Whitelaw Reid: “There was, I should judge, absolutely no public sentiment in favor of negro suffrage, and scarcely any in favor of negro…”

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.

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.

And it is both natural and right that colored Americans, entitled to the rights of citizens, should claim their exercise.