Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1903-03-05
PRESIDENT DENIES
FAVORING NEGROES
Color No Open Door to Favor South
ern Offices Filled on Merit, After
Consulting Leading Demo-
Gratis.
NO ADVANTAGE FOR NEGROES.
No Question of Social Equality-DemOcrats
COnSulted-0utcry Started in
New York.

extracts from a letter from President
Roosevelt to Clark Howell, editor of the
Constitution, in reply to request for
an exposition concerning a recent letter
from Harry Slillwell Edwards, of Macon,
with reference to the matter of Federal
appointments in the South:-
ain making appointments Ihave sought
to consider the feelings Of the people of
each territory so far as l could consistently
do so without sacrificing principle. The
prime tests have applied haye been those
of character, 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 l have repeatedly done this in
your own State of Georgia. | certainly
cannot treat mere color as a bar to hold
ing office any more than l could so treat
creed or bithplace-always providing that
in other respects the applicant or incum-
bent is a worthy and well.behaved Ameri-
can citizen.
"Just as little will | treat tas conferring
right to hold office. l ask you to judge
not by what l say but by what during the
last seventeen months l have actually
done. In South Carolina l haye appOin-
ted a white postmaster to succeed colored
postmaster. Again in South Carolina l
have nominated a colored man to fill
vacancy in the position Of fcOllector of port
Charleston, just as in Georgia l have re-
appointed the colored man who is now
serving as collector of the port of Savan-
nah. Both are fit men. Why the ap'
pointment of one should cause any more
excitement than the appointment Of the
other am wholly at a loss to imagine.
GAS l am writing to man of keen and
trained intelligence l need hardly say
that to connect either of these appoint
ments or any or all my other appoint
ments or my actions IN upholding the law
at Indianoa with such questions as social
and negro domination is as absurd as to
connect them with the nebular hypothesis
or the theory Of atoms. | haye consulted
freely with your Senators and Congress
men as to the character and capacity OF
any appointee in Georgia concerning
whom there was question. My party ad'
visers in the State have been Major Han
son, of Macon; Mr.. Walter Johnson, of
Atlanta, both of them ex-Confederate
soldiers, and Mr.. Harry Stillwell Edwards
also of Macon. A large percentage of the
incumbents of Federal offices in Georgia
under me are, az [ understand it, of your
own political faith.
"This is true of your own State; and by
applying to Mr., Thomas Nelson Page, of
Virginia; to General Basil Duke, of Ken
tucky; to Mr.. George Crawford, Of Tenn
essee; to Mr.. John McIlhenny, Of Lousia'
ma; 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 their respective
communities, you will find that what l
have done in Georgia stands not as the
exception but as the rule for what l have
done throughout the South. may add
that the proportion of colored men among
the new appolntees is only about one In
hundred
'In view of all these facts | have been
surprised and somewhat panied at what
seems to me the incomprehensibeI Ioutcry
in the South about my actions-an outcry
APPARENTLY started in New York for reasons
wholly unconnected with the question
nominally at issue. am concerned at
the attitude thus taken by go many of the
Southern people; but l am not in the
least angry; and still less will this attitude
have the effect of making me swerye one
hairbreadth to one side or the other from
the course l have marked Out-the courst
have consistently followed in the past
and shall consistently follow in the future.