters.

+

+In the second place, the effectiveness and potentiality of the Negro

+vote in the North and West depends upon an absolute and courageous

+disregard of traditions. There are times when party fealty may be both

+proper and commendable. There is to be sure a great deal of hypocrisy

+and humbuggery in our political parties, yet back of these they do stand

+for certain great and vital principles. When the latter are put to the

+test our fealty may properly be demanded, but under normal conditions,

+when stress and strife of class and selfish interests, invidious

+discriminations and outrageous injustice prevail, the only safe and

+prudent course for the individual or class of individuals to pursue is

+absolute independence of parties and uncompromising devotion to the

+paramount interest. When we cannot act advantageously, we may act

+punitively, so that the public servant may know that if he ignores or

+hypocritically juggles with our interests, he will be held to a strict

+accountability. If on the eve of an election the party or the individual

+candidate attempts to cajole by a statement of principles or policy

+which is ignored after a successful contest, reprisal should be swift

+and terrible as soon as the opportunity permits.

+

+In the third place, the Negro vote of the North and West needs, if it

+does not at present lack, intelligent, honest, straightforward, and

+unselfish leadership. Until it has this, its potentiality will be *nil*.

+

+To impute dishonesty or insincerity to those who from time to time act

+in the role of leaders of the Negro voters would be unpardonably

+reprehensible. Men generally act according to their light and it is not

+an uncommon observation that the average public man gets his light

+through the medium of a self-interested reflector. Amid the competitions

+and conflicts, the struggle for place and temporary power and emoluments

+which characterize all phases of modern life and especially political

+life in the United States, the calm, clear-eyed, far-seeing man is rare.

+Yet men of unusual foresight, of clear perception of the fundamental and

+vital issues with the tact and ability to gain an advantage and an

+uncompromising determination to hold what has been gained—such is the

+type of men needed to make the Negro vote potent. The leadership which

+boasts of its capacity to keep silent under terrible wrongs is not

+calculated to carry the race far on the road towards real and permanent

+betterment.

+

+Redress of political wrongs is not the fruit of grim and sanctimonious

+silence. Whenever it has come, it has been forced by long, continuous

+and implacable outcry, and Negro leadership must follow the example of

+men in other lands and in other times who fearlessly cried out against

+the wrongs which their people suffered. In "The Making of England," John

+Richard Green states that the Roman conquerors were able to completely

+subjugate and enslave the Britons because they were able to make terms

+with their leaders. The finest skill of the dominant element in

+governments founded upon tyranny has always been employed in making

+terms with the leaders of the oppressed.

+

+Silence has its part in our fight and many times the cause has been lost

+because of failure to observe it, but it is not silence in respect to

+wrongs. Neither upon battlefields nor in the mad clash of passions and

+ambitions that mark the control of states is victory won or success

+achieved by a boisterous parade of the plan of attack. In the subtle

+operation of American political methods, silence is the sphinx that

+baffles the most astute and insinuating politician. The silent vote is a

+greater dread to the party leaders than was the sword to Damocles.

+

+The Negro ballot has almost lost its potency on account of the

+unconcerned cocksureness of one political party that the other

+side will not get the benefit of it. The party managers have no

+concern about the certainty of the Negro vote and therefore

+spend all of their effort in trying to satisfy the demands of the

+other elements and are never able to know whether or not they

+have succeeded until the vote is counted. They fear the silent

+vote. It is thoughtful, analytic, decisive. It scans, records, and

+registers every dodge, retreat, and juggle which the honorable

+candidate or the party has been guilty of in matters which concern

+it.

+

+In the exercise of the suffrage, the Negro voter has never been

+indifferent to the best and noblest interests of the republic. For more

+than forty years he has voted with the majority of his fellow countrymen

+on all the great questions which have divided the people. This he has

+done out of regard more for what men have considered the welfare of the

+country than for what he has deemed advantageous to himself. There is

+now a need of a change. He must now consider his well-being and safety

+identical with the well-being and safety of the republic and must

+require all men who seek his vote to consider it likewise.

+

+To-day we are on the eve of a great national festival. The peaceful

+succession of government is a boon not enjoyed by all the peoples of the

+world. It is an event which deservedly appeals to the enthusiasm and

+civic pride of the nation. From all corners of the state have come

+delegations of citizens representing all classes, who come not only to

+honor and grace by their presence the event but, I believe, to pay

+honest and manly tribute to a man who is beloved and trusted by the

+whole American people. His battles against civic wrongs and in behalf of

+weaker classes and his policy of "all men up and no men down," not only

+make him the paragon of public officials, but a lovable and trusted man.

+Among the throngs that shall honor him and in turn be honored in the

+escort which will make the Avenue the most splendid pageant which can

+adorn any modern government, none will march more proudly than the brave

+and valiant regiment of black men who, with him whom they honor, risked

+all and won glory on the field of San Juan. Yet by the laws of the land

+and by the policy of the government, their rights and their manhood are

+not on a parity with those of other citizens who with less desert shall

+follow in his train. It is the possibility of such a state of affairs,

+that the Negro vote of the North and West, yea the great body of all

+good citizens must exercise itself to prevent.

+

+Migration and Distribution of the Negro Population as Affecting the Elective Franchise—*KELLY MILLER*

+=======================================================================================================

+

+Population lies at the basis of all human problems. The first command

+given by the Creator to the human race was to multiply and replenish the

+earth. The growth and expansion of the Negro population in the United

+States must be the controlling factor in the many complex problems to

+which his presence gives rise. In order to gain adequate as well as

+accurate knowledge on this subject, it is necessary to take a

+comprehensive view of its progress since its transplantation in America.

+It is well known that the first ship load of African slaves was landed

+at Jamestown, Va. in 1619. This original handful augmented by fresh

+importation and by its own rapid multiplication had swollen to three

+quarters of a million when the first Census was taken in 1790. The

+following table will reveal the essential facts as to the expansion of

+this population.

+

+.. table:: *TABLE* \6

+   :width: 100%

+   :align: center

+   :aligns: left right right right right

+   :summary: 1790-1900 U. S. population data.

+

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+   | NEGRO POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.        |

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+   | YEAR. | NUMBER    | DECENNIAL | PER   | PER   |

+   |       | OF        | INCREASE. | CENT  | CENT  |

+   |       | NEGROES.  |           | OF    | OF    |

+   |       |           |           | INCR. | TOTAL |

+   |       |           |           |       | POPUL.|

+   |       |           |           |       |       |

+   +=======+===========+===========+=======+=======+

+   | \1790 |   757,208 |   \-      |  \-   | 19.27 |

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+   | \1800 | 1,002,037 |   244,829 | 32.33 | 18.18 |

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+   | \1810 | 1,377,808 |   375,771 | 37.50 | 19.03 |

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+   | \1820 | 1,771,656 |   393,848 | 28.50 | 18.39 |

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+   | \1830 | 2,328,642 |   556,986 | 31.44 | 18.10 |

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+   | \1840 | 2,873,648 |   545,006 | 23.44 | 16.84 |

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+   | \1850 | 3,683,808 |   765,169 | 26.63 | 15.69 |

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+   | \1860 | 4,441,830 |   803,022 | 14.13 | 14.13 |

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+   | \1870 | 4,880,009 |   438,179 |  9.87 | 11.68 |

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+   | \1880 | 6,580,793 | 1,700,784 | 34.85 | 13.12 |

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+   | \1890 | 7,470,040 |   889,247 | 13.51 | 11.93 |

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+   | \1900 | 8,840,789 | 1,370,749 | 18.35 | 11.57 |

+   +-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------+

+

+

+There are certain noticeable irregularities in this table, due in part

+to known disturbing causes, and in part to imperfections in census

+methods. It is thus seen that the Negro constitutes a rapidly increasing

+element, though a slowly diminishing minority of the total population.

+This relative diminution is due wholly to the influx of white

+immigrants, more than 14,000,000 of whom have come to our shores since

+1860. If the two races should continue to grow at the same relative rate

+of increase as during the last decade, according to the law of

+diminishing ratios, it would require more than one hundred years to

+reduce the Negro to one-tenth of the total population. So far as

+any practical calculation is concerned, we may regard this as an

+irreducible minimum. So long as the Negro constitutes one-tenth of the

+entire body of the American people we may expect to have the race

+problem, both in its general and in its political features.

+

+From the foundation of our government the Negro has constituted a

+serious political problem, mainly because of his unequal geographical

+distribution. If agricultural and economic conditions had been uniform,

+and the slaves had been evenly scattered over the whole area, the

+political phase of the race problem would have been far different from

+what it is and has been throughout our national life. The fact that the

+bulk of this race has been congested in one section has constituted the

+cause of political friction from the foundation of the Constitution till

+the present hour. This population persists in remaining in that section

+where it was most thickly planted by the institution of slavery. The

+center of gravity is still moving slowly towards the gulf of Mexico.

+Ninety-two per cent of the race is still found in the sixteen states

+where slavery prevailed at the outbreak of the civil war. The coastal

+states, from Maryland to Texas, contain three-fourths of the total

+number.

+

+While there has been a steady stream of Negro immigration towards the

+North and West, yet it has not been sufficient to materially affect the

+mass tendency. It would seem, on first view, that the Negro who

+complains so bitterly against political restrictions in the South would

+rush to the freer conditions of the North as a gas from a denser to a

+rarer medium. But political and civil freedom offered by the North are

+more than off-set by industrial restrictions and by the inertia of a

+population devoid of the pioneer spirit. The warm blooded, warm hearted

+child of the tropics is chilled alike by the rigid climate and frigid

+social atmosphere that prevail in the higher latitudes. In all New

+England there are fewer Negroes than are to be found in a single county

+in Tennessee.

+

+.. table:: *TABLE* \7

+   :width: 100%

+   :align: center

+   :aligns: left right right right

+   :summary: North/South U.S. population data.

+

+   +---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+

+   | SECTION.      |POPULATION.| INCREASE, |RATE   |

+   |               |           | 1890 TO   |OF     |

+   |               |           | 1900      |INCR.  |

+   +===============+===========+===========+=======+

+   | United States | 8,840,789 | 1,370,749 | 18.35 |

+   +---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+

+   | Georgia       | 1,034,813 |   175,998 | 20.50 |

+   +---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+

+   | Mississippi   |   907,630 |   165,071 | 22.20 |

+   +---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+

+   | Alabama       |   827,307 |   148,818 | 21.90 |

+   +---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+

+   | So. Carolina  |   782,321 |    93,387 | 13.60 |

+   +---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+

+   | 31 Northern   |           |           |       |

+   | States        |   759,788 |   181,876 | 31.50 |

+   +---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+

+

+

+We learn from this table that there are four states in the union, each

+of which contains a larger number of Negroes than all the 31 free states

+combined. While such free states show a much more rapid decennial

+increase than any of the far south states, still the total increment

+scarcely exceeds that of the single state of Georgia. These figures

+reveal no mad hegira to a fairer and better land. The increase in the

+Northern states is due almost wholly to immigration from the South. It

+is entirely probable that the Negro population, left to itself, would

+not be a self sustaining quantity in the higher latitudes. During the

+last decade there was an absolute decline of the Negro population in

+Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada,

+Oregon and California.

+

+The political significance of this Northern movement is out of all

+proportion to its absolute weight. It is only in the North that the

+Negro vote has dynamic power. In several of the border states, this vote

+is at present unhampered, but there is no guarantee of future security.

+In Mississippi there are 197,936 Negro males of voting age, but this

+potential vote does not affect the choice of a single official of that

+state. The black vote of that commonwealth is as completely nullified as

+the last two amendments had never been appended to our national

+constitution. On the other hand the 5,193 adult Negro males in Mich. are

+accounted of considerable consequence in the political equation of that

+state. In the Northern and Western states where men feel free to align

+themselves according to conviction, the two parties are so nearly even

+that the Negro vote constitutes the balance of power. Owing to unusual

+political conditions, which cannot be counted on to continue, the last

+three presidential elections were practically one-sided. The Republican

+party triumphed by a margin that far exceeded the entire Negro

+Contingent. It is only in several of the border states that this vote

+could in any way have affected the fate of presidential electors. The

+Negro vote, however, has been quite effective in state elections, and in

+the choice of congressmen. As the parties gravitate to normal

+conditions, the Negro vote will again become the balance of power in the

+controlling states of the North. At the beginning of every campaign each

+party feels that it has a chance of success. At such times the black

+vote looms up large and significant. In national affairs the colored

+vote usually adheres to the party of Lincoln and Sumner. As the margin

+between the two parties is a shifting and uncertain quantity, the rapid

+increase of the Negro vote in the Northern States becomes a matter of

+great political importance.

+

+.. table:: *TABLE* \8

+   :width: 70%

+   :align: center

+   :aligns: left right right

+   :summary: 1890-1900 voting age males.

+

+   +--------------+--------+--------+

+   |  NEGRO MALES OF VOTING AGE     |

+   |  IN THE NORTHERN STATES.       |

+   +--------------+--------+--------+

+   | STATE.       | \1890. | \1900. |

+   +==============+========+========+

+   | Pennsylvania | 34,873 | 51,668 |

+   +--------------+--------+--------+

+   | New York     | 24,231 | 31,425 |

+   +--------------+--------+--------+

+   | Illinois     | 18,200 | 29,762 |

+   +--------------+--------+--------+

+   | Ohio         | 25,922 | 31,235 |

+   +--------------+--------+--------+

+   | Indiana      | 13,079 | 18,186 |

+   +--------------+--------+--------+

+   | New Jersey   | 14,564 | 21,474 |

+   +--------------+--------+--------+

+   | Massachusetts|  7,967 | 10,456 |

+   +--------------+--------+--------+

+   | Rhode Island |  2,261 |  2,765 |

+   +--------------+--------+--------+

+   | Connecticut  |  3,497 |  4,576 |

+   +--------------+--------+--------+

+   | Kansas       | 12,543 | 14,695 |

+   +--------------+--------+--------+

+   | Michigan     | \-     |  5,193 |

+   +--------------+--------+--------+

+

+

+These figures tell their own story when we consider the normal relation

+between the two parties in these several states. It is also interesting

+to note that the Negroes in the North are found very largely in the

+cities. This makes this vote of considerable importance in municipal

+elections. There is, however, a tendency on the part of this vote to

+distribute itself between the two parties in purely municipal and local

+matters, which to a great degree neutralizes its special significance.

+

+.. table:: *TABLE* \9

+   :width: 50%

+   :align: center

+   :aligns: left right

+   :summary: Voters in Northern Cities.

+

+   +--------------+------------+

+   | NEGRO VOTERS IN NORTHERN  |

+   | CITIES, 1900.             |

+   +--------------+------------+

+   | \CITY        | NEGROES    |

+   |              | OF         |

+   |              | VOTING AGE |

+   +==============+============+

+   | Philadelphia |    20,095  |

+   +--------------+------------+

+   | New York     |    18,651  |

+   +--------------+------------+

+   | Chicago      |    12,424  |

+   +--------------+------------+

+   | Pittsburg    |     6,541  |

+   +--------------+------------+

+   | Indianapolis |     5,200  |

+   +--------------+------------+

+   | \Boston      |     4,441  |

+   +--------------+------------+

+   | \Cincinnati  |     4,997  |

+   +--------------+------------+

+   | \Detroit     |    \1,732  |

+   +--------------+------------+

+

+

+The most effective use that the Negro in the North can make of his

+political privilege is to uphold civic righteousness in municipal

+affairs, and to support those men and measures pledged to support the

+integrity of the constitution and its vital amendments.

+

+The Negro and His Citizenship—*FRANCIS J. GRIMKÉ*

+===================================================

+

+.. epigraph::

+

+   ACTS 22:25-29.—*And when they had tied him up with the thongs, Paul

+   said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to

+   scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned? And when the centurion

+   heard it, he went to the chief captain and told him, saying, What art

+   thou about to do? for this man is a Roman. And the chief captain came

+   and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? And he said, Yea. And

+   the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this

+   citizenship. But Paul said, But I am a Roman born. They then that

+   were about to examine him straightway departed from him: and the

+   chief captain also was afraid when he knew that he was a Roman,

+   and because he had bound him.*

+

+In this passage attention is directed to four things: To the fact that

+Paul was a Roman citizen; to the fact that he was about to be treated in

+a way that was forbidden by his citizenship; to the fact that he stood

+up for his rights as a Roman citizen; and to the fact that those who

+were about to infringe upon his rights were restrained, were overawed.

+

+I. Attention is directed to the fact that Paul was a Roman citizen.

+Citizenship was a possession that was very highly esteemed, and that was

+obtained in several ways,—by birth, by purchase, as a reward for

+distinguished military services, and as a favor. Paul's came to him by

+inheritance; his father before him had been a Roman citizen: how it came

+to the father we do not know. At one time the price paid for it was very

+great. The chief captain, in the narrative of which our text is a part,

+tells us that he obtained his with a great sum; and therefore he seemed

+surprised to think that a man in Paul's circumstances should have it. At

+first he seemed a little incredulous, but it was only for a moment. The

+penalty for falsely claiming to be a Roman citizen was death; this fact

+together with the whole bearing of the apostle finally left no doubt in

+his mind: he accepted his statement.

+

+It was not only a great honor to be a Roman citizen, but it carried with

+it many rights and privileges that were not enjoyed by others. These

+rights were either private or public,—*Jus Quiritium*, and *Jus

+Civitatis*. Among Private Rights, was the Right of Liberty. This secured

+him against imprisonment without trial; exemption from all degrading

+punishments, such as scourging and crucifixion; the right of appeal to

+the emperor after sentence by an inferior magistrate or tribunal, in any

+part of the empire; and also the right to be sent to Rome for trial

+before the emperor, if charged with a capital offence.

+

+Among Public Rights belonging to Roman citizens the following may be

+mentioned: (1) The right of being enrolled in the censor's book, called,

+*Jus Census*. (2) The right of serving in the army, called, *Jus

+Militiae*. At first only citizens of the empire were permitted to engage

+in military operations, to bear arms and fight in its behalf. (3) The

+right to vote in the different assemblies of the people, called, *Jus

+Suffragii*. This has always been and is to-day one of the most important

+functions of citizenship, and one that should be highly prized and

+sacredly guarded. (4) The right of bearing public offices in the state.

+

+There were many other rights enjoyed by Roman citizens, but I will not

+take the time to enumerate them: these are sufficient to show us the

+value, the importance of Roman citizenship; and this citizenship the

+apostle Paul was invested with, with all the rights and privileges which

+were involved in it. On one occasion he said, "I am a citizen of no mean

+city," referring to Tarsus, which was one of the free cities of Asia

+Minor; but more than that, as he tells us here, he was a citizen of the

+empire.

+

+II. Attention is called to the fact that Paul was about to be treated in

+a way that was forbidden by his citizenship; that was contrary to Roman

+law. He had gone up to Jerusalem to attend the feast of Pentecost. After

+meeting the brethren and rehearsing to them the wonderful things which

+God had wrought through his ministry among the Gentiles, they

+congratulated him upon his success, but said to him: "Thou seest,

+brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of them that have

+believed; and they are all zealous for the law: and they have been

+informed concerning thee, that thou teachest all the Jews who are among

+the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their

+children neither to walk after the customs. What is it therefore? they

+will certainly hear that thou art come. Do therefore this that we say to

+thee: We have four men that have a vow on them; these take, and purify

+thyself with them, and be at charges for them, that they may shave their

+heads: and all shall know that there is no truth in the things whereof

+they have been informed concerning thee but that thou thyself walkest

+orderly, keeping the law." It was in compliance with this request, that

+Paul went into the temple to do as he was asked to do: and while there

+was seen by certain Jews of Asia, i. e., the province of Asia, who at

+once stirred up the multitude and laid hands on him, crying out, "Men of

+Israel, help: This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against

+the people, and the law, and this place; and moreover he brought Greeks

+also into the temple and hath defiled this holy place." It was like

+touching a match to a powder magazine. The people were aroused.

+Instantly there was a response to the call; and dragging the apostle out

+of the temple they were in the act of beating him to death, when the

+chief captain, learning of the tumult, rushed down with a squad of

+soldiers and rescuing him, brought him into the castle. The next day

+with a view of ascertaining what the trouble was, the real ground of

+complaint against the apostle, the chief captain proposed to examine him

+by scourging, and issued orders to that effect. In obedience to this

+order the apostle was stripped and actually tied up. The process of

+examination proposed was very severe. The culprit was stripped and tied

+in a bending posture to a pillar, or stretched on a frame, and the

+punishment was inflicted with a scourge made of leathern thongs weighted

+with sharp pieces of bone or lead, the object being to extort from the

+sufferer a confession of his guilt or the information desired.

+

+If the chief captain had understood the Hebrew language, and could have

+followed the address of the apostle which was delivered on the steps of

+the palace, he would have understood what the trouble was, without

+attempting to resort to this brutal method of finding out; but evidently

+he did not. Everything indicated, however, that it was something very

+serious, judging from their treatment of him, and from the intense

+excitement which his words produced upon them, and hence, he was all the

+more anxious to find out. If the apostle was guilty of any offence

+against the law, it was the duty of the chief captain to take cognizance

+of it, and to punish him accordingly, but if he was innocent, if he had

+in no way transgressed the law, it was his duty to release him. The law

+also provided how the guilt or innocence of an accused person was to be

+ascertained; and it was the duty of the chief captain to have followed

+the course prescribed by the law; but it is clear from the narrative

+that he had determined upon another course: the prisoner is ordered to

+be scourged, instead of calling upon those who had assaulted him to make

+their charges, and to substantiate them, and then giving the apostle an

+opportunity of defending himself.

+

+III. Attention is directed in the text to the fact, that the apostle

+stood up manfully for his rights. After they had tied him up, as if

+waiting to see just how far they would go, and just as the process of

+scourging was about to begin, he challenged their right to proceed: he

+said to the centurion, who was standing by, and who was there as the

+representative of the chief captain, to see that the scourging was

+properly done, and to make note of what he confessed,—he said to this

+man: "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and

+uncondemned?" The law expressly forbade the scourging of Roman

+citizens; it was an indignity to which no Roman citizen was to be

+subjected. This was what was known as the Porcian law, and took its name

+from Porcius, the Tribune through whose influence its adoption was

+secured. And this is the law to which the apostle here appeals, whose

+protection he invokes. Paul, as a Roman citizen, not only knew what his

+rights were, but he stood up for his rights. He insists here upon being

+treated, as he was entitled to be treated, as a citizen of the empire.

+They are about to scourge him, contrary to law, and he says to them,

+Stop; you have no right to treat me in this way, intimating and they

+evidently understood it, that if they did not desist, they would hear

+from him; he would bring the matter to the attention of the emperor.

+

+This is not the only place where Paul falls back upon his rights as a

+Roman citizen. He did the same thing a little later on. He was removed

+from Jerusalem to Caesarea, as you will remember, where he remained a

+prisoner for two years. During that time he was frequently placed on

+trial before various officials,—before Felix, before Festus, before

+Agrippa. It was during one of these hearings, that Festus the governor,

+in order to curry favor with the Jews, intimated that he might be sent

+back to Jerusalem to be tried: and doubtless this was his intention,

+having entered into a secret arrangement with the enemies of the

+apostle, who had resolved to kill him at the first opportunity. This

+they felt that they would have a better chance of doing if they could

+only induce the governor to return him to Jerusalem. The apostle, of

+course, knew all this; he knew how intensely they hated him, and what

+their plans and purposes were, and he was determined not to be entrapped

+in this way. The record is: "Paul said in his defence, 'Neither against

+the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I

+sinned at all.' But Festus, desiring to gain favor with the Jews,

+answered Paul and said, 'Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be

+judged of these things before me?' But Paul said, 'I am standing before

+Caesar's judgment-seat, where I ought to be judged: to the Jews have I

+done no wrong, as thou also very well knowest. If then I am a wrong

+doer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die;

+but if none of these things is true whereof these accuse me, no man can

+give me up to them. I appeal unto Caesar.' Then Festus, when he had

+conferred with the council, answered, 'Thou hast appealed unto Caesar,

+unto Caesar thou shalt go.'"

+

+One of the great privileges of a Roman citizen was the right of appeal;

+the right of being heard directly by the emperor, of taking his case out

+of the hands of all inferior judicatories, up to the highest: and this

+is the right which the apostle here avails himself of. It was the only

+thing that saved him from being turned over by a corrupt official into

+the hands of his enemies; and it forcibly illustrates the importance of

+citizenship. Had he not been a Roman citizen clothed with the sacred

+right of appeal he would have been basely sacrificed to the malice of

+his enemies; or, though he had been a Roman citizen, if he had cowardly

+surrendered his right, if he had failed to exercise it, he would have

+equally perished; but the apostle stood upon his right, and so succeeded

+in thwarting the purposes of his enemies.

+

+IV. Attention is directed in the text to the fact, that those who were

+about to scourge this man, were restrained by the knowledge of the fact

+that he was a Roman citizen. The moment they became aware of this fact;

+at the mere mention of that sacred name, citizen, everything came to a

+stand still; the uplifted hand, ready to smite, is arrested, and we find

+the centurion running off, in great excitement in search of the chief

+captain, and saying to him, "What are you about? Do you know that this

+man is a Roman?" and we see the chief captain coming in great haste and

+saying to the apostle, "What? can it be possible! Are you really a

+Roman?" "Yes," said the apostle, "I am; and my father before me was."

+The chief captain is astonished; yea, more, fear takes hold of him; he

+becomes suddenly alarmed.

+

+There are two things in this incident that are worthy of note: first,

+this indignity that was offered to the apostle was through ignorance. It

+was not known that he was a Roman citizen. The law was violated, but it

+was not purposely done. It was not the intention of the chief captain to

+ignore the rights involved in citizenship; for he himself was a Roman

+citizen, and was interested in maintaining those rights. And, second, to

+trample upon the rights of a Roman citizen was a very grave offense, a

+very serious matter; and it became a serious matter because back of this

+citizenship was the whole power of the empire. These rights were

+carefully guarded, were rigidly enforced, so that the term, Roman

+citizen, was everywhere respected. No one could infringe those rights

+with impunity: hence you will notice what is said here, "The chief

+captain was afraid when he knew that he was a Roman because he had bound

+him." He recognized at once the gravity of the offense. That was old

+pagan Rome; but under its rule citizenship meant something; it was a

+sacred thing; back of it stood the strong arm of the Government to give

+efficacy, power to it. This man was afraid when he realized what he had

+done; and that is the feeling which outraged citizenship ought

+everywhere to inspire. It ought to mean something; and there ought to be

+power somewhere to enforce its meaning.

+

+But it is not of Roman citizenship that I desire to speak at this time,

+but rather of American citizenship, and of that citizenship as it

+pertains to ourselves. In the providence of God we are citizens of this

+great Republic. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution declares:

+"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to

+the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the

+State wherein they reside." Under this provision of the Constitution we

+are all citizens; and we have earned the right to be citizens. We have

+lived here as long as any other class in the Republic; we have worked as

+hard as any other class to develop the country; and we have fought as

+bravely as any other class in the defense of the Republic. If length of

+residence, if unstinted toil, if great sacrifices of blood, if the

+laying of one's self on the country's altar in the hour of peril, of

+danger, give any claim to citizenship, then our claim is beyond dispute;

+for all these things are true of us.

+

+We are *citizens* of this great Republic: and citizenship is a sacred

+thing: I hope we realize it. It is a thing to be prized; to be highly

+esteemed. It has come to us after 250 years of slavery, of unrequited

+toil; it has come to us after a sanguinary conflict, in which billions

+of treasure and rivers of blood were poured out; it has come to us as a

+boon from the nation at a time when it had reached its loftiest moral

+development; when its moral sense was quickened as it had never been

+before, and when it stood as it had never stood before upon the great

+principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, not as

+glittering generalities, but as great realities: it was at that sublime

+period in our history, when the national conscience was at work; when

+the men who were in charge of affairs were men who stood for

+righteousness; when the great issues before the country were moral

+issues, issues involving human rights,—that the nation saw fit to

+abolish slavery and to decree the citizenship of all men, black and

+white alike. When we think of what this citizenship has cost, in blood

+and treasure; of the noble men through whose influence it was brought

+about; and of the fact that it came to us from the Nation when it was at

+its best, when it was living up to its highest light, and to its noblest

+conceptions of right and duty,—we ought to prize it, to set a high

+value upon it.

