istration, and prior to that of Taft's.

I do not mean to say that no Democrats were appointed to important
offices at the South by the administrations referred to, but such
appointments were not made with the belief or expectation that they
would contribute to a solution of the problem that was involved in what
was known as the Solid South. Political and social conditions in that
section of the country are such that the appointment to some of the
federal offices of men who are not identified with the Republican party
is inevitable. The impression that the writer desires to make upon the
mind of the reader is that, between the administration of Hayes and that
of Taft no Republican administrations made such appointments with the
expectation that they would contribute to a breaking up of the solid
south. President Roosevelt tried the experiment of offering
encouragement and inducements in that direction to what was known as the
Gold-standard Democrats, but even that was barren of satisfactory
results. President Taft seems to be the only Republican President since
Mr. Hayes who has allowed himself to labor under the delusion that the
desired result could be accomplished through the use and distribution of
Federal patronage. The chief mistake on the part of those who thus
believe, and who act in accordance with that belief, grows out of a
serious lack of information about the actual situation. In the first
place their action is based upon the assumption that the Solid
South,--or what remains of it,--is an outgrowth of an honest expression
of the wishes of the people of that section, whereas, in point of fact,
the masses had very little to do with bringing about present conditions
and know less about them. Those conditions are not due primarily to the
fact that colored men are intimidated by white men, but that white men
are intimidated by the Democratic party. They are not due primarily to
the fact that colored men are disfranchised, but that white men are
prevented from giving effective expression to their honest political
opinions and convictions.

The disfranchisement of the colored men is one of the results growing
out of those conditions, which would not and could not exist if there
were absolute freedom of thought and action in political matters among
the white people. The only part that the so-called Race Question plays
in this business is that it is used as a pretext to justify the coercive
and proscriptive methods