Political Quotes

William Lloyd Garrison: As Nero fiddled while Rome was burning, so the slaveholding spirit of this nation rejoices, as one barrier of liberty…

On the record
As Nero fiddled while Rome was burning, so the slaveholding spirit of this nation rejoices, as one barrier of liberty after another is destroyed, and fresh victims are multiplied for the cotton-field and the auction-block.
Said by
William Lloyd Garrison

Editor's note · Context

Garrison draws a parallel between the indifference of society to slavery and Nero's neglect of Rome's burning.

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For one church that excludes the human enslaver from its communion table, multitudes extend to him the right hand of religious fellowship.

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It is not a struggle for national salvation; for the nation, as such, seems doomed beyond recovery.

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