Negroes need to be taught—just as slaves of any race or color would need to be taught—that liberty means, not idleness, but merely work for themselves instead of work for others; and that, in any event, it means always work.
Reid emphasizes the importance of teaching newly freed individuals that liberty entails responsibility and work for oneself.
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We must, then, be prepared with a policy for maintaining it ourselves.
They appeared at times when public men often seemed to be groping in the dark on an unknown road, but it is now evident that the road which has been taken is substantially the road they marked out.
Congress is supreme, and, for all the purposes of this department, has all the powers of the people of the United States, except such as have been expressly or by implication reserved in the prohibitions of the Constitution.
The people have generally more education and refinement than in other parts of the State; their public improvements are better, and their country is every way more attractive.