Frederick Douglass: “It is national territory, and the one place where no American is an intruder or a carpet-bagger.”

Our very lack of preparation for the conflict disposed us to look for some other than the way of blood out of the difficulty.

Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.

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

To make a man a slave was to rob him of moral responsibility.