Whitelaw Reid: “Their order and industry are the only guaranty for the speedy return of prosperity to the South.”

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

And it is both natural and right that colored Americans, entitled to the rights of citizens, should claim their exercise.

They should strive for distinction by economy, by industry, by sobriety, by patient perseverance in well-doing, by constant improvement of religious instruction, and by the constant practice of Christian virtues.

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