+

+And we ought to show our appreciation of it: (1). By being good

+citizens; by doing everything in our power to develop ourselves along

+right lines, intellectually, morally, spiritually, and also materially:

+and to do everything in our power to promote the general good;

+everything that will help to make for municipal, state, and national

+righteousness. We are to remember that we are part of a great whole, and

+that the whole will be affected by our conduct, either for good or bad.

+If we live right, if we fear God and keep his commandments, and train

+our children to do the same, we ennoble our citizenship; we become a

+part of the great conservative force of society, a positive blessing to

+the community, the state, the nation. It is especially important for us,

+in view of the strong prejudice against us, the disposition to view us

+with a critical eye, to hold up and magnify our short-comings, that we

+be particularly concerned to be constantly manifesting, evidencing our

+good citizenship by allying ourselves only with the things that are

+true, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report. We ought not

+to lose sight of the fact that the strongest fight that is being made

+against us to-day is by those who are doing most to discredit us, to

+array public sentiment against us,—those who are parading our

+short-comings and imperfections, who are giving the greatest publicity,

+the widest circulation to them. There are persons in this country, who

+are determined, and who never lose an opportunity to blacken our good

+name. Dr. DuBois, in that splendid document of his, "Credo," said among

+other things, "I believe in the Devil and his angels, who wantonly work

+to narrow the opportunity of struggling human beings, especially if they

+be black; who spit in the faces of the fallen, strike them that cannot

+strike again, believe the worst and work to prove it, hating the image

+which their Maker stamped on a brother's soul." And this is one of the

+conditions that confront us in this country, and that we must not lose

+sight of. The fact that there is this determination on the part of our

+enemies to prove that we are utterly unworthy of this great boon of

+citizenship, should have the effect of creating within us a counter

+determination to show that we are worthy,—to do our level best in every

+sphere of life. Now I do not mean by this to say that we are not proving

+ourselves to be good citizens; for we are: a great many of us are; but I

+have called attention to it because I feel that it ought to be

+emphasized; that we need to feel more keenly and more widely than is

+felt, the meaning of this great boon and the demand which it makes upon

+us. It is a challenge to every man to live a straightforward, upright,

+worthy life. And what is needed is, not only that *we*, who have had

+exceptional opportunities, should feel this way, but that the great mass

+of our people should be educated to feel the same, to be animated by the

+same spirit. And *we* are to be their educators; it is through *us* that

+this spirit is to descend upon them, and take possession of them. If

+this citizenship means anything, it means that we should be concerned

+about everything which makes for law, for order, for good government,

+for individual, municipal, state, and national purity and righteousness;

+it means that each one of us ought to be a living example of the best

+type of what a citizen ought to be.

+

+But this is not all: if we value our citizenship we will not only seek

+to make the most of ourselves, to live on the highest plane but we will

+also stand up manfully for our rights under that citizenship. I have no

+patience with those who preach civil and political self-effacement. I

+never have believed in that pernicious doctrine, and never will. When

+you have effaced a man, civilly and politically, in a government like

+our own, what is he? What does he amount to? Who cares for him? What

+rights has he which any other class is bound to respect? He is a mere

+nonentity, entitled to no consideration, and with no refuge to which he

+can fly in the hour of his need. To be civilly and politically effaced

+is to be civilly and politically dead; and to be civilly and politically

+dead is to be at the mercy of any and every political party or

+organization, and to be under the iron heel of the worst elements in the

+community without any means of redress.

+

+We are *citizens* of this Republic: and I want to direct attention to

+this fact for a moment; and I am glad of the opportunity of doing it at

+this time, when we are in the midst of celebrating the inauguration of

+our President. I thank God for the man at the White House; for his

+courage; for his high sense of righteousness; for the many splendid

+things which he has said; and for the noble stand which he has taken on

+human rights; on equality of opportunity; on the open door for every man

+in the Republic irrespective of race or color. I rejoice in the fact

+that we have such a President. I commend him heartily for what he has

+done. I hope he will do more; I hope there are yet larger things in

+store for this race through him. But whether he does more or not; or

+whatever may be his future policy, or the future policy of the leaders

+of either of the great political parties, or the rank and file of those

+parties, it cannot, it will not affect in the least, our attitude in

+regard to our rights under the Constitution. We are citizens, clothed

+with citizenship rights; and, there is no thought or intention on our

+part of ever surrendering a single one of them. Whatever others may

+think of it, or desire in regard to it, we do not propose to retreat a

+single inch, to give up for one moment the struggle. I say, *we* and in

+this, I believe I speak for those who represent the sentiment that is

+taking more and more firmly hold of the heart of this race. I belong to

+what may be called the radical wing of the race, on the race question: I

+do not believe in compromises; in surrendering, or acquiescing, even

+temporarily, in the deprivation of a single right, out of deference to

+an unrighteous public sentiment. I believe with Lowell,

+

+   | "They enslave their children's children,

+   | Who make compromise with sin."

+

+And this, I believe, at heart, is the sentiment of the race; at least,

+it is the sentiment of some of us. There is where we have taken our

+stand and there is where we propose to stand to the end. What belongs to

+us as citizens we want; and we are not going to be satisfied with

+anything less. We are in this country, and we are here to stay. There is

+no prospect of our ever leaving it. This is our home, as it has been the

+home of our ancestors for generations, and will be the home of our

+children, and of our children's children, for all time. It is of the

+greatest importance to us, therefore, that our status in it, as it is

+permanently fixed, should be, not that of a proscribed class, but that

+of full citizenship with every right, civil and political, accorded to

+us that is accorded to other citizens of the Republic. This is the thing

+that we are to insist upon; this is the evil against which we are to

+guard.

+

+What our enemies are seeking to effect is to make this a white man's

+government; to fix permanently our status in it, as one of civil and

+political inferiority. The issue is sharply drawn; and it is for us to

+say whether we will be thus reduced, whether such shall be our permanent

+status or not. One thing we may be assured of: such will surely be our

+fate unless we clearly comprehend the issue, and set ourselves earnestly

+to work to counteract the movement, by resisting in every legitimate way

+its consummation, and by using our influence to create a counter public

+sentiment.

+

+What are some of these citizenship rights for which we should earnestly

+contend?

+

+(1) The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In one

+section of this country, at least, and the area is growing, and is fast

+including others, the life of a Negro isn't worth as much as that of a

+dog. He may be shot down, murdered, strung up to a tree, burnt to death,

+by any white ruffian, or band of lawbreakers and murderers with

+impunity. The color of his skin gives any white man liberty to maltreat

+him, to trample upon him. He has no rights which white men are bound to

+respect. If he goes to law, there is no redress; his appeals avail

+nothing with judge and jury. That is a condition of things that we ought

+not to rest satisfied under. As long as the life of a black man is not

+just as sacred as that of a white man, in every section of the Republic;

+as long as wrongs perpetrated upon him are treated with greater leniency

+than wrongs perpetrated upon white men, his status is not the same as

+that of the white man; and as long as it is not the same an injustice is

+done him, which he ought to resist; against which he ought to protest,

+and continue to protest.

+

+(2) Another citizenship right is that of receiving equal accommodations

+on all common carriers and in all hostelries; on railroads, steamboats,

+in hotels, restaurants, and in all public places. When we travel,

+whatever we are able to pay for we are entitled to, just as other

+citizens are. To-day this is largely denied us. The hotels are not open

+to us; the restaurants are not open to us, even the little ten cent

+lunch counters, in this the capital city of the nation, are not open to

+us: we are shut out from all such places, and shut out because of the

+color of our skin. If we attempt to travel, and turn our faces

+southward, we must ride in Jim Crow cars; we must be segregated, shut up

+in a little compartment by ourselves. The privilege which we once

+enjoyed without stint of taking a sleeper or Pullman car, even that now

+is being taken from us. One state has even gone so far as to make it

+unlawful to sell a ticket to a person of color on a sleeper. That is the

+state of Georgia; a State that has in it Atlanta University, and Clark

+University, and the Atlanta Baptist College, and Spelman Seminary, and

+the Gammon Theological Seminary, and Haines Institute, and many other

+schools of learning; a State that has within its borders some of the

+very best type of Negroes in this country. The meaning of all this,

+don't let us misunderstand: it is a part of the general policy, which is

+being vigorously pushed by our enemies, to fix our status as one of

+inferiority, by shutting us out from certain privileges. The whole thing

+is wrong. Such invidious distinctions ought not to be permitted in a

+republic. It is inconsistent with citizenship. Everything ought to be

+open to all citizens alike:—railroad cars, hotels, restaurants,

+steamboats, the schools and colleges of the land: our public schools

+ought to be open to all the children alike. There ought not be separate

+schools for the whites, and separate schools for blacks: all the

+children of the Republic ought to be educated together; and sooner or

+later it is bound to come to that. Some one has said, "It isn't so much

+the Jim Crow car, as it is the Jim Crow Negro in the car." The fallacy

+of this statement, and its attempted mitigation or justification of the

+Jim Crow car, lies in the fact that the Jim Crow car has nothing

+whatever to do with the Jim Crow Negro. It was not instituted for him,

+but for all Negroes, whether Jim Crow or not: in fact, it was designed,

+particularly, not for the Jim Crow Negro, but for the intelligent,

+progressive, self-respecting Negro. If there are Jim Crow Negroes among

+us we owe them a duty; we ought to seek to improve them, to lift them to

+higher levels; but while we are doing this, don't let us forget that

+there is a Jim Crow car, and what it stands for. It stands for a

+hostile public sentiment; it is a part of a concerted plan which seeks

+to degrade us, to rob us of our rights, to deprive us of privileges

+enjoyed by other citizens, because of the color of our skin. If there

+were no Jim Crow Negroes, we would have the Jim Crow car all the same.

+We should fight the Jim Crow cars, therefore, not only because of the

+personal discomfort to which we are subjected in travelling, but also

+because of the general system of which it is a part,—a system which

+seeks to establish a double citizenship in the Republic, based upon race

+and color; the one superior to the other, and carrying with it

+privileges which are denied to the other.

+

+(3) Another citizenship right is that of serving in the Army and Navy;

+the right to take up arms and to fight in behalf of the country. This is

+our right, and we have exercised it, and are still exercising it. We

+have fought in all the wars of the Republic; and are represented to-day

+in both Army and Navy. We have made a glorious record for ourselves in

+this respect. There is no better soldier in the Army of the Republic,

+than the black soldier. This right has not been denied us, but let us,

+nevertheless, keep our eyes on it. There are some things even here that

+need to be looked into. It has been many years since we have had a

+representative in the great Naval or Military school of the country; and

+there have been some rumors about limiting the aspirations of Negroes in

+the Army, of not permitting them to advance beyond a certain point. If

+there is such a thought or intention on the part of those in authority,

+it must be resisted. The Negro must be free—in the Army, in the

+Navy,—in every part of the Army and Navy,—as other citizens are free;

+to advance according to his merit. His color must not be allowed to

+operate against him.

+

+(4) Another citizen right is that of suffrage, the right of the ballot;

+the right to have part in the government; to say who shall make the laws

+and who shall execute them; and what the laws shall be; the right to

+have an opinion, and to have that opinion counted in determining what

+shall be and what shall not be. This is one of the greatest of rights.

+In a republic citizenship means very little without it. It is this which

+marks the difference between a representative government, a government

+of the people, by the people, and for the people, and a despotism, an

+absolute monarchy. The glory of the age in which we live is the triumph

+of democracy; and what is the triumph of democracy but the right of the

+*people* to say who shall rule; and how is the will of the people

+expressed? Through the ballot; at the polls. The ballot therefore is the

+symbol of the sovereignty of the people. If we are to be sovereign

+citizens of the Republic therefore, this right to vote must be

+preserved. The old despotic idea of government was, that some people

+were born to rule, and that others were born to be ruled; and the idea

+that exists in the minds of some people in this country, in democratic

+America, in face of the affirmation of the Declaration of Independence,

+that all men are born free and equal, is that in this country, there are

+some people who are born to rule, and others who are born to be ruled;

+and that the people who are born to rule are the whites, and those who

+are born to be ruled are the blacks: hence the effort that is being made

+to divest us of this symbol of sovereignty,—the ballot. Let us not be

+deceived; let us give no heed to any teaching, never mind from what

+source it may come, which seeks to minimize the importance of the

+ballot. What difference does it make whether we vote or not? I have

+heard some weak-kneed, time-serving representatives of our own race say;

+and the thought has been caught up by the men in the south who have been

+seeking to rob us of our rights, and by those in the North who have been

+playing into their hands; and they have said, Yes, What difference does

+it make? Are you not just as well off without it? What difference does

+it make? It makes all the difference in the world: the difference

+between a sovereign citizen of the Republic, and one who has been

+stripped of his sovereignty; between one who has a say in what is going

+on, and one who has not; between one who is ruled with his consent, and

+one who is ruled without it. If we are just as well off without the

+ballot, how is it that the white man is not just as well off without it?

+And if he is unwilling to give it up, why should he ask us to give it

+up? Why should we give it up? If he needs it in order to protect

+himself, much more do we, for we are weaker than he is, and need all the

+more the power which comes from the ballot.

+

+(5) Another citizenship right is, that of holding office, the right to

+be voted for, and of being appointed to positions of honor and trust by

+the executive power. This is also a right that belongs to us, and that

+we must contend for. It is one of our rights that is now being

+especially contested in the South. The Negro must not be appointed to

+any office, is the demand of Southern white sentiment. I am glad that

+the President has not yielded wholly to that sentiment. The fight which

+he made in the Crum case was a notable one, and clearly indicated that

+he was not willing to shut that door of opportunity to the Negro; that

+he was not willing to take the position that a man was to be debarred

+from public office simply because of the color of his skin. That was the

+right position for him to take, and the only one that was consistent

+with his oath of office, and his position as President of *all* the

+people. I hope that he will continue to act upon that principle; and

+that he will do more than he has done. There is room for improvement in

+this direction. A few more appointments of colored men in the North, as

+well as in the South, would be a good thing. It ought to be done. The

+right of colored men to receive appointments ought to be clearly and

+distinctly emphasized by multiplying those appointments. There is

+nothing like an object lesson in impressing the truth. I hope that the

+President will give us many such object lessons during the next four

+years.

+

+The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; the right to

+receive equal accommodation on railroads, steamboats, in hotels,

+restaurants, and in all public places of amusement; the right to be

+represented in the Army and Navy; the right to vote; the right to hold

+office: these are some of our citizenship rights, for which we should

+earnestly contend. Sometimes, we are told, that it would be better to

+say less about our rights, and more about our duties. No one feels more

+the importance of emphasizing our duties than I do,—I think I have done

+about as much of it as anybody,—but among the duties that I have always

+emphasized, and still emphasize, is the duty of standing up squarely and

+uncompromisingly for our rights. When we are contending for the truth;

+when we are resisting the encroachments of those who are seeking to

+despoil us of our birth-right as citizens; when we are keeping up the

+agitation for equal civil and political privileges in this country, are

+we not in the line of duty? If not, where is the line? Duties? Yes. Let

+us have our duties preached to us,—line upon line, and precept upon

+precept, here a little and there a little; but at the same time don't

+let us forget that we have also *rights* under the Constitution, and to

+see to it that we stand up for them; that we resist to the very last

+ditch those who would rob us of them. And in doing this, let us remember

+that we are called to it by the stern voice of Duty, which is the voice

+of God; and that we need not apologize for our action.

+

+And now in conclusion but a word more and then I am done. The fight

+before us is a long one. You will not live, nor will I live to see the

+triumph of the principles for which we are contending; let us not become

+discouraged however. Things look pretty dark at times, but it isn't all

+dark. Now and then there are gleams of light, which indicate the coming

+of a better day. There are forces working *for* us, as well as against

+us; and with what we can do for ourselves, we need not despair.

+

+   | "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;

+   | He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes

+   | of wrath are stored!

+   | He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;

+   | His truth is marching on.

+   |

+   | He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

+   | He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat;

+   | O, be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet!

+   | While God is marching on."

+

+Let us take courage; let us gird up our loins; let us stand at our post;

+let us be true to duty; let us hold ourselves to the highest; let us

+have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of darkness; let us be

+temperate, industrious, thrifty; let us do with our might what our hands

+find to do; let us trust in God, and do the right: and then, whether the

+struggle be long or short, there can be no doubt as to the final issue.

+We shall come out victorious; we shall be accorded every right belonging

+to us under the Constitution, and every avenue of opportunity will be

+opened to us, as to other citizens of the Republic. The future is

+largely in our own hands. If we allow ourselves to be permanently

+despoiled of our rights; to be reduced to a position of civil and

+political inferiority, the fault will be, not "in our stars," as

+Shakespeare has expressed it, "but in ourselves." Others can help us;

+others will help us, as they have already done; but the final outcome

+will depend mainly upon what we do *for* ourselves, and *with*

+ourselves. If we are to grow in the elements that make for a strong,

+intelligent, virtuous manhood and womanhood, *we* have got to see to it,

+to be concerned about it; to be more deeply concerned about it than

+anybody else. And so, if the agitation for equality of rights and

+opportunities in this country is to be kept up, and it ought to be kept

+up, *we* are the ones to see to it. As long as there are wrongs to be

+redressed, from which we are suffering, we ought not to be silent, ought

+not for our sake as well as for the sake of the nation at large.

+Whatever can be done to develop ourselves; whatever can be done to

+create a healthy and righteous public sentiment in our behalf; whatever

+can be done to check the encroachments of our enemies upon our rights,

+*we* must do it, whether others do or not. May God help us all to

+realize this, and to address ourselves earnestly to the work that lies

+before us.

+

+   | "Be strong!

+   | We are not here to play, to dream, to drift.

+   | We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.

+   | Shun not the struggle; face it. Tis God's gift."

+

+.. topic:: Transcriber's Note

+

+   This is one group of papers from a series of papers presented

+   to the American Negro Academy. Founded by Alexander Crummell

+   in March 1897, with 40 of the leading black scholars and

+   writers of the day, the Academy's purpose was to promote

+   literature, science and art, foster higher education and high

+   culture, and to defend the Negro aginst racist attacks. The

+   Academy was active until 1924.

+

+   This project was scanned from a facsimile reprint included in

+   a collection of all 22 Occasional Papers of the American Negro

+   Academy.

+

+   Original spelling varieties have been maintained; tables and

+   footnotes were renumbered.

+

+|

+|

+|

+|

+|

+

+.. _pg_end_line:

+

+\*\*\* END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. (THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY. OCCASIONAL PAPERS, NO. 11.) \*\*\*

+

+.. backmatter::

+

+.. toc-entry::

+   :depth: 0

+

+.. _pg-footer:

