THE RACE PROBLEM IN THE UNITED STATES. 321 



is out of the region of ordinary politics : it affects the civilization of 

 two races, not for to-day alone, but for a very long time to come; 

 it is up in the region of duty of man to man, of Christian to 

 Christian. 



" 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 the negro that no one can doubt that the 

 South is as good a friend to the negro as he possesses elsewhere ? In 

 all this, gentlemen of the convention, I am not pleading for the 

 negro alone, but for the morals, the higher life of the white man 

 as well; for the more I study this question, the more I am con- 

 vinced that it is not so much a question as to what the white man 

 will do with the negro as to what the negro will do with the white 

 man's civilization. 



" The negro agrees with you that it is necessary to the salvation 

 of the South that restriction be put upon the ballot. I know that 

 you have two serious problems before you: ignorant and corrupt 

 government on the one hand, and on the other a way to restrict the 

 ballot, so that control will be in the hands of the intelligent, with- 

 out regard to race. With the sincerest sympathy with you in your 

 efforts to find a good way out of the difficulty, I want to suggest 

 that no State in the South can make a law that will provide an op- 

 portunity or temptation for an ignorant white man to vote and with- 

 hold the opportunity or temptation for an ignorant colored man 

 without injuring both men. !No State can make a law that can 

 thus be executed without dwarfing for all time the morals of the 

 white man in the South. Any law controlling the ballot that is 

 not absolutely just and fair to both races will work more permanent 

 injury to the whites than to the blacks. 



" The negro does not object to an educational and property test, 

 but let the law be so clear that no one clothed with State authority 

 will be tempted to perjure and degrade himself by putting one inter- 

 pretation upon it for the white man and another for the black man. 

 Study the history of the South, and you will find that where there 

 has been the most dishonesty in the matter of voting, there you will 

 find to-day the lowest moral condition of both races. First, there 

 was the temptation to act wrongly with the negro's ballot. From 

 this it was an easy step to act dishonestly with the white man's ballot, 

 to the carrying of concealed weapons, to the murder of a negro, and 

 then to the murder of a white man, and then to lynching. I en- 

 treat you not to pass a law that will prove an eternal millstone about 

 the necks of your children. 



