As a rule, I believe in universal, free suffrage, but I believe
that in the South we are confronted with peculiar conditions that
justify the protection of the ballot in many of the states, for a
while at least, either by an education test, a property test, or
by both combined; but whatever tests are required, they should be
made to apply with equal and exact justice to both races.
Chapter XV. The Secret Of Success In Public Speaking
As to how my address at Atlanta was received by the audience in
the Exposition building, I think I prefer to let Mr. James
Creelman, the noted war correspondent, tell. Mr. Creelman was
present, and telegraphed the following account to the New York
World:--
Atlanta, September 18.
While President Cleveland was waiting at Gray Gables to-day, to
send the electric spark that started the machinery of the Atlanta
Exposition, a Negro Moses stood before a great audience of white
people and delivered an oration that marks a new epoch in the
history of the South; and a body of Negro troops marched in a
procession with the citizen soldiery of Georgia and Louisiana.
The whole city is thrilling to-night with a realization of the
extraordinary significance of these two unprecedented events.
Nothing has happened since Henry Grady's immortal speech before
the New England society in New York that indicates so profoundly
the spirit of the New South, except, perhaps, the opening of the
Exposition itself.
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