The shepherd protects the sheep from the depredations of the wolves, and the ballot protects poverty against property, a weak race or class against the hate and aggressions of stronger ones within the same country.
Grimké uses the metaphor of a shepherd to highlight the protective role of voting rights.
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All these requisites were wanting to the man whose sole possession seemed an indomitable will, a faith in himself, and in the righteousness of his cause, which nothing could shake, nor disappointment nor difficulty, however great, was able…
Whenever there is a contest between the oppressed and the oppressor, the weapons being equal between the parties, God knows that my heart must be with the oppressed, and always against the oppressor.
I have always supposed that its spirit was directly opposed to everything in the shape of fraud and oppression.
Under it we have the double moral standard and the double legal standard operating throughout that section with a vengeance.