I Prefer To Be True

I Am Not Included Within The Pale Of This Glorious Anniversary! Your High Independence Only Reveals The Immeasurable Distance Between Us. The Blessings In Which You, This Day, Rejoice, Are Not Enjoyed In Common. The Rich Inheritance Of Justice, Liberty, Prosperity And Independence, Bequeathed By Your Fathers, Is Shared By You, Not By Me. The Sunlight That Brought Life And Healing To You, Has Brought Stripes And Death To Me. This Fourth July Is Yours, Not Mine.

Men Of Color, To Arms! The Case Is Before You. This Is Our Golden Opportunity. Let Us Accept It, And Forever Wipe Out The Dark Reproaches Unsparingly Hurled Against Us By Our Enemies. Let Us Win For Ourselves The Gratitude Of Our Country, And The Best Blessings Of Our Posterity Through All Time.

The Federal Government Was Never, In Its Essence, Anything But An Anti-slavery Government.

I Assert Most Unhesitatingly, That The Religion Of The South Is A Mere Covering For The Most Horrid Crimes—a Justifier Of The Most Appalling Barbarity…a Shelter Under…which The Darkest, Foulest, Grossest, And Most Infernal Deeds Of Slaveholders Find The Strongest Protection

My Great And Exceeding Joy Over These Stupendous Achievements, Especially Over The Abolition Of Slavery (which Had Been The Deepest Desire And The Great Labor Of My Life), Was Slightly Tinged With A Feeling Of Sadness.