The potential voting strength of the Negro population in the United States is, according to the last census, three times as great as was that of the white population in 1775 when the Declaration of Independence published to the world the modern, though sound, practical and eminently safe political creed that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. The number of Negro males of voting age is approximately three millions, a number equal to the entire white population at the beginning of the war for Independence. The total Negro population in the United States in 1900 was three times larger than was the total white population which battled against King George and the British Parliament for the purpose of securing a voice in the choice of those who levy taxes and enact the laws whose weight and obligation fall equally upon the whole body of citizens.
In the North Atlantic, the North Central, and the Western census divisions of the United States, the potential voting strength of the Negroes is more than a quarter million. It is larger than was the combined prohibition and socialist vote in 1900 and exceeds by nearly a hundred thousand the total combined vote cast for the present governors of the four states of Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and Alabama. In many sections of the North and West the Negro population is sparse and scattering, varying all the way from one in Scott County in Indiana to 63,000 in Philadelphia. Yet in many localities where there is almost an even balance of the two chief parties, the Negro vote is competent to decide the results of election. In the states of Delaware Indiana, Ohio, Connecticut, New Jersey, and several districts in New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois, a united, coherent Negro vote may frequently determine both local and national elections. This is shown by the returns in 1902 for Congressional election in four districts in Indiana, two in New Jersey, four in Ohio, and two in Massachusetts and Connecticut, where the Negro vote was of sufficient size to have thrown the election to either party. In state and local elections where party fealty is not always so strong as in national elections, owing to dissatisfaction with both men and measures, the potentiality of the Negro vote can be made very real and effective as well as respectable. The municipal wards and legislative districts in the large commercial and manufacturing centers of the North and West furnish undoubted opportunities for the Negro vote to make itself felt and to win regard and respect as far away as the United States Senate.
The foregoing facts and considerations suggest interesting possibilities and, in view of the conditions affecting the political, civil, and economic well being of the people of color in the United States, they create a demand and an obligation with reference to the use of which the Negro voter should make of his right of the franchise.
The chief tenet of modern political philosophy is that the participation of the people in the government is the only way by which their liberties can be guaranteed and their economic and industrial happiness safeguarded. Out of this conviction which has taken hold of men almost everywhere has resulted in the universal movement towards democracy. The democratic triumph which has marked the past hundred years and has been accompanied by marvelous achievements of human endeavor—achievements which could not have been accomplished except under conditions of freedom—has not been won without stupendous struggle and temporary defeats and disappointments. At every forward step, the movement has encountered unrelenting and seemingly irresistible opposition of privilege. Even here in the United States where, barring absurd contradictions, the spirit of democracy began so conspicuously to assert itself under the fostering genius of Jefferson, skillful and powerful resistance has been constant and implacable. Aristocratic privilege, intrenched in power, has grudgingly given way to the demands of manhood rights, and manhood suffrage, and even to-day, in the attempt to rehabilitate itself, it is bold enough to make the ridiculous assertion that the right of suffrage, even in a republican form of government, is not a natural and inherent right of citizenship, but merely a privilege to be granted or withheld at pleasure by a select few for whose assumed authority no power on earth or in heaven is responsible.
Whatever opinions may be entertained contrary to the doctrine and increasing practice of government by the consent of the governed, the fact is undeniable that as man has gained and exercised the right of participation in government, special privilege for the few has had to give way to the condition of equal opportunity for all. Abuses have been swept away and the door of opportunity has been opened for all. Thus has the ballot proven to be man's sure and effective weapon of defense against tyranny and proscriptive government.
All classes of our varied population, with possibly one exception, have recognized this truth and have acted in accordance with it. German, Irish, Jew; artisan, farmer and merchant—all have found the ballot a remedy for social, economic, and political ills that have had their origin in unjust laws or the partial administration of law. All have used it with wonderful effect towards the betterment of their condition. Grievances of one group have been allied with those of another group; industrial discontent growing out of capitalistic wrongs, political distempers due to governmental abuses or the enforcement of discriminatory laws; the deep seated consciousness of ethnic injustice in the industrial or political scheme—all have combined and arrayed themselves for redress which every branch of the political machinery has in the end endeavored to grant. The demands of the Slavonic yeomanry of the Northwest that a check be placed upon railroad combinations are not less effective in securing compliance than those of the merchants and shippers of our commercial centers that just and equal rates of transportation shall be enforced. The underground toilers of the mining regions of Pennsylvania and Illinois know that their grievances will receive the same respectful attention and consideration as the mandates of the coal barons, and they systematically scrutinize the attitude and the actions of public servants and hold them to a strict performance of promise and duty in so far as their rights and interests are concerned. Thus it is that in the United States as in all representative governments the ballot is the surest means of securing a "square deal;" and it is incumbent upon the three hundred thousand Negro voters of the north and west to recognize its value and to make the same use of it as is made by all other aggrieved elements of the body politic.
