Frederick
Douglass delivered the following speech on the subject: "The Equality of
all men before the law" at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts
Anti-Slavery Society in Boston, April, 1865. The speech was
given within days of the close of the Civil War and the assassination
of President Lincoln.
What the Black Man Wants
I came here, as I come always to the meetings in
New England, as a listener, and not as a speaker; and one of
the reasons why I have not been more frequently to the meetings
of this society, has been because of the disposition on the part
of some of my friends to call me out upon the platform, even
when they knew that there was some difference of opinion and
of feeling between those who rightfully belong to this platform
and myself; and for fear of being misconstrued, as desiring to
interrupt or disturb the proceedings of these meetings, I have
usually kept away, and have thus been deprived of that educating
influence, which I am always free to confess is of the highest
order, descending from this platform. I have felt, since I have
lived out West [Douglass means west of Boston, in Rochester,
NY], that in going there I parted from a great deal that was
valuable; and I feel, every time I come to these meetings, that
I have lost a great deal by making my home west of Boston, west
of Massachusetts; for, if anywhere in the country there is to
be found the highest sense of justice, or the truest demands
for my race, I look for it in the East, I look for it here. The
ablest discussions of the whole question of our rights occur
here, and to be deprived of the privilege of listening to those
discussions is a great deprivation.
I do not know, from what has been said,
that there is any difference of opinion as to the duty of abolitionists,
at the present moment.
How can we get up any difference at this point, or any point,
where we are so united, so agreed? I went especially, however,
with that word of Mr. Phillips, which is the criticism of Gen.
Banks and Gen. Banks’ policy. [Gen. Banks instituted a
labor policy in Louisiana that was discriminatory of blacks,
claiming that it was to help prepare them to better handle freedom.
Wendell Phillips countered by saying, "If there is anything
patent in the whole history of our thirty years’ struggle,
it is that the Negro no more needs to be prepared for liberty
than the white man."] I hold that that policy is our chief
danger at the present moment; that it practically enslaves the
Negro, and makes the Proclamation [the Emancipation Proclamation]
of 1863 a mockery and delusion. What is freedom? It is the right
to choose one’s own employment. Certainly it means that,
if it means anything; and when any individual or combination
of individuals undertakes to decide for any man when he shall
work, where he shall work, at what he shall work, and for what
he shall work, he or they practically reduce him to slavery.
[Applause.] He is a slave. That I understand Gen. Banks to do--to
determine for the so-called freedman, when, and where, and at
what, and for how much he shall work, when he shall be punished,
and by whom punished. It is absolute slavery. It defeats the
beneficent intention of the Government, if it has beneficent
intentions, in regards to the freedom of our people.
I have had but one idea for the last three
years to present to the American people, and the phraseology
in which I clothe
it is the old abolition phraseology. I am for the "immediate,
unconditional, and universal" enfranchisement of the black
man, in every State in the Union. [Loud applause.] Without this,
his liberty is a mockery; without this, you might as well almost
retain the old name of slavery for his condition; for in fact,
if he is not the slave of the individual master, he is the slave
of society, and holds his liberty as a privilege, not as a right.
He is at the mercy of the mob, and has no means of protecting
himself.
It may be objected, however, that this pressing
of the Negro’s
right to suffrage is premature. Let us have slavery abolished,
it may be said, let us have labor organized, and then, in the
natural course of events, the right of suffrage will be extended
to the Negro. I do not agree with this. The constitution of the
human mind is such, that if it once disregards the conviction
forced upon it by a revelation of truth, it requires the exercise
of a higher power to produce the same conviction afterwards.
The American people are now in tears. The Shenandoah has run
blood--the best blood of the North. All around Richmond, the
blood of New England and of the North has been shed--of your
sons, your brothers and your fathers. We all feel, in the existence
of this Rebellion, that judgments terrible, wide-spread, far-reaching,
overwhelming, are abroad in the land; and we feel, in view of
these judgments, just now, a disposition to learn righteousness.
This is the hour. Our streets are in mourning, tears are falling
at every fireside, and under the chastisement of this Rebellion
we have almost come up to the point of conceding this great,
this all-important right of suffrage. I fear that if we fail
to do it now, if abolitionists fail to press it now, we may not
see, for centuries to come, the same disposition that exists
at this moment. [Applause.] Hence, I say, now is the time to
press this right.
