This more than all else told the thoughtful people of the North the kind of civilization to which they were linked, and how plainly it foreshadowed a conflict on a larger scale.
Douglass explains that the public reaction to the Sumner assault revealed to thoughtful Northerners the true nature of Southern civilization and the inevitability of a larger conflict.
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For the moment the northern lamb was transformed into a lion, and his roar was terrible.
The anti-slavery platform had performed its work, and my voice was no longer needed.
It was perhaps better for the country and for mankind that the good man could not know the end from the beginning.
The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.