thousand localities at this moment, so that the men dare
not go beyond the sight of their own roof-tree.' How little we know of
all this, seated in comfort and affluence here at the North, descanting
upon the rights of every man to cast one vote and have it fairly
counted; that well-worn shibboleth invoked once more to dodge a living
issue.
"The fact is that illiterate colored men will not vote at the South
until the white population chooses to have them do so; and under similar
conditions they would not at the North." Here we have Miss Willard's
words in full, condoning fraud, violence, murder, at the ballot box;
rapine, shooting, hanging and burning; for all these things are done and
being done now by the Southern white people. She does not stop there,
but goes a step further to aid them in blackening the good name of an
entire race, as shown by the sentences quoted in the paragraph above.
These utterances, for which the colored people have never forgiven Miss
Willard, and which Frederick Douglass has denounced as false, are to be
found in full in the Voice of October 23,1890, a temperance organ
published at New York City.
This letter appeared in the May number of _Fraternity_, the organ of the
first Anti-Lynching society of Great Britain. When Lady Henry Somerset
learned through Miss Florence Balgarnie that this letter had been
published she informed me that if the interview was published she would
take steps to let the public know that my statements must be received with
caution. As I had no money to pay the printer to suppress the edition
which was already published and these ladies did not care to do so, the
May number of _Fraternity_ was sent to its subscribers as usual. Three
days later there appeared in the daily _Westminster Gazette_ an
"interview" with Miss Willard, written by Lady Henry Somerset, which was
so subtly unjust in its wording that I was forced to reply in my own
defense. In that reply I made only statements which, like those concerning
Miss Willard's _Voice_ interview, have not been and cannot be denied. It
was as follows:
LADY HENRY SOMERSET'S INTERVIEW WITH MISS WILLARD
To the Editor of the _Westminster Gazette_: Sir--The interview published
in your columns today hardly merits a reply, because of the indifference
to suffering manifested. Two ladies are represented sitting under a tree
at Reigate, and, after some preliminary remarks on the terr
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