Diary of Congressman Rutherford B. Hayes: May 15, 1866

The [Republican] policy is to leave to the States the question of suffrage. But in the District and the Territories it is for Congress to lay down the rule. Now, colored people are citizens of the United States. In some States they are allowed to vote, in some they are not. And in the places where all the States are interested, it is right to treat all citizens alike. When they [the people of the Territories] come to form State Governments, I leave it to the people to say, as in Colorado.

Besides, in the District [of Columbia] and in Territories they [the citizens] have no political power.

My decided preference: Suffrage for all in the South, colored and white, to depend on education; sooner or later in the North also say, all new voters to be able to write and read.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 25