hand, no fair-minded man would expect to find complete political
perfection among a people thus treated. Thus has the Negro been
obstructed, not only in politics, but his civil rights have been
denied him, and the doors of many industries are closed against him.

But let us turn our faces away from all the horrors of slavery,
reconstruction and all kindred wrongs which have been heaped upon us,
and stand up, measuring the full statue of an American citizen, upon
the threshold of the new century as a New Man. The slave who has grown
out of the ashes of thirty-five years ago, is inducted into the
political and social system, cast into the arena of manhood, where he
constitutes a new element and becomes a competitor for all its
emoluments. He is put upon trial, to test his ability to be accounted
worthy of freedom, worthy of the elective franchise. After all these
years of struggle against almost insurmountable odds, under conditions
but little removed from slavery itself, he asks a fair and just
judgment, not of those whose prejudice has endeavored to forestall--to
frustrate--his every forward movement; rather those who have lent a
helping hand that he might demonstrate the truth of "The fatherhood of
God and the brotherhood of man."

In a nation like ours, blessed with peace, plenty and full of
prosperity; filled with the spirit of "Expansion," sound money and a
protective tariff; when there is a disposition to forget all sectional
lines, and to know no North, no South, no East, no West, but having
all to stand out in bold relief as one reunited whole, when one
political party slaps the other upon the shoulder with a knowing look
and a smile indicating the fraternal feeling everywhere present, the
question naturally comes home to every colored American, "What should
be the Negro's attitude in politics?" Constituting as we do,
one-eighth of the entire population of this Nation, the Negro's
political attitude should be a firm stand for the right, the support
of honest men for office, the advocacy of strong, pure American
policies, an unceasing contention for fair elections, a pure ballot, a
complete repudiation of any party or man who seeks to bribe, or in any
way to hamper or degrade him politically. Should he become
self-effaced, politically? No, never! He should, at all times, contend
wisely, firmly for every right accorded to other American citizens
under the organic laws of the nation. He should identify himself wit