Surely it is not your purpose now to reverse and undo any part of the grand and noble work that has been so successfully and so well done along these lines.
"And yet that is just what you will have done if you adopt the proposition presented by the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania.
While I do not assert and cannot believe that such was or is the purpose and desire of the author of that proposition, yet no one that will give the matter careful consideration can fail to see that the effect of it will be to undo, in part at least, what the Republican party has accomplished since its organization.

As a colored Republican, speaking in behalf of that class of our fellow citizens who honor and revere the Republican party for what it has accomplished in the past, I feel that I have a right to appeal to you not to cloud the magnificent record which this grand organization has made.

So far as the colored man is concerned, you found him a slave; you have made him a free man.

You found him a serf; you have made him a sovereign.

You found him a dependent menial; you have made him a soldier.