A catalogue of the wrongs and injuries suffered by the Negro citizens of the United States, first on account of discriminatory and proscriptive legislation; secondly, on account of the failure to enforce the laws designed to uphold and protect their citizenship; and thirdly, on account of the most palpable and outrageous violation of the sacred rights of life, liberty and property, make the "long train of abuses and usurpations" committed, according to the Declaration of Independence, by the King of Great Britain against his colonies in America appear as the gentle chastisements of a benificent ruler. Of all the complex elements of American citizenship, the Negro is the solitary victim of legal, social, industrial, and political discrimination. He alone is singled out by the law for disparagement which fact encourages and enforces the multitude of civil and industrial discriminations and injuries that tend to deprive him of the respectability due not only to a citizen but to man. To the tax levy, to the obligation to bear arms for the common defense as well as to all other mandates of the government, he is equally amenable with other citizens; but he is excepted from a full share of the benefits of citizenship. In all stations of society and in all departments of government, his protests fall upon deaf or indifferent ears, and the very sufferings and wrongs which he suffers are frequently made the text for sermonizings on his short-comings. If the homilies published from the pulpits, in the press, and even sometimes from the higher branches of the government are to be believed, the Negro is the most unsaintly citizen of the republic, in spite of the fact that he seldom commits "the robust crimes of the whites" or has the chance to defraud the government, to wreck financial institutions, or rob widows and orphans.
The burden of these outrages lies heavily upon the hearts and minds of the black men of America, yet the remedy, if they could but realize it, lies largely within their power. Throughout the republic, every man identified with the Negro race, though he may not be personally or locally subjected directly to the humiliations and wrongs which oppress and degrade the great mass of his kind, feels their bitter sting and resents them. In public assemblies, upon the public highways and common carriers, in the drawing room and around the secrecy of the fireside, the fact of injustice is the one inevitable and irrepressible theme of conversation and reflection; and the perennial and ever present question in the minds of all, whether of low or high degree, is By what means can the situation be altered? Men of different opinions are endeavoring more or less honestly to answer the question, but one of the surest and quickest means is at the command of the three hundred thousand Negro voters of the north and west, who have it in their power by an intelligent, united, and courageous exercise of their high privilege and right to demand the same respect and consideration for their interest and well being as any other class of men who register their wills at the ballot-box.
Thaddeus Stevens once said that control of republics depends upon numbers and not upon the quality of the citizens. In the last analysis this is true, but in all governments by parties the smaller number is often more important than the larger. The strength of the Negro vote in the North and West in times of party crises consists not so much in the number of that vote as in the use which is made of it. In thirty northern and western cities, it can very effectively contribute to the improvement of existing conditions. It is wonderfully powerful, if intelligently directed, in the cities of Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and New York.
The effectiveness of this vote depends more upon the use which is made of it in local and state elections than in national elections. The bonds which unite the interests of the local, state and national officials and politicians are very real and subtle—the weakest point being always the local politician. His election and success often turns upon less than a score of votes and consequently he is not inclined to disdain a single voter. His interests are inseparably connected with the interests and ambitions of the men who occupy luxurious berths in Congress and in the national or state government. In all matters concerning the interests of the Negro, the local politician's position can be known and his actions are open to close view. When his acts do not accord or square with the interest of the colored voter, he can be left to find other friends and supporters.
