I entertained as high respect for colored people
as I did for any other citizens.

I mention this incident at some length because, at the time, it
excited much comment in the press throughout the United States.
It is but fair to say that the action of the hotel proprietor was
condemned by the leading Democrats of Birmingham, prominent among
whom was the editor of the "Iron Age."

In the evening I spoke at the opera house, which was well filled
with representative citizens. I was introduced by Rufus M. Rhodes,
president of the News Publishing Company. My speech was confined
mainly to nonpartisan subjects, to the industries in that section,
and the effect of national legislation upon them. I had read of
the vast deposits of coal and iron in that section, and had that
day seen them for myself. I said: "You have stored in the
surrounding hills elements of a wealth greater than all the banks
of New York." In speaking of the effect of national legislation
upon the development of their resources, I said I would not allude
to politics, because, though a strict party man, as they all knew,
I believed that men who differed with me were as honest as I was;
that whatever might have occurred in the past, we were a reunited
people; that we had had our differences, and men of both sides
sought to have their convictions prevail, but I would trust the
patriotism of an ex-Confederate in Alabama as readily as an ex-
Unionist in Ohio; that I was not there to speak of success in war,
but of the interests and prosperity of their people. My nonpartisan
speech was heartily approved. General Warner made a brief address
to his former constituents, and the meeting then adjourned.

I went the next day to Nashville, arriving early in the evening.
A committee of the legislature met me on my way. On my arrival I
met many of the members of both political parties, and was the
recipient of a serenade at which William C. Whitthorne, a Democratic
Member of Congress, made a neat speech welcoming me to the hospitality
of the state. None of the speeches contained any political
sentiments, referring mainly to the hopeful and prosperous outlook
of the interests of Tennessee. During the next day I visited with
the committee, at the head of which was Mr. Kerchival, the mayor
of the city, several manufacturing establishments, and the Fisk
and Vanderbilt universities, and also a school for colored boys.
Among the more agreeable visits that day was