+

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diff --git a/35449.txt b/35449.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c7b198e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35449.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4296 @@
+ The Negro And The Elective Franchise. A Series Of Papers And A Sermon
+
+         The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 11.
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
+no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+Title: The Negro and the elective franchise. A Series Of Papers And A
+Sermon (The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 11.)
+
+Author: Archibald H. Grimke, Charles C. Cook, John Hope, John L. Love,
+Kelly Miller, and Rev. Frank J. Grimke
+
+Release Date: March 01, 2011 [EBook #35449]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE
+FRANCHISE. (THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY. OCCASIONAL PAPERS, NO. 11.) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+at http://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+                       Occasional Papers, No. 11.
+
+
+
+                      The American Negro Academy.
+
+
+
+                  THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE
+
+
+
+                  *A SERIES OF PAPERS AND A SERMON BY*
+
+
+
+ *Archibald H. Grimke, Charles C. Cook, John Hope, John L. Love, Kelly
+                   Miller and Rev. Frank J. Grimke.*
+
+
+
+                      *PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS.*
+
+
+
+                           WASHINGTON, D. C.
+
+
+
+                       PUBLISHED BY THE ACADEMY.
+
+
+
+                                 1905.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  - The Meaning And Need Of The Movement To Reduce Southern
+    Representation--_ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKE_
+  - The Penning of the Negro--_CHARLES CHAUVEAU COOK_
+  - The Negro Vote in the States Whose Constitutions Have Not Been
+    Specifically Revised--_JOHN HOPE_
+  - The Potentiality of the Negro Vote, North and West--_JOHN L. LOVE_
+  - Migration and Distribution of the Negro Population as Affecting the
+    Elective Franchise--_KELLY MILLER_
+  - The Negro and His Citizenship--_FRANCIS J. GRIMKE_
+
+
+
+
+The Meaning And Need Of The Movement To Reduce Southern
+Representation--_ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKE_
+
+
+In 1787 when the founders of the American Republic were framing the
+Constitution they encountered many difficulties in the work of
+construction, but none greater than the bringing together on terms of
+equality under one general government of the slave-holding and the
+non-slave-holding states. The South was willing to enter the Union
+provided always that its peculiar labor and institutions received
+adequate protection in that instrument. And this the North had finally
+to consent to incorporate into the organic law of the new nation. One of
+these concessions was known as the Slave Representation Clause of the
+Constitution, which gave to the Slave section the right to count five
+slaves as three freemen in the apportionment of representatives. This
+concession did not probably seem at the time like an exorbitant or
+ruinous price for the North to pay for the Union, but subsequent events
+proved it to be both exorbitant and ruinous in the political burden
+which it imposed upon that section, and in the political perils which
+grew naturally out of the situation, and which were produced by it.
+
+Everybody now-a-days seems to forget, or makes believe to have
+forgotten, this lamentable chapter in our history, and its application
+to present day evils--everybody but a few far-seeing Negroes, and a few
+far-seeing white men at the North. It is well not to forget this chapter
+ourselves, or to let the country make believe to have forgotten it, as
+it contains a lesson which it is dangerous to forget.
+
+History repeats itself and will continue to do so just as long as men
+are men, and the passion for power and the struggle for domination lasts
+among them. Such a struggle set in between the two sections almost
+immediately after the adoption of the Constitution. With industrial and
+political ideas, interests, and institutions directly opposed to each
+other, rivalry and strife between them became from the beginning
+unavoidable. Any one not totally blinded by the then emergent needs of
+the moment could not fail to foresee something of the consequences which
+were sure to follow such a union of irreconcilable forces and passions
+under one general government. Each set of antagonistic ideas and
+interests was compelled by the great law of self preservation to try to
+get possession of the government in its battle with the other set. And
+in this conflict of moral and economic forces and ideas the three-fifths
+slave representation clause of the Constitution gave to the South a
+distinct advantage, an advantage which told immediately and powerfully
+in its favor. For the right to count five slaves as three freemen in the
+apportionment of representatives among the several states placed the
+political power of the Southern states in the hands not of all the
+whites but of a small and highly trained and organized minority only,
+namely; the master class. This circumstance solidified the South, and
+gave to its action a unity and energy of purpose which the industrial
+democracy of the North always lacked. As a consequence, Southern men
+obtained speedy possession of the National Government, and shaped
+National Legislation and policy to advance best the peculiar ideas and
+interests of their section. The big end of the National Government lay
+plainly enough well to the south of Mason and Dixon's line during the
+first twenty-five years of the existence of the Union. The course of
+events during this period revealed this bitter fact to New England. For
+she was outwitted, out-voted and over-matched again and again in
+national legislation and administrative measures by the slave oligarchy,
+which ruled the South and dominated in national affairs.
+
+For instance, New England opposed the embargo and the retaliatory
+measures of Mr. Jefferson's administration, which destroyed her splendid
+carrying trade, and bore distress to hundreds of thousands of her
+people. She opposed the War of 1812 because it seemed to her inimical to
+her interests, but regardless of protests and cries the embargo was laid
+on her ports and shipping, the War against Great Britain was declared.
+She was forced to dance, volens-nolens, to the rag-time music of her
+Southern rival. She danced in both instances while discontent grew apace
+in her hot, surcharged heart. She did not disguise the ugly fact that
+she was sick of her bargain under the Constitution--was discontented
+almost to disaffection with Southern domination in the Union. Out of
+this widespread discontent and incipient disaffection sprang the
+Hartford Convention to voice this growing Anti-Southern sentiment, and
+to cast about for a remedy for what was rightly deemed bad political
+conditions. The great question with which this celebrated convention
+grappled was, in fact, the undue and disproportionate power wielded by
+the slave oligarchy in national affairs, and how best to impose a check
+upon its further growth. It could think apparently of but one remedial
+measure to relieve the situation, and that was the imposition of a check
+on any further increase in the then existing number of states. But while
+the resolution which embodied this rather doubtful remedy referred to
+states in general, it was intended when read between the lines, to refer
+to slave states in particular.
+
+That was the first blow aimed by the industrial democracy of the North
+at this aristocratic feature of the National Constitution, namely: the
+right to count five slaves as three freemen in the apportionment of
+representatives among the states. It was felt at the time and much more
+strongly and generally afterward, that this three-fifths slave
+representation clause which enabled a small minority of the people of
+the South to wield the political power of that section, and in any
+controverted question between the sections to neutralize the free-will
+of every three freemen by the dummy-will of every five slaves, was an
+unjust and dangerous advantage possessed by the slave oligarchy over its
+sectional rival, the free democracy of the North.
+
+The consciousness of this political wrong and danger was at the bottom
+of the bitter opposition on the part of the North to the admission of
+Missouri as a slave state, to the annexation of Texas, and to the
+Mexican War. It was at the bottom of the fierce cry which rose all over
+that section at the close of that war, "No more slave territory, no more
+slave states." It was the soul of the great movement which beat back the
+slave tide from Kansas and saved that state to freedom. It was, in fact,
+this struggle of the free states to reduce to a minimum the peril to its
+industrial democracy which grew out of the slave representation clause
+of the Constitution, and the resistance of the slave states to such a
+movement, which produced the war between the sections. This war ended in
+the destruction of slavery and as the North supposed and intended, in
+the total destruction of this right of the South to count five slaves as
+three freemen in the apportionment of representatives among the several
+states in the newly restored Union.
+
+But wrong does not die under a single stroke. It has a strange power of
+metamorphosis, i. e. ability to change its form without losing its
+identity. The slave power, which everybody at the North imagined to be
+dead, re-appeared almost at once as the Southern serf power, in
+consequence of legislation enacted in the then lately rebellious states
+by the old slave masters. They had lost their slaves, to be sure, and
+the political power incident under the Constitution to such ownership,
+but they had not lost the political cunning and determination to create
+a similar power out of the social forces and material which lay in
+disorder about them.
+
+The reconstruction of the South by the old slave oligarchy resulted in
+the threatened rise in national affairs of an African serf power more
+formidable to the North than was the old slave power than five is
+greater than three in federal numbers. This threatened rise in national
+politics of an African serf power aroused the North to the danger which
+girt afresh the supremacy of its industrial democracy in the Union. It
+thereupon set about the work of removing this peril forever. In doing
+this work it unfortunately limited itself exclusively to the use of
+political agencies. But there is no doubt that what it did in
+reconstructing the old slave states was meant to be thorough. It meant
+to extirpate root and branch, from the Constitution the right of the
+South to count five slaves as three freemen, or five serfs as five
+freemen in the apportionment of representatives among the states. This
+was the plain purpose of the whole body of congressional legislation
+looking to southern reconstruction. It is the plain purpose likewise of
+the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.
+
+All of these great acts were intended to destroy utterly the basis on
+which rested the old slave power, and on which would rest the new serf
+power, namely: inequality and race subjection. The 13th amendment
+abolished slavery, the 14th raised the former slaves to citizenship, and
+the 15th conferred on them the right to vote. The whole scheme for
+removing forever this evil seemed on paper complete enough, and in
+practice it would undoubtedly have proven effective had not an
+unexpected difficulty arisen when it was put into operation. This
+unexpected difficulty was the attitude of the Supreme Court in
+interpreting the laws made in pursuance thereof. The effect of the
+decisions of this tribunal has almost invariably been against the
+Negro's claim to equality, and in favor of the Southern contention of
+the existence of two races in the south, one permanently dominant and
+the other permanently servile, and that the maintenance of this state of
+race superiority on the one side, and of race inferiority on the other
+furnished the only working plan of their living in peace together or of
+their making any further progress in civilization. Owing to this
+deplorable attitude the Supreme Court has been a hindrance rather than a
+help in the settlement of this question. No relief need be looked for
+from it, therefore, under the circumstances. Relief, if it comes at all,
+must come from another quarter of the political system under which we
+live. And for such relief fortunately, the 14th amendment has adequately
+provided. All that is necessary to render the provision of this
+amendment, which is applicable to the present situation, effective are
+courage and common sense. But alas, courage and common sense in respect
+to this subject seem to be sadly lacking to-day both at the North and
+among the Negroes as well.
+
+The provision of the 14th amendment just referred to reads as follows:
+"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according
+to their respective numbers counting the whole number of persons in each
+state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any
+election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of
+the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and
+judicial officers of a state, or the members of the Legislature thereof,
+is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one
+years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged
+except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of
+representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the
+number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
+citizens twenty-one years of age in such state."
+
+Every Southern state has virtually by one device or another, since the
+adoption of the 14th and 15th amendments, denied to its colored citizens
+the right to vote. This was first done by the shot-gun method, which
+gave place in time to fraudulent manipulations of electoral returns, and
+this in turn to "grandfather" and "understanding clauses" administered
+by prejudiced registration boards in those states which have revised
+their constitutions. Says Professor Dunning in an article on "The
+Undoing of Reconstruction" in the Atlantic Monthly for October, 1901:
+"With the enactment of these constitutional amendments by the various
+states, the political equality of the Negro is becoming extinct in law
+as it has long been in fact, and the undoing of reconstruction is
+nearing completion." Now this statement is exactly true. The South has
+everywhere nullified in practice the 14th and 15th amendments to the
+Constitution. It denies to black men the right to vote, but it counts at
+the same time those same black men in the apportionment of its
+representatives. The present serf power therefore, enjoys to-day a right
+far greater than that enjoyed by the old slave power, for it counts five
+of its disfranchised black citizens not as three but as five free men.
+It has achieved the extraordinary feat of eating its political cake and
+keeping it at the same time.
+
+In South Carolina, for example, where the blacks outnumber the whites by
+224,326, and in Mississippi where the colored population is in excess of
+the white by 263,640, "the influence of the Negroes in political
+affairs," as put by Prof. Dunning, "is nil." And this is substantially
+true of almost everyone of the old slave states whether they have or
+have not revised their constitutions. Says Prof. DuBois: "To-day the
+black man of the South has almost nothing to say as to how much he shall
+be taxed, or how those taxes shall be expended, as to who shall make the
+laws and how they shall be made. It is pitiable that frantic efforts
+must be made at critical times to get law-makers in some states even to
+listen to the respectful presentation of the black side of a current
+controversy."
+
+Entrenched in the South to-day is an aristocracy based on race. The
+whole tendency of things down there is to de-citizenize the blacks, to
+reduce them to a state of permanent political and industrial
+subordination to the whites. This is aristocratizing the republic with a
+vengeance. For with the right to vote, the right to a voice in making
+the laws, denied to any class of people in an industrial republic like
+ours, such class must go from bad to worse in the struggle for bread,
+for existence, in competition with more favored classes. It does more:
+it reduces the efficiency of such a class as a producer of wealth not
+alone in respect to itself, but in respect to the section in which it
+lives as well. For whatever degrades and wrongs such a class degrades
+and wrongs the community and the country of which it forms a part. And
+there is no help for it, for such is the natural law of retribution
+which no "understanding" and "grandfather clauses" and registration
+boards, however adroitly devised, can in the long run possibly evade or
+nullify. This then is the deplorable economic situation with regard to
+whites and blacks alike in the Southern states, as a direct consequence
+of the undoing of the 14th and the 15th amendments to the Constitution
+by those States. The degradation of their black labor will ultimate in
+the degradation of their white labor also. In fact, the disfranchisement
+of the blacks operates practically everywhere down there as a
+disfranchisement of the great body of the whites likewise. For disuse of
+a power, whether physical or political, begets in time disinclination
+and then incapacity for exercising the same. The right to vote, under
+present political conditions which prevail throughout that section, is,
+as a matter of fact, exercised but by a small minority of the whites
+only. The total vote, for example, cast for representatives in Southern
+congressional districts is surprisingly slight in comparison with that
+cast in Northern congressional districts. The same is true of the vote
+for presidential electors, and for the executive, legislative and
+judicial officers of the various southern states for that matter. A
+handful of ruling whites, and that not of the best class as in
+antebellum times, casts to-day the entire vote of that section as
+represented by all of its black and a large majority of its white
+citizens, at national and state elections.
+
+For instance, the average vote cast for Congressmen by Northern
+congressional districts during the election of 1898 was over 35,000,
+while that cast by Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South
+Carolina, which are operated in effect on the Mississippi plan, was less
+than 5,000. The total vote cast for 37 congressmen by those five
+Southern states was only 184,602, while the total vote polled by the
+state of New York for 34 congressmen was 1,250,000, i. e. 184,602
+electors in those five Mississippi-ized states had actually a larger
+congressional representation by three than had the 1,250,000 voters of
+the Empire state. Again, take the case of Kansas, which though casting
+100,000 more votes at its congressional election in 1898, than were cast
+by these same five Southern states combined, yet Kansas had but seven
+representatives in Congress to guard and promote her peculiar interests
+against the 37 who sat in the House to guard and promote the peculiar
+interests of the ruling oligarchy of those five de-republicanized
+Southern states.
+
+But let us look more closely into this matter. Alabama with a population
+of 1,828,697, and nine representatives in Congress polled at the
+Congressional election, in 1902 a total vote of 90,105 for the nine
+districts, while the new state of Washington with a population of
+518,103 and three representatives polled at the same election a total
+vote of 93,681, i. e., there were 3,000 more votes polled to elect three
+congressmen in Washington than Alabama polled to elect nine. Again,
+Mississippi with a population of 1,531,270 and eight representatives in
+Congress polled at the same election a total vote of 18,058 for the
+eight congressional districts, while little Idaho with a population of
+161,772 and one representative polled at the same time a vote of 57,712,
+which exceeded more than three times the vote polled by Mississippi for
+eight representatives. Or let us take Louisiana with a population of
+1,381,625 and seven representatives in Congress, and her total vote of
+26,265 during the same election for seven districts and contrast these
+figures with those of Rhode Island with a population of 428,556 and two
+representatives. The Rhode Island figures are 56,064, or nearly double
+the vote of Louisiana for seven congressional districts. Or again, let
+us glance in passing at South Carolina with a population of 1,340,316
+and seven representatives in Congress, and New Hampshire with a
+population of 411,588 and two representatives. The first polled in 1902
+at the election of her seven congressmen 32,085 votes, and the second at
+the election of her two representatives polled at the same time 74,833.
+In other words, there were nearly 43,000 less votes polled in South
+Carolina to elect seven Congressmen than were polled in New Hampshire to
+elect two. To sum up: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South
+Carolina with an aggregate population of 6,106,908 and 31
+representatives in Congress cast in 1902 a total vote of 166,576 in 31
+congressional districts, while Idaho, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and
+Washington with an aggregate population of 1,500,000, and eight
+representatives polled at the same general elections a total vote of
+282,294 in their eight congressional districts. The average vote for
+each of the 31 Southern congressional districts was 5,530; while that
+for each of the eight Northern districts was 35,287. Why Massachusetts
+alone with a population of 2,805,346 and 14 representatives rolled up a
+vote to elect these 14 congressmen more than double that which the four
+Southern states with a population of over 6,000,000 polled to elect
+their 31 representatives!
+
+Again: At the presidential election last November the combined vote of
+Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina, for 39 electors was
+less than 200,000 or to be exact was just 186,253, while the vote of
+Massachusetts for 16 electors was 442,732. In other words, the vote of
+Massachusetts for her 16 representatives in the electoral college,
+exceeded that of the four Southern states for their 39 in the same body
+by more than 250,000 polls. Once more: Is it not immensely ominous and
+significant the marked shrinkage in 1904 of the popular vote for
+electors in Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia, states which had but
+recently revised their constitutions, as compared with the popular vote
+of the same states for electors in 1900? There was for example a
+shrinkage of the popular vote in Alabama of nearly 50,000 polls; in
+North Carolina the shrinkage amounted to nearly 85,000, and in Virginia
+it ran up to more than 135,000. These figures are eloquent of great
+wrongs done the Negro. They are not less eloquent of great dangers which
+now threaten to subvert free institutions in the Republic.
+
+Since the elections of 1898 things in the South went rapidly in respect
+to this subject from bad to worse. Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia
+followed the example of Mississippi and revised their constitutions.
+This reactionary movement of the Southern oligarchy has reached as far
+north as Maryland, and the work of aristocratizing her constitution and
+of Jim-Crowing her laws is now nearing completion. Where is this
+movement to stop? Will it halt south of Mason and Dixon's line unless
+drastic measures are speedily adopted by the National Government to
+arrest it? No, this aristocratic revolution will certainly, unless
+checked, invade the North, attacking and overthrowing first the
+political rights of black men in that section, and later those of other
+classes of citizens industrially and politically feebler than the rest
+until one after another of the states now free shall have succumbed to
+the rule of class and plutocratic power. Then indeed will the undoing of
+the 14th and the 15th amendments, and of democratic institutions in
+America, be complete. Not until then will the movement, which is fast
+aristocratizing the Republic, stop its steady advance. I am no alarmist,
+but am telling the sober truth. Those who have eyes to see, let them
+look around at the ominous signs of this advancing evil. Those who have
+ears to hear, may hear everywhere about them the foreboding sounds of
+this rising flood of wrong and inequality, this growing disregard for
+law, this denial to the people of a voice in government, whether state,
+colonial or national, which characterize the present period of our
+national history.
+
+It will not be impertinent for me to add by way of concluding this
+article, a few words regarding some of the political consequences, which
+would be sure to follow a reduction of Southern representation in
+Congress and the electoral college. It would, in the first place, reduce
+the political strength of the South as a factor in national legislation,
+diminish its relative importance as an element in national politics.
+That section is insolent, exacting and aggressive to-day on the Negro
+question because it has so much numerical strength in Congress and the
+electoral college by reason of its suppressed Negro vote. Reduce that
+strength by a judicious blood-letting to the number of twenty-five or
+thirty-five representatives and there will follow in due time a
+corresponding reduction of its arrogance and aggressiveness on the race
+question. For as it declines in relative strength in Congress and the
+electoral college it will decline in relative importance in management
+and leadership of the democratic party also. It will gradually lose its
+controlling influence over that party, cease ultimately to dominate it
+on the Negro question. The relative decline of the South in Congress and
+the electoral college-means, of course, the relative increase of the
+North in the same branch--means that in time the North will pay less
+heed to the claims of the South, to its threats, and more to the claims,
+to the case of the Negro. It means more. The relative decline of the
+South as a factor in national politics means the relative increase of
+the northern wing of the Democratic party in the control of that party,
+in the shaping for that party of a more liberal policy on the Negro
+question. For as the northern wing of this party gains in relative
+strength, in numerical importance over that of the South, it will be
+tempted more and more to solicit the support of the Negro vote of the
+North. In close elections and in pivotal states the Democrats of the
+North will thereupon make liberal declarations and positive bids in
+order to win this vote from the Republican party.
+
+This consideration brings me to a second consequence, which would follow
+a reduction of southern representation. And that is this: It will put an
+end to the present period of good will and peace between the sections,
+so disastrous to the rights of the Negro. Such a measure will usher in a
+period of bitter difference and strife between the two sections again.
+These differences will not arise merely between the Republicans of the
+North and the white South, but between democrats of the North and
+democrats of the South on the Negro question as well. For the northern
+wing of the Democratic party cannot bid for the colored vote of its
+section without offending the South and therefore sowing seeds of
+alienation and strife between them on the question of the rights and
+wrongs of the Negro, as a citizen. There will follow such differences
+and strife between the sections, a reaction at the North in favor of the
+Negro. Public sentiment for juster treatment of the race will gain
+thereafter steadily in strength. It will influence the Republican party
+to give to the question a more radical treatment than it now gives it,
+to take steps to enforce by appropriate legislation the 15th amendment
+of the Constitution. Such growing public sentiment in favor of according
+the Negro fairer treatment may do more, it may be able to reach even
+that pro-Southern tribunal, the Supreme Court, and put like the bees of
+the Bible honey for the race in its hitherto cold and unresponsive body.
+Even it may be influenced in time to twist the law in favor of human
+liberty, not against it, as now. And lastly, it will give the silent
+South a chance to be heard on the Negro question. It will give it a
+chance to appeal from those states drunk on the race question, to their
+sober second thought, a chance to show them the folly and madness of
+their disfranchisement and consequent degradation of their Negro labor
+as an economic factor in their development and civilization. And so
+liberal sentiment towards the Negro may be awakened in the South and be
+made thus to spread slowly downward as a leavening influence.
+
+And in the third place, reducing Southern representation in Congress and
+the electoral college will not hurt the Negro. It will not take away
+from him any right which he now enjoys down there. The doing so cannot
+in any way change his actual status either in law or in fact. He is now
+disfranchised; Congress will still have power to enforce the 15th
+amendment by appropriate legislation and it will do so whenever it can
+screw its courage to the sticking point. The reduction of Southern
+representation will certainly break up the present apathetic state of
+the country in respect to the Negro. With this breaking up there will
+follow a reaction in favor of freedom, and there will arise in due time
+a public sentiment which will bring legislation to enforce the right of
+the Colored people of the South to the ballot well within the range of
+the possible, yea of the probable, if the South persists after
+reduction,--but it will not long persist,--in its present purpose to
+nullify the 15th amendment, and to reduce its Colored people to a
+condition of a permanently subordinate and servile class, without rights
+as men or as citizens which southern white people are bound to respect.
+Let southern representation in Congress be therefore reduced. The sooner
+the better it will be for the Negro and the Nation.
+
+The law department of the United States Government has at last moved
+effectively against the meat trust. And I see that the Interstate
+Commerce Commission is looking into the charge that certain railroads
+are practicing by a system of rebates discrimination against shippers of
+live stock, and in favor of packing house products and dressed meats.
+But alas, how different has been the attitude of the national government
+toward investigating that greatest of all discriminations in the
+Republic, namely: the wholesale disfranchisement of Negroes in the South
+because they are Negroes. A few years ago one of the bravest and most
+far-seeing of the representatives of Massachusetts in either branch of
+Congress offered a resolution to investigate the subject merely. The
+administration, which was then, and they say is now opposed to meddling
+in this particular manner with the Southern question, was found equal to
+the occasion. When it failed to silence the voice of Congressman Moody
+regarding the matter, it lifted him with masterly state craft from the
+floor of the House, and landed him safely in the Cabinet where he is
+still, and where his silence might the better be secured. Thus passed
+the Moody resolution to dusty death, and the place which knew it once in
+Congress hath known it no more, and will know it no more forever.
+
+But there is another Congressman who for years has watched keenly the
+growth of this threatening evil, the growth of this wrong so subversive
+of the rights of the blacks at the South, and so harmful to the
+interests of our industrial democracy at the North. Five years ago he
+thought it was high time for the general government to address itself to
+that subject, and accordingly proposed from his place in Congress
+suitable measures for that purpose. Unfortunately for Congressman
+Crumpacker's proposition the presidential election of 1900 was at the
+time approaching and which, in the opinion of the McKinley
+administration, called loudly then for silence and oblivion on this
+vexed question. In obedience to this loud call of the Moloch of party
+success at the polls, Mr. Crumpacker's bill suffered death by
+asphyxiation in committee.
+
+The matter was, however, revived by Mr. Crumpacker in a subsequent
+Congress in the form of a resolution which provided for the appointment
+by the Speaker of a select committee of thirteen "whose duty it shall
+be, and who shall have full and ample power to investigate and inquire
+into the validity of the election laws of the several states and the
+manner of their enforcement, and whether the right to vote at any
+election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of
+the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and
+judicial officers of any of the states or the members of the legislature
+thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of any of the states,
+being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in
+any way abridged, except for crime." This resolution so reasonable,
+moderate, and just, fell a victim, so it was reported at the time, to a
+shrewd bargain struck between the Southern oligarchy on the one hand and
+the Republican managers of Cuban reciprocity on the other. The
+Crumpacker resolution was put to sleep amidst the dust heaps of old
+congressional documents, where it has slept without waking until the
+present session of Congress, when its profound slumber has been
+disturbed by renewed attempts made in both branches of the National
+legislature to revive the subject, and to do what the Republican
+national platform of 1904 pledged that party to do in the event of its
+triumph at the polls, according to the plain meaning and purpose of the
+following plank in that platform.
+
+"We favor such Congressional action as shall determine whether, by
+special discrimination, the elective franchise in any state has been
+unconstitutionally limited: and if such is the case we demand that
+representation in Congress and in the electoral college shall be
+proportionally reduced as directed by the Constitution of the United
+States."
+
+And while the Republican party hesitates to redeem its solemn pledge
+made to the people before the elections last November, the tide of
+intolerable wrong, of imminent peril:--of intolerable wrong to the
+blacks and of imminent peril to the Republic, is advancing nearer and
+rising higher and higher toward the point where to ignore it much longer
+will mean widespread and far-reaching disaster to our industrial
+democracy, to Republican institutions in America. On its crest I see
+approaching forces strong enough to subvert the Constitution, not only
+in the South but in the North--forces strong enough to uprear on its
+ruins the vast fabric of plutocratic empire and despotism.
+
+The warning is sounding in our ears, it is sounding in the ears of the
+people all over the land. Do we heed it, will they?
+
+
+
+
+The Penning of the Negro--_CHARLES CHAUVEAU COOK_
+
+
+*[The Negro in the States of the Revised Constitutions]*
+
+The following States have revised their constitutions for the purpose of
+excluding colored voters, and in the following order:--
+
+(1) MISSISSIPPI.
+
+Section 241, Article 12, constitution of Mississippi, defining who are
+electors:
+
+    "Every male inhabitant of the state, except idiots, insane
+    persons, and Indians not taxed, who is a citizen of the United
+    States, twenty-one years of age and upwards, who has resided in
+    the state two years, and one year in the election district * * *
+    in which he offers to vote and who is duly registered as
+    provided in this article, and who has never been convicted of
+    bribery, burglary, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under
+    false pretence, perjury, embezzlement, or bigamy, and who has
+    paid on or before the 1st day of February of the year in which
+    he offers to vote, all taxes which may have been legally
+    required of him and who shall produce to the officer holding the
+    election satisfactory evidence that he has paid his taxes."
+
+Section 242 of Article 12, further provides that persons offering to
+register shall take the following oath:
+
+    "I do solemnly swear that I am twenty one years old and that I
+    will have resided in the state two years and (this) election
+    district for one year preceding the ensuing election, and am now
+    in good faith a resident of the same, and that I am not
+    disqualified from voting by reason of having been convicted of
+    any of the crimes mentioned in the constitution of this state as
+    a disqualification to be an elector, that I will truly answer
+    _all questions propounded to me concerning my antecedents so far
+    as they relate to my right to vote_ and also as to _my residence
+    before my citizenship in this district,_ that I will support the
+    constitution of the United States and of the state of
+    Mississippi and will bear true faith and allegiance to the
+    same--so help me God.
+
+    Any willful and corrupt false statement in said affidavit or in
+    answer to any material question propounded as herein authorized
+    shall be perjury."
+
+Section 244, Article 12, constitution of Mississippi, requires that:
+
+    "On and after the first day of January, 1892, every elector in
+    addition to the foregoing qualifications, shall be able to read
+    any section of the constitution of this state; or shall be able
+    to understand the same when read to him, or give a reasonable
+    interpretation thereof."
+
+(2) SOUTH CAROLINA.
+
+    Subdivision (c). "Up to January 1, 1898, all male persons of
+    voting age applying for registration, who can read any section
+    of this constitution submitted to them, _or understand and
+    explain it_ when read to them by the registration officer, shall
+    be entitled to registration and become electors."
+
+    Subdivision (d). "Any person who shall apply for registration
+    after January 1, 1898, if otherwise qualified, shall be
+    registered: _Provided_ that he can both read and write any
+    section of the constitution submitted to him by the registration
+    officer or can show that he owns and has paid taxes collectible
+    during the previous year on property in this state assessed at
+    three hundred dollars ($300) or more."
+
