This, however, did not answer the purpose. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. There, the church, true to its mission of ameliorating, elevating, and improving the condition of mankind, came forward promptly, bound up the wounds of the West Indian slave, and restored him to his liberty. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. Frederick Douglass July Fourth Speech Full Text: Read With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. Translated on-screen subtitles for videos. Everybody can say it; the dastard, not less than the noble brave, can flippantly discant on the tyranny of England towards the American Colonies. All Rights Reserved. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. The testimony of Senator Breese, Lewis Cass, and many others that might be named, who are everywhere esteemed as sound lawyers, so regard the constitution. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, newspaper publisher, and respected abolitionist. 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. Oration by Frederick Douglass, delivered on the occasion of the Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! 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. And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. Standing here identified with the American bondsmen, making his wrongs mine. 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. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. 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 To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. The oath of any two villains is sufficient, under this hell-black enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man into the remorseless jaws of slavery! And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? Everywhere, in this country, it is safe to speak of this foreign slave-trade, as a most inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the laws of God and of man. Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. How should I look today, in the presence of Americans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? Speech For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. 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. Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cumin abridge the right to sing psalms, to partake of the sacrament, or to engage in any of the ceremonies of religion, it would be smitten by the thunder of a thousand pulpits. Frederick Douglass delivered 'best Fourth of July speech in Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. Would you argue more and denounce less? To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! What to the American slave is your 4th of July? or is it in the temple? Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. What, then, remains to be argued? Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror. The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. You know what is a swine-drover? Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their own favor. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! A RESTful API to access Revs workforce of fast, high quality transcriptionists and captioners. As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent African-American professional men in celebration of the twenty-first anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.After the toast provided by former Senator Blanche K. Bruce, The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. Your cause would be much more likely to succeed. Our Composite Nation: Frederick Douglass America To do so would be to make myself ridiculous and to offer an insult to your understanding. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Frederick Douglass: (06:03) Frederick Douglass Oh! When Douglass delivered his famous The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro address before an audience at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, on July 5, Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. Like our content? They are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them; and when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. WebCelebrating 200 years of Frederick Douglass. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. Fellow-citizens! Roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world. How unlike the politicians of an hour! But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. 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. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn. 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. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Build with the best speech-to-text APIs around. In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; buthow, we ask, could such a thing be done? But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nations bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic;for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, andlet the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever! You have already declared it. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. Then would my task be light and my burden easy and delightful? WebDescription. I will use the severest language I can command. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave-trade, as it exists, at this moment, in the ruling part of the United States. The fact that the church of our country, (with fractional exceptions), does not esteem the Fugitive Slave Law as a declaration of war against religious liberty, implies that that church regards religion simply as a form of worship, an empty ceremony, andnota vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any suitable time and place he may select. Frederick Douglass' Descendants Read His Famous Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. The manhood of the slave is conceded. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. One is struck with the difference between the attitude of the American church towards the anti-slavery movement, and that occupied by the churches in England towards a similar movement in that country. WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. 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. 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. Who can reason on such a proposition? VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth 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. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation? The propriety of the nation must be startled. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. Speech That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! I am not that man. had I the ability, and could I reach the nations ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success. Speech These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Further, if this demand were not complied with, another Scotland would be added to the history of religious liberty, and the stern old Covenanters would be thrown into the shade. You live and must die, and you must do your work. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? Let this damning fact be perpetually told. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to. we wept when we remembered Zion. They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny, and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke, put together, have done! He can bring no witnesses for himself. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation Babylon, whose crimes towering up to heaven with thrown down by the breadth of the almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. You have no right to enjoy a childs share in the labor of your fathers, unless your children are to be blest by your labors. 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 arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Frederick Douglass There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. Albert Barnes but uttered what the common sense of every man at all observant of the actual state of the case will receive as truth, when he declared that There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it.. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. WebOn December 3, 1860, Frederick Douglass and a group of fellow abolitionists met at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston for a discussion centered around the following You profess to believe that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth, and hath commanded all men, everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate, (and glory in your hatred), all men whose skins are not colored like your own.