American History: America

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5F3RwUKm2yVaiIlvI7Gt2PIOmamGGZ_RNmw64REzYIxahLQ6TJhiiFEK0yEj0hpnY6v2_BRtF6V8LIEKLU6JXxqQwFPOdn7aALIQ4GqUydsnwhxxLojhyphenhyphenT9ENw5RIQsX56vOhyPWYLGk/s599/Photo+Frederick+Douglass+Portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5F3RwUKm2yVaiIlvI7Gt2PIOmamGGZ_RNmw64REzYIxahLQ6TJhiiFEK0yEj0hpnY6v2_BRtF6V8LIEKLU6JXxqQwFPOdn7aALIQ4GqUydsnwhxxLojhyphenhyphenT9ENw5RIQsX56vOhyPWYLGk/s400/Photo+Frederick+Douglass+Portrait.jpg" width="277" /></a></div> The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro past times Frederick Douglass A spoken communication given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 Mr. President, Friends as well as Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do non think ever to have got appeared as a speaker earlier whatever assembly to a greater extent than shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 feeling has crept over me quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The project earlier me is 1 which requires much previous thought as well as written report for its proper performance. I know that apologies of this sort are by as well as large considered apartment as well as unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine volition non live so considered. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. The niggling experience I have got had inward addressing world meetings, inward province schoolhouse houses, avails me naught on the introduce occasion. The papers as well as placards say that I am to deliver a Fourth of July Oration. This sure sounds large, as well as out of the mutual way, for me. It is true that I have got oft had the privilege to speak inward this beautiful Hall, as well as to address many who straightaway laurels me with their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect justice I think I have got of Corinthian Hall seems to costless me from embarrassment. The fact is, ladies as well as gentlemen, the distance betwixt this platform as well as the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable-and the difficulties to he overcome inward getting from the latter to the old are past times no agency slight. That I am hither to-day is, to me, a affair of astonishment as good as of gratitude. You volition not, therefore, live surprised, if inward what I have got to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my spoken communication with whatever high sounding exordium. With niggling experience as well as with less learning, I have got been able to throw my thoughts hastily as well as imperfectly together; as well as trusting to your patient as well as generous indulgence I volition go on to lay them earlier you. This, for the usage of this celebration, is the Fourth of July. It is the nascency 24-hour interval of your National Independence, as well as of your political freedom. This, to you, as what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds dorsum to the day, as well as to the deed of your non bad deliverance; as well as to the signs, as well as to the wonders, associated with that act, as well as that day. This celebration also marks the get-go of some other twelvemonth of your national life; as well as reminds you lot that the Republic of America is straightaway 76 years old. l am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six years, though a skillful old historic flow for a man, is but a mere speck inward the life of a nation. Three score years as well as x is the allotted fourth dimension for private men; but nations release their years past times thousands. According to this fact, you lot are, fifty-fifty now, only inward the get-go of your national career, still lingering inward the flow of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope inward the thought, as well as hope is much needed, nether the dark clouds which lower higher upwards the horizon. The oculus of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his pump may good crunch lighter at the thought that America is young, as well as that she is still inward the impressible phase of her existence. May he non hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice as well as of truth, volition yet give administration to her destiny? Were the nation older, the patriot's pump mightiness live sadder, as well as the reformer's forehead heavier. Its futurity mightiness live shrouded inward gloom, as well as the hope of its prophets exit inward sorrow. There is consolation inward the thought that America is young.-Great streams are non easily turned from channels, worn deep inward the course of instruction of ages. They may sometimes ascension inward repose as well as stately majesty, as well as inundate the land, refreshing as well as fertilizing the globe with their mysterious properties. They may also ascension inward wrath as well as fury, as well as behave away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil as well as hardship. They, however, gradually flow dorsum to the same old channel, as well as flow on as serenely as ever. But, piece the river may non live turned aside, it may dry out up, as well as leave of absence naught behind but the withered branch, as well as the unsightly rock, to howl inward the abyss-sweeping wind, the sorry tale of departed glory. As with rivers so with nations. Fellow-citizens, I shall non presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster nigh this day. The uncomplicated even of it is, that, 76 years ago, the people of this province were British subjects. The trend as well as championship of your "sovereign people" (in which you lot straightaway glory) was non as well as so born. You were nether the British Crown. Your fathers esteemed the English linguistic communication Government as the domicile government; as well as England as the fatherland. This domicile government, you lot know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, inward the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens as well as limitations, as, inward its mature judgment, it deemed wise, correct as well as proper. But your fathers, who had non adopted the stylish thought of this day, of the infallibility of government, as well as the absolute grapheme of its acts, presumed to differ from the domicile authorities inward honor to the wisdom as well as the justice of some of those burdens as well as restraints. They went so far inward their excitement as to pronounce the measures of authorities unjust, unreasonable, as well as oppressive, as well as altogether such as ought non to live quietly submitted to. I scarcely demand say, fellow-citizens, that my sentiment of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. Such a proclamation of understanding on my portion would non live worth much to anybody. It would sure evidence naught as to what portion I mightiness have got taken had I lived during the non bad contention of 1776. To say straightaway that America was right, as well as England wrong, is exceedingly easy. Everybody tin say it; the dastard, non less than the noble brave, tin flippantly discant on the tyranny of England towards the American Colonies. It is stylish to do so; but in that location was a fourth dimension when, to pronounce against England, as well as inward favor of the crusade of the colonies, tried men's souls. They who did so were accounted inward their 24-hour interval plotters of mischief, agitators as well as rebels, unsafe men. To side with the correct against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, as well as with the oppressed against the oppressor! hither lies the merit, as well as the 1 which, of all others, seems unfashionable inward our day. The crusade of liberty may live stabbed past times the men who glory inward the deeds of your fathers. But, to proceed. Feeling themselves harshly as well as unjustly treated, past times the domicile government, your fathers, similar men of honesty, as well as men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. They petitioned as well as demonstrated; they did so inward a decorous, respectful, as well as loyal manner. Their deportment was wholly unexceptionable. This, however, did non respond the purpose. They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, frigidity as well as scorn. Yet they persevered. They were non the men to hold off back. As the canvas anchor takes a firmer hold, when the ship is tossed past times the storm, so did the crusade of your fathers grow stronger as it breasted the chilling blasts of kingly displeasure. The greatest as well as best of British statesmen admitted its justice, as well as the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. But, with that blindness which seems to live the unvarying feature of tyrants, since Pharaoh as well as his hosts were drowned inward the Red Sea, the British Government persisted inward the exactions complained of. The madness of this course, nosotros believe, is admitted now, fifty-fifty past times England; but nosotros fright the lesson is wholly lost on our introduce rulers. Oppression makes a wise human being mad. Your fathers were wise men, as well as if they did non go mad, they became restive nether this treatment. