Had he put the abolition of slavery before the salvation of the Union, he would have inevitably driven from him a powerful class of the American people and rendered resistance to rebellion impossible.
From his autobiography, Douglass reflects on Abraham Lincoln's strategic approach to the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
Land is not worth much where there are no people to occupy it, and a mule is not worth much where there is no one to drive him.
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.
Our very lack of preparation for the conflict disposed us to look for some other than the way of blood out of the difficulty.