inferior race, then the odds ought to be on
the other side, if any are to be given. And why not? No; the thing to
do--the only thing that will stand the test of time--is to do right,
exactly right, let come what will. And that right thing, as it seems
to us, is to place a fair educational qualification before every
citizen,--one that is self-testing, and not dependent on the wishes of
weak men,--letting all who pass the test stand in the proud ranks
of American voters, whose votes shall be counted as cast, and whose
sovereign will shall be maintained as law by all the powers that be.
Nothing short of this will do. Every exemption, on whatsoever ground, is
an outrage that can only rob some legitimate voter of his rights."

Such laws have been made,--in Mississippi, for example,--with the
"understanding" clause, hold out a temptation for the election officer
to perjure and degrade himself by too often deciding that the ignorant
white man does understand the Constitution when it is read to him, and
that the ignorant black man does not. By such a law, the state not only
commits a wrong against its black citizens; it injures the morals of
its white citizens by conferring such a power upon any white man who may
happen to be a judge of elections.

Such laws are hurtful, again, because they keep alive in the heart of
the black man the feeling that the white man means to oppress him. The
only safe way out is to set a high standard as a test of citizenship,
and require blacks and whites alike to come up to it. When this is done,
both will have a higher respect for the election laws, and for those who
make them. I do not believe that, with his centuries of advantage
over the Negro in the opportunity to acquire property and education as
prerequisites for voting, the average white man in the South desires
that any special law be passed to give him further advantage over one
who has had but a little more than thirty years in which to prepare
himself for citizenship. In this relation, another point of danger is
that the Negro has been made to feel that it is his duty continually
to oppose the Southern white man in politics, even in matters where no
principle is involved; and that he is only loyal to his own race and
acting in a manly way in thus opposing the white man. Such a policy has
proved very hurtful to both races. Where it is a matter of principle,
where a question of right or wrong is involved, I would advise the
Negro to st