speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. You know what is a swine-drover? Fromwhat quarter, I beg to know, has proceeded a fire so deadly upon our ranks, during the last two years, as from the Northern pulpit? 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. 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. You can bare your bosom to the storm of British artillery to throw off a threepenny tax on tea; and yet wring the last hard-earned farthing from the grasp of the black laborers of your country. What then remains to be argued? Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. 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. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? - Wikipedia The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. Translated on-screen subtitles for videos. 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 Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. The madness of this course, we believe, is admitted now, even by England; but we fear the lesson is wholly lost on our present ruler. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, lowering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! Then would my task be light and my burden easy and delightful? I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. Nobody doubts it. WebOn July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a keynote address at an Independence Day celebration and asked, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Douglass was a powerful 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. I am not that man. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people! Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Where these are, man is not sacred. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. 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. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. WebFrederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) O! Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. The Bible addresses all such persons as scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe ofmint, anise,andcumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. 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. WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. I will show you a man-drover. The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. Go search where you will. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. 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. 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. And am I therefore called upon to bring our humble offering to the national alter and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? Frederick Douglass delivered 'best Fourth of July speech in I was born amid such sights and scenes. Speech They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? Yea! I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. They that can, may; I cannot. 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. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. Frederick Douglass: (01:08) The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. Its the news, without the news. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. To him, your celebration is a sham, your boasted Liberty, an unholy license, your national greatness, swelling vanity. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. Frederick Douglass 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. Speech In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. His death, according to Douglass was not only tragic, but also prevented recently freed slaves and African Americans from gaining the ear of wise and well-intentioned leader. Speech-to-Text API for pre-recorded audio, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition engine. 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. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. In the solitude of my spirit, I see clouds of dust raised on the highways of the South; I see the bleeding footsteps; I hear the doleful wail of fettered humanity, on the way to the slave markets, where the victims are to be sold like horses, sheep, and swine, knocked off to the highest bidder. Follow the drove to New Orleans. Speech It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. 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. 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. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. 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. 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 and question and to denounce with all the emphasis I can command everything that serves to perpetuate slavery, the great sin and shame of America.

Where Is The Main Irs Office Located, Hazmat Tanker Trucking Companies, Convert Text To Number Power Bi Dax, Articles F