Frederick Douglass: “I am about to answer the inquiry, what is American slavery?”

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.

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

It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.