Whitelaw Reid: “We all unite in regarding them as setting sail, not only charged with the national interests, but dignified and ennobled…”

They should strive for distinction by economy, by industry, by sobriety, by patient perseverance in well-doing, by constant improvement of religious instruction, and by the constant practice of Christian virtues.

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

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