from their relation to the gravest problem of American statesmanship.  That problem will not be settled by the results of either of these current questions.  For at the bottom the real question is:  Shall knowledge and character and property become the possession of the colored race, and they thus be prepared for their place in American politics, industry and prosperity, or will they be allowed for the lack of these things to be crushed back into a condition of semi-slavery or be goaded to resistance or discouraged in poverty, pauperism and degradation?  That is a fundamental question.  For that, men should read, think, pray and work.

The Federal Election Bill And The Mississippi Convention.
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The ultimate aim of the Federal Election Bill in Congress,
and of the Constitutional Convention in Mississippi,
point in diametrically opposite directions.  They
cannot be harmonized, and there is no middle way between
them.  The Election Bill contemplates a “free
ballot and fair count” for every voter, including
the Negro.  The Mississippi Convention aims to
restrict Negro suffrage.  In an address delivered
by the President of the Convention, September 11th,
he is reported to have said that:  “He did
not propose to mince matters and hide behind a subterfuge,
but if asked by 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.