+(3) LOUISIANA.
+
+    Section 3. "He (the voter) shall be able to read and write, and
+    shall demonstrate his ability to do so when he applies for
+    registration, by making, under oath administered by the
+    registration officer or his deputy, written application
+    therefor, in the English language, or his mother tongue, which
+    application shall contain the essential facts necessary to show
+    that he is entitled to register and vote, and shall be entirely
+    written, dated, and signed by him, in the presence of the
+    registration officer or his deputy, without assistance or
+    suggestion from any person or memorandum whatever, except the
+    form of application hereinafter set forth: _Provided, however,_
+    That if the applicant be unable to write his application in the
+    English language, he shall have the right, if he so demands, to
+    write the same in his mother tongue from the dictation of an
+    interpreter; and if the applicant is unable to write his
+    application by reason of physical disability, the same shall be
+    written at his dictation by the registration officer or his
+    deputy, upon his oath of such disability. The application for
+    registration, above provided for, shall be a copy of the
+    following form, with the proper names, dates, and numbers
+    substituted for the blanks appearing therein, to wit:
+
+    "I am a citizen of the State of Louisiana. My name is ----. I
+    was born in the State (or country) of ----, parish (or county)
+    of ----, on the ---- day of ----, in the year ----. I am now
+    ---- years ---- months and ---- days of age. I have resided in
+    this State since ----, and am not disfranchised by any provision
+    of the constitution of this State."
+
+    Section 4. "If he be not able to read and write, provided by
+    section 3 of this article, then he shall be entitled to register
+    and vote if he shall, at the time he offers to register, be the
+    bona fide owner of property assessed to him in this State at a
+    valuation of not less than $300 on the assessment roll of the
+    current year, if the roll of the current year shall not then
+    have been completed and filed and on which, if such property be
+    personal only, all taxes due shall have been paid."
+
+    Section 5. "No male person who was on January 1, 1867, or at any
+    date prior thereto, entitled to vote under the constitution or
+    statute of any State of the United States, wherein he then
+    resided, and no son or grandson of any such person not less than
+    21 years of age at the date of the adoption of this
+    constitution, and no male person of foreign birth, who was
+    naturalized prior to the first day of January, 1898, shall be
+    denied the right to register and vote in this State by reason of
+    his failure to possess the educational or property
+    qualifications prescribed by this constitution: _Provided_, He
+    shall have resided in this State for five years next preceding
+    the date at which he shall apply for registration, and shall
+    have registered in accordance with the terms of this article
+    prior to September 1, 1898; and no person shall be entitled to
+    register under this section after said date."
+
+(4) NORTH CAROLINA.
+
+    Section 4. "Every person presenting himself for registration
+    shall be able to read and write any section of the constitution
+    in the English language; and, before he shall be entitled to
+    vote, he shall have paid, on or before the 1st day of May of the
+    year in which he proposes to vote, his poll tax for the previous
+    year as prescribed by Article V, section 1, of the constitution.
+    But no male person who was, on January 1, 1867, or at any time
+    prior thereto, entitled to vote under the laws of any state in
+    the United States wherein he then resided, and no lineal
+    descendant of any such person, shall be denied the right to
+    register and vote at any election in this State by reason of his
+    failure to possess the educational qualification herein
+    prescribed, provided he shall have registered in accordance with
+    the terms of this section prior to December, 1908.
+
+    "The general assembly shall provide for the registration of all
+    persons entitled to vote without the educational qualifications
+    herein prescribed, and shall, on or before November 1, 1908,
+    provide for the making of a permanent record of such
+    registration, and all persons so registered shall forever
+    thereafter have the right to vote in all elections by the people
+    in this State, unless disqualified under section 2 of this
+    article: _Provided_, Such person shall have paid his poll tax as
+    above required."
+
+(5) ALABAMA (in effect Nov. 28th, 1901.) entitled to register:--
+
+These sections of the Alabama constitution were before the Supreme Court
+in the case of _Giles v. Harris_, (189 U. S. 475,) and the general plan
+of voting and registration was summarized by Mr. Justice Holmes,
+delivering the opinion of the court as follows:
+
+    "By section 178 of article 8, to entitle a person to vote he
+    must have resided in the State at least two years, in the county
+    one year and in the precinct or ward three months, immediately
+    preceding the election; have paid his poll tax, and have been
+    duly registered as an elector. By section 182, idiots, insane
+    persons and those convicted of certain crimes are disqualified.
+    Subject to the foregoing, by section 180, before 1903 the
+    following male citizens of the State, who are citizens of the
+    United States, were entitled to register, viz: First. All who
+    had served honorably in the enumerated wars of the United
+    States, including those on either side of the 'war between the
+    States.' Second. All lawful descendants of persons who served
+    honorably in the enumerated wars or in the war of the
+    Revolution. Third. 'All persons who are of good character and
+    who understand the duties and obligations of citizenship under a
+    republican form of government.' By section 181 after January 1,
+    1903, only the following persons are entitled to register:
+    First. Those who can read and write any article of the
+    Constitution of the United States in the English language, and
+    who either are physically unable to work or have been regularly
+    engaged in some lawful business for the greater part of the last
+    twelve months, and those who are unable to read and write solely
+    because physically disabled. Second. Owners or husbands of
+    owners of forty acres of land in the State, upon which they
+    reside, and owners or husbands of owners of real or personal
+    estate in the State assessed for taxation at three hundred
+    dollars or more [...] [By section] 183, only persons qualified
+    as electors can take part in any method of party action. By
+    section 184, persons not registered are disqualified from
+    voting. By section 185, an elector whose vote is challenged
+    shall be required to swear that the matter of the challenge is
+    untrue before his vote shall be received. By Section 186, the
+    legislature is to provide for registration after January 1,
+    1903, the qualifications and oaths of the registrars are
+    prescribed, the duties of the registrars before that date are
+    laid down, and an appeal is given to the county court and
+    Supreme Court if registration is denied. There are further
+    executive details in section 187, together with the
+    above-mentioned continuance of the effect of registration before
+    January 1, 1903. By section 188, after the last-mentioned date
+    applicants for registration may be examined under oath as to
+    where they have lived for the last five years, the names by
+    which they have been known, and the names of their employers."
+
+(6) VIRGINIA. (in effect July 10th, 1902.)
+
+    Article II, Section 18. "Every male citizen of the United
+    States, twenty-one years of age, who has been a resident of the
+    State two years, of the county, city or town one year, and of
+    the precinct in which he offers to vote, thirty days, next
+    preceding the election in which he offers to vote, has been
+    registered, and has paid his state poll taxes, as hereinafter
+    required, shall be entitled to vote for members of the General
+    Assembly and all officers elected by the people; but removal
+    from one precinct to another, in the same county, city or town
+    shall not deprive any person of his right to vote in the
+    precinct from which he has moved, until the expiration of thirty
+    days after such removal."
+
+    Section 19. "There shall be general registrations in the
+    counties, cities and towns of the State during the years
+    nineteen hundred and two and nineteen hundred and three at such
+    times and in such manner as may be prescribed by an ordinance of
+    this Convention. At such registrations every male citizen of the
+    United States having the qualifications of age and residence
+    required in Section Eighteen shall be entitled to register, if
+    he be:
+
+    "First. A person who, prior to the adoption of this
+    Constitution, served in time of war in the army or navy of the
+    United States, of the Confederate States, or of any State of the
+    United States or of the Confederate States; or
+
+    "Second. A son of any such person; or
+
+    "Third. A person, who owns property, upon which, for the year
+    next preceding that in which he offers to register, state taxes
+    aggregating at least one dollar, have been paid; or
+
+    "Fourth. A person able to read any section of this Constitution,
+    submitted to him by the officers of registration and to give a
+    reasonable explanation of the same; or, if unable to read such
+    section, able to understand and give a reasonable explanation
+    thereof when read to him by the officers.
+
+    "A roll containing the names of all persons thus registered,
+    sworn to and certified by the officers of registration, shall be
+    filed, for record and preservation, in the clerk's office of the
+    circuit court of the county, or the clerk's office of the
+    corporation court of the city, as the case may be. Persons thus
+    enrolled shall not be required to register again, unless they
+    shall have ceased to be residents of the State, or become
+    disqualified by section Twenty-three. Any person denied
+    registration under this section shall have the right of appeal
+    to the circuit court of his county, or the corporation court of
+    his city, or to the judge thereof in vacation."
+
+    Section 20. "After the first day of January, nineteen hundred
+    and four, every male citizen of the United States, having the
+    qualifications of age and residence required in section
+    Eighteen, shall be entitled to register, provided:
+
+    "First. That he has personally paid to the proper officer all
+    state poll taxes assessed or assessable against him, under this
+    or the former Constitution, for the three years next preceding
+    that in which he offers to register;
+
+    "Second. That, unless physically unable, he make application to
+    register in his own hand-writing, without aid, suggestion or
+    memorandum, in the presence of the registration officers,
+    stating therein his name, age, date and place of birth,
+    residence and occupation at the time and for the two years next
+    preceding, and whether he has previously voted, and, if so, the
+    state, county and precinct in which he voted last; and,
+
+    "Third. That he answer on oath any and all questions affecting
+    his qualifications as an elector, submitted to him by the
+    officers of registration, which questions, and his answers
+    thereto, shall be reduced to writing, certified by the said
+    officers, and preserved as a part of their official records."
+
+    Section 21. "Any person registered under either of the last two
+    sections, shall have the right to vote for members of the
+    General Assembly and all officers elective by the people,
+    subject to the following conditions:
+
+    "That he, unless exempted by section Twenty-two, shall, as a
+    prerequisite to the right to vote after the first day of
+    January, nineteen hundred and four, personally pay, at least six
+    months prior to the election, all state poll taxes assessed or
+    assessable against him under this Constitution, during the three
+    years next preceding that in which he offers vote; provided
+    that, if he register after the first day of January, nineteen
+    hundred and four, he shall, unless physically unable, prepare
+    and deposit his ballot without aid, on such printed form as the
+    law may prescribe; but any voter registered prior to that date
+    may be aided in the preparation of his ballot by such officer of
+    election as he himself may designate."
+
+    Section 22. "No person who, during the late war between the
+    States, served in the army or navy of the United States, or the
+    Confederate States, or any State of the United States, or of the
+    Confederate States, shall at any time be required to pay a poll
+    tax as a prerequisite to the right to register or vote."
+
+    Section 23. "The following persons shall be excluded from
+    registering and voting: Idiots, insane persons, and paupers;
+    persons who, prior to the adoption of this Constitution, were
+    disqualified from voting, by conviction of crime, either within
+    or without this State, and whose disabilities shall not have
+    been removed, persons convicted after the adoption of this
+    Constitution, either within or without this State, of treason,
+    or of any felony, bribery, petit larceny, etc."
+
+The intention of these acts needs no showing. They have three points in
+common: (a) Some device enabling all the white voters to evade the force
+of the disfranchising clauses; (b) The limiting clauses themselves which
+deprive a majority of the colored voters of their franchise; (c) The
+reservation of sufficient discretionary power in boards of registrars to
+enable them to give full effect to the acknowledged purpose of the
+framers of the constitutions. I know of no lesson they can teach us,
+except how to do the things we ought not to do. In some cases, by
+knowing the way down, one may, by reversing the steps taken, regain the
+lost height. But it is not so here; our fall, like our rise, has been
+too sudden. We have been thrown from a window, and before we could
+understand our position, legislated out of a back gate. Only by superior
+chicane can we repair the second injury, only by superior force repair
+the first--unless there be justice in the heart of the nation. It
+behooves us then to study carefully the state of public opinion in the
+country, which underlies these laws, and gives them whatever stability
+they possess.
+
+There is, of course, a series of events leading up to this radical
+change in the institutions of the Republic, a history beginning before
+the formation of the Union itself. The first part was African slavery.
+Religious, moral and economic forces had acted upon serfdom, the more
+common sort of slavery in Europe, and aided by the resulting increase of
+vigor among the serfs themselves, had disintegrated it. But these forces
+either did not act upon the trade in Negro slaves, when profits to be
+obtained from that traffic filled the minds of merchants, or were
+helpless to stop it. The New World was not, like the Old, overcrowded,
+but in need of laborers--and the slaves were blacks. Tropical South
+America, the West Indies, and the hot belt of the United States absorbed
+hundreds of thousands of Negro slaves. All the forces above enumerated
+set to work again after a time and slavery once more began to
+disintegrate. In this country it had become firmly rooted in the
+Southern states, where the same American people who had fought in '76
+for the freedom of two million white men, women and children fought as
+stubbornly to keep in slavery four million black men, women and
+children. But victory was again to crown the cause of freedom, and by
+the will of the victors, forced forward by the unbroken spirit of
+resistance of the conquered, these four millions of slaves were declared
+possessed of freedom, civil rights and political privileges.
+
+Said Lord Shaftesbury to Charles the Second, when called on for his
+resignation as Lord Chancellor, "It is only to lay aside the gown and
+take up the sword." The South, defeated in arms, reversed the process,
+and laying down the musket, put on the gown of the law-maker, and began
+to accomplish by legislation, the reenslavement of the millions set
+free. Hampered in this, for a time by the armies and the northern civil
+officers, who obtained power largely by the suffrage of the colored
+people, and by the colored voters themselves, the Southern men waited
+for the withdrawal of the Union armies--an event hastened by outcry at
+home--and then taking out the side-arms, which the generous terms of
+surrender had permitted them to retain, they rapidly dispersed the
+opposing force, and took the reins of government again into their own
+hands. With musket in one hand to retain political power, and pen in the
+other to undo the Reconstruction legislation, they soon deprived the
+black millions of all their transitory political and civil rights. It is
+hard to see that anything remained to be done. Emancipation laws and
+proclamations to the contrary, the Negro seemed safely penned. But moral
+and economic forces were still at work, and the end was not yet reached.
+
+The South could no longer close its eyes to the want of prosperity. In
+1890, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and
+Louisiana, in spite of their 262,175 square miles and abundant
+resources, had but 8,346,667 people and 288,405,107 dollars worth of
+manufactured products. An equal territory in the States of the North,
+namely; Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
+Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio and
+Illinois with 260,823 square miles had 25,074,143 people and
+6,484,643,842 dollars worth of manufactured products--which is to say,
+the Southern states had but one-third of the population, and
+one-twenty-second of the manufactures of the same area North. The South
+wanting prosperity began to seek ways of obtaining it. This led to the
+consideration of obstacles: and first among these was the large and
+economically inefficient colored population. It must be made, for want
+of other labor, productive, a contributory agent to the new industrial
+prosperity of the South--and not the less, cut off from any sort of
+control, even of the industries, which by its labor must mainly be built
+up. The problem was a difficult one, yet such as the South felt itself
+able to solve. And many in the North stood ready to help.
+
+In 1890, however, came troubles so serious as to require a diversion of
+attention from economical to political problems. The Republican party
+pledge to secure for all citizens 'a free ballot and a fair count' was
+yet unredeemed; and in that year a debate broke out in Congress over the
+fulfilling of its promise, with an Elections bill as the means.
+Simultaneously, the Populist movement was growing to threatening
+proportions. Before this, the cry had been that the Negro by sheer
+numbers could dominate, if not prevented from doing so. But now there
+presented itself a new and more threatening danger. "In any state where
+the whites divide," said Mr. Tillman in the Senate in 1900, "and they
+have divided in every Southern State except mine and Mississippi--into
+Populists and Democrats--the Negro has been the balance of power." The
+Populist movement died, but this phantasm once evoked, of a black man
+poised at the centre of the party see-saw, continued to hover at the
+beck of its creators until again wanted. The occasion, this time a
+lasting one, has been found in the balance of the Republican and the
+Democratic parties in the "border" states. So in Maryland, for a while,
+a "doubtful" state, where the colored population is but one-fifth of the
+whole, a disfranchising law is justified, apparently, by the danger to
+good government of allowing the Republican party to obtain control.
+Again, in the county and town election contests, even in the Southern
+states where the Democratic party is in entire possession of the State
+government, this compact(?) and mobile(?) army of black voters occupies
+a position of such strategical importance that unless they be dislodged
+by the most radical method their mastery must be forever
+acknowledged(?). Now, to conclude, since a dozen colored voters might
+hold the balance of power in town or county, the bitter irony of the
+situation is overwhelming.[1] The South is simply driven by its own
+irrefutable(?) logic to total disfranchisement of the Negro, there being
+no safe stopping point short of the practical exclusion of the colored
+inhabitants of a dozen or more states from any part in the making or
+administering of the laws, national, state or municipal under which they
+live(!). All this the South, impelled by her honest desire(!) for good
+government, and resolutely turning her back upon past methods of fraud
+and violence,(!) means to accomplish legally--provided Congress and the
+Supreme Court throw over her naked but unalterable will the broad mantle
+of legality.
+
+ [1] In West Virginia there are, on the Census basis (958,800 = whole
+     population, less 43,499-colored population = 915,301-white
+     population, divided by 3.6 = ratio of white population, generally
+     to white males of voting age.) 254,250 white voters; and (43,499 =
+     colored population, divided by 4.3-ratio of colored population to
+     colored male adults = 10,116 colored voters, of whom 32.3 per cent.
+     are illiterate, = 3267 illiterate colored men,) but 3,267
+     illiterate colored voters, or about one eightieth of the electorate
+     (257,517 divided by 3,267): yet, even though the national ticket
+     threatened to be hurt by it, it was impossible to stifle the cry
+     for disfranchisement of ignorant black voters as the paramount
+     issue of the West Virginia democratic campaign of 1904.
+
+We are reminded of the story of the princess, who wandering in rags,
+came to a palace and begged accommodation there befitting one of royal
+blood. The old queen, not sure that she was a princess, determined to
+test her veracity in this way: She lay a pea upon the floor and piled
+upon it a dozen feather-beds. If she felt the pea, it was plain that she
+was a true princess. Morning came none too soon for the unhappy lady,
+who confessed to the queen having spent a miserable night, something
+hard in her bed having bruised her till she was black and blue. No
+longer could the queen doubt that she was a real princess, for who else
+could have been so delicate. And she was forthwith married to the heir
+apparent to the throne. So the South acts on the belief that if she be
+absolutely intolerant of the slightest degree of political power in the
+hands of colored men, that the North must see in the very violence of
+her antipathy, the hopelessness of any other solution.
+
+This happily settled, the South after fifteen years of uncertainty,
+hopes to be able to turn her attention to material problems. But though
+the Caesars may rob February of days to enrich July and August, the
+seasons remain unchanged. The economic and moral laws of the universe
+remain in operation and give assurance that no solution can be more than
+temporary in which the Negro is dealt with falsely and unjustly.
+
+Meantime what had been the course of the Republican party, which, by its
+own declaration "had reconstructed the Union with freedom instead of
+slavery as its corner-stone?" Listen to the reading of the suffrage
+planks in the platforms of ten presidential campaigns:--
+
+[1868.]
+
+The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the
+South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of
+gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained; while the question of
+suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the people of those
+States.
+
+The recent amendments to the National Constitution should be cordially
+sustained because they are right, not merely tolerated because they are
+law, and should be carried out according to their spirit by appropriate
+legislation, the enforcement of which can safely be entrusted only to
+the party that secured those amendments.
+
+[1872.]
+
+Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all civil,
+political and public rights should be established and effectually
+maintained throughout the Union by efficient and appropriate State and
+Federal legislation. Neither the law nor its administration should admit
+any discrimination in respect of citizens by reason of race, creed,
+color or previous condition of servitude.
+
+[1876.]
+
+The Republican party has preserved these governments to the hundredth
+anniversary of the Nation's birth, and they are now embodiments of the
+great truth spoken at its cradle--"that all men are created equal; that
+they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among
+which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that for the
+attainment of these ends governments have been instituted among men,
+deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Until
+these truths are cheerfully obeyed, or, if need be, vigorously enforced,
+the work of the Republican party is unfinished.
+
+The permanent pacification of the Southern section of the Union and the
+complete protection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all
+their rights is a duty to which the Republican party stands sacredly
+pledged. The power to provide for the enforcement of the principles
+embodied in the recent Constitutional Amendments is vested by those
+amendments in the Congress of the United States, and we declare it to be
+the solemn obligation of the legislative and executive departments of
+the Government to put into immediate and vigorous exercise all their
+constitutional powers for removing any just causes of discontent on the
+part of any class, and for securing to every American citizen complete
+liberty and exact equality in the exercise of all civil, political and
+public rights. To this end we imperatively demand a Congress and a Chief
+Executive whose courage and fidelity to these duties shall not falter
+until these results are placed beyond dispute or recall.
+
+[1880.]
+
+The dangers of a "Solid South" can only be averted by a faithful
+performance of every promise which the Nation has made to the citizen.
+The execution of the laws, and the punishment of all those who violate
+them, are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be
+secured and genuine prosperity established throughout the South.
+Whatever promises the Nation makes the Nation must perform. A Nation
+cannot with safety relegate this duty to the States. The "Solid South"
+must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all honest
+opinions must there find free expression. To this end the honest voter
+must be protected against terrorism, violence or fraud.
+
+[1884.]
+
+The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon the maintenance of a free
+ballot, an honest count, and correct returns. We denounce the fraud and
+violence practiced by the Democracy in Southern States, by which the
+will of a voter is defeated, as dangerous to the preservation of free
+institutions; and we solemnly arraign the Democratic party as being the
+guilty recipient of fruits of such fraud and violence.
+
+We extend to the Republicans of the South, regardless of their former
+party affiliations, our cordial sympathy, and pledge to them our most
+earnest efforts to promote the passage of such legislation as will
+secure to every citizen, of whatever race and color, the full and
+complete recognition, possession and exercise of all civil and political
+rights.
+
+[1888.]
+
+We reaffirm our unswerving devotion to the national Constitution and to
+the indissoluble union of the States; to the autonomy reserved to the
+States under the Constitution; to the personal rights and liberties of
+citizens in all the States and Territories in the Union, and especially
+to the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or
+poor, native or foreign born, white or black, to cast one free ballot in
+public elections and to have that ballot duly counted. We hold the free
+and honest popular ballot and the just and equal representation of all
+the people to be the foundation of our republican government, and demand
+effective legislation to secure the integrity and purity of elections,
+which are the fountains of all public authority.
+
+[1892.]
+
+We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to
+cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public elections, and that
+such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast; that such laws shall
+be enacted and enforced as will secure to every citizen, be he rich or
+poor, native or foreign born, white or black, this sovereign right
+guaranteed by the Constitution. The free and honest popular ballot, the
+just and equal representation of all the people, as well as their just
+and equal protection under the laws, are the foundation of our
+Republican institutions, and the party will never relent its efforts
+until the integrity of the ballot and the purity of elections shall be
+fully guaranteed and protected in every State.
+
+[1896.]
+
+We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to
+cast one free and unrestricted ballot, and that such ballot to be
+counted and returned as cast.
+
+[1900.]
+
+It was the plain purpose of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution
+to prevent discrimination on account of race or color in regulating the
+elective franchise. Devices of State governments, whether by statutory
+or constitutional enactment, to avoid the purpose of this amendment are
+revolutionary, and should be condemned.
+
+[1904.]
+
+We favor such Congressional action as shall determine whether by special
+discriminations the elective franchise in any State has been
+unconstitutionally limited, and, if such is the case, we demand that
+representation in Congress and in the electoral colleges shall be
+proportionally reduced as directed by the Constitution of the United
+States.
+
+From '68 till '96 there was posted on the bill-boards of the party, the
+same declaration in favor of a free and unrestricted ballot, supported
+by the unyielding determination of the party to protect this right. But
+in that year there came a change. Perhaps it was that the mass of
+unredeemed pledges fell of their own weight, and the time seemed
+opportune to substitute a less weighty declaration; perhaps the party
+only sought a more efficient means of accomplishing its unalterable
+purpose. Whatever the cause, there began from this time, a diminuendo
+which has grown fainter until in 1904 the 15th Amendment was heard no
+more. To time, some say, must be left this task, too great for a
+political party to perform. But there is grave danger in leaving to time
+the execution of justice. The evil grows, the power of correcting it
+diminishes. Early in its course injustice may be stopped, later perhaps
+not at all. The future course of the party with regard 'to the supreme
+and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, white or
+black, to cast one free ballot in public elections and to have that
+ballot duly counted,' is gravely complicated by the rapid and momentous
+changes taking place in American society.
+
+The gulf between the sections, which the Constitution merely bridged
+proved so deep, because it grew out of differences in the social, if not
+the moral natures of the inhabitants of the two parts of the country.
+These types have been compared to those opposed in the English Civil
+War, and hence called Puritan and Cavalier. But whatever the name, the
+differential fact was this: in the North men and women did their own
+work, while in the South others did their work for them. Until this
+great economic and social difference, which made diverging ideals,
+diverging habits, diverging tastes, ceased to be, real sympathy was
+impossible. That gulf, which widened into bitter civil war, is now
+closing; the two types are drawing nearer; the divorce between sections
+is shifting around to a divorce between classes. Therefore it is that in
+a part of the writing and ruling class, we feel that there is a
+gravitating of morals southward.[2] The North, which spent millions in
+lives and money to destroy Negro slavery in the South, seems engaged in
+making white slaves at home. If the political and social position of the
+white laborer in the North is declining, our chance of obtaining justice
+through active Northern sympathy is greatly lessened. In this issue
+which remains that of the comparative "hideousness" of the slave-holder
+and the slave, every foot added to the social separation of the Northern
+employer and employee is a stroke in the knell of political equality for
+the Negro.
+
+ [2] "The Republican party in its work of imposing the sovereignty of
+     the United States upon eight millions of Asiatics, has changed its
+     views in regard to the political relation of races and has at last
+     virtually accepted the ideas of the South upon that subject. The
+     white men of the South need now have no further fear that the
+     Republican party, or Republican administrations, will ever again
+     give themselves over to the vain imagination of the political
+     equality of man."
+
+     --[Burgess--Reconstruction and the Constitution, page 298.]
+
+It is a mistake, therefore, to assume that there is active in the
+country a spirit of freedom strong enough to set us free; a power
+employed in doing justice, strong enough to do justice to us. The
+country is returning to the conditions existing before '61, even passing
+these and returning to the conditions existing before 1776,--in
+politics, because it is doing the same in _morals_. Moral betterment
+requires that we put a deeper, broader and stronger foundation under the
+old foundation of our lives; and this can only be done by removing each
+day a bit of sand and filling in the space with stone. Days of
+tremendous business activity, or national triumph are not likely to be
+so spent.
+
+We _must_ not make the mistake of assuming that there is power in the
+nation to do us justice. "Not in a republic," some one may ask? No! Von
+Holst says: "That virtue is the specific vital principle of republics is
+a delusion. The historical course of development, natural circumstances,
+material interests and political and social customs are the elements by
+which, in all states without exception, the form of the state is in the
+first place conditioned." Not after the pledges of the Constitution,
+again it may be asked? No, the Constitution is an ideal, not a real body
+of law. Von Holst wrote: "Polk had once stated that the nature of
+American institutions offered the world ample security that the United
+States would never pursue a policy of aggressive conquest.
+Notwithstanding the commentary that he had himself given on this
+proposition, it contained a kernel of significant truth. The nature of
+their institutions forbade the United States to hold in violent
+subjection, under the iron hand of conquest, a realm of the extent of
+Mexico for any length of time. This would soon have become so perfectly
+clear to the people that they would either have driven the originator
+and guiding spirit of the war in shame and disgrace from his office and
+dignity, and have reduced all these conditions of peace to the utmost
+moderation, or they would have proceeded to a formal and complete
+incorporation of Mexico with the Union." And before 1900, as a result of
+the war with Spain, the impossible, the absolutely forbidden by the
+nature of their institutions had been accomplished. How obscure the
+vision of the historian! The Constitution is not written in the hearts
+of the American people, but in the sky, where it is hidden every cloudy
+day. And yet again, it will be asked: Not in the New World, not in
+America? Justice demands a careful consideration of every case; it
+cannot be machine-made; it cannot be wholesaled. The exact measure of
+justice is hard to find, harder to administer; it cannot be had without
+patient search, calm temper, righteousness, courage. I know not whether
+America has time to seek the intricate path of justice, or patience and
+courage to follow it when found. The cry 'forward' grows even louder,
+more insistent, more passionate. Can the country safely put down the
+brakes; dare it turn from its rapid way to material prosperity? But a
+little greater momentum is needed and reactionaries will rise only to be
+irresistibly swept aside. Doubts, weariness, exhaustion even will not
+stop the rapidly revolving wheels. Only in the _wake_ of such frenzied
+progress there will follow rest, the rest of death. Study the wreckage
+in the South in the trail of slavery, black, and what is far worse,
+white illiteracy, brutality, wretched sloth. Observe the turning of
+defeat in the struggle into despair, then stagnation upon which forms a
+film, a scum, a crust which becomes strong enough to defy efforts to
+break it. So is brought about the stratification of society called
+caste. Above, the upper world, ever turning to law and punishment to
+crush those who threaten this floor, upon which they stand from beneath,
+ever appealing to the prejudices of their class to persecute into
+submission those whose sense of justice or generosity threatens the
+crust from above. Beneath, the under world, sweating, spawning,
+gathering from its own misery and the dregs of vice and luxury from
+above poison, and shaping from its own eager thousands of ambitious
+men,--yes, and after the boldest men of the class above, fangs, that it
+may become all that revolution is wont to be.
+
+In such a society is born the conqueror, man of destiny, as he seems. In
+mountain, in desert or in slum, he may have his birth. Oftenest he is a
+military, yet sometimes a spiritual conqueror. In the west of Europe,
+two thousand years ago was born Julius Caesar; in the East, Jesus
+Christ. From mountain, wilderness and slum, each drew his followers.
+Caesar gathered the driftwood of the decaying Republic into an army, and
+upon this bridge crossed the Rubicon and established empire. Christ,
+too, gathered up the driftwood of decaying Rome and fashioned out of it
+that noble band which is the inspiration of every true Church in the
+Christian world. The classes you would disfranchise will become the
