On the record
What reason should the negroes have to resort to violence?
Said by
Whitelaw Reid
Source
gutenberg.orgWhitelaw Reid: “What reason should the negroes have to resort to violence?”
Editor's note · Context
Reid questions the rationale behind potential violence from freed African Americans in the post-Civil War South.
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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…
It has proved, also, that universal suffrage is the surest guarantee and most powerful stimulus of individual, social and political progress.
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.