Late Convention of Colored Men (1865)

Late Convention of Colored Men (1865)
We warn you in time that our only safety is in keeping them under Governors of the military persuasion until you have amended the Federal Constitution that it will prohibit the States from making any distinction between citizens on account of race or color. In one word, the only salvation for us besides the military power of the government, is in the possession of the ballot. Give us this, and we will protect ourselves. No class of men relatively as numerous as we were ever oppressed when armed with the ballot. But, 'tis said we are ignorant. Admit it. Yet who denies we know a traitor from a loyal man, a gentleman from a rowdy, a friend from an enemy. . . .
We are "sheep in the midst of wolves," and nothing but the military arm of the government prevents us and all the truly loyal white men from being driven from the land of our birth. Do not, then, we beseech you, give to one of these "wayward sisters" the rights they abandoned and forfeited when they rebelled, until you have secured our rights by the aforementioned amendment to the constitution.
Let your action in our behalf be thus clear and emphatic, and our respected President, who, we feel confident, desires only to know your will, to act in harmony therewith, will give you his most earnest and cordial cooperation; and the Southern States, through your enlightened and just legislation, will speedily award us our rights. Thus not only will the arms of the rebellion be surrendered, but the ideas also. . . .
-The authors of this passage

A) wanted the military occupation of the South to end immediately.
B) believed that some whites in the South could be allies to freedmen.
C) realized that economic power was the key to freedom.
D) thought reconciliation with the Confederates was at hand.