Whitelaw Reid: “Misconduct of any kind will not help you, but patience and perseverance in well-doing will help you mightily.”

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

It is my firm conviction, that suffrage is not only the best security for freedom, but the most potent agent of amelioration and civilization.

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…

Ordinarily the simple performance of duty is so blessed of God, that men who live in the doing of it, are the best off, in all respects, even in this world.