Frederick Douglass: “While it modifies and shapes all physical conditions, it is itself superior to all such conditions.”

He was called upon not merely to administer the government, but to decide, in the face of terrible odds, the fate of the Republic.

We (the people of the North) are a charitable people, and in the excess of this feeling we were disposed to put the very best construction upon the strange behavior of our southern brethren.

But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as it has been displayed in a noble cause.

A son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the republic.