When I first came to Tuskegee, I determined that I would make it
my home, that I would take as much pride in the right actions of
the people of the town as any white man could do, and that I
would, at the same time, deplore the wrong-doing of the people as
much as any white man. I determined never to say anything in a
public address in the North that I would not be willing to say in
the South. I early learned that it is a hard matter to convert an
individual by abusing him, and that this is more often
accomplished by giving credit for all the praiseworthy actions
performed than by calling attention alone to all the evil done.
While pursuing this policy I have not failed, at the proper time
and in the proper manner, to call attention, in no uncertain
terms, to the wrongs which any part of the South has been guilty
of. I have found that there is a large element in the South that
is quick to respond to straightforward, honest criticism of any
wrong policy. As a rule, the place to criticise the South, when
criticism is necessary, is in the South--not in Boston. A Boston
man who came to Alabama to criticise Boston would not effect so
much good, I think, as one who had his word of criticism to say
in Boston.
In this address at Madison I took the ground that the policy to
be pursued with references to the races was, by every honourable
means, to bring them together and to encourage the cultivation of
friendly relations, instead of doing that which would embitter.
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