The more the question has been settled, the more it has needed settling. The first settlement stood fifteen years, the second ten, the third five, the fourth four — and the fifth has stood the brief space of two years. This last must be called the Taney settlement.
Original passage & context
"The fact is, the more the question has been settled, the more it has needed settling. The space between the different settlements has been strikingly on the decrease. [...] The first stood fifteen years — the second, ten years- — the third, five years — the fourth stood four years — and the fifth has stood the brief space of two years. [...] This last settlement must be called the Taney settlement."
From the pamphlet Douglass printed at his own press in Rochester later that year. He is counting the compromises — 1820, 1833, 1845, 1850, 1854, and now 1857 — and pointing out that each one holds for less time than the last. The stray hyphen after "ten years" is in the pamphlet's own printing.
Read it in the original — Two Speeches by Frederick Douglass (Rochester, 1857) ↗