Whitelaw Reid: “They had honestly believed in the right of secession.”

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

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

Never was there a problem more serious or difficult than that which is now before the Nation, as to this race, whose destiny has been confided to the wisdom and honor of our Government.

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.