+makers of a political slum. They are materials for working out the glory
+or the ruin of the nation. Exclude them from the benefits, the
+privileges of other classes and you invite criminality: from outcast to
+outlaw is but one step. Include them, and who can measure the addition
+to the sum of human happiness? In the answer to the question: what
+forces are at work checking the too great increase of a people? what is
+the principle of selection? what sort are disappearing, what sort
+preserved?--may be read the country's destiny.
+
+Outside of the slave states, equal participation in the government by
+all citizens has been the foundation stone of the Republic. For a brief
+moment slavery was dead, and all men were freemen. But slavery is alive
+again, and if its growth is not resisted, will again be restored in all
+but name. The words of Calhoun deserve to be called a prophecy.
+"_Without political and social equality_," he said, "_to change the
+condition of the African race would be but to change the form of
+slavery."_ The South accepts the alternative and resolves that, whatever
+the cost, political and social equality shall never be. The North must
+yield; _she_ will not. While some are trusting to the finality of the
+13th Amendment, others to industrial opportunity, others still to
+political without social equality, the South with bull-dog tenacity
+sticks to her resolution that there shall be none of these. But a year
+ago Carl Schurz declared: "There will be a movement either in the
+direction of reducing the Negro to a permanent condition of serfdom ...
+or a movement in the direction of recognizing him as a citizen in the
+true sense of the term. One or the other will prevail."
+
+Are there reasons wanting why the nation should keep true to its
+foundation principles? Granting that the pathway to freedom is now
+harder to follow, should the forward movement be abandoned? How else
+than by manfully pressing on to a broad humanity, can the Republic,
+reconstructed with freedom as its corner-stone, remain? As the old cords
+fail to hold together the more distant and divided political and ethnic
+units of population, there must be woven new bonds of sympathy,--at
+least, of toleration, else some must be hung with chains. There are
+many, many reasons, rulers of the commonwealth, why the electorate
+should not be reduced:--
+
+Above all, it is selfish. "The continual and diligent elevation of that
+lower mass which human society everywhere is constantly precipitating,"
+to borrow the words of Cable, is incompatible with the _spirit_ of
+restriction.
+
+It is inequitable. For, again quoting from this author: "There is no
+safe protection but self-protection: poverty needs at least as much
+civil equipment, for self-protection as property needs: the right and
+liberty to acquire intelligence, virtue and wealth are just as precious
+as the right and liberty to maintain them, and need quite as much
+self-protection."
+
+It is subversive of the republican basis of the state,--tending as it
+does to deposit more and more political power in the hands of fewer and
+fewer men. From "all up" to "some down" in the matter of political
+rights is a precipitous leap: but this step once taken, a gentle slope
+succeeds. From many to fewer members of the privileged class, the mind
+advances easily, with no intrusive principle to block the way. If a poll
+tax of one dollar can be made a condition of voting regardless of
+ability to pay it, then why not ten or twenty? If a poll tax, why not a
+property tax, or wealth? If ability to interpret the Constitution, why
+not a college education?
+
+As restriction is practiced in the South, it breeds contempt for the
+law:
+
+And increasing unrest, for like a snowball it swells and gathers fresh
+resistance as it goes:
+
+And dishonesty, for the disfranchising laws are not being lived up to.
+This is inherent, for the acquisition of the required knowledge or
+wealth would defeat the very object of the law. It puts a premium upon
+ignorance, for thereby the desired end of disfranchisement is
+furthered:--And upon thriftlessness, for the same reason;--And upon
+criminality and false charges of crime, since even this price must be
+paid by those determined to work their will.
+
+What evils of universal suffrage are equal to these? Can an appeal be
+made in the name of minority rights by those who would themselves efface
+minorities?[3] When slaves were escaping, they demanded that the
+constitutional guarantees be fulfilled to the letter, clamored like
+Shylock for the pound of flesh which the law allowed. Now, too, they
+demand of the amendments as before of the clauses of the instrument
+reserving power to the states, that they be construed by the
+letter:--but with what a change of object,--no longer that the rights of
+minorities may be respected but that they may be utterly suppressed.
+
+ [3] In two states, viz; Mississippi and South Carolina, the colored
+     people are in the majority. In the other four disfranchising
+     states, as well as all other Southern states, they are in the
+     minority. In the group of states disfranchising the colored voters,
+     viz; N. C., S. C., Va., Ala., Miss., and La., the
+
+     white population is
+            5,396,649 = 55 per cent.
+
+     colored " "
+            4,453,253 = 45 per cent.
+
+     total " "
+            9,849,902 = 100 per cent.
+
+     --BY THE 12TH CENSUS (1900.)
+
+And if it be asserted that the superior must be allowed to rule, is
+superiority to be proved by a fiat of brute force? Is mere armed
+lawlessness the index of superior worth? When the nations agreed to fix
+limits to the cruelties of war, did they thereby place a penalty upon
+brains?
+
+Finally, is it claimed that a free ballot signifies unlimited
+corruption? Read the answer in England's purification of her politics: I
+quote from Sir Thomas Erskine May:--
+
+"Political morality may be elevated by extending liberties: but bribery
+has everywhere been the vice of growing wealth." "The first election of
+George the Third's reign was signalized by unusual excesses:" A seat in
+Parliament was for sale, like an estate and they bought it without
+hesitation or misgiving. "Nor were they regarded with much favor by the
+leaders of parties; for men who had bought their seats,--and paid dearly
+for them,--owed no allegiance to political patrons. "They sought
+admission to Parliament, not so much with a view to a political career,
+as to serve mere personal ends, to forward commercial speculations, to
+extend their connections and to gratify their social aspirations. But
+their independence and ambition well fitted them for the service of the
+court.... They soon ranged themselves among the king's friends: and thus
+the court policy,--which was otherwise subversive of freedom became
+associated with parliamentary corruption. "When the return of members
+was left to a small but independent body of electors, their individual
+votes were secured by bribery: and where it rested with proprietors or
+corporations, the seat was purchased outright." Gatton e. g. was sold
+for L75,000. Of the 658 members of the House of Commons 487 were
+returned by nomination ... not more than one third of the House were the
+free choice of the limited bodies of electors then intrusted with the
+franchise.... Representatives holding their seats by a general system of
+corruption could scarcely fail to be themselves corrupt. What they had
+bought, they were but too ready to sell. And how glittering the prizes
+offered as the price of their services! Peerages, baronetcies, patronage
+and court favor for the rich--places, pensions and bribes for the needy.
+All that the government had to bestow they could command.... Another
+instrument of corruption was found in the raising of money for the
+public service. In March 1763, Lord Bute contracted a loan of three
+millions and a half; and having distributed shares among his
+friends,--the scrip immediately rose to a premium of 11 per cent....
+Here the country sustained a loss of L385,000.... Stock jobbing became
+the fashion; and many members of Parliament were notoriously concerned
+in it. Again in 1781 ... a loan of L12,000,000 was contracted to defray
+the cost of the disastrous American war.... Its terms were so favorable
+that suddenly the scrip rose nearly 11 per cent. It was computed by Mr.
+Fox that a profit of L900,000 would be derived from the loan; and by
+others that half of the loan was subscribed for by members of the House
+of Commons. Lord Rockingham said. "The loan was made merely for the
+purpose of corrupting the Parliament to support a wicked, impolitic and
+ruinous _war_.
+
+Now as to the electorate. "In Scotland in 1831, the total number of
+county voters did not exceed 2500; and the constituencies of the 66
+boroughs amounted to 1440.... The county of Argyll, with a population of
+100,000 had but 115 electors: Caithness with 36,000, contained 47 free
+holders. Edinburgh and Glasgow, the two first cities of Scotland, had
+each a constituency of 33 persons.... A great kingdom, with more than
+two millions of people,--intelligent, instructed, industrious and
+peaceable,--was virtually disfranchised.... According to a statement
+made by the Duke of Richmond in 1780, not more than 6,000 men returned a
+clear majority of the British House of Commons.... It was alleged in the
+petition of the Society of the Friends of the People (presented in
+1793.) that 84 individuals absolutely returned 157 members to Parliament
+... and that a majority of the House were returned by 154 patrons....
+
+"The glaring defects and vices of the representative system which have
+now been exposed,--the restricted and unequal franchise, the bribery of
+a limited electoral body, and the corruption of the representatives
+themselves,--formed the strongest arguments for Parliamentary reform....
+The theory of an equal representation, had in the course of ages, been
+entirely subverted.... The Reform bill of 1832 supplied the cure. "It
+was," says May, "a measure, at once bold, comprehensive, moderate and
+constitutional. Popular: but not democratic:--it extended liberty,
+without hazarding revolution. In 1850 the representation of the country
+was reconstructed on a wider basis. Large classes had been admitted to
+the franchise: and the House of Commons represented more freely the
+interests and political sentiments of the people. The reformed
+Parliament, accordingly, has been more liberal and progressive in its
+policy than the Parliaments of old, more vigorous and active; more
+susceptible to the influence of public opinion: and more secure in the
+confidence of the people."
+
+Here let us leave the history of English political corruption and the
+remedy which was found in a fairer representation of the people. In
+truth, we might well have left it sooner--if not altogether; for it is
+likely to be said that all of this is nothing to the purpose. The South
+has before her the practical problem of dealing with some millions of
+Negroes, to the solution of which, the experience of the English people
+furnishes no aid. Once more, then, we must consider the actual situation
+in this country to-day.
+
+The Negro problem has been stated: What does justice to the Negro
+demand? Approaching our subject from this point of view, we may try to
+conclude:--
+
+1st. What justice _does_ demand; and
+
+2nd. What the Negro must do to get it.
+
+What, to begin with, is the answer of the South to the former? It is
+familiar to us all and would seem to be the nearly unanimous voice of
+the Southern people. The Negro, they say, is ignorant, lazy and vicious.
+Slavery, so far as its effect on the slave is concerned, was a
+beneficent institution, raising him from his previous savagery to a
+plane of humble usefulness. There, however, his incurable inferiority
+destines him forever to remain. This, the South insists she has settled
+in wisdom and kindliness. The North, so runs her speech,
+misunderstanding the South and the Negro, unjustly forced on the Civil
+war, to compel her to change her domestic institutions. But that
+attempt, foredoomed to failure, has resulted in nothing more than the
+abolition of slavery, and a cruel loss of life and property, partly
+compensated for by the consequent revelation of her boundless resources
+of courage, loyalty and united resolve. Slavery, while a Southern
+institution, was not a bond of perfect union; but upon the platform of
+black inferiority and white domination, every Southern man has his foot
+squarely planted. Her answer, therefore, to all criticism is to point
+with pride to the solid South.
+
+How often are we called upon to see with pain and wonder that opinions,
+theories, even the mind itself is shaped by actions. Nature, aiming at
+preservation of life, is quick to heal all possible wounds, to reconcile
+warring impulses, to gloss and beautify deformities, and even to conceal
+dangers and snares. She gives men language to justify their misdeeds,
+teaches them how to embalm their errors in the secretion of their
+intellects, and even preserves the lying epitaphs which they inscribe
+over the remains of their vanity and pride. To change an opinion, it is
+necessary commonly to change a course of action, and until the life of
+the South changes, there seems no reasonable expectation that her
+opinions will change. Disfranchisement is but a symptom of the diseased
+Southern body politic, and who can tell whether the surgeon's knife will
+not reach the sources of life itself in seeking for a cure.
+
+Sufficient then to herself,--wholly insufficient, false, and cruel to
+us, is this answer. If there were but these two parties to the cause,
+there would be no need to consider it. There remains, however, the still
+hesitating, ever-divided public opinion of the North--now the judge in
+the Freedmen's case. It is fitting that in her court, our replication
+should be boldly made. There we proclaim that the South is not doing
+justice to colored men.
+
+The Negroes, say Southern men, are ignorant, lazy, vicious,--a perpetual
+menace to the rule and order of white men. Is this believable? Did God
+so make the world that after three thousand years of progressive white
+civilization;--in a country where there are sixty millions of white men,
+entrenched in their possession of armies and navies, wealth, power and
+endless resources of trained intellect;--that nine millions of colored
+people, rich in nothing but their sufferings, threaten to put the bottom
+on top? And if chance rules the world, and ignorance, laziness and vice
+are as likely to prevail as knowledge, industry and virtue, we may as
+well believe that ignorance and laziness and vice underlie white
+civilization and supremacy. No, we may confidently answer: this is not
+believable. Either these nine millions of colored people are not
+ignorant, lazy and vicious, or there are no grounds for the fear that
+they can for an hour put into danger the continuance of white
+domination, even in the blackest portion of the black South.
+
+There is indeed proof obtainable that they are neither ignorant, lazy
+and vicious, nor a menace to rule and order. If they were near neighbors
+of the brutes would the elaborate defensive preparations be necessary
+which the South continues feverishly to make? Do the savages of Africa
+enact disfranchising clauses to keep apes and monkeys out of their
+political affairs? If ignorance so submerges the black man, why does not
+the Massachusetts principle of protecting the ballot prevail in the
+South? Why is it necessary to require the voter to read, yes, and
+_interpret satisfactorily, any_ clause in the state constitution?[4] If
+sloth curses the Negro with unfruitfulness, why require property to the
+assessed value of $300? If the assessed value be two thirds of the real
+value, this means that nearly $500; if one third, then nearly $1000 is
+fixed as the minimum possession of the black voter. Does this precaution
+point to shiftlessness? If viciousness be indelibly stamped upon his
+nature, why not rely upon his disfranchisement for crime to eliminate
+the colored voters? Are the white juries not to be trusted to condemn
+the accused? Are the leased convicts not worth their cost of keeping? It
+has been more than once said that 90,000 of the 90,000 colored people in
+the District of Columbia are criminals. If the same proportion maintains
+elsewhere, what more is needed to accomplish the desired end?
+
+ [4] The requirement that the voter be able to read (or write) _and_
+     interpret satisfactorily, in the Virginia registration requirement
+     before Jan. 1, 1904, is an advance upon the earlier clauses, which
+     left the alternative. I am not sure but that it reappears in the
+     Maryland law not yet in operation. It is an interesting fact that
+     it was _Senator Daniels of Virginia_ who once called the attention
+     of the Senate to the injustice done the South by Senator Spooner's
+     assertion that voters were, without alternative, required to
+     interpret passages from the Constitutions.
+
+Yet disfranchisement for ignorance, for thriftlessness, and vice all
+together are acknowledged to be insufficient, and resort must be had
+again to manipulation, juggling, and confessed dishonesty. Rev. Edgar
+Gardiner Murphy, Executive Secretary of the Southern Education Board, a
+distinguished witness, testifying against interest, says: "The
+instrument of discrimination has been found in the discretionary powers
+lodged in the board of registrars, by which worthy Negro men, fairly
+meeting every test of suffrage have been excluded from registration."(?)
+Where the fact is so freely admitted, proof seems wasted, yet abundant
+corroboration may easily be had[5].
+
+ [5] The following clipping from the Baltimore American, I cannot
+     refrain from reading:--
+
+     "In the recent election the democratic judges of election in many
+     of the counties proved that they were unable even to count ballots
+     properly marked, and when it came to putting a reasonable
+     interpretation on the intention of a voter they were either wholly
+     ignorant or wholly dishonest. It is perfectly safe to say that not
+     one-third of the democratic judges who served at the Maryland
+     election of last week could themselves give an intelligent
+     interpretation of any section in the Constitution. Many of them do
+     not even know what the Constitution is, and the man who suggested
+     that they would take it to be a new kind of drink did not overshoot
+     the mark. Fine professors of constitutional history these men would
+     make!"
+
+The fact as well as the extent of disfranchisement is revealed by the
+statistical summaries:--
+
+
+                        *STATISTICAL SUMMARIES*
+
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 1
+                ----------------------------------------
+                ADULT MALE OR COLORED VOTING
+                POPULATION, 1900, ESTIMATED AT 1 IN
+                4.3.
+                ----------------------------------------
+                Virginia      660,722 /         46,122.
+                              4.3 =
+                ----------------------------------------
+                Nor. Car.     624,469 /        127,114.
+                              4.3 =
+                ----------------------------------------
+                South Car.    782,321 /        152,860.
+                              4.3 =
+                ----------------------------------------
+                Alabama       827,307 /        181,471.
+                              4.3 =
+                ----------------------------------------
+                Mississippi   907,630 /        197,936.
+                              4.3 =
+                ----------------------------------------
+                Louisiana     650,804 /        147,348.
+                              4.3 =
+                ----------------------------------------
+                Total                        4,453,251.
+                ----------------------------------------
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 2
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         CENSUS OF NEGROES BEFORE PASSAGE OF REVISED
+         CONSTITUTIONS.
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Virginia      1900              115,865   (T.Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Nor. Car.     "                 133,081   "
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         South Car.    1892               13,384   "
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Alabama       1900               55,512   Pres.
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Mississippi   1888               30,096
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Louisiana     1888               30,701
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 3
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         CENSUS OF NEGROES AFTER PASSAGE OF REVISED
+         CONSTITUTIONS.
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Virginia      1904               47,880   (W. Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Nor. Car.     "                  82,442   "
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         So. Car.      1900                3,579   Pres. (T.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         So. Car.      1904                2,554   Pres. (W.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Alabama       1904               22,472   (W. Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Miss.         1900                5,753   Pres. (T.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Miss.         1904                3,189   Pres. (W.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Louisiana     1900               14,234   Pres. (T.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+         Louisiana     1904                5,205   Pres. (W.
+                                                   Al.)
+         ------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 4
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          REGISTRATION OF COLORED VOTERS. (Newspaper
+          estimate.)
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          State                    Literate      _Registered_
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          Virginia             equal 69,358
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          North Carolina             59,625       _"Less than
+                                                  6,000"_
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          South Carolina             69,242
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          Alabama                    73,474          _"Hardly
+                                                     2,500"_
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          Mississippi                92,605
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+          Louisiana                  57,086         _"1,147"_
+          ----------------------------------------------------
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 5
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  REPUBLICAN VOTE IN THE SIX STATES; VOTE AFTER DISFRANCHISEMENT
+  SCORED. (World Almanac of 1904.)
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  YEAR          VA.     NORTH     SOUTH      ALA.     MISS.       LA.
+                        CAR.      CAR.
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1872       93,468    94,783    72,290    90,272    82,175    59,975
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1876       76,093   108,419    92,081    68,230    52,605    75,315
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1880       83,639   115,874    58,071    56,178    34,854    38,016
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1884      139,356   125,068    21,733    59,144    43,509    46,347
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1888      150,438   134,784    13,736    57,197    30,096    30,701
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1892      113,217   100,846    13,384     9,197     1,406    26,563
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1900      115,865   133,081     3,579    55,512     5,753    14,234
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1904       47,880    82,442     2,554    22,472     3,189     5,205
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+    1872, 1876, Va., N.C., S.C., Ala. (Tribune Almanac of 1896.)
+    1872, Louisiana (World Almanac.)
+    1892, Louisiana (Republican and Populists.)
+    1892, N.C.; 1900, 1904 (Due to Populists.)
+
+Every fresh barrier erected in the South simply publishes to the world
+the weakness and inefficiency of those already raised. Each time
+dishonest methods are newly justified, and violent declarations,
+applauded, fresh evidence is given that these Southern men cannot on its
+merits win their case. The policy of white domination is stripped to
+unblushing nakedness, and confident of the fear of those who remained
+for two hundred years enslaved, the South narrows the issue to one of
+physical courage, inviting the Negro to wrest from her the power, which
+stands between him and justice, freedom, happiness. _It is not then in
+the ignorance, laziness, and vice of the Negro, that the white South
+trusts, for the continuance of her policy, but in his defencelessness._
+
+_To these Southern men, we can make but one reply. Unmistakably our
+courage is the issue._ But before considering how best to treat their
+sinister challenge, let us answer to the Republican party the question:
+What does justice to the Negro demand? Our reply is simple,--the
+fulfillment of the promise, which was treasured up in the hearts of four
+million men as they passed through the doors of slavery into the light
+of freedom;--the promise, which they have left to their children as
+their one priceless inheritance: "The guarantee by Congress of equal
+suffrage to all loyal men at the South was demanded by every
+consideration of public safety, of gratitude and of justice, and must be
+maintained"--this was the promise of the Republican party in 1868. The
+freedman appeals to the creator of his political rights, as Tennyson to
+the Creator of his being:--
+
+    Thou wilt not leave us in the dust;
+    Thou madest man, he _knows_ not why;
+    He thinks he was not made to die;
+    And Thou hast made him,--Thou art just.
+
+Is it then fair to leave to us the vindication of the Reconstruction
+policy against men of the South, the North and even influential members
+of the party's own councils? Must we meet the charge that the Republican
+party was moved by revenge and folly, and prove that there was no other
+way to secure the foundation of freedom, which hundreds of thousands had
+died to win? Were those terrible years of death a mere night over the
+gaming table, with two haggard players, 'breaking even' at dawn? Is it
+left to us to rescue from their own sons the fame of the heroes of the
+war against slavery and restore the honorable inscriptions recorded on
+their tombs? When men talk of 'the greatest error of Reconstruction,'
+has the murder of Lincoln no claim to the place? Does not John Wilkes
+Booth better merit derisive canonizing than "Saint" John Brown? If it
+was irony for the "Reconstruction" legislatures to impose heavy taxes
+upon a people who had just emerged from a ruinous war and by bonded
+indebtedness extend the obligation to future generations, was it not
+also irony to punish and re-enslave by vagrancy laws the men who without
+an acre or a dollar were now _called_ free?
+
+And if it _was_ hate, and revenge, and folly, which brought about the
+'War Amendments,' can they be honorably withdrawn now? Is there no
+doctrine in law, which forbids one's renouncing an act after he has
+profited by it? But could the elections have been won and the policies
+maintained without the aid of the colored voter? Is there need of a
+statute of limitations to stop a political party from withdrawing the
+promises upon which it has encouraged millions of trusting people to
+build for forty years? Can it be honestly claimed that three-fourths of
+the States of the Union gave the ballot to the slave just out of the
+slave pen, with the implied condition that if he failed to prove himself
+able from the outset to resist temptation to childish indulgence and
+childish dishonesty, seduced as he was by the Northern men whom
+gratitude bade him trust and follow, he should lose it forever? Is this
+the Eden where we met our "fall?" A sober Anglo-Saxon definition of
+justice is given by Sidgwick: "Justice is realized (1) in the observance
+of law, and contracts, and definite understandings, and in the
+enforcement of such penalties for the violation of these as have been
+legally determined and announced; and (2) in the fulfilment of natural
+and normal expectations." That the nation's laws will be upheld is the
+first requirement of justice.[6]
+
+ [6] Here is an instance of a President's devotion to existing laws:
+     *With the Confederate government fully installed two weeks
+     before*,--Lincoln said in his inaugural address, that "he had no
+     purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of
+     slavery." Is a manual needed in the United States to tell for what
+     purposes and under what circumstances the law will be enforced?
+
+But yet again are we brought back to the ignorance, shiftlessness and
+criminality of the Negro. Their fathers, so say these wiser Northern
+sons, could not know of these evils, which to them have been revealed.
+No, they could not: had their lives been spared till now there had been
+no such evils to reveal. Under freedom's blaze ignorance was sucked up
+as the stagnant waters from a pool. With nearly the entire number of
+slaves illiterate, with no schools yet built, and only those large
+hearted teachers to face the enormous educational work whose
+ministrations to the needy were their only pay, more was done in the
+years just after the liberation of the slaves, to remove, their
+ignorance, than twenty-five thousand teachers in hundreds of schools
+have done in the last decade since.[7] Progress in earning and saving
+corresponded. And there was little increase of crime. A few years more
+of the sunlight and who doubts that these charges could never have been
+brought against us! And by whom are we charged with being criminal?
+Surely not by the South?
+
+ [7] Per cent. of illiteracy.
+
+     Colored population in 1860 4,441,830.
+
+     Of this about 9 per cent. (488,070) was free--perhaps 1/2 of this
+     was literate, i.e., about 5 per cent. of the whole.
+
+         Equal 95 per cent. or higher.
+
+     Colored population above 10 years in 1870 equal whole population,
+     4,880,009, less 28.7 per cent. equals under 10 leaving 3,464,806.
+     Above 10, unable to write, 2,789,689.
+
+         Equal 80 per cent.
+
+     Colored population above 10 years in 1880 4,601,207. Above 10,
+     unable to write, 3,220,878.
+
+         Equal 70 per cent.
+
+     Colored population above 10 years in 1890 5,328,972. Above 10,
+     unable to write, 3,042,668.
+
+         Equal 57.1 per cent.
+
+     Colored population above 10 years in 1900 6,415,581. Above 10,
+     unable to write, 2,853,194.
+
+         Equal 44.5 per cent.
+
+Is it credible that our millions lived under the benign influence of
+slavery, almost without crime and continued even after the Emancipation
+Act to live peacefully and honestly:--and then, upon the passage of the
+14th Amendment dropped suddenly from this moral zenith? Such sudden
+transformations are not natural: either slavery made the criminality of
+the African: or held it in a grip barely strong enough to prevent its
+issue in acts of violence: or, else this record of crime is false. One
+of these three explanations, we cannot choose but accept. The South at
+least, cannot admit the first, for slavery, they declared, even before
+God at His Altar, to be a benign institution; neither can they admit the
+second, for it, too, is inconsistent with the gentleness and benignity
+of slavery. But will they admit the third? "Nine tenths of the illicit
+gains," says James Bryce, speaking of Reconstruction, "went to the
+whites." Into like parts, Woodrow Wilson divides the responsibility and
+the discredit. "Negroes," he writes, constituted the majority of their
+electorates, but political power gave them no advantage of their own.
+Adventurers swarmed out of the North, to cozen, beguile and use them....
+They gained the confidence of the Negroes, obtained for themselves the
+more lucrative offices, and lived upon the public treasury, public
+contracts and their easy control of affairs. For the Negroes there was
+nothing but occasional allotments of abandoned or forfeited land, the
+pay of petty offices, a per-diem allowance as members of the
+conventions, and the state legislatures, which their new masters made
+business for, or the wages of servants in the various offices of
+administration. Their ignorance and credulity made them easy dupes. A
+petty favor, a slender stipend, a trifling perquisite, a bit of poor
+land, a piece of money satisfied, or silenced them." This is the record
+of crime until the quickly passing day of freedom was ended. And if
+crime has increased since, so presently will ignorance increase and
+idleness unless their growth is checked by the restoration of freedom
+and justice and hope. Punishment will fail to stop the growth of
+idleness, vice and crime, as it has always failed, and if brutal
+punishments are next resorted to when milder ones have failed, one
+sickens at the prospect. Can Southern, abetted by Northern men strew the
+earth with the seeds of accursed slavery, bastardy and treason, secret
+conspiracy, callous, sneering fraud and the brutality of the mob, and
+think to stop by lynching the harvest of black duplicity, bred of fear,
+and black criminality, bred of misery and hate,--when they have gathered
+enough of the fruits to make an exhibit of Negro vice? The departure of
+lynching waits for two events: the breeding of the animal out the most
+wretched Negroes until they find greater satisfaction in something
+higher than sensuality and revenge; and the breeding of savage cruelty
+out of the white man until he can find pleasure in something more humane
+than torture by fire. As our counsellors bid us turn our attention to
+the dark side of our life, we bid them turn theirs from it. Your boasted
+civilization on its under side is but a progress from rape to adultery,
+from brute to devil. The savage honors the brute and tortures the devil;
+the civilized man tortures or crushes the brute and honors the devil.
+There is a pitcher plant of California, which is so described: Above a
+funnel shaped stem, it flaunts a crimson banner. The hood of the flower
+is transparent, so that the wary are caught even in their efforts to
+flee. From the mouth downwards the walls exude intoxicating sweets but
+multitudinous hairs, all pointing downward, lower the victim farther
+with every struggle. At its bottom a charnel heap, poisoning the air.
+Such plants flourish amidst civilization, and millions are their
+victims, who debauch their appetites until their intellects shrink to
+the size of their already shrunken consciences, and they are helpless to
+do anything but die. Liberty _is_ perilous, a very 'valley of the shadow
+of death,' but the history of every nation which has lived and died
+teaches us that the danger of a false step is even greater near the end
+of the journey than at the beginning. Egypt, Assyria, Judea, Greece,
+Rome--the history of every nation is a light-house marking a _reef_ in
+the harbor of humanity.
+
+When Cain had killed Abel, he hid the body, and when God called,
+replied, "Am I my brother's keeper?" A chill foreboding comes over us
+with these Northern doubts of the wisdom of Reconstruction, and we
+cannot refrain from wondering if the North still retains the sense of
+duty of 61; if the North can do, can even will to do justice. And here
+let us turn from our first question: What does justice to the Negro
+demand? To the second: What can the Negro do to get justice? My end has
+been reached if there is felt more than before the need of answering the
+latter question.
+
+Underlying the civil laws of the nation are certain high ideals. The
+fidelity of the nation to these is measured by the quality and the force
+of public opinion. Just as long therefore as the republic endures, the
+executive, legislative and judicial powers will obey the people's will.
+To this oracle the rulers have again appealed, and its answer has been
+an expression of renewed and increased confidence in the Republican
+party. The hour of the new administration has almost come, and the
+message may be now on its way to the country that the party pledges are
+to be redeemed. It may be that there are brighter days before us; but
+if, as in the past, we stand on no securer footing than two men
+wrestling on a steep and icy hill-side, where both roll over and over,
+and there is no chance between throwing and being thrown,--then it
+matters not whether we appeal to President, or Congress, or Supreme
+Court; to the 14th or 15th amendment, for the righting of our wrongs.
+
+Congress is empowered to enforce the 14th and 15th amendments by
+appropriate legislation. Such legislation has been enacted and by one
+President, at least, enforced. But, now, it is held that it must be
+shown that the amendments are being violated, and this cannot be done
+until the Supreme Court fully interprets them. What a mockery it has all
+become! Insolently, sneeringly, the violators of the plain intent of the
+law rise from their seats in Congress and demand how far they are going
+to be obliged to walk around these Amendments instead of kicking them
+aside. By law, or by force, colored men are being deprived of the right
+to hold office; by law or by force excluded from the jury; by law or by
+force sent into slavery for crimes of which they were convicted by these
+juries from which they are excluded; by law or by force, they are being
+disfranchised. The alternative is clear. Southern men do not evade it.
+The revised Constitutions stand boldly for disqualification by law.
+Southern Congressmen in debate as boldly proclaim the force. More
+cautiously Mr. Murphy testifies to the same effect, denying that "the
+abuse of discretionary power by the registrars of elections,--an abuse
+which the State permits, but which the State does not necessitate or
+prescribe, brings the State within reach of the penalties of the
+Constitution."
+
+If not by law then the Constitution is nullified by force, and it
+becomes the duty of Congress to maintain it. But is Congress so near the