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable inward their colonial capacity. With brave men in that location is ever a remedy for oppression. Just here, the thought of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! It was a startling idea, much to a greater extent than so than we, at this distance of time, regard it. The timid as well as the prudent (as has been intimated) of that 24-hour interval were, of course, shocked as well as alarmed past times it. Such people lived then, had lived before, as well as will, probably, ever have got a identify on this planet; as well as their course, inward honor to whatever non bad alter (no affair how non bad the skillful to live attained, or the incorrect to live redressed past times it), may live calculated with as much precision as tin live the course of instruction of the stars. They loathe all changes, but silver, gilt as well as copper change! Of this sort of alter they are ever strongly inward favor. These people were called Tories inward the days of your fathers; as well as the appellation, probably, conveyed the same thought that is meant past times a to a greater extent than modern, though a somewhat less euphonious term, which nosotros oft discover inward our papers, applied to some of our old politicians. Their opposition to the as well as so unsafe thought was earnest as well as powerful; but, amid all their terror as well as affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming as well as revolutionary thought moved on, as well as the province with it. On the sec of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress, to the dismay of the lovers of ease, as well as the worshipers of property, clothed that dreadful thought with all the authorization of national sanction. They did so inward the shape of a resolution; as well as as nosotros seldom hitting upon resolutions, drawn upwards inward our day, whose transparency is at all equal to this, it may refresh your minds as well as assist my even if I read it. "Resolved, That these united colonies are, as well as of right, ought to live costless as well as Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown; as well as that all political connecter betwixt them as well as the State of Great United Kingdom is, as well as ought to be, dissolved." Citizens, your fathers made skillful that resolution. They succeeded; as well as to-day you lot reap the fruits of their success. The liberty gained is yours; as well as you, in that location fore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. The fourth of July is the initiative of all non bad fact inward your nation's history-the real ringbolt inward the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. Pride as well as patriotism, non less than gratitude, prompt you lot to celebrate as well as to take away hold it inward perpetual remembrance. I have got said that the Declaration of Independence is the ringbolt to the chain of your nation's destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained inward that musical instrument are saving principles. Stand past times those principles, live true to them on all occasions, inward all places, against all foes, as well as at whatever cost. From the circular top of your ship of state, dark as well as threatening clouds may live seen. Heavy billows, similar mountains inward the distance, discover to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! That bolt drawn, that chain broken, as well as all is lost. Cling to this day-cling to it, as well as to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. The coming into beingness of a nation, inward whatever circumstances, is an interesting event. But, also full general considerations, in that location were peculiar circumstances which create the advent of this democracy an trial of special attractiveness. The whole scene, as I hold off dorsum to it, was simple, dignified as well as sublime. The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant release of iii millions. The province was poor inward the munitions of war. The population was weak as well as scattered, as well as the province a wilderness unsubdued. There were as well as so no agency of concert as well as combination, such as be now. Neither steam nor lightning had as well as so been reduced to monastic say as well as discipline. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journeying of many days. Under these, as well as innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty as well as independence as well as triumphed. Fellow Citizens, I am non wanting inward honor for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were non bad men, too-great plenty to give frame to a non bad age. It does non oft tumble out to a nation to raise, at 1 time, such a release of really non bad men. The dot from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; as well as yet I cannot contemplate their non bad deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots as well as heroes, as well as for the skillful they did, as well as the principles they contended for, I volition unite with you lot to laurels their memory. They loved their province improve than their ain private interests; and, though this is non the highest shape of human excellence, all volition concede that it is a rare virtue, as well as that when it is exhibited it ought to command respect. He who will, intelligently, lay downwards his life for his province is a human being whom it is non inward human nature to despise. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, as well as their sacred honor, on the crusade of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were repose men; but they did non shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They believed inward order; but non inward the monastic say of tyranny. With them, naught was "settIed" that was non right. With them, justice, liberty as well as humanity were "final"; non slavery as well as oppression. You may good cherish the retention of such men. They were non bad inward their 24-hour interval as well as generation. Their solid manhood stands out the to a greater extent than as nosotros contrast it with these degenerate times. How circumspect, exact as well as proportionate were all their movements! How dissimilar the politicians of an hour! Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, as well as stretched away inward strength into the distant future. They seized upon eternal principles, as well as laid a glorious instance inward their defence. Mark them! Fully appreciating the hardships to live encountered, firmly believing inward the correct of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking world, reverently appealing to sky to attest their sincerity, soundly comprehending the solemn responsibleness they were nigh to assume, wisely criterion the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, nether the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, as well as with a sublime faith inward the non bad principles of justice as well as freedom, lay deep, the corner-stone of the national super-structure, which has risen as well as still rises inward grandeur around you. Of this telephone commutation work, this 24-hour interval is the anniversary. