They know they are freemen; they know they are cruelly and unjustly defrauded; and they _question the right_ of their equals to oppose and defraud them.

A large number of these people have enjoyed the advantage of common school education, and not a few of academic and collegiate education, and a large number have "put money in their purse." The entire race has so changed that they are almost a different people from what they were when the exigencies of war made their manumission imperative.

Yet there has been but little change in the attitude of the white men towards this people.

They still strenuously deny their right to participate in the administration of justice or to share equally in the blessings of that justice.
There must be a change of policy.

The progress of the black man demands it; the interest of the white man compels it.