+performance of this obligation that we can profitably advise as to the
+method? Shall we say that candidates for Congress, by force or fraud
+elected, shall be refused their seats or that an election bill shall be
+passed, guaranteeing just laws; or that the penalty clause of the 14th
+Amendment shall be first enforced? At least, we had better wait until
+the House has reversed the policy outlined by its Committee on
+Elections, whose concluding words in the Dantzler-Lever case follow:--
+
+    "However desirable it may be for a legislative body to retain
+    control of the decision as to the election and qualification of
+    its members, it is quite certain that a legislative body is not
+    the ideal body to pass judicially upon the constitutionality of
+    the enactments of other bodies. We have in this country a proper
+    forum for the decision of constitutional and other judicial
+    questions. If any citizen of South Carolina who was entitled to
+    vote under the constitution of that State in 1868 is now
+    deprived by the provisions of the present constitution, he has
+    the right to tender himself for registration and for voting, and
+    in case his right is denied, to bring suit in a proper court for
+    the purpose of enforcing his right or recovering damages for its
+    denial.
+
+    "That suit can be carried by him, if necessary, to the Supreme
+    Court of the United States. If the United States Supreme Court
+    shall declare in such case that the "fundamental conditions" in
+    the reconstruction acts were valid and constitutional and that
+    the State constitutions are in violation of those acts, and
+    hence invalid and unconstitutional every state will be compelled
+    to immediately bow in submission to the decision. The decision
+    of the Supreme Court would be binding and would be a positive
+    declaration of the law of the land which could not be denied or
+    challenged.
+
+    "On the contrary, the decision of the House of Representatives
+    upon this grave judicial question would not be considered as
+    binding or effective in any case except the one acted upon or as
+    a precedent for future action in the House itself.
+
+    "A majority of the Committee on Elections No. v doubt the
+    propriety in any event of denying these Southern States
+    representation in the House of Representatives pending a final
+    settlement of the whole question in proper proceedings by the
+    Supreme Court of the United States. Some of the members of the
+    committee believe the "fundamental conditions" set forth in the
+    reconstruction acts to be valid and the constitutions and
+    election laws of these States to be in conflict with such
+    conditions, and hence to be invalid.
+
+    "Some of the members of the committee believe the "fundamental
+    conditions" set forth in the reconstruction acts to be invalid
+    and the constitutions and election laws of the States claimed to
+    be in conflict with such conditions to be valid. Some members of
+    the committee have formed no opinion and express no belief upon
+    the subject.
+
+    "Your Committee on Elections No. i therefore respectively
+    recommend the adoption of the following resolution:
+
+    "'_Resolved_. That Alexander D. Dantzler was not elected a
+    member of the Fifty-eighth Congress from the Seventh
+    Congressional district of South Carolina, and is not entitled to
+    a seat therein.'"
+
+If not by force then the Constitution is nullified by law, and the
+Supreme Court must be looked to to maintain its vigor. Turning to the
+Supreme Court, what do we find to be its answer? In the following words,
+the Court concludes in the case of Giles vs Teasley, (the 4th Alabama
+case) decided Feb. 23d, 1904:--(from this decision Justice Harlan
+dissented.)
+
+    "It is apparent that the thing complained of, so far as it
+    involves rights secured under the Federal Constitution, is the
+    action of the State of Alabama in the adoption and enforcing of
+    a constitution with the purpose of excluding from the exercise
+    of the right of suffrage the Negro voters of the State, in
+    violation of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
+    United States. The great difficulty of reaching the political
+    action of a State through remedies afforded in the courts, State
+    or Federal, was suggested by this court in _Giles v. Harris,
+    supra_.
+
+    "In reaching the conclusion that the present writs of error must
+    be dismissed the court is not unmindful of the gravity of the
+    statements of the complainant charging violation of a
+    constitutional amendment which is a part of the supreme law of
+    the land; but the right of this court to review the decisions of
+    the highest court of a State has long been well settled, and is
+    circumscribed by the rules established by law. We are of opinion
+    that plaintiffs in error have not brought the cases within the
+    statute giving to this court the right of review."
+
+Far be it from me to imply that the Supreme Court will never decide the
+State constitutional clauses to be in violation of the national
+constitution; but as Von Holst has said: "The wit of man is not equal to
+the task in the shaping of political life of inventing forms which may
+not be employed as weapons against their own legitimate substance or
+contents." The law, it might be added, without strong-siding conscience,
+is a mere magician's handkerchief, and surely we can no longer think of
+ante-election promises embodied in the Republican party platform as
+binding obligations.
+
+To those who ask: how long shall men wait for justice? I can only
+answer: Wait we must, but we need not idly wait. Our future is largely
+our own to make. Our radius of activity is slowly enlarging. Our daily
+question: what shall we do? settles into a demand for a defined policy.
+A bitter and perplexed,--What shall I do?--we are coming to find "worse
+than worst necessity." Mere agitation, we know will not suffice. The
+country is not floating upon a rising tide of indignation at the
+unjustness of our treatment, as it was fifty years ago. And even if the
+doing of justice hung upon the casting of a die, I do not know why the
+throw should be the higher for violent shaking of the box. Some sort of
+planning of our future and united effort of at least a few to realize
+their plans is indispensable.
+
+Resolved, therefore, that we strive for all happiness whatsoever, which
+may be fairly won. A good name and a level glance from those around us
+are essentials of happiness. If that is social equality, then, resolved
+that we strive for social equality. "This," says Cable, "is a fool's
+dream." If so let us not shrink along with Christ, to be called fools.
+Once past slavery there is no insuperable barrier between us and
+freedom. Where is this line between civil and private rights? Is not the
+path from one to the other continuous? Workshops and offices, public
+conveyances, the theatre, hotels and restaurants, apartment-houses, the
+boarding table, barber-shops and bath rooms, the public school and
+college, the scientific society, the church, the alumni dinner, the
+church sociable--in city, town and village:--what are these but the way
+to the home?[8] There is an upward slope from slavery, where a man is a
+thing, to freedom, where a man is a man. Millions, the better part of
+mankind, live and die on the hill-side; but all push on, as long as hope
+and manhood survive. That those above should acknowledge the brotherhood
+of those below and descend to help them is not to be generally expected;
+for that requires such love of their fellows as few possess. It _is
+foolish_ then to _demand_ the concession of social equality; but it is
+quite as _cowardly_ to give up obtaining it, as long as an upward way
+exists. That the path is open is proved by the cry of those who hate us:
+Turn the hill-side into a precipice,--slavery is the only alternative to
+equality; build an unscalable wall of caste founded upon the color of
+the skin, the lowest white man by law and force raised higher than the
+highest black. Yes, the first of all our resolutions must be this one,
+to strive for social equality.
+
+ [8] That public conveyances come within the social sphere is asserted
+     by Burgess: Reconstruction and the Constitution pp. 150----
+
+     "During the winter and spring of 1867-8 the work of these
+     conventions went on under the greatest extravagance and
+     incompetence of every kind. (The constitutions which came from them
+     provided for complete equality in civil rights, and *in some cases,
+     in advantages of a social character, such as equal privileges in
+     public conveyances etc."*)
+
+Not only, however, our indomitable instinct, but an urgent reason makes
+this our foremost consideration. National responsibilities, great civic
+or industrial responsibilities we are as yet cut off from. Through
+_private relations then we must educate ourselves to the realization,
+that only through the just performance of duties can true rights be
+won_. As we perform our trust over a few things will we perform our
+trust over many. Already we are reminded that our claims as individuals
+are mixed with those of the mass of our people. In vain we urge our
+greater culture or refinement, we are judged by the average of our race.
+In our own interest then, if not from a higher motive, we must turn to
+the lifting of our fellows. Our solidarity is already great: let us hold
+to it and increase it. Far from being a curse it is a people's greatest
+blessing. Yet we are losing it; our fellow sympathy and active
+helpfulness are not as great as were our fathers'. This is of crucial
+importance, since our best chance of winning friends among the women and
+poor of the other race is by justice to the women and poor of our own.
+And it is the women and the poor of the other race that we need most to
+win: for it were hard to say which is the greater obstacle to our
+progress, those left behind among the race ahead, or those left behind
+among our own. We must face sex inequality and class inequality among
+ourselves, _lest we bitterly denounce others' injustice when the same
+spirit of uncharitableness is deep buried in our own natures_.
+
+Why is there such intense emphasis placed upon this issue of social
+equality? Largely because it arouses the jealousy of the white woman and
+the white poor. She, with her heart full of fear and distrust, is the
+first to shut the door upon the stranger. The next step after being a
+slave is wanting one; and she, who has been for untold ages in forced
+servitude to man clings jealously to that social order which provides a
+place for another more to be pitied than she. She, it is who holds the
+keys of the home, and with them, of church, school, restaurant, theatre
+and car.
+
+And with women are joined the poor. _They_ bar our way to industrial
+employment; they stand guard over the polls. Why? Because they have
+learned uncharitableness in the school of bitter experience; because
+they, who have themselves never known aught but inequality, cannot even
+_think_ of an even balance between men. _Of little avail, then, the
+wisdom and bounty of the few enlightened, when the serried ranks of the
+masses bar our upward way_.... As each occasion of hardship or slight
+works upon them,--high prices made by monopoly, failure of strikes, the
+miseries of war, unequal laws, the scorn of the rich and
+well-born,--they turn and empty the full reservoir of their discontent,
+through the ever open vent of race hatred upon any that are weaker than
+they. And ever and again the crafty among the ruling class, discovering
+this means of averting danger to themselves make haste to profit by it.
+The greater our show of progress,--the more active the resentment of
+these classes of those above us becomes. Upon the removal of this
+antagonism much of the welfare of the Republic as well as our own
+depends, and I know of no other way to accomplish it than through
+fairness to the women and poor of our own race. Then those just ahead
+will see that they have no cause to fear that among us are to be found a
+new set of masters to make fresh multitudes of slaves. We cannot, then,
+afford to go on, confident that justice and wisdom will prevail; for the
+best among ourselves know how difficult it is to be just and wise. Let
+us who know the way to justice and can follow it, but strive to do so,
+and others, and yet others will be drawn into the current until its
+pressure becomes too great to resist.
+
+Resolved, secondly, that we will continue to form party ties from
+fundamental principle and not momentary prospect of advantage. Last of
+all classes, can we afford to consider trimming our political sails to
+catch a chance breeze. Before it can even be granted that we hold the
+actual balance of power, this opportunism must have become our settled
+policy,--else we are _not_ the most precarious body of voters. But
+suppose we were able to bargain for our vote, how wise would it be to do
+so? Can our voters afford to indulge in a prospect of profit to be
+obtained from their franchise? No, beyond question, our position is yet
+too insecure to warrant our driving a bargain with the Republican party,
+backed by the threatened withdrawal of our ballots. For not only would
+an artificial value, given to our vote because it was pivotal,--which,
+to repeat, it could only be if it were the most precarious,--double its
+venality, but the likelihood of our being put off with mere promises
+would be increased. Would not the prize be made just tempting enough to
+keep us vainly hoping? Would the rich with all their abundance do more
+than "rub our chains with crumbs?" We have all to fight to keep up our
+faith in the Republican party and its fidelity to the pledges of forty
+years, but all our political funds are invested with it, and unless in
+pursuit of some better principle than gratitude the time has not yet
+come to withdraw them.
+
+Resolved, thirdly, that we will contend for the political and social
+rights we crave, by modern rules of war, using every protective means we
+can, but scorning every dishonorable stratagem. Under the present stress
+a line of division is appearing between those among us who believe in
+open, and those who believe in secret methods of protection. In spite
+however of the merciless fire we are subjected to by the press, which
+makes any one a mark, who so much as strikes a match, we will resolutely
+oppose secret bodies, secret measures, secret policies. Nothing so
+quickly brings out all the cruelty of hatred as fear of secret danger.
+Let not the awful power and unrebuked successes of Ku Klux Klan or white
+caps mislead us. We must be free from the charge of having suggested
+_even_ such means to those whom oppression has made desperate, but for
+whom imitation would spell merciless revenge without even the check of
+Northern censure. And another evil scarce less results: a premium is
+hereby put upon treachery. Temptation is already too great to those
+among us who might be induced to betray.
+
+On the other hand, no reasonable precaution should be left untaken. Our
+position is hardly yet so perilous that we need seek the mountains,
+deserts or swamps for safety. Other protective measures however should
+be sought. First among these, is organization, which, however is only
+worthful when there is real community of interest and feeling. These it
+will be hard to secure without neighborhood and common business
+dealings. By such means too, we shall better come under the protection
+of the common law, with its broad mantle spread over all contractual
+relations. It is hard to get justice wholesale, harder still when one
+cannot offer the market price. The earlier resolutions leading up to the
+15th Amendment forbade restriction of the franchise on account of creed,
+ignorance or poverty. These additions were laid aside before the passage
+of the bill. The Civil Rights bill in its earlier stages required
+equality in the public schools and the jury service. These failed first.
+The best help--this cannot be said too often--is self-help.
+Self-dependence will not only strengthen our own defenses, but it has a
+value yet higher--it strengthens the Republic. Appealing as we now do to
+central authority, embodied in the Republican party, we help
+unconsciously to build up centralized power. This disadvantage of our
+faithful adherence to that party must be confessed. By striving to
+obtain land and independent businesses, and towards municipal political
+privileges, we will increase our responsibilities, our interest in good
+government and our stake in the democracy of America,--and by so doing
+become sturdier defenders of the Republic. To the man _who works_, the
+man who _wants and consumes_, in short to every man belong the common
+benefits and privileges due to his common humanity; but if we mean to
+secure these heights which in the United States only have yet been won,
+we must win firm ground to stand on. The law is not grounded in such
+principles, he who would fight for the rights of men, must be _more_
+than a mere man to get standing in her courts.
+
+By such protective measures we may so shield ourselves from attack, that
+if any should wish to destroy us they must first destroy what they have
+themselves built. This means much: but who so thoughtless as to suppose
+that ownership of land and home, or business interests or even municipal
+or other corporate franchises,--with the knowledge needed to maintain
+them--are of themselves enough! Who so weak as to trust in mere
+segregation, that if we only stay on our side of a high board fence we
+will be let alone! What of Africa? What of China? What so absurd as
+unguarded wealth? The day of high board fences is passing. While
+segregation will supply certain opportunities, which we may profit by,
+if we use them as stepping-stones to higher things, it can only do so,
+if there is courage to defend what has been won. Without courage no man
+can hope to keep anything another covets. _Somewhere in the foreground
+of all our policies,--if we are true men and women,--must be the
+determination to part with them only at a reasonable price._ Let common
+sense, and scorn of dishonesty, or pretence, guide us in moulding them,
+but then let us adhere to them. Let all be done in God's name, as does
+the man who builds an altar, gathers wood, then cleanses himself from
+all impurity before he approaches it to do sacrifice. When these steps
+have been taken, we may appeal to the God of justice, and with the
+confidence of him who dares ask, and receive an answering sign from
+Heaven, strike for the right.
+
+
+
+
+The Negro Vote in the States Whose Constitutions Have Not Been
+Specifically Revised--_JOHN HOPE_
+
+
+So much has been said about almost every phase of the so-called "Race
+Problem," so many good things and so many bad things, that we are apt to
+believe all has been said that can be said and to wish that if there is
+anything that has not yet been said, it may remain unsaid. Certainly
+little that is new can be said on the franchise until we have some new
+developments. You will get nothing new from me. I am to speak on a
+current topic that is as well known to you as to me. Yet it is sometimes
+helpful to hear your own thoughts expressed by some one else. With this
+possibility of doing a service, I apologize for having consented to
+write on the subject of "Negro Suffrage in the States whose
+Constitutions have not been Specifically Revised." But even here I feel
+unable to speak about all these States and prefer to confine myself to
+my own state, for of this I may speak with the assurance that comes from
+contact.
+
+The State of Georgia probably shows as little revulsion and reversion of
+sentiment and law as any distinctly Southern state, except perhaps
+Texas, since the Reconstruction period. Republican rule was short lived
+and, while it remained, was less aggressive and revolutionary than in
+other states. The population has been fairly evenly divided between the
+two races with a majority always on the white side. The agrarian class
+has been less powerful than in some Southern states and the ignorance of
+both races has been rather mitigated and softened by centres of
+information, towns and cities, less remotely distant from one another
+than is the case in several other Southern states, railroads and
+factories exerting a great influence in this respect. So Georgia may be
+taken as a type of those states in which the best things have happened
+or rather the worst things have not happened for Colored people.
+
+Of course, in Reconstruction times Georgia Democrats did act harshly,
+but my remarks rather have to do with the period after that. For
+instance, more than thirty Colored Republicans were expelled from the
+Georgia legislature and the state had to have a sort of second
+reconstruction before it was finally recognized by the United States
+Government.
+
+Georgia had only one Republican governor, and sent to the National House
+of Representatives at least one Colored Representative. But for many
+years, even this has been a thing of the past. White men have held all
+offices, occasionally having the monotony of complexion broken by a
+Colored representative from Camden, McIntosh or Liberty county in the
+state legislature.
+
+The passing of the Republican party in the state as an aggressive
+elective organization has been due to several causes, but so hidden and
+studied have two of them been, so free from shotguns, leaving out, of
+course, the Ku Klux and Patrollers of the '60's and '70's, that you
+cannot lay your hands on these causes so easily as in some other states
+where the change has been revolutionary and sudden rather than gradual.
+You will notice that I say Republican party, for when the Colored vote
+was most effective it was organized by the Republican party. One of the
+causes of this passing of the Republican vote was intimidation at the
+polls on election day, threats and intimidation before the day in
+communities of Colored people, and official rascality in the counting of
+ballots actually cast. Probably, as a result of these a third cause
+came--the indifference of the state and municipal Republican
+organizations to making a canvass for the state and city officers.
+
+Then the Colored vote began to divide on Democratic candidates and was
+exceedingly effective, holding the balance of power, as it did, in
+choosing white Democratic governors, congressmen, state legislators,
+city and county officers. This went well for awhile, but white
+office-seekers soon began to fear this Colored balance of power. They
+wanted their certainty of a majority of the white vote to guarantee
+their office; so the Georgia legislature passed a law making it legal to
+have primaries to nominate candidates for office and also throwing such
+safeguards about the management of primaries as aimed to secure lawful
+practices on these occasions. Here was a perfectly harmless movement,
+apparently harmless. The next step was made by the Democratic party
+assembled in State Convention when it decided that candidates for state
+and county officers on the Democratic ticket should be nominated by a
+primary, but leaving the conduct of the primary to the community in
+which it might be held, provided this should not run counter to the
+primary law as passed by the State. Here too, was a perfectly fair and
+harmless provision, apparently fair and apparently harmless. But the way
+was then open for the primary to take on a local coloring. In
+communities where the colored vote was an embarrassment, the Democratic
+party there decided to have a _white_ primary. In one of these
+communities a colored man that I know went to vote at the primary. He
+was a "good Negro" a very good Negro, his goodness dating back to the
+time when the "Yankees" were about to confiscate his master's cotton and
+he claimed the cotton as his. Even this transaction did not enlarge his
+cranium, and after saving his master thousands of dollars and gradually
+amassing a fortune for himself, he still knew how to approach his former
+master from the kitchen door. Well, this good Negro went to cast his
+ballot. The courteous man at the polls said: "George, this is a
+Democratic primary." "Yes," said George, "but I am a Democrat." "Well,"
+said the courteous gentleman, "but George, this is a _white_ primary."
+This colored man found himself without a Republican for whom he might
+vote, and was informed that the Democratic party was a close corporation
+so far as the Colored man was concerned. This is quite interesting when
+I tell you that white Republicans, avowedly Republicans, have not only
+been permitted but even requested to participate in the primaries of the
+Democratic and Populist parties.
+
+The reason for the elasticity of the primary is quite evident, that is,
+why Colored people are allowed to take part in the primary in one
+community and not in another, or why they are allowed at one time to
+vote and at another time in that same community are not allowed to vote.
+The purpose is to have the Colored voters as a harmless balance of power
+between the Democrats and any other party that may show strength, that
+is, to have the Colored man to settle disputes among white people
+without becoming obstreperous because of this valuable assistance. There
+were some communities where the Populists used the Colored voter to
+defeat Democrats and others where the Democrats used this vote to defeat
+Populists. Of the State as a whole, it may be said that Populism was
+defeated by the Colored voters espousing the Democratic side. And be it
+said to the common sense and good reason of many Democrats that this
+fact is acknowledged and to an extent appreciated by the party now in
+power--to the extent at least of staving off any further
+disfranchisement measures thus far.
+
+But the most flagrant high-handedness and palpable confession of purpose
+on the part of white people with reference to our citizenship rights is
+to be found in a state legislative enactment that looks to the municipal
+management of two Georgia towns where the Colored voters are so
+overwhelmingly in the majority that ordinary subterfuges would not
+fulfill the requirement. Darien and St. Mary's are two coast towns with
+a large Colored population. The mayor and aldermen are not elected by
+the voters in these towns; but, instead, these towns enjoy the unique
+distinction of being managed by officials appointed by the governor of
+the State. What is more simple; what more high-handed; what more
+un-Democratic and subversive of national principles of government than
+this?
+
+Now let us ask the question: Can the Colored man cast his ballot in
+Georgia?
+
+In the first place, any party of any race may hold a primary.
+
+Second, any man of any party or race may vote in the _general_ election
+for any candidate he may wish.
+
+Let us ask next, whether these ballots will be counted? That depends
+entirely upon whether the need is to count them or destroy them; or
+furthermore, to count them as ballots for some one for whom they were
+not cast. The election boards and the management at the polls are not
+bipartisan and the party in power may do what it chooses.
+
+We raise the question now whether it is for our best interest
+economically to exercise the franchise? Do men vote to help their
+economic interests? Are not taxation and other fiscal policies settled
+by the ballot? May not property be enhanced or lessened in value by
+voters? Colored people have some real estate and securities, but their
+practical capital is their labor; yet they have not the least power, the
+real power, of influencing legislation in reference to a single labor
+measure that may arise, although in Georgia nearly half the population
+is colored and in the laboring class the colored people are in the
+majority. Now suppose, as white union labor in the South grows stronger,
+it should influence such legislation as would eliminate colored labor
+where it came into competition with white labor, the colored laborer
+would be politically powerless to resist this legislation. Now is this a
+mere idle dream when we reflect that within the past few months a Texas
+legislator introduced a bill to confine Colored labor to the farm
+whenever it was found in city and town communities to be competing with
+white labor.
+
+Then there is another side that really has its argument, effective,
+though perhaps not very logical. The fact that we are, as a people,
+laborers and not capitalists, makes us, as any other people similarly
+placed would be, under obligation to the capitalist who, in our case,
+are white. The point is made that to enter politics against the wishes
+of this people would raise such antagonism as to lower our earning
+power. Hence we are told to keep out of politics until we get a better
+money basis. Here we stand between two difficulties, staying out of
+politics might jeopard our earning and entering politics might jeopard
+our earnings. Many honest and thoughtful white and colored men stand on
+both sides of this question.
+
+Now, is it educationally best for us to vote? This question requires
+some amplifying. Do we mean what educational value comes from this
+training in citizenship? If so, then certainly the value is great. There
+was a time when we knew conditions in our state and town, but so little
+influence does a Colored man have in politics now that I do not even
+know the name of the alderman in my ward, although I am a registered
+voter, have paid my poll tax and voted for President Roosevelt. I know
+of nothing more benumbing to us as citizens than this deprivation. Men
+who are philosophic may consider matters that are not of material
+concern, but the average person does not load his mind and spend his
+time with things that, for one reason or another, have no concern for
+him. Any discussion as to the fitness and honesty of municipal and state
+candidates hardly touches me, as I know I cannot lift a finger to
+promote the interests of any one of them. I have no voice.
+
+There is another position from which this question may be viewed and
+that is whether the advantages from schools would be lessened or
+increased from participation in politics. It is quite evident that
+without the ballot any people are suppliant and must beg rather than
+make a manly demand. But, assuming that the lack of the ballot has
+become a condition with us, would a demand or threat about our ballot
+result in a counter threat that if we forced the issue, we should not
+only be denied our ballot, but that for our arrogance the appropriation
+for Colored public schools would be cut down and we should receive only
+what we paid in as our share of the school tax? This too, is no dream;
+but has actually been considered by colored men as a possible reason for
+not causing such antagonism as would arise from Colored men endeavoring
+to enter aggressively into politics again.
+
+What now about fears for disfranchisement such as has been compassed by
+the revised constitutions in many Southern states? Some one may say that
+there is no difference between constitutional disfranchisement and that
+_quasi_ disfranchisement effective for all practical purposes such as we
+have spoken of as now obtaining in Georgia. There is a tremendous
+difference. If a wave of civic righteousness should sweep over those
+states still without constitutional disfranchisement, the primaries
+would be a very slight embarrassment to those willing to do right by all
+races alike; while in the states possessing constitutional
+disfranchisement, the reactionaries would have such means of stopping
+fair play and honest elections free for all, that they could easily
+check the purpose of the fair-minded citizens for a long while.
+
+Now, do we really have to fear disfranchisement? I say disfranchisement
+must at all times be feared and be guarded against as far as it lies
+within our power in an honorable and manly way to hold it off. Just at
+the time North Carolina and Maryland seemed most secure to us we found
+ourselves deprived of our rights; and it may be safely stated that
+whenever on a specific occasion the Colored vote exerts the balance of
+power over any considerable area, there disfranchisement may be feared.
+We need to fear disfranchisement because it is founded upon the spirit
+of injustice and that same spirit fosters it. So palpable is this, that
+the South bewails the fact. Governor Warfield in speaking about the
+repeal of the Fifteenth amendment says: "The privilege to vote could
+then be bestowed without respect to the expedient of unwise
+constitutional amendments that strain the conscience of our best people
+and arouse criticism." Yet the repeal of the Fifteenth amendment would
+not relieve those apostles of disfranchisement of the odium of violating
+the spirit of truly American democracy and of setting at naught that
+mighty decision on human rights that was rendered by the bloody
+arbitrament of war--Disfranchisement of whatever sort, if designed to
+embarrass a citizen because of his race, must always "strain the
+conscience of our best people."
+
+Does Georgia show any signs of the disfranchising spirit? We fear it
+does. The State Legislature now expects some measure of this sort at
+each session, and in recent years has not been disappointed, although
+good sense has thus far triumphed. Then again men in high places,
+congressmen and at least one of our U. S. Senators from Georgia have
+begun to say some things that may easily be construed as an advocacy of
+disfranchisement. It occurs to me that the marked difference between the
+condition in my boyhood and to-day is this: then the opposition was to
+Republicans, to-day it is to Negroes. It is not a party line, but a race
+line.
+
+Now the white primary has not done all that was claimed for it. In the
+first place it has not purified elections. Far from doing away with the
+purchase and sale of votes, it has, by lowering the supply, relatively
+increased the demand and brought up the price to a really fancy figure.
+In the second place it has failed to do that for which it was ostensibly
+introduced especially to do, namely; to put into office those men most
+eminently fitted by ability and character to administer the office to
+which they might be chosen. On the contrary, primary elections have been
+questioned on the ground of fraud; and the mayor of one very prominent
+Georgia city has been arrested for drunkenness. Then why is the primary
+kept? Well, the "fixers" for instance, can more easily fix things. With
+the Colored man's vote eliminated, the work becomes simplified and even
+though the amount of money spent illegally may now be more than the
+total amount in the days when colored as well as white were in the
+market yet those interested in "fixing" elections can now work with more
+assurance; and promises may more easily be carried out in the matter of
+delivering the goods.
+
+For instance, I know of a city election where the voters in one ward
+were so evenly divided and the candidates had calculated their strength
+so accurately, that one candidate felt safe in buying three white votes
+at the rate of one hundred ten dollars. Large corporations may now
+operate easily in state and city; and some of the most flagrant cases of
+political jobbery that have been charged against Reconstruction rule are
+easily equalled by the bare-faced graft and bribery by which large
+business interests win their way through the assistance of white voters.
+
+What are the possibilities of white aspirants bolting the primary? It is
+my impression that they are fewer than they were twenty years ago. Judge
+Gartrell once ran independently against Alexander Stephens for Governor
+and Judge Emory Speer in his younger days ran on an independent ticket;
+but such a step on the part of a candidate means outlawry for life.
+Speer was read into the Republican party, Thomas Watson into the
+Populist; and since the exile of such giants, the small fry find it easy
+to be good and not to lift their heads in rebellion, no matter what
+rascality has compassed their defeat at the Primary. No. It is my
+impression that the primary is more firmly established to-day than when
+it was first started. White unity has become white slavery; and while
+the yoke galls, the white aspirant prefers the yoke to extermination.
+
+But, suppose there should be a general Democratic "rough house" and the
+colored vote should be called in to quell the disturbance, the Colored
+voter would have no guarantee that such would mean his return to
+political standing. On the contrary, it might, as in several states,
+cause the passage of constitutional disfranchisement that would make his
+last state worse than the former. Our status is truly unenviable, and
+the ground on which we stand is exceedingly uncertain.
+
+I desire now to treat more fully what has already been touched upon: Why
+do the Republicans not nominate candidates for state, county and city
+offices and make a general canvass? There are two classes of Colored
+men, those who think the party should and those who think it should not.
+Unfortunately each of these classes makes severe charges against the
+other with reference to this matter. I much prefer to accept the
+explanations of both as honest. The following are at least some of the
+reasons for not making a canvass: first, it is difficult to get
+desirable men to accept the nomination; second, it would be still more
+difficult to secure sufficient funds to pay the ordinary and perfectly
+legitimate expenses of a campaign; third, the injustice of the party in
+power would make a fair election an impossibility. Hence a candidate
+would be doomed to defeat from the moment of his nomination and the fact
+that he and the party would know this, would make the campaign lifeless,
+futile and perfunctory. Fourth, the prominence of Colored people in
+politics and the extra trouble to which they would put the ascendant
+party might result in still further curtailment of the few rights still
+left to us.
+
+To all of this the side that clamors or appears to clamor for a ticket
+says: You assume too much, you see ghosts. Yet supposing the worst, it
+is far better to keep Colored voters organized for several reasons:
+first, because the organization gives a valuable training in citizenship
+that cannot be gained by standing aloof and waiting for better things;
+second, because if an opening should come suddenly, the Colored people
+would be better able to decide quickly and intelligently where to throw
+their strength solidly on one side or another for their own best
+interests and the interests of the government; thirdly, because a show
+of opposition to existing political injustice and repression would
