In my letters and speeches, I have generally aimed to discuss the question of Slavery in the light of fundamental principles, and upon facts, notorious and open to all; making, I trust, no more of the fact of my own former enslavement, than circumstances seemed absolutely to require.
Douglass explains his approach to discussing slavery, focusing on universal principles rather than just his personal story.
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It was perhaps better for the country and for mankind that the good man could not know the end from the beginning.
The anti-slavery platform had performed its work, and my voice was no longer needed.
This was a new and special revelation, dispelling a painful mystery against which my youthful understanding had struggled, and struggled in vain, to wit, the white man’s power to perpetuate the enslavement of the black man.
A son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the republic.