Whitelaw Reid: “But for the duty of this hour, consider if there is not a common meeting-ground and instant necessity for union in a…”

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.

They should persist in this claim respectfully, but firmly, taking care to bring no discredit upon it by their own action.

In this way they will surely overcome unjust hostility, and convince even the most prejudiced that the denial to them of any right which citizens may properly exercise is equally unwise and wrong.

Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.