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or a toothless serpent. SHAME! SHAME!! SHAME!!!

No man who knows the open-hearted honesty, trustworthiness,
integrity and moral standing of the former slave, would for a mo-
ment be afraid to trust him with the ballot which made him feel
that he was a man, and an American citizen. Where does he stand
today? Would you march an army into battle without guns and
amunition for self defense and expect to win a victory? The bal-
lot has been and is today every man's strongest weapon of defense.
Take that away and you unman him and leave him helpless and defense-
less. No race is prouder of the government of the United States
than the negro, and in proportion to numbers and material condi-
tions, vies with any other race in a quick response to a call for
its defense and support.

It seems to me that taxation and defense without representa-
tion, (the right to vote) is wrong. In many of the states we have
the educational, the prepayment of taxes, and the property quali-
fications, as prerequisites to voting. If the negro had had the
fruits of his labor and an equal chance in the race of life, since
he has been in this country there would be no word of complaint
against it. It is unreasonable to expect of the race in fifty
years what it has taken other races all the ir lives to do. If the
negro had been let alone, and had he divided his vote as other
races, he never would have been disfranchised. I know this to be
true, as I had the honor of attending and delivering an address
before the Constitutional Convention which met at Richmond, Va.,
in theyears of 1901 and 1902, in the interest of the race.

For the last twenty-five or thirty years I have been a
strong advocate of a division of the Negro Vote, because he has
tried concentration and was made a political slave.

Following the same motives that promted me in the past, I
spent a month in the campaign of 1912 in support of Messrs. WILSON
and MARSHALL. The results of that campaign were so flattering and
astounding that I am proud that I was in the fight, and my fondest
hopes have been realized.

From the training, high character and christian sentiment
expressed by President-elect WILSON, before and since his election,
1 see an OPEN DOOR OF HOPE for the Negro. I have often thought
why it is, that so many hard, humiliating and discouraging things
are said to keep the negro in the back-ground. We did not come
to this country of our own choice; but since we have been here,
we have served as BONDSMEN and FREEMEN. How well we have done
both, will yet be written by the impartial historian, and acknowl-
edged by all who love JUSTICE and RIGHT.

If the negro is to be repudiated and made the bone-of-con-
tention, in the future, God will continue to open other doors of
hope until we shall be recognized as American Citizens; and through
the aid of those who may be in power, be given an equal chance

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