Since that congressional action we have been minding what it made our own business quite diligently, and an essential part of our business now is the responsibility for our own past acts, whether in Havana or Manila.
Reid emphasizes the responsibility the U.S. has for its actions in both Havana and Manila after declaring war.
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And it is both natural and right that colored Americans, entitled to the rights of citizens, should claim their exercise.
They should persist in this claim respectfully, but firmly, taking care to bring no discredit upon it by their own action.
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.
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…