You Say You Want a Revolution?

Subject: You Say You Want a Revolution?

Some contributions through the lens of time...

Three Speeches From The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass



Three Speeches

from Frederick Douglass:

Examples of his Passion,

Logic and Power



Frederick Douglass-Great Orator, Abolitionist and Champion of Civil Rights



From:

The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, (Five volumes)

by

Philip S. Foner

International Publishers



(Included on this web site by kind permission of the publishers)



Block quote start

I do not go back to America to sit still, remain quiet, and enjoy ease and
comfort. . . . I glory in the conflict, that I may hereafter exult in the
victory.

I know that victory is certain. I go, turning my back upon the ease,
comfort, and respectability which I might maintain even here. . . Still, I
will go

back, for the sake of my brethren. I go to suffer with them; to toil with
them; to endure insult with them; to undergo outrage with them; to lift up
my

voice in their behalf; to speak and write in their vindication; and struggle
in their ranks for the emancipation which shall yet be achieved.

                                        ----FAREWELL TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE,
March 30, 1847



The Church and Pejudice

Fighting Rebels With Only One Hand

What the Black Man Wants



(The following speech was delivered less than three months after Douglass
had attended the Anti-Slavery Convention on Nantucket Island, at which he
agreed

to lecture for the Massachusetts Society; it is one of his first recorded
anti-slavery speeches)



THE CHURCH AND PREJUDICE

(Speech delivered at the Plymouth County Anti-Slavery Society, November 4,
1841)



        At the South I was a member of the Methodist Church. When I came
north, I thought one Sunday I would attend communion, at one of the churches
of

my denomination, in the town I was staying. The white people gathered round
the altar, the blacks clustered by the door. After the good minister had
served

out the bread and wine to one portion of those near him, he said, "These may
withdraw, and others come forward;" thus he proceeded till all the white
members

had been served. Then he took a long breath, and looking out towards the
door, exclaimed, "Come up, colored friends, come up! for you know God is no
respecter

of persons!" I haven't been there to see the sacraments taken since.

        At New Bedford, where I live, there was a great revival of religion
not long ago--many were converted and "received" as they said, "into the
kingdom

of heaven." But it seems, the kingdom of heaven is like a net; at least so
it was according to the practice of these pious Christians; and when the net

was drawn ashore, they had to set down and cull out the fish. Well, it
happened now that some of the fish had rather black scales; so these were
sorted

out and packed by themselves. But among those who experienced religion at
this time was a colored girl; she was baptized in the same water as the
rest;

so she thought she might sit at the Lord's table and partake of the same
sacramental elements with the others. The deacon handed round the cup, and
when

he came to the black girl, he could not pass her, for there was the minister
looking right at him, and as he was a kind of abolitionist, the deacon was

rather afraid of giving him offense; so he handed the girl the cup, and she
tasted. Now it so happened that next to her sat a young lady who had been
converted

at the same time, baptized in the same water, and put her trust in the same
blessed Saviour; yet when the cup containing the precious blood which had
been

shed for all, came to her, she rose in disdain, and walked out of the
church. Such was the religion she had experienced!

        Another young lady fell into a trance. When she awoke, she declared
she had been to heaven. Her friends were all anxious to know what and whom
she

had seen there; so she told the whole story. But there was one good old lady
whose curiosity went beyond that of all the others--and she inquired of the

girl that had the vision, if she saw any black folks in heaven? After some
hesitation, the reply was, "Oh! I didn't go into the kitchen!"

        Thus you see, my hearers, this prejudice goes even into the church
of God. And there are those who carry it so far that it is disagreeable to
them

even to think of going to heaven, if colored people are going there too. And
whence comes it? The grand cause is slavery; but there are others less
prominent;

one of them is the way in which children in this part of the country are
instructed to regard the blacks.

        "Yes!" exclaimed an old gentleman, interrupting him--"when they
behave wrong, they are told, 'black man come catch you.'"

        Yet people in general will say they like colored men as well as any
other, but in their proper place! They assign us that place; they don't let

us do it for ourselves, nor will they allow us a voice in the decision. They
will not allow that we have a head to think, and a heart to feel, and a soul

to aspire. They treat us not as men, but as dogs--they cry "Stu-boy!" and
expect us to run and do their bidding. That's the way we are liked. You
degrade

us, and then ask why we are degraded--you shut our mouths, and then ask why
we don't speak--you close our colleges and seminaries against us, and then

ask why we don't know more.

