Such filthy poverty, such foul ignorance, such idiotic imbecility, such bestial instincts, such groveling desires, such mean longings; you would question my veracity as a man if I were to paint the pictures I have seen!
Whitelaw Reid: “Such filthy poverty, such foul ignorance, such idiotic imbecility, such bestial instincts, such groveling desires, such…”
Editor's note · Context
Reid vividly describes the extreme poverty and ignorance he witnessed among certain families in the 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.
Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.