Whitelaw Reid: “Isn’t it more statesmanlike, then, to avoid adding to our popular discontent?”

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.

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.

It is my firm conviction, that suffrage is not only the best security for freedom, but the most potent agent of amelioration and civilization.

Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.