Whitelaw Reid: “What’s the use of your right to do a thing, if you know you’ll get soundly whipped if you attempt it?”

He who has that right will usually respect himself more, be more respected, perform more, and more productive work, and do more to increase the wealth and welfare of the community, than he who has it not.

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

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

It has proved, also, that universal suffrage is the surest guarantee and most powerful stimulus of individual, social and political progress.