Whitelaw Reid: “It never protected me; it has robbed me and mine!” That man could be believed.”

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.

It has proved, also, that universal suffrage is the surest guarantee and most powerful stimulus of individual, social and political progress.

In this way they will surely overcome unjust hostility, and convince even the most prejudiced that the denial to them of any right which citizens may properly exercise is equally unwise and wrong.