It may be asked, "Why do you want it? Some men have got
along very well without it. Women have not this right." Shall
we justify one wrong by another? This is the sufficient answer.
Shall we at this moment justify the deprivation of the Negro
of the right to vote, because some one else is deprived of that
privilege? I hold that women, as well as men, have the right
to vote [applause], and my heart and voice go with the movement
to extend suffrage to woman; but that question rests upon another
basis than which our right rests. We may be asked, I say, why
we want it. I will tell you why we want it. We want it because
it is our right, first of all. No class of men can, without insulting
their own nature, be content with any deprivation of their rights.
We want it again, as a means for educating our race. Men are
so constituted that they derive their conviction of their own
possibilities largely by the estimate formed of them by others.
If nothing is expected of a people, that people will find it
difficult to contradict that expectation. By depriving us of
suffrage, you affirm our incapacity to form an intelligent judgment
respecting public men and public measures; you declare before
the world that we are unfit to exercise the elective franchise,
and by this means lead us to undervalue ourselves, to put a low
estimate upon ourselves, and to feel that we have no possibilities
like other men. Again, I want the elective franchise, for one,
as a colored man, because ours is a peculiar government, based
upon a peculiar idea, and that idea is universal suffrage. If
I were in a monarchial government, or an autocratic or aristocratic
government, where the few bore rule and the many were subject,
there would be no special stigma resting upon me, because I did
not exercise the elective franchise. It would do me no great
violence. Mingling with the mass I should partake of the strength
of the mass; I should be supported by the mass, and I should
have the same incentives to endeavor with the mass of my fellow-men;
it would be no particular burden, no particular deprivation;
but here where universal suffrage is the rule, where that is
the fundamental idea of the Government, to rule us out is to
make us an exception, to brand us with the stigma of inferiority,
and to invite to our heads the missiles of those about us; therefore,
I want the franchise for the black man.
There are, however, other reasons, not derived
from any consideration merely of our rights, but arising out
of the conditions of the
South, and of the country--considerations which have already
been referred to by Mr. Phillips--considerations which must arrest
the attention of statesmen. I believe that when the tall heads
of this Rebellion shall have been swept down, as they will be
swept down, when the Davises and Toombses and Stephenses, and
others who are leading this Rebellion shall have been blotted
out, there will be this rank undergrowth of treason, to which
reference has been made, growing up there, and interfering with,
and thwarting the quiet operation of the Federal Government in
those states. You will see those traitors, handing down, from
sire to son, the same malignant spirit which they have manifested
and which they are now exhibiting, with malicious hearts, broad
blades, and bloody hands in the field, against our sons and brothers.
That spirit will still remain; and whoever sees the Federal Government
extended over those Southern States will see that Government
in a strange land, and not only in a strange land, but in an
enemy’s land. A post-master of the United States in the
South will find himself surrounded by a hostile spirit; a collector
in a Southern port will find himself surrounded by a hostile
spirit; a United States marshal or United States judge will be
surrounded there by a hostile element. That enmity will not die
out in a year, will not die out in an age. The Federal Government
will be looked upon in those States precisely as the Governments
of Austria and France are looked upon in Italy at the present
moment. They will endeavor to circumvent, they will endeavor
to destroy, the peaceful operation of this Government. Now, where
will you find the strength to counterbalance this spirit, if
you do not find it in the Negroes of the South? They are your
friends, and have always been your friends. They were your friends
even when the Government did not regard them as such. They comprehended
the genius of this war before you did. It is a significant fact,
it is a marvellous fact, it seems almost to imply a direct interposition
of Providence, that this war, which began in the interest of
slavery on both sides, bids fair to end in the interest of liberty
on both sides. [Applause.] It was begun, I say, in the interest
of slavery on both sides. The South was fighting to take slavery
out of the Union, and the North was fighting to keep it in the
Union; the South fighting to get it beyond the limits of the
United States Constitution, and the North fighting to retain
it within those limits; the South fighting for new guarantees,
and the North fighting for the old guarantees;--both despising
the Negro, both insulting the Negro. Yet, the Negro, apparently
endowed with wisdom from on high, saw more clearly the end from
the beginning than we did. When Seward said the status of no
man in the country would be changed by the war, the Negro did
not believe him. [Applause.] When our generals sent their underlings
in shoulder-straps to hunt the flying Negro back from our lines
into the jaws of slavery, from which he had escaped, the Negroes
thought that a mistake had been made, and that the intentions
of the Government had not been rightly understood by our officers
in shoulder-straps, and they continued to come into our lines,
threading their way through bogs and fens, over briers and thorns,
fording streams, swimming rivers, bringing us tidings as to the
safe path to march, and pointing out the dangers that threatened
us. They are our only friends in the South, and we should be
true to them in this their trial hour, and see to it that they
have the elective franchise.
