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He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. Frederick Douglass July Fourth Speech Full Text: Read To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! A worship that can be conducted by persons who refuse to give shelter to the houseless, to give bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and who enjoin obedience to a law forbidding these acts of mercy, is a curse, not a blessing to mankind. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appeared men, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Yet they persevered. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. Frederick Douglass: (09:38) Follow the drove to New Orleans. R. R. Raymond) on the platform, are shining examples; and let me say further, that upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slaves redemption from his chains. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. They were not the men to look back. How unlike the politicians of an hour! Frederick Douglass: (10:31) It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. Frederick Douglass Roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world. There is not time now to argue the constitutional question at length nor have I the ability to discuss it as it ought to be discussed. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. The subject has been handled with masterly power by Lysander Spooner, Esq., by William Goodell, by Samuel E. Sewall, Esq., and last, though not least, by Gerritt Smith, Esq. Oppression makes a wise man mad. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. will be found by Americans. Is it not astonishing that while we are plowing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metal of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold, that while we are reading, writing, and ciphering acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers that we are engaged in all the enterprises, common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planting, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above all confessing and worshiping the Christian God and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet; and their course, in respect to any great change, (no matter how great the good to be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be calculated with as much precision as can be the course of the stars. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. I leave, therefore, the great deeds of your fathers to other gentlemen whose claim to have been regularly descended will be less likely to be disputed than mine! We need the storm. Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. Fully appreciating the hardship to be encountered, firmly believing in the right of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking world, reverently appealing to heaven to attest their sincerity, soundly comprehending the solemn responsibility they were about to assume, wisely measuring the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep the corner-stone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you. The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. Your President, your Secretary of State, ourlords,nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce, as a duty you owe to your free and glorious country, and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. You were under the British Crown. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. You live and must die, and you must do your work. That point is conceded already. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. This Fourth [of] July isyours, notmine. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject of public discourse! It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read and write. Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. A RESTful API to access Revs workforce of fast, high quality transcriptionists and captioners. Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. You may rejoice, I must mourn.. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity. Web"The Lessons of the Hour" Speech by Frederick Douglass, January 9, 1894 Friends and Fellow Citizens : No man should come before an audience like the one by whose presence I am now honored, without a noble object and a fixed and earnest purpose. Travel through South America. Frederick Douglass's, What To the Slave Is the Fourth of Speech He further says, the Constitution, in its words, is plain and intelligible, and is meant for the home-bred, unsophisticated understandings of our fellow-citizens. I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, and, if the churches and ministers of our country were not stupidly blind, or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it. You declare, before the world, and are understood by the world to declare, that you hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and yet, you hold securely, in a bondage which, according to your own Thomas Jefferson, is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose, aseventh partof the inhabitants of your country. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christians God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men! Fellow-citizens! Oh, had I, the ability, and could I reach the nations ear, I would today pour out a fiery steam of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. 1883 Speech by Frederick Douglass - accessible-archives.com welcome atheism! There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. In the deep still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by the dead heavy footsteps, and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our door. President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Nobody doubts it. One of the parts of the speech that resonates with me the most is when Douglass says: What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? No, I will not. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. Not fewer than forty Americans have, within the past two years, been hunted down and, without a moments warning, hurried away in chains, and consigned to slavery and excruciating torture. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. His own testimony is nothing. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man Speech | The Art of Manliness Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shout We have Washington toour father. Alas! As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent What then remains to be argued? Web" was a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, at a meeting organized by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? It is fashionable to do so; but there was a time when to pronounce against England, and in favor of the cause of the colonies, tried mens souls. Its quite a remarkable speech as Douglass in a way reenacts his own journey in appreciation for the work that Lincoln did, not just for blacks, but for whites in this country. You hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russia and Austria, and pride yourselves on your Democratic institutions, while you yourselves consent to be the meretoolsand body-guardsof the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina. Juneteenth Reading List: 10 Books To Learn More About Black Independence Day, Your email will be shared with newsone.com and subject to its, The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro address before an audience, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, he was issuing , a scathing indictment of American hypocrisy, Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy, . The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations Jubilee when the chains of servitude have been torn from his limbs? I doubt if there be another nation on the globe, having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. His death, according to Douglass was not only tragic, but also prevented recently freed slaves and African Americans from gaining the ear of wise and well-intentioned leader. This home government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. Frederick Douglass: (00:26) And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. The Bible addresses all such persons as scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe ofmint, anise,andcumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.. For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. Frederick Douglass delivered 'best Fourth of July speech in At the time of the delivery of this speech, Douglass had been living in Rochester, New York for several years editing a weekly abolitionist newspaper. He was invited to give a fourth of July speech by the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester. In the early 1850s, tensions over slavery were high across the county. Easily integrate Rev using our robust APIs to start building your product quickly. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. These rules are well established. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. Sign up for NewsOne's email newsletter! There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. I will use the severest language I can command. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! And yet not one word shall escape me that any man whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice or who is not at heart, a slaveholder shall not confess to be right and just. All Rights Reserved. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. In speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our land. You know what is a swine-drover? Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. Yea! From the slave prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness of night; for since the antislavery agitation, a certain caution is observed. Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. Frederick Douglass's, What To the Slave Is the Fourth of Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? Is it at the gateway? We are met on the threshold of our efforts for the redemption of the slave, by the church and ministry of the country, in battle arrayed against us; and we are compelled to fight or flee. Frederick Douglass' Descendants Read His Famous There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and By that act, Mason and Dixons line has been obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and children as slaves remains no longer a mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United States. WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The propriety of the nation must be startled. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. Who can reason on such a proposition? I was born amid such sights and scenes. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror. Many of its most eloquent Divines. That, which is inhuman cannot be divine. Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? It was, Milloy continued, a critique of a nation that claimed to hold dear the principles of freedom, justice and equality even as it enslaved black people.. There is not a nation of the earth, guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour. O! Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. I answer: a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. His agents were sent into every town and county in Maryland, announcing their arrival, through the papers, and on flaming hand-bills, headed CASH FOR NEGROES. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. there is no matter in respect to which, the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon, as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 . Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. When a sufficient number have been collected here, a ship is chartered, for the purpose of conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile, or to New Orleans. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.