But all the concomitants and outgrowths of slavery and State sovereignty, doctrines which lie at the foundation of secession, and beliefs which reject the possibility of free negro labor, or the prudence of conferring legal rights upon free negroes, remained in full strength.
Reid argues that the ideologies supporting slavery and state sovereignty remained strong even after the war.
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Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.
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.
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.
And it is both natural and right that colored Americans, entitled to the rights of citizens, should claim their exercise.