ice to the colored race and a misfortune to the country, if
they can not vote in accordance with their convictions upon such
questions. No race or group can be true and independent American
citizens, as all should be, when they are made to feel that the
exercise and enjoyment by them of their civil and political rights are
contingent upon the result of an election. It must be said to the
credit of the late Grover Cleveland that he did all in his power both
as Governor of New York and as President of the United States to bring
about this necessary change and reform in his party. That his efforts
were not crowned with success, was through no fault of his.

The newly enfranchised blacks at the South, as I have endeavored to
show, had no other alternative than to act with the Republican party.
That some objectionable persons should have been elected by them under
such conditions, could not very well have been prevented. But the
reader of Mr. Rhodes's history cannot fail to see that he believed it
was a grave mistake to have given the colored men at the South the
right to vote, and in order to make the alleged historical facts
harmonize with his own views upon this point, he took particular pains
to magnify the virtues and minimize the faults of the Democrats and to
magnify the faults and minimize the virtues of the Republicans, the
colored men especially. On page 97 of his fifth volume, for instance,
Mr. Rhodes says: "But few Negroes were competent to perform the
duties; for instance, it was said that the colored man, who for four
years was Sheriff of DeSoto County, could neither read nor write. The
Negro incumbent generally farmed out his office to a white deputy for
a share of the revenue."

The foregoing is one of the most barefaced and glaring
misrepresentations that can possibly be made. The reader will notice
that the allegation is based upon "it has been said." But if Mr.
Rhodes had been anxious to record only what was accurate and true, he
should have, as he easily could have done, found out just what the
facts were, as I have done. The facts were these. When Tate County was
created the greater part of the territory composing the new county had
been taken from the county of DeSoto. The then sheriff of DeSoto
County lived in that section which was made a part of the new county
of Tate. It thus became necessary for a new sheriff to be appointed by
the Governor for DeSoto County to hold office until the election of a