Whitelaw Reid: “Our Proclamation of Emancipation bore wider blessings than they knew who signed it.”

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.

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

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.

Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.