For who is there so cold that a nation sympathy cannot warm him, who so adore it and dead to the claims of gratitude that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? 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. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Fully appreciating the hardship to be encountered, firmly believing in the right of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking world, reverently appealing to heaven to attest their sincerity, soundly comprehending the solemn responsibility they were about to assume, wisely measuring the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep the corner-stone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you. The time for such argument is past. What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. Follow the drove to New Orleans. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. 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. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. 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. These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers; and the appellation, probably, conveyed the same idea that is meant by a more modern, though a somewhat less euphonious term, which we often find in our papers, applied to some of our old politicians. WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. Speech-to-Text live streaming for live captions, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition API. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. Ex-Vice-President Dallas tells us that the Constitution is an object to which no American mind can be too attentive, and no American heart too devoted. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. Many of you understand them better than I do. The most accurate AI-powered transcription on the market. The right of the hunter to his prey stands superior to the right of marriage, and toallrights in this republic, the rights of God included! With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. On July 5, 1852, eminent African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a brilliant speech to nearly six hundred people filling Rochester, New Yorks Corinthian Hall, as organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society. 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, 1852, he was issuing a scathing indictment of American hypocrisy, Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy reminded readers. For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. These rules are well established. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. Your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. 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. Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God. In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it: Th oppressd shall vilely bend the knee. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? 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? 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. Speech-to-Text API for pre-recorded audio, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition engine. But, besides general considerations, there were peculiar circumstances which make the advent of this republic an event of special attractiveness. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and in diabolical intent, this Fugitive Slave Law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? 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. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. 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. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. 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. It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave-trade) the internal slave trade. It is, probably, called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign slave-trade is contemplated. 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. WebDescription. With them, nothing was settled that was not right. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. 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. 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. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their strength; suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream, that seems to have torn its way to the center of your soul! This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. 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. we wept when we remembered Zion. I cannot. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. Frederick Douglass: (04:09) There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. Frederick Douglass: (02:13) In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. Frederick Douglass: (00:26) For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? Roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. 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. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. During They who did so were accounted in their day, plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. Who can reason on such a proposition? He further says, the Constitution, in its words, is plain and intelligible, and is meant for the home-bred, unsophisticated understandings of our fellow-citizens. To him, your celebration is a sham, your boasted Liberty, an unholy license, your national greatness, swelling vanity. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. But, with that blindness which seems to be the unvarying characteristic of tyrants, since Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British Government persisted in the exactions complained of. 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? Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. in preference to the gospel,as preached by those Divines! The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. 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. That point is conceded already. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. welcome atheism! May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. That year will come, and freedoms reign. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times. Under these, and innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty and independence and triumphed. But now is the time, the important time. The manhood of the slave is conceded. Many of its most eloquent Divines. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. 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. VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. 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! 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. I am not that man. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation? Section 107, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. You were under the British Crown. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! We are met on the threshold of our efforts for the redemption of the slave, by the church and ministry of the country, in battle arrayed against us; and we are compelled to fight or flee. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. Frederick Douglass: (02:57) The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. I answer: a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. The propriety of the nation must be startled. I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. As the sheet anchor takes a firmer hold, when the ship is tossed by the storm, so did the cause of your fathers grow stronger, as it breasted the chilling blasts of kingly displeasure. The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. I am not that man. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? You declare, before the world, and are understood by the world to declare, that you hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and yet, you hold securely, in a bondage which, according to your own Thomas Jefferson, is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose, aseventh partof the inhabitants of your country. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. 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. 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. The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. Space is comparatively annihilated. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. 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. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. One of the parts of the speech that resonates with me the most is when Douglass says: What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. Frederick Douglass: (05:02) It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. be warned! There is blasphemy in the thought. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. WebCelebrating 200 years of Frederick Douglass. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! But I fancy, I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression upon the public mind. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent 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.. I shall not be charged with slandering Americans, if I say I think the American side of any question may be safely left in American hands. Its the news, without the news. Thu 5 Jul 2018 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 11.58 EDT. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. WebFrederick Douglass speech Historical Document "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" 1852 Resource Bank Contents Click here for the text of this historical document. 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 How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? 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. They were great in their day and generation. Fellow-citizens! 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. Its deeply moving to hear Douglass defend the honor of Black soldiers in his 1863 speech, The Proclamation And a Negro Army, read by Colman Domingo, while his final speech, 1894s Lessons of the Hour, lays out the crucial steps toward achieving equality that have yet to be followed today.The actor selected to read these words is Yet they persevered. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appeared men, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. 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. We need the storm. My subject then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. WebOn January 9, 1894, at Washington, D.C.'s, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, Frederick Douglass delivered his "The Lessons of the Hour" speech, which addressed the Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. Let it be thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who hold their offices under an open and palpablebribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a mans liberty,hear only his accusers! This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, who does not know that slavery is wrong for him. Would you persuade more and rebuke less? Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. It is not that pure and undefiled religion which is from above, and which is first pure, then peaceable, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,without partiality, and without hypocrisy. But a religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two classes, tyrants and slaves; which says to the man in chains,stay there; and to the oppressor,oppress on; it is a religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers and enslavers of mankind; it makes God a respecter of persons, denies his fatherhood of the race, and tramples in the dust the great truth of the brotherhood of man. 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. The text of Frederick Douglasss most famous speech, given in 1852, What, to a slave, is the Fourth of July? A chapter describing Douglasss early encounters with abolitionists, from his autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom, 1857. I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, and, if the churches and ministers of our country were not stupidly blind, or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it. Is it that slavery is not divine, that God did not establish it, that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? 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? The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it. But, to proceed. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. Easily integrate Rev using our robust APIs to start building your product quickly. I will not excuse. The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. welcome anything! A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 . The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. As with rivers so with nations. My spirit wearies of such blasphemy; and how such men can be supported, as the standing types and representatives of Jesus Christ, is a mystery which I leave others to penetrate. What then remains to be argued? His own testimony is nothing. In speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our land. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. 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, thenwill I argue with you that the slave is a man! Read its preamble, consider its purposes. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance, and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness. Who can reason on such a proposition? Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight.
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