And in the third place, reducing Southern representation in Congress and the electoral college will not hurt the Negro. It will not take away from him any right which he now enjoys down there. The doing so cannot in any way change his actual status either in law or in fact. He is now disfranchised; Congress will still have power to enforce the 15th amendment by appropriate legislation and it will do so whenever it can screw its courage to the sticking point. The reduction of Southern representation will certainly break up the present apathetic state of the country in respect to the Negro. With this breaking up there will follow a reaction in favor of freedom, and there will arise in due time a public sentiment which will bring legislation to enforce the right of the Colored people of the South to the ballot well within the range of the possible, yea of the probable, if the South persists after reduction,—but it will not long persist,—in its present purpose to nullify the 15th amendment, and to reduce its Colored people to a condition of a permanently subordinate and servile class, without rights as men or as citizens which southern white people are bound to respect. Let southern representation in Congress be therefore reduced. The sooner the better it will be for the Negro and the Nation. The law department of the United States Government has at last moved effectively against the meat trust. And I see that the Interstate Commerce Commission is looking into the charge that certain railroads are practicing by a system of rebates discrimination against shippers of live stock, and in favor of packing house products and dressed meats. But alas, how different has been the attitude of the national government toward investigating that greatest of all discriminations in the Republic, namely: the wholesale disfranchisement of Negroes in the South because they are Negroes. A few years ago one of the bravest and most far-seeing of the representatives of Massachusetts in either branch of Congress offered a resolution to investigate the subject merely. The administration, which was then, and they say is now opposed to meddling in this particular manner with the Southern question, was found equal to the occasion. When it failed to silence the voice of Congressman Moody regarding the matter, it lifted him with masterly state craft from the floor of the House, and landed him safely in the Cabinet where he is still, and where his silence might the better be secured. Thus passed the Moody resolution to dusty death, and the place which knew it once in Congress hath known it no more, and will know it no more forever.