e Nation, as
expressed by the people of the whole Nation under the Constitution
of the United States, then you are entitled to invoke the
power of the United States for its enforcement whenever necessary.
If you hold it at the will of the white Democracy of any State
or neighborhood then, as unfortunately seems to be the case
in a good many States, you will be permitted to exercise it
only if you are a white man, and then only so long as you
are a Democrat.

I have had during my whole life to deal with that most difficult
of all political problems, the relation to each other, in
a Republic, of men of different races. It is a question
which has vexed the American people from the beginning of
their history. It is, if I am not much mistaken, to vex
them still more hereafter. First the Indian, then the Negro,
then the Chinese, now the Filipino, disturb our peace. In
the near future will come the Italian and the Pole and the
great population of Asia, with whom we are soon to be brought
into most intimate and close relation.

In my opinion, in all these race difficulties and troubles,
the fault has been with the Anglo-Saxons. Undoubtedly the
Indian has been a savage; the Negro has been a savage; the
lower order of Chinamen have been gross and sometimes bestial.
The inhabitants of the Philippine Islands, in their natural
rights, which, as we had solemnly declared to be a self-evident
truth, were theirs beyond question, have committed acts of
barbarism. But in every case, these inferior and alien races,
if they had been dealt with justly, in my opinion, would have
been elevated by quiet, peaceful and Christian conduct on
our part to a higher plane, and brought out of their barbarism.
The white man has been the offender.

I have no desire to recall the story of the methods by which
the political majorities, consisting in many communities
largely of negroes and led by immigrants from the North, were
subdued.

This is not a sectional question.

It is not a race question. The suffrage was conferred on
the negro by the Southern States themselves. They can always
make their own rules. If the negro be ignorant, you may define
ignorance and disfranchise that. If the negro be vicious,
you may define vice and disfranchise that. If the negro be
poor, you may define poverty and disfranchise that. If the
negro be idle, you may define idleness and disfranchise that.
If the negro be lazy, you may define laziness and dis