Upon his return to Tuskegee after this talk with President Roosevelt, Mr. Washington found that the judgeship for the Southern District of Alabama had just become vacant through the death of the incumbent, Judge Bruce. Here was an opportunity for the President to put into practice in striking fashion the policy they had discussed--namely, to appoint to Federal posts in the Southern States the best men available and to reward and recognize conspicuous merit among Southern Democrats and Southern Negroes as well as among Southern white Republicans. Being unable at the moment to return to Washington, he sent his secretary with the following letter: _Tuskegee, Alabama,_ _October 2, 1901._ President Theodore Roosevelt, Washington, D.C. MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: I send you the following information through my secretary, Mr. Emmett J. Scott, whom you can trust implicitly. Judge Bruce, the Judge of the Middle District of Alabama, died yesterday. There is going to be a very hard scramble for his place. I saw ex-governor T.G. Jones yesterday, as I promised, and he is willing to accept the judgeship of the Middle District of Alabama. I am more convinced now than ever that he is the proper man for the place. He has until recently been president of the Alabama State Bar Association. He is a Gold Democrat, and is a clean, pure man in every respect. He stood up in the Constitutional Convention and elsewhere for a fair election law, opposed lynching, and he has been outspoken for the education of both races. He is head and shoulders above any of the other persons who I think will apply for the position. Yours truly, BOOKER T. WASHINGTON. P.S.--I do not believe in all the South you could select a better man through whom to emphasize your idea of the character of a man to hold office than you can do through ex-governor Jones. [_Copy_] Mr. Scott described what occurred on his delivery of this letter in the following report to his chief: _Washington, D.C.,_ _October 4, 1901._