My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
page 22 of 451 (04%)
page 22 of 451 (04%)
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the Brazils," is a statement, in a few words, which contains the
result and the evidence of an argument which might cover pages, but could not carry stronger conviction, nor be stated in less pregnable form. In proof of this, I may say, that having been submitted to the attention of the Garrisonians in print, in March, it was repeated before them at their business meeting in May--the platform, _par excellence_, on which they invite free fight, _a l'outrance_, to all comers. It was given out in the clear, ringing tones, wherewith the hall of shields was wont to resound of old, yet neither Garrison, nor Phillips, nor May, nor Remond, nor Foster, nor Burleigh, with his subtle steel of "the ice brook's temper," ventured to break a lance upon it! The doctrine of the dissolution of the Union, as a means for the abolition of American slavery, was silenced upon the lips that gave it birth, and in the presence of an array of defenders who compose the keenest intellects in the land. _"The man who is right is a majority"_ is an aphorism struck out by Mr. Douglass in that great gathering of the friends of freedom, at Pittsburgh, in 1852, where he towered among the highest, because, with abilities inferior to none, and moved more deeply than any, there was neither policy nor party to trammel the outpourings of his soul. Thus we find, opposed to all disadvantages which a black man in the United States labors and struggles under, is this one vantage ground--when the chance comes, and the audience where he may have a say, he stands forth the freest, most deeply moved and most earnest of all men. It has been said of Mr. Douglass, that his descriptive and declamatory powers, admitted to be of the very highest order, |
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