The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1905-02-14
JUSTICE TO
THE NEGRO
President Declares North and
South Should Unite to Work
Out Race Problem.
SPEECH AT LINCOLN DINNER.

ANOttSA a. b4AC 1~ll1IOth Il1lEI. OL Tie ltC-
publican club in this city, President
Roosevelt made a speech on the race
problem. lie appealed to the north TO
make it's friendship TO the south all
tie greater because of "the embarrass
mcnt of conditions for which she is
not alone responsible" declared that
tie heartiest acknowledgements are due
70 the ministers, law officers, grand
juries, public men and .'great daily
newspapers in the south who have re-
Gently done such effective work in
leading the crusade against lynching'
and said that the problem was to so
adjust the relations between the two
races Of different ethnic type that the
backward race he trained SO that it
may enter into the possession of true
freedom. while the forward race is en-
bled to preserve unharmed the high
civilization wrought out by its forefa.
thers
Following the president, Senator Dol
liver of Iowa responded to the toast.
Abraham Lincoln. Mr.. George A.
Knight of California spoke on .The
Republican Party and james NJ. Beck,
former assistant district attorney gen
eral of the United States. on .erhe
Unity of the Republic"
The President Introduced.
The president was introduced by
Louis Stern, president of the Repub-
iico,, ol,,h ~, :, t,,.iof r1oooI, :, T3tos,;
dent Roosevelt rose to reply the ban
queters in the adjoining rooms crowded
into the main hall and gallery until
every inch of space was occupied. Bow
ing to Mr.. Stern and then to the ladies
in the gallery, the president spoke in
part as follows:
The spirit in which mighty Lincoln
sought to bind up the nations wounds
when its soul was yet seething with fierce
hatreds with wrath, with rancor, with all
the evil and dreadful passions provoked
by civil war is surely the spirit which all
Americans should show now when there
is SO little excuse for malice or rancor or
hatred, when there is so little of vital
consequence to divide brother from broth
er.
We of today, in dealing with all our
ACAlOW WullC OF COlOTGOI uuTtH of
south. should strive to show just the quail
tiles that Lincoln showed-his steadfast-
ness In striving after the right and his in
finite patience and forbearance with those
who saw that right less clearly than he
did: his earnest endeavor to do what was
best and yet his readiness to accept the
best that was practicable when the ideal
best was unattainable; his unceasing eff
fort to cure what was evil coupled with
his refusal to make bad situation worse
by any Ill judged or Ill timed effort to
make It better.
Sympathy With the South.
All good Americans who dwell in the
north must, because they are good Amer
leans, feel the most earnest friendship for
their fellow countrymen who dwell in the
south. a friendship all the greater because
1t is In the south that we find in its most
acute phase one of the gravest problems
before our people-the problem of so deal
ing with the man of one color as to secure
him - rights that no one would grudge
him II he were of another color.
Most certainly all clear sighted and
generous men in the north appreciate the
difficulty and perplexity of this problem.
sympathize with the south in the embar-
rassment of conditions for which she is
not alone responsible, feel an honest wish
to help her where help is practicable and
nave IHe HGdTIleSl respect IOT tnOSG DT1Nc
and earnest men Of the south who in the
face of fearful difficulties are doing all
that men can do for the betterment alike
of white and OF black.
The attitude of the north toward the
negro is far from what IT should be- and
there is need that the north also should
act in good faith upon the principle OF
giving to each man what is justly due
him, of treating him on his worth as a
man. granting him no special favors. but
denying him no proper opportunity for
labor and the reward of labor But the
peculiar circumstances of the south rem
der the problem there far greater and
more acute,
Equality Before the Law.
Our effort should be to secure to each
man. whatever his color, equality of op-
portunity, equality of treatment before
the law. AS people striving to shape our
actions in accordance with the great law
of righteousness we cannot afford to take
part in or be indifferent to the oppression
or maltreatment of any man who, against
crushing disadvantages, has by his own
industry, energy. self respect and perse-
verance struggled upward to a position
which would entitle him to the respect
of his fellows If only his skin were OF a
different hue.
The problem is so to adjust the relations
DeLWtCH lWO IttCtS Ol QlIGItilt CtiAAilC ~ pc
that the rights of neither be abridged nor
ieoparded, that the backward race be
{ ; med so that 1t may enter into the pos
session of true freedom, while the forward
race is enabled to preserve unharmed the
high civilization wrought out by its fore
fathers.
In the first place, it is true OF the color
ed man, as It is true of the white man.
that in the long run his fate must depend
far more upon his own effort than upon
the efforts OF any outside friend. Every
vicious, venal or ignorant colored man is
nm even greater foe to his own race than
10 the community as whole. The colored
mans self respect entities him to do that
share in the political work of the country
which is warranted by his individual abil-
ity and integrity and the position he has
won for himself But the prime requisite
Of the race is moral and industrial up
Nftlng.
The Negro's Duty to Himself.
Laziness and shiftlessness - these and.
above ali, vice and criminality of every
kind are evils more potent for harm to
the black race than all acts OF oppres-
sion of white men put together. The col
lored man who fails to condemn crime in
another colored man, who fails to cooper
ate In all lawful ways in bringing 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 fore
most in relentless and unceasing warfare
against lawbreaking black men. II the
standards OF private morality and indus
trial efficiency can be raised high enougl
among the black race t.len its future o.
this continent is secure.
Let us be steadfast for the right, bu
let us err on the side Of generosity rathe
than on the side of vindictiveness towar'
those who differ from rs a. to the nethO