That is excellent; and you have put epigrammatically just what I am doing—that is, though I have rather reduced the quantity, I have done my best to raise the quality of Negro appointments.

With high regards,

Sincerely yours,

Theodore Roosevelt.[[33]]

Throughout the administrations of President Roosevelt and President Taft, Washington was constantly called into conference and rendered a lasting service to his own race and to the people of the country in giving wise counsel, not only about politics but about a great many things pertaining to the welfare of his people.

Washington was often criticized very severely by members of his own race for his position with reference to voting. His ideas on this question are well stated in the following quotation:

“I am often asked to express myself more freely than I do upon the political condition and the political future of my race.... My own belief is, although I have never before said so in so many words, that the time will come when the negro in the South will be accorded all the political rights which his ability, character, and material possessions entitle him to. I think, though, that the opportunity to freely exercise such political rights will not come in any large degree through outside or artificial forcing, but will be accorded to the negro by the Southern white people themselves, and that they will protect him in the exercise of these rights. Just as soon as the South gets over the feeling that it is being forced by ‘foreigners’ or ‘aliens’ to do something which it does not want to do, I believe that the change in the direction that I have indicated is going to begin.”[[34]]

Again he says: “I contend that, in relation to his vote, the negro should more and more consider the interests of the community in which he lives, rather than seek alone to please some one who lives a thousand miles from him and his interests.”[[35]]

While he believed, theoretically, in universal, free suffrage, he very frankly admitted that the peculiar conditions existing in the South made it necessary to put restrictions upon the ballot. He was opposed, however, to any discriminations in the law; and he urged with all his power that the negro be given good educational and business advantages, so that he might fit himself for the full responsibilities and duties of life.

Washington himself never had any trouble about voting. He always registered and always voted, and no one ever raised an objection to his doing so.