+relieve us of the charge of indifference to our condition and would
+strengthen the courage of those who might champion our cause--our
+efficient, powerful champions, who have grown doubtful about our real
+manhood. I believe in the honesty of both these classes of colored men;
+and it is exceedingly difficult for a man, living in the midst of these
+conditions and knowing the temperament, attitude and unlimited power of
+the white people, to say which one of these two courses is the more
+rational and helpful to pursue.
+
+What have the Colored people lost through disfranchisement? They have
+lost the privilege of influencing legislation, since the legislator
+feels under no obligation to them. The "Jim Crow" car law, the separate
+tax bill and almost any other bill may be passed so far as pressure from
+Colored people is concerned. A very clear case is the public library in
+Atlanta which is supported by the taxes of all citizens, yet not a
+single Colored person may enter that library to read or borrow a book.
+Some months ago Mr. Carnegie offered the city ten thousand dollars for a
+library for the Colored people on the condition that the city furnish a
+lot and agree to appropriate one thousand dollars _per annum_ for the
+maintenance of the library. The whole matter has been tabled and the
+Colored people have no redress, since their mayor and aldermen were
+elected without the Colored vote. Do you suppose the city of Atlanta
+would have refused so paltry a favor, if its city council were dependent
+upon our vote?
+
+Not only have we lost influence among the law makers but among those who
+interpret the law and administer justice. Neither judge nor jury has to
+consult the Colored man's wish. This independence of us makes the court
+a place of injustice as frequently as of justice, and policemen may be
+cruel with impunity.
+
+Then too, the chain-gang with its revolting influences on men and women,
+boys and girls; the lack of Negro reformatories in some places where
+they do exist for white boys find much of their meaning in the fact that
+the Colored voter cannot make sentiment and bring things to pass through
+the ballot. We have had the "Jim Crow" law forced upon us, our public
+schools have become poorer in equipment and teaching force, and the
+salary of teachers has been lowered.
+
+In a word, the loss of the franchise has changed our status to such a
+degree that we no longer demand, but beg and supplicate even for those
+fundamental needs, without which education and general improvement would
+be very doubtful.
+
+Now are there some things to be effected that are regarded as of more
+vital interest to Colored people at present than the ballot? In the face
+of what has already been said, this seems almost an unnecessary
+question, since the ballot is no abstract thing, no merely academic
+theory, but a vital agent in the promotion of improvement and happiness.
+Yet as obvious as all this seems, when people have already lost the
+ballot they may ask this question: Are there some things to be effected
+that are of more vital interest to Colored people at present than the
+ballot?
+
+I heard a sweet-spirited Colored man say at the conclusion of his
+remarks one day--he was a college president and is now in Heaven away
+from this turmoil--well I heard him say: "I have come to the conclusion
+that all we can do in this country is to take what the white man gives
+us." An eminent Colored preacher said recently in my hearing: "You can't
+drive these white folks, you must knuckle to them and you can get
+anything you want." Within the last two months an interesting white
+southern clergyman in his exhortation to Colored people to be good
+Negroes, told them not to get mad about "Jim Crow" cars and to be slow
+to urge their rights. Said he: "You Colored people are undertaking a
+heavy task when you attempt to reform the Anglo-Saxon." Now our present
+needs are numerous and vital, many growing out of the curtailment of
+privileges, a condition made possible through our lack of the ballot.
+Many Colored men believe that we can get these needs supplied most
+quickly and surely by begging and not resorting to a futile ballot;
+many, moreover, think that the voting would retard the granting of these
+much needed privileges. On the other hand, others say our condition
+grows steadily worse and our only redress, our only hope, is in the
+ballot.
+
+Now what do I believe about all this? I believe that we ought to vote,
+and I vote on every public question when the privilege is accorded me. I
+believe that our leaders ought to give us the opportunity to vote and
+let us stand forth as men, whether successful or not, willing to do all
+within our power to be full-fledged citizens. Certainly our attitude
+ought never to allow the white people to say: the Negro cares nothing
+for the franchise and does not exercise it when he does have the
+opportunity. What are we waiting for? Not more education, I hope. And
+here I must remind you that one thing is much over-talked: the
+forwardness of the Colored child and the backwardness of the white child
+in the matter of getting an education. Colored children are not being
+fitted as are white for their responsibilities. A real intellectual
+awakening is going on among the whites of the South--more and better
+school houses, better teachers and longer school terms; and the white
+children are learning with avidity. The Colored children are getting
+poor school houses, poorer teachers, more poorly paid teachers and
+shorter school terms; and we cannot change this disparity by begging the
+state and city. Unless we force better things for ourselves by the
+ballot or go into our own pockets, the next generation of colored voters
+will be relatively less prepared for the educational qualification in
+comparison with the white voter than the Colored voters of to-day. Oh!
+you say: "Pessimist, looking on the dark side." Away with that
+contemptible sentimentality and aversion to ugly facts that make some of
+my people call a man a pessimist every time he lifts a warning voice. I
+know the white country school house and the Colored country school
+house. There is a tremendous difference.
+
+Now I believe in education, but I also believe in manhood; and any
+education bought at the price of manhood is worthless and a mill-stone
+about the neck. I believe in the ballot as a developer of manhood and as
+it procures the right of men. I believe in the ballot in spite of
+threats of disfranchisement, if we use this ballot. I see no difference
+in purpose between the states that have outrightly disfranchised us and
+those states that do it stealthily or by indirection.
+
+I believe that the purpose of all is the same: a hatred for Colored
+people and a determination to have white supremacy at any cost of life
+and honor. I do not think Northern sentiment is a deterring force,
+though I think Northern sentiment _could_ become a deterring force to
+disfranchisement. In the face of all this, why _delay_ voting in the
+hope of better things; better _welcome_ disfranchisement as _men_ than
+_suffer_ from it as _cowards_.
+
+
+
+
+The Potentiality of the Negro Vote, North and West--_JOHN L. LOVE_
+
+
+The potential voting strength of the Negro population in the United
+States is, according to the last census, three times as great as was
+that of the white population in 1775 when the Declaration of
+Independence published to the world the modern, though sound, practical
+and eminently safe political creed that governments derive their just
+powers from the consent of the governed. The number of Negro males of
+voting age is approximately three millions, a number equal to the entire
+white population at the beginning of the war for Independence. The total
+Negro population in the United States in 1900 was three times larger
+than was the total white population which battled against King George
+and the British Parliament for the purpose of securing a voice in the
+choice of those who levy taxes and enact the laws whose weight and
+obligation fall equally upon the whole body of citizens.
+
+In the North Atlantic, the North Central, and the Western census
+divisions of the United States, the potential voting strength of the
+Negroes is more than a quarter million. It is larger than was the
+combined prohibition and socialist vote in 1900 and exceeds by nearly a
+hundred thousand the total combined vote cast for the present governors
+of the four states of Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and
+Alabama. In many sections of the North and West the Negro population is
+sparse and scattering, varying all the way from one in Scott County in
+Indiana to 63,000 in Philadelphia. Yet in many localities where there is
+almost an even balance of the two chief parties, the Negro vote is
+competent to decide the results of election. In the states of Delaware
+Indiana, Ohio, Connecticut, New Jersey, and several districts in New
+York, Massachusetts, and Illinois, a united, coherent Negro vote may
+frequently determine both local and national elections. This is shown by
+the returns in 1902 for Congressional election in four districts in
+Indiana, two in New Jersey, four in Ohio, and two in Massachusetts and
+Connecticut, where the Negro vote was of sufficient size to have thrown
+the election to either party. In state and local elections where party
+fealty is not always so strong as in national elections, owing to
+dissatisfaction with both men and measures, the potentiality of the
+Negro vote can be made very real and effective as well as respectable.
+The municipal wards and legislative districts in the large commercial
+and manufacturing centers of the North and West furnish undoubted
+opportunities for the Negro vote to make itself felt and to win regard
+and respect as far away as the United States Senate.
+
+The foregoing facts and considerations suggest interesting possibilities
+and, in view of the conditions affecting the political, civil, and
+economic well being of the people of color in the United States, they
+create a demand and an obligation with reference to the use of which the
+Negro voter should make of his right of the franchise.
+
+The chief tenet of modern political philosophy is that the participation
+of the people in the government is the only way by which their liberties
+can be guaranteed and their economic and industrial happiness
+safeguarded. Out of this conviction which has taken hold of men almost
+everywhere has resulted in the universal movement towards democracy. The
+democratic triumph which has marked the past hundred years and has been
+accompanied by marvelous achievements of human endeavor--achievements
+which could not have been accomplished except under conditions of
+freedom--has not been won without stupendous struggle and temporary
+defeats and disappointments. At every forward step, the movement has
+encountered unrelenting and seemingly irresistible opposition of
+privilege. Even here in the United States where, barring absurd
+contradictions, the spirit of democracy began so conspicuously to assert
+itself under the fostering genius of Jefferson, skillful and powerful
+resistance has been constant and implacable. Aristocratic privilege,
+intrenched in power, has grudgingly given way to the demands of manhood
+rights, and manhood suffrage, and even to-day, in the attempt to
+rehabilitate itself, it is bold enough to make the ridiculous assertion
+that the right of suffrage, even in a republican form of government, is
+not a natural and inherent right of citizenship, but merely a privilege
+to be granted or withheld at pleasure by a select few for whose assumed
+authority no power on earth or in heaven is responsible.
+
+Whatever opinions may be entertained contrary to the doctrine and
+increasing practice of government by the consent of the governed, the
+fact is undeniable that as man has gained and exercised the right of
+participation in government, special privilege for the few has had to
+give way to the condition of equal opportunity for all. Abuses have been
+swept away and the door of opportunity has been opened for all. Thus has
+the ballot proven to be man's sure and effective weapon of defense
+against tyranny and proscriptive government.
+
+All classes of our varied population, with possibly one exception, have
+recognized this truth and have acted in accordance with it. German,
+Irish, Jew; artisan, farmer and merchant--all have found the ballot a
+remedy for social, economic, and political ills that have had their
+origin in unjust laws or the partial administration of law. All have
+used it with wonderful effect towards the betterment of their condition.
+Grievances of one group have been allied with those of another group;
+industrial discontent growing out of capitalistic wrongs, political
+distempers due to governmental abuses or the enforcement of
+discriminatory laws; the deep seated consciousness of ethnic injustice
+in the industrial or political scheme--all have combined and arrayed
+themselves for redress which every branch of the political machinery has
+in the end endeavored to grant. The demands of the Slavonic yeomanry of
+the Northwest that a check be placed upon railroad combinations are not
+less effective in securing compliance than those of the merchants and
+shippers of our commercial centers that just and equal rates of
+transportation shall be enforced. The underground toilers of the mining
+regions of Pennsylvania and Illinois know that their grievances will
+receive the same respectful attention and consideration as the mandates
+of the coal barons, and they systematically scrutinize the attitude and
+the actions of public servants and hold them to a strict performance of
+promise and duty in so far as their rights and interests are concerned.
+Thus it is that in the United States as in all representative
+governments the ballot is the surest means of securing a "square deal;"
+and it is incumbent upon the three hundred thousand Negro voters of the
+north and west to recognize its value and to make the same use of it as
+is made by all other aggrieved elements of the body politic.
+
+A catalogue of the wrongs and injuries suffered by the Negro citizens of
+the United States, first on account of discriminatory and proscriptive
+legislation; secondly, on account of the failure to enforce the laws
+designed to uphold and protect their citizenship; and thirdly, on
+account of the most palpable and outrageous violation of the sacred
+rights of life, liberty and property, make the "long train of abuses and
+usurpations" committed, according to the Declaration of Independence, by
+the King of Great Britain against his colonies in America appear as the
+gentle chastisements of a benificent ruler. Of all the complex elements
+of American citizenship, the Negro is the solitary victim of legal,
+social, industrial, and political discrimination. He alone is singled
+out by the law for disparagement which fact encourages and enforces the
+multitude of civil and industrial discriminations and injuries that tend
+to deprive him of the respectability due not only to a citizen but to
+man. To the tax levy, to the obligation to bear arms for the common
+defense as well as to all other mandates of the government, he is
+equally amenable with other citizens; but he is excepted from a full
+share of the benefits of citizenship. In all stations of society and in
+all departments of government, his protests fall upon deaf or
+indifferent ears, and the very sufferings and wrongs which he suffers
+are frequently made the text for sermonizings on his short-comings. If
+the homilies published from the pulpits, in the press, and even
+sometimes from the higher branches of the government are to be believed,
+the Negro is the most unsaintly citizen of the republic, in spite of the
+fact that he seldom commits "the robust crimes of the whites" or has the
+chance to defraud the government, to wreck financial institutions, or
+rob widows and orphans.
+
+The burden of these outrages lies heavily upon the hearts and minds of
+the black men of America, yet the remedy, if they could but realize it,
+lies largely within their power. Throughout the republic, every man
+identified with the Negro race, though he may not be personally or
+locally subjected directly to the humiliations and wrongs which oppress
+and degrade the great mass of his kind, feels their bitter sting and
+resents them. In public assemblies, upon the public highways and common
+carriers, in the drawing room and around the secrecy of the fireside,
+the fact of injustice is the one inevitable and irrepressible theme of
+conversation and reflection; and the perennial and ever present question
+in the minds of all, whether of low or high degree, is _By what means
+can the situation be altered?_ Men of different opinions are endeavoring
+more or less honestly to answer the question, but one of the surest and
+quickest means is at the command of the three hundred thousand Negro
+voters of the north and west, who have it in their power by an
+intelligent, united, and courageous exercise of their high privilege and
+right to demand the same respect and consideration for their interest
+and well being as any other class of men who register their wills at the
+ballot-box.
+
+Thaddeus Stevens once said that control of republics depends upon
+numbers and not upon the quality of the citizens. In the last analysis
+this is true, but in all governments by parties the smaller number is
+often more important than the larger. The strength of the Negro vote in
+the North and West in times of party crises consists not so much in the
+number of that vote as in the use which is made of it. In thirty
+northern and western cities, it can very effectively contribute to the
+improvement of existing conditions. It is wonderfully powerful, if
+intelligently directed, in the cities of Boston, Baltimore, Chicago,
+Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and New York.
+
+The effectiveness of this vote depends more upon the use which is made
+of it in local and state elections than in national elections. The bonds
+which unite the interests of the local, state and national officials and
+politicians are very real and subtle--the weakest point being always the
+local politician. His election and success often turns upon less than a
+score of votes and consequently he is not inclined to disdain a single
+voter. His interests are inseparably connected with the interests and
+ambitions of the men who occupy luxurious berths in Congress and in the
+national or state government. In all matters concerning the interests of
+the Negro, the local politician's position can be known and his actions
+are open to close view. When his acts do not accord or square with the
+interest of the colored voter, he can be left to find other friends and
+supporters.
+
+In the second place, the effectiveness and potentiality of the Negro
+vote in the North and West depends upon an absolute and courageous
+disregard of traditions. There are times when party fealty may be both
+proper and commendable. There is to be sure a great deal of hypocrisy
+and humbuggery in our political parties, yet back of these they do stand
+for certain great and vital principles. When the latter are put to the
+test our fealty may properly be demanded, but under normal conditions,
+when stress and strife of class and selfish interests, invidious
+discriminations and outrageous injustice prevail, the only safe and
+prudent course for the individual or class of individuals to pursue is
+absolute independence of parties and uncompromising devotion to the
+paramount interest. When we cannot act advantageously, we may act
+punitively, so that the public servant may know that if he ignores or
+hypocritically juggles with our interests, he will be held to a strict
+accountability. If on the eve of an election the party or the individual
+candidate attempts to cajole by a statement of principles or policy
+which is ignored after a successful contest, reprisal should be swift
+and terrible as soon as the opportunity permits.
+
+In the third place, the Negro vote of the North and West needs, if it
+does not at present lack, intelligent, honest, straightforward, and
+unselfish leadership. Until it has this, its potentiality will be _nil_.
+
+To impute dishonesty or insincerity to those who from time to time act
+in the role of leaders of the Negro voters would be unpardonably
+reprehensible. Men generally act according to their light and it is not
+an uncommon observation that the average public man gets his light
+through the medium of a self-interested reflector. Amid the competitions
+and conflicts, the struggle for place and temporary power and emoluments
+which characterize all phases of modern life and especially political
+life in the United States, the calm, clear-eyed, far-seeing man is rare.
+Yet men of unusual foresight, of clear perception of the fundamental and
+vital issues with the tact and ability to gain an advantage and an
+uncompromising determination to hold what has been gained--such is the
+type of men needed to make the Negro vote potent. The leadership which
+boasts of its capacity to keep silent under terrible wrongs is not
+calculated to carry the race far on the road towards real and permanent
+betterment.
+
+Redress of political wrongs is not the fruit of grim and sanctimonious
+silence. Whenever it has come, it has been forced by long, continuous
+and implacable outcry, and Negro leadership must follow the example of
+men in other lands and in other times who fearlessly cried out against
+the wrongs which their people suffered. In "The Making of England," John
+Richard Green states that the Roman conquerors were able to completely
+subjugate and enslave the Britons because they were able to make terms
+with their leaders. The finest skill of the dominant element in
+governments founded upon tyranny has always been employed in making
+terms with the leaders of the oppressed.
+
+Silence has its part in our fight and many times the cause has been lost
+because of failure to observe it, but it is not silence in respect to
+wrongs. Neither upon battlefields nor in the mad clash of passions and
+ambitions that mark the control of states is victory won or success
+achieved by a boisterous parade of the plan of attack. In the subtle
+operation of American political methods, silence is the sphinx that
+baffles the most astute and insinuating politician. The silent vote is a
+greater dread to the party leaders than was the sword to Damocles.
+
+The Negro ballot has almost lost its potency on account of the
+unconcerned cocksureness of one political party that the other side will
+not get the benefit of it. The party managers have no concern about the
+certainty of the Negro vote and therefore spend all of their effort in
+trying to satisfy the demands of the other elements and are never able
+to know whether or not they have succeeded until the vote is counted.
+They fear the silent vote. It is thoughtful, analytic, decisive. It
+scans, records, and registers every dodge, retreat, and juggle which the
+honorable candidate or the party has been guilty of in matters which
+concern it.
+
+In the exercise of the suffrage, the Negro voter has never been
+indifferent to the best and noblest interests of the republic. For more
+than forty years he has voted with the majority of his fellow countrymen
+on all the great questions which have divided the people. This he has
+done out of regard more for what men have considered the welfare of the
+country than for what he has deemed advantageous to himself. There is
+now a need of a change. He must now consider his well-being and safety
+identical with the well-being and safety of the republic and must
+require all men who seek his vote to consider it likewise.
+
+To-day we are on the eve of a great national festival. The peaceful
+succession of government is a boon not enjoyed by all the peoples of the
+world. It is an event which deservedly appeals to the enthusiasm and
+civic pride of the nation. From all corners of the state have come
+delegations of citizens representing all classes, who come not only to
+honor and grace by their presence the event but, I believe, to pay
+honest and manly tribute to a man who is beloved and trusted by the
+whole American people. His battles against civic wrongs and in behalf of
+weaker classes and his policy of "all men up and no men down," not only
+make him the paragon of public officials, but a lovable and trusted man.
+Among the throngs that shall honor him and in turn be honored in the
+escort which will make the Avenue the most splendid pageant which can
+adorn any modern government, none will march more proudly than the brave
+and valiant regiment of black men who, with him whom they honor, risked
+all and won glory on the field of San Juan. Yet by the laws of the land
+and by the policy of the government, their rights and their manhood are
+not on a parity with those of other citizens who with less desert shall
+follow in his train. It is the possibility of such a state of affairs,
+that the Negro vote of the North and West, yea the great body of all
+good citizens must exercise itself to prevent.
+
+
+
+
+Migration and Distribution of the Negro Population as Affecting the
+Elective Franchise--_KELLY MILLER_
+
+
+Population lies at the basis of all human problems. The first command
+given by the Creator to the human race was to multiply and replenish the
+earth. The growth and expansion of the Negro population in the United
+States must be the controlling factor in the many complex problems to
+which his presence gives rise. In order to gain adequate as well as
+accurate knowledge on this subject, it is necessary to take a
+comprehensive view of its progress since its transplantation in America.
+It is well known that the first ship load of African slaves was landed
+at Jamestown, Va. in 1619. This original handful augmented by fresh
+importation and by its own rapid multiplication had swollen to three
+quarters of a million when the first Census was taken in 1790. The
+following table will reveal the essential facts as to the expansion of
+this population.
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 6
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  NEGRO POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  YEAR.           NUMBER OF     DECENNIAL   PER CENT OF   PER CENT OF
+                  NEGROES.      INCREASE.   INCR.         TOTAL
+                                                          POPUL.
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1790              757,208             -             -         19.27
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1800            1,002,037       244,829         32.33         18.18
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1810            1,377,808       375,771         37.50         19.03
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1820            1,771,656       393,848         28.50         18.39
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1830            2,328,642       556,986         31.44         18.10
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1840            2,873,648       545,006         23.44         16.84
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1850            3,683,808       765,169         26.63         15.69
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1860            4,441,830       803,022         14.13         14.13
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1870            4,880,009       438,179          9.87         11.68
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1880            6,580,793     1,700,784         34.85         13.12
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1890            7,470,040       889,247         13.51         11.93
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+  1900            8,840,789     1,370,749         18.35         11.57
+  --------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+There are certain noticeable irregularities in this table, due in part
+to known disturbing causes, and in part to imperfections in census
+methods. It is thus seen that the Negro constitutes a rapidly increasing
+element, though a slowly diminishing minority of the total population.
+This relative diminution is due wholly to the influx of white
+immigrants, more than 14,000,000 of whom have come to our shores since
+1860. If the two races should continue to grow at the same relative rate
+of increase as during the last decade, according to the law of
+diminishing ratios, it would require more than one hundred years to
+reduce the Negro to one-tenth of the total population. So far as any
+practical calculation is concerned, we may regard this as an irreducible
+minimum. So long as the Negro constitutes one-tenth of the entire body
+of the American people we may expect to have the race problem, both in
+its general and in its political features.
+
+From the foundation of our government the Negro has constituted a
+serious political problem, mainly because of his unequal geographical
+distribution. If agricultural and economic conditions had been uniform,
+and the slaves had been evenly scattered over the whole area, the
+political phase of the race problem would have been far different from
+what it is and has been throughout our national life. The fact that the
+bulk of this race has been congested in one section has constituted the
+cause of political friction from the foundation of the Constitution till
+the present hour. This population persists in remaining in that section
+where it was most thickly planted by the institution of slavery. The
+center of gravity is still moving slowly towards the gulf of Mexico.
+Ninety-two per cent of the race is still found in the sixteen states
+where slavery prevailed at the outbreak of the civil war. The coastal
+states, from Maryland to Texas, contain three-fourths of the total
+number.
+
+While there has been a steady stream of Negro immigration towards the
+North and West, yet it has not been sufficient to materially affect the
+mass tendency. It would seem, on first view, that the Negro who
+complains so bitterly against political restrictions in the South would
+rush to the freer conditions of the North as a gas from a denser to a
+rarer medium. But political and civil freedom offered by the North are
+more than off-set by industrial restrictions and by the inertia of a
+population devoid of the pioneer spirit. The warm blooded, warm hearted
+child of the tropics is chilled alike by the rigid climate and frigid
+social atmosphere that prevail in the higher latitudes. In all New
+England there are fewer Negroes than are to be found in a single county
+in Tennessee.
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 7
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   SECTION.            POPULATION.   INCREASE, 1890    RATE OF INCR.
+                                     TO 1900
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   United States         8,840,789        1,370,749            18.35
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   Georgia               1,034,813          175,998            20.50
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   Mississippi             907,630          165,071            22.20
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   Alabama                 827,307          148,818            21.90
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   So. Carolina            782,321           93,387            13.60
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   31 Northern             759,788          181,876            31.50
+   States
+   ------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+We learn from this table that there are four states in the union, each
+of which contains a larger number of Negroes than all the 31 free states
+combined. While such free states show a much more rapid decennial
+increase than any of the far south states, still the total increment
+scarcely exceeds that of the single state of Georgia. These figures
+reveal no mad hegira to a fairer and better land. The increase in the
+Northern states is due almost wholly to immigration from the South. It
+is entirely probable that the Negro population, left to itself, would
+not be a self sustaining quantity in the higher latitudes. During the
+last decade there was an absolute decline of the Negro population in
+Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada,
+Oregon and California.
+
+The political significance of this Northern movement is out of all
+proportion to its absolute weight. It is only in the North that the
+Negro vote has dynamic power. In several of the border states, this vote
+is at present unhampered, but there is no guarantee of future security.
+In Mississippi there are 197,936 Negro males of voting age, but this
+potential vote does not affect the choice of a single official of that
+state. The black vote of that commonwealth is as completely nullified as
+the last two amendments had never been appended to our national
+constitution. On the other hand the 5,193 adult Negro males in Mich. are
+accounted of considerable consequence in the political equation of that
+state. In the Northern and Western states where men feel free to align
+themselves according to conviction, the two parties are so nearly even
+that the Negro vote constitutes the balance of power. Owing to unusual
+political conditions, which cannot be counted on to continue, the last
+three presidential elections were practically one-sided. The Republican
+party triumphed by a margin that far exceeded the entire Negro
+Contingent. It is only in several of the border states that this vote
+could in any way have affected the fate of presidential electors. The
+Negro vote, however, has been quite effective in state elections, and in
+the choice of congressmen. As the parties gravitate to normal
+conditions, the Negro vote will again become the balance of power in the
+controlling states of the North. At the beginning of every campaign each
+party feels that it has a chance of success. At such times the black
+vote looms up large and significant. In national affairs the colored
+vote usually adheres to the party of Lincoln and Sumner. As the margin
+between the two parties is a shifting and uncertain quantity, the rapid
+increase of the Negro vote in the Northern States becomes a matter of
+great political importance.
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 8
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             NEGRO MALES OF VOTING AGE IN THE NORTHERN
+             STATES.
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             STATE.                  1890.           1900.
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Pennsylvania           34,873          51,668
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             New York               24,231          31,425
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Illinois               18,200          29,762
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Ohio                   25,922          31,235
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Indiana                13,079          18,186
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             New Jersey             14,564          21,474
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Massachusetts           7,967          10,456
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Rhode Island            2,261           2,765
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Connecticut             3,497           4,576
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Kansas                 12,543          14,695
+             ----------------------------------------------
+             Michigan                    -           5,193
+             ----------------------------------------------
+
+
+These figures tell their own story when we consider the normal relation
+between the two parties in these several states. It is also interesting
+to note that the Negroes in the North are found very largely in the
+cities. This makes this vote of considerable importance in municipal
+elections. There is, however, a tendency on the part of this vote to
+distribute itself between the two parties in purely municipal and local
+matters, which to a great degree neutralizes its special significance.
+
+
+                               _TABLE_ 9
+                    --------------------------------
+                    NEGRO VOTERS IN NORTHERN
+                    CITIES, 1900.
+                    --------------------------------
+                    CITY                 NEGROES OF
+                                         VOTING AGE
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Philadelphia             20,095
+                    --------------------------------
+                    New York                 18,651
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Chicago                  12,424
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Pittsburg                 6,541
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Indianapolis              5,200
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Boston                    4,441
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Cincinnati                4,997
+                    --------------------------------
+                    Detroit                   1,732
+                    --------------------------------
+
+
+The most effective use that the Negro in the North can make of his
+political privilege is to uphold civic righteousness in municipal
+affairs, and to support those men and measures pledged to support the
+integrity of the constitution and its vital amendments.
+
+
+
+
+The Negro and His Citizenship--_FRANCIS J. GRIMKE_
+
+
+    ACTS 22:25-29.--_And when they had tied him up with the thongs,
+    Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you
+    to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned? And when the
+    centurion heard it, he went to the chief captain and told him,
+    saying, What art thou about to do? for this man is a Roman. And
+    the chief captain came and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a
+    Roman? And he said, Yea. And the chief captain answered, With a
+    great sum obtained I this citizenship. But Paul said, But I am a
+    Roman born. They then that were about to examine him straightway
+    departed from him: and the chief captain also was afraid when he
+    knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him._
+
+
+In this passage attention is directed to four things: To the fact that
+Paul was a Roman citizen; to the fact that he was about to be treated in
