Whitelaw Reid: “Till then, let us as practical and sensible men recognize that what is past is settled.”

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

They should persist in this claim respectfully, but firmly, taking care to bring no discredit upon it by their own action.

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.