This is perhaps true in some degree in every community; but it is especially so of the National Capital, and this for the reason that there is ever a large class of people here dependent upon the influence and favor of powerful public men for their daily bread.
From his autobiography, Douglass explains why the National Capital is particularly prone to political manipulation and animosity.
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A son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the republic.
Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.