On the record
If Northern men expected in this way to build up a Northern party in the South, they were gravely mistaken.
Said by
Whitelaw Reid
Source
gutenberg.orgWhitelaw Reid: “If Northern men expected in this way to build up a Northern party in the South, they were gravely mistaken.”
Editor's note · Context
Reid warns that Northern expectations of creating a political party in the South through suffrage are misguided.
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In this way they will surely overcome unjust hostility, and convince even the most prejudiced that the denial to them of any right which citizens may properly exercise is equally unwise and wrong.
It has proved, also, that universal suffrage is the surest guarantee and most powerful stimulus of individual, social and political progress.
It is my firm conviction, that suffrage is not only the best security for freedom, but the most potent agent of amelioration and civilization.
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.