ion is: Shall knowledge and character and property
become the possession of the colored race, and they thus be prepared for
their place in American politics, industry and prosperity, or will they be
allowed for the lack of these things to be crushed back into a condition
of semi-slavery or be goaded to resistance or discouraged in poverty,
pauperism and degradation? That is a fundamental question. For that, men
should read, think, pray and work.

The Federal Election Bill And The Mississippi Convention.
---------------------------------------------------------

The ultimate aim of the Federal Election Bill in Congress, and of the
Constitutional Convention in Mississippi, point in diametrically opposite
directions. They cannot be harmonized, and there is no middle way between
them. The Election Bill contemplates a "free ballot and fair count" for
every voter, including the Negro. The Mississippi Convention aims to
restrict Negro suffrage. In an address delivered by the President of the
Convention, September 11th, he is reported to have said that: "He did not
propose to mince matters and hide behind a subterfuge, but if asked by
anybody if it was the purpose of the Convention to restrict Negro
suffrage, he would frankly say, 'Yes; that is what we are here for.'" This
Convention proposes to secure its object not by the force and fraud of
earlier days, but by constitutional and legal methods--or at least by what
has constitutional and legal _forms_. All this, however, is another
attempt to achieve the impracticable. As the Negro grows in intelligence
and numbers, he will claim his right to vote.

On the other hand, the Congressional Election Bill or any other
legislation intended to secure the privilege of voting to the Negro, if
made practical, means a good deal. If it is intended only to pass laws
that shall be merely "glittering generalities" to vindicate the historic
record of the Republican party, or to sanction its Platform and the
Inaugural of the President--that is easily done and will, of course,
amount to nothing--except as a political manoeuvre. But if the movement
"means business," and is to be pushed to its legitimate result, then two
things must be done: the Negro must be qualified to vote and to be voted
for; to elect officers and to hold office. If the mass of illiterate and
impoverished Negroes are to be represented in State Legislatures and in
Congress by persons as ignorant and poor as they are t