The sable owner of muscle, his woolly head greatly perplexed with this unwonted kindness, held aloof, and seemed, as he respectfully listened to the glowing inducements, to be wondering whether the fly would make anything by his visit to the nicely-arranged parlors of the Mississippi spiders.
Reid uses a metaphor to describe the confusion of freedmen in response to the unexpected kindness of planters.
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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.
It has proved, also, that universal suffrage is the surest guarantee and most powerful stimulus of individual, social and political progress.
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.
Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.