Frederick Douglass: “There can be no doubt as to which of these methods of treating the Southern question is the most honest and safe one.”

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.

The black man (unlike the Indian) loves civilization.

Food to the indolent is poison, not sustenance.