“Now there were pleasant notices of the returning Confederate braves; rejoicings at the revival of the old appearance of things; hints about Yankee innovations which would soon be forced to disappear.”
Reid highlights the positive reception of returning Confederate soldiers and the nostalgia for pre-war conditions.
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And it is both natural and right that colored Americans, entitled to the rights of citizens, should claim their exercise.
It is my firm conviction, that suffrage is not only the best security for freedom, but the most potent agent of amelioration and civilization.
It has proved, also, that universal suffrage is the surest guarantee and most powerful stimulus of individual, social and political progress.
They should persist in this claim respectfully, but firmly, taking care to bring no discredit upon it by their own action.