On the record
Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed.
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgFrederick Douglass: “Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely…”
Editor's note · Context
Douglass advises abolitionists to focus on persuasion rather than condemnation to gain public support for their cause.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
Jan 1, 1881
They cannot be coaxed or driven to vote with their enemies against their friends.
Jan 1, 1881
The vote of the colored man, formerly beaten down and stamped out by intimidation, is now revived, sought, and defended by powerful allies, and this from no transient sentiment of the moment, but from the permanent laws controlling the…
Jan 1, 1881
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.
Jan 1, 1881
To-day the negro, starting from nothing, pays taxes upon six millions in Georgia, and forty millions in Louisiana.