NEW YORK CITY,
January 16, 1921.

CARTER G. WOODSON, Ph.D.,
Editor, THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY,
1216 You St., N. W., Washington, D. C.

_Dear Sir:_

In connection with my letter to you of the 11th instant,
pertaining to the affidavit of Messrs. Miller and McKinlay
relative to the statement made by Mr. Francis Cardoza to them
concerning Mr. Sumner and Mr. Stevens, as published in _The
Journal of Negro History_ for January, 1920, I respectfully
invite your attention to a copy of a letter from Dr. J. W.
Burgess, formerly of Columbia University. You will find him
listed in "Who's Who in America."

Dr. Burgess is the author of two books covering the Civil War and
the Reconstruction period, _The Civil War and the Constitution_
and _Reconstruction and the Constitution_, and evidently made a
thorough research in collecting the data for publication.

I regard this as a very important matter and the truth or falsity
of the statement should be established. It is only by publicity
that the facts can be established.

The names of Stevens and Sumner should be imperishable to the
Negro race and any reflection on their attitude during the
Reconstruction period should not go unchallenged.

A copy of letter from John W. Burgess follows:

BROOKLINE, MASS.,
January 14, 1921.

MR. HENRY A. WALLACE:

Your favor of January 12, forwarded to me here, interests me
highly, and I thank you most sincerely for it. I am obliged to
reply, however, that the affidavit of Messrs Miller and McKinlay
astonished me very much. I cannot remember to have ever read
anything of the kind anywhere and like you, I am very skeptical
about it. I was in the world and a student at Amherst College in
the year 1867, and was even then collecting the material for my
history. I am pretty sure that I should have known of anything of
this kind had it existed. I am going to try to run this assertion
down, as I am here among the acquaintances and relatives of
Sumner.

Very sincerely yours,
Signed. JOHN W. BURGESS.

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