The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-11-28
APPOINTMENT OF NEGROES
Continued from First Page.)


 your making them and what my atti- tude is as regards all such appoint ments. How any one could have gain ed the idea that had said would not appoint reputable and upright colored men to office, when objection was made to them solely on account of their color, I confess I am wholly unable to under stand. At the time of my visit to Charleston last spring I had made, and since that time I have made number of such appointments from several states in which there is considerable colored population. For example I made one such appointment in Missis- sippi and another in Alabama, shortly before my visit to Charleston. had at that time appointed two colored men as judicial magistrates in the District of Columbia. I have recently announced another such appointment for New Or leans and have just made one for Penn sylvania. The great majority of my appointments in every state have been of white men. North and south alike it has been my 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 numbers war ranted it to recognize colored men of good repute and standing in making ap- pointments to office. These appoint ments of colored men have in no state made more than small proportion of the total number of appointments. I am unable to see how I can legitimately be asked to make an exception for South i Carolina. In South Carolina, to the | four most important positions in the state, I have appointed three men and continued in office a fourth, all of them white men--three of them originally gold democrats-two of them, as I am l informed, the sons of confederate sol- diers. I have been informed by the citizens of Charleston whom I have met 1 that these four men represent a high grade of public service.
 I do not intend to appoint unfit men l to office. As far as I legitimately can. ! I shall always endeavor to pay regard to the wishes and feelings of the peo- i pie of each locality, but I cannot con- , sent 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, according to my convictions, be fun l damentally wrong. If, as you hold, the great bulk of the colored people are not yet fit in point of character and inf1u- ence to hold such positions it seems to me that 1t is worth while putting a pre- 1nium upon the effort among them to 1 achieve the character and standing which will it them.
 The question of negro domination
 does not enter into the matter at all. : It might as well be asserted that when
 I was governor Of New York I sought
 to bring about negro domination in that 1 state because I appointed two colored men of good character and standing to responsible positions-one of them to a position paying a salary twice es l large as that paid in the office now un-
 der consideration--one of them as a di- l rector of the Buffalo exposition. The 1 question raised by you and MT. -.-4- in
 the statements to which refer is sim ply whether it is to be declared that under no circumstances shall any man
 of color. no matter how upright and honest, no matter how good citizen, nu
 matter how fair in his dealings with all his fellows be permitted to hold any 1 office under our government. I cer. tainly cannot assume such an attitude,