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. Banners as well as pennants moving ridge exultingly on the breeze. The din of business, too, is hushed. Even mammon seems to have got quitted his grasp on this day. The ear-piercing fife as well as the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a one one thousand church building bells. Prayers are made, hymns are sung, as well as sermons are preached inward laurels of this day; piece the quick martial tramp of a non bad as well as multitudinous nation, echoed dorsum past times all the hills, valleys as well as mountains of a vast continent, dot the occasion 1 of thrilling as well as universal interest-nation's jubilee. Friends as well as citizens, I demand non come inward farther into the causes which led to this anniversary. Many of you lot understand them improve than I do. You could instruct me inward regard to them. That is a branch of cognition inward which you lot feel, perhaps, a much deeper involvement than your speaker. The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have got never lacked for a tongue. They have got all been taught inward your mutual schools, narrated at your firesides, un folded from your pulpits, as well as thundered from your legislative halls, as well as are as familiar to you lot as identify words. They shape the staple of your national poesy as well as eloquence. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikBTT1L15HS7cw_QXv3tj9no-uKXhHxr9XJkzxWU4WSdHsvislDgq60VKPdzssvlU7AjN3vNaK33b9XaE2sqoCYKWKb3DkteAScd2jtQO-tjkJY94h_S3vJw_06FWp_Bfe5J6SuCE8rOU/s600/Frederick_Douglass+about+29.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikBTT1L15HS7cw_QXv3tj9no-uKXhHxr9XJkzxWU4WSdHsvislDgq60VKPdzssvlU7AjN3vNaK33b9XaE2sqoCYKWKb3DkteAScd2jtQO-tjkJY94h_S3vJw_06FWp_Bfe5J6SuCE8rOU/s640/Frederick_Douglass+about+29.png" width="500" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo of Frederick Douglass at nigh 29 years old</td></tr> </tbody></table> I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which create inward their ain favor. This is esteemed past times some as a national trait-perhaps a national weakness. It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans as well as tin live had cheap! volition live found past times Americans. I shall non live charged with slandering Americans if I say I think the American side of whatever interrogation may live safely left inward American hands. I leave, therefore, the non bad deeds of your fathers to other gentlemen whose claim to have got been regularly descended volition live less probable to live disputed than mine! My business, if I have got whatever hither to-day, is with the present. The accepted fourth dimension with God as well as His crusade is the ever-living now.     Trust no future, withal pleasant,     Let the dead past times bury its dead;     Act, deed inward the living present,     Heart within, as well as God overhead. We have got to do with the past times only as nosotros tin acquire inward useful to the introduce as well as to the future. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which tin live gained from the past, nosotros are welcome. But straightaway is the time, the of import time. Your fathers have got lived, died, as well as have got done their work, as well as have got done much of it well. You alive as well as must die, as well as you lot must do your work. You have got no correct to relish a child's part inward the labor of your fathers, unless your children are to live blest past times your labors. You have got no correct to have on out as well as waste matter the hard-earned fame of your fathers to covert your indolence. Sydney Smith tells us that men seldom eulogize the wisdom as well as virtues of their fathers, but to excuse some folly or wickedness of their own. This truth is non a doubtful one. There are illustrations of it close as well as remote, ancient as well as modern. It was fashionable, hundreds of years ago, for the children of Jacob to boast, nosotros have got "Abraham to our father," when they had long lost Abraham's faith as well as spirit. That people contented themselves nether the shadow of Abraham's non bad name, piece they repudiated the deeds which made his call great. Need I remind you lot that a similar thing is beingness done all over this province to-day? Need I tell you lot that the Jews are non the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, as well as garnished the sepulchers of the righteous? Washington could non turn over away till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Yet his monument is built upwards past times the cost of human blood, as well as the traders inward the bodies as well as souls of men shout-"We have got Washington to our father."-Alas! that it should live so; yet it is.     The evil, that men do, lives later on them,     The skillful is oft interred with their bones. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak hither to-day? What have got I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the non bad principles of political liberty as well as of natural justice, embodied inward that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? as well as am I, therefore, called upon to convey our humble offering to the national altar, as well as to confess the benefits as well as limited devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? Would to God, both for your sakes as well as ours, that an affirmative respond could live truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my project live light, as well as my burden slow as well as delightful. For who is in that location so cold, that a nation's sympathy could non warm him? Who so obdurate as well as dead to the claims of gratitude, that would non thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid as well as selfish, that would non give his vox to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am non that man. In a instance similar that, the dumb mightiness eloquently speak, as well as the "lame human being bound as an hart." But such is non the province of the case. I say it with a sorry sense of the disparity betwixt us. I am non included inside the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance betwixt us. The blessings inward which you, this day, rejoice, are non enjoyed inward common.-The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity as well as independence, bequeathed past times your fa thers, is shared past times you, non past times me. The sunlight that brought lite as well as healing to you, has brought stripes as well as decease to me. This Fourth July is yours, non mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a human being inward fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, as well as telephone outcry upwards upon him to bring together you lot inward joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery as well as sacrilegious irony. Do you lot mean, citizens, to mock me, past times call for me to speak to-day? If so, in that location is a parallel to your conduct. And allow me warn you lot that it is unsafe to re-create the instance of a nation whose crimes, towering upwards to heaven, were thrown downwards past times the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation inward irrevocable ruin! I tin to-day choose upwards the plaintive lament of a peeled as well as woe-smitten people! "By the rivers of Babylon, in that location nosotros sat down. Yea! nosotros wept when nosotros remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows inward the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; as well as they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us 1 of the songs of Zion. How tin nosotros sing the Lord's vocal inward a unusual land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, allow my correct manus forget her cunning. If I do non think thee, allow my natural language cleave to the roof of my mouth." Fellow-citizens, higher upwards your national, tumultuous joy, I listen the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy as well as grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered to a greater extent than intolerable past times the jubilee shouts that arrive at them. If I do forget, if I do non faithfully think those haemorrhage children of sorrow this day, "may my correct manus forget her cunning, as well as may my natural language cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to turn over lightly over their wrongs, as well as to chime inward with the pop theme, would live treason most scandalous as well as shocking, as well as would create me a reproach earlier God as well as the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall