Whitelaw Reid: “By your showing, then, the rebel element was resistless before the passage of the secession ordinance, and universal…”

Never was there a problem more serious or difficult than that which is now before the Nation, as to this race, whose destiny has been confided to the wisdom and honor of our Government.

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

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.