Whitelaw Reid: “I’m glad of his stand, because he’s on our side; but what a miserable demagogue he is and always was!”

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.

Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.

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.

It is my firm conviction, that suffrage is not only the best security for freedom, but the most potent agent of amelioration and civilization.