Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Constitution
Monday, January 19th, 2009 11:41 pm by NealFrederick 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)