Whence came the daring spirit necessary to grapple with a man who, eight-and-forty hours before, could, with his slightest word have made me tremble like a leaf in a storm, I do not know; at any rate, I was resolved to fight, and, what was better still, I was actually hard at it.
Douglass reflects on the sudden emergence of courage that enabled him to physically resist his enslaver, a man he previously feared.
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It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.
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.
Lincoln was not only a great President, but a GREAT MAN--too great to be small in anything.
True it is that this faith was many times shaken by passing events, but never destroyed.