f the office. After office hours
they went their way and I went mine. No new social ties were created and
none were broken or changed as the result of the official position
occupied by me. I assured the President, that, judging from my own
experience, he need not have the slightest apprehension of any
embarrassment, friction or unpleasantness growing out of the appointment
of a colored man of intelligence, good judgment and wise discretion as
head of any bureau in which white women were employed.

I could not allow the interview to close without expressing to the
President my warm appreciation of his fair, just, reasonable and
dignified position on the so-called race question.

"Your attitude," I said, "if accepted in good faith by your party, will
prove to be the solution of this mythical race problem. Although I am a
pronounced Republican, yet, as a colored American, I am anxious to have
such a condition of things brought about as will allow a colored man to
be a Democrat if he so desires. I believe you have stated the case
accurately when you say that thousands of colored men have voted the
Republican ticket at important elections, from necessity and not from
choice. As a Republican, it is my hope that colored as well as white
men, act with and vote for the candidates of that party when worthy and
meritorious, but as a colored American, I want them to be so situated
that they can vote that way from choice and not from necessity. No man
can be a free and independent American citizen who is obliged to
sacrifice his convictions upon the altar of his personal safety. The
attitude of the Democratic party upon this so-called race question has
made the colored voter a dependent, and not an independent, American
citizen. The Republican party emancipated him from physical bondage, for
which he is grateful. It remains for the Democratic party to emancipate
him from political bondage, for which he will be equally grateful. You
are engaged, Mr. President, in a good and glorious work. As a colored
man I thank you for the brave and noble stand you have taken. God grant
that you, as a Democrat, may have influence enough to get the Democratic
party as an organization to support you in the noble stand you have so
bravely taken."

The President thanked me for my expressions of good-will, and thus
terminated what to me was a remarkable as well as a pleasant and most
agreeable interview.

A few days later a messenger from the State