We held the Philippines first by the same right by which we held our own original thirteen States,--the oldest and firmest of all rights, the right by which nearly every great nation holds the bulk of its territory,--the right of conquest.
Reid claims that the U.S. held the Philippines by the right of conquest, similar to its original states.
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And it is both natural and right that colored Americans, entitled to the rights of citizens, should claim their exercise.
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.
They should persist in this claim respectfully, but firmly, taking care to bring no discredit upon it by their own action.
It has proved, also, that universal suffrage is the surest guarantee and most powerful stimulus of individual, social and political progress.