"The appointment of Patterson is a most unfortunate thing. Two races cannot mix; it is contrary to the laws of nature. I am not acquainted with Patterson. It is not he, personally, I am fighting; it is the principle involved. I do not think any government office should be held by a Negro. I think the defeat of this appointment of a Negro is of more importance than the passage of the tariff bill and the enactment of currency legislation. It rises like a mountain peak above all other questions of the day. It seems that the appointment was made in view of Patterson's campaign activities in the interest of Democracy. I do not think much of the policy that pays party obligations at the expense of the purity of the greatest race on the globe. I shall fight every Negro appointment that is made."
It is not necessary, he admits, to know anything personally of the candidate—anything about his character or qualifications; it is enough to know that he is a Negro or of Negro descent, to disqualify him for any office under the Government. And this, he affirms, is the sentiment of all Southern senators. Even a man like President Wilson, with all his brains and culture and high Christian character, or rather, I would say, avowal of high Christian principles, after nominating Patterson for the position permitted him to withdraw from the contest in the face of Vardaman's declaration, "No government office should be held by a Negro." And instead of sending in the name of another colored man, in order to rebuke that sentiment, he sent in the name of an Indian, which was a virtual acceptance, on the part of the President, of the position taken by Vardaman and other Negro-hating senators. And the fact that a white man was named almost immediately afterwards for the post at Hayti shows how completely the President has surrendered to the dictation of Southern Negro haters. If the progress we have made during these fifty years has had so little effect upon a man like Woodrow Wilson, how much is it likely to have upon the average white man? Any one who has kept in touch with the movements of the last half century that have had to do with this vexed question, cannot fail to see that the two phases of the race issue have very little to do with each other. The development within the race has had no appreciable influence in creating within the white man a disposition to behave any better towards the colored man, to accord to him his rights, to treat him as a man, as a citizen, as a brother. So far as we may judge from the experiences of the last fifty years and from what is transpiring about us to-day, there is no hope of things ever being any better as the result of race improvement. It is right, of course, for us to make the most of our opportunities, and to press forward as rapidly as possible along all lines of endeavor, material, intellectual, moral, spiritual; but let us not be deceived, let us not imagine, though we ourselves will be greatly benefited by such a course, that the attitude of the white man towards us will change for the better in consequence. There may be a change in him, let us hope that there may be, but if it comes at all, it will come in some other way. It will not be because we are improving ourselves, because we are getting to be more intelligent, are getting more property, getting on a higher social plane, getting to be more virtuous, more self-respecting. That kind of thing has little or no influence in favorably inclining the average white man towards the Negro. It makes no difference what he has, what he has achieved, what he has made of himself, he is still only a Negro, is still undesirable, is still to be hedged about by limitations and restrictions.
Senator Vardaman in his "high-blown pride" speaks of the white race as "the greatest race on the globe." If the Senator is a specimen of its greatness, the so-called inferior races need not concern themselves very much about catching up with it in the march of progress. As a matter of fact, there are scores of colored men who, in intelligence, in brain power, in scholarship, in all the elements that go to make up true manhood, are superior to Mr. Vardaman. The only respect in which the Senator shows any superiority, in the sense of surpassing others, so far as I can see, is in the exhibition of a coarse, vulgar, and brutal spirit. The white race may be the greatest race on the globe, but the assertion of that fact would come with a little better grace from one who reflects its greatness rather than from one who is a reproach to it, who discredits it. The white people themselves would hardly select Mr. Vardaman as a specimen by which it would care to be judged in this or in future generations. The Negro may be inferior, greatly inferior to the white race, but there would have to be some better specimen of the white race than Mr. Vardaman to prove it. My purpose, however, is not to criticise the honorable Senator from Mississippi. I have mentioned his name in this connection merely as illustrative of the aggressive, ever-growing spirit of race hatred, of race antagonism, which still confronts us after fifty years of freedom.
(10). In this connection we ought to impress ourselves also, as we leave the first half century of freedom and enter upon the second half, with the fact that God is and that he is a present help in time of need. We need to emphasize, more strongly than we are in the habit of doing, the importance of religion as a factor in this race struggle in which we are engaged. In Exodus 14, we are told that after Pharaoh had given the children of Israel permission to leave Egypt, and after they had left, he repented, changed his mind, and started in pursuit of them with all his hosts, his chariots and horsemen, to bring them back. We are also told that when the children of Israel saw them approaching they were terrified. And then occurs this passage: "And the angel of the Lord, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: and it came between the camp of the Egyptians, and the camp of Israel, and it was a cloud of darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night." God stood between Israel and the enemy. And that is just where we want to have him stand, between us and our enemies. What we need to do is to rest in the Lord, is to put our trust in him. He is more than a match for our enemies. The song which Moses and the children of Israel sang after they had seen the advancing hosts of the enemy approaching was,
"The Lord hath triumphed gloriously.
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and song,
And he is become my salvation."
And if we trust him, if we make him our hope, we will be able in the end to sing the same song; we, too, will triumph gloriously.
In the voyage of the apostle Paul to Rome the ship was caught in a terrible storm. For fourteen days and nights it raged. The wind blew furiously; heavy, dark clouds shut out the light of the sun by day and of the stars by night. There seemed no hope of escape. Of the nearly three hundred souls on board, all except one man were filled with the most appalling apprehension. That man was the apostle Paul. During all those awful days and nights he alone was calm, self-possessed; he alone showed no fear, no apprehension. And why? It was because the angel of the Lord had stood by him and had said to him, "Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee." And it was because he believed what the angel had said to him. The fierceness of the storm, the raging of the elements, the appalling darkness that enveloped them, had no disquieting effect upon him. It was the triumph of faith—faith that saw safety, and rested in sweet content in the face of the raging storm. And faith in God is what we need if we are not to become discouraged in face of the gathering hosts of darkness, in face of the constant accessions to the ranks of the enemy. David once exclaimed,