Quote#Freedom
No federal legislation prior to 1812 placed any restriction on the…
Quote byJames A. Garfield · 1831–1881
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Oration at Ravenna, Ohio (1865).
English (original)
No federal legislation prior to 1812 placed any restriction on the right of suffrage in consequence of the color of the citizen. From 1789 to 1812 Congress passed ten separate laws establishing new Territories. In all these, freedom, and not color, was the basis of suffrage.
— James A. Garfield
More from James A. Garfield
Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. Let everyone know that you have a reserve in yourself,— that you have more power than you are now using. If you are not too large for the place you occupy, you are too small for it.
The worst days of darkness through which I have ever passed have been greatly alleviated by throwing myself with all my energy into some work relating to others.
Let us not commit ourselves to the absurd and senseless dogma that the color of the skin shall be the basis of suffrage, the talisman of liberty.
I would rather be beaten in Right than succeed in Wrong.
Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim for himself.
I believe in God, and I trust myself in His hands.