Part 23 (1/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: _THE GRAVE OF NICK BIDDLE._]

Deeds are indestructible; ideas are imperishable, and mind is immortal.

”Children,” says George Eliot, ”may be strangled, deeds never; they have an indestructible life, both in mind and outside of our consciousness.”

It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that many of the ancients of the distant past should have predicated eternal life upon deeds and ideas.

Deeds which are formidable, and ideas which grow and expand, and gather strength, until they become the very life of the social, moral and religious structure of the nation. To my mind there can be no truer measurement of a man, or a race, or a nation, than the standard of ideas which formulate themselves into deeds. ”Deeds and ideas,” which, according to Disraeli, ”render a man independent of his const.i.tuencies, independent of dissolution, independent even of the course of time.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: _THEODORE ROOSEVELT._]

Measure from this standard Theodore Roosevelt, the President of the United States of America, is the most unique figure before the American people to-day. No President since the days of Lincoln, the emanc.i.p.ator, merits in a larger degree the unselfish praise and devotion, not only of his countrymen, but of the whole civilized world. In the strictest sense of the term, he is a man of destiny. Born, like all true leaders and reformers, at a particular time, for a particular purpose; endowed by nature with a const.i.tution which defies the encroachment of disease; with an intellect which craves the most rigid discipline; with a courage which knows no daring, and a conscience which repels the slightest innovation which might result to the detriment of his fellow-man, regardless of race, color or creed. It was for Abraham Lincoln to issue the proclamation of freedom, and thus save the nation from disintegration; it is for Theodore Roosevelt to preserve that proclamation, and preserve the amendments to the Const.i.tution, which is the very life of the freedom guaranteed to the emanc.i.p.ated. From the time of President Grant down to the present time, there has been a persistent attempt on the part of the South to paralyze the spirit and practice of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Const.i.tution, without which freed men would have no legal standing in the nation.

The amendments received a dangerous wound during the administration of President Hayes. From the effects of this wound it hardly ever recovered. When, by a strange Providence, Theodore Roosevelt was called suddenly to occupy the place of the martyred President McKinley, a most lovable and peaceful man, black men and their friends, all over the country, rejoiced in the hope of a better day, when right and justice would succeed policy and conciliation. In this we were not mistaken. Not that Theodore Roosevelt loves the black man any more than any of his predecessors, but that Theodore Roosevelt has convictions and the courage of his convictions, regardless of consequences. The appended correspondence, which explains itself, will render him immortal, and will keep his memory fresh in the recollection of his fellow-men, and when future historians chronicle his acts, they shall speak of him as ”Theodore, the Great and the Good.”

COLOR IS NO BAR TO OFFICE.

_President Roosevelt Defines His Att.i.tude-In a Letter to a South Carolinian, Who Includes in a Number of Objections to the Appointment of Dr. Crum as Collector of the Port of Charleston the Statement That He is a Negro, the President Declares That He Will Continue to Appoint Colored Men of Intelligence and Standing-Incentive to Good Citizens.h.i.+p._

Was.h.i.+ngton, November 27.-The President has sent the following communication to a prominent citizen of Charleston, S. C.:

”Personal.

”WHITE HOUSE,

”Was.h.i.+ngton, November 26th, 1902.