“Naturally and necessarily the question of fitness for official responsibility is the prime test and ought to be applied, and if Negroes cannot be found of sufficient intelligence or preparation for the duties incumbent on army officers, nobody should object to the places being given to qualified white men.  But so long as we draw no race line of distinction as against Germans or Irishmen, and institute no test of religion, politics or culture, we ought not to erect an artificial barrier of color.  If the Negroes are competent they should be commissioned.  If they are incompetent they should not be trusted with the grave responsibilities attached to official position.  I believe they are competent.”

[Illustration:  GENERAL MAXIMO GOMEZ, OF THE CUBAN ARMY.]

CHAPTER V.

MANY TESTIMONIALS IN BEHALF OF THE NEGRO SOLDIERS.

A SOUTHERNER’S STATEMENT, THAT THE NEGRO CAVALRY SAVED THE “ROUGH RIDERS.”

Some of the officers who accompanied the wounded soldiers on the trip north give interesting accounts of the fighting around Santiago.  “I was standing near Captain Capron and Hamilton Fish, Jr.,” said a corporal to the Associated Press correspondent to-night, “and saw them shot down.  They were with the Rough Riders and ran into an ambuscade, though they had been warned of the danger.  If it had not been for the Negro Calvary the Rough Riders would have been exterminated.  I am not a Negro lover.  My father fought with Mosby’s Rangers, and I was born in the South, but the Negroes saved that fight, and the day will come when General Shafter will give them credit for their bravery.”—­Asso.  Press.

* * * * *

RECONCILIATION.

“Members of our regiment kicked somewhat when the colored troops were sent forward with them, but when they saw how the Negroes fought they became reconciled to the situation and some of them now say the colored brother can have half of their blankets whenever they want them.”

The above is an extract from a communication to the Daily Afternoon Journal, of Beaumont, Tex., written by a Southern white soldier:  “Straws tell the way the wind blows,” is a hackneyed expression, but an apt illustration of the subject in hand.  It has been hinted by a portion of the Negro press that when the war ended, that if there is to be the millennium of North and South, the Negroes will suffer in the contraction.  There is no reason to encourage this pessimistic view, since it is so disturbing in its nature, and since it is in the province of the individuals composing the race to create a future to more or less extent.  The wedge has entered; it remains for the race to live up to its opportunities.  The South already is making concessions.  While concessions are apt to be looked upon as too patronizing, and not included in the classification of rights in