Frederick Douglass: “I was strictly on the defensive, preventing him from injuring me, rather than trying to injure him.”

None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.

Still another ground of hope I find in the fact that colored men are strong in their gratitude to benefactors, and firm in their political convictions.

They cannot be coaxed or driven to vote with their enemies against their friends.

Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.