reckon this 24-hour interval as well as its pop characteristics from the slave's dot of view. Standing in that location identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do non hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the grapheme as well as deportment of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this fourth of July! Whether nosotros turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the deportment of the nation seems as hideous as well as revolting. America is imitation to the past, imitation to the present, as well as solemnly binds herself to live imitation to the future. Standing with God as well as the crushed as well as haemorrhage slave on this occasion, I will, inward the call of humanity which is outraged, inward the call of liberty which is fettered, inward the call of the constitution as well as the Bible which are disregarded as well as trampled upon, dare to telephone outcry upwards inward interrogation as well as to denounce, with all the emphasis I tin command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery-the non bad sin as well as shame of America! "I volition non equivocate; I volition non excuse"; I volition usage the severest linguistic communication I tin command; as well as yet non 1 tidings shall escape me that whatever man, whose judgment is non blinded past times prejudice, or who is non at pump a slaveholder, shall non confess to live correct as well as just. But I fancy I listen some 1 of my audience say, "It is just inward this circumstance that you lot as well as your blood brother abolitionists neglect to create a favorable impression on the world mind. Would you lot combat more, as well as denounce less; would you lot persuade more, as well as rebuke less; your crusade would live much to a greater extent than probable to succeed." But, I submit, where all is apparently in that location is naught to live argued. What dot inward the anti slavery creed would you lot have got me argue? On what branch of the dependent do the people of this province demand light? Must I undertake to evidence that the slave is a man? That dot is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it inward the enactment of laws for their government. They ac cognition it when they punish disobedience on the portion of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes inward the State of Virginia which, if committed past times a dark human being (no affair how ignorant he be), dependent him to the penalization of death; piece only 2 of the same crimes volition dependent a white human being to the similar punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, as well as responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted inward the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, nether severe fines as well as penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you lot tin dot to whatever such laws inward reference to the beasts of the field, as well as so I may con sent to combat the manhood of the slave. When the dogs inward your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, as well as the reptiles that crawl, shall live unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, as well as so volition I combat with you lot that the slave is a man! For the present, it is plenty to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it non astonishing that, piece nosotros are ploughing, planting, as well as reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, edifice ships, working inward metals of brass, iron, copper, silverish as well as gold; that, piece nosotros are reading, writing as well as ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants as well as secretaries, having alongside us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators as well as teachers; that, piece nosotros are engaged inward all way of enterprises mutual to other men, earthworks gilt inward California, capturing the whale inward the Pacific, feeding sheep as well as cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living inward families as husbands, wives as well as children, and, higher upwards all, confessing as well as worshipping the Christian's God, as well as looking hopefully for life as well as immortality beyond the grave, nosotros are called upon to evidence that nosotros are men! Would you lot have got me combat that human being is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful possessor of his ain body? You have got already declared it. Must I combat the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a interrogation for Republicans? Is it to live settled past times the rules of logic as well as argumentation, as a affair beset with non bad difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the regulation of justice, hard to live understood? How should I hold off to-day, inward the presence of Americans, dividing, as well as subdividing a discourse, to present that men have got a natural correct to freedom? speaking of it relatively as well as positively, negatively as well as affirmatively. To do so, would live to create myself ridiculous, as well as to offering an insult to your understanding.-There is non a human being beneath the canopy of sky that does non know that slavery is incorrect for him. What, am I to combat that it is incorrect to create men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to function them without wages, to maintain them ignorant of their relations to their immature human being men, to crunch them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to charge their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to ship away their flesh, to starve them into obedience as well as submission to their masters? Must I combat that a scheme thus marked with blood, as well as stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I volition not. I have got improve occupation for my fourth dimension as well as strength than such arguments would imply. What, then, remains to live argued? Is it that slavery is non divine; that God did non constitute it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy inward the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot live divine! Who tin ground on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The fourth dimension for such statement is passed. At a fourth dimension similar this, scorching irony, non convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, as well as could arrive at the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery current of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, as well as stern rebuke. For it is non lite that is needed, but fire; it is non the gentle shower, but thunder. We demand the storm, the whirlwind, as well as the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must live quickened; the conscience of the nation must live roused; the propriety of the nation must live startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must live exposed; as well as its crimes against God as well as human being must live proclaimed as well as denounced. What, to the American slave, is your fourth of July? I answer; a 24-hour interval that reveals to him, to a greater extent than than all other days inward the year, the gross injustice as well as 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 as well as heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty as well as equality, hollow mockery; your prayers as well as hymns, your sermons as well as thanksgivings, with all your religious parade as well as solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, as well as hypocrisy-a sparse veil to covert upwards crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is non a nation on the globe guilty of practices to a greater extent than shocking as well as bloody than are the people of the United States, at this real hour. Go where you lot may, search where you lot will, roam through all the monarchies as well as despotisms of the Old World, go through South America, search out every abuse, as well as when you lot have got found the last, lay your facts past times the side of the everyday practices of this nation, as well as you lot volition say with me, that, for revolting barbarity as well as shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. Take the American slave-trade, which nosotros are told past times the papers, is particularly prosperous just now. