These developments have brought about a very remarkable improvement in the
condition of the negro race. Gradually, but surely, with the almost
universal sympathy of those among whom they live, the colored people are
working out their own destiny. I firmly believe that it is better for all
concerned that they should be cheerfully accorded their full constitutional
rights, that they should be protected from all of those impositions to
which, from their position, they naturally fall a prey, especially from the
crime of lynching and that they should receive every encouragement to
become full partakers in all the blessings of our common American
citizenship.