Frederick Douglass

It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.

I entered it with a moderate estimate of my own consequence, and yet there I was to talk with, and even to advise, the head man of a great nation.

If I have had kicks, I have also had kindness.

In all this I saw the tender heart of the man rather than the stern warrior and commander-in-chief of the American army and navy, and while I could not agree with him, I could but respect his humane spirit.

The sentiment that brings us here to-day is one of the noblest that can stir and thrill the human heart.

The government, I fear, was still clinging to the idea that positions of honor in the service should be occupied by white men, and that it would not do to inaugurate just then the policy of perfect equality.

A son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the republic.

All that had been done towards suppressing the rebellion and abolishing slavery would have proved of no avail, and the final settlement between the two sections of the Republic, touching slavery and the right of secession, would have been…

He was called upon not merely to administer the government, but to decide, in the face of terrible odds, the fate of the Republic.

Since William the Silent, who was the soul of the mighty war for religious liberty against Spain and the Spanish inquisition, no leader of men has been loved and trusted in such generous measure as Abraham Lincoln.

Human liberty excludes all idea of home and abroad.

So long as there was any hope whatsoever of the success of Rebellion, there was of course a corresponding fear that a new lease of life would be granted to slavery.