Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1903-03-06
PRESIDENT REPLIES
TO HIS CRITICS.
Explains His Policy to Appointments in the
South---Color Should Not BE Bar,
Amy More Than Is Greed
or Birthplace.

law at indianola, with such questions
as social equality and negro domina-
ton is as absurd as to connect them
with the nebular hypothesis or the
theory of atoms.
Has Had Good Advisers.
II have consulted freely with your
own senator's and congressman as to
the character and capacity of any ap-
pointee in Georgia concerning whom
there was a question. My party ad-
visers in the state have been Maj.
Hanson, of Macon, Mr.. Walter Johnson,
of Atlanta-both of them ex-confeder-
ate soldiers-and Mr.. Harry Stillwell
Edwards, also of Macon. / believe you
will agree with me that in no state
would it be possible to find gentlemen
abler and more upright or better quail.
fled to fill the positions they have filled
with reference to me. In every in
stance where these gentlemen have
united in making a recommendation
! l have been able to follow their ad-
vice.
IAN l not right in saying that the
federal Office holders whom have ap-
pointed throughout your state are, as
a body, men and women of high order
of efficiency and integrity? If you
know of any federal office holder in
Georgia of whom this is not true, pray
let me know at once. / will welcome
testimony from you or from any other
reputable citizen, which will tend to
show that given public officer is un-
worthy, and. most emphatically short
will be the shrift of anyone whose
lack of worth is proven.
Democrats Retained.
incidentally 1 may mention that
large percentage of the incumbents
of federal offices in Georgia under me
are, as l understand it, of your own
political faith. But they are support
ed by me in every way as they continue
to render good and faithful service to
the public.
"This is true of your own state; and
by applying to Mr.. Thomas Nelson
Page, of Virginia, to Gen. Basil Duke,
of Kentucky; to Mr.. George Crawford,
of Tennessee; to Mr.. John McIlheny, of
Louisiana; to Judge Jones, of Alabama,
and Mr.. Edgar S. Wilson, of Mississippi,
all of them democrats and all of them
men of the highest standing in the
respective communities you will find
that what / have done in Georgia stands
not as the exception, but as the rule
for what l have done throughout the
south. l have good reason to believe
that my appointees in the different
states newfoundland as the sum of
the parts in the whole, necessarily in
the south at large-represent not
merely an improvement upon those
whose places they took, but upon the
whole higher standard of federal
service than has hitherto been attained
in the communities in question. 1 may
add that the proportion of colored
men among these Few appointees is
only about one in hundred.
I'm view of all these facts, have
been surprised, and somewhat panied
at what seems to me the Incompetent.
sible outcry in the south about my ac
tions-an outcry apparently started
in New York for reasons wholly un
connected with the question nominally
at issue. | am concerned at the atti
tude thus taken by so many of the
southern people; but am not in the
least angry, and still less will this at
titude have the effect of making me
swerve one hairs breadth, to one side
or the other, from the course l have
marked out-the course L have con
stantly followed in the past and shall
consistently follow in the future.
with regard, sincerely yours,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT"