“My inability to attend the meeting to-morrow evening, in the interest of Tuskegee Institute, is a very great disappointment to me. If my participation could have, in the slightest degree, aided the cause you represent, or in the least encouraged you in your noble efforts, I would have felt that my highest duty was in close company with my greatest personal gratification.
“It has frequently occurred to me that in the present condition of our free Negro population in the South, and the incidents often surrounding them, we cannot absolutely calculate that the future of our nation will always be free from dangers and convulsions, perhaps not less lamentable than those which resulted from the enslaved Negros, less than forty years ago. Then the cause of trouble was the injustice of the enslavement of four millions; but now we have to deal with eight millions, who, though free, and invested with all the rights of citizenship, still constitute, in the body politic, a mass largely affected with ignorance, slothfulness and a resulting lack of appreciation of the obligations of that citizenship.
“I am so certain that these conditions cannot be neglected, and so convinced that the mission marked out by the Tuskegee Institute presents the best hope of their amelioration, and that every consideration makes immediate action important, whether based upon Christian benevolence, a love of country, or selfish material interests, that I am profoundly impressed with the necessity of such prompt aid to your efforts as will best insure their success.
“I cannot believe that your appeal to the good people of our country will be unsuccessful. Such disinterested devotion as you have exhibited, and the results already accomplished by your unselfish work, ought to be sufficient guarantee of the far-reaching and beneficent results that must follow such a manifestation of Christian charity and good citizenship, as would be apparent in a cordial and effective support of your endeavor.
“I need not say how gratified I am to be able to indicate to you that such support is forthcoming. It will be seen by the letters which I enclose, that already an offer has been made through me, by a benevolent lady in a Western city, to contribute twenty-five thousand dollars toward the Endowment Fund, upon condition that other subscriptions to this fund aggregate the amount required. With so good a beginning I cannot believe it possible that there will be a failure in securing the endowment which Tuskegee so much needs.
“Yours very truly,
“Grover Cleveland.”
“Booker T. Washington, Esq.”
In the absence of Mr. Cleveland, the Hon. Carl Schurz consented to preside at the meeting; and, as might be expected of one so ripe in experiences, he proved to be all that could be desired of a presiding officer. His short speech on taking the chair showed a hearty sympathy with the work that is being done at Hampton and Tuskegee. Mr. Schurz is a well-known German-American, who has been a general in the war of the Rebellion, a Senator in Congress and a member of the Cabinet of President Hayes. He has been for years a foremost worker in the Civil Service Reform movement. He is a writer of ability and a man who needs no introduction in the United States.
The Tuskegee Male Quartette was present and rendered plantation melodies, to the great delight of the audience.
The first speaker of the evening was Mr. Walter H. Page, a native of North Carolina, but for many years the Editor of the Atlantic Monthly, in Boston. The effort of Mr. Page was truly wonderful. He is a native Southerner, who has studied the Negro question for more than twenty years, from every point of view, as he alleged. He was well prepared to speak, and with irresistible logic and unusual eloquence, pointed out the benefits of the Tuskegee plan for the solution of the race problem. He claimed it to be the only solution that had been discovered. He pointed out how hopeless was the condition of the race, unless the problem was solved by industrial and moral training, and how hopeful would be its condition if the problem were settled in this way.