city to Washington for the purpose of appearing before a committee
of Congress in the interest of securing Government help for the
Exposition. The committee was composed of about twenty-five of the most
prominent and most influential white men of Georgia. All the members of
this committee were white men except Bishop Grant, Bishop Gaines, and
myself. The Mayor and several other city and state officials spoke
before the committee. They were followed by the two coloured bishops. My
name was the last on the list of speakers. I had never before appeared
before such a committee, nor had I ever delivered any address in the
capital of the Nation. I had many misgivings as to what I ought to say,
and as to the impression that my address would make. While I cannot
recall in detail what I said, I remember that I tried to impress upon
the committee, with all the earnestness and plainness of any language
that I could command, that if Congress wanted to do something which
would assist in ridding the South of the race question and making
friends between the two races, it should, in every proper way, encourage
the material and intellectual growth of both races. I said that the
Atlanta Exposition would present an opportunity for both races to show
what advance they had made since freedom, and would at the same time
afford encouragement to them to make still greater progress.

I tried to emphasize the fact that while the Negro should not be
deprived by unfair means of the franchise, political agitation alone
would not save him, and that back of the ballot he must have property,
industry, skill, economy, intelligence, and character, and that no
race without these elements could permanently succeed. I said that in
granting the appropriation Congress could do something that would prove
to be of real and lasting value to both races, and that it was the first
great opportunity of the kind that had been presented since the close of
the Civil War.

I spoke for fifteen or twenty minutes, and was surprised at the close
of my address to receive the hearty congratulations of the Georgia
committee and of the members of Congress who were present. The Committee
was unanimous in making a favourable report, and in a few days the
bill passed Congress. With the passing of this bill the success of the
Atlanta Exposition was assured.

Soon after this trip to Washington the directors of the Exposition
decided that it would be a fitting recognition of the