Institutions like ours, in which all power is derived directly from the
people, must depend mainly upon their intelligence, patriotism, and
industry. I call the attention, therefore, of the newly enfranchised
race to the importance of their striving in every honorable manner to
make themselves worthy of their new privilege. To the race more favored
heretofore by our laws I would say, Withhold no legal privilege of
advancement to the new citizen. The framers of our Constitution firmly
believed that a republican government could not endure without
intelligence and education generally diffused among the people. The
Father of his Country, in his Farewell Address, uses this language:
Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the
general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a
government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public
opinion should be enlightened.
In his first annual message to Congress the same views are forcibly
presented, and are again urged in his eighth message.
I repeat that the adoption of the fifteenth amendment to the
Constitution completes the greatest civil change and constitutes the
most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life.
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