(POLITICS) ROBINSON REV R B An Address to the Colored Voters

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1909 ELECTION (POLITICS.) ROBINSON, REV. R. B. An Address to the Colored Voters of the Northern, Eastern and Western States. Greeting "The Republican Party is the Ship; All Else is the Sea." Single 4to leaf, folded to form 4 pages, printed on all four sides; tiny nick to the bottom, near the fore-edge. Washington, D.C. [circa, 1908]

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A scarce booklet issued by the National Christian Congress Association and the National Lincoln Colored Republicans. The front cover states "Frederick Douglass is Dead; but the Warning to Colored Voters still Lives." A long address to colored voters urging them to support the nominee of the Republican Party at the National Convention in November of 1908. As it turned out William Howard Taft and James Schoolcraft Sherman were the candidates. The author of this pamphlet says "The republican (sic) party was undoubtedly organized for the benefit of the Negro, and if we have any grievances, is it not better to stay with the party and fight for our rights within the party?. . .Can we forget the pit from which we were dug, merely because a few of our soldiers were dismissed from the Army? Can we afford to divorce ourselves from the republican party because of the Brownsville Affair?" The latter is an allusion to the "Brownsville Affray" wherein a group of 167 Negro troopers, many of whom had fought along side Teddy Roosevelt at San Juan Hill were dishonorably discharged from the Army. This incident so angered the black community that many went over to the Democratic Party. In the end, Taft the Republican Party nominee handily won.