They said less against negro suffrage than before—frankly said it would be very obnoxious to the prejudices of nearly the whole population, but added, that if the Government insisted on it, they would co-operate with the negroes in reorganization.
This quote reveals the complex attitudes towards negro suffrage among Southern populations during Reconstruction.
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And it is both natural and right that colored Americans, entitled to the rights of citizens, should claim their exercise.
They should persist in this claim respectfully, but firmly, taking care to bring no discredit upon it by their own action.
May it not prove, moreover, in that work of reorganization, which now engages the thoughts of all patriotic men, that universal suffrage is the best reconciler of the most comprehensive lenity with the most perfect public security and the…
It has proved, also, that universal suffrage is the surest guarantee and most powerful stimulus of individual, social and political progress.