The evening times., 1900-09-26
ATTITUDE OF THE NEGRO.
An Open Letter to eN-Representntiv.
Wilson Carey, of North Carolina.

! Wilson Carey, of North Carolina.
The following open letter from Oliver
F. Gray, a prominent negro Democrat of
/ Washington. and chairman of the finance
| committee of the National Negro Demo-
| cratic Association. has been sent to Will
son Carey. Republican ex-Representa-
| tive in Congress from North Carolina, in
| reply TO speech delivered by Carey at
the Republican ratification meeting held
recently at Deanwood. District of Co.
/ Iumbia:
Were it not for the fact that a large
| number of our people have neither the
leisure nor facilities to study the politi-
/ cal questions Of the day, and must neces-
sarily repose confidence in leaders like
| yourself, it would be unnecessary to at
| tack your misleading utterance delivered
at Deanwood
! You first make the startling announce
ment that, tie c,.Gred voters should
/ stand by the Republican party, the party
| of freedom and liberty and prosperity.
Now let Us lay aside cur prejudices
| and look only at facts and see il this be
| true; In the treaty with the Sultan of
/ the Sulu Islands. of which I cannot believe
| you are ignorant. Mr.. Mckinley. Rapub-
| hcan President. not only upheld. bur alb
! solutely sanctioned, human slavery, the
| details of which, space will not allow me
| to go into here. but which | shall be glad
| at any future time to discuss fully.
| Where there are two forces, 3 superior
! and an inferior, and the superior can un-
! der penalty compel the obedience CT the
| inferior, a state of Imperialism exists
! one is master and the other slave. Pres
! ident Mckinley is as truly master over
! the dark race in the Philippines. IN Porto
| Rico, and in struggling Cuba, as is the
/ Sultan of Turkey the Gear OF Russia
! over their respective subjects; each Of
! the monarchs can dictate laws to his re-
! spective subjects and compel obedience
/ by force; against neither have the op-
! pressed any redress Yet the Republican
! party is the party of liberty of freedom,
| and prosperity
In characterizing the Democratic party
/ as trying to crush every Yestige of our
manhood in the South l suppose you refer
! TO lynchings and disfranchisement in sew
| eral Southern States.
| AS to disfranchisement let me refer you
| to some facts of which you are already
| aware. In 1874 under a Republican Pres1-
dent and with both branches of Congress
Overwhelmingly Republican. the first pre-
cedent OF the kind in our history was es-
| tablished, citizens of the District OF Co
/ lumbia, enjoying every opportunity for ed
( ucationai advantages. being deprived of the
ballot, and in 1860 at our recent primaries
/ here reputable citizens who desired to go
/ as delegates to the convention held IN
/ Philadelphia by the party OF liberty and
freedom and prosperity. pledged to appeal
! for the restoration of the rights of AmerI-
/ can citizenship, Were by a Republican Ma
/ tionaI Committee denied every opportunity
/ TO secure fair election, denied fair rep
/ resentation Cn the returning board, de-
med right TO select an equal number Of
tElsA rTFAFNT ind
suffrage candidate, was made member of
/ the returning board, with full authority
10 sign his own credentials. which resulted
! in returning NJ. NJ Parker as the member
! OF the National Committee. the gentleman
who four years ago, in a letter to MI
/ Hanna, characterized all citizens who de-
sired the elective franchise in the District
as the rtnraf and rabble spoilsmen. and
/ money grabbers.'
/ 1t viii not he forgotten also that only
/ q few months ago the Republicans offered
/ no opposition, if not open enCourag agement-
! 10 the disfranchisement of negroes in the
! South providing they could secure q pro-
! Portonate curtailment of Southern repre-
( sehtatlon IN Congress, thereby lessenIng
/ the opposition to the trust vote and a re-
/ ductIon OF the Southern vote in the EIec-
tofal college, consequently entirely elimi-
Mating the negro as factor in politics.
New. as to lynching: While I as well
/ dS every cther sane mar know that Fed
/ eTaI authorities will not interfere in the
| domestic troubles Of States and all prom
! ises TO do so are mere traps set TO catch
, the ignorant negro vote, still it is well 10
I remark that it was only after the most ur-
! gent persuasion by a committee appointed
I by the Afro-AmeTiean Council that the
Republicans agreed to say in their plat
form, Lynchings are TO be depIorei'
Compare this with the attitude taken
by Governor O'FerraII OF Virginia or the
/ Governor of Georgia, or the Ohio Demo-
! cratic platform of 1899. You have no
! doubt forgotten the communication sent
! by o reorganization of Lily White Re
/ pubIie2ns, IL Louisiana to the Anti-Lvncb-
! ing Society of Boston.
/ believe you will agree with me that
nCbs which lynch men are not made III,
| OF either party, are not confined anv rnors
i 10 Democratic North Carolina Virginia o,
| Alabama than to Republican Ohio IIIi-
| nois, or Ney York, but are composed of an
] element whose Sungos sernabIe fury can no
/ more be suppressed by Mckinley. Roose-
| welt. Or Tanner, than b. Tillman. O'Fer-
| rail-. OF Gambler. You viii also agree that
/ Mr. McKiniey's action refusing to appoint
/ commissioned negro officers to command
| negro troops and Roosevelt's malicious and
| HnNaTranted libel of the brave negro troops
/ at San Juan. if allowed to go unrebuked
| or II endorsed by negroes at the polls In
! November. viii do more to crush manhood
| and destroy ambition and patriotism In the
| negro race than all the other causes COM
| bined. "
GAINS FOE DEMOCRATS.