I return herewith Mr. Metcalf's letter. I appreciate his words of commendation, and am sorry he could not accept the article. I shall read Prof. Scarborough's article with interest, and revise my MSS. in view of it. I was thinking that the title of my article, "The Negro's Answer &c", might sound rather large in view of the fact that Scarborough is, I presume, speaking in the same character: but I can tell better when I have read his paper. If you succeed with the Century, I shall regard it as a very good change from the Forum—I presume the Century is read by ten people to the Forum's one.

The "Symposium" in this week's Independent is a revelation to me, and confirms me in a theory I have had for some time, i.e., that just about the time that the Negro got ready to assert himself and demand his rights, he would find nothing to do—the white people would have done it all. The most encouraging thing about it all is that these men are the teachers of the white youth of the South. The influence of one Haygood, or Baskervill, extending over a long period of time and acting upon receptive and plastic minds, will more than offset the fervid rhetoric of a score of Gradys and Eustises and Morgans —, and I more than suspect that it is your example and your influence have done more than any other one thing to stimulate the growth of the school of thought represented by the Independent's Symposium.