Frederick Douglass: “In addition to the justice of the measure, it was soon commended by events as a political necessity.”

The black man (unlike the Indian) loves civilization.

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

We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.

Guilty or not guilty, to be accused was to be sure of a flogging.