Of course, they’ll fail; we have no uneasiness on that score; but we are the friends of these people, and we are sorry to see them expose themselves to so much misery in making attempts that we know from the outset must be abortive.
Reid discusses the perceived futility of certain attempts by freed individuals to change their social status.
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It is my firm conviction, that suffrage is not only the best security for freedom, but the most potent agent of amelioration and civilization.
It has proved, also, that universal suffrage is the surest guarantee and most powerful stimulus of individual, social and political progress.
Ordinarily the simple performance of duty is so blessed of God, that men who live in the doing of it, are the best off, in all respects, even in this world.
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.