Whitelaw Reid: “Lily and me made nuff to buy ourselves in nine yeahs, and considerable beside.”

It has proved, also, that universal suffrage is the surest guarantee and most powerful stimulus of individual, social and political progress.

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…

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.

And it is both natural and right that colored Americans, entitled to the rights of citizens, should claim their exercise.