He may try to avoid giving offence to any, and thus succeed in pleasing none; a policy which no man or party can pursue without inviting and earning the scorn and contempt of all honest men and of all honest parties.
He argues that a policy aimed at pleasing everyone ultimately leads to the disdain of all honest individuals and parties.
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More from Frederick Douglass
To-day the negro, starting from nothing, pays taxes upon six millions in Georgia, and forty millions in Louisiana.
In any fair condition of things the men who till the soil will become proprietors of the soil.
None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.
The nation or people which shall comply with them will rise, and those which violate them will fall, and perhaps will disappear altogether.