ose
rights that belong to his fellows. I therefore advocate no
sectional rights, no class rights, no sex rights, but the most
universal form of right for all that live and breathe on the
continent. I do not put back the black man's emancipation; nor do
I put back for a single day or for an hour his admission. I ask
not that he should wait. I demand that this work shall be done,
not upon the ground that it is politically expedient now to
enfranchise black men; but I propose that you take expediency out
of the way, and that you put a principle that is more enduring
than expediency in the place of it--manhood and womanhood
suffrage for all. That is the question. You may just as well meet
it now as at any other time. You never will have so favorable an
occasion, so sympathetic a heart, never a public reason so
willing to be convinced as to-day. If anything is to be done for
the black man, or the black woman, or for the disfranchised
classes among the whites, let it be done, in the name of God,
while his Providence says, "Come; come all, and come welcome."

But I take wisdom from some with whom I have not always trained.
If you would get ten steps, has been the practical philosophy of
some who are not here to-day, demand twenty, and then you will
get ten. Now, even if I were to confine--as I by no means do--my
expectation to gaining the vote for the black man, I think we
should be much more likely to gain that by demanding the vote for
everybody. I remember that when I was a boy Dr. Spurzheim came to
this country to advocate phrenology, but everybody held up both
hands--"Phrenology! You must be running mad to have the idea that
phrenology can be true!" It was not long after that, mesmerism
came along; and then the people said, "Mesmerism! We can go
phrenology; there is some sense in that; but as for mesmerism--!"
Very soon spiritualism made its appearance, and then the same
people began to say, "Spiritualism! Why it is nothing but
mesmerism; we can believe in that; but as for spiritualism--!"
(Laughter.) The way to get a man to take a position is to take
one in advance of it, and then he will drop into the one you want
him to take. So that if, being crafty, I desire to catch men with
guile, and desire them to adopt suffrage for colored men, as good