I got a letter a day or two since. It was written by the Mayor of one of the chief cities of the South to myself. I picked this out of a large bundle of correspondence of the same sort. He addresses me and says: “You will doubtless be surprised at receiving a letter from me. In 1865 I was Mayor of this city, which position I now occupy. In that memorable year 1865, through your instrumentality and by order of Major-General George H. Thomas, I was suspended from office. But that is a matter of the past, and for one I favor letting ‘bygones be bygones.’ The charge against me was using my official position for the oppression of the colored people and opposing their education. However true that might have been at the time, certainly such a charge cannot be made against me now. Immediately after the close of the war and upon the restoration of civil law, I was chosen one of the School Commissioners of this district, and gave active aid, amidst much opposition, in the establishment of Public Schools. I have labored earnestly in the cause ever since, and I am proud to inform you that my efforts have in a measure been crowned with success. We have now a splendid school system and a magnificent school building for the whites. We wish now to do as much for the colored people. There is much opposition in every locality in the city to the establishment of a colored school in their midst. Yet, notwithstanding this opposition, I have proffered to sell a lot of my own for the purpose on very reasonable terms.” Now, that is a great change to come about in seventeen years. So I simply sat down and wrote him a letter which he could use as “substance of doctrine.” I said: “My dear Mr. Mayor, go on to perfection. Do the same thing for the colored people you do for the white people, and blot ‘colored’ and ‘white’ out of your memory. Make a school for the children. It is not easy to send them to the same school; I know all about that.” The colored boy is perhaps more opposed to associating with the white boy in the school than the white boy is to associating with the colored boy. It takes a long time to overcome those strong prejudices on the part of the colored people.