Frederick Douglass

We were no more ashamed of him when shrouded in clouds of darkness, of doubt, and defeat than when we saw him crowned with victory, honor, and glory.

The name of Abraham Lincoln was near and dear to our hearts in the darkest and most perilous hours of the Republic.

To protect, defend, and perpetuate slavery in the States where it existed Abraham Lincoln was not less ready than any other President to draw the sword of the nation.

He came into the Presidential chair upon one principle alone, namely, opposition to the extension of slavery.

In all his education and feeling he was an American of the Americans.

He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people of this country.

He was preëminently the white man’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men.

In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man.

It must be admitted, truth compels me to admit, even here in the presence of the monument we have erected to his memory, Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model.

Truth is proper and beautiful at all times and in all places, and it is never more proper and beautiful in any case than when speaking of a great public man whose example is likely to be commended for honor and imitation long after his…

It is the first time that, in this form and manner, we have sought to do honor to an American great man, however deserving and illustrious.

For the first time in the history of our people, and in the history of the whole American people, we join in this high worship, and march conspicuously in the line of this time-honored custom.