The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1903-03-05
COLOR NO BAR TO OFFICE
President Explains Appointments in
South to Atlanta Editor.
FITNESS AND AGILITY pR!mETseT
MIR. Roosevelt Is Panied at Outcry In
South About His Actions, But De-
cIares He Will Not Swerve From the
Course Ne Has Marked Out.


Atlanta. Ga, March 2. - Following
are extracts from a letter from Presi-
dent Roosevelt to Clark Howell, editor
of the Constitution, in reply to re-
quest for an exposition concerning a
recent letter from Harry Stillwell Ed.
wards, of Macon, with reference to
the matter of federal appointments in
the south:
in making appointments | have
sought to consider the feelings OF the
people of each territory so far as |
could consistently do so without sac
riiicing principle. The prime tests |
have applied have been those of char
acter, fitness and ability, and when |
have been dissatisfied with what has
been offered within my own party
lines | have without hesitation gone
to the opposite party-and you are OF
course aware that | have repeatedly
done this in your own state of Geor-
gia certainly cannot treat mere
color as a bar to holding Office any
more than | could so treat creed or
hplace-always providing that in
other respects the applicant or in
cumbent is worthy and well behaved
American citizen. Just as little will
| treat it as comforting right to hold
Office. | ask you to judge not by what
| say but by what during the last II
months have actually done. In South
Carolina ! have appointed white
postmaster to succeed a colored post
master. Again in South Carolina
have nominated a colored man to fill
a vacancy in the position OF collector
of the port of Charleston, just as in
Georgia ] have reappointed the col
ored man who is now serving as col
cred collector of the port of Savannah.
BOth are fit men. Why the appoint
ment of one should cause any more
excitement han the appointment OF
the other ! am wholly at a loss to
imagine. AS | am writing to a man of
keen and trained intelligence. need
hardly say that to connect either of
these appointments or any or all my
upholding the law at lndianola with
such questions as social equality and
negro domination are as absurd as to
connect them with the nebular hypo,
thesis or the theory of atoms. | have
consulted freely with your own sena
tors and congressman as to the char
acter and capacity of any appointee
in Georgia concerning whom there was
question. A large percentage Of the
incumbents of federal Offices in Geor
gia under me are as / understand it.
Of your own political faith.
This is true not only of your own
state, but as the rule for what | have
done throughout the south. may
add that the proportion of colored men
among the new appointees is only
about one in hundred.
"ln view of all these facts, have
been surprised and somewhat panied
at what seems to me the Incompetent
sible out ~ry in the south about my &C
tions-an outcry apparently started il
New York for reasons wholly uncon
nected with the question nominal!
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 thi:
attitude have the effect of making mt
swerve one hairsbreadth to one side OF
the other from the course | hav,
marked out-the course | have con
sistently followed in the past anC
shall consistently follow in the future.