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Frederick
Douglass
gave
this speech on July 5, 1852 at an event commemorating the signing of
the Declaration of Independence, held at Corinthian Hall in
Rochester, New York.
Fellow
Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this
republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave
men. They were great men, too great enough to give frame to a great
age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such
a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to
view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot
contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were
statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the
principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their
memory....
...Fellow-citizens,
pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here
to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national
independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of
natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence,
extended to us? 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?
Would
to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer
could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task
be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so
cold, that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate
and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully
acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that
would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's
jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I
am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently
speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."
But
such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the
disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious
anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable
distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice,
are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty,
prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by
you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you,
has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not
mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into
the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join
you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony.
Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If
so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it
is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering
up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying
that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive
lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!
"By
the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we
remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst
thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us
a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us
one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a
strange land? If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget
her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the
roof of my mouth."
Fellow-citizens,
above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of
millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day,
rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I
do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of
sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may
my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to
pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular
theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make
me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then,
fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its
popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing
there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I
do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and
conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of
July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the
professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally
hideous and revolting. America.is false to the past, false to the
present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.
Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this
occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the
name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution
and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call
in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command,
everything that serves to perpetuate slavery Ñ the great sin
and shame of America! "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.
But
I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, "It is just in this
circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a
favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, an
denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause
would be much more likely to succeed." But, I submit, where all
is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the
anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the
subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to
prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody
doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the
enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they
punish disobedience on the part of the slave. 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. What is this but the acknowledgment that the
slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of
the slave is conceded. 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 or to write.
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. When the
dogs in your streets, 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 will I
argue with you that the slave is a man!
For
the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro
race. 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 ciphering, 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 Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life
and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we
are men!
Would
you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the
rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I
argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for
Republicans? 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? How should I look to-day, in the presence of Amercans,
dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a
natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively,
negatively and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself
ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is
not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that
slavery is wrong for him.
What,
am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of
their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of
their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to
flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to
hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their
families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve
them into obedience and submission to their mastcrs? Must I argue
that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is
wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and
strength than such arguments would imply.
What,
then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that
God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken?
There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be
divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I
cannot. The time for such argument is passed.
At
a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is
needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I
would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting
reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light
that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.
We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. 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.
What,
to the American slave, is your 4th of July? 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. 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 denunciation 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.There is not a nation on the
earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the
people of the United States, at this very hour.
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....
...Allow
me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have
this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of
this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably
work the downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not
shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore,
leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from
"the Declaration of Independence," the great principles it
contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also
cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now
stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No
nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot
round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The
time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful
character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work
with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the
privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a
change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and
empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away
the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest
corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as
well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered
agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From
Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively
annihilated. -- Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are
distinctly heard on the other.
The
far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet.
The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat
of the Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent
its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice,
can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and
crippled foot of China must be seen in contrast with nature. Africa
must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. 'Ethiopia, shall,
stretch. out her hand unto Ood." In the fervent aspirations of
William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:
God speed the year of jubilee
The
wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th'
oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of
tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and
freedom's reign,
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.
God speed the day when human blood
Shall
cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of
human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow
for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change
into a faithful friend
Each foe.
God speed the hour, the glorious
hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor
in a tyrant's presence cower;
But to all manhood's stature
tower,
By equal birth!
That hour will come, to each, to
all,
And from his Prison-house, to thrall
Go forth.
Until that year, day, hour, arrive,
With
head, and heart, and hand I'll strive,
To break the rod, and
rend the gyve,
The spoiler of his prey deprive --
So
witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate'er the
peril or the cost,
Be driven.
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