Grover Cleveland. I
received from him the following autograph reply:--
Gray Gables, Buzzard's Bay, Mass.,
October 6, 1895.
Booker T. Washington, Esq.:
My Dear Sir: I thank you for sending me a copy of your address
delivered at the Atlanta Exposition.
I thank you with much enthusiasm for making the address. I have
read it with intense interest, and I think the Exposition would
be fully justified if it did not do more than furnish the
opportunity for its delivery. Your words cannot fail to delight
and encourage all who wish well for your race; and if our
coloured fellow-citizens do not from your utterances gather new
hope and form new determinations to gain every valuable advantage
offered them by their citizenship, it will be strange indeed.
Yours very truly,
Grover Cleveland.
Later I met Mr. Cleveland, for the first time, when, as
President, he visited the Atlanta Exposition. At the request of
myself and others he consented to spend an hour in the Negro
Building, for the purpose of inspecting the Negro exhibit and of
giving the coloured people in attendance an opportunity to shake
hands with him. As soon as I met Mr. Cleveland I became impressed
with his simplicity, greatness, and rugged honesty. I have met
him many times since then, both at public functions and at his
private residence in Princeton, and the more I see of him the
more I admire him.
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