Whitelaw Reid: “The duty which the hand of Providence, rather than any purpose of man, has laid upon us, is within our constitutional…”

They have covered many phases of the subject, but have preserved a singular uniformity of purpose and consistency of ideas throughout.

Public sentiment was against the sale of lands to the Yankees; “Get white laborers,” they urged, “and in a year you’ll make enough to be able to hold on to your lands.

They appeared at times when public men often seemed to be groping in the dark on an unknown road, but it is now evident that the road which has been taken is substantially the road they marked out.

But why should a sensible man deal with such folly?