His predecessor in office had already decided the question in favor of national dismemberment, by denying to it the right of self-defence and self-preservation--a right which belongs to the meanest insect.
Reflecting on the start of the Civil War, Douglass criticizes President Buchanan's inaction by asserting the fundamental right of a nation to defend itself.
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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.
My grandmother was all the world to me, and the thought of being separated from her was a most unwelcome suggestion to my affections and hopes.
We (the people of the North) are a charitable people, and in the excess of this feeling we were disposed to put the very best construction upon the strange behavior of our southern brethren.
He was called upon not merely to administer the government, but to decide, in the face of terrible odds, the fate of the Republic.