In the second place, the effectiveness and potentiality of the Negro vote in the North and West depends upon an absolute and courageous disregard of traditions. There are times when party fealty may be both proper and commendable. There is to be sure a great deal of hypocrisy and humbuggery in our political parties, yet back of these they do stand for certain great and vital principles. When the latter are put to the test our fealty may properly be demanded, but under normal conditions, when stress and strife of class and selfish interests, invidious discriminations and outrageous injustice prevail, the only safe and prudent course for the individual or class of individuals to pursue is absolute independence of parties and uncompromising devotion to the paramount interest. When we cannot act advantageously, we may act punitively, so that the public servant may know that if he ignores or hypocritically juggles with our interests, he will be held to a strict accountability. If on the eve of an election the party or the individual candidate attempts to cajole by a statement of principles or policy which is ignored after a successful contest, reprisal should be swift and terrible as soon as the opportunity permits.
In the third place, the Negro vote of the North and West needs, if it does not at present lack, intelligent, honest, straightforward, and unselfish leadership. Until it has this, its potentiality will be nil.
To impute dishonesty or insincerity to those who from time to time act in the role of leaders of the Negro voters would be unpardonably reprehensible. Men generally act according to their light and it is not an uncommon observation that the average public man gets his light through the medium of a self-interested reflector. Amid the competitions and conflicts, the struggle for place and temporary power and emoluments which characterize all phases of modern life and especially political life in the United States, the calm, clear-eyed, far-seeing man is rare. Yet men of unusual foresight, of clear perception of the fundamental and vital issues with the tact and ability to gain an advantage and an uncompromising determination to hold what has been gained—such is the type of men needed to make the Negro vote potent. The leadership which boasts of its capacity to keep silent under terrible wrongs is not calculated to carry the race far on the road towards real and permanent betterment.
Redress of political wrongs is not the fruit of grim and sanctimonious silence. Whenever it has come, it has been forced by long, continuous and implacable outcry, and Negro leadership must follow the example of men in other lands and in other times who fearlessly cried out against the wrongs which their people suffered. In "The Making of England," John Richard Green states that the Roman conquerors were able to completely subjugate and enslave the Britons because they were able to make terms with their leaders. The finest skill of the dominant element in governments founded upon tyranny has always been employed in making terms with the leaders of the oppressed.
Silence has its part in our fight and many times the cause has been lost because of failure to observe it, but it is not silence in respect to wrongs. Neither upon battlefields nor in the mad clash of passions and ambitions that mark the control of states is victory won or success achieved by a boisterous parade of the plan of attack. In the subtle operation of American political methods, silence is the sphinx that baffles the most astute and insinuating politician. The silent vote is a greater dread to the party leaders than was the sword to Damocles.
The Negro ballot has almost lost its potency on account of the unconcerned cocksureness of one political party that the other side will not get the benefit of it. The party managers have no concern about the certainty of the Negro vote and therefore spend all of their effort in trying to satisfy the demands of the other elements and are never able to know whether or not they have succeeded until the vote is counted. They fear the silent vote. It is thoughtful, analytic, decisive. It scans, records, and registers every dodge, retreat, and juggle which the honorable candidate or the party has been guilty of in matters which concern it.
In the exercise of the suffrage, the Negro voter has never been indifferent to the best and noblest interests of the republic. For more than forty years he has voted with the majority of his fellow countrymen on all the great questions which have divided the people. This he has done out of regard more for what men have considered the welfare of the country than for what he has deemed advantageous to himself. There is now a need of a change. He must now consider his well-being and safety identical with the well-being and safety of the republic and must require all men who seek his vote to consider it likewise.
To-day we are on the eve of a great national festival. The peaceful succession of government is a boon not enjoyed by all the peoples of the world. It is an event which deservedly appeals to the enthusiasm and civic pride of the nation. From all corners of the state have come delegations of citizens representing all classes, who come not only to honor and grace by their presence the event but, I believe, to pay honest and manly tribute to a man who is beloved and trusted by the whole American people. His battles against civic wrongs and in behalf of weaker classes and his policy of "all men up and no men down," not only make him the paragon of public officials, but a lovable and trusted man. Among the throngs that shall honor him and in turn be honored in the escort which will make the Avenue the most splendid pageant which can adorn any modern government, none will march more proudly than the brave and valiant regiment of black men who, with him whom they honor, risked all and won glory on the field of San Juan. Yet by the laws of the land and by the policy of the government, their rights and their manhood are not on a parity with those of other citizens who with less desert shall follow in his train. It is the possibility of such a state of affairs, that the Negro vote of the North and West, yea the great body of all good citizens must exercise itself to prevent.