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the cost of men was never higher than now. He mentions the fact to present that slavery is inward no danger. This merchandise is 1 of the peculiarities of American institutions. It is carried on inward all the large towns as well as cities inward half of this confederacy; as well as millions are pocketed every twelvemonth past times dealers inward this horrid traffic. In several states this merchandise is a main root of wealth. It is called (in contradistinction to the unusual slave-trade) "the internal slave-trade." It is, probably, called so, too, inward monastic say to divert from it the horror with which the unusual slave-trade is contemplated. That merchandise has long since been denounced past times this authorities as piracy. It has been denounced with burning words from the high places of the nation as an execrable traffic. To arrest it, to spot an terminate to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Everywhere, inward this country, it is rubber to speak of this unusual slave-trade as a most inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the Jaws of God as well as of man. The duty to extirpate as well as destroy it, is admitted fifty-fifty past times our doctors of divinity. In monastic say to spot an terminate to it, some of these finally have got consented that their colored brethren (nominally free) should leave of absence this country, as well as constitute them selves on the western coast of Africa! It is, however, a notable fact that, piece so much execration is poured out past times Americans upon all those engaged inward the unusual slave-trade, the men engaged inward the slave-trade betwixt the states turn over with out condemnation, as well as their concern is deemed honorable. Behold the practical functioning of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained past times American politics as well as American religion. Here you lot volition reckon men as well as women reared similar swine for the market. You know what is a swine-drover? I volition present you lot a man-drover. They inhabit all our Southern States. They perambulate the country, as well as crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. You volition reckon 1 of these human flesh jobbers, armed with pistol, whip, as well as bowie-knife, driving a fellowship of a hundred men, women, as well as children, from the Potomac to the slave marketplace at New Orleans. These wretched people are to live sold singly, or inward lots, to suit purchasers. They are nutrient for the cotton-field as well as the deadly sugar-mill. Mark the sorry procession, as it moves wearily along, as well as the inhuman wretch who drives them. Hear his savage yells as well as his blood-curdling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! There, reckon the old human being with locks thinned as well as gray. Cast 1 glance, if you lot please, upon that immature mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the forehead of the baby inward her arms. See, too, that daughter of thirteen, weeping, yes! weeping, as she thinks of the woman parent from whom she has been torn! The drove moves tardily. Heat as well as sorrow have got nearly consumed their strength; all of a precipitous you lot listen a quick snap, similar the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, as well as the chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream, that seems to have got torn its way to the middle of your soul The cleft you lot heard was the audio of the slave-whip; the scream you lot heard was from the adult woman you lot saw with the babe. Her speed had faltered nether the weight of her kid as well as her chains! that gash on her shoulder tells her to displace on. Follow this drove to New Orleans. Attend the auction; reckon men examined similar horses; reckon the forms of women rudely as well as brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. See this drove sold as well as separated forever; as well as never forget the deep, sorry sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. Tell me, citizens, where, nether the sun, you lot tin witness a spectacle to a greater extent than fiendish as well as shocking. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave-trade, as it exists, at this moment, inward the ruling portion of the United States. I was born amid such sights as well as scenes. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. When a child, my soul was oft pierced with a sense of its horrors. I lived on Philpot Street, Fell's Point, Baltimore, as well as have got watched from the wharves the slave ships inward the Basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them downwards the Chesapeake. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the caput of Pratt Street, past times Austin Woldfolk. His agents were sent into every town as well as county inward Maryland, announcing their arrival, through the papers, as well as on flaming "hand-bills," headed cash for Negroes. These men were by as well as large good dressed men, as well as real captivating inward their manners; ever create to drink, to treat, as well as to gamble. The fate of many a slave has depended upon the turn of a unmarried card; as well as many a kid has been snatched from the arms of its woman parent past times bargains arranged inward a province of brutal drunkenness. The flesh-mongers get together upwards their victims past times dozens, as well as drive them, chained, to the full general depot at Baltimore. When a sufficient release has been collected here, a ship is chartered for the usage of conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile, or to New Orleans. From the slave prison theater to the ship, they are normally driven inward the darkness of night; for since the antislavery agitation, a sure caution is observed. In the deep, still darkness of midnight, I have got been oft aroused past times the dead, heavy footsteps, as well as the miserable cries of the chained gangs that passed our door. The anguish of my boyish pump was intense; as well as I was oft consoled, when speaking to my mistress inward the morning, to listen her say that the custom was real wicked; that she hated to listen the rattle of the chains as well as the heart-rending cries. I was glad to discover 1 who sympathized with me inward my horror. Fellow-citizens, this murderous traffic is, to-day, inward active functioning inward this boasted republic. In the solitude of my spirit I reckon clouds of dust raised on the highways of the South; I reckon the haemorrhage footsteps; I listen the doleful wail of fettered humanity on the way to the slave-markets, where the victims are to live sold similar horses, sheep, as well as swine, knocked off to the highest bidder. There I reckon the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice as well as rapacity of the buyers as well as sellers of men. My soul sickens at the sight.     Is this the ground your Fathers loved,     The liberty which they toiled to win?     Is this the globe whereon they moved?     Are these the graves they sleep in? But a still to a greater extent than inhuman, disgraceful, as well as scandalous province of things remains to live presented. By an deed of the American Congress, non yet 2 years old, slavery has been nationalized inward its most horrible as well as revolting form. By that act, Mason as well as Dixon's line has been obliterated; New York has go as Virginia; as well as the powerfulness to hold, hunt, as well as sell men, women as well as children, as slaves, remains no longer a mere province institution, but is straightaway an establishment of the whole United States. The powerfulness is co-extensive with the star-spangled banner, as well as American Christianity. