In this connection it may not be out of place to say that, ever since
the organization of the Republican party in Mississippi, the white
Republicans of that State, unlike some in a few of the other Southern
States, have never attempted to draw the color line against their
colored allies. In this they have proved themselves to be genuine and
not sham Republicans,--that is to say, Republicans from principle and
conviction and not for plunder and spoils. They have never failed to
recognize the fact that the fundamental principle of the Republican
party,--the one that gave the party its strongest claim upon the
confidence and support of the public,--is its advocacy of equal civil
and political rights. If that party should ever come to the conclusion
that this principle should be abandoned, that moment it will merit, and
I am sure it will receive, the condemnation and repudiation of the
public.

It was not, therefore, a surprise to any one when the white Republican
members of the Mississippi Legislature gave expression to their entire
willingness to vote for a suitable colored man to represent the state of
Mississippi in the highest and most dignified legislative tribunal in
the world. The next step was to find the man. The name of the Rev. James
Lynch was first suggested. That he was a suitable and fit man for the
position could not be denied. But he had just been elected Secretary of
State for a term of four years, and his election to the Senate would
have created a vacancy in the former office which would have
necessitated the holding of another State election and another election
was what all wanted to avoid. For that reason his name was not seriously
considered for the Senatorship.

[Illustration: HON. HIRAM R. REVELS. The first colored man that occupied
a seat in the U.S. Senate. From a photograph taken by Maj. Lynch at