The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1902-12-03
RooseveIt's Reason for Colored
Appointment.

RooseveIt's Reason for Colored
Appointment.
Washington, Nov 27.-The pres
ident sent the following communi-
cation to a prominent citizen of
Charleston. s G.:
Personal.
white House. Washington, d.
c.. November 18th, 1902.
my Dear Sir:
''I am in receipt of your letter of
November 10, and of one from Mr..
under date of November IL, in
reference to the appointment of DIR.
Crum as collector of the port of
Charleston. In your letter you
make certain specific charges
against DIR. Crum, tending to show
his unfitness in several respects for
the Office sought. These charges
are entitled to the utmost consider
alton from me and I shall go over
them carefully before taking any
action. After making these charges,
as further reason for opposition
to him that he is a colored man,
and after reciting the misdeeds that
followed the carpetbag rule and me-
gro domination in South Carolina,
you say that "We have sworn new
or again to submit to the rule of
the African, and such an appoint
ment as that of DR.. Crum to any
such Office, forces us to pro-
test unanimously against this in
suit to the white blood" and you
add that you understood me to say
/ would never force negro on such
a community as yours. Mr..
puts the objection of color first,
saying that, first, he is colored
man, and that of itself ought to bar
him from Office. In view of these
last statements think ought to
make clear to you why 1 am con-
oerned and panied by your making
them and what my attitude is as re-
CARDS all such appointments How
any one could have gained the idea
that I had said l would not appoint
and upright colored men
to Office when objection was made
to them solely on account of their
color, I confess I am wholly un-
able to understand. The great
majority of my appointments in
every state have been of white men.
North and south alike it has been
nay sedulous endeavor to appoint
only men of high character and
good capacity. whether white or
black.
But it has been my consistent
policy in every state where their
warranted it to recognize
colored men of good repute and
standing in making appointments
to Office. These appointments of
colored men have in no state made
more than small proportion of the
total number of appointments. L
am unable to see how 1 can legiti-
mately be asked to make an excep-
ton for South Carolina. l do not
intend to appoint any unfit man to
office. So far as legitimstely can
I shall always endeavor to pay re-
gard to the wishes and feeling of
the people of each locality, but 1
cannot consent to take the position
that the door of hope-the door of
opportunity-is to be shut upon
any man, no. matter how worthy,
purely upon the grounds of race or
color.
."Such an attitude would, accord
ing to my convictions, be funda-
mentally wrong. If, as you hold,
the great bulk of the colored peo-
pie are not yet fit in point of char
acter and information to hold such
it seems to me that it is
worst while putting a premium up
on the effort among them to
achieve the character and standing
which will fit them.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT"
Representative Loud, of CaIifor-
mia. Ra.s defeated FOR IA alantinn hu