Frederick Douglass: “It is no longer local but national; no longer confined to the South but has invaded the North.”

We are no longer four millions of slaves, but six millions of freemen.

Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.

None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.

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.