, thousands of colored men were obliged to vote for certain
Republican candidates who were otherwise objectionable as against
certain Democrats who were otherwise acceptable. The wonder,
therefore, is, not that so many, but that so few mistakes were made;
not that so many, but that so few objectionable persons were elected
to important and responsible positions.

After the election of Grant, however, in 1868 the feeling of
intolerance somewhat subsided, resulting in a large number of
accessions to the Republican party from the ranks of the best and most
substantial white men of that section. But it was not until the
reelection of Grant in 1872 that the feeling of political
proscription, social ostracism and intolerance among the whites
seemingly disappeared. It was then that white men came into, took
charge of and assumed the leadership of the Republican party, in large
numbers. They then had nothing to fear and nothing to lose by being
identified with the Republican party when social distinctions growing
out of politics ceased to be effective. The South then entered upon a
new era which was destined to bring to that section wealth and
prosperity with happiness and contentment among its people of both
races, all living under local governments successfully controlled by
the better element of native whites with the cooperation and
participation to some extent of the newly enfranchised blacks.

The writer of this article has always believed it to be a misfortune
to his race and to the country, if conditions be such as to make it
necessary for any race or group, of which our citizenship is composed,
to act in a solid body with any one political party. The writer timely
called attention to this in a speech which he delivered on the floor
of the House of Representatives over thirty years ago. He then made
an appeal to the Democrats to change the attitude of their party
towards the colored Americans. While the colored people, he said, were
grateful to the Republican party for their physical emancipation, they
would be equally grateful to the Democratic party for their political
emancipation. While he was a Republican from choice, he personally
knew of many members of his race who were Republicans, not from choice
but from necessity, and that the Democratic party was responsible for
the existence of that necessity. Upon economic questions there are
differences of opinion among colored as well as white persons. It is
an injust