The ease with which a mob can be collected, the slight causes by which it can be set in motion, and the element of which it is composed, deprives its testimony of the qualities necessary to sound judgment and that which should inspire confidence and command belief.
He highlights the unreliable nature of mob testimony due to its impulsive and chaotic nature.
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More from Frederick Douglass
I wished it was possible I could remain small all my life, knowing that the sooner I grew large the shorter would be my time to remain with them.
His iron sentences, cold and harsh, sunk like heavy weights deep into my heart, and stirred up within me a rebellion not soon to be allayed.
He was called upon not merely to administer the government, but to decide, in the face of terrible odds, the fate of the Republic.
We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.