Whitelaw Reid: “Seward bought the Russians and Alaskans, and we have governed them ever since, without their consent.”

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.

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.

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