In support of a cruel “policy” he has not hesitated to use his enormous patronage.

In the first place, Congress must be sustained in its conflict with the One Man Power; and, in the second place, ex-Rebels must not be hurried back to power.

A homestead must be secured to every freedman, if in no other way, through the pardoning power.

If to these is added education, there will be a new order of things, with liberty of the press, liberty of speech, and liberty of travel, so that Wendell Phillips may speak freely in Charleston or Mobile.

There is an old English play under the name of “The Four P’s.” Our present desires may be symbolized by four E’s,--standing for Emancipation, Enfranchisement, Equality, and Education.

Through this just jurisdiction the Rebel communities might have been fashioned anew, and shaped to loyalty and virtue.

You are aware that from the beginning I have insisted upon Impartial Suffrage as the only certain guaranty of security and reconciliation.

Every argument, every principle, every sentiment is in its favor.

But there is one reason which at this moment I place above all others: it is the necessity of the case.

You require the votes of colored persons in the Rebel States to sustain the Union itself.

Without their votes you cannot build securely for the future.

Their ballots will be needed in time to come much more than their muskets were needed in time past.

For the sake of the white Unionists, and for their protection,--for the sake of the Republic itself, whose peace is imperilled, I appeal for justice to the colored race.

Give the ballot to the colored citizen, and he will be not only assured in his own rights, but the timely defender of yours.

By a singular Providence your security is linked inseparably with the recognition of his rights.

But yielding now, you will commit the very error of President Buchanan, when at the beginning he declared that we could not “coerce” a State.

Nobody now doubts that a State in rebellion may be “coerced”; and to my mind it is equally clear that a State just emerging from rebellion may be “coerced” to the condition required by the public peace.

It was the Nation that decreed Emancipation, and the Nation must see to it, by every obligation of honor and justice, that Emancipation is secured.

It is not enough that Slavery is abolished in name.

The Baltimore platform, on which President Johnson was elected, requires the “utter and complete extirpation of Slavery from the soil of the Republic”; but this can be accomplished only by the eradication of every inequality and caste, so…

He followed this glorious act with minute provisions for rights of all kinds,--as, to hold property, to sue and testify in court, to vote, and to enjoy the advantages of education.

Be taught also by England, speaking by her most illustrious statesmen, who solemnly warn against trusting to any local authorities for justice to the colored race.

I begin with Burke, who saw all questions with the intuitions of the statesman, and expressed himself with the eloquence of the orator.

Trust not the masters of slaves in what concerns legislation for slavery.

However specious their laws may appear, depend upon it, they must be ineffectual in their application.