When men sow the wind it is rational to expect that they will reap the whirlwind.

Douglass is invoking the biblical proverb from Hosea 8:7 (“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind”) to argue that destructive consequences follow from destructive causes. In his usage, the saying typically functions as a warning: when a society tolerates or perpetuates injustice and violence, it should not be surprised when unrest, conflict, or catastrophe follows. The phrasing “it is rational to expect” underscores a moral logic that is also practical and political—cause and effect operate reliably in human affairs. The line thus frames upheaval not as irrational chaos but as the predictable harvest of earlier wrongdoing.