They, that can, may. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. Under Title 17 U.S.C. A Nation's Story: What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Let this damning fact be perpetually told. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! But it is answered in reply to all this, that precisely what I have now denounced is, in fact, guaranteed and sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States; that the right to hold and to hunt slaves is a part of that Constitution framed by the illustrious Fathers of this Republic. The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. 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. 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. Speech Transcript 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. that it should be so; yet so it is. The propriety of the nation must be startled. Frederick Douglass: (06:44) But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. The din of business, too, is hushed. Speech 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? To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and powerful; but, amid all their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming and revolutionary idea moved on, and the country with it. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. Standing here identified with the American bondsmen, making his wrongs mine. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. I have detained my audience entirely too long already. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. There is blasphemy in the thought. Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. 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. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. Many of you understand them better than I do. 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. Community Reading: Frederick Douglass's "What According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. And am I therefore called upon to bring our humble offering to the national alter and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? Resolved, That these united colonies are, and of right, ought to be free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, dissolved.. Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. They did so in the form of a resolution; and as we seldom hit upon resolutions, drawn up in our day whose transparency is at all equal to this, it may refresh your minds and help my story if I read it. As with rivers so with nations. As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appeared men, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. The ear-piercing fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a thousand church bells. What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. The Lords of Buffalo, the Springs of New York, the Lathrops of Auburn, the Coxes and Spencers of Brooklyn, the Gannets and Sharps of Boston, the Deweys of Washington, and other great religious lights of the land have, in utter denial of the authority ofHimby whom they professed to be called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teachthat we ought to obey mans law before the law of God. welcome anything! They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. When the dogs in your street, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea and the reptiles that crawl shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then I will argue with you that the slave is a man. Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. 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? Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. Frederick Douglass' Descendants Read His Famous 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. The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. This, however, did not answer the purpose. Your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless, your shouts of Liberty and equality, hallow mocked, your prayers and hymns your sermons and Thanksgivings with all your religious parade in solemnity are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, a thin veil to cover up crimes, which would disgrace a nation of savages. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. 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. You have already declared it. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. What then remains to be argued? The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most sacrilegious and shocking and would make me a reproach before God and the 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. 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. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? speech Frederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! 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!
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