h must not be overlooked. It
is the common opinion of almost every black man and almost every white
man that nearly everybody who has had anything to do with the making
of laws bearing upon the protection of the Negro's vote has proceeded
on the theory that all the black men for all time will vote the
Republican ticket and that all the white men in the South will vote
the Democratic ticket. In a word, all seem to have taken it for
granted that the two races are always going to oppose each other in
their voting.

In all the foregoing statements I have not attempted to define my own
views or position, but simply to describe conditions as I have
observed them, that might throw light upon the cause of our political
troubles. As to my own position, I do not favour the Negro's giving up
anything which is fundamental and which has been guaranteed to him by
the Constitution of the United States. It is not best for him to
relinquish any of his rights; nor would his doing so be best for the
Southern white man. Every law placed in the Constitution of the
United States was placed there to encourage and stimulate the highest
citizenship. If the Negro is not stimulated and encouraged by just
State and national laws to become the highest type of citizen, the
result will be worse for the Southern white man than for the Negro.
Take the State of South Carolina, for example, where nearly two-thirds
of the population are Negroes. Unless these Negroes are encouraged by
just election laws to become tax-payers and intelligent producers, the
white people of South Carolina will have an eternal millstone about
their necks.

In an open letter to the State Constitutional Convention of Louisiana,
I wrote:

"I am no politician. On the other hand, I have always advised my
race to give attention to acquiring property, intelligence, and
character, as the necessary bases of good citizenship, rather
than to mere political agitation. But the question upon which I
write is out of the region of ordinary politics. It affects the
civilisation of two races, not for to-day alone, but for a very
long time to come.

"Since the war, no State has had such an opportunity to settle,
for all time, the race question, so far as it concerns politics,
as is now given to Louisiana. Will your convention set an example
to the world in this respect? Will Louisiana take such high and
just grounds in respect to t