MR. WASHINGTON: By direction of the President I send
you herewith for your private information a copy of letter
from the President to Mr. ----, dated February 24, 1904.
Please return it to me when you have read it.

Yours very truly,

WM. LOEB, JR.,
Secretary to the President.

_Principal Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Normal and
Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama._

This was the letter enclosed:

[_Copy_]

[_Personal_]

_White House,_
_Washington, February 24, 1904._

MY DEAR MR. ----: I take it for granted that there is no
intention of making the Louisiana delegation all white. I
think it would be a mistake for my friends to take any such
attitude in any state where there is a considerable Negro
population. I think it is a great mistake from the
standpoint of the whites; and in an organization composed of
men whom I have especially favored it would put me in a
false light. As you know, I feel as strongly as any one can
that there must be nothing like "Negro domination." On the
other hand, I feel equally strongly that the Republicans
must consistently favor those comparatively few colored
people who by character and intelligence show themselves
entitled to such favor. To put a premium upon the possession
of such qualities among the blacks is not only to benefit
them, but to benefit the whites among whom they live. I very
earnestly hope that the Louisiana Republicans whom I have so
consistently favored will not by any action of theirs tend
to put me in a false position in such a matter as this. With
your entire approval, I have appointed one or two colored
men entitled by character and standing to go to the National
Convention.

Sincerely yours,

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

In the year 1898 the success of the suffrage amendments in South
Carolina and Mississippi in excluding from the franchise more than
nine-tenths of their Negro inhabitants inspired an agitation in
Louisiana to cut off the Negro vote by similar means, and this
agitation came to a head in the Constitutional Convention of that
year. Mr. Washington, assisted by T. Thomas Fortune, the well-known
Negro editor, and Mr. Scott, his secretary, prepared an open letter
addressed to this convention which was taken to the convention by Mr.
Scott and placed in the hands of the