There were few boasts as to what the South would do, or how heartily that true Southern man, the President, would sustain them; there was more tendency to complain that they had been whipped for trying to go out, and that now the door was shut in their faces when they tried to come in.
Reid comments on the reduced bravado among Southerners regarding their political aspirations after the Civil War.
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And it is both natural and right that colored Americans, entitled to the rights of citizens, should claim their exercise.
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.
He who has that right will usually respect himself more, be more respected, perform more, and more productive work, and do more to increase the wealth and welfare of the community, than he who has it not.
Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.