Destroy these,” was the burden of all my utterances during this part of the struggle, “and you cripple and destroy the rebellion.” It is surprising how long and bitterly the government resisted and rejected this view of the situation.
Douglass recounts his persistent argument that destroying the economic contributions of enslaved people was key to defeating the rebellion, a view the government long resisted.
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The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.
It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.