+a way that was forbidden by his citizenship; to the fact that he stood
+up for his rights as a Roman citizen; and to the fact that those who
+were about to infringe upon his rights were restrained, were overawed.
+
+I. Attention is directed to the fact that Paul was a Roman citizen.
+Citizenship was a possession that was very highly esteemed, and that was
+obtained in several ways,--by birth, by purchase, as a reward for
+distinguished military services, and as a favor. Paul's came to him by
+inheritance; his father before him had been a Roman citizen: how it came
+to the father we do not know. At one time the price paid for it was very
+great. The chief captain, in the narrative of which our text is a part,
+tells us that he obtained his with a great sum; and therefore he seemed
+surprised to think that a man in Paul's circumstances should have it. At
+first he seemed a little incredulous, but it was only for a moment. The
+penalty for falsely claiming to be a Roman citizen was death; this fact
+together with the whole bearing of the apostle finally left no doubt in
+his mind: he accepted his statement.
+
+It was not only a great honor to be a Roman citizen, but it carried with
+it many rights and privileges that were not enjoyed by others. These
+rights were either private or public,--_Jus Quiritium_, and _Jus
+Civitatis_. Among Private Rights, was the Right of Liberty. This secured
+him against imprisonment without trial; exemption from all degrading
+punishments, such as scourging and crucifixion; the right of appeal to
+the emperor after sentence by an inferior magistrate or tribunal, in any
+part of the empire; and also the right to be sent to Rome for trial
+before the emperor, if charged with a capital offence.
+
+Among Public Rights belonging to Roman citizens the following may be
+mentioned: (1) The right of being enrolled in the censor's book, called,
+_Jus Census_. (2) The right of serving in the army, called, _Jus
+Militiae_. At first only citizens of the empire were permitted to engage
+in military operations, to bear arms and fight in its behalf. (3) The
+right to vote in the different assemblies of the people, called, _Jus
+Suffragii_. This has always been and is to-day one of the most important
+functions of citizenship, and one that should be highly prized and
+sacredly guarded. (4) The right of bearing public offices in the state.
+
+There were many other rights enjoyed by Roman citizens, but I will not
+take the time to enumerate them: these are sufficient to show us the
+value, the importance of Roman citizenship; and this citizenship the
+apostle Paul was invested with, with all the rights and privileges which
+were involved in it. On one occasion he said, "I am a citizen of no mean
+city," referring to Tarsus, which was one of the free cities of Asia
+Minor; but more than that, as he tells us here, he was a citizen of the
+empire.
+
+II. Attention is called to the fact that Paul was about to be treated in
+a way that was forbidden by his citizenship; that was contrary to Roman
+law. He had gone up to Jerusalem to attend the feast of Pentecost. After
+meeting the brethren and rehearsing to them the wonderful things which
+God had wrought through his ministry among the Gentiles, they
+congratulated him upon his success, but said to him: "Thou seest,
+brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of them that have
+believed; and they are all zealous for the law: and they have been
+informed concerning thee, that thou teachest all the Jews who are among
+the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their
+children neither to walk after the customs. What is it therefore? they
+will certainly hear that thou art come. Do therefore this that we say to
+thee: We have four men that have a vow on them; these take, and purify
+thyself with them, and be at charges for them, that they may shave their
+heads: and all shall know that there is no truth in the things whereof
+they have been informed concerning thee but that thou thyself walkest
+orderly, keeping the law." It was in compliance with this request, that
+Paul went into the temple to do as he was asked to do: and while there
+was seen by certain Jews of Asia, i. e., the province of Asia, who at
+once stirred up the multitude and laid hands on him, crying out, "Men of
+Israel, help: This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against
+the people, and the law, and this place; and moreover he brought Greeks
+also into the temple and hath defiled this holy place." It was like
+touching a match to a powder magazine. The people were aroused.
+Instantly there was a response to the call; and dragging the apostle out
+of the temple they were in the act of beating him to death, when the
+chief captain, learning of the tumult, rushed down with a squad of
+soldiers and rescuing him, brought him into the castle. The next day
+with a view of ascertaining what the trouble was, the real ground of
+complaint against the apostle, the chief captain proposed to examine him
+by scourging, and issued orders to that effect. In obedience to this
+order the apostle was stripped and actually tied up. The process of
+examination proposed was very severe. The culprit was stripped and tied
+in a bending posture to a pillar, or stretched on a frame, and the
+punishment was inflicted with a scourge made of leathern thongs weighted
+with sharp pieces of bone or lead, the object being to extort from the
+sufferer a confession of his guilt or the information desired.
+
+If the chief captain had understood the Hebrew language, and could have
+followed the address of the apostle which was delivered on the steps of
+the palace, he would have understood what the trouble was, without
+attempting to resort to this brutal method of finding out; but evidently
+he did not. Everything indicated, however, that it was something very
+serious, judging from their treatment of him, and from the intense
+excitement which his words produced upon them, and hence, he was all the
+more anxious to find out. If the apostle was guilty of any offence
+against the law, it was the duty of the chief captain to take cognizance
+of it, and to punish him accordingly, but if he was innocent, if he had
+in no way transgressed the law, it was his duty to release him. The law
+also provided how the guilt or innocence of an accused person was to be
+ascertained; and it was the duty of the chief captain to have followed
+the course prescribed by the law; but it is clear from the narrative
+that he had determined upon another course: the prisoner is ordered to
+be scourged, instead of calling upon those who had assaulted him to make
+their charges, and to substantiate them, and then giving the apostle an
+opportunity of defending himself.
+
+III. Attention is directed in the text to the fact, that the apostle
+stood up manfully for his rights. After they had tied him up, as if
+waiting to see just how far they would go, and just as the process of
+scourging was about to begin, he challenged their right to proceed: he
+said to the centurion, who was standing by, and who was there as the
+representative of the chief captain, to see that the scourging was
+properly done, and to make note of what he confessed,--he said to this
+man: "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and
+uncondemned?" The law expressly forbade the scourging of Roman citizens;
+it was an indignity to which no Roman citizen was to be subjected. This
+was what was known as the Porcian law, and took its name from Porcius,
+the Tribune through whose influence its adoption was secured. And this
+is the law to which the apostle here appeals, whose protection he
+invokes. Paul, as a Roman citizen, not only knew what his rights were,
+but he stood up for his rights. He insists here upon being treated, as
+he was entitled to be treated, as a citizen of the empire. They are
+about to scourge him, contrary to law, and he says to them, Stop; you
+have no right to treat me in this way, intimating and they evidently
+understood it, that if they did not desist, they would hear from him; he
+would bring the matter to the attention of the emperor.
+
+This is not the only place where Paul falls back upon his rights as a
+Roman citizen. He did the same thing a little later on. He was removed
+from Jerusalem to Caesarea, as you will remember, where he remained a
+prisoner for two years. During that time he was frequently placed on
+trial before various officials,--before Felix, before Festus, before
+Agrippa. It was during one of these hearings, that Festus the governor,
+in order to curry favor with the Jews, intimated that he might be sent
+back to Jerusalem to be tried: and doubtless this was his intention,
+having entered into a secret arrangement with the enemies of the
+apostle, who had resolved to kill him at the first opportunity. This
+they felt that they would have a better chance of doing if they could
+only induce the governor to return him to Jerusalem. The apostle, of
+course, knew all this; he knew how intensely they hated him, and what
+their plans and purposes were, and he was determined not to be entrapped
+in this way. The record is: "Paul said in his defence, 'Neither against
+the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I
+sinned at all.' But Festus, desiring to gain favor with the Jews,
+answered Paul and said, 'Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be
+judged of these things before me?' But Paul said, 'I am standing before
+Caesar's judgment-seat, where I ought to be judged: to the Jews have I
+done no wrong, as thou also very well knowest. If then I am a wrong
+doer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die;
+but if none of these things is true whereof these accuse me, no man can
+give me up to them. I appeal unto Caesar.' Then Festus, when he had
+conferred with the council, answered, 'Thou hast appealed unto Caesar,
+unto Caesar thou shalt go.'"
+
+One of the great privileges of a Roman citizen was the right of appeal;
+the right of being heard directly by the emperor, of taking his case out
+of the hands of all inferior judicatories, up to the highest: and this
+is the right which the apostle here avails himself of. It was the only
+thing that saved him from being turned over by a corrupt official into
+the hands of his enemies; and it forcibly illustrates the importance of
+citizenship. Had he not been a Roman citizen clothed with the sacred
+right of appeal he would have been basely sacrificed to the malice of
+his enemies; or, though he had been a Roman citizen, if he had cowardly
+surrendered his right, if he had failed to exercise it, he would have
+equally perished; but the apostle stood upon his right, and so succeeded
+in thwarting the purposes of his enemies.
+
+IV. Attention is directed in the text to the fact, that those who were
+about to scourge this man, were restrained by the knowledge of the fact
+that he was a Roman citizen. The moment they became aware of this fact;
+at the mere mention of that sacred name, citizen, everything came to a
+stand still; the uplifted hand, ready to smite, is arrested, and we find
+the centurion running off, in great excitement in search of the chief
+captain, and saying to him, "What are you about? Do you know that this
+man is a Roman?" and we see the chief captain coming in great haste and
+saying to the apostle, "What? can it be possible! Are you really a
+Roman?" "Yes," said the apostle, "I am; and my father before me was."
+The chief captain is astonished; yea, more, fear takes hold of him; he
+becomes suddenly alarmed.
+
+There are two things in this incident that are worthy of note: first,
+this indignity that was offered to the apostle was through ignorance. It
+was not known that he was a Roman citizen. The law was violated, but it
+was not purposely done. It was not the intention of the chief captain to
+ignore the rights involved in citizenship; for he himself was a Roman
+citizen, and was interested in maintaining those rights. And, second, to
+trample upon the rights of a Roman citizen was a very grave offense, a
+very serious matter; and it became a serious matter because back of this
+citizenship was the whole power of the empire. These rights were
+carefully guarded, were rigidly enforced, so that the term, Roman
+citizen, was everywhere respected. No one could infringe those rights
+with impunity: hence you will notice what is said here, "The chief
+captain was afraid when he knew that he was a Roman because he had bound
+him." He recognized at once the gravity of the offense. That was old
+pagan Rome; but under its rule citizenship meant something; it was a
+sacred thing; back of it stood the strong arm of the Government to give
+efficacy, power to it. This man was afraid when he realized what he had
+done; and that is the feeling which outraged citizenship ought
+everywhere to inspire. It ought to mean something; and there ought to be
+power somewhere to enforce its meaning.
+
+But it is not of Roman citizenship that I desire to speak at this time,
+but rather of American citizenship, and of that citizenship as it
+pertains to ourselves. In the providence of God we are citizens of this
+great Republic. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution declares:
+"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to
+the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the
+State wherein they reside." Under this provision of the Constitution we
+are all citizens; and we have earned the right to be citizens. We have
+lived here as long as any other class in the Republic; we have worked as
+hard as any other class to develop the country; and we have fought as
+bravely as any other class in the defense of the Republic. If length of
+residence, if unstinted toil, if great sacrifices of blood, if the
+laying of one's self on the country's altar in the hour of peril, of
+danger, give any claim to citizenship, then our claim is beyond dispute;
+for all these things are true of us.
+
+We are _citizens_ of this great Republic: and citizenship is a sacred
+thing: I hope we realize it. It is a thing to be prized; to be highly
+esteemed. It has come to us after 250 years of slavery, of unrequited
+toil; it has come to us after a sanguinary conflict, in which billions
+of treasure and rivers of blood were poured out; it has come to us as a
+boon from the nation at a time when it had reached its loftiest moral
+development; when its moral sense was quickened as it had never been
+before, and when it stood as it had never stood before upon the great
+principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, not as
+glittering generalities, but as great realities: it was at that sublime
+period in our history, when the national conscience was at work; when
+the men who were in charge of affairs were men who stood for
+righteousness; when the great issues before the country were moral
+issues, issues involving human rights,--that the nation saw fit to
+abolish slavery and to decree the citizenship of all men, black and
+white alike. When we think of what this citizenship has cost, in blood
+and treasure; of the noble men through whose influence it was brought
+about; and of the fact that it came to us from the Nation when it was at
+its best, when it was living up to its highest light, and to its noblest
+conceptions of right and duty,--we ought to prize it, to set a high
+value upon it.
+
+And we ought to show our appreciation of it: (1). By being good
+citizens; by doing everything in our power to develop ourselves along
+right lines, intellectually, morally, spiritually, and also materially:
+and to do everything in our power to promote the general good;
+everything that will help to make for municipal, state, and national
+righteousness. We are to remember that we are part of a great whole, and
+that the whole will be affected by our conduct, either for good or bad.
+If we live right, if we fear God and keep his commandments, and train
+our children to do the same, we ennoble our citizenship; we become a
+part of the great conservative force of society, a positive blessing to
+the community, the state, the nation. It is especially important for us,
+in view of the strong prejudice against us, the disposition to view us
+with a critical eye, to hold up and magnify our short-comings, that we
+be particularly concerned to be constantly manifesting, evidencing our
+good citizenship by allying ourselves only with the things that are
+true, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report. We ought not
+to lose sight of the fact that the strongest fight that is being made
+against us to-day is by those who are doing most to discredit us, to
+array public sentiment against us,--those who are parading our
+short-comings and imperfections, who are giving the greatest publicity,
+the widest circulation to them. There are persons in this country, who
+are determined, and who never lose an opportunity to blacken our good
+name. Dr. DuBois, in that splendid document of his, "Credo," said among
+other things, "I believe in the Devil and his angels, who wantonly work
+to narrow the opportunity of struggling human beings, especially if they
+be black; who spit in the faces of the fallen, strike them that cannot
+strike again, believe the worst and work to prove it, hating the image
+which their Maker stamped on a brother's soul." And this is one of the
+conditions that confront us in this country, and that we must not lose
+sight of. The fact that there is this determination on the part of our
+enemies to prove that we are utterly unworthy of this great boon of
+citizenship, should have the effect of creating within us a counter
+determination to show that we are worthy,--to do our level best in every
+sphere of life. Now I do not mean by this to say that we are not proving
+ourselves to be good citizens; for we are: a great many of us are; but I
+have called attention to it because I feel that it ought to be
+emphasized; that we need to feel more keenly and more widely than is
+felt, the meaning of this great boon and the demand which it makes upon
+us. It is a challenge to every man to live a straightforward, upright,
+worthy life. And what is needed is, not only that _we_, who have had
+exceptional opportunities, should feel this way, but that the great mass
+of our people should be educated to feel the same, to be animated by the
+same spirit. And _we_ are to be their educators; it is through _us_ that
+this spirit is to descend upon them, and take possession of them. If
+this citizenship means anything, it means that we should be concerned
+about everything which makes for law, for order, for good government,
+for individual, municipal, state, and national purity and righteousness;
+it means that each one of us ought to be a living example of the best
+type of what a citizen ought to be.
+
+But this is not all: if we value our citizenship we will not only seek
+to make the most of ourselves, to live on the highest plane but we will
+also stand up manfully for our rights under that citizenship. I have no
+patience with those who preach civil and political self-effacement. I
+never have believed in that pernicious doctrine, and never will. When
+you have effaced a man, civilly and politically, in a government like
+our own, what is he? What does he amount to? Who cares for him? What
+rights has he which any other class is bound to respect? He is a mere
+nonentity, entitled to no consideration, and with no refuge to which he
+can fly in the hour of his need. To be civilly and politically effaced
+is to be civilly and politically dead; and to be civilly and politically
+dead is to be at the mercy of any and every political party or
+organization, and to be under the iron heel of the worst elements in the
+community without any means of redress.
+
+We are _citizens_ of this Republic: and I want to direct attention to
+this fact for a moment; and I am glad of the opportunity of doing it at
+this time, when we are in the midst of celebrating the inauguration of
+our President. I thank God for the man at the White House; for his
+courage; for his high sense of righteousness; for the many splendid
+things which he has said; and for the noble stand which he has taken on
+human rights; on equality of opportunity; on the open door for every man
+in the Republic irrespective of race or color. I rejoice in the fact
+that we have such a President. I commend him heartily for what he has
+done. I hope he will do more; I hope there are yet larger things in
+store for this race through him. But whether he does more or not; or
+whatever may be his future policy, or the future policy of the leaders
+of either of the great political parties, or the rank and file of those
+parties, it cannot, it will not affect in the least, our attitude in
+regard to our rights under the Constitution. We are citizens, clothed
+with citizenship rights; and, there is no thought or intention on our
+part of ever surrendering a single one of them. Whatever others may
+think of it, or desire in regard to it, we do not propose to retreat a
+single inch, to give up for one moment the struggle. I say, _we_ and in
+this, I believe I speak for those who represent the sentiment that is
+taking more and more firmly hold of the heart of this race. I belong to
+what may be called the radical wing of the race, on the race question: I
+do not believe in compromises; in surrendering, or acquiescing, even
+temporarily, in the deprivation of a single right, out of deference to
+an unrighteous public sentiment. I believe with Lowell,
+
+    "They enslave their children's children,
+    Who make compromise with sin."
+
+And this, I believe, at heart, is the sentiment of the race; at least,
+it is the sentiment of some of us. There is where we have taken our
+stand and there is where we propose to stand to the end. What belongs to
+us as citizens we want; and we are not going to be satisfied with
+anything less. We are in this country, and we are here to stay. There is
+no prospect of our ever leaving it. This is our home, as it has been the
+home of our ancestors for generations, and will be the home of our
+children, and of our children's children, for all time. It is of the
+greatest importance to us, therefore, that our status in it, as it is
+permanently fixed, should be, not that of a proscribed class, but that
+of full citizenship with every right, civil and political, accorded to
+us that is accorded to other citizens of the Republic. This is the thing
+that we are to insist upon; this is the evil against which we are to
+guard.
+
+What our enemies are seeking to effect is to make this a white man's
+government; to fix permanently our status in it, as one of civil and
+political inferiority. The issue is sharply drawn; and it is for us to
+say whether we will be thus reduced, whether such shall be our permanent
+status or not. One thing we may be assured of: such will surely be our
+fate unless we clearly comprehend the issue, and set ourselves earnestly
+to work to counteract the movement, by resisting in every legitimate way
+its consummation, and by using our influence to create a counter public
+sentiment.
+
+What are some of these citizenship rights for which we should earnestly
+contend?
+
+(1) The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In one
+section of this country, at least, and the area is growing, and is fast
+including others, the life of a Negro isn't worth as much as that of a
+dog. He may be shot down, murdered, strung up to a tree, burnt to death,
+by any white ruffian, or band of lawbreakers and murderers with
+impunity. The color of his skin gives any white man liberty to maltreat
+him, to trample upon him. He has no rights which white men are bound to
+respect. If he goes to law, there is no redress; his appeals avail
+nothing with judge and jury. That is a condition of things that we ought
+not to rest satisfied under. As long as the life of a black man is not
+just as sacred as that of a white man, in every section of the Republic;
+as long as wrongs perpetrated upon him are treated with greater leniency
+than wrongs perpetrated upon white men, his status is not the same as
+that of the white man; and as long as it is not the same an injustice is
+done him, which he ought to resist; against which he ought to protest,
+and continue to protest.
+
+(2) Another citizenship right is that of receiving equal accommodations
+on all common carriers and in all hostelries; on railroads, steamboats,
+in hotels, restaurants, and in all public places. When we travel,
+whatever we are able to pay for we are entitled to, just as other
+citizens are. To-day this is largely denied us. The hotels are not open
+to us; the restaurants are not open to us, even the little ten cent
+lunch counters, in this the capital city of the nation, are not open to
+us: we are shut out from all such places, and shut out because of the
+color of our skin. If we attempt to travel, and turn our faces
+southward, we must ride in Jim Crow cars; we must be segregated, shut up
+in a little compartment by ourselves. The privilege which we once
+enjoyed without stint of taking a sleeper or Pullman car, even that now
+is being taken from us. One state has even gone so far as to make it
+unlawful to sell a ticket to a person of color on a sleeper. That is the
+state of Georgia; a State that has in it Atlanta University, and Clark
+University, and the Atlanta Baptist College, and Spelman Seminary, and
+the Gammon Theological Seminary, and Haines Institute, and many other
+schools of learning; a State that has within its borders some of the
+very best type of Negroes in this country. The meaning of all this,
+don't let us misunderstand: it is a part of the general policy, which is
+being vigorously pushed by our enemies, to fix our status as one of
+inferiority, by shutting us out from certain privileges. The whole thing
+is wrong. Such invidious distinctions ought not to be permitted in a
+republic. It is inconsistent with citizenship. Everything ought to be
+open to all citizens alike:--railroad cars, hotels, restaurants,
+steamboats, the schools and colleges of the land: our public schools
+ought to be open to all the children alike. There ought not be separate
+schools for the whites, and separate schools for blacks: all the
+children of the Republic ought to be educated together; and sooner or
+later it is bound to come to that. Some one has said, "It isn't so much
+the Jim Crow car, as it is the Jim Crow Negro in the car." The fallacy
+of this statement, and its attempted mitigation or justification of the
+Jim Crow car, lies in the fact that the Jim Crow car has nothing
+whatever to do with the Jim Crow Negro. It was not instituted for him,
+but for all Negroes, whether Jim Crow or not: in fact, it was designed,
+particularly, not for the Jim Crow Negro, but for the intelligent,
+progressive, self-respecting Negro. If there are Jim Crow Negroes among
+us we owe them a duty; we ought to seek to improve them, to lift them to
+higher levels; but while we are doing this, don't let us forget that
+there is a Jim Crow car, and what it stands for. It stands for a hostile
+public sentiment; it is a part of a concerted plan which seeks to
+degrade us, to rob us of our rights, to deprive us of privileges enjoyed
+by other citizens, because of the color of our skin. If there were no
+Jim Crow Negroes, we would have the Jim Crow car all the same. We should
+fight the Jim Crow cars, therefore, not only because of the personal
+discomfort to which we are subjected in travelling, but also because of
+the general system of which it is a part,--a system which seeks to
+establish a double citizenship in the Republic, based upon race and
+color; the one superior to the other, and carrying with it privileges
+which are denied to the other.
+
+(3) Another citizenship right is that of serving in the Army and Navy;
+the right to take up arms and to fight in behalf of the country. This is
+our right, and we have exercised it, and are still exercising it. We
+have fought in all the wars of the Republic; and are represented to-day
+in both Army and Navy. We have made a glorious record for ourselves in
+this respect. There is no better soldier in the Army of the Republic,
+than the black soldier. This right has not been denied us, but let us,
+nevertheless, keep our eyes on it. There are some things even here that
+need to be looked into. It has been many years since we have had a
+representative in the great Naval or Military school of the country; and
+there have been some rumors about limiting the aspirations of Negroes in
+the Army, of not permitting them to advance beyond a certain point. If
+there is such a thought or intention on the part of those in authority,
+it must be resisted. The Negro must be free--in the Army, in the
+Navy,--in every part of the Army and Navy,--as other citizens are free;
+to advance according to his merit. His color must not be allowed to
+operate against him.
+
+(4) Another citizen right is that of suffrage, the right of the ballot;
+the right to have part in the government; to say who shall make the laws
+and who shall execute them; and what the laws shall be; the right to
+have an opinion, and to have that opinion counted in determining what
+shall be and what shall not be. This is one of the greatest of rights.
+In a republic citizenship means very little without it. It is this which
+marks the difference between a representative government, a government
+of the people, by the people, and for the people, and a despotism, an
+absolute monarchy. The glory of the age in which we live is the triumph
+of democracy; and what is the triumph of democracy but the right of the
+_people_ to say who shall rule; and how is the will of the people
+expressed? Through the ballot; at the polls. The ballot therefore is the
+symbol of the sovereignty of the people. If we are to be sovereign
+citizens of the Republic therefore, this right to vote must be
+preserved. The old despotic idea of government was, that some people
+were born to rule, and that others were born to be ruled; and the idea
+that exists in the minds of some people in this country, in democratic
+America, in face of the affirmation of the Declaration of Independence,
+that all men are born free and equal, is that in this country, there are
+some people who are born to rule, and others who are born to be ruled;
+and that the people who are born to rule are the whites, and those who
+are born to be ruled are the blacks: hence the effort that is being made
+to divest us of this symbol of sovereignty,--the ballot. Let us not be
+deceived; let us give no heed to any teaching, never mind from what
+source it may come, which seeks to minimize the importance of the
+ballot. What difference does it make whether we vote or not? I have
+heard some weak-kneed, time-serving representatives of our own race say;
+and the thought has been caught up by the men in the south who have been
+seeking to rob us of our rights, and by those in the North who have been
+playing into their hands; and they have said, Yes, What difference does
+it make? Are you not just as well off without it? What difference does
+it make? It makes all the difference in the world: the difference
+between a sovereign citizen of the Republic, and one who has been
+stripped of his sovereignty; between one who has a say in what is going
+on, and one who has not; between one who is ruled with his consent, and
+one who is ruled without it. If we are just as well off without the
+ballot, how is it that the white man is not just as well off without it?
+And if he is unwilling to give it up, why should he ask us to give it
+up? Why should we give it up? If he needs it in order to protect
+himself, much more do we, for we are weaker than he is, and need all the
+more the power which comes from the ballot.
+
+(5) Another citizenship right is, that of holding office, the right to
+be voted for, and of being appointed to positions of honor and trust by
+the executive power. This is also a right that belongs to us, and that
+we must contend for. It is one of our rights that is now being
+especially contested in the South. The Negro must not be appointed to
+any office, is the demand of Southern white sentiment. I am glad that
+the President has not yielded wholly to that sentiment. The fight which
+he made in the Crum case was a notable one, and clearly indicated that
+he was not willing to shut that door of opportunity to the Negro; that
+he was not willing to take the position that a man was to be debarred
+from public office simply because of the color of his skin. That was the
+right position for him to take, and the only one that was consistent
+with his oath of office, and his position as President of _all_ the
+people. I hope that he will continue to act upon that principle; and
+that he will do more than he has done. There is room for improvement in
+this direction. A few more appointments of colored men in the North, as
+well as in the South, would be a good thing. It ought to be done. The
+right of colored men to receive appointments ought to be clearly and
+distinctly emphasized by multiplying those appointments. There is
+nothing like an object lesson in impressing the truth. I hope that the
+President will give us many such object lessons during the next four
+years.
+
+The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; the right to
+receive equal accommodation on railroads, steamboats, in hotels,
+restaurants, and in all public places of amusement; the right to be
+represented in the Army and Navy; the right to vote; the right to hold
+office: these are some of our citizenship rights, for which we should
+earnestly contend. Sometimes, we are told, that it would be better to
+say less about our rights, and more about our duties. No one feels more
+the importance of emphasizing our duties than I do,--I think I have done
+about as much of it as anybody,--but among the duties that I have always
+emphasized, and still emphasize, is the duty of standing up squarely and
+uncompromisingly for our rights. When we are contending for the truth;
+when we are resisting the encroachments of those who are seeking to
+despoil us of our birth-right as citizens; when we are keeping up the
+agitation for equal civil and political privileges in this country, are
+we not in the line of duty? If not, where is the line? Duties? Yes. Let
+us have our duties preached to us,--line upon line, and precept upon
+precept, here a little and there a little; but at the same time don't
+let us forget that we have also _rights_ under the Constitution, and to
+see to it that we stand up for them; that we resist to the very last
+ditch those who would rob us of them. And in doing this, let us remember
+that we are called to it by the stern voice of Duty, which is the voice
+of God; and that we need not apologize for our action.
+
+And now in conclusion but a word more and then I am done. The fight
+before us is a long one. You will not live, nor will I live to see the
+triumph of the principles for which we are contending; let us not become
+discouraged however. Things look pretty dark at times, but it isn't all
+dark. Now and then there are gleams of light, which indicate the coming
+of a better day. There are forces working _for_ us, as well as against
+us; and with what we can do for ourselves, we need not despair.
+
+    "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
+    He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes
+    of wrath are stored!
+    He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;
+    His truth is marching on.
+
+    He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
+    He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat;
+    O, be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet!
+    While God is marching on."
+
+Let us take courage; let us gird up our loins; let us stand at our post;
+let us be true to duty; let us hold ourselves to the highest; let us
+have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of darkness; let us be
+temperate, industrious, thrifty; let us do with our might what our hands
+find to do; let us trust in God, and do the right: and then, whether the
+struggle be long or short, there can be no doubt as to the final issue.
+We shall come out victorious; we shall be accorded every right belonging
+to us under the Constitution, and every avenue of opportunity will be
+opened to us, as to other citizens of the Republic. The future is
+largely in our own hands. If we allow ourselves to be permanently
+despoiled of our rights; to be reduced to a position of civil and
+political inferiority, the fault will be, not "in our stars," as
+Shakespeare has expressed it, "but in ourselves." Others can help us;
+others will help us, as they have already done; but the final outcome
+will depend mainly upon what we do _for_ ourselves, and _with_
+ourselves. If we are to grow in the elements that make for a strong,
+intelligent, virtuous manhood and womanhood, _we_ have got to see to it,
+to be concerned about it; to be more deeply concerned about it than
+anybody else. And so, if the agitation for equality of rights and
+opportunities in this country is to be kept up, and it ought to be kept
+up, _we_ are the ones to see to it. As long as there are wrongs to be
+redressed, from which we are suffering, we ought not to be silent, ought
+not for our sake as well as for the sake of the nation at large.
+Whatever can be done to develop ourselves; whatever can be done to
+create a healthy and righteous public sentiment in our behalf; whatever
+can be done to check the encroachments of our enemies upon our rights,
+_we_ must do it, whether others do or not. May God help us all to
+realize this, and to address ourselves earnestly to the work that lies
+before us.
+
+    "Be strong!
+    We are not here to play, to dream, to drift.
+    We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.
+    Shun not the struggle; face it. Tis God's gift."
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+
+This is one group of papers from a series of papers presented to the
+American Negro Academy. Founded by Alexander Crummell in March 1897,
+with 40 of the leading black scholars and writers of the day, the
+Academy's purpose was to promote literature, science and art, foster
+higher education and high culture, and to defend the Negro aginst racist
+attacks. The Academy was active until 1924.
+
+This project was scanned from a facsimile reprint included in a
+collection of all 22 Occasional Papers of the American Negro Academy.
+
+Original spelling varieties have been maintained; tables and footnotes
+were renumbered.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE
+FRANCHISE. (THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY. OCCASIONAL PAPERS, NO. 11.) ***
+
+
+
+
+A Word from Project Gutenberg
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