I was forced,” he naively said, “to raise a regiment in order to retain my influence in the community!” And, with equal naïveté, he added, that if he had not thus retained his influence, he could now have been of no use in aiding to compose these difficulties!
This quote illustrates the pressures faced by individuals in the South during the Civil War regarding their political affiliations.
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It is my firm conviction, that suffrage is not only the best security for freedom, but the most potent agent of amelioration and civilization.
Let me repeat, that I think it best for all men—white men, black men, and brown men, if you make that distinction, that all men of proper age and unconvicted of crime, should have the right of suffrage.
They should persist in this claim respectfully, but firmly, taking care to bring no discredit upon it by their own action.
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.