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. Where these are, human being is non sacred. He is a aeroplane for the sportsman's gun. By that most foul as well as fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty as well as individual of every human being are spot inward peril. Your broad republican domain is hunting footing for men. Not for thieves as well as robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. Your law-makers have got commanded all skillful citizens to engage inward this hellish sport. Your President, your Secretary of State, your lords, nobles, as well as ecclesiastics enforce, as a duty you lot owe to your costless as well as glorious country, as well as to your God, that you lot do this accursed thing. Not fewer than xl Americans have, inside the past times 2 years, been hunted downwards and, without a moment's warning, hurried away inward chains, as well as consigned to slavery as well as excruciating torture. Some of these have got had wives as well as children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no concern human relationship was made. The correct of the hunter to his prey stands superior to the correct of marriage, as well as to all rights inward this republic, the rights of God included! For dark men in that location is neither police nor justice, humanity nor religion. The Fugitive Slave Law makes mercy to them a crime; as well as bribes the justice who tries them. An American justice gets x dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, as well as five, when he fails to do so. The oath of whatever 2 villains is sufficient, nether this hell-black enactment, to ship the most pious as well as exemplary dark human being into the remorseless jaws of slavery! His ain testimony is nothing. He tin convey no witnesses for himself. The government minister of American justice is bound past times the police to listen but 1 side; as well as that side is the side of the oppressor. Let this damning fact live perpetually told. Let it live thundered around the world that inward tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America the seats of justice are filled with judges who take away hold their offices nether an opened upwards as well as palpable bribe, as well as are bound, inward deciding the instance of a man's liberty, to listen only his accusers! In glaring violation of justice, inward shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, inward cunning organisation to entrap the defenseless, as well as inward diabolical intent this Fugitive Slave Law stands solitary inward the annals of tyrannical legislation. I doubtfulness if in that location live some other nation on the globe having the brass as well as the baseness to spot such a police on the statute-book. If whatever human being inward this assembly thinks differently from me inward this matter, as well as feels able to disprove my statements, I volition gladly human face upwards him at whatever suitable fourth dimension as well as identify he may select. I choose this police to live 1 of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, and, if the churches as well as ministers of our province were nor stupidly blind, or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it. At the real minute that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil as well as religious liberty, as well as for the correct to worship God according to the dictates of their ain consciences, they are utterly still inward honor to a police which robs faith of its main significance as well as makes it utterly worthless to a world lying inward wickedness. Did this police concern the "mint, anise, as well as cummin"-abridge the correct to sing psalms, to partake of the sacrament, or to engage inward whatever of the ceremonies of religion, it would live smitten past times the thunder of a one one thousand pulpits. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 full general hollo would go upwards from the church building demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal!-And it would go hard with that politico who presumed to so licit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. Further, if this demand were non complied with, some other Scotland would live added to the history of religious liberty, as well as the stern old covenanters would live thrown into the shade. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 John Knox would live seen at every church building door as well as heard from every pulpit, as well as Fillmore would have got no to a greater extent than quarter than was shown past times Knox to the beautiful, but treacherous, Queen Mary of Scotland. The fact that the church building of our province (with fractional exceptions) does non esteem "the Fugitive Slave Law" as a proclamation of state of war against religious liberty, implies that that church building regards faith simply as a shape of worship, an empty ceremony, as well as non a vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love, as well as skillful volition towards man. It esteems sacrifice higher upwards mercy; psalm-singing higher upwards correct doing; solemn meetings higher upwards practical righteousness. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 worship that tin live conducted past times persons who spend upwards to give shelter to the houseless, to give staff of life to the hungry, article of apparel to the naked, as well as who enjoin obedience to a police forbidding these acts of mercy is a curse, non a approbation to mankind. The Bible addresses all such persons as "scribes, pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe of mint, anise, as well as cummin, as well as have got omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, as well as faith." But the church building of this province is non only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it really takes sides with the oppressors. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, as well as the shield of American slave-hunters. Many of its most eloquent Divines, who stand upwards as the real lights of the church, have got shamelessly given the sanction of faith as well as the Bible to the whole slave system. They have got taught that human being may, properly, live a slave; that the relation of master copy as well as slave is ordained of God; that to ship dorsum an escaped bondman to his master copy is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; as well as this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! welcome atheism! welcome anything! inward preference to the gospel, as preached past times those Divines! They convert the real call of faith into an engine of tyranny as well as vicious cruelty, as well as serve to confirm to a greater extent than infidels, inward this age, than all the pagan writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, as well as Bolingbroke spot together have got done! These ministers create faith a mutual cold as well as flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of correct activity nor bowels of compassion. They strip the honey of God of its beauty as well as leave of absence the throne of faith a huge, horrible, repulsive form. It is a faith for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, as well as thugs. It is non that "pure as well as undefiled religion" which is from above, as well as which is "first pure, as well as so peaceable, slow to live entreated, total of mercy as well as skillful fruits, without partiality, as well as with out hypocrisy." But a faith which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud higher upwards the humble; which divides mankind into 2 classes, tyrants as well as slaves; which says to the human being inward chains, rest there; as well as to the oppressor, oppress on; it is a faith which may live professed as well as enjoyed past times all the robbers as well as enslavers of mankind; it makes God a respecter of persons, denies his fatherhood of the race, as well as tramples inward the dust the non bad truth of the brotherhood of man. All this nosotros affirm to live true of the pop church, as well as the pop worship of our ground as well as nation-a religion, a church, as well as a worship which, on the authorization of inspired wisdom, nosotros pronounce to live an abomination inward the sight of God. In the linguistic communication of Isaiah, the American church building mightiness live good addressed, "Bring no to a greater extent than vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me: the novel moons as well as Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, fifty-fifty the solemn meeting. Your novel moons, as well as your appointed feasts my soul hateth. They are a problem to me; I am weary to behave them; as well as when ye spread forth your hands I volition hide mine eyes from you. Yea' when ye create many prayers, I volition non hear. Your hands are total of blood; cease to do evil, larn to do well; seek