ere may be a grain of truth in each one of the above theories, but
for all times and occasions each one is essentially false.

Under present environments it appears that we accomplish nothing by
voting the Republican ticket, and gain no more by voting the
Democratic ticket than we would by not voting at all.

To us the all important task is to find a way to make our ballot
effective.

Though, throughout the South, a cruel and savage spirit seems
triumphant, let the Negro take courage, for God is still ruling, and
the very machinery that has been set in motion for his political
destruction is hastening the day of his political regeneration.

The reduction of the Negro's vote to an insignificant fraction which
does away with the possibility of absolute Negro control, is not an
unmixed evil, as it entirely destroys the foundation of the scarecrow
of Negro supremacy, which has been used as a great welding hammer to
forge the white race, with so many divergent views and opinions, into
one political mass, while the standards of wealth and intelligence
raised as a bar to his progress are causing the Negro, as never
before, to bestir himself in efforts to reach them.

Thus it is seen that his would-be enemy destroys the welding hammer at
one fell blow; sets in motion irresistible currents that will
inevitably find outlets in the broad ocean of the political freedom
of both races, and arouse in the Negro, by the standards set up, the
very desirable incentive to make preparation for the enjoyment of the
destined freedom which the fates seem bent on bringing him.

Once more the wonderful hand of Providence is using man's malice and
prejudice as His own marvelous highway of hope to bring good results
from evil intentions.

Let the poor, desponding Negro, way down in the valley of degradation
and oppression, continue to be industrious, honest and frugal, and
pray, and God will again hitch His own all powerful steeds of hope to
his chariot of despondency and oppression, and, riding over the
mountains of man's folly, manifested in unjust rules and practices, in
defiance of His will, will draw him upon the broad eminence of joy,
gladness and hope.

TOPIC XIV.

IS THE NEGRO AS MORALLY DEPRAVED AS HE IS REPUTED TO BE?

BY PROF. B. H. PETERSON.

[Illustration: Prof. B. H. Peterson]

PROF. B. H. PETERSON.

Butler Harrison Peterson, the subject of this sketch, is a
native of the State of