"My argument against the dissolution of the American Union is this. It would place the slave system more exclusively under the control of the slave-holding states, and withdraw it from the power in the northern states which is opposed to slavery. Slavery is essentially barbarous in its character. It, above all things else, dreads the presence of an advanced civilization. It flourishes best where it meets no reproving frowns, and hears no condemning voices. While in the Union it will meet with both. Its hope of life, in the last resort, is to get out of the Union. I am, therefore, for drawing the bond of the Union more completely under the power of the free states. What they most dread, that I most desire."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Frederick Douglass, The Constitution of the United States: Is It Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery? (26 March 1860), Glasgow, United Kingdom.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
American Civil War
485 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by American Civil War →
Related Quotes
"The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states, …"
"The General Assembly shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves."
"I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interests of the South. So fully am I s…"
"There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen. Now he belongs to the ages."
"If you surrender, you shall be treated as prisoners of war, but if I have to storm your works, you may expect no quar…"
"The General Assembly shall, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and every tenth year thereafter, c…"
"The river was dyed with the blood of the slaughtered for two hundred yards. The approximate loss was upward of five h…"
"As ensigns of an unholy cause the Confederate flags are, and of right ought to be, odious to the eyes of loyalty."
"War means fighting, and fighting means killing."
"No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be p…"