judgment; salve the oppressed; justice for the fatherless; plead for the widow." The American church building is guilty, when viewed inward connecter with what it is doing to uphold slavery; but it is superlatively guilty when viewed inward its connecter with its powerfulness to abolish slavery. The sin of which it is guilty is 1 of omission as good as of commission. Albert Barnes but uttered what the mutual sense of every human being at all observant of the actual province of the instance volition have as truth, when he declared that "There is no powerfulness out of the church building that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were non sustained inward it." Let the religious press, the pulpit, the Dominicus School, the conference meeting, the non bad ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible as well as tract associations of the ground array their immense powers against slavery, as well as slave-holding; as well as the whole scheme of criminal offence as well as blood would live scattered to the winds, as well as that they do non do this involves them inward the most awful responsibleness of which the heed tin conceive. In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, nosotros have got been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; but how, nosotros ask, could such a thing live done? We are met on the threshold of our efforts for the redemption of the slave, past times the church building as well as ministry building of the country, inward battle arrayed against us; as well as nosotros are compelled to combat or flee. From what quarter, I beg to know, has proceeded a ship away so deadly upon our ranks, during the finally 2 years, as from the Northern pulpit? As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have got appeared-men honored for their so-called piety, as well as their existent learning. The Lords of Buffalo, the Springs of New York, the Lathrops of Auburn, the Coxes as well as Spencers of Brooklyn, the Gannets as well as Sharps of Boston, the Deweys of Washington, as well as other non bad religious lights of the ground have, inward utter denial of the authorization of Him past times whom they professed to live called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the instance of the Hebrews, as well as against the remonstrance of the Apostles, that nosotros ought to obey man's police earlier the police of God.2 My spirit wearies of such blasphemy; as well as how such men tin live supported, as the "standing types as well as representatives of Jesus Christ," is a mystery which I leave of absence others to penetrate. In speaking of the American church, however, allow it live distinctly understood that I intend the non bad majority of the religious organizations of our land. There are exceptions, as well as I give thank you lot God that in that location are. Noble men may live found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher, of Brooklyn; Samuel J. May, of Syracuse; as well as my esteemed friend (Rev. R. R. Raymond) on the platform, are shining examples; as well as allow me say further, that, upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith as well as zeal, as well as to cheer us on inward the non bad mission of the slave's redemption from his chains. One is struck with the departure betwixt the mental attitude of the American church building towards the anti-slavery movement, as well as that occupied past times the churches inward Eng ground towards a similar motility inward that country. There, the church, true to its mission of ameliorating, elevating as well as improving the status of mankind, came frontward promptly, bound upwards the wounds of the West Indian slave, as well as re stored him to his liberty. There, the interrogation of emancipation was a high religious question. It was demanded inward the call of humanity, as well as according to the police of the living God. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, the Burchells, as well as the Knibbs were alike famous for their piety as well as for their philanthropy. The anti-slavery motility in that location was non an anti-church movement, for the ground that the church building took its total part inward prosecuting that movement: as well as the anti-slavery motility inward this province volition cease to live an anti-church movement, when the church building of this province shall assume a favorable instead of a hostile spot towards that movement. Americans! your republican politics, non less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. You boast of your honey of liberty, your superior civilization, as well as your pure Christianity, piece the whole political powerfulness of the nation (as embodied inward the 2 non bad political parties) is solemnly pledged to back upwards as well as perpetuate the enslavement of iii millions of your countrymen. You hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russian Federation as well as Republic of Austria as well as pride yourselves on your Democratic institutions, piece you lot yourselves consent to live the mere tools as well as body-guards of the tyrants of Virginia as well as Carolina. You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, laurels them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, as well as pour out your coin to them similar water; but the fugitives from oppression inward your ain ground you lot advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot, as well as kill. You glory inward your refinement as well as your universal education; yet you lot maintain a scheme as vicious as well as dreadful as ever stained the grapheme of a nation-a scheme begun inward avarice, supported inward pride, as well as perpetuated inward cruelty. You shed tears over fallen Hungary, as well as create the sorry even of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen, as well as orators, till your gallant sons are create to wing to arms to vindicate her crusade against the oppressor; but, inward regard to the x one one thousand wrongs of the American slave, you lot would enforce the strictest silence, as well as would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to create those wrongs the dependent of world discourse! You are all on ship away at the advert of liberty for French Republic or for Ireland; but are as mutual cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you lot sustain a scheme which, inward its real essence, casts a stigma upon labor. You tin bare your bosom to the tempest of British artillery to throw off a three-penny taxation on tea; as well as yet wring the finally hard earned farthing from the grasp of the dark laborers of your country. You profess to believe "that, of 1 blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the human face of all the earth," as well as hath commanded all men, everywhere, to honey 1 another; yet you lot notoriously loathe (and glory inward your hatred) all men whose skins are non colored similar your own. You declare earlier the world, as well as are understood past times the world to declare that you lot "hold these truths to live self-evident, that all men are created equal; as well as are endowed past times their Creator with sure inward alienable rights; as well as that alongside these are, life, liberty, as well as the pursuit of happiness; as well as yet, you lot take away hold securely, inward a bondage which, according to your ain Thomas Jefferson, "is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose inward rebellion to oppose," a 7th portion of the inhabitants of your country. Fellow-citizens, I volition non enlarge farther on your national inconsistencies. The existence of slavery inward this province brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base of operations pretense, as well as your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral powerfulness abroad: it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your call a hissing as well as a bye-word to a mocking earth. It is the antagonistic forcefulness inward your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs as well as endangers your Union. 