They tell you this is the ‘white man’s war’; that you will be no ‘better off after than before the war’; that the getting of you into the army is to ‘sacrifice you on the first opportunity.’ Believe them not; cowards themselves, they do not wish to have their cowardice shamed by your brave example.
In an appeal for black men to join the Union army, Douglass directly confronts and dismisses the cynical arguments used to discourage their enlistment.
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More from Frederick Douglass
The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.
True it is that this faith was many times shaken by passing events, but never destroyed.
A son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the republic.
The laws which determine the destinies of individuals and nations are impartial and eternal.