Historical voices

It is my firm conviction, that suffrage is not only the best security for freedom, but the most potent agent of amelioration and civilization.

Let me repeat, that I think it best for all men—white men, black men, and brown men, if you make that distinction, that all men of proper age and unconvicted of crime, should have the right of suffrage.

What good will fretting and worrying and complaining do?

I counsel no surrender of principle—no abandonment of your just claims; but I counsel patience.

So, too, if the National Government, taking all things into consideration, shall come to a conclusion different from mine, and delay to enroll you as citizens and voters, your best policy, in my judgment, is patience.

Misconduct of any kind will not help you, but patience and perseverance in well-doing will help you mightily.

That you will have suffrage in the end, is just as sure as it is that you respect, yourselves and respect others, and do your best to prove your worthiness of it.

It would, in my judgment, be safe in your hands to-day; and the whole country would be better off if suffrage were now universal.

Believing in your future as I do, I feel sure you will have it sometime; perhaps very soon; perhaps a good while hence.

Common sense tells us that suffrage can not be denied long to large masses of people, who ask it and are not disqualified for its exercise.

I can only say this: I believe there is not a member of the Administration who would not be pleased to see suffrage universal; but I can not say, for I do not know, that the Administration is prepared to say that suffrage shall be…

As a friend, I earnestly advise you to lay your foundations well in morality, industry, education, and, above all, religion.

You wont spend your time in fretting because this or that white man has a better time than you have, or more advantages; nor will you, I hope, take short cuts to what looks like success, but nine times out of ten will turn out to be…

All we had to go upon—all the capital we had—was good wills to work, patient endurance, and fair opportunity for education, which every white in the country, thank God, could have then; and every black boy, thank God again, can have now.

Feel rather that, under God, your salvation must come of yourselves.

You need not feel much anxiety about what people say of you.

And while your enemies scatter these predictions, many who are not your enemies fear their fulfillment.

The answer to that question, men and women of color, is with you.

All men are now looking to see whether the prophecies of the enemies of that race will be fulfilled or falsified.

A great race, numbering four millions of souls, has been suddenly enfranchised.

But over all, and through all, the just cause will surely come out triumphant in the end; for a just God is on the throne, and He wills the triumph of justice.

Multitudes of martyrs have perished in this war; the noblest of them all fell but lately by an assassin’s hand; but our great cause has thus far triumphed.

It is a true saying, that, “he who walketh uprightly walketh surely.” The man or the nation that joins hands with justice and truth, and relies steadfastly on God’s providence, is sure to issue from every trial safely and triumphantly.

In my judgment, the safety of nations, as well as of individuals, stands in justice.