If there is one thing that should be urged upon colored voters
throughout the United States this fall it is independence. No
intelligent man should vote one way simply from habit. Only through
careful scrutiny of candidates and policies can a man put himself in
position to help rule one hundred million people. It is because of
the suspicion that colored men are not capable of doing this, or are
unwilling to do it, that so many American citizens acquiesce in the
nullification of democracy known as disfranchisement. Let every colored
man who can, vote; and whether he vote the Republican or Democratic
or Socialist ticket, let him vote it, not because his father did or
because he is afraid, but because after intelligent consideration he
thinks the success of that ticket best for his people and his country.