I had an audience ready made in the free States; one which the labors of thirty years had prepared for me, and before this audience the freedmen of the South needed an advocate as much as they needed a member of Congress.
Douglass explains his rationale for not pursuing a congressional seat, emphasizing his established role as an advocate for the freedmen.
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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.
Our very lack of preparation for the conflict disposed us to look for some other than the way of blood out of the difficulty.
It was perhaps better for the country and for mankind that the good man could not know the end from the beginning.