Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Constitution

Monday, January 19th, 2009 11:41 pm by Neal
Frederick Douglass, c. 1879.

Frederick Douglass on the issue of the US Constitution and slavery.

“I hold that the Federal Government was never, in its essence, anything but an anti-slavery government. Abolish slavery tomorrow, and not a sentence or syllable of the Constitution need be altered. It was purposely so framed as to give no claim, no sanction to the claim, of property in a man. If in its origin slavery had any relation to the government, it was only as the scaffolding to the magnificent structure, to be removed as soon as the building was completed.”

— Frederick Douglass

(Hat tip: Peter Robinson)

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