Senators Hale, Chase, and Sumner are robbed of a part of their senatorial dignity and consequence as representing sovereign states, because they have refused to be inoculated with the slavery virus.
Douglass highlights the consequences of slavery on the dignity of senators who oppose it, emphasizing political integrity.
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But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as it has been displayed in a noble cause.
Land is not worth much where there are no people to occupy it, and a mule is not worth much where there is no one to drive him.
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.