The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-03-02
OUT OF THE NORTH
ROOSEVELT SAYS, COMES THE CRY
AGAINST HIM
FOR GIVING NEGROES OFFICE.
HE WRITES TO CLARK HOWELL IN
HIS MEDICATION.

President says New AOrR fHpeEs
started the Criticism of His Meth
cd of Filling Places in the South.
Did This for Reasons Foreign TO
the Question at Issue-He A1ludes
IN Crum and Deveaux-Names His
Advisers-WiH stick to His Policy
in Spite of the Criticisms.
Atlanta, March Following are ex-
tracts from a letter from President
Roosevelt to Clark Howell, editor of the
Constitution, in reply to a request for
an expression concerning recent let
ter from Harry Stilwell Edwards of
Macon, with reference to the matter of
the federal appointments in the South:
I'm making appointments 1 have
sought to consider the feelings of the
people of each locality so far as I could
consistently do so without sacrificing
principle. The prime tests have ap-
piled have been those of character, fit
ness and ability, and when have been
dissatisfied with what has been offered
within my own party lines, have,
without hesitation, gone to the oppo-
site party-and you are of course aware
that l have repeatedly done this in
your own state of Georgia.
Il certainly cannot treat mere color
as a permanent bar to holding office,
any more than I could so treat creed
or irf1place-always provided that in
other respects the applicant or incum-
bent is a, worthy and we'll behaved
American citizen. Just as little will 1
treat it as comforting a right to hold
office.
Wants Judgment on His Acts.
81 ask you to judge not by what
say, but by what during the last seven
teen months 1 have actually done. In
South Carolina 1 have appointed
white postmaster to succeed a colored
postmaster. Again, in South Carolina,
I have nominated a colored man to
fill a vacancy in the position of collec-
tor of port of Charleston, just as in
Georgia have reappointed the color
ed man who is now serving as collec-
tor of the port of Savannah. Both
are fit men. Why the appointment of
one should cause. any more excitement
than the appointment of the other l
an wholly at a loss to imagine. 8 s.A..s.-
''As 1 am writing to man of keen
and trained intelligence. I need hard
ly say that to connect either of these
appointments or any or all my other
appointments, or my actions in uphold
lag the law at Indianola, with such
questions as social equality and ne
gro domination is as absurd as to
connect them with the nebular hypo-
thesis or the theory of atoms.
Il have consulted freely with your
own senators and congressman as to
the character and capacity of any ap-
pointee in Georgia concerning whom
there was question. My party advis
ers in the state have been Maj. Han
son of Macon, Mr.. Walter Johnson of
Atanta-both of them eX-Confederate
soldiers-and Mr. Harry Stilwell Ed
wards, also of Macon. Am 1 not right
in saying that the federal officeholders
whom l have appointed throughout
your state are as a body men and
women of a high order of efficiency and
integrity? Incidentally, 1 may men,
ton that large percentage of the in
cumbents of federal offices in Georgia
under me are. as I understand it, of
your own political faith.
Negroes but One in 81 Hundred.
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 McIlnenny
of Louisiana, to Judge Jones of Ala
bama and Mr.. Edgar S. Wilson of Mis-
sissippi, all of them Democrats and
all of them men of the highest stand
ing in their Respective communities,
you will find that what have done
i'll Georgia stands not as the exception,
but as the rule, for what l have done
throughout the South. l may add that
the proportion of colored men among
the new appointees is only about one
in a hundred.
In. view of all these facts, I have
been surprised and somewhat pained
at what seems to me the incompre-
hensible .outcry in the South about my
actions-an cutlery apparently started
in New York for reasons wholly I'M
connected with the question nominally
at issue. l 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
attitude 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-
sistently followed in the past and
shall consistently follow in the flu
ture.
with regard, Sincerely Yours,
Theodore Roosevelt.