They were more disposed to get angry; and the “no, noes” were sufficiently emphatic to satisfy the most devoted adherents of the old system, who used to be constantly declaring that “the slaves were the happiest people on the face of the earth.
Reid describes the strong emotional reactions of a group of formerly enslaved individuals to the idea of their past lives.
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No matter what we wish, the old continental isolation is gone forever.
But why should a sensible man deal with such folly?
Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.
That would be “jumping from the frying-pan into the fire,” indeed.