I know that we are inferior to you in some things--virtually
inferior. We walk about you like dwarfs among giants. Our heads
are scarcely seen above the great sea of humanity. The Germans
are superior to us; the Irish are superior to us; the Yankees
are superior to us [Laughter]; they can do what we cannot, that
is, what we have not hitherto been allowed to do. But while I
make this admission, I utterly deny, that we are originally,
or naturally, or practically, or in any way, or in any important
sense, inferior to anybody on this globe. [Loud applause.] This
charge of inferiority is an old dodge. It has been made available
for oppression on many occasions. It is only about six centuries
since the blue-eyed and fair-haired Anglo-Saxons were considered
inferior by the haughty Normans, who once trampled upon them.
If you read the history of the Norman Conquest, you will find
that this proud Anglo-Saxon was once looked upon as of coarser
clay than his Norman master, and might be found in the highways
and byways of Old England laboring with a brass collar on his
neck, and the name of his master marked upon it. You were down
then! [Laughter and applause.] You are up now. I am glad you
are up, and I want you to be glad to help us up also. [Applause.]
The story of our inferiority is an old
dodge, as I have said; for wherever men oppress their fellows,
wherever they enslave
them, they will endeavor to find the needed apology for such
enslavement and oppression in the character of the people oppressed
and enslaved. When we wanted, a few years ago, a slice of Mexico,
it was hinted that the Mexicans were an inferior race, that the
old Castilian blood had become so weak that it would scarcely
run down hill, and that Mexico needed the long, strong and beneficent
arm of the Anglo-Saxon care extended over it. We said that it
was necessary to its salvation, and a part of the "manifest
destiny" of this Republic, to extend our arm over that dilapidated
government. So, too, when Russia wanted to take possession of
a part of the Ottoman Empire, the Turks were an "inferior
race." So, too, when England wants to set the heel of her
power more firmly in the quivering heart of old Ireland, the
Celts are an "inferior race." So, too, the Negro, when
he is to be robbed of any right which is justly his, is an "inferior
man." It is said that we are ignorant; I admit it. But if
we know enough to be hung, we know enough to vote. If the Negro
knows enough to pay taxes to support the government, he knows
enough to vote; taxation and representation should go together.
If he knows enough to shoulder a musket and fight for the flag,
fight for the government, he knows enough to vote. If he knows
as much when he is sober as an Irishman knows when drunk, he
knows enough to vote, on good American principles. [Laughter
and applause.]
But I was saying that you needed a counterpoise
in the persons of the slaves to the enmity that would exist
at the South after
the Rebellion is put down. I hold that the American people are
bound, not only in self-defence, to extend this right to the
freedmen of the South, but they are bound by their love of country,
and by all their regard for the future safety of those Southern
States, to do this--to do it as a measure essential to the preservation
of peace there. But I will not dwell upon this. I put it to the
American sense of honor. The honor of a nation is an important
thing. It is said in the Scriptures, "What doth it profit
a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" It
may be said, also, What doth it profit a nation if it gain the
whole world, but lose its honor? I hold that the American government
has taken upon itself a solemn obligation of honor, to see that
this war--let it be long or short, let it cost much or let it
cost little--that this war shall not cease until every freedman
at the South has the right to vote. [Applause.] It has bound
itself to it. What have you asked the black men of the South,
the black men of the whole country to do? Why, you have asked
them to incure the enmity of their masters, in order to befriend
you and to befriend this Government. You have asked us to call
down, not only upon ourselves, but upon our children’s
children, the deadly hate of the entire Southern people. You
have called upon us to turn our backs upon our masters, to abandon
their cause and espouse yours; to turn against the South and
in favor of the North; to shoot down the Confederacy and uphold
the flag--the American flag. You have called upon us to expose
ourselves to all the subtle machinations of their malignity for
all time. And now, what do you propose to do when you come to
make peace? To reward your enemies, and trample in the dust your
friends? Do you intend to sacrifice the very men who have come
to the rescue of your banner in the South, and incurred the lasting
displeasure of their masters thereby? Do you intend to sacrifice
them and reward your enemies? Do you mean to give your enemies
the right to vote, and take it away from your friends? Is that
wise policy? Is that honorable? Could American honor withstand
such a blow? I do not believe you will do it. I think you will
see to it that we have the right to vote. There is something
too mean in looking upon the Negro, when you are in trouble,
as a citizen, and when you are free from trouble, as an alien.
