The honest and comprehensive statesman, clearly discerning the needs of his country, and earnestly endeavoring to do his whole duty, though covered and blistered with reproaches, may safely leave his course to the silent judgment of time.
Douglass asserts that a true statesman, despite criticism, can trust that history will ultimately vindicate their actions.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.
Lincoln was not only a great President, but a GREAT MAN--too great to be small in anything.
The laws which determine the destinies of individuals and nations are impartial and eternal.
His iron sentences, cold and harsh, sunk like heavy weights deep into my heart, and stirred up within me a rebellion not soon to be allayed.