The proper treatment of the original occupants of this land - the
Indians one deserving of careful study. I will favor any course toward
them which tends to their civilization and ultimate citizenship.

The question of suffrage is one which is likely to agitate the public
so long as a portion of the citizens of the nation are excluded from
its privileges in any State. It seems to me very desirable that this
question should be settled now, and I entertain the hope and express
the desire that it may be by the ratification of the fifteenth article
of amendment to the Constitution.

In conclusion I ask patient forbearance one toward another throughout
the land, and a determined effort on the part of every citizen to do
his share toward cementing a happy union; and I ask the prayers of the
nation to Almighty God in behalf of this consummation.


***

Ulysses S. Grant
Second Inaugural Address
Tuesday, March 4, 1873

Fellow-Citizens:

UNDER Providence I have been called a second time to act as Executive
over this great nation. It has been my endeavor in the past to maintain
all the laws, and, so far as lay in my power, to act for the best
interests of the whole people. My best efforts will be given in the
same direction in the future, aided, I trust, by my four years'