They had again and again asked him, he said, what good it did them to make them free, unless they were to own the land on which they had been working, and which they had made productive and valuable.
Reid shares a poignant observation from a black laborer about the meaning of freedom without land ownership, emphasizing the struggle for true autonomy.
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Brushing aside, then, these bugbears, gentlemen, what are the obvious duties of the hour?
Congress is supreme, and, for all the purposes of this department, has all the powers of the people of the United States, except such as have been expressly or by implication reserved in the prohibitions of the Constitution.
With her, then, we should most sedulously cherish a cordial friendship, and nothing would tend more to knit our affections than to be fighting once more, side by side, in the same cause.
Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.