Whitelaw Reid: “The North, we were told, must have the Southern trade; and with that trade it was to be corrupted.”

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.

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.

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