Quote 1: “Such a declaration of agreement on my part, would not be worth much to anybody. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. To say now that America was right, and England wrong”

Paraphrase: The declaration of agreement isn’t worth anything to Douglass and the black community. It doesn’t prove anything to them but American slavery. Americans were right, and England did wrong. 

Response: I believe Douglass understood his audience. His speech was addressed to “Mr.president, Friends, and fellow citizens.” He mostly called out the white people and England for the racism they were condoning and the wrong the English did to America. Douglass speaks on how American slavery is what come to mind to slaves on the Fourth of July and not freedom.

Quote 2: “Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and American religion. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. You know what is a swine-drover? I will show you a man-drover. They inhabit all our Southern States. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock.”

Paraphrase: The operation of slaves and slave trades are being held by American politics and religion. Men and women are being traded as if they are worth nothing and animals. They took over the south. 

Response: Douglass is speaking on how it is to be sold as a slave. He is comparing the trading of slaves they do as if they were selling pigs or trading pigs.