"I found that while among them there was
a large element of substantial, worthy citizens, there was also a
superficiality about the life of a large class that greatly alarmed me.
I saw young coloured men who were not earning more than four dollars a
week spend two dollars or more for a buggy on Sunday to ride up and down
Pennsylvania Avenue in, in order that they might try to convince the
world that they were worth thousands. I saw other young men who received
seventy-five or one hundred dollars per month from the Government, who
were in debt at the end of every month. I saw men who but a few months
previous were members of Congress, then without employment and in
poverty. Among a large class there seemed to be a dependence upon the
Government for every conceivable thing. The members of this class had
little ambition to create a position for themselves, but wanted the
Federal officials to create one for them."
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