A succession of earthquakes would be less destructive, than the insurrectionary fires which would be sure to burst forth in different parts of the south, from such interference.
In his autobiography, Douglass vividly describes the catastrophic insurrections that would erupt if slaveholders ceased granting periodic liberties.
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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.
He was called upon not merely to administer the government, but to decide, in the face of terrible odds, the fate of the Republic.
It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.