The Freeman's Journal took the place of The Spectator, March 19, 1887. It is recognized as the leading Republican newspaper in the state. Mr. Edwin Smith, a reputable citizen of Texas, writes about The Journal as follows: "Temperate in tone and conservative in politics, it has gained for the colored people of this state a consideration for their wants and a recognition of their rights, on the part of their white fellow-citizens, that were never before accorded." Trained by experience, he is enabled to make such a wise use of his abilities as to render his paper a recognized power for good among all classes.
His editorial writings, as possibly may be the case with a few other Afro-American editors, are commented on frequently by the leading white organs of the state. There appeared in The Journal, shortly after the beginning of the present administration, an editorial on—"The Administration and the Colored Man. Merit and Worth before Political Jugglery." This editorial created a stir all over the country, both white and black papers commenting and criticising the editor, favorably or unfavorably. A portion of the editorial we publish below, which was freely commented on, as the reader will see, by The San Antonio Express, San Antonio Light, and The Fort Worth Gazette, all white papers of Texas. Editor Nelson writes thus: "The negro must learn one great fundamental truth and act upon it, that his color or previous condition is not a recommendation to office; that when the great Republican party knocked the shackles from his limbs, raised him to citizenship and made him the equal of the white man under the Constitution, and threw around him the full protection of law, its functions ceased, because it could do no more; and it expected him to work out his own salvation the same as the white man, and to expect no special legislation or favors to his race that were not accorded the white race."
