We demand that without giving negroes the right to vote, they shall yet be counted in the basis of representation, thus increasing our political power when we re-enter Congress beyond that which we enjoyed before we rebelled, and beyond that which white men in the North shall ever enjoy.
Blaine discusses the political strategy of counting African Americans for representation without granting them voting rights.
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He had placed himself in a position from which he could not with grace retreat, and to go forward in which was still further to blight his hopes of promotion in his party.
The wisdom of maintaining that institution was abundantly vindicated by the results of the war.
The Northern people shrank from the responsibility of transferring the government of States to the control of men who had already shown themselves capable of desperate deeds.
Their success as civil magistrates, as legislators, as executives was not less marked and meritorious than their illustrious service in war.
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