Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1902-12-04
THE COLOR LINE.
President Roosevelt Refuses to
Draw 1t.
In Giving Ont Offices He Declares EKIs
Policy is TO Appoint Only Men of
Good Character - Letter TO a
Citizen OF Charleston, =. c.

dent has sent the following com
munication to a citizen of Charleston,
S. c.:
My Dear Sir: I am in receipt of
| your letter of November 10 and one
from Mr.. --- under date of No
Vember II in reference to the APP
i pointment of DR.. Crum as collector
of the port of Charleston.
In your letter you make certain
specific charges against DR.. Crum,
! tending to show his unfitness in sew
! eral respects for the office sought
! These charges are entitled to the ut
| most consideration from me, and [
| shall go over them carefully before
| taking any action. After making
these charges you add, as further
J reason for opposition to him, that he
/ rs colored man, and after reciting
! the misdeeds that followed carpetbag
rule and negro domination in South
! Carolina, you say that "we have
sworn never again to submit to the
rule of the African. and such an APP
! pointment as that of Dr.. Crum to any
such Office forces us to protest unan-
imously against this insult to the
white blood" and you add that YOU
never force a negro on such a com
munity rs yours. Mr.. puts
the objection of color first. saving,
''hrst, he is a colored man and that
of itself ought to bar him from the
Office
! In view of these last statements [
think | ought to make clear to you
why | am concerned and panied by
your making them and what my atti-
tude is as regards all such appoint
mentS. How anyone could have gained
the idea that | had said | would not
| appoint reputable and upright coll
ored men TO office, when objection
was made to them solely on account
| of their color, ] confess / am wholly
unable to understand. At the time
| of my visit to Charleston last spring
| had made, and since that time I
have made, a number of such ap-
pointments from several states in
which there is considerable colored
population.
For example. I made one such APP
pointment in Mississippi and another
in Alabama. shortly before my visit
to Charleston. / had at that time APP
pointed two colored men as judicial
magistrates in the District of Column
bia. / have recently announced an
other such appointment for New Or
leans, and have just made one from
Pennsylvania. The great ma iOrity Of
my appointments in every state have
been of white men. North and south
alike it has been my sedulous endeav-
or to appoint only men of high char
acter and good capacity. whether
white or black, but it has been my
consistent policy, in every state
where their numbers warrant it, to
recognize colored men of good re-
pute and standing in making appoint
ments to office.
These appointments of colored men
have in no state made more than
small proportion of the total number
of appointments. | am unable TO see
how | can legitimately be asked to
make an exception for South Caro-
lima. In South Carolina to the four
most important positions in the state
I have appointed three men and con-
tinued i'll office a fourth, all of them
white men-three Of them originally
gold democrats-two of them. as / !
am informed, the sons of Confederate
the citizens of Charleston whom / |
have met that these four men repre-
sent a high grade Of public service.
/ do not intend to appoint any unfit |
man to office. So far as / legitimate
ly can | shall always endeavor to paw |
regard to the wishes and feelings of |
the people of each locality. but |
cannot consent to take the position |
that the door of hope-the door of |,
opportunities to be shut upon anv !
man, no matter how worthy, purely |
upon the grounds of race or color. |
Such an attitude would be fundamen-
tally wrong. If, as you hold, the |
great bulk of the colored people are |
not yet fit in point of character and .
influence to hold such positions. it .
seems to me that it is worth while
putting a premium uPoa the effort
among them to achieve the charac-
ter and standing which viii III hem.
The question % negro domiua-
ton" does not enter into the matter
at all. 1t might as well be asserted
that when | was governor of New
York ! sought to bring about negro
domination In that state because | J.
appointed two colored men of good
character 10 responsible positions
one of them to a position paying a
salary twice as large as that paid in
the Office now under consideration u--
one Of them IL a director of the Buff
falo exposition. The question raised
bv you and Mr.. -- I'm Tie state.
meuts 10 which ! refer, Is sirlplv
whether IL Is 90 he declared that un-
der mo- circumstances shall any man
OF color, uo matter hom upright and
honest uu matter how good a citi-
zen, mo- matter how fair in his deal
mg- with an his fellows, be permit
ted 10 hold any office under our gov
crnmrut. certainly cannot assume
such uu attitude, and YOU must per-
init mo % say that in my ,irw It H.
an attitude nu man should assume.
The uaiIs spread.
Prescott Arka Nov a-A north