Charles W. Chesnutt to Hugh M. Browne, 21 November 1907
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CHAS. W. CHESNUTT,
1105 WILLIAMSON BUILDING
CLEVELAND, O.
Cleveland, Ohio. November 21, 1907.
Dear Professor Browne:-
Replying to your letter received this morning, I am not able at this moment to lay my hand on the copy of Mr. Carnegie's address -- I am at my office and have probably left it at home.1 As I read it, it seemed a very fine, friendly, hopeful and encouraging utterance, well worthy of being laid before the whole world. As to editing it for publication, or leaving out any of it, I can think of nothing now. On one point, however, I do not at all agree with Mr. Carnegie or with Dr. Washington, whom he quotes, in holding it "the wiser course" to practically throw up the ballot, or the demand for it. I do not think the liberties of any class of citizens are secure without the ballot -- the liberties of colored men least of all. Nothing in history goes to show that the rights of any class are safe in the hands of another. I believe that the rape of the ballot from the Negroes of the South is wicked, and indefensible. It has been followed by the steady denial of other rights, which, it will take a long time to regain. I never yet heard of a white man, with red blood in his veins, who voluntarily relinquished the ballot, and there have been millions who counted no price too great, not even death itself, to pay for the right of self-government. Iam unable to see how any self-respecting man can, willingly
CHAS. W. CHESNUTT,
1105 WILLIAMSON BUILDING
CLEVELAND, O.
and without protest, submit to the deprivation of so elementary and fundamental a right; and the Southern laws which limit the suffrage, however plausible in theory, operate as an absolute denial of representation to one-third of the population of the South, and establish a class rule which is repugnant to our Constitution and ideals of government.
I shall read the address over again, tonight and if I have any suggestions to make will write you in the morning. I think the race is fortunate in finding, in Mr. Carnegie, so able and influential a friend.
Cordially yours,, Chas. W. Chesnutt. Prof. Hugh M. Browne, Cheyney, Pa.Correspondent: Hugh M. Browne (1851–1923) was a Black civil rights activist, teacher, and inventor. Educated at Howard University, Princeton University, and in Europe, he taught in Liberia in the 1880s and at Black colleges in the United States from the 1890s until his retirement in 1913. He was an ally of Booker T. Washington but advocated for both academic and industrial education. He was secretary of the Committee of Twelve and corresponded with Chesnutt about Committee matters.
1. On October 16, 1907, Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) delivered a speech at the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh. On November 13, Browne had sent a copy of the speech to Chesnutt for his comments regarding a proposal that the committee publish it. It appeared as The Negro in America: An Address Delivered Before the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh, 16th October 1907 (Cheney, PA: Committee of Twelve for the Advancement of the Interest of the Negro Race, 1907). See Jesse Crisler, Robert Leitz and Joseph McElrath, An Exemplary Citizen: Letters of Charles W. Chesnutt (Stanford: Stanford UP, 2002), 35–36 n4. [back]
