In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free,—honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve.

Freedom is not a fixed quantity divided between people. A society that holds anyone in bondage has already accepted that a person’s liberty is something others may decide, and that principle does not stay confined to the people it was first aimed at. Extending it outward protects everyone, including those who thought themselves safe. The act is honourable in both directions at once.

Where you have influence, use it to widen a right rather than to guard your own share of it. Rights kept narrow tend to shrink; rights extended tend to hold.