On the record
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.
Said by
Whitelaw Reid
Source
gutenberg.orgWhitelaw Reid: “Common sense tells us that suffrage can not be denied long to large masses of people, who ask it and are not…”
Editor's note · Context
Reid argues that denying suffrage to large groups of people is unsustainable.
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More from Whitelaw Reid
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.
May it not prove, moreover, in that work of reorganization, which now engages the thoughts of all patriotic men, that universal suffrage is the best reconciler of the most comprehensive lenity with the most perfect public security and the…
Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.