Mr. Taft's Defiance

In his speech accepting the Republican nomination for president, Secretary William H. Taft “proves he will be a powerful and influential asset to the Afro-American Republican orators.”

The speech of Hon. William H. Taft, accepting the nomination of the Republican National Convention for the Presidency of the United States was all that could be desired so far as it relates to his attitude upon the Negro question and will prove to be a powerful and influential asset to the Afro-American Republican orators, who expect to do the spell-binding upon the stump this Fall. Here is his language: “The Republicans platform refers to those amendments that were passed by the Republican Party for the protection of the Negro. The Negro, in the forty years since he was freed from slavery, has made remarkable progress. He is becoming a more and more valuable member of the communities in which he lives. The Republican platform adopted at Chicago, explicitly demands justice for all men without regard to race or color, and just as explicitly declares for the enforcement and without reservation, in letter and spirit, of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution. It is needless to state that I stand with my part; squarely on that plank in the platform, and believe that equal justice to all men, and the fair and impartial enforcement of these amendments, is in keeping with the real American spirit of fair play.” This would seem to indicate that he no longer stands upon the platform which carried with it the injustice for Companies B, C, and D of the Twenty-fifth Infantry that were unceremoniously dismissed from service without trial and whose War Records are now marred upon the roster of the War Department by virtue of the hasty action of the distinguished President of the United States, seconded by the judicial Secretary of Ward. Mr. Taft says that he will demand justice for all men, regardless of race or color. If he will live up to the pledges of the Republican National Convention platform and the declarations in his letter of acceptance, then all will be well in this Republic of ours. We have read the cumbersome, but highly important declarations of this candidate and while we find that in many parts of it he drops to commonplace argument and endeavors to put up a defense of his chief, on the whole, the deliverances will have a favorable effect upon the country. He has served notice though to the nation that the Republican Party is on the defensive. If he succeeds in making a clean sweep and rolls up a tremendous majority in all sections, we shall have been greatly disappointed. It is evident that Mr. Roosevelt is of the opinion that Mr. Taft’s election by a large majority is a forgone conclusion, if we are to judge by the “gingerly” way in which the concessions are being made to those who opposed him. Republicans lose generally, not so much from party men voting for other candidates as they do from party men staying away from the polls. Those people who declare that the Negro vote is solid greatly deceive themselves and we say now that it will be the part of wisdom to muster into service every influential Negro leader, who has a wise tongue and will accept service. The black cohorts are showing spirit of revolt and colored men, who have known no other party than the one of freedom are now either sulking in their tents or openly declaring their intention and purpose to administer to the Republican leaders of the nation a telling rebuke at the polls. With the attitude of the Negro-haters, who now seem uppermost in Republican councils, who can blame them?

“Mr. Taft's Defiance,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed February 16, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/695.