There is another element of power added to the anti-slavery movement, of great importance; it is the conviction, becoming every day more general and universal, that slavery must be abolished at the south, or it will demoralize and destroy liberty at the north.
Douglass identifies the growing realization that slavery's existence in the South threatened to undermine liberty throughout the entire nation.
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He was called upon not merely to administer the government, but to decide, in the face of terrible odds, the fate of the Republic.
My grandmother was all the world to me, and the thought of being separated from her was a most unwelcome suggestion to my affections and hopes.
We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.
The anti-slavery platform had performed its work, and my voice was no longer needed.