Whitelaw Reid: “No one, who saw or conversed with the leading Savannah negroes, would doubt their entire capacity to support themselves.”

And it is both natural and right that colored Americans, entitled to the rights of citizens, should claim their exercise.

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.

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.

They should persist in this claim respectfully, but firmly, taking care to bring no discredit upon it by their own action.