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 suffrage committee as well as the editors of the New Orleans _Times-Democrat_ and the _Picayune_, the leading daily papers of the State. Extracts from the letter were sent out by the local representative of the Associated Press and widely published throughout the country. These New Orleans editors expressed to Mr. Scott their approval of the letter and their substantial agreement with its main features, and promised to publish it in full, which they not only did, but accompanied it by editorial reviews. This letter stated in part: