It proved, as to its immediate effect, a great mistake, for my carefully studied and written address, full of learned quotations, fell dead at my feet, while a few remarks I made extemporaneously at collation, were enthusiastically received.
Reflecting on his experience giving a commencement address, Douglass contrasts the reception of his prepared speech with his extemporaneous remarks.
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More from Frederick Douglass
None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.
In any fair condition of things the men who till the soil will become proprietors of the soil.
No power beneath the sky can make an ignorant, wasteful, and idle people prosperous, or a licentious people happy.