Who is responsible for slavery? The Free Church of Scotland has made itself responsible for slavery, by regarding these men as the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. Think of this, Christian men and women of Scotland! This religious denomination, claiming the high and holy title of Free—to be the exponent of all that is good and holy in the moral and religious sentiments of Scotland, comes forward and holds up the slaveholder as being a Christian, and then when I have thrown off my fetters, found my way here, and attempted to speak on behalf of my brethren, do they say welcome, bondsman, come let us see your wrongs and we are prepared to redress them. No. Mr. Macnaughtan brands me as being a poor, miserable, fugitive slave—ignorant, fugitive slave. I would not say anything of the origin of that gentleman—I will not call attention to his rise, progress, and present position. I presume, however, I should not trace him to any extraordinary ancestors. I esteem him nothing less a man on that account. I esteem him as much as though he stood in close relationship to Prince Albert—but there is a degree of audacity, such as I did not expect to witness on the part of any Free Church clergyman, in the case of Mr. Macnaughtan calling me an ignorant, degraded, fugitive slave. Only let us look at it.
Frederick Douglass