Mr. President, I maintain that the past record of my race is a true index of the feelings which today animate them. They bear toward their former masters no revengeful thoughts, no hatreds, no animosities. They aim not to elevate themselves by sacrificing one single interest of their white fellow-citizens. They ask but the rights which are theirs by God's universal law, and which are the natural outgrowth, the logical sequence of the condition in which the legislative enactments of this nation have placed them. They appeal to you and to me to see that they receive that protection which alone will enable them to pursue their daily avocations with success and enjoy the liberties of citizenship on the same footing with, their white neighbors and friends. I do not desire simply to defend my own race from unjust and unmerited charges, but I also desire to place upon record an expression of my full and entire confidence in the integrity of purpose with which I believe the president, Congress, and the Republican party will meet these questions so prolific of weal or woe, not only to my own people, but to the whole South. They have been, so far as I can read the history of the times, influenced by no spirit of petty tyranny. The poet has well said that --Author: Hiram RevelsThe author of the text above is an example of reaching which reconstruction goal?

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