Mr. President, there is only one action possible, if any is taken; that is, intervention for the independence of the island; intervention that means the landing of an American army on Cuban soil, the deploying of an American fleet off Havana; intervention which says to Spain, "Leave the island, withdraw your soldiers, leave the Cubans, these brothers of ours in the New World, to form and carry on government for themselves." Such intervention on our part would not of itself be war. It would undoubtedly lead to war. But if war came, it would come by the act of Spain in resisting the liberty and the independence of the Cuban people. A REUNITED COUNTRY WILLIAM MCKINLEY At the banquet given in connection with the Atlanta Peace Jubilee, on December 15, 1898, President McKinley responded to the toast "Our Country." This extract is the concluding part of his speech. Printed by permission. The nation has been at war, not within its own shores, but with a foreign power-a war waged not for revenge or aggrandizement, but for our oppressed neighbors, for their freedom and amelioration. It was short but decisive. It recorded a succession of significant victories on land and on sea. It gave new honors to American arms. It has brought new problems to the Republic, whose solution will tax the genius of our people. United, we will meet and solve them with honor to ourselves and to the lasting benefit THE EVILS OF LYNCHING 189 of all concerned. The war brought us together. Its settlement will keep us together. Reunited-glorious realization! It expresses the thought of my mind and the long-deferred consummation of my heart's desire as I stand in this presence. It interprets the hearty demonstration here witnessed, and is the patriotic refrain of all sections and all lovers of the Republic. Reunited-one country again and one country forever! Proclaim it from the press and pulpit; teach it in the schools; write it across the skies. The world sees and feels it. It cheers every heart North and South, and brightens the life of every American home. Let nothing ever strain it again. At peace with all the world and with each other, what can stand in the pathway of our progress and prosperity? THE EVILS OF LYNCHING BOOKER T. WASHINGTON From an open letter on "Lynchings in the South," which Mr. Washington sent to the New Orleans Times-Democrat and to other influential newspapers in the South, June 20, 1899. Reprinted by permission. I know that some argue that the crime of lynching negroes is not confined to the South. This is true, and no one can excuse such a crime as the shooting of innocent black men in Illinois, who were guilty of no crime except that of seeking labor; but my words just now are to the South, where my home is and a part of which I am. Let other sections act as they will; I want to see our beautiful Southland free from this terrible evil of lynching. Lynching does not stop crime. In the immediate section of the South where a colored man recently committed the most terrible crime ever charged against a member of his race, but a few weeks previous to this, five colored men had been lynched for supposed incendiarism. If lynching was a cure for crime, surely the lynching of five would have prevented another negro from committing a most heinous crime a few weeks later. We might as well face the facts bravely and wisely. Since the beginning of the world crime has been committed in all civilized and uncivilized countries, and a certain amount of crime will always be committed, both in the North and in the South. In proportion to the numbers and intelligence of the population of the South, there exists little more crime than in several other sections of the country; but because of the lynching habit, we are constantly advertising ourselves to the world as a lawless people. We cannot disregard the teachings of the civilized world for eighteen hundred years, that the only way to punish crime is by law. When we leave this dictum chaos begins. I am not pleading for the negro alone. Lynching injures, hardens, and blunts the moral sensibilities of the young and tender manhood of the South. Never shall I forget the remark by a little nine-year-old white boy with blue eyes and flaxen hair. The little fellow said to his mother after he had returned from a lynching: "I have seen a man hanged; now I wish I could see one burned." Rather than hear such a remark from one of my little boys, I would prefer seeing him laid THE FUTURE OF THE SOUTH 191 in his grave. This is not all; every community guilty of lynching, says in so many words to the Governor, to the Legislature, to the sheriff, to the jury and to the judge, "I have no faith in you and no respect for you. We have no respect for the law which we helped to make." I should be a great hypocrite and a coward if I did not add that which my daily experience teaches me is true, that the negro has among many of the Southern whites as good friends as he has anywhere in the world. These friends have not forsaken us. They will not do so; neither will our friends in the North. If we make ourselves intelligent, industrious, economical, and virtuous, of value to the community in which we live, we can and will work out our own salvation right here in the South. In every community, by means of organized effort, we should seek in a manly and honorable way, the confidence, the coöperation, the sympathy of the best white people in the South and in our respective communities. With the best white people and the best black people standing together, in favor of law and order and justice, I believe that the safety and happiness of both races will be made secure. THE FUTURE OF THE SOUTH HENRY W. GRADY An extract taken from a speech delivered at Dallas, Texas, October 26, 1887. The world is a battlefield, strewn with the wrecks of government and institutions, of theories and of faiths that have gone down in the ravage of years. On this field lies the South, sown with her problems. Upon the field swing the lanterns of God. Amid the carnage walks the Great Physician. Over the South He bends. "If ye but live until to-morrow's sunset ye shall endure, my countrymen." Let us for her sake turn our faces to the East, and watch for the coming sun. Let us staunch her wounds and hold steadfast. The sun mounts the skies. As it descends to us, minister to her, and stand constant at her side for the sake of our children, and of generations unborn that shall suffer if she fails. And when the sun has gone down and the day of her probation is ended, and the stars have rallied her heart, the lanterns shall be swung over the field and the Great Physician shall lead her up, from trouble into content, from suffering into peace, from death to life. Let every man here pledge himself in this high and ardent hour, as I pledge myself, and the boy that shall follow me; every man himself and his son, hand to hand and heart to heart, that in death and earnest loyalty, in patient painstaking and care, he shall watch her interest, advance her fortune, defend her fame, and guard her honor as long as life shall last. Every man in the sound of my voice, under the deeper consecration he offers to the Union, will consecrate himself to the South. Have no ambition but to be first at her feet and last in her service. No hope but, after a long life of devotion, to sink to sleep in her bosom, as a little child sleeps at his mother's breast and rests untroubled in the light of her smile. With such consecrated service, what could we not |