Frederick Douglass: “I felt assured that, if I failed in this attempt, my case would be a hopeless one—it would seal my fate as a slave…”

The nation or people which shall comply with them will rise, and those which violate them will fall, and perhaps will disappear altogether.

A poverty-stricken class will be an ignorant and despised class, and no amount of sentiment can make it otherwise.

This part of our destiny is in our own hands.

Still another ground of hope I find in the fact that colored men are strong in their gratitude to benefactors, and firm in their political convictions.