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 globe that supports it; as well as yet you lot cling to it as if it were the canvas anchor of all your hopes. Oh! live warned! live warned! a horrible reptile is coiled upwards inward your nation's bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender pectus of your youthful republic; for the honey of God, tear away, as well as fling from you lot the hideous monster, as well as allow the weight of xx millions crunch as well as destroy it forever! But it is answered inward reply to all this, that exactly what I have got straightaway denounced is, inward fact, guaranteed as well as sanctioned past times the Constitution of the United States; that, the correct to hold, as well as to hunt slaves is a portion of that Constitution framed past times the illustrious Fathers of this Republic. Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have got said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped     To palter with us inward a double sense:     And maintain the tidings of hope to the ear,     But suspension it to the heart. And instead of beingness the honest men I have got earlier declared them to be, they were the veriest impostors that ever practiced on mankind. This is the inevitable conclusion, as well as from it in that location is no escape; but I differ from those who accuse this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. There is non fourth dimension straightaway to combat the constitutional interrogation at length; nor have got I the powerfulness to verbalize over it as it ought to live discussed. The dependent has been handled with masterly powerfulness past times Lysander Spooner, Esq. past times William Goodell, past times Samuel E. Sewall, Esq., as well as last, though non least, past times Gerrit Smith, Esq. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully as well as clearly vindicated the Constitution from whatever blueprint to back upwards slavery for an hour. Fellow-citizens! in that location is no affair inward honor to which the people of the North have got allowed themselves to live so ruinously imposed upon as that of the pro-slavery grapheme of the Constitution. In that musical instrument I take away hold in that location is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the intend thing; but interpreted, as it ought to live interpreted, the Constitution is a glorious liberty document. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery alongside them? Is it at the gate way? or is it inward the temple? it is neither. While I do non intend to combat this interrogation on the introduce occasion, allow me ask, if it live non somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, past times its framers as well as adopters, a slaveholding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave tin whatever where live found inward it. What would live thought of an instrument, drawn up, legally drawn up, for the usage of entitling the metropolis of Rochester to a tract of land, inward which no advert of ground was made? Now, in that location are sure rules of interpretation for the proper understanding of all legal instruments. These rules are good established. They are plain, commonsense rules, such as you lot as well as I, as well as all of us, tin understand as well as apply, without having passed years inward the written report of law. I scout the thought that the interrogation of the constitutionality, or unconstitutionality of slavery, is non a interrogation for the people. I take away hold that every American citizen has a correct to shape an sentiment of the constitution, as well as to propagate that opinion, as well as to usage all honorable agency to create his sentiment the prevailing one. Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would live as insecure as that of a Frenchman. Ex-Vice-President Dallas tells us that the constitution is an object to which no American heed tin live too attentive, as well as no American pump too devoted. He farther says, the Constitution, inward its words, is apparently as well as intelligible, as well as is meant for the home-bred, unsophisticated understandings of our fellow-citizens. Senator Berrien tells us that the Constitution is the telephone commutation law, that which controls all others. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal involvement inward understanding thoroughly. The testimony of Senator Breese, Lewis Cass, as well as many others that mightiness live named, who are everywhere esteemed as audio lawyers, so regard the constitution. I choose it, therefore, that it is non presumption inward a private citizen to shape an sentiment of that instrument. Now, choose the Constitution according to its apparently reading, as well as I defy the presentation of a unmarried pro-slavery clause inward it. On the other hand, it volition live found to incorporate principles as well as purposes, only hostile to the existence of slavery. I have got detained my audience only too long already. At some futurity flow I volition gladly avail myself of an chance to give this dependent a total as well as fair discussion. Allow me to say, inward conclusion, notwithstanding the dark motion painting I have got this 24-hour interval presented, of the province of the nation, I do non despair of this country. There are forces inward functioning which must inevitably function the downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is non shortened," as well as the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave of absence off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Independence," the non bad principles it contains, as well as the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered past times the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do non straightaway stand upwards inward the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation tin straightaway unopen itself upwards from the surrounding world as well as trot circular inward the same old path of its fathers without interference. The fourth dimension was when such could live done. Long established customs of hurtful grapheme could formerly fence themselves in, as well as do their evil function with social impunity. Knowledge was as well as so confined as well as enjoyed past times the privileged few, as well as the multitude walked on inward mental darkness. But a alter has straightaway come upwards over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities as well as empires have got go unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the potent city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over as well as nether the sea, as good as on the earth. Wind, steam, as well as lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is straightaway a vacation excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated.-Thoughts expressed on 1 side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other. The far off as well as almost fabulous Pacific rolls inward grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is beingness solved. The fiat of the Almighty, "Let in that location live Light," has non yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether inward taste, sport or avarice, tin straightaway hide itself from the all-pervading light. The Fe shoe, as well as crippled human foot of China must live seen inward contrast with nature. Africa must ascension as well as spot on her yet unwoven garment. "Ethiopia shall stretch out her manus unto God." In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, as well as allow every pump bring together inward maxim it:     God speed the twelvemonth of jubilee     The broad world o'er!     When from their galling chains laid free,     Th' oppress'd shall vilely curvature the knee,     And have on the yoke of tyranny     Like brutes no more.     That twelvemonth volition come, as well as freedom's reign.     To human being his plundered rights again     Restore.     God speed the 24-hour interval when human blood     Shall cease to flow!     In every clime live understood,     The claims of human brotherhood,     And each homecoming for evil, good,     Not blow for blow;     That 24-hour interval volition come upwards all feuds to end,     And alter into a faithful friend     Each foe.</div>

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The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro past times Frederick Douglass A spoken communication given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 Mr. President, Friends as well as Fellow Citizens: He wh…

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