        But all this prejudice sinks into insignificance in my mind, when
compared with the enormous iniquity of the system which is its cause--the
system

that sold my four sisters and my brothers into bondage--and which calls in
its priests to defend it even from the Bible! The slaveholding ministers
preach

up the divine right of the slaveholders to property in their fellow- men.
The southern preachers say to the poor slave, "Oh! if you wish to be happy
in

time, happy in eternity, you must be obedient to your masters; their
interest is yours. God made one portion of men to do the working, and
another to do

the thinking; how good God is! Now, you have no trouble or anxiety; but ah!
you can't imagine how perplexing it is to your masters and mistresses to
have

so much thinking to do in your behalf! You cannot appreciate your blessings;
you know not how happy a thing it is for you, that you were born of that
portion

of the human family which has the working, instead of the thinking to do!
Oh! how grateful and obedient you ought to be to your masters! How beautiful

are the arrangements of Providence! Look at your hard, horny hands--see how
nicely they are adapted to the labor you have to perform! Look at our
delicate

fingers, so exactly fitted for our station, and see how manifest it is that
God designed us to be His thinkers, and you the workers--Oh! the wisdom of

God!"--I used to attend a Methodist church, in which my master was a class
leader; he would talk most sanctimoniously about the dear Redeemer, who was

sent "to preach deliverance to the captives, and set at liberty them that
are bruised"--he could pray at morning, pray at noon, and pray at night; yet

he could lash up my poor cousin by his two thumbs, and inflict stripes and
blows upon his bare back, till the blood streamed to the ground! all the
time

quoting scripture, for his authority, and appealing to that passage of the
Holy Bible which says, "He that knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not,

shall be beaten with many stripes!" Such was the amount of this good
Methodist's piety.

(Foner, Volume I, pages 102-105)



*   *   *   *    *



FIGHTING REBELS WITH ONLY ONE HAND

(Douglass' Monthly, September 1861)



        What on earth is the matter with the American Government and people?
Do they really covet the world's ridicule as well as their own social and
political

ruin? What are they thinking about, or don't they condescend to think at
all? So, indeed, it would seem from their blindness in dealing with the
tremendous

issue now upon them. Was there ever anything like it before? They are sorely
pressed on every hand by a vast army of slaveholding rebels, flushed with

success, and infuriated by the darkest inspirations of a deadly hate, bound
to rule or ruin. Washington, the seat of Government, after ten thousand
assurances

to the contrary, is now positively in danger of falling before the rebel
army. Maryland, a little while ago considered safe for the Union, is now
admitted

to be studded with the materials for insurrection, and which may flame forth
at any moment.--Every resource of the nation, whether of men or money,
whether

of wisdom or strength, could be well employed to avert the impending ruin.
Yet most evidently the demands of the hour are not comprehended by the
Cabinet

or the crowd. Our Presidents, Governors, Generals and Secretaries are
calling, with almost frantic vehemance, for men.--"Men! men! send us men!"
they scream,

or the cause of the Union is gone, the life of a great nation is ruthlessly
sacrificed, and the hopes of a great nation go out in darkness; and yet
these

very officers, representing the people and Government, steadily and
persistently refuse to receive the very class of men which have a deeper
interest in

the defeat and humiliation of the rebels, than all others.--Men are wanted
in Missouri--wanted in Western Virginia, to hold and defend what has been
already

gained; they are wanted in Texas, and all along the sea coast, and though
the Government has at its command a class in the country deeply interested
in

suppressing the insurrection, it sternly refuses to summon from among the
vast multitude a single man, and degrades and insults the whole class by
refusing

to allow any of their number to defend with their strong arms and brave
hearts the national cause. What a spectacle of blind, unreasoning prejudice
and

pusillanimity is this! The national edifice is on fire. Every man who can
carry a bucket of water, or remove a brick, is wanted; but those who have
the

care of the building, having a profound respect for the feeling of the
national burglars who set the building on fire, are determined that the
flames shall

only be extinguished by Indo-Caucasian hands, and to have the building burnt
rather than save it by means of any other. Such is the pride, the stupid
prejudice

and folly that rules the hour.

