Frederick Douglass

That cause has a life, distinct and independent of the organizations patched up from time to time to carry it forward.

Present organizations may perish, but the cause will go on.

The quiet prayer meeting, and the stormy halls of national debate, share its presence alike.

You have seen it moving in all directions, and in all weathers, and in all places, appearing most where desired least, and pressing hardest where most resisted.

The nation has seen its face, and felt the controlling pressure of its hand.

The latter, it leads to the gates of all valuable knowledge—philanthropic, ethical, and religious; for it brings them to the study of man, wonderfully and fearfully made—the proper study of man through all time—the open book, in which are…

If to the enemies of liberty this subject is one of engrossing interest, vastly more so should it be such to freedom’s friends.

At this moment, I deem it safe to say, it is properly engrossing more minds in this country than any other subject now before the American people.

I take the anti-slavery movement to be such an one, and a movement as sublime and glorious in its character, as it is holy and beneficent in the ends it aims to accomplish.

The right of speech, precious and priceless, cannot, will not, be surrendered to slavery.

Now, sir, neither the principle nor the subordinate objects here declared, can be at all gained by the slave power, and for this reason: It involves the proposition to padlock the lips of the whites, in order to secure the fetters on the…

They desire to suppress discussion on this subject, with a view to the peace of the slaveholder and the security of slavery.