The men who make haste to adjure all the principles they fought for, and to acknowledge their dead brothers and sons to have been traitors, they are the ones whose new-born “loyalty” is sown upon the sand.
Reid critiques those who quickly abandon their principles after defeat, suggesting their loyalty is insincere.
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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.
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…
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.