        Why does the Government reject the Negro? Is he not a man? Can he
not wield a sword, fire a gun, march and countermarch, and obey orders like
any

other? Is there the least reason to believe that a regiment of well-drilled
Negroes would deport themselves less soldier-like on the battlefield than
the

raw troops gathered up generally from the towns and cities of the State of
New York? We do believe that such soldiers, if allowed to take up arms in
defence

of the Government, and made to feel that they are hereafter to be recognized
as persons having rights, would set the highest example of order and general

good behavior to their fellow soldiers, and in every way add to the national
power.

        If persons so humble as we can be allowed to speak to the President
of the United States, we should ask him if this dark and terrible hour of
the

nation's extremity is a time for consulting a mere vulgar and unnatural
prejudice? We should ask him if national preservation and necessity were not
better

guides in this emergency than either the tastes of the rebels, or the pride
and prejudices of the vulgar? We would tell him that General Jackson in a
slave

state fought side by side with Negroes at New Orleans, and like a true man,
despising meanness, he bore testimony to their bravery at the close of the

war. We would tell him that colored men in Rhode Island and Connecticut
performed their full share in the war of the Revolution, and that men of the
same

color, such as the noble Shields Green, Nathaniel Turner and Denmark Vesey
stand ready to peril everything at the command of the Government. We would
tell

him that this is no time to fight with one hand, when both are needed; that
this is no time to fight only with your white hand, and allow your black
hand

to remain tied.

        Whatever may be the folly and absurdity of the North, the South at
least is true and wise. The Southern papers no longer indulge in the vulgar
expression,

"free n----rs." That class of bipeds are now called "colored residents." The
Charleston papers say:



"The colored residents of this city can challenge comparison with their
class, in any city or town, in loyalty or devotion to the cause of the
South. Many

of them individually, and without ostentation, have been contributing
liberally, and on Wednesday evening, the 7th inst., a very large meeting was
held

by them, and a committee appointed to provide for more efficient aid. The
proceedings of the meeting will appear in results hereinafter to be
reported."



        It is now pretty well established, that there are at the present
moment many colored men in the Confederate army doing duty not only as
cooks, servants

and laborers, but as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders, and
bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down loyal troops, and do all that

soldiers may to destroy the Federal Government and build up that of the
traitors and rebels. There were such soldiers at Manassas, and they are
probably

there still. There is a Negro in the army as well as in the fence, and our
Government is likely to find it out before the war comes to an end. That the

Negroes are numerous in the rebel army, and do for that army its heaviest
work, is beyond question. They have been the chief laborers upon those
temporary

defences in which the rebels have been able to mow down our men. Negroes
helped to build the batteries at Charleston. They relieve their gentlemanly
and

military masters from the stiffening drudgery of the camp, and devote them
to the nimble and dexterous use of arms. Rising above vulgar prejudice, the

slaveholding rebel accepts the aid of the black man as readily as that of
any other. If a bad cause can do this, why should a good cause be less
wisely

conducted? We insist upon it, that one black regiment in such a war as this
is, without being any more brave and orderly, would be worth to the
Government

more than two of any other; and that, while the Government continues to
refuse the aid of colored men, thus alienating them from the national cause,
and

giving the rebels the advantage of them, it will not deserve better fortunes
than it has thus far experienced.--Men in earnest don't fight with one hand,

when they might fight with two, and a man drowning would not refuse to be
saved even by a colored hand.

(Foner, Volume 3, pages 151-154)



*   *   *   *    *



(At the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in Boston,
April, 1865, Douglass delivered the following speech on the subject: The
Equality

of all men before the law; Note that this 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 se 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.]

(Foner, Volume Four, pages 157- 165)



Short Biography of Frederick Douglass

Information on live performances of Frederick Douglass' Speeches

Seminars on the Life and Teachings of Frederick Douglass



Block quote end



Fremarjo Enterprises, Inc

PO Box 382   Emigrant, MT 59027

(406)333-4970     (406) 333-4145 Fax

fremarjo@frederickdouglass.org



All original material Copyright ©1997 Fremarjo Enterprises, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.



_______________________________________________
Blind-Democracy mailing list
Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
http://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy