Frederick Douglass

It was giving to a part the strength of the whole, and lifting what must be despised for its isolation into an organization and relationship which would compel consideration and respect.

The truth is, that neither one was entirely just to the other, because neither saw the other in his true character; and having once fallen asunder, the occasion never came when they could be brought together.

Lincoln was not only a great President, but a GREAT MAN--too great to be small in anything.

They were trained in the school of servility to believe that white men alone were entitled to be waited upon by colored men; and the lesson taught by my presence on the “Tennessee” was not to be learned upon the instant, without thought…

With a colored man on a sleeping car as its conductor, the last to have his bed made up at night, and the last to have his boots blacked in the morning, and the last to be served in any way, is the colored passenger.

This conduct is the homage which the black man pays to the white man’s prejudice whose wishes, like a well-trained servant, he is taught to anticipate and obey.

Into the measureless depths of every loyal soul it is now whispering lessons of all that is precious, priceless, holiest, and most enduring in human existence.

Dark and sad will be the hour to this nation when it forgets to pay grateful homage to its greatest benefactors.

Those unknown heroes whose whitened bones have been piously gathered here, and whose green graves we now strew with sweet and beautiful flowers, choice emblems alike of pure hearts and brave spirits, reached in their glorious career that…

No loftier tribute can be paid to the most illustrious of all the benefactors of mankind than we pay to these unrecognized soldiers, when we write above their graves this shining epitaph.

The anti-slavery platform had performed its work, and my voice was no longer needed.

Our relation to the American people makes us in some sense a peculiar class, and unless we speak separately, our voice is not heard.