“I wish to congratulate you,” Mr. Roosevelt said, “upon the dignity and self-restraint with which the Circle has stated its case in its circulars.  It is put better than I could express it when your officers say:  ’They, (the Negroes) like the boys at the front and in the camps to know that there is a distinctly colored organization working for them.  They also like the people at home to know that such an organization, although started and maintained with a friendly cooperation from white friends, is intended to prove to the world that colored people themselves can manage war relief in an efficient, honest and dignified way, and so bring honor to their race.

“The greatest work the colored man can do to help his race upward,” continued Mr. Roosevelt, “is through his or her own person to show the true dignity of service.  I see in the list of your vice-presidents and also of your directors the name of Colonel Charles Young, and that reminds me that if I had been permitted to raise a brigade of troops and go to the other side, I should have raised for that brigade two colored regiments, one of which would have had all colored officers.  And the colonel of that regiment was to have been Colonel Charles Young.

“One of the officers of the other regiment was to have been ‘Ham’ Fish.  He is now an officer of the 15th, the regiment of Negroes which Mr. Cobb so justly has praised, and when ‘Ham’ Fish was offered a chance for promotion with a transfer to another command, I am glad to say he declined with thanks, remarking that he ‘guessed he’s stay with the sunburned Yankees.’”

A guest of honor at the meeting was Needham Roberts, who won his Croix de Guerre in conjunction with Henry Johnson.  The cheering of the audience stopped proceedings for a long time when Mr. Roosevelt arrived and shook hands with Roberts.

“Many nice things were said at the meeting,” commented the New York Age, “but the nicest of all was the statement that after the war the Negro over here will get more than a sip from the cup of democracy.”

One of the splendid activities of the Circle was in the providing of an emergency relief fund for men who were discharged or sent back, as in the case of Needham Roberts, on account of sickness or injuries.  Many a soldier who was destitute on account of his back pay having been held up was temporarily relieved, provided with work or sent to his home through the agency of the Circle.

While the war was in progress the Circle attended to a variety of legal questions for the soldiers, distributed literature, candy and smokes to the men going to the war and those at the front; visited and ministered to those in hospitals, looked after their correspondence and did the myriad helpful things which other agencies were doing for white soldiers, including relief in the way of garments, food, medicine and money for the families and dependents of soldiers.