On the record
I would rather give up my crop to the negroes than the lives of my wife and children.
Said by
Whitelaw Reid
Source
gutenberg.orgWhitelaw Reid: “I would rather give up my crop to the negroes than the lives of my wife and children.”
Editor's note · Context
Reid conveys a white landowner's prioritization of family safety over agricultural interests in a tense post-war environment.
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More from Whitelaw Reid
They should persist in this claim respectfully, but firmly, taking care to bring no discredit upon it by their own action.
It is my firm conviction, that suffrage is not only the best security for freedom, but the most potent agent of amelioration and civilization.
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.
Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.