When this nation was in trouble, in its early struggles, it looked
upon the Negro as a citizen. In 1776 he was a citizen. At the
time of the formation of the Consitution the Negro had the right
to vote in eleven States out of the old thirteen. In your trouble
you have made us citizens. In 1812 Gen. Jackson addressed us
as citizens--"fellow-citizens." He wanted us to fight.
We were citizens then! And now, when you come to frame a conscription
bill, the Negro is a citizen again. He has been a citizen just
three times in the history of this government, and it has always
been in time of trouble. In time of trouble we are citizens.
Shall we be citizens in war, and aliens in peace? Would that
be just?
I ask my friends who are apologizing for
not insisting upon this right, where can the black man look,
in this country, for
the assertion of his right, if he may not look to the Massachusetts
Anti-Slavery Society? Where under the whole heavens can he look
for sympathy, in asserting this right, if he may not look to
this platform? Have you lifted us up to a certain height to see
that we are men, and then are any disposed to leave us there,
without seeing that we are put in possession of all our rights?
We look naturally to this platform for the assertion of all our
rights, and for this one especially. I understand the anti-slavery
societies of this country to be based on two principles,--first,
the freedom of the blacks of this country; and, second, the elevation
of them. Let me not be misunderstood here. I am not asking for
sympathy at the hands of abolitionists, sympathy at the hands
of any. I think the American people are disposed often to be
generous rather than just. I look over this country at the present
time, and I see Educational Societies, Sanitary Commissions,
Freedmen’s Associations, and the like,--all very good:
but in regard to the colored people there is always more that
is benevolent, I perceive, than just, manifested towards us.
What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy,
but simply justice. [Applause.] The American people have always
been anxious to know what they shall do with us. Gen. Banks was
distressed with solicitude as to what he should do with the Negro.
Everybody has asked the question, and they learned to ask it
early of the abolitionists, "What shall we do with the Negro?" I
have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us!
Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do
nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of
their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core, if they
are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not
for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by
nature’s plan, and if they will not stay there, let them
fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him
fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own
legs! Let him alone! If you see him on his way to school, let
him alone, don’t disturb him! If you see him going to the
dinner table at a hotel, let him go! If you see him going to
the ballot-box, let him alone, don’t disturb him! [Applause.]
If you see him going into a work-shop, just let him alone,--your
interference is doing him a positive injury. Gen. Banks’ "preparation" is
of a piece with this attempt to prop up the Negro. Let him fall
if he cannot stand alone! If the Negro cannot live by the line
of eternal justice, so beautifully pictured to you in the illustration
used by Mr. Phillips, the fault will not be yours, it will be
his who made the Negro, and established that line for his government.
[Applause.] Let him live or die by that. If you will only untie
his hands, and give him a chance, I think he will live. He will
work as readily for himself as the white man. A great many delusions
have been swept away by this war. One was, that the Negro would
not work; he has proved his ability to work. Another was, that
the Negro would not fight; that he possessed only the most sheepish
attributes of humanity; was a perfect lamb, or an "Uncle
Tom;" disposed to take off his coat whenever required, fold
his hands, and be whipped by anybody who wanted to whip him.
But the war has proved that there is a great deal of human nature
in the Negro, and that "he will fight," as Mr. Quincy,
our President, said, in earlier days than these, "when there
is reasonable probability of his whipping anybody." [Laughter
and applause.]
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