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Shawords

Quote#Nature

Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters "U.S.",…

Quote byFrederick Douglass · 1818–1895

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Should the Negro Enlist in the Union Army? (1863), "Negroes and the National War Effort", speech in Philadelphia (6 July 1863).

English (original)

Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters "U.S.", let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on earth or under the earth which can deny that he has earned the right of citizenship in the United States.

— Frederick Douglass

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