contests in the South, as in the fight against the
saloons, when every qualified Negro voter, and every Negro who could
qualify, was eagerly pushed forward by one side or the other. With such
a division on new issues the Negro will tend to exercise more and more
political power, dividing, not on the color line, but on the principles
at stake.

Thus in spite of the difficulties which now confront the Negro, I cannot
but look upon the situation in a spirit of optimism. I think sometimes
we are tempted to set a higher value upon the ritual of a belief than
upon the spirit which underlies it. The ballot is not democracy: it
is merely the symbol or ritual of democracy, and it may be full of
passionate social, yes, even religious significance, or it may be a mere
empty and dangerous formalism. What we should look to, then, primarily,
is not the shadow, but the substance of democracy in this country. Nor
must we look for results too swiftly; our progress toward democracy is
slow of growth and needs to be cultivated with patience and watered with
faith.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOURCES -----------------------

SOJOURNER TRUTH, THE LIBYAN SIBYL by Harriet Beecher Stowe Atlantic
Monthly 11 (April 1863): 473-481.

RECONSTRUCTION by Frederick Douglass Atlantic Monthly 18 (1866):
761-765.

AN APPEAL TO CONGRESS FOR IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE by Frederick Douglas
Atlantic Monthly 19 (Jan. 1867): 112-117.

THE NEGRO EXODUS by James B. Runnion Atlantic Monthly 44 (1879):
222-230.

MY ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY by Frederick Douglass The Century Illustrated
Magazine 23, n.s. 1 (Nov. 1881): 125-131.

THE GOOPHERED GRAPEVINE by Charles W. Chesnutt Atlantic Monthly 60 (Aug.
1887): 254-260.

PO' SANDY by Charles W. Chesnutt Atlantic Monthly 61 (1888): 605-611.

DAVE'S NECKLISS by Charles W. Chesnutt Atlantic Monthly 64 (1889):
500-08.

THE AWAKENING OF THE NEGRO by Booker T. Washington Atlantic Monthly 78
(1896): 322-328.

THE STORY OF UNCLE TOM'S CABIN by Charles Dudley Warner Atlantic Monthly
78 (1896): 311-321.

STRIVINGS OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois Atlantic
Monthly 80 (1897): 194-198.

THE WIFE OF HIS YOUTH by Charles W. Chesnutt Atlantic Monthly 82 (1898):
55-61.

THE BOUQUET by Charles W. Chesnutt Atlantic Monthly 84 (1899): 648-654.

THE CASE OF THE NEGRO by Booker T. Washington Atlantic Monthly 84
(1899): 577-587.

HOT-FOOT HANNIBAL by Charles W. Chesnutt Atlantic Monthly 83 (1899):
49-56.

A NEGRO SCH