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#OnThisDay in 1863, Frederick Douglass spoke at The Cooper Institute in New York City. He addressed the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln about 5 weeks before: "I congratulate you, upon what may be called the greatest event of our nation’s history... 1/7 
(issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation), if not the greatest event of the century… In the hurry and excitement of the moment, it is difficult to grasp the full and complete significance of President Lincoln’s proclamation. 2/7
The change in attitude of the Government is vast and startling. For more than sixty years the Federal Government has been little better than a stupendous engine of Slavery and oppression, through which Slavery has ruled us, as with a rod of iron. 3/7
The boast that Cotton is King was no empty boast. Assuming that our Government and people will sustain the President and the Proclamation, we can scarcely conceive of a more complete revolution in the position of a nation… 4/7
I hail it as the doom of Slavery in all the States. I hail it as the end of all that miserable statesmanship, which has for 60 years juggled and deceived the people, by professing to reconcile what is irreconcilable. We are all liberated by this proclamation. 5/7
Everybody is liberated. The white man is liberated, the black man is liberated, the brave men now fighting the battles of their country against rebels and traitors are now liberated... 6/7
and may strike with all their might, even if they do hurt the Rebels, at their most sensitive point.I congratulate you upon this amazing change—the amazing approximation toward the sacred truth of human liberty." 7/7
