An Argument on Universal Suffrage

May 12, 1865

This is a talk delivered by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. He comments on a “first-work” to be done for freed people now that slavery is abolished.  “If I were to be put into one single sentence a prescription for that people, it would be this:  Make them full American Citizens.  Take away whatever hinders it, and add whatever is needful to it. Make them citizens, and they are safe, and you are safe…”