And State Papers 515 



toward all men. In making appointments I have 

 sought to consider the feelings of the people of each 

 locality so far as I could consistently do so with- 

 out sacrificing principle. The prime tests I have 

 applied have been those of character, fitness and 

 ability, and when I have been dissatisfied with what 

 has been offered within my own party lines I have 

 without hesitation gone to the opposite party and 

 you are of course aware that I have repeatedly done 

 this in your own State of Georgia. I certainly can 

 not treat mere color as a permanent bar to hold- 

 ing office, any more than I could so treat creed or 

 birthplace always provided that in other respects 

 the applicant or incumbent is a worthy and well- 

 behaved American citizen. Just as little will I treat 

 it as conferring a right to hold office. I have scant 

 sympathy with the mere doctrinaire, with the man 

 of mere theory who refuses to face, facts; but do 

 you not think that in the long run it is safer for 

 everybody if we act on the motto "All men up," 

 rather than that of "Some men down"? 



I ask you to judge not by what I say but by what 

 during the last seventeen months I have actually 

 done. In your own State of Georgia you are com- 

 petent to judge from your own experience. In the 

 great bulk of the cases I have reappointed President 

 McKinley's appointees. The changes I have made, 

 such as that in the postmastership at Athens and in 

 the surveyorship at Atlanta, were, as I think you 

 will agree, changes for the better and not for the 

 worse. It happens that in each of these offices I 



