Whitelaw Reid: “I consider myself a standing proof of the mercy of my government.”

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

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

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.

Never was there a problem more serious or difficult than that which is now before the Nation, as to this race, whose destiny has been confided to the wisdom and honor of our Government.