When the invitation came to me, there was not one word of intimation as to what I should say or as to what I should omit.

In this I felt that the Board of Directors had paid a tribute to me.

They knew that by one sentence I could have blasted, in a large degree, the success of the Exposition.

I was also painfully conscious of the fact that, while I must be true to my own race in my utterances, I had it in my power to make such an ill-timed address as would result in preventing any similar invitation being extended to a black man again for years to come.

I was equally determined to be true to the North, as well as to the best element of the white South, in what I had to say.
The papers, North and South, had taken up the discussion of my coming speech, and as the time for it drew near this discussion became more and more widespread.