On the other hand, consider the
attitude of Mr. Bryan with reference
to the negro vote. The leaders of
that race are organized, and they are
making relentless warfare upon the
Republican party, because the Re
publican party has at last recognized
the justice of the South’s contention
that she should be allowed to regulate
her own domestic affairs. Think
what this means! The Civil War w r as
waged to establish the right of the
South to local home rule. We lost
the case in the trial by battle, and we
lost our slaves, but the principle was
not lost, and now, after forty years
of bitterness and strife, the enlight
ened Republicans of the North and
East have said by actions which
speak louder than words that the
Southern people who made such heroic
sacrifices to assert the principles of
local self-government were right. It
vindicates every Confederate soldier
who marched and fought under the
stars and bars. It is a monument
erected by his enemy to the honor of
every dead hero of the Southern
Confederacy; it is a halo of glory for
every survivor of the followers of
Lee and Jackson, Johnson and
Forrest.
But the negro leaders of the North,
East and West are incensed against
the Republican party for having
adopted this position. There are
five points upon which they rest their
hostility to Roosevelt and Taft.
1. Because they haven’t enforced
the fourteenth and fifteenth amend
ments.
2. Because they have acquiesced in
the Southern disfranchise laws.
3. Because the President dismissed
from the army the negro troops who
shot up Brownsville.
4. Because of the defeat of the
Foraker bill, which was intended to
restore these troops to the army.
