512 Presidential Addresses 



from Pennsylvania. The great majority of my 

 appointments in every State have been of white 

 men. North and South alike it has been my sedu- 

 lous endeavor to appoint only men of high charac- 

 ter and good capacity, whether white or black. But 

 it has been my consistent policy in every State where 

 their numbers warranted it to recognize colored men 

 of good repute and standing in making appoint- 

 ments to office. These appointments of colored men 

 have in no State made more than a small proportion 

 of the total number of appointments. I am unable 

 to see how I can legitimately be asked to make an 

 exception for South Carolina. In South Carolina, 

 to the four most important positions in the State 

 I have appointed three men and continued in office 

 a fourth, all of them white men three of them 

 originally Gold Democrats two of them, as I am 

 informed, the sons of Confederate soldiers. I have 

 been informed by the citizens of Charleston whom I 

 have met that these four men represent a high grade 

 of public service. 



I do not intend to appoint any unfit man to office. 

 So far as I legitimately can I shall always endeavor 

 to pay regard to the wishes and feelings of the 

 people of each locality ; but I can not consent to take 

 the position that the door of hope the door of op- 

 portunity is to be shut upon any man, no matter 

 how worthy, purely upon the grounds of race or 

 color. Such an attitude would, according to my 

 convictions, be fundamentally wrong. If, as you 

 hold, the great bulk of the colored people are not 



