anybody if it was the purpose of the Convention to restrict Negro
suffrage, he would frankly say, 'Yes; that is what we are here for.'" This
Convention proposes to secure its object not by the force and fraud of
earlier days, but by constitutional and legal methods--or at least by what
has constitutional and legal _forms_. All this, however, is another
attempt to achieve the impracticable. As the Negro grows in intelligence
and numbers, he will claim his right to vote.

On the other hand, the Congressional Election Bill or any other
legislation intended to secure the privilege of voting to the Negro, if
made practical, means a good deal. If it is intended only to pass laws
that shall be merely "glittering generalities" to vindicate the historic
record of the Republican party, or to sanction its Platform and the
Inaugural of the President--that is easily done and will, of course,
amount to nothing--except as a political manoeuvre. But if the movement
"means business," and is to be pushed to its legitimate result, then two
things must be done: the Negro must be qualified to vote and to be voted
for; to elect officers and to hold office. If the mass of illiterate and
impoverished Negroes are to be represented in State Legislatures and in
Congress by persons as ignorant and poor as they are themselves, these
representatives will, of course, if in the majority, be liable to rule and
ruin; if in a large minority, they will hold a balance of power that may
easily be controlled by demagogues. To educate this mass up to the point
of intelligence and the acquisition of property is America's great duty
and the guaranty of her safety.

There is one thing more about it. We have said that if the Negro is to
have the free exercise of the ballot, he will insist on being voted for as
well as voting. If the Negroes have power to elect, they will wish to
elect some of their own number. They will not, and certainly they ought