Quote#Politics & Power
The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of…
Quote byJames A. Garfield · 1831–1881
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Inaugural address (1881).
English (original)
The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. NO thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people.
— James A. Garfield
More from James A. Garfield
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.
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.
I would rather be beaten in Right than succeed in Wrong.
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.
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 believe in God, and I trust myself in His hands.