Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1905-02-14
MR. RoosEvEt.Ts spREoH.

can Clnb, in New York, at4 o'clock and
was escorted to the large reception room on
the second Aoor,- where be took bis
stand in front of canopy of American
flags. Beside him we're Louis Stern,
president of the club, and James w.
Haines, who introduced those members
with whom the President was not ac-
quainted. The reception lasted two
hours, during which time nearly goo
persons greeted the President. At the
close of the reception the President
drove, accompanied by the same escort,
to the home Of his sister, Mrs Douglas
Robinson, in Madison avenue. Here,
after brief rest, the President dressed
for dinner and was drivea to the Wal
dorf, where he arrived at 1880, and
became the guest of the Republican
Club at its Lincoln dinner.
When the President was introduced
be was greeted with much applause.
When it had ceased Mr.. Roosevelt be-
gan his speech with encomiums upon the
late President Lincoln, quoting profusely
from his inaugural and other public
addresses. Among other things he said:
"The great civil var, in which Lincoln
lowered as the loftiest figure, left us not
only reunited country, but a country
which has the proud right to claim as
its own the glory wen alike by those
who wore the blue and by those who wore
the gray, by those who followed Grant
and by those who followed Lee; for both
fought with equal bravery and with
equal sincerity Of conviction, each ssriv-
ing for the light as it was given him to
see the light; though it is now clear to
all that the triumph of the cause of free
don and of the union was essential to
the welfare of mankind. We are now
one people, u people with failings which
we must not blink, but 8 people with
great qualities in which we have the
right to feel just pride.
"All good Americans who dwell in
the North must, because they are good
Americans, feel the most earnest friend
ship for their fellow-countrymen who
dwell in the South, friendship all the
greater because it is in the South that
we find in its most acute phase one Of
the gravest problems before our people
the problem Of so dealing with the man
of one color as to secure him the right
that no one would grudge him if he
were of another color.
"To solve this problem it is, Of course,
necessary to educate him to perform the
duties, failure to perform which will
render him curse 10 himself and to all
around him.
"Most certainly all cIear-sighted and
generous men in the North appreciate
the difficulty and perplexity of this prob
lem, mpathize with the South in the
embarrassment of conditions for which
she is not alone responsible, feel an hon
est wish to help her where help is prac-
ticable, and have the heartiest respect
for those brave and earnest men of the
South who, 10 the face of fearful difficult
ties, are doing all that men can do for
the betterment alike of white and of
black.
every vicious, venal or ignorant
colored man is au even greater foe to his
own race than to the community as a
whole. The c5lored mans self-respect
entities him to do that share in the po-
litical work of the country which is war
ranted by his individual ability aud in
tegrity and the position he has won for
himself. But the prime requisite Of the
race is moral aud industrial uplifting.
"Laziness aud shiftIessness, these,
and, above all, vice and criminality OF
every kind, are evils more potent for
harm to the black race than all acts of
oppression of white men put together.
The colored man who fails to condemn
crime in another .colOred man. who fails
to cooperate in all lawful ways in bring
ing colOred criminals to justice, is the
worst enemy of his own people, as well
as an enemy to all the people.
"Law-abiding black men should, for
the sake of their race, be foremost in re-
lentless and unceasing warfare against |
law-breaking black men. If the stand
ards of private morality and industrial |
can be raised high enough |
among the black race, then its future on
this continent is secure. The stability
and purity of the home is vital to the
welfare OF the black race, as it is to the |
welfare of every race.
"In the next place the white man,
who, if only he is willing, can help the
colored man more than all other white
men put together, is the white man who
Is his neighbor, North or South. Each
Of us must do his whole duty without
and if that duty is national it
must be done ia accordance with the
principles above laid down. But ia
each to be his brothers
keeper il is wise to remember that each
can normally do most for the brother
who is his immediate neighbor."
In quoting from certain bishop the
President said that in each locality men
keep in mind the fact that there must
be no confusing of civil privileges with
social intercourse.
In closing his speech the President
'aid
IL admire and respect and believe in
and have faith in the men and women
If the South as admire aud respect
lnd believe in and have faith in the
men aud women OF the North. All of
u alike, northerners and southcrners,
fasteners and westerners, can best prove
,ur fealtyito the nations past by the
way ia which we do the nations work