are intimidated by the Democratic party. They are not due primarily to
the fact that colored men are disfranchised, but that white men are
prevented from giving effective expression to their honest political
opinions and convictions.
The disfranchisement of the colored men is one of the results growing
out of those conditions, which would not and could not exist if there
were absolute freedom of thought and action in political matters among
the white people. The only part that the so-called Race Question plays
in this business is that it is used as a pretext to justify the coercive
and proscriptive methods thus used. The fact that the colored man is
disfranchised and has no voice in the creation and administration of the
government under which he lives and by which he is taxed does not change
the situation in this respect. His presence,--whether he can vote or
not,--furnishes the occasion for the continuance of such methods, and,
as long as intelligent persons, especially at the North and particularly
in the Republican party, can be thus fooled and deceived they will not
be discontinued.
The announcement of President Taft's Southern policy, therefore, was
received by the present leaders of the Democratic party at the South
with satisfaction and delight, not on account of the official
recognition that members of their party were to receive, for that was of
secondary importance, but on account of the fact that they could clearly
see that their contention about the so-called race question was thus
given a national sanction, which would have the effect of making that
question serve them for several more Presidential campaigns. It was
giving a new market value to this "watered stock," from which they would
derive political dividends for a much longer period than they otherwise
would. They could thus see to their unbounded glee that if a man of
President Taft's intelligence and experience could thus be deceived as
to conditions at the South, they would not have very much difficulty in
deceiving others who were not believed to be so well informed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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